Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa, is the longest river in Africa and in the world, though some sources cite the Amazon River as the longest. The Nile, about 6,650 km long, is an "international" river as its drainage basin covers eleven countries, Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Republic of the Sudan and Egypt. In particular, the Nile is the primary water source of Sudan; the river Nile has the White Nile and Blue Nile. The White Nile is considered to be the headwaters and primary stream of the Nile itself; the Blue Nile, however, is the source of most of the silt. The White Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa, with the most distant source still undetermined but located in either Rwanda or Burundi, it flows north through Tanzania, Lake Victoria and South Sudan. The Blue Nile flows into Sudan from the southeast; the two rivers meet just north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The northern section of the river flows north entirely through the Sudanese desert to Egypt ends in a large delta and flows into the Mediterranean Sea.
Egyptian civilization and Sudanese kingdoms have depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan, nearly all the cultural and historical sites of Ancient Egypt are found along river banks. In the ancient Egyptian language, the Nile is called Ḥ'pī or Iteru, meaning "river". In Coptic, the word ⲫⲓⲁⲣⲱ, pronounced piaro or phiaro, means "the river", comes from the same ancient name. In Egyptian Arabic, the Nile is called en-Nīl while in Standard Arabic. In Biblical Hebrew: הַיְאוֹר, Ha-Ye'or or הַשִׁיחוֹר, Ha-Shiḥor; the English name Nile and the Arabic names en-Nîl and an-Nîl both derive from the Latin Nilus and the Ancient Greek Νεῖλος. Beyond that, the etymology is disputed. Hesiod at his Theogony refers that Nilus was one of son of Oceanus and Tethys. Another derivation of Nile might be related to the term Nil, which refers to Indigofera tinctoria, one of the original sources of indigo dye. Another possible etymology derives it from a Semitic Nahal, meaning "river".
The standard English names "White Nile" and "Blue Nile", to refer to the river's source, derive from Arabic names applied only to the Sudanese stretches which meet at Khartoum. With a total length of about 6,650 km between the region of Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean Sea, the Nile is the longest river on the African continent; the drainage basin of the Nile covers about 10 % of the area of Africa. Compared to other major rivers, the Nile carries little water; the Nile basin is complex, because of this, the discharge at any given point along the mainstem depends on many factors including weather, diversions and evapotranspiration, groundwater flow. Above Khartoum, the Nile is known as the White Nile, a term used in a limited sense to describe the section between Lake No and Khartoum. At Khartoum the river is joined by the Blue Nile; the White Nile starts in equatorial East Africa, the Blue Nile begins in Ethiopia. Both branches are on the western flanks of the East African Rift; the source of the Nile is sometimes considered to be Lake Victoria, but the lake has feeder rivers of considerable size.
The Kagera River, which flows into Lake Victoria near the Tanzanian town of Bukoba, is the longest feeder, although sources do not agree on, the longest tributary of the Kagera and hence the most distant source of the Nile itself. It is either the Ruvyironza, which emerges in Bururi Province, Burundi, or the Nyabarongo, which flows from Nyungwe Forest in Rwanda; the two feeder rivers meet near Rusumo Falls on the Rwanda-Tanzania border. In 2010, an exploration party went to a place described as the source of the Rukarara tributary, by hacking a path up steep jungle-choked mountain slopes in the Nyungwe forest found an appreciable incoming surface flow for many kilometres upstream, found a new source, giving the Nile a length of 6,758 km. Gish Abay is the place where the "holy water" of the first drops of the Blue Nile develop; the Nile leaves Lake Nyanza at Ripon Falls near Uganda, as the Victoria Nile. It flows north for some 130 kilometers, to Lake Kyoga; the last part of the 200 kilometers river section starts from the western shores of the lake and flows at first to the west until just south of Masindi Port, where the river turns north makes a great half circle to the east and north until Karuma Falls.
For the remaining part it flows westerly through the Murchison Falls until it reaches the northern shores of Lake Albert where it forms a significant river delta. The lake itself is on the border of DR Congo. After leaving Lake Albert, the river is known as the Albert Nile; the Nile river flows into South Sudan just south of Nimule. Just south of the town it has the confluence with the Achwa River; the Bahr al Ghazal, itself 716 kilometers (44
Pepi II Neferkare
Pepi II was a pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty in Egypt's Old Kingdom who reigned from c. 2278 BC. His throne name, means "Beautiful is the Ka of Re", he succeeded to the throne at age six, after the death of Merenre I. He was traditionally thought to be the son of Pepi I and Queen Ankhesenpepi II but the South Saqqara Stone annals record that Merenre had a minimum reign of 11 years. Several 6th dynasty royal seals and stone blocks—the latter of which were found within the funerary temple of Queen Ankhesenpepi II, the known mother of Pepi II—were discovered in the 1999/2000 excavation season at Saqqara which demonstrate that she married Merenre after Pepi I's death and became this king's chief wife. Inscriptions on these stone blocks give Ankhesenpepi II the royal titles of: "King's Wife of the Pyramid of Pepy I, King's Wife of the Pyramid of Merenre, King's Mother of the Pyramid of Pepy II". Therefore, many Egyptologists believe that Pepi II was Merenre's own son. Pepi II would, therefore, be Pepi I's grandson while Merenre was, most Pepi II's father since he is known to have married Pepi II's known mother, Queen Ankhesenpepi II.
This would conform well with the evidence from the South Saqqara Stone which shows no coregency between the reigns of Pepi I and Merenre thus making it far more that Pepi II was Merenre's own son. Pepi II's reign marked a sharp decline of the Old Kingdom; as the power of the nomarchs grew, the power of the pharaoh declined. With no dominant central power, local nobles began raiding each other's territories and the Old Kingdom came to an end within mere decades after the close of Pepi II's reign, his mother Ankhesenpepi II most ruled as regent in the early years of his reign. She may have been helped in turn by her brother Djau, a vizier under the previous pharaoh. An alabaster statuette in the Brooklyn Museum depicts a young Pepi II, in full kingly regalia, sitting on the lap of his mother. Despite his long reign, this piece is one of only three known sculptural representations in existence of this particular king; some scholars have taken the relative paucity of royal statuary to suggest that the royal court was losing the ability to retain skilled artisans.
A glimpse of the personality of the pharaoh while he was still a child can be found in a letter he wrote to Harkhuf, a governor of Aswan and the head of one of the expeditions he sent into Nubia. Sent to trade and collect ivory and other precious items, he captured a pygmy. News of this reached the royal court, an excited young king sent word back to Harkhuf that he would be rewarded if the pygmy were brought back alive, where he would have served as an entertainer for the court; this letter was preserved as a lengthy inscription on Harkhuf's tomb, has been called the first travelogue. Over his long life Pepi II had several wives, including: Neith – She was the mother of Pepi's successor Merenre Nemtyemsaf II, she may be a daughter of Ankhesenpepi I and hence Pepi II's cousin and half-sister. Iput II – A half-sister of Pepi II. Ankhesenpepi III She was the daughter of Merenre Nemtyemsaf I and hence a granddaughter of Pepi I. Ankhesenpepi IV – The mother of King Neferkare according to texts in her tomb.
It is not known which Neferkare as there are several kings with that name during the First Intermediate Period. His name may be Neferkare Nebi. Udjebten She was a daughter of Pepi I. Of these queens, Neith and Udjebten each had their own minor pyramids and mortuary temples as part of the king's own pyramid complex in Saqqara. Queen Ankhesenpepi III was buried in a pyramid near the pyramid of Pepi I Meryre, Ankhesenpepi IV was buried in a chapel in the complex of Queen Udjebten. Two more sons of Pepi II Ptashepses. Pepi II seems to have carried on foreign policy in ways similar to that of his predecessors. Copper and turquoise were mined at Wadi Maghareh in the Sinai, alabaster was quarried from Hatnub, he is mentioned in inscriptions found in the Phoenician city of Byblos. In the south the trade relations consist of caravans trading with the Nubians. Harkhuf was a governor of Upper Egypt who led several expeditions under Merenre and Pepi II, his last expedition was a trip to a place called Iam. Harkhuf brought back with him what his correspondence with the young pharaoh referred to as a dwarf pygmy.
Egypt received goods such as incense, animal skins, ivory from Nubia. The Western desert was known to have extensive caravan routes; some of these routes allowed for trade with the Kharga Oasis, the Selima Oasis, the Dakhla Oasis. Only a small number of pharaohs were immortalized in ancient fiction, Pepi II may be among them. In the tale of King Neferkare and General Sasenet, three fragments of a papyrus dating from the late New Kingdom, report clandestine nocturnal meetings with a military commander – a General Sasenet or Sisene; some have suggested. Some, like R. S. Bianchi, think that it is a work of archaizing literature and dates to the 25th dynasty referring to Shabaka Neferkare, a Kushite pharaoh; the decline of the Old Kingdom arguably began before the time of Pepi II, with nomarchs becoming more and more powerful and exerting greater influence. Pepi I, for example, married two sisters who were the daughters of a nomarch and made their brother a vizier, their influence was extensive, both sisters bearing sons who were chosen as part of the royal succession: Merenre Nemtyemsaf I and Pepi II.
Increasing wealth and power appears
Zagros Mountains
The Zagros Mountains are a long mountain range in Iran and southeastern Turkey. This mountain range has a total length of 1,600 km; the Zagros mountain range begins in northwestern Iran and follows Iran's western border, while covering much of southeastern Turkey and northeastern Iraq. From this border region, the range follows Iran's coast on the Persian Gulf, it spans the whole length of the western and southwestern Iranian plateau, ending at the Strait of Hormuz. The highest point is Mount Dena, at 4,409 metres; the Zagros fold and thrust belt was formed by the collision of two tectonic plates, the Eurasian Plate and the Arabian Plate. This collision happened during the Miocene and folded the entire rocks, deposited from the Carboniferous to the Miocene in the geosyncline in front of the Iranian Plate; the process of collision continues to the present and as the Arabian Plate is being pushed against the Eurasian Plate, the Zagros Mountains and the Iranian Plateau are getting higher and higher.
Recent GPS measurements in Iran have shown that this collision is still active and the resulting deformation is distributed non-uniformly in the country taken up in the major mountain belts like Alborz and Zagros. A dense GPS network which covered the Iranian Zagros proves a high rate of deformation within the Zagros; the GPS results show that the current rate of shortening in the southeast Zagros is ~10 mm/a, dropping to ~5 mm/a in the northwest Zagros. The north-south Kazerun strike-slip fault divides the Zagros into two distinct zones of deformation; the GPS results show different shortening directions along the belt, normal shortening in the southeast and oblique shortening in the northwest Zagros. The Zagros mountains were created around the time of the second ice age, which caused the tectonic collision, leading to its uniqueness; the sedimentary cover in the SE Zagros is deforming above a layer of rock salt, whereas in the NW Zagros the salt layer is missing or is thin. This different basal friction is responsible for the different topographies on either side of the Kazerun fault.
Higher topography and narrower zone of deformation in the NW Zagros is observed whereas in the SE, deformation was spread more and a wider zone of deformation with lower topography was formed. Stresses induced in the Earth's crust by the collision caused extensive folding of the preexisting layered sedimentary rocks. Subsequent erosion removed softer rocks, such as mudstone and siltstone while leaving harder rocks, such as limestone and dolomite; this differential erosion formed the linear ridges of the Zagros Mountains. The depositional environment and tectonic history of the rocks were conducive to the formation and trapping of petroleum, the Zagros region is an important area for oil production. Salt domes and salt glaciers are a common feature of the Zagros Mountains. Salt domes are an important target for petroleum exploration, as the impermeable salt traps petroleum beneath other rock layers. There is much water-soluble gypsum in the region; the mountains have a sedimentary origin and are made of limestone.
In the Elevated Zagros or the Higher Zagros, the Paleozoic rocks could be found in the upper and higher sections of the peaks of the Zagros Mountains along the Zagros main fault. On both sides of this fault, there are Mesozoic rocks, a combination of Triassic and Jurassic rocks that are surrounded by Cretaceous rocks on both sides; the Folded Zagros is formed of Tertiary rocks, with the Paleogene rocks south of the Cretaceous rocks and the Neogene rocks south of the Paleogene rocks. The mountains are divided into many parallel sub-ranges, orogenically have the same age as the Alps. Iran's main oilfields lie in the western central foothills of the Zagros mountain range; the southern ranges of the Fars Province have somewhat lower summits. They contain some limestone rocks showing abundant marine fossils. Signs of early agriculture date back as far as 9000 BC to the foothills of the mountains. There were settlements that grew into cities named Anshan and Susa. Jarmo is one archaeological site in this area.
Shanidar, where the ancient skeletal remains of Neanderthals have been found, is another. Some of the earliest evidence of wine production has been discovered in the mountains. During early ancient times, the Zagros was the home of peoples such as the Kassites, Guti and Mitanni, who periodically invaded the Sumerian and/or Akkadian cities of Mesopotamia; the mountains create a geographic barrier between the Mesopotamian Plain, in Iraq, the Iranian Plateau. A small archive of clay tablets detailing the complex interactions of these groups in the early second millennium BC has been found at Tell Shemshara along the Little Zab. Tell Bazmusian, near Shemshara, was occupied between 800 CE, although not continuously; the mountains contain several ecosystems. Prominent among them are the forest steppe areas with a semi-arid climate; as defined by the World Wildlife Fund and used in their Wildfinder, the particular terrestrial ecoreg
Paris
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an area of 105 square kilometres and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of 1 January 2019. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, commerce, fashion and the arts; the City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the Île-de-France, or Paris Region, which has an estimated official 2019 population of 12,213,364, or about 18 percent of the population of France. The Paris Region had a GDP of €681 billion in 2016, accounting for 31 percent of the GDP of France, was the 5th largest region by GDP in the world. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey in 2018, Paris was the second most expensive city in the world, after Singapore, ahead of Zurich, Hong Kong and Geneva. Another source ranked Paris as most expensive, on a par with Singapore and Hong-Kong, in 2018; the city is a major rail and air-transport hub served by two international airports: Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly.
Opened in 1900, the city's subway system, the Paris Métro, serves 5.23 million passengers daily, is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro. Gare du Nord is the 24th busiest railway station in the world, the first located outside Japan, with 262 million passengers in 2015. Paris is known for its museums and architectural landmarks: the Louvre was the most visited art museum in the world in 2018, with 10.2 million visitors. The Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie are noted for their collections of French Impressionist art, the Pompidou Centre Musée National d'Art Moderne has the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe; the historical district along the Seine in the city centre is classified as a UNESCO Heritage Site. Popular landmarks in the centre of the city include the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris and the Gothic royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, both on the Île de la Cité. Paris received 23 million visitors in 2017, measured by hotel stays, with the largest numbers of foreign visitors coming from the United States, the UK, Germany and China.
It was ranked as the third most visited travel destination in the world in 2017, after Bangkok and London. The football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris; the 80,000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros. Paris will host the 2024 Summer Olympics; the 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups, the 2007 Rugby World Cup, the 1960, 1984, 2016 UEFA European Championships were held in the city and, every July, the Tour de France bicycle race finishes there. The name "Paris" is derived from the Celtic Parisii tribe; the city's name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. Paris is referred to as the City of Light, both because of its leading role during the Age of Enlightenment and more because Paris was one of the first large European cities to use gas street lighting on a grand scale on its boulevards and monuments.
Gas lights were installed on the Place du Carousel, Rue de Rivoli and Place Vendome in 1829. By 1857, the Grand boulevards were lit. By the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps. Since the late 19th century, Paris has been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in French as Parisiens, they are pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the area's major north–south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité; the Parisii minted their own coins for that purpose. The Romans began their settlement on Paris' Left Bank; the Roman town was called Lutetia. It became a prosperous city with a forum, temples, an amphitheatre. By the end of the Western Roman Empire, the town was known as Parisius, a Latin name that would become Paris in French. Christianity was introduced in the middle of the 3rd century AD by Saint Denis, the first Bishop of Paris: according to legend, when he refused to renounce his faith before the Roman occupiers, he was beheaded on the hill which became known as Mons Martyrum "Montmartre", from where he walked headless to the north of the city.
Clovis the Frank, the first king of the Merovingian dynasty, made the city his capital from 508. As the Frankish domination of Gaul began, there was a gradual immigration by the Franks to Paris and the Parisian Francien dialects were born. Fortification of the Île-de-la-Citie failed to avert sacking by Vikings in 845, but Paris' strategic importance—with its bridges prevent
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in the place, now the country Egypt. Ancient Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3100 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under Menes; the history of ancient Egypt occurred as a series of stable kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods: the Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age and the New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age. Egypt reached the pinnacle of its power in the New Kingdom, ruling much of Nubia and a sizable portion of the Near East, after which it entered a period of slow decline. During the course of its history Egypt was invaded or conquered by a number of foreign powers, including the Hyksos, the Libyans, the Nubians, the Assyrians, the Achaemenid Persians, the Macedonians under the command of Alexander the Great; the Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom, formed in the aftermath of Alexander's death, ruled Egypt until 30 BC, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province.
The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture. The predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, social development and culture. With resources to spare, the administration sponsored mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an independent writing system, the organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding regions, a military intended to assert Egyptian dominance. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes, religious leaders, administrators under the control of a pharaoh, who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people in the context of an elaborate system of religious beliefs; the many achievements of the ancient Egyptians include the quarrying and construction techniques that supported the building of monumental pyramids and obelisks.
Ancient Egypt has left a lasting legacy. Its art and architecture were copied, its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world, its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of writers for centuries. A new-found respect for antiquities and excavations in the early modern period by Europeans and Egyptians led to the scientific investigation of Egyptian civilization and a greater appreciation of its cultural legacy; the Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history. The fertile floodplain of the Nile gave humans the opportunity to develop a settled agricultural economy and a more sophisticated, centralized society that became a cornerstone in the history of human civilization. Nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the arid climate of Northern Africa became hot and dry, forcing the populations of the area to concentrate along the river region.
In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was much less arid. Large regions of Egypt were traversed by herds of grazing ungulates. Foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, this is the period when many animals were first domesticated. By about 5500 BC, small tribes living in the Nile valley had developed into a series of cultures demonstrating firm control of agriculture and animal husbandry, identifiable by their pottery and personal items, such as combs and beads; the largest of these early cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which originated in the Western Desert. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements; as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East Canaan and the Byblos coast.
Over a period of about 1,000 years, the Naqada culture developed from a few small farming communities into a powerful civilization whose leaders were in complete control of the people and resources of the Nile valley. Establishing a power center at Nekhen, at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile, they traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the western desert to the west, the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East to the east, initiating a period of Egypt-Mesopotamia relations. The Naqada culture manufactured a diverse selection of material goods, reflective of the increasing power and wealth of the elite, as well as societal personal-use items, which included combs, small statuary, painted pottery, high quality decorative stone vases, cosmetic palettes, jewelry made of gold and ivory, they developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, used well into the Roman Per
Sitka, Alaska
The City and Borough of Sitka Novo-Arkhangelsk, or New Arkhangelsk under Russian rule, is a unified city-borough on Baranof Island and the south half of Chichagof Island in the Alexander Archipelago of the Pacific Ocean, in the U. S. state of Alaska. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 8,881. In terms of land area, it is the largest city-borough in the U. S. with a land area of 2,870.3 square miles and a total area of 4,811.4 square miles. Urban Sitka, the part thought of as the "city" of Sitka, is on the west side of Baranof Island; the current name Sitka means "People on the Outside of Baranof Island," whose Tlingit name is Sheet’-ká X'áat'l. Sitka's location was settled by the Tlingit people over 10,000 years ago; the Russians settled Old Sitka in 1799. The governor of Russian America, Alexander Baranov, arrived under the auspices of the Russian-American Company, a colonial trading company chartered by Tsar Paul I. In June 1802, Tlingit warriors destroyed the original settlement, killing many of the Russians, with only a few managing to escape.
Baranov was forced to levy 10,000 rubles in ransom for the safe return of the surviving settlers. Baranov returned to Sitka in August 1804 including Yuri Lisyansky's Neva; the ship was not able to cause significant damage. The Russians launched an attack on the fort and were repelled. However, after two days of bombardment, the Tlingit "hung out a white flag" on the 22nd, deserted the fort on the 26th. Following their victory at the Battle of Sitka, the Russians established New Archangel as a permanent settlement named after Arkhangelsk, the largest city in the region where Baranov was born; the Tlingit re-established a fort on the Chatham Strait side of Peril Strait to enforce a trade embargo with the Russian establishment. In 1808, with Baranov still governor, Sitka was designated the capital of Russian America. Bishop Innocent lived in Sitka after 1840, he was known for his interest in education, his house, parts of which served as a schoolhouse, the Russian Bishop's House has since been restored by the National Park Service as part of the Sitka National Historical Park.
The Cathedral of Saint Michael was built in Sitka in 1848 and became the seat of the Russian Orthodox bishop of Kamchatka, the Kurile and Aleutian Islands, Alaska. The original church burned to the ground in 1966, but was restored to its original appearance, with the deliberate exception of its clockface, black in photographs taken before 1966, but white in subsequent photos. Swedes and other Lutherans worked for the Russian-American Company, the Sitka Lutheran Church, built in 1840, was the first Protestant church on the Pacific coast. After the transition to American control, following the purchase of Alaska from Russia by the United States in 1867, the influence of other Protestant religions increased, Saint-Peter's-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church was consecrated as "the Cathedral of Alaska" in 1900. Sitka was the site of the transfer ceremony for the Alaska purchase on October 18, 1867. Russia was going through economic and political turmoil after it lost the Crimean War to Britain and the Ottoman Empire in 1856 and decided it wanted to sell Alaska before it was taken over by Britain.
Russia offered to sell it to the United States. Secretary of State William Seward had wanted to purchase Alaska for quite some time as he saw it as an integral part of Manifest Destiny and America's reach to the Pacific Ocean. While the agreement to purchase Alaska was made in April 1867, the actual purchase and transfer of control took place on October 18, 1867; the cost to purchase Alaska was $7.2 million, 2 cents per acre Sitka served as the U. S. Government Capital of the Department of Alaska and District of Alaska; the seat of government was relocated north to Juneau in 1906. The Alaska Native Brotherhood was founded in Sitka in 1912 to address racism against Alaska Native people in Alaska. By 1914 the organization had constructed the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall on Katlian Street, named after a Tlingit war chief in the early period of Russian colonization. In 1937, the United States Navy established the first seaplane base in Alaska on Japonski Island. In 1941, construction began on an army garrison to protect the Naval air station.
Both the Army and Navy remained in Sitka until the end of WWII, when the Army base was put into caretaker status. The naval station in Sitka was deactivated in June, 1944; the Alaska Pulp Corporation was the first Japanese investment in the United States after WWII. In 1959 it began to produce pulp harvested from the Tongass National Forest under a 50-year contract with the US Forest Service. At its peak, the mill employed around 450 people before closing in 1993. Sitka's Filipino community established itself in Sitka before 1929, it became institutionalized as the Filipino Community of Sitka in 1981. Gold mining and fish canning paved the way for the town's initial growth. Today Sitka encompasses portions of Baranof Island and the smaller Japonski Island, connected to Baranof Island by the O'Connell Bridge; the John O'Connell Bridge was the first cable-stayed bridge built in the Western Hemisphere. Japonski Island is home to Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport, the Sitka branch campus of the University
Susa
Susa was an ancient city of the Proto-Elamite, First Persian Empire, Seleucid and Sasanian empires of Iran, one of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East. It is located in the lower Zagros Mountains about 250 km east of the Tigris River, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers; the site now "consists of three gigantic mounds, occupying an area of about one square kilometer, known as the Apadana mound, the Acropolis mound, the Ville Royale mound."The modern Iranian town of Shush is located at the site of ancient Susa. Shush is the administrative capital of Shush County in Iran's Khuzestan province, it had a population of 64,960 in 2005. Shush is identified as Shushan, mentioned in the Book of other Biblical books. In Elamite, the name of the city was written Ŝuŝun, etc.. The origin of the word Susa is from the local city deity Inshushinak. Susa was one of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East. In historic literature, Susa appears in the earliest Sumerian records: for example, it is described as one of the places obedient to Inanna, patron deity of Uruk, in Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta.
Susa is mentioned in the Ketuvim of the Hebrew Bible by the name Shushan in Esther, but once each in Nehemiah and Daniel. According to these texts, Nehemiah lived in Susa during the Babylonian captivity of the 6th century BCE, while Esther became queen there, married to King Ahasueurus, saved the Jews from genocide. A tomb presumed to be that of Daniel is located in the area, known as Shush-Daniel. However, a large portion of the current structure is a much construction dated to the late nineteenth century, ca. 1871. Susa is further mentioned in the Book of Jubilees as one of the places within the inheritance of Shem and his eldest son Elam; the site was examined in 1836 by Henry Rawlinson and by A. H. Layard. In 1851, some modest excavation was done by William Loftus. In 1885 and 1886 Marcel-Auguste Dieulafoy and Jane Dieulafoy began the first French excavations. Jacques de Morgan conducted major excavations from 1897 until 1911; these efforts continued under Roland De Mecquenem until 1914, at the beginning of World War I.
French work at Susa resumed after the war, led by De Mecquenem, continuing until World War II in 1940. To supplement the original publications of De Mecquenem the archives of his excavation have now been put online thanks to a grant from the Shelby White Levy Program. Roman Ghirshman took over direction of the French efforts after the end of the war. Together with his wife Tania Ghirshman, he continued there until 1967; the Ghirshmans concentrated on excavating a single part of the site, the hectare sized Ville Royale, taking it all the way down to bare earth. The pottery found at the various levels enabled a stratigraphy to be developed for Susa. During the 1970s, excavations resumed under Jean Perrot. In urban history, Susa is one of the oldest-known settlements of the region. Based on C14 dating, the foundation of a settlement there occurred as early as 4395 BCE. At this stage it was very large for the time, about 15 hectares; the founding of Susa corresponded with the abandonment of nearby villages.
Potts suggests that the settlement may have been founded to try to reestablish the destroyed settlement at Chogha Mish. Chogha Mish was a large settlement, it featured a similar massive platform, built at Susa. Another important settlement in the area is Chogha Bonut, discovered in 1976. Shortly after Susa was first settled over 6000 years ago, its inhabitants erected a monumental platform that rose over the flat surrounding landscape; the exceptional nature of the site is still recognizable today in the artistry of the ceramic vessels that were placed as offerings in a thousand or more graves near the base of the temple platform. Susa's earliest settlement is known as Susa I period. Two settlements named by archeologists Acropolis and Apadana, would merge to form Susa proper; the Apadana was enclosed by 6m thick walls of rammed earth. Nearly two thousand pots of Susa I style were recovered from the cemetery, most of them now in the Louvre; the vessels found are eloquent testimony to the artistic and technical achievements of their makers, they hold clues about the organization of the society that commissioned them.
Painted ceramic vessels from Susa in the earliest first style are a late, regional version of the Mesopotamian Ubaid ceramic tradition that spread across the Near East during the fifth millennium BC. Susa I style was much a product of the past and of influences from contemporary ceramic industries in the mountains of western Iran; the recurrence in close association of vessels of three types—a drinking goblet or beaker, a serving dish, a small jar—implies the consumption of three types of food thought to be as necessary for life in the afterworld as it is in this one. Ceramics of these shapes, which were painted, constitute a large proportion of the vessels from the cemetery. Others are coarse cooking-type jars and bowls with simple bands painted on them and were the grave goods of the sites of humbler citizens as well as adolescents and children; the pottery is made by hand. Although a slow wheel may have bee
