<p>Sibley State Park is a Minnesota state park near New London, on the shores of Lake Andrew. It is named for Henry Hastings Sibley, the first governor of the state. A city park in Mankato, Minnesota is also named for Sibley.</p><br>
<p>The rustic style stone structures in the park were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps between 1935 and 1938. These structures are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The layout of the park was a very functional example of master planning because it reduced congestion and overcrowding for swimmers, picnickers, and campers. It is rumored that a secret cache of memorabilia and other various items are buried underground in one of the park areas near the beach.</p><br>
<h2>Wildlife</h2><br>
<p>This park is home to mammalian species of white-tailed deer, red and gray foxes, coyote, raccoon, chipmunk, red and gray squirrels, mink, striped skunk, badger, and woodchuck. Bird watchers receive an opportunity to view ruffed grouses, great blue herons, egrets, wood ducks, Canada geese, scarlet tanagers, indigo buntings, pelicans, loons and bluebirds.</p><br>
<p>The Mathews-Powell House is a Victorian house located in Queen City, Texas, United States. The house was dedicated as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1973 and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on September 22, 1977.</p><br>
<p>The house was built in 1878 by William Franklin Mathews (1840-1900) and his wife Harriet India Sharp. Mathews, a Confederate veteran and farmer, moved to Queen City when it was founded (1877) and became a successful merchant. Briefly owned by various people after 1895, the house was bought 1918 by Ross A. Powell (1883-1937) and wife Gussie Boyd (d. 1920). Like Mathews, Powell was a merchant. The building remained with the Powell family for more than seventy years until it was sold in the 1990s. It now serves as the Antique Rose Bed & Breakfast.</p><br>
<p>The Vandalia State House, built in 1836, is the fourth capitol building of the USA state of Illinois. It is also the oldest capitol building in Illinois to survive, as the first, second, and third capitol buildings have all disappeared. The brick Federal style state house has been operated by the state of Illinois as a monument of Illinois pioneer years since 1933. It is located in Vandalia, Illinois, on the National Road.</p><br>
<h2>Earlier capitols</h2><br>
<p>The Vandalia State House, Illinois&#39;s fourth capitol, was built when Illinois was in its eighteenth year as a state. Admitted to the Union in 1818, Illinois quickly abandoned its first governmental center of Kaskaskia, and its capitol building (active in 1818–1820). A second "state house" was built of lumber at the new capital of Vandalia, but it burned to the ground after only three years (1820–1823).</p><br>
<p>The third capitol building (1824–1836), also built in Vandalia, was the scene of most of the service of Abraham Lincoln as a member of the Illinois state legislature. Lincoln did not, however, become a beloved figure in Vandalia. Elected from Sangamon County, closer to the geographic center of Illinois, Lincoln led a central Illinois caucus that called for the state government to move itself to the growing town of Springfield.</p><br>
<p>As a result of this threat, Vandalia businessmen took action. In 1836, when the legislature was in recess, they abruptly tore down the third Capitol building and built a larger fourth one on the same public square. The cost of the new brick building was $16,000. Vandalia hoped that the new Vandalia State House would be so nice to work in that it would encourage the state government to remain in town.</p><br>
<h2>Later capitols</h2><br>
<p>When Lincoln and his colleagues returned to Vandalia in the fall of 1836, they saw the new "State House" waiting for them. They were not impressed. In February 1837, the legislature, under pressure from Lincoln and his colleagues, moved the governmental center to Springfield. The fifth Illinois capitol, a Springfield building now called the Old State Capitol State Historic Site, served that purpose from 1839 to 1876. It was then replaced by the sixth and current Illinois State Capitol, which has been occupied since 1876.</p><br>
<h2>Vandalia State House</h2><br>
<p>The state of Illinois gave the Vandalia State House (in operation in 1836-1839, only three years) to Vandalia&#39;s county, Fayette County, for use as the county courthouse. Porticoes were added to the courthouse in the late 1850s, which made the building a structure in the Greek Revival style. The building served as a courthouse between 1839 and 1933, when it reverted to the state.</p><br>
<p>In 1933, the old courthouse became the Vandalia State House State Memorial, and an extensive program of interior refitting and reconstruction began. In 1985 the building became a State Historic Site within the new Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, which maintains the old state house and interprets it to its brief time as Illinois&#39;s fourth capitol building in 1836-39. Guided tours are offered and visitors can also view the period rooms on their own.</p><br>
<p>Knouff Lake, also known as Sullivan Lake, is a lake located 45 km north of Kamloops at an elevation of 1,149 metres. Access is off the Yellowhead Highway via the Heffley Creek Road, or alternatively via Vinsulla off the Yellowhead Highway, which is located approx 5 km further past Heffley Creek Road. It is a medium sized lake with a large population of moderate to large rainbow trout which are often fished using caddisfly as bait. Knouff Lake is serviced with hydro, phone, year round maintained roads and school bus pickup.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>James Vincent Knouff settled near Louis Creek in the 1860s, after packing through the Cariboo. He sold out in 1892 to retire in California, but soon returned to Louis Creek where he remained until his death in 1904.</p><br>
<p>In the early 20th century the entire valley around the lake was logged from shoreline to mountaintop, but it has all grown back forming fir and pine forest with the prior logging almost unnoticeable.</p><br>
<p>In 2003 the area was evacuated due to the encroaching McLure-Barriere and Strawberry Hill fires. Although the toll of these fires was high on the surrounding areas, their damage was limited to the area surrounding Knouff Lake.</p><br>
<h2>Local Geography</h2><br>
<p>Knouff Lake actually consists of two lakes that are joined by a creek, which is one of the spawning channels for the rainbow trout. The two lakes are known as Big Knouff and Little Knouff</p><br>
<p>Big Knouff is a clear water lake with a gravel bottom and extensive areas of shoal. There are four islands in Big Knouff Lake, all with ample shoals and weedbeds. Just south of the islands on the eastern half of the lake are several sunken islands covered with weed which can be visualized using polarized sunglasses.</p><br>
<p>North of Big Knouff Lake is Little Knouff Lake. This lake is very shallow, having a maximum depth of 5 meters (15 ft). Under normal water levels Little Knouff is barren due to winterkill. In years with high spring runoff, trout from Knouff Lake enter Little Knouff via the spawning channel.</p><br>
<h2>Resorts & Campsites</h2><br>
<p>One resort, Knouff Lake Resort, can be found on the north end of the lake. It has a number of cabins varying in capacity from four to eight people and a large tent/truck camper area immediately to the east of the cabins for those who wish to camp. Situated in the resort is a shower house, general store and boat rental center</p><br>
<p>Also on the west end of the lake is a BC Forestry Service campsite which is motorhome accessible and has a boat launch.</p><br>
<p>The Soudan Underground Mine State Park is a Minnesota state park at the site of the Soudan Underground Mine, on the south shore of Lake Vermilion, in the Vermilion Range . The mine is known as Minnesota&#39;s oldest, deepest, and richest iron mine, and now hosts the Soudan Underground Laboratory. As the Soudan Iron Mine, it has been designated a USA National Historic Landmark.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In the late 19th century, prospectors searching for gold in northern Minnesota discovered extremely rich veins of hematite at this site, often containing more than 65% iron. An open pit mine began operation in 1882, and moved to underground mining by 1900 for safety reasons. From 1901 until the end of active mining in 1962, the Soudan Mine was owned by the United States Steel Corporation&#39;s Oliver Iron Mining division. By 1912 the mine was at a depth of 1,250 feet (381 m). When the mine closed, level 27 was being developed at 2,341 feet (713.5 m) below the surface and the entire underground workings consisted of more than fifty miles of drifts, adits, and raises. In 1965, US Steel donated the Soudan Mine to the State of Minnesota to use for educational purposes.</p><br>
<p>The primary underground mining method used was known as cut and fill. This involved mining the ceiling and using Ely Greenstone and other waste rock to artificially raise the floor at the same rate as the ceiling was being mined out. As a result, the floor and ceiling were always 10–20 feet (3–6 m) apart, and waste rock never had to be hauled to the surface, since it was recycled. This technique was particularly suited to the Soudan Mine due to the strength of the hematite formations and the weakness of the encasing Greenstone. This method was not possible in the nearby mines in Ely because the iron formations there were fractured and thus were not as structurally stable as those at Soudan.</p><br>
<h2>State park</h2><br>
<p>The park is in Breitung Township, on the shore of Lake Vermilion in northern Minnesota&#39;s Vermilion Range. It has become a popular tourist site, often visited on the way to and from Ely and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.</p><br>
<p>The state park is operated under the Department of Natural Resources. It is a National Historic Landmark, meaning that it is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The surface buildings are open to the public, and during the summer months there are daily tours of the mine. Visitors are lowered in an 80-year-old electric mine hoist to level 27, the mine&#39;s lowest level at 2,341 feet (713.5 m) below ground. Two tours are open to the public: one that explores the historic mining facilities, and another that focuses on the currently active underground physics laboratory.</p><br>
<h2>Underground laboratory</h2><br>
<p>In the 1980s, scientists from the University of Minnesota began to develop the Soudan Mine as a site for sensitive physics experiments because of the very low rate of cosmic rays in the deep underground site. The mine was originally home to the Soudan 1 proton decay experiment and its successor, Soudan 2 which operated from 1989-2001. The University and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources have since expanded the laboratory to accommodate other physics projects, such as the MINOS neutrino detector, dark matter search experiments CDMS-II, SuperCDMS, and, and also a work on electroforming copper to create pure radiation free copper. Low-background materials screening facilities are in use and continuing development. The mine was proposed as one possible site for a USA Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, but that project has since been awarded to the Homestake Mine (South Dakota). Parts of the laboratory are open for daily tours, and there is an annual open house with more access to the facilities and representatives of the experiments to help with the tours and answer questions.</p><br>
<h2>2011 fire</h2><br>
<p>A fire broke out late Thursday, March 17, 2011 in the main shaft at the 25 level. The fire was smothered using 70,000 gallons of foam and a major cleanup of area around the bottom of the shaft (27th level) was necessary, as it filled with dense foam from floor to ceiling. The Underground Laboratory lost power but remained safe. The mine tours were closed for the summer of 2011, but the above ground tours and interpretive center reopened. Underground tours resumed on May 26, 2012.</p><br>
<p>Nicola Lake is a glacially formed narrow, deep lake located in the South-Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada approximately thirty kilometres northeast of the city of Merritt. It was a centrepoint of the first settlements in the grasslands lying south of Kamloops, and today is used for recreation and as a water storage site to provide irrigation and water flows to fisheries downstream in the Nicola River. The lake is important in the history of the local Nicola people as the location of one of their major communities, Nicola Lake Indian Reserve No. 1, which lies on its eastern shore and is the home of the Upper Nicola Indian Band. Many of the band work for the Douglas Lake Cattle Company, aka the Douglas Lake Ranch, whose headquarters are also adjacent to the lake.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Located at an elevation of 628 metres above sea level, Nicola Lake is a widening of the Nicola River system as it flows from the plateau south of Kamloops and northwest of the Nicola Rocks Valley. It is approximately 22 kilometres in length and has a general northeast-to-southwest lay, curving along its length. The lake has a mean depth of approximately 24 metres, with a maximum of 55 metres. The Nicola Valley is narrow and mountainous, generating substantial winds that have given the lake a good reputation among sailors and windsurfers.</p><br>
<p>The lake is a short drive from Merritt on provincial Highway 5A, formerly the main route into the B.C. Interior but replaced in the 1980s by the Coquihalla Highway system. This highway runs along the southeast/east side of the lake, through the communities of Quilchena and Nicola. The Nicola River flows into the lake just north of Quilchena, and exits through the Nicola Dam at the south end, just north of Nicola.</p><br>
<h2>Recreational Use</h2><br>
<p>Being roughly three hours from Vancouver and in a temperate climate that sees warm weather for much of the year (despite a severe high-country winter), Nicola Lake has become popular among those looking for recreation. Monck Provincial Park is located on the shores of the lake, at a site used in centuries past as a First Nations village (depressions, known as quiggly holes, from the local type of indigenous pit house, are still evident). Camping, boating, and swimming are available at the park.</p><br>
<p>Nicola Lake is a popular location for fishing as well, with rainbow trout and Kokanee the main species sought by fishermen. Burbot also populate the lake. Burbot must be released when caught by fishermen in Nicola Lake.</p><br>
<p>The winds that blow through its narrow valley have made Nicola Lake a destination for sailors and windsurfers. The Kamloops Sailing Association operates a facility at Quilchena that was originally constructed for the 1993 Canada Games sailing events, and today provides a location for club members and guests to sail, as well as lessons for new sailors. A pullout along Highway 5A is a popular launch site for windsurfers taking advantage of the wind. It was dedicated as a memorial to a local windsurfer several years ago.</p><br>
<h2>Water Concerns</h2><br>
<p>As part of the Nicola watershed locally and the Thompson River basin on a wider scale, Nicola Lake is a link in British Columbia&#39;s salmon life cycle. Because of generally declining water levels in the Interior, the lake, controlled by the dam at its outflow, provides necessary flows through the summer for vulnerable coho salmon and other species downstream. Some organizations have expressed concern about the water flows, and there is ongoing discussion about management of the dam, completion of the dam project (dredging of the inflow area being a key concern) as well as water supplies in the entire watershed.</p><br>
<p>The Washoe Theater in Anaconda, Montana was the last theater constructed in the United States in the Nuevo Deco  style. The theater was designed in 1930 by Seattle architect B. Marcus Priteca. It was almost entirely finished by 1931, but its opening was delayed until Thursday, September 24, 1936 because of the Great Depression. In 1936 dollars, its construction cost was a grand $200,000. The Smithsonian rates the Washoe as a national treasure due to the lavish interior. In 1982, the Washoe was listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places for architectural significance.</p><br>
<p>The interior design and furnishings were done by Hollywood theater designer Nat Smythe. The exterior doors are etched glass. Each joint and trim work is carved in complicated relief patterns with much use of ornamental ironwork. Use of copper is especially prevalent, as Anaconda was a company town for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Silver and gold leaf supplement the accent work. Carved rams heads line the walls. Every flat surface, including the domed ceiling, is a painted mural done by Colville Smythe.</p><br>
<p>The silk curtain is a piece of art in itself, though seldom seen. Its age presents a problem for curators who are afraid that taking it down, even to try and restore it, would cause it to fall apart. It has a painting of deer stags.</p><br>
<p>The theater was also designed to have near perfect acoustics. The delay in opening allowed the sound system to be re-designed as a showcase for Western Electric&#39;s newest innovation "Mirrophonic Sound". Recorded sound with films was itself a relatively new innovation, so the creation of a high-fidelity audio system was quite remarkable for 1936.</p><br>
<p>The site of the Washoe Theater was the site of two previous theaters in Anaconda. The Margaret Theater existed on the site since near the founding of the town. It was re-modeled in 1927 at a cost of $60,000 and renamed the Sundial Theater only to burn down in 1929.</p><br>
<p>The first movie to play in the Washoe was a Western, The Texas Rangers starring Fred MacMurray as a Texas Ranger. The Washoe still operates as a movie theater today.</p><br>
<p>Imbabura is an inactive stratovolcano in northern Ecuador. Although it has not erupted for at least 14,000 years, it is not thought to be extinct. Imbabura is intermittently capped with snow and has no permanent glaciers.</p><br>
<p>Covered in volcanic ash, the slopes of Imbabura are especially fertile. In addition to cloud forests, which are found across the northern Andes to an altitude of 3000 m, the land around Imbabura is extensively farmed. Maize, sugarcane, and beans are all staple crops of the region. Cattle are also an important commodity, and much of the land on and around Imbabura, especially the high-altitude meadows above the tree line, is used for grazing.</p><br>
<h2>Geography and geology</h2><br>
<p>Imbabura is a volcano in the southern Ring of Fire. As the Nazca Plate is subducted beneath the South American Plate, the former melts with exposure to the hotter asthenosphere. This melted rock, which is less dense than the crust above it, rises to the surface. The result is an arc of volcanoes, which includes Imbabura, 100–300 km away from the subduction zone.</p><br>
<p>Imbabura is the product of Strombolian Eruptions, which, in comparison to Plinian Eruptions, are relatively low-intensity and low volume. They are generally characterized by the ejection of cinders, lapilli, and lava bombs, as well as the accumulation of dark tephra around the volcanic vent. This forms a cinder cone. Imbabura’s cone is relatively exposed from erosion and easy to identify.</p><br>
<p>In fact, the mountain is a complex of cinder cones with varying heights. Many of them are named, including el Cubilche, Azaya (or Huarmi Imbabura), Pangaladera, Cunrru, Artezón, Zapallo Loma, Angaraloma, and Araque.</p><br>
<p>Imbabura was active during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene epochs, for the last time approximately 14,000 years ago. Future pyroclastic flows from any of Imbabura’s cones could pose a serious threat, however. From the Azaya cone, which faces West, pyroclastic flows could hit the San Pablo lake at the base of the mountain and generate devastating waves; from the Artesón cone, which faces north, pyroclastic flows could strike the city of Ibarra, with a population of nearly 300,000. For this reason, Imbabura remains closely monitored by volcanologists.</p><br>
<h2>Cultural importance</h2><br>
<p>As the dominant geographic feature of the area, Imbabura is of significant importance to the local culture, which involves a spiritual relationship with the land. The mountain is sometimes personified locally as Taita Imbabura, or "Papa" Imbabura. In fact, Imbabura is considered the sacred protector of the region.</p><br>
<p>One of boulders ejected by Imbabura&#39;s last eruption, which landed nearby in Peguche, was revered as Achilly Pachacamac, the supreme god, by pre-Incan peoples. According to local legend, Mojanda and Imbabura each hurled stones across the valley; but Imbabura, who is often characterized as a womanizer, was weakened by his amorous affairs, and his rock fell short. The stone has been carved into the shape of a face.</p><br>
<p>It is said that Imbabura fought with Mojanda to win the love of Cotacachi, who became his wife. When Cotacachi is snowcapped in the morning, it is said that Imbabura has been with her during the night. Building upon these legends, some of the smaller peaks nearby, especially Yanahurca (or Wawa Imbabura) north of Cotacachi, are called the offspring of the two.</p><br>
<p>When it rains in Otavalo and surrounding areas, it is also said that Imbabura is "peeing" in the valley.</p><br>
<p>On a western slope, an area of loose earth perfectly resembles a heart. This area, known as the "heart of the mountain" is much beloved by residents and appears in local art depicting the volcano. The area is said to be enchanted, as no human nor animal has been capable of scaling or hiking across the area.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing</h2><br>
<p>Imbabura is most frequently climbed from the town of La Esperanza or where the road ends about 4 km above it in the village of Chirihuasi. From Chirihuasi, the altitude gain is approximately 1,600 m. The route follows a ridge and reaches the false northern summit before contouring around the crater to the true summit.</p><br>
<p>The Dana–Thomas House or Susan Lawrence Dana House or Dana House  is an expression of architect Frank Lloyd Wright&#39;s Prairie School. Located along East Lawrence Avenue in Springfield, Illinois, for patron Susan Lawrence Dana, the town house reflects the mutual affection of the patron and the architect for organic architecture, the relatively flat landscape of the USA state of Illinois, and the Japanese aesthetic as expressed in Japanese prints.</p><br>
<h2>Susan Lawrence Dana</h2><br>
<p>In 1902, Susan Lawrence Dana (1862–1946) was an independent woman and heiress to a substantial fortune, including silver mines in the Rocky Mountains. Widowed in 1900, Dana enjoyed complete control over her household and fortune. Eager to express her personality and to become the leading hostess in Springfield, Dana decided to completely remodel her familys Italianate mansion located in the state capitals fashionable "Aristocracy Hill" neighborhood.</p><br>
<p>Susan Lawrence Dana&#39;s search for an architect to match her aspirations ended when she was introduced to Frank Lloyd Wright, the rising leader of a new movement in architecture.</p><br>
<h2>Selecting an architect</h2><br>
<p>In 1893, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) left the office of his mentor, Louis Sullivan, and began to practice as an independent architect. Fully agreeing with Sullivan&#39;s doctrine of "organic architecture", Wright expanded it into a full-fledged system of congruence between the interior of a building and its surroundings, which came to be called the "Prairie Style".</p><br>
<p>Susan Lawrence Danas 1902 commission to Wright to plan the "remodeling" of the Lawrences Victorian mansion was the largest commission that Wright had enjoyed up to that time. The architect, who recognized a kindred spirit in Mrs. Dana, expanded the boundaries of his commission to design and build what was, in effect, an entirely new house.</p><br>
<h2>Dana House</h2><br>
<p>This house was a showcase for Wrights Prairie Style. It reflected Susan Lawrence Danas flamboyant personality and Danas and Wrights mutual love of Japanese prints and drawings. The house was designed for display and entertainment. An arched doorway admitted guests into a series of expanding spaces, the vestibule and reception hall.</p><br>
<p>The concept of "expanding space" was repeated throughout the house, with windows placed so as to continually draw the resident or guest into an awareness of the outside. Wright designed approximately 450 art glass windows, skylights, door panels, sconces, and light fixtures for the house, most of which survive. Much of the art glass, and the mural by George Niedecken surmounting the dining room interior, centered on a sumac motif.</p><br>
<p>A substantial west wing leads visitors through an interior Torii gate into two of the largest rooms in the house. The upper-level gallery was used for musical entertaining, and the ground-level library contains special easels designed by Wright for Dana to display selections from her collection of Japanese prints, part of more than 100 pieces of free-standing Wright-designed white oak furniture in the house.</p><br>
<p>Susan Lawrence Dana lived in the Dana–Thomas House for approximately 24 years, from 1904 until about 1928. At first a successful hostess and leader of Springfield&#39;s social scene, she later became increasingly reclusive and turned her attention to spiritualism and the occult. Suffering from increasing financial constraints in her later years, she closed the main house around 1928 and moved to a small cottage on the grounds. As Dana struggled with age-related dementia in the 1940s, her home and its contents were sold.</p><br>
<h2>Dana–Thomas House today</h2><br>
<h3>State historic site</h3><br>
<p>Charles C Thomas, a successful medical publisher, was the second owner and custodian of the Dana–Thomas House in 1944–1975. A view of the building was featured on the title pages of some of his publications. Charles died in 1969 and his Wife Nanette died in 1975. He and his wife are credited with maintaining the house&#39;s original furnishings and design, and with selling the home and its furnishings as a unit to the state of Illinois in 1981 for $1.0 million, significantly less than could have been earned had the household been broken up.</p><br>
<p>The State of Illinois bought the house in 1981 and it became a historic site under the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA). The IHPA led a restoration effort in 1987–1990 that refitted the house to its appearance in 1910. It is believed to contain one of the most intact Frank Lloyd Wright architectural interiors in the United States. Restoration plans and documents are held by the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago.</p><br>
<p>The house was featured in Bob Vila&#39;s A&E Network 1996 production, Guide to Historic Homes of America.</p><br>
<h3>Temporary shutdowns</h3><br>
<p>As part of a program of budget cuts, the state of Illinois temporarily closed the Dana–Thomas House to the public from December 1, 2008 until April 23, 2009. The Dana–Thomas House again closed for 11 months in 2011 for renovations to interior and exterior finish as well as mechanical and security systems.</p><br>
<p>Epi  is an island in Shefa Province, Vanuatu, at the north end of the Shepherd Islands.</p><br>
<p>The island is 43 km long northwest-southeast, and 18 km wide, with an area of 444 km². Its shoreline measures 130 km. In 1986 it had a population of 3,035 but in 2009 it had increased to 5,200.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and Geography</h2><br>
<p>The island is of volcanic origin, and its highest point, Mount Pomare, which reaches a height of 833 m above sea level, is a quaternary volcano. It lies 13 km from the more prominent Lopévi volcano. To the east is the largely underwater East Epi volcano.</p><br>
<p>On the northwest edge of the island is the sandy beach Lamen Bay, and the nearby small island of Lamen (pop. 500). The bay has some coral reefs which are the habitat of the dugong. On the west coast is Cape Forland. In the southeast is Valesdir. In the northeast is Drummond Bay, with the Nikaura Marine Protected Area, established in 2000 by the community of Nikaura. To the south is the small uninhabited islet of Namuka. There are also black (volcanic) sand beaches, and three small freshwater lakes.</p><br>
<h2>Culture</h2><br>
<p>Epi has a wide variety of languages for its size, including: Bieria in the south, Maii in the southwest, Baki in the west, Bierebo in the northwest, Lamenu at the northwest tip (and also the island of Lamen), and Lewo in the east. These languages are all spoken by a few to several hundred speakers each, and form a branch of the Austronesian languages of Vanuatu.</p><br>
<p>Epi High School, at Lamen Bay, is being renovated by a joint effort from Kiwanis, Air Vanuatu, and AusAID.</p><br>
<p>There is a Presbyterian hospital at Vaémali (Falmali), on the north end of the island.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>The principal economic activity is subsistence agriculture. The island&#39;s GDP is $457 per capita.</p><br>
<p>Formerly there were a number of large plantations for coconuts and copra, principally along the fertile coasts. Today most of these have been broken into small holdings, except for the large plantation at Valesdir, which continues to produce copra, beef, and kava. Other crops include peanuts (grown in the interior hills) and kava.</p><br>
<p>Fishing is important as well. The government has recently been promoting training in fishing to improve its efficiency and safety.</p><br>
<p>Tourism has become more important, especially in the Lamen Bay area and Valesdir. There is accommodation available in a few other places including Sara and Nikaura.</p><br>
<p>Since 2007 with the introduction of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Scheme in New Zealand, in which New Zealand horticultural businesses can source seasonal labour from several Pacific Islands including Vanuatu, a small number of New Zealand businesses have sourced their RSE labour from Epi, primarily from the Lamen Bay area. Each year between 50 and 80 workers are recruited. These workers spend up to seven months of the year in New Zealand working as seasonal labourers in the horticultural industry; returning at the end of the period with their savings. A worker on the scheme could be anticipated to save approximately 450 000 Vatu over the seven-month work period. This has provided a substantial cash injection to the local economy and improved the living conditions of many of the residents and their families.</p><br>
<h2>Transport</h2><br>
<p>There are two airports on the island, one in the northwest, Lamen Bay Airport, and one in the southwest at Valesdir. Both are serviced a five times a week by Belair and Air Vanuatu. The island can also be reached by ship.</p><br>
<p>The island has basic unsealed roads but few vehicles.</p><br>
<p>Langtang Lirung is the highest peak of the Langtang Himal,</p><br>
<p>which is a subrange of the Nepalese Himalayas, southwest of the Eight-thousander Shishapangma.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>The Langtang Himal forms the western portion of a complex of mountains which also</p><br>
<p>includes the Jugal Himal, home of Shishapangma. This complex lies between the Sun Kosi valley on the east and the Trisuli Gandaki valley on the west. Langtang Lirung lies near the Trisuli Gandaki, and north of the Langtang Khola.</p><br>
<h2>Notable features</h2><br>
<p>Though not high by the standards of major Himalayan peaks, Langtang Lirung is notable for</p><br>
<p>its large vertical relief above local terrain. For example, it rises 5500m above the Trisuli Gandaki to the west in only 16 km. It has a large south face which long resisted climbing attempts. The List of the world&#39;s highest 100 mountains puts it at number 99.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing history</h2><br>
<p>The peak was reconnoitered by H. W. Tilman and P. Lloyd in 1949. Attempts were made to climb the peak via the East Ridge in the 1960s, but none got close to the summit.</p><br>
<p>In 1978, Seishi Wada and Pemba Tsering, from a Japanese-Sherpa expedition, succeeded in reaching the summit, via the same East Ridge route. They made four camps.</p><br>
<p>According to the, there have been 14 ascents of Langtang Lirung (in 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1994, and 1995), mostly by the Southeast or Southwest Ridge routes; and 13 unsuccessful attempts on the peak (these may be underestimates).</p><br>
<p>On November 9, 2009, Slovenian mountaineer Tomaž Humar, who was on a solo climb (the expedition started on October 5) via the South Face, had an accident during his descent. Sources report that he became stuck on the mountain at an approximate height of 6300 meters with a broken leg (other sources also report broken ribs and damaged spine). His only contact with the base camp staff via a satellite phone was made on the day of the accident, and he appeared to be in a critical condition. The rescue party found his body on November 14 at the height of 5600 m. Presumably, he died on November 9 or 10.</p><br>
<p>The Statue of Liberty National Monument is a United States National Monument located in the USA states of New Jersey and New York comprising Liberty Island and Ellis Island. It includes Liberty Enlightening the World, commonly known as the Statue of Liberty, situated on Liberty Island, and the former immigration station at Ellis Island which opened in 1892 and closed in 1954. The monument is managed by the National Park Service as part of the National Parks of New York Harbor office.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>President Calvin Coolidge used his authority under the Antiquities Act to declare the statue a national monument in 1924. In 1937, by proclamation 2250, President Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded the monument to include all of Bedloe&#39;s Island, and in 1956, an act of Congress officially renamed it Liberty Island. Ellis Island was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument by proclamation of President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. The United States historic district, a single listing on the USA National Register of Historic Places, was designated in 1966.</p><br>
<p>The islands were closed during Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 and suffered severe damage. Liberty Island reopened July 4, 2013. Extensive repairs on Ellis Island are still being made.</p><br>
<h2>Significance</h2><br>
<p>The Statue of Liberty is a world-famous symbol of freedom, given in the 1880s by France to the United States in celebration of friendship. Nearby Ellis Island was the first stop for millions of immigrants to the USA in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The national monument recalls this period of massive immigration to the United States.</p><br>
<p>Inside the statue, a plaque is engraved with words from "The New Colossus", the poem by Emma Lazarus:</p><br>
<h2>Location and access</h2><br>
<p>The national monument is located in Upper New York Bay east of Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey and southwest of Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan in New York City. Entrance is free, but there is a charge for the ferry service that all visitors must use.</p><br>
<p>In 2007, a concession was granted to Statue Cruises to operate the transportation and ticketing facilities, replacing the Circle Line which had operated the service since 1953. The waters are patrolled by the USA Park Police to enforce the restriction on private boat landings. Ferries depart from both parks and all boats stop at both islands, enabling passengers to visit both islands and choose either destination on the return trip.</p><br>
<p>Tickets can be purchased at Castle Clinton in Battery Park or at the Communipaw Terminal in Liberty State Park. Along with the ferry ticket, visitors intending to enter the statue&#39;s pedestal must also obtain a complimentary ticket</p><br>
<p>Those wishing to climb the 154 stairs to the crown within the statue must obtain a special ticket, which may be reserved up to a year in advance. Ten people per group, three groups per hour, are permitted to ascend, allowing for a total of 240 per day. After an obligatory second security screening, they may bring only medication and cameras, leaving all other items in lockers provided.</p><br>
<h3>Jurisdiction</h3><br>
<p>Liberty Island and Ellis Island have been the property of the United States government since 1800 and 1808, respectively. Historical circumstances have led to the unusual situation of Liberty Island and 3.3 acre of Ellis Island being exclaves of one state, New York, located completely within another state, New Jersey. The dominion, jurisdiction, and sovereignty of the islands have variously been the subject of a colonial land grant, a provincial governor&#39;s directive, and an interstate compact, as well as several court cases and USA Supreme Court decisions. Liberty Island and the acreage on Ellis Island are part of New York City which are completely surrounded by the municipal borders of Jersey City, including 24 acre created by land reclamation at Ellis Island and riparian areas. Jurisdiction not superseded by the federal government falls to the appropriate state.</p><br>
<h2>Related sites</h2><br>
<p>Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital</p><br>
<p>Communipaw Terminal</p><br>
<p>Castle Clinton</p><br>
<p>Liberty State Park</p><br>
<p>Battery Park</p><br>
<p>Governors Island</p><br>
<p>This article is about the prehistoric lake, For other geographic features with this name, see Chicago</p><br>
<p>Lake Chicago was a prehistoric proglacial lake that is the ancestor of what is now known as Lake Michigan, one of North America&#39;s five Great Lakes.</p><br>
<h2>Origin</h2><br>
<p>The city of Chicago lies in a broad plain which, hundreds of millions of years ago, was a great interior basin covered by warm, shallow seas. These seas covered portions of North America from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. Evidence of these seas are found in the fossils of coral, such as those unearthed in Illinois quarries at Stony Island Avenue, Thornton and McCook Avenues, or at 18th Street and Damen Avenue, all in Chicago. Evidence may also be found in the fossils in the Niagara limestone bedrock found throughout the Chicago area and extending all the way to Niagara, New York.</p><br>
<p>Much later, the polar ice cap crept four times down across the continent, covering the region with ice to a depth of a mile (1500 m) or more. As the climate changed, the ice melted, the last great ice flow (the Wisconsin Glacier of the Pleistocene period, which covered much of northern half of North America) retreated, and an outlet for the melting water developed through the Sag River and the Des Plaines River Valley around Mt. Forest, in the area known as the Palos. The Kankakee Torrent poured through those valleys, eventually leaving behind the prehistoric Lake Chicago, the ancestor of Lake Michigan.</p><br>
<h2>Chronology</h2><br>
<p>13,000 to 11,000 years before present</p><br>
<p>The earliest formation of Lake Chicago occurred when the Michigan Lobe of the glacier retreated northward into the basin of modern Lake Michigan, ca 13,000 years ago. Here, it formed the Park Moraine in Illinois and the Lake Borders Moraine in Indiana and Michigan.</p><br>
<p>The ice continued northward forming the next phase of Lake Chicago. The lake level remained at 640&#39; above sea level, but the ice margin was a third of the way north, opening a channel across Michigan, draining the Lake Saginaw and Lake Whittlesey proglacial lakes in the Lake Huron and Lake Erie basins.</p><br>
<p>When the ice retreated northward enough to open the Mohawk River valley, the waters in the Lake Huron and Lake Erie basin diverted from the Michigan outlet, leaving Lake Chicago as a headwaters lake. Continued northward migration of the glacier, set the stage for the next major proglacial lakes in the Lake Michigan basin as Lake Algonquin and then Nipissing Great Lakes.</p><br>
<h2>Size</h2><br>
<p>Extending somewhat further south, west and east than Lake Michigan, Lake Chicago extended west to present day La Grange, Illinois and south beyond Homewood and Lansing, Illinois, completely covering what is now Northwest Indiana, including the cities of Hammond and Gary, Indiana.</p><br>
<p>As the Wisconsin Glacier continued to retreat, it created new outlets for the water in Lake Chicago, including Niagara Falls, and the St. Lawrence River. As these outlets were developed, a partial lake capture occurred and the water level in Lake Chicago began to drop in three observable stages of 15 to 20 feet (5–6 m) each. Eventually even the outlet to the southwest dried up, and the Des Plaines River overflowed into the basin that became Lake Michigan.</p><br>
<h2>Outlet and beaches</h2><br>
<p>As the Michigan Lobe of the Labradorean Ice Cap retreated northward, the area of Lake Chicago increased. Lake Chicago’s initial outlet was to the southwest through the Des Plaines River valley, thence down the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico. The highest beach is the Glenwood Shoreline, which is 55 ft to 60 ft above the level of Lake Michigan. There are two additional beaches formed when the Des Plaines outlet was abandoned for other outlets to the north and east: the Calumet Shoreline, about 35 ft to 40 ft above the current lake, and the Tolleston Beach 20 ft to 25 ft above Lake Michigan. The name Lake Chicago is used for the lake when it drains through the Des Plaines outlet. The Calumet and Tolleston Beach lake is Lake Algonquin.</p><br>
<p>The outlet channel is more than a 1 mi wide and cuts through glacial deposits. Near the head of the channel, rock layers have been cut through. It is probable that the distinct beaches from Lake Chicago are the result of these rock layers&#39; giving way rapidly, dropping the lake level from higher to lower levels. After each stage, the next barrier remained solid, holding the lake stable and creating distinct beaches. If the outlet were formed by a steady erosion of the barrier, it would have been less likely that the well defined beaches would have been created.</p><br>
<p>Along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, the beaches of Lake Chicago have been destroyed by erosion, except the highest beach. Much of this beach has also been destroyed. The best remaining segments are along the southern tip of Lake Michigan in Indiana.</p><br>
<h2>Lake bed deposits</h2><br>
<p>Lake Chicago covered only a narrow strip of land on the south and east side of modern Lake Michigan. From Holland northward across the Lake Chicago, the lake bed extends 10 to 25 miles (16 to 40 km) inland. The widest expanse is almost entirely fine sand. There is more sand than clay in a narrow strip along the shore. The clayey portions have till at only a few inches depth. The offshore winds along the east shore of Lake Michigan have created sand dunes, burying the older glacial beaches and lake beds.</p><br>
<h2>Today</h2><br>
<p>Vast amounts of sand in spits, dunes and beach lines&mdash;particularly at the southern tip of Lake Michigan&mdash;were left behind by each of the three stages of lake level drop. Today, evidence of these vast sand deposits is still clearly visible. Northern Indiana, for example, contains some of the most beautiful beaches found in any of the five Great Lakes, and many of the Chicago area&#39;s trails and roads follow some of these ancient beach lines or ridges in the sand spits.</p><br>
<p>For example, Ridge Road from Homewood, Illinois, through Thornton and Lansing, Illinois, and then crossing the state border into Munster and Highland, Indiana, is one; Michigan City Road through Riverdale, Dolton, and Calumet City, Illinois, is another; LaGrange Road is another; Riverside Drive in Riverside; Ridgeland Avenue in Oak Park, or Grosse Point Road, Carpenter Road, and Ridge Avenue (The Rosehill Spit) in the Rogers Park/West Ridge neighborhood of Chicago, north of Devon Avenue and continuing north through Evanston, Illinois, are some others. Blue Island, Illinois, and Stony Island were, literally, islands left behind as Lake Chicago&#39;s water level fell.</p><br>
<p>Chamar is the highest peak of the Sringi  Himal, which is a subrange of the Nepalese Himalayas.</p><br>
<p>Chamar and the entire Sringi Himal lie in Central Nepal, just south of the Tibetan border, between the Shyar Khola valley on the east and the Tom Khola–Trisuli Gandaki valley on the west. Chamar is about 90 km northwest of Kathmandu, and about 25 km east of Manaslu, the nearest eight-thousander.</p><br>
<h2>Notable features</h2><br>
<p>The Sringi Himal is small in land area and remote even by Himalayan standards; it has seen little visitation from outsiders.</p><br>
<p>Although low in elevation among the major mountains of Nepal, Chamar is exceptional in its steep rise above local terrain. For example, it rises 5500 m from the Tom Khola/Trisuli Gandaki confluence in a horizontal distance of about 13 km.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing history</h2><br>
<p>Interestingly, there is no record of attempts on this mountain prior to the successful first ascent in 1953. In May–June of that year, a party from New Zealand climbed the peak via the Northeast Ridge route, placing five camps.</p><br>
<p>The lists three more unsuccessful attempts, in 1983, 1994, and 2000, but no more ascents of the peak.</p><br>
<p>Koufalia  is a municipal unit and a town of the Chalkidona municipality. Koufalia is the seat of the municipality of Chalkidona.</p><br>
<h2>Administrative division</h2><br>
<p>The municipal unit of Koufalia consists of two communities:</p><br>
<p>Koufalia (population 8,139)</p><br>
<p>Prochoma (population 2,440)</p><br>
<p>The aforementioned population figures are as of 2011.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Koufalia is located 35 kilometres North-West of the City of Thessaloniki, and virtually by the Axios river. The community of Koufalia covers an area of 67.591 km while the municipal unit covers an area of 106,128 km.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Koufalia is built north of the ancient city of Ichnae (IXNAI). Most of its population originates from the town of Kavakli in Bulgaria. They moved to the area after the 1919 signing of the Treaty of Neuilly between Greece and Bulgaria that forced a population exchange between the two countries. In return the mostly Bulgarian population of the village immigrated to Bulgaria, settling mainly on the Black Sea coast, in the area of Anchialo. The population called the city Koufalovo (Куфалово). There are also Ntopioi and Greek refugees from Asia Minor and Thrace.</p><br>
<h2>Culture</h2><br>
<p>It has a number of cultural organisations, the main one being “Megas Alexandros” (Alexander the Great); it was founded in 1980. It has its own lending library as well as a blood bank for humanitarian purposes. Every year it organises the “River Party” on the banks of the Axios river, from 24–26 July, and religious festivals (πανηγύρια).</p><br>
<h2>People from Koufalia</h2><br>
<p>Kostas Novakis, ethnographer and musician</p><br>
<p>Houvenkopf or Hovenkopf Mountain is a mountain in Mahwah, in Bergen County, New Jersey, extending into New York, where it forms the western side of the southern entrance to Ramapo Pass. The major peak on the New Jersey side rises to 931 ft and is known as Stag Hill. It is separated by a deep saddle from the major peak on the New York side, the "Hooge Kop" proper, which rises to about 770 ft and overlooks Hillburn to the north and Suffern to the east. It is part of the Ramapo Mountains.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The mountain&#39;s name is derived from the Dutch "Hooge Kop", meaning "High Head". Locals used to spread grain around the summit boulders and catch passenger pigeons.</p><br>
<p>The mountain was the subject of a poem, "Mount Houvenkopf", by Joyce Kilmer, written in 1918.</p><br>
<p>Parts of the mountain, including the summit of Stag Hill, are now part of the Ramapo Valley County Reservation and are publicly accessible.</p><br>
<p>Mojanda is an inactive stratovolcano of the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes in northern Ecuador. A summit caldera, which was produced by an explosive Plinian Eruption that marked the end of Mojanda activity 200,000 years ago, is occupied by three crater lakes: Karikucha , Yanakucha, and Warmikucha. Having received protected status in 2002, they are a popular tourist destination and are about 20 minutes taxi ride from the largely indigenous town of Otavalo.</p><br>
<p>Mojanda is a complex of two volcanoes which were active simultaneously. The volcanic vents are only 3 km apart. The other volcano, which produced at least two Plinian Eruptions of its own, is known as Fuya Fuya. Fuya Fuya partially collapsed around 165,000 years ago, creating a large caldera to the west. A new volcanic cone and other lava domes subsequently extruded inside the caldera, probably during the Late Pleistocene.</p><br>
<p>The high altitude grasslands and shrublands of Mojanda, which lie above the cloud forests, are collectively known as páramo. They are frequently grazed by cattle.</p><br>
<p>Brantwood is a country house in Cumbria, England, overlooking Coniston Water. It has been the home of a number of prominent people, including John Ruskin. The house and grounds are administered by a charitable trust, the house being a museum dedicated to Ruskin. The house is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and buildings in the grounds are also listed.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Brant is an old Norse word meaning "steep" and the house and grounds are situated on a steep wooded area overlooking the lake. Before the house was built the site was regarded as an "essential viewing point" for early visitors to the Lake District in the 18th century. The original house was built at the end of the 18th century by Thomas Woodville and consisted of between 6 and 8 rooms. After a number of owners, the estate and house were enlarged around 1833. In the middle of the 19th century the resident was Josiah Hudson, father of Charles Hudson who was an Anglican priest and an early mountaineer.</p><br>
<p>In 1852 the resident was the Victorian wood engraver, poet, artist, book illustrator and social reformer William James Linton who bought the house the following year. Between 1858 and 1864, while Linton was living in London, the house was let to Gerald Massey, poet and Egyptologist. Linton emigrated with his children to America in 1867. In 1869, George William Kitchin, later Dean of Durham Cathedral, took up residence at Brantwood. In 1871 the house was sold to John Ruskin who it is claimed had never previously seen it. However, Kitchin and Ruskin were friends, having met at Oxford, so it is likely he may have had some prior knowledge of the property. Before Ruskin came to Brantwood in the following year, he arranged for repairs to the house, the addition of a turret, the building of a lodge for his valet and his family and for improvements to the garden.</p><br>
<p>For a short time during his stay at Brantwood, Ruskin held tutorial sessions, what would be called today as teaching seminars. These were held three times each week and each day a different subject was covered, namely Art, Literature and Sociology. His evening assistant when he was absent was a Richard Hosken who had been a former student.</p><br>
<p>When he was in residence, Ruskin filled the house with art, including paintings by Gainsborough, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites and a collection of minerals, pottery and sea-shells. Ruskin was joined in the house by Arthur Severn, an artist married to Joan Agnew, his cousin and their growing family. A frequent visitor to the house was William Gershom Collingwood, painter, archaeologist and translator of Nordic sagas who lived nearby. In 1878 a new dining room was built at the south end of the house. A second storey was added around 1890 to provide additional rooms for the Severn family and a studio was built at the rear of the house for the use of Arthur Severn. During this time the estate was also extended.</p><br>
<p>Following the death of Ruskin in 1900, the house and estate were inherited by the Severn family. In Ruskin&#39;s will the wish was expressed that the house should be open for 30 days a year for visitors to see his house and collection. However the Severns did not honour this intention and they sold many of the better pictures. After the death of Arthur Severn in 1931 the remaining contents of the house were sold by auction.</p><br>
<p>Emily Warren, John Ruskin&#39;s last pupil, instigated a successful movement to have Brantwood, made into a museum. The house was saved for the nation by John Howard Whitehouse, founder of Bembridge School and of the Birmingham Ruskin Society, who bought the house. He established the Brantwood Trust in 1951 to care for the property for posterity.</p><br>
<h2>House and grounds</h2><br>
<p>The house is listed at Grade II*. The following rooms are open to the public. The drawing room still includes Ruskins secretaire, bookcase and shell-cabinet. The wallpaper is a copy of Ruskins design and his drawing of the north porch of St. Marks, Venice hangs above the shell-cabinet. Next door is the study where Ruskin worked which contains a painting by Samuel Prout. The dining room, built in 1878, has views over to the Coniston mountains through its seven lancet windows. It contains a portrait of Ruskin aged 3 painted by James Northcote. The old dining room contains some early drawings by Ruskin. Upstairs in the turret is Ruskins bedroom.</p><br>
<p>In the grounds are four more listed buildings. The lodge and former stable are listed at Grade II*. Listed at Grade II are the former coach house and stable, another outbuilding, and an ice house. In the Linton Room in the Linton Building there is a lithophone, called "The Musical Stones", which visitors may play.</p><br>
<p>The garden was used by Ruskin to experiment in various forms of cultivation and drainage and it contains a series of steep and winding paths. After his death more ornamental shrubs and trees were planted. The area then became overgrown until it was rediscovered in the 1980s and it has been much restored since. The estate covers around 250 acre and includes lake shore, pasture, oak woods and moorland.</p><br>
<p>The George A. Strout House is a registered historic place in Sebastopol, California. The house received a Preservation Award by the Western Sonoma County Historical Society in 1977 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 . It is also known as the Strout House and the Kimball House.</p><br>
<p>George Strout, one of Sebastopols early mayors, bought a lot at 253 Florence Avenue from Gertrude Huntley in 1901 and built a Queen Anne Victorian for his family in 1903. Strout, a master carpenter, founded Sebastopols first planing mill, the Strout Planing Mill, which supplied all of the materials and millwork for his home. Strout was known for his staircases; he also produced ladders, bee hives and fruit dryer trays. He built several houses in Sebastopol during his career, but the Strout House is the only one on the National Register of Historic Places. The Strout House is notable for the excellence of its formal Queen Anne design, the craftsmanship of Sebastopol&#39;s carpenter/builders, and the quality of the Strout millwork.</p><br>
<p>The home was in the Strout family until the 1970s and has had a variety of owners since. It was the site of a bed and breakfast for a time, but is currently a private residence.</p><br>
<p>Pylaros  is a former municipality on the island of Kefalonia, Ionian Islands, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Kefalonia, of which it is a municipal unit. It is located in the north-central part of the island. It has a land area of 81.112 km² and a population of 1,391 inhabitants . The seat of the municipality and largest town is Agia Effimia .</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>In the north Pylaros borders on the municipal unit of Erisos, and on the border lies Kalo Mountain (901m) and Cape Agriosyko. In the south it borders on the municipal units of Argostoli and Sami, and on the border lies the mountain Agia Dynati (1131m). Pylaros forms a valley between the two mountains, and through it flows the river Xeropotamos. The valley of Pylaros is covered by forests, and contains many rare species of fauna.</p><br>
<p>To the east lies the bay of Agia Effimia, and to the west it borders on the peninsula of Paliki. At the western frontier is the tableland of Falari and the Gulf of Myrtos. The beach at Myrtos has been voted the best Greek beach on eleven occasions, and is considered one of the best in the world.</p><br>
<h2>Subdivisions</h2><br>
<p>The municipal unit Pylaros is subdivided into the communities Agia Effimia, Divarata and Makryotika. It consists of 24 villages:</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>The economy of the municipality is based on tourism and dairy farming. In the tablelands of Kalo Mountain, and at the tableland of Falari the main industry is stock-breeding and cheese-making. In bygone days, many of the inhabitants of Pylaros were cheese-makers, and they travelled to Italy and Balkans to make cheese. It is sometimes said that in Falari they produce the best Greek Feta cheese.</p><br>
<p>Agriculture is well-developed in regions next to Agia Effimia, but tourism is the most important source of income. The region in summer is a mecca for tourists from all over the world, and most of them go to the famous beach at Myrtos. There are hotels, rooms to let, cafes, taverns and shops with souvenirs. In the 19th century, many Pylarians were sailors, shipowners and merchants: they had many ships, and they travelled all over the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. But few people are involved in these trades today.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Pylaros has had a long and significant history, and even the name is ancient. It is thought that the name originates from the ancient words πύλη ("gate") and άρω ("pick up") &mdash;that is to say "pick up the gates", because Pylaros is between two "gates": the bays of Agia Efimia and Myrtos. The first historical indications we have are from the Mycenean age. Mycenean vases and huge walls from ancient fortifications have been discovered in Karousata, Logarata and Agia Effimia.</p><br>
<p>According to a theory there was a sanctuary at Agia Dynati that, because of its shape (it resemble a rock covered with swadding-clothes) was considered to be the rock that Rea gave Cronus to eat to prevent him from eating her children, Zeus. When Zeus gained power, he obliged Cronus to throw the rock in the site of Agia Dynati. At ancient times, Pylaros must have been inhabited, but remains haven&#39;t been discovered yet.</p><br>
<p>At Roman times, Pylaros was a region for amusement of Roman officials, which is proved by a Roman villa discovered in Agia Efimia. At Byzantine times, Pylaros belonged to the "Thema of Kefalonia", one of the prefectures of the Byzantine Empire. The most ancient monastery in Pylaros, the Moni of Panagia Thematon (from the word "Thema") and the yet undiscovered monastery of Agios Polatos, may have been built during those years.</p><br>
<p>The time of Venetian occupation, probably saw the establishment of the first modern villages (Anomeria, Markata, Karousata, Antypata), and some families (Karousoi, Antypes) have been registered to the "Libro d&#39; Oro". During the time of British occupation, Pylaros was a centre of great rebellions against the British.</p><br>
<p>During World War II, Pylarians participated in the Greek-Italian war of 1940, the National Resistance and the Greek Civil War. At Pylaros, as all over Kefalonia, many Italians from the 33 Infantry Division Acqui were massacred by the Germans at the famous "Massacre of the Division Acqui", known from the film "Captain Corellis Mandolin". Many Italians were murdered at the site "Madria tou Lala", at Falari.</p><br>
<p>During the Greek Civil War, some Pylarians were members of the communist Democratic Army of Greece and fought against the Hellenic Army. Two of the last captains of the Democratic Army, Matthaios Kouloubis and Ilias Kougianos who were murdered at September 1949, were Pylarians. (Kefalonia΄s Democratic Army was the last team of communist soldiers in action until December 1949).</p><br>
<p>Finally in 1953, Pylaros was damaged by the terrible earthquakes that shaked the Ionian Islands. Some days later, the injured inhabitants were visited by the King George II.</p><br>
<h2>Famous persons</h2><br>
<p>Marinos Antypas (1873–1907) was one of the first Greek Socialists. He started off in Kefalonia, but later moved to Thessaly where he incited farmers against their landowners, which resulted in his murder in 1907. His example helped inspire the Great Agrarian Revolution at Kileler in 1910.</p><br>
<p>Evangelis Potamianos was fighter in the Greek Revolution of 1821.</p><br>
<h2>Traditions</h2><br>
<p>Pylarians have many traditions and customs. In the summer each village holds a religious festival or panigiri dedicated to a particular saint. Pylaria is the origin of one of the two traditional dances of Kefalonia, the Divaratikos. Pylarian is also known for its poetry, which is characteristically sarcastic.</p><br>
<p>Sillustani is a pre-Incan cemetery on the shores of Lake Umayo near Puno in Peru. The tombs, which are built above ground in tower-like structures called chullpas, are the vestiges of the Qulla people, who are Aymara conquered by the Inca Empire in the 15th century.</p><br>
<p>The structures housed the remains of complete family groups, although they were probably limited to nobility. Many of the tombs have been dynamited by grave robbers, while others were left unfinished.</p><br>
<h2>Chullpa</h2><br>
<p>Veneration of the dead and kinship were integral parts of Aymara culture, and the huge chullpas or "chupa" at Sillustani were built to house the Aymara elite of the immediate pre-Inca and Inca period. The word was used in the 19th century and comes from the Dictionary of Ludovico Bertonio (1612). Bertonio referred to the basket burials of the semi-nomadic pastoralists as "chulpas" and actually referred to stone towers as uta amaya "houses of the soul". However, the term "chullpa" remains used today for the towers.</p><br>
<p>Many of the chullpas at Sillustani show pre-Inca characteristics that were later redressed with Inca stone blocks. Similar chullpas are found throughout the entire south Central Andes with the above ground burial styles going back at least to the mature Tiwanaku period (ca 500-950). The insides of the tombs were built to hold entire groups of people, most likely extended families of the Aymara elite. Corpses were not intentionally mummified, but in the dry environment created by the closed tomb, they survived for centuries. Most mummy bundles indicate burial in a fetal position. Some of the tombs also have various animal shapes carved into the stone. The only openings to the buildings face east, where it was believed the Sun was reborn by Mother Earth each day.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The architecture of the site is often considered more complex than typical Incan architecture. In contrast with the Inca, who used stones of varying shapes, the Colla used even rectangular edges. While chullpas are not unique to Sillustani and are found across the Altiplano, this site is considered the best and most preserved example of them.</p><br>
<p>The Bishops Palace, also known as Greshams Castle, is an ornate 19,082 ft&sup2; Victorian-style house, located on Broadway and 14th Street in the East End Historic District of Galveston, Texas.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Gresham mansion was made all of stone, and was sturdy enough to withstand the great hurricane of 1900. The Greshams welcomed hundreds of survivors of the hurricane into their home.</p><br>
<p>The house was built between 1887 and 1893 by Galveston architect Nicholas J. Clayton for lawyer and politician Walter Gresham, his wife Josephine, and their nine children. In 1923 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Galveston purchased the house, and, situated across the street from the Sacred Heart Church, it served as the residence for Bishop Christopher E. Byrne. After the diocesan offices were moved to Houston, the diocese opened the mansion to the public in 1963, with proceeds from tours being used to help fund the Newman Center, operating in the basement, serving Catholic students at the nearby University of Texas Medical Branch.</p><br>
<p>The home is estimated to have cost $250,000 at the time; today its value is estimated at over $5.5 million.</p><br>
<p>The house is owned by the Galveston Historical Foundation and self-guided tours are available daily. A portion of each admission supports the preservation and restoration of the property.</p><br>
<h2>Layout</h2><br>
<p>Bishops Palace has four floors. The raised basement which once housed the kitchen and servants areas now contains the store. This basement is followed by three formal floors.</p><br>
<h3>First floor</h3><br>
<p>Entryway</p><br>
<p>Parlor</p><br>
<p>Music Room</p><br>
<p>Rotunda Staircase</p><br>
<p>Library/Office</p><br>
<p>Dining Room - Mrs. Gresham painted the fresco of cherubs on the ceiling.</p><br>
<p>Conservatory</p><br>
<p>Pantry</p><br>
<p>Kitchen - This room was originally just a warming kitchen, but Bishop Byrne expanded the room.</p><br>
<p>Servants Vestibule - Contains the dumbwaiter and the servants staircase.</p><br>
<p>Coat Closet - The coat closet is tucked around the back side of the rotunda staircase and contains a Pullman sink from the famed Pullman railcars.</p><br>
<h3>Second floor</h3><br>
<p>Living Room - The Gresham family often listened to music here during the hot summer months.</p><br>
<p>Bishop&#39;s Bedroom - This was originally a bedroom of one of the Gresham daughters, but Bishop Byrne chose it for his own with its private balcony and lighting. He converted the closet into a bathroom.</p><br>
<p>Chapel - This was also previously one of the Gresham daughter&#39;s bedrooms. When the Diocese moved in, the windows were replaced with stained-glass, and a fresco depicting the four gospel writers was painted on the ceiling. The room was also outfitted with an altar and six prayer kneelers.</p><br>
<p>Mr. Gresham&#39;s Room</p><br>
<p>Mrs. Gresham&#39;s Room</p><br>
<p>Bathroom - The tub in this bathroom is of note for its three spigots: one for hot, one cold, and one for rainwater.</p><br>
<p>Bedroom for guests or the children&#39;s governess.</p><br>
<h3>Third floor</h3><br>
<p>The boy&#39;s rooms</p><br>
<p>Mrs. Gresham&#39;s art studio</p><br>
<p>Additional storage</p><br>
<p>Amatola, Amatole or Amathole are a range of densely forested mountains, situated in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The word Amatole means ‘calves’ in Xhosa, and Amathole District Municipality, which lies to the south, is named after these mountains.</p><br>
<h2>Natural history</h2><br>
<p>The Amatola Mountains form part of the southern portion of the Great Escarpment, rising over 1,800 metres above sea level. The escarpment slopes are densely covered in ancient forests of yellowwoods, white stinkwoods, Cape chestnuts and other indigenous trees. Deep indigenous woods like Kologha and Kubusie are some of the largest swaths of forest in South Africa. The mountains are capped with flower-rich montane grassland. Albany thickets also feature prominently in the surrounding area.</p><br>
<p>The mountains are famous for their scenic beauty with lush forests, ravines, waterfalls and panoramic views. The 6 day Amatola hiking trail is one of the top hiking trails in South Africa.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The Amatola Mountains’ geology is characterised by the Beaufort Group (subdivided into the Tarkastad and Adelaide subgroups), which forms part of the Karoo sequence. The sediments were formed by depositions in river channels, floodplains and swamps.</p><br>
<h2>History and Settlement</h2><br>
<p>These mountains - like all of South Africa - was originally home to the Khoisan hunter gatherers. The Nguni migrations saw the arrival of the Xhosa herders from the north and the displacement of the Khoisan inhabitants.</p><br>
<p>Many of the current settlements in the Amatola region - like Adelaide, Cathcart and Fort Beaufort - began life as military outposts. This is because, in the 19th Century, this region formed the border between the Cape Colony, and the Xhosa nation to the east. Frequent wars were fought along this border, particularly the 7th Frontier War (Also known as the Amatola War or the War of the Axe). These wars were usually fought over farming land, cattle theft and legal jurisdiction and they saw the steady movement of the Capes border eastward, into Xhosa lands. It was into the Amatola mountains forested ravines, in fact, that the Xhosa armies retreated after the setbacks of these wars, so the Cape built the military towns in an effort to secure these borderlands for its farmers.</p><br>
<h2>Interesting towns</h2><br>
<p>King William&#39;s Town is the old centre of the region. In this city there is a large museum, the Amathole Museum, with old collections.</p><br>
<p>At the foot of the mountains, in the town of Alice, is the campus of the University of Fort Hare.</p><br>
<p>Stutterheim, beneath the Kologha range to the east, initially served as a settlement for disbanded soldiers who had fought in the Amatola War.</p><br>
<p>Hogsbacks first residents were farmers. This town is a very popular holiday destination that is reputed to have inspired Tolkiens Middle Earth.</p><br>
<p>The nearby town of East London is the largest in the region and is South Africa&#39;s only river port. The city is out of the mountains and the main administration centre for the Amatola region.</p><br>
<p>The Goodyear Airdock is a construction and storage airship hangar in Akron, Ohio.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Built and previously owned by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation, later Goodyear Aerospace, it was constructed from April 20, 1929 to November 25, 1929, at a cost of $2.2 million (equivalent to $ million in ). The building was designed by Albert Kahn of Detroit, Michigan. At the time it was built, it was the largest building in the world without interior supports, and provided a huge structure in which "lighter-than-air" ships (later known as airships, dirigibles, and blimps) could be constructed.</p><br>
<p>The first two airships to be constructed and launched at the Airdock were USS Akron (ZRS-4) and its sister ship, USS Macon (ZRS-5), built in 1931 and 1933, respectively. These first two airships were approximately 785 feet (239.27 m) in length.</p><br>
<p>The building has a unique shape which has been described as "half a silkworm&#39;s cocoon, cut in half the long way." It is 1,175 feet (358.14 m) long, 325 feet (99.06 m) wide, and 211 feet (64.31 m) high, supported by 13 steel arches. There is 364,000 square feet (34 000 m²) of unobstructed floor space, or an area larger than 8 football fields side-by-side. The Airdock has a volume of 55 million cubic feet (or about 1.5 million cubic meters). At the northeast end of the building a control tower and radio aerial are on top of the airdock. At each end of the building are two huge semi-spherical doors that each weigh 600 tons (544 000 kg). At the top, the doors are fastened by hollow forged pins 17 inches (43 cm) in diameter and six feet (1.83 m) long. The doors roll on forty wheels on specially-designed curved railroad tracks, powered by an individual power plant each, which can open the doors in about 5 minutes.</p><br>
<p>The Airdock is so large that temperature changes within the structure could be very different from that on the outside of the structure. To accommodate these fluctuations which could potentially cause structural damage, a row of 12 windows 100 feet (30.48 m) off the ground were installed. Furthermore, the entire structure is mounted on rollers to compensate for expansion or contraction resulting from temperature changes. When the humidity is high in the Airdock, a sudden change in temperature causes condensation. This condensation falls in a mist, creating the illusion of rain, according to the designer.</p><br>
<p>When World War II broke out, enclosed production areas were desperately needed, and the Airdock was used for building airships. The last airship built in the Airdock was the USA Navy&#39;s ZPG-3W, built in 1960. The building later housed the photographic division of the Goodyear Aerospace Corporation.</p><br>
<p>In 1980, the Goodyear Airdock was designated a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.</p><br>
<p>The Airdock has more recently served as the site of the 1986 kickoff rally for the United Way of Summit County, where 200,000 members of the public visited. Bill Clinton spoke during his 1992 election campaign, bringing some 30,000 visitors to the site.</p><br>
<p>In 1987, the Loral Corporation purchased Goodyear Aerospace and the Goodyear Airdock as a result of James Goldsmith&#39;s greenmailing of Goodyear. The Loral Corporation (and its holdings, such as the Goodyear Airdock) was purchased by Lockheed Martin in 1996. The Airdock is not open to the public, but it can be seen by those traveling on USA Route 224 east of downtown Akron.</p><br>
<p>Tell Mar Elias is a tell, i. e., a mound of several archaeological strata, located only a little beyond the northwest limits of Ajloun in the Ajloun Governorate in northern Jordan and in the historical region Gilead referenced in Sacred Scripture. The ruins of the historical town of Listib  or Tishbe, which 1 Kings, 17: 1 identifies as the residence and possibly even birthplace of the Prophet Elijah , are very proximate to the tell, being across a valley from it. Because of its proximity to the assumed locus of historical and religiously significant Tishbe, 2 Christian churches were erected on the tell in the late Byzantine period: the site includes the ruins of one of the largest known Byzantine churches in Jordan. Artifacts from the site, including marble carvings and small metal religious objects, are displayed in the archaeological museum of nearby Ajloun Castle. Further, "respect for the spirit of Nebhī-Ilyâs  is given to a grove of oak trees above the ruins" of the Byzantine churches there.</p><br>
<p>Loch Doon  is a freshwater loch in Carrick, Scotland. The River Doon issues from its northern end, while the loch itself receives waters from Loch Enoch  via Eglin Lane.</p><br>
<p>In the 13th century, it was a site of Balloch Castle, owned by the Earls of Carrick. During the Scottish Wars of Independence it was held by one Gille Brighde, Sir Gilbert de Carrick, a native Carrick nobleman who surrendered it to the English. It was soon recovered by the Scots. In the 15th century, it was frequently in the hands of the Kennedy Clan, although it was briefly in the hands of the Maclellans (backed by William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas) after a siege in 1446. The castle was destroyed in the 16th century by King James V as part of a general policy of reducing the power of the barons.</p><br>
<p>The loch was dammed in the 1930s, raising the water some 27 feet, in order to provide seasonal storage for the Galloway hydro-electric power scheme. As a reservoir, Loch Doon has an effective capacity of over 82 million cubic metres. When rainfall is plentiful, water is diverted to the loch from the Water of Deugh via a tunnel system. When water is required for power generation, water is released at Drumjohn to feed Kendoon power reservoir, the first in a series of generating stations and reservoirs on the Water of Ken.</p><br>
<p>During the construction of the scheme, the ruins of the castle were moved from an island in the Loch to the shore to avoid the rising water.</p><br>
<p>Luna Lake is a natural body of water that covers approximately 75 acre of land. It is located about three miles  southeast of Alpine, Arizona, at the elevation of 7,890 ft, and is the centerpiece of the Luna Lake Wildlife Area.</p><br>
<p>Luna Lake has the distinction of being part of the San Francisco River, flowing easterly into New Mexico, then south, and west into the Gila River (in Arizona). The headwaters are north of the other main mountain tributary to the Gila, the Blue River of Arizona.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>Luna Lake lies at 7,890 ft on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, as such the facilities located here are managed by that authority. It is located about 3 mi east of Alpine. It’s accessible year-round, but ices over in winter months.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Luna Lake is a 75 acre impoundment of the upper San Francisco River. It has a maximum depth of 21 ft and an average depth of 8 ft. It is stocked annually with fingerling and subcatchable rainbow and cutthroat trout. Because it is a shallow, nutrient-rich lake, it is subject to water quality problems and excessive weed growth. The Arizona Game and Fish Department annually harvests weeds to help alleviate some of the water quality problems.</p><br>
<h2>Fauna and flora</h2><br>
<p>The following species are noted at Luna Lake.</p><br>
<p>Gray catbird, (South and West of most westerly ranges in New Mexico, and Colorado.)</p><br>
<p>Southwestern willow flycatcher</p><br>
<p>Bald eagle</p><br>
<p>Mexican spotted owl</p><br>
<p>Myotis occultus, the Arizona myotis, a mouse-eared bat</p><br>
<p>Northern leopard frog</p><br>
<p>Chiricahua leopard frog</p><br>
<p>Clover: Trifolium neurophyllum, "White Mountains clover"</p><br>
<p>Gila groundsel, Senecio quaerens, Senecio</p><br>
<h2>Fish species</h2><br>
<p>Rainbow trout</p><br>
<p>Yellowstone cutthroat trout</p><br>
<p>Mikveh Israel Cemetery is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . The site, less than 0.2 acre in size, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and administered by Independence National Historical Park . It is located in the center city section of Philadelphia, on the north-west corner of Spruce St. and S. Darien St. , about mi west and mi south of Independence Hall.</p><br>
<p>Mikveh Israel Cemetery was originally a private burial ground for the family of Nathan Levy, whose ship, Myrtilla was long reputed to have transported the Liberty Bell from England to Philadelphia in 1752 (though the Hibernia, captained by William Child, is more likely to have transported the bell). In 1738, one of Levys children died. Rather than bury the child in unsanctified ground, he applied to John Penn (chief of Pennsylvanias proprietary government at that time) for "a small piece of ground" with permission to make it a family cemetery. This property was at the corner of 9th and Walnut Streets, the present site of the Walnut Street Theatre. Two years later, Nathan Levy secured a larger plot from the Penn family at the present location of Mikveh Israel Cemetery. This was meant to be a permanent burial ground for the entire Jewish community of Philadelphia. Levy was buried there upon his death in 1753.</p><br>
<p>The cemetery in 1740 was a 30 x 30 plot. In 1752, Nathan Levy received an additional grant of land north of the first plot. In 1765, John Penn granted Mathias Bush an adjacent piece of ground for burial purposes. By that time, the burial place was managed by the Sephardic synagogue Congregation Mikveh Israel (official name: קהל קדוש מקוה ישראל, Kahal Kadosh Mikveh Israel, or "Holy Congregation Hope of Israel"), founded in 1740 and still active in the 21st century.</p><br>
<h2>Burials</h2><br>
<p>Many distinguished Americans are buried in Mikveh Israel Cemetery. They include:</p><br>
<p>Nathan Levy (1704–1753)</p><br>
<p>Haym Solomon (1740–1785), Polish-born patriot and financier of the American Revolution, arrived in New York in 1772, joined the Sons of Liberty, one of George Washington&#39;s personal friends, captured and sentenced to death by the British in 1776, used his knowledge of German (he spoke eight languages) to convince his Hessian jailer to escape with him to Philadelphia, where he arrived penniless</p><br>
<p>Michael Gratz (1740–1811), signed the Non-Importation Resolutions of 1765 to protest the Stamp Act, encouraged the opening of the West to settlement</p><br>
<p>Jacob Gratz (1790–1856), son of Michael Gratz, served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and State Senate</p><br>
<p>Rebecca Gratz (1781–1869), daughter of Michael Gratz, noted for her philanthropy, regarded as the model for the character Rebecca in Walter Scott&#39;s Ivanhoe, and the first Jewish female college student in the United States (at Franklin College, later part of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania)</p><br>
<p>Aaron Levy, founder of Aaronsburg, Centre County, Pennsylvania in 1786. Named for him, Aaronsburg is the first town in Pennsylvania (and probably in the entire United States) that was planned by and named after a Jew. A pioneer and fur trader, he was a close friend and financial supporter of Haym Salomon.</p><br>
<p>Benjamin Nones (1757–1826), born in France, he served on the staffs of both General Washington and General Lafayette. While still a private under Count Pulaski, he received a letter of commendation in 1779 written by Captain Verdier, a splendid testimonial to his courage. He fought in almost every action in the Carolinas. Nones became a Major of the Hebrew Legion of 400 men attached to Johann de Kalb’s command. Several years after the war, he was appointed an interpreter of Spanish and French for the United States government.</p><br>
<p>John Moss (1771-1847) Philadelphia merchant, shipping magnate, and civic leader</p><br>
<p>Phillip Moses Russell, surgeon’s mate to General Washington</p><br>
<p>At least 21 Jewish soldiers of the Revolutionary War, and others from the War of 1812 and the Civil War, are interred in the burial grounds.</p><br>
<p>Isaac Djerassi (1925–2011), member of the first graduating class of Hebrew University and oncologist from the Philadelphia area who advanced cancer therapy</p><br>
<p>The cemetery ceased to be a regular place of burial in 1886 except for the interment of Josephine Etting in 1913, Fanny Polano Elmaleh, wife of Reverend Leon H. Elmaleh, in 1966, and Reverend Leon H. Elmaleh in 1972.</p><br>
<p>Llaqtapata  llaqta place , pata elevated place / above, at the top / edge, bank , shore,</p><br>
<p>pronounced yakta-pahta, hispanicized Llactapata) is an archaeological site about 5 km west of Machu Picchu. The complex is located in the Cusco Region, La Convención Province, Santa Teresa District, high on a ridge between the Ahobamba and Santa Teresa drainages.</p><br>
<p>It appears to be the site originally reported by Hiram Bingham as having this name. Although the site was little explored by Bingham, it was more extensively explored and mapped by the Thomson and Ziegler expedition of 2003.</p><br>
<p>Bingham first discovered Llaqtapata in 1912. "We found evidence that some Inca chieftain had built his home here and had included in the plan ten or a dozen buildings."</p><br>
<p>Bingham locates the site "on top of a ridge between the valleys of the Aobamba and the Salcantay, about 5,000 feet above the estate of Huaquina." "Here we discovered a number of ruins and two or three modern huts. The Indians said that the place was called Llacta Pata."</p><br>
<p>Bingham did not investigate the ruins thoroughly, however, and they were not studied again for another 70 years.</p><br>
<p>A mid-2003 study of the site conducted by Hugh Thomson and Gary Ziegler</p><br>
<p>concluded that the location of Llaqtapata along the Inca trail suggested that it was an important rest stop and roadside shrine on the journey to Machu Picchu. This and subsequent investigations have revealed an extensive complex of structures and features related to and connected with Machu Picchu by a continuation of the Inca Trail leading onward into the Vilcabamba. Llaqtapata may have been a member of the network of interrelated administrative and ceremonial sites which supported the regional center at Machu Picchu. It probably played an important astronomical function during the solstices and equinoxes.</p><br>
<p>Eggardon Hill is located on chalk uplands approximately four miles to the east of Bridport, in the English county of Dorset. It stands 252 m above sea level,  and provides panoramic views to the south, north and west. The southern half of the hill is owned and maintained by The National Trust  with the northern part in private ownership.</p><br>
<p>Eggardon Hill is first documented in the Domesday Book of 1086. From about 300 BC, it was used as a hill fort — an Iron Age defended settlement. It is usually held that such forts were captured and forcibly vacated by the Romans during the Claudian Invasion of 43 AD, although there is only indirect evidence for this; Eggardon Hill itself has never been excavated by archaeologists. The presence of several tumuli (or barrows) on the hill provides another indication of prehistoric use.</p><br>
<p>Latterly, notorious smuggler Isaac Gulliver (1745-1822) (who owned Eggardon Hill Farm) is reputed to have planted a stand of pine trees on Eggardon Hill, to provide an aid to navigation for his ships as they approached the Dorset coast. Although the trees were later felled on government orders, the octagonal earthworks used to protect them from the elements is still visible today, and marked on Ordnance Survey maps of the area.</p><br>
<p>The name Eggardon is derived from an Old English place name, meaning the hill belonging to Eohhere.</p><br>
<p>The Boardman House, also known as the Scotch-Boardman House or the Bennett-Boardman House, is a historic house located at 17 Howard Street, Saugus, Massachusetts. Built about 1692, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961 because of the remarkable amount of original building material still present in the house. It has been owned by Historic New England since 1914, and is open to the public on select weekends between June and October.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>Estimates of the house&#39;s history have varied over the years, but it is currently believed that the house was constructed circa 1692 for William Boardman. Boardman purchased the property, with a different house standing on it, in 1686. Although it was long thought to have been built not long after this purchase, dendrochronology research on its beams confirms a later construction date.</p><br>
<p>The house as first built had two rooms per floor, with a central chimney. On the ground floor it has a parlor and hall, with two bedrooms above, and an attic above the bedrooms. By 1696 a characteristic lean-to was added at the rear for the kitchen and milkroom giving it the appearance of a saltbox. This lean-to was completely rebuilt in 1731, reusing some of the timbers of the old one. There are five fireplaces in the house, one in each of the original rooms, and another in the kitchen.</p><br>
<p>Although the house&#39;s general shape has not changed since this time, its original leaded-glass windows were at some point replaced with more modern sash windows, two original front gables were removed, and in about 1725 a new interior staircase was added.</p><br>
<p>The house was owned by members of the Boardman family from its construction until 1911, when the property was sold to a developer. Concerns over the preservation of the landmark house brought it to the attention of William Sumner Appleton, who purchased the house in 1914 for the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now Historic New England. The society restored most of the house to its original late-17th/early-18th century appearance, removing wallpaper and other 19th-century artifacts.</p><br>
<p>The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.</p><br>
<p>The Dresden Elbe Valley is a cultural landscape and former World Heritage Site stretching along the Elbe river in Dresden, the state capital of Saxony, Germany. The valley, extending for some 20 km and passing through the Dresden Basin, is one of two major cultural landscapes built up over the centuries along the Central European river Elbe, along with the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm downstream.</p><br>
<p>With respect to its scenic and architectural values, including the Dresden urban area as well as natural river banks and slopes, the Elbe Valley was entered on the World Heritage Site list of the UNESCO in 2004. However, in July 2006 it was designated a World Heritage in Danger and finally delisted in June 2009, in the course of the construction of the Waldschlösschen Bridge river crossing.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The cultural landscape comprises the Dresden urban area along the Elbe meanders, stretching from the Loschwitz district in the southeast down to the Ostragehege plains in the northwest. The forested Elbe slopes of the Lusatian Plateau and the Dresden Heath in the northeast protect the Valley from harsh winds; with an average annual temperature between 9.3 and 10 °C, even viticulture (Saxon wine) is common. The Elbe banks are characterised by extended meadows (Elbwiesen) which have remained free of any building developments due to regularly occurring floods. The landscape is a conservation area according to the 1992 EU Habitats Directive, including numerous smaller protected areas (Naturschutzgebiete).</p><br>
<p>Settlements and architecture in the Elbe Valley reflect the development of Dresden as Saxon residence since the Renaissance era. Points of interest include Albrechtsberg Palace on the northern slopes, Pillnitz with its castle and old village, works of engineering such as the Blue Wonder bridge at the Loschwitz Schillerplatz, the nearby Dresden Funicular and Suspension Railway or the Yenidze tobacco factory. Grouped around Brühls Terrace, the Balcony of Europe&#39; built in the historic city centre high above the Elbe river, are the Frauenkirche, Semperoper, Zwinger, Dresden Castle, and Dresden Cathedral, the Catholic court church of the Saxon electors and kings. Vis-à-vis on the right bank is the Innere Neustadt district with the government quarter around the State Chancellery building and the Japanese Palace. Recently erected buildings such as the New Synagogue or the Saxon Landtag complete the picture. Parts of the area such as Blasewitz are historic suburbs of the city, while there are also industrial districts.</p><br>
<h2>World Heritage status</h2><br>
<p>Plans to build the four-lane Waldschlösschen Bridge across the valley proved controversial. In 2006, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee placed the Dresden Elbe Valley on its list of World Heritage in Danger and threatened to remove it from the World Heritage List. According to the Committees official website, the committee determined that "plans to build a bridge across the Elbe would have such a serious impact on the integrity of propertys landscape that it may no longer deserve to be on the World Heritage List," and therefore decided to place the Dresden Elbe Valley on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger "with a view to also consider, in a prudent manner, delisting the site from the World Heritage List in 2007 if the plans were carried through."</p><br>
<p>Though the bridge was approved in a referendum in 2005, the city council decided on 20 July 2006 to stop the invitation to bid on contracts to build the bridge. However, after several court decisions the city was forced to begin building the bridge at the end of 2007 until further court hearings could be held in 2008.</p><br>
<p>In July 2008, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee decided to keep the Dresden Elbe Valley on the World Heritage List in the hope that the construction would be stopped and the integrity of the landscape restored. If not, the property would be deleted from the World Heritage List in 2009.</p><br>
<p>In June 2009 at a UNESCO meeting in Seville, the World Heritage Committee decided in a 14 to 5 vote with two abstentions to revoke the Dresden Elbe Valley&#39;s status as a World Heritage Site.</p><br>
<p>The Jeremiah Lee Mansion is a historic house located at 170 Washington Street in Marblehead, Massachusetts. It is operated as a house museum by the local historical society, and is open during the warmer months; an admission cost $10. Built in 1768, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960 as one of the finest Late Georgian houses in the United States. It features original wallpaper and finely-crafted woodwork.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The mansion is a large wooden house in the Georgian style, with imitation stone ashlar facade, built in 1768 by Colonel Jeremiah Lee, at that time the wealthiest merchant and ship owner in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The facade may be based on Plate 11 of Robert Morris&#39; influential patternbook Rural Architecture (London 1750; retitled Select Architecture in later eds.). It was one of the largest and most opulent houses of the late-colonial period in America.</p><br>
<p>The mansion is now owned by the Marblehead Museum and Historical Society. It contains a notable collection of early American furniture, and many of the mansion&#39;s original decorative finishes have been preserved, including rare 18th-century English hand-painted wallpaper, intricate carving in the rococo style, and a grand entry hall and staircase paneled with mahogany. On either side of its landing are copies of the full-length portraits of Jeremiah and Martha Lee by John Singleton Copley.</p><br>
<p>The mansion was declared a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.</p><br>
<p>Abbot Hall is a town hall and historical museum located at 188 Washington Street, Marblehead, Massachusetts. It is open year-round, though with restricted hours in the colder months. Constructed in 1876 and designed in the Romanesque style by Lord & Fuller architects, the Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property in the historic district.</p><br>
<p>In addition to serving as the seat of Marblehead’s town government, Abbot Hall has holdings as a museum. It contains the original painting Spirit of 76 by American Archibald MacNeal Willard, which was widely reproduced; the 1684 deed to Marblehead signed by descendants of Wenepoykin, youngest son of Nanepashemet, chief or sachem of the regional Pawtucket confederation of Abenaki peoples prior to Pilgrim settlement; a bust of native son and USA Vice-President Elbridge Gerry; a painting of Marbleheaders rowing Washington across the Delaware River during the American Revolution; a painting by primitivist J.O.J. Frost, and a number of other historical artifacts. A plaque on display in the Selectmens room, discovered in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, proclaims Marblehead as the "Birthplace of the American Navy."</p><br>
<h2>Clock</h2><br>
<p>The clock in the tower of Abbot Hall is a Howard #2S installed in 1877; it is governed by a 10 ft pendulum escapement, driven by an 86 lb weight. The clangor escapement is governed by a flutter vane assembly and is powered by a 292 lb weight. The Bell was cast by Meneely & Kimberly in Troy, New York. Every week the maintenance workers ascend the tower to wind the movements. Local authors have featured the clock in numerous stories.</p><br>
<p>Wailua River State Park and the Wailua Complex of Heiaus, which it includes, are located on the eastern side of the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The park consists primarily of the Wailua River valley, which is the only navigable river in Hawaii. Visitors to this park can kayak, take riverboat cruises and explore the rainforest. Even motorboats and water skiing are permissible on the river.</p><br>
<h2>Wailua Complex of Heiaus</h2><br>
<p>The Wailua Complex, a National Historic Landmark, The most important sites are:</p><br>
<p>Hikinaakalā (Rising of the Sun) Heiau, which includes the Hauola place of refuge (puuhonua) and the Kii Pōhaku ancient petroglyphs, at the mouth of the river adjacent to Lydgate State Park</p><br>
<p>Malae, also known as Malaea or Makaukiu or Mana Heiau, a huge, rectangular luakini heiau almost 400 feet long on the south side of the river just above Highway 56</p><br>
<p>Holoholokū Heiau, also known as Kalaeokamanu, adjacent to the pōhaku hoohānau (birthing stone) and pōhaku piko (navel/umbilical stone), where women of high rank would give birth and bury their afterbirth and umbilical cords</p><br>
<p>Poliahu (also spelled Poliahu) Heiau, a large luakini heiau high on the narrow ridge between Ōpaekaa Stream and Wailua River</p><br>
<p>Bellstone (on the same ridge), used to announce important events, such as royal births</p><br>
<p>Of these, only Holoholokū has been largely restored.</p><br>
<h3>Heiau images</h3><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Wailua was the land of the alii (kings) and was one of the largest ahupuaa (subdivisions) on Kauai. It is said that King Kaumualiis favorite place to live was in Wailua. There are Hawaiian heiaus starting from the mouth of the river all the way to the summit of Mt.Waialeale. The huakai po (Ghost Warriors) are said to walk ancient trails along the river at night up to Mount Waiʻaleʻale. Wailua has many legends about it and was once home to many Hawaiians.</p><br>
<p>Lynx Lake, Arizona, is a 55 acre reservoir located within Prescott National Forest, approximately 5 mi east of Prescott, Arizona, in the Bradshaw Mountains. The lake is located at 5,530 ft elevation and is stocked for fishing. It is one of the most popular recreation areas in central Arizona. Mild weather, the cool ponderosa pine forest, trout fishing, boating, mountain hiking, horseback riding, archaeological sites, and bird watching attract visitors from throughout Arizona. The lake was formed in 1952, when a dam was put in Lynx Creek, 6 mi below Walker, Arizona.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>Animals native to the area include mule deer, bald eagles, osprey, and javelinas. Several species have been introduced, including rainbow trout, bull frogs, and domestic ducks and geese. Arizona State Game and Fish Department periodically stocks the lake with rainbow trout. Largemouth bass and crappie are also present in the lake. The lake is open all year.</p><br>
<p>Plant life in the area consists of ponderosa pine, beargrass, cliff-rose, and alligator juniper.</p><br>
<h2>Activities on Lynx Lake</h2><br>
<p>Fishing: The lake is open year-round for fishing and is stocked with rainbow trout periodically by the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Sunfish and Catfish (Channel), as well as bullfrogs, may be caught here.</p><br>
<p>Camping: Two National Forest Campgrounds near the lake offer 36 campsites.</p><br>
<p>Boating: Non-motorized and electric-powered boats are permitted on the lake.</p><br>
<p>Hiking: The 2- mile Lakeshore Trail loops around the lake.</p><br>
<p>Recreational gold panning</p><br>
<p>Caldera De Coatepeque  is a volcanic caldera in El Salvador in Central America. The caldera was formed during a series of minor rhyolitic explosive eruptions between about 72,000 and 57,000 years ago. Since then, basaltic cinder cones and lava flows formed near the west edge of the caldera, and six rhyodacitic lava domes have formed. The youngest dome, Cerro Pacho, formed after 8000 BC.</p><br>
<h2>Lake Coatepeque</h2><br>
<p>Lake Coatepeque (Lago de Coatepeque) is a large crater lake in the east part of the Coatepeque Caldera. It is in Coatepeque municipality, Santa Ana, El Salvador. There are hot springs near the lake margins. At 26 km&sup2, it is one of the largest lakes in El Salvador. In the lake is the island of Teopan, which was a Mayan site of some importance.</p><br>
<p>Drammenselva  is a river in Buskerud county, southeastern Norway.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>Drammenselva is one of the largest rivers in Norway, with a drainage basin of about 17,000 km&sup2; and a discharge of 300 m3/s per second. Drammen River&#39;s total length is 308 km making it the fifth longest river in Norway.</p><br>
<p>Its 48 km course runs from Tyrifjorden in the north to Drammensfjord in the south, where it cuts through the centre of the city of Drammen. The Drammen River gathers inflow from several streams and rivers. The largest include the Simoa River. The whole drainage system which includes the Drammenselva as the lowest part is known as Drammensvassdraget and is located in the provinces of Oppland and Buskerud.</p><br>
<h2>Development and usage</h2><br>
<p>For centuries the river was used for log driving, transporting timber from the forests in Eiker to the many paper mills and other industry along the river. From the 1850s onwards, many steam-powered sawmills and planing mills were established along the lower section of the river, and products became exports moving through the Port of Drammen. During the 20th century this activity caused the river to be heavily polluted. However, the majority of the paper and pulp factories in Drammen shut down in the 1960s and 1970s, and the river is now clean and safe.</p><br>
<p>On its way to the sea, Drammen River passes a series of rapids and waterfalls. The largest are Vikerfoss, Geithusfoss, Kattfoss, Gravfoss, Embretsfoss, Døvikfoss and Hellefoss. There are a number of power plants on the Drammen River several with dams. The owner and operator is EB Kraftproduksjon which is headquartered in Drammen. The power company is owned by Buskerud Energy Power Generation (Energiselskapet Buskerud AS).</p><br>
<p>Hellefoss has a hydroelectric dam in Hokksund in Øvre Eiker municipality</p><br>
<p>Døvikfoss and Embretsfoss have hydroelectric dams in Åmot in Modum municipality</p><br>
<p>Gravfoss and Geithusfoss have hydroelectric power station in Geithus Modum municipality</p><br>
<p>Since then the city of Drammen has spent substantial resources on developing attractive park areas along the riverside. The area between the City and the Holmen bridges in Drammen has also been developed into parkland, and is now known as Bragernes Riverside Park. Hundreds of trees and thousands of perennials have been planted here in order to create a pleasant leisure area. Today Drammenselva is used for recreational purposes, and is known for its excellent salmon fishing. It is the site of the annual Drammen River Festival (Drammen Elvefestival). The festival features music concerts, dragon boats, raft racing and bathtub rowing. More than 100 different events take place during the River Festival.</p><br>
<p>Cribinau is a small tidal island off the south west coast of the isle of Anglesey in Wales between Porth China and Porth Cwyfan. The island is in Aberffraw Community, about 1.2 mi west of Aberffraw village.</p><br>
<p>The island can be reached on foot at low tide. It is notable for the 13th-century Church in Wales church of St Cwyfan, called in eglwys bach y mor ("the little church in the sea") or simply Cwyfan.</p><br>
<h2>Church</h2><br>
<p>St Cwyfan&#39;s church was in existence by 1254 and was enlarged in the 14th and 15th centuries. The building later fell into disrepair, and in the 19th century parts of the church were demolished. By 1891 the surviving part was roofless, so an appeal was launched which paid for the building of a new roof. In about the 1970s all the windows were restored, but now the building is deteriorating again and a new restoration appeal has been launched.</p><br>
<h2>Sea erosion</h2><br>
<p>A Jacobean map dated 1636 shows the church standing on the mainland of Anglesey. Written evidence submitted in 1770 in the case against Dr Thomas Bowles (see below) says that the road from Aberffraw to Llangwyfan was bad, but makes no mention of the tide restricting access to the church. Therefore, it seems to be after that date that sea erosion of the boulder clay cliffs turned Cribinau into an island. By the 19th century, erosion was causing graves in the churchyard to fall into the sea, so a seawall was built around the island to protect the remaining graves and the church.</p><br>
<h2>Welsh language controversy</h2><br>
<p>By 1766 St Cwyfan, Llangwyfan was a chapelry of the parish of St Beuno, Trefdraeth. Between them the parish and chapelry had about 500 parishioners, of whom all but five spoke only Welsh, whereas Bowles spoke only English.</p><br>
<p>The parishioners and churchwardens of Trefdraeth petitioned against Bowles&#39; appointment, with the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion supporting and helping to fund their case. The Court of Arches heard evidence in the case in May 1770 but did not hear the prosecution and defence arguments until January 1773.</p><br>
<p>The prosecution argued that Bowles&#39; inability to minister in Welsh contravened Article XXV of the Articles of Religion, the Act for the Translation of the Scriptures into Welsh 1563 and the Act of Uniformity 1662. The defence argued that the prosecution would have to prove that Bowles was totally incapable of speaking any Welsh at all, and even if they did so Bowles had lawfully been granted the ecclesiastical freehold and therefore could not be deprived of it.</p><br>
<p>The case was judged by Dean of Arches, George Hay. In January 1773 he ruled that only clergy who could speak Welsh should be appointed to Welsh-speaking parishes, and Bowles should not have been appointed, but he now held the ecclesiastical freehold of the benefice and the case to deprive him of it had not been proved. He therefore let Bowles stay in post, which he did until he died in November of that year. Bowles was then replaced in the parish and chapelry with Richard Griffith, a priest who spoke Welsh.</p><br>
<h2>Current use</h2><br>
<p>The church remains in use and is popular for weddings and baptisms.</p><br>
<p>Swampscott Town Hall, previously the Elihu Thomson House, is a historic building at 22 Monument Avenue, Swampscott, Massachusetts. The house was designed by architect James Kelley and built in 1889 for the noted inventor, electrical engineer, and industrialist Elihu Thomson  who was, with Thomas Edison, co-founder of General Electric Company. The house was built with an observatory, which no longer exists. It has housed Swampscott town offices since 1944, when it was given to the town by Thomson&#39;s heirs. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976 for its association with Thomson.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Swampscott Town Hall is set on an expansive lot overlooking the town&#39;s soldiers memorial and Linscott Park in the town center. It is a two-story brick Georgian Revival structure with a tiled hip roof that is crowned by a low balustrade with turned balusters and urn-topped posts. The main facade is asymmetrically fenestrated, but there are symmetrically placed gable dormers in the roof, and the entrance is in a slightly off-center gable-topped projection. The building corners, as well as those of the entry section, have Ionic stone pilasters at the corners. The main entrance is sheltered by a round portico supported by fluted Corinthian columns, which supported an entablature with a carved frieze. The portico is topped by a balcony with a low railing slightly different from that on the roof. Above the entrance is a French door flanked by stone fluted Corinthian pilasters, and topped by a scrollwork pediment. Large windows on either side of the entrance on the first floor are topped by similar pediments.</p><br>
<p>Upon entry through the front door, there is a vestibule lit through stained-glass windows, followed by a panelled entry hall, which leads to a large two-story living space in the rear of the house, from which a grand staircase rises to the second floor. Pocket doors from these halls lead to what were formerly living and dining rooms at the front of the house, and there is a small guest bathroom immediately left of the vestibule in the front projection. A significant portion of the woodwork in the downstairs has been lost due the buildings conversion for municipal use, but the living room, which now serves as the selectmens office, and the central hall are largely intact. Also well-preserved is one of the children&#39;s bedrooms upstairs, which has a Moorish theme.</p><br>
<p>Behind the main house is Thomson&#39;s original carriage house, which was originally connected to the main house by a covered walkway, since replaced by an enclosed passage. This alteration resulted in the loss of a projecting bow window. Above the carriage house is a space that was used by Elihu Thomson as a laboratory.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The house was designed by James T. Kelley in collaboration with Harold T. Graves, a team that also designed the Swampscott Public Library (completed 1917). Elihu Thomson, their client, is said to have taken an active role in the design of the structure, selecting interior finishes and other details. Thomson lived, and frequently also worked on his inventions, at the property until his death in 1937. It was presented by his heirs to the town in his memory, and is now known as the Elihu Thomson Memorial Administration Building.</p><br>
<p>Elihu Thomson was born in Manchester, England, and came to the United States as a child. Showing an early aptitude for research and experimentation, he taught at a Philadelphia high school, and developed a practical arc lamp system with a colleague. Funded by New England businessmen, this idea was commercialized, and the Thomson-Houston Electrical Company was by 1890 a leading maker of electrical equipment. In 1892 it merged with Thomas Edison&#39;s Edison General Electric Company to form the company known today as General Electric. His contributions to science and engineering thereafter include a wide range of practical advances in the application of electricity, and included more than 700 patents. Thomson is also credited with establishing the idea that industrial research and development was an important component of a successful business, including the creation of laboratories that perform pure scientific research.</p><br>
<p>Lake Saltonstall is a long narrow lake located in south-central Connecticut. It covers an area of approximately 0.66 square miles and is nestled in the center of the trap rock Saltonstall Mountain. The lake is surrounded by forest and serves as part of the local water supply for surrounding towns.</p><br>
<p>The lake and the area around it is owned by the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority, a company which also regulates fishing and rents boats. Private boats are not allowed.</p><br>
<p>Interstate 95 runs across the southern edge of the lake, connecting the towns of East Haven, Connecticut and Branford, Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>Lake Saltonstall&#39;s maximum depth does not exceed 113 ft and its mean depth is 41 ft.</p><br>
<p>Blue Mountain Peak is the highest mountain in Jamaica and one of the highest peaks in the Caribbean at. It is the home of Blue Mountain coffee and their famous tours. It is located on the border of the Portland and Saint Thomas parishes of Jamaica.</p><br>
<p>The Blue Mountains are considered by many to be a hikers and campers paradise. The traditional Blue Mountain trek is a 7-mile (10 km) hike to the peak and consists of a 3,000-foot (1,000 m) increase in elevation. Jamaicans prefer to reach the peak at sunrise, thus the 3–4 hour hike is usually undertaken in darkness. Since the sky is usually very clear in the mornings, Cuba can be seen in the distance. Some of the plants found on the Blue Mountain cannot be found anywhere else in the world and they are often of a dwarfed sort. This is mainly due to the cold climate which inhibits growth.</p><br>
<p>The small coffee farming communities of Claverty Cottage and Hagley Gap are located near the peak.</p><br>
<p>Mount Bazardüzü  is a mountain peak in the Greater Caucasus range on the border between Russia and Azerbaijan. At 4,467 m above sea level, it is the highest peak in Azerbaijan and is located in Qusar region. The southernmost point of Russia is located about seven kilometers southwest of the peak.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing</h2><br>
<p>G.P.Baker and G.Yeld were the first men climbing the Mount in 1890 when the first ascent was recorded. Summer is considered the most appropriate period to climb the Peak. There are 2 approaches to the Mount: one from the northeast and another from the southwest. In the northeast climbs can begin from the villages of Khinalig (region of Guba) and Laza (region of Gusar). And in the southwest approach starts from the regional centre of Gabala - from two villages: one is Laza (the same name with the one in Gusar) and the other one is Gamarvan. The flood plain of the river Yatukhdara (Yatuxdərə) is the starting point of the summit at 2800 m., Azerbaijan</p><br>
<p>Volcán Tajumulco is a large stratovolcano in the department of San Marcos in western Guatemala. It is the highest mountain in Central America at 4,202 m. It is part of the mountain range of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, which begins in Mexico&#39;s southernmost state of Chiapas.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Tajumulco is composed of andesitic-dacitic lavas on the top of a large escarpment of uncertain origin. It has two summits, one of which has a crater 50 - wide. A lava flow from the north-western summit descends into a steep valley on the same side of the volcano.</p><br>
<p>The volcano&#39;s eruptive history is unclear and the date of its last eruption is unknown. Reports from the 18th and early 19th century claim to record eruptions but these are considered unlikely.</p><br>
<p>The region around Tajumulco is relatively sparsely populated.</p><br>
<p>Kennedy Lake is the largest lake on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Located north of Ucluelet on the Islands central west coast, the lake is formed chiefly by the confluence of the Clayoquot and Kennedy Rivers. Outflow is via a short stretch of the Kennedy River into Tofino Inlet. The lake includes an extensive northern arm, called Clayoquot Arm. The regions natural beauty has led to portions of it being protected from the Island&#39;s active logging industry. Parks adjacent to the lake include Clayoquot Plateau Provincial Park, Pacific Rim National Park, Clayoquot Arm Provincial Park, Kennedy Lake Provincial Park, and Kennedy River Bog Provincial Park. The lake is a popular recreation destination with boaters and fishers. It is important spawning habitat for sockeye and various species of salmon, and trout.</p><br>
<p>The lake is part of the ancestral lands of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations, and is named for the last governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island, Sir Arthur Kennedy.</p><br>
<p>Halcyon House is a Federal-style Its gardens were designed by Pierre LEnfant, and for several decades in the early 19th century Halcyon House was the center of much of Washingtons social life.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>After the death of his wife and his finances declining, Stoddert transferred ownership of Halcyon House in 1802 to his daughter, Elizabeth Ewell, and her husband, Thomas. Thomas and Elizabeth&#39;s sixth child, Richard S. Ewell, was born in the house in 1817, and he went on to become a noted Confederate general during the American Civil War under Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. The Ewells vacated the home in 1818. A succession of owners had possession of the house over the next 80 years.</p><br>
<p>Halcyon House was sold in 1900 to Albert Clemens, a nephew of Mark Twain. The original structure was heavily altered over the next 38 years as Clemens renovated the house and added structures. Clemens believed that perpetually rebuilding the house would extend his life. The coach house was joined to the building, the north face and rear of the house added onto extensively with apartments, rooms were built within rooms, hallways added and then walled off, and even a small crypt added in one room. After Clemens&#39; death, the house stood unoccupied for four years until purchased by Dorothy W. Sterling, the wife of the USA Ambassador to Sweden. Ownership changed again in 1951, and Georgetown University bought the property in 1961 and used it as a dormitory.</p><br>
<p>Halcyon House was purchased by architect Edmund Dreyfuss in 1966 and, as of 2009, was occupied by his son, noted sculptor John Dreyfuss. and during the period Dreyfuss maintained residency and ownership, served primarily as a venue for special events. Halcyon House was put on the market in 2008 for $30 million. It was re-listed in January 2010 and, as of September 20, 2010, had been on the market for 250 days and was listed at $19.5 million.</p><br>
<p>In November 2011 the Halcyon House sold for a price of $12.5 million to Dr. Sachiko Kuno, and Dr. Ryuji Ueno, just two weeks after the price was lowered from $15 million. The house is currently used as headquarters for the Halcyon, a non-profit whose mission is to "catalyze emerging creatives striving for a better world."</p><br>
<p>The Gölsen is a tributary of the Traisen that is located in the Lower Austrian region of Mostviertel.</p><br>
<p>The river begins in Hainfeld with the merging of the Fliedersbach and the Ramsaubach (also called the Innere Gölsen). It then flows through the communities of Hainfeld, Rohrbach an der Gölsen, and Sankt Veit an der Gölsen, before meeting the Traisen at Traisen. The Gölsen flows in an east-west direction and is only around 15 km long with a difference in elevation of 80 meters.</p><br>
<p>On account of its constantly returning high water, the Gölsen is now very carefully controlled (the Gölsen Dam, etc.). Within its wide river bed however, the river can create gravel banks.</p><br>
<p>Parallel to the river runs the so-called Gölsentalradweg ("Gölsen valley bike trail"), which runs from the Traisentalradweg to Hainfeld. An extension of the path to the Triesting Valley Cycle Way is planned.</p><br>
<p>Along the Gölsen runs a rail line, the Leoberdorf Railway, from Traisen to Hainfeld. In the past, the line was longer and continued to Kaumberg and farther into the Triesting Valley. Since 2004, however, there have only been special trains in the Summer on this section of rail.</p><br>
<p>Gyeryongsan, a 845 m mountain in Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea. It lies at the meeting of the boundaries of several cities: Gongju, Gyeryong, Nonsan, and Daejeon. It has been traditionally regarded as a sacred mountain, with the most qi of any in South Korea. The name Gyeryongsan means chicken dragon mountain Portions of the mountain are included in a South Korean military reserve. Other portions are part of Gyeryongsan National Park. In the mountain, there are famous Buddhist temples such as Donghaksa, Gapsa and Sinwonsa, the latter two both being over a thousand years old. In addition the highest peak, Cheonhwangbong, there are seven other peaks with an elevation exceeding 500m</p><br>
<p>The park has an area of 64.6 km. Besides insects, birds and small fish, the park&#39;s fauna include snakes, hedgehogs, deer, and striped squirrels. Wild boar are also said to inhabit the park About 1.4 million visitors come to the park each year It is accessible by bus from the surrounding cities and villages and has a camp-ground.</p><br>
<p>Koonung Creek  is a small tributary of the Yarra River in Melbourne&#39;s east. The creek originates in Nunawading near Springvale Road, and flows to join the Yarra at the border between Ivanhoe East, Bulleen and Balwyn North. The place the two waterways meet forms the borders between these suburbs. Bushy Creek  is a tributary to the creek, joining near Elgar Park in Mont Albert North. A shared use path follows the course of the creek , known as the Koonung Creek Trail.</p><br>
<p>Melbourne Water rates the condition of the creek as Very Poor. Also according to Melbourne Water, the river is the unhealthiest waterway in Melbourne. Melbourne Waters monitoring station for the creek at Bulleen Road in Bulleen, detected an average E. coli count of 1800, this is nine times the safe swimming level (200). This was the highest level of E. coli measured in all of metropolitan Melbournes waterways. The poor condition of the creek has been evident from the earliest days of European settlement.</p><br>
<p>Five species of frog call the creek home, these are the Common Eastern Froglet, the Spotted Marsh Frog, the Striped Marsh Frog, the Eastern or Pobblebonk Frog and the Southern Brown or Ewing&#39;s Tree Frog. The Eastern Freeway follows the path of the creek within the band of parkland that adjoins the creek over its entire length.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The creek&#39;s headwaters meet near the borders of Nunawading and Donvale, 21 km east of Melbourne. From here, the creek flows in a roughly westerly direction for around 11 km, before reaching the Yarra River below the Yarra Flats in southern Bulleen. The creek is joined by various gullies and creeks, the most prominent of the tributaries include; St Clems Gully, Bushy Creek and Gawler/Lungren Gully.</p><br>
<h3>Geographic Features</h3><br>
<p>Boronia Grove Wetlands</p><br>
<p>Doncaster Hill</p><br>
<p>Other various wetlands & billabongs</p><br>
<h3>Settlements</h3><br>
<p>Approximately 80-90,000 people live in the creek&#39;s catchment area. Most settlements are extensions of suburban areas down the Koonung Creek Valley, with Doncaster and Balwyn North being notable exceptions. The settlements located along its course are listed below, from downstream to upstream</p><br>
<p>Southern Bulleen - 5,000~</p><br>
<p>Balwyn North - 20,000</p><br>
<p>Doncaster - 18,000</p><br>
<p>Mont Albert North - 5,000</p><br>
<p>Box Hill North - 10,000</p><br>
<p>Southern Doncaster East - 7,500~</p><br>
<p>Blackburn North - 6,800</p><br>
<p>Donvale - 11,000</p><br>
<p>Northern Nunawading - 5,000~</p><br>
<h2>Crossings</h2><br>
<p>Freeway Golf Course Footbridge</p><br>
<p>Bulleen Road</p><br>
<p>Thompsons Road</p><br>
<p>Eastern Freeway</p><br>
<p>Doncaster Road (creek tunnel)</p><br>
<p>Elgar Park Footbridge</p><br>
<p>Elgar Road</p><br>
<p>Tram Road</p><br>
<p>Wetherby Road</p><br>
<p>Eastern Freeway</p><br>
<p>Boronia Grove Footbridges</p><br>
<p>Blackburn Road (creek tunnel, 1995)</p><br>
<p>Koonung Creek Park Footbridges</p><br>
<p>Springvale Road</p><br>
<p>Eastern Freeway</p><br>
<h2>Other information</h2><br>
<p>Koonung Creek lends its name to many things, including many local streets and roads</p><br>
<p>Koonung Park, Blackburn North and the Koonung Park Tennis Centre</p><br>
<p>Koonung Road, Blackburn North</p><br>
<p>Koonung Creek Reserve</p><br>
<p>The Koonung Ward in the local government area of the City of Manningham</p><br>
<p>The Koonung Creek Trail</p><br>
<p>Koonung Secondary College</p><br>
<p>Ro or Rho  is a small Greek island in the eastern Mediterranean Sea near Kastellorizo, close to the Turkish coast. It is part of the municipality of Megísti , in the South Aegean region.</p><br>
<p>Together with other islets in the surrounding region, Ro was the object of a sovereignty dispute in the 1920s between Turkey and Italy, which at the time was in possession of Kastellorizo and the Dodecanese islands. The dispute was solved in a 1932 treaty, which assigned Ro to the Italian side. It finally came under Greek sovereignty in 1947, together with the other former Italian possessions in the Aegean.</p><br>
<p>Ro has been uninhabited for most of history, except for the one Greek woman who made it famous, Despina Achladioti. Every day, Achladioti, also known as the Lady of Ro, would fly a Greek flag, clearly visible from Turkish soil, over the island, until her death in 1982.</p><br>
<p>A small Greek military unit is now based on the island, with the primary duty of continuing the tradition of raising the flag, set by the "Lady of Ro", Despoina Achladioti. According to the 2011 census the island has no permanent residents.</p><br>
<p>The islet is named Kara Ada in Turkish.</p><br>
