Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Otsu

(Encyclopedia)Otsu ōˈtso͞o [key], city (1990 pop. 260,018), capital of Shiga prefecture, S Honshu, Japan. It is a tourist center and a port for excursion boats on Lake Biwa. Electrical appliances, textiles, prec...

Four Freedoms

(Encyclopedia)Four Freedoms. In his message to Congress proposing lend-lease legislation (Jan. 6, 1941), President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stated that Four Freedoms should prevail everywhere in the world—freedo...

Apis

(Encyclopedia)Apis āˈpĭs [key], in Egyptian religion, sacred bull of Memphis, said to be the incarnation of Osiris or of Ptah. His worship spread throughout the Mediterranean world and was particularly important...

Amritsar

(Encyclopedia)Amritsar əmrĭtˈsər [key], city, Punjab state, NW India. It is a district administrative center, as well as a trade and industrial city where carpets, fabrics of goat h...

Uruk

(Encyclopedia)Uruk ēˈrĕk [key], ancient Sumerian city of Mesopotamia, on the Euphrates and NW of Ur (in present-day S Iraq). It is the modern Tall al Warka. Uruk, dating from the 5th millennium b.c., was the lar...

mask

(Encyclopedia)mask, cover or partial cover for the face or head used as a disguise or protection. Masks have been worn from time immemorial throughout the world. They are used by primitive peoples chiefly to impers...

Kumgang, Mount

(Encyclopedia)Kumgang, Mount ko͞omˈgängˈ [key], mountain, SE North Korea, rising to 5,374 ft (1,638 m). There are scenic ravines and caverns and many ancient Buddhist temples, as well as a modern resort at the ...

Roman religion

(Encyclopedia)Roman religion, the religious beliefs and practices of the people of ancient Rome. The spirits were held in awe and were placated with offerings and prayers. In the earliest period of Roman state r...

Phigalia

(Encyclopedia)Phigalia fĭgāˈlēə [key], ancient city of Greece, in SW Arcadia (now Arkadhía). It gives its name to the Phigalian Marbles, a frieze c.100 ft (30 m) long and 2 ft (61 cm) high, in high relief, re...

Kumbakonam

(Encyclopedia)Kumbakonam ko͝ombəkōˈnəm [key], city (1991 pop. 150,869), Tamil Nadu state, SE India, on the Kaveri River. Its district, in the richest part of the river delta, has one of the highest population ...