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Drachenfels

(Encyclopedia)Drachenfels dräˈkhənfĕls [key] [Ger.,=dragon's rock], mountain, 1,053 ft (321 m) high, in the Siebengebirge, W Germany, on the Rhine. It is of volcanic origin. In legend, it is the scene of Siegfr...

Kennedy, Nigel

(Encyclopedia)Kennedy, Nigel, 1956–, British violinist. He studied with Dorothy DeLay at Juilliard and debuted as a soloist with the London Philharmonic in 1977. Adept at the classical repertoire, he developed an...

Llano Estacado

(Encyclopedia)Llano Estacado läˈnō ĕstəkäˈdō [key] or Staked Plain, level, semiarid, plateaulike region of the S Great Plains, c.40,000 sq mi (103,600 sq km), E N.Mex. and W Tex., between the Pecos River an...

tanzanite

(Encyclopedia)tanzanite tănzănˈīt [key], beautiful gemstone discovered in 1967 in the Umba Valley near the Usambara Mts. in Tanzania, a precious variety of the mineral zoisite, a calcium aluminum silicate. Zois...

Pontics

(Encyclopedia)Pontics, mountain system, N Turkey, extending c.700 mi (1,100 km) along the southern coast of the Black Sea. The Pontics generally increase in height from west to east, culminating in Kaçkar Daği (1...

reservoir

(Encyclopedia)reservoir rĕzˈəvôr, –vwär [key], storage tank or wholly or partly artificial lake for storing water. Building an embankment or dam to preserve a supply of water for irrigation is an ancient pra...

Gibraltar

(Encyclopedia)Gibraltar jĭbrôlˈtər [key], British overseas territory (2015 est. pop. 34,000), 2.5 sq mi (6.5 sq km), on a narrow, rocky peninsula extending into the Mediterranean Sea from SW Spain. Most of the ...

quartz

(Encyclopedia)quartz, one of the commonest of all rock-forming minerals and one of the most important constituents of the earth's crust. Chemically, it is silicon dioxide, SiO2. It occurs in crystals of the hexagon...

Cunningham, Merce

(Encyclopedia)Cunningham, Merce (Mercier Philip Cunningham), 1919–2009, American modern dancer and choreographer, b. Centralia, Wash. Cunningham studied modern dance with Martha Graham and ballet at Balanchine's ...

Masters, Edgar Lee

(Encyclopedia)Masters, Edgar Lee, 1869–1950, American poet and biographer, b. Garnett, Kans. He maintained a successful law practice in Chicago from 1892 to 1920. Masters's Spoon River Anthology (1915), a collect...