Southampton Water

View of the Southampton Water, Marchwood and Hythe in the background

The Southampton Water is a 15 km long, narrow arm of the sea on the south coast. It ranges from the Solent north of the Isle of Wight to the city of Southampton. On the western shore fringed by salt marshes of the New Forest are with the villages of Hythe and Fawley. The eastern shore is slightly steeper; Here are Weston (a suburb of Southampton ), the villages of Netley and Hamble -le -Rice, and the Royal Victoria Country Park.

Geographically, the Southampton Water is an estuary of the English Channel, so a flooded by sea water river valley. In this, the rivers Test, Itchen and Hamble combined. Towards the end of the last ice age, when sea levels rose, the valley was flooded.