Marrakech

Marrakech gave its name to the kingdom of which it was long the capital. It was founded in the mid-11th century by

Submarine Mine

Underwater weapon designed to explode when a target presents itself. See mine.

Gennadius Of Novgorod

Named archbishop in 1485 by the grand prince of Moscow Ivan III (1462 - 1505), Gennadius initiated a persecution of Christian Judaizers, a movement of zealots stressing the monotheistic element

North Germanic Languages, Orthography

The five basic vowel symbols of the Latin alphabet are supplemented by a number of special symbols that are used mostly to represent umlauted vowels: thus, there is y (pronounced as German �), � (used in Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese) and the corresponding � (used in Swedish), � (in Danish, Norwegian, and Faroese) and the corresponding � (in Swedish and Icelandic), and

Abraha

Abraha was viceroy of the principality of Saba' in Yemen for the (Christian) emperors of Ethiopia. A zealous Christian himself, he is said to have built a great church at San'a' and to have repaired the principal irrigation dam at the Sabaean capital of Ma'rib. Abraha is chiefly famous, however, for the military

Earth Exploration

Geophysical

Stained Glass

In the arts, the coloured glass used for making decorative windows and other objects through which light passes. Strictly speaking, all coloured glass is �stained,� or coloured by the addition of various metallic oxides while it is in a molten state; nevertheless, the term stained glass has come to refer primarily to the glass employed in making ornamental or pictorial

Doris

The alleged mother country of the Dorian conquerors of the Peloponnese. It was a small district in central Greece, lying between Mounts Oeta (modern Oiti) and Parnassus and consisting of a narrow valley nowhere exceeding 4 miles (6 km) in breadth, with only four small townships. Doris had some importance because it commanded the road from Heraclea in Trachis to Amphissa,

Saint Kitts And Nevis

Officially �Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis,� also called �Saint Christopher and Nevis,� state composed of two islands of the Lesser Antilles in the eastern Caribbean Sea. Their combined area is 104 square miles (269 square kilometres). The capital is Basseterre on the island of Saint Kitts.

Waiau River

Formerly �Waiau-ua, or Dillon, � river in eastern South Island, New Zealand. It rises in the Spenser Mountains and flows south and east for 105 miles (169 km) to enter the Pacific Ocean, 6 miles (10 km) northeast of Cheviot. Its generally hilly drainage basin, 1,270 square miles (3,290 square km) in area, borders the Canterbury Plains to the south. Towns in the river's valley, including Waiau and Parnassus, are market centres for the

Henderson

City, seat of Henderson county, northwestern Kentucky, U.S., on a bluff overlooking the Ohio River, 7 miles (11 km) south of Evansville, Indiana. The town site, around Red Banks (settled 1784), was laid out in 1797 by the Transylvania Land Company and named for its promoter, Richard Henderson. Originally a farming settlement, its economy is evenly balanced among industry, agriculture (corn

China, General works

Overviews of China's physical and human geography may be found in Keith Buchanan, The Transformation of the Chinese Earth (1970); Ping-chia Kuo, China, 3rd ed. (1970); T.R. Tregear, China: A Geographical Survey (1980); Albert Kolb, East Asia: China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam: Geography of a Cultural Region (1971, reprinted 1977; originally published in German, 1963); Brian Hook (ed.), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of China (1982); Robert L. Worden, Andrea Matles Savada, and Ronald E. Dolan (eds.), China, a Country Study, 4th ed. (1988); and Information China, 3 vol. (1989), an encyclopaedic work prepared under the auspices of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and ed. by C.V. James.

Australia, Music

Like the other arts in Australia, music has two distinct traditions: those of the European colonists and those of the indigenous peoples, whose singing and ritual playing of the didjeridu (a drone instrument) reenact the ancient traditions related to a mythological time called the Dreaming, the Aboriginal conception of creation. Contemporary Aboriginal bands

Creativity

Studies of known living creative people and research gleaned from biographies of recognized past creative geniuses have yielded some ideas about the characteristics of the creative process. The single most important element in the creative process, however, is believed to be originality, or uniqueness. A great deal of research has been carried out on the nature,

Oak Harbor

Town, Island county, northwestern Washington, U.S., on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound. It was settled in 1849 by seafaring men, and its first industry was shipbuilding. Dutch immigrants arrived in 1890 and began developing the rich farmland; their presence on the island is celebrated in the town's annual Holland Happenings festival. The chief agricultural products are dairy foods,

Loden Coat

Loden cloth is dyed in several colours, but bluish green is the most common. The jacket sometimes has a stiff, standup collar and is trimmed with

Performing Arts

Loden cloth is dyed in several colours, but bluish green is the most common. The jacket sometimes has a stiff, standup collar and is trimmed with

Paulo Afonso Falls

Portuguese �Cachoeira De Paulo Afonso, � series of rapids and three cataracts in northeastern Brazil on the S�o Francisco River along the Bahia-Alagoas border. Lying 190 miles (305 km) from the river's mouth, the falls have a total height of 275 feet (84 m) and a width of less than 60 feet (18 m). With an average water discharge of 100,000 cubic feet (3,000 cubic m) per second, the falls are the site of a large hydroelectric station.

Massachusetts Bay

Inlet of the North Atlantic Ocean, extending southward for about 60 miles (100 km) from Cape Ann to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, U.S. It includes Nahant, Boston, Plymouth, and Cape Cod bays and Gloucester and Salem harbours. The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway enters the bay through the Cape Cod Canal and reaches its northernmost point at Boston. Late in 1620, the Pilgrims explored Cape

Tabinshwehti

In 1535 Tabinshwehti began a military campaign against the kingdom of Pegu in southern Myanmar, capturing the city of Bassein in the Irrawaddy delta. Four years later Pegu fell, and Takayutpi, the Pegu king, fled to Prome

Electron Spectroscopy

Method of determining the energy with which electrons are bound in chemical species by measuring the kinetic energies of the electrons emitted upon bombardment of the species with X-ray or ultraviolet radiation. Details of the structure may be inferred from the results because differences in the arrangements of the atoms affect the amount of energy required

Anteater

Also known as the two-toed, pygmy, or dwarf anteater, the silky anteater (Cyclopes didactylus) is the smallest and least-known member of the family. Silky anteaters are found from southern Mexico southward to Bolivia and Brazil. They are not rare but are difficult to spot, as they are nocturnal and live high in the trees. The silky anteater is also exquisitely

Condensation Nucleus

Tiny suspended particle, either solid or liquid, upon which water vapour condensation begins in the atmosphere. Its diameter may range from a few microns to a few tenths of a micron (one micron equals 10-4 centimetre). There are much smaller nuclei in the atmosphere, called Aitken nuclei, but they ordinarily play no role in cloud formation because they do not induce condensation

Celebes

The island is very mountainous, with some active volcanoes,

Tsushima Current

Surface oceanic current, the northeastward-flowing branch of the Kuroshio along the west coast of Japan. Entering the Sea of Japan through the Korea Strait, the Tsushima Current issues the East Korea Warm Current as a northern branch. It is primarily a spring and summer current and is barely discernable in winter.

Maha Kumbh Mela

About 110 million people, including more than 65,000 foreigners, gathered for the Hindu festival; this was believed to be the largest-ever congregation of people on the planet for a

Abajo Mountains

Volcanic segment of the Colorado Plateau, in San Juan county, southeastern Utah, U.S. Abajo Peak (11,362 feet [3,463 metres]) is the highest point in the mountains, which comprise eight summits and are embraced by the Manti-LaSal National Forest. The heavily forested range is locally called the Blue Mountains for its appearance. Mining and lumbering are the main economic activities

Abajo Mountains

American organization formed at a convention in Washington, D.C., as the product of the merger in 1896 of the National Federation of Afro-American Women and the National League of Colored Women - organizations that had arisen out of the African American women's club movement. Founders of the NACW included Harriet Tubman, Frances E.W. Harper, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, and Mary

Neorealism

Italian �Neorealismo, � Italian literary and cinematic movement, flourishing especially after World War II, seeking to deal realistically with the events leading up to the war and with the social problems that were engendered during the period and afterwards.

Hoodmold

Also called �dripstone�, or �label� molding projecting from the face of the wall, immediately above an arch or opening whose curvature or outline it follows. The hoodmold, which originated during the Romanesque period to protect carved moldings and to direct rainwater away from the opening, was later developed into an important decorative feature. It appears almost universally over exterior arches