<p>Lake Poopó  was a large saline lake located in a shallow depression in the Altiplano Mountains in Oruro Department, Bolivia, at an altitude of approximately. Because the lake was long and wide, it made up the eastern half of the department, known as a mining region in southwest Bolivia. The permanent part of the lake body covered approximately 1,000 km&sup2; and it was the second-largest lake in the country. The lake received most of its water from the Desaguadero River, which flows from Lake Titicaca at the north end of the Altiplano. Since the lake lacked any major outlet and had a mean depth of less than, the surface area differed greatly on a seasonal basis.</p><br>
<p>In 2002 the lake was designated as a site for conservation under the Ramsar Convention.11 July 2002 By December 2015, the lake had completely dried up, leaving only a few marshy areas. Although the lake has dried up completely a couple of times in the past, it does not appear that it will recover this time. Suggested causes of the decline are the melting of the Andes glaciers and loss of their waters, because of a drought due to climate change, as well as continued diversion of water for mining and agriculture.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeological evidence</h2><br>
<p>Archaeological investigations conducted by the San Andrés University of La Paz, Bolivia, shows the influence of the Wankarani culture in the Poopó area. Complex central urban areas, such as villages and towns, were developed that expanded into the Poopó basin during the Late Formative period, (200 BCE – 200 CE), probably in conjunction with changing patterns of agriculture. Herders and the life style of llama caravan merchants coexisted with more sedentary farmers in a harmonious system of exchange of goods and services.</p><br>
<p>Other investigators examining the following period, the Early Regional Developments ( 300 – 900 CE), have concluded that the size of the inhabited areas increased. The South Poopó inhabitants developed a unique style of ceramics style with triangular spirals. The east portion of the lake has evidence of an important Tiwanaku enclave, with ceramic styles from the core Titicaca area and surrounding styles, demonstrating the interactions between different peoples in the area.</p><br>
<h2>Lake dynamics</h2><br>
<p>The main inlet of Lake Poopó (roughly 92% of the water) comes from the Desaguadero River, which enters the lake at the north end. It flows south from Lake Titicaca. There are numerous smaller inlets along the eastern shore of the lake, many of which are dry most of the year. At times of very high water levels, Poopó was connected to the salt desert Salar de Coipasa in the west. A minor outlet leads to Salar de Uyuni in the far south of the Altiplano, but as the lake lacks any major outlet, it is classified as an endorheic basin.</p><br>
<p>When the water level of Lake Titicaca drops below, the flow of Desaguadero River is so low it can no longer compensate for the massive water losses due to evaporation from the surface of Lake Poopó. At this point, the lake volume begins to decrease. At its maximum in 1986, the lake had an area of. During the years that followed, the surface area steadily decreased until 1994, when the lake disappeared completely. The time period between 1975 and 1992 is the longest period in recent times when the lake had a continuous water body. Renewed rainfalls in the mid 90s revitalized the lake again.</p><br>
<p>Action has been taken in order to make the area ecologically sustainable again, with the help of funding from the European Union. But the efforts have not been unable to offset other changes: since 1995 regional temperatures have risen and consequently tripled the evaporation rates. In addition, water was drawn off for mining and irrigation, compounding the problems. On 20 January 2016 the area was declared a disaster zone by the Bolivian government.</p><br>
<h3>Salinity and geology</h3><br>
<p>The water of Lake Poopó is highly saline. The salinity is a result of the endorheic nature of the hydrological system on the Altiplano, which allows all weathered ions to remain in the system. The salinity of Lake Poopó is further increased by the arid climate and the high evaporation from the lake surface.</p><br>
<p>In the northern end of Lake Poopó, dilution of the salinity occurs due to freshwater flow from the Desaguadero River. The salt gradient of the water increases towards the south.</p><br>
<p>The salinity varies with water volume. During October and November 2006, the salinity in the north end of the lake varied between brackish and saline (15–30,000 mg/l). In the south end of the lake the water was classified as a brine (105,000–125,000 mg/l). The water type is a 4–2 Na-(Mg)-Cl-(SO4).</p><br>
<p>Geological sources of sodium chloride (NaCl), such as halite and feldspars, are present in the drainage area. These could also contribute to the salinity of Lake Poopó. The lake body is situated on top of Cenozoic deposits, consisting mainly of unconsolidated material. These sediments are the remains of extensive prehistoric lakes, which covered the Altiplano during at least five glaciation periods.</p><br>
<h3>Mining and heavy metals</h3><br>
<p>There is a long tradition of mining in the Poopó Basin. Extraction of metals was ordered in the 13th century to support the Inca army. After Spanish colonization in the 16th century, the mining operations increased in scale. At this point the region became known as one of the mining centres of Bolivia.</p><br>
<p>The mining districts are situated at the foothills of the Cordillera Oriental along the eastern border of the Poopó basin. The most important minerals to the economy are silver and tin.</p><br>
<p>Studies have shown elevated concentrations of heavy metals in surface and ground waters of the Poopó basin. These metals are naturally present in the bedrock, from which they are released through weathering processes. The mining activities in the area further contributes to the heavy metal pollution. Acid leaching from mines and mechanical processing of ore speed up the process.</p><br>
<p>The major part of the heavy metals transported to Lake Poopó seem to be immobilized in the bottom sediments. But concentrations of arsenic, lead, and cadmium in the lake water exceed Bolivian and World Health Organization guideline values for drinking water.</p><br>
<h2>Flora and fauna</h2><br>
<p>Three to four native fish species inhabited the lake: the mauri (a Trichomycterus catfish), and the carache and ispi (Orestias spp.). Two exotic fish species were introduced in the 20th century; the rainbow trout (trucha) in 1942 and the silversides Odontesthes bonariensis (pejerrey) in 1955. These bigger fish are now the most commercially important species. The lake had relatively large fish population, although it declined during the years of low water when the salinity was high.</p><br>
<p>The aquatic bird life was highly diverse, with a total of 34 species. Most famous are the three species of flamingo (Andean, James&#39;s and Chilean), which mainly lived in the shallow lagoons in the northern and eastern parts of the lake. An inventory of the bird population, made in 2000 in cooperation with BirdLife International, identified 6 threatened species and others that are near-threatened. Among these are the Andean flamingo and the Andean condor.</p><br>
<p>A total of 17 superior plants and 3 species of alga were identified in and around Lake Poopó. Due to the constant drought and flooding, the littoral zone experiences great disturbances. As a result, there was hardly any vegetation to be found on the shores of the lake.</p><br>
<h2>Effects of the loss of the lake</h2><br>
<p>The sparse communities nearby have suffered financially due to the local economy being dependent on lake fishing. Moreover, many bird species native to Bolivia and the internationally have been impacted on due to loss of food, and an annual migration area.</p><br>
<p>Lookout Mountain is a mountain ridge located at the northwest corner of the USA state of Georgia, the northeast corner of Alabama, and along the Tennessee state line in Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain was the scene of the "Last Battle of the Cherokees" during the Nickajack Expedition, which took place in the 18th century, as well as the November 24, 1863 Battle of Lookout Mountain during the American Civil War.</p><br>
<h2>Name</h2><br>
<p>The name Lookout Mountain is said to have come from General Andrew Jackson&#39;s troops, but more likely comes from the Cherokee term for "two mountains looking at each other".</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<h3>Northern and eastern slopes and summit</h3><br>
<p>Lookout Mountain and Sand Mountain (to the southwest) make up a large portion of the southernmost end of the Cumberland Plateau. The area was lifted from an ancient sea, and worn down by erosion for millions of years. The summit, called "High Point", is located just east of Thompsonville in Walker County, Georgia, with an elevation of 2,392 ft above sea level. The foothills of the mountain extend into Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.</p><br>
<p>The caves of Ruby Falls are in Lookout Mountain, and the rock formations of the "City of Rocks" (or Rock City) attraction are situated on the ridge.</p><br>
<p>The area is home to the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway, Covenant College, and a hang-gliding school. Lookout Mountain is one of the Chattanooga areas most visited tourist attractions. Civil War-related landmarks include "Point Park", operated by the National Park Service, and the Cravens House. Nearby are Georgias Cloudland Canyon and Cloudland Canyon State Park.</p><br>
<h3>Southern and western slopes</h3><br>
<p>The southwestern section of Lookout Mountain is in Alabama. The Little River, in Little River Canyon on the mountain, is the only river that begins and ends entirely on top of a mountain. The river flows over the DeSoto Falls in DeSoto State Park. The Noccalula Falls Park, featuring a pioneer village showcasing several nineteenth-century homes, is located at the southern terminus of Lookout Mountain, near Gadsden, Alabama. Local legend claims that the 90-foot falls&#39; namesake, Noccalula, jumped to her death because she could not marry the man she loved.</p><br>
<p>White water sports and rock-climbing (offering views of the Coosa River Basin) are this area&#39;s key attractions.</p><br>
<h3>Seven states</h3><br>
<p>From the "Rock City" point, a marker claims that seven USA states could be seen: Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. The claim is repeated on numerous barn roofs in the surrounding area. No scientific investigation has upheld this claim.</p><br>
<h3>Sunset Rock</h3><br>
<p>Located on the northwest side of Lookout Mountain, Sunset Rock is a popular trailhead and tourist stop. It is part of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga Military State Park, the largest and oldest Civil War national park. Once known as Point Lookout, Sunset Rock provides a view of the Tennessee River, Signal Mountain and Prentice Cooper State Forest. The 100-foot cliff and moderate temperatures invite heavy traffic for its many climbing routes, which were completed in 1960. Sunset Rock is mainly sandstone; making for easier routing and climbing. Route development continued through the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s, routers pushed the grades ever higher. Climbing here is especially popular in the autumn months due to cooler weather.</p><br>
<p>Sunset Rock is attractive to Civil War enthusiasts due to its history; it has a Tennessee Historical Commission Marker at the head of the trail, describing its Civil War battle history. Confederate Generals Braxton Bragg and James Longstreet used Sunset Rock as a lookout in 1863 where they were able to track the movement of the Union troops as they entered Lookout Valley. It is claimed that unknown to Longstreet, the Union troops could see him on Sunset Rock from the valley, where they were able to decipher the Confederate code, giving them the ability to anticipate the next moves of the Confederates. This resulted in the Battle of Wauhatchie, in which the Confederate army attempted to remove the Union forces from the river and block their supply lines. The attempt was unsuccessful; with the consequence that the Union forces were able to lay siege to Chattanooga.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Native Americans and Lookout Mountain</h3><br>
<p>A branch of Cherokee Native Americans lived in Chattanooga, the Chickamauga people. The Chickamauga called the mountain Chat-a-nu-ga; hence the name of the city. Research suggests the mountain was inhabited, although no physical evidence has been found. On top of the mountain, the pattern of boulders suggest lanes or walls were once there.</p><br>
<h3>Revolutionary War and aftermath</h3><br>
<p>Legend has it that during the Revolutionary War, a battle, between the forces of John Sevier and those of Chief Dragging Canoe of the Chickamauga Cherokee, took place on Lookout Mountain. Archaeologist and ethno-historian, Raymond Evans, has asserted that such a battle could not have taken place. However, a battle between Sevier&#39;s militia forces from the State of Franklin and those of Dragging Canoe did occur there in August 1788.</p><br>
<h3>Settlements</h3><br>
<p>It was reported that on August 28, 1823, Daniel S. Butrick and William Chamberlain arrived at Lookout Mountain to perform missionary work with Native Americans. After the Trail of Tears, land taken from the tribes was purchased by the highest bidder without a lottery of land parcels. This method of distributing land caused much of Lookout Mountain to be owned by a few wealthy Chattanooga families.</p><br>
<p>The aptly named Summertown, located on top of the mountain, was barely accessible from a small rutted turnpike which had been built in 1852 by Colonel James A. Whiteside. Whiteside, a native of Danville, Kentucky, owned a summer home which he converted into a hotel with several cottages. Naturalists who came to the area and visited the summit, such as Bradford Torrey, thought the cottages spoiled the environment and made it look like a cheap resort. Whiteside had purchased much of the land on the mountain’s summit. Another wealthy Chattanoogan, Robert Cravens, had purchased most of the land on the side of the mountain. Cravens was also instrumental in developing the area, and moved into the house he built (the Cravens House) in 1855. Within a few years, about 25 families regularly summered on the mountain.</p><br>
<p>Lookout Mountain&#39;s Sunset Rock was once the home to the photo shop of JB Linn. After the Union forces under Major General Joseph Hooker took over the mountain, Linn gained access to Sunset Rock (then called Point Lookout). He built a small shack there and named it "Gallery Point Lookout". In December 1863, he and his brother began taking photographs of many war commanders and officers, as well as wealthy civilians in the area. They became very successful with these pictures. The Gallery Point Lookout House is no longer in existence, but many of Linn’s photographs still exist.</p><br>
<h3>Civil War</h3><br>
<p>On November 24, 1863, the Battle of Lookout Mountain was fought on the slopes of the mountain. The majority of hand-to-hand combat took place near Cravens&#39; house (about halfway to the summit). Lookout Mountain’s shape and location can in some conditions cause a unique weather phenomenon in the area: after dawn, fog will sometimes descend from the cooler mountaintop and stop about halfway down. Such an event took place the day of the battle and is the reason for its romanticized name, the "Battle Above the Clouds." The battle was won by Union forces, enabling them to lift the Confederate siege of Chattanooga.</p><br>
<h3>Post Civil War</h3><br>
<h4>Yellow Fever Epidemic</h4><br>
<p>When cases of Yellow fever began to increase in the United States, the Chattanooga population believed that the city was immune to any possibility of an epidemic because of its mountain climate. In 1878, the death of two individuals from the disease encouraged a widespread panic, causing an estimated 12,000 individuals to leave the city. A large percentage of this group went up the mountain, believing the climate would offer some protection against the disease. After the epidemic passed, many people complained about the inconvenient and complicated travel up the mountain, and the St. Elmo Turnpike (Ochs Highway) was created to help with access to the mountain. Early in the 1900s, Lookout Mountain was incorporated as a town.</p><br>
<h4>Twentieth century tourist boom</h4><br>
<p>Entrepreneurs began marketing their own attractions in the 1910s and 1920s. Instead of serving just as a resort area for the wealthy, rich businessmen settled permanently on the mountain. Garnet Carter, J. B. Pound, O. B. Andrews, and Leo Lambert were a few of the more successful entrepreneurs who created their own attractions. Instead of making their money off of the tourists room, board, or transportation, the areas natural attractions were enhanced. Sites that had long been popular (such as the &#39;City of Rocks", Lookout Mountain Cave –closed to the public since 1935– and the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway), were bought, “highly developed”, and marketed. The popular Ruby Falls Cavern has been a tourism mainstay for 80 years.</p><br>
<p>Today, tourist attractions include:</p><br>
<p>Rock City- has multiple different events that occur over the course of the year and rock trails. These rock trails include Lovers Leap, Balanced Rock and Fat Mans Squeeze.</p><br>
<p>Battle of Chattanooga Museum- The Museum offers insight of the Battle of Lookout Mountain through soldier figurines and topographical maps.</p><br>
<p>Ruby Falls—view the waterfall from inside the mountain and Lookout Mountain Cave.</p><br>
<p>Incline Railway—a National Historic site; the incline is 72.7%</p><br>
<p>Fairyland Caverns—underground cave which displays fairy-tale creatures and a castle.</p><br>
<p>Minnehaha Park is a city park in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, and home to Minnehaha Falls and the lower reaches of Minnehaha Creek. Minnehaha Park lies within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park Service. The park was designed by landscape architect Horace W.S. Cleveland in 1883 as part of the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway system, and was part of the popular steamboat Upper Mississippi River "Fashionable Tour" in the 1800s.</p><br>
<p>The park preserves historic sites that illustrate transportation, pioneering, and architectural themes. Preserved structures include the Minnehaha Princess Station, a Victorian train depot built in the 1870s; the John H. Stevens House, built in 1849 and moved to the park from its original location in 1896, utilizing horses and 10,000 school children; and the Longfellow House, a house built to resemble the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow&#39;s house in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 as the Minnehaha Historic District</p><br>
<p>The central feature of the park, Minnehaha Falls, was a favorite subject of pioneer photographers, beginning with Alexander Heslers daguerreotype in 1852. Although he never visited the park, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow helped to spread the waterfalls fame when he wrote his celebrated poem, The Song of Hiawatha. The falls are located on Minnehaha Creek near the creek&#39;s confluence with the Mississippi River, near Fort Snelling. The main Minnesota Veterans Home is located on a bluff where the Mississippi and Minnehaha Creek converge. More than 850,000 people visit Minnehaha Falls each year, and it continues to be the most photographed site in Minnesota.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Settlement in the area began in 1805 when the US Army bought a nine-square-mile tract of land at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota River from the native Sioux. Sited on the bluff overlooking the rivers, Fort Snelling was built under the command of Colonel Josiah Snelling between 1820 and 1824. In 1821 Snelling&#39;s son, William Joseph Snelling came to the fort after leaving West Point and spending a year with friendly Sioux. According to a Minnesota history account written in 1858, "The year after he came to the fort young Snelling set out in company with Joseph R. Brown, a frontiersman and local celebrity, to explore the rivulet that supplies the cascade of Minne Ha-Ha, as far as Lake Minne Tonka." Both "men" were 17-year-old boys at the time.</p><br>
<p>Some very early records refer to the falls as "Browns Falls" which lead some historians to assume they were named after prominent pioneer Joseph R. Brown. Park Ranger Kathy Swenson, writing for the National Park Service in 2009 states: "The overwhelming evidence points to Brown’s Falls (and creek) being named for Jacob Brown, major general and commander in chief of the army from 1814 – 1828 rather than for Joseph R. Brown, teenage musician at Fort Snelling and later army sergeant (1820–1828), fur trader, politician, editor, and inventor. However, I have not yet found a document that officially or specifically mentions Jacob Brown as the namesake." Swenson explains "Browns Fall/Creek&#39; seems to be most associated with military maps and personnel while</p><br>
<p>Little Falls/Creek seems to be favored by those without a strong military connection although there are exceptions."</p><br>
<h3>The Song of Hiawatha brings fame</h3><br>
<p>The name "Minnehaha Falls" was in common use by 1855, when the publication of The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow brought the falls worldwide fame. Longfellows epic poem features Hiawatha, a Native American hero who falls in love with Minnehaha, a Native American woman who later dies during a severe winter. Longfellow never visited the falls himself. He was inspired by the writings of Mary H. Eastman and Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, and by a daguerreotype created by Alexander Hesler when he chose the name for Hiawathas lover. The image was taken in 1852, according to a letter written by Hesler, as discussed in "Minnesota History" magazine.</p><br>
<h3>The "Fashionable Tour"</h3><br>
<p>Beginning in 1828, steamboats began to travel the Mississippi River as far north as St. Paul, the upper limit of commercial navigation on the Mississippi, until two dams and a series of locks were built between 1948 and 1963. The steamboat journey began to attract the attention of tourists, and in 1835 well known artist of American Indian life George Catlin made a trip by steamboat up the Mississippi from St. Louis to the Falls of St. Anthony and Fort Snelling. Impressed with the scenery, Catlin proposed a "Fashionable Tour" of the upper Mississippi, saying:</p><br>
<p>This Tour would comprehend but a small part of the great "Far West&quot but it will furnish to the traveller a fair sample, and being apart of it which is now made so easily accessible to the world, and the only part of it to which ladies can have access, I would recommend to all who have time and inclination to devote to the enjoyment of so splendid a Tour, to wait not, but make it while the subject is new, and capable of producing the greatest degree of pleasure.</p><br>
<p>Following Catlins visit, each ensuing year saw an increasing number of sightseerers, artists, and photographers. Hundreds of Stereoscopic View cards of the falls exist. The visitors were mainly men but a few women took the journey, most notably 80-year-old Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, the widow of Alexander Hamilton. The beauty of the area was also spread through moving panoramas, artistic panoramic creations that were shown much like todays travel documentaries. Quoting from a 1939 paper written by the Minnesota Historical Society:</p><br>
<p>Crowds of people went to see these travel movies of the 1840s and 1850s and thus toured the great river vicariously. The throngs that wished to view Banvard&#39;s panorama were so great when it was displayed in Boston and New York that railroads ran special excursions to accommodate them. In these two cities alone more than four hundred thousand people saw the exhibition. "The river comes to me instead of my going to the river," wrote Longfellow. Whittier, after seeing a panorama, sang of the "new Canaan of our Israel," and Thoreau, who not only viewed a panorama but also made the tour itself, envisaged a coming heroic age in which simple and obscure men, the real heroes of history, would build the foundations of new castles n the West and throw bridges across a "Rhine stream of a different kind."</p><br>
<p>Minnehaha Falls ~ from 1878 Minnesota guide to summer resorts</p><br>
<p>According to an account written in 1852, passengers disembarked St. Paul and " stagecoach for what was called the grand tour. It consisted of a drive from St. Paul to St. Anthony, then out to Lakes Harriet and Calhoun, thence to the Minnehaha Falls and Fort Snelling, and by the Spring Cave to St. Paul, arriving in time for the visitors, if in haste, to return with the boat down the river."</p><br>
<p>By the late 1860s the railroads had extended their rails to Minneapolis/St. Paul and they began to actively advertise Minnesota as a tourist destination. The 1878 Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railway promotional booklet, A Guide to the Summer Resorts of Minnesota, told of the delights and health benefits of travel to Minnesota: "The scenery is unequaled and the invigorating air is so rich in oxygen and ozone that it is unsurpassed anywhere in the world and is sure to offer to the tourist and the invalid a hearty welcome, confident that the one will surely find rest and enjoyment, and the other that much coveted of earthly blessings — health." The booklet describes the coach ride from Minneapolis to Minnehaha Falls: "One of the famous trips that few tourists miss taking is that from Minneapolis to St. Paul by carriage. Starting from the former place on the west side of the river, a pleasant drive of four miles over a level prairie, brings the traveler to Where the Falls of Minnehaha Flash and gleam among the oak trees. Laugh and leap into the valley.</p><br>
<p>The round trip fare from St. Louis to Minneapolis was $30 and it featured Pullman sleeping cars. The booklet lists the population of Minneapolis as 40,000 at that time.</p><br>
<h3>Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway</h3><br>
<p>Fortunately for the generations to come, in 1883 the state legislature created the Minneapolis Board of Park Commissioners. The board began by acquiring park land near today&#39;s downtown Minneapolis. Their choice to hire noted landscape architect Horace Cleveland was fortunate. Clevland was hired by the Board to design a system of parks and interconnected parkways to connect and preserve the existing natural landscape. Cleveland was a preservationist by nature, respecting the natural landscape features and using the existing topography and vegetation to keep his designs as natural as possible. When the park board considered building a photographic stand in the lower glen near the falls in 1889, he responded saying:</p><br>
<p>"I learn that the park commission are seriously thinking of a building at Minnehaha for the express purpose of taking photographs—on the site heretofore profaned by a shanty for that purpose. I cannot remain silent in view of this proposed vandalism which I am sure you cannot sanction—and which I am equally sure will forever be a stigma upon Minneapolis and elicit the anathema of every man of sense and taste who visits the place. If erected it will simply be pandering to the tastes of the army of boobies who think to boost themselves into notoriety by connecting their own stupid features with the representation of one of the most beautiful of God’s works.”</p><br>
<p>The result of Cleveland&#39;s vision is the famous "Grand Rounds", an interconnected series of parkways and parks centered on the Mississippi River. This vision was expanded by subsequent park commissioners and superintendents to encircle a series of lakes, now known as the "Chain of Lakes", and to follow Minnehaha Creek to Minnehaha Falls. The area was designated as a National Scenic Byway in 1998, and the Minneapolis Grand Rounds is known today as one of the best urban park systems in the world.</p><br>
<h3>Acquisition and development</h3><br>
<p>When Minneapolis&#39; Park Board purchased Minnehaha Falls and surrounding land in 1889, it became one of the first state parks in the United States; only New York had created a state park by that time. The next summer the Park Board began to furnish the park with tables, seating, and lavatories. By 1893 a pavilion had been built and the park approved funding for two bridges "of a rustic nature", one above the falls and the other below. A refectory was built in 1905 to serve "refreshments of a clean and wholesome nature at a reasonable cost." In 1926 the park board designated the park to be a center for winter sports activities; plans were made to build a ski jump and the board purchased toboggans for rental. Major improvements including retaining walls, bridges, and stairs were made by federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) crews from 1936 to 1942.</p><br>
<p>While on the campaign trail in 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson and Minnesota Senator Hubert H. Humphrey visited the park. Johnson would go on to win the presidential election that year with Humphrey as his running mate. Their visit is commemorated with a plaque which reads: President Lyndon B. Johnson, Senator Hubert H. Humphrey and Governor Karl Rolvaag enjoy the spray from Minnehaha Falls. On that day, however, Minneapolis was experiencing a drought. In order to create the beautiful spray of the falls pictured here the city had to open many fire hydrants upstream and out of sight, to feed water to the creek."</p><br>
<p>The park saw conflict in the 1960s when the highway department planned an elevated freeway between Minnehaha Park and Longfellow Gardens over Minnehaha Creek. The park board challenged the plan and brought the case to the USA Supreme Court. Fortunately for the park a similar case was decided in favor of the preservation of park land, thus setting a precedent, and the elevated freeway was never built. Eventually a highway was built in the late 1990s that routed the road through a tunnel over the creek and covered by a "land bridge". A new garden, the Longfellow Garden, was established on top of the land bridge.</p><br>
<p>Major improvements were also made in the 1990s. The Pergola Garden was created to feature native wildflowers and grasses. The parking lot that once overlooked the falls was removed, replaced by a garden and a low circular wall inscribed with Longfellows words. The old refectory was given a veranda and a bandshell was added. In 2007 a new river overlook was built in the Wabun picnic area and included a childrens playground.</p><br>
<p>In 2011 major restoration work on the park was completed. The crumbling historic retaining walls built by the WPA in the 1930s were reinforced, eroded stream banks were restored, natural seating areas made of limestone were added, and trails and paths were improved. Landscape improvements were also done: invasive plants were removed and replaced with native plantings with deeper roots to stabilize the stream banks and prevent erosion.</p><br>
<p>More than 850,000 people visit Minnehaha Falls each year, and it continues to be the most photographed site in Minnesota.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Minnehaha Park is situated on the banks of the Mississippi River within the Minnehaha Historic District. Located between Hiawatha Avenue and the Minnehaha Parkway, the park includes Minnehaha Creek with its falls and glen. The 167-acre park is divided into two main portions: an upper section above the falls, with grassy open areas like many other city parks, and the lower 54-acre section which is for the most part allowed to maintain its natural state. The creek runs through the upper section and after it drops at the falls, it flows through the lower glen for another three-fourths of a mile.</p><br>
<p>Minnehaha Park is a popular site for weddings and cultural festivities. Minnesota is well known for its large population of Swedish immigrants. Since 1934 Swedes have celebrated Svenskarnas Dag (Swedish Heritage Day) at the park in June of each year. The park has a bandstand with free music concerts in the summer. Bicyclists use miles of off-street trails, including the former Milwaukee Road right-of-way, which leads to Fort Snelling State Park. Bikes are available for rent, and there is an off-leash dog park area. Also located within the park are reservable outdoor picnic sites, and picnic shelters for groups, as well as playgrounds and a summer wading pool for children. The falls freeze in the winter, making the park a popular year-round attraction.</p><br>
<p>At one time the park also featured a zoo and pony rides. In 1893 the Park Board gave permission for a Shetland pony concession and also began to accept gifts of animals for a zoo in the park. The zoo grew in size, and by 1899 a bear pit and an alligator tank had been added. Although very popular, when Theodore Wirth became the new park superintendent in 1906, the zoo was removed at his urging. The animals were donated to Longfellow Gardens, but a fenced area containing deer and elk remained until 1923. To this day the area is sometimes referred to as "the deer pen".</p><br>
<p>Between the 1930s and the 1950s there was also an "Auto Tourist Camp" where large numbers of tourists tented or stayed in small cabins. A park historian states that in those years "the camp was intended to appeal to the many tourists who were traveling the country in their new</p><br>
<p>automobiles". At one time there were several grist mills located on Minnehaha Creek. The remains of a stone and earth mill dam, built in the lower glen in 1853 or 1854, is still visible beside the creek.</p><br>
<p>Gardens in the upper park area include Longfellow Gardens, Minnehaha Falls Pergola Garden, and the Song of Hiawatha Garden. The lower glen area offers examples of a surprisingly large number of trees that are native to Minnesota including basswood, black ash, maples, oaks, willows, and cottonwoods. Unusual plants include the first spring-blooming plant, skunk cabbage, often blooming so early that temperatures are still freezing and snow may still be on the ground. As the name implies, they have a disagreeable odor except to the various insects that prefer to feed on rotting flesh or dung. By consuming carbohydrates stored in its fleshy roots, skunk cabbages can maintain a temperature inside the spathe that is 15–35 degrees warmer than the surrounding air temperature. The warmth helps attract cold-blooded, early-emerging pollinating insects during early spring when temperatures are still chilly. As the spathe dies back the large, showy leaves emerge which die back by mid-August, making the plant difficult to find in late summer. Other wild flowers include wild ginger, trout lilies, anemones, marsh marigold and various ferns and sedges. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is working to remove invasive species that have been introduced into the park in order to promote a healthy environment so that native species may survive and grow.</p><br>
<p>The central feature of the park, Minnehaha Falls, lies several thousand feet upstream from its original mouth where it emptied into the Mississippi River 10,000 years ago at the end of the last Great Ice Age. Erosion below the falls has exposed Minnesota&#39;s geologic past from the present day back to over 450 million years ago, when Minnesota was covered with shallow seas.</p><br>
<p>Statues in the park include a bronze statue of Hiawatha carrying Minnehaha created by Jacob Fjelde. It was created for the Columbian Exposition in 1893 and moved to the park in 1912. Other statues commemorate several notable figures including John H. Stevens, the first authorized resident on the west bank of the Mississippi River in what would become Minneapolis. He was granted permission to occupy the site, then part of the Fort Snelling military reservation, in exchange for providing ferry service to St. Anthony across the river. A statue of Swedish musician and poet Gunnar Wennerberg was placed in the park in 1915. A mask of Dakota leader Taoyateduta (Little Crow) was placed overlooking the falls in 1992.</p><br>
<p>While the name Minnehaha is often translated as "Laughing Water", the correct translation is "curling water" or "waterfall". The name comes from the Dakota language elements mni, meaning water, and ȟaȟa, meaning waterfall. Thus the expression "Minnehaha Falls" translates as "Waterfall Falls". The "Laughing Water" translation comes from Mary H. Eastmans book Dahcotah – Life and Legends of the Sioux Around Fort Snelling, published in 1849. The Dakota called Minnehaha Creek "Wakpa Cistinna", meaning "Little River". According to information provided by the National Park Service, an early missionary who had learned the Dakota language wrote: "The Indian name, Little Waterfall, is given... in speaking of the falls now called by white people Minnehaha&#39;. The Indians never knew it by the latter name, bestowed upon it by the whites."</p><br>
<h3>Minnehaha Creek and Falls</h3><br>
<p>Minnehaha Creek extends from Lake Minnetonka in the west and flows east for 22 miles (35 km) through several suburbs west of Minneapolis, and continuing through south Minneapolis. The watershed for the creek covers 181 square miles. Along the creek is a 53-foot (16-meter) waterfall, Minnehaha Falls, which is situated 3/4 of a mile from where the stream empties into the Mississippi River.</p><br>
<p>Minnehaha Falls is geologically linked to Saint Anthony Falls, which is the only waterfall on the Mississippi River. Roughly 10,000 years ago, St. Anthony Falls several miles downstream on the Mississippi River at the confluence of the glacial River Warren (at present-day Ft. Snelling). Geologically, the area has a sandstone layer beneath a layer of limestone. Over the centuries, water in the river beds broke through the limestone layer, and the churning at the bottom of the falls ate away at the soft underlying sandstone. Eventually, the hard limestone cap was unsupported and broke off. Thus St. Anthony Falls receded, moving upstream at a rate of about 4 feet (1.2 m) per year. As St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River moved past Minnehaha Creek, a second falls was created, Minnehaha Falls, which also continued to move upstream to its present site in the park.</p><br>
<p>An island in the Mississippi River near Minnehaha Creek once existed; the receding St. Anthony Falls divided into two as it passed around the island. The falls in the channel farthest from Minnehaha Creek reached the upstream end of the island first, cutting off water to the west channel and resulting in an "abandoned waterfall" at the north end of the channel. The abandoned west channel is now a grassy cul-de-sac known as the "Deer Pen". Locating the abandoned waterfall was made difficult in recent years since the Deer Pen was partially filled with tons of fill dirt from nearby construction projects. Today, the mouth of Minnehaha Creek where it joins the Mississippi River is the lowest surface point in the city of Minneapolis at 686 ft (209 m) above sea level.</p><br>
<p>Erosion within the last century has resulted in a falls that is fairly narrowly channeled and vigorous, notably after a heavy rain. Photographs of the waterfall from the 19th century show a much wider, curtain like character to the falls. When the creek is dry, the older, much-broader ledge can be observed. If there were sufficient interest and funding, some remedial work could theoretically restore the 19th century appearance of the falls.</p><br>
<p>Due to extremely cold winter temperatures, the falls freeze, creating a dramatic cascade of ice that can last well into the spring. If there is a rain shortage in the autumn, the falls may virtually dry up. In the summer, especially in the rainy months of June and July, the flow can be surprisingly forceful.</p><br>
<p>On June 19, 2014, professional kayaker Hunt Jennings descended the waterfall in a kayak when it was at record height due to several days of heavy rain. The only injury sustained by Jennings was a small cut above his upper lip. A spokesperson for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board commented, "We are deeply concerned that this act and subsequent publicity will inspire others to attempt the same feat. The impact of the drop, the large boulders at the base of the Falls, the deep water and fast current could easily injure or kill a kayaker."</p><br>
<h2>Park geology</h2><br>
<p>Visitors to the park can view the ancient geological history of Minnesota as they walk the path leading from the falls down to the Mississippi River. The uppermost layer of soils and gravels of Minnesota were deposited by the most recent Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago. Four great ice ages have swept away all traces of the more recent Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras in the Twin Cities area, however standing at the upper falls, one is standing directly on the Platteville Limestone Formation laid down during the Ordovician Period of the Paleozoic Era. During the Ordovician Period, about 450 million years ago, the North American continent was situated along the equator and a warm shallow sea covered much of Minnesota. Sea life was abundant and a large number of marine fossils including corals, bryozoans, brachiopods, clams, snails, cephalopods, and trilobites can be found in the limestone and shale sediments at several areas in the Twin Cities and along the Mississippi River in the park.</p><br>
<p>Descending to the base of the falls one passes through the layered Platteville Limestone Formation and a thin layer of Glenwood Shale. At the base of the falls one enters the level of the Saint Peter Sandstone Formation of pure white quartz sandstone. The Minnesota St. Peter Sandstone is "famous the world over as the example of a well-rounded, well-sorted, pure quartz sand. It is the Ivory Snow of sediments, because it is close to 99.44% pure". This sand was first deposited as beach sand, probably eroded from earlier Cambrian sandstones, along the shores of the Ordovician sea.</p><br>
<p>At places in the park, especially closer to the Mississippi River, one can see the Glenwood Shale Formation. This thin layer of grey-green rock was probably deposited in deeper-water offshore from the beaches, and now has been exposed by erosion. Together, the three formations that are visible as one walks from the falls to the river represent a sequence of sea-level rise which occurred during the Ordovician period.</p><br>
<h2>Historical buildings</h2><br>
<h3>Minnehaha Depot</h3><br>
<p>A small train station officially named Minnehaha Depot but also known as "the Princess Depot" was built around 1875; it was a stop on the Milwaukee Road railroad and provided easy access to the park from Fort Snelling and Minneapolis. The depot handled as many as 39 round trips per day. The interior is complete and well-preserved, containing an iron heating stove, waiting room benches and a ticket window. In 1964, the title was transferred to the Minnesota Historical Society. The Minnesota Transportation Museum assisted in the restoration of the building, and today provides historic interpretation. The depot is open in the summer on Sundays from 1:30 to 4:30. The 50th Street / Minnehaha Park light rail station of the METRO Blue Line currently serves the park.</p><br>
<h3>Longfellow House</h3><br>
<p>Despite its name, the Longfellow House was never home to the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; it was instead the home of Robert F. Jones, a Minneapolis philanthropist and entrepreneur. Built in 1907, the houses facade was designed to resemble Longfellows home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Originally the home was part of Jones&#39; private 4.6-acre botanical garden and zoological park near Minnehaha Falls. After Jones died, the home fell into disrepair. His will gave the property to the city which used the house as part of the Minneapolis public library from 1936 to 1967. The house was moved in 1994 and renovated. It opened as an information center in 2001. Today the home serves as the home of a botanical art school and provides Park Board offices. The Longfellow House and John H. Stevens House also co-sponsor 90-minute historic nature walks around the park.</p><br>
<h3>John Harrington Stevens House</h3><br>
<p>The John Harrington Stevens House, built in 1849 or 1850 near St. Anthony Falls (on the site where the Minneapolis Post Office now sits), was moved to Minnehaha Park in 1896. According to the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, the home has the distinction of being the first wood-frame dwelling built west of the Mississippi. John H. Stevens was granted permission to build his house on land controlled by Fort Snelling in exchange for providing ferry service across the Mississippi River. In subsequent years it became a hub of civic and social activity. Dubbed the "Birthplace of Minneapolis", both Hennepin County and Minneapolis were organized in Stevens&#39; home; it was in this home that the name Minneapolis was suggested.</p><br>
<p>In 1896 over 10,000 school children helped pull the house to its present location in Minnehaha Park. The children were divided into seven relay teams, each consisting of around 1,000 pupils. As teams finished their designated distance, they dropped the ropes and boarded trolley cars for the park. All went well until "the lads from the South Side High School" refused to give up the ropes to the next relay team. The Minneapolis Tribune reported the event:</p><br>
<p>At this point there was something of unexpected interest. Waving their school flag in triumph from the gable window of the old building the lads from the South Side High School shouted their school yell and BAD DEFIANCE TO ALL COMERS. At this point the Central High School scholars were billed to relieve the South Siders, and consequently surrounded the building. The spirit of school rivalry broke out, strong and bitter. The South Siders refused to surrender the fortress and flaunted their banner from the window in spite of all entreaties and orders. Contractor Pratt could not oust them. Supt. Jordan could not oust them, and finally Sergeant Martinson called for a detail of police and made a rush for the house. But the South Side lads were still game, and did not give up until several had been made to feel the force of police authority. Then they made a break. As they dashed from one door the Centrals entered by the other, and their banner was soon flying from the gable amid vociferous cheers. The South Siders were chased up the street by a detachment of Centrals, and for a moment it looked as if the rush would result in some bruised heads. However, good nature was restored and again the house started on its way.</p><br>
<p>The house arrived in the park at 3 pm along with the last relay team of children, having covered a distance of four miles. In the evening, 1,000 Japanese lanterns were placed about the park and the festivities included fireworks and an illumination of the falls. The Tribune newspaper reported that some people complained about the children having a day out of school and "...the park commissioners and the park policemen objected to the way in which the children took possession of the park and everything in it. There was no such thing as controlling them, and they ran over everything in sight. It would have taken a small regiment of policemen to have kept that throng in check."</p><br>
<h2>Image gallery</h2><br>
<p>Lake Quinsigamond  is a body of water situated between the city of Worcester and the town of Shrewsbury in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It is 4 miles  long, between 50 and 85 feet  deep, and has a surface area of approximately 772 acres . Lake Quinsigamond hosts 8 islands with the majority owned by private citizens. Two islands are connected to land via bridge. The largest island, Drake Island, is still state owned. Water from the lake empties into the Quinsigamond River in the Blackstone Valley.</p><br>
<h2>Bridging the lake</h2><br>
<p>The lakes long and narrow shape posed a challenge to settlers of the Worcester area in the 17th century. Lacking modern bridging techniques, westward travelers had to ride around the lakes northern and southern tips. At the turn of the 19th century, Isaiah Thomas, a Worcester resident, developed plans for a direct link between Worcester and Boston (plans that eventually became Route 9). Construction of this road was under the authority of the Worcester Turnpike Corporation (until 1841; thereafter, the city of Worcester). Like the settlers 150 years earlier, Thomas and company faced the problem of Lake Quinsigamond. The first span across the lake was a floating log bridge, built in 1806. This first attempt was unstable, often swaying under the weight of horse-drawn wagons. The floating bridge was broken apart by waves in 1806, and was rebuilt in the year 1807 as an interim solution.</p><br>
<p>The second bridge was an early suspension bridge, and was completed in early 1817. Nine wooden piers, built into the lakebed at regular intervals, held aloft a gravel-covered plank bridge. Due to the unstable nature of the lakebed, the nine piers settled at different levels, causing gaps to appear in the road surface. The piers and the bridge split apart and fell into the water on September 19, 1817. The collapse of the suspension bridge was quickly followed with a second floating bridge, this one lasting until 1861.</p><br>
<p>The first stable bridge over Lake Quinsigamond (the fourth such attempt overall) was an earthen causeway, finished in 1863. Formed from a mixture of rock, gravel and dirt, the causeway was the first span to not sway under heavy loads. The causeway effectively split the lake in half, stifling the nascent lakeside steamboat industry. Contemporary public opinion likened the causeway to an eyesore and an abomination. Despite these problems, the span survived into the early 20th century, when it was replaced by the current bridge. In ca. 1900, the causeway was expanded to include trolley tracks, linking downtown Worcester to the lakeside attractions.</p><br>
<p>A modern, two-lane bridge made of stone, cement and steel replaced the old causeway on July 31, 1919. Renovations completed in 1973 expanded the bridge to a four-lane roadway. At the north end of the lake, a second bridge was built to support Interstate 290.</p><br>
<p>The new Kenneth F. Burns Memorial Bridge opened November 1, 2015 and carries Route 9 over Lake Quinsigamond. The crossing is a two barrel steel arch bridge that consists of two separate structures supporting eastbound and westbound traffic. Each structure is an 870-foot-long, five-span, open spandrel steel-tied deck arch, supported on two concrete abutments and four perched pile caps. The two structures both carry three traffic lanes, a bike lane, and a pedestrian walkway, with overlooks provided for scenic views of the lake.</p><br>
<h2>Attractions on the lake</h2><br>
<h3>Historical</h3><br>
<p>Most of the lakeside development occurred around the southern shores, due to the construction of the causeway in 1863. The causeway split the lake in half for those traveling by water, namely, steamboat cruises and competitive rowers. Lincoln Park, a family amusement park, opened on the Worcester (western) side of the lake in 1894; steamboat cruises began twenty years earlier, launched from the site of the Park. Horace H. Bigelow, a local businessman, opened a competing amusement park called White City on the Shrewsbury side in 1905. Both parks became famous for unique rides: Lincoln for the Dummy Railroad, a passenger train running between Union Station in Worcester and the Park; White City, for its artificial lake, Shoot-the-Chutes ride, and other water attractions.</p><br>
<p>By the 1940s, both parks began to suffer declines in attendance due to development elsewhere along the lakes shores. White City, once a park that featured 50,000 Electric Lights,&#39; shut down on Labor Day, 1960. Lincoln Park closed in 1961, and the White City property was sold in November of that same year. Both parks lost buildings due to suspicious fires during their final years.</p><br>
<h3>Current</h3><br>
<p>The buyer of the White City property, Albert Shore, developed the land into a shopping center and movie theater complex shortly after the amusement park&#39;s closure. The retail complex still bears the White City name, though the movie theater, White City Cinemas, was shut down in recent years. An elder apartment complex now stands on the former site of Lincoln Park.</p><br>
<h3>Charjabar Cove</h3><br>
<p>A small cove located on the Shrewsbury side of the lake almost directly across from Quinsigamond State Park. The name is derived from a local resident who contributed greatly to the development of the area and often enjoyed morning swims in the cove.</p><br>
<h3>Quinsigamond State Park</h3><br>
<p>Quinsigamond State Park is located on the Worcester side, to the north and south of Route 9.</p><br>
<h2>Regattas on the lake</h2><br>
<p>Competitive rowing teams first came to Lake Quinsigamond in 1857. Finding the lake ideal for such crew regattas, avid rowers established boating clubs on the lake&#39;s shores, the first being the Quinsigamond Boating Club. More boating clubs and races followed, and soon many colleges (both local and abroad) held regattas on the lake, such as the New England Rowing Championships, the ECAC National Invitational Championship, the Eastern Sprints, the Big East Championship and the Patriot League Championship. The NEIRA championship regatta has been held on the lake since the 1950s and now features over 40 schools in 8+, 4+ and 1X divisions. Beginning in 1895, local high schools held crew races on the lake. In 1952, the lake played host to the National Olympic rowing trials. The Quinsigamond Rowing Association hosted the US Rowing Masters National Championship in 2005, 2012 and 2016.</p><br>
<p>Kalamata  is the second most populous city of the Peloponnese peninsula, after Patras, in southern Greece and the largest city of the homonymous administrative region. The capital and chief port of the Messenia regional unit, it lies along the Nedon River at the head of the Messenian Gulf.</p><br>
<p>The 2011 census recorded 69,849 inhabitants for the wider Kalamata Municipality, of which 62,409 in the municipal unit of Kalamata proper. Kalamata is renowned as the land of the Kalamatianos dance and Kalamata olives.</p><br>
<h2>Name</h2><br>
<p>The modern name Kalamáta is a corruption of the older name Καλάμαι, Kalámai, "reeds". The phonetic similarity of Kalamáta with the phrase "kalá mátia" ("good eyes") has led to various folk etymologies.</p><br>
<h2>Administration</h2><br>
<p>The municipality Kalamata was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 4 former municipalities, that became municipal units:</p><br>
<p>Arfara</p><br>
<p>Aris</p><br>
<p>Kalamata</p><br>
<p>Thouria</p><br>
<p>The municipality has an area of 440.313 km, the municipal unit 253.279 km.</p><br>
<h3>Subdivisions</h3><br>
<p>The municipal unit of Kalamata is subdivided into the following communities (population according to the 2011 census and settlements within the district in brackets):</p><br>
<p>Municipal communities (population over 2,000)</p><br>
<p>Kalamata (population: 54,567; Agioi Pantes, Agios Fanourios, Bournias, Filothei, Giannitsanika, Kalamata, Kallithea-Kourti Rachi, Kokkinorachi, Koutala, Menina, Moni Velanidias, Moni Profiti Ioil, Profitis Ilias)</p><br>
<p>Verga (population: 2,252; Agriomata, Ano Verga, Kato Verga, Mousga, Pano Galari-Kampinari, Paralia Vergas)</p><br>
<p>Local communities (population under 2,000)</p><br>
<p>Alagonia (population: 176; Alagonia, Machalas)</p><br>
<p>Antikalamos (population: 361; Antikalamos, Goulismata)</p><br>
<p>Artemisia (population: 142; Agios Ioannis Theologos, Artemisia, Theotokos)</p><br>
<p>Asprochoma (population: 1,490; Akovitika, Asprochoma, Kagkareika, Kalami, Katsikovo, Lagkada-Dimitrakopouleika)</p><br>
<p>Elaiochori (population: 270; Arachova, Dendra, Diasella, Elaiochori, Moni Dimiovis, Perivolakia)</p><br>
<p>Karveli (population: 63; Agia Triada, Emialoi, Karveli, Kato Karveli)</p><br>
<p>Ladas (population: 85; Agia Marina, Agios Vasileios, Ladas, Silimpoves-Agios Vasilis)</p><br>
<p>Laiika (population: 1,253; Laiika, Katsaraiika, Spitakia, Xerokampi)</p><br>
<p>Mikri Mantineia (population: 705; Alimoneika, Mikra Mantineia, Zouzouleika)</p><br>
<p>Nedousa (population: 135)</p><br>
<p>Piges (population: 80; Piges, Skourolakkos)</p><br>
<p>Sperchogeia (population: 830)</p><br>
<h3>Province</h3><br>
<p>The province of Kalamata (Επαρχία Καλαμών) was one of the provinces of the Messenia Prefecture. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipalities Kalamata and West Mani. It was abolished in 2006.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The history of Kalamata begins with Homer, who mentions Pharai (Φηραί), an ancient city built more or less where the Kalamata Castle stands today. It was believed that during ancient times the area that the city presently occupies was covered by the sea, but the proto-Greek and archaic period remains (Poseidon temple) that were unearthed at Akovitika region prove the opposite.</p><br>
<h3>Middle Ages</h3><br>
<p>Pharai was rather unimportant in antiquity, and the site continued in obscurity until middle Byzantine times. Kalamata is first mentioned in the 10th-century Life of St. Nikon the Metanoeite, and experienced a period of prosperity in the 11th–12th centuries, as attested by the five surviving churches built in this period, including the Church of the Holy Apostles, as well as the comments of the Arab geographer al-Idrisi, who calls it a "large and populous" town.</p><br>
<p>Following the Fourth Crusade, Kalamata was conquered by Frankish feudal lords William of Champlitte and Geoffrey of Villehardouin in 1205, when its Byzantine fortress was apparently in so bad a state that it could not be defended against them. Thus the town became part of the Principality of Achaea, and after Champlitte granted its possession to Geoffrey of Villehardouin, the town was the center of the Villehardouins patrimony in the Principality. Prince William II of Villehardouin was born and died there. After William IIs death in 1278, Kalamata remained in the hands of his widow, Anna Komnene Doukaina, but when she remarried to Nicholas II of Saint Omer, King Charles of Anjou was loath to see this important castle in the hands of a vassal, and in 1282 Anna exchanged it with lands elsewhere in Messenia.</p><br>
<p>In 1292 or 1293, two local Melingoi Slavic captains managed to capture the fortress of Kalamata by a ruse and, aided by 600 of their fellow villagers, took over the entire lower town as well in the name of the Byzantine emperor, Andronikos II Palaiologos. Constable John Chauderon in vain tried to secure their surrender, and was sent to Constantinople, where Andronikos agreed to hand the town over, but then immediately ordered his governor in Mystras not to do so. In the event, the town was recovered by the Franks through the intercession of a local Greek, a certain Sgouromalles. In 1298, the town formed the dowry of Princess Matilda of Hainaut upon her marriage to Guy II de la Roche. Matilda retained Kalamata as her fief until 1322, when she was dispossessed and the territory reverted to the princely domain. In 1358, Prince Robert gifted the châtellenie of Kalamata (comprising also Port-de-Jonc and Mani) to his wife, Marie de Bourbon, who kept it until her death in 1377. The town remained one of the largest in the Morea—a 1391 document places it, with 300 hearths, on par with Glarentza—but it nevertheless declined in importance throughout the 14th and 15th centuries in favour of other nearby sites like Androusa. Kalamata remained in Frankish hands until near the end of the Principality of Achaea, coming under the control of the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea only in 1428.</p><br>
<h3>Ottoman period and War of Independence</h3><br>
<p>Kalamata was occupied by the Ottomans from 1481 to 1685, like the rest of Greece. In 1659, during the long war between Ottomans and Venetians over Crete, the Venetian commander Francesco Morosini, came into contact with the rebellious Maniots, for a joint campaign in the Morea, in the course of which he took Kalamata. He was soon after forced to return to Crete, but the Venetians returned in the Morean War.</p><br>
<p>The Venetian Republic ruled Kalamata from 1685 as part of the "Kingdom of the Morea" (Regno di Morea). During the Venetian occupation the city was fortified, developed and thrived economically. However, the Ottomans reoccupied Kalamata in the war of 1715 and controlled it until the Greek War of Independence.</p><br>
<p>Kalamata was the first city to be liberated as the Greeks rose in the Greek War of Independence. On 23 March 1821, it was taken over by the Greek revolutionary forces under the command of generals Theodoros Kolokotronis, Petros Mavromichalis and Papaflessas. However, in 1825, the invading Ibrahim Pasha destroyed the city.</p><br>
<h3>Modern period</h3><br>
<p>In independent Greece, Kalamata was rebuilt and became one of the most important ports in the Mediterranean sea. It is not surprising that the second-oldest Chamber of Commerce in the Mediterranean, after that of Marseille, exists in Kalamata.</p><br>
<p>During World War II on 29 April 1941, a battle was fought near the port between the invading German forces and the 2nd New Zealand Division, for which Jack Hinton was later awarded the Victoria Cross.</p><br>
<p>After World War II, and due to political issues, Kalamata, as well as most of the Peloponnese, was excluded from the government development plans in favour of north Greece. That was a major brake on the local economy, resulting in the decline of the port and hence the city. During the 1970s and 1980s, development and growth in Kalamata were unknown.</p><br>
<p>Kalamata was again in the news on 13 September 1986, with an earthquake that measured 6.2 on the surface wave magnitude scale. It was described as "moderately strong" and caused heavy damage and killed 20 people. Following this severe damage, the local authorities and individuals strained their financial resources to bring a wind of change to the forgotten capital of Messinia.</p><br>
<p>Due to these efforts, Kalamata has now fully recovered and developed into a modern provincial capital. Today, Kalamata has the second largest population and mercantile activity in Peloponnese. It makes important exports, particularly of local products such as raisins, olives and olive oil. It is also the seat of the Metropolitan Bishop of Messenia. The current Metropolitan Bishop is Chrysostomus III, since 15 March 2007.</p><br>
<h2>Sights</h2><br>
<p>There are numerous historical and cultural sights in Kalamata, such as the Villehardouin castle, the Ypapanti Byzantine church, the Kalograion monastery with its silk-weaving workshop where the Kalamata scarves are made, and the municipal railway park. The Church of the Holy Apostles is where Mavromichalis declared the revolt against Ottoman rule in 1821. Art collections are housed at the Municipal Gallery, the Archaeological Museum of Messenia and the Folk Art Museum.</p><br>
<p>Benakeion Archaeological Museum of Kalamata, located in the heart of the historical centre of Kalamata.</p><br>
<p>Cultural events, such as the</p><br>
<p>Kalamata Castle from the 13th century AD.</p><br>
<p>The marina and the Port of Kalamata, located SW of the city centre, is the main and largest port in Messenia and the southern part of the Peloponnese.</p><br>
<p>Kalamata Municipal Stadium, home of Messiniakos, seats 5,400 spectators</p><br>
<p>The Railway Museum of the Municipality of Kalamata, a railway museum which first opened since 1986</p><br>
<p>Ancient Messene, some 15 to 20 km north-west of modern Messini</p><br>
<p>The Temple of Apollo Epicurius is about two hour drive north from Kalamata.</p><br>
<h3>Church of the Ypapanti</h3><br>
<p>Kalamata’s cathedral of the Ypapanti (Presentation of the Lord to the Temple) nestles beneath the 14th-century Frankish castle. The foundation stone was laid on January 25, 1860, and the building was consecrated on August 19, 1873. It suffered great damage during the 1986 earthquake, but was subsequently restored. The Festival of the Ypapanti (27 January through 9 February) is of national importance for the Greek Orthodox Church and, locally, the occasion for a holiday (2 February), when the litany of what is believed to be a miraculous icon, first introduced in 1889, takes place.</p><br>
<p>In late January 2010 the city hosted the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the cathedral. He was offered the golden key of the city. The region around Kalamata has provided two Ecumenical patriarchs in the past.</p><br>
<h2>Historical population</h2><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>Kalamata has a Mediterranean Climate (Csa) with mild, and wet winters and dry, hot summers. Kalamata receives plenty of precipitation days in winter. Summers are very hot and dry. The maximum temperature ever recorded at Kalamata is 45,6 °C and the minimum ever recorded is -5 °C.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>Kalamata is accessed by GR-7/E55/E65 in the west and GR-82 runs through Kalamata and into the Taygetus. The motorway to Kalamata from Tripoli is almost complete, with just one 30 km section between Paradisia and Allagi still to be opened in 2013.</p><br>
<p>Kalamata is served by a metre gauge railway line of the former Piraeus, Athens and Peloponnese Railways, now owned by the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE). There is a station and a small freight yard in the city, as well as a rolling stock maintenance depot to the north. There used to be a mainline train service to Kyparissia, Pyrgos and Patras, and a suburban service to Messini and the General Hospital. However, in December 2010 all train services from Kalamata, along with those in the rest of the Peloponnese south of Corinth, were discontinued on economic grounds, and the train station is now closed. A previously disused extension line to the port is now a Railway Park, with old steam engines on display and a cafe in the old station building.</p><br>
<p>There is a bus link (KTEL) to Tripoli, Corinth and Athens with frequent services. Ferries are available to places such as the Greek islands of Kythira and Crete in the summer months. Also in the summer months, charter and scheduled flights fly direct to Kalamata International Airport from some European cities. A scheduled service by Aegean Air once a day linking Kalamata and Athens International Airport commenced in 2010.</p><br>
<h2>Cuisine</h2><br>
<p>Local specialities:</p><br>
<p>Kalamata olive</p><br>
<p>Lalagia (Λαλάγγια)</p><br>
<p>Diples (dessert)</p><br>
<p>Pasteli (dessert)</p><br>
<p>Talagani (cheese)</p><br>
<h2>Notable people</h2><br>
<p>Andreas Apostolopoulos (1952) Real estate developer and sports team owner</p><br>
<p>(1932-2010) Physician Scientist, Discoverer of Lamellar bodies and their associated function</p><br>
<p>Giannis Christopoulos (1972) football coach</p><br>
<p>Yiannis Chryssomallis ("Yanni") (1954) composer and musician</p><br>
<p>Captain Vassilis C. Constantakopoulos (1935-2012) shipowner</p><br>
<p>Aggeliki Daliani (1979) actress</p><br>
<p>Nikolaos Doxaras, painter</p><br>
<p>Panagiotis Doxaras, painter</p><br>
<p>Nikolaos Georgeas (1976) footballer</p><br>
<p>Alexandros Koumoundouros, Prime Minister of Greece in the 19th century</p><br>
<p>Nikolaos Koutsomitis (1955) architect and educator</p><br>
<p>Elia Markopoulos, American professional wrestler who spent his childhood summers at his family&#39;s home in Kalamata.</p><br>
<p>Gerasimos Michaleas (1947) Orthodox Christian Metropolitan bishop of San Francisco, California, USA</p><br>
<p>Panos Mihalopoulos (1949) actor</p><br>
<p>Sokratis Papastathopoulos (1988) footballer</p><br>
<p>Prokopis Pavlopoulos (1950) lawyer, university professor and politician</p><br>
<p>Vassilis Photopoulos (1934–2007) painter, film director, art director and set designer</p><br>
<p>Nikolaos Politis (1872-1942), diplomat, lawyer</p><br>
<p>Maria Polydouri (1902–1930) poet</p><br>
<p>Aris San (born Aristides Saisanas, 1940-1992), Greek-Israeli singer</p><br>
<p>Kenny Stamatopoulos (1979) footballer</p><br>
<p>Michail Stasinopoulos (1903–2002) lawyer, President of the Republic of Greece</p><br>
<p>William II of Villehardouin (d. 1278) the last Villehardouin prince of Achaea</p><br>
<p>Panagiotis Morayiannis (1976) Shipping Magnate</p><br>
<p>Mihalis Papagiannakis (1941-2009), Greek politician</p><br>
<p>Panagiotis Benakis (1700-1771) Greek notable</p><br>
<p>Stavros Kostopoulos (1900-1968), Greek banker and politician</p><br>
<p>Dimitrios Stefanakos (1936-), Greek footballer</p><br>
<p>Konstantinos Ventiris (1892-1960), Greek army officer</p><br>
<p>Panagiotis Bachramis (1976-2010), Greek footballer</p><br>
<p>Nikos Economopoulos (1953-), Greek photographer</p><br>
<p>Kosta Gouliamos (1955-), Rector, European University Cyprus</p><br>
<h2>Sporting teams</h2><br>
<p>Kalamata hosts a lot of notable sport clubs with earlier presence in the higher national divisions in Greek football. It also hosts one of the oldest Greek club, the club Messiniakos FC founded in 1888.</p><br>
<h2>International relations</h2><br>
<h3>Twin towns—sister cities</h3><br>
<p>Kalamata is twinned with</p><br>
<p>Amioun, Koura, Lebanon</p><br>
<p>Aglantzia, Cyprus</p><br>
<p>Bizerte, Tunisia</p><br>
<p>Xi&#39;an, China</p><br>
<p>Inman Square is a neighborhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It lies north of Central Square, at the junction of Cambridge, Hampshire, and Inman Streets near the Cambridge&ndash;Somerville border.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>Like many squares in the Boston area, Inman Square refers both to an intersection and to a retail district and neighborhood. Current residents of the area seem to converge on a broad definition of Inman Square as the region centered on the intersection of Cambridge and Hampshire Streets.</p><br>
<p>Geologically, the area is part of the larger Boston Basin and attaches to the relative lowland known as the Cambridge Plain. Originally, the land was both flat and surrounded by an irregular, swampy region that formed a natural boundary. Situated a short walk east of Harvard Square, north of Central Square, south of Union Square, and west of Lechmere (also known as East Cambridge), Inman Square is fairly centralized within the Mid-Cambridge/Somerville area. Hampshire Street connects it with Porter Square to the northwest and Kendall Square to the southeast.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>18th century and 19th century</h3><br>
<p>Inman Square likely owes its name to Ralph Inman (1713–1788), described as a gentleman of fortune and a Boston merchant. The details of his life can be pieced together from articles in the New England and Genealogical Register, vols. 12, 14, 25, 26, 30, 55, 84, 112, and 136, as well as numerous other sources. He had extensive business interests along the Boston wharf and with Thomas Sodden owned 400 acre making up "what is now the Port."</p><br>
<p>Inman also owned a "large, three-story rambling mansion" in a "little genteel Town about 4 Miles off (from Boston) calld Cambridge, where a number of Gentlemen&#39;s Families live upon their Estates." This included the Brattles, after whom Brattle Square was named.</p><br>
<p>During the American Revolutionary War, in 1775, American general Israel Putnam took over Inman&#39;s house as his headquarters. Inman was intent on remaining neutral in the war, but his intentions went for naught when his son joined the British Army, causing authorities to begin confiscating his property. He fled, leaving Mrs. Inman to deal with General Putnam. He apparently recovered from this, because he was at home again in Cambridge after the war.</p><br>
<p>Inman&#39;s wife, his second, was a business woman in her own right. She owned the sugar warehouse in Boston that the British troops took over as a barracks when they came to settle the unrest in Boston. It was from there that they marched to the Battles of Lexington and Concord.</p><br>
<p>An extensive description of the house is given in NE & GR, July 1871, vol. 25, page 232. "On the Inman street side" and "looking toward Boston road" are mentioned. It was "the first object of any interest in approaching the colleges from Boston..." At the time of the description, 6 acre were still attached to it. Inman died there in 1788. His wife predeceased him.</p><br>
<p>Inman Squares origins lie in the growth of East Cambridge, starting at around 1790, when a group of financiers led by Andrew Craigie began buying up land around Lechmere Point, home to present-day CambridgeSide Galleria shopping mall, in an effort to build a toll bridge over the Charles River. After Craigies bridge was built, he constructed roads from the Lechmere area that had been laid out with a gridwork of streets. One of these roads was the Middlesex Turnpike, the present-day Hampshire Street, which connected Cambridge with Lowell and Boston, bringing regional traffic through the area. Craigie also laid out Cambridge Street, which would intersect with Hampshire, producing Inman Square in 1809.</p><br>
<p>By the 1860s, horse carts were common in the area and contributed to dwellings popping up along their routes. By 1900, full streetcar service was in the area, led by the Charles River Street Railway, which built its first railway through Inman Square in 1881. By 1874 the region was an urban center called both "Atwood&#39;s Corner" and "Inman Square." This ambiguity was fixed a year later in a petition that would make official the Inman Square moniker.</p><br>
<h3>20th century</h3><br>
<p>After transportation brought people and commerce to the region, a new era of stability overtook Inman Square. From 1910 up until the early 1950s, streetcar, automobile, and foot traffic shuffled people to and from the square where architectural instead of transportation construction was taking place. During this period commercial dwellings popped up to service the local community: drugstores, taverns, markets, bakeries, delis, and an insurance company were among the many stores that called Inman Square home.</p><br>
<p>After the streetcars left Cambridge Street around 1950 the square became "just a little bit out of the way" yet remained "around the corner from Harvard, Central, Kendall and Lechmere." Even though there is no direct rapid transit, three MBTA bus lines (69, 83, 91) stop in the square, making it accessible by mass transit. Post-streetcar visitors still regularly frequent the area&#39;s restaurant and entertainment attractions.</p><br>
<p>The regional restaurant chain Legal Sea Foods began in Inman Square in 1950 as a fish market that also did a takeout business. Legal Sea Foods grew to a chain of 31 restaurants, including those in Kendall Square and in Copley Square in Boston, as well as in suburbs and cities throughout the region. After the original Legal Sea Foods location burned in a fire, it was rebuilt and became Cambridge Family Health. An ornate fish on the building facade at 237 Hampshire Street commemorates the previous presence.</p><br>
<p>From the 1960s through the late 1970s, next to Legal Seafoods one could find the home of the improvisational troupe The Proposition. Alumni of the troupe include actors Josh Mostel, Judith Kahan and original Saturday Night Live cast member Jane Curtin. Later, in the 1980s, at the Ding Ho restaurant on Springfield Street (where Ole Mexican Grill is presently located), such comedians as Steven Wright, Jimmy Tingle, Bobcat Goldthwait, and club founder Barry Crimmins got their start. Most, including future Tonight Show host Jay Leno, began by performing between sets of musical acts at the "Ding", as it was known to locals. Lenos first stage appearance took place there between sets of JTs Mardi Gras Band and the Lawnchair Ladies.</p><br>
<h3>2000s and current culture</h3><br>
<p>In the 2000s, Inman Square is a culturally diverse neighborhood, home to professionals, working people, and students and professors from neighboring MIT and Harvard. Inman Square also has strong Brazilian and Portuguese influences, as can be seen in the storefronts lining Cambridge Street, especially to the east of Prospect Street.</p><br>
<p>Bostons oldest continuously operating improvisational theater troupe, ImprovBoston, moved in 2008 from its longtime home in Inman Square to Prospect Street in nearby Central Square. ImprovBoston alumni include Wait Wait... Dont Tell Me! panelist Adam Felber.</p><br>
<p>Inman Square was also home to the Center for New Words (originally the New Words Bookstore), one of the oldest and longest-running women&#39;s bookstores in the country. Located at 186 Hampshire Street, it closed its retail business in the early 2000s.</p><br>
<p>Meanwhile, from 2003 to early 2006, the Zeitgeist Gallery resided at 1353 Cambridge Street, after a fire drove it from its former home at the corner of Norfolk Street and Broadway. Run by a group of artists, musicians and activists, it was a focal point for art, music and community activism, and fostered avant garde, experimental and underground work. A related space called Zeitgeist Outpost or Outpost 186, opened by former Zeitgeist volunteers, is now on the other side of Inman Square.</p><br>
<p>It is, in fact, in the former New Words back room, where the women&#39;s bookstore once held poetry readings, author presentations and acoustic concerts.</p><br>
<p>In 2013, the neighborhood near Inman Square attained some notoriety as the home of the two main suspects in the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings,</p><br>
<p>and the location of the Islamic Society of Boston, at which they occasionally attended services.</p><br>
<p>Greifensee is a lake in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Greifensee is located 11 km to the east of the city of Zurich, separated by the Pfannenstiel from Lake Zürich. As the second largest lake in the canton of Zurich (Lake Zurich being the largest), it is about 6 km long and 1.6 km at the widest point, with a maximum depth of 32 m. The Aabach (Greifensee) (or just Aa) is the main supplying river, while its outlet is the Glatt. On its southeastern end the Mönchaltorfer Aa (or just Aa) enters the Greifensee.</p><br>
<h2>Points of interest</h2><br>
<p>A boat connects small towns along the edge of the lake, Maur, Niederuster, Fällanden, Mönchaltorf and the town Greifensee with its charming Altstadt and Greifensee castle.</p><br>
<p>Greifensee is the scene of the, a semi-marathon around the lake held every year.</p><br>
<p>Greifensee is a popular recreation area for biking and inline skating on the paved recreation path around the lake. Easy hiking trails follow the water and pass Greifensee castle before entering a nature preserve. There are well maintained bicycle roads all around the lake as well as on the banks of Aabach.</p><br>
<h2>Nature</h2><br>
<p>The lakeside is under UNESCO protection, and buildings are not allowed, resulting in reed bed and a rich fauna and flora: Around 400 plant species in the lake and 19 species in its tributaries. The nature reserves are important for the birds breeding there including more than 120 migratory species.</p><br>
<h2>Cultural Heritage</h2><br>
<p>The lake was known as Glattsee (after the Glatt) in the medieval period Greifensee (Grifense) was at first the name of the fort built by the counts of Rapperswil in the 12th century, recorded as the name of the bailiwick in 1260.</p><br>
<p>This was adopted as the name of the lake by the 16th century.</p><br>
<p>Located on the lakeshore, the Prehistoric pile dwelling settlement Greifensee–Storen–Wildsberg is part of the 56 Swiss sites of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, and the settlement is also listed in the Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance as a Class object. Because the lake has grown in size over time, the original piles are now around 4 m to 7 m under the water level of 406 m.</p><br>
<p>The Cordillera Paine is a small mountain group in Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia. It is located 280 km north of Punta Arenas, and about 1,960 km south of the Chilean capital Santiago. It belongs to the Commune of Torres del Paine in Última Esperanza Province of Magallanes and Antártica Chilena Region. No accurate surveys have been published, and published elevations have been claimed to be seriously inflated, so most of the elevations given on this page are approximate. Paine means "blue" in the native Tehuelche  language and is pronounced PIE-nay.</p><br>
<h2>Peaks</h2><br>
<p>The highest summit of the range is Cerro Paine Grande, at 50&deg;59&prime;56&Prime;S latitude, 73&deg;05&prime;43&Prime;W longitude. For a long time its elevation was claimed to be 3,050 m or 3,251 m, but in August 2011 it was ascended for the third time, measured using GPS and found to be 2,884 m.</p><br>
<p>The best-known and most spectacular summits are the three Towers of Paine (Spanish: Torres del Paine, 50&deg;57&prime;09&Prime;S latitude, 72&deg;59&prime;23&Prime;W longitude).</p><br>
<p>The South Tower of Paine (about 2,500 m, at 50&deg;57&prime;33&Prime;S latitude, 72&deg;59&prime;42&Prime;W longitude) is now thought to be the highest of the three, although this has not been definitely established. It was first climbed by Armando Aste.</p><br>
<p>The Central Tower of Paine (about 2,460 m or 8,100 feet) was first climbed in 1963 by Chris Bonington and Don Whillans, and the North Tower of Paine (about 2,260 m) was first climbed by Guido Monzino.</p><br>
<p>Other summits include the Cuerno Principal, about 2,100 m, and Cerro Paine Chico, which is usually correctly quoted at about 2,650 m.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The range is made up of a yellowish granite underlain by grey gabbro-diorite laccolith and the sedimentary rocks it intrudes, deeply eroded by glaciers. The steep, light colored faces are eroded from the tougher, vertically jointed granitic rocks, while the foothills and dark cap rocks are the sedimentary country rock, in this case flysch deposited in the Cretaceous and later folded.</p><br>
<p>The radiometric age for the quartz diorite at Cerro Paine is 12 ± 2 million years by the rubidium-strontium method and 13 ± 1 million years by the potassium-argon method. More precise ages of 12.59 ± 0.02 and 12.50 ± 0.02 million years for the earliest and latest identified phases of the intrusion, respectively, were achieved using U/Pb methods on single zircon crystals. Basal gabbro and diorite were dated by a similar technique to 12.472 ± 0.009 to 12.431 ± 0.006 million years. Thus, magma was intruded and crystallized over 162 ± 11 thousand years. High resolution dating and excellent 3-D exposure of the laccolith and its vertical feeding system allow detailed reconstruction of the Torres del Paine fossil magma chamber history.</p><br>
<h2>Hiking</h2><br>
<p>The Torres del Paine National Park&mdash;an area of 2,400 km²&mdash;was declared a Biosphere Reserve by the UNESCO in 1978 and is a popular hiking destination. There are clearly marked and well maintained paths and many refugios which provide shelter and basic services.</p><br>
<p>Hikers can opt for a day trip to see the towers, walk the popular "W" route in about five days, or trek the full circle in 8–9 days.</p><br>
<p>The "W" route is by far the most popular, and is named for the shape of the route. Hikers start and finish at either of the base points of the "W", performing each of the three shoots as a day trip. The five points of the W, from west to east, are:</p><br>
<p>Glacier Grey, a large glacier calving into the lake of the same name. Camping is available next to Refugio Grey.</p><br>
<p>Refugio Paine Grande, situated on Lago Pehoé. This site offers good views of the "horns" of Torres del Paine.</p><br>
<p>Valle del Francés ("Frenchman&#39;s Valley"), often rated as the best scenery in the whole park. The path leads up into a snowy dead-end, where several small glaciers are visible.</p><br>
<p>Hotel Las Torres, a large hotel at the base of the mountain range.</p><br>
<p>The Torres del Paine themselves, large rock formations over a small lake, high in the mountains.</p><br>
<p>The longer "circuit" walk includes all the sights of the "W", but avoids most backtracking, by connecting Glacier Grey and the Torres del Paine around the back of the mountain range.</p><br>
<p>Boats and buses provide transport between Hotel Las Torres, Refugio Paine Grande, and the park entrance at Laguna Amarga.</p><br>
<p>It is a national park and thus hikers are not allowed to stray from the paths. Camping is only allowed at specified campsites, and wood fires are prohibited in the whole park.</p><br>
<p>The Gulf of Trieste  is a very shallow bay of the Adriatic Sea, in the extreme northern part of the Adriatic Sea. It is part of the Gulf of Venice and is shared by Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. It is closed to the south by the peninsula of Istria, the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea, shared between Croatia and Slovenia. The entire Slovenian sea is part of the Gulf of Trieste.</p><br>
<h2>Overview</h2><br>
<p>The gulf is limited by an imaginary line connecting the Punta Tagliamento on the Italian and Savudrija (Punta Salvore) on the Croatian coast. Its area is approximately 550 km&sup2, its average depth is 18.7 m, and its maximum depth is 37 m. With the exception of flat islets blocking the entrance to Laguna di Grado, there are no islands in the gulf. Its eastern coasts, with Trieste and the Slovenian Littoral, have more rugged relief.</p><br>
<p>The sea current in the gulf flows counterclockwise. Its average speed is 0.8 knots. Tides in the gulf are among the largest in the Adriatic Sea, but nevertheless do not usually exceed 60 cm. The average salinity is 37-38‰, but in the summer it falls under 35‰.</p><br>
<p>Its most prominent features are:</p><br>
<p>Bay of Panzano in Italy</p><br>
<p>Bay of Muggia in Italy</p><br>
<p>Bay of Grignano in Italy</p><br>
<p>Bay of Koper (Capodistria) in Slovenia</p><br>
<p>Gulf of Piran (Pirano), the sovereignty over which has been a matter of dispute between Croatia and Slovenia since 1991.</p><br>
<p>The entire Slovenian coastline is located on the Gulf of Trieste. Its length is 46.6 km. Towns along the coastline include (from east to west) Koper/Capodistria, Izola/Isola, and Piran/Pirano.</p><br>
<p>The Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial is a war memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, built in the form of an ocean water public swimming pool. The natatorium was built as living memorial dedicated to "the men and women who served during the great war" .</p><br>
<h2>Creation of the memorial</h2><br>
<p>In March 1918, the Daughters and Sons of Hawaiian Warriors first proposed a memorial to the more than 10,000 men from the then Territory of Hawaii who volunteered to serve in the great war. The Honolulu Ad Club agreed with the idea and on November 20, 1918, appointed an investigative committee led by Colonel Howard Hathaway, Ned Loomis, and W.D. Westervelt to bring together representatives from all civic organizations to collaborate on the concept of a memorial beginning with a conference which was held on December 6, 1918. At this meeting Colonel Hathway was appointed Chairman and Fred W. Beckley was appointed Secretary of the general committee on a war memorial.</p><br>
<p>At the second meeting, a subcommittee was formed to investigate and prepare a report on a design and cost estimates of a war memorial. This subcommittee included:</p><br>
<p>Princess Kalanianaole</p><br>
<p>Mrs. Walter Macfarlane</p><br>
<p>Mrs. A. A. Young</p><br>
<p>Mrs. J.M. Dowsett</p><br>
<p>C.R. Hemenway</p><br>
<p>Senator John H. Wise</p><br>
<p>J.D. McInerny</p><br>
<p>Upon the report of the subcommittee, a plan to acquire the former William G. Irwin Estate (located between the shoreline and Kapiolani Park in Waikiki) for a public park for the memorial gained unanimous support. To pursue the idea, John Guild, Mrs. Walter Macfarlane, Mrs. John Baird, Mrs. A.G.M. Robertson and Alexander Rume Ford took the lead in pursuing the property.</p><br>
<p>A bill passed through the territorial legislature with "practical unanimity" according to the Historical Commission of Honolulu. The act was signed by the governor on April 29, 1919 providing for the acquisition of the Irwin property through the sale of territorial bonds and provided that the property should be named "Memorial Park" for the memorial concept being discussed by the committee on a war memorial.</p><br>
<p>Memorial Park was formally dedicated on the one year anniversary of the signing of the armistice with the dedication organized by the recently formed organization, the American Legion.</p><br>
<p>In 1920, with the memorial&#39;s site now acquired, a committee to study and recommend designs for the memorial itself was organized. The Honolulu Historical Commission, Territory of Hawaii, lists the members of the memorial committee as:</p><br>
<p>J.K. Butler</p><br>
<p>L.S. Cain</p><br>
<p>A.L.C. Atkinson</p><br>
<p>A.T. Longley</p><br>
<p>H.P. O&#39;Sullivan</p><br>
<p>Norman Watkins</p><br>
<p>Senator L.M. Judd</p><br>
<p>J.R. Galt</p><br>
<p>L.B. Reeves</p><br>
<p>Alexander May</p><br>
<p>R.L. Richards</p><br>
<p>G.H. Angus</p><br>
<p>Sherwood Lowrey</p><br>
<p>R.N. Burnham for the Rotary Club</p><br>
<p>Milo Vanek for the Ad Club</p><br>
<p>Gordon Usborne for the Hawaiian Academy of Art and Design.</p><br>
<p>After much deliberation, the committee reported its final recommendation for the war memorial. According to the Historical Commission of the Territory of Hawaii, "the scheme evolved called for a memorial natatorium with a pavilion and attractive landscaping of Memorial Park, the swimming pool itself to be of Olympic proportions".</p><br>
<p>On the opening day of the 1921 Territorial Legislature, Senator L.M. Judd introduced a bill for the construction of a war memorial at Memorial Park, to be funded by issuing territorial bonds. The bill specified that the memorial is to be dedicated to "the men and women of Hawaii who served during the great war" which was an expansion from the initial concept which was to honor the men of Hawaii who died in service during World War I.</p><br>
<p>The bill was passed by both houses of the legislature and signed by the governor on March 15, 1921, becoming Act 15.</p><br>
<p>Act 15, set three requirements for the design of the memorial:</p><br>
<p>It is to be located at Memorial Park, Waikiki</p><br>
<p>That it "shall contain a swimming course of at least 100 meters&quot and</p><br>
<p>All other design elements were to be determined by a design contest with features chosen by a Territorial War Commission appointed by the Governor.</p><br>
<h2>Territorial War Memorial Commission</h2><br>
<p>Act 15 provided for the formation of a Territorial War Memorial Commission to determine the features of the memorial beyond the requirements set out by law: the swimming course of 100 meters and the location. Governor Charles J. McCarthy appointed the members of the commission:</p><br>
<p>A. Lester Marks, Chairman</p><br>
<p>John R. Galt, Secretary</p><br>
<p>A.L.C. Atkinson, later replaced by J.K. Butler</p><br>
<p>Louis Christian Mullgardt, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), was appointed as advisory architect to prepare general scheme for the park and to plan and execute a competition following the rules set forth by the AIA.</p><br>
<p>The jury to determine the winning design was composed of:</p><br>
<p>The Governor of the Territory of Hawaii</p><br>
<p>The Mayor of Honolulu</p><br>
<p>Architect Bernard R. Maybeck of San Francisco</p><br>
<p>Architect Ellis F. Lawrence of Portland</p><br>
<p>Architect W. R. B. Willcox of Seattle</p><br>
<p>The jury selected the design by San Francisco architect Lewis P. Hobart as the first prize.</p><br>
<p>"It reveals a fine, discriminating taste and ability in architectural design, and in such landscape treatment as reflects the highly individual color and flavor of Hawaii and Honolulu; it forecasts a memorial which will sustain an appropriate interest into the distant future, and perpetuate the noble thought and purpose which animated the original conception of the project." - The judges of the War Memorial Commission&#39;s design contest of the winning design by Architect Lewis P. Hobart</p><br>
<h2>Architectural style and general information</h2><br>
<p>Located in Honolulu, at the shore west of Kapiolani Park and completed in 1927, the natatorium was built in the Hawaiian Beaux-Arts architectural style. The entrance to the memorial includes an arch featuring four stone eagles typical of this style.</p><br>
<p>Inside the memorial is a 100 meter by 40 meter salt water swimming pool. In the opening ceremonies on August 24, 1927, the local Olympic gold medal holder Duke Kahanamoku made the first swim (it was his birthday).</p><br>
<p>In the following swim meet, world record holder Johnny Weissmuller won the 100, 400 and 800 meter events, and Buster Crabbe (also local) won the 1500 meters.</p><br>
<p>After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the natatorium was taken over by the US Army and used for training during World War II. In 1949 it was refurbished and turned over to the City and County of Honolulu on July 1, 1949. Its condition deteriorated, and was officially closed in 1963, but continued to be used.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Oahu on August 11, 1980 as site 80001283.</p><br>
<p>There have been several proposals to demolish the structure, while others argue for its preservation and repair.</p><br>
<p>For generations, the natatorium was a popular recreational gathering center for local residents and tourists.</p><br>
<h2>Kaimana Beach</h2><br>
<p>Adjacent to the south of the Natatorium lies Kaimana Beach, a popular destination for the local resident Honolulu population of the Kaimuki, Manoa, Diamond Head and other surrounding communities. Kaimana is a sandy beach lined with palms with a lifeguard tower, showers and public parking.</p><br>
<p>Kaimana Beach was originally a rocky beach with a narrow strip of sand. It is also known as Sans Souci Beach, (French for "without worries") for the hotel once run by George Lycurgus in 1893, named in turn after the Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam.</p><br>
<p>After the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium was built adjacent to Kaimana and just off the shoreline, the beach was able to accumulate a vastly wider sandy beach which makes it so popular today. The name Kaimana is not an ancient Hawaiian name for the area, but is rather the Hawaiian pronunciation of the English name for the nearby Diamond Head. The former Sans Souci site is now the New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel.</p><br>
<p>Kaimana Beach was the end point of the first submarine communications cable between California and Hawaii. Duke Kahanamokus uncle, David Piikoi, was said to have been the person who dragged the underwater cable through Kapua Channel and onto Kaimanas shore in 1902. The first telegraphic message over this new cable was sent on January 1, 1903, from Henry Ernest Cooper to President Theodore Roosevelt in Washington, DC.</p><br>
<p>The Hawaii Theatre is a historic Vaudeville theatre and cinema in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii. It is listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>When Consolidated Amusement Company opened it in 1922, local newspapers called it "The Pride of the Pacific" and considered it the equal in opulence to any theatre in San Francisco or beyond. The large neon marquee was the largest ever built in Honolulu.</p><br>
<p>The Hawaii presented both Vaudeville entertainment and movies through the 1920s. Following the introduction of sound films, it operated as a deluxe movie theatre through the 1960s, gradually declining in the 1970s and falling into disrepair in the 1980s, until it finally closed in 1984. Concerned citizens united to save and restore it and formed the non-profit Hawaii Theatre Center, which purchased the theatre and several adjacent buildings in 1986. They raised funds for an extensive, $20.8 million renovation of the interior in 1994 directed by the Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer firm of New York City, which included a hydraulic lift to raise and lower the original theatre organ console that used to accompany silent films. The theatre reopened in 1996, while exterior renovations continued through 2005.</p><br>
<p>The Hawaii Theatre once again became a popular venue for stage shows and concerts.</p><br>
<p>In 2005 the League of Historic America Theatres named it the "Outstanding Historic Theatre in America&quot in 2006 the National Trust for Historic Preservation gave Hawaii Theatre its highest "Honor Award" for national preservation; and in 2006 the Hawaii Better Business Bureau presented its "Torch Award for Business Ethics" to the Hawaii Theatre Center, the first small nonprofit to receive that award. It is located at 1130 Bethel Street, between Hotel and Pauahi Streets, in downtown Honolulu at the edge of Chinatown.</p><br>
<p>Köprüçay, ancient Eurymedon  is a river that is situated in Antalya Province, Turkey, and empties into the Mediterranean.</p><br>
<p>At its mouth, in the 460s BC (the actual date is highly disputed), the Athenian general Cimon defeated a large Persian force of ships and men moving westwards (Battle of the Eurymedon). The two land and sea battles lasted one day and included Cimon&#39;s capture or destruction of the entire Phoenician fleet of 200 triremes.</p><br>
<p>In 190 BC, a Roman fleet led by Lucius Aemilius Regillus defeated the Seleucid fleet of Antiochus III the Great, led by Hannibal, near the river.</p><br>
<p>Strabo records a lake he called Caprias near its mouth although the area is today a salt marsh. The Seljuk-era Eurymedon Bridge, which rests on Roman foundations, crosses the river at Aspendos. Further upstream, half-way on the road to ancient Selge, another Roman bridge spans the Eurymedon valley.</p><br>
<p>Lake Opeka is a small, 40 acre lake in Des Plaines, Illinois, with an 18-hole par-3 golf course on its western shore.</p><br>
<p>On the northern bank is Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. Jogging paths run around the east side, where a band shelter is located amongst picnic tables and grills, exercise stations and a playground. The southern end has a volleyball sand pit. Rumor has it that there is a jeep underwater along with an old road.</p><br>
<p>Fishing is allowed. Bass, bluegill and occasional northern pike are caught. There are small sailboats and paddleboats using the lake. Many ducks are on the water, some large carp and occasional turtles.</p><br>
<p>On the shores of Lake Opeka, Lake Park is a 60 acre park which offers a wide variety of outdoor recreational opportunities for all age groups, administered by the Des Plaines Park District.</p><br>
<p>460 man-hours were spent removing submerged and surface vegetation from the lake, to prevent its becoming a threat to aquatic life (due to its using up the oxygen supply when decomposing). The vegetation consisted of the native slender naiad (Najas flexilis), and an excessive amount of filamentous algae.</p><br>
<p>Bryn Celli Ddu is a prehistoric site on the Welsh island of Anglesey located near Llanddaniel Fab. Its name means the mound in the dark grove. It was archaeologically excavated between 1928 and 1929. Visitors can get inside the mound through a stone passage to the burial chamber, and it is the centrepiece of a major Neolithic Scheduled Monument in the care of Cadw. The presence of a mysterious pillar within the burial chamber, the reproduction of the Pattern Stone, carved with sinuous serpentine designs, and the fact that the site was once a henge with a stone circle, and may have been used to plot the date of the summer solstice have all attracted much interest.</p><br>
<h2>The Monument</h2><br>
<p>Bryn Celli Ddu is generally considered to be one of the finest passage tombs in Wales. Unlike many stone chambered tombs, this not only has a complete passage and burial chamber, but is also buried under a mound or cairn, although this was re-instated following its excavation in 1929. As it now stands, the passage is 8.4 m long, the first 3.4 m being unroofed with a pair of portal stones. The main passage runs between vertical slab rocked walls roofed by a series of stone lintels. The mound, being substantially smaller than as originally made, no longer completely encloses the burial chamber, so the back wall is open to the air, allowing some natural light in.</p><br>
<p>Several unusual stones are at the site. Free-standing inside the burial chamber is a smooth stone pillar, some 2 m high, with a very rounded shape. Shaped stones of this sort are very rare. Rupert Soskin and Michael Bott recently suggested that it could be the petrified remains of a tree trunk, but Soskin later reported that the pillar has been identified as the metamorphic rock blueschist, not a fossil.</p><br>
<p>Beyond the back wall of the chamber, in a location that would once have been within the mound, is a replica of the Pattern Stone. This was found buried under the mound, and has been put standing up in what is thought to have been its original location at a time when the site was a henge rather than a tomb. The patterns take the form of sinuous serpentine shapes that wind around both sides of the stone. Inside the tomb another stone has a small spiral pattern chipped into it, although its authenticity has been questioned.</p><br>
<p>Outside the tomb, a ring of kerbstones shows the original extent of the mound, and they also follow the line of the ditch of the earlier henge monument. Three of the stones, visible within the cairn mound, are thought to be from the stone circle of that time.</p><br>
<p>The passage is roughly aligned with the Summer Solstice sunrise, such that for some weeks around the summer solstice, sunlight can find its way through to the back wall of the burial chamber.</p><br>
<p>The monument is part of a cluster of Neolithic and Bronze Age features. Two further cairns have been identified just to the south of Bryn Celli Ddu, while in the field immediately to the west is a standing stone, and a rock outcrop with cupmarks carved into it.</p><br>
<h2>Original uses</h2><br>
<p>The earliest identified remains at the site are a row of five postholes previously thought to have been contemporary with the tomb. Radiocarbon dating of pine charcoal from two of the pits, carried out in 2006, showed these to date from around 4000 BC, putting them at the end of the Mesolithic, 1,000 years before the next phase of use. Their purpose, however, is unknown.</p><br>
<h3>Henge</h3><br>
<p>In around 3000 BC a henge monument was constructed. An outer circular bank and ditch would have defined the boundary, although only the ditch survives, some 21 m across. Within this a stone circle would have provided the focus for a site of ritual significance. A ring of 17 stones formed an oval, many being in matched pairs either side of the centre. Cremated human remains were buried at the base of some of them, suggesting a central altar During this period a pit was dug within the henge; a single human ear-bone was buried, and covered with a flat slab. A second stone known as The Pattern Stone lay nearby, with the serpentine patterning on it. It is thought this would have stood upright within the henge, as the patterns cover both sides.</p><br>
<h3>Passage grave</h3><br>
<p>Some 1000 years after the henge was built, the site was radically altered. All but one of the standing stones were intentionally damaged, some were knocked over and six were smashed with heavy stones. In its place a passage grave was built. Much larger than the mound now remaining, it would have had a complete circle of kerbstones following the line of the old henge ditch, creating an impressive retaining wall around the mound, 26 m across. The burial chamber would have been entirely enclosed within the mound, rather than the back wall being open to the air, as in the reconstructed mound now seen. Individual human bones, both burnt and unburnt, were found within the chamber and passage, suggesting a variety of funeral practices, but in all cases re-using the tomb, and clearing aside the old remains.</p><br>
<p>At the end of its period of use the tomb was closed by means of a large stone set across the entrance, between the two portal stones.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeology</h2><br>
<p>The earliest archaeological descriptions date to around 1800. In 1796 it was included on a list of Anglesey cromlechs in the Cambrian Register. In 1802 Rev John Skinner made a "Ten Days&#39; Tour Through the Isle of Anglesea", an account of which he wrote up, but never published, describing the numerous archaeological sites he visited. It was finally published as a supplement to Archaeologia Cambrensis in 1908. On his visit to Bryn Celli Ddu, he was told how the passage tomb had been discovered a generation before, by a farmer looking for useful stone. The sight of the pillar stone had initially unnerved the discoverer, but the prospect of treasure tempted him back, and he uprooted the pillar.</p><br>
<p>Having suffered depredation of the more movable stones of the site, the monument was excavated by W J Hemp in 1928-29. He revealed much of the sequence of use on the site, and found the Pattern Stone. It has since been moved to the National Museum of Wales and replaced with a replica standing outside the back wall, but within the area of the original mound, and close to the spot where it was found. The Pillar was set back upright, and the earth and stone mound covering the passage and chamber was reinstated, but clearly there was much less material available than had been used originally. Some additional concrete roof supports have also been added at some point.</p><br>
<p>Norman Lockyer, who in 1906 published the first systematic study of megalithic astronomy, had argued that Bryn Celli Ddu marked the summer solstice. This was ridiculed at the time, but research by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas in 1997- 98 showed it to be true. Knight and Lomas also claimed that year-round alignments allowed the site to be used as an agricultural calendar. Steve Burrow, curator of Neolithic archaeology at Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum of Wales), has more recently supported the case for summer solstice alignment. This alignment links Bryn Celli Ddu to a handful of other sites, including Maes Howe, Orkney and Newgrange, Ireland, both of which point to the winter solstice. It has also been suggested that a feature similar to the lightbox at Newgrange may be matched at Bryn Celli Ddu.</p><br>
<h2>Media</h2><br>
<p>The serpentine pattern and the passage tomb featured strongly in the short animated film, Songs from Stones, about some of Anglesey&#39;s evocative archaeological sites and artifacts, produced as part of the Cultural Olympiad in 2012.</p><br>
<p>Bryn Celli Ddu - geograph.org.uk - 564684.jpgEntrance, portal stones and kerbstones on east side</p><br>
<p>Dent is a small fell on the fringe of the English Lake District near the towns of Cleator Moor and Egremont. Sometimes known as Long Barrow, it is traditionally the first fell encountered by hikers following Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Walk. It slopes from the westerly point of the Lake District National Park.</p><br>
<p>At its highest point it stands at only 352 metres (1155 feet), but offers uninterrupted views of the Cumbrian coast from the Ravenglass estuary in the south to the Solway Firth and across to Scotland in the north. In the west the Isle of Man can be easily seen, and views to the east extend to the high peaks of Pillar and the Sca Fells.</p><br>
<p>‘Dent Hill’ was one of the five stations in Cumberland used by the Ordnance Survey to measure the angles of Principal Triangles for their initial survey of Britain in the years up to and including 1809. The other stations were Black Combe, Scilly Banks (on the outskirts of Whitehaven), High Pike and Cross Fell. The absence of a trig point suggests that Dent was not used in the Retriangulation of Great Britain.</p><br>
<p>Over the past 20 years a man-made forest has been planted on the slopes of the fell facing north towards Cleator Moor. This process was carried out to reduce the rate of erosion on the fell. There is already a mature forest on the southern slopes of the fell and public pedestrian access via a gate at Nannycatch.</p><br>
<p>There is a road at the base of the fell, known locally as ‘the fell road’, which runs from Cleator Moor to Egremont. The road is still used by locals, despite its poor quality and that it doesn&#39;t represent a shortcut.</p><br>
<p>The River Ehen also tracks along the base of the fell and the aforementioned road.</p><br>
<p>Dent, along with Flat Fell, is the subject of a chapter of Wainwright’s book The Outlying Fells of Lakeland. His clockwise route to the two summits starts at Wath Brow.</p><br>
<p>The Minnesota State Capitol is the seat of government for the USA state of Minnesota, in its capital city of Saint Paul. It houses the Minnesota Senate, Minnesota House of Representatives, the office of the Attorney General and the office of the Governor. The building also includes a chamber for the Minnesota Supreme Court, although court activities usually take place in the neighboring Minnesota Judicial Center.</p><br>
<p>The building is set in a landscaped campus. Various monuments are to its sides and front. Behind, a bridge spans University Avenue, and in front others were later added over the sunken roadway of Interstate 94, thus preserving the sight lines. Set near the crest of a hill, from the Capitol steps a panoramic view of downtown Saint Paul is presented.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The building was built by Butler-Ryan Construction and designed by Cass Gilbert and modeled after Saint Peters Basilica in Rome—the unsupported marble dome is the second largest in the world, after Saint Peters. However, like all capitols with domes in the US it is also inspired by the idea of domed capitols originating with the United States Capitol dome. Work began on the capitol in 1896, and construction was completed in 1905. It is the third building to serve this purpose: the first capitol was destroyed by fire in 1881, and the second was completed in 1883, but was considered to be too small almost immediately.</p><br>
<p>Above the southern entrance to the building is a gilded quadriga called The Progress of the State which was sculpted by Daniel Chester French and Edward Clark Potter. It was completed and raised to the roof of the capitol in 1906. The four horses represent the power of nature: earth, wind, fire and water. The women leading the horses symbolize civilization, and the man on the chariot represents prosperity. In 1994 and 1995, the statues underwent a restoration procedure which included replacing the gold leaf on the figures. A sphere perched above the capitol dome also has similar treatment.</p><br>
<p>Any classical dome built since Michelangelos must expect to be compared to it, and Gilberts dome is a frank homage, with interesting differences. His drawings show that he originally planned a wider drum and, correspondingly, a more massive dome. The smaller dome as built could be criticized by some as too small. It is smaller than St. Peters and has a simplified design: single columns round the upper lantern instead of double ones, for instance. The ribs on the capitol dome are less pronounced than those on St. Peters, but they are still visually apparent. Gilbert knew that St. Peters dome was on the edge of being unstable: it had cracked and had to be reinforced. His engineer for this project, Gunvald Aus, bound the brick dome in reinforcing steel bands, and Gilbert crowned the paired columns round the drum (which act as buttresses to counter the domes weight) with additional stone. Other than St. Peter&#39;s, additional buildings with marble domes include the Taj Mahal in India, and the Rhode Island State House in the city of Providence.</p><br>
<p>The central block under the dome needed three entrances, and Gilbert avoided creating visual references to a triumphal arch, which would have been inappropriate in its position. Equally, he managed to avoid any reference to a palace block that would have been offensive to Minnesotans. However, Gilbert drew ire for choosing stone from Georgia rather than native Minnesota stone. A compromise was eventually made where the base of the building and interior spaces used varieties of native stone, including Kasota stone, and the rare Minnesota Pipestone used by Native Americans for their peace pipes. Upon completion, the exterior and interior of the building drew praise, leading to requests for Gilbert to design capitol buildings for other states such as West Virginia and Arkansas and other notable structures.</p><br>
<p>The capitol cost US$4.5 million at the beginning of the 20th century. It opened its doors to the public for the first time on January 2, 1905. A hundred years later, the building&#39;s estimated value was $400 million.</p><br>
<p>Most days of the week the building is open for individual visits, and organized tours are frequently given, including a stair climb onto the roof below the quadriga. Upon entering the building by the south door, one is below the central dome. A large star, symbolizing Minnesotas motto, "The Star of the North", is directly beneath the apex. Various portraits of state governors, and flags captured by Minnesotas regiments during the American Civil War, are on display. Paintings showing some of the related battles can be seen in the governor&#39;s outer office. Much of the building is open to the public, although one interesting sight is only rarely accessible. This is the cloak room behind the House of Representatives chamber. The walls are painted to simulate a north woods forest, but in one corner is a tiny four leaf clover. This was added by an Irish artist to remember his home island.</p><br>
<p>The structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.</p><br>
<h2>Renovation</h2><br>
<p>The Minnesota State Capitol underwent a comprehensive restoration project from 2013 to 2017, the first major renovation since the building first opened. Work began in 2013, with the project estimated at that time to cost $241 million, funded via a series of appropriations made by the Minnesota legislature. The project repaired and modernized deteriorating building systems, restored the building to Cass Gilbert&#39;s original architectural vision, increased public meeting space (including a new classroom for the Minnesota Historical Society to host school groups and provide information about the building) and improved accessibility for people with disabilities.</p><br>
<p>During renovation, more than 30,000 pieces of marble were restored or replaced. The amount of public space in the building was doubled to nearly 40,000 square feet, with a number of new public spaces opened to the public for reservation and use year round.</p><br>
<p>The project also included a restoration of the capitol&#39;s many works of fine art, which prompted discussions over some paintings in the building that feature controversial depictions of American Indians. A series of public input meetings were held around the state to gather feedback and consider options for new policies regarding art in the renovated building. When the building reopened, a number of these paintings were removed or relocated, while others remained in place due to historic preservation considerations.</p><br>
<p>The renovation forced the House and Senate to hold a special session in the nearby State Office Building in 2015. During the regular 2016 session, the Senate met in the newly-completed Senate Office Building, with the capitol open for only limited access to the House chamber during the session.</p><br>
<p>By the time of its completion in 2017, the total cost of the renovation project reached about $310 million.The bulk of construction was completed by the start of the 2017 legislative session in January. The project was officially completed in August 2017, at which point all of the building&#39;s newly renovated spaces opened to the public.</p><br>
<p>A three-day grand opening celebration took place on August 11, 12, and 13, 2017. The grand opening celebration featured a ribbon cutting ceremony with state and local leaders, panel conversations with notable Minnesotans (including former USA Vice President Walter Mondale and Minnesota Lynx Head Coach Cheryl Reeve), a beer tasting event with more than 25 Minnesota craft brewers, and musical performances from Minnesota bands Poliça and Cloud Cult.</p><br>
<h2>Memorials in the rotunda</h2><br>
<h2>Monuments on the grounds</h2><br>
<p>Pillar is a mountain in the western part of the English Lake District. Situated between the valleys of Ennerdale to the north and Wasdale to the south, it is the highest point of the Pillar group . At 892 metres  it is the eighth-highest mountain in the Lake District. The fell takes its name from Pillar Rock, a prominent feature on the Ennerdale side, regarded as the birthplace of rock climbing in the district.</p><br>
<h2>Topography</h2><br>
<p>The Western Fells occupy a triangular sector of the Lake District, bordered by the River Cocker to the north east and Wasdale to the south east. Westwards the hills diminish toward the coastal plain of Cumberland. At the central hub of the high country are Great Gable and its satellites, while two principal ridges fan out on either flank of Ennerdale, the western fells in effect being a great horseshoe around this long wild valley. Pillar is on the southern arm.</p><br>
<p>The main watershed runs broadly westwards from Great Gable, dividing the headwaters of Ennerdale and Wasdale. The principal fells in this section are Kirk Fell, Pillar, Scoat Fell, Haycock and Caw Fell, followed by the lower Lank Rigg group.</p><br>
<p>Pillar stands on the southern wall of Ennerdale, three miles from the head of the valley. Two tiers of impressive crags run the full length of the fell from Wind Gap in the west to Black Sail Pass in the east. The top tier fronts the summit ridge, a series of coves being interspersed between the buttresses. Below is a narrow terrace bearing the High Level Route path and then a further wall including Pillar Rock, Raven and Ash Crags and Proud Knott. The lower slopes are planted with a broad belt of conifers, extending across the River Liza to the flanks of High Crag.</p><br>
<p>The southern flank of Pillar looks down on Mosedale, the more westerly of Wasdale&#39;s two main feeder valleys. From Wasdale Head village Pillar appears to stand at the head of Mosedale, but the valley curves out of sight, actually having its source on the slopes of Scoat Fell. The Mosedale slopes cannot compete with those above Ennerdale, although there is outcropping rock, particularly at Wistow Crags, Elliptical Crag and Murl Rigg.</p><br>
<p>The summit of Pillar is at the western end, immediately above the descent to Wind Gap (2,475 ft). This continues the watershed to Scoat Fell and beyond. A subsidiary spur branches off north-west of the summit, passing over White Pike before petering out in the Ennerdale Forest. The eastern ridge of Pillar stretches for about a mile, gradually descending before the final upthrust of Looking Stead. This subsidiary top is listed as a Nuttall in its own right. Beyond is Black Sail Pass, a pedestrian route between Wasdale and the head of Ennerdale. Kirk Fell stands on the other side of the pass.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The primary rock types in the summit area are the plagioclase-phyric andesite lavas of the Birker Fell Formation. Bands of volcaniclastic sandstone and andesite sills are also present. Rhyolite and lapilli-tuff appear amongst the northern crags, with outcrops of the Craghouse Member on the north-west ridge.</p><br>
<h2>Summit</h2><br>
<p>The summit is surprisingly wide and grassy, consisting patches of stones interspersed with short turf. An Ordnance Survey triangulation column stands beside a cairn and windshelter. At the northern edge of the plateau a further windshelter marks the descent to the mountain rescue stretcher-box and the High Level Route.</p><br>
<p>The view is excellent with all of the major fells except the Coniston range in sight. Loweswater and Ennerdale Water can be seen, together with Burnmoor Tarn. From the north windshelter there is a striking view of the summit of Pillar Rock.</p><br>
<h2>Ascent routes</h2><br>
<p>Pillar is usually climbed from Wasdale Head, by far the nearest road access. The simplest route involves taking the Black Sail Pass, the main foot pass between Wasdale and Ennerdale, to its highest point (around 545 metres), then ascending the mountains relatively gentle east ridge. Greater interest may be obtained by branching off the ridge (at c. 640 m) onto the "High Level Route", a narrow path which traverses around Pillars northern crags before approaching the summit from the north, affording good views of Pillar Rock. Many walkers based in Wasdale climb Pillar as part of the Mosedale Horseshoe, a circuit of the skyline one of Wasdale&#39;s side valleys, which also includes Scoat Fell, Red Pike and Yewbarrow; Kirk Fell may also optionally be included.</p><br>
<p>Pillar may also be climbed from Ennerdale. From the YHA youth hostel at Black Sail at the head of the valley, it is a fairly short walk (around 1.5 km and 300 m of ascent) to the summit of Black Sail Pass, from where the same routes can be followed as described above. As Black Sail hostel is five or six miles from the nearest public road, this approach is somewhat impractical to day-trippers (especially since the Ennerdale valley is itself remote from the main tourist centres of the Lake District), though attractive to those staying at the hostel. Alternatively, there are various paths up the mountain from lower down the valley which offer the possibility of closer acquaintance with the crags of the north face.</p><br>
<p>For strong walkers, other more accessible approaches are feasible which have the advantage of being more accessible than Wasdale from major tourist centres such as Keswick.</p><br>
<p>Firstly, from the Buttermere valley, climb then descend the Scarth Gap Pass between Gatesgarth and Black Sail, which then allows an ascent via Black Sail Pass as detailed above. The walk from Gatesgarth to the summit of Pillar and back involves over 1,200 metres (4,000 feet) of ascent, more if the High Level Route is taken.</p><br>
<p>Secondly, for a ten mile round trip from the Honister Pass, contour round the head of Ennerdale by following the Moses Trod footpath to Beck Head col between Great Gable and Kirk Fell, then taking the path under Kirk Fell to the head of Black Sail Pass, before proceeding, by either of the routes described above, to Pillar Rock or summit. A variation from the Honister Pass is to descend to Ennerdale via the good path (steps) alongside Loft Beck, then ascend Black Sail Pass as before.</p><br>
<h2>Pillar Rock</h2><br>
<p>Pillar Rock is a large rocky outcrop surrounded by cliffs on the northern side of Pillar, well below the summit. When seen from Ennerdale it looks like a tall and thin column, hence its name. In the early 19th century it became widely known as one of the wonders of the Lake District, chiefly due to its featuring in William Wordsworth&#39;s poem The Brothers.</p><br>
<p>The first recorded ascent of Pillar Rock was made in 1826 by John Atkinson of Croftfoot, Ennerdale. His route, known as the Old West Route, is still classed as a rock climb, albeit one graded Moderate, the second lowest grade on the British system. It is the earliest recorded rock climb in the Lake District (not counting Coleridge&#39;s inadvertent descent of Scafell in 1802); subsequent Lakeland climbers also concentrated on Pillar, and by 1872 four different climbing routes had been pioneered on the rock. The easiest route to the top of Pillar Rock is now considered to be the Slab and Notch route, classed as a grade 3 scramble, whilst the classic route is the New West, classed as a Difficult rock climb. By 2007 over 90 climbs had been recorded, including 17 graded E1 or above.</p><br>
<p>By 1913, George Mallory climbed Pillar Rock, with no assistance, by what is now known as "Mallory&#39;s Route" &ndash; currently graded Hard Very Severe 5a (American grading 5.9) - similar in difficulty to The Second Step on Mount Everest.</p><br>
<p>Pillar Rock has a topographic prominence of more than 15 metres, and thus qualifies for the list of "Nuttalls" compiled by John and Anne Nuttall in their book The Mountains of England and Wales (see also Hill lists in the British Isles).</p><br>
<p>It is the only summit on the list that cannot be reached without recourse to rock climbing.</p><br>
<p>The Sangre de Cristo Mountains  are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains. They are located in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico in the United States. The mountains run from Poncha Pass in South-Central Colorado, trending southeast and south, ending at Glorieta Pass, southeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico.</p><br>
<p>The mountains contain a number of fourteen thousand foot peaks in the Colorado portion, as well as all the peaks in New Mexico which are over thirteen thousand feet.</p><br>
<p>The name of the mountains may refer to the occasional reddish hues observed during sunrise and sunset, and when alpenglow occurs, especially when the mountains are covered with snow. Although the particular origin of the name is unclear, it has been in use since the early 19th century. Before that time the terms "La Sierra Nevada", "La Sierra Madre", "La Sierra", and "The Snowies" (used by English speakers) were used. According to tradition, "sangre de Cristo" were the last words of a Catholic priest who was killed by Indians. Sometimes the archaic Spanish spelling "Christo" is used.</p><br>
<h2>Land management and recreation overview</h2><br>
<p>Much of the mountains are within various National Forests: the Rio Grande and San Isabel in Colorado, and the Carson and Santa Fe in New Mexico. These publicly accessible areas are popular for hunting, camping, hiking, mountain biking, backpacking, climbing, and cross-country and downhill skiing.</p><br>
<p>The mountains include two large wilderness areas, the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness in Colorado and the Pecos Wilderness in New Mexico, as well as some smaller wilderness areas, such as Latir Peak Wilderness. The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve lies on the southwest side of the mountains in Colorado.</p><br>
<h2>Subranges</h2><br>
<p>The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are divided into various subranges, described here from north to south. Use of the terms "Sangre de Cristo Range" and "Sangre de Cristo Mountains" is inconsistent and either may refer to either the northernmost subrange, the southernmost subrange, or the mountains as a whole.</p><br>
<h3>Sangre de Cristo Range</h3><br>
<p>The Sangre de Cristo Range, the largest and most northerly subrange of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, runs directly along the east side of the Rio Grande Rift, extending southeast from Poncha Pass for about 75 miles (120 km) through south-central Colorado to La Veta Pass, approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Walsenburg. They form a high ridge separating the San Luis Valley on the west from the watershed of the Arkansas River on the east.</p><br>
<h3>Crestones</h3><br>
<p>The Crestones are a group of four 14,000+ foot (4,268+ m) peaks (fourteeners) in the Sangre de Cristo Range above Crestone, Colorado.</p><br>
<h3>Spanish Peaks</h3><br>
<p>The Spanish Peaks are a pair of volcanic mountains, West Spanish Peak, 13,626 feet/4,153 m, and East Spanish Peak, 12,860 feet/3,920 m, located in southwestern Huerfano County, Colorado. The Spanish Peaks were designated a National Natural Landmark in 1976 as one of the best known examples of igneous dikes. The mountains can be seen as far north as Colorado Springs (133 miles), as far west as Alamosa (50 miles), points south to Raton, New Mexico (65 miles), and points east to La Junta, Colorado (85 miles).</p><br>
<h3>Culebra Range</h3><br>
<p>The Culebra Range runs almost due north and south, with its northern limit at La Veta Pass in Colorado, and its southern limit at Costilla Creek, just south of Big Costilla Peak in New Mexico. Its highest point is Culebra Peak (14,047 feet/4,282 m), which is notable for being the only fourteener in Colorado which is on private land. Climbers wishing to ascend Culebra must pay a fee (currently US$100 per person), and the number of climbers per year is limited. Standing to the east of the main crest are the two prominent Spanish Peaks (West: 13,626 feet/4,153 m; East: 12,860 feet/3,920 m). Unlike the rest of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, these are volcanic, with conical shapes and prominent dikes radiating outward. These peaks were important landmarks on the mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail.</p><br>
<h3>Taos Mountains</h3><br>
<p>The Taos Mountains span the western lobe of the range from Costilla Creek in the north, to Tres Ritos in the south. They include the highest point in New Mexico, Wheeler Peak 13,161 ft, which is part of the small Wheeler Peak Wilderness. Other notable peaks include Pueblo Peak 12,305 ft, which rises dramatically above Taos Pueblo, and Latir Peak 12,708 ft. Williams Lake is located below Wheeler Peak in the Wheeler Peak Wilderness.</p><br>
<p>Taos Ski Valley lies just to the west of Wheeler Peak. Much of the central portion of the Taos Mountains are on Taos Pueblo land. As viewed from Taos, they are locally called "Taos Mountain."</p><br>
<p>The southern portion of the Taos Mountains, between Palo Flechado Pass and Tres Ritos (USA Route 64 and NM Route 518), is lower and less dramatic than the northern section, with its high point being Cerro Vista, 11,939 ft. The Fernando Mountains are a small subrange lying in this section, just south of US Route 64.</p><br>
<h3>Cimarron Range</h3><br>
<p>The Cimarron Range lies across the Moreno Valley to the east of the Taos Mountains. It is a lower range, with its highest point being Baldy Mountain (12,441 feet/3,792 m). The Philmont Scout Ranch lies on the east side of the Cimarron Range.</p><br>
<h3>Rincon Mountains</h3><br>
<p>This is a minor subrange, significantly lower than the rest of the Sangre de Cristos; it lies east of the southernmost portion of the Taos Mountains.</p><br>
<h3>Santa Fe Mountains</h3><br>
<p>Rounding out the Sangre de Cristo Mountains are the Santa Fe Mountains, which include all peaks south of NM Route 518. This group lies near Santa Fe and surrounds the Pecos Wilderness, which protects the source watershed of the Pecos River. The peaks include Truchas Peak (13,102 feet/3,994 m) as their highest point. Other notable peaks are Santa Fe Baldy (12,622 feet/3,847 m) and Jicarita Peak (12,835 feet/3,912 m). The Pecos Wilderness is crossed by many trails and is popular for backpacking and for fishing in its high alpine lakes.</p><br>
<h2>Prominent peaks</h2><br>
<p>Ormond Castle  is a castle on the River Suir on the east side of Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, Ireland. The oldest part of the existing castle is a mid-15th century walled bawn, cornered on the northeast and northwest by towers.</p><br>
<h2>History of Ormonde Castle</h2><br>
<p>Built before 1315, the original castle was acquired that year by the Butler Family. James Butler would eventually be granted the title 1st Earl of Ormond.</p><br>
<h2>The manor house</h2><br>
<p>Sometime after 1565, Thomas Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde, (referred to sometimes as the 10th Earl of Ormonde) spent many years at the court of his cousin, through Anne Boleyn, Queen Elizabeth I. He carried from England a regard for Elizabethan-style architecture, and added a Tudor manor house to the property, the first of its kind in Ireland.</p><br>
<p>In the 17th century the house was a favourite residence for James Butler, the Great Duke of Ormonde, but the Butlers abandoned the home after James&#39; death in 1688. The home remained a possession of the family until the middle of the 20th century. In 1947 the house was given over to state agencies who restored the historic structures.</p><br>
<p>The manor house is enhanced by the mullioned windows on both floors to the front and the oriel windows of the porch in the centre of the facade. The gallery on the first floor features two carved stone chimney pieces and a ceiling and frieze of Elizabethan plaster-work.</p><br>
<p>The U-shape of the manor house surrounds a small courtyard that abuts the north of the castle&#39;s bawn. The manor has two floors and a gabled attic.</p><br>
<p>The most notable restoration achievement was that of the long gallery on the first floor of the facade, where the ceiling had largely collapsed. This room, once hung with tapestries, has a magnificent limestone fireplace bearing the date 1565, and has stucco representations of Queen Elizabeth flanked by Equity and Justice. It is said that she had promised her cousin that she would one day visit.</p><br>
<h2>Namesake in the United States</h2><br>
<p>Ormond Plantation House in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana &mdash; named Ormond by Colonel Richard Butler, the owner from 1805 to 1819</p><br>
<p>The Spring Mountains are a mountain range of southern Nevada in the United States, running generally northwest-southeast along the west side of Las Vegas and south to the border with California. Most land in the mountains is owned by the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management and managed as the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Spring Mountains range is named for the number of springs to be found, many of them in the recesses of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, which is on the eastern side of the mountains.</p><br>
<p>The Spring Mountains divide the Pahrump Valley and Amargosa River basins from the Las Vegas Valley watershed, which drains into the Colorado River watershed, by way of Las Vegas Wash into Lake Mead, thus the mountains define part of the boundary of the Great Basin. The Great Basin Divide, (one of the Great Basin region borders) continues north through the Indian Springs Pass region, then turns due east at the perimeter mountain ranges north of Las Vegas.</p><br>
<h3>Mount Charleston</h3><br>
<p>The highest point is Mount Charleston (officially Charleston Peak), at 11,918 ft. The area around Mt. Charleston is protected in the Mount Charleston Wilderness. The area is typically 20-30°F (11-17°C) cooler than the valleys below, and it is a popular getaway for Las Vegas residents and visitors. The Lee Canyon (Ski and Snowboard Resort) lies in Lee Canyon on State Highway 156.</p><br>
<h3>Other peaks</h3><br>
<p>In addition to Mount Charleston, other major summits in the Spring Mountains range include Bonanza Peak, McFarland Peak, Mummy Mountain, Griffith Peak, Bridge Mountain, Mount Wilson, and Mount Potosi.</p><br>
<h2>Biological diversity</h2><br>
<p>The Spring Mountains are a sky island ecosystem. With an area around 860 square miles, and a vertical range of nearly 2 mi, the mountains encompass a wide variety of habitats, and the biological diversity is probably greater than anywhere else in Nevada; 37 species of trees are known (more than any other Nevadan range), and 600 species of vascular plants have been reported from the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area alone.</p><br>
<p>The bases of the mountains are part of the Mojave zone dominated by creosote bush and white bursage, then rising to a blackbush scrub zone, followed by a pygmy conifer zone with juniper, pinyon pine, and mountain mahogany, and topped by a montane zone with many species of conifers around Mt. Charleston and its connecting ridges.</p><br>
<p>Palmer&#39;s chipmunk is endemic to the Spring Mountains.</p><br>
<p>Tarawa is an atoll and the capital of the Republic of Kiribati, in the central Pacific Ocean. It comprises North Tarawa, which has much in common with other, more remote islands of the Gilberts group; and South Tarawa, which is home to 50,182 – half of the country&#39;s total population. The atoll is best known by outsiders as the site of the Battle of Tarawa during World War II.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Tarawa has a large lagoon, 500 km&sup2; total area, and a wide reef. Although naturally abundant in fish and shellfish of all kinds, marine resources are being strained by the large and growing population. Drought is frequent, but in normal years rainfall is sufficient to maintain breadfruit, papaya and banana trees as well as coconut and pandanus.</p><br>
<p>North Tarawa consists of a string of islets, with the most northern islet being Buariki. The islets are separated in places by wide channels that are best crossed at low tide.</p><br>
<p>On South Tarawa, the construction of causeways has now created a single strip of land from Betio in the West to Buota in the Northeast.</p><br>
<h3>Climate</h3><br>
<p>The climate is pleasant from April to October, with predominant northeastern winds and stable temperatures close to 30 &deg;C. From November to March, western gales bring rain and occasional cyclones.</p><br>
<p>Precipitation varies significantly between islands. For example, the annual average is 3,000 mm (120 in) in the north and 500 mm (20 in) in the south of the Gilbert Islands. Most of these islands are in the dry belt of the equatorial oceanic climatic zone and experience prolonged droughts.</p><br>
<h2>Administration</h2><br>
<p>Tarawa atoll has three administrative subdivisions:</p><br>
<p>Betio Town Council (or BTC), on Betio Islet</p><br>
<p>Teinainano Urban Council (or TUC), from Bairiki to Bonriki (The meaning of Teinainano is "down of the mast", alluding to the sail-shape of the atoll.)</p><br>
<p>Eutan Tarawa Council (or ETC), for North Tarawa or Tarawa Ieta (all the islets on the east side north of Bonriki, including Buota which is linked by road to South Tarawa).</p><br>
<p>South Tarawa hosts the capital of the Republic of Kiribati. The House of Assembly is in Ambo, and the State House is in Bairiki. The offices of the various ministries of the government range from Betio at the south-west extreme to Nawerewere (at the near-centre of North Tarawa in an easterly island in its chain).</p><br>
<p>The settlements on Tarawa include:</p><br>
<p>Marenanuka</p><br>
<p>Taborio, which has Immaculate Heart College, a Catholic school.</p><br>
<h3>Diplomatic missions</h3><br>
<p>Four resident diplomatic missions exist: the Embassies of Taiwan and Cuba and the High Commissions of Australia and New Zealand.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In Kiribati mythology, Tarawa was the earth when the land, ocean and sky had not been cleaved yet by Nareau the spider. Thus after calling the sky karawa and the ocean marawa, he called the piece of rock that Riiki (another god that Nareau found) had stood upon when he lifted up the sky as, Tarawa. Nareau then created the rest of the islands in Kiribati and also Samoa.</p><br>
<p>People arrived on these islands thousands of years ago, and there have been migrations to and from Kiribati since antiquity.</p><br>
<p>Evidence from a range of sources, including carbon dating and DNA analyses, confirms that the exploration of the Pacific included settlement of the Gilbert Islands by around 200 BC. The people of Kiribati are still excellent seafarers, capable of making ocean crossings in locally-made vessels using traditional navigation techniques.</p><br>
<p>Thomas Gilbert, captain of the East India Company vessel Charlotte, was the first European to describe Tarawa, arriving on 20 June 1788. He named it Matthew Island, after the owner of his ship, the Charlotte. He named the lagoon, Charlotte Bay.</p><br>
<p>Gilbert&#39;s 1788 sketches survive.</p><br>
<p>The island was surveyed in 1841 by the US Exploring Expedition.</p><br>
<p>Tarawa Post Office opened on 1 January 1911.</p><br>
<p>Sir Arthur Grimble was a cadet administrative officer based at Tarawa (1913–1919);. and became Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony in 1926.</p><br>
<p>During World War II, Tarawa was occupied by the Japanese, and beginning on 20 November 1943 it was the scene of the bloody Battle of Tarawa. On that day United States Marines landed on Tarawa and suffered heavy losses from Japanese soldiers occupying entrenched positions on the atoll. The Marines secured the island after 76 hours of intense fighting with around 6,000 dead in total from both sides.</p><br>
<p>The Kiribati Government commenced a road restoration project funded in part by the World Bank in 2014 to surface the main road between Betio in the West to Bonriki in the East, upgrading the main road that transits Tarawa from a dirt road.</p><br>
<h2>Literature</h2><br>
<p>A Pattern of Islands by Sir Arthur Grimble, John Murray & Co, London, 1952; republished 2011 by Eland, London,</p><br>
<p>Return to the Islands by Sir Arthur Grimble, John Murray & Co, London, 1957</p><br>
<h2>In popular culture</h2><br>
<p>The book The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost is a rather humorous account of the author&#39;s two years living on Tarawa.</p><br>
<p>Tarawa is the site of the 1944 Pulitzer Prize winning photograph by Frank Filan, depicting a destroyed bunker.</p><br>
<p>The book Return to Mars by Ben Bova uses Tarawa as the mission control for an expedition to Mars.</p><br>
<p>The Far Reaches, a book of historical fiction by Homer Hickam, describes the Battle of Tarawa.</p><br>
<p>A British drama film Pacific Destiny based on the book A Pattern of Islands was made in 1956.</p><br>
<p>Leon Cooper, a US Navy Landing Craft Operator who took part in the WWII battle, returned to the island in 2008 to investigate reports the beach he landed on was littered with garbage. His journey was chronicled in the documentary "Return to Tarawa: The Leon Cooper Story", narrated by Ed Harris.</p><br>
<p>Leon Uris&#39;s 1953 fictional Battle Cry extensively depicts the 1943 battle. (Uris was a Marine on Guadalcanal.)</p><br>
<p>"Tarawa Atoll Sanglant", a Belgian comics written by Charlier and Hubinon in 1950.</p><br>
<h2>Memorial</h2><br>
<p>USS Tarawa was the name of the first LHA-class amphibious assault ship.</p><br>
<p>Storsjön  is the fifth largest lake in Sweden, with an area of 464 km&sup2; and a greatest depth of 74 m. It is located in the province of Jämtland in modern Jämtland County. From Storsjön runs the river Indalsälven and the lake contains the major island Frösön. The city of Östersund is located on the east shore of the lake, opposite Frösön.</p><br>
<p>Storsjön is said to be the home of Storsjöodjuret, a cryptid lake monster not unlike the Loch Ness Monster, and every now and then there are new reports of people having spotted it. Descriptions of the creature have varied over the years. Some have described it as being serpentine in appearance, with multiple humps, a feline or canine-like head and grayish skin. Others have claimed that the creature is short in stature and morbidly obese, with a roundish skull.</p><br>
<p>The ferry company Vägverket Färjerederiet (run by the Swedish Road Authority) provides two ferry lines crossing the lake, one from Norderön to Håkansta and one from Isön to Norderön. They are replaced by ice roads during the winter, usually January–April.</p><br>
<p>Macdonald River, a perennial river that is part of the Namoi catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the Northern Tablelands district of New South Wales, Australia.</p><br>
<h2>Course and features</h2><br>
<p>The river rises east of Niangala on the western slopes of the Moonbi Range and Great Dividing Range and flows generally north west after its confluence with its major tributary, the Cobrabald River, and flows through Warrabah National Park before reaching its mouth, with the Namoi River; dropping 515 m over its course of 169 km.</p><br>
<p>From source to mouth, the river passes through or near the villages of Woolbrook and Bendemeer.</p><br>
<h2>Recreation and development</h2><br>
<p>Trout fishing is possible in the waters of the Macdonald River, its creeks and tributaries upstream of the New England Highway road bridge at Bendemeer. The Namoi River Snapping Turtle or Bell&#39;s turtle (Elseya belli) is a species of turtle found only in the upper reaches of the Namoi River, Gwydir River and Macdonald Rivers.</p><br>
<p>The T A Perry Bridge, that carries the New England Highway and crosses the Macdonald River, was completed in 1985, enabling a bypass of the village of Bendemeer.</p><br>
<p>In November 2008, torrential rain caused severe flooding in the Macdonald River and led to the area being declared a natural disaster area.</p><br>
<p>The Yablonoi Mountains or Yablonovy Mountains  is a mountain range in Siberia. It is in Transbaikal  in Russia.</p><br>
<p>The range runs north-east from Mongolia, passing just to the east of Lake Baikal. The Yablonoi Mountains run for about 1600 kilometres before joining with the Stanovoi Range. The range forms the dividing line between the rivers that empty into the Arctic Ocean and those that empty into the Pacific. The range is not particularly tall or large, being long and thin. The tallest peaks are Bolshoy Sokhondo at 2505м and Maly Sokhondo at 2404м above sea level. It is formed with granites, crystalline slates, and sandstones. The slopes of the Yablonoviy Range are covered with larch and occasional fir and silver fir taiga. Pine forests are quite common on the southern slopes of the range. Peaks higher than 1,200 - 1,400 metres are covered with mountainous tundra vegetation.</p><br>
<p>The isolated range is sparsely inhabited with most settlements engaged in mining. The area is especially rich in tin. The Trans-Siberian Railroad runs parallel to the range before going through a tunnel to bypass the heights. The Trans-Siberian Railroad passes the mountains at Chita.</p><br>
<p>Union Square is an important and historic intersection and surrounding neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City, located where Broadway and the former Bowery Road – now Fourth Avenue – came together in the early 19th century; its name denotes that "here was the union of the two principal thoroughfares of the island" rather than celebrating either the Federal union of the United States or labor unions. The current Union Square Park is bounded by 14th Street on the south, Union Square West on the west side, 17th Street on the north, and on the east Union Square East, which links together Broadway and Park Avenue South to Fourth Avenue and the continuation of Broadway. The park is under the aegis of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.</p><br>
<p>Adjacent neighborhoods are the Flatiron District to the north, Chelsea to the west, Greenwich Village to the southwest, East Village to the southeast, and Gramercy Park to the east. Many buildings of The New School are near the square, as are several dormitories of New York University. The eastern side of the square is dominated by the four Zeckendorf Towers, the Consolidated Edison Building, on the former site of the bargain-priced department store, S. Klein, and the south side by the full-square block mixed-use One Union Square South (Davis Brody Bond, 1999). It features a kinetic wall sculpture and digital clock expelling bursts of steam, titled Metronome. Among the heterogeneous assortment of buildings along the west side is the Decker Building.</p><br>
<p>Union Square is noted for its impressive equestrian statue of USA President George Washington, modeled by Henry Kirke Brown and unveiled in 1856, the first public sculpture erected in New York City since the equestrian statue of George III in 1770, and the first American equestrian sculpture cast in bronze; the historic moment depicted is Evacuation Day, November 25, 1783, when the British left the city and General Washington triumphantly led his troops back into the city. Other statues in the park include the Marquis de Lafayette, modeled by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and dedicated at the Centennial, July 4, 1876, Abraham Lincoln, modeled by Henry Kirke Brown (1870), and the James Fountain (1881), a Temperance fountain with the figure of Charity who empties her jug of water, aided by a child; it was donated by Daniel Willis James and sculpted by Adolf Donndorf. A statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the southwest corner of the park was added in 1986.</p><br>
<p>The 14th Street – Union Square New York City Subway station, served by the, is located under Union Square.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Development</h3><br>
<p>At the time that John Randel was surveying the island in preparation for the Commissioners Plan of 1811, the Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway) angled away from the Bowery at an acute angle that would have been so awkward to build on, that the Commissioners decided to form a square at the union. In 1815, by act of the state legislature, this former potters field became a public commons for the city, at first named Union Place.</p><br>
<p>In 1832, when the space was surrounded by empty lots Samuel Ruggles, one of the founders of the Bank of Commerce and the developer of Gramercy Park to the northeast, convinced the corporation to name it Union Square and enlarge the commons to 17th Street on the north and extend the axis of University Place to form the square&#39;s west side. Ruggles obtained a fifty-year lease on most of the surrounding lots from 15th to 19th Streets, where he built sidewalks and curbs. In 1834 he convinced the Board of Aldermen to enclose and grade the square, then sold most of his leases and in 1839 built a four-storey house facing the east side of the Square.</p><br>
<p>A fountain was built in the center of Union Square to receive water from the Croton Aqueduct, completed in 1842. In 1845, as the square finally began to fill with affluent houses, $116,000 was spent in paving the surrounding streets and planting the square, in part owing to the continued encouragement of Ruggles. The sole survivors of this early phase, though they have been much adapted and rebuilt, are a series of three- and four-story brick rowhouses, 862–866 Broadway, at the turn where Broadway exits the square at 17th Street. The Everett House on the corner of 17th Street and Fourth Avenue (built 1848, demolished 1908) was for decades one of the city&#39;s most fashionable hotels.</p><br>
<p>In the early years of the park a fence surrounded the square&#39;s central oval planted with radiating walks lined with trees. In 1872, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux were called in to replant the park, as an open glade with clumps of trees.</p><br>
<p>At first the square, the last public space that functioned as the entrance to New York City, was largely residential – the Union League Club first occupied a house loaned for the purpose by Henry G. Marquand at the corner of 17th Street and Broadway – but after the Civil War the neighborhood became largely commercial, and the square began to lose social cachet at the turn of the twentieth century. Tiffany & Co., which had moved to the square from Broadway and Broome Street in 1870, left its premises on 15th Street to move uptown to 37th Street in 1905; the silversmiths Gorham Company moved up from 19th Street in 1906. The last of the neighborhoods free-standing private mansions, Peter Goelets at the northeast corner of 19th Street, made way for a commercial building in 1897.</p><br>
<h3>The Rialto</h3><br>
<p>The Rialto, New York City&#39;s first commercial theater district, was located in and around Union Square beginning in the 1870s. It was called the Rialto after the commercial district in Venice. The theater district gradually re-located northward, into less expensive and undeveloped uptown neighborhoods, and eventually into the current Theater District.</p><br>
<p>Before the Civil War, theatres in New York City were primarily located along Broadway and the Bowery up to 14th Street, with those on Broadway appealing more to the middle and upper classes and the Bowery theatres attracting immigrant audiences, clerks and the working class. After the war, the development of the Ladies&#39; Mile shopping district along Fifth and Sixth Avenues above 14th Street had the effect of pulling the playhouses uptown, so that a "Rialto" theatrical strip came about on Broadway between 14th and 23rd Streets, between Union Square and Madison Square.</p><br>
<p>At the same time, a transition from stock companies, in which a resident acting company was based around a star or impresario, to a "combination" system, in which productions were put together on a one-time basis to mount a specific play, expanded the amount of outside support needed to service the theatrical industry. Thus, suppliers of props, costumes, wigs, scenery, and other theatrical necessities grew up around the new theatres. The new system also needed an organized way to engage actors for these one-off productions, so talent brokers and theatrical agents sprang up, as did theatrical boardinghouses, stage photographers, publicity agencies, theatrical printers and play publishers. Along with the hotels and restaurants which serviced the theatregoers and shoppers of the area, the Union Square Rialto was, by the end of the century, a thriving theatrical neighborhood, which would soon nonetheless migrate uptown to what became known as "Broadway" as the Rialto became subsumed into the more vice-oriented Tenderloin entertainment district.</p><br>
<h3>Social and political activism</h3><br>
<p>The park has historically been the start or the end point for many political demonstrations. In April 1861, soon after the fall of Fort Sumter, it was the site of a patriotic rally of perhaps a quarter of a million people that is thought to have been the largest public gathering in North America up to that time. In the summer of 1864 the north side of the square was the site of the Metropolitan Fair.</p><br>
<p>Union Square has been a frequent gathering point for radicals of all stripes to make speeches or demonstrate. In 1865, the recently formed Irish republican Fenian Brotherhood came out publicly and rented Dr. John Moffat&#39;s brownstone rowhouse at 32 East 17th Street, next to the Everett House hotel facing the north side of the square, for the capitol of the government-in-exile they declared. On September 5, 1882, in the first Labor Day celebration, a crowd of at least 10,000 workers paraded up Broadway and filed past the reviewing stand at Union Square. Although the park was known for its labor union rallies and for the large 1861 gathering in support of Union troops, it was actually named for its location at the "union" of Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway) and Eastern Post Road (now extinct) decades before these gatherings. On March 28, 1908, an anarchist set off a bomb in Union Square which only killed himself and another man.</p><br>
<p>On August 21, 1893, Emma Goldman took the stage at Union Square to make her "Free Bread" speech to a crowd of overworked garment workers. She also addressed a crowd on May 20, 1916, on the need for free access to birth control which was banned by the Comstock laws. Her visits to Union Square pulled hundreds of followers; some of these rallies resulted in her arrest. Union Square has been used as a platform to raise awareness about the Black Lives Matter movement.</p><br>
<p>The Square&#39;s shopping district saw strikes in the S.Klein and Ohrbach department stores in 1934. White collar workers were among the worst paid in Great Depression era New York City, with union memberships being highly discouraged by store managers and often seen as fireable offenses. These strikes often involved acts of disobedience by the workers as many of them did not want to lose their jobs. This period saw Union Square as a gathering point for many of the cities socialist and communist groups. The centennial of Union Square was seen as a thinly veiled effort to displace those elements with its draping of the square with flags and police demonstrations of anti protester drills.</p><br>
<p>Union Square was named a National Historic Landmark in 1997, primarily to honor it as the site of the first Labor Day parade.</p><br>
<p>In the days and weeks following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, Union Square became a primary public gathering point for mourners. People created spontaneous candle and photograph memorials in the park and vigils were held to honor the victims. This was a natural role for the Square as Lower Manhattan below 14th Street, which forms Union Squares southern border, briefly became a "frozen zone," with no non-emergency vehicles allowed and pedestrians sometimes stopped and asked why they were venturing south by police and national guardsmen. In fact, for the first few days following the attacks, only those who could prove residency below 14th Street could pass. The Squares tradition as a meeting place in times of upheaval was also a factor.</p><br>
<h3>North end renovation</h3><br>
<p>In March 2008, an eighteen-month renovation began on the northern end of the park. Proponents of the plan describe it as the completion of a renovation of Union Square Park that began in the mid-1980s that will improve the park by increasing the amount and quality of playground space, improving the quality and function of the public plaza, rehabilitating the badly deteriorating bandshell structure, improving the working conditions for park employees, and maintaining the "eyes on the street" presence of a restaurant at the heart of the park. Protests and political action in response to the original renovation plans resulted in a reduction in the degree to which the pavilion was to be renovated, a reduction in the total amount of space that the restaurant would occupy, and an increase in the amount of dedicated play space, but stiff opposition remains to the idea that any commercial uses might occupy the pavilion. Despite the fact that the overall amount of play space in the park will be increased as a result of the renovation, those critical of the plan claim that the bandshell pavilion itself ought to be converted to play space. The fate of the historic pavilion building is uncertain and has been brought before the State Supreme Court. On March 30, 2009, a judge dismissed the lawsuit against the renovation, paving the way for a seasonal restaurant in the pavilion.</p><br>
<p>One element of contention not related to the restaurant concession is the inclusion of a single line of street trees, spaced 30 ft apart, along the north side of the plaza. Despite rumors to the contrary, the inclusion of trees was made possible without reducing the usable gathering space of the plaza by the simultaneous decision to remove a painted median strip, that had separated eastbound and westbound traffic along 17th Street, thus increasing the northern limits of the plaza by several feet. Some critics feel that this line of trees will make the space less useful for large rallies although no barriers to free movement across 17th Street are being introduced and the "temporary" metal rails, welded together to make a continuous fence along the north side of the site, will be removed as part of the renovation of the plaza. A double line of trees along 17th Street had been planted years earlier as a monument to victims of the Armenian Genocide.</p><br>
<p>During the renovation the Union Square Greenmarket was temporarily relocated to the west side of the park, returning to the north end by April 4, 2009.</p><br>
<h3>Street chess</h3><br>
<p>The Villager, a local newspaper, reported in 2013 that most of the street chess players at Washington Square Park—where Bobby Fischer had played—had moved their games to Union Square because the latter had more foot traffic. Street chess players play fast chess with passers-by for three to five dollars a game, with time controls of five minutes on each side being the most common. Writer Lauren Snetiker at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation also documents this migration of the historical Washington Square Park chess scene to Union Square, noting the "dozens of chess players sit on crates and bring their own boards... as there are no permanent ones like there are in Washington Square Park".</p><br>
<h2>Greenmarkets and businesses</h2><br>
<p>In 1976, the Council on the Environment of New York City (now GrowNYC) established the Greenmarket program, which provided regional small family farmers with opportunities to sell their fruits, vegetables and other farm products at open-air markets in the city. There were originally seven farmers at the first Greenmarket, and their selection sold out by noon. That summer, two more markets opened in New York City. Despite some backlash from local merchants and supermarkets who believed the Greenmarket was cutting into their profits, more markets opened in the city.</p><br>
<p>Today, the Union Square Greenmarket &ndash; the best-known of the markets &ndash; is held Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays between 8 AM and 6 PM year round. The market is served by a number of regional farmers, as the average distance between farmers and the market is 90 mi. During peak seasons, the Greenmarket serves more than 250,000 customers per week, who purchase more than one thousand varieties of fruits and vegetables can be found at the Greenmarket; and the variety of produce available is much broader than what is found in a conventional supermarket.</p><br>
<p>Union Square is also known for the Union Square Holiday Market, which is held November 23 through December 24. Temporary booths are filled with over 100 craftsmen, who sell items ranging from candles and perfume to knitted scarves and high-end jewelry.</p><br>
<p>Union Square is a popular meeting place, given its central location in Manhattan and its many nearby subway routes. There are many bars and restaurants on the periphery of the square, and the surrounding streets have some of the citys most renowned (and expensive) restaurants. S. Kleins department store promoted itself in the mid-20th century as an "On the Square" alternative to higher prices uptown, and late in the century several big-box chain stores established a presence, including Barnes & Noble, Babies "R" Us and Staples.</p><br>
<p>The W Union Square Hotel is located at the parks northeast corner, in the landmark building that formerly housed The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. Additionally, the Hyatt Union Square New York hotel is located at the parks southeast corner, in a former post office.</p><br>
<h2>Union Square Partnership</h2><br>
<p>The Union Square Partnership (USP), a business improvement district (BID) and a local development corporation (LDC), was formed in 1984 and became a model for other BIDs in New York City. As of 2006 it had a US$1.4 million budget. Jennifer E. Falk became its executive director in January 2007.</p><br>
<p>In 2008 the USP filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice, a copyright lawsuit, and a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization against a web site created by Savitri Durkee parodying the official USP website. The Electronic Frontier Foundation defended Durkee on the grounds that the web site was a parody protected by free speech. The case was settled out-of-court and the parody web site re-appeared online.</p><br>
<p>The Union Square Partnership is providing a free public Wi-Fi network in Union Square.</p><br>
<h2>Education</h2><br>
<p>The Washington Irving High School building at 40 Irving Place between East 16th and 17th Streets, just a block off of Union Square, was formerly the location of a comprehensive high school, but now houses Gramercy Arts High School, the High School for Language and Diplomacy, the International High School at Union Square, the Union Square Academy for Health Sciences and the Academy for Software Engineering. In 2012, Success Academy Charter Schools announced its plan to open an elementary school, Success Academy Union Square, in the building in 2013. As of mid-2015, this has not occurred.</p><br>
<p>Also in the Union Square neighborhood is the original building of Stuyvesant High School at 345 East 15th Street, now known as the "Old Stuyvesant Campus", and housing the Institute for Collaborative Education, the High School for Health Professions and Human Services, and P.S. 226.</p><br>
<p>The Cambrian Mountains  are a series of mountain ranges in Wales.</p><br>
<p>Originally the term "Cambrian Mountains" was applied in a general sense to most of upland Wales. Since the 1950s, its application has become increasingly localised to the geographically homogeneous Mid Wales uplands, known in Welsh as the Elenydd, which extend from Pumlumon to Mynydd Mallaen. This barren and sparsely populated wilderness is often referred to as the Desert of Wales. The area includes the sources of the River Severn and River Wye, and was unsuccessfully proposed as a National Park in the 1960s and 1970s. The highest point of the range is Plynlimon, at 2,467 ft.</p><br>
<p>The wider, more historic, use of the term also includes Snowdonia in North Wales, and the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains in South Wales. They range in height up to 3,558 ft in Snowdonia.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and topography</h2><br>
<p>While Snowdonia contains a mix of volcanic rocks and sedimentary rocks of Cambrian and Ordovician age, the mountains of South Wales are mainly Devonian age Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous Limestone and similarly aged sandstones. The ranges of mid-Wales on the other hand are predominantly formed from Ordovician and Silurian sandstones and mudstones which in many areas outcrop only infrequently so resulting in more rounded grassy hills. The Cambrian Mountains (in the modern sense of the term) are generally less popular with hillwalkers and scramblers than the ranges to their north and south. Since all of Wales&#39; ranges face the predominant westerly air stream coming in from the Atlantic Ocean, they enjoy high levels of rainfall and are the source of numerous rivers, among which the rivers Severn and Wye, which rise on the eastern slopes of Pumlumon, are the largest.</p><br>
<h2>Dams and wind farms</h2><br>
<p>The Cambrian Mountains host the Elan Valley Reservoirs and Llyn Brianne reservoir, which provide water for the English West Midlands and for South Wales respectively. They include the Clywedog Reservoir and Nant y Moch Reservoir. Cefn Croes, the site of a controversial wind farm project, is in the Cambrian Mountains, just south of the A44 road between Aberystwyth and Llangurig.</p><br>
<h2>National Park proposal</h2><br>
<p>The area was proposed as a National Park in 1965 by the National Parks Commission, a precursor body of the Countryside Commission. However, the proposal was opposed by many farmers and local authorities in the area. Formal consultations on the proposal began in 1970, and in 1971 the Countryside Commission proposed a revised boundary for the designation. The proposed area, of 467 square miles, covered the area of Pumlumon and Elenydd, within an area bounded by the settlements of Machynlleth, Llangurig, Rhayader, Newbridge-on-Wye, Llanwrtyd Wells, Llandovery, Pumsaint, Tregaron, and Devil&#39;s Bridge. Despite continuing local opposition, the Countryside Commission published the order designating the area on 15 August 1972, and submitted it to the Secretary of State for Wales, Peter Thomas, for confirmation.</p><br>
<p>Objections to the proposed designation were then made by all five county councils, 5 of the 7 district councils, 5 parish councils, the National Farmers Union, the Country Landowners Association, Plaid Cymru, the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales and others. Support for the designation was expressed by the Ramblers Association, Youth Hostels Association, and Cyclists&#39; Touring Club. In July 1973, the Secretary of State announced the decision not to proceed with the designation because of "massive evidence of objections", and also rejected a call to hold a public inquiry. This was the first time such a recommendation on national park designation had not been accepted.</p><br>
<h2>Principal summits</h2><br>
<p>Pen Pumlumon Fawr 2,467 ft</p><br>
<p>Pen Pumlumon Arwystli 2,431 ft</p><br>
<p>Pen Pumlumon Llygad-bychan 2,385 ft</p><br>
<p>Y Garn 2,244 ft</p><br>
<p>Pumlumon Fach 2,179 ft</p><br>
<p>Great Rhos 2,165 ft</p><br>
<p>Black Mixen 2,130 ft</p><br>
<p>Drygarn Fawr 2,116 ft</p><br>
<p>Gorllwyn 2,011 ft</p><br>
<p>Bache Hill 2,000 ft</p><br>
<p>Pen y Garn 2,004 ft</p><br>
<p>Y Gamriw 1,982 ft</p><br>
<p>Whimble 1,965 ft</p><br>
<p>Llan Ddu Fawr 1,948 ft</p><br>
<p>Pegwn Mawr 1,923 ft</p><br>
<p>Clipyn Du 1,909 ft</p><br>
<p>Y Glog (Draws Drum) 1,883 ft</p><br>
<p>Cefn Croes 1,879 ft</p><br>
<p>Blà Bheinn , is a mountain on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It is usually regarded as an outlier to the Black Cuillin. It is mainly composed of gabbro, a rock with excellent grip for mountaineers and scramblers. The name "Blà Bheinn" is thought to mean "blue mountain", from a combination of Norse and Gaelic. Whereas blå in Modern Norwegian means "blue", the Old Norse word blá could, however, also refer to the colours blue-black and black.</p><br>
<p>The normal route of ascent for walkers is from the east. A path leaves the B8083 on the shores of Loch Slapin about 4 km after the village of Torrin. The path follows a burn, the Allt na Dunachie, into the corrie of Coire Uaigneich. From here a short steep route along the ridge leads to the summit. A small amount of scrambling is needed to reach the true top of the mountain.</p><br>
<p>Alternative routes follow the south ridge, or come from the north having traversed the Clach Glas ridge which links to the Red Cuillin peaks.</p><br>
<p>The view from the summit is dominated by the Black Cuillin.</p><br>
<p>Blaven stands in the Strathaird Estate, owned and managed since 1994 by the John Muir Trust.</p><br>
<h2>In Popular culture</h2><br>
<p>Blaven is depicted in Mary Stewart&#39;s 1956 thriller novel Wildfire at Midnight.</p><br>
<p>The Winslow House is a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house located at 515 Auvergne Place in River Forest, Illinois. A landmark building in Wright’s career, the Winslow house, built in 1893-94, was his first major commission as an independent architect. While the design owes a tremendous debt to the earlier James Charnley House, Wright always considered the Winslow house extremely important to his career. Looking back on it in 1936, he described it as "the first &#39;prairie house’.”</p><br>
<p>The original owner, William Winslow, was exemplary of Wright’s Chicago clients, which the architect described as, “American men of business with unspoiled instincts and ideals.” A manufacturer of decorative ironwork, Winslow later worked with Wright on a number of publishing projects, specifically for Keat’s Eve of St. Agnes (1896), and The House Beautiful (1896/97). The men were first introduced through Winslows dealings with Adler and Sullivan, Wrights former employers.</p><br>
<p>The houses design is inspired by the works of Wrights mentor Louis Sullivan and anticipates Wright’s mature Prairie School buildings of the next decade. Sheltered beneath a low-pitched roof with wide eaves, the home is symmetrical and horizontally divided into a stone section, a golden Roman brick section, and a terra cotta frieze of Sullivanesque ornament. In contrast to the calm and balanced front facade, the rear is a mass of irregular geometric forms. The interior echoes both Wright&#39;s own home and the Charnley House with the fireplace at the center facing the entry with rooms on either side and a hidden main staircase.</p><br>
<p>The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 17, 1970.</p><br>
<p>The Macquarie Marshes comprise the wetlands associated with the floodplains of the Macquarie River and its tributaries, in northern New South Wales, Australia. The Macquarie River and the marshes eventually drain into the Darling River. The marshes are important as a breeding site for waterbirds, especially in the aftermath of major floods.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The marshes consist of a system of freshwater channels and streams, some of which are permanent following construction of water regulation devices, with semi-permanent and ephemeral swamps and floodplains. The extent of the marshes varies according to the extent of flooding. The historical maximum flooding of 4,780 km&sup2; was recorded in the mid-1950s; since then flooding has become both less frequent and less extensive. Most of the area covered by the marshes is used as rangeland or pasture; some 10% is protected in the Macquarie Marshes Nature Reserve. Among the variety of vegetation types supported by the marshes are river red gum forest and woodland, extensive beds of common reed, and meadows of water couch. Daily temperatures in the area vary from about 4 &deg;C in July to 36 &deg;C in January, with an average annual rainfall of 300 mm to 400 mm.</p><br>
<h2>Fauna</h2><br>
<p>The marshes support at least eight native and six introduced mammals, with 56 species of reptile, 15 species of frog and 16 species of freshwater fish.</p><br>
<h2>Birds</h2><br>
<p>The Macquarie Marshes have been identified by BirdLife International as a 2378 km Important Bird Area (IBA), defined by the maximum extent of the 1990 floods. Among over 200 species of birds recorded, the marshes have supported over 1% of the world population of the endangered Australasian bittern, as well as white-necked herons, intermediate egrets, nankeen night-herons, Australian white and straw-necked ibises, and sharp-tailed sandpipers. The IBA also supports a population of diamond firetails. Other birds recorded in substantial numbers include glossy ibises, great and little egrets, royal spoonbills, Pacific black ducks and Caspian terns. Australian painted snipes, superb parrots, painted and pied honeyeaters have been recorded in the IBA.</p><br>
<p>Geronthres  is a former municipality in Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Evrotas, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 236.780 km. The seat of administration was the village Geraki. The municipal population is approx. 1,800.</p><br>
<p>Dutch excavations (University of Amsterdam) point to first settlement of the acropolis hill in the (Final) Neolithic period. In the Early Helladic period the site must have contained an administrative centre of some kind, judged by the sealing fragments that can be compared by those found in Lerna. Habitation continued towards the end of the Middle Helladic period, but no Mycenaean finds have been found yet. First signs of renewed habitation date from the Iron Age. The site is left again in the Roman period.</p><br>
<p>Close to Geraki is the medieval fortress after which the village is named, and which formed the seat of the Barony of Geraki in the Frankish Principality of Achaea. In the village itself are several Byzantine-era churches.</p><br>
<h2>Historical population</h2><br>
<p>Tory Channel / Kura Te Au is one of the drowned valleys that form the Marlborough Sounds in New Zealand. Inter-island ferries normally use it as the principal channel between Cook Strait and the Marlborough Sounds.</p><br>
<p>Tory Channel lies to the south of Arapaoa Island, separating it from the mainland. At its western end it joins the larger Queen Charlotte Sound, which it meets halfway along the latter&#39;s length. Its eastern end meets Cook Strait close to the strait&#39;s narrowest point.</p><br>
<p>Tory Channel forms a substantial part of the ferry route between Wellington and Picton. Erosion attributed to the ferries, particularly the new faster ones (now discontinued), has resulted in speed restrictions.</p><br>
<p>One of the two candidates for the easternmost point in the South Island (along with Cape Campbell) lies at the entrance of Tory Channel. It is called West Head.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Although James Cook anchored several times nearby in Ship Cove, he did not find the channel. Tory Channel was surveyed in 1840 and named after the New Zealand Company ship "Tory", a pioneer ship that brought British colonists to Wellington. Around this time, whaling stations were already operating in Te Awaiti Bay.</p><br>
<p>Between 1911 and 1964, the Perano family hunted whales from Whekenui Bay. Humpback whales were spotted from the hills at the Tory Channel entrance during their migration through Cook Strait. The Perano Whaling Station was the last whaling operation in New Zealand and closed in 1964.</p><br>
<p>The name of Tory Channel was officially altered to Tory Channel / Kura Te Au in August 2014.</p><br>
<h2>Tidal power</h2><br>
<p>Energy Pacifica has applied for resource consent to install up to ten underwater tidal stream turbine, each able to produce up to 1.2 MW, near the Cook Strait entrance to Tory Channel. They claim Tory Channel has tidal flows of 3.6 m/s with good bathymetry and access to the electricity network.</p><br>
<p>Great Gable is a mountain lying at the very heart of the English Lake District, appearing as a pyramid from Wasdale , but as a dome from most other directions. It is one of the most popular of the Lakeland fells, and there are many different routes to the summit. Great Gable is linked by the high pass of Windy Gap to its smaller sister hill, Green Gable, and by the lower pass of Beck Head to its western neighbour, Kirk Fell.</p><br>
<h2>Topography</h2><br>
<p>The Western Fells occupy a triangular sector of the Lake District, bordered by the River Cocker to the north east and Wasdale to the south east. Westwards the hills diminish toward the coastal plain of Cumberland. At the central hub of the high country are Great Gable and its satellites, while two principal ridges fan out on either flank of Ennerdale, the western fells in effect being a great horseshoe around this long wild valley.</p><br>
<p>Great Gable and its lesser companion Green Gable stand at the head of Ennerdale, with the walkers&#39; pass of Sty Head to their backs. This connects Borrowdale to Wasdale, giving Gable a footing in both valleys. The Borrowdale connection is quite tenuous, but Great Gable is "the undisputed overlord" of Wasdale in that it is paramount in almost any view up the lake. Once this view is seen, the naming of the fell Great Gable requires no explanation.</p><br>
<p>The upper section of Great Gable has a roughly square plan, about half a mile on each side, with the faces running in line with the four points of the compass. The fells connecting and subsidiary ridges occupy the corners of the square.</p><br>
<p>The northern face is formed by Gable Crag, prominent in views from Haystacks and the surrounding fells. This is the longest continuous wall of crag on the fell and reaches up almost to the summit. Scree slopes fall away below to the headwaters of the River Liza, beginning their long journey down Ennerdale. There are few crags on the eastern slopes, although these fall steeply to Styhead Tarn, a feeder of the Borrowdale system. About 30 feet deep, this tarn occupies a scooped hollow, dammed by boulders fallen from the slopes above. It is reputed to contain trout and is a popular location for wild camping. The southern flank of Great Gable falls 2,300 ft direct to Lingmell Beck, one of the main feeders of Wastwater. Right below the summit are the Westmorland Crags, and then a second tier breaks out lower down. These are Kern Knotts, Raven Crag and Great Napes, all footed by great tongues of scree. Finally on the west rough slopes fall below the rocks of White Napes to the narrow valley of Gable Beck, a tributary of Lingmell Beck.</p><br>
<p>From the north-western corner of the pyramid the connecting ridge to Kirk Fell runs out across the col of Beck Head (2,050 ft). There is a small tarn in the depression, and sometimes a second after heavy rain. Both are blind, having no apparent inlet or ouflow. Gable Beck runs south from Beck Head, while an unnamed tributary of the Liza flows northward. The main spine of the Western Fells continues along the north east ridge to Green Gable, dropping to Windy Gap (2,460 ft) as it rounds the end of Gable Crag. This ridge is rough and rocky, further worn by the boots of countless walkers. Stone Cove lies on the Ennerdale side while the rough gully of Aaron Slack runs down toward Styhead Tarn. The south-eastern ridge provides the connection to the Southern Fells, across the pass of Sty Head. This is a major crossroads for walkers and climbers, the summit being at around 1,560 ft. On the opposite slope is Great End in the Scafells. Kern Knotts lies on this south-east ridge, as does the small pool of Dry Tarn. The south-western ridge gives to high level connection, dropping down Gavel Neese in the angle between Lingmell Beck and Gable Beck.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Lying on the edge of the Scafell Syncline, the various strata dip to the east. The summit area is formed from a dacite lava flow (Scafell Dacite), directly underlain by the Lingmell Formation. This tuff, lapilli tuff and breccia outcrops a little to the west of the summit. Around Beck Head is evidence of the Crinkle Member, welded rhyolitic tuff and lapilli-tuff with some breccia. A dyke of andesite and hybridised andesite porphyry is responsible for Kern Knotts.</p><br>
<h2>Summit</h2><br>
<p>The summit of Great Gable is strewn with boulders and the highest point marked by a rock outcrop set with a cairn. There is a plaque set on the summit rock commemorating those members of the Fell & Rock Climbing Club who died in World War I; an annual memorial service is held here on Remembrance Sunday. The club bought 3,000 acres of land including Great Gable and donated it to the National Trust in memory of these members, and the plaque was dedicated on Whit Sunday 1924 by Geoffrey Winthrop Young in front of 500 people. The bronze memorial, weighing 70 kg, was removed on 10 July 2013 by 13 soldiers and carried down the hill via a stretcher. A replacement, with spelling errors corrected, was installed by Royal Engineers in October 2013.</p><br>
<p>Due to its central position within the Lake District and great prominence the summit has some of the best panoramic views of any peak in the area. All of the main fell groups are laid out, serried ranks of hills filling the skyline, although surprisingly Wast Water and Windermere are the only lakes visible. A hundred yards to the south west of the summit, overlooking the Napes, is the Westmorland Cairn. This cairn was erected in 1876 by two brothers named Westmorland to mark what they considered to be the finest view in the Lake District. From here ground falls away into the profound abyss of upper Wasdale. Further cairns mark the top of Gable Crag. It is testament to the high regard that many walkers have for Great Gable that the summit has become a popular site for the scattering of ashes following cremation.</p><br>
<h2>Ascents</h2><br>
<p>Routes to climb to the summit start from all of the main dales that radiate out from central Lakeland. From Wasdale the south-west ridge up Gavel Neese provides the obvious, and consequently steep and rough, line to take. This can be finished either via Little Hell Gate, a well named and atrocious scree gully, or more sedately via Beck Head. The walk up Ennerdale is long, except for walkers staying at Black Sail Youth Hostel, and again Beck Head gives access to the summit area. Ascents from Borrowdale or Wasdale can also make use of Sty Head pass, before slogging up the south-east ridge, or the scree-filled Aaron Slack. Finally Gatesgarth (near Buttermere), or the summit of the Honister Pass road can be used as starting points, crossing the high hinterland of Grey Knotts and Brandreth to arrive at Windy Gap or Beck Head.</p><br>
<p>Among indirect ascents, a popular alternative is to climb Sour Milk Gill from Seathwaite in Borrowdale, first ascending Green Gable before traversing Windy Gap.</p><br>
<h2>Other walking routes</h2><br>
<p>Alfred Wainwright described the Gable Girdle, a circuit around the fell at mid height. This links a number of existing paths, namely the north and south traverses, Styhead Pass, Aaron Slack and Moses Trod. The south traverse climbs westward from Sty Head and provides access to the Napes and Kern Knotts for rock climbers. The route is rough but allows the ordinary hillwalker to view Napes Needle, Sphinx Rock and many of the famous climbing locations. The north traverse similarly runs beneath Gable Crag with more excellent rock scenery, arriving ultimately at Windy Gap. In the west the two traverses are joined by a section of Moses Trod, running up the southern side of Beck Head. "Moses" was a possibly apocryphal trader-cum-smuggler, based at Honister Quarry. His route contoured the fellside from there to provide access to Wasdale markets for his illicit whisky. Moses Trod would also function as a route with minimal uphill sections for transporting slate from the quarry to the coast. Aaron Slack by contrast does anything but contour the fellside, but provides a fast down from Windy Gap to Sty Head.</p><br>
<h2>Rock climbing</h2><br>
<p>Great Gable has cliffs to the north (Gable Crag) and south (Westmorland Crags, the Napes, and Kern Knotts). The Napes are important in the history of English rock climbing: W. P. Haskett Smith&#39;s ascent of the remarkable detached pinnacle of Napes Needle in June 1886 (now graded Hard Severe) is thought by many to mark the origins in England of rock climbing as a sport in its own right, as opposed to a necessary evil undergone by mountaineers on their way to the summit.</p><br>
<p>Those wishing to climb Napes Needle should be warned that a safe descent is far more difficult than the ascent as there are no permanent anchors or bolts from which to abseil. Down-climbing is the only way to get from the summit to the shoulder and gear on this second pitch is sparse to say the least. A relatively simple abseil can be set up to get down from the shoulder.</p><br>
<p>Ai-Khanoum , possibly the historical Alexandria on the Oxus, also possibly later named اروکرتیه or Eucratidia) was one of the primary cities of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. Previous scholars have argued that Ai Khanoum was founded in the late 4th century BC, following the conquests of Alexander the Great. Recent analysis now strongly suggests that the city was founded c. 280 BC by the Seleucid king Antiochus I. The city is located in Takhar Province, northern Afghanistan, at the confluence of the Oxus river  and the Kokcha river, and at the doorstep of the Indian subcontinent. Ai-Khanoum was one of the focal points of Hellenism in the East for nearly two centuries, until its annihilation by nomadic invaders around 145 BC about the time of the death of Eucratides.</p><br>
<p>The site was excavated through archaeological work by a (DAFA) mission under between 1964 and 1978, as well as Russian scientists. The work had to be abandoned with the onset of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, during which the site was looted and used as a battleground, leaving very little of the original material.</p><br>
<h2>Strategic location</h2><br>
<p>The choice of this site for the foundation of a city was probably guided by several factors. The region, irrigated by the Oxus, had a rich agricultural potential. Mineral resources were abundant in the back country towards the Hindu Kush, especially the famous so-called "rubies" (actually, spinel) from Badakshan, and gold. Its location at the junction between Bactrian territory and nomad territories to the north, ultimately allowed access to commerce with the Chinese empire. Lastly, Ai-Khanoum was located at the very doorstep of Ancient India, allowing it interact directly with the Indian subcontinent.</p><br>
<h2>Greek city in Bactria</h2><br>
<p>Numerous artefacts and structures were found, pointing to a high Hellenistic culture, combined with Eastern influences. "It has all the hallmarks of a Hellenistic city, with a Greek theatre, gymnasium and some Greek houses with colonnaded courtyards" (Boardman). Overall, Aï-Khanoum was an extremely important Greek city (1.5 sq kilometer), characteristic of the Seleucid Empire and then the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom.</p><br>
<p>It seems the city was destroyed, never to be rebuilt, about the time of the death of the Greco-Bactrian king Eucratides around 145 BC.</p><br>
<p>Ai-Khanoum may have been the city in which Eucratides was besieged by Demetrius, before he successfully managed to escape to ultimately conquer India (Justin).</p><br>
<h3>Architecture</h3><br>
<p>The mission unearthed various structures, some of them perfectly Hellenistic, some other integrating elements of Persian architecture:</p><br>
<p>Two-miles long ramparts, circling the city</p><br>
<p>A citadel with powerful towers (20 × 11 metres at the base, 10 meters in height) and ramparts, established on top of the 60 meters-high hill in the middle of the city</p><br>
<p>A Classical theater, 84 meters in diameter with 35 rows of seats, that could sit 4,000-6,000 people, equipped with three loges for the rulers of the city. Its size was considerable by Classical standards, larger than the theater at Babylon, but slightly smaller than the theater at Epidaurus.</p><br>
<p>A huge palace in Greco-Bactrian architecture, somehow reminiscent of formal Persian palatial architecture</p><br>
<p>A gymnasium (100 × 100m), one of the largest of Antiquity. A dedication in Greek to Hermes and Herakles was found engraved on one of the pillars. The dedication was made by two men with Greek names (Triballos and Strato, son of Strato).</p><br>
<p>Various temples, in and outside the city. The largest temple in the city apparently contained a monumental statue of a seated Zeus, but was built on the Zoroastrian model (massive, closed walls instead of the open column-circled structure of Greek temples).</p><br>
<p>A mosaic representing the Macedonian sun, acanthus leaves and various animals (crabs, dolphins etc...)</p><br>
<p>Numerous remains of Classical Corinthian columns</p><br>
<h3>Sculptural remains</h3><br>
<p>Various sculptural fragments were also found, in a rather conventional, classical style, rather impervious to the Hellenizing innovations occurring at the same time in the Mediterranean world.</p><br>
<p>Of special notice, a huge foot fragment in excellent Hellenistic style was recovered, which is estimated to have belonged to a 5-6 meter tall statue (which had to be seated to fit within the height of the columns supporting the Temple). Since the sandal of the foot fragment bears the symbolic depiction of Zeus&#39; thunderbolt, the statue is thought to have been a smaller version of the Statue of Zeus at Olympia.</p><br>
<p>Also found among the sculptural remains were:</p><br>
<p>A statue of a standing female in a rather archaic chiton</p><br>
<p>The face of a man, sculpted in stucco</p><br>
<p>An unfinished statue of a young naked man with wreath</p><br>
<p>A gargoyle head representing the Greek cook-slave</p><br>
<p>A frieze of a naked man, possibly the god Hermes, wearing a chlamys</p><br>
<p>A hermaic sculpture of an old man thought to be a master of the gymnasium, where it was found. He used to hold a long stick in his left hand, symbol of his function.</p><br>
<p>Due to the lack of proper stones for sculptural work in the area of Ai-Khanoum, unbaked clay and stucco modeled on a wooden frame were often used, a technique which would become widespread in Central Asia and the East, especially in Buddhist art. In some cases, only the hands and feet would be made in marble.</p><br>
<h3>Epigraphic remains</h3><br>
<p>Various inscriptions in Classical, non-barbarized, Greek have been found in Ai-Khanoum.</p><br>
<p>On a Herõon (funerary monument), identified in Greek as the tomb of Kineas (also described as the oikistes (founder) of the Greek settlement) and dated to 300-250 BC, an inscription has been found describing Delphic precepts:</p><br>
<p>The precepts were placed by a Greek named Clearchos, who may or may not have been Clearchus of Soli the disciple of Aristotle, who, according to the same inscription, had copied them from Delphi:</p><br>
<p>Remains of some papyrus manuscripts, the imprint of which were left in the thin earth of brick walls, containing unknown philosophical dialogues on the theory of ideas, thought to be the only surviving remain of an Aristotelian dialogue, possibly the Sophist, where Xenocrates, another philosopher, present his theory of ideas.</p><br>
<p>Various Greek inscriptions were also found in the Treasury of the palace, indicating the contents (money, imported olive oil...) of various vases, and names of the administrators in charge of them. The hierarchy of these administrators appears to be nearly identical to that in the Mediterranean Greek areas. From the names mentioned in these inscriptions, it appears that the directors of the Treasury were Greek, but that lower administrators had Bactrian names. Three signatories had Greek names (Kosmos, Isidora, Nikeratos), one a Macedonian or Thracian name (Lysanias), and two Bactrian names (Oxuboakes, Oxubazes).</p><br>
<p>One of these economic inscriptions relates in Greek the deposit of olive oil jars in the treasury:</p><br>
<p>The last of the dates on these jars has been computed to 147 BC, suggesting that Ai-Khanoum was destroyed soon after that date.</p><br>
<h3>Artefacts</h3><br>
<p>Numerous Greco-Bactrian coins were found, down to Eucratides, but none of them later. Ai-Khanoum also yielded unique Greco-Bactrian coins of Agathocles, consisting of six Indian-standard silver drachms depicting Hindu deities. These are the first known representations of Vedic deities on coins, and they display early Avatars of Vishnu: Balarama-Samkarshana and Vasudeva-Krishna, and are thought to correspond to the first Greco-Bactrian attempts at creating an Indian-standard coinage as they invaded northern India.</p><br>
<p>Among other finds:</p><br>
<p>A round medallion plate describing the goddess Cybele on a chariot, in front of a fire altar, and under a depiction of Helios</p><br>
<p>A fully preserved bronze statue of Herakles</p><br>
<p>Various golden serpentine arm jewellery and earrings</p><br>
<p>Some Indian artefacts, found in the treasure room of the city, probably brought back by Eucratides from his campaigns</p><br>
<p>A toilet tray representing a seated Aphrodite</p><br>
<p>A mold representing a bearded and diademed middle-aged man</p><br>
<p>Various artefacts of daily life are also clearly Hellenistic: sundials, ink wells, tableware. An almost life-sized dark green glass phallus with a small owl on the back side and other treasures are said to have been discovered at Ai-Khanoum, possibly along with a stone with an inscription, which was not recovered. The artefacts have now been returned to the Kabul Museum after several years in Switzerland by Paul Bucherer-Dietschi, Director of the Swiss Afghanistan Institute.</p><br>
<h2>Trade with the Mediterranean</h2><br>
<p>The presence of olive oil jars at Ai-Khanoum indicates that this oil was imported from the Mediterranean, as its only possible source would have been the Aegean Basin or Syria. This suggests important trade contacts with the Mediterranean, through long and expensive land routes.</p><br>
<h2>Contacts with India</h2><br>
<p>As the southern part of Afghanistan up to the Hindu Kush (Paropamisadae) seems to have been occupied by the Mauryan Empire between 305 BC until the reconquest by Demetrius in 180 BC, Ai-Khanoum was in effect a frontier town, located just a few kilometers from Indian dominions, for more than a century.</p><br>
<p>Several Indian artefacts were found among the archaeological remains of Ai-Khanoum, especially a narrative plate made of shell inlaid with various materials and colors, thought to represent the Indian myth of Kuntala. Also, numerous Indian punch-marked coins were found.</p><br>
<p>In Ai-Khanoum remarkable Greek coins were also found, of one of the last Greco-Bactrian kings, Agathocles of Bactria (ruled 190-180 BCE). They are Indian-standard square coins bearing the first known representations of Indian deities, which have been variously interpreted as Vishnu, Shiva, Vasudeva, Buddha or Balarama. Altogether, six such Indian-standard silver drachmas in the name of Agathocles were discovered at Ai-Khanoum in 1970. Some other coins by Agathocles are also thought to represent the Buddhist lion and the Indian goddess Lakshmi. The Indian coinage of Agathocles is few but spectacular. These coins at least demonstrate the readiness of Greek kings to represent deities of foreign origin. The dedication of a Greek envoy to the cult of Garuda at the Heliodorus pillar in Besnagar could also be indicative of some level of religious syncretism.</p><br>
<p>The various sun-dials, including a tropical sundial adjusted to the latitude of Ujjain found in the excavations also suggest that some transmission into Indian astronomy may have happened, due to the numerous interactions with the Mauryan Empire, and the later expansion of the Indo-Greeks into India.</p><br>
<h3>Influence on Indian art</h3><br>
<p>Ai-Khanoum being located at the doorstep of India, interacting with the Indian subcontinent, and having a rich Hellenistic culture, was in a unique position to influence Indian culture as well. It is considered that Ai-Khanoum may have been one of the primary actors in transmitting Western artistic influence to India, for example in the creation of the Pillars of Ashoka or the manufacture of the quasi-Ionic Pataliputra capital, all of which were posterior to the establishment of Ai-Khanoum.</p><br>
<p>The scope of adoption goes from designs such as the bead and reel pattern, the central flame palmette design and a variety of other moldings, to the lifelike rendering of animal sculpture and the design and function of the Ionic anta capital in the palace of Pataliputra.</p><br>
<h2>Numismatics</h2><br>
<p>Many Seleucid and Bactrian coins were found at Ai-Khanoum, as were ten blank planchets, indicating that there was a mint in the city. Ai-Khanoum apparently had a city symbol (a triangle within a circle, with various variations), which was found imprinted on bricks coming from the oldest buildings of the city.</p><br>
<p>The same symbol was used on various Seleucid eastern coins, suggesting that they were probably minted in Ai-Khanoum. Numerous Seleucid coins were thus reattributed to the Ai-Khanoum mint rather recently, with the conclusion that Ai-Khanoum was probably a larger minting center than even Bactra.</p><br>
<p>The coins found in Ai-Khanoum start with those of Seleucus, but end abruptly with those of Eucratides, suggesting that the city was conquered at the end of his rule.</p><br>
<h2>Nomadic invasions</h2><br>
<p>The invading Indo-European nomads from the north (the Scythians and then the Yuezhi) crossed the Oxus and subdued Bactria about 135 BC.</p><br>
<p>It seems the city was totally abandoned between 140 and 120 BC following the Yuezhi invasion. There is evidence of huge fires in all the major buildings of the city.</p><br>
<p>The last Greco-Bactrian king Heliocles moved his capital from Balkh around 125 BC and resettled in the Kabul valley. No coins of Heliokles have been found in Ai-Khanoum, suggesting the city was destroyed at the end of the reign of Eucratides. The Greeks continued to rule various parts of northern India under the Indo-Greek Kingdom until around 10 AD, when their last kingdom was conquered by the Indo-Scythians. Only a few decades later, the Yuezhi united to form the Kushan Empire and expanded in northern India themselves.</p><br>
<p>In 1838 a Lieutenant Wood heard local people refer to the site as "Barbarrah". As with other archaeological sites such as Begram or Hadda, the Ai-Khanoum site has been pillaged during the long phase of war in Afghanistan since the fall of the Communist government.</p><br>
<h2>Significance</h2><br>
<p>The findings are of considerable importance, as no remains of the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek civilizations had been uncovered in the East (beyond the abundant coinage) until this discovery, which led some to speak of a "Bactrian mirage."</p><br>
<p>Ai-Khanoum was a center of Hellenistic culture at the doorstep of India, and there was a strong reciprocal awareness between the two areas. A few years after the foundation of the city, around 258 BC, the Indian Emperor Ashoka was carving a rock inscription in Greek and Aramaic addressed to the Greeks in the region, the Kandahar Edict of Ashoka, in the nearby city of Kandahar.</p><br>
<p>The discovery of Ai-Khanoum also gives a new perspective on the influence of Greek culture in the East, and reaffirms the influence of the Greeks on the development of Greco-Buddhist art.</p><br>
<p>Flaming Gorge Reservoir is the largest reservoir in Wyoming, on the Green River, impounded behind the Flaming Gorge Dam. Construction on the dam began in 1958 and was completed in 1964. The reservoir stores 3,788,900 acre.ft of water when measured at an elevation of 6,040 ft above sea-level .</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>The reservoir is mainly in southwest Wyoming and partially in northeastern Utah.</p><br>
<p>The northern tip of the reservoir is 10 mi southeast of Green River, Wyoming, 14 mi southwest of Rock Springs, Wyoming, and the Southern tip is approximately 40 mi north of Vernal, Utah. The lake straddles the Utah-Wyoming border. The nearby town of Dutch John, Utah, was built to serve as a base camp during construction of the dam, and as an administrative site afterwards.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The foundation of the reservoir is a steep-sided narrow canyon composed of siliceous sandstone and hard quartzites inter-bedded with softer shales, siltstones, and argillites. About 1.5 mi east of the dam, a road cut has revealed a fault scarp on the southbound side with about 9 ft of slippage.</p><br>
<h2>Recreation</h2><br>
<p>Visitors enjoy hiking, boating, fishing, windsurfing, camping, backpacking, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling within Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, which is operated by Ashley National Forest. Camp sites can be found close to the dam and along Highway 191 for a fee, as well as free throughout the area. Campgrounds operated by the USA Forest Service close in the winter months, with the exception of Dripping Springs near Dutch John. There are also public camp sites at Buck Board and Lucerne Marinas, along Highway 530 on the west side of the reservoir. The many available fish species in the reservoir and surrounding lakes are Colorado River Cutthroat trout, Brown trout, Rainbow trout</p><br>
<p>Black Mesa is a mesa in the USA states of Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. It extends from Mesa de Maya, Colorado southeasterly 28 mi along the north bank of the Cimarron River, crossing the northeast corner of New Mexico to end at the confluence of the Cimarron River and Carrizo Creek near Kenton in the Oklahoma panhandle. Its highest elevation is 5,705 ft in Colorado. In northwestern Cimarron County, Oklahoma, Black Mesa reaches 4,973 ft, the highest point in the state of Oklahoma. The plateau that formed at the top of the mesa has been known as a "geological wonder" of North America. There is abundant wildlife in this shortgrass prairie environment, including mountain lions, butterflies, and the Texas horned lizard.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The plateau has been home to Plains Indians.</p><br>
<p>In the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century the area was a hideout for outlaws such as William Coe and Black Jack Ketchum. The outlaws built a fort known as the Robbers Roost. The stone fort housed a blacksmith shop, gun ports, and a piano. The present-day Oklahoma Panhandle area, which was then considered a no mans land, lacked law enforcement agencies and hence the outlaws found it safe to hide in the region. However, as new settlers arrived in the area for copper and coal mining and also for cattle ranching activities by grazing cattle in the mesa region, law enforcement became more effective, and the outlaws were brought under control. In more recent times, at least one person has claimed to have been abducted by extraterrestrial aliens at Black Mesa.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Mesa is situated in the Cimarron County in the Oklahoma Panhandle. The Black Mesa plateau there is part of the Rocky Mountains and the shortgrass prairie. Some features include the Old Maid Rock,</p><br>
<p>and Devils Tombstone. The mesas base includes a 200 ft escarpment which is parallel with the Dry Cimarron River&#39;s north bank. Its highest elevation is 5,705 ft in Colorado. The highest point of Black Mesa within New Mexico is 5,239 ft. In northwestern Cimarron County, Oklahoma, Black Mesa reaches 4,975 ft, the highest point in the state of Oklahoma.</p><br>
<p>A hiking trail of 4.2 miles leads from the preserve to the summit which rises about 800 ft above the level of the surrounding plains, and a round trip requires four hours minimum; overnight camping is not permitted.</p><br>
<p>The mesas highest point within Oklahoma is marked by a granite obelisk, and a visitors log.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>Black Mesa is not only the highest point in Oklahoma but it is also the driest, harshest and coldest place in the state.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The visual and map view appearance of Black Mesa is as an "inverted valley" because erosion has removed the relatively soft sedimentary strata from either side of the resistant Raton basalt of the lava which originally had occupied and filled a river valley. The mesa is capped by erosion-resistant basaltic lava formed by a volcanic eruption 3 to 5 million years ago. The lava erupted from a vent in the Raton-Clayton volcanic field in northeastern New Mexico and southeastern Colorado. The volcanic cap to the mesa is 600 ft thick, 55 miles long and from 0.5 miles to 8 miles wide, which is 65 miles to the north-northwest of Oklahoma. The erupting lava filled a stream channel in the Pliocene age Ogallala Formation. During the years since the eruption, the adjacent rock of the Ogallala and older formations have been removed leaving the valley-filling basalt perched atop a long ridge. Strata exposed along the mesa below the basalt and Ogallala include the Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone and the Jurassic Morrison Formation.</p><br>
<p>Beginning in 1935, geologists and paleontologists have searched the mesa&#39;s outcroppings, finding dinosaur fossils in the Jurassic and Triassic strata. A large quantity of dinosaur bones has been recovered from the Black Mesa locale; totaling over eighteen tonnes, these remains were split between several species, including stegosaurus, camptosaurus, diplodocus, and edmontosaurus. Clear fossil physical evidence, a distinct line of footprints believed to have been made by an allosaurus, has been found juxtaposed with the Carrizo Creek, which runs around the modern-day northern edge of the mesa.</p><br>
<h2>Protected area</h2><br>
<p>The mesa lies in the protected area known as the Black Mesa Nature Preserve which was established in 1991, covering 1,600 acres. The preserve protects 60% of the area of the mesa peak. The peak is accessible along an 8 mi trail.</p><br>
<p>Apart from the nature reserve, there is also the Black Mesa State Park encompassing 549 acre, with a 200 acre lake known as the Lake Carl G. Etling. The park is a recreational area with many facilities for camping, hiking and many other outdoor activities. The park is about 15 miles away from the peak.</p><br>
<h2>Wildlife</h2><br>
<p>The flora and fauna reported from Black Mesa are unique to the Mesa. They are typically of "wildwest" type with arid grasslands and rocky buttes. The flora and fauna found here are not found anywhere else in the US, as they are adapted to the harshest climatic conditions.</p><br>
<p>Black Mesa Nature Preserve in particular covers around 60% of the flat portion of the mesa in Oklahoma. Wildlife reported in the park and the reserve are golden eagles, piñon jays, red-tailed hawks, and mule deer, part from a bird area for bird watchers.</p><br>
<h3>Flora</h3><br>
<p>The vegetation of the preserve is mostly shortgrass prairie with scattered juniper trees and Cholla cactus. The summit plateau is vegetatively classified as a "Bluestem-grama shortgrass community". The preserve contains 23 plant species listed by the state as "rare".</p><br>
<h3>Fauna</h3><br>
<p>The indigenous top predator is the mountain lion; its cousin, the smaller bobcat, is also present. The more omnivorous American black bear is present, along with a variety of prey species including bighorn sheep, mule deer, and pronghorn. Other mammals include the dog-like coyote, as well as the much smaller prairie dog and a species of badger.</p><br>
<p>Nine snake species are found in this arid environment, the plains hog-nosed snake, western coachwhip, bullsnake, longnose snake, plains blackhead snake, blackneck garter snake, plains garter snake, lined snake, and prairie rattlesnake. The broad-headed skink, prairie racerunner, red-lipped plateau lizard, northern earless lizard, eastern collared lizard, and Texas horned lizard are also indigenous to the area. Two types of turtle, the ornate box turtle and the yellow mud turtle have been found in the Black Mesa preserve. Only one frog is found in this desert habitat, the American bullfrog, but there are six other species of amphibians; the Great Plains narrowmouth toad, New Mexico spadefoot, plains spadefoot, Woodhouse&#39;s toad, red-spotted toad, and the western green toad, all toads.</p><br>
<p>Birds are common, and there are 59 species present during at least some years. Seven different raptors are found, the turkey vulture, American kestrel, golden eagle, ferruginous hawk, red-tailed hawk, Mississippi kite, and the prairie falcon, all of which are classed as being of least concern according to the IUCN. There is one other bird of prey, the western screech-owl. There are no waterfowl found on Black Mesa. The mourning dove, greater roadrunner, common nighthawk, common poorwill, ladder-backed woodpecker, red-shafted flicker, olive-sided flycatcher, Says phoebe, ash-throated flycatcher, Cassins kingbird, and western kingbird are also found. There are five corvids; the black-billed magpie, pinyon jay, American crow, and common raven, as well as the more local Chihuahuan raven.</p><br>
<p>61 species of butterfly are found in the preserve, including seventeen skippers, three swallowtails, four hairstreaks, a copper, four whites, nine true brushfoots, two satyrs, and a leafwing.</p><br>
<p>There are 91 species of moths on Black Mesa. No species of fish are found on Black Mesa.</p><br>
<h2>Culture</h2><br>
<p>A permanent exhibit in the Sam Noble Museum is a diorama of the Black Mesa. It covers 2,000 ft2 and is housed in the Hall of Natural Wonders. Funds for its creation were provided by the Whitten-Newman Foundation. The diorama is touchscreen computerized and interactive and is set within the boundaries of the mesa. It is a replication of the real shape and form of the mesa and is modeled to a suitable scale which brings out the short-grass prairie habitat next to a rivulet. Stuffed and mounted animals on display are the ones found in the mesa, including eagle, vulture, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, mountain lion, prairie dog, jackrabbit and badger. An ephemeral lake is also on display in a cross section format. Stargarzers gather each October near Black Mesa for the annual Okie-Tex Star Party.</p><br>
<p>Cadbury Castle, formerly known as Camalet, is a Bronze and Iron Age hillfort in the civil parish of South Cadbury in the English county of Somerset. It is a scheduled monument and has been associated with King Arthur&#39;s legendary court at "Camelot".</p><br>
<p>The hillfort is formed by a 7.28 hectare plateau surrounded by ramparts on the surrounding slopes of the limestone Cadbury Hill. The site has been excavated in the late 19th and early 20th century by James Bennett and Harold St George Gray. More recent examination of the site was conducted in the 1960s by Leslie Alcock and since 1992 by the South Cadbury Environs Project. These have revealed artifacts from human occupation and use from the Neolithic through the Bronze and Iron Ages. The site was reused by the Roman forces and again from c. 470 until some time after 580. In the 11th century, it temporarily housed a Saxon mint. Evidence of various buildings at the site has been unearthed, including a "Great Hall", round and rectangular house foundations, metalworking, and a possible sequence of small rectangular temples or shrines.</p><br>
<h2>Background</h2><br>
<p>Hillforts developed in the Late Bronze and Early Iron ages, around the start of the 1st millennium BC. The reason for their emergence in prehistoric Britain and their purpose has been a subject of debate. It has been argued that they could have been military sites constructed in response to invasion from continental Europe, sites built by invaders, or a military reaction to social tensions caused by an increasing population and consequent pressure on agriculture. The dominant view since the 1960s has been that the increasing use of iron led to social changes in Britain. Deposits of iron ore were located in different places from the tin and copper ore necessary to make bronze and, as a result, trading patterns shifted. The old elites lost their economic and social status and power passed into the hands of a new group of people.</p><br>
<p>Archaeologist Barry Cunliffe believes that population increase still played a role and has stated that "the forts provided defensive possibilities for the community at those times when the stress of an increasing population burst out into open warfare. But I would not see them as having been built because there was a state of war. They would be functional as defensive strongholds when there were tensions and undoubtedly some of them were attacked and destroyed, but this was not the only, or even the most significant, factor in their construction".</p><br>
<h2>Early occupation of the site</h2><br>
<p>The earliest settlement on the site is represented by pits and post holes dated with Neolithic pottery and flints. These are the remains of a small agricultural settlement which was unenclosed. Bones recovered from the site have been radiocarbon dated to 3500 and 3300 BC. A bank under the later Iron Age defences is likely to be a lynchet or terrace derived from early ploughing of the hilltop. The site was also occupied in the Late Bronze Age, from which ovens have been identified. Radical revisions of the Bronze Age archaeology on the lower slopes resulted from discoveries during excavations and survey work by the South Cadbury Environs Project. Finds include the first Bronze Age shield from an excavation in northwest Europe, an example of the distinctive Yetholm-type. Carbon dating implies that the shield was deposited in the 10th century BC, although metallurgical evidence suggests that it was manufactured two centuries earlier. A metal-working building and associated enclosure were discovered 2 km south east of the hillfort, roughly contemporary with the period of manufacture.</p><br>
<p>Human occupation continued throughout the Iron Age. A stone enclosure was constructed around 300 BC with timber revetting, and ploughing ceased within the hilltop site. Excavations have shown the signs of four and six post rectangular buildings which were gradually replaced with roundhouses. Large ramparts and elaborate timber defences were constructed and refortified over the following centuries. Excavation revealed round and rectangular house foundations, metalworking, and a possible sequence of small rectangular temples or shrines, indicating permanent oppidum-like occupation. Excavations were undertaken by local clergyman James Bennett in 1890 and Harold St George Gray in 1913, followed by major work led by archaeologist Leslie Alcock from 1966–1970. The finds from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, exploring the ramparts and southwestern gate structure, represent one of the deepest and most complex Iron Age stratigraphic sequences excavated in southern Britain.</p><br>
<h2>Castle</h2><br>
<p>During the first century BC additional lines of bank and ditch were constructed turning it into a multivallate hillfort which is now known as the castle. There is evidence that the fort was violently taken in around AD 43 and that the defences were further slighted later in the 1st century after the construction of a Roman army barracks on the hilltop. Excavations of the southwest gate in 1968 and 1969 revealed evidence for one or more severe violent episodes, associated with weaponry and destruction by fire. Whereas the excavator, Leslie Alcock, believed this to have been dated to around AD 70, Richard Tabor argues for a date associated with the initial invasion, either AD 43 or 44. Michael Havinden states that it was the site of vigorous resistance by the Durotriges and Dobunni to the second Augusta Legion under the command of Vespasian.</p><br>
<p>There was significant activity at the site during the late third and fourth centuries, which may have included the construction of a Romano-British temple.</p><br>
<h2>Post-Roman occupation</h2><br>
<p>Following the withdrawal of the Roman administration, the site is thought to have been in use from until some time after 580. Alcock revealed a substantial "Great Hall" 20 x and showed that the innermost Iron Age defences had been refortified, providing a defended site double the size of any other known fort of the period. Shards of pottery from the eastern Mediterranean were also found from this period, indicating wide trade links. It therefore seems probable that it was the chief caer ("fort") of a major Brythonic ruler, his family, his teulu (literally meaning "family", but actually meaning "warband"), servants, and horses.</p><br>
<p>Between 1010 and 1020, the hill was reoccupied for use as a temporary Saxon mint, standing in for that at Ilchester. Some small-scale fortification of the site may also have occurred in the 13th century.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Cadbury Castle is located 5 mi north east of Yeovil. It stands on the summit of Cadbury Hill, a limestone hill situated on the southern edge of the Somerset Levels, with flat lowland to the north. The summit is 153 m above sea-level on lias stone.</p><br>
<p>The hill is surrounded by terraced earthwork banks and ditches and a stand of trees. On the north west and south sides there are 4 ramparts, with two remaining on the east. The summit plateau covers 7.28 hectare, and is surrounded by the inner bank which is 1.2 km long. The hill fort is overlooked by Sigwells, a rural plateau rich in archaeological remains. Due to scrub and tree growth the site has been added to the Heritage at Risk register.</p><br>
<h2>Interpretation</h2><br>
<p>The suffix -bury or sometimes byrig&quot byrig is the Anglo-Saxon word meaning "fort" or "town", which is frequently, but not exclusively, used to refer to hill-forts. The first part of the name may come from the River Cam as with nearby villages the villages of West Camel and Queen Camel. Other scholars suggest a derivation from some figure named "Cador" or "Cada". It is one of three sites in Somerset to include the Cadbury name, the others being Cadbury Camp, near Tickenham and Cadbury Hill which is also known as Cadbury-Congresbury to distinguish it from the other sites.</p><br>
<p>Local tradition, first written down by John Leland in 1542, holds that Cadbury Castle was King Arthur&#39;s Camelot. The site and the Great Hall are extensive, and the writer Geoffrey Ashe argued in an article in the journal Speculum that it was the base for the Arthur of history. His opinion has not been widely accepted by students of the period.</p><br>
<p>Militarily, the location makes sense as a place where refugees and the southwestern Brythons of Dumnonia could have defended themselves against attacks from the east. If Arthur was indeed conceived at Tintagel, as tradition asserts, he may have been a prince of Dumnonia and used Cadbury as a stronghold on his eastern frontier.</p><br>
<h2>South Cadbury Environs Project</h2><br>
<p>The recent work on the archaeology of the site and the surrounding area has been carried out by the South Cadbury Environs Project. Since 1992 the project team, which included local volunteers South East Somerset Archaeological and Historical Society and the Yeovil Archaeology and Local History Society, have carried out geophysical surveys including gradiometry and electrical resistivity tomography, ploughzone sampling, test pits, deeper excavations and geographic information system (GIS) approaches. The project had input from academics and archaeologists from the universities of Bristol, Glasgow, Birmingham and Oxford, funded by the Leverhulme Trust and Arts and Humanities Research Council. The project studies the castle and surrounding area up to 8 km away, using landscape sampling,</p><br>
<p>The Sandia Peak Tramway is an aerial tramway located adjacent to Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. It stretches from the northeast edge of the city to the crestline of the Sandia Mountains and has the world&#39;s third longest single span. It is the longest aerial tram in the United States.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Bell Engineering of Lucerne, Switzerland, constructed the tramway. Entering service on May 7, 1966, the tram makes 10,500 trips per year. The tram is a type known as a "double reversible jigback aerial tramway," where "jigback" implies that when one tram car is ascending, the other is descending. Its two cars are capable of carrying 50 passengers each and have numerous safety and backup systems, such as multiple emergency braking systems and a grounding system that ensures the safety of passengers in the event of a lightning strike. New tram cars were installed in 1986, and new track cables in 2009.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The tramway ascends the steep western side of the highest portion of the Sandia Mountains, from a base elevation of 6,559 ft to a top elevation of 10,378 ft. A trip up the mountain takes fifteen minutes to ascend 3,819 ft, and the normal operating speed of the tram is 12 mph. Approximately four "flights" leave every hour from the base and top departure stations. The view from the tram includes all of Albuquerque and roughly 11,000 square miles (28,000 square kilometers) of the New Mexico countryside.</p><br>
<p>The tramway only has two support towers. The first tower, which is 232 ft tall, is situated at an elevation of 7,010 ft above sea level and built as an inclined tower with an inclination angle of 18 degrees. The second, just 80 ft tall, is situated at the end of a major spur of the mountains at an elevation of 8,750 ft and was built by helicopter aid.</p><br>
<p>The longest span is between the second tower and the top terminal. This span is the third longest clear tramway span in the world, at a length of 7,720 ft. Mid-span, the cables are 900 ft above the mountainside. This span passes over Domingo Baca Canyon, part of which is referred to as TWA Canyon. This is the site of the crash of TWA Flight 260 on February 19, 1955, in which the lives of all 16 passengers and crew were lost. While much of the wreckage was removed during construction of the tramway, some still remains on the canyon floor and may be visible to riders of the tram.</p><br>
<h2>Activities on top</h2><br>
<p>At the top of Sandia Peak there are many year-round recreational options. The High Finance Restaurant is directly adjacent to the top tram terminal and offers scenic views, but is being remodeled and is closed until the summer of 2018. Many Forest Service trails offer recreational hiking, backpacking and nature hikes to visitors. Additionally, the tram terminal is located at the top of Sandia Peak Ski Area which is on the opposite side of the mountain from the tramway and the city. Skiing is available in the wintertime, and during the summer over 26 mi of mountain biking trails are available. Bikes cannot be brought on tram cars. There is no public transportation in this area of Albuquerque; the tram is only accessible by personal vehicle, taxi, Uber, Lyft, or ABQ Trolley X: TRAMsporter.</p><br>
<p>Spring of the Bosna river  is a public park, featuring a spring of the River Bosna, at the foothills of the Mount Igman on the outskirts of Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Vrelo Bosne, in the municipality of Ilidža, is one of the country&#39;s popular natural landmarks and provides a quiet escape from an otherwise busy city life. A Roman Bridge is located not far from Vrelo Bosne on the Bosna river in the Ilidža municipality, which was built sometime between 1530 and 1550 from the original Roman stones and ruins of the bridge that stood there during the Roman period used to connect the Romans with the village of Aquae Sulphurae at the time. Ilidža is also known to have been an archaeological site dating 2400–2000BC.</p><br>
<p>The spring water at Vrelo Bosne is drinkable, however not recommended. On a typical year more than 60,000 tourists visit the park.</p><br>
<p>The park is usually entered by foot or, for a reasonable price, by horse-carriage via the 3 kilometer straight main avenue (Velika Aleja) leading into it. The avenue itself contains traditional buildings from the Austro-Hungarian-era offering a peek into the luxuries of the past.</p><br>
<p>The paths and roads inside the park are ideal for walks and bicycle riding and give the visitors the opportunity to take a closer look at the bubbling streams and waterfalls. Outdoor cafés and restaurants are available offering drinks and food but opening times vary from season to season. Typical animals are ducks and swans among others.</p><br>
<p>During the Bosnian War the park was not maintained and trees were chopped and used for heating by the local citizens. In 2000 the park was restored to its former look by local youths led by an international ecological organization.</p><br>
<p>Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team is known to hold their training sessions at the Vrelo Bosne park. Team also stays at near by Hotel Hercegovina.</p><br>
<h2>Entry</h2><br>
<p>Adults: 2 KM (local currency: convertible mark)</p><br>
<p>Pensioners, students, disabled: 1 km</p><br>
<p>Children from 7–16 years old: 1 km</p><br>
<p>Children with special needs or up to 7 years old: Entry free</p><br>
<p>Money earned through park entry fees are used to up-keep the park by KJU Zaštićena prirodna područja Kantona Sarajevo.</p><br>
<p>Saint Marys College, also known as St. Marys College of Madonna University, is a college located in Orchard Lake Village, Michigan. St. Marys College shares its campus with St. Marys Preparatory and SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary. It is located on the former site of the Michigan Military Academy. It was founded in 1885 by Fr. Joseph Dabrowski and transferred in 2003 to become St. Mary&#39;s College of and the Orchard Lake Campus of Madonna University. Enrollment before the transfer was about 130 and specialized in Polish and Polish-American studies.</p><br>
<h2>St. Mary's College of Madonna University</h2><br>
<p>St. Marys College is now a college of Madonna University, much in the way the College of Humanities or the College of Sciences is of any university. Baccalaureate degrees are offered in Sacred Theology, Philosophy, and Polish Studies. St. Marys College is host to the Catholic Integrated Core Curriculum, a set of courses taken in lieu of general education courses that seeks to integrate Faith and Reason as outlined in Pope John Paul II&#39;s encycilical Fides et Ratio, specifically through the study of philosophy, theology, and the great works of Western Civilization (literature, sculpture, etc.).</p><br>
<h2>Orchard Lake Campus of Madonna University</h2><br>
<p>More widely, the campus is referred to as the Orchard Lake Campus of Madonna University. Courses taught cover a wide-array of subjects including psychology, biology, business, and computer science.</p><br>
<h2>Notable alumni</h2><br>
<p>Dale Joseph Melczek, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Gary, Indiana.</p><br>
<p>((Kerry Bentivolio)), Member of the USA House of Representatives from Michigan&#39;s 11th district.</p><br>
<p>The Great Western Tiers are a collection of mountain bluffs that form the northern edge of the Central Highlands plateau in Tasmania, Australia. The bluffs are contained within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Site.</p><br>
<p>The bluffs stretch northwest to southeast over 100 km from the 1,420 m Western Bluff near the town of Mole Creek to the 1,210 m Millers Bluff, approximately 25 km west of Campbell Town.</p><br>
<h2>Features</h2><br>
<p>The tiers form an escarpment between the high, rocky, sparsely inhabited central plateau and the lower land of the Meander Valley and the northern midlands. The edge of the tiers have prominent cliffs and columns of Jurassic dolerite. The highest peak in the tiers is the 1,444 m Ironstone Mountain. Unlike most of the bluffs this mountain is not visible from the Meander Valley, but is south of the escarpment. The dolerite is so prominent as the older rocks that overlay them are softer and have been eroded away. In places dolerite columns have collapsed into scree slopes. Many walking tracks ascend the face of the Tiers.</p><br>
<h2>Peaks</h2><br>
<p>The peaks and bluffs of the Great Western Tiers include:</p><br>
<p>Ironstone Mountain, at 1,444 m</p><br>
<p>Mother Cummings Peak, at 1,255 m</p><br>
<p>Neals Bluff</p><br>
<p>Panorama Hill</p><br>
<p>Mount Parmeener</p><br>
<p>Western Bluff, at 1,420 m</p><br>
<p>Dry&#39;s Bluff</p><br>
<p>Quamby Bluff, at 1,227 m</p><br>
<p>Projection Bluff</p><br>
<p>Millers Bluff, at 1,210 m</p><br>
<p>Billop Bluff</p><br>
<p>Mount Blackwood</p><br>
<p>Cass Lake is on the main branch of the Clinton River.</p><br>
<p>Upstream from Cass Lake is 243-acre Loon Lake. Cass Lake also connects with 363-acre Elizabeth Lake.</p><br>
<p>Downstream from Cass Lake is the 532-acre Sylvan Lake.</p><br>
<p>Cass Lake is the largest and deepest lake in Oakland County, and is in the northern Metro Detroit region of southeastern Michigan.</p><br>
<h2>Largest and deepest Oakland County lakes</h2><br>
<p>The ten largest lakes in Oakland County are:</p><br>
<p>1. Cass Lake (Waterford Twp.) 1,280 acres</p><br>
<p>2. Kent Lake (Milford Twp.) 1,200 acres</p><br>
<p>3. Orchard Lake (West Bloomfield Twp.) 795 acres</p><br>
<p>4. Walled Lake (Commerce Twp.) 670 acres</p><br>
<p>5. Pontiac Lake (Waterford Twp) 640 acres</p><br>
<p>6. White Lake (White Lake Twp.) 540 acres</p><br>
<p>7. Sylvan Lake (Waterford Twp.) 532 acres</p><br>
<p>8. Lake Orion (Orion Twp.) 506 acres</p><br>
<p>9. Lake Angelus (Auburn Hills) 477 acres</p><br>
<p>10. Union Lake (Commerce Twp.) 465 acres</p><br>
<p>The ten deepest lakes in Oakland County are:</p><br>
<p>1. Cass Lake (Waterford Twp. and West Bloomfield Twp.) 123 feet</p><br>
<p>2. Maceday Lake (Waterford Twp.) 117 feet</p><br>
<p>3t. Orchard Lake (West Bloomfield Twp.) 110 feet</p><br>
<p>3t. Union Lake (Commerce Twp.) 110 feet</p><br>
<p>5. Walnut Lake (West Bloomfield Twp.) 101 feet</p><br>
<p>6t. Van Norman Lake (Independence Twp. and Waterford Twp.) 90 feet</p><br>
<p>6t. Pine Lake (West Bloomfield Twp.) 90 feet</p><br>
<p>8. Lake Angelus (Auburn Hills) 88 feet</p><br>
<p>9t. Loon Lake (Waterford Twp.) 73 feet</p><br>
<p>9t. Silver Lake (Waterford Twp.) 73 feet</p><br>
<h2>Namesake</h2><br>
<p>Cass Lake was named after former Michigan governor Lewis Cass.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Cass Lake covers 1,280 acres (5 km²) and has a maximum depth of 123 ft (37 m).</p><br>
<p>It is bordered by the cities, villages, and townships of Waterford Township, West Bloomfield Township, Orchard Lake Village, and Keego Harbor.</p><br>
<h3>Recreation</h3><br>
<p>It is a popular public lake in the Metro Detroit region. The lake is home to the Pontiac Yacht Club.</p><br>
<p>Dodge No. 4 State Park is located on northeastern Cass Lake, with access via West Bloomfield Township and Waterford Township.</p><br>
<p>Nemea  is an ancient site in the northeastern part of the Peloponnese, in Greece. Formerly part of the territory of Cleonae in Argolis, it is today situated in the regional unit of Corinthia. The small village of Archaia Nemea  is immediately southwest of the archaeological site, while the new town of Nemea lies to the west.</p><br>
<p>Here in Greek mythology Heracles overcame the Nemean Lion of the Lady Hera, and here during Antiquity the Nemean Games were played, in three sequence, ending about 235 BCE, celebrated in the eleven Nemean odes of Pindar.</p><br>
<h2>Myth, legend and history</h2><br>
<p>In Greek mythology, Nemea was ruled by king Lycurgus and queen Eurydice. Nemea was famous in Greek myth as the home of the Nemean Lion, which was killed by the hero Heracles, and as the place where the infant Opheltes, lying on a bed of parsley, was killed by a serpent while his nurse fetched water for the Seven on their way from Argos to Thebes. The Seven founded the Nemean Games in his memory, according to its aition, or founding myth, accounting for the crown of victory being made of parsley or the wild form of celery and for the black robes of the judges, interpreted as a sign of mourning. The Nemean Games were documented from 573 BC, or earlier, at the sanctuary of Zeus at Nemea.</p><br>
<p>At the temenos, the grave of Opheltes was surrounded by open-air altars and enclosed within a stone wall. The sanctuary&#39;s necessary spring was named Adrasteia: Pausanias wondered whether it had the name because an "Adrastos" had "discovered" it, but Adrasteia, the "inescapable one", was a nurse of the infant Zeus in Crete. The tumulus nearby was credited as the burial mound of his father, and the men of Argos had the privilege of naming the priest of Nemean Zeus, Pausanias was informed when he visited in the late 2nd century CE. In his time the temple, which he noted was "worth seeing", stood in a grove of cypresses; its roof had fallen in and there was no cult image within the temple. Three limestone columns of the Temple of Nemean Zeus of about 330 BC have stood since their construction, and two more were reconstructed in 2002. As of late 2007, four more are being re-erected. Three orders of architecture were employed at this temple, which stands at the end of the Classic period and presages this and other developments of Hellenistic architecture, such as the slenderness (a height of 6.34 column diameters) of the Doric columns of the exterior. The site around the temple has been excavated in annual campaigns since 1973: the great open-air altar, baths, and ancient accommodations for visitors have been unearthed. The temple stands on the site of an Archaic period temple, of which only a foundation wall is still visible. The stadion has recently been discovered. It is notable for its well-preserved vaulted entrance tunnel, dated to about 320 BC, with ancient graffiti on the walls.</p><br>
<p>The material discovered in the excavations is on display in an on-site museum constructed as a part of the University of California&#39;s excavations.</p><br>
<h3>The Battle of the Nemea River</h3><br>
<p>In 394 BC the Battle of the Nemea River was fought between Sparta and her allies the Achaians, Eleians, Mantineians, and the Tegeates against a coalition of Boetians, Euboeans, Athenians, Corinthians, and Argives. This was to be the last clear-cut victory that Sparta enjoyed. The tactics were similar to all other Greek hoplite battles, except that when the armies were arrayed, with the Spartans having the customary honour of being on the right, the army drifted right as it advanced. This was not good for the Spartan allies, as it exposed the soldiers to a flanking attack, but it gave the Spartans the opportunity to use their superior coordination and discipline to roll up the flank of the Athenians, who were stationed opposite.</p><br>
<p>The result of the battle was a victory for Sparta, even though her allies on the left suffered significant losses. This willingness to accept losses on the left flank for flanking position on the right was a dramatic change from typical conservative hoplite military tactics.</p><br>
<p>The Great Lake is a natural lake and man-made reservoir that is located in the central northern region of Tasmania, Australia.</p><br>
<h2>Location and features</h2><br>
<p>Fed by the Pine Rivulet and Breton Rivulet, the original natural freshwater lake, much smaller in size than its current 176 km&sup2; surface area, was expanded as a result of the 1922 construction of Miena Dam #2 at its southern outflow into the Shannon River. This dam is considered to be of high heritage value by The Institution of Engineers Australia.</p><br>
<p>Miena Dam #2 created the once-famous Shannon Rise, in the 500-metre section of the Shannon River between the dam and Shannon Lagoon. The hatching of thousands of caddis moths in early summer, attracted large numbers of trout and fishermen.</p><br>
<p>In 1967, a sloping-core rock-fill dam was built just downstream of Miena Dam #2 to increase the maximum-capacity level, destroying the Shannon Rise. It was raised a further six metres in 1982, causing Miena Dam #2 to be periodically submerged.</p><br>
<p>After Lake Pedder, the Great Lake is the state&#39;s second largest freshwater lake.</p><br>
<p>At 1,030 m above sea level, the lake&#39;s uses include hydro-electric power, fishing, and tourism. Water from the lake flows into Poatina Power Station to generate hydro-electric power.</p><br>
<p>The nearby towns of Liaweenee and Miena are popular holiday shack destinations for local tourists, despite the area&#39;s reputation as being one of the coldest places in the generally mild-weathered state. During the winter months, when the weather is hardly conducive to camping, the population of these two small towns drops to two or three hundred. Parts of the lake surface have frozen during July in some years.</p><br>
<p>The Lake Highway or Highland Lakes Road runs along the west side of the lake and is sometimes snowed under in winter.</p><br>
<p>Powelton Village is a neighborhood of mostly Victorian, mostly twin homes in the West Philadelphia section of the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a national historic district which is part of University City. It extends north from Market Street to Spring Garden Street, east to 32nd Street, west to 40th and Spring Garden Streets, and to 44th and Market Streets.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Powelton Village takes its name from the Powel Family, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Welsh colonialists who held extensive estates in the area. As in other parts of West Philadelphia, in the late 1800s trolley lines opened the area up to urbanization. Powelton soon became a choice residential spot for Philadelphia industrial tycoons. Powelton&#39;s luster began to wane by the 1920s, and by the 1940s the neighborhood was populated by low-income families and infested with "bottom" gangs, whose members lived in a stretch paralleling Market St. known as the "Bottom." In the 1960s the Village was home to many members of the counterculture movement, and Powelton today enjoys a strong political activism and anarchist tradition, as well as a healthy multiethnic pluralism.</p><br>
<p>In addition to the Powelton Historic District, the Bell Telephone Exchange Building, The Powelton, Frederick A. Poth Houses, and John Shedwick Development Houses are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<h2>The Neighborhood</h2><br>
<p>Commercial activity in Powelton is concentrated on Lancaster Avenue, particularly between 35th Street and 37th Street. The avenue is lined with shops, restaurants, and various other retail establishments. Many local businesses benefit from both Powelton residents and college students. Mad Greeks, Powelton Pizza, Village Pizza, California Pizza, and Eds are all popular eating places. Lancaster Avenue near 36th Street has also become home to upscale Mexican and Thai restaurants. On the avenue near 37th are the newer Stan Deli and Green Line Café.</p><br>
<p>Residential streets are mostly lined with Victorian twin houses, some of which are traditional family homes, while others have been subdivided into apartments. Detached houses, row houses, and apartment buildings also dot the neighborhood. An abundance of trees, many of which are historic, along with gardens maintained by many community residents, give the neighborhood a distinct feel. This aesthetic environment, along with the proximity to retail establishments and nearby universities, has resulted in increased home values in recent years, with some homes selling for several hundred thousand dollars.</p><br>
<p>The southern end of Powelton Village includes property owned by Drexel University. Many students from Drexel live off-campus in Poweltons urban-structured row-house apartments because of the short walk to campus. The Powelton community has had a love-hate relationship with Drexel University. The Powelton Village Civic Association voices its members concerns to local authorities. One of the members&#39; concerns included the loss of their view of Center City, prompting Drexel University to limit the height of their new buildings. In recent developments the Powelton Civic Association have begun open attacks and complaints against local landlords in the neighborhood who rent to students in the neighborhood.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>Powelton is easily accessed by automobile and public transportation. The neighborhood is close to Interstate 76, and several major streets, including Market, Spring Garden, and 34th, cross the neighborhood. Bike lanes run along Haverford Avenue, Spring Garden Street and its bridge, Lancaster Avenue, and on 38th and 34th Streets south of Lancaster.</p><br>
<p>The neighborhood is close to two subway stops on the Market-Frankford Line, located at 34th and Market and 40th and Market. Powelton is also easily accessed by trolley: the route 10 trolley runs on 36th Street between the Ludlow Street portal and Lancaster Avenue, continuing west on Lancaster Avenue. Additionally, there are two underground trolley stops close to Powelton: 33rd and Market, serving all trolley lines, and 36th and Sansom, serving all lines except route 10. Bus route 31 runs through the neighborhood, traveling north on 33rd, Baring, and 35th, and south on 37th, Baring, and 34th. Route 43 runs east on Spring Garden Street and west on Haverford Avenue. The neighborhood is adjacent to 30th Street Station, which serves all Northeast Corridor trains, the New Jersey Transit Atlantic City Line, and all Regional Rail lines, as well as the Market-Frankford Line and the subway-surface trolley lines.</p><br>
<h2>Arts and Culture</h2><br>
<p>Several art and photo galleries have opened along Lancaster Avenue from 36th to 40th. The Community Education Center, at 35th and Lancaster, holds various community events and gatherings. Spiral Q Puppet Theater is located on Spring Garden Street between 31st and 32nd Streets. Nearby destinations include The Bridge, a movie theater at 40th and Walnut; and the Philadelphia Zoo at 34th and Girard.</p><br>
<p>One signature event is Lancaster Avenue&#39;s "Second Fridays," so named because it takes place on the second Friday of every month. Shops and galleries are open later and often have various specials, and the event often features live music.</p><br>
<h2>Education and Hospitality</h2><br>
<p>Public education choices include the Samuel Powel Elementary School at 36th and Powelton, the Drew School at 37th and Lancaster, and University City High School at 36th and Filbert. The University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University both have significant presences in the neighborhood, as well as in adjacent areas to the south.</p><br>
<p>To serve these two universities, several hotels are located nearby, including the Sheraton, located at 36th and Chestnut. In Powelton proper, there are even a couple of bed-and-breakfasts, including the Cornerstone at 33rd and Baring.</p><br>
<p>Livingstone Falls  — named for the explorer David Livingstone — are a succession of enormous rapids on the lower course of the Congo River in west equatorial Africa, downstream from Malebo Pool in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Livingstone Falls consist of a series of rapids dropping 900 ft in 220 mi. They start downstream Malebo Pool and end in Matadi in Bas-Congo. The Congo River has the second largest flow rate in the world after the Amazon, which has no falls or rapids (except near its sources). The lowest rapids of Livingstone Falls, therefore, are the world&#39;s largest waterfall in terms of flow rate — provided one accepts these rapids as being a waterfall. An interesting aspect of the 220 mi long Livingstone Falls is the width of the channel. The channel is very narrow: in several stretches the channel width is less than 300 metres and for the majority of the length the channel is less than 800 metres wide. This is an extraordinarily narrow channel since the river flow rate typically exceeds 42,000 m3/s.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Although he explored the upper Congo, Livingstone never travelled to this part of the river and the Falls were named in his honour by Henry Morton Stanley. Stanley described the falls as ".the wildest stretch of river that I have ever seen. Take a strip of sea blown over by a hurricane, four miles in length and half a mile in breadth, and a pretty accurate conception of its leaping waves may be obtained. Some of the troughs were 100 yards in length, and from one to the other the mad river plunged. There was first a rush down into the bottom of an immense trough, and then, by its sheer force, the enormous volume would lift itself upward steeply until, gathering itself into a ridge, it suddenly hurled itself 20 or 30 feet straight upward, before rolling down into another trough. If I looked up or down along this angry scene, every interval of 50 or 100 yards of it was marked by wave-towers - their collapse into foam and spray, the mad clash of watery hills, bounding mounds and heaving billows, while the base of either bank, consisting of a long line of piled boulders of massive size, was buried in the tempestuous surf. The roar was tremendous and deafening. I can only compare it to the thunder of an express train through a rock tunnel."</p><br>
<p>Since the falls, which start with the Yellala Falls just above Matadi, are a barrier to navigation on the lower part of the river, the Matadi-Kinshasa Railway was constructed to by-pass them.</p><br>
<p>On an expedition known as Africa-Raft, Philippe de Dieuleveult and six members of his party disappeared during a descent of these rapids around Inga Falls on August 6, 1985.</p><br>
<h2>"Grand Inga" proposed hydroelectric project</h2><br>
<p>Inga Falls on Congo River is a group of rapids (or cataracts) in the latter portion of the Livingstone Falls, 177 mi after the Malebo Pool. The Congo falls ~96 metres within this set of cataracts. The mean annual flow rate of the Congo River at Inga Falls is ~42,000 cubic metres per second. Given this flow rate and the 96 metre fall, it is possible to calculate that the Inga Falls alone has a power potential of ~39.6 GW.</p><br>
<p>In 2014, Inga Falls was the site of two large hydro-electric power plants and is being considered for a much larger hydro-electric power generating station known as Grand Inga. The Grand Inga project, if completed, would be the largest hydro-electric power generating facility on Earth. The current project scope calls for the use of a flow rate ~26,400 cubic metres per second at a net head of ~150 metres; this is equivalent to a generating capacity of ~38.9 GW. This hydro-electric generator would be more than double the current world record holder, which is the Three Gorges facility on the Yangtze River in China.</p><br>
<p>The area of the island, including fringing islets and rocks mainly in the northeast, but also a few smaller ones in the southeast, is 29.38 km&sup2;. The highest elevation is Moumoukai Peak, at an elevation of 516 m.</p><br>
<p>Although Raoul is the only island in the Kermadec group large enough to support settlement, it lacks a safe harbour, and landings from small boats can only be made in calm weather. The island consists of two mountainous areas, one with summits of 516 m and 498 m, and the other with a summit of 465 m, the two separated by a depression which is the caldera of the Raoul volcano.</p><br>
<p>Considering offshore islets and rocks, the northernmost island of New Zealand is Nugent Island, about 100 m in diameter, located 3.6 km northeast of Raoul Island. The coordinates of the northernmost point are 29&deg;13&prime;52&Prime;S latitude, 177&deg;52&prime;09&Prime;W longitude. Napier Island stretches almost as far north as Nugent Island, which reaches just a few metres further north.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Stone implements of the Polynesian type have been found on Raoul Island, and there is indication of a prehistoric settlement (see below). But the island was uninhabited when first sighted by Western sailors.</p><br>
<p>The island was named after Joseph Raoul, quartermaster of the Recherche, when it was sighted on 16 March 1793. Captain William Raven of the whaler Britannia sighted the island on 6 March 1796 and called it Sunday Island, a name which was subsequently in common usage. Captain Henry Mangles Denham of HMS Herald charted the island in 1854.</p><br>
<p>The last regular occupants, Tom Bell and his wife Frederica, spent thirty-six years on the island before the New Zealand government evacuated them in 1914. A landing party sent to investigate the island found out how hasty the evacuation of the Bells was – a 1914 calendar was still pinned to the kitchen wall and the familys furniture, cutlery, and childs toys had remained in place.</p><br>
<p>From 27 May to 16 June 1917, the German raider Wolf, under the command of Korvettenkapitän Karl August Nerger, anchored in the protected bay to undertake engine overhaul and maintenance. During this period Wolf captured the New Zealand steamship Wairuna (3,950 tons) and the American sailing bark Winslow (570 tons), commandeering all cargo and coal from both ships.</p><br>
<p>The New Zealand government has permanently manned Raoul Island Station since 1937. It includes a government meteorological and radio station and hostel for Department of Conservation (DOC) officers and volunteers. The station stands on the northern terraces of the island, about 50 m in elevation above the cliffs of Fleetwood Bluff.</p><br>
<p>When the New Zealand government established a weather and radio station on the island in 1939 it made Raoul the official name, probably to avoid confusion with a number of Sunday islands in Australia. Raoul Island Station represents the northernmost outpost of New Zealand.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Two Holocene calderas are found at Raoul. The older caldera cuts the center of Raoul Island is about 2.5 x long and wide respectively. Denham caldera, formed during a major dacitic explosive eruption about 2200 years ago, truncated the western side of the island and is 6.5 x long and wide respectively. Its long axis is parallel to the tectonic fabric of the Havre Trough that lies west of the volcanic arc.</p><br>
<p>Historical eruptions at Raoul during the 19th and 20th centuries have sometimes occurred simultaneously from both calderas, and have consisted of small-to-moderate phreatic eruptions, some of which formed ephemeral islands in Denham caldera. A 240 m high unnamed submarine cone, one of several located along a fissure on the lower NNE flank of Raoul volcano, has also erupted during historical time, and satellitic vents at Raoul are concentrated along two parallel NNE-trending lineaments.</p><br>
<p>The Denham caldera was named for the nearby Denham Bay, itself named by Capt Henry Mangles Denham in who came to complete a (chart) survey of the island on 2 July 1854. His son Fleetwood James Denham (16yrs) died from a tropical fever, and was buried near the beach at the head of Denham Bay, where a number of the grass-grown graves of former settlers were. The brass plaque heading this grave has been preserved.</p><br>
<p>Three small lakes, Blue Lake (1.17 km&sup2, about 40% overgrown), Green Lake (160,000 m&sup2;) and Tui Lake (5,000 m&sup2, drinking water quality) are located in the northern caldera of Raoul Island. The plains surrounding the lakes are called Pumice Flats.</p><br>
<h3>Climate</h3><br>
<p>Raoul Island has a humid subtropical climate.</p><br>
<h2>Flora and fauna</h2><br>
<p>The scientific categorisation of the flora and fauna of the island began in 1854 when, captained by Henry Mangles Denham, arrived to complete the charting of the island. He arrived on the 2nd and was occupied till 24 July, during which time he frequently had to move the ship on account of the rough weather experienced. William Grant Milne and John MacGillivray, naturalists on board the Herald, made a small collection of plants on Raoul. This was forwarded by Captain Denham to Sir W. Hooker, and was described by Sir Joseph Hooker in the Journal of the Linnean Society for 1857.</p><br>
<p>A scientific expedition was undertaken by a group of naturalists to the Kermadec Islands in 1908. The expedition established its base at Denham Bay. During that expedition one of the naturalists, W. L. Wallace, discovered numerous new insect species including the beetle Saprosites raoulensis.</p><br>
<p>Raoul is part of the Kermadec Islands subtropical moist forests ecoregion and is largely covered with closed-canopy forest, predominantly of the evergreen Kermadec pōhutukawa (Metrosideros kermadecensis) and the Kermadec nikau palm (Rhopalostylis baueri, formerly described as Rhopalostylis cheesemanii). It is just far enough south that the occasional fertile coconut from Polynesia that washes up on shore and takes root will not survive in the longterm due to a lack of warmth. The island has no native land mammals and was formerly home to vast colonies of seabirds who nested in the forests. The islands may once have had a species of megapode (based on early settler records) and a subspecies of kereru. Currently native landbirds on the island include the Kermadec red-crowned parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae cyanurus), the Australasian harrier, pukeko, tui and several introduced species. The island forms part of the Kermadec Islands Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because it is an important site for nesting seabirds.</p><br>
<p>Polynesian visitors introduced the Polynesian rat in the 14th century and Norway rats, cats and goats were introduced by European and American visitors in the 19th and 20th centuries. The rats and cats greatly reduced the seabird colonies, which mostly withdrew to offshore islets, and exterminated the red-crowned parakeet, the last confirmed record of resident parakeets for over a century being made in 1836. Although the goats did not eliminate the tree canopy as they did on other islands, they greatly reduced the understory vegetation and were removed in 1986. The Department of Conservation eradicated rats and cats between 2002 and 2006, following which red-crowned parakeets soon returned naturally, presumably from the Herald Islets, 2 – away. The parakeets had been absent from the island for 150 years and their natural return was a notable event in parrot conservation.</p><br>
<p>There are numerous invasive plant species on the island and a large scale weeding programme involving teams of DOC workers and volunteers has been under way for a number of years in an attempt to eradicate them.</p><br>
<p>The island is part of the Kermadec Islands Marine Reserve, New Zealand&#39;s largest marine reserve, which was created in 1990.</p><br>
<h2>Satellite islands and rocks</h2><br>
<p>The two largest satellite islands are North Island and South Island of Meyer Islands.</p><br>
<p>Islands and rocks in the northeast of Raoul Island</p><br>
<p>Fishing Rock</p><br>
<p>Egeria Rock</p><br>
<p>Meyer Islands</p><br>
<p>* North Island</p><br>
<p>* South Island</p><br>
<p>Napier</p><br>
<p>Nugent Island (northernmost island of New Zealand)</p><br>
<p>Herald Islets</p><br>
<p>* Dayrell Island</p><br>
<p>* Chanter Islands</p><br>
<p>** Chanter (North) Island</p><br>
<p>** South Island</p><br>
<p>** West Island</p><br>
<p>Islands and rocks in the southwest of Raoul Island</p><br>
<p>Milne Islands</p><br>
<p>Dougall Rocks</p><br>
<h2>2006 eruption</h2><br>
<p>On 17 March 2006 at 8:21 a.m. NZDT, a 40-second long volcanic eruption occurred at the Green Lake. At the time, Mark Kearney, a 33-year-old DOC worker, was at the crater taking water temperature measurements. A 5 hectare area around Green Lake was affected with ash, mud and boulders. Two DOC workers were forced to turn back after going to the crater to search for Kearney.</p><br>
<p>Following the eruption, DOC decided to evacuate the remaining five staff members. A Mil Mi-8 helicopter and Piper PA-31 Navajo aircraft took off from Taupo at 11 a.m. that morning. They arrived at the island in the late afternoon and undertook a 45-minute search for Kearney but no sign was seen. The evacuated staff members were brought back to Auckland that evening.</p><br>
<p>A Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion made an overflight on 21 March to provide further information on how safe it is to approach Green Lake. The volcanologists aboard decided the area was still unsafe, and that the crater lake had risen by about 8 m compared to measurements taken on 17 March. There was no cloud or ash plume.</p><br>
<p>A group of police, the five evacuated workers, three other DOC staff and scientific staff left Tauranga on 18 March for the three-day boat trip to Raoul aboard the RV Braveheart to recover Kearney&#39;s body. They were able to undertake a limited search, but decided that it was extremely unlikely that Kearney survived given the amount of devastation in the area around Green Lake. The Braveheart began the journey back to the mainland on 25 March, with three of the DOC workers staying on the island to continue research. The three were joined by the other four evacuated workers at the start of May 2006. Two of the three will return to the mainland after the handover.</p><br>
<p>Five hours after the eruption, the Aura satellite passed over and found an estimated 200 t of sulfur dioxide had been released. This confirmed that there were magmatic gases in the eruption, and the presence of degassing magma within the volcano. By the end of April, the activity in the area had decreased significantly and the "Alert Level" was lowered to 1.</p><br>
<p>HMNZS Te Mana left for Raoul on 24 August 2006 on a resupply mission. Also on board were Kearney&#39;s sister, Merryn McDermott; three representatives of the Ngāti Kurī iwi; and Chris Carter, the Minister of Conservation. During a service held on 28 August, the Ngāti Kurī representatives performed a tapu lifting ceremony. A plaque was erected to honour Kearney. Te Mana also allowed some volcanic monitoring to be undertaken using its SH-2G Super Seasprite helicopter. During a dawn flight, sample bottles were filled with crater lake water.</p><br>
<p>A report by the New Zealand Department of Labour into the death was released on 14 October 2006. It cleared the Conservation Department and Geological and Nuclear Sciences of any negligence related to the death of Kearney. The report stated that the eruption was unpredictable and there was no indication of imminent seismic activity.</p><br>
<p>As a geographically active hotspot, the Kermadec Islands also experience frequent earthquakes, the most recently significant of which occurred at 22:39 NZST on 16 May 2006. The epicentre was approximately 290 km SSW from Raoul and measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, and as such is classified as a major earthquake by the United States Geological Survey. It was felt as far away as Christchurch, New Zealand some 1,500 km from the epicentre. Also of note on 31 January 2007 at 4:15:55 NZST a Magnitude 6.5 (Strong) earthquake shook the island. The epicenter was approximately 40 km S of Raoul and 10 km below the seabed. On 9 December 2007 at 8.28pm NZST a magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook the area, centered approximately 350 km north of Raoul Island at a depth of 188 km. On 30 September 2008 at 3:19:31 NZST a magnitude 7.0 earthquake centered 70 km S of Raoul occurred, with an approximate depth of 35 km. More recently on October 22, 2011 at 05:57:17 NZST a Magnitude 7.4 earthquake originating at 28.941S 176.045W at a depth of 39 km occurred according to the United States Geological Survey.</p><br>
<h2>July 2011 7.6 earthquake</h2><br>
<p>7 July 2011 – 7:03AM. A 7.6 Magnitude earthquake occurred at a depth of 24 km, 211 km east of Raoul Island. 7 July 2011 – 8.51 AM Pacific Tsunami Warning Center scientist Barry Hirshorn told Newstalk ZB the quake generated a 1.9 metre tsunami at Raoul Island.</p><br>
<h2>October 2011 7.4 earthquake</h2><br>
<p>22 October 2011 – 5.57PM. A 7.4 magnitude earthquake occurred at a depth of 45 m, 230 kmeast of Raoul Island.</p><br>
<p>The Ministry of Civil Defence had issued the advisory while it assessed the severity of the threat to New Zealand. The Ministry was warning people in coastal areas to stay off beaches and out of the water. People were advised to avoid sightseeing and remain on alert in case the earthquake has generated a tsunami, however by mid-morning warnings had lifted.</p><br>
<h2>Mihai Muncus-Nagy</h2><br>
<p>Department of Conservation volunteer Mihai Muncus-Nagy, a 33 year old biologist from Romania, went missing on Raoul Island on 2 January 2012. He went to Raoul at the end of October 2011. His vehicle and gear was found close to where he was carrying out water temperature readings on the morning of 2 January 2012.</p><br>
<p>The remaining staff and volunteers searched the shore, but had not found any further signs of him. A helicopter was sent to Raoul by the Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) from Taupo, New Zealand to carry out an aerial search. A DOC boat was also used in the search.</p><br>
<p>Muncus-Nagy has been presumed drowned.</p><br>
<p>The San Rafael Swell is a large geologic feature located in south-central Utah about 30 mi west of Green River, Utah. The San Rafael Swell, approximately 75 by, consists of a giant dome-shaped anticline of sandstone, shale, and limestone that was pushed up during the Paleocene Laramide Orogeny 60-40 million years ago. Since that time, infrequent but powerful flash floods have eroded the sedimentary rocks into numerous valleys, canyons, gorges, mesas and buttes. The swell is part of the Colorado Plateau physiographic region.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Interstate 70 divides the Swell into northern and southern sections, and provides the only interstate access to the region. The swell lies entirely within Emery County.</p><br>
<p>The northern Swell is drained mainly by the San Rafael River, while the southern Swell is drained mainly by Muddy Creek which eventually joins the Fremont River to become Dirty Devil River northeast of Hanksville, Utah. The Dirty Devil River flows southward into the Colorado River, while the San Rafael River joins the Green River before it also flows into the Colorado. Muddy Creek cuts into the western edge of the Swell, exits at Muddy Creek Gorge, and then flows across the Blue Hills Badlands near Caineville to its confluence with the Fremont River.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The San Rafael Swell was formed when deeply buried Precambrian dike swarm rocks faulted, or broke, during the Laramide orogeny, about 60 million years ago. These "basement" rocks below the present-day Swell moved upwards relative to the surrounding areas and caused the overlying sedimentary rocks to fold into a dome-like shape called an anticline. The resulting structure is analogous to a series of blankets draped over a box.</p><br>
<p>Since that time, the relentless force of running water has eroded the geologic layers, resulting in older rocks becoming exposed in the middle of the Swell, and younger rocks exposed around the edges. Many of the most impressive landforms are composed of more resistant rocks, including the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, Jurassic Wingate Sandstone, and Permian Coconino Sandstone. The folding is much steeper on the eastern edge of the Swell than in the west, and this eastern edge is referred to as the San Rafael Reef.</p><br>
<p>Both the San Rafael River and Muddy Creek drain out of the high Wasatch Plateau and the cut directly across the uplift of the Reef, which marks them as "superimposed streams", pre-dating the time of the uplift.</p><br>
<p>Part of the Swell has geographic features that resemble Mars. The Mars Society decided to set up the Mars Desert Research Station in the area as a Mars analog for such reasons.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>The San Rafael Swell is an area of high plant endemism, with many native plants occurring nowhere else in the world. An example is the endangered San Rafael cactus (Pediocactus despainii).</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Evidence of Native American cultures, including the Fremont, Paiute, and Ute, is common throughout the San Rafael Swell in the form of pictograph and petroglyph panels. An example is the Buckhorn Draw Pictograph Panel, with rock art left by the Barrier Canyon Culture and the Fremont Culture. From about 1776 to the mid-1850s the Old Spanish Trail trade route passed through (or just north of) the Swell. In the past 150 years, areas of the Swell have been used for the grazing of sheep and cattle, as well as for uranium mining. Many of the gravel roads in the interior of the swell were originally used to service the uranium mining activities. Although surrounded by the communities of Price, Green River, Hanksville, Ferron, Castle Dale, and Huntington, the Swell itself does not support permanent residents.</p><br>
<p>The Swell has been used by Hollywood filmmakers as a location setting for alien planets, including the Planet Vulcan in the 2009 film Star Trek and the alien world in Galaxy Quest.</p><br>
<h2>Administration</h2><br>
<p>The area is managed by the USA Bureau of Land Management. Although the Swell as a whole does not currently enjoy special protection, parts of it are protected as wilderness study areas. Cattle grazing is only allowed in parts of The Swell that are not designated as such. The San Rafael Swell is also dotted with sections of land managed by The Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, as is much of the state of Utah. Goblin Valley State Park is on the southeastern edge of the San Rafael Swell.</p><br>
<p>In 2002, then-governor Mike Leavitt of Utah proposed the creation of a San Rafael Swell National Monument. President George W. Bush, who had authority to create such a monument under the Antiquities Act, never acted on Leavitt&#39;s proposal. As of 2013, nor has Barack Obama.</p><br>
<p>The idea of federal designation of the San Rafael Swell as a National Monument resurfaced in 2010 in a Department of the Interior document.</p><br>
<h2>Recreation</h2><br>
<p>The San Rafael Swell attracts hikers, backpackers, horseback riders, and all-terrain vehicle (ATV) enthusiasts. Many steep, narrow slot canyons popular with technical canyoneers are found in the San Rafael Reef. The use of ATVs in the Swell is controversial, as environmentalists claim that off-road vehicles damage the fragile desert cryptobiotic soils.</p><br>
<p>Badwater Basin is an endorheic basin in Death Valley National Park, Death Valley, Inyo County, California, noted as the lowest point in North America, with a depth of 282 ft below sea level. Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous 48 United States, is only 84.6 mi to the northwest.</p><br>
<p>The site itself consists of a small spring-fed pool of "bad water" next to the road in a sink; the accumulated salts of the surrounding basin make it undrinkable, thus giving it the name. The pool does have animal and plant life, including pickleweed, aquatic insects, and the Badwater snail.</p><br>
<p>Adjacent to the pool, where water is not always present at the surface, repeated freeze–thaw and evaporation cycles gradually push the thin salt crust into hexagonal honeycomb shapes.</p><br>
<p>The pool is not the lowest point of the basin: the lowest point (which is only slightly lower) is several miles to the west and varies in position, depending on rainfall and evaporation patterns. The salt flats are hazardous to traverse (in many cases being only a thin white crust over mud), and so the sign marking the low point is at the pool instead. The basin was considered the lowest elevation in the Western Hemisphere until the discovery of Laguna del Carbón in Argentina at −344 ft.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>At Badwater Basin, significant rainstorms flood the valley bottom periodically, covering the salt pan with a thin sheet of standing water. Newly formed lakes do not last long though, because the 1.9 in of average rainfall is overwhelmed by a 150 in annual evaporation rate. This is the greatest evaporation potential in the United States, meaning that a 3.8 m lake could dry up in a single year. When the basin is flooded, some of the salt is dissolved; it is redeposited as clean crystals when the water evaporates.</p><br>
<p>A popular site for tourists is the sign marking "sea level" on the cliff above the Badwater Basin.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The current best understanding of the area&#39;s geological history is that the entire region between the Colorado River in the east and Baja California in the southwest (and bordered by various uplifts and mountains around the west-northwest-northern perimeters) has seen numerous cycles since at least the start of the Pleistocene (and perhaps up to 3 Ma) of pluvial lakes of varying size in a complex cycle mainly tied to changing climate patterns (particularly, glaciation during the numerous recent Ice Age cycles), but also influenced by the progressive depositing of alluvial plains and deltas by the Colorado River (cf. Salton Sea), alternating with periodic water body breakthroughs and rearrangements due to erosion and the proximity of the San Andreas Fault. This has resulted in a high number of evaporating and reforming endorheic lakes throughout the Quaternary Period in the area, with an intertwined history of various larger bodies of water subsuming smaller ones during water table maxima and the subsequent splitting and disappearance thereof during the evaporative part of the cycles. Although these local cycles are now somewhat modified by human presence,</p><br>
<p>Throughout the Quaternarys wetter spans, streams running from nearby mountains filled Death Valley, creating Lake Manly, which during its greatest extents was approximately 80 mi (130 km) long and up to 600 ft (180 m) deep. Numerous evaporation cycles and a lack of outflow caused an increasing hypersalinity, typical for endorheic bodies of water. Over time, this hypersalinization, combined with sporadic rainfall and occasional aquifer intrusion, has resulted in periods of "briny soup", or salty pools, on the lowest parts of Death Valleys floor. Salts (95% table salt – NaCl) began to crystallize, coating the surface with the thick crust, ranging from 3 to 60 in, now observable at the basin floor.</p><br>
<p>Cavanal Hill , located near Poteau, Oklahoma, is billed by a local chamber of commerce as the, "tallest hill in the world", because the elevation of its summit is 1,999 ft. The actual summit elevation is 2,385 ft above sea level; the difference in elevation between the summit and the Poteau River 3 mi to the north is 1,960 ft.</p><br>
<p>The billing is based on the delineation between a hill and a mountain, that being if the geographical feature were 2,000 feet or higher than its base, then it would be classified as a mountain instead of a hill. However, the Geographic Names Information System listing do contain several summits with "hill" in their names which are higher than 2,000 feet.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>One source claims that the name is derived from a French word meaning "cave." Oklahoma Historian Muriel H. Wright wrote that cavanol is a corruption of the French word caverneux, meaning "cavernous."</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Cavanal Hill was a notable landmark for French explorers who travelled this area in the 18th Century and gave the landmark its name. Thomas Nuttall studied plant life here in 1819, and learned about other natural wonders from local French trappers and Indians who were living here.</p><br>
<h2>Recreation</h2><br>
<p>Cavanal Hill is now the site of mountain bike races and the highly advertised Cavanal Hill Killer 5-Mile Walk. A 4.5 mile blacktopped road leads to the summit where visitors can enjoy picturesque views of the Poteau River Valley. Reportedly, one can see Mount Magazine in Arkansas from here on a clear day.</p><br>
<p>Decatur Island is one of the San Juan Islands in Washington state, USA, located just east of Lopez Island across Lopez Sound and just south of Blakely Island across Thatcher Pass. Named by the Wilkes Expedition in 1841 for naval officer Stephen Decatur, it is 3.524 square miles  in area.</p><br>
<p>There is no Washington State Ferries service to Decatur; access is by private boat or plane. The airport on Decatur Island is private, for residents of the Decatur Shores community only. All other persons wishing to use the airport must obtain prior permission from the community. Paraclete Charter Service and Island Express Charters provide passenger-only ferry service to Decatur from Anacortes. Northwest Sky Ferry provides air service from Bellingham, Washington. Island Transport operates a ferry/barge, transporting cargo and vehicles from Skyline Marina in Anacortes to the public boat ramp. There are no public facilities other than one public boat ramp on the north side of the island.</p><br>
<p>In addition to the three private communities on Decatur (, and ), there are about 50 full-time residents, a school for kindergarten through eighth grade, and nine-hole rustic golf course. The golf course is private but welcomes all players, furnishing clubs and balls for your use. A donation is suggested to help defray operating costs. Memorial Day to Labor Day there is a Farmer&#39;s Market each Saturday at the country store. The 2000 census, however, reported a resident population of 71 persons.</p><br>
<p>James Island State Park is just to the east of the island.</p><br>
