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pika

(Encyclopedia)pika pīˈkə [key], short-haired mammal related to rabbits and hares, also called mouse hare and rock rabbit. Pikas live above the timber line in the mountains of N Asia and W North America. The pika...

Otto I, Holy Roman emperor

(Encyclopedia)Otto I or Otto the Great, 912–73, Holy Roman emperor (962–73) and German king (936–73), son and successor of Henry I of Germany. He is often regarded as the founder of the Holy Roman Empire. Bol...

Württemberg

(Encyclopedia)Württemberg vürˈtəmbĕrkˌ [key], former state, SW Germany. Württemberg was formerly also spelled Würtemberg and Wirtemberg. The former state bordered on Baden in the northwest, west, and southw...

Sahara

(Encyclopedia)Sahara səhârˈə [key] [Arab.,=desert], world's largest desert, c.3,500,000 sq mi (9,065,000 sq km), N Africa; the western part of a great arid zone that continues into SW Asia. Extending more than ...

Cole, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Cole, Thomas, 1801–48, American landscape painter, b. England. He arrived in the United States in 1818 and moved to Ohio, where he was impressed by the beauty of the countryside. In 1825 he went to ...

Erzgebirge

(Encyclopedia)Erzgebirge ĕrtsˈgəbĭrˌgə [key] [Ger.,=ore mountains], Czech Krušné Hory, mountain range, along the Czech–German border, extending c.95 mi (150 km) from the Fichtelgebirge in the southwest to...

mesa, in geology

(Encyclopedia)mesa māˈsə [key] [Span.,=table], name given in the SW United States to a small, isolated tableland or a flat-topped hill. Two or more of the sides are steep and usually perpendicular and some have ...

azalea

(Encyclopedia)azalea əzālˈyə [key] [Gr.,=dry], any species of the genus Rhododendron, North American and Asian shrubs of the family Ericaceae (heath family) that are distinguished by the usually deciduous leave...

Lebanon, mountain range, Asia

(Encyclopedia)Lebanon, ancient Libanus, mountain range, c.100 mi (160 km) long, paralleling the Mediterranean Sea from S Lebanon N into Syria and rising steeply from the coast. Qurnet as Sawda (10,131 ft/3,088 m) i...

Tian Shan

(Encyclopedia)Tian Shan or Tien Shan both: tēĕn shän [key] [Chin.,=celestial mountains], mountain system of central Asia, extending c.1,500 mi (2,410 km) from the Pamir Mts., Tajikistan, NE through the Xinjiang ...