<p>Wards Stone is the highest hill in the Forest of Bowland. Its flat top hides two trig points nearly a kilometre apart. The western trig point sits atop of large rocks, including one, the Wards Stone, that is so large it attracts boulderers and climbers.</p><br>
<p>The path from Grit Fell is difficult: crossing Cabin Flat, it weaves its way across hidden pools of stagnant water, the presence of which is betrayed by a form of red grass. White markers supposedly point out the way, but more often result in leading the walker astray. The second trig points faces the empty vastness of the eastern Forest of Bowland, with the summits of Wolfhole Crag, White Hill and the distant Ingleborough breaking the horizon. A second path approaches Ward&#39;s Stone from Tarnbrook, where limited parking is available.</p><br>
<p>On the southern slope of this hill are Thorn Crag, Hell Crag and Long Crag, rocky outcroppings that are popular with climbers. Within Thorn Crag, a shallow cave system exists that leads to Hell Crag; this route was first traversed by Lancaster University Mountaineering Club.</p><br>
<p>Wolfhole Crag is a lonely and seldom-visited hill in the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire, England. Its seclusion is due in part to its low profile and long approach walks. A long path approaches from Ward&#39;s Stone in the west which is fraught with bogs. Another tarmac path from Tarnbrook meets this half way. A final path comes from the north east from the Hornby Road in the direction to White Hill. The summit consists of two large  buttresses of gritstone some unusually shaped waist-high rocks and the usual trig point. The buttresses contain a number of recorded rock climbs, including the two farthest "hard grit" routes  from the road in the entire UK. Both climbs were ascended in 2001 by Neil Kershaw and Greg Chapman. It’s quite possible to not see another human being all day there.</p><br>
<p>The East crag has a Wolf hole at the base of the south facing side,presumably how it originally gained the name.</p><br>
<p>Wolfhole Crag marks the northwesternmost boundary of the civil parish of Bowland Forest High, the historic Forest of Bowland as well as the Lordship of Bowland.</p><br>
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<p>Parlick  is an approximately cone-shaped steep-sided hill at the extreme south of the main range of Bowland fells in Lancashire, England. Its bog-free sides make it more popular with walkers than the shallow boggy hills to its north. Paths zigzag up this hill from the south, or for the more strenuous ascent a straight path can be chosen. This hill is usually green &mdash; different from the often thorny brown to red of the northern hills. A thin neck joins Parlick onto Fair Snape Fell with well-worn paths linking the two.</p><br>
<p>Regarding the origin of the name, Professor Eilert Ekwall, in his 1922 The Place-names of Lancashire, writes:</p><br>
<p>Parlick is a popular venue for foot-launched gliders, because it produces good ridge lift in an unusually wide variety of wind directions. The extensive west-facing bowl allows paraglider pilots to fly to Fair Snape Fell and beyond without leaving reliable ridge lift and as far forwards as Beacon Fell. Local pilots use this arena for club competitions, such as the Parlick Grid Challenge</p><br>
<p>The summit consists of little more than a cairn, leaving the walker to look at the view, south to Preston and Winter Hill near Chorley, east toward Pendle Hill, and west towards Blackpool and the Irish Sea.</p><br>
<p>The boundary between the boroughs of Wyre and Ribble Valley passes very close to the summit, with half of the hill lying within each borough.</p><br>
<p>"Parlick Fell" is the name of a cheese made in Longridge from sheep&#39;s milk from the area.</p><br>
<p>The hill and its environs are the location of the legend of the enormous Dun Cow, which was reputed to wander freely across the moorland, and to be in the habit of quenching its thirst at "Nick&#39;s Water-Pot", a well on the summit of Parlick.</p><br>
<p>Fair Snape Fell is one of the larger hills in the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire, England. It occupies a position in the very south of the main range of fells, alongside and just to the north of Parlick, to which it is joined by a ridge. The main paths approach the summit from Parlick in the south, Saddle Fell in the east and Bleasdale in the valley to the west. The Saddle Fell approach is as boggy as the hills to the north. The summit is covered in grass and peat groughs. A trig point and large cairn occupy the top of the western escarpment, with the highest point being about 700 m to the north-east.</p><br>
<p>The word snape means ‘pasture’; thus Fair Snape Fell means ‘fell of the fair (beautiful) pasture’.</p><br>
<p>Considerable areas of the Bowland fells were used for military training during</p><br>
<p>World War II and there are still unexploded bombs in some areas, including nearby Wolf Fell.</p><br>
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<p>Bolshevik Island  is an island in Severnaya Zemlya, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russian Arctic.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The island, together with the eastern coast of what was named Emperor Nicholas II Land, was discovered by Boris Vilkitsky at the time of the 1913 Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition. Its insularity, however, wasn’t proven until 1931, when Georgy Ushakov and Nikolay Urvantsev charted the archipelago during their 1930–32 expedition.</p><br>
<p>Prima Polar Station, currently the only Polar station operating in Severnaya Zemlya, is located in this island near Cape Baranov.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>It is the southernmost island and the second largest island in the group. The area of this island has been estimated at 11,270 km&sup2;.</p><br>
<p>Parts of the shore of the island are deeply indented, with Mikoyan Bay in the northopening to the Shokalsky Strait, as well as fjords such as Akhmatov Fjord, Thaelmann Fjord, Spartak Fjord and Partizan Fjord. Cape Unslicht (Mys Peschanyy) is the northernmost point of Bolshevik Island and Cape Neupokoyev at the SW end the southernmost.</p><br>
<p>Ostrov Tash is a small island located on Bolshevik&#39;s southern shore. Lavrov Island and Blizky Island are located off the NE shore and Ostrov Lishniy off its northern tip.</p><br>
<p>The group formed by the larger Maly Taymyr and Starokadomsky islands is located further offshore off the southeastern end.</p><br>
<h2>Weather conditions</h2><br>
<p>The weather on the island is extremely cold; the annual average temperature is -16 &deg;C.</p><br>
<p>One of the larger members of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Prince of Wales Island is an Arctic island in Nunavut, Canada, lying between Victoria Island and Somerset Island and south of the Queen Elizabeth Islands.</p><br>
<p>For administrative purposes it is divided between Qikiqtaaluk and Kitikmeot regions. There are no permanent settlements.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>It is a low tundra-covered island with an irregular coastline deeply indented by Ommanney Bay in the west and Browne Bay in the east. Ommanney Bay is named after Admiral Sir Erasmus Ommanney of the Royal Navy who explored the area as part of the search for the Franklin Expedition.</p><br>
<p>Its area has been estimated at 33,339 km&sup2;. Prince of Wales Island is the worlds 40th largest island and the 10th largest in Canada. Its highest known point—with an elevation of 424 m—is an unnamed spot at 73&deg;48&prime;26&Prime;N latitude, 97&deg;50&prime;14&Prime;W longitude in the islands far northeastern end, overlooking the Baring Channel, which separates the island from nearby Russell Island.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Its European discovery came in 1851 by Francis Leopold McClintocks sledge parties during the searches for John Franklins last expedition. McClintock, along with Sherard Osborn and William Browne, charted the northern half of the island. Its southern half was charted by Allen Young in 1859. It was named after Albert Edward, eldest son of Queen Victoria, then ten years old and Prince of Wales. He later became King Edward VII.</p><br>
<h2>Further reading</h2><br>
<p>Blackadar, Robert Gordon; Precambrian Geology of Boothia Peninsula, Somerset Island, and Prince of Wales Island, District of Franklin, Ottawa, ON: Dept. of Energy, Mines and Resources, 1967</p><br>
<p>Christie, Robert Loring; Stratigraphic Sections of Palaeozoic Rocks on Prince of Wales and Somerset Island, District of Franklin, Northwest Territories, Ottawa, ON: Queen&#39;s Printer, 1967</p><br>
<p>Dyke, Arthur S. Quaternary Geology of Prince of Wales Island, Arctic Canada, Ottawa, ON: Geological Survey of Canada, 1992,</p><br>
<p>Mayr, Ulrich; Geology of eastern Prince of Wales Island and adjacent smaller islands, Nunavut (parts of NTS 68D, Baring Channel and 68A, Fisher Lake), Ottawa, ON: Geological Survey of Canada, 2004,</p><br>
<p>The Pindus   mountain range is located in northern Greece and southern Albania. It is roughly 160 km long, with a maximum elevation of 2,637 m . Because it runs along the border of Thessaly and Epirus, the Pindus range is often called the "spine of Greece". The mountain range stretches from near the Greek-Albanian borders in Northern Epirus, entering the Epirus region and Macedonia region in northern Greece down to the north of the Peloponnese. Geologically it constitutes an extension of the Dinaric Alps, which dominate the western region of the Balkan Peninsula. This vast complex of mountains, peaks, plateaus, valleys and gorges traverses the Greek mainland from the Northwest to the Southeast. Its length reaches almost 230 kilometers and its largest width is 70 kilometers.</p><br>
<h2>Name</h2><br>
<p>Historically, the name Pindos refers to the mountainous territory that separates the greater Epirus region from the regions of Macedonia and Thessaly.</p><br>
<p>P. Sustal says that, according to John Tzetzes (12th century Byzantine writer), the Pindos range was called Metzovon at the time. We cannot be sure how valid this testimony is, but it certainly indicates a popular name given to the mountain range, which is also confirmed by more recent sources.</p><br>
<p>When translated (between 1682/83 and 1689) to a more conversational (colloquial) language the initial praise to St. Vissarion, which was drafted in 1552 by, he wrote: “A mountain called by the Greeks Pindos is the same mountain which is called Metzovon in Barbarian” and further down the same text he adds “this mountain, Metzovon, separates the Ioannina region from the Thessaloniki region.”</p><br>
<p>The identification of the name Metsovo with the Pindos mountain range is reproduced in a French encyclopedia of 1756. John Cam Hobhouse also appears to adopt this viewpoint, seeing as in 1825 he mentions in his writings: "…the latter mountains, now known by the name of Metzovo, can be no other than Pindus itself…" while a patriarchal document of 1818 says: “Because the high mountain of Pindos in Epirus, that is commonly called Messovon,…».</p><br>
<p>Furthermore, a series of sources refer to Pindos as the “mountains of Metsovo.” Evidently, the word Pindos is part of the literary legacy, while the folk name for the mountain range from medieval times up to the 19th century was either “Metsovo” or “the mountains of Metsovo.” Most probably this name did not include the whole range as it is meant today, but only its central part between the area of Aspropotamos and the springs of the Aoös River. It is further noteworthy that this part coincides with the mountainous region which the ancient Greeks used to call Pindos.</p><br>
<h2>Major mountains</h2><br>
<p>The most important mountains in the range are Mount Grammos, Mount Smolikas, Mount Vasilitsa, Tymfi or Gamila, Lakmos or Peristeri, the Athamanika or Tzoumerka mountains, the Agrafa mountains and others. Some mountains in Southern Greece are also considered part of the extended Pindos range. Its highest peak is on Mount Smolikas at an altitude of 2,637 meters.</p><br>
<h2>Population</h2><br>
<p>There are many villages in the Pindus, one of them being Samarina, which boasts one of the highest elevations in Greece. Many of the villages such as Perivoli and Smixi include communities of Aromanians (Vlachs), originally shepherds and farmers. In the last decades, a number of villages, such as Metsovo, developed into tourist resorts with ski facilities.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>The Egnatia Odos highway serves the region and connects it with the rest of Greece.</p><br>
<h2>Sightseeing</h2><br>
<p>Besides the imposing mountainous terrain of the range, two of the most magnificent gorges in Europe are located in the area: the Vikos Gorge and the Aoos Gorge. Together with the mountain valley of Valia Kalda they have been declared protected regionsand constitute the National Park of Northern Pindos. Furthermore, many mountain settlements with long history and unique architecture are located throughout the range.</p><br>
<h2>Nature and wildlife</h2><br>
<p>The Pindus ecoregion covers a wide range of elevations and habitats, from deep canyons to steep mountains. The wide range in altitude results in two major forest zones:</p><br>
<p>A conifer zone, with trees such as a subspecies of Austrian Pine and the endemic Greek fir, characterizes the highest elevations, with juniper woodlands dominating near the timberline.</p><br>
<p>A mixed broadleaf forest zone dominates the valleys and canyons of the middle and lower elevations.</p><br>
<p>Large breeding colonies of herons, spoonbills, egrets, and pelicans fish the cool waters of the mountain lakes of the Pindus Mountain Conifer and Broadleaf Mixed Forests ecoregion. This is one of the few areas in Europe where the rare Dalmatian pelican can be found. Wolves, jackals, and bears are found in the forests.</p><br>
<h3>Ecology</h3><br>
<p>The forests of this ecoregion have faced many threats over the course of human history, including overgrazing, agriculture, and deforestation. The greatest threats now come from the development of mountain tourism and ski resorts. Because of the instability of the soil on steep mountains, road-building and clear-cutting operations have led to dangerous landslides and the collapse of mountain slopes. Mining for bauxite, overgrazing, and over-collection of plants are also threatening the great biodiversity of this ecoregion.</p><br>
<h2>National Parks</h2><br>
<p>In the Greek section of the Pindus mountains there are two national parks.</p><br>
<h3>Vikos-Aoos National Park</h3><br>
<p>The Vikos-Aoos National Park is south of the town of Konitsa, in the west part of Zagori region. It includes Mount Tymfi, the Vikos Gorge and the Aoos Gorge. It was created in 1973.</p><br>
<h3>Pindus National Park</h3><br>
<p>The Pindus National Park (also known as Valia Kalda) is in a remote area in the north east of the Pindus mountains, north of the town of Metsovo and south of Perivoli. The park of some 7,000 hectares was established in 1966. There are forests of black pine and beech, and in the higher parts, Bosnian Pine (Pinus leucodermis). The park is a refuge for bears, wild cats, and lynxes.</p><br>
<p>The National Park was selected as main motif for two high value euro collectors&#39; coins: the €10 Greek Birds and Flowers and Black Pine Trees commemorative coins, minted in 2007. On the obverse of one of the coins there is a panoramic view of the common black pine trees that are prevalent in the park.</p><br>
<p>Mount Tongariro is a compound volcano in the Taupo Volcanic Zone of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located 20 km to the southwest of Lake Taupo, and is the northernmost of the three active volcanoes that dominate the landscape of the central North Island.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Mount Tongariro is part of the Tongariro volcanic centre, which consists of four massifs made of andesite: Tongariro, Kakaramea, Pihanga,</p><br>
<p>and Ruapehu. The andesitic eruptions formed Tongariro, a steep stratovolcano, reaching a height of 1,978 m. Tongariro is composed of layers of both lava and tephra and first erupted 275,000 years ago.</p><br>
<p>Tongariro consists of at least 12 cones. Ngauruhoe, while often regarded as a separate mountain, is geologically a cone of Tongariro. It is also the most active vent, having erupted more than 70 times since 1839, the last episode in 1973 to 1975.</p><br>
<p>Activity has also been recorded at other vents in recent history. Te Māri Craters erupted in 2012, for the first time since 1897. Red Crater last erupted ash in 1926 and contains active fumaroles. There are many explosion craters on the massif; water has filled some of these to form the Blue Lake and the Emerald Lakes.</p><br>
<p>The high altitude and severe alpine climate between March and October cause snowfall in the winter (there are commercial ski-fields at neighbouring Mount Ruapehu) and rain can freeze, causing verglas; in contrast in the mid to late summer, the mountains can be bare apart from remnant patches of snow in south-facing gullies. Unlike nearby Mt. Ruapehu, no glaciers exist on Tongariro today. However, geomorphological evidence in the form of moraines and cirques indicates the former presence of mountain glaciers. Dating of moraines on western Tongariro show that valley glaciers were present at several times during the last glacial cycle, before melting away at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum approximately 18,000 years ago.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Mount Tongariro is in the Tongariro National Park, New Zealand&#39;s first national park and one of the earliest in the world. It was set aside (literally "made sacred") in 1887 by Te Heuheu Tukino IV (Horonuku), paramount chief of the Māori Ngati Tuwharetoa iwi and made a national park in order to preserve its natural beauty. The park also includes the peaks of Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu, both of which lie to the southwest of Tongariro. The national park is a dual World Heritage Site for its outstanding natural and intangible cultural values.</p><br>
<p>The popular hiking route called Tongariro Alpine Crossing passes between Tongariro and Ngauruhoe.</p><br>
<p>Mount Tongariro and its surroundings are also one of the several locations which Peter Jackson chose to shoot The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.</p><br>
<h3>2012 Te Māri eruptions</h3><br>
<p>At 11:50 pm (NZST, UTC+12) on 6 August 2012, Mt Tongariro had what was initially believed to be a hydrothermal eruption after a month of increased activity. The eruption occurred at the Te Māri Craters, which had been dormant since 1897.</p><br>
<p>The eruption occurred in a new vent below the Upper Te Māri crater, and sent blocks as large as 1 m in size up to 2 km from the vent.</p><br>
<p>An ash cloud 6.1 km high deposited ash into the surrounding area, especially to the east of the volcano. The ash cloud travelled 250 km in four hours. NIWA reported the ash cloud contained about 10,000 m&sup3; of ash, and that the ash cloud was 25 km long and 15 km wide 39 minutes after the eruption. Ash and the smell of sulphur was reported in Napier and Hastings. The smell of sulphur was also reported in Wellington, Nelson and Blenheim.</p><br>
<p>State Highway 1 to the east and State Highway 46 to the north of the mountain each received up to 5 cm of ash cover, and were closed until the following morning due to ash and low visibility.</p><br>
<p>A layer of ash 10 - thick settled on farmland 5 to 10 km east of Mount Tongariro. Particle sizes were between 2 and. The airspace within a 12 km radius of the mountain was closed after the eruption, but later reopened to visual flights only. Air New Zealand cancelled some flights in and out of Rotorua, Taupo, Gisborne, Napier, Wanganui and Palmerston North due to the risk of volcanic ash clogging the engines on their aircraft serving those airports.</p><br>
<p>No injuries were reported, and the only significant property damage was to the Department of Conservation&#39;s Ketetahi Hut, which is located 1.5 km west of the Te Māri Craters. There was no official evacuation but 24 people living along State Highway 46 fled their homes for fear of being isolated.</p><br>
<p>Mount Tongariro erupted again at 1:20 pm on 21 November, ejecting an ash cloud 4000 metres into the air. Flights in the area were cancelled, as were several the following morning. Geologists had no warning before the eruption, saying it wasn&#39;t linked to warnings the week before of elevated activity at nearby Mount Ruapehu.</p><br>
<p>The Ward W. Willits House is a building designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Designed in 1901, the Willits house is considered the first of the great Prairie houses. Built in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, the house presents a symmetrical facade to the street. One of the more interesting points about the house is Wright&#39;s ability to seamlessly combine architecture with nature. The plan is a cruciate with four wings extending out from a central fireplace. In addition to stained-glass windows and wooden screens that divide rooms, Wright also designed most of the furniture in the house.</p><br>
<h2>Background</h2><br>
<p>The Willits House is Wrights first true Prairie-style house; as such, it is the culmination of the period of experimentation that Wright engaged in the previous few years. This house was designed for Ward Winfield Willits in 1901, who was then vice-president of Adams and Westlake Company, a brass foundry of which he was later made president. Orlando Giannini, who was employed by Willits at the time, may have been responsible for the creation of this house as he introduced Wright to Willits. Wright was known for bridging the gap between architecture and nature, which makes this house fascinating because it is a full expression of Wrights interest in reconnecting with nature and Wright&#39;s equal interest in Japanese architecture and the Dutch art movement that was simultaneously occurring.</p><br>
<h2>Design</h2><br>
<p>The Willits House is the first house in true Prairie style and marks the full development of Wright&#39;s wood frame and stucco system of construction. Although the Willits House has two stories, it is a more complex shape, consisting of a rectangular central space with a rectangular wing projecting from each side of that space. This is a standard design feature for most prairie-style houses, in addition to low roofs, elements that run parallel to the ground and extend out beyond the frame of the house. Wright used a cruciform plan with the interior space flowing around a central chimney core and extending outward onto covered verandas and open terraces. Wright incorporates diagonals into several other places in his design – the dining room has a prow-shaped end bay and another prow-shaped projection, the reception room has a similar prow-shaped bay, the art glass light over the entry stairway is rotated 45 degrees, again emphasizing the diagonal, and the terminating piers of the porte cochere are offset from the end wall by 45 degrees.</p><br>
<p>The first floor contains the living room that faces the street, the dining room, kitchen, pantry, servants&#39; quarters, reception, porte cochere, veranda, and terrace. The first floor also contains several fireplaces that are clustered together. An entrance-stair hall, living room, dining room and kitchen rotate around the central fireplace. The plan of the house begins to open up and the rooms are linking much more strongly outward. The house is less contained and architecture that moved outwards was one of the main features. Moving to the second floor of the house, it contains five bedrooms, a sewing room and a library over the south entrance. Instead of continuing the west bedroom (directly over the living room) the full width of the wing, Wright left space for second-floor planters.</p><br>
<p>The Willits House was seen as an entertainment-style home. The use of the Romanesque archway in the entrance, an emphasis on horizontals as seen in the low roofs of the dining room wing and porte cochere and the use of different materials on the upper part of the house. When light shines on this area, the roof appears to be hovering and displays very deep and dark shadows. Another unique feature of this house is that Wright was able to design everything in the house, from the furniture to the lighting fixtures.</p><br>
<h2>Architect-client relationship</h2><br>
<p>Wright and the Willitses became friends soon after meeting and realizing that with Wrights architectural expertise and Willitss company making contributions to many architectural projects, a vision for the Ward Willits House was possible. The client and architect continued their relationship with the Wrights after the house was completed, and Willits and his wife accompanied Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife Catherine on a trip to Japan in 1905. The trip went well and was a first for Wright; however, the relationship could not withstand the hardships that occur by being an architect and having a strong relationship with ones client. The clients were wealthy and had enough money to have the house built—although, unlike many others of Wrights patrons, their friendship did not survive the ill treatment of Wright&#39;s first wife and family and unpaid loans Wright is said to have had with Willits. Nonetheless, Ward Willits spent many years with his wife in the house and lived there until his death in 1950.</p><br>
<h2>Post-1954</h2><br>
<p>The house was purchased in the 1980s and the new owner began renovations. The new owner and his wife mainly completed the renovations, and they made sure to maintain Wright&#39;s unique features throughout the house. The house still sits on the same site in Highland Park, Illinois and is a common attraction for those who want to view a piece of architectural history. The Frank Lloyd Wright "Tour of the North Shore" currently explores the northern suburbs of Chicago along Lake Michigan to see one dozen Frank Lloyd Wright houses, including the Ward Willits House.</p><br>
<p>Pilcomayo   is a river in central South America. At 1,100 km long, it is the longest western tributary of the Paraguay River. Its drainage basin is 270,000 km&sup2; in area, and its mean discharge is 200 m3/s.</p><br>
<p>Along its course, the Pilcomayo silts up and splits into two main branches, North and South. After some distance, these branches rejoin to form the Lower Pilcomayo.</p><br>
<p>The Pilcomayo rises in the foothills of the Andes mountain range in the Bolivian Oruro Department, east of Lake Poopó. The Jacha Juqhu River is considered the origin of the Pilcomayo. Upstream the Jacha Juqhu River successively receives the names Aguas Calientes and Kachi Mayu. From the confluence with the Chillawa (Chillahua), the river is called Pilcomayo. From there, it flows in a southeasterly direction through Chuquisaca and Tarija departments, passes through the Argentine province of Formosa and the Gran Chaco plains of Paraguay, forming the border between these two countries before it joins the Paraguay River near Asunción. The Río Pilcomayo National Park is located on the Argentine side of the border. It also forms a short part of the boundary between Argentina and Bolivia, just prior to the Argentina–Bolivia–Paraguay tripoint.</p><br>
<p>The river basin is home to approximately 1.5 million people: one million in Bolivia, 300,000 in Argentina, and 200,000 in Paraguay.</p><br>
<p>The Nakotoi Indian Tribe resides in the southern region of the Pilcomayo, a region located along the river in central Paraguay. The aborigines of this tribe are descendants of the highly renowned Redskin Tribe. The Natokoi dress in a rug, fastened around the waist-line.</p><br>
<p>Y Lliwedd is a mountain, connected to Snowdon in the Snowdonia National Park, North Wales.</p><br>
<p>Its summit lies 2,946 ft (898 m) above sea level.</p><br>
<p>The eastern flanks are steep cliffs rising above Glaslyn and Llyn Llydaw. Y Lliwedd is the most conspicuous of the peaks for those who approach Snowdon via the Miners and Pyg tracks. Few that summit Snowdon continue over to Y Lliwedd as the challenge of Wales highest peak is enough, leaving Y Lliwedd quiet and peaceful even when queues are forming at the summit of Snowdon.</p><br>
<p>Hikers and mountaineers often pass over Y Lliwedd when walking the Snowdon Horseshoe. The noted British climber George Mallory undertook many of his early climbs here. It was also the site of considerable training activity for the 1953 British Everest Expedition.</p><br>
<p>The north face of Y Lliwedd was explored in the late 19th century and in 1909 was the subject of the first British climbing guide, The climbs on Lliwedd by J. M. A. Thomson and A. W. Andrews.</p><br>
<p>Two subsidiary peaks of Y Lliwedd are listed as Nuttalls: Lliwedd Bach 2699 ft (818 m): and Y Lliwedd East Peak 2947 ft (893 m):.</p><br>
<p>Crib Goch is described as a ‘knife-edged’ arête in the Snowdonia National Park in Gwynedd, Wales. The name means ‘red ridge’ in the Welsh language.</p><br>
<p>The highest point on the arête is 923 m above sea level. All routes which tackle Crib Goch are considered mountaineering routes in winter or scrambles in summer—meaning that they must cross ‘graded territory’ as defined in Steve Ashton’s Scrambles in Snowdonia. The easiest of these lines (the ‘bad step’ part of the route) is given a scrambling grade of Grade 1 (the most difficult being Grade 3—routes more difficult than Grade 3 are considered rock climbs).</p><br>
<h2>Route</h2><br>
<p>The classic traverse of Crib Goch from East to West leads up from the Pyg track to a ‘bad step’, where hands and feet are both needed briefly. It is followed by ascent to the arête, before tackling three rock-pinnacles to a grassy col at Bwlch Coch. This first part of the ridge is exposed with precipices below, having resulted in several fatalities, even of experienced mountaineers; the Snowdonia National Park Authority describes it as ‘not a mountain for the inexperienced’. It is also possible to ascend Crib Goch’s North Ridge, which adjoins the main ridge.</p><br>
<p>It is possible to ascend Crib Goch from Bwlch y Moch SH663552 or from Nant Peris, an ascent via Cwm Beudu Mawr.</p><br>
<p>From the col the ridge rises again, joining the main Snowdon ridge via the sister peak Garnedd Ugain in the west. Here the path meets the Pyg Track (which descends to Pen-y-Pass) at Bwlch Glas (marked by a large standing stone), before the final climb to Snowdon summit. To the south of the arête lie the lakes of Glaslyn and Llyn Llydaw. To the north is the Llanberis Pass. Crib Goch is classed as a Welsh 3000er and is also often climbed as the first part of the Snowdon Horseshoe, which goes on over Garnedd Ugain, Snowdon and Y Lliwedd, before returning to Pen-y-Pass.</p><br>
<p>Crib Goch is one of the wettest spots in the United Kingdom, with an average of 4,473 mm rainfall a year over the past 30 years.</p><br>
<p>Prince of Wales Island is one of the islands of the Alexander Archipelago in the Alaska Panhandle. It is the fourth-largest island in the United States  and the 97th-largest island in the world.</p><br>
<h2>Geography and ecology</h2><br>
<p>The island is 135 mi long, 45 mi wide and has an area of 2,577 square miles, about 1/10 the size of Ireland and slightly larger than the state of Delaware. Approximately 4,000 people live on the island. Craig is the largest community; founded as a saltery in the early 20th century, it has a population of 1,000. Some 750 people live in Klawock, a long-established village that grew with the fishing industry. Hollis was a boom and bust mining town from 1900 to about 1915. Abandoned, it was re-established as a logging camp in the &#39;50s. It now has a population of 100 and is the location of the ferry terminal.</p><br>
<p>Mountain peaks, all but the tallest of which were buried by Pleistocene glaciation, reach over 3,000 ft. Fjords, steep-sided mountains, and dense forests characterize the island. Extensive tracts of limestone include karst features such as El Capitan Pit, at 598.3 ft, possibly the deepest vertical shaft in the United States.</p><br>
<p>Moist, maritime conditions dominate the weather.</p><br>
<p>The Tongass National Forest covers most of the island. Within the forest and on the island are the Karta River Wilderness and the South Prince of Wales Wilderness. Many of its wildlife, such as the Prince of Wales flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus griseifrons), are found nowhere else.</p><br>
<p>The island is in the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Prince of Wales Island is the homeland of the indigenous Kaigani Haida people. Kaigani is a mispronunciation of the Tlingit word xaax aani, which translates to "crabapple country". The Tlingit name for the island is Taan, meaning "sea lion". The island is traditional Tlingit territory. The Haida migrated into the area in the late 18th century. Abandoned Haida villages still have Tlingit names.</p><br>
<p>In 1741, Aleksei Chirikov, commanding a ship on Vitus Berings second voyage of exploration out of Kamchatka, made the first recorded European landfall on the northwest coast of North America at Baker Island on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island. He did not stop for any length of time there. The next European arrival was in 1774, when Juan Pérez led a Spanish expedition sailing in a 39-foot boat from La Paz, Mexico (then a Spanish colony). They reached Sumez Island off of Prince of Wales west coast.</p><br>
<p>In 1779 a British expedition under Captain James Cook passed Prince of Wales Island. Comte de La Perouse led a French expedition to the area in 1786. Karta Bay is the site of the first salmon saltery in Alaska.</p><br>
<p>Settlers began mining of gold, copper, and other metals on the island in the late 19th century, as European Americans entered the area to exploit the natural resources. Gold production came from underground lode mines exploiting: gold-bearing quartz veins in metamorphic rocks (such as the Gold Standard, Sea Level, Dawson, Golden Fleece and Goldstream mines); skarns (at the Jumbo and Kassan Peninsula copper-gold mines); zoned mafic-ultramafic plutons, as at the Salt Chuck silver-gold-copper-PGE mine; and VMS deposits such as Niblack. Uranium was mined at Bokan Mountain in the 1950s and 1970s.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<h3>Logging</h3><br>
<p>Historically, logging was the mainstay of the collective Prince of Wales economy through most of the 20th century. The decline of the industry since the late 20th century has resulted in only a few small-scale sawmills operating. In 1975, the Point Baker Association and others sued the United States Forest Service to prevent logging 400,000 acre on the northern portion of the island.</p><br>
<p>In December 1975, Judge von der Heydt issued a ruling enjoining all clearcutting on the 400,000 acres on Northern Prince of Wales Island west of a line from the west side of Red Bay to the easternmost point of Calder Bay. In March 1976, the United States Congress responded to the suit by passing the National Forest Management Act, which removed the injunction. Still, only half of the marketable timber was cut on the north end of the island.</p><br>
<p>Road construction and logging on the north end of the island at Labouchere Bay commenced early in 1975. Living on a floating camp, employees of Robertson & Sons began cutting trees, clearing stumps, and blasting rock in order to build pads for mobile trailers for both the road construction and logging families. The camps were ready in early June for Robertson employees to bring in their families. Under the supervision of the US Forest Service, logging began in 1976.</p><br>
<p>In 2010, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich introduced S730 to privatize stands of old growth forests on the island.</p><br>
<h3>Tourism</h3><br>
<p>Tourism, including sport fishing, is an important part in Prince of Wales&#39; economy. Two factors have led to the increase of tourism on the island. Roads built for the logging companies years ago have enabled better access to different parts of the island for hiking and camping. The second was the new Inter-Island Ferry Authority.</p><br>
<h3>Fishing</h3><br>
<p>Commercial fishing provides the foundation of the economy for numerous towns on the island including Craig, Klawock, Hydaburg, Port Protection and Point Baker. During the summer, trollers and seiners both fish for all five species of Pacific salmon. Longliners bring up halibut and black cod. Dungeness crab and shrimp seasons are open throughout the year. During the winter there are dive fisheries for geoducks, sea cucumbers, and sea urchins.</p><br>
<h3>Government</h3><br>
<p>Since Prince of Wales Island is almost entirely made up of federal land, the two ranger districts (Craig and Thorne Bay) on the island provide employment for a number of residents.</p><br>
<h3>Mining</h3><br>
<p>Mineral exploration continues at many projects on Prince of Wales Island. The only producing uranium mine in the entire state of Alaska was located on the island, the Ross-Adams mine in Kendrick Bay. Current remediation projects have been reported in local media, and continued exploration of rare earth metals continue in the region. Bokan Mountain has been rated by the Technology Metals report as a location (tied with Canada&#39;s Strange Lake) containing the third highest of "relative" quantity of individual critical rare earth oxides, a way of comparing rare earth mine reserves. In 2012 the Pentagon issued a contract to perform a mineralogical and metallurgical study of the mountain. "The Bokan – Dotson ridge REE" rare earth deposit on Bokan Mountain owned by Ucore is estimated to hold 5.3 million tons of heavy rare earths with 207,000 tons dysprosium. It is a small deposit on a global basis but the largest in the United States. The mine is on a fast track to commence operations in 2017. Ucore Rare Metals Inc. paid about $1 million for a 9,421 acre claim to the family of a prospector who held uranium claims for many years on Bokan Mountain.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<h3>Roads</h3><br>
<p>A 2,500 mile road system, which taxpayers paid for in credits to logging contractors, was built on the island. However, many of these roads are now being decommissioned as unnecessary in the post-clearcutting era. Only a small percentage of this road system is paved, currently no further than Naukati. The gravel roads cost between 150,000 and 500,000 per mile in today&#39;s dollars. Point Baker and Port Protection chose in 1974 not to be connected to the road system.</p><br>
<p>There is now a newly designated state "scenic highway" - the 500 km Prince of Wales Island road system. The highway reaches almost every community on Prince of Wales.</p><br>
<h3>Cargo</h3><br>
<p>A few companies provide scheduled barge service from Pacific coast ports to southeastern Alaskan ports, including those on Prince of Wales island (primarily Craig).</p><br>
<h3>Public ferry</h3><br>
<h4>Alaska Marine Highway System</h4><br>
<p>Historically, the Alaska Marine Highway (AMHS) intermittently served the port of Hollis, until the Inter-Island Ferry Authority began regular scheduled service.</p><br>
<h4>Inter-Island Ferry Authority</h4><br>
<p>The Inter-Island Ferry Authority (IFA) provides daily service on a three-hour, 36-mile route between Prince of Wales Island and Ketchikan. It ferries more than 50,000 passengers and 12,000 vehicles between Hollis and Ketchikan annually. The system is more than a form of transportation - it is an economic engine for southern Southeast Alaska, generating jobs, commerce, and tourism - while also increasing community well-being. In 2015, the IFA brought 3,000 tourists to Prince of Wales Island, where they spent more than $10 million on hotels, fishing expeditions, and dining - generating hundreds of summer jobs across the island. It provides a means for the seafood industry to move millions of pounds of high-quality, high-value fresh and live seafood to market, creating hundreds more jobs. It provides access to health care for a thousand island residents who use Ketchikans medical services without the cost, inconvenience, or weather-related delays of flying. It shuttles workers to their jobs. It reinforces Ketchikans status as the regional economic hub, as Prince of Wales residents spent more than $14 million there in 2015 on groceries, goods, services, and medical care.</p><br>
<p>The Inter-Island Ferry allows for cultural and social commerce as well. Students, tribal members, and other residents use the system to participate in basketball games, totem pole raisings, trainings, college fairs, celebrations, and funerals. There were 3,100 student trips last year. This allowed students from 13 different Alaska school districts the opportunity to challenge themselves and interact with their peers. It connects residents to family, friends, and recreation. The ferry is a critical piece of a more extensive transportation network. It provides transportation security on days when the skies are rough, and access to transportation to those who cannot afford alternative means. Nearly a quarter of the ridership last year were senior citizens and young children, who have saved a combined $17 million over the cost of flying since the system began in 2002. Its reliable arrivals and departures - so precise that people are said to set their watches by it - have enabled organizations to build their business models around this daily transportation connection. The result of the IFAs efficient operations is farebox revenue that covers a full 85% of the ferrys operational costs, a significant rate in the world of public transportation. The word businesses and residents most frequently use to describe the ferry service is "invaluable." While there are many intrinsic values of the system that cannot be measured, an analysis of the ferry&#39;s economic impact in the seafood, healthcare, visitor, transportation, and retail sectors shows an impressive $52.2 million combined impact in Ketchikan and Prince of Wales in 2015.</p><br>
<h3>Airports</h3><br>
<p>Klawock Airport is the only airport on Prince of Wales island.</p><br>
<p>Four commercial airlines in Ketchikan provide scheduled service to Prince of Wales island.</p><br>
<p>Air taxi or chartered flights are also available from them and other airlines.</p><br>
<h4>Seaplane bases</h4><br>
<h4>Scheduled airlines</h4><br>
<h2>Communities</h2><br>
<p>Coffman Cove</p><br>
<p>Craig</p><br>
<p>Hollis</p><br>
<p>Hydaburg</p><br>
<p>Kasaan</p><br>
<p>Klawock</p><br>
<p>Naukati Bay</p><br>
<p>Point Baker</p><br>
<p>Port Protection</p><br>
<p>Port St. Nicholas</p><br>
<p>Thorne Bay</p><br>
<p>Waterfall</p><br>
<p>Whale Pass</p><br>
<h2>Notable ex-residents</h2><br>
<p>Holly Madison, American model and Hugh Hefner&#39;s former girlfriend.</p><br>
<p>Elisabeth and Roy Peratrovich, early Alaskan civil rights advocates, heavily involved in passage of Alaskas Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, first civil rights law in the USA Elizabeth Peratrovich Day is Alaskas equivalent of Martin Luther King Day.</p><br>
<p>Adonara is an island in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia, located east of the larger island of Flores in the Solor Archipelago. To the east lies Lembata, formerly known as Lomblen. It is the highest of the islands of the archipelago, reaching an altitude of 1,659 metres, and it has an area of 497 km. It is in the East Nusa Tenggara province.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Local history on Adonara is documented from the sixteenth century, when Portuguese traders and missionaries established a post on the nearby island of Solor. By that time Adonara and the surrounding islands were ritually divided between a population of coastal dwellers known as Paji, and a population mainly settling the mountainous inland called Demon. The Paji were susceptible to Islam, while the Demon tended to fall under Portuguese influence. The Paji areas on Adonara contained three principalities, namely Adonara proper (centered on the north coast of the island), and Terong and Lamahala (on the south coast). Together with two principalities on Solor, Lohayong and Lamakera, they constituted a league called Watan Lema ("the five shores"). The Watan Lema allied with the Dutch East India Company(VOC) in 1613, confirmed in 1646. The Adonara principalities had frequent feuds with the Portuguese in Larantuka on Flores, and were not always obedient to the Dutch authorities.</p><br>
<p>In the course of the nineteenth century, the ruler of Adonara (proper) in the north strengthened his position in the Solor Archipelago; by then, he was also the overlord of parts of eastern Flores and Lembata. The Demon areas stood under the suzerainty of the principality of Larantuka, which in turn was under Portuguese rule until 1859, when it was ceded to the Netherlands. The principalities of Larantuka and Adonara (proper) were abolished by the Indonesian government in 1962. Some post-independence local officials trace their roots to past rulers, called raja, of Adonara (proper). These include:</p><br>
<p>Foramma, c. 1650</p><br>
<p>Boli I, c. 1671-1684</p><br>
<p>Eke 1684-1688 (killed by mountain people)</p><br>
<p>Gogok, c. 1702</p><br>
<p>Wuring (brother of Eke), 1688–1719</p><br>
<p>Boli II (son of Wuring), 1719-after 1756</p><br>
<p>unknown rulers</p><br>
<p>Jou, c. 1815</p><br>
<p>Lakabella Jou (son of Jou), c. 1832</p><br>
<p>Begu, d. July 28, 1850 (killed)</p><br>
<p>Pela(ng) (son of Begu), 1850–1857</p><br>
<p>Jou (brother of Pela), 1857–1868</p><br>
<p>Kamba Begu (brother of Lakabella), 1868–1893</p><br>
<p>Bapa Tuan (son of Kamba Begu), temporary Raja in 1893 for 6 months</p><br>
<p>Arkiang Kamba (Arakang; brother of Bapa Tuan, b. 1866), 1893 or 1894 - abdicated December 18, 1930</p><br>
<p>Bapa Ana (son of a sister of Kamba Begu), Regent with the title of Kapitan 1930 - December 1, 1935, condemned to life imprisonment 1935 and sent to Kupang</p><br>
<p>Bapa Nuhur, (son of Gela, a son of Bapa Tuan, b. 1915), 1941–1947</p><br>
<p>Bapa Kaya, (son of Bapa Ana, d. 12/1/1954), Regent 1947-1951</p><br>
<p>Mohamad Eke (great-grandson of Raja Jo, 1929 - c. 1985), 1951–1962, first referred as Government Asst during Bapa Kaya&#39;s rule and also Kapitan of Adonara</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Adonara Island is a part of the Indonesian regency of East Flores. It can be reached by airplane from Jakarta to Kupang, then by ferry to Larantuka, then by boat.</p><br>
<p>The administrative centre of Adonara is the town of Waiwerang.</p><br>
<p>A member of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Bathurst Island is one of the Queen Elizabeth Islands in Nunavut, Canada. The area of the island is estimated at 16,042 km&sup2, 115 to 117 mi long and from 63 mi to 72 mi to 92.9 mi wide, making it the 54th largest island in the world and Canada&#39;s 13th largest island. It is uninhabited.</p><br>
<p>The island is low-lying with few parts higher than 330 m in elevation. The highest point is 412 m at Stokes Mountain in the Stokes Range. This in turn forms part of the Arctic Cordillera mountain system. Good soil conditions produce abundant vegetation and support a more prolific wildlife population than other Arctic islands.</p><br>
<p>The island contains both the International Biological Program site Polar Bear Pass and Qausuittuq National Park.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Brooman Point Village on the eastern coast of Bathurst Island was the site of Thule native tribes around A.D. 1000, conceivably during a warmer climate episode. William Edward Parry was the first European to discover the island in 1819, charting its southern coast. It was named for Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst, British Secretary of State for War and the Colonies 1812-1827. Robert Aldrich charted much of its west coast in 1851, while George Henry Richards and Sherard Osborn charted its north coast in 1853.</p><br>
<p>The Earth&#39;s North Magnetic Pole tracked northwards across Bathurst Island during the 1960s and 1970s.</p><br>
<p>Chartwell is a country house near the town of Westerham, Kent in South East England. For over forty years it was the home of Winston Churchill. He bought the property in September 1922 and lived there until shortly before his death in January 1965. In the 1930s, when Churchill was excluded from political office, Chartwell became the centre of his world. At his dining table, he gathered those who could assist his campaign against German re-armament and the British governments response of appeasement; in his study, he composed speeches and wrote books; in his garden, he built walls, constructed lakes and painted. During the Second World War Chartwell was largely unused, the Churchills returning after he lost the 1945 election. In 1953, when again Prime Minister, the house became Churchills refuge when he suffered a devastating stroke. In October 1964, he left for the last time, dying at his London home, 28, Hyde Park Gate, on 24 January 1965.</p><br>
<p>The origins of the estate reach back to the 14th century; in 1382 the property, then called Well-street, was sold by William-at-Well. It passed through various owners and in 1836 was auctioned, as a substantial, brick-built manor. In 1848, it was purchased by John Campbell Colquhoun, whose grandson sold it to Churchill. The Campbell Colquhouns greatly enlarged the house and the advertisement for its sale at the time of Churchill&#39;s purchase described it as an "imposing" mansion. Between 1922 and 1924, it was largely rebuilt and extended by the society architect Philip Tilden. From the garden front, the house has extensive views over the Weald of Kent, "the most beautiful and charming" Churchill had ever seen, and the determining factor in his decision to buy the house.</p><br>
<p>In 1946, when financial constraints forced Churchill to again consider selling Chartwell, it was acquired by the National Trust with funds raised by a consortium of Churchills friends led by Lord Camrose, on condition that the Churchills retain a life-tenancy. After Churchills death, Lady Churchill surrendered her lease on the house and it was opened to the public by the Trust in 1966. A Grade I listed building, for its historical significance rather than its architectural merit, Chartwell has become among the Trust&#39;s most popular properties; some 232,000 people visited the house in 2016, the fiftieth anniversary of its opening.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Early history to 1922</h3><br>
<p>The site had been built upon at least as early as the 16th century, when the estate was called Well Street. The origin of the name is the Chart Well, a spring to the north of the current house, Chart being an Old English word for rough ground. Henry VIII was reputed to have stayed in the house during his courtship of Anne Boleyn at nearby Hever Castle. Elements of the Tudor house are still visible, the Historic England listing for Chartwell notes that 16th (or possibly 17th) century brickwork can be seen in some of the external walls. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the house was used as a farmhouse and its ownership was subject to frequent change. In 1848, it was purchased by John Campbell Colquhoun, a former MP; the Campbell Colquhouns were a family of Scottish landowners, lawyers and politicians. The original farmhouse was enlarged and modified during their ownership, including the addition of the stepped gables, a Scottish baronial genuflection to the land of their fathers. By the time of the sale to Churchill, it was, in the words of Oliver Garnett, author of the 2008 guidebook to the house, an example of "Victorian architecture at its least attractive, a ponderous red-brick country mansion of tile-hung gables and poky oriel windows".</p><br>
<h3>Churchill at Chartwell</h3><br>
<h4>1922 to 1939</h4><br>
<p>Churchill first saw Chartwell in July 1921, shortly before the house and estate were to be auctioned. He returned the same month with his wife Clementine, who was initially attracted to the property, although her enthusiasm cooled during subsequent visits. In September 1922, when the house had failed to sell at auction, he was offered it for £5,500. He paid £5,000, after his first offer of £4,800, made because "the house will have to be very largely rebuilt, and the presence of dry rot is a very serious adverse factor", was rejected. The seller was Captain Archibald John Campbell Colquhoun, who had inherited the house in June 1922 on the death of his brother. Campbell Colquhoun had been a contemporary of Churchill&#39;s at Harrow School in the 1880s. On completion of the sale in September 1922, Churchill wrote to him; "I am very glad indeed to have become the possessor of "Chartwell". I have been searching for two years for a home in the country and the site is the most beautiful and charming I have ever seen". The sale was concluded on 11 November 1922.</p><br>
<p>The previous 15 months had been personally and professionally calamitous. In June 1921, Churchill&#39;s mother had died, followed three months later by his youngest child, Marigold. In late 1922, he fell ill with appendicitis and at the end of the year lost his Scottish parliamentary seat at Dundee.</p><br>
<p>Philip Tilden, Churchills architect, began work on the house in 1922 and the Churchills rented a farmhouse near Westerham, Churchill frequently visiting the site to observe progress. The two-year building programme, the ever-rising costs, which escalated from the initial estimate of £7,000 to over £18,000, and a series of construction difficulties, particularly relating to damp, soured relations between architect and client, and by 1924 Churchill and Tilden were barely on speaking terms. Legal arguments, conducted through their respective lawyers, rumbled on until 1927. Clementines anxieties about the costs, both of building and subsequently living at Chartwell also continued. In September 1923 Churchill wrote to her, "My beloved, I beg you not to worry about money, or to feel insecure. Chartwell is to be our home (and) we must endeavour to live there for many years." Churchill finally moved into the house in April 1924, a letter dated 17 April of that year to Clementine begins, "This is the first letter I have ever written from this place, and it is right that it should be to you".</p><br>
<p>In February 1926, Churchills political colleague Sir Samuel Hoare described a visit in a letter to the press baron Lord Beaverbrook; "I have never seen Winston before in the role of landed proprietor... the engineering works on which he is engaged consist of making a series of ponds in a valley and Winston appeared to be a great deal more interested in them than in anything else in the world". In January 1928, James Lees-Milne stayed as a guest of Churchills son Randolph. He described an evening after dinner; "We remained at that round table till after midnight. Mr Churchill spent a blissful two hours demonstrating with decanters and wine glasses how the Battle of Jutland was fought. He got worked up like a schoolboy, making barking noises in imitation of gunfire, and blowing cigar smoke across the battle scene in imitation of gun smoke". On 26 September 1927 Churchill composed the first of his Chartwell Bulletins, which were lengthy letters to Clementine, written to her while she was abroad. In the bulletins, Churchill described in great detail the ongoing works on the house and the gardens, and aspects of his life there. The 26 September letter opens with a report of Churchill&#39;s deepening interest in painting; "Sickert arrived on Friday night and we worked very hard at various paintings... I am really thrilled... I see my way to paint far better pictures than I ever thought possible before".</p><br>
<p>Churchill described his life at Chartwell in the later 1930s in the first volume of his history of the Second World War, The Gathering Storm. "I had much to amuse me. I built... two cottages... and walls and made... a large swimming pool which... could be heated to supplement our fickle sunshine. Thus I... dwelt at peace within my habitation". Bill Deakin, one of Churchills research assistants, recalled his working routine. "He would start the day at eight oclock in bed, reading. Then he started with his mail. His lunchtime conversation was quite magnificent...absolutely free for all. After lunch, if he had guests he would take them round the garden. At seven he would bathe and change for dinner. At midnight, when the guests left, then he would start work... to three or four in the morning. The secret was his phenomenal power to concentrate."</p><br>
<p>In the opinion of Robin Fedden, a diplomat, and later Deputy General Secretary of the National Trust and author of the Trusts first guidebook for Chartwell, the house became "the most important country house in Europe". A stream of friends, colleagues, disgruntled civil servants and concerned military officers came to the house to provide information to support Churchills struggle against appeasement. At Chartwell, he developed what Fedden calls, his own "little Foreign Office... the hub of resistance". The Chartwell visitors book, meticulously maintained from 1922, records some 780 house guests, not all of them friends, but all grist to Churchills mill. An example of the latter was Sir Maurice Hankey, Clerk of the Privy Council, who was Churchill&#39;s guest for dinner in April 1936. Hankey subsequently wrote, "I do not usually make a note of private conversations but some points arose which gave an indication of the line which Mr Churchill is likely to take in forthcoming debates (on munitions and supply) in Parliament". A week later, Reginald Leeper, a senior Foreign Office official and confident of Robert Vansittart, visited Churchill to convey their views on the need to use the League of Nations to counter German aggression. Vansittart wrote, "there is no time to lose. There is indeed a great danger that we shall be too late".</p><br>
<p>Churchill also recorded visits to Chartwell by two more of his most important suppliers of confidential governmental information, Desmond Morton and Ralph Wigram, information which he used to "form and fortify my opinion about the Hitler Movement". Chartwell was also the scene of more direct attempts to prepare Britain for the coming conflict; in October 1939, when reappointed First Lord of the Admiralty on the outbreak of war, Churchill suggested an improvement for anti-aircraft shells; "Such shells could be filled with zinc ethyl which catches fire spontaneously... A fraction of an ounce was demonstrated at Chartwell last summer".</p><br>
<p>In 1938, Churchill, beset by financial concerns, again considered selling Chartwell, at which time the house was advertised as containing five reception rooms, nineteen bed and dressing rooms, eight bathrooms, set in eighty acres with three cottages on the estate and a heated and floodlit swimming pool. He withdrew the sale after the industrialist Henry Strakosch agreed to take over his share portfolio, which had been hit heavily from losses on Wall Street, for three years and pay off significant associated debts.</p><br>
<h4>1939 to 1965</h4><br>
<p>Chartwell was mostly unused during the Second World War. Its exposed position in a county so near to German occupied France, meant that it was vulnerable to a German airstrike or commando raid. As a precaution the lakes were covered with brushwood to make the house less identifiable from the air. A rare visit to Chartwell occurred in July 1940, when Churchill inspected aircraft batteries in Kent. His pre-war writing assistant Eric Seal recorded the visit; "In the evening the PM, Mrs C and I went off to Chartwell. One of the features of the place is a whole series of ponds, which are stocked with immense goldfish. The PM loves feeding them". The Churchills instead spent their weekends at Ditchley House, in Oxfordshire, until security improvements were completed at the Prime Ministers official country residence, Chequers, in Buckinghamshire. At dinner at Chequers, in December 1940, John Colville, Churchills assistant private secretary recorded his master&#39;s post-war plans, "He would retire to Chartwell and write a book on the war, which he had already mapped out in his mind chapter by chapter".</p><br>
<p>Chartwell remained a haven in times of acute stress – Churchill had spent the night there just before the fall of France in 1940. Summoned back to London by a desperate plea from Lord Gort for permission to retreat to Dunkirk, Churchill broadcast the first of his wartime speeches to the nation; "Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour...for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation..." He returned again on 20 June 1941, after the failure of Operation Battleaxe to relieve Tobruk, and determined to sack the Middle East commander, General Wavell. John Colville recorded Churchill&#39;s deliberations in his diary; "spent the afternoon at Chartwell. After a long sleep the P.M. in a purple dressing gown and grey felt hat took me to see his goldfish. He was ruminating deeply about the fate of Tobruk and contemplating means of resuming the offensive". Churchill continued to pay occasional, short, visits to the house; on one such, on 24 June 1944, just after the Normandy landings, his secretary recorded that the house was "shut up and rather desolate".</p><br>
<p>After VE Day, the Churchills first returned to Chartwell on 18 May 1945, to be greeted by what the horticulturalist and garden historian Stefan Buczacki describes as, "the biggest crowd Westerham had ever seen". But military victory was rapidly followed by political defeat as Churchill lost the June 1945 general election. He almost immediately went abroad, while Clementine went back to Chartwell to begin the long process of opening up the house for his return – "it will be lovely when the lake camouflage is gone". Later that year, Churchill again gave thought to selling Chartwell, concerned by the expense of running the estate. A group of friends, organised by Lord Camrose, raised the sum of £55,000 which was passed to the National Trust allowing it to buy the house from Churchill for the sum of £43,800. The excess provided an endowment. The sale was completed on 29 November. For payment of a rent of £350 per annum, plus rates, the Churchills committed to a 50 year lease, allowing them to live at Chartwell until their deaths, at which point the property would revert to the National Trust. Churchill recorded his gratitude in a letter to Camrose in December 1945, "I feel how inadequate my thanks have been, my dear Bill, who (...) never wavered in your friendship during all these long and tumultuous years".</p><br>
<p>In the summer of 1953, Chartwell became Churchills refuge once more when, again in office as Prime Minister, he suffered a massive stroke. At the end of a dinner held on 23 June at 10 Downing Street, for the Italian Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi, Churchill collapsed and was barely able either to stand or to speak. On the 25th, he was driven to Chartwell, where his condition deteriorated further. Churchills doctor Lord Moran stated that, "he did not think the Prime Minister could possibly live over the weekend". That evening Colville summoned Churchills closest friends in the press, Lord Beaverbrook, Lord Camrose and Brendan Bracken who, walking the lawns at Chartwell, agreed to try to ensure a press blackout to prevent any reporting of Churchills condition. Colville described the outcome, "They achieved the all but incredible success of gagging Fleet Street, something they would have done for nobody but Churchill. Not a word of the Prime Minister&#39;s stroke was published until he casually mentioned it in the House of Commons a year later". Secluded and protected at Chartwell, Churchill made a remarkable recovery and thoughts of his retirement quickly receded. During his recuperation, Churchill took the opportunity to complete work on Triumph and Tragedy, the sixth and final volume of his war memoirs, which he had been forced to set aside when he returned to Downing Street in 1951.</p><br>
<p>Churchills final departure from political office came some sixteen months later when, on 5 April 1955, he chaired his last cabinet, almost fifty years since he had first sat in the Cabinet Room as President of the Board of Trade in 1908. The following day he held a tea party for staff at Downing Street before driving to Chartwell. On being asked by a journalist on arrival how it felt no longer to be Prime Minister, Churchill replied, "Its always nice to be home". For the next ten years, Churchill spent much time at Chartwell, although both he and Lady Churchill also travelled extensively. His days there were spent writing, painting, playing bezique or sitting "by the fish pond, feeding the golden orfe and meditating". Of his last years at the house, Churchills daughter, Mary Soames, recalled, "in the two summers that were left to him he would lie in his wheelbarrow chair contemplating the view of the valley he had loved for so long". On 13 October 1964, Churchills last dinner guests at Chartwell were his former principal private secretary Sir Leslie Rowan and his wife. Lady Rowan later recalled, "It was sad to see such a great man become so frail". The following week, increasingly incapacitated, Churchill left the house for the last time. His official biographer Martin Gilbert records Churchill was, "never to see his beloved Chartwell again". After his death in January 1965, Lady Churchill immediately relinquished her lease and presented Chartwell to the National Trust. It was opened to the public in 1966, one year after Churchill&#39;s death.</p><br>
<h3>National Trust: 1966 to 2017</h3><br>
<p>The house has been restored and preserved as it looked in the 1920-30s; at the time of the Trusts purchase, Churchill committed to leave it, "garnished and furnished so as to be of interest to the public". Rooms are decorated with memorabilia and gifts, the original furniture and books, as well as honours and medals that Churchill received. Lady Churchills long-time secretary, Grace Hamblin, was appointed the first administrator of the house. Earlier in her career, Miss Hamblin had undertaken the destruction of the portrait of Churchill painted by Graham Sutherland. The picture, a gift from both Houses of Parliament on Churchill&#39;s 80th birthday in 1954, was loathed by both Churchill and Lady Churchill and had been stored in the cellars at Chartwell before being burnt in secret.</p><br>
<p>The opening of the house required the construction of facilities for visitors and a restaurant was designed by Philip Jebb, and built to the north of the house, along with a shop and ticket office. Alterations have also been made to the gardens, for ease of access and of maintenance. In 1987, the Great Storm caused considerable damage, with some twenty-three trees being blown down in the gardens. Greater loss occurred in the woodlands surrounding the house, which lost over 70% of its trees.</p><br>
<p>Chartwell has become among the National Trust&#39;s most popular properties; in 2016 some 232,000 visitors came to the house.</p><br>
<p>In that year, the fiftieth anniversary of the houses opening, the Trust launched the Churchills Chartwell Appeal, to raise £7.1M for the purchase of hundreds of personal items held at Chartwell on loan from the Churchill family. The items available to the Trust include Churchill&#39;s Nobel Prize in Literature awarded to him in 1953. The citation for the award reads, "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values". The medal is currently displayed in the Museum room on the first floor at Chartwell, at the opposite end of the house to the study from which, in words used by John F. Kennedy when awarding him honorary citizenship of the United States, Churchill, "mobilized the English language and sent it into battle".</p><br>
<h2>Architecture and description</h2><br>
<p>The highest point of the estate is approximately 650 feet above sea level, and the house commands views across the Weald of Kent. The view from the house was of crucial importance to Churchill; years later, he remarked, "I bought Chartwell for that view."</p><br>
<h3>Exterior</h3><br>
<p>Churchill employed the architect Philip Tilden, who worked from 1922–24 to modernise and extend the house. Tilden was a "Society" architect who had previously worked for Churchills friend Philip Sassoon at his Kent home, Port Lympne, and had designed Lloyd Georges house, Bron-y-de, at Churt. The architectural style is vernacular. The house is constructed of red brick, of two storeys, with a basement and extensive attics. The 18th century doorcase in the centre of the entrance front was purchased from a London antiques dealer. The architectural historian John Newman considered it, "large and splendid and out of place". The garden wall on the Mapleton Road is modelled on that at Quebec House, the home of General Wolfe in nearby Westerham.</p><br>
<p>On the garden front, Tilden threw up a large, three storey extension with stepped gables, called by Churchill "my promontory", which contains three of the houses most important rooms, the dining room, in the lower-storey basement, and the drawing room and Lady Churchills bedroom above.</p><br>
<h3>Interior</h3><br>
<p>The interior has been remodelled since the National Trust took over the property in 1966, to accommodate visitors and to enable the display of a large number of Churchillian artefacts. In particular, a number of guest bedrooms have been amalgamated, to allow the construction of the Museum room and the Uniform room. Nevertheless, the majority of the principal rooms have been reconstructed and furnished as they were in the 1920s–30s and are open to the public, with the current exception of Churchill&#39;s own bedroom.</p><br>
<h4>Entrance hall and inner hall</h4><br>
<p>Designed by Tilden, replacing a wood-panelled earlier hall, the halls lead onto the library, the drawing room and Lady Churchill&#39;s sitting room.</p><br>
<h4>Dining room</h4><br>
<p>The bottom section of Tildens "promontory" extension, the dining room contains the original suite of table and dining chairs designed by Heals to Churchills exacting requirements – (see box). An early study for an planned picture by William Nicholson entitled Breakfast at Chartwell hangs in the room. Nicholson, a frequent visitor to Chartwell who gave Churchill painting lessons, drew the study for a finished picture which was intended as a present for the Churchills Silver Wedding anniversary in 1933 but, disliking the final version, Nicholson destroyed it. The picture depicts the Churchills breakfasting together, which in fact they rarely did, and Churchills marmalade cat, Tango. The tradition of keeping a marmalade cat at Chartwell, which Churchill began and followed throughout his ownership, is maintained by the National Trust in accordance with Churchills wishes. In a letter to Randolph written in May 1942, Churchill wrote of a brief visit to Chartwell the previous week, "the goose and the black swan have both fallen victim to the fox. The Yellow Cat however made me sensible of his continuing friendship, although I had not been there for eight months".</p><br>
<p>Above the dining room is the drawing room and, above that, Lady Churchill&#39;s bedroom, described by Churchill as "a magnificent aerial bower".</p><br>
<h4>Study</h4><br>
<p>Churchill&#39;s study, on the first floor, was his "workshop for over 40 years" and "the heart of Chartwell".</p><br>
<p>In the 1920s, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he planned his budgets in the room; in the 1930s, in isolation, he composed his speeches that warned against the rise of Hitler and dictated the books and articles that paid the bills; in 1945, defeated, he retreated here to write his histories; and here, in final retirement, he passed much of his old age. Throughout the 1930s, the study was his base for the writing of many of his most successful books. His biography of his ancestor Marlborough and his The World Crisis were written there, and A History of the English-Speaking Peoples was begun and concluded there, although interrupted by the Second World War. He also wrote many of his pre-war speeches in the study, although the house was less used during the war itself. Tilden exposed the early roof beams by removing the late-Victorian ceiling and inserted a Tudor doorcase. From the beams hang three banners, Churchills standards as Knight of the Garter and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and the Union Flag raised over Rome on the night of 5 June 1944, the first British flag to fly over a liberated capital. The latter was a gift from Lord Alexander of Tunis. The study also contains portraits of Churchills parents, Lord Randolph Churchill and Lady Randolph Churchill, the latter by John Singer Sargent. The floor is covered with a Khorassan carpet, a 69th birthday gift to Churchill from the Shah of Iran at the Teheran Conference in 1943.</p><br>
<p>Beyond the study are Churchills bedroom and his ensuite bathroom, with sunken bath. At the time of the houses opening to the public in 1966, these rooms were not made accessible, at the request of Churchills family but, shortly before her death in 2014, Churchills daughter Mary gave permission for their opening, and the Trust plans to make them accessible by 2020.</p><br>
<h3>Architectural appreciation</h3><br>
<p>Neither the original Victorian house with its extensions, nor Tildens reconstruction, created a building that has been highly regarded by critics. John Newman noted that the massing of the house on the garden terraces, taking advantage of the Wealden views, was "the grouping that mattered". He dismissed the other side of the house as a, "long, indecisive entrance front close to the road" and the overall composition as of "dull red brick and an odd undecided style". The architectural writer and Chairman of the National Trust Simon Jenkins considered the house, "undistinguished". The National Trusts guidebook describes the original building as "Victorian architecture at its least attractive". The house is Grade I listed but its brief, Historic England listing makes clear that this is "for historical reasons"</p><br>
<h2>Gardens and estate</h2><br>
<p>The gardens surrounding the house comprise 8 hectare, with a further 23 hectare of parkland. They are predominantly the creation of Churchill and Lady Churchill, with significant later input from Lanning Roper, Gardens Adviser to the National Trust.</p><br>
<p>The Victorian garden had been planted with conifers and rhododendrons which were typical of the period. The Churchills removed much of this planting, while retaining the woodlands beyond. Within the garden proper, they created almost all of the landscape, architectural and water features seen today. The garden front of the house opens onto a terraced lawn, originally separated from the garden beyond by a ha-ha and subsequently by a Kentish ragstone wall constructed in the 1950s. To the north lies the Rose garden, laid out by Lady Churchill and her cousin, Venetia Stanley. The nearby Marlborough Pavilion was built by Tilden and decorated with frescos by Churchill&#39;s nephew, John Spencer Churchill in 1949. Beyond the Rose Garden is the Water Garden, constructed by the Churchills and including the Golden Orfe pond where Churchill fed his fish, and the swimming pool constructed in the 1930s. Churchill sought advice from his friend and scientific guru Professor Lindemann on the optimal methods for heating and cleaning the pool.</p><br>
<p>To the south, is the Croquet lawn, previously a tennis court – Lady Churchill was an accomplished and competitive player of both, although Churchill was not. Beyond the lawn are a number of structures grouped around the Victorian kitchen garden, many of which Churchill was involved in building. He had developed an interest in bricklaying when he bought Chartwell and throughout the 1920s and 1930s constructed walls, a summerhouse and a number of houses on the estate. In 1928 he joined the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers, a move which caused some controversy. Near the kitchen garden are the Golden Rose walk, a Golden Wedding anniversary present to the Churchills from their children in 1958, and Churchill&#39;s painting studio, constructed in the 1930s, which now houses a large collection of his artistic works.</p><br>
<p>South of the terrace lawn are the Upper and Lower lakes, scene of Churchills most ambitious landscaping schemes. The Lower lake had existed during the Colquhouns ownership, but the island within it, and the Upper lake, were Churchill&#39;s own creations. On 1 January 1935, while Lady Churchill was on a cruise off Sumatra, Churchill described the beginnings of his endeavours in one of his Chartwell Bulletins; "I have arranged to have one of those great mechanical diggers. In one week he can do more than 40 men can do. There is no difficulty about bringing him in as he is a caterpillar and can walk over the most sloppy fields". Excavation work proved more challenging than Churchill had anticipated, two weeks later he wrote again, "The mechanical digger has arrived. He moves about on his caterpillars only with the greatest difficulty on this wet ground".</p><br>
<p>On the lakes lived Churchill&#39;s large collection of wildfowl, including the black swans, a gift from the Australian Government, which restocked the lakes with them in 1975.</p><br>
<p>In 1946–47, Churchill extended his land-holdings around Chartwell, purchasing Chartwell Farm and Parkside Farm, and subsequently Bardogs Farm and a market garden. By 1948, he was farming approximately 500 acres. The farms were managed by Mary Soamess husband, Christopher and Churchill kept cattle and pigs and also grew crops and market vegetables. The farms did not prove profitable, however, and by 1952, Churchills operating losses on them exceeded £10,000 a year. By the end of the decade, the farms and the livestock had been sold. A somewhat more lucrative venture was the owning, and later breeding, of racehorses. In 1949, Churchill had purchased Colonist II, which won its first race, the Upavon Stakes, at Salisbury that year, and subsequently netted Churchill some £13,000 in winnings. In 1955 Churchill bought the Newchapel Stud and by 1961 his total prize money from racing exceeded £70,000. In the 1950s, he reflected on his racing career; "Perhaps Providence had given him Colonist as a comfort in his old age and to console him for disappointments".</p><br>
<p>The Toiyabe Range is a mountain range in Lander and Nye counties, Nevada, United States. Most of the range is included within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. The highest point in the range, near its southern end, is Arc Dome , an area protected as the Arc Dome Wilderness. The highest point in Lander County, Bunker Hill, is also located within the Toiyabe Range. The range starts in northwestern Nye County north of Tonopah, Nevada and runs approximately 120 miles  north-northeast into southern Lander County, making it the second longest range in the state.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Although the Toiyabe Range is in the rain shadow of the higher Sierra Nevada (USA) range to the west and is too arid to support forests except for scattered pines, the climate was cold and snowy enough during the Pleistocene to develop alpine glaciers in several places, with cirques, moraines, and other glacial features still apparent. There are numerous hiking routes in the Toiyabes, including one along the crest.</p><br>
<p>The Toiyabe Range is separated from the Shoshone Mountains to the west by the Reese River Valley, although they intermingle at their southern extremes. On the east the Toiyabe Range is separated from the Toquima Range by the Big Smoky Valley.</p><br>
<p>The historic mining community of Austin is located on the western slope of the Toiyabe Range, about midway along its length. USA Route 50, the "Loneliest Highway in America", runs through Austin and then crosses the range at Austin Summit at an elevation of 7,484 feet (2,281 m). USA Route 6 passes to the south of the range between Tonopah and Ely.</p><br>
<h2>Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest</h2><br>
<p>The Toiyabe Range is in the Austin Ranger District of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest</p><br>
<h3>Toiyabe Crest Trail</h3><br>
<p>The National Recreation Toiyabe Crest Trail runs through the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in the Toiyabe Range, consisting of over 70 miles of trail atop the ridge, 30 miles of which travel through the Arc Dome Wilderness. The Army Corps of Engineers constructed the trail and its many "feeder" trails in the 1930s. It travels through one of the longest roadless areas in the state, and sits atop the longest mountain range in Nevada at over 120 miles long. It is the longest continuous maintained trail in Nevada.</p><br>
<h4>Trailheads</h4><br>
<p>Its northern terminus, with an altitude of approximately 7,500 ft, is the trailhead on Kingston Creek Road and its southern terminus, with an altitude of approximately 6,100 ft, is the trailhead on Twin River Road (Forest route 080); both of which are roads off SR 376.</p><br>
<p>Mulhacén is the highest mountain in continental Spain and in the Iberian Peninsula. It is part of the Sierra Nevada range in the Cordillera Penibética. It is named after Abu l-Hasan Ali, or Muley Hacén as he is known in Spanish, the penultimate Muslim King of Granada in the 15th century who, according to legend, was buried on the summit of the mountain.</p><br>
<p>Mulhacén is the highest peak in western Europe outside the Alps. It is also the third most topographically prominent peak in Western Europe, after Mont Blanc and Mount Etna, and is ranked 64th in the world by prominence. The peak is not exceptionally dramatic in terms of steepness or local relief. The south flank of the mountain is gentle and presents no technical challenge, as is the case for the long west ridge. The shorter, somewhat steeper north east ridge is slightly more technical. The north face of the mountain, however, is much steeper, and offers several routes involving moderately steep climbing on snow and ice (up to French grade AD) in the winter.</p><br>
<p>Mulhacén can be climbed in a single day from the villages of either Capileira or Trevélez, but it is more common to spend a night at the mountain refuge at Poqueira, or in the bare shelter at Caldera to the west. Those making the ascent from Trevelez can also bivouac at the tarns to the northeast of the peak.</p><br>
<h2>Accidents</h2><br>
<p>On 5 March 2006, three British climbers from Teesside died on the mountain from suspected hypothermia. Initial reports quoting the Spanish Civil Guard stated that the three were ill-equipped for the extreme conditions. This claim was subsequently disputed both by the family and a colleague of one of the climbers, and by one of the rescuers. A plaque dedicated to them has been placed at the summit.</p><br>
<p>A member of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Prince Patrick Island is the westernmost of the Queen Elizabeth Islands in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The area of the island is 15,848 km&sup2, making it the 55th largest island in the world and Canada&#39;s 14th largest island. It has historically been icebound all year, making it one of the least accessible parts of Canada.</p><br>
<p>Located at the entrance of the M&#39;Clure Strait, Prince Patrick Island is uninhabited. A High Arctic Weather Station ("HAWS") and associated airstrip called Mould Bay were opened in 1948 as part of a joint Canada-US military effort to support a weather station network. Regular weather observations began on May 14, 1948. It had a temporary staff of between 10 and 40 people. Staff size normally increased during summer months, when the station was resupplied from the south.</p><br>
<p>During the period of US National Weather Service participation, the site was known as a Joint Arctic Weather Station ("JAWS"). Executive officers alternated between Canadians and their US counterparts. US participation ended in 1972. The station was closed in 1997, owing to budget cuts. It was replaced with an automated weather station at a new location on the airstrip, downhill from the central buildings and observatory. The last manned weather observations were taken on March 31, 1997, ending the continuous weather record of 1948-1997.</p><br>
<p>The buildings still stand, but, most have deteriorated to an unrepairable state. The station represented the only known long-term human settlement of the Island.</p><br>
<p>The first known sighting of the island was in 1853 by George Mecham, when it was explored by him and Francis Leopold McClintock in the spring of that year during the Edward Belcher expedition. Much later, it was named for Prince Arthur William Patrick, Duke of Connaught, who was Governor General from 1911 to 1916.</p><br>
<p>The island rises to only about 279 m, and the area is seismically active.</p><br>
<p>Prince Patrick Island is the setting for a work of fiction, the novel The Lost Ones (1961) by Ian Cameron (Donald G. Payne). It was filmed as the Walt Disney Pictures film The Island at the Top of the World in 1974. The novel tells of a lost colony of Vikings living in a lost valley in the island, which, thanks to the volcanoes on the island, is warm and habitable.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>The Stillwater Range is a mountain range located in western Nevada in the United States. It is a SSW-NNE running ridge, approximately 70 mi long. It cuts across the center of Churchill County and extends partway into Pershing County.</p><br>
<p>The Stillwater Range separates the Carson Sink (to the west) from Dixie Valley (to the east). To the north, a low pass separates it from the East Range. To the south, the Sand Springs Pass separates it from the Sand Springs Range. Nestled against the south end of the range is Sand Mountain, an enormous 600 ft tall sand dune which draws off-road vehicle enthusiasts from across Nevada and California.</p><br>
<p>A series of earthquakes measuring 6.6–7.1 on the Richter Scale, centered beneath or near the Stillwater Range, occurred between July and December 1954. As the area was then (and still is) sparsely populated, no fatalities and little property damage resulted. Extensive surface rupturing can be seen on the east slope of the range.</p><br>
<p>The principal peaks of the Stillwater Range include Table Mountain (8,330 ft), Mount Lincoln (8,450 ft) and Job Peak (8,727 ft).</p><br>
<p>The Kizil Caves  are a set of Buddhist rock-cut caves located near Kizil Township  in Baicheng County, Xinjiang, China. The site is located on the northern bank of the Muzat River 65 kilometres  west of Kucha.</p><br>
<p>This area was a commercial hub of the Silk Road.</p><br>
<p>The caves are said to be the earliest major Buddhist cave complex in China, with development occurring between the 3rd and 8th centuries.</p><br>
<h2>Caves</h2><br>
<p>The Kizil Caves complex is the largest of the ancient Buddhist cave sites that are associated with the ancient Tocharian kingdom of Kucha, as well as the largest in Xinjiang. Other cave sites in the Kucha region include the Kumtura Caves and Simsim Caves.</p><br>
<p>There are 236 cave temples in Kizil, carved into the cliff stretching from east to west for a length of 2 km. Of these, 135 are still relatively intact. The earliest caves are dated, based in part on radioactive carbon dating, to around the year 300. Most researchers believe that the caves were probably abandoned sometime around the beginning of the 8th century, after Tang influence reached the area. Documents written in Tocharian languages were found in Kizil, and a few of the caves contain Tocharian inscriptions which give the names of a few rulers.</p><br>
<p>Many of the caves have a central pillar design whereby pilgrims may circumambulate around a central column which is a representation of the stupa. A large vaulted chamber is located in front of the column and a smaller rear chamber behind with two tunnel-like corridors on the sides linking these spaces. In the front chamber, a three-dimensional image of Buddha would have been housed in a large niche serving as the focus of the interior, however, none of these sculptures have survived at Kizil. The rear chamber may feature the parinirvana scene in the form of a mural or large sculpture, and in some cases, a combination of both.</p><br>
<p>There are three other types of caves: square caves, caves with large image, and monastic cells (viharas). Around two-thirds of the caves are viharas which are monks&#39; living quarters and store-houses, and these caves do not contain mural paintings.</p><br>
<h2>Murals</h2><br>
<p>In 1906, the German expedition team of Albert von Le Coq and Albert Grünwedel explored the Kizil Caves. While Grünwedel was primarily interested in copying the murals, von le Coq chose to remove many of the murals. Most of the fragments removed are now in Museum of Asian Art (formerly Museum für Indische Kunst) in Dahlem, Berlin. Other explorers removed some fragments of murals and may now be found in museums in Russia, Japan, Korea and United States. Although the site has been both damaged and looted, around 5000 square metres of wall paintings remained, These murals mostly depict Jataka stories, avadanas, and legends of the Buddha, and are an artistic representation in the tradition of the Hinayana school of the Sarvastivadas.</p><br>
<p>According to a text found in Kucha, the paintings in some of the caves were commissioned by a Tokharian (Thogar) king called "Mendre" with the advice of Anandavarman, a high-ranking monk. The king ordered an Indian artist, Naravahanadatta, and a Syrian artist, Priyaratna, with their disciples to paint the caves. The neighbouring Khotanese kings Vijayavardhana and Murlimin also assisted with the painting of another cave by sending artists to the site.</p><br>
<p>A notable feature of the murals in Kizil is the extensive use of blue pigments, including the precious ultramarine pigment derived from lapis lazuli from Afghanistan. In the classification of the art of the region by Ernst Waldschmidt, there are three distinct periods: The earlier paintings reflect more Greco-Indian or Gandharan influences, while the second ones show Iranian (Sassanian) influences. Later caves seem to have fewer legends and/or jatakas, being replaced by the repetitive designs of numerous small Buddhas (the so-called thousand Buddha motif), or sitting Buddhas with nimbuses. The paintings of the first two phases showed a lack of Chinese elements. The last phase, the Turkic-Chinese period, is most in evidence in the Turfan area, but in Kizil only two caves showed Tang Chinese influence.</p><br>
<p>Another characteristic of the Kizil murals is the division into diamond-shaped blocks in the vault ceilings of the main room of many caves. Buddhist scenes are depicted inside these diamond-shapes in many layers on top of one another to show the narrative sequences of the scenes.</p><br>
<p>The Sand Springs Range is a short mountain range located in western Nevada in the United States within the Great Basin. It is approximately 10 mi long and is in Churchill County. It separates Salt Wells  from Fairview Valley . To the north, it is separated from the Stillwater Range by Sand Springs Pass. To the south is Gabbs Valley.</p><br>
<p>The Sand Springs Range was the site of Project Shoal, an underground nuclear test conducted as part of the Vela Uniform program. Shoal was a 12 kiloton device which was detonated 1,211 ft below ground on October 26, 1963. As the area experienced a series of large earthquakes in 1954, seismic traces for the events could be compared to help differentiate future Soviet underground nuclear tests from earthquakes. The site is unrestricted and unmarked. No surface crater was formed, and the casual observer will find little evidence that the event ever took place.</p><br>
<p>The Sand Springs Range also has several large military radar installations. These are associated with the bombing range in Fairview Valley, the electronic warfare range in Dixie Valley, and Naval Air Station Fallon.</p><br>
<p>The most prominent peak in the Sand Springs Range is Big Kasock Mountain at an elevation of 7,150 ft.</p><br>
<p>The Phu Phan mountains  are a range of hills dividing the Khorat Plateau of the Isan region of Thailand into two basins: the northern Sakhon Nakhon Basin, and the southern Khorat Basin.</p><br>
<p>The silhouette of the Phu Phan Mountains appears in the provincial seal of Kalasin since they form the northern boundary of the province.</p><br>
<p>The Phu Phan mountains are among the places in Thailand more severely affected by the Illegal logging of Phayung (Siamese Rosewood) trees. Although officially a protected tree, the cutting and trading of the endangered rosewood trees has been going unabated in Thailand&#39;s mountainous forested zones, even in the protected areas. In Thailand and in China this wood is highly valued in the furniture industry.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>The name of the range is derived from the characteristic tabletop shape of its peaks, for phan is a kind of traditional tray on a pedestal.</p><br>
<p>Phu is the word for mountain in the Isan/Lao language (as opposed to khao in central and southern Thai and doi in northern Thai).</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Phu Phan Mountains rise above the plateau and are not prominent. They straddle most of the provinces of northern and eastern Isan, including Khon Kaen, Nong Bua Lamphu, Udon Thani, Sakon Nakhon, Nakhon Phanom, Kalasin, Roi Et, Maha Sarakham, and Mukdahan Province.</p><br>
<p>The highest elevation of the Phu Phan Range is the 641 m high summit known as Phu Lang Ka. It is in Nakhon Phanom Province. Other important peaks are 624 m high Phu Mai Hia in Mukdahan Province and the 563 m high summit known as Phu Langka Nuea in Nakhon Phanom Province.</p><br>
<p>The hills are mostly deforested, although patches covered with mixed deciduous forest remain in zones spread across the range.</p><br>
<p>Phu Phan Royal Palace is in the area, as is the Nam Un dam. Other local sights are Lake Nong Han near Sakon Nakhon and the Khmer-style chedi ruins of Phu Phek, dating from 1050.</p><br>
<h2>Protected areas</h2><br>
<p>The area of the Phu Phan mountains includes national parks and other protected areas:</p><br>
<p>Phu Phan National Park</p><br>
<p>Phu Wiang National Park</p><br>
<p>Than Ngam Forest Park</p><br>
<p>Kosam Phi Forest Park</p><br>
<p>Nam Phong National Park</p><br>
<p>Phu Faek Forest Park</p><br>
<p>Phu Kao–Phu Phan Kham National Park</p><br>
<p>Phu Pha Lek National Park</p><br>
<p>Huai Huat National Park (Phu Pha Yon)</p><br>
<p>Phu Phra Bat Buabok Forest Park</p><br>
<p>Stagira, Stagirus, or Stageira  was an ancient Greek city, located in central Macedonia, near the eastern coast of the peninsula of Chalkidice, and is chiefly known for being the birthplace of Aristotle, who was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. The city lies approximately 8 km north northeast of the present-day village of Stagira, close to the town of Olympiada.</p><br>
<p>Stagira was founded in 655 BC by Ionian settlers from Andros. Xerxes I of Persia occupied it in 480 BC. The city later joined the Delian League, led by Athens, but left in 424 BC: as a result, the Athenian demagogue Cleon laid siege to it in 422 BC. However, Cleon was a poor strategist and his conduct of the siege was very inefficient: so much so that the ancient Greek comedy writer Aristophanes satirised him in the play The Knights. Cleon died in the same year, in the battle of Amphipolis. Later, during the Peloponnesian War, Stagira sided with Sparta against the Athenians.</p><br>
<p>In 348 BC, Philip II of Macedon occupied and destroyed the city. In return for Aristotles tutoring of his son Alexander, Philip later rebuilt the city and resettled the old citys inhabitants, who had been enslaved. Many new structures were built at this time, including an aqueduct, two shrines to Demeter, and many houses.</p><br>
<p>Dinara is a mountain located on the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. It has two major peaks: Troglav  and the eponymous Dinara . The peak called Dinara is the highest peak of Croatia, is shaped like a human head made of stone, and also has a prominence of 728 m.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>Its Latin name is Adrian oros while the current name is suspected to be derived from the name of an ancient Illyrian tribe that lived on the eastern slopes of the mountain.</p><br>
<p>It is best known for the fact that its name is the base for the name of a large mountain chain called the Dinaric Alps or Dinarides. The Dinarides are known for being composed of karst &mdash; limestone rocks &mdash; as is the mountain that named them.</p><br>
<h2>Extent</h2><br>
<p>Dinara itself spans from the Derala mountain pass (965 m) in the northwest to the Privija pass (1230 m) which is 20 km to the southeast, where the Kamešnica Mountain begins. The Dinara Mountain is up to 10 km wide.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>Dinara is located only a few dozen kilometers away from the Adriatic Sea, and is part of the Dalmatian hinterland, but the climate on Dinara is a much colder, mountain climate, making it one of the coldest places in Croatia with average temperatures between 2 and 4 °C at the peaks. The average precipitation is high, while the number of sunny hours per year ranges between 1,700 and 1,900.</p><br>
<p>There are no inhabited areas on the mountain itself and human presence consists mostly of small shacks that belong to the herdsmen from the nearby valleys such as that of the Cetina river.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>One of the most fascinating massifs is on the southwestern slope. It is six kilometers long and up to 1700 meters high, providing an interesting landscape for the travelers on the roads in the valley below to view. The massif does not attract many climbers, but its Ošljak peak (1706 m) does.</p><br>
<h2>Flora and fauna</h2><br>
<h3>Flora</h3><br>
<p>Native vegetation of the Dinara region comprises a large number of plant communities, or habitat types. According to the data available, in the area of the Dinara mountain there are around 750 plant species, of which more than 110 are strictly protected and 55 are endemics.</p><br>
<p>The flora consists of mountain grasslands, Scopolis rockcress (Arabidopsis arenosa, Arabidopsis halleri and Arabidopsis croatica, dinarian mouse ear Hieracium Pilosella, dalmatian rockbell Edraianthus dalmaticus, pasque flower Pulsatilla, lions paw Leonotis leonurus, yellow gentian Gentiana lutea, common juniper Juniperus communis and hairy azalea Rhododendron Rhododendron.</p><br>
<h3>Fauna</h3><br>
<h4>Birds</h4><br>
<p>In terms of ornithology, the Dinara region, particularly the peaks and the slopes of the Dinara mountain appertaining to it and the habitat around the Upper Cetina, from its source to the Peruća dam, is designated as a Special Protection Area (SPA) according to the EU Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds.</p><br>
<p>The bird species include: common pheasant Phasianus colchicus, common quail Coturnix coturnix, shore lark Eremophila alpestris, redshank Tringa totanus, stone curlew Burhinus oedicnemus, moustached warbler Acrocephalus melanopogon, golden eagle Aquila chrysaetos and short-toed snake eagle Circaetus gallicus. Also there is sighting of Eurasian griffon vulture Gyps fulvus probably on their flight over to Cres.</p><br>
<h4>Mammals</h4><br>
<p>The mammals of the Dinara region are: brown bear Ursus arctos, grey wolf Canis lupus, Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx, wildcat Felis silvestris, red fox Vulpes vulpes, wild boar Sus scrofa, Eurasian badger Meles meles, brown hare Lepus europaeus and balkan snow vole.</p><br>
<p>Dinara is host to an endemic species of rodent, the Balkan snow vole (Dolomys bogdanovi longipedis), known in Croatian as the Dinarski miš ("Dinara mouse"). It is an endangered species.</p><br>
<h4>Insects</h4><br>
<p>The relatively well-preserved, extensive and diverse habitats of the Dinara and Svilaja mountains and the Upper Cetina provide a refuge to a number of invertebrate species whose natural habitats have been endangered due to specific living conditions they require, while many of them are endemics and placed on the Red List (certain species of caddisflies, dragonflies, stoneflies, orthoptera, etc.).</p><br>
<p>Invertebrates living in caves and holes make a special group – their biology remains relatively unknown, but they are protected as the cave fauna together with cave vertebrates.</p><br>
<p>Insects include: dalmatian ringlet Proterebia afra dalmata, rosalia longicorn, longhorn beetle, firebug, hornet, bumblebee, stag beetle and marsh fritillary.</p><br>
<h4>Herpetology</h4><br>
<p>The herpetofauna of the Dinara region comprises around 15 species of lizards, snakes and amphibians, some of which are endangered, mostly due to the fact that their natural habitats have been either reduced in extent or suffered degradation.</p><br>
<p>The herpetofauna comprises: smooth snake, balkan whip snake, nose-horned viper, fire salamander, slow worm, karst meadow viper and alpine newt.</p><br>
<p>The Rio Mondego  is the longest river located exclusively in Portuguese territory. It has its source in Serra da Estrela, the highest mountain range in mainland Portugal . It runs 234 km from the Gouveia municipality, at 1,425 m above sea level in Serra da Estrela, to its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean next to the city of Figueira da Foz.</p><br>
<p>It flows through the districts of Guarda, Viseu and Coimbra, all in Centro Region. It flows near the towns of Celorico da Beira, Fornos de Algodres, Nelas, Tabua, Carregal do Sal, Mortagua, Montemor-o-Velho and cities of Seia, Gouveia, Guarda, Mangualde, Santa Comba Dao, before crossing the town of Penacova, is narrow, then widens by the city of Coimbra (with the University and the major urban area in Baixo Mondego), and the Montemor-o-Velho municipality (known for its castle and rice fields), before reaching the Atlantic at the city of Figueira da Foz.</p><br>
<p>There are 2 dams along the Mondego: Aguieira dam and Raiva dam.</p><br>
<h2>Tributaries</h2><br>
<p>One of its tributaries is the Rio Dão, which gives its name to the Dão DOC wine region. Another is the River Alva, which enters the Mondego just before Penacova.</p><br>
<p>The Ceira River enters the Mondego just south of Coimbra along NH 17.</p><br>
<p>King William Island  is an island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, which is part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. In area it is between 12,516 km&sup2; and 13,111 km&sup2; making it the 61st-largest island in the world and Canadas 15th-largest island. Its population, as of the 2011 census, was 1,279, all of whom live in the islands only community, Gjoa Haven.</p><br>
<p>While searching for the Northwest Passage, a number of polar explorers visited, or spent their winters on, King William Island.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The island is separated from the Boothia Peninsula by the James Ross Strait to the northeast, and the Rae Strait to the east. To the west is the Victoria Strait and beyond it Victoria Island. Within the Simpson Strait, to the south of the island, is Todd Island, and beyond it, further to the south, is the Adelaide Peninsula. Queen Maud Gulf lies to the southwest.</p><br>
<p>Some places on the coast are: (counterclockwise from the northern tip) Cape Felix, Victory Point and Gore Point at the mouth of an inlet, Point Le Vesconte, Erebus Bay, Cape Crozier, (south side) Terror Bay, Irving Islands, Washington Bay, Cape Herschel, Gladman Point, entrance to Simpson Strait, Todd Islets, (east side) Gjoa Haven, Matheson Peninsula, Latrobe Bay, Cape Norton at mouth of Peel Inlet, Matty Island, Tennent Islands, Clarence Islands, Cape Felix.</p><br>
<h2>Wildlife</h2><br>
<p>The island is known for its large populations of caribou, which summer there before migrating in the autumn by walking south over the sea ice.</p><br>
<h2>Role in Arctic exploration</h2><br>
<h3>John Ross</h3><br>
<p>The island was long occupied by Inuit people, who had a culture adapted to the extreme environment. In 1830, the British explorer John Ross named it "King William Land" for the reigning British King William IV; Ross thought at the time that it was a peninsula. In 1834, George Back, another Arctic explorer, viewed its south shore from Chantry Inlet and recognized it as an island.</p><br>
<h3>John Franklin</h3><br>
<p>John Franklin, another British explorer, made an Arctic expedition about a decade later; his two ships became stranded in 1845 when frozen in the sea ice northwest of the island. After abandoning the two ships, most of the crew died from exposure and starvation as they attempted to walk south near the western coastline. Two of Franklins men were buried at Hall Point on the islands south coast. The ships were believed lost forever, as many subsequent expeditions were unable to find them.</p><br>
<p>On 9 September 2014, Canadas Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that the Victoria Strait Expedition had located one of Franklins two ships beneath shallow waters south of King William Island. It is preserved in very good condition; the side-scan sonar could detect the deck planking. By the beginning of October, the wreck had been identified as HMS Erebus. The other expedition vessel, HMS Terror, was found in 2016 in Terror Bay, off the south-west coast of King William Island.</p><br>
<h3>Roald Amundsen</h3><br>
<p>In 1903, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, looking for the Northwest Passage, sailed through the James Ross Strait and stopped at a natural harbour on the islands south coast. Unable to proceed due to sea ice, he spent the winters of 1903–1904 and 1904–1905 there. During his stays, he learned Arctic living skills from the local Netsilik Inuit. He used his ship Gjøa as a base for explorations in the summer of 1904, during which he traveled by dogsled on the Boothia Peninsula and to the North Magnetic Pole. After 22 months on the island, Amundsen left in August 1905. The harbour where he lived has the islands only settlement, Gjoa Haven. Amundsen used skills learned from the Inuit when he made his later expedition to the South Pole.</p><br>
<p>Ellef Ringnes Island is one of the Sverdrup Islands in Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. Also a member of the Queen Elizabeth Islands and Canadian Arctic Archipelago, it is located in the Arctic Ocean, east of Borden Island, and west of Amund Ringnes Island. It has an area of 11,295 km&sup2, making it the 69th largest island in the world  and Canada&#39;s 16th largest island. Its highest mount is 260 m.</p><br>
<p>The island was named by Otto Sverdrup for Oslo brewer Ellef Ringnes, one of the sponsors of his expedition. It was first sighted by one of his men in 1901. The island was then claimed by Norway from 1902 until the claim was relinquished (in favour of Canada) in 1930.</p><br>
<p>A High Arctic Weather Station (H.A.W.S.) called Isachsen lies on the west coast of the island. It was opened April 3, 1948 as part of a joint Canada-USA military effort to support a weather station network. When it closed on September 19, 1978, it was replaced with an automated weather system. The station represented the only known permanent human settlement of the island.</p><br>
<p>Ellef Ringnes Island was the last landmass to be visited by the Earth&#39;s wandering Magnetic North Pole. In April and May 1994, Larry Newitt, of the Geological Survey of Canada, and Charles Barton, of the Australian Geological Survey Organization, conducted a survey to determine the average position of the North Magnetic Pole at that time. They established a temporary magnetic observatory on Lougheed Island, close to the predicted position of the pole. They determined that the average position of the North Magnetic Pole in 1994 was located on the Noice Peninsula, southwest Ellef Ringnes Island, at 78.3° N, 104.0° W. The pole shifted from the island that year and now lies some 250 miles (400 km) to the NNW.</p><br>
<p>The island is also the location and namesake of an episode of The Secret Saturdays.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The first known sighting of Ellef Ringnes Island was in 1901 by a sledging party consisting of Gunerius Isachsen and Sverre Hassel, members of the Second Norwegian Arctic Expedition of 1898–1902, which was under the command of Otto Sverdrup. The island was named to honour Ellef Ringnes, one of the principal patrons of the expedition. At the time of the discovery of Ellef Ringnes Island, the expedition was based at Goose Fiord on the south coast of Ellesmere Island. Isachsen and Hassel made their initial sighting of Ellef Ringnes Island on</p><br>
<p>April 23 as they rounded the southwest corner of Amund Ringnes Island, an island they had sighted and partly explored the previous year. The following day, Isachsen and Hassel traveled across Hassel Sound making a landfall at the southern extremity of the island. In the course of the following 20 days, they succeeded in circumnavigating Ellef Ringnes. The resulting map and notes on geological specimens are published in Otto Sverdrup&#39;s narrative New Land (1904). In 1948. the federal Department of Transport and the United States Weather Bureau jointly established a meteorological station at Isachsen. The station was in operation for thirty years. Drilling took place on the island in the seventies by Panarctic Oils.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The island is characterized by broad lowlands and locally by dissected uplands which reflect the diversity of structures and lithological characters of the bedrock formations. The island is rimmed by low shelving coastal areas, domal structures (salt dome) with cores of diapiric anhydrite and secondary gypsum constitute striking features of the landscape. Two major structural provinces of the Arctic Archipelago are represented: the Sverdrup basin which includes the greater part of the island and preponderant thickness of sediments: and the Arctic Coastal Plain, an area at the north-eastern extremity of the island. These salt domes create the highest topographic features. While most of the island is flat lying, the salt domes stand out clearly on satellite. There are seven domes, Dumbbells, Contour, Hoodoo, Malloch, Haakon, Helicopter and Isachsen Dome(260m) which is the highest point on the island. On the north part of the island, there is a concentration of gabbro and diabase dikes and sills. Most of the rock is Jurassic to Cretaceous with the northern part (Isachsen Peninsula) being Tertiary. The Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks are varying formations of sandstone and shale. The sediment was deposited in the Sverdrup Basin. The salt diapirs are Carboniferous.</p><br>
<h2>Flora and fauna</h2><br>
<p>Ellef Ringnes Island is interesting to biologists because of its extremely rigorous arctic environment and its resulting meager flora and fauna. Together with Amund Ringnes, Borden, Brock, King Christian, Lougheed, Mackenzie King and Meighen Islands (the so-called northwestern</p><br>
<p>Queen Elizabeth Islands) it constitutes the most barren part of the high arctic region. Some idea of its bleakness is conveyed by the remarks</p><br>
<p>of others who worked there. Stefansson (1921), on visiting Ellef Ringnes in June 1916, wrote “I did not see a blade of grass and the district struck me as the most barren I had even seen”; MacDonald (1961) who spent the field season of 1954 at Isachsen, stated, “My immediate impression of Isachsen was of a region of utter desolation”. Summers at Isachsen, the richest locality on the island, are colder than at any other arctic weather station. Accordingly, Ellef Ringnes probably supports fewer forms of life than any other ice-free arctic land mass of comparable size (5,000 sq. mi.). The total confirmed flora comprises 49 species of vascular plants and about 85 of fungi; only 10 species of mammals and 15 of birds have been recorded on the island. Mammals include muskox, Peary caribou, polar bears and foxes</p><br>
<p>The Sverdrup Islands is an archipelago of the northern Queen Elizabeth Islands, in Nunavut, Canada. The islands are situated in the Arctic Ocean, west of Ellesmere Island from 77° to 81° North and 85° to 106° West.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The islands are named after Norwegian explorer Otto Sverdrup, who explored and mapped them from 1898 to 1902 with the vessel Fram, although some were previously inhabited by Inuit people. Sverdrup claimed the islands for Norway, but the Norwegian government showed no interest in pursuing the claim until 1928. At that point, the Norwegian government raised the claim, primarily to use the islands as bargaining chips in negotiations with the United Kingdom over the status of two other islands: the Arctic Jan Mayen and the Antarctic Bouvet Island. On 11 November 1930, Norway recognized Canadian sovereignty over the Sverdrup Islands. On 19 November 1930, the UK recognized Norwegian sovereignty over Jan Mayen.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The main islands of the group are Axel Heiberg Island, Ellef Ringnes Island, Amund Ringnes Island, Cornwall Island, Graham Island, Meighen Island, King Christian Island, Stor Island, and the archipelago also includes a number of smaller islands in the surrounding waters. The only habitated place was Isachsen, a formerly manned weather station, 1948 through 1978, on Ellef Ringnes Island and McGill Arctic Research Station on Axel Heiberg Island (a research station occupied during the summer).</p><br>
<h2>Main Islands</h2><br>
<p>Amund Ringnes Island is one of the Sverdrup Islands in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is located in the Arctic Ocean, between 78 and 79 degrees of latitude. It lies east of Ellef Ringnes Island, west of Axel Heiberg Island. Hassel Sound separates Amund Ringnes Island from Ellef Ringnes Island. Hendriksen Strait is to the south, as is Cornwall Island. Norwegian Bay is to the east, as is Haig-Thomas Island. To the north lies Peary Channel.</p><br>
<p>The island has an area of 5,255 km&sup2; in size, making it the 111th largest island in the world, and Canada&#39;s 25th largest island.</p><br>
<p>The island was named by Otto Sverdrup for Oslo brewer Amund Ringnes, one of the sponsors of his expedition. He first sighted it in 1900. The island was claimed by Norway from 1902 until the claim was relinquished in 1930.</p><br>
<p>The Italian Market is the popular name for the South 9th Street Curb Market, an area of South Philadelphia featuring many grocery shops, cafes, restaurants, bakeries, cheese shops, butcher shops, etc., many with an Italian influence. The historical heart of the market is the area of 9th Street between Christian Street and Washington Avenue, and is now generally considered to extend from Fitzwater Street at the north to Wharton Street at the south. The term Italian Market is also used to describe the surrounding neighborhood between South Street to the North and Wharton Street to the South running a few blocks to the east and west of 9th street.</p><br>
<p>Although it is considered the social and commercial heart of the Philadelphia Italian community, the Ninth Street Market was an ethnic mix from its inception. In recent years, an influx of immigrants from Latin America, mainly from Mexico and to a lesser degree from Central American countries like Guatemala and El Salvador, has significantly changed the Italian Market area and it is now also home to many stores and restaurants catering to South Philadelphia&#39;s small Hispanic population.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Italian Market, frequently referred to simply as 9th Street, has its origins as a marketplace in the later 19th and early 20th centuries. The area, outside the original boundaries of William Penn&#39;s planned city, was an area for immigrants to settle in. Italian immigrants began to move into the area around 1884, when Antonio Palumbo began receiving Italian immigrants into his boardinghouse. Shops along 9th Street opened up shortly afterward to cater to the new Italian community and have remained in the area to this day, with many of the present vendors tracing the founding of their businesses back to the first decade of the 20th century.</p><br>
<p>The name "Italian Market" came about in the mid-1970s as supermarket chains began to move to the area. During this time, many other ethnicities abandoned the Market, and the Ninth Street Market was left with a predominantly Italian population that continued to buy, sell, and operate in the market.</p><br>
<p>The area continues to attract new immigrants as a significant number of Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese and Mexican-run businesses have joined the traditional Italian shops in the market. Many new Mexican stores have opened up around the market. Many Latino immigrants also work in the market.</p><br>
<p>The market also plays host to the annual Italian Market Festival with music, activities and, of course, food.</p><br>
<p>One of several curb markets established in the early 20th century offering fresh produce and a variety of ethnic specialty foods, it has evolved into a popular Philadelphia icon. On October 12, 2007, the Market was honored by the dedication of a Pennsylvania State Historical Marker as the "South 9th Street Curb Market" at the NE corner of 9th and Christian Streets.</p><br>
<p>An unofficial historical marker was erected just in front of the Frank Rizzo mural in 2008. The marker, entitled "The Italian Market," briefly explains about the Italian market area forming a business association in the early 1900s. The officers of the association were of central and southern Italian and eastern Sicilian heritages. The other members of the association were of northern and eastern European, Lebanese and Asian heritages. The sign states that Italian foods have always dominated.</p><br>
<h2>Today</h2><br>
<p>The "outdoor" market features bright colorful metal awnings cover the sidewalks where vendors of fruit, vegetables, fish, and housewares conduct business year round. Ground floor shops in traditional Philadelphia rowhouses line the street. Owners would have originally lived above their shops, and many still do.</p><br>
<p>The market is open year round, generally from 9 am to 5 pm, though it varies from business to business. Most businesses are open until lunchtime on Sunday, and closed Monday. Outdoor stands and cafes open at the crack of dawn, and restaurants serve patrons late into the evening.</p><br>
<p>The broad awnings shield shoppers from sun, rain and snow. In the winter, vendors set up burn barrels in the street near their stands, to stay warm.</p><br>
<p>The market also plays a role in the culture of Philadelphia. It is often included in cultural depictions of the city. For example, The Italian Market was featured in Rocky and Rocky II. Most notably, the running/training montage where a vendor tosses the boxer an orange. The television series Hack also filmed several episodes that featured the Italian Market. The Italian Market was also featured on a season 5 episode of the television show It&#39;s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.</p><br>
<p>As Philadelphia has gentrified so has the Italian Market. Outdoor seating at cozy cafes, upscale gift stores and top notch gourmet shops are thriving among the market&#39;s traditional produce vendors and specialty butchers and cheese mongers.</p><br>
<p>Bylot Island lies off the northern end of Baffin Island in Nunavut Territory, Canada. Eclipse Sound to the southeast and Navy Board Inlet to the southwest separate it from Baffin Island. Parry Channel lies to its northwest. At 11,067 km&sup2; it is ranked 71st largest island in the world and Canada&#39;s 17th largest island. The island measures 180 km east to west and 110 km north to south and is one of the largest uninhabited islands in the world. While there are no permanent settlements on this Canadian Arctic island, Inuit from Pond Inlet and elsewhere regularly travel to Bylot Island. An Inuit seasonal hunting camp is located southwest of Cape Graham Moore.</p><br>
<p>The islands mountains are part of the Byam Martin Mountains, which is part of the Baffin Mountains of the Arctic Cordillera. In addition to Angilaaq Mountain, Malik Mountain, Mount St. Hans, and Mount Thule are notable. Tay Bay is on the west coast. Vertical cliffs along the coastline are made up of Precambrian dolomite. There are numerous glaciers. The western shore faces Navy Board Inlet. The islands north shore, facing Lancaster Sound, is a polar bear maternity den area. Beluga, bowhead whale, harp seal, narwhal, and ringed seal frequent the area.</p><br>
<p>The island is named for the Arctic explorer Robert Bylot, who was the first European to sight it in 1616. The whaling captain William Adams was the first to prove the island&#39;s insular nature in 1872.</p><br>
<h2>Protected areas</h2><br>
<p>Almost all of the island is within the Sirmilik National Park, harbouring large populations of thick-billed murres, black-legged kittiwakes and greater snow geese. The eastern area of the island is federally designated as the Bylot Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary. Three areas are classified as Canadian Important Bird Areas: Cape Graham Moore, Cape Hay, and the Southwest Bylot plain.</p><br>
<h2>Cultural references</h2><br>
<p>In 2010, a painting of Bylot Island titled "Bylot Island I" by Lawren Harris, one of the Group of Seven mid-century Canadian artists, was sold at auction for $2.8 million, one of the highest prices ever paid for a work by a Canadian artist.</p><br>
<p>Mount Spil , the ancient Mount Sipylus  , is a mountain rich in legends and history in Manisa Province, Turkey, in what used to be the heartland of the Lydians and what is now Turkey&#39;s Aegean Region.</p><br>
<p>Its summit towers over the modern city of Manisa as well as over the road between İzmir and Manisa. The contiguous mass of Mount Yamanlar, also overlooking the Gulf of İzmir, has often been considered as an extension of Mount Sipylus massif with which it shares much history, although it is actually an extinct volcano and a distinct geographical formation.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Manisa relief, a full faced statue carved into a cliff face is found near Mount Sipylus, several kilometers east of Manisa. It is traditionally identified as Cybele and dated to the late-Hittite or Luwian period in late second millennium BCE. The sculpture is known as Taş Suret in Turkish (meaning "Stone Figure") and sometimes referred to as such also in international literature. The mountain was considered a favorite haunt of the mother goddess. According to an old myth the sculpture was carved by Broteas, Tantalus&#39; ugly son.</p><br>
<p>According to the Byzantine commentator John the Lydian, the unknown author of the 7th century BCE epic poem, the Titanomachy, placed the birth of Zeus, not in Crete, but in Lydia, which should signify Mount Sipylus.</p><br>
<p>The names "Sipylus" or "Sipylum" are mentioned by Pliny the Elder, supported by other sources, as the site of a very celebrated city called "Tantalis" or "the city of Tantalus", by the name of its cited founder. Presumably located on or very near the mountain, the city&#39;s ruins were reportedly still visible around in the beginning of the Common Era.</p><br>
<p>The same Tantalus is famed through Greek mythology by the accounts relating that he had cut up his son Pelops and served him up as food for the gods. His son Pelops is said to have migrated later to the Peloponnese, named after him, and to have founded a kingdom. Tantalus&#39; daughter was the tragic Niobe, who is associated with the "Weeping Rock" (Ağlayan Kaya in Turkish), a natural formation facing the city of Manisa.</p><br>
<p>Later in ancient times, Mount Sipylus, located in Lydia, (Σίπυλος), rose above the site of Magnesia ad Sipylum (the southern portion of modern Manisa), whose existence is traced back as far as the 5th century BCE. Magnesia was located along the Hermus River (Gediz River) on the plain below and was the scene of the defeat of Antiochus III "the Great" by the Romans, at the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BCE. Smyrna lay nearby.</p><br>
<h2>Spil today</h2><br>
<p>Especially since the 1960s when an importation reforestation effort was made covering thousands of hectares on and around the mountain, Spil Dağı National Park attracts today both tourists and locals. The famous "Weeping Rock" is still widely visited.</p><br>
<p>The mountain as a whole presents an area of dense forests and beautiful scenery, known especially for its wild tulips. The mountain is also a favorite spot for camping, parachuting, hiking and other mountain sports.</p><br>
<p>The motorway connecting the two busy metropolitan centers that are İzmir and Manisa crosses between the two neighboring masses of Mount Sipylus and Mount Yamanlar, through Sabuncubeli Pass, much described by ancient travellers and writers and which descends from an altitude of 600 m to sea-level over a rather short distance in kilometers. The highest point of the pass corresponds to a point very near the boundary between İzmir Province and Manisa Province. To bypass the steep and twisted Sabuncubeli Pass, the Sabuncubeli Tunnel is under construction. The 6,480 m-long tunnel is expected to be opened end 2016.</p><br>
<h2>Footnotes</h2><br>
<p>Lake Wakatipu is an inland lake  in the South Island of New Zealand. It is in the southwest corner of the Otago region, near its boundary with Southland. Lake Wakatipu comes from the original Māori word Whakatipu wai-māori.</p><br>
<p>With a length of 80 km, it is New Zealand&#39;s longest lake, and, at 291 km&sup2, its third largest. The lake is also very deep, its floor being below sea level, with a maximum depth of 380 m. It is at an altitude of 310 m, towards the southern end of the Southern Alps. The general topography is a reversed "N" shape or "dog leg". The Dart River flows into the northern end, the lake then runs south for 30 kilometres before turning abruptly to the east. Twenty kilometres (12.4 mi) further along, it turns sharply to the south, reaching its southern end 30 km further south, near Kingston.</p><br>
<p>The lake is drained by the Kawarau River, which flows out from the lake&#39;s Frankton Arm, 8 km east of Queenstown. Until about 18,000 years ago the Mataura River drained Lake Wakatipu. The Kingston Flyer follows part of the former river bed now blocked by glacial moraine. Queenstown is on the northern shore of the lake close to eastern end of its middle section. It has a seiche of period 26.7 minutes which, in Queenstown Bay, causes the water level to rise and fall some 200 mm.</p><br>
<p>Lake Wakatipu is renowned for its scenic beauty, being surrounded by mountains. The Remarkables mountain range lies along its southeastern edge. It is a popular venue for adventure tourism, with skifields, paragliding, bungy jumping and tramping tracks within easy reach. A vintage steamboat, the TSS Earnslaw regularly plies its waters. Several vineyards are nearby in the Gibbston Valley.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>The original form and meaning of the name are not known for certain. The name is believed to originate from the Waitaha people, who were later displaced by Kāti Mamoe. Taken literally, Wakatipu would mean "growing canoe" or possibly "growing bay" if the original was Whakatipu and the h elided as a result of the Southern Māori dialect.</p><br>
<h2>Wildlife</h2><br>
<p>Lake Wakatipu is a habitat for the longfin eel (a specimen caught in 1886 is the largest known of this species), brown trout, salmon and rainbow trout. These and other fish support predators such as the pied shag. The black-billed gull is often found around the lake while the most common birds are the black-billed gull and the introduced mallard. A smaller bird often not noticed because of its size is the New Zealand scaup.</p><br>
<h2>In popular culture</h2><br>
<h3>Film</h3><br>
<p>Lake Wakatipu has many geographical similarities to Loch Ness. Therefore, it doubled as the famous Scottish Loch Ness in the film The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (2007) and was one of the main filming locations in the movie.</p><br>
<p>It is a backdrop for several scenes in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, including Amon Hen.</p><br>
<h3>Television</h3><br>
<p>It is the eponymous lake in BBC murder mystery television series Top of the Lake(2013).</p><br>
<p>Cobscook Bay is located in Washington County in the state of Maine. It opens into Passamaquoddy Bay, within the Bay of Fundy. Cobscook Bay is immediately south of the island city of Eastport, the main island of which  straddles the two bays. In the 1930s, Cobscook Bay was part of the aborted Passamaquoddy Bay Tidal Power Project  to generate electricity from its large tidal range.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Cobscook Bay is a large bay in Washington County, Maine that opens into Passamaquoddy Bay within the Bay of Fundy through a relatively narrow opening. It is about 10 mi long and 10 wide and has a long, convoluted coastline with many islands. The mouth of the bay is bracketed by the island city of Eastport, which is principally on Moose Island, and by the town of Lubec. Other townships around the bay are Perry, Pembroke, Dennysville, Edmunds, and Tresscott. There are about 7,000 people living in the nine communities in the area, many of whom are fishermen or work in fish farming, shipping or tourism. There is a scallop fishery here.</p><br>
<p>The bay is both geologically and hydrologically complex. The tide has an average range of 18.4 ft (and range that can exceed 26 feet) and there are strong currents as large volumes of sea water flow into and out of the bay twice a day. The volume of freshwater entering from streams is relatively small and the nutrient rich waters support a great diversity of phytoplankton and algae. These support a biodiverse community of fish, shellfish, marine worms and other invertebrates. Many birds feed on these and the bay is an important visiting place for migrating birds and waterfowl.</p><br>
<p>The area surrounding the bay is well-timbered, but as well as forests there are streams, lakes, bogs, marshes and mudflats interspersed by a network of trails.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Communities around the bay were traditionally involved in shipbuilding, logging, farming, fishing and trading.</p><br>
<p>In 1935, there was a proposal to build a barrage to harness the power of the tides in the area.</p><br>
<p>The generation of electricity from the bay&#39;s tidal currents was ultimately accomplished in September 2012. A turbine has been installed in Cobscook Bay near Lubec that is capable of generating 180 kW of electricity, and is the first North American commercial tidal energy project to supply power to the electrical grid.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>This coastal area is home to many resident birds. One of these is the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and Cobscook Bay has more pairs of these rare birds per square mile than the rest of Maine. It also houses 25% of the state&#39;s black duck (Anas rubripes) population. In the fall, the bay is used by large numbers of birds migrating southwards from their summer breeding grounds. Rare species of bird to be seen here include the harlequin duck (Histrionicus histrionicus). An invertebrate of special concern is the mystery snail (Vertigo paradoxa), an air-breathing land snail. In the summer several species of whale enter the bay, including the minke, fin whale and right whale.</p><br>
<h2>Conservation</h2><br>
<p>Efforts are being made to preserve the biodiversity of the bay. A 250 ft buffer zone has been created adjacent to the foreshore where no development is allowed. The alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) is a species of anadromous fish which goes upstream to spawn. Efforts are being made to enable these fish to reach their traditional spawning grounds in the upper waters of the Pennamaquan River, Little River and Boyden Stream. These fish are thought to be important in the bay&#39;s ecosystem by providing food for the eagles.</p><br>
<h2>Other uses of the name</h2><br>
<p>"Cobscook Bay" is also the title of a song by The Mountain Goats from their EP Isopanisad Radio Hour.</p><br>
<p>Tulsi Lake is a fresh water lake in northern Mumbai. It is stated to be the second largest lake in Mumbai and supplies part of the city’s potable water. This is one of the three lakes located in the Salsette Island; the other two being Powai Lake and Vihar Lake.</p><br>
<p>Both Tulsi lake and Vihar lake are located within the densely forested Sanjay Gandhi National Park or also known popularly as the Borivali National Park (BNP).</p><br>
<h2>Hydrology</h2><br>
<p>Tulsi Lake was built by damming the River Tasso, and redirecting the flow to the nearby Vihar Lake. Rain water from the catchment area of 676 hectares of Powai-Kanheri hill ranges drains into the lake. During the rainy season the flood flows out flows into the Powai Lake and further down into the Mithi River. The maximum height of hill in the catchment is about 400 m. The southwest monsoon sets in by mid June and lasts till September. The maximum rainfall is normally recorded in the months of July and August. The mean annual rainfall is reported to be 2500 mm.</p><br>
<p>The plan to create the lake was conceived in 1872 and construction completed 1897. It was designed as a backup for the Vihar Lake to supply portable drinking water to the city of Bombay (now Mumbai). The lake has surface area of 1.35 km² (135 hectares). The average water depth is reported to be 12 m with a gross storage at Full Supply Level (FSL) of 2,294 e6impgal, out of which 4 e6impgal per day are supplied to Greater Mumbai.</p><br>
<p>The highest overflow level, recorded at the dam is 139.17 m (456.6 ft).This fresh water lake primarily fulfills the water requirement of the southern part of Mumbai.</p><br>
<h2>Access</h2><br>
<p>The lake is located 32 km to the north of Mumbai by road. The nearest suburban electric train station is Borivli East on the Western Railways and is close to western express highway, with a further travel of 6 km from the station by road to the lake. The nearest Sahar International Airport is at a distance of about 20 km.</p><br>
<p>As the lake is located inside the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, entry permits are to be obtained from the park authorities for visit to the lake.</p><br>
<h2>Flora and fauna</h2><br>
<p>The vegetation on the hill slopes draining into the lake is thick and lush, undisturbed and of mixed moist deciduous type. The lake and its catchment are protected by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and Sanjay Gandhi National Park Authority.</p><br>
<p>As the lake is situated inside the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, the flora and fauna reported for the park would be relevant to the lake. However, fresh water crocodiles Mugger or Marsh crocodiles (Crocodilus palustris) are known to inhabit the lake in sustainable numbers. As it is difficult to sight them in the lake, the park has set up a Crocodile Park’ to view the reptiles of different sizes</p><br>
<p>Vihar Lake is located near Vihar village on the Mithi River within the precincts of the Borivali National Park, also called the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, in North Mumbai. When built in 1860 , it was considered as the largest lake in Mumbai in the Salsette group of islands. It is hemmed between the Tulsi Lake and the Powai Lake. It partly meets the drinking water needs of the South Mumbai region. It supplies only 3% of the Mumbai city’s water requirement, after filtration at Bhandup where the large water filtration plant is located.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>With the few thousand wells feeding the population of Mumbai tending to go dry during summer, the acute shortage of water resulted in protests by the local residents in June 1845. A two-man committee, appointed by the British rulers of the time, to examine the grievances of the agitators concurred with water shortage problem and stressed the urgent need to solve the water supply problem of Mumbai.</p><br>
<p>The Committee appointed by the government located suitable sites to construct dams and create reservoirs to store the monsoon flows of the Mithi river catchment, which resulted in presently existing Vihar Lake, Tulsi Lake and the Powai Lake. Vihar reservoir was the first piped water supply scheme of Mumbai.</p><br>
<p>In 1850, Captain Crawford submitted a report favouring the Vihar Scheme for the Mumbai city’s water supply needs.</p><br>
<p>Work on the “Vihar Water Works” commenced in January 1856 and was completed in 1860, during the governorship of John Lord Elphinstone.</p><br>
<p>The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC),a Govt. body which controls the lake&#39;s affairs has also acquired agricultural land in the catchment area of the Vihar lake as a sanitary precaution.</p><br>
<h2>Access</h2><br>
<p>By road, it is 31 km from Mumbai. Access by suburban electric train is to Kurla or Andheri and then by road.</p><br>
<p>Access to the lake for the general public has been curtailed since March 13, 1993( Source: Official BMC Board installed at the gate ) following the Bombay Blasts on March 12, 1993 due to perceived threats to the Mumbai public, as the lake is located in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. It can still be viewed in many Bollywood movies in a long shot taken from Mumbai Film City, as seen in the Infobox.</p><br>
<h2>Hydrology and dam features</h2><br>
<p>Impoundment of Mithi River, 20 km north of Mumbai, was effected to store the rainwater from a catchment area of 18.96 km to create the Vihar Lake. The Powai-Kanheri hill ranges form the catchment area, which drains the rain water into the lake. For this purpose, three earthen embankment dams with a masonry spillway section were constructed to create a reservoir of 9200 million gallons capacity at the full reservoir level of 80.42 metres. The lake has a maximum water depth of 34 m and a minimum of 12 m. The lakes water spread area is 7 km. The dam height was raised in 1872 resulting in increase of water supply from 32 million gallons (catering to a population of 0.7 million) to 36 million gallons.</p><br>
<h2>Flora and fauna</h2><br>
<p>The lake and its catchment are protected by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and Sanjay Gandhi National Park Authority.</p><br>
<p>The catchment areas of Vihar lake has high hills rising on all sides. The seclusion, protection, and security provided under the Sanjay Gandhi National Park has ensured well wooded hill slopes and abundant natural regeneration. Higher percentage of khair species has been noted in the catchment area of the lake.</p><br>
<p>As the lake is situated inside the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, the flora and fauna reported for the park would be relevant to the lake. However, fresh water crocodiles Mugger or Marsh crocodiles (Crocodilus palustris) are known to inhabit the lake in sustainable numbers. As it is difficult to sight them in the lake, the park has set up a Crocodile Park’ to view the reptiles of different sizes</p><br>
<h2>Limnology</h2><br>
<p>Limnological studies carried out by the Central Public Health Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, India, in 1964, indicated an unstable thermal stratification in the lake waters. The dissolved oxygen (DO) values were found to increase in some months and carbon dioxide was found to be less at the surface than at the bottom. In cooler season, the surface water was found to be less alkaline, which could be attributed to the photosynthesis activity of the algae. The pH stratification was found to be unstable. Interrelation was attributed to fluctuations in the chlorophyll, pH and DO values and nitrates were generally absent on the surface and no sulphates were detected.</p><br>
<h2>An odd event</h2><br>
<p>In the year 2006, finding sweet water at the Mahim Creek (a semi enclosed area), where fresh water and sea water meet, created a lot of excitement among the public. The health department of BMC who analysed the water sample from the site found that salt level in the sea water was as low as 600 particle per million (ppm), compared to the normal level 10000000 particle per million (ppm). The National Institute of Oceanography, Goa who were also consulted stated that this phenomenon was not unusual and could have been caused by heavy rainfall and low tide. This necessitated the Maharashtra Government to intervene and examine the issue rationally to convince the excited public. BMC Commissioner gave a press statement stating:</p><br>
<p>The Lyakhovsky Islands  are the southernmost group of the New Siberian Islands in the arctic seas of eastern Russia.</p><br>
<p>The islands are named in honour of Ivan Lyakhov, who explored them in 1773.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>They are separated from the mainland by the Laptev Strait (60 km wide), and from the Anzhu Islands group by the Sannikov Strait (50 km). Two islands dominate the group:</p><br>
<p>Great Lyakhovsky Island (Большой Ляховский: Bolshoy Lyakhovsky) 4,600 km² with a maximum altitude of 270 m on Emy Tas</p><br>
<p>Little Lyakhovsky Island (Малый Ляховский: Maly Lyakhovsky) 1,325 km²</p><br>
<p>Stolbovoy is a large island detached from the group.</p><br>
<p>Off Great Lyakhovsky Island&#39;s southwestern cape lies a small islet called Ostrov Khopto-Terer.</p><br>
<p>Semyonovsky Island has now disappeared after heavy erosion.Before its disappearance, it was at 4 km, one of the smallest islands in the archipelago.</p><br>
<h2>In popular culture</h2><br>
<p>Part of the action of two novels by Jules Verne, Waif of the Cynthia (1885) and César Cascabel (1890), takes place there. In the latter, the term "Liakhov Islands" refers to the New Siberian group as a whole, as the principal action is on Kotelny Island.</p><br>
<p>Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island , or Great Lyakhovsky, is the largest of the Lyakhovsky Islands belonging to the New Siberian Islands archipelago between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea in northern Russia. It has an area of 4,600 km², and a maximum altitude of 270 m .</p><br>
<p>The peninsula projecting towards the west of the island is the Kigilyakh Peninsula (Poluostrov Kigilyakh).</p><br>
<p>Off Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island&#39;s southwestern cape lies a small islet called Ostrov Khopto-Terer.</p><br>
<p>The Lyakhovsky Islands are named in honour of Ivan Lyakhov, who explored them in 1773.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island consists of highly folded and faulted Precambrian metamorphic rocks and turbidites; Mesozoic turbidites and igneous rocks; and Cenozoic sediments. Exposed in southeastern part of this island, the older Precambrian. Early Proterozoic, metamorphic rocks consist of schists and amphibolites. Small exposures of Late Proterozoic schistose, quartzose sandstones and phyllitic, sericite-quartz schist (turbidites) also occur in the southeastern part of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island. The bulk of this island consists of Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous turbidites composed of interbedded fine-grained sandstones, thinly bedded siltstones, and argillites. The Precambrian and Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous rocks are intruded by Late Cretaceous granites and granodiorites.</p><br>
<p>A blanket of unconsolidated Cenozoic sediments blankets most of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island. These sediments include Paleocene to Eocene colluvial, alluvial, and deltaic gravels, sands, clays, and coals and Oligocene to Miocene alluvial, lacustrine, deltaic, and nearshore marine sands and clays that contain beds and lenses of gravel. Overlying these sediments are Pliocene to Pleistocene colluvial, alluvial, and nearshore marine sands, silts, and clays that contain occasional gravel layers. The nearshore marine sediments contain the shells of marine mollusks and pieces of lignitized wood. Thick permafrost characterized by massive ice wedges has developed in these sediments. Contrary to the interpretations of Baron von Toll and earlier geologists, glacial tills and related sediments are completely absent within Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island.</p><br>
<h2>Quaternary Geology</h2><br>
<p>The southern sea cliffs of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, which were first studied by Baron von Toll, expose a complex sequence of fossiliferous Late and Middle Pleistocene floodplain, eolian, lake, and solifluction sediments cemented by permafrost. In the 1990s and 2000s,</p><br>
<p>a Russian-German multidisciplinary team, which included the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and Permafrost Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, studied the cryolithology, geochronology, ground ice geochemistry, paleobotany, paleontology, sedimentology, and stratigraphy of these sediments. The age of these sediments were studied in great detail using radiocarbon dating of bones, ivory, and plant remains; optically stimulated luminescence dating of bone-bearing sediments; and uranium-thorium dating of associated peat.</p><br>
<p>The oldest sediments exposed in the southern sea cliffs of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island consist of a layer of rocky, yellowish to greenish colored sediment. This layer is a thick Paleogene weathering crust (paleosol) that has developed within Permian sandstone. This paleosol has been largely modified by periglacial processes and development of ice wedges periodically during the Pleistocene. These deeply weathered sediments are unfossiliferous and characterized by the presence of weathering products like kaolinite and montmorillonite. Saalian sediments uncomfortably overlie this paleosol.</p><br>
<p>The oldest known Pleistocene sediments exposed in the southern sea cliffs of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island consist of Saalian sediments, which accumulated between 200,000 and 120,000 years ago. The lower part of these sediments consist of ice-rich, silty and silty-sandy sediments that accumulated as a Saalian ice complex between 200,000 and 170,000 years ago. They contain pebbles, peat inclusions, and peat horizons. The presence of ice belts, reticulated ice interlayers, and wide, round-shouldered ice wedges indicate that permafrost formed in these sediments as they accumulated. The lower part of this unit contains the pollen of sparse grass-sedge vegetation, which reflects a stadial environment. The upper part of this ice-rich unit contains pollen associated with dense grass-dominated tundra, which is indicative of interstadial environments. The upper part of the Saalian sediments, which lie uncomfortably on the eroded surface of the lower Saalian ice complex deposits, consists of well-sorted fine-grained sand that contains pollen characteristic of sparse grass-sedge dominated interstadial vegetation and less ground ice. These loess-like sediments accumulated within floodplains and lakes. As they accumulated between 170,000 and 120,000 years ago, ice wedge polygons formed in these sediments as the result of extremely cold and dry conditions.</p><br>
<p>Elsewhere along the coast of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, the sea cliffs expose pre-Eemian floodplain and lake sediments at their base. Eemian lake sediments fill depressions, i.e. ice wedge casts and thermokarst lakes, which developed by the surficial thawing during Eemian interglacial climates of Saalian ice-wedges and other permafrost. In some locations, the Eemian lake deposits are thicker and laterally continuous enough to form a complete blanket overlying older sediments. The Eemian sediments contain fossils indicative of an interglacial environment.</p><br>
<p>At many localities along the sea cliffs, typically over 10 meters of Early Weichselian lacustrine and loess-like floodplain deposits overlie the Eemian and pre-Eemian sediments. These sediments consist of fine-grained, well-sorted sands with rare grass and sedge pollen. They contain ice wedge polygon systems that formed during the Early Weichselian stadial, about 100,000 to 50,000 years ago, as the result of extremely cold and dry conditions.</p><br>
<p>Typically, 15 to 20 meters of Middle Weichselian ice complex deposits, which consist largely of aeolian sediments that accumulated 50,000 to 28,000 years ago, overlie the Early Weichselian sediments. These sediments contain pollen typical of the mammoth tundra-steppe environments and large ice wedge polygon systems. These sediments accumulated within a swampy, poorly drained habitat, which existed under an extremely cold continental climate. A zone of peaty deposits within this ice complex accumulated during a Middle Weichselian interstadial about 40,000 to 30,000 years ago. The Middle Weichselian deposits underlie the upland surfaces of this part of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island.</p><br>
<p>Within the southern sea cliffs of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, Late Weichselian sediments of the Last Glacial Maximum have not been found. The Ice Complex deposits associated with this period of time appear have been eroded and covered by Holocene deposits.</p><br>
<p>Where thermokarst depressions have formed by melting of the permafrost, they are filled by Holocene solifluction and lake sediments. These depressions formed as the result of the thawing of ice wedges and other permafrost during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene transition about 12,000 to 10,000 years ago. Lacustrine sediments filling these depressions contain a record of the Allerød warming, Younger Dryas cooling, and other climatic events. Holocene fluvial and solifluction deposits underlie valleys of streams cut into underlying Pleistocene sediments. Solifluction deposits, which were created by melting of the underlying permafrost, veneer the surface of the uplands. New ice wedge polygon systems later formed in these sediments during the Late Holocene as result of pronounced climatic cooling, which only recently has reversed in the last couple of hundred years.</p><br>
<p>Because of the formation of permafrost in these sediments and their depositional environments, prehistoric bone, shell, and plant material are well preserved and abundant. As noted above, later researchers found that the bone- and wood-bearing sediments described by Baron von Toll</p><br>
<p>Baron Eduard von Toll and Dr. Kropotkin misreport this tree as being 90 ft high. Other publications, i.e. Fingerprints of the Gods and Earth&#39;s Shifting Crust not only incorrectly state that this alder tree is 90 ft high, but also they also repeat fictional claims from unreliable sources that this tree was either a "fruit tree" or "plum tree" and had "green leaves"and green fruit" still attached. Lacking modern radiocarbon dating techniques, Baron von Toll assigned this tree and other fossils to single "mammoth period". As discussed above, more recent geologic research and radiometric dating of these fossils and the sediment containing them has found that they are from different layers of Middle to Late Pleistocene glacial and interglacial sediments.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>The Cape Shalaurova meteorological station, which lies on the southeast coast of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, at 73° 11 N 143° 56 E provides climatic data for this island. The mean precipitation is 184 mm/year as calculated for a 7-year period between April 1994 and September 2000 as calculated from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data. The heaviest precipitation, about two-thirds of the yearly total, occurs between June and September. As calculated from the same data for the same period of time, the mean temperature at Cape Shalaurova is -13.6 &deg;C. January is the coldest month with a mean temperature of -31.0 &deg;C and August is the warmest month with a mean temperature of 2.4 &deg;C. Mean daily temperatures range as low as -40.5 &deg;C and as high as 9.4 &deg;C.</p><br>
<h2>Vegetation</h2><br>
<p>The vegetation of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island is a mixture of rush/grass, forb, cryptogam tundra, cryptogam herb barren, and sedge/grass,moss wetland. The rush/grass, forb, cryptogam tundra covers the bulk of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island. It consists mostly of very low-growing grasses, rushes, forbs, mosses, lichens, and liverworts. These plants typically cover about 40–80 percent of the surface of the ground. The soils are typically moist, fine-grained, and often hummocky. The cryptogam herb barren consists of dry to wet barren landscapes with scattered, herbs, lichens, mosses, and liverworts. Sedges, dwarf shrubs, and peaty mires are normally absent. These plants form a sparse (2–40%) and low-growing plant cover that often occurs as dark streaks on the otherwise barren lands, composed largely of bryophytes and cryptogamic crusts. Sedge/grass,moss wetlands, which occur on the northwest and southeast ends of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, consist of wetland complexes dominated by sedges, grasses, and mosses. These wetlands occupy low, perennially wet parts of the landscape.</p><br>
<p>Melville Island, known in the Tiwi language as Yermalner, is an in the eastern Timor Sea, off the coast of the Northern Territory, Australia. It is west of the Cobourg Peninsula in Arnhem Land and north of Darwin, with a tropical climate.</p><br>
<p>The largest community/town on the island is Milikapiti, pop. 559. The second village is Pirlangimpi (Pularumpi, formerly Garden Point), pop. 440, 27 km west of Milikapiti, on the west coast of Melville Island. About 30 more people live in five family outstations.</p><br>
<p>At 5,786 km&sup2; it is just outside the 100 largest islands in the world, but is the second biggest island in Australia, after Tasmania (and excluding the continental landmass). Only 55 m south of its southern tip is Irrititu Island, with an area of 1.60 km&sup2;.</p><br>
<p>Together, Melville Island and Bathurst Island are known as the Tiwi Islands.</p><br>
<p>It is said that the first European to sight the island was Abel Tasman in 1644, although this is now disputed. Melville Island&#39;s most likely first European sighting was probably made by the Portuguese, as the Aboriginal peoples encountered by the explorer Phillip Parker King (son of governor of New South Wales Philip Gidley King) in 1818, were found to know some Portuguese words.</p><br>
<p>King named it for Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville, first lord of the Admiralty, who is also commemorated by the much larger Melville Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Shortly after this, the British made the first attempt to settle Australia&#39;s north coast, at the short-lived Fort Dundas.</p><br>
<p>During World War II the small Snake Bay Patrol manned by local Indigenous Australians was established as part of the military forces deployed to protect the island against any Japanese landings.</p><br>
<p>Kaffeklubben Island or Coffee Club Island  is a small island lying off the northern tip of Greenland. It may contain the northernmost point of land on Earth.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Kaffeklubben Island is found at 83&deg;39&prime;45&Prime;N latitude, 30&deg;36&prime;50&Prime;W longitude and is 713.5 km from the geographic North Pole. It is placed north of the Frederick E. Hyde Fjord, about 37 km east of Cape Morris Jesup and west of Cape Bridgman, a little east of a central point along the northern coast of Greenland. Kaffeklubben Island is approximately 0.7 km in length, and about 300 m across at its widest point. The highest point is about 30 m above sea level.</p><br>
<p>The first recorded sighting of the island was made by the United States explorer Robert Peary in 1900; however, Kaffeklubben was not visited until 1921. It was then, when the Danish explorer Lauge Koch set foot on the island, that it received its name, after the coffee club in the University of Copenhagen Geological Museum.</p><br>
<p>In 1969 a Canadian team calculated that its northernmost tip lies 750 m farther north than Cape Morris Jesup, thus claiming its record as the most northerly point on land.</p><br>
<p>Since then, several gravel banks have been found to the north, such as Oodaaq, 83-42, and ATOW1996, although there is debate as to whether such gravel banks should be considered for the record since they are rarely permanent, being regularly swallowed by the moving ice sheets, shifting, or becoming submerged in the ocean.</p><br>
<h2>Vegetation</h2><br>
<p>Despite the harsh environment, vegetation grows on Kaffeklubben island – not only various mosses, liverworts, and lichens, but also flowering plants: Saxifraga oppositifolia (purple saxifrage) and Papaver radicatum (arctic poppy).</p><br>
<p>Graceland Cemetery is a large Victorian era cemetery located in the north side community area of Uptown, in the city of Chicago, Illinois, USA. Established in 1860, its main entrance is at the intersection of Clark Street and Irving Park Road. The Sheridan stop on the Red Line is the nearest CTA "L" station. Among the cemetery&#39;s 121 acres, are the burial sites of several well-known Chicagoans.</p><br>
<h2>History and geography</h2><br>
<p>In the 19th century, a train to the north suburbs occupied the eastern edge of the cemetery where the Chicago "L" train now runs. The line was also used to carry mourners to funerals, in specially rented funeral cars, requiring an entry on the east wall, now closed. At that point, the cemetery would have been well outside the city limits of Chicago. After the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, Lincoln Park which had been the citys cemetery, was deconsecrated and some of the bodies moved here. The edge of the pond around Daniel Burnhams burial island was once lined with broken headstones and coping transported from Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park then became a recreational area, with a single mausoleum remaining, the "Couch tomb", containing the remains of Ira Couch. The Couch Tomb is probably the oldest extant structure in the City, everything else having been destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire.</p><br>
<p>The cemetery is typical of those that reflect Queen Victoria&#39;s reconception of the early 19th century "graveyard". Instead of poorly maintained headstones, and bodies buried on top of each other, on an ungenerous parcel of land; the cemetery became a pastoral landscaped park dotted with memorial markers, with room left over for picnics, a common usage of cemeteries. The landscape architecture for Graceland was designed by Ossian Cole Simonds.</p><br>
<p>The cemetery&#39;s walls are topped off with wrought iron spear point fencing.</p><br>
<h2>Notable tombs and monuments</h2><br>
<p>Many of the cemetery&#39;s tombs are of great architectural or artistic interest, including the Getty Tomb, the Martin Ryerson Mausoleum (both designed by architect Louis Sullivan, who is also buried here), and the Schoenhofen Pyramid Mausoleum. The industrialist George Pullman was buried at night, in a lead-lined coffin within an elaborately reinforced steel-and-concrete vault, to prevent his body from being exhumed and desecrated by labor activists.</p><br>
<p>Along with its other famous burials the cemetery is notable for two statues by sculptor Lorado Taft, Eternal Silence for the Graves family plot and The Crusader that marks Victor Lawson&#39;s final resting place. The cemetery is also the final resting place of several victims of the tragic Iroquois Theater fire in which more than 600 people died.</p><br>
<h2>Notable Burials</h2><br>
<p>David Adler, architect</p><br>
<p>Walter Webb Allport, dentist</p><br>
<p>John Peter Altgeld, Governor of Illinois</p><br>
<p>Amabel Anderson Arnold, organized the Woman&#39;s State Bar Association of Missouri, the first association of women lawyers in the world.</p><br>
<p>Philip Danforth Armour, meat packing magnate</p><br>
<p>Ernie Banks, Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame baseball player</p><br>
<p>Frederic Clay Bartlett, artist, art collector</p><br>
<p>Mary Hastings Bradley, author</p><br>
<p>Lorenz Brentano, member of the State House of Representatives, United States consul at Dresden, Congressional Representative for Illinois</p><br>
<p>Doug Buffone, Chicago Bears former linebacker, host WSCR</p><br>
<p>Daniel H. Burnham, architect</p><br>
<p>Fred A. Busse, mayor of Chicago</p><br>
<p>Justin Butterfield, attorney, land grant developer</p><br>
<p>Lydia Avery Coonley, author</p><br>
<p>Members of the William Deering family</p><br>
<p>Augustus Dickens, brother of Charles Dickens (he died penniless in Chicago)</p><br>
<p>George Elmslie, architect</p><br>
<p>John Jacob Esher (1823–1901), Bishop of the Evangelical Association</p><br>
<p>Marshall Field, businessman, retailer, whose memorial was designed by Henry Bacon, with sculpture by Daniel Chester French.</p><br>
<p>Bob Fitzsimmons, Heavyweight boxing champion, born in Cornwall, UK</p><br>
<p>Melville Fuller, Chief Justice of the United States</p><br>
<p>Elbert H. Gary, judge, chairman of USA Steel</p><br>
<p>Bruce A. Goff, architect</p><br>
<p>Sarah E. Goode, first African-American woman to receive a United States patent</p><br>
<p>Bruce Graham, architect of John Hancock building and Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower)</p><br>
<p>Marion Mahony Griffin, architect</p><br>
<p>Carter Harrison, Sr., mayor of Chicago</p><br>
<p>Carter Harrison, Jr., mayor of Chicago</p><br>
<p>Herbert Hitchcock, US Senator from South Dakota</p><br>
<p>William Holabird, architect</p><br>
<p>Henry Honoré, businessman, father of Bertha Honoré Palmer, father-in-law of Potter Palmer</p><br>
<p>William Hulbert, president of baseball&#39;s National League</p><br>
<p>Charles L. Hutchinson, banker, philanthropist and founding president of the Art Institute of Chicago</p><br>
<p>William Le Baron Jenney, architect, Father of the American skyscraper</p><br>
<p>Elmer C Jensen "The Dean of Chicago Architects"</p><br>
<p>Jack Johnson, first African-American heavyweight boxing champion</p><br>
<p>Fazlur Khan, structural engineer</p><br>
<p>William Wallace Kimball, Kimball Piano and Organ Company</p><br>
<p>John Kinzie, Canadian pioneer, early white settler in the city of Chicago</p><br>
<p>Cornelius Krieghoff, well-known Canadian artist</p><br>
<p>Bryan Lathrop, businessman, philanthropist, and longtime President of the cemetery</p><br>
<p>Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., first African American astronaut</p><br>
<p>Victor F. Lawson, editor and publisher of the Chicago Daily News</p><br>
<p>Frank Lowden, Governor of Illinois</p><br>
<p>Alexander C. McClurg, bookseller and Civil War general</p><br>
<p>Cyrus McCormick, businessman, inventor</p><br>
<p>Edith Rockefeller McCormick, Daughter-in-law of reaper inventor Cyrus McCormick</p><br>
<p>Katherine Dexter McCormick, Daughter-in-law of reaper inventor Cyrus McCormick, MIT grad, biologist, suffragist, philanthropist</p><br>
<p>Maryland Mathison Hooper McCormick, second wife of Col. Robert R. McCormick</p><br>
<p>Nancy “Nettie” Fowler McCormick, businesswoman, philanthropist</p><br>
<p>Joseph Medill, publisher, mayor of Chicago</p><br>
<p>Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect</p><br>
<p>László Moholy-Nagy, influential photographer, teacher, and founder of the New Bauhaus and Institute of Design IIT in Chicago</p><br>
<p>Dawn Clark Netsch, comptroller of Illinois, professor & spouse of architect Walter Netsch</p><br>
<p>Walter Netsch, architect</p><br>
<p>Richard Nickel, photographer, architectural historian and preservationist</p><br>
<p>Ruth Page, dancer and choreographer</p><br>
<p>Bertha Honoré Palmer, philanthropist</p><br>
<p>Francis W. Palmer, newspaper printer, USA Representative, Public Printer of the United States</p><br>
<p>Potter Palmer, businessman</p><br>
<p>Allan Pinkerton, detective</p><br>
<p>George Pullman, inventor and railway industrialist</p><br>
<p>Hermann Raster, politician and editor</p><br>
<p>John Wellborn Root, architect</p><br>
<p>Howard Van Doren Shaw, architect</p><br>
<p>Washington Smith, pioneer wholesale grocer and philanthropist. The Washington and Jane Smith Home (now Smith Village) was named in his honor.</p><br>
<p>Louis Sullivan, architect</p><br>
<p>Charles Wacker, businessman and philanthropist, also director of the 1893 Columbian Exposition</p><br>
<p>Kate Warne, first female detective, Allan Pinkerton employee</p><br>
<p>Daniel Hale Williams, African-American surgeon who performed one of the first successful operations on the pericardium</p><br>
<h2>Other cemeteries in the city of Chicago</h2><br>
<p>Graceland is one of three large 19th century cemeteries which were previously well outside the city limits; the other two being Rosehill (further north), and Oak Woods (South of Hyde Park) which includes a major monument to Confederate civil war dead.</p><br>
<p>In addition, directly south of Graceland across Irving Park Road is the smaller German Protestant Wunder&#39;s Cemetery and Jewish Graceland Cemetery (divided by a fence), established in 1851. Also, the Roman Catholic, Saint Boniface Cemetery (1863), is four blocks north of Graceland at the corner of Clark and Lawrence.</p><br>
<p>The ruins of Kirkham Priory are situated on the banks of the River Derwent, at Kirkham, North Yorkshire, England. The Augustinian priory was founded in the 1120s by Walter lEspec, lord of nearby Helmsley, who also built Rievaulx Abbey. The priory was surrendered in 8 December 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Legend has it that Kirkham was founded in remembrance of lEspec&#39;s only son who had died nearby as a consequence of his horse being startled by a boar.</p><br>
<p>The area was later used to test the D-Day landing vehicles, and was visited by Winston Churchill. The ruins are now Grade I listed and in the care of English Heritage.</p><br>
<h2>Gatehouse ruins</h2><br>
<p>The Gatehouse of Kirkham Priory, built, is a specimen of English Gothic medieval architecture. It is a rare survival of such a gatehouse, comparable to that of Butley Priory in Suffolk. It has a wide arch of continuous mouldings with a crocketed gable running up to the windows, with sculptures of S.George and the Dragon on the left, and David and Goliath to the right. Above the arch is Christ in a pointed oval recess, plus two figures below of St. Bartholomew and St. Philip, in niches. There are also many escutcheons with the armorials of the various benefactors of the Priory, including the arms of de Ros, Scrope, de Forz, Vaux, FitzRalph & Espec (3 cart-wheels, each with 6 spokes).</p><br>
<p>Arms of Scrope: Azure, a bend or</p><br>
<p>Arms of de Forz</p><br>
<p>Arms of de Clare</p><br>
<p>Arms of de Ros</p><br>
<h2>Burials</h2><br>
<p>Robert de Ros (died 1285)</p><br>
<p>William de Ros, 2nd Baron de Ros</p><br>
<h2>Further reading</h2><br>
<p>Steens Mountain is in the southeastern part of the USA state of Oregon, and is a large fault-block mountain, Located in Harney County, it stretches some 50 mi north to south, and rises from alongside the Alvord Desert at elevation of about 4,200 ft to a summit elevation of 9,733 ft. It is sometimes confused with a mountain range but is properly a single mountain.</p><br>
<p>The Steens Mountain Wilderness encompasses 170,166 acre of Steens Mountain. 98,859 acre of the Wilderness are protected from grazing and free of cattle.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The mountain was called the "Snowy Mountains" by John Work, one of the fur traders who were the first Europeans in the area. It was renamed in 1860 for United States Army Major Enoch Steen, who fought and drove members of the Paiute tribe off the mountain.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The east face of Steens Mountain is composed mainly of basalts stacked one upon another. Lava flows several hundreds of feet thick inundated the region between 17 and 14 million years ago.</p><br>
<h2>Flora and fauna</h2><br>
<p>Vegetation in the Steens Mountain Wilderness varies greatly according to elevation. Common plants include sagebrush, juniper, various species of bunchgrass, mountain mahogany, aspen, mountain meadow knotweed, and false hellebore. Other vegetation endemic to Steens Mountain includes Steens paintbrush (Castilleja pilosa var. steenensis), moss gentian (Gentiana fremontii), Steens Mountain penstemon (Penstemon davidsonii var. praeteritus), Steens Mountain thistle (Cirsium peckii), a dwarf blue lupine, and Cusick&#39;s buckwheat (Eriogonum cusickii).</p><br>
<p>Steens Mountain is distinctive in its absence of conifers, especially Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Fir, at elevations in which they would normally be found - from 5,500-8,000 ft above sea level. Although other mountains of the Great Basin also lack conifers, Steens Mountain is the largest mountain area without conifers. One possible cause of the absence of conifers is the isolation of Steens Mountain, although lack of seed dispersal by bird species such as Clark&#39;s Nutcracker may also be a factor. It is also possible that prehistoric fires, including fires used by Indians, eradicated the conifer population.</p><br>
<h2>Environmental protection</h2><br>
<p>On October 24, 2000, president Bill Clinton approved the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protective Act. The act was created by local landowners in cooperation with local and national government representatives in response to a proposed National Monument. This act created the Steens Mountain BLM Cooperative Management and Protection Area, a 425,000 acre area. This law protects 1,200,000 acre from mining, and 100,000 acre from cattle grazing.</p><br>
<h2>Activities</h2><br>
<p>Steens Mountain is traversed by a 52 mi loop road, most of which is suitable for passenger vehicles. The road reaches an elevation of 9,700 ft, making it the highest road in Oregon. It is possible to drive to the summit of the mountain and to other viewpoints such as the Kiger Gorge. Steens Mountain is also host to Steens Mountain High Altitude Running Camp.</p><br>
<p>Other recreational activities enjoyed on and around Steens Mountain are camping, picknicking, bicycling, hiking, hunting, sightseeing, soaring, and exploring. There are numerous hot springs along the base of Steens Mountain, including Alvord Hot Springs. Far from city lights, stargazing is also popular.</p><br>
<p>West Mouse  is an islet lying 1.1 km off the north-west coast of Anglesey, Wales. Its maximum dimensions are 92 by, with an area of 1.2 acre.</p><br>
<p>It is located in an area of notoriously strong tides. Because of this, at least three shipwrecks lie near it, making it a popular diving location. There is now a white beacon on the island which is used as a navigational aid if lined up with two other beacons, one on the Anglesey mainland and another on Coal Rock, an islet a mile and a half north. The area also host to species such as hornwrack, sea squirts and conger eels. The island is part of a set of three spread out along the north coast of Anglesey. The other two islands are Ynys Amlwch and Ynys Badrig.</p><br>
<p>The Welsh name Maen y Bugail translates into English as The Shepherd&#39;s Stone. This comes from a folklore tale in which a shepherd who was looking for his sheep was annoyed by a stone in his shoe. He took the stone out and threw it into the sea, the island arising at the place in which it landed.</p><br>
<p>The Stanton Drew stone circles are just outside the village of Stanton Drew in the English county of Somerset. The largest stone circle is the Great Circle, 113 m in diameter and the second largest stone circle in Britain ; it is considered to be one of the largest Neolithic monuments to have been built. The date of construction is not known but is thought to be between 3000 and 2000 BCE which places it in the Late Neolithic</p><br>
<p>to Early Bronze Age. It was made a scheduled monument in 1982.</p><br>
<p>The Great Circle was surrounded by a ditch and is accompanied by smaller stone circles to the north east and south west. There is also a group of three stones, known as The Cove, in the garden of the local pub. Slightly further from the Great Circle is a single stone, known as Hautville&#39;s Quoit. Some of the stones are still vertical, but the majority are now recumbent and some are no longer present.</p><br>
<p>The stone circles have been studied since John Aubrey&#39;s visit in 1664 with some excavations of the site in the 18th century. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries geophysical surveys have confirmed the size of the stone circles and identified additional pits and postholes. The Cove has been shown to be around one thousand years older than the stone circles, so dating from 4000-3000 BCE. A variety of myths and legends about the stone circles have been recorded, including one about dancers at a celebration who have been turned to stone.</p><br>
<h2>Monument</h2><br>
<p>The most famous feature is the Great Circle, the second largest stone circle in Britain (after Avebury). The stone circle is 113 m in diameter and probably consisted of 30 stones, of which 27 survive today. It was recorded by both John Aubrey in 1664 and William Stukeley in 1776. The Great Circle probably was surrounded by the ditch (approximately 135 m outer diameter — now filled in) of a henge.</p><br>
<p>A (now recumbent) standing stone called Hautville&#39;s Quoit lies across the river to the north on an alignment with the centres of the Great Circle and the southern circle. It is a large stone close to Hautville Quoit Farm, recumbent since at least the mid 17th century but assumed to have originally been upright. Described by Stukeley in 1723 as being 13 ft long, it is now about half that length, Leslie Grinsell suggesting that fragments have occasionally been broken off for mending the roads. Stukeley also referred to the presence of a second stone.</p><br>
<p>Further to the west is a cove of two standing stones with a recumbent slab between them, which can be found in the garden of the Druid&#39;s Arms public house. All are of different heights, the stone to the north east being 4.4 m the south western 3.1 m, and the north eastern 1.4 m. The stones of The Cove are mineralogically different from those in the nearby stone circles. A long barrow burial chamber has been found under the stones of The Cove. It is thought that this predates the erection of the stones by approximately a thousand years.</p><br>
<h2>Excavations</h2><br>
<p>In 1740 the site was surveyed and mapped by architect, freemason and antiquarian John Wood, the Elder, who noted the different stones used. He suggested the layout was based on the Pythagorean planetary system, and thought it was used as the Druid&#39;s "University". The number and positioning of the stones according to Wood, corresponded to the Pythagorean planetary system of worlds, with three of the circles corresponding to the solar, lunar and Earth cycles. This deeply influenced his plans for a circle of 30 houses called The Circus in Bath, an ambitious architectural project completed by his son John Wood, the Younger.</p><br>
<p>When one of the stones fell in the mid 17th century, some human bones were discovered accompanied by an object described as a "round bell, like a large horse-bell". The burial date and the purpose of the bell-like object are unknown.</p><br>
<h2>Geophysical survey</h2><br>
<p>Geophysical work by English Heritage in 1997 revealed a surrounding ditch and nine concentric rings of postholes within the stone circle. More than four hundred pits, 1 m across and at 2.5 m intervals, stood in rings at the site.</p><br>
<p>The geophysical work transformed the traditional view of Stanton Drew as being a surface monument and the Great Circle is now seen as being one of the largest and most impressive Neolithic monuments to have been built. Analogous with the circles of postholes at sites at Woodhenge, Durrington Walls and The Sanctuary, it is thought that the pits would have held posts which would have either been freestanding or lintelled as they could not have supported a roof at that size. The postholes in nine concentric rings held posts up to 1 m in diameter indicating the use of ancient trees which were sacred to the druids.</p><br>
<p>Nearby and to the north east is a smaller ring of eight stones in the centre of which the geophysical work identified four further pits. A third ring of twelve stones, measuring 43 m wide, stands to the south west.</p><br>
<p>A fluxgate gradiometer survey in July 2009 investigated standing stones in the garden of the Druids Arms public house known as The Cove, which showed that the stones date from nearly a thousand years before the stone circles. The conclusion from the study was that these upright stones are likely to have been the portals or façade of a chambered tomb.</p><br>
<p>In 2010 a further survey was carried out by Bath and Camerton Archaeological Society and the Bath and North East Somerset Archaeological Officer. This involved high data density magnetometer, resistance pseudosection profiles and photographic surveys showed a new henge entrance and further detail of post holes.</p><br>
<h2>Myths about Stanton Drew</h2><br>
<p>Being a henge and stone circle site, astronomical alignments are a common theory to explain the positioning of the stones at Stanton Drew. Similarly, there are less well evidenced theories relating to ley lines.</p><br>
<p>One theory suggests the site was dedicated to funerary ritual. As a sacred site this is to be expected, but also then to be host to other significant events of the local community such as weddings and religious ceremonies.</p><br>
<p>There are several local traditional stories about the megalithic complex. The best known tells how a wedding party was turned to stone: the party was held throughout Saturday, but a man clothed in black (the Devil in disguise) came and started to play his violin for the merrymakers after midnight, continuing into holy Sunday morning. When dawn broke, everybody had been turned to stone by the Demon: so the stone circles are the dancers, the avenues are the fiddlers and The Cove is the bride and the groom with the drunken churchman at their feet. They are still awaiting the Devil who promised to come back someday and play again for them.</p><br>
<p>Wade and Wade in their 1929 book "Somerset" suggest:</p><br>
<p>One of the curiosities of the place is Hautvilles Quoit, which, to save time, should also be looked for on approaching the village. (Enter iron gate on L. a few hundred yards before reaching tollhouse, and search backwards along the hedge bordering road.) It is a large stone, which legend says was hurled by Sir J. Hautville (whose effigy is in Chew Magna Church) from the top of Maes Knoll. The famous "druidical remains" will be found near the church. About 50 yards from the entrance to the churchyard take a lane to the L. leading to an orchard: the stones will be observed in the field beyond (admission free, but field closed on Sundays). The "remains" consist of three contiguous circles. The first is of considerable area, and is marked out by twelve large stones, only three of which remain upright; a smaller circle of eight stones lies just beyond; and a third circle of eight will be found farther away in an orchard on the R. The two larger circles have each a few scattered stones thrown off as a kind of avenue. Standing apart from the circles is a curious group of three stones huddled together in a garden abutting on the churchyard, from which they can be easily seen by looking over the W. boundary wall. These mystic rings probably had the same origin (whatever that may have been) as that of the more famous circle at Avebury in Wiltshire, with which they should be compared. The proximity of Maes Knoll is comparable with that of Silbury Hill. A ridiculous theory suggests that the monoliths were erected as a trophy after one of Arthurs victories. Arthur is connected to the site because a site in the nearby village of Camerley is reputed to be the location of Camelot in an oral tradition. The stones are of a reddish hue similar to that described in the Arthurian legend as connected to Camelot and to a sword that was seen in a stone near to Camelot. The country story is that a local wedding once took place on a Sunday, when the frivolous guests would insist on winding up with a dance. The penalty for a "Sabbath" thus "profaned" was the prompt transformation of the bridal party into stone. Hence the local appellation of "The fiddlers and the maids".</p><br>
<p>Maumbury Rings is a Neolithic henge in the south of Dorchester town in Dorset, England. It is a large circular earthwork, 85 metres in diameter, with a single bank and an entrance to the north east. It was modified during the Roman period when it was adapted for use as an amphitheatre, and the site was remodelled again during the English Civil War when it was used as an artillery fort guarding the southern approach to Dorchester. The monument is now a public open space, and used for open-air concerts, festivals and re-enactments.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Maumbury Rings is a roughly circular henge situated close to the centre of Dorchester. It has an internal diameter of around 50 metres. The bank has an average width of 4 metres, and is around 5.6 metres high internally and 4.0 metres high externally. A bulge in the earthworks to the southwest marks the site of a gun emplacement built during the English Civil War, and the inner side of the bank was terraced on the east and west sides at this time. There is no trace of the original internal ditch.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Neolithic</h3><br>
<p>Maumbury Rings were excavated by Harold St George Gray from 1908&ndash;1913. They contained various deposits including antler, animal and human bone, flints and carved chalk. A single Grooved ware pottery sherd was recovered from one pit, and a later Beaker sherd was recovered from the fill of another pit. The henge had a single entrance on the northeast side. It is recorded that a large stone was discovered during cultivation in 1849 to the west of the entrance, but it was reburied and has not been seen since.</p><br>
<p>Around 2 km due east are the faint traces of a larger henge known as Mount Pleasant henge, and archaeology has revealed the presence of another Neolithic enclosure known as Flagstones near there. In addition, when archaeologists were digging on the site of the Tudor Arcade/Waitrose development in the 1980s (around 800 metres northeast of Maumbury Rings) they discovered large timber postholes. The evidence suggests that they were part of a large Neolithic enclosure with a diameter of around 300 to 400 metres. Red markings, denoting sites of some of the timber posts, can be seen in the car park of Waitrose.</p><br>
<h3>Roman era</h3><br>
<p>Maumbury Rings was remodelled in the Roman period when it was adapted for use as an amphitheatre for the use of the citizens of the nearby Roman town of Durnovaria (Dorchester). The banks were lowered by around 3 metres, with the material produced piled onto the banks. The interior was modified by the excavation of an oval, level arena floor, and the cutting of seating into the scarp and bank which was revetted with either chalk or timber. Chambers were cut into the bank to the south-west and one on each side of the centre. Finds found during the excavations include an uninscribed British coin, Roman pottery, leg bones, coins, and a 2nd-century burial. The amphitheatre may have been out of use by the mid-2nd century, although objects found on the arena floor and elsewhere suggest activity in the 4th century.</p><br>
<h3>Civil war</h3><br>
<p>Between 1642 and 1643 the henge was modified in response to the English Civil War. The site was used as an artillery fort by Parliament supporters in order to guard the southern approach to Dorchester. This involved the placing of a gun platform and a ramp on the southwest side, and the internal terrace was built. An unfinished well near the northwest edge of the arena and finds of 160 lead pistol bullets on the east bank all date to this time, along with a ditch beyond the northern enclosure bank.</p><br>
<h3>Later use</h3><br>
<p>Its amphitheatre role was briefly revived in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, as a place of public execution. In 1685, at the close of the Monmouth Rebellion, Judge Jeffreys ordered eighty of the rebels to be executed here. In 1705 Mary Channing, a nineteen-year-old woman found guilty of poisoning her husband, was executed by strangulation and burning at the Rings. Thomas Hardy used this event in his poem The Mock Wife and mentioned it in The Mayor of Casterbridge, as well as recording some details of his research into the event in his personal writings.</p><br>
<p>By the later 18th century, the enclosure was being used as farmland.</p><br>
<h3>The site today</h3><br>
<p>The monument is now a public open space, and used for open-air concerts, festivals and re-enactments. Finds from the excavations are in the Dorset County Museum.</p><br>
<p>King Arthur&#39;s Round Table is a Neolithic henge in the village of Eamont Bridge within the English county of Cumbria, around 2 km south east of Penrith. It is 400 metres from Mayburgh Henge. The site is free to visitors and is under the control of English Heritage.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>King Arthur&#39;s Round Table is a henge situated in a field next to the A6 road in the village of Eamont Bridge, south of Penrith, Cumbria. The northern part of the henge is now covered by the B5320 road and the Crown Hotel, while the A6 road has encroached on the eastern part. The larger Mayburgh Henge is just 400 metres to the west, and the fragments of the Little Round Table henge are 200 metres to the south. This indicates the presence of a henge complex and possible ritual landscape similar to those at Thornborough or Salisbury Plain.</p><br>
<p>The henge is around 90 metres in diameter. The enclosed area is about 50 metres across; the ditch has a maximum width of 16 metres; the berm 7 metres; and the bank 13 metres. There appears to have been two original entrances, but only the south-east entrance survives as the northwest entrance has been mostly destroyed by the modern road. Parts of the henge were landscaped in the late 18th to early 19th century, apparently with an intent to use the site as a tea garden. The site is in the care of English Heritage and open to the public.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeology</h2><br>
<p>Around 1664 William Dugdale sketched the remains, showing the two opposing entrances, and also showing that there were two standing stones, one either side of the northwest entrance. These stones had disappeared when William Stukeley saw the monument in 1725. In 1891, C. W. Dymond produced a comprehensive record of the remains.</p><br>
<p>Excavations were undertaken in 1937 by R. G. Collingwood and continued in 1939 by Gerhard Bersu. The excavations showed that the ditch had been cleared out and reshaped and the entrance through it made narrower in modern times. Collingwood claimed to have identified a number of structures, represented by postholes, and identified a "cremation trench" near the centre of the site. Bersu, however, contradicted most of Collingwood&#39;s findings, arguing that the posthole features were not of archaeological significance, and he found no evidence of cremation burning, although he accepted that there might be a disturbed grave. However Grace Simpson, the daughter of the excavator F.G. Simpson, has queried Bersu’s work and largely rehabilitated Collingwood as an excavator.</p><br>
<p>In 1988 a geophysical survey was conducted to examine the north segment and the southeast entrance, but the results were directly affected by the 18th-19th century landscaping.</p><br>
<h2>Little Round Table</h2><br>
<p>Little Round Table henge is 200 metres to the south of King Arthur&#39;s Round Table. It is mostly destroyed by buildings, tracks and roads. There is a barely discernible bank on the northern side 30 metres in length, up to 5 metres wide, but only 15 centimetres high. There are some fragmentary traces of a low earthen bank with some stone visible along the south side. These remains suggest that the site was originally about 90 metres in diameter. This corresponds to the sketch William Stukeley made in 1725 showing a roughly circular enclosure circa 90 metres in diameter with a bank with outer ditch.</p><br>
<p> is a man-made hill in Berlin, Germany, in the Grunewald locality of former West Berlin. It rises about 80 m above the surrounding Teltow plateau and 120.1 m above the sea level, in the north of Berlins Grunewald Forest. It was named after the Teufelssee  in its southerly vicinity. The hill is made of rubble, and covers an under-construction Nazi military-technical college . During the Cold War, there was a USA listening station on the hill, Field Station Berlin.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Teufelsberg is a man-made hill, created in the 20 years following the Second World War by moving approximately 75,000,000 m&sup3; of debris from Berlin.</p><br>
<p>After the Communist putsch in the city parliament of Greater Berlin (for all four sectors of Berlin) in September 1948, separate parliaments and magistrates (Magistrat von Groß-Berlin; city government) were formed for East and West Berlin. This also ended much of the cooperation between West Berlin and the state of Brandenburg, surrounding West Berlin in the North, West and South.</p><br>
<p>While part of the rubble from destroyed quarters in East Berlin was deposited outside the city boundary, all the debris from West Berlin had to be dumped within the western boundary.</p><br>
<p>Although there are many similar man-made rubble mounds in Germany (see Schuttberg) and other war-torn cities of Europe, Teufelsberg is unique in that the never completed Nazi military-technical college (Wehrtechnische Fakultät) designed by Albert Speer is buried beneath. The Allies tried using explosives to demolish the school, but it was so sturdy that covering it with debris turned out to be easier. In June 1950 the West Berlin Magistrate decided to open a new rubble disposal on that site. The disposal was planned for 12,000,000 m&sup3;.</p><br>
<p>With the end of material shortages after the blockade, an average of 600 trucks deposited 6,800 m&sup3; of material daily. On 14 November 1957, the ten millionth cubic metre arrived. The site was closed to dumping in 1972, leaving approximately 26,000,000 m&sup3; of debris, and to a lesser extent construction waste. The Senate of Berlin (West) opted to plant greenery on the hill as a beautification project.</p><br>
<p>Teufelsberg was originally thought to be 115 m high, which placed it at the same elevation as (Großer Müggelberg, cf. Müggelberge), and was the highest point in West Berlin. New measurements show that Teufelsberg is actually 120.1 m high, making it higher than Großer Müggelberg.</p><br>
<p>In February 1955, a 24 m ski jump opened on the hill, designed by the ski jumper and architect Heini Klopfer. A larger ski jump opened March 4, 1962, offering space for 5,000 spectators. Ski jumping ceased in 1969, allowing the ski jumps to fall into decay. The jumps were removed in 1999.</p><br>
<p>Teufelsberg has been a location for several recent movies and television programmes, such as The Gamblers, Covert Affairs (2nd-season episode titled "Uberlin") and We Are the Night in which the finale takes place on Teufelsberg.</p><br>
<p>As in the whole of Grunewald Forest, wild boar frequently roam the hill.</p><br>
<h2>Listening Station: Field Station Berlin</h2><br>
<p>The US National Security Agency (NSA) built one of its largest listening stations atop the hill, rumored to be part of the global ECHELON intelligence gathering network. "The Hill", as it was known colloquially by the many American soldiers who worked there around the clock and who commuted there from their quarters in the American Sector, was located in the British Sector. In July 1961, Mobile Allied listening units began operations on Teufelsberg, having surveyed various other locales throughout West Berlin in a search for the best vantage point for listening to Soviet, East German, and other Warsaw Pact nations military traffic. They found that operations from atop Teufelsberg offered a marked improvement in listening ability. This discovery eventually led to a large structure being built atop the hill, which would come to be run by the NSA (National Security Agency). Construction of a permanent facility was begun in October 1963. At the request of US government, the ski lifts were removed because they allegedly disturbed the signals. The station continued to operate until the fall of East Germany and the Berlin Wall, but after that the station was closed and the equipment removed. The buildings and antenna radomes still remain in place.</p><br>
<p>During the NSA Operations some other curious things happened: It was noticed that during certain times the reception of the radio signals was better than during the rest of the year. The culprit was found after a while: it was the Ferris wheel of the annual German-American Volksfest Festival on the Hüttenweg in Zehlendorf. From then on, the Ferris wheel was left standing for some time after the festival was over. While there were rumors that the Americans had excavated a shaft down into the ruins beneath, that was never proven, and was likely based on reports that those who maintained equipment in one of the first enclosed antenna structures accessed the upper levels of the inflated dome via an airlock that led to a "tunnel" that was embedded in the structure&#39;s central column. Speculation as to what might have existed within the highly restricted area frequently gave rise to rather elaborate but false rumors; one theory stated that "the tunnel" was an underground escape route, another that it housed a submarine base.</p><br>
<p>In the 1990s, as Berlin experienced an economic boom after German reunification, a group of investors bought the former listening station area from the City of Berlin with the intention to build hotels and apartments. There was talk of preserving the listening station as a spy museum. Berlins building boom produced a glut of buildings, however, and the Teufelsberg project became unprofitable. The construction project was then aborted. As of the early 2000s, there has been talk of the city buying back the hill. However, this is unlikely, as the area is encumbered with a mortgage of nearly 50 million dollars. The site has been heavily covered in graffiti since the company abandoned the project. Since 1996, the site has been privately owned and is currently fenced off from the surrounding park. In the summer of 2016, landlord Marvin Schutte opened the site to visitors who are able to climb the listening station towers and admire the ever-evolving "street art gallery" that fills the sites abandoned buildings. The site and buildings have uneven surfaces, broken glass, and building debris. Accessing the main dome involves ascending a pitch dark stairwell in the centre of the building. As of April 2017, entry to the site is €8 payable at the main entrance gate and a sign informs visitors that it is open from 10am to "one hour before sunset."</p><br>
<p>Following the announcement of plans to raze the facility and reforest the hill, talk of preserving the facility resurfaced in 2009, spearheaded by the Field Station Berlin Veterans Group, which hopes to have the memorial named in honor of Major Arthur D. Nicholson, the last military Cold War casualty, the USA Military Liaison Mission tour officer who was shot and killed by a Russian sentry near Ludwigslust on March 24, 1985. After no further construction was done after 2004, in 2006 the hilltop was categorized as forest in the land use plan of Berlin, thereby eliminating the possibility of building.</p><br>
<p>In September 2013, USA Army Teufelsberg veterans marked the fiftieth anniversary (1963-2013) of the construction of the permanent buildings for Field Station Berlin atop Teufelsberg with a special Commemorative issue of Cinderella stamps, and with the dedication of a commemorative plaque. The designer is T.H.E. Hill, the award-winning author of two novels about Field Station Berlin.</p><br>
<h2>Media</h2><br>
<h3>Novels about Field Station Berlin</h3><br>
<h4>Insiders</h4><br>
<p>William Durie, "The United States Garrison Berlin 1945-1994", Aug 2014.</p><br>
<p>C Trick: Sort of a Memoir (memoir) by Don Cooper (2000). Republished and expanded in 2003 in soft-cover as Worth the Trip. Re-republished as C Trick in 2010 with a prologue, new epilogue, and four new chapters. An ASA German linguist at Field Station Berlin in the mid-1960s.</p><br>
<p>Death On Devil&#39;s Mountain (novel) by David Von Norden (pen name) (2009). ASA on Teufelsberg at Field Station Berlin in the late 1960s.</p><br>
<p>McCurry&#39;s War (novel) by Chuck Thompson (2012): Field Station Berlin atop Teufelsberg in the 1960s. A closer look at the escapades of the soldiers of Teufelsberg with a little bit of humor mixed in that only the Army could provide.</p><br>
<p>Reunification: A Monterey Mary Returns to Berlin by T.H.E. Hill (2013): A comparison of Berlin in the 1970s with Berlin in the 2010s, spiced up with the stories of escapades that only ASA-ers at the Field Station could have pulled off.</p><br>
<p>Voices Under Berlin: The Tale of a Monterey Mary (novel) by T.H.E. Hill (2008): An ASA Russian linguist in Berlin ostensibly in the mid-1950s, but closer in reality to the Field Station in the mid-1970s.</p><br>
<p>From Pin Stripes to Army Stripes by Sergeant Michael Riles (memoir) of experiences in occupied Germany from 1977-1981.</p><br>
<h4>Outsiders</h4><br>
<p>The Wall by John Marks (1999): an officer at the Field Station defects to the East just hours before the Wall falls; an outsider’s view of Field Station Berlin.</p><br>
<h3>Audio</h3><br>
<h3>Television</h3><br>
<p>The Same Sky</p><br>
<p>Berlin Station</p><br>
<p>The First Baptist Church in America is the First Baptist Church of Providence, Rhode Island, also known as First Baptist Meetinghouse. It is the oldest Baptist church congregation in the United States, founded by Roger Williams in Providence, Rhode Island in 1638. The present church building was erected in 1774–75 and held its first meetings in May 1775. It is located at 75 North Main Street in Providence&#39;s College Hill neighborhood and is a National Historic Landmark.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Roger Williams had been holding religious services in his home for nearly a year before he converted his congregation into a Baptist church in 1638. This followed his founding of Providence in 1636. For the next sixty years, the congregation met outside in nice weather or in congregants&#39; homes. Baptists in Rhode Island through most of the 17th century declined to erect meetinghouses because they felt that buildings reflected vanity. Eventually, however, they came to see the utility of some gathering place, and they erected severely plain-style meetinghouses like the Quakers.</p><br>
<p>Roger Williams was a Calvinist, but within a few years of its founding, the congregation became more Arminian, and was clearly a General Six-Principle Baptist church by 1652. It remained a General Baptist church until it switched back to a Calvinist variety under the leadership of James Manning in the 1770s. Following Williams as pastor of the church was Rev. Chad Brown, founder of the famous Brown family of Rhode Island. A number of the streets in Providence bear the names of pastors of First Baptist Church, including Williams, Brown, Gregory Dexter, Thomas Olney, William Wickenden, Manning, and Stephen Gano. In 1700 Reverend Pardon Tillinghast built the first church building, a 400 ft&sup2; structure, near the corner of Smith and North Main Streets. In 1711 he donated the building and land to the church in a deed describing the church as General Six-Principle Baptist in theology. In 1736 the congregation built its second meetinghouse on an adjoining lot at the corner of Smith and North Main Streets. This building was about 40 × 40 feet square.</p><br>
<p>When it was built in 1774–75, the current Meeting House represented a dramatic departure from the traditional Baptist meetinghouse style. It was the first Baptist meetinghouse to have a steeple and bell, making it more like Anglican and Congregational church buildings. The builders were part of a movement among Baptists in the urban centers of Boston, Newport, New York, and Philadelphia to bring respectability and recognition to Baptists.</p><br>
<h3>Association with Brown University</h3><br>
<p>Central to that movement was the creation of an educated ministry and the founding of a college. The Philadelphia Association of Baptist Churches sent Dr. James Manning to Rhode Island to found the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (later renamed Brown University) in 1764. Beginning in Warren, the college then relocated to Providence in 1770. The college president, the Reverend Manning was called to be the pastor of the Providence church in 1771, and during his ministry the present Meeting House was erected "for the publick worship of Almighty God and also for holding commencement in." Subsequent Brown presidents Maxcy and Wayland also served as ministers at the church. The Brown family that soon gave its name to the University were prominent members of the Church, and descendants of founders of the Church, as well as, the Rhode Island Colony (the second pastor of the congregation after Roger Williams was Rev. Chad Brown). Although the university is now secular, in honor of its history and tradition, the Meeting House continues, as it has since 1776, to be the site for Brown University&#39;s undergraduate commencement.</p><br>
<p>Construction began on the building in the summer of 1774, and it was the biggest building project in New England at the time. Due to the closure of the Massachusetts ports by the British as punishment for the Boston Tea Party, out-of-work ship builders and carpenters came to Providence to work on the Meeting House. The main portion of the Meeting House was dedicated in mid-May 1775, and the steeple erected in just three days in the first week of June. Notable additions to the Meeting House have included a Waterford crystal chandelier given by Hope Brown Ives (1792), a large pipe organ given by her brother Nicholas Brown, Jr., the younger (1834), the creation of rooms for Sunday school, fellowship hall, and offices on the lower level (1819–59), and an addition to the east end of the Meeting House to accommodate an indoor baptistery (1884). The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.</p><br>
<h2>Today</h2><br>
<p>In addition to weekly worship services, the Meeting House hosts concerts, talks, and lectures by world-renowned artists, performers, academics, and elected officials. Brown University holds commencement services at The Meeting House.</p><br>
<p>In 2001, History professor J. Stanley Lemons wrote a history of the church, entitled First: The History of the First Baptist Church in America</p><br>
<h2>Affiliations</h2><br>
<p>The First Baptist Church in America is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches of Rhode Island (ABCORI) and the American Baptist Churches/USA (ABCUSA). The church actively supports the Rhode Island State Council of Churches, the National Council of Churches, the Baptist World Alliance, and the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. Many members have served in various denominational, academic, and divinity school positions, including the presidency of Brown University.</p><br>
<h2>Settled ministers (sometimes simultaneous pastorships)</h2><br>
<p>Roger Williams, 1638–39</p><br>
<p>Chad Brown, 1639 – before 1650</p><br>
<p>Thomas Olney, 1639–1652</p><br>
<p>William Wickenden, 1642–1670</p><br>
<p>Gregory Dexter, 1654–1700</p><br>
<p>Pardon Tillinghast, 1681–1718</p><br>
<p>Ebenezer Jenckes 1719–1726</p><br>
<p>James Brown 1726–1732</p><br>
<p>Samuel Winsor, 1733–1758</p><br>
<p>Thomas Burlingame 1733–1764</p><br>
<p>Samuel Winsor, Jr, 1759–1771</p><br>
<p>James Manning, 1771–1791</p><br>
<p>John Stanford, 1788–1789</p><br>
<p>Jonathan Maxcy, 1791–1792</p><br>
<p>Stephen Gano MD, 1792–1828</p><br>
<p>Robert Pattison, 1830–36</p><br>
<p>William Hague, 1837–40</p><br>
<p>Robert Pattison,1840–1842</p><br>
<p>James Granger, 1842–1857</p><br>
<p>Francis Wayland, 1857–1858</p><br>
<p>Samuel Caldwell, 1858–1873</p><br>
<p>Edward G. Taylor, 1875–1881</p><br>
<p>Thomas Edwin Brown, 1882–1890</p><br>
<p>Henry Melville King, 1891–1906</p><br>
<p>Elijah Abraham Hanley, 1907–1911</p><br>
<p>John F. Vichert, 1912–1916</p><br>
<p>Albert B. Cohoe, 1916–1920</p><br>
<p>Arthur W. Cleaves, 1922–1940</p><br>
<p>Albert C. Thomas, 1941–1954</p><br>
<p>Homer L. Trickett, 1955–1970</p><br>
<p>Robert G. Withers, 1971–1975</p><br>
<p>Richard D. Bausman, 1976–1982</p><br>
<p>Orland L. Tibbetts, 1983–1986</p><br>
<p>Dwight M. Lundgren, 1983–1996</p><br>
<p>Kate Harvey Penfield, 1987–1995</p><br>
<p>Clifford R. Hockensmith, 1997–1999</p><br>
<p>James C. Miller, 2000–2005</p><br>
<p>Dan Ivins, 2006–2014</p><br>
<p>Jamie Washam, 2015-</p><br>
