<p>The Melibokus  is at 517 metres , the highest hill in the Bergstraße region of southern Hesse, central Germany. It was also the name of a hill in Germania described by classical sources. But the two are probably not the same.</p><br>
<p>Melibokus overlooks the Rhine valley on the western fringe of the Odenwald region and is a local landmark, clearly visible for many miles. On the summit there is a small cafe, a public lookout tower and a US Army radio mast erected on the site of a previous stone tower, destroyed during World War II. The hill is accessible from Zwingenberg/Bergstrasse by foot. The "Nibelungensteig" hill trail leads you from the railway station in Zwingenberg towards the east.</p><br>
<p>Despite the modern use of the classical name, the mountain mentioned in classical sources was probably either the Harz mountains, or Thuringian Forest or both. Ptolemy&#39;s Geography (Book 2, Chapter 10) mentions the Melobokon oros, as being just to the south of the Cherusci, corresponding to the mountainous "Silva Bacenis" which Julius Caesar mentioned as separating the Cherusci and the Chatti in Hesse.</p><br>
<p>The medieval place name of the modern Melibokus was Mons Malscus, and there is a settlement in the region, Malchen. One possible etymology derives the name from Old High German malsc, "conceited", which Julius Pokorny reports is from Indo-European mel- "grind" in the sense of "ground down" or "weak".</p><br>
<p>Mount Taylor  is a stratovolcano in northwest New Mexico, northeast of the town of Grants. It is the high point of the San Mateo Mountains and the highest point in the Cibola National Forest. It was named in 1849 for then president Zachary Taylor. Prior to that, it was called Cebolleta  by the Spanish; the name persists as one name for the northern portion of the San Mateo Mountains, a large mesa. Mount Taylor is largely forested, rising like a blue cone above the desert below. Its slopes were an important source of lumber for neighboring pueblos.</p><br>
<p>Mount Taylor is the cone in a larger volcanic field, including Mesa Chivato. The Mount Taylor volcanic field is composed primarily of basalt (with 80% by volume) and straddles the extensional transition zone between the Colorado Plateau and the Rio Grande rift. The largest volcanic plug in the volcanic field is Cabezon Peak, which rises nearly 2,000 feet above the surrounding plain. According to Robert Julyan’s The Place Names of New Mexico, the Navajos identify Cabezon Peak “as the head of a giant killed by the Twin War Gods” with the lava flow to the south of Grants believed to be the congealed blood of the giant.</p><br>
<h2>Native American traditions</h2><br>
<p>To the Navajo people, Mount Taylor is, the blue bead mountain, one of the four sacred mountains marking the cardinal directions and the boundaries of the Dinetah, the traditional Navajo homeland. Mount Taylor marks the southern boundary, and is associated with the direction south and the color blue; it is gendered female. In Navajo mythology, First Man created the sacred mountains from soil from the Fourth World, together with sacred matter, as replicas of mountains from that world. He fastened Mount Taylor to the earth with a stone knife. The supernatural beings Black God, Turquoise Boy, and Turquoise Girl are said to reside on the mountain.</p><br>
<p>Mount Taylor is also sacred to the Acoma, Hopi, Laguna and Zuni people.</p><br>
<h2>Volcanology</h2><br>
<p>Mount Taylor was active from 3.3 to 1.5 million years ago</p><br>
<p>during the Pliocene, and is surrounded by a field of smaller inactive volcanoes. Repeated eruptions built lava domes and produced lava flows, ash plumes, and mudflows. The mountain is surrounded by a great volume of volcanic debris, suggesting multiple major eruptions, possibly similar to that of Mount Saint Helens and the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona.</p><br>
<p>Estimates vary about how high the mountain was at its highest. Conservative estimates place its maximum near a similar pre-explosion height for the San Francisco Peaks of 16000 to 18000 ft, and an extreme estimate places it near 25,000 ft.</p><br>
<h2>Recreation</h2><br>
<p>Mount Taylor is the site of the Mount Taylor Quadrathlon, an endurance event which has been held at this location for almost thirty years. The event includes running, skiing, bicycling and snowshoeing for 43 miles.</p><br>
<h2>Wildlife</h2><br>
<p>Mount Taylor and the surrounding area is home to large elk herds, mule deer, black bear, mountain lion and Merriam’s turkey. Bird species are particularly diverse in the area and include great blue heron, white-faced ibis, canvasback, common merganser, rough-legged hawk, red-tailed hawk, ferruginous hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, osprey, golden eagle, barn owl, great horned owl, and kestrel, whip-poor-will, white-throated swift, western kingbird, warbling vireo, western meadowlark, house finch, swifts, swallows, prairie falcon, gray-headed junco, Steller’s jay, and pinyon jay. Furthermore, the area offers excellent raptor-nesting habitat on the various cliffs that spill down into the Rio Puerco valley below.</p><br>
<h2>Mining</h2><br>
<p>Mount Taylor is very rich in a uranium-vanadium bearing mineral, and was mined extensively for it from 1979 to 1990. The Mount Taylor and the hundreds of other uranium mines on Pueblo lands have provided over thirteen million tons of uranium ore to the United States since 1945.</p><br>
<p>Concern has arisen regarding the impact of future mining activities on the site. In June 2008 the New Mexico Cultural Properties Review Committee voted in favor of a one-year emergency listing of more than 422,000 acre surrounding the mountain’s summit on the state Register of Cultural Properties. "The Navajo Nation, the Acoma, Laguna and Zuni pueblos, and the Hopi tribe of Arizona asked the state to approve the listing for a mountain they consider sacred to protect it from an anticipated uranium mining boom, according to the nomination report." In April 2009, Mount Taylor was added to the National Trust for Historic Preservations list of Americas Most Endangered Places.</p><br>
<h2>Notable events</h2><br>
<p>On 3 September 1929, the Transcontinental Air Transport Ford 5-AT-B Tri-Motor City of San Francisco struck Mount Taylor during a thunderstorm while on a scheduled passenger flight from Albuquerque Airport in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Los Angeles, California, killing all eight people on board.</p><br>
<p>St Mary le Port is a ruined parish church in the centre of Bristol, England, situated in the area known as Castle Park.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>St Mary le Port is said to have been founded in Saxon times after Anglo-Saxon foundations were found during archaeological excavations and Saxon pottery was found nearby. The church was rebuilt and enlarged between the 11th and 16th centuries.</p><br>
<p>During the 19th and early 20th centuries the church was a very popular centre of evangelical, Protestant, and Calvinist teaching within Anglicanism.</p><br>
<p>The church was bombed in the Second World War on 24 November 1940 during the Bristol Blitz. John Piper painted an evocative picture of the bombed St Mary le Port. This image appears on the 1/6 British commemorative stamp, part of a set of four paintings by British artists issued in 1968. All that remains of the church is the 15th century tower, a Grade II listed building, and a Scheduled Ancient Monument which during the latter years of the 20th century was surrounded by the buildings of Norwich Union and the Bank of England.</p><br>
<p>After the bombing in 1940 the congregation and their rector, William Dodgson-Sykes, moved to St John on the Wall Church, where the congregation remained, in gradually declining numbers, till this church building was closed for worship by the Church Commissioners in 1984 (after a protracted struggle by the congregation). The remaining congregation then moved to the Chapel of Foster&#39;s Almshouses, and joined the Church of England (Continuing) in 1995. The C of E (Continuing) no longer lists a congregation in Bristol; some of the congregation joined with the new Free Presbyterian Church (Ulster) congregation in Horfield, Bristol.</p><br>
<h2>Archives</h2><br>
<p>Although many of the parish records of St Mary le Port church were destroyed when the church was bombed, some archive material is held at Bristol Archives (Refs. P. StMP) () and P.St JB/MLP () including copies of baptism, marriage and burial registers. The archive also includes records of the incumbent, churchwardens, parochial church council, charities and schools, plus deeds.</p><br>
<h2>Clergy of St Mary-le-Port church</h2><br>
<p>The church&#39;s clergy have included:</p><br>
<p>William Waite, rector, born 1764, died 1842, dates at St Mary le Port unknown</p><br>
<p>William Tandey, curate 1784 - 1799 (lived 1750-1832)</p><br>
<p>James Marshall, rector 1842 - (born 23 February 1796, died 29 August 1855)</p><br>
<p>Mr Thomas, rector, resigned 1857</p><br>
<p>Samuel Abraham Walker, rector 1857 - 1879 (born Dublin, 1809, died 30 November 1879) (source, The Gospel Magazine, January, 1880)</p><br>
<p>James Ormiston, rector 1880 (and as at the 1901 census) (previously at Old Hill, West Midlands; editor of The Gospel Magazine from 1895–1916)</p><br>
<p>William Dodgson Sykes, rector (as at 1940) (editor of The Gospel Magazine from 1964–1975)</p><br>
<p>Malheur Butte is an extinct volcano located in Malheur County, Oregon. Between 20 and 15 million years ago, the region from north-central Washington to northeastern California experienced a series of volcanic eruptions and basalt lava floods that covered thousands of square miles. These ancient lava floods often dammed streams, creating lakes and swamps that may have lasted for millions of years before filling with sediment or draining as erosion slowly lowered their outlets. The western Snake River plain contained many such lakes, and geologists believe that between 8 and 2 million years ago, "Lake Idaho" covered much of central eastern Oregon. Sediment deposited in this lake once covered Malheur Butte, and during the last 2 million years the Malheur River and other eroding forces slowly exposed and shaped today&#39;s landmark.</p><br>
<p>Although Malheur Butte has been inactive for millions of years, Malheur County is still alive with geothermal activity in the form of hot springs.</p><br>
<p>The rock is slightly over 100 meters higher than the surrounding plains and the peak is 790 meters above sea level.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>Malheur (pronounced phonetically by residents) is French for "misfortune," "bad fortune," or "unhappiness," most likely taken from the Malheur River that flows nearby. Peter Skene Ogden, a trader accompanied by French-Canadian hunters, explained in his journal in 1826 that the Malheur River was so named because property and furs that had been hidden in the vicinity had been discovered and stolen by natives.</p><br>
<p>The Former Chicago Historical Society Building is a historic landmark located at 632 N. Dearborn Street on the northwest corner of Dearborn and Ontario streets near downtown Chicago. Built in 1892, the granite-clad building is a prime example of Henry Ives Cobb&#39;s Romanesque Revival architecture. The building was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1997. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, under the name, Old Chicago Historical Society Building.</p><br>
<p>The building was the home of the Chicago Historical Society after its original headquarters burned down and prior to its relocation to Lincoln Park in 1931. Afterwards, the building housed a magazine publisher, the Works Progress Administration, the Loyal Order of Moose, the Chicago Institute of Design (1946–1956), and recording studios (1950s and 1960s). Since 1985 it has been the location of a series of nightclubs.</p><br>
<h2>Nightclubs</h2><br>
<p>From 1985 to 1989, nightclub entrepreneur Peter Gatien operated The Limelight nightclub in the building, one of his chain of nightclubs under that name; at some point he bought the building. In January 1989, Gatien sold the building to Fred Hoffman for $3.5 million. Hoffman spent $1 million renovating the building, and in 1989 opened Excalibur and Vision, two "sister clubs". At the time of their openings in 1989, the two clubs were the largest non-hotel entertainment facility in Chicago.</p><br>
<p>The northern portion of the building was Vision, which had its own entrance. Vision was a large multi-level, multi-room nightclub that catered to fans of hip-hop, trance, and or house music. Notable guests who played at Vision included Rihanna, MSTRKRFT, Moby, Paul van Dyk, Benny Benassi, Cosmic Gate, Armin Van Buuren, Tiësto, Gabriel & Dresden and Gareth Emery.</p><br>
<p>On April 24, 2001, it was reported that a waitress for Excalibur, Colleen Gallagher, was tipped $11,000 by a customer who had run up a $60 bar tab.</p><br>
<p>Excalibur and Vision closed in mid-2012.</p><br>
<p>On December 31, 2012, after six months of remodeling, the club was re-launched as "Castle Chicago". With a three million dollar remodel replacing decor, lighting, and sound systems, the multi-venue Castle contains three nightclubs, a restaurant, a lounge and a craft-cocktail bar, as well as private party facilities.</p><br>
<p>The building was purchased by Four Corners Tavern Group Inc. in May 2014 and ceased operation as the Castle nightclub in early January 2015.</p><br>
<h2>Paranormal reports</h2><br>
<p>The Chicago Historical Society Building has been said to be haunted,</p><br>
<p>The building has been the site of several television shows on the paranormal, and is the site of a weekly theatrical show about hauntings, Supernatural Chicago, hosted by Neil Tobin. An annual seance which attempts to reach deceased magician, Harry Houdini, is presented there by the Chicago Assembly of the Society of American Magicians, partnered with Tobin.</p><br>
<p>In 1999, the building was featured on an episode of Exploring the Unknown on Fox Family TV about the Ouija Board.</p><br>
<p>In 2012, the building was featured on an episode of Ghost Adventures.</p><br>
<p>Arenig Fawr  is a mountain in Snowdonia, North Wales, located close to Llyn Celyn reservoir alongside the A4212 between Trawsfynydd and Bala.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>Arenig Fawr is the highest member of the Arenig range with Arenig Fach (Small High Ground), a smaller neighbouring mountain, lying to the north. It is surrounded by Moel Llyfnant to the west, Rhobell Fawr to the south and Mynydd Nodol to the east.</p><br>
<h2>Ascent</h2><br>
<p>The easy-to-moderate climb to the summit takes about 2½ hours from Llyn Celyn. There are no readily identifiable footpaths but the route is marked by an old wire boundary fence. Beneath the mountain is Llyn Arenig Fawr, a reservoir which provides drinking water to Bala and the surrounding villages.</p><br>
<p>The summit, which is also known as Moel yr Eglwys (Bare hill of the church), has a trig point and a memorial to eight American aircrew who died when their Flying Fortress bomber B-17F #42-3124 crashed on 4 August 1943. Some of the crash wreckage is still scattered across the hillside 300 m (330 yds) from the memorial location.</p><br>
<p>From the summit, with good weather conditions, it is possible to see several notable Welsh mountain ranges: the Rhinogs in the west, Snowdon to the northwest, Clwydian Hills in the northeast, east to the Berwyns, south east to the Arans, and southward to Cadair Idris. It is one of the finest panoramas in Wales.</p><br>
<h2>Railway</h2><br>
<p>Arenig Halt was a request stop on the Bala Ffestiniog Line. It closed to passenger services on 2 January 1960 and freight services on 27 January 1961. The remains of the station buildings have been totally cleared away leaving no trace.</p><br>
<h2>Art and literature</h2><br>
<p>Artists James Dickson Innes and Augustus John used the mountain as a backdrop during their two years of painting in the Arenig valley between 1911-12. In 2011 their work was the subject of a BBC documentary entitled The Mountain That Had to Be Painted.</p><br>
<p>In The Faerie Queene, an incomplete English epic poem, by Sir Edmund Spenser, the home of old Timon, Prince Arthur’s sage foster-father "is low in a valley greene,Under the foot of Rauran mossy hore". Renowned Welsh historian Sir John Edward Lloyd wrote that Rauran "comes from Saxton&#39;s map of Merionethshire (1578), which places ‘Rarau uaure Hill’ (Yr Aran Fawr) where Arenig should be".</p><br>
<p>A boulder at a crossroads in the hamlet of Bell Heath, near to Belbroughton, Worcestershire, in England, has a brass plaque attached to it stating "Boulder from Arenig Mountain in N. Wales, Brought here by the Welsh Ice-sheet in the Glacial Period".</p><br>
<p>Mount Stimson  is the second highest peak in Glacier National Park, located in Montana, United States. It is part of the Lewis Range, which spans much of the park. It is located in the remote southwestern portion of the park, approximately 5 mi west of the Continental Divide and 12 mi southeast of Lake McDonald. It is drained by Pinchot Creek  and Nyack Creek , both of which flow into the Middle Fork of the Flathead River.</p><br>
<p>The mountain is named for Henry L. Stimson (1867–1950), former USA Secretary of State and twice Secretary of War, who hiked and assisted George Bird Grinnell survey the area in and around Glacier National Park in the 1890s, and supported efforts to establish the national park.</p><br>
<h2>Notability</h2><br>
<p>Mount Stimson is notable for its large, steep rise above local terrain. For example, its northwest face rises over 6,200 ft from Nyack Creek in only 1.8 mi. This makes it "truly a monster of a mountain." It is also notable for its isolation; it is one of the farthest peaks from a roadhead in the park.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The first recorded ascent of Mount Stimson was in 1951, by J. Gordon Edwards and Alice Edwards; however they found clear evidence of a previous ascent. The standard route of ascent is the West or Northwest Face Route, starting from Nyack Creek. A backpacking trail runs along Nyack Creek, providing access; however the National Park Service warns that this is a more brushy and isolated trail than in other areas of the park, with numerous unbridged stream crossings. As in the rest of the park, grizzly bears are an issue as well. The climbing route begins with "tiresome uphill bushwhacking...for possibly three hours" leading to alternating slopes and cliffs (Grades 3 and 4). Other routes on the peak include the Southeast Spur from Martha&#39;s Basin and the Pinchot Creek Route from the south.</p><br>
<p>The Rio Balsemão  is a small stream that originates in the mountain range of Serra de Montemuro. It passes through narrow canyons before it reaches the major city Lamego.MONTEIRO-HENRIQUES, Tiago, COSTA, José Carlos, BELLU, Annalisa, and AGUIAR, Carlos.</p><br>
<p>https://www.repository.utl.pt/bitstream/10400.5/5068/1/REP-J.C.Costa-Monteiro-Henriques%20323-327.pdf "Fraxino angustifoliae-Ulmetum glabrae: An Original Endemic and Extremely Localized Forest from Mainland Portugal", Centenaire de la Phytosociologie, Vol. 46, pp. 323-327, 2010. Retrieved on 5 February 2014.</p><br>
<p>Part of the Douro basin, its entire path is made in the old district of Viseu. Born near Rossão, Gosende, in the municipality of Castro Daire, it still draws, for short while, the frontier with neighbors Resende and Lamego before heading on through this last municipality, towards the Douro Valley.</p><br>
<p>The Balsemão River has a dam near Pretarouca, Lamego.</p><br>
<p>Nearby Magueija, in a small canyon of Balsemão was detected an extremely localized forest dominated by Elm (Ulmus glabra) and Narrow-leafed Ash (Fraxinus angustifolia).</p><br>
<p>Along with watermills, its possible to find in the margins of the Balsemão River the so-called “leiras” (narrow green stretches of cultivated land).</p><br>
<p>Near the end of its course, on the right bank, it&#39;s possible to find the Chapel of São Pedro de Balsemão, a former Visigothic sanctuary dating back to the 7th century and now a National monument.</p><br>
<p>Eventually it ends in a storage reservoir made by the Varosa Dam in the Varosa River.REIS, Amélia, PATINHA, Carla, DIAS, Ana, CACHADA, Anabela, PATO, Pedro, FERREIRA DA SILVA, Eduardo, FONSECA, Rita, BARRIGA, Fernando, and JANEIRO, Ana.</p><br>
<p>https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013MED/webprogram/Paper221471.html "Grapevine Cultivation and the Geochemistry of Zinc: Impact on the Environmental Equilibrium of a Vulnerabla Site within tha Alto Douro Wine Region" link 1, http://hdl.handle.net/10174/9822 link 2 2013 Conference of the International Medical Geology Association (25–29 August 2013), Session No. 50, 29 August 2013. The Geological Society of America. Retrieved on 8 February 2014. The Varosa, in turn, will meet the Douro River near Peso da Régua.</p><br>
<p>This river has a "Friends of the Balsemão River Association" (Associação de Amigos do Rio Balsemão - ASAMIRB).</p><br>
<p>Mount Cleveland is the highest mountain in Glacier National Park, located in Montana, United States. It is also the highest point in the Lewis Range, which spans part of the northern portion of the Park and extends into Canada. It is located approximately 3 mi southeast of the southern end of Waterton Lake, and approximately 5 mi south of the US/Canada border.</p><br>
<p>While not of great absolute elevation (the mountain is more than 2,300 ft lower than Granite Peak, the highest peak in Montana), Mount Cleveland is notable for its large, steep rise above local terrain. For example, its west flank rises over 5,500 ft in less than 2 mi; the northwest face, steepest on the mountain, rises 4,000 ft in less than 0.4 mi. The other faces show almost as much vertical relief. This scale and steepness of relief is quite rare in the contiguous United States. Mount Cleveland is 50th on a list of peaks in the contiguous USA with the most topographic prominence.</p><br>
<p>The first recorded ascent of Mount Cleveland was in 1920 by Frank B. Wynn. The easiest route on the peak is the West Face route, starting from the Waterton Valley; it is a scramble (Class 3) with the possibility of some short exposed sections (Class 4).</p><br>
<p>Other routes include the Stoney Indian Route, from Stoney Indian Pass to the south of the peak, first descended by noted Sierra mountaineer Norman Clyde and party in 1937; various routes on the Southeast Face; and the more difficult North (or Northwest) Face, climbed partially in 1971 and completely in 1976.</p><br>
<p>__TOC__</p><br>
<p>The Lake of the Hirsel or Hirsel Lake is an artificial body of water and Site of Special Scientific Interest near Coldstream in Berwickshire in Scotland. It is set in the grounds of The Hirsel, home of the Home family and of the late Alec Douglas-Home, former British Prime Minister.</p><br>
<p>It covers around 27 acre. It is roughly square shaped, around 300–400 metres in breadth.</p><br>
<p>It is one of only a few bodies of water in Scotland to be known as a lake; the others being the Lake of Menteith, Pressmennan Lake, Lake Louise (within the grounds of Skibo Castle) and Cally Lake (near Gatehouse of Fleet). There is also a sea bay near Kirkcudbright known as Manxmans Lake. All other major bodies of water in Scotland are known as lochs.</p><br>
<p>The Baltoro Glacier , at 63 km in length, is one of the longest glaciers outside the polar regions. It is located in the Gilgit-Baltistan region . It runs through part of the Karakoram mountain range. The Baltoro Muztagh lies to the south and east of the glacier, while the Masherbrum Mountains lie to the south. At 8,611 m , K2 is the highest mountain in the region, and three others within 20 km top 8,000 m.</p><br>
<p>The glacier gives rise to the Shigar River, which is a tributary of the Indus River. Several large tributary glaciers feed the main Baltoro Glacier, including the Godwin Austen Glacier, flowing south from K2; the Abruzzi and the various Gasherbrum Glaciers, flowing from the Gasherbrum group of peaks; the Vigne Glacier, flowing from Chogolisa, and the Yermandendu Glacier, flowing from Masherbrum. The confluence of the main Baltoro Glacier with the Godwin Austen Glacier is known as Concordia; this location and K2 base camp are popular trekking destinations.</p><br>
<p>The trough of this glacier is very wide. Small valley glaciers form icefalls where they meet the trunk glacier. The sidewalls vary from very steep to precipitous. The glacier has carved striations on the surrounding country rocks. Moving ice has formed depressions, which serve as basins for numerous glacial lakes.</p><br>
<p>The glacier can be approached via the important Balti town of Skardu.</p><br>
<h2>List of peaks</h2><br>
<p>A list of notable peaks adjacent to or near the Baltoro Glacier includes:</p><br>
<p>K2, 2nd highest in the world at 8611m</p><br>
<p>Gasherbrum I, 11th highest in the world at 8,080m.</p><br>
<p>Broad Peak, 12th highest in the world at 8,047m.</p><br>
<p>Gasherbrum II, 13th highest in the world at 8,035m.</p><br>
<p>Gasherbrum III, 7,946m. (Often regarded as a subpeak of Gasherbrum II.)</p><br>
<p>Gasherbrum IV, 17th highest in the world at 7,932m.</p><br>
<p>Masherbrum (K1), 22nd highest in the world at 7,821m.</p><br>
<p>Chogolisa, 36th highest in the world at 7,665m.</p><br>
<p>Muztagh Tower, 7,273m.</p><br>
<p>Snow Dome, 7,160m.</p><br>
<p>Biarchedi, 6,781 m</p><br>
<p>Uli Biaho Tower, 6,417m.</p><br>
<p>Trango Towers, 6,286m. (Their vertical faces are the world&#39;s tallest cliffs.)</p><br>
<p>Mitre Peak, 6,010m.</p><br>
<h2>Image gallery</h2><br>
<p>The Temple of Debod  is an ancient Egyptian temple that was dismantled and rebuilt in Madrid, Spain.</p><br>
<p>The shrine was originally erected 15 km south of Aswan in Upper Egypt, very close to the first cataract of the Nile and to the great religious center in Philae dedicated to the goddess Isis. In the early 2nd century BC, Adikhalamani (Tabriqo), the Kushite king of Meroë, started its construction by building a small single-room chapel dedicated to the god Amun. It was built and decorated in a similar design to the later Meroitic chapel on which the Temple of Dakka is based. Later, during the reigns of Ptolemy VI, Ptolemy VIII, and Ptolemy XII of the Ptolemaic dynasty, it was extended on all four sides to form a small temple, 12 x, which was dedicated to Isis of Philae. The Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius completed its decorations.</p><br>
<p>From the quay, there is a long processional way leading to the stone-built enclosure wall, through three stone pylon gateways, and finally to the temple itself. The pronaos, which had four columns with composite capitals, collapsed in 1868 and is now lost. Behind it lay the original sanctuary of Amun, the offering table room and a later sanctuary with several side-rooms and stairs to the roof.</p><br>
<p>In 1960, due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam and the consequent threat posed by its reservoir to numerous monuments and archeological sites, UNESCO made an international call to save this rich historical legacy. As a sign of gratitude for the help provided by Spain in saving the Abu Simbel temples, the Egyptian state donated the temple of Debod to Spain in 1968.</p><br>
<p>The temple was rebuilt in one of Madrid&#39;s parks, the Parque del Oeste, near the Royal Palace of Madrid, and opened to the public in 1972. The reassembled gateways have been placed in a different order than when originally erected. Compared to a photo of the original site, the gateway topped by a serpent-flanked sun was not the closest gateway to the temple proper. It constitutes one of the few works of ancient Egyptian architecture that can be seen outside Egypt and the only one of its kind in Spain.</p><br>
<p>Fort Barrancas  or Fort San Carlos de Barrancas  is a United States military fort and National Historic Landmark in the former Warrington area of Pensacola, Florida, located physically within Naval Air Station Pensacola, which was developed later around it.</p><br>
<p>"The Forts of Pensacola Bay" (history),</p><br>
<p>Visit Florida Online, 2006, webpage:</p><br>
<p>"Fort San Carlos de Barrancas" (history),</p><br>
<p>National Park Service (NPS), webpage:</p><br>
<p>The hill-top fort, connected to a sea level water battery,</p><br>
<p>overlooks Pensacola Bay. From 1839–1844, the historic Spanish fort on the hill was reconstructed and dramatically expanded in brick. This is now termed "Fort Barrancas". The older, water battery downhill (Baterie de San Antonio, 1787) has been separately named as "Fort San Carlos".</p><br>
<p>It is a remnant from the Spanish fortification, the wooden (Fuerte) Fort San Carlos de Barrancas of the late 18th century.</p><br>
<p>Due to changing requirements, the USA Army deactivated Fort Barrancas on April 15, 1947 following World War II. Designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1960, the fort was transferred to the control and administration of the National Park Service in 1971. After extensive restoration during 1971-1980, Fort Barrancas was opened to the public (see below: Timeline).</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Construction</h3><br>
<p>Fort Barrancas was built on the site of numerous previous forts, including Fort San Carlos de Austria, which was constructed by the Spanish in 1698. It was besieged in 1707 by Indians under the general leadership of some English traders, but was not taken. In 1719 French forces captured Pensacola and destroyed the Spanish fort.</p><br>
<p>Following Britains defeat of the French in the Seven Years War, in 1763 it exchanged some territory with Spain and took over West Florida. The British used this site as a harbor fortification, building the Royal Navy Redoubt in 1763. More than a decade later, as enemies of the British, the Spanish joined the war against them in 1779 during the American Revolutionary War, though they never officially became American allies. They took Pensacola in 1781. After the war, the Spanish retook control of West Florida. They completed the fort San Carlos de Barrancas in 1797. Barranca is a Spanish word for bluff, the natural terrain feature that makes this location ideal for the fortress.</p><br>
<h3>First battles under USA control</h3><br>
<p>During the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom, the fort was the scene of the American victory at the Battle of Pensacola (1814). This was fought between American forces commanded by General Andrew Jackson as well as some Indian allies, and the allied forces of the British, Spanish, and Creeks.</p><br>
<p>American units raided West Florida. In 1818, the Spanish garrison of the fort exchanged cannon fire with an American battery for a few days. The USA force was led by General Jackson. Eventually the Spanish surrendered the fort, leaving Pensacola in American hands.</p><br>
<p>When the United States purchased Florida from Spain in 1821, it selected Pensacola as the site for a major Navy Yard, which was developed around the Spanish Fort Barrancas. In addition, the US developed plans for construction of additional harbor fortifications to protect this deepwater bay. Fort Pickens was completed on Santa Rosa Island in 1834, and Fort McRee was completed in 1839 to defend the pass to Pensacola Bay.</p><br>
<p>Fort Barrancas was reconstructed and expanded with brick between 1839–1844 on its hilltop overlooking the bay. It was strengthened to defend against both ships entering the harbor and attack across land. The Advanced Redoubt was built north of the fort, and a trenchline connected them. This system protected the Navy Yard to the east from infantry attacks.</p><br>
<p>The expanded Fort Barrancas was designed by Joseph Gilbert Totten. It was connected to the Spanish-built water-battery by an underground walkway tunnel. Major William Henry Chase supervised the construction, done mostly by enslaved African-American workers.</p><br>
<h3>American Civil War</h3><br>
<p>January 8, 1861, more than three months before the American Civil War officially started at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, a company of 50 USA Army soldiers stationed at Fort Barrancas, under the command of John H. Winder fired upon a militia. This militia was Florida state troops under Colonel William Henry Chase demanding that the USA troops surrender the fort. Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, acting commander in Winder&#39;s absence, had the troops fire shots meant to repel the militia. Lt Slemmer knew that Fort Pickens was easier to defend, so he spiked the guns at Barrancas, loaded ammunition and supplies on a flatboat, and moved his company across the bay to Fort Pickens. The Union held this fort throughout the Civil War.</p><br>
<p>The Confederacy stationed soldiers from Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi at Fort Barrancas. While a small company of soldiers could man the fort successfully, the Confederate Army fortified the position with additional sand batteries along the coast, to be operated by the garrison. General Braxton Bragg took command of Confederate Pensacola on March 11, 1861, and continued work on the batteries.</p><br>
<p>On October 9, a Confederate force of 1000 troops landed east of Fort Pickens, but was repelled by Union forces. Fort McRee and Fort Barrancas exchanged heavy cannon fire with Fort Pickens on November 22–23, 1861 and January 1, 1862. But, in May 1862, after learning that the Union Army had taken New Orleans, Confederate troops abandoned Pensacola.</p><br>
<h3>Aftermath</h3><br>
<p>Stronger, rifled cannon and ironclad ships developed during the Civil War made masonry forts like Fort Barrancas outmoded. The fort was used as a signal station, small arms range, and storage area by the Army until 1946. Newer weapon technology developed during World War II made coastal defense completely obsolete.</p><br>
<p>On April 15, 1947, Fort Barrancas was deactivated. The USA Navy incorporated the site into Naval Air Station Pensacola. At the same time, local leaders, Congress, and the National Park Service were working to designate the harbor defenses of Pensacola as a historic national monument. In 1971, Congress authorized the establishment of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, to be managed by the National Park Service. Fort Barrancas was included in this. After a $1.2 million restoration, Fort Barrancas was opened to the public in 1980.</p><br>
<p>Fort Barrancas and the nearby Advance Redoubt are located on Naval Air Station Pensacola but they are both managed as historic properties by the National Park Service. Access to Naval Air Station Pensacola by non-Department of Defense affiliated personnel may be subject to homeland security and military force protection concerns.</p><br>
<h2>Timeline</h2><br>
<p>Fort Barrancas and its site has changed names several times over the past five centuries, depending on which country ruled in the region:</p><br>
<p>1559-1561: The Spanish first settled a portion of Santa Rosa Island, they did not use this hilltop site at all</p><br>
<p>1698: the Spanish constructed Fort San Carlos de Austria on this hilltop</p><br>
<p>1719: Fort San Carlos de Austria was destroyed by the French</p><br>
<p>1763: under British rule, Royal Navy Redoubt is constructed of earth and logs</p><br>
<p>1787: under Spanish rule (from 1781), the sea-level battery, Bateria de San Antonio, is built of masonry</p><br>
<p>1787-1797: under Spanish rule, Fort San Carlos de Barrancas, a wooden and earthen structure, is added on the hill-top bluff overlooking the battery</p><br>
<p>1814: Fort San Carlos de Barrancas is demolished by the evacuating British during the War of 1812 as Andrew Jackson approaches</p><br>
<p>1817: again under Spanish control, San Carlos de Barrancas is rebuilt</p><br>
<p>1839-1844: under USA rule following purchase of Florida from Spain (from 1821), the wooden hill-top structure is replaced with a massive brick fortress connected via tunnel to the water-side battery (remodeled in 1838), with the entire site comprising Fort Barrancas</p><br>
<p>1845-1869: the Advanced Redoubt is built 1400 ft (427 m) north of the fort</p><br>
<p>1861: With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Union forces abandoned Fort Barrancas and defended Fort Pickens; Barrancas was taken over by Confederates; the fort was bombarded from Union-held Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island, with heaviest attacks on November 22–23 and January 7, 1862</p><br>
<p>1862: in May after the fall of New Orleans to Union forces, Fort Barrancas and the City of Pensacola were abandoned by Confederate troops (after the fall of New Orleans)</p><br>
<p>1870: The Pensacola and Fort Barrancas Railroad, an eight-mile line connecting Pensacola, Florida, with the fort, through Warrington and Woolsey, is constructed during the Reconstruction era to improve infrastructure in the state. The line had several corporate ownerships before the rail link on Naval Air Station Pensacola was abandoned circa 1979. Related track and bridges across several waterways was removed.</p><br>
<p>1941-1947: Fort Barrancas is used by the USA Army as a signal station and small arms range during World War II and deactivated in 1947</p><br>
<p>1960: on October 9, Fort San Carlos de Barrancas is designated as a National Historic Landmark.</p><br>
<p>1966: Fort Barrancas Historical District (640 acres) is listed on the National Register of Historical Places, as district #66000263.</p><br>
<p>"National Register of Historical Places" (list), webpage:</p><br>
<p>1971: Fort Barrancas becomes part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore managed by the USA National Park Service</p><br>
<p>1978-1980: Fort Barrancas is restored during an 18-month project and opened to the public as a National Historic Landmark.</p><br>
<p>1989: Fort Barrancas is listed in A Guide to Florida&#39;s Historic Architecture, published by the University of Florida Press.</p><br>
<h2>Museum</h2><br>
<p>Fort Barrancas is currently operated as a visitor center for the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Visitors can tour the restored fort and battery, learn about the fort&#39;s history through the exhibits in the visitor center, and walk trails to the Advance Redoubt on board Pensacola Naval Air Station.</p><br>
<p>Tell Hassuna is a tell, or settlement mound, in the Nineveh Province , about 35km south-west of Nineveh. It is the type site for the Hassuna culture .</p><br>
<h2>History of archaeological research</h2><br>
<p>Tell Hassuna was found in 1942 by Fuad Safar, and excavated in 1943 and 1944 by a team from the Iraqi Directorate General of Antiquities led by Seton Lloyd. Excavations revealed that there was once an advanced village culture that was spread throughout northern Mesopotamia. At Hassuna, six different layers of houses were uncovered, revealing various vessels and pottery that date ~5600-5350 BCE, with each layer becoming more substantial. Similar vessels were found throughout the Middle East, showing that there was an extensive trade network that was present as early as the 6th Millennium BCE. Pottery found at Hassuna can be divided into three different categories: Hassuna Archaic, Hassuna Standard, and Samarran. These also include painted, incised, and painted-incised ware. The decoration of the Samarra Painted Fine Ware is always monochrome, but it seems as if three types of paint have been used: an ivory black, a dark violet brown, and a medium chocolate brown. Circumstances of firing and variations in the concentration of the paint have caused color changes, so that for example an oxidizing firing of vessels painted with ivory black has produced an Indian red color. In general, the designs of the Samarra Painted Fine Ware are carefully painted. Occasionally, however, parallel lines approach or diverge slightly, and the thickness of some lines varies, apparently due to the use of a soft painting-brush. The outside rim motifs are spaced and limited by groups of horizontal lines.</p><br>
<h2>Tell Hassuna and its environment</h2><br>
<p>Tell Hassuna is located approximately 35 km southwest of modern Mosul, along the west bank of the Tigris River. It is a small site, roughly 200 x and about 7 m high. Hassuna was one of the earliest cultures in Northern Mesopotamia. Before this time, Southern Mesopotamia was considered the cradle of civilization. When settlements began forming in the north, such as Hassuna, Jarmo, Samarra, and Tell Halaf, the north became the important region. The architecture at Hassuna was built of packed mud, with the width varying from 20 to 50 centimeters. The mud-brick technique may perhaps have been developed in Southern Mesopotamia, where mud-bricks were common in the first half of 6th millennium B.C.</p><br>
<h2>Occupation history</h2><br>
<p>Around 6,000 B.C., people began moving to the foothills of northern Mesopotamia and practicing methods of dry agriculture. These people were the first known farmers, and Hassuna became one of the most ancient centers for the principal forms of producing economies, such as the cultivation of soil and raising livestock. Evidence of this is shown in the oldest layers of Hassuna. The occupants of Hassuna also led the way in improving agriculture, settling the river valleys, the beginning of irrigation, and progress in all branches of production and culture. Around 6,000 B.C., at Tell Hassuna, adobe dwellings built around open central courts with fine painted pottery replaced earlier levels with crude pottery. Hand axes, sickles, grinding stones, bins, baking ovens and numerous bones of domesticated animals reflect settled agricultural life. Stone tools found at Tell Hassuna do not seem to be as advanced as tools found at other sites of the Hassuna culture, such as Jarmo, and were typically made of flint and obsidian. Female figurines were also used in relation to worship and jar burials, within which food was placed due to belief in the afterlife.</p><br>
<p>The Beaumont Hotel in Ouray, Colorado was in its day one of the grandest hotels in western Colorado and is on the United States National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Ouray Real Estate and Building Association started construction on the Beaumont Hotel on 5 July 1886, completing it on 15 December 1886 at a cost of $75,000. Palmer House supplied employees for the grand opening, on 25 July 1887. All of the original furniture was made by Marshall Field&#39;s.</p><br>
<p>The Beaumont was one of the first hotels in the country to be wired for alternating current electricity. It boasted guests such as Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover. The hotel closed in 1964 due to declining tourism in the area. For over 30 years the hotel sat empty, boarded up and in disrepair. At one point part of the roof collapsed and more than once the building was considered for condemnation. The hotel was sold in 1998 and was meticulously restored, its multiple rooms combined into a more spacious arrangement — the large hotel building now has just 12 guest rooms. It reopened in 2003 and received the Governor&#39;s Award for Historic Preservation. In 2004 it received one of the first four Preserve America Presidential Awards for historic preservation.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The architectural style of the hotel is a mix of Victorian, Queen Anne and French Second Empire with a slate Mansard roof.</p><br>
<p>The prominent feature inside the three story brick building is a grand staircase leading into the lobby. A rosewood dining room occupies almost half of the second floor.</p><br>
<h2>Trivia</h2><br>
<p>On a cornerstone of the building at the corner of Main Street and 5th Avenue is a benchmark from the United States Geological Survey with an elevation of 7,800 feet (2377m) above sea level.</p><br>
<p>Swartkrans is a fossil-bearing cave designated as a South African National Heritage Site, located about 32 km from Johannesburg. It is located in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site and is notable for being extremely rich in archaeological material, particularly hominin remains. Fossils discovered in the limestone of Swartkrans include Telanthropus capensis , Paranthropus and Homo habilis. S. V. Drobyshevskiy identifies remains of Homo naledi with Telanthropus. The oldest deposits present at the site are believed to be between 1.9 and 2.1 million years old.</p><br>
<p>Noted paleontologist Robert Broom was a frequent digger. He was followed by C. K. Bob Brain, whose excavations at the site inspired his book The Hunters or the Hunted? in which he demonstrated that instead of being bloodthirsty killer apes, the hominin fossils found at the site were themselves victims of predation by big cats. Originally, it was believed that Dinofelis was responsible for such killings, though recent evidence suggests that hominids were likely the victims of Megantereon or leopards based on carbon isotope ratios taken from each predator.</p><br>
<h2>History of investigations</h2><br>
<p>Swartkrans is located on the Blaauwbank River in the Cradle of Humankind, which has a long record of some of the oldest hominin remain descoveries in the world. It is located 1 km from Sterkfontein, a site that has yielded similar discoveries of the same era. The private farmland the cave was originally on was purchased by the University of the Witwatersrand in 1968.</p><br>
<p>The cave was discovered in 1948, and initial excavations were carried out by paleontologist Robert Broom. His team uncovered several remains of Paranthropus robustus and early Homo species. It was the first site at which both Paranthropus and Homo had been found together, indicating that they were contemporary.</p><br>
<p>Excavation then halted until the mid-1960s and continued until the 1980s, when C. K. Brain brought a team to Swartkrans. Thousands of artifacts and faunal remains were uncovered, 415 of which are considered to be hominin. Brain expanded upon the site&#39;s stratigraphy, which was more complex than previously thought.</p><br>
<h2>Discoveries</h2><br>
<p>Some of the earliest evidence of controlled use of fire by humans can be found at Swartkrans, up to 1.5 million years ago.</p><br>
<p>Some of the earliest evidence of modified bone tools has been found at Swartkrans and Sterkfontein, with the oldest at Swartkrans dating to about 1.8 million years ago. These tools may have been made by Australopithecus robustus or an early species of Homo, which both inhabited the cave around the same time.</p><br>
<p>These early tools were first speculated to have been used to dig up tubers, but they may instead have been used to harvest termites, which were present during Swartkrans&#39;s occupation; many of these tools may have been multipurpose. Re-evaluation of wear on stone and bone tools uncovered by Brain in earlier excavations and experiments by researchers have led to the conclusion that termites, a high source of nutrients, were a supplementary food source for early hominids. Bone tools would have allowed for easier extraction of the insects than stones would have.</p><br>
<p>In 2016, the discovery of the earliest known evidence of cancer in hominins was announced. An osteosarcoma was found on a partial left fifth metatarsal from an unclassified hominin.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Swartkrans is a limestone cave and has been divided geologically into five members. Member 1 consists of two large masses, named the Hanging Remnant and Lower Bank. Homo ergaster and Paranthropus robustus remains have been found in Member 1, and Member 2 has yielded the same genera.</p><br>
<p>Rock Creek  may refer to:</p><br>
<p>*Rock Creek (Feather River, Lake Oroville), a tributary of Lake Oroville&#39;s North Arm ()</p><br>
<p>*Rock Creek (Feather River, Middle Fork), a Middle Fork Feather River tributary (via Smithneck Creek) with headwaters on the Sierra Crest (Babbitt Peak, )</p><br>
<p>*Rock Creek (Feather River, North Fork), a left North Fork Feather River tributary (via Hamilton Branch) with headwaters west of the Sierra Crest ()</p><br>
<p>*Rock Creek (Feather River, North Fork), a right North Fork Feather River tributary with headwaters near Spring Valley Mountain ()</p><br>
<p>*Rock Creek (Feather River, South Fork), a South Fork Feather River tributary ().</p><br>
<p>*Rock Creek (Kern River), a North Fork Kern River tributary with headwaters on the Sierra Crest (Mount Langley)</p><br>
<p>*Rock Creek (Owens River), an Owens River tributary with headwaters on the Sierra Crest (Bear Creek Spire, )</p><br>
<p>*Rock Creek (Tuolumne River), a Tuolumne River tributary (via Piute Creek) with headwaters on the Sierra Crest ()</p><br>
<p>*Rock Creek (Yuba River, South Fork), a South Yuba River tributary ()</p><br>
<p>Nassau is an island in the Cook Islands.</p><br>
<p>Located 90 km south of Pukapuka, the small island (0.5 mi²/1.3 km²) of Nassau is just 9 metres (28 feet) above sea level, with an oval sandy cay on a coral reef foundation and is surrounded by a narrow reef flat. It is covered with palms, and is the only island of the Northern Group without a lagoon. The surrounding reef is 90 to 130 metres wide on all but the north side where it&#39;s narrower. The village is located in the north-west. Inland there are rich taro swamps and fruit groves, and offshore there is good fishing. It has a population of 71, according to the 2006 census, and a harbour was planned to be built in 2007, but construction had not started by then. In 2010 a small boat passage and mooring wharf had been dynamited out of the reef top, and a second phase was underway in December 2010. The environmental impact was small after the initial blasting</p><br>
<p>Nassau is governed by the Pukapuka Island Council. The Nassau Island Committee advises the Pukapuka Island Council on matters of Nassau Island.</p><br>
<p>Families live in thatched cottages called kikau. Elliot Smith, in the Cook Islands Companion (Pacific Publishing Company, Albany, California) describes Nassau as "a small garden of Eden".</p><br>
<p>The island was severely damaged in February, 2005 by Cyclone Percy. Recovery work to the islands infrastructure (Health Clinic, School, Powerhouse, Telecommunications Network and Meeting House) was completed with the help of NZAID and the Government of the Cook Islands in October of that same year, a major feat due to the islands remoteness and infrequent shipping services. The Island now has a completely new school thanks to the NZAID Schools Refurbishment Programme, which is administered by the Cook Islands Investment Corporation.</p><br>
<p>Because there is no airport, access is limited to inter-island ship from Rarotonga, a voyage of three days or more, or from Pukapuka. The service is infrequent. The only permanent link with the outside world is a satellite earth station built in just four days by engineers from Telecom Cook Islands and in 2004 it received its first telephone system.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Nassau originally belonged to the islanders of nearby Pukapuka and was called Te Nuku-o-Ngalewu which means "Land of Ngalewu" after the Pukapukan who was put in charge of it. When the two islands fell out with each other, it was renamed "Deserted Island" (Te Motu Ngaongao), supposedly by the islanders of Manihiki who drifted to the island and found it deserted.</p><br>
<p>In 1803, it got yet another name &ndash; "Adele Island" &ndash; after the ship of the first discoverer (Louis Coutance). About 20 years later it was renamed "Lydra Island" by another explorer, then "Ranger Island" after the London whale ship "Ranger". An American whaler, May Mitchell, decided in 1834 that it should bear his name and called it "Mitchell Island".</p><br>
<p>But it wasn&#39;t until a year later it that finally got the name it is known by today. Another American whaler, John D. Sampson named it after his vessel, the Nassau. It is not known why that name finally stuck, especially as another whale ship which sighted the island the following year tried to rename it "New-Port Island". (Information verified from academic research in the Cook Islands Library and Museum)</p><br>
<p>Pink Lake is a meromictic lake located in Gatineau Park, Quebec, Canada. The surface of the waters are a deep green during the month of August and September due to the abundance of algae in the water. The lake is in danger of eutrophication due to human activities. Park management forbids swimming in the lake, walking domestic animals near it, straying from the wooden boardwalk for sight-seers, and throwing stones into the lake. The bottom of the lake has no oxygen and it is believed that some prehistoric species live there.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Pink Lake is named after a family of Irish settlers who in 1826 cleared a farm in the area. It used to be a salt water lake as a part of the oceans. It took over 3000 years for the lake to turn from salt water to fresh water (generally a lake of this size shouldn&#39;t take over a few decades) and as a result some of the salt water fishes adapted to fresh water.</p><br>
<h2>Properties</h2><br>
<p>Due to the meromictic properties of Pink Lake there are ancient forms of bacteria which use sulfur instead of oxygen to perform photosynthesis. These bacteria form a layer about 7 metres from the bottom to avoid the oxygenated water and maximize sunlight exposure.</p><br>
<p>Pink Lake also has a desalinized variant of the three-spined stickleback fish.</p><br>
<p>In 2006, research was in progress to identify the patterns of atmospheric conditions over the past 10,000 years by examining the annual deposits of sediment in Pink Lake.</p><br>
<h2>Popular culture</h2><br>
<p>Pink Lake plays a symbolic role in the novel Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand by Fred Vargas.</p><br>
<p>Manuae is an uninhabited atoll in the southern group of the Cook Islands, 100 kilometres south-east of Aitutaki. It is administratively part of Aitutaki, but does not belong to any district or tapere of Aitutaki. It is, however, part of Arutanga-Reureu-Nikaupara Constituency.</p><br>
<h2>Geographic description</h2><br>
<p>Manuae is a true atoll sitting on the peak of a submerged volcano which descends 4000 meters to the ocean bed. It comprises two horseshoe-shaped islets, Manuae to the west and Te Au O Tu to the east, with a total area of 6.17 km² on either side of a lagoon about 7 km x 4 km. Manuae has an area of 2.1 km², and Te Au O TU of 3.9 km². The lagoon is 13 km² in size, shallow and subject to large shifting sand banks. A coral reef surrounds the atoll and there is no passage through the reef.</p><br>
<p>The island is a marine park and is an important breeding ground for seabirds and marine turtles in the Central Pacific. The offshore waters of Manuae are good fishing grounds.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Captain James Cook sighted Manuae on 23 September 1773, the first of the Cook Islands he voyaged to. Initially he named it Sandwich Island but changed it to Hervey Island in honor of Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, then a Lord of the Admiralty when he decided instead give the name of "Sandwich Islands" to the Hawaiian Islands. This name was later corrupted to Herveys Island, or Herveys Isle, and later applied to the entire southern group, as the Hervey Islands. This name remained popular until 1824 when the islands were renamed the Cook Islands by the Russian cartographer von Krusenstern, in honor of Capt. Cook who had died in 1779.</p><br>
<p>In April/May 1965 the population briefly increased to 120 when the island was visited by six expeditions (from Australia, N.Z., Japan, U.K., USA and USAS.R.) to observe the total solar eclipse of 30 May 1965.</p><br>
<p>Norwegian author Erlend Loe writes humorously about an expedition to Manuae in his 1999 novel "L".</p><br>
<h2>Economy and improvements</h2><br>
<p>The island once supported a small copra industry with a settlement established next to the small reef passage less than one kilometer northeast of Turakino, the westernmost point of the atoll. The passage, at the sea entrance, is less than 4 metres wide and in a swell is exceedingly dangerous without local knowledge.</p><br>
<p>The island has an airfield (dirt airstrip barely visible) that has been out of use for several years.</p><br>
<p>Fishermen from Aitutaki occasionally organise trips to Manuae. All regulations applicable to Aitutaki, apply to Manuae as well.</p><br>
<h2>Demography</h2><br>
<p>The population peaked with 32 at the 1956 census, but twenty years later the island was abandoned.</p><br>
<p>Mitiaro, the fourth island in the Cook Islands group, is of volcanic origin. Standing in water 14,750 ft deep it is 4 mi across at its widest point.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Mitiaro, also known as Nukuroa, is part of the Nga-Pu-Toru island group formerly, a volcano that became a coral atoll. The coral died forming fossilised coral (known locally as makatea).</p><br>
<p>The island is surrounded by a belt of this makatea, between 20 and high and characteristic of islands in the southern group. The centre of the island is almost flat, quite swampy and contains two freshwater lakes teeming with eels (Anguilla obscura), which the locals call itiki, and the imported tilapia from Africa where it is known as bream. Beaches are limited but there are crystal-clear pools ideal for swimming in the subterranean limestone caves and the beach at low tide abounds in interesting marine life.</p><br>
<p>The island has four villages, located close together on the western side, from north to south:</p><br>
<p>Taurangi (a former village)</p><br>
<p>Atai (also called Arai)</p><br>
<p>Auta</p><br>
<p>Mangarei</p><br>
<p>Takaue</p><br>
<p>The high school is located in the principal village, Arai. Takaue is the second largest village. Mitiaro Airport is located at the northern end of the island.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The native islanders had a pre-European history of harassment and subjugation by the warlike Atiuans, there were significant deaths in the population.</p><br>
<p>The island was discovered by missionary John Williams on 20 June 1823 who brought Christian beliefs and encouraged the settlers to leave their original faith. The estimated population at that time was less than 100 inhabitants.</p><br>
<p>During the 1840s the island was attacked again by Atiuans. On 31 October 1888 HMS Hyacinth commanded by Captain Bourke, hoisted the United Kingdom flag in the island. It was later merged to the Cook Islands until its annexation to New Zealand in 1901.</p><br>
<h2>Sources</h2><br>
<p>Takutea, in the Cook Islands, is a small uninhabited island 21 km northwest of Atiu in the southern Cook Islands. Because it is only 1.22 km&sup2; in size and has a very dangerous landing at the northwest corner of the reef, it has been designated a wildlife sanctuary, mainly for the red-tailed tropicbirds and red-footed boobies.</p><br>
<p>Administratively, the island is considered part of Atiu, the closest island. It is owned equally by all inhabitants of Atiu and not allocated to one specific village or district of Atiu.</p><br>
<p>The wildlife sanctuary is administered by a Trust and special permission for visits is needed from the Trust Chairman, High Chief Rongomatane Ariki. Alternatively, it is possible join the research vessel Bounty Bay for an eco tour, run by Pacific Expeditions Ltd. out of Rarotonga, the main island of the Cook Islands.</p><br>
<p>Copra cutters from Atiu visit once a year to cut coconuts from the trees, and a quantity of the tail feathers of the tropic birds.</p><br>
<p>The conservation service, made up of local residents from other islands, makes regular trips to the island to monitor the conservation.</p><br>
<p>In 2004 a television episode of Survivorman (Les Stroud) was filmed on Takutea Island.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The original name of the island was Areuna until it was renamed by Mariri, one of Atiu&#39;s ancestors. When Mariri returned for the third time from Avaiki to Atiu together with his wife, he landed on the small islet, which he had seen on his previous visits to Atiu. While fishing, he caught a “white Ku”, that is “Ku tea”, and therefore called the island Ta-Ku-Tea, My White Ku, later shortened to Takutea. Another name for the island is Enua-iti (Small Island).</p><br>
<p>Takutea is the only island in the Cook Islands that never had a permanent population. When Captain James Cook sighted the island on 4 April 1777, and some crew members went ashore, they found some huts, but no evidence of a permanent settlement. Commander Nicolls of H.M.S “Cormorant” declared the island to be under British protection in June 1889.</p><br>
<p>Virginia Lakes refers to a basin of lakes in the Eastern Sierra Nevada in Mono County, California. Virginia Lakes is located a few miles off USA Highway 395; the road to the lakes turns off USA 395 at Conway Summit, roughly halfway between Bridgeport, California, to the north and Lee Vining, California, to the south, in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. The name can also refer to two lakes within the basin: Little or Lower Virginia Lake and Upper or Big Virginia Lake.</p><br>
<h2>Features</h2><br>
<p>Located in the Virginia Lakes area are a resort, pack station, and small community. Virginia Lakes is popular with anglers, hikers, and campers. A trail beginning at Virginia Lakes serves as a gateway to the Sierra backcountry and Yosemite National Park.</p><br>
<h3>Lakes</h3><br>
<p>The bodies of water in the Virginia Lakes Basin include Trumbull Lake, Red Lake, Blue Lake, Big Virginia Lake, Little Virginia Lake, Cooney Lake, Moat Lake, and the Frog Lakes. These are all connected by the perennial Virginia Creek (not navigable).</p><br>
<p>The Angono Petroglyphs  is the oldest known work of art in the Philippines located in the province of Rizal. There are 127 human and animal figures engraved on the rockwall probably carved during the late Neolithic. These inscriptions clearly show stylized human figures, frogs and lizards, along with other designs that may have depicted other interesting figures but erosion may have caused it to become indistinguishable. The engravings are mostly symbolic representations and are associated with healing and sympathetic magic.</p><br>
<p>The site has been declared by the National Museum of the Philippines as a National Cultural Treasure in 1973. It is also included in the list of the World Inventory of Rock Art in 1985 and historic sites of the World Monuments Watch and World Monuments Funds and part of the Philippines&#39; tentative list of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The existence of a rock shelter was reported to the National Museum by the late National Artist of the Philippines Carlos V. Francisco in March 1965 during a field trip with several boy scouts along the boundaries of Angono, Binangonan and Antipolo of the province of Rizal. Since then, some rock carvings have been damaged due to neglect and vandalism. In 1973, by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 260, it was declared as a national cultural treasure by the Philippine government. During that time, a team led by the National Museum of the Philippines started archaeological site conservation and site development of the petroglyphs in which a mini-museum, view deck and stone path, among others, were constructed. It was included in the list of National Cultural Treasures in 1973 and World Inventory of Rock Art in 1985. In 1996, The World Monuments Fund included Angono Petroglyphs on its list of preservation projects and has helped with the installation of a drainage system and assigned a caretaker to protect the site. The site is also on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites of the Philippines.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The Angono Petroglyphs of Binangonan is located in a shallow rock shelter. It measures 63 meters wide, 8 meters deep and a maximum height of 5 meters. It has been created due to faulting and formed in volcanic soil during the Quaternary period. There are 127 drawings in the form of animate and static figures of circular or dome-like head on top of a V shaped torso distributed on a horizontal plane on the rock wall area measuring 25 meters by 3 meters. Only 51 of the total 127 drawings are distinct. Due to the complexity and plurality of the drawings, it is suggested that the drawings on the rock were not only created by a single individual.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeological Excavations</h2><br>
<p>From October to November 1965, archaeological excavations, headed by Alfredo Evangelista, was done on the area of the rock shelter. Fragmented bits of earthenware, two pieces of obsidian flakes, two chert, flake stone tools, one stone core tool and polished stone adze with a blunted working edge were excavated in the rock shelter. The artifacts suggest that the site was used during the Neolithic age.</p><br>
<h2>Management</h2><br>
<p>The preservation and development of the Angono Petroglyphs is a collective effort of the National Museum of the Philippines, the Department of Tourism, World Monuments Fund, American Express and a Philippine real estate company.</p><br>
<p>The site of the Angono Petroglyphs is developed as the Angono Branch of the National Museum in 1998 showcasing the cultural and artistic heritage of the province of Rizal. Its collections include remains of giant turtle, tusks, fossils, molar of Elephas sp., tradeware ceramics and paintings.</p><br>
<p>Marble House is a Gilded Age mansion at 596 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, now open to the public as a museum run by the Preservation Society of Newport County. It was designed by the society architect Richard Morris Hunt. For an American house, it was unparalleled in design and opulence when it was built. Its temple-front portico, which also serves as a porte-cochère, resembles that of the White House.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The mansion was built as a summer "cottage" retreat between 1888 and 1892 for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt. It was a social landmark that helped spark the transformation of Newport from a relatively relaxed summer colony of wooden houses to the now-legendary resort of opulent stone palaces. The fifty-room mansion required a staff of 36 servants, including butlers, maids, coachmen, and footmen. The mansion cost $11 million (equivalent to $ million in ) of which $7 million was spent on 500,000 cubic feet (14,000 m³) of marble. Vanderbilt&#39;s older brother Cornelius Vanderbilt II subsequently built the largest of the Newport cottages, The Breakers, between 1893 and 1895.</p><br>
<p>When Alva Vanderbilt divorced William in 1895, she already owned Marble House outright, having received it as her 39th birthday present. Upon her remarriage in 1896 to Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, she relocated down the street to Belmonts mansion, Belcourt. After his death, she reopened Marble House and added the Chinese Tea House on the seaside cliff, where she hosted rallies for womens suffrage.</p><br>
<p>Alva Belmont closed the mansion permanently in 1919, when she relocated to France to be closer to her daughter, Consuelo Balsan. There she divided her time between a Paris townhouse, a villa on the Riviera, and the Château dAugerville, which she restored. She sold the house to Frederick H. Prince in 1932, less than a year before her death. In 1963 the Preservation Society of Newport County bought the house from the Prince Trust, with funding provided by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, the Vanderbilt couples youngest son. The Trust donated the furniture for the house directly to the Preservation Society.</p><br>
<p>The mansion was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 10, 1971. The Department of the Interior designated it as a National Historic Landmark on February 17, 2006. The Bellevue Avenue Historic District, which includes Marble House and many other historic Newport mansions, was added to the Register on December 8, 1972 and subsequently designated as a National Historic Landmark District on May 11, 1976.</p><br>
<h2>Design</h2><br>
<p>Marble House is one of the earliest examples of Beaux-Arts architecture in the United States, with design inspiration from the Petit Trianon at the Palace of Versailles.</p><br>
<p>The mansion is a U-shaped building. Although it appears to be a two-story structure, it is actually spread over four levels. The kitchen and service areas are located on the basement level, reception rooms on the ground floor, bedrooms on the second floor, and servant quarters on the hidden, uppermost level. The load-bearing portion of the walls are brick, with the exterior faced in white Westchester marble. Here Hunt adapted French neoclassical architectural forms of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to enliven the Beaux-Arts detailing.</p><br>
<p>The facade of the mansion features bays that are defined by two story Corinthian pilasters. These frame arched windows on the ground floor and rectangular ones on the second on most of the facade. A curved marble carriage ramp, fronted by a semi-circular fountain with grotesque masks, spans the entire western facade. The masks serve as water spouts. The center of this facade, facing Bellevue Avenue, features a monumental tetrastyle Corinthian portico. The north and south facades match the western in basic design. The eastern facade, facing the Atlantic Ocean, is divided into a wing on each side. These wings semi-enclose a marble terrace and are surrounded by a marble balustrade on the ground floor level. The inset central portion of this facade differs from the others, with four bays of ground floor doors topped by second floor arched windows.</p><br>
<p>The interior features a number of notable rooms. Entrance into the mansion is through one of two French Baroque-style doors, each weighing a ton and a half. Both are embellished by the monogram "WV" set into an oval medallion. They were made at the John Williams Bronze Foundry in New York. The Stair Hall is a two-story room that features walls and a grand staircase of yellow Siena marble, with a wrought iron and gilt bronze staircase railing. The railing is based on models at Versailles. An 18th-century Venetian ceiling painting featuring gods and goddesses adorns the ceiling.</p><br>
<p>Architect Richard Morris Hunt hired Giuseppe Moretti to produce the interiors marble friezes and statuary, including work on bas-reliefs of Hunt and Jules Hardouin Mansart, the master architect for Louis XIV during the construction of Palace of Versailles; and which stood side by side on the mezzanine level of the staircase. The Grand Salon, designed by Allard and Sons, served as a ballroom and reception room. Designed in the Louis XIV style, it features green silk cut velvet upholstery and draperies. The originals were made by Prelle. The walls are carved wood and gold gilt panels representing scenes from classical mythology, inspired by the panels and trophies adorning the Galerie dApollon at the Louvre. The ceiling features an 18th-century French painting in the manner of Pietro da Cortona depicting Minerva, with a surround adapted from the ceiling of the Queen’s Bedroom at Versailles.</p><br>
<p>The Gothic Room, in the Gothic Revival-style, was designed to display Alva Vanderbilts collection of Medieval and Renaissance decorative objects. The stone fireplace in the room was copied by Allard and Sons from one in the Jacques Cœur House in Bourges. The furniture was by Gilbert Cuel. The Library is in the Rococo-style. It served as both a morning room and library. The doors and bookcases, in carved walnut, were a collaboration between Allard and Cuel. The Dining Room features pink Numidian marble and gilt bronze capitals and trophies. The fireplace is a replica of the one in the Salon dHercule at Versailles. The ceiling is decorated painted with a hunting and fishing motif, with an 18th-century French ceiling in the center. Mrs. Vanderbilt’s Bedroom, on the second floor, is in the Louis XIV style. The ceiling in this room is adorned with circular ceiling painting of Athena, painted circa 1721 by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini. It was originally in the library of the Palazzo Pisani Moretta in Venice.</p><br>
<h2>Filming location</h2><br>
<p>The interiors of the mansion have appeared in several films or television series. Scenes appearing in the 1972–73 television series, America, the 1974 film, The Great Gatsby, the 1995 miniseries The Buccaneers, the 1997 film Amistad, and the 2008 film 27 Dresses were shot here. More recently, Victoria&#39;s Secret filmed one of their 2012 holiday commercials here.</p><br>
<p>Chateau-sur-Mer is the first of the grand Bellevue Avenue mansions of the Gilded Age in Newport, Rhode Island. Located at 424 Bellevue Avenue, it is now owned by the Preservation Society of Newport County, and is open to the public as a museum. Chateau-sur-Mer&#39;s grand scale and lavish parties ushered in the Gilded Age of Newport, as it was the most palatial residence in Newport until the Vanderbilt houses in the 1890s. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>Chateau-sur-Mer was completed in 1852 as an Italianate villa for William Shepard Wetmore, a merchant in the China trade, who was born on January 26, 1801, in St. Albans, Vermont. The architect and builder was Seth C. Bradford; the structure is a landmark of Victorian architecture, furniture, wallpapers, ceramics and stenciling. Mr. Wetmore died on June 16, 1862, at Chateau-sur-Mer, leaving the bulk of his fortune to his son, George Peabody Wetmore. George later married Edith Keteltas in 1869.</p><br>
<p>During the 1870s, the Wetmores departed on an extended trip to Europe, leaving architect Richard Morris Hunt to remodel and redecorate the house in the French Second Empire style. As a result, Chateau-sur-Mer displays most of the major design trends of the last half of the 19th century. The house is constructed of Fall River Granite. Hunts alterations greatly expanded the house, adding a new three-story wing, a porte-cochere, and a projecting four-story tower with mansard roof. The carriage house was also enlarged, in a manner sympathetic to Bradfords original design. Hunt also designed the entrance gate of the estate, which is somewhat Greek Revival in style, but with posts modeled after Egyptian obelisks.</p><br>
<p>The centerpiece of the mansions interior is its Great Hall, a massive three-story chamber with a 45 ft ceiling and broad balconies. The Billiard Room is in the Eastlake style, with oak timbers aligned diagonally on the ceiling, and herringbone flooring. The Library has an Italianate design, and was actually designed and built in Italy, then disassembled and transported to Newport. The Marble Hallway originally served as the houses main entrance, and is finished with a variety of different marble colors. It was closed off in 1920 by replacing the main door with a bay window. The Green Room served as a ladies reception area, and was designed in 1900 by Ogden Codman, Jr. in the Louis XV style. The Ballroom, decorated with crystal chandeliers and fine plaster decoration, is one of the few rooms that remained relatively unaltered by Hunts work. The Dining Room is, like the Library, in Renaissance Revival style, and was also built in Italy.</p><br>
<p>Unlike most of the "cottages" built in Newport during this period, Chateau-sur-Mer was one of the few built as a year round residence. This was because the Wetmores were a New England family who made Newport their home. George was very active in Rhode Island politics during the late 19th century.</p><br>
<p>A lifelong Republican, Wetmore was a member of the Electoral College of 1880 and again in 1884. In 1885 Wetmore was elected Governor of Rhode Island, and went on to win re-election in 1886, but was defeated in an attempt for a third term in 1887. In 1894, the Rhode Island General Assembly elected Wetmore to the United States Senate, where Wetmore remained until 1913. In the Senate, Wetmore served on the Naval Affairs Committee and the Appropriations Committee.</p><br>
<p>The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1968 and purchased by the Preservation Society of Newport County in 1969. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006.</p><br>
<p>The former carriage house and stables for the Chateau-Sur-Mer estate are owned by Salve Regina University and are currently being renovated as a center for visual art and cultural and historic preservation known as Wetmore Hall.</p><br>
<p>The Joseph Smith Memorial Building, originally called the Hotel Utah, is named in honor of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. It is located on the corner of Main Street and South Temple in Salt Lake City. It is now a social center with three restaurants:, and. It is also a venue for events complete with 13 banquet rooms, event coordinators and a full-service floral department -. Several levels of the building also serve as administrative offices for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints  departments such as FamilySearch. On January 3, 1978, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Hotel Utah.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The corner of Main Street and South Temple has long been important in Utah history. Prior to construction of the Hotel Utah from 1909 to 1911, the general tithing office of the LDS Church, a bishop&#39;s storehouse, and the Deseret News printing plant all were located on the site.</p><br>
<p>Work on the Second Renaissance Revival style hotel, designed by the Los Angeles architectural firm of Parkinson and Bergstrom, began in June 1909. Two years later, on June 9, 1911, the Hotel Utah opened for business. While the LDS Church was the primary stockholder, many Mormon and non-Mormon community and business leaders also purchased stock in the effort to provide the city with a first-class hotel.</p><br>
<p>"The largest and finest bar in the West in the basement of the Hotel" to pay off a $2M construction loan. The financing was secured by the LDS Church&#39;s presiding bishop, Charles W. Nibley, from New York financier Charles Baruch. But the scheme obviously required the sales of hard liquor.</p><br>
<p>Originally, the hotel allowed black employees, but no black guests. This policy extended to famous entertainers. Lillian Yvanti, Harry Belafonte, Marian Anderson, and Ella Fitzgerald were all denied hotel rooms. Anderson was eventually allowed to stay at the Hotel, on condition that she did not use the elevator and eat her meals in her hotel room.</p><br>
<p>The ten-story building has a concrete and steel structure and is covered with white glazed terra cotta and brick. Various additions and remodelings have occurred throughout the years, including a substantial expansion to the north and modifications to the roof-top dining facilities.</p><br>
<p>It was featured in the 1973 film "Harry in Your Pocket" starring James Coburn.</p><br>
<p>The building ceased operations as a hotel in August 1987. A major remodeling and adaptive reuse project to accommodate both community and church functions was completed in 1993. Church leader Gordon B. Hinckley chose the name when he observed that there were many monuments to pioneer leader and Utah founder Brigham Young, but none to Joseph Smith.</p><br>
<p>2011 marked the celebration of 100 years since initial construction was completed on the Hotel Utah.</p><br>
<h2>Current use</h2><br>
<p>The LDS Church now uses this building as follows:</p><br>
<p>A large, historical, ornately decorated multi-story lobby, featuring a large white statue of Joseph Smith, and an enormous crystal chandelier. Live classical music is often performed here as background.</p><br>
<p>The FamilySearch center, where the public can use the provided computers and materials to do family history research and genealogy.</p><br>
<p>The Legacy Theater, where the public can view regularly scheduled free showings of various church-produced movies. The theater originally showed Legacy: A Mormon Journey and subsequently has also shown The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd, Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration, and Meet the Mormons.</p><br>
<p>Two restaurants, The Roof and The Garden, on the top (tenth) floor, provide views of downtown Salt Lake City.</p><br>
<p>Interior levels of the building house various church administrative departments, including those supporting the worldwide family history centers, and other activities.</p><br>
<p>Many rooms on the ground level, and on the ninth and tenth floors, can be rented out for wedding receptions or dinners.</p><br>
<p>There is a chapel used for the Sunday services of various downtown wards. The chapel contains a Casavant Frères pipe organ with 2,484 pipes in 45 ranks across two manuals. The organ is characterized by a French accent.</p><br>
<p>A pair of peregrine falcons returns yearly to nest in a nest box at the top of the building, which has two webcams installed in it, viewable to the public.</p><br>
<p>Shōwa-shinzan is a volcanic lava dome in the Shikotsu-Toya National Park, Hokkaidō, Japan, next to Mount Usu. The mountain was created between 28 December 1943 and September 1945. Initially, a series of strong earthquakes shook the area, and wheat fields were rapidly uplifted. Lava broke through the surface and the current peak was created. The peak is now 398 m tall, and still actively smoking.</p><br>
<p>The name Shōwa-shinzan literally means "Showa new mountain", as it formed during the reign of Emperor Hirohito, known as the Showa period. When Shōwa-shinzan first appeared, the Japanese authorities were worried that it might be interpreted as an unlucky wartime omen, and its existence was kept secret. Much of the information about peak&#39;s formation during these years comes from local postmaster Masao Mimatsu, who kept detailed measurements of its progress.</p><br>
<h2>Volcanic Activity Timeline</h2><br>
<p>Generally, the volcanic activity of Shōwa-shinzan can be divided into three main phases as recorded by Masao Mimatsu.</p><br>
<h3>Phase 1, Pre-Eruption Phase (28 December 1943 – 22 June 1944)</h3><br>
<p>On 28 December 1943, earthquakes starting to occur frequently around Mount Usu, with occurrences of more than 200 times per day on some days. The hypocenter in the early days was located in the vicinity of Lake Tōya. As the year entered 1944, the hypocenter started to move toward the eastern part of the base of Mount Usu and this resulted in the protuberance of the overlying ground. Eventually the protuberance started to spread to the north, reaching up to heights of 50 meters in some areas. The Sōbetsu riverbed also started to rise, and many fissures started to appear in the surrounding farmlands. The longest fissure recorded was about 600 meters long. On 22 June 1944, there were about 250 earthquakes in one day, and accordingly the protuberance of the ground rose by 150 centimeters in one day.</p><br>
<h3>Phase 2, Eruption Phase (23 June 1944 – 31 October 1944)</h3><br>
<p>On 23 June 1944 at 0815 hours, smoke started to come out of the fissures and shortly after a huge eruption followed accompanied by a thunderous roar. On 2 July 1944, the eruption became even more vigorous, and a phreatomagmatic eruption occurred. On 7 July 1944, a pyroclastic surge accompanied the eruption. The surge managed to reach the northern bank of Lake Tōya, burning forests and houses in the process. By the end of October 1944, Masao Mimatsu recorded a total of seven craters, seventeen major eruptions and countless minor ones. Furthermore, centimeters of volcanic ash from the eruption had been found deposited up to one kilometer way from the volcano, while the protuberance of the ground continued. From July 1944 to August 1944, the protuberance grew by two meters on some days.</p><br>
<h3>Phase 3, Post Eruption Phase (1 November 1944 – September 1945)</h3><br>
<p>Within this phase all eruption activity stopped completely and a lava dome began to take shape. The lava dome continued to take shape until September 1945, when earthquake activity finally seemed to come to a halt. The birth of Shōwa-shinzan was finally complete. Even so, the volcano continues to emit smoke even until today.</p><br>
<p>Red Indian Lake is located in the western interior of Newfoundland in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The lake drains into the Exploits River which flows through the interior of Newfoundland and exits into the Atlantic Ocean through the Bay of Exploits. Lloyds River, the Victoria River and Star River feed into the lake.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Beothuk, also known as Red Indians, inhabited several campsites on the shore of the lake. An expedition into the interior by John Cartwright and brother George Cartwright in search of the Beothuk found only abandoned campsites. At the time of their discovery of the lake they named it Lieutenant&#39;s Lake and they had assumed that the lake was part of the same system as Lake Mickmack, known today as Grand Lake.</p><br>
<p>In January 1811, an expedition led by David Buchan travelled up the Exploits River in an attempt to establish friendly relations with the Beothuk; Buchan found them, but the encounter went badly and resulted in the deaths of two marines. John Peyton Jr. led another expedition to the lake in 1819 which also ended in tragedy, resulting in the death of the Beothuk headman Nonosbawsut and the capture of Demasduwit.</p><br>
<h2>Economy and resources</h2><br>
<p>The interior of Newfoundland became accessible on the completion of the Newfoundland Railway, and the forest surrounding the lake attracted attention. The lake was surveyed in 1899 by Alex McCombie and by 1901 Lewis Miller had set up a logging operation on the shore near the site of Demasduwit&#39;s capture. A railway branch line to the town of Millertown was constructed, and in 1905 the Anglo-Newfoundland Development (AND) Company acquired a 99-year lease on timber and mineral rights for the land surrounding the lake.</p><br>
<p>Prospectors for the AND Company also discovered a substantial deposit of base metals on the north shore of the lake, and in 1926 the town of Buchans was established. Mining operations began the following year.</p><br>
<h2>Hydro</h2><br>
<p>A pulp and paper mill was constructed at Grand Falls, further downstream on the Exploits River. The mouth of Red Indian Lake was dammed, creating a vast storage reservoir for a hydroelectric generating plant at the mill in Grand Falls.</p><br>
<h2>Footnotes</h2><br>
<p>Mount Asahi is a mountain located in the town of Higashikawa, Hokkaido and the tallest mountain in the Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is part of the Daisetsuzan Volcanic Group of the Ishikari Mountains, it is located in the northern part of the Daisetsuzan National Park.</p><br>
<p>The mountain is popular with hikers in the summer and can be easily reached from Asahidake Onsen via Asahidake Ropeway. During winter, the mountain is open for use by skiers and snowboarders.</p><br>
<p>Sugatami Pond, directly below the peak, is famous for its reflection of the peaks, snow, and steam escaping from the volcanic vents.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Sulphur was once mined in the fumarolic areas.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Mount Asahi is an active stratovolcano that arose 3 km southwest of the Ohachi-Daira caldera.</p><br>
<h3>Eruptive history</h3><br>
<p>There is no historical record of the eruptions of Mount Asahi. Tephrochronology and radiocarbon dating have determined the following events:</p><br>
<p>3200 BC ± 75 years, Asahi Soria deposit, corrected radiocarbon dating, explosive eruption</p><br>
<p>2800 BC ± 100 years, As-A tephra, corrected radiocarbon dating,explosive eruption and phreatic explosions</p><br>
<p>1450 BC ± 50 years, As-B tephra, uncorrected radiocarbon dating, explosive eruption and phreatic explosions</p><br>
<p>500 BC ± 50 years, Ash-b tephra, tephrochonology, explosive eruption and phreatic explosions and debris avalanches</p><br>
<p>1739, tephrochronology, explosive eruption and phreatic explosions with possible eruption of the central vent and radial good</p><br>
<p>Mount Asahi currently exhibits steam activity in the form of fumaroles.</p><br>
<p>Asahidake Onsen is a small village in the Taisetsuzan National Park, Hokkaidō, Japan.</p><br>
<p>The village consists of a few hotels and a youth hostel. It a popular base for hikers in the national park, and for tourists using Asahidake Ropeway to climb Asahidake, Hokkaidō&#39;s highest peak. There is also a hot springs resort, with approximately twelve buildings. The nearby ropeway costs 1800 or 2800 yen, depending on the time of year.</p><br>
<p>Hiking opportunities in the area range from 30- to 60-minute walks all the way up to one- or two-day tours of the area&#39;s mountains. The area is volcanic, and evidence of such activity is plentiful. There are also opportunities for skiing in the area during the winter.</p><br>
<p>There are buses that run to and from the village year-round.</p><br>
<p>Coochs Bridge is a historic district located at Old Baltimore Pike, Newark, Delaware, and is the site of the 1777 Battle of Coochs Bridge. While there are several modern bridges near the site of the battle, the original bridge was in poor shape in 1777, and did not survive the American Revolution.</p><br>
<h2>Battle of Cooch's Bridge</h2><br>
<p>Fought on September 3, 1777, the Battle of Cooch&#39;s Bridge has two principal distinctions. It was the only battle of the American Revolutionary War fought on Delaware soil, and marked the first time that the Stars and Stripes was flown in battle.</p><br>
<p>The battle was fought between British and Hessian troops under Generals Cornwallis, Howe, and Knyphausen and the Colonial troops under General Washington.</p><br>
<p>The engagement began August 30, about two miles (3 km) south of the bridge. The Americans harried the lead forces of the British Army using guerrilla techniques learned from the Native Americans. However, the roughly 700 Colonials were greatly outmanned and outgunned, and were driven back by the advancing British.</p><br>
<p>By September 3, the Colonials had dropped back to Cooch&#39;s Bridge. A handpicked regiment of 100 marksmen under General William Maxwell laid an ambush in the surrounding cover. Over the ensuing battle, several British and Hessian charges were repelled, but the Americans soon depleted their ammunition and called a retreat.</p><br>
<p>The property was taken by the British and several buildings were burned. General Cornwallis used the Cooch house as his headquarters for the next week as the British regrouped. American casualties numbered around 30.</p><br>
<p>Shortly after General Howe moved his troops out. On September 11 he defeated the Colonials in the Battle of Brandywine and subsequently captured the Colonial capital of Philadelphia.</p><br>
<h2>Signage</h2><br>
<p>There are two sets of monuments/signs:</p><br>
<p>in the Pencader Heritage Museum parking lot: 39.63966&deg; latitude, -75.72999&deg; longitude</p><br>
<p>across the railroad tracks on Dayett Mills Road, just south of the Old Baltimore Pike: 39.64103&deg; latitude, -75.73234&deg; longitude</p><br>
<p>Ben Lomond is a mountain in the north of Tasmania, Australia.</p><br>
<p>The mountain is composed of a central massif with an extensive plateau above 1,200 m and high outlier peaks projecting from the mountain. The highest feature on the plateau is the unimposing summit of Legges Tor, at 1572 m, on the northern aspect of the plateau. The southern end of the plateau is dominated by Stacks Bluff, 1,527 m, which is an imposing feature that drops away to a cliffline 600 m above the surrounding foothills. The prominent outlier peaks of Ragged Jack (1,369 m), Mensa Moor (1,358 m) and Tower Hill (1,122 m) surround the plateau.</p><br>
<p>Ben Lomond is east of Launceston in the Ben Lomond National Park. Tasmania&#39;s premier Alpine skiing operations are located at Ben Lomond with downhill skiing facilities in the State.</p><br>
<p>Its accessibility from Launceston, together with the existence of a ski village on the plateau make Ben Lomond an all year round favourite for tourists and hikers. Access to the village and summit can be made via several walking tracks or via a zig-zag road known as "Jacobs Ladder".</p><br>
<h2>Nomenclature</h2><br>
<p>The Tasmanian Aboriginal Palawa name for Ben Lomond was usually recorded as turbunna (also toorbunna or toorerpunner). Alternatively,and apocryphally, turbunna is said to mean Rain Tail.</p><br>
<p>Modern etymological researchers of the Palawa lexicon assert that, in addition to turbunna, there were several names related to Ben Lomond:</p><br>
<p>parndokenne - the plateau between the Nile River valley (Lake Youl) and Stacks Bluff</p><br>
<p>tudema tura - a name recorded by John Glover - Taylor asserts that tudema=turbunna and tura=bluff- probably Stacks Bluff</p><br>
<p>loonder - cf lienta (i.e mangana lienta- South Esk River) a contraction for the plains to the south of Stacks Bluff - Fingal Valley</p><br>
<p>tritterer - another name for a bluff at Ben Lomond (cf ter=tur bluff/cliffs)</p><br>
<p>Most of the Aboriginal names for Ben Lomond probably refer to Stacks Bluff or the southern division of the massif - as the toponym Ben Lomond was usually applied to the southern half of the mountain in 1800s Tasmania, when these words were recorded.</p><br>
<p>The lake on the southern aspect of the plateau, now known as Lake Youl, was known to the Aboriginal people as meenamata, the prefix mena/miena being the aboriginal word for lake or lagoon and the suffix mata possibly referring to the surrounding topography. This name survives on modern maps as the toponym for the small lakes on the north-western aspect of the plateau - the Menamatta Tarns. One of the few examples in Tasmania of a land feature retaining its traditional name.</p><br>
<p>The South Esk River, which encircles the plateau on three sides, was a known as mangana lienta, from the word mananyer (large stream) and, as above, lienta referring to loonder, that is, the Fingal valley. The river near modern day Nile was known as pleepertoommelar</p><br>
<p>Although the mountain was seen by Flinders on his circumnavigation of Tasmania, the modern name was given by Colonel Paterson, who founded the first settlement in northern Tasmania in 1804, and is taken from the eponymous Scottish mountain. There is no isolated peak named Ben Lomond but instead the name may refer to the plateau, massif, bioregion or national park in which it is situated.</p><br>
<p>In colonial times Ben Lomond referred to both the southern extremity of the massif and the country around the southern escarpment. The toponym does not appear cartographically in reference to the entire massif until the 1900s; when Stacks Bluff also appeared on modern maps.</p><br>
<p>Features on the plateau have accreted names over the last two centuries as the region has opened up to surveyors and official parties.</p><br>
<p>The prominent peaks were renamed promptly by European settlers and most were based on appearance or location, with Stacks Bluff (originally the Butts, then the Stacks), Ossians Throne (originally The Knuckle), the Buffaloes (rock formations near Denison Crag) and Ragged Jack (originally Ragged Mountain) appearing in correspondence in the 1800s. Features on the plateau were predominantly named after surveyors (Giblin Fells), Government Administrators (Twelvetrees Moor), local identities (Lake Youl) or contemporary explorers (Grant Cirque).</p><br>
<p>The Government Surveyor John Helder Wedge made several visits to the plateau and renamed meenamata Lake Glover - after John Glover - and named modern day Tranquil Tarn as Pigeons Well; - after "Pigeon (Beewurher)" - John Batmans mainland Aboriginal guide; all of whom accompanied Wedge on his first expedition to the plateau.</p><br>
<p>Wedge also records an unknown feature (possibly Lake Baker, the next largest water feature on the plateau) Lake Maikai - the provenance of this name is unknown.</p><br>
<p>Last to be named is Mensa Moor, which was approved by the state Nomenclature Board in the 1990s.</p><br>
<h2>Natural history of the mountain</h2><br>
<h3>Geology</h3><br>
<p>The basement rocks comprise slates, siltstones, greywackes and quartzite. These were intruded by granite and, later, by dolerite during the Jurassic Period. Dolerite predominates on the plateau. The only exception is a highly localised area under Coalmine Crag and around the flanks of the Ben Lomond Plateau. This exposure includes a narrow coal sequence, which was once worked commercially. During the Pleistocene Ice Age, a small ice-cap existed on Ben Lomond, which was the only plateau in the north-east to be glaciated. The effects of these glaciers account for much of the contrast between the alpine scenery of Ben Lomond and that of the other mountains in the north-east. The most notable relict periglacial depositional features are the blockfields, which cover over a quarter of the Ben Lomond plateau.</p><br>
<p>Much of the plateau is devoid of soils. Organic soils (peats), including deep peats, are most extensively developed on the western side of Rodway Valley. Mineral soils are also found, particularly in the better drained sites.</p><br>
<h3>Flora</h3><br>
<p>Ben Lomond National Park protects a representative cross-section of Tasmania&#39;s north-east alpine plant communities. Although much of the plateau is stony with areas of low and often stunted forms of vegetation, the remainder of the mountain contains a wide variety of habitats ranging from alpine moorland to dense forest. A total of 222 plant species have been recorded on the Ben Lomond plateau, represented by 152 dicotyledons, 62 monocotyledons, 1 gymnosperm and 7 fern and fern ally families. The five most common families (Asteraceae, Poaceae, Epacridaceae, Cyperaceae and Proteaceae) account for about half the total number of species recorded. Most families, however, are only represented by one or two species. Some introduced plants have naturalised on the plateau from introduced grasses, clovers and straw used to stabilise soil and revegetate areas affected by slope grooming, road works and other site disturbances. The most common native species recorded on the plateau are the herbs Poa gunnii (tussock grass) and Gentianella diemensis, the shrubs, Richea scoparia, Orites acicularis and Pentachondra pumila, Baeckea gunniana and Epacris serpyllifolia. Cushion plants are abundant throughout the plateau. One species, the rock cushion plant Chionohebe ciliolata, is known only from a small localised area within the Park. Other rare and threatened species include the rare endemic Oreomyrrhis sessiliflora, and the endangered Colobanthus curtisiae.</p><br>
<h3>Fauna</h3><br>
<p>Of the larger mammals, Bennett&#39;s wallabies and wombats are common, and are regularly seen in the ski village during summer and winter, even under blizzard conditions. Pademelons are abundant in the wet gullies and areas with thick undergrowth. Forester kangaroos have been recorded along the south-west edge of the park. Eastern quolls inhabit the ski village during winter, and are sometimes sighted during daylight hours. Dusky antechinus occasionally visit lodges. The echidna has been recorded and the platypus has been sighted in the Upper Ford River. Various other species, including the long-nosed potoroo, Tasmanian bettong, brushtail possum, ringtail possum, sugar glider, native rodents such as the velvet-furred rat and the long-tailed mouse, and six species of bat have all been recorded in the park. Among the birds, no systematic study has been made. Wedge-tailed eagles are regularly reported, as is the noisy yellow-tailed black cockatoo. Among the endemic species recorded are the green rosella, scrubtit, brown thornbill, yellow wattlebird, yellow-throated honeyeater, black-headed honeyeater, strong-billed honeyeater and the black currawong. Little is known of the reptiles from Ben Lomond. Of particular interest is the endemic northern snow skink Niveoscincus greeni which is an alpine species restricted to several other mountain top areas in the State. Amphibians recorded from Ben Lomond include the brown tree frog, common eastern froglet and the endemic Tasmanian froglet.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Aboriginal land-owners of Ben Lomond</h3><br>
<p>The original inhabitants of the area were the people of the Ben Lomond Nation, which consisted of at least three clans totalling 150–200 people. Three clan names are known but their locations are somewhat conjectural - the clans were recorded as Plangermaireener, Plindermairhemener and Tonenerweenerlarmenne.</p><br>
<p>The Plindermairhemener clan is associated with the south and south-western aspects of the region and are likely to have occupied the South Esk Valley from the Avoca region up to at least the Nile River. Their country was bordered by the South Esk River to the south and west.</p><br>
<p>The location of the Tonenerweenerlarmenne is uncertain but were probably centred in the remaining Ben Lomond Nation territory from White Hills to the headwaters of the North and South-Esk rivers or the upper South-Esk Valley. This notwithstanding, the Palawa were a nomadic people and likely occupied their clan lands seasonally.</p><br>
<p>The clans of the Ben Lomond Nation hunted along the valleys of the South Esk and North Esk rivers, their tributaries and the highlands to the northeast; as well as making forays to the plateau in summer. There are records of aboriginal huts or dwellings around the foothills of Stacks Bluff and around the headwaters of the South Esk River near modern day Mathinna. Moreover, the remains of Aboriginal quarry works under Coalmine Crag suggest that the plateau was used for sustained periods by the Plangermaireener, as stone tools were needed for dressing game.</p><br>
<p>The clans of the Ben Lomond Nation were displaced in the early 1800s by extensive colonial occupation up the South Esk river and its tributaries. This particularly manifested along the mountains western and northern boundaries, which lay closest to the settled areas of Launceston and Norfolk Plains (now Longford). Initial contact between the Ben Lomond people and British colonials was likely to have been on hunting grounds around the South or North Esk, as early in settlement hunting parties from Launceston made incursions into the plains south of the nascent city. First contact may well have been peaceable as convict hunters and aboriginal people traded kangaroos and hunting dogs early in the colonys history.</p><br>
<p>Into the 1820s free land grants to wealthy settlers displaced convict hunters and led to the establishment of pastoralism at the Ben Lomond frontier, particularly up the Nile and Esk Rivers. The presence of farms and stockmen interrupted the migratory tribal life of the Aborigines and, although initial relations were peaceable, displacement was accelerated by continuing intrusion into country, abduction of aboriginal women and violent conflict with both settlers and with rival tribes. In particular, women became scarce due to the abduction by sealers of women in coastal areas, consequently leading to internecine raids for women across the interior.</p><br>
<p>In 1825 two convicts assigned to Andrew Barclay and James Cox on the Nile River, near Deddington, were killed and mutilated by Ben Lomond clanspeople in a dispute over women and ownership of hunting dogs. An aboriginal witness, Temina, testified that one man was killed by spearing and that a woman belonging to his people crushed his head with stones.&#39;. This was the first recorded of many violent encounters between the Plangermaireener and European settlers.</p><br>
<p>Children, also, were a target for abduction by settlers. For example, the prominent settler James Cox, at Clarendon on the Nile River, raised the Aboriginal William Black Bill Ponsonby from a child.</p><br>
<p>Over time, the aboriginal people were forced into an ever more marginal existence and; with numbers depleted by disease, murder and abduction, were forced into sustained conflict with occupying settlers. In 1829 these remnants of the Ben Lomond nation allied with members of the North Midland nation in order to conduct guerilla style raids on remote stock huts:</p><br>
<p>"The black natives have again commenced their outrages in this district. About six weeks back they speared a shepherd belonging to Mr. Dark (near Deddington), in sight of that gentlemen’s house... About a week after that they robbed Mr. Bonney’s (at modern day Bonneys Plains near - Stacks Bluff ) stock hut of blankets, flour, sugar, etc. Three days after they pursued a shepherd of Mr. Massey’s (near Deddington); the same day they threw a spear at Mr. Sinclair’s shepherd; the spear passed over the man’s shoulder and through a ewe about two rods before him, which the man was driving. The man escaped by running from them. Last Saturday, week they speared and beat with their waddies a man of Mr. Reed’s, near the same spot. Yesterday they attacked a servant of Mr Sevoirs (of Sevoir gully, near Nile Bridge), whom they endeavoured to surround; the man saved his life by discharging his musket two or three times, and retreating every time until he got to his hut where other men were"</p><br>
<p>These attacks continued on huts and farms along the Ben Lomond frontier into 1829, with a war party plundering a stock hut belonging to John Batman in July and in the next month spearing of assigned men at Lord&#39;s property, killing a stonemason in his employ.</p><br>
<p>As hostilities escalated across Tasmania in the Black War the colonial government authorised the employment of Roving Parties (essentially armed bounty hunters) to conciliate the remaining free aboriginal tribesmen. In September 1829, a party led by John Batman, with the assistance of two mainland aboriginal men he had brought to Tasmania, and the Tasmanian Aborigine Black Bill Ponsonby, led an attack on an Aboriginal family group together numbering 60–70 men, women and children in the mountains south east foothills. Waiting until 11pm that night before attacking - killing or wounding 15&#39;.</p><br>
<p>This must have proven to be a devastating setback to an increasingly desperate remnant of the Plangermaireener as they were scarcely seen on the Ben Lomond frontier from that time. Remnant Plangermaireener women were subsequently found in the Piper River region and reported lethal internecine conflict between the Ben Lomond people and a confederation of Oyster Bay and Big River clansmen - resulting in the death of all but 6 of the Plangermairreener men. In spring of 1830 an Aboriginal party was noted to have crossed the Midlands from the Westward to the Ben Lomond frontier- probably involving some Ben Lomond people- but by October 1830 the Plangermaireener were reduced to just 10 individuals. In winter 1830 they were noted to be absent from their traditional wintering grounds on the East Coast and never again would the Ben Lomond people be seen collecting eggs and fish from lagoons at Oyster Bay.</p><br>
<p>In late 1830, as the infamous Black Line military operation was being disbanded elsewhere in Tasmania, George Augustus Robinson spent a week in north-east Tasmania, searching without success, for the Ben Lomond people. In December, 1830, with 33 Tasmanian Aborigines having been removed to nearby Swan Island, Robinson sent a party to look for the Ben Lomond people, again unsuccessfully.</p><br>
<p>In early 1831 three assigned men of Thomas Massey were wounded by Aboriginal clansmen near modern day Deddington and this is the last reported conflict between settlers and Aboriginal clansmen at the Ben Lomond frontier.</p><br>
<h3>The fate of the Ben Lomond people</h3><br>
<p>After the failure of the Black Line in 1830, and after pressure from settlers, Colonial Governor George Arthur announced on 14 March 1831 his new policy of the removal of Aborigines from Tasmania. The conciliator George Augustus Robinson was tasked with rounding up the remnant aboriginal people. Robinson "....gave an unequivocal commitment that if hostilities ceased, Aborigines would be protected and have their essential needs met by the government while being able to live and hunt within their own districts."</p><br>
<p>These concessions, combined with the promised return of their women from the sealers, were the terms under which the chief Mannalargenna joined Robinsons embassy. as the remnant aboriginal people were moved en masse to Wybalenna (Black Mans Houses in the Ben Lomond Nation language) on Flinder&#39;s Island - where Mannarlargenna died of pneumonia.</p><br>
<p>At Wybalenna the remnant of the Ben Lomond people were encamped with aboriginal people from other, often rival, nations. The process of cultural assimilation began here, with compulsory attendance at Christian services mandated. At Wybalenna aboriginal people continued their resistance to oppression: Walter George Arthur; the son of Rolepana, a Ben Lomond Nation elder became the first Australian Aboriginal activist when he petitioned Queen Victoria in 1846 in protest at the treatment of his people. The aboriginal people fared poorly at Wybalenna and then when relocated to Oyster Cove, with disease and malnutrition contributing to high mortality and low birth rates.</p><br>
<p>The Ben Lomond Nation ceased to exist as a political and cultural entity after the occupation of their country and the subsequent murder, abduction or exile of its people. When the last people of that nation died at Oyster Cove on the Derwent much of the history that had persisted for generations died with them. The Palawa did not die out- descendants of the tyreelore, Palawa women taken as wives by sealers in Bass Strait, continued to live in a prosperous community on Flinders and Cape Barren Islands. Many of these descendants have cultural and genetic lineage from the Ben Lomond Nation and with the chief Mannarlargenna, in particular.</p><br>
<h2>Modern history</h2><br>
<h3>Exploration in Colonial times</h3><br>
<p>The first European to ascend the mountain was likely to have been John Batman, who is recorded to have crossed the plateau in his forays against the Ben Lomond Nation. In 1829, with a party of soldiers, he ascended the plateau from the foothills, noting the native track onto the summit and the extensive firing of the plateau by the Plangermaireener from their regular summer occupation.</p><br>
<p>The artist John Glover ascended the mountain with John Batman in the 1833 accompanied by the surveyor John Wedge and Batman&#39;s mainland aboriginal servants. Glover made sketches that clearly show the bluffs on the south-eastern escarpment, views of Lake Youl and the view of Tranquil Tarn from the eastern face. Although no paintings of the ascent have survived there was at least one painting exhibited in 1835 that portrayed the summit of Ben Lomond.</p><br>
<h3>Surveying the mountain</h3><br>
<p>The first scientific visit to the Ben Lomond plateau was made by the Polish explorer Paul Edmond de Strzelecki on 28 November 1841 and he measured the height of Stacks Bluff (albeit incorrectly) by barometry as 5002 feet.</p><br>
<p>In 1852; after the site was surveyed by James Sprent, the Government Surveyor, a Trigonometric Point was constructed on Stacks Bluff (the southernmost extremity of Ben Lomond) using convict labour.</p><br>
<p>A Full survey of Ben Lomond was conducted from September 1905 to 1912 by Colonel W.V. Legge and, later, Lyndhurst Giblin took over the survey. The surveyors climbed to the plateau from Mangana but on some of the later visits they ascended via Avoca and the Ben Lomond Marshes. The nomenclature of features on the mountain were established at this time and were named after members of the survey party and famous explorers of the period.</p><br>
<p>The survey party explored the highlands on the north of the plateau in 1907. Legge had long suspected that the north of the plateau was higher than the trigonometric station on Stacks Bluff (called by him Ben Lomond Fell or Bluff) but was less obviously elevated. Moreover, the area was, at the time, an area so remote and unexplored that Legge described it as untrodden as the distant ranges of the west coast.</p><br>
<p>Lyndhurst Giblin climbed and measured the true summit and named it after Legge. and, in turn, the prominent bluff to the south of the summit was named for Giblin&#39;s father - Giblin Fells.</p><br>
<h3>Mining</h3><br>
<h4>Gold</h4><br>
<p>In 1854 exploratory parties seeking gold, and sponsored by the Colonial Government, explored the plateau of Ben Lomond, driving bores and claiming to find particles of gold But it was alluvial gold, below the summit, that proved payable and was mined to the east of Ben Lomond at Tower Hill, Mathinna and Mangana from 1855 until the 1940s. At its peak Mathinna had a population of 2000 but this dwindled after mining ceased. Tin and tungsten were the other minerals to be obtained in the southern foothills of Ben Lomond and the townships of Rossarden and Storys Creek arose from the 1920s to 1957 around these mines.</p><br>
<h4>Coal</h4><br>
<p>In 1829 coal was found by John Batman and a party of British soldiers pursuing the Plangermaireener onto the plateau and they collected some to be successfully burnt on descending the plateau. Later there was a mine on the plateau, at Coalmine Crag, from which some coal had been extracted for local use in the ski village and, possibly, by trappers. It is not known whether the Aboriginal inhabitants of the region used this coal for burning or decoration but there is an indigenous word for coal (conara) and the seams are exposed and easily accessible in the vicinity of Raffertys Creek and Coalmine Crag.Coal was found in commercial quantities at the head of the Ben Lomond Rivulet in 1857 but the seam was mined at the Stanhope Mine, situated on Buffalo Brook about halfway between Stacks Bluff and Avoca.</p><br>
<h4>=Mining exploration=</h4><br>
<p>Mining interests also existed on the north-west of the mountain, around the island peak of Ragged Jack, where the prospect of silver and tin was investigated, but they proved to be economically unviable.</p><br>
<h3>Aquaculture</h3><br>
<p>Loch Leven trout fry were released into Lake Youl in 1905 in an attempt to establish recreational fishing on the mountain. Recent survey of fauna on the mountain shows no evidence of fish in Lake Youl.</p><br>
<h3>Proclamation as National Park</h3><br>
<p>Proposals for Ben Lomond to be made a scenic reserve were made as early as 1910 - as a reaction to frequent fires on the plateau. Ben Lomond was declared a National Park and Scenic Reserve in July 1947. The park encompassed nearly 40,000 acres of land that had previously been declared a fauna reserve although land already set aside for the Forestry Commission was excluded from the park.</p><br>
<h3>Recreation on Ben Lomond</h3><br>
<h4>Recreational walking tracks onto the mountain</h4><br>
<p>Recreational walking on and around the plateau was established from at least the mid 1830s, usually for the purpose of summiting Stacks Bluff, but it was not until the 1880s, when the mines had brought large numbers into the area, that walking on the plateau became popular. At this time the principal track to the plateau lay across the Ben Lomond Marshes ascending the western side of Stacks Bluff. This track led from Avoca, up Castle Cary Rivulet to the Ben Lomond Marshes, to the plateau on the western side of Stacks Bluff and along the headwaters of the Ben Lomond Rivulet. The track was describes as passing up the Ploughed Fields (the scree slope below Stacks Bluff) and proceeding through a pass between Wilmot Bluff and the western cliff line called by locals The Gap. Avoca, being located on the Fingal train line from Launceston, was the staging point for excursions to the mountain, with local guides arranging packhorses, camping equipment and suitable campsites below the plateau.</p><br>
<p>A track from Mangana was created in the early 20th Century for the purposes of attracting walking tourists onto the plateau. The summit was 9 miles from Mangana, led up the eastern escarpment and was used later by Legge for his survey of the mountain. This track passed by a hut below the plateau (complete with stables) and was regarded as an easy ascent to the plateau</p><br>
<p>Another steep track existed from Storys Creek which is still used to ascend via Tranquil Tarn to the summit of Stack&#39;s Bluff. The western face of Ben Lomond was accessed from English Town and this track took a course round the northern slopes of Ragged Jack. This is the original route for access for skiers before the northern route was established from Carr Villa hut.</p><br>
<p>Excursions in the 1880s became popular enough for a landowner to build a two-storey hotel with 12 rooms, a store, bakehouse and stables at the northern end of the Ben Lomond Marshes for the use of excursionists and miners. This was the Ben Lomond Hotel, which was built in 1883, and was a popular staging point for the walk up to the plateau, but by 1908 the hotel had been abandoned and fallen into disrepair. The Ben Lomond Hotel continued to be used as a staging hut for guided excursions up to the plateau from Avoca into the 20th Century.</p><br>
<p>Today, formed tracks exist that access the plateau from the northern, northeastern and south-eastern aspects of the massif. The northern access track is from the Scout hut at Carr Villa, in the northern foothills, to the summit (following the snow pole line of the old ski track) and thence to the ski village. The island peak Ragged Jack has established walking and climbing routes that are accessed via the north west foothills. The southern access is from Storys Creek, past Tranquil Tarn, to the northern slopes of Stacks Bluff. A track leads up to the summit cairn of Stacks Bluff, which affords extensive views of the entire eastern half of Tasmania. The plateau is relatively open walking but no other marked tracks exist, although guide books describe access to various features on the plateau.</p><br>
<h4>Skiing</h4><br>
<p>The Northern Tasmanian Alpine Club formed in 1929 and pioneered trips to the mountain and improved the access track. In July 1929 Fred Smithies, a pioneer of skiing on Ben Lomond, accompanied the Tasmanian government&#39;s Tourism Director on a field trip to the plateau with the aim of establishing the feasibility of a skifield.</p><br>
<p>Their route was by way of English Town, Ragged Jack and the headwaters of River O&#39;Plain Creek (see image). This route had the disadvantage that it involved an extended walk to get onto the plateau but was less steep than the alternative access from Blessington. The northern route was subsequently selected after a suitable route was found through the help of a local farmer, beginning from the Upper Blessington road at Wattle Corner.</p><br>
<p>In 1932, a chalet was built under the northern escarpment, facilitating access to the summit ski slopes. This chalet was named Carr Villa - named from a sign taken from the Carr Villa cemetery tram stop in Launceston - humorously celebrating a Mr Carr, a member of the ski club. The first permanent summit hut was constructed 4 years later to allow skiers to overnight on the summit. A smaller hut was constructed at the head of the pass to the plateau for the purposes of shelter and storage of ski gear. This remains of this hut can be seen from the walking track as it crests the pass into the Borrowdale Valley.</p><br>
<p>Access to Carr Villa, at 900m elevation, was by foot until a road was constructed in 1959 but then the summit was still a 500m ascent on foot from this point. Carr Villa chalet is now operated by the Rover Scouts after it was donated by NTAC in 1963 and the skiers access track is part of the Legges Tor circuit walking track.</p><br>
<p>In 1950 a Parliamentary Standing Committee recommended that Ben Lomond be developed as a ski resort. The Australian National Championships were held at the site in 1955. In 1963 the access road was extended to the top of the plateau via the steep and scenic "Jacobs Ladder". Subsequent developments have included new ski lifts, visitor facilities, a licensed inn and accommodation, sewerage system, and improved access. The Ben Lomond Skifield Management Authority was formed in 1995 to manage the Skifield Development Area.</p><br>
<p>Today, Tasmania&#39;s premier Alpine skiing operations are located at Ben Lomond, 60 km from Launceston. Located in the Ben Lomond National Park, the village is at 1,460 m and the top elevation is 1,570 m. A number of club lodges provide accommodation and the mountain has fine views which stretch to the ocean. In 2010, the Department of Parks and Wildlife released a plan for the Ben Lomond ski area recommending snow making machines, the enhancement of snow play areas and the development of a possible snow board park.</p><br>
<h4>Cycling</h4><br>
<p>Jacob&#39;s Ladder has been made notorious as the steep training ground for Tour de France cyclist Richie Porte and is featured as a cycling destination in itself.</p><br>
<p>Mountain-bikers enjoy the fire trails around the mountain, commercial downhill rides down Jacob&#39;s Ladder and a multisport event in the vicinity.</p><br>
<p>Mount Zaō is a complex volcano on the border between Yamagata Prefecture and Miyagi Prefecture in Japan. It consists of a cluster of stratovolcanoes and is the most active volcano in northern Honshu. The central volcano of the group includes several lava domes and a tuff cone, Goshiki-dake, which contains a crater lake named "Okama" . Also known as the "Five Color Pond"  because it changes color depending on the weather, it lies in a crater formed by a volcanic eruption in the 1720s. The lake is 360 m in diameter and 60 m deep, and is one of the main tourist attractions in the area.</p><br>
<p>One striking feature of Zaō&#39;s famous ski resorts is the snow monsters that appear in mid-winter. Strong wind over the nearby lake fling water droplets which freeze against the trees and their branches, until near-horizontal icicles begin to form. Falling snow settles on the ice formations, and the end result is a grotesque figure of a tree. The effect of a full forest of such trees gives visitors a ghostly impression. Zaō is one of the 100 famous mountains in Japan.</p><br>
<p>Rotaria rotatoria and Pinnularia spp. are found in the acidic Okama Lake.</p><br>
<p>Argedava  was an important Dacian town mentioned in the Decree of Dionysopolis , and potentially located at Popeşti, a district in the town of Mihăilești, Giurgiu County, Romania.</p><br>
<h2>Decree of Dionysopolis</h2><br>
<p>This decree was written by the citizens of Dionysopolis to Akornion, who traveled far away in a diplomatic mission to meet somebody&#39;s father in Argedauon.</p><br>
<p>The inscription also refers to the Dacian king Burebista, and one interpretation is that Akornion was his chief adviser (πρῶτοσφίλος, literally "first friend") in Dionysopolis. Other sources indicate that Akornion was sent as an ambassador of Burebista to Pompey, to discuss an alliance against Julius Caesar.</p><br>
<p>This leads to the assumption that the mentioned Argedava was Burebistas capital of the Dacian kingdom. This source unfortunately doesnt mention the location of Argedava and historians opinions are split in two groups.</p><br>
<p>One school of thought, led by historians Constantin Daicoviciu and Hadrian Daicoviciu, assumes that the inscription talks about Argidava and place the potential capital of Burebista at Vărădia, Caraş-Severin County, Romania. The forms Argidava and Arcidava found in other ancient sources like Ptolemy&#39;s Geographia (c. 150 AD) and Tabula Peutingeriana (2nd century AD), clearly place a Dacian town with those names at this geographical location. The site is also close to Sarmizegetusa, a later Dacian capital.</p><br>
<p>Others, led by historian Vasile Pârvan and professor Radu Vulpe place Argedava at Popeşti, Giurgiu County, Romania. Arguments include the name connection with the Argeş River, geographical position on a potential road to Dionysopolis which Akornion followed, and most importantly the size of the archaeological discovery at Popeşti that hints to a royal palace. However no other sources seem to name the dava discovered at Popeşti, so no exact assumptions can be made about its Dacian name.</p><br>
<p>It is possible that the two different davae are homonyms.</p><br>
<p>The marble inscription is damaged in many areas, including right before the word Argedauon, and it is possible the original word could have been Sargedauon (Σαργεδαυον ) or Zargedauon. This form could be linked to Zargidaua mentioned by Ptolemy at a different geographical location. Or, they could be homonyms.</p><br>
<p>The decree, a fragmentary marble inscription, is located in the National Museum in Sofia.</p><br>
<h2>Literary reference</h2><br>
<p>Mihai Eminescu made a reference to Sarmiszegetuza in the "Third Letter Poem" to the hills of Argedava when he described the Battle at the Rovine from 17 May 1395.</p><br>
<p>The Retezat Mountains  are one of the highest massifs in Romania, being part of the Southern Carpathians. The highest peak is Peleaga , at an altitude of 2509 metres. Other important peaks are Păpuşa  and Retezat Peak . The name means "cut off" in Romanian.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Retezat Mountains have many glacial lakes, including the largest glacial lake in Romania, Bucura Lake (Lacul Bucura), which covers 8.9 ha and is situated at an altitude of 2030 metres. The area also contains the Retezat National Park, Romania&#39;s first national park.</p><br>
<h2>River systems and Lakes</h2><br>
<p>The tectonic, lithologic and morphologic conditions present in the Retezat mountains, corelated with the orientation of the ridges towards the main air masses make this mountain group the most humid area in the Romanian Carpathians.</p><br>
<p>The hydrologic network is divided into two main directions: north, towards the river Strei (the Mureş drainage basin) where all the rivers from the west, north and north-east areas of the massif are flowing and south, towards the Jiul de Vest River (the Jiu drainage basin). The most important river course is Lăpuşnicul Mare with an annual average flow of 12.9 m/s. Waterfalls are present on all water courses in the park.</p><br>
<p>One of the specific features of the Retezat mountains is the widespread presence of glacier lakes. Approximately 38% of the glacier lakes of Romania are found here, on the bottom of calderas, grouped in lake clusters or isolated, and are one of the biggest tourist attraction of the park. Within the masiff limits, there are 58 permanent glacier lakes, between 1700m and 2300m. Some sources mention over 80 lakes, but here are most likely included the temporary ones as well.</p><br>
<p>The surface of the lakes varies between 300 m (Stânișoara I) and 88612 m (Bucura), the largest glacier lake in Romania. The depth of the lakes varies between 0.3m (Stânișoara I) and 29 m (Zănoaga), while the volume is between 90.3 m (Galeşul II) and 693.152 m (Zănoaga).</p><br>
<h2>Flora</h2><br>
<p>Of the approximately 3500 plant species that are found in Romania, over a third (about 1200) can be found here. This is mainly the reason why this area was declared a National park. There are over 90 plant species that are endemic to this area, the first one being discovered in 1858: Flămânzica (Draba dorneri).</p><br>
<p>The alpine meadows are particularly important, as here are found most of the alpine species, such as members of the Gentiana, Potentilla and Pulsatilla genus. The edelweiss can also be found here. At the limits between the rocky area and the alpine fields, species of rhododendron (Rhododendron kotschii) can be found. The mountain pine, a protected species in Romania, can be found on all the steep slopes of the Retezat mountains, while the Swiss pine (Pinus cembra) has a wider distribution then in any other Romanian massif.</p><br>
<p>Other species that can be found here are: hawkweed (Hieracium borzae and Hieracium nigrilacus), members of the Centaurea genus (Centaurea pseudophrygia ratezatensis, an endemic species), cat&#39;s ear (Hypochaeris maculata), an endemic species of locoweed (Oxytropis jacquinii retezatensis) and Gentiana lutea (ro. Ghinţura galbenă).</p><br>
<p>On the calcareous areas of the Small Retezat, a lot of rare or endemic species can be found, like Barbarea lepuznica (a species of the winter cress genus) or Pedicularis baumgarteni, a species of the Pedicularis genus.</p><br>
<p>The biggest threat for the park&#39;s flora (especially the one found on the alpine fields), is overgrazing, as there are numerous herds of sheep. The species specific to this area are replaced by less fragile ones.</p><br>
<h2>Fauna</h2><br>
<p>Over 185 species of birds, more than half of the species that can be found in Romania, visit the park. Out of these, over 122 species nest here. Rare birds, such as the golden eagle, (also represented on the park logo), lesser spotted eagle, short-toed eagle, peregrine falcon, western capercaillie, Eurasian eagle-owl, Eurasian pygmy-owl and the black stork reside here.</p><br>
<p>There are 55 species of mammals within the park range. There are favorable conditions here for some of Europe&#39;s biggest predators to survive: the gray wolf, brown bear and the Eurasian lynx; some big herbivores like the chamois, red deer and the roe deer, while small carnivores such as the wildcat and the European otter can also be found.</p><br>
<p>In 1973, 20 alpine marmots, brought from the Austrian Alps, were introduced in the park and released in the Gemenele glacier lake caldera. Nowadays they are found all over the park, but the impact that this nonindigenous species had on other plants or animals is yet unknown. Also, after 1960, the brown trout was introduced in some of the park lakes. Studies are now being performed to check if they are responsible for the decline in amphibian population through these lakes, observed during the last years.</p><br>
<p>A subspecies of the smooth newt (L. vulgaris ampelensis), endemic to the Charpatian mountains, lives here, while the European common frog can be fould all over the park. Although very few common European viper bites were reported, tourists and villagers often kill them on sight. There are several endemic invertebrate species found here: nine endemic species of butterflies, at least six species belonging to the Plecoptera order, and four belonging to the Trichoptera order.</p><br>
<h2>Access</h2><br>
<h3>South Retezat Region</h3><br>
<p>The southern approaches to the Retezat extend from the Jiu Valley city of Vulcan on the east end of the valley to Câmpuşel on the west end of the valley. Although there are several points of entry into the Retezat Mountains from the towns of Vulcan, Lupeni, Uricani, Câmpul lui Neag, and points in between, direct access to the National Park begins in the Cheile Buţii area (approximately 35 km west of Petroşani) and extends west to Câmpuşel.</p><br>
<h3>North Retezat Region</h3><br>
<p>The Retezat Mountains and Retezat National Park are accessible from the North by way of Romania&#39;s Route 66 (DN-66) and/or by way of train, which runs alongside Route 66, from Petroşani to the southeast or Simeria to the North. From Route 66, there are several gateways into the Retezat Mountains. Almost all the villages along the highway, from Ohaba de sub Piatră, just outside Haţeg, to Merișor, just outside Petroşani, have access roads that run south into the Retezat Mountains.</p><br>
<h2>Highest peaks</h2><br>
<p>The Retezat massif peaks with an elevation of over 2300m are:</p><br>
<p>Peleaga 2509 m</p><br>
<p>Păpușa 2508 m</p><br>
<p>Retezat 2482 m</p><br>
<p>Mare 2463 m</p><br>
<p>Custura 2457 m</p><br>
<p>Bucura 2433 m</p><br>
<p>Sântămaria 2400 m</p><br>
<p>Judele 2398 m</p><br>
<p>Bucura II 2372 m</p><br>
<p>Țapu 2372 m</p><br>
<p>Custura Bucurei 2370 m</p><br>
<p>Păpușa Mică 2370 m</p><br>
<p>Bârlea 2348 m</p><br>
<p>Slăveiu 2347 m</p><br>
<p>Obârșia Nucșoarei 2346 m</p><br>
<p>Morii 2340 m</p><br>
<p>Ciumfu Mare 2335 m</p><br>
<p>Șesele Mari 2324 m</p><br>
<p>Valea Rea 2311 m</p><br>
<h2>Image gallery</h2><br>
<p>Lake Enriquillo  is a hypersaline lake in the Dominican Republic located in the southwestern region of the country. Its waters are shared between the provinces of Bahoruco and Independencia, the latter of which borders Haiti. Lake Enriquillo is the lowest point for an island country.</p><br>
<h2>Hydrology</h2><br>
<p>Lake Enriquillo covers an area of 145 mi (375 km), and is the lowest point for an island country, falling -46 m below sea level. Its drainage basin includes 10 minor river systems. The rivers that rise in the Neiba Mountains to the north (lower center and lower right of the image) are perennial. Those rivers that rise in the Baoruco Mountains to the south are intermittent. Lake Enriquillo has no outlet. The lakes water level varies because of a combination of storm-driven precipitation events and the regions high evaporation rate. Salinity in the lake can vary between 33 parts per thousand (comparable to seawater) and over 100 parts per thousand (hypersaline).</p><br>
<p>The region has a hot semi-arid climate. Annual rainfall is not evenly distributed, with peak precipitation occurring in May and October. The dry season is December through April when rainfall may be less than 20 mm. Due to the length of the lake, annual rainfall averages also vary at the eastern and western ends: 729 mm on the northwest shore, and 508 mm in the southeast.</p><br>
<h3>Flooding trend</h3><br>
<p>Between 2004 and 2009, the lake doubled its surface area. Records for 2004 show the lake to be 164 km&sup2 measurements from 2011 put the area at 350 km&sup2;.</p><br>
<p>Reasons for the flooding are being debated, but may be a combination of several, including increases in rainfall in the region in recent years, increase of sediments going into the lake from run-off due to deforestation that are contributing to raising the lakebed, and milder temperatures, which are reducing the surface evaporation rate.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Lake Enriquillo is located in a rift valley formed by the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault that extends 79 miles (127 km) from Port-au-Prince Bay in Haiti in the west, to near Neiba Bay in the Dominican Republic in the east. Known as the Hoya de Enriquillo in the Dominican Republic (and as the Plain du Cul-de-Sac in Haiti), parts of the rift valley are below sea level and are covered by large salt lakes. The rift valley, a former marine strait, was created around one million years ago when the water level fell and the strait was filled in by sediments of the Yaque del Sur River. Tremors in the region are common.</p><br>
<p>There are three islands in the lake: Barbarita, Islita, and Isla Cabritos. Once, when water levels dropped during dry spells, the islands were linked to one another by sandbars. As of December 2011, only Isla Cabritos remains, the other two islands submerged by the rising volume of the lake.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>Lake Enriquillo is home to the largest population of American crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus) in the Caribbean. Three species of fish inhabit the lake: the blackbanded limia (Limia melanonotata), the Hispaniolan gambusia (Gambusia hispaniolae), and the Hispaniola pupfish (Cyprinodon bondi). Two rare iguanas endemic to Hispaniola live sympatrically on Isla Cabritos, the critically endangered Ricord&#39;s iguana (Cyclura ricordi) and the threatened rhinoceros iguana (Cyclura cornuta). Among the numerous bird species found at the lake, American flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber) are prominent; flocks of flamingos are especially concentrated on Isla Cabritos and near the eastern end of the lake.</p><br>
<p>Plants that thrive in arid places, such as cacti, can be found here.</p><br>
<p>A national park was established in 1974 to preserve the area; in 2002 it was combined with two other parks to form the Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo Biosphere Reserve.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The lake is named after Enriquillo, a cacique of the indigenous Taíno, who rebelled against the Spaniards in the early 16th century, and hid in the mountains south of the lake. It was previously called Lake Xaragua, after the Taino chiefdom in which it was located.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>Land near Lake Enriquillo has long been used for agriculture, such as banana, sweet potato and yuca farms, and pasture for cattle. The rising water levels have affected hundreds of nearby residents in townships bordering the lake, with abundant loss of agricultural land.</p><br>
<p>Important towns near the shores of Enriquillo include Neiba, the capital of Baoruco Province, on the northeast, and Jimaní, the capital of Independencia Province, at the western end of the lake near the border with Haiti. La Descubierta is the town nearest to the entrance of Lago Enriquillo e Isla Cabritos National Park. The community of Boca de Cachon, near the lake and severely affected by the rising waters, has been the subject of government relocation efforts including the construction of a new town further from the shores of Enriquillo.</p><br>
<p>Lake Gregory, or Paraku in the Walmajarri language, is a permanent freshwater lake located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, situated between the Great Sandy Desert and the Tanami Desert. It is usually fresh water, but can become saline after a number of dry years.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>The lake is situated approximately 220 km south of Halls Creek near where the Tanami Desert meets the Great Sandy Desert. The nearest town is the Mulan Community located 8 km to the east of the lake shore. The boundaries of two pastoral leases also encompass parts of the lake; Billiluna Station to the north and Lake Gregory Station to the south.</p><br>
<p>Lake Gregory is situated on the edge of Mulan Aboriginal Community, home to the Walmajarri people. It is a traditional site to the people, containing several culturally significant sites. The Paraku Indigenous Protected Area works with traditional owners and rangers to monitor and maintain the lake and its surroundings.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The lake is about 200 m above sea level. The system includes an area of about 400 km&sup2; that is subject to regular flooding within a much larger, approximately 5,000 km&sup2, paleolake bed.</p><br>
<p>The depth of the lake can vary from 1 to 10 m.</p><br>
<p>It lies at the far southwest extremity of the Tanami subregion of the Tanami Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia region. The Tanami subregion is composed mainly red Quaternary sandplains overlying Permian and Proterozoic strata that are exposed as hills and ranges around the area. Alluvial and lacustrine calcareous deposits occur throughout the subregion. In the north they are associated with Sturt Creek drainage and further south as part of the lake bed.</p><br>
<p>The lake lies in the northeast Canning Basin, within the Gregory sub-basin and is</p><br>
<p>underlain by almost 16 km of sedimentary rocks, ranging in age from Ordovician to mid-Triassic. The rocks are covered alluvium and lacustrine sediments to a maximum thickness of approximately 30 m. The bed of the lake is clay with the formation of some salt and gypsum pans.</p><br>
<p>The Lake Gregory System consists of several interconnected waterbodies and is fed primarily by Sturt Creek. The creek has a catchment area of approximately 65,000 km&sup2; and flows north to south as a single channel until a short distance south of Halls Creek. After this, it breaks into an anastomosing channel system forming a series of shallow interconnected basins. The western tributary of Sturt Creek feeds into Rillya, Kurdu, Yuenbi and Bulbi Lakes. The eastern tributary discharges through Leira waterhole into Mulan Lake which is the largest lake and can remain full for several years following stream flow events.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The lake was once part of a vast inland sea some ten times larger than the current lake around 300,000 years ago. It is now part of a larger system of freshwater and salt water lakes fed by Sturt Creek. The waters of the lake are dependant on water coming in from the creek and from monsoonal rains. Water loss from the lake is due to evaporation only as there is no outflow from the lake.</p><br>
<p>The lake appeared as Gregorys Salt Sea on Alfred Cannings map of the area when he was surveying for the Canning Stock Route. It is named to honour the explorer Augustus Gregory who traversed the area in 1856.</p><br>
<p>The fertile country around the lake and river systems provided an abundant source of plant and animal life that attracted the attention of the pastoral industry in the early 1900s. Billiluna Station was established along the shores of the lake and the Canning Stock Route was established from Billiluna south to the rail-head at Wiluna to transport cattle from all over the east Kimberley.</p><br>
<p>Lake Gregory Station covers 2,717 km&sup2; and has a potential carrying capacity of 6,720 cattle and did not operate as a cattle station from the 1980s to 2016 when it was acquired by the Aboriginal Land Trust.</p><br>
<p>In 2001 the High Court of Australia formally recognised the Walmajarri peples as the traditional owners of the area and awarded them native title over the land. A handover ceremony was conducted on the shores of the lake.</p><br>
<p>Stones recovered from the lake from an archaeological dig in 2013 were found to have had sharp flakes knocked off them to make stone blades. The stones were dated at 50,000 years old making Lake Gregory among the oldest-known inhabited sites in Australia.</p><br>
<h2>Flora</h2><br>
<p>The sandplains around the lake support mixed shrub steppes of Hakea species, desert bloodwoods, a variey of Acacia and Grevillea species over soft spinifex hummock grasslands. Wattle scrub over soft spinifex hummock grass communities occur on the ranges of the area. The drainage lines of the creeks support ribbon and Flinders grasses and other short grasslands, often as savannas with stands of River red gums.</p><br>
<h2>Birds</h2><br>
<p>The lake serves as a major migratory stop-over area for a variety of shorebirds. It also provides a major breeding habitat of several species of water birds, including cormorants and terns. It has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports over 1% of the world populations of hardheads, grey teals, pink-eared ducks, little black cormorants, brolgas, sharp-tailed sandpipers. It sometimes supports similarly important numbers of magpie geese, Pacific black ducks, freckled ducks and Oriental plovers, as well as providing habitat for Australian bustards.</p><br>
<p>The lake regularly supports over 100,000 water birds, more than any other inland fresh water lake in Australia. In 1988 more than half a million water birds were recorded at the lake representing at least 67 different species.</p><br>
<p>Camp Randall is a historic USA Army site in Madison, Wisconsin, named after Wisconsin Governor Alexander Randall.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>It was a training facility of the Union Army during the Civil War, with more than 70,000 recruits receiving training there. Later, a hospital and a stockade for Confederate prisoners of war were located at the camp. The site was purchased by the state of Wisconsin in 1893 and deeded to the University of Wisconsin. Of the original 53½ acres, a segment was set aside as Camp Randall Park, which now features a memorial arch, two Civil War cannons, and a stockade building.</p><br>
<p>Camp Randall Park is also the location of Camp Randall Stadium, the outdoor football stadium of the University of Wisconsin, opened in 1917.</p><br>
<p>Camp Randall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.</p><br>
<p>Tarrabool Lake is located on the western fringe of the Barkly Tableland in northeastern Northern Territory, Australia. The size of the lake fluctuates as a function of the amount of precipitation that the surrounding area receives in any given year. Although the lake is fed by several creeks, it receives most of its runoff from Creswell Creek, which enters the northeast end of the lake.</p><br>
<p>When fully inundated, Tarrabool is the largest wooded swamp in tropical Australia. It is a major breeding area for colonial water birds, especially Australian pelicans and straw-necked ibis. The lake is part of the Tarrabool Lake - Eva Downs Swamp System Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance as a breeding site for waterbirds.</p><br>
<p>Toussidé  is a potentially active volcano in Chad. It has an elevation of 3,315 m above sea level.</p><br>
<h2>Characteristics</h2><br>
<p>Toussidé is the westernmost volcano of the Tibesti Mountains of Chad. The peak is almost centered within the black shape that has tentacle-shaped lava flows extending down the western flank. The volcano’s base measures approximately 90 km in diameter. The light brownish area surrounding the peak shows a distinctive radial drainage pattern that is quite common for volcanoes as the terrain falls away from the main peak. The depression southeast of the volcano measures approximately 8 km in diameter and 1000 m in depth. The white base is caused by an accumulation of carbonate salts, creating this soda lake of Tibesti. With the exception of small vents that emit gasses and a few hot springs that continue to deposit minerals at the surface of the crater floor, little volcanic activity presently occurs in this region.</p><br>
<p>Mount Tom is a large and prominent peak near the city of Bishop in Inyo County of eastern California. It is in the Sierra Nevada and east of the Sierra Crest. The mountain is also in the John Muir Wilderness.</p><br>
<p>Along with its neighbor to the south, Basin Mountain, it dominates the western skyline from the upper Owens Valley.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The mountain is named for Thomas Clark, a resident of the pioneer town of Owensville, who is credited with being the first to ascend the peak in the 1860s. Mount Tom and Mount Morgan were part of the Pine Creek mining operation which was important producer of tungsten for much of the 20th century although the scheelite ore deposits are now largely depleted and mines have closed.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing</h2><br>
<p>The Owens Valley, at the base of Mt. Tom, is a little over 4,000 feet, and the summit of Mt. Tom is 13,658, for almost 10,000 feet of relief. The common routes up Mount Tom are not technically difficult, most are class 2-3, but they are all strenuous and long. Summiting Mount Tom is possible in a single day, but should only be attempted by those in very good physical condition.</p><br>
<p>Horton Creek Canyon is a common out and back hiking route and 14 mile out and back trail with 5,652 feet of elevation gain. The trailhead at Horton Creek Canyon is 8000 feet in elevation, it is 3.6 miles hike with about 2000 feet of elevation gain to reach Horton Lake. There campers may, with an overnight wilderness permit can choose to spend the night. From Horton Lake hikers head up the southern ridge of Mount Tom to the summit with 1,750 feet of off trail class 2 scrambling.</p><br>
<p>There are multiple technical climbing routes on Mount Tom including:</p><br>
<p>East Face Chimney Route, class IV, 5.9, First Ascent on August 18, 1988 by Galen Rowell and Kevin Worral.</p><br>
<p>Golden Thread Arete, class IV, 5.9, First Ascent on September 5, 1999 by Stuart Polack and Walt Vennum. This is a 14 pitch route on the north face of Mount Tom.</p><br>
<h2>Skiing</h2><br>
<p>Mount Tom is a popular back-country ski descent in the Spring years when there is enough snow. Elderberry canyon is the most popular ski descent. It is 7000 vertical feet of skiing and is steeper towards to summit.</p><br>
<p>On March 26, 2005 five skiers in Elderberry Canyon on Mount Tom were caught in two separate avalanches caused by the same party. One skier was injured, two skiers were buried and killed.</p><br>
<p>Punch Bowl Falls is a waterfall on Eagle Creek in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, Oregon, United States. Eagle Creek drains into the Columbia River, with its outlet on the Columbia River Gorge in Multnomah County.</p><br>
<p>The falls is 35 ft tall and 10 ft wide. Eagle Creek cuts through a narrow channel and shoots powerfully into a large bowl that resembles a punchbowl. This waterfall was responsible for the waterfall classification type of punchbowl.</p><br>
<p>These falls are not to be confused with another set of falls with the same name, found in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada near Miette Hot Springs.</p><br>
<h2>Nearby waterfalls</h2><br>
<p>Metlako Falls</p><br>
<p>High Bridge Falls</p><br>
<p>Sorenson Falls</p><br>
<p>Tish Creek Falls</p><br>
<p>Twister Falls</p><br>
<p>Skeleton Lake  is a recreational lake in Alberta, Canada. The lake is 6.5 km Northeast of the town of Boyle, Alberta, along Highway 63. It is located in Athabasca County, 170 km northeast of the City of Edmonton.</p><br>
<p>The lake&#39;s name is a translation of the Cree Cheply Sakhahigan which means "place of the skeletons." A Cree chief is buried along the eastern shore of the lake.</p><br>
<p>There are now approximately 890 cottage and trailer sites around Skeleton Lake. There are 11 subdivisions surrounding the lake which are part of the County of Athabasca containing approximately 300 lots. As well, the Summer Village of Mewatha Beach with approximately 220 properties, the Summer Village of Bondis with approximately 195 lots and Shoreline Campground with approximately 170 sites are all located on the shores of Skeleton Lake. A public golf course is located in the Summer Village of Bondis on the east side of the lake.</p><br>
<p>The Phoenix Shot Tower, also known as the Old Baltimore Shot Tower, is a red brick shot tower, 234.25 ft tall, located near the downtown, Jonestown , and Little Italy communities of East Baltimore, in Maryland. When it was completed in 1828 it was the tallest structure in the United States. The tower was originally known as the "Phoenix Shot Tower", then the "Merchants&#39; Shot Tower", and now is also sometimes called the "Old Baltimore Shot Tower". It is the only surviving shot tower among three that existed in Baltimore, and was designated a National Historic Landmark on November 11, 1971.</p><br>
<p>The Shot Tower lends its name to the nearby Shot Tower/Market Place station on the Baltimore Metro subway system&#39;s northeast line.</p><br>
<h2>Design</h2><br>
<p>The tower was built by Jacob Wolfe using bricks manufactured by the Burns and Russell Company of Baltimore. Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, a Roman Catholic lay leader and wealthiest man in America at that time, laid its cornerstone.</p><br>
<p>The circular brick structure&#39;s walls are 4.5 ft thick from the bottom to about 50 ft up; then they narrow in stages of 4 in each, until reaching a thickness of 21 in at the top.</p><br>
<h2>Production</h2><br>
<p>Molten lead was dropped from a platform at the top of the tower, through a sieve-like device, into a vat of cold water at the bottom of the tower to produce both "drop shot" for pistols and rifles and "moulded shot" for larger weapons such as cannons. When hardened, dried, and polished, the shot was sorted into 25-pound bags. The annual production was about 100,000 bags of shot a year, with the capability of doubling that in case of war or other high demand.</p><br>
<p>The tower stopped producing shot in 1892,</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The tower remained the tallest structure in the United States until 1846, when Trinity Church, New York on Wall Street was erected, and the tallest in Baltimore until the completion of the spire of the First Presbyterian Church at West Madison Street and Park Avenue in the Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood in 1875.</p><br>
<p>The shot tower was originally owned by the Merchant&#39;s Shot Tower Company which closed in 1898.</p><br>
<p>In 1921 the tower was purchased for $14,500 by the Union Oil Company, which planned to tear it down and put a gas station in its place. After strong objections by the community, by 1928 enough money had been raised to purchase the tower and present it to the City of Baltimore as one of its first preserved local historic landmarks.</p><br>
<p>The tower was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971 and a bronze plaque was attached to the tower&#39;s brick wall at the base. In the early 1980s, the management, exhibits, and tours were combined with those of the former Peale Museum. In 1985, other historic sites and homes were added to the newly created Baltimore City Life Museums system. The BCLM was closed in 1997, and in 2002 Carroll Museums, Inc was created to manage both the Carroll Mansion and the Shot Tower.</p><br>
<p>Jebel Dair   is an igneous mountain in central Sudan. It rises over 1000m above the surrounding terrain and 1451m above sea level. The flanks of the mountain apparently have been denuded of vegetation, although water exists in some of the meandering stream channels within the darker, vegetated wadis.</p><br>
<p>It can be seen as the dark, fractured structure near the center of the photograph to the right. The mountain flanks are the broad reddish-tan ring around it. A small muddy reservoir can be seen near the northwest corner of the photograph, and sand dunes to the northwest.</p><br>
<p>With the exception of Jebel Dair, most of the region is fairly flat. It is hot and semiarid, and marginally suited for subsistence agriculture, as well as for commercial crops of peanuts, sesame, and gum arabic. Drainage patterns dominate the landscape in central Sudan west of the White Nile River. Several major wadis, intermittently flowing watercourses, merge west and northwest of the mountain. The sand dunes nearby capture the wide variation in annual precipitation in the region, which makes agricultural activity tenuous.</p><br>
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<p>Casas Grandes  is a prehistoric archaeological site in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. Construction of the site is attributed to the Mogollon culture. Casas Grandes has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is under the purview of INAH.</p><br>
<p>Casas Grandes is one of the largest and most complex Mogollon culture sites in the region. Settlement began after 1130 CE, and would see the larger buildings developed into multi-storied dwellings after 1350 CE. The community was abandoned approximately 1450 CE. Casas Grandes is regarded as one of the most significant Mogollon archaeological zones in the northwestern Mexico region, linking it to other sites in Arizona and New Mexico in the United States, and exhibiting the expanse of the Mogollon sphere of influence.</p><br>
<p>Casas Grandes complex is located in a wide, fertile valley on the Casas Grandes or San Miguel River, 35 mi south of Janos and 150 mi northwest of the state capital, the city of Chihuahua. The settlement relied on irrigation to support its agriculture.</p><br>
<p>The archaeological zone is contained within the eponymous modern municipio (municipality) of Casas Grandes. The valley and region have been inhabited by indigenous groups for thousands of years.</p><br>
<h2>Pre-Columbian culture</h2><br>
<p>Between CE 1130 and 1300, the area&#39;s inhabitants began to congregate in small settlements in this wide fertile valley. The largest identified settlement is known today as Paquimé or Casas Grandes. It began as a group of 20 or more house clusters, each with a plaza and enclosing wall. These single-story adobe dwellings shared a common water system. Evidence shows that Paquimé had a complex water control system that included underground drain systems, reservoirs, channels for water to get to the homes, and a sewage system.</p><br>
<p>After being burned about 1340, Casas Grandes was rebuilt with multi-story apartment buildings to replace the small buildings. Casas Grandes consisted of about 2,000 adjoining rooms built of adobe, I-shaped Mesoamerican ballcourts, stone-faced platforms, effigy mounds, and a market area. About 350 other, smaller settlement sites have been found in the Casas Grandes area, some as far as 70 kilometers (39 miles) away. Archaeologists believe that the area directly controlled by Casas Grandes was relatively small, extending out about 30 km from the city. The population may have been about 2,500 in Casas Grandes with perhaps 10,000 people living within its area of control.</p><br>
<p>Specialized craft activities included the production of copper bells and ornaments, extensive pottery, and beads from marine molluscs. These crafts were probably distributed by an extensive trading network. Casas Grandes pottery has a white or reddish surface, with ornamentation in blue, red, brown, or black. It is sometimes considered of better manufacture than the modern pottery in the area. Effigy bowls and vessels were often formed in the shape of a painted human figure. Casas Grandes pottery was traded among prehistoric peoples as far north as present-day New Mexico and Arizona and throughout northern Mexico.</p><br>
<p>The archaeologist Stephen Lekson has noted that Paquimé is aligned on roughly the same longitudinal axis as Chaco Canyon and Aztec Ruins, with an error of only a few miles. Chaco reached its cultural peak first, then Aztec and Paquimé. The similarities among these sites may indicate that their ruling elites also had a ceremonial connection. Lekson proposed that ruling elites, once removed from their prior positions at Chaco, re-established their hegemony over the area at Aztec and later Paquime. This idea, though, remains controversial and is not as widely accepted as often reported (cf. Lekson 2009). It has been proposed, and more widely accepted, that the origins of Paquime can be found in its connection with the Mogollon culture.</p><br>
<p>Casas Grande effigy pot p1070225.jpgZoomorphic Figure</p><br>
<p>Jar p1070229.jpgRamos Polychrome olla with macaw symbols</p><br>
<p>Casas Grande effigy pot p1070227.jpgAnthropomorphic Figurine</p><br>
<p>Jar p1070228.jpgRamos Polychrome olla with Southwestern designs</p><br>
<h2>Archaeological ruins</h2><br>
<p>At the time of the Spanish Conquest, the district of Casas Grandes was studded with artificial mounds, from which looters took numerous stone axes, metates or corn-grinders, and earthenware pottery vessels of various kinds.</p><br>
<p>Before significant archaeological investigation, sizable portions of buildings from pre-Columbian times were extant about half a mile from the modern community. The ruins were built of sun-dried blocks of mud and gravel, about 22 in thick, and of irregular length, generally about 3 ft, probably formed and dried in place. The thick walls seem to have been plastered both inside and outside. A principal structure extended 800 ft from north to south, and 250 ft east to west. It was generally rectangular, and appears to have consisted of three separate units joined by galleries or lines of lower buildings.</p><br>
<p>The eastern and western halves of the city are divided by a stone wall and reservoirs. The monuments on the east are rectilinear, puddled adobe structures used primarily for domestic and manufacturing purposes. The buildings on the west, on the other hand, are open earth mounds lined in stone for public displays. This visual structure defines the eastern side as lending toward the Puebloan peoples of North America and the west as referencing the cultures to the south in Mesoamerica. This visual motif is prevalent throughout the other sites sharing the same longitudinal line, indicating that they were built by a common group.</p><br>
<p>The homes at Paquimé were circular and semi-circular pit houses and coursed-adobe room blocks built around plazas. The living spaces varied in size from closet-sized to extensive courtyards. Walls at many of the angles stand 40 to 50 ft high, and indicate an original elevation of up to six or seven stories. Ruins about 450 ft from the main grouping consist of a series of rooms ranged round a square court, seven rooms to each side with a larger apartment at each corner.</p><br>
<p>The settlement featured T-shaped doorways and stone disks at the bottom of ceiling support columns, both distinctive of Puebloan architecture. Casas Grandes had ballcourts, though they were relatively small compared to other major sites. Interestingly, the ballcourts at Paquime are in the classic "I" shape of those found Mesoamerica, and not the oval-shaped ones found in association with the Hohokam culture in south and central Arizona.</p><br>
<p>A 5,000 lb iron meteorite was found in one of the rooms, carefully wrapped in linen. The meteorite is displayed in the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.</p><br>
<p>Excavations in one compound produced eggshell fragments, bird skeletons, and traces of wooden perches. Additionally, there is the presence of a row of macaw pens in the center of the site. Archaeologists concluded that the community had imported an initial population of scarlet macaws from Mesoamerica and raised them as their feathers were considered sacred and important in Mesoamerican rituals.</p><br>
<p>A major collection of Casas Grandes pottery is currently held by the Museum of Peoples and Cultures at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Stanford University in California also holds pottery artifacts from here. The remainder of the material culture recovered from Paquime is located in the care of INAH in Casas Grandes, Chihuahua and Chihuahua City, Chihuahua.</p><br>
<p>Casas Grandes&#39; ruins are similar to neighboring ruins near Gila and Salinas in New Mexico, as well as Arizona and Colorado. It is reasoned they represent cultural groups related and linked to the Mogollon culture. Early ethnologist Hubert Howe Bancroft, in his The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America (1874), had alleged that they are related to the modern-day Hopi People, referred as "Moqui" during his period. Contemporary scholars have not precisely identified the descendants of the Casas Grandes people.</p><br>
<h2>Iconography</h2><br>
<p>Iconography can be simply defined as pictorial or material relating to or illustrating a subject, the traditional or conventional images or symbols associated with a subject and especially a religious or legendary subject, including art. In the case with the ruins found at Casas Grandes, iconography has proven to be particularly important in understanding gender differences, especially in regards to trade, daily tasks, and religious rituals. Effigies (small figurines) were found through excavation of the site, thus the effigies show definite gender and sex differences between males and females in society. The similar characteristics of the effigies such as body positions, body proportions, activities, and facial decorations allow archaeologist to make assumptions of how gender differences were portrayed. Artisans of Casas Grandes depicted a wide range of behaviors and beliefs from rules about social behavior (sitting positions) to ritual activities (smoking) and the supernatural (horned/plumed serpents). Based on archaeologists&#39; studies of the effigies found, the activities of women and men were both valued, and social differentiation was based more on individual status and class membership than sex and gender. Contrasting specific pictorial representations of the effigies include masculine identified features and activities such as sitting with their legs flexed to their bodies, decorated with pound signs and horned serpent imagery, smoking, and their penis. Females in contrast have large midsections sitting with their legs extended, decorated with modified pound signs and bird imagery, holding children and pots, and occasionally nursing. The effigies depicted the way in which the Casas Grandes people thought social life should be implemented based on gender differences and provide insight on the simple aspects of society.</p><br>
<h2>Birth and death of Casas Grandes</h2><br>
<p>Various theories exist as to the inhabitants of Casas Grandes, but the most logical relationship of Casas Grandes to Forty Houses 60 mi to the south and to TJ Ruins and Gila Cliff 200 mi to the north led to the common agreement that the site is part of the Mogollon culture sphere of influence.</p><br>
<p>Three other theories compete to explain its existence. The archaeologist Charles C. Di Peso advanced the theory that Casas Grandes was a backwater until about 1200 CE when pochteca (traders) from the Aztec empire or other Mesoamerican states to the south turned it into a major trading center. A diametrically opposed theory is that Casas Grandes was established by the elites of the Ancestral Puebloans from the north who were leaving Chaco Canyon and other areas during their decline. The third theory is that Casas Grandes is purely a local creation, a community that grew over time to dominate its region and adopted some religious and social customs from the civilizations of Mesoamerica. There is common academic agreement that trading existed between the cultures of Mesoamerica, Aridoamerica, and the American southwest, though not on a large or planned scale. As no system like the Pochteca existed in the north, the architectural remains throughout yet share a commonality of knowledge from north to south, that included such ancient population centers such as at Snaketown.</p><br>
<p>Casas Grandes was abandoned in about 1450. It is unclear whether it was abandoned slowly over a period of years or quickly. The Spanish explorer Francisco de Ibarra found the site of Casa Grandes in 1565. The Indians nearby, non-agricultural nomads, probably Suma or Jano, told him that a war with village dwellers, the Opata, four days journey west had caused the abandonment of Casas Grandes and that the inhabitants had moved six days journey north. This story suggests the people of Casas Grandes joined the Pueblos on the Rio Grande in New Mexico.</p><br>
<p>Other theories are that the Casas Grandes people migrated west to Sonora and joined or became the Opata whom the Spaniards found in the mid 16th century living in “statelets,” small but well-organized city states. It is also possible that Casas Grandes was abandoned because opportunities were greater elsewhere. Other communities in the Southwest are known to have been abandoned in favor of a new home.</p><br>
<p>The language the inhabitants of Casas Grandes spoke is unknown. Given the Mesoamerican influence on Casas Grandes, Nahuatl was probably widely spoken but it was not the primary language of the people.</p><br>
<p>Boulevard  is a historic street in the near West End of Richmond, Virginia, providing access to Byrd Park. It serves as the border between the Carytown/Museum District to the west and the Fan district to the east. Attempts have been made to rename the street after Arthur Ashe, a tennis star and social activist who was born and grew up in Richmond, but no renaming attempts have succeeded thus far. Near the south end is Richmond&#39;s Boulevard Bridge  across the James River. Boulevard intersects with main arteries Cary Street, Main Street, Monument Avenue, Broad Street, Leigh Street, Interstate 64/95, and Hermitage Road. The Diamond is located on Boulevard. The intersection of Boulevard and Monument Avenue features a statue of Stonewall Jackson.</p><br>
<p>Boulevard is designated as State Route 161, a route promoted in the 1940s and 1950s as an alternate bypass route before the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike and Interstate 95 were built, connecting with USA Route 1 north and south of downtown Richmond.</p><br>
<p>Lake Eyasi  is a seasonal shallow endorheic salt lake on the floor of the Great Rift Valley at the base of the Serengeti Plateau, just south of the Serengeti National Park and immediately southwest of the Ngorongoro Crater in the Crater Highlands of Tanzania. The lake is elongated, orientated southwest to northeast, and lies in the Eyasi-Wembere branch of the Great Rift Valley.</p><br>
<p>The principal inflow is the Sibiti River, which enters the southwestern end. The river may continue to flow somewhat year round, at least in wetter years; the other inflows are all seasonal. The second largest inflow is the Baray, at the northeast. The water carried by the Baray has increased in recent years due to deforestation of the Crater Highlands. The southwest flank of Mount Oldeani, one of the Ngorongoro volcanos, drains directly into the northeast end of the lake. Flow from the Budahaya / Udahaya River, which drains into the Yaeda Swamp to the southeast of the lake, was once second, but has decreased due to water diversion in the Mbulu Highlands. Water flow from the Serengeti is minor; the largest stream is the Sayu.</p><br>
<p>Seasonal water level fluctuations in the lake are dramatic, though the northwestern shore is constrained by the cliffs of the Serengeti Plateau. During the dry season the lake may dry up almost entirely, especially in drier years, so that Datooga herders and Hadza foragers will cross the lake on foot, but in El Niño years it may flood its banks and attract hippopotamus from the Serengeti. It is a seasonal stop for migrating flamingos. The lake supports minor local fishing in wet years, but more often catfish and lungfish are taken from the streams and springs that feed the lake. Even during wet periods, lake depths typically remain less than one metre.</p><br>
<p>The Hadza are the indigenous inhabitants of the lake. They are found along most of the perimeter, though camps are few along most of the Serengeti, which is Maasai territory. The Datooga inhabit the Yaeda Valley to the southeast, the Isanzu the south, and the Sukuma across the Sibiti River in the southwest. The Iraqw traditionally lived on the other side of Yaeda, but have come in increasing numbers to the Baray, which is now the primary onion-growing region of East Africa.</p><br>
<p>Mumba Cave is an archaeological site that is located by the shores of Lake Eyasi. The site has yielded a number of Middle Stone Age and Late Stone Age artifacts.</p><br>
<p>Jallianwala Bagh  is a public garden in Amritsar in the Punjab state of India, and houses a memorial of national importance, established in 1951 by the Government of India, to commemorate the massacre of peaceful celebrators including unarmed women and children by British occupying forces, on the occasion of the Punjabi New Year on April 13, 1919 in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. Colonial British Raj sources identified 379 fatalities and estimated about 1100 wounded. Civil Surgeon Dr. Smith indicated that there were 1,526 casualties. The true figures of fatalities are unknown, but are very likely to be many times higher than the official figure of 379.</p><br>
<p>The 6.5 acre garden site of the massacre is located in the vicinity of Golden Temple complex, the holiest shrine of Sikhism.</p><br>
<p>The memorial is managed by the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust, which was established as per the</p><br>
<h2>Jallianwala Bagh massacre</h2><br>
<p>(Taken from main article)</p><br>
<p>On April 13, Brigadier General R.E.H. Dyer arrived from Jalandhar Cantonment, and virtually occupied the town as civil administration under Miles Irving, the Deputy Commissioner, had come to standstill. On Sunday, 13 April 1919, Dyer was convinced of a major insurrection and he banned all meetings; however, this notice was not widely disseminated. That was the day of Baisakhi, the main Sikh festival, and many villagers had gathered in the Bagh. On hearing that a meeting had assembled at Jallianwala Bagh, Dyer went with ninety Sikh, Gurkha, Baluchi, Rajput troops from 2-9th Gurkhas, the 54th Sikhs and the 59th Sind Rifles to a raised bank and ordered them to shoot at the crowd. Dyer continued the firing for about ten minutes, until the ammunition supply was almost exhausted; Dyer stated that 1,650 rounds had been fired, a number which seems to have been derived by counting empty cartridge cases picked up by the troops. Official British Indian sources gave a figure of 379 identified dead, with approximately 1,200 wounded. The casualty number estimated by the Indian National Congress was more than 1,500, with approximately 1,000 dead.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>The place derives its name from that of the owners of this piece of land in Sikh times. It was then the property of the family of Sardar Himmat Singh (Sikhism) (d.1829), a noble in the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780-1839), who originally came from the village of Jalla, now in Fatehgarh Sahib district of the Punjab. The family were collectively known as Jallhevale or simply Jallhe or Jalle, although their principal seat later became Alavarpur in Jalandhar district. The site, once a garden or garden house, was in 1919 an uneven and unoccupied space, an irregular quadrangle, indifferently walled, approximately 225 x 180 meters which was used more as a dumping ground than anything else.</p><br>
