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Dzungaria

(Encyclopedia)Dzungaria jo͝ongˈgärˈ [key], physical region (c.300,000 sq mi/777,000 sq km) of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, NW China. It is a largely steppe and semidesert basin surrounded by high mountains...

Apennines

(Encyclopedia)Apennines ăpˈənīnz [key], Ital. Appennino, mountain system, running the entire length of the Italian peninsula. It extends south c.840 mi (1,350 km) from the Cadibona Pass in Liguria, NW Italy, wh...

Monterrey

(Encyclopedia)Monterrey mōntārāˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 1,068,996), capital of Nuevo León state, NE Mexico, the third largest city of Mexico. Located c.150 mi (240 km) S of Laredo, Tex., in a valley surrounded...

Ilemi Triangle

(Encyclopedia)Ilemi Triangle, triangular-shaped region, c.10,000 sq km (3,860 sq mi) in area, at the NW corner of Lake Turkana, E Africa. It borders South Sudan (W), Ethiopia (E) and Kenya (S). A disputed territory...

Huc, Évariste Régis

(Encyclopedia)Huc, Évariste Régis āvärēstˈ rāzhēsˈ ük [key], 1813–60, French Roman Catholic missionary and explorer, a Lazarist priest. In 1844 while in China on a mission, he and two companions began a...

maenads

(Encyclopedia)maenads mēˈnădz [key], in Greek and Roman religion and mythology, female devotees of Dionysus. They roamed mountains and forests, adorned with ivy and skins of animals, waving the thyrsus. When the...

Lucerne, Lake of

(Encyclopedia)Lucerne, Lake of, Ger. Vierwaldstätter See, irregular-shaped lake, 44 sq mi (114 sq km), central Switzerland. It has a maximum depth of c.700 ft (210 m). The lake is fed and drained by the Reuss Rive...

celestial horizon

(Encyclopedia)celestial horizon, one axis of the altazimuth coordinate system. It is the great circle on the celestial sphere midway between the observer's zenith and nadir; it divides the celestial sphere into two...

Windermere

(Encyclopedia)Windermere wĭnˈdərmēr [key], lake, 10.5 mi (17 km) long and 1 mi (1.6 km) wide, in the Lake District, Cumbria, NW England. It is c.210 ft (60 m) deep and lies among wooded hills near Scafell and o...

Song Shan

(Encyclopedia)Song Shan sŭngˈ shänˈ [key], mountain, N central Henan prov., China; one of the five sacred mountains of China. It is famous for the Shaolin Temple, where generations of Buddhist monks have practi...