1.
Serbia
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Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia, is a sovereign state situated at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central Balkans. Relative to its territory, it is a diverse country distinguished by a transitional character, situated along cultural, geographic, climatic. Serbia numbers around 7 million residents, and its capital, Belgrade, following the Slavic migrations to the Balkans from the 6th century onwards, Serbs established several states in the early Middle Ages. The Serbian Kingdom obtained recognition by Rome and the Byzantine Empire in 1217, in the early 19th century, the Serbian Revolution established the nation-state as the regions first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory. During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia formed a union with Montenegro which dissolved peacefully in 2006, in 2008 the parliament of the province of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, with mixed responses from the international community. Serbia is a member of organizations such as the UN, CoE, OSCE, PfP, BSEC. An EU membership candidate since 2012, Serbia has been negotiating its EU accession since January 2014, the country is acceding to the WTO and is a militarily neutral state. Serbia is an income economy with dominant service sector, followed by the industrial sector. The country ranks high on the Social Progress Index as well as the Global Peace Index, relatively high on the Human Development Index, located at the crossroads between Central and Southern Europe, Serbia is found in the Balkan peninsula and the Pannonian Plain. Serbia lies between latitudes 41° and 47° N, and longitudes 18° and 23° E. The country covers a total of 88,361 km2, which places it at 113th place in the world, with Kosovo excluded, the area is 77,474 km2. Its total border length amounts to 2,027 km, all of Kosovos border with Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro are under control of the Kosovo border police. The Pannonian Plain covers the third of the country while the easternmost tip of Serbia extends into the Wallachian Plain. The terrain of the part of the country, with the region of Šumadija at its heart. Mountains dominate the third of Serbia. Dinaric Alps stretch in the west and the southwest, following the flow of the rivers Drina, the Carpathian Mountains and Balkan Mountains stretch in a north–south direction in eastern Serbia. Ancient mountains in the southeast corner of the country belong to the Rilo-Rhodope Mountain system, elevation ranges from the Midžor peak of the Balkan Mountains at 2,169 metres to the lowest point of just 17 metres near the Danube river at Prahovo. The largest lake is Đerdap Lake and the longest river passing through Serbia is the Danube, the climate of Serbia is under the influences of the landmass of Eurasia and the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea
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Toplica District
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The Toplica District is one of nine administrative districts of Southern and Eastern Serbia. It expands to the parts of Serbia. It has a population of 91,754 and has named after the river Toplica. The administrative center is the city of Prokuplje and it encompasses the municipalities of, Prokuplje Blace Kuršumlija Žitorađa According to the last official census done in 2011, Toplica District has 91,754 inhabitants. Most of its population is of Serbian nationality while 50. 02% of the population is urban. Administrative divisions of Serbia Districts of Serbia Note, All official material made by Government of Serbia is public by law, information was taken from official website
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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
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Rock formation
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A rock formation is an isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock outcrop. Rock formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock, the term rock formation can also refer to specific sedimentary strata or other rock unit in stratigraphic and petrologic studies. Erosion later exposes them in their current form, an example is Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. Metamorphic rocks are created by rocks that have transformed into another kind of rock, usually by some combination of heat, pressure. An example are the Seneca Rocks in West Virginia, igneous rocks are created when molten rock cools and solidifies, with or without crystallization. They may be either plutonic bodies or volcanic extrusives, again, erosive forces sculpt their current forms. An example is Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, geologists have created a number of terms to describe different rock structures in the landscape that can be formed by natural processes, Inselberg or monadnock is a residual relief feature. It can be a hill, a knob, ridge or small mountain that rises abruptly, like an island. Inselberg is a German word that means island mountain, uluru/Ayers Rock in Australia is a noted example. Peak Stack Mesa Butte Escarpment Gorge Sea cliff River cliff Stone run Crag Tor Promontory is a prominent mass of land which overlooks lower lying land or a body of water, here is a list of rock formations by continent
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Serbian Cyrillic alphabet
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The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet is an adaptation of the Cyrillic script for the Serbian language, developed in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two used to write standard modern Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin, the other being Latin. During the same period, Croatian linguists led by Ljudevit Gaj adapted the Latin alphabet, in use in western South Slavic areas, using the same principles. As a result of this joint effort, Cyrillic and Latin alphabets for Serbo-Croatian have a complete one-to-one congruence, with the Latin digraphs Lj, Nj, and Dž counting as single letters. Vuks Cyrillic alphabet was adopted in Serbia in 1868, and was in exclusive use in the country up to the inter-war period. Both alphabets were co-official in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and later in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in Serbia, Cyrillic is seen as being more traditional, and has the official status. It is also a script in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro, along with Latin. The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was used as a basis for the Macedonian alphabet with the work of Krste Misirkov, Cyrillic is in official use in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Serbian language in Croatia is officially recognized as a minority language, however, Cyrillic is an important symbol of Serbian identity. In Serbia, official documents are printed in Cyrillic only even though, according to a 2014 survey, Glagolitic appears to be older, predating the introduction of Christianity, only formalized by Cyril and expanded to cover non-Greek sounds. Cyrillic was created by the orders of Boris I of Bulgaria by Cyrils disciples, the earliest form of Cyrillic was the ustav, based on Greek uncial script, augmented by ligatures and letters from the Glagolitic alphabet for consonants not found in Greek. There was no distinction between capital and lowercase letters, the literary Slavic language was based on the Bulgarian dialect of Thessaloniki. Part of the Serbian literary heritage of the Middle Ages are works such as Vukan Gospels, St. Savas Nomocanon, Dušans Code, Munich Serbian Psalter, the first printed book in Serbian was the Cetinje Octoechos. Vuk Stefanović Karadžić fled Serbia during the Serbian Revolution in 1813, there he met Jernej Kopitar, a linguist with interest in slavistics. Kopitar and Sava Mrkalj helped Vuk to reform the Serbian language and he finalized the alphabet in 1818 with the Serbian Dictionary. Karadžić also translated the New Testament into Serbian, which was published in 1868 and he wrote several books, Mala prostonarodna slaveno-serbska pesnarica and Pismenica serbskoga jezika in 1814, and two more in 1815 and 1818, all with the alphabet still in progress. In his letters from 1815-1818 he used, Ю, я, Ы and Ѳ, in his 1815 song book he dropped the Ѣ. The alphabet was adopted in 1868, four years after his death
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Radan (mountain)
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Radan is a mountain in southern Serbia, near the town of Kuršumlija. Its highest peak, Šopot, has an elevation of 1,408 meters above sea level, Radan separates the valleys of the Toplica and Jablanica rivers. It is well covered with deciduous and evergreen forests, the best known spot on Radan is the Devils Town – a peculiar rock formation consisting of hundreds of mushroom-like posts, located on its southern slopes. Near the Devils Town there are ruins of Ivanova kula – city of Ivan Kosančić, justiniana Prima, a Byzantine city from the 6th century, is located on the southeast of the mountain, near Lebane. In summer 2010, Radan attracted media attention because of a hill located on a road near the village of Ivanje. After initial sensationalist articles about anti-gravity, it turned out that it is just an optical illusion. Still, the hill is seen as an opportunity for a tourist attraction
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Hoodoo (geology)
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A hoodoo is a tall, thin spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of an arid drainage basin or badland. Hoodoos, which may range from 1.5 to 45 metres, typically consist of soft rock topped by harder. They generally form within sedimentary rock and volcanic rock formations, Hoodoos are found mainly in the desert in dry, hot areas. In common usage, the difference between hoodoos and pinnacles is that hoodoos have a variable thickness often described as having a totem pole-shaped body, a spire, on the other hand, has a smoother profile or uniform thickness that tapers from the ground upward. An example of a spire, as an earth pyramid, is found at Aultderg Burn, near Fochabers. Hoodoos range in size from the height of a human to heights exceeding a 10-story building. Hoodoo shapes are affected by the patterns of alternating hard. Minerals deposited within different rock types cause hoodoos to have different colors throughout their height, Hoodoos are commonly found in the High Plateaus region of the Colorado Plateau and in the Badlands regions of the Northern Great Plains. While hoodoos are scattered throughout these areas, nowhere in the world are they as abundant as in the section of Bryce Canyon National Park. They are also very prominent a few hundred miles away at Goblin Valley State Park on the side of the San Rafael Swell. Hoodoos are a tourist attraction in the Cappadocia region of Turkey and these rock formations were depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 50 new lira banknote of 2005–2009. Đavolja Varoš hoodoos in Serbia feature 202 exotic formations described as earth pyramids or towers, since 1959, Đavolja Varoš has been protected by the state. It was also a nominee in the New Seven Wonders of Nature campaign, the hoodoo stones on the northern coast of Taiwan are unusual for their coastal setting. The stones formed as the seabed rose rapidly out of the ocean during the Miocene epoch, efforts have been made to slow the erosion in the case of iconic specimens in Wanli. Hoodoos in Drumheller, Alberta, are a feature that continues to attract thousands of visitors each year. The sediments comprising these hoodoos formed between 70 and 75 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period as clay and sand sediments from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation were deposited. In glaciated mountainous valleys the soft eroded material may be glacial till with the protective capstones being large boulders in the till, over time, cracks in the resistant layer allow the much softer rock beneath to be eroded and washed away. Hoodoos form where a small cap of the resistant layer remains, further erosion of the soft layer causes the cap to be undercut, eventually falling off, and the remaining cone is then quickly eroded
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Erosion
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In earth science, erosion is the action of surface processes that remove soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earths crust, then transport it away to another location. Eroded sediment or solutes may be transported just a few millimetres, the rates at which such processes act control how fast a surface is eroded. Feedbacks are also possible between rates of erosion and the amount of eroded material that is carried by, for example. Processes of erosion that produce sediment or solutes from a place contrast with those of deposition, while erosion is a natural process, human activities have increased by 10-40 times the rate at which erosion is occurring globally. At well-known agriculture sites such as the Appalachian Mountains, intensive farming practices have caused erosion up to 100x the speed of the rate of erosion in the region. Excessive erosion causes both on-site and off-site problems, on-site impacts include decreases in agricultural productivity and ecological collapse, both because of loss of the nutrient-rich upper soil layers. In some cases, the end result is desertification. Off-site effects include sedimentation of waterways and eutrophication of bodies, as well as sediment-related damage to roads. Intensive agriculture, deforestation, roads, anthropogenic climate change and urban sprawl are amongst the most significant human activities in regard to their effect on stimulating erosion, however, there are many prevention and remediation practices that can curtail or limit erosion of vulnerable soils. Rainfall, and the surface runoff which may result from rainfall, produces four types of soil erosion, splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion. Splash erosion is generally seen as the first and least severe stage in the erosion process. In splash erosion, the impact of a falling raindrop creates a crater in the soil. The distance these soil particles travel can be as much as 0.6 m vertically and 1.5 m horizontally on level ground. If the soil is saturated, or if the rate is greater than the rate at which water can infiltrate into the soil. If the runoff has sufficient flow energy, it will transport loosened soil particles down the slope, sheet erosion is the transport of loosened soil particles by overland flow. Rill erosion refers to the development of small, ephemeral concentrated flow paths which function as both sediment source and sediment delivery systems for erosion on hillslopes, generally, where water erosion rates on disturbed upland areas are greatest, rills are active. Flow depths in rills are typically of the order of a few centimetres or less and this means that rills exhibit hydraulic physics very different from water flowing through the deeper, wider channels of streams and rivers. Gully erosion occurs when water accumulates and rapidly flows in narrow channels during or immediately after heavy rains or melting snow
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Andesite
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For the extinct cephalopod genus, see Andesites. Andesite is an igneous, volcanic rock, of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the type between basalt and dacite, and ranges from 57 to 63% silicon dioxide as illustrated in TAS diagrams. The mineral assemblage is dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene or hornblende. Magnetite, zircon, apatite, ilmenite, biotite, and garnet are common accessory minerals, alkali feldspar may be present in minor amounts. The quartz-feldspar abundances in andesite and other rocks are illustrated in QAPF diagrams. Classification of andesites may be refined according to the most abundant phenocryst, example, hornblende-phyric andesite, if hornblende is the principal accessory mineral. Andesite can be considered as the equivalent of plutonic diorite. Characteristic of subduction zones, andesite represents the dominant rock type in island arcs, the average composition of the continental crust is andesitic. Along with basalts they are a component of the Martian crust. The name andesite is derived from the Andes mountain range, magmatism in island arc regions comes from the interplay of the subducting plate and the mantle wedge, the wedge-shaped region between the subducting and overriding plates. During subduction, the oceanic crust is submitted to increasing pressure and temperature. Hydrous minerals such as amphibole, zeolites, chlorite etc. dehydrate as they change to more stable, anhydrous forms, releasing water, fluxing water into the wedge lowers the solidus of the mantle material and causes partial melting. Due to the density of the partially molten material, it rises through the wedge until it reaches the lower boundary of the overriding plate. Basalt thus formed can contribute to the formation of andesite through fractional crystallization, partial melting of crust, or magma mixing, andesite is typically formed at convergent plate margins but may occur in other tectonic settings. Intermediate volcanic rocks are created via several processes, Fractional crystallization of a mafic parent magma and this removal can take place in a variety of ways, but most commonly this occurs by crystal settling. The first minerals to crystallize and be removed from a parent are olivines and amphiboles. These mafic minerals settle out of the magma, forming mafic cumulates, there is geophysical evidence from several arcs that large layers of mafic cumulates lie at the base of the crust
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Gully
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A gully is a landform created by running water, eroding sharply into soil, typically on a hillside. Gullies resemble large ditches or small valleys, but are metres to tens of metres in depth and width, when the gully formation is in process, the water flow rate can be substantial, causing a significant deep cutting action into soil. The earliest known usage of the term is from 1657 and it originates from the French word goulet, a diminutive form of goule which means throat. It is possible that the term was derived from a type of knife at the time, gullying or gully erosion is the process by which gullies are formed. Hillsides are more prone to gullying when they are cleared of vegetation, through deforestation, the eroded soil is easily carried by the flowing water after being dislodged from the ground, normally when rainfall falls during short, intense storms such as during thunderstorms. A gully may grow in length by means of erosion at a knick point. This erosion can result from interflow as well as surface runoff, gullies reduce the productivity of farmland where they incise into the land, and produce sediment that may clog downstream waterbodies. Because of this, much effort is invested into the study of gullies within the scope of geomorphology, in the prevention of gully erosion, the total soil loss from gully formation and subsequent downstream river sedimentation can be sizeable. Gullies can be formed or enlarged by a number of human activities, artificial gullies are formed during hydraulic mining when jets or streams of water are projected onto soft alluvial deposits to extract gold or tin ore. The remains of mining methods are very visible landform features in old goldfields such as in California. The badlands at Las Medulas for example, were created during the Roman period by hushing or hydraulic mining of the gold-rich alluvium with water supplied by numerous aqueducts tapping nearby rivers, each aqueduct produced large gullies below by erosion of the soft deposits. The effluvium was carefully washed with smaller streams of water to extract the nuggets, gullies are widespread at mid- to high latitudes on the surface of Mars, and are some of the youngest features observed on that planet, probably forming within the last few 100,000 years. Flow as springs from deeper seated liquid water aquifers in the subsurface is also a possible explanation for the formation of some Martian gullies. Arroyo Coulee Couloir Canyon Gulch Ravine Wadi Lavaka Badlands Rill Oxford English Dictionary
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Kingdom of Serbia (medieval)
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The Kingdom of Serbia, or Serbian Kingdom, was a medieval Serbian state that existed from 1217 to 1346, ruled by the Nemanjić dynasty. The Grand Principality of Serbia was elevated with the coronation of Stefan Nemanjić as king by his brother, bishop Sava, after inheriting all territories unified by their father, the kingdom was proclaimed an empire on 16 April 1346. Each province had its own nobility and institutions, and each acquired a member of the Vojislavljevići to head as Župan, the Byzantine Empire launched a campaign on Duklja between 1089 and 1091 and possibly captured Bodin. A civil war broke out in the realm among Bodins relatives, Vukan took the opportunity to assert himself and broke away, claiming the title of Grand Prince of Serbia. Rascia, Bosnia, and Zahumlje all became independent in 1091, up to this point, Duklja had been the center of the Serbian realm, as well as the main resistance to Byzantium in the Balkans. After 1091 Rascia became the most powerful of the Serbian states, under the rule of the Vukanović dynasty, Rascia also replaced Duklja as the main opponent of Byzantine rule in the 12th century. Bodins heirs were forced to recognize Byzantine overlordship, and now only the small territories of Duklja. During the reign of Vukans son Uroš I, the Byzantines invaded Duklja and sought to conquer Rascia as well, Uroš II initially fought the Byzantines, but he gave oaths of servitude to the Emperor after he was defeated in war. Stefan Nemanja was succeeded by his middle son Stefan, whilst his first-born son Vukan was given the rule of the Zeta region, Stefan Nemanjas youngest son Rastko became a monk and took the name Sava, turning all his efforts to spreading religion among his people. In Byzantium, Sava managed to secure autocephaly for the Serbian Church, in the same year Sava published the first constitution in Serbia — St. Savas Nomocanon. The Nomocanon was a compilation of Civil law, based on Roman Law and its basic purpose was to organize the functions of the young Serbian kingdom and the Serbian church. Thus the Serbs acquired both political and religious independence, the next generation of Serbian rulers — the sons of Stefan Prvovenčani, Radoslav, Vladislav, and Uroš I — marked a period of stagnation of the state structure. All three kings were more or less dependent on some of the neighbouring states — Byzantium, Bulgaria, the ties with the Hungarians played a decisive role as Uroš I was succeeded by his son Dragutin, whose wife was a Hungarian princess. Thus, some of these became part of the Serbian state for the first time. His new state was named Kingdom of Srem, in that time the name Srem was a designation for two territories, Upper Srem and Lower Srem. The Kingdom of Srem under the rule of Stefan Dragutin was actually Lower Srem, after Dragutin died in 1316, his son, king Vladislav II, became king and ruled until 1325. Under Dragutins younger brother, King Milutin, Serbia grew stronger despite having to fight wars on three different fronts. King Milutin was an apt diplomat much inclined to the use of a customary medieval diplomatic and dynastic marriages and he was married five times, with Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Byzantine princesses
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Spring (hydrology)
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A spring is any natural situation where water flows from an aquifer to the Earths surface. It is a component of the hydrosphere, a spring may be the result of karst topography where surface water has infiltrated the Earths surface, becoming part of the area groundwater. The groundwater then travels through a network of cracks and fissure—openings ranging from intergranular spaces to large caves, the water eventually emerges from below the surface, in the form of a karst spring. The forcing of the spring to the surface can be the result of an aquifer in which the recharge area of the spring water table rests at a higher elevation than that of the outlet. Spring water forced to the surface by elevated sources are artesian wells and this is possible even if the outlet is in the form of a 300-foot-deep cave. In this case the cave is used like a hose by the higher elevated area of groundwater to exit through the lower elevation opening. Non-artesian springs may simply flow from a higher elevation through the earth to a lower elevation, still other springs are the result of pressure from an underground source in the earth, in the form of volcanic activity. The result can be water at elevated temperature such as a hot spring, the action of the groundwater continually dissolves permeable bedrock such as limestone and dolomite, creating vast cave systems. The term seep refers to springs with small flow rates in which the water has filtered through permeable earth. Fracture springs, discharge from faults, joints, or fissures in the earth, tubular springs, in which the water flows from underground caverns. Spring discharge, or resurgence, is determined by the springs recharge basin, factors that affect the recharge include the size of the area in which groundwater is captured, the amount of precipitation, the size of capture points, and the size of the spring outlet. Water may leak into the system from many sources including permeable earth, sinkholes. In some cases entire creeks seemingly disappear as the water sinks into the ground via the stream bed, grand Gulf State Park in Missouri is an example of an entire creek vanishing into the groundwater system. The water emerges 9 miles away, forming some of the discharge of Mammoth Spring in Arkansas, human activity may also affect a springs discharge--withdrawal of groundwater reduces the water pressure in an aquifer, decreasing the volume of flow. Springs are often classified by the volume of the water they discharge, the largest springs are called first-magnitude, defined as springs that discharge water at a rate of at least 2800 liters or 100 cubic feet of water per second. The scale for spring flow is as follows, Minerals become dissolved in the water as it moves through the underground rocks and this may give the water flavor and even carbon dioxide bubbles, depending on the nature of the geology through which it passes. This is why spring water is bottled and sold as mineral water. Springs that contain significant amounts of minerals are sometimes called mineral springs, Springs that contain large amounts of dissolved sodium salts, mostly sodium carbonate, are called soda springs
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Mineral
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A mineral is a naturally occurring chemical compound, usually of crystalline form and abiogenic in origin. A mineral has one specific chemical composition, whereas a rock can be an aggregate of different minerals or mineraloids, the study of minerals is called mineralogy. There are over 5,300 known mineral species, over 5,070 of these have been approved by the International Mineralogical Association, the silicate minerals compose over 90% of the Earths crust. The diversity and abundance of species is controlled by the Earths chemistry. Silicon and oxygen constitute approximately 75% of the Earths crust, which translates directly into the predominance of silicate minerals, minerals are distinguished by various chemical and physical properties. Differences in chemical composition and crystal structure distinguish the various species, changes in the temperature, pressure, or bulk composition of a rock mass cause changes in its minerals. Minerals can be described by their various properties, which are related to their chemical structure. Common distinguishing characteristics include crystal structure and habit, hardness, lustre, diaphaneity, colour, streak, tenacity, cleavage, fracture, parting, more specific tests for describing minerals include magnetism, taste or smell, radioactivity and reaction to acid. Minerals are classified by key chemical constituents, the two dominant systems are the Dana classification and the Strunz classification, the silicate class of minerals is subdivided into six subclasses by the degree of polymerization in the chemical structure. All silicate minerals have a unit of a 4− silica tetrahedron—that is, a silicon cation coordinated by four oxygen anions. These tetrahedra can be polymerized to give the subclasses, orthosilicates, disilicates, cyclosilicates, inosilicates, phyllosilicates, other important mineral groups include the native elements, sulfides, oxides, halides, carbonates, sulfates, and phosphates. The first criterion means that a mineral has to form by a natural process, stability at room temperature, in the simplest sense, is synonymous to the mineral being solid. More specifically, a compound has to be stable or metastable at 25 °C, modern advances have included extensive study of liquid crystals, which also extensively involve mineralogy. Minerals are chemical compounds, and as such they can be described by fixed or a variable formula, many mineral groups and species are composed of a solid solution, pure substances are not usually found because of contamination or chemical substitution. Finally, the requirement of an ordered atomic arrangement is usually synonymous with crystallinity, however, crystals are also periodic, an ordered atomic arrangement gives rise to a variety of macroscopic physical properties, such as crystal form, hardness, and cleavage. There have been recent proposals to amend the definition to consider biogenic or amorphous substances as minerals. The formal definition of an approved by the IMA in 1995, A mineral is an element or chemical compound that is normally crystalline. However, if geological processes were involved in the genesis of the compound, Mineral classification schemes and their definitions are evolving to match recent advances in mineral science
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Government of Serbia
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The Government of Serbia, formally the Government of the Republic of Serbia, commonly abbreviated to Serbian Government, is the executive branch of government in Serbia. The affairs of government are decided by a Cabinet of Ministers, the incumbent Cabinet was elected on 11 August 2016. The incumbent Cabinet was elected on 11 August 2016 by a majority vote in the National Assembly and it is the second consecutive cabinet presided by Aleksandar Vučić. It has 19 members,16 with a ministry and 3 without portfolio, Cabinet of Serbia Cabinet of Serbia Cabinet of Serbia Cabinet of Serbia Cabinet of Serbia Cabinet of Serbia Official website
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Stone town of Kuklica
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The stone town is an area consisting of over 120 naturally formed stone pillars, located in the village of Kuklica, near Kratovo in Macedonia. Kuklica is located 8 km northwest of Kratovo, the stone formations are situated on the right bank of the Kriva River valley. The area has an altitude of 415-420 m and extends over an area of 0.3 square km, there are two main legends surrounding the formation of the strange stone pillars in Kuklica. The most famous legend is that of a man who could not decide which of two women he should marry, so, the man planned to marry each woman on the same day at different times. When the first wedding was in progress, the woman to marry the man went to see who was getting married on the same day as she. When she saw her husband marrying another woman, she cursed all in attendance at the wedding. Another popular legend is that there was once a forest in the area, then, the area became a wasteland. The temperatures were low and when the army passed through the wasteland. According to the villagers, new figures appear every 5-6 years. There are four places at the Balkans where you can see this phenomenon, aside from mystic stories and legends, the earth pyramid in Kuklica was formed as a result of natural erosion processes in the Holocene, during the past 100,000 years. Differences in the erodibility of the rocks of the area are the main factor for the pillars creation. Thus, soft tuffs rocks on the base are overlaid by solid, sturdy andesites and ignimbrites on the top, which are nearly 30 million years old
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Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness
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The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is a 45, 000-acre wilderness area located in San Juan County in the U. S. state of New Mexico. Translated from the Navajo word Bistahí, Bisti means among the adobe formations, De-Na-Zin, from Navajo Dééł Náázíní, translates as Standing Crane. Petroglyphs of cranes have been south of the Wilderness. It is on the Trails of the Ancients Byway, one of the designated New Mexico Scenic Byways, the 1977 film Sorcerer, directed by William Friedkin, filmed one climactic scene on location in the Bisti badlands. The motion of water through and around the ancient river built up layers of sediment, swamps and the occasional pond bordering the stream left behind large buildups of organic material, in the form of what became beds of lignite. At some point, a volcano deposited a large amount of ash, as the water slowly receded, prehistoric animals survived on the lush foliage that grew along the many riverbanks. When the water disappeared it left behind a 1, 400-foot layer of jumbled sandstone, mudstone, shale, sandstone layers were deposited above the ash and remains of the delta. The ancient sedimentary deposits were uplifted with the rest of the Colorado Plateau, six thousand years ago the last ice age receded, and the waters of the melting glaciers helped expose fossils and petrified wood, and eroded the rock into the hoodoos now visible. Traveling into the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness today, one descends from tawny sand and sage desert, into a world of gray, black, red and purple sands, the western side of the Wilderness, formerly called the Bisti Wilderness, is primarily Fruitland Formation. The eastern side of the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, formerly called the De-Na-Zin Wilderness, the ash covers much of these features. When the Wilderness area was deep underground, water often. The water left behind deposits of lime that eventually built up, as the softer layers wore away, the tubes became exposed. The caps of many of the hoodoos in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin wilderness are limestone. Ash erodes very quickly and does not hold water long and these two qualities make for poor growing conditions and explains the general lack of plant life. The lignite beds, left by swamps 70 million years ago and those lignite mounds coincide with most of the petrified wood and fossils found in the Wilderness. Coal was present in the Wilderness, and much of that coal burned in an ancient fire that lasted centuries, the clay over the coal layer was metamorphosed by the heat into red clinkers that look today like tiny pottery sherds or perhaps chunks of brick, depending on size. They vary from pale to red and can even take on a crimson hue. Their name, clinker, derives from the sound these stones make when walked on
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Bryce Canyon National Park
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Bryce Canyon National Park /ˈbraɪs/ is a National Park located in southwestern Utah in the United States. The major feature of the park is Bryce Canyon, which despite its name, is not a canyon, Bryce is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos, formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rocks. The red, orange, and white colors of the rocks provide spectacular views for park visitors, Bryce sits at a much higher elevation than nearby Zion National Park. The rim at Bryce varies from 8,000 to 9,000 feet, the Bryce Canyon area was settled by Mormon pioneers in the 1850s and was named after Ebenezer Bryce, who homesteaded in the area in 1874. The area around Bryce Canyon became a National Monument in 1923 and was designated as a National Park in 1928, the park covers 35,835 acres and receives substantially fewer visitors than Zion National Park or Grand Canyon National Park, largely due to Bryces more remote location. In 2016, Bryce Canyon received 2,365,110 recreational visitors, Bryce Canyon National Park is located in southwestern Utah about 50 miles northeast of and 1,000 feet higher than Zion National Park. The weather in Bryce Canyon is therefore cooler, and the park receives more precipitation, yearly temperatures vary from an average minimum of 9 °F in January to an average maximum of 83 °F in July, but extreme temperatures can range from −30 to 97 °F. The record high temperature in the park was 98 °F on July 14,2002, the record low temperature was −28 °F on December 10,1972. The national park lies within the Colorado Plateau geographic province of North America, Park visitors arrive from the plateau part of the park and look over the plateaus edge toward a valley containing the fault and the Paria River just beyond it. The edge of the Kaiparowits Plateau bounds the opposite side of the valley, Bryce Canyon was not formed from erosion initiated from a central stream, meaning it technically is not a canyon. Instead headward erosion has excavated large amphitheater-shaped features in the Cenozoic-aged rocks of the Paunsaugunt Plateau and this erosion exposed delicate and colorful pinnacles called hoodoos that are up to 200 feet high. A series of amphitheaters extends more than 20 miles north-to-south within the park, the largest is Bryce Amphitheater, which is 12 miles long,3 miles wide and 800 feet deep. A nearby example of amphitheaters with hoodoos in the formation but at a higher elevation, is in Cedar Breaks National Monument. Rainbow Point, the highest part of the park at 9,105 feet, is at the end of the 18-mile scenic drive, from there, Aquarius Plateau, Bryce Amphitheater, the Henry Mountains, the Vermilion Cliffs and the White Cliffs can be seen. Yellow Creek, where it exits the park in the north-east section, is the lowest part of the park at 6,620 feet, little is known about early human habitation in the Bryce Canyon area. Archaeological surveys of Bryce Canyon National Park and the Paunsaugunt Plateau show that people have been in the area for at least 10,000 years, basketmaker Anasazi artifacts several thousand years old have been found south of the park. Other artifacts from the Pueblo-period Anasazi and the Fremont culture have also been found, the Paiute Indians moved into the surrounding valleys and plateaus in the area around the same time that the other cultures left. These Native Americans hunted and gathered for most of their food, the Paiute in the area developed a mythology surrounding the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon
18.
Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument
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Kasha-Katuwe means white cliffs in the Pueblo language Keresan. The area owes its remarkable geology to layers of volcanic rock, over time, weathering and erosion of these layers has created canyons and tent rocks. The tent rocks themselves are cones of soft pumice and tuff beneath harder caprocks, the monument is open for day use only and may be closed by order of the Cochiti Pueblo Tribal Governor. A1.2 mile recreation trail leads up through a canyon to a lookout point where the tent rocks may be viewed from above. A1.3 mile loop trail leads past their base, the park is located on the Pajarito Plateau between 5700 and 6400 feet above sea level. The monument is closed to dogs, the monument is a unit of the BLMs National Landscape Conservation System. Science fiction TV series Earth 2 filming locations included the monument, ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness Study Area Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness Bryce Canyon National Park Đavolja Varoš Demoiselles Coiffées de Pontis Hoodoo List of rock formations List of U. S. Wilderness Areas Wilderness Act Media related to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument at Wikimedia Commons U. S
19.
Politika
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Politika is a Serbian daily newspaper, published in Belgrade. Founded in 1904 by Vladislav F. Ribnikar, it is the oldest daily newspaper still in circulation in the Balkans and is considered to be Serbias newspaper of record. Surprisingly, it was significant private newspaper in Communist Yugoslavia, have been controlled by Ribnikar family to 98 years from 1904 to 2002. Politika is published by Politika novine i magazini, a joint venture between Politika AD and East Media Group and it blamed the local Kosovo Albanians for sodomizing Đorđe Martinović, and published fabricated reader letters claiming that the Albanians were raping hundreds of Serbian women. At the end of the Battle of Vukovar, it ran the story of the Vukovar children massacre. The article was retracted with a statement published the following day. In 1987, Politika published a text known as Vojko i Savle. List of newspapers in Serbia Media in Serbia Official website Politika AD Digital archive of Politika editions,1904 -1941
20.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
21.
Justiniana Prima
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Justiniana Prima was a Byzantine city that existed from 535 to 615, and currently an archaeological site, near todays Lebane, Leskovac district in southern Serbia. It was founded by Emperor Justinian I and served as the seat of an Archbishopric that had jurisdiction of the Central Balkans, in 1979, Justiniana Prima was added to the Archaeological Sites of Exceptional Importance-list, protected by Republic of Serbia. The establishment of the Archbishopric is mentioned in Justinians own Novel XI from 535, the establishment is seen as part of the feud between Justinian and the Archbishop of Eastern Illyricum, who was a papal vicar. The city was founded by Emperor Justinian I and it existed from the 530s to 615 and was designed as a splendid bishops seat. The city was a new foundation in honour of the nearby village of Tauresium. Serb scholars also identify it as the site of Bederiana, birthplace of Justinians uncle, the city planning combined classical and Christian elements, thermae, a forum, and streets with colonnades. Typical Mediterranean features went along with numerous churches and it also was chosen as the seat of the Dacian diocese. Thessaloniki, however, did not actually lose much of its functions during the short lifetime of Justiniana Prima. Still, the new foundation was not without importance and Justinian made sure that this city, in 615 the city was destroyed by invading Avars coming from north of the Danube. He therefore built a wall of small compass about this place in the form of a square, placing a tower at each corner, and caused it to be called, as it actually is, Tetrapyrgia. And close by this place he built a notable city which he named Justiniana Prima. In that place also he constructed an aqueduct and so caused the city to be supplied with ever-running water. And many other enterprises were carried out by the founder of this city - works of great size, in brief, the city is both great and populous and blessed in every way. Procopius description of Justiniana Prima in The Buildings, two fibulae and Slavic pottery made 550–600 show that a considerable part of the inhabitants of Justiniana Prima were Slavs before the Avar incursion. There have been archaeological excavations for nearly 150 years with the participation of French researchers, Archaeological Sites of Exceptional Importance Bibliography Stanislaw Turlej. Justiniana Prima, An Underestimated Aspect of Justinian’s Church Policy, Justinians Balkan Wars, Campaigning, Diplomacy and Development in Illyricum, Thrace and the Northern World A. D. 527-65. THE SHEPHERD AS THE PERSONIFICATION OF RULER AND PRIEST An iconographical analysis of a scene from a floor mosaic in the southern basilica of Caričin Grad. The Age of Justinian, The Circumstances of Imperial Power, pp 96–97,189, economy and Society in the Age of Justinian
22.
Tara (mountain)
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Tara is a mountain located in western Serbia. It is part of Dinaric Alps and stands at 1, 000-1,500 metres above sea level. The mountains slopes are clad in dense forests with numerous high-altitude clearings and meadows, steep cliffs, deep ravines carved by the nearby Drina River and many karst, the mountain is a popular tourist centre. Taras national park encompasses a part of the mountain. The highest peak is Zborište, at 1,544 m, taras national park was established in 1981 and it encompasses Tara and Zvijezda mountains, in a large bend of the Drina River. The size of the park is about 220 square km with altitudes varying from 250 to 1,500 metres above sea level, the parks management office is located in nearby Bajina Bašta. The national park consists of a group of peaks with deep picturesque gorges between them. The most striking of these gorges is the Drina Gorge, with its sheer drops from 1000–250 metres and extensive views of western Serbia, the area is also characterised by karst caves, pits, springs, and breathtaking vista points. Forests account for three quarters of this national parks area, some of them being the best preserved and well-kept in Europe, Tara also boasts a rare endemic Tertiary species, the Picea omorika, or Serbian Spruce, which is now protected in a small area of the park. Because of its rarity and scientific importance, it has placed under national protection. Locally, Tara is home to different species of wildlife, including brown bears, chamois, roe deer, lynxes, otters, wolves. The main tourist points are Kaluđerske Bare on the north, close to Bajina Bašta, hotels Beli Bor and Omorika, as well as several smaller ones, are located on Kaluđerske Bare, while Mitrovac hosts eponymous childrens recreation hotel. The National Park can be reached from Bajina Bašta directly, from Perućac via Bajina Bašta, the Drina gorge, which is an integral part of the park, can be toured by boat. Interesting locally made items are woolen handcrafts, various products, juniper and plum spirits and honey
23.
Manasija
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Manasija, also known as Resava, is a Serbian Orthodox monastery near Despotovac, Serbia, founded by Despot Stefan Lazarević between 1406 and 1418. The church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity and it is one of the most significant monuments of medieval Serbian culture and it belongs to the Morava school. The monastery is surrounded by walls and towers. Immediately following its foundation, the became the cultural centre of the Serbian Despotate. Its School of Resava was well known for its manuscripts and translations throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, even after the fall of the Despotate to the Ottoman Turks. Manasija complex was declared Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1979, and it is protected by Republic of Serbia, the founding charter of the monastery has, unfortunately, not been preserved. The Manasija Monastery, also known as Resava, was two kilometres northwest from the town of Despotovac, in the picturesque ravine. Construction of the mausoleum and the fortified town lasted about a decade. During this period, a church, large refectory, lodgings, adjacent buildings, towers and walls, fortifications with protective walls, …across hills and fields and deserts he went looking for a place on which to build the desired family, the silent home. The monumental and imposing Church of Manasija, together with the contemporary monuments, the refectory was built parallel to the church, and is one of the largest known structures in medieval Serbia, which was completely covered in frescoes. The monastery compound was encircled and protected by walls with eleven towers. Only a quarter of the paintings survived, but even these are among the most beautiful in the outstandingly rich treasure of old Serbian painting, history records that Despot Stefan invested great effort in finding the most honoured and skillful workers, the most experienced icon painters. During the five centuries of Ottoman rule, the monastery was abandoned and wrecked several times, the lead roof was removed from the church, and so for over a century the frescoes inside were subject to damage by rainfall. As a result, about two-thirds of them were irremediably lost, in the 18th century, the western part of the church - the narthex - was heavily damaged in an explosion and was later rebuilt. The mosaic floor of part of the church was fortunately preserved. Architecturally, the church belongs to the Morava school, the ground plan is in the form of a floral inscribed cross, combined with a trefoil. The twelve-sided dome above the central space rests on four free standing pillars, at the eastern end there are one large and two small apses, whereas two large choir conches flank the altar. Above the corners of the church there are four little octagonal domes, the narthex consists of nine bays
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Smederevo Fortress
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The Smederevo Fortress is a medieval fortified city in Smederevo, Serbia, which was temporary capital of Serbia in the Middle Ages. It was built between 1427 and 1430 on the order of Despot Đurađ Branković, the ruler of the Serbian Despotate and it was further fortified by the Ottoman Empire, which had taken the city, in the end of the century. The fortress withstood several sieges by Ottomans and Serbs, surviving relatively unscathed, during World War II it was heavily damaged, by explosions and bombing. As of 2009 it is in the midst of extensive restoration and conservation work, Smederevo Fortress was declared a national Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1979. In 2010, the fortress was placed on the tentative list for nomination as a World Heritage Site. Smederevo Fortress,45 kilometers southeast of Belgrade, covers 11.3 hectares in the center of the city of Smederevo. It is strategically located on the bank of the Danube river on the triangular plain formed by the confluence of the Danube and Jezava rivers. The fortress position connecting the Balkans and Central Europe has made it an important religious and commercial center for centuries, the Danube also connects it to many other historic sites, most notably Belgrade and its suburb of Vinča, Novi Sad, Golubac fortress, Lepenski Vir and Viminacium. Despot Stefan Lazarević had to maintain the Serbian Despotate in a balance between the Ottomans and Hungarians. Around 1403, he accepted the Hungarian vassalage from King Sigismund and established the new capital in Belgrade, after Stefans death in 1426, Đurađ Branković, Stefans nephew and successor, had to return Belgrade to the Hungarians. To compensate for loss, Đurađ decided to build a new capital. Smederevo, which had no settlement, was chosen for several reasons. In 1428, during the Ottoman Empires war with Venice, the Hungarians and Ottomans agreed to recognize Branković as an independent ruler of Serbia, a contract also established Ottoman overlordship of Serbia, in conjunction with remaining a Hungarian vassal. Between the longer status with Hungary and religious differences with the Ottomans, Smederevos location on the Danube, between Belgrade and Golubac, provided easy access to other points along the river. It also allowed the control of Danube traffic, including blocking Hungarian entry into the Morava valley, in the fall of 1428, construction of the capital began. In 1430, the first part of the fortress, including a palace, work on a fortified suburb and additional fortifications continued until 1439. On April 20,1434, Đurađ Brankovićs youngest daughter Katarina and this marriage stressed the friendly relations the Despot had with the Ottoman Porte, although Ulrichs kinship with the Queen of Hungary implied an increased Serbo-Hungarian alliance. As a result, Vizier Mehmet Saridže-pasha arrived in Smederevo in mid-1434 with a message from Edirne and it stated that Serbias safety from the Ottoman Empire could only be guaranteed through the marriage of Brankovićs older daughter to Sultan Murad II
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Kopaonik
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Kopaonik is one of the larger mountain ranges of Serbia and Kosovo. It is located in the part of Serbia and the northern parts of Kosovo. Its highest point, Pančićs Peak, is 2,017 m above sea level and is located on the border between the two administrative entities, Kopaonik is a major ski resort in Serbia, and after Bulgarias Bansko, the largest in Southeast Europe. There are 25 ski lifts with capacity of 32,000 skiers per hour, a national park spread over 118.1 km2 of the central part of the Kopaonik plateau was established in 1981. Kopaonik is the largest and longest mountain range in Serbia and it belongs to the region of Raška. The Kopaonik mountain massif includes the mountains of Kopaonik, Željin, Goč, Snow exists between November and May, while there are 200 sun days. Kopaonik has a historical heritage. The area was an important mining center in the Middle Ages with a notable Saxon community operating in the area, there was intensive trade with the Republic of Ragusa. The nearest Serbian medieval castle is Maglič, during World War II the Yugoslav Partisans were active in the region. With territorial reorganization in the mid-1950s, the parts of Kopaonik were to be ceded from NR Serbia to its autonomous province Kosovo. In 1959, Leposavić was incorporated into the province, in 1981, due to its location, climate, rich forests, variety of herbs, and area for holiday and recreation,12,000 hectares of the range were proclaimed a national park. Kopaoniks flora has a number of autochthonous plant species. The fauna is diverse but its concentration varies, depending on the quality of the habitat. In 1981, due to its location, climate, rich forests, variety of herbs, deciduous forests and native coniferous woodland make up most of the forested land in the park. Kopaonik has many species of birds, such as partridge, scops owl, red-backed shrike. Soil erosion is a threat as there is a lot of logging, the national park is situated on a relatively flat region, at an altitude of about 1,700 m. This central Kopaonik plateau is called Suvo Rudište and it is surrounded by mountain peaks. To the north and northwest of this plateau stretches Banjski Kopaonik, directly below the Suvo Rudište plateau starts the valley of the Samokovska River, with its steep run, numerous rapids, falls and gorges
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Carska Bara
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Carska Bara, meaning Imperial Pond, is the largest individual bog in Serbia, located in the municipality of Zrenjanin. It is part of the nature reserve, officially Special Nature Reserve Carska Bara. Carska Bara is located 17 kilometers south of the town of Zrenjanin, in the part of the Serbian section of Banat. The southern border is bounded by the final, navigable section of the Begej before it empties into the Tisa, while to the north are the vast Ečka fishponds, entire bog belongs to the municipality of Zrenjanin. Even though it is located in the triangle of large cities Belgrade-Novi Sad-Zrenjanin, all settlements in the vicinity of Carska bara are smaller ones, ranging from 1,500 to 6,000 inhabitants. The closest settlements are Perlez, in southern corner, on the Begej, in the north are the villages of Lukino Selo, Ečka and Stajićevo, while Knićanin is southwest of it. Town of Titel is right across the bridge on the Tisa, gallery of the painting colony of Ečka is located on the northern tip of the bog. Human history in the area surrounding Carska bara goes back to 4,000 years BC, with uncovered mounds near Mužlja, according to legend, the bog, was named after Attila, king of the Huns. The entire, physically connected wetland of Carska Bara covers an area of 11 square kilometers and it extends for 8 to 9 kilometers along the Begej. Wetland consists of smaller bodies of water, rivers, canals, lakes and ponds, covered with reed beds, willow thickets and rushes. The central, lake section is known for its blue, clear water, while the salt marshes have white and yellow waters. Many rare and autochthonous plants live in the wetland, but also many imported ones, some representatives of the water plants include water fern, white water lilly and water farina. Meadow plants are represented by Plumbago, Achillea, wormwood, mallow and meadow sage and marsh plants by flowering rush, yellow iris, water mannagrass and common sweet flag. In Carska Bara and nearby Begej river there are 24 different species of fish, amphibians and reptiles are also abundant. Carska Bara is the best known for its abundant bird life, variety of mammals include wild hog, roe deer, red fox, European brown hare, muskrat, bats, hedgehog, mole, weasel, hamster, European ground squirrel, European polecat, etc. Special Nature Reserve Carska Bara was proclaimed in 1955, with status being revised in 1995 and it covers an area of 16.76 square kilometers, wider than Carska Bara itself. It was declared a Ramsar site on March 25,1996. carskabara. rs
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Gornje Podunavlje
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Gornje Podunavlje Special Nature Reserve is a large protected area of wetland in the northwest of Serbia. It comprises two big marshes along the bank of the Danube River - the Monostor and Apatin marsh. Parts of the reserve are subject to the Croatia–Serbia border dispute. The first designation as a protected area dates back to 1955, when an area of 10 square kilometres was proposed as an important habitat for the white-tailed eagle, since then, the area included and the level of protection has been gradually increased. Gornje Podunavlje was designated as a Special Nature Reserve in 2001, within the reserve, there is a three-level zonation system established, protection regimes of category I, II and III. There is a biodiversity of Gornje Podunavlje Reserve. More than 150 bird species occur regularly in the reserve, amongst which a lot of threatened ones and it is an area of important aquatic and semi-aquatic vegetation, wet meadows and native lowland forests composed of willow, poplar, ash and oak trees. The area is rich in species, as one of the most important spawning areas along the Danube River. It is one of the best preserved wetlands in the Danube River Basin area, although suffers a certain pressure from numerous human activities, this area still remains an unspoilt natural environment for the many species which inhabit it
28.
Jerma
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The Jerma or Erma is a river in southeastern Serbia and western Bulgaria. Even though not very long, it is notable for passing the Serbian-Bulgarian border twice, the Jerma originates in the undeveloped and sparsely populated area of Krajište, in the southeastern corner of Serbia. This is where the Jerma crosses the border for the first time, the Erma passes close to the villages of Glavanovtsi and Turokovtsi, where it turns north, running through Tran. After Tran, the Erma cut the famous gorge Transko zhdrelo, after the gorge, Erma flows through the Bulgarian part of the village of Petačinci. Erma receives its major tributary, the Yablanitsa, right before it re-enters Serbia after a 26 km travel through Bulgaria, the river crosses the border for the second time about a kilometer after Petachinci. The Jerma continues to flow generally to the north, passing next to the village of Iskrovci and the picturesque spa of Zvonačka Banja. In this last section, the Jerma flows through the Sukovo coal basin, named after the village Sukovo, which is not on the banks of the Jerma itself, but slightly to the west. Despite the hard high quality, the coal mine near Pirot was shut down. In this final section, the Jerma is also known as Sukovska reka, a hydroelectric plant is being constructed on The Erma river between the Gorge of Tran and the village of Petačinci. It is expected to begin producing electricity in the near future, mala Prosvetina Enciklopedija, Third edition, Prosveta, ISBN 86-07-00001-2 Jovan Đ. Marković, Enciklopedijski geografski leksikon Jugoslavije, Svjetlost-Sarajevo, ISBN 86-01-02651-6
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Obedska bara
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Obedska bara is a large swamp-forest area and natural reserve stretching along the Sava River in Southern Syrmia, some 40 km west of Belgrade. The pond is a lake, a remnant of the meanders of the old Sava River. Due to its shape the swampy bed of the pond, situated between the villages of Obrež and Kupinovo, is called “The Horse-shoe”, higher grounds with cut-in depressions and old oak forests are called “The Hoof”. The pond is a complex of stagnant tributaries, marshes, pits, marsh vegetation, damp meadows. It is home to over 30 different water, swamp, forest and it is one of the richest and best preserved wildlife habitats in the Pannonian plain. Presently, it has legal protection status, denoting a natural asset of exceptional value. BirdLife. org Photos of Obedska Bara on www. wild-serbia. com Young Researchers of Serbia Undiscovered locations in Serbia/Neotkrivene lokacije u Srbiji
30.
Okanj
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Okanj is a saline oxbow lake situated near the village of Elemir in the Zrenjanin commune, western Banat, Vojvodina Province, Serbia. It was formed from a meander of the Tisa River and is now about 4.5 kilometres from the left bank. The whole depression occupies 200 hectares and contains brackish water, in some parts the edges are surrounded by reeds, and there are also extreme saline edges, with short halophylous vegetation. Herons traditionally breed here and a colony with spoonbills was formed in 1998. In that year there were 47 pairs of great egret,33 pairs of grey heron,27 pairs of purple heron and 60 pairs of Eurasian spoonbill
31.
Suva Planina
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Suva Planina is a mountain in southeastern Serbia. It lies between towns of Niška Banja on the northwest and Babušnica on the southeast, with a ridge branching towards Bela Palanka on north. The highest peak is Trem at 1,810 m, the second highest is Golemo Stražište at 1, 714m, the name stems from the fact that there are only few springs in the whole mountain. Two biggest are Bojanine vode and Rakoš česma, traces of the Roman military road Via Militaris, connecting Singidunum and Constantinople are still visible across the mountain. As of 2010, Suva planina is undergoing a process of declaration of a nature preserve. In last weekend in February there is an event called “Zimski uspon na Trem”. It is also the biggest Balkan’s mountain winter event and it started in 1997 and it is under the organization of Mountaineering club “Železničar” from Niš. The slopes of this mountain are popular with skiing, list of mountains in Serbia Suva Planina Biser južne Srbije, mapa, staze, ponuda
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Titelski Breg
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Titelski Breg or Titel Hill is a loess hillock situated in the Vojvodina province, Serbia. It is 18 km long and 7.5 km wide, with steep cliffs, the hill has a flat top with an elevation of around 100 to maximally 128 m. The cliffs and the top give it a mesa-like appearance. The hill is a geographical feature because it is the only hill in Bačka region. It is a loess formation deposited during the Pleistocene, showing six distinct band, Šajkaška Bačka Image of Titelski Breg Geography of Vojvodina
