<p>Lechaina  is a town and a former municipality in Elis, West Greece, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Andravida-Kyllini, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 94.567 km. It is situated 39 km north of the city of Pyrgos, and 60 km southwest of Patras. In 2011, its population was 4,855.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The area of the municipal unit Lechaina stretches from the flatlands on the Ionian Sea coast to the hills around the Pineios reservoir in the east. The main land use is agriculture. The lagoon Kotychi, connected with the Ionian Sea, is located in the northern part of Lechaina. Lechaina has a railway station on the line Patras-Kalamata. The principal streams are Andravida Creek and Melissos. The Greek National Road 9 Patras-Pylos runs through Lechaina.</p><br>
<h3>Subdivisions</h3><br>
<p>The municipal unit Lechaina is subdivided into the following communities (constituent villages in brackets):</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Mid 20th century, an irrigation project increased agricultural production of Lechaina. Forest fires have caused damage in Lechaina, especially in 1993 and 2001. The 2008 Peloponnese earthquake also caused damage in Lechaina.</p><br>
<h2>Population history</h2><br>
<h2>Notable people</h2><br>
<p>Andreas Karkavitsas, writer</p><br>
<p>The Columbia River Gorge is a canyon of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Up to 4,000 ft deep, the canyon stretches for over 80 mi as the river winds westward through the Cascade Range forming the boundary between the State of Washington to the north and Oregon to the south. Extending roughly from the confluence of the Columbia with the Deschutes River  in the east down to the eastern reaches of the Portland metropolitan area, the water gap furnishes the only navigable route through the Cascades and the only water connection between the Columbia River Plateau and the Pacific Ocean.</p><br>
<p>The gorge holds federally protected status as a National Scenic Area called the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area and is managed by the Columbia River Gorge Commission and the US Forest Service. The gorge is a popular recreational destination.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The Columbia River, Klamath River in Northern California, Pit River in Northern California, and Fraser River in Southern British Columbia are the only four rivers connecting the east-side watersheds of the Cascade Mountain Range to the Pacific Ocean. Each river has created a gorge through the Cascade Mountain Range. The Columbia River Gorge marks the state line between Oregon and Washington. The wide range of elevation and precipitation makes the Columbia River Gorge an extremely diverse and dynamic place. Ranging from 4,000 ft to sea level, and transitioning from 100 in of precipitation to only 10 in in 80 mi, the Gorge creates a diverse collection of ecosystems from the temperate rain forest on the western end&mdash;with an average annual precipitation of 75 to 100 in&mdash;to the eastern grasslands with average annual precipitation between 10 and, to a transitional dry woodland between Hood River and The Dalles. Isolated micro-habitats have allowed for many species of endemic plants and animals to prosper, including at least 13 endemic wildflowers.</p><br>
<p>The Gorge transitions between temperate rainforest to dry grasslands in only 80 miles, hosting a dramatic change in scenery while driving down Interstate-84. In the western, temperate rainforest areas, forests are marked by bigleaf maples, Douglas fir, and Western hemlock, all covered in epiphytes. In the transition zone (between Hood River and The Dalles), vegetation turns to Oregon white oak, Ponderosa pine, and cottonwood. At the eastern end, the forests make way for expansive grasslands, with occasional pockets of lodgepole and Ponderosa pine.</p><br>
<p>Atmospheric pressure differentials east and west of the Cascades create a wind tunnel effect in the deep cut of the gorge, generating 35 mph (56 km/h) winds that make it a popular windsurfing and kitesurfing location. It also creates the right conditions for snow and ice storms during the winter months which also draws very cold east winds at the mouth of the gorge on the west end.</p><br>
<p>The Gorge is a popular destination for hiking, biking, sight-seeing, fishing, and watersports. The area is known for its high concentration of waterfalls, with over 90 on the Oregon side of the Gorge alone. Many are along the Historic Columbia River Highway, including the notable 620 ft-high Multnomah Falls.</p><br>
<p>Trails and day use sites are maintained by the Forest Service and many Oregon and Washington state parks.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The Columbia River Gorge began forming as far back as the Miocene (roughly 17 to 12 million years ago), and continued to take shape through the Pleistocene (2 million to 700,000 years ago). During this period the Cascades Range was forming, which slowly moved the Columbia River&#39;s delta about 100 mi north to its current location.</p><br>
<p>Although the river slowly eroded the land over this period of time, the most drastic changes took place at the end of the last Ice Age when the Missoula Floods cut the steep, dramatic walls that exist today, flooding the river as high up as Crown Point. This quick erosion left many layers of volcanic rock exposed.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The gorge has supported human habitation for over 13,000 years. Evidence of the Folsom and Marmes people, who crossed the Bering land bridge from Asia, were found in archaeological digs. Excavations near Celilo Falls, a few miles east of The Dalles, show humans have occupied this salmon-fishing site for more than 10,000 years.</p><br>
<p>The gorge has provided a transportation corridor for thousands of years. Native Americans would travel through the Gorge to trade at Celilo Falls, both along the river and over Lolo Pass on the north side of Mount Hood. In 1805, the route was used by the Lewis and Clark Expedition to reach the Pacific. Early European and American settlers subsequently established steamboat lines and railroads through the gorge. Today, the BNSF Railway runs freights along the Washington side of the river, while its rival, the Union Pacific Railroad, runs freights along the Oregon shore. Until 1997, Amtrak&#39;s Pioneer also used the Union Pacific tracks. The Portland segment of the Empire Builder uses the BNSF tracks that pass through the gorge.</p><br>
<p>The Columbia River Highway, built in the early 20th century, was the first major paved highway in the Pacific Northwest. Shipping was greatly simplified after Bonneville Dam and The Dalles Dam submerged the gorges major rapids such as Celilo Falls, a major salmon fishing site for local Native Americans until the sites submergence in 1957.</p><br>
<p>In November 1986, Congress made it the second USA National Scenic Area and established the Columbia River Gorge Commission as part of an interstate compact. In 2004, the gorge became the namesake of the Columbia Gorge American Viticultural Area, a 4,432 acre area located on both sides of the river.</p><br>
<p>Owens Lake is a mostly dry lake in the Owens Valley on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada in Inyo County, California. It is about 5 mi south of Lone Pine, California. Unlike most dry lakes in the Basin and Range Province that have been dry for thousands of years, Owens held significant water until 1913, when much of the Owens River was diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct, causing Owens Lake to desiccate by 1926. Today, some of the flow of the river has been restored, and the lake now contains some water. Nevertheless, as of 2013, it is the largest single source of dust pollution in the United States.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Owens Lake was given that name by the explorer John C. Fremont, in honor of one of his guides, Richard Owens.</p><br>
<p>Before the diversion of the Owens River, Owens Lake was up to 12 mi long and 8 mi wide, covering an area of up to 108 square miles. In the last few hundred years the lake had an average depth of 23 to 50 ft, and sometimes overflowed to the south after which the water would flow into the Mojave Desert.</p><br>
<p>In 1905, the lake&#39;s water was thought to be “excessively saline.”</p><br>
<p>It is thought that in the late Pleistocene about 11-12,000 years ago Owens Lake was even larger, covering nearly 200 square miles and reaching a depth of 200 ft. The increased inflow from the Owens River, from melting glaciers of the post-Ice Age Sierra Nevada, caused Owens Lake to overflow south through Rose Valley into another now-dry lakebed, China Lake, in the Indian Wells Valley near Ridgecrest, California. After the glaciers melted, the lake waters receded, and this accelerated with human exploitation of the lake even before the Los Angeles Aqueduct was built, due to Owens Valley farmers who had already appropriated most of the Owens Rivers tributaries flow, causing the lake level to drop slightly each year.</p><br>
<p>Starting in 1913, the river and streams that fed Owens Lake were diverted by Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) into the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and the lake level started to drop quickly. As the lake dried, soda processing at nearby Keeler, CA switched from relatively cheap chemical methods to more expensive physical ones. The Natural Soda Products Company sued the city of Los Angeles and built a new plant with a $15,000 settlement. A fire destroyed this plant shortly after it was built but the company rebuilt it on the dry lakebed in the 1920s.</p><br>
<p>During the unusually wet winter of 1937, LADWP diverted water from the aqueduct into the lakebed, flooding the soda plant. Because of this, the courts ordered the city to pay $154,000. After an unsuccessful appeal attempt to the state supreme court in 1941, LADWP built the Long Valley Dam, which impounded Lake Crowley for flood control.</p><br>
<h2>Current conditions</h2><br>
<p>The lake is currently a large salt flat whose surface is made of a mixture of clay, sand, and a variety of minerals including halite, burkeite, mirabilite, thenardite, and trona. In wet years, these minerals form a chemical soup in the form of a small brine pond within the dry lake. When conditions are right, bright pink halophilic (salt-loving) archaea spread across the salty lakebed. Also, on especially hot summer days when ground temperatures exceed 150° F (66 °C), water is driven out of the hydrates on the lakebed creating a muddy brine. More commonly, periodic winds stir up noxious alkali dust storms that carry away as much as four million tons (3.6 million metric tons) of dust from the lakebed each year, causing respiratory problems in nearby residents. The dust includes carcinogens such as cadmium, nickel and arsenic.</p><br>
<h2>Current management</h2><br>
<p>The LADWP and the California State Lands Commission own most of the Owens Lake bed, though a few small parcels along the historic western shoreline are privately owned. In 2004, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) acquired a 218 acre parcel at the foot of Owens Lake. Designated the Cartago Wildlife Area in 2007, it is one of the few remaining spring and wetland areas on the shore of Owens Lake. CDFW is using mitigation funds from CalTrans to enhance habitat.</p><br>
<p>As part of an air quality mitigation settlement, LADWP is currently shallow flooding 27 square miles of the salt pan to try to help minimize alkali dust storms and further adverse health effects. There is also about 3.5 square miles of managed vegetation being used as a dust control measure. The vegetation consists of saltgrass, which is a native perennial grass highly tolerant of the salt and boron levels in the lake sediments. Gravel covers are also used.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>This once-blue saline lake was an important feeding and resting stop for millions of waterfowl each year. During a visit to Owens Lake in 1917 Joseph Grinnell from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology in Berkeley reported “Great numbers of water birds are in sight along the lake shore--avocets, phalaropes, ducks. Large flocks of shorebirds in flight over the water in the distance, wheeling about show in mass, now silvery now dark, against the gray-blue of the water. There must be literally thousands of birds within sight of this one spot.”</p><br>
<p>Owens Lake is still recognized as an Important Bird Area in California by the National Audubon Society. This water, although seasonally applied, is helping to buoy the lake&#39;s ecosystem causing hope in conservationists that an expanded shallow flooding program could do even more. There are no serious plans, however, to restore Owens to anything resembling a conventional lake.</p><br>
<p>On April 19, 2008, the Eastern Sierra Audubon Society, Audubon California, and the Owens Valley Committee held the first lake-wide survey of the bird populations of Owens Lake. Volunteers recorded a total of 112 avian species and 45,650 individual birds — the highest total number of birds ever officially recorded at Owens Lake. Volunteers identified 15 species of waterfowl (ducks and geese) and 22 species of shorebirds. The highest totals for individuals of a species included 13,873 California gulls (an inland nester at Mono Lake and elsewhere); 9,218 American avocets; 1,767 eared grebes; 13,826 peeps or small sandpipers such as dunlin, western and least sandpipers; and 2,882 individual ducks.</p><br>
<h2>Local industry</h2><br>
<h3>Cerro Gordo Mines</h3><br>
<p>The town of Cartago, below the Sierra Nevada near present-day Olancha, California, was the western shipping port for the Cerro Gordo Mines production and transported goods across Owens Lake with the northern ports of Swansea and Keeler directly below the mines. From Cartago a barge-like vessel, the Bessie Brady, was launched in 1872, which cut the three-day freight journey around the lake down to three hours.</p><br>
<p>Much of the freight it carried was silver and lead bullion from the Cerro Gordo mines, which at their height were so productive that the bars of the refined metals waited in large stacks before twenty-mule team teamsters could haul it to Los Angeles. The trying three-week (one way) journey improved after the formation of the Cerro Gordo Freighting Company, run by ancestors of regional historian Remi Nadeau who has written of this period.</p><br>
<p>The town of Keeler, below the Inyo Mountains on the former north shore, replaced Swansea as the shipping port for the mines after the 1872 Lone Pine earthquake. In the 1870s it had a population of 5,000 people as the center of trade for the Cerro Gordo mines.</p><br>
<p>The Cottonwood Charcoal Kilns, traditional stone masonry beehive charcoal kilns, were built to transform wood from trees in Cottonwood Canyon above the lake into charcoal, to feed the Cerro Gordo mines&#39; silver and lead smelters across the lake at Swansea. The ruins are located on the southern side of the lakebed near Cartago. They were similar to the nearby Panamint Charcoal Kilns near Death Valley. The kilns are identified as California Historical Landmark #537.</p><br>
<h3>Other enterprises</h3><br>
<p>In 1879 silver mining ended, but Keeler was saved when the Carson and Colorado Railroad built narrow-gauge rail tracks to the town. It then became a soda, salt, and marble shipping center until 1960. The rail line had been sold to Southern Pacific Railroad in 1900. Keeler&#39;s current population is around 50 people and continues in decline.</p><br>
<p>In the 20th century the Clark Chemical Company operated on the northwestern shore at Bartlett, with evaporation ponds for lake brine and a plant to extract its chemicals.</p><br>
<h4>Mineral extraction plants around the lake:</h4><br>
<p>Inyo Development Company, 1887-1920</p><br>
<p>Natural Soda Products Company/Michigan Alkali Company/Wyandotte Chemical Corporation, 1912-1953</p><br>
<p>California Alkali Company/Inyo Chemical Company, 1917-1932</p><br>
<p>Pacific Alkali/Columbia-Southern Chemical Corp./Pittsburgh Plate Glass, 1928-1968</p><br>
<p>Permanente Metals Corporation, 1947-1950</p><br>
<p>Morrison and Weatherly Chemical Corporation (M&W)/Lake Minerals Corporation (LMC)/Cominco American Inc./Owens Lake Soda Ash Company (OLSAC)/USA Borax/Rio Tinto Minerals, 1962–present. Rio Tinto Minerals has mineral lease renewals through 2048.</p><br>
<h2>Filmography</h2><br>
<p>Numerous Western films have been shot by Owens Lake, including Westward Ho! (1935) starring John Wayne, Maverick (1994) starring Mel Gibson, Riders of the Dawn (1937), Across the Plains (1939), Stage to Tucson (1951), From Hell to Texas (1958) and Nevada Smith (1966).</p><br>
<h2>Public access</h2><br>
<p>The Cartago Wildlife Area continues to develop as a wildlife-viewing area for the public. The site is open year-round for viewing numerous bird species attracted to the ponds and wetlands as well as the ruins of a historic soda ash plant from the World War I era and the 1920s.</p><br>
<h2>Surroundings from Earth orbit</h2><br>
<p>Umma  was an ancient city in Sumer. There is some scholarly debate about the Sumerian and Akkadian names for this site. Until recently Umma was identified with Tell Jokha, less than 7 km to its northwest.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In the early Sumerian text Inanna&#39;s descent to the netherworld, Inanna dissuades demons from the netherworld from taking Shara, patron of Umma, who was living in squalor. They eventually take Dumuzid king of Uruk instead, who lived in palatial opulence.</p><br>
<p>Best known for its long frontier conflict with Lagash, the city reached its zenith c. 2275 BC, under the rule of Lugal-Zage-Si, who also controlled Ur and Uruk. Under the Ur III dynasty, Umma became an important provincial center. Most of the over 30,000 cuneiform tablets recovered from the site are administrative and economic texts from that time. They permit an excellent insight into provincial affairs in Umma. The Umma calendar of Shulgi (c. 21st century BC) is the immediate predecessor of the later Babylonian calendar, and indirectly of the post-exilic Hebrew calendar. Umma appears to have been abandoned after the Middle Bronze Age.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeology</h2><br>
<p>The site of Tell Jokha was visited by William Loftus in 1854 and John Punnett Peters of the University of Pennsylvania in 1885. In the early 1900s, many illegally excavated Umma tablets from the Third Dynasty of Ur began to appear on the antiquities market. In the late 1990s, some salvage excavation related to a roadway project was conducted at Tell Jokha by Iraqi archaeologists. Since then, Tell Jokha has been identified as Umma&#39;s dependency Gisha (or Kissa), while the site of Umma itself has been located about 6.5 km to the southeast, at Umm al-Aqarib. At Umm al-Aqarib, archaeologists uncovered levels dating as early as the Early Dynastic Period (c. 2900–2300 BC), including several monumental buildings, one of them variously identified as a temple or palace.</p><br>
<h3>Looting</h3><br>
<p>During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, after Coalition bombing began, looters descended upon the site which is now pockmarked with hundreds of ditches and pits. The prospects for future official excavation and research were seriously compromised in the process. Looting trenches were dug over an area the size of 3,000 soccer fields in various sites within Iraq, according to a 2007 report in The Independent.</p><br>
<p>In 2011, Global Heritage Network, which monitors threats to cultural heritage sites in developing nations, released aerial images comparing Umma in 2003 and 2010, showing a landscape devastated by looters trenches during that time—approximately 1.12 square km in total. Additional images relevant to the situation at Umm al-Aqarib are included in Tuckers article on the destruction of Iraq&#39;s archaeological heritage.</p><br>
<p>Vouprasia  is a former municipality in Elis, West Greece, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Andravida-Kyllini, of which it is a municipal unit. Its seat of administration was Varda, a small town with a population of about 2,300. The municipal unit has about 8,400 inhabitants. The area of the municipal unit is 170.859 km².</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Vouprasia is located in northern Elis, on the Ionian coast between Patras and Pyrgos. The Greek National Road 9/E55 and the Patras-Kalamata railway line pass through it. Vouprasia has one disused railway station, in Varda.</p><br>
<p>The area is mostly flat, and the main land use is agriculture. The lagoon Kotychi, connected with the Ionian Sea, is located in the western part of Vouprasia. There is a health center in Varda.</p><br>
<p>Vouprasia borders on (clockwise from the west) the Ionian Sea, the municipal units Larissos and Olenia (both Achaea) and the municipal units Pineia, Amaliada and Lechaina (both Elis).</p><br>
<h2>Subdivisions</h2><br>
<p>The municipal unit Vouprasia is subdivided into the following communities:</p><br>
<h2>Population history</h2><br>
<p>Dealey Plaza is a city park in the West End district of downtown Dallas, Texas . It is sometimes called the "birthplace of Dallas". It was the location of the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. The Dealey Plaza Historic District was named a National Historic Landmark in 1993 to preserve Dealey Plaza, street rights-of-way, and buildings and structures by the plaza visible from the assassination site, that have been identified as witness locations or as possible assassin locations.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Dealey Plaza was built on land donated by early Dallas philanthropist and businesswoman Sarah Horton Cockrell. It was the location of the first home built in Dallas, which also became the first courthouse and post office, the first store, and the first fraternal lodge. It is sometimes called the "birthplace of Dallas". The plaza was completed in 1940 as a WPA project on the west edge of downtown Dallas where three streets converge (Main Street, Elm Street, and Commerce Street) to pass under a railroad bridge known locally as the "triple underpass."</p><br>
<p>The plaza is named for George Bannerman Dealey (1859&ndash;1946), a civic leader and early publisher of The Dallas Morning News, who had campaigned for the areas revitalization. Monuments outlining the plaza honor previous prominent Dallas residents and predate President John F. Kennedys visit by many years. The actual monument honoring President Kennedy, in the form of a cenotaph, is one block away.</p><br>
<h2>John F. Kennedy assassination</h2><br>
<p>Dealey Plaza is bounded on the south, east, and north sides by 100+ foot (30+ m) tall buildings. One of those buildings is the former Texas School Book Depository building, from which, both the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded, Lee Harvey Oswald fired a rifle that killed President Kennedy. There is also a grassy knoll on the northwest side of the plaza. At the plaza&#39;s west perimeter is a triple underpass beneath a railroad bridge, under which the motorcade raced after the shots were fired.</p><br>
<p>Today, the plaza is typically visited daily by tourists. The Sixth Floor Museum now occupies the top two floors of the seven-story former Book Depository. Since 1989, more than six million people have visited the museum.</p><br>
<p>The National Park Service designated Dealey Plaza a National Historic Landmark District in 1993, roughly encompassing the area between Pacific Avenue, Market and Jackson Streets and the former railroad tracks. Therefore, nothing of significance has been torn down or rebuilt in the immediate area. (A small plaque commemorating the assassination is located in the plaza.)</p><br>
<p>Visitors to Dealey Plaza today will see street lights and street signs that were in use in 1963, though some have been moved to different locations and others removed entirely. Buildings immediately surrounding the plaza have not been changed since 1963, presenting a stark contrast to the ultra-modern Dallas skyline that rises behind it.</p><br>
<p>Over more than half-a-century, Elm Street has been resurfaced several times; street lane stripes have been relocated; sidewalk lamp posts have been moved and added; trees, bushes and hedges have grown; and some traffic sign locations have been changed, relocated or removed. In late 2003, the city of Dallas approved construction project plans to restore Dealey Plaza to its exact appearance on November 22, 1963., voters had approved US$500,000 of the $3,000,000 needed. The first phase of the restoration, which spent $700,000 for repair work and plumbing along Houston Streets, was completed in 2008.</p><br>
<h2>Grassy knoll</h2><br>
<p>The grassy knoll is a small, sloping hill inside the plaza that became well-known following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The knoll was above Kennedy and to his right (west and north) during the assassination on November 22, 1963.</p><br>
<p>This north grassy knoll is bounded by the former Texas School Book Depository building along the Elm Street abutment side street to the northeast, Elm Street and a sidewalk to the south, a parking lot to the north and east and a railroad bridge atop the triple underpass convergence of Commerce, Main and Elm streets to the west.</p><br>
<p>Located near the north grassy knoll on November 22, 1963, were several witnesses, three large traffic signposts, four sidewalk lamp posts, the John Neely Bryan north pergola concrete structure including its two enclosed shelters, a tool shed, one 3.3 foot (1 m) high concrete wall connected to each of the pergola shelters, ten tall, wide, low-hanging live oak trees, a five-foot (1.5 m) tall, wooden, cornered, stockade fenceline approximately 169 feet (53.6 m) long, six street curb sewer openings, their sewer manholes and their interconnecting large pipes and numerous 2 to 6 foot (0.6 to 1.8 m) tall bushes, trees and hedges.</p><br>
<p>The words "grassy knoll" to describe this area were first used by reporter Albert Merriman Smith of UPI, who was riding in the press "pool car" following the motorcade and had use of the cars radio-telephone. In his second dispatch from the car, 25 minutes after the shooting, he said: "Some of the Secret Service agents thought the gunfire was from an automatic weapon fired to the right rear of the presidents car, probably from a grassy knoll to which police rushed." These words were then repeated on national television by Walter Cronkite in his second CBS News bulletin.</p><br>
<p>Of the 104 Dealey Plaza earwitness reports published by the Commission and elsewhere, 56 recorded testimony that they remembered hearing at least one shot fired from the direction of the Depository or from near its Houston and Elm Streets intersection that was to the rear of the President, 35 witnesses recorded testimony of at least one shot fired from the direction of the grassy knoll or the triple underpass located to the right and front of the President, eight witnesses gave statements of shots fired from elsewhere, and five earwitnesses testified that the shots were fired from two different directions.</p><br>
<p>Because of persistent debate, answered and unanswered questions, and conspiracy theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination and the possible related role of the grassy knoll, the term "grassy knoll" has come to also be a modern slang expression indicating suspicion, conspiracy, or a cover-up.</p><br>
<p>Willapa Bay is a bay located on the southwest Pacific coast of Washington state in the United States. The Long Beach Peninsula separates Willapa Bay from the greater expanse of the Pacific Ocean. With over 260 square miles of water surface Willapa Bay is the second largest estuary on the United States Pacific coast. Early settlers called the bay Shoalwater Bay and this name is found on old maps and charts of the region.</p><br>
<p>Willapa Bay is fairly shallow: more than half of its surface area lies in the intertidal zone, and in fact half of the volume of water inside it enters and leaves with every tide. The bay is an estuary formed when the Long Beach Peninsula, a long sand spit from the Columbia River to the south, partially enclosed the estuaries of several smaller rivers. It is a ria, which formed after the rise in sea level at the end of the last ice age flooded several small river valleys. The North River, Willapa River, and Naselle River provide most of the freshwater input into the bay. Other rivers that empty into Willapa Bay include the Bone River, Niawiakum River, Palix River, Naselle River, and Bear River, among others.</p><br>
<p>The bay is bordered by several smaller towns and unincorporated communities such as Raymond, South Bend, both on the Willapa River; while Oysterville, Nahcotta, Bay Center and Tokeland are on the bay itself. The bay is entirely located within Pacific County, Washington and is home to a local oyster and seafood processing industry: approximately 9% of all oysters in the USA are grown there.</p><br>
<p>Willapa Bay is known for its amazing biodiversity and much of it, including the entirety of Long Island, has been set aside as part of the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge. The oyster beds help the ecosystem by providing habitats and filtering water, improving the quality of the water. The bay&#39;s ecology was threatened in the 1990s by the rapid spreading of atlantic cordgrass (Spartina Alterniflora), a non-native species of grass introduced possibly to help preserve wetlands and marsh areas, and possibly simply by accident, as packing material in crates of oysters from the East Coast. The State of Washington has been spraying an herbicide thought not to threaten other species since about 2005, and the spartina threat is much reduced.</p><br>
<p>Riddarholmen  is a small islet in central Stockholm, Sweden. The island forms part of Gamla Stan, the old town, and houses a number of private palaces dating back to the 17th century. The main landmark is the church Riddarholmskyrkan, used as Sweden&#39;s royal burial church from the 17th century to 1950, and where a number of earlier Swedish monarchs also lie buried.</p><br>
<p>The western end of the island gives a magnificent panoramic and photogenic view of the bay Riddarfjärden, often used by TV journalists with Stockholm City Hall in the background. A statue of Birger Jarl, traditionally considered the founder of Stockholm, stands a pillar in front of the Bonde Palace, north of Riddarholm Church.</p><br>
<p>Other notable buildings include the Old Parliament Building in the south-eastern corner, the Old National Archive on the eastern shore, and the Norstedt Building, the old printing house of the publisher Norstedts, the tower roof of which is a well-known silhouette on the city&#39;s skyline.</p><br>
<h2>Palaces</h2><br>
<p>While the Riddarholm Church dates back to the Middle Ages and is one of Stockholm&#39;s oldest buildings, most of the present structures on Riddarholmen were built during the 17th century when the island was an aristocratic setting that gave the islet its present name. Three of the palaces are gathered around the central public square, Birger Jarls Torg centred on the 19th-century statue of Birger Jarl: The Wrangel Palace on the west side, the most impressive, incorporates a medieval defensive tower and a portal designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder; the Stenbock and Hessenstein Palaces on the east side are less elaborate. North of the square, the two 19th-century wings of the Palace of Schering Rosenhane reach the rustic main building, which dates from the 17th century.</p><br>
<p>Wrangel Palace, and the palaces of Hessenstein, and Schering Rosenhane are today used by Svea Hovrätt, the appellate court for Svealand, while the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court reside in the palaces of Bonde and Stenbock respectively. Some of the older Swedish Government Agencies, like the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency and the Chancellor of Justice, are also located on the island.</p><br>
<p>According to a Swedish guide book, these anonymous institutions, together with the motorway Centralbron that isolates the island from the rest of the city, make the island as a whole a lifeless and dull environment, despite ambitious restorations during the 1990s.</p><br>
<h2>Origin of the name</h2><br>
<p>The island is first mentioned as Kidaskär (literally "Kid Skerry" and thus indicating the islet was mostly used to graze goats) in the Eric Chronicles (Erikskrönikan) from around 1325, which recounts how King Magnus Ladulås (1240–1290) had a Greyfriars monastery built on the island about 1270, asking in his will that he be buried in it in 1285. During the Middle Ages, the original name disappeared from historical records, replaced by Gråbrödraholm ("Grey Brothers islet"), Munckholmen ("Monk Islet"), and Gråmunkeholm ("Grey Monks Islet"), the latter most commonly used until the 17th century.</p><br>
<p>The monastery, however, closed following the Protestant Reformation and was subsequently converted into a church. Probably as consequence, the name changed in the 1630s, the island being referred to as Riddarholmen, för detta Gråmunkeholm kallad ("Knight&#39;s Islet, formerly called Grey Monk&#39;s Islet") in 1638. The old name did persist however, so while Charles XI (1655–1697) preferred the new name, his youngest daughter Ulrika Eleonora (1688–1741) remained faithful to the old.</p><br>
<h2>Yacht/hotel</h2><br>
<p>*C.K.G. Billings&#39;s yacht Vanadis is now anchored at Riddarholmen, and is used as a hotel known as Mälardrottningen with the ship rechristened as Lady Hutton.</p><br>
<p>The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region , also known as Zhujiang Delta or Zhusanjiao, is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. It is one of the most densely urbanized regions in the world and is an economic hub of China. This region was also the source of much Chinese emigration from the 19th to the mid 20th centuries, including to the Western world, such as the US, Canada, Australia, Latin America, and much of Southeast Asia, where they formed many Chinatowns. Today, much of the Chinese diaspora traces their ancestry to this region.</p><br>
<p>This region is often considered an emerging megacity. The PRD is a megalopolis, with future development into a single mega metropolitan area, yet itself is at the southern end of a larger megalopolis running along the southern coast of China, which include metropolises such as Chaoshan, Zhangzhou-Xiamen, Quanzhou-Putian and Fuzhou. The nine largest cities of PRD had a combined population of 57.15 million at the end of 2013, comprising 53.69% of the provincial population. According to the World Bank Group, the PRD has become the largest urban area in the world in both size and population. The metropolitan region consist of one metropolitan area known as the Yuegang&#39;ao Greater Bay Area or Guangdong—Hong Kong—Macau Greater Bay Area. On 7 December 2016, in the English version of the 13th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China translated by the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau of China, the concept of “Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area” (粵港澳大灣區）was mentioned.</p><br>
<p>On 13 April 2017, the heading of a piece of news released at the English.gov.cn website of the State Council adopted the name "Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macao Bay Area", and mentioned in the text of the same news that it is "also known as Greater Bay Area". After a few months, on 1 July 2017, the Framework Agreement on Deepening Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macao Cooperation in the Development of the Bay Area 《深化粵港澳合作 推進大灣區建設框架協議》 was signed in Hong Kong.</p><br>
<h2>Recent Development</h2><br>
<p>Since economic liberalisation was adopted by the Chinese government in the late 1970s, the Delta has become one of the leading economic regions and a major manufacturing center of China and the world. The Chinese government hopes that the manufacturing in Guangdong, combined with the financial and service economy and traditional capitalistic influence in Hong Kong, will create an economic gateway attracting foreign capital throughout mainland China.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<h3>River delta</h3><br>
<p>The river delta, also known as the Golden Delta of Guangdong, is formed by three major rivers, the Xi Jiang (West River), Bei Jiang (North River), and Dong Jiang (East River). The flat lands of the delta are criss-crossed by a network of tributaries and distributaries of the Pearl River. The Pearl River Delta is actually two alluvial deltas, separated by the core branch of the Pearl River. The Bei Jiang and Xi Jiang converge to flow into the South China Sea and Pearl River in the west, while the Dong Jiang only flows into the Pearl River proper in the east.</p><br>
<p>The Xi Jiang begins exhibiting delta-like characteristics as far west as Zhaoqing, although this city is not usually considered a part of the PRD region. After passing through the Lingyang Gorge and converging with the Bei Jiang, the Xi Jiang opens up and flows as far east as Nasha Qu and as far west as Xinhui. Major distributaries of the Xi include Donghui Shuidao, Jiya Shuidao, Hutiaomen Shuidao, Yinzhou Hu, and the main branch of the Xi Jiang. Jiangmen and Zhongshan are the major cities found in the western section of the delta.</p><br>
<p>The Bei Jiang enters the delta plains at Qingyuan but doesnt begin to split until near Sanshui. From here the two main distributaries are Tanzhou Shuidao and Shunde Shuidao which form multiple mouths along the west side of the Pearl Rivers estuary. Two other distributaries, Lubao Yong and Xinan Yong, split from the Bei further north and converge with the Liuxi He to form the main branch of the Pearl River just north of Guangzhou. The other major city in the north section of the delta is Foshan.</p><br>
<p>The Dong Jiang flows through Huizhou into the delta. It begins diverging northeast of Dongguan into many distributaries, including the Dongguan Shuidao. Distributuares enter the Pearl River as far north as Luogang and as far south as Hu Men (Tiger Gate).</p><br>
<p>Saltwater crocodiles were present within the Pearl River estuary during antiquity.</p><br>
<h2>Location and demographics</h2><br>
<p>As well as the delta itself, the term Pearl River Delta refers to the dense network of cities that covers nine prefectures of the province of Guangdong, namely Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Foshan, Huizhou, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing, and the SARs of Hong Kong and Macau. The 2010/2011 State of the World Cities report, published by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, estimates the population of the delta region at 120 million people; it is rapidly urbanising.</p><br>
<p>The eastern side of the PRD (Shenzhen, Dongguan), dominated by foreign capital, is the most developed economically. The western areas (Foshan, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Jiangmen), dominated by local private capital, are open for development. New transport links between Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai in the PRD are expected to open up new areas for development, further integrate the cities, and facilitate trade within the region. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, currently under construction, and the proposed Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge, currently in the planning phase, will be amongst the longest bridges in the world with a total length of approximately 50 km each.</p><br>
<p>Until c. 1985, the PRD had been mainly dominated by farms and small rural villages, but after the economy was reformed and opened, a flood of investment turned it into the lands economic powerhouse. The PRDs startling growth was fueled by foreign investment coming largely from Hong Kong manufacturers that moved their operations into the PRD. In 2003, Hong Kong companies employed 11 million workers in their PRD operations. Lately there have been extreme labour shortages in the region due to runaway economic growth which caused wages to rise by about 20 to 30 percent in the past two years.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>The Pearl River Delta has been one of the most economically dynamic regions of the Peoples Republic of China since the launch of China’s reform programme in 1979. With annual gross domestic product growth of 13.45 percent over three decades since 1978, it is 3.5 percentage points higher than the national average. Since 1978, almost 30% of all foreign investment in China was in the PRD. By 2007 its GDP rose to US$448 billion which makes its economy about the size of Taiwans. The abundance of employment opportunities created a pool of wealthy, middle-income, professional consumers with an annual per capita income that puts them among China&#39;s wealthiest. Since the onset of China’s reform program, the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone has been the fastest growing portion of the fastest growing province in the fastest growing large economy in the world.</p><br>
<p>Dongguan, Zhongshan, Nanhai, and Shunde (the later two are now districts of Foshan) the four cities known as the Four Guangdong Dragons for its high growth rates and rapid development from late the 1980s to the 2000s.</p><br>
<p>According to the 2000 national Census, the Zone had a population of 40.8 million people. Per capita income has been growing substantially in recent years, as have consumer expenditures.</p><br>
<p>Although the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone encompasses only 0.4 percent of the land area and only 3.2 percent of the 2000 Census population of mainland China, it accounted for 8.7 percent of GDP, 35.8 percent of total trade, and 29.2 percent of utilised foreign capital in 2001. These figures show the remarkable level of economic development to which the Pearl River Delta has been subjected in order to become an Economic Zone, as well as the international orientation of the region’s economy. This orientation has attracted numerous investors from all over the world who use the Greater Pearl River Delta region as a platform for serving global and Chinese markets.</p><br>
<p>As of 2008, the Central Government has introduced new labor laws, environmental and other regulations to reduce pollution, industrial disputes, produce safer working conditions and protect the environment. The costs of producing low margin and commodity goods have increased. This is on top of the rising cost for energy, food, transport and the appreciation of the Renminbi against the falling US Dollar. Some manufacturers will need to cut costs by moving up the value chain or moving to more undeveloped regions.</p><br>
<p>The industrial cities in the Pearl River Delta has been called the "Factory of the World" or the "World&#39;s Factory" due the presence of industrial parks populated with factories from foreign investments.1</p><br>
<h3>Significance of manufacturing</h3><br>
<p>The Pearl River Delta has become the worlds workshop and is a major manufacturing base for products such as electronic products (such as watches and clocks), toys, garments and textiles, plastic products, and a range of other goods. Much of this output is invested by foreign entities and is geared for the export market. The Pearl River Delta Economic Zone accounts for approximately one third of Chinas trade value.</p><br>
<p>Private-owned enterprises have developed quickly in the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone and are playing an ever-growing role in the region&#39;s economy, particularly after year 2000 when the development environment for private-owned enterprises has been greatly relaxed.</p><br>
<p>Nearly five percent of the world&#39;s goods were produced in the Greater Pearl River Delta in 2001, with a total export value of US$289 billion. Over 70,000 Hong Kong companies have factory plants there.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<h3>Public transport</h3><br>
<h4>Urban rail transport</h4><br>
<p>PRD is served by five different metro systems throughout the metropolitan area consisting of Guangzhou Metro, Shenzhen Metro, MTR, FMetro, and Dongguan Rail Transit. Both Guangzhou and Hong Kong are also served by tram systems: Guangzhou Trams, Hong Kong Tramways, MTR Light Rail, and Peak Tram.</p><br>
<p>Currently, four additional metro and tram systems are under construction: Macau Light Rail Transit, Shenzhen Trams, Zhuhai Trams, and Foshan Trams. Also, three additional systems are under planning stage: Zhongshan Metro, Huizhou Metro, and Zhuhai Metro.</p><br>
<h4>Buses, taxis and motorcycles</h4><br>
<p>All cities are served by buses and taxis, while some cities may still offer motorcycle service.</p><br>
<h3>Air transport</h3><br>
<p>PRD is metropolitan area covered by 7 civilian airports and four of the airports are international.</p><br>
<p>Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport</p><br>
<p>Shenzhen Bao&#39;an International Airport</p><br>
<p>Hong Kong International Airport</p><br>
<p>Macau International Airport</p><br>
<p>Foshan Shadi Airport</p><br>
<p>Zhuhai Jinwan Airport</p><br>
<p>Huizhou Pingtan Airport</p><br>
<h3>Railway and intercity-rail transport</h3><br>
<p>The entire PRD is fully covered by railway, high-speed rail, or intercity-rail services.</p><br>
<p>Major stations</p><br>
<p>Guangzhou Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Guangzhou East Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Guangzhou South Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Guangzhou North Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Shenzhen Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Shenzhen North Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Shenzhen East Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Futian Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Hong Kong Station and Central Station</p><br>
<p>Hung Hom Station</p><br>
<p>Zhongshan Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Zhongshan North Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Zhuhai Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Zhuhai North Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Dongguan Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Dongguan East Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Foshan Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Foshan East Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Jiangmen Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Humen Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Huizhou Railway Station</p><br>
<p>Zhaoqing Railway Station</p><br>
<h3>River transport</h3><br>
<p>There are daily high-speed catamaran services throughout the PRD region.</p><br>
<p>Guangzhou Ferry</p><br>
<p>Cotai Jet</p><br>
<p>New World First Ferry</p><br>
<p>TurboJET</p><br>
<p>Star Ferry</p><br>
<p>Hong Kong & Kowloon Ferry</p><br>
<p>Discovery Bay Transportation Services</p><br>
<p>Park Island Transport</p><br>
<p>Fortune Ferry</p><br>
<p>Macao Dragon Company</p><br>
<p>Coral Sea Ferry</p><br>
<p>Chuen Kee Ferry</p><br>
<p>Tsui Wah Ferry</p><br>
<h2>Cities</h2><br>
<h3>Subdivision</h3><br>
<h2>Pearl River mega-city</h2><br>
<p>A 2011 article in British newspaper The Telegraph reported on a "Turn The Pearl River Delta Into One" project. The stated goal was to "mesh the transport, energy, water and telecommunications networks of the nine cities together."</p><br>
<p>(Hong Kong and Macau were not included.) However, the Chinese government denied that such a project existed.</p><br>
<h2>Pollution</h2><br>
<p>The Pearl River Delta is notoriously polluted, with sewage and industrial waste treatment facilities failing to keep pace with the growth in population and industry in the area. A large portion of the pollution is brought about by factories run by Hong Kong manufacturers in the area. Much of the area is frequently covered with a brown smog. This has a strong effect on the pollution levels in the delta.</p><br>
<p>Pollution is a great risk to the Chinese white dolphins that inhabit the area.</p><br>
<p>On March 22, 2007 the World Bank approved a $96 million loan to the PRC government to reduce water pollution in the Pearl River Delta.</p><br>
<p>On December 23, 2008 it was announced that ¥48.6 billion (about $7.1 billion) will be spent on the river by mid-2010 to clean up the river&#39;s sewage problems quoted by Zhang Hu, the director of Guangzhou municipal bureau of water affairs. The city will build about 30 water treatment plants, which will treat 2.25 million tonnes of water per day. The program hopes to cut down the amount of sewage in the area by 85%, and was also of fundamental importance for the 2010 Asian Games held in Guangzhou from November 12, 2010 to November 27, 2010.</p><br>
<p>In October 2009, Greenpeace East Asia released a report, "Poisoning the Pearl River" that detailed the results of a study it conducted in which 25 samples were collected from five manufacturing facilities in the Greater Pearl River Delta. The study concluded that all the facilities sampled were discharging waste-water containing chemicals with proven or suspected hazardous properties including beryllium, copper, manganese, and heavy metals, as well as high levels of organic chemicals.</p><br>
<p>These substances are associated with a long list of health problems such as cancer, endocrine disruption, renal failure and damage to the nervous system as well being known to harm the environment. Three of the five facilities sampled (Qingyuan Top Dragon Co. Ltd, Wing Fung P.C. Board Co. Ltd. and Techwise Qingyuan Circuit Co. Ltd. ) contained concentrations of chemicals which exceeded the limits set by Guangdong provincial effluent standards. These companies were then subjected to a Clean Production Audit according to Article 28 of China&#39;s Cleaner Production Promotion Law.</p><br>
<p>Guangdong Environmental Protection Bureau took a stance against the companies by blacklisting them.</p><br>
<p>Helgeandsholmen is a small island in central Stockholm, Sweden. It is located north of Stadsholmen, and east of Strömsborg, with which, together with Riddarholmen, it forms Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm. Helgeandsholmen contains the Riksdag Building and the Museum of Medieval Stockholm, and is connected to neighbouring islands through three bridges: Riksbron, Stallbron, and Norrbro.</p><br>
<p>The terrace in the eastern end, called Strömparterren ("The Stream Parterr"), is a public park with a restaurant dating from 1832, while the flight of stairs leading down to the water is from 1807-1810. The quay west of the Riksdag Building once surrounded the Bank of Sweden and was thus named Bankkajen ("The Bank Quay"), while the streets on southern and northern side are called Norra/Södra Helgeandstrappan ("The Northern/Southern Helgeand Stairs"), all of them named in 1925.</p><br>
<h2>Origin of the name</h2><br>
<p>First mentioned in a letter written in Latin July 28, 1320 the name Helgeandsholmen, a corruption of Helige andens holme ("Islet of the Holy Spirit"), appears as in insula dicta helghaanzsholm ("on the island called Helgeandsholm"). At the time, helgeandshus (Old Swedish: hälgha ands hus. hälandzhus, helghanzhhws, hälianshus) was a name used for charitable institutions spiritual in nature, in Stockholm first mentioned in a testament from April 24, 1301 (domus sancti spiritus).</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>A set of islets</h3><br>
<p>Though one regular shaped island today, Helgeandsholmen was until quite recently a set of islets. Before the start of extensive archaeological excavations in 1978, it was traditionally believed that the present island once encompassed three islets:</p><br>
<p>A larger main island to the south, called Helgeandsholmen from the 14th century. The excavations, however, convincingly showed that during the early Middle Ages this island in fact consisted of two smaller islets, of which we know absolutely nothing.</p><br>
<p>And, north of this major island, two smaller ones, once the property of the abbey at Klara:</p><br>
<p>One called Barkarholmen ("Bark Islet"), suggesting there was a tanning business here as bark was an important raw material for tanning. This islet was also known as Klosterholmen ("Abbey Islet").</p><br>
<p>And, east of Barkarholmen, a rocky islet called Lilla Stockholm ("Little Log Islet") in the 16th century, renamed Bryggeriholmen ("Brewery Islet") during the 17th century (in reference to a brewery in operation 1641-45), and after that called Slaktarholmen ("Butcher&#39;s Islet") after a slaughterhouse operating there. Lilla Stockholm disappeared when Norrbro was finally completed in 1806.</p><br>
<h3>The Helgeand House</h3><br>
<p>As mentioned above, a charitable institution organized by a pious foundation was located on the island, receiving sick people, poor and elderly as well as foreigners, and accepting donations from burghers in city, through which the institution became an important landowner. The original Helgeandshuset ("The House of the Holy Spirit") probably dates back to the 13th century but is not mentioned until 1301. Rebuilt after a fire in 1410, it was moved to Riddarholmen by King Gustav Vasa (1496–1560) in 1531. Though the appearance of Helgeandshuset is not known, it is believed to have resembled similar institutions elsewhere and thus consist of a hospital ward and a church surrounded by other buildings and a graveyard.</p><br>
<h3>Norrbro</h3><br>
<p>Originally, Norrbro stretched diagonally across Helgeandsholmen from (what is today) Mynttorget to Gustav Adolfs torg. Though not mentioned until 1288, the first bridge is believed to have been built with the foundation of the city in 1252. Like virtually all bridges during the Middle Ages, Norrbro was built in wood, at the time considered appropriate as bridges then easily could be dismantled during sieges.</p><br>
<p>Drawbridges are mentioned in 1318, and the general urban code from the mid 14th century prescribes six cities around Lake Mälaren - Arboga, Enköping, Sigtuna, Strängnäs, Västerås and Uppsala - to share the costs of maintenance with Stockholm, thus indicating the bridge wasn&#39;t merely of interest to the city, but a vital part of the regional road system. These neighbouring cities gradually came to question this obligation however, and during the 16th and 17th centuries Stockholm was, bit by bit, to take charge of the bridge alone.</p><br>
<p>Until the 1640s, the width of the street varied from 10 to 20 ells (5.9-11.9 metres), but as the northern settlements were incorporated with the city in 1635, so was Helgeandsholmen, and the standard street width was regulated. Over-Governor Klas Fleming (1592–1644) had Norrbro straightened out, in line with his own site on the street, and the width set to 24 ells (14.3 metres).</p><br>
<p>Norrbro was rebuilt as one of the city&#39;s first stone bridges, the northern section completed in 1797, and the southern in 1806.</p><br>
<h3>City gates and fortifications</h3><br>
<p>An inner gate, Norreport, is mentioned south of Helgeandsholmen in 1409, and an outer gate in the 1460s, but was probably older than that. Both gates were eventually supplied with defensive towers. In the early 15th century, the walls were extended and a western tower added to the fortifications, the entire structure being outdated later that century and finally demolished by 1672.</p><br>
<h3>Royal Stables</h3><br>
<p>Probably established on the island as early as 1535, Royal Stables were at first accommodated in the former hospital ward, and by 1612 given a for the purpose suitable building. First relocated north of Helgeandsholmen in the 1640s, they were moved back again in 1680 to a building designed by architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder (1615–1684). Destroyed by a fire in 1696, the stables were immediately rebuilt in the design of Nicodemus Tessin the Younger (1654–1728), a structure surviving different alternations until the beginning of the 20th century.</p><br>
<h3>Historical canals</h3><br>
<p>Over the years, several canals have passed through today&#39;s Helgeandsholmen, most notably between and south of the two palaces described above. Before post-glacial rebound made the canals unnecessary, spring floods was a serious problem often forcing the reconstruction of bridges and other structures, but by the 17th century the first canal was scrapped, the second when the Parliament Building was built in the early 20th century.</p><br>
<h3>17th century structures</h3><br>
<p>Needing access to a water mill, a royal workshop for the production of gun carriages, Lådmakaregården ("The Box Making Court") was relocated to Barkholmen in the early 17th century, built on poles and reaching around Stockholmen. It was later demolished and replaced by the Gyldenklou House.</p><br>
<p>Having bought a site north of the Royal Stables in 1637, Klas Fleming had his private palace, Flemingska huset ("The Fleming House"), built after his own German-Dutch renaissance design, and, subsequently, the entire neighbourhood adapted to it. In 1696 however, the Crown bought the house to have it demolished for the extension of the stables.</p><br>
<p>During the 1640s, several people close to the Crown and Royal Court were allotted sites on Helgeandsholmen, and in 1645, Queen Christina donated the site north of The Fleming House to Anders Gyldenklou (-1665 ?), Secretary of the Chancellery, who had two buildings erected there, called Gyldenklouska huset ("The Gyldenklou House"), and subsequently sold to Lord High Chancellor (Riksdrots) Per Brahe (1602–1680). The palace, a Dutch renaissance structure four storeys tall with a stepped gable and called Braheska huset ("The Brahe house") until its demolition, is often appearing next to the Fleming House in engravings and paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries. It was taken over by the Crown in 1696, and used for the royal administration after the fire at the Royal Palace in 1697. By 1770, the building was handed over to the Royal Stables, who used it for various purposes until its demolition in 1815.</p><br>
<h3>Modern history</h3><br>
<p>Completed in 1807-10, the semicircular space on Norrbros eastern side was first used as a storage space for fisheries, finally removed on the commands of the king in 1821. Ten years later, a park was established, at the time still with a canal passing through it. Opened to the public in 1832, it became the first municipal park in Stockholm. During the following 100 years, the park was furnished with various pavilions, bookstalls, and stages, and became a popular spot among the citys society. By the 1930s however, the park had become abandoned and shabby, and it was therefore redesigned first in 1937-38, and then again following the archaeological operations in the 1970s.</p><br>
<p>A bazaar called Norrbro-basaren built on the western side of Norrbro in 1838-39, remained a vital social and commercial meeting place until its removal in 1903 for the creation of the small park in front of the Riksdag Building.</p><br>
<p>By the 1870s, the old Riksdag Building on Riddarholmen had become too small and was regarded as not representative enough, a problem also plaguing the Riksbank, then residing at the Järntorget square in Gamla stan. Helgeandsholmen was soon suggested as an appropriate site for both institutions, under the condition that the new structure didn&#39;t overshadow the Royal Palace. The winning proposal from an architectural competition in the late 1880s was further developed by the architect Helgo Zettervall (1831–1907) assisted by Aron Johansson (1860–1936). The old buildings were demolished in 1893, and both institutions completed during 1897-1906. The Riksbank was moved to Brunkebergstorg in 1976, and the building taken over by the Riksdag.</p><br>
<p>The Drottningholm Palace  is the private residence of the Swedish royal family. It is located in Drottningholm. Built on the island Lovön , it is one of Sweden&#39;s Royal Palaces. It was originally built in the late 16th century. It served as a regular summer residence of the Swedish royal court for most of the 18th century. Apart from being the private residence of the Swedish royal family, the palace is a popular tourist attraction.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Origin</h3><br>
<p>The name Drottningholm (literally meaning "Queen&#39;s islet") came from the original renaissance building designed by Willem Boy, a stone palace built by John III of Sweden in 1580 for his queen, Catherine Jagellon. This palace was preceded by a royal mansion called Torvesund.</p><br>
<p>The Queen Dowager Regent Hedwig Eleonora bought the castle in 1661, a year after her role as Queen of Sweden ended, but it burnt to the ground on 30 December that same year. Hedwig Eleonora engaged the architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder to design and rebuild the castle. In 1662, work began on the reconstruction of the building. With the castle almost complete, Nicodemus died in 1681. His son Nicodemus Tessin the Younger continued his work and completed the elaborate interior designs.</p><br>
<p>During the period of the reconstruction, Hedwig Eleonora was head of the regency for the still-underage King, Charles XI of Sweden, from 1660 to 1672. Sweden had grown to be a powerful country after the Peace of Westphalia. The position of the queen, essentially the ruler of Sweden, demanded an impressive residence located conveniently close to Stockholm.</p><br>
<p>During the reign of the kings Charles XI of Sweden and Charles XII of Sweden, the royal court was often present at the palace, which was used for hunting. Hedwig Eleonora used the palace as a summer residence until her death in 1715, also when she had become the undisputed host of the royal court during the absence of Charles XII in Great Northern War (1700–1721).</p><br>
<h3>18th century</h3><br>
<p>Drottningholm continued to serve regularly as a summer residence for the royal court during the entire 18th-century. After the death of Hedwig Eleonora in 1715, Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden and King Frederick I of Sweden held court at the palace in the summer.</p><br>
<p>In 1744, the palace was given as a gift from King Frederick I to the then Crown Princess, later Queen of Sweden, Louisa Ulrika of Prussia when she married Adolf Frederick of Sweden, who became King of Sweden in 1751. During Louisa Ulrika&#39;s ownership of Drottningholm the interior of the palace was transformed in a more sophisticated French rococo style. Louisa Ulrika was also responsible for having the Drottningholm Palace Theatre rebuilt in a grand style after the more modest original building burnt down in 1762. Louisa Ulrika and Adolf Fredrick continued to reside at the palace during their reign (1751–1771). In 1777, Louisa Ulrika sold Drottningholm to the Swedish state.</p><br>
<p>While it was owned by the Swedish state, the palace was used by King Gustav III of Sweden, son of Louisa Ulrika, as a summer residence, and a grand ceremonial court life was performed at the palace, which is considered to have been a great age for the palace, during which it was known for the elaborate masquerades and grand theatrical festivities and tournaments performed in the gardens. During the reign of Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden (reign 1792–1809) and Charles XIII of Sweden (reign 1809–1818) the palace was gradually used more sporadically. In 1797, it was the place of the great festivities when the King&#39;s bride, Frederica of Baden, was received there upon her arrival in Sweden, during which the last so called carousel, or tournament, was staged in the palace garden. After the Coup of 1809, the deposed Gustav IV Adolf was kept here under guard in the Chinese Drawing Room for eleven days.</p><br>
<h3>19th century</h3><br>
<p>During the reign of Charles XIV John of Sweden (reign 1818–1844), the palace was abandoned. The King regarded it as a symbol of the old dynasty, and Drottningholm was left to decay. The buildings were damaged by the forces of nature, and their inventories were either taken away or auctioned off.</p><br>
<p>It was apparently opened to the public for the first time during this period: a tour was mentioned in 1819, and the public used the park for picnics.</p><br>
<p>Occasionally, the grounds were used for public events: in 1823, the bride of the crown prince, Josephine of Leuchtenberg, was received upon her arrival to Sweden, and her name day continued to be celebrated here. Foreign guests were received in the palace gardens, such as Tsar Nicholas I of Russia.</p><br>
<p>Oscar I of Sweden took an interest in the palace, and though he preferred Tullgarn Palace as summer residence, he took care to preserve the palace by doing the first repairs in 1846. He further more used it for public celebrations, such as a reception for Pan-Scandinavian students in 1856, and in 1858, the future Gustav V of Sweden was born in the palace. Charles XV of Sweden preferred Ulriksdal Palace as his summer residence and ignored Drottningholm, but Oscar II of Sweden continued the repairs.</p><br>
<p>Both Oscar I and Oscar II were criticized for modernizing the palace and adjusting it to contemporary fashion rather than restoring it to its original state, and it was not until the reign of Gustav V that the palace and surroundings were reconstructed to their 18th-century appearance. In 1907, a major four-year restoration of the palace was begun to restore it to its former state, after which the royal court began to use it regularly again.</p><br>
<h3>Royal residence</h3><br>
<p>The current Swedish royal family have used Drottningholm as their primary residence since 1981. Since then, the Palace has also been guarded by the Swedish Military in the same fashion as Stockholm Palace.</p><br>
<h2>The palace</h2><br>
<p>The palace and its grounds have seen many renovations, changes and additions over the past 400 years. The largest renovation, in which electricity, heating, sewage, water lines were either installed or updated and the castle roof replaced, took place between 1907 and 1913.</p><br>
<p>During a 20-year-period beginning around 1977, several major areas of the palace were restored and rebuilt. The library and national hall received much of the attention and fire protection was installed throughout the palace. In 1997, work began to clean and rebuild the exterior walls. This was completed in 2002.</p><br>
<h3>The palace church</h3><br>
<p>It is used to this day by the people of Lovön parish, who worship in the church on the last Sunday of every month. Inside the castle church a Cahman organ from 1730 is still in use. Another noteworthy item is the traditional church tapestry which was made by Gustaf V of Sweden.</p><br>
<h3>The palace theatre</h3><br>
<p>The Drottningholm Palace Theatre is the opera house located at the palace. It is still in use, and its summer opera festivals are quite popular. At times the Royal Swedish Opera company guest performs.</p><br>
<h3>The Chinese Pavilion</h3><br>
<p>The Chinese Pavilion, located on the grounds of the Drottningholm Palace park, is a Chinese-inspired royal pavilion built in 1763–1770</p><br>
<h2>The gardens</h2><br>
<p>The gardens and park areas surrounding the castle and its buildings are one of the main attractions for the tourists that visit the palace each year.The gardens have been established in stages since the castle was built, resulting in different styles of parks and gardens.</p><br>
<h3>The baroque garden</h3><br>
<h3>The English garden</h3><br>
<h2>UNESCO World Heritage Site</h2><br>
<p>The palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, mainly because of the Drottningholm Palace Theatre and the Chinese Pavilion. It was added to the list in 1991. The UNESCO comments were:</p><br>
<p>Andravida  is a town and a former municipality in Elis, in the northwest of the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Andravida-Kyllini, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 40.728 km. Its population is about 4,300. The town was the capital of the Frankish Principality of Achaea in the late Middle Ages.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>Andravida is located in the plains of northwestern Elis, at about 7 km from the Ionian Sea coast. It is 3 km south of Lechaina, 6 km north of Gastouni, 30 km northwest of Pyrgos and 55 km southwest of Patras.</p><br>
<p>The Greek National Road 9 (also E55) Patras-Pyrgos-Pylos passes east of the town. The Andravida Air Base is 2.5 km to the east of the city center.</p><br>
<h2>Population</h2><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Andravida&#39;s early history is obscure: the name is of unknown provenance—several proposals have been made, the most probable of which is that it derives from a Slavic name for "place of the otters"—and the site is not mentioned before the conquest by the Crusaders in 1205, even though it certainly existed before that. According to the Chronicle of the Morea, Andravida, like most of the towns and regions of the northern and western Peloponnese, was captured without a fight in 1205 by the Crusader leader William of Champlitte, and it was there that the local Greek magnates and lords of Elis and of the mountains of Skorta and Mesarea paid him homage and recognized him as their lord.</p><br>
<p>Soon after the Frankish conquest, Andravida (known as Andreville in French, Andrevilla in Aragonese and Andravilla in Italian) became the residence of the princes of the newly established Principality of Achaea. As the medievalist Antoine Bon points out, Andravidas choice as the de facto capital of the principality rested on its favourable location: situated in the midst of the fertile plain of Elis, it was well provisioned and could sustain horses, it was located near the major port town of Glarentza, but not on the coast and hence not vulnerable to seaborne raids, and was equally far from the mountains of the central Peloponnese with their rebellious inhabitants. Consequently, despite its importance, it was never fortified. The town also became the seat of a Roman Catholic bishopric, attested since 1212, which assimilated the pre-existing Greek bishopric of Olena and retained the latters name.</p><br>
<p>Only a few traces survive of the Frankish town, and most of the testimony about its buildings comes from literary sources: a palace for the Princes; the Church of Saint Stephen, possibly belonging to the Franciscans; the Church and hospice of Saint James, given to the Teutonic Order in 1241 and serving as the burial place for the princely House of Villehardouin; the convent of Saint Nicholas of Carmel; and the Church of Saint Sophia, serviced by the Dominicans and the largest of them all, by virtue of which it often served as the site of assemblies and parliaments of the principality&#39;s nobility. Early 19th-century travellers like François Pouqueville and Jean Alexandre Buchon reported that the three churches were still largely extant, but today only Saint Sophia survives to a substantial extent.</p><br>
<p>Like the rest of the Principality&#39;s remnants in Elis and Achaea, Andravida was conquered by the Despotate of the Morea in the late 1420s. In 1460 it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and remained under Ottoman rule, with the exception of a brief Venetian period in 1686–1715, until Greek independence.</p><br>
<h2>People</h2><br>
<p>Konstantinos Andravidiotis, chieftain of the Greek War of Independence.</p><br>
<h2>Subdivisions</h2><br>
<p>The municipal unit Andravida is subdivided into the following communities (constituent villages in brackets):</p><br>
<p>Andravida (Andravida, Agios Georgios), pop. 4,058</p><br>
<p>Stafidokampos, pop. 334</p><br>
<p>Strousi, pop. 324</p><br>
<p>The small village Agios Georgios (pop. 77) lies 6 km east of Andravida town centre, on the east side of the air base.</p><br>
<p>Camp Nelson Confederate Cemetery is a historic cemetery located near Cabot in northern Lonoke County, Arkansas and is the site of Confederate military camp where 1,500 Confederate soldiers died during an epidemic during the fall of 1862. Camp Nelson is located on Rye Drive, just off Cherry Road, just off Mt. Carmel Road in north Lonoke County about 2 miles east of Cabot.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Camp Nelson was a central staging point in central Arkansas for Confederate troops gathering from Texas and Arkansas. The camp was named for Brigadier General Allison Nelson who was in command of the.</p><br>
<p>During the fall of 1862 an epidemic of measles and typhoid fever ran rampant through the troops congregated there. Approximately 1,500 Arkansas and Texas soldiers died of disease during a two-month period including Brigadier General Nelson himself. Approximately 1,500 of these soldiers were buried in unmarked graves in the surrounding hills.</p><br>
<p>During the early years of the 20th century Confederate veterans placed markers in honor of the unknown soldiers and erected a 12-foot obelisk to their memory at the site. The cemetery was not properly maintained and was soon overtaken by the forest undergrowth and became just a local curiosity out in the forest.</p><br>
<p>In the 1980s local residents, including members of the ROTC and local high school students, began a restoration project on their own and returned the cemetery to its original condition. Camp Nelson Confederate Cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>Dongting Lake is a large, shallow lake in northeastern Hunan province, China. It is a flood basin of the Yangtze River. Hence the lake&#39;s size depends on the season. The provinces of Hubei and Hunan are named after their location relative to the lake: Hubei means "North of the Lake" and Hunan, "South of the Lake".</p><br>
<p>Dongting Lake is famous in Chinese culture as the place of origin of dragon boat racing. It is the site of Junshan Island and is a home to the Finless Porpoise, which is endangered in China.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>In the July–September period, flood water from the Yangtze flows into the lake, enlarging it greatly. The lake&#39;s area, which normally is 2,820 km&sup2; (data before 1998), may increase to 20,000 km&sup2; in flood season, when vast amounts of water and sediment from the Chang Jiang flow into the lake. The lake is also fed by four major rivers: the Xiang, Zi, Yuan and Li rivers. Small rivers also flow in, the most famous one being Miluo River where a famous poet Qu Yuan committed suicide. In addition, the Xiao River flows into the Xiang near Yongzhou, before the Xiang flows into the lake. Ocean-going vessels can travel through the Xiang to reach Changsha.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The earliest rice paddies yet discovered in the world were in the Liyang plain, which was then on the western edge of Dongting lake. The state of Chu occupied the region in the Eastern Zhou period, and its territory there was taken over by Qin in the 3rd century BCE. During the Han Dynasty, Yunmeng Marsh ( literally "Great Marsh of Cloud Dream"), which lies to the north of Dongting Lake in Hubei Province, served as the main flood-basin of the Yangtze. The rich sediment of the marsh attracted farmers. Embankments were built, keeping the river out, and the Dongting Lake area south of the Yangtze gradually became the river&#39;s main flood-basin. The Han state was actively involved in the colonization of the region, maintaining dikes in Liyang to protect farmland from flooding.</p><br>
<p>At that time, Dongting Lake was China&#39;s largest freshwater lake. Because of its size, it gained the name Eight-hundred-li-Dongting (八百里洞庭). Nowadays, it is the second-largest, after Poyang Lake (鄱阳湖), as much of the lake has been turned into farmland.</p><br>
<h2>Culture and mythology</h2><br>
<p>The area is well known in Chinese history and literature. "Dongting" literally means "Grotto Court", and the lake was named for the huge hall or cavern, which was believed to exist beneath the lake, where the spirits of the Sage-King Shun&#39;s wives Ehuang and Nüying were said to be the rulers of this grotto, which was claimed to have underground passages opening to all parts of the empire. Dragon boat racing is said to have begun on the eastern shores of Dongting Lake as a search for the body of Qu Yuan, the Chu poet (340–278 BC), and a dragon-king is said to live at the bottom of the lake.</p><br>
<p>Junshan was also named after the goddess-wives of Shun, who lived there after his death by drowning, while they mourned him and sought for his body all the way from the source of the Xiang River, in which he drowned, and then on down to where it could have drifted, into the lake. Junshan Island, formerly a Daoist retreat, is a famous one-kilometer island with 72 peaks in the middle of the lake. The island is also famous for its Junshan Yinzhen tea. The basin of Dongting Lake and its surrounding area is famous for its scenic beauty, which has been encapsulated in the phrase "Hunan of the Xiao and Xiang rivers".</p><br>
<p>The scenery of the Jiuyi Mountains and of the Xiao and Xiang rivers below is often mentioned in Chinese poetry. The late Tang Dynasty poet Yu Wuling is supposed to have been fond of the scenery of Dongting Lake. During the Song Dynasty, it became the fashion to paint this region&#39;s scenery in a set of eight scenes, usually entitled as Eight Views of Xiaoxiang. The fashion spread to Japan, where eventually other famous places were substituted for the Xiao and Xiang rivers. One of the famous ponds based on the geography of the lake is at the Daikaku-ji in Kyoto.</p><br>
<h2>Environmental issues</h2><br>
<p>The agricultural colonization of the region began in ancient times, and by the 19th century much of the lake&#39;s shallower areas had been destroyed to create farmland. After 1949 a new round of wetland drainage destroyed much of what remained, leaving only a fraction of the original wetland intact, though some of that area has subsequently been returned to wetland conditions. Nonetheless, along with Poyang Lake, it remains one of the largest lakes in China, and is an important wintering area for migratory birds.</p><br>
<p>In 2007 fears were expressed that China&#39;s Finless Porpoise, a native of the lake, might follow the baiji, the Yangtze river dolphin, into extinction. There have been calls for action to save the finless porpoise, of which there are about 1400 left living, with approximately 700 to 900 in the Yangtze, and approximately another 500 in Poyang and Dongting Lakes.</p><br>
<p>The 2007 population levels were less than half the 1997 levels, and the population continues to drop at a rate of 7.3 per cent per year. Pressure on the finless porpoise population on Poyang Lake comes from the high numbers of ships passing through, as well as sand dredging.</p><br>
<p>After flooding of the Yangtze River in late June 2007, approximately 2 billion mice were displaced from the islands of the lake. The mice invaded surrounding communities, damaging crops and dikes and forcing the government to construct walls and ditches to control the population.</p><br>
<p>The lake was also featured on news services as having a problem with schistosoma and malaria infected mosquitoes.</p><br>
<p>Billions of mice were forced from their holes and were sent scurrying into local villages when officials opened the sluice gates on Dongting Lake in June 2007 to relieve flooding. Villagers killed an estimated 2 billion mice by beating them with shovels or using poison. The rotting mouse corpses should have been properly disposed of, and other animals—such as cats and dogs—were the unintended victims of the poisons.</p><br>
<p>A restoration project, the Sino-Norwegian Project of Biodiversity Protection Management, began in 2005. According to a 2007 article in the China Daily, " will be restored to a sustainable biodiversity environment within five to 10 years".</p><br>
<h2>Major cities on the Lake</h2><br>
<p>Yiyang</p><br>
<p>Yueyang</p><br>
<p>Changde</p><br>
<p>The Palace of Whitehall  was the main residence of the English monarchs in London from 1530 until 1698 when most of its structures, except for Inigo Jones&#39;s 1622 Banqueting House, were destroyed by fire. Before then, it had grown to be the largest palace in Europe with more than 1,500 rooms, overtaking the Vatican, before being overtaken by the expanding Palace of Versailles which was to reach 2,400 rooms. The palace gives its name, Whitehall, to the road on which many of the current administrative buildings of the UK government are situated, and hence metonymically to the central government itself.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>At its most expansive, the palace extended over much of the area bordered by Northumberland Avenue in the north; to Downing Street and nearly to Derby Gate in the south; and from roughly the elevations of the current buildings facing Horse Guards Road in the west, to the then banks of the River Thames in the east (the construction of Victoria Embankment has since reclaimed more land from the Thames)—a total of about 23 acre.</p><br>
<p>It was about 710 yards from Westminster Abbey.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>By the 13th century the Palace of Westminster had become the centre of government in England, and had been the main London residence of the king since 1049. The surrounding area became a popular and expensive location. The Archbishop of York Walter de Grey bought a nearby property as his London residence soon after 1240, calling it York Place.</p><br>
<p>King Edward I stayed at York Place on several occasions while work was carried out at Westminster, and enlarged it to accommodate his entourage. York Place was rebuilt during the 15th century and expanded so much by Cardinal Wolsey that it was rivalled by only Lambeth Palace as the greatest house in London, the King&#39;s London palaces included. Consequently, when King Henry VIII removed the cardinal from power in 1530, he acquired York Place to replace Westminster as his main London residence, inspecting its possessions in the company of Anne Boleyn. The name Whitehall or White Hall was first recorded in 1532; it had its origins in the white stone used for the buildings.</p><br>
<p>Henry VIII hired Flemish artist Anthony van den Wyngaerde to redesign York Place, and he extended it during his lifetime. Inspired by Richmond Palace, he included a recreation centre with a bowling green, indoor tennis court, a pit for cock fighting (on the site of the Cabinet Office, 70 Whitehall) and a tiltyard for jousting (now the site of Horse Guards Parade). It is estimated that more than £30,000 (approaching £11m in 2007 values using RPI, or £4bn when compared to share of GDP) were spent during the 1540s, 50% more than the construction of the entire Bridewell Palace. Henry VIII married two of his wives at the palace—Anne Boleyn in 1533 and Jane Seymour in 1536. Henry died at the palace in January 1547. In 1611 the palace hosted the first known performance of William Shakespeare&#39;s play The Tempest.</p><br>
<p>James VI and I made significant changes to the buildings, notably the construction in 1622 of a new Banqueting House built to a design by Inigo Jones to replace a series of previous banqueting houses dating from the time of Elizabeth I. Its decoration was finished in 1634 with the completion of a ceiling by Sir Peter Paul Rubens, commissioned by Charles I (who was to be executed in front of the building in 1649). By 1650 Whitehall Palace was the largest complex of secular buildings in England, with more than 1,500 rooms. Its layout was irregular, and its constituent parts were of many different sizes and in several different architectural styles, making it look more like a small town than a single building.</p><br>
<p>Charles II commissioned minor works. Like his father, he died at the palace—but from a stroke. James II ordered various changes by Sir Christopher Wren, including a chapel finished in 1687, rebuilding of the queens apartments (c. 1688), and the queens private lodgings (1689).</p><br>
<h2>Demise</h2><br>
<p>By 1691 the palace had become the largest and most complex in Europe. On 10 April a fire broke out in the much-renovated apartment previously used by the Duchess of Portsmouth that damaged the older palace structures, though apparently not the state apartments. This actually gave a greater cohesiveness to the remaining complex. At the end of 1694 Mary II died in Kensington Palace of smallpox, and on the following 24 January lay in state at Whitehall; William and Mary had avoided Whitehall in favour of their palace at Kensington. However a second fire on 4 January 1698 destroyed most of the remaining residential and government buildings; the diarist John Evelyn noted succinctly the next day: "Whitehall burnt! nothing but walls and ruins left." Beside the Banqueting House, some buildings survived in Scotland Yard and some facing the park, along with the so-called Holbein Gate, eventually demolished in 1769. Despite some rebuilding, financial constraints prevented large scale reconstruction. In the second half of the 18th century, much of the site was leased for the construction of town houses.</p><br>
<p>During the fire many works of art were destroyed, probably including Michelangelos Cupid, a famous sculpture bought as part of the Gonzaga collections in the seventeenth century. Also lost were Hans Holbein the Youngers iconic mural Portrait of Henry VIII and Gian Lorenzo Bernini&#39;s marble portrait bust of King Charles I.</p><br>
<h2>Present day</h2><br>
<p>The Banqueting House is the only integral building of the complex now standing, although it has been somewhat modified. Various other parts of the old palace still exist, often incorporated into new buildings in the Whitehall government complex. These include a tower and other parts of the former covered tennis courts from the time of Henry VIII, built into the Old Treasury and Cabinet Office at 70 Whitehall.</p><br>
<p>Beginning in 1938, the east side of the site was redeveloped with the building now housing the Ministry of Defence (MOD), now known as MOD Main Building. An undercroft from Wolseys Great Chamber, now known as Henry VIIIs Wine Cellar, a fine example of a Tudor brick-vaulted roof some 70 ft long and 30 ft wide, was found to interfere not just with the plan for the new building but also with the proposed route for Horse Guards Avenue. Following a request from Queen Mary in 1938 and a promise in Parliament, provision was made for the preservation of the cellar. Accordingly, it was encased in steel and concrete and relocated nine feet to the west and nearly 19 ft deeper in 1949, when building was resumed at the site after the Second World War. This was carried out without any significant damage to the structure and it now rests within the basement of the building.</p><br>
<p>A number of marble carvings from the former chapel at Whitehall (which was built for James II) can now be seen in St. Andrew&#39;s Church, Burnham-on-Sea, in Somerset, to where they were moved in 1820 after having originally been removed to Westminster Abbey in 1706.</p><br>
<p>The Jinggang Mountains  are a mountain range of the Luoxiao Mountains System , in the remote border region of Jiangxi and Hunan Provinces, in Central and East China.</p><br>
<p>The range lies at the junction of four counties - Ninggang, Yongxing, Suichuan and Lingxian. The mountains cover some 670 km², with an average elevation of 381.5 m above sea level. The highest point is 2,120 m above sea level.</p><br>
<p>The range&#39;s massif consists of a number of thickly forested parallel ridges. On the heights there is not much farmland and most settlements at the base of the mountains. The main settlement is at Ciping, which is surrounded by five villages whose literal meanings are Big Well, Little Well, Middle Well, Lower Well, and Upper Well. Henceforth came the name of the mountain range&mdash;"井冈山" literally means "Well Ridge Mountains".</p><br>
<h2>Base of the Red Army</h2><br>
<p>The Jinggang Mountains is known as the birthplace of the Chinese Red Army, predecessor of the People&#39;s Liberation Army) and the "cradle of the Chinese revolution". After the Kuomintang (KMT) turned against the Communist Party during the April 12 Incident, the Communists either went underground or fled to the countryside. Following the unsuccessful Autumn Harvest Uprising in Changsha, Mao Zedong led his 1,000 remaining men here, setting up his first peasant soviet.</p><br>
<p>Mao reorganised his forces at the mountain village of Sanwan, consolidating them into a single regiment - the "1st Regiment, 1st Division, of the First Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army". Mao then made an alliance with the local bandit chieftains Wang Zuo and Yuan Wencai, who had previously had little association with the Communists. For the first year he set up military headquarters at Maoping, a small market town encircled by low hills guarding the main western route into the mountains. In November, the army occupied Chaling, some 80 km to the west, though this was quickly overrun by KMT troops.</p><br>
<p>When pressure from KMT troops became too great, Mao abandoned Maoping and withdrew up the mountain to Wang Zuos stronghold at Dajing (Big Well), from which they could control the mountain passes. That winter the Communists drilled with the local bandits and the next year incorporated them into their regular army. In February a battalion from the KMTs Jiangxi Army occupied Xincheng, a town north of Maoping. During the night of February 17, Mao surrounded them with three battalions of his own and routed them the next day.</p><br>
<p>Zhu De and his 1000 remaining troops, who had participated in the abortive Nanchang Uprising, joined Mao Zedong toward the end of April 1928. Together the two joined forces and proclaimed the formation of the Fourth Army. Other veterans who joined the new base included Lin Biao, Zhou Enlai and Chen Yi. The partnership between Mao Zedong and Zhu De marked the heyday of the Jinggang Mountains base area, which rapidly expanded to include, at its peak in the summer of 1928, parts of seven counties with a population of more than 500,000. Together with Yuan Wencai and Wang Zuo&#39;s forces, their soldiers numbered more than 8000. A popular story from that period recounts the hardworking Zhu De carrying grain for the troops up the mountain since agriculture was nigh impossible in the mountain range itself. It was also around this period that Mao Zedong formulated his theories of rural-based revolution and guerrilla warfare.</p><br>
<p>In July 1928, Zhu Des 28th and 29th regiments crossed into Hunan with plans to take the important communication hub of Hengyang. Mao Zedongs 31st and 32nd regiments were supposed to hold Maoping and Ninggang until Zhu returned. They were, however, unable to hold back the advance of the Kuomintang&#39;s Jiangxi units and lost Ninggang and two neighbouring counties. On August 30, the young officer He Tingying managed to hold the narrow pass of Huangyangjie with a single under-strength battalion against three regiments of the Hunanese Eight Army and one regiment of Jiangxi troops, thus saving Maoping from being overrun.</p><br>
<p>As the size of the Communist forces grew and pressure grew from the Kuomintang, the Fourth Army was forced to move out. From January 14, 1929, the organisation moved to Ruijin, further south in Jiangxi province, where the Jiangxi Soviet was eventually set up. At the same time, the Kuomintang were executing another encirclement campaign, involving 25,000 men from fourteen regiments. Peng Dehuai was left in command of an 800-man-strong force, formerly the Fifth Army. By February, his remaining troops broke up under heavy attack from Wu Shang&#39;s Hunan troops.</p><br>
<p>After the Jiangxi Soviet had established itself in southern Jiangxi, the Jinggang Mountains became the northwestern frontier of Communist operations. Peng Dehuai returned with a much stronger Fifth Army in early 1930, basing himself just north of the mountains. In late February 1930, the bandits Yuan Wencai and Wang Zuo were assassinated by Communist guerillas, probably on orders from officials in the Jiangxi Soviet. Their men made Wang Yunlong, Wang Zuo&#39;s younger brother, their new leader. Most Communist forces left the area in 1934, when the Long March began. By the time they returned in 1949, Wang Yunlong had been succeeded by his son. He was charged with banditry and executed.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>Along with Mao Zedong&#39;s hometown, Shaoshan, the Jinggang Mountains is one of the most important sites of the Communist Revolution. It was celebrated on posters, songs and operas. During the Cultural Revolution, it became a place of pilgrimage for young Red Guards, who took advantage of a nationwide "networking movement". They often made the journey on foot to relive the experiences of their revolutionary forebearers. At its peak, more than 30,000 Red Guards arrived a day, causing terrible problems of food, housing, sanitation. Peak numbers continued for more than two months until the government began to discourage the young people.</p><br>
<p>In 1981, an area of 16.6 km&sup2; was designated a Natural Protection Area. The next year the mountains was listed as a National Priority Scenic Area. In recent years the Jinggang Mountains has become an attraction for domestic tourists interested in revolutionary history. The scenic area was classified as a AAAAA scenic area by the China National Tourism Administration. According to Xinhua, tens of thousands of domestic tourists visit the mountain every year. Sites promoted by the local authorities include the mint of the Red Army, the Revolution Museum, and the Martyrs Cemetery.</p><br>
<p>In May 2004 a domestic airport was opened to attract tourists.</p><br>
<p>The Dearne Valley is an area of South Yorkshire, England, along the River Dearne. It encompasses the towns of Wombwell, Wath-upon-Dearne, Swinton, Conisbrough and Mexborough, the large villages of Ardsley, Bolton on Dearne, Goldthorpe, Thurnscoe, Darfield, Stairfoot and Brampton Bierlow, and many other smaller villages and hamlets.</p><br>
<p>In 1995 the area became a regeneration area, as it had suffered much from the sudden decline of the deep coal mining industry in the 1980s. In the 2011 census the ONS-identified Barnsley/Dearne Valley built-up area had a population of 223,281, however this region includes Barnsley and certain other smaller towns and villages that might not historically have considered themselves a part of the Dearne Valley.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Many high-grade coal seams, including the prolific Barnsley seam, lie close to the surface in this area. This meant that by far the most prevalent industry in the area was deep coal mining, indeed much of the economic activity of the region was either directly related to, or reliant on this industry. It was home to the Oaks Viaduct, the largest man-made rail bridge in Britain until its demolition in 1965.</p><br>
<p>In the latter half of the 20th century the industry was declining and becoming deeply unprofitable, but was kept alive by government subsidy. As early as the 1960s local politicians voiced concerns about the high level of reliance of the economy of the area on one single industry. In the 1980s there was a marked change of government economic policy: unprofitable heavy industry was no longer to be subsidised. This caused the collapse of the mining industry, with a knock-on effect in many other local industries, leading to much local hardship.</p><br>
<h2>The valley today</h2><br>
<p>Settlements in the area are becoming more dormitory in nature, as those who remained have found the need to commute further afield to the larger towns and cities in the region to work.</p><br>
<p>Outside the settlements, primary land use is agricultural: a byproduct of the end of the mining industry is that the area looks more rural and green than it once did. Business parks in the area have been created on brown-field land once used by the mining industry, the most notable and largest is at Manvers.</p><br>
<p>Much of the infrastructure related to the mining industry was demolished in the 1980s and early 1990s and the land changed to other uses and today few remnants of the coal mining heritage remain: the large spoil heaps have been levelled and grassed, and no coal mining remains at all in the area.</p><br>
<p>The road and rail links to the villages of the area also were implemented mostly to ferry coal out of collieries and although the rails have been removed, the embankments, cuttings and bridges remain. Several of these former railways are now part of the Trans Pennine Trail between Southport and Hornsea. The Dearne Valley is at the centre of the trail with the main West/East and North/South routes crossing over in the area.</p><br>
<p>Mount Greylock is the highest natural point in Massachusetts at 3,489 ft. Its peak is located in the northwest corner of the state in the western part of the town of Adams  in Berkshire County. Although geologically part of the Taconic Mountains, Mount Greylock is commonly associated with the abutting Berkshire Hills to the east. The mountain is known for its expansive views encompassing five states and the only taiga-boreal forest in the state. A seasonal automobile road  climbs to the summit, where stands the iconic 93 ft lighthouse-like Massachusetts Veterans War Memorial Tower. A network of hiking trails traverse the mountain, including the 2,179 mi Appalachian Trail. Mount Greylock State Reservation was created in 1898 as Massachusetts&#39; first public land for the purpose of forest preservation.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Geographically, Mount Greylock is part of an 11 mi by 4.5 mi island-like range that runs north-south between the Hoosac Range to the east, the Green Mountains to the north, the Berkshires to both the south and east, and the Taconic Mountains to the west with which it is geologically associated; all ranges are associated with the Appalachian mountain chain. The summit of Mount Greylock is located in Adams, Massachusetts, but the mountain also extends into Cheshire, Lanesborough, New Ashford, North Adams and Williamstown. The range includes peaks with elevation less than Greylock, such as Saddle Ball Mountain and Mount Fitch.</p><br>
<p>On average, Mount Greylock rises 2,000 ft above surrounding river valleys and 1,000 ft above the Berkshires and Taconic Mountains. From the summit, views of up to 72 mi are possible into five different states: Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire.</p><br>
<p>The northwest side of Mount Greylock drains into the Green River, then into the Hoosic River, Hudson River, and New York Harbor. The south side of the mountain drains into Town Brook, then into the Housatonic River and Long Island Sound. The rest of the mountain drains into the Hoosic River.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and ecosystem</h2><br>
<p>Mount Greylock and the neighboring Taconic Mountains are comprised predominately of Ordovician phyllite, a metamorphic rock, overlain on younger layers of metamorphized sedimentary rock, especially marble. Mount Greylock is the product of thrust faulting, a tectonic process by which older rock is thrust up and above younger rock during periods of intense mountain building. The younger, underlying marble bedrock layers have been quarried in the lower foothills of the mountain in nearby Adams and North Adams, Massachusetts. During the Pleistocene, 18,000 years ago, Mount Greylock and the surrounding region were covered by the Laurentide ice sheet up to 1 km in thickness. Glaciation rounded and wore down the mountain, carving out U-shaped valleys and leaving glacial erratics such as the Balanced Rock in Laneborough on the west side of Greylock. The Hopper, a cirque, also located on the west side of Greylock, is the southernmost such glacial feature in New England.</p><br>
<h3>Forests and old growth</h3><br>
<p>During the 19th century, much of the mountain was denuded by logging, fires, and grazing. Forests have since reclaimed the mountain. Several forest communities exist on Mount Greylock. Lower slopes are inhabited by northern hardwood forest species while upper summits are dominated by boreal balsam fir and red spruce. The ridgeline of Greylock, between Mount Fitch on the north and Saddle Ball on the south, is the only place in Massachusetts where a taiga-boreal or sub-alpine forest flourishes. Researchers have identified 555 acre of old growth forest on the mountain. The steep western slopes (which include The Hopper) contain northern hardwood forest biome species up to 350 years old, including a 120 ft red spruce. Because of its extensive stands of red spruce old growth, The Hopper has been designated a National Natural Landmark.</p><br>
<p>Mount Greylock is designated as an important bird area (IBA). There are a number of species of birds which breed in the taiga or boreal forests at the higher altitudes of the mountain, which are not normally found breeding in Massachusetts. These species include the blackpoll warbler and Bicknell&#39;s thrush. eBird has records of 132 species of birds on Mount Greylock. There is less known about birds visiting the mountain in winter, as the mountain is more difficult to access during this time.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Early history and naming</h3><br>
<p>Prior to the arrival of Europeans the Mahican people were closely associated with this region. The traditional trade route connecting the tribes of the Hudson and Connecticut River valleys (today, Route 2, known as the Mohawk Trail) passes beneath the northern flank of Mount Greylock.</p><br>
<p>The mountain was known to 18th century English settlers as Grand Hoosuc(k). In the early 19th century it was called Saddleback Mountain because of its appearance (Saddle Ball, the name of the peak to the south, still reflects this).</p><br>
<p>The origin of the present name of Greylock and its association with the mountain is unclear. It first appeared in print about 1819, and came into popular use by the 1830s. It may be in reference to its appearance, as it often has a gray cloud, or lock of gray mist upon his head, or in tribute to a legendary Native American chief, Gray Lock. Gray Lock (c. 1670-1750) was a Western Abenaki Missisquoi chief of Woronoco-Pocomtuc ancestry, born near Westfield, Massachusetts. Gray Lock distinguished himself by conducting guerrilla raids into Vermont and western Massachusetts.</p><br>
<p>Timothy Dwight IV, President of Yale University, along with Williams College President Ebenezer Fitch, climbed Greylock in 1799, probably over a rough route cut by a local pioneer farmer Jeremiah Wilbur (in that time more land had been cleared on the slopes for farming than today). His account in Travels in New England and New York describes the experience, although he noted the summit vegetation was so thick he and Fitch had to climb a balsam fir tree to get a better view:</p><br>
<h3>The 19th century</h3><br>
<p>Williams College, founded in 1793 in nearby Williamstown, has always been closely associated with Greylock and the study of its natural history. On May 12, 1830, a group of students directed by college President Edward Dorr Griffin improved and further cut a trail from the end of the Hopper Road to the summit. Today this route is the Hopper Trail, traditionally climbed by students once a year on Mountain Day.</p><br>
<p>In May 1831 the first wooden meteorological observatory, "Griffins Tower", was built on the summit by students. Nine years later, it was replaced by a more substantial 60-foot (20 m) tall wooden observatory tower, from which Donatis Comet was photographed in 1858. In 1863 the first organized hiking and nature study club in the United States, the Alpine Club, was founded by Professor Albert Hopkins. The club frequently camped on the mountain.</p><br>
<p>By the mid-19th century, improved transportation into the region attracted many visitors to Greylock. Among them were writers and artists inspired by the mountain scene: Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Cullen Bryant, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Herman Melville, and Henry David Thoreau.</p><br>
<p>In the summer of 1838, Hawthorne had visited North Adams, Massachusetts and climbed Mount Greylock several times. His experiences there, specifically a walk he took at midnight where he saw a burning lime kiln, inspired his story, originally titled "The Unpardonable Sin". Hawthorne had not written tales since 1844 when he wrote "Ethan Brand" in the winter of 1848–1849.</p><br>
<p>Melville is said to have taken part of his inspiration for Moby-Dick from the view of the mountain from his house Arrowhead in Pittsfield, since its snow-covered profile reminded him of a great white sperm whales back breaking the oceans surface. Melville dedicated his next novel, Pierre, to "Greylocks Most Excellent Majesty", calling the mountain "my own... sovereign lord and king". In August 1851 Melville and a few friends, including the young poet Sarah Morewood, camped for a night on Greylocks summit. Thoreau summited and spent a night in July 1844. His account of this event in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers described his approach up what is today the Bellows Pipe Trail. Scholars contend that this Greylock experience transformed him, affirming his ability to do these excursions on his own, following his brother John&#39;s death; and served as a prelude to his experiment of rugged individualism at Walden Pond the following year in 1845.</p><br>
<p>By the late 19th century, clearcutting logging practices had stripped much of the mountain for local industries that produced wood products, paper and charcoal. Along with this came devastating forest fires and landslides. Following a fire on the summit, a group of local businessmen concerned about the mountain incorporated the Greylock Park Association (GPA) on July 20, 1885, and purchased 400 acre on the summit. The GPA also undertook long-needed repairs to the Notch Road so that carriages could access the top. Aside from shares to fund its operation, the GPA charged a 25-cent toll for the carriage road and a 10-cent fee to ascend the iron observation tower (built 1889). These fees are equivalent to $ in present-day dollars.</p><br>
<p>By early 1897, with the GPA venture in debt, conservation interests in the state sought to protect the mountain through other means. Legislation was filed by William H. Chase, editor of the Berkshire Sunday Democrat of North Adams, under the auspices of the Board of Trade of North Adams to transfer the GPA land holdings on the mountain to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for a state reservation. This included supporting testimony from Williams College geology professor T. Nelson Dale, and a $25,000 appropriation bill filed through Judge Arthur M. Robinson. Additional support came from the Massachusetts Forestry Associations initiative to advocate for the establishment of a state park system, and to make the case point, fight inappropriate development of the states highest peak, Mount Greylock. The principal argument for making the mountain a public reservation was to protect the Hoosic and Housatonic River watersheds from erosion due to recent trends of deforestation (particularly noted on the Adams side). Another concern was to preserve it for the public rather than private and exclusive enjoyment. On June 20, 1898 Mount Greylock State Reservation was created, with the stipulation that the state add to the original land (to ultimately total 10,000 acre). With this acquisition the first public land in Massachusetts for the purpose of forest preservation was created, later to become the state park system. A three-person, governor-appointed Greylock Reservation Commission, a body of Berkshire County government, was entrusted with the care and maintenance of the reservation. The title "Reservation" refers to county management of state land, since there was only one state forester and a handful of state fire wardens in service at the time; similarly other early State Reservation properties in Massachusetts were previously managed and operated by county commissions for the state.</p><br>
<h3>The 20th century</h3><br>
<p>In 1906, Berkshire County began survey and construction of another approach, the first direct route from the south to the summit. It was opened to the public on September 16, 1907, running "through six farms... passing Round’s Rock, a fine view point, and throughout its entire distance affords unsurpassed views of Berkshire hills and valleys lying to the south and west of the reservation". Afterwards the Commission turned its attention to the foot trail development, and by 1913 it was able to boast that 17 trails existed on the mountain.</p><br>
<p>By 1929, the Appalachian Trail route up Mount Greylock was first cut, and most of the Massachusetts section route was complete by 1931. Due to disputes between the local Berkshire Hills Conference trail group and both the Appalachian Trail Conference and the Appalachian Mountain Club Berkshire Chapter, the trail was in jeopardy of growing back in until the local Mount Greylock Ski Club assumed maintenance in 1937.</p><br>
<p>The greatest period of development on Mount Greylock occurred in the 1930s. The Massachusetts (Veterans) War Memorial Tower on the summit was constructed (1931–32). The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) 107th Company, MA camp SP-7, from 1933-1941 made extensive improvements on roads, trails, scenic vistas, firebreaks, forest health improvement, and recreation area development.</p><br>
<p>Some of the more significant CCC features included development of the road system (gravel surfaced) to accommodate automobiles, Adirondack lean-to shelters, the Thunderbolt Ski Shelter, and completion of Bascom Lodge. As a result of increased popularity of winter recreation and downhill skiing, the Mount Greylock Ski Club initiated a plan to create a challenging ski run on Mount Greylock. The planning skills of Dwight J. Francis and Western Massachusetts Winter Sports Council, including input from Williams, Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Massachusetts State Colleges, Greenfield Outing Club, and the Green Mountain Club, resulted in the CCC building the Thunderbolt Ski Trail in 1934 (named for its resemblance to a Revere Beach, MA, roller coaster). The lower section of the Thunderbolt Trail was relocated in 1936 by Charles L. Parker. This ski trail was rated Expert-Class A by the United States Eastern Amateur Ski Association (USEASA, today the United States Ski and Snowboard Association) and later host site for the USEASA Championship Races in 1938 and 1940. The trail was used for numerous competitive downhill ski races up until 1959.</p><br>
<p>Based on the popular response to winter recreation at Mount Greylock, a New York-based group expressed interest to the Greylock Commission to develop a cable tramway and downhill ski area on southwest portion of mountain in 1941. The proposal, though defeated, initiated an ongoing debate between the use of Mount Greylock (State) Reservation for commercial development and open hunting versus conservation purposes.</p><br>
<p>In October 1966, following years of legal disputes over the Greylock Commission&#39;s perceived abuses of allowing public land for commercial use, a conservation group called the Mount Greylock Protective Association led a campaign that transferred ultimate responsibility for management and operation the mountain from Berkshire County to the state park system.</p><br>
<h2>State parks</h2><br>
<p>Today, the 12,500 acre Mount Greylock State Reservation is managed and operated by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, Division of State Parks and Recreation.</p><br>
<p>Mount Greylock has over 70 miles of designated trails for hiking, mountain biking, back-country skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling, including an 11.5 mile section of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. A primitive camping experience is available for backpackers at either the Mount Greylock Campground or 5 remote trailside backpacker shelters; the campground is only accessible by foot, as are the backpacker shelters.</p><br>
<p>The staffed visitors center in Lanesborough is open year-round (1.5 miles off Route 7) and provides orientation, trail maps, informational brochures, exhibits, and accessible rest rooms. Five lean-to shelters and Mount Greylock Campground are available for backpacking. About 70 mi of trails are located on the mountain, including the Appalachian Trail.</p><br>
<p>The Greylock Glen, site of a former proposed tramway/ski/resort development from 1953–1977, is a 1,063 acre park located in the town of Adams, adjoining Mount Greylock State Reservation. It was acquired by the state in 1985 to create a regional economic facility in the form of a joint public-private development.</p><br>
<h2>Structures on the mountain</h2><br>
<p>Prominent features on the summit are the Massachusetts Veterans War Memorial Tower, Bascom Lodge, the Thunderbolt Ski Shelter, and a television and radio tower. Because of the cultural significance of the mountain and excellent examples CCC period park structures, the Mount Greylock Summit Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in on April 20, 1998, reference number 98000349.</p><br>
<h3>Veterans War Memorial Tower</h3><br>
<p>The Veterans War Memorial Tower was approved by the state legislature in October 1930, supported by Senator Theodore Plunkett of Adams and Governor Frank G. Allen. A war memorial had been proposed as early as 1918 for Bostons Charles River Basin; other proposed locations included Beacon Hill and Copley Square. After more than a decade of debate, Mount Greylock was selected as the site for the monument. It was designed by Boston-based architects Maginnis & Walsh, and built by contractors J.G. Roy & Son of Springfield in 1931-32 at a cost of $200,000. It takes the form of a perpetually lighted beacon to honor the states dead from World War I (and subsequent conflicts). The light was at the time the strongest beacon in Massachusetts, with a nighttime visible range of up to 70 miles.</p><br>
<p>The architectural design of the tower, a 93 ft tall shaft with eight frieze-framed observation openings, was intended to have no suggestion of Utilitarianism but instead to display classic austerity. It includes some minor Art Deco details such as the decorative eagle on the base which were designed in part by John Bizzozero of Quincy, Massachusetts. Inside it is a domed chamber for a reverential shine that was intended to store tablets and war relicts from wartime units in the state&#39;s history.</p><br>
<p>Although local legislators and residents advocated for local stone to be used, it was ultimately quarried from Quincy Granite. In part, it bears the inscription "they were faithful even unto death." One of the inscriptions inside the monument is, "Of those immortal dead who live again in the minds made better by their presence", which is a line from a poem by George Eliot. The translucent globe of light on top, originally illuminated by twelve 1,500 watt lights (now six), is said to be visible at night for 70 mi. The formal dedication ceremony on June 30, 1933 by Governor Joseph B. Ely was attended by about 1,500 and broadcast nationally over NBC radio.</p><br>
<h3>Bascom Lodge</h3><br>
<p>Bascom Lodge was built between 1932-1938 using native materials of Greylock schist and red spruce. Designed by Pittsfield architect, Joseph McArthur Vance, it displays the rustic architectural design of period park structures. The Greylock Commission had desired to rebuild a more substantial shelter for visitors and hikers to the summit after the previous summit house (built c.1902) burned down in 1929. The initial west wing was constructed in 1932 by Jules Emil Deloye, Jr. The main-central and east wings were completed later 1935-38 by the CCC, supervised by Deloye. The lodge was named in honor of John Bascom, a Greylock Reservation Commissioner and Williams College professor, who had a strong association with the mountain during his lifetime.</p><br>
<p>Today, Bascom Lodge is run by the Bascom Lodge Group, in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation&#39;s.</p><br>
<h3>Thunderbolt Ski Shelter and Ski Race</h3><br>
<p>The Thunderbolt Ski Shelter, also designed by Joseph McArthur Vance, was built in 1940 by the CCC to principally serve as a warming hut for skiers using the Thunderbolt Trail. Also rustic in design and built of stone and wood beams, the interior has four wooden benches built into a large four hearth fireplace in the center.</p><br>
<p>There has been a resurgence of interest in skiing the Thunderbolt Trail culminating in the 75th anniversary race of February 2010 that commemorated the first downhill race on Mount Greylock on February 17, 1935. The Thunderbolt Ski Runners have continued the tradition of an annual backcountry ski race each winter, conditions permitting. As a result, the Trail has experienced an increasing number of backcounty skiers during the winter months.</p><br>
<h3>Broadcast towers</h3><br>
<p>Three radio and television stations transmit from a broadcast tower below the summit on the west side: WAMC (90.3 Albany, New York); WCDC-TV (19/36 Adams, Massachusetts); and W38DL (38 Adams, Massachusetts (Repeater of WNYT-TV). A NOAA Weather Radio station (WWF-48, 162.525 MHz) broadcasts from a different tower on the mountain. The Northern Berkshire Amateur Radio Club runs several amateur radio repeaters on the mountain under the callsign K1FFK.</p><br>
<h2>In popular culture</h2><br>
<p>Mount Greylock is the location of Ilvermorny, the North American School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the fictional universe of Harry Potter.</p><br>
<p>Mount Greylock (Gray-lock) is also referenced in the short story "Ethan Brand" by Nathaniel Hawthorne (From The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-told Tales, 1850, 1852).</p><br>
<p>Mount Greylock is also referenced in the Bill Bryson book ‘A Walk In the Woods’. It is also said to be the mountain that Herman Melville looked at from his study while writing ‘Moby Dick’.</p><br>
<p>Mount Magazine, officially named Magazine Mountain, is the highest point of the USA Interior Highlands and in the USA state of Arkansas, and is the site of Mount Magazine State Park. It is a flat-topped mountain or mesa capped by hard rock and rimmed by precipitous cliffs. There are two summits atop the mountain: Signal Hill, which reaches 2,753 ft, and Mossback Ridge, which reaches.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>Mount Magazine gets its name from French explorers who, while traveling through the area, witnessed a landslide on the mountain. The noise from the landslide was so great that one explorer described it as the sound of an ammunition magazine exploding, hence the name "Magazine".</p><br>
<p>The USA Geological Survey&#39;s Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) indicates that the official name of this landform is "Magazine Mountain", not "Mount Magazine". Generally "Mount " is used for peaks and " Mountain" is used for ridges, which better describes this landform. Mount Magazine appears in the GNIS as a ridge with Signal Hill as its summit. "Mount Magazine" is the name used by the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, which follows what the locals have used since the area was first settled.</p><br>
<p>Mount Magazine is often called "the highest point between the Alleghenies and the Rockies", but there are many parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota with higher elevations.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>Mount Magazine is located due north of Blue Mountain Lake in Logan County, Arkansas, approximately 45 mi east of the Arkansas-Oklahoma border. The most scenic route to the top is a 10 mi drive along Highway 309 (also known as the Mount Magazine Scenic Byway) from Havana.</p><br>
<p>Many consider Mount Magazine to be part of the Ouachita Mountains, though it is really part of the Arkansas River Valley. It lies within a southern extension of the Ozark National Forest despite it being much closer to the Ouachita National Forest.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>As the South American plate collided with the North American plate during the late Paleozoic, a major foreland basin, the Arkoma Basin, developed north of the Ouachita Mountains. Small grains of sediment that had filled the Arkoma Basin were compacted and cemented into sedimentary rock. After millions of years of erosion, synclines like Mount Magazine have become the most positive topographic features; this phenomenon is the result of the rapid weathering of shales once sandstones were breached on the flanks of surrounding anticlines.</p><br>
<p>Mount Magazine is a broad mesa composed of Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks deposited in various shallow-water environments. Like many mountains in the western Arkansas River Valley, Mount Magazine is capped by the Savanna Formation, a sequence of shale, siltstone, and sandstone; the upper portion of this sequence is missing throughout most of Arkansas. The Savanna Formation is conformable with the underlying McAlester Formation, a sequence of shale, siltstone, sandstone, and a number of coal beds. The McAlester Formation is conformable with the underlying Hartshorne Sandstone, a prominent ledge-former under favorable structural conditions. The Hartshorne Sandstone is unconformable with the underlying Atoka Formation. This unit has the largest areal extent of any of the Paleozoic formations in Arkansas, extending as far north as the Boston Mountains, and is divided into upper, middle, and lower members.</p><br>
<p>Myrsini  is a town in Elis, Greece. It is part of the municipal unit of Lechaina since 1997. In 2011, it had a population of 1,135. Myrsini lies in a flat coastal plain that stretches from Amaliada to Kato Achaia. It is 3 km southwest of Lechaina and 3 km northwest of Andravida.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Myrsini is named after the ancient city of Myrsinos or Myrtountion (named in Homers Iliad and in Strabos Geographica V), which was located in the area. According to Homer, Myrsinos took part in the Trojan War together with all of the Eleans (Iliad II.616). During the Byzantine Empire, a village named Agios Nikolaos (St Nicholas) was located in the area. Only part of its church altar survives today. In the 16th century, the inhabitants moved further inland to escape corsair raids and founded the present village. During the Ottoman era, the village was named Suleymanaga (Σουλεϊμάναγα), after a local Ottoman governor named Suleyman Agha.</p><br>
<p>Along with the rest of the Peloponnese, the village was conquered in 1685 by the Republic of Venice during the Morean War, but was recovered by the Ottomans in 1715. It became a part of Greece after the Greek War of Independence, and was renamed to its present name in 1915.</p><br>
<h2>Population</h2><br>
<p>The Ouachita Mountains, simply referred to as the Ouachitas, are a mountain range in west-central Arkansas and southeast Oklahoma. They are formed by a thick succession of highly deformed Paleozoic strata constituting the Ouachita Fold and Thrust Belt, one of the important orogenic belts of North America. The Ouachitas continue in the subsurface to the southeast where they make a poorly understood connection with the Appalachians and to the southwest where they join with the Marathon area of west Texas. The highest natural point is Mount Magazine of Logan County, Arkansas, which rises to an elevation of 2,753 feet above mean sea level.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>Louis R. Harlan claimed that "Ouachita" is composed of the Choctaw words ouac for buffalo and chito for large, together meaning "country of large buffaloes". At one time, herds of buffalo inhabited the lowland areas of the Ouachitas. Historian Muriel H. Wright wrote that "Ouachita" was probably derived from the Choctaw words owa for hunt and chito for big, together meaning "big hunt far from home". According to the article Ouachita in the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, "Ouachita" comes from the French spelling of the Caddo word washita, meaning "good hunting grounds".</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Ouachitas are a major physiographic province of Arkansas and Oklahoma, and are generally grouped with the Arkansas River Valley to the north. Together with the Ozark Plateaus, the Ouachitas form the USA Interior Highlands, one of the few mountainous regions between the Appalachians and Rockies.</p><br>
<h3>Flora</h3><br>
<p>The Ouachitas are dominated by pine, oak, and hickory. The shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) and post oak (Quercus stellata) thrive in dry, nutrient-poor soil and are common in rocky upland areas. Some native tree species, such as the eastern red-cedar (Juniperus virginiana), are colonizers of human-disturbed sites.</p><br>
<h3>Fauna</h3><br>
<p>Bison and elk once found habitat in the Ouachita Mountains, but have since been extirpated. Today, there are large populations of white-tailed deer, coyote, and other common temperate forest animals. Though elusive, hundreds of black bear roam the Ouachitas. Several species of salamander are endemic to the Ouachitas and have traits that vary from one locale to another.</p><br>
<h3>Subranges</h3><br>
<p>The Athens Piedmont consists of a series of low-lying ridges, none exceeding 1,000 feet. It is located south of the Ouachitas and extends from Arkadelphia, Arkansas to the Arkansas-Oklahoma border. The Athens Piedmont runs through Clark, Howard, Pike, and Sevier counties in Arkansas and McCurtain County in Oklahoma.</p><br>
<p>The Caddo, Cossatot, and Missouri Mountains form a single subrange and are located primarily in Montgomery and Polk counties, Arkansas. The Caddo Mountains are furthest east, the Cossatot Mountains furthest west, and the Missouri Mountains between the two. The topography is extremely rugged with elevations exceeding 2,000 feet. The highest natural point is Raspberry Mountain at 2,358 feet. The headwaters of multiple rivers are found in this area, including the Caddo, Cossatot, and Little Missouri rivers.</p><br>
<p>The Cross Mountains are located in Polk and Sevier counties, Arkansas and McCurtain County, Oklahoma. The highest natural point is Whiskey Peak at 1,670 feet.</p><br>
<p>The Crystal Mountains are located southwest of the Zig Zag Mountains primarily in Montgomery County, Arkansas. They are so named because of the presence of some of the world&#39;s finest quartz crystals. The Crystal Mountains are generally taller than the Zig Zag Mountains, achieving elevations over 1,800 feet.</p><br>
<p>The Fourche Mountains are a long, nearly continuous chain of mountains composed of the weather-resistant Jackfork Sandstone. They extend from Pulaski County, Arkansas in the east to Atoka County, Oklahoma in the west. The highest natural point is Rich Mountain at 2,681 feet, which is also the second highest natural point of the Ouachitas and USA Interior Highlands. The Fourche Mountains form a major watershed divide between the Arkansas River basin to the north and the Red River basin to the south. There are many sites of interest, perhaps the most popular being Pinnacle Mountain State Park just outside of Little Rock, the capital and most populous city of Arkansas.</p><br>
<p>The Frontal Ouachita Mountains feature a number of isolated mountains located between the Arkansas River to the north and the Fourche Mountains to the south. The highest natural point is Mount Magazine at 2,753 feet, which is also the highest natural point of the Ouachitas and USA Interior Highlands. The Frontal Ouachita Mountains are structurally quite different from the rest of the Ouachitas and technically part of the Arkansas River Valley.</p><br>
<p>The Trap Mountains are located south of the Zig Zag Mountains primarily in Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas. The highest natural point is Trap Mountain at 1,310 feet.</p><br>
<p>The Zig Zag Mountains are located in Garland County, Arkansas and are home to Hot Springs National Park. It is so named because of the "zig zag" appearance of the mountains, especially when viewed from satellite imagery. The Zig Zag Mountains are not exceptionally tall, but do reach heights over 1,400 feet.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The Ouachitas, in a general sense, can be considered an anticlinorium and are formed by a thick succession of highly deformed Paleozoic strata constituting the Ouachita Fold and Thrust Belt, one of the important orogenic belts of North America. Much like the Appalachians, the Ouachitas are fold mountains. The two ranges plunge towards each other at the margins of the Black Warrior Basin, a sedimentary basin in Alabama and Mississippi. To the southwest, the Ouachitas connect with the Marathon area of west Texas where rocks of the Ouachita Fold and Thrust Belt are briefly exposed.</p><br>
<p>Unlike many ranges in the United States, the Ouachitas are mostly east-west trending. They are unique because metamorphism and volcanism, features that are common in orogenic belts, are notably absent (with the exception of some low-grade metamorphism). Due to the high degree of folding and faulting, the Ouachitas are clustered into distinct subranges, with ridges separated by relatively broad valleys.</p><br>
<p>The Ouachitas are known for some of the world&#39;s finest quartz crystals, especially in the area around Mount Ida, Arkansas, the quartz capital of the world. The quartz formed after the Ouachita Orogeny when fractures in rocks filled with silica-saturated fluids and, over millions of years, precipitated crystals up to several feet in length. The Ouachitas are also known for novaculite, a variety of chert that has undergone low-grade metamorphism; particular grades found only in Arkansas are used for making whetstones.</p><br>
<h3>History</h3><br>
<p>Cambrian through Mississippian strata of the Ouachitas were deposited in a narrow, two-sided basin called the Ouachita Trough, which formed as part of a Cambrian failed rift system. Succeeding Pennsylvanian strata of the Ouachitas were deposited in a foreland basin during the early stages of the Ouachita Orogeny. Subduction of the South American Plate beneath the North American Plate resulted in this mountain-building event. Compressional forces caused the crust to buckle, producing complex folds at all scale levels and several overturned sequences. The area of greatest deformation occurred in the Benton-Broken Bow Uplift, which extends from Benton, Arkansas to Broken Bow, Oklahoma. The total height of the Ouachitas is not known, though they may have exceeded 10,000 feet (based loosely on geologic cross-sections). The terrane has been deeply eroded since the late Paleozoic.</p><br>
<h3>Stratigraphy</h3><br>
<p>The Ouachitas are composed of Cambrian through Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks. The Collier Shale, located at the core of the Benton-Broken Bow Uplift, is the oldest exposed formation of the Ouachitas. The Atoka Formation, which was deposited much later during the Pennsylvanian, has the largest areal extent of any of the Paleozoic formations in Arkansas.</p><br>
<p>The geologic formations of the Ouachitas are as follows (in order of ascending age).</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>The Ouachita Mountains contain the Ouachita National Forest, Hot Springs National Park and Lake Ouachita, as well as numerous state parks and scenic byways mostly throughout Arkansas. They also contain the Ouachita National Recreation Trail, a 223 mi hiking trail through the heart of the mountains. The trail runs from Talimena State Park in Oklahoma to Pinnacle Mountain State Park near Little Rock. It is a well maintained, premier trail for hikers, backpackers, and mountain bikers (for only selected parts of the trail).</p><br>
<p>The Talimena Scenic Drive begins at Mena, and traverses 54 mi of Winding Stair and Rich Mountains, long narrow east-west ridges which extend into Oklahoma. Rich Mountain reaches an elevation of 2,681 ft in Arkansas near the Oklahoma border. The two lane winding road is similar in routing, construction, and scenery to the Blue Ridge Parkway of the Appalachian Mountains.</p><br>
<h3>Sites of interest</h3><br>
<p>Black Fork Mountain Wilderness</p><br>
<p>Caney Creek Wilderness</p><br>
<p>Cossatot River State Park-Natural Area</p><br>
<p>Flatside Wilderness</p><br>
<p>Hot Springs National Park</p><br>
<p>Jack Creek Recreation Area</p><br>
<p>Lake Catherine</p><br>
<p>Lake Hamilton</p><br>
<p>Lake Maumelle</p><br>
<p>Lake Ouachita</p><br>
<p>Mount Magazine State Park</p><br>
<p>Pinnacle Mountain State Park</p><br>
<p>Queen Wilhelmina State Park</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The mountains were home to the Ouachita tribe, for which they were named. Later French explorers translated the name to its present spelling. The first recorded exploration was in 1541 by Hernando de Soto. Later, in 1804, President Jefferson sent William Dunbar and Dr. George Hunter to the area after the Louisiana Purchase. Hot Springs National Park became one of the nations first parks in 1832. The Battle of Devils Backbone was fought here at the ridge of the same name in 1863. In August 1990, the USA Forest Service discontinued clearcutting as the primary tool for harvesting and regenerating short leaf, pine and hardwood forests in the Ouachita National Forest.</p><br>
<p>The Beauvoir estate is notable as the historic post-war home  of the former President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, , , and more influentially as United States Senator from Mississippi,  and in between USA Secretary of War, , under 14th President Franklin Pierce). Its construction was begun in 1848 facing the Gulf Coastline  at Biloxi, Mississippi. It was purchased earlier in 1873 by the planter Samuel Dorsey and his wife Sarah Dorsey. After her husbands death in 1875, the widow, Sarah Ellis Dorsey learned of former Confederate President Jefferson Davis difficulties. She invited him to visit at the plantation and offered him a cottage near the main house, where he could live and work at his memoirs . He ended up living there the rest of his life. The house and plantation have since been designated as a National Historic Landmark, recognized and listed by the USA Department of the Interior and its National Park Service .</p><br>
<p>Ill with cancer, in 1878 Sarah Ellis Dorsey remade her will, bequeathing "Beauvoir" to Jefferson Davis and his surviving daughter, Varina Anne Davis, known as "Winnie". His wife Varina Howell Davis was also living there, and the three Davises lived there until former President Davis&#39; death in 1889. His young second wife and widow, (Varina Howell Davis) and her daughter moved to New York City in 1891.</p><br>
<p>After the death of Varina Anne Davis ("Winnie") in 1898, Varina Howell Davis inherited the plantation. She sold it in 1902 to the Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans with the stipulation that it be used as a Confederate state veterans home and later as a memorial to her husband. Barracks were built nearby and the property was used as such a home until 1953, with the death of the last veteran of the Confederate States Army in Mississippi.</p><br>
<p>At that time, the main house was adapted as a house museum. In 1998, a Presidential Library (similar in style to the other United States Presidential Libraries, an archival and museum system operated by the National Archives and Records Administration, established in 1934/1935, with the first presidential library for 32nd President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940) was completed and opened on site.</p><br>
<p>The main house and library were badly damaged, and other outbuildings were destroyed, during Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. Beauvoir survived a similar onslaught from Hurricane Camille in 1969. The house was restored and has been re-opened, while work continues on the library.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Beauvoir was the location of the retirement home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis from 1876 to 1889. The compound consisted of approximately 608 acre when Davis lived there (today, the site is approximately 52 acre in size). Beauvoir is located in Biloxi, Mississippi across US Highway 90 from Biloxi Beach. The name "Beauvoir" means "beautiful to view".</p><br>
<p>The compound consists of a Louisiana raised cottage-style plantation residence, a botanical garden, a former Confederate veterans home, a modern gift shop, a Confederate Soldier Museum, the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum, various outbuildings, and a historic Confederate cemetery, which includes the Tomb of the Unknown Confederate Soldier. Five of seven of these buildings were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina, and replicas are being planned (see below).</p><br>
<p>The house was surrounded with cedars, oaks and magnolia trees, and at one time had an orange grove behind it. The home faces the Gulf of Mexico, and Spanish moss hangs from many of the large old trees on the property.</p><br>
<p>Oyster Bayou, a freshwater impoundment and bayhead swamp, once connected directly to the Mississippi Sound and runs across the property behind the main house from West to East. This body of water is fed by natural artesian springs on the grounds. The northeast portion of the estate is the site of a primitive, pre-urban hardwood forest with an environment similar to what existed in the area during the 1800s. Current proposals envision restoring Oyster Bayou to its original environmental state, although this area also suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Katrina.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Beauvoir was built by James Brown, a planter and entrepreneur, in 1848 and was completed in 1852. In 1873 the property was sold to Frank Johnston and soon thereafter to Samuel and Sarah Anne Ellis Dorsey. They operated the plantation to cultivate cotton. Sarah Dorsey was a novelist and historian, who wrote a biography of the Louisiana wartime governor, Henry Watkins Allen. It has been considered an important contribution to the Lost Cause literature. Born and reared in Natchez, Mississippi, she was part of the prominent Percy family in the South. After her husband, who was older, died in 1875, the widow Dorsey lived in the main house with her half-brother Mortimer Dahlgren.</p><br>
<p>In 1876, having heard of Jefferson Davis&#39; financial and personal difficulties, Dorsey invited the former president to stay at Beauvoir. She made a cottage available to him and assisted him in writing his memoir, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1881) by organizing, taking dictation and encouraging him.</p><br>
<p>Davis accepted Dorsey&#39;s invitation and moved into the cottage now known as the Library Pavilion on the plantation grounds in 1877. Later, his wife Varina joined him.</p><br>
<p>Davis arranged to purchase the property in 1879 for $5500 to be paid in three installments. In 1878, Dorsey had rewritten her will as she knew she was dying; she bequeathed the plantation to Davis and his daughter. Dorsey died in 1879.</p><br>
<p>Davis and Varina moved into the main house along with their youngest daughter, Winnie. She was single as they had refused to let her marry into the family of a Yankee abolitionist. Davis lived in the home until his death in December 1889. Varina Davis remained on the property for a time while she wrote her book Jefferson Davis: A Memoir (1890). She and her daughter Winnie moved to New York City in 1891.</p><br>
<p>Dorsey had provided that, after Davis&#39; death, Beauvoir would go to his daughter. At her death in 1898, the property was inherited by Varina Howell Davis. In 1902, she sold much of the property to the Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, to be used as home for Confederate veterans and widows, and later as a memorial to her husband. The SCV built a dozen barracks buildings, a hospital, and a chapel behind the main house. From 1903 to 1957, approximately 2,500 veterans and their families lived at the home. Many veterans were buried in a cemetery on the property.</p><br>
<p>In 1941 the main house opened for public tours. Eventually a Confederate Museum was opened on the site. Over the next few decades, a Jefferson Davis Gallery, gift shop, the Tomb of the Unknown Confederate Soldier, and the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum were established on the grounds.</p><br>
<p>In 1969 the home survived Hurricane Camille. It needed some repairs and restoration after flooding.</p><br>
<p>In 1998 the Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans opened the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library. It contains the personal library and papers of Jefferson Davis, a biographical exhibit, and a theater and lecture hall.</p><br>
<h3>Hurricane Katrina</h3><br>
<h4>Damage assessment</h4><br>
<p>On August 29, 2005, the main building was severely damaged, losing its newly refurbished galleries (porches) and a section of its roof, but not destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, which hit the Biloxi-Gulfport area head-on. The Clarion-Ledger reported on August 31 that Beauvoir was “virtually demolished,” overstating the damage. The storm destroyed the Hayes Cottage, the Library Pavilion, a barracks replica, the Confederate Museum and the director&#39;s home. The first floor of the Davis Presidential Library was gutted by the storm. Approximately 35% of the collections were lost.</p><br>
<p>Although the extensive damage from Hurricane Katrina has required a massive restoration project for Beauvoir, the publicity caused detailed USA Government photos of the building to become widely available, revealing some architectural details and part of the internal structure of the original construction.</p><br>
<p>At the Beauvoir entranceway, above the door and left-side window, dentil molding appears along the lintel of the door and window. The internal construction of the building is also revealed, seen in exposed areas of the structure, such as the basement red-brick pillars, or the wooden wall frames, with wooden latticework backing the external plaster covering. The external shell of Beauvoir was protected by six fireplaces that surround the core of the house. Of those six brick fireplaces reinforcing the outside walls, only one of six rooftop chimneys collapsed during the hurricane. Five of the six fireplaces retained sufficient structural integrity to keep the walls of the building from falling away while under water.</p><br>
<p>On the back, west wing of Beauvoir, behind a front-yard tree, the green storm shutters survived the floating debris that battered the entrance. The shutters protected the glass panes despite the 24-foot (8-m) storm surge that submerged the area. Whole sections of the Beauvoir home have remained intact to preserve many of the original construction details and windows (as seen in the photograph excerpts, at right).</p><br>
<h4>Restoration – buildings</h4><br>
<p>Since thousands of homes in Mississippi were damaged or destroyed during Hurricane Katrina, construction work was diverted to all disaster areas of the state. Restoration of Beauvoir proceeded slowly. However, as it is a USA National Historic Landmark, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials approved Federal support to the repair and rebuilding of the Beauvoir complex.</p><br>
<p>With the financial assistance of various federal, state, private organizations and individual contributions, restoring Beauvoir Mansion started in early 2006. On June 3, 2008, also Jefferson Davis&#39; 200th Birthday, Beauvoir Mansion had been fully restored and reopened for public tours. The mansion was restored to the original condition of when President and Varina Davis lived there.</p><br>
<p>In the winter of 2009, President Daviss personal library and the Hayess cottage had been rebuilt and were open for public tours.</p><br>
<p>The new Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum opened in June 2013. Many artifacts were recovered and were restored or repaired from the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.</p><br>
<p>In addition to the Presidential Library, the historic kitchen, located behind the Beauvoir mansion, was reconstructed.</p><br>
<h4>Restoration – collections</h4><br>
<p>About 60% of the collections are estimated to be salvageable. Prior to Katrina, the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library maintained a collection of 12,000 books on United States history, southern history, and history of the American Civil War. The library also maintained collections of photographs, personal letters, manuscripts, envelopes, postcards, newspaper clippings, records of Confederate heritage organizations such as the United Confederate Veterans and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and records from the Veterans home that once was present on the grounds. Most of these records survived, except for those on display in the two museums.</p><br>
<p>Civilian volunteers and the Mississippi Army National Guard assisted with salvage. Unfortunately, the room storing much of the authentic china and artifacts was adjacent to the gift shop, with knockoffs and imitations of the originals. Both rooms were destroyed, so sifting through the debris and identifying the genuine relics was very difficult.</p><br>
<h2>Today</h2><br>
<h3>Visiting the museum</h3><br>
<p>In 2008, Beauvoir reopened for tours Monday through Sunday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Beauvoir is one of, if not the last National Historical Landmark, on the beach in Biloxi that has been restored.</p><br>
<p>Beauvoir is owned and operated by the Mississippi Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans.</p><br>
<h3>Activities</h3><br>
<p>Before the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina in the Summer of 2005, annual events included the Spring Pilgrimage in March, Confederate Memorial Day in April, the Fall Muster in October, and Candlelight Christmas in December.</p><br>
<p>Visitors to the site were presented with a biographical film on the life of Jefferson Davis narrated by an actor portraying Davis&#39;s long-time friend, Iowa Senator George Wallace Jones.</p><br>
<h2>Designations</h2><br>
<p>The home and grounds are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Beauvoir was also designated as a National Historic Landmark and a Mississippi Historical Landmark.</p><br>
<p>Skull Tower  is a stone structure embedded with human skulls located in Niš, Serbia. It was constructed following the Battle of Čegar of May 1809, during the First Serbian Uprising. Serbian rebels under the command of Stevan Sinđelić were attacked by the Ottomans on Čegar Hill, near Niš. Knowing that he and his fighters would be impaled if captured, Sinđelić detonated a powder magazine within the rebel entrenchment, killing himself, his fellow rebels and the encroaching Ottoman soldiers. Vizier Hurshid Pasha ordered that a tower be made from the skulls of the fallen rebels. The tower is 4.5 m high, and originally contained 952 skulls embedded on four sides in 14 rows.</p><br>
<p>Following the Ottoman withdrawal from Niš in 1878, the tower was roofed over, and in 1892 a chapel was built around it. In 1937, the chapel was renovated. A bust of Sinđelić was added the following year. In 1948, Skull Tower and the chapel enclosing it were declared Cultural Monuments of Exceptional Importance and came under the protection of the Socialist Republic of Serbia. Further renovation of the chapel occurred again in 1989. As of 2013, 54 skulls remain on the tower. The one that is said to belong to Sinđelić is enclosed in a glass container. Seen as a symbol of independence by Serbs, the tower is mentioned in the writings of French Romantic poet Alphonse de Lamartine and English travel writer Alexander William Kinglake. In the two centuries since its construction, it has become a popular tourist attraction, visited by between 30,000 and 50,000 people annually.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Ottoman Empire was known to create tower structures from the skulls of rebel fighters in order to elicit terror among its opponents. The First Serbian Uprising against Ottoman rule erupted in February 1804, with Đorđe Petrović (Karađorđe) as its leader. On 19 May 1809, 3,000 Serbian rebels under the command of Stevan Sinđelić were attacked by the Ottomans on Čegar Hill, in Niš. The rebels were plagued by lack of coordination, largely due to the rivalry between commanders Milivoje Petrovic and Petar Dobrnjac. As a result, Sinđelićs fighters failed to receive support from the other rebel detachments. The numerically superior Ottomans lost thousands of soldiers in a number of failed attacks against the rebels, but eventually overwhelmed the Serbian lines. Knowing that he and his men would be impaled if captured, Sinđelić fired at his entrenchments gun powder magazine, setting off a massive explosion. The resulting blast killed him and everyone else in the vicinity.</p><br>
<p>After the battle, the vizier of Niš, Hurshid Pasha, ordered that the heads of Sinđelić and his men be skinned, stuffed and sent to the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II. The skulls were then returned to Niš, where the Ottomans built Skull Tower as a warning to potential future rebels. The structure is 4.5 m high. It originally consisted of 952 skulls embedded on four sides in 14 rows. The locals named it Ćele kula, from the Turkish Kelle kulesi, which means "skull tower". In the years following its construction, many skulls fell out from the tower walls, some were taken away for burial by relatives thinking they could identify the skulls of their deceased family members, and some were taken by souvenir hunters. Midhat Pasha, the last Ottoman governor of Niš, ordered that the remaining skulls be removed from the tower in the early 1860s. He realized the structure was no longer an effective means of discouraging potential rebels and only fostered resentment against the Ottomans, reminding local inhabitants of the empire&#39;s past cruelty.</p><br>
<p>After the Ottomans withdrew from Niš in 1878, the Royal Serbian Army began scouring the town and its surroundings in search of the missing skulls. Some were found buried; one was found embedded deep inside the tower walls and sent to the National Museum in Belgrade. This was followed by the construction of a roof baldachin, which was topped off with a cross. The foundations of the chapel, designed by the architect Dimitrije T. Leko, were consecrated in 1894. A plaque dedicated near the chapel in 1904 reads: "To the first Serbian liberators after Kosovo." The chapel was renovated in 1937 and a bust of Sinđelić was added the following year. In 1948, Skull Tower and the chapel enclosing it were declared Cultural Monuments of Exceptional Importance and came under the protection of the Socialist Republic of Serbia. Further renovation of the chapel occurred again in 1989., 54 skulls remain embedded in the tower walls. The one that is said to belong to Sinđelić rests in a glass container.</p><br>
<h2>Legacy</h2><br>
<p>In the centuries following its construction, Skull Tower has become a place of Serb pilgrimage. In Serbia, and among Serbs both inside and outside the country, it is considered a symbol of the country&#39;s struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire. Skull Tower is one of the most visited places in Serbia, with 30,000–50,000 visitors annually. In the early 1830s, French Romantic poet Alphonse de Lamartine wrote of the tower upon visiting Niš, which was at the time still part of the Ottoman Empire, saying:</p><br>
<p>Skull Tower was also mentioned in the works of British travel writer Alexander William Kinglake, published in 1849. An exhibition at the Military Museum in Belgrade contains a replica of the tower. Prior to the dissolution of Yugoslavia, tens of thousands of schoolchildren from across Yugoslavia visited the original in Niš. In 2014, USA internet publication Mental Floss placed Skull Tower at the top of the list of "Top 10 buildings made of bones".</p><br>
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<p>rr=Geumgang</p><br>
<p>mr=Kŭmgang</p><br>
<p>The Geum River is located in South Korea. It is a major river that originates in Jangsu-eup, North Jeolla Province. It flows northward through North Jeolla and North Chungcheong Provinces and then changes direction in the vicinity of Greater Daejeon and flows southwest through South Chungcheong Province before emptying into the Yellow Sea near Gunsan city.</p><br>
<p>The river is 401 km long, making it the third longest in South Korea. The area of the Geum River Basin is 9,859 km². The upper part of the river flows slowly through part of the Noryeong Mountains and is marked by extensive stream meandering. On the other hand, river curves on middle and lower parts of the river are more gradual and there is comparatively less stream meandering.</p><br>
<p>Tributary streams of the Geum include the Gap-cheon, Yugu-cheon, Miho-cheon, Unsan-cheon, Seokseong-cheon, and Nonsan-cheon. Several small alluvial plains including the Honam and Nonsan Plain have been formed by the flow of the Geum and its tributaries.</p><br>
<h2>History and Culture</h2><br>
<p>In the area of Buyeo County, the river bears the name Baengma-gang, which means White Horse River. Numerous legends associate the ancient kingdom of Baekje with the Baengma. The Baengma River is the subject of a well-known song of the sin minyo tradition, Kkumkkuneun Baengma-gang (꿈꾸는 백마강, "Dreaming Baengma-gang").</p><br>
<p>The Geum River and its tributaries were a means of cultural contact from prehistoric times (see Mumun Pottery Period) and into the Three Kingdoms of Korea through their ancient function as a transportation route that begins on the west coast and penetrates deep in the interior of the Peninsula. Bronze Culture flourished in this area from c. 850 B.C.-A.D. 100 (see Liaoning bronze dagger culture). Archaeological evidence suggests that some of the very first complex societies in southern Korea briefly flourished in the valleys formed by tributaries of this river.</p><br>
<p>The Geum River Basin contained the chiefdoms of Mahan, and a former centres of the early kingdom of Baekje such as Ungjin (AD 475-525) and Sabi (AD 525-660) are located along the Baengma portion of the river.</p><br>
<p>The river&#39;s Korean name ("Silk River") is a homonym of the word for "diamond" (금강; 金剛) and should not be confused with Kŭmgang Mountain (금강산; 金剛山; "Diamond Mountain") in North Korea.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>Dams have been built on the Middle and Upper Geum to facilitate water for agriculture and industry. They include the Daecheong Dam and the Yongdam Dam. The city of Greater Daejeon and the farms and industries of South Chungcheong Province rely heavily on the Geum River and its tributaries.</p><br>
<p>The alluvial plains formed by the Geum and its tributaries are the locations of significant agricultural production in Korea.</p><br>
<p>The Kashio River is a Class B river in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about 50 kilometers southwest of Tokyo. It begins in Kashio, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama at the confluence of the Akuwa River  and the Hiradonagaya River  and flows for 11 kilometers to the city of Fujisawa, where it merges with the Sakai River at the confluence known as Kawana . The conjoined river, which is sometimes known as the Katase River, then flows into Sagami Bay at Enoshima Island.</p><br>
<p>The catchment basin of the Kashio River is approximately 84 sq. kilometers. Because the Kashio River is a short, meandering stream, with a minimal descent, it has long been notorious for flooding. The predecessor of the Kashio River was the shallow Ōfuna Estuary (大船入江), which existed from the end of the last ice age to about 300 BC. Subsequently, earthquakes caused crustal uplift, which cut off the estuary from the bay, making it into a floodplain with the Kashio River at its center. As the river often flooded, it formed a lake that left behind a swamp as it drained. The early lake formed in the floodplain of the Kashio River is probably the lake mentioned in the Enoshima Engi, a history of the area.</p><br>
<p>Gayasan National Park, also known as Gaya Mountain National Park, and sometimes spelled Kaya Mountain National Park , is a large national park in the eastern part of South Korea. The park is named in honor of Gaya Mountain and became a National Park in 1972.</p><br>
<p>The park includes Haeinsa, which is one of the main temples of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Gayasan National Park covers an area of more than 160 square kilometers. The national park extends from the northern edge of South Gyeongsang (경상남도, 慶尙南道) Province, to the southern limit of North Gyeongsang (경상북도, 慶尙北道) Province. The Sobaek Mountain range (소백산맥, 小白山脈) runs through this area.</p><br>
<h3>Gaya Mountain</h3><br>
<p>The national park is named in honor of Gaya Mountain. This mountain has two major peaks: one of them is Sangwangbong Peak, for which the height is 1,430 meters, and the other slightly higher peak, Chulbulbong, is 1,433 above sea level.</p><br>
<h2>Special features</h2><br>
<p>One significant feature of the national park is Haeinsa (해인사, 海印寺). This Buddhist temple includes in its grounds a standing Buddha figure carved into a vertical rock.</p><br>
<p>Another feature of the park is Yongmun Falls and Hongnyudong Valley. 380 different species of plant have been identified as growing there, as well as 100 species of birds, and other wild animals.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The area was declared Scenic Site No. 5 by the Korean government in 1966, and it became an official National Park in 1972.</p><br>
<p>The remoteness of the area has played a role in protecting it from destruction in the past, specifically during the Japanese invasions of 1592-98, when much of the country was razed.</p><br>
<p>Since that time, legend says that the area around Gaya Mountains is free from the Three Disasters: fire, floods and wind.</p><br>
<p>The Pearl Islands  is a group of 200 or more islands and islets  lying about 30 mi off the Pacific coast of Panama in the Gulf of Panama.</p><br>
<h2>Islands</h2><br>
<p>The most notable island is Contadora Island (or Isla Contadora in Spanish), known for its resorts. Contadora was said to be used by the Spanish conquistadors as a stop for taking inventory of booty prior to returning to Spain, hence the name (contador means counter or bookkeeper in Spanish). Contadora is a resort island, with many homes owned by wealthy Panamanians. There are a large hotel and other cabins available. Most of the resort workers live on nearby Isla Saboga.</p><br>
<p>In 1979, the Shah of Iran briefly took exile on Isla Contadora. Domestic airlines Air Panama and Aero Perlas run frequent flights between Panama City and Contadora, Isla San José and Isla del Rey.</p><br>
<p>The largest island, at 234 km&sup2, is Isla del Rey ("Island of the King"), its name probably referring to Christ the King rather than to a secular king. Isla del Rey has several towns, most notably San Miguel. It is easily larger than the other Pearl Islands combined, and is the second largest island in Panama, after Coiba.</p><br>
<p>Other islands are Bolano Island, Buena Vista Island, Cana Island (Panama), Casaya Island, Chapera Island, Chitre Island, Cocos Island (Panama), Espiritu Santo Island (Panama), Galera Island, Gallo Island, Gilbraleon Island, Lampon Island, Marin Island, Mina Island, Mogo Mogo o Pajaro, Pacheca Island, Pachequille Island, Pedro Gonzalez Island, Puerco Island, San Jose Island, Senora Island, Vivenda Island, Vivienda Island and Viveros Island.</p><br>
<p>The island of Galera has a façade of very tall coconut palm trees and a white sandy beach. Strong currents, combined with shallows and jagged reefs surrounding the island, make navigation near the island perilous.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Three million years ago the Isthmus of Panama was created. Until then North and South America were divided by sea. It was the biggest and reportedly the most significant geological event in 60 million years. Prior to that date as the Earth&#39;s plates had begun to join the Pearl Islands were created and they emerged from the sea. On Contadora Island and other islands in the group pre-Columbian artifacts have been found.</p><br>
<p>The biggest island is Isla del Rey where more than fifteen pre-Columbian recognised archeological sites of the “Cuevas” and “Cocle” cultures have been identified. However none of the original population remain.</p><br>
<p>The islands were first occupied by Indians who were (with their leader Terarequí) wiped out within two years of the islands&#39; discovery by the Spanish. Spaniard Vasco Nunez de Balboa named the islands Pearl Islands on his discovery of them in 1513 due to the many pearls which were found there. Another Spaniard, Gaspar de Morales, exterminated 20 local Indian chiefs not long after and gave them to his dogs to tear to pieces. The Spaniards then needed workers to harvest pearls and imported slave labour in the 16th century from Africa whose descendants now live on the islands, particularly del Rey.</p><br>
<p>The Islands were frequently used by pirates in the years that followed and were relatively undisturbed until the 1960s and 1970s when the building of the resort on Contadora took place to which the Shah of Iran retreated in 1979.</p><br>
<h2>Sustainability</h2><br>
<p>The Chamber for Sustainable Tourism Law Pearlas aims to preserve the islands&#39; delicate ecological balance.</p><br>
<h2>Publicity</h2><br>
<p>The Pearl Islands are a popular location for the reality TV programs, particularly Survivor. The American edition which had 3 seasons (namely Survivor: Pearl Islands, Survivor: All-Stars and Survivor: Panama) set on the islands. Season 2 of the Israeli version of the program (titled Survivor 10: Pearl Islands), season 1 of Survivor South Africa (titled Survivor South Africa: Panama), season 4 of the French edition (titled Koh-Lanta: Panama), season 3 of the Bulgarian version (titled Survivor BG: Pearl Islands) and Ukrainian versions of the show were all set on the islands.</p><br>
<p>Other programs, namely BBC TV series The Real Swiss Family Robinson, the British TV series The Island with Bear Grylls (which used the islands of Isla Gibraleón and Isla San Telmo) and the Dutch television series Adam Looking for Eve (which used Mogo Mogo Island) used the islands as a location.</p><br>
<p>Nine Mile Prairie  is a 230 acre tract of conserved tallgrass prairie in Lancaster County, Nebraska, United States. Except for one small portion of it that was farmed as recently as the 1950s, Nine-Mile Prairie has never been plowed . As such, it is one of the largest areas of virgin tallgrass prairie in the state of Nebraska. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1986.</p><br>
<p>Nine Mile Prairie is now administered by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university uses it for a variety of research and recreational purposes, especially for studies of prairie ecology. Research on this prairie began in the 1920s when Professor John Ernest Weaver and his students started using it for their studies of prairie plant ecology.</p><br>
<p>In addition to prairie grasses, some of which including big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) can grow as tall as six feet, the site supports a range of prairie trees, including cottonwoods and honey locust. Invasive sumac plants and (in the absence of fire) eastern juniper trees require control to preserve the original prairie ecology. A total of 392 species of vascular plants and 80 species of birds have been observed at Nine Mile Prairie. Notable species include the federally threatened prairie white fringed orchid (Platanthera praeclara) and the rare regal fritillary butterfly (Speyeria idalia), and it is home to bluebirds and white-tailed deer; herds of bison would have also passed through the site when it was open prairie until the mid-19th century.</p><br>
<p>Ishigaki, also known as Ishigakijima, is a Japanese island west of Okinawa Hontō and the second-largest island of the Yaeyama Island group. It is within the City of Ishigaki in Okinawa Prefecture. The city functions as the business and transport center of the archipelago. The island is served by New Ishigaki Airport, the largest airport in the Yaeyamas.</p><br>
<p>Much of the island and surrounding waters including Mount Omoto and Kabira Bay are protected as part of Iriomote-Ishigaki National Park.</p><br>
<p>Ishigaki Island, like the rest of Okinawa, is culturally influenced by both Japan and Taiwan due to its location, about 300 km off the north eastern coast of Taiwan.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>A tsunami of record height hit Ishigaki Island in 1771.</p><br>
<p>The island provided the scene for the arrest of one of the perpetrators of Aum Shinrikyo&#39;s sarin gas attack, Yasuo Hayashi, 21 months after and 2000 km away from where the crime took place.</p><br>
<p>Ishigaki Port will be expanded so that five large Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats can be stationed there. The JSDF is also considering deploying short range anti-ship missiles (possibly the Type 96 Multi-Purpose Missile System) on the island.</p><br>
<p>These reinforcements are mostly in relation to the Japanese uninhabited Senkaku Islands, which lie 170 km north of Ishigaki and are under the control of the mayor of Ishigaki, which has been given civic authority over the territory since the Senkaku Islands reverted from the US to the Japanese government control in 1972. China (Peoples Republic of China) and Taiwan (Republic Of China) have challenged Japans sovereignty over these Senkaku Islands since 1972, with more intensity since 2012.</p><br>
<h2>Culture</h2><br>
<p>Miyaradunchi</p><br>
<h2>Food</h2><br>
<p>Ishigaki has a very different cuisine than mainland Japan. Due to the relative warmth of the surrounding sea and due to various cultural influences, food of Ishigaki is more meat-centered than the rest of Japan. For example, Tonsoku (pigs feet) are quite popular. The usage of Spam is also widespread and featured in many different dishes.</p><br>
<p>White Sands National Monument is a USA National Monument located in the state of New Mexico on the north side of Route 70 about 16 mi southwest of Alamogordo in western Otero County and northeastern Doña Ana County. The monument is situated at an elevation of 4,235 ft in the mountain-ringed Tularosa Basin and comprises the southern part of a 275 square miles field of white sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals. The gypsum dune field is the largest of its kind on Earth.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The first exploration was led by a party of US Army officers in 1849.</p><br>
<p>The Mescalero Apache were already living in the area at the time. Hispanic families started farming communities in the area at Tularosa in 1861 and at La Luz in 1863.</p><br>
<h3>Preparation for a National Park</h3><br>
<p>Creating a national park in the white sands formation goes back as far as 1898. A group in El Paso had proposed the creation of "Mescalero" National Park. Their idea was for a game hunting preserve, which conflicted with the idea of preservation held by the Department of the Interior, and their plan was not successful. In 1921-1922 Albert Bacon Fall, United States Secretary of the Interior and owner of a large ranch in Three Rivers near White Sands, promoted the idea of a national park there, an "All-Year National Park" that, unlike more northerly parks, would be usable year-round. This idea ran into a number of difficulties and did not succeed. Tom Charles, an Alamogordo insurance agent and civic booster, was influenced by Fall&#39;s ideas. By emphasizing the economic benefits, Charles was able to mobilize enough support to have the park created.</p><br>
<p>On January 18, 1933, President Herbert Hoover created the White Sands National Monument, acting under the authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906.</p><br>
<p>The dedication and grand opening was on April 29, 1934.</p><br>
<h3>Life as a National Monument</h3><br>
<p>Tom Charles became the first custodian of the monument, and upon his retirement in 1939 became the first concessionaire, operating as White Sands Service Company.</p><br>
<p>The Headquarters building (also called the Visitor Center Complex) was constructed of adobe bricks as a Works Progress Administration project starting in 1936 and completed in 1938.</p><br>
<p>The Monument is completely surrounded by military installations (White Sands Missile Range and Holloman Air Force Base) and has always had an uneasy relationship with the military. Errant missiles often fell on WSNM property, in some cases destroying some of the visitor areas. Overflights from Holloman disturbed the tranquility of the area.</p><br>
<p>In 1969, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish introduced oryx into the Tularosa Basin for hunting. The oryx, having no natural predators, invaded WSNM and competed with native species for forage.</p><br>
<p>In 1996, increasingly problematic alcohol abuse by students on spring break led to a ban of alcohol use in the monument during the months of February to May.</p><br>
<h3>Filming history</h3><br>
<p>White Sands National Monument has been featured in a variety of western films, including Four Faces West (1949), Hang &#39;Em High (1967), The Hired Hand (1971), My Name Is Nobody (1973), Bite the Bullett (1975) and Young Guns II (1990).</p><br>
<h3>World Heritage Site controversy</h3><br>
<p>WSNM was placed on the Tentative List of World Heritage Sites on January 22, 2008.</p><br>
<p>The state&#39;s two USA Senators, Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman, wrote letters of support of the application.</p><br>
<p>USA Representative Stevan Pearce declined to support the application, saying, "I would guarantee that if White Sands Monument receives this designation, that there will at some point be international pressures exerted that could stop military operations as we know them today."</p><br>
<p>The WHS application generated much controversy in Otero County, most of it taking place in meetings of the Otero County Commission. A petition with 1,200 signatures opposing the application was presented to the Commission on August 16, 2007.</p><br>
<p>The Commission on August 23, 2007 passed a resolution of opposition to the application,</p><br>
<p>and on October 18, 2007 passed Ordinance 07-05 that purports to make it illegal for WSNM to become a World Heritage Site.</p><br>
<p>On January 24, 2008, after the Tentative List was announced, the Commission instructed the County Attorney to write a letter to the Secretary of the Interior, demanding that WSNM be taken off the list.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Gypsum rarely occurs as sand because it is water-soluble. Normally, rain would dissolve the gypsum and carry it to the sea. The Tularosa Basin has no outlet to the sea, so it traps rain that dissolves gypsum from the surrounding San Andres and Sacramento Mountains. Thus water either sinks into the ground, or forms shallow pools that subsequently dry out and leave gypsum on the surface in a crystalline form called selenite. Groundwater that flows out of the Tularosa Basin flows south into the Hueco Basin.</p><br>
<p>During the last ice age, a lake now called Lake Otero covered much of the basin. When it dried out, it left a large flat area of selenite crystals that is now the Alkali Flat. Another lake, Lake Lucero, at the southwest corner of the park, is a dry lake bed, at one of the lowest points of the basin, which occasionally fills with water.</p><br>
<p>The ground in the Alkali Flat and along Lake Lucero&#39;s shore is covered with selenite crystals that reach lengths of up to three feet (1 m). Weathering and erosion eventually break the crystals into sand-size grains that are carried away by the prevailing winds from the southwest, forming white dunes. The dunes constantly change shape and slowly move downwind. Since gypsum is water-soluble, the sand that composes the dunes may dissolve and cement together after rain, forming a layer of sand that is more solid and could affect wind resistance of dunes.</p><br>
<p>This resistance does not prevent dunes from quickly covering the plants in their path. Some species of plants, however, can grow fast enough to avoid being buried by the dunes.</p><br>
<p>Various forms of dunes are found within the limits of White Sands. Dome dunes are found along the southwest margins of the field, transverse and barchan in the core of the field, and parabolic dunes occur in high numbers along the northern, southern, and northeastern margins.</p><br>
<p>From the visitor center at the entrance of the park, the Dunes Drive leads 8 mi into the dunes. Four marked trails allow one to explore the dunes by foot. During the summer, there are also Ranger-guided orientation and nature walks. The park participates in the Junior Ranger Program, with various age-group-specific activities.</p><br>
<p>Unlike dunes made of quartz-based sand crystals, the gypsum does not readily convert the sun&#39;s energy into heat and thus can be walked upon safely with bare feet, even in the hottest summer months. In areas accessible by car, children frequently use the dunes for downhill sledding.</p><br>
<p>Because the park lies completely within the White Sands Missile Range, both the park and USA Route 70 between Las Cruces, New Mexico and Alamogordo are subject to closure for safety reasons when tests are conducted on the missile range. On average, tests occur about twice a week, for a duration of one to two hours. Located on the northernmost boundaries of White Sands Missile Range, the Trinity Site can be found, where the first atom bomb was detonated.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<h2>Nearby cities</h2><br>
<p>Alamogordo, New Mexico</p><br>
<p>El Paso, Texas</p><br>
<p>Las Cruces, New Mexico</p><br>
<p>Greifswalder Oie  is a small island in the Baltic Sea, located east of Rügen on the German coast. The island covers an area of about 54 hectares.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Greifswalder Oie is about 1,550 metres long, a maximum of 570 metres wide and, at the cliffs on its eastern side, a maximum of 19 metres high. It is about 12 kilometres off the shore of Usedom and belongs administratively to the municipality of Kröslin on the mainland. On the island, with its striking steep coast, is a 49 metre high lighthouse with one of the strongest beacons in the Baltic. The whole island is a nature reserve.</p><br>
<p>It was formed during the last ice age, the Weichselian glaciation, by several glacial depositions from Scandinavia. On the Oie a total of three different deposition phases are evident, so that rocks originating in different parts of Scandinavia may be found on the island.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Around 1929 Johannas Winkler experimented with small LOX methane rockets off the Island of Greifawalder. (ref. "Reaching for the Stars", Erik Bergaust, Doubleday). The island was a restricted military space from 1936 to 1991, first under control of Nazi Germany and then the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Between 1937 and 1945 numerous rockets were launched from Greifswalder Oie. In an operation designated Lighthouse, Wernher von Braun oversaw attempts to launch A3 rockets in December 1937, each of which failed. Between 1938 and 1942 the island was the scene for the nearly successful launches of the A5 rockets. Also twenty-eight A4/V2 rockets were launched vertically from Greifswalder Oie between 1943 and 1945. These launches were made in order to observe the reentrance of the rockets into the atmosphere.</p><br>
<h2>Current condition</h2><br>
<p>As of the 2000s, the islet is an uninhabited sea bird reserve, save for a single man who works the light house, manages the small emergency yacht harbour (depth ca. 1.6m / 6 ft), and creates outdoor art objects that he scatters along a path that circles the island. There is an infrequent ferry service from Peenemünde and Karlshagen.</p><br>
<p>The Baltic Sea island of Vilm lies in the bay south of the much larger island of Rügen, it is one of Germany&#39;s most remote and tranquil spots. Covering less than 1 km², Vilm is the remnant of a moraine left as the glaciers retreated about 6000 years ago. Since its formation the shape of the island has gradually changed, with sandbars and beaches forming and eroding continuously. Today the island is shaped like a 2.5 kilometre-long tadpole, consisting of two distinct parts. Great Vilm, the "head" to the north-east, rises to almost 40 m. The low-lying isthmus of Middle Vilm forms a long "tail" to the south-west, which culminates in Little Vilm, a rocky mound about 20 m above sea level. The chalky cliffs to the southern side of Great Vilm are rapidly eroding, while sandbanks are building to add a snail-like curl to the tail.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Vestiges on the island suggest that humans used it in the early Stone Age, not long after its formation. Slavic peoples built a temple there, and its use for spiritual purposes persisted into Christian times, when in the Middle Ages it became a place of pilgrimage. In the early 19th century a law was passed to prevent trees from being felled on the island, and it became a summer residence for aristocrats. In 1936 the fauna and flora of the island were placed under protection to preserve its ancient oak and beech woodlands. After the second world war, Vilm became a favourite destination for tourists from German cities. By 1957 the island&#39;s public restaurant was used by some 700 visitors a day. In 1959 the Council of Ministers of the German Democratic Republic closed the island to the public and constructed 11 guesthouses, administrative and farm buildings. From then until the dissolution of the GDR, they used it as a private retreat for high functionaries, including the GDR heads of state Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker.</p><br>
<p>Two days before the end of the GDR, on 1 October 1990, the government designated the island and surrounding seas as a landscape protection area of central importance with the designation "southeast-southwest-Rügen biosphere reserve". This and other protected areas could not by law be transferred to the Federal Republic of Germany directly; instead the GDR had to sign them over to an individual who could then sign them over to the Bundesrepublik Deutschland. This is how it came to be that the island of Vilm and many other protected areas belonged for one logical second to Mr Patermann, then a high official in the Ministry of the Environment, now retired, but at one time a director in the European Commission.</p><br>
<p>Thus the island came not only under the administration of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania but also the responsibility of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Bundesamt für Naturschutz), which confirmed its designation as a nature reserve, a core area of the Southeast-Rügen Biosphere Reserve.</p><br>
<p>Three days after its adoption by the Bundesrepublik, the "International Nature Conservation Academy" was incorporated under the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. The academy, which maintains and uses the GDR buildings as an ecological research station, is mandated to provide scientific support to the Federal Secretary of the Environment in matters concerning national and international nature conservation and landscape management, international cooperation, ecosystems, environmental monitoring and research in the Baltic Sea area, and the transfer of scientific method and knowledge.</p><br>
<h2>Nature</h2><br>
<p>Although it is small, the surprising natural diversity and beauty of the Isle of Vilm has attracted hundreds of landscape painters over the last two centuries. Most of it is covered in forest that has been undisturbed for decades, and even centuries, with the result that its oak and beech woods are among the most untouched and impressive in Germany, and the island boasts a rich diversity of birds and small mammals. Part of the island – most of Middle Vilm and all of Little Vilm – is strictly closed to all human presence. Swimming is not permitted from any of its beaches. In the winter the bay sometimes freezes, and people can walk across the ice to and from Rügen – though most prefer to take the icebreaker.</p><br>
<p>Today, the core of the island is designated as protected zone I of the biosphere reserve, while the cleared area with guesthouses is part of the protected zone II, the so-called development and care zone.</p><br>
<p>The scientists who work on Vilm do not live there, but travel to and from the island daily. The agency has modified some of the buildings for conferences. Conference participants are housed in the cottages built for the ministers. The only thing on the island to distract the delegates from their work is nature; there are no shops, no TV, and no newspapers. Its isolation and complete quiet make it a perfect place for thinking.</p><br>
<p>The island may be visited only by prior arrangement.</p><br>
<p>Anacapa Island  is a small volcanic island located about 11 mi off the coast of Port Hueneme, California, in Ventura County. The island is composed of a series of narrow islets 6 mi long, oriented generally east-west and 5 mi east of Santa Cruz Island. The three main islets, East, Middle and West Anacapa, are collectively known as The Anacapas by some authors. All three islets have precipitous cliffs, dropping off steeply into the sea.</p><br>
<p>Anacapa is the smallest of the northern islands of the Channel Islands archipelago, and is within the Channel Islands National Park.</p><br>
<h2>Geography and geology</h2><br>
<p>Along with Santa Barbara Island, Anacapa was formed by volcanic eruptions between 19 and 15 million years ago. These eruptions are believed to have been caused by thinning of ocean crust as the block containing the northern Channel Islands and Santa Monica mountains was rotated clockwise by the transverse motion of the Pacific and North American plates. Lava from these eruptions can be found across the region, and in depths of up to 10,000 ft. The rocks that make up Anacapa are composed of lava, breccias, volcanic ash and cinders.</p><br>
<p>Erosion has heavily weathered the lava formations of Anacapa, and wave action caused the island to split into three islets in recent prehistoric times. The islets display a wide variety of erosional features including sea arches, sea caves, stacks, wave-cut platforms, surge channels and blowholes.</p><br>
<p>West Anacapa is the largest and highest islet, rising to an altitude of 930 ft at Vela Peak, also known as Summit Peak 2. East and Middle Anacapa have fairly level areas at their tops. Middle Island reaches an altitude of 325 ft and East Island is 250 ft at its highest point. All three islands total 699 acre, or about 1.1 square miles.</p><br>
<p>East Island&#39;s most notable natural feature is Arch Rock, a 40 ft-high natural bridge.</p><br>
<p>As recently as the end of the last ice age (about 10,000 years ago), sea levels as much as 400 ft lower meant that the four northern Channel Islands were part of a single large island (dubbed "Santa Rosae") that lay about 5 miles off the California coast. Fossils of pygmy mammoths from this Late Pleistocene period 13,000 years ago have been found on the other three northern islands and it is reasonable to assume pygmy mammoths were also present on Anacapa.</p><br>
<p>In The Channel Islands of California (1910), Charles Frederick Holder says of Anacapa:</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>Anacapa Island, located only about 11 mi from the urbanized coast of Southern California, provides critical habitat for seabirds, pinnipeds such as California sea lions, and several endemic plants and animals. Great white sharks, feeding on pinnipeds, are found in the waters of the Channel Islands, including Anacapa. The island has a somewhat diverse flora, including around 150 native plants, including 16 endemics (two of which are unique to the island) plus many introduced species.</p><br>
<h3>Birds</h3><br>
<p>Anacapa has around 69 species of birds. The islands steep lava rock cliffs incorporate numerous caves and crevices that are particularly important for the increasingly rare seabird Scrippss murrelet (a threatened species known as Xantus&#39;s murrelet until 2012). The cliffs are also an important location for the ashy storm-petrel. The largest breeding colony of the California brown pelican in the United States, and one of the only two in California, also occurs on Anacapa Island. This is where the brown pelican has been able to recover so dramatically from near extinction in the 1970s. The islets of Anacapa also host the largest breeding colony of western gulls in the world. Western gulls begin their nesting efforts at the end of April, sometimes making their shallow nests just inches from trails. Fluffy chicks hatch in May and June and fly away from the nests in July.</p><br>
<h3>Mammals, reptiles and amphibians</h3><br>
<p>The only native land mammal on the island is a unique subspecies of deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus anacapae) which occurs on all three islets, but nowhere else. (San Clemente Island in the southern Channel Islands also has an endemic subspecies of deer mouse.)</p><br>
<p>Anacapa has two native reptiles: an endemic form of the interesting and attractive side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana hesperis); and the less-common California alligator lizard (Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata). There is one amphibian, the Channel Islands slender salamander (Batrachoseps pacificus). Marine mammals and other marine life abound on Anacapa.</p><br>
<h3>Flora</h3><br>
<p>Anacapas prolific and dense vegetation was once dominated by the showy giant coreopsis (Leptosyne gigantea) previously named Coreopsis gigantea, an erect, shrubby perennial with a stout, succulent trunk growing to some 8 ft tall. The main trunk grows up to 5 in thick and often resembles a small tree. During its blooming season, March to May, it bursts forth with a mass of showy, bright yellow flowers and green leaves. Giant coreopsis provided shelter and perches for seabirds and land birds, and nesting habitat for many. The prolific seeds provided abundant food for the endemic Anacapa deer mouse, and for many small birds. The islands stands of giant coreopsis, as well as all the other plants of its coastal bluff community, were devastated by sheep grazing in the late 1800s and early 1900s, rabbit browsing in 1910-1950s, and by large-scale destruction of native vegetation associated with facility and road development by the USA Coast Guard during construction and manning of the Anacapa Light Station. Only small patches and individuals of native plants remained.</p><br>
<p>Malacothrix junakii is a rare species of aster known by the common names Anacapa Island desert-dandelion, Junaks desert dandelion and Junaks malacothrix that is endemic to Anacapa, where it is known from just two occurrences. It occurs in the coastal scrub of the island and was described to science as a new species in 1997.</p><br>
<h3>Introduced species</h3><br>
<p>Introduced mammals on Anacapa Island included cats, sheep, rabbits and black rats.</p><br>
<p>Black rats (Rattus rattus), also known as ship rats, had a major impact on wildlife on Anacapa Island, including seabirds, such as Scrippss murrelet, reptiles and amphibians, intertidal and terrestrial invertebrates and vegetation. Before an eradication program in 2001–02, more than 96 percent of Scrippss Murrelet nests on Anacapa were attacked by invasive rats. The rats were certainly introduced sometime prior to 1939 (when they were noted by NPS researchers Sumner and Bond), probably in supplies brought onto the island for sheep ranching or building the lighthouse. The National Park Service says there is evidence they were present in 1907. A 1979 study noted that they could have been introduced from a shipwreck such as the SS Winfield Scott in 1853.</p><br>
<p>European rabbits were introduced to East Island either as an emergency food supply for lighthouse personnel during World War II or as pets. They were present from the 1940s until at least 1965. No rabbits were recorded from Middle or West Anacapa.</p><br>
<p>Domestic cats were introduced to Anacapa as pets of the fisherman "Frenchy" after whom Frenchy&#39;s Cove on West Island is named. In 1966, there remained a small population.</p><br>
<p>Sheep were grazed on the island for many years. There are records from the 1870s through the 1930s. Many writers reported that in the absence of springs on Anacapa sheep would lick the moisture that accumulated on each others fleeces from the coastal fog. The native flora was affected by the forage grasses that farmers introduced to feed their flocks, and by soil-compaction caused by the sheeps hooves. Reproduction of ground-nesting species such as the meadowlark and horned lark is also thought to have been harmed by grazing.</p><br>
<p>After completion of the lighthouse and associated facilities, the Coast Guard planted two types of iceplant on East Anacapa Islet: red-flowered iceplant (Malephora crocea) and sea fig, also called freeway iceplant (Carpobrotus edulis x aequilaterus). Both species are highly invasive. The National Park Service has initiated a restoration project to eradicate all of the ice plant by 2016, the centennial of the National Park Service Organic Act.</p><br>
<h3>Restoration</h3><br>
<p>Vegetation on Anacapa began to recover after the removal of sheep about 1938 and rabbits in the 1950s.</p><br>
<p>Black rats were successfully eradicated from Anacapa Island by 2003, under a controversial program that involved an aerial application of the rodenticide brodifacoum. This was the first time a rodenticide had been applied aerially in North America (the technique was pioneered in New Zealand). One complicating factor was the presence of the native deer mouse subspecies (Peromyscus maniculatus anacapae). This was the first time that biologists had attempted to eradicate one rodent species from an entire island where an endemic rodent was present. Deer mice were captured prior to the application of rodenticide and reintroduced after poison levels had dropped. The program cost about $1.8 million.</p><br>
<p>A study after the eradication project showed that nesting attempts by Scrippss murrelets on Anacapa had more than doubled, average hatching success was up from 42 to 80 percent average nest predation was down from 52 to 7 percent. Only four months after the rodenticide applications, Cassins auklet (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) began nesting on Anacapa. This was significant as there were no previous records of the bird nesting on the island and it is known to be highly susceptible to rat predation.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 &deg;F. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Anacapa Island has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Anacapa is the only one of the Channel Islands to have a non-Spanish-derived name. Anacapa comes from the Chumash word Ennepah or Anyapakh, meaning "mirage island".</p><br>
<p>On a visit around 1910, Charles Frederick Holder noted "kitchen-middens, and deposits of ancient shells, and the tell-tale black earth" of hearths.</p><br>
<p>On the night of December 2, 1853, the sidewheel steamer Winfield Scott running at full speed crashed into the rocks off Middle Anacapa and sank. All of the passengers survived and were rescued after a week.</p><br>
<p>The United States Coast Guard built a light beacon in 1912 and a light station in 1932 (Anacapa Island Light). It was the last lighthouse built by the United States Lighthouse Service. The lighthouse is located on the eastern part of the island, at the entrance to the Santa Barbara Channel.</p><br>
<p>On January 31, 2000, Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashed near the island.</p><br>
<p>Along with the Channel Islands Beach area of Port Hueneme, the islands in Census Tract 36.12 of Ventura County, California. The official 2000 census population was 3 permanent residents (at the ranger station in the eastern part of East Island).</p><br>
<p>The Channel Islands are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America. Five of the islands are part of Channel Islands National Park, and the waters surrounding these islands make up Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. The islands were first colonized by the Chumash and Tongva Native Americans 13,000 years ago, who were then displaced by European settlers who used the islands for fishing and agriculture. The USA military uses the islands as training grounds, weapons test sites, and as a strategic defensive location. The Channel Islands and the surrounding waters house a diverse ecosystem with many endemic species and subspecies.</p><br>
<h2>Characteristics</h2><br>
<p>Eight islands are split among the jurisdictions of three separate California counties: Santa Barbara County (four), Ventura County (two), and Los Angeles County (two). The islands are divided into two groups; the northern Channel Islands and the southern Channel Islands. The four northern Islands used to be a single landmass known as Santa Rosae.</p><br>
<p>The archipelago extends for 160 mi between San Miguel Island in the north and San Clemente Island in the south. Together, the islands’ land area totals 221,331 acre, or about 346 square miles.</p><br>
<p>Five of the islands (San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, and Santa Barbara) were made into the Channel Islands National Park in 1980. The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary encompasses the waters 6 nmi off Anacapa, Santa Cruz, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Barbara islands.</p><br>
<p>Santa Catalina Island is the only one of the eight islands with a significant permanent civilian settlement—the resort city of Avalon, California, and the unincorporated town of Two Harbors.</p><br>
<p>Natural seepage of oil occurs at several places in the Santa Barbara Channel. Tar balls or pieces of tar in small numbers are found in the kelp and on the beaches. Native Americans used naturally occurring tar, bitumen, for a variety of purposes which include roofing, waterproofing, paving and some ceremonial purposes.</p><br>
<p>The Channel Islands at low elevations are virtually frost-free and constitute one of the few such areas in the 48 contiguous US states. It snows only rarely, on higher mountain peaks.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Separated from the California mainland throughout recent geological history, the Channel Islands provide the earliest evidence for human seafaring in the Americas. It is also the site of the discovery of the earliest paleontological evidence of humans in North America. The northern Channel Islands are now known to have been settled by maritime Paleo Indian peoples at least 13,000 years ago. Archaeological sites on the island provide a unique and invaluable record of human interaction with Channel Island marine and terrestrial ecosystems from the late Pleistocene to historic times. Historically, the northern islands were occupied by the island Chumash, while the southern islands were occupied by the Tongva. Author Scott ODell wrote about the indigenous peoples living on the island in his novel Island of the Blue Dolphins. Aleut hunters visited the islands to hunt otters in the early 1800s. The Aleuts purportedly clashed with the native Chumash, killing many over trading disputes. Aleut interactions with the natives were also detailed in ODell&#39;s book.</p><br>
<p>The Chumash and Tongva were removed from the islands in the early 19th century, taken to Spanish missions and pueblos on the adjacent mainland. For a century, the Channel Islands were used primarily for ranching and fishing activities, which had significant impacts on island ecosystems, including the local extinction of sea otters, bald eagles, and other species. With most of the Channel Islands now managed by federal agencies or conservation groups, the restoration of the island ecosystems has made significant progress. Several of the islands were used by whalers in the 1930s to hunt for sperm whales.</p><br>
<p>In 1972, in "a bit of political theater" twenty-six Brown Berets, sailed to Catalina Island on tourist boats, set up a small encampment near the town of Avalon, put up a Mexican flag and claimed the island on behalf of all Chicanos, citing the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The act "got no support in Los Angeles much less in Mexico City". Twenty-four days later, sheriff&#39;s deputies took everyone back to the mainland. A detailed analysis puts in doubt the likelihood of Mexico winning were any case to be brought by Mexico at the International Court of Justice.</p><br>
<p>The Channel Islands National Park&#39;s mainland visitor center received 342,000 visitors in 2014. The Channel Islands itself attracts around 70,000 tourists a year, most during the summer. Visitors can travel to the islands via public boat or airplane transportation. Camping grounds are available on Anacapa, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara Islands in the Channel Islands National Park. Attractions include whale watching, hikes, snorkeling, kayaking and camping.</p><br>
<h2>Military use</h2><br>
<p>The United States Navy controls San Nicolas Island and San Clemente Island, and has installations elsewhere in the chain. During World War II all of southern California’s Channel Islands were put under military control, including the civilian-populated Santa Catalina where tourism was halted and established residents needed permits to travel to and from the mainland. San Miguel Island was used as a bombing range and Santa Barbara Island as an early warning outpost under the presumed threat of a Japanese attack on California. San Clemente Island was used to train the Navy&#39;s first amphibious force to prepare for Pacific combat against the Japanese in World War II.</p><br>
<p>San Nicolas Island has been used since 1957 as a launch pad for research rockets. San Nicolas was considered out of eight possible locations as the site of the Trinity nuclear test. Santa Rosa Island was used in 1952 as a base for the USAF 669th AC&W Squadron and they operated two Distant Early Warning FPS-10 radars from the hilltops there. In 1955 another FPS-3 search radar was added, and in 1956, a GPS-3 search radar was installed. A new MPS-14 long-range height-finder radar was installed in 1958. The base was shut down in March 1963, when the 669th was moved to Vandenberg AFB In Lompoc, California. The islands still house US Navy SEALs training facilities and continues to use the Naval Auxiliary Landing Field located on San Clemente Island.</p><br>
<h2>Wildlife</h2><br>
<p>The Channel Islands are part of one of the richest marine ecosystems of the world. Many unique species of plants and animals are endemic to the Channel Islands, including fauna such as the Channel Islands spotted skunk, ashy storm-petrel, Santa Cruz sheep, and flora including a unique subspecies of Torrey pine.</p><br>
<p>California Moray Eel, San Clemente Island, Channel Islands, California.jpgCalifornia moray eel</p><br>
<h3>Flora</h3><br>
<p>Flora on the Channel Islands include a unique subspecies of pine, oak, and the island tree mallow. Santa Rosa Island holds two groves of the Torrey pine subspecies Pinus torreyana var. insularis, which is endemic to the island. Torrey pines are the United States&#39; rarest pine species. The islands also house many rare and endangered species of plants, including the island barberry, the island rushrose, and the Santa Cruz Island lace pod. Giant kelp forests surround the islands and act as a source of nutrition and protection for other animals.</p><br>
<p>Invasive species, such as the Australian blue gum tree, olive tree, sweet fennel and Harding grass threaten native species through competition for light, nutrients, and water. The Australian blue gum, for example, releases toxins in its leaf litter which prevents other species of plants from growing in the soil surrounding it. The blue gum, as well as other species including the Harding grass, are much more flammable and better adapted to wildfires than native species. Earthworms from the mainland are altering the unique ecosystem and microbial communities on San Clemente Island. In this formerly earthworm-free region, the changes threaten the biodiversity.</p><br>
<h3>Fauna</h3><br>
<p>The Channel Islands and the waters surrounding hold many endemic species of animals, including fauna such as the Channel Islands spotted skunk, island scrub jay, ashy storm-petrel, Santa Cruz sheep, San Clemente loggerhead shrike, and the San Clemente sage sparrow. Two breeds of livestock, the Santa Cruz sheep and the San Clemente Island goat originate from here. Many species of large marine mammals, including pacific gray whales, blue whales, humpback whales, and California sea lions breed or feed close to the Channel Islands. Current occurrences of the critically endangered North Pacific right whales and historically abundant Stellers sea lions in these areas are unknown. Seabirds, including the western gulls, bald eagles, pigeon guillemots, and Scrippss murrelets use the islands as well for shelter and breeding grounds. The endemic island fox is California&#39;s smallest natural canine and has rebounded from its near extinction in the late 1990s. Several endemic reptile and amphibian species including the island fence lizard, island night lizard, and Channel Islands slender salamander live on the islands.</p><br>
<h2>Conservation</h2><br>
<p>Conservation efforts are being made to maintain the islands endemic species. Feral livestock, including pigs, goats, and sheep, pose a threat to many of the species, including the San Clemente loggerhead shrike and Channel Islands spotted skunk. The National Park Service eradicated the feral pigs on Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz islands during the 1990s and on Santa Catalina Island in 2007. Introduced pathogens have devastated island species due to isolation from the mainland. In 1998, an outbreak of canine distemper swept through Santa Catalina Island severely reducing the island skunk and fox populations. Rabies and distemper vaccination programs were initiated to protect the islands wildlife. Canine distemper is thought to have been brought to the islands on a stowaway raccoon or a domestic dog.</p><br>
<p>In the 1950s, bald eagles and peregrine falcons on the Channel Islands became locally extinct after widespread use of pesticides such as DDT. The birds ingest contaminated fish and seabirds which poisons the adults and weakens their eggs. Golden eagles, which are natural competitors of other birds of prey, do not primarily feed on these animals and were able to colonize the islands in the early 1990s. In the early 2000s, golden eagles were live trapped and relocated. In 2002 and 2006 breeding pairs of bald eagles were reintroduced to the northern islands. Later in 2006, the introduced adult eagles hatched chicks on the islands for the first time since their extinction. The Channel Islands National Park established a bald eagle webcam on their website in 2007.</p><br>
<p>Föhr  is one of the North Frisian Islands on the German coast of the North Sea. It is part of the Nordfriesland district in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Föhr is the second-largest North Sea island of Germany and a popular destination for tourists. A town and eleven distinct municipalities are located on the island. The climate is oceanic with moderate winters and relatively cool summers.</p><br>
<p>Being a settlement area already in neolithic times, Föhr had been part of mainland North Frisia until 1362. Then the coastline was destroyed by a heavy storm flood and several islands were formed, Föhr among them. The northern parts of Föhr consist of marshes while the southern parts consist of sandy geest. From the middle-ages until 1864, Föhr belonged to the Danish realm and to the Duchy of Schleswig, but was then transferred to Prussia as a result of the Second Schleswig War. Seafaring has long been the most popular trade, but farming and eventually tourism became the most important economic factors after the end of the Age of Sail. The island can be reached by a car and passenger ferry service or via an airstrip.</p><br>
<p>Apart from German, a dialect of the North Frisian language, Fering, is frequently spoken on Föhr. Several authors and poets have also written in Fering.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Föhr is situated southeast of Sylt; it is the second-largest German North Sea island. Among those German islands which are accessible only by ship or airplane (i.e., no bridge, tunnel or causeway connects them to the mainland), Föhr is the most populous one and has the largest surface.</p><br>
<p>Föhr is called "The Green Island" due to being sheltered from the storms of the North Sea by its neighbouring islands Sylt and Amrum, so that Föhrs vegetation is thriving compared to other islands. It is 6.8 kilometres wide and 12 km long; the surface measures 82.82 km². While the northern parts are marshland, the south consists of higher geestland. The highest elevation measures 13 m above mean sea level and is located on the geestland ridge between the villages of Nieblum and Midlum. The geest makes up about two fifths of Föhrs total area and most villages are located there. In the marshlands, a number of solitary farmsteads can be found, which were moved out of the villages during the 1960s.</p><br>
<p>Until the Grote Mandrenke flooding in 1362, Föhr had not been an island but was part of the mainland, being connected to the sea by deep tidal creeks.</p><br>
<p>Föhr, like its neighbour islands, is a popular tourist resort. From the ferry terminal a sandy beach of about 15 km length extends all along Föhr&#39;s southern shore and halfway up the western coast. North and northwest of Föhr the Reserved Area I of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park is located.</p><br>
<p>Föhr&#39;s population counts 8,592 (as of 1 December 2010). The only town on the island is Wyk on its south-eastern coast which is a popular seaside resort. In addition there are sixteen small villages on Föhr which are distributed among eleven municipalities. They adhere to the Amt Föhr-Amrum:</p><br>
<p>Alkersum (Fering: Aalkersem)</p><br>
<p>Borgsum (Borigsem)</p><br>
<p>Dunsum (Dunsem), comprising Lesser and Greater Dunsum</p><br>
<p>Midlum (Madlem)</p><br>
<p>Nordseebad Nieblum (Njiblem) with its neighbourhood Goting (Guating)</p><br>
<p>Oevenum (Ööwnem)</p><br>
<p>Oldsum (Olersem) with the districts of Toftum (Taftem) and Klintum (Klantem)</p><br>
<p>Süderende (Söleraanj)</p><br>
<p>Nordseebad Utersum (Ödersem) with the hamlet of Hedehusum (Hedehüsem)</p><br>
<p>Witsum (Wiisem)</p><br>
<p>Wrixum (Wraksem)</p><br>
<p>A local peculiarity is that almost all place names end with the suffix -um, which means "home".</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>Föhr features a moderate oceanic climate. The beneficial effects of the local climate and seawater on certain medical conditions inspired the physician Carl Haeberlin (1870–1954) from Wyk to develop treatments for climatotherapy and thalassotherapy at the beginning of the 20th century. He became the pioneer of these disciplines in Germany.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The higher geestland cores of the North Frisian islands, scattered between ample marshlands, attracted settlers when the sea level rose at the end of the Neolithicum. Gravesites and several minor artifacts found on Föhr bear witness to this.</p><br>
<p>When the Frisians colonised the area of modern Nordfriesland during the 7th century, their first settlements were erected on Föhr, according to archaeological findings. The formerly sparsely inhabited island witnessed a steep rise of population. A rather large amount of jewellery originating from Scandinavia that was found in graves of the time points out a vivid connection to northern Europe. From the age of the Vikings, several ring walls, the Lembecksburg among them, are preserved.</p><br>
<p>The Danish Census Book of King Valdemar II of Denmark tells of two Harden on Föhr, which were territorial subdivisions of the time. The Westerharde Föhr was at times the refuge of a pirate serving the Danish. In 1368 the Westerharde, which also included Amrum, was transferred to the Counts of Holstein under the supervision of the knight Klaus Lembeck, bailiff of Ribe. In 1400 the Harde surrendered to Queen Margaret I of Denmark and remained within Ribe County. Until 1864 the western part of Föhr, together with Amrum, belonged to the Danish Enclaves in North Frisia while Osterland and Wyk belonged to the Duchy of Schleswig since it had seceded from the Danish Kingdom in the 1420s. Together with the Wiedingharde, the Bökingharde, the isle of Strand and Sylt, Osterland in 1426 signed the "Compact of the Seven Hundreds" (German: Siebenhardenbeliebung) with Duke Henry IV of Schleswig, which stated that the Hundreds intended to keep their judicial autonomy.</p><br>
<p>In 1523 the northern marshlands of Föhr were shut off against the sea by dikes and 22 hectacres of new farming land were won. Beginning in 1526, the Protestant Reformation began to introduce the Lutheran confession on Föhr, which was completed in 1530.</p><br>
<p>In the 17th century a private navigation school was established in Süderende by pastor Richardus Petri which was the first of its kind on the island. It improved the situation of the seafaring population considerably and soon other navigators opened their own schools across Föhr. Although Petri led the Süderende school successfully for many years he never went to sea himself. Eschels (1757–1842) writes, however, that in his youth, learning to navigate was still unpopular among many young sailors from Föhr because it smacked of elitism. Eventually though, these navigation schools enjoyed a high reputation far beyond the island. Subsequently, whaling brought about a Golden Age for Föhr. During the 17th and 18th century most Dutch and English whaling ships would have a crew of Frisians from the islands. Around the year 1700 Föhr had a total population of roughly 6,000 people, 1,600 of whom were whalers. At the height of Dutch whaling in the year 1762, 1,186 mariners from Föhr were serving on Dutch vessels at Greenland and Svalbard and 25% of all shipmasters on Dutch whaling vessels were people from Föhr. In the late 18th century a thousand sailors, 150 Commanders among them, were living on Föhr. Still today the exquisitely decorated houses of the Commanders can be seen in Nieblum and Süderende. The so-called "talking tombstones" in the cemeteries of the three churches on Föhr account for their vitae. Yet with the decline of the whale populations ever fewer men would go sailing and the people of Föhr focused on agriculture again. Notable seafarers from Föhr include Matthias Petersen (1632–1706) and Jens Jacob Eschels.</p><br>
<p>However, when their farmsteads turned out to provide an insufficient income for a family in the mid-19th century, many people from Föhr chose to emigrate to North America. There they settled mainly in California becoming chicken farmers, and in New York City where they established themselves in the delicatessen business. Other factors for leaving the island were unemployment, and the mandatory Prussian military service that was introduced after the Second Schleswig War.</p><br>
<p>After 1842, when King Christian VIII of Denmark chose Föhr as his summer residence, the island became popular as a tourist resort.</p><br>
<p>During the Second Schleswig War, Danish Lieutenant Commander Otto Christian Hammer, commanding a flotilla in the North Frisian Isles, resided in Wyk auf Föhr and was able to defend the islands against superior Austrian and Prussian naval forces. He was eventually captured by Prussian Lieutenant Ernst von Prittwitz und Gaffron. On 17 July 1864, while Hammer was at sea, 250 Austrian troops landed on Föhr and occupied the island until November 1864. In the aftermath of that war and the subsequent Austro-Prussian War, Prussia annexed Schleswig-Holstein in 1867 and Föhr became part of the Prussian Schleswig-Holstein Province.</p><br>
<p>The three hamlets of Utersum, Witsum and Hedehusum were the only ones to vote for Denmark in Zone II of the Schleswig Plebiscites in 1920; yet as they were not located directly at the border they remained within Germany.</p><br>
<p>On 1 January 2007 the formerly independent municipal entities of Amt Föhr-Land, Amt Amrum and Wyk auf Föhr were merged into one municipality (Amt) Föhr-Amrum.</p><br>
<h2>Language and culture</h2><br>
<h3>Language</h3><br>
<p>A major part of the population in the west of the island speaks, besides German, a local idiom of the North Frisian language known as Fering or Föhring. Fering is again divided into the two dialects of Westerland Föhr and Osterland Föhr, being the western and eastern halves of the island respectively. In Osterland Low German is more popular than Fering and especially in Wyk the traditional language is Standard German.</p><br>
<p>During the whaling campaigns from the 17th to the early 19th centuries, many seafarers from Föhr changed their Fering birth names to Dutch names because they were regarded being more practical for their work abroad and more fashionable at home. Also many Dutch loanwords were introduced to Fering at that time and are still in use today.</p><br>
<p>There are various interpretations concerning the origin of the name Föhr and its original Frisian name Feer. Current etymological studies suggest that Föhr and also Amrum have names rooted in maritime tradition. A 19th-century author wrote that the name derived from the old ferry between Föhr and Nordmarsch which was just a narrow crossing in the Middle Ages. Another likely root is the Frisian feer which means "barren" and has been attributed to the island&#39;s geest core. Until the 19th century, these parts had been heavily podsolised.</p><br>
<p>On the island there is also a Danish minority with a Danish school.</p><br>
<h3>Tradition</h3><br>
<p>On special occasions, mainly in the western parts of the island, women may wear their traditional costumes. Several popular customs are kept on Föhr, such as Biikebrennen on 21 February with a great bonfire and the Tamsen (or Thamsen, named after Thomas the Apostle) on 21 December where young people play pranks on others by hiding things that can spin and turn around.</p><br>
<p>During the Christmas season a special kind of Christmas tree exists on Föhr and other North Frisian islands, the so-called kenkenbuum. It consists of a wooden frame which is decorated with a wreath of green leaves. The inner parts carry figures made of dough, including animals and Adam and Eve. On New Year&#39;s Eve, groups of people dress up in costumes and walk from house to house to let others guess their true identity (similar to Halloween). According to their age, they are treated with either sweets or alcoholic drinks. In Fering, this tradition is called ütj tu kenknin; the people of Wyk call it Rummelrotje. It corresponds to the Hulken on Amrum.</p><br>
<p>In the times when great parts of the male population on Föhr were seafarers they would spend the winter at home on the island. In the afternoon the bachelors would meet at twilight (Fering: hualewjonken) for social gatherings. Today Hualewjonken is a get-together of confirmed bachelors below the age of 30.</p><br>
<h3>Arts, literature and music</h3><br>
<p>Oluf Braren (1787–1839), a naïve art painter, was born in Oldsum. Although largely ignored during his lifetime his art became eventually popular in the 20th century. Today there are several professional artists working on Föhr and in Alkersum there is a museum that exhibits notable international artists such as Emil Nolde, Edvard Munch or Max Liebermann.</p><br>
<p>There are also various Fering authors, among them Stine Andresen (1849–1927) who was a poet and writer from Wyk whose literature often refers to her native island. She published her poetry in German but also in Fering. In 1991, Ellin Nickelsen&#39;s novelette Jonk Bradlep (Dark Wedding) was published. With it, she won the first ever held North Frisian literature competition.</p><br>
<p>The internationally successful Rock band Stanfour is based on Föhr.</p><br>
<p>The island has its own anthem, Leew Eilun Feer (Beloved Isle of Föhr).</p><br>
<h2>Traffic</h2><br>
<p>The island is accessible by a car ferry connecting the mainland port of Dagebüll and the town of Wyk (approximately 10-12 sailings a day, crossing time approx. 45 minutes). The ferry port in Dagebüll is connected to the German road and railway networks. There are also frequent car ferry services from Föhr to the neighbouring island of Amrum (approx. 1 hour crossing time) as well as seasonal pedestrian ferries to Sylt and the Halligen.</p><br>
<p>A bus service connects Wyk to all of the island&#39;s villages. Föhr can also be reached by small airplanes via an airstrip.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>Föhr&#39;s economy is mainly dependent on tourism. Moreover, agriculture, mainly pasture farming, plays an important role. The harbour of Wyk hosts several mussel fishing boats.</p><br>
<h3>Attractions</h3><br>
<h4>Wyk</h4><br>
<p>Sights include a bell tower (raised in 1886) as well as the Sandwall esplanade.</p><br>
<p>Frisian customs and the history of Föhr are displayed at the Dr Carl Haeberlin Frisian Museum, whose entrance is made up of two whale jaw bones.</p><br>
<h4>Church buildings</h4><br>
<p>The island features three medieval churches from the 12th and 13th century. These are St. Nicolas church in Wyk-Boldixum (also referred to as St. Nicolai), St. Johns (St. Johannis) in Nieblum and St. Lawrence&#39;s (St. Laurentii) church in Süderende. The adjacent graveyards contain unusual tombstones which display entire vitae and may show pictures.</p><br>
<h4>Windmills</h4><br>
<p>On Föhr five windmills can be found, two of them in Wyk (a Dutch mill called Venti Amica from 1879 in the old town and a buck mill from Hallig Langeneß at the museum), as well as one in Wrixum (an octagonal Dutch mill), one in Borgsum (Octagonal Dutch mill, rebuilt in 1992 after the previous building was ruined by fire) and one in Oldsum (octagonal Dutch mill from 1901). All of them are privately owned except for the buck mill and the mill at Wrixum.</p><br>
<h4>Duck decoys</h4><br>
<p>In the marshlands six duck decoys can be visited. First established in the 18th century, these artificial ponds provided a pastime for sea captains and ships&#39; officers during wintertime. Later the ponds were used to trap great numbers of wild ducks. In the pond at Oevenum, more than 3,000,000 ducks have been caught since its installation in 1735, and from 1885 to 1931 a factory in Wyk produced canned duck meat. The preserved meat was exported worldwide.</p><br>
<h4>Wadden Sea</h4><br>
<p>The entire sea surrounding Föhr may also be designated an attraction. Mainly the foreland north of the sea dike, but also the mud flats provide ample space for all kinds of seabirds. Oystercatchers, common eiders, shelducks, snipes and peewits are only a few of them. Moreover, during the season vast swarms of migratory birds will rest at Föhr and the neighbouring islands. Occasionally, especially after severe winter storms, harbour seals may be encountered on the beaches.</p><br>
<p>The beach along the southern shore is popular for swimming. Also, during low tide it is possible to hike from Amrum to Föhr.</p><br>
<p>Chappaquiddick Island , a part of the town of Edgartown, Massachusetts, is a small peninsula and occasional island on the eastern end of Martha&#39;s Vineyard. Norton Point, a narrow barrier beach, connects Martha&#39;s Vineyard and Chappaquiddick between Katama and Wasque . Occasional breaches occur due to hurricanes and strong storms separating the islands for periods of time. Most recently, the two were separated for 8 years from 2007 to 2015. Though both land forms have, over the course of history, mostly been connected to one another, Chappaquiddick is nevertheless referred to as an island.</p><br>
<p>Visitors come to the isolated island for beaches, cycling, hiking, nature tours and birding, and the MyToi Gardens, a small Japanese garden created amidst the native brush. Two fire trucks are stationed on the island from Edgartown. Chappaquiddick Road and Pocha Road, both paved, provide access to sandy, woodland roads, trails, and shorelines.</p><br>
<p>Chappaquiddick became internationally known following an eponymous incident in 1969, when USA Senator Ted Kennedy accidentally drove his car off the island&#39;s Dike Bridge, fatally trapping his 28-year-old passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, inside the vehicle.</p><br>
<h2>Name and Early Settlement</h2><br>
<p>The name Chappaquiddick comes from an Indian word "cheppiaquidne" meaning "separated island", so named because this island is separated from Martha&#39;s Vineyard by a narrow strait or gut. The island has been historically spelled as "Chaubaqueduck" or, alternatively, "Chappaquidgick".</p><br>
<p>The island was once mainly the home territory of the Chappaquiddick band of Wampanoag Indians, remaining exclusively theirs well into the nineteenth century. They still have a reservation of about 100 acres (40 hectares) of brush land in the interior.</p><br>
<p>Early colonists settled Edgartown in 1642, quickly proclaiming Chappaquiddick as village property as well. The first homes owned by people of exclusively European descent were built around 1750 where residents raised livestock and farmed the land.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Chappaquiddick is mainly defined by its diverse land and water ecologies with expansive salt marshes, ponds, red cedar woods, grassy meadows, and coastal wildlife including sandpipers, piping plovers, blue heron, osprey, and oysters. The main interior bodies of water include,, and, all salty.</p><br>
<p>While the island has continually faced shifting coastlines due to ocean currents, storm surges, and astronomical tides, the 21st century has presented new erosion challenges, particularly to Wasque Point which, during the Patriots&#39; Day Storm of 2007, was battered severely. Between 2007 and 2013, approximately 40 acres of land were lost at Wasque, where currents eroded bluffs, swallowed Swan Pond, damaged shoreline trails, and threatened a residence.</p><br>
<p>Chappaquiddick is located at 41&deg;22&prime;34&Prime;N latitude, 70&deg;28&prime;33&Prime;W longitude. The United States Census Bureau defines it as Block Group 1, Census Tract 2003 of Dukes County, Massachusetts. It has 15.915 km² (6.145 sq mi) of land. Administratively, it is part of the town of Edgartown and Dukes County.</p><br>
<h2>Population</h2><br>
<p>Socially, its residents form a tight-knit community and see themselves as distinctly separate from the rest of Edgartown. Longtime residents speak of "going to the mainland" when they travel to Edgartown and of "going to America" when (for example) they travel to Boston or Cape Cod.</p><br>
<p>Access to the island is served by privately owned barge-like ferries named the On Time II and On Time III which shuttle pedestrians, bicycles, and up to three cars at a time between Chappaquiddick and Edgartown, on Martha&#39;s Vineyard. Two ferries run during the summer months and one during the off-season. Oversand access is possible with four-wheel drive vehicles on the south shore when the islands are connected and conditions permit.</p><br>
<h2>Ted Kennedy incident</h2><br>
<p>Events at Chappaquiddick Island gained international attention on July 19, 1969, when the body of Mary Jo Kopechne was discovered inside an overturned car in a channel on the island. The car belonged to USA Senator Ted Kennedy, who had accidentally driven it off a bridge late on the previous night, and did not report the incident to the police until the next day. The morning after the accident, a diver recovered Kopechne&#39;s body from the submerged car, and Kennedy later entered a plea of guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of a crash causing personal injury.</p><br>
<p>The Kaimai Range  is a mountain range in the North Island of New Zealand. It is part of a series of ranges, with the Coromandel Range to the north and the Mamaku Ranges to the south. The Kaimai Range separates the Waikato in the west from the Bay of Plenty in the east.</p><br>
<p>The highest point of the range is Mount Te Aroha (952 m), at the foot of which is the town of Te Aroha. The range&#39;s terrain is rough, and only two roads pass over it: State Highway 2, across the northern end of the range through Karangahake Gorge, and State Highway 29 from Tauranga to Hamilton. Mt Te Aroha can be described as the northern head peak of the Kaimai Range.</p><br>
<p>The Kaimai Ranges feature in local Maori folklore. The name Te Aroha translates from Maori as Te - The & Aroha - Love. Literally "the love". The name comes from a Maori legend that the sun god - Male, loved the moon goddess - female. They never could see each another due to the planets positions. One day the moon goddess came to earth to see the sun god, knowing the risks, was turned to stone as the daylight came. Hers was the ultimate expression of love. Te Aroha in Maori. This is why on the Kaimai Range, to the right of Mt Te Aroha is a high skyline silhouetted rock that from afar is shaped as a woman. It is known locally as the rock of Hinemoa.</p><br>
<p>Within the Kaimai Ranges the Hendersons Tramline loop track follows the route of bush tramlines and haul lines once used to extract logs from the bush. The walk includes forest and clearings near the fringe of the park. A side track off the main walk leads down to the base of a waterfall and a large swimming hole.</p><br>
<p>Also some 10-16km, on the Gordon backroad from te Aroha is a four-wheel drive track named Thomsons track, that takes venturers from the foothills around manawaru to the ranges top, where a large swimming hole is present.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The Kaimai Range is the result of a fault that uplifted primarily andesitic rocks from long-extinct volcanoes. This fault has not been active for about 140,000 years and started more than a million years ago.</p><br>
<h2>Kaimai Tunnel</h2><br>
<p>The Kaimai Railway Tunnel runs for nearly nine kilometres under the range, making it the longest tunnel in New Zealand. Construction of the tunnel started from both sides of the range in 1969: the headings met in 1976 and the tunnel opened on 12 September 1978. The Kaimai Range and this tunnel led to a Silver Fern railcar service between Auckland and Tauranga being named the Kaimai Express. This service operated from 1991 until 2001.</p><br>
<p>A peak of the Kaimai directly above the tunnel, previously unnamed, was named Stokes Peak in 2010 in honour of geographer Evelyn Stokes.</p><br>
<h2>Flight 441 disaster</h2><br>
<p>At approximately 9:09 am on 3 July 1963 the DC-3 Skyliner ZK-AYZ Hastings operating New Zealand National Airways Corporation Flight 441 from Whenuapai Airport, Auckland to Tauranga crashed into the range. All 23 aboard died, making it the worst air disaster in mainland New Zealand.</p><br>
<h2>Communications</h2><br>
<p>The New Zealand Post Office engineering division (radio) built and maintained a microwave communications facility near the top of Kaimai range, close to the Hamilton–Tauranga highway saddle. In the 1960s it was a Lenkurt relay as part of the national network, linking Sanitorium Hill near Cambridge to Rotorua, with a spur to Tauranga. It now has cell phone and various other radio communications facilities, and is owned and operated by Telecom New Zealand. Land Parcel: Part Section 126 Block II Tapapa SD</p><br>
<p>Airways New Zealand maintains a Secondary Surveillance Radar installation on Te Weraiti, a peak on the Kaimai range, 5 kilometers north of the State Highway 29 saddle. This is used to facilitate air traffic control of transponder equipped aircraft in the area.</p><br>
<p>Gangotri Glacier  is located in Uttarkashi District, Uttarakhand, India in a region bordering China. This glacier, one of the primary sources of the Ganges, is one of the largest in the Himalayas with an estimated volume of over 27 cubic kilometers. The glacier is about 30 kilometres  long and 2 to 4 km  wide. Around the glacier are the peaks of the Gangotri Group, including several peaks notable for extremely challenging climbing routes, such as Shivling, Thalay Sagar, Meru, and Bhagirathi III. It flows roughly northwest, originating in a cirque below Chaukhamba, the highest peak of the group.</p><br>
<p>The terminus of the Gangotri Glacier is said to resemble a cow&#39;s mouth, and the place is called Gomukh or Gaumukh (gou, cow + mukh, face). Gomukh, which is about 19 km from the town of Gangotri, is the precise source of the Bhagirathi river, an important tributary of the Ganges. Gomukh is situated near the base of Shivling; in between lies the Tapovan meadow.</p><br>
<p>The Gangotri glacier is a traditional Hindu pilgrimage site. Devout Hindus consider bathing in the icy waters near Gangotri town to be a holy ritual, and many made the trek to Gomukh, with a few continuing on to Tapovan. One needs to trek from Gangotri till Gaumukh, passing Devgadh, Chirbhasa, Bhojwasa en route. Currently accommodation is available only at Bhojwasa, although forest check posts are present at both Chirbhasa and Bhowasa. The 2013 North Indian Floods destroyed much of this trail, and access is now a little difficult beyond Chirbhasa due to trail deterioration and a 2 km wide rockfall site.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>It is a valley-type glacier, situated in the Uttarkashi district of Garhwal Himalaya, Uttarakhand(Figure 1) and it flows to NW direction. This glacier is bound between 30°4322"–30°5549" (lat.) and 79°441"–79°1634" (long.), extending in height from 4120 to 7000 m.a.s.l. This area is situated north of the Main Central Thrust (MCT) and is made up of bedrocks of granites, garnet mica schist, quartz biotite schist, kyanite schist, augen gneiss and banded augen gneiss. The glacier is composed of a variety of depositional features such as talus cones, snow-avalanche fans, snow-bridges, and dead ice mounds, and erosional features like pyramidal and conical peaks, serrated ridge crests, glacial troughs, smooth rock walls, crags and tails, waterfalls, rock basins, gullies and glacial lakes. All along the Gangotri glacier, several longitudinal and transverse crevasses are formed along which ice blocks have broken down. The ablation zone of the Gangotri glacier is covered by a thick pile of supraglacial moraines and is characterized by several ice sections, melting into pools of supraglacial lakes. Because of subsidence and the fast degenerating nature of the glacier, its centre is full of supraglacial lakes. In this part of higher Himalaya, glacial melt-water dominates the fluvial system.</p><br>
<p>The total ice cover is approximately 200 km² and has about 20 km³ of ice in volume.</p><br>
<h2>Tributaries</h2><br>
<p>This glacier has three main tributaries, namely Raktvarn (15.90 km), Chaturangi (including Kalandini bamak) (22.45 km) and Kirti (11.05 km) and more than 18 smaller tributary glaciers The Raktvarn system contains 7 tributary glaciers; among them Thelu, Swetvarn, Nilambar and Pilapani are important. Similarly the Seeta, Suralaya and Vasuki are the major tributaries which make up the Chaturangi system, while the Kirti system is made up of only three tributary glaciers. Besides these three major tributary systems, some other tributary glaciers of this area drain directly into the Gangotri glacier; among them Swachand, Miandi, Sumeru and Ghanohim are important. Four other glaciers, Maitri, Meru, Bhrigupanth and Manda drain into the river Bhagirathi. The total glacierized area of the catchment is 258.56 km², out of which the Gangotri system comprises 109.03 km², followed by Chaturangi (72.91 km²), Raktvarn (45.34 km²) and Kirti (31.28 km²). The remaining four glaciers contain 29.41 km² of glacierized area; among them maximum contribution is Bhirgupanth glacier (14.95 km²).</p><br>
<h2>Retreat of Gangotri Glacier</h2><br>
<p>NASA, in conjunction with scientists from United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), is developing a global inventory of all the worlds glaciers to help researchers track each glaciers history. According to them, the Gangotri glacier, currently 30.2 km long and between 0.5 and 2.5 km wide, is one of the largest in the Himalayas. This glacier has been constantly receding since measurements began in 1780. Data for 61 years (1936–96) show that the total recession of Gangotri glacier is 1147 m, with the average rate of 19 m per year.Ajay K. Naithani, H. C. Nainwal, K. K. Sati and</p><br>
<p>C. Prasad: Geomorphological evidences of retreat of the Gangotri glacier and its characteristics. Current Science, 2001, Vol. 80, No. 1, 87-94. However, over the last 25 years of the 20th century it has retreated more than 850 meters (34 meters per year), and 76 meters between 1996 and 1999 (25 meters per year).</p><br>
<p>Tripontium  was a town in Roman Britain. It lay just off the Roman road later called Watling Street  at a site now chiefly within the civil parish of Newton and Biggin in the English county of Warwickshire and partly in Leicestershire, some 3.4 miles north-east of Rugby and 3.1 miles south of Lutterworth.</p><br>
<h2>Character</h2><br>
<p>Tripontium was established as a military frontier post soon after the Roman invasion of Britain in 47. Its name references the bridges over the River Avon and two of its tributaries. Tripontium was a civilian town which was inhabited for around 400 years before being abandoned in the late 4th century when the Romans left Britain. It was connected to the road network near Watling Street, but via a detour 7 Roman miles longer than the main route between Venonis (High Cross) and Bannaventa (Norton).</p><br>
<h2>Excavations</h2><br>
<p>The exact position of Tripontium remained a mystery for centuries, but it was found by the antiquarian Matthew Bloxam in 1836. Excavation works at the site were begun in 1961 by the Rugby Archaeological Society and have continued ever since.</p><br>
<p>From its out-of-the-way location, it was initially thought that Tripontium was a small wayside settlement of little importance. Excavations of the site have, however, revealed that it was an important Romano-British town, with large public bath houses, an extensive administrative building, and an inn (mansio). Numerous pieces of pottery, Roman coins, and other remains have been found. Some of the area of the town has been destroyed by modern gravel extraction and part of the site is unavailable for excavation. Nevertheless, it seems highly likely that more buildings, such as the remains of a temple or a forum, remain to be found at the site. The excavation of Tripontium has been the largest of its type to be carried out by an amateur archaeological society.</p><br>
<p>Tripontium was probably the most important Roman settlement in the area. The town is some 8 miles south of Venonae (High Cross), the point at which Watling Street crossed the Fosse Way. The large size of the bathhouses and inn have led historians to conclude that Tripontium is likely to have been an important stopping-place for travellers, both military and civilian. It was probably also an administrative centre for the surrounding area.</p><br>
<p>The site is not open to the public, but many of the finds from the excavations are on display at the Rugby Art Gallery and Museum.</p><br>
<h2>Further reading</h2><br>
<p>Tripontium, by Jack Lucas FSA (1997)</p><br>
<p>The Japanese Alps is a series of mountain ranges in Japan which bisect the main island of Honshū . The name was coined by archaeologist William Gowland, and later popularized by Reverend Walter Weston , an English missionary for whom a memorial plaque is located at Kamikochi , a tourist destination known for its alpine climate. When Gowland coined the phrase, however, he was only referring to the Hida Mountains .</p><br>
<h2>Ranges</h2><br>
<p>Today, the Japanese Alps encompass the Hida Mountains (飛騨山脈), the Kiso Mountains (木曽山脈) and the Akaishi Mountains. These towering ranges include several peaks exceeding 3,000 m in height, the tallest after Mount Fuji. The highest are Mount Hotaka at 3,190 m in north area and Mount Kita at 3,193 m in south area. Mount Ontake is well known as an active volcano, having erupted most recently in 2014.</p><br>
<h3>Northern Alps</h3><br>
<p>The Northern Alps, also known as the Hida Mountains, stretch through Nagano, Toyama and Gifu prefectures. A small portion of the mountains also reach into Niigata Prefecture.</p><br>
<h3>Central Alps</h3><br>
<p>The Central Alps, also known as the Kiso Mountains, lie in Nagano prefecture.</p><br>
<h3>Southern Alps</h3><br>
<p>The Southern Alps, also known as the Akaishi Mountains, span Nagano, Yamanashi, and Shizuoka prefectures.</p><br>
<p>Megalopoli  is a town in the southwestern part of the regional unit of Arcadia, southern Greece. It is located in the same site as ancient Megalopolis . When it was founded in 371 BC, it was the first large urbanization in rustic Arcadia. Its theater had a capacity of 20,000 visitors, making it one of the largest ancient Greek theaters. Megalopoli has several schools, shops, churches, hotels and other services. The population of Megalopoli in 2011 was 5,779 for the town proper.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Megalopoli is situated in a wide valley, surrounded by mountains: the Taygetus to the south, the Mainalo to the north, the Tsemperou to the southeast and the Lykaion to the west. Its elevation is 430 m above sea level. The river Alfeios flows through this valley, coming from the east and flowing to the north, passing south and west of the town. Its tributary Elissonas passes north of the town. The large lignite deposits around Megalopoli are being exploited by open-pit mining. The Megalopoli Power Plant, 3 km northwest of the town centre, has produced electricity from this lignite since 1969.</p><br>
<p>The A7 motorway connects Megalopoli with Kalamata and Tripoli, replacing the Greek National Road 7. The Greek National Road 7 connects Megalopoli with Pyrgos via Karytaina and Andritsaina. The railway from Corinth to Kalamata passes 4 km south of the town. Megalopoli is 24 km southwest of Tripoli, 41 km north of Kalamata, 45 km northwest of Sparti and 68 km southeast of Pyrgos.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Megalopolis is known for its ancient ruins situated northwest of the town centre, on both banks of the river Elisson. The ruins include an ancient theatre that used to hold up to 20,000 people and was 30 m tall. Other landmarks include the Thersileon with 67 pillars and a temple (11.5 x). Herodotus reported the ancient belief that the Megalopolis area was a battleground of the Titanomachy. The foundation for this apparently was the presence of lignite deposits, which are prone to catch fire in summer and can smoulder and scorch the earth for weeks (Zeus is supposed to have slain the Titans with lightning bolts; see also below), coupled with the presence of fossil bones of prehistoric elephants and rhinoceroses. Herodotus informs his readers that the bones of "Titans" were exhibited in various places in the surrounding area at least since the 5th century BC.</p><br>
<p>The city was founded through a synodical of twenty to forty neighbouring communities between 371 and 368 BC by the Arcadian League in an attempt to form a political counterweight to Sparta. Megalopolis was a member of the Arcadian League after its foundation until the dissolution of the federation in 362 BC. In 331 BC, Megalopolis was invaded by the Spartans and there was a battle with the Macedonians that came to Megalopolis&#39; help. In the 270s BC, Aristodamos the Good, managed to take control over the city as a tyrant backed by Macedon. In 235 BC, the second tyrant of the city, Lydiades, gave up control over the polis and the city became a member of the Achaean League. In 222 BC, the Spartan king Cleomenes III burnt down the city but it was rebuilt in the years after the destruction. As a member of the Achaean League, Megalopolis had a profound influence on the federal politics and it was the hometown of several notable Achaean statesmen and figures such as Philopoemen, Lykortas and Polybius himself. The city remained populated under the Romans but by the 6th century it was almost completely abandoned. The nearby village of Sinano (Σινάνο), situated south of the ancient city, was renamed Megalopoli after Greek Independence.</p><br>
<h2>Municipality</h2><br>
<p>The municipality Megalopoli was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following three former municipalities, that became municipal units:</p><br>
<p>Falaisia</p><br>
<p>Gortyna</p><br>
<p>Megalopoli</p><br>
<p>The municipality has an area of 722.629 km, the municipal unit 331.498 km.</p><br>
<h3>Subdivisions</h3><br>
<p>The municipal unit of Megalopoli is subdivided into the following communities (villages within the community in brackets):</p><br>
<p>Anthochori</p><br>
<p>Ano Karyes</p><br>
<p>Chirades</p><br>
<p>Choremis (Choremis, Apiditsa)</p><br>
<p>Chranoi</p><br>
<p>Gefyra</p><br>
<p>Isaris (Isaris, Petrovouni, Chrousa)</p><br>
<p>Isoma Karyon</p><br>
<p>Karatoulas</p><br>
<p>Kastanochori</p><br>
<p>Kato Karyes</p><br>
<p>Lykaio</p><br>
<p>Lykochia</p><br>
<p>Lykosoura</p><br>
<p>Makrysi (Makrysi, Kato Makrysi)</p><br>
<p>Mallota</p><br>
<p>Marathoussa</p><br>
<p>Megalopoli (Megalopoli, Oresteio)</p><br>
<p>Nea Ekklisoula</p><br>
<p>Neochori Lykosouras</p><br>
<p>Paradeisia (Paradeisia, Fanaiti)</p><br>
<p>Perivolia (Perivolia, Vrysoules)</p><br>
<p>Plaka</p><br>
<p>Rapsommati</p><br>
<p>Souli (Souli, Derveni)</p><br>
<p>Soulos</p><br>
<p>Thoknia</p><br>
<p>Trilofo (Trilofo, Palaiomoiri)</p><br>
<p>Tripotamo</p><br>
<p>Vangos</p><br>
<p>Vastas</p><br>
<h2>Province</h2><br>
<p>The province of Megalopoli (Επαρχία Μεγαλόπολης) was one of the provinces of the Messenia Prefecture. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipality Megalopoli, except the municipal unit Gortyna. It was abolished in 2006.</p><br>
<h2>Population</h2><br>
<h2>Notable people</h2><br>
<p>Cercidas (3rd cent. BC), Cynic philosopher and poet</p><br>
<p>Philopoemen (253–183 BC), general and statesman</p><br>
<p>Polybius (c. 203–120 BC), historian</p><br>
<p>İmralı is a small Turkish island in the south of the Sea of Marmara, west of the Armutlu-Bozburun peninsula within Bursa Province. It measures 8 km in the north-south direction with a width of 3 km, and has an area of 9.98 km². The highest peak is Türk Tepesi at an altitude of 217 m above sea level. It is currently a prison island, so it is prohibited to fly over the island or fish near its shores.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Roman authors Pliny the Elder and Strabo called the island Besbicus (Βέσβικος). It was later known as Kalolimnos (Καλόλιμνος).</p><br>
<p>The island name derives from its conqueror, Emir Ali, one of the first Ottoman admirals. The island was the first captured by the Ottomans and enabled control of the Sea of Marmara with a naval base established on it, cutting the Byzantine Empire&#39;s connection to Bursa.</p><br>
<p>There were three Greek villages on the island until the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1922), engaged mostly in growing grapes, winemaking, silk production and fishing. One well-known islander was Kimon Friar who emigrated to the United States and became a scholar and translator of Greek language poetry. The island was mostly uninhabited from the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey until 1935, when a semi-open category prison was built. The prisoners earned money by working in agriculture and fishing.</p><br>
<p>There is also a military base on the island, and the area around the island is a forbidden zone. It served from 1999 until 2009 as a maximum-security prison island for its only inmate, Abdullah Öcalan the leader of the PKK which has been declared a terrorist organisation by the USA and the EU. In November 2009, several other prisoners were transferred to a newly constructed prison building on the island, where Öcalan is also incarcerated.</p><br>
<h2>Notable inmates of the prison 1935&ndash;present</h2><br>
<p>Billy Hayes, American author, who wrote the book Midnight Express and was the subject of an episode of "Locked Up Abroad: The Real Midnight Express". He was serving a life sentence for drug trafficking until his escape.</p><br>
<p>Abdullah Öcalan, founder of the Kurdistan Workers&#39; Party (PKK). Serving a life sentence for treason since 1999.</p><br>
<p>Three former politicians were executed on the island in 1961:</p><br>
<p>Adnan Menderes, former prime minister</p><br>
<p>Fatin Rüştü Zorlu, former minister of foreign affairs</p><br>
<p>Hasan Polatkan, former minister of finance</p><br>
<p>The Wetterhorn  is a peak in the Swiss Alps towering above the village of Grindelwald. Formerly known as Hasle Jungfrau, it is one of three summits on a mountain named the "Wetterhörner", the highest of which is the Mittelhorn  and the lowest and most distant the Rosenhorn . The latter peaks are mostly hidden from view from Grindelwald.</p><br>
<p>The Grosse Scheidegg Pass crosses the col to the north, between the Wetterhorn and the Schwarzhorn.</p><br>
<h2>Ascents</h2><br>
<p>The Wetterhorn summit was first reached on August 31, 1844, by the Grindelwald guides Hans Jaun and Melchior Bannholzer, three days after they had co-guided a large party organized by the geologist Édouard Desor to the first ascent of the Rosenhorn. The Mittelhorn was first summitted on 9 July 1845 by the same guides, this time accompanied by a third, Kaspar Abplanalp, and by British climber Stanhope Templeman Speer. The son of a Scottish physician, Speer lived in Interlaken, Switzerland.</p><br>
<p>A September 1854 summit by a party which included Alfred Wills, who apparently believed hed made the first ascent, is much celebrated in Great Britain. Wills description of this trip in his book "Wanderings Among the High Alps" (published in 1856) helped make mountaineering fashionable in Britain and ushered in the so-called golden age of alpinism, the systematic exploration of the Alps by British mountaineers. Despite several by then well-documented earlier ascents and the fact that he was guided to the top, Willis was lauded in his 1912 obituary as "Certainly the first who can be said with any confidence to have stood upon the real highest peak of the Wetterhorn proper" (i.e. the 3,692 m summit) In a subsequent corrigendum, the editors admitted two earlier ascents, but considered his still "the first completely successful" one.</p><br>
<p>In 1866, Lucy Walker was the first documented female to summit the peak.</p><br>
<p>The 24-year-old English mountaineer William Penhall and his Meiringen guide Andreas Maurer were killed by an avalanche high up on the Wetterhorn on 3 August 1882.</p><br>
<p>The famed guide and Grindelwald native Christian Almer climbed the mountain many times in his life, including on his first of many trips with Meta Brevoort and her nephew W. A. B. Coolidge in 1868. His last ascent was in 1898 at the age of 72 together with his wife to celebrate their golden anniversary on the summit.</p><br>
<p>Winston Churchill climbed the Wetterhorn in 1894.</p><br>
<h2>Aerial tramway</h2><br>
<p>The Wetterhorn summit was the intended terminal for the world&#39;s first passenger carrying aerial tramway, but only the first quarter was built. It was in operation until the beginning of World War I.</p><br>
<p>Vergina  is a small town in northern Greece, part of Veroia municipality in Imathia, Central Macedonia.</p><br>
<p>Vergina was established in 1922 in the context of the population exchanges according to the Treaty of Lausanne, and it was a separate municipality until 2011, when it was merged with Veroia under the Kallikratis Plan. It is now a municipal unit within Veroia, with an area 69.047 km.</p><br>
<p>Vergina is best known as the site of ancient Aigai (Αἰγαί, Latinized Aegae), the first capital of Macedon. It was here in 336 BC that Philip II was assassinated in the theatre and Alexander the Great was proclaimed king.</p><br>
<p>Aigai has been awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status as "an exceptional testimony to a significant development in European civilization, at the transition from classical city-state to the imperial structure of the Hellenistic and Roman periods".</p><br>
<p>The site was discovered in 1976, and excavated during the 1977/8 season in a campaign led by Manolis Andronikos, which unearthed the burial site of the kings of Macedon, including the tomb of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great which unlike so many other tombs had not been disturbed or looted.</p><br>
<p>It is also the site of an extensive royal palace and of many rich ancient tombs. The objects and paintings found in the tombs at Vergina are of extraordinarily high quality and historical importance.</p><br>
<p>A museum now contains Philip&#39;s tomb, a second museum is being constructed for the palace and other finds.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The existence of an early Macedonian fortress named Aegae is reported by Justin, and was long identified as Edessa.</p><br>
<p>Only with the discovery of substantial remains near Vergina, just east (right) of the Haliacmon, in 1976, shifted the scholarly consensus to the effect that</p><br>
<p>Aegae is to be identified with this site.</p><br>
<p>Ancient sources give conflicting accounts of the origins of the Argead dynasty. Alexander I is the first truly historic figure and, based on the line of succession, the beginnings of the Macedonian dynasty have been traditionally dated to 750 BC.</p><br>
<p>Herodotus says that the Argead dynasty was an ancient Greek royal house led by Perdiccas I who fled from Argos, in approximately 650 BC.</p><br>
<p>Aigai is the name of several ancient cities (see Aegean Sea#Etymology), derived from the name of a legendary founder, Aegeus, but also etymologized as "city of goats" (from αἴξ "goat") by Diodorus Siculus, who reports it was named so by Perdiccas I who was advised by the Pythian priestess to build the capital city of his kingdom where goats led him.</p><br>
<p>From archaeology it now seems certain that Aigai developed and remained until the end an organised collection of villages spatially representing the aristocratic structure of tribes centred on the power of the king. Indeed, Aigai never became a large city and most of its inhabitants lived in surrounding villages.</p><br>
<p>From Aigai the Macedonians spread to the central part of Macedonia and displaced the local population of Pierians.</p><br>
<p>From 513 to 480 BC Aigai was part of the Persian Empire, but Amyntas I managed to maintain its relative independence, avoid Satrapy and extend its possessions.</p><br>
<p>The city wall was built in the 5th century probably by Perdiccas II. At the end of the 5th century Archelaus I brought to his court artists, poets, and philosophers from all over the Greek world: it was, for example, at Aigai that Euripides wrote and presented his last tragedies.</p><br>
<p>At the beginning of the 4th century BC, Archelaus transferred the Macedonian capital north-east to Pella on the central Macedonian plain</p><br>
<p>Nevertheless, Aegae retained its role as the sacred city of the Macedonian kingdom, the site of the traditional cult centres, a royal palace and the royal tombs. For this reason it was here that Philip II was attending the wedding of his daughter Cleopatra to King Alexander of Epirus when he was murdered by his bodyguard in the theatre.</p><br>
<p>His was the most lavish funeral ceremony of historic times held in Greece. Laid on an elaborate gold and ivory deathbed wearing his precious golden oak wreath, the king was surrendered, like a new Hercules, to the funeral pyre.</p><br>
<p>The bitter struggles between the heirs of Alexander, the Diadochi, in the 3rd century adversely affected the city. In 276 BC the Gauls mercenaries of Pyrrhus plundered many of the tombs.</p><br>
<p>After the overthrow of the Macedonian kingdom by the Romans in 168 BC both old and new capitals were destroyed, the walls pulled down and the palace, theatre and all other buildings burnt down. In the 1st century AD a landslide completely destroyed the city.</p><br>
<p>However excavations prove that parts were still inhabited in the 1st century AD.</p><br>
<p>Between the 2nd and 5th centuries AD the population progressively moved down from the foothills of the Pierian range to the plain, and all that remained was a small settlement whose name, Palatitsia (palace), alone indicated its former importance.</p><br>
<p>The modern settlement of Vergina (Βεργίνα) was established in 1922, between the two pre-existing villages of Kutleš (Κούτλες) and Barbeš (Μπάρμπες), formerly part of the Ottoman Beylik of Palatitsia. The town was settled in the course of the population exchange between Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey following the Treaty of Lausanne, by Greek families from Bulgaria and Asia Minor. The name Vergina was a suggestion by the metropolitan of Veroia, chosen for a legendary queen Vergina (Bergina) who was said to have ruled somewhere north of the Haliacmon and to have had her summer palace near Palatitsia.</p><br>
<p>Vergina was a separate municipality from 1922 until 2011, when it was incorporated into Veroia. The population of Vergina municipality as of 2011 was 2,464, of whom 1,242 lived in Vergina proper.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeology</h2><br>
<p>Archaeologists were interested in the burial mounds around Vergina as early as the 1850s, supposing that the site of Aigai was in the vicinity. Excavations began in 1861 under the French archaeologist Leon Heuzey, sponsored by Napoleon III. Parts of a large building that was considered to be one of the palaces of Antigonus III Doson (263–221 BC), partly destroyed by fire, were discovered near Palatitsa, which preserved the memory of a palace in its modern name. However, the excavations had to be abandoned because of the risk of malaria. The excavator suggested that this was the site of the ancient city Valla, a view that prevailed until 1976.</p><br>
<p>In 1937, the University of Thessaloniki resumed the excavations. More ruins of the ancient palace were found, but the excavations were abandoned on the outbreak of war with Italy in 1940. After the war the excavations were resumed, and during the 1950s and 1960s the rest of the royal capital was uncoved including the theatre.</p><br>
<p>The Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos became convinced that a hill called the Great Tumulus (Greek: Μεγάλη Τούμπα) concealed the tombs of the Macedonian kings. In 1977, Andronikos undertook a six-week dig at the Great Tumulus and found four buried tombs, two of which had never been disturbed. Andronikos claimed that these were the burial sites of the kings of Macedon, including the tomb of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great (Tomb II) and also of Alexander IV of Macedon, son of Alexander the Great and Roxana (Tomb III).</p><br>
<p>This view was challenged by some archaeologists, but in 2010 research based on detailed study of the skeletons, vindicated Andronikos and supports the evidence of facial asymmetry caused by a possible trauma of the cranium of the male, evidence that is consistent with the history of Philip II. More recent research by a team of Greek researchers has confirmed that the bones indeed belong to the Macedonian King Philip II.</p><br>
<p>From 1987 the burial cluster of the queens was discovered including the tomb of Queen Eurydice. In March 2014, five more royal tombs were discovered in Vergina, possibly belonging to Alexander I of Macedon and his family or to the family of Cassander of Macedon.</p><br>
<p>Some artifacts excavated at Vergina may be treated as influenced by Asian practices or even imported from Achaemenid Persia in late 6th and early 5th centuries BC, which is during the time Macedon was under the Persian sway.</p><br>
<h3>Royal burial cluster of Philip II</h3><br>
<p>The museum of the tumulus of Philip II, which was inaugurated in 1993, was built over the tombs leaving them in situ and showing the tumulus as it was before the excavations. Inside the museum there are four tombs and one small temple, the heroon built as the temple for the burial cluster of Philip II. The two most important tombs (II and III) were not sacked and contained the main treasures of the museum. Tomb II of Philip II, the father of Alexander was discovered in 1977 and was separated in two rooms. The main room included a marble chest, and in it was the larnax made of 24 carat gold and weighing 11 kilograms, embossed with the Vergina Sun symbol. Inside the golden larnax the bones of the dead were found and a golden wreath of 313 oak leaves and 68 acorns, weighing 717 grams. In the room were also found the golden and ivory panoply of the dead, the richly carved burial bed on which he was laid and later burned and exquisite silver utensils for the funeral feast. Other magnificent items include several gold-adorned suits of armour, weapons and bronze funeral utensils.</p><br>
<p>In the antechamber was another chest with another golden larnax containing the bones of a woman wrapped in a golden-purple cloth with a golden diadem decorated with flowers and enamel, indicating a queen (probably Philip’s Thracian wife, Meda) who by tradition sacrificed herself at the funeral. Also included was another burial bed partially destroyed by the fire and on it a golden wreath representing leaves and flowers of myrtle. Above the Doric order entrance of the tomb is a magnificent wall painting measuring 5.60 metres representing a hunting scene, believed to be the work of the celebrated Philoxenos of Eretria, and thought to show Philip and Alexander.</p><br>
<p>Next to him in Tomb I a distinctive member of his family (probably Nikissipoli, another of his queens), was buried just a few years before in a cist grave, found unfortunately plundered. The only wall painting in the tomb pictures the Abduction of Persephone by the God of the Underworld, the silent Demeter and the three unprejudiced Fates with Hermes, the Guide of Souls, leading the way, and a scared nymph witnessing the horrifying event. This is a unique example of ancient painting, believed to be the work of the famous painter Nikomachos, as well as one of the few surviving depictions of the ancient mystic views of afterlife.</p><br>
<p>In 1978 Tomb III was discovered, also near the tomb of Philip, which is thought to belong to Alexander IV of Macedon son of Alexander the Great, murdered 25 years after Philip’s assassination. It is slightly smaller than the tomb II and was also not sacked. It was also arranged in two parts, but only the main room contained a cremated body. On a stone pedestal was found a fine silver hydria, which contained the cremated bones, and on it a golden oak wreath. There were also exquisite silver utensils and weaponry indicating royal status. A narrow frieze with a chariot race by a great painter decorated the walls of the tomb. The remains of a wooden mortuary couch adorned with gold and ivory is notable for an exquisite representation of Dionysos with a flute-player and a satyr.</p><br>
<p>Tomb IV, discovered in 1980, had an impressive entrance with four Doric columns though is heavily damaged and may have contained valuable treasures. It was built in the 4th century BC and may have belonged to Antigonus II Gonatas.</p><br>
<p>The great tumulus was constructed at the beginning of the third century BC (by Antigonos Gonatas) perhaps over smaller individual tumuli to protect the royal tombs from further pillaging after marauding Galati had looted and destroyed the cemetery. The hill material contained many earlier funeral stele.</p><br>
<h3>Palace</h3><br>
<p>The most important building discovered is the monumental palace; located on a plateau directly below the acropolis this building of two or perhaps three storeys is centred on a large open courtyard flanked by Doric colonnades. On the north side was a large gallery that commanded the stage of the neighbouring theatre and the whole Macedonian plain. It was sumptuously decorated, with mosaic floors, painted plastered walls, and fine relief tiles. Excavations have dated construction of the palace to the reign of Philip II, even though he also had a palace in the capital, Pella. This huge building was visible from the whole Macedonian basin; a remarkable landmark, a symbol of power and beauty. This unique building, utterly revolutionary and avant-garde for its time, was designed for Philip by an ingenious architect (probably Pytheos, known for his contribution to the construction of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and to the development of urban planning and the theory of proportion) would become an archetype of all basileia (kingdoms), i.e. the palaces in the Hellenistic world and beyond. The masonry and architectural members, all artfully processed, were covered with lustrous high-quality marble stucco that resembles marble and reminds us of Vitruvius’s description of the plaster used in Mausolus’s palace that shined as if made of glass. The theatre, also from the second half of the 4th century BC, forms an integral part of the palace.</p><br>
<p>The palace is considered to be not only the biggest but, together with the Parthenon, the most significant building of classical Greece.</p><br>
<h3>Other tombs</h3><br>
<p>The cemetery of the Tumuli extends for over 3 km and has the Cemetery of the Tumuli at its heart containing over 300 grave-mounds of significant wealth and density, some as early as the 11th century BC. To the north-west of the ancient city is the important group of tombs from the 6th and 5th centuries BC belonging to members of the Macedonian dynasty and their courts.</p><br>
<p>The Cluster of the Queens includes cist and pit tombs dating to the Greco-Persian Wars era, two of which probably belong to the mother and spouse of Alexander I: the all golden “Lady of Aigai” and her female relative, in whose funeral at least twenty-six (26) small terracotta statues. One from around 340 BC with an imposing marble throne is identified as that of Eurydice, mother of Philip II.</p><br>
<p>The so-called "Ionian Tomb" or "Tomb of the Roman" is an elegant Macedonian tomb containing a throne, probably belonging to queen Thessalonike.</p><br>
<p>Shanidar Cave  is an archaeological site located on Bradost Mountain in the Erbil Governorate of Iraq. The remains of ten Neanderthals, dating from 35,000 to 65,000 years ago, have been found within the cave. The cave also contains two later "proto-Neolithic" cemeteries, one of which dates back about 10,600 years and contains 35 individuals.</p><br>
<p>The best known of the Neanderthals is Shanidar 1, who survived several injuries during his life, possibly due to care from other members of his band, and Shanidar 4, whose body lay beside a flower that can either be explained as evidence of burial rituals or animal contamination.</p><br>
<p>The site is located within the Zagros Mountains in the Arbil governorate and lies close to the Great Zab river valley.</p><br>
<h2>Neanderthal remains</h2><br>
<p>The ten Neanderthals at the site were found within a Mousterian layer which also contained hundreds of stone tools including points, side-scrapers, and flakes and bones from animals including wild goats and spur-thighed tortoises.</p><br>
<p>The first nine (Shanidar 1-9) were unearthed between 1957 and 1961 by Ralph Solecki and a team from Columbia University. The skeleton of Shanidar 3 is held at the Smithsonian Institution. The others (Shanidar 1, 2, and 4-8) were kept in Iraq and may have been lost during the 2003 invasion, although casts remain at the Smithsonian. In 2006, while sorting a collection of faunal bones from the site at the Smithsonian, Melinda Zeder discovered leg and foot bones from a tenth Neanderthal, now known as Shanidar 10.</p><br>
<h3>Shanidar 1</h3><br>
<p>Shanidar 1 was an elderly Neanderthal male known as ‘Nandy’ to his excavators. He was aged between 40 and 50 years, remarkably old for a Neanderthal—equivalent to 80 years old today—and displayed severe signs of deformity. He was one of four reasonably complete skeletons from the cave which displayed trauma-related abnormalities, which in his case would have been debilitating to the point of making day-to-day life painful.</p><br>
<p>At some point in his life he had suffered a violent blow to the left side of his face, creating a crushing fracture to his left orbit which would have left him partially or totally blind in one eye. Analysis shows that Shanidar 1 likely suffered from profound hearing loss, as his left ear canal was partially blocked and his right ear canal was completely blocked by exostoses. He also suffered from a withered right arm which had been fractured in several places and healed, but which caused the loss of his lower arm and hand. This is thought to be either congenital, a result of childhood disease and trauma or due to an amputation later in his life. The arm had healed but the injury may have caused some paralysis down his right side, leading to deformities in his lower legs and foot and would have resulted in him walking with a pronounced, painful limp.</p><br>
<p>All these injuries were acquired long before death, showing extensive healing and this has been used to infer that Neanderthals looked after their sick and aged, denoting implicit group concern. Shanidar 1 is not the only Neanderthal at this site, or in the entire archaeological record which displays both trauma and healing.</p><br>
<h3>Shanidar 2</h3><br>
<p>Shanidar 2 was an adult male, who evidently died in a rock fall inside the cave, as his skull and bones were crushed. There is evidence that Shanidar 2 was given a ritual send-off: a small pile of stones with some worked stone points (made out of chert) were found on top of his grave. Also, there had been a large fire by the burial site.</p><br>
<h3>Shanidar 3</h3><br>
<p>Shanidar 3 was a 40- to 50-year-old male, found in the same grave as Shanidar 1 and 2. A wound to the left 9th rib suggests that the individual died of complications from a stab wound by a sharp implement. Bone growth around the wound indicates that Shanidar 3 lived for at least several weeks after the injury with the object still embedded. The angle of the wound rules out self-infliction, but is consistent with an accidental or purposeful stabbing by another individual. This would be the earliest example of inter-personal or inter-specific violence in the human fossil record and the only such example amongst Neanderthals. The presence of early-modern humans, possibly armed with projectile weapons, in western Asia around the same time also raises the possibility of inter-species conflict. Shanidar 3 also suffered from a degenerative joint disorder (DJD) in his foot resulting from a fracture or sprain, which would have resulted in painful, limited movement. The skeleton is on display at the Hall of Human Origins at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.</p><br>
<h3>Shanidar 4, the "flower burial"</h3><br>
<p>The skeleton of Shanidar 4, an adult male aged 30–45 years, was discovered by Solecki in 1960 positioned on his left side in a partial fetal position.</p><br>
<p>For many years, Shanidar 4 was thought to provide strong evidence for a Neanderthal burial ritual. Routine soil samples from around the body, gathered for pollen analysis in an attempt to reconstruct the palaeoclimate and vegetational history of the site, were analysed eight years after its discovery. In two of the soil samples in particular, whole clumps of pollen were discovered in addition to the usual pollen found throughout the site, suggesting that entire flowering plants (or at least heads of plants) had entered the grave deposit. Furthermore, a study of the particular flower types suggested that the flowers may have been chosen for their specific medicinal properties. Yarrow, Cornflower, Bachelors Button, St. Barnabys Thistle, Ragwort or Groundsel, Grape Hyacinth, Joint Pine or Woody Horsetail and Hollyhock were represented in the pollen samples, all of which have long-known curative powers as diuretics, stimulants, astringents as well as anti-inflammatory properties. This led to the idea that the man could possibly have had shamanic powers, perhaps acting as medicine man to the Shanidar Neandertals.</p><br>
<p>However, recent work has suggested that perhaps the pollen was introduced to the burial by animal action, as several burrows of a gerbil-like rodent known as the Persian jird were found nearby. The jird is known to store large numbers of seeds and flowers at certain points in their burrows and this argument was used in conjunction with the lack of ritual treatment of the rest of the skeletons in the cave to suggest that the Shanidar 4 burial had natural, not cultural, origins. Paul B. Pettitt has stated that the "deliberate placement of flowers has now been</p><br>
<p>convincingly eliminated", noting that "A recent examination of the microfauna from the strata into which the grave was cut suggests that the pollen was deposited by the burrowing</p><br>
<p>rodent Meriones persicus, which is common in the Shanidar microfauna and whose burrowing activity can be observed today".</p><br>
<p>Milford Sound/Piopiotahi is a fiord in the south west of New Zealand&#39;s South Island within Fiordland National Park, Piopiotahi  Marine Reserve, and the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage site. It has been judged the world&#39;s top travel destination in an international survey  and is acclaimed as New Zealand&#39;s most famous tourist destination. Rudyard Kipling had previously called it the eighth Wonder of the World.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>Milford Sound is named after Milford Haven in Wales, while the Cleddau River which flows into the sound is also named for its Welsh namesake. The Māori named the sound Piopiotahi after the thrush-like piopio bird, now extinct. Piopiotahi means "a single piopio", harking back to the legend of Māui trying to win immortality for mankind—when Maui died in the attempt, a piopio was said to have flown here in mourning.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Milford Sound runs 15 kilometres inland from the Tasman Sea at Dale Point (also named after a location close to Milford Haven in Wales)—the mouth of the fiord—and is surrounded by sheer rock faces that rise 1,200 m or more on either side. Among the peaks are The Elephant at 1,517 m, said to resemble an elephant&#39;s head, and The Lion, 1,302 m, in the shape of a crouching lion.</p><br>
<p>Milford Sound sports two permanent waterfalls, Lady Bowen Falls and Stirling Falls. After heavy rain temporary waterfalls can be seen running down the steep sided rock faces that line the fiord. They are fed by rain water drenched moss and will last a few days at most once the rain stops.</p><br>
<h3>Climate</h3><br>
<p>With a mean annual rainfall of 6,412 mm each year, a high level even for the West Coast, Milford Sound is known as the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand and one of the wettest in the world. Rainfall can reach 250 mm during a span of 24 hours. The rainfall creates dozens of temporary waterfalls (as well as a number of major, more permanent ones) cascading down the cliff faces, some reaching a thousand metres in length. Smaller falls from such heights may never reach the bottom of the sound, drifting away in the wind.</p><br>
<p>Accumulated rainwater can, at times, cause portions of the rain forest to lose their grip on the sheer cliff faces, resulting in tree avalanches into the sound. The regrowth of the rain forest after these avalanches can be seen in several locations along the sound.</p><br>
<h3>Wildlife</h3><br>
<p>Seals, penguins, and southernmost population of bottlenose dolphins frequent the waters, and whales especially humpback whales and southern right whales are increasingly observed due to recoveries of each species. The sound has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because it is a breeding site for Fiordland penguins.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Milford Sound was initially overlooked by European explorers, because its narrow entry did not appear to lead into such large interior bays. Sailing ship captains such as James Cook, who bypassed Milford Sound on his journeys for just this reason, also feared venturing too close to the steep mountainsides, afraid that wind conditions would prevent escape.</p><br>
<p>The fiord was a playground for local Maori who had acquired a large amount of local marine knowledge including tidal patterns and fish feeding patterns over generations prior to European arrival.</p><br>
<p>The fiord remained undiscovered by Europeans until Captain John Grono discovered it c.1812 and named it Milford Haven after his homeland in Wales. Captain John Lort Stokes later renamed Milford Haven as Milford Sound. Following the passage of the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the name of the fiord was officially altered to Milford Sound / Piopiotahi.</p><br>
<p>While Fiordland as such remained one of the least-explored areas of New Zealand up to the 20th century, Milford Sound&#39;s natural beauty soon attracted national and international renown, and led to the discovery of the Mackinnon Pass in 1888, soon to become a part of the new Milford Track, an early walking tourism trail. In the same year, the low watershed saddle between the Hollyford River and the Cleddau River was discovered, where the Homer Tunnel was to be developed about sixty years later to provide road access.</p><br>
<p>As of the 2006 census, just 120 people lived in Milford Sound, most of them working in tourism or conservation.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<h3>Overview</h3><br>
<p>Milford Sound attracts between 550,000 and 1 million visitors per year. This makes the sound one of New Zealands most-visited tourist spots even with its remote location and long journey times from the nearest population centres. Many tourists take one of the boat tours which usually last one to two hours. They are offered by several companies, departing from the Milford Sound Visitors Centre.</p><br>
<p>Tramping, canoeing, and some other water sports are possible. A small number of companies also provide overnight boat trips. There is otherwise only limited accommodation at the sound, and only a very small percentage of tourists stay more than the day. Tourists usually stay in Te Anau or Queenstown.</p><br>
<p>The Milford Discovery Centre & Underwater Observatory is located in Harrisons Cove on the north side of the fiord. Situated within the Piopiotahi Marine Reserve, the underwater observatory allows visitors to view the fiords unique marine environment at a depth of 10 metres. Due to a natural phenomenon called deep water emergence,&#39; deep-water animals such as black coral can be viewed in the shallow waters surrounding the observatory. A dark surface layer of fresh water, stained brown by tannins from the surrounding forest, along with cold water temperatures allow the black corals to grow close to the surface throughout Milford Sound and Fiordland.</p><br>
<p>On rainy and stormy days tourists can admire the play of the wind with the numerous waterfalls in Milford Sound. When meeting the cliff face the powerful wind often goes upward and waterfalls with a vertical drop get caught by wind, causing the water to go upwards.</p><br>
<p>Milford Sound is also a scenic cruise destination for cruise ships.</p><br>
<h3>Transport</h3><br>
<p>By road, Milford Sound is 307 km from Queenstown and 279 km from Invercargill (about four hours&#39; drive), with most of the tour buses to the sound departing from Queenstown. Some tourists also arrive from the smaller tourism centre of Te Anau, 121 km away. There are also scenic flights by light aircraft and helicopter tours to and from Milford Sound Airport. The drive to Milford Sound itself passes through unspoiled mountain landscapes before entering the 1.2 km Homer Tunnel which emerges into rain-forest-carpeted canyons that descend to the sound. The winding mountain road, while of high standards, is very prone to avalanches and closures during the winter half of the year.</p><br>
<p>The long distance to the sound means that tourist operators from Queenstown all depart very early in the day, arriving back only late in the evening. This ensures that most tourists visit Milford Sound within a few hours around midday, leading to some congestion on the roads and at the tourist facilities during the main season. The peak-time demand is also the reason for the large number of tour boats active in the sound at much the same time.</p><br>
<p>Over the years, various options of shortening the distance to Milford Sound from Queenstown have been mooted, including a gondola route, a new tunnel from Queenstown, or a monorail from near Lake Wakatipu to Te Anau Downs. All would reduce the current round-trip duration (which has to travel via Te Anau), thus allowing tourism to be spread out over more of the day. While a gondola is considered to be out of the running after the DOC declined approval for environmental reasons, the tunnel and the monorail proposals have applied to the Department of Conservation for concessions for land access.</p><br>
<p>There are a variety of plane charter companies that fly to Milford Sound. Most of the companies fly out of Queenstown International Airport. These companies include: Glenorchy Air, Air Milford, Air Wakatipu, Air Fiordland and Milford Sound Scenic Flights.</p><br>
<h2>Diesel spill</h2><br>
<p>On 8 February 2004 a spill of 13,000 litres of diesel fuel was discovered, resulting in a 2-kilometre spill which closed the fiord for two days while intensive cleanup activities were completed. Apparently a hose was used to displace the fuel from the tanks of one of the tour vessels, and various government officials claimed it appeared to be an act of ecoterrorism motivated by rising numbers of tourists to the park, though more details did not become known. The spill was removed and wildlife impact appears minimal.</p><br>
<p>The Seto Inland Sea, also known as Setouchi or often shortened to Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, three of the four main islands of Japan. The region that includes the Seto Inland Sea and the coastal areas of Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū is known as the Setouchi Region. It serves as a waterway, connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka Bay and provides a sea transport link to industrial centers in the Kansai region, including Osaka and Kobe. Before the construction of the San&#39;yō Main Line, it was the main transportation link between Kansai and Kyūshū.</p><br>
<p>Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, Okayama, Hyōgo, Osaka, Wakayama, Kagawa, Ehime, Tokushima, Fukuoka, and Ōita prefectures all have coastlines on the Seto Inland Sea; the cities of Hiroshima, Iwakuni, Takamatsu, and Matsuyama are also located on it.</p><br>
<p>The Setouchi region is known for its moderate climate, with a stable year-round temperature and relatively low rainfall levels. The sea is also famous for its periodic red tides caused by dense groupings of certain phytoplankton that result in the death of large numbers of fish.</p><br>
<p>Since the 1980s, the sea&#39;s northern and southern shores have been connected by the three routes of the Honshū–Shikoku Bridge Project, including the Great Seto Bridge, which serves both railroad and automobile traffic.</p><br>
<h2>Extent</h2><br>
<p>The International Hydrographic Organization&#39;s definition of the limits of the Seto Inland Sea (published in 1953) is as follows:</p><br>
<p>On the West. The Southeastern limit of the Japan Sea In Shimonoseki-kaikyo. A line running from Nagoya Saki (130°49E) in Kyûsû through the islands of Uma Sima and Muture Simia (33°58,5N) to Murasaki Hana (34°01&#39;N) in Honsyû.</p><br>
<p>On the East (Kii Suidô). A line running from Takura Saki (34°16N) in Honsyû to Oishi Hana in the island of Awazi, through this island to Sio Saki (34°11N) and on to Oiso Saki in Sikoku.</p><br>
<p>On the South (Bungo Suidô). A line joining Sada Misaki (33°20&#39;N) in Sikoku and Seki Saki in Kyûsyû.</p><br>
<h2>Geographical features</h2><br>
<p>The Seto Inland Sea is 450 km (280 mi) long from east to west. The width from south to north varies from 15 to 55 km (10 to 34 mi). In most places, the water is relatively shallow. The average depth is 38 m (125 ft); the greatest depth is 105 m (344 ft).</p><br>
<p>The Naruto Strait connects the eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea to the Kii Channel, which in turn connects to the Pacific Ocean. The western part of the Seto Inland Sea connects to the Sea of Japan through the Kanmon Straits and to the Pacific through the Bungo Channel.</p><br>
<p>Each part of the Seto Inland Sea has a separate name in Japanese. For example, Iyo-nada refers to the strait between Ehime, Yamaguchi, and Ōita prefectures in the western portion of the sea; Aki-nada is the open expanse west of the Geiyo Islands, near Hiroshima prefecture; and Suō-nada refers to the expanse between Yamaguchi prefecture and Suō-Ōshima. There are also many straits located between the major islands, as well as a number of smaller ones that pass between islands or connect the Seto Inland Sea to other seas or the Pacific.</p><br>
<p>Almost 3,000 islands are located in the Seto Inland Sea, including the larger islands Awaji-shima and Shōdo-shima. Many of the smaller islands are uninhabited.</p><br>
<h3>Major islands</h3><br>
<p>Eastern part: Awaji Island, Shōdo Island, Ieshima Islands, Naoshima Islands, Shiwaku Islands</p><br>
<p>Central part: Ōmishima, Innoshima, Itsukushima (popularly known as Miyajima), Hinase Islands, Kasaoka Islands</p><br>
<p>Western part: Suō-Ōshima, Uwakai Islands, Hashira-jima Islands.</p><br>
<h2>Fauna</h2><br>
<p>Over 500 marine species are known to live in the Seto Inland Sea. Examples are the ayu, an amphidromous fish, the horseshoe crab, the finless porpoise, and the great white shark, which has occasionally attacked people in the Seto Inland Sea. In the past whales entered the sea to feed or breed, however due to whaling and pollution, they have totally disappeared from the Seto Inland Sea, except for occasional lost individuals.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>It is believed that in the last ice age the sea level was lower than today. After the ice age, sea water poured into a basin between the Chūgoku mountains and Shikoku mountains and formed the Seto Inland Sea as we know it today.</p><br>
<p>From ancient times, the Seto Inland Sea served as a main transport line between its coastal areas, including what is today the Kansai region and Kyūshū. It was also a main transport line between Japan and other countries, including Korea and China. Even after the creation of major highways such as the Nankaidō and San&#39;yōdō, the Seto Inland Sea remained a major transport route. There are records that some foreign emissaries from China and Korea sailed on the Seto Inland Sea.</p><br>
<p>Due to the importance of water traffic, regional powers often had their own private navies. In many documents, these navies were called suigun, or simply pirates. Sometimes they were considered to be public enemies, but in most cases they were granted the right to self-governance as a result of their strength.</p><br>
<p>In the 12th century, Taira no Kiyomori planned to move the capital from Kyoto to the coastal village of Fukuhara (today Kobe) to promote trade between Japan and the Song dynasty of China. This transfer was unsuccessful, and soon after Kyoto became the capital again. Later, the Battle of Yashima took place off the coast of present-day Takamatsu.</p><br>
<p>During the feudal period, suigun seized power in most coastal areas. The Kono in Iyo Province (today Ehime Prefecture) and Kobayakawa (later Mōri) in Aki Province (today a part of Hiroshima Prefecture) clans were two of the more famous suigun lords.</p><br>
<p>In the Edo period, the Seto Inland Sea was one of the busiest transport lines in Japan. It was a part of a navigational route around Japans islands via the Sea of Japan. Many ships navigated from its coastal areas to the area along the Sea of Japan. It was not only the main transport line between Kansai and Kyūshū, but also for Hokuriku, Tōhoku, and even Hokkaidō (which was called Ezo at the time). Major ports in the Edo period were Osaka, Sakai, Shimotsui, Ushimado, and Tomonoura. The Seto Inland Sea also served many daimyōs in the western area of Japan as their route to and from Edo, to fulfill their obligations under sankin-kōtai. Many used ships from Osaka. Thanks to transport through the Seto Inland Sea, Osaka became the economic center of Japan. Each han had an office called Ozakayashiki in Osaka. These Ozakayashiki were among Japans earliest forms of banks, facilitating domestic trade and helping to organize the income of the daimyo, which was in the form of koku, giant bales of rice.</p><br>
<p>The Seto Inland Sea was also part of the official Chosendentsushi route, bringing Korean emissaries to the Shogunate.</p><br>
<p>After the Meiji Restoration, the coastal cities along the Seto Inland Sea were rapidly industrialized. One of the headquarters of the Japanese Navy was built in the town of Kure. Since the Meiji period, development of land transport has been reducing the importance of the Seto Inland Sea as a transport line. Remarkable land transportation innovations include the San&#39;yō Main Railroad Line in Honshū and the Yosan Main Railroad Line in Shikoku (both completed before World War II) and three series of bridges connecting Honshū and Shikoku (completed in the late 20th century). The Seto Inland Sea is still used, however, by an international cargo transport line and several local transport lines connecting Honshū with Shikoku and Kyūshū.</p><br>
<h2>Industry</h2><br>
<p>Major cities with heavy industrial activity on the coast of the Seto Inland Sea include Osaka, Kobe, and Hiroshima. Smaller scale manufacturing and industry can also be found in Kurashiki, Kure, Fukuyama, and Ube in Honshū, and Sakaide, Imabari, and Niihama in Shikoku.</p><br>
<p>Major industries include steel production, vehicle manufacture, ship building, textiles, and since the 1960s, oil refining and chemical products.</p><br>
<p>Thanks to the moderate climate and beautiful landscape, fishing, agriculture, and tourism bring a lot of income to the area as well.</p><br>
<h2>Transport</h2><br>
<p>Today the Seto Inland Sea serves its coastal areas mainly for two purposes: first, international or domestic cargo transportation, and second, local transportation between coastal areas and islands on the sea. Major ports are Kobe, Okayama, Takamatsu, Tokushima, Matsuyama, and Hiroshima. Honshū and Shikoku have been connected by three series of bridges since the late 1980s. Those series of bridges, collectively known as the Honshū–Shikoku Bridge Project, are, from east to west, Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, Great Seto Bridge, and Nishiseto Expressway. On the other hand, no bridge over the Seto Inland Sea connects Kyūshū and another island.</p><br>
<p>Historically, the Seto Inland Sea as transport line served four coastal areas: Kansai, Chūgoku, Shikoku, and eastern Kyūshū. The Seto Inland Sea provided each of these regions with local transportation and connected each region to the others and far areas, including the coastal area of the Sea of Japan, Korea, and China. After Kobe port was founded in 1868 to serve foreign ships, the Seto Inland Sea became a major international waterway with connection to the Pacific.</p><br>
<p>Due to the development of land transportation, the travel between east and west &mdash; that is, transportation within Shikoku, within Honshū, and between Honshū and Kyūshū &mdash; shifted to railroad and road transport. Two coastal railways, San&#39;yō Main Line in Honshū and Yosan Main Line were built. Those railway lines stimulated the local economy and once invoked a rail mania. Many short railroads were planned to connect a certain station of those two lines and a local seaport on the Seto Inland Sea, and some of them were actually built. The Ministry of Railroads, later the Japanese National Railways and then Shikoku Railway Company, ran some train ferry lines between Honshū and Shikoku including the line between Uno Station (Tamano) and Takamatsu Station (Takamatsu). When the Great Seto Bridge was finished and began to serve the two coastal areas, that ferry line was abolished.</p><br>
<h2>Major tourist sites</h2><br>
<p>The coastal area of the Seto Inland Sea is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Japan. Even before Japan opened to foreigners in the middle of the 19th century, the seas beauty was praised and introduced to the Western world by those who visited Japan, including Philipp Franz von Siebold, and after the countrys opening, Ferdinand von Richthofen and Thomas Cook.</p><br>
<p>Its coastal area, except for Osaka Prefecture and a part of Wakayama Prefecture, was appointed the Setonaikai National Park on March 16, 1934, as one of three oldest national parks in Japan.</p><br>
<p>Itsukushima Shrine, on the island of Itsukushima in the city of Hatsukaichi, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most famous Japanese sites outside Tokyo and Kyoto. Shōdoshima, nicknamed the "island of olives", and the Naruto whirlpools are two other well-known tourist sites. Neighboring locations like Kotohira and Okayama are often combined with the tour of the Setouchi region. Some historic sites, including Yashima in Takamatsu and Kurashiki, also attract many visitors. Hiroshima is the neighbor city to Itsukushima Shrine and another UNESCO World Heritage Site because of atomic bomb damage in 1945.</p><br>
<h2>Literature</h2><br>
<p>Some sites along the Seto Inland Sea were featured in eighth-century Japanese literature, both in prose and in verse, including Kojiki, Nihon Shoki, and Man&#39;yōshū. Since some sites were used as places of exile, their feeling and landscape were evoked in waka. In fiction, in The Tale of Genji, Genji fled from Kyoto and resided in Suma (now a part of Kobe) and Akashi for two years.</p><br>
<p>In medieval literature, because of the Genpei War, the Seto Inland Sea is one of the important backgrounds of The Tale of the Heike, particularly in its latter part.</p><br>
<p>In the Western world, Donald Richie wrote a literary nonfiction travelogue called The Inland Sea relating a journey along the sea, beginning from the East at Himeji and ending at Miyajima in the West, close to Hiroshima, going from island to island, exploring the landscape, meeting and discussing with local people, as well as musing on Japanese culture, the nature of travel and of identity, and his own personal sense of identity.</p><br>
<p>In 1991, filmmakers Lucille Carra and Brian Cotnoir produced a film version of Richie&#39;s book, which further explored the region through interviews and images photographed by Hiro Narita. Produced by Travelfilm Company and adapted by Carra, the film won numerous awards, including Best Documentary at the Hawaii International Film Festival (1991) and the Earthwatch Film Award. It screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992.</p><br>
<p>Koushun Takami&#39;s novel Battle Royale took place on a fictional island in the Seto Inland Sea.</p><br>
<p>The Abu Simbel temples are two massive rock temples at Abu Simbel , a village in Nubia, southern Egypt, near the border with Sudan. They are situated on the western bank of Lake Nasser, about 230 km southwest of Aswan . The complex is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Nubian Monuments", which run from Abu Simbel downriver to Philae . The twin temples were originally carved out of the mountainside in the 13th century BC, during the 19th dynasty reign of the Pharaoh Ramesses II. They serve as a lasting monument to the king and his queen Nefertari, and commemorate his victory at the Battle of Kadesh. Their huge external rock relief figures have become iconic.</p><br>
<p>The complex was relocated in its entirety in 1968, on an artificial hill made from a domed structure, high above the Aswan High Dam reservoir. The relocation of the temples was necessary or they would have been submerged during the creation of Lake Nasser, the massive artificial water reservoir formed after the building of the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Construction</h3><br>
<p>Construction of the temple complex started in approximately 1264 BC and lasted for about 20 years, until 1244 BC. Known as the "Temple of Ramesses, beloved by Amun" it was one of six rock temples erected in Nubia during the long reign of Ramesses II. Their purpose was to impress Egypt&#39;s southern neighbours, and also to reinforce the status of Egyptian religion in the region.</p><br>
<h3>Rediscovery</h3><br>
<p>With the passage of time, the temples fell into disuse and eventually became covered by sand. By the 6th century BC, the sand already covered the statues of the main temple up to their knees. The temple was forgotten until 1813, when Swiss orientalist Jean-Louis Burckhardt found the top frieze of the main temple. Burckhardt talked about his discovery with Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni, who travelled to the site, but was unable to dig out an entry to the temple. Belzoni returned in 1817, this time succeeding in his attempt to enter the complex. A detailed early description of the temples, together with contemporaneous line drawings, can be found in Edward William Lane&#39;s Description of Egypt (1825–1828).</p><br>
<p>Tour guides at the site relate the legend that Abu Simbel was the name of a young local boy who guided these early re-discoverers to the site of the buried temple which he had seen from time to time in the shifting sands. Eventually, they named the complex after him.</p><br>
<h3>Relocation</h3><br>
<p>In 1959, an international donations campaign to save the monuments of Nubia began: the southernmost relics of this ancient human civilization were under threat from the rising waters of the Nile that were about to result from the construction of the Aswan High Dam.</p><br>
<p>One scheme to save the temples was based on an idea by William MacQuitty to build a clear fresh water dam around the temples, with the water inside kept at the same height as the Nile. There were to be underwater viewing chambers. In 1962 the idea was made into a proposal by architects Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry and civil engineer Ove Arup. They considered that raising the temples ignored the effect of erosion of the sandstone by desert winds. However the proposal, though acknowledged to be extremely elegant, was rejected.</p><br>
<p>The salvage of the Abu Simbel temples began in 1964 by a multinational team of archeologists, engineers and skilled heavy equipment operators working together under the UNESCO banner; it cost some USD $40 million at the time (equal to $300 million in 2017 dollars). Between 1964 and 1968, the entire site was carefully cut into large blocks (up to 30 tons, averaging 20 tons), dismantled, lifted and reassembled in a new location 65 meters higher and 200 meters back from the river, in one of the greatest challenges of archaeological engineering in history. Some structures were even saved from under the waters of Lake Nasser. Today, a few hundred tourists visit the temples daily. Guarded convoys of buses and cars depart twice a day from Aswan, the nearest city. Many visitors also arrive by plane at an airfield that was specially constructed for the temple complex.</p><br>
<p>The complex consists of two temples. The larger one is dedicated to Ra-Harakhty, Ptah and Amun, Egypts three state deities of the time, and features four large statues of Ramesses II in the facade. The smaller temple is dedicated to the goddess Hathor, personified by Nefertari, Ramessess most beloved of his many wives.</p><br>
<p>The temple is now open to the public.</p><br>
<h3>Great Temple</h3><br>
<p>The Great Temple at Abu Simbel, which took about twenty years to build, was completed around year 24 of the reign of Ramesses the Great (which corresponds to 1265 BC). It was dedicated to the gods Amun, Ra-Horakhty, and Ptah, as well as to the deified Rameses himself. It is generally considered the grandest and most beautiful of the temples commissioned during the reign of Rameses II, and one of the most beautiful in Egypt.</p><br>
<p>Four colossal 20 meter statues of the pharaoh with the double Atef crown of Upper and Lower Egypt decorate the facade of the temple, which is 35 meters wide and is topped by a frieze with 22 baboons, worshippers of the sun and flank the entrance. The colossal statues were sculptured directly from the rock in which the temple was located before it was moved. All statues represent Ramesses II, seated on a throne and wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. The statue to the left of the entrance was damaged in an earthquake, leaving only the lower part of the statue still intact. The head and torso can still be seen at the statue&#39;s feet.</p><br>
<p>Next to the legs of the colossi, there are other statues no higher than the knees of the pharaoh. These depict Nefertari, Ramesses&#39;s chief wife, and queen mother Mut-Tuy, his first two sons Amun-her-khepeshef, Ramesses, and his first six daughters Bintanath, Baketmut, Nefertari, Meritamen, Nebettawy and Isetnofret.</p><br>
<p>The entrance itself is crowned by a bas-relief representing two images of the king worshipping the falcon-headed Ra Harakhti, whose statue stands in a large niche. This god is holding the hieroglyph "user" and a feather in his right hand, with Maat, (the goddess of truth and justice) in his left; this is nothing less than a gigantic cryptogram for Ramesses IIs throne name, User-Maat-Re. The facade is topped by a row of 22 baboons, their arms raised in the air, supposedly worshipping the rising sun. Another notable feature of the facade is a stele which records the marriage of Ramesses with a daughter of king Hattusili III, which sealed the peace between Egypt and the Hittites.</p><br>
<p>The inner part of the temple has the same triangular layout that most ancient Egyptian temples follow, with rooms decreasing in size from the entrance to the sanctuary. The temple is complex in structure and quite unusual because of its many side chambers. The hypostyle hall (sometimes also called a pronaos) is 18 meters long and 16.7 meters wide and is supported by eight huge Osirid pillars depicting the deified Ramses linked to the god Osiris, the god of the Underworld, to indicate the everlasting nature of the pharaoh. The colossal statues along the left-hand wall bear the white crown of Upper Egypt, while those on the opposite side are wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt (pschent). The bas-reliefs on the walls of the pronaos depict battle scenes in the military campaigns the ruler waged. Much of the sculpture is given to the Battle of Kadesh, on the Orontes river in present-day Syria, in which the Egyptian king fought against the Hittites. The most famous relief shows the king on his chariot shooting arrows against his fleeing enemies, who are being taken prisoner. Other scenes show Egyptian victories in Libya and Nubia.</p><br>
<p>From the hypostyle hall, one enters the second pillared hall, which has four pillars decorated with beautiful scenes of offerings to the gods. There are depictions of Ramesses and Nefertari with the sacred boats of Amun and Ra-Harakhti. This hall gives access to a transverse vestibule in the middle of which is the entrance to the sanctuary. Here, on a black wall, are rock cut sculptures of four seated figures: Ra-Horakhty, the deified king Ramesses, and the gods Amun Ra and Ptah. Ra-Horakhty, Amun Ra and Ptah were the main divinities in that period and their cult centers were at Heliopolis, Thebes and Memphis respectively.</p><br>
<h4>Solar alignment</h4><br>
<p>It is believed that the axis of the temple was positioned by the ancient Egyptian architects in such a way that on October 22 and February 22, the rays of the sun would penetrate the sanctuary and illuminate the sculptures on the back wall, except for the statue of Ptah, a god connected with the Underworld, who always remained in the dark. People gather at Abu Simbel to witness this remarkable sight, on October 21 and February 21.</p><br>
<p>These dates are allegedly the kings birthday and coronation day, respectively. There is no direct evidence to support this. It is logical to assume, however, that these dates had some relation to a great event, such as the jubilee celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the pharaohs rule. In fact, according to calculations made on the basis of the heliacal rising of the star Sirius (Sothis) and inscriptions found by archaeologists, this date must have been October 22. This image of the king was enhanced and revitalized by the energy of the solar star, and the deified Ramesses the Great could take his place next to Amun Ra and Ra-Horakhty.</p><br>
<p>Due to the displacement of the temple and/or the accumulated drift of the Tropic of Cancer during the past 3,280 years, it is widely believed that each of these two events has moved one day closer to the Solstice, so they would be occurring on October 22 and February 20 (60 days before and 60 days after the Solstice, respectively).</p><br>
<h3>Small Temple</h3><br>
<p>The temple of Hathor and Nefertari, also known as the Small Temple, was built about one hundred meters northeast of the temple of pharaoh Ramesses II and was dedicated to the goddess Hathor and Ramesses II&#39;s chief consort, Nefertari. This was in fact the second time in ancient Egyptian history that a temple was dedicated to a queen. The first time, Akhenaten dedicated a temple to his great royal wife, Nefertiti. The rock-cut facade is decorated with two groups of colossi that are separated by the large gateway. The statues, slightly more than ten meters high, are of the king and his queen. On either side of the portal are two statues of the king, wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt (south colossus) and the double crown (north colossus); these are flanked by statues of the queen.</p><br>
<p>Remarkably, this is one of very few instances in Egyptian art where the statues of the king and his consort have equal size. Traditionally, the statues of the queens stood next to those of the pharaoh, but were never taller than his knees. Ramesses went to Abu Simbel with his wife in the 24th year of his reign. As the Great Temple of the king, there are small statues of princes and princesses next to their parents. In this case they are positioned symmetrically: on the south side (at left as one faces the gateway) are, from left to right, princes Meryatum and Meryre, princesses Meritamen and Henuttawy, and princes Rahirwenemef and Amun-her-khepeshef, while on the north side the same figures are in reverse order. The plan of the Small Temple is a simplified version of that of the Great Temple.</p><br>
<p>As the larger temple dedicated to the king, the hypostyle hall or pronaos is supported by six pillars; in this case, however, they are not Osiris pillars depicting the king, but are decorated with scenes with the queen playing the sistrum (an instrument sacred to the goddess Hathor), together with the gods Horus, Khnum, Khonsu, and Thoth, and the goddesses Hathor, Isis, Maat, Mut of Asher, Satis and Taweret; in one scene Ramesses is presenting flowers or burning incense. The capitals of the pillars bear the face of the goddess Hathor; this type of column is known as Hathoric. The bas-reliefs in the pillared hall illustrate the deification of the king, the destruction of his enemies in the north and south (in this scenes the king is accompanied by his wife), and the queen making offerings to the goddess Hathor and Mut. The hypostyle hall is followed by a vestibule, access to which is given by three large doors. On the south and the north walls of this chamber there are two graceful and poetic bas-reliefs of the king and his consort presenting papyrus plants to Hathor, who is depicted as a cow on a boat sailing in a thicket of papyri. On the west wall, Ramesses II and Nefertari are depicted making offerings to god Horus and the divinities of the Cataracts — Satis, Anubis and Khnum.</p><br>
<p>The rock cut sanctuary and the two side chambers are connected to the transverse vestibule and are aligned with the axis of the temple. The bas-reliefs on the side walls of the small sanctuary represent scenes of offerings to various gods made either by the pharaoh or the queen. On the back wall, which lies to the west along the axis of the temple, there is a niche in which Hathor, as a divine cow, seems to be coming out of the mountain: the goddess is depicted as the Mistress of the temple dedicated to her and to queen Nefertari, who is intimately linked to the goddess.</p><br>
<p>Each temple had its own priest that represents the king in daily religious ceremonies. In theory, the Pharaoh would have been the only celebrant in daily religious ceremonies performed in different temples throughout Egypt. In reality, the high priest also played that role. To reach that position, an extensive education in art and science was necessary, like the one pharaoh had. Reading, writing, engineering, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, space measurement, time calculations, were all part of this learning. The priests of Heliopolis, for example, became guardians of sacred knowledge and earned the reputation of wise men.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as hot desert (BWh).</p><br>
<p>Black Lake is a reservoir located between Creston and Campti in North Louisiana. Water feeds into Black Lake from Black Lake Bayou, a watershed that extends from north of Gibsland in Bienville Parish and south to Clarence in Natchitoches Parish through the parishes of Claiborne, Webster, Bienville, Red River and Natchitoches. The elevation of the lake is 102 ft. Louisiana Highway 9 runs across Black Lake. On the west side of Highway 9 the body of water is called Black Lake — the east is called Clear Lake or Clear Lake Bayou. The Clear Lake side is near another body of water: Saline Lake. Between Clear Lake and Saline Lake is the Alan Chiverly Dam, constructed in 1934. Road 1226 also extends between the lakes.</p><br>
<p>Residents about Black Lake use the Campti and Clarence ZIP Codes, 71411 and 71414, respectively. They are zoned to Lakeview Junior/Senior High School. There are boat launches and campgrounds for fishing and boating. Bell&#39;s Camp, founded in 1936 by the late Albert and Eva Bell, is still operated by their daughter, Joy Bell Wimberly (born 1924). Nearby is a catfish and steak restaurant known as Sea and Sirloin, which opened in 1983.</p><br>
<h2>Landscape</h2><br>
<p>Black Lake is wide in some places such as at the Hwy 9 bridge and tight in other places because of the growth of cypress trees. There are channels cut into the lake that allow clearance for boats. Boats stay in the channels or risk grounding the bottom of the boat on tree stumps. The aquatic vegetation such as moss, seaweed and algae are visible at surface level.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The latitude and longitude coordinates for Black Lake are 31.9574, -93.0466 and the altitude is 102 feet (31 m).</p><br>
<p>Whale Island is a small island in Portsmouth Harbour, close by Portsea Island. It is home to HMS Excellent, the oldest shore training establishment within the Royal Navy, and the location of the Navy Command Headquarters. The island is linked to Portsea Island and thence to the mainland by road bridges.</p><br>
<h2>Early history</h2><br>
<p>Ordnance Survey maps of Portsmouth Harbour from 1862 show Whale Island as a narrow strip: its east-to-west dimensions were similar to present times, but north to south it measured only tens of yards. To its northwest was Little Whale Island. Modern Whale Island is predominantly reclaimed land, using the deposits dredged from Portsmouth harbour during the 19th century, increasing the land area by about 125%. It was constructed with the help of the many prisoners taken in Napoleonic Wars.</p><br>
<h2>Expansion</h2><br>
<p>During 1867 a viaduct was constructed from the north wall of the dockyard to the south-east corner of Big Whale Island which allowed spoil to be moved from dredging the docks (part of the expansion of HMNB Portsmouth), reclaiming the land between Big Whale Island and Little Whale Island, forming the basis of the island as it is today.</p><br>
<p>The railway which ran on the viaduct was extended around the island to help with the distribution of the spoil and much of the track is still present today, buried under the roads. Manual construction work was mostly undertaken by convicts; a favourable assignment because of the extra food.</p><br>
<p>By 1885 the island had five rifle ranges, but three of these were soon decommissioned to make room for the Gun Drill Battery and Drill Ground (today this is the Summer Parade Ground).</p><br>
<p>Photos on display in Whale Island Quarterdeck (constructed 1888) show that a footbridge to Stamshaw, Portsea Island, was added sometime before 1898 (incorporating a swing-bridge). A small road-bridge now joins the islands at the same point.</p><br>
<p>Before World War II Whale Island was home to a zoo which gave a home to several animals presented to British representatives by friendly countries.</p><br>
<h2>Ceremony</h2><br>
<p>The gun carriage that carries the coffin in British state funerals is maintained on Whale Island.</p><br>
<h2>Visiting</h2><br>
<p>HMS Excellent is an active Naval base so it is not open to the general public, but there are occasional open days and prospective visitors are advised to contact the base.</p><br>
