The Fens, also known as the Fenland, is a geographic area in eastern England, in the United Kingdom. The Fenland primarily lies around the coast of the Wash; it reaches into two Government regions (East of England and the East Midlands), four ceremonial counties (Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and a small area of Suffolk), 11 District Councils and six postcode areas (LN, PE, CB, IP, NR, and NG). The whole contains an area of nearly 1,500 square miles (3,900 km2) or about 1 million acres.

Today, the Fens are a primarily agricultural area which is strongly characterised by both its very low elevation and its flatness, as most of the Fenland lies within a few metres of sea-level. As with similar areas in the Netherlands, much of the Fenland originally consisted of fresh or saltwater wetlands which have been artificially drained and continue to be protected from floods by drainage banks and pumps; with the support of this drainage system, the Fenland has become a major arable agricultural region in Britain for grains and vegetables. The Fens are very low-lying compared with the surrounding chalk and limestone "uplands" that surround them, in most places no more than 10m above sea level.

Indeed, owing to drainage and the subsequent shrinkage of the peat fens, many parts of the Fens now lie below mean sea level. Though in the seventeenth century, one writer described the Fenland as all lying above sea level (in contrast to those of the Netherlands), the area is now home to the lowest land point in the United Kingdom, Holme Fen in Cambridgeshire, at around 2.75 metres below sea level. TL202893 There are a few hills within the fens, which have historically been called "islands", as they remained dry when the low-lying fens around them were flooded.

The largest of the fen-islands is the Isle of Ely, on which the cathedral city of Ely was built; its highest point is 37m above OD.

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