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Qantarah esh Sharqiya

(Encyclopedia)Qantarah esh Sharqiya känˈtärä ĕsh shärkēˈyä [key], town, NE Egypt, on the east bank of the Suez Canal. It is on the ancient military road between Egypt and Syria. Qantarah esh Sharqiya is th...

Adrano

(Encyclopedia)Adrano ädräˈnō [key], town, E Sicily, Italy, at the foot of Mt. Etna, near the confluence of the Simeto and Salso rivers. It is the commercial center for a region wher...

saffron

(Encyclopedia)saffron, name for a fall-flowering plant (Crocus sativus) of the family Iridaceae (iris family) and also for a dye obtained therefrom. The plant is native to Asia Minor, where for centuries it has bee...

Pacaya

(Encyclopedia)Pacaya, volcanic massif, 8,373 ft (2,552 m) high, S central Guatemala, 19 mi (30 km) S of Guatemala City, on the southern edge of the ancient caldera that contains Lake Amatitlán. One of the world's ...

Taiyuan

(Encyclopedia)Taiyuan tī-yüän [key], city (1994 est. pop. 1,642,300), capital of Shanxi prov., N China, on the Fen River, in one of the world's richest coal and iron areas. It is a mining and smelting center wit...

Nara

(Encyclopedia)Nara näˈrä [key], city (1990 pop. 349,349), capital of Nara prefecture, S Honshu, Japan. An ancient cultural and religious center, it was founded in 706 by imperial decree and was modeled after Cha...

suttee

(Encyclopedia)suttee sŭˌtēˈ, sŭˈtēˌ [key] [Skt. sati=faithful wife], former Indian funeral practice in which the widow immolated herself on her husband's funeral pyre. The practice of killing a favorite wif...

harem

(Encyclopedia)harem hârˈəm [key] [Arabic], term applied to women's apartments in a Muslim household. In the ancient Arab world women enjoyed a certain amount of freedom. However, with the advent of Islam, the ve...

trench warfare

(Encyclopedia)trench warfare. Although trenches were used in ancient and medieval warfare, in the American Civil War, and in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5), they did not become important until World War I. The i...

Podgorica

(Encyclopedia)Podgorica pōdˈgōrētsä [key], city (2011 pop. 185,937), capital and largest city of Montenegro, SE Montenegro, at the confluence of the Ribnica and Morača rivers. A commercial center, it has indu...