Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Persia

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Persian Empire (c.500 b.c.) Persia pûrˈzhə, –shə [key], old alternate name for the Asian country Iran. The article Iran contains a description of the geography and economy of the modern ...

Falashas

(Encyclopedia)Falashas fäläˈshəs [key] [Amharic,=exiles], Jews of Ethiopia who refer to themselves as Beta Israel (House of Israel). Long isolated from mainstream Judaism, they practice a form of the religion b...

Iran hostage crisis

(Encyclopedia)Iran hostage crisis, in U.S. history, events following the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran by Iranian students on Nov. 4, 1979. The overthrow of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi of Iran by an Isla...

Montgomery, Bernard Law, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein

(Encyclopedia)Montgomery, Bernard Law, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein məntgŭmˈərē, ăləmānˈ [key], 1887–1976, British field marshal. Educated at Sandhurst, he entered the army in 1908 and served in Wo...

watercolor painting

(Encyclopedia)watercolor painting, in its wider sense, refers to all pigments mixed with water rather than with oil and also to the paintings produced by this process; it includes fresco and tempera as well as aqua...

advertising

(Encyclopedia)advertising, in general, any openly sponsored offering of goods, services, or ideas through any medium of public communication. At its inception advertising was merely an announcement; for example, en...

Barnes, Harry Elmer

(Encyclopedia)Barnes, Harry Elmer, 1889–1968, American historian and sociologist, b. Auburn, N.Y. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1918 and taught economics, sociology, and history at various institutions o...

Cleopatra's Needles

(Encyclopedia)Cleopatra's Needles, name in popular use for two obelisks of red granite from Egypt. Originally erected at Heliopolis (c.1475 b.c.) by Thutmose III, they were transported to Alexandria (c.14 b.c.) und...

Amenemhet III

(Encyclopedia)Amenemhet III äˌmĕnĕmˈhĕt, āˌ– [key], d. 1801 b.c., king of ancient Egypt, of the XII dynasty. He was the son and successor of Sesostris III, with whom he had been coregent. He extended the ...

Jabal Awliya

(Encyclopedia)Jabal Awliya jĕbˈəlˈ ouˈlēə [key], village, E central Sudan, S of Khartoum. Nearby is a large dam (completed 1937) that is used to control the flow of the Nile to aid the Aswan Dam (see Aswan) ...