1.
Romanian language
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Romanian is a Romance language spoken by around 24 million people as a native language, primarily in Romania and Moldova, and by another 4 million people as a second language. It has official status in Romania and the Republic of Moldova and it is one of the official languages of the European Union and the Latin Union. Romanian is a part of the Balkan-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin separated from the Western Romance during the 5th–8th centuries. To distinguish it within that group in comparative linguistics it is called Daco-Romanian as opposed to its closest relatives, Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian, and Istro-Romanian. Eastern Romance languages, like the branches of Romance languages, descend from Vulgar Latin. These vestiges of military usage are unique to Romanian in its language family. s. o, sat village, șes plain, a supune, tindă veranda, țară homeland a. s. o. This linguistic evidence challenges the Roeslerian theory, the vestiges from sermo castrensis particularize the Romanian language in the neolatin area, together with its isolated history. e. With Rom. māgurā and Alb. magulë etc, the Roman Empire withdrew from Dacia in 271–272 AD, leaving it to the Goths. The history of Eastern Romance between the 3rd century and the development of Proto-Romanian by the 10th century, when the area came under the influence of the Byzantine Empire, is unknown. It is a matter of debate whether Proto-Romanian developed among Romanized people who were left behind in Dacia by the Roman withdrawal or among Latin-speakers in the Balkans south of the Danube, during the Middle Ages, Romanian became influenced by the Slavic languages and to some degree by Greek. Romanian remains unattested throughout the Middle Ages, and only enters the record in the early 16th century. The use of the denomination Romanian for our language and use of the demonym Romanians for speakers of this language predates the foundation of the modern Romanian state. In 1534, Tranquillo Andronico notes, Valachi nunc se Romanos vocant, francesco della Valle writes in 1532 that Romanians are calling themselves Romans in their own language, and he subsequently quotes the expression, Știi Românește. After travelling through Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania Ferrante Capecci accounts in 1575 that the population of these regions call themselves românești. Pierre Lescalopier writes in 1574 that those who live in Moldavia, Wallachia, the Transylvanian Saxon Johann Lebel writes in 1542 that Vlachi se numeau între ei Romuini and the Polish chronicler Stanislaw Orzechowski notes in 1554 that în limba lor walachii se numesc romini. In Palia de la Orăștie stands written «, că văzum cum toate limbile au și înfluresc întru cuvintele slăvite a lui Dumnezeu numai noi românii pre limbă nu avem. și le-au dăruit voo fraților români. », nevertheless, the oldest extant document written in Romanian remains Neacșus letter and was written using Cyrillic letters. There are no records of any documents written in Romanian from before 1521
2.
Czech language
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Czech, historically also Bohemian, is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group. It is spoken by over 10 million people and is the language of the Czech Republic. Czech is closely related to Slovak, to the point of being intelligible to a very high degree. In the later 18th to mid-19th century, the written standard was codified in the context of the Czech National Revival. The main vernacular, known as Common Czech, is based on the vernacular of Prague, the Moravian dialects spoken in the eastern part of the country are mostly also counted as Czech, although some of their eastern variants are closer to Slovak. The Czech phoneme inventory is moderate in size, comprising five vowels, words may contain uncommon consonant clusters, including one consonant represented by the grapheme ř, or lack vowels altogether. Czech orthography is simple, and has used as a model by phonologists. Czech is classified as a member of the West Slavic sub-branch of the Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family and this branch includes Polish, Kashubian, Upper and Lower Sorbian and Slovak. Slovak is by far the closest genetic neighbor of Czech, the West Slavic languages are spoken in an area classified as part of Central Europe. Around the 7th century, the Slavic expansion reached Central Europe, the West Slavic polity of Great Moravia formed by the 9th century. The Christianization of Bohemia took place during the 9th and 10th centuries, the Bohemian language is first recorded in writing in glosses and short notes during the 12th to 13th centuries. Literary works written in Czech appear in the early 14th century, the first complete Bible translation also dates to this period. Old Czech texts, including poetry and cookbooks, were produced outside the university as well, literary activity becomes widespread in the early 15th century in the context of the Bohemian Reformation. There was no standardization distinguishing between Czech and Slovak prior to the 15th century, the publication of the Kralice Bible between 1579 and 1593 became very important for standardization of the Czech language in the following centuries. In 1615, the Bohemian diet tried to declare Czech to be the official language of the kingdom. After the Bohemian Revolt which was defeated by the Habsburgs in 1620 and this emigration together with other consequences of the Thirty Years War had a negative impact on the further use of the Czech language. In 1627, Czech and German became official languages of the Kingdom of Bohemia and in the 18th century German became dominant in Bohemia and Moravia, the modern standard Czech language originates in standardization efforts of the 18th century. Changes include the shift of í to ej and é to í and the merging of í
3.
Polish language
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Polish is a West Slavic language spoken primarily in Poland and is the native language of the Poles. It belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of the West Slavic languages, Polish is the official language of Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries. It is one of the languages of the European Union. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet, which has 9 additions to the letters of the basic Latin script, Polish is closely related to Kashubian, Silesian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovak. It is also the second most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian, in history, Polish is known to be an important language, both diplomatically and academically in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, Polish is spoken by over 38.5 million people as their first language in Poland. It is also spoken as a language in western parts of Belarus and Ukraine, west and central Lithuania, as well as the northern parts of the Czech Republic. There are 55 million Polish language speakers around the world, Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. With Christianity, Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet, which made it possible to write down Polish, the precursor to modern Polish is the Old Polish language. Ultimately, Polish is thought to descend from the unattested Proto-Slavic language, Poland is the most linguistically homogeneous European country, nearly 97% of Polands citizens declare Polish as their first language. Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in Lithuania, Belarus, Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuanias Vilnius County and is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries, in the United States, Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census were found in three states, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services offer services available in Polish at all of their machines in addition to English and Spanish. According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England, in Canada, there is a significant Polish Canadian population, There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to the 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto and Montreal. The geographical distribution of the Polish language was affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II. Poles settled in the Recovered Territories in the west and north and this tendency toward a homogeneity also stems from the vertically integrated nature of the authoritarian Polish Peoples Republic. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak standard Polish somewhat differently, first-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty distinguishing regional variations
4.
Ukrainian language
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Ukrainian /juːˈkreɪniən/ is an East Slavic language. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script, historical linguists trace the origin of the Ukrainian language to the Old East Slavic of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus. After the fall of the Kievan Rus as well as the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, the Modern Ukrainian language has been in common use since the late 17th century, associated with the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate. From 1804 until the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian language was banned from schools in the Russian Empire and it has always maintained a sufficient base in Western Ukraine, where the language was never banned, in its folklore songs, itinerant musicians, and prominent authors. The Ukrainian language retains a degree of intelligibility with Belarusian and Russian. The first theory of the origin of Ukrainian language was suggested in Imperial Russia in the middle of the 18th century by Mikhail Lomonosov and this theory posits the existence of a common language spoken by all East Slavic people in the time of the Rus. Another point of view developed during the 19th and 20th centuries by linguists of Imperial Russia, like Lomonosov, they assumed the existence of a common language spoken by East Slavs in the past. This general point of view is the most accepted amongst academics worldwide, the supporters of this theory disagree, however, about the time when the different languages were formed. Soviet scholars set the divergence between Ukrainian and Russian only at time periods. During the time of the incorporation of Ruthenia into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and this point of view is, however, at variance with some historical data. In fact, several East Slavic tribes, such as Polans, Drevlyans, Severians, Dulebes, White Croats, Tiverians, notably, some Ukrainian features were recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic as far back as the language can be documented. In contrast, Ahatanhel Krymsky and Alexei Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the spoken language of Eastern Slavs only in prehistoric times. According to their point of view, the diversification of the Old East Slavic language took place in the 8th or early 9th century, Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stotsky went even further, denying the existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar points of view were shared by Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov, Olena Kurylo, Ivan Ohienko, according to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages during the 6th through 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to a migration of the population within the territory of todays Ukraine in later historical periods. This point of view was supported by George Shevelovs phonological studies. During the 13th century, when German settlers were invited to Ukraine by the princes of Galicia-Vollhynia and their influence would continue under Poland not only through German colonists but also through the Yiddish-speaking Jews. Often such words involve trade or handicrafts, examples of words of German or Yiddish origin spoken in Ukraine include dakh, rura, rynok, kushnir, and majster
5.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
6.
Hungarian language
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Hungarian is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Outside Hungary it is spoken by communities of Hungarian people in neighbouring countries. Like Finnish and Estonian, it belongs to the Uralic language family, its closest relatives being Mansi and it is one of several European languages not part of the Indo-European languages, and the most widely-spoken European language that does not belong to the Indo-European family. The Hungarian name for the language is magyar or magyar nyelv, the word Magyar is used as an English and Hungarian word to refer to Hungarian people as an ethnic group. Hungarian is a member of the Uralic language family, the name of Hungary could be a result of regular sound changes of Ungrian/Ugrian, and the fact that the Eastern Slavs referred to Hungarians as Ǫgry/Ǫgrove seemed to confirm that. Current literature favors the hypothesis that it comes from the name of the Turkic tribe Onogur, there are numerous regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and the other Ugric languages. For example, Hungarian /aː/ corresponds to Khanty /o/ in certain positions, for example, Hungarian ház house vs. Khanty xot house, and Hungarian száz hundred vs. Khanty sot hundred. The distance between the Ugric and Finnic languages is greater, but the correspondences are also regular, during the later half of the 19th century, a competing hypothesis proposed a Turkic affinity of Hungarian. Following an academic debate known as Az ugor-török háború, the Finno-Ugric hypothesis was concluded the sounder of the two, foremost based on work by the German linguist Josef Budenz. The traditional view argues that the Hungarian language separated from its Ugric relatives in the first half of the 1st millennium b. c. e. in western Siberia, east of the southern Urals. The Hungarians gradually changed their lifestyle from settled hunters to nomadic pastoralists, in Hungarian, Iranian loans date back to the time immediately following the breakup of Ugric and probably span well over a millennium. Among these include tehén ‘cow’, tíz ‘ten’, tej ‘milk’, increasing archaeological evidence from present-day southern Bashkortostan found in the previous decades confirms the existence of Hungarian settlements between the Volga River and Ural Mountains. The Onogurs later had a influence on the language, especially between the 5th-9th centuries. This layer of Turkic loans is large and varied, and includes words borrowed from Oghur Turkic, e. g. borjú ‘calf’, dél ‘noon, many words related to agriculture, to state administration or even to family relations have such backgrounds. Hungarian syntax and grammar were not influenced in a dramatic way during these 300 years. After the arrival of the Hungarians into the Carpathian Basin the language came into contact with different speech communities, Turkic loans from this period come mainly from the Pechenegs and Cumanians who settled in Hungary during the 12th-13th centuries, e. g. koboz ‘cobza’, komondor ‘mop dog’. Hungarian borrowed many words from especially the neighbouring Slavic languages, in exchange, these languages also borrowed words from Hungarian, e. g. Serbo-Croatian ašov from Hung ásó ‘spade’. Approximately 1. 6% of the Romanian lexicon is of Hungarian origin, on the basis of the growing genetic evidence, the accepted origin theory is contested by geneticists too
7.
Serbian language
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Serbian is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian language mainly used by Serbs. It is the language of Serbia and one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition, it is a minority language in Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia. Standard Serbian is based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian, Shtokavian, which is also the basis of Standard Croatian, Bosnian, the other dialect spoken by Serbs is Torlakian in southeastern Serbia, which is transitional to Macedonian and Bulgarian. Serbian is practically the only European standard language with complete synchronic digraphia, the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was devised in 1814 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić, who created the alphabet on phonemic principles. The Latin alphabet was designed by Croatian linguist Ljudevit Gaj in 1830, Serbian is a standardized variety of Serbo-Croatian, a Slavic language, of the South Slavic subgroup. Other standardized forms of Serbo-Croatian are Bosnian, Croatian, and Montenegrin and it has lower intelligibility with the Eastern South Slavic languages Bulgarian and Macedonian, than with Slovene. The 2011 census show that 42. 88% still declare Serbian to be their native language, Standard Serbian language uses both Cyrillic and Latin script. Even in official government documents this constitutional requirement is rarely enforced, Serbian is a rare example of synchronic digraphia, a situation where all literate members of a society have two interchangeable writing systems available to them. Media and publishers typically select one alphabet or another, for example, the public broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia, predominantly uses the Cyrillic script whereas the privately run broadcasters, like RTV Pink, predominantly use the Latin script. A survey from 2014 showed that 47% of the Serbian population favors the Latin alphabet whereas 36% favors the Cyrillic one and these are the tenses of the indicative mood. Apart from the mood, there is also the imperative mood. The conditional mood has two more tenses, the first conditional and the second conditional, Serbian has active and passive voice. As for the verb forms, Serbian has one infinitive. Most Serbian words are of native Slavic lexical stock, tracing back to the Proto-Slavic language, there are many loanwords from different languages, reflecting cultural interaction throughout history. Notable loanwords were borrowed from Greek, Latin, Italian, Turkish, Hungarian, Russian, Serbian literature emerged in the Middle Ages, and included such works as Miroslavljevo jevanđelje in 1192 and Dušanov zakonik in 1349. In the mid-15th century, Serbia was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, however, some of the greatest literary works in Serbian come from this time, in the form of oral literature, the most notable form being Serbian epic poetry. The epic poems were written down in the 19th century, and preserved in oral tradition up to the 1950s
8.
Western Carpathians
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The Western Carpathians are a mountain range and geomorphological province that forms the western part of the Carpathian Mountains. In the south the North Hungarian Mountains cover northern Hungary, the area of the Western Carpathians comprises about 70,000 km². The highest elevation is the Gerlachovský štít, most of the perimeter of the Western Carpathians is quite sharply defined by valleys. To the northwest and north they are separated from the Bohemian Massif by the Forecarpathian Lowland, to the south the mountain chain falls away towards the Pannonian Plain, a large plain situated between the Alps, the Dinaric Alps, and the main mass of the Eastern Carpathians. The boundary between the Western Carpathians and the Eastern Alps is formed by the Vienna Basin, the Hainburg Hills of the Little Carpathians at Devín Gate, and a gap carved by the Danube. To the east and northeast the mountains are bounded by the East Slovak and Sandomierz Basins, the Western Carpathians are part of the northern branch of alpine orogeny, which was formed by the closure of the Tethys Ocean millions of years ago. The Western Carpathians are part of the Alpide belt, to the west they longitudinally join the Alps, but the exact boundary is hidden under the Neogene sedimentary fill of the Vienna Basin. To the east, their boundary with the Eastern Carpathians is the valley of the Hornád or Uzh River, the northern boundary with the East European craton and Bohemian Massif is well marked by the thrust of nappes of the Carpathian flysch belt. The southern boundary is clear, because later postorogenetic evolution caused formation of basins. The Western Carpathians have a geological structure, that has been formed since the Paleozoic era. The oldest Paleozoic rocks experienced the first stage of deformation during the Hercynian orogeny, Alpine orogeny affected the area in several stages from Jurassic to Neogene. During this period, parts of Tethys Ocean were subducted under the African plate, tectonic units of the Western Carpathians are arranged in belt-like order, with the external units in the north and internal units in the south. After a subduction of the Meliata Ocean, the Internal Western Carpathians were formed
9.
High Tatras
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The High Tatras or High Tatra Mountains, are a mountain range along the border of northern Slovakia in the Prešov Region, and southern Poland in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. They are a range of the Tatra Mountains chain, the mountain range borders Belianske Tatras to the east, Podtatranská kotlina to the south and Western Tatras to the west. The major part and all the highest peaks of the mountains are situated in Slovakia, the highest peak is Gerlachovský štít, at 2,655 metres. The first European cross-border national park was founded here—Tatra National Park—with Tatra National Park in Slovakia in 1948, the adjacent parks protect UNESCOs trans-border Tatra Biosphere Reserve. Fauna Many rare and endemic animals and plant species are native to the High Tatras and they include the Tatras endemic goat-antelope and critically endangered species, the Tatra chamois. Predators include Eurasian brown bear, Eurasian lynx, marten, wolf, the Alpine marmot is common in the range. Flora Flora of the High Tatras includes, the endemic Tatra scurvy-grass, yellow saxifrage, ground covering net-leaved willow, Norway spruce, Swiss pine. The 15 highest peaks of the High Tatras—all located in Slovakia—are, Kriváň,2494 meters, also called Slovakias most beautiful mountain Rysy, the popular Polish−Slovak summit border crossing. Rysy has three peaks, the middle at 2,503 meters, the north-western at 2,499 meters, the north-western peak is the highest point of Poland. Slavkovský štít,2452 meters tall, within the Tatra National Park, czarny Staw pod Rysami -1,583 m,76 m deep. Wielki Staw Polski -1,664 m,79 m deep, Štrbské pleso -1,347 m,20 m deep. Veľké Hincovo pleso -1,945 m,54 m deep, popradské pleso -1,494 m,17 m deep. Zmrzlé pleso Ťažké pleso Ľadové pleso Batizovské pleso Veľké Spišské pleso -2,019 m,10 m deep, Veľké Žabie pleso -1,921 m,7 m deep Vysne Bielovoeske Zabie pleso -1,699 m,25 m deep. Nizne Bielovodske Zabie pleso -1,675 m,21 m deep, czarny Staw Gąsienicowy -1,624 m,51 m deep. The area is known for winter sports. Ski resorts include Štrbské pleso, Starý Smokovec and Tatranská Lomnica in Slovakia, the town of Poprad is the gateway to the Slovak Tatra resorts. People The Górale people, a group of people with a distinctive traditional culture, are of the High Tatras and other mountain ranges. Ludwig Greiner identified Gerlachovský štít as the highest summit of the Tatra Mountains, and it is also the highest point of Slovakia
10.
Morskie Oko
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Morskie Oko is the largest and fourth-deepest lake in the Tatra Mountains. It is located deep within the Tatra National Park, Poland, in the Rybi Potok Valley, of the High Tatras mountain range at the base of the Mięguszowiecki Summits, in Lesser Poland Voivodeship. The peaks that surround the lake rise about 1,000 meters above its surface, one of them is Rysy, beside Mięguszowiecki Summits, farther away and slightly to the left, is the distinctive, slender Mnich. Many Swiss Pines also grow around the lake, in the past, Morskie Oko was called Rybie Jezioro due to its natural stock of fish, which are uncommon in Tatra lakes and ponds. In the clear depths of the water, one can easily notice trout - so called famine trout - that live in the lake, the name Morskie Oko is derived from an old legend, according to which the lake was connected to the sea via an underground passage. The hut of the Polish Tourism and Local Lore Society stands on the moraine that closes the lake from the north, the hut is situated 1,405 meters above sea level and belongs to the oldest Tatra chalets. The hut is named after Stanisław Staszic, who explored the lake in 1805 and it is a point of departure for hikes to Rysy and Szpiglasowa Przełęcz. Nearby is the Stare Schronisko, originally a coachhouse, both buildings have been granted historical status. Morskie Oko is one of the most popular destinations in the Tatras and it is reached by foot in about two hours from the nearest road that allows motorized access. Many other tourists opt to take the journey by horse-drawn cart, in winter, a short section of the journey is in an avalanche danger zone, and the area can remain cold and rainy even in summer. In the advent of its popularity, visitors have been forbidden from swimming in the lake or feeding the trout, the earliest documents in which Morskie Oko is mentioned date back to 1575. In 1637, the Polish king Władysław IV granted landowner Wladyslaw Nowobilski the right to use pastures in the area, at the end of the nineteenth century, a boundary dispute arose between Galicia and Hungary over property rights to the lake and adjoining area. The Court of Conciliation in Graz ruled in favor of the Polish side, the decision is credited to Oswald Balzer, who represented the Galicia government. Morskie Oko was rediscovered for tourism by Dr. Tytus Chałubiński in the mid nineteenth century, a second shelter, built in 1874, burned down in 1898. In 1902, a road from Zakopane was completed and named the Oswald Balzer Road, since 1933 following the return of sovereignty, the lake has been owned by the Polish state. The charm of Morskie Oko has provided inspiration to artists, including painters, poets. Media related to Morskie Oko at Wikimedia Commons Panoramic photos of Morskie Oko
11.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
12.
Summit
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A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically, a summit is a maximum in elevation. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak, and zenith are synonymous, the UIAA definition is that a summit is independent if it has a prominence of 30 metres or more, it is a mountain if it has a prominence of at least 300 metres. This can be summarised as follows, A pyramidal peak is an exaggerated form produced by ice erosion of a mountain top, Summit may also refer to the highest point along a line, trail, or route. In many parts of the western United States, the term refers to the highest point along a road, highway. For example, the highest point along Interstate 80 in California is referred to as Donner Summit while the highest point on Interstate 5 is Siskiyou Mountain Summit, geoid Hill List of highest mountains Maxima and minima Nadir Summit accordance Peak finder
13.
Czech Republic
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The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, is a nation state in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometres with mostly temperate continental climate and it is a unitary parliamentary republic, has 10.5 million inhabitants and the capital and largest city is Prague, with over 1.2 million residents. The Czech Republic includes the territories of Bohemia, Moravia. The Czech state was formed in the late 9th century as the Duchy of Bohemia under the Great Moravian Empire, after the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power transferred from Moravia to Bohemia under the Přemyslid dynasty. In 1002, the duchy was formally recognized as part of the Holy Roman Empire, becoming the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 and reaching its greatest territorial extent in the 14th century. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria, the Protestant Bohemian Revolt against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule, reimposed Roman Catholicism, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, and was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States. The Czech country lost the majority of its German-speaking inhabitants after they were expelled following the war, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections. Following the 1948 coup détat, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence, in 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed, on 6 March 1990, the Czech Socialistic Republic was renamed to the Czech Republic. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, it is a member of the United Nations, the OECD, the OSCE, and it is a developed country with an advanced, high income economy and high living standards. The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development, the Czech Republic also ranks as the 6th most peaceful country, while achieving strong performance in democratic governance. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union, the traditional English name Bohemia derives from Latin Boiohaemum, which means home of the Boii. The current name comes from the endonym Čech, spelled Cžech until the reform in 1842. The name comes from the Slavic tribe and, according to legend, their leader Čech, the etymology of the word Čech can be traced back to the Proto-Slavic root *čel-, meaning member of the people, kinsman, thus making it cognate to the Czech word člověk. The country has traditionally divided into three lands, namely Bohemia in the west, Moravia in the southeast, and Czech Silesia in the northeast. Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the Czech part of the former nation found itself without a common single-word geographical name in English, the name Czechia /ˈtʃɛkiə/ was recommended by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
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Slovakia
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Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Slovakias territory spans about 49,000 square kilometres and is mostly mountainous. The population is over 5 million and comprises mostly ethnic Slovaks, the capital and largest city is Bratislava. The Slavs arrived in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries, in the 7th century, they played a significant role in the creation of Samos Empire and in the 9th century established the Principality of Nitra. In the 10th century, the territory was integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary, which became part of the Habsburg Empire. After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a separate Slovak Republic existed in World War II as a client state of Nazi Germany. In 1945, Czechoslovakia was reëstablished under Communist rule as a Soviet satellite, in 1989 the Velvet Revolution ended authoritarian Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The country maintains a combination of economy with universal health care. The country joined the European Union in 2004 and the Eurozone on 1 January 2009, Slovakia is also a member of the Schengen Area, NATO, the United Nations, the OECD, the WTO, CERN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group. The Slovak economy is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and its legal tender, the Euro, is the worlds 2nd most traded currency. Although regional income inequality is high, 90% of citizens own their homes, in 2016, Slovak citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 165 countries and territories, ranking the Slovak passport 11th in the world. Slovakia is the world’s biggest per-capita car producer with a total of 1,040,000 cars manufactured in the country in 2016 alone, the car industry represents 43 percent of Slovakia’s industrial output, and a quarter of its exports. Radiocarbon datingputs the oldest surviving archaeological artefacts from Slovakia – found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom – at 270,000 BC and these ancient tools, made by the Clactonian technique, bear witness to the ancient habitation of Slovakia. Other stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic era come from the Prévôt cave near Bojnice, the most important discovery from that era is a Neanderthal cranium, discovered near Gánovce, a village in northern Slovakia. The most well-known finds include the oldest female statue made of mammoth-bone, the statue was found in the 1940s in Moravany nad Váhom near Piešťany. Numerous necklaces made of shells from Cypraca thermophile gastropods of the Tertiary period have come from the sites of Zákovská, Podkovice, Hubina and these findings provide the most ancient evidence of commercial exchanges carried out between the Mediterranean and Central Europe. The Bronze Age in the territory of modern-day Slovakia went through three stages of development, stretching from 2000 to 800 BC
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Hungary
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Hungary is a unitary parliamentary republic in Central Europe. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken language in Europe. Hungarys capital and largest metropolis is Budapest, a significant economic hub, major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr. His great-grandson Stephen I ascended to the throne in 1000, converting the country to a Christian kingdom, by the 12th century, Hungary became a middle power within the Western world, reaching a golden age by the 15th century. Hungarys current borders were established in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon after World War I, when the country lost 71% of its territory, 58% of its population, following the interwar period, Hungary joined the Axis Powers in World War II, suffering significant damage and casualties. Hungary became a state of the Soviet Union, which contributed to the establishment of a four-decade-long communist dictatorship. On 23 October 1989, Hungary became again a democratic parliamentary republic, in the 21st century, Hungary is a middle power and has the worlds 57th largest economy by nominal GDP, as well as the 58th largest by PPP, out of 188 countries measured by the IMF. As a substantial actor in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds 36th largest exporter and importer of goods, Hungary is a high-income economy with a very high standard of living. It keeps up a security and universal health care system. Hungary joined the European Union in 2004 and part of the Schengen Area since 2007, Hungary is a member of the United Nations, NATO, WTO, World Bank, the AIIB, the Council of Europe and Visegrád Group. Well known for its cultural history, Hungary has been contributed significantly to arts, music, literature, sports and science. Hungary is the 11th most popular country as a tourist destination in Europe and it is home to the largest thermal water cave system, the second largest thermal lake in the world, the largest lake in Central Europe, and the largest natural grasslands in Europe. The H in the name of Hungary is most likely due to historical associations with the Huns. The rest of the word comes from the Latinized form of Medieval Greek Oungroi, according to an explanation the Greek name was borrowed from Proto-Slavic Ǫgǔri, in turn borrowed from Oghur-Turkic Onogur. Onogur was the name for the tribes who later joined the Bulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars. The Hungarians likely belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance and it is possible they became its ethnic majority. The Hungarian endonym is Magyarország, composed of magyar and ország, the word magyar is taken from the name of one of the seven major semi-nomadic Hungarian tribes, magyeri
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Ukraine
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Ukraine is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2, making it the largest country entirely within Europe and it has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC, during the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, two brief periods of independence occurred during the 20th century, once near the end of World War I and another during World War II. Before its independence, Ukraine was typically referred to in English as The Ukraine, following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. Nonetheless it formed a limited partnership with the Russian Federation and other CIS countries. In the 2000s, the government began leaning towards NATO, and it was later agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future. Former President Viktor Yanukovych considered the current level of co-operation between Ukraine and NATO sufficient, and was against Ukraine joining NATO and these events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, and the War in Donbass in April 2014. On 1 January 2016, Ukraine applied the economic part of the Deep, Ukraine has long been a global breadbasket because of its extensive, fertile farmlands and is one of the worlds largest grain exporters. The diversified economy of Ukraine includes a heavy industry sector, particularly in aerospace. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers, legislative, executive. Its capital and largest city is Kiev, taking into account reserves and paramilitary personnel, Ukraine maintains the second-largest military in Europe after that of Russia. Ukrainian is the language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodoxy, which has strongly influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature, there are different hypotheses as to the etymology of the name Ukraine. According to the older and most widespread hypothesis, it means borderland, while more recently some studies claim a different meaning, homeland or region. The Ukraine now implies disregard for the sovereignty, according to U. S. ambassador William Taylor. Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites include a mammoth bone dwelling
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Romania
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Romania is a sovereign state located in Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and it has an area of 238,391 square kilometres and a temperate-continental climate. With over 19 million inhabitants, the country is the member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city, Bucharest, is the sixth-largest city in the EU, the River Danube, Europes second-longest river, rises in Germany and flows in a general southeast direction for 2,857 km, coursing through ten countries before emptying into Romanias Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Romania from the north to the southwest are marked by one of their tallest peaks, Moldoveanu, modern Romania was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877, at the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the sovereign Kingdom of Romania. Romania lost several territories, of which Northern Transylvania was regained after the war, following the war, Romania became a socialist republic and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began a transition back towards democracy and it has been a member of NATO since 2004, and part of the European Union since 2007. A strong majority of the population identify themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians and are speakers of Romanian. The cultural history of Romania is often referred to when dealing with artists, musicians, inventors. For similar reasons, Romania has been the subject of notable tourist attractions, Romania derives from the Latin romanus, meaning citizen of Rome. The first known use of the appellation was attested in the 16th century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia, after the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the word rumân gradually fell out of use and the spelling stabilised to the form român. Tudor Vladimirescu, a leader of the early 19th century. The use of the name Romania to refer to the homeland of all Romanians—its modern-day meaning—was first documented in the early 19th century. The name has been officially in use since 11 December 1861, in English, the name of the country was formerly spelt Rumania or Roumania. Romania became the predominant spelling around 1975, Romania is also the official English-language spelling used by the Romanian government. The Neolithic-Age Cucuteni area in northeastern Romania was the region of the earliest European civilization. Evidence from this and other sites indicates that the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture extracted salt from salt-laden spring water through the process of briquetage
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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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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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Mountain range
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A mountain range is a geographic area containing numerous geologically related mountains. A mountain system or system of ranges, sometimes is used to combine several geological features that are geographically related. Mountain ranges are usually segmented by highlands or mountain passes and valleys, individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geologic structure or petrology. They may be a mix of different orogenic expressions and terranes, for example thrust sheets, uplifted blocks, fold mountains, most geologically young mountain ranges on the Earths land surface are associated with either the Pacific Ring of Fire or the Alpide Belt. The Andes is 7,000 kilometres long and is considered the worlds longest mountain system. The Alpide belt includes Indonesia and southeast Asia, through the Himalaya, the belt also includes other European and Asian mountain ranges. The Himalayas contain the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, mountain ranges outside of these two systems include the Arctic Cordillera, the Urals, the Appalachians, the Scandinavian Mountains, the Altai Mountains and the Hijaz Mountains. If the definition of a range is stretched to include underwater mountains. The mountain systems of the earth are characterized by a tree structure, the sub-range relationship is often expressed as a parent-child relationship. For example, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Blue Ridge Mountains are sub-ranges of the Appalachian Mountains, equivalently, the Appalachians are the parent of the White Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains, and the White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains are children of the Appalachians. The position of mountains influences climate, such as rain or snow, when air masses move up and over mountains, the air cools producing orographic precipitation. As the air descends on the side, it warms again and is drier. Often, a shadow will affect the leeward side of a range. Mountain ranges are constantly subjected to forces which work to tear them down. Erosion is at work while the mountains are being uplifted and long after until the mountains are reduced to low hills, rivers are traditionally believed to be the principle erosive factor on mountain ranges, with their ability of bedrock incision and sediment transport. The rugged topography of a range is the product of erosion. The basins adjacent to a mountain range are filled with sediments which are buried and turned into sedimentary rock. The early Cenozoic uplift of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado provides an example and this mass of rock was removed as the range was actively undergoing uplift
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Central and Eastern Europe
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It is in use after the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989–90. In scholarly literature the abbreviations CEE or CEEC are often used for this concept, the transition countries in Europe are thus classified today into two political-economic entities, CEE and CIS. According to the World Bank, the transition is over for the 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 and it can be also understood as all countries of the Eastern Bloc. The definition of this varies, depending on the source. Central Europe Central and Eastern European Online Library East-Central Europe Eastern Europe Regions of Europe Baltic states Visegrád Group
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Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
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Scandinavian Mountains
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The Scandinavian Mountains or the Scandes is a mountain range that runs through the Scandinavian Peninsula. The Scandinavian Mountains are often thought to be equivalent to the Scandinavian Caledonides. The western sides of the mountains drop precipitously into the North Sea and Norwegian Sea, forming the fjords of Norway, to the north they form the border between Norway and Sweden, still reaching 2,000 m high at the Arctic Circle. The mountain range just touches northwesternmost Finland, but are more than hills at their northernmost extension at the North Cape. The combination of a location and moisture from the North Atlantic Ocean has caused the formation of many ice fields. In Northern Norway, permafrost becomes common from about 800 to 900 meters AMSL on the western slope, the Scandinavian Montane Birch forest and grasslands terrestrial ecoregion is closely associated with the mountain range. Its names in the Scandinavian languages are, in Swedish Skandinaviska fjällkedjan, Skanderna, Fjällen or Kölen, the names Kölen and Kjølen are often preferentially used for the northern part, where the mountains form a narrow range near the border region of Norway and Sweden. In southern Norway there is a scatter of mountain regions with individual names, such as Dovrefjell, Hardangervidda, Jotunheimen. The mountain chains highest summits are mostly concentrated in an area between Stavanger and Trondheim in southern Norway, with peaks over 1300 m and some peaks over 2000 m. Around Trondheim Fjord peaks decrease in altitude to about 400–500 m rising again to heights in excess of 1900 m further north in Swedish Lapland, the southern part of the mountain range contains the highest mountain of Northern Europe, Galdhøpiggen at almost 2500 m. This part of the chain is also broader and contains a series of plateaux. In south-western Norway the plateaux and gently undulating surfaces are strongly dissected by fjords, the mountain chain is present in Sweden from northern Dalarna northwards, south of this point the Scandinavian Mountains lie completely within Norway. Most of the Scandinavian Mountains lack alpine topography, and where it does have it does relate to altitude, to the east the Scandinavian Mountains proper bounds with mountains that are lower and less dissected and are known as the förfjäll. Generally the förfjäll do not surpass 1000 m. a. s. l, as a geomorphic unit the förfjäll extends across Sweden as a 650 km long and 40 to 80 km broad belt from Dalarna in the south to Norrbotten in the north. The origin of mountain topography is debated by geologists. In Scandinavia the Caledonian Mountains begun a post-orogenic collapse in the Devonian implying tectonic extension, despite occurring in about the same area the ancient Caledonian Mountains and the modern Scandinavian Mountains are unrelated. The Scandinavian Mountains attained its height by tectonic processes different from orogeny, a two-stage model of uplift has been proposed for the Scandinavian Mountains in southern Norway. A first stage in the Mesozoic and a stage starting from the Oligocene
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Brown bear
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The brown bear is a large bear with the widest distribution of any living ursid. The species is distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It is one of the two largest terrestrial carnivorans alive today, rivaled in size only by its close cousin, the polar bear. There are several recognized subspecies, many of which are quite well-known within their native ranges, the brown bears principal range includes parts of Russia, Central Asia, China, Canada, the United States, Scandinavia and the Carpathian region, Anatolia, and Caucasus. The brown bear is recognized as a national and state animal in several European countries, as of 2012, this and the American black bear are the only bear species not classified as threatened by the IUCN. One of the subspecies, the Himalayan brown bear, is critically endangered, occupying only 2% of its former range. The Marsican brown bear, one of several isolated populations of the main Eurasian brown bear race. The brown bear is referred to as the bruin, from Middle English. This name originated in the fable, History of Reynard the Fox, translated by William Caxton, from Middle Dutch bruun or bruyn, in the mid-19th century United States, the brown bear was termed Old Ephraim and sometimes as Moccasin Joe. The scientific name of the bear, Ursus arctos, comes from the Latin ursus, meaning bear. Brown bears are thought to have evolved from Ursus etruscus in Asia, the brown bear, per Kurten, has been stated as clearly derived from the Asian population of Ursus savini about 800,000 years ago, spread into Europe, to the New World. The oldest fossils positivity identified as from this species occur in China from about 0.5 million years ago, Brown bears entered Europe about 250,000 years ago, and North Africa shortly after. Brown bear remains from the Pleistocene period are common in the British Isles, the species entered Alaska 100,000 years ago, though they did not move south until 13,000 years ago. It is speculated that brown bears were unable to migrate south until the extinction of the much larger Arctodus simus, Brown bear fossils discovered in Ontario, Ohio, Kentucky and Labrador show the species occurred farther east than indicated in historic records. There are many used by scientists to define bear species and subspecies as no one method is always effective. Brown bear taxonomy and subspecies classification has described as formidable. Genetic testing is now perhaps the most important way to scientifically define brown bear relationships, generally genetic testing uses the word clade rather than species because a genetic test alone cannot define a biological species. Most genetic studies report on how closely related the bears are, there are hundreds of obsolete brown bear subspecies, each with its own name, and this can become confusing, Hall lists 86 different types and even as many as 90 have been proposed
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Eurasian wolf
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The Eurasian wolf, also known as the common wolf or Middle Russian forest wolf, is a subspecies of grey wolf native to Europe and the forest and steppe zones of the former Soviet Union. It was once widespread throughout Eurasia prior to the Middle Ages, aside from an extensive paleontological and genetic record, Indo-European languages typically have several words for wolf, thus attesting to the animals abundance and cultural significance. It was held in regard in Baltic, Celtic, Slavic, Turkic, ancient Greek, Roman. It is the largest of Old World grey wolves, averaging 39 kg in Europe, however and its fur is relatively short and coarse, and is generally of a tawny colour, with white on the throat that barely extends to the cheeks. Melanists, albinos and erythrists are rare, and mostly the result of wolf-dog hybridisation, the howl of the Eurasian wolf is much more protracted and melodious than that of North American grey wolf subspecies, whose howls are louder and have a stronger emphasis on the first syllable. The two are, however, mutually intelligible, as North American wolves have been recorded to respond to European-style howls made by biologists, other prey species include reindeer, argali, mouflon, wisent, saiga, ibex, chamois, wild goats, fallow deer and musk deer. Its ears are higher and somewhat nearer to other, their length exceeds the distance between the auditory opening and the eye. Its loins are more slender, its legs longer, feet narrower, adults from Russia measure 105–160 cm in length, 80–85 cm in shoulder height, and weigh on average 32–50 kilograms, with a maximum weight of 69–80 kilograms. The largest on record was killed after World War II in the Kobelyakski Area of the Poltavskij Region in the Ukrainian SSR, larger weights of 92–96 kilograms have been reported in Ukraine, though the circumstances under which these latter animals were weighed are not known. Although similar in size to central Russian wolves, Swedish and Norwegian wolves tend to be heavily built with deeper shoulders. One wolf killed in Romania was recorded to have weighed 72 kilograms, in Italian wolves, excepting the tail, body length ranges between 110–148 cm, while shoulder height is 50–70 cm. Males weigh between 25–35 kilograms and rarely 45 kilograms, the now extinct British wolves are known to have reached similar sizes to Arctic wolves. The extermination of Northern Europes wolves first became an organized effort during the Middle Ages, in England, wolf persecution was enforced by legislation, and the last wolf was killed in the early sixteenth century during the reign of Henry VII. Wolves survived longer in Scotland, where they sheltered in vast tracts of forest, wolves managed to survive in the forests of Braemar and Sutherland until 1684. The extirpation of wolves in Ireland followed a course, with the last wolf believed to have been killed in 1786. A wolf bounty was introduced in Sweden in 1647, after the extermination of moose, the Sami extirpated wolves in northern Sweden in organized drives. By 1960, few remained in Sweden, due to the use of snowmobiles in hunting them. The grey wolf was exterminated in Denmark in 1772 and Norways last wolf was killed in 1973, the species was almost wiped out in 20th century Finland, despite regular dispersals from Russia
27.
Chamois
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The chamois has also been introduced to the South Island of New Zealand. Some subspecies of chamois are strictly protected in the EU under the European Habitats Directive, the English name comes from French chamois. The latter is derived from Gaulish camox, itself perhaps borrowing from some Alpine language, the Gaulish form also underlies German Gemse, Gams, Gämse, Italian Camoscio, Ladin Ciamorz. The usual pronunciation for the animal is UK /ˈʃæmwɑː/ or US /ʃæmˈwɑː/, however, when referring to chamois leather, and in New Zealand often for the animal itself, it is /ˈʃæmi/, and sometimes spelt shammy or chamy. The plural of chamois is spelled the same as the singular, however, as with many other quarry species, the plural for the animal is often pronounced the same as the singular. The Dutch name for the chamois is gems, and the male is called a gemsbok, in Afrikaans, the name gemsbok came to refer to a species of Subsaharan antelope of the genus Oryx, and this meaning of gemsbok has been adopted into English. The chamois are in the subfamily of the family Bovidae. A fully grown chamois reaches a height of 70–80 cm and measures 107–137 cm, males, which weigh 30–60 kg, are slightly larger than females, which weigh 25–45 kg. Both males and females have short, straightish horns which are hooked backwards near the tip, in summer, the fur has a rich brown colour which turns to a light grey in winter. Distinct characteristics are white contrasting marks on the sides of the head with pronounced black stripes below the eyes, a white rump, female chamois and their young live in herds of up to 15 to 30 individuals, adult males tend to live solitarily for most of the year. During the rut, males engage in battles for the attention of unmated females. An impregnated female undergoes a period of 170 days, after which a single kid is usually born in May or early June - on rare occasions, twins may be born. If a mother is killed, other females in the herd may try to raise the kid, the kid is weaned at six months of age and is fully grown by one year of age. However, the kids do not reach maturity until they are three to four years old, although some females may mate at as early two years old. Chamois eat various types of vegetation, including grasses and herbs during the summer and conifers, barks. Primarily diurnal in activity, they often rest around mid-day and may actively forage during moonlit nights, Chamois can reach an age of 22 years in captivity, although the maximum recorded in the wild is from 15 to 17 years of age. Common causes of mortality can include avalanches, epidemics and predation, at present, humans are the main predator of Chamois. In the past, the predators were Eurasian lynxes, Persian leopards and gray wolves, with some predation possibly by brown bears
28.
Lynx
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A lynx is any of the four species within the Lynx genus of medium-sized wild cats, which includes the bobcat. The name lynx originated in Middle English via Latin from the Greek word λύγξ, neither the caracal, sometimes called the desert lynx, nor the jungle cat, called the jungle lynx, is a member of the Lynx genus. Lynx have a tail, characteristic tufts of black hair on the tips of their ears, large, padded paws for walking on snow. Under their neck, they have a ruff which has black bars resembling a bow tie although this is not visible. Body colour varies from brown to goldish to beige-white, and is occasionally marked with dark brown spots. All species of lynx have white fur on their chests, bellies and on the insides of their legs, fur which is an extension of the chest, the lynxs colouring, fur length and paw size vary according to the climate in their range. In the Southwestern United States, they are short-haired, dark in colour and their paws are smaller, as climates get colder and more northerly, lynx have progressively thicker fur, lighter colour, and their paws are larger and more padded to adapt to the snow. Their paws may be larger than a hand or foot. The smallest species are the bobcat and the Canada lynx, while the largest is the Eurasian lynx, the four living species of the Lynx genus are believed to have evolved from the Issoire lynx, which lived in Europe and Africa during the late Pliocene to early Pleistocene. Of the four species, the Eurasian lynx is the largest in size. It is native to European, Central Asian, and Siberian forests, while its conservation status has been classified as least concern, populations of Eurasian lynx have been reduced or extirpated from Europe, where it is now being reintroduced. The Eurasian lynx is the third largest predator in Europe after the brown bear and it is a strict carnivore, consuming about one or two kilograms of meat every day. The Eurasian lynx is one of the widest-ranging, during the summer, the Eurasian lynx has a relatively short, reddish or brown coat which is replaced by a much thicker silver-grey to greyish-brown coat during winter. The lynx hunts by stalking and jumping its prey, helped by the rugged, forested country in which it resides, a favorite prey for the lynx in its woodland habitat is roe deer. It will feed however on whatever animal appears easiest, as it is a predator much like its cousins. The Canada lynx, or Canadian lynx, is a North American felid that ranges in forest and tundra regions across Canada and into Alaska, historically, the Canadian lynx ranged from Alaska across Canada and into many of the northern U. S. states. In the eastern states, it resided in the zone in which boreal coniferous forests yielded to deciduous forests. By 2010, after an 11-year effort, it had successfully reintroduced into Colorado
29.
Foothills
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Foothills are geographically defined as gradual increase in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a zone between plains and low relief hills to the adjacent topographically higher mountains, hills, and uplands. Foothills primarily border mountains, especially those which are reached through low ridges that increase in size closer and closer to the mountain, generally the area from Ferntree Gully/Boronia/The Basin through to Belgrave. Another word for a region is piedmont, derived from foot of the mount in Romance languages. The Piedmont region of Italy lies in the foothills of the Alps and they are also known as submontane zones, especially when referring to montane ecosystems
30.
Hot spring
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A hot spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater that rises from the Earths crust. There are geothermal hot springs in many locations all over the crust of the earth, while some of these springs contain water that is a safe temperature for bathing, others are so hot that immersion can result in injury or death. The water temperature of a hot spring is usually 6.5 °C or more above mean air temperature, note that by this definition, thermal spring is not synonymous with the term hot spring a spring whose hot water is brought to the surface. The water temperature of the spring is usually 8.3 °C or more above the air temperature. A spring with water above the human body temperature –36.7 °C. suggest that the phrase warm spring is not useful. In general, the temperature of rocks within the earth increases with depth, the rate of temperature increase with depth is known as the geothermal gradient. If water percolates deeply enough into the crust, it will be heated as it comes into contact with hot rocks, the water from hot springs in non-volcanic areas is heated in this manner. In active volcanic zones such as Yellowstone National Park, water may be heated by coming into contact with magma, the high temperature gradient near magma may cause water to be heated enough that it boils or becomes superheated. If the water becomes so hot that it builds steam pressure and erupts in a jet above the surface of the Earth, if the water only reaches the surface in the form of steam, it is called a fumarole. If the water is mixed with mud and clay, it is called a mud pot, note that hot springs in volcanic areas are often at or near the boiling point. People have been seriously scalded and even killed by accidentally or intentionally entering these springs, Warm springs are sometimes the result of hot and cold springs mixing. They may occur within an area or outside of one. One example of a warm spring is Warm Springs, Georgia. Hot springs range in flow rate from the tiniest seeps to veritable rivers of hot water, sometimes there is enough pressure that the water shoots upward in a geyser, or fountain. There are many claims in the literature about the rates of hot springs. It should be noted there are many more high flow non-thermal springs than geothermal springs. For example, there are 33 recognized magnitude one springs (having a flow in excess of 2,800 L/s in Florida alone, silver Springs, Florida has a flow of more than 21,000 L/s. Springs with high flow rates include, The Excelsior Geyser Crater in Yellowstone National Park yields about 4,000 U. S. gal/min
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Mineral water
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Mineral water is water from a mineral spring that contains various minerals, such as salts and sulfur compounds. Mineral water may be effervescent or sparkling due to contained gases, traditionally, mineral waters were used or consumed at their spring sources, often referred to as taking the waters or taking the cure, at places such as spas, baths, or wells. Today, it is far more common for water to be bottled at the source for distributed consumption. Travelling to the water site for direct access to the water is now uncommon. There are more than 3,000 brands of mineral water commercially available worldwide, in Romania resorts developed since antiquity in places such as Băile Herculane, Geoagiu or Slănic. Tourist development resulted in spa towns and hydropathic hotels, the more calcium and magnesium ions that are dissolved in water, the harder it is said to be, water with few dissolved calcium and magnesium ions is described as being soft. No minerals may be added to this water, in many places, however, the term mineral water is colloquially used to mean any bottled carbonated water or soda water, as opposed to tap water. In the European Union, bottled water may be called mineral water when it is bottled at the source and has no or minimal treatment. No additions are permitted except for carbon dioxide, which may be added, removed or re-introduced by exclusively physical methods, no disinfection treatment is permitted, nor is the addition of any bacteriostatic agents. Bottled water Drinking water Lithia water Mineral spa Water quality LaMoreaux, Philip E. Tanner, Judy T, eds
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Old-growth forest
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Old-growth features include diverse tree-related structures that provide diverse wildlife habitat that increases the biodiversity of the forested ecosystem. The concept of tree structure includes multi-layered canopies and canopy gaps, greatly varying tree heights and diameters. Old-growth forests are valuable, and logging of these forests has been a point of contention between the logging industry and environmentalists. Old-growth forests tend to have trees and standing dead trees, multi-layered canopies with gaps that result from the deaths of individual trees. Depending on the forest, this may take anywhere from a century to several millennia, hardwood forests of the eastern United States can develop old-growth characteristics in one or two generations of trees, or 150–500 years. In British Columbia, Canada, old growth is defined as 120 to 140 years of age in the interior of the province where fire is a frequent and natural occurrence. In British Columbia’s coastal rainforests, old growth is defined as more than 250 years. In Australia, eucalypt trees rarely exceed 350 years of age due to frequent fire disturbance, Forest types have very different development patterns, natural disturbances and appearances. Levels of biodiversity may be higher or lower in old-growth forests compared to that in second-growth forests, depending on circumstances, environmental variables. Logging in old-growth forests is an issue in many parts of the world. Excessive logging reduces biodiversity, affecting not only the old-growth forest itself, a forest in old-growth stage has a mix of tree ages, due to a distinct regeneration pattern for this stage. New trees regenerate at different times from other, because each one of them has different spatial location relative to the main canopy. The mixed age of the forest is an important criterion in ensuring that the forest is a stable ecosystem in the long term. A climax stand that is uniformly aged becomes senescent and degrades within a relatively short time-period to result in a new cycle of forest succession, thus, uniformly aged stands are a less stable ecosystem. Forest canopy gaps are essential in creating and maintaining mixed-age stands, also, some herbaceous plants only become established in canopy openings, but persist beneath an understory. Openings are a result of death due to small impact disturbances such as wind, low-intensity fires. Because old-growth forest is structurally diverse it provides higher-diversity habitat than forests in other stages, thus, sometimes higher biological diversity can be sustained in old-growth forest, or at least a biodiversity that is different from other forest stages. The characteristic topography of much old-growth forest consists of pits and mounds, mounds are caused by decaying fallen trees, and pits by the roots pulled out of the ground when trees fall due to natural causes, including being pushed over by animals
33.
Southern Carpathians
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The Southern Carpathians are a group of mountain ranges that divide central and southern Romania, on one side, and Serbia, on the other. They cover the part of the Carpathian Mountains located between the Prahova River in the east and the Timiș and Cerna Rivers in the west, to the south they are bounded by the Balkan mountain range. The Southern Carpathian are the second highest group of mountains in the Carpathian Mountain range, although considerably smaller than the Alps, they are classified as having an alpine landscape. Their high mountain character, combined with great accessibility, makes them popular with tourists and scientists, the South Carpathians represent an intricate pile of tectonic nappes, overthrusted from west eastwards during the Austrian and Laramian paroxysmal phases, corresponding to various plate fragments. The napes are, the Supragetic, Getic, Severin and Danubian Units, the Getic Nappe was identified by Murgoci, while the general understanding over the Alpine structure of the South Carpathians was later refined by Codarcea, Codarcea et al. Săndulescu, Săndulescu and Dimitrescu, and Mutihac, the first to apply the global tectonics concepts for the Romanian Carpathians were Rădulescu and Săndulescu. The Supragetic, Getic Nappes as well as the Danubian Units represent units with both a metamorphic basement and a cover, while the Severin Nappe includes only a sedimentary sequence. The Getic Nappe and the Danubian Units sediments include a Palaeozoic sequence, the Supragetic Nappe comprises mainly metamorphosed rocks, while the Severin Nappe includes only Upper Jurassic - Lower Cretaceous sediments. From east to west, four groups can be identified, separated by different river valleys. Bucegi Mountains group - between the Prahova and Dâmboviţa Rivers, bucegi Mountains Piatra Craiului Leaotă Mountains Făgăraş Mountains group - between the Dâmbovița River and the Olt River. Făgăraş Mountains Iezer Mountains Cozia Mountains Parâng Mountains group - between the Olt River and the Jiu River, Parâng Mountains Şureanu Mountains Cindrel Mountains Lotru Mountains Căpăţână Mountains Retezat-Godeanu Mountains group - between the Jiu River and the Timiș and Cerna Rivers. Retezat Mountains Godeanu Mountains Vâlcan Mountains Mehedinţi Mountains Cerna Mountains Ţarcu Mountains, the first two groups are steepest on the North side, and the last two are steepest on the South side. Divisions of the Carpathians Iron Gates, at the South-Western end Prahova Valley, at the Eastern end Pictures and landscapes from the Southern Carpathians
34.
Tatra Mountains
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The Tatra Mountains, Tatras or Tatra, are a mountain range that form a natural border between Slovakia and Poland. They are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains, the Tatras should be distinguished from the Low Tatras which are located south of the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia. The Tatra Mountains occupy an area of 785 square kilometres, of which about 610 square kilometres lie within Slovakia, the highest peak, called Gerlach, at 2,655 m is located north of Poprad. The highest point in Poland, Rysy, at 2,499 m is located south of Zakopane. The Tatras length, measured from the foothills of the Kobyli Wierch to the southwestern foot of Ostry Wierch Kwaczański, in a straight line is 57 km. The range is only 19 km wide, the Tatras main ridge leads from Huciańska Pass in the west to Zdziarska Pass to the east. In 1992 the Polish and Slovak parks were designated a transboundary biosphere reserve by UNESCO in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves under its Man. It is the highest mountain range within Carpathians, by the end of the First Polish Republic and the Polish border between the Kingdom of Hungary in the Tatras was not strictly defined. The Tatras became an unoccupied borderland, two years later, the First Partition of Poland allocated the lands to Austria. In 1824, Zakopane good and Fish Creek Valley with Morskie Oko purchased from the authorities of the Austrian Hungarian Emanuel Homolacs. In 1867 formed the Austria-Hungary and the Tatra Mountains have become imaginary border between the two states of the monarchy, but the border still has not been exactly determined. In 1889, Count Władysław Zamoyski purchased at auction a good Zakopane, due to numerous disputes over lands belonging in the late nineteenth century, attempts were made to the delimitation of the border. They did not bring effect in 1897, and the case went to a court that on September 13,1902 determined the exact course of the Austria-Hungary border in the disputed area. The Tatras lie in the zone of Central Europe. They are an important barrier to the movements of air masses and their mountainous topography causes one of the most diverse climates in that region. Winds The average wind speed on the summits is 6 m/s. southerly winds on the northern side westerly winds at the base of Tatra foehn winds most often occur between October and May and they are warm and dry and can cause extensive damage. On 19 November 2004, large parts of the forests in the southern Slovak part of the High Tatras were damaged by a wind storm. Three million cubic metres of trees were uprooted, two died and several villages were totally cut off
35.
Divisions of the Carpathians
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Divisions of the Carpathians are categorization of the Carpathian mountains system. Below is an overview of the major subdivisions and ranges of the Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathians are a subsystem of a bigger Alps-Himalaya System that stretches from the western Europe all the way to southern Asia, the last level of the division, i. e. the actual mountain ranges and basins, is usually classified as units. The main divisions are shown in the map on the right, to generalize, there are three major provinces, Western Carpathians, Eastern Carpathians, and Southern Carpathians. The division is largely undisputed at the lowest level, but various divisions are given for the higher levels, a geomorphological division has been used as much as the data was available, other new physiogeographic divisions were used in other cases. Where the classification of a higher title is known/sure, it is added at the end of the name in brackets. Their geologic features are distinct, but multiple traditions, languages and nationalities have developed overlapping variants for the divisions. In Romania, it is usual to divide the Eastern Carpathians in Romanian territory into three groups, instead in Outer and Inner Eastern Carpathians. But it is not a region and its inclusion is disputed in some sources. The Serbian Carpathians are sometimes considered part of the Southern Carpathians, with the difficulty of finding their exact subdivisions, they are given only as a list of the final units from the west to the east and south, in a separate listing at the end. In Poland Central Beskidian Piedmont and Lower Beskids belongs to Western Carpathians province, note that there are many variants for the divisions and names of these ranges. Wooded Beskids, Bieszczady or Western Bieszczady + Bukovské vrchy Mts. e. e, the term Bihor Massif is sometimes used for the Apuseni Mountains and Poiana Ruscă. Trascău Mountains RO, Munții Poiana Ruscă Poiana Ruscă Lipova Plateau Bega-Timiș Groove Orăștie Groove, hațeg Depression RO, Munții Banatului Banat Mountains sensu stricto, i. e. Semenic Mountains, Locva Mountains, Anina Mountains and Dognecea Mountains Almăj Mountains Timiș-Cerna Gap, incl. Almăj Depression Caraș Hills RO, Depresiunea Transilvaniei, i. e. Transylvanian Depression, some authors do not consider it to be part of the Carpathians. Mureș-Turda Depression Sibiu Depression Făgăraș Depression Transylvanian Plateau, Târnava Plateau, hârtibaci Plateau and Secașe Plateau Transylvanian Plain, or Transylvanian Plateau sensu stricto Someș Plateau Serbian, Karpatske planine, i. e. Carpathian Mountains. Sometimes considered part of the Southern Carpathians, sometimes not considered part of the Carpathians at all, origin and growth of the Western Carpathian orogenetic wedge during the mesozoic. Geologica Carpathica Special Issues,53, Proceedings of XVII, congress of Carpathian-Balkan Geological Association Bratislava, September 1 -42002 Mazúr, E. Lukniš M. Geomorphological division of SSR and ČSSR. Moravo-Silesian Beskids, Collection of tourist maps 1,50000, geology of the Carpathian Region, pp.106,108,109,172,554, etc
36.
Bratislava
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Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia, and with a population of about 450,000, the countrys largest city. The greater metropolitan area is home to more than 650,000 people, Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia, occupying both banks of the River Danube and the left bank of the River Morava. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the national capital that borders two sovereign states. The history of the city has strongly influenced by people of different nations and religions, namely by Austrians, Croats, Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Jews, Serbs. The city served as the site and legislative center of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1536 to 1783. Bratislava is the political, cultural and economic centre of Slovakia and it is the seat of the Slovak president, the parliament and the Slovak Executive. It is home to several universities, museums, theatres, galleries, many of Slovakias large businesses and financial institutions also have headquarters there. The capital of Slovakia is the eighth best city for freelancers to live in, mostly because of fast internet, in 2017, Bratislava was ranked as the third richest region of the European Union by GDP per capita. GDP at purchasing power parity is about three times higher than in other Slovak regions, the city received its contemporary name in 1919. Beforehand it was known in English by its German name, Pressburg, as it was long dominated by Austrians. This is the term which the German, the pre-1919 Slovak, the citys Hungarian name, Pozsony, was given after the castles first castellan, Poson. The origin of the name is unclear, it come from the Czech Pos or the German Poscho. Hungarian speakers still use the Hungarian name, Pozsony, the medieval settlement Brezalauspurc is sometimes attributed to Bratislava, however the actual location of Brezalauspurc is under scholarly debate. The citys modern name is credited to Pavel Jozef Šafáriks misinterpretation of Braslav as Bratislav when analyzing medieval sources, thus coming up with the term Břetislaw, during the revolution of 1918–1919, the name Wilsonov or Wilsonstadt was proposed by American Slovaks, as he supported national self-determination. The name Bratislava, which was used only by some Slovak patriots. The name Pressburg was also used in English-language publications until 1919, in older documents, confusion can be caused by the Latin forms Bratislavia, Wratislavia etc. which refer to Wrocław, Poland – not to Bratislava. The first known permanent settlement of the area began with the Linear Pottery Culture, about 200 BC, the Celtic Boii tribe founded the first significant settlement, a fortified town known as an oppidum. They also established a mint, producing silver coins known as biatecs, the area fell under Roman influence from the 1st to the 4th century AD and was made part of the Danubian Limes, a border defence system
37.
Cluj-Napoca
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Cluj-Napoca, commonly known as Cluj, is the second most populous city in Romania, after the national capital Bucharest, and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is equidistant from Bucharest, Budapest and Belgrade. Located in the Someșul Mic River valley, the city is considered the capital to the historical province of Transylvania. From 1790 to 1848 and from 1861 to 1867, it was the capital of the Grand Principality of Transylvania. Other names for the city include, German, Klausenburg, Hungarian, Kolozsvár, Hungarian pronunciation, Medieval Latin, Castrum Clus, Claudiopolis, and Yiddish, קלויזנבורג, Kloiznburg. As of 2011,324,576 inhabitants live within the city limits, the Cluj-Napoca metropolitan area has a population of 411,379 people, while the population of the peri-urban area exceeds 420,000 residents. The new metropolitan government of Cluj-Napoca became operational in December 2008, the city spreads out from St. Michaels Church in Unirii Square, built in the 14th century and named after the Archangel Michael, the patron saint of Cluj-Napoca. The boundaries of the municipality contain an area of 179.52 square kilometres, Cluj-Napoca experienced a decade of decline during the 1990s, its international reputation suffering from the policies of its mayor at the time, Gheorghe Funar. Today, the city is one of the most important academic, cultural, industrial, in 2015, Cluj-Napoca was European Youth Capital. On the site of the city was a settlement named Napoca. After the AD106 Roman conquest of the area, the place was known as Municipium Aelium Hadrianum Napoca, the first written mention of the citys current name – as a Royal Borough – was in 1213 under the Medieval Latin name Castrum Clus. With respect to the name of this camp, it is accepted as a derivation from the Latin term clausa – clusa, meaning closed place, strait. Similar senses are attributed to the Slavic term kluč, meaning a key, the Latin and Slavic names have been attributed to the valley that narrows or closes between hills just to the west of Cluj-Mănăștur. An alternative hypothesis relates the name of the city to its first magistrate, the Hungarian form Kolozsvár, first recorded in 1246 as Kulusuar, underwent various phonetic changes over the years, the variant Koloswar first appears in a document from 1332. Its Saxon name Clusenburg/Clusenbvrg appeared in 1348, but from 1408 the form Clausenburg was used, the Romanian name of the city used to be spelled alternately as Cluj or Cluș, the latter being the case in Mihai Eminescus Poesis. In 1974, the communist authorities added -Napoca to the name as a nationalist gesture. The full name is used outside of official contexts. In Yiddish it is known as קלאזין or קלויזענבורג, the nickname treasure city was acquired in the late 16th century, and refers to the wealth amassed by residents, including in the precious metals trade
38.
Sibiu
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Sibiu is a city in Transylvania, Romania, with a population of 147,245. Located some 215 km north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Cibin River, now the capital of Sibiu County, between 1692 and 1791 and 1849–65 Sibiu was the capital of the Principality of Transylvania, until 1920 it belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary. Sibiu is one of the most important cultural centres of Romania and was designated the European Capital of Culture for the year 2007, formerly the centre of the Transylvanian Saxons, the old city of Sibiu was ranked as Europes 8th-most idyllic place to live by Forbes in 2008. The city administers the Păltiniș ski resort, in the 14th century, it was already an important trade centre. In 1376, the craftsmen were divided in 19 guilds, Sibiu became the most important ethnic German city among the seven cities that gave Transylvania its German name Siebenbürgen. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the city became the second-, the first Romanian-owned bank had its headquarters here, as did the ASTRA. Starting from the 1950s and until after 1990, most of the citys ethnic Germans emigrated to Germany, among the roughly 2,000 who have remained is Klaus Johannis, the current President of Romania. Sibiu is situated near the center of Romania at 45. 792784°N24. 152069°E /45.792784,24.152069. The northern and eastern limits of Sibiu are formed by the Târnavelor Plateau, the Cibin river as well as some smaller streams runs through Sibiu. The geographical position of Sibiu makes it one of the most important transportation hubs in Romania with important roads, the following districts are part of Sibiu. Some were villages annexed by the city but most were built as the city developed and increased its surface, the Southern part, including the ASTRA National Museum Complex and the Zoo, also falls within the city limits. Sibius climate is continental with average temperatures of 8 to 9 °C. The average rainfall is 627 l/m2, and there are about 120 days of hard frost annually, as of 2011 census data, Sibiu has a population of 147,245, a decrease from the figure recorded at the 2002 census, making it the 14th-largest city in Romania. The ethnic breakdown was as follows, Romanians 95. 9% Hungarians 1. 6% Germans 1. 1% Roma 0. 4% Today, protestants and Roman Catholics represent about 5% of the population. When he was elected mayor in 2000, he was the first German mayor of a city in Romania since World War II, Johannis was overwhelmingly reelected in 2004 and 2008 and his party gained an absolute majority in the city council in that year. The German Forum also won the elections for mayor in the second- and third-most important towns in Sibiu county, Mediaș and Cisnădie, Sibiu is an important economic hub for Romania, with a high rate of foreign investments. It is also an important hub for the manufacturing of components and houses factories belonging to ThyssenKrupp Bilstein-Compa, Takata, Continental. Other local industries are machine components, textiles, agro-industry, the city also contains Romanias second-largest stock exchange, the Sibiu Stock Exchange
39.
Uzhhorod
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Uzhhorod is a city located in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. It is the center of Zakarpattia Oblast, as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Uzhhorod Raion within the oblast. The city itself is designated as city of oblast significance, a status equivalent to that of a raion. The city gets its name from the Uzh River, which divides the city into two parts, while horod is Rusyn for city, coming from Old Slavonic grad. However, this name is a recent construct, and has used only since the beginning of the 20th century. Before then, the city was known as Ungvár, also spelled Ongvár, Hungvár, and Unguyvar, a derived from Ung. It is also known by alternative names, Czech, Užhorod, Slovak, Užhorod, German, Ungwar, Ungarisch Burg, Polish, Użhorod, Romanian. The best known of the first city founders are early Slavs, one of their tribes – White Croats – settled the area of the modern Uzhhorod in the second half of the first millennium AD. Great Moravia, according to historians and experts did not extend as far east as Uzhgorod, in fact it was west of what is now the City of Bratislava and this was used as a justification by Slavs to say that they had a right to the region. In 895 AD Hungarian tribes, headed by their leader Árpád, the forces were not equal and Laborets was defeated and beheaded on the banks of the river that still carries his name. There was not much of a settlement when the Magyar tribes arrived, having left Kiev, after the arrival of the Hungarians, the small town began to extend its borders. In 1241–1242 the Mongols of Batu Khan burnt the settlement, in the early 14th century Uzhhorod showed strong resistance to the new Hungarian rulers of the Anjou dynasty. Although the majority of inhabitants were Hungarians, they wanted more freedom, from 1318 for 360 years, the Drugeths owned the town. During that period Philip Drugeth built, together with the castle the city began to grow. From 1430, Uzhhorod became a royal town. During the 16–17th centuries there were many handicraft corporations in Uzhhorod, in this period the city was engaged in the religious fight between primarily Protestant Transylvania and Catholic Austria. In 1646 the Ungvar Union was proclaimed and the Greek-Catholic church was established in Subcarpathia, in 1707 Ungvar was the residence of Ferenc II Rákóczi, leader of the national-liberation war of Hungarians against Vienna. The beginning of the 19th century was characterized by economic changes,27 March 1848 was officially celebrated in the city as the overthrow of the monarchy in Hungary
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Carpi (people)
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The Carpi or Carpiani were an ancient people that resided in the eastern parts of modern Romania in the historical region of Moldavia from no later than c. AD140 and until at least AD318, the ethnic affiliation of the Carpi remains disputed, as there is no direct evidence in the surviving ancient literary sources. A strong body of scholarly opinion considers that the Carpi were a tribe of the Dacian nation. Other scholars have linked the Carpi to a variety of groups, including Sarmatians, Thracians, Slavs, Germans. About a century after their earliest mention by Ptolemy, during which time their relations with Rome appear to have been peaceful, in the period AD 250-270, the Carpi were an important component of a loose coalition of transdanubian barbarian tribes that also included Germanic and Sarmatian elements. These were responsible for a series of large and devastating invasions of the Balkan regions of the empire which nearly caused its disintegration in the Crisis of the Third Century, in the period 270-318, the Roman military emperors acted to remove the Carpi threat to the empires borders. Multiple crushing defeats were inflicted on the Carpi in 273,297, 298-308, the Greco-Romans called this people the Carpi or Carpiani. Probably the earliest mention of them, under the name Καρπιανοί is in the Geographia of the 2nd-century Greek geographer Ptolemy, composed c. The name Carpi or Carpiani may derive from the root as the name of the Carpathian mountain range that they occupied. The root may be the putative Proto-Indo-European word *ker/sker, meaning peak or cliff, scholars who support this derivation are divided between those who believe the Carpi gave their name to the mountain range and those who claim the reverse. In the latter case, Carpiani could mean people of the Carpathians. But the similarity between the two names may be coincidence, and they may derive from different roots, for example, it has been suggested that the name may derive from the Slavic root-word krepu meaning strong or brave. Also, it had suggested that Carpathian Mountains may derive from the Sanskrit root kar cut that would give the meaning of rugged mountains. If so, their locations could imply that the Carpi had very gradually migrated westwards in the period 400 BC - AD140 and these names common element carp- appears frequently in Dacian and Thracian placenames and personal names. But there is no consensus that these groups are in fact Carpi, Bichir suggests that they were Thraco-Dacian tribes distantly related to the Carpi. According to Ptolemys Geographia, the Carpi occupied a region between the river Hierasus and the river Porata and this was outside Dacia proper, as defined by Ptolemy, whose eastern border was the Hierasus. East of this river lay what Ptolemy termed Sarmatia Europaea, a vast region stretching as far as the Crimea, predominantly, ethnic Dacians residing outside Roman Dacia. However, it is not possible to define the territories of these groups due to the imprecision of the ancient geographical sources
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Ptolemy
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Claudius Ptolemy was a Greek writer, known as a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in the city of Alexandria in the Roman province of Egypt, wrote in Koine Greek, beyond that, few reliable details of his life are known. His birthplace has been given as Ptolemais Hermiou in the Thebaid in a statement by the 14th-century astronomer Theodore Meliteniotes. This is a very late attestation, however, and there is no reason to suppose that he ever lived elsewhere than Alexandria. Ptolemy wrote several treatises, three of which were of importance to later Byzantine, Islamic and European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest, although it was entitled the Mathematical Treatise. The second is the Geography, which is a discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. The third is the treatise in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day. This is sometimes known as the Apotelesmatika but more known as the Tetrabiblos from the Greek meaning Four Books or by the Latin Quadripartitum. The name Claudius is a Roman nomen, the fact that Ptolemy bore it indicates he lived under the Roman rule of Egypt with the privileges and political rights of Roman citizenship. It would have suited custom if the first of Ptolemys family to become a citizen took the nomen from a Roman called Claudius who was responsible for granting citizenship, if, as was common, this was the emperor, citizenship would have been granted between AD41 and 68. The astronomer would also have had a praenomen, which remains unknown and it occurs once in Greek mythology, and is of Homeric form. All the kings after him, until Egypt became a Roman province in 30 BC, were also Ptolemies, abu Mashar recorded a belief that a different member of this royal line composed the book on astrology and attributed it to Ptolemy. The correct answer is not known”, Ptolemy wrote in Greek and can be shown to have utilized Babylonian astronomical data. He was a Roman citizen, but most scholars conclude that Ptolemy was ethnically Greek and he was often known in later Arabic sources as the Upper Egyptian, suggesting he may have had origins in southern Egypt. Later Arabic astronomers, geographers and physicists referred to him by his name in Arabic, Ptolemys Almagest is the only surviving comprehensive ancient treatise on astronomy. Ptolemy presented his models in convenient tables, which could be used to compute the future or past position of the planets. The Almagest also contains a catalogue, which is a version of a catalogue created by Hipparchus
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Dimitrie Cantemir
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Dimitrie or Demetrius Cantemir, also known by other spellings, was a Moldavian soldier, statesman, and man of letters. He was twice voivode of Moldavia, Cantemir was also a prolific writer, variously a philosopher, historian, composer, musicologist, linguist, ethnographer, and geographer. His son Antioch, Russias ambassador to Great Britain and France, Dimitrie is the Romanian form of the name Latinized as Demetrius and, less often, anglicized as Demeter. The Russian form of his name was Dmitri Konstantinovich Kantemir and he is also known as Dimitri Kantemiroğlu in Turkish contexts, Dymitr Kantemir in Polish, and Dēmētrios Kantimērēs in Greek. Dimitrie was born in Silişteni, Moldavia on 26 October 1673 to Constantin Cantemir and his elderly father was from a noble family of Crimean Tatar extraction, which came to Moldavia in the mid-17th century. His mother was a daughter of a local noble family. In 1685, Constantin was named voivode of Moldavia by its Turkish overlords, although Constantin himself was illiterate, he educated his sons Dimitrie and Antioh thoroughly. Dimitrie learned Greek and Latin to read the classics as a child, one of his tutors was the scholar John Komnenos Molyvdos. While there, he also composed Turkish music, when his brother Antioh eventually succeeded to the control of Moldavia, Dimitrie served as his envoy to the Porte. During these years, he served with distinction in the Turkish army on its campaigns. In 1710, Dimitrie was appointed voivode in his own right, believing Ottoman Turkey to be collapsing, he placed Moldavia under Russian control through a secret agreement signed at Lutsk. He then joined Peter the Great in his war against the Turks and this ended in failure at Stănilești and the Cantemirs were forced into Russian exile. Turkey then replaced the voivodeship with the rule of Greek phanariots, in Russia, Dimitrie was created both a Russian prince by Peter and a prince of the Holy Roman Empire by Charles VI. He lived on an estate at Dmitrovka near Oryol, with a sizable boyar retinue, there he died on 21 August 1723, on the very day he was awarded his German title. In 1935, his remains were returned to Iași, Cantemirs children were rather prominent in Russian history. His elder daughter Maria Cantemir so attracted Peter the Great that he planned to divorce his wife Catherine to be with her. Upon Catherines own ascension to the throne, however, Maria was forced to enter a convent, another son Constantin was implicated in the Golitsyn conspiracy against the empress Anna and was exiled to Siberia. Dimitries younger daughter Smaragda, reckoned one of the beauties of her time, was the wife of Prince Dmitriy Mikhailovich Golitsyn
listen) in Romanian, Karpaten in German, and Kárpátok in Hungarian.[14][15] Although the toponym was recorded already by Ptolemy in the second century CE, [16] the modern form of the name is a neologism in most languages.[14] For instance, Havasok ("Snowy Mountains") was its medieval Hungarian name; Russian chronicles referred to it as "Hungarian Mountains". [15][14] Later sources, such as Dimitrie Cantemir and the Italian chronicler Giovanandrea Gromo, referred to the range as "Transylvania's Mountains", while the 17th-century historian Constantin Cantacuzino translated the name of the mountains in an Italian-Romanian glossary to "Rumanian Mountains". [14]
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"Gervase of Tilbury". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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