The cliff face, which reaches a height of 350 feet (110 m), owes its striking appearance to its composition of chalk accented by streaks of black flint, deposited during the Late Cretaceous.

[3] The point where Great Britain is closest to continental Europe, on a clear day the cliffs are visible from France, approximately 20 miles (32 km) away.

The Gateway building, designed by van Heyningen and Haward Architects, houses a restaurant, an information centre on the work of the National Trust, and details of local archaeology, history and landscape.

Due to the Alpine orogeny, a major mountain building event during the Cenozoic, the sea-floor deposits were raised above sea level.

Until the end of the last glacial period, the British Isles were part of continental Europe, linked by the unbroken Weald-Artois Anticline, a ridge that acted as a natural dam to hold back a large freshwater pro-glacial lake, now submerged under the North Sea.

[10] At the end of the last glacial period, around 10,000 years ago, rising sea levels finally severed the last land connection.

[11] The cliffs' chalk face shows horizontal bands of dark-coloured flint which is composed of the remains of sea sponges and siliceous planktonic micro-organisms that hardened into the microscopic quartz crystals.

Quartz silica filled cavities left by dead marine creatures which are found as flint fossils, especially the internal moulds of Micraster echinoids.

Several different ocean floor species such as brachiopods, bivalves, crinoids, and sponges can be found in the chalk deposits, as can sharks' teeth.

This species' sole larval food plant is the horseshoe vetch and it has a symbiotic relationship with red or black ants.

The ants milk the sugary secretions from the larval "honey glands" and, in return, protect the larvae from predators and parasitoids, even going so far as to bury them at night.

The larvae pupate in the upper soil, and continue to be protected by the ants, often in their nests, until the adults emerge in the spring or autumn.

[24] It is thought that the name Albion, an ancient or poetic term referring to Great Britain, was derived from the Latin albus (meaning 'white') as an allusion to the white cliffs.

In the 16th century, cannons were installed at the castle, but it became less important militarily as Henry VIII had built artillery forts along the coast.

Dover Castle was captured in 1642 during the Civil War when the townspeople climbed the cliffs and surprised the royalist garrison, giving a symbolic victory against royal control.

During the Napoleonic Wars, in particular, the defences were remodelled and a series of tunnels were dug into the cliff to act as barracks, adding space for an extra 2,000 soldiers.

[31] The area consists of a layer of fine sand approximately 82 ft (25 m) deep resting on a chalk platform belonging to the same geological feature that incorporates the White Cliffs of Dover.

The National Trust calls the cliffs "an icon of Britain", with "the white chalk face a symbol of home and wartime defence.

[33] In the summer of 1940, reporters gathered at Shakespeare Cliff to watch aerial dogfights between German and British aircraft during the Battle of Britain.

[34] Vera Lynn, known as "The Forces' Sweetheart" for her 1942 wartime classic "(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover" celebrated her 100th birthday in 2017.

The National Trust, which owns the surrounding areas, plans to return the land to a natural state of chalk grassland and preserve existing military structures from the Second World War.

[37] Samphire Hoe Country Park is a nature reserve on a new piece of land created from the rock excavated during the construction of the Channel Tunnel.