Cliff

A cliff is a hill that stops suddenly. Most cliffs are made of rock, and most are found beside the sea, which is believed to be the reason they stopped.^[1]

In 1974 an expedition of nine geologists set out to establish what was at the bottom of a 300-metre cliff. After eight days of careful abseiling, they reached it. It was the bottom.

The edge

A cliff has exactly one edge, which is where the cliff is most cliff. Everything behind the edge is countryside and everything in front of it is air. The edge is marked with signs reading “Danger: Cliff Edge” so that walkers can locate it more precisely.^[2]

Cliffs retreat by about 30 centimetres a year as the sea wears them away. Over a long enough period every cliff will retreat to the middle of the country, at which point it will be called a “view”.

Cliff face

The front of a cliff is called its face. It has no eyes, nose or mouth, and has been staring out to sea with the same expression for 40,000 years, which geologists describe as “stoic” and seagulls describe as “a good place to sit”.^[3]

Cliffhangers

A cliffhanger is a story that stops before it is finished. Cliffs themselves are not cliffhangers. A cliff stops exactly when it is finished, and is usually followed by the sea, which is also how most stories about cliffs end.

See also

• Hill – a cliff that kept going
• Mountain – has cliffs, but not on purpose
• Gravity – the main reason to stay back from the edge
• Waterfall – a cliff with water on

References

1. Ledge, L. (1974). What Is at the Bottom. Descent Press. p. 300.
2. Crag, C. (2002). “Hills That Stop”. Coastal Abruptness 5.
3. Signage Authority (1991). “Danger: Cliff Edge, Placement Guidelines”.