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Pasargadae

(Encyclopedia)Pasargadae pəsärˈgədē [key], capital of ancient Persia under Cyrus the Great. Its ruins lie 54 mi (87 km) by road NE of Persepolis, in present Iran. The buildings of Cyrus include a temple in the...

wireworm

(Encyclopedia)wireworm, elongate, cylindrical larva of the click beetle. Most wireworms are hard and brown, but members of some species are soft and whitish. Wireworms live in rotten wood or in the ground and feed ...

Lewis and Harris

(Encyclopedia)Lewis and Harris, island (1985 est. pop. 23,500), 825 sq mi (2,137 sq km), largest and northernmost of the Outer Hebrides, Western Isles council area, NW Scotland, 24 mi (35 km) from the mainland acro...

schooner

(Encyclopedia)schooner sko͞oˈnər [key], sailing vessel, rigged fore-and-aft, with from two to seven masts. Schooners can lie closer to the wind than square-rigged sailing ships, need a smaller crew, and are very...

Sheehan, Neil

(Encyclopedia) Sheehan, Neil (Cornelius Mahoney Sheehan), 1936-2021, American journalist, b. Holyoke, Ma. Sheehan was hired by United Press International (UPI) in 19...

opposition

(Encyclopedia)opposition, in astronomy, alignment of two celestial bodies on opposite sides of the sky as viewed from earth. Opposition of the moon or planets is often determined in reference to the sun. Only the s...

gegenschein

(Encyclopedia)gegenschein gāˈgənshīnˌ [key] or counterglow, a slight brightening of the night sky in the region of the zodiac directly opposite the sun, i.e., 180° from the sun. Discovered by the Danish astro...

Eric the Red

(Encyclopedia)Eric the Red, fl. 10th cent., Norse chieftain, discoverer and colonizer of Greenland according to the sagas. He left (c.950) Norway with his exiled father and settled in Iceland. A feud resulting in m...

Connecticut, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Connecticut, longest river in New England, 407 mi (655 km) long, rising in the Connecticut Lakes, N N.H., near the Quebec border, and flowing S along the Vt.-N.H. line, then across Mass. and Conn. to ...

Sunda Islands

(Encyclopedia)Sunda Islands sŭnˈdə [key], mainly in Indonesia, between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, comprising the western part of the Malay Archipelago. It includes two main groups: the Greater Sun...