This is the view from Calton Hill over the city to the South-West. The rotunda in the foreground commemorates the philosopher Professor Dugald Stewart (1753-1828) and was designed by Playfair. In the medium distance is a replica of Cleopatra's needle, behind which is the "North Bridge".
Edinburgh divides into two parts; the Old Town and the New Town. The Old Town was a settlement in Roman times, and even before. There is archaeological evidence of people living on the castle rock during the Bronze Age, about 1,000 BC, which makes Edinburgh one of the longest, continuously inhabited, places in northern Europe.
Edinburgh was taken by Edwin of Northumbria in around 617 and it may be that it is from Edwin that the town took its name. Robert the Bruce made Edinburgh a "burgh" in 1329 and established its port at Leith.
The Old Town grew around the "Royal Mile", the road that connected the Castle and Holyrood Place. The latter was founded in 1128 by David I, but was constructed mainly in the 15th and 16th centuries. Slightly to the right of the top of Cleopatra's needle we see the "crown" of St. Giles cathedral (15th century).
The University, which was founded in 1583, is situated exclusively in the Old Town and, therefore, is the proud owner of some very fine old buildings. Clearly, this has some drawbacks, but, though it is not permitted to alter the outside of these buildings, the interiors can be, and have been, extensively modernised to make them suitable for use as a modern University.
To the North of the Old Town was the "Nor' Loch", which limited the expansion of the town in that direction. It might be said that this was the citizen's own fault, because this was a man-made 15th century addition to the castle's defences! Be that as it may, in about 1752 the city elders decided that it had to go. It was 1767, however, before the loch was drained, the North Bridge built across its bed, an Act of Parliament passed permitting the expansion, and work begun on the New Town.
The design of the New Town was the outcome of a competition, which was won by a young architect, James Craig, with a simple grid design. The main street, to be named George Street after the king, was to be laid out east-to-west. Queen Street was to be parallel and to the North, while Princes Street was to be to the South, alongside the old loch. At the ends of George Street were squares, now called Charlotte Square and St Andrew's Square.
Things did not quite work out as Craig intended, because Princes Street became the main thoroughfare, while George Street adopted a subsidiary role.
The bed of the loch became, partly, Waverley railway station and the rail route out of town to the West, but mainly Princes Street Gardens, a rather nice park.
The rubble from the excavations of the fine new Georgian buildings being
built in the New Town was thrown into a heap around the middle of the
drained Nor' Loch and this became "The Mound", the other road that cuts
across the bed of the old Loch.