Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Sakkara

(Encyclopedia)Sakkara or Saqqara säkäˈrä [key], necropolis (burial place) of ancient Memphis, Egypt, 3 mi (5 km) from the Nile and on the border of the Libyan desert. Djoser (Zoser) had his famous step-pyramid,...

Bar Harbor

(Encyclopedia)Bar Harbor, town (2020 pop. 5,089), SE Maine, on Mount Desert Island and on Frenchman Bay; settled 1763, inc. 1796. It was a...

Ukrainka, Lesia

(Encyclopedia)Ukrainka, Lesia lāsˈyə o͝okrīnˈkə [key], 1871–1913, Ukrainian poet and dramatist, whose original name was Larysa Kvitka-Kosach. Ukrainka spent most of her life abroad fighting to recuperate f...

Bears Ears National Monument

(Encyclopedia)Bears Ears National Monument, 201,876 acres (81,696 hectares), SE Utah; est. 2016. Named for prominent twin buttes, the national monument as proclaimed by President Obama was more than six times large...

Zeravshan

(Encyclopedia)Zeravshan zyĕrəfshänˈ [key], river, c.460 mi (740 km) long, rising in the Turkistan Range of the Pamir-Alai mountain system, in Tajikistan. It flows westward through the agricultural Zeravshan val...

botanical garden

(Encyclopedia)botanical garden, public place in which plants are grown both for display and for scientific study. An arboretum is a botanical garden devoted chiefly to the growing of woody plants. The plants in bot...

Shapur I

(Encyclopedia)Shapur I säˈpôr [key], d.272, king of Persia (241–72), son and successor of Ardashir I, of the Sassanid, or Sassanian, dynasty. He was an able warrior king. Although he was defeated by the Roman ...

Ar Ramadi

(Encyclopedia)Ar Ramadi är rämäˈdē [key], town, provincial capital, central Iraq, on the Euphrates River. It is the eastern terminus of a highway across the desert from the Mediterranean Sea. The town was foun...

Mary, city, Turkmenistan

(Encyclopedia)Mary or Mari mäˈrē [key], city (1991 pop. 94,900), capital of Mary region, SE Turkmenistan. Lying in a large oasis of the Kara Kum desert, on the Murgab River delta, Mary is the center of a rich co...

Kharga

(Encyclopedia)Kharga äl khärˈēnjä [key], large oasis (1986 pop. 38,544), S central Egypt, in the Libyan (Western) Desert. Populated chiefly by Arab Bedouins and Arab-speaking Berbers, the irrigated oasis produ...