<p>The Worcester Five Cents Savings Bank is a historic bank building at 316 Main Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. The six story Romanesque Revival building was constructed in 1891 to a design by Stephen Earle. The building is unusual in downtown Worcester for its use of limestone and buff brick, and for its rounded corner bay. The building originally had plate glass and iron store fronts on its ground floor , but this was redone in matching limestone sometime after 1949.</p><br>
<p>The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, and included in the Mechanics&#39; Hall District in 1980. It served as the corporate headquarters of Chess King during the 1980s. It now houses a handful of professional service firms.</p><br>
<p>The Worcester Corset Company Factory is an historic factory building at 30 Wyman Street in Worcester, Massachusetts in the Main South neighborhood. The oldest part of the factory was built in 1895, with expansion of the facilities taking place up to 1909. The buildings were designed by Arthur Gray for the Worcester Corset Company, whose origins date to an 1861 business by David Hale Fanning making hoops for skirts, but shifted to manufacturing corsets after fashions changed. Fannings business was immensely successful, and he became one of Worcesters larger employers. After the Corset Company folded in 1940, the facility was used to manufacture military-style boots.</p><br>
<p>The factory was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.</p><br>
<p>The Worcester City Hall and Common, the civic heart of the city, are a historic city hall and town common at 455 Main Street in Worcester, Massachusetts.</p><br>
<p>The Common, established in 1669, originally encompassed about 20 acre, compared to its present size of 4.4 acre. A meeting house used for both town meetings and religious functions was constructed on the Common in 1719, on the same site as the current City Hall. In 1763, the first meeting house was demolished and what became known as The Old South Meeting House was constructed on the site. It was here, on July 14, 1776, that Isaiah Thomas publicly read the Declaration of Independence for the first time in New England.</p><br>
<p>Near the center of the Common is the meeting houses burial ground, marked by gravestones and the Bigelow Monument. The Soldiers Monument, located near the northeast corner of the Common, honors the 398 Worcester soldiers killed in the American Civil War. The Burnside Fountain, located near the southeast corner of the Common, provided water for horses, and features the sculpture Boy with a Turtle, commonly known as "Turtle Boy."</p><br>
<p>Worcester City Hall was designed by Peabody & Stearns and built by the Norcross Brothers in 1898. The Italianate structure was built with a granite exterior, and was partly modeled after Italian Renaissance palazzos. Its tower shares some similarity to that of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, and the interior of the building extensively uses marble, commonly seen in Italian Renaissance buildings, and features an interior courtyard where the upper floors have balconies supported by decorated round arches. City Hall is currently the 4th tallest building in Worcester.</p><br>
<p>The city hall and common were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.</p><br>
<p>The Worcester Bleach and Dye Works is a historic factory complex at 60 Fremont Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. It consists of a pair of primarily brick factory buildings, one of which was built in 1909, and the other built later, between 1911 and 1922, for the named company, which was a major local manufacturer of thread. After the Bleach and Dye Works closed its doors in 1938, the complex has seen a succession of other owners.</p><br>
<p>The Springdale Dye Works was founded in 1865, and initially operated near Southgate and Gardner Streets on Worcesters south side, and was at the citys industrial height one of six threadmakers. The business&#39;s name was changed in 1873 after one of several ownership changes, and in 1879 it moved to premises on Grove Street near the Washburn and Moen Wire Works. In 1888 the company built a wood frame factory at 61 Fremont Street, across the street from the later buildings. This 1888 building was either demolished or partially incorporated into the building now standing on that site.</p><br>
<p>The first building of the present complex was built in 1909, across the street from the 1888 building. The two buildings were originally joined by a bridge over Fremont Street, evidenced by a doorway on the second floor of the front facade of 60 Fremont. The 1909 building is a two story brick building that fronts directly to the sidewalk on Fremont and Delaware Streets. Its main facade is 18 window bays, and the only major decorative element is the entry bay, which is a Classical Revival style round arch, with granite steps leading up to a recessed entrance. The second brick building is a three story structure, built in a similar style as the first one. The two are connected by a two story wood frame structure that runs the length of the first building, and joins at its southeast corner to the second building. This section was finished in stucco during a 1986 renovation, and is occupied by modern offices.</p><br>
<p>The Bleach and Dye Works closed in 1938. The next major occupant of the premises was the Economic Machinery Corporation, which machines for handling adhesive labels, and moved out in 1966. Capital Shoe Footwear, founded in 1955, moved in the following year, and was the last shoemaker in the city, closing its doors in 1984. The buildings were purchased by the Valkyrie Corporation the following year, modernized, and used for the production of small leather goods.</p><br>
<p>The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.</p><br>
<p>The Woodland Street Historic District is a historic housing district in the Main South area of Worcester, Massachusetts. It consists of 19 Victorian houses that either face or abut on Woodland Street, between Charlotte and Oberlin Streets. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Located directly adjacent to the campus of Clark University, some of the buildings are used by Clark for housing and administration.</p><br>
<p>When Woodland Street was first developed beginning in the late 1860s, it was on the fringes of development in the city. Seven houses were built on the west side of the street, on large lots, and only a few were built on the east side. In the 1890s development accelerated as growing demand for housing pushed the urbanized parts of the city closer to the area. By 1904, the large lots on the west side were subdivided and filled in with additional houses, and the east side was fully developed.</p><br>
<p>The houses that were built in the first phase of development are predominantly Second Empire in their styling, although there are three Gothic Revival buildings (110, 114, 140 Woodland) built between 1876 and 1881, as well as the Italianate Charles Kirby House built c. 1870 (105 Woodland). The houses built in the second phase are either Queen Anne (those built early in the 1890s) or Colonial Revival (those built later). The Frank Heath House at 11 Loudon Street is a particularly notable Colonial Revival house, with a high hip roof, a full front porch, and Palladian windows.</p><br>
<p>The Woodford Street Historic District includes a cohesive collection of five triple decker houses at 35-39 and 38-40 Woodford Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. All five were built c. 1926, and are predominantly Colonial Revival in style, although with some Craftsman features. Instead of having a more typical polygonal bay on one side of an asymmetrical facade, these houses have panels of four windows that do not project. They all have clapboard siding on the first level, shingle siding on the upper level and a fully pedimented gable end, with a wide cornice that has regularly spaced brackets. Porches are three-level, although each level generally has different styling. The early residents of the buildings were predominantly middle-class Jews moving from Worcester&#39;s Grafton Hill area.</p><br>
<p>The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.</p><br>
<p>The Whitcomb Mansion  is a historic house at 51 Harvard Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is a high Victorian  mansion that was built in 1879 as the home of George H. Whitcomb, one of the city&#39;s leading businessmen and philanthropists. It is also one of the few surviving houses designed by noted Worcester architect Stephen Earle.</p><br>
<p>George Whitcomb, a Templeton, Massachusetts native, made a fortune in the business of manufacturing envelopes. In addition to this business, he also dealt in real estate in Worcester and elsewhere. He was active in a number of charitable causes, notably educational causes across the country. After his death in 1918, his house was given to the Society for the Blind.</p><br>
<p>The house Earle designed for Whitcomb is an asymmetrical polychromatic three story granite structure measuring 40 ft by 70 ft. Its front facade is divided into three sections, the central one a projecting gable-ended entry. The front door is flanked by sidelights and is topped by a half-round window, all slightly recessed in an archway. Above the door on the second level of the entry section are a pair of windows, in front of which is a decoratively embellished cast iron balcony. The gable also contains a pair of windows, above which the point of the gable is filled with lighter-colored triangular granite stones. The left section of the main facade is two stories, but the roof is pierced by a single steeply-pitched gable dormer. The right section also has a gable dormer, but is truncated because of the presence of a round tower, which is a full three stories high and is topped by a conical roof. Behind the house stands a carriage house, a single story structure built of local stone, topped by a steep slate roof and cupola.</p><br>
<p>The interior of the house has retained some of its original details despite alterations made to accommodate the Society for the Blind&#39;s use of the building. The downstairs rooms are decorated in a variety of exotic wood finishes, and the walls and ceilings are covered in decorative paintings. The upstairs rooms are finished in cherry, ash, and maple.</p><br>
<p>The house was listed twice on the National Register of Historic Places: as an individual listing in 1777 (as Whitcomb House) and as part of a multiple resources listing in 1980 (as Whitcomb Mansion).</p><br>
<p>The Willard Richmond Apartment Block is an historic apartment house at 43 Austin Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. Built sometime between 1879 and 1886, it is one of the first apartment blocks built in the Main-Wellington-Chandler area, which had one of the city&#39;s highest concentrations of such buildings by 1900. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Willard Richmond Apartment Block stands on the southeast corner of Austin and Irving Streets, a short way southwest of Worcester&#39;s central downtown area. It is a four story brick structure, with granite trim. It is basically a mostly rectangular L shape, with a corner missing at the southeast of the building. The street-facing facades have a stringcourse of granite between the partially-exposed basement and the first floor, with another above the first floor window lintels. First floor windows are set in square openings, while those on the second and third floors are set in segmented-arch openings. The fourth floor windows are set in round-arch openings with brick headers and granite keystones, with a band of corbelled brickwork joining the windows at the base of the arched portion. Windows above the main and secondary entrances are treated differently: those above the secondary (Irving Street) entrance have segmented-arch openings. On the second-level above the main entrance are two round-arch windows, with a rectangular one above them, separated by a decorative panel from a large round-arch window at the top.</p><br>
<p>The building was built sometime between 1879 and 1886, and was one of the earliest buildings in what became, by 1900, one of the city&#39;s largest apartment house districts, the Main-Wellington-Chandler area. This area, convenient to downtown Worcester, experienced rapid growth in the 1880s and 1890s. Many of its apartment blocks have since been torn down, and this is one of a few surviving remnants of that past.</p><br>
<p>The Whittall Mills is an historic industrial complex off Brussels Street in southern Worcester, Massachusetts. The complex, which was built between 1870 and 1930, is a reminder of the large carpet manufacturing business that was once a major presence in the city. It is a complex of 15 brick buildings located on a bend of the Middle River , south of Crompton Street and just west of Interstate 290.</p><br>
<p>The mill complex has its origins in about 1870, when the first of the surviving buildings, a three story brick building with a mansard roof, was erected by the Crompton Rug Company. It was followed a few years later by a dye house. Crompton Rug went out of business in 1879, and these premises were leased to William Hogg, who eventually formed the Worcester Carpet Company, which expanded the complex with a second major mill and the purchase of additional water rights in 1893.</p><br>
<p>Matthew Whittall, who first gained notice as a supervisor at Crompton Rug, had opened his own factory in other parts of Worcester in 1874. By 1883 his business had grown, and he acquired land next to the Crompton works, where he built a series of buildings over the next 23 years. At the time of the First World War, Whittall was the largest employer in south Worcester, with 1,500 workers operating 350 mills in 500,000 square feet of factory space. The products he produced were purchased by the federal government for use in its buildings, and were selected by President William McKinley for use in the White House.</p><br>
<p>Whittall sold the mills in 1950. They were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<p>The Wesley Davis Three-Decker is a historic triple decker house at 7 Albert Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is a well-preserved example of a Stick-style building that was typical of the early phases of triple-decker construction in the city. This house was built c. 1890; its first documented owner was Wesley Davis, a doctor who did not live in the immediate area. Subsequent owners, like many of the building&#39;s occupants, were employed in and around local factories. The building follows a typical side hall plan, and is noted for its porch, which extends the full height of the building over one of the front bays, and has retained all of its original decorative woodwork.</p><br>
<p>The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.</p><br>
<p>The Wellington Street Apartment House District of Worcester, Massachusetts encompasses a collection of stylistically similar apartment houses in the city&#39;s Main South area. It includes sixteen properties along Jacques Avenue, and Wellington and Irving Streets, most of which were built between 1887 and 1901. The notable exception is the Harrington House at 62 Wellington Street, a c. 1850s Greek Revival house that was virtually the only house standing in the area before development began in the 1880s.</p><br>
<p>The first other building in the area was also a single family residence, the brick and stone Queen Anne Victorian built in 1855 by Thomas Barrett at 41 Wellington. This was followed in the next few years by six smaller apartment houses that were built with floor plans similar to Worcester&#39;s many wood frame triple deckers, but they were built of brick and trimmed in stone. These buildings (23, 25, 37, and 45 Wellington, and 1 and 5 Jacques) were generally owner-occupied.</p><br>
<p>The development that followed these early buildings was done by developers building income properties, which were larger (at least two apartments per floor), and followed a central hall plan that such apartment blocks followed elsewhere in the city. These were built of brick or stone, and generally trimmed in stone. The only non-residential building in the district is the Gothic Revival First Freewill Baptist Church, designed by Lawrence, Massachusetts architect George G. Adams and built in 1888.</p><br>
<p>The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<p>The WCIS Bank is a historic and unusual bank building at 365 Main Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is fashioned out of two separate buildings, each of which has served as a home for the Worcester County Institution for Savings, the countys first chartered savings bank . The older part of the building, from c. 1851, is at the corner of Foster and Norwich Street, and was built as a joint venture between the banks parent, the Worcester Bank, and the Boston and Worcester Railroad Company. It is a granite structure three stories high, decorated in Italianate styling. The WCIS in 1906 moved to a new building at the corner of Main and Foster , another granite three story building with large Doric columns in the center of its main facade. Needing additional space, the bank repurchased the Foster Street building, and joined the two together in 1953.</p><br>
<p>The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<p>The W.H. Goulding House is an historic house at 4 Dix Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. The -story frame house was built between 1847 and 1849, and was originally located at 26 Harvard Street. The owner was Harry Goulding, owner of some of Worcesters largest industrial businesses and founder of the Worcester Mechanics Association. In 1850 Goulding moved the house to its present location so that he could build a more opulent Italianate house on that site. This house has well-preserved Greek Revival features, including corner pilasters, a front porch supported by fluted Doric columns, and a front entry flanked by sidelight windows and pilasters.</p><br>
<p>The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<p>The View Street Historic District is a residential historic district at 7—17 and 8—16 View Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. It contains eleven triple decker houses, nine of which are particularly well preserved. They were built between 1916 and 1930, during the late phase of triple decker construction in the Vernon Hill area, and have Colonial Revival styling. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.</p><br>
<p>View Street was laid out in the 1910s, as development of Worcester&#39;s east side pushed into the steeper terrain of Vernon Hill. The area was attractive to the working classes, for it had good views, and the streetcar that ran on Vernon Street provided ready access to the city center and factories. 8 View Street, among the first houses to be built c. 1916, has a gambrel roof and a two-level porch supported by slender Tuscan columns. The houses at 9 and 16 View Street have had synthetic siding applied, compromising their historic styling. Those at 10, 11, 14 and 15 View Street are relatively simple rectangular blocks with gable roofs and recessed two-level porches with a simple rectangular opening at the third level. 7 View Street differs from the others in being clad completely in shingles, where the others are generally clapboarded. The porch at 12 View Street is capped by a projecting gabled pediment, and its cornice features regularly spaced brackets. Early occupants of these buildings were typically skilled laborers or lower-class office and commercial workers.</p><br>
<p>The Tilley Raymond House is an historic house at 12 George Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. Built about 1847 by a prominent local builder, it is a well-preserved local example of a once popular Greek Revival side hall style house. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Raymond House is set on the north side of George Street, a side street that steeply climbs the hill to the west of Worcester&#39;s Main Street and downtown. It is a 2-1/2 story wood frame structure, with a front-facing gable roof, and clapboard siding. The building corners are pilastered, and a single-story porch extends across the front, with fluted Doric columns rising to an entablature and hip roof. The wall under the porch is flushboarded, with long sash windows and the entrance set in the leftmost of three bays. The gable above is fully pedimented, with a sash window at the center.</p><br>
<p>The house was built c. 1847 by Tilley Raymond, who, along with Horatio Tower, became one of Worcester&#39;s leading builders of the 1840s and 1850s. Raymond eventually left for California, apparently to capitalize on the gold rush, and the house was taken over by his son Edward. Edward Raymond was a veteran of the American Civil War, and served locally as the chief of police and clerk of the district court. He was admitted to the bar in 1880 after studying with George Hoar. The house was converted into apartments in 1898.</p><br>
<p>Theodul Pass, elevation 3,295 m,  is a high mountain pass across the eastern Pennine Alps, connecting Zermatt in the Swiss canton of Valais and Breuil-Cervinia in the Italian region of Aosta Valley. Theodul Pass is the second lowest pass  and the easiest pass between the valleys of Zermatt and Valtournanche.</p><br>
<p>The pass lies between the Matterhorn on the west and the Breithorn on the east and is overlooked by the Theodulhorn and Testa Grigia. The Rifugio del Teodulo (hut) is located just above the pass. The east side of the pass is covered by large glaciers part of the Theodul Glacier system and is part of a year-round ski area. On the Italian side, the pass can be reached from Breuil-Cervinia by a dead-end trail. On the Swiss side, trails go up from Trockener Steg and Gandegg Hut.</p><br>
<h2>Traverse by bicycle</h2><br>
<p>In 1965, Percy Stallard (aged 55) rode his bicycle solo over the Theodul Pass. The Rough Stuff Fellowship, an organisation for enthusiasts of cross-country cycling, acknowledged that it was probably the first time a cyclist had done it. Stallard made it in less than 15 hours, sometimes through deep snow.</p><br>
<p>Ruthmere  is a three-story Beaux Arts mansion that is the most prominent historic residence in Elkhart, Indiana, United States. Built in 1910, the Ruthmere Mansion is now open to the public as a museum, along with the neighboring Dr. Havilah Beardsley House.</p><br>
<p>Ruthmere is located along the St. Joseph River in Elkhart. The architect was Enoch Hill Turnock, commissioned by Albert and Elizabeth Beardsley in 1908. The Beardsleys named the mansion in memory of their only child, Ruth, who died at seven months. ("Mere" reflects the Latin root maris and refers to the home&#39;s proximity to water.) The mansion was a place of business, family, political and social gatherings until the deaths of the Beardsleys in 1924. Robert Beardsley of The Beardsley Foundation purchased the mansion in 1967 with the main goal of restoring it to its original beauty in order to create a museum for the community. Restoration took place between 1969 and 1973 when the mansion was made available to the public. The property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, and the Beardsley Avenue Historic District was established several years later.</p><br>
<h2>Interior design and decor</h2><br>
<p>Ruthmere is a three-story house with a basement. The first floor consists of the library, drawing room, dining room and kitchen area. The second floor is private bed and bathrooms and the service quarters. The third floor is primarily for storage. The basement has a game room and working area of house (boiler, wash room). There is also a tunnel that connects the game room to the greenhouse.</p><br>
<p>Cuban mahogany is the primary wood on the first floor. Pomegranates, a symbol of wealth and prosperity, are found throughout the house carved in plaster and wood as well as stenciling on ceilings. Silk wall coverings are used in a majority of the rooms instead of wallpaper. Beautiful hand painted stencils adorn many ceilings. Hand-painted murals of scenes of Italy also adorn walls and windows.</p><br>
<p>The house also has a fine art collection, part of the museum&#39;s collection, displayed throughout the house. You can find Louis Comfort Tiffany lamps and windows as well as Auguste Rodin sculptures.</p><br>
<h2>Exterior architecture and design</h2><br>
<p>Ruthmere was designed by E. Hill Turnock in an eclectic Beaux Arts style with Prairie School accents. The three-story structure is faced with buff-colored Belden brick from Ohio and native Indiana limestone. Carved stone quoins, capitals, cartouches and window surrounds add exterior interest.</p><br>
<p>The covered entrance is supported by square brick pillars created by carved limestone capitals. A balustraded marble piazza across the south facade extends to the east side of the building where a porte cochere protects visitors as they arrive by carriage or car. From the east porch a covered walkway leads to a greenhouse.</p><br>
<p>The garage is located to the north of the house. Originally the second floor was an apartment for the chauffeur. In 1980, it was turned into The Robert B. Beardsley Arts Reference Library of American Domestic Architecture and Decorative Arts. The library is a free facility, open to the public by appointment. While the materials do not circulate, the library provides copy services as well as reference services. The library&#39;s catalog is accessible through the Elkhart Public Library Catalog.</p><br>
<h2>Facts</h2><br>
<p>Albert and Elizabeth Beardsley moved into their home in 1910 and for 14 years, Ruthmere was a place where they entertained friends and business associates in grand style. Elizabeth and Albert both died within a few short months of each other in 1924. Alberts nephew, Arthur Beardsley and his wife Stella lived at Ruthmere until Stellas death in 1940 and Arthur&#39;s death in 1944.</p><br>
<p>The Sherill and Helen Deputy family moved into Ruthmere in 1945, raising six boys in the house--the first and only children to ever call Ruthmere home. In 1969, the Deputys sold Ruthmere to the Beardsley Foundation, which restored the home to its former glory, with the express purpose of creating a museum for the community and the region.</p><br>
<p>Isla Incahuasi, Inkawasi</p><br>
<p>Official website of the Ferreñafe Province, Peru or Inka Wasi (Quechua Inka Inca, wasi house, "Inca house") is a hilly and rocky outcrop of land and former island in Bolivia situated in the middle of Salar de Uyuni, the world&#39;s largest salt flat, at an elevation of 3,656 m. It is located in the Potosí Department, Daniel Campos Province, Tahua Municipality, Yonza Canton. Isla Incahuasi is the Spanish name where isla means island, Inca stands for Inca, and huasi is derived from the Quechua word wasi meaning house.</p><br>
<p>Incahuasi has a total area of 24.62 hectare and hosts gigantic cacti (Trichocereus pasacana) and a tourist center. There are unusual and fragile coral-like structures and deposits that often consist of fossils and algae. The place is the top of the remains of an ancient volcano, which was submerged when the area was part of a giant prehistoric lake, roughly 40,000 years ago.</p><br>
<p>The Barton-Lackey Cabin, also known as the Barton Cattle Camp and the Lackey Cattle Camp, was built in 1910 in the Roaring River Canyon of what became Kings Canyon National Park in California. The cabin was a shelter for stockmen using the summer range in the upper Kings River Canyon summer range, at an elevation of 7400 feet. The cabin was once surrounded by a significant number of outbuildings, which have all disappeared.</p><br>
<p>James DeCamp Barton and his father, Hudson DeCamp Barton first used summer pasturage in the upper Roaring River area about 1907. Their home range was in the Sierra Nevada foothills near Auckland, California. About 1910 they built the cabin at Scaffold Meadow. In the early 1920s H.D. Bartons daughter Sylvia married Al Lackey, a forest ranger. Taking over the family cattle operation, Lackey used the Roaring River range until the establishment of Kings Canyon National Park in 1940. Lackey received a lifetime use permit from the National Park Service that continued until two years after Mrs. J.D. Bartons death in 1956. The cabin was used as a storage shed by the Park Service from that time.</p><br>
<p>The property was designated on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 for its significance in local ranching and settlement.</p><br>
<p>The Cabin Creek Ranger Residence and Dormitory, also known as the Cabin Creek Ranger Station, were built in 1934 and 1935 in Sequoia National Park by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The three-room wood-frame residence and the two-room dormitory are examples of the National Park Service Rustic style.</p><br>
<p>The two buildings stand close to the former site of the Lost Grove Entrance Station. They were built by CCC workers from the Buckeye CCC camp during the summers of 1934 and 1935, to house rangers for the Lost Grove entrance to the Generals Highway. Originally intended to be located at Lost Grove and to use sequoia logs, the move to nearby Cabin Creek resulted in a change to a wood appropriate to the new location, which did not feature sequoias. Design work for the buildings was carried out by Park Service landscape architect Harold G, Fowler and Emergency Conservation Work landscape architect Lloyd Fletcher.</p><br>
<p>Tell Taya is an archaeological site in Nineveh Province . It was occupied from the third to the first millennia BCE.</p><br>
<h2>History of archaeological research</h2><br>
<p>The site was first recorded by Seton Lloyd in 1938 during his survey of the region. Tell Taya was excavated by a team from the British School of Archaeology in Iraq led by J. E. Reade in 1967–1969 and 1972–1973. Numerous stone structures were investigated, and pottery, along with a few tablets and cylinder seals, were recovered in the 9 layers.</p><br>
<h2>Tell Taya and its environment</h2><br>
<p>Tell Taya lies about 20 km southwest of Mosul and Nineveh. The location controls a formerly rich agricultural area and an important trade route. It covers about 20 km&sup2; and the central mound is around 9 m high.</p><br>
<h2>Occupation history</h2><br>
<p>The site was heavily occupied on and off during the second half of the 3rd millennium, with some re-use in the Old Babylonian period and the Neo-Assyrian period. There is some evidence of Early Dynastic occupation, but major building at Tell Taya began around the time that the Akkadian Empire emerges.</p><br>
<p>St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church was a church located at 8363 and 8383 Townsend Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989,</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>St. Thomas the Apostle Parish was a Polish-American Roman Catholic parish founded in 1914, at the eastern edge of the east side Polish neighborhoods of Detroit. A church was constructed in 1923, and the parish had both a grade school and a high school. The parish was one of the first to experience changes in population, as the original Polish residents began moving out in the mid-20th century. The parish was closed in 1989, and the church demolished soon after.</p><br>
<p>The school currently serves as St. Thomas Assessment Center for troubled youths.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The parish complex at St. Thomas the Apostle comprised six buildings, including the church, rectory, school, and convent.</p><br>
<p>The church was essentially of Romanesque design, with some Art Deco aspects. It was built of brick laid over Dennison interlocking tile, sitting atop a limestone base. The building was trimmed with limestone and Tuscan glazed faience in various colors. The facade was a series of gable-roof blocks, roofed with Spanish tile. The primary entrance was through a central, side-gable block, sized to match the nave. The entrance was recessed into the center of a projecting porch and surrounded by columned arches. A massive Eucharistic relief was set high in the center of the facade. The church boasted a wealth of decorative art, including stained glass and bronze works.</p><br>
<p>The rectory was a large, two-story building with a dormer-attic.</p><br>
<p>The St. Catherine of Siena Roman Catholic Church is a church located at 4151 Seminole Street in Detroit, Michigan. It is now the St. Augustine and St. Monica Roman Catholic Church. The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The St. Catherine of Siena Parish complex consists of four buildings: the parish school (1913), convent (1926), rectory (1926), and the church itself (1929). All buildings are bacsically Romanesque in style, with some Byzantine elements.</p><br>
<p>The church is the most visually catching structure. It is built in the form of a Latin cross, of mixed red and brown tapestry brick. The main façade has a gable form with a Romanesque arcaded portico containing the entrance and three tall windows above. A wheel window is placed in the pediment. Single-story wings with entrance doors flank the front, and a tower is located on the right side of the building.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>This collection of buildings is significant for its architectural quality. The first building of the parish, the school, was completed in 1913 by Donaldson and Meier at a cost of $52,000. The school building included a chapel and parish hall. The convent and rectory were both completed in 1926, and the church, costing $130,000, was completed in 1929.</p><br>
<p>Dwindling population in the latter part of the 20th century led to a merger of St. Catherine with the nearby St. Edwards Roman Catholic Church in 1970; the buildings of St. Edwards were demolished. and currently uses the buildings in the complex.</p><br>
<p>The Tower of Fautea  is a Genoese tower located in the commune of Zonza  on the east coast of the French island of Corsica. The tower sits at an elevation of 32 m on the Punta di Fautea.</p><br>
<p>The tower was one of a series of coastal defences constructed by the Republic of Genoa between 1530 and 1620 to stem the attacks by Barbary pirates. It was built before 1601, the date of a document recording a payment made to one of the soldiers responsible for guarding the tower. It was attacked and burnt in 1650 by the Ottoman Turks. It was restored between 1988 and 1991 and again between 1994 and 1995. In 1992 it was listed as one of the official historical monuments of France.</p><br>
<p>The tower is owned and maintained by the Collectivité Territoriale de Corse in an agreement with the French government agency, the Conservatoire du littoral. The agency plans to purchase 95 hectare of the headland and as of 2011 had acquired 38 hectare.</p><br>
<p>The Tour de Gerolata or Fortin de Gerolata  is a Genoese tower located in the commune of Osani  on the west coast of the French island of Corsica. The tower sits at an elevation of 36 m on a rocky outcrop in the Golfe de Girolata.</p><br>
<p>The tower was built between 1551 and 1552. The construction was initially supervised by Gieronimo da Levanto but on his death he was replaced by Giovan Battista de&#39;Franchi. The tower was one of a series of coastal defences constructed by the Republic of Genoa between 1530 and 1620 to stem the attacks by Barbary pirates. In 2008 it was listed as one of the official historical monuments of France.</p><br>
<p>The tower is not open to the public. Since 2009 it has been owned by a French government agency, the Conservatoire du littoral. The agency plans to purchase 937 hectare of the land around the Golfe de Girolata and of 2011 had acquired 64 hectare.</p><br>
<p>The Tower of Mortella  is a ruined Genoese tower on the Corsica, located on the coast near Punta Mortella  in the commune of Saint-Florent, Haute-Corse. It was a progenitor of the numerous Martello towers the British built in the 19th century throughout their empire.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Italian architect Giovan Giacomo Paleari Fratino designed the Tour de Mortella and Colonel Giorgio Doria directed the construction between 1563 and 1564. It was one of a series of coastal defences constructed by the Republic of Genoa between 1530 and 1620 to stem attacks by Barbary pirates.</p><br>
<p>On 7 February 1794, two British warships, (74 guns) and (32 guns), unsuccessfully attacked the tower at Mortella Point; the tower eventually fell to land-based forces under Major-General David Dundas and Lieutenant-General John Moore after two days of heavy fighting.</p><br>
<p>Late in the previous year, the tower&#39;s French defenders had abandoned the tower after (32 guns) had fired two broadsides at it. Then the French were easily able to dislodge the garrison of Corsican patriots that had replaced them. Still, the British were impressed by the effectiveness of the tower when properly supplied and defended and copied the design. However, they misspelled the name as "Martello" rather than "Mortella". When the British withdrew from Corsica in 1796, they blew up the tower, leaving it in an unusable state.</p><br>
<h2>Current status</h2><br>
<p>The ruined tower was listed as one of the official Historical Monuments of France in 1991. The database incorrectly gives the date of construction as 1553-1554. This earlier date is when Spanish and Genoese troops led by Admiral Andrea Doria besieged the French forces occupying the port of Saint-Florent after the Franco-Turkish invasion of the island.</p><br>
<p>Since 1980 the French government agency the Conservatoire du littoral has owned and maintained the site. The Conservatoire plans to purchase 6,663 hectare of the surrounding coastline and had acquired 5,935 hectare.</p><br>
<p>The Tower of Nonza  is a Genoese tower located in the commune of Nonza  on the coast of the Corsica. The tower sits at an elevation of 155 m in the village of Nonza on the west coast of Capicorsu.</p><br>
<p>The tower was one of a series of coastal defences built by the Republic of Genoa between 1530 and 1620 to stem the attacks by Barbary pirates. The exact date of construction is not known but the tower is included in a list compiled by the Genoese authorities in 1617 where it is recorded as only being guarded at night.</p><br>
<p>The tower of Nonza is famous for its siege in 1768, during the war between Pasquale Paolis independent Corsica and France. The troops protecting the village of Nonza had been taken prisoners by the French forces north of the village, but the commander of the troops had remained in the tower. It is said that he managed to make the French troops believe in a fierce resistance during the siege, so that the latter would agree in his conditions for surrender, that were to let him join the rest of Paolis troops, and to grant him the military honours. When he came out alone of the tower, the French commander, stunned, asked where the troops were. He is said to have answered: "here is the commander and the troop".</p><br>
<p>In 1926 the tower was listed as one of the official historical monuments of France.</p><br>
<p>The Tower of Omigna  is a ruined Genoese tower located in the commune of Cargèse on the French island of Corsica.</p><br>
<p>The tower was built between 1605 and 1606 under the direction of Giacomo della Piana. It was one of a series of coastal defences built by the Republic of Genoa between 1530 and 1620 to stem the attacks by Barbary pirates. In 1991 it was listed as one of the official Historical Monuments of France.</p><br>
<p>Since 1977 the tower has been owned by a French government agency, the Conservatoire du littoral. The agency has announced that it plans to purchase 212 hectare of the headland and as of 2011 had acquired 121 hectare. The tower was restored in 2009 and visitors can climb up onto the roof terrace.</p><br>
<p>An area of 255 hectare that includes the headland and portions of the adjacent coastline is owned by an agency of the French state, the Conservatoire du littoral.</p><br>
<p>The Tower of Pinareddu  is a Genoese tower located in the commune of Zonza  on the east coast of the Corsica. The tower sits at an elevation of 52 m on the Île de Pinarellu.</p><br>
<p>The tower was built in around 1595. It was one of a series of coastal defences constructed by the Republic of Genoa between 1530 and 1620 to stem the attacks by Barbary pirates. Genoese documents refer to the Île de Pinarellu as the Isola dei Corsi or the Island of the Corsaires. The design of the Tower of Pinareddu is unusual in that the plan is square rather than round. The tower is 13 m in height and each side at the base is 9.5 m reducing to 8 m at the string course. The tower was attacked by the Ottoman Turks and burned in 1650.</p><br>
<p>Since 1981 the Tower of Pinareddu has been owned and maintained by the French government agency, the Conservatoire du littoral. Restoration work was carried out in 1994. The agency has acquired the 19 hectare of the island. In 1992 the tower was listed as one of the official historical monuments of France.</p><br>
<p>The Tower of Poghju  is a Genoese tower in Corsica, located in the hamlet of Poggio in the commune of Ersa, Haute-Corse.</p><br>
<p>The tower was probably built in the second half of the sixteenth century. It was one of a series of defences constructed by the Republic of Genoa between 1530 and 1620 to stem the attacks by Barbary pirates. Although the design is similar to other round Genoese towers built around the Corsican coastline, its position is unusual in being situated within a hamlet at an elevation of 170 m and several kilometers from the sea.</p><br>
<p>The base of the tower would have originally contained a cistern to hold rainwater collected from the roof terrace but in the nineteenth century an entrance door was constructed at the ground floor level. In 2009 the tower was added to the "General Inventory of Cultural Heritage" (Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel) maintained by the French Ministry of Culture. It is privately owned.</p><br>
<p>The Tower of Pianosa or Tower of Cala Rossa  is a ruined Genoese tower located in the commune of Occhiatana on the west coast of the Corsica. Only the base survives. It sits at a height of 33 m overlooking the sea.</p><br>
<p>The tower was built in around 1578. It was one of a series of coastal defences constructed by the Republic of Genoa between 1530 and 1620 to stem the attacks by Barbary pirates.</p><br>
<p>In 2012 the tower was added to the "General Inventory of Cultural Heritage" (Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel) maintained by the French Ministry of Culture. The Conservatoire du littoral, the French government agency responsible for the protection of outstanding natural areas on the coast, has announced that it intends to purchase the headland and adjacent coastline. As of 2017 it had acquired 66 hectare.</p><br>
<p>The Tower of Santa Maria Chjapella  is a ruined Genoese tower located in the commune of Rogliano  on the east coast of the Corsica. Only part of the tower survives.</p><br>
<p>The tower was built between 1548 and 1549 for Giacomo Santo Da Mare. It was one of a series of coastal defences constructed by the Republic of Genoa between 1530 and 1620 to stem the attacks by Barbary pirates. The tower was partially destroyed in 1794 by British warships under the command of Horatio Nelson during the French Revolutionary Wars.</p><br>
<p>The tower is unusually tall and contained two internal room, one above the other, similar to the Torra di a Parata near Ajaccio. In 1991 it was listed as one of the official historical monuments of France. It is owned and maintained by the Collectivité Territoriale de Corse in an agreement with the French government agency, the Conservatoire du littoral. The agency plans to purchase 1,147 hectare of the surrounding coastline and as of 2017 had acquired 669 hectare.</p><br>
<p>Isdell River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, named in 1898 by explorer Frank Hann after James Isdell, who was prominent in the region and later served as a member of parliament.</p><br>
<p>The river rises in the Packhorse Range and flows in a south- westerly direction until it reaches Isdell Gorge at the foot of the King Leopold Range where it changes to a north-westerly direction before discharging into the eastern end of Walcott Inlet.</p><br>
<p>The river has eleven tributaries including; Sprigg River, Woolybutt Creek, Cadjuput Creek, Woomera Creek and Tulmulnga Creek.</p><br>
<p>The traditional owners are the Wangina Wunggurr Willingin people who maintain a strong connection to the river despite disruptions by pastoral activities.</p><br>
<p>The Black Rock Lock located in Buffalo, New York is 650 ft in length and 70 ft in wide. There is only one chamber and the total weight of the gate is 480 tons. The lock has been a part of Black Rock since the state of New York built the Erie Canal in 1833.</p><br>
<h2>Black Rock Channel</h2><br>
<h3>Navigating the Channel</h3><br>
<p>The Black Rock Channel extends from Buffalo Harbor to the Black Rock Lock. The channel&#39;s waterway is three and a half miles in length. The Black Rock Channel was constructed to provide protection to reefs, rapids and fast currents in the upstream Niagara River. Pleasure craft and commercial vessels can only be 625 ft long with drafts to 21 ft to be allowed in the lock and channel. Although both pleasure craft and commercial vessels are allowed in the channel it is required that the pleasure craft yield the right of way to all commercial vessels.</p><br>
<p>There are three bridges that cross the channel. They are the Peace Bridge, the Ferry Street Bridge and the International Railroad Bridge. The Peace Bridge is the first bridge that is passed coming from the south entrance of the channel. The Peace Bridge has a clearance of 200 ft above Low Water Datum (LWD). The Ferry Bridge is a lift bridge and is the next bridge located 1.9 mi from the south entrance of the channel. The Ferry Bridge has a clearance of 17.3 above the LWD. Then 3.1 mi for the south channel entrance comes the International Railroad Bridge. This is a swing bridge which has a clearance of 17 ft LWD when closed.</p><br>
<h2>Black Rock Lock history</h2><br>
<p>The lock was constructed by the Corps of Engineers from 1908-1913 as part of the Erie Canal. It has been that facility to house large Great Lakes vessels that have carried essential goods to business and industry in Western New York. The lock went through its first rehabilitation in 1975. From 1984-1986 the locks guard gates and the operating system were rehabilitated. Since the 90’s many things have been done to provide a safer work environment, such as the installation of new fencing, railing and ladders. Other things like the refurbishing of the lock houses, and the widening and capping of all concrete approach walls have been done as well.</p><br>
<p>Babylon ; Aramaic: בבל, Babel; بَابِل, Bābil; בָּבֶל, Bavel; ܒܒܠ, Bāwēl) was a key kingdom in ancient Mesopotamia. The city was built on the Euphrates river and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river&#39;s seasonal floods. Babylon was originally a small Akkadian city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c. 2300 BC.</p><br>
<p>The town became an independent city-state with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty in the nineteenth century BC. After the Amorite king Hammurabi created a short-lived empire in the 18th century BC, southern Mesopotamia became known as Babylonia and Babylon eclipsed Nippur as its holy city. The empire waned under Hammurabi&#39;s son Samsu-iluna and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BC. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rule of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, and Sassanid empires.</p><br>
<p>It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world from c. 1770 to 1670 BC, and again between c. 612 and 320 BC. It was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000. Estimates for the maximum extent of its area range from 890 to 900 hectare. The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 km south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings and debris.</p><br>
<p>The main sources of information about Babylon—excavation of the site itself, references in cuneiform texts found elsewhere in Mesopotamia, references in the Bible, descriptions in classical writing (especially by Herodotus), and second-hand descriptions (citing the work of Ctesias and Berossus)—present an incomplete and sometimes contradictory picture of the ancient city even at its peak in the sixth century BC.</p><br>
<h2>Name</h2><br>
<p>The English Babylon comes from Greek Babylṓn, a transliteration of the Akkadian.</p><br>
<p>Gilgamesh (/ˈɡɪlɡəˌmɛʃ/ or /ɡɪlˈɡɑːmɛʃ/;:163 𒄑𒂆𒈦, Gilgameš, originally Bilgamesh 𒄑𒉈𒂵𒈩) is the main character in the Epic of Gilgamesh, an Akkadian poem that is considered the first great work of literature, and in earlier Sumerian poems. In the epic, Gilgamesh is a demiherro of superhuman strength who builds the city walls of Uruk to defend his people and, after the death of his friend Enkidu, then travels to meet the sage Utnapishtim, who had survived the Great Flood. His name translates roughly to mean "The Ancestor is a Young-man", from Bil.ga=Ancestor, Elder:33 and Mes/Mesh3=Young-Man.:174</p><br>
<p>Gilgamesh is generally seen by scholars as a historical figure, since inscriptions have been found which confirm the existence of other figures associated with him in the epic. If Gilgamesh existed, he probably was a king who reigned sometime between 2800 and 2500 BC. The Sumerian King List claims that Gilgamesh ruled the city of Uruk for 126 years. According to the Tummal Inscription, Gilgamesh and his son Ur-Nungal rebuilt the sanctuary of the goddess Ninlil in Tummal, a sacred quarter in</p><br>
<p>The "gate of god" translation is increasingly viewed as a folk etymology to explain an unknown original non-Semitic placename. Linguist I.J. Gelb suggested in 1955 that the name Babil is in reference to an earlier city name, and Joan Oates claims in her book Babylon that the rendering Gateway of the gods is no longer accepted by modern scholars. The name "Babil" could derive from "Bawer" located by Ernst Herzfeld in Ancient Iran. David Rohl holds that the original Babylon is to be identified with Eridu.</p><br>
<p>In the Bible, the name appears as Babel (בָּבֶל, Bavel, בָּבֶל, Bāvel; ܒܒܠ, Bāwēl), interpreted in the Hebrew Scriptures&#39; Book of Genesis to mean "confusion", from the verb bilbél (בלבל, "to confuse"). The modern English verb, to "babble", or to speak meaningless words, is popularly thought to derive from this name, but there is no direct connection.</p><br>
<p>Ancient records in some situations use Babylon as a name for other cities, including cities like Borsippa within Babylon&#39;s sphere of influence, and Nineveh for a short period after the Assyrian sack of Babylon.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 km south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings and debris. The site at Babylon consists of a number of mounds covering an area of about 2 x, oriented north to south, along the Euphrates to the west. Originally, the river roughly bisected the city, but the course of the river has since shifted so that most of the remains of the former western part of the city are now inundated. Some portions of the city wall to the west of the river also remain.</p><br>
<p>Only a small portion of the ancient city (3% of the area within the inner walls; 1.5% of the area within the outer walls; 0.05% at the depth of Middle and Old Babylon) has been excavated. Known remains include:</p><br>
<p>Kasr—also called Palace or Castle, it is the location of the Neo-Babylonian ziggurat Etemenanki and lies in the center of the site.</p><br>
<p>Amran Ibn Ali—the highest of the mounds at 25 meters, to the south. It is the site of Esagila, a temple of Marduk which also contained shrines to Ea and Nabu.</p><br>
<p>Homera—a reddish colored mound on the west side. Most of the Hellenistic remains are here.</p><br>
<p>Babil—a mound about 22 meters high at the northern end of the site. Its bricks have been subject to looting since ancient times. It held a palace built by Nebuchadnezzar.</p><br>
<p>Archaeologists have recovered few artifacts predating the Neo-Babylonian period. The water table in the region has risen greatly over the centuries and artifacts from the time before the Neo-Babylonian Empire are unavailable to current standard archaeological methods. Additionally, the Neo-Babylonians conducted significant rebuilding projects in the city, which destroyed or obscured much of the earlier record. Babylon was pillaged numerous times after revolting against foreign rule, most notably by the Hittites and Elamites in the 2nd millennium, then by the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the Achaemenid Empire in the 1st millennium. Much of the western half of the city is now beneath the river, and other parts of the site have been mined for commercial building materials.</p><br>
<p>Only the Koldewey expedition recovered artifacts from the Old Babylonian period. These included 967 clay tablets, stored in private houses, with Sumerian literature and lexical documents.</p><br>
<p>Nearby ancient settlements are Kish, Borsippa, Dilbat, and Kutha. Marad and Sippar were 60 km in either direction along the Euphrates.</p><br>
<h2>Sources</h2><br>
<p>Historical knowledge of early Babylon must be pieced together from epigraphic remains found elsewhere, such as at Uruk, Nippur, and Haradum.</p><br>
<p>Information on the Neo-Babylonian city is available from archaeological excavations and from classical sources. Babylon was described, perhaps even visited, by a number of classical historians including Ctesias, Herodotus, Quintus Curtius Rufus, Strabo, and Cleitarchus. These reports are of variable accuracy and some of the content was politically motivated, but these still provide useful information.</p><br>
<h3>Early references</h3><br>
<p>References to the city of Babylon can be found in Akkadian and Sumerian literature from the late third millennium BC. One of the earliest is a tablet describing the Akkadian king Šar-kali-šarri laying the foundations in Babylon of new temples for Annūnı̄tum and Ilaba. Babylon also appears in the administrative records of the Third Dynasty of Ur, which collected in-kind tax payments and appointed an ensi as local governor.</p><br>
<p>The so-called Weidner Chronicle (also known as ABC 19) states that Sargon of Akkad (c. 23d century BC in the short chronology had built Babylon "in front of Akkad" (ABC 19:51). A later chronicle states that Sargon "dug up the dirt of the pit of Babylon, and made a counterpart of Babylon next to Akkad". (ABC 20:18–19). Van de Mieroop has suggested that those sources may refer to the much later Assyrian king Sargon II of the Neo-Assyrian Empire rather than Sargon of Akkad.</p><br>
<p>The Book of Genesis, chapter 10, claims that king Nimrod founded Babel, Uruk, and Akkad.</p><br>
<h3>Classical dating</h3><br>
<p>Ctesias, quoted by Diodorus Siculus and in George Syncelluss Chronographia, claimed to have access to manuscripts from Babylonian archives, which date the founding of Babylon to 2286 BC, under the reign of its first king, Belus. A similar figure is found in the writings of Berossus, who according to Pliny, stated that astronomical observations commenced at Babylon 490 years before the Greek era of Phoroneus, indicating 2243 BC. Stephanus of Byzantium wrote that Babylon was built 1002 years before the date given by Hellanicus of Lesbos for the siege of Troy (1229 BC), which would date Babylons foundation to 2231 BC. All of these dates place Babylon&#39;s foundation in the 23rd century BC; however, cuneiform records have not been found to correspond with these classical (post-cuneiform) accounts.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>By around the 19th century BC, much of southern Mesopotamia was occupied by Amorites, nomadic tribes from the northern Levant who were Northwest Semitic speakers, unlike the native Akkadians of southern Mesopotamia and Assyria, who spoke East Semitic. The Amorites at first did not practice agriculture like more advanced Mesopotamians, preferring a semi-nomadic lifestyle, herding sheep. Over time, Amorite grain merchants rose to prominence and established their own independent dynasties in several south Mesopotamian city-states, most notably Isin, Larsa, Eshnunna, Lagash, and later, founding Babylon as a state.</p><br>
<h3>Old Babylonian period</h3><br>
<p>According to a Babylonian date list, Amorite rule in Babylon began (c. the 19th or 18th century BC) with a chieftain named Sumu-abum, who declared independence from the neighboring city-state of Kazallu. Sumu-la-El, whose dates may be concurrent with those of Sumu-abum, is usually given as the progenitor of the First Babylonian Dynasty. Both are credited with building the walls of Babylon. In any case, the records describe Sumu-la-El’s military successes establishing a regional sphere of influence for Babylon.</p><br>
<p>Babylon was initially a minor city-state, and controlled little surrounding territory; its first four Amorite rulers did not assume the title of king. The older and more powerful states of Assyria, Elam, Isin and Larsa overshadowed Babylon until it became the capital of Hammurabis short lived empire about a century later. Hammurabi (r. 1792–1750 BC) is famous for codifying the laws of Babylonia into the Code of Hammurabi. He conquered all of the cities and city states of southern Mesopotamia, including Isin, Larsa, Ur, Uruk, Nippur, Lagash, Eridu, Kish, Adab, Eshnunna, Akshak, Akkad, Shuruppak, Bad-tibira, Sippar and Girsu, coalescing them into one kingdom, ruled from Babylon. Hammurabi also invaded and conquered Elam to the east, and the kingdoms of Mari and Ebla to the north west. After a protracted struggle with the powerful Mesopotamian king Ishme-Dagan of Assyria, he forced his successor to pay tribute late in his reign, spreading Babylonian power to Assyrias Hattian and Hurrian colonies in Asia Minor.</p><br>
<p>After the reign of Hammurabi, the whole of southern Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia, whereas the north had coalesced centuries before into Assyria. From this time, Babylon supplanted Nippur and Eridu as the major religious center of Mesopotamia. Hammurabi&#39;s empire destabilized after his death. Assyrians defeated and drove out the Babylonians and Amorites. The far south of Mesopotamia broke away, forming the Sealand Dynasty, and the Elamites appropriated territory in eastern Mesopotamia. The Amorite dynasty remained in power in Babylon, which again became a small city state.</p><br>
<p>Texts from Old Babylon often include references to Shamash, the sun-god of Sippar, treated as a supreme deity, and Marduk, considered as his son. Marduk was later elevated to a higher status and Shamash lowered, perhaps reflecting Babylon’s rising political power</p><br>
<h3>Middle Babylon</h3><br>
<p>In 1595 BC the city was overthrown by the Hittite Empire from Asia Minor. Thereafter, Kassites from the Zagros Mountains of north western Ancient Iran captured Babylon, ushering in a dynasty that lasted for 435 years, until 1160 BC. The city was renamed Karanduniash during this period. Kassite Babylon eventually became subject to the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1053 BC) to the north, and Elam to the east, with both powers vying for control of the city. The Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I took the throne of Babylon in 1235 BC.</p><br>
<p>By 1155 BC, after continued attacks and annexing of territory by the Assyrians and Elamites, the Kassites were deposed in Babylon. An Akkadian south Mesopotamian dynasty then ruled for the first time. However, Babylon remained weak and subject to domination by Assyria. Its ineffectual native kings were unable to prevent new waves of foreign West Semitic settlers from the deserts of the Levant, including the Arameans and Suteans in the 11th century BC, and finally the Chaldeans in the 9th century BC, entering and appropriating areas of Babylonia for themselves. The Arameans briefly ruled in Babylon during the late 11th century BC.</p><br>
<h3>Assyrian period</h3><br>
<p>During the rule of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–609 BC), Babylonia was under constant Assyrian domination or direct control.</p><br>
<p>During the reign of Sennacherib of Assyria, Babylonia was in a constant state of revolt, led by a chieftain named Merodach-Baladan, in alliance with the Elamites, and suppressed only by the complete destruction of the city of Babylon. In 689 BC, its walls, temples and palaces were razed, and the rubble was thrown into the Arakhtu, the sea bordering the earlier Babylon on the south. Destruction of the religious center shocked many, and the subsequent murder of Sennacherib by two of his own sons while praying to the god Nisroch was considered an act of atonement. Consequently, his successor Esarhaddon hastened to rebuild the old city and make it his residence during part of the year. After his death, Babylonia was governed by his elder son, the Assyrian prince Shamash-shum-ukin, who eventually started a civil war in 652 BC against his own brother, Ashurbanipal, who ruled in Nineveh. Shamash-shum-ukin enlisted the help of other peoples subject to Assyria, including Elam, Persia, Chaldeans and Suteans of southern Mesopotamia, and the Canaanites and Arabs dwelling in the deserts south of Mesopotamia.</p><br>
<p>Once again, Babylon was besieged by the Assyrians, starved into surrender and its allies were defeated. Ashurbanipal celebrated a "service of reconciliation", but did not venture to "take the hands" of Bel. An Assyrian governor named Kandalanu was appointed as ruler of the city. Ashurbanipal did collect texts from Babylon for inclusion in his extensive library at Ninevah.</p><br>
<p>After the death of Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian empire destabilized due to a series of internal civil wars throughout the reigns of Assyrian kings Ashur-etil-ilani, Sin-shumu-lishir and Sinsharishkun. Eventually Babylon, like many other parts of the near east, took advantage of the anarchy within Assyria to free itself from Assyrian rule. In the subsequent overthrow of the Assyrian Empire by an alliance of peoples, the Babylonians saw another example of divine vengeance.</p><br>
<h3>Neo-Babylonian Empire</h3><br>
<p>Under Nabopolassar, a previously unknown Chaldean chieftain, Babylon escaped Assyrian rule, and in an alliance with Cyaxares, king of the Medes and Persians together with the Scythians and Cimmerians, finally destroyed the Assyrian Empire between 612 BC and 605 BC. Babylon thus became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian (sometimes and possibly erroneously called the Chaldean) Empire.</p><br>
<p>With the recovery of Babylonian independence, a new era of architectural activity ensued, particularly during the reign of his son Nebuchadnezzar II (604–561 BC). Nebuchadnezzar ordered the complete reconstruction of the imperial grounds, including the Etemenanki ziggurat, and the construction of the Ishtar Gate—the most prominent of eight gates around Babylon. A reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate is located in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.</p><br>
<p>Nebuchadnezzar is also credited with the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon—one of the seven wonders of the ancient world—said to have been built for his homesick wife Amyitis. Whether the gardens actually existed is a matter of dispute. German archaeologist Robert Koldewey speculated that he had discovered its foundations, but many historians disagree about the location. Stephanie Dalley has argued that the hanging gardens were actually located in the Assyrian capital, Nineveh.</p><br>
<p>Nebuchandnezzar is also notoriously associated with the Babylonian exile of the Jews, the result of an imperial technique of pacification, used also by the Assyrians, in which ethnic groups in conquered areas were deported en masse to the capitol.</p><br>
<p>Chaldean rule of Babylon did not last long; it is not clear whether Neriglissar and Labashi-Marduk were Chaldeans or native Babylonians, and the last ruler Nabonidus (556–539 BC) and his co-regent son Belshazzar were Assyrians from Harran.</p><br>
<h3>Persian conquest</h3><br>
<p>In 539 BC, the Neo-Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, with a military engagement known as the Battle of Opis. Babylons walls were considered impenetrable. The only way into the city was through one of its many gates or through the Euphrates River. Metal grates were installed underwater, allowing the river to flow through the city walls while preventing intrusion. The Persians devised a plan to enter the city via the river. During a Babylonian national feast, Cyrus troops diverted the Euphrates River upstream, allowing Cyrus&#39; soldiers to enter the city through the lowered water. The Persian army conquered the outlying areas of the city while the majority of Babylonians at the city center were unaware of the breach. The account was elaborated upon by Herodotus and is also mentioned in parts of the Hebrew Bible.</p><br>
<p>(Herodotus also described a moat, an enormously tall and broad wall cemented with bitumen and with buildings on top, and a hundred gates to the city. He also writes that the Babylonians wear turbans and perfume and bury their dead in honey, that they practice ritual prostitution, and that three tribes among them eat nothing but fish. The hundred gates can be considered a reference to Homer, and following the pronouncement of Archibald Henry Sayce in 1883, Herodotus’s account of Babylon has largely been considered to represent Greek folklore rather than an authentic voyage to Babylon. Dalley and others have recently suggested taking Herodotus’s account seriously again.)</p><br>
<p>According to 2 Chronicles 36 of the Hebrew Bible, Cyrus later issued a decree permitting captive people, including the Jews, to return to their own lands. Text found on the Cyrus Cylinder has traditionally been seen by biblical scholars as corroborative evidence of this policy, although the interpretation is disputed because the text only identifies Mesopotamian sanctuaries but makes no mention of Jews, Jerusalem, or Judea.</p><br>
<p>Under Cyrus and the subsequent Persian king Darius I, Babylon became the capital city of the 9th Satrapy (Babylonia in the south and Athura in the north), as well as a center of learning and scientific advancement. In Achaemenid Persia, the ancient Babylonian arts of astronomy and mathematics were revitalized, and Babylonian scholars completed maps of constellations. The city became the administrative capital of the Persian Empire and remained prominent for over two centuries. Many important archaeological discoveries have been made that can provide a better understanding of that era.</p><br>
<p>The early Persian kings had attempted to maintain the religious ceremonies of Marduk, but by the reign of Darius III, over-taxation and the strain of numerous wars led to a deterioration of Babylons main shrines and canals, and the destabilization of the surrounding region. There were numerous attempts at rebellion and in 522 BC (Nebuchadnezzar III), 521 BC (Nebuchadnezzar IV) and 482 BC (Bel-shimani and Shamash-eriba) native Babylonian kings briefly regained independence. However these revolts were quickly repressed and Babylon remained under Persian rule for two centuries, until Alexander the Greats entry in 331 BC.</p><br>
<h3>Hellenistic period</h3><br>
<p>In October of 331 BC, Darius III, the last Achaemenid king of the Persian Empire, was defeated by the forces of the Ancient Macedonian Greek ruler Alexander the Great at the Battle of Gaugamela. A native account of this invasion notes a ruling by Alexander not to enter the homes of its inhabitants.</p><br>
<p>Under Alexander, Babylon again flourished as a center of learning and commerce. However, following Alexander&#39;s death in 323 BC in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, his empire was divided amongst his generals, the Diadochi, and decades of fighting soon began. The constant turmoil virtually emptied the city of Babylon. A tablet dated 275 BC states that the inhabitants of Babylon were transported to Seleucia, where a palace and a temple (Esagila) were built. With this deportation, Babylon became insignificant as a city, although more than a century later, sacrifices were still performed in its old sanctuary.</p><br>
<h3>Renewed Persian rule</h3><br>
<p>Under the Parthian and Sassanid Empires, Babylon (like Assyria) became a province of these Persian Empires for nine centuries, until after AD 650. It maintained its own culture and people, who spoke varieties of Aramaic, and who continued to refer to their homeland as Babylon. Examples of their culture are found in the Babylonian Talmud, the Gnostic Mandaean religion, Eastern Rite Christianity and the religion of the prophet Mani. Christianity was introduced to Mesopotamia in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, and Babylon was the seat of a Bishop of the Church of the East until well after the Arab/Islamic conquest.</p><br>
<h3>Muslim conquest</h3><br>
<p>In the mid-7th century, Mesopotamia was invaded and settled by the expanding Muslim Empire, and a period of Islamization followed. Babylon was dissolved as a province and Aramaic and Church of the East Christianity eventually became marginalized. Ibn Hauqal mentions a small village called Babel in the tenth century; subsequent travelers describe only ruins.</p><br>
<p>Babylon is mentioned in medieval Arabic writings as a source of bricks, said to have been used in cities from Baghdad to Basra.</p><br>
<p>European travelers in many cases could not discover the city&#39;s location, or mistook Fallujah for it. Twelfth-century traveler Benjamin of Tudela mentions Babylon but it’s not clear if he really went there. Others referred to Baghdad as Babylon or New Babylon and described various structures encountered in the region as the Tower of Babel. Pietro della Valle found the ancient site in the seventeenth century and noted the existence of both baked and dried mudbricks cemented with bitumen.</p><br>
<h2>Modern era</h2><br>
<p>The eighteenth century saw an increasing flow of travelers to Babylon, including Carsten Niebuhr and Pierre-Joseph de Beauchamp, as well as measurements of its latitude. Beauchamp’s memoir, published in English translation in 1792, provoked the British East India Company to direct its agents in Baghdad and Basra to acquire Mesopotamian relics for shipment to London.</p><br>
<h3>Excavation and research</h3><br>
<p>Claudius Rich, working for the East India Company in Baghdad, excavated Babylon in 1811–12 and again in 1817. Robert Mignan excavated at the site briefly in 1827. William Loftus visited there in 1849.</p><br>
<p>Austen Henry Layard made some soundings during a brief visit in 1850 before abandoning the site. Fulgence Fresnel and Julius Oppert heavily excavated Babylon from 1852 to 1854. However, many of the fruits of their work was lost when a raft containing over forty crates of artifacts sank into the Tigris river.</p><br>
<p>Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet and George Smith worked there briefly in 1854. The next excavation was conducted by Hormuzd Rassam on behalf of the British Museum. Work began in 1879, continuing until 1882, and was prompted by widespread looting of the site. Using industrial scale digging in search of artifacts, Rassam recovered a large quantity of cuneiform tablets and other finds. The zealous excavation methods, common at the time, caused significant damage to the archaeological context. Many tablets had appeared on the market in 1876 before Rassam&#39;s excavation began.</p><br>
<p>A team from the German Oriental Society led by Robert Koldewey conducted the first scientific archaeological excavations at Babylon. The work was conducted daily from 1899 until 1917. Primary efforts of the dig involved the temple of Marduk and the processional way leading up to it, as well as the city wall. Artifacts including pieces of the Ishtar Gate and hundreds of recovered tablets were sent back to Germany, where Koldewey&#39;s colleague Walter Andrae reconstructed them into displays at Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin., The German archaeologists fled before oncoming British troops in 1917 and again many objects went missing in the following years.</p><br>
<p>Further work by the German Archaeological Institute was conducted by Heinrich J. Lenzen in 1956 and Hansjörg Schmid in 1962. Lenzen&#39;s work dealt primarily with the Hellenistic theatre, and Schmid focused on the temple ziggurat Etemenanki.</p><br>
<p>The site was excavated in 1974 on behalf of the Turin Centre for Archaeological Research and Excavations in the Middle East and Asia and the Iraqi-Italian Institute of Archaeological Sciences. The focus was on clearing up issues raised by re-examination of the old German data. Additional work in 1987–1989 concentrated on the area surrounding the Ishara and Ninurta temples in the Shu-Anna city-quarter of Babylon.</p><br>
<p>During the restoration efforts in Babylon, the Iraqi State Organization for Antiquities and Heritage excavation and clearing, but wider publication of these archaeological activities has been limited. Indeed, most of the known tablets from all modern excavation remain unpublished.</p><br>
<h3>Iraq government</h3><br>
<p>The site of Babylon has been a cultural asset to Iraq since the creation of the modern Iraqi government in 1920. Babylonian images periodically appear on Iraqi postcards and stamps. In the 1960s a replica of the Ishtar gate and a reconstruction of Ninmakh temple were built on site.</p><br>
<p>On 14 February 1978, the Baathist government of Iraq under Saddam Hussein began the "Archaeological Restoration of Babylon Project": reconstructing features of the ancient city atop its ruins. These features included the Southern Palace of Nebuchandnezzar, with 250 rooms, five courtyards, and a 30-meter entrance arch. The project also reinforced the Processional Way, the Lion of Babylon, and an amphitheater constructed in the city&#39;s Hellenistic era. In 1982 the government minted a set of seven coins displaying iconic features of Babylon. A Babylon International Festival was held in September 1987, and annually thereafter until 2002 (excepting 1990 and 1991), to showcase this work. Proposed reconstruction of the Hanging Gardens and the great ziggurat never took place.</p><br>
<p>Hussein installed a portrait of himself and Nebuchadnezzar at the entrance to the ruins and inscribed his name on many of the bricks, in imitation of Nebuchadnezzar. One frequent inscription reads: "This was built by Saddam Hussein, son of Nebuchadnezzar, to glorify Iraq". These bricks became sought after as collectors items after Husseins downfall. Similar projects were conducted at Nineveh, Nimrud, Assur and Hatra, to demonstrate the magnificence of Arab achievement.</p><br>
<p>When the 1991 Gulf War ended, Hussein wanted to build a modern palace called Saddam Hill over some of the old ruins, in the pyramidal style of a ziggurat. In 2003, he intended the construction of a cable car line over Babylon, but plans were halted by the 2003 invasion of Iraq.</p><br>
<h3>US and Polish occupation</h3><br>
<p>Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the area around Babylon came under the control of US troops, before being handed over to Polish forces in September 2003. US forces under the command of General James T. Conway of the I Marine Expeditionary Force were criticized for building the military base "Camp Alpha", with a helipad and other facilities on ancient Babylonian ruins during the Iraq War. US forces have occupied the site for some time and have caused irreparable damage to the archaeological record. In a report of the British Museum&#39;s Near East department, Dr. John Curtis described how parts of the archaeological site were levelled to create a landing area for helicopters, and parking lots for heavy vehicles. Curtis wrote of the occupation forces:</p><br>
<p>A US Military spokesman claimed that engineering operations were discussed with the "head of the Babylon museum". The head of the Iraqi State Board for Heritage and Antiquities, Donny George, said that the "mess will take decades to sort out" and criticised Polish troops for causing "terrible damage" to the site. Poland resolved in 2004 to place the city under Iraq control, and commissioned a report titled Report Concerning the Condition of the Preservation of the Babylon Archaeological Site, which it presented at a meeting on 11–13 December 2004. In 2005 the site was handed over to the Iraqi Ministry of Culture.</p><br>
<p>In April 2006, Colonel John Coleman, former Chief of Staff for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, offered to issue an apology for the damage done by military personnel under his command. However, he also claimed that the US presence had deterred far greater damage by other looters. An article published in April 2006 stated that UN officials and Iraqi leaders have plans to restore Babylon, making it into a cultural center.</p><br>
<p>Two museums and a library, containing replicas of artifacts and local maps and reports, were raided and destroyed.</p><br>
<h3>Present day</h3><br>
<p>In May 2009, the provincial government of Babil reopened the site to tourists, but not many have come. An oil pipeline runs through an outer wall of the city.</p><br>
<h2>Cultural importance</h2><br>
<p>Before modern archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia, the appearance of Babylon was largely a mystery, and typically envisioned by Western artists as a hybrid between ancient Egyptian, classical Greek, and contemporary Ottoman culture.</p><br>
<p>Due to Babylon&#39;s historical significance as well as references to it in the Bible, the word "Babylon" in various languages has acquired a generic meaning of a large, bustling diverse city. Examples include:</p><br>
<p>Babylon is used in reggae music as a concept in the Rastafari belief system, denoting the materialistic capitalist world.</p><br>
<p>Freemasonry, which has its own versions of biblical legends, classically considered Babylon as its birthplace and a haven for science and knowledge.</p><br>
<p>Babylon 5—a science fiction series about a multi-racial futuristic space station.</p><br>
<p>Babylon A.D. takes place in New York City, decades in the future.</p><br>
<p>Babilonas (Lithuanian name for "Babylon")—a real estate development in Lithuania.</p><br>
<h3>Biblical narrative</h3><br>
<p>In, Babel (Babylon) is described as founded by Nimrod along with Uruk, Akkad and perhaps Calneh—all of them in Shinar ("Calneh" is now sometimes translated not as a proper name but as the phrase "all of them"). Another story is given in Genesis 11, which describes a united human race, speaking one language, migrating to Shinar to establish a city and tower—the Tower of Babel. God destroys the tower and the city, dispersing humanity across the earth and requiring them to speak mutually unintelligible languages.</p><br>
<p>Babylon appears throughout the Hebrew Bible, including in descriptions of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Babylonian captivity, and in several prophecies. Consequently, in Jewish and Christian tradition, Babylon symbolizes an oppressor against which righteous believers must struggle. Prophecies sometimes symbolically link the kings of Babylon with Lucifer. Nebuchadnezzar, sometimes conflated with Nabonidus, appears as the foremost ruler in this narrative.</p><br>
<p>The Revelation of St. John in the Christian Bible refers to Babylon many centuries after it ceased to be a major political center. The city is personified by the “Whore of Babylon”, riding on a scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns, and drunk on the blood of the righteous. Some scholars of apocalyptic literature believe this New Testament “Babylon” to be a dysphemism for the Roman Empire.</p><br>
<p>The Pear Lake Ski Hut  was built in Sequoia National Park by the Civilian Conservation Corps during 1939-1941 using local Sierra granite and timber materials. It is an example of the National Park Service Rustic style, using rough masonry and a log roof structure.</p><br>
<p>The hut is located in the high Sierra east of Lodgepole, and 3/8 of a mile north of Pear Lake at 9,200 feet (2804 meters) and is reached by ascending a steep six miles of trail from Wolverton Meadow (7,200 feet). It has been said to be "one of the most environmentally successful alpine structures ever designed by the NPS".</p><br>
<p>The Pear Lake Ski Hut is open to the public in the winter between December and April and advanced reservations are required. The hut sleeps up to 10 guests, has a separate quarters upstairs for a hut keeper and is heated by a wood pellet stove. In addition to serving as a wintertime ski hut, the structure serves as a Ranger Station for the busy Pear Lake Basin during summer months.</p><br>
<p>Mitchell River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.</p><br>
<p>The river rises north east of Sharp Hill and flows in a north-westerly direction until discharging into the Indian Ocean via Walmsley Bay near Port Warrender.</p><br>
<p>The best known feature of the river is Mitchell Falls located within the Mitchell River National Park, a three tiered series of drops with a combined height of nearly 80 metres.</p><br>
<p>In 1921 the river was named after Sir James Mitchell the Premier of Western Australia by surveyor W.R. Eastman.</p><br>
<p>Nine species of freshwater fish are known to inhabit the waters of the Mitchell River.</p><br>
<p>There is another Mitchell River located in Western Australia that is a tributary of the Hay River in the south of the state.</p><br>
<p>The Smithsonian Institution Shelter, also known as the Mount Whitney Summit Shelter, was built in 1909 on the summit plateau of Mount Whitney, in the Sierra Nevada within Sequoia National Park, in California.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The shelter at the summit was proposed after Byrd Surby, a USA Fisheries employee, was struck and killed by lightning on the summit in 1904.</p><br>
<p>The shelter was built to house scientists who used the 14,505-foot summit to study high-altitude phenomena in the time before sustained high-altitude flight was possible.</p><br>
<p>In 1909 the site was used by Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory director Charles Greeley Abbot to conduct spectroscopic observations of Mars to investigate the existence of water on the planet. Other studies included observations of cosmic rays and nocturnal radiation.</p><br>
<p>Although the structure was built in part as a shelter from storms, hikers are now warned against seeking shelter there during lightning storms.</p><br>
<h2>Landmark</h2><br>
<p>Gustave F. Marsh, the builder of the summit trail, built the shelter with funding from the Smithsonian Institution, with assistance from the Lick Observatory. The mortared granite shelter comprises three rooms in a line with windows in each and doors in the north and south rooms. The roof is corrugated metal on a steel truss frame. The shelter has a log book for all hikers to sign when they make it to the summit of Mt. Whitney.</p><br>
<p>The site has been considered for National Historic Landmark status, but has not been recommended for submission yet. However, in 1977 the Smithsonian Institution Shelter was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>The Harlan County Reservoir includes a dam and a reservoir of 13,250 acre located in Harlan County in south-central Nebraska. Its southernmost part extends into northern Phillips County, Kansas. The reservoir is formed by a dam in the Republican River, which starts in Colorado and ends in Kansas.</p><br>
<p>The two closest towns are Republican City and Alma. Republican City offers fishing supplies, boat rentals, restaurants and cabins. When the lake is at normal pool, Alma is on the shore line of the lake and offers lodging, restaurants, stores, and churches.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>A number of Native American tribes lived in the Republican River Valley throughout history. The Pawnee, Arapahoe and Cheyenne relied on the land for their survival. Early settlers and trappers arrived in the 1850s when the Nebraska Territory was formed. The rich river bottom soil lured many farmers into the area. According to the USA Army Corps of Engineers, Native Americans told early settlers not to build big houses close to the river because of the "big water." In 1872, Dr. John McPherson moved from his Brownville, Nebraska home to the river valley. McPherson opened several stores and laid out lots in a town he called Republican. Once a post office was built, the town took the official name of Republican City. The Burlington Railroad reached the town in 1881, creating a booming trade center.</p><br>
<p>On May 31, 1935 a storm dumped 24 in of rain on the Republican River watershed, which averaged nine inches (229 mm) annually. The flood wiped out Republican City within minutes, and 100 people lost their lives. Nearly 10,000 cattle were reportedly lost along the Republican River Valley along with 300 county bridges and over 300 mi of roads and railway. The flood was responsible for over $26 million in damages.</p><br>
<p>The town moved to avoid further damage, and the USA Army Corps of Engineers researched a potential location for the dam would work the best to prevent such flood loss. They chose an area between Republican City and Naponee. Republican City was rebuilt two miles (3 km) north on higher ground in 1952, with a few original buildings. Some of the original buildings&#39; foundations are visible when the water level is low.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>With a surface covering 13,250 acre, the Harlan County Reservoir lake sits in bottom lands of the Republican River Valley. Located seven miles (11 km) from the Nebraska/Kansas border, the lake is nine miles (14 km) long and has about 75 mi of shore line. The Reservoir&#39;s dam sits on the Republican River two miles (3 km) south of Republican City. According to the USA Army Corps of Engineers, the river valley got its name from the Republican Pawnee Indian tribe who inhabited the area. The land consists of thick trees and brush as most river bottoms do. Harlan County Reservoir is Nebraska’s second largest lake.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>The lake is under the management of the USA Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps also manages 17,750 acre surrounding the lake as well as the Republican River near the lake. Corps staff conduct safety inspections on the dam, working directly with the Kansas District Water Management to determine how much water is released from the reservoir into the Republican River. Corp Staff are also responsible for the upkeeps of the roads, utility systems, campsites, beaches, boat ramps, and picnic areas in and around the lake. The Corps also works directly with Nebraska Game and Parks Commission to manage the natural resources of Harlan County Lake.</p><br>
<h3>Fish</h3><br>
<p>The Harlan County Lake has fish species such as walleye, white bass, wipers, catfish, crappie and pike. Ice fishing is popular on the reservoir as well.</p><br>
<h3>Birds</h3><br>
<p>According to the Nebraska Birding Trails website, birds found at Harlan County Reservoir have included common loon, black-legged kittiwake, parasitic jaeger, little blue heron, white-faced ibis, and Sabine&#39;s gull. Bald eagles are also often spotted in the latter fall and winter months, especially at the Western end of the lake near Alma. Many migratory birds rely on Harlan county Reservoir each year as they pass through. With an abundance of water in the lake and river, and the thousands of acres of green wheat and corn stalks, this area is crucial as the thousands of ducks and geese fly south to their mating grounds.</p><br>
<h3>Mammals</h3><br>
<p>The shoreline and rivers surrounding the reservoir sustain many mammal species. Beaver and muskrat use the muddy banks of the small creeks and streams in and out of the lake as habitat. This is a prime area for such creatures needing the smaller willows and trees to make their dams and huts. The thick brush of the river bottom ground is some of the state’s best whitetail deer hunting habitat. Field mice, moles, ground squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, opossum, skunk, badger, coyote, bobcat and many more rely on the habitat supported by the lake for their survival.</p><br>
<h3>Plants</h3><br>
<p>The main habitat of the Harlan County Lake area is mixed prairie grasses. According to the USA Army Corps of Engineers these prairies consist of Big and Little Bluestem, Indian grass, western wheatgrass, buffalo grass, blue gramma and switch grass. Much of the area is covered by trees and brush as well. A strand of Cottonwood, ash, cedar, and maple trees just to name a few are found all along the Republican River and other lowland inlets leading up to the lake. The plants of any ecosystem make up most of the habitat.</p><br>
<h2>Land maintenance</h2><br>
<p>A current issue at Harlan County Lake has been a problem of invasive feral hogs destroying a lot of farmland and wildlife habitat while also increasing the chance of introducing disease to other wildlife and domestic hogs in the area. In February 2008 the Nebraska Game and Parks and USA Army Corps of Engineers exterminated 69 feral hogs from the Harlan County Lake area. They were shot from a helicopter by a professional sharpshooter from the Kansas Wildlife Services. A large amount of native prairie and woodland have been converted back over the years in the area. Over 300,000 trees have been planted and 2,000 acre of native prairie have been planted using funds from the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Habitat Stamp Program.</p><br>
<p>American Samoa  is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of Samoa.</p><br>
<p>American Samoa consists of five main islands and two coral atolls. The largest and most populous island is Tutuila, with the Manua Islands, Rose Atoll, and Swains Island also included in the territory. All islands except for Swains Island are part of the Samoan Islands, located west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 300 miles (500 km) south of Tokelau. To the west are the islands of the Wallis and Futuna group.</p><br>
<p>The 2010 census showed a total population of 55,519 people. The total land area is 199 km&sup2, slightly more than Washington, D.C. American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the USA and one of two USA territories south of the Equator, along with the uninhabited Jarvis Island. Tuna products are the main exports, and the main trading partner is the United States.</p><br>
<p>During the 1918 flu pandemic, Governor John Martin Poyer quarantined the territory, and because of his actions, American Samoa was one of the few places in the world where no flu-related deaths occurred.</p><br>
<p>American Samoa is noted for having the highest rate of military enlistment of any USA state or territory. As of September 9, 2014, the local USA Army recruiting station in Pago Pago was ranked first in production out of the 885 Army recruiting stations and centers under the United States Army Recruiting Command, which includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Korea, Japan, and Europe.</p><br>
<p>Most American Samoans are bilingual and can speak English and Samoan fluently. Samoan is the same language spoken in neighboring independent Samoa.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>18th century: First Western contact</h3><br>
<p>Contact with Europeans began in the early 18th century. Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen was the first known European to sight the Samoan Islands in 1722, calling them the "Baumann Islands" after one of his captains. This visit was followed by French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville who named them the "Isles des Navigateurs" in 1768. British explorer James Cook recorded the island names in 1773, but never visited.</p><br>
<p>The 1789 visit by La Perouse ended in an attack and resulted in the death of his second in command Capt. de Langle and several of his crew on a Tutuila water collection expedition. La Perouse named the island "Massacre Island", and the bay near Aasu is still called "Massacre Bay".</p><br>
<p>H.M.S. Pandora, under the command of Edwards, visited the island in 1791 during its search for the H.M.S. Bounty mutineers. Von Kotzebue visited in 1824.</p><br>
<h3>19th century</h3><br>
<p>Mission work in the Samoas had begun in late 1830 when John Williams of the London Missionary Society arrived from the Cook Islands and Tahiti. By that time, the Samoans had gained a reputation for being savage and warlike, as violent altercations had occurred between natives and European visitors. Nevertheless, by the late nineteenth century, French, British, German, and American vessels routinely stopped at Samoa, as they valued Pago Pago Harbor as a refueling station for coal-fired shipping and whaling.</p><br>
<p>The US Exploring Expedition visited in 1839.</p><br>
<p>In March 1889, an Imperial German naval force entered a village on Samoa, and in doing so destroyed some American property. Three American warships then entered the Apia harbor and prepared to engage the three German warships found there. Before any shots were fired, a typhoon wrecked both the American and German ships. A compulsory armistice was then called because of the lack of any warships.</p><br>
<h3>Early 20th century</h3><br>
<p>At the turn of the twentieth century, international rivalries in the latter half of the century were settled by the 1899 Tripartite Convention in which Germany and the United States partitioned the Samoan Islands into two parts: the eastern island group became a territory of the United States (the Tutuila Islands in 1900 and officially Manu&#39;a in 1904) and is today known as American Samoa; the western islands, by far the greater landmass, became known as German Samoa, after Britain gave up all claims to Samoa and in return accepted the termination of German rights in Tonga and certain areas in the Solomon Islands and West Africa. Forerunners to the Tripartite Convention of 1899 were the Washington Conference of 1887, the Treaty of Berlin of 1889 and the Anglo-German Agreement on Samoa of 1899.</p><br>
<h4>US Protectorate</h4><br>
<p>The following year, the USA formally occupied its portion, a smaller group of eastern islands, one of which contains the noted harbor of Pago Pago. After the United States Navy took possession of eastern Samoa for the United States government, the existing coaling station at Pago Pago Bay was expanded into a full naval station, known as United States Naval Station Tutuila and commanded by a commandant. The Navy secured a Deed of Cession of Tutuila in 1900 and a Deed of Cession of Manuʻa in 1904 on behalf of the US government. The last sovereign of Manuʻa, the Tui Manuʻa Elisala, signed a Deed of Cession of Manuʻa following a series of USA Naval trials, known as the "Trial of the Ipu", in Pago Pago, Taʻu, and aboard a Pacific Squadron gunboat. The territory became known as the USA Naval Station Tutuila.</p><br>
<p>On July 17, 1911, the US Naval Station Tutuila, which was composed of Tutuila, Aunuu and Manua, was officially renamed American Samoa.</p><br>
<h4>World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic</h4><br>
<p>In 1918 during the final stages of World War I, the flu pandemic had taken its toll, spreading rapidly from country to country. American Samoa became one of only three places in the world (the others being New Caledonia and Marajó island in Brazil) to have prevented any deaths during the pandemic through the quick response from Governor John Martin Poyer after hearing news reports of the outbreak on the radio and requesting quarantine ships from the USA mainland. The result of Poyer&#39;s quick actions earned him the Navy Cross from the USA Navy. With this distinction, American Samoans regarded Poyer as their hero for what he had done to prevent the deadly disease. The neighboring New Zealand territory at the time, Western Samoa suffered the most of all Pacific islands with 90% of the population infected, 30% of adult men, 22% of adult women and 10% of children died. Poyer offered assistance to help his New Zealand counterparts, but was refused by the administrator of Western Samoa Robert Logan who became outraged after witnessing the number of quarantine ships surrounding American Samoa. Angered by this, Logan had cut off communications with his American counterparts.</p><br>
<h4>Interwar period</h4><br>
<h4>=American Samoa Mau movement=</h4><br>
<p>After World War I, during the time of the Mau movement in Western Samoa (then a League of Nations mandate governed by New Zealand), there was a corresponding American Samoa Mau movement led by Samuelu Ripley, a World War I veteran who was from Leone village, Tutuila. After meetings in the United States mainland, he was prevented from disembarking from the ship that brought him home to American Samoa and was not allowed to return because the American Samoa Mau movement was suppressed by the U.S Navy. In 1930 the USA Congress sent a committee to investigate the status of American Samoa, led by Americans who had a part in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii.</p><br>
<h4>=Annexation of Swains Island=</h4><br>
<p>Swains Island, which had been included in the list of guano islands appertaining to the United States and bonded under the Guano Islands Act, was annexed in 1925 by Pub. Res. 68–75.</p><br>
<h4>=Pan American and first trans-South Pacific flight=</h4><br>
<p>In 1938, the noted aviator Ed Musick and his crew died on the Pan American World Airways S-42 Samoan Clipper over Pago Pago, while on a survey flight to Auckland, New Zealand. Sometime after takeoff, the aircraft experienced trouble, and Musick turned it back toward Pago Pago. While the crew dumped fuel in preparation for an emergency landing, an explosion occurred that tore the aircraft apart.</p><br>
<h4>World War II and aftermath</h4><br>
<p>During World War II, USA Marines stationed in Samoa outnumbered the local population and had a huge cultural influence. Young Samoan men from age 14 and above were combat trained by USA military personnel. Samoans served in various capacities during World War II, including as combatants, medical personnel, code personnel, and ship repairmen.</p><br>
<p>In 1949, Organic Act 4500, a USA Department of Interior-sponsored attempt to incorporate American Samoa, was introduced in Congress. It was ultimately defeated, primarily through the efforts of Samoan chiefs, led by Tuiasosopo Mariota. The efforts of these chiefs led to the creation of a territorial legislature, the American Samoa Fono, which meets in the village of Fagatogo.</p><br>
<h4>1951–1999</h4><br>
<p>By 1956, the USA Navy-appointed governor was replaced by Peter Tali Coleman, who was locally elected. Although technically considered "unorganized" since the USA Congress has not passed an Organic Act for the territory, American Samoa is self-governing under a constitution that became effective on July 1, 1967. The USA Territory of American Samoa is on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, a listing which is disputed by the territorial government officials, who do consider themselves to be self-governing.</p><br>
<p>American Samoa and Pago Pago International Airport had historic significance with the Apollo Program. The astronaut crews of Apollo 10, 12, 13, 14, and 17 were retrieved a few hundred miles from Pago Pago and transported by helicopter to the airport prior to being flown to Honolulu on C-141 Starlifter military aircraft.</p><br>
<p>While the two Samoas share language and ethnicity, their cultures have recently followed different paths, with American Samoans often emigrating to Hawaii and the US mainland, and adopting many US customs, such as the playing of American football and baseball. Western Samoans have tended to emigrate instead to New Zealand, whose influence has made the sports of rugby and cricket more popular in the western islands. Travel writer Paul Theroux noted that there were marked differences between the societies in Western Samoa and American Samoa.</p><br>
<h3>21st century</h3><br>
<p>Due to economic hardship, military service has been seen as an opportunity in American Samoa and other US Overseas territories. This has meant that there have been a disproportionate number of casualties per population compared to other parts of the United States. As of March 23, 2009, 10 American Samoans had died in Iraq, and 2 died in Afghanistan.</p><br>
<h2>Notable events</h2><br>
<h3>Pre-20th Century</h3><br>
<p>On December 10, 1787, French navigator Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse landed two exploration parties on Tutuilas north shore: one from the ship La Boussole at Fagasa, and the other from LAstrolabe at Aasu. One of the cooks, David, died of "scorbutic dropsy". On December 11, twelve members of Lapérouses crew (including First Officer Paul Antoine Fleuriot de Langle) were killed by angry Samoans at Aasu Bay, Tutuila, thereafter known as "Massacre Bay", which Lapérouse described as "this den, more fearful from its treacherous situation and the cruelty of its inhabitants than the lair of a lion or a tiger." This incident gave Samoa a reputation for savagery that kept Europeans away until the arrival of the first Christian missionaries four decades later. On December 12, at Aasu Bay, Lapérouse ordered his gunners to fire one cannonball in the midst of the attackers who had killed his men the day before, and were now returning to launch another attack. He later wrote in his journal "I could have destroyed or sunk a hundred canoes, with more than 500 people in them: but I was afraid of striking the wrong victims; the call of my conscience saved their lives."</p><br>
<p>On March 25, 1891, Robert Louis Stevenson paid a visit to Pago Pago.</p><br>
<h3>20th Century</h3><br>
<p>On December 15, 1916, English writer William Somerset Maugham arrived in Pago Pago, allegedly accompanied by a missionary and Miss Sadie Thompson. His visit inspired his short story "Rain" which later became plays and three major Motion Pictures. The building still stands where Maugham stayed and has been renamed the Sadie Thompson Building. Today it is a prominent restaurant and inn.</p><br>
<p>On November 3, 1920, American Samoas 12th naval governor, Commander Warren Jay Terhune, committed suicide with a pistol in the bathroom of the government mansion, overlooking the entrance to Pago Pago Harbor. His body was discovered by Government Houses cook, SDI First Class Felisiano Debid Ahchica, USN. His ghost is rumored to walk about the grounds at night.</p><br>
<p>On August 11, 1925, Margaret Mead arrived in American Samoa aboard the SS Sonoma to begin fieldwork for her doctoral dissertation in anthropology at Columbia University, where she was a student of Professor Franz Boas. Her work Coming of Age in Samoa was published in 1928, at the time becoming the most widely read book in the field of anthropology. The book has sparked years of ongoing and intense debate and controversy. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute listed Coming of Age in Samoa as #1 on The Fifty Worst Books of the Century list. Mead returned to American Samoa in 1971 for the dedication of the Jean P. Haydon Museum.</p><br>
<p>On November 24, 1939, American Samoas last execution was carried out. Imoa was convicted of stabbing Sema to death and was hanged in the Customs House. The popular Samoan song "Faafofoga Samoa" is based on this, said to be the final words of Imoa.</p><br>
<p>On January 11, 1942, at 2:26 a.m., a Japanese submarine surfaced off Tutuila between Southworth Point and Fagasa Bay and fired about 15 shells from its 5.5-inch deck gun at the USA Naval Station Tutuila over the next 10 minutes. The first shell struck the rear of Frank Shimasakis store, ironically owned by one of Tutuilas few Japanese residents. The store was closed, as Mr. Shimasaki had been interned as an enemy alien. The next shell caused slight damage to the naval dispensary, the third landed on the lawn behind the naval quarters known as "Centipede Row," and the fourth struck the stone seawall outside the customs house. The other rounds fell harmlessly into the harbor. As one writer described it, "The fire was not returned, notwithstanding the eagerness of the Samoan Marines to test their skill against the enemy... No American or Samoan Marines were wounded." Commander Edwin B. Robinson was bicycling behind Centipede Row and was wounded in the knee by a piece of shrapnel, and "a member of the colorful native Fita Fita Guard" received minor injuries; they were the only casualties. This was the only time the Japanese attacked Tutuila during World War II, although "Japanese submarines had patrolled the waters around Samoa before the war, and continued to be active there throughout the war."</p><br>
<p>On August 24, 1943, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited American Samoa and inspected the Fita Fita Guard and Band and the First Samoan Battalio of USA Marine Corps Reserve at the USA Naval Station American Samoa.</p><br>
<p>On October 18, 1966, President Lyndon Baines Johnson and First Lady Lady Bird Johnson visited American Samoa. Mrs. Johnson dedicated the "Manulele Tausala" ("Lady Bird") Elementary School in Nuuuli, which was named after her. Johnson is the only US President to have visited American Samoa, while Mrs. Johnson was the second First Lady, preceded by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1943. The territorys only hospital was renamed in honor of President Johnson.</p><br>
<p>In the late 1960s and early 1970s, American Samoa played a pivotal role in five of the Apollo Program missions. The astronauts landed several hundred miles from Pago and were transported to the islands en route back to the mainland. President Richard Nixon gave three moon rocks to the American Samoan government, and these are on display in the Jean P. Haydon Museum, along with a flag carried to the moon on one of the missions.</p><br>
<p>In November 1970, Pope Paul VI visited American Samoa in a brief but lavish greeting.</p><br>
<p>On January 30, 1974, Pan Am Flight 806 from Auckland, New Zealand crashed at Pago Pago International Airport at 10:41 p.m., with 91 passengers aboard. 86 people were killed, including Captain Leroy A. Petersen and the entire flight crew. Four of the five surviving passengers were seriously injured, with the other only slightly injured. The airline was completely destroyed by the impact and succeeding fire. The crash was attributed to poor visibility, pilot error, or wind shear, since a violent storm was raging at the time. In January 2014, filmmaker Paul Crompton visited the territory to interview local residents for a documentary film about the 1974 crash.</p><br>
<p>A USA Navy patrol plane had its vertical stabilizer shorn off by the Solo Ridge-Mount Alava aerial tramway cable across Pago Pago harbor on April 17, 1980 during the Flag Day celebrations, when carrying six skydivers from the USA Armys Hawaii-based Tropic Lightning Parachute Club. The plane crashed, demolishing a wing of the Rainmaker Hotel and killing all six crew members and one civilian. The six skydivers were reported in good condition. A memorial monument is erected on Mt. Mauga O Alii to honor their memory.</p><br>
<h3>21st Century</h3><br>
<p>On July 22, 2010, Det. Lt. Lusila Brown was fatally shot outside the temporary High Court building in Fagatogo. It was the first time in more than 15 years that a police officer was killed in the line of duty. The last was Sa Fuimaono, who drowned after saving a teenager from rough seas.</p><br>
<p>On November 8, 2010, United States Secretary of State and former First Lady Hillary Clinton made a refueling stopover at the Pago Pago International Airport. She was greeted by government dignitaries and presented with gifts and a traditional ava ceremony.</p><br>
<h4>September 2009 earthquake and tsunami</h4><br>
<p>On September 29, 2009, at 17:48:11 UTC, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake struck 120 mi off the coast of American Samoa, followed by smaller aftershocks. It was the largest earthquake of 2009. The quake occurred on the outer rise of the Kermadec-Tonga Subduction Zone. This is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates in the Earth&#39;s lithosphere meet and earthquakes and volcanic activity are common. The quake struck 11.2 mi below the ocean floor and generated an onsetting tsunami that killed more than 170 people in the Samoa Islands and Tonga. Four waves with heights from 15 ft to 20 ft high were reported to have reached up to one mile (1.6 km) inland on the island of Tutuila.</p><br>
<p>The Defense Logistics Agency worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide 16 × 16 humanitarian tents to the devastated areas of American Samoa.</p><br>
<h2>Government and politics</h2><br>
<h3>Government</h3><br>
<p>The government of American Samoa is defined under the Constitution of American Samoa as an unincorporated territory; the Ratification Act of 1929 vested all civil, judicial, and military powers in the President of the United States of America. In 1951, with, President Harry Truman delegated that authority to the Secretary of the Interior. On June 21, 1963 Paramount Chief Tuli Le’iato of Faga’itua was sworn in and installed as the first Secretary of Samoan Affairs by Governor H. Rex Lee. On June 2, 1967, Interior Secretary Fred Andrew Seaton promulgated the Constitution of American Samoa, which took effect on July 1, 1967.</p><br>
<p>The Governor of American Samoa is the head of government and along with the Lieutenant Governor of American Samoa is elected on the same ticket by popular vote for four-year terms. Since American Samoa is a self-governing territory, the President of the United States serves as the Head of State. He does not play an active role in government, but he can dissolve the Fono and no act of parliament will become law without his approval.</p><br>
<p>The legislative power is vested in the American Samoa Fono, which has two chambers. The House of Representatives has 21 members, elected for a two-year term, 20 in single-seat constituencies and one by a public meeting on Swains Island. The Senate also has 18 members, elected for a four-year term by and from the chiefs of the islands.</p><br>
<p>The judiciary of American Samoa is independent of the executive and the legislature, and the High Court of American Samoa is the highest court below the United States Supreme Court in American Samoa, with the District Courts below it. The High Court is located in the capital of Pago Pago. It consists of a Chief Justice and an Associate Justice, appointed by the United States Secretary of the Interior.</p><br>
<h3>Politics</h3><br>
<p>Politics of American Samoa takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic dependency, whereby the Governor is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. American Samoa is an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the United States, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, USA Department of the Interior. In 1966, the United Nations gave American Samoa the option of joining the independent country of Samoa, but American Samoa chose to stay in the United States. American Samoa&#39;s constitution was ratified in 1966 and came into effect in 1967. Executive power is exercised by the governor. Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of the legislature. The American political parties (Republican and Democratic) exist in American Samoa, but few politicians are aligned with the parties. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.</p><br>
<p>There is also the traditional village politics of the Samoa Islands, the "faamatai" and the "faasamoa", which continues in American Samoa and in independent Samoa, and which interacts across these current boundaries. The Faasamoa is the language and customs, and the Faamatai the protocols of the "fono" (council) and the chief system. The Fa&#39;amatai and the Fono take place at all levels of the Samoan body politic, from the family, to the village, to the region, to national matters.</p><br>
<p>The "matai" (chiefs) are elected by consensus within the fono of the extended family and village(s) concerned. The matai and the fono (which is itself made of matai) decide on distribution of family exchanges and tenancy of communal lands. The majority of lands in American Samoa and independent Samoa are communal. A matai can represent a small family group or a great extended family that reaches across islands, and to both American Samoa and independent Samoa.</p><br>
<p>In 2010, voters rejected a package of amendments to the territorial constitution, which would have, among other things, allowed only USA citizens with Samoan ancestry to be legislators.</p><br>
<p>In 2012, both the Governor and American Samoa&#39;s delegate to the USA Congress Eni Faleomavaega called for the populace to consider a move towards autonomy if not independence, to a mixed response.</p><br>
<h4>Nationality</h4><br>
<p>People born in American Samoaincluding those born on Swains Islandare American nationals, but are not American citizens unless one of their parents is a USA citizen. In an amicus curiae brief filed in federal court, Samoan Congressman Faleomavaega supported the legal interpretation that the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment does not extend birthright citizenship to United States nationals born in unincorporated territories. USA nationals have the right to reside in the USA (i.e., the 50 states and District of Columbia), and may apply for citizenship by naturalization after three months of residency by passing a test in English and civics, and by taking an oath of allegiance to the United States.</p><br>
<p>Under Article II and Amendment XXIII of the USA Constitution, only states and the District of Columbia may participate in the election of the president and vice president of the United States. Samoans are entitled to elect one non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives. Their delegate since 1989 had been Democrat Eni Faleomavaega. In the 2014 Midterm Election, Republican Aumua Amata Radewagen defeated Eni Faleomavaega, becoming the first female and first Republican representative of American Samoa. They also send delegates to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.</p><br>
<h4>Immigration law</h4><br>
<p>Unique among US outlying possessions, American Samoa has its own immigration law, separate from the laws that apply in the United States proper and their other possessions. While US citizens and nationals can freely move to American Samoa, American Samoa government, via the Immigration Board of American Samoa, controls the migration of aliens to the islands.</p><br>
<p>GAO-10-638: Published: June 11, 2010. Publicly Released: July 12, 2010.</p><br>
<p>Special application forms exist for migration to American Samoa based on family-based or employment-based sponsorship.</p><br>
<p>Unlike other US territories (Guam, CNMI, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands), American Samoa is not considered a "US State" for the purposes of the US Immigration and Nationality Act. This means that a lawful permanent resident of the United States may be considered to have abandoned his permanent residence if s/he has moved to live to American Samoa.</p><br>
<h4>Official protest to naming of neighboring Samoa</h4><br>
<p>The United States Department of State Background Note web page for neighboring Samoa notes that:</p><br>
<p>In July 1997 the Constitution was amended to change the country&#39;s name from Western Samoa to Samoa (officially the "Independent State of Samoa"). Western Samoa had been known simply as Samoa in the United Nations since joining the organization in 1976. The neighboring USA territory of American Samoa protested the move, feeling that the change diminished its own Samoan identity. American Samoans still use the terms Western Samoa and Western Samoans.</p><br>
<h3>Administrative divisions</h3><br>
<p>American Samoa is administratively divided into three districts—Eastern District, Western District, and Manua District—and two "unorganized" atolls, Swains Island and the uninhabited Rose Atoll. The districts and unorganized atolls are subdivided into 74 villages. Pago Pago—the capital of American Samoa—is one of the largest villages and is located on the eastern side of Tutuila island in Maoputasi County district #9. Fagatogo is listed in the Constitution of American Samoa as the official seat of government, but it is not the capital.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>American Samoa, located within the geographical region of Oceania, is one of only two possessions of the United States in the Southern Hemisphere, the other being Jarvis Island. Its total land area is 76.1 square milesslightly larger than Washington, D.C.consisting of five rugged, volcanic islands and two coral atolls. The five volcanic islands are: Tutuila, Aunu&#39;u, Ofu, Olosega, and Ta‘ū. The coral atolls are: Swains, and Rose Atoll. Of the seven islands, Rose Atoll is the only uninhabited one; it is a Marine National Monument.</p><br>
<p>Due to its positioning in the South Pacific Ocean, it is frequently hit by tropical cyclones between November and April. Rose Atoll is the easternmost point of the territory. American Samoa is the southernmost part of the United States. American Samoa is home to the National Park of American Samoa.</p><br>
<h3>Vailulu'u Seamount</h3><br>
<p>The Vailuluu Seamount, an active submerged volcano, lies 28 miles (45 km) east of Ta‘ū in American Samoa. It was discovered in 1975 and has since been studied by an international team of scientists, contributing towards understanding of the Earths fundamental processes. Growing inside the summit crater of Vailuluu is an active underwater volcanic cone, named after Samoa&#39;s goddess of war, Nafanua.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>American Samoa has a tropical climate all year round with two distinct seasons, the wet and dry season. The wet season is usually between December and March and the dry season from April through to September with the average daily temperature around 81˚- 83˚ Fahrenheit (around 28° Celsius) all year round.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>Employment on the island falls into three relatively equal-sized categories of approximately 5,000 workers each: the public sector, the single remaining tuna cannery, and the rest of the private sector.</p><br>
<p>There are only a few federal employees in American Samoa and no active duty military personnel, except members of the USA Coast Guard. There is an Army Reserve unit, and a USA Army recruiting station in Utulei.</p><br>
<p>The overwhelming majority of public sector employees work for the American Samoa territorial government. The one tuna cannery is StarKist, which exports several hundred million dollars worth of canned tuna to the United States each year. The other tuna cannery was Samoa Packing, a Chicken of the Sea subsidiary, but it closed in 2009 due to American Samoans being granted minimum wage. In early 2007, the Samoan economy was highlighted in the Congress at the request of Eni Faleomavaega, the Samoan delegate to the United States House of Representatives, as it was not mentioned in the minimum wage bill.</p><br>
<p>From 2002 to 2007, real GDP of American Samoa increased at an average annual rate of 0.4 percent. The annual growth rates of real GDP ranged from −2.9 percent to +2.1 percent. The volatility in the growth rates of real GDP was primarily accounted for by changes in the exports of canned tuna. The tuna canning industry was the largest private employer in American Samoa during this period.</p><br>
<p>From 2002 to 2007, the population of American Samoa increased at an average annual rate of 2.3 percent, and real GDP per capita decreased at an average annual rate of 1.9 percent.</p><br>
<p>The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 has contained special provisions for American Samoa since its inception, citing its limited economy. American Samoan wages are based on the recommendations of a Special Industry Committee meeting bi-annually. Originally, the act contained provisions for other territories, provisions which were phased out as those territories developed more diverse economies.</p><br>
<p>In 2007, the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 was passed, increasing minimum wage in American Samoa by 50¢ per hour in 2007 and another 50¢ per hour each year thereafter until the minimum wage in American Samoa equals the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour in the United States. In response to the minimum wage increase, the Chicken of the Sea tuna canning plant was shut down in 2009 and 2,041 employees were laid off in the process. The other major tuna canning plant in American Samoa is StarKist, which began laying off workers in August 2010, with plans to lay off a total of 800 workers due to the minimum wage increases and other rising operation costs. American Samoa Governor Togiola Tulafono suggested that, rather than laying off minimum wage workers, the companies could reduce salaries and bonuses of top-tier employees.</p><br>
<p>The unemployment rate was 29.8% in 2005, but has been improved to 23.8%. Samoa GDP is $537 million and its GDP per capita (PPP) is $8,000.</p><br>
<p>Some aspects of telecommunications in American Samoa are, like other USA territories, inferior to that of the mainland United States; a recent estimate showed that American Samoa&#39;s Internet speed is slower than that of several Eastern European countries.</p><br>
<h2>Taxation</h2><br>
<p>American Samoa is an independent customs territory. As such, local residents are not subject to USA federal income taxes on Samoan source income, nor are they subject to pay any real estate taxes on owned properties.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>American Samoa has 241 km of highways (estimated in 2008). The maximum speed limit is 30 miles per hour. Ports and harbors include Aunu‘u, Auasi, Faleāsao, Ofu and Pago Pago. American Samoa has no railways. The territory has three airports, all of which have paved runways. The main airport is Pago Pago International Airport. According to a 1999 estimate, the territory has no merchant marine.</p><br>
<h2>Demographics</h2><br>
<p>The population of American Samoa stands at about 54,194 people, 95% of whom live on the largest island, Tutuila.</p><br>
<p>American Samoa is small enough to have just one ZIP code, 96799, and uses the US Postal Service (state code "AS") for mail delivery.</p><br>
<h3>Ethnicity and language</h3><br>
<p>Of the population, 91.6 percent are native Samoans, 2.8% are Asian, 1% are Caucasian, 4.2% are Mixed, and 0.3% are of other origin. Most people are bilingual. Samoan, a language closely related to Hawaiian and other Polynesian languages, is spoken natively by 91% of the people as well as the co-official language of the territory, while 80% speak English, 2.4% speak Tongan, 2% speak Japanese and other Asian languages, and 2% speak other Pacific islander languages. At least some of the deaf population uses Samoan Sign Language. Tokelauan is also spoken in Swains Island.</p><br>
<h3>Religion</h3><br>
<p>Major Christian denominations on the island include the Congregational Christian Church in American Samoa, the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Methodist Church of Samoa. Collectively, these churches account for the vast majority of the population.</p><br>
<p>J. Gordon Elton in his book claims that the Methodists, Congregationalists with the London Missionary Society, and Roman Catholics led the first Christian missions to the islands. Other denominations arrived later, beginning in 1895 with the Seventh-day Adventists, various Pentecostals (including the Assemblies of God), Church of the Nazarene, Jehovah&#39;s Witnesses and Mormons.</p><br>
<p>CIA Factbook 2010 estimate shows the religious affiliations of American Samoa as 98.3% Christian, other 1%, unaffiliated 0.7%.</p><br>
<p>According to Pew Research Center, 98.3% of the total population is Christian. Among Christians, 59.5% are Protestant, 19.7% are Roman Catholic and 19.2% are other Christians. A major Protestant church on the island, gathering a substantial part of the local Protestant population, is the Congregational Christian Church in American Samoa, a Reformed denomination in the Congregationalist tradition., The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website claims membership of 16,180 or one-quarter of the whole population, with 41 congregations, and 4 family history centers in American Samoa. The Jehovah&#39;s Witnesses claim 210 "ministers of the word" and 3 congregations.</p><br>
<h3>Education</h3><br>
<p>The island contains 23 primary schools and 10 secondary schools, 5 are operated by the American Samoa Department of Education, and the other 5 are administered by either religious denominations or are privately owned. American Samoa Community College, founded in 1970, provides post-secondary education on the islands.</p><br>
<h2>Culture</h2><br>
<p>The ethnic culture of American Samoa is almost the same as the ethnic culture of Western Samoa (Upolu and Savaii). The USA sovereignty distinguishes the civilization of American Samoa from the sovereign Samoa.</p><br>
<h3>Sports</h3><br>
<p>The main sports played in American Samoa are Samoan cricket, baseball, basketball, soccer, and American football. Rugby is also played and, in Samoan villages, volleyball is popular.</p><br>
<h4>American football</h4><br>
<p>About 30 ethnic Samoans, all from American Samoa, currently play in the National Football League, and more than 200 play NCAA Division I college football. In recent years, it has been estimated that a Samoan male (either an American Samoan, or a Samoan living in the mainland United States) is anywhere from 40 to 56 times more likely to play in the NFL than a non-Samoan American, giving American Samoa the nickname "Football Islands". Six-time All-Pro Junior Seau was one of the most famous Americans of Samoan heritage ever to play in the NFL, having been elected to the NFL 1990s All-Decade Team and Pro Football Hall of Fame. Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, though born and raised in the mainland USA, is another famous American of Samoan heritage to have played in the NFL, not having his hair cut since 2000 (and only because a USC coach told him he had to) and wearing it down during games in honor of his heritage. The football culture was featured on 60 Minutes on January 17, 2010.</p><br>
<p>American Samoa&#39;s delegation to the 2016 Republican National Convention boasted about being "the greatest exporter of NFL players."</p><br>
<h4>Association football</h4><br>
<p>American Samoa national association football team is one of the newest teams in the world, and is also noted for being the worlds weakest. They lost to Australia 31–0 in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match on April 11, 2001, but on November 22, 2011 they finally won their first ever game, beating Tonga 2–1 in a FIFA World Cup qualifier. The appearance of American Samoas Jaiyah Saelua in the contest "apparently became the first transgender player to compete on a World Cup stage."</p><br>
<h4>Boxing</h4><br>
<p>Maselino Masoe, who represented American Samoa in three consecutive Olympics from 1988 to 1996, was WBA middleweight champion from 2004 to 2006.</p><br>
<h4>Professional wrestling</h4><br>
<p>A number of American Samoan athletes have been very visible in professional wrestling (see especially Anoai family). WWE has employed many members from the Anoai family.</p><br>
<h4>Rugby league</h4><br>
<p>The American Samoa national rugby league team represents the country in international rugby league. The team competed in the 1988, 1992, 1998 and 2004 Pacific Cup competitions. The team has also competed in the 2003 and 2004 World Sevens qualifiers in the 2005 World Sevens. America Samoas first match in international Rugby League was in 1988 pacific cup against Tonga, Tonga won the match 38–14 which is still the biggest loss by an American Samoan side. American Samoas biggest win was in 2004 against New Caledonia with the score ending at 62–6.</p><br>
<p>American Samoa gets broadcasts of the National Rugby League in Australia on free-to-air television.</p><br>
<p>There is also a new movement which aims to set up a four team domestic competition in American Samoa.</p><br>
<h4>Rugby union</h4><br>
<p>Rugby union is a growing sport in American Samoa. The first rugby game recorded in American Samoa was in 1924, since then the development of the game had been heavily overshadowed by the influence of American Football during the 1970s. The highest governing body of rugby in American Samoa is the American Samoa Rugby Union which was founded in 1990 and was not affiliated into the IRB until 2012. Internationally, two American Samoans have played for the New Zealand national rugby union team, known as the All Blacks. Frank Solomon (born in Pago Pago) became the first American national of Samoan descent to play for a New Zealand team. Considered a pacific pioneer in New Zealand rugby, Solomon scored a try against Australia in the inaugural Bledisloe Cup match in 1932, which New Zealand won 21–13. The second American Samoan to play for the All Blacks is Jerome Kaino (born in Fagaalu). A native of Leone, Kaino moved to New Zealand when he was 4 years old. In 2004 at age 21, he played his first match for New Zealand against the Barbarians where he scored his first try, contributing to New Zealands 47–19 victory that resulted in him becoming man of the match. He also played a crucial role in the Rugby World Cup 2011 playing every match in the tournament. He scored four tries in the event which led to New Zealand winning the final against France 8–7. Kaino was also a key member of the 2015 Rugby World Cup squad, where he played every match including a try he scored in the quarterfinals against France which New Zealand won 62–13. He scored again in the semifinals against South Africa, which New Zealand won 20–18. He played in the world cup final against Australia where New Zealand won again 34–17 to become world champions for a record 3 times (1987, 2011 and 2015). Kaino is one of twenty New Zealand rugby players to have won the Rugby World Cup twice, back to back in 2011 and 2015. In August 2015, the American Samoa Rugby Union Board selected Leota Toma Patu from the village of Leone as the coach for the Talavalu 15 men&#39;s team that represented American Samoa at the Ocean Cup 2015 in Papua New Guinea.</p><br>
<h4>Sumo wrestling</h4><br>
<p>Some Samoan Sumo wrestlers, most famously Musashimaru and Konishiki, have reached the highest ranks of ōzeki and yokozuna.</p><br>
<h4>Track and field</h4><br>
<p>Hammer thrower Lisa Misipeka attracted international attention by winning a bronze medal in the 1999 World Championships in Athletics.</p><br>
<p>The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean or the Austral Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. As such, it is regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions: smaller than the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans but larger than the Arctic Ocean. This ocean zone is where cold, northward flowing waters from the Antarctic mix with warmer subantarctic waters.</p><br>
<p>By way of his voyages in the 1770s, Captain James Cook proved that waters encompassed the southern latitudes of the globe. Since then, geographers have disagreed on the Southern Ocean&#39;s northern boundary or even existence, considering the waters as various parts of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, instead. However, according to Commodore John Leech of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), recent oceanographic research has discovered the importance of Southern Circulation, and the term Southern Ocean has been used to define the body of water which lies south of the northern limit of that circulation. This remains the current official policy of the IHO, since a 2000 revision of its definitions including the Southern Ocean as the waters south of the 60th parallel has not yet been adopted. Others regard the seasonally-fluctuating Antarctic Convergence as the natural boundary.</p><br>
<h2>Definitions and use</h2><br>
<p>Borders and names for oceans and seas were internationally agreed when the International Hydrographic Bureau (IHB), the precusor to the IHO, convened the First International Conference on 24 July 1919. The IHO then published these in its Limits of Oceans and Seas, the first edition being 1928. Since the first edition, the limits of the Southern Ocean have moved progressively southwards; since 1953, it has been omitted from the official publication and left to local hydrographic offices to determine their own limits. The IHO included the ocean and its definition as the waters south of 60°S in its year 2000 revisions, but this has not been formally adopted, due to continuing impasses over other areas of the text, such as the naming dispute over the Sea of Japan. The 2000 IHO definition, however, was circulated in a draft edition in 2002 and is used by some within the IHO and by some other organizations such as the US Central Intelligence Agency Australian authorities regard the Southern Ocean as lying immediately south of Australia. The National Geographic Society does not recognize the ocean, depicting it (if at all) in a typeface different from the other world oceans; instead, it shows the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans extending to Antarctica on both its print and on line maps. Map publishers using the term Southern Ocean on their maps include Hema Maps and GeoNova.</p><br>
<h3>Pre-20th-century definitions</h3><br>
<p>"Southern Ocean" is an obsolete name for the Pacific Ocean or South Pacific, coined by Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the first European to discover it, who approached it from the north. The "South Seas" is a less archaic synonym. A 1745 British Act of Parliament established a prize for discovering a Northwest Passage to "the Western and Southern Ocean of America".</p><br>
<p>Authors using "Southern Ocean" to name the waters encircling the unknown southern polar regions used varying limits. James Cooks account of his second voyage implies New Caledonia borders it. Peacocks 1795 Geographical Dictionary said it lay "to the southward of America and Africa&quot John Payne in 1796 used 40 degrees as the northern limit; the 1827 Edinburgh Gazetteer used 50 degrees. The Family Magazine in 1835 divided the "Great Southern Ocean" into the "Southern Ocean" and the "Antarctick Ocean" along the Antarctic Circle, with the northern limit of the Southern Ocean being lines joining Cape Horn, the Cape of Good Hope, Van Diemen&#39;s Land and the south of New Zealand.</p><br>
<p>The United Kingdoms South Australia Act 1834 described the waters forming the southern limit of the new colony of South Australia as "the Southern Ocean". The Colony of Victorias Legislative Council Act of 1881 delimited part of the division of Bairnsdale as "along the New South Wales boundary to the Southern ocean".</p><br>
<h3>1928 delineation</h3><br>
<p>In the 1928 first edition of Limits of Oceans and Seas, the Southern Ocean was delineated by land-based limits: Antarctica to the south, and South America, Africa, Australia, and Broughton Island, New Zealand to the north.</p><br>
<p>The detailed land-limits used were from Cape Horn in South America eastwards to Cape Agulhas in Africa, then further eastwards to the southern coast of mainland Australia to Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia. From Cape Leeuwin, the limit then followed eastwards along the coast of mainland Australia to Cape Otway, Victoria, then southwards across Bass Strait to Cape Wickham, King Island, along the west coast of King Island, then the remainder of the way south across Bass Strait to Cape Grim, Tasmania. The limit then followed the west coast of Tasmania southwards to the</p><br>
<p>South East Cape and then went eastwards to Broughton Island, New Zealand, before returning to Cape Horn.</p><br>
<h3>1937 delineation</h3><br>
<p>The northern limits of the Southern Ocean were moved southwards in the IHOs 1937 second edition of the Limits of Oceans and Seas. From this edition, much of the oceans northern limit ceased to abut land masses.</p><br>
<p>In the second edition, the Southern Ocean then extended from Antarctica northwards to latitude 40°S between Cape Agulhas in Africa (long. 20°E) and Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia (long. 115°E), and extended to latitude 55°S between Auckland Island of New Zealand (165 or 166°E east) and Cape Horn in South America (67°W).</p><br>
<p>As is discussed in more detail below (see section on 2002 delineation), prior to the 2002 (draft) edition the limits of oceans explicitly excluded the seas lying within each of them. The Great Australian Bight was unnamed in the 1928 edition, and delineated as shown in the figure above in the 1937 edition. It therefore encompassed former Southern Ocean waters (as designated in 1928) but was technically not inside any of the three adjacent oceans by 1937. In the 2002 draft edition, the IHO have designated seas as being subdivisions within oceans, so the Bight would have still been within the Southern Ocean in 1937 if the 2002 convention were in place then. To perform direct comparisons of current and former limits of oceans (for example to compare surface areas) it is necessary to consider, or at least be aware of, how the 2002 change in IHO terminology for seas can affect the comparison.</p><br>
<h3>1953 delineation</h3><br>
<p>The Southern Ocean did not appear in the 1953 third edition and a note in the publication read:</p><br>
<p>Instead, in the IHO 1953 publication, the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans were extended southward, the Indian and Pacific Oceans (which had not previously touched pre 1953, as per the first and second editions) now abutted at the meridian of South East Cape, and the southern limits of the Great Australian Bight and the Tasman Sea were moved northwards.</p><br>
<h3>2002 (draft) delineation</h3><br>
<p>The IHO readdressed the question of the Southern Ocean in a survey in 2000. Of its 68 member nations, 28 responded, and all responding members except Argentina agreed to redefine the ocean, reflecting the importance placed by oceanographers on ocean currents. The proposal for the name Southern Ocean won 18 votes, beating the alternative Antarctic Ocean. Half of the votes supported a definition of the ocean&#39;s northern limit at 60°S (with no land interruptions at this latitude), with the other 14 votes cast for other definitions, mostly 50°S, but a few for as far north as 35°S.</p><br>
<p>A draft fourth edition of Limits of Oceans and Seas was circulated to IHO member states in August 2002 (sometimes referred to as the "2000 edition" as it summarized the progress to 2000). It has yet to be published due to areas of concern by several countries relating to various naming issues around the world – primarily the Sea of Japan naming dispute – and there have been various changes, 60 seas were given new names, and even the name of the publication was changed. A reservation had also been lodged by Australia regarding the Southern Ocean limits. Effectively, the 3rd edition (which did not delineate the Southern Ocean leaving delineation to local hydrographic offices) has yet to be superseded.</p><br>
<p>Despite this, the 4th edition definition has partial de facto usage by many nations, scientists and organisations such as the USA (the Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook uses "Southern Ocean" but none of the other new sea names within the "Southern Ocean" such as "Cosmonauts Sea") and Merriam-Webster,</p><br>
<p>Other sources, such as the National Geographic Society, show the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans as extending to Antarctica on its maps, although articles on the National Geographic web site have begun to reference the Southern Ocean.</p><br>
<p>In Australia, cartographical authorities define the Southern Ocean as including the entire body of water between Antarctica and the south coasts of Australia and New Zealand, and up to 60°s elsewhere. Coastal maps of Tasmania and South Australia label the sea areas as Southern Ocean, while Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia is described as the point where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet.</p><br>
<p>A radical shift from past IHO practices (1928–1953) was also seen in the 2002 draft edition when the IHO delineated seas as being subdivisions that lay within the boundaries of oceans. While the IHO are often considered the authority for such conventions, the shift brought them into line with the practices of other publications (e.g. the CIA World Fact Book) which already adopted the principle that seas are contained within oceans. This difference in practice is markedly seen for the Pacific Ocean in the adjacent figure. Thus, for example, previously the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand was not regarded by the IHO as being part of the Pacific, but as of the 2002 draft edition it is.</p><br>
<p>The new delineation of seas being subdivisions of oceans has avoided the need to interrupt the northern boundary of the Southern Ocean where intersected by Drake Passage which includes all of the waters from South America to the Antarctic coast, nor interrupt it for the Scotia Sea, which also extends below the 60th parallel south. The new delineation of seas has also meant that the long-time named seas around Antarctica, excluded from the 1953 edition (the 1953 map did not even extend that far south), are automatically part of the Southern Ocean.</p><br>
<h2>History of exploration</h2><br>
<h3>Unknown southern land</h3><br>
<p>Exploration of the Southern Ocean was inspired by a belief in the existence of a Terra Australis—a vast continent in the far south of the globe to "balance" the northern lands of Eurasia and North Africa—which had existed since the times of Ptolemy. The doubling of the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 by Bartolomeu Dias first brought explorers within touch of the Antarctic cold, and proved that there was an ocean separating Africa from any Antarctic land that might exist. Ferdinand Magellan, who passed through the Strait of Magellan in 1520, assumed that the islands of Tierra del Fuego to the south were an extension of this unknown southern land. In 1564, Abraham Ortelius published his first map, Typus Orbis Terrarum, an eight-leaved wall map of the world, on which he identified the Regio Patalis with Locach as a northward extension of the Terra Australis, reaching as far as New Guinea.</p><br>
<p>European geographers continued to connect the coast of Tierra del Fuego with the coast of New Guinea on their globes, and allowing their imaginations to run riot in the vast unknown spaces of the south Atlantic, south Indian and Pacific oceans they sketched the outlines of the Terra Australis Incognita ("Unknown Southern Land"), a vast continent stretching in parts into the tropics. The search for this great south land was a leading motive of explorers in the 16th and the early part of the 17th centuries.</p><br>
<p>The Spaniard Gabriel de Castilla, who claimed having sighted "snow-covered mountains" beyond the 64° S in 1603, is recognized as the first explorer that discovered the continent of Antarctica, although he was ignored in his time.</p><br>
<p>In 1606, Pedro Fernández de Quirós took possession for the king of Spain all of the lands he had discovered in Australia del Espiritu Santo (the New Hebrides) and those he would discover "even to the Pole".</p><br>
<p>Francis Drake, like Spanish explorers before him, had speculated that there might be an open channel south of Tierra del Fuego. When Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire discovered the southern extremity of Tierra del Fuego and named it Cape Horn in 1615, they proved that the Tierra del Fuego archipelago was of small extent and not connected to the southern land, as previously thought. Subsequently, in 1642, Abel Tasman showed that even New Holland (Australia) was separated by sea from any continuous southern continent.</p><br>
<h3>South of the Antarctic Convergence</h3><br>
<p>The visit to South Georgia by Anthony de la Roché in 1675 was the first ever discovery of land south of the Antarctic Convergence i.e. in the Southern Ocean / Antarctic. Soon after the voyage cartographers started to depict ‘Roché Island’, honouring the discoverer. James Cook was aware of la Roché&#39;s discovery when surveying and mapping the island in 1775.</p><br>
<p>Edmond Halley&#39;s voyage in HMS Paramour for magnetic investigations in the South Atlantic met the pack ice in 52° S in January 1700, but that latitude (he reached 140 mi off the north coast of South Georgia) was his farthest south. A determined effort on the part of the French naval officer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier to discover the "South Land" – described by a half legendary "sieur de Gonneyville" – resulted in the discovery of Bouvet Island in 54°10′ S, and in the navigation of 48° of longitude of ice-cumbered sea nearly in 55° S in 1730.</p><br>
<p>In 1771, Yves Joseph Kerguelen sailed from France with instructions to proceed south from Mauritius in search of "a very large continent." He lighted upon a land in 50° S which he called South France, and believed to be the central mass of the southern continent. He was sent out again to complete the exploration of the new land, and found it to be only an inhospitable island which he renamed the Isle of Desolation, but which was ultimately named after him.</p><br>
<h3>South of the Antarctic Circle</h3><br>
<p>The obsession of the undiscovered continent culminated in the brain of Alexander Dalrymple, the brilliant and erratic hydrographer who was nominated by the Royal Society to command the Transit of Venus expedition to Tahiti in 1769. The command of the expedition was given by the admiralty to Captain James Cook. Sailing in 1772 with Resolution, a vessel of 462 tons under his own command and Adventure of 336 tons under Captain Tobias Furneaux, Cook first searched in vain for Bouvet Island, then sailed for 20 degrees of longitude to the westward in latitude 58° S, and then 30° eastward for the most part south of 60° S, a lower southern latitude than had ever been voluntarily entered before by any vessel. On 17 January 1773 the Antarctic Circle was crossed for the first time in history and the two ships reached 67° 15 S by 39° 35 E, where their course was stopped by ice.</p><br>
<p>Cook then turned northward to look for French Southern and Antarctic Lands, of the discovery of which he had received news at Cape Town, but from the rough determination of his longitude by Kerguelen, Cook reached the assigned latitude 10° too far east and did not see it. He turned south again and was stopped by ice in 61° 52′ S by 95° E and continued eastward nearly on the parallel of 60° S to 147° E. On 16 March, the approaching winter drove him northward for rest to New Zealand and the tropical islands of the Pacific. In November 1773, Cook left New Zealand, having parted company with the Adventure, and reached 60° S by 177° W, whence he sailed eastward keeping as far south as the floating ice allowed. The Antarctic Circle was crossed on 20 December and Cook remained south of it for three days, being compelled after reaching 67° 31′ S to stand north again in 135° W.</p><br>
<p>A long detour to 47° 50′ S served to show that there was no land connection between New Zealand and Tierra del Fuego. Turning south again, Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle for the third time at 109° 30′ W before his progress was once again blocked by ice four days later at 71° 10′ S by 106° 54′ W. This point, reached on 30 January 1774, was the farthest south attained in the 18th century. With a great detour to the east, almost to the coast of South America, the expedition regained Tahiti for refreshment. In November 1774, Cook started from New Zealand and crossed the South Pacific without sighting land between 53° and 57° S to Tierra del Fuego; then, passing Cape Horn on 29 December, he rediscovered Roché Island renaming it Isle of Georgia, and discovered the South Sandwich Islands (named Sandwich Land by him), the only ice-clad land he had seen, before crossing the South Atlantic to the Cape of Good Hope between 55° and 60°. He thereby laid open the way for future Antarctic exploration by exploding the myth of a habitable southern continent. Cook&#39;s most southerly discovery of land lay on the temperate side of the 60th parallel, and he convinced himself that if land lay farther south it was practically inaccessible and without economic value.</p><br>
<p>Voyagers rounding Cape Horn frequently met with contrary winds and were driven southward into snowy skies and ice-encumbered seas; but so far as can be ascertained none of them before 1770 reached the Antarctic Circle, or knew it, if they did.</p><br>
<p>In a voyage from 1822 to 1824, James Weddell commanded the 160-ton brig Jane, accompanied by his second ship Beaufoy captained by Matthew Brisbane. Together they sailed to the South Orkneys where sealing proved disappointing. They turned south in the hope of finding a better sealing ground. The season was unusually mild and tranquil, and on 20 February 1823 the two ships reached latitude 74°15 S and longitude 34°1645″ W the southernmost position any ship had ever reached up to that time. A few icebergs were sighted but there was still no sight of land, leading Weddell to theorize that the sea continued as far as the South Pole. Another two days sailing would have brought him to Coats Land (to the east of the Weddell Sea) but Weddell decided to turn back.</p><br>
<h3>First sighting of land</h3><br>
<p>The first land south of the parallel 60° south latitude was discovered by the Englishman William Smith, who sighted Livingston Island on 19 February 1819. A few months later Smith returned to explore the other islands of the South Shetlands archipelago, landed on King George Island, and claimed the new territories for Britain.</p><br>
<p>In the meantime, the Spanish Navy ship San Telmo sank in September 1819 when trying to cross Cape Horn. Parts of her wreckage were found months later by sealers on the north coast of Livingston Island (South Shetlands). It is unknown if some survivor managed to be the first to set foot on these Antarctic islands.</p><br>
<p>The first confirmed sighting of mainland Antarctica cannot be accurately attributed to one single person. It can, however, be narrowed down to three individuals. According to various sources, three men all sighted the ice shelf or the continent within days or months of each other: von Bellingshausen, a captain in the Russian Imperial Navy; Edward Bransfield, a captain in the British navy; and Nathaniel Palmer, an American sealer out of Stonington, Connecticut. It is certain that the expedition, led by von Bellingshausen and Lazarev on the ships Vostok and Mirny, reached a point within 32 km from Princess Martha Coast and recorded the sight of an ice shelf at 69&deg;21&prime;28&Prime;S latitude, 2&deg;14&prime;50&Prime;W longitude that became known as the Fimbul ice shelf. On 30 January 1820, Bransfield sighted Trinity Peninsula, the northernmost point of the Antarctic mainland, while Palmer sighted the mainland in the area south of Trinity Peninsula in November 1820. Von Bellingshausen&#39;s expedition also discovered Peter I Island and Alexander I Island, the first islands to be discovered south of the circle.</p><br>
<h3>Antarctic expeditions</h3><br>
<p>In December 1839, as part of the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–42 conducted by the United States Navy (sometimes called "the Wilkes Expedition"), an expedition sailed from Sydney, Australia, on the sloops-of-war and, the brig, the full-rigged ship Relief, and two schooners Sea Gull and. They sailed into the Antarctic Ocean, as it was then known, and reported the discovery "of an Antarctic continent west of the Balleny Islands" on 25 January 1840. That part of Antarctica was later named "Wilkes Land", a name it maintains to this day.</p><br>
<p>Explorer James Clark Ross passed through what is now known as the Ross Sea and discovered Ross Island (both of which were named for him) in 1841. He sailed along a huge wall of ice that was later named the Ross Ice Shelf. Mount Erebus and Mount Terror are named after two ships from his expedition: HMS Erebus and Terror.</p><br>
<p>The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914, led by Ernest Shackleton, set out to cross the continent via the pole, but their ship, the Endurance, was trapped and crushed by pack ice before they even landed. The expedition members survived after an epic journey on sledges over pack ice to Elephant Island. Then Shackleton and five others crossed the Southern Ocean, in an open boat called James Caird, and then trekked over South Georgia to raise the alarm at the whaling station Grytviken.</p><br>
<p>In 1946, US Navy Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd and more than 4,700 military personnel visited the Antarctic in an expedition called Operation Highjump. Reported to the public as a scientific mission, the details were kept secret and it may have actually been a training or testing mission for the military. The expedition was, in both military or scientific planning terms, put together very quickly. The group contained an unusually high amount of military equipment, including an aircraft carrier, submarines, military support ships, assault troops and military vehicles. The expedition was planned to last for eight months but was unexpectedly terminated after only two months. With the exception of some eccentric entries in Admiral Byrd&#39;s diaries, no real explanation for the early termination has ever been officially given.</p><br>
<p>Captain Finn Ronne, Byrd&#39;s executive officer, returned to Antarctica with his own expedition in 1947–1948, with Navy support, three planes, and dogs. Ronne disproved the notion that the continent was divided in two and established that East and West Antarctica was one single continent, i.e. that the Weddell Sea and the Ross Sea are not connected. The expedition explored and mapped large parts of Palmer Land and the Weddell Sea coastline, and identified the Ronne Ice Shelf, named by Ronne after his wife Edith "Jackie" Ronne. Ronne covered 3,600 miles by ski and dog sled—more than any other explorer in history. The Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition discovered and mapped the last unknown coastline in the world and was the first Antarctic expedition to ever include women.</p><br>
<h3>Recent history</h3><br>
<p>The Antarctic Treaty was signed on 1 December 1959 and came into force on 23 June 1961. Among other provisions, this treaty limits military activity in the Antarctic to the support of scientific research.</p><br>
<p>The first person to sail single-handed to Antarctica was the New Zealander David Henry Lewis, in 1972, in a 10-metre steel sloop Ice Bird.</p><br>
<p>A baby, named Emilio Marcos de Palma, was born near Hope Bay on 7 January 1978, becoming the first baby born on the continent. He also was born further south than anyone in history.</p><br>
<p>The MS Explorer was a cruise ship operated by the Swedish explorer Lars-Eric Lindblad. Observers point to the Explorers 1969 expeditionary cruise to Antarctica as the frontrunner for todays sea-based tourism in that region. The Explorer was the first cruise ship used specifically to sail the icy waters of the Antarctic Ocean and the first to sink there when she struck an unidentified submerged object on 23 November 2007, reported to be ice, which caused a 10 by gash in the hull.</p><br>
<p>The Explorer was abandoned in the early hours of 23 November 2007 after taking on water near the South Shetland Islands in the Southern Ocean, an area which is usually stormy but was calm at the time.</p><br>
<p>The Explorer was confirmed by the Chilean Navy to have sunk at approximately position: 62° 24′ South, 57° 16′ West, in roughly 600 m of water.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Southern Ocean, geologically the youngest of the oceans, was formed when Antarctica and South America moved apart, opening the Drake Passage, roughly 30 million years ago. The separation of the continents allowed the formation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.</p><br>
<p>With a northern limit at 60°S, the Southern Ocean differs from the other oceans in that its largest boundary, the northern boundary, does not abut a landmass (as it did with the first edition of Limits of Oceans and Seas). Instead, the northern limit is with the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.</p><br>
<p>One reason for considering it as a separate ocean stems from the fact that much of the water of the Southern Ocean differs from the water in the other oceans. Water gets transported around the Southern Ocean fairly rapidly because of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current which circulates around Antarctica. Water in the Southern Ocean south of, for example, New Zealand, resembles the water in the Southern Ocean south of South America more closely than it resembles the water in the Pacific Ocean.</p><br>
<p>The Southern Ocean has typical depths of between 4,000 and over most of its extent with only limited areas of shallow water. The Southern Oceans greatest depth of 7,236 m occurs at the southern end of the South Sandwich Trench, at 60°00S, 024°W. The Antarctic continental shelf appears generally narrow and unusually deep, its edge lying at depths up to 800 m, compared to a global mean of 133 m.</p><br>
<p>Equinox to equinox in line with the sun&#39;s seasonal influence, the Antarctic ice pack fluctuates from an average minimum of 2.6 e6km2 in March to about 18.8 e6km2 in September, more than a sevenfold increase in area.</p><br>
<h3>Sub-divisions of the Southern Ocean</h3><br>
<p>Sub-divisions of oceans are geographical features such as "seas", "straits", "bays", "channels", and "gulfs". There are many sub-divisions of the Southern Ocean defined in the never-approved 2002 draft fourth edition of the IHO publication Limits of Oceans and Seas. In clockwise order these include (with IHO sub-division chartlet numbers in parenthesis) the Weddell Sea (10.1), the Lazarev Sea (10.2), the Riiser-Larsen Sea (10.3), the Cosmonauts Sea (10.4), the Cooperation Sea (10.5), the Davis Sea (10.6), Tryoshnikova Gulf (10.6.1), the Mawson Sea (10.7), the Dumont DUrville Sea (10.8), the Somov Sea (10.9), the Ross Sea (10.10), McMurdo Sound (10.10.1), the Amundsen Sea (10.11), the Bellingshausen Sea (10.12), part of the Drake Passage (10.13), Bransfield Strait (10.14) and part of the Scotia Sea (4.2). A number of these such as the 2002 Russian-proposed "Consmonauts Sea", "Cooperation Sea", and "Somov (mid-1950s Russian polar explorer) Sea" are not included in the 1953 IHO document which remains currently in force, because they received their names largely originated from 1962 onward. Leading geographic authorities and atlases do not use these latter three names, including the 2014 10th edition World Atlas from the United States National Geographic Society and the 2014 12th edition of the British Times Atlas of the World, but Soviet and Russian-issued maps do.</p><br>
<h3>Natural resources</h3><br>
<p>The Southern Ocean probably contains large, and possibly giant, oil and gas fields on the continental margin. Placer deposits, accumulation of valuable minerals such as gold, formed by gravity separation during sedimentary processes are also expected to exist in the Southern Ocean.</p><br>
<p>Manganese nodules are expected to exist in the Southern Ocean. Manganese nodules are rock concretions on the sea bottom formed of concentric layers of iron and manganese hydroxides around a core. The core may be microscopically small and is sometimes completely transformed into manganese minerals by crystallization. Interest in the potential exploitation of polymetallic nodules generated a great deal of activity among prospective mining consortia in the 1960s and 1970s.</p><br>
<p>The icebergs that form each year around in the Southern Ocean hold enough fresh water to meet the needs of every person on Earth for several months. For several decades there have been proposals, none yet to be feasible or successful, to tow Southern Ocean icebergs to more arid northern regions (such as Australia) where they can be harvested.</p><br>
<h3>Natural hazards</h3><br>
<p>Icebergs can occur at any time of year throughout the ocean. Some may have drafts up to several hundred meters; smaller icebergs, iceberg fragments and sea-ice (generally 0.5 to 1 m thick) also pose problems for ships. The deep continental shelf has a floor of glacial deposits varying widely over short distances.</p><br>
<p>Sailors know latitudes from 40 to 70 degrees south as the "Roaring Forties", "Furious Fifties" and "Shrieking Sixties" due to high winds and large waves that form as winds blow around the entire globe unimpeded by any land-mass. Icebergs, especially in May to October, make the area even more dangerous. The remoteness of the region makes sources of search and rescue scarce.</p><br>
<h2>Physical oceanography</h2><br>
<h3>Antarctic Circumpolar Current and Antarctic Convergence</h3><br>
<p>The Antarctic Circumpolar Current moves perpetually eastward — chasing and joining itself, and at 21,000 km in length — it comprises the worlds longest ocean current, transporting 130 e6m3/s of water – 100 times the flow of all the worlds rivers.</p><br>
<p>Several processes operate along the coast of Antarctica to produce, in the Southern Ocean, types of water masses not produced elsewhere in the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere. One of these is the Antarctic Bottom Water, a very cold, highly saline, dense water that forms under sea ice.</p><br>
<p>Associated with the Circumpolar Current is the Antarctic Convergence encircling Antarctica, where cold northward-flowing Antarctic waters meet the relatively warmer waters of the subantarctic, Antarctic waters predominantly sink beneath subantarctic waters, while associated zones of mixing and upwelling create a zone very high in nutrients. These nurture high levels of phytoplankton with associated copepods and Antarctic krill, and resultant foodchains supporting fish, whales, seals, penguins, albatrosses and a wealth of other species.</p><br>
<p>The Antarctic Convergence is considered to be the best natural definition of the northern extent of the Southern Ocean.</p><br>
<h3>Upwelling</h3><br>
<p>Large-scale upwelling is found in the Southern Ocean. Strong westerly (eastward) winds blow around Antarctica, driving a significant flow of water northwards. This is actually a type of coastal upwelling. Since there are no continents in a band of open latitudes between South America and the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, some of this water is drawn up from great depths. In many numerical models and observational syntheses, the Southern Ocean upwelling represents the primary means by which deep dense water is brought to the surface. Shallower, wind-driven upwelling is also found off the west coasts of North and South America, northwest and southwest Africa, and southwest and southeast Australia, all associated with oceanic subtropical high pressure circulations.</p><br>
<p>Some models of the ocean circulation suggest that broad-scale upwelling occurs in the tropics, as pressure driven flows converge water toward the low latitudes where it is diffusively warmed from above. The required diffusion coefficients, however, appear to be larger than are observed in the real ocean. Nonetheless, some diffusive upwelling does probably occur.</p><br>
<h3>Ross and Weddell Gyres</h3><br>
<p>The Ross Gyre and Weddell Gyre are two gyres that exist within the Southern Ocean. The gyres are located in the Ross Sea and Weddell Sea respectively, and both rotate clockwise. The gyres are formed by interactions between the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the Antarctic Continental Shelf.</p><br>
<p>Sea ice has been noted to persist in the central area of the Ross Gyre. There is some evidence that global warming has resulted in some decrease of the salinity of the waters of the Ross Gyre since the 1950s.</p><br>
<p>Due to the Coriolis effect acting to the left in the Southern Hemisphere and the resulting Ekman transport away from the centres of the Weddell Gyre, these regions are very productive due to upwelling of cold, nutrient rich water.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>Sea temperatures vary from about −2 to 10 °C (28 to 50 °F). Cyclonic storms travel eastward around the continent and frequently become intense because of the temperature contrast between ice and open ocean. The ocean-area from about latitude 40 south to the Antarctic Circle has the strongest average winds found anywhere on Earth. In winter the ocean freezes outward to 65 degrees south latitude in the Pacific sector and 55 degrees south latitude in the Atlantic sector, lowering surface temperatures well below 0 degrees Celsius. At some coastal points, however, persistent intense drainage winds from the interior keep the shoreline ice-free throughout the winter.</p><br>
<h2>Biodiversity</h2><br>
<h3>Animals</h3><br>
<p>A variety of marine animals exist and rely, directly or indirectly, on the phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean. Antarctic sea life includes penguins, blue whales, orcas, colossal squids and fur seals. The emperor penguin is the only penguin that breeds during the winter in Antarctica, while the Adélie penguin breeds farther south than any other penguin. The rockhopper penguin has distinctive feathers around the eyes, giving the appearance of elaborate eyelashes. King penguins, chinstrap penguins, and gentoo penguins also breed in the Antarctic.</p><br>
<p>The Antarctic fur seal was very heavily hunted in the 18th and 19th centuries for its pelt by sealers from the United States and the United Kingdom. The Weddell seal, a "true seal", is named after Sir James Weddell, commander of British sealing expeditions in the Weddell Sea. Antarctic krill, which congregates in large schools, is the keystone species of the ecosystem of the Southern Ocean, and is an important food organism for whales, seals, leopard seals, fur seals, squid, icefish, penguins, albatrosses and many other birds.</p><br>
<p>The benthic communities of the seafloor are diverse and dense, with up to 155,000 animals found in 1 m&sup2;. As the seafloor environment is very similar all around the Antarctic, hundreds of species can be found all the way around the mainland, which is a uniquely wide distribution for such a large community. Deep-sea gigantism is common among these animals.</p><br>
<p>A census of sea life carried out during the International Polar Year and which involved some 500 researchers was released in 2010. The research is part of the global Census of Marine Life (CoML) and has disclosed some remarkable findings. More than 235 marine organisms live in both polar regions, having bridged the gap of 12,000 km. Large animals such as some cetaceans and birds make the round trip annually. More surprising are small forms of life such as mudworms, sea cucumbers and free-swimming snails found in both polar oceans. Various factors may aid in their distribution – fairly uniform temperatures of the deep ocean at the poles and the equator which differ by no more than 5 °C, and the major current systems or marine conveyor belt which transport egg and larva stages.</p><br>
<h3>Birds</h3><br>
<p>The rocky shores of mainland Antarctica and its offshore islands provide nesting space for over 100 million birds every spring. These nesters include species of albatrosses, petrels, skuas, gulls and terns. The insectivorous South Georgia pipit is endemic to South Georgia and some smaller surrounding islands. Freshwater ducks inhabit South Georgia and the Kerguelen Islands.</p><br>
<p>The flightless penguins are all located in the Southern Hemisphere, with the greatest concentration located on and around Antarctica. Four of the 18 penguin species live and breed on the mainland and its close offshore islands. Another four species live on the subantarctic islands. Emperor penguins have four overlapping layers of feathers, keeping them warm. They are the only Antarctic animal to breed during the winter.</p><br>
<h3>Fish</h3><br>
<p>There are very few species of fish in the Southern Ocean. The Channichthyidae family, also known as white-blooded fish, are only found in the Southern Ocean. They lack hemoglobin in their blood, resulting in their blood being colourless. One Channichthyidae species, the mackerel icefish (Champsocephalus gunnari), was once the most common fish in coastal waters less than 400 m deep, but was overfished in the 1970s and 1980s. Schools of icefish spend the day at the seafloor and the night higher in the water column eating plankton and smaller fish.</p><br>
<p>There are two species from the Dissostichus genus, the Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni) and the Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides). These two species live on the seafloor 100 - deep, and can grow to around 2 m long weighing up to 100 kg, living up to 45 years. The Antarctic toothfish lives close to the Antarctic mainland, whereas the Patagonian toothfish lives in the relatively warmer subantarctic waters. Due to the low water temperatures around the mainland, the Antarctic toothfish has antifreeze proteins in its blood and tissues. Toothfish are commercially fished, and overfishing has reduced toothfish populations.</p><br>
<p>Another abundant fish group is the Notothenia genus, which like the Antarctic toothfish have antifreeze in their bodies.</p><br>
<h3>Mammals</h3><br>
<p>Seven pinniped species inhabit Antarctica. The largest, the elephant seal (Mirounga leonina), can reach up to 4,000 kg, while females of the smallest, the Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella), reach only 150 kg. These two species live north of the sea ice, and breed in harems on beaches. The other four species can live on the sea ice. Crabeater seals (Lobodon carcinophagus) and Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) form breeding colonies, whereas leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx) and Ross seals (Ommatophoca rossii) live solitary lives. Although these species hunt underwater, they breed on land or ice and spend a great deal of time there, as they have no terrestrial predators.</p><br>
<p>The four species that inhabit sea ice are thought to make up 50% of the total biomass of the world&#39;s seals. Crabeater seals have a population of around 15 million, making them one of the most numerous large animals on the planet. The New Zealand sea lion (Phocarctos hookeri), one of the rarest and most localised pinnipeds, breeds almost exclusively on the subantarctic Auckland Islands, although historically it had a wider range. Out of all permanent mammalian residents, the Weddell seals live the furthest south.</p><br>
<p>There are 10 cetacean species found in the Southern Ocean; six baleen whales, and four toothed whales. The largest of these, the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), grows to 24 m long weighing 84 tonnes. Many of these species are migratory, and travel to tropical waters during the Antarctic winter.</p><br>
<h3>Arthropods</h3><br>
<p>Five species of krill, small free-swimming crustaceans, are found in the Southern Ocean. The Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is one of the most abundant animal species on earth, with a biomass of around 500 million tonnes. Each individual is 6 cm long and weighs over 1 g. The swarms that form can stretch for kilometres, with up to 30,000 individuals per 1 m&sup3, turning the water red. Swarms usually remain in deep water during the day, ascending during the night to feed on plankton. Many larger animals depend on krill for their own survival. During the winter when food is scarce, adult Antarctic krill can revert to a smaller juvenile stage, using their own body as nutrition.</p><br>
<p>Many benthic crustaceans have a non-seasonal breeding cycle, and some raise their young in a brood pouch. Glyptonotus antarcticus is an unusually large benthic isopod, reaching 20 cm in length weighing 70 g. Amphipods are abundant in soft sediments, eating a range of items, from algae to other animals.</p><br>
<p>Slow moving sea spiders are common, sometimes growing as large as a human hand. They feed on the corals, sponges, and bryozoans that litter the seabed.</p><br>
<h3>Invertebrates</h3><br>
<p>Many aquatic molluscs are present in Antarctica. Bivalves such as Adamussium colbecki move around on the seafloor, while others such as Laternula elliptica live in burrows filtering the water above.</p><br>
<p>The sea urchin genus Abatus burrow through the sediment eating the nutrients they find in it.</p><br>
<p>Antarctic sponges are long lived, and sensitive to environmental changes due to the specificity of the symbiotic microbial communities within them. As a result, they function as indicators of environmental health.</p><br>
<h2>Environment</h2><br>
<h3>Current issues</h3><br>
<p>Increased solar ultraviolet radiation resulting from the Antarctic ozone hole has reduced marine primary productivity (phytoplankton) by as much as 15% and has started damaging the DNA of some fish. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, especially the landing of an estimated five to six times more Patagonian toothfish than the regulated fishery, likely affects the sustainability of the stock. Long-line fishing for toothfish causes a high incidence of seabird mortality.</p><br>
<h3>International agreements</h3><br>
<p>All international agreements regarding the world&#39;s oceans apply to the Southern Ocean. In addition, it is subject to these agreements specific to the region:</p><br>
<p>The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) prohibits commercial whaling south of 40 degrees south (south of 60 degrees south between 50 degrees and 130 degrees west). Japan regularly does not recognize this provision, because the sanctuary violates IWC charter. Since the scope of the sanctuary is limited to commercial whaling, in regard to its whaling permit and whaling for scientific research, a Japanese fleet carried out an annual whale-hunt in the region. On 31 March 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan&#39;s whaling program, which Japan has long claimed is for scientific purposes, was a cloak for commercial whaling, and no further permits would be granted.</p><br>
<p>Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals is part of the Antarctic Treaty System. It was signed at the conclusion of a multilateral conference in London on 11 February 1972.Antarctic Challenge: Conflicting Interests, Cooperation, Environmental Protection, Economic Development Proceedings of an Interdisciplinary Symposium, 22–24 June 1983</p><br>
<p>Volume 88 of Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Internationales Recht an der Universität Kiel (Rüdiger Wolfrum and Klaus Bockslaff, eds.), Duncker & Humblot, 1984, p99</p><br>
<p>Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is part of the Antarctic Treaty System. The Convention was entered into force on 7 April 1982 and has its goal is to preserve marine life and environmental integrity in and near Antarctica. It was established in large part to concerns that an increase in krill catches in the Southern Ocean could have a serious impact on populations of other marine life which are dependent upon krill for food.</p><br>
<p>Many nations prohibit the exploration for and the exploitation of mineral resources south of the fluctuating Antarctic Convergence, which lies in the middle of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and serves as the dividing line between the very cold polar surface waters to the south and the warmer waters to the north. The Antarctic Treaty covers the portion of the globe south of sixty degrees south,</p><br>
<p>, article 6</p><br>
<p>it prohibits new claims to Antarctica.</p><br>
<p>, article 4, clause 2</p><br>
<p>The Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources applies to the area south of 60° South latitude as well as the areas further north up to the limit of the Antarctic Convergence.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>Between 1 July 1998 and 30 June 1999, fisheries landed 119,898 tonnes, of which 85% consisted of krill and 14% of Patagonian toothfish. International agreements came into force in late 1999 to reduce illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, which in the 1998–99 season landed five to six times more Patagonian toothfish than the regulated fishery.</p><br>
<h2>Ports and harbors</h2><br>
<p>Major operational ports include: Rothera Station, Palmer Station, Villa Las Estrellas, Esperanza Base, Mawson Station, McMurdo Station, and offshore anchorages in Antarctica.</p><br>
<p>Few ports or harbors exist on the southern (Antarctic) coast of the Southern Ocean, since ice conditions limit use of most shores to short periods in midsummer; even then some require icebreaker escort for access. Most Antarctic ports are operated by government research stations and, except in an emergency, remain closed to commercial or private vessels; vessels in any port south of 60 degrees south are subject to inspection by Antarctic Treaty observers.</p><br>
<p>The Southern Ocean&#39;s southernmost port operates at McMurdo Station at 77&deg;50&prime;S latitude, 166&deg;40&prime;E longitude. Winter Quarters Bay forms a small harbor, on the southern tip of Ross Island where a floating ice pier makes port operations possible in summer. Operation Deep Freeze personnel constructed the first ice pier at McMurdo in 1973.</p><br>
<p>Antarctic Sun. 8 January 2006; McMurdo Station, Antarctica.</p><br>
<p>Based on the original 1928 IHO delineation of the Southern Ocean (and the 1937 delineation if the Great Australian Bight is considered integral), Australian ports and harbors between Cape Leeuwin and Cape Otway on the Australian mainland and along the west coast of Tasmania would also be identified as ports and harbors existing in the Southern Ocean. These would include the larger ports and harbors of Albany, Thevenard, Port Lincoln, Whyalla, Port Augusta, Port Adelaide, Portland, Warrnambool, and Macquarie Harbour.</p><br>
<p>Yacht races have been held in the Southern Ocean, such as the Volvo Ocean Race, Velux 5 Oceans Race, Vendée Globe, Jules Verne Trophy and Global Challenge.</p><br>
<p>Acquinsicke is a historic home located near Pomfret, Charles County, Maryland, United States. It was built between 1783 and 1798, is a highly significant example of late 18th century, early Federal architecture. It is a rectangular, two story, five bay, clapboarded frame dwelling with one-story additions to each end. The house&#39;s landscape features include a series of two terraced falls.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Acquinsicke takes its name from a 1,000 acre tract of escheat land patented by Anthony Neale in 1704. Originally known as Whites Ford and renamed Acquinsicke by Neale, the 1,000 acre had formerly been granted to Jerome White in 1669. White had immigrated to Maryland from England as a free adult about 1661. A Catholic, apparently well educated, he held a number of important and influential positions, including that of deputy governor in 1669 and the colonys Surveyor General, 1661–1671. White received land grants totaling more than 1,000 acre — most of which reverted to the Lords Baltimore when White died in England intestate and without heirs in 1677. The Whites Ford grc: of 1,000 acre was one of those that es cheated to the proprietor. When the tract was resurveyed for Anthony Neale the boundaries were found to embrace 572 acre more than the 1,000 acre stipulated in Whites grant. To correct this discrepancy. Neale was requested to "... leave out the surplus age where should think convenient... " The origin of the name Anthony Neale gave to the property is not precisely known. It is known to have derived from a word or descriptive term used by Native Americans who continued to occupy this section of Charles County at the time that Neale patented the property. It may even have been the name of a small village that once existed on or near the land.</p><br>
<p>Anthony Neales patent was recorded in 1706 and it was probably not long afterward that he established Acquinsicke as his dwelling plantation. Previous to that time he is believed to have lived on part of his fathers plantation, Wollaston Manor, in the southeastern section of the county. Neales father, Capt. James Neale, was a highly educated and well-travelled member of colonial Maryland society. He first arrived in Maryland in 1635 but did not establish formal residence in the colony until 1642. A planter and assemblyman. James Neale held a number of provincial offices, and between 1649 and 1659 served as ambassador for Charles II and the Duke of York in Spain and Portugal. The Neales were staunch Roman Catholics and continued to be openly so throughout the 1691–1776 period when Catholics in Maryland were denied their basic civil rights. Anthony Neales parents and their descendants established and supported a private mission at Wollaston Manor, and Anthony Neale is said to have supported the work of the Church by providing his home at Acquinsicke Society of Jesus headquartered at as a mission chapel of the St. Thomas Manor (CH-6;NR).</p><br>
<p>Anthony Neale died in 1723. His will devised one-half of the Acquinsicke plantation to his son Edward stipulating that "...it be that moiety whereon my dwelling house stands that I now live in." Edward was also given "...my silver Chalice & suit of Church Stuff to be kept and remained in my said Dwelling House and to go from heir to heir for the use of our family etc. so long as any of mine shall inhabit in the said place." Edward&#39;s share of Acquinsicke was to lie south of and include the dwelling; his brother, Charles, was bequeathed the part of the plantation lying north of the dwelling together with "...one thousand foot of one inch pine plank to be used towards... building him a house..."</p><br>
<p>By the standards of the period, Neale clearly enjoyed a privileged lifestyle, despite the fact that the inventory of his personality suggested that his house was probably of only two rooms with small sleeping chamber above. Although he did own a "house clock, a small library of books. assorted pieces of silver, a violin and 5 packs of playing cards", his house was as modestly furnished as it was small. Nevertheless, this was true of nearly all dwellings occupied by those of Neales stature. The estate, which included 33 slaves, was estimated to be worth over 1.108 pounds sterling, placing Neale among the countys wealthier inhabitants. Neale also owned several other valuable properties, including a mill seat and two unimproved lots in Chandlers Town (Port Tobacco;NR) in the same county.</p><br>
<p>Edward Neale was probably living at the home plantation at the time of his fathers death, and is known to have continued to reside there until the mid-1740s when he moved to Queen Annes County on Marylands Eastern Shore. According to several local histories, Acquinsicke continued to be used as a place of worship for local Catholics throughout Neales occupation of the land. In 1751 Edward Neale, who had no surviving sons, conveyed the 500 acre of Acquinsicke he had inherited from his father, plus an additional contiguous tract of 611 acre he patented under the name Acquinsicke Enlarged to his eldest daughter Eleanor and her husband Henry Rozer of Prince Georges County. Eleanor and Henry Rozer were then living at Notley Hall, a large estate binding on the Potomac River near present-day Fort Washington which Henry had inherited from his father Notley Rozer. Seven years later Charles Neale, Edwards brother, sold his half share of Acquinsicke to Col. Samuel Hanson necessitating a formally surveyed division of the two parts of the original tract they had inherited on their father&#39;s death in 1723.</p><br>
<h2>Historical context</h2><br>
<p>Acquinsicke was built in the last two decades of the 18th century, a very important time of transition in the development of domestic architecture in Southern Maryland. From about 1720 until the end of the American Revolution housing forms in Southern Maryland were fairly unchanged- homes of the middle and lower economic classes were usually one-story with one or two lower rooms and small attic chambers above, while those of the more prosperous merchant planters almost invariably contained four rooms off a centered rear stair hall and with bed chambers within a gable or gambrel roof. Surviving buildings combined with historical research has provided convincing evidence that houses with central through passages and houses of a full two-story height were relatively rare before the close of the 18th century. It was not until about the second decade of the 19th century, when improved economic conditions spawned a building boom that continued well into the 1840s, that two-story dwellings with central or side passages extending the full depth of the house became increasingly common. Similarly, changing fashions in a broader American context was slow to influence local architectural trends.</p><br>
<p>Consequently, there are remarkably few late-18th-century houses in Charles County whose architectural embellishments reflect to any significant degree the neoclassicism so widely embraced elsewhere in the decades following the Revolutionary War. The land on which Acquinsicke stands is part of what was once one of Charles Countys largest plantations and was initially established by Anthony Neale, member of one of Marylands most historically important Catholic families. Neales dwelling, which is believed to have stood on or near the site of the present house, was used as both a private residence and as a mission chapel of the Society of Jesus headquartered at St. Thomas Manor INRI. The survival and growth of Catholicism in Maryland during the 1690–1116 period was almost entirely dependent on the support of these mission chapels by families such as the Neales. All of these mission chapels have disappeared, and the precise locations of nearly all of them remains unknown. Today, only St. Thomas Manor and the property encompassing St. Marys Church, Newport INRI have documented associations with the pre-1776 history of Roman Catholicism in this area, and Acquinsicke is the only extant non-church owned site to have historically proven associations with the missionary activities of the society of Jesus in this locality.</p><br>
<p>Aquinsicke is currently privately owned.</p><br>
<h2>Impact</h2><br>
<p>Acquinsicke is a very significant example of late 18th century, early Federal architecture. Remarkably enough, only a few examples of domestic architectural farms survive in this region that illustrate as well as Acquinsicke the transitional phase between entirely vernacular building traditions and those buildings whose overall designs and carpentry were obviously influenced by outside sources. In this sense, Acquinsicke&#39;s full two-story height, one-room-deep design, finished (and heated!) attic chambers, and intrepidly corbelled and plaster banded chimney stacks are of specific note. Viewed independently, each of these details is unique in a late 18th-century architectural context: Together, they establish Acquinsicke as entirely matchless.</p><br>
<p>Acquinsicke is also of significance for the historical connection of the site it occupies with the history of Roman Catholicism in Southern Maryland. There is compelling historical evidence that the house rests on or immediately next to the site of an earlier structure that from about 1706 until at least the middle of that century served the dual function of private home and mission chapel served by Jesuits headquartered at St. Thomas Manor. Acquinsicke is one of only three sites in Charles County with documented affiliations with the pastoral activities of the Roman Catholic Church during the 1690–1776 period when Catholics in Maryland were denied their basic civil rights.</p><br>
<p>Greens Inheritance is a historic home located at Pomfret, Charles County, Maryland, United States. It is a -story gable-roofed house of common bond brick, built about 1850. The house has a basic Georgian plan. It is the only brick house in Charles County dating between the years 1835 and 1880. The house was built by Francis Caleb Green, on part of the 2,400 acre of land granted in 1666 to the sons of Thomas Greene, the second Provincial Governor of Maryland, who named it "Greens Inheritance."</p><br>
<p>Greens Inheritance, formerly known as "Green Park", and home to the wealthy and prominent branch of the Green Family of Charles County, is a simple but dignified 2 1/2-story gable roofed house of common bond brick, 56 by 36&#39;. Built c. 1850, it has a basic Georgian plan, incorporating an interesting combination of late Federal and Greek Revival features. The five-bay principal facade faces southeast. The centered, double-leafed entrance door, with transom and sidelights, has a simple Greek Revival-style wood enframement. The proportions and simplicity of a one-story porch with shallow pedimented roof and square posts sheltering the entrance suggest a Greek Revival influence. The four windows on the first floor and five on the second frame 6/6 sash and have plain wood sills and flat wood lintels. On the latter, at both floor levels, are flat pieces of wood applied in a manner to suggest recessed flat arches within the rectangular lintels, a rather curious treatment that is apparently original. A second interesting feature is a four-course brick belt or panel below the stepped brick roof cornice that extends to within 18" of the ends of the house. The north, or rear, elevation repeats the same fenestration and door placement of the front. However, the wood lintels of the windows are unornamented, and there is no belt course or panel below the eave cornice, and no porch sheltering the door. The door, fronted by a semi-circular brick stoop, is framed in the same basic manner as the front, but has a simulated, all-wood overlight. In 1941 a one-story porch extending the full width of this elevation was removed and replaced by the existing brick stoop and brick terrace. The east end of the house is unbroken except for a window at the attic level. On the west side there is a centered window at the second floor. The roof has two flush gable chimneys at each end. On the front and back slopes of the roof are three pedimented dormer windows, each of 6/6 sash. There is no watertable at the base of the house, although at one time the first several courses up from ground level were painted black. Small metal grilled openings at the base of the building serve to ventilate the crawl space beneath the first floor joists. In 1941 a one-story, three-bay kitchen addition of old brick with a shallow gable roof was built against the west end of the house, replacing an older frame wing.</p><br>
<p>Green&#39;s Inheritance is an important landmark, regionally significant architecturally and historically. Its architecture and date of construction very nearly make it unique within the lower Southern Maryland region.</p><br>
<p>In about 1825 the counties of Charles, Calvert, St. Marys, and lower Prince Georges began feeling the accumulated effect of a series of economic depressions, the last caused in large measure by the over-cultivation of tobacco, changing agricultural practices, industrialization, and the shifting of a rural society to one more urban. During the two decades preceding and following the Civil War almost all building activity ceased within the region. Green&#39;s Inheritance is therefore one of only a handful of extant buildings dating from this period in this area. It is, in fact, the only brick house in Charles County dating between the years 1835 and 1880. Considering the critical economic situation of the region at this time, it is remarkable that anyone could afford such an extravagance, particularly when many families of greater wealth and social prominence were crumbling.</p><br>
<p>The house should then be recognized as a testament to the builder, who buy all accounts was a quiet, honest yet resourceful and imaginative "gentleman farmer." The significance of Greens Inheritance, however, lies not only in its architectural value but also in the history of the property and the Green family. The house is believed to have been built about 1850 by Francis Caleb Green, on land granted in 1666 to the sons of Thomas Green, the second Provincial Governor of Maryland. Francis Caleb Green (1795-1851) held the rank of Sergeant during the War of 1812-14, and was actively involved in county affairs. His son, Francis Basil Green (1832-1907), was also active in local affairs, but especially in the concerns of nearby St. Josephs Church, to which he donated land for expansion. His children sold the house to the late Major General DeWitt Peck, USAM.C., in 1941. It was during Peck&#39;s tenure that many of the renovations took place.</p><br>
<p>The well-documented affairs of the Green family provide more than a superficial glimpse into the life of an average Maryland family throughout a period of some 250 years. The house, as a part of this record, provides a valuable focal point on which a historical study of socio-economic conditions in Southern Maryland, as reflected by the activities of several generations of a single family, could be based.</p><br>
<p>Green&#39;s Inheritance was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.</p><br>
<p>The Whittier  is a partially renovated high rise residential complex and former hotel located at 415 Burns Drive in Detroit, Michigan, on the Detroit River. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Whittier was constructed as an apartment hotel, meaning that tenants could rent an apartment, yet have access to services typically provided by a hotel. The Whittier was built at a time when the population boom in Detroit increased demand for housing.</p><br>
<p>Over the years, the luxury hotel played host to luminaries such as Horace Dodge, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mae West, Frank Sinatra and The Beatles. During Prohibition, the hotel&#39;s convenient access to the Detroit River and Canada made it popular with underworld types, including the Purple Gang.</p><br>
<p>The hotel changed hands many times, and was occupied until 2000 or 2001, when the last residents moved out. In June 2003, the building was purchased by Phoenix Communities, who refurbished the eight-story section into a senior citizen&#39;s living center, known as the Whittier Manor. Renovation of the fifteen-story tower has recently come to a deadlock.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Charles N. Agree designed the Whittier Hotel; it was the first of several large luxury hotels designed by the architect. Due to the soft, marshy ground, Agree used a slab foundation to support the hotel. The complex actually consists of two separate structures: an eight-story building to the north, and a larger fifteen-story Italian Renaissance style tower to the south.</p><br>
<p>The eight-story northern building is constructed from red brick and has regularly spaced windows. The first and second stories are faced with smooth stone, and feature a classical arcade. This building originally contained 184 units, and was completed in 1922.</p><br>
<p>The fifteen-story southern building was completed in 1926. It is basically Italian Renaissance in style, and is built from buff brick with terra cotta trim in the upper floors. A modern entrance of a single story in height has been recently removed.</p><br>
<p>Both buildings are notable for the high quality of the interior and exterior finishes.</p><br>
<p>The Maynard Buehler House in Orinda, California is a 4,000 ft&sup2; Usonian home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1948 for Katherine Z. "Katie" and Maynard P. Buehler.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<h3>Architecture</h3><br>
<p>Much of the Maynard Buehler House is steel frame with redwood panel cladding; other portions are concrete block. Like many Usonian homes, the house has a distinct flat roof line, carports, underfloor heating, and is organized on a modular grid system on an L-shaped plan. The carport is cantilevered to the extreme engineering capacity. A prop was put at the corner during construction to prevent sagging. The roof was built two inches too high at that corner and when the prop was removed the roof settled right down to the proper level. This was a trademark of Wright: to take engineering to the extreme.</p><br>
<p>The long leg of the L houses a wing with three bedrooms, and a small workshop. At the hinge, a small kitchen with wood cabinets and a dark countertop served the family. The more public spaces – a living room, den, and dining room – are arranged at an oblique angle to the main wing. The hexagonal living room opens onto a dramatic space, with a shed roof soaring over it. The sloped ceiling has a large rectangular gold leaf inset that reflects the natural light. The hallway leading to the bedrooms is of redwood batten, as are the walls in the bathroom. The kitchen, with its wood cabinets and dark counter top, is conveniently nestled near the center of the house. The smaller wing was designed to accommodate Mr. Buehler’s need for a home office and machine shop for his firearm accessories business. He was known for machining the highest-quality mounts, bases, and rings for rifle scopes.</p><br>
<h3>Furnishings</h3><br>
<p>Wright designed a number of pieces of furniture for the house. They include a dining room set with the backs of the chairs that do not intentionally rise above the tabletop so as not to impede the view of the garden. The wooden dining table consists of triangular pieces that can be moved around and more pieces added to create a large setting for Thanksgiving and other holiday feasts. The living room has a built-in bench along the perimeter. Manuel Sandoval, who made the cabinetry and furniture for the V. C. Morris Gift Shop, also crafted the Buehler pieces.</p><br>
<h3>Setting</h3><br>
<p>The building is on 3.5 acre of land transversed by a small stream. The house is surrounded with Japanese style gardens designed by Henry Matsutani. There is an expansive lawn area that sprawls away from the main living area and a ceremonial Japanese Tea House or chashitsu at the farthest reach of the property.</p><br>
<p>The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 12, 2006.</p><br>
<p>Cothay Manor is a grade one listed medieval house and gardens, in Stawley, near Wellington, Somerset.</p><br>
<p>The manor is Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England, and its gate piers and wall to the north entrance of the house are listed Grade II.</p><br>
<p>In the early 14th century the lord of the manor was the de Cothay family, whose heir was the Bluett family, later from the early 15th century lords of the manor of Holcombe Rogus in Devon, also of nearby Greenham Barton.</p><br>
<p>Built around 1480, its listing cites it as an unusually well-conserved, neat collection of buildings before 1500 in England. Simon Jenkins awarded the house four out of five stars in his 2003 book Englands Thousand Best Houses. The rent for the land surrounding the manor in the medieval era was a pair of silver spurs and a rose. To celebrate the end of the Cousins Wars, in the Tudor rose iconography of the time, a red rose (for Lancashire), and a white rose (for Yorkshire), were planted on the terrace by Richard Bluett, who was the lord of the manor at the time.</p><br>
<p>The gardens were laid out in the 1920s by Colonel Reginald Cooper DSO, who was Sissinghurst Castle Garden owner Sir Harold Nicolsons oldest friend, having been at school together at Wellington College, Berkshire, in the Diplomatic Corps; and were friends of Hidcote Manor Gardens Major Lawrence Johnston and Edwin Lutyens. The gardeners exchanged ideas, and in Nicholsons diaries there is an entry: "Reggie came to stay and advised me on the length of the bowling green". Coopers larger projects included moving the River Tone to save his favourite pine trees from erosion. Sissinghurst was laid out in 1932, with one garden writer describing Cothay as the "Sissinghurst of the West Country."</p><br>
<p>The house then belonged to Sir Francis Cook, 4th Baronet and during World War II housed much of his famous art collection, dispersed after the war.</p><br>
<p>The former home of Taunton MP Edward du Cann, in 1993 du Cann sold the property to Alastair and Mary-Anne Robb. Alastair’s great-grandmother Mary-Anne was a plant hunter, with the Wood Spurge Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae named after her, nicknamed "Mrs Robb&#39;s Bonnet" because she had to hide it in her hat to smuggle it through customs. With the whole property and gardens in need of renovation, the gardens were gutted and rebuilt along the original Cooper structure. The Robbs also added new garden areas, including a bog garden in the Oxbow, an Arboretum planted, and a wild flower meadow sown.</p><br>
<p>In 2008 and 2009, the manor was the subject of a Channel 4 television programme presented by hotelier Ruth Watson as part of her Country House Rescue series.</p><br>
<p>McPherson&#39;s Purchase is a historic farm complex dating to the 19th century and located near Pomfret, Charles County, Maryland, United States.</p><br>
<p>It is a working farm encompassing 120 acre, a majority of which is cleared and under cultivation. Located there is a complex of 18 domestic and agricultural support structures, 11 of which date prior to 1870. They include two tobacco barns, two wagon or equipment sheds, a corncrib, and a granary, all dating from about 1840-1860, and a former tobacco house built in the late 18th century. Other buildings include a kitchen-service structure, a small garden or storage shed, and a meathouse. A duplex slave quarters with a central chimney is also on the property as well as seven early-20th century buildings, including a double-pile frame house of simple architectural styling built about 1910. It is significant as a unique representative of a regionally typical 19th century farmstead.</p><br>
<p>McPherson&#39;s Purchase was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.</p><br>
<p>Pleasant Hill is a historic home located near Pomfret, Charles County, Maryland, United States. It is a -story, three-bay Tidewater house constructed between 1761 and 1995. The house illustrates the characteristic pattern of homes from small one- and two-room 18th-century dwellings into the larger houses that survive today.</p><br>
<p>Pleasant Hill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.</p><br>
<p>The land on which Pleasant Hill is located was originally part of a larger tract known as Greens Inheritance. In 1713 John Spalding purchased 200 acres of Greens Inheritance for Pleasant Hill. The home was built in at least three phases.</p><br>
<p>The first phase was begun in the 1760s by Basil Spalding, grandson of John. The original structure was a single story, two room home with a full cellar. It was made of timber framing with sawn clapboards. There were two chimneys on either end. The cellar was divided into two rooms, one of which had a fireplace and is believed to have been the original kitchen. A 20th century architectural historian described it as a typical middle-class home but "of better quality than most." Basil died in 1792 and left the home to his widow, Catherine.</p><br>
<p>One of Basils sons, Edward (possibly known as Ralph), had a daughter named Catherine in 1793 with his wife, Juliette Boarman. Catherine is believed to have been born at Pleasant Hill. After his fathers death, Edward&#39;s family moved to Kentucky. His daughter Catherine later founded the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.</p><br>
<p>In 1797 Basil&#39;s son, Basil Jr., received 150 acres of the property and the house.</p><br>
<p>The second phase took place during Basil Jr.&#39;s ownership. Sometime between 1798 and 1828 he added a two-room wing to the southeast end. The east-most room had a brick floor and a large fireplace, likely meaning this room became the new kitchen. Some commentators describe this wing as the oldest or original part of the home. But structural clues strongly suggest that it was built later. Basil Spalding, Jr. died in 1828 and his property was divided between his two sons in approximately 1838. His son John took Pleasant Hill.</p><br>
<p>The third modification took place during Johns ownership, between 1838 and 1848. During this time, John added a second floor to the original two-room portion of the house and the first room of Basil Jr.s addition. John also added two-story porches to the front and back of the home along the length of the two-room main block. The front porch remains. The back porch is believed to have been demolished in the early 20th century after it became structurally unsound. During Johns time at Pleasant Hill, he operated a store and post office from the property. The inventory of Johns estate indicate that he was a slave-holder, owning 19 slaves. John died in 1848.</p><br>
<p>John&#39;s son Basil inherited Pleasant Hill and lived there until he sold the property in the first decade of the 20th. Historian Richard Rivoire says it was sold to J.T. Robey. A title search, however, indicates that it was sold to John F. Sinclair.</p><br>
<p>Sinclair sold Pleasant Hill to Jeremiah Theodore Mudd in 1919. Theodores daughter Virginia later inherited Pleasant Hill. At Virginias death, in the 1980s, the property passed to a younger Jeremiah (Jerry) Mudd. Jerry Mudd sold the house to Don Rice and Beth Loker in 1991.</p><br>
<p>This was the fourth phase in the construction of Pleasant Hill. From approximately 1992 to 1995, Don and Beth added a two-story wing to the west end of the house, consisting of a one-room basement, kitchen, and second-floor bedroom. The new wing was connected to the older portion of the house by a hyphen which connected to a new, glass-enclosed, two-story porch where the original porch had been located. They also added a separate garage and swimming pool. At this time, the older portion of the home was restored to its appearance in the mid-nineteenth century. was the architect for the new wing and restoration. Don Rice, however, performed much of the woodwork himself.</p><br>
<p>Pleasant Hill has changed hands twice since then.</p><br>
<p>The primary sources for any uncited information in this entry are J. Richard Rivoire&#39;s book, Homeplaces, and compiled papers at Pleasant Hill.</p><br>
<p>The Shorty Lovelace Historic District includes a series of cabins built in Kings Canyon National Park by trapper Joseph Walter "Shorty" Lovelace between 1910 and 1940. Lovelace was the first non-Native American to live year-round in the upper Kings River Canyon. Lovelace may have built as many as thirty-six structures in the area, with possible a dozen surviving. Lovelace built his first cabins in 1912 at Crowley Canyon. The cabins were typically five feet by seven feet with dirt floors.</p><br>
<p>Structures include:</p><br>
<p>Williams (Quartz) Meadow Cabin</p><br>
<p>Sphinx Creek Cabin</p><br>
<p>Crowley Canyon Cabin</p><br>
<p>Granite Pass Cabin</p><br>
<p>Vidette Meadow Cabin</p><br>
<p>Gardiner Creek Cabin</p><br>
<p>Woods Creek Cabin</p><br>
<p>Cloud Canyon Cabin</p><br>
<p>Lower Bubbs Creek</p><br>
<p>The Generals Highway Stone Bridges, built in 1930, are part of the Generals Highway from the General Grant Grove of giant sequoias in Kings Canyon National Park  through Sequoia National Park. One bridge spans the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River in a wooded setting, while the other, similar bridge spans Clover Creek in a bare canyon.</p><br>
<h2>Design</h2><br>
<p>The bridges are typically reinforced concrete barrel arches with uncoursed stone facing on the sides, in a National Park Service Rustic style. The concrete is not visible to passersby, whose attention is taken by the mass of the masonry. Of the two, the Clover Creek bridge is the more impressive, due to its setting. The bridges were designed by the National Park Service Branch of Plans and Designs in cooperation with the Bureau of Public Roads.</p><br>
<p>The design inspiration for the bridges was the Westchester County, New York parkway system, which included the Bronx River and Hutchinson River parkways. The National Park Service sent two designers to observe the construction, and one of these, John Wosky, was the designer of the Generals&#39; Highway bridges. Wosky developed the architectural design of the Marble Fork bridge in the fall of 1928, and structural plans were developed by the Bureau of Public Roads in January 1929. The Clover Creek bridge was designed in 1930, with construction the same year on both bridges. The contractor for both bridges was W.A. Bechtel.</p><br>
