<p>Pumori   is a mountain on the Nepal-Tibet border in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. Pumori lies just eight kilometres west of Mount Everest. Pumori, meaning "the Mountain Daughter" in Sherpa language, was named by George Mallory. "Pumo" means young girl or daughter and "Ri" means mountain in Sherpa language. Climbers sometimes refer to Pumori as "Everest&#39;s Daughter". Mallory also called it Clare Peak, after his own daughter.</p><br>
<p>Pumori is a popular climbing peak. The easiest route is graded class 3, although with significant avalanche danger. Pumori was first climbed on May 17, 1962 by Gerhard Lenser on a German-Swiss expedition. Two Czechs (Leopold Sulovský and Zdeněk Michalec) climbed a new route on the south face in the spring of 1996.</p><br>
<p>An outlier of Pumori is Kala Patthar (5,643m/18,513&#39;), which appears as a big brown bump below the impressive south face of Pumori. Many trekkers going to see Mount Everest up close will attempt to climb to the top of Kala Patthar.</p><br>
<h2>Trekking and mountaineering Pumori</h2><br>
<p>Nearly 500 people had summitted Pumori by 2005, at a cost of 42 lives. It was noted for its increasing popularity by 2008, with such features as being able to use the Everest base camp for Nepal (when its occupied that is) when trekking or climbing Pumori and offering solid views of Tibet, Nepal and Everest. However, there has been some dangers from avalanches including some Spanish climbing teams that took heavy losses (such as in 1989 and 2001), and the 2015 avalanche, though it was likely triggered by the 2015 earthquake, is said to have originated from the Pumori-Lingtren ridge.</p><br>
<p>1962 FA by Gerhard Lenser of a German-Swiss expedition.</p><br>
<p>1974 West Face new route by Alpine Club Unpo, Japan, summit reached by Minoru Takagi and Nobuyaki Kaneko on Oct 13.</p><br>
<p>1986 East Face new route by Hiroshi Aota and Yoshiki Sasahara (Japan) over three days, summiting on December 3.</p><br>
<p>1986 1985 Catalan Route on East Face, solo by Todd Bibler, summit reached December 5.</p><br>
<p>2002 Three women (Leila Bahrami, Mitra Nazari, and Farhondeh) from an Iranian expedition reached the summit on October 20 via the southeast face to the east ridge. The Sherpas twice stopped opening the route to the team as they did not expect the women to manage the difficulties.</p><br>
<p>2013 Seb de Sainte Marie and Paul Holding unsuccessfully attempted to climb and ski the West Face.</p><br>
<h2>Accidents</h2><br>
<p>In 1989 a team of four Spanish climbers were killed in an avalanche on Pumori, and again in September 2001 another Spanish team was killed in an avalanche.</p><br>
<p>On 19 October 2002, five Basque mountaineers were swept 600–800 metres down the southeast face by an avalanche caused by a seracs fall above them.</p><br>
<p>On 25 April 2015 a 7.8 MW earthquake struck Nepal and triggered several avalanches on and around Mount Everest, including one that hit Everest Base Camp. A witness described it as "a huge avalanche coming off Pumori". The avalanche traveled through part of the Khumbu Icefall and into the South Base Camp. At least 19 are known dead.</p><br>
<p>Nuptse or Nubtse  is a mountain in the Khumbu region of the Mahalangur Himal, in the Nepalese Himalayas. It lies two kilometres WSW of Mount Everest. Nubtse is Tibetan for "west peak", as it is the western segment of the Lhotse-Nubtse massif.</p><br>
<p>The summit of Nuptse is extremely dangerous due to loose snow with a lot of hollows, and there are also weakly attached cornices of snow. This provides a barrier to climbing, yet is not sturdy enough for safe climbing.</p><br>
<p>The long east-west trending main ridge of Nubtse is crowned by seven peaks:</p><br>
<p>The main peak, Nubtse I, was first climbed on May 16, 1961 by Dennis Davis and Sherpa Tashi and the following day by Chris Bonington, Les Brown, James Swallow and Pemba Sherpa, members of a British expedition led by Joe Walmsley.</p><br>
<p>After a long hiatus, Nubtse again became the objective of high-standard mountaineers in the 1990s and 2000s, with important routes being put up on its west, south, and north faces.</p><br>
<p>While Nubtse is a dramatic peak when viewed from the south or west, and it towers above the base camp for the standard south col route on Everest, it is not a particularly independent peak: its topographic prominence is only 319 m. Hence it is not ranked on the list of highest mountains.</p><br>
<p>In 2013 Briton Kenton Cool summited Nuptse as part of the"Triple Crown" or "Everest Trilogy" climb, which he achieved that year. He summited Nuptse, Everest, and Lhotse in one season, supported by various climbers and using various climbing techniques. During this climb Mr. Cool tried to save the life a climber that had come down with HACE after summiting Lhotse, but was not reachable for helicopter rescue.</p><br>
<p>On April 30, 2017, famed Swiss mountaineer and speed-climber Ueli Steck died in an accident near Camp 1 off the Western Cwm, whilst on an acclimatisation climb on the north face of the Nuptse Wall.</p><br>
<h2>Views</h2><br>
<p>(view from the south looking north)</p><br>
<p>The Peace Arch is a monument situated near the westernmost point of the Canada–United States border in the contiguous United States, between the communities of Blaine, Washington and Surrey, British Columbia.</p><br>
<p>The Peace Arch, which stands 20.5 m tall, was built by Sam Hill and dedicated in September 1921, and commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. The monument is built on the exact United States–Canada boundary, between Interstate 5 and Highway 99, in the grass median between the northbound and southbound lanes.</p><br>
<p>The Peace Arch has the flags of United States and Canada mounted on its crown, and two inscriptions on both sides of its frieze. The inscription on the USA side of the Peace Arch reads "Children of a common mother", and the words on the Canadian side read "Brethren dwelling together in unity". Within the arch, each side has an iron gate mounted on either side of the border with an inscription above each gate: the one on the east side read "May these gates never be closed", while on the west side read "1814 Open One Hundred Years 1914".</p><br>
<p>About 500,000 people visit the Peace Arch each year. The monument and surrounding park is considered an international park. As such, visitors do not require either a passport or visa to pass through their applicable border crossing so long as they stay within the boundaries of the park and leave the park into the country from which they entered the park.</p><br>
<p>Peace Arch Park consists of Peace Arch Provincial Park on the Canadian side and Peace Arch State Park on the American side of the border. Within the park is a major border crossing (between Interstate 5 on the USA side and British Columbia Highway 99 on the Canadian side). The Peace Arch symbolizes a long history of peace between the two nations. Because of the Peace Arch monument, the border crossing between Surrey and Blaine is popularly known as the "Peace Arch Border Crossing". In Canada, the crossing is officially named Douglas after Sir James Douglas, the first governor of the Colony of British Columbia. It is one of the busiest border crossings between Canada and the United States, and the busiest such crossing west of Detroit.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In 1914, a Washingtonian lawyer named Samuel Hill organized international fundraising campaign to build the Arch. Internationally known architect H.W. Corbett from London, United Kingdom donated his talents to design the Arch. International volunteers began constructing in 1920. It was dedicated on September 6, 1921 and was considered one of the first earthquake-resistant structures built in North America.</p><br>
<p>The Peace Arch Park has been the site of various international events and protests. In 1952, African-American singer and activist Paul Robeson, banned from international travel during the Red Scares, performed several concerts at the site. He sang from a flatbed truck on the American side to an audience in Canada.</p><br>
<p>One book extensively covers the history of the International Peace Arch. It bears the title, Sam Hill&#39;s Peace Arch: Remembrance of Dreams Past by Richard Clark (2005).</p><br>
<p>On 9 February 2010, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay visited the Peace Arch.</p><br>
<p>Auyán Tepui, also spelled Ayan, is a tepui in Bolívar state, Venezuela. It is the most visited and one of the largest  tepuis in the Guiana Highlands, with a summit area of 666.9 km&sup2; and an estimated slope area of 715 km&sup2;. The uneven, heart-shaped summit plateau of Auyán-tepui is heavily inclined, rising from around 1,600 m in the northwest to a maximum of 2,450 m in the southeast. It is incised from the north by a vast valley, the Cañón del Diablo , formed by the Churún River. The larger western portion of the plateau is partially forested, whereas the eastern part comprises mostly bare rock with only patchy vegetation cover. The mountain hosts a number of extensive cave systems.</p><br>
<p>Auyán-tepui gives its name to the Auyán Massif, which also includes the tiny peaks of Cerro El Sol and Cerro La Luna to the north, and the satellite mountain of Uaipán-tepui to the south. The massif has a total summit area of roughly 670 km&sup2; and an estimated slope area of 795 km&sup2;. Auyán-tepui means "Devil&#39;s House" in the local Pemón language.</p><br>
<p>Angel Falls, the tallest waterfall in the world, drops from a cleft near the summit. The falls are 979 m high, with an uninterrupted descent of 807 m — a drop nineteen times higher than that of Niagara Falls.</p><br>
<p>Auyán-tepui achieved international fame in 1933 when Angel Falls was accidentally discovered by Jimmie Angel, a bush pilot searching for gold ore. Attempting to land on the heart-shaped mesa in 1937, Angel crashed his small Flamingo plane on top of Auyán-tepui and was forced to hike down the gradually sloping backside, a trip that took him and his crew 11 days to complete; he was immortalised when the waterfall was named after him.</p><br>
<p>Around 25 species of amphibians and reptiles are known from the summit plateau of Auyán-tepui, as well as numerous birds. Like many tepuis, the mountain hosts a rich assemblage of flora.</p><br>
<p>Ischia is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about 30 km from the city of Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Roughly trapezoidal, it measures approximately 10 km east to west and 7 km north to south and has about 34 km of coastline and a surface area of 46.3 km&sup2;. It is almost entirely mountainous; the highest peak is Mount Epomeo, at 788 m. The island is very densely populated, with 60,000 residents .</p><br>
<p>Ischia is the name of the main comune of the island. The other comuni of the island are Barano d&#39;Ischia, Casamicciola Terme, Forio, Lacco Ameno, and Serrara Fontana.</p><br>
<p>Ischias main industry is tourism, centering on thermal spas that cater mostly to European (especially German) and Asian tourists eager to enjoy the fruits of the islands natural volcanic activity, its hot springs, and its volcanic mud.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The roughly trapezoidal island is formed by a complex volcano immediately southwest of the Campi Flegrei area at the western side of the Bay of Naples. The eruption of the trachytic Green Tuff ignimbrite about 56,000 years ago was followed by caldera formation. The highest point of the island, Monte Epomeo (788 m), is a volcanic horst consisting of a Green Tuff ignimbrite deposit that was submerged after its eruption and then uplifted. Volcanism on the island has been significantly affected by tectonism that formed a series of horsts and grabens; at least 800 m of uplift has formed as a result of resurgent doming during the past 33,000 years. Many small monogenetic volcanoes were formed around the uplifted block. Volcanism during the Holocene produced a series of pumiceous tephras, tuff rings, lava domes, and lava flows. The latest eruption of Ischia, in 1302, produced a spatter cone and the Arso lava flow, which reached the NE coast.</p><br>
<p>The surrounding waters including gulfs of Gaeta, Naples and Pozzuoli are both rich and healthy, providing a habitat for around 7 species of whales and dolphins including gigantic fin and sperm whales. Special research programmes on local cetaceans have been conducted to monitor and protect this bio-diversity.</p><br>
<h2>Name</h2><br>
<p>Virgil poetically referred to it as Inarime and still later as Arime. Martianus Capella followed Virgil in this allusive name, which was never in common circulation: the Romans called it Aenaria, the Greeks, Πιθηκοῦσαι, Pithekoūsai.</p><br>
<p>(In)arime and Pithekousai both appear to derive from words for "monkey" (Etruscan arimos, Ancient Greek πίθηκος, píthēkos, "monkey"). However, Pliny derives the Greek name from the local ceramic clay deposits, not from píthēkos; he explains the Latin name Aenaria as connected to a landing by Aeneas (Princeton Encyclopedia). If the island actually was, like Gibraltar, home to a population of monkeys, they were already extinct by historical times as no record of them is mentioned in ancient sources.</p><br>
<p>The current name appears for the first time in a letter from Pope Leo III to Charlemagne in 813: the name iscla mentioned there would allegedly derive from insula, though there is an argument made for a Semitic origin in I-schra, "black island".</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Ancient times</h3><br>
<p>An acropolis site of the Monte Vico area was inhabited from the Bronze Age, as Mycenaean and Iron Age pottery finds attest. Euboean Greeks from Eretria and Chalcis arrived in the 8th century BC to establish an emporium for trade with the Etruscans of the mainland. This settlement was home to a mixed population of Greeks, Etruscans, and Phoenicians. Because of its fine harbor and the safety from raids afforded by the sea, the settlement of Pithecusae became successful through trade in iron and with mainland Italy; in 700 BC Pithecusae was home to 5,000–10,000 people.</p><br>
<p>The ceramic Euboean artifact inscribed with a reference to "Nestor&#39;s cup" was discovered in a grave on the island in 1953. Engraved upon the cup are a few lines written in the Greek alphabet. Dating from c. 730 BC, it is one of our most important testimonies to the early Greek alphabet, from which the Latin alphabet descended via the Etruscan alphabet. According to certain scholars the inscription also might be the oldest written reference to the Iliad.</p><br>
<p>In 474 BC, Hiero I of Syracuse came to the aid of the Cumaeans, who lived on the mainland opposite Ischia, against the Etruscans and defeated them on the sea. He occupied Ischia and the surrounding Parthenopean islands and left behind a garrison to build a fortress before the city of Ischia itself. This was still extant in the Middle Ages, but the original garrison fled before the eruptions of 470 BC and the island was taken over by Neapolitans. The Romans seized Ischia (and Naples) in 322 BC.</p><br>
<h3>From 1st century AD to 16th century</h3><br>
<p>In 6 AD, Augustus restored the island to Naples in exchange for Capri. Ischia suffered from the barbarian invasions, being taken first by the Heruli then by the Ostrogoths, being ultimately absorbed into the Eastern Roman Empire. The Byzantines gave the island over to Naples in 588 and by 661 it was being administered by a Count liege to the Duke of Naples. The area was devastated by the Saracens in 813 and 847; in 1004 it was occupied by Henry II of Germany; the Norman Roger II of Sicily took it in 1130 granting the island to the Norman Aldoyn de Candida created Count d’Ischia; the island was raided by the Pisans in 1135 and 1137 and subsequently fell under the Hohenstaufen and then Angevin rule. After the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, the island rebelled, recognizing Peter III of Aragon, but was retaken by the Angevins the following year. It was conquered in 1284 by the forces of Aragon and Charles II of Anjou was unable to successfully retake it until 1299.</p><br>
<p>As a consequence of the island&#39;s last eruption in 1302, the population fled to Baia where they remained for 4 years. In 1320 Robert of Anjou and his wife Sancia visited the island and were hosted by Cesare Sterlich, who had been sent by Charles II from the Holy See to govern the island in 1306 and was by this time nearly 100 years of age.</p><br>
<p>Ischia suffered greatly in the struggles between the Angevin and Durazzo dynasties. It was taken by Carlo Durazzo in 1382, retaken by Louis II of Anjou in 1385 and captured yet again by Ladislaus of Naples in 1386; it was sacked by the fleet of the Antipope John XXIII under the command of Gaspare Cossa in 1410 only to be retaken by Ladislaus the following year. In 1422 Joan II gave the island to her adoptive son Alfonso V of Aragon, though, when he fell into disgrace, she retook it with the help of Genoa in 1424. In 1438 Alfonso reoccupied the castle, kicking out all the men and proclaiming it an Aragonese colony, marrying to his garrison the wives and daughters of the expelled. He set about building a bridge linking the castle to the rest of the island and he carved out a large gallery, both of which are still to be seen today. In 1442, he gave the island to one of his favorites, Lucretia dAlagno, who in turn entrusted the islands governance to her brother-in-law, Giovanni Torella. Upon the death of Alfonso in 1458, they returned the island to the Angevin side. Ferdinand I of Naples ordered Alessandro Sforza to chase Torella out of the castle and gave the island over, in 1462, to Garceraldo Requesens. In 1464, after a brief Torellan insurrection, Marino Caracciolo was set up as governor.</p><br>
<p>In February 1495, with the arrival of Charles VIII, Ferdinand II landed on the island and took possession of the castle, and, after having killed the disloyal castellan Giusto di Candida with his own hands, left the island under the control of Innico dAvalos, marquis of Pescara and Vasto, who ably defended the place from the French flotilla. With him came his sister Costanza and through them they founded the DAvalos dynasty which would last on the island into the 18th century.</p><br>
<h3>16th–18th centuries</h3><br>
<p>Throughout the 16th century, the island suffered the incursions of pirates and Barbary privateers from North Africa – in 1543 and 1544 Hayreddin Barbarossa laid waste to the island, taking 4,000 prisoners in the process. In 1548 and 1552, Ischia was beset by his successor Dragut Rais. With the increasing rarity and diminishing severity of the piratical attacks later in the century and the construction of better defenses, the islanders began to venture out of the castle and it was then that the historic centre of the town of Ischia was begun. Even so, many inhabitants still ended up slaves to the pirates, the last known being taken in 1796. During the 1647 revolution of Masaniello, there was an attempted rebellion against the feudal landowners.</p><br>
<h3>Since the 18th century</h3><br>
<p>With the extinction of the D&#39;Avalos line in 1729, the island reverted to state property. In March 1734 it was taken by the Bourbons and administered by a royal governor seated within the castle. The island participated in the short-lived Republic of Naples starting in March 1799 but by 3 April Commodore Thomas Troubridge under the command of Lord Nelson had put down the revolt on Ischia as well as on neighboring Procida. By decree of the governor, many of the rebels were hanged in a square on Procida now called Piazza dei martiri (Square of the Martyrs). Among these was Francesco Buonocore who had received the island to administer from the French Championnet in Naples. On 13 February 1806 the island was occupied by the French and on the 24th was unsuccessfully attacked by the British.</p><br>
<p>On 21st and 22 June 1809 the islands of Ischia and Procida were attacked by an Anglo-Bourbon fleet. Procida surrendered on 24 June and Ischia soon afterwards. However the British soon returned to their bases in Sicily and Malta.</p><br>
<p>On 28 July 1883, an earthquake destroyed the villages of Casamicciola Terme and Lacco Ameno.</p><br>
<p>In 1936 Ischia had a population of 30,418.</p><br>
<p>Today, Ischia is a popular tourist destination, welcoming up to 6 million visitors per year, mainly from the Italian mainland as well as Germany (approximately 5,000 Germans are resident on the island), although it has become an increasingly popular destination for the well-to-do Eastern Europeans (particularly Russia and Poland). Ischia is easily reached by ferry from Naples, with an approximate travel time of between 40 minutes and one hour. The number of thermal spas on the islands makes it particularly popular with tourists seeking "wellness" holidays. A regular visitor is Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.</p><br>
<h2>In literature and the arts</h2><br>
<h3>Events</h3><br>
<p>The island is home to the Ischia Film Festival, an international cinema competition celebrated in June or July, dedicated to all the works that have promoted the value of the local territory.</p><br>
<h3>Notable guests and works written here</h3><br>
<p>In May 1948, W.H. Auden wrote his poem "In Praise of Limestone" here.</p><br>
<p>In 1948, American author Truman Capote stayed in room number 3 in the Pensione Lustro, in the town of Forio, on the island. He wrote an essay about his stay there, which later appeared in Local Color (1950), published by Random House.</p><br>
<p>In Elena Ferrante&#39;s series of Neapolitan Novels, the island serves as the setting of several summer holidays of the main characters.</p><br>
<p>Hergés series of comic albums, The Adventures of Tintin (1907–1983), ends in Ischia, which serves as the location of Endaddine Akass villa in the unfinished 24th and final book, Tintin and Alph-Art.</p><br>
<p>Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen lived on the island for a short period and is said to have finished Peer Gynt at Ischia in 1867. This is disputed, however, as other sources says he finished the play in Sorrento.</p><br>
<p>French novelist Pascal Quignard set much of his novel Villa Amalia (2006) on the island.</p><br>
<p>Samuel Taylor&#39;s Broadway play Avanti! (1968) takes place on the island.</p><br>
<p>The Italian politician Giuseppe Garibaldi, one of the most important figures of Italian unification, stayed on the island for healing himself from a serious injury and finding relief in the peaceful area of Casamicciola Terme (at the Manzi Hotel).</p><br>
<p>In 1949, British classical composer William Walton settled in Ischia. In 1956, he sold his London house and took up full-time residence on Ischia; he built a hilltop house at Forio, called it La Mortella, and Susana Walton created a magnificent garden there. Walton lived on the island for the remainder of his life and died there in 1983.</p><br>
<p>German composer Hans Werner Henze lived on the island from 1953 to 1956 and wrote his Quattro poemi (1955) here.</p><br>
<h3>Motion picture setting</h3><br>
<p>In addition to the works noted above, multiple media works have been set or filmed on the island. For example:</p><br>
<p>The Hollywood movie The Crimson Pirate (1952) was filmed on the island.</p><br>
<p>Parts of the Hollywood film The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) were filmed there.</p><br>
<p>Cleopatra (1963), starring Elizabeth Taylor, was filmed on the island.</p><br>
<p>Billy Wilder&#39;s adaptation of Avanti! (1972) was filmed there.</p><br>
<p>And While We Were Here (2012), starring Kate Bosworth was filmed and based there.</p><br>
<h2>Wines</h2><br>
<p>The island of Ischia is home to the eponymous Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) that produces both red and white wines though white wines account for nearly 80% of the island&#39;s wine production. Vineyards planted within the 179 hectare boundaries of the DOC tend to be on volcanic soils with high pumice, phosphorus and potassium content.</p><br>
<p>The white wines of the island are composed primarily of Forastera (at least 65% according to DOC regulation) and Biancolella (up to 20%) with up to 15% of other local grape varieties such as Arilla and San Lunardo. Grapes are limited to a harvest yield of no more than 10 tonnes/ha with a finished minimum alcohol level of at least 11%. For wines labeled as Bianco Superiore, the yield is further restricted to a maximum of 8 tonnes/ha with a minimum alcohol level of 12%. Only certain subareas of the Ischia DOC can produce Bianco Superiore with the blend needing to contain 50% Forastera, 40% Biancolella and 10% San Lunardo.</p><br>
<p>Red wines produced under the Ischia DOC are composed of 50% Guarnaccia, 40% Piedirosso (known under the local synonym of Per&#39;e Palummo) and 10% Barbera. Like the white wines, red grapes destined for DOC production are limited to a harvest yield of no more than 10 tonnes/ha though the minimum finished alcohol level is higher at 11.5% ABV.</p><br>
<h2>Main sights</h2><br>
<h3>Aragonese Castle</h3><br>
<p>The Aragonese Castle (Castello Aragonese, Ischia Ponte) was built on a rock near the island in 474 BC, by Hiero I of Syracuse. At the same time, two towers were built to control enemy fleets&#39; movements. The rock was then occupied by Parthenopeans (the ancient inhabitants of Naples). In 326 BC the fortress was captured by Romans, and then again by the Parthenopeans. In 1441 Alfonso V of Aragon connected the rock to the island with a stone bridge instead of the prior wood bridge, and fortified the walls in order to defend the inhabitants against the raids of pirates. Around 1700, about 2000 families lived on the islet, including a Poor Clares convent, an abbey of Basilian monks (of the Greek Orthodox Church), the bishop and the seminar, and the prince, with a military garrison. There were also thirteen churches. In 1912, the castle was sold to a private owner. Today the castle is the most visited monument of the island. It is accessed through a tunnel with large openings which let the light enter. Along the tunnel there is a small chapel consecrated to Saint John Joseph of the Cross (San Giovan Giuseppe della Croce), the patron saint of the island. A more comfortable access is also possible with a modern lift. After arriving outside, it is possible to visit the Church of the Immacolata and the Cathedral of Assunta. The first was built in 1737 on the location of a smaller chapel dedicated to Saint Francis, and closed after the suppression of convents in 1806, as well as the Poor Clares convent.</p><br>
<h3>Gardens of La Mortella</h3><br>
<p>The gardens, located in Forio-San Francesco, were originally the property of English composer William Walton. Walton lived in the villa next to the gardens with his Argentinian wife Susana. When the composer arrived on the island in 1946, he immediately called Russell Page from England to lay out the garden. Wonderful tropical and Mediterranean plants were planted and some have now reached amazing proportions. The gardens include wonderful views over the city and harbour of Forio. A museum dedicated to the life and work of William Walton now comprises part of the garden complex. There&#39;s also a recital room where renowned musical artists perform on a regular schedule.</p><br>
<h3>Gardens of Villa Ravino</h3><br>
<p>A botanical garden, located in Forio-Citara Bay, is the result of 50 years of the dedicated work of Captain Giuseppe D&#39;Ambra, the owner of the Villa. Giardini Ravino is a botanical garden with one of the richest collection of cacti and succulents cultivated outdoors in Europe. Giardini Ravino has been the subject of an award from the OPE (European Parliamentary Observatory) for the most ecofriendly property in South Italy.</p><br>
<p>Giardini Ravino is also the location of Meristema Fair, an exhibition dedicated to both professional and quality amateur gardeners, enriched with seminars and hands on experiences regarding biodiversity in nature.</p><br>
<p>Giardini Ravino is also the headquarters of many social associations that organize events, in collaboration with international humanitarian aid organizations, such as MSF (Doctors Without Borders), the non-profit eco-gastronomic member-supported organization Slow Food and many other cultural exhibitions during the year around.</p><br>
<h3>Villa La Colombaia</h3><br>
<p>Villa La Colombaia is located in Lacco Ameno and Forio territories. Surrounded by a park, the villa (called "The Dovecote") was made by Luigi Patalano, a famous local socialist and journalist. It is now the seat of a cultural institution and museum dedicated to Luchino Visconti. The institution promotes cultural activities such as music, cinema, theatre, art exhibitions, workshops, and cinema reviews. The villa and the park are open to the public.</p><br>
<h3>Others</h3><br>
<p>SantAngelo (SantAngelo, in the comune of Serrara Fontana)</p><br>
<p>Maronti Beach (Barano d&#39;Ischia)</p><br>
<p>Church of the Soccorso&#39; (Forio)</p><br>
<p>Piazza S.Restituta, with the best luxury boutiques (Lacco Ameno)</p><br>
<p>Bay of Sorgeto, with hot thermal springs (Panza)</p><br>
<p>Poseidon Gardens – spa with several thermal pools (Panza)</p><br>
<p>Citara Beach (Panza)</p><br>
<p>English&#39;s Beach (Ischia)</p><br>
<p>Pitthekoussai Archaeological museum</p><br>
<p>The Angelo Rizzoli museum</p><br>
<h2>Voluntary associations</h2><br>
<p>Committees and associations work to promote tourism on the island, and provide services and activities for residents. Among these are:</p><br>
<p>Accaparlante Società Cooperativa Sociale, Via Sant&#39;Alessandro</p><br>
<p>Associazione Donatori Volontari di Sangue, Via Iasolino, 1</p><br>
<p>Associazione Progetto Emmaus, Via Acquedotto, 65</p><br>
<p>A.V.I. Associazione Volontariato e Protezione Civile Isola D&#39;Ischia, Via Delle Terme, 88</p><br>
<p>Cooperativa Sociale Arkè onlus, Via delle Terme, 76/R Telefono: 081-981342</p><br>
<p>Cooperativa Sociale Asat Ischia onlus, Via delle Terme, 76/R Telefono: 081-3334228</p><br>
<p>Cooperativa Sociale kairòs onlus, Via delle Terme, 76/R</p><br>
<p>Kalimera Società Cooperativa Sociale, Via Fondo Bosso, 20</p><br>
<p>Pan Assoverdi Salvanatura, Via Delle Terme, 53/C</p><br>
<p>Prima Ischia – Onlus, Via Iasolino, 102</p><br>
<h2>Town twinning</h2><br>
<p>Ischia has had a twin town relationship with Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, since 1984, although the relationship is presently inactive.</p><br>
<p>Los Angeles, USA (2006)</p><br>
<p>Maloyaroslavets, Russia</p><br>
<p>Many migrants from Ischia also settled in the port town San Pedro, California, the college town of Princeton, New Jersey, the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn, NY, Providence, RI, Philadelphia, and Norwalk, Connecticut.from 1918 through 1929 many settled in the Hells kitchen section of N.Y., N.Y and found employment on the waterfront.</p><br>
<h2>Environmental problems</h2><br>
<p>The sharp increase of the population between 1950 and 1980 and the growing inflow of tourists (in 2010 over 4 million tourists visited the island for at least one day) have increased the anthropic pressure on the island. Significant acreage of land previously used for agriculture has been developed for the construction of houses and residential structures. Most of this development has taken place without any planning and building permission.</p><br>
<p>As at the end of 2011, the island lacked the most basic system for sewage treatment; sewage is sent directly to the sea. In 2004 one of the five communities of the island commenced civil works to build a sewage treatment plant but since then the construction has not been completed and it is currently stopped.</p><br>
<p>On 14 June 2007 there was a breakage in one of the four high-voltage underwater cables forming the power line maintained by Enel S.p.A — although never authorized by Italian authorities — between Cuma on the Campania coast and Lacco Ameno on the island of Ischia. Inside each cable there is an 18 mm‑diameter channel filled with oil under high pressure.</p><br>
<p>The breakage of the Enel cable resulted in the spillage of oil into the sea and into other environmental matrices — with the consequent pollution by polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs, the use of which was banned by the Italian authorities as long ago as 1984), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and linear alkyl benzenes (aromatic hydrocarbons) — in the ‘Regno di Nettuno’, a marine protected area, and the largest ecosystem in the Mediterranean Sea, designated as a ‘priority habitat’ in Annex I to the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) and comprising oceanic posidonia beds.</p><br>
<p>Emi Koussi is a high pyroclastic shield volcano that lies at the southeast end of the Tibesti Mountains in the central Sahara of the northern Borkou Region of northern Chad. It is the highest mountain in Chad, and the highest in the Sahara. The volcano is one of several in the Tibesti Mountains, and reaches 3,445 m in elevation, rising 2.3 km above the surrounding sandstone plains. The volcano is 60 by 80 km wide.</p><br>
<p>Two nested calderas cap the volcano, the outer one being about 12 by 15 km in size. Within it on the southeast side is a smaller caldera, about 2–3 km wide and 350 m deep. Numerous lava domes, cinder cones, maars, and lava flows are found both within the calderas and along the outer flanks of the shield. The inner caldera contains large natron deposits which see some harvesting for domestic animal salt lick use by the local people.</p><br>
<p>Emi Koussi has been studied as an analogue of the Martian volcano Elysium Mons. One of the most important morphological differences between volcanoes on Mars and Earth is the widespread furrowing of the surface due to flowing water on terrestrial volcanoes. The furrows are shallow valleys. Larger channels have a different origin. Major channels can be seen on volcanoes on both planets and indicate low points in caldera rims where lava spilled out of pre-collapse craters.</p><br>
<p>It was climbed in September 1938 by Wilfred Thesiger and Idris Daud as recorded in the former&#39;s autobiography A Life of My Choice.</p><br>
<p>Kanjut Sar  or Kunjudh Sar as pronounced in "Wakhi" is a mountain located in the Hispar Muztagh, a subrange of the Karakoram mountain range. Kunjudh Sar in wakhi language mean that which overlooks Kunjudh, or above Kunjudh, while Khujudh is the wakhi name for Lower Hunza. It is the 26th highest mountain on Earth and the 11th highest in Pakistan.</p><br>
<p>Kanjut Sar consists of two peaks:</p><br>
<p>Kanjut Sar I at 7,760 m.</p><br>
<p>Kanjut Sar II, to the south east of I, at 6,831 m.</p><br>
<p>Kanjut Sar I was first climbed in 1959 by Camillo Pellissier, member of an Italian expedition directed by Guido Monzino. Between 1981, August 4 and 6, 7 Japanese climbers of the same expedition climbed to the top. In 2010 Russian-American expedition attempted to climb on the Eastern Ridge of Kanjut Sar and reached 7450 m, turning in bad weather.</p><br>
<p>Haramosh Peak  is a mountain located in the Karakoram range of the Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan. Its height is also often given as 7,409m.</p><br>
<p>Haramosh lies about 65 km east of Gilgit, in the south-central region of the Rakaposhi-Haramosh Mountains, a subrange of the Karakoram range. It rises steeply above the north bank of the Indus River, a little ways upstream of its confluence with the Gilgit River. The massif has two summits, Haramosh Peak and Haramosh Kutwal Laila Peak. The peak was first scaled in 1958 by an Austrian team consisting of Heini Roiss, Stephan Pauer, and Dr. Franz Mandl.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing history</h2><br>
<p>Haramosh was first reconnoitered in 1947 by a Swiss team, and a German team investigated a northeastern route in 1955. In 1957, Tony Streather, John Emery, Bernard Jillot and Rae Culbert, a team from Oxford University experienced repeated falls and misfortunes during a failed attempt, leading to the deaths of Jillot and Culbert. Streather and Emery survived. The latter suffered severe frostbite and lost all of his fingers and toes.</p><br>
<p>The epic tale of this expedition is told in Ralph Barker&#39;s The Last Blue Mountain.</p><br>
<p>Haramosh was first climbed on 4 August 1958 by the Austrians Heinrich Roiss, Stefan Pauer and Franz Mandl, via the Haramosh La (a saddle to the northeast) and the East Ridge, roughly the route of the 1957 tragedy.</p><br>
<p>According to the Himalayan Index, there have been only three more ascents, in 1978 (Japanese, West Ridge), 1979 (unknown party/route), and 1988 (Polish, Southwest Face).</p><br>
<p>Disteghil Sar or Distaghil Sar  is the highest mountain in the Hispar Muztagh, a subrange of the Karakoram mountain range, in Gilgit-Baltistan, which is part of the Kashmir region that is disputed by India and Pakistan. It is the 19th highest mountain on earth and the 7th highest peak in Pakistan. Destghil sar is a Wakhi language word, that means "above the inner ranch." The mountain has an about 3 km long top ridge above 7400m with three distinct summits: west 7885m, central 7760 m, and east 7696m or 7535m .</p><br>
<h2>Climbing history</h2><br>
<p>Distaghil Sar was first climbed in 1960 by Günther Stärker and Diether Marchart of an Austrian expedition led by Wolfgang Stefan. The expedition climbed the western part of the South face and continued over the southwest ridge to the highest summit. Three years earlier, in 1957, an English expedition had attempted to climb the mountain from the South and the West, but failed due to bad weather. Likewise, weather foiled a 1959 Swiss attempt over the southeast ridge.</p><br>
<p>The highest, western summit has been scaled twice since in 1980 and 1982 over the original route. Two attempts over the daunting north face, in 1988 and 1998, were unsuccessful. The eastern summit was first climbed in 1980 by a Polish expedition over the east face, and was reascended in 1983.</p><br>
<p>Ama Dablam is a mountain in the Himalaya range of eastern Nepal. The main peak is 6,812 m, the lower western peak is 6,170 m. Ama Dablam means "Mother&#39;s necklace&quot the long ridges on each side like the arms of a mother  protecting her child, and the hanging glacier thought of as the dablam, the traditional double-pendant containing pictures of the gods, worn by Sherpa women. For several days, Ama Dablam dominates the eastern sky for anyone trekking to Mount Everest basecamp.</p><br>
<p>Ama Dablam was first climbed on 13 March 1961 by Mike Gill (NZ), Barry Bishop (USA), Mike Ward (UK) and Wally Romanes (NZ) via the Southwest Ridge. They were well-acclimatised to altitude, having wintered over at 5800 metres near the base of the peak as part of the Silver Hut Scientific Expedition of 1960-61, led by Sir Edmund Hillary.</p><br>
<p>Ama Dablam is the third most popular Himalayan peak for permitted expeditions. The most popular route by far is the Southwest Ridge (right skyline in the photo). Climbers typically set up three camps along the ridge with camp 3 just below and to the right of the hanging glacier, the Dablam. Any ice that calves off the glacier typically goes left, away from the camp. However, a 2006 avalanche proved that this is not always the case. A climbing permit and a liaison officer are required when attempting Ama Dablam. As with Mt. Everest, the best climbing months are April–May (before the monsoon) and September–October.</p><br>
<h2>Notable ascents</h2><br>
<p>1961 Southwest Ridge (VI 5.9 60deg 1500m) FA by Mike Gill (NZ), Barry Bishop (US), Mike Ward (UK) and Wally Romanes (NZ).</p><br>
<p>1979 Southwest Ridge SA by Martin Boysen (UK); Tom Frost, David Breashears, Greg Lowe, Jeff Lowe, Peter Pilafian, Jonathan Wright (all US), and Lhakpa Dorje (Nepal) reached the summit on 22 April in blizzard conditions, as part of a well-financed climb-and-film expedition. Doug Robinson and John Wasson (both USA) reached the summit the next day.</p><br>
<p>1979 Lowe Route on the South Face (VI AI4 M5 1200m), FA Solo by Jeff Lowe, 30 April 1979.</p><br>
<p>1979 North Ridge (VI 5.7 70deg 1600m) by a large French expedition led by and placed 14 Frenchmen and 4 Nepalese Sherpa in three groups on the summit over three days, 21-23 Oct 1979.</p><br>
<p>1981 Northeast Spur to North Ridge (VI 5.7 70deg 1500m) by Tim McCartney-Snape, Lincoln Hall, and Andrew Henderson (AUS).</p><br>
<p>1983 East Ridge (VI 80deg 1500m) by Alain Hubert (Belgium) and (Switzerland).</p><br>
<p>1984 Southwest Ridge solo by Naoe Sakashita (JP).</p><br>
<p>1985 Ariaki-Sakashita on the west face (VI 5.7 65deg 1400m) by Masayuki Ariaki and Naoe Sakashita (both JP).</p><br>
<p>1985 Northeast Face (VI mixed 90deg 1400m) winter ascent by Michael Kennedy and Carlos Buhler (both US).</p><br>
<p>1996 Stane Belak Šrauf Memorial Route on the northwest face (VI 5.7 AI5 A2+ 1650m) by and Tomaž Humar (both from Slovenia), which earned them the 1996 Piolet d&#39;Or prize.</p><br>
<p>1996 North Ridge Austro-German alpine-style ascent by Friedl Huber, Max Berger, Louis Badengruber, and Roman Dirnbok.</p><br>
<p>2001 Northwest Ridge (VI Scottish 7, 2000m) by Jules Cartwright and Rich Cross (both UK).</p><br>
<p>2012 Southwest Ridge Jon Gupta (British) summitted Ama Dablam three times in one week.</p><br>
<h2>2006 avalanche</h2><br>
<p>On the night of 13/14 November 2006, a large serac collapse occurred from the hanging glacier, which swept away several tents at Camp 3, killing six climbers (3 European, 3 Sherpa). Eyewitness testimony indicates that Camp 3 had not been sited in an unusual or abnormally dangerous spot, and that the serac fall was of such magnitude as to render the specific placing of the tents at Camp 3 irrelevant.</p><br>
<h2>Valery Rozov accident</h2><br>
<p>On November 11, 2017, Valery Rozov was killed when he jumped from the mountain in a wingsuit and struck a cliff.</p><br>
<h2>In popular culture</h2><br>
<p>A representation of Ama Dablam was originally used by Invesco Perpetual as its branding logo within UK. It has since been adopted by the INVESCO group of companies as its worldwide signature.</p><br>
<p>Image peak Ama Dablam is present on the label of bottled tap water Aqua Minerale (Russian: Аква Минерале), PepsiCo in Russia as well as included in the image of the trademark.</p><br>
<p>For its soaring ridges and steep faces Ama Dablam is sometimes referred as the "Matterhorn of the Himalayas."</p><br>
<p>In September 1997, Bear Grylls, a British adventurer and television presenter became the youngest Briton to climb Ama Dablam (aged 23).</p><br>
<p>The singer/songwriter Nick Harper has a track on his 2010 album The Last Guitar entitled "Ama Dablam."</p><br>
<p>Apple included an image of Ama Dablam by photographer Nick Meek in the set of new wallpapers included with the mobile operating system iOS 7, released on September 18, 2013.</p><br>
<p>In 2016, Ngima Gelu Lama, a young Nepali filmmaker established an independent motion picture production company called Ama Dablam Pictures.</p><br>
<p>Kebnekaise  is the highest mountain in Sweden. The Kebnekaise massif, which is part of the Scandinavian Mountains, has two main peaks, of which the southern, glaciated one is highest at 2,097.5 m above sea level as of August 2014. The northern peak is 2,096.8 m and free of ice. Kebnekaise lies in Sapmi, about 150 kilometres  north of the Arctic Circle and west of Kiruna near the popular Kungsleden hiking trail between Abisko and Hemavan.</p><br>
<p>Due to the shrinkage of the glacier surrounding the southern peak, it is possible the northern peak will assume the title of the highest point in Sweden; as of Summer 2016 the difference in altitude was just one foot.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Kebnekaise massif lies within a range of the Scandinavian mountains that is bordered by the glacial valleys Ladtjovagge (Sami spelling Láddjuvággi), Tjäktjavagge (Čeakčavággi) and Vistasvagge (Visttasvággi). The highest points of the massif lie along the ridge (called "vargryggen" in Swedish) that runs from the southern and northern summits to Kebnepakte (Giebmebákti) at 1,990 m. Other subsidiary peaks are Kebnetjåkka (Giebmečohkka), Vierranvárri, Tolpagorni 1,662 m, Guobircohkka 1,506 m, and Siŋŋibákti 1,614 m.</p><br>
<p>Of the two highest points, the southern peak lies on a glacier situated on a rocky plateau. The glacier has shrunk in recent years, and therefore the summit is not as high as earlier. The top is traditionally said to be 2,111 m, and higher in the oldest measurement, i.e. 2,117 m. If the melting continues at the same rate, the south peak will sink below the north peak (which is the highest fixed point in Sweden) within a few years&#39; time. However, as of July 2015, Tarfala Research Station reports that the glacier has grown by 4.5m to 2,102 - from its lowest measurement of 2097.5m the previous year.</p><br>
<p>The massif is heavily glaciated, with Kebnepakteglaciären, Isfallsglaciären, and Storglaciären towards Tarfala valley to the east, Björlings glacier to the southeast, and Rabots glaciär to the west, plus several smaller glaciers throughout the area.</p><br>
<p>In Europe there are no higher mountains further north. During clear weather, a vast area can be seen from the summit, according to some sources as much as 10% of Sweden.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing routes</h2><br>
<p>Kebnekaise is a popular tourist destination and is climbed by thousands each year. Kebnekaise mountain lodge (Kebnekaise fjällstation) is located at the foot of Kebnekaise, ca. 19 km, 6–7 hours hike from the trailhead at Nikkaluokta. It is the starting point for an ascent to the south summit via the western route (västra leden, ca. 18 km, 5-7 hours to the summit) or the eastern route (östra leden, ca. 10 km, 3–5 hours to the summit). The western route leads over scree slopes and the intermediate peak Vierranvárri. Most of this route to the top is pure hiking, but there is a short exposed part that could possibly count as scrambling (YDS grade 2). The eastern route leads over glaciers and rocks and offers exposure (YDS grade 4). The steepest section is equipped with fixed steel cables for protection, similar to a via ferrata.</p><br>
<p>There is also a third, less known route only marked with cairns - "Durlings led", which branches off Kungsleden a few kilometers north of Singi, goes about two kilometers into the southern side of Singivagge, and then turns north into the valley between Kuopertjåkka and Siŋŋibákti. Some people, such as those with acrophobia or wanting to summit with heavy backpacks, may see benefits with this route as not a single point on it is exposed. "Durlings led" eventually merges with the western route at "Kaffedalen", the pass between Vierranvárri and Kebnekaise.</p><br>
<p>Following the western route, one encounters the two older peak cabins at 1880 m of altitude. After the cabins, the trail continues through a rocky landscape and the slope progressively ceases. A new cabin on the top plateau was opened in 2016.</p><br>
<p>The peak glacier is a small top, merely tens of meters high, on a rocky plateau. To approach the actual mountain top on the glacier, crampons or other means of enhancing traction might at times be required. The glacier should be walked upon with great caution; fatal accidents have occurred with people sliding off into the huge void on the eastern side. This danger might not always be apparent, especially not in times of bad weather and visibility.</p><br>
<p>Routes to the northern summit, including one via the narrow, icy arête from the southern summit, require mountaineering equipment and skills.</p><br>
<p>Due to the harsh subarctic climate at the location, Kebnekaise sees the vast majority of climbers during the summer months (late June to early September). Even so, early in this season, snow can sometimes make a summit bid tedious.</p><br>
<h2>Norwegian plane crash</h2><br>
<p>On 15 March 2012 a Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules military aircraft crashed into the western snowy mountain side a short distance below the ridge that runs between the mountain&#39;s two highest peaks. Five Norwegian officers were killed.</p><br>
<h2>Panorama</h2><br>
<p>Whitefish Bay is a large bay on the eastern end of the southern shore of Lake Superior between Michigan and Ontario. It is located between Whitefish Point in Michigan, about 10 miles north of Paradise, and the St. Marys River at Sault Ste. Marie on the southeast. On the Ontario side, the bay is bordered by the more rugged, largely wilderness Canadian Shield. The international boundary runs through the bay, which is heavily used by shipping traffic northbound from and southbound to the Soo Locks. The Whitefish Point Light marks the entry of the bay, Ile Parisienne Light is in the middle of the bay, and Point Iroquois Light lies near the mouth of the bay and the approach to the Soo Locks.</p><br>
<p>After the Soo Locks opened in 1855 and ship traffic increased on Lake Superior, Whitefish Bay was the site of numerous shipwrecks, often due to hazardous weather. The Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve was established to preserve many of the shipwrecks of Whitefish Bay for future generations of sports divers. Known wrecks include the ships, Drake,, Niagara,, and.</p><br>
<p>Whitefish Point is the home of a former United States Coast Guard station; Whitefish Point Lighthouse is the oldest active light on Lake Superior. Part of the lighthouse station houses the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. It holds artifacts from the above shipwrecks and has information on the notable wreck of in 1975, in which all 29 crew were lost.</p><br>
<p>The Point is a popular place for rock collectors, ship watchers, and spectacular bird watching. Whitefish Point&#39;s land and water provides a natural corridor for birds that makes it a migratory route of world significance. It is a designated Important Bird Area where the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory conducts important research.</p><br>
<p>The Soo Locks  are a set of parallel locks which enable ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. They are located on the St. Marys River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, between the Upper Peninsula of the US state of Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario. They bypass the rapids of the river, where the water falls 21 ft. The locks pass an average of 10,000 ships per year, despite being closed during the winter from January through March, when ice shuts down shipping on the Great Lakes. The winter closure period is used to inspect and maintain the locks.</p><br>
<p>The locks share a name (usually shortened and anglicized as Soo) with the two cities named Sault Ste. Marie, in Ontario and in Michigan, located on either side of the St. Marys River. The Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge between the United States and Canada permits vehicular traffic to pass over the locks. A railroad bridge crosses the St. Marys River just upstream of the highway bridge.</p><br>
<p>The first locks were opened in 1855. Along with the Erie Canal, constructed in the 1824 in central New York State, they were one of the great infrastructure engineering projects of the antebellum United States. The Soo Locks were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.</p><br>
<h2>United States locks</h2><br>
<p>The USA locks form part of a 1.6 mi canal formally named the St. Marys Falls Canal. The entire canal, including the locks, is owned and maintained by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which provides free passage. The first iteration of the USA Soo Locks was completed in May 1855; it was operated by the State of Michigan until transferred to the USA Army in 1881.</p><br>
<p>The current configuration consists of four parallel lock chambers, each running east to west. Starting at the Michigan shoreline and moving north toward Ontario, these are:</p><br>
<p>The MacArthur Lock, built in 1943. It is 800 ft long, 80 ft wide, and 29.5 ft deep. This is large enough to handle ocean-going vessels ("salties") that must also pass through the smaller locks in the Welland Canal. The first vessel through was the SS Carl D. Bradley.</p><br>
<p>The Poe Lock was completed on August 3, 1896. The first vessel to pass through was the USA Army Corps of Engineers tug USS Hancock. The original Poe Lock was engineered by Orlando Poe and, at 800 ft long and 100 ft wide, was the largest in the world when completed in 1896. The lock was re-built in 1968 to accommodate larger ships, after the Saint Lawrence Seaway opened and made passage of such ships possible to the Great Lakes. It is now 1,200 ft long, 110 ft wide, and 32 ft deep. It can take ships carrying 72,000 ST of cargo. The Poe is the only lock that can handle the large lake freighters used on the upper lakes. The first passage after the rebuild was by the Phillip R. Clarke in 1969.</p><br>
<p>The Davis Lock, built in 1914. It is 1,350 ft long, 80 ft wide, and 23.1 ft deep. This lock is used less frequently (only 5 commercial/private and 34 government vessel passages, on 14 days in October 2008) to lock light freighters, tour boats, and small craft when traffic warrants. The SS James A Farrell was the first vessel to lock through.</p><br>
<p>The Sabin Lock, built in 1919. It is 1,350 ft long, 80 ft wide, and 23.1 ft deep. This lock has been placed in caretaker status and is no longer used. To get the Sabin lock up and running again would cost roughly $5 million dollars.</p><br>
<p>The Davis and Sabin locks have been slated for replacement since 1986 with a new Super-Lock, which would provide a second lock capable of accommodating the "lakers". Groundbreaking for the new lock project was held on June 30, 2009, although the bulk of the funding necessary to complete the project has not yet been appropriated by Congress. This construction will further limit usage of the Davis Lock.</p><br>
<p>North of the Sabin Lock is an additional channel with a small hydroelectric plant, which provides electricity for the lock complex.</p><br>
<h3>Engineers Day</h3><br>
<p>The Corps of Engineers operates a visitor center and viewing deck for the public. On the last Friday of every June, the public is allowed to go behind the security fence and cross the lock gates of the USA Soo Locks for the annual Engineers Day Open House. During this event, visitors are able to get close enough to touch ships passing through the two regularly operating locks.</p><br>
<h2>Canadian lock</h2><br>
<p>A single small lock is operated on the Canadian side of the Soo. Opened in 1998, it was built within a damaged older lock, and is 77 m long, 15.4 m wide and 13.5 m deep. The Canadian lock is used for recreational and tour boats; major shipping traffic uses the USA locks.</p><br>
<p>Campobello Island is an island located at the entrance to Passamaquoddy Bay, adjacent to the entrance to Cobscook Bay, and within the Bay of Fundy. The island is one of the Fundy Islands and is part of Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada. Campobello Island is also the name of a rural community including the entire Parish of Campobello. The island has no road connection to the rest of Canada; though there is a bridge connecting it to nearby Lubec, Maine in the United States. Reaching mainland Canada by car without crossing an international border is possible only during the summer season and requires two separate ferry trips, the first to nearby Deer Island, then from Deer Island to L&#39;Etete.</p><br>
<p>Measuring 14 km long and about 5 km wide, it has an area of 39.6 km&sup2;. The island&#39;s permanent population in 2011 was 925.</p><br>
<h2>Employment</h2><br>
<p>The majority of residents are employed in the fishing/aquaculture or tourism industries. The two major tourist attractions on the island are Herring Cove Provincial Park and Roosevelt Campobello International Park. The latter was created in 1964 and was officially opened by USA President Lyndon Johnson and Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson in 1966.</p><br>
<h2>Education</h2><br>
<p>The island has one school, Campobello Island Consolidated School, for all school grades.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>The island&#39;s only highway, Route 774, is connected by the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge to Lubec, Maine &mdash; the easternmost town in the continental United States. The only transportation link with the rest of Canada is a seasonal ferry service to Cummings Cove on Deer Island.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The island was originally settled by the Passamaquoddy Nation, who called it Ebaghuit.</p><br>
<h3>French exploration</h3><br>
<p>The first Europeans were reportedly from the French expedition of Pierre Dugua de Mons (Sieur de Mons) and Samuel de Champlain, who founded the short-lived nearby St. Croix Island settlement in 1604. France named the island Port aux Coquilles ("Shell Harbour"). Following the War of the Spanish Succession, under terms of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), the island came under British control and was placed in the colony of Nova Scotia, having ceased to be included in the French colony of Acadia.</p><br>
<h3>British settlement</h3><br>
<p>In 1770, a grant of the island was made to Captain William Owen (1737–1778) of the Royal Navy, who renamed it Campobello. The islands name was derived from Britains Governor of Nova Scotia, Lord William Campbell, by Italianizing/Hispanicizing his name Campbell (which is really of Scottish Gaelic origin), alluding to campo bello, which in Italian means "beautiful field" and in Spanish "beautiful country(side)". The creation of the colony of New Brunswick in 1784 saw the island transferred to the new jurisdiction, and by the end of the 18th century the small island had a thriving community and economy, partly aided by Loyalist refugees fleeing the American Revolutionary War. Smuggling was a major part of the island&#39;s prosperity after the Revolution, a custom to which local officials largely turned a blind eye. During the War of 1812 the Royal Navy seized coastal lands of Maine as far south as the Penobscot River but returned them following the war, except for offshore islands. In 1817 the USA relinquished its claim to the Fundy Isles (Campobello, Deer Island, and Grand Manan), and the British returned islands in Cobscook Bay including Moose Island but notably did not return Machias Seal Island. By the mid-19th century, Campobello Island had a population in excess of 1,000. In 1910, 1,230 people lived there.</p><br>
<h3>Fenian raid</h3><br>
<p>In 1866, a band of more than 700 members of the Fenian Brotherhood arrived at the Maine shore opposite the island with the intention of seizing Campobello from the British. British warships from Halifax, Nova Scotia were quickly on the scene and a military force dispersed the Fenians. This action served to reinforce the idea of protection for New Brunswick by joining with the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, Canada East, and Canada West in Confederation to form the Dominion of Canada.</p><br>
<h3>Franklin D. Roosevelt</h3><br>
<p>Campobello has always relied heavily on fishing as the mainstay of the island economy; however, the Passamaquoddy Bay region&#39;s potential for tourism was discovered during the 1880s at about the same time as The Algonquin resort was built at nearby St. Andrews and the resort community of Bar Harbor was beginning to develop. Campobello Island became home to a similar, although much smaller and more exclusive, development following the acquisition of some island properties by several private American investors. A luxurious resort hotel was built and the island became a popular summer colony for wealthy Canadians and Americans, many of whom built grand estates there.</p><br>
<p>Among those with estates were Sara Delano and her husband James Roosevelt Sr. from New York City. Sara Delano had a number of Delano cousins living in Maine, and Campobello offered a beautiful summer retreat where their family members could easily visit. From 1883 onward, the Roosevelt family made Campobello Island their summer home. Their son Franklin D. Roosevelt would spend his summers on Campobello from the age of one until, as an adult, he acquired a larger property &mdash; a 34-room "cottage" &mdash; which he used as a summer retreat until 1939. It was at Campobello, in August 1921, that the future president fell ill and was diagnosed with polio, which resulted in his total and permanent paralysis from the waist down. Roosevelt did strive to regain use of his legs but never again stood or walked unassisted. His visits were mostly as a child, only staying overnight once while president.</p><br>
<h3>Modern history</h3><br>
<p>During the 20th century, the islands prosperity from its wealthy visitors declined with the change in lifestyles brought on by a new mobility afforded by automobiles, airplanes, and air conditioning in large inland cities. Nonetheless, for President Roosevelt, the tranquility was exactly what he and his family cherished, and the property remained in their hands until 1952 when it was sold by Elliott Roosevelt (Franklin and Eleanors fourth child). Elliott decided to sell the house after his mother, Eleanor, had sold it to him. Elliott sold it to Victor Hammer and his brother Armand Hammer of Boston and they owned it up until 1963. However, they said Eleanor was always welcome to come whenever she pleased, and her last visit was in 1962 to attend the opening of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge connecting Campobello Island to Lubec, Maine. In 1962 the brothers tried to sell it but got no takers; they subsequently donated the cottage to the USA and Canadian governments in 1963 as an international park. The Roosevelt Campobello International Park is the only one of its kind because it is run by both the Canadian and American governments, the park being located in Canadian territory. The park is now equally staffed by both Americans and Canadians.</p><br>
<p>In 1960, motion-picture producer Dore Schary and director Vincent J. Donehue made the film Sunrise at Campobello, based on Scharys Tony Award winning Broadway play of the same name. Starring Ralph Bellamy as Franklin D. Roosevelt, the film covered the years 1921 to 1924 at Campobello Island and events leading up to Roosevelts nomination as the Democratic Party&#39;s candidate for president.</p><br>
<h2>Notable people</h2><br>
<p>William Owen (Royal Navy officer), Royal Navy Officer, proprietor</p><br>
<p>William Fitzwilliam Owen, Royal Navy Officer, explorer, political figure, proprietor</p><br>
<p>John James Robinson-Owen, Royal Navy Officer, political figure</p><br>
<p>Great South Bay, actually a lagoon, is situated between Long Island and Fire Island, in the State of New York. It is approximately 45 mi long and protected from the Atlantic Ocean by Fire Island, a barrier island, as well as the eastern end of Jones Beach Island and Captree Island.</p><br>
<p>Robert Moses Causeway adjoins the Great South Bay Bridge, which leads to Robert Moses State Park.</p><br>
<p>The bay is accessible from the ocean through Fire Island Inlet, which lies between the western tip of Fire Island and the eastern tip of Jones Beach Island. The bay adjoins South Oyster Bay on its western end, and Patchogue and Moriches bays at the east end.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In the early 17th century, European settlers first encountered the native Meroke tribes. Among the earliest British families were the Smith, Carman and Hewlett families.</p><br>
<p>Long Island&#39;s South Shore, which includes Lindenhurst, Babylon, Islip, Oakdale, Sayville, Bayport, Blue Point, Patchogue, Bellport, Shirley, and Mastic Beach. These towns are historic bay towns, with a rich history of clamming, fishing and boating.</p><br>
<h2>Environmental concerns</h2><br>
<p>The bay is under grave threat because with 400,000 septic tanks in Suffolk County, along with run off from lawn fertilizers and pesticides, the Eel grass beds, an important habitat for shellfish and finfish, have been decimated by massive algal blooms</p><br>
<p>. At one time The Great South Bay produced over 50% of the hard shell clams eaten in the United State, with 6,500 clammers working in the bay. There is now 1% of the yield in 1976. An industry collapsed, and the South Shore communities suffered greatly. In 1976, 40% of the bay water was filtered by the clams themselves. Without clams to filter the water, the quality of the bay began to decline. The first brown tide was observed in 1985 and soon many bays and ponds in the area began seeing a variety of algal blooms—brown, rust, red, and blue-green.</p><br>
<p>In July 2013, The Great South Bay was covered with brown tide throughout, with the algae blocking the sunlight, damaging habitat and adversely affecting the fish and shellfish. The cell counts were over 1 million per liter in much of the bay, the one exception being The Breach and The New Inlet.</p><br>
<p>In the late nineteenth century Great South Bay provided many of the clams consumed throughout the region and even the country. The first oysters to be exported from the US to Europe came from Great South Bay. By the latter 20th century, a significant percentage of the habitat was lost and the clam population was dramatically reduced, devastating the neighboring communities that depended on it. In the 19th century thousands of baymen worked the waters of Great South Bay. Now, only a scant few can be seen.</p><br>
<p>The majority of these concerns could be alleviated due to the Great South Bay&#39;s new-found ability to begin flushing itself out. Recently the largest storm on record since 1938, Hurricane Sandy, made landfall with devastating impact to Fire Island sea shores, including multiple breaches. The largest forming just south of Bellport, Long Island. This was formerly known as Old Inlet. Residents were concerned it would have effects on tidal increases and potential flooding, when in actuality it has allowed the bay to relieve some of its captive water, which has changed the salinity and nitrogen levels in the bay. The Bay has, after roughly 75 years, begun flushing itself out which may improve the water condition within the bay. Regulations set forth by the US Government National Wildlife Preserve, which has a seven-mile stretch of land (The Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness) prohibit any unauthorized parties from performing any kind of man made changes, thus the inlet has remained open. There have been a number of ongoing public meeting discussing the future of the Inlet. All the other breaches were closed by the Army Corps of Engineers. The Save the Great South Bay not-for-profit organization was formed in order to work towards better conservation of the water and its beachfronts.</p><br>
<p>Umm el-Marra, أم المرى, east of modern Aleppo in the Jabbul Plain of northern Syria, was one of the ancient Near Easts oldest cities, located on a crossroads of two trade routes northwest of Ebla, in a landscape that was much more fertile than it is today. Possibly this is the city of Tuba mentioned in Egyptian inscriptions listing cities that were defeated or destroyed in the Pharaoh Thutmose IIIs north Syrian campaign. The city of Tuba is also mentioned</p><br>
<p>in epigraphic remains from Ebla, Mari, and Alalakh.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Umm el-Marra probably had three to five thousand inhabitants between 2800 BCE and about 2100/2000 BCE, when Tuba and other cities in the Jabbul Plain experienced a mysterious collapse of central authority that lasted about 200 years. Partial answers to the question, why these early centers were so brittle, may lie in the effects of sustained drought on overstressed primitive agriculture. Dr Glenn Schwartz of Johns Hopkins, who has been doing field archaeology at Umm el-Marra, suggested in 1994 that "they placed extensive demands on their environments, continually intensifying their agriculture to feed more people. The added stress from a few dry years may have been the straw that broke the camel&#39;s back." Simple daily life went on in Tuba, for the site was never completely abandoned, but at the renaissance of the city in 1800 BCE, Amoritic names were now in control. Tuba went on to enjoy a second period of prosperity and power, as a "subsidiary capital" of the still shadowy kingdom of Yamkhad.</p><br>
<p>After a long period of abandonment, the site was re-occupied in the Hellenistic and Roman periods.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeology</h2><br>
<p>The site covers around 25 hectares. It was surrounded with a city wall</p><br>
<p>with 3 gates and a defensive ditch.</p><br>
<p>Excavation of Umm el-Marra began in the late 1970s and early 1980s with</p><br>
<p>soundings by a Belgian team led by Roland Tefnin.</p><br>
<p>Roland Tefnin, Exploration archeologique au nord du lac de Djabboul (Syrie): Une campagne de sondages sur le site d&#39;Oumm el-Marra, 1978</p><br>
<p>Annuaire de lInstitut de Philologie et dHistoire Orientales et Slaves, vol. 23, pp. 71-94, 1980</p><br>
<p>Roland Tefnin, The Belgian archaeological mission in the East: Syria: Tell Abu DannUmm el Marra,</p><br>
<p>Newsletter Archéologie Orientale Valbonne, vol. 2, pp. 8-11, 1980</p><br>
<p>Roland Tefnin, Exploration archéologique du tell Oumm el-Marra (Syrie du Nord): Campagne 1982,</p><br>
<p>Syria, T. 60, Fasc. 3/4, pp. 276-278, 1983</p><br>
<p>Since 1995, a joint archaeological team from the Johns Hopkins University and</p><br>
<p>the University of Amsterdam have been working at Umm el-Marra.</p><br>
<p>Hans H. Curvers, Glenn M. Schwartz and Sally Dunham, Umm el-Marra, a Bronze Age Urban Center in the Jabbul Plain, Western Syria</p><br>
<p>American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 101, no. 2, pp. 201-239, 1997</p><br>
<p>Glenn M. Schwartz et al., Excavation and Survey in the Jabbul Plain, Western Syria: The Umm el-Marra Project 1996-1997,</p><br>
<p>American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 104, no. 3, pp. 419-462, 2000</p><br>
<p>Glenn M. Schwartz et al., A Third-Millennium B.C. Elite Mortuary Complex at Umm el-Marra, Syria: 2002 and 2004 Excavations,</p><br>
<p>American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 110, pp. 603-41, 2006</p><br>
<p>A rare intact, unlooted tomb, ca. 2300 BCE, uncovered by Dr. Schwartz&#39;s team in 2000 at the site, made science press headlines, for it contained five richly-adorned adults and three babies, some of whom were ornamented head-to-toe in gold and silver.</p><br>
<p>Glenn M. Schwartz et al., A Third-Millennium B.C. Elite Tomb and Other New Evidence from Tell Umm el-Marra Syria,</p><br>
<p>American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 107, no. 3, pp. 325-361, 2003</p><br>
<p>It may be the oldest intact possibly royal tomb yet to be found in Syria. Dr. Schwartz noted of peculiar aspects in the burial that they may hint at ritual characteristics, rather than a tomb simply reserved for royalty or elite individuals. The interment, which was above ground in ancient times, included three layers of skeletons in wooden coffins lined with textiles. The top layer includes traces of two coffins, each containing a young woman in her twenties and a baby. The women were the most richly ornamented of all the occupants of the tomb, with jewelry of silver, gold and lapis lazuli. Also of interest on this level was an accompanying lump of iron, possibly from a meteorite. One of the babies appeared to be wearing a bronze torque, or collar.</p><br>
<p>In the layer below were coffins of two adult males and the remains of a baby at some distance from both men, close to the entrance of the tomb. This differs from the placement of the babies in the upper layer, where they were placed next to the women&#39;s bodies. Crowning the older man was a silver diadem decorated with a disk bearing a rosette motif, while the man opposite had a bronze dagger. The third and lowest layer held an adult male with a silver cup and silver pins.</p><br>
<p>All the individuals were accompanied by scores of ceramic vessels, some of which contained animal bones that may have been part of funerary animal offerings. Outside the tomb to the south, against the tomb wall, was a jar containing the remains of a baby, a spouted jar, and two skulls, horselike but apparently belonging neither to horses or donkeys.</p><br>
<p>The ceramics in the tomb date to around 2300 B.C., the latter part of Egypt&#39;s pyramid age.</p><br>
<h2>Modern village</h2><br>
<p>As of 2004, Umm el-Marra has 1,878 population.</p><br>
<p>Strathearn or Strath Earn  is the strath of the River Earn, in Scotland. It extends from Loch Earn to the River Tay, and was bounded on the north by Atholl, north west by Breadalbane, south west by Menteith, south east by Fife, and on the east by Perthia. The region formed a traditional province of Scotland, and hence had a mormaer and then an Earl.</p><br>
<p>Royal dukedoms of Cumberland and Strathearn, of Kent and Strathearn and of Connaught and Strathearn have been awarded to members of the British Royal Family. Prince William was created Earl of Strathearn, as a subsidiary title to Duke of Cambridge, on 29 April 2011, the day of his wedding to Catherine Middleton.</p><br>
<p>In medieval times, the sheriff based at Perth covered Strathearn as part of their duties. As a result, when 19th century local government reforms replaced the ancient provinces by new Counties (shires), based on sheriffdom boundaries, Strathearn became the south-central part of Perthshire. As a result of late 20th century reforms, it is now part of Perth and Kinross</p><br>
<h2>Other uses</h2><br>
<p>"Strathearn" / "Strathern" is also a surname in the United States and Northern Ireland, predominantly in the Bellaghy area of County Londonderry.</p><br>
<p>Skyros  is an island in Greece, the southernmost of the Sporades, an archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Around the 2nd millennium BC and slightly later, the island was known as The Island of the Magnetes where the Magnetes used to live and later Pelasgia and Dolopia and later Skyros. At 209 km² it is the largest island of the Sporades, and has a population of about 3,000 . It is part of the regional unit of Euboea.</p><br>
<p>The Hellenic Air Force has a major base in Skyros, because of the island&#39;s strategic location in the middle of the Aegean.</p><br>
<h2>Municipality</h2><br>
<p>The municipality Skyros is part of the regional unit of Euboea. Apart from the island Skyros it consists of the small inhabited island of Skyropoula and a few smaller uninhabited islands. The total area of the municipality is 223.10 km².</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The north of the island is covered by a forest, while the south, dominated by the highest mountain, called Kochila, (792 m), is bare and rocky. The island&#39;s capital is also called Skyros (or, locally, Chora). The main port, on the west coast, is Linaria. The island has a castle (the kastro) that dates from the Venetian occupation (13th to 15th centuries), a Byzantine monastery (the Monastery of Saint George), the grave of English poet Rupert Brooke in an olive grove by the road leading to Tris Boukes harbour. There are many beaches on the coast. The island has its own breed of Skyrian ponies.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>According to Greek mythology, Theseus died on Skyros when he was thrown from a cliff by the local king Lycomedes.</p><br>
<p>The island is also famous in the myths as the place from where Achilles set sail for Troy after having been discovered in the court of Lycomedes by Odysseus.</p><br>
<p>Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, was from Skyros (or Scyros, as its name is sometimes transliterated), as told in the play by Sophocles, Philoctetes (line 239). There is a small bay named Achili on the east coast of the island that is said to be the place from where Achilles left with the Greeks, or rather when Achilles landed there during a squall that befell the Greek fleet following an abortive initial expedition landing astray in Mysia.</p><br>
<p>In c. 475 BC,according to Thucydides (1.98), Cimon defeated the Dolopians (the original inhabitants) and conquered the entire island. From that date, it was colonized by Athenian settlers and became a part of the Athenian Empire. It was on the strategic trade route from Athens to the Black Sea. Cimon claimed to have found the remains of Theseus, and returned them to Athens.</p><br>
<p>In 340 BC the Macedonians took over the island and dominated it until 192 BC, when the king Philip and the Roman Republican forces restored it to Athens.</p><br>
<p>After the Fourth Crusade, the island became part of the domain of Geremia Ghisi.</p><br>
<p>Rupert Brooke, the famous English poet, is buried on Skyros, having died on board a French hospital ship moored off the island in 1915, during World War I. Present at the at Brooke’s burial, on 23 April 1915, were Patrick Shaw-Stewart and William Denis Browne.</p><br>
<p>In 1941, Pulitzer Prize winning poet Karl Shapiro wrote the World War II poem Scyros, which he set on the island Skyros "because it was a tribute to and irony upon Rupert Brooke."</p><br>
<p>In 1963, the Archaeological Museum of Skyros was established in 1963, with the inauguration taking place 10 years later in 1973. The Faltaits Folklore Museum was founded in 1964 and was one of the first local folklore museums to operate in Greece.</p><br>
<h2>Historical population</h2><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<h3>Air travel</h3><br>
<p>Skyros is home to the Skyros Island National Airport, a one-runway airport.</p><br>
<h3>Sea travel</h3><br>
<p>Skyros Shipping Company operates the ferry service to Skyros. During holiday season the ferry runs twice daily from Kymi to Linaria on Skyros. During the winter months the service operates daily.</p><br>
<p>The Mascarene Islands or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues. The collective title is derived from the Portuguese navigator Pedro Mascarenhas, who first visited them in the early sixteenth century. The islands share a common geologic origin in the volcanism of the Réunion hotspot beneath the Mascarene Plateau and form a distinct ecoregion with a unique flora and fauna.</p><br>
<h2>Location and description</h2><br>
<p>The archipelago comprises three large islands, Mauritius, Réunion, and Rodrigues, plus a number of volcanic remnants in the tropics of the southwestern Indian Ocean, generally between 700 and 1500 kilometres east of Madagascar. The terrain includes a variety of reefs, atolls, and small islands. They present various topographical and edaphic regions. On the largest islands these gave rise to unusual biodiversity. The climate is oceanic and tropical.</p><br>
<h3>Geology</h3><br>
<p>The islands are volcanic in origin; Saya de Malha (35 mya) was the first of the Mascarene islands to rise out of the Indian Ocean due to the Réunion hotspot, followed by Nazareth Bank (some 2,000 years later), Soudan Bank and Cargados Carajos. The youngest islands to form were Mauritius (7–10 mya), the oldest of the existing islands, created along with the undersea Rodrigues ridge. The islands of Rodrigues and Réunion were created in the last two million years. Réunion is the largest of the islands (2,500 km), followed by Mauritius (1,900 km) and Rodrigues (110 km). Eventually Saya de Malha, Nazareth and Soudan were completely submerged, Cargados Carajos remaining as a coral atoll. The Réunion hotspot was beginning to cool and Rodrigues came out as a small island.</p><br>
<p>Réunion is home to the highest peaks in the Mascarenes, the shield volcanoes Piton des Neiges (3,069 m) and Piton de la Fournaise (2,525 m). Piton de la Fournaise, on the southeastern corner of Réunion, is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, erupting last in 2017. Piton de la Petite Rivière Noire (828 m) is the highest peak on Mauritius, and the gentle hills of Rodrigues rise to only 390 m.</p><br>
<p>The Mascarene Plateau is an undersea plateau that extends approximately 2000 km, from the Seychelles to Réunion. The plateau covers an area of over 115,000 km of shallow water, with depths ranging from 8 to 150 meters, plunging to 4000 m to the abyssal plain at its edges. The southern part of the plateau, including the Saya de Malha Bank, Nazareth Bank, Soudan Banks and Cargados Carajos Shoals (Saint Brandon) (then one large island), was formed by the Réunion hotspot. These were once volcanic islands, much like Mauritius and Réunion, which have now sunk or eroded to below sea level or, in the case of the Cargados Carajos, to low coral islands. The Saya de Malha Bank formed 35 million years ago, and the Nazareth Bank and the Cargados Carajos shoals after that. Limestone banks found on the plateau are the remnants of coral reefs, indicating that the plateau was a succession of islands. Some of the banks may have been islands as recently as 18,000–6,000 years ago, when sea levels were as much as 130 meters lower during the most recent ice age.</p><br>
<h2>Flora</h2><br>
<p>The habitats of the islands differ in size, topography, age, and in proximity to the nearest major land mass, namely (Madagascar). As is common among remote islands, the Mascarene fauna and flora display a high degree of endemism; they include over a thousand species of which several hundred are endemic. There also are many introduced species but until Europeans first settled the islands in the sixteenth century the Mascarenes are not known to have harboured any human populations, so much of the island&#39;s wildlife, which would have gone extinct much earlier had any native people lived there, was still flourishing during the early days of settlement.</p><br>
<p>In prehistoric times the islands were covered in a diverse range of tropical moist broadleaf forest. At present however, though the Mascarene islands form a distinct ecoregion, known as the Mascarene forests, the ecoregion is not homogeneous, and comprises at least five fairly distinct vegetation zones that reflect variations in altitude and in moisture regime.</p><br>
<p>The freshwater biota includes coastal wetlands and swamp forests, grading into rainforest to windward and to lowland dry forest to leeward. Dryland areas include palm savannas, montane deciduous forests and heathlands on the highest peaks of Réunion. The dry lowland forests range from sea level to elevations of some 200 metres. They occur in regions with less than 1000 mm average annual rainfall. These dry lowland forests are dominated by palms such as Latania species and Dictyosperma album, and by the palm-like screw-pines (Pandanus species). There also are sclerophyllous trees such as species in the family Combretaceae, for example Terminalia bentzoe</p><br>
<p>Semi-dry sclerophyllous forests occur between the coastal areas and an altitude of 360 metres on Mauritius and Rodrigues. On Réunion only small relict patches remain at altitudes up to 750 metres on the western slopes. This semi-dry ecosystem occurs where the average annual rainfall is about 1000–1500 mm. Characteristic families of the flora in the include Ebenaceae, with ebony species in the genus Diospyros. Other tree families are occurring such as Pleurostylia spp. (Celastraceae), Foetidia spp. (Lecythidaceae), Olea europea subsp. africana (Oleaceae), Cossinia pinnata (Sapindaceae), Dombeya spp. (Sterculiaceae), and a variety of Sapotaceae species Sideroxylon boutonianum, Sideroxylon borbonicum spp. and Mimusops. The ecosystem is also home to several spectacular endemic species of Hibiscus (Malvaceae) Zanthoxylum spp. (Rutaceae), Obetia ficifolia (Urticaceae), and Scolopia heterophylla (Flacourtiaceae).</p><br>
<p>The lowland rainforests are characterized by dense evergreen forests, with a canopy exceeding 30 meters. With an average annual rainfall of 1500–6000 mm, occur on Mauritius island above 360 m and all over the eastern lowlands from the coast to 800–900 m and, on the western side. On Réunion island the Lowland rainforests is present from 750 to 1100 m. These</p><br>
<p>forests have a canopy of tall trees up to 30 m high and represent the more diversified plant communities of the Mascarene Islands. Characteristic plants include trees in the plant family Sapotaceae e.g. Mimusops spp. Labourdonnaisia spp., Hernandiaceae Hernandia mascarenensis, Clusiaceae Calophyllum spp., and Myrtaceae Syzygium spp., Eugenia spp., Sideroxylon spp., Monimiastrum spp. shrubs in the plant family Rubiaceae (Gaertnera spp., Chassalia spp., Bertiera spp., Coffea spp.); bamboos as Nastus borbonicus, numerous species of orchids (e.g., Angraecum spp., Bulbophyllum spp.) and ferns e.g., Asplenium spp., Hymenophyllum spp., Trichomanes spp., Elaphoglossum spp., Marattia fraxinea.</p><br>
<p>The cloud forests, a dense type of hygrophilous rainforest, occur on Réunion between 800 and 1900 m on eastern slopes with an average annual rainfall 2000–10,000 mm, and between 1100 and 2000 m on western slopes with an average annual rainfall 2000–3000 mm and are also restricted to a small area of Mauritius around the montane area "Montagne Cocotte" above 750 m on Mauritius with an average annual rainfall 4500–5500 mm. These type of forests is present on both islands with a canopy of 6 to 10 m high. They are rich in epiphytes (orchids, ferns, mosses, lichens), emergent tree ferns (Cyathea spp.), and, originally, palms (Acanthophoenix rubra), but these now survive only in areas of Réunion where poaching has not wiped them out. Untransformed cloud forests still cover large areas on Réunion with 44,000 ha in 2005.</p><br>
<p>These forests are characterized by trees such as Dombeya spp., on the Réunion island only, and species in the plant family Monimiaceae (Monimia spp., Tambourissa spp.) as canopy species, with small trees and shrubs sucth as Psiadia spp. (Asteraceae) and Melicope spp. (Rutaceae) in the understory. They also include large areas of three monodominant plant communities, forests with Acacia heterophylla (Fabaceae) as canopy species that are very similar to Acacia koa forests in Hawaii, thickets dominated by Erica reunionensis (Ericaceae), or hyperhumid screw-pine forest (Pandanus montanus).</p><br>
<p>The subalpine scrub with an average annual rainfall 2000–6000 mm is above the tree line to 1800–2000 m, at elevations where frosts occur regularly in winter, dominated by shrubs in the plant families of Ericaceae (Erica spp.), Asteraceae (Hubertia spp., Psiadia spp., Stoebe passerinoides), and Rhamnaceae (Phylica nitida), with some notable endemic species suchs Heterochaenia rivalsii (Campanulaceae), Eriotrix commersonii (Asteraceae), and Cynoglossum borbonicum (Boraginaceae).</p><br>
<p>The summits of the volcanoes are covered by large mineral areas with sparse grasslands rich in endemic grasses (Poaceae, e.g., Festuca borbonica, Agrostis salaziensis, Pennisetum caffrum) and orchids (Orchidaceae, e.g., Disa borbonica), ericoid thickets, or thickets of the small tree Sophora denudata (Fabaceae), depending on substrate texture and age.</p><br>
<p>Finally the Mascarene Islands are surrounded by approximately 750 square km of coral reef. Rodrigues has nearly continuous fringing reefs bounding an extensive lagoon with deep channels, whereas Mauritius is surrounded by a discontinuous fringing reef and a small barrier reef. In contrast, Réunion has very short stretches of narrow fringing reefs along the western and southwestern coasts only. The islets of the Cargados Carajos Shoals, which have a very depauperate terrestrial biota owing to being so low-lying and swamped during cyclones, are bound to the east by an extensive arc of fringing reef, which accounts for ∼30% of the reefs of the Mascarene Islands. Lagoon reefs and reef flats are dominated by scleractinian corals such as branching and tabular Acropora, Porites massives, foliaceous Montipora and Pavona, and sand consolidated with beds of seagrass such Halophila spp. (Hydrocharitaceae).</p><br>
<p>Among coral reef fishes, wrasses (Labridae), damselfish (Pomacentridae), carnivorous groupers (Serranidae), and surgeonfishes (Acanthuridae) have many species.</p><br>
<p>Most of the indigenous Mascarene flora and fauna are thought to have descended originally from Madagascan and African ancestors. The Mascarenes are home to many endemic species of Dombeyoideae, the monotypic genus Psiloxylon (Psiloxylon mauritianum), and members of the family Monimiaceae, Escalloniaceae and Foetidia. Indigenous trees for example include species in the genera Ocotea, Erythrina, Sideroxylon and several species of palms in the genus Hyophorbe. Ferns are prominent components of the biotas of the islands, especially in the tropical forest. Most ferns disperse easily via ornithochory of their spores, allowing fairly frequent colonization from Madagascar and exchange among the Mascarene islands.</p><br>
<p>Other endemic families include the Asteropeiaceae, Sarcolaenaceae and Sphaerosepalaceae (with psiloxylaceae ). The four largest families present in the Mascarene Islands are: Myrtaceae, Rubiaceae, Orchidaceae, and Euphorbiaceae, they comprise between 193 and 223 species each, for a total of 831 species, or 26.9% of the flowering plant flora. Another seven families contain 80 or more species each: Poaceae, Apocynaceae, Cyperaceae, Cunoniaceae, Rutaceae, Araliaceae, and Sapotaceae, representing an additional ca. 660 species in all, 21.3% of the angiosperm flora. Some families that have few species, but are distributed too in the Americas, showing its ancient related origin, are typically in wet areas and occur as relict species in wet Islands wideworld, with several families including Phyllanthaceae, Hernandiaceae, Lauraceae, Ebenaceae with Mauritius ebony, Diospyros tesselaria.</p><br>
<p>The increasing disappearance of young calvaria trees, is suggested due to Cylindraspis tortoises, fruit bats or the broad-billed parrot could have been dispersing the seeds.</p><br>
<p>The Tambalacoque (Sideroxylon grandiflorum), often called the dodo tree, is also threatened with extinction, although this is principally as a result of unripened seed destruction by the introduced crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis) rather than any connection to a reliance on the dodo to assist with seed germination after the seeds passed through the extinct bird&#39;s digestive tract.</p><br>
<p>In the Mascarenes, the angiosperms with 22 species have 21 endemic. The endemic Dombeyoideae from the Mascarenes are polyphyletic and split into nine clades. Trochetia appears monophyletic and more closely related to Eriolaena and Helmiopsis than to Dombeya. All Dombeya taxa are included in a clade together with Ruizia and Astiria, this means that Dombeya is paraphyletic. In terms of breeding systems the Malagasy Dombeyoideae are hermaphroditic, whereas those of the Mascarenes are considered dioecious. The polyphyly of the Mascarene Dombeyoideae suggests that dioecy has been acquired several times. At least five colonization events from Madagascar to the Mascarene archipelago were produced. The evolutionary history of two lineages of Mascarene Domeyoideae seems to be related to adaption to xeric habitats.</p><br>
<h2>Fauna</h2><br>
<p>Indeed, much of the Mascarenes&#39; native fauna has become endangered or extinct since the human settlement of the islands in the 17th century. Settlers cleared most of the forests for agriculture and grazing, and introduced many exotic species, including pigs, rats, cats, monkeys, and mongooses.</p><br>
<p>Many of the Mascarene birds evolved into flightless forms; the most famous of which was the extinct flightless pigeon, the dodo of Mauritius. As well as the dodo thirteen additional species of birds became extinct including the Réunion flightless ibis, broad-billed parrot, red rail, Rodrigues rail, Rodrigues solitaire. Today sixteen endemic bird species survive on the islands.</p><br>
<p>Contemporary sources state that the dodo used gizzard stones Seed distribution of at least some Ocotea species is performed by frugivorous birds and there exist a few reports of "solitaires" from the Mascarenes without mention of which island these came from, and the term was also used for other species with "solitary" habits, such as the Réunion blue swamphen and the Réunion sacred ibis. At one point it was even believed that Réunion was the home of not only a white dodo, but also a white solitaire. In 1786, sub-fossil bones were discovered in a cave which confirmed Leguat&#39;s descriptions, but at this time no living residents of Rodrigues remembered having seen living birds. The star constellation Turdus Solitarius was named after this bird.</p><br>
<p>Mauritius, Réunion, and Rodrigues were also once each home to one or more species of giant tortoises, now extinct, which comprised the genus Cylindraspis. There are thirteen living endemic reptile species, including a number of species of day geckoes (genus Phelsuma).</p><br>
<p>The islands have no native mammals, except for bats such as the Mauritian flying fox.</p><br>
<h2>Wildlife - Threats and preservation</h2><br>
<p>Today Mauritius has one of the highest population densities in the world and on all of the islands, there has been a great loss of habitat and many of the surviving endemic species are still threatened with extinction with little protection. Less than 40 percent of Réunion is covered with natural vegetation, only about 5 percent of Mauritius, and almost none of Rodrigues. On Réunion, forest has been cleared for agriculture and then overtaken by introduced plants. Mauritius was largely converted to sugar cane, tea, and conifer plantations. On Rodrigues the damage has been done by shifting cultivation.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The early colonial history of the islands, like that of the Caribbean, is a confusing story of takeovers between the rival Portuguese, Dutch, French and British colonizers, usually separate or in varying combinations, sometimes even with distant other colonies, e.g. in the East Indies.</p><br>
<p>Around 1507, the explorer Diogo Fernandes Pereira discovered the island group. The area remained under nominal Portuguese rule until Étienne de Flacourt arrived with a French naval squadron and took possession in 1649. From 4 June 1735 to 23 March 1746, a single French Mascarene Islands chartered colony under one gouverneur général (governor general) contained Isle de France (now Mauritius), Île Bourbon (Réunion) and Séchelles (Seychelles). On 14 July 1767 this became a French crown colony, still under one governor general. From 3 February 1803 till 2 September 1810 the French colony of Indes-Orientales, under a capitaine général (captain-general), included Réunion and (nominally) the Seychelles.</p><br>
<h3>Mauritius</h3><br>
<p>Mauritius was formed 8–10 million years ago, and is geographically one of the oldest remaining islands in the group. It was discovered in the 10th century by the Arabs and was first named Dina Harobi, but the first permanent settlement was by the Dutch in 1638. It was seized in 1715 by France, who remained in control of it until the British took over in 1810. Mauritius gained independence in 1968.</p><br>
<h3>Rodrigues</h3><br>
<p>Rodrigues was formed at around the same time as Reunion. It was first discovered by the Arabs but named after Portuguese navigator Diogo Rodrigues. It was under Dutch control in 1601 and settled by the French in 1691. Britain took possession of Rodrigues in 1809. When Mauritius gained independence in 1968, Rodrigues was forcefully joined to it. Rodrigues remains an autonomous region of Mauritius.</p><br>
<h3>Réunion</h3><br>
<p>Réunion was discovered first by the Arabs then by the Portuguese, who named it Santa Apolónia. It was then occupied by the French as part of Mauritius. It was first inhabited by French mutineers who arrived on the island between 1646 and 1669. It was given its current name in 1793. From 1810 to 1815 it was held by the British, before being returned to France. Réunion became an overseas department of France in 1946.</p><br>
<h3>Cargados Carajos</h3><br>
<p>Cargados Carajos is the remnant of one or more large volcanic islands which sank with the rising tides. Today it is administered by Mauritius.</p><br>
<h3>Saya de Malha</h3><br>
<p>Saya de Malha Bank is a large, submerged bank. Prehistorically it was a group of volcanic islands, and was joined to the Great Chagos Bank until continental drift pushed them apart.</p><br>
<h3>Soudan Banks</h3><br>
<p>Soudan Banks are a group of low-lying banks on the Mascarene Plateau.</p><br>
<h3>Nazareth Bank</h3><br>
<p>Nazareth Bank is located just north of Cargados Carajos, and prehistorically they were a single geological feature. Today it is a large, shallow fishing bank.</p><br>
<h3>Hawkins Bank</h3><br>
<p>Hawkins Bank is located on the northernmost point of the Mascarene Plateau.</p><br>
<p>Pyramid Lake is the geographic sink of the Truckee River Basin, 40 mi northeast of Reno.</p><br>
<p>Pyramid Lake is fed by the Truckee River, which is mostly the outflow from Lake Tahoe. The Truckee River enters Pyramid Lake at its southern end. Pyramid Lake has no outlet, with water leaving only by evaporation, or sub-surface seepage (an endorheic lake). The lake has about 10% of the area of the Great Salt Lake, but it has about 25% more volume. The salinity is approximately 1/6 that of sea water. Although clear Lake Tahoe forms the headwaters that drain to Pyramid Lake, the Truckee River delivers more turbid waters to Pyramid Lake after traversing the steep Sierra terrain and collecting moderately high silt-loaded surface runoff.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Lahontan (~890 feet deep), the lake area was inhabited by the 19th-century Paiute, who used the Tui chub and Lahontan cutthroat trout from the lake (the former is now endangered and the latter is threatened). The lake was first mapped in 1844 by John C. Frémont, the American discoverer of the lake who also gave it its English title.</p><br>
<p>In the 19th century two battles were fought near the lake, major actions in the Paiute War. In the 1960s a marker was placed commemorating these battles.</p><br>
<p>Because of water diversion beginning in 1905 by Derby Dam through Truckee Canal to Lahontan reservoir, the lake&#39;s existence was threatened, and the Paiute sued the Department of the Interior. By the mid-1970s, the lake had lost 80 feet of depth, and according to Paiute fisheries officials, the life of the lake was seriously under threat. In the opinion of John Pilger, the irrigation scheme for which water was diverted was an economic failure.</p><br>
<p>1903 - Irrigation diversion of the Truckee via the Derby Dam eliminated naturally-spawning Lahontan cutthroat trout, which are now stocked.</p><br>
<p>1936 - The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe approved their constitution and by-laws.</p><br>
<p>1987 - A water quality model was completed for the Truckee River.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Pyramid Lake is located in southeastern Washoe County in western Nevada. It is in an elongated intermontane basin between the Lake Range on the east, the Virginia Mountains on the west and the Pah Rah Range on the southwest. The Fox Range and the Smoke Creek Desert lie to the north.</p><br>
<p>In a parallel basin to the east of the Lake Range is Winnemucca Lake, now a dry lake bed. Prior to the construction of the Derby Dam in 1905 both lake levels stood at near 3,880 ft. Following the dam completion the water levels dropped to 3,867 ft and 3,853 ft for Pyramid and Winnemucca respectively. In 1957 Pyramid Lake level was at 3,802 ft and the dry Winnemucca Lake bed at 3,780 ft had been dry since the 1930s.</p><br>
<p>The lake is the largest remnant of ancient Lake Lahontan that covered much of northwestern Nevada at the end of the last ice age. Pyramid Lake was the deepest point in Lake Lahontan, reaching an estimated 890 ft due to its low level relative to the surrounding basins.</p><br>
<p>Sutcliffe is on the west shore of Pyramid Lake along State Route 445. Nixon is on the Truckee River to the southeast of the lake on State Route 34.</p><br>
<p>The name of the lake comes from the impressive cone or pyramid shaped tufa formations found in the lake and along the shores. The largest such formation, Anaho Island, is home to a large colony of American white pelicans and is restricted for ecological reasons. Access to the Needles, another spectacular tufa formation at the northern end of the lake has also been restricted due to recent vandalism.</p><br>
<h2>Fish</h2><br>
<p>Major fish species include the Cui-ui lakesucker, which is endemic to Pyramid Lake, the Tui chub and Lahontan cutthroat trout (the world record cutthroat trout was caught in Pyramid Lake). The former is endangered, and the latter is threatened. Both species were of critical importance to the Paiute people in pre-contact times. As they are both obligate freshwater spawners, they rely on sufficient inflow to allow them to run up the Truckee River to spawn, otherwise their eggs will not hatch. Diversion of the Truckee for irrigation since the early 20th century has reduced inflow such that it is now rarely sufficient for spawning. Due to the construction of Derby Dam in 1903 to divert water to croplands in Fallon, which lowered water levels in the lake and blocked upstream spawning runs due to a lack of fish ladders, by 1939 the Lahontan cutthroat trout (the "salmon-trout" as described by Frémont) became extinct in Pyramid Lake and its tributaries. They were replaced with hatchery trout from outside the watershed.</p><br>
<p>However, in 1979 a remnant population of the original Pyramid Lake cutthroat trout was discovered in a small brook on Pilot Peak, on the Nevada/Utah border, by Dr. Robert Behnke of Colorado State University while he was looking for the Bonneville cutthroat trout, another subspecies of the cutthroat trout. The fish were tiny and in poor condition, but Behnke identified the fingerlings as the missing Pyramid Lake variety. Subsequent DNA testing of a museum specimen has shown his identification to be correct. The fish had apparently been dumped in the creek in the early 20th century. A brood stock was raised at the USA Fish and Wildlife Services Lahontan National Fish Hatchery in Gardnerville, Nevada and a successful reintroduction effort was mounted by the USFWS and the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. As of 2013, twenty-pound Pyramid Lake Lahontan cutthroat trout are again being caught from the Lakes waters. The fish are doing very well, according to the USFWS project head Lisa Heki. The fish have also been placed in California&#39;s Fallen Leaf Lake, upstream of Pyramid Lake, and elsewhere. Fish populations are now sustained by several tribally-run fish hatcheries and state and federal agencies. The Pyramid Lake Lahontan cutthroat trout is one of the largest inland trout species in the world.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>The following data are for the census-designated place (CDP) of Sutcliffe, NV, located on the shore of Pyramid Lake.</p><br>
<h2>Water quality</h2><br>
<p>Because of the endangered species present and because the Lake Tahoe Basin comprises the headwaters of the Truckee River, Pyramid Lake has been the focus of several water quality investigations, the most detailed starting in the mid-1980s. Under direction of the USA Environmental Protection Agency, a comprehensive dynamic water quality computer model, the DSSAM Model was developed</p><br>
<h2>Media</h2><br>
<p>Pyramid Lake was used as a stand-in for the Sea of Galilee in the 1965 biblical film, The Greatest Story Ever Told. Also, in 1961, part of The Misfits was filmed nearby.</p><br>
<p>Lampedusa  is the largest island of the Italian Pelagie Islands in the Mediterranean Sea.</p><br>
<p>The comune of Lampedusa e Linosa is part of the Sicilian province of Agrigento which also includes the smaller islands of Linosa and Lampione. It is the southernmost part of Italy and Italy&#39;s southernmost island. Tunisia, which is about 113 km away, is the closest landfall to the islands. Sicily is farther at 205 km, whilst the island nation of Malta is 176 km to the east.</p><br>
<p>Lampedusa has an area of 20.2 km&sup2; and a population of about 6,000 people. Its main industries are fishing, agriculture, and tourism. A ferry service links the island with Porto Empedocle, near Agrigento, Sicily. There are also year-round flights from Lampedusa Airport to Palermo and Catania on the Sicilian mainland. In the summer, there are additional services to Rome and Milan, besides many other seasonal links with the Italian mainland.</p><br>
<p>Since the early 2000s, the island has become a primary European entry point for migrants, mainly coming from Africa. In 2013, Rabbit Beach, located in the southern part of the island, was voted the world&#39;s best beach by travel site TripAdvisor.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>The name Lampedusa derives from the ancient Greek name of the island, Λοπαδούσσα or Λαπαδούσσα (Lopadoússa/Lapadoússa). It has been suggested that the name derives from the word λέπας (lépas), which means rock, due to the rocky landscape of the island; this word was also used by the Greeks for a kind of oyster and the island may have been called like this due to the abundance of this kind of oyster. Other scholars believe that the name derives from λαμπάς (lampás), which means torch, because of the lights which were placed on the island for the sailors.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Historically, Lampedusa was a landing place and a maritime base for the ancient Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans and Amazighs. The Romans established a plant for the production of the prized fish sauce known as garum. In 812 (or 813), directed by the Aghlabids, the island was sacked by Saracens during the ongoing Arab–Byzantine wars.</p><br>
<p>By the end of the medieval period, the island became a dependency of the Kingdom of Sicily. In 1553, Barbary pirates from North Africa under the command of the Ottoman Empire raided Lampedusa, and carried off 1,000 captives into slavery. As a result of pirate attacks, the island became uninhabited. In 1565, Don García de Toledo made a brief stop at Lampedusa while leading a relief force to break the Great Siege of Malta. In subsequent centuries, the Hospitaller fleet which was based in Malta sometimes used Lampedusa&#39;s harbour as a shelter from bad weather or from corsairs.</p><br>
<p>In 1667, the island was given to Ferdinand Tomasi of Palermo, who acquired the title of Prince of Lampedusa from King Charles II of Spain. Tomasi was the ancestor of the famous writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. A century after acquiring the island, the Tomasi family began a program of resettlement.</p><br>
<p>In the late 18th century, the Order of St. John maintained a small establishment on Lampedusa, which included a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary. This was manned by a priest and six Maltese men, who often traded with pirates. A structure known as marabuto, probably a mausoleum commemorating a member of the Marabouts, also existed on the island at this time, and it was visited by many Muslim devotees.</p><br>
<h3>19th century</h3><br>
<p>On 25 June 1800, Prince Giulio Maria Tomasi leased Lampedusa in perpetual emphyteusis to Salvatore Gatt, a Maltese merchant, on the condition that the latter would build two coastal watchtowers at Cala della Galere and Cala della Madonna. Gatt settled the island with some Maltese workers, and he imported livestock and began cultivating the land. The old castle was reconstructed, and a windmill was also built. Gatt hoisted the British flag for protection. On 27 June 1804, the prince conceded the island to Giuseppe Bugeja, another Maltese, although Gatt remained in control of the island.</p><br>
<p>At the time, the British were considering taking over Lampedusa, possibly as an alternative to Malta, which had just become a British protectorate. In 1803, the Royal Navy dropped the idea since the islands small harbour was not comparable to Maltas larger and well-fortified Grand Harbour. However, reports stated that the island could be useful in supplying Malta, especially with the threat of Sicily falling to the French.</p><br>
<p>In 1810, Gatt leased the island to Alexander Fernandez of the Army Commissariat in the Mediterranean, who established a farm with cattle and sheep, and employed 28 workers to turn the island&#39;s surface into pasturage. A small detachment of 26 men of the 14th Regiment were sent to the island in 1811 to support Fernandez, who was planning to built a fort on the island. By 1813, the island had a population of almost 200 Maltese workers.</p><br>
<p>A Royal Commission stated in an 1812 report that there would be considerable difficulties in turning the island (together with Linosa and Pantelleria) into a supply base for Malta. The Commission found Fernandez&#39;s situation to be very strange, and the Treasury demanded an explanation of his conduct. In November 1813, the sloop HMS Partridge was infected with yellow fever, and was sent to Lampedusa until convalescence. This caused most of the population to flee back to Malta, leaving only 50 to 60 people on the island. The Governor of Malta, Sir Thomas Maitland, visited Lampedusa and found that Fernandez was running a business venture, so on 15 September 1814 he announced the withdrawal of British troops stationed on the island. The same notice also stated that "it is not the intention of Government to have any further concern or connection with ". At this point, Greek privateers deposited provisions and took refuge at Lampedusa while being pursued by Tunisian vessels.</p><br>
<p>Fernandez had left to Gibraltar in 1813, but he continued to make claims on his title in Lampedusa. The British Government refused to compensate him in 1818, and Sicilian courts deprived him of his title soon afterwards. The Gatt family retook possession to the island, but what happened in subsequent years is unclear. Salvatore Gatt is believed to have died or disappeared sometime between 1813 and 1821, and the island was taken over by Fortunato Frendo, who had murdered Giacoma Gatt, Salvatore&#39;s wife. An official expedition was sent to the island from Naples in 1828, and the island was found to be inhabited by members of the Frendo, Gatt, and Molinos families along with a few workers.</p><br>
<p>A Neapolitan warship visited the island in 1841 as a show of force, but nothing changed until 11 September 1843, when two warships arrived and landed 400 soldiers on the island. They substituted the British flags on the island with Neapolitan flags. A royal decree was read out proclaiming the island as part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. A few of the Maltese settlers remained on the island, while others returned to Malta or went to Tunisia.</p><br>
<p>In the 1840s, the Tomasi family formally sold the island to the Kingdom of Naples. In 1861, the island became part of the Kingdom of Italy, but the new Italian government limited its activities there to building a penal colony.</p><br>
<h3>20th century</h3><br>
<p>In June 1943, during the Second World War, as a precursor to the Allied invasion of Sicily, the island was secured without resistance in Operation Corkscrew by the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Lookout and ninety-five men of the 2nd Battalion the Coldstream Guards. White flags had been sighted in the port, and when Lieutenant Corbett of Lookout approached the port in a motor launch, he was told that the islands garrison wished to surrender. Mussolini had given the garrison his permission to surrender because it lacked any water. The Governors formal surrender was accepted in the islands underground command-post by a combined Army/Navy delegation sometime before 9:00 pm on 12 June 1943. During this process, the governor handed his sword to the Coldstream company commander, Major Bill Harris. A second unofficial claim has also been made regarding the capitulation of the island, when earlier that same day elements of the garrison had also attempted to surrender in unusual circumstances when Sergeant Sydney Cohen, the pilot of a Royal Air Force Supermarine Walrus aircraft landed having run low on fuel and suffering problems with his compass. Cohens exploits were commemorated in a Yiddish play The King of Lampedusa that ran for six months.</p><br>
<p>The first telephone connection with Sicily was installed only in the 1960s. In the same decade an electric power station was built.</p><br>
<p>In 1972, part of the western side of the island became a United States Coast Guard LORAN-C transmitter station. In 1979, Lt. Kay Hartzell took command of the Coast Guard base, becoming "the first female commanding officer of an isolated duty station".</p><br>
<p>The 1980s, and especially 1985–1986, saw an increase in tensions and the area around the island was the scene of multiple attacks. On April 15, 1986, Libya fired two Scuds at the Lampedusa navigation station on the island, in retaliation for the American bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi, and the alleged death of Colonel Gaddafi&#39;s adopted daughter. However, the missiles passed over the island, landed in the sea, and caused no damage.</p><br>
<p>On 4 January 1989, USA Navy aircraft from the carrier USS John F. Kennedy shot down two Libyan fighters approximately 200 km from the island.</p><br>
<p>The NATO base was decommissioned in 1994 and transferred to Italian military control.</p><br>
<h3>North African immigration</h3><br>
<p>Since the early 2000s, Lampedusa, the European territory closest to Libya, has become a prime transit point for irregular immigrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia wanting to enter Europe. In 2004 the Libyan and Italian governments reached a secret agreement that obliged Libya to accept African immigrants deported from Italian territories. This resulted in the mass repatriation of many people from Lampedusa to Libya between 2004 and 2005, a move criticised by the European Parliament.</p><br>
<p>By 2006, many African immigrants were paying people smugglers in Libya to help get them to Lampedusa by boat. On arrival, most were then transferred by the Italian government to reception centres in mainland Italy. Many were then released because their deportation orders were not enforced.</p><br>
<p>In 2009, the overcrowded conditions at the island&#39;s temporary immigrant reception centre came under criticism by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The unit, which was originally built for a maximum capacity of 850 people, was reported to be housing nearly 2,000 boat people. A significant number of people were sleeping outdoors under plastic sheeting. A fire that started during an inmate riot destroyed a large portion of the holding facility on 19 February 2009.</p><br>
<p>In 2011, many more immigrants moved to Lampedusa during the rebellions in Tunisia and Libya. By May 2011, more than 35,000 immigrants had arrived on the island from Tunisia and Libya. By the end of August, 48,000 had arrived. Most were young males in their 20s and 30s. The situation has caused division within the EU, the French government regarding most of the arrivals as economic migrants rather than refugees in fear of persecution. Italy has repeatedly requested aid from the EU in managing refugees, but has been turned down.</p><br>
<p>In July 2013, Pope Francis visited the island on his first official visit outside of Rome. He prayed for migrants, living and dead, and denounced their traffickers. In October 2013, the 2013 Lampedusa disaster occurred; a boat carrying over 500 migrants, mostly from Eritrea and Somalia, sank off the coast of Lampedusa with the deaths of at least 300 people.</p><br>
<p>From January to April 2015, about 1600 migrants died on the route from Libya to Lampedusa, making it the deadliest migrant route in the world.</p><br>
<p>The 2017 Oscar-nominated Italian documentary film, Fire at Sea, documented a part of this migrant crisis and was filmed entirely on the island in 2014 and 2015. The film also won the 66th Berlin Film Festival.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Lampedusa is the southernmost point of the Republic of Italy. It is also Italy&#39;s southernmost island. Politically and administratively, Lampedusa is part of Italy, but geologically it belongs to Africa since the sea between the two is no deeper than 120 metres. Lampedusa is a semi-arid island, dominated by a garigue landscape, with maquis shrubland in the west. It has no sources of water other than irregular rainfall. Overall the island has two slopes, from west to east, and from north to south of the island. The south-western side is dominated by deep gorges, while the southeastern part is dominated by shallow valleys and sandy beaches. The entire northern coast is dominated by cliffs: gently sloping cliffs on the east coast, and vertical sheer cliffs on the west coast.</p><br>
<h2>Wildlife</h2><br>
<p>The fauna and flora of Lampedusa are similar to those of North Africa, with a few pelagic endemic species. The Isola dei Conigli (literally "Rabbit Island"), close to the south coast of Lampedusa, is one of the last remaining egg-laying sites in Italy for the Loggerhead Sea Turtle, which is endangered throughout the Mediterranean. The beach and the neighbouring island are part of a nature reserve: here the singer-songwriter Domenico Modugno spent his vacations, and died in 1994. Next to Parise Cape is a small beach accessible only by sea, through a low grotto. Other species living along the islands coast include mantas and smaller cetaceans such as dolphins and Rissos dolphins. Waters nearby Lampedusa is the only area in the Mediterranean with sightings of great white sharks of pregnant and newly born individuals. Recent studies revealed that the waters of Lampedusa are a wintering feeding ground for the Mediterranean group of fin whales. Humpback whale, a species used to be considered as a vagrant species in to the Mediterranean basin, has been seen around the island in recent years.</p><br>
<p>Along with Linosa, Lampedusa once was a stronghold for critically endangered Mediterranean monk seals until 1950s and they are likely to be regional extinct today.</p><br>
<h3>Climate</h3><br>
<p>Lampedusa has a semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSh). It has very mild winters with moderate rainfall and hot, dry, and humid summers.</p><br>
<p>The sea surrounding the island is relatively shallow. The waters are warm most of the year, the highest temperatures recorded in August, typically 27 to 28 °C. The water stays warm until November, when temperatures range from 20 to 23 °C. It is coolest in February and March, when it averages around 16 &deg;C.</p><br>
<p>The average annual temperature is 19.2 °C, the average winter is between +15 °C and +17 °C, the summer between +28 °C and +30 °C.</p><br>
<h2>In popular culture</h2><br>
<p>Lampedusa was the filming location for the music video of Mangos single "Mediterraneo", from the album Come lacqua (1992).</p><br>
<p>The movie Respiro (2002), written and directed by Emanuele Crialese and starring Valeria Golino, was filmed entirely on Lampedusa.</p><br>
<p>The book The Pharaoh&#39;s Secret (2015) by popular fiction author Clive Cussler features Lampedusa as the scene of a mysterious deathly mist.</p><br>
<p>Think of Lampedusa collection of poems by the 2014 Tchicaya U Tam&#39;si Prize Josué Guébo, refers to the 2013 shipwreck near Lampedusa.</p><br>
<p>The 2017 Oscar-nominated Italian documentary, Fire at Sea, was filmed entirely on the island between 2014 and 2015.</p><br>
<p>The Apollo Theater at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard  and Frederick Douglass Boulevard  in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City is a music hall which is a noted venue for African-American performers. It was the home of Showtime at the Apollo, a nationally syndicated television variety show which showcased new talent, from 1987 to 2008, encompassing 1,093 episodes.</p><br>
<p>The theater, which has a capacity of 1,506, opened its doors in 1914 as Hurtig & Seamon&#39;s New Burlesque Theater, and was designed by George Keister in the neo-Classical style. It became the Apollo in 1934, when it was opened to black patrons &ndash; previously it had been a whites-only venue. In 1983, both the interior and exterior of the building were designated as New York City Landmarks, and the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It is estimated that 1.3 million people visit the Apollo every year.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Creation and rise</h3><br>
<p>The building which later became the Apollo Theater was built in 1913-14 who also designed the First Baptist Church in the City of New York. It was originally Hurtig and Seamons New (Burlesque) Theater, which enforced a strict "Whites Only" policy. The theatre was operated by noted burlesque producers Jules Hurtig and Harry Seamon, who obtained a 30-year lease. It remained in operation until 1928, when Billy Minsky took over. The song "I May Be Wrong (But I Think Youre Wonderful)" by Harry Sullivan and Harry Ruskin, written in 1929, became the theme song of the theater.</p><br>
<p>During the early 1930s, the theatre fell into disrepair and closed once more. In 1933, it was purchased by Sidney Cohen, who owned other theaters in the area, and after lavish renovations it re-opened as the "Apollo Theater" on January 16, 1934, catering to the black community of Harlem. On February 14, 1934, the first major star to appear at the Apollo was jazz singer and Broadway star Adelaide Hall in Clarence Robinsons production Chocolate Soldiers, which featured Sam Woodings Orchestra. The show ran for a limited engagement and was highly praised by the press, which helped establish the Apollo&#39;s reputation.</p><br>
<p>Managed by Morris Sussman, Cohens Apollo Theatre had vigorous competition from other venues, such as the Lafayette, managed by Frank Schiffman, which presented acts such as Louis Armstrong, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Bessie Smith and Eddie Green. Leo Brechers Harlem Opera House was another competing venue. To improve the shows at the Apollo, Cohen hired noted talent scout John Hammond to book his shows. However, the deal fell through when Cohen died, and the end result was the merger of the Apollo with the Harlem Opera House. The Opera House became a movie theater, but the Apollo, under the ownership of Brecher and Schiffman, continued to present stage shows. Schiffman hired Clarence Robinson as in-house producer,</p><br>
<p>Originally, a typical show presented at the Apollo was akin to a vaudeville show, including a chorus line of beautiful girls. As the years progressed, such variety shows were presented less often.</p><br>
<p>During the swing era, along with bands such as Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Webb, Count Basie, and Andy Kirk, the Apollo also presented dance acts such as Bill Robinson, the Nicholas Brothers, Carmen De Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder, the Berry Brothers, and Buck and Bubbles. Comic acts also appeared on the Apollo stage, including those who performed in blackface, such as Butterbeans and Susie, much to the horror of the NAACP and the elite of Harlem.</p><br>
<p>The Apollo also featured the performances of old-time vaudeville favorites like Tim Moore, Stepin Fetchit, Moms Mabley, Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham, Clinton "Dusty" Fletcher, John "Spider Bruce" Mason, and Johnny Lee, as well as younger comics like Bill Cosby, Godfrey Cambridge, LaWanda Page, Richard Pryor, Rudy Ray Moore, and Redd Foxx.</p><br>
<p>Gospel acts which played the Apollo include the Staple Singers, Mahalia Jackson, The Clark Sisters, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Clara Ward and Sam Cooke with the Soul Stirrers. Performers of soul music on the Apollo stage included Ray Charles, Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin, and jazz was represented as well, by acts such as Art Blakey and Horace Silver.</p><br>
<p>Although the theatre concentrated on showcasing African American acts, it also presented white acts such as swing bandleaders Harry James, Woody Herman and Charlie Barnet during the swing era, and, later, jazz greats Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz and Buddy Rich, who was a particular favorite of the Apollo crowd. During the 1950s, several white rock and roll performers whose musical backgrounds were more country music oriented, such as Buddy Holly and Duane Eddy played the Apollo but scored with their audiences by playing blues-styled material. The theaters audience was often mixed: in the 1940s it was estimated that during the week about 40% of the audience was white, which would go up to 75 percent for weekend shows. Jazz singer Anita ODay headlined for the week of September 21, 1950, billed as "the Jezebel of Jazz".</p><br>
<h3>Amateur Nights</h3><br>
<p>Schiffman had first introduced an amateur night at the Lafayette Theater, where it was known as "Harlem Amateur Hour", and was hosted by Ralph Cooper. At the Apollo, it was originally called "Audition Night", but later became "Amateur Night in Harlem", held every Monday evening and broadcast on the radio over WMCA and eleven affiliate stations.</p><br>
<p>One unique feature of the Apollo during Amateur Nights was "the executioner", a man with a broom who would sweep performers off the stage if the highly vocal and opinionated audiences began to call for their removal. Vaudeville tap dancer "Sandman" Sims played the role from the 1950s to 2000; stagehand Norman Miller, known as "Porto Rico" (later played by Bob Collins) might also chase the unfortunate performer offstage with a cap pistol, accompanied by the sound of a siren.</p><br>
<p>The Apollo grew to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance of the pre-World War II years. Billing itself as a place "where stars are born and legends are made," the Apollo became famous for launching the careers of artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, who made her singing debut at 17 at the Apollo, on November 21, 1934. Fitzgeralds performances pulled in a weekly audience at the Apollo and she won the opportunity to compete in one of the earliest of its "Amateur Nights". She had originally intended to go on stage and dance, but intimidated by the Edwards Sisters, a local dance duo, she opted to sing instead, in the style of Connee Boswell. She sang Hoagy Carmichaels "Judy" and "The Object of My Affection", a song recorded by the Boswell Sisters, and won the first prize of $25.00.</p><br>
<p>Vocalist Thelma Carpenter won the amateur night in 1938, returning several times later as a headliner and also for the 1993 NBC-TV special "Apollo Theater Hall of Fame," an all-star tribute hosted by Bill Cosby.</p><br>
<p>Jimi Hendrix won the first place prize in an amateur musician contest at the Apollo in 1964. Amateur Night had its first tie on October 27, 2010, with guitarist Nathan Foley, 16, of Rockville, Maryland, and cellist and singer Ayanna Witter-Johnson, 25, a student at the Manhattan School of Music from London, sharing the $10,000 prize.</p><br>
<p>Other performers whose careers started at the Apollo include Billie Holiday, Pearl Bailey, Sammy Davis Jr., James Brown & The Famous Flames, King Curtis, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Parliament-Funkadelic, Wilson Pickett, The Miracles, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Rush Brown, Stephanie Mills, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Short, The Jackson 5, Patti Austin, Patti LaBelle, Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Ben E. King, Mariah Carey, The Isley Brothers, Lauryn Hill, Sarah Vaughan, Jazmine Sullivan, Ne-Yo, and Machine Gun Kelly.</p><br>
<h3>Recordings</h3><br>
<p>In 1962, James Brown, who had first played the Apollo three years earlier with his group The Famous Flames, recorded his show at the theater. The resulting album, Live at the Apollo, was a groundbreaking success, spending 66 weeks on the Billboard pop albums chart and peaking at #2. Brown went on to record three more albums and a television special, James Brown: Man to Man, at the theater, and helped popularize it as a venue for live recordings. Other performers who recorded albums at the Apollo include Patti LaBelle, Clyde McPhatter, Marva Whitney, The Mighty Clouds of Joy, Robert Palmer, and B.B. King. In 2007, gospel recording artist Byron Cage played at the Apollo for his album Live at the Apollo: The Proclamation. Guns N&#39; Roses visited the venue on July 20 2017 for their "Not in This Lifetime" tour as part of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the bands debut album "Appetite for Destruction". The show was recorded and was broadcast in its entirety on SiriusXM satellite radio. The concert was an invite-only event where subscribers to the satellite radio service were eligible to win tickets.</p><br>
<h2>Decline and restoration</h2><br>
<p>Although the 1960s was the venue&#39;s most successful decade, in the following decade, the drug problem in Harlem, with its attendant robberies and thefts, was the cause of its closing in 1976, after an 18-year-old was shot to death. It obtained federal and city landmark status in that same year. In 1991, the Apollo was purchased by the State of New York, which created the non-profit Apollo Theater Foundation to run it.</p><br>
<p>In 2001, the architecture firms Beyer Blinder Belle, which specializes in restorations of historic buildings, and Davis Brody Bond began a restoration of the theaters interior. In 2005, restoration of the exterior, and the installation of a new light-emitting diode (LED) marquee began. In 2009-10, in celebration of the theaters 75th anniversary, the theater put together an archive of historical material, including documents and photographs and, with Columbia University, began an oral history project.</p><br>
<p>The Apollo Theater draws an estimated 1.3 million visitors annually.</p><br>
<h2>Hall of Fame</h2><br>
<p>The Apollo Theater Legends Hall of Fame has inducted such renowned performers and music-industry figures as Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Michael Jackson, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Elton John, Mymoena Davids, Little Richard, Hall & Oates, Ella Fitzgerald, Smokey Robinson, Billy Eckstine, Gladys Knight, The Pips, The Jacksons, Quincy Jones, Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, D&#39;Angelo and Prince.</p><br>
<p>The Palk Strait  is a strait between the Tamil Nadu state of India and the Mannar district of the Northern Province of the island nation of Sri Lanka. It connects the Bay of Bengal in the northeast with the Palk Bay in the southwest. The strait is 53 to 82 km wide. Several rivers flow into it, including the Vaigai River of Tamil Nadu. The strait is named after Robert Palk, who was a governor of Madras Presidency  during the Company Raj period.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Palk Bay is studded at its southern end with a chain of low islands and reef shoals that are collectively called Adam&#39;s Bridge, This chain extends between Dhanushkodi on Pamban Island (also known as Rameswaram Island) in Tamil Nadu and Mannar Island in Sri Lanka. The island of Rameswaram is linked to the Indian mainland by the Pamban Bridge.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>As from 1914, there used to be regular trains from Madras/Chennai to Dhanushkodi, a ferry to Talaimannar on Mannar Island, and hence a train to Colombo. In 1964, a cyclone destroyed Dhanushkodi and the railway and caused severe damage along the shores of Palk Strait and Palk Bay. Dhanushkodi was not rebuilt and the railway from Talaimannar to Mahawilachchiya in Sri Lanka was given up. There was a ferry between small piers in Rameswaram and Talaimannar, but this was discontinued till date.</p><br>
<h3>Proposed canal</h3><br>
<p>The shallow waters and reefs of the strait make it difficult for large ships to pass through, although fishing boats and small craft carrying coastal trade have navigated the strait for centuries. Large ships must travel around Sri Lanka. Construction of a shipping canal through the strait was first proposed to the British government of India in 1860, and a number of commissions have studied the proposal up to the present day. The most recent study of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project, as it is now called, was an environmental impact assessment and a technical feasibility study commissioned by the Tamil Nadu government in 2004.</p><br>
<p>However, the plan encountered opposition from various religious circles. The Indian epic poem Ramayana, written thousands of years ago in Sanskrit and an important Hindu text, recounts how Rama, with the help of an army of vanaras, built a bridge of stones across the sea to Lanka to rescue his wife Sita from the Asura king Ravana. The Ram Karmabhoomi movement, encouraged by a NASA satellite photograph of Rama&#39;s Setu, was formed to prevent the shipping canal from being built.</p><br>
<p>Seoraksan is the highest mountain in the Taebaek mountain range in the Gangwon Province in eastern South Korea. It is located in a national park near the city of Sokcho. After the Hallasan volcano on Jeju Island and Jirisan in the south, Seoraksan is the third highest mountain in South Korea. The Daechongbong Peak  of Seoraksan reaches 1,708 meters . The Taebaek mountain chain is often considered the backbone of the Korean peninsula.</p><br>
<p>The national park attracts many domestic and international tourists all year round, but the main season for Seoraksan national park is autumn. The autumn colours in the area are considered amongst the most beautiful in Korea. The red and yellow forest is interrupted by rocks and small mountain streams flow amidst this. During the rainy season in summer—especially after a typhoon—these streams can swell.</p><br>
<p>Perhaps the most visited part of the mountain is the main entrance valley to the National Park, a fifteen-minute drive from Sokcho city. The valley runs west to east with a paved road leading up to the park&#39;s entrance gate. This valley contains many beautiful sites and is well worth a day visit.</p><br>
<p>The Yukdam waterfall and the Biryeong waterfall (비룡폭포) are located on the left side of the valley, about a forty-minute walk from the main car park.</p><br>
<p>Ulsanbawi (울산바위) is a rock formation in the Seoraksan national park. The shape of Ulsanbawi is unique in the area. To reach the rocks you need to follow a hiking path and climb over 800 steps (it is actually 888 steps according to locals). On the way there, there are two temples and a spherical rock (Heundeulbawi, 흔들바위) which is located on top of a larger rock. This rock is about 5 meters (16 feet) high and can be moved with some effort. Thousands of people have already tried to push down Heundeulbawi, but nobody gets further than waggling the rock.</p><br>
<p>According to the legend Ulsanbawi comes from the city of Ulsan in the south east of Korea. As Kumgangsan (금강산) was built, Ulsanbawi walked to the north as the representative of the city. Unfortunately Ulsanbawi arrived too late and there was no more room. Ulsanbawi was ashamed and slowly trudged back to the south. One evening the rock went to sleep in the Seorak area. Ulsanbawi felt it was so beautiful around there that it decided to stay for good.</p><br>
<p>At the end of the main valley is Biseondae, a rock platform in a stream. Above the stream is a difficult to reach cave, which offers clear views of the surrounding rock formations.</p><br>
<p>A bit farther from the entrance is the Valley of a Thousand Buddhas (천불동계곡), the primary valley of Seorak Mountain, also sometimes referred to as Seorak Valley. The valley was so named because the rock formations that line its sides resemble a line-up of Buddha statues.</p><br>
<p>Elephanta Caves are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a collection of cave temples predominantly dedicated to Hindu god Shiva. They are located on Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri  in Mumbai Harbour, 10 km to the east of the city of Mumbai in the Indian state of Mahārāshtra. The island, located offshore about 2 km west of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, consists of Shaivism caves and a few Buddhist stupa mounds.</p><br>
<p>The Elephanta Caves contain rock cut stone sculptures, that show syncretism of Hindu and Buddhist ideas and iconography. The caves are hewn from solid basalt rock. Except for a few exceptions, much of the artwork is defaced and damaged. The main temple&#39;s orientation as well as the relative location of other temples are placed in a mandala pattern. The carvings narrate Hindu mythologies, with the large monolithic 20 ft Trimurti Sadashiva (three-faced Shiva), Nataraja (Lord of dance) and Yogishvara (Lord of Yoga) being the most celebrated.</p><br>
<p>The origins and date when the caves were constructed have attracted considerable speculations and scholarly attention since the 19th century. These date them between 5th and 9th century, and attribute them to various Hindu dynasties.</p><br>
<p>They were named Elefante – which morphed to Elephanta – by the colonial Portuguese when they found elephant statues on it. They established a base on the island, and its soldiers damaged the sculpture and caves. The main cave (Cave 1, or the Great Cave) was a Hindu place of worship until the Portuguese arrived, whereupon the island ceased to be an active place of worship. The earliest attempts to prevent further damage to the Caves were started by British India officials in 1909. The monuments were restored in the 1970s. In 1987, the restored Elephanta Caves were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is currently maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri, is about 10 km east of the Gateway of India in the Mumbai Harbour and less than 2 km west of Jawaharlal Nehru Port. The island covers about 10 km&sup2; at high tide and about 16 km&sup2; at low tide. Gharapuri is small village on the south side of the island. The Elephanta Caves is connected by ferry services from the Gateway of India, Mumbai between 9AM and 2PM daily, except Monday when the Caves are closed. Mumbai has a major domestic and international airport, as well as is connected to the Indian Railways.</p><br>
<p>The island is 2.4 km in length with two hills that rise to a height of about 150 m. A narrow deep ravine separates the two hills, and runs from north to south. On the west, the hill rises gently from the sea and stretches east across the ravine and rises gradually to the extreme east to a height of 173 m. Forest growth with clusters of mango, tamarind, and karanj trees cover the hills with scattered palm trees. The fore shore is made up of sand and mud with mangrove bushes on the fringe. Landing quays sit near three small hamlets known as Set Bunder in the north-west, Mora Bunder in the northeast, and Gharapuri or Raj Bunder in the south.</p><br>
<p>There are five rock-cut caves in the western hill and a brick stupa on the eastern hill. The eastern hill has two Buddhist mounds, and is called the Stupa hill. Close to the five western hill caves, are Cave 6 and 7 on the eastern hill. The most visited and significant cave is on the western hill and is called Cave 1 or the Great Cave, located about a kilometer walk up a steep graded uphill.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The ancient history of the island is unknown in either Hindu or Buddhist records. Archeological studies have uncovered many remains that suggest the small island had a rich cultural past, with evidence of human settlement by possibly the 2nd century BC. The regional history is first recorded in the Gupta Empire era, but these do not explicitly mention these caves. This has made the origins and the century in which Elephanta caves were built a subject of a historic dispute. They have been variously dated, mostly between from late 5th to late 8th century AD, largely based on the dating of other cave temples in the Deccan region. Colonial era historians suggested that the caves were built by the Rashtrakutas in 7th century or after, a hypothesis primarily based on some similarities with the Ellora Caves. This theory has been discredited by later findings.</p><br>
<p>According to Archaeological Survey of India and UNESCO, the site was settled in ancient times and the cave temples were built between 5th and 6th century. These scholars attribute these Cave temples to king Krishnaraja of the Kalachuri dynasty. The dating to a mid 6th century completion and it being a predominantly Shiva monument built by a Hindu Kalachuri king is based on numismatic evidence, inscriptions, construction style and better dating of other Deccan cave temples including the Ajanta Caves, and the more firm dating of Dandin&#39;s Dasakumaracarita.</p><br>
<p>According to Charles Collins, the significance of the Elephanta Caves is better understood by studying them in context of ancient and early medieval Hindu literature, as well as in the context of other Buddhist, Hindu and Jain cave temples on the subcontinent. The historic Elephanta artwork were inspired by the mythology, concepts and spiritual ideas found in the Vedic texts on Rudra and later Shiva, the epics, the Puranas and the Pashupata Shaivism literature corpus of Hinduism composed by the 5th-century. The panels reflect the ideas and stories widely accepted and well known to the artists and cave architects of India by about 525 CE. The mythology varies significantly in these texts and has been much distorted by later interpolations, but the Elephanta Cave panels represent the narrative version most significant in the 6th century. The panels and artwork express through their eclecticism, flux and motion the influence of Vedic and post-Vedic religious thought on Hindu culture in mid 1st millennium CE.</p><br>
<p>After the Caves completion in the 6th century, Elephanta became popular regionally as Gharapuri (village of caves). The name is still used in the local Marathi language. It became a part of the Gujarat Sultanate rulers, who ceded it to the Portuguese merchants in 1534. The Portuguese named the island "Elephanta Island" for the huge rock-cut stone statue of an elephant, the spot they used for docking their boats and as a landmark to distinguish it from other islands near Mumbai. The elephant statue was damaged in attempts to relocate it to England, was moved to the Victoria Gardens in 1864, was reassembled in 1914 by Cadell and Hewett, and now sits in the Jijamata Udyaan in Mumbai.</p><br>
<p>Scholars are divided who most defaced and damaged the Elephanta Caves. According to Macneil, the monuments and caves were already desecrated during the Sultanate rule, basing his findings on the Persian inscription on a door the leads to the grand cave. Macneil concurs that Elephanta Caves were defaced and damaged during the colonial period, but assigns the responsibility not to the soldiers but the Portuguese authorities. Yet a third theory suggests that neither Muslim rulers nor Portuguese Christians damaged the site, because they both plastered the artwork and caves. It was the Marathas who tried to remove that plaster, according to this theory which Wendy Doniger states is "possibly true", and it was therefore the Marathas that caused damage to the artwork in the 17th century.</p><br>
<p>The Portuguese ceded the island in 1661 to the colonial British, but by then the Caves had seen considerable damage. The Portuguese had also removed and then lost an inscription stone from the caves. During the British rule, many Europeans visited the caves during their visit to Bombay, then published their impressions and memoirs. Some criticized it as having "nothing of beauty or art", while some called it "enormous art work, of extraordinary genius". The British relied on the port city of Bombay (now Mumbai), which led to it becoming a major urban center and migration of Hindus looking for economic opportunities. The Elephanta caves re-emerged as a center of Hindu worship, and according to British administration records, the government charged the pilgrims a temple tax at least since 1872. In 1903, the Hindus petitioned the government to waive this fee, which the British agreed to on three Shiva festival days if Hindus agreed. The Elephants Caves were, otherwise, left in its ruinous condition.</p><br>
<p>In late 1970s, the Government of India restored the main cave in its attempt to make it a tourist and heritage site. The caves were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 as per the cultural criteria of UNESCO: the caves "represent a masterpiece of human creative genius" and "bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilisation which is living or which has disappeared".</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The island has two groups of caves in the rock-cut architectural style. The caves are hewn from solid basalt rock. The larger group of caves, which consists of five caves on the western hill of the island, is well known for its Hindu sculptures. The primary cave, numbered as Cave 1, is about 1.0 km up a hillside, facing the Mumbai harbour. Caves 2 through 5 are next to Cave 1 further southeast, arranged in a row. Cave 6 and 7 are about 200 m northeast of Cave 1 and 2, but geologically on the edge of the eastern hill.</p><br>
<p>The two hills are connected by a walkway. The eastern hill is also called the Stupa hill, while the western hill is called the Canon hill, reflecting their historic colonial era names, the ancient Stupa and the Portuguese era firing Canons they host respectively.</p><br>
<p>All Caves are a rock-cut temples that cover an area of 5,600 m&sup2, and they include a main chamber, two lateral chambers, courtyards, and subsidiary shrines. Cave 1 is the largest and is 39 m deep from the front entrance to the back. The temple complex is primarily the abode of Shiva, depicted in widely celebrated carvings which narrate legends and mythologies of Shaivism.</p><br>
<h3>Cave 1: Main, Great Cave</h3><br>
<p>The main cave, also called Cave 1, Grand Cave or the Great Cave, is 39.63 m square in plan with a hall (mandapa). The Cave has several entrances, the main entrance is unassumingly small and hides the grand hall inside. The main entrance faces north, while two side entrances face east and west. The cave&#39;s main entrance is aligned with the north–south axis, unusual for a Shiva shrine (normally east–west). However, inside is an integrated square plan Linga shrine (garbha-griya) that is aligned east-west, opening to the sunrise.</p><br>
<p>Layout ():</p><br>
<p>1. Ravananugraha</p><br>
<p>2. Shiva-Parvati, Mount Kailash</p><br>
<p>3. Ardhanarishvara</p><br>
<p>4. Sadashiva Trimurti</p><br>
<p>5. Gangadhara</p><br>
<p>6. Wedding of Shiva</p><br>
<p>7. Shiva slaying Andhaka</p><br>
<p>8. Nataraja</p><br>
<p>9. Yogishvara</p><br>
<p>16. Linga</p><br>
<p>East Wing Shrine</p><br>
<p>10. Kartikeya</p><br>
<p>11. Matrikas</p><br>
<p>12. Ganesha</p><br>
<p>13. Dvarapala</p><br>
<p>West Wing Shrine</p><br>
<p>14. Yogishvara</p><br>
<p>15. Nataraja</p><br>
<p>To reach the main cave, a visitor or pilgrim has to walk up 120 steep steps from the shore beach, or take the tourist toy train. At the main entrance are four pillars, with three open porticoes and an aisle at the back. Pillars, six in each row, divide the hall into a series of smaller chambers. The roof of the hall has concealed beams supported by stone columns joined together by capitals.</p><br>
<p>The temple is enclosed in the cave, it has interior walls but no exterior wall. The pillars create the space and symmetric rhythm as they support the weight of hill above. The main mandapa recesses into a pillared vestibule (ardha-mandapa) on the south side, while a pillared portico (mukha-mandapa) connects it to the main entrance. Embedded within the Great Cave are dedicated shrines, the largest of which is the square plan Linga shrine (see 16 in plan).</p><br>
<p>The northern entrance to the cave is flanked by two panels of Shiva dated to the Gupta period, both damaged. The left panel depicts Yogishvara (Shiva as the Lord of Yoga) and the right shows Nataraja (Shiva as the Lord of Dance). The Sadashiva is flanked by two large friezes, one of Ardhanarishvara and the other of Gangadhara.</p><br>
<p>Each wall has large carvings of Shiva-related legends, each more than 5 m in height. The central Shiva relief Trimurti is located on the south wall opposite the main entrance. Also called the Sadashiva, it is the iconic form of a pancamukha linga is set in a mandala pattern with the abstract linga form of Shiva.</p><br>
<p>Smaller shrines are located at the east and west ends of the caves. The eastern sanctuary serves as a ceremonial entrance, and its shrine shows iconography of Shaktism tradition.</p><br>
<h4>Sadasiva: Trimurti</h4><br>
<p>The Trimurti is considered a masterpiece and the most important sculpture in the caves.</p><br>
<p>The three heads represent three essential aspects of Shiva: creation, protection, and destruction.</p><br>
<h4>Gangadhara</h4><br>
<p>The Trimurti Shiva is flanked on its left by Ardhanarisvara (a half-Shiva, half-Parvati composite) and Gangadhara legend to its right. The Gangadhara image to the right of the Trimurti show Shiva and Parvati standing. Shiva brings the River Ganges down from the heavens to serve man, and her immense power is contained effortlessly in Shiva&#39;s hair as she descends from heaven. The artists carved a small three bodied goddess up high, a symbolism for Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati. The mother goddess Parvati stands tall next to Shiva, smiling. The carving is 4 m wide and 5.207 m high.</p><br>
<p>The Gangadhara image is highly damaged, particularly the lower half of Shiva seen seated with Parvati, who is shown with four arms, two of which are broken. From the crown, a cup with a triple-headed female figure (with broken arms) to depict the three major rivers in Hindu texts. An alternate interpretation of the three bodied goddess in Gangadharamurti panel here and elsewhere is that it represents the regenerative powers of rivers in the form of Mandakini, Suradhani and Bhagavati.</p><br>
<p>Wrapped on one of the arms of Shiva is his iconic coiling serpent whose hood is seen near his left shoulder. Another hand (partly broken) gives the semblance of Shiva hugging Parvati, with a head of matted hair. A damaged ornamented drapery covers his lower torso, below the waist. Parvati is carved to the left of Shiva with a coiffured hair dress, fully bedecked with ornaments and jewellery. Between them stands a gana (dwarf jester) expressing confused panic as to whether Shiva will be able to contain the mighty river goddess. In the lower left of the panel is a kneeling devout figure in namaste posture representing the heroic mythical king Bhagiratha who worked hard to bring the river of prosperity to his earthly kingdom, but unaware of the potentially destructive forces that came with it.</p><br>
<h4>Ardhanarishvara</h4><br>
<p>On the wall to the east of the Trimurti is a damaged four-armed Ardhanarishvara carving. This image, which is 5.11 m in height. It represents the ancient Hindu concept of essential interdependence of the feminine and the masculine aspects in the universe, for its creation, its sustenance and its destruction. It is represented as half woman shown as half of Parvati in this Elephanta panel on the right side, with breast, waist, feminine hair and items such as a mirror in the upper hand. The second half man side is Shiva with male characteristics and items iconographically his symbol. In Shaivism, the concept pictorially symbolizes the transcendence of all duality including gender, with the spiritual lacking any distinctions, where energy and power (Shakti, Parvati) is unified and is inseparable with the soul and awareness (Brahman, Shiva).</p><br>
<p>In the panel, the relief shows a headdress (double-folded) with two pleats draped towards the female head (Parvati) and the right side (Shiva) depicting curled hair and a crescent. The female figure has all the ornamentation (broad armlets and long bracelets, a large ring in the ear, jewelled rings on the fingers) but the right male figure has drooping hair, armlets and wristlets. One of his hands rests on Nandi bull’s left horn, Shiva&#39;s mount, which is fairly well preserved. The pair of hands at the back is also bejewelled; the right hand of the male side holds a serpent, while the left hand of the female side holds a mirror. The front left hand is broken, while a large part of the lower half of the panel was damaged at some point. Around the Ardhanarishwara are three layers of symbolic characters. The lowest or at the same level as the viewer are human figures oriented reverentially towards the androgyne image. Above them are gods and goddesses such as Brahma, Vishnu, Indra and others who are seated on their vahanas. Above them are flying apsaras approaching the fused divinity with garlands, music and celebratory offerings.</p><br>
<h4>Shiva slaying Andhaka</h4><br>
<p>The panel in the northwest side of the cave, on the wall near west entrance and the Linga shrine (see 7 in plan), is an uncommon sculpture about the Andhakasura-vadha legend. It shows Bhairava, or Virabhadra, a ferocious form of Shiva killing the demon Andhaka (literally, "blind, darkness"). The relief is much ruined below the waist, is 3.5 m high and posed in action. Though a relief, it is carved to give it a three dimensional form, as if the ferocious Shiva is coming out of the rocks and impaling Andhaka with his trident.</p><br>
<p>Bhairavas headgear has a ruff on the back, a skull and cobra over the forehead, and the crescent high on the right. His facial expression is of anger, conviction of something he must do, and one in the middle of action. The legs and five of the eight arms are broken, attributed to Portuguese vandalism. The smaller broken image Andhaka is seen below Bhairavas image. Also depicted in his right hand is the symbolic weapon that Shaiva mythology states Shiva used to kill the destructive elephant demon. A hand holds a bowl to collect the blood dripping from the slain Andhaka, which Shaiva legend states was necessary because the dripping blood had the power to become new demons if they got nourished by the ground. Furthermore, the artwork shows ruined parts of a male and two female forms, figures of two ascetics, a small figure in front, a female figure, and two dwarfs. The uppermost part shows flying apsaras bringing garlands.</p><br>
<h4>Wedding of Shiva</h4><br>
<p>The niche image carved on the southwest wall, near the Linga shrine (see 6 on plan) is the wedding of Shiva and Parvati. This legend is called the Kalyanasundara in Hindu texts. Parvati is seen standing to Shivas right, the customary place for a Hindu bride at the wedding. The carvings are substantially damaged, but the ruined remains of the sculpture has been significant to scholarly studies of Hindu literature. In many surviving versions of the Puranas, the wedding takes place in King Parvatas palace. However, in this Elephanta Cave panel, the narrative shows some earlier version. Here King Parvata standing behind Parvati gives away the bride to Shiva while Brahma is the priest in the grotto relief. Gods, goddesses and celestial apsaras are cheering witness to the wedding. Vishnu is witness to the marriage, standing tall behind the sitting Brahma on the right side of the panel. Just above the main images rishi (sages) and a few characters hanging from the ceiling are seen blessing the wedding.</p><br>
<p>The groom Shiva is shown calm and young, while Parvati is depicted as shy and emotional. Her head is tilted towards him and her eyelids joyfully lowered, while his hand (now broken) is holding hers. Their dress reflect the Hindu customs. He wears the sacred thread across his chest, she the customary jewelry. The other characters shown in the wedding carry items or are shown holding items that typically grace a Hindu wedding. Chandra (moon god), for example, holds a traditionally decorated water vessel (kalash). Brahma, the priest, is squatting on the floor to the right tending the yajna fire (agni mandapa).</p><br>
<h4>Yogishvara: Lord of Yoga</h4><br>
<p>The panel in the east side of the portico next to the north entrance (see 9 on plan) is Shiva in Yoga. This form of Shiva is called Yogishvara, Mahayogi, Lakulisa.</p><br>
<p>Shiva, states Stella Kramrisch, is the "primordial yogi" in this panel. He is the master of discipline, the teacher of Yoga arts, the master who shows how yoga and meditation leads to the realization of ultimate reality.</p><br>
<p>The relief is in a dilapidated condition with most of the arms and legs broken. He is seated in padmasana lost in his meditation. His posture is well formed and suggests that the 6th century artist knew this asana. He sits on a lotus with a stalk shown as if coming out of the earth, his legs are crossed symmetrically. Two Nagas flank the lotus and express their reverence with a namaste posture. The great yogi is being approached by various Vedic and Puranic gods and goddesses, as well as monks and sadhus, yet there is a halo around him that keeps them at bay, as if they admire it but do not wish to disturb his meditation.</p><br>
<p>In some ways, the yogi artwork shown in this Hindu cave are similar to those found in Buddhist caves, but there are differences. Yogi Shiva, or Lakulisa, wears a crown here, his chest is shown vaulting forward as if in breathing exercises found in Hindu yoga texts, the face and body expresses a different energy. This Shiva yogi comes across as the "lord of the caves" or Guhesvara in medieval Indian poetry, states Kramrisch. According to Charles Collins, the depiction of Shiva as Yogi in Elephanta Cave 1 is harmonious with those found in the Puranas dated to early and mid 1st millennium CE.</p><br>
<h4>Nataraja: Lord of Dance</h4><br>
<p>The panel facing the Yogishvara, on the west side of the portico next to the north entrance (see 8 on plan) is Shiva as the Nataraja, "cosmic dancer" and "the lord of dancers". It is also called the Nrittamurti.</p><br>
<p>The badly damaged relief panel is 4 m wide and 3.4 m high and set low on the wall. His body and arms are shown as wildly gyrating in the lalita mudra, a symbolism for occupying all of space, soaring energy and full bodied weightlessness. His face here resembles the Tatpurusha, or the manifested form of Shiva that preserves and sustains all of creation, all of creative activity. This is an eight armed depiction of Nataraja. The parts of the panel that have survived suggest that he is holding an axe, a coiled serpent is wrapped around its top. In another he holds a folded cloth, possibly symbolic veil of maya.</p><br>
<p>There are fewer gods, goddesses and observers in this panel than others in this cave, with Brahma, Vishnu, Lakshmi, Saraswati and Parvati are visible and have a facial expression of being spellbound. Also present are his sons leaping Ganesha and Kartikeya holding Shiva&#39;s staff, as well as an ascetic and a rishi, thus weaving the family life and the ascetic monastic life, the secular and the spiritual tied in through metaphorical symbolism of dance within the same panel. The dancer and destroyer aspects of Shiva are clustered in the northwest part of the cave, in contrast to yoga and creator aspects that are found in the northeast parts. This 6th-century Nataraja shares architectural elements with those found in temples in the western parts of South Asia such as in Gujarat, and in upper Deccan region.</p><br>
<h4>Mount Kailash and Ravananugraha</h4><br>
<p>The carvings at the east entrance are battered and blurry. One in the southeast corner of the mandapa (see 2 on plan) depicts Shiva and Parvati in Mount Kailash in the Himalayas, and the shows the Umamaheshvara story. There are traces of a crown and a disc behind Shiva, but it is all damaged. The scene is crowded with accessory figures, which may be because the eastern entrance was meant to have a devotional focus.</p><br>
<p>The panel facing the Mount Kailash panel towards the northeast corner (see 1 on plan) depicts demon king Ravana trying to lift Kailash and bother Shiva, a legend called Ravananugraha. The upper scene is Mount Kailash, where Shiva and Parvati are seated. Shiva is recognizable with a crown, and other characters are badly damaged. A portion of ascetic skeletal devotee Bhringi relief survives and he is seated near Shiva&#39;s feet. Near Shiva an outline of what may have been Ganesha and Kartikeya are visible. Below the mountain surface is shown the demon-king Ravana is seen with a few arms, trying to unsuccessfully shake Shiva and Parvati in Mount Kailash. The rest of the details are blurry and speculative. According to Charles Collins, the discernible elements of this panel are generally consistent with those in medieval era Puranas, though there is a lack in literal correspondence with any single text.</p><br>
<h4>Linga shrine</h4><br>
<p>The central shrine of the Great Cave temple is a free-standing square stone cella, with entrances on each of its sides. Each door is flanked by two dvarapalas (gate guardians), for a total of eight around the shrine. The height of the eight dvarapalas is about 4.6 m. All are in a damaged condition except those at the southern door to the shrine. The Shaiva guardians carry weapons and flank the doors.</p><br>
<p>Six steps lead to the inside of the cella from the floor level. In the center is the mulavigraha Linga, is set on a raised platform above the floor of the shrine by 1.8 m. It is the abstract unmanifest symbol of Shiva in union with the Yoni, and the symbol of Parvati together symbolising the creative source and the regenerative nature of existence. The temple and all the pillars are laid out to lead the pilgrim&#39;s view towards it, the cella is visible from any point inside the cave and its most significant progression.</p><br>
<h4>East wing: Shaktism</h4><br>
<p>On the east side of the main hall is a separate shrine. It is a 17 m-wide courtyard with a circular pedestal. It once had a seated Nandi facing the Linga shrine, but its ruins have not been restored. To the south side of this eastern courtyard is the Shaktism shrine, with a lion, each seated with a raised forepaw as guardian. Inside the west face of this small shrine (see 10-12 of plan) are Sapta Matrikas, or the "seven mothers" along with Parvati, Kartikeya (Skanda) and Ganesha. The smaller shrine&#39;s sanctum features a linga and has a circumambulatory path around it. The sanctum door has Shaiva dvarapalas.</p><br>
<p>The Shakti panel in the east shrine is unusual in that counting Parvati, it features eight mothers (Asta matrikas) in an era when Sapta matrikas were more common such as at Samalaji and Jogeswari caves.</p><br>
<h4>West wing: Other traditions</h4><br>
<p>On the west side of the main hall is another attached shrine, though in much more ruined state. The larger cave on the south side of the west shrine is closed, contains ruins and is bigger than the eastern side shrine. Some of the artworks from here were moved to museums and private collections by mid 19th century, including those related Brahma, Vishnu and others. The western face has two panels, one showing another version of Shiva in Yoga (see 14 on plan) and another Nataraja (see 15 on plan). Between these is a sanctum with a Shiva Linga.</p><br>
<p>This Yogi Shiva panel is damaged, but unlike the other Yogi depiction, here the leg position in Yoga asana have survived. The Yogishvara is seated on a lotus, and near him are two badly defaced characters, possibly one of parvati and another ascetic. Above him are ruin remains of celestial gods or goddesses or apasaras. The Yogi Shiva is wearing a crown, and once again there is a space of isolation around the meditating yogi in which no other character enters. Below him, under the lotus, are Nagas and several badly damaged figures two of whom are in namaste reverence posture. The Nataraja shown in the west shrine is similar in style to one inside the main mandapa. However, states Collins, its depth of carving appears inferior and it seems more eroded being more open to rains and water damage.</p><br>
<h3>Caves 2-5: Canon hill</h3><br>
<p>To the south-east of the Great Cave is Cave 2. The front of this cave was completely destroyed and restored in the 1970s. The portico is 26 m long and 11 m deep. The chapel is supported by eight eight-cornered columns and two demi-columns and is irregular in shape. At the back of the portico are three chambers; the main sanctum seems to be for a Linga, but that is lost. The shrine door has some traces of sculpture. The dvarapalas of the shrine are now in fragments.</p><br>
<p>Cave 3 is next to Cave 2 and in worse condition. It is a portico and mandapa with pillars. Two of them have cells at the back. The central door at the back of the portico leads to a damaged shrine. The sanctum door is flanked by dvarapalas on each side, leaning on dwarfs with flying figures over the head. The shrine is a plain room 6 m deep by 5.7 m wide with a low altar, holding a Linga. Cave 4 and 5 are also damaged, though the artwork remains suggest the caves were once Shaiva temples as well.</p><br>
<h3>Caves 6-7: Stupa hill</h3><br>
<p>Across the top of the ravine from Cave 1 on the other Stupa hill is a large hall known as Sitabai&#39;s temple cave. The portico has four pillars and two pilasters. The hall has 3 chambers at the back, the central one a shrine and the rest for monks or priests. The door of the central shrine has pilasters and a frieze, with the threshold decorated with lion figures. The sanctum has no image now, but is similar to Linga shrine on the island.</p><br>
<p>Next, along the face of the eastern hill to the north of Sitabai&#39;s cave is another small Hindu excavation with a veranda, which was probably to be three cells, but was abandoned following the discovery of a flaw in the rock. Past the 7th cave, to the east of hill is a dry pond, with large artificial boulders and Buddhist cisterns along its banks. At the end of the north spur of the main hill is a mound that resembles a Buddhist stupa. This, states Michell and Dhavalikar, may be the remains of a much higher Buddhist stupa from about 2nd century BCE.</p><br>
<p>Cave 6 is historically significant because though a Hindu temple, it was converted and used as a Christian church by the Portuguese in the later years when the island was a part of their colony.</p><br>
<h3>Lost monuments</h3><br>
<p>Many artworks from the Elephanta Caves ruins are now held in major museums around the world. These include an almost completely destroyed Durga Mahishasuramardini statue with only the buffalo demon with Durga&#39;s legs and some waist surviving. Other scholarly studied museum held Elephanta sculpture include a part of Brahma head, several ruins of Vishnus from different statues, a range of panels and free standing stone carvings. According to Schastok, some of these are "surely not part of the Great Cave", but it is unclear where they were found when they were moved elsewhere, or when ruins were cleared and restoration process initiated.</p><br>
<p>The significant statues of Vishnu are difficult to explain and to position inside other surviving caves. One theory states that some of the caves must have represented the Vaishnavism tradition. Another theory by some scholars such as Moti Chandra suggests that the island once had open air structural Hindu temples in addition to the caves, but these were the first victims of art destruction.</p><br>
<p>The Vishnu sculptures found among the Elephanta ruins express different styles. One wears a dhoti and has a looped girdle, while holding a conch at an angle near his thigh. The remnants of his sides suggest that this was likely a four arm iconography. Another statue has elements of Shiva and Vishnu. It was identified to be Shiva by Pramod Chandra, as Kartikeya by Moti Chandra, and as Vishnu by others. It shows a chain link near the thigh, has a gada (mace) on side, and someone standing next to him of a damaged upper portion but with small waist and full breasts suggestive of a devi. This statue too is wearing a dhoti.</p><br>
<p>The island also had a stone horse according to 18th century records, just like the stone elephant that made colonial Portuguese call it "Ilha Elefante". However, this horse was removed to an unknown location before 1764.</p><br>
<h2>Preservation</h2><br>
<p>The convenient location of these caves near Mumbai, the Western curiosity for the historic Indian culture, and the difficulty in reaching sites in infrastructure poor Indian subcontinent, made Elephanta Caves a subject of numerous guide books and significant scholarly interest in the 20th century. The early speculations and misconceptions about these caves led to many interpretations and scholarly disagreements but also increased the support for their preservation. The publication of their condition, sketches and interpretation by James Burgess in 1871 brought wider attention.</p><br>
<p>More specific legislation to preserve the Elephanta Island monuments were enacted with the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act of 1958 and Rules (1959); The Elephanta Island (Protected Monument) Rules of 1957, which prohibits mining, quarrying, blasting, excavation and other operations near the monument; the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act promulgated in 1972 with its Rules promulgated in 1973; a Notification issued in 1985 declaring the entire island and a 1 km area from the shore as "a prohibited area&quot a series of Maharashtra State Government environmental acts protecting the site; the 1966 Regional and Town Planning Act; and the 1995 Heritage Regulations for Greater Bombay. However, it was in 1970s that the site received active conservation and restoration efforts. These efforts put back the ruins of Cave 1 and select parts of broken pillars in other caves, along with developing the island as a heritage site.</p><br>
<p>The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Aurangabad Circle maintains and manages the Elephanta Caves. It is responsible for monitoring and stabilisation of the rock face, construction of supports to the cave structures where pillars have collapsed, and consolidation of cave floors and construction of a parapet wall surrounding the site. In addition, it maintains the visitor facilities and an on-site museum. The site receives approximately 1,000 visitors a day, more on Shiva ratri, dance festivals, the World Heritage Day (18 April) and World Heritage Week between 19 and 25 November for special events.</p><br>
<p>After declaring the caves a World Heritage Site, UNESCO and the ASI have worked together to monitor the site and implement conservation methods on a routine basis. The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is also involved with the Archaeological Survey of India in improving the local conditions at the cave site.</p><br>
<p>Lake Onega  is a lake in the north-west European part of Russia, located on the territory of Republic of Karelia, Leningrad Oblast and Vologda Oblast. It belongs to the basin of the Baltic Sea, Atlantic Ocean, and is the second largest lake in Europe after Lake Ladoga. The lake is fed by about 50 rivers and is drained by the Svir River.</p><br>
<p>There are about 1,650 islands on the lake. They include Kizhi, which hosts a historical complex of 89 orthodox wooden churches and other wooden constructions of 15th–20th centuries. The complex includes a UNESCO World Heritage site Kizhi Pogost. Eastern shores of the lake contain about 1200 petroglyphs (rock engravings) dated to 4th–2nd millennia BC. The major cities on the lake are Petrozavodsk, Kondopoga and Medvezhyegorsk.</p><br>
<h2>Geological history</h2><br>
<p>The lake is of glacial-tectonic origin and is a small remnant of a larger body of water which existed in this area during an Ice Age. In geologic terms, the lake is rather young, formed – like almost all lakes in northern Europe – through the carving activity of the inland ice sheets in the latter part of the last Ice Age, about 12,000 years ago: In the Paleozoic Era (300–400 million years ago) the entire territory of the modern basin of the lake was covered with a shelf sea lying near the ancient, near-equatoric Baltic continent. Sediments at that time – sandstone, sand, clay and limestone – form a 200-meter thick layer covering the Baltic Shield which consists of granite, gneiss and greenstone. The retreat of the Ice Age glaciers formed the Littorina Sea. Its level was first 7–9 meters higher than at present, but it gradually lowered, thereby decreasing the sea area and forming several lakes in the Baltic region.</p><br>
<h2>Topography and hydrography</h2><br>
<p>Lake Onega has a surface area of 9,700 km² without islands and a volume of 280 km³; its length is about 245 km and width about 90 km. It is the second largest lake in Europe, and the 18th largest lake by area in the world. Its southern banks are mostly low and continuous, whereas northern banks are rocky and rugged. They contain numerous elongated bays shaping the lake into a giant crayfish. In the northern part lies a large Zaonezhye Peninsula (Заонежье); south of it, is the Big Klimenetsky (Большой Клименецкий) island. To the west of them lies a deep (deeper than 100 m) Big Onego (Большое Онего) area with its Kondopozhskaya (Кондопожская губа, depth up to 78 meters), Ilem-Gorskaya (42 m), Lizhemskoy (82 m) and Unitskoy (44 m) bays. To the south-west of the Big Onega lies Petrozavodsk Onego (Петрозаводское Онего) with its large Petrozavodsk and small Yalguba and Pinguba bays. To the east of Zaonezhye there is a bay, northern part of which is called Povenetsky Bay and the southern part is Zaonezhsky Bay. There, deep sections alternate with banks and islands which split the bay into several parts. The southernmost part of them, Small Onega, is 40–50 meters deep. All shores there are stony.</p><br>
<p>The average depth of the lake is 31 meters, and the deepest place (127 meters) is located in the northern part. The average depth is 50–60 meters in the center and rises to 20–30 meters in the southern part. The bottom has a very uneven profile, it is covered with silt, and contains numerous trenches of various size and shape in the northern part. The trenches are separated by large shallow banks. Such bottom structure is favorable for fish, and the banks are used for commercial fishing.</p><br>
<p>The water level is stabilized by the Verhnesvirskaya hydropower plant and varies by only 0.9–1.5 meters over the year. It rises due to the spring flood which lasts 1.5–2 months. The highest water level is in June–August and the lowest is in March–April. Rivers bring 15.6 km³ of water per year to the lake, that is up to 74% of the water balance; the rest is provided by precipitation. Most of the lake water (84% or 17.6 km³/year) outflows via a single River Svir, and the remaining 16% evaporates from the lake surface. There are frequent storms more characteristic of a sea than a lake; waves of 2–3 meters are not uncommon and may even reach 5 meters. The lake freezes near the coast and bays in late November–December and around mid-January in its center. Thawing starts in April in the tributaries and reaches the lake in May. Water in the deep parts is clear, with the visibility up to 7–8 m. In the bays, the visibility may decrease to about a meter. The water is fresh, with the salt content of 35 mg/L. This is relatively low for a lake and is about 1.5 times lower than in the other large lake of the area, Ladoga Lake.</p><br>
<p>Maximal surface water temperature is 20–24 °С on the lake and even 24–27 °С in bays. The deep waters are much colder, from 2–2.5 °С in winter to 4–6 °С in summer. Weather is relatively cold, with temperatures below 0 °C for half of the year and average summer temperatures about 16 °C.</p><br>
<h2>Basin and islands</h2><br>
<p>The catchment area of 51,540 km² drains into the lake via 58 rivers and more than 110 tributaries, including the Shuya, Suna, Vodla, Vytegra and Andoma. The only outgoing River Svir, which marks the southern boundary of Karelia, runs from the southwestern shore of Lake Onega to Lake Ladoga and continues as the Neva River to the Gulf of Finland.</p><br>
<p>The White Sea – Baltic Canal runs through the lake from the White Sea to the Baltic Sea. The Volga–Baltic Waterway connects Onega Lake with the Volga River, Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The Onega Canal, which follows the southern banks of the lake, was built in 1818–1820 and 1845–1852 between Vytegra River in the east and Svir River in the west.</p><br>
<p>There are about 1650 islands in the lake with the total area of about 250 km². Whereas the most famous is Kizhi, which contains historical wooden churches of the 18th century, the largest island is Big Klimenetsky with the area of 147 km². It contains a few settlements, a school and an 82-meter tall hill. Other large islands are Big Lelikovsky and Suysari.</p><br>
<h2>Flora and fauna</h2><br>
<p>The lake banks are low and are flooded with raising water level. They are therefore swampy and are rich in reed, hosting ducks, geese and swans. The coastal region is covered with dense virgin forests. Major tree types are coniferous, but also common are lime (linden), elm and European Alder. Common mammals include elk, brown bear, wolf, red fox, European hare, blue hare, red squirrel, lynx, pine marten, European badger, as well as American muskrat and mink which were introduced to the area in the early 20th century. About 200 bird species from 15 families have been observed in the lake basin.</p><br>
<p>Lake Onega features a large variety of fish and water invertebrates, including relicts of the glacial period such as lamprey. There are about 47 fish species from 13 families; they include sturgeon, landlocked salmon, brown trout, European smelt, grayling, roaches, Crucian carp, whitefishes, char, pike, European cisco, common dace, silver bream, carp bream, sabre carp, spined loach, wels catfish, European eel, rudd, ide, gudgeon, pike-perch, European perch, ruffe and burbot.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>Whereas the area of the lake used to be virgin, the pollution level is gradually increasing, especially in the northwestern and northern parts which contain industrial facilities of Petrozavodsk, Kondopoga and Medvezhyegorsk. About 80% of the population and more than 90% of industry of the basin are concentrated in these areas. The pollution from these three cities amount to about 190 million m³ of sewage and drainage water and 150 tonnes of emissions per year. Human activity results in about 315 million m³ of drain water per year, of which 46% are industrial and household water, 25% is stormwater runoff and 16% is melioration-related drainage. This drainage contains 810 tonnes of phosphorus and 17,000 tonnes of nitrogen; 280 and 11,800 tonnes of these elements are removed through the River Svir whereas the rest accumulates in the lake. Ships and motor boats (about 8000 units) bring oil pollution at the level of about 830 tonnes per navigation year, as well as phenols (0.5 tonnes), lead (0.1 tonnes) and oxides of sulfur, nitrogen, and carbon.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>The lake basin is a major source of granite, marble and black schist in Russia which have been exploited in the area since the early 18th century. Also advanced is metallurgy, especially in the Petrozavodsk area which produces about 25% of industrial products of Karelia. Water level of the lake is controlled by the Nizhnesvirskaya (Нижнесвирская ГЭС, "Lower-Svir") and Verkhnesvirskaya (Верхнесвирская ГЭС, "Upper-Svir") hydroelectric power plants. The former was built between 1927 and 1938 and has a peak power of 99 MW. The construction of Verkhnesvirskaya plant started in 1938, but was interrupted by World War II and could only be resumed in 1947. The plant was completed in 1952 and provided 160 MW of electric power. The associated with the plant Verkhnesvirsk Reservoir has an area of 9930 km² and volume of 260 km³, i.e. almost the same as those of Onega Lake. Its construction raised the water level of the lake by 0.5 m.</p><br>
<p>The lake contains a well-developed navigation system which is part of the Volga–Baltic Waterway and White Sea – Baltic Canal, connecting the basins of Baltic, Caspian and the northern seas. These canals allow water transport of goods from the lake to the countries from Germany to Iran; most traffic goes to Finland, Sweden, Germany and Denmark. The Onega Canal running along the southern shore of the lake there is not used at present. Cargo on Lake Onega amounts to 10–12 million tonnes per year with about 10,300 ship voyages. Lake shores contain two ports (Petrozavodsk and Medvezhyegorsk), 5 wharfs (Kondopoga, Povenets, Shala, Vytegra and Ascension (Вознесенье)) and 41 piers.</p><br>
<p>Fishery is an important activity on the lake. About 17 species are being fished commercially, mostly European cisco, smelt, whitefishes, roaches, burbot, pike-perch, perch, ruffe, carp bream, lake salmon, pike and somewhat less ide, graylings, common dace, common bleak and crucian carp.</p><br>
<p>Whereas there is no regular passenger service on the lake, there are several tourist trips per day along the routes of Petrozavodsk – Kizhi, Petrozavodsk – Velikaya Guba and Petrozavodsk – Shala. They are run by hydrofoil and motor ships and are used for passenger transport as well. In addition, passenger ships go on the route Petrozavodsk – Shala.</p><br>
<p>Sailing is a popular activity on the lake and there is a sailing club in Petrozavodsk. Since 1972, every year at the end of July the lake has hosted the largest regatta in Russia ("Онежская парусная регата") which is the Russian Open Championship in the Russian class of Cruisers Yachts "Open800". The regatta has international status.</p><br>
<h2>History and places</h2><br>
<h3>Cities</h3><br>
<p>The largest city on the lake is Petrozavodsk – the capital of Republic of Karelia (about 270,000 citizens) founded in 1703 by Peter I to exploit the natural ore deposits. Petrozavodsk area contains a large number of historical monuments, such as Architectural ensemble Round Square (end of 18th century) and gymnasium building of 1790. The embankment of Lake Onega contains a series of sculptures, many of which were presented as gifts from the twin cities.</p><br>
<p>Kondopoga is known from 1495 and contain the Uspenskaya (Assumption) Church built in 1774. This 42-meter tall construction is one of the tallest wooden churches of the Russian North. There are two carillons in the city, with 23 and 18 bells, also there is an indoor ice sports arena accommodating 1850 spectators and a Palace of Arts with an organ.</p><br>
<p>Medvezhyegorsk city was founded in 1916 and from 1931 became the construction base of the White Sea – Baltic Canal. Between 1703–1710 and 1766–1769 a factory was operating on the site of the city. During the World War II, for three years this area was occupied by the Finnish forces and was a place of busy military activities.</p><br>
<h3>Kizhi island</h3><br>
<p>The main attraction of the lake is the island of Kizhi in the northern part of the lake, which is a State Historical, Architectural and Ethnographic Preservation Area. There are 89 wooden architectural monuments of 15th–20th centuries on the island. The most remarkable of those is Kizhi Pogost of the early 18th century which consists of a summer 22-dome church, a winter 9-dome church and a belfry. The pogost was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1990.</p><br>
<p>In the summer, there are daily boat connections to the island from Petrozavodsk.</p><br>
<h3>Onega petroglyphs</h3><br>
<p>Another attraction of the lake is Onega petroglyphs (rock engravings). They are located on the eastern coast of the lake and date back to 4th–2nd millennia BC. There are about 1200 petroglyphs scattered over the 20 km area including several capes, such as Besov Nos (see map above). The engravings are 1–2 mm deep and depict animals, people, boats and geometrical shapes of circular and crescent shapes.</p><br>
<h3>Others</h3><br>
<p>Many other historical monuments are scattered around the lake. They include Svyat-Uspensky monastery on the cape of Murom, on the eastern shore of the lake. The monastery was founded in 1350, closed in 1918 and restored in 1991.</p><br>
<p>This is a list of mountain passes.</p><br>
<h2>Africa</h2><br>
<h3>Egypt</h3><br>
<p>Halfaya Pass (near Libya)</p><br>
<h3>Lesotho</h3><br>
<p>Moteng Pass</p><br>
<p>Mahlasela pass</p><br>
<p>Sani Pass</p><br>
<h3>Morocco</h3><br>
<p>Tizi n&#39;Tichka</p><br>
<h3>South Africa</h3><br>
<p>Eastern Cape Passes</p><br>
<p>Western Cape Passes</p><br>
<p>Northern Cape Passes</p><br>
<p>KwaZulu Natal Passes</p><br>
<p>Free State Passes</p><br>
<p>Limpopo Province Passes</p><br>
<p>Mpumalanga Passes</p><br>
<p>Gauteng Passes</p><br>
<p>Northwest Province Passes</p><br>
<p>Swartberg Pass (Western Cape)</p><br>
<p>Lootsberg Pass</p><br>
<h2>Asia</h2><br>
<h3>Afghanistan</h3><br>
<p>Broghol Pass to Pakistan</p><br>
<p>Dorah Pass to Pakistan</p><br>
<p>Khost-Gardez Pass</p><br>
<p>Khyber Pass to Pakistan</p><br>
<p>Kotal-e Khushk</p><br>
<p>Kushan Pass linking northern Afghanistan to the region.</p><br>
<p>Lataband Pass</p><br>
<p>Tang-e Gharu is a gorge which links Afghanistan with Pakistan</p><br>
<p>Salang Pass crosses the Hindu Kush linking Kabul with northern Afghanistan - nowadays through a tunnel.</p><br>
<p>Wakhjir Pass to China</p><br>
<h3>China</h3><br>
<p>Alataw Pass to Kazakhstan</p><br>
<p>Dongkhala to India</p><br>
<p>Jelep La to India</p><br>
<p>Karakoram Pass to India</p><br>
<p>Khunjerab Pass to Pakistan</p><br>
<p>Kilik Pass to Pakistan</p><br>
<p>Kulma Pass to Tajikistan</p><br>
<p>Mintaka Pass to Pakistan</p><br>
<p>Nathu La to India</p><br>
<p>Pingxingguan Pass, Shanxi</p><br>
<p>Semo Pass, Tibet (18,258 ft)</p><br>
<p>Tanggula Pass, Tibet</p><br>
<p>Torugart Pass to Kyrgyzstan</p><br>
<p>Irkeshtam Pass to Kyrgyzstan</p><br>
<p>Wakhjir Pass to Afghanistan</p><br>
<h3>Hong Kong</h3><br>
<h3>India</h3><br>
<h3>Indonesia</h3><br>
<p>Puncak Pass, West Java</p><br>
<h3>Japan</h3><br>
<p>Usui Pass between Nagano and Gunma Prefectures</p><br>
<h3>Kyrgyzstan</h3><br>
<p>See: List of mountain passes in Kyrgyzstan</p><br>
<h3>Malaysia</h3><br>
<p>Genting Sempah on the border of Pahang and Selangor</p><br>
<h3>Nepal</h3><br>
<p>Thorong La 5416m. Annapurna Circuit Region</p><br>
<p>West col 6135m. Makalu Barun</p><br>
<p>East Col 6100m. Makalu Barun</p><br>
<p>Sherpani Col Makalu Barun</p><br>
<p>Cho La 5420m. Mount EverestRegion</p><br>
<p>Larky Pass 5213m. Manaslu</p><br>
<p>Kagmara La 5115m. Southern Dolpo</p><br>
<p>Ganja La 5106m. Langtang Helambu Region</p><br>
<p>Meso Kanta 5089m. Annapurna Region</p><br>
<h3>Pakistan</h3><br>
<p>Babusar pass</p><br>
<p>Bolan Pass</p><br>
<p>Broghol Pass to Afghanistan</p><br>
<p>Chaprot Pass</p><br>
<p>Dorah Pass to Afghanistan</p><br>
<p>Gondogoro Pass</p><br>
<p>Gumal Pass</p><br>
<p>Hayal Pass</p><br>
<p>Hispar Pass</p><br>
<p>Karakar Pass</p><br>
<p>Khunjerab Pass to China</p><br>
<p>Khyber Pass to Afghanistan</p><br>
<p>Kilik Pass to China</p><br>
<p>Kohat Pass</p><br>
<p>Lowari Pass</p><br>
<p>Malakand Pass</p><br>
<p>Mintaka Pass to China</p><br>
<p>Naltar Pass</p><br>
<p>Shandur Top</p><br>
<p>Tochi Pass Connects Ghazni to Bannu</p><br>
<h3>South Korea</h3><br>
<h3>Tajikistan</h3><br>
<p>Ak-Baital Pass (4,655 m)</p><br>
<p>Anzob Pass (3,400 m)</p><br>
<p>Beyik Pass to China (4,600 m)</p><br>
<p>Kulma Pass to China (4,362 m)</p><br>
<p>Kyzylart Pass to Kyrgyzstan (4,280 m)</p><br>
<h3>Turkey</h3><br>
<p>Cilician Gates (Gülek Pass), Mersin Province</p><br>
<p>Sertavul Pass, on border between Mersin and Karaman provinces</p><br>
<p>Syrian Gates (Belen Pass), Hatay Province</p><br>
<p>Zigana Pass, on border between Gümüşhane and Trabzon provinces</p><br>
<h3>Uzbekistan</h3><br>
<p>Kamchik Pass</p><br>
<h2>Australasia</h2><br>
<h3>Australia</h3><br>
<p>Alpine Way, New South Wales</p><br>
<p>Kings Highway (Australia), New South Wales</p><br>
<p>Horrocks Pass, South Australia</p><br>
<p>Pichi Richi Pass, South Australia</p><br>
<p>Tawonga Gap</p><br>
<p>Cunninghams Gap, Queensland</p><br>
<h3>New Zealand</h3><br>
<h2>Europe</h2><br>
<h3>Alps</h3><br>
<p>Col de l&#39;Argentiere</p><br>
<p>Arlberg Pass - Austria</p><br>
<p>Great St. Bernard Pass</p><br>
<p>Little St Bernard Pass</p><br>
<p>San Bernardino Pass</p><br>
<p>Bernina Pass</p><br>
<p>Bielerhöhe Pass</p><br>
<p>Col de la Bonette</p><br>
<p>Brenner Pass - Austria/Italia</p><br>
<p>Colle di Cadibona</p><br>
<p>Falzarego Pass - Italy</p><br>
<p>Fern Pass</p><br>
<p>Flexen Pass</p><br>
<p>Flüela Pass</p><br>
<p>Furka Pass</p><br>
<p>Col du Galibier</p><br>
<p>Passo Garlenda</p><br>
<p>Gemmi Pass</p><br>
<p>Grimsel Pass</p><br>
<p>St. Gotthard Pass</p><br>
<p>Giau Pass - Italy</p><br>
<p>Col de l&#39;Iseran (elevation 2770 m) highest paved mountain pass in the Alps.</p><br>
<p>Julier Pass</p><br>
<p>Klausen Pass</p><br>
<p>Loibl Pass (Ljubelj Pass)</p><br>
<p>Maloja Pass</p><br>
<p>Nufenen Pass</p><br>
<p>Oberalp Pass</p><br>
<p>Plöcken Pass</p><br>
<p>Pordoi Pass - Italy</p><br>
<p>Col de Restefond</p><br>
<p>Colle San Bernardo</p><br>
<p>Col Saint Martin</p><br>
<p>San Boldo Pass</p><br>
<p>Semmering Pass</p><br>
<p>Septimer Pass</p><br>
<p>Colle Sestriere</p><br>
<p>Colle Scravaion</p><br>
<p>Colle delle Selle Vecchie</p><br>
<p>Colle dei Signori</p><br>
<p>Simplon Pass</p><br>
<p>Splügen Pass</p><br>
<p>Stelvio Pass (Stilfserjoch)</p><br>
<p>Susten Pass</p><br>
<p>Col de Tende</p><br>
<p>Giogo di Toirano</p><br>
<p>Tremalzo Pass</p><br>
<p>Umbrail Pass</p><br>
<p>Wurzen Pass</p><br>
<p>Vršič Pass</p><br>
<p>Predil Pass (Predel Pass)</p><br>
<p>Col de la Joux Verte</p><br>
<p>See also: Principal passes of the Alps, List of mountain passes in Switzerland.</p><br>
<h3>Apennines</h3><br>
<p>Bocchetta Pass</p><br>
<p>Colle di Cadibona</p><br>
<p>Capannelle Pass</p><br>
<p>Cisa Pass</p><br>
<p>Passo del Faiallo</p><br>
<p>Futa Pass</p><br>
<p>Giovi Pass</p><br>
<p>Passo della Limina</p><br>
<p>Pescara Pass</p><br>
<p>Valico di San Fermo</p><br>
<p>Scheggia Pass</p><br>
<p>Passo del Turchino</p><br>
<h3>Carpathians</h3><br>
<h3>Georgia</h3><br>
<p>Abano Pass</p><br>
<p>Mamison Pass</p><br>
<p>Jvari Pass</p><br>
<p>Zekari Pass</p><br>
<p>Roki Tunnel</p><br>
<p>Rikoti Pass</p><br>
<h3>Greece</h3><br>
<p>Thermopylae</p><br>
<p>Katara Pass</p><br>
<h3>Iceland</h3><br>
<p>Fimmvörðuháls</p><br>
<h3>Ireland</h3><br>
<p>Barnesmore Gap</p><br>
<p>Gap of Dunloe</p><br>
<p>Conor Pass</p><br>
<p>Moll&#39;s Gap</p><br>
<p>Healy Pass</p><br>
<p>Wicklow Gap</p><br>
<h3>Jura Mountains</h3><br>
<p>Col de la Croix</p><br>
<p>Col de l&#39;Aiguillon</p><br>
<h3>Norway</h3><br>
<p>Dovrefjell (road E6)(1026 m)</p><br>
<p>(road E16)(1004 m)</p><br>
<p>Gaularfjellet (road 13)(745 m)</p><br>
<p>Geirangervegen (road 63)(1038 m)</p><br>
<p>Haukelifjell (road E134)(1085 m)</p><br>
<p>Hardangervidda (road 7)(1250 m)</p><br>
<p>Hemsedalsfjellet (road 52)(1137 m)</p><br>
<p>Hol-Aurland (county road 50)(1165 m)</p><br>
<p>Saltfjellet (road E6)(689 m)</p><br>
<p>Sognefjell (road 55)(1434 m)</p><br>
<p>Strynefjell (road 15)(943 m) (or road 258)(1139 m)</p><br>
<p>Trollstigen (road 63)(850 m)</p><br>
<p>Valdresflye (road 51)(1390 m)</p><br>
<p>Venabygdsfjellet (road 27)</p><br>
<p>Vikafjell (road 13)(988 m)</p><br>
<p>Ørnevegen (road 63)(624 m)</p><br>
<h3>Norway/Sweden</h3><br>
<p>Bjørnfjell/Riksgränsen (road E10) (530 m)</p><br>
<p>Funäsdalen–Røros (road 84/31) (840 m)</p><br>
<p>Funäsdalen–Ljungdalen (road Z531) (975 m)</p><br>
<p>Gäddede–Klimpfjäll (road AC1067) (876 m)</p><br>
<p>Graddis (Arjeplog–Rognan) (road 95/77) (740 m)</p><br>
<p>Sälen (road 66) (760 m)</p><br>
<p>Storlien (road E14) (615 m)</p><br>
<p>Tännäs (road 311) (850 m)</p><br>
<p>Umbukta (road E12) (600 m in tunnel, 650 m along older pass road)</p><br>
<h3>Pyrenees</h3><br>
<p>Col d&#39;Ares</p><br>
<p>Col d&#39;Aspin</p><br>
<p>Col d&#39;Aubisque</p><br>
<p>Pas de la Casa</p><br>
<p>Port de Larrau</p><br>
<p>Port de Pailhères</p><br>
<p>Col du Perthus</p><br>
<p>El Portalet</p><br>
<p>Portbou</p><br>
<p>Col du Puymorens</p><br>
<p>Col de la Quillane</p><br>
<p>La Brèche de Roland</p><br>
<p>Roncevaux Pass</p><br>
<p>Somport</p><br>
<p>Col du Tourmalet</p><br>
<h3>Sierra Nevada (Spain)</h3><br>
<p>Puerto del Suspiro del Moro (Pass of the Moor&#39;s Sigh)</p><br>
<h3>Great Britain</h3><br>
<p>See:</p><br>
<p>Mountain Passes of England</p><br>
<p>Mountain Passes of Scotland</p><br>
<p>Mountain Passes of Wales</p><br>
<h2>North America</h2><br>
<h3>Appalachian Mountains</h3><br>
<p>Appalachian Gap - Vermont</p><br>
<p>Ashby Gap - Virginia</p><br>
<p>Balsam Gap - North Carolina</p><br>
<p>Buford&#39;s Gap - Virginia</p><br>
<p>Chester Gap - Virginia</p><br>
<p>Crawford Notch - New Hampshire</p><br>
<p>Cumberland Gap - Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky</p><br>
<p>Deep Notch – New York</p><br>
<p>Delaware Water Gap - Pennsylvania, New Jersey</p><br>
<p>Dixville Notch - New Hampshire</p><br>
<p>Franconia Notch - New Hampshire</p><br>
<p>Goshen Pass - Virginia</p><br>
<p>Grafton Notch - Maine</p><br>
<p>Granville Notch - Vermont</p><br>
<p>Hazen&#39;s Notch - Vermont</p><br>
<p>James River Gap - Virginia</p><br>
<p>Kancamagus Pass - New Hampshire</p><br>
<p>Keyes Gap - Virginia, West Virginia</p><br>
<p>Kinsman Notch - New Hampshire</p><br>
<p>Lehigh Gap - Pennsylvania</p><br>
<p>Lincoln Gap - Vermont</p><br>
<p>Manassas Gap - Virginia</p><br>
<p>Mechanicsburg Gap - West Virginia</p><br>
<p>Middlebury Gap - Vermont</p><br>
<p>Moccasin Gap - Virginia</p><br>
<p>New Market Gap - Virginia</p><br>
<p>Newfound Gap - Tennessee, North Carolina</p><br>
<p>Pinkham Notch - New Hampshire</p><br>
<p>Pound Gap - Kentucky, Virginia</p><br>
<p>Rockfish Gap - Virginia</p><br>
<p>Schuylkill Gap - Pennsylvania</p><br>
<p>Sherburne Pass - Vermont</p><br>
<p>Smugglers Notch - Vermont</p><br>
<p>Snickers Gap - Virginia</p><br>
<p>Stony Clove Notch – New York</p><br>
<p>Swift Run Gap - Virginia</p><br>
<p>Thornton Gap - Virginia</p><br>
<h3>California Coast Ranges</h3><br>
<p>Pacheco Pass - Central California</p><br>
<p>Altamont Pass - Northern Central California, in the Diablo Range</p><br>
<h3>Cascade Range</h3><br>
<p>Allison Pass - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Austin Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Blewett Pass (formerly known as Swauk Pass)</p><br>
<p>Blizzard Gap - Oregon</p><br>
<p>Bly Mountain Pass - Oregon</p><br>
<p>Cady Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Canyon Creek Pass - Oregon</p><br>
<p>Cascade Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Cayuse Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Chinook Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Colockum Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Coquihalla Pass - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Cowhead Pass - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Crater Summit - Oregon</p><br>
<p>Deer Creek Summit - Washington</p><br>
<p>Disautel Summit - Washington</p><br>
<p>Drews Gap - Oregon</p><br>
<p>Elk Pass - WashingtonGGG</p><br>
<p>Green Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Greensprings Summit</p><br>
<p>Hayden Mountain Summit - Oregon</p><br>
<p>Hogback Summit - Oregon</p><br>
<p>Horse Ridge Summit - Oregon</p><br>
<p>Lake of the Woods Summit</p><br>
<p>Lolo Pass - Oregon</p><br>
<p>Loup Loup Summit - Washington</p><br>
<p>McKenzie Pass - Oregon</p><br>
<p>Naches Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Old Blewett Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Pass Creek Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Picture Rock Pass - Oregon</p><br>
<p>Rainy Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Rattlesnake Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Santiam Pass- Oregon</p><br>
<p>Sexton Mountain Pass - Oregon</p><br>
<p>Sherman Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Smith Hill Summit - Oregon</p><br>
<p>Snoqualmie Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Stage Road Pass - Oregon</p><br>
<p>Stampede Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Stevens Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Sunday Summit - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Sun Pass - Oregon</p><br>
<p>Washington and Rainy Passes (see North Cascades Highway) - Washington</p><br>
<p>Wauconda Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>White Pass - Washington</p><br>
<p>Willamette Pass - Oregon</p><br>
<p>Windy Pass - Washington</p><br>
<h3>Coast Mountains</h3><br>
<p>Ash Pass - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Athelney Pass - British Columbia (Pacific Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Cayoosh Pass - British Columbia (Lillooet Ranges/Cayoosh Range)</p><br>
<p>Chilkat Pass - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Chilkoot Pass - Alaska, British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Deception Pass - British Columbia (Coast Mountains/Rainbow Range)</p><br>
<p>Elbow Pass - British Columbia (Chilcotin Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Gnat Pass - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Griswold Pass - British Columbia (Chilcotin Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Grizzly Pass - British Columbia (Pacific Ranges/Chilcotin Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Heckman Pass - British Columbia (technically in the Rainbow Range, which is not Coast Mountains but Chilcotin Plateau)</p><br>
<p>Iron Pass - British Columbia (Chilcotin Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Lindquist Pass - British Columbia (Kitimat Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Lord Pass - British Columbia (Pacific Ranges)</p><br>
<p>McCuish Pass - British Columbia (Kitimat Ranges)</p><br>
<p>McGillivray Pass - British Columbia (Bendor Range/Cadwallader Range)</p><br>
<p>Mission Pass - British Columbia (Pacific Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Pemberton Pass - British Columbia (Pacific Ranges/Lillooet Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Railroad Pass (aka Railway Pass) - British Columbia (Pacific Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Singing Pass - British Columbia (Garibaldi Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Raindoor Pass - British Columbia (Garibaldi Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Surel Pass - British Columbia (Kitimat Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Ring Pass - British Columbia (Pacific Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Taylor Pass - British Columbia (Chilcotin Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Tyoax Pass - British Columbia (Chilcotin Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Warner Pass - British Columbia (Chilcotin Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Wedge Pass - British Columbia (Garibaldi Ranges)</p><br>
<p>White Pass - Alaska, British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Wolverine Pass - British Columbia (Chilcotin Ranges)</p><br>
<p>Wolverine Pass - British Columbia (Garibaldi Ranges)</p><br>
<h3>Hazelton Mountains</h3><br>
<p>Atna Pass</p><br>
<h3>Mackenzie Mountains</h3><br>
<p>Macmillan Pass - Yukon, Northwest Territories</p><br>
<p>Howard&#39;s Pass - Yukon, Northwest Territories</p><br>
<h3>Monashee Mountains</h3><br>
<p>Bonanza Pass - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Canoe Pass - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Eagle Pass - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Joss Pass, British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Monashee Pass - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Pettipiece Pass - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Sherman Pass - Washington</p><br>
<h3>Rocky Mountains</h3><br>
<p>Abbot Pass, Alberta and British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Arapaho Pass, Front Range, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Arapaho Pass, Rabbit Ears Range, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Argentine Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Athabasca Pass, Alberta and British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Badger Pass, Montana</p><br>
<p>Bald Mountain Pass, Utah</p><br>
<p>Banner Summit, Idaho</p><br>
<p>Bannock Pass, Idaho and Montana</p><br>
<p>Beartooth Pass, Wyoming</p><br>
<p>Beaver Pass, British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Berthoud Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Big Hole Pass, Montana</p><br>
<p>Big Mountain Pass, Utah</p><br>
<p>Black Bear Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Boreas Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Boulder-Grand Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Bozeman Pass, Montana</p><br>
<p>Bridger Pass, Wyoming</p><br>
<p>Buchanan Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Buffalo Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Bush Pass, Alberta and British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Cameron Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Carcajou Pass, Alberta and British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Cerro Summit, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Chief Joseph Pass, Idaho and Montana</p><br>
<p>Coal Bank Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Cochetopa Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Cordova Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Cottonwood Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Craig Pass, Wyoming</p><br>
<p>Crowsnest Pass, Alberta and British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Cucharas Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Cumbres Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Currant Creek Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Dallas Divide, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Dead Indian Pass, Wyoming</p><br>
<p>Douglas Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Dunraven Pass, Wyoming</p><br>
<p>Elbow Pass, Alberta</p><br>
<p>Elk Pass, Alberta and British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Fall River Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Fourth of July Summit, Idaho</p><br>
<p>Fraser Pass, British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Fremont Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Galena Summit, Idaho</p><br>
<p>Georgia Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Geyser Pass, Utah</p><br>
<p>Gibbons Pass, Montana</p><br>
<p>Glorieta Pass, New Mexico</p><br>
<p>Gore Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Grand Mesa Summit, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Granite Pass, Wyoming</p><br>
<p>Guanella Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Hagerman Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Halfmoon Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Hancock Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Hardscrabble Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Highwood Pass, Alberta</p><br>
<p>Homestake Pass, Montana</p><br>
<p>Hoosier Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Howse Pass, Alberta and British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Imogene Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Independence Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Jarvis Pass, British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Jones Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Kakwa Pass, British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Kebler Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Kenosha Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Kicking Horse Pass, Alberta and British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Kingman Pass, Wyoming</p><br>
<p>Kings Hill Pass, Montana</p><br>
<p>Kokomo Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>La Manga Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>La Poudre Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>La Veta Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Lake Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Lemhi Pass, Idaho and Montana</p><br>
<p>Lewis and Clark Pass, Montana</p><br>
<p>Lizard Head Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Logan Pass, Montana</p><br>
<p>Lolo Pass, Idaho and Montana</p><br>
<p>Lookout Pass, Idaho and Montana</p><br>
<p>Lost Trail Pass, Idaho and Montana</p><br>
<p>Loveland Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>MacDonald Pass, Montana</p><br>
<p>Marias Pass, Montana</p><br>
<p>Marshall Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>McClure Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>McGregor Pass, British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Milner Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Molas Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Monarch Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Monida Pass, Idaho and Montana</p><br>
<p>Monkman Pass, British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Monument Hill, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Mores Creek Summit, Idaho</p><br>
<p>Mosca Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Mosquito Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Muddy Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Mullan Pass, Montana</p><br>
<p>Muncho Pass, British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Nez Perce Pass, Idaho and Montana</p><br>
<p>North La Veta Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>North Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Ohio Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Old Monarch Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Old Rabbit Ears Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Palliser Pass, Alberta and British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Palmer Saddle, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Pawnee Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Phillips Pass, Alberta and British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Pine Pass, British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Piper Pass, Alberta</p><br>
<p>Pipestone Pass, Montana</p><br>
<p>Poncha Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Powder River Pass, Wyoming</p><br>
<p>Ptarmigan Pass, Front Range, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Ptarmigan Pass, Sawatch Range, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Rabbit Ears Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Raton Pass, Colorado and New Mexico</p><br>
<p>Raynolds Pass, Idaho and Montana</p><br>
<p>Red Hill Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Red Mountain Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Red Rock Pass, Idaho</p><br>
<p>Rogers Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Rogers Pass, Montana</p><br>
<p>Rollins Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Sangre de Cristo Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Schofield Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Searle Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Shrine Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Sifton Pass, British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Simpson Pass, Alberta and British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Sinclair Pass, British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Slumgullion Summit, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Smuts Pass, Alberta</p><br>
<p>Soldier Summit, Utah</p><br>
<p>South Pass, Wyoming</p><br>
<p>Spring Creek Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Spring Valley Summit, Idaho</p><br>
<p>Stone Man Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Stony Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Summit Pass, British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Sunset Pass, Alberta</p><br>
<p>Sunwapta Pass, Alberta</p><br>
<p>Sylvan Pass, Wyoming</p><br>
<p>Targhee Pass, Idaho and Montana</p><br>
<p>Tennessee Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Teton Pass, Wyoming</p><br>
<p>Thompson Pass, Alberta and British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Togwotee Pass, Wyoming</p><br>
<p>Tonquin Pass, Alberta and British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Trail Ridge High Point, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Trout Creek Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Two Ocean Pass, Wyoming</p><br>
<p>Unaweep Divide, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Ute Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Vail Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Vasquez Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Vermilion Pass, Alberta and British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Wapiti Pass, British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Webster Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>White Bird Hill Summit, Idaho</p><br>
<p>Wilkerson Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Willow Creek Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Willow Creek Pass, Montana</p><br>
<p>Wind River Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Windy Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Wolf Creek Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<p>Wolverine Pass, British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Yellowhead Pass, Alberta and British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Yellowjacket Pass, Colorado</p><br>
<h3>Selkirk Mountains</h3><br>
<p>Argonaut Pass - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Asulkan Pass - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Rogers Pass - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Kootenay Pass - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Retallack Pass aka Zincton Pass - British Columbia</p><br>
<h3>Sierra Nevada</h3><br>
<p>Barker Pass</p><br>
<p>Beckwourth Pass (lowest Sierra Nevada pass at 5,221 ft)</p><br>
<p>Carson Pass</p><br>
<p>Devil&#39;s Gate Pass</p><br>
<p>Donahue Pass</p><br>
<p>Donner Pass (pass of the Donner Party and Lincoln Highway)</p><br>
<p>Donner Summit (Euer Saddle, pass of Interstate 80)</p><br>
<p>Ebbetts Pass</p><br>
<p>Echo Summit (Johnson&#39;s Pass, pass of USA Route 50)</p><br>
<p>Emigrant Pass (at least 2, one in Tahoe National Forest, another near Mt. Lassen)</p><br>
<p>Forester Pass</p><br>
<p>Fredonyer Pass</p><br>
<p>Glen Pass</p><br>
<p>Henness Pass</p><br>
<p>Luther Pass</p><br>
<p>Monitor Pass</p><br>
<p>Muir Pass</p><br>
<p>Roller Pass</p><br>
<p>Sherman Pass</p><br>
<p>Sonora Pass</p><br>
<p>Tioga Pass (highest Sierra Nevada roadway pass at 9,943 ft)</p><br>
<p>Trail Crest</p><br>
<p>Walker Pass</p><br>
<p>Yuba Pass</p><br>
<h3>Stikine Ranges</h3><br>
<p>Aeroplane Pass</p><br>
<p>Metsantan Pass</p><br>
<p>Sifton Pass</p><br>
<h3>Tehachapi Mountains</h3><br>
<p>Oak Creek Pass</p><br>
<p>Tehachapi Pass</p><br>
<p>Tejon Pass</p><br>
<h3>Thompson Plateau</h3><br>
<p>Clapperton Creek Summit - British Columbia</p><br>
<p>Pennask Summit - British Columbia</p><br>
<h3>Other</h3><br>
<p>Emory Pass - New Mexico, NM Highway 152 crosses this pass in the Black Range between the towns of Kingston (east side) and San Lorenzo (west side).</p><br>
<p>Fremont Pass - Nevada, in the Lake Range, 8 mi. NE of Pyramid Lake</p><br>
<p>Newhall Pass - California, separating the San Gabriel Mountains from the Santa Susana Mountains</p><br>
<p>Pickle Gap - a mountain pass in Arkansas</p><br>
<p>San Gorgonio Pass - California, the main route between Los Angeles and Palm Springs</p><br>
<p>Tijeras Pass - New Mexico, main route through the Sandia and Manzano Mountains east of Albuquerque</p><br>
<h2>South America</h2><br>
<h3>Andes</h3><br>
<h4>Northern Andes</h4><br>
<p>Paso el Condor, Mérida State, Venezuela. Also known as Pico el Águila</p><br>
<p>La Línea, Colombia (connects between Ibagué and Armenia)</p><br>
<p>Papallacta Pass, Ecuador - 4,200 metres (13,766 feet)</p><br>
<h4>Central Andes</h4><br>
<p>Abra Porcuya, Peru (connects between Olmos and Marañón) — 2,137 m, lowest pass in the Andes</p><br>
<p>Ticlio, Peru — 4,818 m</p><br>
<p>Paso Chungará, Chile-Bolivia (on road 11 and 4, connects between Arica and La Paz) — 4,680 m</p><br>
<p>Paso Colchane - Pisigua, Chile-Bolivia (on road 15 and 12, connects between Iquique and Oruro) — 3,710 m</p><br>
<h4>Southern Andes</h4><br>
<p>Abra del Acay, Salta Province, Argentina (connects between La Poma and San Antonio de los Cobres) — 4,972 m (3.09 miles high)</p><br>
<p>Abra de Chorillos, Salta Province, Argentina (connects between San Antonio de los Cobres and Caucharí)</p><br>
<p>Paso de Agua Negra, Chile-Argentina (connects between La Serena and San José de Jachal)</p><br>
<p>Paso Cardenal Samoré (Formerly known as Puyehue), Chile-Argentina (connects between Osorno and San Carlos de Bariloche) — 1,314 m</p><br>
<p>Paso Carirriñe, Chile-Argentina (connects between Panguipulli and Junín de los Andes) — 1,176 m</p><br>
<p>Paso Derecho, Chile-Argentina (connects between Los Ángeles and Zapala)</p><br>
<p>Paso Futalefú, Chile-Argentina (connects between Chaitén and Esquel)</p><br>
<p>Paso Huahum, Chile-Argentina (connects between Panguipulli and San Martín de los Andes) — 659 m</p><br>
<p>Paso de Ipela, Chile-Argentina (connects between Futrono and San Martín de los Andes) — ≈ 1,400 m</p><br>
<p>Paso de Jama, Chile-Argentina (connects between San Pedro de Atacama and Susques) — ≈ 4,200 m</p><br>
<p>Paso Libertadores, Chile-Argentina (connects between Santiago and Mendoza) — ≈ 3,200 m</p><br>
<p>Paso Mamuil Malal, Chile-Argentina (connects between Pucón and Junín de los Andes)</p><br>
<p>Paso Pampa Alta (also known as Puesto Viejo), Chile-Argentina (connects between Coihaique and Alto Río Senguer) — 865 m</p><br>
<p>Paso Pehuenche, Chile-Argentina (connects between San Clemente and Bardas Blancas)</p><br>
<p>Paso Pérez Rosales, Chile-Argentina (connects between Puerto Varas and San Carlos de Bariloche)</p><br>
<p>Paso Pino Hachado, Chile-Argentina (connects between Temuco and Zapala) — 1,884 m</p><br>
<p>Paso Pircas Negras, Chile-Argentina (connects between Copiapó and Chilecito)</p><br>
<p>Paso Río Encuentro, Chile-Argentina (connects between Palena and Tecka)</p><br>
<p>Paso Roballo, Chile-Argentina (connects between Cochrane and Bajo Caracoles)</p><br>
<p>Paso San Francisco, Chile-Argentina (connects between Copiapó and Fiambalá) — 4,748 m</p><br>
<p>Paso de Sico, Chile-Argentina (connects between Socaire and Catua) — 4,092 m</p><br>
<p>Chile Route 23 — 4,580 m</p><br>
<p>Chile Route 27 — 4,810 m</p><br>
<h3>Other</h3><br>
<p>Abra de la Ventana, Sierra de la Ventana, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina</p><br>
<p>Contulmo Pass, Nahuelbuta Range part of larger Chilean Coast Range (connects between Contulmo and Purén)</p><br>
<p>Serra do Rio do Rastro, Brazil</p><br>
<p>Crowsnest Pass  is a low mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta–British Columbia border.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The pass is located in southeast British Columbia and southwest Alberta, and is the southernmost rail and highway route through the Canadian Rockies. It is the lowest-elevation mountain pass in Canada south of the Yellowhead Pass; the other major passes, which are higher, being Kicking Horse Pass, Howse Pass and Vermilion Pass.</p><br>
<p>Crowsnest Pass comprises a valley running east–west through Crowsnest Ridge. On the Alberta side, the Crowsnest River flows east from Crowsnest Lake, eventually draining into the Oldman River and ultimately reaching Hudson Bay via the Nelson River. Summit Lake on the British Columbia side drains via three intermediary creeks into the Elk River, which feeds into the Kootenay River, and finally into the Columbia River to the Pacific.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>In prehistoric times, aboriginals used this major breach through the Front Ranges for seasonal migrations, and also for trade between mountain and plains cultures.</p><br>
<p>The Canadian Pacific Railway built the Crowsnest Route line from Lethbridge, Alberta, to Kootenay Landing, British Columbia, through the Crowsnest Pass between 1897 and 1898. This line was built primarily to access mineral-rich southeastern BC via an all-Canadian rail route, and to assert Canadian (and CPR) sovereignty in an area that USA railroads were beginning to build into. It also opened up coal deposits in the Crowsnest and Elk River valleys which were important to mineral smelting operations and assisted the CPR in its conversion of locomotives from wood to coal. The CPR sought and received construction funding from the federal government, partially in exchange for a freight subsidy on prairie farm exports and equipment imports which came to be called the "Crow&#39;s Nest Pass Agreement".</p><br>
<p>"The Crow Rate", as the subsidy agreement came to be referred to, was eventually extended from CPR&#39;s Crowsnest Pass railway line to apply to all railway lines in western Canada, regardless of corporate ownership or geography, creating artificially low freight rates for grain shipments through the Great Lakes ports. The rate also correspondingly limited industrial growth in the western provinces as it was cheaper to produce items in eastern Canada and ship them west under the Crow Rate. This subsidy was finally abolished in 1995.</p><br>
<p>The first motor vehicle to cross the Canadian Rockies did so via Phillipps Pass, about 1 km north of Crowsnest Pass, and in 1917 a road was blasted around the shores of Crowsnest Lake and across Crowsnest Pass, renamed Interprovincial Highway Three in 1932. It is also known as the Crowsnest Highway.</p><br>
<p>On August 7, 1919, Captain Ernest Hoy flew a Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" through Crowsnest Pass, the first flight across the Canadian Rockies.</p><br>
<h2>Natural resources</h2><br>
<p>The Crowsnest Pass area on both sides of the provincial boundary is rich in coal deposits, which were quickly developed after completion of the rail line. All the mines on the Alberta side were closed by the end of the 20th century as cheaper and safer open-pit mines opened on the British Columbia side of the pass. Some logging and oil and gas exploitation also occurs in the area, and a sulphur plant has been in operation there for several years. Tourism based on the natural and historical resources of the area remains underdeveloped.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Crowsnest Pass is the richest archaeological zone in the Canadian Rockies. The oldest relics are stone tools found on a rock ridge outside Frank, Alberta, from the Clovis culture, 11,000 years before present. Other sites include chert quarries on the Livingstone ridge dating back to 1000 BC.</p><br>
<p>1800: Members of David Thompson expedition avoid entering the pass.</p><br>
<p>ca. 1850: Crow Indians dispersed from area by Blackfoot Confederacy.</p><br>
<p>1873: Michael Phillips (Hudson&#39;s Bay Company) traverses pass, reports coal deposits.</p><br>
<p>1878: Government survey by George Dawson.</p><br>
<p>1881: first surveys by Canadian Pacific Railway.</p><br>
<p>1897: CPR enters into farm export subsidy agreement for freight rates in exchange for financing of railway line between Lethbridge, Alberta, and Nelson, BC. Crow&#39;s Nest Pass Coal Company commences operations in British Columbia.</p><br>
<p>1898: CPR opens the railway line, 10th siding (later Blairmore, Alberta) established. Settlement of Fernie, British Columbia, established.</p><br>
<p>1900: the Frank Mine opens and the new town of Frank, Alberta, is established. Other coal mines and towns spring up between 1900 and 1919.</p><br>
<p>1902: explosion at Coal Creek mine kills 128 men.</p><br>
<p>1903: the cataclysmic Frank Slide occurs on the north slope of Turtle Mountain; 82 million tonnes of limestone crash down and partially bury the town of Frank, killing approximately 90 of the town&#39;s 600 residents.</p><br>
<p>1904: Fernie, British Columbia, incorporates.</p><br>
<p>1908: forest fire destroys Fernie (pop: 6000), which soon rebuilds.</p><br>
<p>1914: an explosion in the mine at Hillcrest kills 189 men, Canada&#39;s worst mine disaster.</p><br>
<p>1916–1923: Prohibition in Alberta; "rum-running" across the provincial boundary.</p><br>
<p>1920: Train robbery and shootout at Bellevue Cafe.</p><br>
<p>1923: Emperor Pic (Emilio Picariello) and Florence Lassandro hanged for shooting a police constable; first woman hanged in Alberta.</p><br>
<p>1932: The portion of the Red Trail through the Frank Slide is realigned as a Great Depression project and renamed Interprovincial Highway 3.</p><br>
<p>1946: An RCAF DC-3 Dakota crashes into a mountain, killing all seven people on board.</p><br>
<p>1966: Communities of Michel, Natal, and Sparwood amalgamate into the District Municipality of Sparwood, British Columbia.</p><br>
<p>1979: Communities of Coleman, Blairmore, Bellevue, Hillcrest, and Frank amalgamate to form the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass, Alberta.</p><br>
<p>The Strelasund or Strela Sound is a sound or lagoon of the Baltic Sea which separates Rügen from the German mainland. It is crossed by a road and rail bridge called the Rügendamm in Stralsund. It runs northwest to southeast from a small shallow bay just north of Stralsund called the Kubitzer Bodden through to another such bay, the Greifswalder Bodden in the southeast. The sound is nowhere much more than 3 km wide, reaching its greatest width towards its southeast end. It is roughly 25 km long.</p><br>
<p>The only island of any size in the Strelasund is Dänholm just off Stralsund, which carries part of the Rügendamm across the sound.</p><br>
<p>On the Rügen side, the shore is in many places steep, although this is punctuated by lower shorelines with reed beds in some places. On the mainland side, however, the shores are overridingly flat.</p><br>
<p>The Strelasund has been the site of two battles. The first in 1362 and the second in 1369 both pitted Danish king Valdemar IV against the Hanseatic fleet. Differences between the two parties were settled by the Treaty of Stralsund in 1370.</p><br>
<p>Amaliada  is a town and a former municipality in northwestern Elis, West Greece, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Ilida, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 251.945 km. In 2011, the municipal unit had 28,520 inhabitants, of whom 16,763 lived in the town of Amaliada. It is near the archaeological site of Elis, the city-state whose territory was the site of the ancient Olympic Games. It is situated in the plains of Elis, 6 km from the Ionian Sea. It is 10 km southeast of Gastouni, 16 km northwest of Pyrgos and 60 km southwest of Patras.</p><br>
<p>Amaliada was named after Queen Amalia of Greece in the 1830s, and formed by merging two communes, Kalitsa and Dervitselepi. It features a city square with beautiful pine trees and a fountain. Most of the streets are in grid order running almost due north, south, east, and west. On the east side, Amaliada has a public sports stadium (mainly used for soccer). The hospital and the monastery of Fragkavilla are in the southeast. Amaliada has a train station on the line from Patras to Pyrgos. A street in Amaliada&#39;s west side is named Hiroshima in memory of the victims of the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima at the end of World War II. Kourouta and Palouki are the beaches of Amaliada, about 6 km southwest of the town centre.</p><br>
<h2>Population history</h2><br>
<h2>Subdivisions</h2><br>
<p>The municipal unit Amaliada is subdivided into the following communities (constituent villages in brackets):</p><br>
<p>Agios Dimitrios (Agios Dimitrios, Kolokythas)</p><br>
<p>Agios Ilias</p><br>
<p>Amaliada (Amaliada, Agios Ioannis, Kourouta, Marathea, Palouki, Panagia, Tsafleika, Tsichleika)</p><br>
<p>Ampelokampos</p><br>
<p>Archaia Ilida</p><br>
<p>Avgeio</p><br>
<p>Chavari (Chavari, Agios Georgios, Pera Chavari)</p><br>
<p>Dafni (Dafni, Kalathas)</p><br>
<p>Dafniotissa</p><br>
<p>Douneika (Douneika, Agia Marina, Danika, Kato Kertezaiika)</p><br>
<p>Geraki (Geraki, Analipsi)</p><br>
<p>Kalyvia Ilidos</p><br>
<p>Kardamas (Kardamas, Petroules)</p><br>
<p>Kentro</p><br>
<p>Keramidia</p><br>
<p>Kryonero</p><br>
<p>Peristeri (Peristeri, Asteraiika, Palaiolanthi)</p><br>
<p>Roviata (Roviata, Kasidiaris, Paralia, Romeika)</p><br>
<p>Savalia</p><br>
<p>Sosti</p><br>
<h2>Sporting teams</h2><br>
<p>Amaliada is the seat of Koroivos which plays in A1 Ethniki. The town also hosts the football team Asteras Amaliada F.C. with earlier presence in Gamma Ethniki.</p><br>
<h2>Notable people</h2><br>
<p>Nikos Beloyannis (1915–1952), communist and resistance leader</p><br>
<p>Mitsos Alexandropoulos (1924-2008), writer</p><br>
<p>Yovanna (1940- ), singer and author</p><br>
<h2>Twin towns — sister cities</h2><br>
<p>Amaliada is twinned with:</p><br>
<p>Edremit, Turkey since 2000</p><br>
<p>The Three Kings Islands, called Manawatawhi by Māori, are a group of 13 uninhabited islands about 55 km northwest of Cape Reinga,of New Zealand, where the South Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea converge. They measure about 4.86 km² in area. The islands are situated on a submarine plateau, the Three Kings Bank, and are separated from the New Zealand mainland by an 8 km wide, 200 to 300 m deep submarine trough. Therefore, despite relative proximity to the mainland, the islands are listed with the New Zealand Outlying Islands. The islands are an immediate part of New Zealand, but not part of any region or district, but instead Area Outside Territorial Authority, like all the other outlying islands except the Solander Islands.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>They were named Drie Koningen Eyland on 6 January 1643 by Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman who three weeks earlier had become the first European known to have seen New Zealand.</p><br>
<p>Tasman anchored at the islands when searching for water. As it was the Twelfth Night feast of the Epiphany, the day the biblical three kings known as the wise men visited Christ the child, he named the islands accordingly. Tasman also named another prominent cape Cape Maria van Diemen, after the wife of Anthony van Diemen, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). These are the only two geographic features in New Zealand to retain the names given to them by Abel Tasman. Tasman found the islands to be inhabited by Māori, but since 1840 they have been uninhabited. The Māori population probably never exceeded 100.</p><br>
<p>In 1945, G. T. S. Baylis made an amazing discovery on Three Kings when he found the last remaining specimen anywhere of a tree which is now called Pennantia baylisiana, a Kaikomako. It was recognised internationally as the world&#39;s rarest and thus most endangered tree. Extremely careful propagation in New Zealand has resulted in the species being reliably established, but it continues to be carefully monitored. The islands were made a wildlife sanctuary in 1995. Other plants endemic to the islands include Tecomanthe speciosa and Elingamita johnsonii.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Three Kings group falls into two subgroups with four main inhospitable islands and a number of smaller rocks on a submarine plateau called King Bank which rises out of extremely deep water. The surrounding sea has very clear visibility and contains teeming fish life, attracting hundreds of divers. Another attraction is the wreck of the Elingamite which foundered there on 9 November 1902.</p><br>
<h3>King Group</h3><br>
<p>With 4.04 km² Great Island or King Island, is by far the largest. A northeastern peninsula, with an area of about 1 km², is almost cut off by a 200 m wide but more than 80 m high isthmus formed by North West Bay and South East Bay. The island reaches an elevation of 295 m in the western part, while the peninsula is up to 184 m high near its western cliffs. The island plays an important part in the traditional Māori belief that the spirits of dead Māori return to their Pacific homeland of Hawaiki. Near Cape Reinga on the mainland, sometimes translated as the underworld, is a gnarled Pōhutukawa tree reputed to be more than 800 years old. The spirits are believed to journey to the tree and down its roots into the sea bed. They are said to surface again on Ohau and say a last farewell to New Zealand before going on to Hawaiki.</p><br>
<p>North East Island, official name Oromaki/North East Island, about 1 km northeast of Great Island, is 0.10 km² in size and reaches a height of 111 m.</p><br>
<p>Farmers Rocks, 0.8 km east of Great Island, are 5 metres high and just a few hundred square metres in size.</p><br>
<h3>Southwest Group</h3><br>
<p>South West Island, official name Moekawa/South West Island, at 0.38 km², is the second largest of the Three Kings Islands and is 207 m high. It is located about 4.5 km southwest of Great island.</p><br>
<p>The Princes Islands, seven small islets and numerous rocks with a total area of about 0.2 km², start 600 m west of South West Island and stretch about 1.8 km east-west. The north-eastern islet is the highest at 106 m. The smallest islet is Rosemary Rock.</p><br>
<p>West Island, official name Ōhau/West Island, at 0.16 km² the third largest island, is 500 m southwest of the westernmost of the Princes Islands. It is 177 m high.</p><br>
<h2>Flora and fauna</h2><br>
<p>fauna</p><br>
<p>see Three Kings Islands nonmarine fauna</p><br>
<h3>Nature reserve</h3><br>
<p>Three Kings Island is a nature reserve administered by the Department of Conservation</p><br>
<p>Kitt Peak  is a mountain in the USA state of Arizona, and at 6,883 ft is the highest point in the Quinlan Mountains. It is the location of the Kitt Peak National Observatory. The radio telescope at the Observatory is one of ten dishes comprising the Very Long Baseline Array radio telescope.</p><br>
<p>The peak was named in English by County Surveyor George J. Roskruge for his sister, Phillippa, who was the wife of William F. Kitt. On his 1893 Pima County Survey map, Roskruge spelled the name Kits. At the request of the wife of George F. Kitt, the spelling was changed by decision in 1930.</p><br>
<p>Kitt Peak is the second-highest peak on the Tohono Oodham Indian Reservation, and as such is the second-most sacred after Baboquivari Peak. Near the summit is Iitois Garden, the summer residence of the nations elder brother deity. The name Ioligam means "red stick" in reference to the abundance of manzanita bushes on and around the mountain.</p><br>
<p>Gage Roads is an area in the outer harbour area of Fremantle Harbour in the Indian Ocean offshore from Fremantle, Western Australia.</p><br>
<p>It incorporates a deep water sea channel as part of its function.</p><br>
<p>Gage Roads serve as a shipping lane and anchorage for sea traffic heading towards the seaport of Fremantle. Gage Roads was the location of the 1987 America&#39;s Cup,</p><br>
<p>Rottnest Island lies to the west of Gage Roads, Owen Anchorage and Cockburn Sound lie to the south.</p><br>
<h2>Coastal geology</h2><br>
<p>The area is the most northern of one of four coastal basins formed from the flooding of a depression between Pleistocene aeolianite ridges running north-south, and the subsequent deposition of east-west Holocene banks. The seabed of Gage Roads is covered by seagrass.</p><br>
<h2>Naming</h2><br>
<h2>Shipping reports</h2><br>
<p>Gage Roads is identified in shipping reports listing ships at anchor prior to entering the port of Fremantle.</p><br>
<h2>Anchorage</h2><br>
<p>At certain times, over 10 ships can be seen anchored in Gage Roads waiting to enter the port of Fremantle. In addition to these waiting ships, oversized ships that are unable to enter the inner harbour due to size or draft are required to anchor in Gage Roads.</p><br>
<h2>Cruising</h2><br>
<p>In the early 1900s, the local boat SS Zephyr regularly took cruises in Gage Roads. In the 2000s, the has used Gage Roads for short sailing cruises.</p><br>
<h2>Wartime</h2><br>
<p>During the World War II era, the Leighton Guns (also known as Leighton Battery) on Buckland Hill were part of the main anti-aircraft defence of the Gage Roads area.</p><br>
<p>The guns were still operable into the Gage Roads area in the 1950s.</p><br>
<h2>Swimming</h2><br>
<p>Swimmers in the Rottnest Channel Swim (an annual swimming event) start at Cottesloe beach, cross Gage Roads and finish at Rottnest Island.</p><br>
<p>The Jefferson Memorial is a presidential memorial in Washington, D.C., dedicated to Thomas Jefferson , one of the most important of the American Founding Fathers as the main drafter and writer of the Declaration of Independence, member of the Continental Congress, governor of the newly independent Commonwealth of Virginia, American minister to King Louis XVI and the Kingdom of France, first USA Secretary of State under the first President George Washington, the second Vice President of the United States under second President John Adams, and also the third President , as well as being the founder of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, Virginia.</p><br>
<p>The neoclassical Memorial building on the Tidal Basin off the Washington Channel of the Potomac River was designed by the architect John Russell Pope and built by the Philadelphia contractor John McShain. Construction of the building began in 1939 and was completed in 1943. The bronze statue of Jefferson was added in 1947.</p><br>
<p>The Jefferson Memorial is managed by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior under its National Mall and Memorial Parks division. In 2007, it was ranked fourth on the "List of America&#39;s Favorite Architecture" by the American Institute of Architects.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>It became apparent that the site was well suited for another high-profile memorial since it sat directly south of the White House. By 1901 the Senate Park Commission, better known as the McMillan Commission, had proposed placing a Pantheon-like structure on the site hosting "the statues of the illustrious men of the nation, or whether the memory of some individual shall be honored by a monument of the first rank may be left to the future&quot no action was ever taken by Congress on this issue.</p><br>
<p>The completion of the Tidal Basin Inlet Bridge in 1908 helped to facilitate the recreational usage of East and West Potomac Parks. In 1918, large liquid-chlorine dispensers were installed under the bridge to treat the water and make the Tidal Basin (also known as Twining Lake) suitable for swimming. The Tidal Basin Beach, on the site of the future Memorial, opened in May 1918 and operated as a "Whites Only" facility until 1925, when it was permanently closed to avoid the question of racial integration.</p><br>
<p>A design competition was held for a memorial to Theodore Roosevelt in 1925. The winning design was submitted by John Russell Pope and consisted of a half-circle memorial situated next to a circular basin. The plan was never funded by Congress and was not built.</p><br>
<p>The Memorials chance came in 1934 when President Franklin Roosevelt, an admirer of Jefferson himself, inquired to the Commission of Fine Arts about the possibility of erecting a memorial to Jefferson, including it in the plans for the Federal Triangle project, which was under construction at the time. Later the same year, Congressman John J. Boylan jumped off FDRs starting point and urged Congress to create the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Commission. Boylan was appointed the Commission&#39;s first chairman and Congress eventually appropriated $3 million for a memorial to Jefferson.</p><br>
<p>The Commission chose John Russell Pope as the architect in 1935. Pope was also the architect of the National Archives Building and original (west) building of the National Gallery of Art. He prepared four different plans for the project, each on a different site. One was on the Anacostia River at the end of East Capitol Street; one at Lincoln Park; one on the south side of the National Mall across from the National Archives; and one situated on the Tidal Basin, directly south of the White House. The Commission preferred the site on the Tidal Basin mainly because it was the most prominent site and because it completed the four-point plan called for by the McMillan Commission (Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol; White House to the Tidal Basin site). Pope designed a very large pantheon-like structure, to sit on a square platform, and to be flanked by two smaller, rectangular, colonnaded buildings.</p><br>
<h3>Construction</h3><br>
<p>Construction began on December 15, 1938, and the cornerstone was laid on November 15, 1939, by Franklin Roosevelt. By this point Pope had died (1937) and his surviving partners, Daniel P. Higgins and Otto R. Eggers, took over construction of the memorial. The design was modified at the request of the Commission of Fine Arts to a more conservative design.</p><br>
<p>Construction commenced amid significant opposition. The Commission of Fine Arts never actually approved any design for the Memorial and even published a pamphlet in 1939 opposing both the design and site of the Memorial. In addition, many Washingtonians opposed the site because it was not aligned with LEnfants original plan. Finally, many well established elm and cherry trees had to be removed for construction. Construction continued amid the opposition.</p><br>
<p>In 1939, the Memorial Commission hosted a competition to select a sculptor for the planned statue in the center of the Memorial. They received 101 entries and chose six finalists. Of the six, Rudulph Evans was chosen as the main sculptor and Adolph A. Weinman was chosen to sculpt the pediment relief situated above the entrance.</p><br>
<p>Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. designed the memorial landscape. The Olmstead planting plan installed at the time of construction featured a simple design within a circular driveway; primarily evergreen trees with limited flowering trees and shrubs. The design was perceived as too thin, so white pines were added and some other plantings took place before the dedication in 1943. Many changes to Olmsteds plans occurred in the 1970s, while 1993 and 2000 restorations have attempted to restore integrity to Olmsteds altered design. President Roosevelt ordered trees to be cut so that the view of the memorial from the White House would be enhanced; additional tree pruning was completed to create an unobstructed view between the Jefferson Memorial and Lincoln Memorial.</p><br>
<p>The Jefferson Memorial was officially dedicated by President Roosevelt on April 13, 1943, the 200th anniversary of Jeffersons birthday. At that time, Evans statue had not yet been finished. Due to material shortages during World War II, the statue that was installed at the time was a plaster cast of Evans&#39; work painted to look like bronze. The finished bronze statue was installed in 1947, having been cast by the Roman Bronze Company of New York.</p><br>
<p>As a National Memorial it was administratively listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<h3>Exterior</h3><br>
<p>Composed of circular marble steps, a portico, a circular colonnade of Ionic order columns, and a shallow dome, the building is open to the elements. The memorial is constructed of white Imperial Danby marble from Vermont, which rests upon a series of granite and marble-stepped terraces. A flight of granite and marble stairs and platforms, flanked by granite buttresses, lead up from the Tidal Basin. The stairs rise to a portico with a triangular pediment, which features a sculpture by Adolph Alexander Weinman, depicting the five members of the drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence submitting their report to Congress. A cornice with an egg and dart molding surrounds the pediment, below which is a plain frieze.</p><br>
<p>Pope made references to the Roman Pantheon and Jefferson&#39;s own design for the Rotunda at the University of Virginia. It is situated in West Potomac Park, on the shore of the Tidal Basin of the Potomac River. The Jefferson Memorial, and the White House located directly north, form one of the main anchor points in the area of the National Mall in D.C. The Washington Monument, just east of the axis on the national Mall, was intended to be located at the intersection of the White House and the site for the Jefferson Memorial to the south, but soft swampy ground which defied 19th century engineering required it be sited to the east.</p><br>
<h3>Interior</h3><br>
<p>The interior of the memorial has a 19-foot (5.8 m) tall, 10,000 lb (4336 kg) bronze statue of Jefferson by the sculptor Rudulph Evans showing Jefferson looking back at the statue of Alexander Hamilton, a former rival of his. This statue was added four years after the dedication. Most prominent are the words which are inscribed in a frieze below the dome: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." This sentence is taken from a letter written by Jefferson on September 23, 1800, to Dr. Benjamin Rush wherein he defends the constitutional refusal to recognize a state religion.</p><br>
<p>On the panel of the southwest interior wall are excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, written in 1776:</p><br>
<p>We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by</p><br>
<p>their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of</p><br>
<p>happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men. We... solemnly</p><br>
<p>publish and declare, that these colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states...</p><br>
<p>And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence,</p><br>
<p>we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.</p><br>
<p>Note that the inscription uses the word "inalienable", as in Jefferson&#39;s draft, rather than "unalienable", as in the published Declaration.</p><br>
<p>On the panel of the northwest interior wall is an excerpt from "A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, 1777", except for the last sentence, which is taken from a letter of August 28, 1789, to James Madison:</p><br>
<p>Almighty God hath created the mind free...All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens...are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion...No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively.</p><br>
<p>God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than these people are to be free. Establish the law for educating the common people. This it is the business of the state to effect and on a general plan.</p><br>
<p>The inscription on the panel of the southeast interior wall is redacted and excerpted from a letter of July 12, 1816, to Samuel Kercheval:</p><br>
<p>I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.</p><br>
<h3>Criticism</h3><br>
<p>Cato Institute Fellow and University of Alberta history professor Emeritus Ronald Hamowy has called the inscriptions "perhaps the most egregious examples of invoking Jefferson for purely transient political purposes." Hamowy argues that:</p><br>
<p>Planned and built during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the walls of the memorial are adorned with quotations from Jeffersons writings, many of which suggest that Jefferson advocated positions consistent with the aims of the New Deal—with which he would, in fact, have had little sympathy. Thus, Jeffersons admonition that an educated electorate was essential if liberty were to be preserved is transmuted into a call for universal public education. And his caution that man, as he advances in his understanding of the world, must accompany his greater enlightenment with changes in his social institutions becomes a justification for a new theory of government in keeping with the social-democratic principles that animated the New Deal.</p><br>
<p>The excerpts chosen from the Declaration have been criticized because the first half alters Jefferson&#39;s prose (for the sake of saving space) and eliminates the right of revolution passage that Jefferson believed was the point of the Declaration, while much of the second half (from "solemnly publish" to "divine providence") was not written by Jefferson.</p><br>
<p>The fifth sentence quoted on the northeast interior wall ("Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than these people are to be free.") has been called "misleadingly truncated" by historian Garry Wills, because Jefferson&#39;s sentence continued with: "Nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government."</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>The site of the monument is in West Potomac Park, in Washington, D.C., on the shore of the Potomac River Tidal Basin, and is enhanced with the massed planting of Japanese cherry trees, a gift from the people of Japan in 1912.</p><br>
<p>The monument is not as prominent in popular culture as other buildings and monuments in Washington, D.C., possibly due to its location well removed from the National Mall and the Washington Metro.</p><br>
<p>The Jefferson Memorial hosts many events and ceremonies each year, including memorial exercises, the Easter Sunrise Service, and the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival.</p><br>
<p>In mid-1947, a United States Army Air Forces balloon crashed at a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. Following wide initial interest in the crashed "flying disc", the US military stated that it was merely a conventional weather balloon. Interest subsequently waned until the late 1970s, when ufologists began promoting a variety of increasingly elaborate conspiracy theories, claiming that one or more alien spacecraft had crash-landed, and that the extraterrestrial occupants had been recovered by the military, who then engaged in a cover-up.</p><br>
<p>In the 1990s, the US military published two reports disclosing the true nature of the crashed object: a nuclear test surveillance balloon from Project Mogul. Nevertheless, the Roswell incident continues to be of interest in popular media, and conspiracy theories surrounding the event persist. Roswell has been described as "the world&#39;s most famous, most exhaustively investigated, and most thoroughly debunked UFO claim".</p><br>
<h2>Events of 1947</h2><br>
<p>The sequence of events was triggered by the crash of a Project Mogul balloon near Roswell. On July 8, 1947, Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) public information officer Walter Haut issued a press release stating that personnel from the field&#39;s 509th Operations Group had recovered a "flying disc", which had crashed on a ranch near Roswell.</p><br>
<p>The military decided to conceal the true purpose of the crashed device – nuclear test monitoring – and instead inform the public that the crash was of a weather balloon. Later that day, the press reported that Commanding General of the Eighth Air Force Roger Ramey had stated that a weather balloon was recovered by the RAAF personnel. A press conference was held, featuring debris (foil, rubber and wood) said to be from the crashed object, which matched the weather balloon description. Historian Robert Goldberg wrote that the intended effect was achieved: "the story died the next day".</p><br>
<p>Subsequently, the incident faded from the attention of UFO enthusiasts for more than 30 years.</p><br>
<p>On June 14, 1947, William Brazel, a foreman working on the Foster homestead, noticed clusters of debris approximately 30 mi north of Roswell, New Mexico. This date—or "about three weeks" before July 8—appeared in later stories featuring Brazel, but the initial press release from the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) said the find was "sometime last week", suggesting Brazel found the debris in early July. Brazel told the Roswell Daily Record that he and his son saw a "large area of bright wreckage made up of rubber strips, tinfoil, a rather tough paper and sticks." He paid little attention to it but returned on July 4 with his son, wife and daughter to gather up the material. Some accounts have described Brazel as having gathered some of the material earlier, rolling it together and stashing it under some brush. The next day, Brazel heard reports about "flying discs" and wondered if that was what he had picked up. On July 7, Brazel saw Sheriff Wilcox and "whispered kinda confidential like" that he may have found a flying disc. Another account quotes Wilcox as saying Brazel reported the object on July 6.</p><br>
<p>Wilcox called RAAF Major Jesse Marcel and a "man in plainclothes" accompanied Brazel back to the ranch where more pieces were picked up. " spent a couple of hours Monday afternoon looking for any more parts of the weather device", said Marcel. "We found a few more patches of tinfoil and rubber."</p><br>
<p>As described in the July 9, 1947 edition of the Roswell Daily Record,</p><br>
<p>The balloon which held it up, if that was how it worked, must have been 12 feet long, felt, measuring the distance by the size of the room in which he sat. The rubber was smoky gray in color and scattered over an area about 200 yards in diameter. When the debris was gathered up, the tinfoil, paper, tape, and sticks made a bundle about three feet long and 7 or 8 inches thick, while the rubber made a bundle about 18 or 20 inches long and about 8 inches thick. In all, he estimated, the entire lot would have weighed maybe five pounds. There was no sign of any metal in the area which might have been used for an engine, and no sign of any propellers of any kind, although at least one paper fin had been glued onto some of the tinfoil. There were no words to be found anywhere on the instrument, although there were letters on some of the parts. Considerable Scotch tape and some tape with flowers printed upon it had been used in the construction. No strings or wires were to be found but there were some eyelets in the paper to indicate that some sort of attachment may have been used.</p><br>
<p>A telex sent to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) office from the Fort Worth, Texas office quoted a Major from the Eighth Air Force (also based in Fort Worth at Carswell Air Force Base) on July 8, 1947 as saying that "The disc is hexagonal in shape and was suspended from a by cable, which was approximately twenty feet (6 m) in diameter. Major Curtan further advices that the object found resembles a high altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector, but that telephonic conversation between their office and Wright field had not borne out this belief."</p><br>
<p>Early on Tuesday, July 8, the RAAF issued a press release, which was immediately picked up by numerous news outlets:</p><br>
<p>The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th Bomb group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc through the cooperation of one of the local ranchers and the sheriffs office of Chaves County. The flying object landed on a ranch near Roswell sometime last week. Not having phone facilities, the rancher stored the disc until such time as he was able to contact the sheriffs office, who in turn notified Maj. Jesse A. Marcel of the 509th Bomb Group Intelligence Office. Action was immediately taken and the disc was picked up at the rancher&#39;s home. It was inspected at the Roswell Army Air Field and subsequently loaned by Major Marcel to higher headquarters.</p><br>
<p>Colonel William H. Blanchard, commanding officer of the 509th, contacted General Roger M. Ramey of the Eighth Air Force in Fort Worth, Texas, and Ramey ordered the object be flown to Fort Worth Army Air Field. At the base, Warrant Officer Irving Newton confirmed Ramey’s preliminary opinion, identifying the object as being a weather balloon and its "kite", a nickname for a radar reflector used to track the balloons from the ground. Another news release was issued, this time from the Fort Worth base, describing the object as being a "weather balloon".</p><br>
<h2>Growing interest, 1978–1994</h2><br>
<p>Between 1978 and the early 1990s, UFO researchers such as Stanton T. Friedman, William Moore, Karl T. Pflock, and the team of Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt interviewed several hundred people who claimed to have had a connection with the events at Roswell in 1947. Hundreds of documents were obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests, along with other documents such as Majestic 12 that were supposedly leaked by insiders. Their conclusions were at least one alien spacecraft crashed near Roswell, alien bodies had been recovered, and a government cover-up of the incident had taken place.</p><br>
<p>Over the years, books, articles, and television specials brought the 1947 incident significant notoriety. By the mid-1990s, public polls such as a 1997 CNN/Time poll, revealed that the majority of people interviewed believed that aliens had indeed visited Earth, and that aliens had landed at Roswell, but that all the relevant information was being kept secret by the US government.</p><br>
<p>According to anthropologists Susan Harding and Kathleen Stewart, the Roswell Story was the prime example of how a discourse moved from the fringes to the mainstream according to the prevailing zeitgeist: public preoccupation in the 1980s with "conspiracy, cover-up and repression" aligned well with the Roswell narratives as told in the "sensational books" which were being published.</p><br>
<h3>Friedman's initial work</h3><br>
<p>In 1978, nuclear physicist and author Stanton T. Friedman interviewed Jesse Marcel, the only person known to have accompanied the Roswell debris from where it was recovered to Fort Worth where reporters saw material which was claimed to be part of the recovered object. The accounts given by Friedman and others in the following years elevated Roswell from a forgotten incident to perhaps the most famous UFO case of all time.</p><br>
<h3>Books</h3><br>
<h4>The Roswell Incident (1980)</h4><br>
<p>The first conspiracy book about Roswell was The Roswell Incident (1980) by Charles Berlitz and William Moore, authors who had previously written popular books on the Philadelphia Experiment and on the Bermuda Triangle.</p><br>
<p>Historian Kathy Olmsted writes that the material in this book has come to be known as "version 1" of the Roswell myth. Berlitz and Moore&#39;s narrative holds that an alien craft was flying over the New Mexico desert observing US nuclear weapons activity, but crashed after being hit by lightning, killing the aliens on board; a government cover-up duly followed.</p><br>
<p>The authors claimed to have interviewed over ninety witnesses. Though he was uncredited, Friedman carried out some research for the book. The Roswell Incident featured accounts of debris described by Marcel as "nothing made on this earth." Additional accounts by Bill Brazel, son of Mac Brazel, neighbor Floyd Proctor and Walt Whitman Jr., son of newsman W. E. Whitman who had interviewed Mac Brazel, suggested the material Marcel recovered had super-strength not associated with a weather balloon. The book introduced the contention that debris which was recovered by Marcel at the Foster ranch, visible in photographs showing Marcel posing with the debris, was substituted for debris from a weather device as part of a cover-up. The book also claimed that the debris recovered from the ranch was not permitted a close inspection by the press. The efforts by the military were described as being intended to discredit and "counteract the growing hysteria towards flying saucers". Two accounts of witness intimidation were included in the book, including the incarceration of Mac Brazel. The book also introduced the secondhand stories of civil engineer Barney Barnett and a group of archeology students from an unidentified university seeing alien wreckage and bodies while in the desert.</p><br>
<p>Berlitz and Moore&#39;s narrative was dominant until the late 1980s when other authors, attracted by the commercial potential of writing about Roswell, started producing rival accounts.</p><br>
<h4>UFO Crash at Roswell (1991)</h4><br>
<p>In 1991, Kevin Randle and Donald Schmitt published UFO Crash at Roswell. They added 100 new witnesses, altered and tightened the narrative, and included several "sinister" new twists.</p><br>
<p>Some new details were included, including accounts of a "gouge that extended four or five hundred feet " at the ranch and descriptions of an elaborate cordon and recovery operation. Several witnesses in The Roswell Incident described being turned back from the Foster ranch by armed military police, but extensive descriptions were not given. The Barnett accounts were mentioned, though the dates and locations were changed from the accounts found in The Roswell Incident. In the new account, Brazel was described as leading the Army to a second crash site on the ranch, at which point the Army personnel were supposedly "horrified to find civilians there already."</p><br>
<p>Glenn Dennis was produced as a supposedly important witness in 1989, after calling the hotline when an episode of Unsolved Mysteries featured the Roswell incident. His descriptions of Roswell alien autopsies were the first account that said there were alien corpses at the Roswell Army Air Base.</p><br>
<p>Randle and Schmitt&#39;s book sold 160,000 copies.</p><br>
<h4>Crash at Corona (1992)</h4><br>
<p>In 1992, Stanton Friedman re-entered the scene with his own book Crash at Corona, co-authored with Don Berliner – an author of books on space and aviation. Goldberg writes that Friedman too introduced new "witnesses", and that he added to the narrative by doubling the number of flying saucers to two, and the number of aliens to eight – two of which were said to have survived and been taken into custody by the government.</p><br>
<h4>The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell (1994)</h4><br>
<p>Randle and Schmitt responded with another book, updating their previous narrative with several new details, including the claim that alien bodies were taken by cargo plane to be viewed by Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was curious about their appearance.</p><br>
<h4>The Day After Roswell (1997)</h4><br>
<p>Former Lt. Col. Philip J. Corso reported in his autobiographical book that the Roswell Crash did happen and that when he was assigned to Fort Riley (Kansas) in July 1947, 5 trucks of 25 tons and some semi trailers entered the base from Fort Bliss Texas. He claimed while he was patrolling the base he was brought into the medical facilities by Sgt. Brown and shown the remnants of bodies that were from an "air crash". Philip Klass analyzed his claims line by line and exposed many inconsistencies and factual errors.</p><br>
<h3>Competing accounts</h3><br>
<p>The existence of so many differing accounts by 1994 led to a schism among ufologists about the events at Roswell. The Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) and the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), two leading UFO societies, disagreed in their views of the various scenarios presented by Randle–Schmitt and Friedman–Berliner; several conferences were held to try to resolve the differences. One issue under discussion was where Barnett was when he saw the alien craft he was said to have encountered. A 1992 UFO conference had attempted to achieve a consensus among the various scenarios portrayed in Crash at Corona and UFO Crash at Roswell, however, the publication of The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell had "resolved" the Barnett problem by simply ignoring Barnett and citing a new location for the alien craft recovery, including a new group of archaeologists not connected to the ones the Barnett story cited.</p><br>
<p>Don Schmitt held that variations in narratives between different writers was not however an essential problem, commenting by way of comparison "We know Jesus Christ was crucified, we just don&#39;t know where."</p><br>
<h4>Problems with witness accounts</h4><br>
<p>Hundreds of people were interviewed by the various researchers, but critics point out that only a few of these people claimed to have seen debris or aliens. Most witnesses were repeating the claims of others, and their testimony would be considered hearsay in an American court of law and therefore inadmissible as evidence. Of the 90 people claimed to have been interviewed for The Roswell Incident, the testimony of only 25 appears in the book, and only seven of these people saw the debris. Of these, five handled the debris. Pflock, in Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe (2001), makes a similar point about Randle and Schmitt&#39;s UFO Crash at Roswell. Approximately 271 people are listed in the book who were "contacted and interviewed" for the book, and this number does not include those who chose to remain anonymous, meaning more than 300 witnesses were interviewed, a figure Pflock said the authors frequently cited. Of these 300-plus individuals, only 41 can be "considered genuine first- or second-hand witnesses to the events in and around Roswell or at the Fort Worth Army Air Field," and only 23 can be "reasonably thought to have seen physical evidence, debris recovered from the Foster Ranch." Of these, only seven have asserted anything suggestive of otherworldly origins for the debris.</p><br>
<p>As for the accounts from those who claimed to have seen aliens, critics identified problems ranging from the reliability of second-hand accounts, to credibility problems with witnesses making demonstrably false claims, or multiple, contradictory accounts, to dubious death-bed confessions or accounts from elderly and easily confused witnesses. Pflock noted that only four people with supposed firsthand knowledge of alien bodies were interviewed and identified by Roswell authors: Frank Kaufmann; Jim Ragsdale; Lt. Col. Albert Lovejoy Duran; Gerald Anderson. Duran is mentioned in a brief footnote in The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell and never again, while the other three all have serious credibility problems. A problem with all the accounts, charge critics, is they all came about a minimum of 31 years after the events in question, and in many cases were recounted more than 40 years after the fact. Not only are memories this old of dubious reliability, they were also subject to contamination from other accounts the interviewees may have been exposed to. The shifting claims of Jesse Marcel, whose suspicion that what he recovered in 1947 was "not of this world" sparked interest in the incident in the first place, cast serious doubt on the reliability of what he claimed to be true.</p><br>
<p>In The Roswell Incident, Marcel stated, "Actually, this material may have looked like tinfoil and balsa wood, but the resemblance ended there They took one picture of me on the floor holding up some of the less-interesting metallic debris The stuff in that one photo was pieces of the actual stuff we found. It was not a staged photo." Timothy Printy points out that the material Marcel positively identified as being part of what he recovered is material that skeptics and UFO advocates agree is debris from a balloon device. After that fact was pointed out to him, Marcel changed his story to say that that material was not what he recovered. Skeptics like Robert Todd argued that Marcel had a history of embellishment and exaggeration, such as claiming to have been a pilot and having received five Air Medals for shooting down enemy planes, claims that were all found to be false, and skeptics feel that his evolving Roswell story was simply another instance of this tendency to fabricate.</p><br>
<h2>Air Force reports, 1994–1997</h2><br>
<p>In response to these reports, and after United States congressional inquiries, the General Accounting Office launched an inquiry and directed the Office of the United States Secretary of the Air Force to conduct an internal investigation. The result was summarized in two reports. The first, released in 1994, concluded that the material recovered in 1947 was likely debris from Project Mogul, a military surveillance program employing high-altitude balloons. The second report, released in 1997, concluded that reports of recovered alien bodies were likely a combination of innocently transformed memories of accidents involving military casualties with memories of the recovery of anthropomorphic dummies in military programs such as the 1950s Operation High Dive, mixed with hoaxes perpetrated by various witnesses and UFO proponents. The psychological effects of time compression and confusion about when events occurred explained the discrepancy with the years in question.</p><br>
<p>The Air Force reports were dismissed by UFO proponents as being either disinformation or simply implausible, though skeptical researchers such as Philip J. Klass saw the increasingly elaborate accounts of alien crash landings and government cover ups as evidence of a myth being constructed.</p><br>
<h2>Recent interest</h2><br>
<h3>Evidence</h3><br>
<p>Although there is no evidence that a UFO crashed at Roswell, believers firmly hold to the belief that one did, and that the truth has been concealed as a result of a government conspiracy. B. D. Gildenberg has called the Roswell incident "the world&#39;s most famous, most exhaustively investigated, and most thoroughly debunked UFO claim".</p><br>
<p>Pflock said, "he case for Roswell is a classic example of the triumph of quantity over quality. The advocates of the crashed-saucer tale simply shovel everything that seems to support their view into the box marked Evidence and say, See? Look at all this stuff. We must be right. Never mind the contradictions. Never mind the lack of independent supporting fact. Never mind the blatant absurdities." Korff suggests there are clear incentives for some people to promote the idea of aliens at Roswell, and that many researchers were not doing competent work: " UFO field is people who are willing to take advantage of the gullibility of others, especially the paying public. Let&#39;s not pull any punches here: The Roswell UFO myth has been very good business for UFO groups, publishers, for Hollywood, the town of Roswell, the media, and UFOlogy number of researchers who employ science and its disciplined methodology is appallingly small."</p><br>
<p>B. D. Gildenberg wrote there were as many as 11 reported alien recovery sites Other accounts could have been based on memories of recoveries of test dummies, as suggested by the Air Force in their reports. Charles Ziegler argued that the Roswell story has all the hallmarks of a traditional folk narrative. He identified six distinct narratives, and a process of transmission via storytellers with a core story that was created from various witness accounts, and was then shaped and molded by those who carry on the UFO community&#39;s tradition. Other "witnesses" were then sought out to expand the core narrative, with those who give accounts not in line with the core beliefs being repudiated or simply omitted by the "gatekeepers." Others then retold the narrative in its new form. This whole process would repeat over time.</p><br>
<p>In September 2017, UK newspaper The Guardian reported on Kodachrome slides which some had claimed showed a dead space alien. First presented at a BeWitness event in Mexico, organised by Jaime Maussan and attended by almost 7,000 people, days afterwards it was revealed that the slides were in fact of a mummified Native American child discovered in 1896 and which had been on display at the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum in Mesa Verde, Colorado for many decades.</p><br>
<h3>Roswellian Syndrome</h3><br>
<p>Prominent skeptics Joe Nickell and co-author James McGaha identified a myth-making process, which they called the "Roswellian Syndrome". In this syndrome a myth is proposed to have five distinct stages of development: Incident, Debunking, Submergence, Mythologizing, and Reemergence and Media Bandwagon Effect. The authors predicted that the Roswellian Syndrome would "play out again and again", in other UFO and conspiracy-theory stories.</p><br>
<h3>Recriminations among ufologists</h3><br>
<p>Glenn Dennis, who testified that Roswell alien autopsies were carried out at the Roswell base, and that he and others were the subjects of threats, was deemed one of the "least credible" Roswell witnesses by Randle in 1998. In Randle and Schmitt’s 1991 book UFO Crash at Roswell, Denniss story was featured prominently. Randle said Dennis was not credible "for changing the name of the nurse once we had proved she didnt exist." Dennis&#39;s accounts were also doubted by researcher Pflock.</p><br>
<p>Scientific skeptic author Brian Dunning concurs that Dennis cannot be regarded as a reliable witness, considering that he had seemingly waited over forty years before he started recounting a series of unconnected events. Such events, Dunnings argues, were then arbitrarily joined together to form what has become the most popular narrative of the alleged alien crash.</p><br>
<p>Some prominent UFOlogists including Karl T. Pflock, Kent Jeffrey, and William L. Moore have become convinced that there were no aliens or alien space craft involved in the Roswell crash.</p><br>
<h3>Alien autopsy hoax</h3><br>
<p>In 1995, film footage purporting to show an alien autopsy and claimed to have been taken by a US military official shortly after the Roswell incident was released by Ray Santilli, a London-based video entrepreneur. The footage caused an international sensation when it aired on television networks around the world.</p><br>
<p>In 2006, Santilli admitted that the film was mostly a reconstruction, but continued to claim it was based on genuine footage now lost, and some original frames that had supposedly survived. A fictionalized version of the creation of the footage and its release was retold in the comedy film Alien Autopsy (2006).</p><br>
<h3>Photo analysis</h3><br>
<p>In an attempt to produce fresh evidence, some researchers used new technology to try to re-analyze photographs of the telegram held by General Ramey during his 1947 press conference. Goldberg writes that the results proved inconclusive: while some claimed they could discern wording like "victims of the wreck", others claimed they saw "turn out to be weather balloons". Overall, there was no consensus that anything was legible.</p><br>
<h3>US political interest</h3><br>
<p>On October 26, 2007, Bill Richardson (who at the time was a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for USA President) was asked about releasing government files on Roswell. Richardson responded that when he was a Congressman, he attempted to get information on behalf of his New Mexico constituents, but was told by both the Department of Defense and Los Alamos Labs that the information was classified. "That ticked me off," he said "The government doesn&#39;t tell the truth as much as it should on a lot of issues." He promised to work on opening the files if he were elected as President.</p><br>
<p>In October 2002, before airing its Roswell documentary, the Sci-Fi Channel hosted a Washington UFO news conference. John Podesta, President Clinton&#39;s chief of staff, appeared as a member of the public relations firm hired by Sci-Fi to help get the government to open up documents on the subject. Podesta stated, "It is time for the government to declassify records that are more than 25 years old and to provide scientists with data that will assist in determining the true nature of the phenomena."</p><br>
<p>When asked during a 2015 interview with GQ Magazine about whether he&#39;d looked up top secret classified information, President Barack Obama replied "I gotta tell you, it’s a little disappointing. People always ask me about Roswell and the aliens and UFOs, and it turns out the stuff going on that’s top secret isn’t nearly as exciting as you expect. In this day and age, it’s not as top secret as you’d think."</p><br>
<h3>Deathbed confessions</h3><br>
<p>As time wore on, it became harder for Roswell researchers to find new evidence to publish; there was potential though in the prospect of deathbed confessions from those originally involved in 1947. In 2007 Donald Schmitt and Tom Carey published the book Witness to Roswell, which prominently featured a document said to be a sworn affidavit written by Walter Haut, who had written the first Army press release about the Roswell crash in 1947. The document, apparently kept under seal until Hauts death in 2005, described how the 1947 crash debris had been discussed by high-ranking staff and how Haut had seen alien bodies. The claims, however, drew an unimpressed response even from ufologists: Dennis Balthaser said that the document was not written by Haut, and that by 2000 Hauts mental state was such he could not recall basic details about his past, making the detail contained in the affidavit seem dubious. Physicist and skeptic Dave Thomas commented: "Is Roswell still the best UFO incident? If it is, UFO proponents should be very, very worried."</p><br>
<h3>The "other Roswell"</h3><br>
<p>The 1948 Aztec, New Mexico, UFO incident was a hoaxed flying saucer crash and subject of the book Behind the Flying Saucers (1950) by Frank Scully. The incident is sometimes referred to as the "other Roswell" and parallels have been drawn between the incidents.</p><br>
<h3>Area 51 (2011)</h3><br>
<p>American journalist Annie Jacobsens Area 51: An Uncensored History of Americas Top Secret Military Base (2011), based on interviews with scientists and engineers who worked in Area 51, dismisses the alien story. She quotes one unnamed source as claiming that Josef Mengele, a German Schutzstaffel officer and a physician in Auschwitz, was recruited by the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to produce "grotesque, child-size aviators" to be remotely piloted and landed in America in order to cause hysteria similar to Orson Welles&#39; War of the Worlds (1938). The aircraft, however, crashed and the incident was hushed up by the Americans. Jacobsen wrote that the bodies found at the crash site were children around 12 years old with large heads and abnormally-shaped, oversized eyes. They were neither aliens nor consenting airmen, but human guinea pigs. The book was criticized for extensive errors by scientists from the Federation of American Scientists.</p><br>
<p>The Volcano Islands or Iwo Islands are a group of three Japanese islands south of the Bonin Islands that belong to the municipality of Ogasawara. The islands are all active volcanoes lying atop an island arc that stretches south to the Marianas. They have an area of 32.55 km&sup2; and a population of 380.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Volcano Islands are:</p><br>
<p>Kita Iwo Jima (北硫黄島 Kita-Iō-jima or Kita-Iō-tō, literally North Sulphur Island), 5.57 km&sup2, 792 m (Sakaki-ga-mine)</p><br>
<p>Iwo Jima (硫黄島 Iō-jima or Iō-tō, literally Sulphur Island) 20.60 km&sup2, 166 m (Suribachi-yama)</p><br>
<p>Minami Iwo Jima (南硫黄島 Minami-Iō-jima or Minami-Iō-tō, literally South Sulphur Island) 3.54 km&sup2, 916 m</p><br>
<p>Farther north but in the same volcanic arc is:</p><br>
<p>Nishino-shima (西之島, literally Western Island), 38 m</p><br>
<p>There is a Japan Self-Defense Forces air base on Iwo Jima with a staff of 380. It is located in the village of Minami (Iwo Jima village). Other than that, the islands are uninhabited.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The first recorded sighting by Europeans was in October 1543 by Spanish navigator Bernardo de la Torre on board of carrack San Juan de Letrán when trying to return from Sarangani to New Spain. Iwo Jima was charted as Sufre, the old Spanish term for sulphur.</p><br>
<p>The islands were uninhabited until 1889, when the two northern islands were settled by Japanese settlers from the Izu Islands. They were annexed by Japan in 1891.</p><br>
<p>The population was about 1,100 in 1939, distributed among five settlements: Higashi, Minami, Nishi, Kita and Motoyama (meaning "East", "South", "West", "North" and "Mountain of Origin", or central mountain) on Iwo Jima; and two settlements on Kita Iwo Jima: Ishino-mura ("Ishino village&quot Ishino is a surname) and Nishi-mura ("West village"). The municipal administration office was located in Higashi until 1940, when the municipality was integrated into the administration of Ogasawara, Tokyo.</p><br>
<p>Iwo Jima was the site of the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II, and the island group came under the United States administration. The Volcano Islands were returned to Japanese administration in 1968.</p><br>
<p>The Sulaiman Mountains , or Kōh-e Sulaymān, are the southern extension of the Hindu Kush mountain system, located in the Zabul, Kandahar and Loya Paktia regions of Afghanistan, and in the southern Federally Administered Tribal Areas , most of northern Balochistan, and some of southwestern Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. The Sulaimans form the eastern edge of the Iranian Plateau where the Indus River separates it from the Subcontinent. Bordering the Sulaimans to the north are the arid highlands of Central Hindu Kush or Paropamisadae, whose heights extend up to 6,000 m.</p><br>
<p>In Frontier Region Dera Ismail Khan, the highest peak of the Sulaimans is Takht-e-Sulaiman or "Throne of Solomon" at 3,487 m. In Balochistan, its highest peak is Zarghun Ghar at 3,578 m near Quetta city; while the second-highest is Khilafat Hill at 3,475 m in Ziarat district and is famous for large juniperus macropoda forests in its surroundings.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Sulaiman range runs north in Loya Paktia and meets the Spin Ghar range northeast of Gardez in Paktia province. To the northwest, the Sulaimans merge beyond Loya Paktia into the Koh-i-Baba range. To the east, the Sulaimans enter the districts of Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab and Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and approaches the Indus River near Mithankot in the Rajanpur District of Punjab. The eastern slopes drop very quickly to the Indus River, but towards west, the mountain range drops gradually in Kandahar southwest into Helmand and the Sistan Basin.</p><br>
<p>Rivers that flow out from the Sulaimans include the Gomal River which flows eastward into the Indus River, and the Dori River and other small tributaries of the Arghandab River, which flows southwestward into the Helmand River.</p><br>
<p>The Sulaiman Range, and the high plateau to the west of it, helps form a natural barrier against the humid winds that blow from the Indian Ocean, creating arid conditions across southern and central Afghanistan to the west and north. In contrast, the relatively flat and low-lying Indus delta is situated due east and south of the Sulaimans. This lush delta is prone to heavy flooding and is mostly uncultivated wilderness.</p><br>
<h2>Legends about Takht-e-Sulaiman</h2><br>
<p>In the Pashtun and Gandhara legend, one of the highest peaks of the Takht-i Sulaiman ("Throne of Solomon"), 3,382 m high, is associated with Prophet Solomon. Ibn Battuta names it Koh-i Sulaiman. It is related that Prophet Solomon climbed this mountain and looked out over the land of South Asia, which was then covered with darkness, but he turned back without descending into this new frontier, and left only the mountain which is named after him (from Ibn Battuta). According to another legend, Noah&#39;s Ark alighted in the Takht-i Sulaiman after the Deluge.</p><br>
<p>One legend says that Qais Abdur Rashid, said to be the legendary ancestor of the Pashtun nation, is buried on top of Takht-e-Sulaiman, locally known as Da Kasī Ghar (د کسي غر, "Mount of Qais"), located near the village of Darazinda in Frontier Region Dera Ismail Khan of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, close to the border with both South Waziristan and Zhob, Balochistan. The legend has it that from there, his different descendants migrated west, north, and south. Some people visit the place and make animal sacrifices, usually a sheep or a goat, at the tomb of Qais to help feed the poor. A trip to the mountain is undertaken mostly in summer, since from late November until March the snowfall makes it difficult to climb.</p><br>
<p>Another legend states that the witch Tusheeta currently lives on the mountains of Sulaiman.</p><br>
<p>Al-Biruni, who himself lived a large part of his life in Ghazni located just northwest of the Sulaimans, writes of the mountains in his memoirs as being the western frontier mountains of Asia and the homeland of an Ajami ("non-Arab") or Persian tribe known as the Pashtuns.</p><br>
<p>Awaji Island is an island in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, in the eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea between the islands of Honshū and Shikoku. The island has an area of 592.17 km², and is the largest of the Inland Sea&#39;s islands.</p><br>
<p>As a transit between those two islands, Awaji originally means "the road to Awa", the historic province bordering the Shikoku side of the Naruto Strait, now part of Tokushima Prefecture.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The island is separated from Honshū by the Akashi Strait and from Shikoku by the Naruto Strait. Since April 5, 1998, it has been connected to Kobe on Honshū by the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world. Since its completion the Kobe Awaji Naruto Expressway across the island has been the main eastern land link between Honshū and Shikoku. The Naruto whirlpools form in the strait between Naruto, Tokushima and Awaji.</p><br>
<p>The Nojima Fault, responsible for the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake, cuts across the island. A section of the fault was protected and turned into the Nojima Fault Preservation Museum in the Hokudancho Earthquake Memorial Park to show how the movement in the ground cut across roads, hedges and other installations. Outside of this protected area, the fault zone is less visible.</p><br>
<p>The Onaruto Bridge Memorial Museum and the Uzushio Science Museum are located near Fukura.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>According to the creation myth in Shinto, Awaji was the first of the ōyashima islands born from the kami Izanagi and Izanami. Awaji constituted a province between the 7th and the 19th century, Awaji Province, and was a part of Nankaidō. Today the island consists of three municipalities: Awaji, Sumoto and Minamiawaji.</p><br>
<p>The Awaji Ningyō-Jōruri, a more-than-500-year-old form of traditional puppet theater, or ningyō-jōruri, daily performs several shows in the Awaji Ningyō-Jōruri Hall in Minamiawaji, Hyōgo in the southern part of the island and is designated an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Japan. The Awaji puppets perform popular traditional dramas but have their origins in religious rituals.</p><br>
<p>Starting in the 1830s, the local potter Minpei started producing what would be then known as Awaji ware, also known as Minpei ware.</p><br>
<p>Tadao Ando designed several structures on the island, amidst them the Hompuku-ji water temple and the Awaji Yumebutai, both located in Awaji, Hyōgo.</p><br>
<p>In 1995, this island was the epicenter of the Kobe earthquake, which killed over 5,502 people.</p><br>
<p>Port Island is an artificial island in Chuo-ku, Kobe, Japan. It was constructed between 1966 and 1981 at Port of Kobe, and officially opened with an exposition called "Portopia &#39;81." It now houses a heliport, numerous hotels, a large convention center, the UCC Coffee Museum, Japan&#39;s 3rd IKEA store, and several parks.</p><br>
<p>The Port Liner automated guideway transit system connects Port Island to Sannomiya Station and to Kobe Airport.</p><br>
<p>The Port Island F.G. Group experience takes place in the Kobe University International Residence on the island.</p><br>
<h2>Overview</h2><br>
<p>*Area 523 ha</p><br>
<p>*Facilities</p><br>
<p>**Universities (Kobe Women&#39;s University and Kobe Gakuin University)</p><br>
<p>**Hotels (KOBE PORTOPIA HOTEL and so on)</p><br>
<p>**http://www.kobe-cc.jp/english/index.html Kobe Convention Center (Kobe International Conference Center, Kobe International Exhibition Hall)</p><br>
<p>**Heliport</p><br>
<p>**Institutes (RIKEN Kobe Center and so on)</p><br>
<p>**Liner Berths PL1 - PL15</p><br>
<p>**Container Berths PC13 - PC18</p><br>
<p>**Kobe Kachoen</p><br>
<p>**World Memorial Hall</p><br>
<p>**K computer</p><br>
<p>The Yellowstone Caldera is a volcanic caldera and supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park in the Western United States, sometimes referred to as the Yellowstone Supervolcano. The caldera and most of the park are located in the northwest corner of Wyoming. The major features of the caldera measure about 34 by 45 miles .</p><br>
<p>The caldera formed during the last of three supereruptions over the past 2.1 million years: the Huckleberry Ridge eruption 2.1 million years ago (which created the Island Park Caldera and the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff); the Mesa Falls eruption 1.3 million years ago (which created the Henry&#39;s Fork Caldera and the Mesa Falls Tuff); and the Lava Creek eruption approximately 630,000 years ago (which created the Yellowstone Caldera and the Lava Creek Tuff).</p><br>
<h2>Yellowstone hotspot origin</h2><br>
<p>The source of the Yellowstone hotspot is controversial. Some geoscientists hypothesize that the Yellowstone hotspot is the effect of an interaction between local conditions in the lithosphere and upper mantle convection. Others suggest a deep mantle origin (mantle plume). Part of the controversy is the relatively sudden appearance of the hotspot in the geologic record. Additionally, the Columbia Basalt flows appeared at the same approximate time, causing speculation about their origin.</p><br>
<h2>Volcanism</h2><br>
<p>Volcanism at Yellowstone is relatively recent, with calderas that were created during large eruptions that took place 2.1 million, 1.3 million, and 630,000 years ago. The calderas lie over a hotspot where light, hot, molten rock from the mantle rises toward the surface. While the Yellowstone hotspot is now under the Yellowstone Plateau, it did help to create the eastern Snake River Plain (to the west of Yellowstone) through a series of huge volcanic eruptions. The hotspot appears to move across terrain in the east-northeast direction, but in fact the hotspot is much deeper than terrain and remains stationary while the North American Plate moves west-southwest over it.</p><br>
<p>Over the past 18 million years or so, this hotspot has generated a succession of violent eruptions and less violent floods of basaltic lava. Together these eruptions have helped create the eastern part of the Snake River Plain from a once-mountainous region. At least a dozen of these eruptions were so massive that they are classified as supereruptions. Volcanic eruptions sometimes empty their stores of magma so swiftly that they cause the overlying land to collapse into the emptied magma chamber, forming a geographic depression called a caldera.</p><br>
<p>The oldest identified caldera remnant straddles the border near McDermitt, Nevada-Oregon, although there are volcaniclastic piles and arcuate faults that define caldera complexes more than 60 km in diameter in the Carmacks Group of southwest-central Yukon, Canada, which are interpreted to have formed 70 million years ago by the Yellowstone hotspot. Progressively younger caldera remnants, most grouped in several overlapping volcanic fields, extend from the Nevada-Oregon border through the eastern Snake River Plain and terminate in the Yellowstone Plateau. One such caldera, the Bruneau-Jarbidge caldera in southern Idaho, was formed between 10 and 12 million years ago, and the event dropped ash to a depth of one foot (30 cm) 1,000 mi away in northeastern Nebraska and killed large herds of rhinoceros, camel, and other animals at Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park. The United States Geological Survey ("USGS") estimates there are one or two major caldera-forming eruptions and 100 or so lava extruding eruptions per million years, and "several to many" steam eruptions per century.</p><br>
<p>The loosely defined term "supervolcano" has been used to describe volcanic fields that produce exceptionally large volcanic eruptions. Thus defined, the Yellowstone Supervolcano is the volcanic field which produced the latest three supereruptions from the Yellowstone hotspot; it also produced one additional smaller eruption, thereby creating West Thumb Lake 174,000 years ago. The three supereruptions occurred 2.1 million, 1.3 million, and approximately 630,000 years ago, forming the Island Park Caldera, the Henrys Fork Caldera, and Yellowstone calderas, respectively. The Island Park Caldera supereruption (2.1 million years ago), which produced the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff, was the largest and produced 2,500 times as much ash as the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. The next biggest supereruption formed the Yellowstone Caldera (~ 630,000 years ago) and produced the Lava Creek Tuff. The Henrys Fork Caldera (1.2 million years ago) produced the smaller Mesa Falls Tuff but is the only caldera from the Snake River Plain-Yellowstone hotspot that is plainly visible today.</p><br>
<p>Non-explosive eruptions of lava and less-violent explosive eruptions have occurred in and near the Yellowstone caldera since the last supereruption. The most recent lava flow occurred about 70,000 years ago, while a violent eruption excavated the West Thumb of Lake Yellowstone around 150,000 years ago. Smaller steam explosions occur as well: an explosion 13,800 years ago left a 5 km diameter crater at Mary Bay on the edge of Yellowstone Lake (located in the center of the caldera). Currently, volcanic activity is exhibited via numerous geothermal vents scattered throughout the region, including the famous Old Faithful Geyser, plus recorded ground-swelling indicating ongoing inflation of the underlying magma chamber.</p><br>
<p>The volcanic eruptions, as well as the continuing geothermal activity, are a result of a great cove of magma located below the caldera&#39;s surface. The magma in this cove contains gases that are kept dissolved by the immense pressure that the magma is under. If the pressure is released to a sufficient degree by some geological shift, then some of the gases bubble out and cause the magma to expand. This can cause a chain reaction. If the expansion results in further relief of pressure, for example, by blowing crust material off the top of the chamber, the result is a very large gas explosion.</p><br>
<p>According to analysis of earthquake data in 2013, the magma chamber is 80 km long and 20 km wide. It also has 4,000 km3 underground volume, of which 6–8% is filled with molten rock. This is about 2.5 times bigger than scientists had previously imagined it to be; however, scientists believe that the proportion of molten rock in the chamber is much too low to allow another supereruption.</p><br>
<h2>Hazards</h2><br>
<h3>Earthquakes</h3><br>
<p>Volcanic and tectonic actions in the region cause between 1,000 and 2,000 measurable earthquakes annually. Most are relatively minor, measuring a magnitude of 3 or weaker. Occasionally, numerous earthquakes are detected in a relatively short period of time, an event known as an earthquake swarm. In 1985, more than 3,000 earthquakes were measured over a period of several months. More than 70 smaller swarms were detected between 1983 and 2008. The USGS states these swarms are likely caused by slips on pre-existing faults rather than by movements of magma or hydrothermal fluids.</p><br>
<p>In December 2008, continuing into January 2009, more than 500 quakes were detected under the northwest end of Yellowstone Lake over a seven-day span, with the largest registering a magnitude of 3.9. The most recent swarm started in January 2010, after the Haiti earthquake and before the Chile earthquake. With 1,620 small earthquakes between January 17, 2010, and February 1, 2010, this swarm was the second largest ever recorded in the Yellowstone Caldera. The largest of these shocks was a magnitude 3.8 which occurred on January 21, 2010. This swarm reached the background levels by February 21. On March 30, 2014, at 6:34 AM MST, a magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck Yellowstone, the largest recorded there since February 1980.</p><br>
<h3>Volcanoes</h3><br>
<p>The last full-scale eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano, the Lava Creek eruption which happened approximately 640,000 years ago, ejected approximately 240 mi3 of rock, dust and volcanic ash into the sky.</p><br>
<p>Geologists are closely monitoring the rise and fall of the Yellowstone Plateau, which has been rising as fast as 0.6 in per year, as an indication of changes in magma chamber pressure.</p><br>
<p>The upward movement of the Yellowstone caldera floor between 2004 and 2008 — almost 3 in each year — was more than three times greater than ever observed since such measurements began in 1923. From 2004 to 2008, the land surface within the caldera moved upward as much as 8 in at the White Lake GPS station. By the end of 2009, the uplift had slowed significantly and appeared to have stopped. In January 2010, the USGS stated that "uplift of the Yellowstone Caldera has slowed significantly" and that uplift continues but at a slower pace. The USA Geological Survey, University of Utah and National Park Service scientists with the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory maintain that they "see no evidence that another such cataclysmic eruption will occur at Yellowstone in the foreseeable future. Recurrence intervals of these events are neither regular nor predictable." This conclusion was reiterated in December 2013 in the aftermath of the publication of a study by University of Utah scientists finding that the "size of the magma body beneath Yellowstone is significantly larger than had been thought." The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory issued a statement on its website stating,</p><br>
<p>Although fascinating, the new findings do not imply increased geologic hazards at Yellowstone, and certainly do not increase the chances of a supereruption in the near future. Contrary to some media reports, Yellowstone is not overdue for a supereruption.</p><br>
<p>Other media reports were more hyperbolic in their coverage.</p><br>
<p>A study published in GSA Today identified three fault zones that future eruptions are most likely to be centered on. Two of those areas are associated with lava flows aged 174,000–70,000 years, and the third area is a focus of present-day seismicity.</p><br>
<h3>Hydrothermal explosions</h3><br>
<p>Studies and analysis may indicate that the greater hazard comes from hydrothermal activity which occurs independently of volcanic activity. Over 20 large craters have been produced in the past 14,000 years, resulting in such features as Mary Bay, Turbid Lake, and Indian Pond which was created in an eruption about 1300 BC.</p><br>
<p>In a 2003 report, USGS researchers proposed that an earthquake may have displaced more than 77 Mcuft (576,000,000 US gallons) of water in Yellowstone Lake, creating colossal waves that unsealed a capped geothermal system and led to the hydrothermal explosion that formed Mary Bay.</p><br>
<p>Further research shows that very distant earthquakes reach and have effects upon the activities at Yellowstone, such as the 1992 7.3 magnitude Landers earthquake in California’s Mojave Desert that triggered a swarm of quakes from more than 800 mi away, and the 2002 7.9 magnitude Denali fault earthquake 2,000 mi away in Alaska that altered the activity of many geysers and hot springs for several months afterward.</p><br>
<p>In 2016, the United States Geological Survey announced plans to map the subterranean systems responsible feeding the area&#39;s hydrothermal activity. According to the researchers, these maps could help predict when another "super-eruption" occurs.</p><br>
<p>The Teatro Yagüez in Puerto Rico is a historic building that today is a performing arts theater. It is located at Candelaria Street, and Dr. Basora Streets, in the city of Mayagüez. It consists of the Lucy Boscana Hall and the Roberto Cole Cafe Theater.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>It was originally erected by Francisco Maymón Palmer in 1909. Mr. Maymóns parents emigrated to Puerto Rico from Italy in the 19th century. They settled in the town of San German. Early in the 20th century Francisco tried to build a theatre in the town of San German but was unable due to the existing religious culture then, which considered a theatre as a "bad influence on the local population. Maymón was an entrepreneur by vocation, having travelled to Europe and the United States in his 20s, and he would not be stopped. He moved to the nearby city of Mayaguez where he established himself as one of the pioneers of the industry of cinematography in the island of Puerto Rico, introducing this new form of Visual Art early in the beginning of the 20th century by showing silent films throughout the nearby towns and becoming the exclusive distributor for Nicholas Power Co. movie projectors throughout the Caribbean islands. The Nicholas Power Company was located in New York. With the help of his business partners Mr. Jose Rahola and Mr. Fundador Vargas, he imported movies from the Pathé Company in Europe, showing them in town centers (plazas) under the stars and at the old Mayaguez Municipal Theater (Teatro Municipal). The latter no longer exists, as it was destroyed in the 1918 earthquake that hit the city and was never rebuilt, hence the Teatro Yagüez became the city&#39;s preferred gathering place for opera, plays, concerts, and silent movies.</p><br>
<p>Francisco purchased the land where the Yaguez sits today around 1905. The construction of the first Teatro Yagüez building began around 1907; The formal inauguration was in 1909. Materials such as the cement was imported from Germany, interior ceilings from Italy, tiles and carpets from Spain. An architectural jewel, the Teatro Yagüez began as a neo-baroque style Opera House, years later turning into a silent movie theater. Incorrectly described as art deco style, however, the art deco movement developed years after the theater&#39;s first construction and later reconstruction.</p><br>
<p>Maymón suffered a great loss, when on June 19, 1919, a fire destroyed his beloved Teatro Yagüez. The World Almanac and Book of Facts states that 150 people died in the fire, although the records are vague and mostly sensationalist. According to the evidence, investigations after the fire exonerated him of all culpability, and indeed pointed the finger at local entities (namely the Municipal government body at the time), who had an interest in the location (the land) where the Teatro Yagüez stood, and who indeed, tried to purchase the land after the fire, and being unable to purchase it, attempted to expropriate it but without any success. However, there was never any evidence, only accusations and theories never proven. 100 years later, a new theory came forth, the most likely suspect of that fire was the nitrocellulose films stored in a closet inside the theatre, a phenomenon of the celluloid material of films which was not discovered until the 1940s. The Teatro Yagüez was finally rebuilt and re-inaugurated in March 21, 1921 after a lawsuit between Francisco Maymón and the Municipal Council of the City, in which Francisco Maymón prevailed.</p><br>
<p>"The current building was the product of one of the most brilliant architects of the era, who designed the new theater after the June 1919 fire."</p><br>
<p>Francisco Maymons son and daughter, Miguel A. Maymón Camuñas, and Petra Maymón Cernuda inherited the Teatro Yagüez in 1954 after Franciscos passing. In 1959, Miguel purchased his sister&#39;s share in the Yagüez, becoming sole proprietor of the Teatro Yagüez.</p><br>
<p>In 1976, the USA government sent a Bicentennial Commission to Puerto Rico, who declared the Teatro Yagüez a landmark. Under the administration of Benjamin Cole, the municipality of Mayagüez purchased the Yagüez in 1980 and restored it to its original magnificence in 1984. It was listed on the USA National Register of Historic Places in 1985.</p><br>
<p>The Teatro Yaguez has been fully restored and is in use today. It remains as a beautiful reminder of the history of theater and arts of the early 20th century in Puerto Rico. Its stage and auditorium were renamed as Lucy Boscana Hall in December 2008, in tribute to the Mayagüez-born actress and teacher.</p><br>
<p>Maymón named the Teatro Yagüez: La Catedral Del Arte Sonoro. (The Cathedral of Sonorous Art), a nickname that has prevailed to this day as the Yaguez is visually and architecturally, a Cathedral.</p><br>
<p>Moel Famau  is the highest hill within the Clwydian Range, formerly Flintshire Range, on the boundary between Denbighshire and Flintshire in Wales. The hill, which also gives its name to the Moel Famau country park, has been classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty since 1985. It is also surrounded by several well-preserved Iron-Age hill forts.</p><br>
<p>A northern part of the Offas Dyke footpath, one of the UKs most popular National Trails, crosses the summit of Moel Famau and the Jubilee Tower.</p><br>
<h2>Name</h2><br>
<p>Although historical sources attest to a variety of spellings (such as Moel Famma, Moel Vamma and Moel Fammau), the only two in common use today are Moel Famau and Moel Fama. The first word moel is a common Welsh place-name element meaning a bare hill. The meaning and preferred spelling of the second element are less certain.</p><br>
<p>Attestations from as early as the fourteenth century consistently show that the second element ends in –a. This conforms to the local pronunciation and is the preferred spelling, according to the Dictionary of the Place-names of Wales. The meaning of the Fama is somewhat uncertain, but it is probably a lenited form of a personal name, Mama.</p><br>
<p>The alternative form Moel Famau is a result of an antiquarian perception first attested in the eighteenth century that the second element was the lenited form of the common noun mamau (mothers). If that were the case, however, the early forms in –a would be very difficult to explain. Nevertheless, the form Moel Famau is common today and it is still sometimes said to mean Mothers Hill&#39;.</p><br>
<h2>Country Park</h2><br>
<p>The park, which covers an area over 3 square miles (8 km), is managed by Denbighshire Countryside Service which is responsible for the heather moorland, dry stone walls and access paths, and provides information and facilities for visitors. The area is home to wildlife such as red grouse, European stonechat and Eurasian curlew.</p><br>
<p>The Forestry Enterprise manage the neighbouring forest as a sustainable conifer plantation for timber production and tourism.</p><br>
<h2>Walking</h2><br>
<p>Numerous well-maintained trails of varying difficulty can be used to reach the summit. Two of the most popular, easiest paths start from the southern car parks within Bwlch Penbarras between Moel Famau and Foel Fenlli about 1.25 mi from the summit. The northern route begins from the Iron-Age hill fort at Moel Arthur. A footpath to the top of Moel Famau also begins from the village of Cilcain.</p><br>
<p>Much of Wales and North West England can be seen from the summit of Moel Famau. This includes parts of Denbighshire, Flintshire, Cheshire and Merseyside. On clear days, Snowdonia can be seen to the west, the Irish Sea to the north, and to the east Liverpool, Chester, Winter Hill, and the Blackpool Tower.</p><br>
<h2>Jubilee Tower</h2><br>
<p>The tower, which was built to commemorate the golden jubilee of George III in 1810, was designed by Thomas Harrison of Chester. It was designed like an Egyptian obelisk with three tiers. Although the foundation stone was laid in 1810 by George Kenyon, 2nd Baron Kenyon, the tower was never completed due to a lack of funds. In 1862, a major storm brought down the incomplete tower. The remaining upper part of the structure was demolished for safety reasons leaving just the base. Most of the rubble was removed from the site; smaller stonework was reused by local farmers for dry stone walls.</p><br>
<p>In October 2010, a celebration was observed by local communities, in both Flintshire and Denbighshire, to mark the 200th anniversary of the laying of the Jubilee Tower&#39;s foundation stone. An artistic light and laser installation by a local artist was commissioned by the local authorities to illuminate the tower.</p><br>
<p>Mount Hoverla  at 2,061 m, is the highest mountain in Ukraine and part of the Carpathian Mountains. The mountain is located in the Eastern Beskides, in the Chornohora region. The slopes are covered with beech and spruce forests, above which there is a belt of sub-alpine meadows called polonyna in Ukrainian. At the eastern slope there is the main spring of the Prut River. The name is of Hungarian origin and means snow fortress. Hoverla is composed of sandstone, a sedimentary rock type.</p><br>
<p>The date of the first ascent is unknown. In late 19th century the mountain became a notable tourist attraction, especially among tourists from nearby cities of Galicia. In 1880 the first tourist route between the peak of Hoverla and Krasny Luh was marked by Leopold Wajgel of the Galician Tatra Society. The following year the first tourist shelter was founded there.</p><br>
<p>In the 20th century the mountain increasingly gained popularity as an extreme sports site. Some routes are classified as 1A in the winter period (from late autumn to May), according to the USSR grading system. Nowadays because of its prominence too many unskilled extreme-lovers are taking attempts to climb it in winter, resulting in regular frostbite or even deaths. The most popular approach to the summit starts from the tour-basa Zaroslyak on the mountain&#39;s east face and gains more than 3,600 vertical feet (1,100 meters) along a steep path with few switchbacks. There is a steeper route (marked with blue signs) and a more gentle one but a lengthier one (marked with green).</p><br>
<p>In October 2007 the new Right pro-Russian Eurasia Party-affiliated “Eurasian Youth Union” vandalized the official Ukrainian state symbols that had been placed on the summit of Mount Hoverla.</p><br>
<p>The New Georgia Islands are part of the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. They are located to the northwest of Guadalcanal. The larger islands are mountainous and covered in rain forest. The main islands are New Georgia, Vella Lavella, Kolombangara , Ghizo, Vangunu, Rendova and Tetepare. They are surrounded by coral reefs and includes the largest salt water lagoon in the world: Marovo lagoon.</p><br>
<p>Another famous location is Kennedy Island where United States President John F. Kennedy spent three days stranded during World War II. Several of the islands were scenes of fighting in the war.</p><br>
<p>The main towns are Gizo, Munda and Noro.</p><br>
<p>The main industries are forestry and fishing.</p><br>
<p>One of the smaller New Georgia islands, Ranongga, was lifted three meters (10 ft.) out of the Pacific Ocean by the 2007 Solomon Islands earthquake, causing an expansion of its shoreline by up to 70 meters all around. https://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070407/sc_afp/solomonsquakeisland;_ylt=AmWxTgtJeBcLwaF8np6Dex0DW7oF</p><br>
<p>The New Georgia languages are spoken on the island of New Georgia.</p><br>
<p>The city of Ekron , was one of the five cities of the famed Philistine pentapolis, located in southwestern Canaan.</p><br>
<p>Following the 1996 discovery of the Ekron inscription, Ekron was positively identified with the mound of Tel Miqne (Hebrew) or Khirbet el-Muqanna (Arabic). The tell lies 35 kilometers west of Jerusalem, and 18 kilometers north of Tell es-Safi, the almost certain site of the Philistine city of Gath, on the grounds of Kibbutz Revadim on the eastern edge of Israel&#39;s coastal plain.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>Numerous locations have been suggested for Ekron, including Aqir, Qatra, Zikrin and Caesarea Maritima.</p><br>
<p>Jerome wrote that Ekron was to the east of Azotus and Iamnia (consistent with the modern interpretation), however he mentioned also that some equated the city with Stratons Tower at Caesarea Maritima. This may be a reference to Rabbi Abbahus identification of Ekron with Caesarea in Megillah (Talmud).</p><br>
<p>Robinson first identified the Arab village of Aqir as the site of Ekron in 1838, and this was accepted until it was contested by Macalister in 1913, who suggested Khirbet Dikerin, and Albright in 1922, who suggested Qatra.</p><br>
<p>The identification of Ekron as Tel Mikne/Khirbet el-Muqanna was suggested by Naveh and Kallai in 1957–1958, a theory widely accepted in light of a royal dedication inscription found during the 1996 excavations.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The site of Tel Miqne was lightly occupied beginning in the Chalcolithic period and up to the Early Bronze Age. After a 400-year gap when only the upper tel was occupied, the city underwent a major expansion c.1600 BCE, under the Canaanites.</p><br>
<p>The Canaanite city had shrunk in the years before its main public building burned in the 13th century BCE, during the Bronze Age collapse, a period of general devastation associated with the Sea Peoples. It was re-established by Philistines at the beginning of the Iron Age, c.12th century BCE. During the Iron Age, Ekron was a border city on the frontier contested between Philistia and the kingdom of Judah.</p><br>
<p>Records of the Neo-Assyrian Empire also refer to Ekron. The siege of Ekron in 712 BCE is depicted on one of Sargon II&#39;s wall reliefs in his palace at Khorsabad, which names the city. Ekron revolted against Sennacherib and expelled Padi, his governor, who was sent to Hezekiah, in Jerusalem, for safe-keeping. Sennacherib marched against Ekron and the Ekronites called upon the aid of the king of Mutsri from northwest Arabia. Sennacherib turned aside to defeat this army, which he did at Eltekeh, and then returned and took the city by storm, put to death the leaders of the revolt and carried their adherents into captivity. This campaign led to the famous attack of Sennacherib on Hezekiah and Jerusalem, in which Sennacherib compelled Hezekiah to restore Padi, who was reinstated as governor at Ekron. Ashdod and Ekron survived to become powerful city-states dominated by Assyria in the 7th century BCE. The city was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II in 604 BCE, and although it is mentioned, as "Accaron", as late as 1 Maccabees 10:89 (2nd century BCE), it was never resettled on a large scale (see "Archaeology" paragraph).</p><br>
<p>An olive oil production center dating from the seventh century BCE discovered at Ekron has over one hundred large olive oil presses, and is the most complete olive oil production center from ancient times to be discovered. The discovery indicates that olive oil production was highly developed in ancient Palestine and that it was a major producer of olive oil for its residents as well as for other parts of the ancient Near East, such as Egypt and especially Mesopotamia.</p><br>
<h2>Biblical references</h2><br>
<p>Ekron is mentioned in</p><br>
<p>counts it the border city of the Philistines and seat of one of the five Philistine city lords, and mentions Ekron&#39;s satellite towns and villages. The city was reassigned afterwards to the tribe of Dan, but came again into the full possession of the Philistines. It was the last place to which the Philistines carried the Ark of the Covenant before they sent it back to Israel ( and ), and the city lords returned here once they had seen that the Ark reached the Israelites in Beth Shemesh.</p><br>
<p>There was a noted sanctuary of Baal at Ekron. The Baal who was worshipped was called Baal Zebub, which some scholars connect with Beelzebub, known from the Hebrew Bible :</p><br>
<p>Its destruction is prophesied in :</p><br>
<h2>Archaeology</h2><br>
<p>The Tel Miqne-Ekron excavations were conducted for 14 seasons between 1981 and 1996, sponsored by the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, under the direction of Trude Dothan and Seymour Gitin. The primary research focus was an interdisciplinary investigation of the interactions between the Philistines, Israelites, Phoenicians, Assyrians, and Egyptians during the Late Bronze Age II, Iron Age I and II.</p><br>
<p>The ceramic evidence indicates a presence at the site in the Chalcolithic period and Early Bronze Age. A continuous stratigraphic profile, however, was found only in the upper city on the Northeast Acropolis (Field I), beginning in Stratum XI of the MB IIB and extending through the end of Stratum I of the Iron IIC. In the lower city (Fields II, III, IV, V, X), a 400-year occupational gap followed</p><br>
<p>Stratum XI of the 17th–first half of the 16th century BCE until its resettlement in Stratum VII at the beginning of the Iron I, ca. 1175 BCE. Another occupational gap of ca. 270 years followed the end of Iron I Stratum IV, ca. 975 BCE, in the lower city (Fields II, III, IV, V, X), until it was again resettled in Stratum I of the 7th century BCE. The cities at Ekron were well planned in both the Iron I and Iron II, with four distinct zones of occupation: fortifications, industrial, domestic, and elite. The final Iron II occupation in the 7th/6th centuries BCE was represented by a single architectural unit in Field III in the lower city. A presence in the Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic periods was attested in Fields IV Upper and V.</p><br>
<p>Middle Bronze Age: The tell was apparently shaped by fortifications that encompassed both the upper and lower cities in the Middle Bronze Age. Monumental platforms, part of the fortification ramparts, were excavated in Fields III and X. MB II ceramic evidence was found throughout the tell, as were fragmentary architectural remains and three infant jar burials excavated in Field IV Lower.</p><br>
<p>Late Bronze Age: The unfortified Strata X–VIII settlement was found only in the upper city in Field I on the Northeast Acropolis. It yielded Cypriot and Mycenaean imported pottery and Anatolian Grey burnished ware, attesting to international maritime trade. Egyptian influences are also evident, inter alia, in the burial containing a 19th Dynasty seal and scarab and in the 14th century BCE scarab bearing the name of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III and dedicated to the "Lady of the Sycamore Tree," usually associated with the foundations of Egyptian shrines, an heirloom found in a later Iron I phase. The last Canaanite city of Stratum VIII was destroyed in a violent conflagration, dramatically illustrated on the Summit by a severely-burnt storeroom complex that yielded jars containing carbonized grains, lentils, and figs.</p><br>
<p>Iron Age I: Stratum VII is characterized by a new material culture with Aegean and Cypriot affinities introduced by the Philistines, one of the Sea Peoples featuring the locally-made Philistine 1 (previously designated Mycenaean IIIC:1) pottery. Such pottery is known as Cypriot Bichrome ware, and Philistine Bichrome ware.</p><br>
<p>In the Strata VI–V Philistine 2 (Bichrome) pottery with red and black decoration on white slip is a major part of the ceramic assemblage. The material culture of Stratum IV is characterized by Philistine 3 (debased) pottery and the influence of a ceramic tradition of predominantly red-slipped and burnished ware.</p><br>
<p>In the upper city features in Stratum VII, include a mudbrick city wall, megaron-type buildings, hearts, a limestone bathtub, and an industrial kiln area. In Strata VI–V, a major feature was the mudbrick glacis, a cultic room with an incised scapula similar to those found in the 12th and 11th century BCE shrines at Enkomi and Kition on Cyprus.</p><br>
<p>In the lower city, along the ridge of the southern slope of the tell, behind the Iron I mudbrick city wall of Stratum VI, were a number of architectural units and finds, which included a bull-shaped zoomorphic vessel, an incised ivory tube, and a bronze pin and needle. Stratum V monumental building was constructed on a similar scale as the one in the elite zone. The artifacts, many representing a continuation of Aegean traditions, include a rectangular bone plaque painted in blue and incised with the depiction of the rear of a horse, a Mycenaean-type female figurine, a gold spiral hair-ring, a conical stamp seal depicting two prancing gazelles, an iron knife with an ivory handle, two small pebbled hearths, and two goat skulls.</p><br>
<p>The domestic buildings continued in use in Stratum IV with no substantial change, and special finds included an incised scapula, similar to those found in the upper city.</p><br>
<p>Also in the lower city, in the elite zone, Stratum VII was represented by a number of installations, including rectangular hearths. In Stratum VI circular hearts were found in a large public structure, which also produced a round ivory pyxis lid decorated with scenes of animals in battle. In Stratum V, a megaron-type building contained superimposed pebbled hearths, three rooms with benches and bamot, and a monumental entrance hall with two mushroom-shaped stone pillar bases.</p><br>
<p>One room yielded 20 spherical loom weights in the Aegean tradition. This building also produced three miniature bronze wheels from a cultic stand of a type known from Cyprus and reminiscent of the biblical description of the mechonot (laver stands) and a bronze Janus-faced linchpin from a chariot wheel. Another special find was an iron knife with a pierced spool-shaped ivory handle attached with three bronze nails. In Strata VI and V, the building complex contained a large stone bath, a monolith, two stone pillar bases, and several hearths. In Stratum IV the plan of the building complex was reused and its cultic function continued, as attested by the finds, including a cache of ivory, faience, and stone objects, among them decorated earplugs and a ring depicting the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet. The destruction and abandonment of the Stratum IV lower city during the first quarter of the 10th century marked the end of both the early Philistine city and of the Iron I in general at Ekron.</p><br>
<p>Iron Age II: Following the destruction of the Iron I Stratum IV city during the first quarter of the 10th century, the lower city was abandoned. Only the upper city was occupied in Strata III–II fortified with a mudbrick city wall and a 7 m wide mudbrick tower faced with Phoenician –type ashlar masonry in header-and-stretcher construction. Stratum III was continued in the monumental architecture of Stratum IIA–B, with the addition of a series of rooms, probably shops or market stalls, that opened onto the re-paved street, to which a stone-lined central drainage system was added in Stratum IIB.</p><br>
<p>Both the lower city and the upper city were reoccupied. In the lower city, new fortifications included a city wall and a three-entryway gate protected by a gatehouse, similar to those excavated at Timnah (Tel Batash), Gezer, Lachish, and Ashdod. To the east of the gate, an 80 m long row of stables or storehouses associated with a large public building was built between the city wall and an outer screening wall. The outstanding feature was the olive oil industrial zone, laid out in a belt extending throughout the lower city along the inner face of the city wall. Special finds include a cache of seven well-preserved large iron agricultural tools and nine four-horned limestone altars.</p><br>
<p>The 115 oil presses found at Ekron have a production capacity of 500–1,000 tons, making it the largest ancient industrial center for the production of olive oil thus far excavated. In Stratum IB of the last third of the 7th century, the diminution in olive oil production is associated with the end of Assyrian domination in Stratum IC and the expansion of the Egyptian sphere of influence to Philistia ca. 630 BCE.</p><br>
<p>In the elite zone of the lower city, in Stratum I, the Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription, one of the most important finds of the 20th century in Israel, was found in the holy of holies, or cella, a room in the sanctuary of the Temple Complex 650.</p><br>
<p>The sanctuary reflects a Phoenician design, paralleled in Astarte Temple 1 at Kition on Cyprus. The Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription incised on a rectangular-shaped limestone block has five-lines and mentions Ekron, thus confirming the identification of the site, as well as five of its rulers, including Ikausu (Achish), son of Padi, who built the sanctuary to Ptgyh, his lady. Padi and Ikausu are known as kings of Ekron from the 7th century Neo-Assyrian Royal Annals. The language and form of writing of the Ekron inscription show a significant Phoenician influence, and the name Ikausu is understood as "the Achaean" or "the Greek" and Ptgyh has been interpreted as a Greek goddess.</p><br>
<p>Other special finds come from the side-rooms of the sanctuary, which yielded a treasure trove of gold, silver, and bronze objects, including a gold cobra (a ureaus), and a unique assemblage of ivories with cultic connotations. The ivories include a depiction of a woman, perhaps a royal personage; a knob bearing the cartouche of the 12th century Pharaoh Ramses VIII; a large head, probably from the top of a harp; and a large object with a male figure on the front, the image of a royal female personage on the side, and a cartouche of the 13th century Pharaoh Merneptah on the back.</p><br>
<p>The buildings of the elite zone also produced 16 short inscriptions includingkdš l’šrt ("dedicated to Asherat"), lmqm ("for the shrine"), and the letter tet with three horizontal lines below it (probably indicating 30 units of produce set aside for tithing), and silver hoards.</p><br>
<p>The entire Iron II city was destroyed in a violent conflagration during the 604 BCE campaign of the Neo-Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II, after which the site was only partially and briefly resettled in the first quarter of the 6th century. A well-preserved Assyrian courtyard-type building was the only remaining architectural evidence for Stratum IA. Thereafter, Ekron was abandoned until the Roman period, with fragmentary evidence from the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods found only in Fields IV Upper and V.</p><br>
<p>The Sakishima Islands   are an archipelago located at the southernmost end of the Japanese Archipelago. They are part of the Ryukyu Islands and include the Miyako Islands and the Yaeyama Islands. The islands are administered as part of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.</p><br>
<h2>Inhabited islands</h2><br>
<p>Sakishima Islands</p><br>
<p>Miyako Islands (former Miyako Subprefecture)</p><br>
<p>Miyakojima City</p><br>
<p>*Ikema Island (Ikema-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Irabu Island (Irabu-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Kurima Island (Kurima-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Miyako Island (Miyako-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Ōgami Island (Ōgami-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Shimoji Island (Shimoji-shima)</p><br>
<p>Tarama Village</p><br>
<p>*Minna Island (Minna-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Tarama Island (Tarama-jima)</p><br>
<p>Yaeyama Islands (former Yaeyama Subprefecture)</p><br>
<p>Ishigaki City</p><br>
<p>*Ishigaki Island (Ishigaki-jima)</p><br>
<p>Taketomi Town</p><br>
<p>*Aragusuku Island (Aragusuku-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Hateruma Island (Hateruma-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Iriomote Island (Iriomote-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Kohama Island (Kohama-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Kuroshima Island (Kuroshima)</p><br>
<p>*Taketomi Island (Taketomi-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Yubu Island (Yubu-jima)</p><br>
<p>Yonaguni Town</p><br>
<p>*Yonaguni Island (Yonaguni-jima)</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Sakishima Islands were first documented in the Shoku Nihongi (797), which says that in 714 Ō no Ason Okeji paid tribute to Dazaifu with 52 islanders from Amami, Shigaki, Kumi and other islands. Shigaki is believed to be the current Ishigaki, Kumi to be the current Kume or Komi settlement of Iriomote. The History of Yuan (1370) documented a castaway from Mìyágǔ (密牙古) arrived to Wenzhou in 1317. This is believed to be the first documentation of Miyako.</p><br>
<p>Stone tools and shell tools from 2,500 years ago have been excavated from shell mounds on the Sakishima Islands. Shell tools of the same era are also found in Taiwan and the Philippines, but not on Okinawa Island or Amami. Thus those islands are thought to have had a stronger or closer cultural relationship with Taiwan, the Philippines, and other regions.</p><br>
<p>Local earthenware was made beginning in the 11th century. Many local leaders, known as aji, appeared in the 15th century. At the same time, the political authorities on Okinawa saw the outlying islands as useful stopping points along a maritime trade route, and gradually enhanced their influence. Yohanashiidu Tuyumya unified Miyako in 1365, and paid tribute to Satto, the king of the Chūzan kingdom of Okinawa.</p><br>
<h3>Ryukyuan control</h3><br>
<p>In 1500, Oyake Akahachi, Aji of Ishigaki, unified most of the Yaeyama Islands and rose up in resistance against the Ryukyu Kingdom by refusing to pay further tribute. As he was planning to invade Miyako, Nakasone Tuyumya, Aji of Miyako, discovered the plan and launched a preemptive invasion of the Yaeyama Islands. Oyake Akahachi was defeated at Furusutobaru Castle, and Nakasone Tuyumya went on to conquer Yonaguni. King Shō Shin of Ryukyu responded to the initial rebellion by sending troops, but they arrived at Miyako after most of the fighting had ended. The Ryukyuan army consisted of 3,000 soldiers and 100 ships; Nakasone Tuyumya chose to surrender instead of fighting, handing over all of the Sakishima Islands to Ryukyu.</p><br>
<p>The Shimazu clan of the Japanese feudal domain of Satsuma invaded the kingdom during the 1609 Invasion of Ryukyu. Satsuma was able to capture Shuri Castle and King Shō Nei by early May, then sent a message to the Sakishima Islands demanding their surrender, which they complied with. In the following centuries of vassalage to Satsuma, the Ryukyuan government was placed under extreme tax pressure, and instituted a heavy poll tax in the Sakishima Islands. As a result of the extreme economic conditions, infanticide and other methods of population control became common, as they did throughout the Ryukyu Islands; remains of the sites where this took place can still be found throughout the Sakishima Islands. Yaeyama islanders were taxed even more heavily than those of Miyako, as the rebel Oyake Akahachi was from Yaeyama. The kingdom prohibited migration of islanders, isolating them to prevent group resistance. The Yaeyama earthquake in 1771 caused a tsunami which killed 12,000, or a half of the entire Sakishima population. Because the soil was adversely affected by salination, famines were frequent, and the population of the islands further decreased until the early Meiji period.</p><br>
<h3>Japanese control</h3><br>
<p>After the Meiji Restoration, in 1872, the Japanese government unilaterally declared that the Ryukyu Kingdom was then Ryukyu Domain and began incorporating the islands as a part of Japan. In 1879, after the Ryukyuan government resisted and disobeyed orders from Tokyo, Japan abolished the domain, deposed the king, and established Okinawa Prefecture. The Qing Dynasty of China, however, opposed the action, claiming sovereignty over the former kingdom. Japan proposed to cede the Sakishima Islands, provided China add "most favored nation" status of Japan to the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Amity. China agreed at first, but after objections from Viceroy Li Hongzhang, the agreement was not made. China effectively conceded its claims to sovereignty over Ryukyu, including the Sakishima Islands, following its defeat by Japan in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95.</p><br>
<p>The modernization of Sakishima by the Japanese government was slow compared with Japan or even Okinawa. The heavy poll tax continued until as late as 1903. Meanwhile, the islands, as well as Taiwan, used Western Standard Time (UTC+8) until 1937, 1 hour behind the Central Standard Time of Japan (UTC+9).</p><br>
<p>During World War II, there was an air battle waged against the Sakishima Islands&#39; two largest islands that lasted for 82 days in order to neutralize Kamikaze airfields. Twenty-five US escort carriers, five larger fast carriers with their air groups consisting of fighters and torpedo bombers along with heavy naval patrol bombers and an assortment of DD-Destroyers and DE-Destroyer Escorts along with the British Pacific Fleet bombed, rocketed and fired their guns at runways and other targets daily while the land battle raged on Okinawa 175 miles away. This was the least publicized battle for its size that took place involving the Americans and British during the war. The thirty-two thousand seasoned Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and Naval (IJN) troops on Miyako did not surrender until 27 days after Japan formally surrendered. The amount of ordnance expended against the Sakishima Islands may have exceeded the ordnance spent on the island of Iwo Jima. The Sakishima Islands did not suffer a ground war during World War II.</p><br>
<p>In June 1945, the Japanese government ordered locals to evacuate to northern Ishigaki and Iriomote, where 3,647 of them lost their lives to malaria. In contrast, air raids killed much fewer: 174. After the Imperial Japanese Army was defeated on Okinawa later that month, there was a vacuum of military and government control in the Sakishima Islands. Some garrison troops robbed crops from farms or engaged in violence against locals. To counter them, the residents of Ishigaki formed the Yaeyama Community Association. Since it acted as a temporary local government, some historians later described the association as the Yaeyama Republic.</p><br>
<h3>American control</h3><br>
<p>United States Occupation authorities declared the establishment of military rule in December 1945, restoring Miyako Subprefecture and Yaeyama Subprefecture. The local association ceased operation. In 1952, the Treaty of San Francisco confirmed these islands to be under American control. Malaria was eradicated from the island in 1961. The islands were returned to Japan in 1972, along with the rest of Okinawa Prefecture.</p><br>
<h3>Today</h3><br>
<p>Today the Sakishima Islands enjoy a thriving tourist industry. The nearby Senkaku Islands, which fall under Okinawa Prefecture and Ishigaki City politically, are disputed with the People&#39;s Republic of China and Taiwan. The Japanese Self Defense Force and Japan Coast Guard have a large presence in the Sakishima Islands because of this dispute.</p><br>
<h2>Culture</h2><br>
<p>There are three native languages on the islands; Miyako language on the Miyako Islands, Yonaguni language on Yonaguni, and Yaeyama language on the other Yaeyama Islands. All these languages belong to the Ryukyuan languages group, which in turn belong to the Japonic languages group. These languages are not mutually intelligible. As on Okinawa, therefore, standard Japanese language is used in formal situations, while Okinawan Japanese, that is, standard Japanese with native Ryukyuan words, pronunciation changes, etc. mixed in, is quite commonly used as well.</p><br>
<p>The River Ravensbourne is a tributary of the River Thames in south London, England. It flows into the tidal River Thames at Deptford, where its tidal reach is known as Deptford Creek.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Ravensbourne is 11 miles (17 km) in length with a total catchment area of 180 km. It flows through the London Boroughs of Bromley, Lewisham and Greenwich.</p><br>
<p>The Ravensbourne rises at Caesar&#39;s Well, Keston, four miles south of Bromley town centre, and flows initially in a northerly direction. For the initial third of its length the river flows across common land (including Hayes Common and Bromley Common) until it reaches the southern outskirts of Bromley town where it is joined by the Ravensbourne South Branch and the Ravensbourne East Branch, which substantially increase the flow. It then flows northwards alongside the A21, passing below Bromley town centre through Church Gardens and Glassmill Reservoir, then on into Beckenham Place Park, the last semi-natural reach of the river, then further north through, where considerable renaturalisation work has been taking place since 2007/08.</p><br>
<p>South of Bellingham, the small Spring Brook joins the Ravensbourne after flowing only about one mile (1.6 km) from the east through Plaistow and Downham; it crosses the borough boundary from Bromley to Lewisham and it follows a narrow strip of parkland named Shaftesbury Park Recreation Ground and Downham Playing Fields along its short course.</p><br>
<p>Just above Catford the Ravensbourne is joined by the River Pool. The Ravensbourne is also joined by the River Quaggy (known upstream of Sundridge Park as Kyd Brook, and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) in length). This rises near Princess Royal University Hospital at Locksbottom then flows north through Petts Wood to Sundridge Park in Bromley where its name changes to the River Quaggy. It then flows northwards through the Mottingham area to Kidbrooke where it then turns westwards through Manor Park in Lee, before joining the Ravensbourne at Loampit Vale in Lewisham. Numerous other small streams and surface water outfalls join the main river between its source and confluence. Until the 19th century one such stream flowed from Brockley Cross crossing Tanners Hill before joining at Deptford Creek.</p><br>
<p>Its confluence with the Thames is in Greenwich Reach, north-east of Deptford town centre and downstream of the A2 (and west of Greenwich).</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Domesday Book recorded eleven corn mills on the Ravensbourne in the 11th century. The 17th century London diarist John Evelyn bought one of these mills &ndash; Brookmills &ndash; in 1668 for "grinding colour" from the Beecher family. It was later used by the Kent Waterworks company. It was finally demolished in the 1850s.</p><br>
<p>The bridge over Deptford Creek was the site of the Battle of Deptford Bridge, 17 June 1497, the last battle of the Cornish Rebellion of 1497.</p><br>
<p>From the 16th century onwards until its closure in the 19th century, the proximity of Deptford Dockyard, a Royal Dockyard created by Henry VIII, gave employment to many small shipbuilders on the creek. Queen Elizabeth I knighted Francis Drake on board the Golden Hind in Deptford Creek on Drake&#39;s return from his circumnavigation of the globe in 1580. The Golden Hind remained moored in the creek until it broke up.</p><br>
<p>Deptford Creek was also host to a large power station, now dismantled, as well as other heavy industries. Now regeneration of the area is under way. For much of the lower reach between Lewisham and the Thames, the Ravensbourne (and Deptford Creek) is joined by the Docklands Light Railway. Indeed, the channel was diverted in Brookmill Park so that the DLR could run along the route of the river. A new bend in the river was constructed that gave more natural banks and created a better habitat for flora and fauna. There are also a number of new developments, including the Laban Dance Centre and apartment blocks at the mouth of the creek alongside the Thames, just a short walk west from Greenwich town centre.</p><br>
<p>Between 1974 and 1997, the name of the river was used for the Ravensbourne Parliament constituency within the London Borough of Bromley. It also gives its name to a railway station.</p><br>
<p>Every year on 1 May at 5.32am, the Ravensbourne Morris Men dance up the Beltaine Sunrise at Caesars Well, the source of the Ravensbourne River.</p><br>
<p>Cockburn Sound is an inlet of the Indian Ocean on the coast of Western Australia. It extends from the south of the mouth of the Swan River at Fremantle for about 25 km to Cape Peron near Rockingham and is located at . The total area of the sound is about 100 km².</p><br>
<p>It is bounded on the east by the mainland suburbs of Cockburn and Kwinana, on the west by Garden Island and Carnac Island, and includes several rocky outcrops and reefs. The Gage Roads shipping channel lies to the north.</p><br>
<p>The sound was named in 1827 by Captain James Stirling, probably after Admiral Sir George Cockburn.</p><br>
<p>The Perth Seawater Desalination Plant can be found here.</p><br>
<h2>Water pollution</h2><br>
<p>Several media reports have been made on pollution of the water in Cockburn Sound, where in late 2015 an estimated 2,100 fish died as a result of algal blooms through poor local water quality.</p><br>
<p>Reports from 2010 suggest the monitoring of pollutants was not adequate, using degradation of sea-grass since 2005 as a key indicator.</p><br>
<p>Media coverage in December 2016 indicates the leaking of firefighting chemicals from the local defence base at Garden Island could be a factor, however the report was only made available in September 2016. Prior official reports indicate the water quality was improving, however there is doubt towards the scope of the report, as it does not include factors such as thermal stress from increased water temperature and oxygen stress as a result of climate change and localised desalination.</p><br>
<p>The Moscow Kremlin , usually referred to as the Kremlin, is a fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River to the south, Saint Basil&#39;s Cathedral and Red Square to the east, and the Alexander Garden to the west. It is the best known of the kremlins  and includes five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Kremlin Wall with Kremlin towers. Also within this complex is the Grand Kremlin Palace.</p><br>
<p>The complex serves as the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation.</p><br>
<p>The name "Kremlin" means "fortress inside a city", and is often also used metonymically to refer to the government of the Russian Federation in a similar sense to how "White House" is used to refer to the Executive Office of the President of the United States. It had previously been used to refer to the government of the Soviet Union (1922–1991) and its highest members (such as general secretaries, premiers, presidents, ministers, and commissars). The term "Kremlinology" refers to the study of Soviet and Russian politics.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Origin</h3><br>
<p>The site has been continuously inhabited by Finno-Ugric peoples since the 2nd century BC. The Slavs occupied the south-western portion of Borovitsky Hill as early as the 11th century, as evidenced by a metropolitan seal from the 1090s which was unearthed by Soviet archaeologists in the area. Vyatichi built a fortified structure (or "grad") on the hill where the Neglinnaya River flowed into the Moskva River.</p><br>
<p>Up to the 14th century, the site was known as the grad of Moscow. The word "Kremlin" was first recorded in 1331 (though etymologist Max Vasmer mentions an earlier appearance in 1320). The grad was greatly extended by Prince Yuri Dolgorukiy in 1156, destroyed by the Mongols in 1237 and rebuilt in oak in 1339.</p><br>
<h3>Seat of grand dukes</h3><br>
<p>Dmitri Donskoi replaced the oak walls with a strong citadel of white limestone in 1366–1368 on the basic foundations of the current walls; this fortification withstood a siege by Khan Tokhtamysh. Dmitris son Vasily I resumed construction of churches and cloisters in the Kremlin. The newly built Cathedral of the Annunciation was painted by Theophanes the Greek, Andrei Rublev, and Prokhor in 1406. The Chudov Monastery was founded by Dmitris tutor, Metropolitan Alexis; while his widow, Eudoxia, established the Ascension Convent in 1397.</p><br>
<h3>Residence of the tsars</h3><br>
<p>Grand Prince Ivan III organised the reconstruction of the Kremlin, inviting a number of skilled architects from Renaissance Italy, including Petrus Antonius Solarius, who designed the new Kremlin wall and its towers, and Marcus Ruffus who designed the new palace for the prince. It was during his reign that three extant cathedrals of the Kremlin, the Deposition Church, and the Palace of Facets were constructed. The highest building of the city and Muscovite Russia was the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, built in 1505–08 and augmented to its present height in 1600. The Kremlin walls as they now appear were built between 1485 and 1495. Spasskie gates of the wall still bear a dedication in Latin praising Petrus Antonius Solarius for the design.</p><br>
<p>After construction of the new kremlin walls and churches was complete, the monarch decreed that no structures should be built in the immediate vicinity of the citadel. The Kremlin was separated from the walled merchant town (Kitay-gorod) by a 30-meter-wide moat, over which Saint Basils Cathedral was constructed during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The same tsar also renovated some of his grandfathers palaces, added a new palace and cathedral for his sons, and endowed the Trinity metochion inside the Kremlin. The metochion was administrated by the Trinity Monastery and boasted the graceful tower church of St. Sergius, which was described by foreigners as one of the finest in the country.</p><br>
<p>During the Time of Troubles, the Kremlin was held by the Polish forces for two years, between 21 September 1610 and 26 October 1612. The Kremlins liberation by the volunteer army of prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin paved the way for the election of Mikhail Romanov as the new tsar. During his reign and that of his son Alexis and grandson Fyodor, the eleven-domed Upper Saviour Cathedral, Armorial Gate, Terem Palace, Amusement Palace and the palace of Patriarch Nikon were built. Following the death of Alexiss son, Fyodor, the Kremlin witnessed the Moscow Uprising of 1682, from which czar Peter barely escaped. As a result, he disliked the Kremlin. Three decades later, Peter abandoned the residence of his forefathers for his new capital, Saint Petersburg.</p><br>
<h3>Imperial period</h3><br>
<p>Although still used for coronation ceremonies, the Kremlin was abandoned and neglected until 1773, when Catherine the Great engaged Vasili Bazhenov to build her new residence there. Bazhenov produced a bombastic Neoclassical design on a heroic scale, which involved the demolition of several churches and palaces, as well as a portion of the Kremlin wall. After the preparations were over, construction halted due to lack of funds. Several years later, the architect Matvey Kazakov supervised the reconstruction of the dismantled sections of the wall and of some structures of the Chudov Monastery, and constructed the spacious and luxurious offices of the Senate, since adapted for use as the principal workplace of the President of Russia.</p><br>
<p>During the Imperial period, from the early 18th and until the late 19th century, Kremlin walls were traditionally painted white, in accordance with the time&#39;s fashion.</p><br>
<p>Following the French invasion of Russia in 1812, the French forces occupied the Kremlin from 2 September to 11 October. When Napoleon retreated from Moscow, he ordered the whole Kremlin to be blown up. The Kremlin Arsenal, several portions of the Kremlin Wall and several wall towers were destroyed by explosions and fires damaged the Faceted Chamber and churches. Explosions continued for three days, from 21 to 23 October. However, the rain damaged the fuses, and the damage was less severe than intended. Restoration works were held in 1816–19, supervised by Osip Bove. During the remainder of Alexander I&#39;s reign, several ancient structures were renovated in a fanciful neo-Gothic style, but many others were condemned as "disused" or "dilapidated" (including all the buildings of the Trinity metochion) and simply torn down.</p><br>
<p>On visiting Moscow for his coronation festivities, Nicholas I was not satisfied with the Grand, or Winter, Palace, which had been erected to Rastrelli&#39;s design in the 1750s. The elaborate Baroque structure was demolished, as was the nearby church of St. John the Precursor, built by Aloisio the New in 1508 in place of the first church constructed in Moscow. The architect Konstantin Thon was commissioned to replace them with the Grand Kremlin Palace, which was to rival the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg in its dimensions and the opulence of its interiors. The palace was constructed in 1839–49, followed by the new building of the Kremlin Armoury in 1851.</p><br>
<p>After 1851, the Kremlin changed little until the Russian Revolution of 1917; the only new features added during this period were the Monument to Alexander II and a stone cross marking the spot where Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia was assassinated by Ivan Kalyayev in 1905. These monuments were destroyed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.</p><br>
<h3>Soviet period and beyond</h3><br>
<p>The Soviet government moved from Petrograd to Moscow on 12 March 1918. Vladimir Lenin selected the Kremlin Senate as his residence. Joseph Stalin also had his personal rooms in the Kremlin. He was eager to remove all the "relics of the tsarist regime" from his headquarters. Golden eagles on the towers were replaced by shining Kremlin stars, while the wall near Lenin&#39;s Mausoleum was turned into the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.</p><br>
<p>The Chudov Monastery and Ascension Convent, with their 16th-century cathedrals, were dismantled to make room for the military school. The Little Nicholas Palace and the old Saviour Cathedral were pulled down as well. The residence of the Soviet government was closed to tourists until 1955. It was not until the Khrushchev Thaw that the Kremlin was reopened to foreign visitors. The Kremlin Museums were established in 1961 and the complex was among the first Soviet patrimonies inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1990.</p><br>
<p>Although the current director of the Kremlin Museums, Elena Gagarina (Yuri Gagarins daughter) advocates a full-scale restoration of the destroyed cloisters, recent developments have been confined to expensive restoration of the original interiors of the Grand Kremlin Palace, which were altered during Stalins rule.</p><br>
<h2>Buildings</h2><br>
<p>The existing Kremlin walls and towers were built by Italian masters over the years 1485 to 1495. The irregular triangle of the Kremlin wall encloses an area of 275,000 square meters (68 acres). Its overall length is 2,235 m, but the height ranges from 5 to 19 meters, depending on the terrain. The wall&#39;s thickness is between 3.5 and 6.5 meters.</p><br>
<p>Originally there were eighteen Kremlin towers, but their number increased to twenty in the 17th century. All but three of the towers are square in plan. The highest tower is the Troitskaya, which was built up to its present height of 80 meters in 1495. Most towers were originally crowned with wooden tents; the extant brick tents with strips of colored tiles go back to the 1680s.</p><br>
<p>Cathedral Square is the heart of the Kremlin. It is surrounded by six buildings, including three cathedrals. The Cathedral of the Dormition was completed in 1479 to be the main church of Moscow and where all the Tsars were crowned. The massive limestone façade, capped with its five golden cupolas was the design of Aristotele Fioravanti. Several important metropolitans and patriarchs are buried there, including Peter and Makarii. The gilded, three-domed Cathedral of the Annunciation was completed next in 1489, only to be reconstructed to a nine-domed design a century later. On the south-east of the square is the much larger Cathedral of the Archangel Michael (1508), where almost all the Muscovite monarchs from Ivan Kalita to Ivan V of Russia are interred. (Boris Godunov was originally buried there, but was moved to the Trinity Monastery.)</p><br>
<p>There are two domestic churches of the Metropolitans and Patriarchs of Moscow, the Church of the Twelve Apostles (1653–56) and the exquisite one-domed Church of the Deposition of the Virgin&#39;s Robe, built by Pskov artisans over the years 1484–88 and featuring superb icons and frescoes from 1627 and 1644.</p><br>
<p>The other notable structure is the Ivan the Great Bell Tower on the north-east corner of the square, which is said to mark the exact centre of Moscow and resemble a burning candle. Completed in 1600, it is 81 m high. Until the Russian Revolution, it was the tallest structure in the city, as construction of buildings taller than that was forbidden. Its 21 bells would sound the alarm if any enemy was approaching. The upper part of the structure was destroyed by the French during the Napoleonic Invasion and has, of course, been rebuilt. The Tsar bell, the largest bell in the world, stands on a pedestal next to the tower.</p><br>
<p>The oldest secular structure still standing is Ivan III&#39;s Palace of Facets (1491), which holds the imperial thrones. The next oldest is the first home of the royal family, the Terem Palace. The original Terem Palace was also commissioned by Ivan III, but most of the existing palace was built in the 17th century. The Terem Palace and the Palace of Facets are linked by the Grand Kremlin Palace. This was commissioned by Nicholas I in 1838. The largest structure in the Kremlin, it cost an exorbitant sum of eleven million rubles to build and more than one billion dollars to renovate in the 1990s. It contains dazzling reception halls, a ceremonial red staircase, private apartments of the tsars, and the lower storey of the Resurrection of Lazarus church (1393), which is the oldest extant structure in the Kremlin and the whole of Moscow.</p><br>
<p>The northern corner of the Kremlin is occupied by the Arsenal, which was originally built for Peter the Great in 1701. The southwestern section of the Kremlin holds the Armoury building. Built in 1851 to a Renaissance Revival design, it is currently a museum housing Russian state regalia and Diamond fund.</p><br>
<p>The haloalkaliphilic methylotrophic bacterium Methylophaga murata was first isolated from deteriorating marble in the Kremlin.</p><br>
<h3>Helipad</h3><br>
<p>In order to stop the disruptions to Moscow traffic caused by motorcades, President Vladimir Putin authorized the construction of the Kremlin helipad. The helipad was completed in May 2013. The President will now commute back and forth to the Kremlin using a Mil Mi-8 helicopter. Careful consideration was taken in choosing the location of the helipad; the location chosen is said to be of no threat to the architecture of the Kremlin.</p><br>
<h2>Moscow Metro</h2><br>
<p>The nearest Moscow Metro stations to the Kremlin are: Okhotny Ryad and Biblioteka Imeni Lenina (Sokolnicheskaya Line), Teatralnaya (Zamoskvoretskaya Line), Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line), Arbatskaya (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line), Alexandrovsky Sad (Filyovskaya Line) and Borovitskaya (Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line).</p><br>
<p>Mount Lebanon  is a mountain range in Lebanon. It averages above 2,500 m in elevation.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Mount Lebanon range extends along the entire country for about 170 km, parallel to the Mediterranean coast.</p><br>
<p>Lebanon has historically been defined by the mountains, which provided protection for the local population. In Lebanon, changes in scenery are related less to geographical distances than to altitudes. The mountains were known for their oak and pine forests. The last remaining old growth groves of the famous Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani var. libanii) are on the high slopes of Mount Lebanon, in the Cedars of God World Heritage Site.</p><br>
<p>The Phoenicians used the forests from Mount Lebanon to build their ship fleet and to trade with their Levantine neighbors. The Phoenicians and successor rulers consistently replanted and restocked the range; even as late as the 16th century, its forested area was considerable.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>The name Mount Lebanon traces back to the Semitic root lbn, meaning "white", likely a reference to the snow-covered mountains.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Mount Lebanon is mentioned in the Old Testament several times. King Hiram I of Tyre sent engineers with Cedar wood which was abundant in Mount Lebanon, to build the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem. Since then the Cedar species known scientifically as Cedrus libani is often associated with Mount Lebanon. The Phoenicians used cedar to build ships in which they sailed the Mediterranean, thus they were the first to establish villages in Mount Lebanon and would live from cutting down Cedars and sending them to the coast.</p><br>
<p>Eusebius records that the Emperor Constantine destroyed a temple of Venus on the summit of Mount Lebanon.</p><br>
<p>After the 5th century AD, Christian monks who were followers of a hermit named Maron, arrived from the Orontes valley in Northern Syria and began preaching their religion to the inhabitants of the northernmost parts of the mountain range. In the late 8th century a group known as the Mardaites (also Jarajima) settled in North Lebanon following the order of the Byzantine Emperor; their mission was to raid Islamic territories in Syria. They merged with the local population, refusing to leave after the emperor struck a deal with the Muslim Caliph of Damascus; thus, they became part of the Maronite society. In 1291 after the fall of Acre, the last crusader outpost in the Levant, the remnants of the European settlers who succeeded in escaping capture by the Mamelukes, settled in the Northern part of Lebanon and become part of the Maronite society.</p><br>
<p>In the 9th century AD, tribes from the "Jabal el Summaq" area north of Aleppo in Syria began settling the southern half of the mountain range. These tribes were known as the Tanoukhiyoun and in the 11th century they converted to the Druze faith and ruled the areas of Mount Lebanon stretching from Metn in the north to Jezzine in the south. This entire area became known as the ‘Jabal ad-Duruz’. In the early 17th century, Emir Fakhr-al-Din II ascended the throne in the Druze part of the mountains known as the Chouf. In an effort to unify Mount Lebanon, Emir Fakhreddine opened the door to Christians and in particular the Maronite settlement of the Chouf and Metn.</p><br>
<p>Throughout the 18th century and into the 19th century more and more Maronites settled in the Druze regions of the Mount. The Druze viewed these Maronite settlements as a threat to their power in Mount Lebanon and in a series of clashes in the 1840s and 1860s, a miniature civil war erupted in the area resulting in the massacre of thousands of Christians. The Druze won militarily, but not politically, because European powers (mainly France and Britain) intervened on behalf of the Maronites and divided Mount Lebanon into two areas; Druze and Maronite. Seeing their authority decline in Mount Lebanon, a few Lebanese Druze began migrating to the new Jabal ad-Duruz in southern Syria. In 1861, the "Mount Lebanon" autonomous district was established within the Ottoman system, under an international guarantee.</p><br>
<p>For centuries, the Maronites of the region have been protected by the noble Khazen family, which was endowed the responsibility by Pope Clement X and King Louis XIV and given Cheikh status in return for guarding the princes Fakhr-al-Din II and Younès al-Maani. The Khazen crest reflects the family&#39;s special closeness to Mount Lebanon, with snowy mountains and a cedar tree depicted.</p><br>
<h2>As a political name</h2><br>
<p>Mount Lebanon also lent its name to two political designations: a semi-autonomous province in Ottoman Syria that existed since 1516 and the central Governorate of modern Lebanon (see Mount Lebanon Governorate). The Mount Lebanon administrative region emerged in a time of rise of nationalism after the civil war of 1860: France intervened on behalf of the local Christian population and Britain on behalf of the Druze after the 1860 massacres, when 10,000 Christians were killed in clashes with the Druze. In 1861 the "Mount Lebanon" autonomous district was established within the Ottoman system, under an international guarantee. It was ruled by a non-Lebanese Christian subject of the Ottoman Empire known locally as the "Mutasarrıf", (one who rules the district Mutasarrifiyya). Christians formed the majority of the population of Mount Lebanon, with a significant number of Druze.</p><br>
<p>For decades the Christians pressured the European powers, to award them self determination by extending their small Lebanese territory to what they dubbed "Greater Lebanon", referring to a geographic unit comprising Mount Lebanon and its coast, and the Beqaa Valley to its east. After the First World War, France took hold of the formerly Ottoman holdings in the northern Levant, and expanded the borders of Mount Lebanon in 1920 to form Greater Lebanon, which was to be populated by remnants of the Middle Eastern Christian community. While the Christians ended up gaining territorially, the new borders merely ended the demographic dominance of Christians in the newly created territory of Lebanon.</p><br>
