<p>Eleutheropolis  was a Roman and Byzantine city in Syria Palaestina, some 53 km southwest of Jerusalem. Its remains still straddle the ancient road connecting Jerusalem to Gaza and are now located within the Beit Guvrin National Park.</p><br>
<h2>Name</h2><br>
<p>The city was originally known in Aramaic as Beth Gabra, which translates as the "house of strong men". Ptolemy referred to it as Baitogabra, Josephus called it Betaris, and in the Talmud it was known as Beit Guvrin. at the beginning of the third century. The former city of Eleutheropolis was rebuilt by the Crusaders as Bethgibelin or Gibelin. The medieval city was known in Arabic as Beit Jibrin or Jubrin (بيت جبرين), meaning "house of the powerful" and reflecting its original Aramaic name.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Background: Jewish/Idumean Betaris</h3><br>
<p>In 68 CE, during the Jewish War, Vespasian slaughtered or enslaved the inhabitants of Betaris. According to Josephus: "When he had seized upon two villages, which were in the very midst of Idumea, Betaris, and Caphartobas, he slew above ten thousand of the people, and carried into captivity above a thousand, and drove away the rest of the multitude, and placed no small part of his own forces in them, who overran and laid waste the whole mountainous country."</p><br>
<p>The settlement was demolished once again during the Bar Kokhba revolt, 132&ndash;135 CE.</p><br>
<h3>Roman and Byzantine Eleutheropolis</h3><br>
<p>In the year 200, Roman Emperor Septimius Severus gave it the status of a city under a new Greek name, Eleutheropolis, meaning "City of the Free", and its inhabitants were given the ius italicum. Coins minted by Septimius Severus bear the date January 1, 200, commemorating its founding and the title of polis.</p><br>
<p>Eleutheropolis became one of the most important cities in Roman Palestine. Seven routes met at Eleutheropolis, and Eusebius, in his Onomasticon, uses the Roman milestones indicating the city as a central point from which the distances of other towns were measured.</p><br>
<p>Eleutheropolis was a "City of Excellence" in the fourth century and a Christian bishopric with the largest territory in Palaestina: its first known bishop is Macrinus, who attended the Council of Nicaea in 325.</p><br>
<p>Epiphanius of Salamis, the bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, was born at Eleutheropolis; at Ad nearby he established a monastery which is often mentioned in the polemics of Jerome with Rufinus and John, Bishop of Jerusalem.</p><br>
<p>The Madaba Map (dated 542-570 CE) shows Eleutheropolis as a walled city with three towers, a curving street with a colonnade in the central part and an important basilica. In the centre is a building with a yellowish-white dome on four columns. Eleutheropolis was last mentioned in the ancient sources by the near contemporary itinerarium of the Piacenza Pilgrim, about 570.</p><br>
<p>At Eleutheropolis, according to the hagiographies, fifty soldiers of the garrison of Gaza, who had refused to deny Christ were beheaded in 638: later a church was built in their honor. In 796, the city was again destroyed in civil warfare.</p><br>
<h2>19th century identification</h2><br>
<p>In 1838, American scholar Edward Robinson identified Bayt Jibrin as the site of ancient Eleutheropolis. Eleutheropolis remains a titular see in the Roman Catholic Church.</p><br>
<p>Holme Moss  is a moor in the South Pennines of England, on the border between the High Peak district of Derbyshire and the Kirklees district of West Yorkshire. Historically on the boundary between Cheshire and the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is just inside the boundary of the Peak District National Park. The moor is crossed by the A6024 road between Longdendale and Holmfirth, whose highest point is near the prominent mast of Holme Moss transmitting station.</p><br>
<h2>Watershed</h2><br>
<p>The water seeping from the surrounding moorland Rake Dike is the source of the River Holme. Rake Dike rising from Kay Edge on the moor flows through the village of Holme and into Brownhill Reservoir, about a mile below the moor, and passes down through the Holme Valley to Huddersfield, where it flows into the River Colne. The upper part of the moor continues into Black Hill which is crossed by the Pennine Way north–south footpath.</p><br>
<h2>Transmitting station</h2><br>
<h2>Sports</h2><br>
<h3>Athletics</h3><br>
<p>The Holmfirth Harriers Athletics Club organise an annual "Holme Moss Fell Race" on and around Holme Moss in the summer. The race starts at Cartworth Moor cricket ground, crosses Ramsden Clough to Holme Moss, crosses and descends to Crowden before returning via Bareholme Moss, Laddow Rocks and Black Hill. It is a classic local race.</p><br>
<h3>Cycling</h3><br>
<p>To British cycling enthusiasts, Holme Moss has become synonymous with the A6024 (Woodhead Road) which crosses the moor, between the village of Holmbridge to the north and the Woodhead Reservoir to the south. The northern side in particular is one of Englands best known bicycle ascents, and has acquired a reputation as among the countrys more difficult climbs. It has often been used for domestic competition in British road racing and mountain biking.</p><br>
<h4>Details of the climbs</h4><br>
<p>Starting from Holmfirth, to the north, the climb is 7 km long, gaining 394 m in altitude, at an average gradient of 5.6%, although the penultimate kilometre is at a gradient of 11%.</p><br>
<p>From the south, the climb starts at the junction with the A628, from where it is 4 km long, with a height gain of 274 m at an average gradient of 6.9%.</p><br>
<h4>"Le Col de Moss" bicycle race</h4><br>
<p>Although not comparable in distance to the famous cols of European bicycle racing, the length and difficulty of Holme Moss relative to other British climbs has made it a frequent and popular inclusion in British races, including the Tour of Britain. For many years the (now defunct) Leeds Classic race saw internationally renowned riders (many of them, such as Bjarne Riis, veterans of the Tour de France, hence the moniker Le Col de Moss) tackling the climb.</p><br>
<h4>Tour de France</h4><br>
<p>The second stage of the 2014 Tour de France followed the route across the Pennines to Derbyshire. The leader over the summit was Blel Kadri from France.</p><br>
<p>Squam Lake is a lake located in the Lakes Region of central New Hampshire, United States, south of the White Mountains, straddling the borders of Grafton, Carroll, and Belknap counties. The largest town center on the lake is Holderness. The lake is located northwest of much larger Lake Winnipesaukee.</p><br>
<p>It drains via a short natural channel into Little Squam Lake, and then through a dam at the head of the short Squam River into the Pemigewasset at Ashland. Covering 6,791 acre, Squam is the second-largest lake located entirely in New Hampshire.</p><br>
<p>Squam Lake was originally called Keeseenunknipee, which meant "the goose lake in the highlands". The white settlers that followed shortened the name to "Casumpa", "Kusumpy" and/or "Kesumpe" around 1779. In the early 19th century, the lake was given another Abenaki name, Asquam, which means "water". Finally, in the early 20th century, Asquam was shortened to its present version, Squam.</p><br>
<p>The 1981 film On Golden Pond was filmed in the town of Center Harbor on Squam Lake. There are two tour boat services on the lake, both based in Holderness. One is Experience Squam, a private charter, and the other is the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center. Both services show filming locations and items of natural significance.</p><br>
<p>Squam Lake is a nesting site for common loons and is a good place to see them in breeding plumage during the summer months. Bald eagles and great blue herons are also known to nest on the lake.</p><br>
<p>The lake is classified as a cold- and warmwater fishery, with observed species including rainbow trout, landlocked salmon, lake trout, lake whitefish, smallmouth and largemouth bass, chain pickerel, horned pout, and white perch.</p><br>
<h2>Islands</h2><br>
<p>Squam Lake has about 30 named islands and numerous smaller, unnamed islets. The named islands are:</p><br>
<p>Basin Island</p><br>
<p>Birch Island</p><br>
<p>Bowman Island</p><br>
<p>Carnes Island</p><br>
<p>Chocorua (Church) Island</p><br>
<p>Duck Island</p><br>
<p>Great Island</p><br>
<p>Groton Island</p><br>
<p>High Haith</p><br>
<p>Hoag Island</p><br>
<p>Hubble Island</p><br>
<p>Kate Island</p><br>
<p>Kent Island</p><br>
<p>Kimball Island</p><br>
<p>Laurel Island</p><br>
<p>Little Loon Island (nesting site to bald eagles in 2003, 2005, 2006, 2012)</p><br>
<p>Long Island</p><br>
<p>Loon Island</p><br>
<p>Merrill Island</p><br>
<p>Mink Island</p><br>
<p>Mooney (or Moon) Island</p><br>
<p>Mouse Island</p><br>
<p>Otter Island</p><br>
<p>Perch Island</p><br>
<p>Potato Island</p><br>
<p>Sheep Island</p><br>
<p>Three Sisters (three separate islands)</p><br>
<p>Utopia Island</p><br>
<p>Yard Island</p><br>
<p>The Waimangu Geyser, located near Rotorua in New Zealand, was the most powerful geyser in the world. Its workings were apparently created by the great 1886 Mount Tarawera eruption, which opened a 17 km long fissure down the mountain, through Lake Rotomahana and the Waimangu Volcanic Rift Valley.</p><br>
<p>The eruption was thought to have destroyed Pink and White Terraces, reportedly the largest such mineral formations on Earth at the time. However, recent research has located the sites of the famed terraces and they are shown to be on land and might in some way be exposed and even recovered.</p><br>
<p>The geyser was first seen erupting in late 1900. Its eruptions were observed reaching up to 1,500 ft in height, and it excited worldwide interest. Day trip visitors from Rotorua were keen to see the geyser erupting regularly for 5–6 hours out of a cycle of about 36 hours, and a tourist trip called the "Round Trip" ran from the summer of 1902/1903. The geyser was the catalyst for tourism to the Waimangu Valley.</p><br>
<p>The water expelled by the geyser was black with rocks and mud from the surrounding terrain, so the indigenous Māori people named the geyser Waimangu, meaning Black Waters. The geyser gave its name to the surrounding geothermal region, the Waimangu Volcanic Rift Valley.</p><br>
<p>In August 1903, tourist guide Alfred Warbrick measured the depth of the 80 x geyser lake at only 48 ft when he launched a rowboat on the lake as a result of a dare. The lake&#39;s shallow depth was attributed to much of the ejected solid material falling back into the vent each time.</p><br>
<p>On 30 August 1903, David McNaughton, Joseph Warbrick, and sisters Ruby and Catherine Nicholls were killed after ignoring requests from Warbrick&#39;s brother Alfred to return to a safe distance, after venturing close to the edge of the geyser. The four were swept away in a sudden violent eruption.</p><br>
<p>In mid 1904, the geyser became dormant for several weeks and subsequent eruptions were shorter and weaker until they stopped on 1 November 1904. This coincided with a landslide that changed the water table of Lake Tarawera by several meters. While it was hypothesized that this was the cause for the extinction of the geyser, later studies found no apparent physical connection between these two events.</p><br>
<p>The geyser became extinct in 1908. Afterwards, hydrothermal activity in the nearby Echo Crater increased, leading to eruptions in the crater in 1915, 1917, and 1924.</p><br>
<p>Nea Anchialos  is a town and a former municipality in Magnesia, Thessaly, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Volos, of which it is a municipal unit. It is situated southwest of Volos and north of Almyros, on the coast of the Pagasetic Gulf. It is located on the national highway Athens-Lamia-Volos. The area of the municipal unit is 80.462 km&sup2; and its population 6,819 people .</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Antiquity</h3><br>
<p>The modern town is built on the ruins of the ancient city of Pyrasos (Πύρασος), and is associated with the nearby city of Thessalian or Phthiotic Thebes, near the modern village of Mikrothivai.</p><br>
<p>Homer mentions Pyrasos in his list of ships (Iliad B.695) together with Phylace and Itona, which belonged to the kingdom of Protesilaus. According to Strabo (IX.435), who discusses its topography, "well-harboured Pyrasos" (εὑλίμενος Πύρασος) was 20 stadia from Phthiotic Thebes.</p><br>
<p>Pyrasos is scarcely known from historical sources, except that it was an active harbour and featured a famous temple of Demeter and Kore, after which the harbour was later known as Demetrion. The only excavation which took place on the hill of Magoula, the old acropolis, southeast of Nea Anchialos, proves that the site was peopled since the earliest Neolithic period (6th millennium BC) by fishermen and agriculturalists. Archaeologically, the remains of Pyrasos are scant, and the city is barely known in historical times. An arm from an oversized statue, which came into light in 1965, was attributed to Demeter. Possibly the most identical finding is a small fragment of an ancient epigraph, discovered in the debris of the big Basilica D with the name Pyrasos, confirming the location of the city.</p><br>
<p>In the late 4th century BC, Pyrasos was joined (synoecism) with the neighbouring cities of Phylake and Phthiotic Thebes. The new conurbation took the name of Phthiotic or Thessalian Thebes. The city remained prosperous under Roman rule, but it was moved from the inland site of the old Phthiotic Thebes back to Pyrasos near the sea. The city&#39;s prosperity from the 4th through the 6th centuries is attested by the number of its Early Christian monuments, but was brought to an end in a great fire in the late 7th century that destroyed the city. The city was rebuilt and apparently continued to be of some note in the early Byzantine period—its bishop is last mentioned in the 8th/9th century—but never recovered and was eventually eclipsed by the nearby port city of Halmyros.</p><br>
<h3>Nea Anchialos</h3><br>
<p>Nea Anchialos was founded in 1906 by Greeks who fled the Black Sea town of Anchialos (modern Pomorie in Bulgaria) after massive anti-Greek riots, provoked by the Greek-Bulgarian struggle in Macedonia.</p><br>
<p>The Siebengebirge, occasionally Sieben Mountains, are a hill range of the German Central Uplands on the east bank of the Middle Rhine, southeast of Bonn.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The area, located in the municipalities of Bad Honnef and Königswinter, consists of more than 40 hills. The hills are of ancient volcanic origin and came into being between 28 and 15 million years ago. Much of the territory covered by Sieben Hills belongs to the Sieben Hills Nature Park (Naturpark Siebengebirge), which is under environmental protection.</p><br>
<p>The highest peak is the Ölberg at 460 metres above sea level. It is a popular tourist destination for hiking, because of its natural environment.</p><br>
<h2>Hills</h2><br>
<p>The seven most important hills:</p><br>
<p>Großer Ölberg (460 m)</p><br>
<p>Löwenburg (455 m)</p><br>
<p>Lohrberg (435 m)</p><br>
<p>Nonnenstromberg (335m)</p><br>
<p>Petersberg (331 m, Former name: Stromberg)</p><br>
<p>Wolkenburg (324 m)</p><br>
<p>Drachenfels (321 m)</p><br>
<p>Other hills:</p><br>
<p>Himmerich (366 m)</p><br>
<p>Trenkeberg (430 m)</p><br>
<p>Weilberg (297 m)</p><br>
<p>Stenzelberg (287 m)</p><br>
<p>Broderkonsberg (378 m)</p><br>
<p>Mittelberg (353 m)</p><br>
<p>Leyberg (359 m)</p><br>
<p>Jungfernhardt (320 m)</p><br>
<p>Geisberg (324 m)</p><br>
<p>Schallenberg (310 m)</p><br>
<p>Großer Breiberg (313 m)</p><br>
<p>Kleiner Breiberg (288 m)</p><br>
<p>Wasserfall (338 m)</p><br>
<p>Kleiner Ölberg (332 m)</p><br>
<p>Limperichsberg</p><br>
<p>Scharfenberg</p><br>
<p>Zickelburg (182 m)</p><br>
<h2>Origin name</h2><br>
<p>Although some sources translate the name literally as Seven Hills, where sieben is modern German for "seven" and a Gebirge is a hill range, alternative derivations for the name have been suggested. Three theories exist:</p><br>
<p>The oldest name was not Siebengebirge, but Sieben Berge (septem montes, seven hills). Depending on the viewpoint near the river Rhine, one notices almost exactly seven hills, which are not always the same and not even the highest. Also, the number seven used to denote an arbitrary amount of items, was connected to magic and thus had a highly symbolic meaning. This makes it an obvious name for an area that was said to be sinister and impenetrable before the 19th century.</p><br>
<p>The word sieben is derived from the word siefen which, in turn comes from the Middle Low German word sîpe "wet depression" or "little stream, brook", the verb sîpen means "trickle, drip".</p><br>
<p>The name Siebengebirge emerged from the word Siedengebirge which indicated the presence of soap boilers ("Seifensieder"), who were banned from the valleys because boiling soap smelled so bad.</p><br>
<p>Mandø is one of the Danish Wadden Sea islands off the southwest coast of Jutland, Denmark in the Wadden Sea, part of the North Sea. The island covers an area of 7.63 km&sup2; and has 62 inhabitants. The island is situated approximately 12 km southwest of the ancient town of Ribe.</p><br>
<p>Mandø is barely accessible at high tide over an unpaved surface level causeway of about four kilometers in length that connects the island to the mainland. Extensive mudflats and tidal marshes encircle the island and provide breeding areas to multitudes of birds and other organisms. In the past centuries a large earthen dike has been constructed around the perimeter of the island, although substantially set back from the shoreline. This artifice has allowed conventional farming in the form of grain growing and sheep grazing. Mandø is technically a hallig, although it is far from the ten German islands commonly described by that term. The name was formerly often spelled Manø.</p><br>
<h2>Logistics of access</h2><br>
<p>Conventional motor vehicles can access Mandø Island via a causeway unpaved roadway, although this route is compromised in storms at high tide. The nearest village on the mainland which is the gateway to Mandø Island is Vester Vedsted. This simple causeway road is no more than copious gravel laid down on an immense mudflat, with required frequent periodic maintenance of added gravels. Alternatively many visitors reach the island by way of a specially designed tractor pulled bus with greatly oversized tires. This vehicle is capable of traversing some of the firmer mudflats, but only at the lowest tides. In any case private vehicles or the "Mandø bus" leave the mainland at the point of the Wadden Sea Centre, which offers nature information and boasts a small museum devoted to the natural history of Mandø. Mandø is located midway between the two larger islands Fanø and Rømø which are connected to the mainland by a ferry and a road running across a causeway, respectively.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and regional setting</h2><br>
<p>Mandø is geographically one of the northernmost islands among the North Frisian Islands off the southwestern Danish and northwestern German coast. The Frisian Islands are generally the line of demarcation separating the North Sea from the Wadden Sea, which is a shallow sea of approximately 5000 square kilometers in size, riddled with small islands and tidal flats. The entire Wadden Sea area was formed by intervening riverine depositional periods between Ice Age glacier movements.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>The principal ecosystems on this island are: tidal marsh; mudflat; littoral zone; and upland grassland. In fact, there is about as much land area in mudflat as the considerable arable land of the island. Mandø Island is known for its extensive birdlife. Breeding birds consist of terns, sandpipers, many waders and ducks including eiders. Mudflats and marshes afford birds a safe and undisturbed location for feeding, resting and breeding.</p><br>
<p>There are also a variety of insects, marine organisms and small mammals that find habitat on this island. Many grasses and wildflowers populate the upland portion of the island, in addition to marsh grasses in the intertidal zone. Besides the indigenous wildlife there are sheep which are grazed on the island and along part of the causeway.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The first written record of Mandø dates from 1231. The meaning of the original name Mannæø or Mannø is disputed. According to one interpretation the name means the Isle of Men. It has also been interpreted as relating to a burial site for victims of shipwrecks. A number of islands in Sweden have similar names with this meaning. A third interpretation explains it as derived from the name Manni.</p><br>
<p>A local record, Avia Ripensis (Ribe Oldemoder), mentions the existence of a local church in 1340. Mandø remains sparsely populated compared to the neighbouring islands, Fanø and Rømø. The census of 1890 records the island&#39;s population as 262, a number which has now dwindled to c. 70.</p><br>
<p>The island has been hit by storm floods on several occasions. A dyke known as Bydiget (village dyke) was constructed in 1887 east of the main settlement. A second one, Havnediget (harbour dyke), was constructed in 1937 protecting the northern part of the island, Gammel Mandø (Old Mandø). Both dykes were breached in a flood in 1981.</p><br>
<p>Life on the island was first supported by a combination of agriculture and fishing. Fishing was the responsibility of the island&#39;s men and agriculture was managed by the women. The island was later associated with seafaring. In the 20th century, agriculture became the dominant activity. At its peak, the number of farms was 25, a number dwindling to a single one by 1997.</p><br>
<h2>Notable native</h2><br>
<p>Eugenius Warming (1841-1924), recognized as a major founding figure of the scientific discipline of Ecology, was born and lived until about the age of three on the island.</p><br>
<p>The Tuscan Archipelago is a chain of islands between the Ligurian Sea and Tyrrhenian Sea, west of Tuscany, Italy.</p><br>
<p>The islands&#39; proximity to several major cities has made them a favourite tourist location. History and literature have ensured that most people are familiar with the islands of Elba and Montecristo.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Tuscan Archipelago is placed between the Corsica and the Tuscan coast and contains seven major islands as Capraia, Elba, Giannutri, Giglio, Gorgona, Montecristo and Pianosa; all of which are protected as part of the Arcipelago Toscano National Park. The Archipelago extends to 166 km from the northernmost Island of Gorgona to the southernmost Giannutri and 56 km from the western Island of Capraia to the Tuscan coast.</p><br>
<p>There are several islets in the archipelago including:</p><br>
<p>Cerboli (Piombino Channel)</p><br>
<p>Formiche di Grosseto (Grosseto)</p><br>
<p>Isola della Cappa (Giglio)</p><br>
<p>Isola Corbella (Elba)</p><br>
<p>Isola di Ortano (Elba)</p><br>
<p>Isola della Peraiola (Capraia)</p><br>
<p>Isola dei Topi (Piombino Channel)</p><br>
<p>Isole Gemini (Elba)</p><br>
<p>Isolotto della Scarpa (Pianosa)</p><br>
<p>Isolotto della Scola (Pianosa)</p><br>
<p>Palmaiola (Piombino Channel)</p><br>
<p>Scoglietto di Portoferraio (Elba)</p><br>
<p>and skerries as:</p><br>
<p>Faraglione del Giglio</p><br>
<p>Formiche di Capraia (Capraia)</p><br>
<p>Formiche della Zanca (Elba)</p><br>
<p>Isola dei Liscoli (Elba)</p><br>
<p>Le Scole (Giglio)</p><br>
<p>Meloria Shoal (Livorno)</p><br>
<p>Scoglio d&#39;Africa (Corsica Channel)</p><br>
<p>Scoglio Forano (Pianosa)</p><br>
<p>Scoglio del Gatto (Capraia)</p><br>
<p>Scoglio della Manza (Capraia)</p><br>
<p>Scoglio dell’Ogliera (Elba)</p><br>
<p>Scoglio del Remaiolo (Elba)</p><br>
<p>Scoglio della Triglia (Elba)</p><br>
<p>Vada Shoal (Vada)</p><br>
<p>Others islets and skerries that are no part of the archipelago:</p><br>
<p>Argentarola (Monte Argentario)</p><br>
<p>Isolotto di Porto Ercole</p><br>
<p>Isolotto dello Sparviero</p><br>
<p>Scoglio della Focacciola</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The Tuscan Archipelago represent a region of correlation between the Sardinian-Corsican system and the Italian Peninsula; it is formed by seven islands and several islets and skerries which have different geological provenance as magmatic, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. The origin of the archipelago dates to the Triassic period according to the type of the rocks.</p><br>
<p>In the Quaternary the archipelago was related to the sea level fluctuations due to the glacial and interglacial periods; in the last glaciation the sea level fell 100 m, and Elba became a peninsula joined to the continent and to Pianosa. The Würm glaciation was followed by a warming phase, and the sea rose slowly to reach its current level.</p><br>
<h2>Biodiversity</h2><br>
<h3>Fauna</h3><br>
<p>The archipelago is distinguished by some endemism which are protected in order to avoid the loss of the biodiversity of fauna and flora. The most important are the Oxychilus pilula of Capraia and the Oxychilus gorgonianus of Gorgona; the Coenonympha corinna, the Podarcis muralis colosi, the Vipera aspis francisciredi at the Elba, the Vipera aspis montecristi at Montecristo. The mammals living on the archipelago are: the pine marten at Elba, the common rabbit at Capraia and Giglio while the introduction of the wild boar several years ago in the Elba has caused problems regarding the defence of some flora species.</p><br>
<p>All the islands of the Tuscan Archipelago are a place where the bird migration take a stop along their seasonal movement from north to south and vice versa; the favourite places are Gorgona, Palmaiola, Cerboli and Montecristo. The Falco peregrinus brookei nests at Elba and Capraia, the shearwater and the rare Audouin&#39;s gull are common in all the islands.</p><br>
<p>Rich productivity of the coastal waters provide habitats for various marine life even whales and dolphins including fin and sperm whales.</p><br>
<h3>Flora</h3><br>
<p>The archipelago is characterized by a Mediterranean climate with high insolation all year round. The archipelago&#39;s flora change from island to island, the smaller have a vegetation similar each other as the macchia mediterranea and the garrigue formed by evergreen plants. The Elba have a complex orography and a relevant mountain as the Mount Capanne which favoured the preservation of the chestnut, the holm oak and the black alder mostly in the northern side.</p><br>
<p>The main plant formations are those of shrubs of erica, strawberry tree, genisteae, mastic, Mediterranean buckthorn, myrtus and Phoenician juniper; at Elba and Capraia is present the cork oak while at Elba and Gorgona are widely spread the Aleppo pine and the maritime pine. Separate chapter are the endemic plants which grow up in the archipelago as the Pancratium illyricum, the Borago pygmaea, the Corsican mint and the sea lavander that presents small differences depending on which island grows.</p><br>
<h2>Islands</h2><br>
<h3>Elba</h3><br>
<p>Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, 10 km from the coastal town of Piombino. The largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano National Park and the third largest island in Italy, after Sicily and Sardinia. It is located in the Tyrrhenian Sea, about 50 km east of the French island of Corsica.</p><br>
<h3>Giglio</h3><br>
<p>Isola del Giglio is an Italian island and comune situated in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the coast of Tuscany, and is part of the Province of Grosseto. The island is one of seven that form the Tuscan Archipelago, lying within the Arcipelago Toscano National Park. Giglio means "lily" in Italian, and though the name would appear consistent with the insignia of Medici Florence, it derives from Aegilium, "Goat Island", a Latin transliteration of the Greek word for "little goat" (Ancient greek: Aigýllion, Αιγύλλιον).</p><br>
<h3>Capraia</h3><br>
<p>Capraia is an Italian island, is the north-westernmost of the seven islands of the Tuscan Archipelago, and the third largest after Elba and Giglio; it is also a comune (municipality) belonging to the Province of Livorno. The island has a population of about 400.</p><br>
<h3>Montecristo</h3><br>
<p>Montecristo is an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea and part of the Tuscan Archipelago. Administratively it belongs to the municipality of Portoferraio in the province of Livorno, Italy. The island has an area of 10.39 km&sup2; and is approximately 4.3 km wide at its widest point; the coasts are steep, and extend for 16 km. The island is a state nature reserve and forms part of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park.</p><br>
<h3>Pianosa</h3><br>
<p>The small island of Pianosa, about 10.25 km&sup2; in area, has a coastal perimeter of 26 km, forms part of Italy&#39;s Tuscan Archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea.</p><br>
<h3>Gorgona</h3><br>
<p>Gorgona is the northernmost island in the Tuscan Archipelago. Between Corsica and Livorno, this diminutive island has been valued most for its wildlife, especially marine birds, and its isolation. The latter quality resulted in the foundation of Gorgona Abbey in the Middle Ages. After its closure the monastery grounds and buildings were appropriated in 1869, at the foundation of an agricultural penal colony, which is currently in use.</p><br>
<h3>Giannutri</h3><br>
<p>Giannutri is a small island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Tuscany, Italy; it is the southernmost island of the Tuscan Archipelago and it is a frazione of the comune of Isola del Giglio in the Province of Grosseto.</p><br>
<h2>Islets</h2><br>
<h3>Formiche di Grosseto</h3><br>
<p>The Formiche di Grosseto ("Ants of Grosseto") is a group of islets which emerge sharply in the Tuscan Archipelago. They are located in open sea among the coast of the Natural Park of Maremma and Pianosa, approximately 13 nmi from Porto Santo Stefano on Monte Argentario and 9.4 mi from Marina di Grosseto; they are part of the comune of Grosseto and are placed in a nature reserve which makes part of a special protection area.</p><br>
<h3>Palmaiola</h3><br>
<p>Palmaiola is an islet placed in the middle of Piombino Channel, at 3 km from Elba and 7 km from Piombino; it is part of the comune of Rio Marina.</p><br>
<h2>Skerries</h2><br>
<h3>Meloria</h3><br>
<p>Meloria is a rocky skerry, surrounded by a shoal, off the Tuscan coast, in the Ligurian sea, 3.5 mi north-west of Livorno.</p><br>
<h3>Scoglietto di Portoferraio</h3><br>
<p>Scoglietto di Portoferraio is a rocky skerry without vegetation placed in front of Portoferraio. It is a marine protected area since 1971, and from January 2014 it is a Site of Community Importance. The skerry is 150 m long and 124 m wide and it is placed at 1.36 km from Punta Capo Bianco and 1.14 km from Punta Falconaia.</p><br>
<h4>Scoglietto di Portoferraio lighthouse</h4><br>
<p>The first historic lighthouse was established in 1910, then it was reconstructed in 1945 because destroyed during World war II. The lighthouse is a small square stone keeper’s cottage with the cylindrical stone tower positioned at one corner; it has a balcony and the lantern is at 24 metres above sea level. It is fully automated and operated by Marina Militare identified by the code number 2068 E.F. The lighthouse is powered by a solar power unit and emits a group of two alternating white flash in a six seconds period visible up to 5 nmi.</p><br>
<h3>Scoglio d'Africa</h3><br>
<p>Scoglio dAfrica (or Scoglio dAffrica), also named Formica di Monte Cristo ("Monte Cristos Ant"), is a solitary small skerry belonging to the Tuscan Archipelago located in open sea between Tyrrhenian Sea and Corsica Channel. It is located 18.5 km west of the Island of Montecristo, 23.5 km south of Pianosa Island and 43.1 km east of Corsica. Administratively it belongs to the municipality of Campo nellElba. It is also part of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park.</p><br>
<p>The Wuyi Mountains  are a mountain range located in the prefecture of Nanping, in northern Fujian province near the border with Jiangxi province, China. The highest peak in the area is Mount Huanggang at 2,158 m on the border of Fujian and Jiangxi, making it the highest point of both provinces; the lowest altitudes are around 200 m. Many oolong and black teas are produced in the Wuyi Mountains, including Da Hong Pao  and lapsang souchong.</p><br>
<p>The Wuyi Mountains are located between Wuyishan City, Nanping prefecture in northwest Fujian province and Wuyishan Town, Shangrao city in northeast Jiangxi province.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<h3>World Heritage Site</h3><br>
<p>The mountains have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for cultural, scenic, and biodiversity values since 1999.</p><br>
<p>The world heritage site has a total area of 99,975 hectares that is divided into four core parts: the Nine-Bend Stream Ecological Protection Area (36,400 ha) in the center, flanked by the Wuyishan National Nature Reserve (56,527 ha) to the west and the Wuyishan National Scenic Area (7,000 ha) to the east. The fourth part, the Protection Area for the Remains of Ancient Han Dynasty (48 ha) is located in a separate area about 15 km to the south-east of the others. The core parts are surrounded by an additional buffer zone of 27,888 ha.</p><br>
<h3>Geology</h3><br>
<p>The region is part of the Cathaysian fold system and has experienced high volcanic activity and the formation of large fault structures, which were subsequently subject to erosion by water and weathering. The landscape is characterized by beautiful winding river valleys flanked by columnar or dome-shaped cliffs as well as cave systems. Peaks in the western portion of the Wuyi Mountains typically consist of volcanic or plutonic rocks, whereas peaks and hills in the eastern area are made up of red sandstone (particularly in the east) with very steep slopes but flat tops (Danxia landform). The Nine-bend River (Jiuqu Xi), about 60 kilometers in length, meanders in a deep gorge among these hills. Bedrock lithology at Wuyi Shan is dominated by tuff, rhyolite, and granite in the western part. Red sandstone is common farther east.</p><br>
<p>The elevation ranges from 200 m (656 ft) to 2,158 m (7,080 ft). The terrain is rugged with cliffs and high peaks.</p><br>
<h3>Climate</h3><br>
<p>The Wuyi Mountains act as a protective barrier against the inflow of cold air from the northwest and retain warm moist air originating from the sea. As a result, the area has a humid climate (humidity 80 to 85%) with high rainfall (annual average 2,200 millimeters in the south-west and 3,200 millimeters in the north) and common fogs. Lower altitudes experience annual temperatures in the range from 12 °C to 18 °C.</p><br>
<p>The area is relatively pollution free. The Chinese government set up its first air quality monitoring station in the area on January 31, 2005.</p><br>
<p>Lower elevations have a humid subtropical climate with mean annual temperature around 18°C (64°F) and mean annual precipitation of at least 220 cm (86.6 in). Cooler, wetter conditions prevail at higher altitudes and winters can be snowy on the highest peaks.</p><br>
<h2>Biodiversity</h2><br>
<h3>Flora</h3><br>
<p>The Wuyi Mountains are the largest and most representative example of Chinese subtropical forests and South Chinese rainforests&#39; biodiversity. Its ecology has survived from before the Ice Age around 3 million years ago. Biologists have been conducting field research in the area since 1873.</p><br>
<p>The vegetation of the area depends strongly on altitude. Broadleaf evergreen forests dominate the lower elevations; their tree species yield to deciduous and needleleaf evergreen trees at higher elevations. It is divided into 11 broad categories: 1) temperate coniferous forest, 2) warm coniferous forest, 3) temperate broad-leaved and coniferous mixed forest, 4) deciduous and broad-leaved forest, 5) evergreen broad-leaved and deciduous mixed forest, 6) evergreen broad-leaved forest, 7) bamboo forest, 8) deciduous broad-leaved shrub forest, 9) evergreen broad-leaved shrub forest, 10) brush-wood, and 11) meadow steppe. Most common are evergreen broad-leaved forests, some of which make up the largest remaining tracts of humid sub-tropical forests in the world. Higher plants from 284 families, 1,107 genera and 2,888 species as well as 840 species of lower plant and fungus have been reported for the region. The most common tree families are beech (Fagaceae), laurel (Lauraceae), camellia (Theaceae), magnolia (Magnoliaceae), Elaeocarpaceae, and witch-hazel (Hamamelidaceae).</p><br>
<h3>Fauna</h3><br>
<p>The fauna of the Wuyi Mountains is renowned for its high diversity, which includes many rare and unusual species. In total, approximately 5,000 animal species have been reported for the area. 475 of these species are vertebrates and 4,635 insects. The number of vertebrate species is divided as follows:</p><br>
<p>Forty-nine vertebrate species are endemic to China and three are endemic to the Wuyi Mountains. The latter are the bird Davids parrotbill (Neosuthora davidiana), Popes spiny toad (Vibrissaphora liui), and the bamboo snake Pseudoxenodon karlschmidti (family Colubridae). Other known endangered species in the area include South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis), clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), North China leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis), hairy-fronted muntjac (Muntiacus crinifrons), Sumatran serow (Capricornis sumatraensis - a goat antelope), Cabot&#39;s tragopan (Tragopan caboti), Chinese black-backed pheasant (Syrmaticus ellioti), Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus), and the golden Kaiser-i-Hind (Teinopalpus aureus - a swallowtail butterfly).</p><br>
<h2>Human history and culture</h2><br>
<p>Human settlement on the slopes of Mount Wuyi can be traced back 4,000 years by archeological remains. During the Western Han Dynasty, the ancient city of Chengcun was the capital of the Minyue kingdom. In the 7th century, the Wuyi Palace was built for emperors to conduct sacrificial activities, a site that tourists can still visit today. The mountains were an important center of Taoism and later Buddhism. Remains of 35 academies erected from the era of the Northern Song to the Qing Dynasty and more than 60 Taoist temples and monasteries have been located. However, most of these remains are very incomplete. Some of the exceptions for which authentic remains are preserved are the Taoyuan Temple, the Wannian Palace, the Sanqing Hall, the Tiancheng Temple, the Baiyun temple, and the Tianxin temple. The area is the cradle of Neo-Confucianism, a current that became very influential since the 11th century.</p><br>
<p>The Wuyi Mountains have a long history of tea cultivation. The four most widely known varieties of Wuyi tea are referred to as the Four Famous Bushes: Big Red Robe, Iron Arhat, White Cockscomb, and Golden Turtle. Lapsang souchong also originates from the area.</p><br>
<p>Mountain call and Mountain open</p><br>
<p>Mountain call and Mountain open are ceremonies held in Wuyi imperial tea garden. County magistrate used to take the chair of the Mountain Call ceremony on Jingzhe Day(惊蛰). In the scheduled procedure, tea planters call out together “tea, tea, sprout”. By doing this, they pray god for the blessings of tea harvest.</p><br>
<p>Tea Picking Opera</p><br>
<p>Mt.Wuyi area is the birthplace of tea picking opera. Developed from local folk dances and songs, the opera is hilarious and describes people’s daily lives. The Tea Picking Opera has strong rural flavour and basics of Hakka culture in its performances. This has made it popular in the local areas.</p><br>
<p>Leap Year Meals</p><br>
<p>Leap year meals are called liu qin（六亲） meals. Every leap year and leap month, parents and brothers must invite their married daughters and sisters to come back and have meals. When parents are alive, parents make the invitation; otherwise brothers do it.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>The number of visitors to the area increased from approximately 424,000 in 1993 to 700,000 in 1998. A raft trip down the Nine-bend River is the most popular activity followed by a visit to the "Thread of Sky" caves, where the narrowest walkway is only 30 cm. Visitor access to the biodiversity protection area is controlled.</p><br>
<p>The Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm Historic Site, locally known as the Mahaffie farmstead, is located in Olathe, Kansas. The house was originally a stop along the Oregon and California Trails, which originated in nearby Westport, Missouri. The house&#39;s heyday came with large numbers of westbound travelers of the 1860s.</p><br>
<p>The house has now been converted into a museum and gift shop. It is situated on almost 40 acres (160,000 m²) of land. It frequently hosts American Civil War reenactments, with a focus on events connected to Bleeding Kansas and bushwhackers. There is also an in-house blacksmith and other various era-specific artisans.</p><br>
<p>The original farm was founded by James Beatty Mahaffie and his wife Lucinda, in 1858. They ran it until 1870 and stayed on the farm until 1886. The existing house was completed by Mahaffie in 1865. It includes two foot thick limestone blocks quarried from the farm itself.</p><br>
<p>The Mahaffies left their name not only on the museum, but on a street in Olathe, Mahaffie Elementary School, and on a recent subdivision.</p><br>
<p>Lobos  is a small island of the Canary Islands  located just 2 km north of the island of Fuerteventura. Politically it belongs to the municipality of La Oliva on the island of Fuerteventura. It has an area of 4.68 km&sup2;. It has been a nature reserve  since 1982.</p><br>
<p>The island is accessible to tourists via a short ferry ride from Corralejo, in the north of Fuerteventura. It has day facilities and weekend homes of local fishermen. At the northeastern end of the island is the Punta Martiño Lighthouse, the lighthouse keeper and his family were the last permanent inhabitants of Lobos, until the light was automated in the 1960s.</p><br>
<p>In 1405, Lobos Island served as resupply base for Jean de Béthencourt&#39;s conquest of Fuerteventura.</p><br>
<h2>Origin of name</h2><br>
<p>Lobos Island (Wolves Island) was named for the large number of sea wolves, also called monk seals, that once lived there. The monk seals were the island&#39;s only inhabitants when it was discovered by the Spanish conquerors of the Canaries archipelago in the fifteenth century, but with the arrival of man, these animals were hunted on a massive scale by sailors and fishermen who saw them as a source of food, fat and skin. As a result of this hunting, the species eventually became extinct on the island and its presence now is only occasional.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Lobos Island, like the rest of the Canary Islands, is a volcanic island. Its age is estimated between 6,000 and 8,000 years. The highest point is on the island&#39;s volcanic caldera, Montaña La Caldera, 127 m above sea level. The island includes a small lake, but the low rainfall creates an arid landscape.</p><br>
<h2>Fauna and flora</h2><br>
<p>Despite being a desert and a volcanic landscape, Lobos Island has a large number of natural habitats. There are over 130 plant species, including the siempreviva - endemic island-, the Sea Uvilla, or White Caleton which is very attractive because of its shape and color.</p><br>
<p>Likewise, birds are an important feature of the island: it has a great variety of seabirds that usually nest on cliffs and rocks. Among these species are the shearwater Cinderella, little shearwater and the herring gull. Also in residence are the storm petrel, Bulwer&#39;s petrel and yellow-legged gull. In addition to birds a great diversity of fish can be spotted in its waters. Of these abound old fish (Canarian fish), barracuda, hammerhead shark, bream and striped fish.</p><br>
<p>Because of its great ecological diversity the site has been designated as a protected zone, the Parque Natural del Islote de Lobos. It has also been declared a special protection area (SPA) for birds.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Recent archaeological findings have concluded that Ancient Rome established a (possibly seasonal) settlement in the island, related with the obtention of purple dye.</p><br>
<p>In 1405 Lobos Island served as resupply base for Jean de Béthencourt´s conquest of Fuerteventura. Until 1968 the only inhabitants of the island were the lighthouse keeper and his family, who had the responsibility for operating the Faro de Lobos lighthouse located at Punta Martiño at the northern tip of the island, a prominent local landmark (his name was Antonito; a school in the town of Corralejo was named after him). The island was one of the first natural areas of the Canary Islands to be designated as a natural park in 1982. Later the island was also designated an area of special protection for birds, and many marine species of migratory birds inhabit the island.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>The island is a popular location for day trips for tourists visiting from Fuerteventura who have an interest in flora, fauna and geology.</p><br>
<p>Regular boat services ferry passengers from Corralejo harbour during daylight hours. To protect the natural landscape from human impact, access is limited to restricted areas and to a series of walking trails, marked by directional signs to protect the conservation areas. The paths take visitors from the boat jetty through a varied landscape, including to the lighthouse at Punto Martino and to the top of the caldera. There is a small, sheltered sea lagoon, Playa de la Concha, with a sandy beach for bathing.</p><br>
<p>Visitors can ask for authorisation from Fuerteventura local governments environment office to camp on the island, for a maximum of three nights, in one permitted location known as "El carpintero" (the carpenters).</p><br>
<p>Cloud Peak is the highest peak within the Big Horn Mountains in the USA state of Wyoming. It rises to an elevation of 13,167 ft and provides onlookers with dramatic views and vistas. The mountain can be climbed most easily from the western side, accessed by either the Battle Park or West Tensleep trail-heads and is roughly 24 miles round-trip from both. The peak is located in the 189,000 acre  Cloud Peak Wilderness within Bighorn National Forest. The northeast slope of Cloud Peak is a deep cirque which harbors Cloud Peak Glacier, the last active glacier in the Bighorn Mountains.</p><br>
<p>Cloud Peak is on the border between Johnson County and Big Horn County in Wyoming and is the high point of both counties. As the high point of an isolated range, Cloud Peak has a particularly high topographic prominence of 7,067 ft. In fact, the mountain has the second greatest topographic prominence in Wyoming, only barely beaten by Gannett Peak, and the fifteenth greatest topographic prominence in the contiguous United States.</p><br>
<p>The Salang Pass  is nowadays the major mountain pass connecting northern Afghanistan with Parwan Province, with onward connections to Kabul Province, southern Afghanistan, and to the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Located on the border of Parwan Province and Baghlan Province, it is just to the east of the Kushan Pass, and both of them were of great importance in early times as they provided the most direct connections between the Kabul region with northern Afghanistan or Tokharistan. The Salang River originates nearby and flows south.</p><br>
<p>The pass crosses the Hindu Kush mountains but is now bypassed through the Salang Tunnel, which runs underneath it at a height of about 3,400 m. It links Charikar and Kabul in the south with Mazar-i-Sharif and Kunduz in the north. Before the road and tunnel were built, the main route between Kabul and northern Afghanistan was via the Shibar Pass, a much longer route which took three days.</p><br>
<p>The road through the pass has carried heavy military traffic in recent conflicts and is in very bad repair.</p><br>
<p>On 3 November 1982, during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, there was a huge fire in the tunnel which at the time was filled with Soviet military convoys. A very large, but unknown number, of Soviet troops were killed in the Salang tunnel fire.</p><br>
<h2>February 2010 avalanches</h2><br>
<p>On February 9, 2010, the pass was hit by multiple avalanches.</p><br>
<p>According to press reports the road through the pass was hit by 17 avalanches, killing dozens, burying miles of highway, and trapping the vehicles in the Salang tunnel.</p><br>
<p>By February 10, 2010 authorities had recovered over 160 bodies.</p><br>
<p>Radio Free Europe reports the first avalanche blocked the tunnel, and trapped vehicles in a traffic jam in a "deadly avalanche zone".</p><br>
<p>Columbia Island is an island located in the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It formed naturally as an extension of Analostan Island in the latter part of the 1800s, and over time erosion and flooding severed it from Analostan. The USA federal government deposited material dredged from the Potomac River on the island between 1911 and 1922, and again from 1925 to 1927. The island was also reshaped by the government at this time. It received the name "Columbia Island" about 1918. In 1968, the island was renamed Lady Bird Johnson Park. Located within the park are the Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove, Navy – Merchant Marine Memorial, and the Columbia Island Marina. The island, park, memorials, and marina are part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway and administered by the National Park Service.</p><br>
<h2>Early formation of Columbia Island</h2><br>
<p>Columbia Island is in part natural, and in part man-made. Columbia Island did not exist in 1818 and at that time, Analostan Island (now known as Theodore Roosevelt Island) was largely rock and quite close to the D.C. shoreline. Due to deforestation and increased agricultural use upstream, the river eroded much of the northern bank and widened the gap between Analostan Island and the shore and simultaneously large deposits of silt built up around Analostan Island. By 1838, Analostan had almost doubled in length toward the south and by 1884, the new southern part of Analostan Island was defined and built up, and supported a well-established wetland. However, the river gradually eroded the center of Analostan Island, severing Columbia Island from its parent body.</p><br>
<p>Between 1911 and 1922, the Potomac River was repeatedly dredged to deepen the channel and to widen the distance between Analostan/Theodore Roosevelt Island and Columbia Island (so that the "Virginia Channel" west of Analostan/Roosevelt Island would not flood easily). Dredged material was piled high on Columbia Island, helping to build it higher, lengthen and broaden it, and give it its current shape. Filling in of the island was complete in the spring of 1924.</p><br>
<p>The new island received its name in about 1918 from an unnamed engineer working for the District of Columbia and the first use of this name in The Washington Post was in April 1922, the same year it was transferred to the National Park Service.</p><br>
<h2>Expanding and developing Columbia Island</h2><br>
<h3>Arlington Memorial Bridge and the expansion of Columbia Island</h3><br>
<p>In 1922, Congress authorized the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission (AMBC) to hold a design competition for the proposed Arlington Memorial Bridge. It awarded the design commission to the firm if McKim, Mead and White, which appointed architect William Mitchell Kendall to be the lead designer. Congress subsequently authorized construction of Kendall&#39;s bridge on February 24, 1925. The legislation authorizing construction of the bridge also provided for the construction of approaches (on-ramps, off-ramps, and pedestrian areas) on both the D.C. and Virginia ends of the bridge; for the improvement of B Street NW as a new ceremonial avenue to link to the bridge; and for the construction of a roadway (eventually called Memorial Drive) between the bridge and the main gate of Arlington National Cemetery as well as a new ceremonial entrance at this gate (subsequently known as the Hemicycle).</p><br>
<p>Preliminary designs for the bridge showed it terminating on Columbia Island, which necessitated expansion of Columbia Island. The United States Army Corps of Engineers already planned to dredge the Potomac River and enlarge Columbia Island, so on April 1, Secretary of War John W. Weeks ordered the expenditure of $114,500 to dredge the river between the Highway Bridge and the Lincoln memorial. The dredged material was to be dumped on Columbia Island. To ensure the island could support the bridge, the Corps also planned to construct a 20 ft levee around the island.</p><br>
<p>The Corps reached an agreement with the AMBC in April 1925 to jointly share the cost of dredging, which involved the removal of 2,500,000 cuft of river bottom, and the construction of 2,000 ft of seawall and 15,000 ft of levee. About 40 acre of Columbia Island was to be removed in order to widen the main Potomac River channel, and the height of the island raised from 6 ft above average water level to 22 ft over two years.</p><br>
<h3>Early designs for Columbia Island</h3><br>
<p>In addition to the ABMC and Corps of Engineers, the United States Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) and the National Capital Parks Commission (NCPC) both had authority to approve aspects of the bridge. The CFA had extensive authority to review the look of the bridge.</p><br>
<p>The CFA and NCPC first discussed the bridge approaches in January 1926, when they met jointly to discuss how the Virginia terminus would serve as a gateway to Washington. The two bodies agreed to a proposal by urban planner C.A.S. Sinclair, who proposed a series of roads radiating outward from the Virginia end of the bridge. However, in December 1926, the CFA learned that Arlington National Cemetery was likely to expand eastward onto the property of the USDA Experimental Farm (which lay east of Arlington Ridge Road). Because this significantly impacted the approaches to the bridge, the CFA asked Kendall to restudy Sinclair&#39;s proposal for the Columbia Island terminus. Kendall presented the revised design for the street and highway approaches for the Virginia landing in May 1927. His plan was for a series of traffic circles on Columbia Island.</p><br>
<p>By June 30, 1927, dredging of the Potomac River was nearly complete. The reshaping of Columbia Island was finished, and the 200 acre island had risen to 22 ft feet above water. The following month, work began on the engineering and architectural drawings for the Boundary Channel Bridge. This bridge would cross Boundary Channel (which separated Columbia Island from Virginia) to connect Arlington Memorial Bridge with the planned Memorial Drive.</p><br>
<p>Kendalls May 1927 design for Columbia Island generated lengthy debate for two years. Noted architect Milton Bennett Medary (who left the CFA in 1927) wrote to the Commission of Fine Arts in January 1928 after having seen Kendalls proposal. Medary argued that the National Mall ended with the Lincoln Memorial and the two great roads leading from it – the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway (RCPP) and the Arlington Memorial Bridge. Columbia Island, he said, should reflect a simple, formal dignity that helps ease the transition from the Neoclassical mall and bridge to the informal landscaping of Arlington National Cemetery. Medarys argument proved persuasive to the CFA, and in late May the commission and Kendall announced a revised treatment in which a great plaza would be built on Columbia Island. From this plaza, roads would lead across the island to bridges which would connect with the proposed Mount Vernon Memorial Parkway and Lee Highway. The traffic circles were eliminated, and Columbia Island would be reshaped to allow for the north-south roadway to pass along the axis of the island. The great plaza was intended to contain two 166 ft high columns representing the Union and the South. The two columns were to be surmounted by gold statues of Nike. Additionally, the CFA concluded that there should be two 40 ft high pylons at both the eastern and western ends of the bridge. These pylons were to be inscribed with bas-relief images representing national accomplishments, and topped by statues of golden eagles. Kendalls design also included two large, round Greek Revival temples close to the bridge on the island&#39;s east side, and several larger-than-life Greek Revival and Romanesque Revival statues scattered about the island.</p><br>
<h3>Early construction: Boundary Channel Bridge</h3><br>
<p>Bids for the construction of the Boundary Channel Bridge were opened on July 18, 1928. The project was divided among several contractors. North Carolina Granite Co. provided the below-water granite, Hallowell Granite Works provided the granite for the voussoirs and the facing on the piers 10 ft above mean low water level. The Woodbury Granite Co. provided the coping granite and balustrades. Hallowell delivered its granite in May 1929, North Carolina Granite delivered its by June, and Woodbury Granite delivered roughly half its granite by June 30, 1929. The construction contract itself was awarded to the N.P. Severin Company in October 1928.</p><br>
<p>Nearly a year passed before the CFA approved pylon designs for Columbia Island in March 1929. But the great plaza and roads on the island needed further study.</p><br>
<p>Work on the Boundary Channel Bridge began in the spring of 1929, but immediately ran into problems. An unstable rock shelf 13 ft thick lay under the western abutment of the Arlington Memorial Bridge. This "rotten rock" had not been revealed by borings two years earlier, but now came to light as construction began on the Boundary Channel Bridge. Additionally, a thin layer of sand and gravel was discovered lying atop the bedrock of the eastern abutment of the Boundary Channel Bridge. Both obstacles had to be removed before construction could proceed further. By June 30, 1929, the Arlington Memorial Bridge&#39;s western abutment was finished (except for exterior masonry facing), and many of the concrete columns for the Boundary Channel Bridge were also finished.</p><br>
<p>By the end of June 1930, some additional filling in of Columbia Island was all that was needed to finish the Arlington Memorial Bridge. But no construction had occurred on the Columbia Island great plaza, its monumental columns, or the two pylons as the CFA had still not approved a final design for these. Additionally, work on the western half of the Boundary Channel Bridge had come to a standstill. Tracks of the Rosslyn Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad ran along the Virginia shoreline. In order to avoid an at-grade crossing with Memorial Drive, the CFA proposed in June 1927 that these tracks be lower by 20 ft. Since meant extending the Boundary Channel Bridge, new engineering studies of the bridge were needed. The Corps and CFA were still studying how to depress the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks three years later. Informal negotiations had, by the end of June 1930, come to an agreement that the line would be moved closer to the river, and that an underpass through the bridge (accommodating two side-by-side tracks) and the depressed tracks should be constructed first before the railroad took title to the new line. This would permit uninterrupted rail service. The Pennsylvania Railroad also agreed to cede the old right-of-way to the government once the new tracks and tunnel were operational. Otherwise, construction on the Boundary Channel Bridge was complete.</p><br>
<h3>Revisions to the Great Plaza</h3><br>
<p>The CFA again considered designs for the Columbia Island plaza in July 1930. Repairs to the levees on Columbia Island were made that same month. In September, the CFA reviewed but did not approve designs for the memorial columns, and for additional landscaping on the island. CFA members began to question whether the columns were effective in memorializing the reunited North and South, although there was still agreement that they were integral to the great plaza&#39;s design. Nonetheless, Kendall was asked to restudy the issue yet again.</p><br>
<p>Due to settling, additional dredged material was deposited on Columbia Island in October and November 1930. The new goal was to raise the island to 30 ft above the average water level.</p><br>
<p>There were still problems in designing the final segment of Boundary Channel Bridge in November 1930, but the road across Columbia Island connecting Arlington Memorial Bridge with Boundary Channel Bridge was finished in December.</p><br>
<p>The CFA continued to wrestle with Columbia Island&#39;s great plaza design in 1931. The commission again discussed the columns in January, and eliminated a granite balustrade around the great plaza (saving $400,000). But by September, the agency still had come to no resolution on redesigning the plaza.</p><br>
<h3>Eliminating the memorial columns</h3><br>
<p>Design issues surrounding the Columbia Island great plaza were resolved in late 1931 not by the CFA, but by President Herbert Hoover. Two airfields, Hoover Field and Washington Airport, existed in Virginia just south of Columbia Island. In the spring of 1931, AMBC executive officer Ulysses S. Grant III (then a Lieutenant Colonel with the Corps of Engineers) advised the AMBC and CFA that the huge memorial columns planned for Columbia Island would be a risk to aviation. Both bodies ignored him.</p><br>
<p>On September 28, 1931, the United States Department of Commerce told the CFA that the tall columns were a risk to aviation. The Commerce Department said that the columns would seriously interfere with air traffic using Hoover Field, and demanded that the CFA either eliminate the columns or floodlight them brightly. The Washington Board of Trade added its opposition to the columns on September 29. Grant agreed that, should an investigation show a hazard, the columns would have to be eliminated.</p><br>
<p>On October 12, Hoover ordered AMBC staff, Kendall, the CFA, and Arlington Memorial Bridge consulting engineer W. J. Douglas to restudy the columns. The Washington Post reported that several AMBC and CFA members, as well as member of Congress, were increasingly worried as well about the huge cost of the columns. The columns themselves were estimated to cost at least $500,000, with another $100,000 needed for their foundations. The CFA took up the issue at its regular meeting in early November. But when CFA members expressed skepticism about the issue, Senator Hiram Bingham (an aviation enthusiast) began organizing aviation interests to oppose them. Bingham also threatened to introduce legislation in Congress to bar any aviation hazards from being erected in the D.C. area. On November 27, 40 postal and air transport pilots wrote to President Hoover demanding that the pillars be eliminated. Three days later, the Board of Trade also contacted Hoover directly to lobby against the columns&#39; erection.</p><br>
<p>Faced with overwhelming opposition, the AMBC voted to eliminate the columns in December 1931, and asked Kendall for yet another new design for Columbia Island.</p><br>
<h3>Completion of Columbia Island</h3><br>
<p>By April 1932, work was well under way on relocating the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks. The new, slightly shifted route had been graded, tracks laid, and the western end of Boundary Channel Bridge designed. While there were some delays in completing the railroad underpass, work was well advanced. The formal dedication of the Hemicycle, Memorial Avenue, and Boundary Channel Bridge occurred on April 9. Colonel Ulysses S. Grant III, executive director of the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission and an officer in the Corps of Engineers, formally opened Memorial Avenue and the Boundary Channel Bridge. (Memorial Avenue was only 30 ft wide and unpaved, but the Corps was working to have it widened to 60 ft and have it paved by July 1.)</p><br>
<p>The worsening federal budgetary situation nearly led to a complete halt in Columbia Islands development. On April 7, 1932, the House of Representatives deleted the projects entire $840,000 budget for fiscal year 1933 (which began July 1, 1932). Design and other work on the great plaza came to an immediate halt. So did the Corps&#39; final push to fill in the island, as well as all landscaping and road grading. The CFA met in November 1932 to discuss how the incomplete work might be fixed to appear complete or become functional.</p><br>
<p>Franklin D. Roosevelt took office as President of the United States in March 1933. Convinced that massive federal spending on public works was essential not only to "prime the pump" of the economy but also to cut unemployment, Roosevelt proposed passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act. The act contained $6 billion in public works spending. The act passed on June 13, 1933, and Roosevelt signed it into law on June 16. The Public Works Administration (PWA) was immediately established to disburse the funds appropriated by the act.</p><br>
<p>On July 13, just a month after the PWA was formed, the agency announced a $3 million grant to finish work on Columbia Island and other parts of the Arlington Memorial Bridge project. The CFA and NCPC met in November to decide how to proceed on Columbia Island, which had only one link to Virginia — and that led only to Arlington National Cemetery. On December 4, the agencies announced that PWA money would be used to construct bridges on the north and south ends of the island in anticipation of links with Lee Highway and a new highway the state of Virginia and Arlington County were discussing constructing in the south. (The southern bridge carrying the parkway became known as the Humpback Bridge because it had a slight rise in its center.) To connect to these bridges, completion of the roads on Columbia Island was also needed. These roads were staked out in January 1934, and the CFA and NCPC began discussing whether a new, large traffic circle should be added to the center of the island to replace the bottleneck that a simple cross-axis would be. The engineering and architectural design for the northern bridge was approved in October 1936.</p><br>
<p>The CFA further discussed what to do with the Columbia Island great plaza in January 1935, but again could come to no decision. Without funds, little action other than bridge construction or marginal improvements could be made. Improved landscaping designs for the Boundary Channel Bridge were also submitted in January 1935, and approved in March 1936. Seven months later, the CFA began studying the design for the lighting scheme for the Arlington Memorial Bridge, Columbia Island, and Memorial Drive.</p><br>
<p>Minor elements of Columbia Island were completed in the last years of the 1930s. A second northern bridge, designed to link with Lee Boulevard (now known as Arlington Boulevard) was approved in 1937. The Joseph A. LaVezza & Sons construction company immediately began work on the $24,875 bridge. This new bridge, and (at last) the bridge over the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks were completed in July. Although the CFA continued to confer on plans concerning the great plaza as late as January 1938, no improvements were made. Memorial Avenue was completed in September 1938.</p><br>
<p>The final elements on Columbia Island were constructed in 1939 and 1940. In April 1939, Congress approved $100,000 to build the last connections between the bridges and central traffic circle on the island, as well as build sidewalks, trails, and parking lots and to improve landscaping there. The CFA, after four years of deliberation, finally approved the lamppost design for the island in January 1940. The last major improvement to the island came in September 1940, when a "racetrack" feature – a larger outer traffic circle – was constructed to handle the rapidly increasing north-south traffic on the island. This permitted north-south motorists to avoid the bottleneck at the traffic circle (which now largely handled just east-west traffic).</p><br>
<h2>Later history of Columbia Island</h2><br>
<p>With filling operations on Columbia Island suspended in 1932, the island underwent a natural process of settling. By 1941, settling had damaged the abutments of the Boundary Channel Bridge, and the Bureau of Public Roads placed steel struts under each abutment in April to shore them up.</p><br>
<p>Bridge work on Columbia Island continued in the 1940s. In January 1942, the United States Department of Defense realized that rapid expansion of the Pentagon workforce due to entry of the United States into World War II would put significant strain on the local road networks. A new arterial, Army-Navy Boulevard (now called Army-Navy Drive) was under construction to connect Pentagon City and points south to the Pentagon. The road then continued northwest past the Pentagon to Columbia Island, where it was to run up the center of the island and connect with the Arlington Memorial Bridge. A bridge carrying Army-Navy Boulevard over the Boundary Channel was approved in January 1942. In 1948, the northwesterly bridge connecting Columbia Island to Lee Boulevard (now Arlington Boulevard) was rebuilt.</p><br>
<p>Another bridge linking Columbia Island and Virginia was proposed in 1958. At that time, one possible route for the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge was south of Little Island (the southern tip of Theodore Roosevelt Island which had become detached from the main island due to erosion). District of Columbia officials asked permission in January 1958 to build a small approach bridge to the Roosevelt span over Boundary Channel, but the CFA refused a month later. By June 1958, the bridge&#39;s location had shifted north to the southern end of Theodore Roosevelt Island, making a bridge over Boundary Channel moot.</p><br>
<p>In 1958, the northwestern bridge linking Columbia Island to Arlington Boulevard (the former Lee Boulevard) was widened to six lanes from four. The northern bridge carrying the George Washington Memorial Parkway over Boundary Channel was realigned in late 1962 as part of a larger road realignment allowing Arlington Boulevard to link to the new Theodore Roosevelt Bridge. A traffic light, the only one anywhere on the parkway, was installed to control traffic during the realignment process. The new bridge was finished and the light removed in September 1964.</p><br>
<p>A year later, in September 1965, a new bridge just west of the South Washington Boulevard bridge opened. The George Washington Memorial Parkway was expanding north of its old terminus at Arlington Memorial Bridge, but this necessitated moving the parkway&#39;s southbound lanes onto the Virginia shoreline and off the northern part of Columbia Island. The new bridge connected the new parkway alignment with the old.</p><br>
<p>During the latter part of the 1960s and the early part of the 1970s, the National Park Service relandscaped Columbia Island extensively. Part of the effort consisted of the construction of a 300 ft footbridge over the Boundary Channel to connect a new, 30-car parking lot in the north Pentagon parking area to Columbia Island. The cost of the footbridge and parking lot was $500,000.</p><br>
<p>In spring 1987, the National Park Service repaved the South Washington Boulevard bridge to Columbia Island, and began planning to reconstruct the bridge by 1991.</p><br>
<p>Reconstruction of the Humpback Bridge began in January 2008. The bridge, which had not been renovated since its construction, now carried 75,000 vehicles a day – far more than it was designed for. Improvements included widening the bridge, adding balustrades to separate the sidewalks from the vehicular traffic lanes, and building an underpass through the Columbia Island side landing to allow pedestrians and cyclists to pass through the bridge rather than crossing the parkway. The reconstruction also removed the notorious "hump" in the middle of the bridge. However, the masonry facing of the bridge was retained to protect the historic character of the bridge. The bridge reconstruction was complete in 2011, and the bike/pedestrian underpass opened in November. The underpass connected the Columbia Island Marina and the LBJ Memorial Grove with the Mt. Vernon Trail.</p><br>
<p>A children&#39;s garden was constructed on Columbia Island in spring 2008.</p><br>
<h3>The Navy-Merchant Marine Memorial</h3><br>
<p>Veterans of the United States Navy and the United States Merchant Marine had long argued that there was no memorial commemorating their service anywhere in Washington, D.C. Congress rectified this in the 1920s, and a memorial designed by 1922. However, fund-raising for the memorial took far longer than expected. Ground on Columbia Island for the memorial was broken by Secretary of the Navy Charles Francis Adams, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon, Marine Corps Major General Ben H. Fuller, Coast Guard Commandant Rear Admiral Frederick C. Billard, and Assistant Secretary of Commerce David Sinton Ingalls on December 2, 1930.</p><br>
<p>Work on the memorial stopped for nearly three years. The statue itself was finally emplaced in 1934. However, lack of funds meant that instead of a wavy green granite base, the statue stood atop a concrete plinth. In May 1934, the commission overseeing the memorials construction asked the Works Progress Administration for a $100,000 grant to complete the granite steps. But no funds were forthcoming. Finally, funding for the memorials completion began moving through Congress. With congressional support, the Works Progress Administration gave $39,000 to finish memorial in 1939. This included adding the wavy green granite steps, creating a concrete plaza around the memorial, installing two flagstone walks to lead to the memorial, and landscaping the area.</p><br>
<h3>Lady Bird Johnson Park</h3><br>
<p>Columbia Island was renamed Lady Bird Johnson Park by the United States Department of the Interior on November 12, 1968. The renaming honored Lady Bird Johnson, then–First Lady (November 22, 1963 – January 20, 1969), who sponsored a nationwide, urban-beautification campaign between 1964 and 1968. When the island was renamed, it also received extensive new plantings. More than one million daffodils and 2,700 dogwood trees were planted on the park between 1965 and 1968. These plants were paid for by the National Park Service, Society for a More Beautiful National Capital, and the 1965 Inaugural Committee.</p><br>
<h3>Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove</h3><br>
<p>Former President Lyndon B. Johnson died on January 22, 1973. Soon after, Johnsons admirers proposed constructing a statue in Washington, D.C., in his memory, but concern that it would be defaced led to rejection of that idea. Brooke Astor and Laurence Vanderbilt suggested a grove of trees instead, and planning for the $2 million grove began in spring 1973. Lady Bird Johnson Park was chosen as the site of the grove due to Johnsons love of the park while he was president. On December 28, 1973, Congress authorized a memorial grove dedicated to Johnson for placement on Columbia Island.</p><br>
<p>By February 1975, $1.3 million for the memorial grove had been raised. A $15 silver medal and a $350 gold medal were designed in early 1975 and sold to help raise another $150,000. Plans for the grove were largely complete by May 1975. Landscape architect Meade Palmer designed the grove, which included a contemplative meadow and a small granite plaza among some trees. The grove covered 15 acre, and would be planted with white pine, dogwood trees, and flowering shrubs and bushes. A granite plaza was intended for the center of the grove, on which a 45 ST, 19 ft high pink granite orthostat (or "standing stone") quarried in Texas was to be placed. Stone carver Harold Vogel worked the exterior of the stone to give it a dynamic, rough-hewn look reminiscent of Johnsons personality. A flagstone walkway winding through the grove was included in the design. Four quotes from Johnsons public speeches, selected by Lady Bird Johnson, were carved into flagstones placed around the orthostat. But $600,000 was still needed in May 1975 to complete the memorial.</p><br>
<p>The orthostat was delivered to the site in August 1974, and emplaced on August 13, 1975. In December 1975, Congress authorized $1 million to complete the memorial grove and establish a maintenance fund.</p><br>
<p>The memorial was dedicated on April 6, 1976.</p><br>
<h2>About the island</h2><br>
<p>The Boundary Channel of the Potomac River separates Columbia Island from the Virginia shoreline, while the main stream of the Potomac surrounds the island on the other three sides. As of 2007, the island consisted of 121 acre of landscaped parkland. Located within the park are the Lyndon B. Johnson Memorial Grove, the Navy–Merchant Marine Memorial, and the Columbia Island Marina.</p><br>
<p>Columbia Island is accessible from downtown Washington via the Arlington Memorial Bridge, from Arlington National Cemetery via Memorial Drive, and from Northern Virginia via the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The Mount Vernon Trail runs along the side of the island facing the rest of the District, leading to Theodore Roosevelt Island in one direction and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on the other. The Pentagon is visible from the western side of the island near the marina at the southern tip.</p><br>
<h2>In popular culture</h2><br>
<p>Columbia Island is a popular location which authors like to include in their fiction novels. It is mentioned in Anthony S. Policastros Dark End of the Spectrum, S.R. Larsons America Occupied, Allan Leverones Final Vector, and Mary Easons Killer Moves.</p><br>
<p>Sean Flannery has mentioned the Columbia Island Marina and the Boundary Channel in his novel Moving Targets, as did Kim Stanley Robinson in his Forty Signs of Rain. Sheri Holman has mentioned the marina and the Pentagon Lagoon in her novel The Mammoth Cheese, and the marina has played a role in Mike Lawsons The Second Perimeter, and in Phil Little and Brad Whittingtons Hell in a Briefcase.</p><br>
<p>Lake Meridian is a fresh-water lake located in the city of Kent, Washington. One among the few lakes in King County allowing motorized boating, Lake Meridian is an urban lake, surrounded by homes and located just off the Kent-Kangley Road on Kent&#39;s East Hill.</p><br>
<p>Fed primarily by springs at the west end of the lake, Lake Meridian empties at the east end of the lake into a small stream that eventually connects to the Little Soos Creek, which in turn eventually feeds into the larger Green River via a number of other streams and eventually ends up in Elliott Bay. Lake Meridian is a recreation area offering fishing, boating, canoeing and a variety of water sports. Patrolled in the summer months by the Kent Police Department boat cruisers, Lake Meridian is part of the City of Kent&#39;s Lake Meridian Park, which is visited by thousands each Summer season.</p><br>
<p>Lake Meridian features a large covered shelter, a playfield, restrooms, swimming beach, fishing, and boat launch. The park capacity is 120 people.</p><br>
<p>The Rhode Island State House is the capitol of the USA state of Rhode Island. It is located on the border of the Downtown and Smith Hill sections of the state capital city of Providence. The State House is a neoclassical building that houses the Rhode Island General Assembly and the offices of the governor of Rhode Island as well as the lieutenant governor, secretary of state, and General Treasurer of Rhode Island. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The current State House is Rhode Island&#39;s seventh state house and the second in Providence after the Old Rhode Island State House. It was designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White and constructed from 1895 to 1904. The building had a major renovation in the late 1990s.</p><br>
<p>The building served as the United States Capitol exterior in the 1997 film Amistad. It also served as the City Hall of Capital City in Disney&#39;s Underdog.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The Rhode Island State House is composed of 327,000 cuft of white Georgia marble, 15 million bricks, and 1,309 shortton of iron floor beams.</p><br>
<p>The dome of the State House is the fourth-largest self-supporting marble dome in the world, after St. Peter&#39;s Basilica, the Taj Mahal, and the Minnesota State Capitol. On top of the dome is a gold-covered bronze statue of the Independent Man, originally named "Hope". The statue, weighing more than 500 lbs, is 11 ft tall and stands 278 ft above the ground. The Independent Man represents freedom and independence and alludes to the independent spirit which led Roger Williams to settle and establish Providence and later Rhode Island.</p><br>
<p>The chamber of the Rhode Island Senate is located in the east wing of the building while the chamber of the Rhode Island House of Representatives is located in the west wing. Other notable rooms in the State House include the rotunda (beneath the dome), the State Library (north end), and the State Room (south end). The State Room is an entrance area for the office of the governor and contains a full-scale portrait of George Washington by Rhode Island native Gilbert Stuart. This room is also where the governor has press conferences and bill signings at the State House.</p><br>
<p>One of the first public buildings to use electricity, the Rhode Island State House is lit by 109 floodlights and two searchlights at night.</p><br>
<p>Inside the State House is carved marble. Over the pillared porticoes are quotations and historical chronologies of Rhode Island. Throughout the rotunda are battle flags, statues, and guns representing the state&#39;s military past. In the center of the rotunda, under the marble dome, is a brass replica of the state seal.</p><br>
<p>The building can be seen from I-95, though the Providence Place Mall has blocked much of the view from the northbound lanes.</p><br>
<p>In 2013, Governor Lincoln Chafee&#39;s administration started to remove grass from the eastern side of the Statehouse lawn in order to provide extra parking for employees. The move was opposed by the Capital Center Commission, which is a public board designated with the task of overseeing zoning requirements within the district. Supporters of the proposed parking say that there is demand from employees and visitors to the building. Opponents point to existing zoning requirements that make the surface lot illegal, point to the expense of providing parking, and advocate an increased presence for transit, biking, walking, and carpooling instead. The state spent $3.1 million on an adjoining piece of land on Francis Street next to I-95 for parking, which provides 100 parking spots at around $30,000 a space.</p><br>
<h3>Christmas at the State House</h3><br>
<p>It is an annual State House tradition to feature a Christmas tree and community and cultural holiday displays each December. A Fraser fir or Balsam fir is erected in the large central rotunda and decorated. The tree, donated by a local family or tree farm, is typically between 17 and 25 feet tall. In 2005, the tree was removed from the rotunda after a treatment of flame retardant caused the needles to fall out. In 2016, a 14-foot Fraser fir was deemed to be too small for the rotunda. A replacement 20-foot tree was placed in the rotunda, and the smaller tree moved to the south steps.</p><br>
<p>Since 2014, holiday displays from "any Rhode Island area-based religious or secular group" have been featured on the first and second floors. Participating groups have included local religious, ethnic, and secular organizations.</p><br>
<h2>Photo gallery</h2><br>
<p>Cooleemee, also known as the Cooleemee Plantation House, is a house located between Mocksville and Lexington, North Carolina, at the terminus of SR 1812  on the Yadkin River in Davie County, North Carolina. It is a USA National Historic Landmark, designated in 1978 for its architecture.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The houses floor plan in the shape of a Greek cross, with four equal wings extending from an octagonal core, is based on a published design by William H. Ranlett, The Architect (New York) 1847, Vol. I, Plate 32, published again in Godeys Ladys Book, January 1850; the Godeys Ladys Book engravings were framed and kept in the house. The house is an "Anglo-Grecian Villa", built in the shape of a Greek cross between 1853-1855 by Peter and Columbia Stuart Hairston. The builder Peter Wilson Hairston a white Superior Court judge in North Carolina, who had inherited Cooleemee from his grandfather, was a central figure in Henry Wienceks telling of the family&#39;s story.</p><br>
<p>The house is built from approximately 300,000 bricks made on site. Cooleemee Plantation was founded by Colonel Jesse A. Pearson who took part in the capture of approximately 600 tribal Creek Indians during the War of 1812. The Indians known as "Kulimi", a tribe of the Creek nation, were from the village of "Cooleeme" near the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers. The Creek word means "the place where the white oaks grow". Upon his return in 1814, he named his existing plantation "Cooleemee Hill". In 1817, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War and four-time state legislator, Peter Hairston, purchased the 2,500 acre Cooleemee Hill Plantation for $8 per acre &ndash; $20,000 total. In addition to the plantation house, in 1860 there were twenty-three slave dwellings at Cooleemee. The principal crop at Cooleemee was tobacco.</p><br>
<p>In 1997, the Hairston family, who still owned the house, donated a conservation easement to The LandTrust for Central North Carolina, which helped preserve the house and property against development. At that time, the plantation included 1,900 acre of farmland (down from 4,200 acre at its peak),</p><br>
<p>Cooleemee Plantation was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978.</p><br>
<h2>Family</h2><br>
<p>In 1999, Henry Wiencek published The Hairstons: An American Family In Black And White, which told the story of the Hairston family, which continues to own Cooleemee, and of the plantation and its history over the past 150 years. This family, with black and white branches due to slavery, have continued to hold reunions at Cooleemee that honor their family&#39;s history and roots in the region. Wiencek, in the course of his preparation for this book, witnessed what he considered to be extraordinary interactions between members of the Hairston Family. In the course of his research, Wiencek learned that the Hairstons were not only the largest slaveholding family in the South, but also slave traders.</p><br>
<p>Peter Wilson Hairston, the latest Hairston to own the property at the end of the 20th century, published a book in 1986 accounting the history of the family&#39;s slaves, which helped other research into the family and the property. Hairston died in February 2007 in the same bed in which he was born.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeology</h2><br>
<p>About 175 arrowheads that were found on the western side of the Yadkin River at Cooleemee Plantation were classified by Dr. Joffre L. Coe of the University of North Carolina, and Dr. James Bingham, former President of the North Carolina Archaeological Society. The arrowheads which were from different peoples and of different times were dated from approximately 7000 BCE to the 18th century. Several specimens exist which date from 8000 to 8500 years old with the eldest, a Hardaway Point, being dated at 9000 years old.</p><br>
<p>Komotini  is a city in the region of East Macedonia and Thrace, northeastern Greece. It is the capital of the Rhodope regional unit. It was the administrative centre of the Rhodope-Evros super-prefecture until its abolition in 2010, by the Kallikratis Plan. The city is home to the Democritus University of Thrace, founded in 1973. Komotini is home to a sizeable Turkish-speaking Muslim minority.</p><br>
<p>Built at the northern part of the plain bearing the same name, Komotini is one of the main administrative, financial and cultural centers of northeastern Greece and also a major agricultural and breeding center of the area. It is also a significant transport interchange, located 795 km NE of Athens and 281 km NE of Thessaloniki. The presence of the Democritus University makes Komotini the home of thousands of Greek and international students and this, combined with an eclectic mix of Western and Oriental elements in the city&#39;s daily life, have made it an increasingly attractive tourist destination.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The city stands at an altitude of 32-38m on the Thracian plain near the foothills of the Rhodope Mountains. There is little urban planning in the older parts of city, in contrast to more recently developed quarters. According to the 2011 census, the municipality&#39;s population amounts to 66,919, a number that does not include approximately 12,000 resident students, trainees and soldiers. There are two airports near Komotini. The nearest is in Alexandroupoli (65 km), and the other is in Kavala (80 km). It has rail and bus links to all continental Greek cities as well as Istanbul, and the good provincial road network has been supplemented by the new Egnatia Odos motorway.</p><br>
<h3>Climate</h3><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Antiquity</h3><br>
<p>Komotini has existed as a settlement since the 2nd century AD. That is confirmed by archaeological finds of that era up until the 4th century. It is also confirmed by an inscription on the ruins of the 4th-century Byzantine wall, that are visible at various sites in the city, which reads "Theodosiou Ktisma"=Building of Theodosius. The inscription was discovered by the Komotini-born Prof. Stilponas Kyriakidis and the then mayor Sofoklis Komninos. It is said that the settlement originates from the 5th century and is linked to the daughter of the painter Parrasios from Maroneia. During the Roman age it was one of several fortresses along the Via Egnatia highway which existed in the Thrace area. Probably it is to be identified with the Roman station Breierophara (a Thracian toponym from bre (=fortress) + iero (=holy) + phara=para (=pass). The most important city of that period was neighbouring Maximianopolis, former Thracian Porsulis or Paesoulae, which was renamed to Mosynopolis in the 9th century. Komotini was a Via Egnatia hub on its northern route through the Nymphaea Pass which led to the Ardas Valley, Philippopolis (modern Plovdiv) and Byzantine Berroe (modern Stara Zagora).</p><br>
<h3>Eastern Roman/Byzantine Era</h3><br>
<p>The city&#39;s history is closely connected with that of Via Egnatia, the Roman trunk road which connected Dyrrhachium with Constantinople. The Roman emperor Theodosius I built a small rectilinear fortress on the road at a junction with a route leading north across the Rhodope Mountains toward Philippopolis. During the Byzantine period, the city belonged to the Theme of Macedonia, whilst from the 11th century it could be found within the newly founded theme of Boleron. For most of its early existence the settlement was overshadowed by the larger town of Mosynopolis to the west, and by the end of the 12th century, the place had been completely abandoned.</p><br>
<p>The current settlement dates to 1207, when, following the destruction of Mosynopolis by the Bulgarian tsar Kaloyan, the remnant population fled and established themselves within the walls of the abandoned fortress. Since then the population had been increasing continuously until it became an important town within the area. In 1331 John Kantakouzenos referred to her as Koumoutzina in his account of the Byzantine civil war of 1321–1328. In 1332 Andronikos III Palaiologos set camp in Komotini to face Umur Bey of Smyrna at the Panagia village close to the Panagia Vathirryakos (Fatirgiaka) monastery. However, Umur departed without a battle. In 1341 the historian Nikephoros Phokas referred to the town with its current name. In 1343, during the civil war between John VI Kantakouzenos and John V Palaiologos, Komotini along with the neighbouring forts of Asomatos, Paradimi, Kranovouni and Stylario joined Kantakouzenos&#39; side. John VI Kantakouzenos escaped to Komotini to survive from a battle with the army of the Bulgarian brigand Momchil near the already ruined Mosynopolis.</p><br>
<h3>Ottoman Era</h3><br>
<p>The city was captured by the Ottoman Empire between 1361 and 1362/3, apparently by Gazi Evrenos Bey. Its conquest is placed after the fall of Philippopolis and Stara Zagora, but before the Ottoman capture of Pegae. Already before that, it was called in Turkish as Gümülcine, a version of the demotic Greek form of the citys name, Koumoutsinas. This remained the citys name throughout the Ottoman period (ca. 1361–1912) and continues as its modern Turkish-language name today.</p><br>
<p>The city continued to be an important hub connecting the capital city of Constantinople with the European part of the Empire, and grew accordingly. Many monuments in the city today date to this era. Many local families fled at that time to Epirus and founded the Koumoutzades village (modern Ammotopos, Arta). Even there they were persecuted and some of them found refuge in Tropaia of Gortynia. The bond between the inhabitants of Komotini, Ammotopos and Tropaia exists to this day.</p><br>
<p>In the first two decades after its conquest, until 1383, the city was the seat of a frontier march (uç) under Evrenos, confronting the Serbian territories of Macedonia. The walled city continued to be inhabited by Greek Christians, but Evrenos brought in Turkish settlers to the countryside around the town. From the prevailingly Turkish toponymy of the area, it appears that the region was largely deserted, and subsequent Ottoman censuses show that Muslim Turks quickly became the dominant element in the rural districts around the city. Evrenos also built a masjid (small mosque), an imaret, bath, and shops outside the city walls, establishing a waqf that according to Machiel Kiel became the "nucleus of Islamic life in Western Thrace". The 16th-century geographer Mehmed-i Ashik also mentions a hostel (imaret) built by Evrenos.</p><br>
<p>In the 1519 census, the city numbered 393 Muslim households and 197 single (unmarried or widowed) Muslims, 42 Christian households and 14 single Christians, and 19 Jewish households and 5 single Jews, in total ca. 2,500 people. In the 1530 census, the 17 Turkish-named neighbourhoods (mahalle) are mentioned, as well as the existence of one Friday mosque, 16 masjids, 4 zawiyas, 4 schools, and a single church (in the walled city). Nevertheless, the French traveller Pierre Bellon du Mans, who visited the city in 1548, stated that "the city is inhabited by Greeks and a few Turks". In the 1600s, the town was graced by new buildings—a small Friday mosque, a double bath, a mekteb, a madrasah, and an imaret—by the defterdar Ekmekcizade Ahmed Pasha, who sponsored numerous such works throughout Thrace. Ahmeds mosque, the Yeni Mosque, which survives to this day, is the only structure in Greece to feature Iznik tiles from the 1580s, the zenith of the Iznik potters art. When the traveller Evliya Çelebi visited the town in 1167/8, he found "4,000 prosperous, stone-built houses"—likely an exaggeration—in 16 mahalles, with 5 main mosques, 11 masjids, 2 imarets, 2 baths, 5 madrasahs, 7 mektebs, 17 caravanserais, and 400 shops.</p><br>
<p>The town suffered greatly from repeated plague epidemics, which led to entire villages being abandoned, but recovered in the 19th century. During the Greek War of Independence Komotini&#39;s inhabitants contributed substantially with Ioannikios (later bishop), Aggelis Kirzalis and Captain Stavros Kobenos (members of the Filiki Eteria organisation). During the following decades Komotini progressed financially due to the processing and trade of tobacco. Greeks took advantage of the religious liberty granted by the Ottomans and completely controlled the economic activity of the city.</p><br>
<p>The 19th century saw the city expand and considerable architectural activity, with the renovation of old and the construction of new buildings. Both the Yeni Mosque and Evrenos&#39; original masjid, the Eski Mosque, were enlarged by the addition of spacious prayer halls, while Sultan Abdulhamid II erected a clock tower and a madrasah. During his reign, the town became a station in the railway linking Constantinople with Salonica. By the 1880s, the city, capital of the homonymous sanjak in the Edirne Vilayet, boasted 13,560 inhabitants, 10 Friday mosques, 15 masjids, 2 Greek and one Armenian church, a synagogue, 4 madrasahs, two higher schools, ten mektebs, and various other Christian and Jewish schools.</p><br>
<p>After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, a new wave of Muslim refugees arrived in Komotini. During that period the area found itself under Bulgarian pressure which originated in the rise of Bulgarian nationalism. In 1880 a Girls School and a Boys Urban School were functioning. In 1885 the cultural association Omonoia was founded and it contributed in the cultural life of the city by presenting theatrical plays and concerts. Great benefactors such as Nestor Tsanaklis (builder of the Tsanakleios School, Dimitrios Sintos et al.) rose during that era. Remarkable people that were born in Komotini include Alexandros Symeonidis (Professor of Medicine at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) and Victoria Margaritopoulou (one of the first Greek female doctors).</p><br>
<h3>Balkan Wars</h3><br>
<p>During the First Balkan War, Bulgarian forces captured the city, only to surrender it to the Greek army during the Second Balkan War on July 14, 1913.</p><br>
<p>In the aftermath of the Second Balkan War, it became briefly the capital of the short-lived Provisional Government of Western Thrace, but the Treaty of Bucharest, however, handed the city back to Bulgaria. The city was part of Bulgaria until the end of World War I. During this period, the city had the Bulgarian name Гюмюрджина Gyumyurdžina. In 1919, in the Treaty of Neuilly, Komotini was handed to Greece, along with the rest of Western Thrace.</p><br>
<h2>Demographics</h2><br>
<p>The population is quite multilingual for a city of its size and it is made up of local Greeks, Greek refugees from Asia Minor and East Thrace, Muslims of Turkish, Pomak and Romani origins, descendants of refugees who survived the Armenian Genocide, and Pontic Greeks from north-eastern Anatolia and the regions of the former Soviet Union (mainly Georgia, Armenia, Russia and Kazakhstan).</p><br>
<p>The Muslim population of East Macedonia and Thrace dates to the Ottoman period, and unlike the Muslims of Macedonia and Epirus, was exempted from the 1922-23 Greek-Turkish population exchange following the Treaty of Lausanne.</p><br>
<h2>Modern Komotini</h2><br>
<p>Komotini is, nowadays, a thriving commercial and administrative centre. It is heavily centralised with the majority of commerce and services based around the historical core of the city. Getting around on foot is therefore very practical. However, traffic can be remarkably heavy due to the daily commute. In the past, a river used to divide Komotini into two parts. In the 1970s, after repeated flooding episodes it was eventually diverted and replaced by the main avenues of the city.</p><br>
<h3>Heart of the City</h3><br>
<p>At the heart of the city lie the evergreen Municipal Central Park and the 15 m-high WW2 Heroes Memorial, locally known as The Sword&#39;. The revamped Central square or Plateia Irinis (Square of Peace) is the focus of a vibrant nightlife boosted by the huge number of students living in the city. The Old commercial centre is very popular with tourists as it houses traditional shops and workshops that have long vanished from other Greek cities. In addition, in the northwestern outskirts of the city (Nea Mosinoupoli) locals and tourists alike flock into a modern shopping plaza: Kosmopolis Park, which houses department stores, shops, supermarkets, a cinema complex, cafés and restaurants. The area stretching from Kosmopolis to Ifaistos is gradually becoming a retail destination in its own right.</p><br>
<h3>Culture and Entertainment</h3><br>
<p>Komotini began life as a Byzantine Fortress built by the Emperor Theodosius in the 4th century AD. The ruins of this quadrangular structure can still be found NW of the central square. Komotini has several museums including the Archaeological, Byzantine and Folklore museums. SW of the central square one can find the Open-air Municipal Theatre, which hosts many cultural shows and events such as the cultural summer (πολιτιστικό καλοκαίρι=politistiko kalokairi). There is a Regional Theatre (DIPETHE) whose company produces many plays all year round. 6 km NE of Komotini is the Nymfaia forest. It has recreational facilities which comprise trails, courts, playgrounds and space for environmental studies. The forest is divided by a paved road which leads to the ruins of yet another Byzantine fortress and the historical (WWII) fort of Nymfaia.</p><br>
<h3>Jewish Community</h3><br>
<p>Writings in the area of ancient Maroneia confirm the presence of Jews in the area. In the 16th century the Jewish community of Komotini consisted of Sephardite Jews who were textile and wool merchants. Many of the Jews had come to Komotini as immigrants from Edirne and Thessaloniki. The community was concentrated within the ancient walls of the city where the Synagogue was built in the 18th century. It was destroyed during WWII. In 1900 there were 1,200 Jews. In 1910 the Alliance Israelite Universelle School started functioning. Greek, French and Hebrew were taught in the school. In 1912–13 many Jews moved to larger cities such as Thessaloniki and Istanbul. After the liberation of Komotini (May 1920) the Israelite community of Komotini had a Cultural Club and Charity organisations. During the Bulgarian occupation, the Bulgarians (Nazi allies) arrested 863 Jews and sent them to the concentration camp of Treblinka where they were exterminated (28 survived the Holocaust). In 1958 the Israelite community was dissolved due to lack of members. In 2004 the municipality of Komotini created a memorial (southern entrance of Central Park) for the victims of the Holocaust.</p><br>
<h2>Municipality</h2><br>
<p>The municipality Komotini was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 3 former municipalities, that became municipal units:</p><br>
<p>Aigeiros</p><br>
<p>Komotini</p><br>
<p>Neo Sidirochori</p><br>
<p>The municipality has an area of 644.934 km, the municipal unit 385.386 km.</p><br>
<h3>Quarters</h3><br>
<p>Central: Historic Commercial Centre, Plaka, Armenio</p><br>
<p>West: Nea Mosinoupoli, Remvi</p><br>
<p>South-West: Kavakliotika, Stathmos, Ergatika Stathmou, Ergatika DEI</p><br>
<p>South: Zimvrakaki</p><br>
<p>South-East: Agios Stylianos</p><br>
<p>East: Neoktista</p><br>
<p>North: Agia Varvara/Stratones</p><br>
<h3>Suburbs</h3><br>
<p>Komotini Industrial Zone (SE, 9 km from City centre), with dozens of factories and an environmentally friendly natural gas-fuelled power plant.</p><br>
<p>Panepistimioupoli/Democritus University Campus (NW,3 km from City Centre) home of D.U.TH.</p><br>
<p>Ifaistos (NW,adjacent to Nea Mosinoupoli), home of a large Roma community</p><br>
<p>Roditis (SE,5 km from City Centre), residential area with upmarket properties</p><br>
<p>Karidia (NE,4 km from City Centre), residential area with upmarket properties</p><br>
<p>Kosmio (S,3 km from City Centre), residential area</p><br>
<p>Thrilorio (SE,8 km from City Centre), residential area</p><br>
<p>Ampelokipoi (SE,2 km from City Centre), residential area</p><br>
<p>Kikidio (SE,2 km from City Centre), mixed residential-business area</p><br>
<p>Ifantes (W, 2 km from City Centre), mixed residential-business area</p><br>
<h2>Province</h2><br>
<p>The province of Komotini (Επαρχία Κομοτηνής) was one of the provinces of the Rhodope Prefecture. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipalities Komotini and Iasmos, and the municipal units Maroneia and Organi. It was abolished in 2006.</p><br>
<h2>Education</h2><br>
<p>There are more than adequate primary and secondary education facilities in the city. There are around 20 primary schools, 7 gymnasia (junior high schools) and 4 lykeia (high schools) as well as the Institute for Vocational Training (). In addition there is 2 technical education institutes (TEE).</p><br>
<p>Komotini is an established university city in the North of Greece. It is home to the Central Administration and several departments of the Democritus University of Thrace including the following:</p><br>
<p>Law School</p><br>
<p>Physical Education and Sport Sciences</p><br>
<p>History and Ethnology</p><br>
<p>Greek Literature</p><br>
<p>Social Administration</p><br>
<p>International Financial Relations and Development</p><br>
<p>Business Management (commencing in 2009)</p><br>
<p>Politics (commencing in 2009)</p><br>
<p>Languages, Literature and Civilization of Black Sea countries</p><br>
<p>The Komotini campus has a dynamic population of approximately 5–10.000 students and a major part of social life evolves around it. The founding of the University of Thrace in 1973 has had a significant positive influence on the entire urban area fuelling the city&#39;s expansion and growth.</p><br>
<p>The Police Academy is located 7 km from Komotini on the road to Xanthi on extensive grounds and with modern facilities.</p><br>
<h2>Media</h2><br>
<h3>Television</h3><br>
<p>The main television station based in Komotini is R Channel although other stations broadcast from the city, namely Delta from neighbouring Alexandroupoli and ET3 (the northern branch of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation) from Thessaloniki.</p><br>
<h3>Radio</h3><br>
<p>There are dozens of stations one can tune into. Some are broadcast from neighbouring towns and others are from Athens. The main Radio Stations broadcasting from Komotini are:</p><br>
<p>ERA Komotinis (part of the national ERA network, greatest coverage area in N. Greece)</p><br>
<p>Diavlos Rodopis</p><br>
<p>Hit FM</p><br>
<p>Radio Hronos</p><br>
<p>Joy FM</p><br>
<p>Radio Paratiritis</p><br>
<p>Radio Komotini</p><br>
<p>Isik FM</p><br>
<p>Radio City</p><br>
<h3>Press</h3><br>
<p>There has been increasing activity in this sector for the last 50 years. There are now 7 daily and 2 weekly active newspapers in the city.</p><br>
<p>O Chronos (The Time): Oldest, most popular, politics and news based content</p><br>
<p>Paratiritis tis Thrakis (Observer of Thrace): Multilingual (recognised with distinction by the President of The Hellenic Republic for its innovation) politics and culture.</p><br>
<p>To Elefthero Vima (Free Standpoint): Politics and culture.</p><br>
<p>Thrakiki Agora (Thracian Market): Weekly Politics and Financial news.</p><br>
<p>I Paremvasi (Intervention): Politics.</p><br>
<p>I Foni tis Rodopis (Voice of Rodopi): Politics.</p><br>
<p>Antifonitis (The Opposition): Reactionary Politics, satirical commentary.</p><br>
<p>Thrakiki Gi (Thracian Land): Politics and Agricultural News.</p><br>
<p>I Patrida (The Homeland): One of the oldest,Politics.</p><br>
<p>All of the above are paper based. However, there is an increasing volume of news and content that is on the newspapers websites. The latter can be accessed from the news section of Komotinis commercial portal.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>Komotini is a midland city and has no port. It is served by two airports. The nearest is in Alexandroupoli (65 km), and the other is in Kavala (80 km).</p><br>
<h3>Highway network</h3><br>
<p>European route E90 runs through the city and connects Komotini with the other Greek Continental cities. The Egnatia Motorway (A2) lies south of the city. One can enter the city from one of two Junctions; Komotini West and Komotini East.</p><br>
<h3>Public transit</h3><br>
<p>There are a number of municipal buses serving 3 main lines within the city. The Intercity Bus Company of Komotini connects it to many local villages, the coastal areas and major Greek cities.</p><br>
<h3>Railway</h3><br>
<p>Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE) trains run regularly at least twice daily westwards to Thessaloniki and Athens and eastwards to Evros and occasionally Istanbul.</p><br>
<h2>Sports</h2><br>
<p>There is an impressive array of sports facilities available. They include the Komotini Municipal Stadium (Home of Panthrakikos FC), Panthrakiko Stadium (training grounds), Municipal Sports Complex (NE of the city), Municipal Swimming pool and Basketball Arena, Democritus University Sports Complex including an Arena and an Aquatic Centre as well as basketball courts in almost every school in the city. The mountainous area in the north of the city is ideal for mountain-biking and trekking as well as 4x4 racing both of which take place throughout the year.</p><br>
<p>Panthrakikos F.C. – Football team, promoted to the Greek Superleague for the first time in 2008. 10th in the 2012-2013 Superleague.</p><br>
<p>G.A.S. Komotini – Basketball, Football and Swimming teams</p><br>
<p>A.E.Komotini – Basketball, Volleyball and Football teams</p><br>
<p>Olympiada – Track and Field</p><br>
<h2>Historical population</h2><br>
<h2>Notable people</h2><br>
<p>Sadik Achmet (Komotini 1947 - Komotini 1995), Muslim Greek politician</p><br>
<p>Archbishop Chrysanthus of Athens (Gratini 1881 - Athens 1949)</p><br>
<p>Frangoulis Frangos (b. Komotini 1951), general, chief of the Hellenic Army General Staff, former Minister for National Defence</p><br>
<p>Apostolos Grozos (Komotini 1892 - Bucharest 1981), politician, leader of the Communist Party of Greece</p><br>
<p>Hamza Hamzaoglou (b. Komotini 1970), Turkish footballer</p><br>
<p>(Komotini 1923 - Komotini 2010), Muslim Greek journalist and politician</p><br>
<p>(Komotini 1919 - Bulgaria 1994), Bulgarian partisan and diplomat</p><br>
<p>Nikolaos Kaltsas (b. near Iasmos in Rhodope), archaeologist, director of the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, member of the German Archaeological Institute</p><br>
<p>(Komotini 1887 - Thessaloniki 1964), professor of history and folklore culture</p><br>
<p>(d. 1838), cleric, fighter of the Greek War of Independence</p><br>
<p>Mehmet Muezzinoglou (b. Arriana, Rhodope), Turkish physician and government minister</p><br>
<p>Nasuh Pasha (d. 1614), Grand Vizier of the Ottoman empire</p><br>
<p>George Petalotis (b. Komotini 1964), Greek politician</p><br>
<p>Paul Soulikias (b. Komotini 1926), Greek-Canadian painter</p><br>
<p>Evripidis Stylianidis (b. Maroneia 1966), Greek politician, Minister of the Interior in 2012-13</p><br>
<p>Tzavit Tsaglar (b. Komotini 1944), Turkish businessman and politician</p><br>
<p>Zeugma  is an ancient city of Commagene; located in modern Gaziantep Province, Turkey. It was named for the bridge of boats, or zeugma, that crossed the Euphrates river at that location.</p><br>
<h2>Historical background</h2><br>
<p>Originally, the ancient city of Zeugma was founded as a Greek settlement by Seleucus I Nicator, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, in 300 BC. The city was called "Zeugma", because of the bridge across the Euphrates River that was made of pontoons, thus connecting the two banks of the river. In Greek, "zeugma" means "bridge-passage" or "bridge of boats". The population of the city at its peak was approximately 80,000.</p><br>
<p>In 64 BC the city was conquered and ruled by the Roman Empire. During Roman rule, the city became one of the attractions in the region, due to its commercial potential originating from its geo-strategic location because the city was on the Silk Road connecting Antioch to China via a bridge of pontoons across the river Euphrates, which defined the border with the Persian Empire until the late 2nd century.</p><br>
<p>In 256 AD, Zeugma experienced an invasion and was destroyed by the Sassanid king, Shapur I. The damage from the invasion was so drastic that Zeugma was not able to recover for a long time. To make the situation even worse, a violent earthquake buried the city beneath rubble. Indeed, during the rest of its time under Roman rule, the city never regained the prosperity it had once achieved.</p><br>
<p>Zeugma and environs remained part of the Roman empire. During the 5th and 6th centuries the city was ruled by the Early Byzantium or Eastern Roman Empire. As a result of the ongoing Arab raids the city was abandoned once again. Later on, in the 10th and 12th centuries, a small Abbasid group settled in Zeugma.</p><br>
<p>Finally a village called Belkis was founded at the site in the 17th century.</p><br>
<h3>Legio IV Scythica era</h3><br>
<p>During the era of Imperial Rome, the Legio IV Scythica was camped in Zeugma. For about two centuries the city was home to many soldiers, high-ranking officials and officers of the Roman Empire, who transferred their cultural understanding and sophisticated lifestyle into the region. As a result, a Roman artistic character is seen in the necropolis sculpture: samples of beautiful art appear in the stelae, rock reliefs, statues, and altars. This unique trend in sculpture and art became a well-recognized regional style. Zeugma became considerably rich, owing to the economy created by soldiers in the legion. Moreover, a thriving trade moved across a wooden bridge connecting Zeugma to the city of Apamea on the other side of the Euphrates. Current excavations have revealed a large customs facility and indications of considerable border trade.</p><br>
<p>The proof for this assumption came in the excavations carried out in “Iskele üstü”. In this site, 65,000 seal imprints in clay, known as bullae, were found in what is believed to have served as the archives for the customs of ancient Zeugma. The seal imprints used in sealing papyrus, parchment, moneybags, and customs bales reflect the volume of trade, the density of transportation, and the communication network once established in the region.</p><br>
<h2>Recent excavations and the legacy of ancient Zeugma</h2><br>
<p>In 1987 the Gaziantep Museum excavated two tomb chambers that had been broken into by antiquity smugglers in the necropolis southwest of Zeugma, revealing frescos on the walls and statues on the terraces in front of the chambers. These statues are now in the Gaziantep Museum of Archaeology. In 1992 the watchman at the site, Nusret Özdemir, reported renewed illegal activity here, and a trench dug by antiquity hunters was discovered in the centre of the city. Excavations commenced on the same spot by a team from Gaziantep Museum led by director Rifat Ergeç, uncovered a Roman villa and magnificent mosaic pavements. The 1st century AD villa consisted of galleries around an atrium with eight columns and rooms behind the galleries. The mosaic that adorned the villa&#39;s gallery depicted the marriage of Dionysus, god of wine and grapes, to Ariadne. Six of the ten figures portrayed in this mosaic were stolen on 15 June 1998.</p><br>
<p>In further excavations here, part of the central panel of the mosaic pavement belonging to the terrace of another villa turned out to have been stolen long since, probably around 1965. The two figures are missing from the knees upward. The missing mosaic fragment later was found to be in the Menil Collection at Rice University in the city of Houston. The two figures seated side by side in this mosaic are the two legendary lovers, Metiochos and Parthenope. At the request of the Turkish Ministry of Culture, the stolen fragment was returned, and now the complete mosaic may be seen in Gaziantep Museum.</p><br>
<p>When mosaic fragments were discovered during construction of the Birecik Dam wall that commenced in 1996, Gaziantep Museum had the work halted while excavations were carried out that revealed a Roman bath, gymnasium, and 36 mosaic panels which were added to the museum collection. In 1997, on the clay quarry area in front of the dam wall a large Bronze Age cemetery was discovered and excavated. Nearly eight thousand pottery vessels were found in 320 graves going back to the early Bronze Age. The museum staff worked unceasingly through the winter 1998–1999, uncovering such important and beautiful finds as the Akratos and Gypsy Girl Mosaic and 65,000 bullae in an archive room at İskeleüstü, making Gaziantep Museum possessor of the largest collection of bullae in the world.</p><br>
<p>In 1999, in a building within the lower quarter of the city, mosaics depicting the head of Dionysus and Oceanus and Tethys with sea creatures were discovered. From 1996 onward, with the threat of being submerged under the waters of the new dam, salvage excavations were carried out by C. Abadie Reynal of Nantes University in France, together with archaeologists from Gaziantep and Şanlıurfa museums. In 1999 a mosaic pavement depicting the mythological Minos bull was discovered at Mezarliküstü, and at the end of the excavation season, further mosaics were visible at the thresholds of other rooms. Not wishing to leave the mosaics at the mercy of the treasure hunters who are so active in the area, the acting director of Gaziantep Museum, Fatma Bulgan, decided to continue excavations through the winter months. Despite difficult weather conditions they went on to uncover a fountain with its own tank at a depth of three metres, a marble figure of Apollo, as well as, another mosaic pavement with nine figures depicting Achilles being taken by Odysseus to fight in the Trojan War.</p><br>
<p>Also during salvage excavations under Mehmet Önal, an archaeologist from Gaziantep Museum, two more Roman villas were uncovered. These villas, which stood side by side, were burned and razed by the Sassanids in 252. The fact that they lay under three metres of rubble had protected them from treasure hunters. Their frescos, mosaics, and other artifacts were almost completely intact. A bronze statue of Mars, which aroused increased media interest in Zeugma, was found amongst storage jars in the larder of one of the villas. Altogether seventeen mosaic pavements have been revealed in the villas, whose walls were decorated with colourful frescoes.</p><br>
<p>Excavations of Zeugma have been divided into three areas, initial priority being given to salvage and documentation in Zone A, which sank under the dam waters in early July. Work then moved on to Zone B, which was scheduled for submersion in October 2000 when the dam water reached its maximum level of 385 metres. Zone C, on the other hand, consists of the higher parts of the city that will not be affected by the new dam.</p><br>
<p>A Zeugma excavation project conducted by Oxford Archaeology and supported by the Packhard Humanities Institute of Los Altos, California and the Ministry of Culture of Turkey, has recently unearthed three more ancient Greek mosaics in Zeugma. Oxford Archaeology also issued a 2013 report on the project.</p><br>
<p>The Mabel McDowell Adult Education Center  was built in 1960 in Columbus, Indiana.</p><br>
<p>The building, designed by architect John Carl Warnecke, was converted to an adult education center in 1982.</p><br>
<p>In 2001, the building was designated by the National Park Service as a National Historic Landmark because of its architecture. In its application to the National Park Service for protected status, the building is described as "significant as an early example of modern architecture in Columbus, and as an important example of the contextual work of John Carl Warnecke, a leading architect of the twentieth century." Warnecke also designed the John F. Kennedy grave at Arlington National Cemetery and the Hawaii State Capitol building.</p><br>
<p>Warnecke&#39;s design for McDowell attempted to combine functionality with open space reminiscent of an Indiana farm landscape. In his concept for McDowell, Warnecke said a "dominant characteristic of southern Indiana is the flat terrain, a horizontal theme accentuated by tall Victorian houses, barns, and silos, with picturesque groves of trees. The school design is based on the creation of similar grouping of masses and spaces in a scheme which focuses the school group into its own controlled environment, yet extends it outward to the community."</p><br>
<p>The Mercer Museum is a museum located in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States. The Bucks County Historical Society operates the Mercer Museum, as well as the Research Library, and Fonthill Castle, former home of the museum&#39;s founder, archeologist Henry Chapman Mercer. The museum was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and was later included in a National Historic Landmark District along with the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works and Fonthill. These three structures are the only poured-in-place concrete structures built by Mercer.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Henry Mercer was a gentleman anthropologist. On a cruise up the Ruhr in early adulthood, Mercer was impressed by the eclipse of artisanal culture by industrial production, and resolved himself to preserving artifacts of preindustrial life. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Mercer collected pre-industrial hand tools and other implements of the past. He believed that the story of human progress and accomplishments was told by the tools and objects that people used and saw these time-honored crafts slowly disappearing from memory.</p><br>
<p>Mercer personally designed plans for a museum to house his collection, six stories tall and cast of poured-in-place concrete. Mercers museum was completed in 1916. In addition to tools, it displays furnishings of early America, carriages, stove plates, a gallows, antique fire engines, a whaleboat, and the Lenape Stone. The Spruance Library, which houses the Bucks County Historical Societys archive of historical research materials, is located on its third floor.</p><br>
<p>In June 2011, construction was completed on a new, extensive visitors center at the front of the museum.</p><br>
<h2>Why concrete?</h2><br>
<p>The museum is one of three poured-in-place concrete structures built by Mercer. The others include his home Fonthill and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, both of which are located one mile from the museum.</p><br>
<p>Mercer decided to build with concrete after the Great Boston Fire of 1872 destroyed his aunts prized collection of medieval armor, which had been stored in wooden structures. He did not want his own collections to suffer the same fate. Locals mocked his choice of building materials, but on completion of the museum, he lit a bonfire on its roof to prove that it was fireproof. Mercers museum was an early demonstration of rebar-reinforced concrete as a structural material.</p><br>
<p>Boreas Pass, elevation 11,481 ft, is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States. The pass is located on the continental divide, at the crest of the Front Range along the border between Park  and Summit counties.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The pass crosses the range where it divides the headwaters of the Blue River (a tributary of the Colorado River) to the north with South Park and the headwaters of the South Platte River to the south. It is traversed by Forest Service Road 33, a gravel road that is closed in winter but passable by two-wheel drive automobiles in good weather. In winter, the road is used by cross-country skiers. The road over the pass goes north from the town of Como in the northern South Park northeast of Fairplay, crossing the path northward to Breckenridge. In good weather, it furnishes an alternative route to nearby Hoosier Pass, offering splendid views of aspen trees and nearby Mount Silverheels and the Tenmile Range. The round trip up to the top from Breckenridge is popular with bicyclists.</p><br>
<p>The pass was formerly known as Breckenridge Pass in the 1860s, when it served as an early route for thousands of prospectors during the Colorado Gold Rush who crossed from South Park to look for gold in the valley of the Blue around Breckenridge. In 1866, it was widened to a wagon road that accommodated stagecoaches. In 1882, under the direction of Sidney Dillon of the Union Pacific Railroad, the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad (by then controlled by the Union Pacific) begun laying narrow gauge tracks up the pass, which Dillon renamed in honor of Boreas, the Ancient Greek god of the North Wind. The line was a spur to Breckenridge (eventually extended to Leadville) off the companys main line from Denver through South Park. A roundhouse, still in existence, was constructed at Como at the junction of the lines. The rail line over the pass was a major engineering feat, primarily because of the winter snows at high altitude. When completed, it had dozens of snow sheds along its route, which approached a 4% grade in many places. A town of Boreas, now a ghost town, was constructed at the summit, primarily to house workers to clear the line in winter. The line was abandoned in 1937 by the Colorado & Southern, along with most of the companys narrow gauge right-of-way. After World War II, the Army Corps of Engineers reconstructed the route for automobile traffic. On the north side of the pass, Forest Service Road 593 leads to the 1880s ghost town site of Dyersville, as well as many abandoned mining sites.</p><br>
<p>The Boreas Pass Ditch was completed in 1910 to divert water over the pass from the headwaters of Indiana Creek, a tributary of the Blue River into North Tarryall Creek, a tributary of the South Platte River. The 0.8 mile (1.3 km) ditch has a capacity of 16 cubic feet per second (0.45m/s), and in an average year, it transports about 140 acre-feet (170,000m) of water. The ditch was originally built to irrigate land in South Park, but it currently serves the city of Englewood, which rehabilitated the ditch In 1990.</p><br>
<p>Bere Island, although officially called An tOileán Mór meaning "the big island") is an island off the Beara Peninsula in County Cork Ireland. It is roughly 10 km x 3 km in dimension, with an area of 17.68 km², and, as of 2012, has a population of between 210 and 220 people.</p><br>
<p>Legend says that the island was named by a 2nd-century king of Munster, Mogh Nuadat, in honour of his wife, Beara, the daughter of Heber Mór, King of Castile.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The island is located between Berehaven Harbour and Bantry Bay in the western part of County Cork, about 1.5 km off the port of Castletownbere. It belongs to the civil parish of Killaconenagh (Cill Eacha Naoineach) within the Barony of Bear (Béarra). It is served by two ferries, which can carry light vehicles. The highest point on the island is Knockanallig, at a height of 270 metres. The main harbour is Lawrence Cove, near the main village of Rerrin (Raerainn), toward the eastern end of the island. The church and its graveyard are located in Ballinakilla.</p><br>
<h3>Subdivisions</h3><br>
<p>Ten of then 75 townlands of the civil parish of Killaconenagh are located on the island:</p><br>
<p>Ardra West</p><br>
<p>Ardra East</p><br>
<p>Ballinakilla - with St Michael&#39;s Roman Catholic church and graveyard. Located nearby is a pub.</p><br>
<p>Cloonaghlin West</p><br>
<p>Cloonaghlin Upper</p><br>
<p>Cloonaghlin Lower</p><br>
<p>Derrycreeveen</p><br>
<p>Greenane</p><br>
<p>Ardagh</p><br>
<p>Rerrin</p><br>
<h2>Demographics</h2><br>
<p>As of 2012, the population was approximately 200, but the past population was significantly higher. At the time of the 1841 census the population was 2,122. However, by the 1851 census the population had decreased to 1,454 due to the Great Famine. The population decline continued in line with the national trend for emigration throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Unlike many of the other islands off the Irish coast, the inhabitants of Bere Island are native speakers of English. Irish was reported as being spoken by certain islanders in the 1911 census.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Early traces of human occupation include megalithic tombs and standing stones. The island was the property of the O&#39;Sullivan Bere clan and remained so until the power of the Gaelic chieftains was finally broken in 1602. This period also saw the first military interest in the island when Sir George Carew ordered a road to be built across the island to transport the pro-English forces to the Siege of Dunboy.</p><br>
<p>In December 1796, a French fleet entered Bantry Bay and Berehaven Harbour, led by General Hoche under the direction of Wolfe Tone, the leader of the United Irishmen. The French longboat which landed in Bere Island is now in the National Museum of Ireland. Adverse winds prevented the main force landing and eventually caused the fleet to disperse and return home. In August 1798, there was a further invasion attempt, at Killala in County Mayo, following the Irish Rebellion of that year. The result of these events was that the British authorities reviewed their defensive plans and in 1803, with the country once again at war with France, Lieutenant-Colonel William Twiss was sent to Ireland to draw up a plan of defence for the country. As part of this review he was directed to examine what security could be given to Bantry Bay.</p><br>
<p>Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Calder, who commanded the naval squadron based in Castletownbere Port wrote to the Rt. Hon. William Wickham on 22 December 1803 to request protection for his victualers and store ships, which were to be based at the Berehaven anchorage to supply his squadron. Wickham agreed that protection for the ships was necessary and instructed William Cathcart, 1st Earl Cathcart to order his engineers to carry out works to build Martello Towers on the island. The Bere Island towers were reported as ready on 2 February 1805 and were therefore probably among the earliest Martello Towers to be completed in Ireland. The four, all circular in shape and built of rubble masonry, were sited to defend the anchorage between the mainland and the small harbour of Lawrence Cove on Bere Island. In addition to the Martello Towers, a signal tower, a barracks for 2 officers and 150 men, a quay and storehouses were also constructed. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars there followed a period of military stagnation. This ended in 1898 when the British military raised a compulsory purchase order on large areas of the island in order to construct additional fortifications in order to protect the British Fleet at anchor in Berehaven Harbour.</p><br>
<p>During the Anglo-Irish War some Irish republicans were interned on Bere Island, including Canon William Kennedy, head (from 1919-1932) of St Flannan&#39;s College, Ennis. In 1922, under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty that followed the Irish War of Independence, the British withdrew from most of Ireland but three deep water Treaty Ports, at Berehaven, Queenstown (renamed Cobh), and Lough Swilly, were retained as sovereign bases until 1938.</p><br>
<p>Work started on providing mains electricity to the island via submarine cable in July 1957 and was completed in April 1958</p><br>
<h3>Archaeology</h3><br>
<p>Battery, Ardaragh West, Cloonaghlin West</p><br>
<p>Circular Enclosure, Greenane</p><br>
<p>Hut Site, Ardaragh West</p><br>
<p>Martello tower, Ardaragh West, Cloonaghlin West (also Telegraph Station)</p><br>
<p>Promontory fort</p><br>
<p>Ringfort, Cloonaghlin West, Greenane</p><br>
<p>Signal Tower, Derrycreeveen</p><br>
<p>Standing Stone, Greenane</p><br>
<p>Collapsed Wedge Tomb, Ardaragh West</p><br>
<p>Austin State Hospital , formerly known as the Texas State Lunatic Asylum, is a 299-bed psychiatric hospital located in Austin, Texas. It is the oldest psychiatric facility in the state of Texas, and the first hospital of its kind built west of the Mississippi River.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The hospital was established by the Legislature in 1856, and began operating in 1861 with twelve patients. The name was changed in 1925. It&#39;s currently operated by the Texas Department of State Health Services.</p><br>
<p>The Hospital is the subject of a history by Sarah C. Sitton, Life at the Texas State Lunatic Asylum 1857 - 1997, published by the Texas A&M University Press in 1999 as Number 82 in the Centennial Series.</p><br>
<p>Austin State Hospital&#39;s Volunteer Services Council (VSC) is a 501(c)(3) corporation. The VSC conducts fundraiser and donation programs and helps build community awareness about mental illness and the role of Austin State Hospital in the treatment of mental illness.</p><br>
<p>Pagan is a volcanic island in the Mariana Islands archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, belonging to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Formerly inhabited, the inhabitants were evacuated due to volcanic eruptions in 1981.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Pagan is located about 320 km north of Saipan, the main island of the Northern Mariana Islands. With an area of 47.23 km&sup2, it is the fourth largest island of the Northern Marianas.</p><br>
<p>The island is a double island consisting of two stratovolcanoes joined by a narrow strip of land with a width of only 600 m. The southern volcano 18.075&deg;N latitude, 145.725&deg;E longitude, is 548 m high with a caldera approximately 4 km in diameter, consisting of four craters joined together. Although several fumaroles were active in 1992, the southern volcano last erupted in 1864. The northern volcano, also known as Mount Pagan, 18.13&deg;N latitude, 145.8&deg;E longitude, has a height of 570 m. The volcano is in the center of a caldera with a diameter of approximately 6 km, and eruptions have been documented in the 1820s, 1872-1873, 1925 and 1981-85 - see further below.</p><br>
<p>Pagan has two large lakes. Laguna Sanhalom (also Inner Lake) had an area of 17 hectare and depth of 23 m in the 1970s. Laguna Sanhiyon (also Laguna Lake) on the west coast of the northern island had an area of 16 hectare and depth of 20 m. Both lakes contain brackish water.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Archaeological finds indicate that Pagan was settled from several centuries BC. The first European contact was in 1669, when the island was sighted by the Spanish missionary Diego Luis de San Vitores who named it San Ignacio (Saint Ignatius in Spanish). It is likely that it was previously visited in 1522 by the Spanish sailor Gonzalo de Vigo, deserter from the Magellan expedition in 1521, and the first European castaway in the history of the Pacific. The native Chamorro population was forcibly deported to Saipan in 1695, and then three years later to Guam. The Chamorros began to return to Pagan in the early 19th century, but found that the island had been colonized by freed Kanakas from the Caroline islands. In the 1870s, first coconut plantations were established.</p><br>
<p>After the sale of the Northern Mariana islands by Spain to the German Empire in 1899, the island was administered as part of the colony of German New Guinea and leased to a private company, the Pagan Society, which traded mainly copra. The company was a partnership between a German and a Japanese. The island was devastated by typhoons in July and September 1905, September 1907 and in December 1913 which destroyed the coconut plantations and bankrupted the Pagan Society. In 1914, during World War I, the island was captured by the Empire of Japan, which was awarded control by the League of Nations as part of the South Pacific Mandate. The island was settled by ethnic Japanese and Okinawans, who restored the coconut plantations and raised cotton and sweet potatoes for export. In addition, the Japanese developed commercial fishing for bonito and tuna. An airfield was constructed in 1935, and the Imperial Japanese Navy established a garrison in 1937. In 1942 the Japanese civilian population was 413 persons, with another 229 Chamorro residents. In June 1944 a garrison force of 2,150 men of the Imperial Japanese Army arrived, only to be cut off and isolated by the ongoing Allied offensive. Receiving supplies only occasionally by submarine, the garrison soon faced starvation, and several hundred died of malnutrition before the surrender of Japan.</p><br>
<p>After World War II and under United States occupation, Pagan became part of the UN Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands until being granted USA Commonwealth status. After the war the United States Navy maintained a small establishment on Pagan and during the 1950s built public institutions, including a church, a copra warehouse, an infirmary and a school house. However the civilian population was under 100 people by the end of the 1970s, many of whom were seasonally present from Saipan.</p><br>
<p>On May 15, 1981, Mount Pagan erupted, with lava flows covering a large part of the islands arable land and part of the airfield runway; the islands inhabitants were evacuated to Saipan. The eruption continued until 1985, with further small outbreaks in 1987, 1988, 1992, 1993, 1996, 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2012. Repeated petitions by the islanders to return have been rejected by US authorities due to the continuing threat posed by the volcano. Efforts are underway by the Northern Islands Mayor&#39;s Office and concerned citizens to assist the approximately 300 displaced residents of the Northern Islands who wish to return and resettle in Anatahan, Alamagan, Pagan and Agrigan.</p><br>
<p>Pagan Island was included during Operation Christmas Drop 2006. United States Air Force C-130 aircrew observed cattle and a small cluster of buildings, including a grass airstrip, located on the island.</p><br>
<p>Plans by a Japanese investor group to use Pagan as a dumping ground for debris and rubble from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan were provisionally shelved after protests in June 2012.</p><br>
<p>Politically, Pagan remains part of the Northern Islands Municipality.</p><br>
<h2>Military live-fire training range plans</h2><br>
<p>In 2013 the US Naval Command filed a proposal to obtain the island for a new group of live-fire and maneuver Ranges and Training Areas (RTAs).</p><br>
<p>The proposal spawned an online community called Our Islands are Sacred, a petition on Change.org, and rallies against it held by the Sierra Club, Save Pagan Island, Roots Action and Care2Make a Difference.</p><br>
<p>On April 3, 2015 (HST) the Department of Defense (DoD) released a long-awaited draft of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). According to Michael G. Hadfield, a professor of biology at the University of Hawaii-Manoa who led an insect survey team to Pagan in 2010, “Speaking as a biologist, it’s got some really unique things about it.... It’s not a wasteland, which I think some people envision because it’s got an active volcano. There’s a lot there that’s worth preserving — a couple of endangered bird species and snail species — which I specialize in and is about to hit the USA endangered species list.”</p><br>
<p>Jerome Aldan (died in February 2017), the mayor for CNMI’s Northern Islands, which includes Pagan, told a New Zealand radio program that the USA military’s description of the island as “uninhabited” was false. According to an article by James Cave for the Huffington Post, an article which used Hadfield as its source:</p><br>
<p>"More than 50 families in Saipan consider Pagan their home island and have plans and desires to return to homesteads," he says. The island is occupied by about a dozen people, who he says live in shacks without plumbing, electricity or access to markets.</p><br>
<p>According to an April 17, 2015, article by Wyatt Olson for Stars and Stripes military news network, "the is considering a joint resolution calling on the governor to oppose the military expansion on the 10-mile-long island.... In wording that hints at the hornet’s nest the USA may have stirred with the proposal, the joint resolution asserts that “throughout the CNMI’s history, foreign powers and outside influences have made major decisions and have dictated the course of development” for the region and that the USA “once again stands poised to make some very important decisions with respect to the military utilization of the Northern Islands.” "</p><br>
<p>On May 15, 2015, a map of the proposed site was.</p><br>
<p>Princeton Tower Club is one of the eleven eating clubs at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, and one of six clubs to choose its members through a selective process called bicker. Tower is located at 13 Prospect Avenue between the university-run Campus Club and the Cannon Club; it currently has a membership of approximately two hundred and fifteen.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In the spring of 1902, based on the idea of four sophomores, John Lee 04, Henry Pogue 04, Otto Wolff 04, Conway Shearer 04, and Frank "Pop" Little &#39;03 led the formation of a new upperclass eating club. In April, a stake of four hundred dollars was placed to ensure the secure formation of the club the following year.</p><br>
<p>In September of the same year, the Princeton Tower Club was formed in the old Monastery Club on University Place, across the University from its current location. It was composed of thirteen members of the senior class and thirteen juniors. During that year, the club hoped to move to a much coveted plot on Prospect Avenue, but settled for the Gulick House on Olden Street. Gulick was also known as the "Incubator" because it had served as a first home for a number of the infant eating clubs. After one term in the Incubator, Tower purchased a plot of land from the Cottage Club and, in September 1904, moved to a new home at 89 Prospect Avenue. Seven years later, Tower moved to its current location at 13 Prospect Avenue.</p><br>
<p>Under the leadership of Tower, an Inter-Club Council was formed to address issues involving all of the Princeton eating clubs. Tower also led the formation of the Princeton Prospect Foundation, which enables educational opportunities on "The Street." In 1971, Tower became one of the first clubs to accept women.</p><br>
<h2>Membership</h2><br>
<p>Only currently enrolled Princeton students can be members of Tower Club; the majority of the membership is composed of juniors and seniors, with new sophomore members admitted each spring during "bicker." Spring bicker is held during the first two to three days of the second semester. Student bickerees are informed of their membership status on the Friday of the first week of second semester classes, then initiated the same weekend.</p><br>
<p>There is also a smaller bicker process held each October and open exclusively to students in their junior and senior years. The details of bicker, discussions and initiations are kept secret to preserve club tradition. Traditionally known to attract both artistic and politically engaged students on campus, Tower was the most bickered eating club between 2007 and 2010 with an acceptance rate of under 50%.</p><br>
<p>The Apuseni Mountains  is a mountain range in Transylvania, Romania, which belongs to the Western Romanian Carpathians, also called Occidentali in Romanian. Their name translates from Romanian as Mountains "of the sunset" i.e. "western". The highest peak is Cucurbăta Mare  at 1849 metres, also called Bihor Peak. The Apuseni Mountains have about 400 caves.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Apuseni Mountains do not present an uninterrupted chain of mountains, but possess many low and easy passes towards the Crișana and the Great Hungarian Plain. Going from south to north the principal groups are: the Munții Metaliferi ("Ore Mountains") with the basaltic masses of the Detunata (1,148 m) near Abrud; the Bihor Mountains, with romantic scenery and numerous caverns, with the highest peak the Curcubăta Mare (1,843 m); to the east of this group are the Muntele Mare (highest peak 1,820 m), to the southwest of Cluj-Napoca; the northernmost chain is the Seș and Meseș Mountains.</p><br>
<h3>Boundaries</h3><br>
<p>to the north: the Barcău River</p><br>
<p>to the south: the Mureş River</p><br>
<p>to the east: the Transylvanian Plateau</p><br>
<p>to the west: the Crişana plains</p><br>
<h3>Subdivisions</h3><br>
<p>Criş Mountains (Munţii Crişului, Körös-menti hegyvidék) :</p><br>
<p>Criş Hills (Dealurile Crişene, Körös-menti dombság), incl. Beiuş Depression (Depresiunea Beiuş, Belényesi-medence), Vad Depression (Depresiunea Vad, Révi-medence)</p><br>
<p>Pădurea Craiului Mountains (literally:Forest of the King, Királyerdő-hegység)</p><br>
<p>Codru-Moma Mountains (Munţii Codru-Moma, Béli-hegység)</p><br>
<p>Seş-Meseş Mountains (Munţii Seş-Meseşului):</p><br>
<p>Meseş Mountains (Munţii Meseşului, Meszes-hegység)</p><br>
<p>Seş Mountains (Muntele Seş, Réz-hegység, also Plopiş)</p><br>
<p>Şimleu Depression (Depresiunea Şimleu Silvanei, Szilágysomlyói-medence), often considered part of the Transylvanian Basin-Podişul Someşan</p><br>
<p>Şimleu Mountains (Munţii Şimleu, Szilágysági-dombvidék), often considered part of the Transylvanian Basin-Podişul Someşan</p><br>
<p>Bihor Massif (Masivul Bihor, Bihari-havasok):</p><br>
<p>Bihor Mountains (Munţii Bihorului, Bihar-hegység)</p><br>
<p>Vlădeasa Mountains (Munţii Vlădeasa, Vlegyásza-hegység)</p><br>
<p>Muntele Mare Mountains (literally: Big Mountain), (Munţii Muntele Mare, Öreghavas)</p><br>
<p>Gilău Mountains (Munţii Gilăului, Gyalui-havasok)</p><br>
<p>Mureş Mountains (Munţii Mureşului, Marosmenti-hegyvidék):</p><br>
<p>Zarand Mountains (Munţii Zarandului, Zarándi-hegység)</p><br>
<p>Metalliferous Mountains (Munţii Metaliferi, Erdélyi-érchegység)</p><br>
<p>Trascău Mountains (Munţii Trascăului, Torockói-hegység)</p><br>
<p>Witton Lakes are a pair of former drinking water reservoirs between the Perry Common and Erdington areas of Birmingham, England .</p><br>
<p>Two brooks, arising at Kingstanding and Bleak Hill, Erdington, respectively, feed first Witton Lakes, then overspill into Brookvale Park Lake, before reaching the River Tame.</p><br>
<p>The brooks are natural; the lakes were created at the end of the 19th century to supply drinking water for Birmingham. They were then in the countryside, and the water relatively clean. Industrialisation and urban sprawl led to the water no longer being fit for drinking, so the city turned to the Elan Valley in Wales for a supply.</p><br>
<p>The lakes are now maintained as a leisure amenity by Birmingham City Council. One is used for model boating and the other nature conservation. The north Birmingham cycle route runs through the surrounding park.</p><br>
<p>Brookvale Park Lake is a former drinking water reservoir in the Erdington area of Birmingham, England.</p><br>
<p>Two brooks, arising at Kingstanding and Bleak Hill, Erdington, respectively, feed first Witton Lakes, then overspill into Brookvale Park Lake, before reaching the River Tame, and ultimately the North Sea, via the Trent and Humber.</p><br>
<p>The brooks are natural; the lakes were created at the end of the 19th century to supply drinking water for Birmingham. They were then in the countryside, and the water relatively clean. Industrialisation and urban sprawl led to the water no longer being fit for drinking, so the City turned to the Elan Valley in Wales for a supply.</p><br>
<p>From 7 October 1909 until 1926, Brookvale Park Lake was used as an open air swimming pool operated by the Birmingham Baths Committee. The lakes and surrounding parkland are now maintained as a leisure amenity by Birmingham City Council.</p><br>
<p>The first ring-necked duck in the West Midlands county was found here in 2001.</p><br>
<p>Netherton Reservoir - otherwise known as Lodge Farm Reservoir - is a canal feeder reservoir in the Netherton district of Dudley, England. It opened in 1838, and is now used for watersports, as well as supplying water to the canal system.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In the vicinity of the reservoir, the Dudley Canal Line No 2 followed a circuitous route, but in the 1830s Thomas Brewin was responsible for building a more direct route. The total length of the new cut, which opened in 1838, was about 400 yd, which included a 75 yd tunnel, known as Brewin&#39;s Tunnel. The new route enabled a reservoir to be built over the old course of the canal, together with a steam-powered pumping engine. The tunnel did not last long, as it was opened out in 1858, necessitating the construction of a bridge to carry the lane which had previously crossed over the top of the tunnel. The bridge is now called High Bridge, and the lane is called Highbridge Road.</p><br>
<p>The reservoir, which was built between 1835 and 1838, acted as a storage reservoir, so that when water was plentiful, as a result of rain, it could be pumped from the canal into the reservoir, and then released back into the canal through sluices near the tunnel when it was required. The engine was installed in 1840, and drove a scoop wheel. A cottage was provided for the sluice keeper.</p><br>
<p>With the nationalisation of the canals in 1948, ownership of the reservoir passed from the Birmingham Canal Navigations, with whom the Dudley Canal had amalgamated in 1846, to British Waterways. They sold it to Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council in 1966, who wanted to improve the leisure facilities within their area, and have since developed it for watersports, although it still supplies water to the canal.</p><br>
<h2>Facilities</h2><br>
<p>The reservoir now hosts watersports including Scuba Diving, yachting and water skiing. The Dudley Water Ski and Yacht Club began as an informal society in 1963, and negotiated with Dudley Council to allow them to use the reservoir for their activities. Changing rooms and a clubhouse were built, and the use of the reservoir was shared with two diving clubs, although they remained independent of the original club. Subsequently, the club became the Dudley Water Sports Centre, and registered with Companies House as a private limited company in 1997.</p><br>
<p>The Dudley Dolphin BSAC diving club began as a group of like-minded divers in 1959. Negotiations with the Water Ski and Yacht Club were not initially successful, as the activities appeared to conflict, but a suitable compromise was worked out in 1964, and the club was formed by constitution. Diving was suspended in 1967, as swimmers were perceived as a hazard to boats, but more negotiations led to a trial reinstatement of the activity in October 1968, and it became permanent in December 1969. The club did not affiliate to the British Sub-Aqua Club, as they were carrying out research into fish in the reservoir, while the BSAC supported spearfishing. However, the situation had changed by 1976, and they are now part of that organisation, with all of the trainers holding BSAC qualifications.</p><br>
<p>The other diving club is the Dudley Nautilus Sub-Aqua Club, which was formed in 1973. They are based at the leisure centre at Halesowen, but use the reservoir for diving weekly. They keep a rigid-hulled inflatable boat at Netherton, from which diving can take place.</p><br>
<h2>Bibliography</h2><br>
<p>The Cathedral of the Assumption is a cathedral and mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. Joseph Kurtz, D.D., the fourth Archbishop of Louisville, is in residence at the Cathedral. Michael T. Wimsatt, S.T.D. serves as Administrator.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>St. Louis Church</h3><br>
<p>In 1811, a small group of Catholics in Louisville formed Saint Louis Church at 10th and Main Streets. Previously, Father Stephen Theodore Badin, the first priest ordained in the United States, called the "circuit rider priest," had served the Louisville area, along with much of the American frontier.</p><br>
<p>In September 1821, Father Philip Hosten became the first residential pastor of Saint Louis Church. Fr. Hosten died one year later during an outbreak of yellow fever in the city. By 1830, a larger Saint Louis Church was built five blocks south of the Ohio River on Fifth Street. The Cathedral of the Assumption stands on that site to this day.</p><br>
<h3>From Bardstown to Louisville</h3><br>
<p>The Diocese of Bardstown, the first inland diocese in the United States, was established in 1808, with Benedict Joseph Flaget as the first Bishop of Bardstown. The diocese included most of Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.</p><br>
<p>In 1841, the diocese was moved from Bardstown to Louisville, and Saint Louis Church became Saint Louis Cathedral. Bishop Flaget, now the Bishop of Louisville, decided in 1849 that a new cathedral should be built. However, Bishop Flaget died on February 11, 1850, a few months after the laying of the cornerstone for the new church building. His remains rest today in a chapel in the Cathedral Undercroft.</p><br>
<p>The project begun by Bishop Flaget was completed by Bishop Martin John Spalding, the second Bishop of Louisville. On October 3, 1852, the new Cathedral was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of the Cathedral of the Assumption. The new Cathedral was almost an identical but larger replica of its predecessor, St. Louis Church. The new Cathedral was built around St. Louis Church, and once completed, St. Louis was disassembled and carried piece by piece out the front doors.</p><br>
<p>The Diocese of Louisville was elevated in 1937 to become the Archdiocese of Louisville and the metropolitan province for all the dioceses in Kentucky and Tennessee.</p><br>
<h3>Bloody Monday</h3><br>
<p>The newly built Cathedral of the Assumption was nearly destroyed soon after its building due to anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant bigotry in the city of Louisville. On Monday, August 6, 1856 George D. Prentice, editor of the Louisville Journal, placed an article of his own opinion in the paper that speculated the possibility of takeover by immigrants: German and Irish. This also included accusations of vote tampering. Fearing for their safety, the "Know Nothing Party" of Nativists bombarded and ambushed local immigrant workers with ammunition, in total killing 22 German and Irish immigrants across the city. Also, the Cathedral and newly built St. Martin of Tours Church (1853) were believed to house weaponry in their basements. They were threatened to be burned, but the mayor of the city at the time, John Barbee, himself a "Know-Nothing," inspected the churches and cleared them of such accusations.</p><br>
<h3>Renovation and revitalization</h3><br>
<p>With the 1982 arrival of the Most Reverend Thomas C. Kelly, the third Archbishop of Louisville, the Cathedral of the Assumption began anew as an archdiocesan center, under the pastoral direction of the Archbishop and the William L. Fichteman, the current Rector of the Cathedral.</p><br>
<p>In 1985, the establishment of the Center for Interfaith Relations (formerly the Cathedral Heritage Foundation) began a push for renovation of existing facilities, expansion of the Cathedral complex, and revitalization of the Cathedral&#39;s mission to the broader community as a spiritual center in Louisville. Together, the Cathedral Parish and the Cathedral Heritage Foundation have brought the Cathedral into the new millennium.</p><br>
<p>Renovation began in 1988 with the removal of sections of the Cathedral spire, along with the finial and cross. The year 1989 saw a comprehensive restoration plan adopted. In June 1991, after one hundred years of disuse, the completely restored Cathedral Undercroft was reopened. Finally, in February 1993, renovation on the main Cathedral space began and continued for nearly two years. The grand reopening of the Cathedral was celebrated in 1994, with a completely renovated Cathedral space.</p><br>
<p>In May 1994, Archbishop Kelly moved into the Cathedral rectory, making him the first bishop to live in Downtown Louisville in one hundred twenty years. In June 1998, the Cathedral spire and bell tower were completely renovated.</p><br>
<p>In May 2005, the first phase of renovations began on the Cathedral School building, which now houses the Cathedral Parish office. Phase one renovations will provide more space for the parish offices while phase two will provide renovated, state-of-the-art practice space for the Cathedrals renowned choirs.</p><br>
<p>The Cathedral complex now houses the main Cathedral building, with a Eucharistic chapel to the rear, as well as the Cathedral Undercroft and St. Louis Hall, the Sandefur Dining Room for the homeless, the Patterson Education Center, the Cathedral School building (housing the parish offices), and the Rectory, providing housing for the Archbishop and other Cathedral staff.</p><br>
<h2>The Cathedral</h2><br>
<p>During the renovation of the Cathedral by the Conrad Schmitt Studios, the walls were faux finished to resemble stone blocks. The effect is convincing enough that many visitors to the Cathedral are astonished to learn that the walls are not actual stone. In addition, much of the architectural work around the Coronation Window is a faux finish.</p><br>
<p>The stained glass that formerly stood in the side windows was removed to allow the congregation to view the surrounding buildings, in order to facilitate a sense of attachment to the community. The panels are now displayed in the front windows of the Cathedral&#39;s Patterson Education Center.</p><br>
<h3>The Nave</h3><br>
<p>The Nave, the body of the church, accommodates nine hundred sixty-six people for daily Masses and other ceremonies. The Nave has no pews, utilizing individual, movable chairs, complete with kneelers. Usually arranged in straight rows facing the altar and allowing for a center aisle and two side aisles, the chairs may also be placed in rows the length of the church, facing each other across the center aisle for special services such as those of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. It may also be noted that during the renovations by Conrad-Schmitt, the entire building was cracked down the middle and deeply in danger of collapse. To resolve this, steel strand beams were mounted from wall to wall in the nave to provide a counter push and pull action, keeping the building from falling in or out.</p><br>
<h3>The Baptistry</h3><br>
<p>The Baptistry holds a prominent position in the church because through it one gains entrance into the Church. A person being baptized may choose either immersion in the pool or infusion, pouring of water from the font. The old baptismal font was relocated to the rear of the Nave, immediately inside the entrance doors, and an immersion pool, crafted of red granite, bronze, and marble from the original Communion rail, was added in the last renovation.</p><br>
<h3>The Altar</h3><br>
<p>The altar, the center of worship in the church, incorporates a base of gray marble and a red granite table like the granite of the Baptismal pool. The gray marble was taken from the original high altar, which was removed from the back of the sanctuary in the renovation following Vatican II.</p><br>
<p>The brass Lamb of God, in Latin Agnus Dei, is a symbol of Jesus, the Paschal sacrifice offered on this altar. The gray marble base of the altar has carved on the right side an open book and several keys, on the left a bishops mitre and crozier. The book represents Gods word found in the Holy Scripture, the foundation of the bishops teaching. The keys remind us of Christs words to Peter, "I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 16:19). The shape of the crozier recalls its origin as a shepherds crook, or staff, suggesting the bishops pastoral role, "Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep" (John 21:15–17).</p><br>
<h3>The Coronation Window</h3><br>
<p>The colorful Coronation Window, which illustrates the Cathedral&#39;s special dedication to the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus, under the title of the "Cathedral of the Assumption."</p><br>
<p>The window, designed and installed by the Blum Art Company of Louisville in 1883, depicts the crowning of the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven. It is one of the oldest American-made stained glass windows. This window, in the early half of the 20th century had been moved to the front of the tower, with a new Assumption window replacing it. During restoration, the windows were switched to place the Coronation window in its original place in the sanctuary. It was in this crane-operated delicate process that the building was cracked, temporarily halting all work. Conrad Schmitt Studios conserved the historic glass and restored the original appearance of the windows by painting the missing artwork on 2mm slide glass and sandwiching them to the conserved glass before re-leading.</p><br>
<p>According to Catholic doctrine, after the Virgin Mary died, Jesus assumed her body into Heaven. As the first among the faithful, she is a sign of the eternal goal toward which all the faithful advance. Centuries of Christian artists honored Mary&#39;s preeminence by depicting her being crowned as Queen of Heaven.</p><br>
<h3>The Ceiling Fresco</h3><br>
<p>The Ceiling Fresco depicts cherubs surrounding the Virgin Mary at the time of her assumption into Heaven.</p><br>
<p>According to the Historic Structure Report of 1986, a Mr. Landrop, or Gandrop, of Cincinnati painted the fresco. The fresco remained until 1964, through many different changes to the interior. At that time, it was painted over after some plaster fell and was patched. It was rediscovered when again plaster fell from the ceiling, revealing the jewel that lay beneath. The fresco has been painstakingly restored to its earlier beauty.</p><br>
<h3>The Cathedra</h3><br>
<p>The Cathedra, behind the altar, is the official Chair of the Archbishop. It is an ancient symbol of the tradition and authority of the bishop in the life of the Church. The Cathedra represents his three main offices of teaching, sanctifying and governing.</p><br>
<p>A cathedral houses the official chair of the bishop of the diocese. In Latin, the word chair is cathedra, from which the name cathedral is derived. The Cathedra, upholstered in red suede, has painted on its back the coat of arms of the Archdiocese of Louisville.</p><br>
<p>Symbols on the coat of arms, important to Louisville and the Archdiocese, include:</p><br>
<p>The fleur de lis, representing Louisville&#39;s French heritage</p><br>
<p>A crozier</p><br>
<p>A Star of David, an early symbol of the Virgin Mary</p><br>
<p>A stockade and water flowing downward, representing Fort Nelson and the Ohio River</p><br>
<p>Arrowheads representing the native peoples in this area</p><br>
<p>The presider&#39;s chair was purchased from a local antique store because of its similarity in design to the Cathedra. From here, the priest presides during the Mass.</p><br>
<h3>The Organ</h3><br>
<p>Above the entrance are the choir loft and the magnificent pipe organ built by Steiner-Reck, Inc. of Louisville in 1983. The organ features three manuals and forty-three ranks. Fanfare trumpets were added in 1994, along with both 32-foot ranks, full MIDI capability, and a Gothic casework of hand-carved mahogany. The center section of the loft railing is original, featuring small pointed arches with a reproduction of the design on the side sections.</p><br>
<h3>The Ambo</h3><br>
<p>The Ambo, or pulpit, incorporates gray marble and red granite. Here the scriptures are proclaimed, the responsorial psalm is sung, and the homilist addresses the congregation.</p><br>
<h2>Role in the community</h2><br>
<p>Like European cathedrals, the Cathedral of the Assumption has tried to respond to the needs of the community, serving as a hospice, an orphanage, and a shelter for the poor. Presentation Academy, Saint Joseph Infirmary and Saint Vincent&#39;s Orphanage each grew out of the Cathedral Undercroft. This tradition continues at the Cathedral of the Assumption, with many programs reaching out to the social and spiritual concerns of the community, including:</p><br>
<p>A Daily Lunch Program which serves approximately 125 homeless individuals.</p><br>
<p>Dress for Success: A not-for-profit organization that helps low-income women transition into the workforce. Provides resources and training on clothing, grooming, and professionalism.</p><br>
<p>The Healing Place: Provides overnight shelter for the homeless, substance abuse programs for men and women, health care, meals, a clothes closet and other services. Provides care for mothers and their children who have fled abusive homes.</p><br>
<p>Housing Initiative: volunteers for Repair Affair, Project Warm, Habitat for Humanity and similar projects.</p><br>
<p>Hunger and Poverty: involved in the AIDS Walk, Hunger Walk, the annual "Desserts Desserts" Festival and special homeless dinners, particularly at Thanksgiving and Christmas.</p><br>
<h3>The Center for Interfaith Relations</h3><br>
<p>Founded in 1985 as the Cathedral Heritage Foundation, the foundation changed its name to the Center for Interfaith Relations in 2006 after achieving its three original goals. The primary mission was to undertake the restoration of the Cathedral. Twenty years later, it continues to provide community outreach, fulfilling a portion of the mission of the Cathedral. Development of spiritual, educational, and cultural experiences is CIRs continuing mission, with the goal of inspiring and fostering individual growth. In an expression of the Cathedrals commitment to ecumenism, CIR serves to increase understanding among diverse cultures and advance ecumenical understanding.</p><br>
<h3>Music at the Cathedral</h3><br>
<p>The Cathedral choirs have made three European tours, most recently in 2004 touring England and Ireland, singing at Killarney Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral and St. Martin-in-the-Fields under the direction of Dr. Phillip Brisson, DMA (Eastman School of Music, 2005), Director of Music for the Cathedral. The choirs have recorded two compact disks, and a third disk of their most recent international tour repertoire is in the planning stage. The Cathedral choirs have also performed many times with the Louisville Orchestra.</p><br>
<p>The Cathedral Choir is a mixed choir of approximately forty-five voices and is completely composed of volunteer amateurs, with the exception of four paid section leaders. The Cathedral Choir of Trebles and Mixed Voices consists of approximately seven girls and boys ranging in ages from twelve to seventeen, three adult women and six adult men. The two choirs of the Cathedral, though rehearsing separately, sing the same literature for both Sunday morning Masses. Their repertoire includes examples of the great choral literature from early chant through the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th-century periods. They also come together for special projects, including the Masses of Holy Week and their acclaimed international tours.</p><br>
<p>The Cathedral also boasts many talented semiprofessional cantors who share their gifts with the Cathedral community for weekend and Holy Day Masses. There is also a dedicated corps of weekday cantors who offer their services for each of the five weekday noon Masses.</p><br>
<p>Additionally, the clock/bell tower is home to numerous Petit and Fritsen tuned bells from the Netherlands and is one of the few carillons in Kentucky. Smith&#39;s Bell and Clock Service from Mooresville, Indiana, is responsible for taking care of the bells and is currently renovating one of the clock face time pieces. Rappelling via a harness and pulley system was necessary to take the hands down and repair the clock movement. Other repairs and building renovation are currently in progress.</p><br>
<h3>Covenant Community</h3><br>
<p>The Cathedral of the Assumption welcomes members of Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral to visit the Cathedral, and the two Cathedrals have formed a covenant relationship. An annual Lenten Vespers is held by the covenant Cathedrals. The highlight of the covenant relationship is the joint Service of Light held on Holy Saturday. The congregations of both Cathedrals meet between the two churches and jointly bless the new fire used to light the Paschal candle. From there, each congregation processes to their respective Cathedral.</p><br>
<h3>Sister Parish</h3><br>
<p>In November 2000, the Cathedral of the Assumption and St. Louis Parish (Jeremie, Haiti) formed a sister parish relationship. The exchange of gifts, talents, and spirituality is the goal of the sister parish relationship. Awareness and communication between the Cathedral of the Assumption and St. Louis Parish is maintained by the Sister Parish Committee.</p><br>
<p>Skåtøy&#39; is the largest island in Kragerø municipality in Telemark county, Norway.</p><br>
<p>Skåtøy was formerly a municipality. Skåtøy was separated from Sannidal January 1, 1882. It was merged with Kragerø January 1, 1960.</p><br>
<p>Skåtøy is the biggest island in the skerries outside the town of Kragerø, Norway. The island is 8.8 square kilometers and is partially wooded. It has only a small year round population. Skåtøy and Kragerø are popular holiday destinations among Norwegians. Every year since 2000, Skåtøy residents have held the Skåtøy poetry festival Skåtøy Vise in mid-July. Kragerø Fjordbåtselskap runs a ferry in the Kragerø archipelago which connects with Skåtøy and Stabbestad.</p><br>
<h2>The name</h2><br>
<p>Until 1918 the name was written "Skaatø", in the period 1918-1920 "Skaatøy", from 1921 on "Skåtøy". The municipality was named after the island Skåtøy. The first element is skot n &#39;overhang&#39;, the last element is øy f &#39;island&#39;.</p><br>
<p>Sugarloaf Mountain  is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the mouth of Guanabara Bay on a peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean. Rising 396 m above the harbor, its name is said to refer to its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf sugar. It is known worldwide for its cableway and panoramic views of the city.</p><br>
<p>The mountain is one of several monolithic granite and quartz mountains that rise straight from the water&#39;s edge around Rio de Janeiro.</p><br>
<p>The mountain is protected by the Sugarloaf Mountain and Urca Hill Natural Monument, created in 2006.</p><br>
<p>This became part of a World Heritage Site declared by UNESCO in 2012.</p><br>
<h2>Origins of the name</h2><br>
<p>The name "Sugarloaf" was coined in the 16th century by the Portuguese during the heyday of sugar cane trade in Brazil. According to historian Vieira Fazenda, blocks of sugar were placed in conical molds made of clay to be transported on ships. The shape given by these molds was similar to the peak, hence the name.</p><br>
<h2>Cable car</h2><br>
<p>A glass-walled cable car (bondinho or, more formally, teleférico), capable of holding 65 people, runs along a 1,400 m route between the peaks of Sugarloaf and Morro da Urca every 20 minutes. The original cable car line was built in 1912 and rebuilt around 1972–73 and in 2008. The cable car goes from a ground station, at the base of Morro da Babilônia, to Morro da Urca and thence to Sugarloaf&#39;s summit.</p><br>
<h3>Reaching the summit</h3><br>
<p>To reach the summit, passengers take two cable cars. The first ascends to the shorter Morro da Urca, 220 m high. The second car ascends to Pão de Açúcar. The Swiss-made bubble-shaped cars offer passengers 360-degree views of the surrounding city. The ascent takes three minutes from start to finish.</p><br>
<h3>Timeline</h3><br>
<p>1907 – The Brazilian engineer Augusto Ferreira Ramos had the idea of linking the hills through a path in the air.</p><br>
<p>1910 – The same engineer founded the Society of Sugar Loaf and the same year the works were started. The project was commissioned in Germany and built by Brazilian workers. All parts were taken by climbing mountains or lift by steel cables.</p><br>
<p>1912 – Opening of the tram. First lift of Brazil. The first cable cars were made of coated wood and were used for 60 years.</p><br>
<p>1972 – The current model of cars was put into operation. This increased the carrying capacity by almost ten times.</p><br>
<p>2009 – Inauguration of the next generation of cable cars that had already been purchased and are on display at the base of Red beach.</p><br>
<h2>Rock climbing</h2><br>
<p>Visitors can watch rock climbers on Sugarloaf and the other two mountains in the area, Morro da Babilônia and Morro da Urca. Together, they form one of the largest urban climbing areas in the world, with more than 270 routes, between 1 and 10 pitches long.</p><br>
<h2>Appearances in media</h2><br>
<p>Flying Down to Rio (1933) Starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The beachside Hotel Atlântico has views across the bay looking toward Sugarloaf Mountain.</p><br>
<p>Now, Voyager (1942) starring Bette Davis.</p><br>
<p>In the 1979 James Bond film, Moonraker, the villainous henchman Jaws (played by Richard Kiel) attempts to kill 007 (Roger Moore) and the agent&#39;s ally, Dr. Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles), on a cable car. However, Bond and Goodhead escape and Jaws collides with the building at the bottom of the cable car route, demolishing the building, but escaping unscathed.</p><br>
<p>Herb Alpert recorded a song titled "Sugarloaf" for his 1982 album Fandango.</p><br>
<p>In The Simpsons episode "Blame It on Lisa", Homer&#39;s kidnappers meet with the rest of the family for the exchange between two cable cars.</p><br>
<p>In the Hey Arnold! episode "The Journal", Arnolds parents Miles and Stella are traveling on the cablecar up to the mountains peak when one of the cables snaps. The couple works together to help save the lives of fellow tourists.</p><br>
<p>In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, this mountain can be seen on the "Favela" map.</p><br>
<p>In the Nintendo Wii version of Need for Speed: Nitro, a drag race takes place near this mountain.</p><br>
<p>In the film Rio, the mountain can be seen several times throughout the film.</p><br>
<p>Mechanic: Resurrection (2016), starring Jason Statham. At the beginning of the film Arthur Bishop (Statham) is attacked at a restaurant on Morro da Urca and escapes on the roof of a cable car.</p><br>
<p>Horsetooth Reservoir  is a large reservoir in southern Larimer County, Colorado, just west of the city of Fort Collins, Colorado. The reservoir sits in the foothills above the town on the western side of the Dakota Hogback, which contains the reservoir along its eastern side. The reservoir runs north-south for approximately 6.5 miles  and is approximately one-half mile  wide. It was constructed in 1949 by the Bureau of Reclamation as part of its federal Colorado-Big Thompson Project or "C-BT". Water distribution is currently managed by Reclamation and operated by the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. Horsetooth and Carter Lake serve as the two principal reservoirs for water diverted eastward under the continental divide via the C-BT.</p><br>
<p>The reservoir is a supplementary source of municipal water for Fort Collins, Greeley and other communities in the region, as well as for irrigation in the lower South Platte River basin. The reservoir takes its name from Horsetooth Mountain, a summit in the foothills west of the southern end of the reservoir.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The construction of the reservoir inundated the community of Stout. Prior to construction, the majority of the town moved to a location that today surrounds Horsetooth&#39;s South Bay, but a few building foundations, including that of the old school house, are now under water. The reservoir has a capacity of 156,735 acre.ft, a total shoreline of 25 miles (40 km). The reservoir is located roughly at 40.55436&deg; latitude, -105.15591&deg; longitude. In recent history the reservoir has experienced relatively low water levels; however, in June 2014, it reached 98.6% of its capacity, the highest it has been in four years.</p><br>
<h2>Dams</h2><br>
<p>Horsetooth Reservoir was created by the construction of four separate large earthen dams, all completed in 1949 and all modernized with a seismic retrofit in 2000-2004. The four dams, listed from north to south, are:</p><br>
<p>Horsetooth Dam, which closes the northern end of the reservoir, with a height of 155 feet,</p><br>
<p>Soldier Canyon Dam, 226 feet high,</p><br>
<p>Dixon Canyon Dam, 240 feet high,</p><br>
<p>Spring Canyon Dam, 220 feet high.</p><br>
<p>Together the dams contain more than 10 million cubic yards of earthfill.</p><br>
<h2>Recreation & Conservation</h2><br>
<p>The reservoir is a popular recreation destination for the region. According to a recent study conducted by the Bureau of Reclamation and the recreation manager at Horsetooth, Larimer County Parks and Open Lands, approximately 570,000 visitors come to Horsetooth every year. Larimer County has provided recreation management at Horsetooth, which is surrounded by 1,900 acres of public lands, and three other C-BT reservoirs since they opened in the early 1950s.</p><br>
<p>Recreational boating is popular during summer months and swimming is allowed at the specifically designated Swim Beach maintained by LCPOL as well as in some of the coves. Kayaking and canoeing is also popular. Fishing is also highly popular from boats or from shore, but is no longer allowed from the dams due to security concerns. Since the late 1960s, the sport of bouldering has become an established climbing pastime at the reservoir, the hard Dakota sandstone providing many challenging problems for both American and foreign athletes. However cliff diving is prohibited in all areas of the reservoir due to safety concerns. Park rangers patrol the reservoir for violators to keep everyone enjoying the reservoirs safely. Road cycling around Horsetooth has also become popular as has hiking and mountain biking, particularly along the Foothills Trail that traverses the reservoirs eastern edge. The City of Fort Collins maintains several open spaces directly below the reservoir and the state-owned Lory State Park is along the reservoirs northwestern shore.</p><br>
<p>Other ridge lines surrounding the reservoir have become the site of residential development in recent decades, with structures ranging from get-away-cabins to luxury homes.</p><br>
<p>Sarehole Mill is a Grade II listed water mill  on the River Cole in Hall Green, Birmingham, England. It is now run as a museum by the Birmingham Museums Trust. It is known for its association with J. R. R. Tolkien and is one of only two working water mills in Birmingham, with the other being New Hall Mill in Walmley, Sutton Coldfield.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Built in 1542 on the site of a previous pool. It was once known as Bedells or Biddles Mill after the name of an early owner. In 1727 it was described as High Wheel Mill.</p><br>
<p>As early as 1755, the mill was leased by Matthew Boulton, one of the pioneers of the Industrial Revolution and leading figure of the Lunar Society for scientific experimentation. It is believed he converted the machinery for use in metal working. As well as milling grain it has been used for grinding bones for fertiliser, metal rolling (Matthew Boulton) and wire drawing.</p><br>
<p>The current building dates from 1771 and was in use until 1919. Thereafter it fell into a state of disrepair and dereliction. A local community campaign to save the mill was launched when demolition was mooted, and was finally successful with the mill being restored in 1969.</p><br>
<p>Sarehole Mill is open from Easter to the end of October, 12:00 till 16:00 every day except Monday unless Monday is a national holiday in which case it is open, entry £3.00, children under 16 free.</p><br>
<p>In April 2012 the mill pond was drained to repair the sluice gates, and in the winter of 2012–13 the heavily silted mill pond was dredged.</p><br>
<p>In 2012/2013 Sarehole Mill underwent a £375,000 overhaul of the roof, chimney, millpond, water wheel and machinery were restored to produce flour again. A newly constructed outdoor bread oven is used regularly to bake bread using the flour ground on site. Sarehole Mill has a team of 10 volunteer millers, 15 volunteer gardeners and eight volunteer guides.</p><br>
<p>Millers are at work every Wednesday and Sunday if there is enough water. Sarehole Mill produces wholemeal flour which is sold in the mill shop. The flour is also used by local restaurants and bakers.</p><br>
<h2>Steam engine</h2><br>
<p>In 1852 the water wheels at Sarehole Mill were supplemented by a single cylinder steam engine. Although water would have been the primary energy source powering the mill, the addition of a steam engine would have ensured uninterrupted operation of the mill. Unfortunately the original steam engine was at some point removed, the current engine is of similar size and capacity, being a single cylinder table engine of 16 hp, albeit currently in a non-functioning state and of unknown manufacturer.</p><br>
<p>The current engine was installed as part of the restoration of the mill in 1975. It was formerly used by a sweet manufacturer, Smith Kendon Ltd, at their factories in England and Messina, Italy, where it was used up until 1948. It was donated to the Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry in 1952 before being moved to Sarehole.</p><br>
<h2>J. R. R. Tolkien</h2><br>
<p>J. R. R. Tolkien lived within 300 yards of the mill at around the turn of century, between the ages four and eight, and would have seen it from his house. The locale at that time was rural Worcestershire farmland and countryside. He has also said that he used the mill as a location in The Lord of the Rings, for the Mill at Hobbiton. In an interview with Guardian journalist, John Ezard in 1966, before the mill&#39;s restoration, Tolkien said:</p><br>
<p>The grounds nearby host the annual Tolkien Weekend event that celebrates the life and works of Tolkien. The mill is part of the Shire Country Park.</p><br>
<h2>Sources</h2><br>
<p>Birmingham, page 13, Douglas Hickman, 1970, Studio Vista Ltd.</p><br>
<p>Hall Green and Hereabout, John Morris JONES, ed. Michael Byrne 1989</p><br>
<p>Here and Then – The past of Our District, John Morris JONES,</p><br>
<p>A Guide to the Buildings of Birmingham, Peter Leather,</p><br>
<p>The Amargosa Range is a mountain range in Inyo County, California and Nye County, Nevada. The 110 mi range runs along most of the eastern side of Californias Death Valley, separating it from Nevadas Amargosa Desert. The U-shaped Amargosa River flows clockwise around the perimeter of the range, ending 279 ft below sea level in the Badwater Basin.</p><br>
<p>The mountain range is named after the Amargosa River, so-named for the Spanish word for bitter because of the bitter taste of the water.</p><br>
<p>In order from north to south, the Grapevine Mountains (including the ranges highest point, 8,738 ft Grapevine Peak), the Funeral Mountains, and the Black Mountains form distinct sections. Many of Death Valley National Parks most well-known features, such as Zabriskie Point and Artists Drive are located in or are part of the Amargosa Range.</p><br>
<p>The Euphrasian Basilica  or the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of Mary is a basilica in Poreč, Croatia. The episcopal complex, including, apart the basilica itself, a sacristy, a baptistery and the bell tower of the nearby archbishop&#39;s palace, is an excellent example of early Byzantine architecture in the Mediterranean region.</p><br>
<p>The Euphrasian basilica has for the most part retained its original shape, but accidents, fires and earthquakes have altered a few details. Since it is the third church to be built on the same site, it conceals previous buildings, for example the great floor mosaic of the previous basilica from the 5th century. Because of its exceptional value, it has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1997. The Basilica is also the Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Poreč-Pula.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The earliest basilica was dedicated to Saint Maurus of Parentium and dates back to the second half of the 4th century. The floor mosaic from its oratory, originally part of a large Roman house, is still preserved in the church garden. This oratorium was already expanded in the same century into a church composed of a nave and one aisle (basilicae geminae). The fish on the floor mosaic dates from this period. Coins with the portrayal of emperor Valens (365–378), found in the same spot, confirm these dates.</p><br>
<p>The present basilica, dedicated to Mary, was built in the sixth century during the period of Bishop Euphrasius. It was built from 553 on the site of the older basilica that had become dilapidated. For the construction, parts of the former church were used and the marble blocks were imported from the coast of the Sea of Marmara. The wall mosaics were executed by Byzantian masters and the floor mosaics by local experts. The construction took about ten years. Euphrasius, holding the church in his arms, is represented on one of the mosaics on the apse, next to St. Maurus.</p><br>
<p>Following the earthquake of 1440 the southern wall of the central nave of the basilica was restored, so that in place of the windows which were destroyed, other were built in the Gothic style.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The basilica is part of a complex composed of:</p><br>
<p>A 6th-century octagonal baptistry. Built in the 5th century together with the pre-Euphrasian basilica, and underwent considerable alterations.</p><br>
<p>A 16th-century bell tower (16th century).</p><br>
<p>A colonnaded atrium. Built after the basilica, it is covered on all four sides by a portico which houses a rich collection of stone monuments.</p><br>
<p>An Episcopal residence (The Bishop&#39;s Palace), also built in the 6th century. Very little remains of the original building.</p><br>
<p>A trefoil-shaped memorial chapel, built in the 17th and 19th centuries.</p><br>
<p>The two aisles are separated from the nave by 18 elegant Greek marble colonnades with richly sculpted Byzantine and Romanesque capitals, decorated with depictions of animals. They all carry the monogram of Saint Euphrasius. The arches between the capitals are decorated with stucco work.</p><br>
<p>A novelty of the Euphrasian basilica is that rather than being enclosed by a straight wall, as all sacred buildings were up to that time, it makes use of the breadth and length of the apse of the central nave, built in the shape of a polygon from the outside, whilst the two aisles end in smaller semicircular apses, hollowed into the wall. Thus the Euphrasian basilica is the earliest example of a triple-apsed church in Western Europe. The atrium is a typical example of Byzantine architecture, as are the columns, the tiles on the altar rail and all the abundant mosaics. Most impressive is the representation of Christ with the apostles, and beneath it a frieze of 13 medallions with a picture of Christ as the Lamb in the centre, surrounded by 12 medallions depicting various martyrs.</p><br>
<p>The church houses also holy objects and other artworks from the Palaeo-Christian, Byzantine and Middle Ages periods. A votive chapel, next to the sacristy, holds the relics of Saint Maurus and Saint Eleutherius.</p><br>
<h2>Mosaics</h2><br>
<p>The most striking feature of the basilica are its mosaics, dating from the 6th century.</p><br>
<p>The mosaics in the triumphal arch over the apse represent Christ; holding an opened book with the text "Ego sum Lux vera" (I am the true light) with the Apostles, each with their attribute, The arch below contains mosaic medallions with the Lamb of God and portraits of twelve female martyrs. The vault over the apse is decorated with mosaics with Mary and Child, sitting on the Heavenly throne, under a wreath held by a hand - symbol of God the Father. This is the only surviving depiction of the Mother of God in an early-Christian western basilica. She is flanked by angels, Bishop Euphrasius, holding the model of the church; also local saints are depicted, including St. Maurus, the first bishop of Poreč and the Istrian diocese, and the archdeacon Claudius. The child between Euphrasius and Claudius is accompanied by the inscription "Euphrasius, son of the archdeacon". All figures stand on a meadow covered with flowers.</p><br>
<p>The central mosaics between the windows of the apse represent the Annunciation and the Visitation. In the Annunciation mosaic an angel raises his hand to indicate a message. In his left hand he holds the staff of a messenger. Mary wears a purplish blue dress and a veil. She holds yarn in her left hand. On the other side the mosaics depicts the visitation of Mary to Elisabeth. Both wear contemporary sacerdotal vestments with a cape full of ribbons. A small female figure is looking from behind the curtain of a house. The three small medallions depict St. John the Baptist, Zacharias and an angel. Between these two large mosaics are smaller mosaics depicting the Young Christ with halo, and two martyrs with their martyr crown. In the northern apse these are probably Cosmas and Damian, in the south apse Ursus (or another Bishop of Ravenna), and Severus.</p><br>
<p>The front wall of the apse is framed with a narrow decorated band filled with praise of Euphrasius and his works. The lower part of the apse is decorated with stone slabs encrusted with mother-of-pearl. Part of these came from an earlier wainscotting. They consist of 21 fields with 11 different decorations. In the middle stands the bishop&#39;s throne, flanked by candlesticks.</p><br>
<h2>Ciborium</h2><br>
<p>The apsis is dominated by the marble ciborium, modelled after the one in St. Marks in Venice, it was built in 1277 on the orders of Otto, Bishop of Poreč. The canopy, decorated with mosaics, is carried by four marble columns that belonged to the previous 6th-century ciborium. The front side of the canopy depicts representations of scenes from Marys life, the Annunciation. In the 15th century Bishop Johann Porečanin ordered in Italy a Renaissance relief for the antependium of the altar, made of gilded silver. The polyptych of the Venetian painter Antonio Vivarini dates from the same period. The Last Supper, painted by Palma the Younger is a Baroque work.</p><br>
<p>Griffith Lake is a small lake and campsite located in the towns of Peru and Mount Tabor, Vermont, in the Green Mountain National Forest. The site lies on the Long Trail/Appalachian Trail. The area is maintained by the Green Mountain Club and has an on-site caretaker to maintain the tent sites, outhouse, composting toilets, and trails during the peak season. During that time, there is a $5 charge for the overnight use of the tent platforms and nearby lean-to shelter. As there are no safe water sources, hikers should be prepared to use a camping-grade water purification system, or to boil their water.</p><br>
<p>Access to Griffith lake is through a combination walking/snowmobile trail. Horses, motorized vehicles, and mountain bikes are not permitted on the access trail.</p><br>
<p>Kineta  is a beach town in West Attica, Greece. It is part of the municipality of Megara.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Kineta is situated on the northern coast of the Saronic Gulf, south of the Geraneia mountains. The rocks of Kakia Skala lie to the east. The nearest towns are Agioi Theodoroi (8 km to the southwest) and Megara (12 km to the east). Corinth is 25 km to the west, and Athens is 45 km to the east. The old Greek National Road 8 and the new Motorway 8, both connecting Athens with Corinth and the Peloponnese, pass through the town. The Kineta railway station is served by Proastiakos trains between Athens International Airport and Kiato (Peloponnese).</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In 1833 it is referred as a small “Albanian village”. The name “Kineta” is said to be taken from a small lagoon or marsh on the beach, which produces such swarms of gnats in the autumn as to amount almost to a plague.</p><br>
<p>The lagoon does not exist anymore but Kineta still has (2010) more than its share of gnats. The Albanian word “kënetë” means “marsh” and seems to be the origin of town&#39;s name.</p><br>
<p>&ldquo;To the east of Crommyon, at the western extremity of the Scironian rocks, was a temple of Apollo Latous, which marked the boundaries of the Corinthia and Megaris in the time of Pausanias. This temple must have been near the modern village of Kineta, a little above which the road leads over the Scironian rocks to Megara.&rdquo</p><br>
<p>&ldquo;His (Pausanias) Corinthiacs, therefore, open at the western extremity of the Scironides, near a temple of Apollo Latous. Here began a succession of narrow valleys at the foot of the mountains Oneia, extending twelve miles along the shore of the Saronic gulf, as far as the port Schoenous, or eastern extremity of the Isthmus properly so called. All this track appears to have been called Crommyonia. The only place mentioned in it by Pausanias is Crommyon; but we know from other authors, that there was likewise a town or fortress, named Sidus, between Crommyon and the Isthmus. It sufficiently appears, from Thucydides, Strabo, and Pausanias, that Crommyon itself was not far from the Scironides, which, as we have already seen, were the boundary of the Megaris. Near Kineta, a village not far from the western termination of the rocks, which is built like Megara with flat roofs, and is situated in a valley planted with olives, there are some vestiges which indicate that Crommyon occupied nearly the same site. Sidus appears to have been at Kassidhi, midway between Kineta and port Kalamaki, the ancient Schoenus&rdquo;.</p><br>
<h2>Historical population</h2><br>
<p>Lac du Bourget , also locally known as Lac Gris  or Lac d&#39;Aix, is a lake at the southernmost end of the Jura Mountains in the department of Savoie, France. It is the deepest lake located entirely within France, and either the largest or second largest after Lac de Grand-Lieu depending on season.</p><br>
<p>The largest town on its shore is Aix-les-Bains. Chambéry, the capital of Savoie, lies about 10 km south of the lake. It is mainly fed by the river Leysse (and other small rivers), and drains towards the river Rhône through the Canal de Savières, an artificial channel. It is a Ramsar site. The extinct bezoule was found only in this lake.</p><br>
<p>The lake was formed during the last period of global glaciation in the Alps (Würm glaciation) during the Pleistocene epoch. It has a surface area of 44.5 km&sup2;. The long and narrow north-south axis of the lake extends 18 km in length, and ranges between 1.6 km and 3.5 km in width. The lake&#39;s average depth is 85 m, and its maximum depth in 145 m. The lake is meromictic, meaning that it has layers that do not mix.</p><br>
<p>The lake is bordered by the steep summits of the Mont du Chat and the Chaîne de l&#39;Épine on the west, and Bauges Mountains on the east, which form its shores.</p><br>
<p>Lac du Bourget was made famous by several romantic poems of Alphonse de Lamartine, including Le Lac, as well as by descriptions by Xavier de Maistre, Honoré de Balzac, and Alexandre Dumas.</p><br>
<p>Mount Morrison is located in the Sierra Nevada, in the Sherwin Range. It rises south of Convict Lake near the town of Mammoth Lakes.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The mountain was named for Robert Morrison, a merchant in the town of Benton, who was killed near Convict Lake on September 23, 1871 while was acting as member of a posse pursuing escaped convicts from the Nevada State Penitentiary. Nearby is Mono Jim Peak which is named for Mono Jim, a Paiute guide, who died in the same gun fight.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing</h2><br>
<p>Sources state that Norman Clyde climbed to the peak on June 22, 1928 and that John Mendendhall also reached the summit in 1928 but the month of his ascent is not documented. There are several routes to the summit, the easiest consisting of a Class 2 scramble and bushwack.</p><br>
<p>Due to its imposing east face, Mount Morrison is also nicknamed the "Eiger of the Sierra." The east face consists of extremely loose rock and one should exercise extreme caution when attempting the face.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Fulgurites, natural hollow glass tubes, are found at the top of the mountain. These oddities are formed by lightning acting on certain types of sand or soil.</p><br>
<p>Sørvágsvatn is the largest lake in the Faroe Islands. It is situated on the island of Vágar between the municipalities of Sørvágs kommuna and Vága kommuna. Its area is 3.4 km, more than three times the size of Fjallavatn, the second largest lake, also located on Vágar.</p><br>
<h2>Name</h2><br>
<p>Among the locals, there is disagreement regarding the name of the lake. The inhabitants of Sørvágur to the west prefer Sørvágsvatn, which means "the lake by Sørvágur". The inhabitants of Miðvágur and Sandavágur to the east prefer Leitisvatn, which means "the lake by Leiti", referring to the territory on east side of it.</p><br>
<p>The village of Miðvágur is situated closer to the lake than Sørvágur, but the latter was settled earlier. Sørvágur – alongside Bøur and Sandavágur – is considered one of the three original settlements on Vágar. These divided the land on the island into three equal regions of 60 marks, which would place the lake within Sørvágur&#39;s region.</p><br>
<p>The locals mostly refer to it as Vatnið ("the lake"), which is understood as a reference to that body of water. It is mostly when people from other parts of the Faroes refer to the lake by one of its given names that the debate will occur.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The lake is located very close to the ocean, but its surface is about 40 meters above the level of sea. It is surrounded by a higher cliff which prevents it from emptying fully into the ocean, the waterfall Bøsdalafossur being the outlet. The greater height of the cliffs on either side of Bøsdalafossur can give the illusion from certain perspectives that the lake is higher above sea level than it is.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>During World War II, the British army built an airfield to the west of the lake. They also built a station to support seaplanes. The first aircraft to land on the lake was a Catalina from the British Navy, in 1941.</p><br>
<h2>Places and names</h2><br>
<p>Trælanípan</p><br>
<p>Oyrar</p><br>
<p>Bøsdalafossur</p><br>
<p>Sjatlá</p><br>
<p>Sálarbótsá</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>There are opportunities for fishing brown trout on the lake. In the summer of 2005 a local initiative was set up for boat excursions on it.</p><br>
<p>The Black Canyon of the Colorado is the canyon on the Colorado River where Hoover Dam was built. The canyon is located on the Colorado River at the state line between Nevada and Arizona. The western wall of the gorge is in the El Dorado Mountains, and the eastern wall is in the Black Mountains of Arizona. The canyon formed about 15 million years ago during the Miocene Basin and Range uplift. Black Canyon gets its name from the black volcanic rocks that are found throughout the area.</p><br>
<p>Just south of the Hoover Dam on the Nevada side of the canyon is the Sauna Cave. This cave was drilled by miners working on Hoover Dam while it was being constructed. It is a deep cave with calcium carbonate crystals on the walls. At the end of the cave is a hot spring, which causes temperatures in the cave to reach 120 &deg;F.</p><br>
<p>One prominent canyon that splits from this canyon south of the Hoover Dam is Boy Scout Canyon. Boy Scout Canyon has water running through it that is warmed from a geothermal source.</p><br>
<p>On the Arizona side of the river, there are several large hot springs that can be found by taking a trail north from a larger bay about 4 to 5 mi south of the Hoover Dam.</p><br>
<p>Ka Lae , also known as South Point, is the southernmost point of the Big Island of Hawaii and of the 50 United States. The Ka Lae area is registered as a National Historic Landmark District under the name South Point Complex. The area is also known for its strong ocean currents and winds and is the home of a wind farm.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The name for the southern tip of the island of Hawaii comes from Ka Lae in the Hawaiian language which means "the point".</p><br>
<p>It is often spelled as one word, Kalae, or called South Point or South Cape.</p><br>
<p>A confluence of ocean currents just offshore makes this spot one of Hawaii&#39;s most popular fishing spots. Both red snapper and ulua are plentiful here. Locals fish from the cliffs, some dangling perilously over the edge of steep lava ledges. Swimming here, however, is not recommended, due to the current. In fact, it is called the "Halaea Current", named after a chief who was carried off to his death.</p><br>
<p>The confluence of currents also means the area is prone to accumulation of marine debris. Most of this coastline is very remote and difficult to access, and is probably the most debris-littered coast in the state, primarily due to its difficult access for debris removal. This debris poses an entanglement threat to wildlife and may refloat during storms. The shoreline is used by Hawaiian monk seals and hatchling hawksbill turtles, both endangered species. Efforts to clean the coastline are organized by the Hawaii Wildlife Fund in conjunction with the NOAA.</p><br>
<p>Ka Lae is accessible via South Point Road, a 12-mile paved narrow road leading from State Route 11 (Hawaii Belt Road), the turn off being about 7 miles (11 km) west of the village of Nāālehu and east of Ocean View, Hawaii. The strong winds cause some trees to become almost horizontal with their branches all growing in the same direction near the ground. The road forks near its end, with one branch leading south to Ka Lae and the other east to Papakolea Beach, known for its green sand.</p><br>
<p>Ka Lae is the southernmost point in the 50 United States.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>South Point archaeological site</h3><br>
<p>Ka Lae is the site of one of the earliest Hawaiian settlements, and it has one of the longest archaeological records on the islands.</p><br>
<h3>Ka Lae Light</h3><br>
<p>On March 5, 1906 a small lighthouse opened at the point. In 1908 about 10 acre were set aside for the United States Coast Guard to build a house for a keeper. At the request of William Tufts Brigham of the Bishop Museum, care was taken not to destroy the archaeological site. In 1929 a steel tower was built for the light, and in 1972 a new 32 foot (10m) concrete tower with solar power.</p><br>
<p>A NOAA Weather Radio transmitter broadcasts weather reports from KBA99 with callsign WWG27 on 162.55 MHz.</p><br>
<p>A weather station also monitors wind speed.</p><br>
<h3>Recent history</h3><br>
<p>During World War II, the US Air Force built a landing strip called Morse Field on the point. After the war the airfield was closed in 1953.</p><br>
<p>In 1961 it was on the list of final sites to be considered by NASA to launch manned rockets to space, but was considered too remote although it was later used to launch sounding rockets for testing of instruments at the Air Force&#39;s Maui Space Surveillance Center. The low latitude of the location also made it (and nearby areas that are as remote) attractive as a site for private rocket launches, but these plans were dropped in the face of high costs and local opposition.</p><br>
<p>A space tracking station was operated from 1964 to 1965, and in the 21st century the Swedish Space Corporation&#39;s Universal Space Network again established a remote ground station for space tracking and communications, now consisting of two 13-meter parabolic antennas on the east side of South Point Road. Also at Ka Lae are the large shortwave radio antennas of World Harvest Radio International, which used callsign KWHR until 2009.</p><br>
<p>In 1987 the Kamaoa Wind Farm began operation with thirty-seven Mitsubishi 250 kW wind turbines with an operationally typical total peak output of 7.5 MW. By 2006 the turbines at 18&deg;59&prime;33&Prime;N latitude, 155&deg;40&prime;5&Prime;W longitude were falling into disrepair, and they were finally shut down on August 15, 2006. At the end of August 2006, components for a new set of wind turbines were transported to South Point. The Pakini Nui project consists of 14 General Electric wind turbines constructed at 18&deg;58&prime;20&Prime;N latitude, 155&deg;41&prime;21&Prime;W longitude, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the old Kamaoa wind farm. Completed in April 2007, Pakini Nui supplies up to 20.5 MW of power to the island electricity grid of Hawaii Electric Light Company. The wind farm is operated by Tawhiri Power, LLC. It is the southernmost wind farm in the United States. The turbines of the old wind farm have been disassembled.</p><br>
<p>Ortler  is, at 3,905 m above sea level, the highest mountain in the Eastern Alps outside the Bernina Range. It is the main peak of the Ortler Range. It is the highest point of the Southern Limestone Alps, of the Italian province of South Tyrol, of Tyrol overall, and, until 1919, of the Austrian-Hungarian empire. In German the mountain is commonly referred to as "König Ortler" , like in the unofficial hymn of South Tyrol, the Bozner Bergsteigerlied.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The massive mountain is capped by a glacier on the northwest flank and has a long north ridge that ends at the village of Gomagoi and separates the valleys of Trafoi and Sulden. The South ridge leads to the Hochjoch (3527 m) on the main ridge of the Ortler Alps that forms the border of the Province of Sondrio and South Tyrol. Going west on this main ridge are the Thurwieserspitze (3652) and Trafoier Wall (3565 m), while to the Southeast are the Monte Zebrù (3740 m) and the majestic Königspitze (3859 m). From nearby mountains in the northeast the impressive lineup of Königspitze, Zebru and Ortler is known as “das Dreigestirn” (the three heavenly bodies).</p><br>
<h2>First ascent</h2><br>
<p>The Ortler was first climbed by ("Pseirer-Josele"), a chamois hunter from St. Leonhard in Passeier, and his companions Johann Leitner and Johann Klausner from Zell am Ziller on 27 September 1804. The ascent had been a request of Archduke Johann of Austria, who felt strongly that after the first ascent of the Großglockner (3,798 m) in 1800, the highest mountain in his brother&#39;s empire ought to be climbed. The archduke ordered Johannes Nepomuk Gebhard, a "mountain official" and topographer from Salzburg, to climb the mountain with locals. The first five attempts failed and Gebhard was ready to give up, when Pichler responded to the prize money offered for reaching the peak. Pichler and his friends took a difficult, and because of avalanche danger until recently disused, route over the northwest face from Trafoi. (The route was re-opened in 2004.)</p><br>
<p>Upon their return, the men were not believed on their words alone. Gebhard sent Pichler onto the mountain twice more, first in August 1805 with a flag that could be observed with a telescope from the valley, and again in September 1805 with a huge torch. Only after the torch had been seen burning at night was the accomplishment acknowledged. The route Pichler and his men (two brothers named Hell and an unnamed hunter from Langtaufers) took in 1805 was the currently still popular East ridge ("Hintergrat", literally "back-ridge") route. In 1834, at the age of 70, Pichler would make his fifth and final ascent, guiding professor to the top.</p><br>
<h2>Notable other ascents and descents</h2><br>
<p>The first time the Ortler was climbed via the easiest and currently normal route, the North ("Tabaretta") ridge, was more recently, in July 1865, as the approach is rather lengthy. In 1875 a hut was erected 3,029m high on the North ridge, to break up the climb in two steps. It was named the Payer house, after Julius von Payer, who had mapped the Ortler Alps between 1865–1868 and had climbed 50 of its peaks with as his guide.</p><br>
<p>The first ascent of the South ridge from the Hochjoch followed in 1875, two couloirs on the East face ( the Minnigerode and Schück couloir) were opened in 1878-79 and the two steep Northeast ridges (Marlet and Rothböck ridge) were conquered in 1889 and 1909, respectively. Members of the Pinggera family were involved in most of these ascents.</p><br>
<p>The 1,200 m high ice route on the Ortler north face, longest in the Eastern Alps, was first climbed in June 1931 by Hans Ertl and and the remote Southwest face in 1934. The North face was soloed first in 1963 by Dieter Drescher who had also added some first winter ascents to his name, including a traverse of Königspitze, Monte Zebrù, and Ortler in February 1975. On August 31, 1981, achieved the amazing feat of climbing the north faces of Königspitze, Zebrù and Ortler all in one day.</p><br>
<p>Extreme skiing started early in the Ortler mountains, with descending the Schück couloir in 1971 and the Minnigerode couloir in 1975. On June 24, 1983, skied down the North face.</p><br>
<h2>First World War</h2><br>
<p>The Ortler Alps were one of the main battlegrounds between Austrian and Italian troops in the First World War, being on the border of Italy and the Austrian Empire. The advantage of owning the highest point was very important. The Austrian troops had quickly occupied the highest peaks, and the Italian troops&#39; main goal, for four years, was to dislodge them from the positions. In the mid-1990s, a mountain guide discovered two guns that had been stationed very near the top of the Ortler but had been hidden by snow ever since. The discovery was kept secret until the 200th anniversary of the first ascent in 2004. The cannons are now on display in a museum in Trafoi.</p><br>
<p>Lake Claire is the largest lake which is entirely in Alberta, Canada. It is located entirely in Wood Buffalo National Park, west of Lake Athabasca. It lies between the mouths of Peace River and Athabasca River, and is part of the Peace-Athabasca Delta system.</p><br>
<p>The lake has a total area of 1,436 km&sup2, with 21 km&sup2; island area, and lies at an elevation of 213 m. It is the largest lake located entirely within Albertan boundaries. Lake Athabasca, which straddles the border with Saskatchewan, is larger.</p><br>
<p>The lake is fed by Birch River and McIvor River, and the lake system also contains Baril Lake and Mamawi Lake. The waters are discharged in the Peace River, finding their way to the Arctic Ocean through the Slave River, Great Slave Lake and Mackenzie River.</p><br>
<p>Eresos  and its twin beach village Skala Eresou are located in the southwest part of the Greek island of Lesbos. They are villages visited by considerable number of tourists. Eresos and the village Antissa constitute the municipality Eresos-Antissa.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The municipality of Eresos–Antissa contains five other villages: Messotopos, Vatoussa, Chidira, Sigri and Pterounda located in the west and most barren part of the island. Bare rocky hills, derived from ancient volcanic activity, dominate the area. Skala Eresou is a centre for international tourism and is a favorite spot of Greek families, young people as well as gay women. With its long beautiful beach with dark volcanic sand and its crystal-clear unpolluted water, Skala Eressou was awarded Blue Flag status by the Foundation for Environmental Education.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Archaic Period</h3><br>
<p>Stephanus of Byzantium, a lexicographer of the 6th century AD, claimed that the city was named after Eresos, a son of the mythical king of Lesbos, Macar. Archaeology suggests that the city of Eresos was founded in the 8th or 7th century BC. Information about Eresos before the Classical period is extremely scant. The lyric poet Sappho was born at Eresos c. 620 BCE and belonged to an important family who were socially prominent at Mytilene, the island&#39;s most important city. In addition, the oldest Greek inscription on the island, which dates to the 6th century BCE, has been found in the hills above Eresos, and is thought to have belonged to a temple. The remains of defensive towers and large enclosures thought to have had a religious purpose built in the decorative Lesbian polygonal style and located at the edges of Eresian territory suggests a certain degree of wealth and prosperity in the Archaic period.</p><br>
<h3>Classical Period</h3><br>
<p>Eresos, along with Antissa and Pyrrha, was one of the minor cities on Lesbos in the 5th century BCE. When Mytilene revolted from the Delian League in summer 428, Eresos supported Mytilene. The following year, it fell to the Athenian general Paches and, along with the other cities of the island except for Methymna, had an Athenian cleruchy imposed on it. In the latter part of the Peloponnesian War, Eresos went back and forth between Athenian and Spartan control on a number of occasions. In summer 412, Eresos revolted from Athens and joined the Spartan admiral Astyochus in making an unsuccessful attempt to seize Methymna. When Astyochus&#39; attempt to take Lesbos failed, Eresos returned to Athenian control. The following year, exiles from Methymna again raised Eresos in revolt. The Athenian commanders, Thrasyllus at Methymna and Thrasybulus on Samos, both despatched forces to retake Eresos. This siege was called off when the Athenians realised they had been out-flanked by the Spartan admiral Mindarus. Following the Athenian victory at the Battle of Arginusae in 406, Eresos may have fallen under Athenian control as the rest of the island did. Whatever the case, in 405 the Spartan commander Lysander imposed garrisons and Spartan governors on the cities of Lesbos, which remained in place for the next two decades.</p><br>
<p>Spartan control of Eresos ended in 389 when the Athenian commander Thrasybulus retook the city. In 377 Eresos is recorded as a member of the Second Athenian Empire. About 371, Theophrastus, remembered as the "father of botany", was born at Eresos; he spent hs entire career at Athens, where he succeeded Aristotle as head of the Peripatetic school. From 377 down to 332, the chronology of Eresian politics is difficult to establish with any certainty. Athens is thought to have lost control of Eresos following the Social War (357–355 BC), after which its power in the Aegean waned. It was perhaps at this point that the tyranny of Apollodorus and his brothers took power. This family and their descendants remained in power until 336, when Attalus and Parmenion campaigned in the region against the Persians at the behest of Philip II of Macedon. It is assumed that a democracy was set up at Eresos and the city enrolled in the League of Corinth. In 335, Memnon of Rhodes retook this region for the Persian Empire and re-installed the tyranny of Apollodorus and his brothers. In spring 334, Alexander the Great invaded Asia Minor, and it is assumed that the cities of Lesbos (including Eresos) went over to the Macedonian forces soon after his victory at the Battle of the Granicus in May 334; again, the tyrants will have been expelled and the Eresian democrats re-installed. In 333, the admiral Memnon of Rhodes again attacked the island of Lesbos: he seized all the cities except for Mytilene and installed a new pair of tyrants at Eresos, Eurysilaus and Agonippus. A long inscription later set up at Eresos c. 306-301 by the Eresian democrats claims (not without partisan intent) that the tyrants committed many crimes, including expelling the men from the city, holding their women hostage on the acropolis, and exacting large sums of money from the populace, as well as helping the Persians commit piracy against Greek shipping.</p><br>
<p>In 332, Alexander&#39;s admiral Hegelochus of Macedon retook Lesbos from the Persians once and for all and brought Eurysilaus and Agonippus to be tried before Alexander in Egypt, where he left their fate in the hands of the newly restored Eresian democracy. The same long inscription which records the alleged crimes of the tyrants also details their trial which ended in their execution. Biographical traditions of the philosophers Theophrastus and Phaenias of Eresos claims that they were involved in the overthrow of tyranny at Eresos. Efforts were made by the exiled relatives of Apollodorus and his brothers to return to Eresos in 324 and 319 and by the exiled relatives of Agonippus and Eurysilaus to return c. 306-301, but on all three occasions the Eresian democracy was successfully able to argue that they should not be obliged to take back their exiles.</p><br>
<h3>Hellenistic Period</h3><br>
<p>The history of Eresos after the Classical period is only known from its inscriptions, as almost no mention is made of it in the literary sources which survive. In the last two decades of the 4th century BCE Eresos had been subject to Antigonus I Monophthalmus. After Antigonus&#39; defeat at the Battle of Ipsus in 301, the region of north west Asia Minor and the adjacent islands went over to King Lysimachus until his death at the Battle of Corupedium in 281. In the following decades, the cities of Lesbos with the exception of Mytilene drifted into the Ptolemaic sphere of influence. Ptolemaic influence at Eresos in the second half of the 3rd century BCE is indicated by the creation of a religious festival in honour of the Ptolemaic royal family called the Ptolemaia at which gymnastic competitions were held.</p><br>
<p>Political infighting at the Ptolemaic court following the accession of Ptolemy V Epiphanes in 205 and the campaigns of Antiochus III in the years following led to the disintegration of Ptolemaic influence in the north Aegean. The power vacuum was filled by Rhodes, which soon after agreed a treaty of alliance with Eresos and the other cities of Lesbos. In the first half of the 2nd century BCE, Eresos also drew closer to the other cities of Lesbos under the aegis of the Lesbian koinon, a quasi-federal organisation which had existed on the island in various forms since the early 6th century BCE, but became more active in times when a common danger was perceived. This period of Eresian history also saw closer ties with Rome, at this time an emerging power in the Eastern Mediterranean. Two Romans are honoured in a list of proxenoi from Eresos dating to the last third of the 3rd century BCE, one of the earliest appearances of negotiatores in the Greek East. An inscription recording a letter sent to Eresos by a Roman magistrate and another document honouring the Romans as benefactors of the Greeks, both of which date to the 2nd century BCE, indicate that Eresos, much like the other cities on Lesbos, sought to forge closer ties with Rome. The complete destruction of neighbouring Antissa in 167 will have been a further encouragement to do so.</p><br>
<h3>Imperial Period</h3><br>
<p>It is unclear what role Eresos played in the Mithridatic Wars against Rome (88-63 BCE) and whether, like Mytilene, it subsequently suffered for its anti-Roman stance following victory over Mithridates VI of Pontus. However, by the reign of Augustus the elites of Eresos had become fiercely pro-Roman. There were cults to the Emperor Augustus, his wife Livia, and his heirs Lucius and Gaius Caesar, and the people of Eresos further honoured Gaius Caesar and Claudius Nero, later the Emperor Tiberius, by electing them honorary prytanis in certain years, the most important magistracy at Eresos. Prominent Eresian aristocrats won Roman citizenship for their descendants by participating in the Imperial cult, dedicating altars and temples to the Imperial family, and arranging festivals in their honour. A fragmentary inscription indicates that Eresos successfully petitioned Augustus in 12 BCE on an unknown matter, while in c. 7-4 BCE Publius Quinctilius Varus, the Roman senator and friend of Augustus later defeated at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 CE, may have visited Eresos on his way to Syria and conferred Roman citizenship on one of the city&#39;s prominent families. In addition, numerous funerary epitaphs and other monuments indicate the existence of a permanently resident Roman population form the 1st century BCE onwards.</p><br>
<h2>Demographics</h2><br>
<h2>Sport</h2><br>
<p>The only sport club based in Eresos is a football team whose name is AO Papanikolís (Greek: Αθλητικός Όμιλος Παπανικολής), founded in 1979 and currently playing in one of local football championships of Greece, lowest leagues of Greek football. Its name was taken in honor of the captain Dimitrios Papanikolis and its main colors are red and blue.</p><br>
<h2>In literature</h2><br>
<p>Eresos is the setting of Lawrence Durrell&#39;s Sappho: a Play in Verse (1950), set in the Archaic period; Durrell invents an episode in which an earthquake causes a large part of the city to be submerged beneath the sea.</p><br>
<p>Eresos makes a brief appearance in the novel Sure of You, the sixth volume in the series Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin. In the chapter entitled "The Third Whale", Skala Eressou is described as a seaside town with concrete buildings and a beach of coarse grey sand. Some places in the town are described. These include the shop on the square where Mona found the key rings inscribed with the name "Sappho", the hotel called "Sappho the Eressian" where Mona stays in a spare, clean room with a single bed and a lone lamp, the big grey bluff at the end of the beach where more nude bathers were gathered, and the famous tents put up by the women who were part of Sappho&#39;s tribe.</p><br>
<p>Chirk Aqueduct is a 70 ft high and 710 ft long navigable aqueduct that carries what is now the Llangollen Canal across the Ceiriog Valley near Chirk, on the England-Wales border, spanning the two countries.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The aqueduct was designed by Thomas Telford for the Ellesmere Canal. The foundation stone was laid on 17 June 1796 and it was completed in 1801. It forms part of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct World Heritage Site.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The aqueduct consists of ten arches, each with a span of 40 ft. The water level is 65 ft above the ground and 70 ft above the River Ceiriog. The stone work is yellow sandstone. William Hazledine provided the ironwork for the aqueduct. Originally built with iron plates only at the base of the trough, iron side plates were added to the aqueduct in 1870 to alleviate leakage.</p><br>
<p>The Chirk Tunnel starts at the north end of the Chirk Aqueduct, allowing the canal to continue on towards Llangollen. which was specifically included in the design in order to emphasise the superiority of rail transportation over water modes.</p><br>
<p>Belanglo State Forest is a planted forest, of mainly pine but some native forestry around the edges in the Australian state of New South Wales; its total area is about 3,800 hectares. The Belanglo State Forest is located south of Berrima in the Southern Highlands, three kilometres west of the Hume Highway between Sydney and Canberra. The forest is owned by the New South Wales Government and contains some of the earliest pine plantings in the state. The public has free access to the forest; it features two to four wheel drive tracks, creek crossings, and forest camping. It is popular among recreational trail bike riders.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The first radiata pines were planted in this area in Belanglo State Forest in 1919.</p><br>
<h3>Murders</h3><br>
<p>In 1992 and 1993, seven skeletons were found in the forest, in what was described by media as The Backpacker Murders and was considered to be the work of a serial killer. Eventually, Ivan Milat was convicted of the murders in 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment.</p><br>
<p>On 29 August 2010, trail bike riders discovered a human skeleton in the forest. Media reports at first linked the killing to Milat, but later forensic work disproved this theory as the remains were left there after he was in prison. On 21 October 2015, the bones were identified as the body of Karlie Jade Pearce-Stevenson, aged 22, from Alice Springs, Northern Territory. The body of Karlie&#39;s daughter Khandalyce Kiara Pearce, aged 2, was found in a suitcase near Wynarka, South Australia, on 14 July 2015.</p><br>
<p>On 22 November 2010, three teenagers (including one related to Ivan Milat) were arrested on suspicion of connection with the discovery of a murdered male in the forest, following a tip-off. David Auchterlonie was celebrating his 17th birthday on 20 November; Mathew Milat, 17, and Cohen Klein, 18, had planned for over a week to lure Auchterlonie to his death. A third person, Chase Day, 18, whose charges were later withdrawn by the DPP went to police midday 21 November to report the murder.</p><br>
<p>Hala-&#39;l Badr  is a volcano in northwestern Saudi Arabia at 27.25° N, 37.235° E. The volcano is of the cinder cone  type, and is on the northeast corner of the Thadra table mountain in the al Jaww basin, an erosional divide between Harrat ar-Rahah and Harrat al &#39;Uwayrid. Its eruption history is currently unknown, but geological studies have shown that Hallat al Badr erupted some time during the Holocene period, and the most recent lava flows were in the al Jaww basin. Badr has a Volcanic Explosivity Index  of at least 2, so it is capable of producing an eruption column at least 3 mi high.</p><br>
<p>A number of scholars, including Charles Beke, Sigmund Freud, Immanuel Velikovsky, Eduard Meyer, Martin Noth, and Hermann Gunkel have proposed that the biblical description of devouring fire on Mount Sinai refers to an erupting volcano in the land of biblical Midian. Gunkel writes, "The characteristic Israelite narratives of Yahwehs appearance in the burning thorn bush (Exod. 3:2), in the burning and smoking Sinai (Exod. 19:9, 20:18; Deut. 4:11), and especially in the pillars of smoke and fire (Exod. 13:21)… can be explained originally from the fact that, in Israel’s earliest belief, Yahweh was the god of the Sinai volcano." This possibility would exclude all the peaks on the Sinai Peninsula and Mount Seir, but would match a number of places in northwestern Saudi Arabia, of which Hala-l Badr is the most prominent. Beke renounced his theory that Sinai was a volcano when he learned that Mount Baghir (also "Mountain of Light"), his volcanic Mount Sinai which was just northeast of the Gulf of Aqaba, was not a volcanic mountain after all.</p><br>
<p>The equation of Sinai with Hala-&#39;l Badr has been advocated by various scholars and authors, including</p><br>
<p>Jean Koenig in 1971</p><br>
<p>Colin Humphreys in 2003</p><br>
<p>In part, Humphreys argument that Hallat al Badr is Mount Sinai rests on Alois Musils argument that the itinerary stations given in Numbers 33 lead directly to Badr; he also reports that a volcano in the region erupted in 640 AD, but it is not known exactly which volcano this was. James K. Hoffmeier argues that the route suggested by Humphreys would have put the supposed volcano behind the Israelites at times, not in front. He also notes that the words for "cloud" and "pillar of cloud" appear frequently in Numbers - it covers the mountain, the temple built on top of the mountain, "it occupies the holy of holies in Solomon’s temple" and "Numbers 12:5 specifically refers to God coming down in a pillar of cloud to denounce Miriam’s charges against Moses after departing the mountain of God." Thus "fire and cloud are understood to be vessels of theophany."</p><br>
