Lyme Regis is a small fishing and tourist town on the border of the counties of Dorset and Devon on the south west coast of England. It is a relaxed town and is refreshingly lacking in the tacky shops and attractions that plague other British seaside resorts. The town tends to attract a more refined tourist crowd, who have probably been drawn to the resort due to either the two famous works of literature set there (Jane Austen's Persuasion and John Fowles' The French Lieutenants Woman) or by the Mary Anning fossil connection. Lyme Regis (or simply 'Lyme' as the locals call it) has two main attractions, the 13th century man-made harbour called 'The Cobb' made famous in the film version of the French Lieutenants Woman and the outstanding area known as the 'Undercliff'. This is five mile strip of land hugging the coast to the west of Lyme where in 1839 an enormous landslip of eight million tons took place, which exposed fossils from the triassic and jurassic periods. There is a five mile coastal path along the Undercliff where you can see spectacular land slippages with wooded cliffs and exposed slopes. Put simply, the Undercliff is a 160 year old landslip between the cliffs and the sea, which has become thickly wooded. Although it would be hugely significant for simply being the most pristine example of unspoilt and self-seeded woodland in southern England, it is significant on a global level as it is considered to be the only place in the world displaying unbroken evidence of 185 million years of evolution. In 2001 the United Nations declared the Undercliff as "an outstanding example, representing a major stage of earth's history and the record of life" and it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It yields a steady flow of dinosaur remains, including previously-unknown species. The area is now promoted as the 'Jurassic Coast' by the local tourist board. It is truly a testament to the wisdom of Charles Darwin and the theory/fact of evolution.