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Huc, Évariste Régis

(Encyclopedia)Huc, Évariste Régis āvärēstˈ rāzhēsˈ ük [key], 1813–60, French Roman Catholic missionary and explorer, a Lazarist priest. In 1844 while in China on a mission, he and two companions began a...

maenads

(Encyclopedia)maenads mēˈnădz [key], in Greek and Roman religion and mythology, female devotees of Dionysus. They roamed mountains and forests, adorned with ivy and skins of animals, waving the thyrsus. When the...

Lucerne, Lake of

(Encyclopedia)Lucerne, Lake of, Ger. Vierwaldstätter See, irregular-shaped lake, 44 sq mi (114 sq km), central Switzerland. It has a maximum depth of c.700 ft (210 m). The lake is fed and drained by the Reuss Rive...

celestial horizon

(Encyclopedia)celestial horizon, one axis of the altazimuth coordinate system. It is the great circle on the celestial sphere midway between the observer's zenith and nadir; it divides the celestial sphere into two...

Windermere

(Encyclopedia)Windermere wĭnˈdərmēr [key], lake, 10.5 mi (17 km) long and 1 mi (1.6 km) wide, in the Lake District, Cumbria, NW England. It is c.210 ft (60 m) deep and lies among wooded hills near Scafell and o...

Song Shan

(Encyclopedia)Song Shan sŭngˈ shänˈ [key], mountain, N central Henan prov., China; one of the five sacred mountains of China. It is famous for the Shaolin Temple, where generations of Buddhist monks have practi...

Bir Tawil

(Encyclopedia)Bir Tawil, unclaimed territory, c.795 sq mi (2,060 km), along the E Egypt-Sudan border W of the Halayeb Triangle. Its unclaimed status arose from the peculiarities the disputed border: Bir Tawil lies ...

York, Alvin Cullum

(Encyclopedia)York, Alvin Cullum, 1887–1964, American soldier known as Sergeant York, b. Fentress co., Tenn. He was reared on a back-country farm in Tennessee. A conscientious objector at the beginning of World W...

Roseau

(Encyclopedia)Roseau rōzōˈ [key], town (1991 pop. 15,853) capital and chief port of Dominica, in the Windward Islands in the West Indies. Located on the SW coast of the island. Roseau is on the small Roseau Rive...

Skellefteälven

(Encyclopedia)Skellefteälven shĕlĕfˈtəĕlvˌĕn [key], river, c.255 mi (410 km) long, rising in Norrbotten co., N Sweden, in the mountains along the Norwegian border. It flows SE through Uddjaur lake (30 mi/48...