<p>Mount Assiniboine, also known as Assiniboine Mountain, is a pyramidal peak mountain located on the Great Divide, on the British Columbia/Alberta border in Canada.</p><br>
<p>At 3,618 m, it is the highest peak in the Southern Continental Ranges of the Canadian Rockies. Mt. Assiniboine rises nearly 1,525 m above Lake Magog. Because of its resemblance to the Matterhorn in the Alps, it is nicknamed the "Matterhorn of the Rockies".</p><br>
<p>Mt. Assiniboine was named by George M. Dawson in 1885. When Dawson saw Mt. Assiniboine from Copper Mountain, he saw a plume of clouds trailing away from the top. This reminded him of the plumes of smoke emanating from the teepees of Assiniboine Indians.</p><br>
<p>Mt. Assiniboine lies on the border between Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, in British Columbia, and Banff National Park, in Alberta. The park does not have any roads and thus can only be reached by a six-hour hike or horse-pack 27 km, three-hour bike ride (now disallowed to reduce human / grizzly encounters) or helicopter. The usual approach is via Bryant Creek. From Canmore follow the Smith-Dorien road to the Mount Shark parking lot. The trail is well signed. A helipad is also here.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing</h2><br>
<p>Mt. Assiniboine was first climbed in 1901 by James Outram, Christian Bohren and Christian Hasler. In 1925, Lawrence Grassi became the first person to make a solo ascent. On August 27, 2001, Bohren&#39;s granddaughter Lonnie along with three others made a successful ascent, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first ascent.</p><br>
<p>There are no scrambling routes up Mt. Assiniboine. The easiest mountaineering routes are the North Ridge and North Face at YDS 5.5 which are reached from the Hind Hut.</p><br>
<p>Cho Oyu  is the sixth highest mountain in the world at 8,188 m above sea level. Cho Oyu means "Turquoise Goddess" in Tibetan. The mountain is the westernmost major peak of the Khumbu sub-section of the Mahalangur Himalaya 20 km west of Mount Everest. The mountain stands on the China-Nepal border.</p><br>
<p>Just a few kilometres west of Cho Oyu is Nangpa La (5,716m/18,753 ft), a glaciated pass that serves as the main trading route between the Tibetans and the Khumbu&#39;s Sherpas. This pass separates the Khumbu and Rolwaling Himalayas. Due to its proximity to this pass and the generally moderate slopes of the standard northwest ridge route, Cho Oyu is considered the easiest 8,000 metre peak to climb. It is a popular objective for professionally guided parties.</p><br>
<h2>Height</h2><br>
<p>Cho Oyu&#39;s height was originally measured at 26,750 ft and at the time of the first ascent it was considered the seventh highest mountain on earth, after Dhaulagiri at 8,167 m (Manaslu, now 8,156 m, was also estimated lower at 26,658 ft). A 1984 estimate of 8,201 m made it move up to sixth place. New measurements made in 1996 by the Government of Nepal Survey Department and the Finnish Meteorological Institute in preparation for the Nepal Topographic Maps put the height at 8,188 m, one remarkably similar to the 26,867 ft used by Edmund Hillary in his 1955 book High Adventure.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing history</h2><br>
<p>Cho Oyu was first attempted in 1952 by an expedition organised and financed by the Joint Himalayan Committee of Great Britain as preparation for an attempt on Mount Everest the following year. The expedition was led by Eric Shipton and included Edmund Hillary and Tom Bourdillon. A foray by Hillary and George Lowe was stopped due to technical difficulties and avalanche danger at an ice cliff above 6,650 m and a report of Chinese troops a short distance across the border influenced Shipton to retreat from the mountain rather than continue to attempt to summit.</p><br>
<p>The mountain was first climbed on October 19, 1954, via the north-west ridge by Herbert Tichy, Joseph Jöchler and Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama of an Austrian expedition. Cho Oyu was the fifth 8000 metre peak to be climbed, after Annapurna in June 1950, Mount Everest in May 1953, Nanga Parbat in July 1953 and K2 in July 1954. Until the ascent of Mount Everest by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler in 1978, this was the highest peak climbed without supplemental oxygen.</p><br>
<h3>Timeline</h3><br>
<p>1952 First reconnaissance of north-west face by Edmund Hillary and party.</p><br>
<p>1954 First ascent by Austrians Joseph Jöchler and Herbert Tichy, and Pasang Dawa Lama (Nepal)</p><br>
<p>1958 Second ascent of the peak, by an Indian expedition. Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama reached the peak for the second time. First death on Cho Oyu.</p><br>
<p>1959 Four members killed in an avalanche during a failed international women&#39;s expedition.</p><br>
<p>1964 Controversial third ascent by a German expedition as there is no proof of reaching the summit. Two mountaineers die of exhaustion in camp 4 at 7,600 m.</p><br>
<p>1978 Edi Koblmüller and Alois Furtner of Austria summit via the extremely difficult southeast face.</p><br>
<p>1983 Reinhold Messner succeeds on his fourth attempt, with Hans Kammerlander and Michael Dacher.</p><br>
<p>1985 On February 12, Poles Maciej Berbeka and Maciej Pawlikowski make the first winter ascent. It is the only winter ascent on eight-thousander made on a new route. Repeated three days later by Andrzej Heinrich and Jerzy Kukuczka.</p><br>
<p>1988 On November 2, a Slovenian expedition consisting of Iztok Tomazin, Roman Robas, Blaž Jereb, Rado Nadvešnik, Marko Prezelj, and Jože Rozman, reach the summit via the never before climbed north face.</p><br>
<p>1994 On May 13 Carlos Carsolio sets a world record speed ascent from base camp to summit, ascending in 18 hours and 45 minutes.</p><br>
<p>1994 First solo ascent via the South West face by Yasushi Yamanoi.</p><br>
<p>2004 Second summit by a double amputee (Mark Inglis)</p><br>
<p>2007 Second Indian ascent. Expedition led by Abhilekh Singh Virdi.</p><br>
<p>2009 Clifton Maloney, husband of US Representative Carolyn Maloney and at that time the oldest American to summit an eight-thousander, died at age 71 after summiting on 25 September. His final words were "I’m the happiest man in the world. I’ve just summited a beautiful mountain."</p><br>
<p>2011 Dutch climber Ronald Naar dies after becoming unwell at 8,000 m.</p><br>
<p>Mitla is the second most important archeological site in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico, and the most important of the Zapotec culture. The site is located 44 km from the city of Oaxaca. in the upper end of the Tlacolula Valley, one of the three that form the Central Valleys Region of the state. The archeological site is within the modern municipality of San Pablo Villa de Mitla. While Monte Albán was most important as the political center, Mitla was the main religious center. However, what makes Mitla unique among Mesoamerican sites is the elaborate and intricate mosaic fretwork and geometric designs that cover tombs, panels, friezes and even entire walls. These mosaics are made with small, finely cut and polished stone pieces which have been fitted together without the use of mortar. No other site in Mexico has this.</p><br>
<h2>History of the site</h2><br>
<p>Mitla is one of many well-preserved archeological sites of the Oaxaca Valley, where the dry climate has conserved sites as old as 10,000 years. This valley was settled by the Zapotecs who over the centuries developed a hierarchical society governed by kings and nobles. While the valley was relatively isolated, the Zapotecs did have contacts with other Mesoamerican peoples. By the time the Spanish arrived, the Zapotec state had a population of over 500,000, sophisticated construction techniques, a writing system, two calendar systems and agriculture that included the growing of maize, beans, squash, and chili peppers, using irrigation and terraces in the mountains to grow food for a mostly urban population.</p><br>
<p>Mitla itself was inhabited at least since the Classic Period (100-650 CE) and perhaps from as early as 900 BCE.</p><br>
<p>Mitla was still occupied and functioning as the main religious center when the Spanish arrived in the 1520s. The high priest, called the Uija-tào, resided at Mitla, and the Spanish likened him to the pope. Nobles buried at Mitla were destined to become “cloud people” who would intercede on behalf of the population below. At that time the urban center covered an area of 1 to 2 square kilometers with suburban areas surrounding it. In the rural areas, intensive agriculture was practiced over an area of more than 20 km&sup2; to feed the city.</p><br>
<p>During the early colonial period, some of the best descriptions of the site come from the soldiers and missionaries who arrived first in the valley. One of the first to write formally about Mitla was Friar Toribio de Benavente Motolina in the mid 16th century. He states that the name meant “hell.” As the site held great political and religious significance for the area, most of the buildings suffered destruction, dismantling and sacking, with a few buildings spared. This destruction was ordered by Oaxacan Archbishop Albuquerque in 1553. The remains were used as building materials for churches, including the Church of San Pablo, which sits on top of part of the ruins. The north side of the Cathedral of Oaxaca also has design features from Mitla to symbolize the new religious order.</p><br>
<p>In the state of Oaxaca, Mitla is second in importance as an archeological site only to Monte Alban. Mitla has been the site of further excavations since the 1980s with important work done on the North Group as well as the colonial church around the start of the 20th century. For the bicentennial celebrations in 2010, INAH has been intensifying efforts to conserve the ancient ruins.</p><br>
<h2>Description of site</h2><br>
<p>Instead of being a group of pyramids on a hill, as at Monte Albán, Mitla is a group of constructions built on the valley floor, and it lacks the wide and far vistas of Monte Alban. The architecture is geared more for the comfort of the residents than for magnificence. The construction of Mitla as a ceremonial center began in 850, and the city was still being expanded when the Spaniards arrived and destroyed it. The oldest group of buildings has been dated to between 450 and 700 CE and shows architectural features similar to those found at the earlier Monte Alban. Mitla is one of the few sites that originated in the Classic period.</p><br>
<p>The construction of the stone walls appears to have been the same for all groups: a core of mud and stone covered with plaster or well-cut trachyte rock. Some of the large stones, such as those used as columns and lintels, weigh as much as 18 tons.</p><br>
<p>Today the archeological consists of five groups of buildings with a fence of cactus plants surrounding much of it. The five groups of constructions are called the South Group, the Adobe Group, the Arroyo Group, the Columns or Palace Group and the Church or North Group. All of the groups’ buildings are aligned with the cardinal directions. The South Group and the Adobe Group have been classified as ceremonial centers with central plazas surrounded by mound structures. The South, Columns and Church Groups have been classified as palaces with rooms surrounding square courtyards. The two best preserved groups are the Columns Group and the Church Group, both at the north end of the site.</p><br>
<p>The Columns Group and the Church Group were both fully excavated and restored by the early 1980s and are open to the public. Both consists of rectangular courtyards surrounded by one story rectangular buildings with long narrow rooms.</p><br>
<h3>Church Group</h3><br>
<p>The Church or North Group lies at the entrance to the site.</p><br>
<h3>Columns Group</h3><br>
<p>To the south of the Church Group is the Columns Group, whose main building is called the Palace. This group has two entrances to the outside that face south. The entrance room contains immense columns which support the roof. The north wall has a small opening facing the patio, supposedly for crossing into the afterlife. The main building is called the Palace or the Grand Hall of Columns. It measures 120 by and has six columns of volcanic stone that once supported the roof. After passing through a small corridor, access is gained to the courtyard, which is intricately decorated in mosaic fretwork and geometric designs. The north and east buildings of the group have elaborate tombs where high priests and Zapotec rulers were buried. In front of the stairs of the north building is a cross-shaped tomb with an antechamber. The ceiling has large beams made of stone and the walls are decorated with tablets and stone fretwork. The east building is characterized by a monolithic stone column which supports the roof.</p><br>
<h3>Friezes</h3><br>
<p>The main distinguishing feature of Mitla is the intricate mosaic fretwork and geometric designs that profusely adorn the walls of both the Church and Columns groups.</p><br>
<h2>Conservation of the site</h2><br>
<p>The two main concerns for the Mitla site are the eroding effects of wind, rain etc. and graffiti. Reconstruction projects planned or underway include, rebuilding the 17th century wall of a room used as a priests’ residence in the Church Group, laying stucco floors in the Columns Group, the sealing of platforms and fortifications walls, landscaping and the restoration of a colonial era rainwater collection tank. The last was the only one of its kind built in the valley during the colonial period.</p><br>
<p>Mitla is one of the sites to be included in a planned program called the Archeology Corridor of Oaxaca Valley (Corredor Arqueológico del Valle de Oaxaca) with goals of maintaining and restoring ruins as well as making the site more accessible for visitors. In addition, there are efforts to get the site of Mitla designated as a World Heritage site by archeologists such as Nelly Robles. It is listed on Mexico’s list of national heritage sites called the Lista Indicativa del Patromonio Nacional. The entry on the list includes the Mitla ruins along with the Tree of Tule and nearby caves which have paintings and show human habitation for 80,000 years.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>Mitla is the second most visited archeological site in the state of Oaxaca. The Mitla site is very important to the modern town of San Pablo Villa de Mitla, as tourist related activities support most of the economy, but many residents here feel that neither the site or the town is promoted sufficiently by the government. Authorities who administer the site state that tourism is rising. Most visitors are Mexicans who visit on weekends from Veracruz and Puebla states, and most foreigners who visit are European. On average 500 people per day visit the site.</p><br>
<p>The Pool Malebo, formerly Stanley Pool, also known as Lake Nkunda by local indigenous people in pre-colonial times, is a lake-like widening in the lower reaches of the Congo River. The former name Stanley Pool was named after early European explorer and journalist Henry Morton Stanley.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The Pool Malebo is about 35 km (22 mi) long, 23 km (14 mi) wide and 500 km in surface area. Its central part is occupied by M&#39;Bamou or Bamu Island (180 km), which is Republic of the Congo territory. The pool is shallow with depths of 3&ndash;10 m, while water levels vary by as much as 3 m over the course of a year at an average altitude of 272 m (900 ft).</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The capitals of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo&mdash;Kinshasa and Brazzaville, respectively&mdash;are located on opposite shores of Pool Malebo. These are the two closest capital cities in the world (other than Rome, Italy and Vatican City, which are actually contiguous).</p><br>
<p>The Pool is the beginning of the navigable part of the Congo River upstream to the cities of Mbandaka, Kisangani and Bangui. Downstream, the river descends hundreds of meters in a series of rapids known as the Livingstone Falls to reach sea level at the port of Boma after a trajectory of 300 km.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<h3>Flora</h3><br>
<p>There are many palm and papyrus swamps along the edges of the river and pool, and often movement of floating mats of Eichhornia plants.</p><br>
<h3>Fauna</h3><br>
<h4>Fish</h4><br>
<p>Most fish endemic to the area are catfishes, including the mountain catfish, L. brieni, Leptoglanis mandevillei, L. bouilloni and Atopochilus chabanaudi, an upside-down catfish. The area has over 200 fish species documented, with Mormyrids as the most common with over 40 species, and with the highest diversification.</p><br>
<p>The Dhaulagiri massif in Nepal extends 120 km from the Kaligandaki River west to the Bheri. This massif is bounded on the north and southwest by tributaries of the Bheri River and on the southeast by Myagdi Khola. Dhaulagiri I is the seventh highest mountain in the world at 8,167 m above sea level. It was first climbed on May 13, 1960 by a Swiss/Austrian/Nepali expedition.</p><br>
<p>The mountain&#39;s name is धौलागिरी (dhaulāgirī) in Nepali. This comes from Sanskrit where धवल (dhawala) means dazzling, white, beautiful and गिरि (giri) means mountain. Dhaulagiri I is also the highest point of the Gandaki river basin.</p><br>
<p>Annapurna I (8,091m/26,545 ft) is 34 km. east of Dhaulagiri I. The Kali Gandaki River flows between the two in the Kaligandaki Gorge, said to be the world&#39;s deepest. The town of Pokhara is south of the Annapurnas, an important regional center and the gateway for climbers and trekkers visiting both ranges as well as a tourist destination in its own right.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Looking north from the plains of India, most 8,000-metre peaks are obscured by nearer mountains, but in clear weather Dhaulagiri I is conspicuous from northern Bihar and as far south as Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. In 1808 A.D. survey computations showed it to be the highest mountain yet surveyed. This lasted until 1838 when Kangchenjunga took its place, followed by Mount Everest in 1858.</p><br>
<p>Dhaulagiri I&#39;s sudden rise from lower terrain is almost unequaled. It rises 7,000 m from the Kali Gandaki River 30 km to the southeast. The south and west faces rise precipitously over 4,000 m. The south face of Gurja Himal in the same massif is also notably immense.</p><br>
<h2>Dhaulagiri I climbing history</h2><br>
<p>Most ascents have followed the northeast ridge route of the first ascent, but climbs have been made from most directions. As of 2007 there had been 358 successful ascents and 58 fatalities.</p><br>
<p>Between 1950 and 2006, 2.88% of 2,016 expedition members and staff going above base camp on Dhaulagiri I died. On all 8,000 metre peaks in Nepal the death rate was 1.63%, ranging from 0.65% on Cho Oyu to 4.04% on Annapurna I and 3.05% on Manaslu.</p><br>
<h3>Partial timeline</h3><br>
<p>1950 – Dhaulagiri I reconnoitered by a French expedition led by Maurice Herzog. They do not see a feasible route and switch to Annapurna, where they make the first ascent of an 8000 m peak.</p><br>
<p>1953–1958 – Five expeditions attempt the north face, or "Pear Buttress", route.</p><br>
<p>1959 – Austrian expedition led by Fritz Moravec makes the first attempt on the northeast ridge.</p><br>
<p>1960 – Swiss-Austrian expedition led by Max Eiselin, successful ascent by Kurt Diemberger, Peter Diener, Ernst Forrer, Albin Schelbert, Nyima Dorje Sherpa, Nawang Dorje Sherpa on May 13. First Himalayan climb supported by a fixed-wing aircraft, which eventually crashed in Hidden Valley north of the mountain during takeoff and was abandoned.</p><br>
<p>1969 – American team led by Boyd Everett attempt southeast ridge; seven team members, including Everett, are killed in an avalanche.</p><br>
<p>1970 – second ascent, via the northeast ridge by a Japanese expedition led by Tokufu Ohta and Shoji Imanari. Tetsuji Kawada and Lhakpa Tenzing Sherpa reach the summit.</p><br>
<p>1973 – American team led by James Morrissey makes third ascent via the northeast ridge. Summit team: John Roskelley, Louis Reichardt, and Nawang Samden Sherpa.</p><br>
<p>1975 &ndash; Japanese team led by Takashi Amemiya attempts southwest ridge (also known as the south pillar). Six are killed in an avalanche.</p><br>
<p>1976 &ndash; Italian expedition makes the fourth ascent.</p><br>
<p>1977 &ndash; International team led by Reinhold Messner attempts the south face.</p><br>
<p>1978, spring: Amemiya returns with an expedition that puts five members on the summit via the southwest ridge—the first ascent not using the northeast ridge. One team member dies during the ascent.</p><br>
<p>1978, autumn – Seiko Tanaka of Japan leads successful climb of the very difficult southeast ridge. Four are killed during the ascent. French team attempts the southwest buttress (also called the "south buttress"), only reaches 7,200 m.</p><br>
<p>1980 – A four-man team consisting of Polish climbers Voytek Kurtyka, Ludwik Wiczyczynski, Frenchman René Ghilini and Scotsman Alex MacIntyre climb the east face, topping out at 7,500 m on the northeast ridge. After a bivouac they descend back to base camp in a storm. One week later they climb the mountain via the northeast ridge reaching the summit on May 18.</p><br>
<p>1981 – Yugoslav team reaches 7,950 m after putting up the first route on the true south face of the mountain, on the right side, connecting with the southeast ridge. They climb in alpine style but suffer four days of open bivouacs and six days without food before returning. Hironobu Kamuro of Japan reaches the summit alone, via the normal route.</p><br>
<p>1982, May 5 - Three members - Philip Cornelissen, Rudi Van Snick and Ang Rita Sherpa - of a Belgian-Nepali team reach the summit via the north-east ridge. A day later, four more climbers - Ang Jangbu Sherpa, Marnix Lefever, Lut Vivijs and Jan Vanhees - summit also. Vivijs becomes the first woman to reach the summit.</p><br>
<p>1982, 13 December - Two members (Akio Koizumi and Wangchu Shelpa) of Japanese team led by Jun Arima of the Academic Alpine Club of Hokkaido University reach the summit. By the world calendar, winter begins December 21, so this was not a winter but a very-late-autumn-climb. However the climb was done under a winter climbing permit, which the Nepali government issues for climbs beginning on or after December 1.</p><br>
<p>1984 – Three members of the Czechoslovakian expedition (Jan Simon, Karel Jakes, Jaromir Stejskal) climb the west face to the summit. Simon died during the descent.</p><br>
<p>1985 – Polish expedition including Jerzy Kukuczka climbs the normal route in winter, reaching the summit on January 21.</p><br>
<p>1986 – A mostly Polish expedition puts up a second south face route, on the left side of the face connecting with the southwest ridge route. They go above 7,500 m but do not reach the summit.</p><br>
<p>1988 – Soviet mountaineers Yuri Moiseev and Kazbek Valiev, in cooperation with Zoltan Demján of Czechoslovakia, succeed in climbing the southwest buttress. This 3,000-metre ascent, with difficult technical climbing at 6,800–7,300 m, was acknowledged as the year&#39;s best achievement at the UIAA Expedition Commission Conference.</p><br>
<p>1993 – Russian-British team puts up the direct north face route.</p><br>
<p>1998 – French climber Chantal Mauduit and Sherpa Ang Tshering die when an avalanche strikes their tent on the Northeast Ridge. On May 1 the Greek climber Nikolaos Papandreou is killed falling in a gorge. On October 2, the Greek Babis Tsoupras reaches the summit but does not return. The bodies of the Greek climbers were not found.</p><br>
<p>1999 – On October 24, British climber Ginette Harrison dies in an avalanche on Dhaulagiri. Days later, Slovenian Tomaž Humar climbs the south face solo but does not reach the summit. His ascent ended at 7,300 m due to a 300 m band of rotten rock. Humar traverses to the dangerous southeast ridge, re-enters the face briefly and exits at 8000 m for a descent on the northeast ridge. Dhaulagiri&#39;s south face is still unclimbed, making it one of the greatest remaining challenges in alpinism.</p><br>
<h2>Other peaks in the Dhaulagiri Himalaya</h2><br>
<p>† Only peaks above 7,200 m with more than 500 m of topographic prominence are ranked.</p><br>
<p>‡ The status of Churen Himal&#39;s three peaks is unclear and sources differ on their heights.</p><br>
<p>The coordinates, heights and prominence values above are derived from the Finnmap. The first ascent data is from Neate, but it is unclear if the first ascent of Churen Himal East was actually an ascent of the highest of the three peaks, as Neate lists Churen Himal Central as a 7,320 m subpeak of Churen Himal East.</p><br>
<p>Most of the named 7,000 metre peaks are on a ridge extending WNW, separated from Dhaulagiri I by 5,355m French Pass at 28°4655"N, 83°3154"E. In order they are Dhaulagiri II, III, V, IV, Junction Peak, Churens East, Central and West, Putha Hiunchuli and Hiunchuli Patan. False Junction Peak, Dhaulagiri VI and Gurja are on a ridge extending south from Junction Peak.</p><br>
<p>The British Alpine Club&#39;s</p><br>
<p>Himalayan Index lists 37 more peaks over 6,000 m.</p><br>
<p>6,182m Pota Himal (FinnMap sheet 2883-01 "Chhedhul Gumba") stands north of the main ridge between Churen and Putha Hiunchuli. Pota has been informally renamed Peak Hawley after Elizabeth Hawley, a notable expedition chronicler and Kathmandu-based reporter.</p><br>
<p>Hiunchuli Patan at the western end nearest the Bheri River is locally called Sisne or Murkatta Himal. It was an iconic landmark to insurgents based in Rukum and Rolpa districts during the 1996-2006 Nepal Civil War.</p><br>
<h3>Climbing history</h3><br>
<p>1954 – J. O. M. Roberts and Ang Nyima Sherpa climb Putha Hiunchuli, first major summit ascent in the range.</p><br>
<p>1955 – Dh.II attempted by J. O. M. Roberts and others</p><br>
<p>1959</p><br>
<p>Pre-monsoon and post-monsoon reconnaissances of Dh.II by Japanese expeditions.</p><br>
<p>Hangde 6556m in Mukut section attempted.</p><br>
<p>1962</p><br>
<p>Churen attempt from north by Japanese Nihon University expedition. Climbed Hangde (~6600m), Tongu (~6250m), P6265 during approach/acclimation through Hidden Valley; also Kantokal (~6500m) north of Putha Hiunchili.</p><br>
<p>Churen and Dh.VI attempt from south by J. O. M. Roberts, thinking he was on Dh.IV due to inaccurate maps. Climbed a lower peak (6,529m) near Gurja, naming it Ghustang after the stream draining the cirque they climbed in.</p><br>
<p>1963</p><br>
<p>Dh.II attempt by Austrian expedition, reaching 7,000m</p><br>
<p>Dh.III attempt</p><br>
<p>1965</p><br>
<p>Japanese expedition to Dh.II delayed two months by heavy snow in approach passes. Lost two porters to avalanche, then another porter was injured in a fall and needed evacuation. This left too little food to continue.</p><br>
<p>J. O. M. Roberts leads British R.A.F. expedition to Dh.VI, still believing it was Dh.IV. Defeated by late monsoon, then early winter storms creating excessive avalanche risk.</p><br>
<p>1969</p><br>
<p>Dh.IV attempt by Austrian Alpine Club. Five Austrians and one Nepali disappear, may have summited.</p><br>
<p>Gurja climbed by Japanese expedition.</p><br>
<p>First authorized ascents of Tukuche 6920m and Tukuche West 6800m.</p><br>
<p>1970</p><br>
<p>Japan&#39;s Kansai Mountaineering Club unsuccessful on Dh.IV in April but climbed Dh.VI and False Junction Peak.</p><br>
<p>Korean expedition claims they summited Churen East on April 29. Questioned by same year Japanese expedition, see next.</p><br>
<p>Japanese expedition climbs Churen Central and Churen West on October 24.</p><br>
<p>1971</p><br>
<p>First ascent of Dh.II on May 18 by German expedition.</p><br>
<p>Dh.IV attempt</p><br>
<p>Dh.V attempted by pre- and post-monsoon Japanese expeditions. Both ended by fatal accidents.</p><br>
<p>1972 – Dh.IV attempted twice by Japanese expeditions. First attempt abandoned when a climber fell ill and died at 6200m. Second expedition climbed via crest from west, found route too long at high elevation (7,000m+). Climbed Dh.VI and Junction Peak.</p><br>
<p>1973</p><br>
<p>first ascent of Dh.III on October 20 by German expedition.</p><br>
<p>Dh.IV attempted by Austrians who reached 7250m on N face, then by British who quit after two deaths.</p><br>
<p>1974</p><br>
<p>Dh.IV attempt by British R.A.F. expedition abandoned after three Sherpas killed by falling ice.</p><br>
<p>In Mukut section: ascents of Parbat Rinchen 6200m, Parbat Talpari 6248m, West Himparkhal 6248m, East Himparkhal 6227m, Tashi Kang III 6157m</p><br>
<p>1975</p><br>
<p>Dh.IV climbed May 9 by S. Kawazu and E. Yusuda, who died on descent, bringing death toll on Dh.IV to 14. (Compared with 13 deaths on Mount Everest before it was successfully climbed in 1953.) Another Japanese expedition in October puts ten on summit without loss of life.</p><br>
<p>Dh.V climbed by M. Morioka and Pembu Tsering Sherpa on Japanese expedition.</p><br>
<p>1979 – Japanese traverse Dh.II, III and V along 7,150m+ crest. Expedition led by a woman.</p><br>
<p>2008 First ascent of Peak Hawley (AKA Pota Himal). Solo climb by François Damilano following expedition climb of Putha Hiunchuli.</p><br>
<p>2013 First ascent of Hiunchuli Patan (known locally as Sisne or Murkatta Himal). Nepalese expedition led by Man Bahadur Khatri.</p><br>
<p>Lake Sakakawea is a reservoir in the north central United States, located in the Missouri River basin in central North Dakota. Named for the Shoshone-Hidatsa woman Sakakawea, it is the largest man-made lake in the state and the third largest in the nation, after Lake Mead and Lake Powell.</p><br>
<p>The lake lies in parts of six counties in western North Dakota: Dunn, McKenzie, McLean, Mercer, Mountrail, and Williams. A map centered on the Van Hook Arm 47&deg;53&prime;00&Prime;N latitude, 102&deg;21&prime;14&Prime;W longitude of the lake shows its westward extent from its origin at the Garrison Dam.</p><br>
<p>It is located about 50 mi from the state capital of Bismarck; the distance by the Missouri River is about 75 mi. The lake averages between 2 – in width and is 14 mi wide at its widest point (Van Hook Arm). Lake Sakakawea marks the maximum southwest extent of glaciation during the ice age.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The reservoir was created by construction of Garrison Dam, part of a flood control and power generation project named the Pick-Sloan Project along the Missouri river.</p><br>
<p>Garrison dam was completed in 1956. It is the second (and largest) of six main-stem dams on the Missouri River built and managed by the USA Army Corps of Engineers for flood control, hydroelectric power, navigation, and irrigation.</p><br>
<p>The creation of the lake displaced members of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation from their villages of Van Hook and (Old) Sanish, which were inundated by creation of the lake. They relocated and founded the villages of New Town, White Shield, and Mandaree. One name that had been proposed for New Town was Vanish (a portmanteau of the two previous towns&#39; names). Elbowoods, a third reservation town where the agency headquarters, boarding school, hospital, and jail were located, was also lost to the lake. These three towns are commemorated in the names of the three campground sections at Lake Sakakawea State Park, a state park located adjacent to Garrison Dam.</p><br>
<p>Lake Sakakawea is home to many summer camps, including Triangle Y Camp and Camp of the Cross.</p><br>
<p>During a training flight in winter 1969, a USA Air Force interceptor aircraft crashed into the western portion of the lake on March 10. The (59-0014) The pilot ejected safely to land and the plane sank below the frozen lake surface. It was not located until more than 35 years later, in September 2004, after an extended search by a local surveyors&#39; group.</p><br>
<h2>Statistics</h2><br>
<p>Maximum water storage: 23,800,000 acre.ft</p><br>
<p>Maximum water depth: 180 ft at the face of the dam</p><br>
<p>Normal surface area: 307,000 acres</p><br>
<p>Normal length: 178 mi</p><br>
<p>Normal shoreline: 1,320 mi</p><br>
<p>Manaslu  is the eighth highest mountain in the world at 8,163 m above sea level. It is located in the Mansiri Himal, part of the Nepalese Himalayas, in the west-central part of Nepal. Its name, which means "mountain of the spirit", comes from the Sanskrit word manasa, meaning "intellect" or "soul". Manaslu was first climbed on May 9, 1956 by Toshio Imanishi and Gyalzen Norbu, members of a Japanese expedition. It is said that "just as the British consider Everest their mountain, Manaslu has always been a Japanese mountain".</p><br>
<p>Manaslu is the highest peak in the Gorkha District and is located about 64 km east of Annapurna. The mountain&#39;s long ridges and valley glaciers offer feasible approaches from all directions, and culminate in a peak that towers steeply above its surrounding landscape, and is a dominant feature when viewed from afar.</p><br>
<p>The Manaslu region offers a variety of trekking options. The popular Manaslu trekking route of 177 km, skirts the Manaslu massif over the pass down to Annapurna. The Nepalese Government only permitted trekking of this circuit in 1991. The trekking trail follows an ancient salt-trading route along the Burhi Gandak River. En route, 10 peaks over 6,500 m are visible, including a few over 7,000 m. The highest point reached along the trek route is the Larkya La at an elevation of 5,106 m. As of May 2008, the mountain has been climbed 297 times with 53 fatalities.</p><br>
<p>The Manaslu Conservation Area has been established with the primary objective of achieving conservation and sustainable management of the delimited area, which includes Manaslu.</p><br>
<h2>General</h2><br>
<p>Set in the northern Himalayan range in the Gorkha District of Nepal, Manaslu is a serrated "wall of snow and ice hanging in the sky". The three sides of the mountain fall in steps to terraces down below, which are sparsely inhabited with agricultural operations practiced on the land. Apart from climbing Manaslu, trekking is popular in this mountain region, as part of the Manaslu Circuit, a notable path by trekkers in Nepal.</p><br>
<p>The Manaslu Conservation Area, declared as such in December 1998 under the National Parks and Wild Life Conservation Act, subsumes Manaslu within it. The area covered under the conservation zone is 1,663 km&sup2; and is managed by the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) of Nepal. The status of "conservation area" applied to the Manaslu area or region was with the basic objective "To conserve and sustainable management of the natural resources and rich cultural heritage and to promote ecotourism to improve livelihood of the local people in the MCA region."</p><br>
<p>Manaslu Himal, as it is popularly known among trekkers, provides views of the snow-covered mountains of the Himalayas and allows close interaction with the different ethnic groups who live in hill villages scattered along the trek route.</p><br>
<p>The trekking route is through mountainous terrain prone to the consequences of monsoon rainfall, land slides and land falls. Encounters with passing yaks, and hypothermia and altitude sickness, are common. Trekking to Manaslu is thus a test of endurance.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The region, which is also termed the Manaslu Conservation Area, comprises sub-tropical Himalayan foothills to arid Trans-Himalayan high pastures bordering Tibet. Starting from Arughat and extending into the Larkhe La pass, the area covers six climatic zones: the tropical and sub-tropical zone, elevation varies from 1,000 -; the temperate zone (within elevation range of 2,000 -; the sub-alpine zone elevation range of 3,000 -; the alpine zone, a range of 4,000 -) meadows; and the arctic zone (lying above 4,500 m). The zones coalesce with the variation of the altitude from about 600 m in the tropical zone to the 8,156 m summit of Manaslu in the arctic zone.</p><br>
<p>Manaslu is known in the Tibetan language as "Kutan l", in which "tang" means the Tibetan word for a flat place. It is a very large peak with an elevation of 8,156 m (the world’s eighth highest mountain). In view of its favourable topography of long ridges and glacial valleys, Manaslu offers several routes to mountaineers. Important peaks surrounding Manaslu include Ngadi Chuli, Himalchuli and Baudha. A glacial saddle known as Larkya La, with an elevation of 5,106 m, lies north of Manaslu. The peak is bounded on the east by the Ganesh Himal and the Buri Gandaki River gorge, on the west by the deep fissures of the Marysyangdi Khola with its Annapurna range of hills, to the south is the Gorkha town at the foot of the hill (from where trekking operates during the season), which is an aerial distance of 48 km to the peak. There are six established trek routes to the peak, and on the mountain the south face is reportedly the most difficult for climbing.</p><br>
<p>The permanent snow line is reckoned above 5,000 m elevation. Precipitation in the area is both from snowfall and rainfall; the average annual rainfall is about 1,900 mm mostly during the monsoon period, which extends from June to September. The temperatures in the area also vary widely with the climatic zone: in the subtropical zone, the average summer and winter temperatures vary in the range of 31 - and 8 - respectively; in the temperate climatic zone, the summer temperatures are 22 - and winter temperatures are -2 - when snow and frost are also experienced; in the subalpine zone, during December to May snowfall generally occurs and the mean annual temperature is 6 -. The arctic zone is distinct and falls within the permanent snow line; there, the temperatures lie much below freezing zone.</p><br>
<p>There are other major peaks in the region, namely Himalchuli (7,893 m.a.s.l), Ngadi Chuli (7,871 m.a.s.l), Shringi (7,187 m.a.s.l), Langpo (6,668 m.a.s.l) and Saula (6,235 m.a.s.l)</p><br>
<h2>Ecosystem</h2><br>
<p>Unlike many other regions, this valley is a sanctuary to many highly endangered animals, including snow leopards and Red pandas. Other mammals include lynx, Asian black bear, grey wolf, dhole, Assam macaque, Himalayan musk deer, blue sheep, Himalayan tahr, mainland serow, Himalayan goral, woolly hare, horseshoe bat, Himalayan mouse-hare and black-lipped pika. Over 110 species of birds, 33 mammals, 11 butterflies and 3 reptiles have been recorded. Conservation of wild life in the area has been achieved by monks of the monasteries in the area by putting a hunting ban in place. This action has helped the wildlife to prosper. The area is now an important habitat for the snow leopard, grey wolf, musk deer, blue sheep and the Himalayan tahr.</p><br>
<p>A total of 110 species of birds have been identified in the area, including golden eagle, Eurasian griffon, Himalayan griffon, blood, impeyan, kalij and koklass pheasants, Himalayan and Tibetan snow cocks and the crimson horned pheasant.</p><br>
<p>Three main categories of vegetation have been identified in the area. These are categorised on the basis of the altitude as Low hill, Middle mountain and High mountain types with its exclusive types of dominant forests and other associated species. The types of vegetation, however, tend to overlap the adjoining ones at places. Depending on the microclimate and other aspects, an overlap of vegetation is noticed in adjacent areas. However, the forest types are fairly well defined. The flora in different forest types also does not show much variation. The valley basin has a rich ecotone diversity and includes nineteen different types of forests, most prominently rhododendron, and also Himalayan blue pine, which is flanked by Ganesh Himal and the Sringi ranges. Medicinal herbs and aromatic plants, have also been recorded in different forests types and adjoining vegetation. Overall, the presence of 19 types of forests and other forms of dominant vegetation have been recorded from the area. An estimated 1,500–2,000 plant species grow here.</p><br>
<h2>Ethnic groups</h2><br>
<p>There are two ethnicities mainly inhabiting this region; Nubri and Tsum. The branching off of the river at Chhikur divides these two ethnic domains. While Nubri has been frequently visited after Nepal opened itself for the tourism in 1950, Tsum still retains much of its traditional culture, art, and tradition. In the central hills of the region, Gurungs are the main ethnic group who have joined the Brigade of Gurkhas in large numbers. Closer to Tibet, the Bhutias (also spelled Bhotias), akin to the Sherpa group, of Tibetan ethnicity dominate the scene as can be discerned from their flat roofed houses, and they are distinctly Buddhists. The region is dotted with austere monasteries, mani walls, chortens and other Buddhist religious landmarks.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In 1950, H. W. Tilman was the first European to lead an expedition to the Annapurna Range with a small party of five compatriots. They walked on foot from the Kathmandu valley (six days of trekking from the valley), and using Manang as their base camp they started exploring the mountain ranges, peaks and valleys of the Annapurna massif. During this exploration, while making a reconnaissance of the higher reaches of the Dudh Khola, they clearly saw Manaslu from Bumtang. Three months later, after their aborted trip to Annapurna IV, Tilman, accompanied by Major J. O. M. Roberts, trekked to Larkya La pass and from there saw Manaslu and its plateau and concluded that there was a direct route to the summit, although they did not make an attempt on it.</p><br>
<p>After the reconnaissance visit by Tilman, there were four Japanese expeditions between 1950 and 1955 that explored the possibility of climbing Manaslu by the north and east faces.</p><br>
<p>In 1952, a Japanese reconnaissance party visited the area after the monsoon season. In the following year (1953), a team of 15 climbers led by Y. Mita, after setting up base camp at Samagaon, attempted to climb via the east side but failed to reach the summit. In this first attempt by a Japanese team to summit via the north-east face, three climbers reached a height of 7,750 m, before turning back.</p><br>
<p>In 1954, a Japanese team approaching from the Buri Gandaki route to the peak faced a hostile group of villagers at Samagaon camp. The villagers thought that the previous expeditions had displeased the gods, causing the avalanches that destroyed the Pung-gyen Monastery and the death of 18 people. As a result of this hostility, the team made a hasty retreat to Ganesh Himal. To appease local sentiments, a large donation was made to rebuild the monastery. However, this philanthropic act did not ease the atmosphere of distrust and hostility towards Japanese expeditions. Even the expedition in 1956 which successfully climbed the mountain faced this situation and as a result the next Japanese expedition only took place in 1971.</p><br>
<p>In 1956, Toshio Imanishi (Japan) and Gyaltsen Norbu (Sherpa) made the first ascent of Manaslu on May 9, 1956. The Japanese expedition was led by Maki Yūkō, also known as Aritsune Maki.</p><br>
<p>In 1956, David Snellgrove, a noted scholar in Tibetan culture and religion, undertook a seven-month sojourn of mid-west and central Nepal. The route that he followed, accompanied by three Nepalese people, was via Bumtang and Buri Gandaki river and crossing over to the Larkya La.</p><br>
<p>The next successful climb to the summit of Manaslu was in 1971. On May 17, 1971, Kazuharu Kohara and Motoki, part of an 11-man Japanese team, reached the summit via the north-west spur. Also in 1971, Kim Ho-sup led a Korean expedition attempt via the north-east face. Kim Ki-Sup fell to his death on May 4.</p><br>
<p>In 1972, the south-west face was climbed for the first time by an Austrian expedition led by Wolfgang Nairz. In 1972 only, the Koreans attempted the north-east face. On April 10, an avalanche buried their camp at 6,500 m, killing fifteen climbers including ten Sherpas and the Korean expedition leader Kim Ho-sup, and Kazunari Yasuhisa from Japan. On April 22, 1973, Gerhard Schmatz, Sigi Hupfauer and a Sherpa climber reached the summit via the north-east face. In the same year, a Spanish expedition led by Jaume Garcia Orts could reach only to 6,100 m. The first Japanese women expedition led by Kyoko Sato was successful on May 4, 1974, when all members reached the summit after a failed attempt from the East ridge. They were thus the first women team (Naoko Nakaseko, Masako Uchida, Mieko Mori) with Jambu Sherpa to climb an 8,000 m peak. However, one climber died on May 5 when she fell between camps 4 and 5.</p><br>
<p>In the pre-monsoon period of 1980, a South Korean team led by Li In Jung reached the summit via the normal route, which was the eighth ascent to the peak. The year 1981 marked several expeditions: the largest contingent of 13 climbers of a team organized by the Sport-Eiselin of Zurich led by H. V. Kaenel, made it to the summit along the normal route; in autumn, French mountaineers opened a new route, a variation of the west face route; and a Japanese team, led by Y. Kato, made an ascent via the normal route. In 1983, two climbers from Yugoslavia, trying to climb the peak from the south face, were buried under an avalanche. One of them was Nejc Zaplotnik, a notable climber of Slovenian origin. A Korean team reached the summit in the autumn of the same year. A German team led by G. Harter was successful in climbing the peak via the south face, which followed the "1972 Tyrolean Route".</p><br>
<p>During the winter of 1983–84, a Polish team led by L. Korniszewski successfully followed the Tyrolean Route. In the spring season of 1984, a Yugoslav team led by A. Kunaver climbed the peak via the south face. During the same year, in autumn, Polish teams climbed the south ridge and south-east face. On January 12, 1984, Maciej Berbeka and Ryszard Gajewski of a Polish expedition made the first winter ascent via the normal route. On November 10, 1986, Jerzy Kukuczka and Artur Hajzer reached the summit via a new route, in Alpine style, with no supplementary oxygen. Before that both Kukuczka and Hajzer, and Carlos Carsolio made the first climb of the east summit of Manaslu.</p><br>
<p>In 1986, a joint team from Poland and Mexico led by Kukuczka opened a new route along the east ridge, descending via the north-east face.</p><br>
<p>On May 2, 1993, Sepp Brunner, Gerhard Floßmann, Sepp Hinding and Dr. Michael Leuprecht reached the summit via the normal route and descended on skis from 7,000 m to the basecamp. The Austrian expedition was led by Arthur Haid. On December 8, 1995, Anatoli Boukreev summited Manaslu with the Second Kazakhstan Himalaya Expedition. On May 12, 1996, Carlos Carsolio and his younger brother Alfredo, reached the summit of Manaslu. For Carsolio it was his fourteenth and final eight-thousander, becoming the fourth person in history and the youngest to achieve the feat. In 1997, Charlie Mace made the first American ascent.</p><br>
<p>During the spring of 2000, there were four expeditions to Manaslu. One climb was on the east face by the Japan 2000 Expedition led by Yoshio Maruyama. The other three were on the north-east ridge: the ETB 2000 Expedition of Spain led by Felix Maria I. Iriate; the 2000 Korean Manaslu Expedition of Korea led by Han Wang Yong; and the Manaslu 2000 Expedition from Italy led by Franco Brunello. On May 22, 2001, a three-member team of Ukraine Himalaya 2001 Expedition comprising Serguiy Kovalov, Vadim Leontiev and Vladislav Terzyul successfully summited Manaslu via the challenging south-east face; all climbed without oxygen support. During the autumn of 2001, three members and a sherpa of the Japan Workers Alpine Federation climbed the peak via the north-east face on October 9, 2001.</p><br>
<p>On May 13, 2002, five Americans, Tom Fitzsimmons, Jerome Delvin, Michael McGuffin, Dan Percival and Brian Sato and two Sherpas reached the summit.</p><br>
<p>Piotr Pustelnik and Krzysztof Tarasewicz climbed Manaslu on May 17, 2003. However, Dariusz Zaluski, Anna Czerwinska and Barbara Drousek, who started the climb after Piotr and Krzysztof, had to turn back due to strong winds and bad weather. With this ascent Pustelnik has summited 12 of the world&#39;s 14 highest peaks (Broad Peak and Annapurna are left).</p><br>
<p>On May 29, 2006, Australian mountaineer Sue Fear died after falling into a crevasse on her descent after summitting. In 2008, Valerie Parkinson was the first British woman to climb Manaslu.</p><br>
<p>In 2011 Arjun Vajpai an Indian mountaineer summitted Manaslu on the 5th of October and became the youngest climber in the world to have summitted Manaslu at the age of 18.</p><br>
<p>Eleven climbers were killed in an avalanche on September 23, 2012.</p><br>
<p>September 25, 2014 – Polish ski-mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel set a record time from base camp to summit at 14 hours 5 minutes and also record time for base-peak-base of 21 hours 14 minutes.</p><br>
<p>Traditionally, the "spring" or " pre-monsoon" season, is the least hazardous for bad weather, snowfall and avalanches. Manaslu is one of the more risky 8000ers to climb: as of May 2008, there have been 297 ascents of Manaslu and 53 deaths on the mountain, making it "the 4th most dangerous 8000m peak, behind Annapurna, Nanga Parbat, and K2."</p><br>
<h2>Trekking in the region</h2><br>
<p>The Manaslu region offers a variety of trekking options. The Manaslu Circuit Trek now usually starts in Arughat Bazaar and ends two to three weeks later in Besisahar, the starting point of the Annapurna Circuit Trek. Until recently the trek required camping, but building of tea-houses means the trek can be completed using local accommodation. The trek requires a Restricted Area Permit of $50 per week and that trekkers travel in a group of two with a registered guide. The trek lies on the newly developed Great Himalaya Trail.</p><br>
<p>The trek follows an ancient salt–trading route along the steep sided Budhi Gandaki river. From Deng, the slopes of ravines ease and views of snow peaks start appearing from Ligaon. Further from Lhogaon, an impressive view of Manaslu, with its double peak, appears described as "a soaring monarch with a double-edged summit towering above fields of barley".</p><br>
<p>The route follows the pine-forested Syala village, which has the backdrop of many horseshoe-shaped peaks, and reaches the village of Samagaon (Sama) at the foot of Manaslu. There is a Buddhist monastery at Samagaon, where monks and nuns reside. After half a day’s trek from Samagaon, the village of Samdo is reached. Samdo is the highest village in the Budhi Gandaki valley and is inhabited by Bhotias. This village commands a view of the valley and Pang Phuchi village with a backdrop of the Tibetan border. Further trekking leads along a major secondary valley to the Larkha La. Along this route, Cheo Himal, Himlung Himal and Kang Guru are seen, along with occasional views of the Annapurna massif. From here, the meadowland of Bimtang (Bimdakhoti) at elevation 1,500 m is reached, from where Manaslu is clearly visible. From Manaslu, the circuit passes through Dudh Khola (a tributary of Marsyangdi river), criss-crosses Marsyangdi River before reaching Bhulbule, Tarukha Ghat, crosses the Chepe Khola and Dorandi Khola before returning to Gorkha.</p><br>
<p>Two alternative routes are also popular. One is on the Annapurna trail but leaves it at Dharapani to reach Manang, crossing Thorong La and Jomsom (Kali Gandaki valley). From Jomsom flights depart to Pokhara. The other alternative route is from Bhulbule, crossing Marsyangdi to Khudi, divert from Annapurna trail and trek cross country through valleys and ridges to Sisuwa town on the bank of Begnas Tal. From here a road approach is available to Pokhara.</p><br>
<p>When trekking through the Manaslu region, ten peaks of over 6,500 m in height are visible, including peaks of over 7,000 m elevation. People add Tsum Valley and the Ganesh Himal Base Camp as acclimatization trips before going on expeditions through the high passes. The Tsum region, which was restricted for tourists for a long time, is now the centre of attraction for intrepid trekkers, with the government of Nepal recently opening it for group tourists. In order to retain its pristine culture and sustain its fragile ecosystem, the Tsum Welfare Committee is involved in the promotion of responsible tourism in Tsum. However, local participation for sustainable tourism is still a challenging task with a long road ahead.</p><br>
<h2>Area development project</h2><br>
<p>Under loan funds provided by the Asian Development Bank, the government of Nepal has an infrastructure project titled "Manaslu Eco-tourism Development Project" under implementation. The objective is to improve the capacity of the Manaslu area to support tourism in an environmentally benign manner.</p><br>
<p>Atlasov Island, known in Russian as Ostrov Atlasova , or in Japanese as Araido , is the northernmost island and volcano and also the highest volcano of the Kuril islands, part of the Sakhalin Oblast in Russia. The Russian name is sometimes rendered in English as Atlasova Island. Other names for the island include Uyakhuzhach, Oyakoba and Alaid, the name of the volcano on the island.</p><br>
<p>The island is named after Vladimir Atlasov, a 17th-century Russian explorer who incorporated the nearby Kamchatka Peninsula into Russia. It is essentially the cone of a submarine volcano called Vulkan Alaid protruding above the Sea of Okhotsk to a height of 2,339 m. The island has an area of 119 km&sup2, but is currently uninhabited. Numerous pyroclastic cones dot the lower flanks of basaltic to basaltic andesite volcano, particularly on the NW and SE sides, including an offshore cone formed during the 1933–34 eruption.</p><br>
<p>Its near perfect shape gave rise to many legends about the volcano among the peoples of the region, such as the Itelmens and Kuril Ainu. The Russian scientist Stepan Krasheninnikov was told the story that it was once a mountain in Kamchatka, but the neighbouring mountains became jealous of its beauty and exiled it to the sea, leaving behind Kurile Lake in southern Kamchatka. Geographically, this story is not without evidence, as after the last Ice Age most of the icecaps melted, raising the world&#39;s water level, and possibly submerging a landbridge to the volcano.</p><br>
<p>Following the transfer of the Kuril Islands to Japan by the Treaty of St Petersburg, 1875, Oyakoba as it is called by the Japanese, became the northernmost island of the empire and subject of much aesthetic praise, described in haiku, ukiyo-e, etc.</p><br>
<p>Ito Osamu (1926) described it as more exquisitely shaped than Mount Fuji.</p><br>
<p>Administratively this island belongs to the Sakhalin Oblast of the Russian Federation.</p><br>
<p>The is Germany&#39;s biggest karst spring, producing an average of 8,500 litres per second. Production varies seasonally and in response to the weather, but the spring never runs dry. The Aachtopf is a karst spring which is located south of the western end of the Swabian Jura, near the town Aach.</p><br>
<p>The name Aachtopf is compounded from Aach (meaning water in Old High German); the name of the river created by the spring is in full the Radolfzeller Aach. Topf can be translated as bowl and is commonly used for round, bowl-shaped springs. The Radolfzeller Aach flows southward into Lake Constance, which empties into the Rhine.</p><br>
<p>The spring marks the southern end of a cave system which transports water from the western end of the Swabian Jura. Most of the water is derived from the River Danube and is obtained where the latter river disappears underground at the Donauversickerung (Danube Sinkhole) near Immendingen and Fridingen. Strangely, the Danube flows eastwards into the Black Sea, whereas the Rhine flows northwards to the North Sea. Therefore, the water of the Aach flows under the European continental divide. This is a relatively common feature of karst stream captures.</p><br>
<p>The karst spring is connected to a huge cave, which runs northwards. The cave is completely water-filled and can only be explored by cave divers. The first exploration was made by Jochen Hasenmayer, a famous German cave diver. A collapse blocks the cave after a few hundred metres. The cave may continue for several kilometres beyond the other</p><br>
<p>side of the blockage. A local caving club was formed to find this "lost cave segment" by digging a shaft behind the collapse. At present, a continuation of the cave has not been found.</p><br>
<p>The Aachtopf is a popular romantic weekend destination. It is not possible to see the cave because it is underwater and cave diving is extremely dangerous.</p><br>
<p>The only known cavefish in Europe, a Barbatula loach, was discovered in the Danube—Aachtopf system in 2015.</p><br>
<p>The Drum Barracks, also known as Camp Drum and the Drum Barracks Civil War Museum, is the last remaining original American Civil War era military facility in the Los Angeles area. Located in the Wilmington section of Los Angeles, near the Port of Los Angeles, it has been designated as a California Historic Landmark, a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Since 1987, it has been operated as a Civil War museum that is open to the public.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>With the outbreak of the American Civil War in April 1861, there were concerns on the Union side about the loyalty and security of the Los Angeles area. Many of the areas residents were recent arrivals from the Southern states, and southerner John C. Breckinridge received twice as many local votes as Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 Presidential election. A company of secessionists was also holding public drills in El Monte, California, displaying Californias Bear flag instead of the Stars and Stripes.</p><br>
<p>Phineas Banning, the founder of Wilmington (then known as New San Pedro), wrote a letter to President Lincoln advising that the Union would lose California unless some provision was made to quell pro-Confederacy sentiment. Initially, the Union moved a garrison from Fort Tejon to Camp Latham near Culver City, California. Later in 1861, Banning and Benjamin Davis Wilson, the first mayor of Los Angeles, donated 60 acre in Wilmington to the government for one dollar each for use in construction of a Union garrison. By January 1862, the military command had moved from Camp Latham to Camp Drum in Wilmington, and by March 1862, all but one company of Camp Latham&#39;s troops had been moved to Camp Drum. The camp was built between 1862 and 1863 at a cost of $1 million and consisted of 19 buildings located on 60 acre in Wilmington with another 37 acre near the harbor. By March 1864, official letters and papers referred to the encampment as Drum Barracks rather than Camp Drum.</p><br>
<p>Camp Drum and Drum Barracks get their name from Col. Richard Coulter Drum, then Assistant Adjutant General of the Army&#39;s Department of the Pacific, stationed in San Francisco, and not after a percussion instrument. There is no record that Col. Drum ever saw or set foot in the station bearing his name.</p><br>
<p>During the Civil War, Camp Drum was the headquarters of the District of Southern California and the home to the California Column, commanded by Colonel James Henry Carleton. Between 2,000 and 7,000 soldiers were stationed at Camp Drum, and Wilmington became a thriving community with a population greater than Los Angeles during the war.</p><br>
<p>In 1862, Texas Volunteers had taken control of large portions of New Mexico Territory (which included present-day Arizona) for the Confederacy, and Colonel Carleton was ordered to retake control of the territory. Approximately 2,350 soldiers from the California Column marched from Camp Drum and fought the Battle of Picacho Pass, the westernmost battle of the Civil War.</p><br>
<p>In 1864, the federal government feared attempts by Confederate sympathizers to outfit privateers to sink ships carrying gold and silver from the Comstock Lode to aid the Union. To deprive them of an anchorage, Company C, 4th California Infantry under Captain West, occupied Catalina Island on January 1, 1864, and put an end to gold mining by ordering everyone off the island. A small garrison of Union troops were stationed at Camp Santa Catalina Island on the isthmus on the island&#39;s west end for about nine months. Their barracks remain as the oldest structure on the island in the Two Harbors area and are currently the home of the Isthmus Yacht Club.</p><br>
<p>Camp Drum also served as a deterrent to Confederate sympathizers in the Los Angeles area, helped keep the territory loyal to the Union, and prevented Confederate use of the Los Angeles harbor.</p><br>
<p>After the Civil War, Camp Drum remained active for several years in the Indian Wars. By 1870, it had been deactivated and fallen into disrepair. In October 1871, the Los Angeles Star reported that all remaining troops at Drum Barracks had been ordered to Fort Yuma.</p><br>
<p>In 1873, the government returned the land to Banning and Wilson after auctioning off the buildings. Banning bought five of the buildings for $2,917, and Wilson bought one for $200.</p><br>
<h2>Historic designations, preservation and use as a museum</h2><br>
<p>In 1927, the Drum Barracks was designated a historic monument by the Native Sons of the Golden West, and in 1935 it was officially designated as California Historic Landmark #169. With the formation of the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission in 1962, Drum Barracks was one of the first sites designated as a Historic Cultural Landmark (HCM #21), receiving the monument designation in 1963. It was also designated as and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.</p><br>
<p>In 1963, the owner of the property offered the property for sale, and concerns arose about its potential demolition. Under the leadership of Walter Holstein, local residents formed The Society for The Preservation of Drum Barracks, raising funds to purchase the property. In 1967, under the leadership of Oliver Vickery, curator of the Banning House, and Joan Lorenzen, the State of California purchased the Drum Barracks, with the Society retaining responsibility for maintenance and operation of the barracks as a historic site. In 1986, the State turned over the property to the City of Los Angeles on the condition that it be operated as a Civil War museum.</p><br>
<p>The surviving 16-room structure was the officers quarters, which was once one of 19 similar buildings on the site. Today, the barracks is open as a museum which commemorates Californias contribution to the Civil War.</p><br>
<h2>Disturbances</h2><br>
<p>The surviving building holds a local reputation as the locale of various paranormal activity, with visitors and local residents claiming to hear the sound of rattling chains or wagon wheels and horses hooves, seeing smoke (presumably from soldiers pipes), spotting apparitions of a woman in a hoop skirt, and smelling a strong lavender violet perfume. The Drum Barracks was profiled on Unsolved Mysteries in the early 1990s in a segment called Civil War Ghosts. Some of the people interviewed in that segment claimed to have seen apparitions of Civil War soldiers. In 2005 the Barracks was featured in an episode of Most Haunted.</p><br>
<p>Gasherbrum I , surveyed as K5 and also known as Hidden Peak, is the 11th highest mountain in the world at 8,080 m above sea level. It is located on the Pakistani–Chinese border in Gilgit–Baltistan region of Pakistan and Xinjiang region of China. Gasherbrum I is part of the Gasherbrum massif, located in the Karakoram region of the Himalaya. Gasherbrum is often claimed to mean "Shining Wall", presumably a reference to the highly visible face of the neighboring peak Gasherbrum IV; but in fact it comes from "rgasha"  + "brum"  in Balti, hence it actually means "beautiful mountain."</p><br>
<p>Gasherbrum I was designated K5 (meaning the 5th peak of the Karakoram) by T.G. Montgomerie in 1856 when he first spotted the peaks of the Karakoram from more than 200 km away during the Great Trigonometric Survey of India. In 1892, William Martin Conway provided the alternate name, Hidden Peak, in reference to its extreme remoteness.</p><br>
<p>Gasherbrum I was first climbed on July 5, 1958 by Pete Schoening and Andy Kauffman of an eight-man American expedition led by Nicholas B. Clinch. Richard K. Irvin, Tom Nevison, Tom McCormack, Bob Swift and Gil Roberts were also members of the team.</p><br>
<h2>Timeline</h2><br>
<p>1934 - A large international expedition, organized by the Swiss G.O. Dyhrenfurth, explores Gasherbrum I and II. Two climbers get to 6,300 m.</p><br>
<p>1936 - A French expedition gets to 6,900 m.</p><br>
<p>1958 - An American team makes the first ascent.</p><br>
<p>1975 - Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler reached the summit on a new route (northwest route) in pure alpine style (first time on an 8000-metre peak) taking three days total. One day later, a team of three led by Austrian Hanns Schell reached the summit on the American route.</p><br>
<p>1977 - The fourth successful ascent by two Slovenians (Nejc Zaplotnik and Andrej Stremfelj), again on a new route.</p><br>
<p>1980 - A French expedition is successful with the fifth ascent and pass the South Ridge for the first time.</p><br>
<p>1981 - Japanese have the sixth successful ascent.</p><br>
<p>1982 - Michael Dacher, Siegfried Hupfauer and Günter Sturm of a German expedition summit via a new route on the north face. In the same year, French Marie-José Valençot is the first woman who reaches the summit. Her husband, Sylvain Saudan from Switzerland, performs the first ski descent from the top of an 8000-metre peak to base camp.</p><br>
<p>1983 - Jerzy Kukuczka with Wojciech Kurtyka, new route. Alpine style ascent without the aid of oxygen.</p><br>
<p>1983 - Teams from Switzerland and Spain are successful.</p><br>
<p>1984 - Reinhold Messner and Hans Kammerlander traverse Gasherbrum II and Gasherbrum I without returning to base camp in between</p><br>
<p>1985 - Solo ascent by Benoît Chamoux. On July 14, the Italian Giampiero Di Federico (solo ascent) opens a new route on the north-west face.</p><br>
<p>1997 - Magnus Rydén and Johan Åkerström reach the summit.</p><br>
<p>2003 - 19 people reach the summit, 4 deaths, including Mohammad Oraz.</p><br>
<p>2012 - March 9, Adam Bielecki and Janusz Gołąb made the first winter ascent. The ascent was made without the aid of supplementary oxygen. The same day, three climbers from a different expedition — Austrian Gerfried Goschl, Swiss Cedric Hahlen and Pakistani Nisar Hussain Sadpara — went missing, never to be found again. They were trying to ascend via a new route and are considered to have been blown off by strong winds.</p><br>
<p>2013 - 21 July, Galician Abel Alonso and Spaniards Xebi Gomez and Álvaro Paredes climb to top and died while descending after a storm.</p><br>
<p>The Canadian Rockies  comprise the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. They are the eastern part of the Canadian Cordillera, which is a system of multiple ranges of mountains which runs from the Canadian Prairies to the Pacific Coast. The Canadian Rockies mountain system comprises the southeastern part of this system, lying between the Interior Plains of Alberta and Northeastern British Columbia on the east to the Rocky Mountain Trench of BC on the west. The southern end borders Idaho and Montana of the USA. In geographic terms the boundary is at the Canada/US border, but in geological terms it might be considered to be at Marias Pass in northern Montana. The northern end is at the Liard River in northern British Columbia.</p><br>
<p>The Canadian Rockies have numerous high peaks and ranges, such as Mount Robson (3,954 m) and Mount Columbia (3,747 m). The Canadian Rockies are composed of shale and limestone. Much of the range is protected by national and provincial parks, several of which collectively comprise a World Heritage Site.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Canadian Rockies are the easternmost part of the Canadian Cordillera, the collective name for the mountains of Western Canada. They form part of the American Cordillera, an essentially continuous sequence of mountain ranges that runs all the way from Alaska to the very tip of South America. The Cordillera in turn are the eastern part of the Pacific Ring of Fire that runs all the way around the Pacific Ocean.</p><br>
<p>The Canadian Rockies are bounded on the east by the Canadian Prairies, on the west by the Rocky Mountain Trench, and on the north by the Liard River. Contrary to popular misconception, the Rockies do not extend north into Yukon or Alaska, or west into central British Columbia. North of the Liard River, the Mackenzie Mountains, which are a distinct mountain range, form a portion of the border between the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. The mountain ranges to the west of the Rocky Mountain Trench in southern British Columbia are called the Columbia Mountains, and are not considered to be part of the Rockies by Canadian geologists.</p><br>
<h3>Highest peaks</h3><br>
<p>Mount Robson (3,954 m) is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, but not the highest in British Columbia, since there are some higher mountains in the Coast Mountains and Saint Elias Mountains. However, Mount Robson is particularly impressive because it stands out on the continental divide towering over Yellowhead Pass, one of the lowest passes in the Canadian Rockies, and is close to the Yellowhead Highway. Its base is only 985 m above sea level, meaning it has a total vertical relief of 2,969 m or nearly 10,000 feet. In addition, it rises the 3 km to its summit in a distance of only 4 km from its base at Kinney Lake. Climbing Mount Robson is a challenge suitable for experienced and well-prepared mountaineers, and usually requires a week on the mountain.</p><br>
<p>Mount Columbia (3,747 m) is the second-highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, and is the highest mountain in Alberta. There is a non-technical route to the top involving only kicking steps in the snow, but the approach is across the Columbia Icefield and requires glacier travel and crevasse rescue knowledge. It is normally done in two days, with a night at high camp, but some strong skiers have done it from the highway in a day. On the other hand, many others have been stuck in their tents for days waiting for the weather to clear. From the same high camp as for Mount Columbia, it is possible to ascend a number of other high peaks in the area, including North Twin, South Twin, Kitchener, Stutfield and Snow Dome.</p><br>
<p>Snow Dome (3,456 m) is not an impressive peak by Rockies standards, but it has the distinction of being the hydrological apex of North America. Water flows off Snow Dome into three different watersheds, into the Pacific Ocean, Arctic Ocean, and Atlantic Ocean via Hudson Bay. It is the easiest and most popular ascent on the Columbia Icefield, a gentle ski to the top from Columbia high camp, but glacier travel is required</p><br>
<p>Of the highest peaks, only Mount Temple (3,543 m) has an established scrambling route. All other mountains (including other routes up Mount Temple), require more mountaineering skills and experience. Despite the fact that it is only a moderate scramble, even Mount Temple should not be attempted by novices. According to the Alpine Club of Canada, more people have died on Mount Temple than any other Canadian mountain, including seven youths in an unsupervised American school group in 1955. The upper slopes are usually covered with snow and there is a glacier on top. Scramblers on Mount Temple should carry an ice axe and enough clothing to survive a freezing night on the mountain if a storm hits and prevents them from descending.</p><br>
<p>Contrary to popular misconception, the Canadian Rockies are not the highest mountain ranges in Canada. Both the Saint Elias Mountains (highest point in Canada Mount Logan at 5,959 m) and the Coast Mountains (highest point Mount Waddington at 4,016 m) have higher summits.</p><br>
<h3>Mountain ranges</h3><br>
<p>The Canadian Rockies are subdivided into numerous mountain ranges, structured in two main groupings, the Continental Ranges, which has three main subdivisions, the Front Range, Park Ranges and Kootenay Ranges, and the Northern Rockies which comprise two main groupings, the Hart Ranges and the Muskwa Ranges. The division-point of the two main groupings is at Monkman Pass northwest of Mount Robson and to the southwest of Mount Ovington.</p><br>
<h2>Rivers</h2><br>
<p>The Canadian Rockies are noted for being the source of several major river systems, and also for the many rivers within the range itself. The Rockies form the divide between the Pacific drainage on the west and that of Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean on the east. Of the range&#39;s rivers, only the Peace River penetrates the range. Notable rivers originating in the Canadian Rockies include the Fraser, Columbia, North Saskatchewan, Bow and Athabasca Rivers.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The Canadian Rockies are quite different in appearance and geology from the American Rockies to the south of them. The Canadian Rockies are composed of layered sedimentary rock such as limestone and shale, whereas the American Rockies are made mostly of metamorphic and igneous rock such as gneiss and granite.</p><br>
<p>The Canadian Rockies are overall more jagged than the American Rockies, because the Canadian Rockies have been more heavily glaciated, resulting in sharply pointed mountains separated by wide, U-shaped valleys gauged by glaciers, whereas the American Rockies are overall more rounded, with river-carved V-shaped valleys between them. The Canadian Rockies are cooler and wetter, giving them moister soil, bigger rivers, and more glaciers. The tree line is much lower in the Canadian Rockies than in the American Rockies.</p><br>
<h2>Parks</h2><br>
<p>Five national parks are located within the Canadian Rockies, four of which are adjacent and make up the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks. These four parks are Banff, Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho. The fifth national park, Waterton is not adjacent to the others. Waterton lies farther south, straddling the Canada–US border as the Canadian half of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. All five of these parks, combined with three British Columbia provincial parks, were declared a single UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984 for the unique mountain landscapes found there.</p><br>
<p>Numerous provincial parks are located in the Canadian Rockies, including Hamber, Mount Assiniboine and Mount Robson parks.</p><br>
<p>Throughout the Rockies, and especially in the national parks, the Alpine Club of Canada maintains a series of alpine huts for use by mountaineers and adventurers.</p><br>
<h2>Human history</h2><br>
<h3>The Rockies and The Canadian Pacific Railway</h3><br>
<p>The Canadian Pacific Railway was founded to provide a link from the province of British Columbia to the eastern provinces. The main difficulty in providing such a link were the Rockies themselves: treacherous mountain passes, fast rivers and sheer drops made for a difficult railway construction process. The following articles describe in detail the political and technical feats involved:</p><br>
<p>Canadian Pacific Survey</p><br>
<p>Big Hill</p><br>
<p>Field Hill</p><br>
<p>Kicking Horse Pass</p><br>
<p>Spiral Tunnels</p><br>
<p>Yellowstone Lake is the largest body of water in Yellowstone National Park. The lake is 7,732 ft above sea level and covers 136 square miles with 110 mi of shoreline. While the average depth of the lake is 139 ft, its greatest depth is at least 390 ft. Yellowstone Lake is the largest freshwater lake above 7,000 ft in North America.</p><br>
<p>In winter, ice nearly 3 ft thick covers much of the lake except where shallow water covers hot springs. The lake freezes over by early December and can remain frozen until late May or early June.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The forest and valleys surrounding Yellowstone Lake had been populated with Native Americans since pre-historic times. The first human of European descent to see the lake was trapper John Colter in the early 19th century. During the fur trading era of 1820-1840, the lake was probably visited by many trapping parties moving through the park region. In trapper Osborne Russell&#39;s diary, he describes a visit to the lake in 1836 as follows:</p><br>
<p>16th -Mr. Bridger came up with the remainder of the party. 18th-The whole camp moved down the east shore of the lake through thick pines and fallen timber about eighteen miles and encamped in a small prairie. 19th-continued down the shore to the outlet about twenty miles, and encamped in a beautiful plain which extended along the northern extremity of the lake. This valley was interspersed with scattering groves of tall pines, forming shady retreats for the numerous elk and deer during the heat of the day. The lake is about 100 miles in circumference, bordered on the east by high ranges of mountains whose spurs terminate at the shore and on the west by a low bed of piney mountains. Its greatest width is about fifteen miles, lying in an oblong from south to north, or rather in the shape of a crescent. Near where we encamped were several hot springs which boiled perpetually. Near these was an opening in the ground about eight inches in diameter from which hot steam issued continually with a noise similar to that made by the steam issuing from the safety valve of an engine, and could be heard five or six miles distant.</p><br>
<h3>Name</h3><br>
<p>The lake has been known by various names as depicted on early maps and in journals. Both fur trader David Thompson and explorer William Clark referred to the lake as Yellow Stone. Osborne Russell referred to the lake as Yellow Stone Lake in his 1834 journal. On some William Clark maps, the lake has the name Eustis Lake and the name Sublette&#39;s Lake was also used to name the lake in the early 19th century. The name Yellowstone Lake appears formally first in the 1839 maps of the Oregon Territory by USA Army topographical engineer, Captain Washington Hood and has remained so since that time.</p><br>
<h3>Pre-park era exploration</h3><br>
<p>Although many prospecting parties traversed the Yellowstone region throughout the 1850-60s, the first detailed descriptions of the lake came in 1869, 1870 and 1871 as a result of the Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition, the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition and the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871.</p><br>
<p>Cook, Folsom and Peterson first encountered the lake near Pelican Creek as they moved south along the Yellowstone River on September 24, 1869. They eventually followed the western shoreline to West Thumb before moving west to the geyser basins. Cook described the lake at Pelican Creek as follows:</p><br>
<p>The main body is ten miles long from east to west and sixteen miles long from north to south, but at the south end it puts out two arms, one to the southeast and the other to the southwest, making the entire length about 30 miles...There are three small islands which are also heavily timbered...The shallow water in some of the coves affords feeding ground for thousands of water fowl and we can take our choice of ducks, geese, trout, pelican or swan.</p><br>
<p>The Washburn party was the first to describe the remote eastern and southern shorelines of the lake. From September 3, 1870, to September 17, 1870, the Washburn party traveled from the outlet of the lake around the northern, eastern, and southern shorelines to West Thumb. The September 4, 1870 journal entry of Lieutenant Gustavus C. Doane, the leader of the USA Army escort during the expedition, describes the lake as follows:</p><br>
<p>On the south side, these promontories project far into the lake in great numbers, dividing it into bays and channels. On the west side is a low bluff of the timbered ridges, with a sand beach in front along the margins of the waters. The greatest width of open water in any direction is about eighteen miles. Several islands are seen, one of which is opposite the channel of the river and five miles from the east shore; another is ten miles farther south, and two miles from the shore a mountain isle with a bold bluff all around to the water&#39;s edge. These islands doubtless have never been trodden by human footsteps, and still belong to the regions of the unexplored. We built a raft for the purpose of attempting to visit them, but the strong waves of the lake dashed it to pieces in an hour. Numerous steam jets pour out from the bluffs on the shore at different points. The waters of the lake reflect a deep blue color, are clear as crystal, and doubtless of great depth near the center. The extreme elevation of this great body of water, 7,714 3/5 feet, is difficult to realize. Place Mount Washington, the pride of New England, with its base at the sea level, at the bottom of the lake, and the clear waters of the latter would roll 2,214 feet above its summit. With the single exception of Lake Titticaeca, Peru, it is the highest great body of water on the globe. No shells of any description are found on the lake shore, nor is there any evidence of the waters ever having stood at a much higher level than the present. Twenty-five feet will cover the whole range of the water-marks. Its annual rise and fall is about two feet. Its waters abound with trout to such an extent that the fish at this season are in poor condition, for want of food. No other fish are seen; no minnows, and no small trout. There are also no clams, crabs, nor turtles -- nothing but full-grown trout. These could be caught in mule loads by wading out a few feet in the open waters at any point with a grasshopper bait. Two men could catch them faster than half a dozen could clean and get them ready for the frying pan. Caught in the open lake, their flesh was yellow; but in bays, where the water was strongly impregnated with chemicals, it was blood-red. Many of them were full of long white worms, woven across the interior of the body, and through to the skin on either side. These did not appear to materially affect the condition of the fish, which were apparently as active as the others.</p><br>
<p>The Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 provided the most detailed and scientific descriptions of the lake in the pre-park era. The Hayden party, 34 men in all, encountered the lake at the outlet on July 28, 1871, spending two days there and returned to the lake at West Thumb on August 7, 1871. From West Thumb the survey party took 15 days to explore the southern and eastern flanks of the lake. On July 28, 1871, they launched Annie, the first European boat ever to sail on the lake and began exploring the islands and shoreline. Additionally, the first ever photographs of the lake were taken during this expedition by William Henry Jackson.</p><br>
<p>In correspondence that was Hayden&#39;s Report No. 7 to Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Spencer Baird, a bit of which is excerpted below, Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden described some of the explorations being conducted on the lake as follows:</p><br>
<p>Yellowstone Lake, WY August 8th, 1871 - Dear Professor Baird, Your letters of June 6th and July 3rd were brought us from Fort Ellis by Lt. Doane who has just arrived to take command of our escort and accompany my party the remainder of the season...We arrived at the banks of the Yellow Stone Lake July 26th and pitched our camp near the point where the river leaves the Lake. Hence we brought the first pair of wheels that ever came to the Lake with our Odometer. We launched the first Boat on the Lake, 4.5 feet wide and 11 feet long, with sails and oars...A chart of this soundings will be made. Points have been located with a prismatic compass all around the Lake. A man stands on the shore with a compass and takes a bearing to the man in the Boat as he drops the lead, giving a signal at the time. Then a man in the Boat takes a bearing to the fixed point on the shore where the first man is located and thus the soundings will be located on the chart. Henry Elliot and Mr. Carrington have just left in our little boat, the Annie. will make a systematic sketch of the shore with all its indentations, with the banks down, indeed, making a complete topographical as well as pictorial sketch of the shores as seen from the water, for a circuit--of at least 130 miles...One of the islands has been explored. We have called it Stevenson&#39;s Island as he was undoubtedly the first human that ever set foot upon it...Write at once. Yours Truly, F. V. Hayden, I will send you some Photographs soon.</p><br>
<h3>Proposals to dam the lake</h3><br>
<p>Between 1920 and 1937, multiple proposals were made to Congress and the Department of the Interior to construct dams of various sizes at the Yellowstone Lake outlet or a few miles downstream. Montana and Wyoming politicians, the Army Corps of Engineers and lobbying groups in both states all had a variety of reasons to support the dams—flood control in the Yellowstone Valley, reclamation, or diversion of water over the continental divide to the Snake River. All the proposals and legislation were eventually defeated.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>In the southwest area of the lake, the West Thumb geothermal area is easily accessible to visitors. Geysers, fumaroles, and hot springs are found both alongside and in the lake.</p><br>
<p>As of 2004, the ground under the lake has started to rise significantly, indicating increased geological activity, and limited areas of the national park have been closed to the public. As of 2005, no areas are currently off limits aside from those normally allowing limited access such as around the West Thumb Geyser Basin. There is a bulge about 2,000 ft long and 100 ft high under a section of Yellowstone Lake, where there are a variety of faults, hot springs and small craters. Seismic imaging has recently shown that sediment layers are tilted, but how old this feature is has not yet been established.</p><br>
<p>After the magma chamber under the Yellowstone area collapsed 640,000 years ago in its previous great eruption, it formed a large caldera that was later partially filled by subsequent lava flows (see Yellowstone Caldera). Part of this caldera is the 136 square miles basin of Yellowstone Lake. The original lake was 200 ft higher than the present-day lake, extending northward across Hayden Valley to the base of Mount Washburn.</p><br>
<p>It is thought that Yellowstone Lake originally drained south into the Pacific Ocean via the Snake River. The lake currently drains north from its only outlet, the Yellowstone River, at Fishing Bridge. The elevation of the lake&#39;s north end does not drop substantially until LeHardy Rapids. Therefore, this spot is considered the actual northern boundary of Yellowstone Lake. Within a short distance downstream the Yellowstone River plunges first over the upper and then the lower falls and races north through the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.</p><br>
<p>In the 1990s, geological research determined that the two volcanic vents, now known as "resurgent domes", are rising again. From year to year, they either rise or fall, with an average net uplift of about one inch per year. During the period between 1923 and 1985, the Sour Creek Dome was rising. In the years since 1986, it has either declined or remained the same. The resurgence of the Sour Creek dome, just north of Fishing Bridge is causing Yellowstone Lake to "tilt" southward. Larger sandy beaches can now be found on the north shore of the lake, and flooded areas can be found in the southern arms.</p><br>
<p>The Hayden Valley was once filled by an arm of Yellowstone Lake. As a result, it contains fine-grained lake sediments that are now covered with glacial till left from the most recent glacial retreat 13,000 years ago. Because the glacial till contains many different grain sizes, including clay and a thin layer of lake sediments, water cannot percolate readily into the ground. This is why the Hayden Valley is marshy and has little encroachment of trees.</p><br>
<h2>Angling and boating</h2><br>
<p>Angling for Yellowstone cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake has been a popular pastime for both subsistence and recreation since the first explorers, surveyors and tourists visited the park. During the early days of fish stocking in Yellowstone (1890–1910), Atlantic Salmon, Mountain whitefish and Rainbow trout were stocked in the lake. None of these introduced species survived. Today only native cutthroat and non-native Lake trout exist in the lake. Today, Yellowstone Lake is open for angling from June 15 to the first Sunday in November. All Cutthroat trout caught must be released.</p><br>
<p>In 1994, non-native Lake trout were discovered in Yellowstone Lake and were believed to have been either accidentally or intentionally introduced as early as 1989 with fish taken from Lewis Lake. The introduction of Lake trout has caused a serious decline in the Cutthroat trout population and the National Park Service has an aggressive Lake trout eradication program on the lake. All Lake trout caught by anglers must be killed.</p><br>
<p>Recreational boating has been permitted on the lake in various forms since 1890 when the first permits for the Yellowstone Boat Company were issued to operate a ferry across the lake between road junctions. Today, powerboats, sailboats, canoes and kayaks are allowed on the lake with a Yellowstone Boating Permit. A Marina is operated at Bridge Bay and there is a boat ramp at Grant Village in West Thumb. Areas in the southern arms of the lake are speed-restricted and/or no-motor zones to protect sensitive wildlife areas. Access to some of the lake&#39;s islands is also restricted. Xanterra Parks and Resorts at Bridge Bay Marina on Yellowstone Lake provides boat rentals and other boating services. Numerous outfitters operating outside the park are licensed to provide boating services in the park. Several dozen back country campsites line the southern shoreline that are accessible only by boat. Two major hiking trails provide access to the lake shore away from the major road. The Nine Mile Post trail hugs the eastern shoreline into the Thorofare region and intersects with the Trail Creek and Heart Lake trails that touch the ends of both the south and southeast arms of the lake.</p><br>
<p>Grove Street Cemetery or Grove Street Burial Ground in New Haven, Connecticut, is located adjacent to the Yale University campus. It was organized in 1796 as the New Haven Burying Ground and incorporated in October 1797 to replace the crowded burial ground on the New Haven Green. The first private, nonprofit cemetery in the world, it was one of the earliest burial grounds to have a planned layout, with plots permanently owned by individual families, a structured arrangement of ornamental plantings, and paved and named streets and avenues. This was "a real turning point... a whole redefinition of how people viewed death and dying", according to historian Peter Dobkin Hall, with novel ideas like permanent memorials and the sanctity of the deceased body. In part for this reason, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2000. Many notable Yale and New Haven luminaries are buried in the Grove Street Cemetery, including fourteen Yale presidents; nevertheless, it was not restricted to members of the upper class, and was open to all.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Establishment (1796)</h3><br>
<p>For the first 160 years of permanent settlement, New Haven residents buried their dead on the New Haven Green, the town&#39;s central open space and churchyard. In 1794–95, a yellow fever plague swept the town. The increased demand for burial space prompted James Hillhouse, a businessman and USA Senator, to invite other prominent families in the town to establish a dedicated burial ground on farmland bordering the town. In 1796, thirty-two families purchased a tract just north of Grove Street, the tract was enclosed by a wooden fence, which was prone to rotting and needed to be replaced frequently. At first consisting of 6 acre, the cemetery was quickly subscribed and thereafter expanded to nearly 18 acre. Gravestones from the New Haven Green (but not the remains) were moved to the new cemetery for preservation in 1821 and are displayed against the walls of the cemetery.</p><br>
<h3>Gateway and fence construction (1845–49)</h3><br>
<p>Completed in 1845, the entrance on Grove Street is a brownstone Egyptian Revival gateway, designed by New Haven architects Henry Austin and Hezekiah Augur, both of whom are buried at the cemetery. The style, popular in New England in that era, was chosen to reinforce the antiquity of the site. The lintel of the gateway is inscribed "The Dead Shall Be Raised." The quotation is taken from 1 Corinthians 15.52: "For the trumpet will sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed." Supposedly, Yale President Arthur Twining Hadley said of the inscription,"They certainly will be, if Yale needs the property."</p><br>
<p>In 1848–49, the perimeter of the cemetery was surrounded on three sides by an 8 ft stone wall.</p><br>
<h2>Historic Landmarking</h2><br>
<p>The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.</p><br>
<h2>Conflict over perimeter fence</h2><br>
<p>In 2008, Yale announced plans to construct two new residential colleges to the immediate north of the cemetery. In 2009, university administrators and affiliates suggested to the cemetery Proprietors that an additional gate be constructed in the north section of the historic wall that surrounds the burial ground to permit pedestrians to walk through the cemetery from the main Yale campus to the planned new colleges. In addition, the Proprietors considered a proposal brought forward by one Proprietor that would replace portions of the stone sections of the wall bordering Prospect Street with iron fencing similar to that already running along the cemetery&#39;s southern border on Grove Street. The proposal, withdrawn following a public meeting, included architectural and landscaping designs by Yale Architecture School Dean Robert A.M. Stern.</p><br>
<p>Grove Street Cemetery is managed by Camco Cemetery Management.</p><br>
<h2>Notable burials and memorials</h2><br>
<p>James Rowland Angell (1869–1949)&mdash;President of Yale University</p><br>
<p>Kanichi Asakawa (1873–1948)&mdash;historian.</p><br>
<p>Jehudi Ashmun (1794–1828)&mdash;religious leader, and social reformer, agent of the African Colonization Society</p><br>
<p>Hezekiah Augur (1791–1858)&mdash;wood carver, sculptor and inventor.</p><br>
<p>Henry Austin (1804–1891)&mdash;architect, designed the gate of the cemetery, Yale&#39;s College Library (which became Dwight Hall), and several mansions on Hillhouse Avenue.</p><br>
<p>Delia Bacon (1811–1859)&mdash;originator of the proposition that Francis Bacon wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare</p><br>
<p>Leonard Bacon (1802–1881)—clergyman and abolitionist</p><br>
<p>Charles Montague Bakewell (1867–1957)&mdash;politician</p><br>
<p>Roger Sherman Baldwin (1793–1863)&mdash;Governor of Connecticut</p><br>
<p>Simeon Baldwin (1761–1851)&mdash;Mayor of New Haven</p><br>
<p>Simeon Eben Baldwin (1840–1927)&mdash;Governor of Connecticut</p><br>
<p>Ida Barney (1886-1982) noted female American astronomer</p><br>
<p>John Bassett (1652–1714)—captain of the trainband; deputy to the General Court (legislature) of Connecticut Colony</p><br>
<p>Lyman Beecher (1775–1865)&mdash;abolitionist, father of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher</p><br>
<p>Nathan Beers (1763–1861)&mdash;paymaster to Connecticut troops in the American Revolution</p><br>
<p>Hiram Bingham I (1789–1863)&mdash;Hawaiian missionary and clergyman.</p><br>
<p>James Bishop (d. 1691)&mdash;was Secretary, Lieutenant Governor and Deputy Governor of New Haven Jurisdiction.</p><br>
<p>Eli Whitney Blake (1795–1886)&mdash;manufacturer and inventor of the stone crusher. His brother, Philos, invented the corkscrew.</p><br>
<p>William Whiting Boardman (1794–1871)&mdash;politician.</p><br>
<p>Edward Gaylord Bourne (1860–1908)&mdash;historian and educator. Leader in the American Historical Association.</p><br>
<p>Phineas Bradley (1745–1797)&mdash;soldier. Captain, commander of the artillery defending New Haven, July 5, 1779</p><br>
<p>William H. Brewer (1828–1910)&mdash;scientist. Helped found the Yale Forestry School; co-founder of the list Agricultural Experiment Station with S. W. Johnson.</p><br>
<p>James Brewster (1788–1866)&mdash; founder of Brewster & Co. industrialist and railroad promoter.</p><br>
<p>Kingman Brewster, Jr., (1919–1988)&mdash;President of Yale University</p><br>
<p>William Bristol (1779–1836)&mdash;Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>Walter Camp—football coach known as the "Father of American Football".</p><br>
<p>Leverett Candee (1795–1863)&mdash;Industrialist. First practical use of Goodyear&#39;s vulcanization of rubber</p><br>
<p>Arthur E. Case (1894–1946)&mdash;professor and author</p><br>
<p>Jedediah Chapman (d. 1863)&mdash;Civil War Union Army Officer killed at the Battle of Gettysburg.</p><br>
<p>Thomas Clap (1703–1767)&mdash;Rector & President of Yale College - buried in the City Burial Ground on the Green, stone later moved here</p><br>
<p>David Daggett (1764–1851)&mdash;United States Senator, mayor of New Haven, Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>Napthali Daggett (1727–1780)&mdash;clergyman, President pro tempore of Yale College.</p><br>
<p>George Edward Day (1814–1905)&mdash;Bible revisor</p><br>
<p>Jeremiah Day (1773–1868)&mdash;President of Yale University.</p><br>
<p>Amos Doolittle (1754–1832)&mdash;silversmith, engraver of Revolutionary scenes. "The Revere of Connecticut."</p><br>
<p>Timothy Dwight IV (1752–1817)&mdash;President of Yale University.</p><br>
<p>Timothy Dwight V (1829–1916)&mdash;President of Yale University.</p><br>
<p>Amos Beebe Eaton (1806–1877)&mdash;Civil War Union Army Brigadier General.</p><br>
<p>Theophilus Eaton (1590–1657)&mdash;a founder of New Haven, first Governor of New Haven.</p><br>
<p>Henry W. Edwards (1779–1847)&mdash;USA Representative, USA Senator, and Governor of Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>Pierpont Edwards (1750–1826)&mdash;Delegate to the Continental Congress.</p><br>
<p>Jeremiah Evarts (1781-1831)&mdash;scholar, writer and missionary executive. Editor of the ‘’Panoplist’’ and the ‘’Missionary Herald’’.</p><br>
<p>Henry Farnham (1836–1917)&mdash;prominent New Haven merchant and philanthropist.</p><br>
<p>George Park Fisher (1827–1902)&mdash;historian and theologian</p><br>
<p>Andrew Hull Foote (1806–1863)&mdash;naval officer who ended the rum ration in the United States Navy.</p><br>
<p>A. Bartlett Giamatti (1938–1989)&mdash;baseball commissioner, President of Yale University.</p><br>
<p>Josiah Willard Gibbs, Sr. (1790–1861)&mdash;professor at Yale Divinity School who first spoke with the mutineers of the Amistad.</p><br>
<p>Josiah Willard Gibbs, Jr. (1839–1903)&mdash;scientist, "Father of Thermodynamics"</p><br>
<p>Chauncey Goodrich (1790–1860)&mdash;Yale professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Charge.</p><br>
<p>Elizur Goodrich (1761–1849)&mdash;mayor of New Haven, Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>Charles Goodyear (1800–1860)&mdash;inventor of vulcanized rubber.</p><br>
<p>Alfred Whitney Griswold (1906–1963)&mdash;President of Yale University.</p><br>
<p>Arthur Twining Hadley (1857–1930)&mdash;Dean of Yale Graduate School when women were first admitted. President of Yale University.</p><br>
<p>Henry Baldwin Harrison (1821–1901)&mdash;Governor of Connecticut</p><br>
<p>James Hillhouse (1754–1832)&mdash; real estate developer, politician, and treasurer of Yale. Namesake of Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven.</p><br>
<p>J. Aspinwal Hodge (1861–1916)&mdash;Presbyterian minister in early New Haven, Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>James Mason Hoppin (1820–1906)&mdash;professor of religion and art.</p><br>
<p>Leverett Hubbard (1725-1795)&mdash;soldier, physician and apothecary.</p><br>
<p>David Humphreys (1752–1818)&mdash;Aide de Camp to General George Washington</p><br>
<p>Charles Roberts Ingersoll (1821–1903)&mdash;Governor of Connecticut</p><br>
<p>Colin Macrae Ingersoll (1819–1903)&mdash;United States Representative from Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll (1789–1872)&mdash;United States Minister to Russia, mayor of New Haven, Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>Eli Ives (1779–1861)&mdash;professor of Medicine</p><br>
<p>Chauncey Jerome (1793–1868)&mdash;mayor of New Haven, clockmaker</p><br>
<p>Nathaniel Jocelyn (1796–1881)&mdash;portrait painter and engraver.</p><br>
<p>Samuel W. Johnson (1839–1909)&mdash;Yale professor, co-founder of the Agricultural Experiment Station Movement with William H. Brewer</p><br>
<p>James Kingsley (1778–1852)&mdash;professor of Hebrew, Greek and Ecclesiastical History at Yale.</p><br>
<p>John Gamble Kirkwood (1907–1959)&mdash;chemist.</p><br>
<p>Charlton Miner Lewis (1866–1923)&mdash;Yale professor and author.</p><br>
<p>Elias Loomis (1811–1889)&mdash;mathematician and astronomer.</p><br>
<p>Daniel Lyman (1718–1788)&mdash;Surveyor, Deputy to the General Court, Court Referee, Justice of the Peace and caretaker of the State&#39;s public records.</p><br>
<p>Samuel Mansfield (1717–1775)—first sheriff of New Haven</p><br>
<p>Othniel Charles Marsh (1831–1899)&mdash;paleontologist.</p><br>
<p>Henry Czar Merwin (1839–1863)&mdash;Civil War Union Army Officer killed at the Battle of Gettysburg</p><br>
<p>Glenn Miller (Alton G. Miller) cenotaph -- (1904–1944)—Jazz bandleader, trombonist.</p><br>
<p>Dr. Timothy Mix (1711–1779)&mdash;Colonial soldier who died on a British prison ship.</p><br>
<p>Jedidiah Morse (1761–1826)&mdash;clergy, "Father of American Geography". Father of Samuel F. B. Morse.</p><br>
<p>Theodore T. Munger (1830–1910)&mdash;clergyman.</p><br>
<p>Hubert Anson Newton (1830–1896)&mdash;meteorologist and mathematician.</p><br>
<p>George Henry Nettleton (1874–1959)&mdash;author.</p><br>
<p>Denison Olmsted (1791–1859)&mdash;Professor of Medicine and Natural Philosophy at Yale. One of the first to see Halley&#39;s Comet in 1835.</p><br>
<p>Lars Onsager (1903–1976)&mdash;Chemist. Nobel Laureate.</p><br>
<p>Jaroslav Pelikan (1923–2006)&mdash; Scholar in the history of Christianity, Christian theology and medieval intellectual history.</p><br>
<p>Timothy Pitkin (1766–1847)&mdash;politician, United States Representative from Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>Noah Porter (1811–1892)&mdash;clergyman, President of Yale College</p><br>
<p>Joel Root (1770–1847)&mdash;traveller, author.</p><br>
<p>Charles Seymour (1885–1963)&mdash;President of Yale University</p><br>
<p>George Dudley Seymour (1859–1945)&mdash;Attorney, antiquarian, historian, author, and city planner</p><br>
<p>Joseph Earl Sheffield (1793–1882)&mdash;merchant, founder of Sheffield Scientific School.</p><br>
<p>Roger Sherman (1721–1793)&mdash; important founding father, the only person to have signed all four basic documents of American sovereignty, the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution. Today his grave is the center of this colonial city&#39;s Independence Day festivities.</p><br>
<p>Benjamin Silliman (1779–1864)&mdash;pioneer in scientific education.</p><br>
<p>Benjamin Silliman, Jr. (1816–1885)&mdash;Yale chemist and geologist. First suggested some practical uses for petroleum.</p><br>
<p>Aaron Skinner (1800–1858)&mdash;civic figure and supervisor of improvements to Grove Street Cemetery</p><br>
<p>Nathan Smith (1770–1835)&mdash;United States Senator from Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>Ezra Stiles (1727–1795)&mdash;President of Yale University.</p><br>
<p>Henry Randolph Storrs (1787–1837)&mdash;jurist.</p><br>
<p>Titus Street (1786–1842)&mdash;businessman and civic figure</p><br>
<p>Alfred Howe Terry (1827–1890)&mdash;Civil War Union Army Major General.</p><br>
<p>Ithiel Town (1784-June 12, 1844)&mdash;architect and civil engineer. Inventor of the lattice truss bridge.</p><br>
<p>Martha Townsend (1753–1797)&mdash;first interment in Grove Street Cemetery</p><br>
<p>William Kneeland Townsend (1849–1907)&mdash;jurist</p><br>
<p>Henry H. Townshend (1874–1953)&mdash;proprietor and historian of Grove Street Cemetery.</p><br>
<p>Timothy Trowbridge (1631–1734)&mdash;merchant, soldier and politician.</p><br>
<p>Alexander C. Twining (1801–1884)&mdash;inventor of first practical artificial ice system.</p><br>
<p>Noah Webster (1758–1843)&mdash;lexicographer, dictionary publisher.</p><br>
<p>Nathan Whiting&mdash;soldier, Colonel in the Seven Years&#39; War.</p><br>
<p>Eli Whitney (1765–1825)&mdash;inventor of the cotton gin.</p><br>
<p>Theodore Winthrop (1828–1861)&mdash;Major, United States Army. First New Haven victim of the Civil War.</p><br>
<p>Melancthon Taylor Woolsey (1717–1758)&mdash;colonel in the Colonial Army.</p><br>
<p>Theodore Dwight Woolsey (1812–1889)&mdash;abolitionist, President of Yale.</p><br>
<p>David Wooster (1711–1777)&mdash;Buried in Danbury, Connecticut but memorialized at Grove Street Cemetery. Major General, 7th in rank below Washington. Killed in action.</p><br>
<p>Mary Clabaugh Wright (1917–1970)&mdash;educator and historian, first woman to become a full professor at Yale.</p><br>
<p>Broad Peak  is the 12th highest mountain in the world at 8,051 m above sea level. The literal translation of "Broad Peak" to Falchan Kangri  is not accepted among the Balti people. The English name was introduced in 1892 by the British explorer Martin Conway, in reference to the similarly named Breithorn in the Alps.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Broad Peak is part of the Gasherbrum massif in Baltistan on the border of Pakistan and China. It is located in the Karakoram mountain range about 8 km from K2. It has a summit over 1.5 km long, thus "Broad Peak".</p><br>
<p>The mountain has several summits: Broad Peak (8051 m), Rocky Summit (8028 m), Broad Peak Central (8011 m), Broad Peak North (7490 m), and Kharut Kangri (6942 m).</p><br>
<h2>Climbing history</h2><br>
<p>The first ascent of Broad Peak was made between June 8 and 9, 1957 by Fritz Wintersteller, Marcus Schmuck, Kurt Diemberger, and Hermann Buhl of an Austrian expedition led by Marcus Schmuck. A first attempt by the team was made on May 29 where Fritz Wintersteller and Kurt Diemberger reached the forepeak (8,030 m). This was also accomplished without the aid of supplemental oxygen, high altitude porters nor base camp support.</p><br>
<p>On the same expedition, Marcus Schmuck and Fritz Wintersteller made a flash first ascent of Skil Brum peak (7,360 m) on June 19, 1957 in pure Alpine style in 53 hours.</p><br>
<p>Hermann Buhl fell to his death when he and Diemberger attempted to climb nearby Chogolisa (7,654 m) on June 27, 1957.</p><br>
<p>In July 2007 an Austrian mountaineering team climbed Broad Peak and retrieved the corpse of Markus Kronthaler, who had died on the mountain one year before, from over 8,000 metres.</p><br>
<p>In the winter and summer of 2009 there were no summits. There was one winter expedition by a Polish-Canadian team. In the summer there was one fatality, Cristina Castagna.</p><br>
<p>In summer 2012, five members of "Koroška 8000" - Slovenian team (led by Gregor Lačen) summitted the mountain (without supplementary oxygen and without high altitude porters). They tracked the way in deep snow from Camp 4 to the summit and opened the summit to seven more climbers from other expeditions. They all summitted on July 31, 2012.</p><br>
<p>On March 5, 2013 Maciej Berbeka, Adam Bielecki, Tomasz Kowalski and Artur Małek made the first winter ascent. Broad Peak was the twelfth Eight-thousander summited in winter time and the tenth Eight-thousander first summitted in winter by Polish climbers.</p><br>
<p>During the descent, Maciej Berbeka and Tomasz Kowalski did not reach Camp 4 (at 7400 m) and were pronounced missing. On March 7, the head of the expedition Krzysztof Wielicki, said there are "no chances at all" of finding alive 58-year-old Maciej Berbeka and 27-year-old Tomasz Kowalski.</p><br>
<p>On March 8 both climbers were declared dead and the expedition was ended.</p><br>
<p>In July 2013, a group of five Iranian climbers attempted to ascend through a new route from the southwestern face. Three of them — Aidin Bozorgi, Pouya Keivan, and Mojtaba Jarahi — ascended successfully but during descent all three of them were lost and declared dead.</p><br>
<p>On July 23, 2016, Frenchman Antoine Girard&#39;s paraglider flight over Broad Peak was the first time a paraglider had flown above an 8,000-metre summit.</p><br>
<h2>Timeline</h2><br>
<p>1954 First attempt by Dr. Karl Herligkoffer of Germany on the SW side that failed due to a storm and extreme cold.</p><br>
<p>1957 First ascent by an Austrian expedition.</p><br>
<p>1983 First ascent by a woman, Krystyna Palmowska.</p><br>
<p>1984 First one-day ascent of an 8000-meter peak (solo) by Krzysztof Wielicki in 21,5 hours.</p><br>
<p>1994 On July 9, Carlos Carsolio reached the summit, establishing a new solo route now known as Route Carsolio.</p><br>
<p>2013 On March 5, first winter ascent by Polish expedition.</p><br>
<p>2013 July, Aidin Bozorgi, Pouya Keivan, and Mojtaba Jarahi of Iran ascended through a new route, named Route Iran.</p><br>
<p>2014 Hunza Expedition to Broad Peak made the summit on 23 July 2014, Karim Hayat reached to main summit and Naseer Uddin turned back from Rocky summit. Karim Hayat became the first person from his village who reached to 8000 m.</p><br>
<p>Lake Powell is a reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona . It is a major vacation spot that around two million people visit every year. It is the second largest man-made reservoir by maximum water capacity in the United States behind Lake Mead, storing 24,322,069 acre.ft of water when full. However, due to high water withdrawals for human and agricultural consumption, and because of subsequent droughts in the area, Lake Powell is currently larger than Lake Mead in terms of volume of water currently held, depth and surface area.</p><br>
<p>Lake Powell was created by the flooding of Glen Canyon by the Glen Canyon Dam, which also led to the creation of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, a popular summer destination. The reservoir is named for explorer John Wesley Powell, a one-armed American Civil War veteran who explored the river via three wooden boats in 1869.</p><br>
<p>In 1972, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area was established. It is public land managed by the National Park Service, and available to the public for recreational purposes. It lies in parts of Garfield, Kane, and San Juan counties in southern Utah, and Coconino County in northern Arizona. The northern limits of the lake extend at least as far as the Hite Crossing Bridge. A map centered at the confluence of the Escalante River 37&deg;17&prime;22&Prime;N latitude, 110&deg;52&prime;20&Prime;W longitude with the Colorado River gives a good view of the extent of the lake.</p><br>
<p>Lake Powell is a water storage facility for the Upper Basin states of the Colorado River Compact (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico). The Compact specifies that the Upper Basin states are to provide a minimum annual flow of 7,500,000 acre.ft to the Lower Basin states (Arizona, Nevada, and California).</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In the 1940s and early 1950s, the USA Bureau of Reclamation planned to construct a series of Colorado River dams in the rugged Colorado Plateau province of Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. Glen Canyon Dam was born of a controversial damsite the Bureau selected in Echo Park, in what is now Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado. A small but politically effective group of objectors led by David Brower of the Sierra Club succeeded in defeating the Bureaus bid, citing Echo Parks natural and scenic qualities as too valuable to submerge. By agreeing to a relocated damsite near Lees Ferry between Glen and Grand Canyons, however, Brower did not realize what he had gambled away. At the time, Brower had not actually been to Glen Canyon. When he later saw Glen Canyon on a river trip, Brower discovered that it had the kind of scenic, cultural, and wilderness qualities often associated with Americas national parks. Over 80 side canyons in the colorful Navajo Sandstone contained clear streams, abundant wildlife, arches, natural bridges, and numerous Native American archeological sites. By then, however, it was too late to stop the Bureau and its commissioner Floyd Dominy from building Glen Canyon Dam. Brower believed the river should remain free, and would forever after consider the loss of Glen Canyon his life&#39;s ultimate disappointment.</p><br>
<p>Construction on Glen Canyon Dam began with a demolition blast keyed by the push of a button by President Dwight D. Eisenhower at his desk in the Oval Office on October 1, 1956. The first blast started clearing tunnels for water diversion. On February 11, 1959, water was diverted through the tunnels so dam construction could begin. Later that year, the bridge was completed, allowing trucks to deliver equipment and materials for the dam, and also for the new town of Page, Arizona.</p><br>
<p>Concrete placement started around the clock on June 17, 1960. The last bucket of concrete was poured on September 13, 1963. Over 5 million cubic yards (4,000,000 m³) of concrete make up Glen Canyon Dam. The Dam is 710 feet (216 m) high, with the surface elevation of the water at full pool being approximately 3700 feet (1100 m). Construction of the Dam cost $155 million, and 18 lives were lost in the process. From 1970 to 1980, turbines and generators were installed for hydroelectricity. On September 22, 1966, Glen Canyon Dam was dedicated by Lady Bird Johnson.</p><br>
<p>Upon completion of Glen Canyon Dam on September 13, 1963, the Colorado River began to back up, no longer being diverted through the tunnels. The newly flooded Glen Canyon formed Lake Powell. It took 11 years for the lake to fill to the 3,700 ft level, on June 22, 1980. The lake level fluctuates considerably depending on the seasonal snow runoff from the Rocky Mountains. The all-time highest water level was reached on July 14, 1983, during one of the heaviest Colorado River floods in recorded history, in part influenced by a strong El Niño event. The lake rose to 3,708.34 ft above sea level, with a water content of 25,757,086 acrefeet.</p><br>
<p>Colorado River flows have been below average since the year 2000, leading to lower lake levels. In the winter of 2005 (before the spring run-off) the lake reached its lowest level since filling, an elevation of 3,555.10 ft above sea level, which was approximately 150 ft below full pool. Since 2005 the lake level has slowly rebounded, although it has not filled completely since then. Summer 2011 saw the third largest June and the second largest July runoff since the closure of Glen Canyon Dam, and the water level peaked at nearly 3,661 ft, 77 percent of capacity, on July 30. However, the years 2012 and 2013 were, respectively, the third and fourth-lowest runoff years recorded on the Colorado River. By April 9, 2014 the lake level had fallen to 3,574.31 ft, largely erasing the gains made in 2011.</p><br>
<p>Colorado River levels returned to normal during water years 2014 and 2015 (pushing the lake to 3,606 ft by the end of water year 2015), a trend projected to continue in 2016. However, the Bureau of Reclamation in 2014 reduced the Lake Powell release from 8.23 to 7.48 million acre-feet, for the first time since the lake filled in 1980. This was done due to the "equalization" guideline which stipulates that an approximately equal amount of water must be retained in both Lake Powell and Lake Mead, in order to preserve hydro-power generation capacity at both lakes. This resulted in Lake Mead declining to the lowest level on record since the 1930s.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>These data are for the Wahweap climate station on Lake Powell just south of the Utah-Arizona border.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Glen Canyon was carved by differential erosion from the Colorado River over an estimated 5 million years. The Colorado Plateau, through which the canyon cuts, arose some 11 million years ago. Within that plateau lie layers of rock from over 300 million years ago to the relatively recent volcanic activity. Pennsylvanian and Permian formations can be seen in Cataract Canyon and San Juan Canyon. The Moenkopi Formation, which dates from 230 million years ago (Triassic Period), and the Chinle Formation are found at Lees Ferry and the Rincon. Both formations are the result of the ancient inland sea that covered the area. Once the sea drained, windblown sand invaded the area, creating what is known as Wingate Sandstone.</p><br>
<p>The more recent (Jurassic Period) formations include Kayenta Sandstone, which produces the trademark blue-black "desert varnish" that streaks down many walls of the canyons. Above this is Navajo Sandstone. Many of the arches, including Rainbow Bridge, lie at this transition point. This period also includes light yellow Entrada Sandstone, and the dark brown, almost purple Carmel Formation. These latter two can be seen on the tops of mesas around Wahweap, and the crown of Castle Rock and Tower Butte. Above these layers lie the sandstone, conglomerate and shale of the Straight Cliffs Formation that underlies the Kaiparowits Plateau and San Rafael Swell to the north of the lake.</p><br>
<p>The confluences of the Escalante, Dirty Devil and San Juan rivers with the Colorado lie within Lake Powell. The slower flow of the San Juan river has produced goosenecks where 5 mi of river are contained within 1 mi on a straight line.</p><br>
<h2>Environmental impacts</h2><br>
<p>For information on environmental impacts see the Glen Canyon Dam article.</p><br>
<h2>Landmarks</h2><br>
<p>Glen Canyon Dam, the dam that keeps Lake Powell the way it is today. (location: Lake Powell&#39;s Arizona part)</p><br>
<p>Rainbow Bridge, one of the worlds largest natural bridges. (location: Lake Powells Utah part)</p><br>
<p>Hite Crossing Bridge, the only bridge spanning Lake Powell. Although the bridge informally marks the upstream limit of the lake, when the lake is at its normal high water elevation, backwater can stretch up to 30 mi upstream into Cataract Canyon</p><br>
<h2>Popular culture</h2><br>
<p>Lake Powell has been a shooting location for 45 television series and films, including:</p><br>
<p>Gravity (2013)</p><br>
<p>John Carter (2012)</p><br>
<p>Doctor Who: The Impossible Astronaut and The Wedding of River Song (2011)</p><br>
<p>Walking with Monsters (2005), the BBC prequel to Walking with Dinosaurs as a stand-in for inland Silurian</p><br>
<p>Evolution (2001)</p><br>
<p>Planet of the Apes (both 1968 and 2001 versions)</p><br>
<p>Maverick (1994)</p><br>
<p>Koyaanisqatsi (1982)</p><br>
<h2>Features</h2><br>
<p>The lake&#39;s main body stretches up Glen Canyon, but has also filled many (over 90) side canyons. The lake also stretches up the Escalante River and San Juan River where they merge into the main Colorado River. This provides access to many natural geographic points of interest as well as some remnants of the Anasazi culture.</p><br>
<p>Rainbow Bridge National Monument</p><br>
<p>Defiance House ruin (Anasazi)</p><br>
<p>Cathedral in the Desert</p><br>
<p>San Juan goosenecks</p><br>
<p>Kaiparowits Plateau</p><br>
<p>Hole-in-the-Rock crossing</p><br>
<p>the Rincon</p><br>
<p>Three-Roof Ruin</p><br>
<p>Padre Bay</p><br>
<p>Waterpocket Fold</p><br>
<p>Antelope Island lies mostly in Arizona just north of Page in the southwest part of Lake Powell.</p><br>
<h2>Development</h2><br>
<p>Access to the lake is limited to developed marinas because most of the lake is surrounded by steep sandstone walls:</p><br>
<p>Lee&#39;s Ferry Subdistrict</p><br>
<p>Page/Wahweap Marina</p><br>
<p>Antelope Point Marina</p><br>
<p>Halls Crossing, Utah Marina</p><br>
<p>Bullfrog Marina</p><br>
<p>Hite Marina</p><br>
<p>The following marinas are accessible only by boat:</p><br>
<p>Dangling Rope Marina</p><br>
<p>Rainbow Bridge National Monument</p><br>
<p>Escalante Subdistrict</p><br>
<p>Glen Canyon National Recreation Area draws more than two million visitors annually. Recreational activities include boating, fishing, waterskiing, jet-skiing, and hiking. Prepared campgrounds can be found at each marina, but many visitors choose to rent a houseboat or bring their own camping equipment, find a secluded spot somewhere in the canyons, and make their own camp (there are no restrictions on where visitors can stay).</p><br>
<p>The Castle Rock Cut is one of the most important navigational channels in the lake; it was blasted as early as the 1970s to allow boaters to bypass the winding canyons between the Glen Canyon Dam and reaches of Lake Powell further upstream – saving, on average, one hour of travel time. The cut has been deepened several times since then, to allow the use of the channel during droughts. During the protracted 21st century drought, however, the lake has dropped so quickly on several occasions that the cut dried up during the summer tourist season, most recently in 2013. Continued deepening of the Castle Rock cut has been criticized for its high cost, but boaters and the National Park Service argue that it improves safety, saves millions of dollars in fuel, and improves emergency response time.</p><br>
<p>Currently most Marinas on the lake dont have Automatic Identification System monitoring stations that transmit boat positions to the AIS websites for the boating community. A substantial number of vessels on the lake do not have AIS transponders as there currently are no mandatory requirements for AIS usage for this body of water. Extra precautions must be taken with respect to boating safety, as the fractal nature of the lakes hydrologic surface area can allow vessels with limited charting equipment to become easily lost.</p><br>
<p>The burying of human (and pet) waste in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is prohibited. Anyone who camps farther than a quarter of a mile from a marina, however, must bring a portable toilet. Pet waste must also be packed out.</p><br>
<p>The southwestern end of Lake Powell in Arizona can be accessed via USA Route 89 and State Route 98. State Route 95 and State Route 276 lead to the northeastern end of the lake in Utah.</p><br>
<h2>Fish species</h2><br>
<p>Some of these fish species are on the US Endangered Species List. Currently most native species on the Colorado River Basin are subject to ongoing restoration efforts of some kind.</p><br>
<p>Bass</p><br>
<p>Smallmouth bass</p><br>
<p>Largemouth bass</p><br>
<p>Striped bass</p><br>
<p>Carp, pike and others</p><br>
<p>Crappie</p><br>
<p>Sunfish</p><br>
<p>Channel catfish</p><br>
<p>Northern pike</p><br>
<p>Walleye</p><br>
<p>Common carp</p><br>
<p>Razorback sucker</p><br>
<p>Brown trout</p><br>
<p>Bonytail chub</p><br>
<p>Gizzard shad</p><br>
<h2>Invasive species</h2><br>
<p>Zebra and quagga mussels first appeared in the United States in the 1980s.</p><br>
<p>The mussels were initially brought to the United States through the ballast water of ships entering the Great Lakes. These aquatic invaders soon spread to many bodies of water in the Eastern United States and have even made their way to the western United States. In January 2008, Zebra mussels have been detected in several reservoirs along the Colorado River system such as Lakes Mead, Mojave, and Havasu.</p><br>
<p>By the early 2000s Arizona, California, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Nevada and Utah have all confirmed the presence of larval zebra mussels in lakes and reservoirs.</p><br>
<p>Zebra and quagga mussels can be destructive to an ecosystem due to competition for resources with native species. The filtration of zooplankton by the mussels can negatively impact the feeding for some species of fish. Zebra and quagga mussels can attach to hard surfaces and build layers on underwater structures. The mussels are known to clog pipes including those in hydroelectric power systems, thus becoming a costly and time-consuming problem for water managers in the West.</p><br>
<p>Control policies have recently been introduced to alleviate the hydroelectric problems as well as ecological problems faced by Western infestation. Beginning in 1999 Lake Powell began to visually monitor for the mussels.</p><br>
<p>In 2001 hot water boat decontamination sites were established at Wahweap, Bullfrog, and Halls Crossing marinas. In January 2007, zebra mussels were detected in Lake Mead and new action plans were announced to prevent the spread of mussels to Lake Powell. In August 2007, preliminary testing was positive for zebra or quagga larvae in Lake Powell. These tests were deemed false positives, but adult quagga mussels were found in 2013.</p><br>
<p>In August 2010, Lake Powell was declared mussel free. Lake Powell introduced a mandatory boat inspection for each watercraft entering the reservoir beginning in June 2009. Effective June 29, 2009, every vessel entering Lake Powell must have a mussel certificate, although boat owners were allowed to self-certify. These measures were intended to help prevent vessels from transporting Zebra mussels into Lake Powell.</p><br>
<p>Despite these measures, quagga mussel DNA was detected in 2012 and live mussels were found at a number of sites in Spring and Summer 2013. As of June 2013 the NPS was attempting a diver based eradication program to find and remove mussels before the lake becomes infested.</p><br>
<p>Mount Chephren is a mountain located in the Mistaya River Valley of Banff National Park, Canada.</p><br>
<p>Mount Chephren was named after Chephren, the 4th Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh. The mountain was originally named Pyramid Mountain in 1897 by J. Norman Collie, but it conflicted with an identically named peak in Jasper National Park, so it was renamed in 1924 to its present name.</p><br>
<h2>Routes</h2><br>
<h3>Scramble</h3><br>
<p>Mount Chephren is rated a difficult scramble on the south face due to its steep upper slopes with possible snow and ice difficulties. Considerable snow on the route would likely require crampons and an ice axe, thereby pushing the climb into the realm of technical mountaineering. The best conditions for scrambling would normally be late July and August.</p><br>
<p>The trail head is located at the west end of the Waterfowl Lakes campground off the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park. The elevation gain from the trail head to the summit is 1,630 m.</p><br>
<h3>Technical</h3><br>
<p>There are three main routes:</p><br>
<p>South Face/West Ridge (Normal Route) II</p><br>
<p>East Face V 5.9 A1</p><br>
<p>The Wild Thing VI 5.9 A3 WI4</p><br>
<p>The Plain of Jars  is a megalithic archaeological landscape in Laos. It consists of thousands of stone jars scattered around the upland valleys and the lower foothills of the central plain of the Xiangkhoang Plateau. The jars are mostly arranged in clusters ranging in number from one to several hundred.</p><br>
<p>The Xieng Khouang Plateau is located at the northern end of the Annamese Cordillera, the principal mountain range of Indochina. French researcher Madeleine Colani concluded in 1930 that the jars were associated with prehistoric burial practices. Excavation by Lao and Japanese archaeologists in the intervening years has supported this interpretation with the discovery of human remains, burial goods and ceramics around the jars. The Plain of Jars is dated to the Iron Age (500 BC to AD 500) and is one of the most important prehistoric sites in Southeast Asia.</p><br>
<h2>The jar sites</h2><br>
<p>More than 90 jar sites have been identified within Xiangkhouang Province. Each site has from one to 400 stone jars. The jars vary in height and diameter between 1m and 3m and are all hewn from rock. Their shape is cylindrical with the bottom always wider than the top. The stone jars are undecorated, with the exception of a single jar at Site 1. This jar has a human "frogman" bas-relief carved on the exterior. Parallels between the "frogman" and the rock painting at Huashan in Guangxi, China have been drawn. The Chinese paintings, which depict large full-frontal images of humans with arms raised and knees bent, are dated to 500 BC–200 AD.</p><br>
<p>Since most of the jars have lip rims, it is thought that the jars originally supported lids, although few stone lids have been recorded; this may suggest that the bulk of lids were fashioned from perishable materials. Stone lids with animal carvings have been found at few sites such as Ban Phakeo (Site 52). The bas-relief carvings are thought to depict monkeys, tigers and frogs.</p><br>
<p>Stone discs have also been found. The discs, which differ from the lids, have at least one flat side and are grave markers which were placed on the surface to cover or mark a burial pit. These grave markers appear more infrequently than jars, but are found in close proximity. Similar are stone grave markers; these stones are unworked, but have been placed intentionally to mark a grave. To the north of Xieng Khouang an extensive network of intentionally placed largely unworked stones marking elaborate burial pits and chambers are known as "standing stones of Huaphan". These have been dated to the Bronze Age.</p><br>
<p>The jars lie in clusters on the lower footslopes and mountain ridges of the hills surrounding the central plateau and upland valleys. Several quarry sites have been recorded, usually close to the jar sites. Five rock types have been identified: sandstone, granite, conglomerate, limestone and breccia.</p><br>
<p>The majority of the jars are sandstone. It is assumed that Plain of Jars&#39; people used iron chisels to manufacture the jars, although no conclusive evidence for this exists. Regional differences in jar shape have been noted. While the differences in most cases can be attributed to choice and manipulation of rock source, some differences in form (such as variations in the placement of jar apertures) appear to be unique to specific sites.</p><br>
<p>A cave located at Site 1 is a natural limestone formation with an opening to the northwest and two man-made holes at the top. These holes are thought to be chimneys for a crematorium. French geologist and amateur archaeologist Madeleine Colani excavated inside the cave in the early 1930s and found material to support a crematorium theory. Colani also recorded and excavated at 12 Plain of Jars sites and published two volumes with her findings in 1935. Colani concluded that the Plain of Jars was an Iron Age burial site. Inside the jars she found, embedded in black organic soil, coloured glass beads, burnt teeth and bone fragments, sometimes from more than one individual. Around the stone jars, she found human bones, pottery fragments, iron and bronze objects, glass and stone beads, ceramic weights and charcoal. The bone and teeth inside the jars show signs of cremation, while the burials surrounding the jars yield unburnt secondary burial bones.</p><br>
<p>No further archaeological research was conducted until November 1994, when Professor Eiji Nitta of the Kagoshima University and Lao archaeologist Thongsa Sayavongkhamdy surveyed and mapped Site 1. Nitta claimed that the surrounding burial pits were contemporaneous to the jars, as they had been cut into the surface on which the jars had been placed. Nitta believed the jars were symbolic monument to mark the surrounding burials. He dated the Plain of Jars to the late second or early first millennium B.C. based on the burial urn and associated grave goods. Sayavongkhamdy undertook surveys and excavations between 1994 and 1996, supported by the Australian National University. Sayavongkhamdy and Peter Bellwood interpreted the stone jars as a central person&#39;s primary or secondary burial, surrounded by secondary burials of family members. Archaeological data collected during bomb clearance operations supervised by UNESCO archaeologist Julie Van Den Bergh in 2004–2005 and again in 2007 provided similar archaeological results. Like Nitta, Van Den Bergh concluded that the jars and surrounding burials were contemporaneous.</p><br>
<p>Variations in the practices of cremation inside jars and secondary burial outside jars, as noted by Colani, have proven difficult to explain. The cremated remains seem to mainly belong to adolescents. While the bomb clearance operations did not involve emptying of jars and thus no additional evidence could be gathered, Van Den Bergh claimed that the stone jars initially may have been used to distil the dead bodies and that the cremated remains within the jars represent the most recent phase in Plain of Jars. The jars with smaller apertures may reflect the diminishing need to place an entire body inside.</p><br>
<p>The suggestion that the jars, in a similar fashion to traditional Southeast Asian Royal mortuary practices, functioned as distilling vessels, was put forward by R. Engelhardt and P. Rogers in 2001. In contemporary funerary practices followed by Thai, Cambodian and Laotian royalty, the corpse of the deceased is placed into an urn during the early stages of the funeral rites, at which time the soul of deceased is believed to be undergoing gradual transformation from the earthly to the spiritual world. The ritual decomposition is later followed by cremation and secondary burial.</p><br>
<p>Incidentally, the megalithic Dravidians of South India used giant burial urns called Mudhumakkal Thazhi (burial-pots-of-the-old-people) or EemaThazhi. These funerary urns were buried with the bodies of the deceased or soon-to-die in a sitting posture, along with their personal goods and ornaments. This practice was in vogue until 200 AD.</p><br>
<p>The royal burials are located across watercourses from the habitation areas in a geographically high, prominent area. Among the Black Thai people who have been in the region at least since the 11th century, the upper classes are cremated in the belief that it will release their spirits to heaven, while commoners are buried, leaving their spirits to remain on Earth.</p><br>
<p>Colani connected the location of the jars sites to ancient trade routes, in particular with the salt trade. She assumed that salt was a commodity sought after by the Plain of Jars people, which brought traders to the Xieng Khouang Plateau. The Xieng Khouang area is rich in metallic minerals, mainly due to granite intrusions and associated hydrothermal activity.</p><br>
<p>Two principal iron ore deposits exist in Laos, both in Xieng Khouang. The presence and locations of the numerous jar sites in Xieng Khouang may relate to trading and mining activities. History has shown that Xieng Khouang, at the northern end of the Annamite Range, provides relative easy passage from the north and east to the south and west.</p><br>
<p>Within the geographic setting of Xieng Khouang, the jar sites may reflect a network of intercultural villages, whereby the locations of the jars are associated with long-distance overland routes which connect the Mekong basin and the Gulf of Tonkin System. The jar sites show superficial regional differences, such as jar form, material, and the number of jars per site. But all share common setting characteristics such as burial practices, elevated locations, and commanding views over the surrounding area.</p><br>
<p>The most investigated and visited Jar site is located close to the town of Phonsavan, and is known as Site 1. Seven jar sites have now been cleared of unexploded bombs and are open to visitors. These are currently sites 1, 2 and 3, and Site 16 near the Old Capital Xieng Khouang; Site 23, near the big hot spring in Muang Kham; Site 25 in the largely unvisited Phou Kout District; and Site 52, the largest known jar site to date with 392 jars near a traditional Hmong village only accessible by foot.</p><br>
<h2>Legends and local history</h2><br>
<p>Lao legends tell of a race of giants who inhabited the area and who were ruled by a king, named Khun Cheung, who fought a long and ultimately victorious battle against an enemy. He supposedly created the jars to brew and store huge amounts of lau hai ("lau" means "alcohol", "hai" means "jar"—So "lau hai" means rice beer or rice wine in the jars) to celebrate his victory. Another local story states that the jars were molded from natural materials including clay, sand, sugar, and animal products in a type of stone mix. This led the locals to believe the cave at Site 1 was actually a kiln, and that the jars were fired there and are not actually hewn from stone.</p><br>
<p>Another suggested explanation for the jars&#39; use is to collect monsoon rainwater for caravan travelers along their journey at times when rain may have been seasonal and water was not readily available on the easiest foot paths. Rainwater would then be boiled, even if stagnant, to become potable again, a practice long understood in Eastern Eurasia. The trade caravans that camped around these jars could have placed beads inside them as offerings, accompanying prayers for rain. Or the beads might simply have been unassociated lost items.</p><br>
<h2>Current situation</h2><br>
<p>Between 1964 and 1973, the Plain of Jars was heavily bombed by the USA Air Force (see Secret War) operating against North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao communist forces. The USA Air Force dropped more bombs on Laos, primarily the Plain of Jars, than it dropped during the whole of World War II. This included 262 million anti-personnel cluster bombs. An estimated 80 million of these did not explode and remain a deadly threat to the population.</p><br>
<p>The large quantity of unexploded bombs in the area, especially cluster munitions, limits free movement. Evidence of the bombing raids can be seen in the form of broken or displaced jars and bomb craters. Sightseeing on the Plain of Jars can only be done safely on cleared and marked pathways.</p><br>
<p>The Mines Advisory Group, a non-governmental organization, in collaboration with UNESCO and funded by the New Zealand government (NZAID), cleared unexploded bombs from the three most visited sites from July 2004 until July 2005. A second phase of bomb clearance at the sites also funded by NZAID was undertaken in 2007; four more jar sites were made safe.</p><br>
<p>The Lao PDR government and NZAID built a visitors centre that was opened on 13 August 2013 at the Plain of Jars Site 1. It is at the bottom of a hill 200m before a car park. The centre provides English language information panels on the history of the Plain of Jars culture, as well as its modern history during the 1964–1975 conflict.</p><br>
<p>The Lao PDR government is considering applying for status as a UNESCO World Heritage site for the Plain of Jars. The Lao-UNESCO Program for "Safeguarding the Plain of Jars" has been an ongoing effort by UNESCO and the Lao government to document and rehabilitate the Plain of Jars. Clearing the remaining bomb hazards must be done before the sites can be further studied and developed for tourism. One of the main objectives is community-based involvement in the management and conservation of the jar sites, which has been largely successful. However, tourism at the most visited sites has resulted in damage to some of the jars.</p><br>
<p>Parícutin  is a cinder cone volcano located in the Mexican state of Michoacán, near the city of Uruapan and about 322 km west of Mexico City. The volcano surged suddenly from the cornfield of local farmer Dionisio Pulido in 1943, attracting both popular and scientific attention.</p><br>
<p>Paricutín presented the first occasion for modern science to document the full life cycle of an eruption of this type. During the volcano&#39;s 9 years of activity, scientists sketched and mapped it and took thousands of samples and photographs. By 1952, the eruption had left a 424 meter cone and significantly damaged an area of more than 233 km&sup2; with the ejection of stone, ash and lava. Three people were killed, two towns were completely evacuated and buried by lava and three others were heavily affected. Hundreds of people had to be permanently relocated, and two new towns were created to accommodate their migration. Although the larger region still remains highly active volcanically, Parícutin is now dormant and has become a tourist attraction with people climbing the volcano and visiting the hardened lava-covered ruins of the San Juan Parangaricutiro Church. In 1997, CNN included Parícutin in its list of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Parícutin is located in the Mexican municipality of Nuevo Parangaricutiro, Michoacán, 29 km west of the city of Uruapan and about 322 km west of Mexico City. wedged against old volcanic mountain chains and surrounded by small volcanic cones with the intervening valleys occupied by small fields and orchards or small settlements, from groups of a few houses to those the size of towns.</p><br>
<p>The volcano lies on, and is a product of, the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, which runs 900 km west-to-east across central Mexico. It includes the Sierra Nevada mountain range (a set of extinct volcanoes) as well as thousands of cinder cones and volcanic events. Volcanic activity here has created the Central Mexican Plateau and rock deposits up to 1.8 km deep. It has also created fertile soils by the widespread deposition of ash and thereby some of Mexico’s most productive farmland. The volcanic activity here is a result of the subduction of the Rivera and Cocos plates along the Middle America Trench. More specifically, the volcano is the youngest of the approximately 1,400 volcanic vents of the Michoacán-Guanajuato volcanic field, a 40,000 km&sup2; basalt plateau filled with scoria cones like Parícutin, along with small shield volcanoes, maars, tuff rings and lava domes. Scoria cones are the most common type of volcano in Mexico, appearing suddenly and building a cone-shaped mountain with steep slopes before going extinct. Parícutin&#39;s immediate predecessor was El Jorullo, also in Michoacán, which erupted in 1759.</p><br>
<p>Currently the crater of the volcano is about 200 meters across and it is possible to both climb the volcano and walk around the entire perimeter. The forces that created the volcano are still active. In 1997 there was a vigorous swarm of 230 earthquakes in the Parícutin area due to tectonic movement, with five above 3.9 on the moment magnitude scale. There were also some reports of rumbling in 1995 and of black steam and rumbling in 1998. In the summer of 2006, there was another major volcanic earthquake swarm, with over 300 located near the volcano, indicating magma movement, but with no eruption at Parícutin or anywhere else.</p><br>
<h2>Formation</h2><br>
<p>Parícutin erupted from 1943 to 1952, unusually long for this type of volcano, and with several eruptive phases. For weeks prior, residents of the area reported hearing noises similar to thunder but without clouds in the sky. This sound is consistent with deep earthquakes from the movement of magma. A later study indicated that the eruption was preceded by 21 earthquakes over 3.2 in intensity starting five weeks before the eruption. One week prior to the eruption, newspapers reported 25–30 per day. The day before the eruption, the number is estimated at 300.</p><br>
<p>The eruption began on February 20, 1943, at about 4:00 PM local time. The center of the activity was a cornfield near the town of Parícutin, owned by Dionisio Pulido. During that day, he and his family had been working their land, clearing it to prepare for spring planting. Suddenly the ground nearby where they were working swelled upward and formed a fissure between 2 and 2.5 meters across. They reported that they heard hissing sounds, and smoke which smelled like rotten eggs, indicating the presence of hydrogen sulfide. Within hours, the fissure would develop into a small crater.</p><br>
<p>Pulido reported:</p><br>
<p>He tried to find his family and oxen but they had disappeared so he rode his horse to town where he found his family and friends, happy to see him alive. The volcano grew fast and furiously after this. Witness Celedonio Gutierrez, who witnessed the eruption on the first night reported:</p><br>
<p>On that first day, the volcano had begun strombolian pyroclastic activity and within 24 hours, there was a scorian cone fifty meters high, created by the ejection of lapilli fragments up to the size of a walnut and larger, semi-molten volcanic bombs. By the end of the week, reports had the cone between 100 and 150 meters high. Soon after the start, the valley was covered in smoke and ash. The nine-year activity of the volcano is divided into four stages with names that come from the Purépecha language. The first phase (Quitzocho) extended from February 22 to October 18, 1943, with activity concentrated in the cracks that formed in the Cuiyusuro Valley, forming the initial cone. During this time, the ejected material was mostly lapilli and bombs. In March, the eruption became more powerful, with eruptive columns that extended for several kilometers. In four months, the cone reached 200 meters and in eight months 365 meters. During this time period, there was some lava flow. On June 12, lava began to advance towards the village of Parícutin, forcing evacuations the next day. The second phase went from October 18, 1943 to January 8, 1944 and is called Sapichi, meaning "child", referring to the formation of a lateral vent and other openings on the north side of the cone. Ash and bombs continued to be ejected but the new vent sent lava towards the town of San Juan Parangaricutiro, forcing its permanent evacuation. By August, the town was completely covered in lava and ash, with only the upper portions of the main church still visible. The evacuations of Parícutin and San Juan were able to be accomplished without loss of life due to the slow movement of the lava. These two phases lasted just over a year and account for more than 90% of the total material ejected from the cone, as well as almost four-fifths (330 meters) of the final height of 424 meters from the valley floor. It also sent ash as far as Mexico City.</p><br>
<p>The third (Taqué-Ahuan) lasted from January 8, 1944 to January 12, 1945 and focuses on the formation of a series of cracks on the south side of the cone as well as an increase in activity in the center. Lava flows from this time mostly extend to the west and northwest. During this period there was also the formation of a mesa now called Los Hornitos to the south.</p><br>
<p>Over the next seven years, the volcano became less active, with the ejection of ash, stone and lava coming sporadically, with periods of silence in between. Professional geologists pulled out of the area in 1948, leaving only Celedonio Gutierrez to continue observations. The last burst of activity was recorded by him between January and February 1952. Several eruptions occurred in succession and a three-kilometer smoke column was produced.</p><br>
<h2>Scientific study</h2><br>
<p>The importance of the Parícutin eruption was that it was the first time that volcanologists were able to fully document the entire life cycle of a volcano. The event brought geologists from all over the world, but the principal researchers were William F. Foshag of the Smithsonian Institution and Dr. Jenaro Gonzalez Reyna from the Mexican government, who came about a month after the eruption started and stayed for several years. These two wrote detailed descriptions, drew sketches and maps and took samples and thousands of photographs during this time. Many of these are still used today by researchers. Foshag continued to study the volcano until his death in 1956. Between 1943 and 1948, almost fifty scientific articles were published in major journals about the volcano, with even more since. The worldwide effort to study Parícutin increased understanding of volcanism in general but particularly of scoria cone formation.</p><br>
<h2>Socioeconomic consequences</h2><br>
<p>Despite the ongoing Second World War, the eruption drew attention from around the world, with reporters from newspapers and magazines including Life coming to cover the story. Airline pilots pointed the volcano out to passengers and one Hollywood film, Captain from Castile, was shot in the area, using the erupting volcano as a backdrop and employing locals as extras.</p><br>
<p>The eruptions ended in 1952, leaving a final scoria cone with a height of 424 meters from the valley floor. The eruption destroyed or heavily damaged a 233 km area, and almost all of the vegetation within several kilometers of the crater was destroyed. The volcano spread lava over 26 km, with 52 km covered in volcanic sand. The town of Parícutin, which once had a population of 733, is now completely gone, and all that remains of the town of San Juan Parangaricutiro, with a former population of 1,895, are parts of its main church which stand out among the hardened lava flow.</p><br>
<p>Though no one died directly from the eruption, three people were killed when they were struck by lightning generated by pyroclastic eruptions. The damage from the eruption primarily affected five towns in two municipalities, San Juan Parangaricutiro and Los Reyes. In addition to the two towns that were obliterated, Zacan (pop. 876), Angahuan (pop. 1,098) and Zirosto (pop. 1,314) were also heavily affected. The main effect on the people of the area was the disruption of their lives and livelihood, especially during the first two years. The area most affected by the eruption had a population of 5,910, and hundreds of these were permanently evacuated. Before leaving his home for the last time, Dionisio Pulido placed a sign on the cornfield that read in Spanish: “This volcano is owned and operated by Dionisio Pulido.” The populations of the two destroyed towns were initially moved to camps on either side of the city of Uruapan. The population of the other three towns mostly stayed in place but made adaptations to survive during the eruption. People of Angahuan and Zacan mostly stayed where they were. The population of Zirosto divided into three: those that stayed in the original location, now known as Zirosto Viejo, those who moved a few miles away to a ranch which is now is officially called Zirosto Nuevo but locally called Barranca Seca, and a third group founded a completely new settlement called Miguel Silva near Ario de Rosales.</p><br>
<p>The town of San Juan Parangaricutiro was the seat of the municipality of the same name, and its destruction prompted the political reorganization and a new seat at Parangaricutiro (today generally called San Juan Nuevo), where much of the population of the old seat had been relocated, with some going to Angahuan.</p><br>
<p>The economy of the area was then and is now mostly agricultural, with population mostly Purépecha, rural and poor. However, the eruption did cause a number of changes both social and economic to the affected areas, both to adapt to the changed landscape but also because the fame of the eruption has brought greater contact from the rest of Mexico and beyond.</p><br>
<p>The volcano has become a tourist attraction, with the main access in Angahuan, from which the volcano is clearly visible. The town offers guides and horses, both to visit the ruins of the San Juan Parangaricutiro Church as well as to climb the volcano itself. The volcano is part of the Pico de Tancítaro National Park and is mostly accessible on horseback, with only the last few hundred, very steep, meters to be climbed on foot. The trek requires a guide even if horses are not used, as the path is not well-marked and passes through forest, agave fields and avocado groves. Many simply visit the ruins of the church, which are easier to access and still a pilgrimage site, the old altar regularly adorned with fresh candles and flowers. Nearby is a group of stands selling local food and souvenirs.</p><br>
<p>The story of the formation of Parícutin is the subject of the children&#39;s book Hill of Fire by author Thomas P. Lewis published in 1983. The book was featured in an episode of Reading Rainbow in 1985.</p><br>
<p>Shishapangma, also called Gosainthān, is the 14th highest mountain in the world at 8,027 m above sea level. It was the last 8,000 metre peak to be climbed, due to its location entirely within Tibet and the restrictions on visits by foreign travelers to the region imposed by authorities of the Government of China and of the Tibet Autonomous Region.</p><br>
<h2>Name</h2><br>
<p>Geologist Toni Hagen explained the name as meaning a "grassy plain" or "meadow" (pangma) above a "comb" or a "range" (shisha or chisa) in the local Tibetan dialect, thereby signifying the "crest above the grassy plains".</p><br>
<p>On the other hand, Tibetologist Guntram Hazod records a local story that explains the mountain&#39;s name in terms of its literal meaning in the Standard Tibetan language: shisha, which means "meat of an animal that died of natural causes" and sbangma which means "malt dregs left over from brewing beer". According to the story, one year a heavy snowfall killed most of the animals at pasture. All that the people living near the mountain had to eat was the meat of the dead animals and the malt dregs left over from brewing beer, and so the mountain was named Shisha Pangma (shisha sbangma), signifiying "meat of dead animals and malty dregs".</p><br>
<p>The Sanskrit name of the mountain, Gosainthan, means "place of the saint" or "Abode of God". Still, its most common name is Shishapangma.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Shishapangma is located in south-central Tibet, five kilometres from the border with Nepal. It is the only eight-thousander entirely within Chinese territory. It is also the highest peak in the Jugal Himal which is contiguous with and often considered part of Langtang Himal. The Jugal/Langtang Himal straddles the Tibet/Nepal border. Since Shishapangma is on the dry north side of the Himalayan crest and further from the lower terrain of Nepal, it has less dramatic vertical relief than most major Himalayan peaks.</p><br>
<p>Shishapangma has a subsidiary peak higher than 8000 m: Central-Peak at 8008 m.</p><br>
<h2>Ascents and attempts</h2><br>
<p>Many of Shishapangma&#39;s ascents are not well verified. Some people claiming to have reached the summit in fact only reached the lower central peak.</p><br>
<h3>First ascent</h3><br>
<p>Shishapangma was first climbed via the Northern Route on 2 May 1964 by a Chinese expedition led by Xǔ Jìng. In addition to Xǔ Jìng, the summit team consisted of Zhāng Jùnyán, Wang Fuzhou, Wū Zōngyuè, Chén Sān, Soinam Dorjê, Chéng Tiānliàng, Migmar Zhaxi, Dorjê, and Yún Dēng.</p><br>
<h3>Later ascents and attempts</h3><br>
<p>1980 7 May, "Northern Route", (second ascent) by Michael Dacher, Wolfgang Schaffert, Gunter Sturm, Fritz Zintl, Sigi Hupfauer and Manfred Sturm (12 May); as part of a German expedition.</p><br>
<p>1980: 13 October, "Northern Route", (3rd ascent) by Ewald Putz and Egon Obojes, as part of an Austrian expedition.</p><br>
<p>1981: 30 April, "Northern Route", (4th ascent) by Junko Tabei, Rinzing Phinzo and Gyalbu Jiabu, as part of a Japanese women&#39;s expedition.</p><br>
<p>1981: 28 May, "Northern Route", (5th ascent) by Reinhold Messner and Friedl Mutschlechner, as part of an Austrian expedition.</p><br>
<p>1982: 28 May, "British Route", southwest face, also known as "Right-hand couloir" (alpine style), FA by Doug Scott, Alex Macintyre and Roger Baxter-Jones (all UK). Route follows the right-hand couloir on the southwest face.</p><br>
<p>1987: 18 September, Elsa Ávila and Carlos Carsolio become the first Mexicans to summit Shishapangma. For Ávila, her first eight-thousander and for Carsolio, his second, via the northern face/ridge to the central summit, then along the arete to the main summit, with Wanda Rutkiewicz, Ramiro Navarrete, and Ryszard Warecki.</p><br>
<p>1987: 18 September, west ridge, FA by Jerzy Kukuczka and Artur Hajzer (both Poland). A new road along the ridge west, by the western summit (first entry) and continue through by the middle summit on the main summit. Kukuczka skied down from near the summit. This was his last of fourteen eight-thousanders.</p><br>
<p>1987: 19 September, central couloir, north face, FA by Alan Hinkes (UK) and Steve Untch (US).</p><br>
<p>1989: 19 October, Central buttress, southwest face, FA by Andrej Stremfelj and Pavle Kozjek.</p><br>
<p>1990: Left-hand couloir, southwest face (not reaching the main summit</p><br>
<p>1993: Far-right couloir, southwest face, FA solo by Krzysztof Wielicki (Poland).</p><br>
<p>1993: May 22, Marcos Couch and Nicolás De la Cruz (argentinian expedition)</p><br>
<p>1994: Left-hand couloir, southwest face (not reaching the main summit), Erik Decamp (France), Catherine Destivelle (France).</p><br>
<p>1996: 9 October, Anatoli Boukreev.</p><br>
<p>1999: 28 September, Edmond Joyeusaz (Italy) first ski descent from central summit.</p><br>
<p>2002: 5 May, "Korean Route" on southwest face, FA by Park Jun Hun and Kang Yeon Ryoung (both South Korea).</p><br>
<p>2002 26 October: Tomaž Humar(Slovenia), Maxut Zhumayev, Denis Urubko, Alexey Raspopov and Vassily Pivtsov got to the summit. Tomaž Humar climbed last 200 m (80°/50–60°, 200 m) of ascent and descent (65–75°, 700 m)</p><br>
<p>2004: 11 December, Jean-Christophe Lafaille (France) provokes controversy when he climbs the "British Route" on the southwest face, solo, and claims a winter ascent. Since this was not calendar winter, he changes his claim to an ascent "in winter conditions."</p><br>
<p>2005: 14 January, first (calendar) winter ascent by Piotr Morawski (Poland) and Simone Moro (Italy).</p><br>
<p>2011: 16–17 April, Ueli Steck (Switzerland) solos the southwest face in 10.5 hours, leaving base camp (5,306m) at 10:30 pm on 16 April and returning to base camp 20 hours later.</p><br>
<p>2014: September 24, Sebastian Haag died together with the Italian mountaineer Andrea Zambaldi in an avalanche. He was 35 years old.</p><br>
<h2>Bibliography</h2><br>
<p>A Photographic record of the Mount Shisha Pangma Scientific Expedition. Science Press Peking 1966.</p><br>
<p>Sale, Richard, Cleare, John: On Top of the World (Climbing the World&#39;s 14 Highest Mountains), lists of ascents, HarperCollins Publ., 2000.</p><br>
<p>Gasherbrum II ; surveyed as K4, is the 13th highest mountain in the world at 8,035 m above sea level. It is the third-highest peak of the Gasherbrum massif, and is located in the Karakoram, on the border between Gilgit–Baltistan province, Pakistan, and Xinjiang, China. The mountain was first climbed on July 7, 1956, by an Austrian expedition which included Fritz Moravec, Josef Larch, and Hans Willenpart.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Gasherbrum II is located on the border of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan, and Xinjiang, China. It is part of the Karakoram mountain range in the Himalayas, and located at the top of the Baltoro Glacier. With an elevation of 8,035 m it is the third-highest member of the Gasherbrum group, behind Gasherbrum I (8,080 m) and Broad Peak (8,051 m). Gasherbrum III is sometimes considered to be a subpeak of Gasherbrum II, because the former has a topographic prominence of only 461 m.</p><br>
<h2>Naming</h2><br>
<p>In 1856, Thomas George Montgomerie, a member of the British Royal Engineers and part of the Great Trigonometric Survey, sighted the mountain and named it "K4", meaning the fourth mountain of Karakoram. The name "Gasherbrum" comes from the Balti words rgasha ("beautiful") and brum ("mountain"); it does not, contrary to popular belief, mean "shining wall", how Sir William Martin Conway described nearby Gasherbrum IV on an 1892 exploration.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing history</h2><br>
<p>The mountains of the Gasherbrum group were explored in 1909 by the Duke of the Abruzzi and Vittorio Sella. The Abruzzi Glacier, a tributary of the Baltoro Glacier, is named after the Duke.</p><br>
<p>In 1934, Günter Dyhrenfurth and his International Himalayan Expedition, including André Roch, explored Gasherbrum I and II, making it 6,250 m up Gasherbrum II.</p><br>
<p>The first ascent came on July 7, 1956, by Austrians Fritz Moravec, Josef Larch and Hans Willenpart by the Southwest Ridge. After they set up Camp I, they had to descend, and found the camp—and all their supplies and food—buried by an avalanche when they returned. Despite this, they decided to make a quick summit attempt. After opening up a route, they left Camp III on July 6. The group spent the night in a bivouac sack and reached the top at 11:30 am the next day.</p><br>
<p>In 1975, four expeditions successfully climbed Gasherbrum II, including Jean-Pierre Fresafond&#39;s French expedition, a Polish group under Janusz Onyszkiewicz, and another Polish expedition led by Wanda Rutkiewicz.</p><br>
<p>Four years later, a Chilean group claimed to have used the "normal" route to reach the top. Several others, including Reinhard Karl, Hanns Schell, and Kurt Diemberger also reached the summit.</p><br>
<p>On July 24, 1982, Reinhold Messner, along with Nazir Sabir and Sher Khan, climbed the peak via the Southwest Ridge. During that year, Messner also climbed two other eight-thousanders, Kangchenjunga and Broad Peak, and attempted Cho Oyu. He wrote a book, 3 x 8000: My Great Year in the Himalaya (3 x 8000: Mein grosses Himalaja-Jahr), about this.</p><br>
<p>In July 1984, Reinhold Messner and Hans Kammerlander reached both Gasherbrum II and Gasherbrum I without returning to base camp, in alpine style.</p><br>
<p>In August 1984, a French expedition led by Daniel Croisot, reached summit and achieved the integral first descent by ski of Gasherbrum II, as witnessed and joined by Dominique Dock who was medical officer for the expedition.</p><br>
<p>In August 1986, Gasherbrum II was successfully ascended by a Slovene expedition in only 32 hours from the base to the peak, with only 22 hours of climbing and 10 hours of rest at the altitude of 5900 m. This was by far the fastest ascent until then.</p><br>
<p>In July 1996, Jean-Christophe Lafaille climbed Gasherbrum I and II in four days, without stopping at Base Camp in between.</p><br>
<p>In 2006, Sebastian Haag and Benedikt Böhm climbed Gasherbrum II twice within a week. At 8:00 am on July 29, they reached the top and then skied down without abseiling or removing their skis. They rested for a few days before leaving Camp I again on August 3. They started out fast, reaching Camp IV in six hours, but 50 cm of fresh snow slowed them down, and they reached the summit after over six hours of tough climbing. They descended on skis again, this time made even more dangerous by packed-down snow and the risk of avalanche. Despite this, they both made it safely back to Camp I in under 17 hours, whereas a normal expedition takes four to seven days.</p><br>
<p>Karl Unterkircher and Daniele Bernasconi, two Italians, climbed Gasherbrum II in 2007 in alpine style. They were the first to use the North Face through China. The route had been attempted a year earlier by a German–Swiss team, but they abandoned it after an avalanche. During the attempt they fixed around 1,200 m of rope. They arrived at the summit around 8:00 pm on July 20, after spending the night in a bivouac shelter. A third member, Michele Compagnoni, grandson of Achille Compagnoni, turned back just 150 m before the summit. The team reunited and descended down the normal, northwest route.</p><br>
<p>On February 2, 2011, Cory Richards, Denis Urubko, and Simone Moro became the first to ascend Gasherbrum II in winter. Despite being buried by a class-four avalanche, they reached the summit at 11:30 am, without supplemental oxygen or porters. Richards, who was the first American to climb an eight-thousander in winter, filmed the expedition, which he turned into the film Cold.</p><br>
<p>Mount Columbia is the highest point in Alberta, Canada. It is second only to Mount Robson for height and topographical prominence in the Canadian Rockies. It is located on the border between Alberta and British Columbia on the northern edge of the Columbia Icefield. Its highest point, however, lies within Jasper National Park in Alberta.</p><br>
<p>The mountain was named in 1898 by J. Norman Collie after the Columbia River. The river itself was named after the American ship Columbia Rediviva captained by Robert Gray, who first ventured over a dangerous sandbar and explored the lower reaches of the river in 1792. Mount Columbia was first ascended in 1902 by James Outram, guided by Christian Kaufmann.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing routes</h2><br>
<p>The normal route is on the east face, a non-technical glacier climb that is straightforward in summer, albeit with a long approach over the icefield. Other routes include the North Ridge, an excellent route with lots of variety packed into almost 2000 m of climbing. While not technically desperate, it is still not a route to be taken lightly.(Grade V, YDS 5.7, W3).</p><br>
<p>Mopsuestia estia; Byzantine: Mamista, Manistra; Arabic: al-Maṣṣīṣah; Armenian: Msis, Mises, Mamestia; Frankish: Mamistra) is an ancient city in Cilicia Campestris on the Pyramus River  located approximately 20 km east of ancient Antiochia in Cilicia . From the city’s harbour the river is navigable to the Mediterranean Sea, a distance of over 40 km .</p><br>
<p>The founding of this city is attributed in legend to the soothsayer Mopsus, who lived before the Trojan war, although it is scarcely mentioned before the Christian era. Pliny the Elder calls it the free city of Mopsos (Hist. nat., V, 22), but the ordinary name is Mopsuestia, as found in Stephanus of Byzantium and all the Christian geographers and chroniclers. Under the Seleucid Empire, the city took the name of Seleucia on the Pyramus (classical Greek: Σελεύκεια πρὸς τὸν Πύραμον, Seleukeia pros ton Pyramon; Seleucia ad Pyramum), but gave it up at the time of the Roman conquest; under Hadrian it was called Hadriana, under Decius Decia, etc., as we know from the inscriptions and the coins of the city. Constantius II built there a magnificent bridge over the Pyramus (Malalas, Chronographia, XIII; P.G., XCVII, 488) afterwards restored by Justinian (Procopius, De Edificiis, V. 5) and has been restored again recently.</p><br>
<p>Christianity seems to have been introduced very early into Mopsuestia and during the 3rd century there is mention of a bishop, Theodorus, the adversary of Paul of Samosata. Other famous residents of the early Christian period in the city’s history include Saint Auxentius (d. 360), and Theodore, bishop from 392&ndash;428, the teacher of Nestorius. The bishopric is included in the Catholic Church&#39;s list of titular sees. Along with much of Cilicia, the region was wrested from Roman control by the Arabs in the late 630s.</p><br>
<p>In 684 the Emperor Constantine IV recaptured Misis from its small Arab garrison and it remained an imperial possession until 703 (Theophanes, "Chronogr.", A. M. 6178, 6193), when it was recaptured by ̔the Arabs, who rebuilt the fortifications, constructed a mosque, and maintained a permanent garrison. Because of its position on the frontier, the city was repeatedly fought over and was recaptured from time to time by the Byzantines: it was besieged in vain by the Byzantine troops of John I Tzimisces in 964, but was taken the following year after a long and difficult siege by Nicephorus Phocas.</p><br>
<p>Mopsuestia then numbered 200,000 inhabitants, some of whom were Muslim, and the Byzantines made efforts to re-Christianize the city. In the early 1090s Turkish forces overran the town, but were expelled in 1097 by Crusader troops under Tancred who took possession of the city and its strategic port, which were annexed to the Principality of Antioch. It suffered much from internecine war between Crusaders, Armenians, and Greeks who lost it and recaptured it, notably in 1106, 1132, and 1137. Finally in 1151-52 the Armenian Baron T’oros II captured the city and defeated the Greek counter attack led by Andronikos I Komnenos. Thereafter it remained a possession of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, but was briefly captured and plundered by the Mamluks in 1266, 1275, and 1322. The Venetians and Genoese were licensed by the Armenians to maintain warehouses near the harbour to store goods brought from India. The Armenians were permanently evicted by the Mamluks in 1347. The city was the site of several church councils and possessed four Armenian churches; the Greek diocese still existed at the beginning of the fourteenth century (Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, II, 1002 ). In 1432 the Frenchman Bertrandon reported that he city was ruled by the Muslims and was largely destroyed. In 1515 Mopsuestia, and the whole of Cilica, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Selim I. Since then it has steadily declined and became the small village of Misis. Misis was renamed Yakapınar in the 1960s. Only fragments of the medieval fortifications survive today. However, an etching of the circuit walls and towers was made in the mid-19th century. The Misis Mosaic Museum was founded in 1959 to exhibit the mosaics found in the area, including the famous “Samson Mosaic.”</p><br>
<p>Mount Alberta is a mountain located in the upper Athabasca River Valley of Jasper National Park, Canada. J. Norman Collie named the mountain in 1898 after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta.</p><br>
<p>Mount Alberta is the sixth highest peak of the Canadian Rockies. It is situated 80 km southeast of the town of Jasper.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The base was reached via Fortress Lake in 1901 by the German explorer Jean Habel. Photographs of the peak generated significant interest among mountaineers.</p><br>
<p>The first ascent was made in 1925 by members of the Japanese Alpine Club: S. Hashimoto, H. Hatano, T. Hayakawa, Y. Maki, Y.Mita, N. Okabe. The team was guided by Hans Fuhrer, H. Kohler and J. Weber, and the leader of the team was Maki. This team consisted of four Keio University alpine club members and two Gakushuin University alpine club members. They started climbing on July 21st, 1925. After some difficulty in dealing with an overhang and a steep series of ledges for 16 hours, they reached the top and ceremoniously planted an ice axe. The ice axe was left as a symbol of their achievement. The second party that achieved the ascent found this ice axe 23 years later, and brought it back to the American Alpine Club in New York. The handle of the ice axe had been broken by the ice and rocks. In 1969, the handle was found by a Japanese party, and the two parts were put together in Tokyo in 1997. This ice axe is now exhibited in Jasper Yellowhead Museum.</p><br>
<p>The second ascent was completed in 1948 by Americans Fred Ayers and John Oberlin. In 1958, the first ascent by a Canadian team was completed by Neil Brown, Hans Gmoser, Leo Grillmair, Heinz Kahl and Sarka Spinkova.</p><br>
<h2>Routes</h2><br>
<p>There are a number of standard climbing routes:</p><br>
<p>Japanese Route (Normal Route) V 5.6</p><br>
<p>North Face VI 5.9 A3</p><br>
<p>North-East Ridge V 5.10</p><br>
<p>Mount Forbes, the eighth tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies, is located 18 km southwest of the Saskatchewan River Crossing in Banff National Park. The mountain was named by James Hector in 1859 after Edward Forbes, Hector&#39;s natural history professor at the University of Edinburgh during the mid-nineteenth century.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing routes</h2><br>
<p>There are several climbing routes, including:</p><br>
<p>West Ridge (Normal Route) III</p><br>
<p>North-West Face Variation III</p><br>
<p>West Ridge of Rosita III 5.3</p><br>
<p>Most common approach route for Mount Forbes is from the Alberta side, starting at the Icefields Parkway. Park at the Glacier Lake trailhead and follow the trail to the head of Glacier Lake (13 km). From there follow the old trail up the north bank of the Glacier River to the large open basin at the head of the river. Ford the Glacier river. Find the climbers trail ascending the timbered knob at the south end of the basin. Follow this trail as it climbs steeply up the knob then crosses to the west and climbs improbably up toward cliffs to the west. Eventually you climb above the canyon and then the drop slightly to the edge of the Mons Glacier. Camps can be made here or at the foot of the North Glacier of Mt. Forbes. From here, the peak can be climbed in a reasonable day. The approach takes 4 to 6 hours.</p><br>
<p>A faster and shorter approach is from the west via recent logging roads starting north of Golden, BC. The 4–6 hour approach mentioned above has become much longer due to deteriorating trails, and also involves a cold river crossing. Many parties take two days using this approach. For a faster approach start on the Bush logging road and follow this until 68 km. Here turn right on the Vallenciennes Road to 13 km where you follow the left fork up the Mons road. Park just past 23 km beside Icefall Brook. From here a trail ascends 350 m up a gravel slope, where it traverses north on ledges above the Icefall Canyon. This ledge is on the west side of Mons Peak. After traversing for 1 km, the open meadows and moraines below the Mons Glacier are reached. From a camp here Mt. Forbes can be climbed in a day. This approach is 4 km long, climbs 1,000 m, and can be done in 3 to 4 hours.</p><br>
<p>St Michael&#39;s Isle , popularly referred to as Fort Island, is an island in Malew parish in the Isle of Man, noted for its attractive ruins. It covers an area of 5.14 hectare, is about 400 m long from west to east, and is connected to the Langness Peninsula, near Derbyhaven, by a narrow causeway. The island itself is made of rocky slate and the soil is very acidic.</p><br>
<p>There is evidence for human activity on the island from the Mesolithic period onwards and there are two ancient buildings on the island. Both are in a state of ruin and closed to the public, though there are a number of walks which allow visitors to explore the surroundings.</p><br>
<p>St Michael&#39;s Chapel, a 12th-century chapel, is on the south side of the island. This Celtic-Norse chapel was built on the site of an older Celtic keeill.</p><br>
<p>The island is the site of two great battles for the control of the Isle of Man in 1250 and 1275, when England, Scotland and the Manx were fighting for control of the island. The Manx won the first battle, but 25 years later they lost control to Scotland.</p><br>
<p>Derby Fort, a 17th-century fort, is at the eastern end of the island. It was built by James Stanley, the 7th Earl of Derby and Lord of Mann in 1645, during the English Civil War, to protect the then busy port of Derbyhaven.</p><br>
<p>The island is a bird sanctuary.</p><br>
<p>Mount Athabasca is located in the Columbia Icefield of Jasper National Park in Canada. The mountain was named in 1898 by J. Norman Collie, who made the first ascent on August 18 of that year. Athabasca is the Cree Indian name for "where there are reeds" which originally referred to Lake Athabasca.</p><br>
<h2>Routes</h2><br>
<p>There are several climbing routes, including:</p><br>
<p>North Glacier (Normal Route) II</p><br>
<p>Silverhorn II</p><br>
<p>AA Col II</p><br>
<p>Regular North Face III 5.8</p><br>
<p>North Ridge III 5.5</p><br>
<p>The Hourglass 300m, III, AI3-4</p><br>
<p>One of the most prominent features of Mount Athabasca is a horned-shaped tip near the top called the "Silverhorn". The Silverhorn is one of the easier routes to the summit but requires more caution and ability than the normal route because of blue ice and falling ice from other parties. Although not apparent from the typical roadside view of the mountain, the south side of Silverhorn contains a scrambling route but one must still cross the north glacier to get to it. From the top of the Silverhorn, the summit is a rather easy 15-minute plod in good summer weather over the narrow snow-covered summit ridge.</p><br>
<p>Mount Edith Cavell is a mountain located in the Athabasca River and Astoria River valleys of Jasper National Park, and the most prominent peak entirely within Alberta.</p><br>
<p>The mountain was named in 1916 for Edith Cavell, an English nurse executed by the Germans during World War I for having helped Allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium to the Netherlands, in violation of German military law. It was previously known as la montagne de la Grande traversée (the Mountain of the Great Crossing) because it stands above Athabasca Pass.</p><br>
<p>A close-up view of the north face of Mount Edith Cavell is visible after a short hike to Cavell Meadows. The trailhead is by the parking lot at the end of Mount Edith Cavell Road. The trail to the meadows is 3.8 km one way, rising 370 m to 2,135 m. The Canadian Rockies Trail Guide describes the trail in detail.</p><br>
<p>The hanging Angel Glacier is visible from Cavell Meadows, which spills over a 300 m cliff on the north face.</p><br>
<p>Access to the Tonquin Valley trails can be found about one kilometre before the end of the Mount Edith Cavell Road. There is a parking area across from the Mount Edith Cavell Hostel. A short walk down the gravel path leads to the north end of Cavell Lake. There is small bridge across the stream that empties the lake. From here there are good views with the lake in the foreground and the Mount Edith Cavell massif in the background.</p><br>
<p>It is believed that the world&#39;s largest glacial erratic, called Big Rock, located near Okotoks, Alberta, was once part of Mount Edith Cavell. The erratic was formed approximately ten thousand years ago when a large portion of quartzite stone was stripped away from the mountain along with the receding Athabasca River Valley glacier.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing routes</h2><br>
<p>There are several popular climbing routes, including:</p><br>
<p>West Ridge (normal route): Yosemite Decimal System II</p><br>
<p>East Ridge: Yosemite Decimal System III, 5.3</p><br>
<p>North Face, East Summit: Yosemite Decimal System IV, 5.8</p><br>
<p>The North Face route is included as a classic climb in Steck and Roper&#39;s Fifty Classic Climbs of North America.</p><br>
<h2>Notable ascents</h2><br>
<p>1961 North Face, IV 5.7, First ascent by Yvon Chouinard, Fred Beckey and Dan Doody. July 20–21.</p><br>
<p>1966 North Face, Second ascent by Denny Eberl and Gray Thompson. July 30, 1966.</p><br>
<p>1967 North Face, First solo ascent by Royal Robbins.</p><br>
<p>Solfatara  is a shallow volcanic crater at Pozzuoli, near Naples, part of the Campi Flegrei volcanic area. It is a dormant volcano, which still emits jets of steam with sulfurous fumes. The name comes from the Latin, Sulpha terra, "land of sulfur", or "sulfur earth". It was formed around 4000 years ago and last erupted in 1198 with what was probably a phreatic eruption - an explosive steam-driven eruption caused when groundwater interacts with magma. The crater floor is a popular tourist attraction, as it has many fumaroles and mud pools. The area is well known for its bradyseism. The vapours have been used for medical purposes since Roman times.</p><br>
<p>Solfatara crater.jpgPanoramic view of the crater towards the southeast</p><br>
<p>Mud pool in Solfatara crater.jpgClose-up view of a mud pool</p><br>
<p>Medium fumarole in Solfatara crater.jpgMedium size fumarole in Solfatara</p><br>
<p>Fumarole in Solfatara crater (close up).jpgBiggest fumarole in Solfatara</p><br>
<p>This volcano is where the thermoacidophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus was first isolated. The archaeon is named for the volcano, as most species of the genus Sulfolobus are named for the area where they are first isolated.</p><br>
<p>In 305, this is the location where the patron of Pozzuoli, Saint Proculus, and the patron of Naples, Saint Januarius were beheaded.</p><br>
<p>In Roman myth, it was purported to be the home of the god Vulcan.</p><br>
<p>In 2017, three people—an 11-year-old boy and his parents—died when they fell into a chasm in an off-limits area of the crater. His 7-year-old brother did not rush into the dangerous area, and so he survived.</p><br>
<p>Hersonissos , Chersónisos, ), also transliterated as Chersonisos and Hersónisos, is a town and a municipality in the north of Crete, bordering the Mediterranean / Aegean Sea. This community is about 25 kilometers east of Heraklion and west of Agios Nikolaos. What is usually called Hersonissos is in fact its peninsula and harbour. It is part of the Heraklion regional unit. It is situated 25 km from the Heraklion airport and 27 km from the Heraklion port. The seat of the municipality is the village Gournes.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The seaside resort of Hersonissos is officially the Port of Hersonissos (Λιμένας Χερσόνησου, Liménas Chersónisou) in distinction to the village of Upper Hersonissos (Άνω Χερσόνησος, Ano Chersónisos) further inland. Through tourism, the port town developed from the small harbour which served the original village, now known as Old Hersonissos.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The ancient town of Chersonesus was important enough in the Roman province of Creta et Cyrenaica early to become a Christian bishopric, a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Gortyna.</p><br>
<p>The names of some of its bishops appear in extant documents: Anderius took part in the Council of Ephesus in 431; Longinus in the Robber Council of 449; Euphratas was a signatory of the letter sent by the bishops of the province to the emperor Leo I the Thracian in 458 after the killing of Proterius of Alexandria; Sisinnius was at the Trullan Council in 692; and another Sisinnius at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.</p><br>
<h2>Latin bishopric</h2><br>
<p>After the Venetian conquest of Crete in 1212, the existing dioceses, such as Chersonesus, were administered by Latin Church bishops.</p><br>
<p>The line of residential Latin bishops of Chersonesus ended with the conquest of Crete by the Ottomans in 1669.</p><br>
<h3>Titular see</h3><br>
<p>No longer a residential bishopric, Chersonnesus in Creta is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular bishopric, as such nominally restored in 1787 under the name Chersonesus, changed in 1933 to Chersonesus in Creta, avoiding confusing with other Latin sees called Chersonesus.</p><br>
<p>It is vacant, having had the following incumbents, all of the lowest (episcopal)rank :</p><br>
<p>to process</p><br>
<p>Karel Otčenášek (1950.03.30 – 1989.12.21) (later Archbishop)*</p><br>
<p>•Titular Bishop: Bishop Antonio Cardona Riera (later Archbishop) (1928.03.10 – 1950.02.02)</p><br>
<p>•Titular Bishop: Bishop Rafael Balanzá y Navarro (1923.08.13 – 1928.03.02)</p><br>
<p>•Titular Bishop: Bishop Marc Chatagnon (沙), M.E.P. (1887.01.25 – 1920.11.26)</p><br>
<p>•Titular Bishop: Bishop Johann Theodor Laurent (1839.09.17 – 1884.02.20)</p><br>
<p>•Titular Bishop: Bishop Viktor Franz Anton von Glutz-Ruchti (1820.05.29 – 1824.10.09)</p><br>
<p>•Titular Bishop: Bishop Ambrosi de Magistris (1818.10.02 – ?)</p><br>
<p>•Titular Bishop: Bishop Johann Casimir von Häffelin (later Cardinal)* (1787.09.28 – 1818.04.06)</p><br>
<h2>Municipality of Hersonissos</h2><br>
<p>The municipality of Hersonissos was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 4 former municipalities, that became municipal units:</p><br>
<p>Episkopi</p><br>
<p>Gouves</p><br>
<p>Hersonissos</p><br>
<p>Malia</p><br>
<p>The municipality has an area of 272.167 km&sup2, the municipal unit 70.984 km&sup2;.</p><br>
<h2>Ancient remains</h2><br>
<p>At the modern settlement of Hersonissos is the site of the ancient town of Chersonesos, an important seaport from Classical Greece through Byzantine times that served the city of Lyttos. The contemporaneous pleasure port is built over the remains of the Roman port. Some traces of those remains, most of them submerged, are still visible in some places. On the seaside street there is a pyramidal Roman fountain with mosaics of fishing scenes. On the top of the rocky hill behind the port stand the ruins of an early Christian basilica with floor mosaics.</p><br>
<p>The vicinity of Hersonissos is noted for its prehistoric archaeological finds. On the coast approximately one kilometer to the east of Hersonissos was an ancient temple dedicated to the goddess Britomartis.</p><br>
<p>William Smith&#39;s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography states:</p><br>
<p>The episcopal see associated with this town is now a titular see ("Chersonesus in Creta") of the Catholic Church.</p><br>
<h2>Main Villages in Municipal Unit of Hersonissos</h2><br>
<h3>Agriana Village</h3><br>
<p>Agriana village is located 1 km south of Analipsi village and just 2 km from the sea, at the beginning of Hersonissos Municipality inland and at an altitude of 92 m. It is built in a huge area of olive trees and next to the Potamos Aposelemis Gorge. Its unique location offers a combination of wild beauty and a deep relaxing atmosphere. Entering the village you will meet the square of the village, its traditional taverns offer traditional and local delights and drinks and its picturesque café offers refreshing drinks under the shade of olive trees and white berry trees. During the summer time a number of events take place in the village with the one of Panagia celebration standing out, there villagers and visitors listen to the church ministry and afterwards gather in the square, where to the sounds of traditional music, together feast on local delights and drinks by dancing till the early morning hours. The village is an ideal family destination as well as a place to be for the lovers of photography, with exceptional places to visit and photograph.</p><br>
<h3>Analipsi Village</h3><br>
<p>Analipsi village is located 20 km east of Heraklion city, on the coastline of Hersonissos Municipality, and took its name from the homonymous church of Analipsi of Christ, that is located in the centre of the village. With magnificent frescoes decorating its inside and a beautiful courtyard, the church during the summer time, hosts a number of events and celebrations. Locals are known for their Cretan hospitality, where with small or big hotel facilities and rooms to let, welcome visitors in a family friendly atmosphere with a relaxing environment and perfect tourist services. Across the village visitors will find hotels, rooms to let, rent a car and bike shops, as well as jewellery shops, super and mini markets, pharmacy and bakery traditional product shops that will provide everything. Continuing you will come to the square of the village, paved with cobblestones, and in its centre stands a big palm tree next to the Hrwo monument, built in honours of the local Heroes, that fought for the liberation from the German invaders during WW2. Moving on you will see the Agia Marina church by the beach, where on the 17th of July every year a big celebration takes place on the beach with food, drinks and dancing till the early hours. Analipsi is an ideal destination for family vacations, a must visit place for everyone that loves photography who will be impressed by its picturesque alleyways, traditional stone built houses and the magical site of its coastline with crystal clear waters and sandy beaches.</p><br>
<h3>Anissaras Village</h3><br>
<p>Anissaras village is located 24 km east of Heraklion city and just 1 km west of Hersonissos town; it spreads along the Hersonissos Municipality coastline. The Anissaras area is a hillside terrain and offers a small but remarkable range of hotel facilities in the all inclusive sector, with affordable rates, easy and fast access. The magnificent and beautiful beaches that spread along its coastline are a short distance away from the main road and are fully organized with courts and areas for tennis, volley and water sports. Crystal clear waters hug its beaches with rocky sea depths that will impress all swimmers and scuba diving lovers, as well as sandy beaches with shallow water available for sunbathing and relaxation, for all visitors to enjoy. The nightlife choices of Anissaras are limited but the alternative of Hersonissos’ more thrilling nightlife is available due to its close proximity and its range of bars, pubs and clubs. This village is clearly a family destination with magical sea sites that will satisfy the lovers of photography and relaxation.</p><br>
<h3>Ano Hersonissos</h3><br>
<p>Ano Hersonissos village is located south of Hersonissos town. It is a small traditional Cretan village unlike that of Limenas Hersonisou which is known as a clearly tourist destination. The local villagers are involved in agricultural production and tourism, and as a result visitors will enjoy local delights and products in its traditional and picturesque taverns, cafes and traditional products shops in the village. Even though the village has been influenced by tourism it keeps its traditional character with old sealed wells, stone built houses and picturesque alleyways that lead to a beautiful square where during the summertime, locals and visitors gather in order to celebrate with traditional music dance and feast on local delights till the early morning hours. In conclusion, visitors will be impressed by the Cretan hospitality of the local villagers and the magical beauty of the villages’ position up the mountainside, overlooking Hersonissos and the bay of Hersonissos.</p><br>
<h3>Avdou Village</h3><br>
<p>Avdou village lies deep in the middle of the Lagada valley, 33 km from the city of Heraklion. It is adorned by remarkable historical monuments of Byzantine art, ancient cultural roots, archaeological findings and samples of the first civilization of Europe. The Antonios Xanthoudis museum is operating in the centre of the village, as well as a number of Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches such as Agios Konstantinos, whose frescoes are dated back to the 15th century. An artificial lake lies next to the village, created after the Aposelemis dam was constructed.</p><br>
<h3>Gonies Village</h3><br>
<p>Gonies village is located 35 km southeast of Heraklion city and just 2 km from Avdou village, on the west side of Selenas Mountain, deep in the inland of Hersonissos Municipality and at an altitude of 260m. The position of this village, offers a magical view of Avdou village and a vast wooded area, as well as the two gorges of Panagia and Roza that spread on the left and right side of Gonies. The Agios Georgios square is located in the centre of the village, at an altitude of 262 m, it is marble paved with and benches, the plane trees and cypresses offer plenty of shade for every visitor to enjoy. Furthermore, the churches of the village, dated back to the middle 18th and early 19th century, witness the strong bond with the Christian Orthodox Church, characteristic examples being those of Agios Georgios, Agia Triada and Panagia of Maxa churches decorated with magnificent and enviable frescoes. The windmills in the area of Gonies prove the long tradition of agricultural production of the village since the 17th century, which is maintained to this day with the production of virgin olive oil, exceptional quality local wine and recherché dairy products. The gorges of the area are located a short distance away from the settlement and a characteristic example is the gorge of Roza, its entrance is just 600 m southeast of Gonies at an altitude of 330 m. During the summer time, the village is well known for its events that mostly take place in the Agios Georgios square, the Panagia celebration on the 15th of August stands out. Locals and visitors attend the religious ceremony and afterwards feast on local delights and drinks to the sounds of traditional music and dance till the early morning hours.</p><br>
<h3>Kera Village</h3><br>
<p>Kera village is located 50 km southeast of Heraklion city and 25 km south of Hersonissos, deep in the inland of Hersonissos Municipality. It is the last village within the municipality limits, at an altitude of 680 m. Due to its position; the village offers a wild and at the same time impressive atmosphere, with a number of worthwhile visiting points like the Minoan Settlement of Karfi. The settlement took its name from a huge nail like shaped rock that stands above it, and is dated at 1050 BC. The Panagia Kardiotisa Monastery is just a breath away from the village and is a very important religious monument not only for the area of Kera but also for Crete itself, magnificent and enviable frescoes decorates the interior of the church. The local villagers, traditionally, used to be millers but through the passing years and technological breakthrough, this occupation came at an end and they turned to olive oil production, as a result today they are well known for their exceptional quality olive oil. Concluding, Kera with its picturesque alleyways, its traditional cafes and its hospitable villagers is the place to be for everyone that seeks relaxation in combination with the unique panoramic views that this place offers.</p><br>
<h3>Koutouloufari Traditional Village</h3><br>
<p>Koutouloufari village is located right above the town of Hersonissos, just 1 km away. It is known for its traditional architecture, an amphitheatrically like village that combined with the cobblestone paved streets, offers an outstanding feeling for every visitor. Its traditional taverns serve Cretan traditional dishes, amongst other cuisines, and provides a quiet and rather romantic atmosphere with the mountain side view down Hersonissos town and coastline. Cretan nights with traditional music and dancing will be carved in the memory of every visitor as a magical experience.</p><br>
<h3>Port of Hersonissos</h3><br>
<p>Port of Hersonissos is located in the town of Hersonissos, a beautiful Mediterranean seaside town where visitors can also see Dia island. A magical view of the port can be seen during the night hours highlighted by lights along its coastline. Visitors also can admire the Roman remains, built and maintained during the Roman age. The Roman Theatre, the Sarakino fountain and the Roman Aqueduct create a spectacular and magnificent site for every visitor.</p><br>
<h3>Piskopiano Village</h3><br>
<p>Piskopiano village is located 2 km south of Hersonissos Port, on the side of Xarakas Mountain, and is a clearly traditional settlement, where its villagers are into agricultural production and livestock, producing exceptional dairy products as well as a uniquely famous olive oil. Every visitor can buy, taste and enjoy these products in the local traditional cafes and taverns that spread throughout the village. The picturesque alleyways of the village and the stone houses complete a magical and beautiful image of the traditional rhythm of Cretan village life that makes it a destination for all photography lovers who will also be impressed by the panoramic view of its position. Piskopiano is a family destination with a relaxing atmosphere, which is a short distance away from the beach side of Port of Hersonissos.</p><br>
<h3>Potamies Village</h3><br>
<p>Potamies village is located 10 km south of Hersonissos Port, in the inland of Hersonissos Municipality, at an altitude of 170 m and is built on the right side of Aposelemis River. The local villagers are involved in agricultural production; in particular they produce exceptional olive oil and horticultural products. The village is surrounded by fertile soils with olive trees, citrus trees and the wild flora of the river, also there are overgrown hills full of olive trees, oleanders, cypresses, walnuts and pomegranate trees. Close by, visitors will find the Byzantine Monastery of Panagia Gouverniotisa and the Roman Water bridges, which used to provide Hersonissos town with water. The picturesque alleyways and the traditional taverns and cafes of the village, in combination with the local hospitality and the unique quality local agricultural products, offer an ideal family destination that will be unforgettable for every visitor.</p><br>
<h3>Sfendili Settlement</h3><br>
<p>Sfendili settlement is located 8 km southwest of Malia town, at an altitude of 202 m. It is an uninhabited settlement, since the construction of the Aposelemis River Barrage. The still standing Agios Mamas church is a small but significant church with an elaborate interior that is decorated with enviable frescoes, made exclusively out of stone in 1841, as mentioned at its entrance. The settlement is an ideal destination for a walk around to photograph the traditional houses, and picturesque alleyways as well as the magical panoramic view.</p><br>
<h2>Main Point of Interest at Hersonissos</h2><br>
<h3>Adventure Tourism</h3><br>
<p>Hersonissos Municipality offers a wide range for adventurous visitors such as scuba diving, horse riding, hiking and paragliding. Diving centres are on the coastline of the municipality. Horse riding schools are in or near the main towns or are situated in the mountains, providing a variety of venues for horse riding. Get the adrenalin going with some paragliding or rock climbing events.</p><br>
<h3>Cave of Agia Foteini</h3><br>
<p>The Cave of Agia Foteini is located 7 km south of Avdou village. According to Christian Orthodox Church archives, this cave was opened by the Virgin Mary herself in order for Agia Foteini to have an isolated retreat, enabling her to devote to God. This cave has a length of 44 m, width of 1.8-7.5 m and height of 5.3–20 m, however the total length of its corridors, reaches a total expanse of 700 m.</p><br>
<h3>Crete Golf Club</h3><br>
<p>The only golf course in Crete and one of the most spectacular in the Mediterranean. It offers a unique experience to visitors, with a total area of 720 m the Crete Golf Club has a mountain style layout and at the same time provides an ideal venue for international tournaments.</p><br>
<h3>Gorge of Roza</h3><br>
<p>Gorge of Roza is an uphill route of 2,750 m, with an elevation difference of 300 m. It is a relatively easy route with a few difficult spots. The gorge is open from April till November. The wild beauty of its flora and fauna will be carved in the memory of every visitor. A magical and breathtaking view throughout the route concludes a once in a lifetime experience</p><br>
<h3>Lychnostatis Museum</h3><br>
<p>A Cretan open-air Museum Lychnostatis was created in order to inform, educate and promote visitors to Cretan folk cultural heritage through its outstanding collection of folk tradition and ethnology, nature, environment, as well as Cretan folk art and pre-industrial technology.</p><br>
<h3>Menelaos Parlamas Museum</h3><br>
<p>Just 1.5 km away from the town of Hersonissos lays Piskopiano village, where in a traditional stone building restored by the Cretan Historical Studies Society, is the Menelaos Parlamas Museum. The museum houses a collection of traditional pre-industrial age tools and machinery related, in particular, to textile weaving and agriculture, donated by Theano Metaxa. The building itself is the original olive oil mill of the village. A ‘‘must see’’ collection for visitors.</p><br>
<h3>Panagia Gouverniotissa of Potamies</h3><br>
<p>On a hillside above Potamies village, lays the Panagia Gouverniotisa Monastery, which is dated from the second half of the 14th century. The monastery is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and is not functional as far as holy sacraments and functions, its facilities are preserved carefully and are accessible for visitors. It is a majestic and significant Christian monument.</p><br>
<h3>Panagia Kardiotissa of Kera</h3><br>
<p>Panagia Kardiotissa of Kera is a historical monastery and is located in a wooded area 50 km southeast of Heraklion, in the village Kera which is named after the monastery. During WW2 this monastery was used by the Greek Liberation Army as a starting point. Today it functions as a nunnery and inside the monastery is a wealth of frescoes dated back to the 14th century.</p><br>
<h3>Water Parks</h3><br>
<p>Hersonissos Municipality has three major water parks, Star Beach, Water City and Aqua Plus. All of them offer to the visitor adventurous water games, relaxing water routes and stations as well as entertaining concerts of every kind. An enjoyable experience for couples, families and individual visitors. A variety of food outlets are situated within the complexes.</p><br>
<h2>Line notes</h2><br>
<h2>Sources and external links</h2><br>
<p></revision></p><br>
<p>The Rongbuk Glacier is located in the Himalaya of southern Tibet. Two large tributary glaciers, the East Rongbuk Glacier and the West Rongbuk Glacier, flow into the main Rongbuk Glacier. It flows north and forms the Rongbuk Valley north of Mount Everest. The famous Rongbuk Monastery is located at the northern end of the Rongbuk valley. Mount Everest is the source of the Rongbuk Glacier and East Rongbuk Glacier.</p><br>
<h2>Discovery</h2><br>
<p>The English climber George Mallory first explored the main Rongbuk Valley and its glacier while searching for possible routes to the summit of Mount Everest during the first British Everest reconnaissance expedition of 1921.</p><br>
<p>The East Rongbuk glacier was first explored by Edward Oliver Wheeler in August 1921 on the same expedition. Wheeler&#39;s exploration below the Lhakpa La pass led him on 3 August 1921 to realise that the East Rongbuk valley provided the key to a viable route to the summit of Everest. A few weeks later a party consisting of George Mallory, Guy Bullock and Oliver Wheeler explored the head of the valley via the Lhakpa La pass to become the first people to reach the North Col of Everest and set foot on the slopes of that mountain. See 1921 British Reconnaissance Expedition.</p><br>
<h2>Location(s)</h2><br>
<h2>Route to Everest</h2><br>
<p>Climbing expeditions attempting the normal route from Tibet use this glacier to reach the Advanced Base Camp of Mount Everest at the upper end of the East Rongbuk Glacier. From there, climbing expeditions try to summit Everest by the North Col and the northeast ridge.</p><br>
<h2>Environmental</h2><br>
<p>Since 2007, American mountaineer and film-maker David Breashears has been chronicling the rapid disappearance of the Rongbuk glacier due to global climate change. Breashears has retraced the steps of Mallorys 1921 expedition, revealing a significant loss of ice mass across the West, Main and East Rongbuk Glaciers. In partnership with Asia Society and MediaStorm, Breashears GlacierWorks has made the photos available online. In 80 years, the Rongbuk has shrunk by more than 300 vertical feet across the entire glacier, approximately the height of the Statue of Liberty.</p><br>
<h2>Image gallery</h2><br>
<h2>Overview</h2><br>
<p>Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting part of an historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Colonial Williamsburgs 301 acre Historic Area includes buildings from the 18th century , as well as 17th-century, 19th-century, and Colonial Revival structures, as well as more recent reconstructions. The Historic Area is an interpretation of a colonial American city, with exhibits of dozens of restored or re-created buildings related to its colonial and American Revolutionary War history. Colonial Williamsburgs Historic Areas combination of restoration and re-creation of parts of the colonial towns three main thoroughfares and their connecting side streets attempts to suggest the atmosphere and the circumstances of 18th-century Americans. Colonial Williamsburg&#39;s motto has been: "That the future may learn from the past".</p><br>
<p>In the late 1920s, the restoration and re-creation of colonial Williamsburg was championed by the Reverend Dr. W. A. R. Goodwin, other community leaders, such organizations as the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (now called Preservation Virginia), the Colonial Dames, the Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Chamber of Commerce, as well as the scion of the Rockefeller family, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and his wife, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, to celebrate rebel patriots and the early history of the United States.</p><br>
<p>One of the largest history projects in the nation and a tourist attraction, it is part of the Historic Triangle of Virginia, which includes Jamestown and Yorktown, linked by the Colonial Parkway. The site was once used for conferences by world leaders and heads of state, including USA presidents. It was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1960.</p><br>
<p>Costumed employees work and dress as people did in the era, sometimes using colonial grammar and diction (although not colonial accents). Prominent buildings include the Raleigh Tavern, the Capitol, the Governors Palace (all reconstructed), as well as the Courthouse, the George Wythe House, the Peyton Randolph House, the Magazine, and independently owned and functioning Bruton Parish Church (all originals). Colonial Williamsburgs portion of the Historic Area begins east of the College of William & Mary&#39;s College Yard.</p><br>
<h2>Overview</h2><br>
<p>Colonial Williamsburg is a historical landmark and a living history museum. Its core runs along Duke of Gloucester Street and the Palace Green that extends north and south perpendicular to it. This area is largely flat, with ravines and streams branching off on the periphery. At the City of Williamsburg&#39;s discretion, Duke of Gloucester Street and other Historic Area thoroughfares are closed to motorized vehicles during the day, in favor of pedestrians, bicyclists, joggers, dog walkers, and animal-drawn vehicles.</p><br>
<p>Surviving colonial structures have been restored as close as possible to their 18th-century appearance, with traces of later buildings and improvements removed. Many of the missing colonial structures were reconstructed on their original sites beginning in the 1930s. Animals, gardens, and dependencies (such as kitchens, smokehouses, and privies) add to the environment. Some buildings and most gardens are open to tourists, the exceptions being buildings serving as residences for Colonial Williamsburg employees, large donors, the occasional city official, and sometimes College of William and Mary associates.</p><br>
<p>Four taverns have been reconstructed for use as restaurants and two for inns. There are craftsmens workshops for period trades, including a printing shop, a shoemakers, blacksmiths, a cooperage, a cabinetmaker, a gunsmiths, a wigmakers, and a silversmiths. There are merchants selling tourist souvenirs, books, reproduction toys, pewterware, pottery, and tchotchkes. Some houses, including the Peyton Randolph House, the Geddy House, the Wythe House and the Everard House are open to tourists, as are such public buildings as the Courthouse, the Capitol, the Magazine, the Public Hospital, and the Gaol. The Public Gaol served as a jail for the colonists. Former notorious inmates include the pirate Blackbeard&#39;s crew who were kept in the 1704 jail while they awaited trial.</p><br>
<p>Colonial Williamsburg operations extend to Merchants Square, a Colonial Revival commercial area designated a historic district in its own right. Nearby are the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum and DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, operated by Colonial Williamsburg as part of its curatorial efforts.</p><br>
<h2>History of Williamsburg</h2><br>
<p>The Jamestown statehouse, housing Virginias government at the time, burned down on October 20, 1698. The legislators consequently moved their meetings to the College of William and Mary in Virginia at Middle Plantation, putting an end to Jamestowns 92-year run as Virginia&#39;s colonial capital. In 1699, in a graduation exercise, a group of College of William and Mary students delivered addresses endorsing proposals to move the capital to Middle Plantation, ostensibly to escape the malaria – and the mosquitoes which transmit them – of the Jamestown Island site. Interested Middle Plantation landowners donated some of their holdings to advance the plan, and to reap its rewards.</p><br>
<p>Middle Plantation was renamed Williamsburg by Governor Francis Nicholson, who was first among the proponents of the change, in honor of King William III of England. Nicholson said that at Williamsburg "clear and crystal springs burst from the champagne soil". By "champagne," he meant excellent or fertile. Nicholson had the city surveyed and a grid laid out by Theodorick Bland taking into consideration the brick College Building and the decaying Bruton Parish Church building of the day. The grid seems to have obliterated all but the remnants of an earlier plan that laid out the streets in the monogram of William and Mary, a W superimposed on an M. The main street was named Duke of Gloucester after the eldest son of Queen Anne. Nicholson named the street north of it Nicholson Street, for himself, and the one south of it Francis Street.</p><br>
<p>For eighty-one years of the 18th century, Williamsburg was the center of government, education and culture in the Colony of Virginia. Here, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, James Monroe, James Madison, George Wythe, Peyton Randolph, and others furthered the forms of British government in the Commonwealth of Virginia and later helped adapt its preferred features to the needs of the new United States. During the American Revolutionary War, in 1780, under the leadership of Governor Thomas Jefferson, the government moved to Richmond, on the James River, approximately 55 mi west, to be more central and accessible from western counties, and less susceptible of British attack. There it remains today.</p><br>
<h2>History of Colonial Williamsburg</h2><br>
<p>With the seat of government removed, Williamsburg&#39;s businesses floundered or migrated to Richmond, and the city entered the long, slow period of sleepy stagnation and decay. Bypassed by progress, in its isolation the town maintained much of its 18th-century aspect. Captured by General George McClellan in 1862 and garrisoned by the Union for the duration, Williamsburg escaped the ravages of the Civil War, though federal soldiers burned the college and others plundered private homes. The site stood on high ground and away from waterways and was not reached by the early railroads, whose construction began in the 1830s, and only was reached by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1881.</p><br>
<p>Williamsburg relied for jobs on The College of William and Mary, the Courthouse, and the Eastern Lunatic Asylum (now Eastern State Hospital), it was said that the "500 Crazies" of the asylum supported the "500 Lazies" of the college and town. Colonial-era buildings were by turns modified, modernized, protected, neglected, or destroyed. Development that accompanied construction of a World War I gun cotton plant at nearby Peniman and the coming of the automobile blighted the community, but the town never lost its interest to tourists. By the early 20th century, many older structures were in poor condition, and were no longer in use or were occupied by squatters, but, as Goodwin said, it was the only colonial capital still capable of restoration.</p><br>
<h3>Dr. Goodwin and the Rockefellers</h3><br>
<p>The Reverend Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin became rector of Williamsburgs Bruton Parish Church for the first of two times in 1903. Born in 1869 at Richmond to a Confederate veteran and his well-to-do wife, and reared in rural Nelson County at present-day Norwood, Goodwin was educated at Roanoke College, the University of Virginia, the University of Richmond, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. He first visited Williamsburg as a seminarian sent to recruit William and Mary students. Returning as an energetic 34-year-old, he became rector of a Bruton Parish Church riven by faction. He helped harmonize the congregation, and assumed leadership of a flagging campaign to restore the 1711 church building. Goodwin and New York ecclesiastical architect J. Stewart Barney completed the church restoration in time for 1907s 300th anniversary of the founding of Americas Anglican (Episcopal) Church at nearby Jamestown, Virginia. Goodwin traveled the East Coast raising money for the project and establishing philanthropic contacts. Among the 1907 anniversary guests was J. Pierpont Morgan, president of the Episcopal churchs General Assembly meeting that year in Richmond.</p><br>
<p>Goodwin accepted a call from wealthy St. Pauls Episcopal Church in Rochester, N.Y. in 1908, and pastored there until his return in 1923 to Williamsburg to become a William and Mary fundraiser and religious studies professor, as well as pastor of Yorktowns Episcopal church and a chapel at Toano. He had maintained his Williamsburg ties, periodically visiting his first wifes and their first sons graves, using William and Marys library for historical research, and vacationing. What he saw in the deterioration of colonial-era buildings saddened and inspired him. He renewed his associations with the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities—the membership of which included prominent and wealthy Virginians—and helped to protect and repair the towns 18th-century octagonal Powder Horn, a structure now called the Magazine. With other William and Mary professors, he saved the John Blair House from demolition to make way for a gasoline station—and turned it into a faculty club. In 1924, as the college launched a building and fundraising drive, he adopted Barneys proposal for saving other houses in the historic section of the town for use as student and faculty housing. After working for two years to interest such individuals as Henry Ford and such organizations as the Dames of Colonial America to invest in his hopes, Goodwin obtained the at first limited and later complete support (and major financial commitment) of John D. Rockefeller Jr., the wealthy son of the founder of the Standard Oil monopoly. Rockefellers wife Abby Aldrich Rockefeller was also to play a role. In addition to working as Rockefeller&#39;s agent Goodwin returned to the Bruton Parish pulpit in 1926, keeping his college positions.</p><br>
<p>Rockefellers first investment in a Williamsburg house had been commitment of a contribution to Goodwins acquisition of the George Wythe House for next-door Bruton Churchs parish house. Rockefellers second and better known was his almost simultaneous authorization of the make-safe purchase of the Ludwell-Paradise house in early 1927. Goodwin persuaded Rockefeller to buy it in behalf of the college for housing in case Rockefeller should decide on the towns restoration. Rockefeller had agreed to pay for college restoration plans and drawings. He later considered limiting his restoration involvement to the college and an exhibition enclave. He did not commit to the towns larger restoration until November 22, 1927—the now-uppercase Restoration&#39;s birthday. As Goodwin later put it: “Mr. Rockefeller then stated that he would associate himself with the endeavor to restore colonial Williamsburg!” Until that moment, Rockefeller had always spoken in terms of “if” he would become involved, though all the while acquiring property and proposals.</p><br>
<p>Concerned that prices might rise if their purposes were known, Rockefeller and Goodwin at first kept their acquisition plans secret, quietly buying houses and lots and taking deeds in blank. Goodwin took Williamsburg attorney Vernon M. Geddy, Sr. into his confidence, without exposing Rockefeller, silent partner and Geddy did much of the title research and legal work related to properties in what was to become the restored area. Geddy later drafted the Virginia corporate papers for the project, filed them with the Virginia State Corporation Commission, and served briefly as the first president of what became the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. That much property changing hands was noticed by the courthouse crowd and by newspaper reporters. After eighteen months of increasingly excited rumors, Goodwin and Rockefeller revealed what had become an open secret — their plans, at county and town meetings on June 11 and 12, 1928. The purpose was to obtain the consent of the citizenry at large and enlist them in the project. No African Americans attended the meetings, or were formally consulted about their town&#39;s future, Town and county controlled properties the restoration project required—a new high school and two public greens, among them. The city retained ownership of its streets, an arrangement that forestalled later proposals to raise revenue by closing the Historic Area to unticketed tourists.</p><br>
<p>Some townspeople had qualms. Major S. D. Freeman, retired Army officer and school board president, said, "We will reap dollars, but will we own our town? Will you not be in the position of a butterfly pinned to a card in a glass cabinet, or like a mummy unearthed in the tomb of Tutankhamun?"</p><br>
<p>To gain the cooperation of persons reluctant to sell their traditional family homes to the Rockefeller organization, the restoration soon offered holdouts free life tenancies and maintenance in exchange for ownership. Freeman sold his house outright and moved to Virginia&#39;s Middle Peninsula.</p><br>
<h3>Restoration and reconstruction</h3><br>
<p>Rockefeller management decided against giving custody of the project to the state-run college—ostensibly to avoid political control by Virginias Democratic Byrd Machine—but restored the schools Wren Building, Brafferton House and President&#39;s House. Colonial Williamsburg pursued a program of partial re-creation of some of the rest of the town. It featured shops, taverns and open-air markets in a colonial style</p><br>
<p>The first lead architect in the project was William Graves Perry of Perry, Shaw & Hepburn, with Arthur Shurcliff as the chief landscape architect. Upon consultation by Perry with Fiske Kimball, additional architects were brought in to serve as an Advisory Committee on Architecture intended to review plans and shield the project from criticism.</p><br>
<p>During the restoration, the project demolished 720 buildings that postdated 1790, many of which dated from the 19th century. Some decrepit 18th-century homes were demolished, some needlessly. The Governor&#39;s Palace and the Capitol building were reconstructed on their sites with the aid of period illustrations, written descriptions, early photographs, and informed guesswork. The grounds and gardens were almost all done in the authentic Colonial Revival style.</p><br>
<p>The Capitol is a 1930s beaux arts approximation of the 1705 building at the east end of the Historic Area. It was designed by the architects Perry, Shaw & Hepburn, who had it rebuilt as they thought it should have been, not as it was, despite objections and archaeological evidence to the contrary. Its 1705 original, an H-shaped brick statehouse with a double-apsed, oarsmen-circular southern facades, burned in the 1740s, and was replaced by an H-shaped rectangular edifice. The reconstruction is off center, its floorplan is skewed, and its interior is overly elaborate. In the second building, Patrick Henry, protesting against the Stamp Act, first spoke against King George, George Mason introduced the Virginia Bill of Rights, and from it Virginias government instructed its delegates to the Second Continental Congress to propose national independence. Its likeness only exists in a period woodcut and in architectural renderings considered but shelved by the Restoration. The present building was dedicated with a ceremonial meeting of the Virginia General Assembly on February 24, 1934. Virginias state legislators have reassembled for a day every other year in the Capitol</p><br>
<p>Of the approximately 500 buildings reconstructed or restored, 88 are labelled original. They include outbuildings such as smokehouses, privies, sheds. The foundation reconstructed the Capitol and Governors Palace on their 18th-century foundations and preserved some below-ground 18th-century brickwork, classifying them as reconstructions. It rebuilt William and Marys Wren Building, which burned four times in 230 years and was much modified, on its original foundations, too, saved some above-ground brickwork, and classified the result as original. At least one Historic Area house that Colonial Williamsburg took down to its basement and replaced its superstructure is likewise classified among the 88. A building a few lots away, similarly handled, is defined as a reconstruction.</p><br>
<p>On the western side of the city, beginning in the 1930s, retail shops were grouped under the name Merchants Square to accommodate and mollify local merchants the Restoration displaced. Advancing rents and tourist-driven businesses eventually drove out all the old-line community enterprises but a dress shop. One of the last to be forced out, a popular-with-locals drugstore complete with lunch counter, was supplanted by an upscale, national kitchenware chain store.</p><br>
<h3>Outlying landscapes and viewsheds</h3><br>
<p>Beginning in the earliest periods of the Restoration, Colonial Williamsburg acquired acreage in Williamsburg and the two counties which adjoin it, notably to the north and east of the Historic Area to preserve natural views and facilitate the experience of as much of the late 18th-century environment as possible. This was described as a "rural, wooded sense of arrival" along corridors to the Historic Area.</p><br>
<p>In 2006, announcing a conservation easement on acreage north of the Visitor Center, Colonial Williamsburg President and Chairman Colin G. Campbell said its restrictions protected the view and preserved other features: "This viewshed helps to set the stage for visitors in their journey from modern day life into the 18th-century setting. At the same time, this preserves the natural environment around Queen&#39;s Creek and protects a significant archaeological site. It is a tangible and important example of how the Foundation is protecting the vital greenbelt surrounding Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area for future generations".</p><br>
<p>The entrance roadways to the Historic Area were planned with care. The Colonial Parkway was planned and is maintained to reduce modern intrusions.</p><br>
<p>Near the principal planned roadway approach to Colonial Williamsburg, similar design priorities were employed for the relocated USA Route 60 near the intersection of Bypass Road and North Henry Street. Prior to the restoration, USA Route 60 ran right down Duke of Gloucester Street through town. To shift the traffic away from the Historic Area, Bypass Road was planned and built through farmland and woods about a mile north of town. Shortly thereafter, when Route 143 was built as the Merrimack Trail (originally designated State Route 168) in the 1930s, the protected vista was extended along Route 132 in York County to the new road, and two new bridges were built across Queen&#39;s Creek.</p><br>
<p>Goodwin, who served as a liaison with the community, as well as with state and local officials, was instrumental in such efforts. Nevertheless, some in the Rockefeller organization, regarding him as meddlesome, gradually pushed Goodwin to the periphery of the Restoration and by the time of his death in 1939 Colonial Williamsburgs administrator, Kenneth Chorley of New York, was indiscreetly at loggerheads with the local reverend. Goodwins relationship with Rockefeller remained warm, however, and his interest in the project remained keen. Colonial Williamsburg dedicated its headquarters in 1941, naming it The Goodwin Building.</p><br>
<p>About 30 years later, when Interstate 64 was planned and built in the 1960s and early 1970s, from the designated "Colonial Williamsburg" exit, the additional land along Merrimack Trail to Route 132 was similarly protected from development. Today, visitors encounter no commercial properties before they reach the Visitor&#39;s Center.</p><br>
<p>Not only highway travel was considered. Although Williamsburg&#39;s brick Chesapeake and Ohio Railway passenger station was less than 20 years old and one of the newer along the rail line, it was replaced with a larger new one in Colonial style which was located just out of sight and within walking distance of the Historic Area.</p><br>
<p>Further afield was Carters Grove Plantation. It was begun by a grandson of wealthy planter Robert "King" Carter. For over 200 years, it had gone through a succession of owners and modifications. In the 1960s after the death of its last resident, Ms. Molly McRae, Carters Grove Plantation came under the control of Winthrop Rockefellers Sealantic Foundation, which gave it to Colonial Williamsburg as a gift. Archaeologist Ivor Noel Hume discovered in its grounds the remains of 1620s Wolstenholme Towne, a downriver outpost of Jamestown. The Winthrop Rockefeller Archaeology Museum, built just above the site, showcased artifacts from the dig. Colonial Williamsburg operated Carters Grove until 2003 as a satellite facility of Colonial Williamsburg, with interpretive programs. The property was sold to a dot.com millionaire who declared bankruptcy before completing the purchase and the empty facility remained in limbo for more than a decade.</p><br>
<h4>Kingsmill</h4><br>
<p>Between Carters Grove and the Historic District was the largely vacant Kingsmill tract, as well as a small military outpost of Fort Eustis known as Camp Wallace. In the mid-1960s, CW owned land that extended all the way from the Historic District to Skiffes Creek, at the edge of Newport News near Lee Hall.</p><br>
<p>Distant from the Historic Area and not along the carefully protected sight paths, it was developed in the early 1970s, under CW Chairman Winthrop Rockefeller.</p><br>
<p>Rockefeller, a son of Abby and John D. Rockeller Jr., was a frequent visitor and particularly fond of Carter&#39;s Grove in the late 1960s. He became aware of some expansion plans elsewhere on the Peninsula of his St. Louis-based neighbor, August Anheuser Busch, Jr., head of Anheuser-Busch. By the time Rockefeller and Busch completed their discussions, the biggest changes in the Williamsburg area were underway since the Restoration began 40 years before. Among the goals were to complement Colonial Williamsburg attractions and enhance the local economy.</p><br>
<p>The large tract consisting primarily of the Kingsmill land was sold by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to Anheuser-Busch for planned development. The Anheuser-Busch investment included building a large brewery, the Busch Gardens Williamsburg theme park, the Kingsmill planned resort community, and McLaws Circle, an office park. AB and related entities from that development plan comprise the area&#39;s largest employment base, surpassing both Colonial Williamsburg and the local military bases.</p><br>
<h3>Late 20th century</h3><br>
<p>Colonial Williamsburg has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in Virginia. With its historic significance to American democracy, it and the surrounding area was the site of a summit meeting of world leaders, the first World Economic Conference in 1983, and hosted visiting royalty, including King Hussein of Jordan and Emperor Hirohito of Japan. Queen Elizabeth II has paid two royal visits to Williamsburg, most recently in May 2007 during the 400th anniversary of the founding of the nearby Jamestown.</p><br>
<h2>Colonial Williamsburg today</h2><br>
<p>Colonial Williamsburg is an open-air assemblage of buildings populated with historical reenactors (interpreters) whose job it is to explain and demonstrate aspects of daily life in the past. The reenactors work, dress, and talk as they would have in colonial times.</p><br>
<p>While there are many living history museums (such as Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts or Castell Henllys in the UK), Colonial Williamsburg is unusual for having been constructed from a living town whose inhabitants and post-Colonial-era buildings were removed. Also unlike other living history museums, Colonial Williamsburg allows anyone to walk through the historic district free of charge, at any hour of the day. Charges apply only to those visitors who wish to enter the historic buildings to see arts and crafts demonstrations during daylight hours, or attend scheduled outdoor performances such as the Revolutionary City programs.</p><br>
<p>The Visitor Center near the Colonial Parkway features a short movie, Williamsburg: the Story of a Patriot, which debuted in 1957. Visitors may park at the Visitor&#39;s Center, as automobiles are restricted from the restored area. Wheelchair-accessible shuttle bus service is provided to stops around the perimeter of the Historic District of Williamsburg, as well as Jamestown and Yorktown, during the peak summer season.</p><br>
<p>The costumed interpreters have not always worn Colonial dress. As an experiment in anticipation of the Bicentennial, in summer 1973 the hostesses were dressed in special red, white, and blue polyester knit pantsuits. This confused and disappointed visitors, so the experiment was dropped at the end of summer, and for the Bicentennial, docents wore historical costumes.</p><br>
<p>Many reenactments by Colonial Williamsburg&#39;s historical interpreters wearing period costumes are posted online. In addition to simple period reenactments, Colonial Williamsburg, at various times, features certain themes, including the founding of Williamsburg, occupation by British forces, or visits from Colonial leaders of the day, including General George Washington.</p><br>
<p>Some of the costumed interpreters work with animals. The Colonial Williamsburg Rare Breed Program helps to preserve and showcase animals that would have been around during the colonial period. John P. Hunter wrote an excellent book on the topic, Link to the Past, Bridge to the Future: Colonial Williamsburg&#39;s Animals, which explains the importance of, as well as details how interpreters are a part, of this program.</p><br>
<h3>Grand Illumination</h3><br>
<p>The Grand Illumination is an outdoor ceremony and mass celebration involving the simultaneous activation of thousands of Christmas lights each year on the first Sunday of December. The ceremony, Goodwin&#39;s idea, began in 1935, loosely based on a colonial (and English) tradition of placing lighted candles in the windows of homes and public buildings to celebrate a special event, such as the winning of a war or the birthday of the reigning monarch. The Grand Illumination also has incorporated extravagant fireworks displays, loosely based on the 18th-century practice of using fireworks to celebrate significant occasions.</p><br>
<h3>Educational outreach</h3><br>
<p>In the 1990s Colonial Williamsburg implemented the Teaching Institute in Early American History, and Electronic Field Trips. Designed for elementary and middle/high school teachers, the Institute offers workshops for educators to meet with historians, character interpreters, and to prepare instructional materials for use in the classroom. Electronic Field Trips are a series of multimedia classroom presentations available to schools. Each program is designed around a particular topic in history and includes a lesson plan as well as classroom and online activities. Monthly live broadcasts on local PBS stations allow participating classes to interact with historical interpreters via telephone or internet.</p><br>
<p>In 2007, Colonial Williamsburg launched iCitizenForum.com. A mix of historical documents and user-generated content such as blogs, videos, and message boards, the site aims to prompt discussion about the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizens in a democracy. Preservation of the Founding Fathers&#39; ideals in light of recent world events is a special focus of the site.</p><br>
<p>CW hired former NBC journalist Lloyd Dobyns to produce the early podcasts for the museum. He usually interviewed staff about their specialties. Podcast interviews passed to other hands after his retirement.</p><br>
<h3>Merchandising</h3><br>
<p>Colonial American craft items and souvenirs, some manufactured abroad, are peddled in historic area stores. Many souvenir shops sell such items as floral and herbal soaps, knitted hats, and hand crafted toys made from wood and clay.</p><br>
<h2>Management</h2><br>
<p>Colonial Williamsburg is owned and operated as a living museum by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the non-profit entity endowed initially by the Rockefeller family and over the years by others, notably Reader&#39;s Digest founders Lila and DeWitt Wallace, and Philadelphia publisher Walter Annenberg.</p><br>
<p>The major goal of the Restoration was to re-create the physical colonial environment and to facilitate education about the origins of the idea of America, which was conceived during the decades before the American Revolution. In this environment, Colonial Williamsburg strives to tell the story of how diverse peoples, having different and sometimes conflicting ambitions, evolved into a society that valued liberty and equality.</p><br>
<p>Mitchell Reiss, former president of Washington College, is the foundation&#39;s current President and CEO. Thomas F. Farrell II is Chairman of the Board of Trustees.</p><br>
<h3>Attendance</h3><br>
<p>Attendance at Colonial Williamsburg peaked in 1985 at 1.1 million visitors. After years of lowered attendance, it began to rebound somewhat with the Jamestown 2007 celebration and the Revolutionary City programs of live, interactive street theater between re-enactors and audience members, which began in 2006.</p><br>
<p>Since bottoming out in 2004, total attendance has climbed about 10 percent total over the last few years, according to a report in July 2008. During the most recent year, CW&#39;s hospitality revenue increase of 15 percent was much stronger than the ticket sale gain of 5 percent, reflecting how the hospitality money is not always coming from CW Historic Area tourists, according to an official.</p><br>
<p>The foundations official attendance figures are best read in context. Until the 1990s they reflected only general admission tickets sold, and that number was sometimes artificially bolstered by internal year-end sales and new year repurchases between the non-profit foundation and its for-profit wholly owned subsidiary hotels. Afterward, the foundation estimated the number of tourists who walked the streets without purchasing a ticket, and added them to attendance figures. In the 2000s, head counts were adjusted to reflect tourists who rode the foundations buses, who visited its museums, who bought carriage rides, who went to night programs, and the like. These numbers were reported as "turnstile" counts. From old annual reports, it appears general admission ticket sales have never reached one million.</p><br>
<h3>Financial challenges</h3><br>
<p>Persistent operating deficits challenge Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Income comes from attendance, merchandising, but is lost at hospitality properties. Other funds come from investments of the endowments, and a fundraising operation that occupies half of the foundations four-story headquarters. Financially focused efforts in recent years have primarily concentrated on cost containment and stimulating attendance and hospitality revenues. The foundation has also sold some property assets it decided were no longer essential to its core mission, including most of its formerly owned properties on nearby Peacock Hill, which has the local distinction of having formerly been home to Georgia OKeeffe, Mayor Polly Stryker, and Dr. Donald W. Davis, founder of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.</p><br>
<p>In 2017, due to losses, Colonial Williamsburg President Mitchell Reis outsourced management of commercial operations of their hotels, 19 retail stores, and three golf courses.</p><br>
<h4>Land divestment</h4><br>
<p>In 2003, as CW attendance and operating revenues continued to drop, Carters Grove was closed to the public while its mission and role in CWs programs were redefined. After the sale, officials belatedly determined Carters Grove was paying for itself, one of the bright spots in its troubled balance sheet. Later in 2003, Hurricane Isabel seriously damaged Carter&#39;s Grove Country Road, which had linked the estate to the Historic Area, a distance of 8 mi, bypassing commercial and public roadways. Colonial Williamsburg shifted some of the interpretive programs to locations contiguous to the Historic Area in Williamsburg, including the ersatz farm Great Hopes Plantation next to its Visitor Center.</p><br>
<p>The foundation announced in late 2006 that Carters Grove would be sold under restrictive conditions. In a front-page article December 31, The New York Times reported that the foundation, struggling because of dwindling attendance and insufficient endowment for upkeep, would be offering the Carters Grove mansion and grounds for sale to a private purchaser, possibly as soon as January 2007. The foundation justified the sale, in part, by saying it wanted to concentrate on its 18th-century core—as opposed to such attractions as the reconstruction of a 17th-century village on the site—a position at odds with its later, and subsequently undone, decision to assume management of 17th-century Historic Jamestowne. The Times said that the dilemma of historic museums and houses is that there are too many of them, upkeep is too expensive, and fewer people are visiting them.</p><br>
<p>In December 2007, the Georgian-style mansion and 476 acre were acquired for $15.3 million by CNET founder Halsey Minor, whose announced plans to use the property as a private residence and a center for a thoroughbred horse breeding program. The conservation easement on the mansion and 400 of the 476 acre is co-held by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Some local residents lamented CWs decision to sell Carters Grove; others stated relief that it would remain largely intact, no small matter in one of the fastest developing counties in Virginia. There was general agreement, however, that the transaction was a disaster for the foundations management and reputation. In 2011, Halsey Minor stop making payments, and was foreclosed on by CW after a lengthy legal battle and some deterioration of the house and grounds. In 2014, CW, repurchased Carters Grove from the bankruptcy court, and sold it to a new private investor.</p><br>
<p>In addition to the large sale of surplus land of the old Kingsmill plantation to Anheuser Busch in the 1970s, and the more recent sale of Carter&#39;s Grove, the foundation has also sold outlying tracts of land not considered fundamental to its mission.</p><br>
<p>One of these is a 360 acre tract along historic Quarterpath Road north of State Route 199 and south of USA Route 60 east of the Historic Area. In 2005, it was the City of Williamsburg&#39;s largest undeveloped tract under single ownership".</p><br>
<p>Observers have noted that, while most of the Quarterpath land will be developed, the previously vacant land will include park and recreational facilities, and Redoubt Park, dedicated to preserving some of the battlegrounds from the Battle of Williamsburg which occurred on May 5, 1862 during the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War.</p><br>
<p>A portion of the 437 acre Carrs Hill Tract in York County, north and west of Bypass Road and State Route 132, was also sold. Developments thereon were restricted under the terms of sale so as to not negatively impact the vista available to motorists approaching Colonial Williamsburg. In February, 2007, a developer announced that 313 homes were planned to be built on 65 acre of the historic tracts 437 acre. CW had earlier announced that it had donated three conservation easements to the Williamsburg Land Conservancy on 230 acre of the Carr&#39;s Hill tract land west of Route 132 in York County.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>The closest commercial airport is Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport 25–30 minutes driving distance away. Williamsburg is midway between two larger commercial airports, Richmond International Airport and Norfolk International Airport, each about an hour&#39;s distance away.</p><br>
<p>Amtrak offers a passenger rail service stop at Williamsburg, as does Greyhound and Carolina Trailways with intercity buses.</p><br>
<p>Williamsburg is adjacent to east-west Interstate 64 and the parallel USA Route 60 passes through the city. A third road, State Route 143, also extends east to Newport News and Hampton, ending at Fort Monroe. From Richmond, Interstate 295, and other points west, many visitors approach via State Route 5, a scenic byway which passes many of the James River Plantations, or from the south via State Route 10, State Route 31 and the Jamestown Ferry. The Virginia Capital Trail is available for bicycles and pedestrians along the Colonial Parkway and Virginia Route 5.</p><br>
<p>Williamsburg offers good non-automobile driving alternatives for visitors. The area has both a central intermodal transportation center and Williamsburg Area Transit Authority (WATA), a public transit bus system which operates a network of local routes. The community&#39;s public bus system, has its central hub at the transportation center. Color-coded routes, with buses accessible to disabled persons, serve hotels and motels, restaurants, stores, and non-Colonial Williams attractions.</p><br>
<p>Colonial Williamsburg operates its own fleet of buses with stops close to attractions in the Historic Area, although no motor vehicles operate during the day on Duke of Gloucester Street (to maintain the colonial-era atmosphere). At night, all the historic area streets are open to automobiles.</p><br>
<h2>Criticism and controversy</h2><br>
<h3>The 1920s and 1930s</h3><br>
<p>Some residents of Williamsburg, including Major S.D. Freeman and Cara Armistead, questioned the 1928 transfer of public lands (as compared to private properties). In January, 1932, the large marble Confederate Civil War monument was removed from Palace Green, where it had stood since 1908, and relocated in the Cedar Grove Cemetery, on the outskirts of town. Some citizens, although supportive of the Colonial reconstruction, felt this was too much. The case went to court, and eventually the monument was relocated to a new site east of the then-new courthouse. Today, the memorial rests in Bicentennial Park, just outside the Historic Area.</p><br>
<h3>Issues of "accuracy" and "authenticity"</h3><br>
<p>The approach to restoration and preservation taken by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has long been subject to criticism.</p><br>
<p>Goodwin was troubled by what he perceived as encroaching commercialization. Among his parting words of advice to Colonial Williamsburg&#39;s management were: "If there is one firm guiding and restraining word which should be passed on to those who will be responsible for the restoration in the future, that one word is integrity. A departure from truth here and there will inevitably produce a cumulative deterioration of authenticity and consequent loss of public confidence. Loyalty demands that this principle of integrity be adhered to".</p><br>
<p>One of the foundation’s in-house publications concedes that "Colonial Williamsburg bears the burden of criticism that the restored town appears too neat and clean, too spick-and-span, and too manicured to be believable". Ada Louise Huxtable, an architecture critic, wrote in 1965: "Williamsburg is an extraordinary, conscientious and expensive exercise in historical playacting in which real and imitation treasures and modern copies are carelessly confused in everyone&#39;s mind. Partly because it is so well done, the end effect has been to devalue authenticity and denigrate the genuine heritage of less picturesque periods to which an era and a people gave life".</p><br>
<p>All of the restored houses were by 19th- and 20th-century residents, and later by Colonial Williamsburg, improved with electricity, plumbing, and heating and are by today&#39;s residents or the foundation furnished with stoves, air conditioners, refrigerators, and bathrooms. Plaster, woodwork, flooring, siding and roofs were replaced.</p><br>
<p>In 1997, anthropologists Eric Gable and Richard Handler discussed Colonial Williamsburg as an attraction, which catered to Americas upper/middle to high-level affluent socioeconomic classes. Their report mentions instances where some of Colonial Williamsburgs employees often straddle expectations of maintaining authenticity of the museums programs while still in-authentically creating products to sell in the museums gift shops. An even harsher interpretation is that of University of Virginia Professor of Architectural History Richard Guy Wilson, author of Buildings of Virginia: Tidewater and Piedmont, who described Colonial Williamsburg as "a superb example of an American suburb of the 1930s, with its in-authentically tree-lined streets of Colonial Revival houses and segregated commerce". All of these reproaches have led many critics to label Colonial Williamsburg and its Foundation a "Republican Disneyland".</p><br>
<p>Among the answers to these criticisms is that "Colonial Williamsburg&#39;s Historic Area is a compromise between historical authenticity and common sense, between brutal realism and gentle ambiance, between being a moment in time in the eighteenth century and being nearly three hundred years old". Critics assert that setting "historical authenticity" against "common sense" is a false dichotomy and that commercial and proprietary factors are what are really at issue. Of course archaeological and historical research is an ongoing process at Colonial Williamsburg, and as new information surfaces, reconsideration is often prompted and changes made accordingly.</p><br>
<p>In March 2016, the foundation&#39;s new president and chief executive officer, Mitchell Reiss, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that Colonial Williamsburg aimed to be "accurate-ish."</p><br>
<p>At Appalachian State University a graduate level class focuses on the preservation and restoration of Colonial Williamsburg as part of its Public History program.</p><br>
<h3>African Americans</h3><br>
<p>Colonial Williamsburg has been criticized for neglecting the role of free African-Americans in Colonial life, in addition to those who were slaves. When it first opened in the 1930s, Colonial Williamsburg had segregated dormitories for its reenactors. African Americans filled historical roles as servants, rather than free people as in the present day. In a segregated state, Colonial Williamsburg allowed the entry of blacks, but Williamsburg-area hotels denied them accommodation, and state law forbade blacks from eating with whites in such public facilities as the restored taverns and from shopping in nearby stores. In the 1950s, African Americans were only allowed to visit Colonial Williamsburg one day a week until after the USA Supreme Court&#39;s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 began dismantling segregation laws and practices.</p><br>
<p>Colonial Williamsburg offered some of the earlier public accommodations on an integrated basis. In the 1970s, in reaction to increasing scorn of its one-sided portrayal of colonial life, Colonial Williamsburg increased its number of African-American interpreters who played slaves. This was parodied by a skit that aired on Saturday Night Live, which showed a reenactor abusing his accuracy by being racist to employees. In 1994 it added slave auctions and slave marriages; the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference later protested. In 1981 Colonial Williamsburg added a program to explain slavery and its role in Colonial America, but this "Other Half Tour," which is composed by the Foundations African American and Interpretation Programs Department (AAIP), provides a different form of historical interpretation than does its counterpart tour, "The Patriots Tour," thus creating a marked dichotomy between how visitors are expected to interpret history at the museum.</p><br>
<p>In recent years Colonial Williamsburg has expanded its portrayal of 18th-century African Americans to include free blacks as well as slaves. Examples of these expanded portrayals in the Revolutionary City program include Gowan Pamphlet, a former slave who became a free landowner and Baptist minister, Edith Cumbo, a free black woman, Matthew Ashby, a free black man who eventually purchased the freedom of his family, and a number of other enslaved men and women who were part of the Williamsburg community during the revolutionary period. A re-created Great Hopes Plantation represents a middling plantation, not one owned by the wealthy, in which working-class farmers worked alongside their slaves. Their lives were more typical of colonial Virginians in general than the lives of the wealthier planters, their families and slaves.</p><br>
<p>Masherbrum  is located in the Ghanche District, Gilgit Baltistan of Pakistan. At 7,821 m it is the 22nd highest mountain in the world and the 9th highest in Pakistan. It was the first mapped peak in the Karakoram mountain range, hence the designation "K1".</p><br>
<p>Although "brum" means mountain in Balti, the origin of "masher" is less clear. Some have suggested that it derives from "Mashedar", meaning a muzzle-loader, due to the characteristic curvature of its summit as viewed from Baltoro Glacier. In Persian, "masheh" means both matchlock and trigger, and "dar" is a suffix meaning "having". Others have noted that "Masha" means lady, and "Masherbrum" is the "Queen of Peaks". Still others have noted that "Masher" means "no sunlight", in reference to the year-round snow cover at the summit.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Masherbrum is the highest peak of the Masherbrum Mountains, a subrange of the Karakoram range. It is a large and striking peak, which is somewhat overshadowed by the nearby 8,000 m peaks of the main range of the Karakoram which includes four of the fourteen Eight-thousanders, namely K2, Gasherbrum I, Broad Peak and Gasherbrum II.</p><br>
<p>The Masherbrum Mountains lie to the south of the Baltoro Glacier and the main range of the Karakoram lies to the north of the Baltoro. The main range is the continental divide of southern Asia. Rivers to the south flow into the Arabian Sea. Rivers to the north flow into the Tarim Basin.</p><br>
<p>The Baltoro Glacier is the route most commonly used to access the 8000m peaks of the Karakoram, and many trekkers also travel on the Baltoro. Masherbrum also lies at the north end of the Hushe Valley, which serves as the southern approach to the peak.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing history</h2><br>
<p>In 1856, Thomas Montgomerie, a British Royal Engineers lieutenant, noticed a tall mountain in the Karakorams and called it K1 (denoting peak 1 of the Karakorams). To the local people of the area, it is known as Masherbrum.</p><br>
<p>Masherbrum was reconnoitered in 1911 by Dr. William H. Workman and his wife Mrs. Fanny Bullock Workman. It was first attempted in 1938 from the south; the attempt failed just short of the summit.</p><br>
<p>After two more failed expeditions, in 1955 and 1957, Masherbrum was first climbed in 1960 by George Irving Bell and Willi Unsoeld, part of an American-Pakistani expedition led by Nick Clinch. They succeeded in climbing the southeast face route that had stymied the earlier parties.</p><br>
<p>The lists three additional ascents and six additional failed attempts on Masherbrum. The ascents include two by additional routes, the NW Face and the NW Ridge/N Face.</p><br>
<p>In her book Voyage au Bout du Vide: Une Cordėe Alpine au Masherbrum, the French mountaineer Christine de Colombel provides a dramatic account of her 1980 attempt, with David Belden, to ascend Masherbrum in alpine style. Their three-month expedition, bedeviled by bad weather, ended in failure when avalanches swept their camp and injured de Colombel, leading to a desperate three-day retreat in whiteout conditions.</p><br>
<p>Garden Island is a slender island about 10 km long and 1.5 km wide, lying about 5 km off the Western Australian coast, to which it is now linked by a man-made causeway.</p><br>
<p>Like Rottnest Island and Carnac Island, it is a limestone outcrop covered by a thin layer of sand accumulated during an era of lowered sea levels. The Noongar Indigenous Australians tell of walking to these islands in their Dreamtime.</p><br>
<p>At the end of the last glacial period, the sea level rose, cutting the island off from the mainland. For the last seven thousand years the island has existed in relative isolation.</p><br>
<p>The Royal Australian Navy&#39;s largest fleet base, Fleet Base West, also called HMAS Stirling, are on the shores of Careening Bay, on the southeastern section of Garden Island, facing Cockburn Sound.</p><br>
<p>Garden Island is home to a tammar wallaby population.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The island was marked but not named on Dutch maps in 1658, even though there were three Dutch ships in the area that year: the Waekende Boey under Captain S. Volckertszoon, the Elburg under Captain J. Peereboom and the Emeloort under Captain A. Joncke. However, it was outlined on the charts of the Southland, which were published after Willem de Vlamingh visited the region in 1697.</p><br>
<p>Jacques Felix Emmanuel, Baron Hamelin was the Captain of the Naturaliste, one of three French ships that visited in 1801 to 1803. He named the island "Ile Buache" after Jean Nicolas Buache, a marine cartographer in Paris. The island was renamed "Garden Island" in 1827 by Captain James Stirling, who "prepared a garden and released a cow, two ewes and three goats in an area of good pasture with good water supply." It has been widely believed that Stirling chose the name "Garden Island" because he planted a garden there, but Statham-Drew (2003) notes that he used the name well before anything was planted there. She argues that it was so named because the shelter that it provides to Cockburn Sound was reminiscent of the way that the Isle of Wight, then known locally as the "Garden Isle", shelters the waters off Portsmouth.</p><br>
<p>Stirling returned to the area in 1829, claiming Garden Island as part of his grant of 100,000 acre, plus any livestock remaining from the previous visit. The first settlement of 450 people was named Sulphur Town. Sulphur Bay and Careening Bay were important anchorage and cargo disembarkation points for ships until 1897 when Fremantle&#39;s inner harbour was completed.</p><br>
<p>In 1907 Peet & Co (now Peet Limited) subdivided eight-three blocks at Careening Bay. After World War I it became a holiday resort with wooden cottages erected at the bay. During World War II, gun batteries were located on Garden Island. These were part of an integrated coastal defence system for Fremantle Harbour facilities.</p><br>
<p>The biggest battery on Garden Island was the Scriven Battery, fitted with two breech-loading 9.2-inch MkX guns, similar to the Oliver Hill Battery on Rottnest Island. In 1943 building began on a complex of underground tunnels and rooms, included shell stores, magazines, pump chamber and power house, plotting room and command post, and battery observation posts. However, the threat of attack receded as the battery was completed. Resources were allocated elsewhere, and the battery and its guns were placed in reserve. The battery was decommissioned in 1963 and the guns scrapped.</p><br>
<p>During World War II Careening Bay Camp became a major training base for the secretive Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD), also commonly referred to as "Z Special Unit". The base was officially known as the Special Boat Section and was used to train operatives in the advanced use of folboat folding kayaks as well as top secret British midget submarines such as the "Motorised Submersible Canoe" ("Sleeping Beauty"), "Welman" and "Welfreighter" submarines. SRD Parties staging out of Careening Bay Camp were sent on clandestine missions into Japanese-occupied territory.</p><br>
<p>Following the war, Garden Island became a holiday resort again and the home of the RAN Reserve Fleet.</p><br>
<h2>Current use</h2><br>
<p>In 1966, a feasibility study began into establishment of a naval support facility on the island, which was endorsed by the Federal Government in 1969. Construction of the 4.3 km Garden Island causeway began in 1971 and was completed in 1973. The facility was completed in 1978, and HMAS Stirling was formally commissioned as a unit of the Royal Australian Navy in the same year. Stirling, also referred to as Fleet Base West, was developed further under the Two-Ocean Policy to become the main naval base on the west coast of Australia.</p><br>
<p>Since completion of the facility, public access to the island has been restricted to daylight hours. However, as of June 2010 public access is not granted to the public in general, via the causeway/bridge, unless entry is sponsored by the military. Access by sea is restricted to private boats using moorings, also under daylight curfew conditions. The island is classified as an A-class reserve, and the Navy has undertaken various successful programmes for the removal of introduced animals; all native animals on the island are protected.</p><br>
<p>The Paklenica karst river canyon is a national park in Croatia. It is located in Starigrad, northern Dalmatia, at the southern slopes of Velebit mountain, not far from Zadar. It has two canyons: Mala  and Velika  Paklenica. Today there is no water flowing throughout Mala Paklenica. Near the entrance into the Velika Paklenica there is an artificial basement/cave complex that had been built for Josip Broz Tito during the tension between Yugoslavia and the USSR in the late 1940s and early 1950s.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The area of South Velebit has been inhabited since prehistoric times. It is believed that, during the last ice age, the area was probably inhabited by small groups of Paleolithic hunters/collectors, like elsewhere in the Mediterranean. The sea level must have been 120 metres lower than today at the time, and Velebit Channel was a wide valley with a river flowing through it. The highest parts of Velebit were covered with glaciers. When the sea level began to rise in the late ice age, people moved to higher, hilly areas. The earliest records of humans in Velebit – Mesolithic flint tools found in Vaganačka Cave under Veliko Rujno - date back to this era.</p><br>
<p>Approximately eight thousand years ago, the first cattle breeders and farmers arrived in the area, bringing wheat, domestic goats and sheep, as well as the knowledge of their breeding. The hunting/collection activities soon lost its importance, and a shepherd life began on Velebit. Plenty of material evidence, such as bones of domestic animals, tools and equipment used by prehistoric shepherds and decorated clay tableware, was found in the caves that served as shelter for people and cattle.</p><br>
<p>Over the last two thousand years BC, during the Bronze Age, the first fortifications and stone wall buildings were erected by Liburian peoples. They could serve as shelter to the population from the surrounding villages in case of danger, and some of them may have been permanent settlements where the local rulers had their seats. In addition, they oversaw important cattle and trade routes leading to Velebit and further to Lika via Paklenica or Rujan. Some of them served to oversee navigation. They are now destroyed, but ring-shaped mounds up to several meters in height can still be seen in some places. In immediate vicinity of the fortifications, you can find casket heaps – deposits of large round stone under which former rulers were buried in casket made of stone tablets. Most of them have been dug out and the graves have been robbed, but they can still be spotted here and there, like in the area of the village of Ljubotić above Tribanj-Kruščica.</p><br>
<p>Over the last two thousand years BC, the east coast of the Adriatic was gradually conquered by the Roman legions. After the Roman province of Dalmatia was founded in the early 1st century AD, permanent Roman reign was established. Starigrad (Roman name: Argyruntum) was established at the time, and it soon developed into an important trading center. In the 4th century AD, Emperor Tiberius had it fortified with walls and towers. The town cemetery was situated by the road that led southwest of the town. Plenty of archaeological findings were collected from approximately 400 explored graves – jewelry, glassware and metalware, weapons and tools. The most interesting finding is certainly the ancient glass collection – as many as 146 vessels of different forms (bowls, glasses, bottled) – kept in the Zadar Museum of Archeology.</p><br>
<p>Life in Argyruntum came to a standstill in the early 4th century AD. The era of peace was interrupted by attacks of barbaric nations that eventually led to the decline of the Roman state. In an attempt to bring the Adriatic coast back to Empire, East Roman Emperor Justinian built a system of fortifications to secure navigation and protect the local population. The ruins of forts and towers above Modrič and near Sveta Trojica not far from Tribanj are parts of this defensive system that briefly postponed the final decline of the ancient world in the Adriatic.</p><br>
<p>The arrival of Croats in this area began in the early Middle Ages. The earliest preserved traces of their presence are the chapels of St. George (S. Juraj) in Rovanjska and the chapel of St. Peter (Sv. Petar) in Starigrad, built in the 9th or 10th century AD. Two forts - Večka Kula and Paklarić – were probably erected in the late Middle Ages (14th-16th century).</p><br>
<h2>Geological features</h2><br>
<p>The most attractive and most valuable parts of South Velebit are surely the impressive canyons of Velika Paklenica and Mala Paklenica. Velika Paklenica canyon is 14 km long and 500–800 m wide. In its narrowest part around the Bunkers, the canyon is only 50 m wide. Vertical cliffs rise above both sides of the canyon up to a height of over 700 m. The most attractive part is the area around the steep drop of the stream downstream from Anića luka, where steep cliffs rise directly above the stream, forming the narrowest part of the canyon between Anića luka and the parking lot. Mala Paklenica Canyon is of lesser dimension, and the torrent running through it is much less powerful. It is 12 km long and 400-500 wide. In its narrowest part, it is only 10 m wide, while the surrounding cliffs rise up to a height of 650 m.</p><br>
<p>The central part of the Park is distinctive for the relief complex of Borovnik and Crni vrh, with the valley of Mala Močila and Velika Močila nearby. In terms of relief, Velika Močila is a very interesting bowl-shaped valley at an altitude 850 m asl, surrounded by Crni vrh (1 110 m asl), Škiljina kosa (1 015 m asl) and Zeleni brig (842 m asl), while Borovnik, named after the black pine forest, stretches along the south edge.</p><br>
<p>The east part of the Park is very differentiated geomorphologically, inaccessible and wild. Further to the east, this zone of wilderness transforms into an area of milder forms around Malo Libinje and Veliko Libinje, karstic plateaus with numerous pits, the bottoms of which were mostly treated.</p><br>
<p>The highest area of Paklenica National Park is the narrow ridge of Velebit, 1 to 3 km wide. The highest peak of Velebit – Vaganski vrh (1 757 m asl) is also here. The area of Paklenica National Park is one of the most completely explored areas in Croatia in terms of speleology. 76 speleological objects are known and have been explored in the Park, namely 39 pits and 37 caves. We will mention some of the most interesting speleological objects in the National Park. Vodarica Pit is the longest cave in Velebit at 300 meters, Precipice on Bunovac (534 m) is the deepest object in Central and South Velebit.</p><br>
<p>Watertight sediments are situated beneath very porous karstic deposits of carbonate rock in the extended part of Velika paklenica, Brezimenjača, and in the spring parts of Mala paklenica and the occasional flow of Orljača. This is why Paklenica National Park has several permanent or occasional flows and many permanent springs. The permanent springs of high-quality drinking water are Stražbenica, Kontinovo vrilo, Crno vrilo, Velika Močila and Pećica.</p><br>
<h2>Flora</h2><br>
<p>The wealth of flora is reflected in the list of 1,000 plant species and subspecies recorded to date, 79 of them endemic. The great diversity, the presence of relict, endemic, rare, statutorily protected species make the Park a very valuable floristic area, not just in Croatia, but in Europe and the world as well.</p><br>
<p>The forest phenomenon is one of the main reasons why the South Velebit area was proclaimed a national park. Areas of oak and oriental hornbeam forests, beech forest, black pine forests, and fern forest, can all be found in the park.</p><br>
<h2>Fauna</h2><br>
<p>The diverse habitats in Paklenica and the vertical stratification provide home to a diverse fauna. Invertebrates are relatively poorly explored, attractive insects like diurnal butterflies are well explored. Over 40 species of amphibians and reptiles are found, the endangered Orsini&#39;s viper is a highlight.</p><br>
<p>Birds are the most numerous group of vertebrates, with 230 species recorded to date. The world of birds is represented by 102 species of nesting birds found in the broader park area. The nesting bird group includes a community of birds inhabiting rocks and cliffs in the canyons of Velika Paklenica and Mala Paklenica, with 24 bird species. A special value is added to the park by the endangered and rare bird species such as the golden eagle, peregrine falcon, short-toed eagle and goshawk. Forest areas are rich with woodpeckers, the rarest among them being the white-backed woodpecker and middle spotted woodpecker.</p><br>
<p>There are also 53 species of mammals at the park, the roe deer and chamois are highlights, while the brown bear is the biggest predator. In the caves there is a host of interesting underground animals such as crabs, mites, Nematodes, aquatic worms, spiders, pseudoscorpion, beetles and bats.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>Hiking is the only way to really get to know Paklenica. The Park area contains 150–200 km of trails and paths, from those intended for tourists, leading from Velika Paklenica Canyon to Manita peć cave, Lugarnica forest cottage and the mountain hut, to those intended for mountaineers, leading to the highest peaks of Velebit. The trails in the Park are marked with boards and mountaineering signs.</p><br>
<p>Paklenica National Park is the most visited climbing site in Croatia, and the largest in Southeast Europe. The close proximity of seawater gives this climbing site a special charm, making Paklenica Riviera an ideal place to combine climbing and water sports. Today, there are over 360 equipped and improved routes of various difficulty levels and lengths within Paklenica’s climbing sites, so each climber can find to their liking. The main climbing season begins in spring and goes on until late autumn.</p><br>
<h2>Sources</h2><br>
<p>The Kornati archipelago of Croatia, also known as the Stomorski islands, is located in the northern part of Dalmatia, south from Zadar and west from Šibenik, in the Šibenik-Knin county. With 35 km length and 140 islands, some large, some small, in a sea area of about 320 km², the Kornati are the densest archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. From northwest to southeast , and from northeast to southwest  they stretch for 13 km. The name of the archipelago is the plural form of the name of the largest island, called Kornat.</p><br>
<h2>Settlement</h2><br>
<p>There are no permanent settlements in Kornati. Simple houses in well-protected coves such as Vrulje, Kravjačica, Lavsa and others are used by mainland landowners as temporary shelters. Most of the land owners are from the island of Murter and Dugi Otok.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>The average monthly temperature for January is 7.3 &deg;C, in July it is 23.9 &deg;C; the average sea temperature in winter is 14 to 15 C and in summer 22.8 &deg;C.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Geographically the Kornati islands can be divided into two main groups - the Gornji Kornati or Upper Kornati, closer to the mainland, and the Donji Kornati or Lower Kornati, which are mostly facing the open sea in the southwest.</p><br>
<p>The islands known as Gornji Kornati include the northernmost island of Sit and the surrounding islets, divided by a channel from Žut and its surrounding islets to the south. Žut is the largest and most indented of these islands.</p><br>
<h2>National Park</h2><br>
<p>In 1980, the eighty-nine southernmost of the 140-odd islands, islets and reefs of the Kornati archipelago were declared a national park, Nacionalni Park Kornati, protecting the islands and their marine surroundings. The area covered by the National Park mostly coincides with the Donji Kornati, which includes the island of Kornat and the surrounding islets, separated with a channel from the island of Piškera and the surrounding islets.</p><br>
<p>The national park includes 109 islands, of which 76 are less than 1 hectare in size. Of the total land surface area of Kornati (62 km), 85% is stony, and only 5% has been cultivated.</p><br>
<p>The most important places on the Kornati islands are: the shallow channel Mala Proversa, the oval-shaped Taljurič island, Špinuta Bay, Stivina Bay, the fourth largest island Levrnaka, the second largest karst rock-area Tarac, Svršata Vela island, Mana island, Piškera island, Panitula Vela island, the picturesque Lavsa Bay, the resort island Ravni Žakan, Smokvica Vela island, the Opat peninsula, Samograd island, the Purara reserve for marine life, Vrgada and Gangarol islands.</p><br>
<p>The names of the islands Babina Guzica and Kurba Vela, which in Croatian refer to buttocks and prostitution, offer an opportunity to explain the many vulgar names officially given to many places in the Kornati archipelago. When Austrian surveyors came to record the archipelago at the end of the 19th century, their local guides mocked them by making up vulgar names for the various locations.</p><br>
<p>Kornat, the biggest of the islands with a total area of 32.44 km&sup2, comprises two-thirds of the park&#39;s land area. Although the island is 25.2 km long, it is no wider than 2.5 km. The park is managed from the town of Murter, on the island of Murter, and is connected to the mainland by a drawbridge.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Most of the terrain in the Kornati islands is karst-limestone which, in the distant geological past, arose from sediment from the sea. In the stone on the islands there are numerous fossils of crustaceans and fish. In the area there examples of all the typical forms of karst: bizarre shapes formed by the atmosphere, unexplored caves, areas of flat rock and, above all, cliffs. Karst rock is porous, rapidly draining and dry, and so therefore are the Kornati islands. Numerous cisterns supply water for people and animals.</p><br>
<p>Human presence on the Kornati islands appear to extend back to the Neolithic Age, and the remains of Illyrian settlements were found on the island of Kornat. The presence of wealthy Romans is attested by the mosaic floors of Roman villas, and Kornat island has a small tower, Toreta, that was probably built in the 6th century AD. The island of Piškera was also inhabited during the Middle Ages and served as a storage point for fish. Archeological sites in Stražišče and Tarac, and on Levrnaka and Lavsa provide evidence that during the Roman era life on Kornati was very active. There are many buildings and it is known that there were also stone quarries.</p><br>
<p>During the long period of Venetian occupation, the islands were used for resupplying the Venetian fleet. Deforestation and subsequent erosion, and overgrazing by sheep and goats, for whose benefit the scrub was periodically burnt over, impoverished the fauna and depopulated the islands, which were purchased by citizens of Murter during the late 19th century.</p><br>
<h2>Fauna</h2><br>
<p>Apart from sea-gulls, which are the most numerous animals, there are some lizards and ring-snakes, and 69 varieties of butterfly, some amphibians and rodents. The local ichthyological fauna is also sparse. As regards marine life, the Kornati islands are typical of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean, but, due to the underwater relief, streams and special characteristics of the sea in this labyrinth, there are also some peculiarities: algae, coral and sponges. At one time the sea was the richest in the Adriatic for sponge hunters. The rare mollusc Pinna nobilis lives in the Kornati and is protected by law.</p><br>
<p>Not only the land but also the sea is within the protection of the National Park. Fishing is extremely limited in order to allow the regeneration of fish shoals that had been severely over-fished. According to tradition, the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus albiventur) once lived among these islands. The name of the southernmost point on Vela Kurka (Mendo) is connected with this almost extinct species.</p><br>
<h2>Flora</h2><br>
<p>Vegetation on the islands is very sparse maquis. There have been 200 known varieties of Mediterranean plants, but they have degenerated. The most common plant is a tough variety of grass, but there are many scented and medicinal herbs: sage, feather grass and Xeranthemum, giving a fragrant spring, and during the year providing the best forage for bees. Olive trees account for about 80% of the land under cultivation, followed by vineyards, figs, orchards and vegetable gardens. It is thought that the Kornati islands were once covered with forests of Mediterranean holm oaks, Quercus ilex, but as open fires demanded a great deal of wood, the forests were slowly destroyed; the sole remnant is round the bay of Telašćica.</p><br>
<p>Symi, also transliterated as Syme or Simi , is a Greek island and municipality. It is mountainous and includes the harbor town of Symi and its adjacent upper town Ano Symi, as well as several smaller localities, beaches, and areas of significance in history and mythology. Symi is part of the Rhodes regional unit.</p><br>
<p>The economy of Symi was traditionally based on the shipbuilding and sponge industries. The population reached 22,500 at its peak during that period. Symi&#39;s main industry is now tourism, and its permanent population has declined to 2,500, with a larger population during the summer.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Geographically, Symi is part of the Dodecanese island chain, located about 41 km north-northwest of Rhodes (and 425 km from Piraeus, the port of Athens), with 58.1 km² of mountainous terrain. Its nearest land neighbors are the Datça and Bozburun peninsulas of Muğla Province in Turkey. Its interior is dotted with small valleys, and its coastline alternates between rocky cliffs and beaches, and isolated coves. Its main town, located on the northeast coast, is also named Symi and consists of the lower town around the harbour, typically referred to as Yialos, and the upper town is called Horio or Ano Symi. Other inhabited localities are Pedi, Nimborio, Marathounda and Panormitis. Panormitis is the location of the islands famous monastery which is visited by people from all over the world, and many Greeks pay homage to St Michael of Panormitis each year. The island has 2,580 inhabitants, mostly engaged in tourism, fishing, and trade. In the tourist season which lasts from Easter until Panormitis Day in early November, tourists and day-trippers increase the number of people on the island to as much as 6000. In addition to its many historical sites, the islands isolated beaches, many reachable only with small boats, are popular with tourists. The Municipality of Sými includes the uninhabited offshore islets of Gialesíno, Diavátes, Kouloúndros, Marmarás, Nímos, Sesklío, and Chondrós. Its total land area is 65.754 km².</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In Greek mythology, Symi is reputed to be the birthplace of the Charites and to take its name from the nymph Syme (in antiquity the island was known as Aigli and Metapontis), though Pliny the Elder and some later writers claimed that the name was derived from scimmia "a monkey".</p><br>
<p>In Homer&#39;s Iliad the island is mentioned as the domain of King Nireus, who fought in the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks. Thucydides writes that during the Peloponnesian War there was a Battle of Syme near the island in January, 411 BC, in which an unspecified number of Spartan ships defeated a squadron of Athenian vessels. Little was known about the island until the 14th century, but archaeological evidence indicates that it was continuously inhabited, and ruins of citadels suggest that it was an important location. It was first part of the Roman Empire and then the Byzantine Empire, until its conquest by the Knights of St. John in 1309.</p><br>
<h3>Early modern: Hospitalier and Ottoman eras</h3><br>
<p>This conquest, fueled by the Knights&#39; interest in shipping and commerce, launched what was to be a period of several centuries of prosperity for Symi, as its location amidst the Dodecanese made it an important waypoint for trade until the advent of steam-powered shipping in the 19th century. The island was conquered from the Knights by the Ottoman Empire in 1522 (along with nearby Rhodes) but it was allowed to retain many of its privileges, so its prosperity continued virtually uninterrupted. Under the Ottomans the island was called Sömbeki. Symi was noted for its sponges which provided much of its wealth. It attained the height of its prosperity in the mid 19th century, and many of the peculiarly colorful neoclassical mansions covering the slopes near the main city date from that period. Although Symiots took part in the Greek War of Independence of 1821–1829, it was left out of the new Greek state when its borders were drawn up and so remained under Ottoman rule.</p><br>
<h3>Modern era</h3><br>
<p>The island, along with the rest of the Dodecanese, changed hands several times in the 20th century: in 1912 the Dodecanese declared independence from the Ottomans as the Federation of the Dodecanese Islands, though they were almost immediately occupied by Italy. The island was formally ceded to Italy in 1923, and on 12 October 1943 it was occupied by the Nazis. At the end of World War II, the surrender of German forces in the region took place on Symi to the British and the island was subject to three years of occupation by them as a result. Symi was finally rejoined with Greece in 1948.</p><br>
<p>The island has become a haven for tourists from abroad, especially British and Italians, and is now the permanent home of about 120 non-Greek residents, some 50 of whom are British. The influx of tourists has led to the restoration of a great number of homes (many of which were destroyed during World War II); these restorations, by law, have to conform to "guidelines laid down by the Greek culture ministrys Archaeological Service." Between 1998 and 2006, it is estimated that the price of a "ruin" on Symi increased fivefold. The growing population of British and other expatriates has led to demographic as well as political changes, since EU citizens are allowed to vote in local elections and have attempted to exert influence on the islands politics. Opinions on whether this is a sign of growing integration differ.</p><br>
<p>There has been considerable restoration of many houses in Symi in the past decade, by architects including Haris A. Kalligas and Anastasia Papaioannou, both winners of the Europa Nostra Awards for their work on Symi and elsewhere in Greece.</p><br>
<h2>Culture</h2><br>
<h3>Landmarks</h3><br>
<p>The Monastery of the Archangel Michael is a Greek Orthodox monastery built on the southwest coast in the early 18th century. It overlooks a bay, and is still inhabited by monks.</p><br>
<p>The Kastro overlooks the main town of Symi, Ano Symi. It was built by the Knights of St. John as an expansion of a Byzantine castle on the same site, many parts of which are still visible. There are also remnants of an ancient citadel on which the two later castles were built.</p><br>
<p>The municipal clock tower which was built circa 1880</p><br>
<p>The War memorial in the harbour consists of a monument "the Dove of Peace" in front of a bas-relief sculpture of a Trireme</p><br>
<p>The town of Symi alone has thirteen major churches and dozens of chapels, some dating back to the Byzantine era.</p><br>
<p>The village of Nimborio has surviving ancient Pelasgian walls and a set of twelve domes remaining from workshops used by artists.</p><br>
<h3>Festival</h3><br>
<p>Since 1995, Symi has hosted the Symi Festival during the months of July to September. This festival was founded by Greek political journalist, Ioannis (John) Diakogiannis, who established it in the birthplace of his father Eleftherios C. Diakogiannis. Since its inception it has attracted many Greek musicians (Katy Garbi, Eleftheria Arvanitaki, Glykeria, Alkistis Protopsalti, Dimitra Galani, Miltos Pasxahildis etc.) to perform at free open-air concerts in the main square of Yialos, and also consists of many dance and theatre events.</p><br>
<h3>Sister cities</h3><br>
<p>In 2008, Tarpon Springs, Florida, a town with a high percentage of Greek Americans located on the Gulf Coast of the United States, established a sister city-relationship with Symi, which had sent many sponge fishermen to Florida for the "sponge rush" at the beginning of the twentieth century.</p><br>
<h3>Local media</h3><br>
<p>There is one local FM radio station broadcasting on the island, Star Radio Symi 104.6 FM. In addition, the island boasts one web radio station, Magic Star.</p><br>
<h2>Notable people</h2><br>
<p>Costas Valsamis, sculptor</p><br>
<p>Ioannis Diakidis, writer</p><br>
<p>Dupont Circle is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood, and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The traffic circle is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue NW, Connecticut Avenue NW, New Hampshire Avenue NW, P Street NW, and 19th Street NW. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 16th Street NW to the east, 22nd Street NW to the west, M Street NW to the south, and Florida Avenue NW to the north. The local government Advisory Neighborhood Commission  and the Dupont Circle Historic District have slightly different boundaries. The circle is named for Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Dupont Circle is located in the "Old City" of Washington, D.C.—the area planned by architect Pierre Charles L&#39;Enfant—but remained largely undeveloped until after the American Civil War, when there was a large influx of new residents. The area that now constitutes Dupont Circle was once home to a brickyard and slaughterhouse. There also was a creek, Slash Run, that began near 15th Street NW and Columbia Road NW, ran from 16th Street near Adams Morgan, through Kalorama and within a block of Dupont Circle, but the creek has since been enclosed in a sewer line. Improvements made in the 1870s by a board of public works headed by Alexander "Boss" Shepherd transformed the area into a fashionable residential neighborhood.</p><br>
<p>In 1871, the USA Army Corps of Engineers began construction of the traffic circle, then called Pacific Circle, as specified in LEnfants plan. On February 25, 1882, Congress renamed it "Dupont Circle", and authorized a memorial statue of Samuel Francis Du Pont, in recognition of his service as a rear admiral during the Civil War. Unveiled on December 20, 1884, the statue was sculpted by Launt Thompson, and the circle was landscaped with exotic flowers and ornamental trees. Several prominent duPont family members deemed it too insignificant to honor their ancestor, so they secured permission to move the statue to Rockford Park in Wilmington in 1917, and commissioned Henry Bacon and Daniel Chester French to design the fountain that sits in Dupont Circle today. In 1920, the current double-tiered white marble fountain replaced the statue. Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon, the co-creators of the Lincoln Memorial, designed the fountain, which features carvings of three classical figures symbolizing the sea, the stars and the wind on the fountain&#39;s shaft.</p><br>
<p>During the 1870s and 1880s, mansions were built along Massachusetts Avenue, one of Washingtons grand avenues, and townhouses were built throughout the neighborhood. In 1872, the British built a new embassy on Connecticut Avenue, at N Street NW. Stewarts Castle was built in 1873 on the north side of the circle. By the 1920s, Connecticut Avenue was more commercial in character, with numerous shops. Some residences, including Senator Philetus Sawyer&#39;s mansion at Connecticut and R Street, were demolished to make way for office buildings and shops. The Patterson House, at 15 Dupont Circle, served as a temporary residence for President Calvin Coolidge while the actual White House was being repaired in 1927.</p><br>
<p>Connecticut Avenue was widened in the late 1920s, and increased traffic in the neighborhood caused a great deal of congestion in the circle, making it difficult for pedestrians to get around. Medians were installed in 1948, in the circle, to separate the through traffic on Massachusetts Avenue from the local traffic, and traffic signals were added. In 1949 traffic tunnels and an underground streetcar station were built under the circle as part of the now-defunct Capital Transit project. The tunnels allowed trams and vehicles traveling along Connecticut Avenue to pass more quickly past the circle. When streetcar service ended in 1962, the entrances to the underground station were filled in and paved over, leaving only the traffic tunnel.</p><br>
<p>The neighborhood declined after World War II and particularly after the 1968 riots, but began to enjoy a resurgence in the 1970s, fueled by urban pioneers seeking an alternative lifestyle. The neighborhood took on a bohemian feel and became popular among the gay and lesbian community. Along with The Castro in San Francisco, Hillcrest in San Diego, Greenwich Village in New York City, Boystown in Chicago, Oak Lawn in Dallas, Montrose in Houston, and West Hollywood in Los Angeles, Dupont Circle is considered a historic locale in the development of American gay identity. D.C.s first gay bookstore, Lambda Rising, opened in 1974 and gained notoriety nationwide. In 1975, the store ran the worlds first gay-oriented television commercial.</p><br>
<p>Gentrification accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s, and the area is now a more mainstream and trendy location with coffeehouses, restaurants, bars, and upscale retail stores. Since 1997, a weekly farmers market has operated on 20th Street NW.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The area&#39;s rowhouses, primarily built before 1900, feature variations on the Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque revival styles. Rarer are the palatial mansions and large freestanding houses that line the broad, tree-lined diagonal avenues that intersect the circle. Many of these larger dwellings were built in the styles popular between 1895 and 1910.</p><br>
<p>One such grand residence is the marble and limestone Patterson Mansion at 15 Dupont Circle. This Italianate mansion, the only survivor of the many mansions that once ringed the circle, was built in 1901 by New York architect Stanford White for Robert Patterson, editor of the Chicago Tribune, and his wife Nellie, heiress to the Chicago Tribune fortune. Upon Mrs. Patterson&#39;s incapacitation in the early 1920s, the house passed into the hands of her daughter, Cissy Patterson, who made it a hub of Washington social life. The house served as temporary quarters for President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge in 1927 while the White House underwent renovation. The Coolidges welcomed Charles Lindbergh as a houseguest after his historic transatlantic flight. Lindbergh made several public appearances at the house, waving to roaring crowds from the second-story balcony, and befriended the Patterson Family, with whom he increasingly came to share isolationist and pro-German views. Cissy Patterson later acquired the Washington Times-Herald (sold to Washington Post in 1954) and declared journalistic warfare on Franklin D. Roosevelt from 15 Dupont Circle, continuing throughout World War II to push her policies, which were echoed in the New York Daily News, run by her brother Joseph Medill Patterson, and the Chicago Tribune, run by their first cousin, Colonel Robert R. McCormick.</p><br>
<h3>Strivers' Section</h3><br>
<p>Todays Dupont Circle includes the Strivers Section, a small residential area west of 16th Street roughly between Swann Street and Florida Avenue. The Strivers Section was an enclave of upper-middle-class African Americans—often community leaders—in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The area includes a row of houses on 17th Street owned by Frederick Douglass and occupied by his son. It takes its name from a turn-of-the-century writer who described the district as "the Strivers section, a community of Negro aristocracy".</p><br>
<p>The area, which was once considered an overlap of the Dupont Circle and Shaw neighborhoods, is today a historic district. Many of its buildings are the original Edwardian-era residences, along with several apartment and condominium buildings and a few small businesses.</p><br>
<h2>Landmarks</h2><br>
<h3>Traffic circle</h3><br>
<p>The neighborhood is centered around the traffic circle, which is divided between two counterclockwise roads. The outer road serves all the intersecting streets, while access to the inner road is limited to through traffic on Massachusetts Avenue. Connecticut Avenue passes under the circle via a tunnel; vehicles on Connecticut Avenue can access the circle via service roads that branch from Connecticut near N Street and R Street.</p><br>
<p>The park within the circle is maintained by the National Park Service. The central fountain designed by Daniel Chester French provides seating, and long, curved benches around the central area were installed in 1964. The park within the circle is a gathering place for those wishing to play chess on the permanent stone chessboards. Tom Murphy, a homeless championship chess player, is a resident. The park has also been the location of political rallies, such as those supporting gay rights and those protesting the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.</p><br>
<p>In 2009, a tug of war was sponsored by the Washington Project for the Arts.</p><br>
<p>In 1999, Thelma Billy was arrested handing out Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless.</p><br>
<p>In 2014, the city proposed to turn an 850 ft&sup2; concrete sidewalk on the south side of the traffic circle into a "kinetic park". Currently occupied by bike lockers, the parklet would be repaved with 100 PaveGen pavers, which generate electricity when people walk on them. Designers ZGF Architects say the $200,000 project will also rebuild the sidewalk and curbs and add seven granite benches, six bollard bicycle racks, and two flower beds. The pavers are expected to generate 456.25 kilowatts annually, which will power lights under each bench.</p><br>
<h3>Embassies</h3><br>
<p>The Dupont Circle neighborhood, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is home to numerous embassies, many of which are located in historic residences. The Thomas T. Gaff House serves as the Colombian ambassador&#39;s residence, and the Walsh-McLean House is home to the Indonesian embassy. Located east of Dupont Circle on Massachusetts Avenue is the Clarence Moore House, now known as the Embassy of Uzbekistan, and the Emily J. Wilkins House, which formerly housed the Australian embassy and now is occupied by the Peruvian Chancery. Iraq operates a consular services office in the William J. Boardman House on P Street.</p><br>
<h3>Other landmarks</h3><br>
<p>Other landmarks, many of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, include the International Temple, Embassy Gulf Service Station, Christian Heurich Mansion (also known as Brewmasters Castle), Whittemore House (headquarters to the Womans National Democratic Club), and the Phillips Collection, the country&#39;s first museum of modern art. The Richard H. Townsend House located on Massachusetts Avenue now houses the Cosmos Club. The Mansion on O Street a luxury boutique hotel, private club, events venue and museum has been a fixture in Dupont Circle for over 30 years and includes over 100 rooms and 32 secret doors. Also overlooking the square is The Dupont Circle Hotel.</p><br>
<h3>Institutions</h3><br>
<p>In addition to its residential components, consisting primarily of high-priced apartments and condominiums, Dupont Circle is home to some of the nations most prestigious think tanks and research institutions, including the Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Aspen Institute, the German Marshall Fund, the Center for Global Development, the Stimson Center, The Eurasia Center, and the Peterson Institute. The renowned Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins is located less than two blocks from the circle. Dupont Circle is also home to the Original Founding Church of Scientology, the first such church established by the religions founder, L. Ron Hubbard. The Phillips Collection, the nations first museum of modern art, is located near the circle; its most famous and popular work on display is Renoirs giant festive canvas Luncheon of the Boating Party. Additionally, the national headquarters of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America, the nation&#39;s oldest veterans organization, the National Museum of American Jewish Military History, the Laogai Museum and the Washington, D.C. Jewish Community Center are also located in Dupont Circle.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>Dupont Circle is served by the Dupont Circle Station on the Red Line of the Washington Metro. There are two entrances: north of the circle at Q Street NW and south of the circle at 19th Street NW. The northern entrance is framed by a quote from Walt Whitman&#39;s 1865 poem, "The Wound-Dresser", that was carved into the entrance in 2007 and echoes the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s.</p><br>
<h2>Annual neighborhood events</h2><br>
<h3>Capital Pride</h3><br>
<p>Capital Pride is an annual LGBT pride festival held each June in Washington., the festival is the fourth-largest LGBT pride event in the United States, with over 200,000 people in attendance. The Capital Pride parade takes place annually on Saturday during the festival and travels through the streets of the neighborhood. Dupont Circle is still host to the parade, and the street festival is held in Penn Quarter.</p><br>
<h3>High Heel Race</h3><br>
<p>Held annually since 1986, the Dupont Circle High Heel Race takes place on the Tuesday before Halloween (October 31). The race pits dozens of drag queens against each other in a sprint down 17th Street NW between R Street and Church Street, a distance of about three short blocks. The event attracts thousands of spectators and scores of participants, who begin the festivities in late afternoon; the race proper starts at 9 p.m. and lasts a few minutes.</p><br>
<p>The event is sponsored by the nonprofit Dupont Circle Main Streets and by JR&#39;s DC Bar and Grill.</p><br>
<p>Cotopaxi is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains, located in the Latacunga canton of Cotopaxi Province, about 50 km south of Quito, and 33 km northeast of the city of Latacunga, Ecuador, in South America. It is the second highest summit in Ecuador, reaching a height of 5,897 m. It is one of the world&#39;s highest volcanoes.</p><br>
<p>Since 1738, Cotopaxi has erupted more than 50 times, resulting in the creation of numerous valleys formed by lahars (mudflows) around the volcano. The last eruption lasted from August 2015 to January 2016. Since the recent eruptions, Cotopaxi has been officially closed for climbing by authorities.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>On a clear day, Cotopaxi is clearly visible on the skyline from Quito and is part of the chain of volcanoes around the Pacific plate known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. It has an almost symmetrical cone that rises from a highland plain of about 3,800 metres (12,500 ft), with a width at its base of about 23 kilometres (14 mi). It has one of the few equatorial glaciers in the world, which starts at the height of 5,000 metres (16,400 ft). At its summit, Cotopaxi has an 800 X 550 m wide crater which is 250 m deep. The crater consists of two concentric crater rims, the outer one being partly free of snow and irregular in shape. The crater interior is covered with ice cornices and rather flat. The highest point is on the outer rim of the crater on the north side.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Name</h3><br>
<p>Many sources claim that Cotopaxi means shining pile or mountain in an indigenous language, but this is unproven. The mountain was honored as a "Sacred Mountain" by local Andean people, even before the Inca invasion in the 15th century. It was worshiped as “rain sender”, that served as the guarantor of the land&#39;s fertility, and at the same time its summit was revered as a place where gods lived.</p><br>
<h3>Historic Eruptions</h3><br>
<p>With 87 known eruptions, Cotopaxi is one of Ecuador&#39;s most active volcanoes. The first recorded eruption of Cotopaxi was in 1534.</p><br>
<p>Cotopaxi&#39;s most violent eruptions in historical times occurred in the years 1742, 1744, 1768, and 1877. The 1744 and 1768 events destroyed the colonial town of Latacunga. In the 26 June 1877 eruption, pyroclastic flows descended all sides of the mountain melting the entire ice cap, with lahars traveling more than 100 km into the Pacific Ocean and western Amazon basin draining the valley.</p><br>
<p>The city of Latacunga was again leveled completely due to the mudslide deposits.</p><br>
<p>The eruption on 19 June 1742 was witnessed by the scientists Pierre Bouguer and Charles-Marie de La Condamine, members of the French Geodesic Mission, as they descended from nearby Guagua Pichincha.</p><br>
<p>There was a major eruption from 1903 to 1904, and minor activity persisted until at least 1940 and possibly 1942. (Note that direct observations of minor eruptions can be difficult because of bad weather, hence the uncertainty about the 1942 "eruption.") The same source also reported increased thermal/seismic, non-eruptive activity in 1975 and 2002. In the increased activity of 2002, fumarolic activity and sulfuric emissions increased and ice around the inside and on the southeastern side of the cone started to melt. However, no actual eruption was observed.</p><br>
<p>In 2015, two large phreatic (steam) eruptions in the morning of the 14th of August marked a new phase of volcanic activity. The volcano "remains in a very abnormal situation. In August, 2,100 earthquakes were recorded and emission rates of sulfur dioxide reach approximately 20,000 tonnes per day". The government estimates some 300,000 people are at risk from the volcano in the provinces of Cotopaxi, Tungurahua, Napo and Pichincha.</p><br>
<h3>Climbing</h3><br>
<p>The first European who tried to climb the mountain was Alexander von Humboldt in 1802, however, he only reached a height of about 4500 m. In 1858 Moritz Wagner investigated the mountain, but he could not reach the summit either. On November 28, 1872, German geologist Wilhelm Reiss and his Colombian partner Angel Escobar finally reached the summit of Cotopaxi. In 1873 it was again summited by Moritz Alphons Stübel, then in 1880 by Edward Whymper. Painters and Hans Meyer reached the summit in 1903 and many of Reschreiter&#39;s paintings feature a view of Cotopaxi.</p><br>
<p>In the late 20th century, summiting Cotopaxi became a major tourist draw. The José F. Ribas Refuge (Refugio José Félix Ribas) was built in 1971 at an elevation of 4800 m and enlarged in 2005. A tragedy occurred here on Easter Sunday 1996 when an avalanche partially buried the Refuge and dozens of tourists. The glacier above the Refuge was probably weakened by an earthquake that had shaken the entire Province of Cotopaxi for several days prior to the avalanche. In the warm midday sun a huge portion of the ice wall broke loose. Being Easter there were many day visitors on the mountain who were buried in the ice and snow. Those trapped in the Refuge broke windows on the downhill side to climb to safety, but 13 people died on the slope above. The Refuge itself is located in a valley and consequently vulnerable to future avalanches.</p><br>
<h2>Today</h2><br>
<h3>Recreation</h3><br>
<p>Climbing Cotopaxi to the summit is quite popular with up to 100 climbers attempting it on weekends. Today, mountain guide companies offer regular guided climbs of the mountain and — as of 11 December 2012 — no mountain peaks in Ecuador over 5,000 m high may be climbed without a licensed guide. Climbers grade the conventional route alpine PD (Peu Difficile) or WS (Wenig Schwierig) — or PD/WS+ (indicating "Mildly Difficult PLUS"). Use of crampons and ice axes are mandatory as snow and ice slopes of up to 50 degrees are encountered and climbers should be on belay and use aluminum ladders to cross one or two of the crevasses. A 4WD track goes up from the national park entrance to a carpark at 4600 m altitude on north side, just below the José F. Ribas Refuge. This stone mountain hut — owned and operated by Grupo Ascensionismo del Colegio San Gabriel — is situated 200 m higher at 4800 m (a 40-80 minute uphill hike). Here climbers can spend the night and begin their summit bid in the early morning without any intermediate camps. (Typically no more than about half of those attempting to summit Cotopaxi make it to the top after a daunting — though non-technical — six-hour scramble.) Summiting normally starts around 12:30 am to reach the summit at latest 7:30 am and then return to the hut before the snow melts and glacier crevasses move/evolve. As of July 28, 2014, the Ribas Refuge is under construction. Tour operators shuttle their clients up to the top of the 4WD track once in the afternoon for a glacier skills class, and then again to start the climb around midnight, spending the intervening hours eating dinner and resting at a hostel lower down by the lakes. Adventure tourism operators in Quito also offer mountain biking tours from the Refuge downhill along the dirt track.</p><br>
<h3>Recent activity</h3><br>
<p>In April 2015, the volcano began to show signs of unrest, and came back to life. There was a large increase in earthquakes (including harmonic tremors) and SO2 emissions. IGEPN reported slight deformation of the edifice, suggesting an intrusion of magma under the volcano. As of 25 July, the unrest continued, and the most recent significant eruption was a phreatic (ash and steam) eruption that occurred on August 14 and 15, 2015. Ash was deposited heavily in areas close to the volcano (including damaging farmlands on the flanks of neighbouring volcanoes such as El Corazon) and thinly as far as Quito, affecting southern and central areas of the city.</p><br>
<p>Future Cotopaxi eruptions pose a high risk to the local population, their settlements and fields. The main danger of a significant eruption of Cotopaxi would be the flash-melting of its summit glacier, resulting in devastating lahars which would travel down the flanks of the volcano, guided by river valleys whose origins lie at the volcano. Danger from normal, explosive eruptive activity is limited to within Cotopaxi National Park however, the great distances that lahars, of the significant size that Cotopaxi&#39;s glacier could produce, greatly increases the hazard areas to include all river valleys leading from the volcano. If there were to be a very large explosion, it would destroy (to the north) many of the settlements within the valley in the suburban area of Quito (pop. more than 2,000,000). Another city which would be in great danger is the regional capital Latacunga which is located in the south valley and has been destroyed at least twice in recent history (1768, 1877) by lahars caused by volcanic activity.</p><br>
<h2>In art</h2><br>
<p>Cotopaxi is commonly depicted in the traditional paintings of the indigenous people of Tigua as the volcano holds significant cultural value.</p><br>
<p>Cotopaxi was the subject of important works by painter Frederic Edwin Church in 1855 and 1862.</p><br>
<p>In the poem Romance by Walter J. Turner (1916), Cotopaxi is one of the romantic locations that has stolen the poet&#39;s heart.</p><br>
<p>In the American film Close Encounters of The Third Kind (1977), the SS Cotopaxi, a ship named Cotopaxi that disappeared in 1925, appears in the Gobi Desert.</p><br>
<p>American rock band The Mars Volta have a song named after the mountain.</p><br>
<p>In The Star (1897), a short story by H. G. Wells, Cotopaxi erupts with a tumult of lava that reaches the coastline in a day.</p><br>
<p>In Shadrach in the Furnace (1976), a science fiction novel by Robert Silverberg, an eruption by Cotapaxi becomes known as "the night of Cotopaxi". It starts a series of disasters and uprisings that establish in the early 21st century a world dictatorship by the Mongolian Genghis Mao.</p><br>
<p>The Reichenbach Falls  are a waterfall cascade of seven steps on the creek called Rychenbach in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. Today, a hydro-electric power company harnesses the flow of the Reichenbach Falls during certain times of year, reducing its flow.</p><br>
<p>In popular literature, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle gave the Grand (or Great) Reichenbach Fall as the location of the final physical altercation between his hero Sherlock Holmes and his greatest foe, the criminal Professor Moriarty in "The Final Problem".</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>The falls are located in the lower part of the Reichenbachtal, on the Rychenbach, a tributary (from the south bank) of the Aare. They are some 1.5 km south of the town of Meiringen, and 25 km east of Interlaken. Politically, the falls are within the municipality of Schattenhalb in the canton of Bern.</p><br>
<p>The falls are made accessible by the Reichenbach Funicular. The lower station is some 20 minutes walk, or a 6-minute bus ride, from Meiringen railway station on the Brünig railway line that links Interlaken and Lucerne.</p><br>
<h2>In popular culture</h2><br>
<h3>Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories</h3><br>
<p>The town and the falls are known worldwide as the setting for a fictional event: it is the location where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle&#39;s hero, Sherlock Holmes, fights to the death with Professor Moriarty, at the end of "The Final Problem", first published in 1893. A memorial plate at the funicular station commemorates Holmes and there is also a Sherlock Holmes museum in the nearby town of Meiringen.</p><br>
<p>Out of many waterfalls in the Bernese Oberland, Reichenbach Falls seems to have made the greatest impression on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was shown them on a Swiss holiday by his host Sir Henry Lunn, the founder of Lunn Poly. Sir Henrys grandson, Peter Lunn, recalled, "My grandfather said Push him over the Reichenbach Falls&#39; and Conan Doyle hadn’t heard of them, so he showed them to him." So impressed was Doyle that he decided to let his hero die there.</p><br>
<p>The actual ledge from which Moriarty fell is on the other side of the falls from the funicular; it is accessible by climbing the path to the top of the falls, crossing the bridge and following the trail down the hill. The ledge is marked by a plaque as illustrated here; the English inscription reads: "At this fearful place, Sherlock Holmes vanquished Professor Moriarty, on 4 May 1891." The pathway on which the duel between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty occurs ends some hundred metres away from the falls. When Doyle viewed the falls, the path ended very close to the falls, close enough to touch it, yet over the hundred years after his visit, the pathway has become unsafe and slowly eroded away, and the falls have receded farther back into the gorge.</p><br>
<h3>In other media</h3><br>
<p>The Reichenbach Falls are the subject of several early 19th-century paintings by the English Romantic landscape painter J. M. W. Turner.</p><br>
<p>The indie band Ravens & Chimes named its debut album (released in 2007) after the falls.</p><br>
<p>Reichenbach Falls was also the title of a 2008 BBC Four TV drama by James Mavor, based on an idea by Ian Rankin and set in Edinburgh. Numerous historical characters associated with the city, including Conan Doyle and his mentor Dr Joseph Bell, are mentioned in the story.</p><br>
<p>Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, a 2011 film adaptation inspired by "The Final Problem", also hosts the falls, although in this adaptation, a large castle has been built over them, replacing the pathway.</p><br>
<p>The third episode from the 2012 second series of the BBC drama Sherlock, "The Reichenbach Fall" (inspired by "The Final Problem"), is a play on the waterfall&#39;s name. The special episode of Sherlock, The Abominable Bride, which was broadcast on 1 January 2016, featured a re-creation of the showdown between Sherlock and Moriarty set in Victorian times, as depicted in the book.</p><br>
<p>Visingsö is an island in the southern half of Lake Vättern in Sweden.</p><br>
<p>Visingsö lies 30 km north of the city Jönköping and 6 km west of Gränna from which two car ferries connect the island. The island is 14 km long and 3 km wide, with a total area of 24 km&sup2;.</p><br>
<p>According to legend, a giant named Vist created Visingsö by throwing a lump of soil into the lake so that his wife could use it to step over the lake.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In the 12th and 13th century, Näs Castle on the southern end of Visingsö was the residence for the fragile Swedish monarchy. Four Swedish kings died there: Karl Sverkersson, Erik Knutsson, Johan Sverkersson, and Magnus Ladulås.</p><br>
<p>Furthermore, in the 17th century the influential Brahe family resided in Visingsborg, a castle on the eastern side of the island. Both Näs Castle and Visingsborg are presently ruins and well known landmarks of Visingsö.</p><br>
<p>The Swedish Navy planted oak trees on the island in the 19th century to provide strategically important timber for future ship construction. The timber is now ready but no longer required for ship construction. Consequently, Visingsö is partially covered by oak forests, the rest being farmland.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Visingsö has long been of interest to geologists because of the development of a sedimentary series of rocks (the Visingsö Group) there (and elsewhere around Lake Vättern, especially on the west side). The surrounding rocks are largely much older "Småland granites" of mixed granite-like compositions. The Visingsö Group is approximately 1000 m thick and is divided into three units. It is Late Riphean in date. A wide array of late Precambrian fossils have been recovered from the group, including stromatolites, vase-shaped microfossils, acritarchs and macro fossils such as Chuaria. The sediments of the Visingsö Group have been preserved within the Lake Vättern graben structure.</p><br>
<p>Panorama over Visingsö from Brahehus</p><br>
<p>The Pontiac Rebellion</p><br>
<p>Bradstreet&#39;s Expedition</p><br>
<p>The War of 1812</p><br>
<p>Fort Niagara is a fortification originally built to protect the interests of New France in North America. It is located near Youngstown, New York, on the eastern bank of the Niagara River at its mouth, on Lake Ontario.</p><br>
<h2>Origin</h2><br>
<p>René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle built the first structure, called Fort Conti, in 1678. In 1687, the Governor of New France, the Marquis de Denonville, constructed a new fort at the former site of Fort Conti. He named it Fort Denonville and posted a hundred men under the command of Capt. Pierre de Troyes, Chevalier de Troyes. The winter weather and disease was severe, and all but twelve perished by the time a relief force returned from Montreal. It was decided in September 1688 to abandon the post and the stockade was pulled down.</p><br>
<p>Louis-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire was despatched to the Senecas to obtain permission to build a French post on the banks of the river. It was in 1720 that he spoke to several chiefs, explaining that his pleasure was always great when he visited them but that he would do it more spontaneously still if he had a dwelling place. Considering that he was of the tribe since his turbulent captivity and his "adoption", the chiefs agreed that he had the right to build a dwelling where it pleased. Joncaire and eight men dispatched from fort Frontenac built on the right bank of the river a trading post, called Magasin Royal or Maison de la Paix (Royal Store or House of Peace). The trading post was carefully called the "House of Peace", emphasizing the French peaceful intents; it was represented chiefly as a place to exchange goods for furs.</p><br>
<p>In 1726, a two story "Maison a Machicoulis" or "Machicolated House" was constructed on the same site by French engineer Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry.</p><br>
<p>The fort was expanded to its present size in 1755 due to increased tensions between French and British colonial interests.</p><br>
<p>The name used today, "The French Castle" was not used until the 19th Century.</p><br>
<h2>British control</h2><br>
<p>The fort played a significant part in the French and Indian War, and fell to the British in a nineteen-day siege in July 1759, called the Battle of Fort Niagara. The French relief force sent for the besieged garrison was ambushed at the Battle of La Belle-Famille, and the commander of the post, Francois Pouchot, surrendered the fort to the British commander, Sir William Johnson, who initially led the New York Militia. The Irish-born Johnson was not the original commander of the expedition, but became its leader when General John Prideaux literally lost his head, stepping in front of a mortar being test-fired during the siege. The fort remained in British hands for the next thirty-seven years.</p><br>
<p>Fort Niagara served as the Loyalist base in New York during the American Revolutionary War for Colonel John Butler and his Butlers Rangers, a Tory militia in the command of the British Army. Lt. Col. William Stacy, a high-ranking officer of the Continental Army, was captured at the attack on Cherry Valley, New York by Butlers Rangers. He was held captive at Fort Niagara during the summer of 1779. Niagara became notorious for drinking, brawling, whoring, and cheating. Crude taverns, stores, and bordellos sprouted on "the Bottom", the riverside flat below the fort.</p><br>
<p>Though Fort Niagara was ceded to the United States after the Treaty of Paris ended the American War of Independence in 1783, the region remained effectively under British control for thirteen years. Only after signing of the Jay Treaty did American forces occupy the fort in 1796. In the interim, United Empire Loyalists fleeing persecution in the new USA were given land grants, typically 200 acre per inhabitant in Upper Canada, and some were sustained in the early years partly by aid from the military stores of the fort. During the War of 1812 the fort&#39;s guns sank the Provincial Marine schooner Seneca on 21 November 1812. British forces captured the fort on the night of 19 December 1813 in retaliation for the burning of Newark nine days earlier. The British held the fort for the remainder of the war until they relinquished it under the terms of the Treaty of Ghent. It has remained in US custody ever since.</p><br>
<p>Nine currently active battalions of the Regular Army (4-1 FA, 1-2 Inf, 2-2 Inf, 1-3 Inf, 2-3 Inf, 4-3 Inf, 1-4 Inf, 2-4 Inf and 3-4 Inf) are derived from American units (Leonards Company, 1st Regiment of Artillery, and the old 14th, 19th and 22nd Infantry Regiments) that were at Fort Niagara during the War of 1812. 52 (Niagara) Battery Royal Artillery (Holcrofts Company, 4th Battalion Royal Artillery), Royal Scots and a number of other British units that fought at the Capture of Fort Niagara still exist today. A number of other units that served in the Fort in the War of 1812 (such as 20 Battery Royal Artillery ( Caddy&#39;s Company, 4th Battalion Royal Artillery)) also endure.</p><br>
<h2>Later use</h2><br>
<p>The name "Old Fort Niagara" which is associated with the fort today does not refer to its age but to distinguish the colonial-era fortress from its more modern namesake. The post-Civil War era saw the building of "New Fort Niagara" outside the original walls of the fort. Following the Civil War, the military abandoned the use of masonry forts (masonry fared poorly under bombardment), for the style of military camp we now know. The newer Fort Niagara contained a thousand-yard rifle range, access to rail lines, and access to the industrial areas of Niagara Falls and Buffalo. Fort Niagara trained troops for the Spanish–American War and World War I, and during World War II served as an induction center and later a POW camp for 1,200 German soldiers captured in North Africa. After WW II, the fort provided temporary housing for returning veterans.</p><br>
<p>During the Korean War, the fort was a headquarters for anti-aircraft artillery and later Nike missiles. The Niagara Falls Defense Area originally formed the northern half of the USA Army Anti-Aircraft Command defences in western New York State. After the amalgamation of the Niagara Falls and Buffalo Defense Areas, the Army Air Defense Command Post moved to Lockport Air Force Station. Formations directing the defence included the 2nd Artillery Group (Air Defense), which had its headquarters at Fort Niagara from March 1958 to December 1961, superseded by the 31st Artillery Brigade (Air Defense), 101st Artillery Group, and 18th Artillery Group. The only battalion in the region appears to have been the 44th Anti-Aircraft Missile Battalion, superseded by the 1st Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, on 1 September 1958. The USA Army officially deactivated Fort Niagara in 1963, and the 1/4 ADA moved to the Seattle Defense Area where it was active from September 1972 to April 1974. Military presence on the site continues with the United States Coast Guard still operating at "The Bottoms", making Fort Niagara one of the longest continuously run military bases in the United States, 1726–present day.</p><br>
<p>In 1931, after nine years of lobbying by local citizens for repairs and preservation, a formal operating license between Old Fort Niagara Association and the USA War Department established rights to preserve and operate the fort. In 1949, Congress transferred Father Millet Cross National Monument (a small memorial at Fort Niagara) to the State of New York. In 1960 the fort was among the first sites designated as National Historic Landmarks.</p><br>
<h2>Today</h2><br>
<p>Fort Niagara has been renovated and now serves as Fort Niagara State park and museum. The restored fort is the scene of frequent historical reenactments of 18th century battles that took place on the site, as well as period dances, fundraisers and other special events (such as public displays, reenactments and other shows relating to the history of the fort and the surrounding area). Fort Niagara is a State Historic Site known as Old Fort Niagara State Historic Site.</p><br>
<p>Fort Niagara was designated a National Historic Landmark on October 9, 1960 as "Old Fort Niagara"</p><br>
<h2>Hauntings</h2><br>
<p>There are people who believe the site to be haunted by a headless French soldier who was beheaded during a duel. It is said he wanders the grounds still looking for his head. These paranormal claims were investigated by Everday Paranormal on their Discovery Channel show Ghost Lab, which aired on October 21, 2010. Also TAPS investigated the site on their Syfy series Ghost Hunters during their sixth season on October 5, 2011.</p><br>
<p>Dura-Europos , also spelled Dura-Europus, was a Hellenistic, Parthian and Roman border city built on an escarpment 90 m above the right bank of the Euphrates river. It is located near the village of Salhiyé, in today&#39;s Syria. In 113 BC, Parthians conquered the city, and held it, with one brief Roman intermission , until 165 AD. Under Parthian rule, it became an important provincial administrative center. The Romans decisively captured Dura-Europos in 165 AD and greatly enlarged it as their easternmost stronghold in Mesopotamia, until it was captured by Sassanians after a siege in 256-7 AD. Its population was deported, and after it was abandoned, it was covered by sand and mud and disappeared from sight.</p><br>
<p>Dura-Europos is extremely important for archaeological reasons. As it was abandoned after its conquest in 256-7 AD, nothing was built over it and no later building programs obscured the architectonic features of the ancient city. Its location on the edge of empires made for a co-mingling of cultural traditions, much of which was preserved under the city&#39;s ruins. Some remarkable finds have been brought to light, including numerous temples, wall decorations, inscriptions, military equipment, tombs, and even dramatic evidence of the Sassanian siege. After being severely looted by the Islamic State in the ongoing Syrian Civil War, it was demolished by ISIS.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Originally a fortress, it was founded in 303 BC with the name Dura by the Seleucids on the intersection of an east-west trade route and the trade route along the Euphrates. Dura controlled the river crossing on the route between his newly founded cities of Antioch and Seleucia on the Tigris. Its rebuilding as a great city built after the Hippodamian model, with rectangular blocks defined by cross-streets ranged round a large central agora, was formally laid out in the 2nd century BC. The traditional view of Dura-Europos as a great caravan city is becoming nuanced by the discoveries of locally made manufactures and traces of close ties with Palmyra (James). Instead, Dura Europos owed its development to its role as a regional capital.</p><br>
<p>In 113 BC, the Iranian Parthians conquered Dura-Europos, and held it, with one brief intermission, until 165 AD, when it was taken by the Romans. The Parthian period was a phase of expansion at Dura Europos—an expansion favored by abandonment of the town&#39;s military function. All the space enclosed by the walls gradually became occupied, and the installation of new inhabitants with Semitic and Iranian names alongside descendants of the original Macedonian colonists contributed to an increase in the population, which was a multicultural one, as inscriptions in Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Hatrian, Palmyrene, Middle Persian, Parthian, and Safaitic testify. In the 1st century BC, it served as a frontier fortress of the Parthian Empire.</p><br>
<p>The entirely original architecture of Dura Europos was perfected during the Parthian period. This period was characterized by a progressive evolution of Greek concepts toward new formulas in which regional traditions, particularly Babylonian ones, played an increasing role. These innovations affected both religious and domestic buildings. Although Iranian influence is difficult to find in the architecture of Dura Europos, in figurative art the influence of Parthian art is evident.</p><br>
<p>In 114 AD, the Emperor Trajan occupied the city for a couple of years: the Third Cyrenaica legion erected a "Triumphal Arch" to the west of the Gate of Palmyra. Upon the death of Trajan in 117, Rome relinquished Mesopotamia to the Parthians. Dura was retaken by the Roman army of Lucius Verus during the Roman–Parthian War of 161–166.</p><br>
<p>The townspeople however retained considerable freedom as a regional headquarters for the section of the river between the Khabur and modern Abu Kemal. As historian Ross Burns states, in exchange the city&#39;s military role was abandoned. Its population, originally based on the Greek settler element, were increasingly outnumbered by people of Semitic stock and by the first century BC, the city was predominantly eastern in character. The Romans called the city with the name Dura Europus, because the local aristocracy was made of Macedonians descendants (pinpointing so that the city was ruled by "Europeans" from Macedonia).</p><br>
<p>Romans used the city as a starting point for the conquest of the territories of Osroene and as outpost for expeditions against the Parthian empire and their Tigris capital in 198 AD. The city later was a border post of the Roman "Kingdom of Palmyra".</p><br>
<p>The military importance of the site was confirmed after 209 AD: the northern part of the site was occupied by a Roman camp, isolated by a brick wall; soldiers housed between the civilians, among others in the so-called "House of Scribes". Romans built the palace of the commander of the military region, on the edge of a cliff. The city then has several sanctuaries beside the temples dedicated to the Greek gods (Zeus and Artemis); there were shrines dedicated to Mithra, to Palmyrene gods and local deities (Aphlad, Azzanathkôna) dating from the 1st century AD.</p><br>
<p>In 211 AD the emperor Septimius Severus granted the title of "Colonia" to Dura Europos.</p><br>
<p>Later in 216 AD, a small amphitheater for soldiers was built in the military area, while the new synagogue, completed in 244 AD, and a house of Christians were embellished with frescos of important characters wearing Roman tunics, caftans and Parthian trousers. These splendid paintings that cover the walls testify to the richness of the Jewish and Christian community. The population of Dura Europos, at the rate of 450-650 houses grouped to eight per island, is estimated at about 5000 people per maximum.</p><br>
<p>Around 256 AD, the city was taken by the Sassanids led by Shapur I, who deported the entire surviving population after killing all the Roman defenders.</p><br>
<p>The good state of preservation of these buildings and their frescoes was due to their location, close to the main city wall facing west, and the military necessity to strengthen the wall. The Sassanid Persians had become adept at tunneling under such walls in order to undermine them and create breaches. As a countermeasure the Roman garrison decided to sacrifice the street and the buildings along the wall by filling them with rubble to bolster the wall in case of a Persian mining operation, so the Christian chapel, the synagogue, the Mithraeum and many other buildings were entombed. They also buttressed the walls from the outside with an earthen mound forming a glacis and sealed it with a casing of mud brick to prevent erosion.</p><br>
<p>There is no written record of the siege of Dura. However, the archaeologists uncovered quite striking evidence of the siege and how it progressed.</p><br>
<p>The buttressing of the walls would be tested in AD 256 when Shapur I besieged the city. True to the fears of the defenders, Shapur set his engineers to undermine what archaeologists called Tower 19, two towers north of the Palmyrene Gate. When the Romans became aware of the threat, they dug a countermine with the aim of meeting the Persian effort and attack them before they could finish their work. The Persians had already dug complex galleries along the wall by the time the Roman countermine reached them. They managed to fight off the Roman attack, and when the city defenders noticed the flight of soldiers from the countermine, it was quickly sealed. The wounded and stragglers were trapped inside, where they died. (It was the coins found with these Roman soldiers that dated the siege to AD 256.) The countermine was successful, for the Persians abandoned their operations at Tower 19.</p><br>
<p>Next, the Sassanids attacked Tower 14, the southernmost along the western wall. It overlooked a deep ravine to the south and it was from that direction that it was attacked. This time the mining operation was successful in that it caused the tower and adjacent walls to subside. However the Roman countermeasure which bolstered the wall prevented it from collapsing.</p><br>
<p>This brought a third approach to entering the city. A ramp was raised again attacking Tower 14, but, as it was being built and the garrison fought to stop the progress of the ramp, another mine was started near the ramp. Its scope was not to cause a collapse of the wall — the buttress had been successful — but to pass under it and penetrate the city. This tunnel was built to allow the Persians four abreast to move through it. It eventually entered the city and pierced the inner embankment and, when the ramp was completed, Dura&#39;s end had come. As Persian troops charged up the ramp, their counterparts in the tunnel would have invaded the city with little opposition, as nearly all the defenders would have been on the wall attempting to repel the attack from the ramp. The few city survivors would have been marched off to Ctesiphon and there sold as slaves. The city was eventually abandoned.</p><br>
<p>In January 2009, researchers claimed they had found evidence that the Persian Empire used poisonous gases at Dura against the Roman defenders during the siege. Excavations at Dura have discovered the remains of 19 Roman and 1 Persian soldiers at the base of the city walls. An archaeologist at the University of Leicester suggested that bitumen and sulphur crystals were ignited to create poisonous gas, which was then funnelled through the tunnel with the use of underground chimneys and bellows. The Roman soldiers had been constructing a countermine, and Sassanian forces are believed to have released the gas when their mine was breached by the Roman countermine. The lone Persian soldier discovered among the bodies is believed to be the individual responsible for releasing the gas before the fumes overcame him as well.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeology</h2><br>
<p>The existence of Dura-Europos was long known through literary sources. It was rediscovered by the American "Wolfe Expedition" in 1885, when the Palmyrene Gate was photographed by John Henry Haynes.</p><br>
<p>British troops under Capt. Murphy in the aftermath of World War I and the Arab Revolt also explored the ruins. On March 30, 1920, a soldier digging a trench uncovered brilliantly fresh wall-paintings. The American archeologist James Henry Breasted, then at Baghdad, was alerted. Major excavations were carried out in the 1920s and 1930s by French and American teams. The first archaeology on the site, undertaken by Franz Cumont and published in 1922-23, identified the site with Dura-Europos, and uncovered a temple, before renewed hostilities in the area closed it to archaeology. Later, renewed campaigns directed by Michael Rostovtzeff continued until 1937, when funds ran out with only part of the excavations published. World War II intervened. Since 1986 excavations have resumed in a joint Franco-Syrian effort under the direction of Pierre Leriche.</p><br>
<p>Not the least of the finds were astonishingly well-preserved arms and armour belonging to the Roman garrison at the time of the final Sassanian siege of 256 AD. Finds included painted wooden shields and complete horse armour, preserved by the very finality of the destruction of the city that journalists have called "the Pompeii of the desert". Finds from Dura-Europos are on display in the Deir ez-Zor Museum and the Yale University Art Gallery.</p><br>
<h3>Culture</h3><br>
<p>Dura-Europos was a cosmopolitan society, controlled by a tolerant Macedonian aristocracy descended from the original settlers. In the course of its excavation, over a hundred parchment and papyrus fragments and many inscriptions have revealed texts in Greek and Latin (the latter including a sator square), Palmyrene, Hebrew, Hatrian, Safaitic, and Pahlavi. The excavations revealed temples to Greek, Roman and Palmyrene gods. There was a Mithraeum, as one would expect in a Roman military city.</p><br>
<h3>The synagogue</h3><br>
<p>The Jewish synagogue, located by the western wall between towers 18 and 19, the last phase of which was dated by an Aramaic inscription to 244. It is the best preserved of the many ancient synagogues of that era that have been uncovered by archaeologists. It was well preserved due to having been infilled with earth to strengthen the city&#39;s fortifications against a Sassanian assault in 256. It was uncovered in 1932 by Clark Hopkins, who found that it contains a forecourt and house of assembly with frescoed walls depicting people and animals, and a Torah shrine in the western wall facing Jerusalem. At first, it was mistaken for a Greek temple.</p><br>
<p>The synagogue paintings, the earliest continuous surviving biblical narrative cycle, are conserved at Damascus, together with the complete Roman horse-armour.</p><br>
<h3>The house church</h3><br>
<p>There was also identified the Dura-Europos church, the earliest Christian house church, located by the 17th tower and preserved by the same defensive fill that saved the synagogue. "Their evidently open and tolerated presence in the middle of a major Roman garrison town reveals that the history of the early Church was not simply a story of pagan persecution".</p><br>
<p>The building consists of a house conjoined to a separate hall-like room, which functioned as the meeting room for the church. The surviving frescoes of the baptistry room are probably the most ancient Christian paintings. We can see the "Good Shepherd" (this iconography had a very long history in the Classical world), the "Healing of the paralytic" and "Christ and Peter walking on the water". These are the earliest depictions of Jesus Christ ever found and date back to 235 AD.</p><br>
<p>A much larger fresco depicts two women (and a third, mostly lost) approaching a large sarcophagus, i.e. probably the three Marys visiting Christ&#39;s tomb. There were also frescoes of Adam and Eve as well as David and Goliath. The frescoes clearly followed the Hellenistic Jewish iconographic tradition but they are more crudely done than the paintings of the nearby synagogue.</p><br>
<p>Fragments of parchment scrolls with Hebrew texts have also been unearthed; they resisted meaningful translation until J.L. Teicher pointed out that they were Christian Eucharistic prayers, so closely connected with the prayers in Didache that he was able to fill lacunae in the light of the Didache text.</p><br>
<p>In 1933, among fragments of text recovered from the town dump outside the Palmyrene Gate, a fragmentary text was unearthed from an unknown Greek harmony of the gospel accounts — comparable to Tatian&#39;s Diatessaron, but independent of it.</p><br>
<h3>The Mithraeum</h3><br>
<p>Also partially preserved by the defensive embankment was the Mithraeum (CIMRM 34-70), located between towers 23 and 24. It was unearthed in January 1934 after years of expectation as to whether Dura would reveal traces of the Roman Mithras cult. The earliest archaeological traces found within the temple are from between AD 168 and 171, which coincides with the arrival of Lucius Verus and his troops. At this stage it was still a room in a private home. It was extended and renovated between 209 and 211, and most of the frescoes are from this period. The tabula ansata of 210 offers salutation to Septimus Severus, Caracalla and Geta. The construction was managed by a centurio principe praepositus of the legio IIII Scythicae et XVI Flaviae firmae (CIMRM 53), and it seems that construction was done by imperial troops. The mithraeum was enlarged again in 240, but in 256—with war with Sassanians looming—the sanctuary was filled in and became part of the strengthened fortifications. Following excavations, the temple was transported in pieces to New Haven, Connecticut, where it was rebuilt (and is now on display) at the Yale University Art Gallery.</p><br>
<p>The surviving frescoes, graffiti and dipinti (which number in the dozens) are of enormous interest to the study of the social composition of the cult. The statuary and altars were found intact, as also the typical relief of Mithras slaying the bull, with the hero-god dressed as usual in "oriental" costume ("trousers, boots, and pointed cap"). As is typical for mithraea in the Roman provinces in the Greek East, the inscriptions and graffiti are mostly in Greek, with the rest in Palmyrene (and some Hellenized Hebrew). The end of the sanctuary features an arch with a seated figure on each of the two supporting columns. Inside and following the form of the arch is a series of depictions of the zodiac. Within the framework of the now-obsolete theory that the Roman cult was "a Roman form of Mazdaism" ("la forme romaine du mazdeisme"), Cumont supposed that the two Dura friezes represented the two primary figures of his Les Mages hellénisés, i.e. "Zoroaster" and "Ostanes". This reading has not found a footing; "the two figures are Palmyrene in all their characteristic traits" and are more probably portraits of leading members of that mithraeum&#39;s congregation of Syrian auxiliaries.</p><br>
<h2>International prize and UNESCO recognition</h2><br>
<p>The Jury of the International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens has unanimously decided that the twenty-first of these annual awards (2010) will go to Dura Europos. In 1999 Dura Europos has been included in the possible "Tentative List" of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Successively in 2011 has been included again, in the possible nominated list, with the nearby ancient city of Mari.</p><br>
<h2>Current situation</h2><br>
<p>According to satellite imagery, more than 70% of Dura-Europos was destroyed by looters during the Syrian Civil War.</p><br>
<p>National Geographic reports further looting on a massive scale by the terrorist group ISIS in order to fund their aggressive devastation on the region.</p><br>
<h2>Popular culture</h2><br>
<p>Fire in the East, the first book in the Warrior of Rome series by the Oxford scholar Dr. Harry Sidebottom, is centered around a detailed description of the Sassanid siege of Dura-Europos in 256 AD, based on the archeological finds in the site, albeit the city name has been changed to "Arete"</p><br>
<p>Mount Elbert is the highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America and the highest point in the USA state of Colorado and the entire Mississippi River drainage basin. The ultra-prominent 4,401.2 m fourteener is the highest peak in the Sawatch Range and the second-highest summit in the contiguous United States after Mount Whitney. Mount Elbert is located in San Isabel National Forest, 19.4 km southwest  of the City of Leadville in Lake County, Colorado.</p><br>
<p>The mountain was named in honor of Colorado statesman Samuel Hitt Elbert, who was active in the formative period of the state and Governor of the Territory of Colorado from 1873 to 1874. Henry W. Stuckle of the Hayden Survey was the first to record an ascent of the peak, in 1874. The easiest and most popular climbing routes are categorized as Class 1 to 2 or A+ in mountaineering parlance. Mount Elbert is therefore often referred to as the "gentle giant" that tops all others in the Rocky Mountains.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Mount Elbert is visible to the southwest of Leadville, often snow-capped even in the summer. Many other fourteeners surround Elbert in all directions, and it is very close to central Colorados Collegiate Peaks. The neighboring Mount Massive, to the north, is the second-highest peak in the Rocky Mountains and the third-highest in the contiguous United States, and La Plata Peak, to the south, is the fifth-highest in the Rockies. The community of Twin Lakes lies at the base of Mount Elbert, Denver is about 130 mi to the east, Vail is 50 mi to the north, and Aspen is 40 mi to the west. Leadville, about 16 mi to the northeast, is the nearest large town. Elberts parent peak is Mount Whitney in California. Including Alaska and Hawaii, Mount Elbert is the fourteenth-highest mountain in the United States.</p><br>
<p>Weather conditions often change rapidly, and afternoon thunderstorms are common in the summertime; hailstorms and snow are possible year-round. An electrical storm on the mountain&#39;s summit was considered remarkable enough to be reported in the July 1894 issue of Science.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Mount Elbert is part of the Sawatch Range, an uplift of the Laramide Orogeny which separated from the Mosquito Range to the east around 28 million years ago. The tops of this range were heavily glaciated, leaving behind characteristic summit features and other such clues. For example, the base of Elbert on the eastern side exhibits large igneous and metamorphic rocks deposited when the glaciers receded, which lie on a lateral moraine. Further up the eastern side there is a large cirque with a small tarn. There are also lakes to both the north and south, Turquoise and Twin Lakes respectively; the Twin Lakes are a result of the natural dam of end moraines, and Turquoise Lake was created by the manmade Sugar Loaf Dam.</p><br>
<p>Mount Elbert is composed largely of quartzite. However, the summit ridge consists of metamorphic basement rock, which is Pre-Cambrian in origin and about 1.7 billion years old. There are various igneous intrusions including pegmatite, as well as bands of gneiss and schist. Unlike mountains of similar altitude elsewhere, Elbert lacks both a permanent snowpack and a prominent north-facing cirque, which can be attributed to its position among other mountains of similar height, causing it to receive relatively small quantities of precipitation.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Mount Elbert was named by miners in honor of Samuel Hitt Elbert, the governor of the then-Territory of Colorado, because he brokered a treaty in September 1873 with the Ute tribe that opened up more than 3,000,000 acre of reservation land to mining and railroad activity. The first recorded ascent of the peak was by H.W. Stuckle in 1874, who was surveying the mountain as part of the Hayden Survey.</p><br>
<p>Originally measured as 14,433 ft in height, Mount Elbert&#39;s elevation was later adjusted to 14,440 ft following a re-evaluation of mapped elevations, which sparked protests. The actual change was made in 1988 as a result of the North American Vertical Datum of 1988; it seems the original measurement resulted from the Sea Level Datum of 1929. A matter of some contention arose after the Great Depression over the heights of Elbert and its neighbor, Mount Massive, which differ in elevation by only 12 ft. This led to an ongoing dispute that came to a head with the Mount Massive supporters building large piles of stones on the summit to boost its height, only to have the Mount Elbert proponents demolish them. The effort was ultimately unsuccessful and Mount Elbert has remained the highest peak in Colorado. The first motorized ascent of Elbert occurred in 1949, when a Jeep was driven to the summit, apparently to judge suitability for skiing development.</p><br>
<h2>Flora and fauna</h2><br>
<p>The summit of Mount Elbert is an alpine environment, featuring plants such as Phacelia sericea (sky-pilot), Hymenoxys grandiflora (old-man-of-the-mountain), and Geum rossii (alpine avens). Also noted are Carex atrata var. pullata, Salix desertorum, Platanthera hyperborea, Thalictrum fendleri, Aquilegia canadensis, Chenopodium album, Gentiana detonsa var. hallii, and Bigelovia parryi. Below treeline the mountain is heavily forested, with the lower slopes covered with a mixture of lodgepole pine, spruce, aspen and fir.</p><br>
<p>Some of the fauna reported on the climb to the summit include black bears, marmots, mule deer, pikas, and pocket gophers; there are also many species of birds. Elk, grouse, turkey and bighorn sheep are present in the area during the summer.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing</h2><br>
<p>There are three main routes which ascend the mountain, all of which gain over 4,100 ft of elevation. The standard route ascends the peak from the east, starting from the Colorado Trail just north of Twin Lakes. The 4.6 mi long North (Main) Elbert Trail begins close to the Elbert Creek Campground, and gains about 4,500 ft. The trail is open to equestrians, mountain bikers and hunters during season. An easier, but longer route, the South Elbert Trail, is 5.5 mi long, climbing 4,600 ft at a less-punishing gradient than the North Elbert Trail, approaching from the south and then climbing the eastern ridge.</p><br>
<p>The most difficult of the main routes is the Black Cloud Trail, a Class 2 climb that takes ten to fourteen hours depending on pace, gains 5,300 ft in elevation, and also involves an ascent of the sub-peak, South Elbert, at 14,134 ft. Even healthy and experienced climbers report great difficulty on this route, and despite the fact that there is a trail, the route is extremely steep, unstable, and rocky in places. The elevation gain is not evenly distributed over the 5.5-mile ascent. There are also routes approaching from the western face, and southwestern ridge, from South Halfmoon Creek Trailhead and Echo Canyon Trailhead respectively.</p><br>
<p>Although strenuous and requiring physical fitness, none of the conventional routes require specialist mountaineering skills or technical rock climbing. The main dangers of the mountain are those common to all high mountains, particularly altitude sickness. This can affect anyone, even those who are acclimatized. In serious cases, it can lead to high-altitude pulmonary edema and cerebral edema, which can lead to difficulties with breathing, paralysis, and death. Climbers are advised to begin their ascent at or before 6 a.m. and to summit and descend before early afternoon to minimize exposure to possible afternoon thunderstorms while at high altitudes. Although the most conventional form of ascent is by hiking, Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, the orator, ascended the mountain on a mule borrowed from the USA government.</p><br>
<p>The Balkan mountain range  is a mountain range in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The Balkan range runs 560 km from the Vrashka Chuka Peak on the border between Bulgaria and Serbia eastward through central Bulgaria to Cape Emine on the Black Sea. The highest peaks of the Balkan Mountains are in central Bulgaria. The highest peak is Botev at 2,376 m, which makes the mountain range the third highest in the country, after Rila and Pirin. The mountains are the source of the name of the Balkan Peninsula.</p><br>
<p>The mountain range forms the watershed between the Black Sea and Aegean Sea catchment areas, with the exception of an area in west, where it is crossed by the spectacular Iskar Gorge. The karst relief determines the large number of caves, including Magura, featuring the most important and extended European post-Palaeolithic cave painting, Ledenika, Saeva dupka, Bacho Kiro, etc. The most notable rock formation are the Belogradchik Rocks in the west.</p><br>
<p>There are several important protected areas: Central Balkan National Park, Vrachanski Balkan Nature Park, Bulgarka Nature Park and Sinite Kamani Nature Park, as well as a number of nature reserves. The Balkan Mountains are remarkable for their flora and fauna. Edelweiss grows there in the region of Kozyata stena. Some of the most striking landscapes are included in the Central Balkan National Park with steep cliffs, the highest waterfalls in the Balkan Peninsula and lush vegetation. There are a number of important nature reserves such as Chuprene, Kozyata stena and others. Most of Europe&#39;s large mammals inhabit the area including the brown bear, wolf, boar, chamois and deer.</p><br>
<p>The Balkan Mountains played an enormous role in the history of Bulgaria since its foundation in 681 AD, and in the development of the Bulgarian nation and people.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>It is believed the name was brought to the region in the 7th century by Bulgars who applied it to the area, as a part of the First Bulgarian Empire. In Bulgarian, the word balkan (балкан) means "mountain". It may have derived from the Persian bālkāneh or bālākhāna, meaning "high, above, or proud house." The name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary (Balkan Mountains) and the Balkan Province of Turkmenistan. In Turkish balkan means "a chain of wooded mountains"</p><br>
<p>In Antiquity and the Middle Ages the mountains were known by their Thracian name: the Haemus Mons. Scholars consider that the name Haemus (Αἷμος) is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, mountain ridge. The name of the place where the range meets the Black Sea, Cape Emine, is derived from Aemon. A folk etymology holds that Haemus derives from the Greek word "haema" (αἵμα) meaning blood, and is based on Greek mythology. During a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon, Zeus injured Typhon with thunder; and Typhon&#39;s blood fell on the mountains, which were then named for this battle.</p><br>
<p>Other names used to refer to the mountains in different time periods include Aemon, Haemimons, Hem, Emus, the Slavonic Matorni gori and the Turkish Kodzhabalkan.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Geologically, the Balkan Mountains are a "young" part of the Alp-Himalayan chain that stretches across most of Europe and Asia. It can be divided into two parts: the main Balkan Chain and the Pre-Balkans (Fore-Balkan) to the north, which intrude slightly into the Danubian Plain. To the south, the mountains border the Sub-Balkan valleys - a row of 11 valleys running from the Bulgarian border with Serbia east to the Black Sea, separating the Balkan mountains from a chain of other mountains known as Srednogorie which includes Vitosha and Sredna Gora.</p><br>
<p>The range consists of around 30 distinct mountains. Within Bulgaria the Balkan Mountains can be divided into three sections:</p><br>
<p>The Western Balkan Mountains extend from Vrashka Chuka at the border with Serbia to the Pass of Arabakonak with a total length of 190 km. The highest peak is Midžor at 2,169 m.</p><br>
<p>The Central Balkan Mountains run from Arabakonak to the Vratnik Pass with a length of 207 km. Botev Peak, the highest mountain in the Balkan range at 2,376 m, is located in this section.</p><br>
<p>The Eastern Balkan Mountains extend from the Vratnik Pass to Cape Emine with a length of 160 km. The highest peak is Balgarka at 1,181 m. The eastern Balkan Mountains form the lowest part of the range.</p><br>
<h3>Hydrology</h3><br>
<p>The Balkan Mountains form a water divide between the rivers flowing to the Danube in the north and those flowing to the Aegean Sea in the south. However, they are crossed by Bulgaria&#39;s widest river, the Iskar, which forms the spectacular Iskar Gorge. Rivers that take their source from the Balkan Mountains and flow northwards to the Danube include the Timok, Archar, Lom, Tsibritsa, Ogosta, Skat, Vit, Osam, Yantra, and Rusenski Lom. The mountains are also the source of the Kamchiya, which flows directly into the Black Sea. Although not so abundant in mineral waters as other parts of Bulgaria, there are several spas such as Varshets, Shipkovo and Voneshta Voda.</p><br>
<p>There are a number of waterfalls, especially in the western and central parts of the range, such as Raysko Praskalo which is the highest waterfall in the Balkan Peninsula, Borov Kamak, Babsko Praskalo, Etropole Waterfall, Karlovsko Praskalo, Skaklya and others. Developments in the recent two decades completely changed the geography of Serbia, when it comes to waterfalls. Area of the Stara Planina has always been sparsely populated and inaccessible because of the rugged and forested terrain, but also as a location of the Serbian-Bulgarian border. As armies relinquished the borders keeping to the police, civilians were allowed to explore the area. As a result, higher and higher waterfalls have been discovered on the Serbian side of the Stara Planina since then: Čungulj in 1996 - 43 m; Pilj in 2002 - 64 m; Kaluđerski Skokovi in 2012 - 232 m.</p><br>
<h3>Passes</h3><br>
<p>The mountains are crossed by 20 passes and two gorges. There are paved roads crossing the Balkan Mountains at the following passes (listed from west to east):</p><br>
<p>Petrohan Pass: Sofia - Montana</p><br>
<p>Iskar Gorge (Iskarski prolom): Sofia - Vratsa (also railroad)</p><br>
<p>Vitinya Pass: Hemus motorway (A2), Sofia - Botevgrad</p><br>
<p>Beklemeto Pass: Troyan - Sopot</p><br>
<p>Shipka Pass: Gabrovo - Kazanlak (also railroad)</p><br>
<p>Pass of the Republic (Prohod na republikata): Veliko Tarnovo - Gurkovo</p><br>
<p>Vratnik Pass: Elena - Sliven</p><br>
<p>Kotel Pass (Kotlenski prohod): Kotel - Petolachka (Pentagram) crossroads</p><br>
<p>Varbitsa Pass (Varbishki prohod): Shumen - Petolachka crossroads</p><br>
<p>Rish Pass (Rishki prohod): Shumen - Karnobat</p><br>
<p>Luda Kamchiya Gorge (Ludokamchiyski prolom): Provadiya - Karnobat (also railroad)</p><br>
<p>Aytos Pass (Aytoski prohod) - Provadiya - Aytos</p><br>
<p>Dyulino Pass (Dyulinski prohod): Varna - Aytos</p><br>
<p>Obzor Pass (Obzorski prohod): Varna - Burgas, future Cherno More motorway (A3)</p><br>
<h3>Peaks</h3><br>
<p>Botev Peak 2,376 m, named after Hristo Botev.</p><br>
<p>Vezhen Peak 2,198 m</p><br>
<p>Midžor 2,169 m, the highest peak in Serbia outside of Kosovo and north-western Bulgaria, 12th in the Balkan Mountains.</p><br>
<p>Kom Peak 2,016 m</p><br>
<p>Todorini Kukli 1,785 m</p><br>
<p>Murgash 1,687 m</p><br>
<p>Shipka Peak 1,523 m</p><br>
<p>Buzludzha 1,441 m</p><br>
<p>Balgarka Peak 1,181 m</p><br>
<p>Levski Peak (named after Vasil Levski)</p><br>
<p>Vetren 1,330 m</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Balkan Mountains have had a significant and special place in the history of Bulgaria since its founding in 681. It was a natural fortress of the Bulgarian Empire for centuries and formed an effective barrier to Moesia where most of the medieval capitals were located. The Balkan mountains were the site of numerous battles between the Bulgarian and Byzantine Empires including the Battle of the Rishki Pass (759), Battle of the Varbitsa Pass (811), and the Battle of Tryavna (1190). In the battle of the Varbitsa Pass, Khan Krum decisively defeated an enormous Byzantine army, killing Emperor Nikephoros I. For many centuries the Byzantines feared these mountains, and on several occasions Byzantine armies pulled back on approaching the Balkan Mountains.</p><br>
<p>During the Ottoman rule, many haiduks found refuge in the Balkan Mountains. Close to the highest summit, Botev Peak, is Kalofer, the birthplace of Hristo Botev, a Bulgarian poet and national hero who died in the western Balkan Mountains near Vratsa in 1876 in the struggle against the Ottoman Empire. Also close to Botev Peak is Shipka Pass, the scene of the four battles in the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78, which ended Turkish rule in the Balkans. Close to the pass in the village of Shipka, there is a Russian Orthodox church built to commemorate Russian and Bulgarian bravery during pass defense.</p><br>
<h2>Protection</h2><br>
<h3>Bulgaria</h3><br>
<h3>Serbia</h3><br>
<p>First group of trees was protected in 1966, followed by the creation of 7 special nature reserves and 3 natural monuments in the 1980s. Nature park Stara Planina was established in 1997 and since 2009 is in its present borders, covering an area of 1,143.22 km&sup2;.</p><br>
<p>Limestone terrain is known for the short losing streams and tufaceous waterfalls. There are canyons and gorges, like those of the Toplodolska reka and Rosomačka reka rivers. Underground waters on the mountain reach the surface in the forms of common springs, well-springs (vrelo) and difused springs (pištevina). There are some 500 springs with the flow of over 0.1 liter/second. The strongest spring is the intermittent Jelovičko vrelo, known for its fluctuations, characterized by the bubbling and foaming.</p><br>
<p>Montane ecosystems are diverse and include several plant communities: forests, shrubs, meadows, pastures and peatlands. There are six different vegetation zone in the park. Oak, beech, spruce, subalpine zone of the shrub vegetation of common horsetail, blueberry, subalpine spruce and mugo pine. Other plants include shrub alder, steppe pedunculate oak, but also rare and endangered species like European pasqueflower, yellow pheasants eye, Kosovo peony, common sundew, Heldreichs maple, martagon lily, pygmy iris and marsh orchid.</p><br>
<p>The area is a salmonid region, inhabited by the riverine brown trout. Another 25 species of fish live in the rivers and streams, so as the fire salamander and newts. There are 203 species of birds, of which 154 are nesting in the park, 10 are wintering, 30 are passing and 13 are wandering. Important species include golden eagle, Ural owl and hawk. As the park is the most important habitat in Serbia for long-legged buzzard, Eurasian woodcock and an endemic Balkan horned lark, an area of 440 km&sup2; was declared a European Important Bird Area. The griffon vulture disappeared from the region in the late 1940s. In 2017 a program for their reintroduction began within the scope of a wider European program. Among other things, the feeders will be placed along the vultures&#39; migratory route. Over 30 mammalian species are found in the park, including lesser mole-rat, hazel dormouse and the Tertiary relict, European snow vole.</p><br>
<p>Human heritage spans from the prehistoric remains, Classical antiquity including the Roman period and late mediaeval monastic complexes. Some of those older monuments are fragmentary and relocated from their original locations. There are numerous examples of the ethnic edifices characteristic for the architecture of the region in the late 19th and early 20th century (houses, barns, etc.)</p><br>
<p>Malia  is a coastal town and a former municipality in the northeast corner of the Heraklion regional unit in Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Hersonissos, of which it is a municipal unit. It lies 34 km east of Heraklion, the Cretan capital city. The town  was the seat of the municipality of Mália . The municipal unit also includes the villages of Mochos  , Krasi  , and Stalida  , and has a total land area of 60.720 km². The town is a tourist attraction, primarily for its significant archaeological site and nightlife. The Minoan town ruins lie three km east of the site and cover an area of approximately 1 km². The original name for the town is not known.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The palace of Malia, dating from the Middle Bronze Age, was destroyed by an earthquake during the Late Bronze Age; Knossos and other sites were also destroyed at that time. The palace was later rebuilt toward the end of the Late Bronze Age. Most of the ruins visible today date from this second period of construction. The palace features a giant central courtyard, 48m x 23m in size. On the south side are two sets of steps leading upwards and a maze of tiny rooms. Also here is a strange carved stone called a kernos stone, which looks like a millstone with a cup attached to the side of it. On the north side of the courtyard were storage rooms with giant earthenware pithos jars, up to two metres tall. These were used for holding grain, olive oil and other liquids; the floor of these rooms has a complex drainage system for carrying away spilled liquids.</p><br>
<p>The palace of Malia was discovered in 1915 by Joseph Hadzidakis, a Greek archaeologist. It was fully excavated from 1922 onwards by the French School at Athens in collaboration with Greek scholars. In 1921 the French School of Athens was invited to continue its work, where under the direction of Jean Charbonneaux 1930 Central Court was exposed.</p><br>
<p>After the First World War, the excavations were continued under the direction of Fernand Chapouthier and Pierre Demargne and they uncovered the palace, and dug the surrounding residential neighborhood. Only after the 2nd World War in the 50s Micheline and Henri van Effenterre made the excavations at the "Crypt" and "Agora", Andre Dessene and Olivier Pelon on Quartier E, and Jean-Claude PourSat (from 1965) on important "Quartier Mu ". 1981, Pascal and Claude Darcque Bourrain further investigated the NO corner of the palace. The soundings in the years 1981 and 1982, conducted by Olivier Pelon have brought new insights into the precursors of the palace. Since 1988, the excavations of Alexandre Farnoux and Jan Driessen have been continued.</p><br>
<p>The Palace of Malia has a floor area of 7,500 m2 and is oriented as all Minoan palaces to NS. With regard to design and equipment, it is smaller and more modest (rustic) compared to Knossos and Phaestos.</p><br>
<p>Several features stand out but immediately catches the eye, which distinguishes the "Palace of Malia" from all the others and identifies it: the 8 kouloures or silos in the SW corner, the oblique building in the north court and the altar in the Central Court.</p><br>
<p>Around this Central Court the district or ensembles are arranged, whose communication was made possible through corridors and routes.</p><br>
<p>Each of these quarters has been assigned a specific function, but each of these chamber ensembles should be considered on its own, before it is placed in the overall plan.</p><br>
<p>Olivier Pelon differentiated 4 functional areas: representative, residential, cultic-religious and economic (Magazine)</p><br>
<p>From the Central Court, the rooms were centrifugally arranged. Thereby the typical projections and recesses of the Minoan Palace façades arise.</p><br>
<p>The façade was given a different meaning:</p><br>
<p>(&gt;) Undoubtedly, the west façade is the most important in Malia.</p><br>
<p>In the center, it consists of carefully hewn cuboid blocks of sandstone, which are built on a base along the entire width. (Ashlar masonry) At edges with limestone blocks. They represent more than anything else the typical characteristics of Minoan façades, a series of pre- and recessed walls.</p><br>
<p>(&gt;) The west façade is preceded by a large courtyard, the West Court. (100 m long and 20 m wide). Pelon constitutes a transition zone of settlement and palace, between civil and political, between the profane and the religious areas. Originally, the whole West Court was created as Kalderim, moreover, it is traversed by 1.05 m wide limestone plates</p><br>
<p>This way, the "raised walks" are often used as processional paths, dubbed, but generally seem to lead to the main points of the building.</p><br>
<p>The West Court is bounded on the north and south of interesting complexes:</p><br>
<p>in the north by the much discussed ensemble, "Hypostyle Crypt" an escape to space, which is connected underground with a number of magazine spaces whose floors are stuccoed, provided with gutter and sump. The excavator Henri van Effenterre supposed therein a gathering of 2 councils, the elderly and the young, who reigned over the city at the time of the first palaces.</p><br>
<p>In the south, large storage rooms were partially exposed that were not architecturally connected to the palace, but apparently had a close relationship in the Protopalatial time. Some of these rooms still contain numerous Pithoi.</p><br>
<p>→1) Date:</p><br>
<p>By soundings following dating has revealed:</p><br>
<p>1. There is a core of EMIII-MMIA (mid 3rd millennium/ 2300-1900 BC), i.e. there is a period prepalatiale taken along the west façade (Quarter I) but also in the north of the Central Court (Quartier IX)</p><br>
<p>2. The construction of the first palace building in the Old Palaces MMIB-MMII (1900-1700) has an area of analog New Palaces Period.</p><br>
<p>3. In the New Palace Period there is a succession of two major phases (in MMIII and LMIA 1700-1450 BC.</p><br>
<p>The first palace was in MMIB - MMII ca. 1900 BC built, which was probably destroyed by an earthquake in 1700 BC.</p><br>
<p>During this time, will find an urban center with settlements, the palace, villas, workshops and cemeteries. From this stage - by the soundings lately - is in the palace, unfortunately, very little visible (Schedule I)</p><br>
<p>But the northwest surrounding the palace building complexes as "Hypostyle Crypt", "Agora" and the "Quartier Mu" demonstrate the "political center" at this time.</p><br>
<p>The New Palace, whose ruins are still visible today, was built in MMIII about 1650 BC. And at about 1450 BC in LMIA, finally destroyed as Phaestos, Zakros. Most likely, the volcanic eruption of Thera is to be regarded as the cause or the subsequent earthquake or a parallel invasion of Mycenaeans from mainland.</p><br>
<p>Importantly, the palace was surrounded by a Minoan town which has only recently been uncovered. Excavation is ongoing. Important parts of the old and new excavations are covered by a series of large semi-transparent roofs, which protect them from the elements. In places tourists are allowed to wander among the ruins; in others, walkways allow passage above. There are rooms which have been identified as metal workshops, ceramic workshops and meeting rooms; there is also a large residential dwelling with en-suite bath, which is similar to a design at Phaistos, both taking advantage of expansive views.</p><br>
<h2>Malia the Resort</h2><br>
<p>Modern day Malia is a holiday resort, tourism and commerce are the main economic activities in the town, with plenty of hotels, restaurants, gift shops, bars and nightclubs. Malia has become one of the most popular tourist locations of Crete, and one of the most popular in Europe, rivalling Ibiza and Magaluf. It is mainly visited by young people from the United Kingdom and Northern Europe. The prominence of Malia as one of the leading spots for nightlife in Europe is cemented by the attraction of big name DJs and events. The Main Strip is home to many bars, clubs, taverns and restaurants. This is supported by the many close by hotels and apartments in Malia and the immediate area.</p><br>
<p>Malia has a fine sandy beach which starts from the bottom of the strip and continues towards the East near to the Minoan palace of Malia.</p><br>
<p>In the past, Malia town was well known for its agricultural products and its windmills. Today it is known for its crystal clear waters and its sandy beaches as well as its Minoan Palace of king Sarpidon, one of the three greatest Minoan palaces of Crete. The town of Malia is a well-known tourist destination that combines tradition with modern. These two different aspects of the town are separated by the main road, south of it is the old town with the picturesque alleyways built based on the traditional way and south of it, the new part of the town, full of countless bars and clubs where every visitor will enjoy the nightlife. The visitor, wondering in the alleyways of the old town, will admire traditional buildings (newly renovated with the help of locals and sarpidonistas volunteers), churches (some of them is dated back at Venetian age) and can also visit the traditional taverns and restaurants. In the new part of the town, visitors during the day can shop, but also can enjoy the nightlife, either on one of the numerous cafes or at the restaurants with traditional cuisine.</p><br>
<p>Malia was also the setting for 2011 British comedy film The Inbetweeners Movie, in which the four main characters went on a lads&#39; holiday. Through the years Malia has become increasingly popular, outgrowing other holiday resorts such as Ayia Napa and Zante. An independent review of booking numbers from many travel agents discovered that the resort of Malia looks to be the most popular among young adults of 2013.</p><br>
<h2>Villages in Municipal Unit of Malia</h2><br>
<h3>Krasi Village</h3><br>
<p>Krasi village is located 46.3 km southeast of Heraklion city and just 6 km south of Malia town, in the inland of Hersonissos Municipality at an altitude of 600 m. Its villagers are involved in agricultural production, in particular in olive growing and livestock, producing high quality olive oil and dairy products that every visitor can taste and purchase from local shops. A remarkable point of interest of the village is the square, with its three ancient plane trees that decorate the square and during the summer time offer plenty of shade for the traditional cafes, taverns and shops. On the south side of the village you can see the ‘‘Megalh Vrish- Ydragogio’’ fountain, that to this day provides endless water to the local agricultural irrigation system and for the wider area. The church of Metamorphosis Sotiros, in the village, is an ideal point to visit to admire the enviable frescoes and wooden carved temple, inside. In conclusion, the archaeological site of the area is the ‘‘Protominoikos Tafos’’, a tomb that was discovered in 1929 by Spiridon Marinatos, and is dated before the Minoan era. Krasi has a long and magnificent tradition in music and dancers, which is maintained to this day, and this is the guarantee for every visitor to live an experience full of tradition, celebration with local delights and drinks.</p><br>
<h3>Mochos Village</h3><br>
<p>Mochos village is located 12 km south of Stalis village, on the mountain side 45 km southeast of Heraklion city, in the inland of Hersonissos Municipality at an altitude of 400 m. A traditional village; which preserves its 16th century architecture, with a magnificent village square. In the square, traditional cafes, taverns and a local grocery shop offer local dishes, drinks and agricultural products. Every year on the 15th of August, the celebration of Virgin Mary take place, and a vast number of people gather in her honour, to feast on traditional delights and drink to the sound of Cretan traditional music and dance till the early morning hours. A worthwhile visit to the Folklore Museum of Mochos, where a traditional Cretan house is presented as well as a number of tools and objects from old traditional occupations. A walk around the picturesque alleyways is a must, and will definitely make visitors feel the warm atmosphere of the village and the characteristic hospitality of locals well known for their music and multicultural heritage.</p><br>
<h3>Stalis Village</h3><br>
<p>Stalis village is located 31 km east of Heraklion city and 3 km east and of Hersonissos village and 3 km from Malia town. It is a resort by the sea with accommodation facilities, shops, and sightseeing not only on its coastline but also on the south hillside of its area. It is an ideal destination for families, due to its relaxing atmosphere satisfying number of fully organized and beautiful beaches as well as taverns, cafes and restaurants. It is a breath away from, the more intense, nightlife of Malia and Hersonissos that visitors may seek. Easy and fast access is one of the advantages of Stalis, to its accommodation facilities and beaches, with the characteristic example of Foinikas beach an outstanding crystal clear water beach, fully organized with courts and areas for tennis, volley and water sports. The picture of this particular beach closes with the Cretan palm trees that spread across its area. In conclusion, a must see experience is the Xwrodeion event that take place on the 12th of August in the courtyard of Agios Ioannis church, where visitors will see and admire Cretan traditional costumes, dances, music and the making of local traditional delights. The entrance is free for this event.</p><br>
<h2>Points of Interest in Municipal Unit of Malia</h2><br>
<h3>Minoan Palace of Malia</h3><br>
<p>This Minoan Palace is situated 3 km east of Malia town and is the third most significant known Minoan Palace after Knossos and Faistos. It is known for its strategic port, nearby and moreover for its characteristic large central courtyard, the centerpiece of the complex, the stairwells, the skylights, polythira, monumental façades and on each side rooms for specific functions.</p><br>
<h3>Platanos and Fountains in Krasi</h3><br>
<p>Krasi village is located in the mountains and it is distanced of about 10 km from the main town of Malia. Its square is naturally decorated with three enormous plane trees; the one in the middle is the biggest of them all and is considered to be one of the oldest plane trees in the Mediterranean. Opposite the majestic trees, two spectacular fountains stand to impress the visitors, giving a spectacular picture for everyone.</p><br>
<p>Independence Hall is the building where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted. It is now the centerpiece of the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>The building was completed in 1753 as the colonial legislature (later Pennsylvania State House) for the Province of Pennsylvania and was used in that capacity until the state capital moved to Lancaster in 1799. It became the principal meeting place of the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1783 and was the site of the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787.</p><br>
<p>A convention held in Independence Hall in 1915, presided over by former US president William Howard Taft, marked the formal announcement of the formation of the League to Enforce Peace, which led to the League of Nations and eventually the United Nations. The building is part of Independence National Historical Park and is listed as a World Heritage Site.</p><br>
<h2>Preparation for construction</h2><br>
<p>By the spring of 1729 the citizens of Philadelphia were petitioning to be allowed to build a state house. Two thousand pounds were committed to the endeavor. A committee composed of Thomas Lawrence, Dr. John Kearsley, and Andrew Hamilton was charged with the responsibility of selecting a site for construction, acquiring plans for the building, and contracting a company for the purpose of construction. Hamilton and William Allen were named trustees of the purchasing and building fund and authorized to buy the land that would be the site of the state house. By October 1730 they had begun purchasing lots on Chestnut Street.</p><br>
<p>By 1732, even though Hamilton had acquired the deed for Lot no. 2 from surveyor David Powell, who had been paid for his work with the lot, tensions were rising among the committee members. Dr. John Kearsley and Hamilton disagreed on a number of issues concerning the state house. Kearsley, who is credited with the designs of both Christ Church and St. Peters Church, had plans for the structure of the building, but so did Hamilton. The two men also disagreed on the buildings site; Kearsley suggested High Street, now Market Street, and Hamilton favored Chestnut Street. Lawrence said nothing on the matter.</p><br>
<p>Matters reached a point where arbitration was needed. On August 8, 1733, Hamilton brought the matter before the House of Representatives. He explained that Kearsley did not approve of Hamilton’s plans for the location and architecture of the state house and went on to insist the House had not agreed to these decisions. In response to this, Hamilton, on August 11, showed his plans for the state house to the House, who accepted them. On August 14, the House sided with Hamilton, granting him full control over the project, and the site on the south side of Chestnut Street between Fifth and Sixth Streets was chosen for the location of the state house. Ground was broken for construction soon after.</p><br>
<h2>Structure</h2><br>
<p>Independence Hall is a red brick building designed in the Georgian style. It consists of a central building with belltower and steeple, attached to two smaller wings via arcaded hyphens. The highest point to the tip of the steeple spire is 168 ft, 7 inches above the ground.</p><br>
<p>The State House was built between 1732 and 1751, designed by Edmund Woolley and Andrew Hamilton, and built by Woolley. Its construction was commissioned by the Pennsylvania colonial legislature which paid for construction as funds were available, so it was finished piecemeal. It was initially inhabited by the colonial government of Pennsylvania as its State House, from 1732 to 1799.</p><br>
<p>In 1752, when Isaac Norris was selecting a man to build the first clock for the State House, today known as Independence Hall, he chose Thomas Stretch, the son of Peter Stretch his old friend and fellow council member, to do the job.</p><br>
<p>In 1753 Thomas Stretch erected a giant clock at the buildings west end that resembled a tall clock (grandfather clock). The 40-foot-tall limestone base was capped with a 14-foot wooden case surrounding the clocks face, which was carved by Samuel Harding. The giant clock was removed about 1830. The clock’s dials were mounted at the east and west ends of the main building connected by rods to the clock movement in the middle of the building. The acquisition of the original clock and bell by the Pennsylvania Colonial Assembly is closely related to the acquisition of the Liberty Bell. By mid-1753, the clock had been installed in the State House attic, but six years were to elapse before Thomas Stretch received any pay for it.</p><br>
<h3>Demolition and reconstruction</h3><br>
<p>While the shell of the central portion of the building is original, the side wings, steeple and much of the interior was reconstructed. In 1781, the Pennsylvania Assembly had the wooden steeple removed from the main building. The steeple had rotted and weakened to a dangerous extent by 1773, but it wasn&#39;t until 1781 that the Assembly had it removed and had the brick tower covered with a hipped roof.</p><br>
<p>The original steeple was demolished due to structural problems in 1781. A more elaborate steeple, designed by William Strickland, was added in 1828.</p><br>
<p>The original wings and hyphens were demolished in 1812. In 1898, these were in turn demolished and replaced with reconstructions of the original wings.</p><br>
<p>The building was renovated numerous times in the 19th and 20th century. The current interior is a mid-20th century reconstruction by the National Park Service with the public rooms restored to their 18th century appearance.</p><br>
<p>During the summer of 1973 a replica of the Thomas Stretch clock was restored to Independence Hall.</p><br>
<p>The second floor Governor&#39;s Council Chamber, furnished with important examples of the era by the National Park Service, includes a musical tall case clock made by Peter Stretch, c 1740, one of the most prominent clockmakers in early America and father of Thomas Stretch.</p><br>
<p>Two smaller buildings adjoin the wings of Independence Hall: Old City Hall to the east, and Congress Hall to the west. These three buildings are together on a city block known as Independence Square, along with Philosophical Hall, the original home of the American Philosophical Society. Since its construction in the mid-20th century, to the north has been Independence Mall, which includes the current home of the Liberty Bell.</p><br>
<h3>Interior layout</h3><br>
<h3>Liberty Bell</h3><br>
<p>The lowest chamber of the original wooden steeple was the first home of the Liberty Bell. When that steeple was removed in the 1780s the bell was lowered into the highest chamber of the brick tower, where it remained until the 1850s. The much larger Centennial Bell, created for the United States Centennial Exposition in 1876, hangs in the cupola of the 1828 steeple. The Liberty Bell, with its distinctive crack, was displayed on the ground floor of the hall from the 1850s until 1976, and is now on display across the street in the Liberty Bell Center.</p><br>
<h2>Declaration of Independence and Second Continental Congress</h2><br>
<p>From May 10, 1775, to 1783, the Pennsylvania State House served as the principal meeting place of the Second Continental Congress, a body of representatives from each of the thirteen British North American colonies.</p><br>
<p>On June 14, 1775, delegates of the Continental Congress nominated George Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House. The Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin to be the first Postmaster General of what would later become the United States Post Office Department on July 26.</p><br>
<p>The United States Declaration of Independence was approved there on July 4, 1776, and the Declaration was read aloud to the public in the area now known as Independence Square. This document unified the colonies in North America who declared themselves independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain and explained their justifications for doing so. These historic events are celebrated annually with a national holiday for USA Independence Day.</p><br>
<p>The Congress continued to meet there until December 12, 1776, after which the Congress evacuated Philadelphia. During the British occupation of Philadelphia, the Continental Congress met in Baltimore, Maryland (December 20, 1776 to February 27, 1777). The Congress returned to Philadelphia from March 4, 1777 to September 18, 1777.</p><br>
<p>In September 1777, the British Army again arrived to occupy Philadelphia, once again forcing the Continental Congress to abandon the State House. It then met in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for one day (September 27, 1777) and in York, Pennsylvania, for nine months (September 30, 1777 to June 27, 1778), where the Articles of Confederation were approved in November 1777. The Second Continental Congress again returned to Independence Hall, for its final meetings, from July 2, 1778 to March 1, 1781.</p><br>
<p>Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation initially met in Independence Hall, from March 1, 1781 to June 21, 1783. However, as a result of the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, Congress again moved from Philadelphia in June 1783 to Princeton, New Jersey, and eventually to other cities.</p><br>
<h2>USA Constitutional Convention</h2><br>
<p>In September 1786, commissioners from five states met in the Annapolis Convention to discuss adjustments to the Articles of Confederation that would improve commerce. They invited state representatives to convene in Philadelphia to discuss improvements to the federal government. After debate, the Congress of the Confederation endorsed the plan to revise the Articles of Confederation on February 21, 1787. Twelve states, Rhode Island being the exception, accepted this invitation and sent delegates to convene in June 1787 at Independence Hall.</p><br>
<p>The resolution calling the Convention specified its purpose as proposing amendments to the Articles, but the Convention decided to propose a rewritten Constitution. The Philadelphia Convention voted to keep deliberations secret, and to keep the Halls windows shut throughout the hot summer. The result was the drafting of a new fundamental government design. On September 17, 1787, the Constitution was completed, and took effect on March 4, 1789, when the new Congress met for the first time in New Yorks Federal Hall.</p><br>
<p>Article One, Section Eight, of the United States Constitution granted Congress the authority to create a federal district to serve as the national capital. Following the ratification of the Constitution, the Congress, while meeting in New York, passed the Residence Act of 1790, which established the District of Columbia as the new federal capital. However, a representative from Pennsylvania, Robert Morris, did manage to convince Congress to return to Philadelphia while the new permanent capital was being built. As a result, the Residence Act also declared Philadelphia to be the temporary capital for a period of ten years. The Congress moved back into Philadelphia on December 6, 1790 and met at Congress Hall, adjacent to Independence Hall until moving to Washington, D.C. in 1800.</p><br>
<h2>Funerary procession of Abraham Lincoln</h2><br>
<p>Abraham Lincoln&#39;s funeral train was to take the body of the president (and the disinterred coffin of his son Willie, who had predeceased him in 1862) from Washington D.C. back to Springfield, Illinois for burial. It would essentially retrace the 1,654 mile route Mr. Lincoln had traveled as president-elect in 1861 (with the deletion of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati and the addition of Chicago). The train left Washington for Baltimore at 8:00 AM on April 21, 1865.</p><br>
<p>Lincolns funeral train (the "Lincoln Special") left Harrisburg on Saturday - April 22, 1865 at 11:15 AM and arrived at Philadelphia at Broad Street Station that afternoon at 4:30 PM. It was carried by hearse past a crowd of 85,000 people and was held in state in the Assembly Room in the east wing of Independence Hall. While there, it was escorted and guarded by a detail of 27 Naval and Military officers. That evening, a private viewing was arranged for honored guests of the mourners. The next day (Sunday - April 23, 1865) lines began forming at 5:00 AM. Over 300,000 mourners viewed the body - some waiting 5 hours just to see him. The Lincoln Special left Philadelphias Kensington Station for New York City the next morning (Monday - April 24, 1865) at 4:00 A.M.</p><br>
<h2>League to Enforce Peace</h2><br>
<p>The symbolic use of the Hall was illustrated on June 17, 1915, where the League to Enforce Peace (LEP) was formed here with former President William Howard Taft presiding. They proposed an international governing body under which participating nations would commit to "jointly...use...their economic and military forces against any one of their number making war against another" and "to formulate and codify rules of international law".</p><br>
<h2>Preservation</h2><br>
<p>From 1802 to 1826-27, artist Charles Willson Peale housed his museum of natural history specimens (including the skeleton of a mastodon) and portraits of famous Americans, on the second floor of the Old State House and in the Assembly Room.</p><br>
<p>In early 1816, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania sold the State House to the City of Philadelphia, with a contract signed by the governor. The deed, however, was not transferred until more than two years later. Philadelphia has owned the State House and its associated buildings and grounds since that time.</p><br>
<p>In 1948, the buildings interior was restored to its original appearance. Independence National Historical Park was established by the 80th USA Congress later that year to preserve historical sites associated with the American Revolution. Independence National Historical Park comprises a landscaped area of four city blocks, as well as outlying sites that include: Independence Square, Carpenters Hall (meeting place of the First Continental Congress), the site of Benjamin Franklins home, the reconstructed Graff House (where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence), City Tavern (center of Revolutionary War activities), restored period residences, and several early banks. The park also holds the Liberty Bell, Franklins desk, the Syng inkstand, a portrait gallery, gardens, and libraries. A product of extensive documentary research and archaeology by the federal government, the restoration of Independence Hall and other buildings in the park set standards for other historic preservation and stimulated rejuvenation of old Philadelphia. The site, administered by the National Park Service, is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO (joining only three other USA man-made monuments still in use, the others being the Statue of Liberty, Pueblo de Taos, and the combined site of the University of Virginia and Monticello).</p><br>
<p>Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell are now protected in a secure zone with entry at security screening buildings. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, as part of a national effort to safeguard historical monuments by the United States Department of Homeland Security, pedestrian traffic around Independence Square and part of Independence Mall was restricted by temporary bicycle barriers and park rangers. In 2006, the National Park Service proposed installing a seven-foot security fence around Independence Hall and bisecting Independence Square, a plan that met with opposition from Philadelphia city officials, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, and Senator Arlen Specter. As of January 2007, the National Park Service plan was revised to eliminate the fence in favor of movable bollards and chains, and also to remove at least some of the temporary barriers to pedestrians and visitors.</p><br>
<h2>Legacy</h2><br>
<p>Independence Hall has been used in more recent times as the staging ground for protests because of its symbolic history in support of democratic and civil rights movements. On October 26, 1918, Tomáš Masaryk proclaimed the independence of Czechoslovakia on the steps of Independence Hall. National Freedom Day, which commemorates the struggles of African Americans for equality and justice, has been celebrated at Independence Hall since 1942. On Independence Day, July 4, 1962, President John F. Kennedy gave an address there. Annual demonstrations advocating for Gay rights were held in front of Independence Hall on July 4 from 1965 to 1969.</p><br>
<p>Independence Hall is pictured on the back of the USA $100 bill, as well as the bicentennial Kennedy half dollar. The Assembly Room is pictured on the reverse of the USA two-dollar bill, from the original painting by John Trumbull entitled Declaration of Independence.</p><br>
<h3>Replicas</h3><br>
<p>Independence Hall served as the model for the Pennsylvania Building at the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition, the Pennsylvania Building at the 1907 Jamestown Exposition, and the Pennsylvania Pavilion at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. Dozens of structures replicating or loosely inspired by Independence Hall&#39;s iconic design have been built elsewhere in the United States.</p><br>
<p>The Battle of the Saintes , or Battle of Dominica was an important naval battle that took place over four days, 9 April 1782 – 12 April 1782, during the American Revolutionary War, and was a victory of a British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney over a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse, forcing the French and Spanish to abandon a planned invasion of Jamaica.</p><br>
<p>The battle is named after the Saintes (or Saints), a group of islands between Guadeloupe and Dominica in the West Indies. The French fleet defeated here by the Royal Navy was the fleet that had blockaded the British Army during the Siege of Yorktown. The French suffered heavy casualties and many were taken prisoner, including the Comte de Grasse. Four French ships of the line were captured (including the flagship) and one was destroyed. Rodney was credited with pioneering the tactic of "breaking the line" in the battle, though this is disputed.</p><br>
<h2>Origins</h2><br>
<p>In October 1781, a plan had been worked out between Admiral Comte de Grasse, commander of the French fleet in the West Indies, and Francisco Saavedra de Sangronis, General Bureau for the Spanish Indies, court representative and aide to the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Gálvez. The strategic objectives of the Franco-Spanish military forces in the West Indies in this plan were:</p><br>
<p>to aid the Americans and defeat the British naval squadron at New York</p><br>
<p>to capture the British Windward Islands and</p><br>
<p>to conquer Jamaica.</p><br>
<p>This plan became known as the "De Grasse – Saavedra Convention", and the first objective was essentially met with the surrender of the British army under General Cornwallis at the Siege of Yorktown in September 1781. De Grasse and his fleet played a decisive part in that victory, after which they sailed to the Caribbean. On arrival in Saint Domingue in November 1781, he was notified that the plan was given the go ahead to proceed with the conquest of Jamaica.</p><br>
<p>Jamaica was the largest and most profitable British island in the Caribbean, mainly because of sugar; it was more valuable to the British economy than the thirteen American colonies. In a letter from King George III to Lord Sandwich, he declared that he would risk protecting Britain&#39;s important Caribbean islands at the risk of Britain herself, and this was the strategy implemented in 1779. Sugar made up 20% of all British imports and was worth five times as much as tobacco. As well as the gradual expulsion of the British from the West Indies by the French and Spanish, the conquest was to inflict a massive blow on the British economy. The invasion itself though was perceived in the courts at Paris and Madrid as an alternative to the Spanish and French attempts to take Gibraltar, which for two years had been a costly disaster.</p><br>
<p>While de Grasse waited for reinforcements to undertake the Jamaica campaign, he captured St. Kitts in February 1782. The rest of the Windward Islands - Antigua, St Lucia, and Barbados - still remained under British control, while Admiral George Rodney arrived in the Caribbean theatre the following month, bringing reinforcements. These included seventeen ships of the line and gave the British a slight numerical advantage.</p><br>
<p>On 7 April 1782, de Grasse set out from Martinique with 35 ships of the line, including two 50-gun ships and a large convoy of more than 100 cargo ships, to meet with a Spanish fleet of 12 ships of the line. In addition, de Grasse was to rendezvous with 15,000 troops at Saint Domingue earmarked for the conquest by landing on Jamaica&#39;s north coast.</p><br>
<p>The British hulls by this time had been given copper sheathing to protect them from marine growth and fouling as well as salt water corrosion. This dramatically improved speed and sailing performance as a whole in good wind.</p><br>
<h2>Battle</h2><br>
<p>On 9 April 1782, the copper-hulled British fleet soon caught up with the French, who were surprised by their speed. De Grasse ordered the French convoy to head into Guadeloupe for repair, forcing him to escort two fifty-gun ships (Fier and Experiment) and placing his fleet in line of battle in order to cover the retreat. The British fleet became separated from the centre and rear divisions and eight ships of their vanguard under Rear-Admiral Samuel Hood, however, moved against de Grasse&#39;s retreating ships and waged a fight. After an inconclusive encounter in which both sides suffered damage, de Grasse soon realized that the main British fleet would soon be upon them. He broke off the engagement to return to protect the merchant convoy.</p><br>
<p>In the following days the two fleets faced each other parallel but both sides kept their distance as they repaired their ships.</p><br>
<p>On 12 April, the French were sighted a short distance away, as the two fleets maneuvered between the northern end of Dominica and the Saintes. A French straggler, (74 guns), was spotted and was chased by four British ships as De Grasse made for Guadeloupe. He bore up with his fleet to protect the ship which led him to Guadeloupe and at the same time Rodney recalled his chasing ships and made the signal for line of battle.</p><br>
<p>Rear-Admiral Hoods van division were still making repairs from the action three days earlier, so he directed his rear division, under Rear Admiral Francis S. Drake, to take the lead. At 7:40, under Captain Taylor Penny, led the British line and opened the battle when he approached the center of the French line. Having remained parallel with the French, the ships of Drakes division then passed the remaining length of de Grasse&#39;s line and the two sides exchanged broadsides, a typical naval engagement of this time.</p><br>
<h3>Breaking of the line</h3><br>
<p>As the battle progressed, the strong winds of the previous day and night began to temper and became more variable. As the French line passed down the British line, the sudden shift of wind let Rodney&#39;s flagship and several other ships, including and, sail towards the French line.</p><br>
<p>At 8 am, Formidable opened fire and engaged the French center and as she slowed, duelled with de Grasses flagship, of 104 guns. The rest of the ships soon followed, raking the French as they did so, causing huge casualties amongst the soldiers and sailors. Around 9 am, Drakes rearmost ship, cleared the end of the French fleet and hauled wind; while his ships had taken some damage, they had inflicted a severe battering on them.</p><br>
<p>Within an hour, the wind had shifted to the south and thus forced the French line to separate and bear to the west, as it could not hold its course into the wind. This allowed the British to use their guns on both sides of their ships without any fear of return fire from the front and rear of the French ships they were passing between. The effect was greater with the use of carronades, with which the British had just equipped nearly half their fleet; this relatively new short-range weapon was quicker to reload and more could be carried. was the first victim; virtually a sitting duck, she was quickly pounded and dismasted by intense fire. Four French ships in the confusion began milling around; Formidable turned to starboard and brought her port guns to bear on them. As a result, Formidable sailed through the French line, blasting her way through; this piercing was followed by five other British ships.</p><br>
<p>At the same time, Commodore Edmund Affleck, to the south, also immediately capitalized on the opportunity and led the rearmost of the British ships through the French line, inflicting significant damage. The French tried to restore order; around 1:30 pm, De Grasse signaled line on the port tack, but this was not fulfilled; he was soon battling Hood&#39;s 90-gun HMS Barfleur. Ardent soon followed, being taken by the rest of the British centre.</p><br>
<p>At 4 pm, de Grasse with Ville de Paris, alone and being battered by Barfleur, with little support and suffering huge losses in men, made another attempt to signal the fleet and gave the order "to build the line on the starboard tack", but again this was not done. By this time, most of the French fleet, apart from those ships which were surrounded, had retreated; Louis Antoine de Bougainville, who commanded, succeeded in rallying eight ships of his own division.</p><br>
<p>Finally, the isolated Ville de Paris, being overwhelmed and suffering horrific losses, eventually struck her colours. Hood took the surrender; the boarding crew, which included the British fleet surgeon Gilbert Blane, were horrified at the carnage; Remarkably de Grasse appeared not to have a scratch on him, while every one of his officers had either been killed or wounded. Rodney boarded soon after, and Hood then presented de Grasse to him. With his surrender, the battle had effectively ended, except for a few long range desultory shots and the retreat of many of the French ships in disorder. With a fire out of control, the magazine aboard the César exploded, killing over 400 French and 50 British sailors, despite many of them jumping overboard.</p><br>
<p>The Comte de Vaudreuil in, learning of de Grasse&#39;s fate, assumed command of the scattered French naval fleet. On 13 April, he had ten ships with him and sailed towards Cap-Français.</p><br>
<h2>Aftermath</h2><br>
<p>The British lost 243 killed and 816 wounded, and two captains out of 36 were killed. The French loss in killed and wounded has never been stated, but six captains out of 30 were killed. It is estimated that the French may have lost as much as 3,000, and more than 5,000 French soldiers and sailors were captured, in addition to the captured French ships several of their ships were severely damaged. The large number shows what a considerable force the French were willing to put ashore with the invasion of Jamaica. Of the Ville de Paris crew, over 400 were killed and more than 700 were wounded - more than the casualties of the entire British fleet.</p><br>
<p>On 17 April, Hood was sent in pursuit of the French and promptly captured two 64-gun ships of the line (Jason and ) and two smaller warships in the Battle of the Mona Passage on 19 April.</p><br>
<p>Soon after the defeat, the French fleet reached Cap Francois in several waves; the main contingent, under Vaudreuil, arrived on 25 April; Marseillois, along with, and, arrived on 11 May.</p><br>
<p>In May, all French ships from the battle arrived from Martinique, then numbering twenty-six ships, and were soon joined by twelve Spanish ships. Disease then took a hold of the French forces, in particular the soldiers, of whom thousands died. The allies now hesitated, and indecision soon led to the abandonment of the attack on Jamaica.</p><br>
<p>The battle has caused controversy ever since, for three reasons:</p><br>
<p>Rodney’s failure to follow up the victory by a pursuit was much criticised. Samuel Hood said that the 20 French ships would have been captured had the commander-in-chief maintained the chase. One hundred and twenty years later, the Navy Records Society published the Dispatches and Letters Relating to the Blockading of Brest. In the introduction, they include a small biography of Admiral William Cornwallis who commanded the Canada at the Saintes. A poem purportedly written by him includes the lines:</p><br>
<p>Had a chief worthy Britain commanded our fleet,Twenty-five good French ships had been laid at our feet.</p><br>
<p>The battle is famous for the innovative tactic of "breaking the line", in which the British ships passed though a gap in the French line, engaging the enemy from leeward and throwing them into disorder. There is however considerable controversy about whether the tactic was intentional and, if so, who was responsible for the idea: Rodney, his Scottish Captain-of-the-Fleet and aide-de-camp Sir Charles Douglas or John Clerk of Eldin Arguably the battle was not the first time a line had been broken; Dano–Norwegian admiral Niels Juel did this in the Battle of Køge Bay more than a hundred years earlier and even earlier the Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter used it for the first time in the last day of the Four Days&#39; Battle in 1666 (and again in the Battle of Schooneveld and the Battle of Texel of 1673).</p><br>
<p>On the French side, de Grasse blamed his subordinates, Vaudreuil and Bougainville, for his defeat.</p><br>
<p>Nevertheless, France and Spain&#39;s plan to invade Jamaica was ruined, and it remained a British colony with no further threat, as indeed were Barbados, St Lucia and Antigua. Rodney was feted a hero on his return; he presented the Comte De Grasse as his prisoner personally to the King. He was created a peer with £2,000 a year settled on the title in perpetuity for this victory. Hood was elevated to the peerage as well, while Drake and Affleck were made baronets.</p><br>
<p>Following the Franco-American victory at Yorktown the previous year, and the change of Government in England, peace negotiations between Britain, the American colonies, France and Spain had begun in early 1782. The Battle of the Saintes transferred the strategic initiative to the British, with the most likely further military action being an attack on the French sugar islands, and the French, in particular, were consequently inclined to ameliorate their terms. Britain&#39;s dominance at sea was reasserted, and it also became clear to the Americans that they could look forward to less French support in the future. The Siege of Gibraltar exacerbated this, when later in the year the defeat of the huge Franco-Spanish assault and the subsequent relief by Richard Howe led to the lifting of the siege in February 1783. Initial articles of peace were signed in July, with a full treaty following in September 1783.</p><br>
<p>As a result of the battle, naval warfare changed along the tactical lines employed and would be used again by the British, including in the all-important Battle of Trafalgar, where Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated Napoleon’s fleet using similar tactics.</p><br>
<h2>Order of battle</h2><br>
<h3>Britain</h3><br>
<h3>France</h3><br>
<p>Rakaposhi , is a mountain in the Karakoram mountain range in Northern Pakistan. It is situated in the middle of Nagar Valley Nagar District and Danyore and Bagrote valley approximately 100 km north of the capital city Gilgit of the semi autonomous Gilgit-Baltistan region of Northern Pakistan. Rakaposhi means "Snow Covered" in the local language. Rakaposhi is also known as Dumani . It is ranked 27th highest in the world and 12th highest in Pakistan.</p><br>
<p>The first successful recorded ascent by non-natives was in 1958 by Mike Banks and Tom Patey, members of a British-Pakistani expedition, via the Southwest Spur/Ridge route. Both of them suffered minor frostbite during the ascent to the summit on June 25. Another climber slipped and fell on the descent and died during the night.</p><br>
<h2>Park</h2><br>
<p>The people of Nagar have dedicated the Rakaposhi range mountain area as a community park. The Minister for Northern Areas inaugurated the park. The Rakaposhi mountain range is the home of endangered species such as Marco Polo sheep, snow leopard, brown bear, wolves and many other species.</p><br>
<h2>Notable features</h2><br>
<p>Rakaposhi is notable for its exceptional rise over local terrain. On the north, it rises 5,900 m in only an 11.2 km (7 mi) horizontal distance from the Hunza-Nagar River. There are views of Rakaposhi from the Karakoram Highway on the route through Nagar. A tourist spot in the town of Ghulmat (located in the Nagar Valley) called "Zero Point of Rakaposhi" is the closest view point of the mountain.Rakaposhi is the only mountain in the world which rises straight from beautifully cultivated fields to the height of 25,550 feet. From many places this wonderful spectacle can be viewed right from the base to the top.</p><br>
<h2>Time line</h2><br>
<p>1892 Martin Conway explores the south side of Rakaposhi.</p><br>
<p>1938 M. Vyvyan and R. Campbell Secord make the first reconnaissance and climb a north-western forepeak (about 5,800 m) via the northwest ridge.</p><br>
<p>1947 Secord returns with H. W. Tilman and two Swiss climbers, Hans Gyr and Robert Kappeler; they ascend via the Gunti glacier to 5,800 m (19,000 ft) on the south-west spur.</p><br>
<p>1954 Cambridge University team, led by Alfred Tissières, attempts the peak via the south-west spur but only reached 6,340 m (20,800 ft). Also, an Austro-German expedition led by Mathias Rebitsch attempted the same route.</p><br>
<p>1956 A British-American expedition, led by Mike Banks, reaches 7,163 m (23,500 ft) on the Southwest Ridge, above the Gunti glacier.</p><br>
<p>1958 The first ascent, noted above.</p><br>
<p>1964 An Irish expedition attempts the long and difficult Northwest Ridge.</p><br>
<p>1971 Karl Herrligkofer leads an attempt on the elegant but difficult North Spur (or North Ridge).</p><br>
<p>1973 Herrligkofer returns to the North Spur but is again unsuccessful due to time and weather problems.</p><br>
<p>1979 A Polish-Pakistani expedition ascends the Northwest Ridge from the Biro Glacier.</p><br>
<p>1979 A Japanese expedition from Waseda University, led by Eiho Ohtani, succeeds in climbing the North Spur. Summit party: Ohtani and Matsushi Yamashita. This ascent was expedition-style, done over a period of six weeks, with 5000 m of fixed rope.</p><br>
<p>1984 A Canadian team achieves a semi-alpine-style ascent of the North Spur, using much less fixed rope than the Japanese team had. Summit party: Barry Blanchard, David Cheesmond, Kevin Doyle.</p><br>
<p>1985-1987 Various unsuccessful attempts on the long East Ridge.</p><br>
<p>1986 A Dutch team climbs a variation of the Northwest Ridge route.</p><br>
<p>1995 An ascent via the Northwest Ridge.</p><br>
<p>1997 An ascent via the Southwest Spur/Ridge (possibly the original route).</p><br>
<p>2000 An attempt from the East side (Bagrot Glacier).</p><br>
<h2>Climbing routes</h2><br>
<p>The routes with successful summits so far have been (see the timeline as well):</p><br>
<p>Southwest Spur/Ridge (first ascent route). Long, but not exceedingly technical. Some tricky gendarmes (rock pinnacles). Has been repeated.</p><br>
<p>Northwest Ridge. Long, and more technically difficult than the Southwest Spur/Ridge. Has been repeated.</p><br>
<p>North Spur (a.k.a. North Ridge). Shorter than the above two routes, but much more technically difficult. Has been repeated, including a semi-alpine style (capsule style) ascent.</p><br>
<p>Attempts have also been made from the east side (Bagrot Glacier), the East Ridge, and the North Face.</p><br>
<p>Mount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second-highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian , Nelion  and Point Lenana . Mount Kenya is located in central Kenya, the heart of Kenya, about 16.5 km south of the equator, around 150 km north-northeast of the capital Nairobi. Mount Kenya is the source of the name of the Republic of Kenya.</p><br>
<p>Mount Kenya is a stratovolcano created approximately 3 million years after the opening of the East African rift. Before glaciation, it was 7,000 m high. It was covered by an ice cap for thousands of years. This has resulted in very eroded slopes and numerous valleys radiating from the centre. There are currently 11 small glaciers. The forested slopes are an important source of water for much of Kenya.</p><br>
<p>There are several vegetation bands from the base to the summit.</p><br>
<p>The lower slopes are covered by different types of forest. Many alpine species are endemic to Mount Kenya, such as the giant lobelias and senecios and a local subspecies of rock hyrax. An area of 715 km&sup2; around the centre of the mountain was designated a National Park</p><br>
<p>and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The park receives over 16,000 visitors per year.</p><br>
<h2>Mount Kenya National Park</h2><br>
<p>Mount Kenya National Park, established in 1949, protects the region surrounding the mountain. Currently the national park is within the forest reserve which encircles it. In April 1978 the area was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The national park and the forest reserve, combined, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.</p><br>
<p>The Government of Kenya had four reasons for creating a national park on and around Mount Kenya. These were the importance of tourism for the local and national economies, preserve an area of great scenic beauty, conserve the biodiversity within the park and to preserve the water catchment for the surrounding area.</p><br>
<p>Kenya’s government has announced a project to discourage animals from straying into small holdings surrounding the Park and devastating crops. The project will see the Park enclosed by an electric fence with five electrified strands and is expected to be completed by 2014. The fence will discharge an electric shock, but is not dangerous to humans or animals.</p><br>
<h2>Local culture</h2><br>
<p>The main ethnic groups living around Mount Kenya are Kikuyu, Ameru, Embu and Maasai. The first three are closely related. They all see the mountain as an important aspect of their cultures. All these cultures arrived in the Mount Kenya area in the last several hundred years.</p><br>
<h3>Kikuyu</h3><br>
<p>The Kikuyu live on the southern and western sides of the mountain. They are agriculturalists, and make use of the highly fertile volcanic soil on the lower slopes. They believe that God, Ngai or Mwene Nyaga, lived on Mount Kenya when he came down from the sky. They believe that the mountain is Ngais throne on earth. It is the place where Gĩkũyũ, the father of the tribe, used to meet with God. Thus according to the Kikuyu records, Gĩkũyũ is the first person on Earth to ascend the mountain. Mwene Nyaga in Kikuyu language can also translate as the "Owner of the Striped one" where Mwene translates to owner, and Nyaga to Stripes. The snow (in Kikuyu: Ira) caps of the mountain symbolically represent a crown on Gods habitation. Nyaga can also translate to Ostrich. In this context, God is seen to be the owner of that very rare bird the Ostrich.</p><br>
<p>Kikuyu used to build their houses with the doors facing the mountain. The Kikuyu name for Mount Kenya is Kĩrĩ Nyaga (Kirinyaga), which literally translates to that which has the "Nyaga" – Stripes.The mountain therefore is locally accepted as Gods Resting Place or Where God Lives&#39;.</p><br>
<h3>Embu</h3><br>
<p>The Embu people live to the south-east of Mount Kenya, and believe that the mountain is God&#39;s home (the Embu word for God is Ngai or Mwene Njeru). The mountain is sacred, and they build their houses with the doors facing towards it. The Embu people are closely related to the Ameru and Mbeere people. The Mbeere and Akamba are the settlers of the southeast side of the mountain.</p><br>
<h3>Ameru</h3><br>
<p>The Ameru occupy the east, north and north-western slopes of the mountain. They are generally agricultural and also keep livestock and occupy what is among the most fertile land in Kenya. The Meru god Murungu was from the skies. Their name for Mt. Kenya is Kirimara, which means mountain with white features.</p><br>
<h3>Maasai</h3><br>
<p>The Maasai are semi-nomadic people, who use the land to the north of the mountain to graze their cattle. They believe that their ancestors came down from the mountain at the beginning of time. The Maasai name for Mount Kenya is Ol Donyo Keri, which means mountain of stripes, referring to the dark shades as observed from the surrounding plains. At least one Maasai prayer refers to Mount Kenya:</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Mount Kenya is a stratovolcano that was active in the Plio-Pleistocene. The original crater was probably over 6,000 m high; higher than Kilimanjaro. Since it became extinct there have been two major periods of glaciation, which are shown by two main rings of moraines below the glaciers. The lowest moraine is found at around 3,300 m. Today the glaciers reach no lower than 4,650 m. After studying the moraines, Gregory put forward the theory that at one time the whole summit of the mountain was covered with an ice cap, and it was this that eroded the peaks to how they are today.</p><br>
<p>The lower slopes of the mountain have never been glaciated. They are now mainly cultivated and forested. They are distinguished by steep-sided V-shaped valleys with many tributaries. Higher up the mountain, in the area that is now moorland, the valleys become U-shaped and shallower with flatter bottoms. These were created by glaciation.</p><br>
<p>When Mount Kenya was active there was some satellite activity. The north-eastern side of the mountain has many old volcanic plugs and craters. The largest of these, Ithanguni, even had its own ice cap when the main peaks were covered in ice. This can be seen by the smoothed summit of the peak. Circular hills with steep sides are also frequent in this area, which are probably the remains of small plugged vents. However, as the remaining mountain is roughly symmetrical, most of the activity must have occurred at the central plug.</p><br>
<p>The rocks that form Mount Kenya are mainly basalts, rhomb porphyrites, phonolites, kenytes and trachytes. Kenyte was first reported by Gregory in 1900 following his study of the geology of Mount Kenya.</p><br>
<p>The geology of the Mount Kenya area was first proposed to the Western Community by Joseph Thomson in 1883. He saw the mountain from the nearby Laikipia Plateau and wrote that it was an extinct volcano with the plug exposed. However, as he had only seen the mountain from a distance his description was not widely believed in Europe, particularly after 1887 when Teleki and von Höhnel ascended the mountain and described what they considered to be the crater.</p><br>
<p>In 1893 Gregory&#39;s expedition reached the Lewis Glacier at 5,000 m. He confirmed that the volcano was extinct and that there were glaciers present. The first thorough survey by Europeans was not undertaken until 1966.</p><br>
<h2>Peaks</h2><br>
<p>The peaks of Mount Kenya are almost all from a volcanic origin. The majority of the peaks are located near the centre of the mountain. These peaks have an Alpine appearance due to their craggy nature. Typically of Alpine terrain, the highest peaks and gendarmes occur at the intersection of ridges. The central peaks only have a few mosses, lichens and small alpine plants growing in rock crevices. Further away from the central peaks, the volcanic plugs are covered in volcanic ash and soils. The vegetation growing on these peaks is typical for their vegetation band.</p><br>
<p>The highest peaks are Batian (5,199 m), Nelion (5,188 m) and Pt Lenana (4,985 m). Batian and Nelion are within 250 m of each other, separated by the Gate of the Mists gap (5,144 m). Coryndon Peak (4,960 m) is the next highest, but unlike the previous peaks it does not form a part of the central plug.</p><br>
<p>Other peaks around the central plug include Pt Piggot (4,957 m), Pt Dutton (4,885 m), Pt John (4,883 m), Pt John Minor (4,875 m), Krapf Rognon (4,800 m), Pt Peter (4,757 m), Pt Slade (4,750 m) and Midget Peak (4,700 m). All of these have a steep pyramidal form.</p><br>
<p>Significant craggy outlying peaks include Terere (4,714 m) and Sendeyo (4,704 m) which form a pair of twin peaks to the north of the main plug. Together, they form a large parasitic plug. Other notable peaks include The Hat (4,639 m), Delamere Peak, Macmillan Peak and Rotundu.</p><br>
<h2>Glaciers</h2><br>
<p>The glaciers on Mount Kenya are retreating rapidly. The Mountain Club of Kenya in Nairobi has photographs showing the mountain when it was first climbed in 1899, and again more recently; the retreat of the glaciers is very evident., Hastenrath, S., 2008, Sundog Publishing, Madison, WI, 144 pp.</p><br>
<p>Descriptions of ascents of several of the peaks advise on the use of crampons, but this is true only in some cases and at higher heights. Every year there is less new snow accumulating in winter than melting on summer, even on the Lewis Glacier (the largest of them) in winter, so there is no formation of new ice. It is predicted to be less than 30 years before there will no longer be ice on Mount Kenya. Glacial retreat and disappearance can be caused by change in temperature trends, or by change in precipitation trends.</p><br>
<p>The glacier names are (clockwise from the north):</p><br>
<p>Northey, Krapf, Gregory, Lewis, Diamond, Darwin, Forel, Heim, Tyndall, Cesar, Josef.</p><br>
<p>The area of glaciers on the mountain was measured in the 1980s, and recorded as about 0.7 km&sup2;.</p><br>
<p>This is far smaller than the first observations, made in the 1890s.</p><br>
<h3>Periglacial landforms</h3><br>
<p>Although Mount Kenya is on the equator the freezing nightly temperatures result in periglacial landforms. There is permafrost a few centimetres (inches) below the surface. Patterned ground is present at 3,400 m to the west of Mugi Hill. These mounds grow because of the repeated freezing and thawing of the ground drawing in more water. There are blockfields present around 4,000 m where the ground has cracked to form hexagons. Solifluction occurs when the night temperatures freeze the soil before it thaws again in the morning. This daily expansion and contraction of the soil prevents the establishment of vegetation.</p><br>
<h2>Rivers</h2><br>
<p>Mount Kenya is the main water catchment area for two large rivers in Kenya; the Tana, the largest river in Kenya, and the Ewaso Ngiso North. The Mount Kenya ecosystem provides water directly for over 2 million people. The rivers on Mount Kenya have been named after the villages on the slopes of the mountain that they flow close to. The Thuchi River is the district boundary between Meru and Embu. Mount Kenya is a major water tower for the Tana river which in 1988 supplied 80% of Kenyas electricity using a series of seven hydroelectric powerstations and dams.</p><br>
<p>The density of streams is very high, especially on the lower slopes which have never been glaciated. The ice cap which used to cover the mountain during the Pliocene eroded large U-shaped valleys which tend to only have one large stream.</p><br>
<p>Where the original shape of the shield volcano is still preserved, there have been millions of years for streams to erode the hillside. This area is therefore characterised by frequent deep fluvial V-shaped valleys.</p><br>
<p>The gradual transition from glaciated to fluvial valley can be clearly observed.</p><br>
<p>Rivers which start on Mount Kenya are the tributaries of two large Kenyan rivers: the Tana and the Ewaso Ngiro rivers. A lot of Mount Kenyan rivers flow into the Sagana which itself is a tributary of the Tana, which it joins at the Masinga Reservoir. The rivers in the northern part of the mountain, such as the Burguret, Naru Moru, Nanyuki, Liki, Sirimon flow into the Ewaso Ngiro. The rivers to the south-west, such as the Keringa and Nairobi flow into the Sagana and then into the Tana. The remaining rivers to the south and east, such as the Mutonga, Nithi, Thuchi and Nyamindi, flow directly into the Tana.</p><br>
<h2>Natural history</h2><br>
<p>Mount Kenya has several altitudinal ecological zones, between the savanna surrounding the mountain to the nival zone by the glaciers. Each zone has a dominant species of vegetation. Many of the species found higher up the mountain are endemic, either to Mount Kenya or East Africa.</p><br>
<p>There are also differences within the zones, depending on the side of the mountain and aspect of the slope. The south-east is much wetter than the north, so species more dependent on moisture are able to grow. Some species, such as bamboo, are limited to certain aspects of the mountain because of the amount of moisture.</p><br>
<h3>Zones</h3><br>
<p>The climate of Mount Kenya changes considerably with altitude, forming belts of community types.</p><br>
<p>Around the base of the mountain is fertile farmland. The tribes living around the mountain have cultivated this cool relatively moist area for centuries.</p><br>
<p>Mount Kenya is surrounded by forests. The vegetation in the forests depend on rainfall, and the species present differ greatly between the northern and southern slopes. As time has passed the trees on the edge of the forest have been logged and the farmland has encroached further up the fertile slopes of the mountain.</p><br>
<p>Above the forest is a belt of bamboo. This zone is almost continuous, but is restricted to small isolated bunches in the north because of low rainfall. The bamboo is natural, and does not require forest disturbance. Tracks are common through the bamboo. Bamboo suppresses other vegetation, so it is uncommon to find trees or other plants here.</p><br>
<p>Above the bamboo is the timberline forest. The trees here are often smaller than the trees in the forests lower down the mountain.</p><br>
<p>The forest here is more intact, because it is less accessible and better protected.</p><br>
<p>When the trees can no longer grow the vegetation changes into heathland and chaparral, at around 3,000 m. Heathland is found in the wetter areas, on the west side of Mount Kenya, and is dominated by giant heathers. Chaparral is found in the drier areas and grasses are more common. and bush fires still occur.</p><br>
<p>As the altitude increases the temperature fluctuations become extreme and the air becomes thinner and drier. This region is known as the Afro-alpine zone. The environment here is isolated, with the only similar area nearby being the Aberdares, which are 80 km away. Many of the species here are endemic, with adaptations to the cold and fluctuating temperatures. Typical plants here include giant groundsels (senecios) and giant lobelias.</p><br>
<p>The region where the glaciers have recently retreated from is nival zone. It is the area that plants have not yet been able to colonise.</p><br>
<h3>Flora</h3><br>
<p>The flora found on Mount Kenya varies with altitude, aspect and exposure. As the altitude increases, the plants have to be more specialised, with adaptations to strong sunlight with ultraviolet, lower mean temperatures and freezing night temperatures.</p><br>
<p>Plants in the Afro-alpine zone have overcome these difficulties in several ways. One adaptation is known as the giant rosette, which is exhibited by giant senecio, giant lobelia and giant thistle (Carduus), which use bud leaves to protect their buds from freezing. Giant rosette senecios form single-aged stands that drive community structure over decades.</p><br>
<p>Many plant species in the Afro-alpine zone of Mount Kenya are giant versions of lowland (or temperate) relatives. However, nearer the nival zone the plants decrease in size again.</p><br>
<h3>Fauna</h3><br>
<p>The majority of animals live lower down on the slopes of Mount Kenya. Here there is more vegetation and the climate is less extreme. Various species of monkeys, several antelopes, tree hyrax, porcupines and some larger animals such as elephant and buffalo all live in the forest. Predators found here include hyena and leopard, and occasionally lion.</p><br>
<p>There are fewer mammals found at high altitudes on Mount Kenya.</p><br>
<p>The Mount Kenya hyrax and common duiker are able to live here, and are important to the ecosystem. Some smaller mammals, such as the groove-toothed rat, can live here by burrowing into the giant senecios and using their thick stem of dead leaves as insulation. The Mount Kenya mole-rat Tachyoryctes rex occurs at high altitudes, living in visible mounds. Leopards are resident in the alpine zone.</p><br>
<p>Other mammal species are only occasional visitors. Remains of elephants, monkeys and bongo have been found high in the alpine zone, and other sightings are remembered in names such as Simba Tarn (simba means lion in Swahili).</p><br>
<p>Several bird species live in the Afro-alpine zone, including sunbirds, alpine chats and starlings and the raptors, augur buzzard, lammergeier and Verreaux&#39;s eagle, the latter of which specializes in hunting hyraxes. Birds are important in this ecosystem as pollinators.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>The climate of Mount Kenya has played a critical role in the development of the mountain, influencing the topography and ecology amongst other factors. It has a typical equatorial mountain climate which Hedberg described as winter every night and summer every day. Mount Kenya is home to one of the Global Atmosphere Watch&#39;s atmospheric monitoring stations.</p><br>
<h3>Seasons</h3><br>
<p>The year is divided into two distinct wet seasons and two distinct dry seasons which mirror the wet and dry seasons in the Kenyan lowlands. As Mount Kenya ranges in height from 1,374 m to 5,199 m the climate varies considerably over the mountain and has different zones of influence. The lower, south eastern slopes are the wettest as the predominant weather system comes from the Indian ocean. This rainfall supports dense montane forest on these slopes. High on the mountain most of the precipitation falls as snow.</p><br>
<p>Combined, these water sources feed 11 glaciers.</p><br>
<p>The current climate on Mount Kenya is wet, but drier than it has been in the past. The temperatures span a wide range, which diminishes with altitude. In the lower alpine zone temperature usually do not go below 12 &deg;C. Snow and rain are common from March to December, but especially in the two wet seasons. The wet seasons combined account for 5/6 of the annual precipitation. The monsoon, which controls the wet and dry seasons, means that most of the year there are south-easterly winds, but during January and February the dominant wind direction is north-easterly.</p><br>
<p>Mount Kenya, like most locations in the tropics, has two wet seasons and two dry seasons as a result of the monsoon. From mid-March to June the heavy rain season, known as the long rains, brings approximately half of the annual rainfall on the mountain. This is followed by the wetter of the two dry seasons which lasts until September. October to December are the short rains when the mountain receives approximately a third of its rainfall total. Finally from December to mid-March is the drier dry season when the mountain experiences the least rain.</p><br>
<h3>Daily pattern</h3><br>
<p>During the dry season the mountain almost always follows the same daily weather pattern. Large daily temperature fluctuations occur which led Hedberg to exclaim winter every night and summer every day. There is variation in minimum and maximum temperatures day to day, but the standard deviation of the mean hourly pattern is small.</p><br>
<p>A typical day is clear and cool in the morning with low humidity. The mountain is in direct sunlight which causes the temperatures to rise quickly with the warmest temperatures occurring between 0900 and 1200. This corresponds to a maximum in the pressure, usually around 10 am. Low on the mountain, between 2,400 m and 3,900 m, clouds begin to form over the western forest zone, due to moist air from Lake Victoria. The anabatic winds caused by warm rising air gradually bring these clouds to the summit region in the afternoon. Around 1500 there is a minimum in sunlight and a maximum in humidity causing the actual and perceived temperature to drop. At 1600 there is a minimum in the pressure. This daily cover of cloud protects the glaciers on the south-west of the mountain which would otherwise get direct sun every day, enhancing their melt. The upwelling cloud eventually reaches the dry easterly air streams and dissipates, leading to a clear sky by 5 pm. There is another maximum of temperature associated with this.</p><br>
<p>Being an equatorial mountain the daylight hours are constant with twelve-hour days. Sunrise is about 0630 with the sun setting at 1830 (both EAT=UTC+3). Over the course of the year there is a one-minute difference between the shortest and longest days. At night, the sky is usually clear with katabatic winds blowing down the valleys. Above the lower alpine zone there is usually frost every night.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>European sighting</h3><br>
<p>The first European to report seeing Mount Kenya was Dr Johann Ludwig Krapf, a German missionary, from Kitui,</p><br>
<p>a town 160 km away from the mountain. The sighting was made on 3 December 1849,</p><br>
<p>a year after the discovery of Kilimanjaro.</p><br>
<p>Krapf was told by people of the Embu tribe that lived around the mountain that they did not ascend high enough on the mountain because of the intense cold and the white matter that rolled down the mountains with a loud noise. This led him to infer that glaciers existed on the mountain. It was Krapf who gave the mountain the name "Kenya", but the derivation of this is not known with certainty (see the various local names below, some of which are similar).</p><br>
<p>Krapf also noted that the rivers flowing from Mount Kenya, and other mountains in the area, were continuously flowing. This was very different from the other rivers in the area, which swelled up in the wet season and completely dried up after the rainy season had ended. As the streams flowed even in the driest seasons he concluded that there must be a source of water up on the mountain, in the form of glaciers. He believed the mountain to be the source of the White Nile.</p><br>
<p>In 1851 Krapf returned to Kitui. He travelled 65 km closer to the mountain, but did not see it again. In 1877 Hildebrandt was in the Kitui area and heard stories about the mountain, but also did not see it. Since there were no confirmations to back up Krapf&#39;s claim people began to be suspicious.</p><br>
<p>Eventually, in 1883, Joseph Thomson passed close by the west side of the mountain and confirmed Krapf&#39;s claim. He diverted his expedition and reached 1,737 m up the slopes of the mountain but had to retreat because of trouble with local people. However, the first European exploration high onto the mountain was achieved in 1887 by Count Samuel Teleki. He managed to reach 4,350 m on the south western slopes. On this expedition Teleki mistakenly believed he had found the crater of a volcano.</p><br>
<p>In 1892, Teleki and von Höhnel returned to the eastern side, but were unable to get through the forest.</p><br>
<p>Finally, in 1893, an expedition managed to ascend Mount Kenya as far as the glaciers. This expedition was traveling from the coast to Lake Baringo in the Rift Valley, and was led by Dr John W Gregory, a British geologist. They managed to ascend the mountain to around 4,730 m, and spent several hours on the Lewis Glacier with their guide. On his return to Britain, Gregory published papers and a narrative account of his achievements.</p><br>
<p>George Kolb, a German physician, made expeditions in 1894 and 1896 and was the first to reach the moorlands on the east side of the mountain. More exploration occurred after 1899 when the Uganda Railway was completed as far as the future site of Nairobi.</p><br>
<h3>Mackinder's expedition</h3><br>
<p>On 28 July 1899, Sir Halford John Mackinder set out from the site of Nairobi on an expedition to Mount Kenya. The members of the expedition consisted of 6 Europeans, 66 Swahilis, 2 Maasai guides, and 96 Kikuyu. The Europeans were Campbell B. Hausberg, second in command and photographer; Douglas Saunders, botanist; C F Camburn, taxidermist; Cesar Ollier, guide; and Josef Brocherel, guide and porter.</p><br>
<p>The expedition made it as far as the mountain, but encountered many difficulties on the way. The country they passed through was full of plague and famine. Many Kikuyu porters tried to desert with women from the villages, and others stole from the villages, which made the chiefs very hostile towards the expedition. When they reached the base camp on 18 August, they could not find any food, suffered two of their party killed by the local people, and eventually had to send Saunders to Naivasha to get help from Captain Gorges, the Government Officer there.</p><br>
<p>Mackinder pushed on up the mountain, and established a camp at 3,142 m in the Höhnel Valley. He made his first attempt on the summit on 30 August with Ollier and Brocherel up the south east face, but they had to retreat when they were within 100 m of the summit of Nelion due to nightfall.</p><br>
<p>On 5 September, Hausberg, Ollier, and Brocherel made a circuit of the main peaks looking for an easier route to the summit. They could not find one. On 11 September Ollier and Brocherel made an ascent of the Darwin Glacier, but were forced to retreat due to a blizzard.</p><br>
<p>When Saunders returned from Naivasha with the relief party, Mackinder had another attempt at the summit with Ollier and Brocherel. They traversed the Lewis Glacier and climbed the south east face of Nelion. They spent the night near the gendarme, and traversed the snowfield at the head of the Darwin Glacier at dawn before cutting steps up the Diamond Glacier. They reached the summit of Batian at noon on 13 September, and descended by the same route.</p><br>
<h3>1900–1930</h3><br>
<p>After the first ascent of Mount Kenya there were fewer expeditions there for a while. The majority of the exploration until after the First World War was by settlers in Kenya, who were not on scientific expeditions. A Church of Scotland mission was set up in Chogoria, and several Scottish missionaries ascended to the peaks, including Rev Dr. J. W. Arthur, G. Dennis and A. R. Barlow. There were other ascents, but none succeeded in summitting Batian or Nelion.</p><br>
<p>New approach routes were cleared through the forest, which made access to the peaks area far easier. In 1920, Arthur and Sir Fowell Buxton tried to cut a route in from the south, and other routes came in from Nanyuki in the north, but the most commonly used was the route from the Chogoria mission in the east, built by Ernest Carr. Carr is also credited with building Urumandi and Top Huts.</p><br>
<p>On 6 January 1929 the first ascent of Nelion was made by Percy Wyn-Harris and Eric Shipton. They climbed the Normal Route, then descended to the Gate of Mists before ascending Batian. On 8 January they reascended, this time with G. A. Sommerfelt, and in December Shipton made another ascent with R. E. G. Russell. They also made the first ascent of Point John. During this year the Mountain Club of East Africa was formed.</p><br>
<p>At the end of July 1930, Shipton and Bill Tilman made the first traverse of the peaks. They ascended by the West Ridge of Batian, traversed the Gate of Mists to Nelion, and descended the Normal Route. During this trip, Shipton and Tilman made first ascents of several other peaks, including Point Peter, Point Dutton, Midget Peak, Point Pigott and either Terere or Sendeyo.</p><br>
<h3>1931 to present day</h3><br>
<p>In the early 1930s there were several visits to the moorlands around Mount Kenya, with fewer as far as the peaks. Raymond Hook and Humphrey Slade ascended to map the mountain, and stocked several of the streams with trout. By 1938 there had been several more ascents of Nelion. In February, Miss C Carroll and Mtu Muthara became the first woman and African respectively to ascend Nelion, in an expedition with Noel Symington, author of The Night Climbers of Cambridge, and on 5 March Miss Una Cameron became the first woman to ascend Batian.</p><br>
<p>During the Second World War there was another drop in ascents of the mountain. The most remarkable ascent during this period was by three Italians who were being held in a British POW camp at the base of the mountain in Nanyuki. They escaped from camp to climb the mountain&#39;s third peak, Point Lenana, before "escaping" back into camp. Felice Benuzzi, the team leader, retold his story in the book No Picnic on Mount Kenya (1946).</p><br>
<p>In 1949 the Mountain Club of Kenya split from the Mountain Club of East Africa, and the area above 3,400 m was designated a National Park. A road was built from Naro Moru to the moorlands, allowing easier access.</p><br>
<p>Many new routes were climbed on Batian and Nelion in the next three decades, and in October 1959 the Mountain Club of Kenya produced their first guide to Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro. On Kenyan independence in 1963, Kisoi Munyao raised the Kenyan flag at the top of the mountain. He died in 2007 and was given a heroic funeral attended by Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki. In the early 1970s the Mount Kenya National Park Mountain Rescue Team was formed, and by the end of the 1970s all major routes on the peaks had been climbed.</p><br>
<p>On 19 July 2003, a South African registered aircraft, carrying 12 passengers and two crew, crashed into Mount Kenya at Point Lenana; nobody survived. This was not the first aircraft lost on the mountain; there is also the wreckage of at least one helicopter that crashed before 1972.</p><br>
<p>In March 2012 a massive fire raged on Mount Kenya, devouring thousands of hectares of ancient forests and endangered wildlife.</p><br>
<h2>Mountaineering</h2><br>
<h3>Climbing routes</h3><br>
<p>Most of the peaks on Mount Kenya have been summited. The majority of these involve rock climbing as the easiest route, although some only require a scramble or a walk. The highest peak that can be ascended without climbing is Point Lenana, 4,985 m. The majority of the 15,000 visitors to the national park each year climb this peak. In contrast, approximately 200 people summit Nelion and 50 summit Batian, the two highest peaks.</p><br>
<p>When ascended directly, Batian is usually climbed via the North Face Standard Route, UIAA grade IV+ (or 5.6+ YDS). It was first ascended on 31 July 1944 by Firmin and Hicks. The route is usually climbed in two days. The Normal Route is the most climbed route up Nelion, and thence across to Batian. It was first climbed by Shipton and Wyn-Harris on 6 January 1929. It is possible to traverse between the two peaks, via the Gates of Mist, but this often involves spending a night in the Howell hut on top of Nelion. There is a bolted abseil descent route off Nelion.</p><br>
<p>Mount Kenya&#39;s climbing seasons are a result of its location only 20 km from the equator. During the northern summer the rock routes on the north side of the peak are in good summer condition, while at the same time the ice routes on the south side of the peak are prime shape. The situation is reversed during the southern summer. The two seasons are separated by several months of rainy season before and after, during which climbing conditions are generally unfavorable.</p><br>
<p>Mount Kenya is home to several good ice routes, the two most famous being the Diamond Couloir and the Ice Window route. Snow and ice levels on the mountain have been retreating at an accelerated rate in recent years, making these climbs increasingly difficult and dangerous. The Diamond Couloir, a steep ice couloir fed by the fusion of the upper Diamond Glacier and pioneered in 1975 by Yvon Chouinard and Michael Covington, was once climbable in summer or winter but now is virtually unclimbable in summer conditions and is seldom deemed in climbable condition even in winter. Last climbing reports describe the route very difficult, especially in the lower section. The route has changed into a modern ice climb with a very difficult 60m first pitch, starting with 8m of overhanging M7 dry tooling, followed by 50m of USA Grade V ice and by others 6 pitches of moderate climbing on good ice and finally one pitch of water ice USA Grade IV+ ice at the headwall before getting to the Upper Diamond Glacier.</p><br>
<p>The satellite peaks around the mountain also provide good climbs. These can be climbed in Alpine style and vary in difficulty from a scramble to climbing at UIAA grade VI. They are useful for acclimatisation before climbing the higher peaks and as ascents in their own right.</p><br>
<h3>Walking routes</h3><br>
<p>There are eight walking routes up to the main peaks. Starting clockwise from the north these are the: Meru, Chogoria, Kamweti, Naro Moru, Burguret, Sirimon and Timau Routes.</p><br>
<p>Of these Chogoria, Naro Moru and Sirimon are used most frequently and therefore have staffed gates. The other routes require special permission from the Kenya Wildlife Service to use.</p><br>
<p>The Chogoria route leads from Chogoria town up to the peaks circuit path. It heads through the forest to the south-east of the mountain to the moorland, with views over areas such as Ithanguni and the Giants Billiards Table before following the Gorges Valley past the Temple and up to Simba Col below Point Lenana. The Mountain Club of Kenya claims that Ithanguni and the Giants Billiards Table offer some of the best hillwalking in Kenya.</p><br>
<p>The Naro Moru route is taken by many of the trekkers who try to reach Point Lenana. It can be ascended in only 3 days and has bunkhouses at each camp. The route starts at Naro Moru town to the west of the mountain and climbs towards Mackinder&#39;s Camp before joining the Peak Circuit Path. The terrain is usually good, although one section is called the Vertical Bog.</p><br>
<p>The Sirimon route approaches Mount Kenya from the north-west. The path splits on the moorlands, with the more frequently used fork following the Mackinder Valley and the quieter route traversing into the Liki North Valley. The paths rejoin at Shiptons Cave just below Shiptons Camp on the Peak Circuit Path.</p><br>
<p>The Peak Circuit Path is a path around the main peaks, with a distance of about 10 km and height gain and loss of over 2,000 m. It can be walked in one day, but more commonly takes two or three. It can also be used to join different ascent and descent routes. The route does not require technical climbing.</p><br>
<h2>Recent Development</h2><br>
<p>Development is currently underway for a new route up the mountain starting from the Ragati conservancy and running up the ridge between the Naro Moru route and the old Kamweti trail.</p><br>
<h3>Accommodation</h3><br>
<p>Accommodation on Mount Kenya ranges from very basic to luxurious. The more luxurious lodges are found on the lower slopes, in and around the forest.</p><br>
<p>These lodges have hotel-style accommodation, often with log fires and hot running water.</p><br>
<p>Many offer guided walks and other activities such as fishing and birdwatching.</p><br>
<p>The huts higher on the mountain are more basic. Most have several bunkrooms with beds, and also offer somewhere to rest, cook and eat. Some also have running water. A few huts are very basic bothies and offer only a space to sleep that is sheltered from the weather.</p><br>
<p>Beds in the huts can be reserved at the park gates.</p><br>
<p>Camping is allowed anywhere in the National Park, but it is most encouraged around the huts to limit environmental impact. It is possible for campers to use the communal spaces in the huts for no extra fee.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>The origin of the name Kenya is not clear, but perhaps linked to the Kikuyu, Embu and Kamba words Kirinyaga, Kirenyaa and Kiinyaa which mean "God&#39;s resting place" in all three languages.</p><br>
<p>In the 19th Century, the German explorer, Ludwig Krapf, recorded the name as both Kenia and Kegnia believed by some to be a corruption of the Kamba version.</p><br>
<p>Others however say that this was on the contrary a very precise notation of the correct African pronunciation.</p><br>
<p>In any case, the name was for a long time pronounced by colonial-heritage Europeans as. The European pronunciation has been abandoned in modern times, in favor of the African version.</p><br>
<h3>Names of peaks</h3><br>
<p>The peaks of Mount Kenya have been given names from three different sources. Firstly, several Maasai chieftains have been commemorated, with names such as Batian, Nelion and Lenana. They commemorate Mbatian, a Maasai Laibon (Medicine Man), Nelieng, his brother, and Lenana and Sendeyo, his sons. Terere is named after another Maasai headman.</p><br>
<p>The second type of names that were given to peaks are after European climbers and explorers. Some examples of this are Shipton, Sommerfelt, Tilman, Dutton and Arthur.</p><br>
<p>The remaining names are after well-known Kenyan personalities, with the exception of John and Peter, which were named by the missionary Arthur after two disciples. There is a group of four peaks to the east of the main peaks named after European settlers; Coryndon, Grigg, Delamere and McMillan.</p><br>
