1.
Communes of Vietnam
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In Vietnam, there are three kinds of third-level administrative subdivisions, the rural commune, the commune-level town ，and the ward. In Vietnam a rural commune is referred to as a xã and urban communes are referred to as Thị trấn, however many communities, particularly large urban ones with provincial status, will be divided into wards which are known as phường. As of December 31,2008, there were a total of 9,111 communes in Vietnam excluding townships, each commune may consist of a number of towns and villages, but often wards and commune-level towns are divided into residential neighborhoods or wards which differ from rural communes. As of December 31,2009, there were a total of 11,112 commune-level subdivisions in Vietnam including townships, thanh Hóa Province has the highest number of communes in any province of Vietnam with a total of 637 commune-level subdivisions. During the second republic of the Republic of Vietnam, a school district chief would be appointed for each commune. They collaborate with other leaders including the chiefs, treasurers of the communes, administrative officials, and civil service officials. The council has a number of responsibilities, including monitoring health, rural commune Commune-level town Ward District Province
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Vietnam
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Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 92.7 million inhabitants as of 2016, it is the worlds 14th-most-populous country, and its capital city has been Hanoi since the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1976, with Ho Chi Minh City as a historical city as well. The northern part of Vietnam was part of Imperial China for over a millennium, an independent Vietnamese state was formed in 939, following a Vietnamese victory in the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Following a Japanese occupation in the 1940s, the Vietnamese fought French rule in the First Indochina War, thereafter, Vietnam was divided politically into two rival states, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified in what is known as the Vietnam War, the war ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975. Vietnam was then unified under a communist government but remained impoverished, in 1986, the government initiated a series of economic and political reforms which began Vietnams path towards integration into the world economy. By 2000, it had established relations with all nations. Since 2000, Vietnams economic growth rate has been among the highest in the world and its successful economic reforms resulted in its joining the World Trade Organization in 2007. It is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Vietnam remains one of the worlds four remaining one-party socialist states officially espousing communism. The name Việt Nam is a variation of Nam Việt, a name that can be traced back to the Triệu Dynasty of the 2nd century BC. The word Việt originated as a form of Bách Việt. The form Vietnam is first recorded in the 16th-century oracular poem Sấm Trạng Trình, the name has also been found on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bao Lam Pagoda in Haiphong that dates to 1558. Then, as recorded, rewarded Yuenan/Vietnam as their nations name, to also show that they are below the region of Baiyue/Bach Viet. Between 1804 and 1813, the name was used officially by Emperor Gia Long and it was revived in the early 20th century by Phan Bội Châus History of the Loss of Vietnam, and later by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party. The country was usually called Annam until 1945, when both the government in Huế and the Viet Minh government in Hanoi adopted Việt Nam. Archaeological excavations have revealed the existence of humans in what is now Vietnam as early as the Paleolithic age, Homo erectus fossils dating to around 500,000 BC have been found in caves in Lạng Sơn and Nghệ An provinces in northern Vietnam. The oldest Homo sapiens fossils from mainland Southeast Asia are of Middle Pleistocene provenance, teeth attributed to Homo sapiens from the Late Pleistocene have also been found at Dong Can, and from the Early Holocene at Mai Da Dieu, Lang Gao and Lang Cuom. The Hồng Bàng dynasty of the Hùng kings is considered the first Vietnamese state, in 257 BC, the last Hùng king was defeated by Thục Phán, who consolidated the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes to form the Âu Lạc, proclaiming himself An Dương Vương
4.
Provinces of Vietnam
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Vietnam is divided into 58 provinces and 5 municipalities existing at the same level as provinces. The provinces are divided into districts, provincial cities, and district-level towns, the municipalities are divided into rural districts and urban districts, which are subdivided into wards. Vietnamese provinces are controlled by a Peoples Council, elected by the inhabitants, the number of councilors varies from province to province, depending on the population of that province. The Peoples Council appoints a Peoples Committee, which acts as the arm of the provincial government. This arrangement is a simplified version of the situation in Vietnams national government. Provincial governments are expected to be subordinate to the central government, the Peoples Committee is, as mentioned previously, the executive arm of a provincial government, and is responsible for formulating and implementing policy. It may be thought of as the equivalent of a cabinet, the Peoples Committee will have a Chairman and a Vice-Chairman, and between nine and eleven ordinary members. According to the results of April 1,2009, the population of Vietnam is 85,789,573 people. The most populous administrative unit in Vietnam is Hồ Chí Minh City. It has 7,123,340 people living within its official boundaries, the second most populous administrative unit is the recently expanded Hà Nội with 6,448,837 people. Prior to the expansion of the city, this rank belonged to Thanh Hóa with 3,400,239 people. The least populous is Bắc Kạn, a province in the remote northeast with 294,660 people. In land area, the largest province is Nghệ An, which runs from the city of Vinh up the wide Sông Cả valley, the smallest is Bắc Ninh, located in the populous Red River Delta region. The following is a table of Vietnams provinces broken down by population and area, see also List of postal codes in Vietnam The Vietnamese government often groups the various provinces into eight regions. These regions are not always used, and alternative classifications are possible, Minh Hải Vĩnh Phú (divided into Vĩnh Phúc and Phú Thọ Hà Tây - annexed into Hà Nội since August 1,2008. ISO 3166-2, VN CityMayors. com article Comprehensive Map of Vietnam’s Provinces c.1890
5.
An Giang Province
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An Giang is a province of Vietnam. It is located in the Mekong Delta, in the part of the country. An Giang occupies a position in the reaches of the Mekong Delta. The Hậu Giang and Tiền Giang branches of the Mekong River are the dominant geographical features of the province, with the exception of the west, most of An Giang is fairly flat, and is criss-crossed by many canals and small rivers. This terrain has led to An Giang being a significant agricultural center, the Cam Mountains, also known as the Thất Sơn range or the Seven Mountains, are located in the western Tịnh Biên District. Followers of the Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương tradition, founded in An Giang in 1849, refer to mountains as Bửu Sơn. The cities of Long Xuyên and Châu Đốc, both of which are located on the Hậu Giang branch of the Mekong, exist as independent municipalities. It is believed that An Giang was once an important center of the vanished Óc Eo culture, traditionally, An Giang has been known for its silk industry. An Giang is home to a number of people from Vietnams ethnic minorities. Due to the proximity to Cambodia, the Khmer Krom are the largest non-Vietnamese group. Other groups, such as the Chams and ethnic Chinese, are found in An Giang. The provinces name is derived from the Sino-Vietnamese word, 安江, tôn Đức Thắng, prominent Communist and former President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, later became the first President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ, vice-president of the Republic of Vietnam before April 30,1975, Nguyễn Văn Hưởng, former minister of Vietnamese health. Chau Sen Cocsal Chhum, Khmer Krom and Prime Minister of Cambodia in 1962 Nguyễn Quang Sáng, võ Tòng Xuân, academic, agronomist and former rector of An Giang University. Lê Minh Tùng, Vice-Chairman of An Giang province and current rector of An Giang University, huỳnh Phú Sổ, founder of the Hòa Hảo sect of Buddhism. Trần Văn Thành, leader of the revolt against the French, thư Ngọc Hầu, general of Nguyễn Dynasty. Trần Bá Lộc, collaborator with France, Đoàn Minh Huyên, founder of the Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương tradition Basa fish Tức Dụp Official website An Giang province, To open job transaction floor 2015
6.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
7.
Khmer language
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Khmer /kmɛər/ or Cambodian is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. With approximately 16 million speakers, it is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language, Khmer has been influenced considerably by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious registers, through Hinduism and Buddhism. The vast majority of Khmer speakers speak Central Khmer, the dialect of the plain where the Khmer are most heavily concentrated. Within Cambodia, regional accents exist in remote areas but these are regarded as varieties of Central Khmer, outside of Cambodia, three distinct dialects are spoken by ethnic Khmers native to areas that were historically part of the Khmer Empire. The Northern Khmer dialect is spoken by over a million Khmers in the regions of Northeast Thailand and is treated by some linguists as a separate language. Khmer is primarily an analytic, isolating language, there are no inflections, conjugations or case endings. Instead, particles and auxiliary words are used to indicate grammatical relationships, general word order is subject–verb–object, and modifiers follow the word they modify. Classifiers appear after numbers when used to count nouns, though not always so consistently as in languages like Chinese, in spoken Khmer, topic-comment structure is common and the perceived social relation between participants determines which sets of vocabulary, such as pronouns and honorifics, are proper. Khmer differs from neighboring languages such as Thai, Burmese, Lao, words are stressed on the final syllable, hence many words conform to the typical Mon–Khmer pattern of a stressed syllable preceded by a minor syllable. The language has been written in the Khmer script, an abugida descended from the Brahmi script via the southern Indian Pallava script, approximately 79% of Cambodians are able to read Khmer. Khmer is a member of the Austroasiatic language family, the family in an area that stretches from the Malay Peninsula through Southeast Asia to East India. Austroasiatic, which also includes Mon, Vietnamese and Munda, has been studied since 1856 and was first proposed as a family in 1907. Despite the amount of research, there is doubt about the internal relationship of the languages of Austroasiatic. Diffloth places Khmer in a branch of the Mon-Khmer languages. In these classification schemes Khmers closest genetic relatives are the Bahnaric and Pearic languages, more recent classifications doubt the validity of the Mon-Khmer sub-grouping and place the Khmer language as its own branch of Austroasiatic equidistant from the other 12 branches of the family. Khmer is spoken by some 13 million people in Cambodia, where it is the official language and it is also a second language for most of the minority groups and indigenous hill tribes there. Additionally there are a million speakers of Khmer native to southern Vietnam and 1.4 million in northeast Thailand, Khmer dialects, although mutually intelligible, are sometimes quite marked. The dialects form a continuum running roughly north to south, the following is a classification scheme showing the development of the modern Khmer dialects
8.
Funan
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Like the very name of the kingdom, the ethno-linguistic nature of the people is the subject of much discussion among specialists. The leading hypotheses are that the Funanese were mostly Mon–Khmer, or that they were mostly Austronesian, the available evidence is inconclusive on this issue. Michael Vickery has said that, even though identification of the language of Funan is not possible, the results of archaeology at Oc Eo have demonstrated no true discontinuity between Oc Eo and pre-Angkorian levels, indicating Khmer linguistic dominance in the area under Funan control. Excavations at Angkor Borei in southern Cambodia have likewise delivered evidence of an important settlement, since Óc Eo was linked to a port on the coast and to Angkor Borei by a system of canals, it is possible that all of these locations together constituted the heartland of Funan. Some scholars have advanced speculative proposals regarding the origin and meaning of the word Funan and it is often said that the name Funan represents a transcription from some local language into Chinese. For example, French scholar Georges Coedès advanced the theory that in using the word Funan ancient Chinese scholars were transcribing a word related to the Khmer word bnaṃ or vnaṃ. Thus, Funan may be an originally Chinese word meaning something like Pacified South, scholars critical of Pelliots Chinese sources have expressed scepticism regarding his conclusions. Archeological evidence shows that human settlement in the region may go back as far as the 4th century BCE. The ethnic and linguistic origins of the Funanese people have been subject to scholarly debate, the Funanese may have been Cham or from another Austronesian group, or they may have been Khmer or from another Austroasiatic group. It is possible that they are the ancestors of those indigenous people dwelling in the part of Vietnam today who refer themselves as Khmer or Khmer Krom. It is also possible that Funan was a society, including various ethnic and linguistic groups. In the late 4th and 5th centuries, Indianization advanced more rapidly, in part through renewed impulses from the south Indian Pallava dynasty and these inscriptions give no information about the ethnicity or vernacular tongue of the Funanese. Funan may have been the Suvarnabhumi referred to in ancient Indian texts, in the morning, he proceeded to the temple, where he found a bow at the foot of the genies tree. He then boarded a ship, which the genie caused to land in Fúnán, the queen of the country, Liǔyè wanted to pillage the ship and seize it, so Hùntián shot an arrow from his divine bow which pierced through Liǔyès ship. Frightened, she gave herself up, and Hùntián took her for his wife, but unhappy to see her naked, he folded a piece of material to make a garment through which he made her pass her head. Then he governed the country and passed power on to his son, however, the name Kaundinya appears in a number of independent sources and seems to point to a figure of some importance in the history of Funan. A person of that name is mentioned in the Book of Liang in a story that appears somewhat after the story of Hùntián, there a voice told him, ʻyou must go reign over Fúnán, ʼ and he rejoiced in his heart. In the south, he arrived at Pánpán 盤盤, the people of Fúnán appeared to him, the whole kingdom rose up with joy, went before him, and chose him king
9.
Mekong Delta
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The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southwestern Vietnam of 39,000 square kilometres. The size of the covered by water depends on the season. The Mekong Delta has been dubbed as a treasure trove. The Mekong Delta was likely inhabited long since prehistory, the empires of Funan, angkor Borei is a site in the Mekong Delta that existed between 400 BC-500 AD. This site had extensive trade networks throughout Southeast Asia and with India. The region was known as Khmer Krom to the Khmer Empire, author Nghia M. Vo suggests that a Cham presence may indeed have existed in the area prior to Khmer occupation. Beginning in the 1620s, Khmer king Chey Chettha II allowed the Vietnamese to settle in the area, and to set up a house at Prey Nokor. The increasing waves of Vietnamese settlers which followed overwhelmed the Khmer kingdom—weakened as it was due to war with Thailand—and slowly Vietnamized the area. During the late 17th century, Mạc Cửu, a Chinese anti-Qing general, began to expand Vietnamese and Chinese settlements deeper into Khmer lands, and in 1691, Prey Nokor was occupied by the Vietnamese. Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, a Vietnamese noble, was sent by the Nguyễn lords of Huế by sea in 1698 to establish Vietnamese administrative structures in the area and this act formally detached the Mekong Delta from Cambodia, placing the region firmly under Vietnamese administrative control. Cambodia was cut off access to the South China Sea. During the Tây Sơn wars and the subsequent Nguyễn Dynasty, Vietnams boundaries were pushed as far as the Cape Cà Mau, in 1802 Nguyễn Ánh crowned himself emperor Gia Long and unified all the territories comprising modern Vietnam, including the Mekong Delta. Upon the conclusion of the Cochinchina Campaign in the 1860s, the area became Cochinchina, Frances first colony in Vietnam, and later, part of French Indochina. During the Vietnam War—also referred to as the Second Indochina War—the Delta region saw savage fighting between Viet Cong guerrillas and units of the United States Navys swift boats and hovercrafts. Following independence from France, the Mekong Delta was part of the Republic of Vietnam, in the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge regime attacked Vietnam in an attempt to reconquer the Delta region. This campaign precipitated the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and subsequent downfall of the Khmer Rouge, the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam displays a variety of physical landscapes, but is dominated by flat flood plains in the south, with a few hills in the north and west. This diversity of terrain was largely the product of tectonic uplift, the present Mekong Delta system has two major distributary channels, both discharging directly into the East Sea. The Holocene history of the Mekong Delta shows delta progradation of about 200 km during the last 6 kyr, during the Middle Holocene the Mekong River was discharging waters into both the East Sea and the Gulf of Thailand
10.
Angkor Borei
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Angkor Borei District is a district located in Takéo Province, in southern Cambodia. According to the 1998 census of Cambodia, it had a population of 44,980 and this ancient city was an important settlement of the Kingdom of Funan and may have been its capital. The site was first excavated during the year 1996 and was excavated in 1999 as part of the Lower Mekong Archaeological Project. During the 1996 excavation the University of Hawaii and Royal University of Fine Arts initiated the excavation and this first excavation, however, was just a preliminary research. It is the birthplace of Norodom, King of Cambodia from 1860 to 1904
11.
Ho Chi Minh City
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Ho Chi Minh City, formerly named and still often known as Saigon, is the largest city in Vietnam by population. It was once known as Prey Nokor prior to annexation by the Vietnamese in the 17th century, under the name Saigon, it was the capital of the French colony of Cochinchina and later of the independent republic of South Vietnam 1955–75. On 2 July 1976, Saigon merged with the surrounding Gia Định Province and was officially renamed Ho Chi Minh City after revolutionary leader Hồ Chí Minh, the citys population is expected to grow to 13.9 million by 2025. Ho Chi Minh City has gone by different names during its history, reflecting settlement by different ethnic. In the 1690s, Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, a Vietnamese noble, was sent by the Nguyễn rulers of Huế to establish Vietnamese administrative structures in the Mekong Delta and its surroundings. Control of the city and the passed to the Vietnamese. Immediately after the communist takeover of South Vietnam in 1975, a provisional government renamed the city after Hồ Chí Minh, even today, however, the informal name of Sài Gòn/Saigon remains in daily speech both domestically and internationally, especially among the Vietnamese diaspora. In particular, Sài Gòn is still used to refer to District 1. This name may refer to the many plants that the Khmer people had planted around Prey Nokor. It may also refer to the dense and tall forest that existed around the city. Other proposed etymologies draw parallels from Tai-Ngon, the Cantonese name of Cholon, which means embankment, and Vietnamese Sai Côn, a translation of the Khmer Prey Nokor. Prey means forest or jungle, and nokor is a Khmer word of Sanskrit origin meaning city or kingdom, the current official name, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, adopted in 1976 and abbreviated Tp. HCM, is translated as Ho Chi Minh City, abbreviated HCMC, the name commemorates Hồ Chí Minh, the first leader of North Vietnam. This name, though not his name, was one he favored throughout his later years. It combines a common Vietnamese surname with a name meaning enlightened will, in essence. Ho Chi Minh City began as a fishing village likely known as Prey Nokor, Forest City, or perhaps Preah Reach Nokor which. The area that the city now occupies was originally swampland, and was inhabited by Khmer people for centuries before the arrival of the Vietnamese. In 1623, King Chey Chettha II of Cambodia allowed Vietnamese refugees fleeing the Trịnh–Nguyễn civil war in Vietnam to settle in the area of Prey Nokor and to set up a custom house there
12.
Sanskrit
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Sanskrit is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, a philosophical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and a literary language and lingua franca of ancient and medieval South Asia. As a result of transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia and parts of Central Asia, as one of the oldest Indo-European languages for which substantial written documentation exists, Sanskrit holds a prominent position in Indo-European studies. The body of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical, the compositions of Sanskrit were orally transmitted for much of its early history by methods of memorization of exceptional complexity, rigor, and fidelity. Thereafter, variants and derivatives of the Brahmi script came to be used, Sanskrit is today one of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which mandates the Indian government to develop the language. It continues to be used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals and Buddhist practice in the form of hymns. The Sanskrit verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- may be translated as refined, elaborated, as a term for refined or elaborated speech, the adjective appears only in Epic and Classical Sanskrit in the Manusmṛti and the Mahabharata. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit, with the language of the Rigveda being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved, Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini, around the fourth century BCE. Sanskrit, as defined by Pāṇini, evolved out of the earlier Vedic form, the present form of Vedic Sanskrit can be traced back to as early as the second millennium BCE. Scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or Pāṇinian Sanskrit as separate dialects, although they are quite similar, they differ in a number of essential points of phonology, vocabulary, grammar and syntax. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a collection of hymns, incantations and theological and religio-philosophical discussions in the Brahmanas. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest, for nearly 2000 years, Sanskrit was the language of a cultural order that exerted influence across South Asia, Inner Asia, Southeast Asia, and to a certain extent East Asia. A significant form of post-Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of Indian epic poetry—the Ramayana, the deviations from Pāṇini in the epics are generally considered to be on account of interference from Prakrits, or innovations, and not because they are pre-Paninian. Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations ārṣa, meaning of the ṛṣis, in some contexts, there are also more prakritisms than in Classical Sanskrit proper. There were four principal dialects of classical Sanskrit, paścimottarī, madhyadeśī, pūrvi, the predecessors of the first three dialects are attested in Vedic Brāhmaṇas, of which the first one was regarded as the purest. In the 2001 Census of India,14,035 Indians reported Sanskrit to be their first language, in India, Sanskrit is among the 14 original languages of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. The state of Uttarakhand in India has ruled Sanskrit as its official language. In October 2012 social activist Hemant Goswami filed a petition in the Punjab. More than 3,000 Sanskrit works have been composed since Indias independence in 1947, much of this work has been judged of high quality, in comparison to both classical Sanskrit literature and modern literature in other Indian languages
13.
Magnus Sinus
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It was then briefly conflated with the Pacific Ocean before disappearing from maps. The gulf and its port of Cattigara had supposedly been reached by a 1st-century Greek trader named Alexander. His account that Cattigara was some days sail from Zaba was taken by Marinus of Tyre to mean numberless days, both Alexander and Marinuss works have been lost, but were claimed as authorities by Ptolemy in his Geography. Ptolemy followed Hipparchus in making the Indian Ocean a landlocked sea, the expanse formed between it and the Malay Peninsula, he called the Great Gulf. Ptolemys Geography was translated into Arabic by a team of scholars including al-Khwārizmī in the 9th century during the reign of al-Maʿmūn, african traders similarly showed that the coastline did not turn sharply east south of Cape Prasum below Zanzibar as Ptolemy held. Al-Khwārizmīs influential Book of the Description of the Earth, therefore, the robustly-described lands east of the Great Gulf, however, were retained as a phantom peninsula. Just after 1295, Maximus Planudes restored Ptolemys Greek text and maps at Chora Monastery in Constantinople and this was translated into Latin at Florence by Jacobus Angelus around 1406 and quickly spread the works information and misinformation throughout Western Europe. The maps initially repeated Ptolemys enclosed Indian Sea, the idea was repeated by Ortelius and others. The Great Gulf was finally dispensed with in all its forms as more accurate accounts returned from both the East and West Indies, medieval Islamic cartographers followed al-Khwārizmī in having a strait southeast of the gulf communicating with the Sea of Darkness. Its Cottiaris River would then be a course of the Mekong which once passed the site to enter the Gulf of Thailand. Its Cottiaris River would have been Vietnams Red River, Ἀγαθήμερος, τῆς γεωγραφίας ὑποτυπώσεις ἐν ἐπιτομῇ. DAnville, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon, Orbis Veteribus Notus, Paris Bunbury, Edward Herbert, Beazley, raymond, Ptolemy, Geography, in Chisholm, Hugh, Encyclopædia Britannica,22, Cambridge University Press, pp. 623–626. South America on Maps before Columbus, I, London, Hakluyt Society, pp. cxlvi–cliii
14.
Ptolemy
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Claudius Ptolemy was a Greek writer, known as a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in the city of Alexandria in the Roman province of Egypt, wrote in Koine Greek, beyond that, few reliable details of his life are known. His birthplace has been given as Ptolemais Hermiou in the Thebaid in a statement by the 14th-century astronomer Theodore Meliteniotes. This is a very late attestation, however, and there is no reason to suppose that he ever lived elsewhere than Alexandria. Ptolemy wrote several treatises, three of which were of importance to later Byzantine, Islamic and European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest, although it was entitled the Mathematical Treatise. The second is the Geography, which is a discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. The third is the treatise in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day. This is sometimes known as the Apotelesmatika but more known as the Tetrabiblos from the Greek meaning Four Books or by the Latin Quadripartitum. The name Claudius is a Roman nomen, the fact that Ptolemy bore it indicates he lived under the Roman rule of Egypt with the privileges and political rights of Roman citizenship. It would have suited custom if the first of Ptolemys family to become a citizen took the nomen from a Roman called Claudius who was responsible for granting citizenship, if, as was common, this was the emperor, citizenship would have been granted between AD41 and 68. The astronomer would also have had a praenomen, which remains unknown and it occurs once in Greek mythology, and is of Homeric form. All the kings after him, until Egypt became a Roman province in 30 BC, were also Ptolemies, abu Mashar recorded a belief that a different member of this royal line composed the book on astrology and attributed it to Ptolemy. The correct answer is not known”, Ptolemy wrote in Greek and can be shown to have utilized Babylonian astronomical data. He was a Roman citizen, but most scholars conclude that Ptolemy was ethnically Greek and he was often known in later Arabic sources as the Upper Egyptian, suggesting he may have had origins in southern Egypt. Later Arabic astronomers, geographers and physicists referred to him by his name in Arabic, Ptolemys Almagest is the only surviving comprehensive ancient treatise on astronomy. Ptolemy presented his models in convenient tables, which could be used to compute the future or past position of the planets. The Almagest also contains a catalogue, which is a version of a catalogue created by Hipparchus
15.
Geography (Ptolemy)
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Its translation into Arabic in the 9th century and Latin in 1406 was highly influential on the geographical knowledge and cartographic traditions of the medieval Caliphate and Renaissance Europe. Versions of Ptolemys work in antiquity were probably proper atlases with attached maps, no Greek manuscript of the Geography survives from earlier than the 13th century. In Europe, maps were sometimes made using the coordinates provided by the text. Later scribes and publishers could then copy these new maps, as Athanasius did for the emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus, the three earliest surviving texts with maps are those from Constantinople based on Planudess work. The first Latin translation of texts was made in 1406 or 1407 by Jacobus Angelus in Florence, Italy. It is not thought that his edition had maps, although Manuel Chrysoloras had given Palla Strozzi a Greek copy of Planudess maps in Florence in 1397, the Geography consists of three sections, divided among 8 books. Book I is a treatise on cartography, describing the methods used to assemble, from Book II through the beginning of Book VII, a gazetteer provides longitude and latitude values for the world known to the ancient Romans. The rest of Book VII provides details on three projections to be used for the construction of a map of the world, varying in complexity and fidelity, Book VIII constitutes an atlas of regional maps. The maps include a recapitulation of some of the values given earlier in the work, Maps based on scientific principles had been made in Europe since the time of Eratosthenes in the 3rd century BC. Ptolemy improved the treatment of map projections and he provided instructions on how to create his maps in the first section of the work. The gazetteer section of Ptolemys work provided latitude and longitude coördinates for all the places and his Prime Meridian ran through the Fortunate Isles, the westernmost land recorded, at around the position of El Hierro in the Canary Islands. The maps spanned 180 degrees of longitude from the Fortunate Isles in the Atlantic to China, Ptolemy was aware that Europe knew only about a quarter of the globe. Ptolemys work included a large and less detailed world map and then separate. As early as the 1420s, these maps were complemented by extra-Ptolemaic regional maps depicting. The original treatise by Marinus of Tyre that formed the basis of Ptolemys Geography has been completely lost, a world map based on Ptolemy was displayed in Augustodunum in late Roman times. Pappus, writing at Alexandria in the 4th century, produced a commentary on Ptolemys Geography, for instance, Grant Parker argues that it would be highly implausible for them to have constructed the Bay of Bengal as precisely as they did without the accounts of sailors. Muslim cartographers were using copies of Ptolemys Almagest and Geography by the 9th century, a 1037 copy of these are the earliest extant maps from Islamic lands. Nallino suggests that the work was not based on Ptolemy but on a world map
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Hindu
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Hindu refers to any person who regards themselves as culturally, ethnically, or religiously adhering to aspects of Hinduism. It has historically used as a geographical, cultural, or religious identifier for people indigenous to South Asia. The historical meaning of the term Hindu has evolved with time, by the 16th century, the term began to refer to residents of India who were not Turks or Muslims. The historical development of Hindu self-identity within the Indian population, in a religious or cultural sense, is unclear, competing theories state that Hindu identity developed in the British colonial era, or that it developed post-8th century CE after the Islamic invasion and medieval Hindu-Muslim wars. A sense of Hindu identity and the term Hindu appears in texts dated between the 13th and 18th century in Sanskrit and regional languages. The 14th- and 18th-century Indian poets such as Vidyapati, Kabir and Eknath used the phrase Hindu dharma, the Christian friar Sebastiao Manrique used the term Hindu in religious context in 1649. In the 18th century, the European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus, in contrast to Mohamedans for Mughals, scholars state that the custom of distinguishing between Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs is a modern phenomenon. Hindoo is a spelling variant, whose use today may be considered derogatory. At more than 1.03 billion, Hindus are the third largest group after Christians. The vast majority of Hindus, approximately 966 million, live in India, according to Indias 2011 census. After India, the next 9 countries with the largest Hindu populations are, in decreasing order, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, United States, Malaysia, United Kingdom and Myanmar. These together accounted for 99% of the worlds Hindu population, the word Hindu is derived from the Indo-Aryan and Sanskrit word Sindhu, which means a large body of water, covering river, ocean. It was used as the name of the Indus river and also referred to its tributaries, the Punjab region, called Sapta Sindhava in the Vedas, is called Hapta Hindu in Zend Avesta. The 6th-century BCE inscription of Darius I mentions the province of Hidush, the people of India were referred to as Hinduvān and hindavī was used as the adjective for Indian in the 8th century text Chachnama. The term Hindu in these ancient records is an ethno-geographical term, the Arabic equivalent Al-Hind likewise referred to the country of India. Among the earliest known records of Hindu with connotations of religion may be in the 7th-century CE Chinese text Record of the Western Regions by the Buddhist scholar Xuanzang, Xuanzang uses the transliterated term In-tu whose connotation overflows in the religious according to Arvind Sharma. The Hindu community occurs as the amorphous Other of the Muslim community in the court chronicles, wilfred Cantwell Smith notes that Hindu retained its geographical reference initially, Indian, indigenous, local, virtually native. Slowly, the Indian groups themselves started using the term, differentiating themselves, the poet Vidyapatis poem Kirtilata contrasts the cultures of Hindus and Turks in a city and concludes The Hindus and the Turks live close together, Each makes fun of the others religion
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Museum of Vietnamese History
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The Museum of Vietnamese History is located at 2 Nguyen Binh Khiem Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Formerly known as the Musée Blanchard de la Brosse, built by Auguste Delaval in 1926 and it is a museum showcasing Vietnams history with exhibits from all periods. It should not be confused with the National Museum of Vietnamese History in Hanoi, the topics covered by the exhibits include the following, Prehistoric Period. Metal Age, including artifacts related to the Dong Son culture of northern Vietnam, asia for Visitors – Museum of Vietnamese History in Ho Chi Minh City
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Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
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Medal
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A medal may be awarded to a person or organization as a form of recognition for sporting, military, scientific, academic, or various other achievements. Military awards and decorations are more precise terms for types of state decoration. Medals may also be created for sale to commemorate particular individuals or events, an artist who creates medals or medallions is called a medallist or medalist. There are also devotional medals which may be worn for religious reasons, Medals have long been popular collectible items either as a variety of exonumia or of militaria. Medallions may also be called table medals because they are too large to be worn and can only be displayed on a wall, table top, desk, the word medallion has the same ultimate derivation, but this time through the Italian medaglione, meaning large medal. The main or front surface of a medal is termed the obverse, the reverse, or back surface of the medal, is not always used and may be left blank or may contain a secondary design. It is not uncommon to only an artistic rendering on the obverse, while all details. The rim is only occasionally employed to display an inscription such as a motto, privy mark, engraver symbol, assayer’s marking. Medals that are intended to be hung from a ribbon also include a suspension piece at the crest with which to loop a suspension ring through. It is through the ring that a ribbon is run or folded so the medal may hang pendent, Medals pinned to the breast use only a small cut of ribbon that is attached to a top bar where the brooch pin is affixed. Top bars may be hidden under the ribbon so they are not visible, be a device from which the ribbon attaches. Some top bars are elaborate and contain a whole design unto themselves, Medals that are made with inexpensive material might be gilded, silver-plated, chased, or finished in a variety of other ways to improve their appearance. Medals have also made of rock, gemstone, ivory, glass, porcelain, terra cotta, coal, wood, paper, enamel, lacquerware. Honorary awards, as a button, which it is custom to give the kings kinsmen. Roman emperors used both military awards of medals, and political gifts of medallions that were very large coins, usually in gold or silver. Both these and actual golden coins were often set as pieces of jewellery, the bracteate is a type of thin gold medal, usually plain on the reverse, found in Northern Europe from the so-called Dark Ages or Migration Period. They often have suspension loops and were intended to be worn on a chain as jewellery. They imitate, at a distance, Roman imperial coins and medallions, the surviving example is mounted for wearing as jewellery
20.
Antoninus Pius
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Antoninus Pius, also known as Antoninus, was Roman Emperor from 138 to 161. He was one of the Five Good Emperors in the Nerva–Antonine dynasty and he died of illness in 161 and was succeeded by his adopted sons Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as co-emperors. He was born as the child of Titus Aurelius Fulvus. The Aurelii Fulvii were therefore a new senatorial family from Gallia Narbonensis whose rise to prominence was supported by the Flavians. The link between Antoninus family and their home province explains the importance of the post of Proconsul of Gallia Narbonensis during the late Second Century. Antoninus was born near Lanuvium and his mother was Arria Fadilla, the Arrii Antoninii were an older senatorial family from Italy, very influential during Nervas reign. Arria Fadilla, Antoninus mother, married afterwards Publius Julius Lupus, a man of rank, suffect consul in 98. Some time between 110 and 115, Antoninus married Annia Galeria Faustina the Elder and they are believed to have enjoyed a happy marriage. Faustina was the daughter of consul Marcus Annius Verus and Rupilia Faustina, Faustina was a beautiful woman, and despite rumours about her character, it is clear that Antoninus cared for her deeply. Faustina bore Antoninus four children, two sons and two daughters and they were, Marcus Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus, his sepulchral inscription has been found at the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome. Marcus Galerius Aurelius Antoninus, his sepulchral inscription has been found at the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome and his name appears on a Greek Imperial coin. Aurelia Fadilla, she married Lucius Lamia Silvanus, consul 145 and she appeared to have no children with her husband and her sepulchral inscription has been found in Italy. Annia Galeria Faustina Minor or Faustina the Younger, a future Roman Empress, married her maternal cousin, when Faustina died in 141, Antoninus was greatly distressed. In honour of her memory, he asked the Senate to deify her as a goddess and he had various coins with her portrait struck in her honor. These coins were scripted ‘DIVA FAUSTINA’ and were elaborately decorated and he further created a charity which he founded and called it Puellae Faustinianae or Girls of Faustina, which assisted destitute girls of good family. Finally, Antoninus created a new alimenta, instead, he lived with Galena Lysistrata, one of Faustinas freed women. Concubinage was a form of female companionship sometimes chosen by powerful men in Ancient Rome, especially widowers like Vespasian and their union could not produce any legitimate offspring who could threaten any heirs, such as those of Antoninus. Also, as one could not have a wife and a concubine at the same time
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Marcus Aurelius
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Marcus Aurelius was Emperor of Rome from 161 to 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Verus death in 169, Marcus Aurelius was the last of the so-called Five Good Emperors. He was a practitioner of Stoicism, and his untitled writing, during his reign, the Roman Empire defeated a revitalized Parthian Empire in the East, Aurelius general Avidius Cassius sacked the capital Ctesiphon in 164. A revolt in the East led by Avidius Cassius failed to gain momentum and was suppressed immediately, the major sources for the life and rule of Marcus Aurelius are patchy and frequently unreliable. For Marcus life and rule, the biographies of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus and Lucius Verus are largely reliable, a body of correspondence between Marcus tutor Fronto and various Antonine officials survives in a series of patchy manuscripts, covering the period from c.138 to 166. Marcus own Meditations offer a window on his life, but are largely undateable. The main narrative source for the period is Cassius Dio, a Greek senator from Bithynian Nicaea who wrote a history of Rome from its founding to 229 in eighty books. Dio is vital for the history of the period, but his senatorial prejudices. Inscriptions and coin finds supplement the literary sources, Marcus family originated in Ucubi, a small town southeast of Córdoba in Iberian Baetica. Verus elder son—Marcus Aurelius father—Marcus Annius Verus married Domitia Lucilla, Lucilla was the daughter of the patrician P. Calvisius Tullus Ruso and the elder Domitia Lucilla. The elder Domitia Lucilla had inherited a fortune from her maternal grandfather and her paternal grandfather by adoption. Lucilla and Verus had two children, a son, Marcus, born on 26 April 121 AD, and a daughter, Annia Cornificia Faustina, Verus probably died in 124 AD, during his praetorship, when Marcus was only three years old. Though he can hardly have known him, Marcus Aurelius wrote in his Meditations that he had learned modesty and manliness from his memories of his father, Lucilla, following prevailing aristocratic customs, probably did not spend much time with her son. Marcus was in the care of nurses, even so, Marcus credits his mother with teaching him religious piety, simplicity in diet and how to avoid the ways of the rich. In his letters, Marcus makes frequent and affectionate reference to her, he was grateful that, although she was fated to die young, yet she spent her last years with me. After his fathers death, Aurelius was raised by his paternal grandfather Marcus Annius Verus who, technically this was not an adoption, since an adoption would be the legal creation of a new and different patria potestas. Another man, Lucius Catilius Severus, also participated in his upbringing, Severus is described as Marcus maternal great-grandfather, he is probably the stepfather of the elder Lucilla. Marcus was raised in his parents home on the Caelian Hill and it was an upscale region, with few public buildings but many aristocratic villas
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Daqin
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Daqin is the ancient Chinese name for the Roman Empire or, depending on context, the Near East, especially Syria. It literally means Great Qin, Qin being the name of the dynasty of the Chinese Empire. Historian John Foster defined it as. the Roman Empire, or rather that part of it alone was known to the Chinese. In various texts its capitals were given as Antioch and Constantinople and its basic facets such as laws, customs, dress, and currency were explained in Chinese sources. Its medieval incarnation was described in histories during the Tang dynasty onwards as Fulin, Daqin was also commonly associated with the Syriac-speaking Nestorian Christians who lived in China during the Tang dynasty. Chinese sources describe several ancient Roman embassies arriving in China, beginning in 166 AD and these early embassies were said to arrive by a maritime route via the South China Sea in the Chinese province of Jiaozhi. Archaeological evidence such as Roman coins points to the presence of Roman commercial activity in Southeast Asia. The term Daqin, meaning Great Qin, is derived from the dynasty founded by Qin Shihuangdi, ruler of the State of Qin and Chinas first emperor who unified Chinas Warring States by 221 BC. The prefix da or great signified that the Roman Empire was on par with the might of the Qin Empire and was viewed as a land located to the northwest of the Parthian Empire. The term Daqin was used from the Han dynasty onwards, but by the beginning of the Tang dynasty a new name emerged in Chinese historical records for distinguishing the Eastern Roman Empire, Fulin. Friedrich Hirth surmised that Fulin may have based on the accusative form of Constantinopolis in Greek, -polin in Constantinopolin. While some scholars of the 20th century believed that Fulin was a transliteration of Ephrem, lieu highlights how more recent scholarship has deduced that Fulin is most likely derived from the Persianate word for the Roman Empire shared by several contemporaneous Iranian languages. Following the opening of the Silk Road in the 2nd century BC, the Romans occupied one extreme position on the trade route, with the Chinese located on the other. China never managed to reach the Roman Empire directly in antiquity, although general Ban Chao sent Gan Ying as an envoy to Daqin in 97 AD. Gan Ying did not reach Daqin, he stopped at the coast of a sea, because sailor of the Parthian west border told him that the voyage to cross the sea might take a long time. As it is found to the west of the sea, it is called the Kingdom of Haixi. The territory extends for thousands of li. It has more than four hundred walled towns, there are several tens of smaller dependent kingdoms
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Sino-Roman relations
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These empires inched progressively closer in the course of the Roman expansion into the ancient Near East and simultaneous Han Chinese military incursions into Central Asia. Mutual awareness remained low and firm knowledge about each other was limited, only a few attempts at direct contact are known from records. Intermediate empires such as the Parthians and Kushans, seeking to maintain control over the silk trade. In 97 AD, the Chinese general Ban Chao tried to send his envoy Gan Ying to Rome, several alleged Roman emissaries to China were recorded by ancient Chinese historians. The first one on record, supposedly from either the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius or his adopted son Marcus Aurelius, others are recorded as arriving in 226 and 284 AD, with a long absence until the first recorded Byzantine embassy in 643 AD. The indirect exchange of goods on land along the Silk Road and sea routes included Chinese silk, Roman glassware, Roman glasswares and silverwares have been discovered at Chinese archaeological sites dated to the Han period. Roman coins and glass beads have also found in Japan. In Chinese records, the Roman Empire came to be known as Daqin or Great Qin, Daqin was directly associated with the later Fulin in Chinese sources, which has been identified by scholars such as Friedrich Hirth as the Byzantine Empire. Chinese sources describe several embassies of Fulin arriving in China during the Tang dynasty, geographers in the Roman Empire such as Ptolemy provided a rough sketch of the eastern Indian Ocean, including the Malay Peninsula and beyond this the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea. Ptolemys Cattigara was most likely Óc Eo, Vietnam, where Antonine-era Roman items have been found, ancient Chinese geographers demonstrated a general knowledge of West Asia and Romes eastern provinces. The 7th-century AD Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta wrote of the reunification of northern and southern China. Roman authors generally seem to have demonstrated some confusion as to where the Seres were located precisely, the historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote that the land of the Seres was enclosed by great natural walls around a river called Bautis, possibly a description of the Yellow River. While the existence of China was clearly known to Roman cartographers, Ptolemys 2nd-century AD Geography separates the Land of Silk at the end of the overland Silk Road from the land of the Qin reached by sea. The Sinae are placed on the shore of the Great Gulf east of the Golden Peninsula. Their chief port, Cattigara, seems to have been in the lower Mekong Delta, much of this is simply given as unknown lands, but the northeastern area is placed under the Sinae. The Periplus also mentions a great city, Thinae in a country called This that perhaps stretched as far as the Caspian. The text notes that silk produced there traveled to neighboring India via the Ganges River, marinus and Ptolemy had relied on the testimony of a Greek sailor named Alexander, probably a merchant, for how to reach Cattigara. Alexandros claimed that it took twenty days to sail from Thailand to a port called Zabia in southern Vietnam, according to him, one could continue along the coast from Zabia until reaching the trade port of Cattigara after an unspecified number of days
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Hamsa (bird)
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The hamsa is an aquatic bird of passage, such as a goose or a swan. Its icon is used in Indian and Southeast Asian culture as a spiritual symbol, monier Williams translates the term from Sanskrit as goose, gander, swan, flamingo, or other aquatic bird of passage. The word is used for a mythical or poetical bird with knowledge. In the Rig Veda, it is the bird which is able to separate Soma from water, when mixed, in later Indian literature, in Indian philosophical literature, hamsa represents the individual soul or spirit, or the Universal Soul or Supreme Spirit. The word Hamsa is cognate with Latin anser, Greek χήν, German Gans, English goose, Spanish ganso, however, Henry Milman and others state that some early translators were misled by the closeness of the word Hamsa to Gans, and this is likely an incorrect link. According to Vogel, Western and Indian scholars may have preferred translating hamsa in Sanskrit text as swan because the indigenous goose appears plump while the swan appears more graceful. Paul Johnsgard, in 2010, has stated that mute swan do migrate to northwestern Himalayan region of India every winter, migrating some 1000 miles each way. Grewal, Harvey and Pfister, in 2003, identified large swaths of northwestern India and northeastern Pakistan particularly Kashmir, the Sanskrit and Pali languages, both have alternate words for goose such as Jalapada, Dhamara, Cakragki, Majjugamana, Shvetagaruta and others. Daves identification is based on the provided in the Sanskrit texts about the changes in plumage over the birds life, described voice, migratory habits, courtship rituals. Some Sanskrit texts, states Dave, distinguish between Hamsa and Kadamb, the former being swan and latter as bar-headed goose, the hamsa, or the swan, is often identified with the Supreme Spirit, Ultimate Reality or Brahman in Hinduism. The flight of the hamsa symbolizes moksha, the release from the cycle of samsara, the hamsa is also the vahana of Saraswati – the goddess of knowledge and creative arts, and her husband Brahma – the god with powers of creation, in Hindu trinity. Lake Manasarovar in Hindu mythology, is seen as the abode of the hamsa. Poetical images are derived from the flight of the swans to that lake in the Himalayas, during pranayama, which is a yogic exercise of breath control, hamsa came to epitomize the prana, the breath of life. In view of the association of a hamsa with several attributes as indicated above, Hindu rishi and sadhu have been given the title of paramhamsa, that is and it connotes a particular person who has reached a high level of spirituality. He is immune to the existence of his body, which he treats as a corpse and he is beyond false pretensions and lives realizing the Brahman. In chapter 3, the Paramhamsa Upanished states that the one who understands the difference between staff of knowledge and staff of wood, is a Paramahamsa, Hamsa, or Hansa, are part of Indian mythology. Arayanna, or heavenly hamsa, are said to live in Manasasaras in the Himalayas and they are mentioned in the Hindu Epic, the Ramayana. Hamsa, the swan, is part of the love story of Nala and Damayanti
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Crested argus
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The crested argus are large and spectacular pheasant like-peafowl with dark-brown-spotted black and buff plumage, a heavy pink bill, brown irises and blue skin around the eyes. The head has two crests, the hind crest, which extends down the occiput, is erected when alarmed and during intentional behaviors including pair bonding, the male has a broad and greatly elongated tail of twelve feathers. The tail coverts measure up to 1.73 m in length, the female is similar in size, with a prominent marbled barring and more colourful dorsal plumage than the male. Her conspicuous white facial plumage is like the male, marked with disruptive patterning, the females crest is different morphologically, with more rigid plumes that take up more surface area along the occiput and upper hind neck. The females tail is elongated and laterally compressed as is that of the male, the average length of the female is 74–75 cm. There are two species in genus Rheinardia, the Malaysian R. nigrescens, inhabits the Malaysian Isthmus and the Annamese inhabits the Annametic Mountain Range. Despite being sexually dimorphic galliform by length, the male weighs about 20% more than the female. The average weight is around 1.5 kg, the wings of the crested argus are of unusual size and length for its weight. They wide and square like those of Argusianus versus rounded and abbreviated like those of True Pheasants, additionally, there is no discernible trailing edge secondary wing notch amongst the flight feathers, indicating a capacity of sustained flight in species of this genus. They are morphologically similar to the wings of certain semi-arboreal Craciformes, the toes are long and gracile and like other peafowls, the hind toe is less recumbent than those of more strictly terrestrial Galliformes. Little is known about this species in the wild, a shy and elusive bird, the crested argus is found in submontane primary forests of Vietnam, Laos and Malaysia in Southeast Asia. The diet consists mainly of invertebrates, mollusks, amphibians, small reptiles, bamboo shoots, leaves, fruits, little is known about its reproductive strategy. While it is believed by authorities to be polygamous, there is no direct evidence to substantiate this theory. Naturalist William Beebe documented pairs of crested argus flying to and from the overstory and this suggests that there may be indefinite pair bonds. There is marked delayed maturity in both species and they appear to be fully adult only in their fifth or sixth year. The male performs various displays that include serpentine erratic deportment behaviors which include perceptible quill vibration, the lower extremities of the males wings and tail are pushed vertically into the ground leaving trails in sand and leaf litter. These performances may culminate in the compression of the body and plumage. The male also erects a nuchal hood and hisses audibly while stomping his feet, like other peafowls, the crested argus employs these and more complex display behaviors in anti-predatory encounters, especially with reptiles
26.
Palaeography
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Palaeography or paleography is the study of ancient and historical handwriting. The discipline is important for understanding, authenticating, and dating ancient texts, however, it cannot in general be used to pinpoint dates with high precision. Palaeography can be a skill for historians and philologists, as it tackles two main difficulties. First, since the style of an alphabet in each given language has evolved constantly. Second, scribes often used many abbreviations, usually so as to more quickly and sometimes to save space. Knowledge of individual letter-forms, ligatures, punctuation, and abbreviations enables the palaeographer to read, the palaeographer must know, first, the language of the text, and second, the historical usages of various styles of handwriting, common writing customs, and scribal or notarial abbreviations. Philological knowledge of the language, vocabulary, and grammar generally used at a time or place can help palaeographers identify ancient or more recent forgeries versus authentic documents. Knowledge of writing materials is essential to the study of handwriting. Palaeography can be used to provide information about the date at which a document was written, scholars also tend to oversimplify diachronic development, assuming models of simplicity rather than complexity. It spread from the Mediterranean coast to the borders of India, becoming popular and being adopted by many people. The Aramaic script was written in a form with a direction from right to left. One innovation in Aramaic is the matres lectionis system to indicate certain vowels, Early Phoenician-derived scripts did not have letters for vowels, and so most texts recorded just consonants. Most likely as a consequence of changes in North Semitic languages. The letter aleph was employed to write /ā/, he for /ō/, yod for /ī/, Aramaic writing and language supplanted Babylonian cuneiform and Akkadian language, even in their homeland in Mesopotamia. The wide diffusion of Aramaic letters led to its writing being used not only in monumental inscriptions, Aramaic papyri have been found in large numbers in Egypt, especially at Elephantine – among them are official and private documents of the Jewish military settlement in 5 BC. In the Aramaic papyri and potsherds, words are separated usually by a small gap, at the turn of the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC, the heretofore uniform Aramaic letters developed new forms, as a result of dialectal and political fragmentation in several subgroups. The most important of these is the so-called square Hebrew block script, followed by Palmyrene, Nabataean, Aramaic is usually divided into three main parts, Old Aramaic Middle Aramaic, and Modern Aramaic of the present day. Old Aramaic appeared in the 11th century BC as the language of the first Aramaean states
27.
Cambodia
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Cambodia, officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is 181,035 square kilometres in area, bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the northeast, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia has a population of over 15 million. The official religion is Theravada Buddhism, practiced by approximately 95 percent of the population, the countrys minority groups include Vietnamese, Chinese, Chams, and 30 hill tribes. The capital and largest city is Phnom Penh, the political, economic, the kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with Norodom Sihamoni, a monarch chosen by the Royal Throne Council, as head of state. The head of government is Hun Sen, who is currently the longest serving leader in South East Asia and has ruled Cambodia for over 25 years. In 802 AD, Jayavarman II declared himself king, uniting the warring Khmer princes of Chenla under the name Kambuja. The Indianized kingdom built monumental temples including Angkor Wat, now a World Heritage Site, after the fall of Angkor to Ayutthaya in the 15th century, a reduced and weakened Cambodia was then ruled as a vassal state by its neighbours. In 1863 Cambodia became a protectorate of France which doubled the size of the country by reclaiming the north, the Vietnam War extended into the country with the US bombing of Cambodia from 1969 until 1973. Following the Cambodian coup of 1970, the king gave his support to his former enemies. Following the 1991 Paris Peace Accords, Cambodia was governed briefly by a United Nations mission, the UN withdrew after holding elections in which around 90 percent of the registered voters cast ballots. The 1997 coup placed power solely in the hands of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Cambodian Peoples Party, important sociopolitical issues includes widespread poverty, pervasive corruption, lack of political freedoms, low human development, and a high rate of hunger. While per capita income remains low compared to most neighbouring countries, agriculture remains the dominant economic sector, with strong growth in textiles, construction, garments, and tourism leading to increased foreign investment and international trade. Cambodia scored dismally in an annual index ranking the rule of law in 102 countries, placing 99th overall, Cambodia also faces environmental destruction as an imminent problem. The most severe activity in this regard is considered to be the countrywide deforestation, the Kingdom of Cambodia is the official English name of the country. The English Cambodia is an anglicisation of the French Cambodge, which in turn is the French transliteration of the Khmer Kampuchea, Kampuchea is the shortened alternative to the countrys official name in Khmer, Preah Reacheanachak Kampuchea. The Khmer endonym Kampuchea derives from the Sanskrit name Kambujadeśa, composed of देश, desa and कम्बोज, Kambujas, colloquially, Cambodians refer to their country as either Srok Khmer, meaning Khmers Land, or the slightly more formal Prateh Kampuchea, literally Country of Kampuchea. The name Cambodia is used most often in the Western world while Kampuchea is more used in the East. Excavations in its lower layers produced a series of dates as of 6000 BC
28.
Suvarnabhumi
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Suvarṇabhūmi is the name of a land mentioned in many ancient sources such as the Mahavamsa, some stories of the Jataka tales, and Milinda Panha. Suvaṇṇabhumī means Golden Land or Land of Gold and might be a region named Aurea Regio in India beyond the Ganges of Ptolemy, there lies a very great inland city called Thina”. Dionysius Periegetes mentioned, “The island of Chryse, situated at the rising of the Sun”. Avienus referred to the Insula Aurea located where the Scythian seas give rise to the Dawn, josephus speaks of the Aurea Chersonesus, which he equates with the Biblical Ophir, whence the ships of Tyre and Israel brought back gold for the Temple of Jerusalem. The city of Thina was described by Ptolemys Geography as the city of the country on the eastern shores of the Magnus Sinus. Some have speculated that this refers to the Kingdom of Funan. The main port of Funan was Cattigara Sinarum statio, there is a common misunderstanding that the Edicts of Ashoka mention this name. The truth is the edicts relate only the names and never reference Suvarnabhumi in the text. Moreover, all of the kings referenced in the text reigned their cities in the region that located beyond the Sindhu to the west, the misunderstanding might come from a mixing of the story of Ashoka sending his Buddhist missionaries to Suvarnabhumi in Mahavamsa and his edicts. The location of Suvarnabhumi has been the subject of much debate and it remains one of the most mythified and contentious toponyms in the history of Asia. Scholars have identified two regions as possible locations for the ancient Suvarnabhumi, Insular Southeast Asia or Southern India, the term Suvarnabhumi, is commonly thought to refer to the Southeast Asian Peninsula, including lower Burma and the Malay Peninsula. However there is another gold-referring term Suvarnadvipa, which may correspond to the Indonesian Archipelago, both terms might refer to a powerful coastal or island kingdom in present-day Indonesia and Malaysia, possibly centered on Sumatra or Java. This is corresponds to the production areas traditionally known in Minangkabau highlands in Barisan Mountains, Sumatra. These pointing out to the direction of western part of insular Southeast Asia, especially Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, Borneo, the kingdom referred as the center of maritime trade between China and India was Srivijaya. Hendrik Kern concluded that Sumatra was the Suvarnadvipa mentioned in ancient Hindu texts, the interpretation of early travel records is not always easy. The Javanese embassies to China in 860 and 873 CE refer to Java as rich in gold, Javanese would have had to import its gold possibly from neighbouring Malaya, Sumatra or Borneo, where gold was still being mined into the 19th century and where ancient mining sites located. Many claim that Suvarnabhumi was actually situated in central Bengal, Bengal has also been described in ancient Indian and Southeast Asian chronicles as a seafaring country, enjoying trade relations with Dravidian kingdoms, Sri Lanka, Java and Sumatra. Sinhalese tradition holds that the first king of Sri Lanka, Vijaya Singha, moreover the region is commonly associated with gold- the soil of Bengal is known for its golden color, golden harvest, golden fruits, golden minerals and yellow skinned people
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Alexandria
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Alexandria is the second largest city and a major economic centre in Egypt, extending about 32 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country. Its low elevation on the Nile delta makes it vulnerable to rising sea levels. Alexandria is Egypts largest seaport, serving approximately 80% of Egypts imports and exports and it is an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez. Alexandria is also an important tourist destination, Alexandria was founded around a small Ancient Egyptian town c.331 BC by Alexander the Great. Alexandria was the second most powerful city of the ancient world after Rome, Alexandria is believed to have been founded by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC as Ἀλεξάνδρεια. Alexanders chief architect for the project was Dinocrates, Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile valley. The city and its museum attracted many of the greatest scholars, including Greeks, Jews, the city was later plundered and lost its significance. Just east of Alexandria, there was in ancient times marshland, as early as the 7th century BC, there existed important port cities of Canopus and Heracleion. The latter was rediscovered under water. An Egyptian city, Rhakotis, already existed on the shore also and it continued to exist as the Egyptian quarter of the city. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt and never returned to his city, after Alexanders departure, his viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the expansion. Although Cleomenes was mainly in charge of overseeing Alexandrias continuous development, the Heptastadion, inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the center of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian and Indian East, the city grew in less than a generation to be larger than Carthage. In a century, Alexandria had become the largest city in the world and and it became Egypts main Greek city, with Greek people from diverse backgrounds. Alexandria was not only a center of Hellenism, but was home to the largest urban Jewish community in the world. The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Tanakh, was produced there, in AD115, large parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the Kitos War, which gave Hadrian and his architect, Decriannus, an opportunity to rebuild it. On 21 July 365, Alexandria was devastated by a tsunami, the Islamic prophet, Muhammads first interaction with the people of Egypt occurred in 628, during the Expedition of Zaid ibn Haritha. He sent Hatib bin Abi Baltaeh with a letter to the king of Egypt and Alexandria called Muqawqis In the letter Muhammad said, I invite you to accept Islam, Allah the sublime, shall reward you doubly. But if you refuse to do so, you bear the burden of the transgression of all the Copts
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Indian Ocean
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The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the worlds oceanic divisions, covering 70,560,000 km2. It is bounded by Asia on the north, on the west by Africa, on the east by Australia, the Indian Ocean is known as Ratnākara, the mine of gems in ancient Sanskrit literature, and as Hind Mahāsāgar, in Hindi. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30° north in the Persian Gulf, the oceans continental shelves are narrow, averaging 200 kilometres in width. An exception is found off Australias western coast, where the width exceeds 1,000 kilometres. The average depth of the ocean is 3,890 m and its deepest point is Diamantina Deep in Diamantina Trench, at 8,047 m deep, Sunda Trench has a depth of 7, 258–7,725 m. North of 50° south latitude, 86% of the basin is covered by pelagic sediments. The remaining 14% is layered with terrigenous sediments, glacial outwash dominates the extreme southern latitudes. The major choke points include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, the Lombok Strait, the Strait of Malacca, the Indian Ocean is artificially connected to the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, which is accessible via the Red Sea. All of the Indian Ocean is in the Eastern Hemisphere and the centre of the Eastern Hemisphere is in this ocean, marginal seas, gulfs, bays and straits of the Indian Ocean include, The climate north of the equator is affected by a monsoon climate. Strong north-east winds blow from October until April, from May until October south, in the Arabian Sea the violent Monsoon brings rain to the Indian subcontinent. In the southern hemisphere, the winds are milder. When the monsoon winds change, cyclones sometimes strike the shores of the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean is the warmest ocean in the world. Long-term ocean temperature records show a rapid, continuous warming in the Indian Ocean, Indian Ocean warming is the largest among the tropical oceans, and about 3 times faster than the warming observed in the Pacific. Research indicates that human induced greenhouse warming, and changes in the frequency, among the few large rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean are the Zambezi, Shatt al-Arab, Indus, Godavari, Krishna, Narmada, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Jubba and Irrawaddy River. The oceans currents are controlled by the monsoon. Two large gyres, one in the northern hemisphere flowing clockwise and one south of the equator moving anticlockwise, during the winter monsoon, however, currents in the north are reversed. Deep water circulation is controlled primarily by inflows from the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, north of 20° south latitude the minimum surface temperature is 22 °C, exceeding 28 °C to the east. Southward of 40° south latitude, temperatures drop quickly, surface water salinity ranges from 32 to 37 parts per 1000, the highest occurring in the Arabian Sea and in a belt between southern Africa and south-western Australia
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Equator
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The Equator usually refers to an imaginary line on the Earths surface equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole, dividing the Earth into the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. The Equator is about 40,075 kilometres long, some 78. 7% lies across water and 21. 3% over land, other planets and astronomical bodies have equators similarly defined. Generally, an equator is the intersection of the surface of a sphere with the plane that is perpendicular to the spheres axis of rotation. The latitude of the Earths equator is by definition 0° of arc, the equator is the only line of latitude which is also a great circle — that is, one whose plane passes through the center of the globe. The plane of Earths equator when projected outwards to the celestial sphere defines the celestial equator, in the cycle of Earths seasons, the plane of the equator passes through the Sun twice per year, at the March and September equinoxes. To an observer on the Earth, the Sun appears to travel North or South over the equator at these times, light rays from the center of the Sun are perpendicular to the surface of the Earth at the point of solar noon on the Equator. Locations on the Equator experience the quickest sunrises and sunsets because the sun moves nearly perpendicular to the horizon for most of the year. The Earth bulges slightly at the Equator, the diameter of the Earth is 12,750 kilometres. Because the Earth spins to the east, spacecraft must also launch to the east to take advantage of this Earth-boost of speed, seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earths axis relative to the plane of revolution. During the year the northern and southern hemispheres are inclined toward or away from the sun according to Earths position in its orbit, the hemisphere inclined toward the sun receives more sunlight and is in summer, while the other hemisphere receives less sun and is in winter. At the equinoxes, the Earths axis is not tilted toward the sun, instead it is perpendicular to the sun meaning that the day is about 12 hours long, as is the night, across the whole of the Earth. Near the Equator there is distinction between summer, winter, autumn, or spring. The temperatures are usually high year-round—with the exception of high mountains in South America, the temperature at the Equator can plummet during rainstorms. In many tropical regions people identify two seasons, the wet season and the dry season, but many places close to the Equator are on the oceans or rainy throughout the year, the seasons can vary depending on elevation and proximity to an ocean. The Equator lies mostly on the three largest oceans, the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. The highest point on the Equator is at the elevation of 4,690 metres, at 0°0′0″N 77°59′31″W and this is slightly above the snow line, and is the only place on the Equator where snow lies on the ground. At the Equator the snow line is around 1,000 metres lower than on Mount Everest, the Equator traverses the land of 11 countries, it also passes through two island nations, though without making a landfall in either. Starting at the Prime Meridian and heading eastwards, the Equator passes through, Despite its name, however, its island of Annobón is 155 km south of the Equator, and the rest of the country lies to the north
32.
Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville
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Jean Baptiste Bourguignon dAnville was both a geographer and cartographer who greatly improved the standards of map-making. His maps of ancient geography, characterized by careful, accurate work and he left unknown areas of continents blank and noted doubtful information as such, compared to the lavish maps of his predecessors, his maps looked empty. His passion for geographical research displayed itself from early years, at age of twelve he was amusing himself by drawing maps for Latin authors. Later, his friendship with the antiquarian, Abbé Longuerue, greatly aided his studies and his first serious map, that of Ancient Greece, was published when he was fifteen. At the age of twenty-two, he was appointed one the kings geographers, vast spaces, which had before been bordered with countries and cities, were thus suddenly reduced mostly to a blank. DAnville was at first employed in the task of illustrating by maps the works of different travellers, such as Marchais, Charlevoix, Labat. For the history of China by the writer he was employed to make an atlas. Information for the maps of China came from land surveys made by the Chinese empire in 1708 and his China maps have been called the standard Western source for the geography of China and adjacent regions, throughout the 19th century. A trigonometrical survey which Benedict XIV soon after had made in the papal states strikingly confirmed the French geographers results and his last employment consisted in arranging his collection of maps, plans and geographical materials. It was the most extensive in Europe, and had purchased by the king. This task performed, he sank into a total imbecility both of mind and body, which continued for two years, till his death in January 1782. In 1754, at the age of fifty-seven, he became a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, whose transactions he enriched with many papers. In 1775 he received the place in the Académie des Sciences which is allotted to geography. The crater Anville on the Moon is named after him, as was the community of Danville, dAnvilles published memoirs and dissertations amounted to 78, and his maps to 211. A complete edition of his works was announced in 1806 by de Manne in 6 vols. quarto, see Bon-Joseph Dacier, Éloge de dAnville. Besides the separate works noticed above, dAnvilles maps executed for Rollins Histoire ancienne and Histoire romaine, pere J. B. du Halde with maps by dAnville, Description geographique de la Chine,1735. Nouvel Atlas de la Chine,1737, attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Anville, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d
33.
Henricus Martellus Germanus
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Henricus Martellus Germanus is the latinized name of Heinrich Hammer, a geographer and cartographer from Nuremberg who lived and worked in Florence from 1480 to 1496. Between around 1489 and 1491, he produced at least one world map which is similar to the terrestrial globe produced by Martin Behaim around 1492. Both show novel adaptions of the existing Ptolemaic model, opening a passage south of Africa, both possibly derive from maps created around 1485 in Lisbon by Bartolomeo Columbus. The only extant manuscript world map, measuring 201 cm x 122 cm in size, was rediscovered in 1960 and donated to Yales Beinecke Rare Book, Martellus also produced an Insularium Illustratum of which four manuscripts are extant, plus one draft in Biblioteca Laurentiana. He has been identified with an Arrigho di Federigho who authored the first translation into German of Bocaccios Decamerone, according to this theory, the surname Martellus would come from the Martelli family, to which Henricus / Arrigho was linked. Arthur Davies, Behaim, Martellus and Columbus, The Geographical Journal, Vol.143,3, pp. 451-459 Alexander O. Vietor, A Pre-Columbian Map of the World, Circa 1489, Imago Mundi, Vol.17,1963, pp
Vietnam
