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Syrian Desert

(Encyclopedia)Syrian Desert, Arabic Badiyat Ash Sham, arid wasteland, SW Asia, between the cultivated lands along the E Mediterranean coast and the fertile Euphrates River valley. It extends N from the Nafud Desert...

Tarija

(Encyclopedia)Tarija tärēˈhä [key], city (1992 pop. 90,113), alt. 6,421 ft (1,957 m), capital of Tarija dept., S Bolivia. It was founded in 1574. Tarija lies in a fertile valley in the eastern watershed of the ...

Van Schaick, Goose

(Encyclopedia)Van Schaick, Goose gōˈsə văn skīk [key], 1736–89, American Revolutionary soldier, b. Albany, N.Y. He fought in the French and Indian War, becoming (1760) lieutenant colonel of a New York regime...

Wenatchee

(Encyclopedia)Wenatchee wĭnăchˈē [key], city (1990 pop. 21,756), seat of Chelan co., central Wash., on the Columbia River in the foothills of the Cascade Range; inc. 1892. It is a resort and a commercial center...

Smohalla

(Encyclopedia)Smohalla smōhălˈə [key], c.1815–1907, Native American prophet, chief of a small tribe (the Wanapun) of the Columbia River valley. He preached a religion based on a vision of returning to Native ...

Somme, river, France

(Encyclopedia)Somme, river, c.150 mi (240 km) long, rising near Saint-Quentin, N France, and flowing generally NW past Amiens into the English Channel; connected by canal with the Scheldt and Oise rivers. Once an o...

Terek

(Encyclopedia)Terek tyĕˈrĭk [key], river, c.370 mi (600 km) long, in Russia and Georgia, rising in the Caucasus, in Georgia, in glaciers W of Mt. Kazbek. It flows N through the Daryal gorge past Vladikavkaz, the...

Teresina

(Encyclopedia)Teresina tārāzēˈnä [key], city (1991 pop. 599,272), capital of Piauí state, NE Brazil, on the Parnaíba River. It is the main commercial and agricultural distribution center in the Parnaíba val...

Bernina

(Encyclopedia)Bernina bĕrnēˈnä [key], mountain group, part of the Rhaetian Alps on the Swiss-Italian border, SE Switzerland. Piz Bernina is the highest (13,304 ft/4,055 m) peak. The group has many glaciers; Mor...

Wei, river, China

(Encyclopedia)Wei wā [key], river, c.450 mi (720 km) long, rising in SE Gansu prov. and flowing E through Gansu and Shaanxi provs. to the Huang He. Its wide, alluvial valley was the site of some of the earliest ce...