Coordinates: 52°54′40″N 3°35′46″W / 52.911°N 3.596°W / 52.911; -3.596

Bala (Welsh: Y Bala) is a market town and community in Gwynedd, Wales. Formerly an urban district, Bala lies within the historic county of Merionethshire. It lies at the north end of Bala Lake (Welsh: Llyn Tegid), 17 miles (27 km) north-east of Dolgellau, with a population (2001 census) of 1,980. It is little more than one wide street, Stryd Fawr (High Street, literally "Great Street"). The High Street and its shops can be quite busy in the summer months with many tourists.

Bala is ranked 11th in the list of the highest percentages of Welsh language speakers in Wales. According to the (2001 census), 80.1% of Bala's population can speak Welsh fluently, with the highest percentage in the 5-9 age group, 95.7%.

In the 18th century, the town was well known for the manufacture of flannel, stockings, gloves and hosiery. The Tower of Bala (Welsh: Tomen) (30 ft. (9 m) high by 50 ft (15 m) diameter) is a tumulus or "moat-hill", formerly thought to mark the site of a Roman camp. The large stone-built theological college, Coleg Y Bala, of the Calvinistic Methodists and the grammar school, which was founded in 1712, are the chief features, together with the statue of the Rev. Thomas Charles (1755–1814), the theological writer, to whom was largely due the foundation of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Other famous people from the Bala area include Michael D. Jones, Christopher Timothy, Owen Morgan Edwards, born in Llanuwchllyn, and T.E. Ellis, born in Cefnddwysarn.

Gwynedd (Welsh pronunciation: [ˈɡwɨ̞nɛð]) is an area in north-west Wales, named after the old Kingdom of Gwynedd. As a local government area it is the second biggest in terms of geographical area and also one of the most sparsely populated. A large proportion of the population is Welsh-speaking. The name Gwynedd is also used for a preserved county, covering the two local government areas of Gwynedd and the Isle of Anglesey. Culturally and historically, the name can also be used for most of North Wales (for instance, the area covered by the Gwynedd Constabulary), corresponding to the approximate territory of the Kingdom of Gwynedd at its greatest extent.

Gwynedd is the home of Bangor University and includes the scenic Llŷn Peninsula, and most of the Snowdonia National Park.

Gwynedd was an independent kingdom from the end of the Roman period until the 13th Century when it was conquered and subjugated by England. The modern Gwynedd was one of eight Welsh counties originally created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, based on the principal territory of the former realm. It covered the entirety of the old counties of Anglesey, and Caernarfonshire along with all of Merionethshire apart from Edeirnion Rural District (which went to Clwyd), and also a few parishes in Denbighshire: Llanrwst, Llansanffraid Glan Conwy, Eglwysbach, Llanddoged, Llanrwst and Tir Ifan.

The white lion is occasionally found in wildlife reserves in South Africa and is a rare colour mutation of the Kruger subspecies of lion (Panthera leo krugeri). It has been perpetuated by selective breeding in zoos around the world. White lions are not yet a separate subspecies and they have been said to be indigenous to the Timbavati region of South Africa for centuries, although the earliest recorded sighting in this region was 1938. Regarded as divine by locals, white lions first came to public attention in the 1970s in Chris McBride's book The White Lions of Timbavati. Up until 2009, when the first pride of white lions was reintroduced to the wild, it was widely believed that the white lion could not survive in the wild. It is for this reason that, now, a large part of the population of white lions are in zoos. Another large part, however, are bred in camps, for canned hunting trophies.

It is hard to determine exactly how many white lions there are today, because they are held in captive breeding and hunting operations which don't keep adequate records. Based on available evidence, The Global White Lion Protection Trust estimate there are 500 White Lions world-wide.