Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bahr-el-Ghazal

(Encyclopedia)Bahr-el-Ghazal bär-ĕl-gäzälˈ [key], region, NW South Sudan, divided into Western Bahr-el-Ghazal, Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal, Warrab, and Lakes states. The region takes its name from a river that flo...

Scully, Vincent Joseph, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Scully, Vincent Joseph, Jr., 1920–2018, American architectural historian, b. New Haven, Conn., grad. Yale (B.A., 1940; Ph.D., 1949). As a professor of art history at Yale (1947–91, though he taugh...

Blondel, François

(Encyclopedia)Blondel, François fräNswäˈ blôNdĕlˈ [key], 1617–86, French architect. In 1672 he became director of the Academy of Architecture. Blondel's writings, which exerted great influence, include Cou...

Navarino, battle of

(Encyclopedia)Navarino, battle of nävärēˈnō [key], 1827, naval battle resulting from the intervention of the European powers in the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). England, France, ...

temple, edifice of worship

(Encyclopedia)temple, edifice or sometimes merely an enclosed area dedicated to the worship of a deity and the enshrinement of holy objects connected with such worship. The temple has been employed in most of the w...

Book of the Dead

(Encyclopedia)Book of the Dead, term used to describe Egyptian funerary literature. The texts consist of charms, spells, and formulas for use by the deceased in the afterworld and contain many of the basic ideas of...

Sadat, Anwar al-

(Encyclopedia)Sadat, Anwar al- änwärˈ äl-sädätˈ [key], 1918–81, Egyptian political leader and president (1970–81). He entered (1936) Abbasia Military Academy, where he became friendly with Gamal Abdal Na...

Hitchcock, Henry-Russell

(Encyclopedia)Hitchcock, Henry-Russell, 1903–87, American architectural historian, b. Boston. Educated at Harvard, Hitchcock taught at Smith College and New York Univ. His writings, which helped to define modern ...

American Academy in Rome

(Encyclopedia)American Academy in Rome, founded in 1894 as the American School of Architecture in Rome by Charles F. McKim and enlarged in 1897 with the founding of the American Academy in Rome for students of arch...

Champollion, Jean François

(Encyclopedia)Champollion, Jean François –fēzhäkˈ [key], 1778–1867, was an archaeologist and paleographer, a professor of Greek at Grenoble, and a curator of manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale. He a...