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Victoria, city, Seychelles

(Encyclopedia)Victoria or Port Victoria, city (2010 pop. 26,450), capital of the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean. A port on the NE coast of Mahé Island, Victoria is an administrative, commercial, tourist, and ship...

Urganch , city, Uzbekistan

(Encyclopedia)Urganch o͝orgĕnchˈ [key], city (1989 pop. 126,380), capital of Khwarazm region, S Uzbekistan, on the Amu Darya River and the Shavat canal, in the Khiva oasis. It has cotton and food-processing indu...

Berlin, city, Germany

(Encyclopedia)Berlin bûrˌlĭnˈ, Ger. bĕrlēnˈ [key], city (2021 est. pop. 3,567,000), capital ...

garden city, in city planning

(Encyclopedia)garden city, an ideal, self-contained community of predetermined area and population surrounded by a greenbelt. As formulated by Sir Ebenezer Howard, the garden city was intended to bring together the...

Alger, Russell Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Alger, Russell Alexander, 1836–1907, U.S. secretary of war (1897–99), b. near Medina, Ohio. After moving to Michigan he engaged in the lumber business, in which he made a fortune. During the Civil...

Mantel, Dame Hilary

(Encyclopedia)Mantel, Dame Hilary, 1952–, English novelist, b. Hilary Mary Thompson. After working as a social worker, she moved to Botswana with her geologist husband and later to Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, where she...

Kaaba

(Encyclopedia)Kaaba or Caaba both: käˈbə or käˈəbə [key] [Arab.,=cube], the central, cubic, stone structure, covered by a black cloth, within the Great Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The sacred nature of the...

Third World

(Encyclopedia)Third World, the technologically less advanced, or developing, nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, generally characterized as poor, having economies distorted by their dependence on the export...

Burton, Sir Richard Francis

(Encyclopedia)Burton, Sir Richard Francis, 1821–90, English explorer, writer, and linguist. He joined (1842) the service of the East India Company and, while stationed in India, acquired a thorough knowledge of t...

Hegira

(Encyclopedia)Hegira or Hejira both: hĭjīˈrə, hĕjˈərə [key] [Ar.,=Hijra=breaking off of relations], the departure of the prophet Muhammad from Mecca in Sept., 622. Muhammad was a monotheist and preached aga...