Cap Blanc-Nez (french: kap blɑ̃ ne, literally "Cape White Nose" in English; from Dutch ''Blankenesse'', white headland) is a cape on the Côte d'Opale, in the

Pas-de-Calais Pas-de-Calais (, " strait of Calais"; pcd, Pas-Calés; also nl, Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments ...

'' département'', in northern France, culminating at 134 m. The cliffs of chalk are very similar to the white cliffs of Dover on the other side of the Channel in England. Cap Blanc-Nez does not protrude into the sea like a typical cape but is a high point where a chalk ridge has been truncated by the sea, forming a cliff that is topped by the obelisk of the Dover Patrol Monument, commemorating the Dover Patrol which kept the Channel free from U-boats during World War I. Cap Blanc-Nez was a vital measuring point for the eighteenth-century trigonometric survey linking the

Paris Observatory The Paris Observatory (french: Observatoire de Paris ), a research institution of the Paris Sciences et Lettres University, is the foremost astronomical observatory of France, and one of the largest astronomical centers in the world. Its histor ...

with the

Royal Greenwich Observatory The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in G ...

. Sightings were made across the English Channel to Dover Castle and

Fairlight Fairlight may refer to: In places: * Fairlight, East Sussex, a village east of Hastings in southern England, UK * Fairlight, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia * Fairlight, Saskatchewan, Canada In other uses: * Fairlight (company), an ...

Windmill on the South Downs. This Anglo-French Survey was led in England by General William Roy. Some miles away to the southwest of Cap Blanc-Nez is the Cap Gris-Nez.

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Blanc Nez Cap Blanc-Nez (french: kap blɑ̃ ne, literally "Cape White Nose" in English; from Dutch ''Blankenesse'', white headland) is a cape on the Côte d'Opale, in the Pas-de-Calais ''département'', in northern France, culminating at 134 m. The cl ...

Landforms of the Pas-de-Calais Landforms of Hauts-de-France Chalk {{PasdeCalais-geo-stub

See also

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