<p>Castlereagh River, a mostly perennial river that is part of the Macquarie catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the central–western district of New South Wales, Australia.</p><br>
<p>The river rises in the heart of the Warrumbungle mountains and initially flows east through the town of Coonabarabran. It then follows a looping course to the south, west, and finally northwest, joined by 26 minor tributaries, towards its confluence with the Macquarie River; dropping 509 m over its course of 541 km. The Castlereagh River has a highly variable flow, and often, low to no flow.</p><br>
<p>From upstream towards downstream, the Castlereagh River flows through or near the towns of Coonabarabran, Binnaway, Mendooran, Gilgandra and Coonamble.</p><br>
<p>The Castlereagh River is partly a subterranean river. When there is no water on the surface of the river there is always a stream of water running underground.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Aboriginal history</h3><br>
<h3>European history</h3><br>
<p>The Castlereagh River was discovered in 1818 by George Evans and explored by John Oxley, who named the river in honour of Lord Castlereagh the same year.</p><br>
<p>In January 2010, major flooding along the river inundated more than 400 rural properties. Fodder drops were needed and some livestock had to be moved.</p><br>
<p>Iardanos  is a former municipality in Elis, West Greece, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pyrgos, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 62.723 km. Its seat of administration was the village Vounargo. Iardanos is enclosed by the municipal units of Amaliada to the north, and Pyrgos to the south.</p><br>
<h2>Subdivisions</h2><br>
<p>The municipal unit Iardanos is subdivided into the following communities (constituent villages in brackets):</p><br>
<p>Agioi Apostoloi</p><br>
<p>Alpochori (Alpochori, Chanakia, Kapandriti)</p><br>
<p>Fonaitika</p><br>
<p>Katsaros</p><br>
<p>Koryfi (Koryfi, Moni Fragkopidimatos)</p><br>
<p>Prasino (Prasino, Glykorizo, Keramidia)</p><br>
<p>Vounargo</p><br>
<p>Vrochitsa</p><br>
<p>Xylokera</p><br>
<h2>Historical population</h2><br>
<p>Jurong Lake  is a 70ha freshwater lake and reservoir located in the western region of Singapore formed with the damming of Sungei Jurong further downstream. The lake serves as a reservoir contributing to the water supply of the country. It lies next to the Lakeside MRT Station, which derived its name from this geographical feature. The lake is surrounded by parkland, which serves as a recreational ground for nearby residents in Jurong East and Jurong West New Towns.</p><br>
<p>A landscaped sanctuary called Jurong Lake Park was built around the perimeter of the lake and work was completed in January 2006. Also, a 2.8 kilometre water promenade along Jurong Lake Park would allow residents to participate in watersports. The inner running track starting from Chinese garden bridge and back is 3.4 kilometers in length.</p><br>
<p>As is the case for most other reservoirs in Singapore, swimming is currently illegal in the lake, although this may change in line with the Singapore government&#39;s liberalisation of the use of bodies of water in the republic. Fishing is now allowed in some designated spots around the lake where only artificial baits can be used for fishing. However, the water is noted to be green in colour during dry weather and a murky brown after a downpour, the likely result of runoff from its urban catchment area.</p><br>
<h2>Tourist attractions</h2><br>
<p>There are several tourist attractions located near or even within the Lake, including a Chinese Garden and a Japanese Garden, which are located on their respective islands within the lake, as well as the nearby Tang Dynasty Village, which has since closed down.</p><br>
<p>The Science Centre, Singapore, a family-oriented attraction in Jurong East, is located in the area, together with Jurong Country Club, which includes an 18-hole par-72 golf course and driving range.</p><br>
<h2>Redevelopment plan</h2><br>
<p>On 4 April 2008, the National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan announced a plan to develop the Jurong into a commercial hub outside the Central Business District (CBD). The new Jurong Lake District will offer a potential development area of 360 hectares, roughly the size of Marina Bay. The Urban Redevelopment Authority said that some 750,000m of land will be set aside at Jurong Gateway, expected to attract billions of dollars in development, for offices, hotels, food and beverage and entertainment uses. However, analysts say that the short 10–15 years time frame may be a little tight, due to the amount of projects in progress and a dampened global economic climate.</p><br>
<p>The Urban Redevelopment Authority announces a masterplan on 4 April 2008 to transform the area around Jurong Lake to a unique lakeside destination for business and leisure in the next 10 to 15 years.</p><br>
<p>A new district will be created, named, Jurong Lake District which consists of three precincts, Jurong Gateway, Lakeside and Lakeside Gateway.</p><br>
<p>New developments around Jurong Lake include:</p><br>
<p>Jurong Lake Garden Central or JLG Central (integration of Chinese and Japanese Garden and progressively completed from 2020 onwards)</p><br>
<p>Jurong Lake Garden East or JLG East (progressively completed from 2020 onwards)</p><br>
<p>Jurong Lake Garden West or JLG West (formerly Jurong Lake Park and scheduled for completion in 2018)</p><br>
<p>Enhanced public park & promenade</p><br>
<p>Ilion  is a northern suburb of Athens, Greece. With 85,000 inhabitants , it is one of the largest suburbs of Athens.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Ilion lies southeast of the mountain Aigaleo, 6 km northwest of Athens city centre. The municipality has an area of 9.453 km. Neighbouring municipalities are Agioi Anargyroi-Kamatero to the north and east, Petroupoli to the northwest and Peristeri to the south. The main streets are Fylis Avenue, Thivon Avenue, Idomeneos Street and Protesilaou Street.</p><br>
<h2>Sites of interest</h2><br>
<p>National Sports Center of Nea Liosia</p><br>
<p>Environmental Awareness Park "Antonis Tritsis"</p><br>
<h2>Historical population</h2><br>
<h2>Sports</h2><br>
<p>Ilion hosts many athletic clubs in several sports. Μost of them play in the amateur divisions. Presence or earlier presence in the higher divisions in their sport have the clubs Olympiakos Neon Liosion and Enosi Iliou.</p><br>
<h2>International relations</h2><br>
<p>Ilion, Greece is twinned with:</p><br>
<p>Corigliano d&#39;Otranto, Italy</p><br>
<p>Tulcea, Romania</p><br>
<p>Armilla, Spain</p><br>
<p>Jomolhari or Chomolhari sometimes known as "the bride of Kangchenjunga”, is a mountain in the Himalayas, straddling the border between Yadong County of Tibet, China and the Thimphu district of Bhutan. The north face rises over 2,700 m above the barren plains. The mountain is the source of the Paro Chu  which flows from the south side and the Amo Chu which flows from the north side.</p><br>
<h2>Religious significance</h2><br>
<p>The mountain is sacred to Tibetan Buddhists who believe it is the abode of one of the Five Tsheringma Sisters; (jo mo tshe ring mched lnga) — female protector goddesses (Jomo) of Tibet and Bhutan, who were bound under oath by Padmasambhava to protect the land, the Buddhist faith and the local people.</p><br>
<p>On the Bhutanese side is a Jomolhari Temple, toward the south side of the mountain about a half-days journey from the army outpost between Thangthangkha and Jangothang at an altitude of 4150 meters. Religious practitioners and pilgrims visiting Mt. Jomolhari stay at this temple. There are several other sacred sites near Jomolhari Temple, including meditation caves of Milarepa and Gyalwa Lorepa. Within an hours walk up from the temple at an altitude of c. 4450 meters is Tseringma Lhatso, the "spirit lake" of Tsheringma.</p><br>
<p>In Tibet there is an annual pilgrimage from Pagri to a holy lake, Jomo Lharang, which lies at c. 5,100 m elevation, just north of the mountain.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing history</h2><br>
<p>Because Jomolhari was sacred and the home of goddesses, those living nearby believed it was impossible to climb, and that anyone who climbed too high would be thrown down.</p><br>
<p>Despite its notability and spectacular visibility from the old trade route between India and Lhasa that passes through the Chumbi Valley, the mountain has seen little climbing activity. It was known to climbers passing by on the way to Everest and was scouted by Odell as early as 1924. In 1937 a permission to climb the sacred mountain was granted to a British expedition headed by Freddie Spencer Chapman by both "the Tibetans" and the "Maharajah of Bhutan. Although no refusals are known of earlier climbing requests, Chapman believed this was the reason it had gone unclimbed until 1937. Six porters accompanied the 5 man climbing team from Phari across Sur La into Bhutan. Chapman and Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama (of the American K2 expedition fame) reached the summit via the southeast spur on 21 May 1937. The protracted and epic descent, which they were fortunate to survive, is described in detail in Chapman’s Helvellyn to Himalaya published in 1940.</p><br>
<p>The second ascent was only on 24 April 1970 -over the same route- by a joint Bhutanese-Indian military expedition led by Colonel Narendra Kumar. This ascent was notable also for the disappearance of two climbing members and a sherpa in the second summit party the following day. Dorjee Lhatoo (Nanda Devi East 1975, West 1981) led the route, partnered with Prem Chand (2nd ascent Kanchenjunga 1977) all the way to the summit via two camps. Lhatoo was charged with laying a "Sachu Bumter" offering on the summit by the Bhutanese King in order to "appease" mountain deities - apparently a pot containing gold, silver and precious stones. The following day, the second party of three were spotted close to the ridge when they became obscured by cloud. When the cloud lifted, they were gone. A telephoto lens and fruit cans were found on the ridge by a search party. Prem Chand went up to the ridge and reported gunshots thudding into the ice and whipping up ice chips - thus ending any further attempts in locating the missing bodies. Lhatoo and Prem Chand, on their way up during their successful summit attempt had reported seeing a lot of PLA activity on the Lhasa-Chumbi highway. The reason for their disappearance remains speculative - did they fall or were they shot? All three were relatively inexperienced climbers and Lhatoo later speculated on the exposure on the knife-edged ridge leading to the summit slope as a possible incident site. He (an ex-Gurkha himself) is quoted as believing the shooting theory to be unlikely but possible, citing his difficulty in estimating the distance between the ridge and possible Chinese positions on the Tibetan side. An account of the expedition is available in the Himalayan Journal 2000. Prem Chand has not spoken publicly on the matter. Chinese displeasure with Bhutan over the expedition and sensitivities in New Delhi led to a complete media blackout of what was otherwise a notable Indian climb.</p><br>
<p>The third ascent was made in 1996 by a joint Japanese-Chinese expedition which reached the south col from the Tibetan side and climbed the peak over the south ridge. On 7 May 2004, British climbers Julie-Ann Clyma and Roger Payne reached the summit via the c. 5800 m south col as well, in a single day&#39;s dash from the col, after attempts to climb the impressive northwest pillar were thwarted by strong winds.</p><br>
<p>In October 2006, a six-member Slovenian team climbed two new routes, registering the fifth and sixth ascents. Rok Blagus, Tine Cuder, Samo Krmelj and Matej Kladnik took the left couloir of the north face to the East ridge at c. 7100 m, from which they followed the ridge to the top, while Marko Prezelj and Boris Lorencic climbed the northwest ridge in a six-day round trip. This climb earned Prezelj and Lorencic the Piolet d&#39;Or in January 2007.</p><br>
<p>St. Catherines Island is one of the Sea Islands or Golden Isles on the coast of the USA state of Georgia, 20 miles  south of Savannah in Liberty County. The island is ten miles  long and from one to three miles  wide, located between St. Catherine&#39;s Sound and Sapelo Sound. More than half of its 14,640 acres  are tidal marsh and wetlands. About half of it is salt marshes, about a quarter is wooded, and it has "fine" beaches. It is owned by the Saint Catherines Island Foundation is not open to the public, aside from the beach below the high tide line.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The island has been inhabited for at least 4000 years, and was a Guale settlement by 1576. It was the site of the first Spanish outpost in Georgia. By 1587 it was the northernmost permanent Spanish outpost on the Atlantic Coast. Spanish colonies were planted as far north as Chesapeake Bay, but none lasted more than a year or two. During the 17th century, the mission of Santa Catalina de Guale, located on the island from 1602 to 1680, was the center of the Guale missionary province of Spanish Florida. David Hurst Thomas has focused on Spanish period mission archaeology on St. Catherine&#39;s Island. Currently, archaeology of the shell ring on St. Catherines Island is spearheaded by David Hurst Thomas and Matthew C. Sanger. Clark Spencer Larsen has also collaborated extensively with David Hurst Thomas to study the bioarchaeology and biocultural history of St. Catherines Island and the greater La Florida region.</p><br>
<p>In 1766 the island was leased by Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. It was run as a plantation for nearly a century, until the Civil War ended. The New Georgia Encyclopedia notes that</p><br>
<p>After the Civil War, Shermans Field Order No. 15 awarded St. Catherines and the other islands to freed slaves. Tunis Campbell established dominion over Ossabaw, Sapelo, and St. Catherines islands as "governor," with the seat of his kingdom on St. Catherines. Under the auspices of Shermans field order, Campbell ruled from the Button Gwinnett House from 1865 until 1867. When Sherman&#39;s order was challenged, the island reverted to its previous owner. The former slaves were forced to relocate to White Bluff, on the Georgia mainland.</p><br>
<p>The 1893 Sea Islands Hurricane caused catastrophic destruction, sweeping seawater across the entire island. Only one person who remained on the island survived, and all buildings were destroyed.</p><br>
<p>In 1943 Edward John Noble bought the island. In 1968, ten years after his death, the island was transferred to the Edward J. Noble Foundation.</p><br>
<p>The island is now owned by the St. Catherines Island Foundation, and the island&#39;s interior is operated for charitable, scientific, literary, and educational purposes. The foundation aims to promote conservation of natural resources, the survival of endangered species, and the preservation of historic sites, and to expand human knowledge in the fields of ecology, botany, zoology, natural history, archaeology, and other scientific and educational disciplines. The island is involved with the conservation of the ring-tailed lemur. It was declared a National Historic Landmark (and automatically placed on the National Register of Historic Places) in 1969.</p><br>
<p>Pliska  is the name of both the first capital of the First Bulgarian Empire and a small town situated 20 km Northeast of the provincial capital Shumen.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Prior to 681</h3><br>
<p>In 680 CE, Bulgars crossed the Danube and invaded lands now part of modern-day Bulgaria, which was at that time largely inhabited by Slavic farmers. The Bulgar army was led by Asparukh, who according to Byzantine chroniclers was one of the five sons of Kubrat, the Onogur chief who revolted against his Avar rulers and succeeded in uniting the various Bulgar groups living north of the Black Sea. When Asparukh and his warriors entered the region south of the Danube, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IV was upset and led an army to prevent the Bulgars from remaining there. The Byzantine expedition against the Bulgars ended disastrously and after defeating the imperial forces, Asparukh forced the nearby Slavic tribes to pay tribute to him, while leaving their tribal organization intact. As a result of this defeat, the empire was forced to sign a treaty recognizing the Bulgar state in 681. Despite the area having been for some time under the de facto control of various Slavic tribes, the emperors of Byzantium had kept up the fiction that the area was still imperial, as up to 681 no true state had replaced imperial rule. This was the first time that the Byzantine empire officially acknowledged another state in the Balkans.</p><br>
<h3>681-893</h3><br>
<p>Pliska was the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire between 681 and 893 AD. According to a Bulgarian chronicle, it was founded by Khan Asparukh. At its greatest extent, it had an area of 21.8 km² and was surrounded by earthen ramparts. A smaller stone fortification was built inside these ramparts and this contained a palace and buildings belonging to the aristocracy.</p><br>
<p>While Pliska experienced nearly a century of growth following its selection as the capital of the new Bulgarian state, this was not a peaceful era. The Bulgars and Byzantine Empire were in an almost constant state of war during the eighth century and into the early ninth. Emperor Constantine V oversaw nine campaigns against the Bulgars between 741 and 775, and Emperor Nikephoros Is campaign in 811 resulted in the burning of the royal residence in Pliska. In this last instance the emperor led a massive army to Pliska in retaliation for the Bulgarian capture of Sardika and massacre of its garrison that occurred in an earlier set of hostilities. The Bulgarian leader Krum was not prepared to face the emperors army and thus abandoned Pliska and the Byzantines plundered the palace and town there and burned it to the ground as it was largely at this time made of wood. Soon after, the invaders were driven out by Khan Krum (see Battle of Pliska).</p><br>
<p>Later in the ninth century, during the reign of Boris I, the pagan temples in Pliska likely began to be converted to Christian churches. In 886, Boris founded the Pliska Literary School which was moved to Preslav when Boris later relocated the capital. When Boris fell seriously ill and retired to a monastery, his son Vladimir succeeded him and attempted to reestablish paganism. During this period (889-93) the large stone basilica at Pliska built under Boris was heavily damaged. Boris left his monastery to overthrow his son, and after succeeding, relocated the capital to the nearby town of Preslav which seems to have been a centre of Christianity in the state. Following this Pliska&#39;s relevance in Bulgar governance steadily declined until the Bulgarian state was destroyed by the Byzantine general turned emperor (when he murdered the previous emperor Nikephoros Phokas) John Tzimiskes defeated the Russian forces that had occupied Bulgaria) and annexed the Bulgarian lands all the way to the Danube, ending the first Bulgarian state. During this Russian and Byzantine war over Bulgaria, Pliska was destroyed between 969 and 972 and was not rebuilt.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeology of Pliska</h2><br>
<p>The construction of an earthen rampart was started shortly after the Bulgars settled in the Pliska plain (it has been suggested that these embankments may not have been built all at once), and the territory inside of this is known as the Outer Town, which consisted of multiple groupings of modest cottages with space in between for flocks of livestock and horses. This seemingly unusual layout may have been chosen as the Bulgars had been nomadic prior to building their capital at Pliska, and when they began to cooperate with the local Slavs (which formed a strong majority of the new states population) a mixed pastoral and agricultural economy developed. The Inner Town, which was likely built later in the settlements existence, consisted of a palace, basilica and aristocratic buildings inside a stone fortification. The Inner Town was surrounded by the Outer Town which was in turn surrounded by the earthen rampart.</p><br>
<p>Overall, far less is known about the layout and contents of Pliska prior to the conversion to Christianity than afterwards. No stone buildings have been dated with certainty from before the Bulgars converted to Christianity in 864/5, and many wooden buildings (which were initially presumed to have come from the pagan era) also appear to have been built later on. Its not clear which buildings were built in the decades immediately after 681. When the earthen rampart was built, Pliska had a very low population. Dimitrovs map based on the 1989 to 1991 dredging works in the Outer Town suggests that there were no more than six to twelve hamlet sized settlements there, while there might have been thirty or so by the tenth century.</p><br>
<p>There is however still no plausible explanation for why the earthen rampart and ditch built around Pliska encircled such a large area. A few areas appear to have been inhabited by people who provided services or took part in craft production for the palace centre, and agriculture clearly took place within the earthen rampart around the Outer Town. There was clearly a fair amount of open ground inside the earthen rampart. Henning concludes that the settlement was initially built for military and strategic reasons, and could not really be considered a typical city (with all of the associated trade, production, and population) until the period after Bulgaria converted to Christianity in 864/5. Most of the stone architecture in Pliska was built between this conversion and eventual Byzantine conquest of the city in 971. The buildings from this era show a clear Byzantine influence in their design and function. For example, a 4 kilometre-long canal fed a large brick cistern that moved water from the Kriva river to the Inner Town via ceramic pipes. This cistern had attached rooms containing private baths.</p><br>
<p>Only certain parts of the archaeological site of the city have been properly investigated. One of the most thoroughly researched is the Asar-dere area just to the west of the stone fortification surrounding the Inner Town. Four clay-made furnaces have been discovered in this area, suggesting that Pliska possessed a specialized pottery making capabilities and an urban economy at some point during its development.</p><br>
<p>Initially, such finds were interpreted to show that early on the settlement relied upon pastoral and agricultural activities, and later developed sophisticated craft techniques. This interpretation was further supported by the relatively late dating of the first occurrences of glazed ceramic ware found in Pliska. At the very earliest these came from the late ninth century, though some certainly dated from the tenth and eleventh centuries as well.</p><br>
<p>However, more recent investigation of the Asar-dere area has shown that the area contained a large waste disposal site alongside multiple hearths and kilns all dating from the earliest occupation phase. The content of the waste shows that ceramics were produced early in the settlement&#39;s history. Other finds from this first phase of occupation (from the eighth until the beginning of the ninth century) include those connected with iron processing, such as slag, charcoal, ash, and pig iron. Fragments and solid droplets of glass suggest glassmaking are also found from this same period. These types of finds are not extant in this area in the tenth and eleventh centuries, when it was instead occupied by numerous small and primitive grubenhaus dwellings. According to Henning</p><br>
<p>“It was not the case that a predominantly agricultural style of living opened the way to a stepwise growth in craft activities, but rather a situation of fully developed and highly specialized artisan production was followed later by a process of broad ruralization”.</p><br>
<h2>Scholarly disputes</h2><br>
<p>Some scholars, such as Georgiev and Kirilov, have proposed that Pliska was not in fact the capital of Bulgaria during this period at all. Georgiev suggests that Pliska was only a seasonal residence with small timber buildings at least until the middle of the eighth century. Kirilov offers the explanation that like the Ottonian kings, the Bulgar rulers were itinerant, and travelled between multiple different residences. Additionally, prior to some more recent finds in the Asar-dere area of the archaeological site, it was believed that the craft activities attested by Milčev showed that site did not become a true large town until the later ninth or early tenth century, however Henning shows that this may have occurred in reverse order. Ceramic fragments on the floors of many of the pit-houses suggested (based on their depth in the soil) at first that the pottery was made and those houses were occupied in the later occupation period of the settlement. Excavation of the pit-house designated "grubenhaus No. 8" however precipitated a sharp conceptual turn amongst many researchers towards the belief that the pit-houses may largely have been built much earlier, and this suggests that the famous Great Basilica may have been built after rather than before the majority of the pit-houses, meaning it may not have been built in AD 864 as long supposed, but instead as late as the later tenth century.</p><br>
<h2>Modern Pliska</h2><br>
<p>The ruins of the city of Pliska lie 3 km north of the modern village of Pliska. The site of the city is currently a National Archaeological Reserve. Ruins of the Great and the Small Palace, the strong stone fortifications and the Great Basilica (c. 875), used both as a royal church and as a national patriarchal cathedral, can be seen in the reserve.</p><br>
<p>Under Ottoman rule, the village known as Pliska since 1947 was instead called Aboba, a name which it kept until 1925, when the name was changed to Pliskov, a variant of the current name. The settlement has a population of 1,124 and is located 146 m above sea level in Shumen Province at the south end of the Ludogorie plateau. It is approximately 400 km northeast of Sofia, at 43&deg;22&prime;N latitude, 27&deg;7&prime;E longitude.</p><br>
<p>Tsushima Island is an island of the Japanese archipelago situated in the Korea Strait, approximately halfway between the Japanese mainland and the Korean Peninsula. The main island of Tsushima was once a single island but was divided into two in 1671 by the Ōfunakoshiseto canal and into three in 1900 by the Manzekiseto canal. These canals were driven through isthmuses in the center of the island, creating North Tsushima Island  and South Tsushima Island . Tsushima also incorporates over 100 smaller islands . The name Tsushima generally refers to all the islands collectively.</p><br>
<p>The island group measures about 70 km by 15 km and has a population of about 34,000. The main islands (that is, the "North" and "South" islands, and the thin island that connects them) are the largest coherent satellite island group of Nagasaki Prefecture and the fourth largest in Japan (excluding the main islands of Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and Hokkaido). The city of Tsushima lies on the Tsushima islands, and is divided into six boroughs.</p><br>
<p>Changwon City in South Korea asserts ownership of the Island, calling it Daemado, the Korean reading of the same characters as those used in the Japanese name (對馬).</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Tsushima Island is located west of the Kanmon Strait at a latitude between Honshu and Kyushu of the Japanese mainland. The Tsushima Strait splits at the Tsushima Island Archipelago into two channels; the wider channel, closer to the mainland of Japan, is the Tsushima Strait. Ōfunakoshi-Seto and Manzeki-Seto, the two canals built in 1671 and 1900 respectively, connect the deep indentation of Asō Bay to the east side of the island. The archipelago comprises over 100 smaller islets in addition to the main island.</p><br>
<p>Tsushima is the closest Japanese territory to the Korean Peninsula, lying approximately 50 km from Busan (Pusan). On a clear day, the hills and mountains of the Korean peninsula are visible from the higher elevations on the two northern mountains. The nearest Japanese port, Iki, situated on Iki Island within the Tsushima Basin, is also 50 km away. Tsushima Island and Iki Island contain the Iki–Tsushima Quasi-National Park, Tsushima Island has many mountains such as the Mt. Ohira, Mt. Yatate, Mt. Hokogatake, Mt. Koyasan, Mt. Ontake, Mt. Gogen.</p><br>
<p>The Japanese government administers Tsushima Island as a single entity despite the artificial waterways that have separated it into two islands. The northern area is known as Kamino-shima (上島), and the southern island as Shimono-shima (下島). Both sub-islands have a pair of mountains. Shimo-no-shima has Mount Yatate (矢立山), standing 649 m high, and Ariake-yama (有明山), at 558 m high. The island has a total area of 696.26 km.</p><br>
<h3>Climate</h3><br>
<p>Tsushima has a marine subtropical climate strongly influenced by monsoon winds. The average temperature is 15.8 °C, and the average yearly precipitation is 2,132.6 mm. Throughout most of the year, Tsushima is 1 – 2 °C cooler than the city of Nagasaki. The islands rainfall is generally higher than that of the main islands of Japan; this is attributed to the difference in their size. Because Tsushima is small and isolated, it is exposed on all sides to moist marine air, which releases precipitation as it ascends the islands steep slopes. Continental monsoon winds carry loess (yellow sand) from China in the spring and cool the island in the winter.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>The island is inhabited by the Tsushima cat, wild boar, deer, martens, and mice. Otters were discovered to be living in Tsushima in February 2017. Migrating birds that make stops on the island include hawks, harriers, eagles, and black-throated loons. Forests, covering 90% of the island, consist of broad-leafed evergreens, conifers, and deciduous trees including cypress. Honey bees are common, with many used to produce commercial honey. Tsushima Island pitviper is a venomous snake endemic (found nowhere else) to the Tsushima Island.</p><br>
<p>Tsushima Reef, in the bay between Tsushima and Iki Island, is the northernmost coral reef in the world, surpassing the Iki Island reef discovered in 2001. It is dominated by cool-tolerant stony or Scleractinian Favia corals but the observed settling of tropical Acropora coral is expected to provide an ongoing indicator for continuing global warming.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<h3>Industry</h3><br>
<p>According to a 2000 census, 23.9% of the local population is employed in primary industries while 19.7% and 56.4% of the population are employed in secondary and tertiary industries, respectively. Of these economic activities, fishing amounts to 82.6% of the primary industry, with much of it dedicated to catching squid on the eastern coast of the island. The number of employees in the primary industries has been decreasing, while employee growth in the secondary and tertiary industries has been increasing.</p><br>
<h3>Tourism</h3><br>
<p>Tourism, targeting mainly South Koreans, has recently made a great contribution to the islands&#39; economy. The number of Korean tourists to the island increased greatly after the launching of a high-speed ferry service from Busan to the island in 1999. In 2008, 72,349 Koreans visited the island. Due to a drop in the value of the won, the number fell to 45,266 in 2009. Korean tourists generate an estimated ¥2.1 billion in revenue for the local economy and generate about 260 jobs on the island. In October 2012, five South Korean men broke into a temple and stole two statues, which had been on the island for more than three centuries, attempting to resell them for more than $1 million each. The men were apprehended in South Korea; however, the statues have yet to be returned by the Korean authorities. The theft and resulting tensions, however, has not slowed down Korean tourism on Tsushima. The island will see around 200,000 visitors from Korea in 2013, surpassing the number of visitors from other parts of Japan for the first time.</p><br>
<p>Tsushima Airport serves the island. And the festival to interchange with Korea was aborted.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Early history</h3><br>
<p>Japanese mythology states that Tsushima was one of the eight original islands created by the Shinto deities Izanagi and Izanami. Archeological evidence suggests that Tsushima was already inhabited by settlers from the Japanese archipelago and Korean Peninsula from the Jōmon period to the Kofun period. The Sanguo Zhi, a Chinese historical text, describes a country called Duihai guo (, Japanese: Tsuikai-koku) with a population of more than one thousand households, which is commonly identified with Tsushima. It was one of the about 30 that composed the Yamataikoku union countries. These families exerted control over Iki Island, and established trading links with Yayoi Japan. Since Tsushima had almost no land to cultivate, islanders earned their living by fishing and trading.</p><br>
<p>Beginning in the early 6th century, Tsushima was a province of Japan, known as Tsushima Province.</p><br>
<p>Under the Ritsuryō system, Tsushima became a province of Japan. This province was linked with Dazaifu, the political and economical center of Kyūshū, as well as the central government of Japan. Due to its strategic location, Tsushima played a major role in defending Japan against invasions from the Asian continent and developing trade lines with Baekje and Silla of Three Kingdoms of Korea. After Baekje, which was helped by Japan, was defeated by Silla and Tang Dynasty forces at the Battle of Hakusukinoe in 663, Japanese border guards were sent to Tsushima, and Kaneda Castle was constructed on the island.</p><br>
<p>Tsushima Province was controlled by the Tsushima no Kuni no miyatsuko (対馬国造) until the Nara period, and then by the Abiru clan until the middle of the 13th century. The role and title of "Governor of Tsushima" was exclusively held by the Shōni clan for generations. However, since the Shōni actually resided in Kyūshū, it was the Sō clan, known subjects of the Shōni, who actually exerted control over these islands. The Sō clan governed Tsushima until the late 15th century.</p><br>
<h3>Medieval history</h3><br>
<p>Tsushima was an important trade center during this period. After the Toi invasion, private trade started between Goryeo, Tsushima, Iki, and Kyūshū, but halted during the Mongol invasions of Japan between 1274 and 1281. The Goryeosa, a history of the Goryeo dynasty, mentions that in 1274, Korean troops of the Mongol army led by Kim Bang-gyeong that included many Korean soldiers killed a great number of people on the islands.</p><br>
<p>Tsushima became one of the major bases of the Wokou, Japanese pirates, also called wakō, along with the Iki and Matsuura. Due to repeated pirate raids, the Goryeo dynasty and the subsequent Joseon Dynasty, at times placated the pirates by establishing trade agreements, as well as negotiating with the Muromachi shogunate and its deputy in Kyūshū, and at times used force to neutralize the pirates. In 1389, General Pak Wi (朴威) of Goryeo attempted to clear the island of Wokou pirates, but uprisings in Korea forced him to return home.</p><br>
<p>On June 19, 1419, the recently abdicated king Sejong of Joseon sent general Yi Jong-mu to an expedition to Tsushima island to clear it of the Wokou pirates, using a fleet of 227 vessels and 17,000 soldiers, known in Japanese as the Ōei Invasion. After suffering casualties in an ambush, the Korean Army negotiated a ceasefire and withdrew on July 3, 1419. In 1443, the Daimyo of Tsushima, Sō Sadamori proposed a Gyehae treaty. The number of trade ships from Tsushima to Korea was decided by this treaty, and the Sō clan monopolized the trade with Korea.</p><br>
<p>In 1510, Japanese traders initiated an uprising against Joseon&#39;s stricter policies on Japanese traders from Tsushima and Iki coming to Busan, Ulsan and Jinhae to trade. The So Clan supported the uprising, but it was soon crushed. The uprising later came to be known as the "Three-Ports Incident" (三浦の乱 (Sanbo-No-Ran) in Japan and 삼포왜란 (三浦倭亂, Sampo Waeran) in Korea). Trade resumed under the direction of King Jungjong in 1512, but only under strictly limited terms, and only twenty-five ships were allowed to visit Joseon annually.</p><br>
<p>In the late 16th century, Japanese leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi united the various feudal lords (daimyo) under his command. Planning to unite all factions with a common cause, Hideyoshi&#39;s coalition invaded Joseon Dynasty Korea in an attack leading to the Seven-Year War. Tsushima was the main naval base for this invasion, and in continuing support of the war, large numbers of Korean prisoners were transported to Tsushima until 1603.</p><br>
<p>After Japan&#39;s attempts at conquest failed, peace was re-established between the two nations. Once again, the islands became a port for merchants. Both the Joseon Dynasty and the Tsushima-Fuchū Domain sent their trading representatives to Tsushima, governing trade until 1755.</p><br>
<p>The island was described by Hayashi Shihei in Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu, which was published in 1785. It was identified as part of Japan.</p><br>
<p>In 1811, for cost reduction, representatives of the Tokugawa shogunate met at Tsushima with ambassadors from the Joseon king (Joseon tongsinsa).</p><br>
<p>Until the Meiji era, Tsushima&#39;s status as a frontier between Japan and Korea, its heavy dependence on the Trade with Korea, as well as its unique institutions/systems of trade (which strongly resembled those of Korean, not Japanese, institutions - for instance, measurement system for the taxation of land in Japan, is determined by the production of rice (Koku)). However, Tsushima where the quantity of production of rice is poor was permitted the unique survey system (Kendaka (間高)) by Tokugawa shogunate. Because it had originated in China Land Survey System (間尺法), was similar to the system of Korea - gyeolbu (結負制); Tsushima law resembled Korean law in its calculation of finances; "unfree labor" or slavery for fixed periods of time, always rare in any form in the rest of Japan, existed as an established institution, often as a form of punishment, in Tsushima as it did in Korea; The Tsushima han owned a 330,000 m&sup2; place of residence in Busan, according to Murai Shosuke, the Japanese was given the title from the Joseon dynasty is called "marginal men", was responsible for security in this residential area. set it apart from other territories of Japan. The islanders spoke a dialect of Japanese and their daily customs, social structure, and economic interactions were of Japanese, with exception of loanwords from Korean in their language.</p><br>
<h3>Modern history</h3><br>
<p>In an episode now known as the Tsushima Incident, the Imperial Russian Navy tried to establish a base on the island in 1861, but the effort failed due to British intervention.</p><br>
<p>As a result of the abolition of the han system, the Tsushima Fuchu domain became part of Izuhara Prefecture in 1871. In the same year, Izuhara Prefecture was merged with Imari Prefecture, which was renamed Saga Prefecture in 1872. Tsushima was transferred to Nagasaki Prefecture in 1872, and its districts of Kamiagata (上県) and Shimoagata (下県) were merged to form the modern city of Tsushima. This change was part of widespread reforms within Japan which started after 1854. Japan was at this time becoming a modern nation state and regional power, with widespread changes in government, industry, and education.</p><br>
<p>After the First Sino-Japanese War ended with the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Japan felt humiliated when the Triple Intervention of the three great powers of Germany, France, and Russia forced it to return the valuable Liaodong Peninsula to China under threat of force. Consequently, the Japanese leadership correctly anticipated that a war with Russia or another Western imperial power was likely. Between 1895 and 1904, the Japanese navy blasted the Manzeki-Seto canal 25 m wide and 3 m deep; it was later expanded to 40 m wide and 4.5 m deep () through a mountainous rocky isthmus of the island between Aso Bay to the west and Tsushima Strait to the east, technically dividing the island into three islands (). Strategic concerns explain the scope and funding of the canal project by Japan during an era when it was still struggling to establish an industrial economy. The canal enabled the Japanese to move transports and warships quickly between their main naval bases in the Inland Sea (directly to the east) via the Kanmon and Tsushima Strait into the Korea Strait or to destinations beyond in the Yellow Sea.</p><br>
<p>An Imperial decree in July 1899 established Izuhara, Sasuna and Shishimi as open ports for trading with the United States and the United Kingdom.</p><br>
<p>During the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, the Russian Baltic Fleet under Admiral Rozhestvensky, after making an almost year-long trip to East Asia from the Baltic Sea, was crushed by the Japanese under Admiral Togo Heihachiro at the Battle of Tsushima. The Japanese third squadron (cruisers) began shadowing the Russian fleet off the tip of the south island and followed it through the Tsushima Strait where the main Japanese fleet awaited. The battle began at slightly east-northeast of the northern island around midday, and ended to its north a day later when the Japanese surrounded the Russian Fleet. Japan won a decisive victory.</p><br>
<p>From 1948 to 1949, the Jeju Uprising, and its resulting suppression and massacre by anti-communist Korean forces, many Jeju residents fled and took refuge in Tsushima.</p><br>
<p>In 1950, the South Korean government asserted sovereignty over the island based on "historical claims". Korea-US negotiations about the Treaty of San Francisco made no mention of Tsushima Island. After this, the status of Tsushima as an island of Japan was re-confirmed. While the South Korean government has since relinquished claims on the island, some Koreans (including some members of the Korean parliament) have periodically attempted to dispute the ownership of the island.</p><br>
<p>In 1973, one of the transmitters for the OMEGA-navigation system was built on Tsushima. It was dismantled in 1998.</p><br>
<p>Today, Tsushima is part of Nagasaki Prefecture of Japan. On March 1, 2004, the six towns on the island, including Izuhara, Mitsushima, Toyotama, Mine, Kami-agata, and Kami-tsushima, were merged to create the city of Tsushima. About 700 Japan Self-Defense Forces personnel are stationed on the island to watch the local coastal and ocean areas.</p><br>
<h2>Notable people from Tsushima</h2><br>
<p>Tsuyoshi Shinjo - Baseball player</p><br>
<p>Misia - Japanese singer</p><br>
<p>Grand Geyser is a fountain geyser in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park in the United States. It is the tallest predictable geyser known. It was named by Dr. F.V. Hayden in 1871.</p><br>
<h2>Eruptions</h2><br>
<p>Grand&#39;s fountain reaches a height of as much as 200 ft, with a duration of 9 to 12 minutes. Its eruptions occur in a series of 1 to 4 (rarely as many as 5) bursts.</p><br>
<h2>Sequence</h2><br>
<p>Grand erupts every 7 to 15 hours. It belongs to the Grand Group (or Grand Geyser Complex), and its eruption is connected to those of the other geysers in the group, especially the adjacent Vent Geyser and Turban Geyser.</p><br>
<p>For a few hours before an eruption by Grand, Turban Geyser erupts for a duration of five minutes about every 17 to 22 minutes. Grands eruption begins within 1 to 2 minutes of the start of one of Turbans eruptions, with Vent Geyser erupting shortly after Grand starts erupting. On occasion, Grand will stop erupting after 7 to 9 minutes, only to restart with a usually taller fountain a minute or two later. Grand has been known to rarely experience over half a dozen restarts in a single eruption period. After Grand ceases its eruption, Vent and Turban can continue to erupt for another hour.</p><br>
<p>Upon the finish of an eruption, Grand&#39;s pool is empty and takes about five hours to refill.</p><br>
<p>The Barlavento islands , is the northern island group of Cape Verde archipelago. Its total area is 2230 km².</p><br>
<p>It can be divided into two groups: Santo Antão (779 km²), São Vicente (227 km²), São Nicolau (388 km²), Santa Luzia (35 km²) islands and Branco and Raso islets lie to the west and are rocky, volcanic, agricultural islands.</p><br>
<p>Sal (216 km²) and Boa Vista (620 km²) lie to the east and are flat, desert islands with economies once based on salt and now turning to tourism, having more in common with Maio among the Sotavento.</p><br>
<p>Minor islets include Ilhéu de Sal-Rei and Ilhéu do Baluarte (or Ilhéu do Roque) off Boa Vista, Ilhéu dos Pássaros off São Vicente and Ilhéu Rabo de Junco off Sal.</p><br>
<p>Mindelo on São Vicente is the most populated city followed by Espargos on Sal, Porto Novo on Santo Antão, Santa Maria also on Sal and Ribeira Brava on São Nicolau.</p><br>
<p>The most mountainous islands are Santo Antão and São Nicolau and each has elevation over 1,000 meters above sea level, Boa Vista and Sal are the least mountainous. Topo da Coroa (1,982 m) is the highest point.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>São Nicolau and Santo Antão were the first inhabited islands in Barlavento. Boa Vista, Santa Luzia and Sal were third, inhabited in the 16th century and São Vicente was the sixth island to be inhabited in the 1790s</p><br>
<p>In the early years, Santo Antão was the most populated island and remained for many decades. In 1832, the population was 33,500, Santo Antão was the most populated island in Barlavento and the second in Cape Verde, São Nicolau was second, São Vicente was third and Sal was fourth. Santa Luzia became an abandoned settlement in the 1850s. In 1900, the population rose in some island though Santo Antão remained the most populated island. Around the 1920s, São Vicente became Barlavento&#39;s second most populated island and fourth in Cape Verde. São Vicente was the fastest growing population in Barlavento in numbers, in percentage, in the 1950s, Sal took the position. In the 1960s, Boa Vista island became the leastly populated island in Barlavento, Sal took the position with air traffic services boosted its economy. Since the early 1980s, São Vicente island is the most populated island in the Barlavento Islands. Sal has the fastest growing population today. Tourism flourishing in Sal put the island to be the third most populated island in the late 1990s.</p><br>
<h2>Population</h2><br>
<p>From 1900, the population has nearly tripled from about 48,000 to 147,019 in 2000. The population in the 2010 census is 170,587.</p><br>
<p>The Sotavento islands , is the southern island group of Cape Verde archipelago.</p><br>
<p>There are four main islands: Brava (67 km²), Fogo ( 476 km²) and Santiago (991 km²) are rocky and volcanic agricultural islands, with the longest histories of human habitation and densest populations in the Cape Verdes. Maio (269 km²) lies to the east and is a flat desert island whose economy was primarily based on salt, giving it more in common with Sal and Boa Vista among the Barlavento.</p><br>
<p>The islets Ilhéu Grande, Ilhéu de Cima, and the minor islets Ilhéu do Rei, Ilhéu Sapado and Ilhéu Luís Carneiro make up the Ilhéus Secos (or Ilhéus do Rombo) islets group north of Brava. The little Ilhéu de Santa Maria lies off Santiago and the like.</p><br>
<p>Praia on Santiago, being the national capital is the most populated city followed by Assomada and Pedra Badejo also on the island, São Filipe on Fogo is followed, Tarrafal, Chão Bom on Santiago, Mosteiros on Fogo and Calheta de São Miguel on Santiago are followed as towns. Cidade do Maio on Maio and Nova Sintra on Brava are one of the most populated areas, the two each are island capital, others are Ribeira da Barca, São Domingos and Cidade Velha on Santago.</p><br>
<p>The most mountainous islands are Fogo, Brava and Santiago. Fogo has the country&#39;s tallest mountain, the Pico do Fogo elevating 2,829 meters, others include Pico da Antónia, the tallest on Santiago, Serra Malagueta the second tallest range on the island and Monte Fontainhas on Brava. The least mountainous island is Maio.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The first settlement on Cape Verde was Cidade Velha inhabited in 1461, the second populated place would be São Filipe, the remainder of Santiago, Brava and Maio would be populated in the mid to late 16th century.</p><br>
<h2>Population</h2><br>
<p>Santiago for much of the time has been the most populated island in the island chain, it is the most populated island in Sovatento. Until the late 1990s, the leastly populated island was Brava. Sotavento has nearly double the population of Barlavento and is home to about 2/3 of the countrys population. Santiago has a huge percentage of over 84% the population of Sotavento, in most of the 20th century, it had a mid percentage of Sotavento. The capital alone has 40.19% of Sotaventos population.</p><br>
<p>From 1900, the population has more than tripled from 91,600 to 281,060 in 2000. As of the 2010 census, the population was 324,062. The projected 2020 population could be over the 400,000 mark.</p><br>
<p>Santiago , or Santiagu in Cape Verdean Creole, is the largest island of Cape Verde, its most important agricultural centre and home to half the nation’s population.</p><br>
<p>Santiago is located between the islands of Maio (40 km west) and Fogo (50 km east) and is one of the Sotavento. It was the first of the islands to be settled, the town of Cidade Velha being founded as Ribeira Grande in 1462. It is also home to the nation&#39;s capital city of Praia and to one of the islands’ four international airports, Praia International Airport, 3 km from the capital (IATA airport code: RAI, Praia).</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>In the 19th century it was called St. Jago.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>During the Prehistoric era, around 22 to 21 million years ago, the seamount was formed, 4 to 3 million years ago, the island with its crater now known as Pico da Antónia was formed, its length was about 15 km, about 2 to 3 million years ago, another island with its crater at present day Serra da Malagueta was formed, its seamount was formed around 20 to 19 million years ago, its length was about 10 km, about 2 to 1 million years ago, the two islands merged into a larger island. In about 73,000 BC, the eastern portion of the island of Fogo collapsed into the ocean and brought a 170 m megatsunami that flooded the western part of the island. During the Ice Age, the island was larger than 1,050 km&sup2; and approximately 80 km wide.</p><br>
<p>The island was discovered by António da Noli in around 1460 who built a garrison in Cidade Velha which was then known as Ribeira Grande. Transcontinental slavery made Cidade Velha the second richest city in the Portuguese realm. Later, Portugal faced competition by the English, Dutch, French and Spanish who gradually took over the slave trade. The island was captured by Francis Drake, as a result, Fort Real de São Filipe, Cape Verde&#39;s first fortress was built and was finished in 1590. In 1712, the capital no longer served Cidade Velha which was attacked by French pirates led by Jacques Cassard as part of the Cassard expedition and was moved to the Praia plateau, Praia was not officially capital status until 1770. The island population were disadvantaged by the Portuguese colonial system and supported Amílcar Cabral and the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde and the independence of 1975. Santiago several times hosted conferences on Creole culture.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Santiago is the largest island of Cape Verde, with an area of 991 km². The island is mountainous, although slightly flatter in the southeast. In the area of Cidade Velha and west of Salineiro consists of a plateau that has very few hills and a lot of ravines, several of them deep. As does with many other islands in the country, within a kilometer or two within the island has the area inside the ocean that is 1 kilometer deep, 5 kilometers further is 2 kilometers deep and as far as ten kilometers away is the ocean floor which is about 3500 meters deep. The wetter climate of the interior and the eastern coast contrasts with the drier one in the south/southwest coast. Praia, located in the southeast coast, is the largest city on the island, and also the largest city and capital of the country. Other towns on the island include Cidade Velha, 15 km west of Praia, Cape Verde&#39;s first capital; Assomada, 60 km north and Tarrafal in the northern part of the island 75 km from the capital. The island has the most number of villages and settlements in Cape Verde.</p><br>
<p>The tallest summit is Pico da Antónia which is located west of Picos, the second is Serra da Malagueta which is halfway between Assomada and Tarrafal. Other mountain ranges include Órgãos which dominate a part of the municipality including north of João Teves, Monte Vacas which dominate between Cidade Velha and São Domingos and Serra da Malagueta which dominates the north of the island. Pico da António and Serra Malagueta are its National Parks located on the island, they were created in 2003. The island are one of five that have one or more islands, one is Ilhéu de Santa Maria which is near Praia and the others are some rocky islets located near Ponta Moreia.</p><br>
<p>The length of the shoreline is around 120 km long making it the longest in the archipelago and much of it are surrounded by short and tall cliffs, many of the taller ones are on the west side. Many of the cliffs were formed from the massive Fogo eruption of 73,000 years ago in the west and most probably in other parts of the island including smaller ones in the east, it is recorded in its boulders that are seen today. The surrounding bays include Baía de Mosquito which is in the southwest and has one of the tallest cliffs on any island in the North Atlantic, Praia Harbor near Praia in the southeast and Tarrafal Bay to the northwest. The longest river is the Poilão Stream which flows in the southern interior other streams include Ribeira Grande de Santiago, Ribeira Grande do Norte de Santiago which empties in Chão Bom. The remainder of the island especially in the east has several small bays, the notable ones are the one in Calheta de São Miguel, the one near Pedra Badejo and Praia Formosa. The southernmost point is Praia Temerosa, the northernmost is Ponta Moreia and the easternmost is Ponta do Lobo located near Vale da Custa. Beaches on the island includes Praia Baixo, Praia Formosa, Tarrafal, Prainha near Praia, Cidade Velha, Pedra Badejo and Calheta de São Miguel and smaller ones including Chão Bom, Rincão, Ribeira da Barca, it is one of three islands that contains only small beaches. The island has no lagoons but has five reservoirs damming five artificial lakes including Poilão, Faveta, Figueira Gordo, Salineiro and Saquinho, some of these are dry during dry months.</p><br>
<p>The Cape Verde islands are a very degradated area. Due to their proximity to the Sahara, most of the Cape Verde islands are dry, but on islands with high mountains and farther away from the coast, by orography, the humidity is much higher, giving a rainforest habitat, very degraded by the strong human presence. Northeastern slopes of high mountains often receive a lot of rain and Southwest slopes not. These umbria areas are identified with cool and moisture. Some islands, as Santiago with steep mountains, are covered with vegetation where the dense moisture condense and soak the plants, rocks, soil, logs, moss etc.</p><br>
<p>Cloud forests developed about mountains, where the dense moisture from the sea or ocean, is precipitated by the action of the relief. Opposing the terrain to a front of warm, moist air mass, it forces to increase the height above sea level of that body wet and warm air mass, which cools and decreases the dew point, causing it to condense part of the moisture that falls as rain or fog, creating a habitat especially cool, saturated with moisture in the air and soil.</p><br>
<h3>Surrounding the island</h3><br>
<p>Almost all of the island are surrounded by the Cape Verde Rise, many areas are 1,000 meters deep, 10 km away from the island and 15-20 km are 2,000 meters deep and are being the limits of the seamount. East of Ponta do Lobo in a small area between Santiago and Maio, the deepest portion is over 1,000 meters deep.</p><br>
<h2>Population</h2><br>
<p>As of 1830, Santiago&#39;s population was estimated at 24,000. Santiago has always been the most populous island in Cape Verde. The island population has doubled since the independence of Cape Verde in 1975. The 2010 census population of the island was 272,312.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>The island has the longest road and street networks in the country. The total length of the main roads is 679.63 km, of which 363.23 km are national and 313.40 km are regional. The main highway is the one connecting Praia and Tarrafal via Assomada and another via Pedra Badejo and Calheta</p><br>
<p>The majority of the island&#39;s roads along with Cape Verdean roads are paved with cobblestones cut from local basalt. Recent international aid has allowed the asphalting of many roads, on the island including all of the highway between Praia and Tarrafal, all of the highway between Praia and Cidade Velha, and all of the highway between Praia, Pedra Badejo, and Calheta de São Miguel on Santiago, much of the paved roads are on the island.</p><br>
<p>The main port of the island is Praia (once used as a city name as Porto Praia). Tarrafal, Cidade Velha, Ribeira da Barca, Chão Bom, Pedra Badejo, Praia Formosa and Calheta de São Miguel are used as fishing ports.</p><br>
<p>Several towns and cities are served with aluguer buses common throughout Cape Verde. Praia has Cape Verde&#39;s only mass transit system. The system are run by Maura Company, newer ones are run by Sol Atlântico.</p><br>
<p>Taxis are common in Praia and Assomada. Taxis with a base in Praia are painted beige, while taxis with a base in Assomada are painted white. In 2015 a project called started running a fleet of dual fuel waste vegetable oil / diesel modified Toyota HiACE minibuses using a scheduled service model between Praia and Assomada.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>The main industries are agriculture, tourism, fishing and others, and leastly manufacturing. Main agricultural products are corn, sugar cane, banana, coffee and mangoes. The manufacturing and the business sector dominates in the capital of Praia along with the political sector. Most of the factories are also located in the capital.</p><br>
<h2>Media</h2><br>
<p>Several media serves the island. The island are home to the country&#39;s television and radio station RTC, Record Cabo Verde and RTI. Regional stations includes and Radio Praia.</p><br>
<h2>Education</h2><br>
<p>Institutions includes the National Library of Cape Verde, the countrys only private university, the Jean Piaget University of Cape Verde and two universities, the University of Cape Verde, first opened in November 2006 and the University of Santiago Island with its campuses in Praia and Assomada. Also there is Cape Verdes first school named Escola Grande and the first lyceum, both located in Praia. In the south of Praia near Ponta Temerosa is the seminary of São José first opened in 1957.</p><br>
<h2>Nature</h2><br>
<p>Several endangered species are on the island. There are 38 species of endangered flora as of 2015 including Artemisia gorgonum, Campanula bravensis, Campanula jacobaea, Conyza feae, Conyza pannosa, Echium hypertropicum, Euphorbia tuckeyana, Lavandula rotundifolia, Limonium lobinii, Micromeria forbesii, Sarcostemma daltonii, Sonchus daltonii, Umbilicus schmidtii, notably founded in areas including Pico da Antónia, Serra Malagueta, the interior and Monte Graciosa and the islands north tip. Endangered fauna includesVerbascum capitis-viridis and fauna including birds such as Iago sparrow (or Cape Verdean sparrow) and Cape Verde warbler, skinks and geckos such as Chioninia spinalis, Chioninia stangeri, Chioninia vaillantii, Hemidactylus brookii angulatus, Tarentola darwini (Darwins gecko) and Tarentola rudis, the spider Koinothrix pequenops and Hottentotta caboverdensis, the only scorpion on the island and the archipelago. Surrounding the island have some fishes and snail furs. Iago sparrow and Darwin&#39;s gecko were first described on the island as well as a fish Diplodus prayensis (rarely as praiensis).</p><br>
<p>Along with the entire archipelago, all of its reptiles and insects as well as plants came on what was a possible clue, rafting on trees, probably from the banks of the mainland rivers of Senegal or large rivers from around modern day Guinea-Bissau or Guinea during the times when the salinity of the ocean was low.</p><br>
<p>After the Portuguese discovery, from the 16th century, non-indigenous plants and mammals were brought to parts of the island especially monkeys and farm animals.</p><br>
<h2>Politics</h2><br>
<p>In politics, Santiago is the only island that are divided into two constituencies, north and south, the south includes the three municipalities which include the capital, as of the 2011 election, it had 14 seats in the north with 8 PAICV seats and 6 MpD seats and 19 seats in the south with about 11 MpD seats. After the 2016 elections, the Mpd took the majority of the seats of the two zones, 60% in the north and 70% in the south.</p><br>
<h2>Sports</h2><br>
<p>The island are divided into two zones, the North and the South Zones and has football (soccer), basketball, volleyball, track and field, futsal and athletics competitions. Until 2003, the island had one island championships, the Santiago Island Championships. The unified island league would continue into 2007 featuring only a single match featuring the champions of the north and the south.</p><br>
<p>Santiago possesses the most major sports complexes in the country, they include Estádio da Várzea in Praia, Cumbem in Assomada, Mangue in Tarrafal, one in Pedra Badejo and Estádio da Calheta in Calheta de São Miguel.</p><br>
<h2>Notable residents</h2><br>
<p>Elida Almeida, singer</p><br>
<p>André Álvares de Almada, writer, trader and explored during the 16th and 17th centuries</p><br>
<p>Orlanda Amarílis, writer</p><br>
<p>Lúcio Antunes, coach</p><br>
<p>Babanco, footballer</p><br>
<p>Jorge Barbosa – writer</p><br>
<p>Gardénia Benrós, singer</p><br>
<p>Cao, footballer who played for the Portuguese team after he moved to Portugal</p><br>
<p>Codé di Dona, writer</p><br>
<p>Djaniny, footballer (soccer) player</p><br>
<p>Abílio Duarte, politician</p><br>
<p>Mito Elias, painter</p><br>
<p>Gilyto, singer</p><br>
<p>António Mascarenhas Monteiro – former President</p><br>
<p>José Maria Neves – present Prime Minister</p><br>
<p>Orlando Monteiro Barreto (Orlando Pantera) – musician</p><br>
<p>António Pedro, Portuguese writer</p><br>
<p>Piguita, footballer</p><br>
<p>Ivone Ramos, writer</p><br>
<p>Tomé Varela da Silva, writer, poet and philosopher</p><br>
<p>Ronny Souto (Ronny), footballer</p><br>
<p>Tcheka, singer</p><br>
<p>Manuel Veiga – académico, linguista, kriolista</p><br>
<p>Arménio Vieira – writer</p><br>
<p>Roopkund  is a high altitude glacial lake in the Uttarakhand state of India. It lies in the lap of Trishul massif and is famous for the hundreds of human skeletons found at the edge of the lake. The area is uninhabited, in the Himalayas at an altitude of 5,029 metres .</p><br>
<p>A shallow lake, having a depth of about two metres, Roopkund has attracted attention because of the human skeletal remains that are visible at its bottom when the snow melts. Researchers have concluded that the skeletons are the remains of people killed in a sudden, violent hailstorm in the 9th century. Because of the human remains, the lake has been called Skeleton Lake in recent times.</p><br>
<h2>Human skeletons</h2><br>
<p>Skeletons were rediscovered in 1942 by a Nanda Devi game reserve ranger H K Madhwal, although there are reports about these bones from the late-19th century. At first, British authorities feared that the skeletons represented casualties of a hidden Japanese invasion force, but it was found that the skeletons were far too old to be Japanese soldiers.</p><br>
<p>Local legend says that the King of Kanauj, Raja Jasdhaval, with his pregnant wife, Rani Balampa, their servants, a dance troupe and others went on a pilgrimage to Nanda Devi shrine, and the group faced a storm with large hailstones, from which the entire party perished near Roopkund Lake.</p><br>
<p>Remnants belonging to more than 300 people have been found. Radiocarbon dating of the bones at Oxford University&#39;s Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit determined the time period to be 850 CE ±30 years. The Anthropological Survey of India conducted a study of the skeletons during the 1950s and some samples are displayed at the Anthropological Survey of India Museum, Dehradun.</p><br>
<h3>Identification</h3><br>
<p>Scientific tests from a 2004 expedition to the lake revealed that the skeletons belonged to several groups of people, including a group of short people (probably local porters) and a taller group, who were closely related—with DNA mutations characteristic for Konkanastha Brahmins (Chitpavans) from Maharashtra.</p><br>
<p>The studies of the skeletons revealed a common cause of death: blows to the back of the head, caused by round objects falling from above. The researchers concluded that the victims had been caught in a sudden hailstorm, just as described in the local legends and songs.</p><br>
<p>What has not been determined is where the group was headed. There is no historical evidence of any trade routes to Tibet in the area, but Roopkund is on an important pilgrimage route of the Nanda Devi cult with Nanda Devi Raj Jat festivities taking place approximately once every twelve years.</p><br>
<h3>Conservation concerns</h3><br>
<p>There is a growing concern about the regular loss of skeletons and it is feared that, if steps are not taken to conserve them, the skeletons may gradually vanish in the years to come. It is reported that tourists visiting the area are in the habit of taking back the skeletons in large numbers and the district administration has expressed the need to protect the area. The district magistrate of Chamoli District has reported that tourists, trekkers, and curious researchers are transporting the skeletons on mules and recommended that the area should be protected.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>Roopkund is a picturesque tourist destination and one of the important places for trekking in Chamoli District, Himalayas, near the base of two Himalayan peaks: Trisul (7,120 m) and Nanda Ghunti (6,310 m). The Lake is flanked by a rock face named Junargali to the North and a peak named Chandania Kot to the East. A religious festival is held at the alpine meadow of Bedni Bugyal every autumn with nearby villages participating. A larger celebration, the Nanda Devi Raj Jat, takes place once every twelve years at Roopkund, during which Goddess Nanda is worshipped.:</p><br>
<p>Roopkund lake is covered with ice for most of the year.</p><br>
<h2>Roopkund skeletons in popular culture</h2><br>
<p>Roopkund&#39;s skeletons were featured in a National Geographic documentary, "Riddles Of The Dead: Skeleton Lake".</p><br>
<p>There is also a peak in the island of Annobón  named Pico do Fogo located northeast of Lago Mazafim </p><br>
<p>Pico do Fogo is the highest peak of Cape Verde, rising to 2,829 m above sea level. It is an active stratovolcano lying on the island of Fogo. The main cone last erupted in 1675, causing mass emigration from the island. A subsidiary vent erupted in 1995. The only deadly eruption was in 1847 when earthquakes killed several people.</p><br>
<p>Fogo is a hotspot volcanic island. Its most recent eruptions have occurred in 1951, 1995 and 2014. It is the youngest and most active volcano in the Cape Verde Islands, a short chain of volcanic islands that generally are younger at the western end, formed as the African Plate moved towards the east over the hotspot.</p><br>
<p>Fogo consists of a single volcano, so the island is nearly round and about 25 km in diameter. The large summit caldera (about 10 kilometers in the north-south direction and 7 kilometers in the east-west direction) is not located in the center of the island, but rather towards its northeastern corner. The caldera is bounded by steep near-vertical fault scarps on the north, west, and south sides but is breached to the east where lava can flow to the coast. North-northeast-trending eruptive fissures opened along the western flank of Pico, which formed inside the caldera between about 1500 and 1760. The last eruption from the top was in 1769. The current topography of Fogo, with the caldera open to the sea on the east side, results from the sliding of the east flank of the volcano towards the ocean.</p><br>
<p>The mountain&#39;s slopes are used to grow coffee, while its lava is used as building material. Near its peak is a caldera and a small village, Chã das Caldeiras, is inside this caldera.</p><br>
<h2>73,000 years ago</h2><br>
<p>The eastern side of Fogo collapsed into the ocean 73,000 years ago, creating a tsunami 170 meters high which struck the island of Santiago in the Cape Verde islands and formed Baía do Inferno, during the Ice Age as the sea level was nearly 130 meters lower, it was a hollow named Cova Inferno and when it was flooded again, it is currently a bay. The megatsunami also created small escarpments around the west of the island, probably modern day Ribeira da Barca, Cidade Velha and the south of Praia as the island blocked it from heading further east. It may also flooded a part of West Africa and could be one of the factors of a drop in temperatures during the Ice Age. The eruption was recorded by island boulders on the island.</p><br>
<p>Before, the island was 800 square kilometers and was a circle. The landscape before the eruption on the current shoreline was about 1.000-1,500 meters (3,000-4,500 feet) above sea level and where the ocean floor today was about 3,000-4,000 meters (10,000-15,000 feet). After the eruption, soil and rock originated from lava flows and other dominate the east but are rarely founded in the west as lava flows has never flowed in the west of the island. The peaks elevation was once 3,000-4,000 meters and was probably the tallest summit in both Macaronesia and the whole of West and North Africa, probably taller than the Atlas Mountains and formed one of the worlds tallest seamounts that had a 5,000+ meter height, the caldera was larger than the current Pico do Fogo. The western split from the main peak and became Bordeira, the marking of the eruption line was at present-day Fonte Aleixo, Achada Furna, east of the current São Filipe-Santa Catarina do Fogo municipal line, Cabeça Fundão, west of Feijoal and Queimada Guincho and east of Fajãzinha.</p><br>
<p>The eruption was the largest recorded eruption in the history of the island.</p><br>
<h2>1680 eruption</h2><br>
<p>A violent eruption took place in 1680 and continued for a few years, forming a new cone that was visible over hundreds of kilometres but lasted only for a few years. It was during this eruption that the island earned its name Fogo. It caused many residents to evacuate; some moved to nearby Brava. The eruption was the last largest in Fogo since its discovery in 1456; the mountain was used as a natural lighthouse for ships crossing around Fogo. The volcanic clouds may hovered over the African mainland and Brazil in South America.</p><br>
<p>The black color of the soil from the previous eruptions is still seen today in the east of the island, probably the northeast, the easternmost areas, Estância Roque and around Cabeça Fundão.</p><br>
<h2>1995 eruption</h2><br>
<p>The 1995 eruption began on the night of 2–3 April, covering the island with a cloud of ash. Residents were evacuated from Chã das Caldeiras, as their homes were destroyed.</p><br>
<p>Residents reported that the eruption was preceded by small earthquakes which began about six days prior to the first eruption of lava. These earthquakes increased in magnitude and frequency through April 2, and a particularly strong one was reported at about 8 p.m., four hours before the eruption apparently began. Just after midnight, fissures opened on the flank of Pico. One resident said it looked as if the cone had "been cut by a knife." The eruption began with Strombolian activity, quickly followed by a curtain-of-fire lava fountain that fed a flow which cut off the road to the village of Portela by 2 a.m. The 1,300 people living inside the caldera fled during the night to the safety of villages on the north coast. No one was killed, but about 20 people required medical attention.</p><br>
<p>During the day on April 3, the island was engulfed by a thick cloud of dark ash that reached 2.5 to 5 kilometers high. The initial flows were pahoehoe lava, although their extent was apparently small. The violent eruption produced lava bombs up to 4 meters across that were ejected as far as 500 meters from the vents. On April 4, lava fountains reached 400 meters high beneath a cloud of ash about 2 kilometers high. A new scoria cone formed that was open to the southwest and fed a growing lava flow. On April 5, the new lava flow reached the western caldera wall and destroyed about five houses and the main water reservoir. During these first few days, civil authorities evacuated about 3,000 people.</p><br>
<p>The eruption became steadier after the first few days, and moderate, Hawaiian-style lava fountains about 100–120 meters high built a spatter cone more than 140 meters high. The flows were lava, and flowed towards the west to the caldera wall, then turned north. These flows advanced episodically as pressure built from ponding and thickening of the flows. On April 13, a second lava flow began to cover an earlier, stagnant lava flow, and was almost entirely on top of the earlier flow until April 15, when it spread out and destroyed another home. Cinder fell as far as two kilometers south of the vents on April 15. By the 17th, the flow had advanced to within 420 meters of the nearest house in the village of Portela.</p><br>
<p>On April 18, a portable seismometer began to record much stronger volcanic tremors that indicated a change in eruptive style from lava fountains back to Strombolian activity. Spatter was discharged every 3–8 seconds with loud gas bursts. In addition, the eruptive rate increased and the upper 300 meters of the channel was largely pahoehoe lava. The eruption rates, estimated from the dimensions and flow rates in the channel, were between 4 and 8.5 million cubic meters per day.</p><br>
<p>During the night of April 18, a series of large, explosive bursts occurred that may have followed collapse of parts of the cone into the vents and subsequent explosive clearing of the debris. By morning, the activity had returned to lava fountaining, and the seismic record was much quieter. The lava flows continued to thicken, and lava ponded along the central channel.</p><br>
<h2>2014-15 eruption</h2><br>
<p>The Fogo volcano returned to activity in 2014, having started erupting shortly after 10 a.m. of Sunday, 23 November 2014. There had been a few days of heightened seismic activity,</p><br>
<p>The population of Chã das Caldeiras, totaling around 1,000 inhabitants, spent the night outside their homes due to the strong earthquakes, and started being evacuated when the eruption began. As in 1995, some people initially refused to abandon their homes, but eventually heeded the authorities&#39; instructions.</p><br>
<p>Bruno Faria, a Cape Verdean vulcanologist, said the intensity of the eruption surpassed that of the 1995 eruption, and approached that of the 1951 eruption, one of the strongest ever recorded on the island.</p><br>
<p>After 77 days of activity, the eruption stopped on 8 February 2015.</p><br>
<h3>In the international media</h3><br>
<p>The 2014 eruption of the Pico do Fogo received limited attention in the international media. The geographer Christophe Neff wrote in a blog post about this fact. In this post – “L’éruption du Pico do Fogo du 23.11.2014 – l’éruption oublié …. (The eruption of the Pico do Fogo – the forgotten eruption)”. Neff writes that except for the Lusophone world, and some limited attention in the Francophone world (Cabo Verde is member of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie), the eruption received little attention in the international media.</p><br>
<p>Neff gave the example of Germany, where the first article in the German media, an article in Der Spiegel-online – was published only on 9 December 2014, over two weeks after the start of the eruption.</p><br>
<p>The British geologist David Rothery also posted a blog article "Why have we heard so little about the devastating Cape Verde volcano?" with a similar content. At the end of the article, Rothery placed a provocative question "Or do we care about volcanoes only if there’s a chance of them inconveniencing our air-travel plans?"</p><br>
<h2>Depictions</h2><br>
<p>Since 2014, the peak along with the surrounding caldera were featured in a Capeverdean $200 escudo note. On the bottom left is the wine grape which is grown in the area and on the right Henrique Teixeira de Sousa, a native of the island, birthplace of an area that includes the peak.</p><br>
<p>Pythio , sometimes referred to as Pythion, is a village and community in the eastern part of Didymoteicho municipality, Evros regional unit, Greece. It is 16 km east of the centre of Didymoteicho, on the right bank of the river Evros, where it forms the border with Turkey. There is no road border crossing near Pythio.</p><br>
<p>The community of Pythio consists of the villages of Pythio, Rigio and Pythio railway station (Σταθμός Πυθίου Stathmos Pythiou). The nearest villages are Petrades to the south and Asimenio to the northwest.</p><br>
<h2>Railway</h2><br>
<p>Pythio is a railway junction where the railway to Ormenio and Bulgaria branches off the main line from Thessaloniki to Istanbul through Alexandroupoli and Uzunköprü. The railway was built by the Chemins de fer Orientaux (CO), managed by Maurice de Hirsch, as part of the CO&#39;s contract to build a line from Istanbul to Vienna. The railway reached Pythio, known as Kuleliburgaz during Ottoman rule, in 1873, when the line from Istanbul to Edirne and Bulgaria was opened. A 112 km branch from Pythio to Alexandroupoli (then known as Dedeağaç) was opened in 1874.</p><br>
<p>When the railway was built it was all within the Ottoman Empire. During World War I the railway was an important link as the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary were all Central Allies. On 14 December 1916 Allied (British or French -it is not clear) aeroplanes bombed the bridge over the river Evros. Under the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923, a new border between Greece and Turkey was established at the Evros river, just east of Pythio, which had the result that the railway from Istanbul to Bulgaria entered Greece at Pythio, then re-entered Turkey at Edirne (Karaağaç railway station), re-entered Greece at Marasia, and finally entered Bulgaria between Ormenio and Svilengrad. This arrangement continued until 1971, when two new lines were opened. In Turkey the Edirne Cut-off was opened to allow trains from Istanbul to Bulgaria to run through Edirne entirely on Turkish territory, so that trains such as the Orient Express no longer had to stop at Pythio. In Greece a line was opened to allow trains from Pythio to Bulgaria to stay on Greek territory and avoid Edirne.</p><br>
<h2>Historical population</h2><br>
<h2>Sites of interest</h2><br>
<p>Castle of Pythion, built in the 14th century</p><br>
<p>Bennett Island  is the largest of the islands of the De Long group in the northern part of the East Siberian Sea. The area of this island is approximately 150 km&sup2; and it has a tombolo at its eastern end. The highest point of the island is 426 m high Mount De Long, the highest point of the archipelago.</p><br>
<p>Bennett Island is part of the Sakha Republic administrative division of Russia.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Bennett Island was discovered by American explorer George Washington DeLong in 1881 and named after James Gordon Bennett, Jr., who had financed the expedition. DeLong set out in 1879 aboard the Jeannette, hoping to reach Wrangel Island and to discover open seas in the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole. However, the ship entered an ice pack near Herald Island in September 1879 and became trapped. The vessel was crushed by the ice and sank in June 1881. At that point the party was forced to trek over the ice on foot, discovering Bennett Island during July 1881, and claiming it for the United States. They remained on the island for several days before setting out again for the New Siberian Islands and the mainland of Siberia.</p><br>
<p>In August 1901 Russian ship Zarya sailed on an expedition searching for the legendary Sannikov Land (Zemlya Sannikova) but was soon blocked by floating pack ice. During 1902 the attempts to reach Sannikov Land continued while Zarya was trapped in fast ice. Russian explorer Baron Eduard Toll and three companions vanished forever in November 1902 while travelling away from Bennett Island towards the south on loose ice floes.</p><br>
<p>In 1916 the Russian ambassador in London issued an official notice to the effect that the Imperial government considered Bennett, along with other Arctic islands, integral parts of the Russian Empire. This territorial claim was later maintained by the Soviet Union.</p><br>
<p>Some USA individuals assert American ownership of Bennett Island, and others of the De Long group, based on the 1881 landing. However, the United States government has never claimed Bennett Island, and recognizes it as Russian territory.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Bennett Island consists of Early Paleozoic, late Cretaceous, Pliocene, and Quaternary sedimentary and igneous rocks. The oldest rocks outcropping on Bennett island are moderately tilted marine Cambrian to Ordovician sedimentary rocks. They consist of an approximately 500-meter-thick sequence of argillites with minor amounts of siltstone, and limestone that contain Middle Cambrian trilobites and 1000–1200 m of Ordovician argillites, siltstones, and quartz sandstones that contain graptolites. These Paleozoic rocks are overlain by Late Cretacecous coal-bearing argillites and quartzite-like sandstones and basaltic lava and tuff with lenses of tuffaceous argillite. The Late Cretaceous strata is overlain by basaltic lavas ranging in age from Pliocene to Quaternary. The Quaternary volcanic rocks form volcanic cones.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>Little has been published about the climatology of Bennett Island in the English language literature. Dr. Glazovskiy stated that the annual precipitation on Bennett Island varied from 100 mm at sea level to 400 mm at the crest of the Tollya Ice Cap.</p><br>
<h2>Glaciers</h2><br>
<p>Bennett Island has the largest permanent ice cover within the De Long Islands. In 1987, the permanent ice cap of this island consisted of four separate glaciers that had a total area of 65.87 km² (25.43 mi²). All of these glaciers were perched on high, basaltic plateaus bounded by steep scarp-like slopes.</p><br>
<p>In 1992, Dr. Verkulich and others named these glaciers as the De Long East, De Long West, Malyy, and Toll glaciers. With an area of 55.5 km² (21.4 mi²) in 1987, Toll Glacier was the largest of them. It occupied the center of Bennett Island; had an elevation of 380 to 390 m (1,250 to 1,280 ft) above mean sea level; and was 160 to 170 m (524 to 560 ft) thick at its center. It had an outlet glacier, West Seeberg Glacier, from which ice flowed downhill from Toll Glacier into the sea. The next largest glacier was De Long East Glacier with an area of 5.16 km² (1.99 mi²) in 1987. It laid about 420 m (1,380 ft) above mean sea level at the southeast end of Bennett Island and had a thickness of 40 to 45 m (130 to 147 ft). Adjacent to De Long East Glacier laid the De Long West Glacier with an area of 1.17 km² (0.45 mi²); an elevation of 330 to 340 m (1,080 to 1,115 ft) above mean sea level; and a thickness of 40 m (130 ft) in 1987. Malyy Glacier, with an area of 4.04 km² (1.56 mi²) in 1987, occupied a basaltic plateau at an elevation of 140 to 160 m (460 to 525 ft) above mean sea level on the northeast end of Bennett Island and was 40 to 50 m (130 to 164 ft) thick. In 1987, all of these glaciers were shrinking in volume and had been so for the past 40 years.</p><br>
<p>Of the glaciers described by Dr. Verkulich and others, Dr. Glazovskiy discusses only the Toll Ice Cap, which Dr. Verkulich and others referred to as "Toll Glacier". In 1996, it had an area of 54.2 km² and a mean elevation of 384 m (1,260 ft) above sea level. Its equilibrium line altitude was at an elevation of 200 m (660 ft) above sea level.</p><br>
<p>According to Alekseev, Anisimov and Tumskoy, and Makeyev and others, the glaciers found on Bennett and other islands of the De Long Islands are remnants of small passive ice caps formed during the Last Glacial Maximum (Late Weichselian Epoch) about 17,000 to 24,000 BP. At the time that these ice caps formed, the De Long Islands were major hills within a large subaerial plain, called the Great Arctic Plain, that now lies submerged below the Arctic Ocean and East Siberian Sea.</p><br>
<h2>Vegetation</h2><br>
<p>Rush/grass, forb, cryptogam tundra covers the Bennett Island. It is tundra consisting mostly of very low-growing grasses, rushes, forbs, mosses, lichens, and liverworts. These plants either mostly or completely cover the surface of the ground. The soils are typically moist, fine-grained, and often hummocky.</p><br>
<h2>Atmospheric plumes</h2><br>
<p>Bennett Island plumes are a phenomenon in the arctic that had been a mystery to atmospheric scientists for decades until it was finally explained by a collaborative, post-cold war United States and Russian expedition in the 1990s. For years, scientists observed large, sometimes hundreds of miles long plumes emanating from the northeast coast of Russia over the remote Bennett Island and scientists hypothesized that the plumes were caused by volcanoes, gas plumes or even Soviet cold war testing before satellite observations revealed them to be meteorological in origin.</p><br>
<p>The most popular theory among scientists was that the plumes were formed when clathrates – methane, trapped and frozen into a crystalline structure similar to ice by a combination of low temperatures and high pressures — melted and released methane gas. These gas deposits can melt, bubble to the surface and erupt like a geyser into the atmosphere.</p><br>
<p>Due to remaining cold-war tensions, and the Soviet military’s desire to protect the secrecy of submarine facilities, western scientists were only able to observe the plumes remotely via satellite. The melting permafrost/clathrate hypothesis was unable to be tested until spring of 1992, when US and Russian Scientists in Siberia were able to conduct an air-borne expedition conduct a sampling of the plume and surprisingly found no methane.</p><br>
<p>Scientists had initially dismissed the meteorological explanation of the clouds because the plumes only seemed to be unique to Bennett Island and not the other, similar islands, and because it was thought that the 1,000 foot high island was too low to generate orographic clouds. Orographic clouds normally form when air is forced to rise as it passes over a mountain and cools.</p><br>
<p>Bennett Island plumes form due to the layering of arctic air at different, very cold temperatures. The region is relatively remote, with only warmer polynyas—open water surrounded by sea ice – to potentially provide instability. When air hits the elevated Bennett Island, which behaves like an airplane air foil it rises up, sometimes to over 3 km, nucleates, condenses and forms a cloud. The catalyst for the generation of the plumes was difficult to pinpoint because the apparent source region of the plume can appear to shift with time depending on the weakening or intensification of the strength of the wind flowing over the mountain. Consequently, the plumes were determined to be excellent indicators of the location of arctic fronts and jet stream activity.</p><br>
<p>Presently, the mystery of Bennett Island plumes has not completely been solved; scientists are still seeking an explanation for why the plumes form at an unusually high latitude of over 3 km above the mountain tops. Scientists are also studying the dynamics of the island, and why its unique shape is able to generate these plumes.</p><br>
<p>Henrietta Island  is the northernmost island of the De Long archipelago in the East Siberian Sea. Administratively it belongs to the Sakha Republic of the Russian Federation.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Henrietta is roughly circular in shape and its diameter is about 6 km.</p><br>
<p>Cape Melville (Mys Melvillya), Henriettas northernmost landhead, is the northernmost point of the De Long Islands, as well as the northernmost land thousands of miles east and west. The closest land is Jeannette Island, located to the ESE.</p><br>
<h3>Ice cap</h3><br>
<p>Almost half of the island is covered by a central ice cap that reaches its maximum height at 312 m. The ice cap area has a surface of approximately 6 km² and occupies the highest south-eastern part of the island. The southern and eastern edges of the ice cap are fringed by 40 to 50 m tall icy cliffs rising above the underlying basalt plateau.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Henrietta Island consists of folded Middle Paleozoic basaltic lava and proximal volcanogenic turbidites overlain by Cenozoic clastic sedimentary rocks. The Paleozoic strata have been intruded by numerous sills, dikes, and sheets of basalts, andesite-basalts, and porphyritic diorite. The basalts and porphyritic diorite have been dated by potassium–argon dating method to be about 310-450 million years old and the porphyritic diorite has been dated by the argon–argon dating method to be about 400-440 million years old. Gritstones that are part of the Cenozoic clastic sedimentary rocks contain fragments of underlying Paleozoic strata along with significantly older gneisses, granites, quartzites, and schists.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>American explorer and US Navy lieutenant commander George Washington DeLong set out in 1879 aboard the Jeannette, hoping to reach Wrangel Island and to discover open seas in the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole. However, the ship entered an ice pack near Herald Island in September 1879 and became trapped. The vessel drifted several hundred miles with the ice, passing north of Wrangel Island. In May 1881 it approached Jeannette Island and Henrietta Island. According to The Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy, for the Year 1882 (p. 16), "A sled party landed, hoisted the national ensign, and took possession in the name of the United States". The excursion, led by George W. Melville, landed on June 2 or 3, constructed a cairn, and placed inside it a record of their visit.</p><br>
<p>During the 1914–1915 Imperial Russian Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition led by Boris Vilkitsky, the Vaygach approached Jeannette Island with the intention of mapping Jeannette and Henrietta Islands, but heavy ice blocked the approach. In 1916 the Russian ambassador in London issued an official notice to the effect that the Imperial government considered Henrietta, along with other Arctic islands, integral parts of the Russian Empire. This territorial claim was later maintained by the Soviet Union.</p><br>
<p>A Soviet polar station was established on Henrietta Island in 1937, and closed in 1963. Henrietta Island served in 1979 as the starting point for a Soviet expedition to the North Pole on skis</p><br>
<p>Some USA individuals assert American ownership of Henrietta Island, and others of the De Long group, based on the 1881 discovery and claim. However, according to the USA Department of State in 2003, the USA government has never claimed Henrietta Island.</p><br>
<h2>Physical description</h2><br>
<p>Henrietta Island was described by the sled party from the De Long expedition in the following terms: "The island is a desolate rock, surmounted by a snow-cap, which feeds several discharging glaciers on its east face. Dovekies nesting in the face of the rock are the only signs of game. A little moss, some grass, and a handful of rock were brought back as trophies. The cliffs are inaccessible, because of their steepness."</p><br>
<p>Doddabetta  is the highest mountain in the Nilgiri Hills at 2,637 metres . There is a reserved forest area around the peak. It is 9 km from Ooty, on the Ooty-Kotagiri Road in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu, India. It is a popular tourist attraction with road access to the summit. It is the fourth highest peak in South India next to Anamudi, Mannamalai and Meesapulimala. The peaks Hecuba , Kattadadu  and Kulkudi  are the three closely linked summits in the west of the Doddabetta range near to Udagamandalam .</p><br>
<h2>Flora</h2><br>
<p>The area surrounding Doddabetta is mostly forested. Sholas cover the hollows of its slopes. Slightly stunted, rhododendron trees, in the midst of thick coarse grass, flowering sub-alpine shrubs and herbs are common, even very near the peak.</p><br>
<h2>Telescope House</h2><br>
<p>There is an observatory at the top of Doddabetta with two telescopes available for the public. It was opened on 18 June 1983 and is run by the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC). The average number of viewers in 2001-2002 was 3500 per day in season and 700 per day in the off season.</p><br>
<p>Leipsoi  is an island south of Samos and to the north of Leros in Greece. It is well serviced with ferries passing between Patmos and Leros and on the main route for ferries from Piraeus. Leipsoi is a small group of islets at the northern part of the Dodecanese near to Patmos island and Leros. The larger Leipsi-Arkoi archipelago consists of some 37 islands and islets of which only three are larger than 1 km&sup2;: Leipsoi , Arkoi  and Agreloussa . Only Leipsoi, Arkoi and Marathos are inhabited. Leipsoi is a municipality, part of the Kalymnos regional unit, which is part of the South Aegean region. The municipality has an area of 17.350 km&sup2;.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The island contains springs at Fountani, alias Pikri Nero, in the area near Kimissi along with other minor springs also flowing in this region. The Cave of Ontas dominates the settlement. A 960 m paved path carved into the hill connects the upper quarters of Kimissi with the lower ones.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>Local products, namely thyme honey (produced the traditional way), wine, cheese, dairy products (touloumotyri cheese, the local version of mizithra) and grapes. Also loom-woven fabrics, carpets and "fookadia" (cloth pouches used to strain cheese).</p><br>
<p>Most of the secluded and protected bays like Moschato Bay in the north on this island have been spoilt by fish farming. The water in these bays is often very cloudy with fish farm wastage. The less protected beaches are not polluted and easily reached by the road network. Roads have recently been reconstructed using European Union funding.</p><br>
<h2>Landmarks</h2><br>
<p>There are several churches and monasteries scattered around the island dedicated to a multitude of saints. These include the church of Aghios Nektarios, built in or about 1980 by father Nikiforos, the parochial priest of Lipsi at the time and a favorite baptistry for the inhabitants of the island.</p><br>
<p>Panaghia tou Harou: architectural style (purely islander, Byzantine in perception yet austere and unpretentious). Once specialists decide to study this construction more closely, there may be some interesting conclusions drawn relating to the time the church was built (some time between the 7th and 8th century AD.</p><br>
<p>There is a holy icon of the Virgin in this church, reputed to be of miraculous powers, depicting Mary holding Jesus Crucified. The uniqueness of the concept and the artfulness of the rendition make of this icon one of the brightest moments in hagiography.</p><br>
<p>Aghios Ioannis Theologos (St. John Evangelist), whose construction was financed by Lipsian emigrants. The church of Kimissis tis Theotokou (Dormition of Mary), dominating the little bay bearing the same name. Also to be found there are reliquaries containing the remains of monks reduced to martyrdom, slain by the Turks during the Ottoman rule. Five of those monks have recently been glorified (canonized) by decree of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.</p><br>
<p>The church of Panaghia (the Virgin) at Kouselio, built on the foundations of an early Christian church. Embedded in the walls of this church - and therefore still to be uncovered - are inscription-bearing marbles of that earlier construction that were later used as building material for the new church. There are also two churches dedicated to St. Nicholas on the hills on either side of the mouth of the port, along with the churches of Aghios Theologos tou Moschatou (17th century), Aghios Spiridion (at Katsadia), Profitis Ilias - a church dedicated to Prophet Elijah and built on top of a hill dominating the port, in accordance with the perennial tradition of churches dedicated to this Prophet to be built in elevated locations.</p><br>
<p>Mius  is a river in Eastern Europe that flows through Ukraine and Russia.</p><br>
<p>Its total length is 258 km.</p><br>
<h2>Course</h2><br>
<p>The headwaters of the Mius are in the Donets Mountains, a mountain range within Donetsk Oblast. It flows through Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast in eastern Ukraine; and then through Rostov Oblast in Russia; and into the Sea of Azov of the northeastern Mediterranean Sea basin.</p><br>
<p>The river mouth of the Mius is on the Taganrog Bay coast of the Sea of Azov, west of the Russian city of Taganrog.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In 1941, during the World War II, the German Nazi General Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist created a heavily fortified defensive line known as the Mius-Front along the Mius river. It was an arena of fierce battles during the Rostov Defensive Operation in the 1941−1943 Battle of Rostov campaigns. During the 1943 Donbass Strategic Offensive Soviet troops finally broke through the Mius-Front near the village of Kuybyshevo.</p><br>
<p>Lake Avernus  is a volcanic crater lake located in the Avernus crater in the Campania region of southern Italy, around 4 km northwest of Pozzuoli. It is near the volcanic field known as the Phlegraean Fields  and comprises part of the wider Campanian volcanic arc. The lake is roughly circular, measuring 2 km in circumference and 60 m  deep.</p><br>
<h2>Roman era</h2><br>
<p>Avernus was of major importance to the Romans, who considered it to be the entrance to Hades. Roman writers often used the name as a synonym for the underworld. In Virgils Aeneid, Aeneas descends to the underworld through a cave near the lake. In Hyginus Fabulae, Odysseus also goes to the lower world from this spot, where he meets Elpenor, his comrade who went missing at Circe&#39;s place.</p><br>
<p>Despite the alleged dangers of the lake, the Romans were happy to settle its shores, on which villas and vineyards were established. The lake&#39;s personification, the deus Avernus, was worshiped in lakeside temples. A large bathhouse was built on the eastern shore of the lake.</p><br>
<p>In 37 BC, the Roman general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa converted the lake into a naval base named the Portus Julius after Julius Caesar. It was linked by a canal to a nearby lake (Lucrinus Lacus) and, from there, to the sea. The lake shore was also connected to the Greek colony of Cumae by an underground passage known as Cocceios Cave (Grotta di Cocceio), which was 1 km long and wide enough to be used by chariots. This was the worlds first major road tunnel; it remained usable until as recently as the 1940s.</p><br>
<h2>Italian era</h2><br>
<p>The Borboni, the Naples-ruling members of the House of Bourbon, owned the lake until 1750 when they ceded it to another aristocratic family, who in turn sold it, in 1991, to the Cardillo family.</p><br>
<p>In 2010, a 55 hectare tract of land – including the lake, a lakefront restaurant, B&B and disco – was seized by the police after the owner was accused of being a mafia frontman (for the Casalesi).</p><br>
<p>In the pre-modern era, Italian geographers also called Lago Averno, the: Lago di Tripergola.</p><br>
<p>It was named after the nearby village of Tripergola, which was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1538.</p><br>
<p>Ano Liosia  is a suburb and a former municipality in the northern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Fyli, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 38.447 km.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Ano Liosia lies in the eastern part of West Attica, between the mountains Parnitha to its north and Aigaleo to its southwest. It is 3 km west of Acharnes, 3 km north of Kamatero, 4 km southeast of Fyli, 10 km east of Aspropyrgos and 11 km north of Athens city centre.</p><br>
<h3>Transportation</h3><br>
<p>The Ano Liosia railway station is served by Proastiakos trains to the Athens International Airport and to Kiato in the Peloponnese. The railway station on the old metric Piraeus–Patras railway is now closed. Ano Liosia is connected to the rest of Athens by various bus lines, most notably the B12 and E42 lines. Motorway 6 runs south of the town.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>On September 7, 1999, the 1999 Athens earthquake damaged between one hundred and a thousand homes. The 2007 Greek forest fires devastated the nearby forests. A remarkable number of Romani live in the area.</p><br>
<h2>Population</h2><br>
<h2>Sports</h2><br>
<p>The 11th International Chess Tournament took place in Ano Liosia in 2001. The following sports teams are based in Ano Liosia:</p><br>
<p>Akratitos - a Greek football/soccer team which was founded in 1963</p><br>
<p>Das Ano Liosia - a Greek basketball team</p><br>
<p>Sports venues:</p><br>
<p>Ano Liosia Olympic Hall where wrestling and judo were played in the 2004 Summer Olympics</p><br>
<p>Zofria Indoor Hall - basketball arena that has been used by AEK Athens.</p><br>
<p>Stadium for Akratitos rarely plays in this stadium</p><br>
<p>Basketball stadium for Das Ano Liosia</p><br>
<p>Football/soccer stadium for Akratitos</p><br>
<p>The Ugab River is an ephemeral river that only flows above the surface of its sandy bed a few days each year, but even during much of the dry season its subterranean water surfaces as pools in places, and provides an important resource for species in the Damaraland region of northern Namibia. The Ugab&#39;s mean run-off is roughly 20 million cubic metres per annum.</p><br>
<p>The Ugab River&#39;s large subterranean water content makes it a major Namibian River. Stretching for almost 500 km, the river provides water for species such as the rare desert elephant, as well as giraffe, mountain zebra and the largest population of free-roaming black rhinoceroses in the world. The Ugab Wilderness Area was established here to protect the future of these rare animals.</p><br>
<p>People can trek the length of the sandy river, passing local Herero farmers and the pink granite inselbergs (isolated rocky hills left behind after volcanic activity) dotted throughout the region. These bizarre stones have been shaped over the years into vaguely recognisable shapes, some look like toadstools, while others are eerie hollow structures known as the &#39;Petrified Ghosts&#39;.</p><br>
<p>Quite a few plants grow there; much of the visible vegetation is the exotic wild tobacco (Nicotiana glauca). Also found there indigenously are some stunted acacia trees and nara bushes (Acanthosicyos horridus), with their almost-leafless spiky green stems, and improbably large melons.</p><br>
<p>The Yaeyama Islands  are an archipelago in the southwest of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, and cover 591.46 km&sup2;. The islands are located southwest of the Miyako Islands, part of the Ryukyu Islands archipelago. The Yaeyama Islands are the remotest part of Japan from the main islands and contains Japan&#39;s most southern  and most western  inhabited islands. The city of Ishigaki serves as the political, cultural, and economic head of the Yaeyama Islands.</p><br>
<p>The Yaeyama Islands are home to numerous species of subtropical plants and mangrove forests. The islands produce sugarcane and pineapples. Coral reefs around the islands are ideal habitats for dolphins, sea turtles, and larger fish such as manta rays and whale sharks. Before being wiped out by humans, whales and dugongs were common as well, and Yaeyama once had the largest population of dugongs in the Ryukyu Islands. On Aragusuku Island, there is a Utaki which specially enshrines hunted dugongs with their skulls, but non-residents are not permitted to enter unless they receive special permission from inhabitants, and it is said that any aliens without permission will be driven out by force.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The islands form the southern part of the volcanic Ryukyu Islands. The administrative division of Yaeyama District covers all of the Yaeyama Islands, except Ishigaki and the disputed Senkaku Islands.</p><br>
<h3>Inhabited islands</h3><br>
<p>Yaeyama Islands (Yaeyama Subprefecture)</p><br>
<p>Ishigaki City</p><br>
<p>*Ishigaki Island (Ishigaki-jima)</p><br>
<p>Taketomi Town</p><br>
<p>*Aragusuku Island (Aragusuku-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Hateruma Island (Hateruma-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Iriomote Island (Iriomote-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Kayama Island (Kayama-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Kohama Island (Kohama-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Kuroshima Island (Kuroshima)</p><br>
<p>*Sotobanari Island (Sotobanari-jima) (officially uninhabited)</p><br>
<p>*Taketomi Island (Taketomi-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Yubu Island (Yubu-jima)</p><br>
<p>*Hatoma Island (Hatoma-jima)</p><br>
<p>Yonaguni Town</p><br>
<p>*Yonaguni Island (Yonaguni-jima)</p><br>
<h2>Culture</h2><br>
<p>The Yonaguni language is the indigenous language of the island of Yonaguni. The Yaeyama language is the indigenous language of the rest of the islands. Japanese is widely spoken as a second language.</p><br>
<p>The Yaeyama Islands are home to the production of traditional Okinawan textiles.</p><br>
<h3>Mushaama Festival</h3><br>
<p>14 July: Mushaama Festival. On Hateruma Island, this harvest festival is celebrated during Obon. It features a parade of the local fertility god Miruku and his children (the local children), shishi ("lion") dances, and staff dances.</p><br>
<p>The Ninety Mile Beach is a sandy stretch of beach on the south-eastern coastline of the East Gippsland region of Victoria in Australia. The beach faces Bass Strait and backs the Gippsland Lakes. The beach is just over 151 km in length, running north-eastward from a spit near Port Albert to the man-made channel at Lakes Entrance.</p><br>
<p>Behind the beach are long sandy dunes that separate the Gippsland Lakes from Bass Strait. The beach is an uninterrupted stretch of untamed coastline; it does not have any rocky headlands or platforms, and offshore there are only a few ribbons of reef which are periodically covered by sand.</p><br>
<p>In the northern section, the beach runs along a sandbar on what amounts to a series of tidal islands. Behind this are several large lakes and numerous shallow littoral lagoons. The three main lakes are Lake King, Lake Victoria and Lake Wellington, partially contained within The Lakes National Park.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>The Ninety Mile Beach is located about 260 km from Melbourne and can be reached from the South Gippsland Highway passing the coastal towns of McLoughlins Beach, Woodside, Seaspray, Golden Beach, and Loch Sport. The beach is located within the Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park, with the Ninety Mile Beach Marine National Park located off-shore.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>Ninety Mile Beach attracts a large number of visitors each year and offers a wide variety of activities such as camping, picnicking, whale watching, and beach and water-based activities. The beach has golden sand, with crashing waves and a natural bush environment.</p><br>
<p>It is part of the Ninety Mile Beach Marine National Park, which covers 2,750 hectares and 5 km of coastline, 30 km south of Sale. There are basic camping facilities within the park at Emu Bight, as well as accommodation at Seaspray and Lakes Entrance.</p><br>
<p>Rotamah Island, which is part of the Lakes National Park, has a large bird observatory, and can be visited by boat from Paynesville, about 6 km away.</p><br>
<p>Coastal towns of Woodside, Lochsport, Seaspray, Golden Beach and Lakes Entrance are popular tourist towns, attracting large numbers of visitors during the warmer months. Woodside, Seaspray and Lakes Entrance have life saving beach patrols during the summer season.</p><br>
<p>Surf fishing is a key drawcard for the area, with main varieties of fish including snapper, flathead and gummy sharks. Port Albert, McLoughlins Beach, Lochsport and Lakes Entrance have jetties and temporary berthing facilities.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>The beach&#39;s length ensures that the waves break too close to the beach for good surfing, and there are strong rip currents and cross-currents that make conditions rather hazardous. The local authorities recommend that anyone who wishes to swim should do so at Woodside, Seaspray and Lakes Entrance, which have life saving beach patrols during the summer season.</p><br>
<p>The beach is believed to be the fourth longest uninterrupted beach in the world, behind Praia do Cassino on the Brazilian southern coast, Padre Island on the US Gulf Coast and Eighty Mile Beach in Western Australia, which is actually 140 mi long.</p><br>
<p>Wild horses were introduced to the park after the islands were explored to help eat and trample down small areas of bush so it could be more easily explored but they were left unchecked and their numbers quickly increased. Their large numbers grew and over time started to caused concern as environmental damage became an issue, but once the park was established as a national heritage the horses were rounded up and transported back across to the mainland.</p><br>
<p>The Gippsland Lakes are a network of lakes, marshes and lagoons in east Gippsland, Victoria, Australia covering an area of about 354 km&sup2;. The largest of the lakes are Lake Wellington , Lake King and Lake Victoria. The lakes are collectively fed by the Avon, Thomson, Latrobe, Mitchell, Nicholson and Tambo rivers.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Gippsland Lakes were formed by two principal processes. The first is river delta alluvial deposition of sediment brought in by the rivers which flow into the lakes. Silt deposited by this process forms into long jetties which can run many kilometres into a lake, as exemplified by the Mitchell River silt jetties that run into Lake King. The second process is the action of sea current in Bass Strait which created the Ninety Mile Beach and cut off the river deltas from the sea.</p><br>
<p>Once the lakes were closed off a new cycle started, whereby the water level of the lakes would gradually rise until the waters broke through the barrier beach and the level would drop down until it equalised with sea-level. Eventually the beach would close-off the lakes and the cycle would begin anew. Sometimes it would take many years before a new channel to the sea was formed and not necessarily in the same place as the last one.</p><br>
<p>In 1889, a wall was built to fix the position of a naturally occurring channel between the lakes and the ocean at Lakes Entrance, to stabilise the water level, create a harbour for fishing boats and open up the lakes to shipping. This entrance needs to be dredged regularly, or the same process that created the Gippsland Lakes would render the entrance too shallow for seagoing vessels to pass through.</p><br>
<p>Due to flooding in 2011, Gippsland Lakes experienced blooms of bioluminescent Noctiluca scintillans.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>The Gippsland Lakes provide a major hub for tourism, particularly for recreational boating and fishing enthusiasts. The lakes network can be explored by cruise, water taxi, or boat and kayak hire. On the fringes of the lakes are several tourist towns that swell to support the tourist trade, particularly in the summer months.</p><br>
<p>Lakes Entrance is the largest of the towns on the lakes with a population of 4,500. The town is well serviced with resorts, hotels and facilities. It is located with easy access to both the lakes network and the surf beach on Ninety Mile Beach, which is patrolled each summer.</p><br>
<p>Metung is a small village located on the tip of a peninsula sitting in the Gippsland Lakes, surrounded almost completely by water. It is an upmarket tourist destination with many dining options and artisan galleries.</p><br>
<p>Much of Paynesville’s accommodation and infrastructure are located on the network of canals. One of the key attractions is Raymond Island, known for its koala population.</p><br>
<p>The diversity of the brine waters of the lakes, surf beaches along Ninety Mile Beach and fresh water streams that feed the lakes, make the Gippsland Lakes a popular fishing destination. Local fish varieties include bream, mullet, flathead, luderick and trevally. Paynesville, Lakes Entrance and Metung all offer a number of jetties, boat ramps and berthing facilities.</p><br>
<h2>Environment</h2><br>
<p>The lakes support numerous species of wildlife and there exist two protected areas within: The Lakes National Park and Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park. The Gippsland Lakes wetlands are protected by the international Ramsar Convention on wetlands. There are also approximately 400 indigenous flora species and 300 native fauna species. Three plants, two of them being orchid species, are listed as endangered. The numbers of southern right whales and humpback whales using the Lake Entrance area show increases in recent years, as the populations have started to recover from illegal hunts by the Soviet Union with help from Japan in 1960s-1970s.</p><br>
<h3>Burrunan dolphins</h3><br>
<p>The lakes are home to about 50 of the recently described species of bottlenose dolphin, the Burrunan dolphin (Tursiops australis). The other 150 or so of this rare species are to be found in Port Phillip.</p><br>
<h3>Birds</h3><br>
<p>The wetlands provide habitat for about 20,000 waterbirds – including birds from as far afield as Siberia and Alaska. The lakes have been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because they regularly support over 1% of the global populations of black swans, chestnut teals and musk ducks, as well as many fairy terns.</p><br>
<h2>Panorama</h2><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Gippsland Lakes are, in order of size:</p><br>
<p>Lake Wellington, 150 km&sup2</p><br>
<p>Lake Victoria, 150 km&sup2</p><br>
<p>Lake Reeve, 52 km&sup2</p><br>
<p>Lake King, 44 km&sup2</p><br>
<p>Lake Coleman, 13 km&sup2</p><br>
<p>Lake Tyers, 9.5 km&sup2</p><br>
<p>Ještěd  is the highest mountain peak  of the Ještěd-Kozákov Ridge near Liberec in the north of the Czech Republic. From the summit there are views into Germany and Poland. The Horní Hanychov region of Liberec lies just below the mountain.</p><br>
<p>On the summit is the Ještěd Tower restaurant, hotel and television tower, designed by Karel Hubáček, accessible by road or cable car (Ještěd Cable car). The mountain also has a ski resort.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The origin of the mountain&#39;s name is uncertain, it is probably from the term Ash mountain, a once dominant tree species in the area. The Czech name for the mountain was first recorded in 1545 as Jesstied (pod horou Jesstiedem). The German form of the name, Jeschke, was first mentioned in 1565.</p><br>
<p>As far back as 1838 the summit hosted a crude stone that serves as a landmark to this day. The first hut on the summit was erected as early as 1844.</p><br>
<p>In the 1860s, the mountain ridge was Station No. 4 of the first order of the Royal Saxon triangulation. For this reason a measuring station was built on the summit.</p><br>
<p>In 1906, the Mountain Club, a mountain hotel, was built. The Jeschke Horní Hanychov cable car to the summit was opened in 1933.</p><br>
<p>On 23 August 1940, at midnight, a Heinkel He 111 from the Second (Lion) Squadron (Löwengeschwader) from Lüneburg crashed into the mountain near the summit and tore a long swathe in the woods. This accident killed the four crew.</p><br>
<p>The old mountain hotel burned down in 1963.</p><br>
<p>Between 1966 and 1973, a futuristic hotel, with a 100-metre-high television tower, was built that was designed by the architect, Karel Hubacek. For the construction of the TV tower, Hubacek was awarded the Auguste Perret Prize. The modern building acts as a lookout tower, transmission tower, hotel and restaurant.</p><br>
<p>In 2009, an element of the Nordic World Ski Championships took place on Ještěd.</p><br>
<h2>The ski jumping hills</h2><br>
<p>In Jested there are two ski jumping hills, The World Championships 2009 were hosted there. The K-134 and the K-90. Roman Koudelka has the hill record in the K-134, with 143 metres. Anssi Koivuranta jumped 106,5 metres in the K-90, which is the hill record on this hill.</p><br>
<p>The Ahwahnee Hotel is a grand hotel in Yosemite National Park, California, on the floor of Yosemite Valley, constructed from steel, stone, concrete, wood and glass, which opened in 1927. It is a premiere example of National Park Service rustic architecture and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987. The hotel was built by two companies that were merged when the National Park Service began leasing concessions to a single concessionaire in 1925. The Curry Company, owned by David and Jennie Curry and the Yosemite Park Company, the owners of the Yosemite Lodge, became the new "Yosemite Park & Curry Company" headed by Donald Tressider. The structure originally served as both a luxury hotel and the company offices of YPC&CC. Despite financial struggles, the YPC&CC remained the concessioner for the Ahwahnee Hotel until 1993, before the National Park Service required a new concessioner to buy the YPC&CC, creating a new company, Delaware North. Delaware North&#39;s contract ended on March 1, 2016 when The National Park Service selected Aramark as the new concessionaire.</p><br>
<p>The Ahwahnee was renamed the Majestic Yosemite Hotel on March 1, 2016, due to a legal dispute between the US Government, which owns the property, and the outgoing concessionaire, Delaware North, which claims rights to the trademarked name.</p><br>
<h2>Background and history</h2><br>
<h3>The Currys</h3><br>
<p>David and Jennie Curry, owners and operators of Curry Village, were schoolteachers who arrived in Yosemite Valley in 1899. The couple brought their three children with them. Foster, Mary and Marjorie (ages four through eleven) all helped out where they were able. The Currys were adept at promotion and revived an old tradition started by James McCauley on the Fourth of July 1872. At sunset, piles of burning logs were pushed off Glacier Point creating what was known as the Fire Fall. David Curry died in 1917 and left the management of Camp Curry to his widow Jennie, now known as "Mother Curry". She received help from her children, particularly Mary and Mary&#39;s husband Donald Tresidder.</p><br>
<p>In 1915, Stephen T. Mather convinced D.J. Desmond to convert an old army barracks into the Yosemite Lodge. Desmond also began a hotel at Glacier Point the following year, while buying out a number of businesses to improve Yosemite Park Companys position in upcoming park leasing contracts. A congressional act allowed for efficient supervision of the parks for the enjoyment of the public. Beginning in 1916, the newly formed National Park Service began a concerted effort to attract visitors to the parks and create better accommodations and services. Under the direction of Mather, whose greatest desire was to build a luxury hotel in Yosemite, an attempt was made to build near Yosemite Falls, but funding failed. Prominent socialite Lady Astor and other wealthy tourists had refused to stay at the park due to the horrible conditions of the facilities. The new head of the YPCCC became Donald Tresidder from the Curry Company. It was hoped that the more successful Curry Company involvement would help build Mathers hotel.</p><br>
<h3>Yosemite Park and Curry Company</h3><br>
<p>What started out as a simple campsite begun by two Indiana schoolteachers ended up as the sole concessionaire for the park. Yosemite Park & Curry Company went on to build much of the parks service structures over decades. Donald Tresidder, as president of YPCCC, built the Ahwahnee and several other major structures within the park. The name originally selected for the new hotel was "Yosemite All-Year-Round Hotel", but Tresidder changed it just prior to opening to reflect the sites native name.</p><br>
<p>After the Ahwahnee was built, Tresidder had to overcome a number of financial obstacles. The cost of the hotel was nearly double the estimate, and as fall approached, guests began to decline. Park officials became concerned and suggested closing the hotel for the winter. To avoid this and keep guests and income flowing, Tresidder centered on skiing and other winter activities. In order to keep the hotel filled throughout the holiday period, Tresidder also proposed Christmas entertainment. A banquet event was planned based on a story by Washington Irving about an eighteenth-century English Christmas at the home of the Squire of Bracebridge. The cast was filled with locals from the park, including photographer Ansel Adams.</p><br>
<p>In 1993 the National Park Service required a new concessioner to purchase the Yosemite Park & Curry Company from MCA and rename the business as a new company. The new concession contract required assuming all the assets and liabilities of previous operator and to deed the real property to the National Park Service.</p><br>
<h3>Name change</h3><br>
<p>In 2014, Delaware North lost a bid to renew its contract with the USA government to manage the property to Yosemite Hospitality, LLC, a division of Aramark. When it had originally taken over the concessionaries in 1993, Delaware North was contractually required to purchase, at fair market value, "the assets of the previous concessionaire, including its intellectual property, at a cost of $115 million in today&#39;s dollars." This property includes trademarks that were registered by both Delaware North and its predecessors, including place names such as Ahwahnee, Badger Pass, Curry Village, Yosemite Lodge, the slogan "Go climb a rock", and even "Yosemite National Park" itself. The contract with Delaware North also required that if it is succeeded as concessionaire, the new company must acquire all of the assets of the previous operator at fair market value. The contract with Yosemite Hospitality stated that the company be required to purchase furniture, equipment, vehicles, and "other property"—which did not explicitly include intellectual property.</p><br>
<p>In 2015, Delaware North sued the NPS in the United States Court of Claims for breach of contract, claiming that the contract with Yosemite Hospitality excluded intellectual property from the asset purchasing clause, and demanded a payment for the property to be determined in court. Delaware North initially asserted the fair market value of its properties to be $51 million. When it offered for bid the contract to operate these facilities, the National Park Service estimated the value of the intangible assets at $3.5 million. The dispute gained national attention after it was publicized in an issue of Outside magazine, which led to the Sierra Club issuing a petition requesting that Delaware North drop the lawsuit.</p><br>
<p>In January 2016, it was announced that due to a trademark dispute with outgoing concessionaire Delaware North, the Ahwahnee Hotel, as well as other historic hotels and lodges in the park, would be renamed. The Ahwahnee was renamed the Majestic Yosemite Hotel effective March 1, 2016.</p><br>
<h2>Concept and build</h2><br>
<h3>Architecture and interior design</h3><br>
<p>The Ahwahnee hotel was designed by architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood (who also designed the Zion Lodge, Bryce Canyon Lodge, and Grand Canyon North Rim Lodge). It is considered a masterpiece of "parkitecture" The interior work was carried out by a number of artisans under their supervision. The individual border designs in the beams of the Great Lounge are by artist Jeanette Dryer Spencer. The site for the hotel is below the Royal Arches rock formation in a meadow area that had served in the past as a village for the native Miwoks, who formerly lived in the valley, and a stables complex known as Kenneyville. The site was chosen for its views of many of the iconic sights in Yosemite, including Glacier Point, Half Dome, and Yosemite Falls, and its exposure to the sun allowing for natural heating.</p><br>
<p>The original concept art of the hotel was far more megalithic in scale than what was built. Underwood&#39;s original design concept called for a massive six story structure. A lot of decoration originally used was Persian. (Ackerman and Pope actually became consultants in Iran. Pope even has a mausoleum built for him by the Shah.)</p><br>
<p>Eventually the Grand Dining Room was scaled back from seating for 1,000 to seating for only 350 guests. The Ahwahnee is a 150,000 ft&sup2; Y-shaped building</p><br>
<h3>Construction</h3><br>
<p>The hotel was constructed from 5,000 tons (4,535 t) of rough-cut granite, 1,000 tons (907 t) of steel, and 30,000 feet (9,140 m) of timber. The apparent wood siding and structural timber on the hotel&#39;s exterior are actually formed of stained concrete poured into molds to simulate a wood pattern. The steel came from the Union Iron Works in San Francisco, and the timber from land owned by the Curry family. Concrete was chosen as the material for the outside "wood" elements to add fire resistance to the hotel. The construction lasted eleven months and cost US$1,225,000 upon completion in July 1927. After construction was complete the company began an advertising campaign to showcase the new amenities.</p><br>
<p>Just before opening, the director noticed that the porte-cochere planned for the west side of the building, where the Indian room now sits, would allow exhaust fumes from automobiles to invade the premises. A hastily designed Douglas Fir pole porte-cochere entry and parking area were erected on the east side of the hotel to correct this. (The logs were replaced in the 1990s.) Almost immediately after opening, the next of many alterations were made to the hotel. In 1928, a roof garden and dance hall were converted into a private apartment after the dance hall failed to draw an audience. It was found that the load-bearing trusses in the dining room were barely adequate to support the snow load on the roof and potential earthquake stresses. This led to the trusses&#39; being reinforced in 1931-32.</p><br>
<p>When Prohibition was rescinded in 1933, a private dining room was converted into the El Dorado Diggins bar, evocative of the California Gold Rush period. 1943 saw the United States Navy take over the hotel for use as a convalescent hospital for war veterans. Some of the changes made to the hotel by the Navy were repainting of the interior, conversion of chauffeur and maid rooms into guest rooms, and enclosure of the original porte-cochere.</p><br>
<p>The 1950s, 60s, and 70s brought modernizations to the hotel, including fire escapes, a fire alarm system, smoke detectors, and a sprinkler system, along with an outdoor swimming pool and automatic elevators. 2003-2004 saw a major roof overhaul, wherein virtually the entire slate-tile roof and copper gutter system were replaced. Martech Associates, Inc. of Millheim, Pennsylvania designed the updated roof and served as the general contractor for the project. The project cost approximately US$4 million and is especially notable for its 97 percent material recycling rate. An article in the Los Angeles Times on March 13, 2009, stated that seismic retrofits may be needed for the Ahwahnee.</p><br>
<h2>Grand Dining Room and kitchen</h2><br>
<p>The kitchen area reflects the original design concept; it includes separate stations for baking and pastries and was never reduced when the original project was downsized. While the dress code for the park is usually very casual, the Ahwahnee Dining Room used to require a jacket for men, but it later relaxed that tradition. Now collared shirts for men are allowed and women may wear either a dress or slacks and a blouse.</p><br>
<p>The regular entertainment provided at dinner is a pianist (dressed in a tuxedo if male). Local Yosemite artist, Dudley Kendall played piano in the dining room at the Ahwahnee for years and had his work displayed at the hotel.</p><br>
<h3>Bracebridge tradition</h3><br>
<p>The Bracebridge Dinner is a seven-course formal gathering presented as a feast given by a Renaissance-era lord. Started in 1927, the Ahwahnees first year of operation, the dinner is inspired by the fictional Squire Bracebridges Yule celebration in a story from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. by Washington Irving. Music and theatrical performances based on Irvings story accompany the introduction of each course. Donald Tresidder, then president of the Yosemite Park & Curry Company (which operated the Ahwahnee and all other concessions in the park), conceived the idea for the event with his wife Mary Curry, their friends, and park staff. It is held in the grand dining room at the hotel. Tresidder hired Garnet Holme the first year to write the script and produce the event. Tresidder and his wife played the squire and his lady until Tresidders death in 1948. Photographer Ansel Adams was earning a secure living from work for the YP&C Co during the Great Depression. Adams was well known in Yosemite for his eccentricities and was asked to be a part of Donald Tresidder&#39;s new winter celebrations in the elaborate, theatrical Christmas dinner with friends from the nearby Bohemian Club. Cast as the "Jester", Adams had asked the director for suggestions but was told to just act like a jester. Adams fortified himself with a few drinks and went on to climb the granite pillars to the rafters. Adams played the Lord of Misrule for the first two years. When Holme died in 1929, Tresidder asked Adams to take over the direction of the show. Adams reworked the script considerably in 1931, creating the role of Major Domo, head of the household, for himself while his wife, Virginia Best Adams, played the housekeeper.</p><br>
<p>The dinner was not held during World War II, when the Ahwahnee was functioning as a naval hospital. The 1946 dinner introduced chorale concerts and more significant musical performances. Ansel Adams retired from the event in 1973, passing it on to Eugene Fulton, who had been part of the male chorus since 1934 and musical director since 1946. Until 1956, there was only a single performance. The number of performances gradually increased to a total of eight. Fulton died unexpectedly on Christmas Eve in 1978. His wife, Anna-Marie, and his daughter, Andrea, took over that year and produced the show. In 1979, Andrea Fulton assumed the role of director, which she continues to this day while also playing the role of housekeeper.</p><br>
<p>In 2011, the Bracebridge dinner celebrated its 85th anniversary. Travel + Leisure magazine named Yosemite’s Ahwahnee Hotel as one of the best hotels in the United States for the holidays for two consecutive years (2011 and 2012). For much of its history, tickets to the event were difficult to obtain. In prior years, the scarce tickets were awarded to applicants by lottery. In 1992, there were a reported 60,000 applications for the coveted 1,650 seats. In 1995, the organizers of the traditional dinner accepted ticket cancellations because the park could have been shut down due to the national budget impasse.</p><br>
<h2>Great Lounge</h2><br>
<p>The Great Lounge is one of the main public spaces in the hotel. The large space spans the full width of the wing and nearly its full length (minus the solarium). There are two large fireplaces on either end of the room made from cut sandstone. On either side of the lounge is a series of floor to ceiling plate glass, picture windows ornamented at their tops with stained glass.</p><br>
<h2>In popular culture</h2><br>
<h3>Film</h3><br>
<p>Interiors of the Ahwahnee Hotel were adapted for Stanley Kubricks horror film The Shining (1980). Designers at Elstree Studios incorporated the hotels lobby, elevators, and Great Lounge into sets for the Overlook Hotel.</p><br>
<p>Both the film The Caine Mutiny (1954) and Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day (1996) include footage of the Ahwahnee hotel.</p><br>
<h2>Notable guests</h2><br>
<p>The hotel and dining room have hosted many notable figures including artists, royalty, heads of state, film and television stars, writers, business executives, and other celebrities. business moguls Walt Disney and Steve Jobs; entertainers Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball, Charlie Chaplin, Judy Garland, Leonard Nimoy, Will Rogers and William Shatner; and writer Gertrude Stein.</p><br>
<p>The Cape Henry Lighthouse is a lighthouse at Cape Henry, the landform marking the southern entrance to Chesapeake Bay in the USA state of Virginia. The location has long been important for the large amount of ocean-going shipping traffic for the harbors, its rivers, and shipping headed to ports on the bay. The original lighthouse was the first authorized by the USA government, dating from 1792. It was also the first federal construction project under the Constitution, for an original contract amount of $15,200 . A second lighthouse was built and completed in 1881 a short distance away after concern arose about the stability of the first. Both towers of the light station were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The first work of the new USA Federal government, the first Cape Henry lighthouse was built of Aquia and Rappahannock sandstone by John McComb, Jr. and was completed in October, 1792. McComb was one of the architects involved in the construction of New York City Hall and would design other lighthouses. The lighthouse&#39;s design was based on the 1767 Cape Henlopen Light. The lighthouse was damaged by Confederate forces during the American Civil War, but was repaired by Union forces in 1863, who depended on the light for navigation. In the 1870s, concerns about the condition and safety of the old Lighthouse at Cape Henry following a lightning strike that caused large cracks in the structure led to the construction of a new, taller, lighthouse at Cape Henry (pictured to the right) in 1881, which stands 350 feet to the northeast of the original tower. The old tower remained standing, used as a daymark and as a basis for triangulation. The lighthouse was fully automated in 1983 and remains in use today.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>In 1798, Benjamin Latrobe visited Cape Henry Lighthouse and described it as "an octangular truncated pyramid of eight sides, rising 90 feet to the light..." The Old Cape Henry Lighthouse is 26 feet in diameter at its base, and 16 feet at its top. It was built with Aquia Creek sandstone from the same source as the White House.</p><br>
<p>The new lighthouse, 157 ft tall, was built of cast iron and wrought iron, with a more powerful first-order Fresnel lens.</p><br>
<p>Fort Story lighthouses.jpgTwo Lighthouses at Cape Henry</p><br>
<h2>Preservation</h2><br>
<p>The older lighthouse was acquired in 1930 by Preservation Virginia (formerly known as the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities). A brick lining and an iron stairway have been added to the interior. The lighthouse is open to the public and a fine view can be enjoyed from its observation platform. It was designated a National Historic Landmark on January 29, 1964. In 2002 the American Society of Civil Engineers designated the lighthouse a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.</p><br>
<p>The lighthouses are located in the city of Virginia Beach within the boundaries of Joint Expeditionary Base East, a Navy base. The Cape Henry Memorial is adjacent to the lighthouses.</p><br>
<p>Fort Story lighthouse.jpgSecond tower, modern photo</p><br>
<p>USCGCapeHenrylightouse.jpgSecond tower, USA Coast Guard Archive</p><br>
<p>The Agawa Canyon is a shallow canyon located deep in the sparsely populated Algoma District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It was created 1.2 billion years ago by faulting along the Canadian Shield and then enlarged by the erosive action of the Agawa River. The Agawa Canyon Wilderness Park is only accessible by hiking trail or the Algoma Central Railway, and is located 114 mi by rail north west of Sault Ste. Marie.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>At their highest point, the walls of the Agawa Canyon rise 175.2 m above the river. The park is situated in the transitional zone between the Great Lakes &ndash; St. Lawrence Forest region and the Boreal Forest, with diverse and numerous representative flora from both regions present in the canyon. Annual snowfall in the canyon exceeds 450 cm, with a record snowfall of 782 cm recorded during the winter of 1989.</p><br>
<p>Four waterfalls dot the canyon&#39;s rim and feed the Agawa River. The North and South Black Beaver Falls are 53.3 m high. The tallest waterfall in the park is Bridal Veil Falls at 68.5 m. Otter Creek Falls is the shortest waterfall at 13.7 m. The upper part of Otter Creek provides natural spawning beds for speckled trout, with the falls itself fed by small beaver ponds above the canyon.</p><br>
<h2>Flora and fauna</h2><br>
<p>Common plant species that flower in the spring and summer include fireweed, yellow and orange hawkweed, Oxeye daisy, nodding trillium, and yellow clintonia. Species flowering later in the season include viper&#39;s bugloss, bladder campion, yarrow, evening primrose and a variety of asters.</p><br>
<p>Beaver and otter are abundant in the Agawa River, as are several species of duck including mergansers, wood ducks and goldeneyes. The steep canyon walls and proximity of the rail tracks render the area fairly unappealing to moose and bear; however, the area abounds with small mammals including chipmunks, meadow voles and groundhogs. Commonly sighted birds include ravens, robins, grackles, ruffed grouse, and great blue herons. A variety of raptors frequent the canyon including merlins, golden eagles, broad-winged hawks and American kestrels.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The first track in the Agawa Canyon was laid during the winter of 1911. The Algoma Central Railway began development of the Agawa Canyon Wilderness Park in 1952 with the clearing of a picnic area. With increased service from Algoma Centrals Agawa Canyon Tour Train, the areas natural beauty makes it a popular tourist stop. Since 1952, over three million people have visited Agawa Canyon. The word Agawa is native Ojibway for "shelter".</p><br>
<p>Between 1918 and 1923, several members of the Group of Seven painted in the Algoma region including Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, J. E. H. MacDonald, and Arthur Lismer. To access this area they rented a boxcar from The Algoma Central Railway, which had been outfitted like a cabin and was shunted to sidings near choice painting locations. From these locations they set out on foot or canoe to capture this untamed area on canvas. Their paintings brought this vast, rugged, and beautiful part of the country to fellow Canadians and the world.</p><br>
<h2>Attractions</h2><br>
<p>Five short nature trails cross the park area: the Ed Foote Trail, Lookout Trail, Otter Creek Trail, River Trail, and Talus Trail.</p><br>
<p>Visitors to the canyon can climb 372 steps that lead to the "Lookout" located on the wall of the gorge. The observation platform situated 76 m above the tracks provides a panoramic view of the canyon.</p><br>
<p>The Algoma Central Railway offers tours trains to canyon in the summer, fall and winter months; during late September and October for the changing colors and in December, January and February for the "snow train".</p><br>
<p>Ice climbing is another activity that visitors may participate in. Some classic routes in this area are Trestle, Salmon Run and Sweating Whiskey. The train drops off the climbers between mile 110 to 114 and the campers usually have tents, or non-permanent shelters set up near the tracks.</p><br>
<p>Each year in March, climbers from the midwest get together for an annual Ice Climbers Reunion held at Mile 112. The 17th year of the festival is celebrated in 2015.</p><br>
<p>The Fort Worth Stockyards is a historic district that is located in Fort Worth, Texas, north of the central business district. The 98 acre district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Fort Worth Stockyards Historic District in 1976. They are a former livestock market which operated under various owners from 1866.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The arrival of s in 1876 made the area a very important livestock center. Fort Worth Union Stockyards opened for business on January 19, 1890, covering 206 acres. On February 7, the Fort Worth Dressed Meat and Packing Company was founded. This facility was operated without profit until purchased by G. W. Simpson of Boston. In an effort to produce revenue, they reached out to the Swift and Armour companies to establish packing houses. By 1886, four stockyards had been built near the railroads. Boston capitalist Greenleif W. Simpson, with a half dozen Boston and Chicago associates, incorporated the Fort Worth Stock Yards Company on March 23, 1893, and purchased the Union Stock Yards and the Fort Worth Packing Company. The Stockyards experienced early success. By 1907, the Stockyards sold a million cattle per year. The stockyards was an organized place where cattle, sheep, and hogs could be bought, sold and slaughtered. Fort Worth remained an important part of the cattle industry until the 1950s. Business suffered due to livestock auctions held closer to where the livestock were originally produced.</p><br>
<h2>Today</h2><br>
<p>The Fort Worth Stockyards now celebrates Fort Worth&#39;s long tradition as a part of the cattle industry and was listed on the National Register as a historical district in 1976. The listing included 46 contributing buildings and one other contributing structure.</p><br>
<p>The Stockyards consist of mainly entertainment and shopping venues that capitalize on the "Cowtown" image of Fort Worth. Home to the famous boot making company M.L. Leddys which is located in the heart of the Stockyards and The Maverick Fine Western Wear and Saloon where customers "can belly up to the bar, relax and have a cold beer while in the Stockyards; just like they did in the days of the big cattle drives", as they shop around the store. The city of Fort Worth is often referred to as "Where the West Begins." Many bars and nightclubs (including Billy Bobs Texas) are located in the vicinity, and the area has a Western motif. There is also an opry and a rodeo. The Fort Worth Stockyards are the last standing stockyards in the United States. Some volunteers still run the cattle drives through the stockyards, a practice developed in the late 19th century by the frontiersman Charles "Buffalo" Jones, who herded buffalo calves through the streets of Garden City, Kansas.</p><br>
<p>On April 1, 2011, the Fort Worth Stockyards Stables were remodeled and reopened. They are located next door to the Hyatt hotel in an original Historic Stockyards building that was built in 1912. These stables offer full care boarding, overnight boarding, hourly boarding, horse rentals on the open trails of the Trinity River and carriage rides. Boarders can ride their horses all around the Historic Stockyards.</p><br>
<p>Mount Liamuiga is a 3,792 ft stratovolcano which forms the western part of the island of Saint Kitts. The peak is the highest point on the island of Saint Kitts, in the federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, and in the entire British Leeward Islands, as well as one of the tallest peaks in the eastern Caribbean archipelago. The peak is topped by a 0.6 mi wide summit crater, which contained a shallow crater lake until 1959. As of 2006, the crater lake had re-formed. The last verified eruptions from the volcano were about 1,800 years ago, while reports of possible eruptions in 1692 and 1843 are considered uncertain.</p><br>
<p>Mount Liamuiga was formerly named Mount Misery. The renaming took place on the date of St. Kitts&#39; independence, September 19, 1983. However, many older citizens still refer to it as Mount Misery. The name Liamuiga is derived from the Kalinago name for the entire island of St. Kitts, which means, "fertile land."</p><br>
<p>The mountain sides are covered in farmland and small villages up to the 1,500 ft height, after which lush tropical rainforests drape the slopes until cloud forest takes over at 3,000 ft. Many tours and guided hikes are organized to the peaks summit and surrounding rainforests, usually starting from Belmont Estate in the village of St. Pauls. From the summit, the views are outstanding, including the entire island and the beautiful Caribbean Sea, as well as the neighbouring islands of Saba, Statia, St. Barths, St. Martin, Antigua, and Nevis.</p><br>
<p>The Grand Strand is a large stretch of beaches on the East Coast of the United States extending from Little River to Georgetown in the U.S. State of South Carolina. It consists of more than 60 miles along an essentially uninterrupted arc of beach land, beginning around the Little River and terminating at Winyah Bay. The population of the Grand Strand was 329,449 at the 2010 United States Census.</p><br>
<p>The term Grand Strand dates back to a November 19, 1949 The Myrtle Beach Sun column titled "From the Grandstand" and another titled "From the Grand Strand" on December 3, 1949 in The Myrtle Beach News. "Strand" itself derives from the German Strand, meaning "beach".</p><br>
<p>The area has become a major tourist attraction along the Southeastern coast, with its primary city, Myrtle Beach, attracting over ten million visitors each season. It is home to numerous restaurants and theme parks, making it popular with families and college students in the summer and snowbirds during the winter.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>According to Köppen climate classification, the Myrtle Beach area has a humid subtropical climate that is heavily influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, giving the area a more oceanic feel. The city experiences cool winters and hot, humid summers.</p><br>
<p>Rainfall is plentiful throughout the whole year, but most concentrated during the summer months, where it is not uncommon for almost every day to have at least a 30% chance of rain. The area is susceptible to strong thunderstorms, especially in the summer months. These typically have a very short duration, although some may have intense hail with tornadoes rarely.</p><br>
<p>Snowfall is extremely rare in this part of the state, but does occasionally occur, such as when Myrtle Beach received five inches of snow in January 2000. Another severe ice and snow storm struck on January 28, 2014.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Long Bay area was inhabited by the native Waccamaw Tribe. The Waccamaw used the river for travel and fished along the shore around Little River. Waties Island, the primary barrier island along Long Bay, has evidence of burial and shell mounds, remains of the visiting Waccamaw.</p><br>
<p>The first European settler along Long Bay arrived in the late 18th Century, attempting to extend the plantation system outward towards the ocean. Records are sparse from this period, with most of the recorded history pieced together from old land grants documents. These settlers were met with mixed results, producing unremarkable quantities of indigo and tobacco as the coast&#39;s soil was sandy and most of the crop yields were of an inferior quality.</p><br>
<p>Prior to the American Revolution, the area along the future Grand Strand was essentially uninhabited. Several families received land grants along the coast, including the Withers: John, Richard, William, and Mary. This family received an area around present-day Wither&#39;s Swash, also known as Myrtle Swash or the 8-Mile Swash. A separate grant was granted to James Minor, including a barrier island named Minor Island, now Waties Island, off of the coast near Little River.</p><br>
<p>Mary Wither&#39;s gravestone at Prince George Winyah Episcopal Church speaks to the remoteness of the former Strand: "She gave up the pleasures of Society and retired to Long Bay, where she resided a great part of her life devoted to the welfare of her children."</p><br>
<p>As the American colonies gained independence, the area remained essentially unchanged, and the coast remained barren. George Washington scouted out the Southern states during his term, traveling down the Kings Highway. He stayed a night at Windy Hill (part of present-day North Myrtle Beach) and was led across Withers Swash to Georgetown by Jeremiah Vereen.</p><br>
<p>The Withers family remained one of the few settlers around Myrtle Beach for the next half-century. In 1822, a strong hurricane swept the house of R. F. Withers into the ocean, drowning 18 people inside. The tragedy made the Withers family decide to abandon their plots along the coast. Left unattended, the area began to return to forest.</p><br>
<p>On February 28, 1899, Burroughs and Collins, predecessor of modern-day Burroughs and Chapin, received their charter to build the Conway & Seashore Railroad to transport timber from the coast to inland customers. The railroad began daily service on May 1, 1900 with two wood-burning locomotives. One of the engines was dubbed The Black Maria and came second-hand from a North Carolina logging operation. A community named "Withers" post office was established at the site of the old Swash.</p><br>
<p>After the railroad was finished, employees of the lumber and railroad company would take train flatcars down to beach area on their free weekends, becoming the first Grand Strand tourists. The railroad terminus was nicknamed "New Town", contrasting it with the "Old Town", or Conway.</p><br>
<p>At the turn of the 20th century, Franklin Burroughs envisioned turning New Town into a tourist destination rivaling the Florida and northeastern beaches. Burroughs died in 1897, but his sons completed the railroad&#39;s expansion to the beach and opened the Seaside Inn in 1901.</p><br>
<p>After its founding, New Town continued to grow until 1957, when it incorporated. A contest was held to name the town and Burroughs&#39; wife suggested honoring the locally abundant shrub, the Southern Wax Myrtle (Myrica cerifera). So the town was named Myrtle Beach.</p><br>
<p>In 1937, Myrtle Beach Municipal Airport was built, however it was promptly taken over by the United States Army Air Corps in 1940 and converted into a military base. Commercial flights began in 1976 and shared the runway for over 15 years until the air base closed in 1993. Since then the airport has been named Myrtle Beach International Airport. In 2010 plans to build a new terminal were approved. In 1940, Kings Highway was paved, giving Myrtle Beach its first primary highway.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>The Grand Strand&#39;s economy is dominated by the tourist industry, with tourism bringing in millions of dollars each year. Hotels, motels, resorts, restaurants, attractions, and retail developments exist in abundance to service visitors.</p><br>
<p>There are over 100 golf courses in and around Myrtle Beach as the golfing industry represents a significant presence in the area.</p><br>
<p>A manufacturing base produces plastic, rubber, cardboard, foam, and ceramic products usually in small scale.</p><br>
<h3>Tourism</h3><br>
<p>Hosting over 14.6 million visitors annually, The Grand Strand is home to an array of tourist attractions, and the area receives a large influx of visitors during the spring and summer seasons.</p><br>
<p>The Grand Strand hosts a variety of special conventions, events, and musical concerts. The area&#39;s attractions include its beaches and many golf courses, as well as a number of amusement parks, an aquarium, an IMAX theater, retail developments and over 1,900 restaurants including seafood restaurants, and a number of shopping complexes. The area also has dinner theaters, nightclubs, and many tourist shops. Myrtle Beach has an estimated 460 hotels, with many on the beachfront, and approximately 89,000 accommodation units in total. Also in the city is Myrtle Waves, one of the largest water parks on the eastern seaboard.</p><br>
<p>The Myrtle Beach Boardwalk opened in 2010 and has been recognized as the nation&#39;s #3 boardwalk by National Geographic and one of the best US boardwalks by Travel + Leisure magazine. Opened in May 2011, The Myrtle Beach Skywheel features glass gondolas that look over the Atlantic Ocean. Myrtle Beach State Park, established in 1935, has just under a mile of Grand Strand beach and is a prime location for swimming, hiking, biking, and fishing.</p><br>
<p>The Myrtle Beach Convention Center is a large facility that hosts an array of different meetings, conferences, exhibits, and special events every year. The center, which opened in 2003, also features a Sheraton hotel and resort.</p><br>
<p>Myrtle Beach welcomed Hard Rock Park in 2008, which was themed after the popular Hard Rock Cafe chain. After financial issues, the park became Freestyle Music Park for the 2009 season. The park features attractions themed after different genres of music, such as the British Invasion. The park did not open for the 2010 season however, and is tied up in legal issues.</p><br>
<p>Each March since 1951 during Ontarios spring break, Myrtle Beach has hosted Canadian-American Days, also known as Can-Am Days. Tens of thousands tourists come to the area for a weeks worth of special events. Myrtle Beach is also home to Coastal Uncorked, a food and wine festival held in the late spring annually. In June, recently graduated high school seniors come to Myrtle Beach for Senior Week.</p><br>
<p>With numerous professional fireworks displays along the oceanfront, Myrtle Beach is recognized among the top destinations for Fourth of July travel. Priceline.com ranked Myrtle Beach among its top 20 destinations for Fourth of July in 2010.</p><br>
<p>Gambling is not legal in South Carolina. However, Myrtle Beach residents and visitors have easy access to gambling by boat, which transports passengers into international waters beyond the reach of federal and state gambling laws.</p><br>
<h4>Motorcycle rallies</h4><br>
<p>Myrtle Beach Bike Week, also called "Harley Bike Week" is a week-long motorcycle rally that started in 1940 and attracted as many as 200,000 visitors to the city every May. Black Bike Week, founded in 1980, takes place the weekend around Memorial Day Weekend and is the largest African American motorcycle rally in the US and attracts as many as 400,000 visitors. The event was created in response to a history of discrimination against African-American visitors and riders to Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand Area.</p><br>
<p>The Myrtle Beach government created 15 new laws aimed at preventing all sanctioned motorcycle events within the city in response to controversy including accusations of racism by African-American riders during their event and complaints of lawlessness and poor behavior during all highly attended events. Several lawsuits by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) against Myrtle Beach businesses were settled with agreements that discrimination cease, compensation be given to some plaintiffs, and employees be given diversity training. The NAACP suit against the City of Myrtle Beach was settled in 2006 without the city paying damages, but with the agreement police would use the same traffic control rules during both the black and the white motorcycle rallies.</p><br>
<p>The South Carolina Supreme Court in June 2010 unanimously overturned one of the 15 ordinances, which had required all motorcyclists to wear helmets, on the grounds that the state law, requiring helmets only for riders under age 21, cannot be preempted by a city ordinance. In addition, the Court ruled, the ordinance created undue confusion, and that the city itself had invalidated their own helmet law and some other ordinances in a subsequent amendment. The law had been challenged by a group of motorcyclists and a group of Myrtle Beach businesses called BOOST, Business Owners Organized to Support Tourism, who opposed the city&#39;s anti-motorcycle tourism policy.</p><br>
<h3>Shopping</h3><br>
<p>The Grand Strand area has many different stores and malls, is one of the largest shopping areas in the Southeastern United States, and is the largest shopping destination in South Carolina.</p><br>
<p>Barefoot Landing opened in 1988 and currently includes 100 stores, restaurants and attractions. The center also has the Alabama Theatre, which has concerts by traditional country music singers. The center includes a golf resort.</p><br>
<p>Coastal Grand Mall opened in 2004 and is the largest indoor mall in the state. The mall, which has indoor and outdoor shopping areas, has a gross leasable area of 1,047,732 ft&sup2;. The single-story facility hass five anchor stores (including Belk, JCPenney, and Dillard&#39;s), a 14-screen movie theater, a food court, and roughly 170 stores.</p><br>
<p>Myrtle Beach Mall is 525,385 ft&sup2, and has three anchor stores: Bass Pro Shops, Belk and JCPenney. The single-story mall also has a 12-screen movie theater, a food court, and a variety of other specialty stores. It used to be known as Colonial Mall, and opened as Briarcliffe Mall.</p><br>
<p>Tanger Outlets at Myrtle Beach features over 100 brand name outlets such as Nautica and Sony. It is located on USA Route 501 entering the city.</p><br>
<p>Broadway at the Beach is a shopping complex set on 350 acre along the Highway 17 Bypass, with three theaters, 17 restaurants, more than 100 specialty shops, attractions, nightclubs, and three hotels, surrounding the 23 acre Lake Broadway. It is the largest festival entertainment complex in South Carolina. It has an IMAX theater, Ripleys Aquarium, Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, Jimmy Buffetts Margaritaville, and The Pavilion Nostalgia Park.</p><br>
<p>The Market Common District is a lifestyle center that has several upscale shops, and a movie theater. It is located on the site of the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base.</p><br>
<h2>Education</h2><br>
<h3>Public schools</h3><br>
<p>See Horry County Schools</p><br>
<h3>College/post-secondary</h3><br>
<p>The Grand Strand provides following college and post-secondary schools:</p><br>
<h3>Private schools</h3><br>
<p>Below is a list of private schools along the Grand Strand.</p><br>
<p>St. Andrew&#39;s Catholic School</p><br>
<p>Christian Academy of Myrtle Beach</p><br>
<p>Carolina Bays Academy</p><br>
<p>Chabad Academy</p><br>
<p>Calvary Christian School</p><br>
<p>Bridgewater Academy</p><br>
<p>Cathedral Hall High School</p><br>
<p>Christian Academy</p><br>
<p>Life Christian Academy & Child</p><br>
<h2>Communities along the Grand Strand</h2><br>
<p>Order listed by location (north to south)</p><br>
<h3>Horry County, South Carolina</h3><br>
<p>Little River - pop. 8,960 (2010, unincorporated Horry County)</p><br>
<p>North Myrtle Beach - pop. 13,752 (2010, city)</p><br>
<p>Cherry Grove Beach (neighborhood, North Myrtle Beach)</p><br>
<p>Ocean Drive Beach, (neighborhood, North Myrtle Beach)</p><br>
<p>Crescent Beach, South Carolina (neighborhood, North Myrtle Beach)</p><br>
<p>Windy Hill Beach, (neighborhood, North Myrtle Beach)</p><br>
<p>Atlantic Beach - pop. 334 (2010, town)</p><br>
<p>Briarcliffe Acres - pop. 470 (2010, town)</p><br>
<p>Myrtle Beach - pop. 27,109 (2010, city)</p><br>
<p>Springmaid Beach (neighborhood, Myrtle Beach)</p><br>
<p>Surfside Beach - pop. 3,837 (2010, town)</p><br>
<p>Garden City - pop. 11,014 (2010, unincorporated Horry County)</p><br>
<h3>Georgetown County, South Carolina</h3><br>
<p>Murrells Inlet - pop. 8,547 (2010, unincorporated Georgetown County)</p><br>
<p>Litchfield Beach - (unincorporated Georgetown County)</p><br>
<p>Pawleys Island - pop. 103 (2010, town)</p><br>
<p>DeBordieu - (unincorporated Georgetown County)</p><br>
<p>Georgetown - pop. 9,163 (2010, city)</p><br>
<h2>Infrastructure</h2><br>
<h3>Air</h3><br>
<p>Myrtle Beach International Airport opened in 1976 and is located on the south side of town.</p><br>
<p>The Grand Strand Airport, located in the North Myrtle Beach area, is a single-terminal airport (), serving primarily banner planes and small aircraft.</p><br>
<p>A private helicopter facility operated by Omniflight services the Grand Strand.</p><br>
<h3>Rail</h3><br>
<p>The Grand Strand is served by the Waccamaw Coastline Railroad rail line that runs largely parallel to USA Route 501 between Conway and downtown Myrtle Beach. The line is owned by Horry County, but was leased in 2000 to the Carolina Southern Railroad.</p><br>
<p>Carolina Southern Railroad is a short line rail operator running on less than 100 mi of rail at a maximum speed of 10 mi/h. It transports mostly freight brought to it from national rail operators. The company makes one scheduled delivery per month into the City of Myrtle Beach.</p><br>
<h3>Roads</h3><br>
<p>Farrow Parkway</p><br>
<p>Ocean Boulevard</p><br>
<p>Harrelson Boulevard</p><br>
<p>Robert Edge Parkway</p><br>
<p>Robert Grissom Parkway</p><br>
<p>Within the last decade, new roads have been created to ease congestion caused by the yearly influx of visitors. Most of these roads follow the Metro Loop Road Plan, organized in 1997 to improve the traffic flow of Myrtle Beach. Some of the roads included have either been funded through RIDE I funding or through the City of Myrtle Beach.</p><br>
<p>RIDE II plans include the third phase of S.C. Highway 31, a graded separation of Farrow Parkway and US 17 Bypass at the back gate of the former Air Force base, and many other projects. The county is currently debating where to allocate the $400 million generated through a proposed 1-cent sales tax. Other road projects in Horry County, including some in Aynor and Conway, will be included when voted upon.</p><br>
<p>Plans exist for the Grand Strand area to be eventually served by two interstates, Interstate 73 and Interstate 74. The Robert Edge Parkway will connect I-74 to downtown North Myrtle Beach.</p><br>
<h2>Sports</h2><br>
<p>The Grand Strand is home to the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, a Carolina League baseball team and Texas Rangers farm franchise.</p><br>
<p>TicketReturn.com Field is the home field of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans and is located in Myrtle Beach. It opened in 1999 and seats 6,500 people. It is the finish point of the Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon, an athletics event held in February of each year.</p><br>
<p>TicketReturn.com Field is also home of the annual "Baseball At The Beach" collegiate baseball tournament. Hosted by Coastal Carolina University each year, the tournament pits participating NCAA Division I baseball programs in the United States.</p><br>
<p>From 1998-2009 and again starting in 2011 (no Saturday races were held in 2010), the area hosted the Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon presented by Chick-Fil-A, every February featuring (since 2004) the Friday night Royal Bank of Canada 5K and the Saturday Dasani Half Marathon and Bi-Lo Marathon (from 1998 until 2008, a relay was held but dropped because of the popularity of the other events). Marathon day draws the limit of 6,000 runners annually (2,500 full, 3,500 half) and results usually in an unusual dawn as the race starts before dawn (6:30 AM) in order to finish by 2:30 PM.</p><br>
<p>NASCAR-sanctioned Stock car racing is held at Myrtle Beach Speedway, a.538 mi, semi-banked, asphalt-paved oval track located on US 501. Drivers in the Late Model classes will compete (against those of Greenville-Pickens Speedway) for the South Carolina Championship in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. South Carolina Champions&#39; scores will be calculated against other state and provincial champions for a continental championship.</p><br>
<p>It hosted the 2010 UOA Nationals where 8 collegiate ultimate teams from 5 conferences will be represented.</p><br>
<h3>Golf</h3><br>
<p>The area is home to numerous golf courses and mini-golf courses along the Grand Strand and further inland. Myrtle Beach has been called the "Golf Capital of the World" because of the 120 golf courses located there, the record 4.2 million rounds played, and many miniature golf courses. 3.7 million total rounds of golf were played in 2007. The majority of the area&#39;s golf courses are public. Some of the notable golf courses and/or resorts include:</p><br>
<h2>Media</h2><br>
<h3>Television</h3><br>
<p>The Grand Strand and Florence, South Carolina share a common defined market by Nielsen Media Research in Horry, Marion, Dillon, Darlington, Marlboro, Scotland, Robeson, and Florence counties.</p><br>
<h3>Newspapers</h3><br>
<p>The Sun News is the largest daily paper published along the Grand Strand, with a readership base extending from Georgetown, South Carolina, to Sunset Beach, North Carolina. The paper has been in existence since the 1930s and was published by Knight Ridder before that company was bought by The McClatchy Company.</p><br>
<p>There are by several weekly papers, including The Weekly Surge, the Myrtle Beach Herald, and the Horry Independent.</p><br>
<p>There is also an online newspaper, myrtlebeachgazette.com</p><br>
<p>Lake Pleasant Regional Park is a large outdoors recreation area straddling the Maricopa and Yavapai county border northwest of Phoenix, Arizona. The park is located within the municipal boundaries of Peoria, Arizona, and serves as a major recreation hub for the northwest Phoenix metropolitan area.</p><br>
<h2>Lake Pleasant</h2><br>
<p>The cornerstone of the park is the 10,000 acre (40 km² or 15.6 mi²), Lake Pleasant, one of the important artificial reservoirs surrounding the Phoenix metropolitan area. Created by the Waddell (Pleasant) Dam, which was finished in 1927, the lake originally had a surface area of 3,700 acres (15 km² or 5.8 mi²) and served as a private irrigation project. At 76 feet (23 m) high and 2,160 feet (658 m) long, the original Waddell Dam was, at its completion, the largest agricultural dam project in the world. The lake was filled by the Agua Fria River, capturing a large watershed throughout Yavapai County.</p><br>
<p>Construction of the Central Arizona Project Aqueduct, which began in 1973, soon diverted water from the Colorado River to the lake, converting the lake from an agricultural project into a storage reservoir for the project. Completed in 1994, the New Waddell Dam tripled the surface area of the lake, submerging the old dam beneath its waters. Shortly after the completion of the dam, the area experienced a prolonged drought, and while the lake grew considerably it would not reach full capacity until early 2005. Although still fed by the Agua Fria River, the CAP aqueduct is the primary source of water for the reservoir.</p><br>
<p>Lake Pleasant is used as a major water sports recreation center for the Phoenix metro area, as well as serving as an important storage reservoir for the rapidly growing region. A number of boat docks and beach access make the lake a popular destination for scuba diving, water skiing, jet skiing, sailing, windsurfing and other water sports.</p><br>
<p>The lake has been plagued by a number of deaths over the years, and Arizona authorities have from time to time called for caution when at Lake Pleasant because of a number of reasons, including rising waters and carbon monoxide in the area.</p><br>
<h2>Fish species</h2><br>
<p>Largemouth Bass</p><br>
<p>White Bass</p><br>
<p>Striped Bass</p><br>
<p>Crappie</p><br>
<p>Sunfish</p><br>
<p>Catfish (Channel)</p><br>
<p>Tilapia</p><br>
<p>Carp</p><br>
<p>Buffalo fish</p><br>
<p>flathead catfish</p><br>
<h2>Other uses</h2><br>
<p>The park covers a total of over 23,000 acres (93 km²) of mountainous desert landscape, including the lake, and boasts a number of other recreational activities, such as mountain biking, camping, and hiking. The park also has an educational visitors&#39; center that provides information regarding the history of the lake, the construction of the Waddell Dam and the surrounding areas.</p><br>
<p>The presence of the lake has also attracted other recreational activities in the area, such as a dirt racetrack and a large glider school/airport.</p><br>
<p>The rapidly growing city of Peoria has annexed the park and surrounding lands with an eye on future development, though recent economic downturn has brought a temporary halt to its plans. Economy aside, the increasing popularity of the area is evidenced by rapidly growing subdivisions to the south, such as Vistancia, and skyrocketing real estate values, the city has zoned much of the land in the immediate vicinity for future use of both high-end waterfront residential neighborhoods and commercial opportunities off of Lake Pleasant Parkway and the Carefree Highway. Several plans also call for potentially expanding the existing airstrip to be expanded into a regional airport.</p><br>
<h2>Annual events</h2><br>
<p>Lake Pleasant Paddle Fest is a full day event featuring different paddle craft and fun activities.</p><br>
<p>Bill Luke Bass Days is a day and night time festival taking place at Lake Pleasant Marina featuring carnival rides, cornhole tournament, wildlife exhibits, vendors, food and live music.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>The area is served by Pleasant Valley Airport, located 3 miles away. Plans to start commercial service to the airport, including from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, have been unsuccessful.</p><br>
<p>Several roads connect the area to Phoenix&#39;s main freeway systems.</p><br>
<h2>Scenery</h2><br>
<p>The following pictures are of some of the scenery at Lake Pleasant Regional Park and the ruins of a thousand year old Hohokam Puebloans village.</p><br>
<p>Fort Egypt, a large log house, is a historic landmark in Page County, Virginia and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places .</p><br>
<p>Built of 20"-25" diameter logs dovetailed at the corners, Fort Egypt has a massive stone chimney in the center of the house. It contains a fortified cellar with loop holes, possibly designed for protection against Indian attacks. No known Indian attacks occurred at Fort Egypt.</p><br>
<p>The building was built about 1758 by Jacob Strickler (one of the early leaders of the Mennonite Church), and his descendants lived here for many generations. Several of the rooms are very large and were probably used for meetings of the Mennonite Church in this community before any church buildings were built.</p><br>
<p>This home is located near the center of the 1,000 acre (4 km²) tract granted to the pioneer Abraham Strickler in 1735 and called the Egypt Bend tract.</p><br>
<p>The building was restored by its current owners and is in an excellent state of preservation.</p><br>
<p>Zefyri  is a suburban town and former municipality in West Attica, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Fyli, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 1.400 km.</p><br>
<p>Zefyri is situated near the northeastern end of the Aigaleo mountains. Its built-up area is continuous with those of the neighbouring suburbs Ano Liosia, Acharnes and Kamatero. The Motorway 6 passes through Zefyri, by the 440 m cut and cover Zefyri Tunnel. Zefyri is 2 km southeast of Ano Liosia, 2 km southwest of Acharnes and about 10 km north of Athens city centre. The old metric Piraeus–Patras railway and the new Athens Airport–Kiato railway pass through Zefyri.</p><br>
<p>The earthquake of 7 September 1999 damaged some tens of homes.</p><br>
<h2>Historical population</h2><br>
<p>Yellowmead stone circle near Sheepstor in Devon, England, is a Bronze Age concentric stone circle consisting of four rings of stones set within one another. The largest is 20 metres wide and the smallest, 6 metres. It is located on Yellowmead Down.</p><br>
<p>The circles once encircled a burial cairn although this is now barely visible. To the south west, several possible stone rows lead away, crossed by a post-medieval leat that once served a nearby tinworks.</p><br>
<p>The site was excavated and restored by Rev. H Breton in 1921. In 2008 geophysical surveys and a small excavation were carried out to determine whether the restoration of 1921 had been performed accurately (it had), and to discover whether additional features remain buried in the peat. Fallen stones were found in line with some of the stone rows, suggesting that further features may lie downslope below the leat.</p><br>
<p>The Birkrigg stone circle  is a Bronze Age stone circle on Birkrigg Common, two miles south of Ulverston in the English county of Cumbria. It dates to between 1700 and 1400 BC.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The circle consists of two rings of stones, the outer measuring 26 m and consisting of 15 stones and the inner being 9 m wide and consisting of 10 stones. None of the stones is more than 0.6m tall.</p><br>
<p>Limited excavation within the inner circle in 1911 found an upper and lower pavement of cobbles. Below the lower layer of cobbles five cremations were uncovered, three in pits, one on a layer of cobbles and one covered by an inverted urn. A second excavation in 1921 produced a few small stone implements which the excavator thought might be a pestle, a palate and a piece of red ochre, and which might therefore have had a ceremonial use.</p><br>
<p>Mill Rock is a small unpopulated island between Manhattan and Queens in New York City. It lies about 1,000 ft off Manhattan&#39;s East 96th Street, south of Randalls and Wards Islands, where the East River and Harlem River converge.</p><br>
<p>Mill Rock is located at Hell Gate, which was an infamously treacherous area for ships to pass.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Originally two smaller islands, William Hallet bought them from the local tribes in 1664. In 1701, John Marsh built a mill on one of them and the islands came to be called Great Mill Rock and Little Mill Rock. The island was later squatted on by Sandy Gibson, who operated a farm there.</p><br>
<p>During the War of 1812, the War Department built a blockhouse with two cannons on Great Mill Rock. This fortification was part of a chain of blockhouses that was intended to defend New York Harbor and protect the passage into Long Island Sound against the British Navy.</p><br>
<p>In 1885, the United States Army Corps of Engineers detonated 300,000 lb (136,000 kg) of explosives on adjoining Flood Rock; that island had been the most treacherous impediment to East River shipping. It was, most likely, the most forceful explosion in New York City&#39;s history at the time; it was felt as far away as Princeton, New Jersey. The explosion has been described as "the largest planned explosion before testing began for the atomic bomb", although the detonation at the Battle of Messines (1917) was larger. In 1890 the Flood Island remnants were used to fill the space between Great and Little Mill Rocks, producing Mill Rock.</p><br>
<h2>Mill Rock Park</h2><br>
<p>The island is owned by the City of New York and maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation as Mill Rock Park. There is a dock on the southern shore of the island but it has not been open to the public since the 1960s, when there were public events, and it has since been allowed to return to its state of shrubbery. Since approximately 2008, the island has been home to a nesting colony of black-crowned night herons, great egrets, snowy egrets, great black-backed gulls, fish crows, and double-crested cormorants. The herons and egrets are thought to have relocated to Mill Rock from nearby North Brother Island. There are no plans for changes to the island.</p><br>
<p>Picton, Lennox and Nueva  form a group of three islands  on the extreme south of South America, in the Chilean commune of Cabo de Hornos in Antártica Chilena Province, Magallanes and Antártica Chilena Region. In the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, they lie east of Navarino Island and are separated from the Argentine part of Isla Grande in the north by the Beagle Channel. They have an area of 170.4 km , 105.4 km , 120.0 km .</p><br>
<p>Near to the islands are the islets Snipe, Augustus, Becasses, Luff, Jorge, Hermanos, Solitario, Gardiner, Terhalten, Sesambre and others.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Robert Fitzroy and Phillip Parker King called the island "Picton" in honour of Thomas Picton, first British governor of Trinidad in the West-Indies. Lennox was discovered 1624 by Dutch Admiral Schapenham and named Terhalten, after the officer who first sighted it. It was renamed later by Fitzroy and Parker King.</p><br>
<p>From the signing of the Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina to 1904, the islands were considered in Chile and Argentina as Chilean Territories.</p><br>
<p>At the end of the 19th century, the Chilean government gave the first concessions to Antonio Milicic in Nueva Island, Esteban Loncaric in Lennox Island and Thomas Bridges in Picton Island. In 1910/11 were inhabited: Caleta Las Casas in Nueva Island, Puerto Piedra in Picton Island, and Caleta Oro and Caleta Cúter in Lennox Island (Caleta is Spanish for little bay). These concessions were transferred in the course of time to other entrepreneurs, mostly to raise cattle or for mining.</p><br>
<h3>Puerto Banner</h3><br>
<p>From 3 to 6 December 1914, after the Battle of Coronel, the German East Asia Squadron (armored cruisers and and the light cruisers, Leipzig and and the merchants Santa Isabel, Baden, Seydlitz and the captured Norwegian ship Drummuir) under the command of Admiral Graf Spee moored off Puerto Banner on the way to the Battle of the Falkland Islands. This was considered by Chile as a violation of its neutrality and forced the government to found Puerto Banner as a coaling station for the Chilean Navy. Puerto Banner was twice the coaling station of the Yelcho (1906) during her services to rescue the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of Ernest Shackleton.</p><br>
<p>During the Chilean land reform, the east part of Navarino Island and the three islands (86,000 ha) were part of an economic unit and plan to benefit the settlers. Puerto Toro, the next settlement to the islands, in Navarino Island, was refounded 1969.</p><br>
<h3>Operation Soberanía</h3><br>
<p>Due to their strategic location south of the Beagle Channel and facing the Atlantic Ocean, the islands were claimed since 1904 by Argentina, not because of the treaty of 1881 but for "political reasons". Whichever government controlled Picton, Lennox and Nueva could stake territorial rights further into the Atlantic Ocean (important for the fishing industry), at several other islands, and to a larger part of Antarctica, where resource development and exploration were important.</p><br>
<p>The dispute over control of the islands continued into the late 20th century. On 22 July 1971 Salvador Allende and Alejandro Lanusse, the presidents of Chile and Argentina, respectively, signed an arbitration agreement (the ). This agreement was to settle their dispute over the territorial and maritime boundaries between them, and in particular the title to the Picton, Nueva and Lennox islands near the extreme end of the South American continent. It was submitted to binding arbitration under the auspices of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.</p><br>
<p>On 25 January 1978 Argentina repudiated the arbitration decision. It began to prepare for war and the three islands, and the Hermite and Wollastone islands became the main objective of the Argentine threat. In order to increase deterrence against the Operation Soberanía, the Chilean Navy installed minefields in strategic places of the islands. On 22 December 1978, Argentina commenced (and a few hours later aborted) Operation Soberanía to invade both those islands and continental Chile.</p><br>
<p>Although it had called off the operation, the Argentine government never gave up on the use of military force to pressure Chile. After the invasion of the Falklands on 2 April 1982, the Argentine junta planned the military occupation of the three islands, as stated by Brigadier Basilio Lami Dozo, chief of the Argentine Air Force during the Falklands war, in an interview with the Argentine magazine Perfil:</p><br>
<p>Also Óscar Camilión, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Argentina from 29 March 1981 to 11 December 1981, in his "Memorias Políticas", Editorial Planeta, Buenos Aires, 1999, page 281 confirms the plan of Argentine military:</p><br>
<p>See also Kalevi Jaakko Holsti, The State, War, and the State of War Cambridge Studies in International Relations, 1996, 271 pages. See also On page 160:</p><br>
<p>See also article of Manfred Schönfeld in La Prensa (Buenos Aires) on 2 June 1982 about the Argentine Course of Action after the War:</p><br>
<p>All articles of M. Schönfeld in "La Prensa" from 10 January 1982 to 2 August 1982 are in La Guerra Austral, Manfred Schönfeld, Desafío Editores S.A., 1982.</p><br>
<p>The last minefields were installed shortly after the 1982 Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands. Since 2007 mine clearance in Chile is carried out by de-mining units of the army and navy.</p><br>
<h3>After the treaty of 1984</h3><br>
<p>Since 1984 the armed forces and Carabineros have restituted lands in the islands to civilians settlers in order to boost the economic use.</p><br>
<h2>Literature</h2><br>
<p>"The Survivors of the Jonathan", also known as "Magellania", is a novel written by Jules Verne in 1897 and published posthumously in 1909, after it had been rewritten by Verne&#39;s son Michel under the title Les naufragés du "Jonathan".</p><br>
<p>The novel tells the story of a mysterious man named Kaw-djer who lives on the Nueva Island, whose motto is "Neither God nor master". He refused any contact with western civilization relying on himself in order to survive and also provides assistance to the indigenous peoples of Magellania. However, the 1881 Boundary Treaty will destroy his paradise of individualist anarchism because it will end the state of terra nullius in the region.</p><br>
<p>South Sentinel Island is one of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. It is 1,600 m long northeast to southwest and up to 1,000 m wide. At only 1.61 km&sup2, it is much smaller than its counterpart North Sentinel Island and of significantly less interest.</p><br>
<p>The island belongs to the Port Blair tehsil in the South Andaman administrative district, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>South Sentinel is 26.5 km west-northwest of Little Andaman Island in the south of the Andaman chain but 59.6 km south of its counterpart North Sentinel Island. From the limited information available it can be said that South Sentinel Island is a forested coral reef. From a journal written in the 19th century, a Colonel Alcock who passed the island wrote " raised a few feet and continuous with the corals surrounding it".</p><br>
<p>the island is lying 186 km southwest from Port Blair.</p><br>
<p>It lies immediately south of the passage.</p><br>
<p>The island has 44m high to the tops of the trees and level topped. Its appearance is much the same on all bearings.</p><br>
<p>A bank, as defined by the 36m curve, surrounds the island</p><br>
<p>and extends about 6 miles NW from it. Considerable depths exist</p><br>
<p>in the channel between this island and Little Andaman Island</p><br>
<h2>Administration</h2><br>
<p>Politically, South Sentinel Island is part of Little Andaman Taluk.</p><br>
<h2>Demographics</h2><br>
<p>The island is uninhabited but is sometimes used by diving expeditions on account of its remoteness and novelty factor.</p><br>
<h2>Fauna</h2><br>
<p>South Sentinel Island Sanctuary which houses humongous Coconut crab.</p><br>
<p>Skeleton Lake is a lake in the municipalities of Huntsville and Muskoka Lakes in the District Municipality of Muskoka, Ontario, Canada, about 17 km west of the town centre of Huntsville. Up until 1991, the Ministry of Natural Resources operated a fish hatchery on the lake.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The lake is about 8.3 km long and 4.8 km wide, lies at an elevation of 280 m and is in the Lake Huron drainage basin. The sole outflow is the Skeleton River at the west of the lake. It is controlled by the Skeleton Lake Dam and flows through the community of Bent River to Skeleton Bay on Lake Rosseau.</p><br>
<p>There are two public use islands in the area. The Hogs Back is a small rock island which used to exhibit lots of religious oriented graffiti, but has since been eco-scrubbed and now is a bare rock with a fire pit, near Greer Bay. Andersons island has a population of silver birches, along with a cliff-jumping area on the south-east side of the island, and also has religious oriented graffiti carved into the trees and painted onto rocks. Other public access areas exist including a government dock in Wilson&#39;s Bay.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The lake is thought to have been formed as a result of a meteorite impact. About 800 million years ago, an asteroid impact is suspected to have created a crater much larger than the remnant lake. Periods of glaciation since then have removed the original crater, leaving a lake approximately 2.2 miles across and 100 meters deep at its center. Skeleton Lake is recognized as a suspected impact crater. Ironclad evidence of the impact hypothesis would have been removed during the ice ages, and unless more shock geomorphology is found the crater&#39;s origin cannot be certified beyond a reasonable doubt. Due to the spring fed nature of the lake, the water is exceptionally clear. According to residents of the lake, on calm days it is possible to see up to 30 m underwater with the naked eye.</p><br>
<h2>Folklore</h2><br>
<p>Skeleton Lake, or the pool of bones, is so named because when surveyors were working on the north shore, they came upon two skeletons resting on the rocks. When they asked a local Indian chief where the skeletons came from, they were told that he and his people had camped one winter on Skeleton Lake. When food became scarce the tribe decided to move elsewhere. One mother, with a fourteen-year-old son too weak to move, refused to accompany them. They died together of starvation, and the lake was named in memory of this mother and her son. It is said there is an underground current that leads south but no attempts have been made to find where it leads.</p><br>
<h2>Recreation</h2><br>
<p>The open body of water in Skeleton Lake is about the largest open body of water in all the Muskoka Lakes. This makes it an excellent lake for such sports as sailing and windsurfing, though there can be rough water.</p><br>
<p>Fishing is very difficult in the lake. Bass and trout can be caught. In the spring, lake trout will strike at minnows in cold shallow water. Later in the summer, trout like to stay in cold water below the second thermocline, which is typically 50–70 feet. This requires down-riggers to get the bait to the right depth. Bass can be caught in shallower depths.</p><br>
<p>There is a cottagers&#39; association for the many cottagers who spend their time at Skeleton Lake.</p><br>
<h3>Summer Camps</h3><br>
<p>Skeleton Lake is home to several religion-based camps including Camp Ramah in Canada, a Jewish summer camp, a Baptist camp; and Camp Newport, operated by The Salvation Army.</p><br>
<p>Davleia  is a village and a former municipality in Boeotia, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Livadeia, of which it is a municipal unit. Its name comes from the ancient settlement Daulis. The municipal unit has an area of 94.985 km, the community 61.725 km. The municipality includes the eastern portion of Mount Parnassos. Phthiotis lies to the north. Davleia is located ESE of Lamia, SW of Kamena Vourla, W of Livadeia and Thiva, NE of Itea and E of Delphi.</p><br>
<h2>Modern population</h2><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In ancient Greece, this city in Phocis was called Daulis (Δαυλίς) and at a later stage Daulia (Δαυλία) and Daulion (Δαύλιον). Mentioned by Homer, it was said to be named either in reference to the woody character of the area or after a nymph Daulis, a daughter of the river-god Cephissus.</p><br>
<p>In Greek mythology, Daulis was the hometown of Tereus.</p><br>
<p>Daulis was the city at the end of the road not taken by Oedipus.</p><br>
<p>During the Greco-Persian Wars, Daulis was destroyed for the first time in 480 BC. In 395 BC, the city was attacked by Thebes. In 346 BC, Daulis was destroyed again during the so-called Third Sacred War. In 220 BC, the city was attacked by the Aetolians. In 198 BC, the Romans occupied Daulis by a stratagem.</p><br>
<p>In Late Antiquity, Daulia was a seat of a bishop and is now a titular see of the Catholic Church.</p><br>
<p>Remains of the walls of the city&#39;s acropolis can be seen today above the modern town.</p><br>
<p>Sangeang Api  is an active complex volcano on the island of Sangeang in Indonesia. It consists of two volcanic cones, 1,949 m Doro Api and 1,795 m Doro Mantoi. Sangeang Api is one of the most active volcanoes in the Lesser Sunda Islands. It erupted in 1988 and the island&#39;s inhabitants were evacuated. Between its first recorded eruption in 1512 and 1989 it erupted 17 times. It erupted again during December 2012 and May 2014.</p><br>
<p>The island of Sangeang is part of the Lesser Sunda Islands. It is located northeast of Sumbawa in the Flores Sea, and is 13 km wide with an area of 153 km.</p><br>
<p>The earliest document mentioning about the Sang Hyang Api volcano was found in 14th century Majapahit script of Nagarakretagama.</p><br>
<p>"Gunung Api" also appears as the name for the mountain in the first chapter of the novel The Long Journey by Johannes V. Jensen.</p><br>
<h2>2014 Eruption</h2><br>
<p>Since mid-June 2013, authorities had put the volcano on high alert for a possible eruption. On May 30, 2014, a major eruption occurred at around 3:55 p.m. local time. Farmers working on the island were evacuated. Ash and smoke quickly rose to an altitude 15–20 km (≈10–16 miles) into the sky. By the next morning, the ash cloud had crossed the north-west coast of Australia in the Kimberley region, and airlines had cancelled flights into and from Darwin, Northern Territory. It later went as far as Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. On 31 May some flights from Melbourne and Adelaide to Bali were also cancelled.</p><br>
<p>Lake Hemet is a water storage reservoir located in the San Jacinto Mountains in Mountain Center, Riverside County, California, with a capacity of 14,000 acre-feet of water. It was created in 1895 with the construction of the Hemet Dam, and is owned and operated by the Lake Hemet Municipal Water District .</p><br>
<h2>Facts and statistics</h2><br>
<p>Lake Hemet is an artificial lake in the San Jacinto Mountains, 4,340 ft (1,323 m) above sea level. Lake Hemet is part of the San Bernardino National Forest. Lake Hemet has a surface area of 470 acres and 12 miles (19 km) of shoreline. Fishing is the primary attraction to the lake, which is stocked with rainbow trout, channel catfish, bluegill and Largemouth bass. Other Lake Hemet activities include boating, picnicking, hiking, and camping in the surrounding areas.</p><br>
<p>LHMWD provides water from Lake Hemet to a geographically diverse service area in Riverside County, including portions of the cities of Hemet and San Jacinto, and to the isolated but growing 4,500 ft high San Jacinto Mountain community of Garner Valley.</p><br>
<p>LHMWD&#39;s customers are represented by a publicly elected board of five directors in 5 divisions, representing approximately 13,800 domestic and 51 agricultural customers within a 26-square mile (67 km²) service area.</p><br>
<p>Service connections</p><br>
<p>1,800 in 1955</p><br>
<p>1,873 in 1957</p><br>
<p>2,623 in 1962</p><br>
<p>3,747 in 1967</p><br>
<p>5,000 in 1972</p><br>
<p>6,850 in 1977</p><br>
<p>13,636 in 2003</p><br>
<p>13,960 in 2004</p><br>
<p>Length of Lake Hemet Municipal Water District Pipeline</p><br>
<p>30.8 miles (49.6 km) in 1957</p><br>
<p>53.59 miles (86.7 km) in 1962</p><br>
<p>78.29 miles (127.6 km) in 1967</p><br>
<p>96.82 miles (155.8 km) in 1972</p><br>
<p>127 miles (204 km) in 1977</p><br>
<p>136 miles (219 km) in 2003</p><br>
<p>139 miles (224 km) in 2004</p><br>
<p>It is 13 miles (23 km) SW of Palm Springs, California, United States.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Development of the San Jacinto Valley can be traced to 1887, with the formation of the Lake Hemet Water Company and the Hemet Land Company by Edward L. Mayberry, his wealthy San Francisco friend, William F. Whittier, and their partners. These two companies allowed the partnership to acquire land and water rights from the San Jacinto Valley to the west end of Garner Valley in the San Jacinto Mountains.</p><br>
<p>Lake Hemet Water Company placed the first stone of the Hemet Dam on January 6, 1891. When this arched masonry structure was completed in 1895 at a height of 122.5 ft, it was the largest solid masonry dam in the world—a title it would retain until the construction of Roosevelt Dam in Arizona in 1911. In 1923, the Hemet dam was raised to a height of 135 ft.</p><br>
<p>The 1932 opening of the Pines to Palms Highway (SR 74) from the coast to Palm Desert was significant in developing Lake Hemet for increased recreational uses.</p><br>
<p>LHMWD was founded on September 27, 1955, to take over the activities of the Lake Hemet Water Company, purchasing the Lake Hemet water system with funds raised through a bond initiative.</p><br>
<p>Shots of the lake were used in the 1980s CBS television show Airwolf, in which recurring character Stringfellow Hawke lived in a cabin on the lake.</p><br>
<p>The Heligoland Bight, also known as Helgoland Bight,  is a bay which forms the southern part of the German Bight, itself a bay of the North Sea, located at the mouth of the Elbe river. The Heligoland Bight extends from the mouth of the River Elbe to the islands of Heligoland and lies between the East Frisian island of Wangerooge and the North Frisian peninsula of Eiderstedt.</p><br>
<p>Named after Heligoland, it was the location of World War I naval battles in 1914 and 1917. In 1939 it also had a World War II aerial battle named after it.</p><br>
<p>In the Heligoland Basin (Helgoländer Becken), a basin lying directly southwest of Heligoland, the bight is up to 56 metres deep.</p><br>
<p>One of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, from Hamburg and the mouth of the Elbe to the Straits of Dover and the English Channel, runs through the Heligoland Bight. The area also includes nature reserves such as the Heligoland Felssockel and the protected Wadden Sea, in which the Wadden Sea National Parks of Schleswig-Holstein (East), Hamburg (southeast) and Lower Saxony (south) are located.</p><br>
<p>Besides the aforementioned islands of Heligoland, which form the northwestern boundary of the Heligoland Bight, there is the small island of Neuwerk in the southeast, which is located in the Wadden Sea off the Elbe estuary. South of this island is the estuary of the Weser and, to its west, the Jade Bight. Southwest of the Heligoland Bight is the East Frisian island of Wangerooge. East of the bight the Eider enters the sea with, to its north the Eiderstedt Peninsula and, to its south, Meldorf Bay.</p><br>
<p></revision></p><br>
<p>Hagley Hall is a Grade I listed 18th-century house in Hagley, Worcestershire, the home of the Lyttelton family. It was the creation of George, 1st Lord Lyttelton , secretary to Frederick, Prince of Wales, poet and man of letters and briefly Chancellor of the Exchequer. Before the death of his father  in 1751, he began to landscape the grounds in the new Picturesque style, and between 1754 and 1760 it was he who was responsible for the building of the Neo-Palladian house that survives to this day.</p><br>
<p>After a fire in 1925, most of the house was restored, but the uppermost floor of the servants&#39; quarters was not, which means that the present roof line between the towers is lower than it was when first constructed.</p><br>
<p>The estate fell into disrepair and incurred a mounting debt beginning in the 1970s. The 11th Viscount Cobham was forced to sell off large tracts of estate land to keep it afloat (in addition to paying for his high-profile divorce). His brother and successor Christopher Charles Lyttelton, 12th Viscount Cobham began restoration works in both the main house and the park. The park is open to the public and part of the house is available as a venue for hire.</p><br>
<h2>House</h2><br>
<p>Prior to the construction of the current Palladian mansion by the 1st Lord Lyttelton, the earlier house on the site was described as "convenient and built mostly of wood".</p><br>
<p>The fashion for Neo-Palladian houses had started in London between 1715 and 1720. It spread out to the provinces and did not reach Worcestershire until the 1750s. The two finest examples of this style in Worcestershire were Croome Court built between 1751 and 1752 and Hagley Hall designed by Sanderson Miller (with the assistance of the London architect John Sanderson) between 1754 and 1760. Notable Neo-Palladian features incorporated into Hagley Hall include the plain exterior and the corner towers with pyramidal roofs (a feature first used by Inigo Jones in the design of Wilton House in Wiltshire), and of Venetian windows. The house contains a fine example of Rococo plasterwork by Francesco Vassali and a unique collection of 18th-century Chippendale furniture and family portraits, including works by Van Dyck, Joshua Reynolds, Cornelius Johnson, and Peter Lely. A catalogue of the collection was published in 1900.</p><br>
<p>On Christmas Eve 1925, a disastrous fire swept through the house destroying much of the Library and many of the pictures. Despite boiling lead pouring from the roof through the house, all those within managed to escape. At the height of the blaze when nothing more could be salvaged from inside, the 9th Viscount was heard to mutter "my life&#39;s work destroyed". He and his wife painstakingly restored the house, except for the staff quarters on the top floor.</p><br>
<p>To the north of the Hall, and separated from it only by the narrow Hall Drive, is the extensive stable block. The buildings are grouped around two courtyards. The stable block no longer serves its original purpose, but is now operated as a business park for small local businesses.</p><br>
<p>A short walk to the west of the Hall facing its rear facade, is the parish church of St John the Baptist, and its surrounding churchyard. The old section of the churchyard includes the Lyttelton family plot where many owners of Hagley Hall and their relatives are buried. Immediately to the north-east of the parish church, are the grounds of Hagley Cricket Club, with its separate clubhouse.</p><br>
<h2>Park</h2><br>
<p>The house is set in 350 acres of landscaped deer park grazed by fallow deer of several colours. Wychbury Hill, although part of the Estate, is kept open to public. There has been a park at Hagley since the reign of Edward III of England in the 14th century. The present landscape was created from about 1739 to 1764, with follies designed by John Pitt (of Encombe), Thomas Pitt, James "Athenian" Stuart, and Sanderson Miller. Hagley and Croome Court have more follies and other similar features than any estate in Worcestershire.</p><br>
<p>The follies at Hagley include Hagley Obelisk on Wychbury Hill, built in 1764 for Sir Richard Lyttelton. This is visible for many miles. The Temple of Theseus built from 1759 to c. 1762 at a cost of £300 was a gift from Admiral Smith, Lytteltons half-brother. Other small buildings include some small classical buildings; a sham ruined castle and "The Four Stones", or Ossians Tomb as it was termed, on the summit of Clent Hill. Horace Walpole, notoriously hard to please, wrote after a visit in 1753, "I wore out my eyes with gazing, my feet with climbing, and my tongue and vocabulary with commending".</p><br>
<p>In April 1786 John Adams (the future second President of the United States on tour with Thomas Jefferson&mdash;who would serve as his vice president before becoming President himself) visited Hagley and other notable houses in the area, after visiting them he wrote in his diary "Stowe, Hagley, and Blenheim, are superb; Woburn, Caversham, and the Leasowes are beautiful. Wotton is both great and elegant, though neglected". In his diary he was damning about the means used to finance the estates, but he was particularly enamoured with Hagley, although he did not think that such embellishments would suit the more rugged American countryside.</p><br>
<h2>Gunpowder plot</h2><br>
<p>50 years before the construction of the Palladian mansion and just after the Gunpowder plot was discovered, two of the miscreants, Robert Wintour and Stephen Littleton, escaped arrest at Holbeche House and travelled south to ask Humphrey Littleton for his assistance. At the time Muriel Littleton, the widow of John Lyttelton who had died in prison, lived at Hagley Park. However Humphrey had the use of the house.</p><br>
<p>They were captured at Hagley Park on the 9 January 1606 because the authorities had been informed of their presence by Littletons cook - John Fynwood. He had been alarmed by the quantity of food that was being consumed by Littleton and had seen Robert and Stephen. Despite Littletons protests that he was not harbouring anyone, a search was made and another servant, David Bate, showed where the two plotters were escaping from a courtyard into the countryside. The two had been on the run for two months and they had Littleton to thank for evading the law for that long.</p><br>
<p>Note the House at Hagley Park was in existence at least 150 years prior to the construction of Hagley Hall.</p><br>
<h2>Miscellaneous</h2><br>
<p>A 19th-century account of the house and park and the Lyttelton Family ghost story is available.</p><br>
<p>In 1780, after the death of Thomas Lyttelton, 2nd Baron Lyttelton Hagley Hall was leased to Bernard Dewes, later of Wellesbourne, Warwickshire until 1793.</p><br>
<p>The Great Western Railway built a series of 4-6-0 steam locomotives named after various halls. Locomotive 4930 was named Hagley Hall and is preserved on the nearby Severn Valley Railway.</p><br>
<p>Witley Court, Great Witley, Worcestershire, England is a ruined Italianate mansion. Built for the Foleys in the seventeenth century on the site of a former manor house, it was enormously expanded in the early nineteenth century by the architect John Nash. Subsequently sold to the Earls of Dudley, a second massive reconstruction by the architect Samuel Daukes took place in the mid nineteenth century, creating one of the great pleasure palaces of Victorian and Edwardian England.</p><br>
<p>The declining fortune of the Dudleys saw the sale of the court after the First World War to a Kidderminster carpet manufacturer. In 1937 a major fire caused great damage to the court, the estate was broken up and sold and the house was subsequently stripped of its fittings and furnishings. Forty years of decay followed before the house and grounds were taken into the care of The Department of the Environment in 1972. Since that point, significant restoration and stabilisation have secured the house as a spectacular ruin.</p><br>
<p>Witley Court, and the attached Church of St Michael and All Angels are both Grade I listed buildings</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>16th-18th centuries</h3><br>
<p>The earliest building on the site was a Jacobean brick house constructed by the Russell family. After the Civil War the house was sold to Thomas Foley (1616-1677), an ironmaster. He erected two towers on the north side of the house and his grandson Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley (1716–1777) added the wings which enclose the entrance courtyard.</p><br>
<p>In 1735 the Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley (1742–1793) constructed a new private chapel to the west of this courtyard, an undertaking begun by his father. The chapel was given a baroque interior in 1747, when he commissioned James Gibbs to incorporate paintings and furnishings acquired at the auction of the contents of Cannons House. Once reconstructed, the Chapel interior included painted panels by Antonio Bellucci, and ten hand painted windows by Joshua Price of London, based on the designs of Francesco Slater.</p><br>
<p>In the second half of the 18th century the park was landscaped. This included the relocation of the village of Great Witley, which came too close to the south front (rear) of the house. In about 1805 Thomas Foley, 3rd Baron Foley (1780–1833) employed John Nash to carry out a major reconstruction of the house, including the addition of huge ionic porticoes to the north and south fronts.</p><br>
<h3>19th century</h3><br>
<p>In 1837 serious debt forced Thomas Foley, 4th Baron Foley (1808–1869) to sell the estate to the trustees of William Ward, 11th Baron Ward (1817–1885, later 1st Earl of Dudley), who had inherited a great fortune from the coal and iron industries in the Black Country.</p><br>
<p>From 1843 to 1846 Witley Court was loaned to Queen Adelaide, the widow of King William IV. Whilst at Witley Court she had two chaplains – Rev. John Ryle Wood, Canon of Worcester and Rev. Thomas Pearson, Rector of Great Witley.</p><br>
<p>In the 1850s, William Ward, 11th Baron Ward (later 1st Earl of Dudley) engaged the architect Samuel Daukes, who had already altered his London house, Dudley House on Park Lane and the church at Great Witley, to remodel the house in Italianate style using ashlar stone cladding over the existing red brickwork. He also commissioned the garden designer William Andrews Nesfield to transform the gardens.</p><br>
<p>In 1885 the 1st Earl of Dudley died and his son William Humble Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley (1867–1932) inherited the property. His wife was Rachel Ward, Countess of Dudley (née Rachel Gurney).</p><br>
<h3>20th-21st centuries</h3><br>
<p>In 1920 Witley Court was sold by the 2nd Earl to Sir Herbert Smith, a Kidderminster carpet manufacturer. Sir Herbert maintained only a skeleton staff to manage the house whilst he and his family were away, and many areas were left unused. A major accidental fire broke out in September 1937, whilst Sir Herbert was at another of his houses. It started in the bakery situated in the basement room of the now least preserved tower. The staff tried to put the fire out with the ancient fire pump, which was connected to the fountain, but it failed to work as it had not been maintained for many years. Although only one wing of the house was gutted by the fire and the rest of it was almost intact, the insurance company declined to cover the major damage, so Sir Herbert resolved to sell the property.</p><br>
<p>The estate was broken up and sold in lots. The house was bought by scrap dealers who stripped what they could from the house, leaving it an empty shell. In 1972 the remnants of the house and garden (excluding the church) were taken into care by the government, via a compulsory guardianship order. The ruins today are still spectacular, and the property is in the care of English Heritage.</p><br>
<p>Saint Michael and All Angels Church Church, which is attached to the ruins, survived the fire.</p><br>
<p>In 2003 Witley Court&#39;s owners, the Wigington family of Stratford-upon-Avon, who had acquired it in 1953 for £20,000, placed the freehold for sale on eBay for £975,000. The management arrangement with English Heritage was to remain unchanged. The sale was re-launched 2008 and Witley was sold for less than £900,000.</p><br>
<p>A video made in 1967 by the band Procol Harum for their song "A Whiter Shade of Pale", used Witley Court as the location. At this time the site was completely derelict. The video link is given below under "External Links".</p><br>
<p>The ruins were featured prominently in the 2016 British TV miniseries Close to the Enemy.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The original manor of the Russells was a medieval house. This was replaced by a brick mansion to an H-plan in the mid-seventeenth century. The Foleys, who bought the estate in 1655 massively expanded the house over the next 150 years. Thomas Foley (IV) may have used Henry Flitcroft to add Palladian service wings in the mid-eighteenth century. In the early nineteenth century, Thomas Foley (VII) used John Nash to design the enormous North and South porticos. The final transformation of the mansion was undertaken by Samuel Daukes for the Wards in the mid-nineteenth century. This saw the encasement of the mansions central block and wings with Bath Stone and the creation of lavish interiors in a revival French Renaissance style.</p><br>
<h2>Gardens and fountains</h2><br>
<p>The two immense fountains survived the fire and subsequent despoliation of the house. They were designed by Nesfield and executed by James and William Forsyth, who were carrying out sculpture in the house and the church. The largest, the Perseus and Andromeda Fountain, has been restored to working order by English Heritage. For working times, see the Witley Court English Heritage website (link below). The remnants of Nesfield&#39;s parterres can also be seen.</p><br>
<p>In more recent times, the original plans and designs for the formal gardens have been discovered, and they are in the process of being restored. The main area of the gardens, the South Parterre, between the house and the Perseus and Andromeda fountain, has already been completed. Meanwhile, work on the East Parterre region is ongoing.</p><br>
<p>William Ward 1st Earl of Dudley.jpgWilliam Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley who bought Witley Court in 1837</p><br>
<p>Cerro de Punta or just Cerro Punta is the highest peak in Puerto Rico, rising to 1,338 m above sea level. The mountain is part of the Cordillera Central and is located in the municipality of Ponce.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>The mountain is part of the Cordillera Central and is located on the border between the municipalities of Jayuya and Ponce. The access road to the point closest to the highest elevation is from the municipality of Jayuya. It is part of the Toro Negro Forest Reserve, and it has been described as "an alpine runt." It is located on the western end of the Toro Negro State Park. The mountain is just north of east-to-westbound Route 143.</p><br>
<p>It is located at coordinates 18.172458 and -66.591839W. The nearest populated place to Cerro de Punta is Urbanization Vega Linda, located 3.3 miles away.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Unlike many Caribbean mountains, Cerro de Punta is not a volcano but simply the highest point in the Cordillera Central. Cordillera Central is the central mountain range that divides the island by running in an east-west fashion.</p><br>
<h2>Best view</h2><br>
<p>The view from atop Cerro de Punta is said to be "the best view in all of Puerto Rico". On a clear day, it is possible to see virtually the entire island, including as far as San Juan, which is over 75 miles away. There is an observation platform at the top of the mountain.</p><br>
<h2>Wildlife and flora</h2><br>
<p>The mountain is home to an abundant amount wildlife, lush vegetation, flowering shrubs and trees, and numerous waterfalls. The mountain is covered by palm trees.</p><br>
<h2>Nearby roads</h2><br>
<p>The area consists of many steep mountains. The nearest road is PR-143, which is a winding two-lane mountain road that must be travelled very slowly as it is not possible to see traffic coming from the opposite direction for any significant length. Off Route 143 is the road that actually leads to the mountain&#39;s top. Route 143 can be accessed via the better-traveled Route 10. Route 143 is part of the Ruta Panorámica.</p><br>
<h2>Hiking and access trail</h2><br>
<p>A nearby inn called Hacienda Gripiñas, has a trail that leads to the top of the mountain. Hacienda Gripiñas was a coffee plantation, but has been turned into a country inn. It actually still grows some coffee. The inn operates under a contract with the Government of Puerto Rico. The trails, however, are not well marked and often suffer damage from storms. While people can hike their way to the top of the mountain, there is a paved road that leads to the very summit. The Toro Negro State Forest has 12 miles of hiking trails some of which lead to the top of Cerro de Punta.</p><br>
<p>Lake Ram  is a crater lake  in the northeastern Golan Heights, near Mount Hermon. The sources of the lake are rain water and an underground spring. The lake has no outlet. It is known in Hebrew as "Brekhat Ram" , meaning high pool. It is also called Birket Ram, using the Arabic word for pond. The area is associated with the Druze community.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Most geologists believe that the lake formed inside the crater of an extinct volcano.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeology</h2><br>
<p>The site has been excavated for evidence of human activity during its history. Research on lacustrine sediments at the site concluded that the area has been heavily settled four times over history, first during the early Bronze Age, secondly during the "Hellenistic–Roman–Byzantine periods", thirdly during the period of medieval Crusader occupation, and finally in modern times. Between these periods the area became overgrown as local woodland regenerated, evidencing phases of low human occupation.</p><br>
<p>During excavations evidence was discovered of Palaeolithic human and hominid activity. Most notably, excavation led to the discovery of the Venus of Berekhat Ram, a pebble allegedly worked by Homo erectus. The artefact has been claimed to be the oldest known example of representational art in the world.</p><br>
<h2>Legends</h2><br>
<p>According to The Talmud, Sanhedrin 108a, Brekhat Ram is one of three underground springs, along with Hamat Gader in the southeastern Golan Heights and Hamat Tiberias, that opened up in the Flood of Noah and didn&#39;t close up again after the flood.</p><br>
<p>In a local Druze legend the lake is the "eye" of the "sheikh&#39;s wife", the name for a hill nearby. Mount Hermon (in Arabic Jabal al-Shaykh, "Mountain of the Sheikh"), referred to as the sheikh himself, is supposed to have been separated from the "wife", whereupon her eye filled with tears.</p><br>
