Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

idealism

(Encyclopedia)idealism, the attitude that places special value on ideas and ideals as products of the mind, in comparison with the world as perceived through the senses. In art idealism is the tendency to represent...

Garrison Dam

(Encyclopedia)Garrison Dam, c.11,300 ft (3,400 m) long and 210 ft (64 m) high, on the Missouri River, near Riverdale, W central N.Dak.; one of the world's largest earth-filled dams used for irrigation power. Built ...

Seraing

(Encyclopedia)Seraing sərĕNˈ [key], city (1991 pop. 60,838), Liège prov., E Belgium, on the Meuse River, near Liège. It is a major center of heavy industry. Nearby is Val Saint Lambert, one of the world's lead...

Verkhoyansk Range

(Encyclopedia)Verkhoyansk Range, mountain chain, c.600 mi (970 km) long, E Siberian Russia, in the Sakha Republic. It forms a vast arc along the Lena and Aldan rivers and rises to c.8,150 ft (2,480 m) in the south....

shopping center

(Encyclopedia)shopping center, a concentration of retail, service, and entertainment enterprises designed to serve the surrounding region. The modern shopping center differs from its antecedents—bazaars and marke...

steel industry

(Encyclopedia)steel industry, the business of processing iron ore into steel, which in its simplest form is an iron-carbon alloy, and in some cases, turning that metal into partially finished products or recycling ...

Rawlinson, George

(Encyclopedia)Rawlinson, George, 1812–1902, English Orientalist and historian, educated at Oxford. He is known for his long, authoritative, and still useful histories of the ancient world. His most famous history...

Notodden

(Encyclopedia)Notodden nōˈtôˌdən [key], town (1995 pop. 12,169), Telemark co., SE Norway. The world's first nitrate factory was built there in 1905. Today, the town also has paper mills, iron foundries, and se...

Landshut

(Encyclopedia)Landshut läntsˈho͞ot [key], city (1994 pop. 59,640), Bavaria, SE Germany, on the Isar River. Once the capital of Lower Bavaria, it is now a transportation and industrial center. Manufactures includ...

Abraj Al-Bait

(Encyclopedia)Abraj Al-Bait, complex of seven government-owned, mixed-use buildings in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The most impressive structure, the Makkah Royal Clock Tower, is the tallest building in Saudi Arabia, at 1...