Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Porbandar

(Encyclopedia)Porbandar pōrˈbəndər [key], town (1991 pop. 116,546), Gujurat state, W central India, on the Arabian Sea. Porbandar trades with Persian Gulf and East African ports, has airline service and major h...

Fars

(Encyclopedia)Fars färsĭstänˈ [key], province, c.51,500 sq mi (133,400 sq km), SW Iran. Shiraz is the capital and chief city, ...

Rice, Condoleezza

(Encyclopedia)Rice, Condoleezza, 1954–, U.S. government official and educator, b. Birmingham, Ala. A political scientist who has specialized in Russian and E European studies, Rice has been a professor at Stanfor...

Iran-Iraq War

(Encyclopedia)Iran-Iraq War, 1980–88, protracted military conflict between Iran and Iraq. It officially began on Sept. 22, 1980, with an Iraqi land and air invasion of western Iran, although Iraqi spokespersons m...

Dimona

(Encyclopedia)Dimona dīmōˈnə [key] [Heb.,=wasting], town, S Israel, in the Negev Desert. It is the seat...

Gerlache, Adrien de

(Encyclopedia)Gerlache, Adrien de ädrē-ăN də gĕrläshˈ [key], 1866–1934, Belgian naval officer and explorer. Sailing with Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen who would later be the first to reach the South Po...

Basra

(Encyclopedia)Basra bŭsˈrə [key], Arabic al Basrah, city (2020 est. pop. 1,352,000), SE Iraq, on the Sha...

Simonides of Ceos

(Encyclopedia)Simonides of Ceos sīmŏnˈĭdēz, sēˈŏs [key], c.556–468? b.c., Greek lyric poet, b. Ceos. At Athens for a time under the patronage of Hipparchus, he seems then to have gone to Thessaly, returni...

Failaka

(Encyclopedia)Failaka or Feilaka fīläˈkä [key], island, 15 sq mi (39 sq km), Kuwait, in Persian Gulf 17 mi (27 km) E of Kuwait City. Inhabited since the Bronze Age, it was the site of an outpost established by ...

Niebuhr, Karsten

(Encyclopedia)Niebuhr, Karsten nēˈbo͝or [key], 1733–1815, German traveler in Arabia. He was sole survivor of a party of five (of whom the best known was Peter Forskal, a Swedish naturalist) sent by Frederick ...