<p>Bokak Atoll  or Taongi Atoll is an uninhabited coral atoll in the Ratak Chain of the Marshall Islands, located in the North Pacific Ocean at {{coord|14|32|N|169|00|E}}. Due to its relative isolation from the main islands in the group, Bokak has an undisturbed flora and fauna that has been allowed to exist in a pristine condition.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>It is located 685 km north of Majuro Atoll, the capital of the Marshall Islands, and 280 km northeast of Bikar Atoll, the closest atoll, making it the most northerly and most isolated atoll of the country. Wake Island is 348 mi north-northwest. The land area is 3.2 km&sup2;, and the lagoon measures 78 km&sup2;. It consists of 36 islets. The total area is 129 km&sup2; (including reef flat).</p><br>
<h2>Physical features</h2><br>
<p>Based on the results of drilling operations on Enewetak (Eniwetok) Atoll, in the nearby Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands, Bokak may include as much as 1,400 m of reef material atop a basalt rock base. As most local coral growth stops at about 45 m below the ocean surface, such a massive stony coral base suggests a gradual isostatic subsidence of the underlying extinct volcano, which itself rises 3,000 m from the surrounding ocean floor. Shallow water fossils taken from just above Enewetak&#39;s basalt base are dated to about 55mya.</p><br>
<p>High boulder and sand ridges indicate a history of severe storms and are a feature of the islets. Inland on the wider islets are sand and rubble flats, while back from the lagoon sides are low sand and gravel ridges. Soils are mostly very immature, a mixture of coarser coral sand and gravel of various textures with very little humus accumulation. The lagoon is shallow, probably not exceeding 30 m depth, and has many coral heads and patch reefs, some reaching the surface.</p><br>
<p>The lagoon water level is up to 1 m higher than the surrounding ocean due to an influx of wind-driven waters over the windward ocean reef and the presence of only one narrow reef passage on the leeward side. Water cascades over the coral-covered rim and flats of the sloping leeward reef. A massive algal ridge lines the outer edge of the windward reef, while the south and west reefs are coral-covered narrow flats where landings can be made in quiet weather. A very small algal rim, 100 – high, on lagoon shores of the westernmost islets, on east-facing lagoon reef-fronts and on the windward edges of coral patches in the lagoon, may be a feature unique to Taongi. This rim is maintained by the constant flow of water over the reef flat.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>Bokak is the driest of the Marshall Islands atolls, having a semi-arid character. Mean annual temperature is approximately 28 &deg;C. Mean annual rainfall is less than 1,000 mm, and falls primarily during the late summer. Prevailing winds are north to north-easterlies.</p><br>
<h2>Vegetation</h2><br>
<p>Pure stands of very dense beach naupaka shrubland, sometimes with tree heliotrope, are predominant and cover 50-75% of southern, and nearly 100% of northeastern Sibylla. Heliotropium, Scaevola, and Sida dominated shrublands and the sandy bunchgrass savanna (Lepturus spp.) represent the finest examples of such vegetation in the Marshalls and probably the entire Pacific region.</p><br>
<p>The aquatic vegetation of the shallow edges of the lagoon consists of sparse coralline algae, encrusting fragments of coral, shell etc., and patches of green seaweed.</p><br>
<h2>Fauna</h2><br>
<p>Terrestrial species includes the Polynesian rat on Sibylla. The more aggressive black rat appears to be absent, despite wrecked fishing vessels on the eastern and north eastern reefs. The snake-eyed skink and large hermit crabs are common.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Prehistory</h3><br>
<p>Although humans migrated to the Marshall Islands about 2000 years ago, there appear to be no traditional Marshallese artifacts present that would indicate any long term settlement. The harsh, desiccated climate, lack of potable water, and poverty of the soils indicate that the atoll will probably remain uninhabited. The atoll has traditionally been used for hunting and gathering, particularly seabirds, by inhabitants of other atolls in the northern Ratak chain.</p><br>
<h3>16th to 19th Century</h3><br>
<p>The first European to record discovering Bokak was Toribio Alonso de Salazar, a Spanish explorer, on August 22, 1526, who commanded Loaisa expedition after the death of Loaisa and Elcano. It was charted as San Bartolome. It was explored by Spanish naval officer Fernando Quintano in 1795. A number of other Western ships recorded landfall on or passage by Bokak over the following three hundred years, but no attempt at settlement or establishment of food animals was noted, likely due to the arid conditions, and more fertile atolls nearby.</p><br>
<p>The Marshall Islands were added to the protectorate of German New Guinea in 1906. Using the justification that uninhabited atolls were unclaimed, the Germans seized Bokak as government property, despite the protests of the Iroji. As Japan&#39;s economic vigor expanded under the Meiji Emperor, the German administration noted Marshallese complaints of Japanese bird poaching, more from the view of protecting German sovereignty, rather than the interests of the islanders.</p><br>
<h3>20th century to present</h3><br>
<p>In 1914, the Empire of Japan occupied the Marshall Islands, and transferred German government properties to their own, including Bokak. Like the Germans before them, the Japanese colonial administration did not attempt to exploit the atoll, and the Northern Radak Marshallese continued to hunt and fish unmolested.</p><br>
<p>As a part of the 1940s Japanese militarization of the Marshall Islands, a small seaplane and communication outpost was established on Sibylla Island. During the early stages of the World War II, USN submarines operating in the area would periodically note patrols by Japanese aircraft. In March, 1943, the 20 man garrison was removed to Wake Island because of the lack of food and their general inability to sustain themselves on Bokak. Air elements of the USAAF, USN, and USMC bombed the (abandoned) facility on April 23, 1944.</p><br>
<p>The Marshall Islands as a whole were transferred to American administration in the wake of battles with Japanese forces in 1944. In September, 1945, as a part of the post-war repatriation of Japanese from their former Pacific possessions, a landing party was dispatched on LCI(L) 601 from Kwajalein to Bokak Atoll, and in conjunction with a PBM Mariner searched for potential survivors. Two days of search failed to turn up any survivors, human remains, or graves.</p><br>
<p>In 1954, the experience of large scale fallout from the Castle Bravo nuclear test on Bikini Atoll led to a pre-planned aerial survey of atolls adjacent to the subsequent Castle Romeo test, timed at one and four hours after the shot. The aircraft were equipped with gamma radiation detectors designed to measure ground contamination from altitudes of 200 -. An overflight of Sibylla Island measured 1.0 mrem/hr (10 μGy) an hour after the shot, dropping to 0.4 mrem/hr (4 μGy) three hours later. In 1957, Bokak was surveyed as a site for nuclear weapons testing as a part of Operation Hardtack, but due the number of improvements required to develop it, was passed over in favor of reusing the Bikini, Enewetak, and Nevada test sites. The atoll came under renewed consideration for use during Operation Dominic, but by that time the potential for political fallout from nuclear testing within a United Nations Trust Territory was deemed too great.</p><br>
<p>The atoll played a part in the disappearance of several men from Maui, Hawaii. On February 11, 1979, Scott Moorman and four companions set sail from Hana harbor in a 17-foot Boston Whaler, and went missing in subsequent high seas. The boat and buried remains of Moorman were discovered 3,760 km away on Bokak in 1988.</p><br>
<p>In August, 2003, two ham radio enthusiasts from Texas camped on Sibylla Island for 76 hours to inaugurate the first Taongi ham station, call sign V73T, and assigned the IOTA reference number OC-263. The station transmitted from coordinates {{coord|14|36.574|N|168|59.977|E}}.</p><br>
<p>The Dominion of Melchizedek, an unrecognized micronation, claims sovereignty over Bokak, based on a 45-year lease allegedly granted by the Iroji Lablab. The rights conveyed to DOM cannot be greater than the traditional leader possessed themself. As such they are still subject to the Government of the Marshall Islands and are not independent.</p><br>
<p>Currently, historic remains include an abandoned camp/homestead, several wrecked ships and the remnant of the former World War Two Japanese communication outpost.</p><br>
<h2>Footnotes</h2><br>
<p>The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d&#39;Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such as the Mont Blanc massif, are shared with Switzerland and/or Italy.</p><br>
<p>At 4,808 m, Mont Blanc (Italian: Monte Bianco), on the French-Italian border, is the highest mountain in the Alps, and the highest Western European mountain.</p><br>
<p>Notable towns in the French Alps include Grenoble, Chamonix, Annecy, Chambéry, Évian-les-Bains and Albertville.</p><br>
<h2>Ranges and summits</h2><br>
<h2>Ski areas</h2><br>
<p>The largest connected ski areas are:</p><br>
<p>Les Trois Vallées (Courchevel, Méribel, La Tania, Brides-les-Bains, Saint-Martin-de-Belleville, Les Menuires, Val Thorens and Orelle): 338 slopes, 600 km of pistes.</p><br>
<p>Portes du Soleil (Avoriaz, Châtel, Morzine, Les Gets, Saint-Jean dAulps, La Chapelle dAbondance, Abondance, Montriond, Swiss resorts): 288 slopes, 650 km of slopes not entirely connected.</p><br>
<p>Paradiski (La Plagne, Peisey-Vallandry, Les Arcs), Champagny-en-Vanoise: 239 slopes, 420 km of slopes.</p><br>
<p>Via Lattea (Montgenèvre, Italian resorts): 214 slopes, 400 km of slopes.</p><br>
<p>Évasion Mont-Blanc (Combloux, Megève, Saint-Gervais, Saint-Nicolas-de-Véroce, Les Contamines Monjoie): 183 slopes, 420 km of slopes not entirely connected.</p><br>
<p>Espace Killy (Tignes, Val-d&#39;Isère): 137 slopes, 300 km of slopes.</p><br>
<p>Grand Massif (Flaine, Les Carroz, Morillon, Samoëns, Sixt): 134 slopes, 265 km of slopes.</p><br>
<p>Les Aravis (La Clusaz, Manigod, La Croix Fry, Merdassier, Le Grand-Bornand): 133 slopes, 220 km of slopes not entirely connected.</p><br>
<p>Les Grandes Rousses (LAlpe dHuez, Vaujany, Auris-en-Oisans, Oz-en-Oisans, Villard-Reculas): 117 slopes, 236 km of slopes.</p><br>
<p>Serre Chevalier: 111 slopes, 250 km of slopes.</p><br>
<p>La Forêt Blanche (Risoul, Vars): 104 slopes, 180 km of slopes.</p><br>
<p>Les Sybelles (Le Corbier, La Toussuire, Les Bottières, Saint-Jean-dArves, Saint-Sorlin-dArves, Saint-Colomban-des-Villards): 96 slopes, 310 km of slopes.</p><br>
<p>Valloire and Valmeinier: 83 slopes, 150 km of slopes.</p><br>
<p>Grand Domaine (Valmorel, Saint-François-Longchamp): 82 slopes, 150 km of slopes</p><br>
<p>Espace San Bernardo (La Rosière, La Thuile - Italy): 73 slopes, 150 km of slopes.</p><br>
<p>Les Deux Alpes and La Grave: 69 slopes, 220 km of slopes.</p><br>
<p>The other large ski areas are:</p><br>
<p>Le Val d&#39;Arly (Praz-sur-Arly, Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe, Flumet): 150 km of slopes.</p><br>
<p>L&#39;Espace Cristal (Les Saisies, Crest-Voland): 80 km of slopes</p><br>
<p>LEspace Diamant is a combination of Espace Val dArly and Espace Cristal with 185 km of slopes</p><br>
<p>Villard-de-Lans et Corrençon-en-Vercors: 125 km of slopes</p><br>
<p>Valberg - Beuil les Launes: 90 km of slopes</p><br>
<p>Espace Lumière (Pra-Loup, Val d&#39;Allos): 170 km of slopes</p><br>
<p>Superdévoluy - La Joue du Loup: 100 km of slopes</p><br>
<h2>Activities</h2><br>
<p>A range of winter and summer activities are available in the French Alps. In the winter, these include skiing and snowboarding as well as alternatives such as snowshoeing, sledging. There is a range of other activities that happen such as gliding which most happens during the summer months. Summer activities include hiking, mountaineering, biking and rock climbing.</p><br>
<p>Piton de la Fournaise : "Peak of the Furnace" is a shield volcano on the eastern side of Réunion island  in the Indian Ocean. It is currently one of the most active volcanoes in the world, along with Kīlauea in the Hawaiian Islands , Stromboli, Etna  and Mount Erebus in Antarctica. A previous eruption began in August 2006 and ended in January 2007. The volcano erupted again in February 2007, on 21 September 2008, on 9 December 2010, which lasted for two days. and on 1 August 2015. The most recent eruption began on 14 July 2017. The volcano is located within Réunion National Park, a World Heritage site.</p><br>
<p>Piton de la Fournaise is often known locally as le Volcan (The Volcano); it is a major tourist attraction on Réunion island.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The top part of the volcano is occupied by the Enclos Fouqué, a caldera 8 km wide. High cliffs known as remparts form the caldera&#39;s rim. The caldera is breached to the southeast into the sea. It is unstable and is in the initial stages of failure. It will eventually collapse into the Indian Ocean. Whether it will generate a so-called "megatsunami" is controversial. There is evidence on the submerged flanks and abyssal plain of earlier failures. The lower slopes are known as the Grand Brûlé ("Great Burnt"). Most volcanic eruptions are confined to the caldera.</p><br>
<p>Inside the caldera is a 400 meter high lava shield known as Dolomieu. Atop the lava shield are Bory Crater (Cratère Bory) and Dolomieu Crater (Cratère Dolomieu), named for French geologist Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu, which is by far the wider of the two.</p><br>
<p>Many craters and spatter cones can be found inside the caldera and the outer flanks of the volcano. At the beginning of the path that leads to the summit, there lies a noticeable small crater known as Formica Leo, named for its similar shape to the pitfall built by the antlion.</p><br>
<p>Located outside of the main caldera is Commerson crater, an extinct caldera notable for receiving intense rainfall, particularly during tropical storms. During Cyclone Hyacinthe in January 1980, it received 6,433 mm of rainfall in 15 days, the most precipitation dropped by a tropical cyclone in a single location.</p><br>
<p>Some of the beaches there are of a greenish colour, because of the olivine sand resulting from picrite basalt lavas. The Grand Brûlé is formed from solidified lava flows accumulated over hundreds of thousands of years; the most recent ones are often the darkest and most vegetation-free, while older ones can be covered by dense wild vegetation. Iridium is being ejected through these vents.</p><br>
<p>This volcano is over 530,000 years old, and for most of its history, its flows have intermingled with those from Piton des Neiges, a larger, older and heavily eroded extinct volcano which forms the northwest two-thirds of Réunion Island. There were three episodes of caldera collapses 250,000, 65,000 and 5,000 years ago. The volcano was formed by the Réunion hotspot, which is believed to have been active for the past 66 million years. There is evidence for explosive eruptions in the past. One explosive eruption about 4,700 years ago may have had a VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index) of 5, which is the same as the 18 May 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.</p><br>
<h2>Eruptions</h2><br>
<p>Eruptions within the caldera do not cause much devastation, because the caldera is uninhabited, but little infrastructure exists apart from the highway. Lava flows are generally confined to the caldera. However, lava flows have been known to cross the N2 highway; areas where the road was destroyed by the eruption are signposted with the year of eruption after the road is rebuilt. In the early 2000s, the highway thus was destroyed once or more times a year; road engineering services then wait for the lava to cool off and build another stretch of road. It is worth noting that for months after an eruption, the core of the lava flows can still be hot enough to steam in rainy weather.</p><br>
<p>Eruptions outside of the caldera can pose serious hazards to the population, but are rare. Only six eruptions outside of the caldera have been recorded, most recently in 1986. The village of Piton-Sainte-Rose was evacuated in 1977 before it was inundated by a lava flow which destroyed several buildings. The lava flow crossed the highway and surrounded the local church, entered the front door, then stopped without destroying the building. The front entrance was later cleared out, and the church was brought back into service under the name of Notre-Dame des Laves ("Our Lady of the Lavas").</p><br>
<p>In April 2007 the volcano erupted and produced an estimated 3,000,000 cubic metres per day. During this eruption 2007 a caldera collapse occurred at the volcano. The collapse displacing 0.8 x 1.1 km floor downward by 330 m, with a volume of 120 million cubic metres. The caldera collapse accompanied one of the largest eruptions of lava at the volcano in the past 100 years.</p><br>
<h2>Monitoring</h2><br>
<p>Volcanic activity is constantly monitored by geophysical sensors (tiltmeters, extensometers, differential GPS receivers, etc.). The data from those various sensors is sent to the Piton de la Fournaise Volcano Observatory, located in Bourg-Murat, northwest of the volcano. The observatory, founded in 1978 following</p><br>
<p>the Piton-Sainte-Rose flow, is operated by the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (Global Geophysics Institute of Paris), in association with CNRS and the University of Réunion. The OVPF often publishes reports on Piton de la Fournaise&#39;s current activity via their website in French. RIGIC (the Réunion Island Geological Information Center) takes this information and translates it into English for distribution to the English-speaking scientific community.</p><br>
<p>Procedures specify several levels of alert, which are decided by the prefect of Réunion on the basis of scientific reports:</p><br>
<p>Pre-alert: Warnings about possible eruptions; hikers accessing the caldera are warned about possible developments.</p><br>
<p>Level 1: An eruption will occur soon; the public may not access the caldera until specialists have examined the situation and set pathways for those willing to admire the eruption.</p><br>
<p>Level 2: An eruption is occurring inside the caldera. Access to the caldera is restricted to authorized personnel only.</p><br>
<p>Level 3: An eruption is occurring or will occur soon outside of the caldera; some villages may have to be evacuated for safety.</p><br>
<h2>Visit</h2><br>
<p>A high quality forestry road, followed by a track (with lots of bumps), connects the highway of the plains in Bourg-Murat to the Pas de Bellecombe (Bellecombe Pass), where a parking lot and a snack bar are available to visitors. The Pas de Bellecombe is situated over the caldera rim cliffs and offers a good point of view over the northeast part of the caldera.</p><br>
<p>A good stairway path descends from the pass to the caldera floor. This path is closed for safety reasons during seismic events that may precede eruptions and during eruptions. White paint marks over rocks delimit a number of footpaths ascending the lava shield inside the caldera.</p><br>
<p>Visitors exploring the caldera should be in good physical condition, with hiking shoes and a supply of drinking water and food. They must be prepared to exercise caution, for the weather can change very quickly, moving from bright sunlight and heat (with risks of heatstroke) to dense fog with cold and rain. In dense fog, straying from paths is very risky. Visitors are advised to take the necessary precautions for sun, heat, cold and rain and not to stray from marked paths.</p><br>
<p>An excellent, albeit expensive, way to get a good sight of the volcano is to ride in the tourist helicopter flights offered by commercial companies on the island.</p><br>
<p>The lower parts of the Grand Brûlé can be visited from the N2 highway. Lava flows that have crossed the road are indicated by signs.</p><br>
<p>Completely free access during eruptions was permitted until 1998; access has been limited since that date, being virtually banned at present.</p><br>
<p>Bezymianny  is an active stratovolcano in Kamchatka, Russia. Bezymianny volcano had been considered extinct until 1955. Activity starting in 1955, cumulated in a dramatic eruption on 30 March 1956. This eruption, similar to that of Mount St. Helens in 1980, produced a large horseshoe-shaped crater that was formed by collapse of the summit and an associated lateral blast. Subsequent episodic but ongoing lava dome growth, accompanied by intermittent explosive activity and pyroclastic flows, has largely filled the 1956 crater. The most recent eruption of lava flows occurred in February 2013. The modern Bezymianny volcano, much smaller than its massive neighbors Kamen and Kliuchevskoi, was formed about 4700 years ago over a late-Pleistocene lava-dome complex and an ancestral volcano that was built between about 11,000–7000 years ago. There have been three periods of intensified activity in the past 3000 years.</p><br>
<p>Blair Castle stands in its grounds near the village of Blair Atholl in Perthshire in Scotland. It is the ancestral home of the Clan Murray, and was historically the seat of their chief, the Duke of Atholl, though the current  Duke, Bruce Murray, lives in South Africa. The castle stands in Glen Garry, and commands a strategic position on the main route  through the central Scottish Highlands.</p><br>
<p>The castle is a category A listed building, and the grounds are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, the national listing of significant gardens.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Blair Castle is said to have been started in 1269 by John I Comyn, Lord of Badenoch (died c. 1275), a northern neighbour of David I Strathbogie, Earl of Atholl (died 1270), who started building on the Earl&#39;s land while he was away on crusade. Upon his return, the Earl complained about the interloper to King Alexander III, won back his land and incorporated the tower that had been built into his own castle. David II Strathbogie, Earl of Atholl (died 1326), forfeited the titles and estates after rebelling against Robert the Bruce in 1322. The earldom was granted to a number of individuals until 1457 when James II granted it to his half-brother John Stewart (1440–1512). John Murray, son of the second Earl of Tullibardine, was created Earl of Atholl in 1629, and the title has since remained in the Murray family.</p><br>
<p>During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of the 17th century, the Murrays supported the Royalist cause, which led to Blair Castle being taken by Oliver Cromwell&#39;s army following his invasion of 1650. The restored Charles II created the title Marquess of Atholl for John Murray, 2nd Earl of Atholl (1631–1703). The title Duke of Atholl was granted to the 2nd Marquess in 1703.</p><br>
<p>When Viscount Dundee launched the first Jacobite Uprising in April 1689, Atholl decided to remain loyal to the Government (although two of his sons joined the Jacobites). Atholl’s factor, Patrick Stewart of Ballechin, held Blair Castle for King James, and Dundee visited in May. In July Ballechin refused entry to Atholl’s whiggish son and heir, Lord John Murray. Murray laid siege to the castle, and General Mackay was approaching to join him and to seize it for the Williamites. Viscount Dundee relieved the castle, and the crucial Battle of Killiecrankie was fought because Dundee did not want to retreat and surrender the castle to Mackay. Dundee and his officers and clan chiefs held a Council of War at the castle on the eve of the battle, on 26 July. The next day, the Jacobites won the battle but Dundee was killed.</p><br>
<p>After the battle, Blair Castle remained in Jacobite hands for some time. It continued to play an important role: for example, the Jacobite Highland chiefs swore a bond there together in August, to continue the rising.</p><br>
<p>In the Forty-Five, Blair Castle was occupied twice by Prince Charles Edward Stuart and his Jacobite army: in early September 1745, for several days, and then in early February 1746, again for several days. However, the Jacobites then unwisely abandoned it and Government forces, including Lowland Clan Agnew then occupied it. They held Blair Castle against the Jacobites, who laid siege to the castle during the last stages of the rising, in March 1746. They were besieged to near starvation until the Jacobite forces withdrew to fight the British Government forces at the Battle of Culloden.</p><br>
<p>In 1844 Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert visited and stayed at Blair Castle. It was after this she gave permission to establish the Atholl Highlanders.</p><br>
<p>Before his death in 1996, George Murray, 10th Duke of Atholl, placed Blair Castle and most of his estates in a charitable trust, shielding them from inheritance taxes and leaving them under Scottish control, as his heir John Murray, the 11th Duke had indicated he had no desire to leave his native South Africa.</p><br>
<p>On the night of 10 March 2011 a fire broke out at the clock tower of castle (not part of the medieval fabric), causing the tower&#39;s roof and second floor to collapse into the first floor. The clock tower was restored in 2012, with restoration work on the clock mechanisms performed by Smith of Derby Group.</p><br>
<h2>The castle and gardens</h2><br>
<p>The oldest part of the castle is the six-storey Cummings or Comyn&#39;s Tower, which may retain some 13th-century fabric, though it was largely built in the 15th century. The extensions which now form the central part of the castle were first added in the 16th century. The apartments to the south were added in the mid-18th century to designs by architects John Douglas and James Winter. The south-east range, incorporating the clock tower, was rebuilt by Archibald Elliot after a fire in 1814. Finally, the castle arrived at its present form in the 1870s, when David Bryce remodelled the whole building in a Scots Baronial style, and added the ballroom. It was further remodelled in 1885 when a new ballroom wing was added by James Campbell Walker.</p><br>
<p>The castle has been open to the public since 1936. Its many rooms feature important collections of weapons, hunting trophies, souvenirs of the Murray clan, ethnographica, paintings, furniture, and needlework collected by the Murray family over many generations.</p><br>
<p>The castle also provides the garrison for the Atholl Highlanders, the private army of the Duke of Atholl, noted as the only legal private army in Europe. The Castle and the Atholl Estates were used in the 2008 reality television series Conquer the Castle.</p><br>
<p>In 2009, a Grand Fir (Abies grandis) in Diana&#39;s Grove in the grounds of the castle, was measured at 62.7 m, and declared the second-tallest tree in Britain.</p><br>
<p>The Avery Coonley House, also known as the Coonley House or Coonley Estate was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Constructed 1908-12, this is a residential estate of several buildings built on the banks of the Des Plaines River in Riverside, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. It is itself a National Historic Landmark and is included in another National Historic Landmark, the Riverside Historic District.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Avery Coonley House (built 1908–12) in Riverside, Illinois, is located on a unique small peninsula surrounded by the Des Plaines River. Of the few estates that Frank Lloyd Wright developed, it is one of his largest and most elaborate prairie school-homes ever built. It is one of just three multi-building prairie complexes built by the famed architect. The other two are the Dana-Thomas House and the Darwin D. Martin House complexes. The Coonley house is also the first example in Wrights work of a zoned plan. The raised second floor includes three zones: The public area (living room and dining room), the bedroom wing (with its pendant guest wing) and finally the kitchen and servants areas. The original residence was over-9000-square-feet and built on a ten-acre parcel. The entrance halls, playroom and sewing room are on the ground floor. An entire complex of interrelated buildings with extensive raised and sunken gardens was designed by landscape architect Jens Jensen. The main structure of the Avery Coonley Estate is the public-living room wing, located on Bloomingbank Road and behind that facing Scottswood Road is the bedroom wing of the mansion. The complex also includes a separate stable-coach house and gardeners cottage (1911). Along with the Robie House, the Coonley Estate represents the maturation of Wright&#39;s Prairie Style, typified by wide overhanging eaves, bands of art glass casement windows, free-flowing interior spaces and the harmonious blending of site and structure.</p><br>
<p>Avery Coonley, a Chicago industrialist and his wife, Queene Ferry of the Detroit-based Ferry Seed Company, were both heirs to industrial fortunes and had an unlimited budget to commission a new residence. The Coonleys had investigated Wright&#39;s other homes and told him that they saw in his work "the countenances of principle". Wright stated in his autobiography that "This was to me a great and sincere compliment. So I put my best into the Coonley House." Wright considered the Coonley House among his finest works and gave the Coonleys a residence that blended indoors and out and felt as much like a little village as a home, given the way the courtyards, buildings, and garden walls interconnected. He designed all the features and furnishings within the home, including rugs and textiles. Wright had been rumored to have designed dresses worn by Queene Ferry to compliment the interior surroundings. The designs of the Coonley House were included in his 1907 exhibition at the Chicago Architectural Club. Construction began a year later.</p><br>
<p>A philanthropic couple, The Coonleys had progressive beliefs which included early education for children. At the age of four years, their only daughter Elizabeth was too young to attend the local school. To educate her child and others, Queene Ferry requested that Wright design a kindergarten, The Avery Coonley School Playhouse, in 1912 on nearby Fairbank Road, a block away from the main residence. The art glass windows of the Coonley Playhouse feature one of Frank Lloyd Wrights most well known designs. A pattern based on balloons, confetti and American flags, very festive for the intended use of the structure, the design used in these windows was artistically striking and represents Wrights first departure from his signature style using only straight lines. Except for a few relatively plain panes, the windows of the Coonley Playhouse are now all replicas, the originals having been removed in the middle of the 20th century at a time when Wright&#39;s work was either being saved or dissected and sold for large sums of money. Many of the originals can be seen in museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and The Art Institute of Chicago which prominently displays one of the windows near its main entrance. The colored side of the art glass windows faced the inside of the house, while the outsides that faced the exterior are white. The kindergarten school moved from the Coonley Playhouse in Riverside to a larger facility in Downers Grove in 1916 and eventually became a full K-8 elementary school and still exists today. The original Coonley Playhouse near the estate in Riverside is currently a private residence.</p><br>
<p>Alterations to the Coonley Estate have been made through the years, by Wright and others. A year after the house was completed, Wright modified the terrace pavilion, adding bands of art glass doors and windows to allow more light into the second-floor living room and children&#39;s playroom below. A pergola with noticeable Asian influences was also added. Avery Coonley sold the house in 1921 to Peter Kroehler, a furniture manufacturer from Naperville, Illinois. Several architectural changes were made during this period including a sun-room addition to the south, the lily pond was converted into a swimming pool and a pool house was added - probably designed by Harry Robinson, an apprentice under Wright at both Oak Park and Taliesin.</p><br>
<p>In 1952 the property was threatened with demolition to make way for 14 ranch homes. A compromise was reached that allowed developer Arnold Skow to divide the main house into north and south halves by inserting a firewall, build five new houses on the property and convert the gardener&#39;s cottage and stable into separate residences and addresses. The raised gardens were sold off and a modern house was built on the property. Even with these radical changes, the house retains nearly all of its original exterior and interior design details, including approximately 270 original art glass windows and doors.</p><br>
<p>A heater for the swimming pool exploded on June 11, 1978, setting a fire that destroyed the living room of the main house and one of the bedrooms. In 2000 salvage and restoration work was performed on light screens and millwork on the north half of the house including stucco and roof repair, restoration of the original gravel driveway and the reconversion of the swimming pool back to the original lily pond. The entire north side of the house has been meticulously restored to its original splendor including the re-creation of the George Mann Niedecken living room mural as well as the decorative tulip designed tile frieze along with many light screens that surround the perimeter of the house.</p><br>
<p>During his lifetime, Frank Lloyd Wright built approximately 532 homes, museums, and office buildings. Many have been demolished, but more than 400 Wright-designed buildings still stand. Of the approximately 2,500 NHLs in the United States, twenty-six were designed by Wright. Included is The Avery Coonley House which is the largest privately owned Frank Lloyd Wright residence to be recognized by the United States Secretary of the Interior. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970.</p><br>
<p>The village of Riverside, founded in 1869 as the nation&#39;s first planned community, was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted – designer of both Central Park in New York City and Jackson Park (fairgrounds of the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893). The streets of Riverside wind and crisscross, forming small islands of houses and green space; quite a contrast to the strict grid of nearby Chicago.</p><br>
<p>Sheepshead Bay is a bay separating the mainland of Brooklyn, New York City, from the eastern portion of Coney Island, the latter originally a barrier island but now effectively an extension of the mainland with peninsulas both east  and west . The mouth of the bay is about 1.0 mi southwest of Marine Park, Brooklyn. The area is part of Brooklyn Community Board 15 and lies east of Gravesend and south of Midwood.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The name "Sheepshead Bay" applies to the neighborhood north of the bay as well as the bay itself. Sheepshead Bay was named for the sheepshead, an edible fish found in the bay&#39;s waters. The fish, now rare, can still be caught in the local waters occasionally.</p><br>
<p>The bay itself was originally the easterly entrance to Coney Island Creek, but the filling-in of the central part of this waterway during the 1930s, in conjunction with construction of the Shore Parkway portion of the Belt Parkway, eliminated access to that waterway. At the same time, the bay was widened, deepened, and bulkheaded at its western end. Recreational fishing fleets are now located there, though the fishing fleets have been shrinking every year and are being replaced by dinner boats. Holocaust Memorial Park, located at the western end of the bay, is used throughout the year for commemorative events.</p><br>
<p>In the last decade of the 20th century, a real estate boom brought the reopening of the landmark Lundy Brothers seafood restaurant, which closed again in 2007; a grocery store now takes its place. Soviet-style restaurants/nightclubs, such as Paradise and Baku Palace, have opened along the waterfront, due to an influx of immigrants from countries comprising the former Soviet Union. Sheepshead Bay has also experienced a growth of condominium developments, and on Emmons Avenue, the northern shoreline street along the bay, are piers boasting an active seafood market and tour boats.</p><br>
<h2>Demographics</h2><br>
<p>As of 2007, there were 123,181 people living in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood. The demographics were 75.4% White, 14.6% Asian, 6.6% Hispanic or Latino, 4.7% African American and 0.2% Native American. Brooklyn&#39;s Avenue U Chinatown, which emerged as the second Chinatown of Brooklyn during the late 1990s, is located partially in Sheepshead Bay and partially in nearby Homecrest.</p><br>
<p>Much like the adjacent Brighton Beach neighborhood, Sheepshead Bay is known for its high concentration of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Other ethnic groups in the area include Albanians, Chinese, Turks and Hispanics.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation, shopping centers, and thoroughfares</h2><br>
<p>New York City Subway service to Sheepshead Bay is provided by the BMT Brighton Line, with local stops at Avenue U and Neck Road, and express/local stops at the Kings Highway and Sheepshead Bay stations.</p><br>
<p>The main shopping and business thoroughfares are Emmons Avenue, Sheepshead Bay Road, Ocean Avenue, and Nostrand Avenue. Emmons Avenue is at the west end of the shore Greenway which lies between Shore Parkway and Jamaica Bay, connecting eastward and northward to Canarsie and Cross Bay Boulevard. Emmons Avenue is a waterfront road with piers from which yachts and boats offer day trips for fishing and dancing.</p><br>
<h2>Education</h2><br>
<p>Several public schools serve the community: Sheepshead Bay High School (until it closed in 2016), James Madison High School; JHS 14 Shell Bank Intermediate School; The Bay Academy; P.S. 254, P.S. 206, and P.S. 52 (elementary). Private schools in the area include St. Mark Catholic Academy, St. Edmunds School, and the Brooklyn Amity School. Kingsborough Community College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY) is nearby. Sheepshead Bay is policed by the NYPDs 61st Precinct.</p><br>
<h2>Madison subsection</h2><br>
<p>Madison is a purely residential subsection of Sheepshead Bay, located just south of Midwood. Named after its own James Madison High School, its borders are Kings Highway to the north, Avenue U to the south, Ocean Avenue to the west, and Nostrand Avenue to the east. Madison uses the ZIP code 11229. The area is served by Brooklyn Community Board 15.</p><br>
<h2>Notable people</h2><br>
<p>Elayne Boosler (born 1952), comedian</p><br>
<p>Vitaly Borker (born 1986), owner of DecorMyEyes</p><br>
<p>James Brady (1928–2009), columnist</p><br>
<p>Larry David (born 1947), comedian</p><br>
<p>Jerry Butler (born 1939), musician</p><br>
<p>Andrew Dice Clay (born 1957), comedian</p><br>
<p>Michael A. DiSpezio (born 1953), writer, performer and broadcast host</p><br>
<p>James E. Fitzsimmons (1874–1966), thoroughbred horse trainer</p><br>
<p>Frank Frazetta (1928-2010), comic book artist</p><br>
<p>Keith Green (1953–1982), gospel singer</p><br>
<p>Terry Gross (born 1951), host of Fresh Air on National Public Radio</p><br>
<p>Garland Jeffreys (born 1943), singer-songwriter</p><br>
<p>Vince Lombardi (1913–1970), NFL head coach of the Green Bay Packers</p><br>
<p>Marty Markowitz (born 1945), former Brooklyn borough president</p><br>
<p>Lee Mazzilli (born 1955), former New York Mets baseball player and coach for the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees</p><br>
<p>Rico Petrocelli, Boston Red Sox shortstop and third baseman</p><br>
<p>Thomas Pitera, mafia mobster, grew up in Sheepshead Bay</p><br>
<p>Buddy Rich (1917-1987), jazz drummer and bandleader.</p><br>
<p>Mark Roth, professional bowler; second in all-time professional tour earnings</p><br>
<p>Judith Sheindlin, former family court judge, known on television as "Judge Judy"</p><br>
<p>Martin Shkreli, pharmaceutical entrepreneur</p><br>
<p>Bob Thiele (1922–1996), record producer, musician, songwriter</p><br>
<p>Michelle Trachtenberg (born 1985), actress</p><br>
<h2>Elected officials</h2><br>
<p>USA Congressional District: New York&#39;s 8th congressional district – Congressman Hakeem Jeffries</p><br>
<p>USA Congressional District: New York&#39;s 9th Congressional District – Congresswoman Yvette Clarke</p><br>
<p>USA Congressional District: New York&#39;s 11th congressional district – Congressman Michael G. Grimm</p><br>
<p>NYC Council District: 48th Councilman Chaim Deutsch</p><br>
<p>NY State Senate District: 17th District – State Senator Simcha Felder</p><br>
<p>NY State Senate District: 19th District – State Senator John L. Sampson</p><br>
<p>NY State Senate District: 22nd District – State Senator Martin J. Golden</p><br>
<p>NY State Senate District: 23rd District – State Senator Diane J. Savino</p><br>
<p>NY Assembly District: 41st District – Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein</p><br>
<p>NY Assembly District: 45th District – Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz</p><br>
<p>Kongur Tagh or Kongkoerh   is at 7,649 m the highest mountain wholly within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Kongur Tagh is within a range called the Kongur Shan (.) Kongur Tagh is located just north of Muztagh Ata and visible from Karakul Lake. Some sources use "Kongur Shan" mistakenly to refer to the peak itself. The Kongur Shan range, including Muztagh Ata, is separated by the major Yarkand River valley from the Kunlun Mountains and thus is sometimes included in the "Eastern Pamirs" Kongur Tagh is the highest peak in the Kunlun Range, and is higher than any peak in the Pamirs as well. Due to its remoteness and being hidden by nearby peaks, Kongur was not discovered by Europeans until 1900. However, the building of the Karakoram Highway from Pakistan to China, which runs past nearby Tashkurgan and Karakul Lake, has now made it more accessible.</p><br>
<p>Administratively, the Kongur Range is within Akto County.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing history</h2><br>
<p>The first attempt to climb Kongur Tagh was made in 1956 but the party aborted the attempt when it realized it was beyond their abilities.</p><br>
<p>The first ascent of Kongur Tagh was completed in 1981 by a British expedition consisting of Chris Bonington, Al Rouse, Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker.</p><br>
<h2>Elevation</h2><br>
<p>This is taken from the Guide to Mountaineering in China. Some Chinese authorities give it 7,719 m, but evidence against this higher elevation is given.</p><br>
<h2>Kongur Tiube</h2><br>
<p>Kongur Tagh has a significant subpeak known as Kongur Tiube ( which means in the local language "the mountain with a white cap", also Kongur Tiubie / Jiubie and Kungur Tjube Tagh), 38&deg;36&prime;57&Prime;N latitude, 75&deg;11&prime;44&Prime;E longitude; elevation=7,530 m (24,705 ft). It is moderately independent, with a topographic prominence of 840 m (2,756 ft). It was first climbed in 1956.</p><br>
<h2>Footnotes</h2><br>
<p>Cropston Reservoir  lies in Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, England. The dam and associated water works are in Cropston, while the bulk of the reservoir is in the neighbouring Newtown Linford parish. It was opened in May 1871 in a corner of Bradgate Park, a large expanse of open land northwest of Leicester. It is part of the 399.3 hectare Bradgate Park and Cropston Reservoir Site of Special Scientific Interest.</p><br>
<p>London-based consulting engineer, Thomas Hawksley, was appointed by Leicester Water Works in 1865 to carry out the surveying work. In September 1867, 180 acres of land adjacent to the deer park at Bradgate Park was purchased from the Earl of Stamford for a cost of £24,000. A stone wall was built by George Rudkin around the boundary to separate the deer park from the reservoir, at a cost of 8s 10d per yard. The dam is 760 yards long and rises to a height of 51 feet at its highest point, which gives a depth of water of 38 feet. The cost of the dam was £41,356 and the reservoir £8,500 with the contract being awarded to Benton & Woodiwiss of Derby. The reservoir was completed in 1870.</p><br>
<p>The reservoir is formed by the River Lin and is owned and managed by Severn Trent. The growing population of Leicester and surrounding areas meant that by the late 19th century the reservoirs in Leicestershire were no longer adequate to meet demand, and water is now piped from Ladybower Reservoir to Cropston.</p><br>
<p>Lake Wylie is a reservoir, or man-made lake in the USA states of both South Carolina and North Carolina. The lake has a surface area of 13,400 acre  and features 325 mi of shore line.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The man-made lake was first formed when the Catawba Power Company built the Catawba Dam and Power Plant near India Hook, South Carolina in 1904. This dam impounded the Catawba River and created Lake Catawba, which was utilized to create hydro-electric power. In 1905 the Catawba Power Company became part of the Southern Power Company.</p><br>
<p>In 1924 the Southern Power Company raised the level of the dam and built the new Catawba Hydroelectric Station to replace the original. This new facility opened in August 1925, increasing the surface area of Lake Catawba from 668 acre to 13,400 acre. The Southern Power Company was merged with Duke Power Company in 1927.</p><br>
<p>In October 1960 the power station was renamed the Wylie Hydroelectric Station and the lake was renamed Lake Wylie, both in honor of W. Gil Wylie, one of the founders of the original Catawba Power Company that had created the lake and become Duke Power.</p><br>
<h2>Other information</h2><br>
<p>Lake Wylie is one of eleven lakes on the Catawba River and is the oldest lake in the Catawba River basin, with water being moved around each lake on the chain system through Duke Power. The lake has a surface area of approximately 13,443 acre with 325 mi of shoreline, and stretches from the Mountain Island Dam, south of Mountain Island Lake in North Carolina to the Wylie Dam on the south end of the lake. The average depth of the lake is just over 20 feet.</p><br>
<p>The Catawba Nuclear Generating Station is located on the south-western part of the lake, and draws its cooling water from the lake. Allen Steam Station located on the northern part of the lake (west of Charlotte) also draws its cooling water from the lake.</p><br>
<p>The South Fork River and Catawba River confluence is now submerged under Lake Wylie near the North Carolina/South Carolina state line.</p><br>
<h2>Foreign Animal Sightings</h2><br>
<h3>Snakehead Fish</h3><br>
<p>In August 2009, a Snakehead (fish) was caught in the Paw Creek arm of Lake Wylie. South Carolina DNR officials say they are not worried about the catch, and have their plan to exterminate the fish if it becomes a problem. Many more have been reported since the 2009 sighting.</p><br>
<p>Lake Wissota is a reservoir in Chippewa County, Wisconsin, United States, just east of the city of Chippewa Falls. It covers an area of 6,024 acre and has a maximum depth of 72 ft.</p><br>
<p>Lake Wissota is surrounded on the south by the town of Lafayette, on the north and east by the town of Anson, and on the west by the town of Eagle Point.</p><br>
<p>The lake is divided into two parts by a peninsula upon which is the center of Lake Wissota Village. The smaller southern portion of the lake, the flooded portion of the valley formed by Paint Creek, is often called "Little Lake Wissota". The larger portion of the lake, lying to the north of Lake Wissota Village, is usually just called "Lake Wissota", although it is sometimes also called "Big Lake Wissota". The lake is fed by several other rivers and streams besides the Chippewa River, which enters the lake from the northwest and exits to the southwest, and Paint Creek which enters Little Lake Wissota from the east, respectively. These include Stillson Creek, which enters Little Lake Wissota from the southwest, the Yellow River which enters from the east at Moon Bay, and O&#39;Neil Creek, which enters in the northwest, near the entrance of the Chippewa River.</p><br>
<p>The lake is a popular recreation destination in northwestern Wisconsin, in the summer for boating, canoeing, fishing, water skiing, and swimming, and in the winter for ice fishing. On the northeastern shore lies Lake Wissota State Park, popular with campers, hikers, swimmers, and anglers.</p><br>
<h2>Wissota Hydroelectric Dam</h2><br>
<p>The lake was formed by the construction of the Wissota Hydroelectric Dam on the Chippewa River, completed in 1917. The dam was built by the Wisconsin-Minnesota Light and Power Company. An engineer on the project, Louis G. Arnold, named the lake by combining the beginning of "Wisconsin" and the ending of "Minnesota". The dam is now owned and operated by Xcel Energy, and is capable of producing 36 megawatts.</p><br>
<p>Lake Waccamaw is a unique fresh water lake located in Columbus County in North Carolina. The lake is oval in shape measuring roughly 5.2 mi by 3.5 mi covering 8,938 acre surface area with an average depth of 7.5 ft and a shoreline of about 14 mi. The marginal 70% of the lake bottom is composed of clear sand, whereas the central 30% is overlaid with a deposit of fibrous and pulpy peat. The lake is fed by four creeks: First, Second, Third, and Big Creeks. The lake outlet forms the Waccamaw River which flows southeasterly to empty into the Atlantic Ocean near Georgetown, South Carolina</p><br>
<p>It is the largest of the natural Carolina Bay Lakes (Bladen Lake Group). The lake has been estimated to be 15,000 -30,000 years old, although older fossils have been found upon the shores, and in 2008 a whale fossil was found in the lake. Scientists have removed the bones of a whale that they say may date back 1 - 3 million years. The skull of the whale has been restored and is currently on display at Lake Waccamaw State Park through longstanding loan from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.</p><br>
<h2>Additional information on Lake Waccamaw</h2><br>
<p>The lake is fed mainly by Big Creek and the surrounding swamp lands. The organic matter from the decaying vegetation of the swamps makes the water tea-colored. The lake is full of life. It even contains some species of fish, such as the Waccamaw silverside, that are native only to Lake Waccamaw.</p><br>
<p>Lake Waccamaw has a broad, flat bottom of gyttja (mud) and peat encircled by sandy shallows and submerged sandy terraces that extend up to 500 m offshore. A natural sand bar, which extends along the northwest shore between a fringing cypress swamp and the main lake, was supplemented with spoil dredged to form a neighboring canal in 1946 and developed with private residences. Big Creek delivers tea-colored water from the large cypress and gum tree swamp at the northeast corner of the lake, and the Waccamaw River emerges from the southern shore. A dam at the outlet built in 1926 now regulates lake levels, which used to fall by as much as a meter during dry spells, occasionally exposing the sand terraces. The dam was renovated in 2008 to help restore control of the lake water levels.</p><br>
<p>Unlike most of the other Carolina Bay lakes, Lake Waccamaw gets the majority of its water from the surrounding swamp instead of direct rain water. A limestone bluff along the north shore filters the water and reduces the acidity levels, making the lake ideal for a wide range of aquatic life.</p><br>
<p>The lake was established as a North Carolina State Lake in 1929, and it is managed by the adjacent Lake Waccamaw State Park.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Some believe Lake Waccamaw belongs to the Bladen Lake group, which may have been formed by meteorites. Dredges have brought up old charred tree stumps, and they support a theory that the lake is the basin left by a prehistoric peat fire.</p><br>
<p>Lake Waccamaw has several feeders, called First Little, Second Little and Third Little Creeks and then Big Creek as well as water from the Friar swamp. Underground springs feed the creeks.</p><br>
<p>Before the arrival of European settlers to Lake Waccamaw, it was inhabited by Native Americans. A place still called Indian Mounds is on the east shore and, on the site of one mound, it is said nothing will grow on it.</p><br>
<p>King Charles the Second originally granted this land to one of the Lord Proprietors who made individual grants to those willing to settle in this part of the new world. These large grants were divided among heirs and new settlers. By the mid-18th century, few of the early settlers or their descendants were left around the lake area. They were replaced by people such as John Powell, who brought cattle from Virginia to settle his grant of land.</p><br>
<p>There is a quote attributed to John Bartram stating, "This is the pleasantist place that I have ever seen". There is, however, no evidence of this quote in his writings. The origin of the quote is perhaps explained by The News Reporter which states, "N.C. State University researcher John A. McGeachy seems to have found it in his paper “Travel on the Cape Fear River in the Colonial Period. A group of at least 14 men traveled the area with Nathaniel Moore in 1733. The publication from that trip was called “A New Voyage to Georgia.” From old Brunswick they traveled 40 mi up the Cape Fear River to Moore’s place, then to Lake Waccamaw, described by an unnamed author as “the pleasantest place that ever I saw in my life.”</p><br>
<p>John Powells son, Absalom, after the American Revolutionary War, started buying large areas of land. A North Carolina Historical Marker was placed near his grave on August 22, 1933 at Lake Waccamaw. John Powells son, Isaac, of Lake Waccamaw was appointed first major for Bladen County militia in 1804 and a Justice of the Peace in 1806. He was the largest landowner of his day in Columbus County, owning over 10,000 acres (40 km²) - most of his land in the area of Lake Waccamaw.</p><br>
<p>Lake Waccamaw is described in the "Voyage of the Paper Canoe" by Nathaniel H. Bishop - "A geographical journey of 2500 miles from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico, during the years 1874-5.". You can read the entire description here: l</p><br>
<p>More on Lake Waccamaw theories and history can be found at Waccamaw Siouan</p><br>
<h2>Recent Environmental Events</h2><br>
<p>The lack of rain in the eastern portion of North Carolina during 2007 affected the water level in Lake Waccamaw. Water levels dropped greater than 15 in below normal as of late 2007. The record low is 19.5 in recorded in 1993. The record high was 37 in above normal in 1999. In 2008, some additional rain and swamp drainage had increased the water levels.</p><br>
<p>In October, 2012, a mysterious aquatic plant that fouls boat propellers, makes boating and swimming difficult, and has</p><br>
<p>the potential to make fishing less productive has been identified as hydrilla, an invasive species that has attacked the lake. The hydrilla outbreak was first discovered around the boat ramp and extends from the Waccamaw Sailing Club along the northwest and north shorelines to the site of the old Weaver’s Pavilion just west of Dale’s Seafood. Infestations of the underwater weed are not visible from the shore in most locations and according to lake residents, extends from the shore for about one-half mile out into the lake. Someone asked how long it would take to treat the lake of the unwanted weed. “You’re looking at five to seven years,” replied the expert.</p><br>
<h2>Aquatic Life in Lake Waccamaw</h2><br>
<p>Several endemic species are found only in or around the lake, including the Waccamaw darter, silverside and killifish. The water also contains a diversity of unusual mollusks. The endemic Waccamaw spike and Waccamaw fatmucket are among 15 species of mussels and clams in the lake. And, of the 11 snail species, the Waccamaw amnicola and siltsnail are also one-of-a-kind species. Alligators are also found at Lake Waccamaw.</p><br>
<h2>Legend of Lake Waccamaw</h2><br>
<p>There are many theories regarding the formation of Lake Waccamaw. One legend told is the story where the meteor (falling star) hit the earth on the southeast side of the lake and destroyed all the beautiful flowers that were placed in the garden by the warriors when they came back from a hunt or from protecting the village. The flower garden was taken care of by the women of the village. Many animals lived in the garden as well. Because the people forgot to give thanks to the Creator and became full of themselves, the Creator sent the meteor as punishment. To this day, the Waccamaw Siouan people remember the stories told.</p><br>
<p>Another legend is recorded in the book Recollections and Records. In the book the lake&#39;s origin is described in terms of a European-American romantic myth. According to local tradition, the large and beautiful lake was once a mound of flowers. The keeper of this beautiful garden was an American Indian princess who was known to all as the most beautiful princess in all the world. Each spring it became the custom for the chiefs of all tribes to send their sons to the camp of the princess. There they were received from her hands a blessing and a wild rose that would bring them good luck. As the tale goes, a young brave who had seen the princess asked her to become his wife. She replied that she had promised never to marry so she could stay in the garden, teach, and send all of the tribes her blessings. The brave became very angry and swore that he would destroy the mound of flowers. His tribe invaded and overcame the Waccamaw braves and their chiefs. The princess knelt and asked to die in the garden. She requested that the mound of flowers be changed into a beautiful lake that man could not destroy. She asked too, that the lake would never become dry and that the waters should always be pure and crystal.</p><br>
<h2>Interesting facts</h2><br>
<p>The Lake Waccamaw Depot museum, housed in a 1904 Atlantic Coast Line Railroad depot, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Exhibits include a 300-year-old Indian canoe and marine fossils recovered from the lake, natural history specimens, Waccamaw Siouan Indian artifacts, early European settler artifacts, railroad including a caboose, information on local industries including turpentine, cypress shingles, logging, and tool manufacturing, along with many old photographs. The hours are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 10 AM to 3 PM and Sundays from 3 to 5 PM. Admission is free. The museum is handicapped accessible.</p><br>
<p>The San Remo  is a luxury, 27-floor, co-operative apartment building in Manhattan located between West 74th Street and West 75th Street, three blocks north of The Dakota. Opened in 1930, the San Remo is described by Glen Justice of the New York Times as "a dazzling two-tower building with captivating views of Central Park." As a housing cooperative, its board has a reputation for "lenient admissions standards" compared to the conservative, old-money boards on the other side of the park.</p><br>
<h2>Apartments</h2><br>
<p>When the San Remo was originally designed, it had a wide range of relatively luxurious apartment configurations. The apartments were accessed from opulent twin lobbies which contained terrazzo floors, marble walls and custom light fixtures of bronze and frosted glass. The building has two addresses, 145 and 146 Central Park West, because the building was designed so that each half of the structure is served by separate lobbies, eliminating the need for long hallways across the main floor. There are still some doctor&#39;s offices on the first floor, but several of the professional/commercial spaces have recently been sold to tenants who reside in the building for use as office space.</p><br>
<h3>Base</h3><br>
<p>The average apartment contained eight rooms spread over approximately 3,000 ft&sup2;. Ten and eleven foot ceilings were the norm. As originally designed, the lower 14 floors were typically divided into seven apartments – two on each of the side street wings of the building and three laid out along the front of the building facing Central Park West. There are numerous setbacks built into the far ends of each wing of the building, allowing for terraces for several of the units. The original layout of the Park-facing units was unusual; most full-block buildings on the avenue divided the park frontage into four units, not three. This allowed the San Remo&#39;s apartments to have very generous frontage along the park in addition to typically spacious interior layouts.</p><br>
<p>The largest units on these lower levels are the "C-line" units, which occupy the southeast corner of each floor. The C-line apartments contain 620 ft&sup2; living rooms, 300 ft&sup2; libraries and 500 ft&sup2; dining rooms all facing the park. C-line apartments typically had four bedrooms arranged along the 74th Street (south) side of the building. These units are approximately 4,500 ft&sup2; in total.</p><br>
<p>Above the 14th floor, the building began a series of setbacks, which allowed for terraces for the various units from floors 14 through 17. These units were typically larger floor space, with larger rooms, than the units on the lower floors. The building has twin terrazzo and marble lobbies and terracotta embellishments.</p><br>
<h3>Towers</h3><br>
<p>At the 18th floor, the building splits into the San Remo&#39;s iconic 10-floor towers, which were inspired by the drum of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates and culminating in Renaissance-style Corinthian temples crowned by 22-foot-high copper lanterns. The twin tower design was innovative when first developed, and inspired a number of imitators over the years (including The Majestic, The Century, The Eldorado and—most recently—the Time Warner Center).</p><br>
<p>In the north tower of the building there is one apartment per floor of approximately 2,500 ft&sup2;. These are typically two-bedroom units, with all of the public rooms facing the park.</p><br>
<p>The floors of the south tower are slightly larger, and these apartments as originally designed were all duplexed units. In total, these two-story units were approximately 5,800 ft&sup2, rivaling the apartments in the best buildings of Fifth and Park Avenues (e.g., 834 Fifth Avenue), which typically range from 5000 to 7000 sqft.</p><br>
<p>The San Remos south tower units have their public rooms on the lower level. The public rooms include 800 ft&sup2; (36 x 22) living rooms, 290 ft&sup2; (14 x 20.5) libraries, and 400 ft&sup2; (17 x 24) dining rooms. There are also a breakfast room, kitchen, and several servants’ rooms on this level. A semi-circular staircase leads past windows facing the park to the second level. Upstairs are four bedrooms, including a master suite with a bedroom of 360 ft&sup2, and a large dressing room and bathroom, for a total of over 500 ft&sup2, and additional servants rooms. A separate back staircase connects the rear portion of the apartments, linking the servants&#39; areas.</p><br>
<h3>Residents</h3><br>
<p>Past and present residents of the building include such famous personalities as Barry Manilow, Fred Ebb, Stephen Sondheim, Cesar Pelli, Diana Balmori, Tiger Woods, Steven Spielberg, Donna Karan, Tony Randall, Demi Moore, Glenn Close, Dustin Hoffman, Steve Martin, Bruce Willis, Eddie Cantor, Robert Stigwood, Jennifer Rush, Marshall Brickman, Jackie Leo, Don Hewitt, Dodi Fayed, Andrew Tobias, Aaron Spelling, Diane Keaton and Hedy Lamarr. Rita Hayworth spent her last years there, in a unit beside that of her daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan. Steve Jobs bought and renovated a penthouse apartment but never lived in it, ultimately selling it to Bono. In 2007, same-floor residents Bono and Billy Squier went to court over the very sensitive subject of a fireplace. In 1985, Madonna applied to buy an apartment in the building but was infamously rejected by the residents board. On December 23, 2013, philanthropist Robert Wilson committed suicide by jumping from his 16th floor apartment in the South Tower.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The buildings architect, Emery Roth, took advantage of new zoning regulations to build the first of New Yorks twin towered apartment blocks. Each of San Remos ten-story towers is topped with an English Baroque mansion in the manner of John Vanbrugh and capped with a homage to the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. The Athenian monument was known to Roth from the reproduction that had featured in the Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893. Roth also designed The Beresford and other landmark apartment houses and office blocks in New York. Construction began in 1929, weeks before the market crash initiated the Great Depression. The San Remo&#39;s construction process took approximately two years. In 1940 both buildings were sold, for $25,000 over the existing mortgages.</p><br>
<h3>The Great Depression</h3><br>
<p>During the Great Depression, many of the larger units in the building were subdivided to make them easier to rent. All but one of the south tower two story apartments were divided into single floor units. Many of the larger C-line and E-line (northeast corner) units were also divided into smaller units. As a result, the total number of apartments in the building was expanded by approximately 20 units.</p><br>
<h3>Conversion to a cooperative</h3><br>
<p>The San Remo is now one of the most desirable and expensive apartment buildings in Manhattan. It converted to a co-op in the 1970s, meaning that tenants in the apartments are actually shareholders in the corporation that owns the building. Owning shares entitles one to reside in a particular unit. Purchasing apartments (shares) in the building is a significant investment.</p><br>
<p>Recent asking prices have ranged from a minimum of $3 million to a high of $75 million. The most desirable apartments (large units with Park views or tower floors) are typically valued at $2,500–$3,500 per square foot. The San Remo has consistently achieved the highest sale prices per unit on Central Park West, and is the top co-op building in terms of price per square foot on the Upper West Side, attaining prices of almost $5,400 per square foot for its penthouse units.</p><br>
<p>Many purchasers over the years have combined their units. Steven Spielberg combined two Park-facing units on the 16th floor into a 6,000 ft&sup2; unit with terraces. A unit was reportedly sold to professional golfer Tiger Woods for $28 million in April 2008. Dustin Hoffman recently sold his unit.</p><br>
<p>The 27th floor (top floor) of the north tower has been combined into a portion of the former mechanical space above it, creating a unique two-story unit. In total, the apartment has 3,500 ft&sup2; of interior space and 1,300 ft&sup2; of terraces. This unit was purchased by Bono from Steve Jobs for $15 million.</p><br>
<p>Demi Moore owns the last remaining south tower two-story unit, at the very top of this tower. Moore and then-husband Bruce Willis purchased the apartment in 1987 from Robert Stigwood. This unit was combined into a portion of the tower&#39;s mechanical and storage space above it (similar to the top floor unit in the north tower), creating a three story unit with over 7,000 ft&sup2; of interior space, multiple terraces and 360-degree views from all floors. As of May 2015, Moore was trying to sell the unit with an asking price of $75 million. Demi Moore is reported to have finally sold her south tower penthouse apartment for $45 million in May 2017, a $30 million reduction from the original asking price. This represents the highest price ever paid for a coop apartment on the Upper West Side in Manhattan.</p><br>
<p>The Astoria Column is a tower in the northwest United States, overlooking the mouth of the Columbia River on Coxcomb Hill in Astoria, Oregon. Built in 1926, the concrete and steel structure is part of a 30 acre city park. The 125 ft-tall column has a 164-step spiral staircase ascending to an observation deck at the top and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 2, 1974.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The tower was built in 1926 with financing by the Great Northern Railway and Vincent Astor, the great-grandson of John Jacob Astor, in commemoration of the citys role in the familys business history. Patterned after the Trajan Column in Rome (and Place Vendôme Column in Paris), the Astoria Column was dedicated on July 22, 1926. In 1974, the column was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>The murals that make up the column were refurbished in 1995 and a granite plaza was added in 2004.</p><br>
<p>The Astoria Column was one of a series of monuments erected by Great Northern Railway in 1925 and 1926.</p><br>
<h2>Details</h2><br>
<p>The 125 ft-tall column stands atop 600 ft-tall Coxcomb Hill and includes an interior spiral staircase that leads to an observation deck at the top. The spiral sgraffito frieze on the exterior of the structure is almost seven feet wide, and 525 ft long. Painted by Electus D. Litchfield and Attilio Pusterla, the mural shows 14 significant events in the early history of Oregon with a focus on Astorias role including Captain Grays discovery of the Columbia River in 1792 and the Lewis & Clark Expedition.</p><br>
<p>Designed to resemble the Roman Trajan&#39;s Column, the Astoria Column was built of concrete and has a 12 ft deep foundation. Built at a cost of $27,133.96 ($ in 2014 dollars), the tower has 164 steps to the top, where there is a replica of the State Seal of Oregon.</p><br>
<p>A plaque near the column commemorates the pioneering Community Antenna Television (CATV) system built by local resident Leroy E. "Ed" Parsons, initially at the Hotel Astoria, in which twin-lead transmission wires redistributed the signal of KRSC-TV (now KING-TV) in Seattle, Washington to area homes. Former Astoria resident Byron Roman was also involved in early cable invention and distribution.</p><br>
<p>The cast-iron spiral staircase inside the column was closed for safety reasons in November 2007. It was reopened to the public in time for the Regatta in August 2009.</p><br>
<h2>Images</h2><br>
<p>Devils Lake is a small lake in Lincoln County, Oregon, United States, along the Oregon Coast. It separates the northern part of Lincoln City from the Central Oregon Coast Range. It is 1/3 of a mile wide, three miles  long, and up to 21 ft deep. The D River flows from the lake westward to the Pacific Ocean. At 120 ft, it is one of the world&#39;s shortest rivers.</p><br>
<p>According to Oregon Geographic Names, the name derives from a Native American legend. In the legend, a giant fish or other large marine creature would occasionally surface, much to the dismay of anyone fishing in the vicinity.</p><br>
<p>The lake is managed by the Devils Lake Water Improvement District. The Preservation Association of Devils Lake (PADL) was founded in 1982. According to the organization&#39;s website, its mission is:</p><br>
<p>Oki Islands is an archipelago in the Sea of Japan, the islands of which are administratively part of Oki District, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. The islands have a total area of 346.1 km&sup2;. Only four of the sixteen named islands are permanently inhabited. Much of the archipelago is within the borders of Daisen-Oki National Park. Due to their geological heritage, the Oki Islands were designated a UNESCO Global Geopark in September 2014.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The Oki Islands are volcanic in origin, and are the exposed eroded summits of two massive stratovolcanoes dating approximately 5 million years ago to the Tertiary and Quaternary periods. The oldest rocks in Japan have been found on the Oki Islands.</p><br>
<p>Dōgo to the east is the largest island in area, and has the highest elevation, Mount Daimanji, at 608 m above sea level. The Dōzen group of islands to the west are all portions of single ancient volcanic caldera which collapsed, leaving three large islands (Nishinoshima, Nakanoshima and Chiburijima) and numerous smaller islands and rocks in a ring formation surrounding a central lagoon.</p><br>
<p>The archipelago is approximately 80 km north of Honshu coast at its closest point.</p><br>
<p>For administrative purposes, the Japanese government officially considers the disputed islet of Liancourt Rocks (Dokdo or Takeshima) to be a part of the town of Okinoshima on Dōgo.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>Summers (June–August) average around 30 degrees Celsius plus humidity. There usually is a strong sea breeze. The sea waves during the summer rarely exceed 2 meters.</p><br>
<p>Autumn (September–November) is temperate. It begins to rain more often and the waves begin to grow. The Rainbow ferry stops operating in November.</p><br>
<p>Winters (December to the end of February) are relatively mild. Temperatures rarely drop below freezing. Also, due to the warming influence of the sea, Oki does not get much snow. What snow there is does not lie for long because the ground is not cold enough. The ferry is more likely to be canceled due to high waves, but it is still possible to leave the island.</p><br>
<p>Spring (March–May) is generally regarded as the best season. There are many opportunities for viewing cherry blossoms on Oki during the spring. The Rainbow ferry starts running in March.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Oki Islands have been inhabited since the Japanese Paleolithic era, and numerous artifacts from the Jōmon, Yayoi and Kofun periods have been found by archaeologists, indicating continuous human occupation and activity.</p><br>
<p>The island were organized as Oki Province under the Ritsuryō reforms in the latter half of the seventh century, and the name “Oki-no-kuni” appears on wooden markers found in the imperial capital of Nara. The island of Dōgo is mentioned in the Nara period chronicles Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, and Dōgo Island was the location of the capital of ancient Oki Province.</p><br>
<p>During the late Heian period, due to its remoteness, Oki Province came to known as a place for political exile. In 1221, Emperor Go-Toba was sent to Oki, and died in exile on the islands; In 1332, Emperor Go-Daigo was also sent in exile to Oki, but later managed to escape and regain control of the country.</p><br>
<p>From the Kamakura period Oki Province was governed primarily by the shugo of Izumo Province. In the Muromachi period, it was ruled successively by the Sasaki clan, the Yamana clan and the Kyōgoku clan. In the Sengoku period the Amago clan held this province. After the Amago fell and the Tokugawa shogunate was established, Oki Province was declared a tenryō dominion under the direct control of the Shogun. The daimyō of Matsue Domain, belonging to the Matsudaira clan, was appointed as governor.</p><br>
<p>The entire province had an assessed revenue of only 18,000 koku, although its actual revenues were closer to only 12,000 koku. The province was a frequent port of call for the Kitamaebune coastal trading ships during the Edo period.</p><br>
<p>Following the Meiji Restoration, Oki Province became "Oki Prefecture" from February to June 1869. It was then attached to Tottori Prefecture until 1876, when it was transferred to Shimane Prefecture.</p><br>
<p>In 1892, Lafcadio Hearn visited the islands, spending a month there, and writing about his experiences in Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan. Oki was visited by the American naturalist Charles Henry Gilbert in 1906.</p><br>
<h2>Administration</h2><br>
<p>The population is approximately 24,500 inhabitants spread over the four municipalities of:</p><br>
<p>Okinoshima-chō (Okinoshima-town), includes all of Dōgo and the uninhabited islets of Okinashima, Obanashima, Tsunameshima, Shijikijima and Ombeshima, with a total population of approximately 17,000.</p><br>
<p>Chibu-son (Chibu-village), includes all of Chiburijima and the nearby uninhabited islets of Okagashima, Shimazujima, Asashima and Kamishima, with a total population of about 800.</p><br>
<p>Ama-chō (Ama-town), includes all of Nakanoshima and the nearby uninhabited islets of Omorijima and Matsushima, with a total population of about 2,600.</p><br>
<p>Nishinoshima-chō (Nishinoshima-town), includes all of Nishinoshima and nearby uninhabited islets of Hoshikamijima, Futamatajima and Okazuroshima, population about 3,900.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>Oki Airport (airport code "OKI") lies on the southeastern part of Dōgo and provides air service to Osaka International Airport (Itami, "ITM") and Izumo Airport ("IZO").</p><br>
<p>The Oki islands can be reached by ferries from harbours like Sakaiminato, Shichirui and Kaga on the mainland. There are also frequent ferries operating between the Dōzen islands throughout the year.</p><br>
<h2>Main islands</h2><br>
<p>Thule Island, also called Morrell Island, is one of the southernmost of the South Sandwich Islands, part of the grouping known as Southern Thule. It is named, on account of its remote location, after the mythical land of Thule, said by ancient geographers to lie at the extreme end of the earth. The alternative name Morrell Island is after Benjamin Morrell, an American explorer and whaling captain. It was espied by James Cook and his Resolution crew on 31 January 1775 during his attempt to find Terra Australis.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Thule Island is approximately triangular in shape and 5.5 square miles in area with a long, panhandle-like peninsula, 3 km, extending to the southeast. Steep slopes ascend to a 1.5 by summit caldera with the peak of Mount Larsen at 710 m above sea level. Mount Larsen is named after the Antarctic explorer and whaler Carl Anton Larsen. Off the southeastern tip lies the small islet of Twitcher Rock, the southernmost land on Earth except for Antarctica and offshore islands considered part of Antarctica.</p><br>
<p>Thule Island is the westernmost of Southern Thule island group, which also encompasses Cook Island and Bellingshausen Island. It is thought that Thule and Cook may have been a larger single island in the past, and there is evidence for a submerged crater between the two. Steam from the summit crater lake and ash on the flank was reported in 1962. Volcanic heat keeps the crater on Thule Island free from ice. The peak elevation is 3,525 ft.</p><br>
<h2>Argentine occupation</h2><br>
<p>Argentina, in order to assert its claim over the South Sandwich Islands, established the summer station Teniente Esquivel at Ferguson Bay on the southeastern coast on January 25, 1955. The station had to be evacuated in January 1956 because of volcanic eruption of Mount Holdgate (so named in 1964) on the neighboring Cook Island to the east. In 1976 it established a military base on Thule Island called Corbeta Uruguay (Port Faraday) in the lee (southern east coast) of the island. The British discovered the presence of the Argentine base the same year but chose to pursue a diplomatic solution to the issue until 1982. The base was occupied by British forces in the aftermath of the Falklands War and eventually destroyed in 1982.</p><br>
<p>Candlemas Island is a small uninhabited island of the Candlemas Islands in the South Sandwich Islands. It lies about 2 mi from Vindication Island, separated by the Nelson Channel.</p><br>
<p>On the northwest flank of the island is an active stratovolcano, Lucifer Hill, that showed signs of activity in 1911 and glowing lava flows during 1953&ndash;1954. Mount Andromeda and Mount Perseus are both glacier-covered peaks on the island. Mount Andromeda is the island&#39;s highest point, with an elevation of 550 m.</p><br>
<p>Candlemas Island is the setting of a novel by Ian Cameron, The White Ship (1975), which tells of a disastrous expedition to the island in 1975 where members of the expedition must contend with ghosts of Spaniards shipwrecked on the island in 1818.</p><br>
<p>Vindication Island is a small uninhabited island in the South Sandwich Islands. It lies about 2 mi from Candlemas Island, separated by the Nelson Channel.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>This small island is part of the Candlemas Islands subgroup of the South Sandwich Islands.</p><br>
<p>The island&#39;s highest point is Quadrant Peak at 430 m, while the south-easternmost cape is Chinstrap Point. The island is mostly ice free.</p><br>
<p>Vindication Island is the eroded remains of a former volcanic complex.</p><br>
<p>Unlike neighboring Candlemas Island, where there is volcanic activity, the volcano on Vindication has shown no sign of activity for over 10,000 years.</p><br>
<p>Buddha Rock lies 0.3 nautical miles (0.6 km) west of Vindication Island.</p><br>
<p>Nafplio  is a seaport town in the Peloponnese in Greece that has expanded up the hillsides near the north end of the Argolic Gulf. The town was an important seaport held under a succession of royal houses in the Middle Ages as part of the lordship of Argos and Nauplia, held initially by the de la Roche following the Fourth Crusade before coming under the Republic of Venice and, lastly, the Ottoman Empire. The town was the capital of the First Hellenic Republic and of the Kingdom of Greece, from the start of the Greek Revolution in 1821 until 1834. Nafplio is now the capital of the regional unit of Argolis.</p><br>
<h2>Name</h2><br>
<p>The name of the town changed several times over the centuries. The modern Greek name of the town is Nafplio (Ναύπλιο). In modern English, the most frequently used forms are Nauplia and Navplion.</p><br>
<p>During the Classical Antiquity, it was known as Nauplia (Ναυπλία) in Attic Greek and Naupliē (Ναυπλίη) in Ionian Greek. In Latin, it was called Nauplia.</p><br>
<p>During the Middle Ages, several variants were used in Byzantine Greek, including Náfplion (Ναύπλιον), Anáplion (Ἀνάπλιον), and Anáplia (Ἀνάπλια).</p><br>
<p>During the Late Middle Ages and early modern period, under Venetian domination, the town was known in Italian as Napoli di Romania, after the medieval usage of "Romania" to refer to the lands of the Byzantine Empire, and to distinguish it from Napoli (Naples) in Italy.</p><br>
<p>Also during the early modern period, but this time under Ottoman rule, the Turkish name of the town was Mora Yenişehir, after Morea, a medieval name for the Peloponnese, and "yeni şehir," the Turkish term for "new city" (apparently a translation from the Greek Νεάπολη, Italian Napoli). The Ottomans also called it Anabolı.</p><br>
<p>In the 19th century and early 20th century, the town was called indiscriminately Náfplion (Ναύπλιον) and Nafplio (Ναύπλιο) in modern Greek. Both forms were used in official documents and travel guides. This explains why the old form Náfplion (sometimes transliterated to Navplion) still occasionally survives up to this day.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Nafplio is situated on the Argolic Gulf in the northeast Peloponnese. Most of the old town is on a peninsula jutting into the gulf; this peninsula forms a naturally protected bay that is enhanced by the addition of man-made moles. Originally almost isolated by marshes, deliberate landfill projects, primarily since the 1970s, have nearly doubled the land area of the city.</p><br>
<h2>Municipality</h2><br>
<p>The municipality Nafplio was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 4 former municipalities, that became municipal units:</p><br>
<p>Asini</p><br>
<p>Midea</p><br>
<p>Nafplio</p><br>
<p>Nea Tiryntha</p><br>
<p>The municipality has an area of 390.241 km, the municipal unit 33.619 km.</p><br>
<h2>Population</h2><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Classical antiquity</h3><br>
<p>The area surrounding Nafplio has been inhabited since ancient times, but few signs of this, aside from the walls of the Acronauplia, remain visible. The town has been a stronghold on several occasions during Classical Antiquity. It seems to be mentioned on an Egyptian funerary inscription of Amenophis III as Nuplija.</p><br>
<h3>Byzantine and Frankish rule</h3><br>
<p>The Acronauplia has walls dating from pre-classical times. Subsequently, Byzantines, Franks, Venetians, and Turks added to the fortifications. Nafplio was taken in 1212 by French crusaders of the Principality of Achaea. It became part of the lordship of Argos and Nauplia, which in 1388 was sold to the Republic of Venice. During the subsequent 150 years, the lower city was expanded and fortified, and new fortifications added to Acronauplia.</p><br>
<h3>Venetian and Ottoman rule</h3><br>
<p>The city surrendered to the Ottomans in 1540, who renamed it Mora Yenişehri and established it as the seat of a sanjak. At that period, Nafplio looked very much like the 16th century image shown below to the right.</p><br>
<p>The Venetians retook Nafplio in 1685 and made it the capital of their "Kingdom of the Morea". The city was strengthened by building the castle of Palamidi, which was in fact the last major construction of the Venetian empire overseas. However, only 80 soldiers were assigned to defend the city and it was easily retaken by the Ottomans in 1715. Palamidi is located on a hill north of the old town. During the Greek War of Independence, it played a major role. It was captured by Staikos Staikopoulos in November 1822.</p><br>
<h3>19th century</h3><br>
<p>During the Greek War of Independence, Nafplio was a major Ottoman stronghold and was besieged for more than a year. The town finally surrendered on account of forced starvation. After its capture, because of its strong fortifications, it became the seat of the provisional government of Greece.</p><br>
<p>Count Ioannis Kapodistrias, first head of state of newly liberated Greece, set foot on the Greek mainland for the first time in Nafplio on 7 January 1828 and made it the official capital of Greece in 1829. He was assassinated on 9 October 1831 by members of the Mavromichalis family, on the steps of the church of Saint Spyridon in Nafplio. After his assassination, a period of anarchy followed, until the arrival of King Otto and the establishment of the new Kingdom of Greece. Nafplio remained the capital of the kingdom until 1834, when King Otto decided to move the capital to Athens.</p><br>
<h3>20th and 21st centuries</h3><br>
<p>Tourism emerged slowly in the 1960s, but not to the same degree as some other Greek areas. Nevertheless, it tends to attract a number of tourists from Germany and the Scandinavian countries in particular. Nafplio enjoys a very sunny and mild climate, even by Greek standards, and as a consequence has become a popular day or weekend road-trip destination for Athenians in wintertime.</p><br>
<p>Nafplio is a port, with fishing and transport ongoing, although the primary source of local employment currently is tourism, with two beaches on the other side of the peninsula from the main body of the town and a large amount of local accommodation.</p><br>
<p>The building of the National Bank of Greece is probably the only one in the world to have been built in the Mycenaean Revival architectural style.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<h3>Bus</h3><br>
<p>Since 1952, the town has been served by public bus (KTEL Argolida), which provides daily services to all destinations in region as well as other major Greek centers such as Athens. The journey to Athens takes two to two hours and 20 minutes, going via Corinth/Isthmos and Argos.</p><br>
<h3>Train</h3><br>
<p>Train service began in 1886 and using an earlier station that still stands.</p><br>
<p>The town is connected by a branch line of ten kilometers from Argos to Nafplio. In 2011, the Corinth-Tripoli-Nafplio train service was suspended during the Greek financial crisis. There was a plan to re-open the line as an extension of the suburban railway that connects Corinth with Athens, but that has not happened.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture and urban sculpture</h2><br>
<p>Acronauplia is the oldest part of the city though a modern hotel has been built on it. Until the thirteenth century, it was a town on its own. The arrival of the Venetians and the Franks transformed it into part of the town fortifications. Other fortifications of the city include the Palamidi and Bourtzi, which is located in the middle of the harbour.</p><br>
<p>Nafplio maintains a traditional architectural style with many traditional-style colourful buildings and houses, partly influenced by the Venetians, because of the domination of 1338-1540. Also, modern-era neoclassical buildings are also preserved, while the building of the National Bank of Greece is an example of Mycenaean Revival architecture.</p><br>
<p>Around the city can be found several sculptures and statues. They are related mostly with the modern history of Nafplio, such as the statues of Ioannis Kapodistrias, Otto of Greece and Theodoros Kolokotronis.</p><br>
<h2>Education</h2><br>
<p>Since 2003, the University of Peloponnese has incorporated a new faculty, the School of Fine Arts. In 2007, a single department exists, the Department of Theatre, offering four majors:</p><br>
<p>Acting & Directing</p><br>
<p>Dance</p><br>
<p>Set design & Costume design</p><br>
<p>Theatrical Studies</p><br>
<h2>Notable people</h2><br>
<p>Nicolas "the Greek": One of the 18 survivors of the expedition that completed the first circumnavigation of the world in 1519-1522 (see Victoria (ship)).</p><br>
<p>Tellos Agras (1880–1907), fighter in the Greek Struggle for Macedonia.</p><br>
<p>Leonidas Drosis, sculptor.</p><br>
<p>Nina Bawden (1925-2012), writer (resident).</p><br>
<p>Austen Kark (1926–2002) managing director of the BBC World Service (resident).</p><br>
<p>Nikos Karouzos (1926–1990), poet.</p><br>
<p>Vangelis Kazan (1936–2008), actor.</p><br>
<p>Sotirios Sotiropoulos (1831–1898), lawyer, politician and former Prime Minister of Greece.</p><br>
<p>Angelos Terzakis (1907–1979), writer.</p><br>
<p>Charilaos Trikoupis (Greek: Χαρίλαος Τρικούπης) (July 11, 1832 – April 1896), Prime Minister of Greece seven times from 1875 until 1895.</p><br>
<p>Panagiotis Tachtsidis (Greek: Παναγιώτης Ταχτσίδης) (February 15, 1991), football player currently playing in Italian Serie A for Cagliari Calcio.</p><br>
<h2>International relations</h2><br>
<h3>Twin towns – sister cities</h3><br>
<p>Nafplio is twinned with:</p><br>
<h2>Sports</h2><br>
<p>Pannafpliakos F.C.</p><br>
<p>The Alice M. Ward Library is the public library serving Canaan, Essex County, Vermont. It is located at 27 Park St., in a former stagecoach inn, historically known as Jacobs Stand, built in 1846. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<h2>Building history and architecture</h2><br>
<p>Built in 1846 by Fernando C. Jacobs as an inn or stand, the building was the northernmost stop on the stage route to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Due to Jacob&#39;s known stance against slavery, local folklore considers the building to be the former northernmost USA stop on the Connecticut River route of the 19th century Underground Railroad. However, there is no evidence supporting the theory. The building was sold in 1888 to physician Artemas Ward and later bequest to the town of Canaan as a public library in 1930 after the death of his wife Alice. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its distinctive Neo-Palladian temple-form design.</p><br>
<p>The library stands on the west side of the triangular town common in the center of Canaan village, near the southern end of Park Street where it meets Vermont Route 102. The building is a 1-1/2 story timber-framed structure, with a gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. The gable faces the street, and projects over a recessed porch, which has round Ionic columns for support. Recessed into the gable on the attic level is a rounded second-story porch area, giving the front its Palladian form. The main entrance is flanked by sidelight windows and pilasters, and is topped by a corniced entablature. The interior retains period Federal style woodwork, including a particularly fine central staircase.</p><br>
<h2>Services</h2><br>
<p>According to 2000 Census figures as reported by the Vermont Department of Libraries, the Alice M. Ward Library serves a population of 1078, with a staff of two. While located in Canaan, it offers free library cards to all patrons, including seasonal visitors and those from neighboring towns. The Canaan Historical Society uses the top floor of the library for historical displays and public activities.</p><br>
<p>The library offers wireless DSL Internet access and offers 4 computers for public use. It does not use content filtering. The library has an Xbox 360 for public use, and offers nontraditional items for public circulation, including snowshoes, a typewriter, cameras, craft items and Dremels. Other electronics, including a Sphero and Samsung Galaxy Tab 4s, are available for in-library use or used in library programming. Additionally, there is an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset available for use of the public. The library was reported in 2014 as meeting all state standards.</p><br>
<h2>Educational programs</h2><br>
<p>The Alice Ward Library offers several educational programs for a variety of ages year-round. The library has a multitude of STEM-focused opportunities, such as a regularly meeting technology club. Tech Tuesdays are geared for students in grades 3-7, while Tech Thursdays are for students grades 8-12. Both clubs run from 9-11 AM. A Lego club also meets every Wednesday.</p><br>
<p>Green Pond is the name of both a lake and of a private lakeside residential unincorporated community within Rockaway Township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. The lakeside community is managed by two corporations, Green Pond Corporation and Lake End Corporation. Despite a name suggestive of a small lily pad and algae-coated pool, Green Pond lake is fairly large  total), and the water clarity is high due to the lake&#39;s source .</p><br>
<p>Green Pond is located in Rockaway Township in Morris County, but has a Newfoundland, New Jersey (Passaic County) mailing address. Newfoundland came to wider attention in 2003 when large portions of the independent film, The Station Agent, were filmed there. Several scenes of this film took place on Green Pond Road (County Route 513), a public thoroughfare which connects a former New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway depot and Route 23 to Lake End Road and to the private lanes of the Green Pond Village community. Lakeside scenes of The Station Agent that were set on Green Pond were actually filmed elsewhere, as the Lake End and Green Pond Corporations denied lake access to the filmmakers.</p><br>
<p>New homeowners in either Green Pond or Lake End Corporations pay a fee to the relevant corporation in addition to the usual real estate closing fees, and become "stockholders" in exchange for an interest in the common lands which surround the community. Only stockholders and their guests (who are required to wear ID) may access the lake and the community facilities, which include tennis courts, ballfields, a community center, and a membership-only yacht club that races Comet sailboats. On summer weekends and major holidays, a security guard is stationed at the entrance to Green Pond village to prevent unauthorized access to the beach areas.</p><br>
<p>Green Pond is a spring-fed glacial lake (elevation 1,048 feet) that runs along a roughly northeast-southwest axis, bordered on the longer, lateral sides by rocky terrain. On the eastern side is (elevation 1,222 feet), and on the west, (elevation 1,240 feet) rises sharply from the lake with a boulder-strewn shoreline. The lakes outflow at the southwestern end is into tributaries of the Rockaway River, which run through the United States Armys Picatinny Arsenal and through an area of legally designated wetlands where development is restricted.</p><br>
<p>The lake has a number of sand bars and other shoaling features, and the average depth is 13 ft. There are deeper areas also: the maximum depth was measured at 54 feet during soundings taken in the 1970s by John Stenz and Doug Charlton. The lake is stocked seasonally with trout and bass; other aquatic species include sunfish, perch, catfish, bluegills, pickerel, and snapping turtles.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and Mining History</h2><br>
<p>The geology of the Green Pond region is peculiar. The lake is situated in the center of the precambrian New York-New Jersey Highlands, a northeast-southwest system of folded and faulted igneous and metamorphic rocks that form numerous ridges and valleys. The "Green Pond Outlier", named for the lake, is a thin belt of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks that bisects the precambrian crystalline rocks and extends for more than 60 mi between Interstate 80 in New Jersey and the New York Thruway in New York. In some places, the ground cover is glacial till from the terminal moraine of the Wisconsin glaciation.</p><br>
<p>From the American Revolutionary War period onwards, the area around Green Pond was a site of extensive mining activity - especially iron mining, which peaked in the 19th century. Currently, there is no active mining in New Jersey. The name "Copperas" (an older term for ferrous sulfate) attests to this history, and the ruins of at least 3 mines are reportedly visible nearby:</p><br>
<p>Canfield Mine at the base of Copperas Mountain, where the mined ore was magnetite hosted in Pochuck gneiss.</p><br>
<p>Winter Mine, iron in magnetite ore, located east of Green Pond, which opened in 1882 and reopened in the spring of 1885, but closed before 1886. The ore vein was 4 meters wide.</p><br>
<p>Pardee Mine, another iron mine in magnetite ore hosted in Poichuck gneiss. Located east of Green Pond at the base of Copperas Mountain, Pardee started about 1870 and closed in 1872, then reopened about 1882 and closed permanently in 1884. This mine reportedly produced 2,500 tons of ore.</p><br>
<h2>Settlement history</h2><br>
<p>Before Dutch settlement of northern New Jersey began in the late 17th century, the region was home to the Lenape Native American tribes. However, despite the 18th- and 19th-century mining activity in nearby areas, the Green Pond lakeshore and immediate environs were sparsely populated by permanent residents until the 20th century. Green Pond village, at the north end of the Lake, was a Methodist church summer camp from the 1920s into the 1940s, and many of the village houses that date to this period remain unheated bungalows of the American Craftsman style that are used primarily during the summertime. However, due to pressure from rising real estate costs in the New York City suburbs, these holiday cottages are gradually giving way to year-round dwellings with central heating. Along the eastern and southern shores of the lake - areas controlled by the Lake End Corporation - almost all of the houses are now inhabited year-round. A few houses are accessible only by boat, most notably the Seven Sisters, an isolated cluster of summer houses on the west side of the lake.</p><br>
<h2>Notable people</h2><br>
<p>People who were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Green Pond include:</p><br>
<p>Lou Benfatti (born 1971), former defensive tackle for the New York Jets (1994-1996).</p><br>
<p>Robin Cook (born 1940), a medical doctor and prolific author of "medical thrillers" is most known for his fiction novel, Coma (1977). Cook&#39;s other works include Outbreak (1987), Vital Signs (1991), and Toxin (1998).</p><br>
<p>John Drury Clark, (1907-1988), rocket fuel developer, chemist, and science fiction writer, and his wife Inga Stephens Pratt Clark (1906-1970), artist and illustrator, resided in the Newfoundland section of Green Pond in their later years.</p><br>
<p>Gaochang , also called Karakhoja, Qara-hoja, Kara-Khoja, or Karahoja , is the site of a ruined, ancient oasis city on the northern rim of the inhospitable Taklamakan Desert in present-day Xinjiang, China. The site is also known in published reports as Chotscho, Khocho, Qocho, or Qočo. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Gaochang was referred to as "Halahezhuo"  and Huozhou.</p><br>
<p>The ruins are located 30 km southeast of modern Turpan.</p><br>
<p>The archaeological remains are just outside the modern town of Gaochang, at a place called Idykut-schari or Idikutschari by local residents. (see the work of Albert Grünwedel in the external links below). Artistic depictions of the city have been published by Albert von Le Coq. Gaochang is considered in some sources to have been a "Chinese colony", that is, it was located in a region otherwise occupied at the time by West Eurasian peoples.</p><br>
<p>A busy trading center, it was a stopping point for merchant traders traveling on the Silk Road. It was destroyed in wars during the 14th century, and old palace ruins and inside and outside cities can still be seen today.</p><br>
<p>Near Gaochang is another major archeological site: the Astana tombs.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Jushi Kingdom and early Han-Chinese rule</h3><br>
<p>The earliest people known to have lived in the area were the Gushi (or Jushi). The region around Turfan was described during the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) as being occupied by the Jūshī, while control over the region swayed between the Han-Chinese and the Xiongnu.</p><br>
<p>Gaochang was built in the 1st century BC, it was an important site along the Silk Road. It played a key role as a transportation hub in western China. The Jushi leaders invited the Chinese Han dynasty to take over and pledged their allegiance. In 327, the Gaochang Commandery (jùn) was created by the Former Liang under the Han Chinese ruler Zhang Gui. The Chinese set up a military colony/garrison and organized the land into multiple divisions. Han Chinese colonists from the Hexi region and the central plains also settled in the region.</p><br>
<p>After the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, northern China split into multiple states, including the Central Asian oases. Gaochang was ruled by the Former Liang, Former Qin, and Northern Liang as part of a commandery. In 383 The General Lu Guang of the Former Qin seized control of the region.</p><br>
<p>In 439, remnants of the Northern Liang, led by Juqu Wuhui and Juqu Anzhou, fled to Gaochang where they would hold onto power until 460 when they were conquered by the Rouran Khaganate. Another version of this story says that in 439 a man named Ashina led 500 families from Gansu to Gaochang. In 460, the Rouran forced them to move to the Altai. They became the Ashina clan that formed the Gokturk Khaganate</p><br>
<p>Six Dynasties Turfan tombs contained dumplings.</p><br>
<h3>Rouran, Gaoche, and Göktürk dominance over Gaochang's rulers</h3><br>
<p>From the mid-5th century until the mid-7th century, there existed four independent statelets in the narrow Turpan basin. These were controlled by the Kan clan, Zhang clan, Ma clan, and Qu clan.</p><br>
<p>A the time of its conquest by the Rouran Khaganate, there were more than ten thousand Han Chinese households in Gaochang. The Rouran Khaganate, which was based in Mongolia, appointed a Han Chinese named Kan Bozhou to rule as King of Gaochang in 460, and it became a separate vassal kingdom of the Khaganate. Kan was dependent on Rouran backing. Yicheng and Shougui were the last two kings of the Chinese Kan family to rule Gaochang.</p><br>
<p>At this time the Gaoche was rising to challenge power of the Rouran in the Tarim Basin. The Gaoche king Afuzhiluo killed King Kan Shougui, who was the nephew of Kan Bozhou. and appointed a Han from Dunhuang, named Zhang Mengming (張孟明), as his own vassal King of Gaochang. Gaochang thus passed under Gaoche rule.</p><br>
<p>Later, Zhang Mengming was killed in an uprising by the people of Gaochang and replaced by Ma Ru. In 501, Ma Ru himself was overthrown and killed, and the people of Gaochang appointed Qu Jia of Jincheng (in Gansu) as their king. Qu Jia hailed from the Zhong district of Jincheng commandery (金城, roughly corresponding to modern day Lanzhou, Gansu)</p><br>
<p>While the material civilization of Kucha to its west in this period remained chiefly Indo-Iranian in character, in Goachang it gradually merged into the Tang aesthetics. In 607 the ruler of Gaochang Qu Boya paid tribute to the Sui Dynasty, but his attempt at sinicization provoked a coup which overthrew the Qu ruler. The Qu family was restored six years later, and the successor Qu Wentai welcomed the Tang pilgrim Xuanzang with great enthusiasm in 629 AD.</p><br>
<p>The Kingdom of Gaochang was made out of Han Chinese colonists and ruled by the Han Chinese Qu family which originated from Gansu. Jincheng commandery 金城 (Lanzhou), district of Yuzhong 榆中 was the home of the Qu Jia. The Qu family was linked by marriage alliances to the Turks, with a Turk being the grandmother of King Qu Boya&#39;s.</p><br>
<h3>Tang rule</h3><br>
<p>However, fearing Tang expansion, Qu Wentai later formed an alliance with the Western Turks and rebelled against Tang suzerainty. Emperor Taizong sent an army led by General Hou Junji against the kingdom in 640, and Qu Wentai apparently died of shock at news of the approaching army. and the seat of government of Anxi (安西). Before the Chinese conquered Gaochang, it was an impediment to Chinese access to Tarim and Transoxiania.</p><br>
<p>Under Tang rule, Gaochang was inhabited by Chinese, Sogdians, and Tocharians.</p><br>
<p>7th or 8th century old dumplings and wontons were found in Turfan.</p><br>
<p>Tang dynasty became greatly weakened due to the An Lushan Rebellion, and in 755, the Chinese were forced to pull back their soldiers from the region. The area was first taken by the Tibetans, then finally by the Uyghurs in 803, who called the area Kocho (Qocho).</p><br>
<h3>Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho</h3><br>
<p>After 840 it then became occupied by remnants of the Uyghur Khaganate fleeing Yenisei Kirghiz invasion of their land. The Uyghurs established the Kingdom of Qocho (Kara-Khoja) in 850. The inhabitants of Qocho practiced Buddhism, Manichaeism and Nestorian Christianity. The Uyghurs converted to Buddhism and sponsored building of temple caves in the nearby Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves where depictions of Uyghur sponsors may be seen. The Buddhist Uyghur kings, who called themselves idiquts, retained their nomadic lifestyle, residing in Qocho during the winter, but moved to the cooler Bishbalik near Urumchi in the summer.</p><br>
<p>Qocho later became a vassal state of the Kara-Khitans. However, In 1209, the idiqut Barchuq offered Genghis Khan the suzerainty of his kingdom, and went personally to Genghis Khan with a sizeable tribute when demanded in 1211. The Uyghurs thus went into the service of the Mongols, who later formed the Yuan Dynasty in China. The Uyghurs became bureaucrats (semu) of the Mongol Empire and their Uyghur script was modified for Mongolian. As far south as Quanzhou, preponderance of Gaochang Uyghur in Nestorian Christian inscriptions of the Yuan period attests to their importance in the Christian community there.</p><br>
<p>The Gaochang area was conquered by the Mongols of the Chagatai Khanate (not part of Yuan Dynasty) from 1275 to 1318 by as many as 120,000 troops.</p><br>
<h2>Buddhism</h2><br>
<p>Buddhism spread to China from India along the northern branch of the Silk Road predominantly in the 4th and 5th centuries as the Liang rulers were Buddhists. The building of Buddhist grottos probably began during this period. There are clusters close to Gaochang, the largest being the Bezeklik grottos.</p><br>
<h2>Goachang ruling families</h2><br>
<h3>Rulers of the Kan Family</h3><br>
<h3>Rulers of the Zhang Family</h3><br>
<h3>Rulers of the Ma Family</h3><br>
<h3>Rulers of the Qu Family</h3><br>
<p>Franz Josef Glacier / Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere is a 12 km long temperate maritime glacier located in Westland Tai Poutini National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand&#39;s South Island. Together with the Fox Glacier 20 km to the south, and a third glacier, it descends from the Southern Alps to less than 300 m above sea level.</p><br>
<p>The area surrounding the two glaciers is part of Te Wahipounamu, a World Heritage Site park. The river emerging from the glacier terminal of Franz Josef is known as the Waiho River.</p><br>
<h2>Naming</h2><br>
<p>The first European description of one of the west coast glaciers (believed to be Franz Josef) was made in the log of the ship Mary Louisa in 1859. The glacier was later named after Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria by the German explorer, Julius von Haast in 1865. The Māori name for the glacier is Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere (The tears of Hine Hukatere), arising from a local legend: Hine Hukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover, Wawe, to climb with her. Wawe was a less experienced climber than Hine Hukatere but loved to accompany her until an avalanche swept Wawe from the peaks to his death. Hine Hukatere was broken-hearted and her many, many tears flowed down the mountain and froze to form the glacier. Following the passage of the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the name of the glacier was officially altered to Franz Josef Glacier / Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere.</p><br>
<h2>Advance and retreat</h2><br>
<p>Franz Josef Glacier is currently 12 km long and terminates 19 km from the Tasman Sea. Fed by a 20 km&sup2; large snowfield at high altitude, it exhibits a cyclic pattern of advance and retreat, driven by differences between the volume of meltwater at the foot of the glacier and volume of snowfall feeding the névé. Franz Josef Glacier had periods of advances from 1946 to 1951 (340 m), 1965–1967 (400 m), 1983–1999 (1420 m) and 2004–2008 (280 m).</p><br>
<p>The glacier advanced rapidly during the Little Ice Age, reaching a maximum in the early eighteenth century. Having retreated several kilometres between the 1940s and 1980s, the glacier entered an advancing phase in 1984 and at times has advanced at the phenomenal (by glacial standards) rate of 70 cm a day. The flow rate is about 10 times that of typical glaciers. Over the longer term, the glacier has retreated since the last ice age, and it is believed that it extended into the sea some 10,000 to 15,000 years ago.</p><br>
<p>This cyclic behaviour is well illustrated by a postage stamp issued in 1946, depicting the view from St James Anglican Church. The church was built in 1931, with a panoramic altar window to take advantage of its location. By 1954, the glacier had disappeared from view from the church, but it reappeared in 1997. This is due to the highly variable conditions on the snowfield, which take around 5–6 years before they result in changes in the terminus location.</p><br>
<p>The glacier was still advancing until 2008, but since then it has entered a very rapid phase of retreat.</p><br>
<p>As is the case for most other New Zealand glaciers which are mainly found on the eastern side of the southern alps, the shrinking process is attributed to global warming.</p><br>
<p>There have been some incidents of jökulhlaups (outbreak floods from water-filled ice tunnels) at the glacier, with one destroying a bridge on the access route in 1989.</p><br>
<p>Based on past variations, scientists expect that Franz Josef Glacier will retreat 5 km and lose 38% of its mass by 2100 in a mid-range scenario of warming.</p><br>
<h2>The Waiho Loop</h2><br>
<p>The Waiho Loop is the terminal moraine of the glacier, and indicates the extent of the Franz Josef Glacier, about 12,000 years ago. Too rugged to be cleared for farming it remains covered in native forest.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>The glacier area is one of the main tourist attractions of the West Coast, with around 250,000 visitors a year, and up to 2,700 per day (2007). Guided and unguided walks up to and onto the glacier are possible. However, since April 2012 all glacier walks require a helicopter flight past the unstable terminal face. Glacier walks also require some specialised equipment, namely ice axes and crampons that latch onto a sturdy boot. These are usually provided by tour companies.</p><br>
<p>As the walking part of any tour up to the glacier takes a long time, and ends at the first icefall (a frozen waterfall, draping a natural step in the land underneath), many tourists book helicopter tours from one of the several local airlines, which usually drop their guests between the first and second icefalls, for a guided 1–2 hour walk through the broken ground atop the glacier. Although the glacial landscape changes almost daily, given the glacier&#39;s unusually fast flow, and some walks including passages through ice tunnels, they are still considered quite safe and only somewhat strenuous.</p><br>
<p>In June 2010, an Australian tourist died of a heart attack during a guided hike of the glacier.</p><br>
<p>At the entrance of the valley lies the village of Franz Josef, which has a permanent population of approximately 330 residents. It is situated 5 km from the glacier on State Highway 6 and has a petrol station, small but busy heliport, numerous tourist accommodation options (with up to 2,000 people staying overnight during the main season) and a number of restaurants and shops. Just south of the village, a sealed road leads from the highway into the Franz Josef Glacier valley and to a car park. Several small walks start from the Valley Road and the car park, and it is also possible to comfortably cycle from Franz Josef township to the car park.</p><br>
<p>An alternative option to view the glacier is via the 8 hour day hike up the 1,303 m high Alex Knob, overlooking the Franz Josef Glacier and valley below. The path up Alex Knob is of good tramping track standard, but strenuous due to steeply climbing about 1,100 m in height and considered "advanced" due to the duration of the hike.</p><br>
<p>Lake Nacimiento is an 18 mi long lake on the Nacimiento River in northern San Luis Obispo County, California. The lake contains many arms including Snake Creek and Dip Creek, nearer the dam, and the central Las Tablas and Franklin Creeks. Because of the dragon-like shape created by the positions of these arms, it is sometimes referred to as Dragon Lake. The lake can fill quickly in the winter from river surges resulting from downpours upstream in the Santa Lucia Range so the level is not usually allowed to capacity until May 1 of each year.</p><br>
<p>Lake Nacimiento has a low fish population due to the high levels of mercury present in the lake, due to runoff from the closed Klau and Buena Vista Mercury Mines, south of the lake. Only a few fisherman manage to catch fish. Consumption of bass, crappies, carps, and catfish from the lake is dangerous, but blue gill and sucker fish may be eaten only once per week safely. The lake is unique among California reservoirs in that it contains, among other species, introduced white bass, which thrive in the lake and spawn in the river and inflowing creeks in spring. In fact, the world fly fishing record for a white bass was broken in 1981 at Lake Nacimiento. The fish was caught by Cory Wells, a member of the world famous musical group, Three Dog Night. The record stood for over 27 years. Lake Nacimiento can also produce power from a turbine at the base of the dam.</p><br>
<p>Lake Nacimiento is also a haven for watersport enthusiasts. The lake provides ample room for waterskiing, wakeboarding, jetskiing, wakesurfing, and other water-related activities.</p><br>
<p>The lake was originally designed for irrigation water and flood control as well as recreation. Nacimiento Dam, a 210-foot (64 m) earthfill dam, forms the lake. The dam was built by the Monterey County Water Authority under Monterey County District Engineer Loran Bunte Jr, which completed construction in 1956. The water authority uses the lake to recharge its groundwater. Even though the lake is entirely inside San Luis Obispo County, the waters are patrolled by the Monterey County Parks Department under a joint powers agreement with San Luis Obispo County. The Monterey County Parks Department’s primary jurisdiction is the lake waters, up to the high water mark and the resort area. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office does have a boat at the lake for access to the back country around the lake. Also, they have been known to write tickets on the water. Lake Nacimiento has a capacity of 377,000 acre.ft. The lake is near the city of Paso Robles. The lake is also the home of two residential housing developments, which lie on the lake&#39;s shore; Heritage Ranch and Oak Shores. There are several smaller (10-40 house) private subdivisions on the south west side of the lake. These houses were affected by the Chimney Fire in August 2016. Except for the resort area near the dam, most of the property around the lake is private. Overnight camping on the lake, outside of the resort, is not allowed. Also, you are considered trespassing if you set up or venture on land above the high water mark.</p><br>
<p>The lake was developed and paid for by Monterey County. However San Luis Obispo County retained the rights to 17,500 acre feet of water per year. This was not requested by San Luis Obispo County until the mid-2000s. In October 2007, construction started on a pipeline to bring water from the lake to Paso Robles, Templeton, Atascadero, and San Luis Obispo. During construction, three people were killed&mdash;one run over by a dump truck, and two drowned when an excavator hit an unrelated water pipeline which flooded a section of water project pipe under construction. The project went online in January 2011.</p><br>
<p>The Lake&#39;s dam was shut down during 2014 due to damage that occurred to one of the turbines, and as a result the neighboring Lake San Antonio was emptied to critical levels to supply the Salinas Valley with groundwater.</p><br>
<p>The Lakes levels have dropped significantly due to the recent drought in California.</p><br>
<p>The Diego Ramírez Islands  are a small group of islands located in the southernmost extreme of Chile.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The islands lie about 105 km west-southwest of Cape Horn and 93 km south-southeast of Ildefonso Islands, stretching 8 km north-south. They are divided into a smaller northern group with six islets, and a larger southern group, separated by a passage 3 km wide. The two largest islands, Isla Bartolomé and Isla Gonzalo, both lie in the southern group. Águila Islet (Islote Águila), the southernmost land of the group, is at 56°32&#39;9"S.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>They were first sighted on 12 February 1619 by the Spanish Garcia de Nodal expedition, and named after the cosmographer of the expedition, Diego Ramírez de Arellano. They were cited as the southernmost land mass plotted as of that time, and retained the distinction for 156 years, until the discovery of the South Sandwich Islands in 1775.</p><br>
<p>In 1892 the Chilean government rented the islands to Pedro Pablo Benavides for fishing and on condition that a lighthouse, a port and a school were built. Later the rent was transferred to Koenigswerther and Pasinowich.</p><br>
<p>The Chilean Navy established a meteorological station above Caleta Condell, a small cove on the northeast side of Isla Gonzalo (Gonzalo Island), in 1957, and resupply it several times each year. This is the southernmost inhabited outpost of South America (including islands), even if the South Sandwich Islands are regarded as part of South America, since the Argentinian station on Thule Island was dismantled in June 1982 (in the aftermath of the Falklands War). The next southerly inhabited outpost of South America is the lighthouse of Cape Horn. Cruise ships occasionally pass by on their way to and from Antarctica.</p><br>
<p>The islands are an important nesting site for a number of southern seabirds, including the black-browed albatross, shy albatross, grey-headed albatross, rockhopper penguin and southern giant-petrel.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>The islands have a tundra climate (ET), with abundant precipitation fairly spread throughout the year.</p><br>
<p>Fontanka  is a left branch of the river Neva, which flows through the whole of Central Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is 6.7 km long; its width is up to 70 m, and its depth is up to 3.5 m. The Fontanka Embankment is lined with the former private residences of Russian nobility.</p><br>
<p>This river, one of 93 rivers and channels in St. Petersburg, was once named Anonymous Creek (in Russian, Bezymyannyi Yerik, Безымянный ерик). In Russian, yerik is a secondary or intermittent river channel (creek or brook). In 1719, the river received its present name, because water from it supplied the fountains of the Summer Garden.</p><br>
<p>Until the mid-18th century, the Fontanka River was considered the southern boundary of St. Petersburg. Its banks were lined with the spacious messuages of Russian Imperial Family members and nobility, the most brilliant being the Summer Palace and Anichkov Palace. In 1780–1789 Andrey Kvasov superintended the construction of the granite embankments and approaches to the river. The river-bed was regularised as well.</p><br>
<p>Among the relics of Baroque architecture along the banks of the river are the Sheremetev Palace, Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace, Shuvalov Palace, and the Church of St. Panteleimon. The notable Neoclassical structures from the 18th century include the Catherine Institute, the Anichkov Palace and the Yusupov Palace. Some of the mansions contain museums of those writers and composers who lived there: Gavrila Derzhavin, Alexander Pushkin, Ivan Turgenev, Anna Akhmatova and others.</p><br>
<p>The Fontanka is spanned by fifteen bridges, including the 18th-century Lomonosov Bridge and the extravagant Egyptian Bridge. The most famous of these, the Anichkov Bridge, carries the Nevsky Prospekt over the river.</p><br>
<p>Mount Crescent is a mountain located in the Crescent Range of the White Mountains in Randolph, New Hampshire. It is 3,251 ft  high, and its summit is the second highest mountain summit in Randolph, after Black Crescent Mountain . Both mountains are in Randolph&#39;s Ice Gulch Town Forest. On the 1896 topographic map, Mount Crescent is shown as "Randolph Mtn." with an elevation of 3,280 ft, and Black Crescent is shown as "Mt. Crescent" with an elevation of 3,322 ft.</p><br>
<p>The southeast side of Mount Crescent drains into Moose Brook, thence into the Androscoggin River, which drains into Merrymeeting Bay, the estuary of the Kennebec River, and thence into the Gulf of Maine.</p><br>
<p>The southwest end of Mt. Crescent drains into Carlton Brook, thence into the Moose River, a different stream which is also a tributary of the Androscoggin River.</p><br>
<p>The northwest side of Crescent drains into the Upper Ammonoosuc River, thence into Connecticut River, which drains into Long Island Sound in Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>Mount Crescent may be reached by hiking trails from either the north, via Pond of Safety Road (sometimes shown as Stag Hollow Road) and Bog Dam Road, or from the south, via Randolph Hill Road.</p><br>
<p>Castaway Cay is a private island in the Bahamas which serves as an exclusive port for the Disney Cruise Line ships. It is located near Great Abaco Island and was formerly known as Gorda Cay. In 1997, The Walt Disney Company purchased a 99-year land lease for the cay from the Bahamian government, set to expire in 2096, giving the company substantial control over the guest experience on the island.</p><br>
<p>Castaway Cay was the first private island in the cruise industry where the ship docks alongside so guests do not have to tender to land.</p><br>
<p>The island is still largely undeveloped, as only 55 of the 1,000 acre are being used. Castaway Cay now has approximately 60 Disney Cruise Line permanent residents who keep the island running daily; the numbers fluctuate between the busy season and off season.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Gorda Cay was first settled in 1783. Gorda&#39;s airstrip (now Castaway Cay Airport) was once used as a stop in the 1930s for bootleggers then for drug runners.</p><br>
<p>Gorda Cay had also been used for filming in 1983. The beach where Tom Hanks first encounters Daryl Hannah in Splash is on the island. Part of the film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was filmed on the island.</p><br>
<p>In 1997, the Disney Cruise Line purchased a 99-year lease for Gorda Cay from the Bahamian government, intending the cay as the line&#39;s private island, and renamed it Castaway Cay. The company spent $25 million while construction took 18 months This included dredging 50,000 truckloads of sand from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. The pier and its approaches were constructed to allow the Disney ships to dock alongside, thus removing the need for tenders to get the passengers ashore. To create the mooring site for the ships, workers dredged sand and used explosives to blast coral, and form a 1,700 ft channel about 35 ft deep and ranging from 200 to 400 ft wide.</p><br>
<p>An additional race, Castaway Cay Challenge, was added to the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend series in 2015 with the 5K race taking place on Castaway Cay.</p><br>
<p>On February 26, 2015, a 38-year-old man from New York died after drowning at the adult beach at Castaway Cay. A death from a medical condition occurred on March 1 of that year on a ship docked at the island.</p><br>
<h2>Facilities</h2><br>
<p>A post office on the island has special Bahamian postage specific to Disney Cruise Line, and a "Castaway Cay" postmark. The island is developed in the theme of a castaway community, with buildings made to look as if they had been improvised after a shipwreck. The facilities are maintained like any other Disney theme park, and the shops accept guests&#39; stateroom keys for payment. The food service is operated as an extension of the cruise package. A variety of activities are available to guests including bicycle hire, personal watercraft rental, massages overlooking the ocean, snorkeling, para-sailing, volleyball and basketball. There are monkey bars and a rope for children to climb across set about 30 m in the ocean on one beach and a slide about 25 m into the ocean on another beach. There are three beaches for guests: one for families, one for Cabana guests, and another exclusively for adults, called Serenity Bay.</p><br>
<p>Two submarine-ride vehicles from the now-closed 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage ride at Walt Disney World lie underwater in the snorkeling area. The Flying Dutchman pirate ship, from the Pirates of the Caribbean film series, was formerly on display in the lagoon, but as of November 2010, it had been removed and taken to another location on the island where it was dismantled.</p><br>
<p>Castaway Cay has facilities for the exclusive use of the ships&#39; crews, including beaches and recreational areas. Approximately 60 Disney Cruise Line crew members, boat captains, drivers, landscapers, and maintenance personnel live and work full-time on the island, and are supplemented by crew from the ship when one is in port. Food and other supplies are brought in by the ships themselves. Sea water is desalinated for drinking with reverse osmosis water processors.</p><br>
<h3>Airport</h3><br>
<p>Castaway Cay Airport is a private use airport located on the island. The airport is infrequently used, although it is still listed as active.</p><br>
<h2>Image gallery</h2><br>
<p>The Transantarctic Mountains  comprise a mountain range of uplifted sedimentary rock in Antarctica which extend, with some interruptions, across the continent from Cape Adare in northern Victoria Land to Coats Land. These mountains divide East Antarctica and West Antarctica. They include a number of separately named mountain groups, which are often again subdivided into smaller ranges.</p><br>
<p>The range was first sighted by James Clark Ross in 1841 at what was later named the Ross Ice Shelf in his honor. It was first crossed during the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The mountain range stretches between the Ross Sea and the Weddell Sea the entire length of Antarctica, hence the name. With a total length of about 3,500 km, the Transantarctic Mountains are one of the longest mountain ranges on Earth. The 100–300 km wide range forms the boundary between East Antarctica and West Antarctica. The East Antarctic Ice Sheet bounds the TAM along their entire length on the Eastern Hemisphere side, while the Western Hemisphere side of the range is bounded by the Ross Sea (C.Michael Hogan. 2011) in Victoria Land from Cape Adare to McMurdo Sound, the Ross Ice Shelf from McMurdo Sound to near the Scott Glacier, and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet beyond.</p><br>
<p>The summits and dry valleys of the TAM are some of the few places in Antarctica not covered by ice, the highest of which rise more than 4,500 m above sea level. The McMurdo Dry Valleys lie near McMurdo Sound and represent a special Antarctic phenomenon: landscapes that are snow and ice free due to the extremely limited precipitation and ablation of ice in the valleys. The highest mountain of the TAM is 4,528 m high Mount Kirkpatrick in the Queen Alexandra Range. Isolated peaks surrounded by ice are referred to as nunataks.</p><br>
<h2>Biology</h2><br>
<p>Penguins, seals, and sea birds live along the Ross Sea coastline in Victoria Land, while life in the interior of the Transantarctic Range is limited to bacteria, lichens, algae, and fungi. Forests once covered Antarctica, including plentiful Wollemi Pine and Southern Beech. However, with the gradual cooling associated with the break-up of Gondwana, these forests gradually disappeared. It is believed that the last trees on the Antarctic continent were on Transantarctic Mountains.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Transantarctic Mountains were first seen by Captain James Ross in 1841 from the Ross Sea. The range is a natural barrier that must be crossed to reach the South Pole from the Ross Ice Shelf.</p><br>
<p>The first crossing of the Transantarctic Mountains took place during the 1902-1904 British National Antarctic Expedition at the Ross Ice Shelf. A reconnaissance party under the command of Albert Armitage reached 2700 m altitude in 1902. The following year a party under expedition leader Robert Falcon Scott crossed into East Antarctica at a location now known as Ferrar Glacier, named after the geologist of the expedition. They explored part of Victoria Land on the Antarctic Plateau before returning via the same glacier.</p><br>
<p>In 1908, Ernest Shackleton&#39;s party crossed the mountains through the Beardmore Glacier. Robert Scott returned to that same glacier in 1911, while Roald Amundsen crossed the range via the Axel Heiberg Glacier.</p><br>
<p>Much of the range remained unexplored until the late 1940s and 1950s, when missions such as Operation Highjump and the International Geophysical Year (IGY) made extensive use of aerial photography and concentrated on a thorough investigation of the entire continent. The name "Transantarctic Mountains" was first applied to this range in a 1960 paper by geologist Warren B. Hamilton, following his IGY fieldwork. It was subsequently recommended by the US-ACAN committee, a US authority for geographic names, in 1962. This purely descriptive label (in contrast to many other geographic names on Antarctica) is internationally accepted at present.</p><br>
<p>The Leverett Glacier in the Queen Maud Mountains is the planned route through the TAM for the overland supply road between McMurdo Station and Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The Transantarctic Mountains are considerably older than other mountain ranges of the continent that are mainly volcanic in origin. The range was uplifted during the opening of the West Antarctic Rift to the east, beginning about 65 million years ago in the early Cenozoic.</p><br>
<p>The mountains consist of sedimentary layers lying upon a basement of granites and gneisses. The sedimentary layers include the Beacon Supergroup sandstones, siltstones, and coal deposited beginning in the Silurian period and continuing into the Jurassic. In many places the Beacon Supergroup has been intruded by dikes and sills of Jurassic age Ferrar Dolerite. Many of the fossils found in Antarctica are from locations within these sedimentary formations.</p><br>
<p>Ice from the East Antarctic ice sheet flows through the Transantarctic Mountains via a series of outlet glaciers into the Ross Sea, Ross Ice Shelf, and West Antarctic Ice Sheet. These glaciers generally flow perpendicular to the orientation of the range and define subranges and peak groups. It is thought that many of these outlet glaciers follow the traces of large-scale geologic faults.</p><br>
<p>The Commander Islands or Komandorski Islands or Komandorskie Islands  are a group of treeless, sparsely populated islands in the Bering Sea located about 175 km east of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East. The islands consist of Bering Island , Medny Island  and fifteen smaller ones , the largest of which are Tufted Puffin Rock , 15 hectare, and Kamen Ariy, which are between 3 km and 13 km west of the only settlement, Nikolskoye. Administratively, they compose Aleutsky District of Kamchatka Krai.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Commander Islands are the westernmost extension of the Aleutian Islands, most of which are part of the US state of Alaska, though they are separated from the closest US island, Attu Island, and the rest of the chain by 207 mi. Between the two runs the International Date Line. The relief is somewhat diverse, encompassing folded-block mountains, volcanic plateaus, terraced plains and low mountains. The geologic origins are long-extinct volcanoes on the edge of the Pacific and North American Plates. The highest point is Steller Peak on Bering Island at 755 m. The highest point on Medny Island is Stenjeger&#39;s Peak at 647 m.</p><br>
<p>The climate is relatively mild and maritime, with frequent precipitation (220–240 days/year). The cool summers are notoriously foggy.</p><br>
<h2>Population</h2><br>
<p>The only permanently inhabited locality is the village of Nikolskoye on the northwest end of Bering Island, with an estimated population of 613 . This consists almost entirely of Russians and Aleuts. The majority of the islands&#39; area, as well as much of the adjacent marine habitat (14,088 square miles), is taken up by the Komandorsky Zapovednik, a natural preserve. The economy is based primarily on fishing, mushroom gathering, the administration of the zapovednik, ecotourism and government services.</p><br>
<p>The village has a school, a satellite tracking station and a dirt airstrip south of the village.</p><br>
<p>The other settlements on the two islands are small villages or scattering of houses:</p><br>
<p>* Severnoye</p><br>
<p>* Podutesnaya</p><br>
<p>* Gladkovskeya</p><br>
<p>* Lisennova</p><br>
<p>* Peschanka</p><br>
<p>* Preobrajenskoe Settlement at Peschanaya Bay on Medniy Island – abandoned</p><br>
<p>* Glinka</p><br>
<h2>Natural history</h2><br>
<p>Due to the high productivity of the Bering Sea shelf and the Pacific slope and their remoteness from human influence, the Commander Islands are marked by a great abundance of marine animal life and a relative paucity of terrestrial organisms. Notably, significant numbers of northern fur seals (some 200,000 individuals) and Steller sea lions (approximately 5,000 individuals) summer there, both on reproductive rookeries and non-reproductive haul-outs. Sea otters, common seals and larga seals are likewise abundant. Indeed, the sea otter population is stable and possibly increasing, even as their population is falling precipitously in the rest of the Aleutian islands.</p><br>
<p>The neighboring waters provide important feeding, wintering and migrating habitat for many whale species, many of which are threatened or endangered. Among these are: sperm whales, orcas, several species of beaked whales and porpoises, humpbacks and endangered species such as the North Pacific right whales and fin whales.</p><br>
<p>The much less diverse terrestrial fauna includes two distinct, endemic subspecies of Arctic fox, (Alopex lagopus semenovi and A. l. beringensis). Though relatively healthy now, these populations had been significantly depleted in the past due to the fur trade. Most other terrestrial species, including wild reindeer, American mink and rats have all been introduced to the islands by man.</p><br>
<p>Over a million seabirds gather to nest on numerous large colonies along almost all the coastal cliffs. The most common are northern fulmar; common, brunnich&#39;s and pigeon guillemots; horned and tufted puffins; cormorants; gulls; and kittiwakes including the extremely local red-legged kittiwake which nests in only a few other colonies in the world. Waterfowl and sandpipers are also abundant along the pre-lake depressions and river valleys of Bering Island, though largely absent from Medny Island. Migratory birds of note with critical nesting or feeding habitat on the islands include such species as Steller&#39;s eider, Pacific golden plover and Aleutian tern. Raptors of note include the rare Steller&#39;s sea eagle and gyrfalcon. In total, over 180 bird species have been registered on the Commander Islands.</p><br>
<p>The fish fauna in the mountainous, fast running streams in composed primarily of migratory salmonids, including Arctic char, Dolly Varden, black spotted trout, chinook, sockeye, coho and pink salmon.</p><br>
<p>Bering Island was the only known habitat of Steller&#39;s sea cows, an immense (over 4000 kg) sirenian similar to the manatee. The sea cow was hunted to extinction within 27 years of its discovery in 1741. The spectacled cormorant, a large essentially flightless bird in the cormorant family, was similarly driven to extinction by around 1850.</p><br>
<p>There is no true forest on the Commander Islands. The vegetation is dominated by lichens, mosses and different associations of marshy plants with low grass and dwarf trees. Very tall umbellifers are also common.</p><br>
<p>There are no amphibians or reptiles on the Commander Islands.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Commander Islands received their name from Commander Vitus Bering, whose ship St. Peter wrecked on the otherwise uninhabited Bering Island on his return voyage from Alaska in 1741. Bering died on the island along with much of the crew. His grave is marked by a modest monument. About half of the crew did manage to survive the winter, thanks in part to the abundance of wildlife (notably the newly discovered Steller&#39;s sea cow) and the efforts of naturalist and physician Georg Wilhelm Steller, who cured many of the men of scurvy by compelling them to eat seaweed. Eventually, a smaller boat was built from the remains of the St. Peter and the survivors found their way back to Kamchatka, heavily laden with valuable sea otter pelts. The discovery of the sea otters sparked the great rush of fur-seeking "Promyshlenniky" which drove the Russian expansion into Alaska. Steller&#39;s sea cow, whose habitat was apparently restricted to the kelp-beds around Bering Island, was exterminated by 1768.</p><br>
<p>Aleut (Unangan) people were transferred to the Commander Islands early in 1825 by the Russian-American Company from the Aleutians for the seal trade. Most of the Aleuts inhabiting Bering Island came from Atka Island and those who lived on Medny Island came from Attu Island, now both American possessions. A mixed language called Mednyj Aleut, with Aleut roots but Russian verb inflection, developed among the inhabitants. Today the population of the islands is about ⅔ Russian and ⅓ Aleut.</p><br>
<p>The 1943 Battle of the Komandorski Islands took place in the open sea about 160 km south of the islands.</p><br>
<p>The Arts and Industries Building is the second oldest of the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Initially named the National Museum, it was built to provide the Smithsonian with its first proper facility for public display of its growing collections.</p><br>
<p>The building, designed by architects Adolf Cluss and Paul Schulze, opened in 1881, hosting an inaugural ball for President James A. Garfield. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971. After being closed for renovation, the building opened in the spring of 2016 for events and exhibitions.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The Arts and Industries Building was sited slightly farther back from the Mall than the Smithsonian Castle to avoid obscuring the view of the Castle from the Capitol. The building was designed to be symmetrical, composed of a Greek cross with a central rotunda. The exterior was constructed with geometric patterns of polychrome brick, and a sculpture entitled Columbia Protecting Science and Industry by sculptor Caspar Buberl was placed above the main entrance on the north side.</p><br>
<p>The interior of the building was partially lit through the use of skylights and clerestory windows. An iron truss roof covers the building. In 1883, the exterior was adjusted to use a more vibrant maroon-colored brick.</p><br>
<p>The building is composed of four pavilions, one at each corner, about 40 ft square and three stories tall. These surround a central rotunda. Lower sections or "ranges" were placed outside the pavilions. Pervasive complaints of dampness and the poor health of the building&#39;s occupants led to the replacement of the wood floors in the 1890s. Balconies were added in 1896–1902 to increase space after a new Smithsonian Building failed to be authorized by the United States Congress. A tunnel was constructed in 1901 to the Smithsonian Institution Building next door.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>1800s</h3><br>
<p>According to the Smithsonian Archives, "the Congressional appropriation for the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition contained an interesting proviso. It stated that the appropriation was considered a loan, and if income from the exhibition allowed the loan to be repaid, Congress would then allow part of those funds to be used to construct a new building for the National Museum."</p><br>
<p>The success of the exhibits allowed the loan to be paid off soon after the event. Funds were approved in 1879 and the design was executed by Cluss and Schulze, based on the Meigs plan.</p><br>
<p>During its construction, the materials featured at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition—up to "sixty box cars worth" of donations—were too numerous to fit in the Smithsonian Institution Building and so were temporarily stored in the District of Columbia Armory Building at the corner of 7th Street SW and Independence Avenue.</p><br>
<p>According to the aforementioned Smithsonian Archives, "the first event to take place in the new National Museum Building was the Inaugural Ball for President James Garfield and Vice President Chester A. Arthur on March 4, 1881. A temporary wooden floor was laid, two electric lights were placed in the Rotunda, 10,000 bins for hats and coats were erected, 3,000 gas lights were installed, and festive buntings, state flags and seals decorated the halls. A colossal "Statue of America" stood in the Rotundia, illustrative of peace, justice and liberty, grasping in her uplifted hand an electric light "indicative of the skill, genius, progress, and civilization" of America in the 19th century."</p><br>
<p>Eight months later the museum officially opened to the public. "It contained 80,000 square feet of exhibit space with specially designed mahogany exhibit cases. The exhibit halls contained exhibits on geology, metallurgy, zoology, medicine, anthropology, art, history and technologies such as ceramics, printing, transportation, textiles, fisheries, and agriculture." Under the guidance of George Brown Goode, a historian and ichythyologist, a Division of Arts and Industries and Materia Medica was established that same year and materials from the museum were sent to many late nineteenth century expositions to teach people about the country&#39;s political and natural history.</p><br>
<h3>1900s</h3><br>
<p>In 1910, the natural history collections were moved to the new National Museum of Natural History, and the old National Museum Building was renamed the Arts and Sciences Building.</p><br>
<p>In 1964 the remaining exhibitions were moved to the National Museum of History and Technology, now known as the National Museum of American History.</p><br>
<p>In 1976, the rocket and aviation collections were moved to the National Air and Space Museum.</p><br>
<p>That same year, the Arts and Industries Building reopened with 1876: A Centennial Exhibition, featuring the Philadelphia Exposition artifacts it was originally built to house. Added later were series of temporary exhibitions and a children&#39;s theater, known as the Discovery Theater.</p><br>
<h3>2000s</h3><br>
<p>In 2004, the museum was again closed for renovation. Its uncertain future and deteriorating condition led the National Trust for Historic Preservation to name it in 2006 as one of America&#39;s Most Endangered Places, an annual list of endangered historic sites. In 2009 it was scheduled to receive $25 million in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for renovation work.</p><br>
<p>The exhibits were removed. Revitalization of the shell alone was solicited in 2010. A complete restoration was projected to cost $200 million ($65 million in structural renovations alone) and last until the year 2014. It has also been discussed as a possible site for a national Latino museum. In January 2014, the Smithsonian announced that the building would remain closed for the foreseeable future, citing funding concerns. But on April 12, 2015, Smithsonian Acting Secretary Albert Horvath said about 40 percent of the building would reopen in fall 2015 for use as a short-term exhibit space. Smithsonian officials said that the building had been architecturally stabilized, and minor refurbishments made to the bathrooms, HVAC system, and interior paint scheme. Horvath said the building would not completely reopen. He said that plans for a proposed National Museum of the American Latino remained in limbo, and that the Smithsonian had purposefully declined to include the Arts and Industries Building in its new master plan because the structure&#39;s fate had not yet been clarified or determined.</p><br>
<p>Amami Ōshima; Amami: 3 is one of the Satsunan Islands, and is the largest island within the Amami archipelago between Kyūshū and Okinawa.</p><br>
<p>The island, 712.35 km in area, has a population of approximately 73,000 people. Administratively it is divided into the city of Amami, the towns of Tatsugō, Setouchi, and the villages of Uken and Yamato in Kagoshima Prefecture. Much of the island is within the borders of the Amami Guntō Quasi-National Park.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Amami Ōshima is the seventh-largest island in the Japanese archipelago (excluding the disputed Kuril Islands) after the four main islands, Okinawa Island and Sado Island. It is located approximately 380 km south of the southern tip of Kyūshū and 250 km north of Okinawa. The island is of volcanic origin, with Mount Yuwanda at 605 m above sea level at its highest peak. The coast of the island is surrounded by a coral reef. It is surrounded by the East China Sea on the west and the Pacific Ocean on the east.</p><br>
<p>The climate of Amami Ōshima is classified as has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa) with very warm summers and mild winters. The rainy season lasts from May through September. The island is subject to frequent typhoons.</p><br>
<h2>Fauna</h2><br>
<p>Amami Ōshima is home to several rare or endangered endemic animals, including the Amami rabbit and the Lidth&#39;s jay, both of which are now found only in Amami Ōshima and Tokunoshima. The Amami rabbit is sometimes called a living fossil because it represents an ancient Asian lineage that has elsewhere disappeared.</p><br>
<p>The island is also home to the habu, a venomous snake that can be found throughout the Ryūkyū Islands. Mongooses were introduced to kill the habu, but have become another problem, as an increase in the mongoose population has been linked to the decline of the Amami rabbit and other endemic species.</p><br>
<p>Whale watching to see humpback whales has become a featured attraction in winter in recent years. It is also notable that North Pacific right whale, the most endangered of all whale species, have repeatedly appeared around the island (there are five records of three sightings, a capture, and a stranding since 1901) and, Amami is the only location in East China Sea where this species has been confirmed in the past 110 years. It is also one of two locations in the world along with the Bonin Islands where constant appearance in winter has been confirmed since the 20th century. Discovery of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in Seto strait made it the first confirmation in the nation. Other species include whales (Bryde&#39;s, sperm), smaller whales or dolphins (false killer, spinner, spotted), and so on. Before being wiped out, many large whales such as blue and fin were seasonal migrants.</p><br>
<p>The island marks the northernmost limit of dugong distribution, with occasional sightings throughout the 20th and into the 21st century.</p><br>
<p>Amami Oshima is the only place where a nesting of leatherback turtle has been seen in Japan.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>It is uncertain when Amami Ōshima was first settled. Stone tools indicate settlement in the Japanese Paleolithic period, and other artifacts, including pottery, indicate a constant contact with Jōmon, Yayoi and Kofun period Japan.</p><br>
<p>The island is mentioned in the ancient Japanese chronicle Nihon Shoki in an entry for the year 657 AD. During the Nara period and early Heian period it was a stopping place for envoys from Japan to the court of Tang dynasty China. Mother of pearl was an important export item to Japan. Until 1611, Amami Ōshima was part of the Ryukyu Kingdom. The island was invaded by samurai from Shimazu clan in 1609 and its incorporation into the official holdings of that domain was recognized by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1624. Shimazu rule was harsh, with the inhabitants of the island reduced to serfdom and forced to raise sugar cane to meet high taxation, which often resulted in famine. Saigō Takamori was exiled to Amami Ōshima in 1859, staying for two years, and his house has been preserved as a memorial museum. After the Meiji Restoration Amami Ōshima was incorporated into Ōsumi Province and later became part of Kagoshima Prefecture. Following World War II, along with the other Amami Islands, it was occupied by the United States until 1953, at which time it reverted to the control of Japan.</p><br>
<p>Since February 1974, a 7,861 hectare area that includes portions of the island and surrounding sea has been protected as Amami Gunto Quasi-national Park. The area also has a large mangrove forest.</p><br>
<p>IN 2001 there was a naval battle between a North Korean trawler and Japanese Coast Guard ships near the island, in which the North Korean ship was sunk.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>The economy of Amami Ōshima is based on agriculture (sugar cane, rice and sweet potatoes), commercial fishing, and the distillation of shōchū. The favorable climate allows for two rice crops a year. Seasonal tourism is also an important part of the economy. The traditional crafts include the production of high quality hand-crafted silk, which has, however, suffered from the abandonment of traditional Japanese clothing and competition from overseas.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>The port of Naze, located in the city of Amami is a major regional shipping and ferry hub.</p><br>
<p>Amami Airport, located at the northern end of the island, is connected to Tokyo, Osaka, Naha, Fukuoka and Kagoshima as well as local flights to the other Amami islands.</p><br>
<h2>Language</h2><br>
<p>Two dialects of the Amami language are spoken in Amami Ōshima: the Northern Ōshima dialect and the Southern Ōshima dialect. These dialects are part of the Ryukyuan languages group. According to Ethnologue, there were about 10,000 speakers of the Northern Ōshima dialect and about 1,800 speakers of the Southern Ōshima dialect. These dialects are now spoken mostly by older residents of the island, while most of the younger generations are monolingual in Japanese. The Amami language, including the Ōshima dialects, is classified as endangered by UNESCO.</p><br>
<p>There is also a village sign language, named as Amami Oshima Sign Language, being used in the area.</p><br>
<h2>Notable people from Amami Ōshima</h2><br>
<p>Kenji Midori – karateka</p><br>
<p>Ikue Asazaki – singer</p><br>
<p>Chitose Hajime – singer</p><br>
<p>Kousuke Atari – singer</p><br>
<p>Minami Kizuki – singer</p><br>
<p>Rikki – singer</p><br>
<p>Rena Takeshita – fashion model</p><br>
<p>Hound Tor is a tor on Dartmoor, Devon, England and is a good example of a heavily weathered granite outcrop. It is easily accessible, situated within a few minutes from the B3387 between Bovey Tracey and Widecombe-in-the-Moor.</p><br>
<p>The site is administered by Dartmoor National Park Authority for English Heritage as it includes the ruins of a medieval village, alongside prehistoric works of stone construction nearby.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>Sabine Baring-Gould said that it derived its name from the shape assumed by the blocks on the summit that have been weathered into forms resembling the heads of dogs peering over the natural battlements.</p><br>
<h2>Medieval village</h2><br>
<p>To the south-east of the tor, on a north-eastern-facing slope are the remains of Hundatora, a deserted medieval village. This was built on land farmed originally in the Bronze Age and which may have been used for grazing in the Roman period. The village was excavated between 1961 and 1975. It has four Dartmoor longhouses, many with a central drainage channel, and several smaller houses and barns. These buildings date from the 13th century. The three grain storage barns appear to have been adapted to include corn dryers, indicative of the deteriorating climate. Pollen evidence indicates that farming had stopped by 1350, but recent analysis of pottery suggests that the village was probably occupied until the late 14th or early 15th century.</p><br>
<p>The settlement is first mentioned in the Domesday Book as belonging to Tavistock Abbey:</p><br>
<p>The villagers apparently left little behind when they left, though the acidic soil would have destroyed much evidence; the excavations unearthed a single coin from the time of Henry III, and some broken pottery originating from Crockerton in Wiltshire.</p><br>
<h2>Other archaeological remains</h2><br>
<p>There are a number of older remains of human occupation nearby, including a prehistoric farmstead 400 metres north-west of the settlement, and to the south are some Bronze age hut circles.</p><br>
<p>Outlines of medieval fields can still be seen, especially from vantage points on top of the tor. The fields are bounded by "corn ditches" - granite walls fronting a ditch, with earth piled up behind the wall.</p><br>
<h2>Culture</h2><br>
<p>According to a local legend Hound Tor was created when a pack of hounds were turned to stone (see Bowerman&#39;s Nose).</p><br>
<p>The 1975 Doctor Who story The Sontaran Experiment was shot on location at Hound Tor.</p><br>
<p>It is also thought to have inspired a number of artists and writers, such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in The Hound of the Baskervilles.</p><br>
<p>The tor is popular with rock climbers</p><br>
<p>Grey Wethers consists of a pair of prehistoric stone circles, situated on grassy plateau to the north of Postbridge, Dartmoor, in the United Kingdom.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The circles are each approximately 33 m in diameter, and less than five metres apart. Their centre points are aligned almost exactly north to south. The northern circle has 20 stones remaining, while the southern has 29 – all of a relatively consistent size, mostly between 1.2 and in height.</p><br>
<p>An excavation was carried out in 1898 and a number of charcoal fragments were discovered within the circles. The circles were restored and many fallen stones re-erected in 1909.</p><br>
<h2>Folklore</h2><br>
<p>As with many ancient Dartmoor landmarks, Grey Wethers is the subject of local folklore, explaining the origin of the name (wether is an Old English word meaning sheep).</p><br>
<p>One story tells of a farmer who had recently moved to Dartmoor and was foolish enough to criticise the sheep on sale at Tavistock Market. He stopped for a drink at the Warren House Inn, and helped by several pints of cider, the locals persuaded him that there was an excellent flock of high quality sheep nearby which he would be welcome to buy. They walked off in search of them, and through the mist the farmer saw what he took to be a fine flock. He agreed to the sale, and returned to the site the following morning to find that what he had taken to be sheep were actually the stones of Grey Wethers.</p><br>
<p>Eleutherae  is a city in the northern part of Attica, bordering the territory of Boeotia. One of the best preserved fortresses of Ancient Greece stands now on the spot of Ancient Eleutherae castle and is the Athenian Acropolis, dated between 370 and 360 BC, with walls of very fine masonry that average 2.6m thick. A circuit of wall 860 m contained towers, 6 of them still standing along the northern edge of the site, preserved to the height of 4 to 6 m. The foundations of more towers are present. Although not as well preserved, the line of the remainder of the fortification circuit is clear, as is the location of the one large, double gate  and one small  gate. There are two small sally-ports located on the north side. The fortified area is irregular and c. 113 by 290m in extent.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Eleuther, in mythology, son of Apollo and Aethusa, was regarded as the founder of Eleutherae. The feast of the Dionysia is believed to have been established throughout Greece when Eleutherae chose to become part of Attica and presented a statue of the god Dionysus to Athens. It was rejected by the Athenians, and, soon after, Athens was hit with a plague. Out of fear for Dionysus, the Athenians celebrated the Dionysia by running a procession of people carrying phalloi, and saved the city from further destruction. In the 2nd century CE, the periegetic writer Pausanias wrote:</p><br>
<p>"When you have turned from Eleusis to Boeotia, you come to the Plataean land, which borders on Attica. Formerly Eleutherae formed the boundary (of Boeotia) on the side towards Attica, but when it came over to the Athenians henceforth the boundary of Boeotia was Mount Cithaeron. The reason why the people of Eleutherae came over was not because they were reduced by war, but because they desired to share Athenian citizenship and hated the Thebans. In this plain is a temple of Dionysus, from which the old wooden image was carried off to Athens. The image at Eleutherae at the present day is a copy of the old one." (Description of Greece 1.38.8)</p><br>
<p>Indeed Eleutherae, like neighboring Plataea, was an independent polis on the border between Attica and Boeotia. Frustrated by the perennial belligerence and bullying of the Thebans, the Eleuthereans turned to Athens and volunteered to give up their independence in exchange for incorporation into the Athenian polis. Given the geopolitical significance of the town, the Athenians eventually acquiesced and the cult of Diónysos Eleuthereús ("Dionysus the Liberator") was symbolically transferred to Athens. The feast of the Dionýsia, originally an Eleutherean festival in celebration of the new wine, was the event that led to the creation of what was then a completely new literary and artistic genre: the theatre; consequently, at the Theatre of Dionysus, the priest of Dionysus Eleuthereus was the principal honoree and his ornate marble throne was center-placed in the front row of the spectator seats.</p><br>
<p>Famous historical figures originate from here, such as Myron of Eleutherae, a famous sculptor known primarily for his Discobolus (discus thrower). His son, Lycius, was also a renowned sculptor.</p><br>
<p>Kalsubai  is a mountain in the Western Ghats, located in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Its summit situated at an elevation of 1646 metres  is the highest point in Maharashtra which earns it the much glorified title of the Everest of Maharashtra.</p><br>
<p>The mountain range lies within the Kalsubai Harishchandragad Wildlife Sanctuary. It is visited throughout the year by avid trekkers, Kalsubai temple devotees and wildlife enthusiasts alike. The name kalsu bai has given to the mountain on the woman who used to live in this mountain according to the villagers living at the base of kalsu bai mountain. It is said that a woman name kalsu bai was punished by the villagers and forced to leave the village, that woman climbed this mountain and started living on it and died there. That&#39;s how the name of this mountain kalsu bai came</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The mountain range was formed by the same historical events that gave birth to the Western Ghats. Resting on the Deccan Plateau geologically identified as a large igneous province, it consists of solidified Flood basalt dating back to the Cenozoic era.</p><br>
<h2>Geography and topography</h2><br>
<p>- to the North of Bhandardara backwaters (as seen from 20,000 feet)left235x235pxThe peak along with the adjoining hills spans along a downward-slanting east to west axis eventually merging with the formidable escarpment of the western ghats at almost right angles.Along its length they form a natural boundary demarcating the Igatpuri Taluka, Nashik district at its north from the Akole Taluka, Ahmednagar district at its south.The mountain itself lies on the Deccan Plateau with its base at an elevation of 587 meters (1926 feet) above mean sea level.</p><br>
<p>The mountain along with adjoining hills forms an enormous catchment area for the Arthur Lake which it overlooks.</p><br>
<h2>Reaching Kalsubai</h2><br>
<p>The mountain can be viewed, in its entirety, from Bari village located on its eastern side, about six km from Bhandardara. It can be reached by road, via Igatpuri on the Mumbai-Nasik route. Trains leaving from Mumbai provide an alternate mode of transport till Kasara railway station with connecting State transport buses, plying on the Akole-Kasara route, leading up to the base village. Private vehicles from Kasara provide yet another alternative to public transport.</p><br>
<h2>Trekking</h2><br>
<p>The peak attracts a large number of trekkers and devotees determined to scale the mountain.To reach the summit there are well designated trekking routes.The most popular route is through the eastern mountain face taking off from the base village Bari. The Waki river, a tributary of Pravara, takes origin on its eastern slope and flows as a stream through the outer fringes of Bari. A short distance away from the stream a Hanuman temple has been built. This provides an important landmark to commence the trek as well as a resting post for those nearing the final lap of their trek. The route from behind this temple takes the hiker straight to the summit. The trek along this route is a mix of easy to ascend slopes as well as treacherous rocky outcrops overlooking the valley below. Considering the increasing foot fall in recent years, the government has built iron ladders along the vertical hill slopes. These assist trekkers to allow for a convenient and safe ascent.</p><br>
<p>The route via Indore is relatively unexplored as not many people are aware of it. Unlike the regular route via Bari, which has fixed ladders, cemented steps and several people flocking during the monsoon, the route via Indore is raw with stone steps and a huge iron chain for support at the dangerous patches.</p><br>
<h2>Kalsubai temple</h2><br>
<p>The truncated summit provides a modest area of flat land which holds a sacred temple of a local deity. Local legend says that kalsubai was a house maid residing in a nearby Indorey village. She is believed to have disappeared near the mountain while trying to escape her employer&#39;s relentless torment. This lends the mountain its current name as well as a reason for this temple to be built in her fond memory.</p><br>
<p>A traditional prayer service is held every Tuesday and Thursday by a priest. During the festival of Navratri a fair comes to be organized each year with many stalls being set up near the summit to provide pooja materials to the devotees. On these special occasions local villagers participate in this fair which helps to supplement their livelihood and as well as provides them an opportunity to revere the mountain.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>Kalsubai comes to be protected under the precincts of a sanctuary.It nurtures nature in the vast stretches of forests nestled along their slopes and valleys. Open high-altitude forests dominate the scene. In the post-monsoon period the region witnessnes a dramatic makeover with flowers of different colors and varieties blossoming along the landscape. This attracts hoard of butterflies, bees, dragon-flies and other insects to feed upon the precious nectar.</p><br>
<p>During winter mornings, reptiles like lizards and snakes could be spotted sun-bathing near the ladders.kalsubai is one of the peace point in maharashtra.</p><br>
<h2>Places of interest</h2><br>
<p>Bhandardara Dam, located 6 km away, impounds the Pravara river to form the Arthur Lake.</p><br>
<p>Arthur Lake: The clear and placid lake is bounded by thick canopied forests of the Sahyadri hills. The Lake gets its water from the Pravara River. It also attracts one&#39;s attention from the summit.</p><br>
<p>Umbrella falls are formed as water from the Arthur e is released periodically to drain downstream.</p><br>
<p>To the north of the mountain range forts such as Ramsej, Harihargad, Brahmagiri, Anjaneri, Ghargad, Bahula, Tringalwadi, Kavnai can be seen. To the east one can spot Aundha, Vishramgad, Bitangad, to the west Alang, Madangad, Kulang, Ratangad (south west) and to the south Pabhargad, Ghanchakkar, Harishchandragad can be seen.</p><br>
<h2>Culture & News</h2><br>
<p>Touted as the most unusual wedding, on 28 December 2014, in the presence of close family members, a couple tied knot at the temple situated on the summit.</p><br>
<p>Celebrations for India&#39;s 69th Independence Day took place at the summit where the Navy unfurled the largest flag of India measuring 60 feet in length and 40 feet in breadth.</p><br>
<h2>Photo gallery</h2><br>
<p>Lake Scugog is an artificially flooded lake in Scugog, Regional Municipality of Durham and the unitary city of Kawartha Lakes in central Ontario, Canada. It lies between the communities of Port Perry and Lindsay. The lake has been raised and lowered several times over its history. Though not technically part of the Kawartha lakes due to its shallow depths, it is often geographically linked to them. Its sole outflow, the Scugog River, connects to Sturgeon Lake. Lake Scugog is in the Great Lakes Basin and forms part of the Trent–Severn Waterway.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>The name "Scugog" may be an Ojibwe word meaning "marshy waters". However, according to Place Names of Ontario by Alan Rayburn, Scugog is a Mississauga word meaning waves leap over a canoe in reference, perhaps, to the flooding of the river valley, or, more likely, the quickness that waves can be whipped up in winds, owing to its shallowness.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>With 68 km² with an average depth of 1.4 metres, Lake Scugog is amongst the largest five lakes of the Kawarthas by surface area. It is also the shallowest, alongside Mitchell Lake It is fed by the Blackstock and Cawkers Creeks and the Nonquon River, as well as by many small unnamed tributaries. The Scugog River is the only outflow from the lake, flowing into Sturgeon Lake which drains through the Trent watershed.</p><br>
<p>Other communities surrounding the lake include Seagrave, Port Hoover, View Lake and Caesarea. Scugog Island (whose island status is debatable due to the south-western edge being a seasonally flooded swamp) lay in the centre of the lake.</p><br>
<p>A 2.58 km&sup2; Mississaugian Indian Reserve of about 50 residents exists on Scugog Island, and includes the Great Blue Heron Casino, amongst the many seasonal cottagers on the island and around the lake.</p><br>
<h2>Hydrology</h2><br>
<p>It is a hard-water marl-producing lake, and the lake bottom consists of deep deposits of it. This gives the lake a murky appearance in warm weather, especially during the summer. The lake is reportedly filling in with this marl by about 1 millimetre per year.</p><br>
<p>In dry summer weather, the Scugog River ceases to flow out of the lake, and its tributary streams of Mariposa Brook and East Cross Creek flow backward into the lake via the river to offset the high evaporative losses off the lake and marsh surfaces.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The lake has had a history of water level changes. Originally, it was essentially two lakes connected via a broad channel flowing through a marshy area along the north end. Prior to the dam and flooding much of area was forest and swamp land. The lake was flooded approximately ten feet when William Purdy and his sons dammed the Scugog River at Lindsay (Upstream from the current dam and locks) in 1834 to power his grist mill. During this period of high water levels through the mid-thirties, today&#39;s so-called islands of Washburn, Nonquon (now Seven Mile), Ball, Platten, and the enormous centrally located Scugog came into existence as islands. Today, these form part of the mainland, with the exception of Scugog Island, which is generally maintained as an island by man-made channels around the swampy south end of the island.</p><br>
<p>The stagnant waters of the lake caused a wave of deadly fevers in the surrounding farms, and the new lake limits quickly became very unpopular with the local residents. On one day in the summer of 1838, settlers from the countryside surrounding the lake rose up and using axes, flintlocks and pitchforks, tore the dam apart, lowering the lake once more. No charges were laid due to the general anger towards the water height by residents, and because of a deal reached between Purdy and the Board of Works of the Province of Canada, on December 18, 1843. Mr. Purdy was forced to lower the elevation to something approximating its natural maximum spring high-water level, a reduction in the height of the previous dam by about three feet. The Board of Works constructed the dam and a lock for navigation into Lake Scugog, which was completed in 1844 and included a log flume. In exchange, Purdy relinquished all claims against the damage done by residents, and maintained the dam and flume.</p><br>
<h2>Natural history</h2><br>
<p>The original body of water consisted of the upper sections of the current lake and was more ideally a shallow marsh than an actually lake.</p><br>
<p>The marshes of the lake prior to flooding were filled with wild rice stands and cranberries harvested by the native Mississaugas. The flooding of the lakes contributed greatly to their destruction.</p><br>
<p>It is surrounded by swamps and marshes which provide ideal habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife.</p><br>
<p>Lake Scugog has an array of fish, including an abundant supply of largemouth bass, walleye, crappie, musky, perch, carp, catfish, rock bass, smallmouth bass and minnows. Due to a dwindling walleye population, there is no season to catch or keep walleye. it is a renowned fishing location in southern Ontario.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>Like many of the lakes of southern Ontario, Scugog served for a time as a vessel for transporting logs downstream to Trenton in the early nineteenth century. This resource became quickly exhausted with the rapid sawing of pine in the area. The Trent Canal (Now the Trent-Severn Waterway) was constructed through Lindsay in late 1800s to facilitate steamboat travel to Sturgeon Lake and Lake Ontario as the boats were constructed in Port Perry.</p><br>
<p>Today, the lake is a tourist area, forming the southern boundary to "Cottage Country". The towns of Port Perry and Lindsay benefit from the recreational boating through the Trent-Severn Waterway by vacationers in the summer. Fishing is also a major attraction of the lake, as its shallow weed-filled bed is host to an abundance of species.</p><br>
<h2>Fish deaths</h2><br>
<p>In June 2007, waterfront residents and boaters on Lake Scugog were finding that carp had begun dying. Residents around the lake were finding massive numbers of dead carp floating and landing on shore. The Carp were dying from an unknown cause. The smell of rotting fish was everywhere. The local authorities allowed dead Carp pick-up days to keep the smell down. After MNR testing, it was suspected that the bacteria columnaris was one of the causes of this massive carp massacre. However, the Koi herpes virus, an introduced disease affecting the carp family, was ultimately determined to be the culprit.</p><br>
<p>Few carp deaths have occurred since, and in 2008, it was reported that the Lake had returned to its normal state.</p><br>
<h2>Watershed</h2><br>
<p>A list of rivers feeding to and from the lake:</p><br>
<p>Nonquon River - flow from the northwest end of the Lake beginning from Seagrave and heads in a southwest direction towards Utica</p><br>
<p>Cawkers Creek - flow from southwest end of Port Perry southwards for 16km</p><br>
<p>Mariposa Brook - also known as Big Creek, Black Creek, Davidson&#39;s Creek, and West Cross Creek begins in swamps near Manilla then flows northeast to then south past Little Britain and then east to empty into the Scugog River at Ops</p><br>
<p>Blackstock Creek - found southeast of Lake Scugog between the Lake Scugog and East Cross Creek</p><br>
<p>Scugog River</p><br>
<h2>Osler Marsh</h2><br>
<p>The marsh on the lake along the Port Perry Causeway south of Port Perry, Ontario is named for Henry Smith Osler, whom was one of the earlier owners of land which contains the marshes. The current marsh area covers 417 hectare of wetlands.</p><br>
<p>The Kaban Lakes  are a system of lakes in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia that includes Nizhny  Kaban, Verkhny Kaban, and Sredny Kaban. With a combined area of 1.86 km&sup2, they comprise the biggest lake in Tatarstan.</p><br>
<p>The lakes are connected with the Kazanka River by the Bolaq channel and a subterranean channel from Bolaq-Qazansu. They are also connected with the Volga River by the city&#39;s sewage system.</p><br>
<p>The Thousandth Anniversary of Islam Mosque is situated on the bank.</p><br>
<p>The medieval Volga Bulgarians&#39; graves which date back to 12-13th century were founded on the banks of Arğı Qaban.</p><br>
<p>One legend claims that, in the days before the Khanate of Kazan fell, the Khans threw all their valuables into the lakes.</p><br>
<p>Another legend about the origin of the lakes&#39; names claims that, at the Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria, the Bulgarian prince Qabanbäk, escaped from Bilär city (or in Bolghar), fled to the banks of the lake and built a castle. Another version is that he founded İske Qazan.</p><br>
<p>Tatar myth also places Zilant, who had been transformed to Diü, as the ruler of the mythological Underwater Kingdom of Qaban.</p><br>
<p>The Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States. Located on the western shore of Matanzas Bay in the city of St. Augustine, Florida, the fort was designed by the Spanish engineer Ignacio Daza. Construction began in 1672, 107 years after the citys founding by Spanish Admiral and conquistador Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, when Florida was part of the Spanish Empire. The forts construction was ordered by Governor Francisco de la Guerra y de la Vega after the destructive raid by the English privateer Robert Searles in 1668. Work proceeded under the administration of Guerra&#39;s successor, Manuel de Cendoya in 1671, and the first coquina stones were laid in 1672. The construction of the core of the current fortress was completed in 1695, though it would undergo many alterations and renovations over the centuries.</p><br>
<p>When Britain gained control of Florida in 1763 pursuant to the Treaty of Paris, St. Augustine became the capital of British East Florida, and the fort was renamed Fort St. Mark until the Peace of Paris (1783) when Florida was transferred back to Spain. In 1819 Spain signed the Adams–Onís Treaty which ceded Florida to the United States in 1821; consequently the fort was designated a United States Army base and renamed Fort Marion, in honor of American Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion. The fort was declared a National Monument in 1924, and after 251 years of continuous military possession, was deactivated in 1933. The 20.48 acre site was subsequently turned over to the United States National Park Service. In 1942 the original name Castillo de San Marcos, was restored by an Act of Congress.</p><br>
<p>Castillo de San Marcos was twice besieged: first by English colonial forces led by Carolina Colony Governor James Moore in 1702, and then by Georgia colonial Governor James Oglethorpe in 1740. Possession of the fort has changed six times, all peaceful, amongst four different governments: the Spanish Empire, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Confederate States of America and the United States of America (Spain and the United States having possession two times each).</p><br>
<p>Under United States control the fort was used as a military prison to incarcerate members of Native American tribes starting with the Seminole—including the famous war chief, Osceola, in the Second Seminole War—and members of western tribes, including Geronimo&#39;s band of Chiricahua Apache. The Native American art form known as Ledger Art had its origins at the fort during the imprisonment of members of the Plains tribes such as Howling Wolf of the southern Cheyenne.</p><br>
<h2>Construction</h2><br>
<p>The European city of St. Augustine was founded by the admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés for the Spanish Crown in 1565 on the site of a former Native American village called Seloy. Over the next century, the Spanish built nine wooden forts for the defense of the town in various locations. The need for fortifications was recognized after it was attacked by Sir Francis Drake and his fleet of 22 ships in 1586. Following the 1668 attack of the English pirate Robert Searle, Mariana, Queen Regent of Spain, approved the construction of a masonry fortification to protect the city.</p><br>
<p>The Castillo is a masonry star fort made of a stone called coquina (Spanish for "small shells"), which consists of ancient shells that have bonded together to form a type of stone similar to limestone. Workers were brought in from Havana, Cuba, to construct the fort, in addition to Native American laborers. The coquina was quarried from the Kings Quarry&#39; on Anastasia Island in what is today Anastasia State Park across Matanzas Bay from the Castillo, and ferried across to the construction site. Construction began on October 2, 1672 and lasted twenty-three years, with completion in 1695.</p><br>
<p>The fort has four bastions named San Pedro, San Agustín, San Carlos and San Pablo with a ravelin protecting the sally port. On the two landward sides a large glacis was constructed which would force any attackers to advance upward toward the fort&#39;s cannon and allow the cannon shot to proceed downslope for greater efficiency in hitting multiple targets. Immediately surrounding the fort was a moat which could be flooded to a depth of a foot during high-tide with seawater from Matanzas Bay prior to an attack via the use of floodgates built into the seawall.</p><br>
<p>Multiple embrasures were built into the curtain wall along the top of the fort as well as into the bastions for the deployment of cannon of various calibers. Infantry embrasures were also built into the walls below the level of the terreplein for the deployment of muskets by the fort&#39;s defenders. It was through one of these embrasures that twenty Seminoles held as prisoners would escape in 1837.</p><br>
<h2>First English siege</h2><br>
<p>In 1670, Charles Town (modern-day Charleston, South Carolina) was founded by English colonists. As it was just two days sail from St. Augustine, the English settlement and encroachment of English traders into Spanish territory spurred the Spanish in their construction of a fort. In 1702, English colonial forces under the command of Carolina Governor Governor James Moore embarked on an expedition to capture St. Augustine early in Queen Annes War.</p><br>
<p>The English laid siege to St. Augustine in November 1702. About 1,500 town residents and soldiers were crammed into the fort during the two-month siege. The small English cannon had little effect on the walls of the fort, because the coquina was very effective at absorbing the impact of the shells. The siege was broken when the Spanish fleet from Havana arrived, trapping some English vessels in the bay. The English were defeated and decided to burn their ships to prevent them from falling under Spanish control, and then marched overland back to Carolina. The town of St. Augustine was destroyed, in part by the Spanish and in part by the English, as a result of the siege.</p><br>
<h2>Second period of construction</h2><br>
<p>Beginning in 1738, under the supervision of Spanish engineer Pedro Ruiz de Olano, the interior of the fort was redesigned and rebuilt. Interior rooms were made deeper, and vaulted ceilings replaced the original wooden ones. The vaulted ceilings allowed for better protection from bombardments and allowed for cannon to be placed along the gun deck, not just at the corner bastions. The new ceilings required the height of the exterior wall to be increased from 26 to 33 ft.</p><br>
<h2>Second British Siege</h2><br>
<p>Spain and Britain were rivals in Europe, and since the two countries had both founded empires in the New World, their rivalry continued there as well. In 1733 a British vessel, the Rebecca, commanded by Captain Robert Jenkins, was seized in the Caribbean by the Spanish coast guard. Suspecting that the British had been trading illegally with Spanish colonies (which was forbidden by both Spain and Britain), the Spanish searched the ship. A fight broke out between the Spanish and British sailors. In the skirmish, Jenkins had his ear cut off by a Spanish officer, who picked it up and said "Take this to your king and tell him that if he were here I would serve him in the same manner!" When Jenkins reported the incident to British authorities, they used it as a pretext to declare war on Spain in 1739. The war was called the War of Jenkins Ear.</p><br>
<p>After British Admiral Edward Vernon won a huge victory at Portobelo, General James Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia, was quick to imitate him in North America. In June 1740, Oglethorpe and an English fleet of seven ships appeared off St. Augustine. As in the 1702 siege, three hundred soldiers and 1,300 residents found refuge within the Castillos walls. For 27 days the British bombarded the Castillo and St. Augustine. Realizing his cannon were not affecting the Castillos walls, Oglethorpe decided to starve the people of St. Augustine by blockading the inlet at the Matanzas River and all roads into St. Augustine. No supplies could reach the city. With morale and supplies low for his own forces, Oglethorpe had to retreat. In order to protect the city from future blockades and sieges, the Spanish built Fort Matanzas to guard the inlet, which could be used as a rear entrance to avoid St. Augustine&#39;s primary defense system.</p><br>
<h2>British occupation</h2><br>
<p>In 1763, the British managed to take control of the Castillo but not by force. As a provision of the Treaty of Paris (1763) after the Seven Years&#39; War, Britain gained all of Spanish Florida in exchange for returning Havana and Manila to Spain. On July 21, 1763, the Spanish governor turned the Castillo over to the British, who established St. Augustine as the capital of the province of East Florida, established by the Royal Proclamation of 1763.</p><br>
<p>The British made some changes to the fort, and renamed it Fort St. Mark. As Great Britain was the dominant power in North America, they were not worried about keeping the fort in top condition. This attitude prevailed until the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The fort was used as a military prison during the war. Among those imprisoned was Christopher Gadsden, the Lieutenant governor of South Carolina. He was also a delegate to the Continental Congress and a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the war. He was released after 11 months.</p><br>
<p>Improvements were begun on the fort, in keeping with its new role as a base of operations for the British in the South. The gates and walls were repaired, and second floors were added to several rooms to increase the housing capacity of the fort. The Castillo saw action during the American Revolution mainly as a prison, although St. Augustine was targeted by several aborted expeditions from Georgia. Several revolutionary fighters who had been captured in Charleston were held there when it was taken by the British. The Spanish declared war on Britain in 1779, drawing off forces from Fort St. Mark and keeping the British occupied. Bernardo de Gálvez, governor of Spanish Louisiana, attacked several British-held cities in West Florida, capturing all of them. The only major British operation that used troops from St. Augustine was the poorly coordinated but successful capture of Savannah, Georgia; the city was taken by troops from New York before those from St. Augustine arrived.</p><br>
<p>At the end of the war, the 1783 Treaty of Paris called for the return of Florida to Spain. On July 12, 1784, Spanish troops returned to St. Augustine.</p><br>
<h2>Second Spanish period</h2><br>
<p>When Spain regained control over Florida they found a much-changed territory. Many Spaniards had left Florida after the hand over to Britain, and many British citizens stayed after it was returned to Spain. Many border problems arose between Spanish Florida and the new United States. Spain changed the name of the fort back to the Castillo de San Marcos, and continued to build upon the improvements that Britain had made to the fort in an effort to strengthen Spain&#39;s hold on the territory. However, due to increased pressure from the United States and several other factors, in 1819 Spain signed the Adams–Onís Treaty, ceding Florida to the United States, which was transferred in 1821.</p><br>
<h2>First United States period</h2><br>
<p>Upon receiving the fort from Spain, the Americans changed its name to Fort Marion. It was named to honor General Francis Marion, an American Revolutionary War hero nicknamed "The Swamp Fox." Structurally, the Americans made few changes to the fort during this time. Many storerooms were converted to prison cells on account of their heavy doors and barred windows. Also, part of the moat was filled in and transformed into an artillery battery as part of the American coastal defense system. The original Spanish seawall was dismantled to ground level and a new seawall constructed immediately adjacent to the seaward side of the original. At this time a hotshot furnace was also built in the filled-in section of the moat behind the newly built water battery. Cannonballs were heated in the furnace to fire at wooden enemy ships.</p><br>
<p>In October 1837, during the Second Seminole War, Seminole chief Osceola was taken prisoner by the Americans while attending a peace conference near Fort Peyton under a flag of truce. He was imprisoned in Fort Marion along with his followers, including Uchee Billy, King Philip and his son Coacoochee (Wild Cat), and then transported to Fort Moultrie on Sullivans Island in Charlestons harbor. Uchee Billy was captured on September 10, 1837, and he died at the fort on November 29. His skull was kept as a curio by Dr. Frederick Weedon, who also decapitated Osceola after his death in Fort Moultrie and kept the head in preservative.</p><br>
<p>On the night of November 19, 1837, Coacoochee and nineteen other Seminoles, including two women, escaped from Fort Marion. Coacoochee, known for fabricating entertaining stories, later told the tale that only he and his friend Talmus Hadjo had escaped by squeezing through the eight-inch (203 mm) opening of the embrasure located high in their cell and sliding down a makeshift rope into the dry moat. Talmus Hadjo, however, was not on the official list of prisoners. By whatever means the escape was actually effected, the escapees made their way to their band&#39;s encampment at the headwaters of the Tomoka River, about forty miles south of St. Augustine. Because of their ill treatment, they vowed to continue fighting, and the war was prolonged for four more years. The cell from which Coacoochee escaped was long part of the official lore of the fort.</p><br>
<h2>Confederate States period</h2><br>
<p>In January 1861, Florida seceded from the United States in the opening months of the American Civil War. Union troops had withdrawn from the fort, leaving only one man behind as caretaker. In January 1861, Florida troops marched on the fort. The Union soldier manning the fort refused to surrender it unless he was given a receipt for it from the Confederacy. He was given the receipt and the fort was taken by the Confederacy without a shot. Most of the artillery in the fort was sent to other forts, leaving only five cannons in the water battery to defend the fort.</p><br>
<p>The Saint Augustine Blues, a militia unit formed in St Augustine were enrolled into the Confederate Army at Ft. Marion on August 5, 1861. They were assigned to the recently organized Third Florida Infantry as its Company B. More than a dozen former members of the St. Augustine Blues are buried in a row at the city&#39;s Tolomato Cemetery.</p><br>
<p>The fort along with the rest of the city of St Augustine was reoccupied by Union troops after acting mayor Cristobal Bravo officially surrendered the city to Union Navy fleet commander C.R.P Rodgers on March 11, 1862. The Confederate forces left the city the previous evening in anticipation of the arrival of the Union fleet under the command of Commodore Dupont.</p><br>
<h2>Second United States period</h2><br>
<p>The fort was taken back by Union forces on March 11, 1862, when the USS Wabash entered the bay, finding the city evacuated by Confederate troops. The city leaders were willing to surrender in order to preserve the town, and the city and the fort were retaken without firing a shot. Throughout the rest of the fort&#39;s operational history, it was used as a military prison.</p><br>
<p>Beginning in 1875, numerous Native American prisoners were held at the fort in the aftermath of the Indian Wars in the west. Many would die at the fort. Among the captives were Chief White Horse of the Kiowa, and Chief Grey Beard of the southern Cheyenne.</p><br>
<p>During this period, Richard Henry Pratt, a Civil War veteran, supervised the prisoners and upgraded the conditions for them. He removed the prisoners shackles and allowed them out of the casemates where they had been confined He developed ways to give the men more autonomy and attempted to organize educational and cultural programs for them. They became a center of interest to northerners vacationing in St. Augustine, who included teachers and missionaries. Pratt recruited volunteers to teach the Indian prisoners English, the Christian religion, and elements of American culture. He and most US officials believed that such assimilation was needed for the Indians survival in the changing society.</p><br>
<p>The men were also encouraged to make art; they created hundreds of drawings. Some of the collection of Ledger Art by Fort Marion artists is held by the Smithsonian Institution. It may be viewed online.</p><br>
<p>Encouraged by the men&#39;s progress in education, citizens raised funds to send nearly 20 of the prisoners to college after they were released from Ft. Marion. Seventeen men went to the Hampton Institute, a historically black college. Others were sponsored and educated in New York state at private colleges. Among the latter were David Pendleton Oakerhater, as he became known, who was sponsored by US Senator Pendleton and his wife. He studied and later was ordained as an Episcopal priest. He returned to the West to work as a missionary with Indian tribes. He was later recognized by the Episcopal Church as a saint.</p><br>
<p>Pratts experiences at Fort Marion became the basis for his campaign to create American Indian boarding schools. Although these schools were supposedly for the purpose of educating native people, they became sites where native children were prohibited from speaking their languages or practicing their own religion. Many children were removed from their families forcibly or under threat of withholding food rations. Childrens letters home were censored, and many children were taken to agricultural labor camps over the summer, instead of being allowed to visit home. Many have accused American Indian boarding schools of countless abuses and violations of child labor laws, in addition to accusations of cultural genocide. Pratt&#39;s campaign began with the creation of the Carlisle Barracks, which was the first of over 450 American Indian boarding schools.</p><br>
<p>From 1886–1887, approximately 491 Apaches were held prisoner at Fort Marion; many were of the Chiricahua and Warm Springs Apache bands from Arizona. There were 82 men and the rest were women and children. Among the men, 14, including Chatto, had previously been paid scouts for the US Army. Among the Chiricahua were members of the notable chief Geronimo&#39;s band, including his wife. Geronimo was sent to Fort Pickens, in violation of his agreed terms of surrender. While at the fort, many of the prisoners had to camp in tents, as there was not sufficient space for them. At least 24 Apaches died as prisoners and were buried in North Beach.</p><br>
<p>In 1898, over 200 deserters from the Spanish–American War were imprisoned at the fort. This marked one of the last uses of the fort as an operational base. In 1900, the fort was taken off the active duty rolls after 205 years of service under five different flags.</p><br>
<p>In 1924, the fort was designated a National Monument. In 1933 it was transferred to the National Park Service from the War Department. In 1942, in honor of its Spanish heritage, Congress authorized renaming the fort as Castillo de San Marcos. As an historic property of the National Park Service, the National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on October 15, 1966. The National Park Service manages the Castillo together with Fort Matanzas National Monument. In 1975, the Castillo was designated an Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.</p><br>
<p>Since being transferred to the Park Service, the Castillo has become a popular tourist attraction. It occupies 2.5 acres (10,100 m²) in downtown St. Augustine, Florida.</p><br>
<p>The fort has been featured on many television shows including Monumental Mysteries and Ghost Adventures.</p><br>
<p>Sandringham House is a country house near Sandringham, Norfolk, England. It is the private home of Queen Elizabeth II. The house stands within a 20,000 acre estate in the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The original house on the site was Georgian, constructed in 1771. In 1862, the estate was purchased for Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, as a country home for himself and his soon-to-be wife, Alexandra of Denmark. Between 1870 and 1900, the house was almost completely rebuilt in a style described by Pevsner as "frenetic Jacobean". Edward also developed the estate, creating one of the finest shoots in England. The house has passed through three further generations of the British royal family, with two kings, George V and George VI dying at Sandringham.</p><br>
<p>Following Edwards death in 1910, the estate passed to his second son and heir, George V, who described the house as "dear old Sandringham, the place I love better than anywhere else in the world." It was the setting for the first ever Christmas broadcast in 1932. George V died at the house on 20 January 1936. As the private property of the monarch, the estate passed to his son, Edward VIII and, at the abdication, was purchased by Edwards brother, George VI. King George was as devoted to the house as his father, writing to his mother Queen Mary, "I have always been so happy here and I love the place". He died at the house on 6 February 1952.</p><br>
<p>The estate then passed to Elizabeth II. In 1957 the Queen gave her first televised Christmas message from the house. In the 1960s, plans were drawn up to demolish the house entirely and replace it with a modern structure but these were not acted upon. In 1977, the year of her Silver Jubilee, the Queen opened the house and estate to the public. The house, the landscaped gardens, park and woodlands are listed Grade II* on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Early history</h3><br>
<p>The site has been occupied since the Elizabethan era, and, in 1771, architect Cornish Henley cleared the site to build Sandringham Hall. The hall was modified during the 19th century by Charles Spencer Cowper, a stepson of Lord Palmerston, who added an elaborate porch and conservatory, designed by architect Samuel Sanders Teulon.</p><br>
<h3>The Marlborough House setting</h3><br>
<p>In 1862, the hall was purchased by Queen Victoria at the request of the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) as a home for himself and his bride, Princess Alexandra, who found the surrounding Norfolk countryside reminiscent of her native Denmark. The price paid, at £220,000, was high. By 1865, two years after moving in, the prince found the halls size insufficient for his needs, and he commissioned A. J. Humbert to raze it and create a larger building. Humbert was an architect favoured by the royal family, "for no good reason", according to the architectural historian Mark Girouard, and also undertook work for Queen Victoria at Osborne House and at Frogmore House. The resulting red-brick house was completed in late 1870 in a mix of styles. One part of the house was destroyed in a fire during preparations for the Prince of Waless 50th birthday in 1891, and later rebuilt.</p><br>
<p>Queen Victoria only twice visited the house she had paid for.</p><br>
<p>Edward died at Buckingham Palace in 1910 and Sandringham has remained a popular retreat for successive monarchs. Victoria, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, sister of King Edward VII, and mother of Kaiser Wilhelm II, had a country house built at Friedrichshof, near Kronberg, in the style of Sandringham.</p><br>
<h3>"Dear old Sandringham"</h3><br>
<p>Queen Alexandra continued to occupy the "big house" at Sandringham after the death of Edward VII in 1910, dying there in 1925. From the time of his accession until his mother&#39;s death, George V lived at York Cottage, in rather "cramped" conditions. After his death in 1936, the house was inherited by Edward VIII. Edward ultimately spent a single night of his reign at the house. On his abdication, as Sandringham, along with Balmoral Castle, was the private property of the monarch and not part of the Crown Estate, it was necessary for George VI purchase both properties from his brother. George VI, like his father, died at Sandringham, in 1952.</p><br>
<h3>Queen Elizabeth II</h3><br>
<p>Since King George VIs death, Queen Elizabeth IIs custom has been to spend the anniversary of that and of her own Accession privately with her family at the house, and use it as her official base until February. In 1957, the Queen made her first televised Christmas broadcast from the house. In the 1960s, plans were initiated to demolish the entire house and replace it with a modern residence by David Roberts, an architect who worked mainly at the University of Cambridge. The plans were not taken forward although modernisation of the interior of the house was carried out by Hugh Casson, who also decorated the Royal Yacht, Britannia. In 1977, the year of her Jubilee, the Queen opened the house to the public.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture and description</h2><br>
<p>Charles Cowpers original seven-bay house was found to be too small and, plans for expansion having been abandoned, A J Humbert was commissioned to construct a new house. Only the conservatory from Teulons mansion was retained. Humbert was an architect patronised by Queen Victoria, and had designed St Mildreds Church, Whippingham, near the queens Osborne House estate on the Isle of Wight. The main features of the new building were bay windows, which helped lighten the interior. Despite the size of Sandringham and the spaciousness of the main rooms, the living quarters were relatively small. The new building incorporated the galleried entrance hall which is used by the royal family for entertaining and family occasions. The building was ahead of its time in amenities, with gas lighting, flushing water closets, and an early form of shower.</p><br>
<p>Despite rebuilding, the house still failed to provide accommodation sufficient for the Royal couples needs, and in 1883 a new extension, the Bachelors Wing which incorporated a ballroom, was constructed to the designs of a Norfolk architect, Colonel R. W. Edis. Following the 1891 fire, Edis undertook further extensions, attempting to harmonise both with Humbert&#39;s original house, through the use of a Jacobethan style, and matching brickwork with Ketton stone. Edis also built a billiard room and converted the old conservatory into a bowling alley, after the Prince of Wales had been impressed by a similar example at Trentham Hall.</p><br>
<p>The principal rooms of the house consist of the saloon, the drawing room, the dining room and the ballroom, together with various rooms devoted to sports, such as the gun room, or leisure, such as the bowling alley and the billiard room. The saloon is the largest room in the house and acts as the main reception room. Jenkins describes the decorative style, here and elsewhere in the house, as "Osbert Lancaster&#39;s Curzon Street Baroque". The room contains portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert by their favourite artist Franz Xaver Winterhalter. The walls of the corridors connecting the principal rooms display a significant display of Oriental and Indian arms and armour, collected by Edward VII on his tour of the East in 1875-1876. The drawing room is described by Jenkins as "the nearest Sandringham gets to pomp". On one of her two visits to the house, Victoria recorded in her journal that, after dinner, the party adjourned to, "the very long and handsome drawing room with painted ceiling and two fireplaces". The room contains portraits of Queen Alexandra, Princess Victoria and Princess Mary of Wales by Edward Hughes.</p><br>
<h3>Appreciation</h3><br>
<p>The house has not been admired by architectural critics; Simon Jenkins describes it as "unattractive", with a "grim, institutional appearance". Pevsner considers the style "frenetic", while Girouard expressed himself perplexed as to the preference shown by the Royal family for A. J. Humbert. The writer Clive Aslet suggests that the sporting opportunities offered by the estate were the main attraction for its royal owners, rather than "the house itself, which even after rebuilding was never beguiling". The fittings and furnishings were no more highly regarded; the biographer of George V, Kenneth Rose, records that, "except for some tapestries given by Alfonso XII of Spain, Sandringham had not a single good picture, piece of furniture or other work of art".</p><br>
<h2>Estate</h2><br>
<p>The Sandringham estate has some of the finest shoots in England, and is used for royal shooting parties. Such was Edward VII&#39;s fondness for hunting on the estate, he ordered all the clocks to be set half an hour ahead of GMT to increase the amount of evening daylight available for hunting. This tradition of Sandringham Time was kept on the estate from 1901 until 1936 when it was reversed by the new King Edward VIII.</p><br>
<p>The grounds provided room for Queen Alexandra&#39;s menagerie of horses, dogs, cats, and other animals. The kennels were a particular delight to the children. In addition to stables in 1886, a racing pigeon loft was constructed for birds given to the Duke of York by King Leopold II of Belgium and one or more lofts for pigeons have been maintained ever since.</p><br>
<h3>York Cottage</h3><br>
<p>The estate is also home to York Cottage, built by Edward VII soon after he moved in. York Cottage was also a favourite of George V. The cottage is now used as the Estate Office.</p><br>
<h3>Anmer Hall</h3><br>
<p>Anmer Hall is a Georgian house on the grounds. At one point it was the country home of the Duke of Kent. It is now the country home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.</p><br>
<h3>Appleton House</h3><br>
<p>When Prince Carl of Denmark (later King Haakon VII of Norway) and Princess Maud were married in July 1896, Appleton House was a wedding gift to them from the bride’s parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales. Queen Maud came to love the house; in 1899 she described it in a letter, "Our little house is a perfect paradise, it all seems like a dream, that we are here at last, that it is so beautiful and light, every single room is so clean and fresh." Their son, the future King Olav V of Norway, was born at Appleton House on 2 July 1903. The last inhabitants were King George VI and Queen Elizabeth who lived in the house during a visit to Norfolk during World War II. The house was demolished in 1984.</p><br>
<h2>Public access</h2><br>
<p>The house was first opened to the public in 1977, and there is a museum with displays of royal life and estate history that is also open to public. About 600 acre are a country park or garden, open to the public.</p><br>
<p>On 1 June 2007 the house and its grounds were designated as a protected site for the purposes of Section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. The effect of the act was to make it a specific criminal offence for a person to trespass into the house or its grounds.</p><br>
<p>The East Hawaii Cultural Center  is a cultural center in Hilo, Hawaii, that has regular art exhibits and holds workshops and classes. Administered by the East Hawaii Cultural Council, an umbrella group of local arts organizations, the Center is housed in a historic former police station facing Kalakaua Park.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>The building was listed as site 79000752 on the National Register of Historic Places on September 4, 1979.</p><br>
<p>The two-story structure is built from reinforced concrete with wooden interiors.</p><br>
<p>It is located at 141 Kalakaua Street, coordinates 19&deg;43&prime;29&Prime;N latitude, 155&deg;05&prime;18&Prime;W longitude.</p><br>
<p>The area had been used for civic buildings since about 1817, with the park across the street created by King David Kalākaua in 1877. In February 1969 the court was moved to a new state office building, and in 1975 the police department moved to a larger building, leaving it vacant.</p><br>
<h2>Cultural Council</h2><br>
<p>The East Hawaii Cultural Council was founded in 1967, and leased the building which was planned for demolition.</p><br>
<p>EHCC was the first Hawaiian museum hosting a digital art exhibition and traveling tour on a worldwide scale in 2002 initiated by Dr. Rodney Chang, known as "Pygoya", from Honolulu.</p><br>
<p>The Marine Air Terminal , located at New York Citys LaGuardia Airport, is the only active airport terminal dating from the first generation of passenger travel in the United States, a.k.a. the "Golden age of the flying boat." Originally built to handle seaplanes, the Marine Air Terminal, an Art Deco building designed in 1939 by William Delano of the firm Delano & Aldrich, consists of a central circular core of two stories with an attic, from which a rectangular entrance pavilion and two symmetrically opposed one-story wings project. In LaGuardia Airports overall terminal naming scheme, the Marine Air Terminal is called "Terminal A".</p><br>
<p>The terminal has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1982.</p><br>
<h2>Historical use</h2><br>
<p>By the early 1930s, commercial airlines and airports began to be developed in the United States as a result of the Federal governments use of private contractors for postal transport, inspired by Charles Lindberghs famous transatlantic flight in 1927. New York was in dire need of a new airport by 1934 when Fiorello H. La Guardia was elected mayor. Plans for the airport, which was to be federally sponsored and funded through the Works Progress Administration (WPA), were approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on September 3, 1937.</p><br>
<p>Just six days later, the Mayor presided over groundbreaking ceremonies and construction proceeded rapidly. At 558 acre and with nearly 4 mi of runways, the $40,000,000 airport was the largest and most expensive in the world to that time. New York Municipal Airport–LaGuardia Field opened on October 15, 1939 and the Marine Air Terminal was dedicated in March 1940.</p><br>
<p>The first flight from the Marine Air Terminal by a Pan American Clipper departed on March 31, 1940, carrying a crew of 10, nine passengers and over 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) of mail. It landed in Lisbon, Portugal 18 hours and 30 minutes later. The Pan American Clippers – with a wing span of 152 feet (46 m), a cruising speed of 200 mph (320 km/h) and a capacity to carry 72 passengers – were luxurious. The two-deck interior featured dining rooms, private compartments and sleeping sections.</p><br>
<p>However, the glamorous era of the Clippers was brought to an abrupt halt by the outbreak of World War II. By the end of the war, technological advances in airplane design had made the Clippers obsolete and the Marine Air Terminal was converted for the newer airplanes and was used mostly for non-scheduled airlines. The terminal was closed for airline traffic in the 1950s (though it was still used as a waiting area for passengers who were bused to the main terminals) and it fell into a state of disrepair. In 1966, it was renovated and reopened as a terminal for corporate jets.</p><br>
<h2>Current Use</h2><br>
<p>Since 1986, the terminal has been used primarily for shuttle services between New York and Boston and Washington D.C. In 1986, Pan American World Airways began the Pan Am Shuttle service between New York and Boston from the Marine Air Terminal. In 1987, the company took advantage of the terminal&#39;s proximity to water and started a water taxi between Wall Street and the terminal to attract customers from the Eastern Shuttle which operated from the landside terminals at La Guardia Airport. Delta Air Lines acquired the service from Pan Am in 1991 and continues to use the terminal for operating the Delta Shuttle (including their services to Chicago). Several commuter airlines, air taxis, private aircraft, Sheltair Aviation Services (a fixed-base operator), and the Federal Aviation Administration Contract Weather Observatory for the airport also use the terminal.</p><br>
<p>On August 12, 2009, it was announced as part of a slot-swap transaction that Delta Air Lines would vacate the terminal, with US Airways commencing service with their US Airways Shuttle operation starting in early 2010. This, however, did not take place and Delta continues to operate the Delta Shuttle from the Marine Air Terminal at the present time.</p><br>
<p>It was recently announced that effective November 10th 2017 as part of the LaGuardia Airport Redevelopment Project Delta Air Lines will cease shuttle operations out of the Marine Air Terminal. They will consolidate their operations: all Delta flights (including the Shuttle) will operate out of Terminals C & D.</p><br>
<p>As a consequence, it is necessary for additional airlines to relocate. Effective November 11th 2017 American Airlines will consolidate all of their operations to Terminal B. Virgin America (now Alaska Airlines) and JetBlue will relocate their operations from Terminal B, to the Marine Air Terminal (Terminal A.)</p><br>
<h2>Mural</h2><br>
<p>Inside the terminal hangs "Flight," a mural measuring 12 feet (3.7 m) in height and 237 feet (72 m) in length, the largest mural created as part of the Great Depression-era Work Projects Administration (WPA). Completed by James Brooks in 1940, "Flight" depicts the history of man&#39;s involvement with flight.</p><br>
<p>The mural was painted over without explanation by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey in the 1950s, possibly because some saw left-wing symbolism in it. After an extensive restoration project headed by aviation historian Geoffrey Arend, the mural was rededicated on September 18, 1980.</p><br>
<p>Sagamore Camp is one of several historic Great Camps located in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York State.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Sagamore Camp was constructed by William West Durant on Sagamore Lake between 1895-1897. Prior to Sagamore, William Durant had constructed Camp Pine Knot (purchased by Collis P. Huntington and now the Huntington Memorial Outdoor Education Center ) on nearby Raquette Lake and Camp Uncas (once owned by J. P. Morgan) on Lake Mohegan. All three camps are still in use today.</p><br>
<p>The camp is arranged in two complexes a half-mile apart, the Upper, or workers complex, and the Lower, or guest complex. The guests would not have frequented the workers complex, as the buildings at the Upper complex are much more utilitarian than those in the Guest complex, and without the embellishment of the buildings designed for entertaining. Sagamore served as a sylvan setting in which the richest families in America could relax, party, and get a feeling of returning to nature. All of this, however, was accomplished without leaving the comforts of civilization behind.</p><br>
<p>In 1901 Durant was forced to sell Sagamore because a lawsuit by his sister over his mismanagement of their mother&#39;s estate had pushed him to the edge of bankruptcy. It was purchased by Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, who expanded and improved the property to include flush toilets, a sewer system and hot and cold running water. He later added a hydroelectric plant and an outdoor bowling alley with an ingenious system for retrieving the balls. Other amenities included a tennis court, a croquet lawn, a 100,000 gallon reservoir, and a working farm. Vanderbilt died in 1915, a victim of the Lusitania sinking, leaving Sagamore to his widow Margaret Emerson, an avid sportswoman who continued to occupy the camp seasonally for many years.</p><br>
<p>Mrs. Emerson transferred the property to Syracuse University, which operated a conference center at the site until the State of New York offered to buy it. Acquisition by the State as part of the Forest Preserve would have required demolition of the historic buildings, because of the "Forever Wild" provision of the New York State Constitution. To avert this, the Preservation League of New York State arranged with the State to take title, transferring the property with deed restrictions to a not-for-profit institution that would provide suitable occupancy. Camp Sagamore has continued to function as a conference center.</p><br>
<p>A portion of Sagamore was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. A boundary increase for additional area was included in a multiple property submission for listing in 1986. The camp was designated as a National Historic Landmark on 16 May 2000.</p><br>
<p>The historic camp is now run by Sagamore Institute of the Adirondacks, Inc. and is open to the public by guided tour, as well as offering accommodations May through October.</p><br>
<p>Adak Island  is an island near the western extent of the Andreanof Islands group of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. Alaska&#39;s southernmost town, Adak, is located on the island. The island has a land area of 711.18 km&sup2, measuring 54.5 km on length and 35 km on width, making it the 25th largest island in the United States.</p><br>
<p>Due to harsh winds, frequent cloud cover, and cold temperatures, vegetation is mostly tundra (grasses, mosses, berries, low-lying flowering plants) at lower elevations. The highest point is Mt. Moffett, near the northwest end of the island, at an elevation of 3,924 feet (1,196 m). It is snow covered the greater part of the year. Adak, Alaska, is its largest and principal city.</p><br>
<p>The word Adak is from the Aleut word adaq, which means "father".</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Adak Island has been the home to Aleut peoples since ancient times. Russian explorers in the 18th century also visited the island but made no permanent settlements. During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army took control of two of the westernmost Aleutian Islands - Attu and Kiska. The Japanese also attacked the American base at Dutch Harbor by air. The Japanese campaign coincided with the more well-known Battle of Midway. In response, the United States military began a campaign to oust the invaders. Since the nearest USA military presence was in Cold Bay, Alaska, the USA began to construct bases in the western Aleutian Islands from which to launch operations against the Japanese. Adak Island was chosen as the site of an airfield, and flight operations began in September 1942. On May 11, 1943, four days after the initial invasion date was delayed by bad weather, American soldiers landed on Attu Island and defeated the Japanese garrison there, at the cost of 2,300 Japanese and 550 American lives. Expecting a similar battle for Kiska Island, USA soldiers landing there August 15, 1943, found the occupiers had been stealthily evacuated by Japanese naval forces since the end of May, 1943. Even so, over 313 American soldiers died from friendly fire, mines, and other anti-personnel devices during USA operations to recover Kiska into USA territory. In 1953, remains of 236 Japanese dead who had been buried in Adak Cemetery were reburied in Japan&#39;s Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery.</p><br>
<p>After the war was over, the approximately 6,000 American military men who served on Adak during World War II recalled Adak&#39;s cold, foggy, windy weather; mud; Quonset huts; few women and no trees; and a volcano that from time to time would issue puffs of smoke. Fresh food was a rarity.</p><br>
<p>Adak Naval Air Station continued to be a military base during the Cold War but was designated a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) site in 1995 and closed in March 1997. Shortly thereafter, the town of Adak was incorporated at the site of the former base. Down from a peak population of 6,000, the island recorded a 2010 census population of 326 residents, all in the city of Adak, in the northern part of the island. In 1980, the Aleutian Islands National Wildlife Refuge was created and much of Adak Island lies within its boundaries.</p><br>
<p>The Alaska Department of Fish and Game introduced approximately 200 caribou to the island to help prevent emergency famine. The now large caribou herd is a popular hunting destination.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>Adak has a subpolar oceanic climate (Koppen Cfc), characterized by persistently overcast skies, moderated temperatures, high winds, and frequent cyclonic storms.</p><br>
<p>At Adak, overcast conditions average nearly 75% of the time during June and July, dropping back to approximately 50% of the time from October through February. Adak averages 173 days per year with fog. The foggiest months are July and August when an average of 26 of the 31 days have fog. This number drops dramatically toward the winter season where the months of December through March have, on average, fewer than ten days with fog during any one month.</p><br>
<p>Gales occur in all months of the year at Adak with the greatest chance from December through March. A peak gust of 109 knots occurred at Adak in March 1954.</p><br>
<p>Adak&#39;s average temperatures range from 20 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, with a record high of 75 °F (August 1956) and a record low of 3 °F (January 1963 and February 1964).</p><br>
<p>Average annual precipitation is about 54.8 inches. October to January are the wettest months due to especially frequent and intense mid-latitude cyclonic storms, while May to July represent markedly drier months; thunderstorms, common in mid-latitude continental areas, are virtually unknown here. November is the average wettest month, while July is the average driest month. Average snowfall is 100 inches, falling primarily on the upper reaches of the volcanoes. Adak has an average of 341 days per year with measurable precipitation.</p><br>
<h2>Education</h2><br>
<p>Adak is served by the Aleutian Region Schools. The Adak School serves grades K-12 and has around 20 students.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>A land exchange between Aleut Corp., the USA Navy, and the Department of the Interior has transferred most of the naval facilities to the Aleut Corp. A portion of the Island will remain within the National Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, managed by USA Fish & Wildlife. Adak currently provides a fueling port and crew transfer facility for foreign fishing fleets—an airport, docks, housing facilities and food services are available. A grocery and ship supply store and restaurant opened in February 1999. Aleut Corporation maintains the facilities. Contractors are performing an environmental clean-up. Alaskan-owned Norquest-Adak Seafood Co. processes Pacific cod, pollock, mackerel, halibut, albacore and brown king crab. Four residents hold a commercial fishing permit, primarily for groundfish.</p><br>
<p>The January 2006 National Geographic magazine presented pictures of the Sea-based X-band Radar in tow around Cape Horn to Adak for the purpose of anti-ballistic missile space surveillance. This operation required about one hundred technicians. Google Earth pictures the long-time Naval Air Base infrastructure to be located at 51&deg;52&prime;37.07&Prime;N latitude, 176&deg;38&prime;55.00&Prime;W longitude.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>Because of its naval aviation past, Adak has an unusually large and sophisticated airport for the Aleutian Islands. The Adak Airport is currently operated by the State of Alaska Department of Transportation. Adak Airport has a control tower, an Instrument Landing System and two runways; 7,790 ft and 7,605 ft respectively. Both runways are asphalt paved, 200 ft wide and at an elevation of 19 ft.</p><br>
<p>Alaska Airlines operates twice weekly 737-400 Combi passenger and cargo jet service from Anchorage. At present, flights operate each Sunday and Thursday (weather permitting). Occasionally, extra seasonal flights are operated to meet the demand of the fishing season.</p><br>
<p>Other facilities in Adak include three deep water docks and fueling facilities. The city has requested funds to greatly expand the Sweeper Cove small boat harbor, including new breakwaters, a 315-foot (96 m) dock and new moorage floats</p><br>
<p>There are approximately 16 mi of paved and primitive roads on Adak, all privately owned by the Aleut Corporation.</p><br>
<h2>Flora</h2><br>
<p>The Aleutian shield fern is an endangered species found only on this island.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Adagdak and Mount Moffett volcanoes are located on Adak. The igneous rock type adakite is named after Adak.</p><br>
<p>Volcán Atitlán is a large, conical, active stratovolcano adjacent to the caldera of Lake Atitlán in the Guatemalan Highlands of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas range. It is within the Sololá Department, northern Guatemala.</p><br>
<p>The volcano has been quite active historically, with more than a dozen eruptions recorded between 1469 and 1853, the date of its most recent eruption. Atitlán is part of the Central American Volcanic Arc. The arc is a chain of volcanoes stretching along Central America formed by subduction of the Cocos Plate underneath the Caribbean Plate. These volcanoes are part of the Ring of Fire around the Pacific Ocean.</p><br>
<p>Volcán Atitlán is few miles south of Volcán Tolimán, which rises from the southern shore of Lake Atitlán. Volcán San Pedro rises above Lake Atitlán northwest of Volcán Atitlán. A long narrow bay separates Volcán Atitlán and Volcán Toliman from Volcán San Pedro.</p><br>
<h2>Wildlife</h2><br>
<p>Atitlán is home to two particularly rare and beautiful birds that are endemic to the cloud forests of this region. The horned guan (Oreophasis derbianus) is a Pleistocene relic of the Cracidae family that persists today only in small fragments of its previous range. Its habitat is limited to cloud forests above approximately 1,650 m. This bird is the size of a turkey and the adult male has a one-inch scarlet-colored "horn" projecting straight up from the top of its head. The Cabanis&#39;s or azure-rumped tanager (Tangara cabanisi) is probably the most restricted-range species in the region. It occurs only at mid-elevations within the Sierra Madre del Sur of Chiapas, Mexico and western Guatemala.</p><br>
<p>Lake Atitlán  is a lake in the Guatemalan Highlands of the Sierra Madre mountain range. It is in the Sololá Department of southwestern Guatemala. Atitlan means "at the water" in Nahuatl.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Lake Atitlán is a lake in Central America with a maximum depth of about 340 m Its surface area is 130.1 km&sup2;. It is approximately 12 by 5 km with around 20 km of water. Atitlán is technically an endorheic lake, feeding into two nearby rivers rather than draining into the ocean. It is shaped by deep surrounding escarpments and three volcanoes on its southern flank. The lake basin is volcanic in origin, filling an enormous caldera formed by an eruption 84,000 years ago. The culture of the towns and villages surrounding Lake Atitlán is influenced by the Maya people. The lake is about 50 km west-northwest of Antigua. It should not be confused with the smaller Lake Amatitlán.</p><br>
<p>Lake Atitlán is renowned as one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, and is Guatemala&#39;s most important national and international tourist attraction.</p><br>
<h2>Agriculture</h2><br>
<p>The area supports extensive coffee and avocado orchards and a variety of farm crops, most notably corn and onions. Significant agricultural crops include: corn, onions, beans, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, garlic, chile verde, strawberries and pitahaya fruit. The lake itself is a significant food source for the largely indigenous population.</p><br>
<h2>Geological history</h2><br>
<p>The first volcanic activity in the region occurred about 11 million years ago, and since then the region has seen four separate episodes of volcanic growth and caldera collapse, the most recent of which began about 1.8 million years ago and culminated in the formation of the present caldera. The lake now fills a large part of the caldera, reaching depths of up to 600 metres.</p><br>
<p>The caldera-forming eruption is known as Los Chocoyos eruption and ejected up to 300 km3 of tephra. The enormous eruption dispersed ash over an area of some 6 million km²: it has been detected from Florida to Ecuador, and can be used as a stratigraphic marker in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans (known as Y-8 ash in marine deposits). A chocoyo is a type of bird which is often found nesting in the relatively soft ash layer.</p><br>
<p>Since the end of Los Chocoyos, continuing volcanic activity has built three volcanoes in the caldera. Volcán Atitlán lies on the southern rim of the caldera, while Volcán San Pedro and Volcán Tolimán lie within the caldera. San Pedro is the oldest of the three and seems to have stopped erupting about 40,000 years ago. Tolimán began growing after San Pedro stopped erupting, and probably remains active, although it has not erupted in historic times. Atitlán has developed almost entirely in the last 10,000 years and remains active, with its most recent eruption having occurred in 1853.</p><br>
<p>On February 4, 1976, a very large earthquake (magnitude 7.5) struck Guatemala, killing more than 26,000 people. The earthquake fractured the lake bed and caused subsurface drainage from the lake, allowing the water level to drop two meters within one month.</p><br>
<h2>Ecological history</h2><br>
<p>In 1955, the area around Lake Atitlán became a national park. The lake was mostly unknown to the rest of the world, and Guatemala was seeking ways to increase tourism and boost the local economy. It was suggested by Pan American World Airways that stocking the lake with a fish prized by anglers would be a way to do just that. As a result, an exotic non-native species, the black bass, was introduced into the lake in 1958. The bass quickly took to its new home and caused a radical change in the species composition of the lake. The predatory bass caused the elimination of more than two-thirds of the native fish species in the lake and contributed to the extinction of the Atitlan grebe, a rare bird that lived only in the vicinity of Lake Atitlán.</p><br>
<p>A unique aspect of the climate is what is referred to as Xocomil (of the Kaqchickel language meaning "the wind that carried away sin"). This wind is common late morning and afternoon across the lake; it is said to be the encounter of warm winds from Pacific meeting colder winds from the North.</p><br>
<p>In August 2015 a thick bloom of algae known as Microcystis cyanobacteria re-appeared in Lake Atitlan; the first major occurrence was in 2009. Bureaucratic red tape has been blamed for the lack of action to save the lake. If current activities continue unchecked, the toxification of the lake will make it unsuitable for human use.</p><br>
<h2>Culture</h2><br>
<p>The lake is surrounded by many villages in which Maya culture is still prevalent and traditional dress is worn. The Maya people of Atitlán are predominantly Tzutujil and Kaqchikel. During the Spanish conquest of the Americas, the Kaqchikel initially allied themselves with the invaders to defeat their historic enemies, the Tzutujil and Kiche Maya, but were themselves conquered and subdued when they refused to pay tribute to the Spanish.</p><br>
<p>Santiago Atitlán is the largest of the lakeside communities, and it is noted for its worship of Maximón, an idol formed by the fusion of traditional Mayan deities, Catholic saints, and conquistador legends. The institutionalized effigy of Maximón is under the control of a local religious brotherhood and resides in various houses of its membership during the course of a year, being most ceremonially moved in a grand procession during Semana Santa. Several towns in Guatemala have similar cults, most notably the cult of San Simón in Zunil.</p><br>
<p>While Maya culture is predominant in most lakeside communities, Panajachel, has been overwhelmed over the years by Guatemalan and foreign tourists. It attracted many hippies in the 1960s, and although the civil war caused many foreigners to leave, the end of hostilities in 1996 saw visitor numbers boom again, and the town&#39;s economy is almost entirely reliant on tourism today.</p><br>
<p>Several Mayan archeological sites have been found at the lake. Sambaj, located approximately 55 feet below the current lake level, appears to be from at least the pre-classic period. There are remains of multiple groups of buildings, including one particular group of large buildings that are believed to have been the city center.</p><br>
<p>A second site, Chiutinamit, where the remains of a city were found, was discovered by local fishermen who "noticed what appeared to be a city underwater". During subsequent investigations, pottery shards were recovered from the site by divers, which enabled the dating of the site to the late pre-classic period (300 B.C. – 300 A.D.),</p><br>
<p>Allen, Joseph (2003), Sacred Sites, p. 34 more specifically 250 AD.</p><br>
<p>A project titled "Underwater archeology in the Lake Atitlán. Sambaj 2003 Guatemala" was recently approved by the Government of Guatemala in cooperation with Fundación Albenga and the Lake Museum in Atitlán. Because of the concerns of a private organization as is the Lake Museum in Atitlán the need to start the exploration of the inland waters in Guatemala was analyzed.</p><br>
<p>There is no road that circles the lake. Communities are reached by boat or roads from the mountains that may have brief extensions along the shore. Santa Cruz La Laguna and Jaibalito can only be reached by boat. Santa Catarina Palopó and San Antonio Palopó are linked by road to Panajachel. Main places otherwise are Santa Clara La Laguna and San Pedro La Laguna in the West, Santiago Atitlán in the South, Cerró de Oro on The South East and San Lucas Tolimán in the East.</p><br>
<p>Recent studies indicate that a ceremonial site named Samabaj was located on an island about 500 m long in Lake Atitlán. The site was revered for its striking connection to the Popol Wuj of the Kiche Mayan peoples.</p><br>
<h2>Guatemalan civil war</h2><br>
<p>During the Guatemalan Civil War, the lake was the scene of many terrible human rights abuses, as the government pursued a scorched earth policy. Indigenous people were assumed to be universally supportive of the guerrillas who were fighting against the government, and were targeted for brutal reprisals. At least 300 Maya from Santiago Atitlán are believed to have disappeared during the conflict.</p><br>
<p>Two events of this era made international news. One was the assassination of Stanley Rother, a missionary from Oklahoma, in the church at Santiago Atitlán in 1981. In 1990, a spontaneous protest march to the army base on the edge of town was met by gunfire, resulting in the death of 11 unarmed civilians. International pressure forced the Guatemalan government to close the base and declare Santiago Atitlán a "military-free zone." The memorial commemorating the massacre was damaged in the 2005 mudslide.</p><br>
<h2>Hurricane</h2><br>
<p>Torrential rains from Hurricane Stan caused extensive damage throughout Guatemala in early October 2005, particularly around Lake Atitlán. A massive landslide buried the lakeside village of Panabaj, causing the death of as many as 1,400 residents, leaving 5,000 homeless, and many bodies buried under tonnes of earth. Following this event, Diego Esquina Mendoza, the mayor of Santiago Atitlán, declared the community a mass gravesite: "Those buried by the mudslide" may never be rescued. Here they will stay buried, under five meters of mud. Panabáj is now a cemetery."</p><br>
<p>Four and a half years after Hurricane Stan, Tropical Storm Agatha dropped even more rainfall causing extensive damages to the region</p><br>
<p>and the effects of Tropical Storm Agatha resulting in dozens of deaths between San Lucas Toliman and San Antonio Palopó.</p><br>
<p>Since then roads have been reopened and travel to the region has returned to normal.</p><br>
<p>The Świętokrzyskie Mountains  are a mountain range in central Poland, near the city of Kielce.</p><br>
<p>The Świętokrzyskie Mountains are some of the oldest mountains in Europe, and the highest between the Sudetes and the Ural Mountains.</p><br>
<p>The mountain range comprises several lesser ranges, the highest of which is Łysogóry (literally "Bald Mountains").</p><br>
<p>The two highest peaks are Łysica, 612 m (2008 ft), and Łysa Góra, 593 m (1946 ft).</p><br>
<p>Together with the Jura Krakowsko-Częstochowska, the mountains form a region called the Lesser-Poland Upland (Wyżyna Małopolska).</p><br>
<p>They cover an area of 1684 km² (650 mi²).</p><br>
<p>The approximate location is 50&deg;53&prime;N latitude, 20&deg;55&prime;E longitude.</p><br>
<h2>Prehistory</h2><br>
<p>The Świętokrzyskie Mountains are one of the oldest mountain ranges in Europe. They were formed during the Caledonian orogeny of the Silurian period and then rejuvenated in the Hercynian orogeny of the Upper Carboniferous period.</p><br>
<p>The region was once on the southern coast of the ancient supercontinent of Laurasia. The oldest known evidence of tetrapods comes from 395-million-year old fossil footprints found in Zachełmie. The rocks were formed from a marine tidal flat or lagoon.</p><br>
<p>The mountains have also yielded the oldest evidence of Dinosauromorpha, pushing back the evolution of dinosaurs to small, four-legged animals living during the Early Triassic. The fossil footprints date to some 250 million years ago, only a couple of million years after the Permian–Triassic extinction event, during a time when the environment was still destabilized. Footprints of early bipedal dinosaurs known as Sphingopus, from 246 million years ago, have also been found.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>From the early Middle Ages the mountains were a place of extensive copper and iron mining. Later they were also a significant site of limestone and red sandstone extraction. The central part of the mountains now contains the Świętokrzyski National Park.</p><br>
<p>The name "Holy Cross Mountains" refers to a Christian relic from a nearby Benedictine monastery on Łysa Góra, said to be a small piece of wood from the Cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified.</p><br>
<p>Monte Verde is an archaeological site in southern Chile, located near Puerto Montt, Southern Chile, which has been dated to as early as 18,500 BP . Until recently, the widely published date has been 14,800 years BP. This dating added to the evidence showing that the human settlement of the Americas pre-dates the Clovis culture by roughly 1000 years. This contradicts the previously accepted "Clovis first" model which holds that settlement of the Americas began after 13,500 BP. The Monte Verde findings were initially dismissed by most of the scientific community, but in recent years the evidence has become more accepted in some archaeological circles, There is as yet no consensus, and vocal "Clovis First" advocates remain.</p><br>
<p>Paleoecological evidence of the coastal landscape&#39;s ability to sustain human life further supports a "Coastal migration" model. However, as of 2009 no archaeological evidence has been found of pre-Clovis humans using a coastal migration route.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Discovery</h3><br>
<p>The site was discovered in late 1975 when a veterinary student visited the area of Monte Verde, where severe erosion was occurring due to logging. The student was shown a strange "cow bone" collected by nearby peasants who had found it exposed in the eroded Chinchihuapi Creek. The bone later proved to be from a gomphothere. Tom Dillehay, an American anthropologist and professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile at the time, started excavating Monte Verde in 1977.</p><br>
<p>The site is situated on the banks of Chinchihuapi Creek, a tributary of the Maullín River located 36 mi from the Pacific Ocean. One of the rare open-air prehistoric sites found so far in the Americas, Monte Verde was well preserved because it was located in an anaerobic bog environment near the creek. A short time after the site was originally occupied, the waters of the creek rose and a peat-filled bog formed that inhibited the bacterial decay of organic material and preserved many perishable artifacts and other items for millennia.</p><br>
<p>Radiocarbon dating of bones and charcoal in 1982 gave the site an average age of 14,800 years ago (calibrated), more than 1000 years earlier than the oldest-known site of human habitation in the Americas at that time.</p><br>
<p>In the initial excavation, two large hearths were found and many small ones as well. The remains of local animals were found, in addition to wooden posts from approximately twelve huts. Scraps of clothing made of hide were also found. This led archaeologists to estimate the population was around 20-30 inhabitants. A human footprint was also found in the clay, probably from a child. Inside the camp, archaeologists found a chunk of meat that still had preserved DNA. After a DNA analysis, it matched that of a gomphothere, indicating the type of food the inhabitants ate.</p><br>
<h3>Diffusion</h3><br>
<p>Awareness about Monte Verde among the international archaeology community was greatly increased in 1989 when Dillehay delivered a presentation on Monte Verde at a conference on settlement of the Americas at the University of Maine. Archaeologist David J. Meltzer notes on that presentation:</p><br>
<p>The images Tom Dillehay was showing of the well-preserved remains at Monte Verde—wooden artifacts and house planks, fruits, berries, seeds, leaves, and stems, as well as marine algae, crayfish, chunks of animal hide, and what appeared to be several human coprolites found in three small pits—were unlike anything most of us, who long ago had learned to be used to stone tools and grateful for occasional bits of bone, had ever seen.</p><br>
<h3>Acceptance</h3><br>
<p>The early date for the site was not widely accepted until 1997. It had hitherto been generally agreed that ancient people had entered the Americas using the Bering Strait Land Bridge, which was about 13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) north of the Monte Verde site. A group of 12 respected archaeologists revisited the site in 1997 and concluded that Monte Verde was an inhabited site and predated the Clovis culture. One of Dillehay’s colleagues, Dr. Mario Pino, claimed a lower layer of the site is 33,200 years old, based on the discovery of burned wood several hundred feet to the south of Monte Verde. Radiocarbon dating established the wood as 33,000 years old. Dillehay was cautious of this earlier date, and as of 2007 it has not been verified nor accepted by the scientific community.</p><br>
<h2>Interpretations</h2><br>
<p>Material evidence gathered at Monte Verde has reshaped the way archaeologists think about the earliest inhabitants of the Americas. Radiocarbon dating has provided a date of 14,800 BC and possibly 33,000 BC, establishing Monte Verde as the oldest-known site of human habitation in the Americas. Previously, the earliest accepted site had been determined to be near Clovis, New Mexico, dating between 13,500-13,000 BP, over 1,000 years later than Monte Verde.</p><br>
<p>The new dates supplied by Monte Verde have made the site a key factor in the debate over the first migration route from Asia to North America. Before the discovery of Monte Verde, the most popular and widely accepted theory was the overland route, which speculates that the first American inhabitants migrated from Asia across the Bering Strait and then spread throughout North America. However, the early dates associated with Monte Verde appear to weaken this theory. Prior to 13,000 BP, the Cordilleran Glacier (which covered much of present-day Canada) had not yet melted enough to reveal an ice-free corridor for people to reasonably journey by foot. The Monte Verde radiocarbon dates precede 13,000 BP, despite the fact that before the glacial melt, the vast, desolate, icy landscape of much of the Americas could not possibly have permitted enough vegetation to sustain traveling people or herded animals.</p><br>
<p>The most prevalent theory today is the coastal migration hypothesis, which argues that people migrated from Asia down along the western coasts of North and South America.</p><br>
<p>Monte Verde is located 8,000 miles south of the Bering Strait. Such a considerable distance was probably unreasonable to trek by foot, especially on ice. Furthermore, remains of 22 varieties of seaweed are referenced in regards to this theory. Modern native inhabitants of the regions use these particular local seaweed varieties for medicinal purposes. Using an ethnographic analogy, this suggests that the Monte Verde residents used these varieties for similar purposes, which further suggests an extensive knowledge of marine resources. Together with a relative lack of stone tools, it appears that these first settlers were maritime-adapted hunter-gatherer-fishermen, and not necessarily big-game hunters like the Clovis. Therefore, it is feasible that they traveled along the coast by boat or along the shoreline, and could survive on marine resources throughout the voyage south.</p><br>
<p>The presence of non-local items at Monte Verde, such as plants, beach-rolled pebbles, quartz, and tar, indicates possible trade networks and other sites of human habitation of similar age.</p><br>
<h2>Stratigraphy</h2><br>
<p>The Monte Verde site has two distinct levels. The upper level, MV-II, has been extensively characterized. Its occupation is reliably dated to 14,800 – 13,800 BP.</p><br>
<p>The lower level, MV-I, is less well understood. It "was more ephemeral and came from ancient river sediments. Dillehay found charcoal scatters which may be the remnants of fireplaces next to possible stone and wood artifacts, and these were dated to at least 33,000BP." He acknowledges MV-I has "problems such as dubious human artifacts, questionable radiocarbon dates, or unreliable geological contexts" and hesitates "to accept this older level without more evidence and without sites of comparable age elsewhere in the Americas".</p><br>
<h3>Monte Verde Level I (MV-I)</h3><br>
<p>Monte Verde I is located under an outwash plain. In 2013, Dillehay and his team returned to perform another excavation at Monte Verde. In 2015, Monte Verde I was re-dated to around 18,500 to 14,500 BP. Charcoal remains, charred animal bone fragments and several lithic artefacts, about 34% of which was derived from non-local sources, were discovered.</p><br>
<h3>Monte Verde Level II (MV-II)</h3><br>
<p>According to Dillehay and his team, Monte Verde II was occupied around 14,800 – 13,800 BP by about twenty to thirty people. A twenty-foot-long tent-like structure of wood and animal hides was erected on the banks of the creek and was framed with logs and planks staked in the ground, making walls of poles covered with animal hides. Using ropes made of local reeds, the hides were tied to the poles creating separate living quarters within the main structure. Outside the tent-like structure, two large hearths had been built for community usage, most probably for tool making and craftwork.</p><br>
<p>Each of the living quarters had a brazier pit lined with clay. Around those hearths, many stone tools and remnants of spilled seeds, nuts, and berries were found. A 13,000-yr-old specimen of the wild potato, Solanum maglia, was also found at the site; these remains, the oldest on record for any species of potato, wild or cultivated, suggest that southern Chile was one of the two main centres for the evolution of Solanum tuberosum tuberosum, the common potato. Remains of forty-five different edible plant species were found within the site, over a fifth of them originating from up to 150 mi away. This suggested that the people of Monte Verde either had trade routes or traveled regularly in this extended network.</p><br>
<p>Other important finds from this site include human coprolites, a footprint, assumed to have been made by a child, stone tools, and cordage. The date for this site was obtained by Dr. Dillehay with the use of radiocarbon dating of charcoal and bone found within the site.</p><br>
<p>In the May 9, 2008 issue of Science, a team reported that they identified nine species of seaweed and marine algae recovered from hearths and other areas in the ancient settlement. The seaweed samples were directly dated between 14,220 and 13,980 years ago, confirming that MV-II was occupied more than 1,000 years earlier than any other reliably dated human settlements in the Americas.</p><br>
<h2>Comparison to other early Americas sites</h2><br>
<p>MV-I has been reportedly radiocarbon dated to 33,000 years before present. As with other sites that suggest extremely early dates, such as the Topper site in South Carolina and Pedra Furada in Brazil, this deeper layer find remains controversial.</p><br>
<p>The only human settlement site in Southern Chile of comparable age to Monte Verde is Pilauco Bajo, dated to 12,500–11,000 years before present. Further south lies the Pali Aike Crater lava tube, dated to 14,000–10,000 years before present. Researchers postulated that the two sites were complementary – Monte Verde would be a habitation site, and Pilauco Bajo would be a hunting and scavenging site.</p><br>
<p>Meltzer, David J. 2009. First Peoples in a New World Berkeley: University of California Press</p><br>
<p>The Chinchorro culture, which was mostly a coastal culture of northern Chile and southern Peru, originated ca. 9,000 years BP, and was long lasting. Other sites on the coast, such as the Quebrada Jaguay, and Quebrada Tacahuay of Peru, seem to go back to ca. 13,000-12,000 BP.</p><br>
<p>Lake Urmia  is an endorheic salt lake in Iran. The lake is between the provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan in Iran, and west of the southern portion of the Caspian Sea. At its greatest extent, it was the largest lake in the Middle East and the sixth-largest saltwater lake on Earth, with a surface area of approximately 5,200 km², a length of 140 km, a width of 55 km, and a maximum depth of 16 m. The lake has shrunk to 10% of its former size due to damming of the rivers that flow into it, and the pumping of groundwater from the surrounding area.</p><br>
<p>Lake Urmia, along with its once approximately 102 islands, is protected as a national park by the Iranian Department of Environment.</p><br>
<h2>Names and etymologies</h2><br>
<p>Currently, the lake is named after the provincial capital city of Urmia, originally an Assyrian name meaning puddle of water.</p><br>
<p>Its Old Persian name was Chichast, meaning "glittering", a reference to the glittering mineral particles suspended in the water of the lake and found along its shores. In medieval times it came to be known as Lake Kabuda (Kabodan), from the word for "azure" in Persian, or կապույտ (kapuyt) in Armenian. Its Latin name was Lacus Matianus, so it is referred to in some texts as Lake Matianus or Lake Matiene.</p><br>
<p>Locally, the lake is referred to in Persian as Daryāĉeye Orumiye, Daryāche-ye Orūmiye; in Azerbaijani as Urmu gölü. The traditional Armenian name is Կապուտան ծով, Kaputan tsov, literally "blue sea". Residents of Shahi Island refer to the lake in Azerbaijani as Daryā meaning Sea.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeology and history</h2><br>
<p>The Lake Urmia region has a wealth of archaeological sites going back to the Neolithic period. Archaeological excavations of the settlements in the area have found artefacts that date from about 7,000 BCE and later.</p><br>
<p>Excavations at Teppe Hasanlu archeological site southwest of Lake Urmia also revealed habitations going back to the 6th millennium BC.</p><br>
<p>A related site is Yanik Tepe, on the east shore of Lake Urmia, that has been excavated in the 1950s and 60s by C. A. Burney.</p><br>
<p>Another important site in the area, from about the same era, is Hajji Firuz Tepe, where some of the oldest archaeological evidence of grape-based wine was discovered.</p><br>
<p>Kul Tepe Jolfa is a site in the Jolfa County about 10 km south from the Araxes River. It dates to Chalcolithic period (5000–4500 BC).</p><br>
<p>Se Girdan kurgans are located on the south shore of Lake Urmia. Some of them were excavated in 1968 and 1970 by O. Muscarella. They have now been redated to the second half of the 4th millennium, although originally they were thought to be much younger.</p><br>
<p>One of the early mentions of Lake Urmia is from Assyrian records of the 9th century BCE. There, in the records from the reign of Shalmaneser III (858–824 BCE), two names are mentioned in the area of Lake Urmia: Parsuwaš (i.e. the Persians) and Matai (i.e. the Mitanni). It is not completely clear whether these referred to places or tribes, or what their relationship was to the subsequent list of personal names and "kings". But the Matai were Medes and linguistically the name Parsuwaš matches the Old Persian word pārsa, an Achaemenid ethnolinguistic designation.</p><br>
<p>The lake was the center of the Mannaean Kingdom. A potential Mannaean settlement, represented by the ruin mound of Hasanlu, was on the south side of the lake. Mannae was overrun by the Matiani or Matieni, an Iranian people variously identified as Scythian, Saka, Sarmatian, or Cimmerian. It is not clear whether the lake took its name from the people or the people from the lake, but the country came to be called Matiene or Matiane, and gave the lake its Latin name.</p><br>
<p>The Battle of Urmia was fought near the lake in 1604, during the Ottoman–Safavid War of 1603–18</p><br>
<p>In the last five hundred years the area around Lake Urmia has been home to Iranians, Assyrians, and Armenians.</p><br>
<h2>Chemistry</h2><br>
<p>The main cations in the lake water include Na, K, Ca, Li and Mg, while Cl, SO, HCO are the main anions. The Na and Cl concentration is roughly four times the concentration of natural seawater. Sodium ions are at slightly higher concentration in the south compared to the north of the lake, which could result from the shallower depth in the south, and a higher net evaporation rate.</p><br>
<p>The lake is divided into north and south, separated by the Urmia Lake Bridge and its associated causeway, which was completed in 2008. The bridge provides only a 1.5 km gap in the embankment, allowing little exchange of water between the two sections. Due to drought and increased demands for agricultural water in the lake&#39;s basin, the salinity of the lake has risen to more than 300 g/l during recent years, and large areas of the lake bed have been desiccated.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<h3>Palaeoecology</h3><br>
<p>A palynological investigation on long cores from Urmia Lake has revealed a nearly 200 kyr record of vegetation and lake level changes. The vegetation has changed from the Artemisia/grass steppes during the glacial/stadial periods, to oak-juniper steppe-forests during the interglacial/interstadial periods. The lake has had a complex hydrological history and its water levels have fluctuated greatly in geological history. Very high lake levels have been suggested for some time intervals during the two last glacial periods, as well as during both the Last Interglacial as well as the Holocene. The lowest lake levels have occurred during the last glacial periods.</p><br>
<h3>Modern ecology</h3><br>
<p>Based on the latest checklists of biodiversity at Lake Urmia in 2014 and 2016, it is home of 62 species of archaebacteria and bacteria, 42 species of microfungi, 20 species of phytoplankton, 311 species of plants, five species of mollusca, 226 species of birds, 27 species of amphibians and reptiles and 24 species of mammals (47 fossils have been recorded in the area).Asem A., Eimanifar A., Djamal M., De los Rios P. and Wink M. (2014) Biodiversity of the Hypersaline Urmia Lake National Park (NW Iran), Diversity, 6: 102-132.</p><br>
<p>Lake Urmia is an internationally registered protected area as both a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and a Ramsar site. The Iranian Dept. of Environment has designated most of the lake as a National Park.</p><br>
<p>The lake is marked by more than a hundred small, rocky islands, which serve as stopover points during the migrations of a number of bird species, including flamingos, pelicans, spoonbills, ibises, storks, shelducks, avocets, stilts, and gulls. A recent drought has significantly decreased the annual amount of water the lake receives. This in turn has increased the salinity of the lake&#39;s water, reducing its viability as home to thousands of migratory birds, including a large flamingo populations. The salinity has particularly increased in the half of the lake north of the Urmia Lake Bridge.</p><br>
<p>By virtue of its high salinity, the lake no longer sustains any fish species. Nonetheless, Urmia Lake is considered a significant natural habitat of Artemia, which serve as food source for the migratory birds such as flamingos. In early 2013, the then-head of the Iranian Artemia Research Center was quoted that Artemia Urmiana had gone extinct due to the drastic increases in salinity. However this assessment has been contradicted.</p><br>
<h3>Falling level and increasing salinity</h3><br>
<p>The lake is a major barrier between Urmia and Tabriz, two of the most important cities in the provinces of West Azerbaijan and East Azerbaijan. A project to build a highway across the lake was initiated in the 1970s but was abandoned after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, leaving a 15 km causeway with an unbridged gap. The project was revived in the early 2000s, and was completed in November 2008 with the opening of the 1.5 km Urmia Lake Bridge across the remaining gap. The highly saline environment is already heavily rusting the steel on the bridge despite anti-corrosion treatment. Experts have warned that the construction of the causeway and bridge, together with a series of ecological factors, will eventually lead to the drying up of the lake, turning it into a salt marsh, which will adversely affect the climate of the region.</p><br>
<p>Lake Urmia has been shrinking for a long time, with an annual evaporation rate of 0.6 to 1 m. Although measures are now being taken to reverse the trend the lake has shrunk by 60% and could disappear entirely. Only 5% of the lake&#39;s water remains.</p><br>
<p>On 2 August 2012, Muhammad-Javad Muhammadizadeh, the head of Irans Environment Protection Organization, announced that Armenia had agreed on transfer water from Armenia to counter the critical fall in Lake Urmias water level, remarking that "hot weather and a lack of precipitation have brought the lake to its lowest water levels ever recorded". He added that recovery plans for the lake included the transfer of water from Eastern Azerbaijan Province. Previously, Iranian authorities had announced a plan to transfer water from the Aras River, which borders Iran and Azerbaijan, but the 950-billion-toman plan was abandoned due to Azerbaijan&#39;s objections.</p><br>
<p>In July 2014, Iran President Hassan Rouhani approved plans for a 14 trillion rial program (over $500 million) in the first year of a recovery plan. The money is supposed to be used for water management, reducing farmers water use, and environmental restoration. Several months earlier, in March 2014, Irans Department of Environment and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) issued a plan to save the lake and the nearby wetland, which called for spending $225 million in the first year and $1.3 billion overall for restoration.</p><br>
<p>Starting in 2016, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Urmia Lake Restoration Program (ULRP) signed up to a project funded by the Government of Japan entitled “An Integrated Programme for Sustainable Water Resources Management in the Lake Urmia Basin” to support ULRP in its goal to restore Lake Urmia. The project set out a multi-disciplinary framework covering several key interrelated areas and aims to have five outputs: 1- An advanced water accounting (WA) system for the entire Lake Urmia basin; 2- A drought management system based on risk/vulnerability assessment and preparedness response for the basin; 3 - A socio-economic livelihood programme with viable and sustainable alternatives to current agricultural activities upstream of the lake to reduce water consumption significantly while maintaining the income and livelihood of affected communities; 4- An integrated watershed management (WM) programme; A capacity development programme to strengthen stakeholders at different levels.</p><br>
<p>The Silveh Dam in Piranshahr County should be complete in 2015. Through a tunnel and canals it will transfer up to 121,700,000 m&sup3; of water annually from the Lavin River in the Little Zab basin to Lake Urmia basin.</p><br>
<p>In 2015, president Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet approved $660 million for improving irrigation systems, and steps to combat desertification.</p><br>
<h3>Environmental protests</h3><br>
<p>The prospect that Lake Urmia might dry up entirely has drawn protests in Iran and abroad, directed at both the regional and national governments. Protests flared in late August 2011 after the Iranian parliament voted not to provide funds to channel water from the Araz River to raise the lake level. Apparently, parliament proposed instead to relocate people living around Urmia Lake.</p><br>
<p>More than 30 activists were detained on 24 August 2011 during an iftar meal.</p><br>
<p>Further demonstrations took place in the streets of Tabriz and Urmia on 27 August and 3 September 2011. Amateur video from these events showed riot police on motorcycles attacking apparently peaceful protesters. According to the governor of West Azerbaijan, at least 60 supporters of the lake were arrested in Urmia, and dozens in Tabriz, because they had not applied for a permit to organize a demonstration.</p><br>
<p>On May 5, 2016, Leonardo Di Caprio posted a photo of "a dilapidated ship dock remains on dried up Urmia Lake" on his Instagram page stating: "It used to be the biggest salt lake in the Middle East, but it now contains five percent of the amount of water it did two decades ago due to climate change, dam construction and decrease in precipitiation."</p><br>
<h2>Islands</h2><br>
<p>Lake Urmia had approximately 102 islands.List from: Farahang-e Joghrafiyayi-e shahrestânhâ-ye Keshvar (Shahrestân-e Orumiyeh), Tehran 1379</p><br>
<p>Hs. Shahi Island was historically the lake&#39;s largest. However, it became a peninsula connected to the eastern shore when the lake level dropped.</p><br>
<p>Shahi Island is the burial place of both Hulagu Khan (one of Genghis Khans grandsons) and of Hulagus son Abaqa. Both khans were buried in a castle above 1,000 ft cliffs along the shore of the island.</p><br>
<p>In 1967, the Iranian Department of Environment sent a team of scientists to study the ecology of Shahi Island. Various results of the study, which included the breeding habits of brine shrimp, were published by Javad Hashemi in the scientific journal, Iranian Scientific Sokhan.</p><br>
<h2>Basin rivers</h2><br>
<p>Lake Urmia is fed by 13 permanent rivers and many small springs, as well as rainfall directly into the lake. Nearly half the inflow comes from the Zarrineh River and Simineh River. There is no outflow from the lake so water is only lost through evaporation.</p><br>
<p>Aji Chay</p><br>
<p>Alamlou River</p><br>
<p>Barandouz River</p><br>
<p>Gadar River</p><br>
<p>Ghaie River</p><br>
<p>Leylan River</p><br>
<p>Mahabad River</p><br>
<p>Nazlou River</p><br>
<p>Rozeh River</p><br>
<p>Shahar River</p><br>
<p>Simineh River</p><br>
<p>Zarriné-Rūd</p><br>
<p>Zarrineh River</p><br>
<p>Zola River</p><br>
<h2>In popular culture</h2><br>
<p>Lake Urmia was the setting of the Iranian film The White Meadows (2009), which featured fantastic-looking lands adjacent to a salt sea. There are many popular songs about Lake Urmia in Azeri Turkish, such as "Urmu Golu Lay Lay".</p><br>
