Cardiff is on the south coast of the south Wales plain, with a shoreline on the Bristol Channel. Cardiff is quite a flat city, a characteristic that helped it become one of the world's leading ports in the transport of coal from the rugged south Wales Valleys. The site at Cardiff castle has been occupied for over 2000 years. Originally a Roman fort, the castle and surrounding village evolved and in Norman times the existing motte and bailey tower was constructed. The town continued to grow at a slow but steady pace for hundreds of years until the arrival of the industrial revolution and the rise of coal. Cardiff became a major coal exporting port, and was at a time the largest coal exporting port in the world. The period from 1800 therefore saw phenomenal growth in the population and economy of Cardiff. The city was proclaimed a city in 1905, and then made capital city of Wales in 1955. Given that it was always historically smaller than towns such as Merthyr and Swansea it has achieved a meteoric rise to become the capital city today. http://wikitravel.org/en/Cardiff