<p>Bibracte, a Gaulish oppidum or fortified city, was the capital of the Aedui and one of the most important hillforts in Gaul. It was situated near modern Autun in Burgundy, France. The material culture of the Aedui corresponded to the Late Iron Age La Tène culture.</p><br>
<p>In 58 BC, at the Battle of Bibracte, Julius Caesar&#39;s armies defeated the Helvetii 16 miles south of the fort. In 52 BC, Vercingetorix was proclaimed head of the Gaulish coalition at Bibracte. A few decades after the Roman conquest of Gaul, Bibracte was abandoned in favour of Autun, 25 kilometres distant. Once abandoned, Bibracte remained undisturbed and unexamined until discovered by modern archaeology.</p><br>
<p>Jacques Gabriel Bulliot initiated the first excavations at the site between 1867 and 1895. His nephew Joseph Déchelette, author of a famous Manuel d&#39;Archéologie, continued the excavations between 1897 and 1907.</p><br>
<p>The modern site known as Mont Beuvray is generally identified as ancient Bibracte. The site straddles the borders of the French départements of Nièvre and Saône-et-Loire in Burgundy. The site is an archaeological park at the centre of a protected forest. It is the focus of cooperative European archaeological efforts, a training ground for young archaeologists, and a centre for interpreting Gaulish culture for a popular audience. Important international excavations have been undertaken at Mont Beuvray by teams from the universities of Sheffield, Kiel, Budapest, Vienna and Leipzig.</p><br>
<p>On December 12, 2007, the site of Bibracte received the "Great Site of France" Label.</p><br>
<p>Before the Roman conquest in 52 BC the great Celtic city of Bibracte had more than thirty thousand inhabitants. protected by a huge stone wall of the Murus Gallicus type enclosing an area of 135 hectares.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>The origin of the word Bibracte is still poorly understood. The term may have come from the Celtic *bibro- / *bebro- (beaver) followed by the collective suffix -akti (cf. Irish, Gallic aktā) or from the Latin biffractrus (twice fortified). The latter version, however, is thought questionable from a strategic view, since it is very difficult to protect a battlement over a long distance, a problem which a double battlement would only have exacerbated. Furthermore, the surrounding wall of the city has shrunk since dating methods made it possible to show the precedence of the outer battlements compared to the inner battlements (see the map). The stone facing of the outer surrounding wall, moreover, was certainly reused for the construction of the second wall. Therefore, it is unlikely that Bibracte was surrounded by two walls at the same time.</p><br>
<p>Three inscriptions dedicated to the goddess Bibracte which were found at Autun in the 17th century provide another explanation for the name, but two of the inscriptions carved into the stone have disappeared and the authenticity of the third, engraved on a brass medallion, has been the object of debate. Some scholars of the era have cited other evidence to justify placing the Aeduian oppidum on the site of Autun (the former Augustodunum), which was effectively the capital of the Aedui in the first century.</p><br>
<h2>Discovery of Bibracte</h2><br>
<p>Bibracte is mentioned only twice in Roman sources. The first mention of Bibracte is found in Julius Caesar&#39;s Commentaries on the Gallic War in the year 58 BCE. It was mentioned again in 52 BCE, when he was questioning the intentions of his Aedui allies, who had joined the revolt and crowned Vercingetorix king of the Gauls at Bibracte. Inscriptions from the era announced that the capital of the Aedui received the name (the citadel of Augustus) during the reign of Augustus, which gave rise to the current Autun.</p><br>
<p>Starting in the 16th century, a passion for local history arose among scholars, aristocrats, and clergy, which led to the question of the location of Bibracte. One theory placed Bibracte at Autun: the Gallic city at the site of the Gallo-Roman city. Another placed it at Beaune and was defended by the scholar. A third located the city on the slopes of Beuvrect or Bevrect, today known as Mont Beuvray. This last theory was based on three major arguments. First, there is a connection between the names Bibracte and Beuvrect. Second, medieval chronicles situated the city at Beuvrect. This was reinforced by the existence of an annual fair on the first Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of May, the age of which is attested to in texts from the 13th century. Finally, the discovery of pottery, coins, and the observations of the priest of Saint-Léger-sous-Beuvray in 1725 supported it.</p><br>
<p>Generally, the Autun hypothesis received the greatest approval at first. Moreover, Autun was renamed Bibracte after the French Revolution and remained so for some time. Only the research of in the 19th century shifted scholarly opinion in favor of Mont Beuvray. In 1851, Bulliot communicated with the Congress of the French Society of Archeology about an ancient chapel (the Saint Martin chapel on Mont Beuvray) established to Christianize the Aedui. He also returned to Mont Beuvray to take more notes. He discovered what he thought was the embankment of a Roman camp (actually a nemeton) at the summit of Mont Beuvray next to the chapel. He documented it and considered placing Bibracte at Mont Beuvray instead of Autun, contrary to the unanimous opinion of the Aedui Society. The publication of his Essay on the Roman System of Defense in the Aedui country between the Saône and the Loire, in which he revealed his convictions, was not taken seriously by the members of the Society of Archeology.</p><br>
<p>Emperor Napoleon III took an interest in the battles of the Gallic Wars and an officer named Stoffel, charged by the Emperor with conducting investigations of the Roman victory over the Helvetii, visited Bulliot, who shared with him his opinions about the location of Bibracte. Stoffel was not interested, but he commissioned Xavier Garenne, another member of the Aedui Society, to make a survey of Mont Beavray. At the same time, the Viscount of Aboville, the owner of the land, conducted research and shared it with the Archbishop of Reims, who was a member of the Aedui Society and a friend of Bulliot, though he did not share Bulliot&#39;s theory about the location of Bibracte. Interested by these investigations, the Archbishop shared the various findings with the Emperor who, in 1867, assigned Bulliot to do research at Mont Beavray and funded his work.</p><br>
<p>Bulliot excavated the site from 1867 to 1905, removing all doubt about the location of Bibracte. His nephew Joseph Déchelette, whom he introduced to excavation, continued the work until 1907, comparing Bibracte to other sites in Europe such as Stradonice in Bohemia, the Manching in Germany and Velem-Zenst-Vid in Hungary, which were precursors of the cultural unification of the Celtic world and of the civilization of oppida.</p><br>
<h2>History of the oppidum</h2><br>
<h3>Chronology of the population of Beuvray</h3><br>
<p>During the excavations of the gate, five artifacts were discovered, the oldest of which demonstrated human habitation on Mont Beuvray in the Neolithic Era. Dating techniques have shown that the oppidum was founded at end of the 3rd century, on an area of 200 hectares protected by the exterior rampart. An interior rampart was built later, for reasons unknown.</p><br>
<p>Because the Aedui had the status of "friend of the Roman people," contacts with Roman merchants were probable before the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar. This privileged status prevented Bibracte from suffering much from conflict: in 58 BCE, at Montmort 25 kilometers south of the site, Julius Caesars armies defeated the Helvetii, forcing them to return to Switzerland and gradually be incorporated into what became the Roman Empire. In 52 BCE, an assembly of Gallic peoples at Bibracte gave Vercingetorix supreme command of the Gallic armies. Despite this insurrection, Caesar treated the city mercifully after his victory at Alesia. He stayed there during the winter of 52-51 BCE to write his Commentaries on the Gallic War. These mentioned the names of certain notables of the Aedui aristocracy such as Dumnorix, vergobret of the Aedui, and his brother Diviciacos, the druid. The citys industry boomed in the decades following the war.</p><br>
<p>Strabo the geographer, writing a generation later than Caesar, identified Bibracte as again an Aedui stronghold.</p><br>
<p>After the founding of Autun (Augustodunum) 25 kilometers away c. 15 BCE, during the reign of Augustus, Bibracte was gradually abandoned by its inhabitants. However, cults continued to practise their rites in its temples and its fountains and its aristocratic residences were maintained. Two main hypotheses have been advanced concerning the abandonment of the site over several decades. Migration could have been caused by economic reasons or by a desire to integrate with the Roman model; a part of the dominant Aedui class, already pro-Roman during the Gallic War, definitely realized the strategic importance of the new city located on the principal axes of communication and wanted to conform to the Roman model of flatland cities, while a more traditional population remained for a time on the Bibracte site.</p><br>
<p>It is known from 13th century texts that a festival every first Monday of May survived. In the 15th and 16th centuries, a Franciscan convent was established on Mont Beuvray. It was abandoned, but the festival continued.</p><br>
<h3>Influence and power</h3><br>
<p>The power of the Aedui capital was related in the Commentaries on the Gallic War, which underlined the many alliances held by the Aedui with neighboring peoples. Julius Caesar also mentioned the wars that set the Aedui against the Arverni and the Sequani for hegemony over a large part of Gaul. These references were not impartial, since Rome had been allied with the Aedui, "our blood brothers", since at least the 2nd century BCE. Moreover, they maintained commercial links and military alliances: Rome helped the Aedui in the 2nd century to defeat an Arverni army and rose to their defense against the invasion of the Helvetii that precipitated the Gallic War.</p><br>
<p>Gabriel de Mortillet, in his classification of ancient peoples, included the site&#39;s residents under the name "Beavraisian", a category abandoned by modern scholars. in the by Gabriel de Mortillet.</p><br>
<p>In addition to this powerful alliance with Rome, the Aedui were part of a confederation of Celtic tribes that included:</p><br>
<p>The Ambarri (in Ain)</p><br>
<p>The Brannovices</p><br>
<p>The Bellovaci</p><br>
<p>The Bituriges (in Berry)</p><br>
<p>The Parisii</p><br>
<p>The Segusiavi (Forez, adjacent to the Arverni)</p><br>
<p>The Senones (Sens region)</p><br>
<p>whose influence extended across a large part of Gaul.</p><br>
<p>Archeologists estimate the population of Beavray between 5,000 and 10,000 inhabitants at its peak.</p><br>
<h4>Commerce</h4><br>
<p>In his History of Gaul, the historian Camille Jullian writes these lines about the Aedui: "Bibracte, I am sure, was the source and the guarantee of their power. Around Bibracte were very good roads, uniting the three biggest basins of France."</p><br>
<p>So, the Roman products traveling up the Rhône (the waterways were the fastest means of travel at the time) and taking after that the Saône, the Loire or the Allier, passed through Aedui territory before joining the basins of the Loire and Seine. The Aedui were located at a commercial crossroads between the Celtic world and Rome. They allowed the diffusion of Roman products through Gaul as early as the 2nd century BCE, allowing their allies to benefit from their commerce with Rome and definitely with Greek colonies such as Massilia. These exchanges are confirmed by the large quantities of amphoras and ceramics from Italy found in waste tanks and in the paving of houses.</p><br>
<p>In addition, the Aedui installed a system of customs that taxed products passing through their territory to increase their wealth, as attested in the texts of Julius Caesar: "It was typical of Dumnorix: the man was audacious, his generosity made him popular, and he wanted political change. For years, he has had the control of the customs and all the other taxes of the Aedui, because when he bid, no one dared bid against him." The Aedui and the Sequani fought each other to control the Arar (now the Saône) because controlling the river allowed taxation of Roman and Celtic products traveling north.</p><br>
<h4>Politics</h4><br>
<p>The political system of the Aedui was essentially reformed according to indications in the Commentaries on the Gallic War. At the head of the Aedui state sat a senate comprising one member of each Aedui aristrocratic family. What is today called executive power was held by the vergobret, the supreme magistrate, who exercised his functions over the course of a year. He was forbidden from leaving the borders of the territory during this period, which prevented him from commanding the army outside the borders. This measure, along with that which authorized only one voice per aristocratic family in the senate, aimed to prevent any individual or their family from monopolizing the reins of power. The vergobret was publicly elected by a council directed by the druids. Among the Aedui, it seems like the vergobret also exercised a judiciary role, since Caesar reports that he had "the right to life and death over his fellow citizens". Finally, it is thought that the vergobret was responsible for the administration of the territory. Caesar adds that the druids were charged with this: "They believe that religion does not allow them to put the material of their education in writing, while for the rest in general, for public and private administrative acts, they used the Greek alphabet." No excavation has permitted the rediscovery of such acts, the backings of which, being wood covered with wax, are perishable.</p><br>
<p>Furthermore, it is known that the druids held high functions since Diviciacus came to Rome to plead the case of the Aedui during the Germanic invasion led by Ariovistus on the account of the Sequani. he also directed the Aedui cavalry during the Gallic War after the death of his brother Dumnorix. Therefore, it is thought that some druids held high military positions.</p><br>
<h2>Archeological research on Mont Beuvray</h2><br>
<p>From 1865 to 1895, Gabriel Bulliot identified Bibracte in 1867 and began excavations there (notably the Celtic artisanal neighborhood surrounding the Rebout gate), with the aid of funds allocated by Napoleon III. In fact, having a passion for history, the emperor set off vast campaigns of excavations to uncover sites of the Gallic War in order to write his History of Julius Caesar. The modest "Hotel of the Gauls" which housed the researcher on the premises had been constructed there since. Joseph Déchelette, the nephew of Bulliot, took up his work again from 1895 to 1907. He was killed during World War I and the excavations fell into neglect. In 1984, the excavations began again under the impetus of François Mitterrand, who proclaimed Bibracte a site of national interest in 1985. This term, invented for the occasion, allowed the site to be subsidized. The label of "national interest" was created afterward in order to designate exhibitions or sites which benefit from a program of diffusion and enlargement of the public by the Minister of Culture. This will always give the necessary impetus to a project of excavations of European scope. Thus, in 1989, the European Archeological Center of Mont Beuvray was created, which will reassemble the site, the museum, and the research center of Glux-en-Glenne. It was inaugurated in 1995. By order on March 21, 1995, the Minister of Culture, on the advice of the National Council of Archeological Research, confirmed the oppidum of Bibracte (Mont-Beuvray, Saint-Léger-sous-Beuvray; Saône-et-Loire; Glux-en-Glenne; Nièvre). The excavations were actually conducted by Vincent Guichard and put into practice by many French and foreign teams; the excavations notably concentrated on the Gallic neighborhood of Rebout, on the vast Gallo-Roman ensemble of the Pasture of the Convent and the Roman residence of the Horse Park.</p><br>
<p>Thus, specialists, researchers, professors and students from all over Europe come together on the site every summer to excavate different parts of the site. These have included, among others:</p><br>
<p>Austria: University of Vienna</p><br>
<p>Belgium: Université Libre de Bruxelles</p><br>
<p>Czech Republic: Masaryk University</p><br>
<p>France: University of Franche-Comté, University of Burgundy, University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, Pierre and Marie Curie University, François Rabelais University</p><br>
<p>Germany: University of Kiel, University of Leipzig, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, University of Mainz</p><br>
<p>Hungary: Eötvös Loránd University</p><br>
<p>Italy: University of Bologna</p><br>
<p>Poland: Rzeszów University</p><br>
<p>Slovenia: University of Ljubljana</p><br>
<p>Spain: University of Madrid and University of Zaragoza</p><br>
<p>Switzerland: University of Lausanne</p><br>
<p>United Kingdom: University of Edinburgh</p><br>
<p>Each university excavates the site as triannual projects which currently depend on the comprehension of the operation of a Celtic city of the La Tène period. Their research consists of several weeks of work on the terrain which is followed by a detailed study of the excavation and of the objects discovered, which are then stored at the site&#39;s research center.</p><br>
<h3>Archeological prospecting on Mont Beuvray</h3><br>
<p>The prospecting technique used by Bulliot was rudimentary. It consisted of observing the irregularities in the landscape, since the mountain was practically unchanged since the period under study. This allowed him to recreate a plan of the battlements with nearly no excavation. He used this technique to make a scale plan with the help of the army topographers, who made a series of topographical recreations of the landscape. Only the recreation of the Porrey neighborhood exists to this day.</p><br>
<p>In recent years, the same technique has been used in the same Porrey neighborhood with more precise tools, like theodolites and GPS. In fact, aerial and electromagnetic prospecting is made impossible by the vegetation that reforested the mountain since the end of grazing and the excavations of Joseph Déchelette and the nature of the subsoil. One costly but faster technique, tested in 2007, is LIDAR, the use of airborne laser scanners, which are unhindered by the vegetation and can recreate in minutes what usually takes weeks to do on the ground. This will be done in order to attempt to make a complete map of the city and to archive the topography of the location.</p><br>
<h2>Organization</h2><br>
<p>The research done by Bulliot and Déchelette at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century recreated an organization of the site into neighborhoods, with construction mostly following a central road from the Gate of Rebout to the Great Gates. This organization differs from that of oppida like Manching, where there is a regular urban framework; this is explained by the relief of the terrain, as the battlements encircle three summits with some relatively steep slopes.</p><br>
<p>Since 1984, the excavations have seemed to confirm Déchelettes and Bulliots hypotheses in broad terms, while nevertheless contributing certain nuances.</p><br>
<h3>Battlements</h3><br>
<p>Bibracte was protected by strong Murus Gallicus style battlements, which excavations have been able to reconstruct. The city had a progression of two different surrounding walls and at least five restorations of the inner surrounding wall, revealed, among other things, by the study of the Rebout gate. Surprisingly, the inner encircling wall was constructed after the outer wall. The city, therefore, shrank in area from 200 to 135 hectares (494 to 334 acres).</p><br>
<p>The first wall (the internal wall on the map below), discovered by Bulliot, is a Murus Gallicus that delimits an area of 135 hectares for a length of 5 km per battlement. It is estimated that construction of the wall required more than 10,000 cubic meters of wood, between 10,000 and 20,000 cubic meters of earth and about thirty tons of iron.</p><br>
<p>The second wall, surprisingly outside the first, encircles an area of 200 hectares and was the subject of research beginning in 1992 for initial probing. This archeological research revealed that the battlement had had a height between four and five meters (13 and 16 feet) without its yet-unknown top (e.g., palisades or towers) and an identical depth, and was preceded by a ditch between 2 and 4 meters (7 and 13 feet) deep and between 6 and 10 meters (20 and 33 feet) wide. A study was conducted between 1995 and 2002 with many probes along with those by the University of Vienna. The researchers were able to ascertain that this battlement was a Murus Gallicus that had been dismantled in order to construct the inner wall. The dating, however, remains imprecise, and places this event during the 2nd century. These excavations also updated a postern to the level of Porrey, which is the only one currently known for Murus Gallicus type fortifications.</p><br>
<p>The battlement is punctuated by about fifteen gates, including the famous Gate of Rebout (20 meters (66 feet) in width and 40 meters (131 feet) in depth). The gate of Rebout was the first location excavated by Bulliot, where he worked for nine weeks, and was the first site for new excavations from 1984 to 1986 which also studied the ditches adjoining the battlements. These excavations revealed five levels of different restorations, including a palisade from the Neolithic Era (dated with carbon-14). The latter has been the object of a reconstruction since 1996 which currently marks the entry into the old oppidum. At the present time, research has not been able to detect a trace of a method for locking the gate or a defensive device for it. Some hypotheses have advanced the idea of a double gate surmounted by a wooden guard tower like that of the Manching oppidum, but nothing has yet confirmed this.</p><br>
<p>The recent research on the battlements, since 2005, has concentrated on a line of fortification downhill from the Gate of Rebout. Dating seems to indicate that this construction took place after that of the gate and therefore constituted an advance fortification. It will be studied over the course of the next excavations. At the same time, some aristocratic tombs have been discovered between the two lines of battlements.</p><br>
<h3>Artisans' neighborhoods of Côme Chaudron and Champlain</h3><br>
<p>The excavations, which were resumed in 2000 in the neighborhoods known as the Côme Cauldron and the Champlain, near the Rebout Gate, revealed a neighborhood dedicated to metalwork and to artisans&#39; lodging. This metalworking seems to have been very specialized, incorporating blacksmiths, bronzeworkers, and enamellers, whose workshops had already been restored by Bulliot, and probably also involved goldsmiths and minters.</p><br>
<p>Excavations on the site of Beuvray, in the region of the Champlain, and on the surrounding massifs revealed the existence of mines for the extraction of metals, including gold, iron, and tin ore. This research will continue and will attempt to restore the workshops for the smelting of the metals extracted outside the oppidum. In fact, given the specialization of the workshops in Bibracte, it seems that the metals arrived in bars which were therefore cast outside the oppidum.</p><br>
<p>Another artisanal neighborhood has been found in the region of one of the summits of the site, at the Rock of the Wyvern, an area which had been little investigated at the time of Bulliot and Déchelette&#39;s research. This neighborhood will be the object of future excavations which will attempt to determine the function of the neighborhood.</p><br>
<h3>Housing</h3><br>
<p>Predominantly made of wood and earth, the Gallic houses used stone only sparingly, which was saved for the ramparts. Little is known of the houses structure as wood rots and decomposes. There are, however, stone constructions in the horse Park district, probably aristocratic residences and a public building with columns, near the convents pasture. These were probably constructed soon after the Gallic Wars.</p><br>
<h3>Horse Park</h3><br>
<p>At the center of Mont Beuvray, the plateau known as the Horse Park holds several Roman-style stone houses which were excavated in the 19th century. The houses there include, in particular, the residence PC1 (so named by Bulliot), which is a veritable gold mine for the researchers. In fact, it developed from a wood construction (of Roman inspiration) at a domus with an atrium containing an impluvium, porticos, and thermae heated by hypocaust, along with a system of sewers. In its final stage, the residence measured 55 by 67 meters, covering an area of around 3500 square meters, about four times the size of the domus found on the site of Pompeii. It is estimated that there were about fifteen domus in this area, such as PC2, a smaller residence that faces PC1 on the other side of the central road. There are also homes of the villa rustica type (the Italian rural residences) like PC33. However, it is still not known whether this was a residential neighborhood reserved for only the elite, since excavations have also revealed the presence of forges near the domus.</p><br>
<h3>The fountain and its surroundings</h3><br>
<p>At the center of the main road, in the area of the Pasture of the Monastery, stands a pink granite monumental fountain with a transversal orientation corresponding to the rising sun during the Winter Solstice and to the setting sun during the Summer Solstice. Water left the fountain through the northern opening downstream, continuing through a pipe. The supply of water, however, has not yet been discovered:</p><br>
<p>the fountain was waterproofed with a coat of red clay, precluding a feed from a spring</p><br>
<p>no supply pipe has been found</p><br>
<p>The main geometrics of the design are known: the intersection of two circles with connections of precisely the length of a Pythagorean triangle joining the center of the circle, the center of the fountain and one end of the fountain. However, its use is still unknown; it could be a sacred point of the city&#39;s founding, or a water shrine. Furthermore, among certain specialists, this manner of carving granite is unusual and rests on the principles of Mediterranean limestone carving. The Aedui doubtlessly employed foreigners to build the fountain.</p><br>
<p>All of this points to the fountain being a monument outside of ordinary Celtic architecture.</p><br>
<p>Near the fountain, many cellars and certain public buildings that stocked large quantities of cereals and wine imported from the southern countries have been found. One of these wooden cellars has recently been reconstructed. Without a doubt, it was in these buildings that the Aedui centralized their harvests and imports.</p><br>
<h3>Places of worship</h3><br>
<p>The oppidum of Bibracte has about ten springs and five fountains dating from the Gallic or Galloroman periods. The Saint Pierre Fountain was a place of worship and pilgrimage, in which pieces of currency and plagues of thanksgivings were found.</p><br>
<p>At the summit of the mountain, a Celtic place of worship (nemeton) a hectare large has been updated, surrounded by a palisade and concentric ditches.</p><br>
<p>Under the current chapel from the 19th century, the 1988 excavations discovered a Galloroman temple.</p><br>
<p>Furthermore, the abandonment of the city before the beginning of the Christian era was not prevented by pursuit of pilgrimages carried out in its surroundings.</p><br>
<h3>Necropolis</h3><br>
<p>Located below the present-day museum parking lot, the necropolis underwent archaeological excavations, with the aim of saving it, when the museum was created and the route départementale was diverted. Over a surface area of 1.5 hectares, 70 funeral enclosures, used following incineration, were found, each having an eastern entry. The crematorium was found further south. Other funerary urns were discovered at the foot of the Rebout gates, possibly the remains of a local aristocratic family. More cemeteries are presumably situated on the former site access paths, as was the often the case at the time, but have not yet been excavated.</p><br>
<h3>Basilica</h3><br>
<p>In the area of the Convent Pasture, the excavations revealed, under a large domus of the Augustan era, the presence of an exceptional public monument, which was at the time unique in Gaul: a Roman basilica with three naves and an internal peristyle with a peripheral ambulatory, displaying four rows of eight columns or eight pilasters. It was connected on the east with a small square, 22 meters on a side, bordered to the north and south with porticos which were extensions of the walls of the annexes of the basilica. On the west it was connected to the main road of Bibracte with another square, 17 meters on the side. Some architectural elements have been found that attest the presence of limestone columns with Attic bases and Doric and Corinthian capitals. These elements formed a monumental urban project of the greatest importance. These public buildings date to the period between 50 and 40 BCE and between 35 and 25 BCE. At this date, the basilica and the square were carefully leveled and replaced by a large private residence, doubtless in connection with the move of the Aedui capital to Autun. The basilica of Bibracte confirms the exceptional importance of the site and revealed that the Romanization of the Aedui was considerably more rapid than previously believed. The basilica of Bibracte is currently the oldest representation of Roman monumental stone architecture in non-Mediterranean Europe.</p><br>
<h2>A window to the Celtic world</h2><br>
<h3>Museum of Celtic Civilization</h3><br>
<p>The site hosts the Museum of Celtic Civilization, constructed by Pierre-Louis Faloci and opened to the public in 1996. Pierre-Louis Faloci is also the architect of Bibracte&#39;s Center of European Archeological Research, which was opened in 1994. The architectural design corresponds to the evolution of the ages of humanities: it has a base of carved stone, walls of polished pradesh, and a metal roof. One of the facades, which are large picture windows, is hidden by a wall of pradesh (on the valley side), while that which faces the site allows free view to the visitors.</p><br>
<p>The museum has few proper collections, as many of those exhibited are loaned from other museum. During some years, the Coligny calendar and the Gundestrup cauldron can be seen there.</p><br>
<h4>Permanent exhibits</h4><br>
<p>The 2000 square meters of the exhibit in the museum are laid out over two stages. The first stage (and the first in the tour) recounts the discovery of the site and the place of Bibracte in the global context of the European Celtic culture. The majority of the following subjects are covered: war, the age of oppida, Mediterranean commerce, and agriculture.</p><br>
<p>The ground floor, which consists of several alcoves, recounts the life of the Aedui at Bibracte. Objects of daily life, jewelry, funereal urns, and artisanal workshops are reconstructed or exhibited there.</p><br>
<h4>Temporary exhibits</h4><br>
<p>Several summer exhibits have been featured at the museum, each addressing a precise subject of the Celtic world:</p><br>
<p>1995: Celtic Europe at the time of Bibracte</p><br>
<p>1996: History seen from above</p><br>
<p>1997: A look at the Celts in Slovenia</p><br>
<p>1998: At the border of East and West</p><br>
<p>1999: The tombs of the last Celtic aristocrats</p><br>
<p>2000: The Gallic druids</p><br>
<p>2001: The time of the Gauls in the provinces</p><br>
<p>2002: On Caesar&#39;s trail</p><br>
<p>2003: Blacksmiths and metal merchants</p><br>
<p>2004: The white gold of Hallstatt</p><br>
<p>2005: Wine, the nectar of the Gods</p><br>
<p>2006: The treasures of women</p><br>
<p>2007: A round trip between Bibracte and Kathmandu</p><br>
<p>2008: Situlae, images of a vanished world</p><br>
<p>2009: La Tène</p><br>
<p>2010: The Gauls do the head</p><br>
<h3>Research center</h3><br>
<p>Located four kilometers from Mont Beuvray, in the commune of Glux-en-Glenne (Nièvre), is one of the most important libraries on the Celtic world, regularly funded by European researchers who take their counterparts there. There is also an archeological depot there, the administration of the archeological park, several technical establishments, a lecture hall, and, in the village, a dining hall and a several gîtes.</p><br>
<p>In this center, archeologists, students, and researchers congregate from all over Europe to excavate the site of Bibracte. In several months, the research center will expand to accommodate the regional center for preservation of relics and archeological collections, becoming the reference center of Burgundy in this field.</p><br>
<p>Signal Hill is a hill which overlooks the city of St. John&#39;s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.</p><br>
<p>Due to its strategic placement overlooking the harbour, fortifications were built on the hill beginning in the mid 17th century.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The final battle of the Seven Years War in North America was fought in 1762 at the Battle of Signal Hill, in which the French surrendered St. Johns to a British force under the command of Lt. Colonel William Amherst. Lt. Colonel Amherst renamed what was then known as "The Lookout" as "Signal Hill," because of the signalling that took place upon its summit from its flagmast. Flag communication between land and sea would take place there from the 17th century until 1960.</p><br>
<p>Signal Hill was designated as the citadel for St. John&#39;s during its first construction period in the late 18th century.</p><br>
<p>During the 19th century, Signal Hill was manned specifically during the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War. A second construction period in Signal Hills history saw the construction of the Queens Battery Barracks, which has been completely restored to the period of 1862.</p><br>
<p>Construction on Cabot Tower began in 1897 to commemorate both Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and the 400th anniversary of John Cabots landfall which took place in 1497. The building was declared officially open in 1900. The practical uses of the building were flag mast signalling, and a Marconi wireless station which has since been moved to St. John&#39;s International Airport.</p><br>
<p>On 12 December 1901, the first transatlantic wireless transmission was received here by Guglielmo Marconi in an abandoned fever and diphtheria hospital, which has since been destroyed by fire. The transmission, in Morse code, originated from his Poldhu Wireless Station, Cornwall, UK.</p><br>
<p>The United States maintained anti-aircraft guns on the hill during World War II.</p><br>
<h2>Signal Hill National Historic Site</h2><br>
<p>Signal Hill is a National Historic Site of Canada.</p><br>
<h3>Signal Hill Tattoo</h3><br>
<p>The Signal Hill Tattoo showcases the Royal Newfoundland Regiment of Foot from 1812, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment Band from 1795, and the Royal Newfoundland Regiment of 1917. Wearing full military uniforms as per the period, the soldiers give a display by each section and portray the drills and battle tactics of the time. The Artillery provide an exhibition of cannon fire to add to the program.</p><br>
<h3>Activities</h3><br>
<p>Cabot Tower, located at the top of the hill, features exhibits about Guglielmo Marconi and the wireless station that operated in the tower. There is a gift shop, and an amateur radio station VO1AA, which may be operated by visiting amateur radio operators in the summer months. It is sponsored by the Society Of Newfoundland Radio Amateurs. An active amateur radio repeater, VO1AAA 146.790+, is located inside the building and is operational year round.</p><br>
<p>The visitor centre features interactive exhibits and a film about the sites military and communications history, and the history of St. Johns.</p><br>
<p>The North Head Trail is located along the Atlantic Ocean and the surrounding coast. The Lookout Trail features interpretive panels about the site&#39;s history.</p><br>
<p>Entry to the Signal Hill Historic Site is free during 2017, as part of Parks Canada&#39;s Canada 150 celebration.</p><br>
<h2>Other features</h2><br>
<p>Some distance down the hill is located the Johnson Geo Centre, a geology museum.</p><br>
<p>A tourist information radio station, CJSH-FM, broadcasts from the Signal Hill site.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>Lough Mask  is a limestone lough  of 20,500 acres  in Counties Galway and Mayo, Ireland, north of Lough Corrib. Lough Mask is the middle of the three lakes, which empty into the Corrib River, through Galway, into Galway Bay. Lough Carra flows into Lough Mask, which feeds into Lough Corrib through an underground stream which becomes the River Cong. Lough Mask is the fourth largest lake, by area, in Ireland and the sixth largest lake in the island of Ireland. The eastern half of Lough Mask is shallow and contains many islands. The other half  is much deeper, sinking to a long trench with depths in excess of 50 metres.</p><br>
<p>Lough Mask has a mean depth of 15m, and a maximum depth of 58m.MAYO COUNTY COUNCIL TOORMAKEADY</p><br>
<p>WASTE WATER DISCHARGE Page 8 Its water volume of 1.3 kmMAYO COUNTY COUNCIL TOO</p><br>
<p>URMAKEADY</p><br>
<p>WASTE WATER DISCHARGE Page 12 is the largest in Ireland and the second largest on the island of Ireland. Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland has an even greater water volume.</p><br>
<p>The lake is popular for its trout fishing. The World Cup Trout Fly Fishing Championship takes place annually on Lough Mask at Cushlough Bay near Ballinrobe.</p><br>
<p>In 1338 Sir Edmond de Burgh was drowned in the lake by his cousin Sir Edmond Albanach Bourke of County Mayo, at the end of the Burke Civil War 1333–38. He was captured at Ballinrobe and taken to Oilean-an-lara (the Earls Island) where he was killed.</p><br>
<p>According to a side-note on the manuscript containing the oldest copy of Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne ("The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne") (Royal Irish Academy Ms. 24.P.9), Irish scribe Dáibhídh Bacach ("lame David") Ó Duibhgeannáin was living and working on Oileán Ruadh (Red Island) on Lough Mask in the house of Tadhg Og O Flaherty on the date, April 1, 1651.</p><br>
<p>Lough Mask Murders - Upper Cloughbrack, Galway, on Lough Mask&#39;s southern shore, was the scene of the 1882 "Lough Mask murders", when John Huddy, abailiff working for Lord Ardilaun, and John Huddy, his grandson, were killed. Tensions had arisen in the area during the Land War and the proximity of land managed by Charles Boycott. The corpses were found in the lough itself. The controversial lack of credible witnesses led to four well-publicised trials of the accused in December 1882.</p><br>
<p>On the morning of January 3, 1882, Joseph Huddy, who had acted as bailiff for Lord Ardilaun and his father for more than three decades, left his home in Creevagh near Cong accompanied by John, his seventeen-year-old grandson, for the purpose of serving ejectment processes on twelve of Lord Ardilaun’s tenants in the districts of Clonbur and Cornamona.</p><br>
<p>The Huddys began service in the village of Middle Cloughbrack (also known as America) before proceeding to Upper Cloughbrack, a densely populated area with no defined village center, on the southern shore of Lough Mask.</p><br>
<p>At 10:00 that January morning, Joseph Huddy had his driver stop at a point in the road that led south to Cornamona as it would be necessary for the Huddys to continue on foot. The elder Huddy left instructions with the driver to meet him in about an hour’s time and that the last family to be served was that of Mathias Kerrigan. After waiting for the Huddys’ return at the assigned spot for several hours, at 4:00, the driver drove on to Cornamona where he alerted the police. The police proceeded to Upper Cloughbrack to look for the missing Huddys.</p><br>
<p>The next day, the police questioned all of the adults of Upper Cloughbrack, but no one had any information on the Huddys even though it was known that Huddy and his grandson had gone into Upper Cloughbrack for the purpose of serving ejectment papers the previous day. After tracing the Huddys’ movements as far as the house of Mathias Kerrigan, the police found evidence of a struggle in Kerrigan’s yard, as well as a mark made by a bullet in the wall of the gable end of Kerrigan’s house and bloodstains on the wall. Kerrigan and his sixteen-year-old son Matthew were taken into custody.</p><br>
<p>For four days, the police dug up bogland and searched the mountains without result. At this time, a navigable waterway existed between Lough Mask and Galway Bay by way of the Corrib River at Cong. The services of Her Majesty’s Royal Navy were engaged, and forty men of HMS Banterer, then lying in Galway Bay, were sent to Lough Mask. For twelve days, the “bluejackets harrowed and dragged the bottom of the lake, their efforts frequently hampered by rough waters.” Then on Friday, January 27th, “A grappling iron caught upon something weighty, which on being brought to the surface proved to be the body of the younger of the two missing men. The body was tied up in a sack in to which he had been put head foremost…. The second body was found about twenty minutes later, only a few yards from the spot where the first body had been found. The murderers had not taken the trouble to put the old man’s body in a sack. They merely wrapped his own overcoat around him, and having firmly fastened a large stone round his legs, threw him into the water... The old man’s body was also very little decomposed.”</p><br>
<p>The police, now believing that the death of the Huddys was a result of an entire village rising up against the process servers, arrested, in addition to Mathias Kerrigan and his son, fifteen men on suspicion of complicity in the murders. Mathias Kerrigan was detained in Galway City Jail for nine months without being charged. In September 1882, he turned approver, that is, an informer, and named the three men responsible for the killings. Michael Flynn and Thomas Higgins of Middle Cloughbrack and Patrick Higgins (Long) of Upper Cloughbrack were charged with the murders. In four separate trials, one ending in a hung jury, in December 1882, all three men were found guilty and sentenced to death by Justice William O’Brien. Two days before his execution, Michael Flynn wrote a detailed confession of his role in the murders and exonerated Mathias Kerrigan. However, Flynn did not exonerate the two men who had also been convicted. The sentences were carried out in Galway City Jail in January 1883.</p><br>
<p>According to local legend, a banshee haunts Bly Island, a small island in the lough. There have also been rumored sightings of a banshee around the shore of the lough as well as other forms of paranormal activity.</p><br>
<p>Petersburg Outdoor Education Center is situated on the shore of the lough, close to Bly Island. The center uses the lake for numerous water sports including kayaking, canoeing and sailing.</p><br>
<p>"Loch Measca" was taken as the pen-name of Séan Seoighe (John Joyce) in Eachtra múinteóra an Irish-language memoir published in 1929.</p><br>
<p>Mount Madison is a mountain in the Presidential Range of New Hampshire in the United States. It is named after the fourth USA President, James Madison.</p><br>
<p>Mountains in the Presidential Range are named for USA presidents, with the tallest (Mt. Washington) named for the first president, the second tallest (Mt. Adams) for the second president, and so on. However, due to a surveying error, Mt. Monroe, named after the fifth President, James Monroe, is actually 22 ft taller than Mt. Madison.</p><br>
<p>There are many hiking trails on the mountain. A stretch of the Appalachian Trail traverses just below its summit on the Osgood Trail. The Madison Spring Hut, maintained by the Appalachian Mountain Club, is nestled between Mount Madison and Mount Adams and provides rustic lodging in the summer. Reservations generally need to be made far in advance.</p><br>
<p>Mount Madison is the northernmost peak in the Presidentials. Like most of the range, its summit is above treeline. Due to high winds and low temperatures, hypothermia is a danger even in the summer.</p><br>
<p>Mt Madison from Mt Adams summit.jpgMount Madison seen from Mount Adams&#39; summit</p><br>
<p>The Zytglogge is a landmark medieval tower in Bern, Switzerland. Built in the early 13th century, it has served the city as guard tower, prison, clock tower, centre of urban life and civic memorial.</p><br>
<p>Despite the many redecorations and renovations it has undergone in its 800 years of existence, the Zytglogge is one of Bern&#39;s most recognisable symbols and, with its 15th-century astronomical clock, a major tourist attraction. It is a heritage site of national significance, and part of the Old City of Bern, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>When it was built around 1218–20, the Zytglogge served as the gate tower of Berns western fortifications. These were erected after the citys first westward expansion following its de facto independence from the Empire. At that time, the Zytglogge was a squat building of only 16 m in height. When the rapid growth of the city and the further expansion of the fortifications (up to the Käfigturm) relegated the tower to second-line status at around 1270–75, it was heightened by 7 m to overlook the surrounding houses.</p><br>
<p>Only after the citys western defences were extended again in 1344–46 up to the now-destroyed Christoffelturm, the Zytglogge was converted to a womens prison, notably housing Pfaffendirnen – "priests&#39; whores", women convicted of sexual relations with clerics. At this time, the Zytglogge also received its first slanted roof.</p><br>
<p>In the great fire of 1405, the tower burnt out completely. It suffered severe structural damage that required thorough repairs, which were not complete until after the last restoration in 1983. The prison cells were abandoned and a clock was first installed above the gate in the early 15th century, probably including a simple astronomical clock and musical mechanism. This clock, together with the great bell cast in 1405, gave the Zytglogge its name, which in Bernese German means "time bell".</p><br>
<p>In the late 15th century, the Zytglogge and the other Bernese gate towers were extended and decorated after the Burgundian Romantic fashion. The Zytglogge received a new lantern (including the metal bellman visible today), four decorative corner towerlets, heraldic decorations and probably its stair tower. The astronomical clock was extended to its current state. In 1527–30, the clockwork was completely rebuilt by Kaspar Brunner, and the gateway was overarched to provide a secure foundation for the heavy machinery.</p><br>
<p>The Zytglogge&#39;s exterior was repainted by Gotthard Ringgli and Kaspar Haldenstein in 1607–10, who introduced the large clock faces that now dominate the east and west façades of the tower.</p><br>
<p>Both façades were again repainted in the Rococo style by Rudolf von Steiger in 1890. The idealising historicism of the design came to be disliked in the 20th century, and a 1929 competition produced the façade designs visible today: on the west façade, Victor Surbek&#39;s fresco "Beginning of Time" and on the east façade, a reconstruction of the 1770 design by Kurt Indermühle.</p><br>
<h3>Name</h3><br>
<p>The Bernese German Zytglogge translates to Zeitglocke in Standard German and to time bell in English; Glocke means bell in German, as in the related term glockenspiel. A "time bell" was one of the earliest public timekeeping devices, consisting of a clockwork connected to a hammer that rang a small bell at the full hour. Such a device was installed in the Wendelstein in Bern – the tower of the Leutkirche church which the Münster later replaced – in 1383 at the latest; it alerted the bell-ringer to ring the tower bells.</p><br>
<p>The name of Zytglogge was first recorded in 1413. Previously, the tower was referred to as the kebie ("cage", i.e., prison) and after its post-1405 reconstruction, the nüwer turm ("new tower").</p><br>
<h2>Exterior</h2><br>
<h3>External structure</h3><br>
<p>The Zytglogge has an overall height of 54.5 m, and a height of 24 m up to the roof-edge. Its rectangular floor plan measures 11.2 by. The wall strengths vary widely, ranging from 260 cm in the west, where the tower formed part of the city walls, to 65 cm in the east.</p><br>
<p>The outward appearance of the Zytglogge is determined by the 1770 renovation. Only the late Gothic cornice below the roof and the stair tower are visible artifacts of the tower&#39;s earlier history.</p><br>
<p>The main body of the tower is divided into the two-storey plinth, whose exterior is made of alpine limestone, and the three-storey tower shaft sheathed in sandstone. The shaft&#39;s seemingly massive corner blocks are decorative fixtures held in place by visible iron hooks. Below the roof, the cornice spans around the still-visible bases of the former corner towerlets. The two-story attic is covered by the sweeping, red-tiled, late Gothic spire, in which two spire lights are set to the West and East. They are crowned by ornamental urns with pinecone knobs reconstructed in 1983 from 18th-century drawings.</p><br>
<p>From atop the spire, the wooden pinnacle, copper-sheathed since 1930, rises an additional 15 m into the skies, crowned with a gilded knob and a weather vane displaying a cut-out coat of arms of Bern.</p><br>
<h3>Bells and bell-striker</h3><br>
<p>The tower&#39;s two namesake bronze bells hang in the cupola at its very top.</p><br>
<p>The great hour bell, cast by Johann Reber, has remained unchanged since the towers reconstruction in 1405. It has a diameter of 127 cm, a weight of 1,400 kg and rings with a nominal tone of e. The inscription on the bell reads, in Latin: "In the October month of the year 1405 I was cast by Master John called Reber of Aarau. I am vessel and wax, and to all I tell the hours of the day."</p><br>
<p>When the great bell rings out every full hour, struck by a large clockwork-operated hammer, passers-by see a gilded figure in full harness moving its arm to strike it. The larger-than-life figure of bearded Chronos, the Greek personification of time, is traditionally nicknamed Hans von Thann by the Bernese. The wooden bell-striker, which has been replaced several times, has been a fixture of the Zytglogge since the renewal of the astronomical clock in 1530, whose clockwork also controls the figure&#39;s motions. The original wooden Chronos might have been created by master craftsman Albrecht von Nürnberg, while the current and most recent Hans is a 1930 reconstruction of a Baroque original. The bell-striker has been gilded, just like the bells, since 1770.</p><br>
<p>Below the hour bell hangs the smaller quarter-hour bell, also rung by a clockwork hammer. It was cast in 1887 to replace the cracked 1486 original.</p><br>
<h3>Clock faces and façade decorations</h3><br>
<p>Both principal façades, East and West, are dominated by massive clockfaces. The Zytglogges first clockface was likely located on the plinth, but was moved up to the center of the shaft during the towers 15th-century reconfiguration.</p><br>
<p>The eastern clock face features an outer ring of large golden Roman numerals, on which the larger hand indicates the hour, and an inner ring on which the smaller hand indicates the minutes. The golden sun on the hour hand is pivot-mounted so that it always faces up. Below the clock face one sees an idealised profile of city founder Duke Berchtold V of Zähringen. While the exact decoration of the clockface has varied from renovation to renovation, the current (post-1983) layout is generally that of 1770.</p><br>
<p>The western clock face has similar hands, but is an integral part of Victor Surbeks 1929 fresco "Beginning of Time". The painting depicts Chronos swooping down with cape fluttering, and, below the clockface, Adam and Eves eviction from Paradise by an angel.</p><br>
<h3>Astronomical clock</h3><br>
<p>The dial of the Zytglogge&#39;s astronomical clock is built in the form of an astrolabe. It is backed by a stereographically projected planisphere divided into three zones: the black night sky, the deep blue zone of dawn and the light blue day sky. The skies are crisscrossed with the golden lines of the horizon, dawn, the tropics and the temporal hours, which divide the time of daylight into twelve hours whose length varies with the time of year.</p><br>
<p>Around the planisphere moves the rete, a web-like metal cutout representing the zodiac, which also features a Julian calendar dial. Above the rete, a display indicates the day of the week. Because leap days are not supported by the clockwork, the calendar hand has to be reset manually each leap year on 29 February.</p><br>
<p>The painted frieze above the astronomical clock shows five deities from classical antiquity, each representing both a day of the week and a planet in their order according to Ptolemaic cosmology. From left to right, they are: Saturn with sickle and club for Saturday, Jupiter with thunderbolts for Thursday, Mars with sword and shield for Tuesday, Venus with Cupid for Friday and Mercury with staff and bag for Wednesday. The painting of the entire clock area was refurbished in 1983. Only the matte areas on the clock face are from the earlier coat of paint.</p><br>
<h4>Movement</h4><br>
<p>The clock dial has been dated to either the building phases of 1405 or 1467-83, or to the installation of the Brunner clockwork in 1527-30. Ueli Bellwald notes that the planisphere uses a southern projection, as was characteristic for 15th-century astronomical clocks; all later such clocks use a northern projection. This would seem to confirm the dating of the clock to the 1405 or 1467/83 renovations.</p><br>
<p>A clock is documented in this tower since 1405, when a new bell was installed. The city accounts of 1438 mention the repair of the clockworks. The first mention of a dial is in 1443, and the first known image of the, much smaller first astrolabium dial (in the diary a cobbler journeyman from Ulm) is dated 1534. The jacquemart (bellstriker) is also documented in the same 1534 source.</p><br>
<p>In the first two decades of the sixteenth century many craftsmen unsuccessfully tried to improve the clockworks. The current movement was made in 1530 by clockmaker Kaspar Brunner and is dated and signed by a forged nameplate. No other clockworks by this master are known. The core of the movement was forged in situ, in the very room it is still located, and the fire pit of the forge remains in the room. One of the more unusual features of the movement is that each individual tooth of the major gears is removable (i.e., replaceable as it wears).</p><br>
<p>Originally, the movement had a verge escapement with a foliot, as it was built 127 years before the pendulum clock was invented. The Zytglogge movement was converted to a much more accurate pendulum mechanism by the French clockmaker Pierre Angely between 1686 and 1688. The current pendulum bob, a "recycled" iron cannonball, possibly dates from that time. The pendulum suspension is made from leather rather than using a metal spring.</p><br>
<p>The weight-driven movement is wound daily by hand. That task, a role known as the "Zytgloggenrichter", has been held for over 25 years by the same individual.</p><br>
<h2>Interior</h2><br>
<p>The Zytglogges internal layout has changed over time to reflect the towers change of purpose from guard tower to city prison to clock tower. The thirteenth-century guard tower was not much more than a hollow shell of walls that was open towards the city in the east. Only in the fourteenth century was a layer of four storeys inserted.</p><br>
<p>The rooms above the clockwork mechanism were used by the city administration for various purposes up until the late 20th century, including as archives, storerooms, as a firehose magazine and even as an air raid shelter. The interior was frequently remodelled in a careless, even vandalistic fashion; for instance, all but three of the original wooden beams supporting the intermediate floors were destroyed. Since 1979, the tower&#39;s interior is empty again. It is only accessed for maintenance and in the course of regular guided tours.</p><br>
<p>The Chilia or Kilia branch  is a main distributary of the river Danube, that contributes in forming the Danube Delta. It is named after the two towns having this name, located across on its both banks: Kiliya, on the northern, Ukrainian bank and Chilia Veche  on the southern, Romanian bank.</p><br>
<p>The other two main branches of the Danube are the Sulina branch and the Sfântu Gheorghe branch.</p><br>
<p>The Chilia branch begins at the Ismail Islet where Danube splits on Chilia branch and Sulina branch and ends near the town of Vylkove where Chilia branch splits further into Ochakove distributary (eastward) and Old Istambul distributary (southward). Chilia branch is 104 km long. The flow at the entrance into the delta is of 6,350 m/s; the Chilia branch carries between 58 and 60 percent of this flow.</p><br>
<p>The Kuskokwim Mountains is a range of mountains in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States, west of the Alaska Range and southeast of the Yukon River. The Kuskokwim Mountains begin in the interior west of Fairbanks. The mountain range is about 400 km long from northeast to southwest and about 80 km wide.</p><br>
<p>The range takes its name from the Kuskokwim River, which flows through the mountains.</p><br>
<p>Reported and defined in 1898 by Josiah Edward Spurr of the USGS. Spurr applied the name "Tanana Hills" to the low mountains at the northeast end of what are now the Kuskokwim Mountains.</p><br>
<h2>Sub-ranges</h2><br>
<p>Ahklun Mountains</p><br>
<p>Eek Mountains</p><br>
<p>Wood River Mountains</p><br>
<p>Russian Mountains</p><br>
<p>Kilbuck Mountains</p><br>
<p>Littlecote House is a large Elizabethan country house and estate in the civil parishes of Ramsbury and Chilton Foliat in the English county of Wiltshire, near to Hungerford. The estate includes 34 hectares of historic parklands and gardens, including a walled garden from the 17th and 18th centuries. In its grounds is Littlecote Roman Villa.</p><br>
<p>Littlecote House is a Grade I listed building. It is now a hotel and leisure centre.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The first Littlecote House was built during the 13th century. A medieval mansion, it was inhabited by the de Calstone family from around 1290. When William Darrell married Elizabeth de Calstone in 1415, he inherited the house. Sir George Darrell went on to build the Tudor mansion. King Henry VIII courted Jane Seymour at the house; her grandmother was Elizabeth Darrell.</p><br>
<p>Sir John Popham bought the reversion of Littlecote, and succeeded to it in 1589; he built the present Elizabethan brick mansion, which was completed in 1592. Elizabeth I, James I, Charles II, and William of Orange stayed there, William on his march from Torbay to London in the Glorious Revolution. Popham&#39;s descendants, the Pophams and (from 1762) the Leyborne Pophams owned the house until the 1920s. The Leyborne Pophams refurbished much of the house in 1810. They retained it until 1929, when the house was purchased by Sir Ernest Wills, 3rd Baronet.</p><br>
<p>During the Second World War, 1941–42, the house was the headquarters of 34th Army Tank Brigade, commanded by Brigadier J Noel Tetley. Then, in September 1943, the US 101st Airborne Division requisitioned part of the house, and it became home to regimental staff, regimental headquarters company, and headquarters company of the 1st Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The house provided office space and sleeping quarters for 506th officers, with the best rooms being allocated to Col. Robert F. Sink, regimental commander, and Lt. Col. Charles H. Chase, his executive officer. The colonel used the library as his office, and a memorial plaque can now be found in this room. From airfields in this area, including Ramsbury just to the west, the Airborne Division took off during the night of 5 June 1944, the eve of D-Day, as part of the invasion of Normandy. Easy Company from this regiment have become famous through the book and TV mini-series Band of Brothers. All other ranks lived in Nissen huts built alongside the main drive between the house and the east lodge.</p><br>
<p>After the war, the owners younger son, Seton Wills, inherited the estate and sold the house to the entrepreneur Peter de Savary in 1985. On New Years Eve 1992–93, the grounds were used for an all-night rave run by Fantazia.</p><br>
<p>Warner Holidays acquired the house and estate in 1996, and now operates it as a country house hotel and resort.</p><br>
<h2>Wild William Darrell</h2><br>
<p>The last of the Darrell owners is connected with several scandals and the houses resident ghost story. William Darrells father had left the house to his mistress Mary Danyell, but Darrell was able to recover it when he came of age in 1560. He spent lavishly, left his debts unpaid, and went to law with most of his neighbours, acquiring enemies in the process. Sir John Popham was his relative and lawyer.</p><br>
<p>He had an affair with Anne Hungerford the wife of Sir Walter Hungerford (Knight of Farley), his neighbour; when Sir Walter sued for divorce, she was acquitted, and Sir Walter sent to prison. Some years later, Mother Barnes, a midwife from Great Shefford, recalled being brought blindfold in 1575 to the childbed of a lady, with a gentleman standing by who commanded her to save the life of the mother, but who (as soon as the child was born) threw it into the fire. Barnes did not name or indicate either Darrell or Littlecote, but his enemies quickly ascribed this murder to him.</p><br>
<p>Darrells financial troubles increased, and he mortgaged Littlecote, first to Sir Thomas Bromley, and then to Popham. He moved to London and spent some time in a debtors prison, but died in 1589 after a riding accident while visiting Littlecote. Legend has it that whilst hunting, the ghost of the murdered newborn appeared to him, causing his horse to shy and throw him. Darrell is said to haunt the site of his death, known as Darrell&#39;s stile (or Style, as well as the church at Ramsbury, two miles away), although one famed clairvoyant, Tom Corbett, detected nothing of the sort. But he reported to author Peter Underwood that he did see "a ghost in the garden, a beautiful woman whom he later recognised from a portrait in the house as Mrs Leybourne Popham", and another ghost in the Chinese bedroom he termed a "busybody", a word Mrs. Wills, wife of the then owner Major George Wills, agreed described the presence in that room. Another possible ghost is that of a past tenant, Gerard Lee Bevin (or Bevan), who lived at Littlecote after World War I and later served time for embezzlement. His presence has been felt in the Long Gallery.</p><br>
<p>The sale of the estate was possibly fictitious to avoid confiscation if Darrell was ever convicted, and that Popham kept Littlecote from Darrell&#39;s heirs (which he did not have). John Aubrey tells that Littlecote was a bribe to Popham as his judge in a criminal case, which is impossible: Darrell was not charged or tried, and Popham was not yet a judge. Nevertheless, this story was borrowed by Sir Walter Scott, in Rokeby, and by Charles Dickens, in A Tale of Two Cities.</p><br>
<h2>Littlecote Roman Villa</h2><br>
<p>In its grounds is Littlecote Roman Villa, a Roman winged corridor villa and associated religious complex. It has been archaeologically excavated under the direction of Bryn Walters, and is on display to the public.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>Littlecote House is located on the banks of the River Kennet between the villages of Ramsbury and Chilton Foliat, and about two miles northwest of the small Berkshire town of Hungerford. It is also in the heart of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.</p><br>
<p>Position:</p><br>
<p>Nearby places of interest: Crofton Pumping Station, Wilton Windmill</p><br>
<h2>Further reading</h2><br>
<p>John Burke (genealogist)</p><br>
<p>Burke&#39;s Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, pp. 1830-1, pedigree of Leyborne Popham of Hunstrete late of Littlecote</p><br>
<p>Claverton Pumping Station in the village of Claverton, in the English county of Somerset, pumps water from the River Avon to the Kennet and Avon Canal using power from the flow of the River Avon. It is a grade II listed building.</p><br>
<p>The pumping station was built by John Rennie between 1809 and 1813 to overcome water supply problems on the canal. It uses a 24 ft wide wooden breastshot water wheel to drive two Boulton and Watt 18 ft long cast iron rocking beams, which power lift pumps to raise water 48 ft up to the canal. The pumping station has undergone several modifications since its initial construction, including revising the wheel into two sections each 12 ft wide separated by a 9 in gap. The station&#39;s operational life ended in 1952, by which time its maintenance and repair had become uneconomical in the light of falling traffic on the canal.</p><br>
<p>In the 1960s and 1970s restoration was carried out by students from the University of Bath and the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust, who replaced and repaired the buildings and equipment and returned the pumping station to a functional state by 1978. It is now operated by volunteers from the Trust, open to the public as an industrial heritage museum.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>At Claverton, the Kennet and Avon Canal is cut into the side of the Avon valley above the River Avon. The pumping station is located in a pump house built of Bath Stone, located at river level and separated from the canal by the Wessex Main Line. It was designed by John Rennie and built by Fox of Bristol. The pump house has a slate hipped roof. The wheelhouse projects to the west of the pump house and has weatherboard sides. The east gable wall has three doors allowing access to the wheel itself.</p><br>
<p>Water is diverted from the river by Warleigh Weir, about 200 yd upstream. The water flows to the pumping station down a 30 ft wide leat, which is crossed by a single segmental arch bridge with a central keystone. The water passes over depressing sluices which can be raised or lowered by hand cranking, and then powers a breastshot water wheel. The 24 ft wide wheel is in two sections each 12 ft wide and 17 ft in diameter with a 9 in gap between them. The wheel has 48 wooden "starts", supporting 96 float boards each of which is 13 in by 1 in by 12 ft and made of Iroko. The breastshot wheel is vertically mounted, and falling water strikes the blades. Breastshot wheels are less efficient than overshot wheels, more efficient than undershot wheels, and are not backshot.</p><br>
<p>At full power the wheel uses 2 tons (2 tonnes) of water per second and rotates five times a minute. The water wheel drives a flexible coupling to a pit wheel with a diameter of 16 ft, which has 408 hand-fitted wooden teeth that mesh with a 5 ft cast iron gear, increasing the speed to 16 rpm. From there, cranks drive vertical connecting rods that transfer the energy to two 18 ft long cast iron rocking beams made by Boulton and Watt. Each rocking beam drives an 18 in diameter lift pump, which also takes its supply from the mill leat. Each pump stroke raises 50 imperial gallons (230 litres) of water to the canal via 150 ft of 19 in diameter cast iron pipe.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Construction</h3><br>
<p>The idea of an east to west waterway link across southern England was first mentioned in Elizabethan times, between 1558 and 1603, to take advantage of the proximity of the rivers Avon and Thames, only 3 mi apart at their closest. Plans for a waterway were shelved until the early 18th century. In 1723 the Kennet Navigation through Reading opened. The Avon navigation from Bristol to Bath was opened in 1727. In 1788 the so-called "Western Canal" was proposed to improve trade and communication links to towns such as Hungerford, Marlborough, Wiltshire, Calne, Chippenham and Melksham. The following year the engineers Barns, Simcock and Weston submitted a proposed route for this canal, although there were doubts about the adequacy of the water supply. The name was changed from Western Canal to Kennet and Avon Canal to avoid confusion with the Grand Western Canal, which was being proposed at the same time.</p><br>
<p>In 1793 a further survey was conducted by John Rennie, and the route of the canal was altered to take a more southerly course through Great Bedwyn, Devizes, Trowbridge and Newbury. The proposed route was accepted by the Kennet and Avon Canal Company. In July 1793 Rennie suggested further alterations to the route, including the construction of the Bruce Tunnel in the Savernake Forest. On 17 April 1794 the Kennet and Avon Canal Act received the Royal Assent and construction began.</p><br>
<p>The new route added several locks to the canal, making water supply problems more severe. Because of the way the system of locks work, water is lost from the upper part of a canal each time a vessel passes through. This is a particular issue for the pound between Bradford Lock at Bradford on Avon and the Bath Locks, where a series of locks need to be opened each time the gates are opened. Most lock gates are not watertight, therefore some water leaks from the higher levels of the canal to those lower down. The water has to be replaced, or eventually the upper levels of the canal would not hold enough water to be navigable. Canals are usually fed by diverting water from streams and rivers into the upper parts of the canal, but if no suitable source is available or sufficient, a pumping station, such as the one at Claverton, can be used to maintain the water level. Crofton Pumping Station was built to supply water to the summit pound of the canal, opening in 1810 but, unlike Claverton, was powered by steam.</p><br>
<p>Protracted negotiations over water rights with the owners of Saltford Brass Mill and around 30 other mills on the river between Bath and Bristol, delayed construction until 1809; the wheel was installed in March 1810. Further delays relating to obtaining specific items of machinery meant that the pumping station did not open until early 1813, and until then boats were prohibited from using Bath Locks during periods of low rainfall.</p><br>
<h3>Operation and decline</h3><br>
<p>The pumping station operated continuously, providing water for the increasing traffic on the canal. Problems with the size of the water wheel, which was supported at either end, meant that the middle of the wheel sagged, putting strain on the bearings and stays. In the 1840s the trussing was changed from stays to tension rods to strengthen and lighten the wheel, along with improvements to the pumps. The changes to the wheel were unsuccessful, and in the 1850s a central bearing was added dividing the wheel in two.</p><br>
<p>The opening of the Great Western Railway in 1841 led to a significant decline in the canals traffic, even though the canal company lowered tariffs. In 1852 the railway company took over the canals operation. In 1877 the canal recorded a deficit of £1,920 and never subsequently made any profit. The Somerset Coal Canal and Wilts and Berks Canal, which each supplied some of the trade to the Kennet and Avon, including freight from the Somerset coalfield, closed in 1904 and 1906 respectively. At Claverton various minor repairs were needed to the wheel and pump, and the wheel had to be levelled at regular intervals during the later part of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The 408 "green oak" teeth on the pitwheel also had to be replaced several times.</p><br>
<p>In 1926, following a loss of £18,041 the previous year, the Great Western Railway sought to close the canal by obtaining a Ministry of Transport Order, but the move was resisted and the company charged with improving its maintenance of the canal. After the Second World War the Transport Act of 1947 meant that control of the canal passed to the British Transport Commission, but by the 1950s large sections had been closed because of poor lock maintenance following a breach in the bank west of the Avoncliff Aqueduct. Claverton Pumping Station ceased operation in 1952, after the failure of a number of the pitwheel&#39;s oak teeth. The British Transport Commission installed a 6 in centrifugal pump to maintain the statutory minimum water level.</p><br>
<h3>Restoration</h3><br>
<p>After its closure the pumping station lay derelict until the late 1960s, when the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust proposed to the British Waterways Board that students from the University of Bath conduct a survey and report on the viability of returning the pumping station to working order. Work started in 1969 with engineering students from Bath providing the labour under the supervision of John Butt, and the Trust providing the funding. Within the building rotten woodwork was replaced and electric lighting installed. To work on the sluices and the waterwheel the leat was dammed. Specialist wood and metal work was undertaken by apprentices from the British Aircraft Corporation in Filton. By 1972 some progress had been made; John Butt retired and Derrick Dudden took over as restoration manager, with more volunteers from the Canal Trust helping to provide the labour. Silt was removed from the pond, hatches replaced and the waterwheel restored. The 408 oak teeth on the pitwheel were replaced and the pumps overhauled with new rope packing. By February 1976 all the machinery was working and water could be pumped from the river to the canal. The pumping station was formally re-opened in 1978.</p><br>
<p>In 1981, British Waterways installed two 75 hp electric pumps and presented the old diesel pump to the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust for preservation. Wessex Water Authority agreed to the extraction of 1,000,000 impgal per day from the Avon at Claverton to be pumped east; the costs of the pumps was £175,000.</p><br>
<p>The pumping station is maintained by volunteers from the Trust and is open to the public every Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday except during the winter maintenance period, when opening is only on Saturdays. There is a working model of the pumping station at the Kennet & Avon Canal Museum at Devizes. The restoration work received an Engineering Heritage Award from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.</p><br>
<p>Brier Island is an island in the Bay of Fundy in Digby County, Nova Scotia.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The island is the westernmost part of Nova Scotia and the southern end of the North Mountain ridge with Long Island lying immediately northeast; both islands constitute part of the Digby Neck. Brier Island measures approximately 7.5 km long and 2.5 km wide and is made up of basalt.</p><br>
<p>The island&#39;s shoreline measures approximately 25 km in length. Brier Island is separated from Long Island by the 0.5 km Grand Passage. Westport is the only village on the island. The population, as of 2016 was 218. There were 98 private dwellings occupied year round.</p><br>
<p>The island is an important stopover point for migrating sea birds.</p><br>
<p>The islands name is believed by some to come from the wild brier roses found there, another possibility is that the original name of the Island was "Bryers" after a sea captain from New England who was one of the first settlers to spend any time on the island.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>The local economy is driven by the year-round commercial fishing industry and the seasonal tourism industry, which is largely focused on whale watching tours.</p><br>
<p>The island has one general store (that includes gas pump and café), one hotel and several bed and breakfasts, a used book store and gift shops.</p><br>
<p>The island contains the fishing village of Westport which is connected to Freeport on Long Island by a ferry operated by the provincial government.</p><br>
<p>Brier Island is frequently inundated by fog and has witnessed 57 recorded shipwrecks. The island has "a lighthouse per mile" with the Northern and Western lighthouses on the island, as well as the Peter Island lighthouse in Grand Passage; all are automated and are operated by the Canadian Coast Guard. The wreck of the barque "Aurora" in 1908 provided the lumber for the Westport Community Hall.</p><br>
<p>The Canadian Coast Guard operates CCG Station Westport in the village. The rescue cutter CCGC Westport provides 24-hour-per-day, 7 days per week response to search and rescue incidents within the eastern Gulf of Maine and the southern and eastern Bay of Fundy.</p><br>
<h2>Public library</h2><br>
<p>Westport Branch Library; Westport</p><br>
<h2>Famous residents</h2><br>
<p>Brier Island was the childhood home of sailor Joshua Slocum who became the first person to circumnavigate the world alone. A monument to Slocum and the bootshop where he worked as a boy can be seen in Westport.</p><br>
<p>The Santa Rita Mountains , located about 65 km  southeast of Tucson, Arizona, extend 42 km  from north to south, then trending southeast. They merge again southeastwards into the Patagonia Mountains, trending northwest by southeast. The highest point in the range, and the highest point in the Tucson area, is Mount Wrightson, with an elevation of 9,453 feet , The range contains Madera Canyon, one of the worlds premier birding areas. The Smithsonian Institution&#39;s Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory is located on Mount Hopkins. The range is one of the Madrean sky islands.</p><br>
<p>The Santa Rita Mountains are mostly within the Coronado National Forest. Prior to 1908 they were the principal component of Santa Rita National Forest, which was combined with other small forest tracts to form Coronado. Much of the range is protected by the Mount Wrightson Wilderness. The Santa Rita Mountains were severely burned in July 2005 in the Florida Fire.</p><br>
<p>Other mountain ranges surrounding the Tucson valley include the Santa Catalina Mountains, the Rincon Mountains, the Tucson Mountains, and the Tortolita Mountains.</p><br>
<h2>Rosemont mine</h2><br>
<p>A large porphyry copper deposit has been identified near the old Helvetia mining district on the north flank of the range. The proposed Rosemont mine would be an open pit operation located in the Santa Ritas about two miles west of mile marker 44 on Arizona State Route 83.</p><br>
<h2>America's only known wild Jaguar</h2><br>
<p>The Santa Rita Mountains are the home range of "El Jefe," an adult male jaguar first identified in 2011. This has raised conservation concerns about proposed open pit copper mining.</p><br>
<p>Carthage Jail is a historic building in Carthage, Illinois, listed on the National Register of Historic Places . It was built in 1839 and is best known as the location of the 1844 killing of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother Hyrum, by a mob of approximately 150 men. It was added to the NRHP in 1973 and is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints  as a historic site with an adjacent visitors&#39; center.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The jail was built in 1839, constructed of red limestone quarried nearby. The building is rectangular and measures 29 ft by 35 ft. It is a gable-front building has two stories and an attic. Like other county jails built during the same period, Carthage Jail was built to incarcerate petty thieves and debtors and as a temporary holding place for violent criminals. The first floor contained a debtors room in the northwest corner, and a dungeon, or "criminal cell", was located on the north side of the second floor. The living area for the jailers family included a kitchen and dining room on the first floor and a bedroom on the second floor. A small "summer kitchen" was added later.</p><br>
<p>In June 1844, Smith came to the jail to face charges relating to his ordering the destruction of facilities producing the Nauvoo Expositor, a newspaper whose only edition had been critical of the Smiths&#39; religious teachings. He was joined by his brother, Hyrum, and fellow Latter Day Saints John Taylor and Willard Richards. On June 27, a mob stormed the upper room of the prison and killed the Smiths. Taylor was badly wounded and Richards was scathed, but not seriously injured.</p><br>
<p>The building continued to be used as a jail until 1866 and was afterwards used as a private residence. It was acquired by the LDS Church in 1903 and a partial restoration was completed in 1935. It was added to the NRHP on March 30, 1973. The church fully restored the jail in 1989, returning the building to its 1844 appearance. The restoration also included an expansion of the visitors&#39; center and renovations to the entire block.</p><br>
<p>Patoka Lake is the second-largest reservoir in the USA state of Indiana  and is spread across Dubois, Crawford, and Orange counties in southern Indiana.</p><br>
<p>Created as a joint effort between the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the lake is one of eight such reservoirs built in the state to provide a secure water supply and as a method of flood control. The lake covers 8,800 surface acres (36 km²) of water in the summer.</p><br>
<p>The lake was created by damming the Patoka River about 118.3 mi above its mouth with the Patoka Lake Dam, a 145-feet-high rockfill earthen dam. The lake is fed by several smaller tributaries including Allen Creek, Paint Creek, and Ritter Creek. After the lake was created several parks and nature preserves were established around it totaling 16,920 acre. The lake and dam is still managed by a cooperative management team of the Army Corps of Engineers and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.</p><br>
<p>Patoka Lake is a great place for photography, as it is inhabited by migrating birds, a large variety of fish and beautiful lake shores. The lake has been heavily stocked with bass, bluegill, catfish, redear, crappie, and walleye. Once a year the Lake Association hosts GarDaze, an event bringing in avid fisherman from around the world, including fishing celebrities like Babe Winkleman and Bill Dance. Other facilities include an archery range, boat ramps, a cross-country skiing course, fishing areas (including ice fishing), a disc golf course, trails for hiking and bicycling, hunting areas, interpretive and recreational programs, star parties, picnic shelters, swimming areas, and waterskiing zones. The lake also hosts a large campground with over 500 camping sites.</p><br>
<p>Patoka Lake has been very beneficial to the surrounding community and the State of Indiana. The lake has generated over $19.4 million in revenue and visitor expenditures in 2005 and has so far prevented over $88 million in flood damage. In 2006 the lake saw 648,738 visitors who provide jobs for 197 local residents.</p><br>
<p>The Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta  is a river delta in the Bengal region of the South Asia, consisting of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the world&#39;s largest delta and empties into the Bay of Bengal. It is also one of the most fertile regions in the world, thus earning the nickname The Green Delta. The delta stretches from the Hooghly River on the west to the Meghna River on the east. It is approximately 354 km across at the Bay of Bengal. Kolkata in India and Mongla in Bangladesh are the principal seaports of the delta.</p><br>
<p>A number of large rivers flow through the Brahmaputra Delta, including the Padma (main distributary of the Ganges) and the Jamuna (main distributary of the Brahmaputra), which merge and then join the Meghna before entering the sea.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Ganges Delta has the shape of a triangle and is considered to be an "arcuate" (arc-shaped) delta. It covers more than 105,000 km&sup2, and although the delta lies mostly in Bangladesh and India, rivers from Bhutan, Tibet, India, and Nepal drain into it from the north. Approximately 60% of the delta is in Bangladesh and, 40% in West Bengal, India. Most of the delta is composed of alluvial soils made up by small sediment particles that finally settle down as river currents slow down in the estuary. Rivers carry these fine particles with them, even from their sources at glaciers as fluvio-glacial. Red and red-yellow laterite soils are found as one heads farther east. The soil has large amounts of minerals and nutrients, which is good for agriculture.</p><br>
<p>It is composed of a labyrinth of channels, swamps, lakes, and flood plain sediments (chars). The Gorai-Madhumati River, one of the distributaries of the Ganges, divides the Ganges Delta into two parts: the geologically young, active, eastern delta, and the older, less active, western delta.</p><br>
<h2>Population</h2><br>
<p>Between 125 and 143 million people live on the delta, despite risks from floods caused by monsoons, heavy runoff from the melting snows of the Himalayas, and North Indian Ocean tropical cyclones. A large part of the nation of Bangladesh lies in the Ganges Delta, and many of the country&#39;s people depend on the delta for survival.</p><br>
<p>It is believed that upwards of 300 million people are supported by the Ganges Delta, and approximately 400 million people live in the Ganges River Basin, making it the most populous river basin in the world. Most of the Ganges Delta has a population density of more than 200 people per km (520 people per square mile), making it one of the most densely populated regions in the world.</p><br>
<h2>Wildlife</h2><br>
<p>Three terrestrial ecoregions cover the delta. The Lower Gangetic plains moist deciduous forests ecoregion covers most of the delta region, although the forests have mostly been cleared for agriculture and only small enclaves remain. Thick stands of tall grass, known as canebrakes, grow in wetter areas. The Sundarbans freshwater swamp forests ecoregion lies closer to the Bay of Bengal; this ecoregion is flooded with slightly brackish water during the dry season, and fresh water during the monsoon season. These forests, too, have been almost completely converted to intensive agriculture, with only 130 km&sup2; of the ecoregions 14,600 km&sup2; protected. Where the delta meets the Bay of Bengal, Sundarbans mangroves form the worlds largest mangrove ecoregion, covering an area of 20,400 km&sup2; in a chain of 54 islands. They derive their name from the predominant mangrove species, Heritiera fomes, which are known locally as sundri or sundari.</p><br>
<p>Animals in the delta include the Indian python (Python molurus), clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), Indian elephant (Elephas maximus indicus) and crocodiles, which live in the Sundarbans. Approximately 1,020 endangered Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) are believed to inhabit the Sundarbans.</p><br>
<p>The Ganges–Brahmaputra basin has tropical deciduous forests that yield valuable timber: sal, teak, and peepal trees are found in these areas. The delta region has mangrove trees.</p><br>
<p>It is estimated that 30,000 chital (Axis axis) are in the Sundarbans part of the delta. Birds found in the delta include kingfishers, eagles, woodpeckers, the shalik (Acridotheres tristis), the swamp francolin (Francolinus gularis), and the doel (Copsychus saularis). Two species of dolphin can be found in the delta: the Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) and the Ganges river dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica). The Irrawaddy dolphin is an oceanic dolphin which enters the delta from the Bay of Bengal. The Ganges river dolphin is a true river dolphin, but is extremely rare and considered endangered.</p><br>
<p>Trees found in the delta include sundari, garjan (Rhizophora spp.), bamboo, mangrove palm (Nypa fruticans), and mangrove date palm (Phoenix paludosa). Many endangered species live here.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The Ganges Delta lies at the junction of three tectonic plates: the Indian Plate, the Eurasian Plate, and the Burma Plate. The edge of the Eocene paleoshelf runs approximately from Kolkata to the edge of the Shillong Plateau. The edge of the paleoshelf marks the transition from the thick continental crust in the northwest to the thin continental or oceanic crust in the southeast. The enormous sediment supply from the Himalayan collision has extended the delta about 400 km seaward since the Eocene. The sediment thickness southeast of the edge of the paleoshelf beneath the Ganges Delta can exceed 16 km (10 miles).</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>Approximately two-thirds of the Bangladesh people work in agriculture, and grow crops on the fertile floodplains of the delta. The major crops that are grown in the Ganges Delta are jute, tea, and rice. Fishing is also an important activity in the delta region, with fish being a major source of food for many of the people in the area.</p><br>
<p>In recent years, scientists have been helping the poor people of the delta to improve fish farming methods. By turning unused ponds into viable fish farms, and improving methods of raising fish in existing ponds, many people can now earn a living raising and selling fish. Using new systems, fish production in existing ponds has increased 800%. Shrimp are farmed in containers or cages that are submerged in open water. Most are exported.</p><br>
<p>As there is a maze of many river branches, the area is difficult to pass. Most islands are only connected with the mainland by simple wooden ferryboats. Bridges are rare. Some islands are not yet connected to the electric grid, so island residents tend to use solar cells for a bit of electric supply.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>The Ganges Delta lies mostly in the tropical wet climate zone, and receives between 1500 to 2000 mm of rainfall each year in the western part, and 2000 to 3000 mm in the eastern part. Hot, dry summers and cool, dry winters make the climate suitable for agriculture.</p><br>
<h3>Cyclones and flooding</h3><br>
<p>In November 1970, the deadliest tropical cyclone of the twentieth century hit the Ganges Delta region. The 1970 Bhola cyclone killed 500,000 people (official death toll), with another 100,000 missing. The Guinness Book of World Records estimated the total loss of human life from the Bhola cyclone at 1,000,000.</p><br>
<p>Another cyclone hit the delta in 1991, killing about 139,000 people.</p><br>
<p>People have to be careful on the river delta as severe flooding also occurs. In 1998, the Ganges flooded the delta, killing about 1,000 people and leaving more than 30 million people homeless. The Bangladesh government asked for $900 million to help feed the people of the region, as the entire rice crop was lost.</p><br>
<h2>Future of the delta</h2><br>
<p>One of the greatest challenges people living on the Ganges Delta may face in coming years is the threat of rising sea levels caused by climate change. An increase in sea level of 0.5 m could result in six million people losing their homes in Bangladesh.</p><br>
<p>Important gas reserves have been discovered in the delta, such as in the Titas and Bakhrabad gas fields. Several major oil companies have invested in exploration of the Ganges Delta region.</p><br>
<h2>View</h2><br>
<p>Jamestown Island is a 1,561 acre island in the James River in Virginia, part of James City County. It is located off Glasshouse Point, to which it is connected via a causeway to the Colonial Parkway. Much of the island is wetland, including both swamp and marsh.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Prior to the English settlement, the nearby area was home to the Paspahegh people, or Virginia Algonquians. In May 1607, the island (then a peninsula) became site of James Fort, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. The chief of the Powatan at that time, also named Powhatan, was father of Pocahontas. After Powhatan&#39;s death in 1618, hostilities with colonists escalated under his brother, Opechancanough. His large-scale attacks in 1622 and 1644 met strong reprisals by the English, resulting in the near elimination of both the settlement and the tribe. After Bacon&#39;s rebellion, Jamestown lasted until 1699, when it was abandoned in favor of a new site at Williamsburg.</p><br>
<h2>Significance</h2><br>
<p>By the early 20th century, the isthmus connecting the landform to Glasshouse Point had eroded, making it a proper island. Today, most of the island is a part of Colonial National Historical Park, including Historic Jamestowne. The rediscovery of the James Fort in 1996 by Jamestown Rediscovery has led to significant archaeological discoveries of the early colonial settler period.</p><br>
<p>Arlberg is a mountain range or massif between Vorarlberg and Tyrol in Austria.</p><br>
<p>The highest peak is the "Valluga" at 2,811 m. The name Arlberg derives from the tradition of the "Arlenburg", who are said to have once established themselves on the Tyrolean side of the Arlberg passes (1,793 m above sea level). Another story derives the name from the "Arlenbushes" that are very numerous here. There is no mountain with the name "Arlberg" proper. Popular places and famous ski resorts at the Arlberg are Lech, Zürs, Stuben, St. Christoph and St. Anton.</p><br>
<p>The name of the state of Vorarlberg is derived from the mountain Arlberg, which is located in front of the Arlberg, from the point of view of the Holy Roman Empire as well as the Swiss Confederation and the castle of the Habsburgs.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Arlberg connects the Klostertal valley in the west with the Stanzer valley in the east. Together with the Flexenpass, the Arlberg forms the border between the mountain groups: Verwall in the south, Lechquellen mountains in the north-west and the Lechtal Alps in the north and north-east. The Valluga, the highest mountain on the Arlberg and the Trittkopf south-west of the Lechtal Alps, dominates the pass. The borders of the four Arlberg communities also meet here. On the Vorarlberg site Lech and Klösterle / Stuben as well as on the Tyrol side Kaisers and St. Anton.</p><br>
<p>The European watershed in the Alps between the Rhine and the Danube runs southwards from the Albonagrat to the Passhöhe over the Valluga and Trittkopf to the Flexenpass and follows from Flexenspitz the southern end of the Lechquellen mountains to the Klostertal towards the west.</p><br>
<h2>Pass roads and the Arlberg tunnel</h2><br>
<p>The old pass route was known since the 14th century in the form of a narrow mule track when people began to trade salt in this region. However, because the Arlberg was very poorly developed, for centuries people avoided the route and took detours over the Fern Pass or Immenstadt for trading. The development of the textile industry and of the postal service, however, led to the roads being surfaced in 1824.</p><br>
<p>With the rise of motor traffic in the 20th century, however, this became inadequate. It was decided that a 14 km long Arlberg Road Tunnel would be built between Langen and St. Anton. On July 5, 1974 the work began and the passage was opened to traffic on December 1, 1978. The tunnel has a toll; however, the old road over the pass is toll-free. A peculiarity of the tunnel is that it actually consists of two tunnels. On the Tyrolian side it is built over the "Rosanna Gorge" before the actual massif rises up in the direction of Vorarlberg over the tunnel.</p><br>
<h2>Arlberg Railway</h2><br>
<p>The Arlberg railway connects Innsbruck with Bludenz. Between St. Anton and Langen it runs through the 10.25 km long Arlbergtunnel.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>Tourism is the main source of income for Arlberg villages and their inhabitants and plays a vital role in the region.</p><br>
<p>Today, "Arlberg" is a brand for the winter sports areas around the Arlberg Pass, in particular the ski areas of Lech, Zürs, Stuben, Klösterle and St. Christoph, St. Anton am Arlberg.</p><br>
<p>The area is known for its long winter sports tradition. As early as 1901, the Arlberg ski club was founded and two years later a first club competition was held. In 1904 the first general Arlberg race took place, 1928 the first of the famous Arlberg Kandahar races. In 1921, under the leadership of Hannes Schneider, the ski school Arlberg was the first ski school in the region.</p><br>
<p>In 1937 the first lifts were built in St. Anton and in Zürs. It was the first ski-lift built by Konrad Doppelmayr and Sepp Bildstein. With the 2001 Ski World Cup in St. Anton, alpine ski racing came back to the Arlberg and thus to its roots.</p><br>
<p>Today, the contiguous ski resorts on three mountains around Lech and Zürs (The White Ring), the Arena on Gampen, Kapall, Galzig and Valluga above St. Anton and St. Christoph, form a ski resort with 87 lifts, 305 km of groomed slopes and 200 km of deep snow slopes. Thanks to the many winter sports enthusiasts, tourism at the Arlberg is of great importance. Between 1 November 2001 and 31 October 2002, more than one million overnight stays were counted for the first time.</p><br>
<p>Cadillac Mountain is located on Mount Desert Island, within Acadia National Park. With an elevation of 1,530 feet , its summit is the highest point in Hancock County and the highest within 25 mi of the shoreline of the North American continent between the Cape Breton Highlands, Nova Scotia and Mexican peaks 180 mi south of the Texas border.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Before being renamed in 1918, the mountain had been called Green Mountain. The new name honors the French explorer and adventurer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac. In 1688, De la Mothe requested and received from the Governor of New France a parcel of land in an area known as Donaquec which included part of the Donaquec River (now the Union River) and the island of Mount Desert in the present-day USA state of Maine. Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, a shameless self-promoter who had already appropriated the "de la Mothe" portion of his name from a local nobleman in his native Picardy, thereafter referred to himself as Antoine de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, Donaquec, and Mount Desert.</p><br>
<p>From 1883 until 1893 the Green Mountain Cog Railway ran to the summit to take visitors to the Green Mountain Hotel on the summit. The hotel was burned down in 1895. Also in 1895, the cog train was sold and moved to the Mount Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire.</p><br>
<h2>Overview</h2><br>
<p>There are various hiking trails to the summit of Cadillac Mountain, some more challenging than others. There is also a paved road to the top.</p><br>
<p>Driving or hiking to the summit of Cadillac Mountain to see "the nation&#39;s first sunrise" is a popular activity among visitors of Acadia National Park. However, Cadillac only sees the first sunrise in the fall and winter, when the sun rises south of due east. During most of the spring and summer, the sun rises first on Mars Hill, 150 mi to the northeast. For a few weeks around the equinoxes, the sun rises first at West Quoddy Head in Lubec, Maine.</p><br>
<p>On exceptionally clear days, it is possible to see Mount Katahdin, Maine&#39;s highest mountain, to the north and the Canadian province of Nova Scotia to the east, both over one hundred miles away.</p><br>
<p>The Taieri River is the fourth-longest river in New Zealand and is in Otago in the South Island. Rising in the Lammerlaw ranges, it initially flows north, then east around the Rock and Pillar range before turning southeast, reaching the sea 30 km south of Dunedin.</p><br>
<p>The upper reaches meander in a series of convoluted loops across a floodplain near Paerau before running through two small hydroelectric power stations before Patearoa in the Maniototo. The Taieri then arcs through almost 180 degrees, entering a broad glacial valley the Strath-Taieri, surrounded by rugged hill ranges. Immediately downstream the river has cut a steep-sided declivity—the Taieri Gorge. This is known for the Taieri Gorge Railway, which follows a route into Central Otago through it. In the Taieris lower reaches there is a broad floodplain (the Taieri Plains) containing much of Otagos most fertile farmland. The river then flows through the lower Taieri Gorge to the Pacific Ocean at Taieri Mouth. Taieri Island lies in the Pacific Ocean several hundred metres from the mouth of the river.</p><br>
<p>The Taieri is 200 km long of which the last 20 km are navigable. Towns along the river include Middlemarch, Outram, Allanton, Mosgiel, Henley and Taieri Mouth. Its major tributary is the Waipori River, which meets the Taieri near Henley on the Taieri Plains.</p><br>
<p>The name "Taieri" is thought to come from the Māori word taiari meaning "spring tide".</p><br>
<p>Little Bay de Noc is a bay in the Upper Peninsula of the USA state of Michigan. The bay opens into Lake Michigan&#39;s Green Bay.</p><br>
<p>The bay, consisting of approximately 30,000 acres (120 km²), is enclosed by Delta County. The cities of Escanaba and Gladstone are on the west side of the bay.</p><br>
<p>The bay&#39;s name comes from the Noquet (or Noc) Native American people (thought to have been related to the Menominee of the Algonquian language group), who once lived along the shores. Douglass Houghton came to Sand Point (in Escanaba) in 1844 with his party of government surveyors to chart the land to the north.</p><br>
<p>Escanaba has a deep harbor, which made it a lumbering center. The first sawmill was built there in 1836. The bay also shipped iron ore from the rich iron ranges in Michigan&#39;s upper peninsula, with the first ore dock built at Escanaba in 1864. Escanaba was incorporated in 1866. A bit further north, Gladstone was founded in 1887 by USA Senator from Minnesota, William D. Washburn, to serve as a rail-lake terminal for lumber products.</p><br>
<p>The Escanaba, Days, Tacoosh, Rapid, and Whitefish rivers all drain into the bay. Rapid River marks the mouth of the eponymous river and the head of the bay.</p><br>
<p>La Grande Soufrière, , is an active stratovolcano on the French island of Basse-Terre, in Guadeloupe. It is the highest mountain peak in the Lesser Antilles, and rises 1,467 m high.</p><br>
<p>The last magmatic eruption was in 1580±50 during which the current lava dome was emplaced. More recent eruptions have been phreatic in type.</p><br>
<p>In 1976 a large amount of seismic activity led to a mass evacuation of the island&#39;s 72,000 residents. There was a bitter, and well-publicized, controversy between scientists Claude Allègre and Haroun Tazieff on whether evacuation should occur. Allègre held that inhabitants should be evacuated, just in case, while Tazieff held that the Soufrière was harmless. The prefect decided to evacuate, erring on the side of prudence. The volcano erupted on August 30,1976, but was less severe than had been predicted. There were no fatalities, owing to the complete evacuation.</p><br>
<p>While the island was deserted, the German filmmaker Werner Herzog traveled to the abandoned town of Basse-Terre to find a peasant who had refused to leave his home on the slopes of the volcano. His journey is recorded in the film La Soufrière.</p><br>
<p>Ulleung-do  is a South Korean island 120 km  east of the Korean Peninsula, formerly known as the Dagelet Island or Argonaut Island in Europe, Yulingdao  in China, and Utsuryo  in Japan.</p><br>
<p>Volcanic in origin, the rocky steep-sided island is the top of a large stratovolcano which rises from the seafloor, reaching a maximum elevation of 984 m at Seonginbong Peak. The island is 11.3 km in length and 12.4 km in width; it has an area of 73.15 km&sup2;. It has a population of 10,426 inhabitants.</p><br>
<p>The island makes up the main part of Ulleung County, North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea and is a popular tourist destination. The main city of Ulleung-do is the port of Dodong (도동/道洞), which serves as the main ferry port between Ulleung-do and the South Korean mainland. After tourism, the main economic activity is fishing, including its well-known harvest of squid, which can be seen drying in the sun in many places.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The island consists primarily of trachyandesite rock. A major explosive eruption about 9,350 years ago reached a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 6 and deposited tephra as far as central Honshū over 800 km away, while producing pyroclastic flows on the island and decapitating its top to form a caldera.</p><br>
<p>Archaeological evidence indicates that the island has been inhabited since the 1st millennium BC. The first confirmed historical reference to Ulleung-do is in the Samguk Sagi for the year 512. In that year, the Silla general Kim Isabu conquered the island, which had previously been the autonomous nation of Usan-guk. Some accounts relate that he used a number of wooden lions to intimidate the population, threatening to turn them loose unless they surrendered.</p><br>
<p>Usan-guk did not remain under the Silla rule, however, and the island did not become a permanent political part of Korea until 930, when it was annexed by Goryeo. Remote as it is from the Korean mainland, Ulleung-do was a recurrent security headache for the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties. It was devastated by Jurchen pirate raids in the 11th century, and by Wokou pirate raids in the 14th century. A clash with Japan over fishing rights in the 1690s was precipitated by the Korean fisherman An Yong-bok. In response to these difficulties, Joseon adopted an "empty-island" policy which however proved impossible to enforce. The empty-island policy was officially rescinded in 1881, after which the government sought to encourage additional settlement of Ulleungdo.</p><br>
<p>American whaleships cruised for right whales off the island between 1848 and 1892. Some went ashore nearby Jukdo to club pinnipeds.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>Favorite activities for tourists are hiking, fishing, and eating hoe (a Korean raw fish dish). Sightseeing boats make regular three-hour circuits about Ulleung-do, departing from the harbor at Dodong and passing by all the points of interest along the coast, including many interesting rock formations and the small neighboring island of Jukdo. Other scenic sites are Seonginbong, the highest peak on the island (984 m); Bongnae waterfall; the "natural icehouse&quot and a coastal cliff from which Liancourt Rocks (Dokdo) can be discerned in the distance.</p><br>
<h2>Climate and nature</h2><br>
<p>Ulleung-do has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa), though it resembles the west coast of Japan much more than Korea, since in winter rainfall is heavy if less so than in such wet cities as Kanazawa or Akita. Sunshine is also very low in the winter if again not so markedly as in the previously-mentioned Japanese cities. As above mentioned, North Pacific right whales were targeted by whalers in the adjacent waters. Fin whales were also commonly observed historically, and other cetaceans such as minke whales and dolphins may appear around the island.Whalelove.com.. Retrieved on August 26,</p><br>
<p>2017</p><br>
<p>Itsukushima is an island in the western part of the Inland Sea of Japan, located in the northwest of Hiroshima Bay. It is popularly known as Miyajima, which in Japanese means the Shrine Island. The island is one of Hayashi Gahō&#39;s Three Views of Japan specified in 1643. Itsukushima is part of the city of Hatsukaichi in Hiroshima Prefecture. The island was part of the former town of Miyajima before the 2005 merger with Hatsukaichi.</p><br>
<p>Itsukushima is famous for the Itsukushima Shrine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to records, the shrine was established in the time of Empress Suiko. The warrior-courtier Taira no Kiyomori gave the shrine its present form. In 1555, Mōri Motonari defeated Sue Harukata at the Battle of Miyajima. Toyotomi Hideyoshi built a large building, the Senjō-kaku, on a hill above the shrine.</p><br>
<p>Itsukushima has a number of temples, including Toyokuni Shrine with a five-storied pagoda, and Daiganji Temple - one of the three most famous Benzaiten temples of Japan. The island is also famous for its upper hill side cherry blossoms and maple leaf autumn foliage.</p><br>
<p>The island of Itsukushima, including the waters around it (part of Seto Inland Sea), are within Setonaikai National Park. This sea is affected by strong tides. At low tide, the bottom of the sea is exposed past the island&#39;s torii. At high tide, the sea covers all the previously exposed seabed mud and fills areas underneath the shrine boardwalk.</p><br>
<h2>Location and geography</h2><br>
<p>Itsukushima is mountainous and sparsely settled. It has an elementary school and a middle school. There are no traffic signals. It is rural and mountainous, only 30.39 km&sup2, and has a population of about 2000. There are no cities, only small towns with simple houses and privately owned shops. The islanders work hard to preserve the forests and respect nature.</p><br>
<p>Frequent ferry services, operated by JR West (JR Miyajima ferry) and by Miyajima Matsudai Tourist Ship, carry traffic between the island and the mainland. The trip takes about ten minutes. There is an hourly express passenger ferry to Hiroshima harbour.</p><br>
<p>Miyajima&#39;s maple trees are renowned throughout Japan and blanket the island in crimson in the autumn. Momiji manjū, pastries filled with azuki jam or custard, are popular souvenirs and carry maple-leaf emblems. Many other varieties such as chocolate and cheese are available. Because the island is seen as sacred, trees may not be cut for lumber. Deer and monkeys roam freely. Deer are thought of as sacred in the native Shinto religion because they are considered messengers of the gods. They walk the streets of the city, not afraid of the tourists.</p><br>
<p>The shamoji, a style of wooden spoon used to serve cooked rice without impairing the taste, is said to have been invented by a monk who lived on the island. The shamoji is a popular souvenir, and there are some outsized examples around the shopping district.</p><br>
<p>The peak of Mount Misen, at 535 m, is the highest point on the island. Miyajima Ropeway carries visitors to within a 30-minute hike to the top. There are several sites related to the historic Buddhist priest and founder of Shingon Buddhism, Kōbō Daishi (774–835), including Daishō-in, near the top.</p><br>
<p>The island contains the Miyajima Natural Botanical Garden on its north coast.</p><br>
<p>People often take the short ferry ride from mainland Japan to pray at Miyajima’s shrines and to marvel at the beauty of its forests. There are many shrines and temples on the island, including the Goju-No-To Pagoda ("Five-Roofs Pagoda").</p><br>
<h2>Shrines and temples</h2><br>
<p>Note that in Japan, the term "shrine" implies a Shinto religious structure and "temple" implies a Buddhist one.</p><br>
<h3>Itsukushima Shrine</h3><br>
<p>Miyajima is famous for the Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社, Itsukushima-jinja) which is a Shinto shrine. It is known for its "floating" torii gate. The historic shrine complex is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as one of the National Treasures by the Japanese government.</p><br>
<h3>Daiganji Temple</h3><br>
<p>Next to the Itsukushima Shrine is Daiganji Temple, dedicated to Goddess Benzaiten as well as three Buddhas important to Shingon Buddhism. Benzaiten Goddess in Japan has been traced to Goddess Saraswati of Hinduism in India. She is the Goddess of eloquence, music, arts, wealth and knowledge. The three Buddha in the temple are Gautama Buddha, Wisdom Buddha and Mercy Buddha.</p><br>
<p>Daiganji Temple is one the three most famous Benzaiten Temples in Japan, along with Enoshima Benzaiten (Kanagawa) and Chikubujima Benzaiten (Shiga). The Benzaiten is opened to the public only once every year on June 17. On this day, Miyajima holds a big festival, and people of the region visit the temple to offer their prayers.</p><br>
<p>The precise date for the first construction of Daiganji Benzaiten temple is unclear. It was reconstructed around 1200 AD in the Kamakura period. The construction date of Itsukushima-jinja and Daiganji temple is estimated to be 6th century or later, and the existence of Itsukushima-jinja is confirmed by early 9th century by ancient Japanese texts. The Nihon Koki confirms the sacredness of these Miyajama structures during the Heian Period (794-1184).</p><br>
<h3>Daishō-in Temple</h3><br>
<p>Daishō-in is a historic Japanese temple on Mount Misen, the holy mountain on the island. It is the 14th temple in the Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage and famous for the maple trees and their autumn colors. It is also called "Suishō-ji". As the headquarters of the Omuro branch of Shingon Buddhism, it is the most important temple of Miyajima. The temple was the administrator of the Itsukushima shrine before Meiji Restoration forbade (Shinbutsu bunri) syncretism (Shinbutsu-shūgō) between Shinto and Buddhism in 1868.</p><br>
<h3>Senjokaku (Toyokuni Shrine)</h3><br>
<p>Senjokaku (lit. "pavilion of 1000 mats") is the largest structure at Miyajima Island as the name implies. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, started construction of Senjokaku as a Buddhist library in which the chanting of Senbu-kyo sutras could be held for fallen soldiers. Hideyoshi died in 1598 and the building was never fully completed. Originally, Amida Buddha and two subordinate Buddhist saints, Anan and Kasho-sonja, were enshrined in the structure until the Meiji reformation. when the structure was converted into a Shinto shrine dedicated to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Numerous votive picture tablets that had been hanging in the Itsukushima Shrine buildings until the Meiji era, have been hung the walls inside the hall.</p><br>
<h3>Five-storied Pagoda (Gojunoto)</h3><br>
<p>The nearby Five-storied Pagoda constructed in 1407 (thus predating Senjokaku) enshrined Yakushi Nyorai Zazo, the Buddha of Medicine said to have been made by Kobo Daishi himself, accompanied by Fugen Bosatsu (Mercy Buddha) and Monju Bosatsu (Wisdom Buddha). The three images were moved to the Daiganji Temple during the Meiji reformation.</p><br>
<p>The Budawang Range, commonly called The Budawangs, a rugged mountain range within the Budawang National Park and the Morton National Park, are part of a spur off the Great Dividing Range and are located in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia.</p><br>
<p>The highest mountain in the range is Mount Budawang that has an elevation of 1,129 m above sea level.</p><br>
<h2>Location and features</h2><br>
<p>Commmencing between the headwaters of the Clyde and Endrick rivers, The Budawangs extend in a generally south southwest direction for about 53 km to Mount Budawang about 8 km southeast of. The range consists of mountains and escarpments, generally at an elevation of 334 m, forming most of the western watershed of the Clyde River. The range comprises a series of hills extending generally west northwest from the north end of Budawang Range near Sassafras for about 21 km to above the junction of the Shoalhaven and Endrick rivers. The Pigeon House Range forms the watershed between the northeast waters of Endrick River and those flowing north into the Shoalhaven River. A prominent range bearing west northwest forms the watershed separating the Endrick and Shoalhaven River systems. The Budawang Range is located approximately 190 km south-southwest of Sydney.</p><br>
<p>The range defines part of the boundary between the New South Wales South Coast and the Southern Tablelands.</p><br>
<p>Much of the land within the range has been declared a wilderness area and are popular with bush walkers due to their terrain and unique features.</p><br>
<h3>Mountain peaks</h3><br>
<p>The Budawangs are generally considered to contain peaks located with the Budawang Range, the Pigeon House Range, the Currockbilly Range, and the Wirritin Range. The major recorded peaks are:</p><br>
<p>Mount Budawang (1,129 m)</p><br>
<p>Currockbilly Mountain (1,087 m)</p><br>
<p>Wog Wog Mountain (893 m)</p><br>
<p>Mount Cole (876 m)</p><br>
<p>Sturgiss Mountain (858 m)</p><br>
<p>Fosters Mountain (857 m)</p><br>
<p>Barneys Hill (855 m)</p><br>
<p>The Castle (831 m)</p><br>
<p>Shrouded Gods Mountain (809 m)</p><br>
<p>Donjon Mountain (786 m)</p><br>
<p>Quiltys Mountain (775 m)</p><br>
<p>Wirritin Mountain (674 m)</p><br>
<p>Pigeon House Mountain / Didthul (665 m)</p><br>
<p>Mount Bushwalker (640 m)</p><br>
<p>Byangee Mountain (500 m)</p><br>
<p>Mount Tarn</p><br>
<h3>Other features</h3><br>
<p>Other features within the range include the Monolith Valley, The Seven Gods Monoliths, Clyde River Valley, Hidden Valley, and Ettrema Gorge.</p><br>
<h2>Land use history</h2><br>
<h3>Aboriginal use</h3><br>
<p>The earliest human occupants of The Budawangs were two Aboriginal tribes; the Wandandians who inhabited land to the north of Pigeon House Mountain, and the Walbanjas who lived south of Pigeon House.</p><br>
<p>There are archaeological records of Aboriginal presence in the area dating back to around 11,000 years ago. Nearby coastal deposits have been dated at around 20,000 years old, so occupation in the Budawangs may well be older than current evidence suggests. Archaeological evidence found in the area includes occupational deposits in rock shelters, open campsites, and axe grinding grooves often found on rocks by the sides of creeks in the area. Art sites and rock arrangements also exist in the Budawangs though they are quite rare - the best of these is on Quilty&#39;s Mountain.</p><br>
<h3>European land use</h3><br>
<p>There are several grazing farmlands surrounding the national parks region both in the east and the west of the range. Logging began in the Budawang area in the early 1900s, it continues to this day in areas that remain outside of the national parks, such as state forests.</p><br>
<p>The Australian Army operated an artillery range on the Tianjara plateau between 1943 and 1974, also using the area for practice bombing and exercises often involving offroad vehicles. This area is highly damaged and littered with target debris and unexploded ordnance. If walking in or near this area, walker should take extreme care.</p><br>
<p>Royal Australian Navy jet aircraft and helicopters use the area as a designated low-fly training area, allowing high speed flight through the area at 50 ft above the ground.</p><br>
<h2>Getting there</h2><br>
<p>As The Budawangs are only accessible from gravel roads, care should be taken after rain as the roads can become slippery.</p><br>
<p>The northern parts of the area including the Clyde River valley are best accessed from the Braidwood Nowra road. There are two entrances in the northern part of the park. One is near and requires walking through farmland to the area around Quilty&#39;s Mountain. The other main northern entrance is a not very clearly marked gate on the side of the road near Sassafras.</p><br>
<p>Access to The Castle and Monolith Valley is best achieved from Long Gully just off the Western Distributor.</p><br>
<p>Access to the western Wog Wog Mountain side of the park is via a park entrance off the Mongarlowe/Nerriga road, either coming from Braidwood to the south or to the north.</p><br>
<p>All three main entrances now have marked campsites and pit toilets. The Sassafrass campsite is approximately 600 m down the fire trail from the carpark and has tank water and a sheltered picnic table. The Wog Wog campsite has no water. The Long Gully campsite is located adjacent to the Yadboro Creek.</p><br>
<h3>Maps</h3><br>
<p>If walking in The Budawangs a recommended resource is the Northern Budawang Range and the Upper Clyde River Valley sketch map, published by The Budawang Committee and available in most Sydney/Nowra/Canberra bushwalking stores. The sketch map was hand drawn and details many of the possible walks in the most popular part of the national park. The area is also covered by the 1:25,000 CMA maps CORANG (8927-3-N), ENDRICK (8927-4-S), TIANJARA (8927-1-S) and MILTON (8927-2-N).</p><br>
<p>Agrinio  is the largest city of the Aetolia-Acarnania regional unit of Greece and its largest municipality, with 106,053 inhabitants. It is the economical center of Aetolia-Acarnania, although its capital is the town of Mesolonghi. The settlement dates back to ancient times. Ancient Agrinion was 3 km northeast of the present city; some walls and foundations of which have been excavated. In medieval times and until 1836, the city was known as Vrachori .</p><br>
<p>The majority of the local population was occupied for an important period of time in the tobacco industry, from the last decades of 19th till the end of the 20th century. Big tobacco companies were founded in the city, including the famous Papastratos, alongside Panagopoulos and Papapetrou. Agrinion is also agriculturally known for its production of Agrinion olives.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Antiquity</h3><br>
<p>According to mythology, the ancient city of Agrinio (situated in the area of Megali Chora) was built by king Agrios, son of Portheus and a great grandson of Aetolos (king of Plevron and Calydon) around 1600-1100 BC.</p><br>
<p>The town, built near the banks of river Achelous (the natural border between Aetolia and Acarnania), was claimed by both states during ancient times. Agrinio became member of the Aetolian League and it was later destroyed by Cassander in 314 BC during the League&#39;s wars against the Kingdom of Macedonia.</p><br>
<h3>Ottoman Era</h3><br>
<p>The city reappears during the Ottoman period with the name Vrachori and apart from its Greek population it was also inhabited by many Turks. In 1585 it was deserted during the revolt of Theodoros Migas. At the beginning of the 18th century it became the administrative centre of Aetolia-Acarnania (then as the sanjak of Karleli), depended on the imperial harems. Vrachori participated in the Greek Revolution and was temporarily liberated on June 11, 1821. In August 1822, while Reşid Mehmed Pasha&#39;s (Kütahi) troops were marching towards Vrachori, its citizens decided to burn and evacuate their city, following the strategy of scorched earth. The deserted city was recaptured by the Turks. The city was finally included in the borders of the newborn Greek state permanently in 1832 with the treaty of Kalendar Kiosk (July 9, 1832) and was renamed after its ancient name, Agrinion.</p><br>
<h3>Modern Era</h3><br>
<p>In the years following the liberation, Agrinio went through an important growth and development, especially at the end of the 19th century and the dawn of the 20th. After the Greco-Turkish War and the Asia Minor Catastrophe, many refugees from Asia Minor (western Turkey) arrived in the city and settled in the district of Agios Konstantinos. At the same period there was an important internal immigration to Agrinio from the whole Aetolia-Acarnania region, along with immigration from the areas of Epirus and Evrytania.</p><br>
<p>During the Interwar period, in spite of economical crisis, works of infrastructure took place in the city, like the paving of streets and the installment of electricity, while a water tower was installed in 1930. At the same time excavations revealed the ancient city of Agrinion. Growth and prosperity returned after World War II and the Greek Civil War. This growth was boosted by the building of two major hydroelectric dam installations at Kremasta and Kastraki, on the north of the city. The tobacco industry and olive tree cultivation became the main income sources of the city.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>The climate of Agrinio is mediterranean (Csa) with a big amount of rainfall during the short winter and high temperatures in the summer, sometimes over 40 &deg;C.</p><br>
<p>On April 4, 2007 the city was struck by several earthquakes, with their epicenter located in the nearby Lake Trichonis on the southeast of the city. The first earthquake rumbled at around 2 AM, the second around 6 AM, three earthquakes shook at 10:13, 10:14 and 10:15 AM, and the last one at around 10:45 AM, it measured 5.3, 5.4, 5.6 and 5.7 on the Richter scale. Residents reported that the buildings and its glasses were shaking and rumbling. Minor damages were reported without any victims.</p><br>
<p>On June 7, 2007 a low pressure-system including heavy torrential rains arrived from Southern and Central Europe stranding several people, and caused flooding in several buildings.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>The main roads passing through Agrinio are the Greek National Road 5/E55 (Arta - Agrinio - Missolonghi) and the Greek National Road 38/E952 (Thermo - Agrinio - Karpenisi). Since 2009 the new Motorway 5 bypasses Agrinio to the west.</p><br>
<p>Agrinio&#39;s airport is located near the city, in the area of Dokimi. IATA code: AGQ, ICAO: LGAG. The airport hosts the Agrinion aeroclub,.</p><br>
<h2>Municipality</h2><br>
<p>The extended municipality Agrinio was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 10 former municipalities, that became municipal units:</p><br>
<p>Agrinio</p><br>
<p>Angelokastro</p><br>
<p>Arakynthos</p><br>
<p>Makryneia</p><br>
<p>Neapoli</p><br>
<p>Panaitoliko</p><br>
<p>Parakampylia</p><br>
<p>Paravola</p><br>
<p>Stratos</p><br>
<p>Thestieis</p><br>
<p>The municipality has an area of 1229.330 km, the municipal unit 162.728 km.</p><br>
<h3>Subdivisions</h3><br>
<p>The municipal unit (former municipality) of Agrinio consists of the following communities:</p><br>
<p>Agios Konstantinos</p><br>
<p>Agios Nikolaos Trichonidos</p><br>
<p>Agrinio</p><br>
<p>Dokimi</p><br>
<p>Kalyvia</p><br>
<p>Kamaroula</p><br>
<p>Skoutesiada</p><br>
<p>The city of Agrinio consists of the main city and the outlying villages Agios Ioannis Riganas, Akropotamos, Bouzi, Giannouzi, Diamanteika, Eleftheria, Lefka, Liagkaiika, Pyrgi, Schinos and Strongylaiika.</p><br>
<h3>City Seal</h3><br>
<p>The citys official seal includes a characteristic moment of the ancient Greek mythology. More specifically, the seal depicts Hercules fighting the river-god Achelous. According to the myth, Hercules fought against the river-god for the sake of Diianira, the princess of Calydon, which both of them wanted as a wife. Despite Achelous transformations, Hercules managed to win the battle and got married to the princess. According to Strabo, the myth symbolises the struggle of ancient Aetolians to control the river&#39;s power with embankments, by which the river was confined to its bed and thus the area gained large tracts of land for cultivation.</p><br>
<h2>Historical population</h2><br>
<h2>Landmarks</h2><br>
<p>The Archaeological Museum of Agrinion, located in the city center, at 1-2 Diamantis Street.</p><br>
<p>The neoclassical buildings of the tobacco storehouses Papastratos and Papapetrou, which date from the early 20th century.</p><br>
<p>The Papastrateio Municipal Park.</p><br>
<p>The Papastratios Municipal Library.</p><br>
<p>The Dimokratias Square, the main square of the city.</p><br>
<p>The remains of the Church of the Holy Trinity of Mavrika (8th-9th century), situated at the banks of lake Lysimachia.</p><br>
<p>Lakes Trichonida and Lysimachia.</p><br>
<p>The ancient city of Stratos.</p><br>
<p>The gorge of Kleisoura, on the old national road, 15 km on the south of the city.</p><br>
<p>The hydroelectric dams of Kremasta, Kastraki and Stratos.</p><br>
<h2>Mayors</h2><br>
<p>Georgios Baibas (1899–1907)</p><br>
<p>Andreas Panagopoulos (1925–1934 and 1951–1952)</p><br>
<p>Dimitrios Votsis (1934–1941)</p><br>
<p>Anastasios Panagopoulos (1964–1967)</p><br>
<p>Stelios Tsitsimelis (1975–1986)</p><br>
<p>Giannis Vainas (1986–1994)</p><br>
<p>Thimios Sokos (1994–2006)</p><br>
<p>Pavlos Moscholios (2006–2014)</p><br>
<p>Georgios Papanastasiou (2014-present</p><br>
<h2>Famous citizens</h2><br>
<p>Stratos Apostolakis (1964) - footballer</p><br>
<p>Petros Michos (1959) - footballer</p><br>
<p>Kostas Chatzopoulos (1868–1920) - poet</p><br>
<p>Christos Garoufalis (1959) - writer</p><br>
<p>Katia Gerou - actress</p><br>
<p>Panagiotis Danglis (1853–1924) - general and politician</p><br>
<p>Filipos Darlas (1983) - footballer</p><br>
<p>Petros Fyssoun (1933) - actor</p><br>
<p>Panos Kaponis (Caponis) (1947) - poet & writer</p><br>
<p>Christos Kapralos (1909–1993) - artist</p><br>
<p>Michalis Kousis (1953–2005) - Marathon runner</p><br>
<p>Petros Michos (1959) - footballer</p><br>
<p>Aristidis Moschos (1930–2001) - musician</p><br>
<p>Pythagoras Papastamatiou (1930–1979) - writer</p><br>
<p>Thodoros (1931)- sculptor</p><br>
<p>Evangelos Papastratos (1910–1988) - industrialist and benefactor of Agrinio</p><br>
<p>Loukia Pistiola - actress</p><br>
<p>Yiannis Yfantis (1949) - poet</p><br>
<p>Kostis Maraveyas (1974) - singer and composer</p><br>
<p>Spiros and Eleni Tsiknia - Benefactors of Agrinio</p><br>
<h2>Sporting teams</h2><br>
<p>Panetolikos FC - Superleague Greece</p><br>
<p>Gymnastiki Etairia Agriniou (G.E.A.)</p><br>
<p>A.O. Agriniou</p><br>
<p>Iwnikos 80 Volleyball</p><br>
<p>Nautikos Omilos</p><br>
<p>Asteras Agriniou</p><br>
<p>PAO Agriniou</p><br>
<p>The Golden Lamb Inn is the oldest hotel in Ohio, having been established in the Warren County seat of Lebanon in 1803. The present four-story structure is built around the 1815 rebuilding of the inn, maintaining its colonial architecture. It is known as the Golden Lamb because that image appeared on its signboard for the benefit of the illiterate. At various times it has been known as the Ownly Hotel, the Bradley House, the Lebanon House, and the Stubbs House.</p><br>
<p>On January 12, 1978, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Golden Lamb.</p><br>
<h2>Famous guests</h2><br>
<p>Because of Lebanon&#39;s position on the highway between Cincinnati and Columbus, many notables have visited the inn. The Golden Lamb has been visited by twelve American Presidents: William Henry Harrison, Benjamin Harrison, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield,William McKinley, Warren G. Harding, William Howard Taft, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush.</p><br>
<p>Other famous guests to visit the Golden Lamb include Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Daniel Webster, Bill McIntire, Thomas Corwin, Clement Vallandigham (who infamously shot and killed himself accidentally in his hotel room at the Golden Lamb, while attempting to prove that a man, whom his client was accused of shooting, shot himself accidentally), Cordell Hull secretary of state for President Franklin D. Roosevelt (who went to school in Lebanon at the National Normal University), Robert A. Taft, Dewitt Clinton, and Lord Stanley, who later became prime minister of the United Kingdom. Most recently on September 8, 2008 Republican presidential and vice-presidential candidates senator John McCain and Alaska governor Sarah Palin spoke at the Golden Lamb and on October 13, 2012 Mitt Romney spoke at and toured the hotel.</p><br>
<h2>Owners</h2><br>
<p>In 1927 after leasing it for a year, the Golden Lamb was purchased by Robert Jones, grandfather of Senator Rob Portman and husband of Virginia Kunkle, who refurbished the inn and decorated it with Shaker furniture. In 1969, Mr. and Mrs. Jones leased the Golden Lamb to the Comisar family, who owned and operated the now defunct five-star Maisonette restaurant in Cincinnati. The Golden Lamb Restaurant & Inn continues to be owned by the Portman Family of Ohio and is currently managed by The Phoenix Restaurant Group from Cincinnati, Ohio.</p><br>
<h2>The building</h2><br>
<p>Four floors</p><br>
<p>Lobby</p><br>
<p>Restaurant with a tavern, four large public dining rooms, and five private dining rooms</p><br>
<p>Gift shop</p><br>
<p>Eighteen guest rooms</p><br>
<p>The old stables were removed to make room for the parking lot</p><br>
<p>Illa Coelleira, or Colleira , is a small island located in the mouth of the Barqueiro river, off the town of Viveiro, in the Rias Altas coastal region of Galicia, Spain. The island is part of O Vicedo municipality. It is known best as the site of a former monastery, and today houses a lighthouse to aid navigation.</p><br>
<h2>Name</h2><br>
<p>The island&#39;s Galician name, Illa Coelleira, means "island of the rabbits", a reference to the numerous rabbits that today inhabit the otherwise bare island. Documents show its name in the 11th century as Quonicularia.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Historians have speculated that the monastery was founded during the reign of Leovigildo (573-586 AD), a period during which Christians were persecuted. This theory holds that the monastery was populated with monks fleeing the monastery of San Claudius of León, who then spread out to work throughout Galicia.</p><br>
<p>A firm record exists of a donation by Vimara Menéndez to the monastery of San Miguel de Quonicularia in 1095. The donation gave over to the monastery one third of the church of San Julian de Loiva under an intermediary bishop, Gonzalo.</p><br>
<p>Little record of the island exists from the 11th to 15th centuries. Some accounts describe the island being settled by Templars, who were then massacred in 1307. Reports resume in the 15th century, with the 1485 union of the island monastery with the mainland monastery of San Martiño de Mondoñedo under prior Ares Pérez de Viladonga. There followed numerous difficulties for the Coelleira monastery, until in 1534 a papal bull annexed the monastery to Mondoñedo Cathedral.</p><br>
<p>Lake Houston is a reservoir on the San Jacinto River, 15 miles  northeast of downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The reservoir is the primary municipal water supply for the city of Houston.</p><br>
<h2>Location and creation</h2><br>
<p>Situated between the communities of Kingwood, Atascocita and Humble on the west bank, Sheldon on the south, and Crosby and Huffman on the east. An earthen dam spans a portion of the southern bank along Dwight D. Eisenhower Park.</p><br>
<p>The reservoir was created in 1953 when the City of Houston built the dam to impound a reservoir to replace Sheldon Lake, then the primary source of water for the city. The city sold Sheldon Lake to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for use as a waterfowl sanctuary and public fishing site.</p><br>
<p>The City of Houston annexed the Lake Houston area and a 22.5 mi canal in 1956.</p><br>
<h2>Fish and plant populations</h2><br>
<p>Lake Houston has been stocked with species of fish intended to improve the utility of the reservoir for recreational fishing. Fish present in Lake Houston include catfish, largemouth bass, white crappie, and bluegill.</p><br>
<h2>Recreational uses</h2><br>
<p>Boating and fishing are both popular recreational uses of the lake. At the northern end of the lake, Lake Houston Park also has facilities for camping and hiking.</p><br>
<p>Khami  is a ruined city located 22 kilometres west of Bulawayo, in Zimbabwe. It was once the capital of the Kingdom of Butua of the Torwa dynasty. It is now a national monument, and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.</p><br>
<h2>Context</h2><br>
<p>The settlement that we see today was a development of the architectural form that emerged at Great Zimbabwe in the 13th century AD and a local Leopard&#39;s Kopje culture that built platforms of rough walling on which houses would be constructed. Khami marks an innovation that recognised the environment in which was built. The area around Khami, being riverine, is hot and had problems with malaria. The stone found at Khami (laminar granite) was different from that found in other areas of Zimbabwe (biotite). With a mixture of dolerite, this stone was harder to quarry and produced shapeless building stone. It can be estimated that over 60% of the stone produced at these quarries would not be of building quality. The building blocks thus needed to be shaped, but even then the stones were not suitable for building free-standing dry stone walls. The builders thus made an innovation and produced retaining walls instead. Secondly, building platforms made the houses cooler than those in the open areas below. It also eliminated the problem of malaria for the lucky royals who stayed in the built-up areas. The walls are gravity retaining walls built without mortar. Unlike at Great Zimbabwe, some of the walls at Khami have foundations built with huge blocks which would have been lifted by at least four people. Excavations have revealed well-planned buildings especially at the Hill Complex, which was occupied by the king. The complex was first built up by creating terraces of rough walling. These stable walls were then covered up by quality walling of dressed stone blocks. Each terrace was highly decorated with either a checkerboard pattern, herringbone, or a cord pattern. The terraces leaned inwards so that gravity would not cause collapses. The terraces that were created by leaning inwards had wooden poles probably for the guards to hold on to as they walked along the high and steep walls.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Khami was the capital of the Torwa dynasty for about 200 years from around 1450 and appears to have been founded at the time of the disappearance of the state at Great Zimbabwe. After that (the traditional date is 1683), it was ransacked by Changamire Dombo who led an army of Rozvi rebels from the Mwenemutapa ("Monomotapa") State. Excavations seem to show that the site was not occupied after these Rozvi took over. The Rozvi made another Khami phase site, Danamombe (Dhlo-Dhlo), their new capital. In the 1830s Nguni speaking Ndebele raiders displaced them from Khami and many of the other sites they had established.</p><br>
<p>The site of Khami reveals seven built-up areas occupied by the royal family with open areas in the valley occupied by the commoners. The complex comprises circular, sometimes terraced, artificial platforms encased by dry stone walls. The beautifully decorated 6m-high by 68m-long retaining wall of the precipice platform bears a checkerboard design along its entire length. The platforms, rising 2–7m above the ground, carried dhaka (clay) huts and courtyards where those of lower status lived. The remnants of cattle kraals and huts for ordinary people can be seen below the Hill Complex. The ruins include a royal enclosure or Hill Complex, which had to be on higher ground than other buildings, stone walls and hut platforms, and also a Christian cross believed to have been placed by a contemporary missionary. There are also ruins on the eastern side of the Khami River. Other platforms are believed to have been cattle kraals and a retaining wall with a chequered pattern. Recent excavations (2000–2006) have revealed that the walls of the western parts of the Hill Complex were all decorated in chequer, herringbone, cord, as well as variegated stone blocks.</p><br>
<p>Lake Waihola is a tidal freshwater lake located 15 km north of Milton in Otago, in New Zealand&#39;s South Island. Its area is some 9 square kilometres, with a maximum length of 6 kilometres.</p><br>
<p>It is the larger of a pair of existing lakes - the other being Lake Waipori - which lie in a small area of low hills between the Taieri and Tokomairaro. Waihola is drained by the Waipori River, a tributary of the Taieri. Both lakes are very shallow and surrounded by wetlands, including the internationally renowned and protected Sinclair Wetlands which are the home to many species of wading birds. This shallowness is reflected in the name Waihola, the southern Maori form of the word waihora, which means "spreading waters".</p><br>
<p>Lake Waihola is a popular day trip for holidaymakers from Dunedin, 40 km to the north. The small township of Waihola (population 200), nestled against the lake&#39;s eastern edge, has facilities for fishing, yachting, and waterskiing, and the lake is an important rowing venue.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Lake Waihola was used in the Central Otago goldrush. Ships used to travel up the Taieri River and across to the southern side of the lake where prospectors would traverse the hills and on to Gabriels Gully. In the early days of settlement a paddle-steamer, the Betsy Douglas, plied the lakes waters from Owhiro, near Henley in the north to Clarendon at the lake&#39;s southern end.</p><br>
<p>Lake Waihola is located at the southern end of the lower Taieri Plains and is the largest of a group of historical lakes that were once distributed between Lake Waihola and Mosgiel. Other neighbouring historical lakes include Lake Tatawai, Loch Ascog, Loch Katrine, Lake Potaka and Silverstream Lagoon</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>The place name creates some interest as the Māori alphabet does not actually contain the letter L.</p><br>
<p>The word Waihola is generally accepted to be analogous with the word wai-hora, meaning.</p><br>
<h2>Ecosystems</h2><br>
<p>Lake Waihola has attracted international interest due to the ecosystems based in a shallow freshwater tidal system. Since 2000, Danish scientists have been conducting annual studies of the lake. Waihola is reputedly the home to a species of otter, the cryptid waitoreke, but no verified sightings have ever confirmed the animal&#39;s existence.</p><br>
<h2>Health Warnings</h2><br>
<p>Health Warnings related to Algae have been issued on the lake as of March 2017</p><br>
<p>Lake Neusiedl  or Fertő  is the largest endorheic lake in Central Europe, straddling the Austrian–Hungarian border. The lake covers 315 km², of which 240 km² is on the Austrian side and 75 km² on the Hungarian side. The lakes drainage basin has an area of about 1,120 km&sup2;. From north to south, the lake is about 36 km long, and it is between 6 km and 12 km wide from east to west. On average, the lakes surface is 115.45 m above the Adriatic Sea and the lake is no more than 1.8 m deep.</p><br>
<h2>Water level fluctuations</h2><br>
<p>In the past, rainfall and aridity caused significant floods (which in 1768 enlarged the lake to its maximum documented size of 515 km²) and significant decreases in the lake&#39;s level, although frequently there seemed to be no apparent connection with the weather situation.</p><br>
<p>Stratigraphy shows that the lake bed has totally dried up at least 100 times since its formation (18,000–14,000 BC). During recent history the lake&#39;s complete disappearance has been documented in considerable detail on several occasions, e.g. in 1740–1742, 1811–1813, and most recently in 1866, when the private diary of a local, Gottlieb Wenzel, noted that he crossed the bed of the lake on 4 June without soiling his boots. Parts of the lake bed were claimed for agriculture; wheat and turnips were being planted. However, in 1871 the lake began to return and by the spring of 1876 it had already reassumed its usual size. The last (brief and partial) vanishing took place during the summer of 1949 when the northern part of the lake bed (to the approximate latitude of Podersdorf) fell dry for a few weeks. Each time the drying-up of the lake bed caused major environmental disruptions because the humidifying and temperature buffering effect of the large water body was absent, and because the winds blew large amounts of salty dust into the surrounding villages. On earlier occasions the lake was sometimes referred to as a "swamp", suggesting a very low water level with an expansion of reeds throughout the lake bed. Two records dated to 1318 and 1324, respectively mention a "river", implying that at this time the lake might have been reduced to a central body of water running from north to south.</p><br>
<p>Today the water level is controlled by a sluice on Hungarian territory near Fertőújlak, and bilateral issues are dealt with by the Austro-Hungarian water commission which was established in 1956. However, comparatively minor fluctuations of the lake&#39;s level continue to occur. In 1965 the lake gained 100 e6m3 of water within a single month, raising its level by 35 cm. The water level decreased to a similar extent, by 30 cm within one year as a result of the drought of 2003. Both types of events are perfectly within the normal range, and because of the shallowness of the water can be either exacerbated or compensated by the effects of wind pressure, which can temporarily raise or reduce the local water level by as much as 75 cm. However, the lake remains sensitive to changes in its equilibrium, as recent climate change scenario simulations have shown.</p><br>
<p>Before the regulation works of the 19th century, the lake extended in the southeast to the marshlands of the Hanság (Waasen) which have been increasingly drained and claimed for agriculture from the 16th century onward. Originally, the lake was thus closely connected to the Danube and the Rába river systems.</p><br>
<h2>Nature and wildlife</h2><br>
<p>Most of the lake is surrounded by reeds which serve as a habitat for wildlife (making the lake an important resting place for migratory birds) and are harvested in winter as soon as the ice is solid enough. This serves a double purpose, one ecological (removal of the bulk of organic matter that would otherwise decay in the lake) and one economic (the reed is sold for various purposes, mostly related to construction and housing). During the summer months, there are occasional reed fires, as dry reed is easily flammable, and fires spread quickly because of the almost constant wind. Water quality is determined by temperature, wind, and by the amount of salt and mud emanating with the ground water from the sediments.</p><br>
<p>Several plans for dams and other intrusive construction works which would have destroyed the lake and its biotopes were discussed during the first half of the 20th century but came to nothing. Detailed plans to divide the lake bed with earthworks so that certain parts with reasonably fertile soil could be permanently drained and claimed for agriculture while the remaining parts would be used for intensive aquaculture had been finalized and approved in 1918 but were abandoned when most of the lake became Austrian territory after World War I. In 1971 plans for a bridge across the Austrian part of the lake were thwarted by environmentalists.</p><br>
<p>In 1993 the National Park Neusiedler See-Seewinkel gained international acceptance as an IUCN Category II preserve. In 2001 the national parks in Austria and Fertő-Hanság in Hungary were together accepted as a World Heritage Site. Lake Neusiedl See and its surrounding areas in Austria also enjoy protection through the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.</p><br>
<h2>Towns and villages around the lake</h2><br>
<p>Traces of human settlement around Lake Neusiedl go back to the neolithic period. The area became densely populated from the 7th century BC onward, initially by people of the Hallstatt culture and remained so throughout Roman times. In 454 Theodoric the Great, the preeminent king of the Ostrogoths, was born here. Near Fertőrákos there are two Roman villas and a 3rd-century Mithras temple open to visitors.</p><br>
<p>The more important extant towns lying on the lakes shore are Illmitz (Illmic), Podersdorf am See (Pátfalu), Weiden (Védeny), Neusiedl am See (Nezsider), Jois (Nyulas), Winden (Sásony), Breitenbrunn (Fertőszéleskút), Purbach am Neusiedlersee (Feketeváros), Donnerskirchen (Fertőfehéregyháza), Oggau (Oka), Rust (Ruszt) and Mörbisch (Fertőmeggyes) in Austria, and Fertőrákos, Fertőboz, Fertőd, Balf and Fertőújlak in Hungary, with the communities of Illmitz, Apetlon (Mosonbánfalva) and Podersdorf am See forming the so-called Seewinkel (lake corner), which is located between the lake and the Hungarian border. Hungarian names of Austrian towns lying on the lakes shore are given in parentheses.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>Despite remaining a protected wildlife habitat, the region of Lake Neusiedl, particularly in its Austrian part, draws significant numbers of tourists. The lake is known as the "Sea of the Viennese", as it offers ample opportunities for sailing and windsurfing at a reasonable distance from Vienna. There is also some commercial fishing.</p><br>
<p>Low water levels pose a problem for sailing and commercial shipping, as boats hit the ground more frequently and mooring sites can become temporarily unusable. However, it somewhat facilitates the annual freestyle mass crossing of the lake from Mörbisch to Illmitz. Everybody who can swim and is more than 160 cm in height can participate in this event, which was revived in 2004.</p><br>
<p>Lake Bogoria is a saline, alkaline lake that lies in a volcanic region in a half-graben basin south of Lake Baringo, Kenya, a little south of the equator. Lake Bogoria, like Lake Nakuru, Lake Elmenteita, and Lake Magadi further south in the Rift Valley, and Lake Logipi to the north, is home at times to one of the world&#39;s largest populations of lesser flamingos. The lake is a Ramsar site and Lake Bogoria National Reserve has been a protected National Reserve since November 29, 1973. Lake Bogoria is shallow , and is about 34 km long by 3.5 km wide, with a drainage basin of 700 km.</p><br>
<p>Local features include the Kesubo Swamp to the north and the Siracho Escarpment to the east, both within the National Reserve. The lake is also famous for geysers and hot springs along the bank of the lake and in the lake. In four locations around the lake can be observed at least 10 geysers, which erupt up to 5 m high. Geyser activity is affected by the fluctuations of lake level, which may inundate or expose some geysers.</p><br>
<p>The lake waters contain large concentrations of Na, HCO3 and CO3 ions. They originate from inflow from the Sandai and Emsos rivers, and from about 200 alkaline hot springs that are present at three onshore sites: Loburu, Chemurkeu, and a southern group (Ng&#39;wasis, Koibobei, Losaramat). Other springs discharge directly from the lake floor. Lake Bogoria also contains the highest concentration of true geysers in Africa (at least 18 are known). The lake waters are alkaline (pH:10.5) and saline (up to 100 g/L total dissolved salts). The lake has no surface outlet so the water becomes saline mainly through evaporation, which is high in this semi-arid region. The lake itself is meromictic (stratified) with less dense surface waters lying on a denser more saline bottom waters. Although hypersaline, the lake is highly productive with abundant cyanobacteria (Arthrospira fusiformis) that feed the flamingoes, but few other organisms inhabit the lake e.g. the monogonont rotifer species Brachionus sp. Austria (belonging to the Brachionus plicatilis cryptic species complex) is found in high densities.</p><br>
<p>The lake has not always been saline. Sediment cores from the lake floor have shown that freshwater conditions existed for several periods during the past 10,000 years, and that lake level was up to about 9 m higher than its present level of about 990 m above sea-level. At times it might have overflowed northward towards Lake Baringo. At times, during the late Pleistocene it might have been united with a larger precursor of modern Lake Baringo, but this is still uncertain.</p><br>
<p>The lake area was the traditional home of the Endorois people, who were forced to leave the area in the 1970s and are now challenging their removal at the African Commission on Human and Peoples&#39; Rights.</p><br>
<p>Hotel accommodation is available near Loboi village at the north end of the lake. Camping is permitted at the southern end of the lake (see North Lewis, 1998, for details).</p><br>
<p>Lake Magadi is the southernmost lake in the Kenyan Rift Valley, lying in a catchment of faulted volcanic rocks, north of Tanzania&#39;s Lake Natron. During the dry season, it is 80% covered by soda and is well known for its wading birds, including flamingos.</p><br>
<p>Lake Magadi is a saline, alkaline lake, approximately 100 square kilometers in size, that lies in an endorheic basin formed by a graben. The lake is an example of a "saline pan". The lake water, which is a dense sodium carbonate brine, precipitates vast quantities of the mineral trona (sodium sesquicarbonate). In places, the salt is up to 40 m thick. The lake is recharged mainly by saline hot springs (temperatures up to 86 °C) that discharge into alkaline "lagoons" around the lake margins, there being little surface runoff in this arid region. Most hot springs lie along the northwestern and southern shorelines of the lake. During the rainy season, a thin (less than 1 m) layer of brine covers much of the saline pan, but this evaporates rapidly leaving a vast expanse of white salt that cracks to produce large polygons. A single species of fish, a cichlid Alcolapia grahami, inhabits the hot, highly alkaline waters of this lake basin and is commonly seen in some of the hot spring pools around the shoreline, where the water temperature is less than 45 °C.</p><br>
<p>Lake Magadi was not always so saline. Several thousand years ago (during the late Pleistocene to mid-Holocene), the Magadi basin held a freshwater lake with many fish, whose remains are preserved in the High Magadi Beds, a series of lacustrine and volcaniclastic sediments preserved in various locations around the present shoreline. Evidence also exists for several older Pleistocene precursor lakes that were much larger than present Lake Magadi. At times, Lake Magadi and Lake Natron were united as a single larger lake.</p><br>
<p>Lake Magadi is also well known for its extensive deposits of siliceous chert. There are many varieties including bedded cherts that formed in the lake and intrusive dike-like bodies that penetrated through overlying sediments while the silica was soft. Most famous is "Magadi-type chert", which formed from a sodium silicate mineral precursor magadiite that was discovered at Lake Magadi in 1967.</p><br>
<p>Magadi township lies on the lake&#39;s east shore, and is home to the Magadi Soda factory, owned by Tata India since December 2005. This factory produces soda ash, which has a range of industrial uses.</p><br>
<p>The lake is featured in Fernando Meirelles&#39;s film The Constant Gardener, which is based on the book of the same name by John le Carré, although in the film the shots are supposed to be at Lake Turkana.</p><br>
<p>A causeway that crosses the lake provides access to the area west of the lake (Nguruman Escarpment). Recently accommodation for tourists is provided in air conditioned canvas tents.</p><br>
<p>Lake Magadi satellite image.pngLake Magadi, as seen from space.</p><br>
<p>Soda Plant, Lake Magadi.jpgSoda Plant</p><br>
<p>Soda train, Magadi, Kenya.jpgSoda train</p><br>
<p>Magadisjön läge.pngMap</p><br>
<p>Lake Magadi, Kenya-5.jpgPink waters</p><br>
<p>The Tokomairaro River is located in Otago, New Zealand. It flows southeast for some 50 kilometres , reaching the Pacific Ocean at Toko Mouth 50 kilometres  south of Dunedin. The town of Milton is located on the Tokomairaro&#39;s floodplain, close to the junction of its two main branches .</p><br>
<p>The name of the river is Māori, and translates roughly as &#39;place where canoe must be poled&#39; (a possible reference to the method needed to travel through the extensive wetlands, instead of the usual paddling). The Tokomairaro River is prone to seasonal flooding during the heavy rainfall months, August to October. Local industrial buildings have been forced to build high concrete walls around their property to reduce flood damage each year.</p><br>
<p>The spelling of the river changed from "Tokomairiro River" to "Tokomairaro River" on 28 July 2016. Both spellings have been in use since mid-1800s, however "Tokomairaro" was deemed to be correct.</p><br>
<p>The Twelve Bens, or Twelve Pins , is a mountain range of sharp-peaked quartzite ranges located northeast of Roundstone in Connemara in the west of Ireland. Dedicated fell runners attempt to hike all twelve peaks in a single day. Topographically, this range is partnered with the Maumturks range on the other side of the lonely Glen Inagh . Frequent rainfall and steep-sided mountains produce an abundance of small trickles and streams which descend into wide-bottomed valleys below the Twelve Pins to join larger streams with riffles and pools. The highest point in the Twelve Bens is Benbaun at 729 metres . They provide excellent walking and climbing opportunities for outdoor enthusiasts.</p><br>
<h2>Highest points</h2><br>
<p>The following table lists the 12 highest major mountain peaks of the Twelve Bens Mountains, all with a topographic elevation of at least 516 metres (1,693 ft). There are a number of mountains higher than Benglenisky, but do not have sufficient prominence to be included in this list.</p><br>
<h2>Further reading</h2><br>
<p>"The Mountains of Connemara: A Hill Walker&#39;s Guide" includes a more useful 1:50000 map than the OS maps 37, 38, 44.</p><br>
<h2>Other projects</h2><br>
<p>Jebel Musa  is a mountain in the northernmost part of Morocco, on the African side of the Strait of Gibraltar. It is part of the Rif mountain chain. The mountain is generally identified as the southern Pillar of Hercules, Abila Mons.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Jebel Musa, named, according to the 14th-century Berber Muslim geographer Ibn Battuta, to honour Musa bin Nusayr, to whom the conqueror of Andalusia Tariq ibn Ziyad owed fealty, was known to the ancient Greeks as Mount Abyla or to Romans as Columna. Together with the Rock of Gibraltar to the north, it is generally identified as one of the Pillars of Hercules (this title is also claimed for Monte Hacho in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, to the east of the mountain).</p><br>
<p>The pillars of Hercules arose from one of his twelve labours. Earlier, Perseus defeated the Titan Atlas by showing him the head of the Gorgon. Atlas was petrified; his hair became a forest and his shoulders became cliffs. Later, Hercules was directed to get the Cattle of Geryon and deliver them to Eurystheus. Hercules&#39; way was blocked by the mountain that Perseus had created; to clear a way, he used his mace to split the mountain in half, one part becoming the Rock of Gibraltar and the other becoming a mountain in Morocco. According to the legend this split in the mountain created a sea link between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. This link was the Strait of Gibraltar.</p><br>
<p>Jebel Musa is 842 m high. To the north, across the Strait of Gibraltar, lie Spain and the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. To the east is Ceuta, a Spanish exclave, and to the west and south is Morocco. By road, the mountain is about 22 km west of Ceuta and about 72 km east of Tangier.</p><br>
<p>Jebel Musa is opposite the Rock of Gibraltar at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. It is an important landmark in the region of Tangier-Tetouan on the north coast of Morocco. The coastlines around the mountain show evidence of having had varying sea levels through the ages. These highstands are at 120–130 metres; 80 to 90 metres; 40 to 60 metres and from 0 to 25 metres above the present sea level.</p><br>
<p>In Ceuta, around the town of Benzú, the mountain is known as The Dead Woman (la Mujer Muerta), because from that direction it resembles a woman on her back.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>The mountain is a site for birdwatching. Migratory birds use the updraughts and thermals from Jebel Musa to gain height before attempting to cross the Strait of Gibraltar. The Strait of Gibraltar is "one of the world&#39;s most prominent" migration bottlenecks and raptor watching is popular in the fall, though the best observation points may be north of the Strait.</p><br>
<p>The area around the mountain has over 200 caves that attract visiting cavers. The area around the mountain is mainly forest and is identified in the Plan for Protected Areas in Morocco as a Site of Biological and Ecological Interest (SIBE).</p><br>
<p>Blackfriars Theatre and Arts Centre is a theatre and community centre situated in Spain Lane, Boston, Lincolnshire, England. The building is a remaining part of a mediaeval friary.</p><br>
<h2>Building</h2><br>
<p>Blackfriars Theatre and Arts Centree is Grade II* listed. The two-storey building was the refectory of a Dominican friary that was "heavily restored and altered" in 1963 when an eastern gable was rebuilt with casement windows added. The interior retains a 17th-century staircase, although not in its original position. Pevsner describes the building as a 90 ft long "Friars Hall", running on an east to west axis with its upper floor previously the refectory. At the Suppression of the Monasteries material from the Friary was used to repair sea walls.</p><br>
<p>Blackfriars Friary was formed some time during the 13th Century. The first written record is from 1288 when it was noted that the friary had been rebuilt after being destroyed by fire. In 1300 the friary housed a total of 29 friars. The surviving building was converted into a theatre in 1965.</p><br>
<p>Blackfriars is said to be haunted by a friar, who hides sharp objects left by theatregoers under the stage.</p><br>
<h2>Use</h2><br>
<p>The Centre&#39;s first professional director was appointed in 1980, but today it is completely run and managed by local volunteers with the help of a full-time theatre technician. It comprises a theatre with a 230-seat auditorium, a foyer gallery, a revue bar, and an art studio.</p><br>
<p>In former days the arts centre provided art classes, including night classes in still life, life drawing, screen printing, needlework and photography. It included various residences and numerous outreach workers throughout the 1980s and 1990s.</p><br>
<p>Groups which use the arts centre currently include the Boston Playgoers, BOS Musical Theatre Group,and Cutwater Theatre Group. There is also a very active Theatre Academy for children from 4 to 19, and a number of other organisations meet here including U3A, Ballet schools, and Lithuanian Community Groups. Rooms are available for hire.</p><br>
<p>The building hosts performances, workshops, classes and other activities, and has a rolling art exhibition, generally featuring local artists, which is changed monthly.</p><br>
<p>Stump Radio was established at the centre with help from Spalding&#39;s Tulip Radio, and broadcast during July and August 2006, and in 2007. The station is now Endeavour FM, presenting news, music and community events through local presenters.</p><br>
<p>The Waipori River is in Otago in the South Island of New Zealand. Rising in the Lammerlaw Range, it flows southeast for 50 km before joining the Taieri River near Henley, 30 km southwest of Dunedin of which it is officially the southernmost border.</p><br>
<p>The upper reaches of the Waipori flow through rough hill country, much of it covered by the Berwick Forest. An artificial lake, Lake Mahinerangi is formed on the river behind a small hydroelectric station at Waipori Falls, which was built in 1880 to provide power for the city of Dunedin. Much of this area is within the Waipori Falls Scenic Reserve.</p><br>
<p>The lower reaches of the river pass through an area of wetlands around Lakes Waihola and Waipori, both of which drain into the river. This area is a habitat for many species of wading birds. The Sinclair Wetlands reserve is located in this area.</p><br>
<p>The name Waipori comes from Maori words meaning "dark water".</p><br>
<p>The Minarets are a series of jagged peaks located in the Ritter Range, a sub-range of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the state of California. They are easily viewed from Minaret Summit, which is accessible by auto. The peaks bear a certain resemblance to the minarets of Islamic mosques. Collectively, they form an arête, and are a prominent feature in the Ansel Adams Wilderness which was known as the Minaret Wilderness until it was renamed in honor of Ansel Adams in 1984.</p><br>
<p>The peaks were named in 1868 by the California Geographical Survey, which reported: "To the south of Mount Ritter are some grand pinnacles of granite, very lofty and apparently inaccessible, to which we gave the name of the Minarets."</p><br>
<p>Seventeen of the Minarets have been given unofficial names, including Michael Minaret, Adams Minaret, Leonard Minaret, and Clyde Minaret. Clyde Minaret, named after Norman Clyde, is the tallest of the spires. The Southeast Face Route of Clyde Minaret is a technical rock climb featured in Fifty Classic Climbs of North America.</p><br>
<p>The area is notable for two fatalities:</p><br>
<p>Walter A. Starr, Jr., author of Starr’s Guide to the John Muir Trail and the High Sierra Region, fell to his death while solo-climbing the northwest face of Michael Minaret in 1933.</p><br>
<p>Steve Fossett, an American aviator and adventurer, died in a plane crash near the Minarets in 2007.</p><br>
<p>The Thaya  is a river in Central Europe, the longest tributary to the Morava River. It is about 235 km  long and meanders from west to east in the border area between Lower Austria  and South Moravia , though the frontier does not exactly follow the river&#39;s course in most parts. Its source is in two smaller rivers, namely the German Thaya  and the Moravian Thaya , flowing together at Raabs.</p><br>
<p>Its name means "the inert". There is also a small village which bears the name Dyje, located near Znojmo.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>In its upper reaches, the Thaya flows through deep gorges (Podyjí), along which it passes many castles and chateaus. In Moravia, it has been dammed in several locations.</p><br>
<p>Thaya gathers waters from the western half of Moravia and the adjacent part of Lower Austria. Its biggest tributaries are Svratka and Jihlava, flowing together into the middle one of the Nové Mlýny reservoirs.</p><br>
<p>Important cities and towns along the Thaya:</p><br>
<p>Raabs an der Thaya</p><br>
<p>Drosendorf-Zissersdorf</p><br>
<p>Vranov nad Dyji</p><br>
<p>Hardegg</p><br>
<p>Znojmo</p><br>
<p>Laa an der Thaya</p><br>
<p>Lednice</p><br>
<p>Břeclav</p><br>
<h2>Dams</h2><br>
<p>All the dams are situated in Czech Republic. They are used for irrigation, hydroelectricity and flood protection.</p><br>
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<p>The Great Morava  is the final section of the Morava , a major river system in Serbia.</p><br>
<h2>Length</h2><br>
<p>The Velika ("Great") Morava begins at the confluence of the South Morava and the West Morava, located near the small town of Stalać, a major railway junction in central Serbia. From there to its confluence with the Danube northeast of the city of Smederevo, the Velika Morava is 185 km long. With its longer branch, the West Morava, it is 493 km long. The South Morava, which represents the natural headwaters of the Morava, used to be longer than the West Morava, but due to the regulations of river bed and melioration, it is shorter nowadays.</p><br>
<p>At one time (regulations were made on all three branches making them shorter) the Morava was over 600 km long. Today, the most distant water source in the Morava watershed is the source of the Ibar River, the right and longest tributary of the Zapadna Morava, originating in Montenegro, which gives the Ibar-West Morava-Great Morava river system a length of 550 km, which still makes it the longest waterway in the Balkan Peninsula.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The drainage basin of the Velika Morava is 6,126 km², and of the whole Morava system is 37,444 km² (of that, 1,237 km² are in Bulgaria and 44 km² are in the Republic of Macedonia), which covers 42,38% of Serbia. Velika Morava flows through the most fertile and densely populated area of Central Serbia, called the Morava river valley or Pomoravlje. Pomoravlje was formed in a fossil bay of a vast, ancient Pannonian Sea which dried out 200,000 years ago. Through about half of its length it passes through beautiful Bagrdan gorge (Bagrdanska klisura). In past centuries, it was known for its seemingly endless forests, but there is almost nothing left today of those old woods. It flows into the Danube between the villages of Kulič & Dubravica, in the coal mining basin of Kostolac, one of two major mines in its drainage basin (the other one being Resava coal basin, in valley of the Velika Morava&#39;s right tributary Resava). The average discharge of the Velika Morava on its confluence with Danube is 255 m³/s (120 m³/s brought by Zapadna Morava, 100 m³/s by Južna Morava, and 35 m³/s amounted by the Velika Morava itself).</p><br>
<h2>Tributaries</h2><br>
<p>Tributaries of the Velika Morava are short, the longest one being the Jasenica (79 km) and others rarely exceeding 50 km. Right tributaries are: Jovanovačka reka, Crnica, Ravanica, Resava and Resavica (or Resavčina). Left tributaries are more numerous, including: Kalenićka reka, Lugomir, Belica River, Lepenica, Rača, and Jasenica. Many of them dont carry much water, but in rainy years, they are known for causing major floods, which has been a big problem for the entire Morava river system. Before it meets the Danube, the Velika Morava splits, creating a 47 km long arm called the Jezava, which flows into the Danube separately, in the town of Smederevo. Its joined by a longer (51 km) river, the Ralja, from the left.</p><br>
<h2>Improvements</h2><br>
<p>The Velika Morava represents a textbook example of a meandering river. It used to be 245 km long, but directly from its origin to the Danube, there is only 118 km in distance; its meandering ratio is 118:245, one of the highest in Europe.</p><br>
<p>The river bed is 80–200 m wide, and the depth as much as 10 m. Notorious for its flooding, the Morava has changed its course many times, and old river bends have become small lakes, known as moravište. Južna Morava, with extremely high erosion in its drainage basin, brings huge amounts of silt which is elevating Velika Morava&#39;s river bed, making floods even more frequent.</p><br>
<p>Beginning in 1966, huge works began on all three rivers to prevent future floodings. Series of reservoirs were made on tributaries (lakes Bovan, Ćelije, Gazivode, etc.), and meanders were cut through, making river courses straightened, which made them shorter (in the case of the Velika Morava, from 245 to 185 km). It was projected that it would shorten by as much as 152 km, and that it would become navigable again.</p><br>
<p>Altogether, 18 reservoirs are projected, 23 meanders are to be cut, a series of embankments are to be built and intensive afforestation is to be started. However, since the late 1980s and especially since the 1990s, with economic crises and wars in former Yugoslavia, this has all stopped.</p><br>
<p>The Morava and its tributaries still flood often, so its bed is still elevated, despite dozens of gravel-digging companies in cities and villages near the river&#39;s upper course (Lozovik, Lugavčina, Lučica, Velika Plana, etc.).</p><br>
<h2>Navigation</h2><br>
<p>Today, Velika Morava is navigable for only 3 km from its mouth. In the past it was navigable all the way to the city of Ćuprija, for about 3/4 of its length. But, as mentioned before, Velika Morava gets buried under the materials brought by the Južna Morava. When the melioration program began in 1966, it was projected it would become navigable again, in the first phase to Ćuprija, and in the next all the way to Stalać, making it 100% navigable. None of this was accomplished. From time to time, the idea of digging Danube-Morava-Vardar-Aegean Sea a navigable canal pops up in the media. Technical problems of making this waterway would be enormous (neither the Morava nor the Vardar are navigable), the usefulness of its creation is negotiable (whether the route would be used much), and presumably it would cost (17 billion dollars) too much.</p><br>
<h2>Settlements</h2><br>
<p>Even though Morava valley has always been the most populous part of Serbia, disastrous floodings prevented people from settling on the river banks itself. The only urban settlement on the river banks is Ćuprija, but it often suffers from floods (including several times in the 1990s). Others urban settlements, built a little further away from the river itself, include: Paraćin, Jagodina, Batočina, Lapovo, Svilajnac, Velika Plana, Požarevac and Smederevo. Smaller places and villages include: Varvarin, Glogovac, Markovac, Veliko Orašje, Miloševac and Lozovik.</p><br>
<h2>Tradition</h2><br>
<p>The Romans called it Margus (in addition to that, the Zapadna Morava was named Brongus, and Južna Morava was Angrus). The modern-day city of Ćuprija existed in Roman times as Horreum Margi (meaning "The Granary of Margus"). In Serbian history, its valley became the cradle of the modern Serbian state in the beginning of the 19th century (so called "Moravian Serbia&quot Moravska Srbija). Many songs were written in celebration of Morava and its fertility, but most of them also talked about casualties and damages done by the river during floods. Songs are even made today about it; the most famous are: Oj Moravo ("Oh, Morava"), Moravo, tija reko ("Morava, you quiet river"), Uz Moravu vetar duva ("Wind blows up the Morava"), Na Moravi vodenica stara ("Old mill on Morava"), Moravac kolo ("Morava kolo"), etc.</p><br>
<p>Oj Moravo may be the most characteristic:</p><br>
<h2>Works cited</h2><br>
<p>The Enns is a southern tributary of the Danube River, joining northward at Enns, Austria. The Enns River spans 254 km, in a flat-J-shape. It flows from its source near the towns of Gasthofalm and Flachau, generally eastward through Radstadt, Schladming, and Liezen, then turns north near Hieflau, to flow past Weyer and Ternberg through Steyr, and further north to the Danube at Enns .</p><br>
<p>"Karte-Enns" (river map in German), RadTouren.at (Austria),</p><br>
<p>May 2009, webpage: (236kb).</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Enns has its source in the Radstädter Tauern mountains in the Austrian state of Salzburg. In a valley which developed during the ice age, it flows at the border between the Northern Limestone Alps and the Central Eastern Alps on an eastern trajectory through Styria, where it passes the Dachstein group at its southern side. Between Admont and Hieflau, it takes a turn to the North and passes through the Gesäuse, a gorge of a length of, where it penetrates the limestone of the Ennstaler Alpen. Flowing to the north from there on, it reaches the state of Upper Austria at the mouth of the Laußabach. North of Steyr, it forms the border between Upper Austria and Lower Austria (formerly also known as Austria above the Enns and Austria below the Enns). Finally, it meets the Danube at Mauthausen and the city of Enns.</p><br>
<p>The Enns is a typical wild water river and draws its water from an area of more than 6,000 km&sup2, which is the fifth-largest in Austria. The average outflow at its mouth is 201 m3/s.</p><br>
<p>The Anisian Age in the Triassic Period of geological time is named from Anisus, the Latin name of the river Enns.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In the middle of the 19th century, canals began to be built along the between Weißenbach and the Gesäuse, in order to make use of the water for agriculture and forestry.</p><br>
<p>In total, ten power plants, with a total generative power of 345 megawatts, have been built by the Ennskraftwerke AG.</p><br>
<h2>Towns along the river</h2><br>
<h3>in Salzburg</h3><br>
<p>Radstadt</p><br>
<h3>in Styria</h3><br>
<p>Schladming</p><br>
<p>Gröbming</p><br>
<p>Liezen</p><br>
<p>Selzthal</p><br>
<p>Admont</p><br>
<h3>in Upper Austria</h3><br>
<p>Großraming</p><br>
<p>Ternberg</p><br>
<p>Garsten</p><br>
<p>Steyr</p><br>
<p>Enns</p><br>
<h2>Hydroelectric power stations</h2><br>
<p>Currently, there are 15 hydroelectric power stations on the Enns. The power stations are listed beginning at the headwaters:</p><br>
<h2>Tributaries</h2><br>
<p>The most important inflows are the Palten, the Salza and the Steyr (river).</p><br>
<h2>Transport</h2><br>
<p>A major transit route connecting Germany and Slovenia through Austria runs through the Enns valley.</p><br>
<p>The so-called Eisenstraße ("iron road") runs along the river between Hieflau and Enns, along which iron ore has been transported from the Styrian Erzberg (ore mountain) to the steel mill in Linz.</p><br>
<p>The Salt Lake City and County Building, usually called the "City-County Building", is the seat of government for Salt Lake City, Utah. The historic landmark formerly housed offices for Salt Lake County government as well, hence the name.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The building was originally constructed by free masons between 1891 and 1894 to house offices for the city and county of Salt Lake and replace the Salt Lake City Council Hall and Salt Lake County Courthouse, both erected in the 1860s.</p><br>
<p>Construction of the building was riddled with controversy. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the City and County Building was the symbol of non-Mormon citizens open defiance of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was designed to rival the Salt Lake Temple as the citys architectural centerpiece. It is even thought that the buildings clock tower and statues were designed to mimic the temples spires and statue of the angel Moroni. Ironically, the building was originally the 1880s brainchild of the Church-backed "Peoples Party." When the non-Mormon "Liberal Party" was campaigning for city government, they deemed the proposed "joint building" an example of the Churchs extravagance and wastefulness. In a reversal of stance, the Liberals decided to go ahead with the building when they finally gained power in 1890. Construction began in February on State Street at about 100 South.</p><br>
<p>For nebulous reasons, construction was halted that November after only the foundation had been laid. The mostly non-Mormon city council questioned the buildings plans which had been completed during the Peoples Party reign, and wavered on how to proceed. The Deseret News complained that the Liberals were wasting taxpayer money. Ultimately, the original plans and site for the building were scrapped and the whole project was moved to the buildings current location at Washington Square. The Deseret News claimed this move served the City Council, which owned property around the site and would profit from increased land values. Nonetheless construction on new plans began by late 1891. The cornerstone was laid July 25, 1892.</p><br>
<p>The architectural firm of Monheim, Bird, and Proudfoot designed the Richardsonian Romanesque (Olpin et al., 2005) building. Henry Monheim, a local architect since the 1870s, and George W. Bird and Willis T. Proudfoot of Wichita, Kansas established the firm in 1891 specifically to design the building. Their firm won a building design contest against fourteen other submissions. However, The Salt Lake Herald—another LDS-backed paper—claimed that the competition was a "pretentious fraud." Monheim, a Prussian immigrant, died one year into construction. Bird and Proudfoot moved to Philadelphia and Chicago respectively by 1896, so the City-County Building was their firm&#39;s only output.</p><br>
<p>The building was monstrously over budget. Estimated by the firm at $350,000, the winning contractor bid $377,978, but by the building&#39;s dedication on December 28, 1894, it had cost nearly $900,000. Complicating matters was the Panic of 1893 which cut Salt Lake City and County revenues nearly in half. As a result of this, plans for large stained glass windows for the building were discarded.</p><br>
<p>Although now used exclusively by Salt Lake City government, the building originally served many functions. Salt Lake County offices called the structure home until the 1980s when the County elected to build a new complex at 21st South and State Street.</p><br>
<p>The building served as Utahs Capitol from when statehood was granted in 1896 until the present Utah State Capitol was completed in 1915. The Salt Lake City and County building also housed Salt Lakes first public library and contained courtrooms, including one that condemned organizer Joe Hill to death amid international attention in 1914.</p><br>
<p>From 1973 to 1989 the building was exhaustively renovated and repaired with an eye toward historical accuracy. This was done in concert with a seismic upgrade called base isolation that placed the weak sandstone structure on a foundation of steel and rubber to better protect it from earthquake damage.</p><br>
<h2>Features</h2><br>
<p>The Salt Lake City and County Buildings central clock tower is topped with a statue of Columbia and rises 256 feet (78 m) from the ground. The buildings primary axis runs north-south, and large entrances mark each cardinal direction. On the south wing (over the Mayor&#39;s office) is a bronze statue of the goddess Justice. Originally, the building had statues depicting Commerce, Liberty, Justice, and Columbia, but the others were removed following a 1934 earthquake. Columbia and the other missing statues were replaced on top of the building when it was renovated in 1989.</p><br>
<p>The buildings surface is elaborately carved from the gray Utah Kyune sandstone its made of. To the right of the entrance on the south side is the face of Father DeSmet, a Jesuit priest who preached to Native Americans and had contact with the Latter-day Saints before and after they traveled to Utah. To the left is Captain García López de Cárdenas who explored Southern Utah by 1540. Above the granite columns on the east and west sides of the building are carvings of pioneer women. Between the portal and balcony are portraits of Chief Joseph and Chief Wakara and Jim Bridger. Above the west entrance left-to-right are R. N. Baskin, mayor of Salt Lake City circa 1894, Jedediah M. Grant, Salt Lakes first mayor, and Jacob B. Blair, federal judge. The north side features a depiction of the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition which entered Utah in 1776 and named many of the states physical features. Gargoyles, eagles, sea monsters, beehives, Masonic icons, suns, and other symbols dot the building&#39;s rich exterior.</p><br>
<p>Walter Baird and Oswald Lendi carved most of the building&#39;s features. Lendi, a French sculptor, whimsically carved his face between the words "City" and "Hall" above the north entrance.</p><br>
<p>The building has five floors and over one hundred rooms. Onyx lines the hall of each lavishly decorated floor. The third floor houses the mayors office in the south wing and the city council chambers in the north. The council meeting room features an 1865 life-sized portrait of Brigham Young. Portraits of the citys past mayors up to and including Ross "Rocky" Anderson line the corridor between these offices. The third floor features an exhibit commemorating the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City.</p><br>
<p>Around the time of the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, and for a limited time, an electric display depicting the Olympic rings was allowed to be displayed on four sides of the central tower of the City and County building. The Olympic display has since been removed from the building.</p><br>
<h2>Washington Square</h2><br>
<p>The City-County Building sits between State Street, Second East, Fourth South, and Fifth South in Salt Lake City, a block called "Washington Square." Named for George Washington, the block is the site of the original 1847 Mormon pioneers&#39; camp in Salt Lake City.</p><br>
<p>Like other blocks in Salt Lake City&#39;s original grid, Washington Square is 10 acre. The Salt Lake City and County Building, alone in the center of the block, takes up relatively little space. Trees, walkways, and statues surround the building making Washington Square like a small park. Indeed, the block is often the site of fairs, concerts and other activities.</p><br>
<p>One notable gathering happened on June 16, 1995 when 50,000 people congregated on the west side of the City-County Building to watch the International Olympic Committee pick the host city for the 2002 Winter Olympics live on large projection screens. When IOC chairman Juan Antonio Samaranch read the winning city—Salt Lake City—the crowd at Washington Square cheered loudly for minutes, drowning out the rest of Samaranch&#39;s words.</p><br>
<p>Many of Salt Lake City&#39;s cultural events take place at Washington Square, and often 200 East Street between it and Library Square is blocked off to create one large event plaza. Events that take place in this space include Utah Pride Festival, the Utah Arts Festival, and Salt Lake City Jazz Festival and the Living Traditions Festival that celebrates all the different cultures that reside within the state. These occur once per year and usually run over the weekends.</p><br>
<p>Mummy Mountain is the second highest peak of the Spring Mountains in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is the twentieth highest mountain in the state. The mountain is located within the Mount Charleston Wilderness and the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.</p><br>
<p>It takes its name from its vague resemblance to a mummy, or perhaps more accurately an Egyptian sarcophagus seen in profile, with the "head" to the north formed by outcropping above Lee Canyon, the gently rounded main summit forming the "body", and a southern rise and cliffs forming the "feet", called "Mummy&#39;s Toe". This appearance is especially prominent from USA Route 95, which passes by the mountain to the east.</p><br>
<p>The most common route to the summit is from the North Loop Trail to Mount Charleston, starting from where it reaches close to the top of the ridge between Mummy Mountain and Mount Charleston. After the first two switchbacks, a steep scramble up a scree slope reaches the top of the ridge, where a faint climber&#39;s trail leads east to the base of the summit cliffs. The route then jogs north to a class 4 chute leading to the broad and flat summit plateau.</p><br>
<p>Lower Fort Garry was built in 1830 by the Hudson&#39;s Bay Company on the western bank of the Red River, 20 mi north of the original Fort Garry . Treaty 1 was signed there.</p><br>
<p>A devastating flood destroyed Fort Garry in 1826, prompting the companys then-governor, George Simpson, to search for a safer location down river. Governor Simpson chose the site of Lower Fort Garry because of its high ground and location below the St. Andrews Rapids, eliminating a time-consuming portage of heavy fur packs and York boats. However, the fort never became the administrative centre it was intended, since most of the population of the area was centred near The Forks and objected to the extra travel required to do business at the new fort. As a result, Upper Fort Garry was rebuilt in stone at The Forks, very near the original Fort Garry site.</p><br>
<h2>Store and supply depot</h2><br>
<p>The first buildings built at the fort in 1830 were the "fur loft", which housed the company store, small warehouse and traders office, and the "Big House" (residence for the governor of the HBC or other high-ranking officials). Later additions included a warehouse and a mens house. The forts signature walls were completed in the 1840s, adding an icehouse, powder magazine, bakehouse, and warehouse bastions. These walls were non-military, intended only to make the fort appear more important and impressive to both local traders and visiting HBC officers. Many of the buildings were constructed with limestone, which was easily obtained from nearby. The site also hosts excellent examples of Red River Frame construction (Farm Managers House) and Half-timbered construction (colombage pierroté) (Men&#39;s House and Big House Annex).</p><br>
<p>Although the Lower Fort did trade a small amount of furs, its main purpose was as a supply depot for the Red River settlement and the surrounding Cree, Anishinaabe, Métis, and European (mostly Orkney Scot) populations. Many furs at the fort were brought from other districts, repackaged at the fort and sent to England via York Factory. The post traded essential manufactured goods to the farmers and hunters for produce that was in turn used for provisioning company treks into the north. The fort became an industrial centre by the 1860s and included several buildings, such as a flour mill, sawmill, forge, and a brewery.</p><br>
<h2>Treaty No. 1</h2><br>
<p>On August 3, 1871, the first treaty in Western Canada was established between the federal government and seven chiefs of the Ojibway (Saulteaux) and Swampy Cree First Nations at Lower Fort Garry. Indian Treaty No. 1 transferred the land that now comprises part of modern Manitoba. The treaty&#39;s intent was to ensure the peaceful settlement of the prairies by European immigrants, while providing First Nations people with land, access to resources and other necessities for their survival. Almost immediately after the treaty was established, the two parties disagreed on its meaning.</p><br>
<p>Indian Treaty No. 1, the precedent for the 10 subsequent numbered treaties in Western Canada, is commemorated by a Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada plaque outside the Visitor Reception Centre.</p><br>
<p>Every now and then there was a crisis that called for military action, and Lower Fort Garry was the obvious choice for a base of operations. In the 1846, British troops (6th Regiment of the Foot) were sent to the fort when a dispute erupted with the United States over the boundary between the Oregon Territory and what is now British Columbia. However, some believe the request for troops was actually intended to intimidate local free traders (as trading with anyone other than the HBC was illegal). In either case, by the time the troops arrived (1846), the threat of invasion was long over. The troops (becoming a nuisance by causing minor disturbances) were put to work at the fort completing the construction of the walls which were finished in 1848. When the Red River Rebellion broke out in 1870, Louis Riel occupied Upper Fort Garry, and the Quebec Rifles took the lower fort. No wars or fights ever occurred at Lower Fort Garry as it was a peaceful settlement.</p><br>
<h2>Later uses</h2><br>
<p>Training of North-West Mounted Police members took place at the fort in the winter of 1873&ndash;1874. Many of the North-West Mounted Police of 1873&ndash;74 had been there already during the rebellion in 1870, including Inspector James F. MacLeod, who had met his fiancée, Mary Drever, at Lower Fort Garry on the previous trip. The first contingent of Mounties arrived in Lower Fort Garry on October 22, 1873, and on November 3 they were sworn in and commenced training. The bitter winter was spent drilling and learning to ride. The parade ground was frozen as hard as concrete, and was pretty unforgiving when a recruit was unexpectedly pitched from his horse. By the following June they were caught up in preparations for the arrival of Commissioner G.A. French and the other divisions, and headed out to meet them at Fort Dufferin. The fort was turned over once again to the militia.</p><br>
<p>The fort has also been a penitentiary, a mental hospital (1885–1886), an HBC residence, and a golf course/motor country club (1911&ndash;1963). One of the mental hospitals most infamous residents was Honoré Jaxon, Louis Riels secretary who was found not guilty of treason by reason of insanity after the North-West Rebellion.</p><br>
<h2>Lower Fort Garry National Historic Site</h2><br>
<p>The HBC owned the fort until 1951, when it was given to the federal government. The site was designated a National Historic Site in 1958, and named one of the top 10 National Historic Sites in the country in 2011 by Canada&#39;s History magazine. Between May and September, costumed interpreters recreate life at Lower Fort Garry in the early 1850s when Eden Colvile was inland governor of the HBC and in residence at the fort. Original buildings and walls, hands on activities, as well as original-to-era furnishings enhance the visitor experience.</p><br>
<p>Île aux Cygnes  is a small artificial island on the river Seine in Paris, France, in the 15th arrondissement. It was created in 1827 to protect the pont of Grenelle. It should not be confused with an earlier Île des Cygnes that was attached to the Champ de Mars in the late 18th century.</p><br>
<p>The uninhabited island is 850 metres (2,789 ft) long and 11 metres (36 ft) at its widest point, making it the third-largest island in Paris. A tree-lined walkway, named L&#39;Allée des Cygnes (Path of Swans), runs the length of the island. Since 2012, there has been a public workout space with bicycles and a climbing wall underneath the Pont de Grenelle, close to a Statue of Liberty replica.</p><br>
<p>The island is crossed by three bridges: the Pont de Grenelle, the Pont Rouelle and the Pont de Bir-Hakeim. It is served by the Passy and Bir-Hakeim Métro stations.</p><br>
<h2>Statue of Liberty replica</h2><br>
<p>A notable feature is a quarter scale replica of Liberty Enlightening the World, commonly known as the Statue of Liberty, 22 metres tall and facing west in the direction of its larger sibling in New York City. Inaugurated by President Marie François Sadi Carnot on 4 July 1889, nearly three years after its US counterpart, it was given to the city of Paris by the Parisian community in America to mark the centennial of the French Revolution.</p><br>
<p>The statue originally faced east, toward the Eiffel Tower, but it was turned west in 1937 for the world&#39;s fair hosted in Paris that year. At its base is a commemorative plaque, and the tablet in its left hand bears the inscription IV Juillet 1776=XIV Juillet 1789, recognizing the American Independence Day and the French Bastille Day.</p><br>
<p>In 1998, on the occasion of the "Year of France in Japan", the 14-ton statue was transported to Japan and displayed on Odaiba, an artificial island in Tokyo Bay, before returning to Paris the following year.</p><br>
<p>A smaller statue is located in the Musée d&#39;Orsay and another can be seen at the Musée des Arts et Métiers.</p><br>
<p>Paris-liberte-eiffel.jpgThe replica Statue of Liberty</p><br>
<p>Liberty grenelle inscription.jpgPlaque on statue</p><br>
<p>Svinesund is a sound separating the Swedish municipality of Strömstad in the province of Bohuslän in the county of Västra Götaland from the Norwegian municipality of Halden in the county of Østfold.</p><br>
<p>Two bridges, the old and new Svinesund Bridge (no:Svinesundsbroen sv:Svinesundsbron), span this sound of the Iddefjord. The Swedish side is extremely popular with Norwegians who flock to buy relatively cheap goods in Sweden, where a large shopping area can be found immediately after crossing the sound. Following the erection of the new bridge in 2005, both the old and new bridges are toll bridges.</p><br>
<p>Norwegian and Swedish customs authorities have offices and checkpoints on their respective sides of the sound. While there is not normally any passport control on the border, vehicles crossing are regularly stopped and searched. Norway is not in the EU so there are much stricter restrictions on the amount of goods (e.g. alcohol, cigarettes, food, etc.) that can be taken across the border without stopping to pay customs duties than between EU countries. Customs duties are paid immediately after crossing the border using the new bridge.</p><br>
<p>Los Millares is a Chalcolithic occupation site 17 km north of Almería, in the municipality of Santa Fe de Mondújar, Andalucía, Spain. The complex was in use from the end of the fourth millennium to the end of the second millennium BC and probably supported somewhere around 1000 people. It was discovered in 1891 during the construction of a railway. It was first excavated by Luis Siret in the succeeding years. Further excavation continues today.</p><br>
<h2>Site description</h2><br>
<p>The site covers 2 hectare and comprises three concentric lines of stone walls, the outer ring the largest, running more than 650 feet with nineteen bastions and a gate guarded by foreworks. The road to the site is guarded by four smaller outlying stone forts. There is an extensive cemetery of eighty passage grave tombs. Radiocarbon dating has established that one wall collapsed and was rebuilt around 3025 BC.</p><br>
<p>A cluster of simple dwellings lay inside the walls as well as one large building containing evidence of copper smelting. Pottery excavated from the site included plain and decorated wares including symbolkeramik bowls bearing oculus motifs. Similar designs appear on various carved stone idols found at the site. Although primarily farmers, the inhabitants of Los Millares had crucially also learned metal working, especially the smelting and forming of copper, and the site is considered highly important in understanding the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. The Los Millares culture eventually came to dominate the Iberian peninsula.</p><br>
<p>The population of Los Millares has been estimated at approximately 1000 in the timeframe 3200–2300 BC.</p><br>
<p>The labor involved in its construction, the large volume of stones used, its geometric characteristics and sophisticated design all indicate multiple functionality, including defense and power.</p><br>
<h2>Relationship to other prehistoric cultures</h2><br>
<p>Los Millares participated in the continental trends of Megalithism and the Beaker culture. Analysis of occupation material and grave goods from the Los Millares cemetery of 70 tholos tombs with port-hole slabs has led archaeologists to suggest that the people who lived at Los Millares were part of a stratified, unequal society which was often at war with its neighbours. The Los Millares civilisation was replaced circa 1800 BC, with the arrival of Bronze by the El Argar civilisation, whose successor culture is embodied in the contemporary culture of Vila Nova de São Pedro in nearby Portugal.</p><br>
<p>Other Iberian settlements in this region of a similar age to Los Millares include the settlement of Los Silillos and Neolithic finds at.</p><br>
<p>Similarities between Los Millares architecture and the step pyramid at Monte d&#39;Accoddi in Sardinia have been noticed.</p><br>
<p>The Aiguille de Bionnassay  is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif of the Alps in France and Italy. It has been described as "one of the most attractive satellite peaks of Mont Blanc", and is located on its western side. The mountain&#39;s south and east ridges form the frontier between the two countries, and its summit is a knife-edge crest of snow and ice. Reaching it via any route provides a "splendid and serious snow and ice climb".</p><br>
<h2>Glaciers</h2><br>
<p>Three significant glaciers originate on the slopes of the mountain: The Glacier de Bionnassay, the Glacier de Bionnassay Italien, and the Glacier de Miage.</p><br>
<p>The Glacier de Bionnassay is the most obvious glacial feature, arising on the north and north-west slopes of the Aiguille de Bionnassay as well as from the western side of the Dôme du Goûter and the Aiguille du Goûter. It descends for approximately 4.5 km, flowing north-westwards before turning north at the foot of the Nid d&#39;Aigle to end some distance above the settlement of Bionnassay, continuing as the Torrent de Bionnassay. This hanging glacier on the north-west face of the Aiguille de Bionnassay provides a route of access for mountaineers with ice-climbing skills.</p><br>
<p>The Glacier de Bionnassay Italien arises from a cirque between the south eastern side of the Aiguille de Bionnassay, the Col de Bionnassay and the Calotte des Aiguilles Grises. It descends south-south west for 2.5 km below the Col Infranchissable, then turns south-east to merge with other glaciers, thence continuing as the Glacier du Miage (Ghiacciaio del Miage) – a total distance of approximately 9 km, forming the longest glacier in Italy.</p><br>
<p>The Glacier de Miage – not to be confused with the much larger Glacier du Miage on the Italian side (see above) – forms from snows collecting between the Aiguille de Tricot and the south-western face of the Aiguille de Bionnassay. The glacier descends in a south-westerly direction for approximately 2.5 km.</p><br>
<h2>Alpinism</h2><br>
<h3>Timeline of ascents</h3><br>
<p>The First Ascent of the Aiguille de Bionnassay was undertaken on 28 July 1865 by Florence Crauford Grove, Edward N. Buxton and Reginald S. McDonald, with guides Jean Pierre Cachat and Michel Payot. They ascended the north-west face to reach the ridge above the Aiguille de Tricot, from where they continued to the knife-edged summit ridge, arriving in a thunderstorm. A detailed account is given below.</p><br>
<p>The mountain&#39;s South Ridge was first climbed on 13 July 1888 by Kaspar Maurer, Andreas Jaun and the Austrian diplomat Georg Gruber.</p><br>
<p>The East Ridge was first climbed in descent as part of a traverse from the Dômes de Miage by Katharine Richardson, Emile Rey and Jean-Baptiste Bich on 13 August 1888.</p><br>
<p>The long West Ridge was first climbed in its entirety from the Col de Tricot in 1911 by Fraulein Eleonore Hasenclever and Freulein H. Wirthl with M. Helff, K.G. von Saar and Richard Weitzenbock.</p><br>
<p>The complete North-West Face route was finally climbed in 1926 by billionaire businessman and art collector, Robert Wylie Lloyd, with his guides Adolf and Josep Pollinger.</p><br>
<p>The first Winter Ascent of the Aiguille de Bionnassay was made on 20 March 1929 by A. Charlet, F. Frison Roche, H. Hoerlin, E.Schneider and H. Schroeder.</p><br>
<p>The North Face was first climbed on 30–31 August 1953 by Bertrand Kempf and Claude Laurendeau. It is ranked as one of the most difficult ice walls in the Alps, and is rarely attempted.</p><br>
<h3>Routes</h3><br>
<p>North-West Face: Graded at AD, the route is a steep, glaciated face between 40 and 55 degrees. There are numerous small crevasses in its steep slope providing sufficient resting places to reduce the exposure, but it is a long, demanding route of over 1 km, and can be difficult in times of hard ice. Climbers usually start from the Tête Rousse Hut. It is regarded as the finest route on the mountain, and one of the best of its class in the Alps. After snow it is avalanche prone; in one such incident in 1968 four climbers died.</p><br>
<p>South Ridge: An ascent from the Col de Miage (Durier Hut) provides the easiest route to the summit. The route consists of snowy ridges, rock ledges and chimneys. It is graded at PD+ with rock pitches of II, often iced. A final steep snow ridge leads to the narrow and exposed summit on the French/Italian border.</p><br>
<p>East Ridge: Described as "a superb snow crest which is often precarious and delicate due to large cornices", the east ridge descends from the summit as an exposed and delicate knife-edge crest to the col de Bionnassay. AD. It can be reached from a traverse of the Bionnassay, or from the Gonella Hut.</p><br>
<p>West Ridge: A long 3.4 km ascent from the Col du Tricot over the Aigulle du Tricot, graded at PD.</p><br>
<p>Traverse: Crossing the mountain as part of a three-day ascent of Mont Blanc involves climbing up the south ridge of the Aiguille de Bionnassay from the Col de Miage, then descending from the summit down its razor-sharp, icy, and often corniced east (frontier) ridge. From there the route climbs again up the west ridge of the Dome du Gouter, past the Vallot Hut, to reach the Bosses ridge and thence to the summit of Mont Blanc. The route has been described as a truly magical expedition of ice and snow aretes at great altitude. The Durier Hut on the Col de Miage can either be reached directly from the village of Tresse via an increasingly broken slope of scree in its upper reaches, or via a traverse from the Conscrits Hut over the Dômes de Miage.</p><br>
<h3>Account of first ascent (1865)</h3><br>
<p>Florence Crauford Grove gave a detailed and wry account of his party&#39;s first 1865 ascent of the Aiguille Bionnassay in an article published in The Alpine Journal:</p><br>
<p>Two years before their ascent, Grove had stood in the Hotel Royal in Chamouni (Chamonix), trying to persuade two young ladies and their father, who were using a telescope to view the peaks around Mont Blanc, that a black dot on the summit snowfield was not a person, but a distant rock some hundreds of feet in height. By chance they espied a real group of climbers, appearing as extremely small dots making their way across the Dôme du Goûter. Attempting to devise for them some imaginary route by which they might have reached that point, Grove showed them the fine snow crest descending in a gentle curve from the sharp and still unclimbed summit of the Aiguille de Bionnassay. The thought then struck him that an expedition to the summit, with an exit down the eastern ridge towards the easy Dôme du Goûter might actually make a fine undertaking.</p><br>
<p>It was not until two years later that Grove stood again in Chamonix, this time accompanied by Edward Buxton and Reginald Macdonald, both of whom were keen to attain the unclimbed peak, especially as the Aiguille de Bionnassay was "the only peak passing thirteen thousand feet which had escaped the devastations of the Alpine Club". Their suggestion was not met enthusiastically by the two usual guides whom Grove employed: Jean Pierre Cachat and Michel Payot. Later that day, however, (27 July) they hired a carriage to carry them to Les Ouches (Les Houches) and then walked to the Pavillon de Belle Vue from where they could view the ice-clad slopes of the Bionnassay towering above them through what Grove describes as "the driving clouds and mist of a stormy afternoon". They retired to bed early, waking again at midnight for a 1 a.m. start, noting the sky was clear, but had a treacherous nature; fog banks were building up on the horizon and wisps of thin cloud streaked ominously across the sky.</p><br>
<p>A third helper, a porter, had joined the two guides, solely to lead the party of five mountaineers down onto the Glacier de Bionnassay in darkness, well away from the normal route taken by others to reach the Aiguilles de Gouter. This task the porter utterly failed to do, and it was left to Cachat, the guide, to find a suitable track onto the ice in total darkness. Sunrise found them at the edge of the glacier, and their useless porter soon departed. Crossing the glacier, they climbed a prominent rock ridge to gain a better view and to ascertain their best route. At first they stared hopelessly at the glaciated slopes towering above them, realising a direct ascent to the summit was impossible. Grove later described it thus: "The ice in all its gaunt blue nakedness raked by showers of grape from overhanging rock". Eventually they determined a sinuous route up through the billowing ice fields and avalanche debris to reach the crest of the ridge running from the Aiguille de Tricot to the summit of their mountain. Cachat led the way, hacking innumerable footholds in the steep ice until, some five hours after leaving the rock promontory, they finally attained the ridge, and found the day well-advanced and the weather deteriorating. Here they rested a while before continuing along the crest with a sheer ice slope dropping to one side and treacherous rocks on the other. By now the weather had changed and a heavy snowfall had begun. The ridge had become more exposed and a strong wind had developed. As each step was cut in the ice, their axes buzzed in the electrically charged air and they were forced to straddle the exposed, razor-sharp ridge as it was now completely impossible to stand. Grove later wrote that their "steel axe-heads gave out something musical in tone, but nevertheless evil to hear, for it told us we were now in the very heart of the thunderstorm".</p><br>
<p>Eventually the ridge they were straddling began to slope downwards. They had at last reached, or had passed, the summit. It was 3 p.m., and through swirling cloud they glimpsed another razor-sharp ice ridge descending eastwards down to a col before curving gracefully upwards towards the Dome du Gouter. Grove recalled: "I thought it the most terrific thing I had ever seen in the Alps, but I am perfectly aware that a highly exaggerated impression is likely to be received of a ridge seen by half-frozen men in the middle of a tremendous storm, from the summit of a virgin peak".</p><br>
<p>In the swirling cloud and snow they abandoned plans to descend via the sharp, unclimbed east ridge. Grove’s partner, Edward North Buxton, suggested remaining on the summit for a couple of hours to see if the weather would improve, but the rest of the party rejected his proposal, recognising there was neither sufficient daylight left for them to descend the impossibly exposed and unknown east ridge, nor to down-climb the sheer route they had just ascended. They chose instead to attempt a descent down the unknown southern side of the Aiguille de Bionnassay. They found it trying work to descending the steep ice bank from the summit in the furious storm, but managed eventually to find their way down through one stone-raked couloir to another on the mountain’s south-east face. As twilight fell they reached the head of the Glacier de Bionnassay Italian which formed the northern arm of the huge Glacier du Miage. Here, at a height well above that of the Col de Miage (3,300 m) upon which they could look down, they found refuge amongst rocks beside the steep glacier. They tried to rest there, having had nothing to drink all day except a little brandy and some tasteless wine that they had brought with them; glacial meltwater flowing beneath the rocks on which they sat were totally inaccessible to them. They were also wet through from the storm which by now had passed over, revealing a clear, starry sky. The trickles of water ceased as the temperature dropped below freezing and the night slowly became calm until the silence was shattered by the roar of rockfall over their heads. Abandoning their bivouac site, they took refuge amongst steeply sloping rocks which offered protection from stonefall, but no comfort whatsoever. After a miserable night’s rest, dawn eventually arrived and the ice-rimed party again began to descend the glacier, led by their guide, Cachat. Eight hours later they arrived at the village of St Gervais and sought appropriate refreshment in a well-to-do hotel, much to the disapprobation of the other guests who regarded their appearance and clothing with horror.</p><br>
<p>Commenting on their first ascent, party member Edward Buxton observed that the noble peak’s summit was “still untrodden by man”, noting that “it was not on our feet that we got there.”</p><br>
<h2>Other notable events and incidents</h2><br>
<p>1969: First descent on skis of the northwest face by extreme-skier, Sylvain Saudan, dubbed "skier of the impossible".</p><br>
<p>1994: On 7 August a family of three English climbers were traversing the Aiguille de Bionnassay from the Durier Hut. Having taken longer than expected on the climb, they attempted to descend to the Rifugio Gonella in deteriorating weather conditions. A large snow bridge collapsed under the leader, Pam Caswell, pulling her son and then-husband, Steve, into the crevasse. He died of his injuries five hours later, but his wife and 16-year-old son were eventually rescued two days later.</p><br>
<p>1997: In July, two climbers, Claire Kempster and Mike Haseler, died as they stepped back to take photographs on the summit of the Aiguille de Bionnassay. Kempster dived to catch a rucksack that was slipping down the ice slope, and the partner to whom she was roped was also swept away and killed. Another team member, who had just unroped from the group, survived.</p><br>
<p>2007: In July four climbers from New Zealand, France, Chile and Britain died of exhaustion and cold on the ridge of the Bionnassay. News reports varied as to whether they were under-equipped, or if a party member had suffered from altitude-related sickness.</p><br>
<p>2011: Two climbers from Annecy and Marseille who had ascended the summit of the Aiguille de Bionnassay and then descended the east ridge were found dead following bad weather when they failed to find the Vallot Hut and were forced to spend two nights out on the glacier in a crevasse near the Col du Gouter.</p><br>
<h2>Image gallery</h2><br>
<p>Bionnassay mer de nuages.jpgNorth side of Aiguille de Bionnassay, seen from the Tête Rousse Hut</p><br>
<p>Aiguille de Bionnassay - South-East side.jpgSE side of mountain with Glacier de Bionnassay Italien, S ridge and Aiguille de Tricot</p><br>
<p>Bionassay0001.jpgThe southern Italian side of the Aiguille de Bionnassay, with Aiguille Grises ridge in front</p><br>
<p>Aiguille de Bionnassay, versant occidental.jpgGlacier on NW face of Aiguille de Bionnassay</p><br>
<p>Cornice Aiguille de Bionassay.jpgCornice on the E ridge of the Aiguille de Bionnassay</p><br>
<p>Glacier du Miage moraines.jpgOld moraines at the foot of Glacier du Miage on the Italian side</p><br>
<p>The Thames Estuary is the estuary in which the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea, in the south-east of Great Britain.</p><br>
<p>It is not easy to define the limits of the estuary. Although physically the head of Sea Reach or the Kent / Essex Strait, south of Canvey Island on the northern (Essex) shore presents a western boundary, the Tideway itself can be considered estuarine; it starts in south-west London at Teddington/Ham. The Nore is a sandbank at the mouth of the estuary, between Havengore Creek, Essex, and Warden Point, Kent. The eastern boundary of the estuary suggested in a Hydrological Survey of 1882-9 is a line drawn from North Foreland, Margate, Kent via the Kentish Knock lighthouse to Harwich in Essex. It is to this line that the typical estuarine sandbanks extend. The estuary downstream of the Tideway has a tidal movement of 4 metres, moving at a speed of 8 miles per hour.</p><br>
<p>The estuary is one of the largest of 170 such inlets on the coast of Great Britain. It constitutes a major shipping route: its thousands of movements each year include large oil tankers, container ships, bulk carriers and roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) ferries entering the estuary for the Port of London and the Medway Ports of Sheerness, Chatham and Thamesport.</p><br>
<p>The traditional Thames sailing barge worked in this area, designed to be suitable for the shallow waters in the smaller ports. More recently one of the largest wind farms in the UK has been developed in the estuary, located 8.5 km north of Herne Bay, Kent. The farm contains 30 wind turbines generating a total of 82.4MW of electricity. The much larger London Array of up to 1GW capacity is also planned.</p><br>
<p>This area has had several proposed sites for the building of a new airport to supplement, or even to replace Heathrow/Gatwick. In the 1960s Maplin Sands was a contender; in 2002 it was to be at Cliffe, Kent. The new airport would be built on a man-made island in the estuary north of Minster-in-Sheppey</p><br>
<p>There is also some discussion about the need for a Lower Thames Crossing in order to alleviate traffic congestion at Dartford.</p><br>
<p>The Thames Estuary is the focal part of the 21st-century toponym, the "Thames Gateway", designated as one of the principal development areas in Southern England.</p><br>
<h2>Greater Thames Estuary</h2><br>
<p>The appellation Greater Thames Estuary applies to the coast and the low-lying lands bordering the estuary itself. These are characterised by the presence of mudflats, low-lying open beaches and salt marshes, namely the North Kent Marshes and the Essex Marshes. Man-made embankments are backed by reclaimed wetland grazing areas, but Rising sea levels may make it necessary to temporarily flood some of that land in places at spring tides, to take the pressure off the defences.</p><br>
<p>There are many smaller estuaries in Essex, including the Rivers Colne, Blackwater and Crouch. Small coastal villages depend on an economy of fishing, boat-building, and yachting. The Isle of Sheppey, Foulness Island and Mersea Island are part of the coastline</p><br>
<p>Where higher land reaches the coast there are some larger settlements, such as Clacton-on-Sea to the north in Essex, Herne Bay, Kent, and the Southend-on-Sea area within the narrower part of the estuary</p><br>
<h2>Salinity</h2><br>
<p>The River Thames flowing through London is a classic river estuary, with sedimentary deposition restricted through manmade embankments. The district of Teddington a few miles south-west of London&#39;s centre marks the boundary between the tidal and non-tidal parts of the Thames, although it is still considered a freshwater river about as far east as Battersea insofar as the average salinity is very low and the fish fauna consists predominantly of freshwater species such as roach, dace, carp, perch, and pike. The Thames Estuary becomes brackish between Battersea and Gravesend, and the diversity of freshwater fish species present is smaller, primarily roach and dace, euryhaline marine species such as flounder, European seabass, mullet, and smelt become much more common. Further east, the salinity increases and the freshwater fish species are completely replaced by euryhaline marine ones, until the river reaches Gravesend, at which point conditions become fully marine and the fish fauna resembles that of the adjacent North Sea and includes both euryhaline and stenohaline marine species. A similar pattern of replacement can be observed with the aquatic plants and invertebrates living in the river.</p><br>
<h2>Cultural references</h2><br>
<p>Joseph Conrad lived in Stanford-le-Hope close to the Essex marshes. His The Mirror of the Sea (1906) contains a memorable description of the area as seen from the Thames. It is also described in the first pages of Conrad&#39;s Heart of Darkness, as both the launching place of England&#39;s great ships of exploration and colonization and, in ancient times, the site of colonization of the British Isles by the Roman Empire.</p><br>
<p>The form of speech of many of the people of the area, principally the accents of those from Kent and Essex, is often known as Estuary English. The term is a term for a milder variety of the "London Accent". The spread of Estuary English extends many hundreds of miles outside London and all of the neighbouring home counties around London have residents who moved from London and brought their version of London accents with them leading to interference with the established local accents. The term London Accent is generally avoided as it can have many meanings. Forms of "Estuary English" as a hybrid between Received pronunciation and various London accents can be heard in all of the New Towns, all of the coastal resorts and in the larger cities and towns along the Thames Estuary.</p><br>
<p>Little Tokyo, also known as Little Tokyo Historic District, is an ethnically Japanese American district in downtown Los Angeles and the heart of the largest Japanese-American population in North America. It is one of only three official Japantowns in the United States, all in California . Founded around the beginning of the 20th century, the area, sometimes called Lil&#39; Tokyo, J-Town, 小東京 , is the cultural center for Japanese Americans in Southern California. It was declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1995.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In 1905 the area of "Little Tokyo" was described as "bounded by San Pedro, First and Requena streets and Central avenue. The Los Angeles Times added: "It has a population of about 3500 Japanese, with quite a colony of Jews and Russians and a few Americans.... there are 10,000 Japanese in the city who make this section their rendezvous."</p><br>
<p>The area was a magnet for immigrating Japanese until the Exclusion Act of 1924 halted any further migration. Shops were along First Street, and vegetable markets were along Central Avenue to the south. Japanese Americans were a significant ethnic group in the vegetable trade, due to the number of successful Japanese American truck farms across Southern California. In 1941, there were approximately 30,000 Japanese Americans living in Little Tokyo.</p><br>
<p>The incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II emptied Little Tokyo. For a brief time, the area became known as Bronzeville as African Americans and also Native Americans and Latinos moved into the vacated properties and opened up nightclubs, restaurants, and other businesses. Beginning in 1942, after the citys Japanese population was rounded up and "evacuated" to inland concentration camps, a large number of African Americans moved to Los Angeles to find work in the labor-starved defense industry. Its share in the Great Migration almost tripled Little Tokyos pre-war population, with some 80,000 new arrivals taking up residence there. Prohibited from buying and renting in most parts of the city by restrictive covenants, the area soon became severely overcrowded. A single bathroom was often shared by up to 40 people and one room could house as many as 16; people frequently shared "hot beds," sleeping in shifts. Poor housing conditions helped spread communicable illnesses like tuberculosis and venereal disease. Crimes like robberies, rapes, and hit-and-run accidents increased, and in May and June 1943 Latino and some African American residents of Bronzeville were attacked by whites in the Zoot Suit race riots. In 1943, officials bowed to pressure from frustrated residents and proposed building temporary housing in nearby Willowbrook, but the majority-white residents of the unincorporated city resisted the plans. In 1944, 57 Bronzeville buildings were condemned as unfit for habitation and 125 ordered repaired or renovated; approximately 50 of the evicted families were sent to the Jordan Downs housing complex. In 1945, many defense industry jobs disappeared and the workers moved elsewhere in search of new employment. Others were pushed out when Japanese Americans began to return and white landlords chose not to renew leases with their wartime tenants.</p><br>
<p>After the war, due to lack of housing in Little Tokyo, many Japanese Americans returning from the camps moved into neighborhoods surrounding the downtown area, into apartments and boarding houses. Notably, Boyle Heights, just east of Little Tokyo, had a large Japanese American population in the 1950s (as it had before the internment) until the arrival of Mexican and Latino immigrants replaced most of them.</p><br>
<p>In the late 1970s, a redevelopment movement started as Japanese corporations expanded overseas operations and many of them set up their US headquarters in the Los Angeles area. Several new shopping plazas and hotels opened, along with branches of some major Japanese banks. Although this redevelopment resulted in many new buildings and shopping centers, there are still some of the original Little Tokyo buildings and restaurants, especially along First Street.</p><br>
<p>During the 1970s and 1980s, artists began to move into nearby aging warehouse spaces in the area, forming a hidden community in the industrialized area. Als Bar, Gorkys, the Atomic Cafe, and LA Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) are some well-known sites.</p><br>
<p>Land use has been a contentious issue in Little Tokyo due to its history, the proximity to the Los Angeles Civic Center, the role of Los Angeles as a site of business between Japan and America, and the increasing influx of residents into the Arts District. Unlike a traditional ethnic enclave, there are relatively few Japanese residents in the area because of evacuation and internment. Consequently, Little Tokyo, like other ethnic urban enclaves, is constantly threatened with development that could eradicate it. Conversely, because the Japanese American community was politicized by the internment and subsequent Redress and Reparations effort, and because of the global and local growth of overseas Japanese investment, Little Tokyo has resisted eradication and has continued to exist as a tourist attraction, community center, and home to Japanese American senior citizens and others.</p><br>
<p>The current site of Parker Center, the Los Angeles Police Department&#39;s former headquarters, was the original site of the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist temple. The south edge of the block where Parker Center stands was part of the First Street business strip of shops. The warehouses and new condominiums to the east of Little Tokyo were once residential areas of the district. The Weller Court mall was opposed by some people in the community because it redeveloped a strip of family-owned small businesses. Community activists established First Street as a historic district in 1986, In 2004, they helped reopen the Far East Cafe, an acknowledged community hub.</p><br>
<p>In 1959, Los Angeles entered a sister city relationship with the city of Nagoya. Nagoya is Los Angeles&#39; oldest sister city, along with Eilat, Israel.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>At its peak, Little Tokyo had approximately 30,000 Japanese Americans living in the area. Little Tokyo is still a cultural focal point for Los Angeles&#39;s Japanese American population. It is mainly a work, cultural, religious, restaurant and shopping district, because Japanese Americans today are likely to live in nearby cities such as Torrance, Gardena, and Monterey Park, as well as the Sawtelle district in the Westside of Los Angeles. However, the recent boom in downtown residential construction is changing the nature of Little Tokyo.</p><br>
<p>What is left of the original Little Tokyo can be found in roughly five large city blocks. It is bounded on the west by Los Angeles Street, on the east by Alameda Street, on the south by 3rd Street, and on the north by First Street, but also includes a substantial portion of the block north of First and west of Alameda, location of the Japanese American National Museum, the Go For Broke Monument, and a row of historic shops which lines the north side of First Street. A timeline has been set into the concrete in front of these shops, using bronze lettering, showing the history of each of the shops from the early 20th Century until the renovation of the district in the late 1980s. More broadly, Little Tokyo is bordered by the Los Angeles River to the east, downtown Los Angeles to the west, L.A. City Hall and the Parker Center to the north, and the newly named Arts District (made up of warehouses converted into live-work lofts) to the south.</p><br>
<h2>Attractions</h2><br>
<h3>Cultural attractions</h3><br>
<p>The Japanese American Cultural & Community Center is located in Little Tokyo, as well as the Japanese American National Museum. The extension of the Museum of Contemporary Art, formerly called the Temporary Contemporary and now known as the Geffen Contemporary (named after David Geffen), is also in Little Tokyo. East West Players, one of the nation&#39;s first Asian American theater companies, specializing in live theater written and performed by Asian American artists, is located in Little Tokyo, performing in the David Henry Hwang Theater. There is also the Aratani/Japan America Theater, which features plays and musical performances. Visual Communications, an Asian Pacific American media arts organization, has its offices in Little Tokyo, and each May, annually presents VC FilmFest (Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival), in several venues around Little Tokyo. Additionally, the visual arts are represented by the 30-year-old arts non-profit, which devotes itself to creating awareness of the visual arts through 24 exhibitions each year along with educational programming.</p><br>
<p>The Nisei Week festival is held every August, and includes a large parade, a pageant, athletic events, exhibits of Japanese art and culture, a taiko drum festival, the Japanese Festival Street Faire, a car show, and other events. A queen and court will be selected.</p><br>
<p>Little Tokyo has quite a few public sculptures and artwork, including a monument to Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka, a Japanese American from Hawaii who was a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Challenger when it disintegrated during takeoff in 1986 and another monument to Chiune Sugihara, Japanese consul to Lithuania before World War II and Righteous among the Nations. There are also two Japanese gardens in the area open to the public—one is next to the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center and the other is a rooftop garden in the Kyoto Grand Hotel and Gardens, formerly the New Otani Hotel. The Go For Broke Monument commemorates Japanese Americans who served in the United States Military during World War II.</p><br>
<h3>Shopping and dining</h3><br>
<p>There are numerous Japanese restaurants, catering to both Japanese and non-Japanese clientele. Many of them specialize in one type of Japanese cuisine, such as donburi, Japanese noodles (soba, ramen and udon), shabu-shabu (which translated from Japanese means swish-swish, referring to the motion of dipping meat and vegetables in a communal bowl of boiling water), Japanese curry, sushi, or yakitori. There are also a number of yakiniku restaurants, where meat is often cooked on a small grill built into the center of the table. Little Tokyo is the birthplace of the California roll, invented by a chef named Ichiro Mashita at the Tokyo Kaikan sushi restaurant.</p><br>
<p>Two wagashi (Japanese sweets) shops located in Little Tokyo are among the oldest food establishments in Los Angeles. Fugetsu-do, founded in 1903, appears to be the oldest still-operating food establishment in the city and the first one to celebrate a centennial; its best-known offerings include mochi and manjū, and it claims to be an inventor of the fortune cookie. Mikawaya was founded in 1910, but is now well known as the company that introduced mochi ice cream to the United States in 1994.</p><br>
<p>Little Tokyo has several shops that specialize in Japanese-language videos and DVDs, while other shops specialize in Japanese electronics and video games. These are a great way to find Japanese video games that were either never translated into English, or were never domestically released in North America. There are also several stores that sell manga and anime related products.</p><br>
<p>The Weller Court shopping mall has several restaurants, karaoke clubs, and a Bubble Tea cafe. For tourists visiting from Japan, there are a number of shops specializing in expensive name brand products such as Coach handbags. There is also a large bookstore, Kinokuniya, that is part of a well-known Japanese chain. They have a large selection of Japanese-language books, magazines, music CDs, manga, and anime, as well as a selection of English-language books on Japanese subjects and translated manga and anime.</p><br>
<p>The Japanese Village Plaza is located roughly in the center of Little Tokyo. There are several restaurants in the plaza, plus a number of shops geared towards tourists. First Street and Second Street border Japanese Village Plaza and have a number of restaurants that are open later than those in the court.</p><br>
<h2>Education</h2><br>
<p>The area is served by the Los Angeles Unified School District.</p><br>
<p>9th Street Elementary School</p><br>
<p>Belmont High School</p><br>
<p>Los Angeles Public Library operates the Little Tokyo Branch.</p><br>
<p>The main office of the Asahi Gakuen, a part-time Japanese school, is in room 308 on the third floor of the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC, 日米文化会館 Nichibei Bunka Kaikan) building, located in Little Tokyo.</p><br>
<h2>Religion</h2><br>
<p>There are several Buddhist temples in the area, mostly Jodo Shinshu, Jodo Shu, Shingon, and Soto Zen temples, including Zenshuji Soto Mission (the first Soto Zen temple in North America), Nishi Honganji (Los Angeles Betsuin), Higashi Honganji, Koyasan Buddhist Temple (the first Shingon temple in North America), and a few Japanese Christian churches.</p><br>
<p>One of the roots of Pentecostalism started in Little Tokyo. Where the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center Plaza is now located was once the home of the First Pentecostal Church, a multiracial congregation called the Azusa Street Mission. This is where the Azusa Street Revival started in 1906. Earlier, it was also the site of the First AME Church.</p><br>
<p>St. Francis Xavier Chapel is the center of the Japanese Catholic community in Little Tokyo. Father Albert Breton, a Japanese-speaking missionary of the Paris Foreign Mission Society (M.E.P.) with the support of Bishop Thomas Conaty of the Diocese of Los Angeles, established the community on December 25, 1912 with the first Japanese mass celebrated at the Bronson House on Jackson Street near the current Fukui Mortuary on Temple Street. The center formerly housed the Maryknoll School administered by the Maryknoll Fathers from the early 1920s until the mid-1990s. Currently, masses are offered in Japanese and English each Sunday.</p><br>
<p>The former Catholic Cathedral of Saint Vibiana is just to the west of Little Tokyo. After being heavily damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the Archdiocese moved to a new site (now the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels) and the old site was redeveloped with the former cathedral converted into a performing arts space and non-historic buildings on the site demolished and replaced with a new Little Tokyo Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>The community is served by the Metro Gold Line at Little Tokyo/Arts District station at the northeastern perimeter of Little Tokyo and is also walkable from the Metro Red and Purple subway lines at either Civic Center station or Union Station – with connections to Amtrak, Metrolink, Metro Silver Line BRT, and Foothill Transit&#39;s Silver Streak BRT services. When the Blue and Expo Lines connect to the Gold Line, via the Regional Connector, the Little Tokyo/Arts District station will be moved underground and across the street. This required demolition of two modest, one-story brick buildings. The two structures played an important role in the cultural life of the neighborhood for decades with one of the structures dating back at least to 1898.</p><br>
<p>Metro Local lines 30 and 330 serve Little Tokyo.</p><br>
<h2>Events</h2><br>
<p>Tanabata Festival – August 10–12, 2014</p><br>
<p>Nisei Week 2013 – August 9–18, 2014</p><br>
