<p>Height of Land Portage is a portage along the historic Boundary Waters route between Canada and the United States. Located at the border of the Canadian province of Ontario and the USA state of Minnesota, the path is a relatively easy crossing of the Laurentian Divide separating the watersheds of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans.</p><br>
<p>It was used for centuries for canoe travel by the First Nations, and the historic route of which it was a part became a preindustrial thoroughfare giving the voyageurs and coureurs des bois access to the fur trading posts in western Canada. For many years the portage was part of an important route from Lower Canada to the interior of the North American continent. It became part of the boundary between British North America and the United States following the American Revolution and treaties delineating the border. In recognition of this history, the portage is on the USA National Register of Historic Places, and is a Minnesota State Historic Site.</p><br>
<p>Located in La Verendrye Provincial Park and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in the unspoiled country along the international boundary, the portage retains its traditional use, but for recreational canoe trips rather than commerce.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The portage, 80 rod long, crosses a low saddle between North Lake and South Lake. It adjoins the boundary vista, a cleared strip which marks the Canada–United States border between those lakes. South Lake is the source of the Arrow River, tributary to the Pigeon River, which flows east to Lake Superior, other Great Lakes, and the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean. North Lake is in the watershed of the Rainy River, which drains by way of the Winnipeg and Nelson Rivers to Hudson Bay.</p><br>
<p>According to the Canada/US International Boundary Commission, Ontario&#39;s boundary with the United States runs 2700 kilometers on water and only about one kilometer on land. The 80-rod Height of Land Portage is a significant part of the land border; the remainder is along two other portages, Watap Portage (100 rod) a short distance to its east, and Swamp (or Monument) Portage (72 –) to the west in the BWCA and Quetico Provincial Park.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Height of Land Portage may have had its origin as a route for foraging or migrating animals. Historians believe that many portages started as animal tracks, and were later used by the early inhabitants of the area. Prior to the Contact Period (when peoples of the First Nations first encountered European explorers), those natives had long used birchbark canoes as the principal means of travel in the thick boreal forest of the Quetico-Superior area. The Height of Land Portage likely was used by those peoples.</p><br>
<p>The search for the Northwest Passage, the fur trade, and missionary activity brought European travelers to the area. La Vérendrye used native routes in 1732 to reach Rainy Lake. In the latter part of the eighteenth century it was used by voyageurs of the French-Canadian fur brigades as their main route from Grand Portage on Lake Superior to the pays d&#39;en haut, the "upper country" beyond the height of land separating the Great Lakes from the fur country in the Northwest; see Canadian canoe routes. At one time there was a refitting station on the west end of the portage where canoes were repaired.</p><br>
<p>Voyageurs coming for the first time to the pays den haut were initiated after crossing the portage. Each newcomer would be sprinkled with a cedar bough dipped in water, and be made to swear that he would not allow another novice to pass that way without undergoing similar rites and that he would never kiss another voyageurs wife without her consent. Concluding the ceremony with a gunfire salute and drinks of "high wine" (a type of rum), the new Homme du nord or Nor&#39;wester and his company would resume their journey.</p><br>
<h2>Inclusion in international border</h2><br>
<p>Following the American Revolution the Treaty of Paris set the international boundary between British North America and the United States along the line of water communication between Lake Superior and the Lake of the Woods. During the era of exploration there were three principal routes used by canoe brigades to connect these two lakes, all of which crossed the divide separating western Lake Superior from the Hudson Bay watershed:</p><br>
<p>the Grand Portage route to Rainy Lake, which used the portage described in this article</p><br>
<p>to the east, the Kam–Dog–Maligne route used by early French explorer Jacques de Noyon in 1688, which headed north from the lake at the site of Fort William, Ontario up the Kaministiquia and Dog Rivers to Cold Water Lake, crossed the divide by Prairie Portage to Height of Land Lake, then went west by way of the Savanne, Pickerel, and Maligne Rivers to Lake La Croix where it joined the Grand Portage route; and</p><br>
<p>to the west, the St. Louis–Vermilion route, which went from Lake Superior at Fond du Lac (the "end of the lake") near modern Duluth, Minnesota, up the St. Louis and Embarrass Rivers, across the height of land (by a portage which also bears the name Height of Land Portage) to Pike River and Lake Vermilion, then down the Vermilion River to the Grand Portage route.</p><br>
<p>Britain asserted that the westernmost St. Louis-Vermilion route was the usual line of water communications, while the United States advocated the easternmost Kam–Dog–Maligne Route. Following surveys in the early nineteenth century, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 fixed the route along the Pigeon River and the Height of Land Portage between North and South Lakes.</p><br>
<p>Since then the portage has been recognized as part of the border. "Free and open to the use of the citizens and subjects of both countries", it continues in its historic use as a footpath for the overland transport of canoes across the divide separating the Great Lakes Basin from the Canadian northwest.</p><br>
<p>The Robert Russa Moton Museum  is a historic site and museum at 900 Griffin Boulevard in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. It is located in the former Robert Russa Moton High School, considered "the student birthplace of America&#39;s Civil Rights Movement" for its role in providing a majority of the plaintiffs in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case desegrating public schools. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998, and is now a museum dedicated to that history. The museum  were named for African-American educator Robert Russa Moton.</p><br>
<h2>School</h2><br>
<p>The former Moton School is a single-story brick Colonial Revival building, built in 1939 in response to activism and legal challenges from the local African-American community and legal challenges from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It houses six classrooms and an office arranged around a central auditorium. It had no cafeteria or restrooms for teachers. Built to handle 180 students, already by the 1940s it struggled to hold 450; the County, whose all-white board refused to appropriate funds for properly expanding the school facilities, built long temporary buildings to house the overflow. Covered with roofing material, they were called the "tar-paper shacks."</p><br>
<h2>Civil Rights history</h2><br>
<p>In 1951 a group of students, led by 16-year-old Barbara Rose Johns and John Arthur Stokes, staged a walkout in protest of the conditions. The NAACP took up their case after students agreed to seek an integrated school rather than improved conditions at their black school. Howard University-trained attorneys Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill filed suit on May 23, 1951. In Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, a state court rejected the suit, agreeing with defense attorney T. Justin Moore that Virginia was vigorously equalizing black and white schools. The verdict was appealed to the USA Supreme Court, and was subsequently incorporated into Brown v. Board of Education, in which the court ruled against the principle of "separate but equal" facilities and mandated the integration of public school systems.</p><br>
<p>In 1953-54, as part of an argument that it was active in seeking to improve separate but equal conditions, the county built a new high school for African-Americans, and this building became an elementary school.</p><br>
<p>The struggle to integrate the countys schools was one of the longest in the country. The county eventually refused to fund any public schools rather than integrate, as part of a statewide anti-integration effort known as Massive Resistance, and there were no public schools 1959-64. The Prince Edward School Foundation created a series of private schools to educate the countys white children. These schools were supported by tuition grants from the state and tax credits from the county. Prince Edward Academy was one of the first such schools in Virginia which came to be called segregation academies.</p><br>
<p>Many families and students emigrated elsewhere or were forced to forgo formal education. Some received schooling with relatives outside of the County or in "training centers" and "grassroots schools" held in African-American churches, businesses and civic halls. Others were sent across the state and country to live with host families recruited by local NAACP leaders, the American Friends Service Committee and the all-black Virginia Teachers Association. In 1963–64, at the urging of local organizers, the Kennedy Administration-supported Prince Edward Free Schools opened in four County schools leased by the Prince Edward Free Schools Association. The 1964 Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County Supreme Court decision ordered the reopening of Prince Edward County Public Schools with full integration.</p><br>
<p>This building served as a primary school in the county school system until 1993. At the time of the school&#39;s final closure, the Martha E. Forrester Council of Women launched a movement to preserve it as a memorial to the struggle for civil rights in education. In 1998, R. R. Moton School was declared a National Historic Landmark.</p><br>
<h2>Museum</h2><br>
<p>Today the Moton School stands as a reminder of the struggle for Civil Rights in Education. A 1994 New York Newsday report commended Prince Edward County as the only area involved in the Brown decision to desegregate its schools successfully and peacefully. The museum houses exhibits containing Moton High School memorabilia, artifacts of the Civil Rights Movement, and oral histories of former teachers and students who recall their experiences of the student walkout and the school closings. Docents are available to give guided tours of the museum. In 2013, Moton completed a $5.5 million renovation and open its first permanent exhibition, The Moton School Story: Children of Courage.</p><br>
<p>The museum also serves as a Center for the Study of Civil Rights in Education, providing programs to explore the history of desegregation in education and to promote dialogue about community relations. It is also an anchor site of the Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail. The trail contains 41 sites across southside Virginia which depict the broadening of educational opportunities.</p><br>
<p>High Bridge is a historic former railroad bridge across the Appomattox River valley about 6 mi east, or downstream, of the town of Farmville in Prince Edward County, Virginia. The bridge was originally integral to the Southside Railroad between Petersburg and Lynchburg.</p><br>
<p>As the site of the Battle of High Bridge in April 1865, the bridge played a pivotal role in Lees retreat in the final days of the American Civil War &ndash; and ultimately the wars outcome.</p><br>
<p>Rebuilt after the Civil War to its former dimensions, the 21-span structure was 2,400 ft long at a maximum height of 160 ft above the Appomattox River Valley &ndash; though is currently unusable for traffic. By 2005 its then-owner, Norfolk Southern, had abandoned the corridor, subsequently giving 33 miles of the line to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). High Bridge opened to the public on April 6, 2012, the 147th anniversary of the Battle of High Bridge.</p><br>
<p>The remains of the bridge and its adjacent rail line are now a rail trail park, High Bridge Trail State Park, with a completed trail open to hiking, biking and horse back riding for 16 miles on either side of the former bridge.</p><br>
<h2>Design and construction</h2><br>
<p>In the 1850s, the Southside Railroad built a rail line between Petersburg and Lynchburg, passing through Farmville between Burkeville and Pamplin City. The route, subsidized by a contribution from Farmville, required an expensive crossing of the Appomattox River valley, at a site near property known as Overton farm.</p><br>
<p>The site was surveyed and the bridge engineered by C.O. Sanford, who later reported to the stockholders of the Southside Railroad: "there have been higher bridges not so long, and longer bridges not so high, but taking the length and height together, this is, perhaps the largest bridge in the world."</p><br>
<p>The High Bridge&#39;s twenty piers contained almost four million bricks, and supported a wooden superstructure with a pedestrian walkway beside the rail line &ndash; along with an adjacent wagon bridge (known also as the lower wagon bridge) &mdash; which would ultimately play a pivotal role in the outcome of the Civil War. The bridge itself was completed in 1852 and the full line was completed in 1854.</p><br>
<h2>American Civil War</h2><br>
<p>The Southside Railroad was heavily damaged during the American Civil War. The High Bridge played a key role during Confederate General Robert E. Lees final retreat from Petersburg in the last days of the War. The Battle of High Bridge took place there on April 6–7, 1865. Fleeing the Union troops, the Confederates set the bridge afire after crossing it, but failed to destroy it. Union troops were able to use it and continued the chase, which ended several days later at Appomattox Courthouse, where Lees surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant took place on April 9, 1865.</p><br>
<h2>Post-bellum, AM&O, N&W</h2><br>
<p>After the Civil War, Robert E. Lee directed the Confederate engineers who had attempted to destroy the bridge to rebuilt it. Under the leadership of former Confederate General William "Billy" Mahone, the bridge was rebuilt, including 21 new Fink deck truss spans on the High Bridge erected in 1869. In 1870, the Southside Railroad was combined with the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad and the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad to form Mahones Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O), which stretched 400 miles across the southern tier of Virginia from Norfolk on Hampton Roads to Bristol. After the Financial Panic of 1873, the AM&O fell into default on its debt, and was purchased in the early 1880s by new owners who renamed it the Norfolk and Western (N&W). N&W replaced the High Bridges Fink truss spans in 1886 with minimal interruption of rail traffic, one span at a time, first suspending a new Pratt deck truss from traveling wooden falsework and then removing the old truss. In 1982, N&W became part of the current Norfolk Southern Railway system.</p><br>
<h2>Abandonment by railroad and future use</h2><br>
<p>Partially due to the high cost of maintaining the High Bridge over the Appomattox River valley, Norfolk Southern downgraded and eventually abandoned the line through Farmville in favor of the "Low-grade Line" between Burkeville and Pamplin. The low-grade line, completed in 1916, contained more favorable grades for westbound trains. The Southside Railroad had originally envisioned using the low-grade route until persuaded by the citizens of Farmville, Virginia to bring the line through their town.</p><br>
<p>Following 2006 discussions to turn the High Bridge into a portion of a rail trail or part of a linear state park, the rail land and bridge have since been donated to the State of Virginia and have become the High Bridge Trail State Park. The renovated bridge opened April 6, 2012.</p><br>
<p>Shikahogh State Reserve  is Armenia’s second largest forest reserve, covering some 10,330 ha of land, and located in southern Armenia in the Syunik Province. Environmentalists have said it has been largely unaffected by Armenia’s massive post-Soviet deforestation due to its remote location and care shown by residents of nearby villages.</p><br>
<p>The Shikahogh State Reserve is home to about 1,100 species of plants, 70 of which have been registered in the Red Book of Armenia and 18 in the Red Book of the Soviet Union. The fauna of Shikahogh has not been fully explored, but studies have already revealed rare species of animals such as leopard, bezoar, bear, snowcock, viper, and hedgehog.</p><br>
<h2>Highway controversy</h2><br>
<p>Shikahogh is the only place where the forest remains intact. It is home to unique species considered to be the wealth of not only Armenia but the whole world as well.</p><br>
<p>According to Social-Ecological Association Chairwoman Srbuhi Harutyunyan, trees in Mtnadzor were not logged only because they were beyond reach, but in this case the Mtnadzor forests are facing the threat of logging.</p><br>
<p>“Countries lacking in natural raw materials are eyeing our natural raw materials, and this is the only preserved unique forest, which is very dense and very useful and one can prepare various things from the raw material available here,” says Artemis Lepejyan, the Chairwoman of the Saint Sandukht Women’s Union. “The whole policy consists in the fact that they are ready to spend millions on this road, because they will make billions on it.”</p><br>
<p>Silers Bald is a mountain in the western Great Smoky Mountains, located in the Southeastern United States. Its proximity to Clingmans Dome and its location along</p><br>
<p>the Appalachian Trail make it a popular hiking destination.</p><br>
<p>Silers Bald is located on the crest of the Smokies with Thunderhead Mountain to the west and Clingmans Dome to the east. The Tennessee-North Carolina state line crosses</p><br>
<p>the summit, with the mountain split evenly between Sevier County, Tennessee to the north and Swain County, North Carolina to the south. Silers Bald rises appx.</p><br>
<p>2,500 ft above its northern base near Fish Camp Prong (of Little River), and appx. 3,000 ft above its southern base near Forney Creek.</p><br>
<p>While Silers Bald was a grassy bald for most of the 19th and early-20th centuries, it was probably a wooded peak before the arrival of European settlers. For this reason, the park service does not</p><br>
<p>maintain the bald atop the mountain (the Great Smoky Mountains National Park currently</p><br>
<p>maintains only two grassy balds&mdash; Gregory Bald and Andrews Bald). A narrow corridor for</p><br>
<p>the Appalachian Trail, which crosses the summit, is kept clear for thru-hikers. There is still</p><br>
<p>a small bald area at the summit, approximately 30 ft in diameter, where the Appalachian</p><br>
<p>Trail makes a 90-degree turn. Several grassy meadows remain on the mountain&#39;s western slope.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Silers Bald consists of Thunderhead sandstone, a small pile of which crowns the</p><br>
<p>summit. This sandstone, part of the Ocoee Supergroup, was formed from ocean sediments</p><br>
<p>nearly a billion years ago. The mountain, like most of the Smokies, was formed some</p><br>
<p>200 million years ago when the North American and African plates collided during the</p><br>
<p>Appalachian orogeny, pushing the rock upward.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>While Silers Bald is hardly mentioned in Cherokee lore, a petroglyph was discovered near</p><br>
<p>the summit in 1917. The mountain&#39;s elevation is probably recorded by Arnold Guyot</p><br>
<p>during his 1859 survey of the Smokies crest, but under a different name (possibly Guyot&#39;s "Big Stone Mountain," which Guyot listed with an elevation of 5,614 ft and lying somewhere between Mt. Buckley and Thunderhead).</p><br>
<p>land has reverted to patches of meadow and young woodland on the western slope of Silers Bald</p><br>
<p>Silers Bald is named after Jesse Siler, a prominent North Carolinian who grazed sheep</p><br>
<p>and cattle atop the mountain in the 19th century. Likewise, Siler Bald, in the Nantahala National ForestNantahala</p><br>
<p>Mountains to the south, was named after Jesse&#39;s brother, William. Albert Mountain,</p><br>
<p>also to the south, was named after Jesse&#39;s nephew, Albert Siler.</p><br>
<p>By the late 19th century, Silers Bald was the far eastern end of a giant grassy pasture that</p><br>
<p>stretched several miles across the Smokies&#39; western ridge all the way to Russell Field, which overlooks</p><br>
<p>Cades Cove. The mountain is mentioned several times in Horace Kepharts Our Southern Highlanders as the last stop before one enters a heavily-wooded wilderness. According to Kephart, beyond "Hall cabin" (a herders shack near modern Big Chestnut Bald, six miles (10 km) east of Thunderhead):</p><br>
<p>...there is just one shack, at Silers Meadow. It is down below the summit, hidden in timber, and you would never have seen it. Even if you had, you would have found it as bare as a last years mouse nest, for nobody ever goes there except for a few bear-hunters. From there onward for forty miles is an uninhabited wilderness so rough that you could not make seven miles a day in it to save your life..."</p><br>
<p>Laura Thornborough, a writer who visited Silers Bald in the 1930s, recalls it as a giant meadow:</p><br>
<p>Silers is one of the mysterious grassy balds, or mountain-top meadows, and an outstanding vantage point commanding spectacular views.</p><br>
<h2>Access</h2><br>
<p>The easiest access to Silers Bald is to take the Clingmans Dome tower trail from the</p><br>
<p>Forney Ridge Parking Lot to the tower. From there, following the Appalachian Trail west</p><br>
<p>for just over four miles (6 km) brings one to the summit of Silers Bald. This leg of the trail is riddled</p><br>
<p>with elevation gain and loss, crossing Mt. Buckley (a knob of Clingmans Dome), Jenkins</p><br>
<p>Knob, and a sparsely-wooded ridge known as "The Narrows".</p><br>
<p>At the summit of Silers Bald, an unmarked spur trail winds several yards to a cliff on</p><br>
<p>the northwest slope of the mountain. This cliff offers a 180-degree view of the northern</p><br>
<p>Smokies, with a clear shot of Mount Le Conte to the east and Thunderhead Mountain to the</p><br>
<p>west.</p><br>
<p>Tolay Lake is a shallow freshwater lake in southern Sonoma County, California, United States. The lake, nestled within the southern vestiges of the Sonoma Mountains, is the site of significant Native American prehistoric seasonal settlement. In 2005, Sonoma County acquired the entirety of the lake and virtually its whole drainage basin from the Cardoza family for the sum of $18 million; the County&#39;s intention is to utilize the property as Tolay Lake Regional Park for ecological and archaeological preservation, as well as public use and enjoyment. Tolay Lake and its immediate drainage area is home to several nesting pairs of golden eagles, Aquila chrysaetos, and a number of rare, threatened or endangered species including the California red-legged frog, Rana draytonii; Western pond turtle, Actinemys marmorata; and Western burrowing owl, Athene cunicularia.</p><br>
<p>Tolay Lake was initially altered about 1850 by European settlers who dynamited a natural earth dam on the lake&#39;s south side, in order to enable more intensive agricultural cultivation and grazing of the basin; at times thereafter, the lake typically became almost dry in the summer months, when rainfall in this region is at its seasonal nadir. Another modern alteration is the construction of an east-west earthen causeway that effectively bisects the lake, impeding thorough water circulation and fragmenting plant and animal colonies of the lake.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Dating to at least 4,000 years, habitation of the original Tolay Lake perimeter occurred on a seasonal basis by the Coast Miwok, Pomo and other native Californians. It is known that this has been a regional gathering place for diverse tribes, probably associated with the beliefs that healing powers were derived from this lake. One of the main bases for this knowledge is the discovery of many prehistoric charmstones and numerous arrowheads in the lake bed. Evidence suggests that these stones were brought from distant parts of California and as far away as Mexico for a ritual in which the native threw the stone into Tolay Lake, with the belief that this act rid the thrower of affliction or disease or would invoke enhanced crop yields. Some of these artifacts are situated in a small museum on site, and a number of them are within the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Museum. These archaeological findings received such widespread attention that the lake was at one time alternatively known as Charmstone Lake.</p><br>
<p>Greg Sarris, chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria of Coast Miwok or Pomo descent has said: "The lake and surrounding area was highly sacred and was considered one of three areas in all of northern California where Indian nomads from different tribes convened for sacred ceremonies and the exchange of ritual objects and songs for the purpose of healing." He also said the 1000 charmstones discovered there, to date are: "the most significant discovery of cultural material for my people, but no doubt for all native people in California."</p><br>
<p>José Altimíra, founder of Mission San Francisco Solano described the lake in 1823, saying: "We found on said hillock, a little further on, the large lake of Tolay--named after the chief of the Indian nomadic tribals "(Mr.Hukalaka Tolay), who in former times settled there. Its width at some parts is, with little difference, one hundred and fifty varas (420 ft), at others two hundred varas (560 ft), and at one point one-fourth of a league, which is also its length."</p><br>
<p>In the mid-nineteenth century European settlers began to develop the Tolay Basin agriculturally along with the Sonoma Valley and Petaluma River Basin. Initially the Europeans compromised the natural earthen dam that impeded outflow at the southern end of the lake, primarily by dynamite. This hydrologic change reduced the lake size by approximately 50 percent and enabled more intensive grazing as well as growing of crops. The Tolay Lake basin&#39;s agricultural use expanded until about 1940 when the Cardoza family purchased the 1737 acre (7.03 km²) holding and called it the Cardoza Ranch.</p><br>
<p>The Cardozas made further improvements to the ranch containing Tolay Lake and retained ownership until 2005. During the Cardoza tenure, numerous road and fence additions were made as well as well crafted dry stone bridge and wall structures; these changes were introduced to facilitate the cattle grazing, pumpkin farming and other farming uses. In 2005 the Board of Supervisors of Sonoma County entered into an option purchase agreement of the entire property for a striking price somewhat below the appraised land value. The Cardozas retain ownership to the considerable collection of charmstones found prior to the date of this contract. Subsequently the County exercised its option and as of 2007 has active planning underway to place this holding into the county&#39;s park system. On September 20, 2006, Sonoma County found that the conversion to a public park may have a significant impact on the environment and thus a full Environmental Impact Report must be prepared. As of February, 2007 public access is on a limited ranger-guided appointment basis only.</p><br>
<p>Each autumn in recent years the Cardoza family opened the Ranch to about 20,000 visitors to witness the annual pumpkin festival from the harvest of lakebed cultivated production. It is not known whether this tradition will continue under County management.</p><br>
<h2>Hydrology</h2><br>
<p>The Tolay Lake basin is a bowl shaped structure confined by two north-south running ridges of the southern Sonoma Mountains. Tolay Lake is fed by 18 separate springs distributed around the perimeter of the lake, some of which develop into intermittent streams. The largest such stream known as Cardoza Creek feeds Tolay Lake from the southeast. The winter maximum lake depth varies typically between four and eight feet (1 and 2 m) deep depending upon that season&#39;s rainfall. Tolay Lake functions more as a large freshwater marsh based upon extensive aquatic vegetation and shallow depths.</p><br>
<p>The lake surface level is at an altitude of approximately 150 feet (46 m) above mean sea level, while the highest point in the watershed is on Cougar Mountain on the eastern ridge, which attains an elevation of about 800 feet (240 m). At the southern end of the lake Tolay Creek provides a virtually perennial outlet; Tolay Creek thence flows in a southerly course to discharge into the Napa Sonoma Marsh adjoining San Pablo Bay, the northern arm of San Francisco Bay. There are several ponds within the Tolay Lake Basin, including two large artificial ponds clearly separate from the lake; these ponds serve as watering sources for cattle and are also habitat to some of the native species of amphibians and reptiles associated with Tolay Lake. Another modern alteration is the construction of an east-west earthen causeway that effectively bisects the lake, impeding thorough water circulation and fragmenting plant and animal colonies of the lake. Annual rainfall in the Tolay Lake Basin is approximately 29 inches (740 mm).</p><br>
<h2>Architectural/cultural</h2><br>
<p>Present in the Tolay Lake Basin are a number of well-preserved architectural features, most notably a set of ranch buildings, many of which date from the first half of the twentieth century. Most of these structures were erected by the Cardoza family as integral elements of a working ranch. They represent an opportunity for preservation not only of an architectural style from this earlier era, but also as a complete collection of the building types involved in a broad function Sonoma County ranch, not dissimilar in function to its nineteenth-century predecessor. The county is analyzing alternative uses of some of the structures that not only offer preservation, but integration into the educational themes that are to embody the future Tolay Ranch Regional Park.</p><br>
<p>The county is also actively consulting with representatives of Native American groups that are descendants of early tribes who used the site. These discussions are for the purpose of portraying the lives of prehistoric inhabitants in a faithful and sympathetic manner, and examining opportunities for cultural education. For example, this project offers an opportunity for the Native American community to cultivate and restore large tracts of purple needle grass,</p><br>
<p>California&#39;s official state grass. This grass is the preferred material utilized by the California Indian basket weavers for teaching children the art of basket weaving.</p><br>
<h2>Flora and fauna</h2><br>
<p>Considerable biodiversity is found in Tolay Lake and the surrounding hills of the Sonoma Mountains; historical habitats include the lacustrine or marsh environment; grasslands and California oak woodland on higher elevations especially in the steep upland ravine areas. The lake itself has a diverse flora and fauna, including several threatened and endangered species including the California red-legged frog, Rana draytonii and western pond turtle, Actinemys marmorata.</p><br>
<p>Because of the numerous natural fresh water seeps, wildlife is abundant in the Tolay watershed, including the upland areas. The valley harbors several significant species, including the burrowing owl, Athene cunicularia; golden eagle, Aquila chrysaetos; white-tailed kite, Elanus leucurus; California horned lark, Eremophila alpestris; and the endangered tricolored blackbird, Agelaius tricolor. Tolay Lake is also one of only two known locations in the Bay Area that produce a special "moist prairie grass".</p><br>
<h2>Habitat restoration</h2><br>
<p>One of Sonoma County&#39;s primary purposes in acquiring the Tolay Lake watershed is the ecological restoration of this area to its pre-European settlement condition. In that earlier era the lake would have been double its present size and native marshes, grasslands and even some upland forested areas would have been in greater evidence, prior to the destructive force of cattle grazing and other intensive agricultural practices. Sonoma County is accepting public comment as of February, 2007 to understand the views of scientists and the general public regarding the outcome restoration strategy and how that is balanced with some form of public access.</p><br>
<p>For the lake itself, there is the prospect of greater size, depth and increased water circulation; additionally there is the potential of re-integration of the two lake segments, which are presently divided by the man-made earthen causeway. Breaching of this causeway would mitigate the effects of fragmented floral and faunal colonies and associated pressures of local colony extinction.</p><br>
<p>Tolay Lake restoration fits into a regional mosaic of open space, conservation easements and wildlife areas in the process of being enhanced. These efforts all link to the wetlands and uplands adjoining the San Pablo Bay marshes, which areas are known to comprise one half of all the wetlands capable of restoration in the entirety of San Francisco Bay. Ongoing vicinity acquisition efforts further expand the regional landscape of baylands restoration: Petaluma Marsh properties, Dickson Ranch, the New North Point former casino site, and Skaggs Island. According to a non-profit environmental organization, Friends of Tolay Lake Park: The Tolay land acquisition is magnified by "this integrated effort to regain some of the connections and integrity of the area’s natural systems; together, their restoration will greatly improve the chances of survival for endangered marsh and upland species and will contribute to the overall health of San Francisco Bay".</p><br>
<p>One drawback to the site ecological restoration is the presence of a major noise generator, Infineon Raceway, immediately to the southeast; the potential effects of raceway noise upon the future desired wildlife enhancement has not been thoroughly investigated. Scientists know from studies in other areas that some animal species are sensitive to man-made noise and may limit their use of certain locales heavily impacted by noise.</p><br>
<p>The Swan Bay is a shallow, 30 km&sup2; marine embayment at the eastern end of the Bellarine Peninsula in Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia. The township of Queenscliff lies at its southern end, and St Leonards at its northern. It is partly separated from Port Phillip by Swan Island, Duck Island and Edwards Point. Most of the area is included in the Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park as well as being listed as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention as part of the Port Phillip Bay  and Bellarine Peninsula Ramsar Site. The bay is part of the Swan Bay and Port Phillip Bay Islands Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance for orange-bellied parrots, waders and seabirds.</p><br>
<p>Matthew Flinders named the bay "Swan Ponds" after its black swans, up to 2,700 of which can be seen in summer and early autumn.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>Swan Bay contains a variety of ecosystems that make it environmentally important for waterbirds and migratory waders. These include salt marsh, intertidal mudflats and vast seagrass beds on which, almost everything living in the bay relies on for food. Although much of the surrounding land is farmland, some remnant woodland survives in the adjoining Edwards Point Nature Reserve and Swan Bay itself. The bay has been recognised as having international importance and the Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park almost entirely occupies the bay.</p><br>
<p>Nearly 200 species of birds have been recorded in Swan bay. Birds of conservation significance for which the bay and its shore are internationally important include the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot as well as little tern, fairy tern, eastern curlew, Lewin&#39;s rail and white-bellied sea eagle. It also supports over 1% of the Australian population of four wader species: Grey plover, Pacific golden plover, double-banded plover and eastern curlew. Other birds found in the region include the Australian pelican, silver gull, royal spoonbill, Caspian and crested terns, white-fronted chat, sacred ibis, red-necked stint, little pied cormorant and pied oystercatcher. Some of these birds travel from as far away as Arctic Siberia and Alaska where they breed, to feed on the intertidal mudflats of Swan Bay.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Swan Bay lies at the eastern end of the Bellarine Peninsula in Port Phillip. It is partly separated from Port Phillip by Swan Island, Duck Island and Edwards Point. Islands located within the bay include Mangrove Island, Rabbit Island, Sand Island, Stingaree Island and Tip Island.</p><br>
<h2>Recreation</h2><br>
<p>Recreation in the bay mainly revolves around sightseeing activities such as sea kayaking, scuba diving, bird watching and various wildlife tours. Boating is limited in Swan Bay, particularly around Swan Island and in Stingaree Bight, there is a 5 knot speed limit and many areas of the bay become very shallow at low tide.</p><br>
<h2>Myths</h2><br>
<p>There is supposedly a treasure hidden in a cave on the southern shoreline of Swan Bay. The myth revolves around the pirate Benito "Bloody Sword" Bonito, who raided the west coast of the Americas. His career began around 1818 but from there on sources differ. According to one legend his ship was boarded by a British man-of-war after Bonito exited Port Phillip after hiding a treasure in Swan Bay, apparently the so-called "Lost Loot of Lima", sometime in 1821. He was subsequently given a trial and hanged.</p><br>
<p>The Bardavon 1869 Opera House, in the downtown district of Poughkeepsie, New York, United States, is the oldest continuously-operating theater in New York State. Designed by J.A. Wood, it was built in 1869 and served as a venue for various performing arts, community meetings, and celebrations until 1923; it largely resumed this heritage by becoming a general performing-arts facility in 1976. In the interlude period from 1923 to 1975, it served as a cinema, although there were some live performances, especially vaudeville, during this period.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Bardavon was designed by prominent Poughkeepsie architect J. A. Wood and built by James S. Post, the latter notable for designing or erecting architectural structures in the Poughkeepsie central business district and Vassar College. An extensive renovation was undertaken in 1905 and supervised by architect William Beardsley, who also designed the Dutchess County Court House and Attica state prison. The theater was not reopened until January 1, 1923, when it was opened under the new name The Bardavon Theater.</p><br>
<p>At that time, it was bought by Paramount, and in 1928 a Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ was added. This organ was removed in the mid 60s and installed in a private residence in Scarsdale, NY until subsequent dismantling by a private collector, and placed in storage. It is most likely the theater where cult film director Edward D. Wood, Jr. served as an usher in his youth, although sources don&#39;t often specify the Bardavon by name. In 1947, the theater was further modernized and a movie marquee added. The style of the interior after the renovation has been described as neo-classic.</p><br>
<p>The venue continued as a cinema up until 1975, when massive redevelopment of the downtown area threatened it with demolition. Sitting where it does, it was near-adjacent to the site of the new Civic Center and a proposed arterial highway project. There were plans to raze the building and use the site for a parking lot. Concerned citizens banded together to save the theater and were successful in getting it named to the National Register of Historic Places on August 20, 1977 — and renamed The Bardavon 1869 Opera House. Since then, over $5 million has been raised and used to partially renovate the Bardavon, which is now in use again as a venue for a broad range of performing arts including theater, dance, music, opera, and other genres.</p><br>
<p>The original Wurlitzer pipe organ was discovered in 1983 by the New York Theatre Organ Society, www.nytos.org, and a deal was struck for the renovation and re-installation of the instrument with NYTOS as permanent curator holding ownership of the instrument.</p><br>
<p>The Bardavon has been the home of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic for over 40 years. In one notable 1953 performance, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt provided the narration for Prokofievs Peter and the Wolf.</p><br>
<h2>Performances</h2><br>
<h3>Actors and musicians who have performed at the Bardavon and UPAC</h3><br>
<p>Al Pacino</p><br>
<p>Andre Watts</p><br>
<p>Ani DiFranco</p><br>
<p>The Bacon Brothers</p><br>
<p>Barenaked Ladies</p><br>
<p>B.B. King</p><br>
<p>Bela Fleck</p><br>
<p>Bill Cosby</p><br>
<p>Blondie</p><br>
<p>Bob Dylan</p><br>
<p>Bob Weir</p><br>
<p>Bo Diddley</p><br>
<p>Brad Mehldau</p><br>
<p>Bruce Hornsby</p><br>
<p>Buddy Guy</p><br>
<p>Buffalo Bill</p><br>
<p>Burning Spear</p><br>
<p>Butch Miles</p><br>
<p>Capitol Steps</p><br>
<p>Carol Channing</p><br>
<p>Cher</p><br>
<p>Cherish the Ladies</p><br>
<p>Chick Corea</p><br>
<p>Chris Botti</p><br>
<p>Chris Brubeck</p><br>
<p>Chris Cornell</p><br>
<p>Clint Black</p><br>
<p>Cyndi Lauper</p><br>
<p>Dan Zanes and Friends</p><br>
<p>Dark Star Orchestra</p><br>
<p>Dave Brubeck</p><br>
<p>David Bromberg</p><br>
<p>David Byrne</p><br>
<p>David Crosby</p><br>
<p>David Sedaris</p><br>
<p>Derek Trucks</p><br>
<p>Dickey Betts</p><br>
<p>D.L. Hughley</p><br>
<p>Dr. John</p><br>
<p>Duke Robillard</p><br>
<p>Eddie Izzard</p><br>
<p>Eddie Palmieri</p><br>
<p>Edie Brickell</p><br>
<p>Eric Idle</p><br>
<p>Ernest Borgnine</p><br>
<p>The Four Seasons</p><br>
<p>Frankie Valli</p><br>
<p>Frank Sinatra</p><br>
<p>Garrison Keillor</p><br>
<p>Gary Burton</p><br>
<p>George Carlin</p><br>
<p>Gladys Knight</p><br>
<p>Goo Goo Dolls</p><br>
<p>Graham Nash</p><br>
<p>Great Southern</p><br>
<p>Gregg Allman</p><br>
<p>Harry Belafonte</p><br>
<p>Harry Houdini</p><br>
<p>Henny Youngman</p><br>
<p>Henry Rollins</p><br>
<p>Hot Tuna</p><br>
<p>Ian Anderson</p><br>
<p>Indigo Girls</p><br>
<p>Itzhak Perlman</p><br>
<p>The J. Geils Band</p><br>
<p>Jerry Bergonzi</p><br>
<p>Jimmy Cliff</p><br>
<p>Jimmy Sturr</p><br>
<p>Joan Armatrading</p><br>
<p>Joan Baez</p><br>
<p>Joe Jackson</p><br>
<p>John Hiatt</p><br>
<p>John Philip Sousa</p><br>
<p>Jonny Lang</p><br>
<p>Joshua Bell</p><br>
<p>Kathy Griffin</p><br>
<p>Kathy Mattea</p><br>
<p>Keb Mo</p><br>
<p>Kenny Loggins</p><br>
<p>Keri Noble</p><br>
<p>Ladysmith Black Mambazo</p><br>
<p>Laurie Anderson</p><br>
<p>Les Ballets Africains</p><br>
<p>Lewis Black</p><br>
<p>Linda Eder</p><br>
<p>Liza Minnelli</p><br>
<p>Lonestar</p><br>
<p>Loretta Swit</p><br>
<p>Los Lobos</p><br>
<p>Los Lonely Boys</p><br>
<p>Lou Rawls</p><br>
<p>Lou Reed</p><br>
<p>Lyle Lovett</p><br>
<p>Madeleine Peyroux</p><br>
<p>Mickey Hart</p><br>
<p>Milton Berle</p><br>
<p>Natalie Cole</p><br>
<p>Natalie MacMaster</p><br>
<p>Natalie Merchant</p><br>
<p>North Mississippi Allstars</p><br>
<p>OK Go</p><br>
<p>Pat Benatar</p><br>
<p>Pat Metheny</p><br>
<p>Patti LaBelle</p><br>
<p>Peru Negro</p><br>
<p>Peter Frampton</p><br>
<p>Pete Seeger</p><br>
<p>Pixies</p><br>
<p>Quartetto Gelato</p><br>
<p>Queen Latifah</p><br>
<p>Ralph Stanley</p><br>
<p>Ramblin&#39; Jack Elliott</p><br>
<p>RatDog</p><br>
<p>Richard Thompson</p><br>
<p>Richie Havens</p><br>
<p>Robert Cray</p><br>
<p>Ron White</p><br>
<p>Roy Hargrove</p><br>
<p>Rufus Wainwright</p><br>
<p>Ryan Adams</p><br>
<p>Sharon Isbin</p><br>
<p>Sinead O&#39;Connor</p><br>
<p>Smokey Robinson</p><br>
<p>Steve Martin</p><br>
<p>Steven Wright</p><br>
<p>Todd Rundgren</p><br>
<p>Tom Hambridge</p><br>
<p>Tony Bennett</p><br>
<p>Travis Tritt</p><br>
<p>The Wailers Band</p><br>
<p>Whoopi Goldberg</p><br>
<p>Wynton Marsalis</p><br>
<p>Youssou N&#39;Dour</p><br>
<p>Yo-Yo Ma</p><br>
<p>Zakir Hussain</p><br>
<p>Zappa Plays Zappa</p><br>
<h2>Name by dates</h2><br>
<p>Collingwood Opera House: 1869–1921</p><br>
<p>Bardavon Theater: 1923–1975</p><br>
<p>Bardavon 1869 Opera House: 1976–present</p><br>
<p>Talim Island is the largest lake island in Laguna de Bay, the largest lake in the Philippines. The hilly island is within the boundaries of the Province of Rizal, under the jurisdiction of two municipalities. The western side is part of the municipality of Binangonan, while the eastern section is part of Cardona.</p><br>
<p>The island is volcanic in origin and forms the southwest rim of the Laguna Caldera. Volcanism after the formation of the caldera created the maars and volcanic craters at the southern end of Talim Island, the largest of which is a 3 km crater surrounding Brgys. Balibago and Tuna.</p><br>
<h2>Political subdivision</h2><br>
<p>The island consists of 24 barangays that lie along its shores, 17 belongs to the town of Binangonan and 7 to Cardona.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Talim Island is located almost at the center of Laguna de Bay, a three-lobed lake the center of which is the Laguna Caldera. The northernmost tip of the island is separated from the mainland by Diablo Pass, which is only about 240 m at the narrowest. The southernmost tip of the island is called Talim Point.</p><br>
<p>The highest point of the island is Mount Tagapo, known locally as "Bundok ng Susong Dalaga" (Maiden&#39;s breast mountains) for the conical hill at its peak resembling the female breast. The hill is among the several in the Tagalog region that are called as such because of its shape. This feature is best observed from neighboring Mount Sembrano in the Jalajala peninsula across the lake.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>The island is rich in bamboo grass, which the islanders make into different types of furniture such as bamboo sofas, cabinets, tables, chairs and a lot more. It is their main source of living, while lake fishing is only secondary.</p><br>
<p>Also, along the lake are fish pens that supports the everyday needs of the islanders.</p><br>
<h2>Religion</h2><br>
<p>Two Roman Catholic parish churches are located on the island. The Santo Domingo Parish Church is in Janosa, Binangonan, and Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Church, in Navotas, Cardona. Also, a few Jehovah&#39;s Witnesses live on the island, and they have three meeting places called Kingdom Halls. The Iglesia ni Cristo has a place of worship in Barangay Subay, Cardona.</p><br>
<p>The Heraion of Perachora  was a sanctuary of the goddess Hera situated in a small cove of the Corinthian gulf at the end of the Perachora peninsula. In addition to a temple of Hera of unusual construction and antiquity, the remains of a number of other structures have also been found, including a L-shaped stoa, a large cistern, dining rooms, and a second potential temple. The Sanctuary of Hera at Perachora is 14.2 km north-northwest of Corinth and 75.9 km west of Athens. Although there is debate between Argos, Megara and Corinth, the sanctuary was probably under the control of Corinth, as it faced the harbors of that powerful city across the Corinthian gulf. Cult activity at the site continued from perhaps the 9th century BCE to 146 BCE, when the Roman general Mummius sacked Corinth during the war with the Achaean League. In the Roman period, domestic structures were built on the site, indicating that the area was no longer a sanctuary. This site is significant for the study of the origins of Greek temple architecture and rural cults.</p><br>
<h2>Mythology and history</h2><br>
<p>There is a legend recounted in Euripides that Medea buried her murdered children at a sanctuary of Hera Akraia as she fled from Corinth. This may be a reference to this site. Herodotus tells the story of Periander stripping the clothes off of the Corinthian women at a sanctuary of Hera. In the 1st century CE, the Greek historian Strabo wrote that there was an oracle associated with the sanctuary.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeology</h2><br>
<p>1. West court</p><br>
<p>2. Roman house</p><br>
<p>3. Apsidal structure</p><br>
<p>4. Temple of Hera Akraia</p><br>
<p>5. Altar</p><br>
<p>6. L-shaped stoa</p><br>
<p>7. Apsidal cistern</p><br>
<p>8. Dining rooms</p><br>
<p>9. Water channels</p><br>
<p>10. Sacred pool</p><br>
<p>11. Temple of Hera Limanaia</p><br>
<p>12. Walls</p><br>
<p>13. Modern jetty</p><br>
<p>14. Modern chapel</p><br>
<p>15. Modern footpath</p><br>
<p>The known structures of the sanctuary cover a rectangle approximately 45 m north&ndash;south and 245 m east&ndash;west. The sanctuary wrapped around a small cove and extended toward the east uphill along a ridge. The structures will be discussed in order from west to east.</p><br>
<h3>West court</h3><br>
<p>At the extreme southwest end of the sanctuary, there is a polygonal area of roughly 25 by largely cut into the rock beside the cove. This structure has been variously termed the agora, or the west court. This structure may date to the 6th century BCE and thus be contemporary with the Temple of Hera Akraia. It appears to have been destroyed in the 4th century BCE; it has been proposed that the L-shaped stoa took over its function. There appear to have been colonnades on the western and southern sides. There are remains of a house from the Roman period roughly at the center of the area.</p><br>
<h3>Apsidal structure and temple of Hera Akraia</h3><br>
<p>The earliest structure at the site was an apsidal building of perhaps the late 9th century BCE, which is thought to resemble the house-temple models known from the Argive Heraion. On that analogy, it would have had a high-peaked roof, covered perhaps in thatch. There were Early Helladic sherds under this structure.</p><br>
<p>In the 6th BCE, a Doric order tetrastyle-prostyle temple of about 10 by was built a little to the west of the apsidal structure. The epithet Akraia refers to the position of the sanctuary at the point of the peninsula. The cella of this temple was divided into three aisles – a highly unusual design. There was a wall to divide the west end of the cella and a screen in front of the cult statue. Evidence for the reuse of some blocks may indicate that there was a prior phase of the structure in the 7th century BCE. The roof of this temple was of marble. No evidence has yet been found of pedimental sculptures.</p><br>
<p>The Doric order triglyph and metope frieze may have only extended along the eastern face, as few of the elements of this survive. The metopes were about 15 cm thick and slotted into the triglyph blocks rather than forming a single block with them, as is more typical. Roughly in the center of the southern side of the temple was a limekiln of about 4.5 m in diameter that was used to reduce the marble of the temple (and of the sanctuary generally) into lime for the construction of the Hexamilion wall across the Isthmus of Corinth in the 5th century CE. Scorch mark remain visible on the stones of the temple around a circular area where the heat of the limekiln caused the breakdown of the underlying stones.</p><br>
<h3>Triglyph and metope altar</h3><br>
<p>About 15 m east of the Temple of Hera Akraia, there was a stone altar decorated with a triglyph and metope frieze dating from the early 4th century BCE. This altar measured about 2.5 by. In the late 4th BCE Ionic columns were added to the corners, perhaps for a canopy.</p><br>
<h3>L-shaped stoa</h3><br>
<p>Immediately east of the altar was a two-storied stoa with an L-shaped plan, also thought to date to the late 4th BCE. The eastern arm of the stoa was about 16.5 m north to south and about 5.5 m deep, while the northern arm of the stoa was about 17.5 m east to west and about 5 m deep. The lower level employed an external colonnade of the Doric order, while the upper floor used the Ionic order. This is the first known example of this combination. The stairs to the second floor are not preserved. A water channel extended to this structure from the hydraulic system east of the sanctuary.</p><br>
<h3>Double-apsidal cistern</h3><br>
<p>Around 35 m east of the L-shaped stoa, there was a cistern of about 6 by with each end rounded into an apsidal shape. Stone internal piers supported the vaults for the roof. On the eastern end of the structure there was a settling tank of about 3 by. About 10 m to the northeast of the settling tank there was a diversion point in the water channel with one branch directed to the cistern and the other to the L-shaped stoa. The excavator dates the cistern to within the 6th to the 4th centuries BCE.</p><br>
<h3>Dining rooms</h3><br>
<p>Immediately south of the cistern was a double dining room, probably associated with the cult activity at the site. This structure was initially identified as a Hellenistic house, but the cuttings for the legs of the dining couches make the identification as a dining room secure. Tomlinson proposes before 490 BCE as the date for this structure.</p><br>
<h3>Sacred pool</h3><br>
<p>Around 30 m east of the cistern, was a pool about 2 m deep though to perhaps have a sacred function within the cult. Significant numbers of mesomphalic phialai (libation vessels) were found within this structure. This structure is now backfilled and its exact location unknown.</p><br>
<p>The "Sacred Pool" features prominently in an effort by Tomlinson to reconstruct oracular practice at Perachora. He connected the phialai to divinatory practices and speculated that a ritual involving casting the phialai into the "Sacred Pool" would forecast good voyages for sailors stopping at Perachora after departing from Lechaion. Subsequent scholarship has not accepted this theory and Tomlinson views the pool as a simple reservoir.</p><br>
<h3>Temple of Hera Limenaia</h3><br>
<p>Around 75 m east of the cistern lie the remains of a structure that dates perhaps to the 6th century BCE. During excavation a bronze bull was discovered, inscribed with Sikyonian letters and dating to the end of the 6th BCE. There was a hearth at the centre of the building. It may have been a house-temple or a dining room, as evidenced by spits for roasting meat found inside. Many diagrams and reconstructions of this structure show a door in the western side-wall; the gap in the stones, however, may have been created by a trial trench dug by an earlier excavator.</p><br>
<p>The "Temple of Hera Limenaia" was named by the original excavator, Payne, on the basis of an apparent inscribed dedication to "Hera Limenaia." For some time, scholars supposed that two separate cult centers existed at Perachora. John Salmon, inter alia, has argued convincingly that Hera&#39;s cult title at Perachora was Akraia, while Limenaia was a secondary epithet. More recently, Blanche Menadier has compared the epithet Limenaia to the Homeric epithet Leukolenos, also attested epigraphically at Perachora.</p><br>
<h2>Remains outside the sanctuary</h2><br>
<p>Remains are known to extend for 1.7 km eastward from the sanctuary to a lagoon. The best preserved of these constitute an extensive hydraulic system.</p><br>
<h3>Rock-cut cisterns</h3><br>
<p>About 750 m east-northeast of the sanctuary, there was a series of massive cisterns, reached by a rock-cut stairway extending about 50 m down into the bedrock. The opening of the stairway is 64 m northwest of the openings of the cisterns. The descent is steep and the steps are not all well-preserved. There are cuttings for a parapet wall around the vertiginous upper openings of the cisterns to prevent falls. It has been proposed that the water was raised from the cisterns to the water channel by the use of large human-powered waterwheels.</p><br>
<h3>Fountain house</h3><br>
<p>About 540 m east-northeast of the sanctuary, there was a hexastyle-prostyle fountain house (having six columns in its facade). Behind the facade there were three rock-cut basins, similar to the Pirene fountain house at Corinth. This structure was later incorporated into a rural villa in the Roman period. This fountain house is thought to date to the same time as the L-shaped stoa, which is the ultimate destination of the water of the system.</p><br>
<h3>Aqueduct</h3><br>
<p>Water channels join the upper cisterns to the fountain house and the fountain house to the cistern of the sanctuary and the L-shaped stoa. At intervals there were settling basins along the water conduit, including one immediately above the fountain house.</p><br>
<h2>Significance of the site</h2><br>
<p>As is the case for the rural sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron in relation to the religion of Athens, the sanctuary of Hera at Perachora is important for the study of rural cult in the Corinthia. The unusual plan of the 6th century BCE temple of Hera Akraia coupled with its location on the remains of a 9th BCE apsidal structure are of interest to the study of the development of the Greek temple as an architectural and cultic form. While it has been proposed that the cult of Hera Akraia had chthonic elements, this idea has not been generally accepted. The reference in Strabo to an oracle may fit with the idea that the children of Medea were buried at the site, and thus explain any chthonic elements to the cult as pertaining to a heroon.</p><br>
<h2>Images of the sanctuary of Hera at Perachora</h2><br>
<p>Mansfield Plantation is a well-preserved antebellum rice plantation, established in 1718 on the banks of the Black River in historic Georgetown County, South Carolina.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Spanning nearly 1,000 acre of pine forest, rice fields and cypress swamps, Mansfield Plantation was once one of the largest rice producing plantation in the country. Mansfield, along with adjacent rice plantations up and down the Black River, provided much of Europe with "Carolina Gold" rice during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.</p><br>
<p>Rice growing was made possible by:</p><br>
<p>perfecting irrigation techniques using tidal water and manmade dykes.</p><br>
<p>experimentation with natural fertilizers.</p><br>
<p>most notably, African-American slave labor.</p><br>
<p>After the American Civil War, rice production became too expensive and soon the plantations fell into bankruptcy and were sold off to new owners.</p><br>
<h2>Present day</h2><br>
<p>Today, Mansfield Plantation is preserved as an authentic rice plantation, complete with the original plantation home, a school house, live oak avenue ("oak allée"), chapel, guest house, and grounds. It also has the only remaining winnowing barn in Georgetown County, where rice grains were processed for shipment.</p><br>
<h3>Restoration</h3><br>
<p>Undergoing restoration is a slave village of 7 slave cabins and a chapel.</p><br>
<p>In 2009, the entire plantation underwent a privately funded, massive restoration project to keep its distinct history alive for generations to come. It is said to be the only American plantation saved from development and reclaimed by a direct descendent of the original owners.</p><br>
<h3>Media</h3><br>
<p>Mansfield Plantation has been featured in numerous films, documentaries and television shows. It served as the backdrop for scenes from Mel Gibson&#39;s 2000 film, The Patriot. In 2006, the Fox network filmed two segments of their primetime television series Treasure Hunters at Mansfield and the Fine Living Network filmed a documentary at Mansfield Plantation for their television series Windshield America.</p><br>
<p>The Sierra Nevada de Mérida is the highest mountain range in the largest massif in Venezuela, the Cordillera de Mérida, which in turn is part of the northern extent of the Cordillera de los Andes . The Sierra Nevada de Mérida includes the highest peaks in Venezuela, Pico Bolívar, which has an elevation of 4,981 m, Pico Humboldt, Pico Bonpland and others.</p><br>
<p>The Sierra Nevada National Park is a protected area within the range.</p><br>
<p>The Cordillera de Mérida is a series of mountain ranges, or massif, in northwestern Venezuela. The Cordillera de Mérida is a northeastern extension of the Andes Mountains. The ranges run southwest-northeast between the Venezuelan-Colombian border and the Venezuelan coastal range. The Táchira depression separates the Cordillera de Mérida from the Cordillera Oriental, which forms the Colombia-Venezuela border.</p><br>
<p>The ranges runs from southwest to northeast and parts lie within each of the following states: Táchira, Mérida, Barinas, Trujillo, Portuguesa and Lara. The southeastern slopes are drained by tributaries of the Orinoco River, while the streams that drain the northwestern slopes empty into Lake Maracaibo. At the northeast tip of the massif lies the town of Barquisimeto and the headwaters of the River Cojedes.</p><br>
<p>In the centre of the massif is the city of Mérida. Two ranges of peaks lie on either side of the city, the Sierra de la Culata to the north and Sierra Nevada de Mérida to the south. Pico Bolívar, at 4,981 meters elevation (16,342 feet), is the highest peak in Venezuela.</p><br>
<p>Most of the ranges are covered by Venezuelan Andes montane forests, although the highest elevations (above 3,100 meters) are above tree line. These ranges are home to the Cordillera de Mérida páramo, an enclave of the páramo (tropical alpine grasslands) of the northern Andes. Protected areas in the massif include Sierra Nevada National Park.</p><br>
<h2>Glaciers</h2><br>
<p>In 1991 the mountain range had five glaciers situated near its peaks.</p><br>
<p>The snowy season is between July-August, and the snow cover the mountains above 4.200 meters, and sometimes above 3.800 meters.</p><br>
<p>The Aleipata Islands is a group of four uninhabited islands off the eastern end  of Upolu Island, Samoa, with an aggregate area of 1.68 km²):</p><br>
<p>*Nu&#39;utele (1.08 km²)</p><br>
<p>*Nu&#39;ulua (0.25 km²)</p><br>
<p>*Namua (0.20 km²)</p><br>
<p>*Fanuatapu (0.15 km²)</p><br>
<p>Namua and Fanuatapu are at the outer edge of the fringing reef of Upolu, with distances of 0.7 km and 2.5 km to the Upolu mainland, respectively. Nu&#39;utele and Nu&#39;ulua are 4 to 6 km further south, outside of the fringing reef, at distances of 1.4 km 3.5 km off Cape Tapaga, the southeastern headland of Upolu.</p><br>
<p>These islets are remnants of eroded volcanic tuff rings. Only Namua is open for visitors (Namua Island Resort, beaches). Fanuatapu, being the easternmost island, has a lighthouse. The islands are important nesting locations for seabirds.</p><br>
<p>The Hexamilion wall  was a defensive wall constructed across the Isthmus of Corinth, guarding the only land route into the Peloponnese peninsula from mainland Greece.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Early fortifications</h3><br>
<p>The Hexamilion stands at the end of a long series of attempts to fortify the Isthmus stretching back to perhaps the Mycenean period. Many of the Peloponnesian cities wanted to pull back and fortify the Isthmus instead of making a stand at Thermopylae when Xerxes invaded in 480 BC (Herodotos Histories 7.206). The issue arose again before the Battle of Salamis (Herodotos 8.40, 49, 56). Although the concept of a fortress Peloponnese was repeatedly appealing, fortification of the Isthmus was of no utility without control of the ocean, as Herodotos notes (7.138).</p><br>
<h3>The Hexamilion and its history</h3><br>
<p>The wall was constructed in the period between 408 AD and 450 AD, in the reign of Theodosius II during the time of the great Barbarian invasions into the Roman Empire. The attack of Alaric on Greece in 396 AD or the sack of Rome in 410 AD by the Visigoths may have motivated the construction, which included towers, sea bastions, and at minimum one fortress. The one known fortress contained two gates (north and south), of which the northern gate functioned as the formal entrance to the Peloponessos. The wall was constructed with a rubble and mortar core faced with squared stones. It is not certain how long it took to complete, but the importance given to the task is apparent from the scale of the construction; the Hexamilion is the largest archaeological structure in Greece. Every structure in the region was cannibalized for stone for the effort, either being incorporated into the wall directly, as was the temple of Poseidon at Isthmia, or being burned into lime, as was the sanctuary of Hera at Perachora as well as much of the ancient statuary of Corinth. In the reign of Justinian, the wall was fortified with additional towers, reaching a total number of 153. Military use appears to have fallen off after the 7th century AD, and by the 11th AD domestic structures were being built into the wall. In 1415, the Byzantine emperor Manuel II personally supervised repairs over a period of forty days. The high cost of this effort caused unrest among the local elite. The wall was breached in 1423 and again in 1431 by the Ottomans under the command of Turahan Bey. Despot Constantine Palaiologos restored the wall again in 1444, but the Turks breached it again in 1446 and in October 1452. After the Ottoman conquest of the Peloponnese in 1460, the wall was abandoned. During its history, the wall never succeeded in fulfilling the function for which it was constructed, unless it acted as a deterrent. Elements of the wall are preserved south of the Corinth Canal and at the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Isthmia.</p><br>
<h2>Images of the Hexamilion</h2><br>
<p>The "Old Chelmsford" Garrison House  is a historic house at 105 Garrison Road in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. It is the oldest house in Chelmsford, and has been preserved by the Garrison House Society as a museum. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.</p><br>
<p>The exact date the building was erected is not known; it is claimed by the Society to have been built before 1691, when it is claimed to be one of the houses listed as a garrison house in Chelmsford, but a 1702 deed transferring land on which it stands does not mention it. Thomas Adams deeded the land to his son, Peletiah Adams, in 1683, and Peletiah deeded the land to his two sons in 1702, who probably built the house. Stylistic analysis of its construction also supports a post-1700 construction date. The same stylistic analysis casts doubt on the belief that the house actually served as a fortified garrison.</p><br>
<p>Before the title passed to the Garrison House Society in 1952, only three families had previously owned it. Very few modifications had been made to it in all that time, making it a relatively accurate historic showpiece. The house now shares its lot with a barn, summer kitchen, a working blacksmith shop, an herb garden, a craft house and the "Hill Jock House," which was saved from destruction and moved in 2004 to the lot shared by the Old Chelmsford Garrison House.</p><br>
<p>The Actors Temple, officially named Congregation Ezrath Israel, is a synagogue founded in 1917 in the Hells Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Located at 339 West 47th Street since 1923, the temple was originally dubbed "The West Side Hebrew Relief Association", and it was the synagogue of choice for the entertainment industry. Many vaudeville, musical theater, television, and nightclub performers attended services there, including Sophie Tucker, Shelley Winters, Milton Berle, Al Jolson, Jack Benny, Joe E. Lewis, Edward G. Robinson, as well as several of the Three Stooges.</p><br>
<p>The temple declined after World War II as actors moved to California and the neighborhood changed, going from 300 members to approximately 30 in 2009. However, even with this additional income, the $120,000 annual operating costs used up the $2 million endowment by 2009. Despite these challenges, the temple continues to operate. In fact, the temple had a large fund raising program in 2011. In addition the congregation has grown to 120 dues paying members.</p><br>
<p>Cal Madow   is a mountain range in the east of the self-declared state of Somaliland, extending into the west of Puntland state of Somalia. It stretches across an area between the west of Bosaso to northwest of Erigavo. Its peak sits at almost 2500 m in Shimbiris, northwest of Erigavo. Cal Madow was a tourist destination in the late 1980s. The local population of the Sanaag region is primarily responsible for preserving the habitat, which continues to face the risk of deforestation.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>The dense mountain forest sits at an altitude of between 700–800 m above sea level, and has a mean annual rainfall of 750–850 mm. In addition to rainfall, Cal Madow receives additional precipitation in the form of fog and winter rains, which sustain isolated forests of juniperus, buxus etc. Mist also appears to be important in the distribution of juniperus (dayib), one of the species locals use for timber. For timber production, the buxus (dhoqos), buxus and celtis (boodaar) poles are cut from living trees in the evergreen forest. The discovery of the locust bean (ceratonia), lavenders and many other plant species has emphasized the many links the Cal Madow highlands have with the Mediterranean region. The Lamadaya waterfalls is one of the best scenery in Cal Madow.</p><br>
<p>Despite the current changes in land use, Cal Madow has internationally valuable unexploited mineral deposits and unique natural habitats. It is considered a key area for oil exploration, and has a petroleum system identical to and formerly contiguous with those within the Republic of Yemen. Florally, Cal Madow has approximately 1,000 plant species, 200 of which are only found on this mountain range.</p><br>
<p>Cal Madow and adjacent areas also have richer fauna than many other parts of Horn of Africa, and harbor some of the rarest and most localized of Somaliland&#39;s endemic animal species. Here, Warsangli linnet (Carduelis johannis), pigeons (acanthus olivae) and golden-winged grosbeaks can be observed, as can antelopes such as the beira (dorcatragus megalotis), and different sub-species of gazelle.</p><br>
<h2>Environmental protection</h2><br>
<p>Cal Madow&#39;s environment has suffered greatly in recent years along with its ecology, much of which is unique to it. Only a fraction of the flora remains, and its distribution remains sparse and unprotected. Although local knowledge of natural resources endemic to the area is great, agricultural and social projects as well as United Nations and foreign-aided development schemes usually failed to consider or make use of this insight. However, in the core zone of the Juniperus procera mountainous forest, ECOTERRA Intl, based on a request of the late Sultan of the Warsangeli, Suldan Abdisallam, renewed by his successor, Suldan Said, maintains since 1989 a low key environmental awareness and nature protection programme through local groups. In addition the growing of drought-resistant Rye and permaculture have been introduced to the local farmers by the organization.</p><br>
<p>Detailed further conservation studies of the Cal Madow mountain range are needed to ascertain the present status of these areas, and to provide guidelines for and highlight the benefits of sustainable agricultural practices in the face of scarce forest resources. With a lack of proper utilization and conservation, the local plant life is threatened and therefore so is the wildlife which depends on it. The numerous plants indigenous to Cal Madow ensure that a proper study and assessment would yield benefits both to the region&#39;s human inhabitants and medical science in general.</p><br>
<p>The flora of Somalia, much of which constitutes unique genetic resources, contains more than 3000 species of vascular plants, and is thus much richer than that of the Sahel region in general. Of the 156 plant families observed in Somalia, about 21% are restricted to the northern part of the country, while 11% are found in the south. Somalia houses a greater number of endemic plant species, many of which grow in the northern and eastern regions, notably in Cal Madow. Most of these species are herbs not found anywhere else in the world.</p><br>
<h2>Botanical survey</h2><br>
<p>In January 1995, a team of botanists led by Dr. Mats Thulin of Uppsala University in Sweden visited the Cal Madow range on behalf of the Flora Somalia Project based in Uppsala. The study they conducted under the guidance of Somali Prof. Ahmed Warfa (Department of Botany and Range, Somali National University) constituted the most extensive botanical survey ever done in the area, with about eight new species of plant discovered in the process.</p><br>
<p>Furthermore, the area houses an important germplasm, which requires protection from overexploitation and destruction by humans. On the basis of the recent botanical survey in Cal Madow, the team recommended that the local forest should be conserved as a national monument, as it plays an important role in the mountain range&#39;s ecosystem and represents a valuable natural resource.</p><br>
<p>In addition, the forests offer unique opportunities for education and research. The agricultural benefit of clearing the forests, on the other hand, are negligible. The development of a wildlife reserve in these areas is under way and implemented by ECOTERRA Intl. together with the Calmadow Trust. International support should encourage the development of a study center, which would increase awareness of the value of the forest and provide long-term employment benefits. Some of the degraded forest areas could thereby be brought to a more natural state, while other areas would be developed for timber, fuelwood and honey production. Improved in the efficiency of the present farming, education and medical facilities are also crucial to the success of the proposed wildlife reserve.</p><br>
<p>Lake Tyrrell is a shallow, salt-crusted depression located in the Mallee district of north-west Victoria, in Australia. The word is derived from the local Wergaia word for sky, the Boolong clan of the area being distinguished for their interest in star-lore.</p><br>
<h2>Location and features</h2><br>
<p>The lake covers approximately 20,860 hectare, making it Victoria&#39;s largest salt lake. It is located 6 km north of the town of Sea Lake and 314 km northwest of Melbourne.</p><br>
<p>While much of the time the lake is dry, it is usually covered in about 5 cm of water in winter. It is ancient and probably formed by sand blocking the passage of Tyrrell Creek (a distributary of the Avoca River) which feeds the lake. Evaporation results in a layer of salt crusting on the lake bed which is harvested by Cheetham Salt in Sea Lake.</p><br>
<p>The lake environment is host to Mallee reptiles, kangaroos, emus and white-faced chats. Thousands of seagulls breed on small islands on the lake. Surrounding vegetation is made up of saltbush and samphire.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Around 120,000 years ago Tyrrell was approximately 13 m deep with low salinity. Water levels subsequently dropped due to climatic changes, resulting in cycles of drying and partial refilling.</p><br>
<p>In 1838, Australian explorer Edward Eyre discovered Lake Tyrrell while searching for new grazing land.</p><br>
<h2>Recreation activities</h2><br>
<p>Each year on the Queen&#39;s Birthday long weekend the lake hosts the Mallee Rally, once part of the Australian Off Road Championship and more recently Australian Off Road Racing Series.</p><br>
<p>On the Sea Lake side of the lake, 7 – from the township, is the local lookout and astronomy deck, built in the late 1990s.</p><br>
<p>Olallie Butte is a steep-sided shield volcano in the Cascade Range of northern Oregon. It is the largest volcano and highest point in the 50 mi distance between Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson, Oregons two highest peaks. Ice Age glaciers carved two large cirques into the northeast and southeast flanks of the mountain exposing magma which hardened in the volcanos conduits to form the numerous spectacular pinnacles now found in the higher parts of the cirques.</p><br>
<p>A Forest Service fire lookout tower was built on the summit in 1920, but abandoned in 1967. The collapsed timbers of the lookout tower still remain on the summit to this day. A wedge-shaped piece of land including the summit area which had been part of the Willamette National Forest was ceded to the Warm Springs Indian Reservation under a revised interpretation of a 19th-century treaty. Most of Olallie Butte except the lower western flank now lies within the reservation. Although official maintenance of the 4 mi trail to the summit also ended in the 1960s it still remains passable to hikers.</p><br>
<p>The summit of Olallie Butte is located on the border between Marion County and Jefferson County. The highest point in Wasco County is located at about 6,280 ft in the northeast cirque. Olallie Butte overlooks the Olallie Scenic Area to the south which includes Olallie Lake. The term Olallie is Chinook Jargon for berry which are abundant in the area.</p><br>
<p>McAlmond House is a Gothic Revival farmhouse that built in 1862. The house stands on the bluffs of Dungeness near Sequim, Clallam County, Washington.</p><br>
<p>The house is the only remain of the New Dungeness settlement, founded by New England sailors in the 1850s, and was built by ship&#39;s carpenters for the Captain Elijah H. McAlmond, which served as Justice of the Peace, first county commissioner, sheriff, Deputy United States Marshall, Probate Judge and, in 1863, as a member of the Territorial Legislature. The home remained in the McAlmond family until the mid 1900s, when the last remaining property was put up for sale.</p><br>
<p>Local legends claim that under Capt. McAlmond&#39;s stewardship, the bluffs under the house were used to smuggle Chinese into the United States.</p><br>
<p>The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.</p><br>
<p>Otter Lake is a 765-acre  reservoir in Macoupin County, Illinois. It is located 6 miles  west of Girard. The reservoir is named after Otter Creek, a tributary of Macoupin Creek and the Illinois River.</p><br>
<p>Otter Creek was dammed to provide flood control, water-based recreation, and a source of clean water for North Otter and South Otter Townships within Macoupin County. Recreation centers on fishing opportunities, with the lake managed for striped bass, crappie, and muskie.</p><br>
<p>There is a strictly-enforced power limit on the lake, with motors banned if stronger than 115 horsepower. The lake is troubled by sedimentation, with riprap applied to many patches of shoreline to reduce (but not eliminate) erosion of silt into the lake. Historically, quantities of atrazine have entered the lake from nearby farm fields to which the chemical is applied.</p><br>
<p>The Detroit Observatory is located on the corner of Observatory and Ann streets in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was built in 1854, and was the first scientific research facility at the University of Michigan and the oldest observatory of its type in the nation. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1958 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.</p><br>
<h2>Building the Observatory</h2><br>
<p>Henry Philip Tappan was inaugurated as the president of the University of Michigan in December 1852, and in his inaugural speech, appealed to the citizens of Michigan to support research and laboratory space at the University. Immediately afterward, Tappan was approached by Detroit businessman (and former Michigan Attorney General) Henry N. Walker, who offered assistance. Tappan suggested raising funds for an observatory, and Walker agreed to spearhead a fundraising drive. Walker soon raised $15,000 from the citizens of Detroit, including $4000 of his own money, and contributions from Lewis Cass, Henry Porter Baldwin, and Senator Zachariah Chandler. An additional $7000 was supplied by the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan, giving a total of $22,000 for the building and instruments.</p><br>
<p>In 1853, land in Ann Arbor was obtained for the building site, and George Bird of New York was hired to superintend construction of the building. To design the building, Tappan turned to Richard Harrison Bull, a New York University civil engineering professor, amateur astronomer, and former student of Tappan&#39;s. Construction was completed in 1854, and the building was named the Detroit Observatory to recognize the benefactors who funded its construction. The building housed a 12⅝-inch (32 cm) Henry Fitz, Jr. refracting telescope in the central area. The Fitz was the third largest telescope in the world when it was installed in 1857. A 6-inch (15 cm) Pistor & Martins meridian circle was installed in the east wing, while the west wing served as a library and office space for the director.</p><br>
<h2>Later history</h2><br>
<p>In 1890, the dome rotation mechanisms were revamped. The director&#39;s residence was demolished in 1954 to make way for the expansion of nearby Couzens Hall; the 1908 addition was demolished in 1976.</p><br>
<p>The astronomy department moved from the building in 1963, and the Detroit Observatory was used first as a library, then as a storeroom. It soon became derelict, and in the 1970s was threatened with complete demolition. However, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and restored in 1997-98. In 2005, the Detroit Observatory became a division of the Bentley Historical Library.</p><br>
<p>The function of the Detroit Observatory on campus was taken over by the Angell Hall Observatory which was completed much later. The "Observatories of the University of Michigan" include the Detroit Observatory (1854), the Angell Hall Observatory (1927), the Lamont-Hussey Observatory (South Africa, 1928) and the McMath-Hulbert Observatory (Lake Angelus, MI, 1930).</p><br>
<h2>Observatory directors and notable students</h2><br>
<p>Tappan recruited Franz Brünnow as the first director of the observatory in 1854. Among Brünnow&#39;s students dring his tenure at the Detroit Observatory were Asaph Hall, DeVolson Wood, Cleveland Abbe, and James Craig Watson. Brünnow stayed until 1863, when he was succeeded by James Craig Watson. Watson served for 16 years, and among his students were Otto Julius Klotz, Robert Simpson Woodward, George Cary Comstock, Marcus Baker, and John Martin Schaeberle. The full list of directors of the Detroit Observatory is as follows:</p><br>
<h2>Building description</h2><br>
<p>The Detroit Observatory, located on the campus of the University of Michigan, is a two-story hip roof rectangular frame structure, 33 ft on a side, flanked by two one-story wings, each 19 ft by 29 ft. The design is typical of observatories built in the 19th century. The structure is constructed of solid brick clad with stucco painted to resemble granite blocks. It is capped with a large revolving dome built of wood and canvas, 21 ft in diameter. A small portico covers the front entrance.</p><br>
<p>Çayönü is a Neolithic settlement in southeastern Turkey inhabited around 7200 to 6600 BC. It is located forty kilometres north-west of Diyarbakır, at the foot of the Taurus mountains. It lies near the Boğazçay, a tributary of the upper Tigris River and the Bestakot, an intermittent stream.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeology</h2><br>
<p>The first excavations were conducted by Robert John Braidwood between 1964 and 1978, and later between 1985 and 1991. The settlement covers the periods of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), and the Pottery Neolithic (PN).</p><br>
<p>The stratigraphy is divided into the following subphases according to the dominant architecture:</p><br>
<p>round, PPNA</p><br>
<p>grill, PPNA</p><br>
<p>channeled, Early PPNB</p><br>
<p>cobble paved, Middle PPNB</p><br>
<p>cell, Late PPNB</p><br>
<p>large room, final PPNB</p><br>
<p>Human sacrifice is indicated.</p><br>
<h2>Origin of domestication</h2><br>
<h3>Animal life - domestication of pigs and cattle</h3><br>
<p>Çayönü, Cafer Höyük, Nevalı Çori</p><br>
<p>is possibly the place where the pig (Sus scrofa) was first domesticated. The wild fauna include wild boar, wild sheep, wild goat and cervids. The Neolithic environment included marshes and swamps near the Boğazçay, open wood, patches of steppe and almond-pistachio forest-steppe to the south. Its also the site where the worlds taurine cattle were domesticated from the aurochs.</p><br>
<h3>Farming - cultivation of cereals</h3><br>
<p>According to Der Spiegel of either 6 March or 3 June 2006, the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne has discovered that the genetically common ancestor of 68 contemporary types of cereal still grows as a wild plant in the Vavilov zone on the slopes of Mount Karaca (Karaca Dağ), which is located in close vicinity to Çayönü. (Compare to information on cereal use in PPNA).</p><br>
<p>Robert Braidwood wrote that "insofar as unit HA can be considered as representing all of the major pre-historic occupation at Cayonu, cultivated emmer along with cultivated einkorn was present from the earliest sub-phase."</p><br>
<p>Greenwood Cemetery is a cemetery located in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. Still in use, it was established by a federal land grant on November 21, 1821. It was originally known simply as "The Graveyard" and later as "City Cemetery" before the present name was adopted in 1899. It is the final resting place of Confederate generals, former governors of Mississippi, mayors of Jackson, as well as other notable figures, the most recent of whom is internationally acclaimed author Eudora Welty. The graves of over 100 "unknown" Confederate soldiers are also located here. Greenwood Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and as a Mississippi Landmark in 1984.</p><br>
<p>The "garden park" type cemetery contains the largest collection of everblooming "own root" (not grafted) antique and modern shrubs roses in the country - several hundred shrubs representing over 40 named cultivars - as well as numerous hardy bulbs and other flowering shrubs and trees.</p><br>
<h2>Notable interments</h2><br>
<h3>Confederate generals</h3><br>
<p>Daniel Weisiger Adams</p><br>
<p>William Wirt Adams</p><br>
<p>William Barksdale</p><br>
<p>Samuel Wragg Ferguson</p><br>
<p>Richard Griffith</p><br>
<p>James Argyle Smith</p><br>
<h3>Mississippi governors</h3><br>
<p>George Poindexter</p><br>
<p>Abram Marshall Scott</p><br>
<p>Charles Lynch</p><br>
<p>Alexander Gallatin McNutt</p><br>
<p>Albert Gallatin Brown</p><br>
<p>John Isaac Guion</p><br>
<p>William Lewis Sharkey</p><br>
<h3>Others</h3><br>
<p>Edmund Richardson</p><br>
<p>Erasmus R. Burt</p><br>
<p>James D. Lynch</p><br>
<p>Eudora Welty</p><br>
<p>Perry Cohea</p><br>
<p>The Cascade Canyon Barn was designed by the National Park Service to standard plans and built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1935. The National Park Service rustic style barn is 5 miles  west of Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park in the USA state of Wyoming.</p><br>
<p>The rustic log cabin features saddle-notched log corners on a stone foundation. The foundation is buttressed at the corners to support the projecting log ends, a feature typical of Park Service designs of the era. The original wide barn door has been filled in with windows and a personnel door. The interior consists of a large main room with a small tack room in the southwest corner, now used for tool storage. The partition uses vertical poles faced with 4-1/2: wide tongue and groove planks. The room is furnished with built-in cupboards and a wood-burning cookstove. A loft is framed with logs and 8" rough-cut decking, reached by a milled-lumber stairway. The loft deck is covered with 6" wide flooring planks. The roof structure is open to the underside of the roof, with exposed log trusses.</p><br>
<p>Positioned deep in Cascade Canyon, the cabin was originally used as a barn, but after an avalanche destroyed the Cascade Canyon patrol cabin in 1960, the barn was converted to a patrol cabin. It shares a common design and purpose with the Death Canyon Barn to the south in the park, with minor differences attributable to available materials and the preferences of the work crews building the barns. Crews from either CCC Hot Springs camp NP3 or Jenny Lake Camp NP 4 built the barn. On August 18, 1998, the barn was listed on the National Register of Historical Places.</p><br>
<p>Hayrick Butte is a tuya, a type of volcano, in the Cascade Range of northern Oregon, located in the Willamette National Forest near Santiam Pass and just west of the Cascade Crest. It is adjacent to the cinder cone, Hoodoo Butte, which overlaps its western edge.</p><br>
<p>A tuya is a type of subglacial volcano, formed when lava erupts underneath an overlying glacier or ice sheet and then melts through to the surface and pools, producing the flat plateau on top with near-vertical walls along the ice-contact margin as the lava cools and hardens. Hayrick Butte is one of the most perfectly formed examples of a tuya in the contiguous United States with a nearly flat triangular plateau about 0.5 mi across and steep walls rising about 700 ft above the plain below.</p><br>
<p>Maiden Peak is a steep-sided shield volcano in the Cascade Range of central Oregon. It is the highest point in the 43 mi distance between Mount Bachelor and Diamond Peak. Ice Age glaciers carved a large cirque into the northeast flank of the mountain, exposing magma which hardened in the volcano&#39;s conduits to form the numerous rock pinnacles now found in the upper part of the cirque.</p><br>
<p>The summit of Maiden Peak consists of a steeper cinder cone which sits atop the underlying shield volcano. It is located on the Cascade Crest, which forms the boundary between Lane County and Deschutes County. Also, it is on the boundary between the Deschutes National Forest and the Willamette National Forest. A Forest Service fire lookout tower was built on the summit in 1923, but was removed in 1958. A 5.8 mi trail zigzags up to the summit from the southwest.</p><br>
<p>Lake Shikotsu is a caldera lake in Chitose, Hokkaidō, Japan. It is a part of the Shikotsu-Toya National Park.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Lake Shikotsu is located in the south-west part of Hokkaidō. It has an average depth of 265 m and a maximum depth of 363 m, making it the second deepest lake in Japan, after Lake Tazawa. It is the 8th-largest lake by surface area in Japan and the second largest of Japan&#39;s caldera lakes, surpassed only by Lake Kussharo. It is surrounded by three volcanos: Mount Eniwa to the north and Mount Fuppushi and Mount Tarumae to the south. The caldera formed in the holocene when the land between the volcanos subsided.</p><br>
<p>Due to its depth, the volume of Lake Shikotsu reaches 3/4 of the volume of Lake Biwa, Japans largest lake, despite of having only 1/9 of that lakes surface area. Due to the small surface area to depth ratio, the water temperature remains quite constant throughout the year, making it the northernmost ice-free lake in Japan. The Bifue, Okotanpe, Ninaru and Furenai rivers feed into it, and its main outlet is the Chitose River.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The caldera on which Lake Shikotsu sits was formed 40 to 50 thousand years ago. The caldera consists mainly of dacite, rhyolite, and andesite. The volcanoes Mount Tarumae, Mount Eniwa, and Mount Fuppushi formed on the rim of this caldera.</p><br>
<h2>Origin of the name</h2><br>
<p>The name of Lake Shikotsu derives from the Ainu language shikot, meaning big depression or hollow. To the Japanese, this sounded too much like dead bones, so they attempted to rename it engi, but this name did not stick.</p><br>
<h2>Use</h2><br>
<p>The red salmon (locally called "chippu"), introduced from Lake Akan in 1895, has become a noted product of the area and chippu fishing is now a favourite pastime in summer. A visitor centre, various campgrounds and Onsen provide facilities for tourists coming to the area.</p><br>
<p>Chitose is famous for its Indian Fish Wheel, a device situated in Chitose River to collect salmon returning to spawn at Lake Shikotsu.</p><br>
<h2>Transport</h2><br>
<p>National Highway 276 runs along the southern bank, connecting the lake with Tomakomai and Date. Highway 453 runs from the eastern and northern parts of the lake to Sapporo.</p><br>
<p>City bus routes from Chitose lead to the lake. Hokkaidō-Chūō buses connect Shikotsu-ko with Chitose Station and New Chitose Airport. In the summer, there is also a bus from Sapporo Terminal. The former bus service between the lake and Tomakomai has been discontinued.</p><br>
<p>The Sculptured House, also known as the Sleeper House, is a distinctive elliptical curved house built on Genesee Mountain in 1963 by architect Charles Deaton. It is featured prominently in the 1973 Woody Allen sci-fi comedy Sleeper.</p><br>
<h2>Background</h2><br>
<p>Architect Charles Deaton has described his inspiration for the house: "On Genesee Mountain I found a high point of land where I could stand and feel the great reaches of the Earth. I wanted the shape of it to sing an unencumbered song."</p><br>
<h2>Construction</h2><br>
<p>The Deaton-designed house was built in 1963. Delzell Inc. was the original builder of the house on an experimental permit. Clifford M. Delzell, the owner/operator of Delzell Inc. Deaton, ran out of money before the house was finished, so it was never inhabited by the designer. The interior of the Sculptured House went largely unfinished and was vacant for almost three decades until entrepreneur and one-time Denver, Colorado economic-development chief John Huggins purchased the house in 1999. He built a large addition designed by Deaton with Nick Antonopoulos before Deatons death in 1996, and commissioned Deatons daughter Charlee to design the interior, completed in 2003. The house covers 7700 square feet over 5 levels, with 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, along with a state of the art kitchen and top level master sweet.</p><br>
<p>In 2006, fellow Denver entrepreneur Michael Dunahay purchased the house from Huggins. By late 2010, Dunahay had become delinquent on the nearly $2.8 million outstanding balance of his $3.1 million mortgage on the house, and the Public Trustee in Jefferson County, Colorado scheduled a foreclosure auction for November 10, 2010, where it was sold for $1.5 million. The house was sold again in November 2010.</p><br>
<h2>In the media</h2><br>
<p>Appears in a 1967 episode of The 21st Century, hosted by Walter Cronkite.</p><br>
<p>The Sculptured House is featured in the 1973 Woody Allen movie Sleeper, where the home’s cylindrical elevator with sliding doors is used as a fictional device called the Orgasmatron.</p><br>
<p>8/6/2011 MTV Extreme Cribs Ep. 9</p><br>
<p>HGTV&#39;s Home Strange Home</p><br>
<p>An episode of American Guns.</p><br>
<p>Beauport, also known as Sleeper–McCann House, Little Beauport, or Henry Davis Sleeper House, is a historic house in Gloucester, Massachusetts.</p><br>
<h2>Background</h2><br>
<p>Beauport was built starting in 1908 as the summer home of interior decorator and antique collector Henry Davis Sleeper. Situated on the rocks overlooking Gloucester Harbor, the structure was repeatedly enlarged and modified by Sleeper, and filled with a large collection of fine art, folk art, architectural artifacts, and other collectible materials. Sleeper decorated the (ultimately 56) rooms to evoke different historical and literary themes. After his death, Charles and Helena Woolworth McCann acquired the house and its contents. They preserved much of the Sleeper&#39;s designs and decorations, but made some modifications, including adding their porcelain collection to the house. Their heirs donated the property to the Society for the Protection of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England) in 1947, who operate the property as a house museum.</p><br>
<p>Beauport served as Sleepers escape, a backdrop for summer parties, and as a showcase for his professional skills. The house has frequently been written about in books and magazines, with the first major article appearing in House Beautiful in 1916. It has been featured in such diverse publications as Architectural Digest, Country Living, and The Boston Globe, and as been showcased on televisions programs such as Americas Castles.</p><br>
<h2>Preservation</h2><br>
<p>Beauport was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2003, in recognition for its distinctive architecture, its unique collection of artifacts, and for its association for Sleeper, whose design influence extended across the wealthy elite of the eastern United States. In addition to the main house, the property also has a gate house, garage, and toolshed that were built by Sleeper. The gate house has been adapted by Historic New England as a visitor reception area, and the toolshed now houses restrooms. The garage is used for storage and as office space. There is a single non-contributing building on the property, a caretaker&#39;s house, which is potentially of local historic interest as an example of a prefabricated post-World War II residential structure.</p><br>
<p>The Weatherford Hotel is a historic hotel in the downtown district of Flagstaff, Arizona. The hotel was established in 1897 by John W. Weatherford, and is located at 23 North Leroux Street, one block north of USA Route 66.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Disastrous fires plagued early Flagstaff, like most frontier towns. After a particularly bad series of blazes in 1897, the City passed an ordinance requiring all buildings in the business area to be built of brick, stone or iron. Among the new buildings appearing in the year 1898 was the Weatherford Hotel, built by John W. Weatherford (1859–1934), a native of Weatherford, Texas. The original structure housed a general store on the first floor, and the Weatherford family upstairs.</p><br>
<p>In March 1899, Weatherford began construction of a brick three-story hotel addition, with a grand opening on New Years Day, 1900. For years, the Weatherford Hotel was the most prominent hotel in Flagstaff, entertaining guests such as artist Thomas Moran, publisher William Randolf Hearst, and writer Zane Grey. Greys famous novel "The Call of the Canyon" was written in the recently renovated Zane Grey Ballroom on the third floor of the hotel.</p><br>
<p>A beautiful sunroom occupied part of the top floor and was used for dances and parties, while numerous civic groups engaged the downstairs. A three-sided balcony, visible in the 1905 photograph hanging in the Ballroom was damaged by fire and removed in 1929, along with the original cupola. At various times, the hotel housed a restaurant, theater, and billiard hall and radio station.</p><br>
<p>Henry Taylor, the present owner, purchased the hotel in 1975 in an attempt to keep it from being demolished, at a time when the downtown area was in an acute state of disrepair and decline. Since then, Henry and his wife Pamela (Sam) have been continually renovating the structure, with the goal of restoring the hotel to its original grandeur. Today&#39;s Weatherford Hotel is still changing. The third floor Ballroom was renovated and reopened in 1997 and the first stage of reconstructing the wrap-around porches were finished in February 1999.</p><br>
<p>When transcontinental telephone service first reached Flagstaff about 1910, a small brick building with a three-bay facade of red Coconino sandstone was erected south of the hotel to serve the telephone company, becoming part of the "Weatherford Block." The building served its original purpose until at least the 1930s, when it underwent the first of two modernizations.</p><br>
<p>The sandstone facade was stuccoed over in a modified art-deco style, and in the 1950s aluminum siding was added. It was known for some years as the "Le Brea Cafe", an establishment whose character does not appear to have elicited any significant historic recollection.</p><br>
<p>The cafe facade renovation completed in 1995 restored the appearance of the original 1909 Telephone Exchange. The elegant simplicity and casual ambiance of the "Exchange Pub" is reminiscent of Flagstaff&#39;s at its around the start of the 20th century heyday.</p><br>
<p>The renovation continues today with future expansions to include the development of the basement which was the original Hotel Pub & Restaurant in 1900. Also planned is the completion of the existing balconies which will wrap around to the west of the building.</p><br>
<p>The hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.</p><br>
<p>Malheur Lake is one of the lakes in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County in the USA state of Oregon. Located about 18 mi southeast of Burns, the lake is a marsh fed by the Donner und Blitzen River from the south and the Silvies River from the north. Malheur Lake periodically overflows into Mud Lake to the west and thence to Harney Lake, the sink of Harney Basin.</p><br>
<p>The western area of Malheur Lake consists of ponds separated by small islands and peninsulas. The lake&#39;s central and eastern sections are more open. The generally shallow water is suitable habitat for migratory birds, waterfowl, and aquatic plants.</p><br>
<p>As is typical of Great Basin lakes, Malheur Lake&#39;s surface area changes dramatically with the local weather, climate, and season because the lake is in a very flat basin. A large influence on the water volume is local snow melt, especially from Steens Mountain, south of the lake. For example, large snowpacks in the mid-1980s caused the lake to expand from approximately 67 to 160 sqmi within three years, flooding usually dry areas and damaging a branch of the Oregon Eastern Railway. Soon afterward, drought in the early 1990s reduced the lake size to just 200 acre, exposing large mudflats and dusty playas.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Malheur Lake is a remnant of a much larger Pleistocene lake that drained east to the Malheur River, a tributary of the Snake River. The size of this ancient lake, which existed during a wetter climate, has been estimated at 900 square miles, with a maximum depth of 35 ft. Its outlet was originally a channel near New Princeton, but lava flows diverted the water to a gap near Crane. Much of the original lake bottom has since turned into desert or become meadows periodically watered by lake overflows. Mud Lake and Harney Lake are also remnants of the original pluvial lake.</p><br>
<p>The lakes as well as nearby marshes and playas are part of Harney Basin. The basin, a closed depression, covers 5,300 square miles, which makes it larger than the state of Connecticut.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>Malheur Lake contains many aquatic plants and grasses and is an important nesting and feeding area for waterfowl, migratory birds, and many other bird species. Wildlife includes ducks, geese, swans, herons, egrets, gulls, terns, and grebes.</p><br>
<h3>Malheur Lake Basin redband trout</h3><br>
<p>The Great Basin redband trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss newberri) has reduced access to Malheur and Harney lakes due to irrigation diversions, channelization, draining of marshlands, and high alkalinities. An exotic carp population is present in Malheur Lake and has caused extreme habitat damage. Harney Lake has been inhospitable to redband trout for many years due to high alkalinities. Today, redband trout in the Malheur Lake basin are widely distributed in small- and medium-size streams.</p><br>
<p>The redband trout is a unique subspecies adapted to the Malheur Lake basin ecosystem. In these closed, high-desert basins, redband trout have evolved to survive in environments with vast extremes of both water flow and temperature. They are one of only eight desert-basin populations of interior native redband trout. The Malheur Lake redband comprises 10 population groups in the closed interior basin of Harney and Malheur lakes. Historically, all streams were interconnected, and these fish moved through all the lakes and streams.</p><br>
<p>While not an officially designated threatened or endangered species, the redband trout is recognized as important resource, and the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-399) sets aside land in Oregon for protection and research of redband trout.</p><br>
<p>Monte Brè  is a small mountain east of Lugano on the flank of Monte Boglia  with a view of the bay of Lugano and the Pennine Alps and the Bernese Alps. It is considered one of the sunniest points in Switzerland.</p><br>
<p>Since 1912, the Monte Brè funicular has led from Lugano Cassarate to Monte Brè.</p><br>
<h2>Brè Village</h2><br>
<p>The village of Brè (800 m; population 300) lies on the eastern slope of Monte Brè and is connected to Lugano by bus service.</p><br>
<p>The village shows the typical Ticinese architectural style. The traditional communal washing fountain or "Lavatoio" is still preserved. In the center of the old village is the "Path of Art" with notable artists.</p><br>
<p>The Wilhelm Schmid Museum was the residence of the artist (1892–1971) and today contains a collection of his works. Schmid was the only Swiss painter of the northern Magical Realism style.</p><br>
<p>The Animas Mountains are a small mountain range in Hidalgo County, within the "Boot-Heel" region of far southwestern New Mexico, in the United States. They extend north-south for about 30 miles  along the Continental Divide,Since both of the neighboring valleys are closed drainage basins, the designation of the Continental Divide in this region is somewhat arbitrary.</p><br>
<p>from near the town of Animas to a few miles north of the border with Mexico. The range is about 12 miles (20 km) wide at its widest. The highest point of the range is the southern summit of the mile-long Animas Peak massif, 8,565 ft. (Animas Peak itself is the slightly lower north summit, 8,531 ft/2,600 m.)</p><br>
<p>The Animas Mountains lie between the Animas Valley on the west and the Playas Valley on the east. Nearby ranges include the Peloncillo Mountains (Hidalgo County), across the Animas Valley, and the Big Hatchet and Little Hatchet Mountains, across the Playas Valley.</p><br>
<p>Physiographically, the range divides into two parts. The compact southern part, which includes Animas Peak, is higher and wider, rising up to 4,000 ft (1,200 m) above the nearby valleys. It has a sky island character, with dense coniferous forests at the higher elevations. The longer, narrow northern portion is lower, reaching only 7,310 ft (2,228 m) at Gillespie Peak, and is characterized by grassland and piñon-juniper woods and shrubs.</p><br>
<p>The Animas Mountains lie near the Chihuahuan Desert, the Sonoran Desert, the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico, and the mountains surrounding the headwaters of the Gila River. Biotic influences from these regions, as well as the more distant Rocky Mountains, give the southern portion of the range a great diversity of species, including "approximately 130 species of birds, 60 species of mammals, and 40 species of reptiles."</p><br>
<h2>History and current management</h2><br>
<p>Most of the range is encompassed in the Diamond A Ranch (formerly the Gray Ranch), which is owned and managed by the Animas Foundation. The 321,000 acre (1,299 km²) ranch (more than one third the size of the state of Rhode Island - 3140 square kilometers) was bought in 1990 by The Nature Conservancy, which took the unusual step of selling it in the mid-1990s to the Animas Foundation, a private organization founded by poet and rancher Drummond Hadley and funded in part by the Anheuser-Busch family (as opposed to selling it to an arm of the USA government). The Foundation is intended to practice "sustainable agriculture in harmony with the environment." The Animas Foundation is one cooperating landowner within the Malpai Borderlands Group, a collaborative group in the region involving local landowners, local, state and federal agencies, universities, and environmental organizations. "The Animas Foundation is particularly important to the group in that they own more than a third of the planning area."</p><br>
<p>Access to the ranch, and hence to portions of the Animas Mountains, is tightly controlled, with little or no public recreational use opportunities.</p><br>
<p>As a result, the Continental Divide Trail had to be rerouted from the true Continental Divide near Antelope Wells, New Mexico to the current, official beginning of the CDT at Crazy Cook in the Big Hatchet Mountains.</p><br>
<p>Dallol is a cinder cone volcano in the Danakil Depression, northeast of the Erta Ale Range in Ethiopia. It has been formed by the intrusion of basaltic magma into Miocene salt deposits and subsequent hydrothermal activity. Phreatic eruptions took place here in 1926, forming Dallol Volcano; numerous other eruption craters dot the salt flats nearby. These craters are the lowest known subaerial volcanic vents in the world, at 45 m  or more below sea level. In October 2004 the shallow magma chamber beneath Dallol deflated and fed a magma intrusion southwards beneath the rift. An phreatic eruption occurred in January 2011.</p><br>
<p>Numerous hot springs are discharging brine and acidic liquid here. Small, widespread, temporary geysers produce cones of salt. The Dallol deposits include significant bodies of potash found directly at the surface.</p><br>
<p>The term Dallol was coined by the Afar people and means dissolution or disintegration, describing a landscape of green acid ponds (pH-values less than 1) and iron oxide, sulfur and salt desert plains. The area resembles the hot springs areas of Yellowstone Park.</p><br>
<p>The Connecticut Governor&#39;s Residence serves as the official home of the Governor of Connecticut. It is located at 990 Prospect Avenue in Hartford.</p><br>
<p>The Connecticut Governor’s Residence has served as the official residence since 1945. The house was originally built in 1909 for George C. F. Williams, a Hartford physician and industrialist. It was designed in the Georgian Revival style by the Boston-based architectural firm of Andrews, Jaques & Rantoul and built at a cost of $337,000. In 1916, Hartford architects Smith & Bassette designed the north and south wing additions. The three-story home originally stood on 14 acre that included a grass tennis court, a greenhouse and a number of outbuildings. It remained in the Williams family until 1940. The property was acquired by the State of Connecticut in 1943.</p><br>
<p>Today, the 19-room residence sits on 4 acre and has 15,000 ft&sup2; of living space with nine fireplaces, nine bathrooms, a pool and a pergola.</p><br>
<p>The Governor&#39;s Mansion is a contributing building in the Prospect Avenue Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. and</p><br>
<p>Yamsay Mountain is a large shield volcano in the Cascade Range of south-central Oregon, located about 35 mi east of Crater Lake on the border between Klamath County and Lake County. It is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc but is located in a mountain range 30 to 50 mi behind the main Cascade volcanic front. The best known members of this enigmatic arc are the massive shields of Newberry Volcano, about 55 mi farther north in Oregon, and Medicine Lake Volcano, about 80 mi south in Northern California. Yamsay is the highest volcano in the eastern arc, almost 300 ft higher than Newberry and Medicine Lake.</p><br>
<p>A central part of Klamath mythology, the mountain offers activities such as hiking and horseback riding. Historically, the area around it has been inhabited by Native American tribes and settlers. Until the 1970s, a fire lookout tower sat on the summit of the mountain, and its foundation remains to this day.</p><br>
<h2>Geography and geology</h2><br>
<p>Like other volcanoes in the Cascade Range, Yamsay was produced by subduction of the oceanic Juan de Fuca Plate under the North American Plate. Annual convergence between the two continues at a rate of 4 cm per year. The Cascades make up the majority of the North American West Coast volcanoes; they have been volcanically active for about 36 million years. The rock making up the Cascades is slightly older, dated between 55 and 42 million years old. In an attempt to organize the volcanoes by age, scientists typically divide them into two provinces: the High Cascadesthe younger volcanoesand the Western Cascades, comprising the older volcanoes.</p><br>
<p>Yamsay, along with the Simcoe volcanic complex, Medicine Lake Highlands, and Newberry Volcano, make up a wayward range of shield volcanoes between 50 km and 60 km east of the main Cascade Range. Volcanism at these centers is unlike other eruptions in the Cascades, and it does not stem from fissures as would Basin and Range volcanism. The volcanoes appear to be isolated from the major volcanic ranges in the Northwestern United States, although scientists group them as part of the Cascades.</p><br>
<p>Recent volcanism in the Cascades, lasting from 7 to 2 mya, produced largely basaltic and basaltic andesite-based material (up to 50 percent). On the eastern side of the High Cascades, however, volcanoes erupted dacite, andesite, and rhyolite. These materials made up several types of eruptions: lava flows, domes, and pyroclastic flows. In the most recent volcanic activity, andesite, basalt, and rhyolite have been erupted from High Cascades volcanoes, particularly the Three Sisters, Broken Top, Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson, and Crater Lake.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The name Yamsay is a corruption of the Klamath (a Native American tribe of Southern Oregon) name Yamsi, a form of Yamash, meaning "north wind." This mountain was supposed to be the home of Kmukamtch, the supreme being of Klamath mythology.</p><br>
<p>Historically, the area by the mountain was inhabited by Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin Bands, all of the Snake Paiute people. The Yahooskins lived east of Yamsay Mountain, near modern-day Lakeview. Their group inhabited 22 e6acre of land in Oregon and California. Traders entered the area at some point between 1825 and 1827, where they worked as trappers for the Hudson&#39;s Bay Company. After routes opened up in 1846, Fort Klamath was built (in 1863).</p><br>
<p>The city of Klamath Falls (southeast of Yamsay) sprang up in the 1920s and featured the fastest-growing population in Oregon. Contributors to this new growth and development included the creation of the Southern Pacific Railroad, completed in 1909. This opened the area for logging and timber business, which became the focus of the profit of the area.</p><br>
<p>The mountain features a United States Forest Service fire lookout tower with an 80 ft steel tower, built on the summit of Yamsay in 1929. It was removed after the 1970s, and only remnants of the foundation remain today. A dirt road was built to the summit to service the lookout, but this was abandoned after the tower was removed. The upper 3.5 mi now form a hiking trail to the summit.</p><br>
<h2>Climate and ecology</h2><br>
<p>The Cascade Range is dramatically different in climate from west to east. The west side is heavily forested and features trees such as Douglas firs, western hemlock, Pacific silver firs, and Alaska yellow cedars. East of the Cascades, where Yamsay lies, the climate becomes much drier, even arid. Precipitation significantly declines and vegetation becomes more sparse, with lodgepole pine, white fir, ponderosa pine, and juniper. To the south, chaparral plants such as beargrass and bitterbrush prevail.</p><br>
<p>Diverse life exists within the range, including endangered species like Larch Mountain Salamanders and spotted owls. Amphibians like salamanders and frogs are common, as are birds. Mammals in the area consist of elk, mountain lions, deer, and black bears. Eastern Cascades fish include Lost River suckers and short suckers, which are both endemic species.</p><br>
<h2>Recreation</h2><br>
<p>The Fremont National Recreation Trail passes through the area. It offers tourists excellent views of other Oregon Cascades landmarks, such as Mount Bachelor, Mount Shasta, the Three Sisters, and Mount Thielsen. Other activities along the trail include hiking and horseback riding up the mountain from the recreation area located at an elevation between 6,500 and.</p><br>
<p>Hogg Rock is a tuya volcano in the Cascade Range of northern Oregon, located west of Santiam Pass beside the Santiam Highway . The highway wraps in a nearly 180-degree curve below cliffs on the south and west sides.</p><br>
<p>Hogg Rock is only about 2 mi north of Hayrick Butte, a somewhat larger tuya of similar age and composition. A tuya is a type of subglacial volcano, formed when lava erupts underneath an overlying glacier or ice sheet and then melts through to the surface and pools, producing the flat plateau on top with near-vertical walls along the ice-contact margin as the lava cools and hardens. Unlike most tuyas which have steep cliffs on all sides, Hogg Rock has a break in its cliffs on the east side, with a moderate slope which leads down to a small road and gravel pit.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Hogg Rock was named after Colonel T. Egenton Hogg, the promoter of a railroad—Oregon Pacific Railroad—that was supposed to cross the Cascades in this location.</p><br>
<p>His railroad was based at Corvallis and became known as the Oregon Pacific Railroad (not to be confused with the current railroad of that name). His plan called for a railroad from Yaquina Bay on the Oregon Coast to Idaho via Corvallis and Santiam Pass.</p><br>
<p>By the end of 1884, he completed the rail into Corvallis from the coast and reached Albany by 1886. He then worked up the North Santiam River and completed trackage as far as Idanha before running out of money in 1890. In a final desperate effort to claim the pass for his railroad, he laid rails over Santiam Pass near Hogg Rock and pulled a box car back and forth on them to lay a claim to rail service there in 1890. Hogg went bankrupt and E. H. Harriman of the Southern Pacific Railroad gained control of the line in 1907. The trackage east of Mill City was abandoned when Detroit Dam and Big Cliff Dam were built in 1950, and the dream of a trans-Oregon railroad terminating at Corvallis was gone.</p><br>
<p>Pelican Butte is a steep-sided dormant shield volcano in the Cascade Range of southern Oregon. It is located 28 mi due south of Crater Lake and 12 mi northeast of Mount McLoughlin, and rises over 3,800 ft directly above the shore of Upper Klamath Lake. Ice Age glaciers carved a large cirque into the northeast flank of the mountain, forming a steep bowl which is popular in winter with backcountry skiers and snowmobilers. Several proposals have been made over the last few decades for ski area development on the northeast flanks, but none of the proposals has obtained the regulatory approval from the United States Forest Service necessary to proceed with construction. If the ski area is ever built, its skiable vertical of over 3,800 ft would be the largest in Oregon exceeding the 3,590 ft of Timberline Lodge ski area on Mount Hood.</p><br>
<p>The land is in the Fremont-Winema National Forest and a Forest Service fire lookout tower was built on the summit in 1935, and upgraded several times over the ensuing decades. It was replaced in 1986 with a modern 40 ft steel tower, which remains to this day and is festooned with a large array of microwave and radio antennas. A 5 mi long dirt road zigzags up the west flanks of the volcano to the summit.</p><br>
<p>Aspen Butte is a steep-sided shield volcano in the Cascade Range of southern Oregon. It is located 15 mi south of Pelican Butte and 15 mi southeast of Mount McLoughlin. It rises over 4,000 ft above the nearby shore of Upper Klamath Lake. Ice Age glaciers carved three large cirques into the north and northeast flanks of the mountain removing most of the original summit area including any evidence of a crater. The summit is now the high point along the curving ridge which bounds the southern edge of the cirques above steep cliffs.</p><br>
<p>Aspen Butte is the highest of four overlapping shield volcanoes within the Mountain Lakes Wilderness all of which have been carved to varying degrees by glaciers. The other volcanoes are 7,979 ft Mount Harriman, 7,785 ft Crater Mountain and 7,741 ft Greylock Mountain. Another peak, 7,882 ft Mount Carmine, which lies just over 1 mi to the north of Aspen Butte, is actually not a separate volcano but the highest remnant of the north flank of the Aspen Butte volcano separated from it by two glacial cirques. Little Aspen Butte, a 7,235 ft satellite cone, rises on the southern flanks of the main volcano separated from it by a 6,556 ft pass.</p><br>
<p>Ladrón Peak is an isolated, highly visible peak in central New Mexico, lying about 50 mi  southwest of Albuquerque. Ladron Peak is the only major peak in the compact range  known as the Sierra Ladrones, which lies between the Rio Puerco to the east and the Rio Salado to the southwest.</p><br>
<p>Despite its conical shape and its proximity to lava flows and small volcanoes, it is not itself a volcano. The core of the mountain is Precambrian granite. The peak rises dramatically from its surroundings on all sides; the summit is almost 4,500 ft above the Rio Grande Valley, 10 mi to the east.</p><br>
<p>The name of the peak means "thief", and "Sierra Ladrones" means "thieves&#39; mountains." Navajo and Apache raiding parties, and later Hispanic and Anglo rustlers, used the mountains as hideouts, hence the name. Today, part of the range is included in the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, administered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The rest of the range is a mix of BLM and private land.</p><br>
<p>Ecologically, Ladrón Peak is a sky island, supporting vegetation and wildlife not found in the surrounding grasslands. It is high enough to have coniferous forests on its upper slopes. Animal species include mountain lion, bear, pronghorn, elk, deer and reintroduced desert bighorn sheep.</p><br>
<p>Chūgoku Mountains is a mountain range in the Chūgoku region of western Japan. It runs in an east-west direction and stretches approximately 500 km from Hyōgo Prefecture in the east to the coast of Yamaguchi Prefecture. The range also reaches under the Pacific Ocean.</p><br>
<p>The two tallest mountains in the group are Daisen and Mount Hyōno, which are 1,729 m and 1,510 m, respectively. Many other mountains in the ranger are also over 1,000 m, while some of the smaller mountains are less than 500 m. Granite is the most common stone found among the mountains, much of which has been exposed through erosion.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Other than Daisen, most of the mountains run along the border of Tottori and Okayama prefectures and the border of Shimane and Hiroshima prefectures. The mountains form a drainage divide and natural barrier in western Japan between the Sanin Region to the north and the Sanyō Region to the south.</p><br>
<h2>Major mountains</h2><br>
<p>Mount Daisen（大山）, 1,729 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Hyōno（氷ノ山）, 1,510 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Mimuro (三室山), 1,358 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Osorakan (恐羅漢山), 1,346 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Ushiro (後山), 1,345 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Kanmuri (冠山), 1,339 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Jakuchi (寂地山), 1,337 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Ōgi (扇ノ山), 1,310 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Dōgo (道後山), 1,268 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Hiba (比婆山), 1,264 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Nagi (那岐山), 1,255 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Hiru (蒜山), 1,199 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Sentsū (船通山), 1,142 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Myōken (妙見山), 1,136 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Sambe (三瓶山), 1,126 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Ōsa (大佐山), 1,069 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Sen (千ヶ峰), 1,005 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Hōbutsu (宝仏山), 1,005 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Seppiko (雪彦山), 915 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Aono (青野山), 907 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Misumi (三角山), 516 m</p><br>
<p>Mount Haku (白山), 510 m</p><br>
<h2>Rivers</h2><br>
<p>The Chūgoku Mountains are the source of several rivers in western Japan. All flow either north to the Japan Sea or south to the Inland Sea with the exception of the Gōnokawa River (206 km), which runs along the mountain range in Hiroshima and Shimane prefectures.</p><br>
<p>The Sendai River (52 km), the Tenjin River (32 km), the Hino River (77 km), and the Kando River (82 km) all run steeply from the Chūgoku Mountains to the Japan Sea. The Yoshii River (83 km), the Asahi River (88 km), and the Ōta River (655 km) form a broader alluvial plain to the south of the mountain range and empty in to the Inland Sea.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>The Chūgoku Mountains are a source of iron sand, and the region was home to some of the earliest production of ironware in Japan. The broad tablelands of the mountain region support cattle ranches, notably for the production of wagyu beef. The numerous rivers of the Chūgoku Mountains support an extensive network of rice production in western Japan.</p><br>
<p>Shastina is the highest satellite cone of Mount Shasta, and one of four overlapping volcanic cones which together form the most voluminous stratovolcano in the Cascade Range. At 12,335 ft, Shastina is taller than Mount Adams and would rank as the third highest volcano in the Cascades behind Mount Rainier and Shasta were it not nestled on the western flank of its higher neighbor. Shastina has a topographic prominence of over 450 ft above the saddle connecting it with Shasta and easily exceeds the typical mountaineering standard of 300 ft for a peak to qualify as an independent summit, yet most lists of Cascade volcanoes omit it nonetheless. The name "Shastina" is a diminutive of Shasta.</p><br>
<h2>Geological features</h2><br>
<p>Shastina has the general form of a smooth-sided cone truncated by a one half-mile (0.8 km) diameter summit crater, but with several geological features which make it unique among other volcanoes in the Cascade Volcanic Arc. The most prominent feature when seen from lowland viewpoints is Diller Canyon, a large cleft carved into the western flank by pyroclastic flows and since expanded by erosion. It extends from the crater rim near 12,000 ft down for over 7,000 vertical feet (2,100 m) towards the town of Weed in the valley below, and is by far the largest such feature found on any of the Cascade volcanoes. Unseen except by mountaineers and fliers are the three small crater lakes nestled among the cones and ridges of the summit crater, which rarely melt free of snow until late summer. Clarence King Lake at 11,755 ft occupies the center of the crater, while Sisson Lake lies at 11,793 ft on the eastern side. Highest of all is an unnamed lake at over 11,960 ft on the south side of the cinder cone which forms Shastinas true summit. These lakes are the highest subaerial lakes in the entire Cascade Range, exceeded only by the subglacial lake beneath the ice of Mount Rainiers summit crater.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing and skiing</h2><br>
<p>Shastina is most commonly and easily climbed via the Cascade Gulch route, which ascends from Hidden Valley diagonally up to the Shasta-Shastina saddle, and then continuing up the eastern flank of Shastina&#39;s cone to its summit. For most mountaineers, it represents only a quick side trip on the way back from the main objective of climbing Shasta. But for ski mountaineers, Shastina represents an attractive objective of its own quite separate from the main peak of Shasta, since it provides several exceptional ski descents including Diller Canyon, the North Face, and the South Face.</p><br>
<p>Black Butte is a cluster of overlapping dacite lava domes in a butte,</p><br>
<p>a parasitic satellite cone of Mount Shasta. It is located directly adjacent to Interstate 5 at milepost 742 between the city of Mount Shasta and Weed, California. The highway crosses a 3,912 ft pass, Black Butte Summit, at the western base of the lava domes. The lava domes were extruded at the foot of the cone of Shastina following the period of its major eruptions about 9,000–10,000 years ago.</p><br>
<p>A United States Forest Service fire lookout tower was built on the summit in the 1930s, but destroyed during the Columbus Day Storm of 1962. A new lookout was built in 1963 and operated until 1973. The building was moved by helicopter to a new location in 1975 and only the concrete foundation remains today. A 2.5 mi trail leads to the summit from a trailhead accessible by dirt roads off the Everitt Memorial Highway.</p><br>
<p>The summit boasts an outstanding view of the southwest side of Shasta and Shastina, and on clear days Mount McLoughlin is easily visible 70 mi to the north in Oregon.</p><br>
<p>Balambangan Island  is an island in Kudat Division, Sabah, Malaysia. It is located off the northern tip of Borneo and is situated just about 3 kilometres west of Banggi Island. It is now part of the gazetted area of Tun Mustapha Marine Park.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>This island was one of the first locations in what is now Malaysia where British traders set up a trading post. At the time, the British referred to it as Felicia Island. In 1761, British East India Company officer Alexander Dalrymple concluded an agreement with the Sultan of Sulu to allow him occupation of the island. A free port was then established here which was of importance for the interest of Britain in the east Asia region, namely, trade with China. The port however failed to become a long term success due to constant pirate attacks as well as for other reasons and the British left in 1805.</p><br>
<p>In December 1805, five members of the ill-fated crew of shipwrecked schooner Betsey made it off Balambangan Island in a small boat despite being attacked by eleven natives; however, one sailor died in the boat due to his injuries.</p><br>
<p>The Waybury Inn is an inn at 457 East Main Street in Middlebury, Vermont, United States. The inn was built in 1810, and is one of the oldest operating traveler&#39;s accommodations in the state. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. It is well known for its use in exterior shots of the Newhart television series.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The Waybury Inn is located on the north side of East Main Street (Vermont Route 125), near the eastern end of East Middlebury village. It is set near the westernmost end of one of the major routes across the Green Mountains in central Vermont. It consists of a 2-1/2 story gable-roofed main block, from which a two-story block extends to the rear. A single-story porch, covered by a hip roof, extends across the front and around to one side. The interior is arranged in a central hall plan, with large rooms, extending the full depth of the main block, on either side of the main staircase.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The inn was built in 1810 by John Foot (or Foote). The pass to the east had opened as a toll road (turnpike) in 1808, and Foot sought to capitalize on the traffic it would bring. However, the turnpike never brought a high volume of traffic, and efforts to develop a glassworks in the village also cramped growth in the area. Moderate growth in the village by 1850 prompted its second proprietor, Royal Farr, to expand the premises in 1867 by adding the ell to the rear. This included a ballroom, and far added other amenities to make the inn a local site for social events. The inn was variously known as the Glen House and Green Mountain House before being given its present name in the 20th century. The only period of time in which the inn was closed was during World War II.</p><br>
<p>The inn maintains a tradition in which, in room 9, there is an antique desk with a secret drawer. Following the lead of a couple who found the drawer in 1987, guests often put notes in the drawer.</p><br>
<p>The Waybury Inn was also used as a location for exterior shots on the Bob Newhart television series, Newhart, from 1982 to 1990. Featured as the Stratford Inn, the Waybury Inn was painted white for the show. After the show went off the air in 1990, the inn was repainted green to match the nearby Green Mountains.</p><br>
<p>Dabajian Mountain  is located in the northern section of the Shei-Pa National Park in Hsinchu County, Taiwan. It is surrounded by numerous other peaks, the most predominant including Mount Nanhuda, Mount Yize, Central Range Point, Mt. Pintian, and Mt. Mutule. It is also near the Madala River.</p><br>
<h2>Terrain</h2><br>
<p>The first half of Dabajian Mountain is a medium grade hill with about a 35° incline. The top half is an almost straight up rock face. The mountain&#39;s steep grade and unique features were mainly formed by wind. The mountain is composed mainly of greywacke.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>Dabajian Mountain is known for its steep grade, beautiful surroundings, and rugged terrain, making it a popular rock climbing mountain. There are many companies in the area that offer rock climbing tours to the mountain. The Atayal and Saisiyat people, which are two groups of Taiwanese aborigines, believe that this mountain is their holy mountain.</p><br>
<p>Tourists are recommended to visit in the spring and summer because of the beautiful weather in the mountain. When there is snow on the mountain, it can become extremely hazardous to hike.</p><br>
<p>Łysa Góra  is a well-known hill in Świętokrzyskie Mountains, Poland. With a height of 595 metres , it is the second highest point in that range . On its slopes and atop its summit are several hiking trails, the ruins of a pagan wall from 9th century, the Benedictine monastery Święty Krzyż from the 11th century , and a Święty Krzyż TV Tower. The mountain also features prominently in a local legend about witches&#39; sabbaths.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>Łysa Góra, composed primarily of quartzite and Cambrian slates, lies in the eastern part of the Łysogóry range, and is the second largest peak of the larger Świętokrzyskie Mountains (after Łysica). A notable summit within the Świętokrzyski National Park, it is a vital point in many sightseeing trails of the region. The blue path to Pętkowice begins here, and the red path from Gołoszyce to Kuźniaki passes through here.</p><br>
<h2>Notable landmarks</h2><br>
<p>During the times of prehistory of Poland, Łysa Góra was likely a sacred mountain and a site of a pagan-cult temple of three gods, mentioned in the Annals of Jan Długosz. There are remains of a quartzite U-shaped wall surrounding the higher part of the hill, with length of about 1.5 km and height of 2m from 8th-10th centuries. The temple was abandoned after the baptism of Poland. The legend about witches&#39; sabbaths is likely related to the old cult.</p><br>
<p>On the site of the pagan temple the Benedictine monastery of Holy Cross (Święty Krzyż) was founded (according to a legend, in 1006, by king of Poland, Bolesław Chrobry, but most sources give the 11th century). The monastery was named after a fragment from Christ&#39; Cross which was supposedly enshrined there, and was a site of frequent pilgrimages. The monastery was destroyed and rebuilt several times throughout its history, with the most significant destruction taking place in the 19th and 20th centuries. After partitions of Poland, the Russian Empire took over the building in 1819 and converted it into a prison. Partially restored during the interwar period after Poland regained independence, it was taken over by the Nazi Germany and used as a prison and execution site of Soviet prisoners of war (about 6000 perished here). Afterwards, the Polish communist government transferred the building to the Świętokrzyski National Park, which renovated parts of them. Currently the National Park has a museum in some of the former buildings, while a part has been taken over by another religious institute (Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate). The abbey, although now past its Golden Age, has given its names to the Świętokrzyskie Mountains range as well as the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship itself. The abbey also holds some mummified bodies; one of them is rumored (but not confirmed) to belong to Prince Jeremi Wiśniowiecki.</p><br>
<p>Another notable building found on the hill is the Święty Krzyż TV Tower; the tallest free-standing TV tower in Poland. Built in 1966, it is a 157 metre tall concrete tower.</p><br>
<p>The Soviet prisoners executed by the Nazis are buried in a mass grave near the peak. At the bottom of the hill, there is a monument to Poles who died in the Katyn massacre.</p><br>
<p>Pinakates  is a mountain village in the Magnesia regional unit, Greece. It is part of the municipal unit of Milies.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Pinakates is on the southwestern slopes of the Pelion mountain range. It is 3 km west of Milies, 3 km east of Agios Georgios Nileias, 3 km north of Kala Nera (on the Pagasetic Gulf coast) and 15 km east of Volos.</p><br>
<h2>Population</h2><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The village of Pinakates is first mentioned in the Modern Geography of Greece (Γεωγραφία Νεωτερική περί της Ελλάδο=Geografia Neoteriki peri tis Ellados) by Daniil Filippidis and Grigoriou Konstantas (Vienna 1791). At that time, the village comprised about 100 houses, but surely it was built much earlier.</p><br>
<p>In 1828, the village had 1,000 inhabitants. In 1860, the village counted 160 families and 800 residents. Pinakates joined the rest of Greece when Thessaly was liberated in 1881. In the early 20th century, a school with 56 students was opened. One of the main benefactors of this school was a business man from Pinakates, Ioannis G. Sarafopoulos. The main industry in Pinakates became the production of wine and oil. Also the culture of olives boosted the village&#39;s economy. Money from Greeks living in Egypt contributed to the development of the village.</p><br>
<p>Pinakates is considered to be one of the best preserved of the 24 villages in Pilion and therefore became a category 1-protected landmark. The village was so well preserved because until recently it was only accessible via one road which ends in the center of the village. All other roads could only be used on foot or by mule. The isolated position on the mountain side kept the village well preserved, but also almost caused its downfall. During the last decade of the previous century only five families lived in Pinakates during wintertime. Currently it counts about 150 people, although on the voting registers some 350 names are listed. However, a lot of them have moved to neighbouring villages. Due to the limited number of children in the village it no longer has a school.</p><br>
<p>Marathia  is a village and community in southwestern Evrytania, Greece. It is located near the town of Fragkista. An independent community since 1912, it became part of the municipality of Fragkista in 1997. The population of the community at the 2011 census was 91 inhabitants. In the summer it grows to almost 500 people. The village is separated into "neighborhoods". The most Northern village is called Amiriani. The central area, also the largest, simply called Meseo or central Marathia. The next part is Kato Marathia, which is a ghost town. The next and most southern part is Parkio. There is also a small isolated section known as Voilada.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Marathia used to be a relatively large village that composed of over 600-800 families. It was originally inhabited by several Byzantine monasteries. The most prominent was the monastery of the Holy Trinity. It also maintains over ten churches with the largest being the church of Saint Athanasios in central Marathia. The northern part of Marathias, Amiriani, received its name during the Ottoman occupation of Greece. In the 18th century massive revolts took place against the Ottomans. In response the Ottomans placed a small battalion in Amergiani which was led by a soldier named Giannis. He was a rank of Amer in the Ottoman Empire, thus the name Amiriani. During this time the village saw several revolts which burned the village several times before the Greek War of Independence. In the 1950s, a major earthquake struck Evrytania which devastated the area. The neighborhood Kato Maxalas was heavily hit. This resulted in the neighborhood being abandoned as they relocated to Parkio. Prior to this in the late 1940s, vast amounts of the population emigrated to major cities as a result of the Greek Civil War, in which much of the village was occupied by the Communist. The 1960s saw a large exodus of the population to other areas of Greece, mainly Karpenisi, Agrinio, Lamia, and Athens. A large percentage moved to Canada, Australia and the United States mainly in the states of the Eastern Seaboard: New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and the central areas of North Carolina, in the cities of Winton-Salem, Charlotte and Burlington.</p><br>
