HTML doesn't have an element that allows to insert a figure with a caption. It was once proposed (see HTML3), but never made it into HTML4. Here is one way to simulate such a figure element:

<div class="figure">

  <p><img src="eiffel.jpg"

    width="136" height="200"

    alt="Eiffel tower">

  <p>Scale model of the

    Eiffel tower in

    Parc Mini-France

</div>

Then in the style sheet you use the class "figure" to format the figure the way you want. For example, to float the figure to the right, in a space equal to 30% of the width of the surrounding paragraphs, these rules will do the trick:

  float: right;

  width: 30%;

  border: thin silver solid;

  margin: 0.5em;

  padding: 0.5em;

}

div.figure p {

  text-align: center;

  font-style: italic;

  font-size: smaller;

  text-indent: 0;

div.figure {

}

In fact, only the first two declarations (float and width) are essential, the rest is just for decoration.