1.
Head
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A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the eyes, ears, nose and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may not have a head, but many bilaterally symmetric forms do, heads develop in animals by an evolutionary trend known as cephalization. In bilaterally symmetrical animals, nervous tissues concentrate at the anterior region, through biological evolution, sense organs and feeding structures also concentrate into the anterior region, these collectively form the head. The human head is a unit that consists of the skull, hyoid bone. The term skull collectively denotes the mandible and the cranium, the skull can also be described as being composed of the cranium, which encloses the cranial cavity, and the facial skeleton. There are eight bones in the cranium and fourteen in the facial skeleton, sculptures of human heads are generally based on a skeletal structure that consists of a cranium, jawbone, and cheekbone. Proponents of identism believe that the mind is identical to the brain, philosopher John Searle asserts his identist beliefs, stating the brain is the only thing in the human head. Similarly, Dr. Henry Bennet-Clark has stated that the head encloses billions of miniagents and microagents, evolution of the head In the vertebrates has occurred by the fusion of a fixed number of anterior segments, in the same manner as in other ”heteronomously segmented animals”. In some cases segments or a portion of the segments disappear, the head segments also lose most of its systems except for the nervous system. In some arthropods, especially trilobites, the cephalon, or cephalic region, is the region of the head which is a collective of fused segments, a typical insect head is composed of eyes, antennae, and components of mouth. As these components differ substantially from insect to insect, they form important identification links, eyes in the head found, in several types of insects, are in the form of a pair of compound eyes with multiple faces. In many other types of insects the compound eyes are seen in a facet or group of single facets. In some case, the eyes may be seen as marks on the dorsal or located near or toward the head, antennae on the insects head is found in the form of segmented attachments, in pairs, that are usually located between the eyes. These are in varying shapes and sizes, in the form of filaments or in different enlarged or clubbed form, insects have mouth parts in various shapes depending on their feeding habits. Labrum is the lip which is in the front area of the head and is the most exterior part. A pair of mandible is found on backside of the labrum flanking the side of the mouth, at the back side of the mouth is the labium or lower lip. There is also a mouth part in some insects which is termed as hypopharynx which is usually located between the maxillac. The heads of humans and other animals are commonly recurring charges in heraldry, several varieties of womens heads also occur, including maidens heads, ladies heads, nuns heads, and occasionally queens heads
2.
Dog
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The domestic dog is a member of genus Canis that forms part of the wolf-like canids, and is the most widely abundant carnivore. The dog and the extant gray wolf are sister taxa, with modern wolves not closely related to the wolves that were first domesticated, the dog was the first domesticated species and has been selectively bred over millennia for various behaviors, sensory capabilities, and physical attributes. Their long association with humans has led dogs to be attuned to human behavior. Dogs vary widely in shape, size and colours, dogs perform many roles for people, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and military, companionship and, more recently, aiding handicapped individuals. This influence on society has given them the sobriquet mans best friend. The term domestic dog is used for both domesticated and feral varieties. The English word dog comes from Middle English dogge, from Old English docga, the term may possibly derive from Proto-Germanic *dukkōn, represented in Old English finger-docce. The word also shows the familiar petname diminutive -ga also seen in frogga frog, picga pig, stagga stag, wicga beetle, worm, the term dog may ultimately derive from the earliest layer of Proto-Indo-European vocabulary. In 14th-century England, hound was the word for all domestic canines, and dog referred to a subtype of hound. It is believed this dog type was so common, it became the prototype of the category hound. By the 16th century, dog had become the general word, the word hound is ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *kwon-, dog. This semantic shift may be compared with in German, where the corresponding words Dogge, a male canine is referred to as a dog, while a female is called a bitch. The father of a litter is called the sire, and the mother is called the dam, the process of birth is whelping, from the Old English word hwelp, the modern English word whelp is an alternate term for puppy. A litter refers to the offspring at one birth which are called puppies or pups from the French poupée, doll. The term dog typically is applied both to the species as a whole, and any male member of the same. An adult female is a bitch, in some countries, especially in North America, dog is used instead due to the vulgar connotation of bitch. An adult male capable of reproduction is a stud, an adult female capable of reproduction is a brood bitch, or brood mother. Immature males or females are pups or puppies, a group of pups from the same gestation period is a litter
3.
Jackal
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Jackals are medium-sized omnivorous mammals of the genus Canis, which also includes wolves and the domestic dog. Jackals and coyotes are opportunistic omnivores, predators of small- to medium-sized animals, Jackals are crepuscular, most active at dawn and dusk. The territory may be enough to hold some young adults. Jackals may occasionally assemble in small packs, for example, to scavenge a carcass, the English word jackal derives from Persian شغال shoghāl, cognate with Sanskrit सृगालः / sṛgālaḥ. The taxonomy of the jackals has evolved with scientific understanding about how they are related on the family tree. In practice, Cabrera chose the alternative and referred to the jackals as Canis instead of Thos. Okens Thos theory was revived in 1914 by Edmund Heller, who embraced the separate genus theory, hellers names and the designations he gave to various jackal species and subspecies live on in current taxonomy, although the genus has been changed from Thos to Canis. Modern research has clarified the relationships among the jackal species, despite their similarities, jackals do not all stem from the same branch on the canid family tree. Because of this deep divergence between the black-backed/side-striped jackal and the jackal, it has been proposed to change the two species generic name from Canis to Lupulella. Experiments in Germany with breeding poodles and golden jackals have produced hybrids, in Russia, golden jackals are one of the founder breeds of the Sulimov dog, a working dog owned exclusively by Aeroflot and used for bomb detection in airport security. Like foxes and coyotes, jackals are often depicted as clever sorcerers in the myths, anubis is the Greek name for a jackal-headed god associated with mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian religion. The jackal is mentioned approximately 14 times in the Bible and it is called wild dog in several translations of the Bible. Serer religion and creation myth posits the jackal was among the first animals created by Roog, pablo Nerudas poem I Explain a Few Things describes Francisco Franco and his allies as. Jackals that the jackal would drive off. In Rudyard Kiplings collection of stories The Jungle Book, the mad cowardly jackal Tabaqui feasts on the scraps of Shere Khan, in the King James translation of the Bible, Isaiah 13,21 refers to doleful creatures, which some commentators suggest are either jackals or hyenas. Literature in India and Pakistan compares jackal with lion in terms of courage, a famous saying is One day life of a lion is better than a hundred years life of a jackal. Multiple jackals are featured throughout the Swiss Family Robinson. The New Encyclopedia of Mammals edited by David Macdonald, Oxford University Press,2001, ISBN 0-19-850823-9 Cry of the Kalahari, by Mark and Delia Owens, the Velvet Claw, A Natural History of the Carnivores, by David MacDonald, BBC Books,1992. Foxes, Wolves, and Wild Dogs of the World, by David Alderton, Jackal at the African Wildlife Foundation Jackals at A-Z Animals Jackals of the African Crater at PBS. org Jackal is a meaningless term
4.
Old World monkey
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The Old World monkeys or Cercopithecidae are a family of catarrhines, the only family in the superfamily Cercopithecoidea in the clade of Catarrhini. However, a group of monkeys still survives in Gibraltar to this day. Old World monkeys include many of the most familiar species of primates, such as baboons. Old World monkeys are medium to large in size, and range from arboreal forms, such as the monkeys, to fully terrestrial forms. By superficial appearance, Old World monkeys are unlike apes in that most have tails and, unlike the New World monkeys, technically, the distinction of catarrhines from platyrrhines depends on the structure of the nose, and the distinction of Old World monkeys from apes depends on dentition. In platyrrhines, the nostrils face sideways, while in catarrhines, for example, the colobus monkeys have stubs for thumbs to assist with their arboreal movement, the proboscis monkey has an extraordinary nose, while the snub-nosed monkeys have almost no nose at all. The male mandrills penis is red and the scrotum is lilac, the coloration is more pronounced in dominant males. Most Old World monkeys are at least partially omnivorous, but all prefer plant matter, the Barbary macaques diet consists mostly of leaves and roots, though it will also eat insects and uses cedar trees as a water source. Gestation in the Old World monkeys lasts between five and seven months, births are usually single, although, as with humans, twins occur from time to time. The young are born relatively well-developed, and are able to cling onto their mothers fur with their hands from birth, compared with most other mammals, they take a long time to reach sexual maturity, with four to six years being typical of most species. In most species, daughters remain with their mothers for life, males leave the group on reaching adolescence, and find a new troop to join. In many species, only an adult male lives with each group, driving off all rivals. Group sizes are variable, even within species, depending on the availability of food. Therefore, cladistically, apes, catarrhines and related contemporary extinct groups such as Parapithecidaea are monkeys as well, for any consistent definition of monkey
5.
Macaque
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The macaques constitute a genus of Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. The 23 species of macaques are widespread over Earth, all macaques social groups are arranged around dominant, matriarchal females. Aside from humans, the macaques are the most widespread genus, ranging from Japan to the Indian subcontinent. Although several species lack tails and their names refer to them as apes. In some species, skin folds join the second through fifth toes, macaques have a very intricate social structure and hierarchy. Several species of macaques are used extensively in animal testing, particularly in the neuroscience of visual perception, nearly all pet and captive rhesus macaques are carriers of the herpes B virus. This virus is harmless to macaques, but infections of humans, while rare, are potentially fatal, urban performing macaques also carried simian foamy virus, suggesting they could be involved in the species-to-species jump of similar retroviruses to humans. The people of Vietnam continue to engage in the hunting, killing, and eating of macaques
6.
Baboon
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Baboons are African and Arabian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. The five species are some of the largest non-hominoid members of the order, only the mandrill. Previously, the closely related gelada and the two species of genus Mandrillus were grouped in the genus, and these Old World monkeys are still often referred to as baboons in everyday speech. They range in size and weight depending on species, the Guinea baboon is 50 cm and weighs only 14 kg, while the largest chacma baboon can be 120 cm and weigh 40 kg. Five species of Papio are commonly recognized, although there is disagreement about whether they are really full species or subspecies. They are P. ursinus, P. papio, P. hamadryas, P. anubis, many authors distinguish P. hamadryas as a full species, but regard all the others as subspecies of P. cynocephalus and refer to them collectively as savanna baboons. However, recent morphological and genetic studies of Papio show the hamadryas baboon to be closely related to the northern baboon species than to the southern species. In 2015 researchers found the oldest baboon fossil dating 2 million years ago, the traditional five-form classification probably under-represents the variation within Papio. However, current knowledge of the morphological, genetic, and behavioral diversity within Papio is too poor to make any final and these calluses are nerveless, hairless pads of skin that provide for the sitting comfort of the baboon. All baboon species exhibit pronounced sexual dimorphism, usually in size, males of the hamadryas baboon species also have large white manes. Baboons are terrestrial and are found in savannah, open woodland. Their diets are omnivorous, but mostly herbivorous, yet they eat insects and occasionally prey on fish, trout and salmon if available, shellfish, hares, birds, vervet monkeys and they are foragers and are active at irregular times throughout the day and night. They can raid human dwellings, and in South Africa, they have known to prey on sheep. Baboons in captivity have been known to live up to 45 years, baboons are able to acquire orthographic processing skills, which form part of the ability to read. Their principal predators are Nile crocodiles, lions, spotted and striped hyenas, leopards and they are considered a difficult prey for the leopard, though, which is mostly a threat to young baboons. Large males will often confront them by flashing their eyelids, showing their teeth by yawning, screeching, making gestures, although they are not a prey species, baboons have been killed by the black mamba. This usually occurs when a baboon accidentally rouses the snake, most baboons live in hierarchical troops. Group sizes vary between five and 250 animals, depending on circumstances, especially species and time of year
7.
Ancient Greece
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Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Jewish, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. The end of the Dark Ages is also dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC
8.
Ancient Egyptian deities
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Ancient Egyptian deities are the gods and goddesses worshipped in ancient Egypt. The beliefs and rituals surrounding these gods formed the core of ancient Egyptian religion, the gods complex characteristics were expressed in myths and in intricate relationships between deities, family ties, loose groups and hierarchies, and combinations of separate gods into one. Deities diverse appearances in art—as animals, humans, objects, and combinations of different forms—also alluded, through symbolism, to their essential features. In different eras, various gods were said to hold the highest position in society, including the solar deity Ra, the mysterious god Amun. The highest deity was usually credited with the creation of the world, some scholars have argued, based in part on Egyptian writings, that the Egyptians came to recognize a single divine power that lay behind all things and was present in all the other deities. Gods were assumed to be present throughout the world, capable of influencing natural events, people interacted with them in temples and unofficial shrines, for personal reasons as well as for larger goals of state rites. Egyptians prayed for help, used rituals to compel deities to act. Humans relations with their gods were a part of Egyptian society. The beings in ancient Egyptian tradition who might be labeled as deities are difficult to count, Egyptian texts list the names of many deities whose nature is unknown and make vague, indirect references to other gods who are not even named. The Egyptologist James P. Allen estimates that more than 1,400 deities are named in Egyptian texts, the Egyptian languages terms for these beings were nṯr, god, and its feminine form nṯrt, goddess. Scholars have tried to discern the nature of the gods by proposing etymologies for these words, but none of these suggestions has gained acceptance. The hieroglyphs that were used as ideograms and determinatives in writing these words show some of the traits that the Egyptians connected with divinity, the most common of these signs is a flag flying from a pole. Similar objects were placed at the entrances of temples, representing the presence of a deity, other such hieroglyphs include a falcon, reminiscent of several early gods who were depicted as falcons, and a seated male or female deity. The feminine form could also be written with an egg as determinative, connecting goddesses with creation and birth, or with a cobra, the Egyptians distinguished nṯrw, gods, from rmṯ, people, but the meanings of the Egyptian and the English terms do not match perfectly. The term nṯr may have applied to any being that was in some way outside the sphere of everyday life, Egyptian religious art also depicts places, objects, and concepts in human form. These personified ideas range from deities that were important in myth and ritual to obscure beings, only mentioned once or twice, confronting these blurred distinctions between gods and other beings, scholars have proposed various definitions of a deity. One widely accepted definition, suggested by Jan Assmann, says that a deity has a cult, is involved in some aspect of the universe, according to a different definition, by Dimitri Meeks, nṯr applied to any being that was the focus of ritual. From this perspective, gods included the king, who was called a god after his coronation rites, and deceased souls, likewise, the preeminence of the great gods was maintained by the ritual devotion that was performed for them across Egypt
9.
Anubis
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Anubis or Anpu is the Greek name of a god associated with mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine head. Like many ancient Egyptian deities, Anubis assumed different roles in various contexts, depicted as a protector of graves as early as the First Dynasty, Anubis was also an embalmer. By the Middle Kingdom he was replaced by Osiris in his role as lord of the underworld, one of his prominent roles was as a god who ushered souls into the afterlife. He attended the weighing scale during the Weighing of the Heart, despite being one of the most ancient and one of the most frequently depicted and mentioned gods in the Egyptian pantheon, Anubis played almost no role in Egyptian myths. Anubis was depicted in black, a color that symbolized both rebirth and the discoloration of the corpse after embalming, Anubis is associated with Wepwawet, another Egyptian god portrayed with a dogs head or in canine form, but with grey or white fur. Historians assume that the two figures were eventually combined and his daughter is the serpent goddess Kebechet. Anubis is a Greek rendering of this gods Egyptian name, in Egypts Early Dynastic period, Anubis was portrayed in full animal form, with a jackal head and body. A jackal god, probably Anubis, is depicted in stone inscriptions from the reigns of Hor-Aha, Djer, the oldest known textual mention of Anubis is in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom, where he is associated with the burial of the pharaoh. In the Old Kingdom, Anubis was the most important god of the dead and he was replaced in that role by Osiris during the Middle Kingdom. In the Roman era, which started in 30 BC, tomb paintings depict him holding the hand of deceased persons to them to Osiris. The parentage of Anubis varied between myths, times and sources, in early mythology, he was portrayed as a son of Ra. In the Coffin Texts, which were written in the First Intermediate Period, another tradition depicted him as the son of his father Ra and mother Nephthys. George Hart sees this story as an attempt to incorporate the independent deity Anubis into the Osirian pantheon, an Egyptian papyrus from the Roman period simply called Anubis the son of Isis. In the Ptolemaic period, when Egypt became a Hellenistic kingdom ruled by Greek pharaohs, Anubis was merged with the Greek god Hermes, the two gods were considered similar because they both guided souls to the afterlife. The center of this cult was in uten-ha/Sa-ka/ Cynopolis, a place whose Greek name means city of dogs, in Book XI of The Golden Ass by Apuleius, there is evidence that the worship of this god was continued in Rome through at least the 2nd century. Indeed, Hermanubis also appears in the alchemical and hermetical literature of the Middle Ages, in contrast to real wolves, Anubis was a protector of graves and cemeteries. Several epithets attached to his name in Egyptian texts and inscriptions referred to that role, the Jumilhac papyrus recounts another tale where Anubis protected the body of Osiris from Set. Set attempted to attack the body of Osiris by transforming himself into a leopard, Anubis stopped and subdued Set, however, and he branded Sets skin with a hot iron rod
10.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
11.
Headless men
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Various species of mythical headless men were rumored, in antiquity and later, to inhabit remote parts of the world. They are variously known as akephaloi or Blemmyes and described as lacking a head and these were at first described as inhabitants of the Nile system. Later traditions confined to their habitat to an island in the Brisone River. Blemmyes are said to occur in two types, with eyes on the chest or with the eyes on the shoulders, epiphagi, a variant name for the headless people of the Brisone, is sometimes used as a term referring strictly to the eyes-on-the-shoulders type. As for the origins of the name Blemmyes, various etymologies had been proposed, in antiquity, Blemmyes was said to be named epyonmously after King Blemys, according to Nonnuss 5th century epic Dionysiaca, but no lore about headlessness is attached to the people in this work. Samuel Bochart of the 17th century derived the word Blemmyes from the Hebrew bly without and moach brain, a Greek derivation from blemma look, glance and muō close the eyes has also been suggested. Wolfgang Helck claimed a Coptic word blind for its etymology, Leo Reinisch in 1895 proposed that it derived from bálami desert people in the Bedauye tongue. Although this theory had long neglected, this etymology has come into acceptance. The first indirect reference to the blemmyes occurs in Herodotus, Histories, mela was the first to name the Blemyae of Africa as being headless with their face buried in their chest. In a similar vein, Pliny the Elder in the Natural History reports the Blemmyae tribe of North Africa as no heads, their mouths, Pliny situates the Blemmyae somewhere in Aethiopia. Solinus, adds they are believed to be born with their head part dismembered, their mouth, by the 7th or 8th century there had been composed a Letter of Pharasmenes to Hadrian, whose accounts of marvels such as bearded women became incorporated into later texts. This included De Rebus in Oriente mirabilibus, its Anglo-Saxon translation, Gervase of Tilburys treatise, the catalogue of strange peoples from Letter occur in the Anglo-Saxon Wonders of the East and the Liber Monstrorum, recensions of both these works are bound in the Beowulf manuscript. No name is given to the islanders, eight feet tall in the Wonders of the East. Epiphagi is the name of the headless in Liber Monstrorum This form derives from epiphagos in a recension of the Letter of Pharasmenes known as the Letter of Premonis to Trajan. The Letter material was incorporated into the Alexander legend by Leo Archipresbyter, known as Historia de Preliis, in the prose Alexandre the golden-colored headless encountered by Alexandre measured just 6 feet tall, and had beards reaching their knees. In the French version, Alexander captures 30 of the headless to show the rest of the world, other Alexander books that contain the headless people episode are Thomas de Kents romance and Jean Wauquelins chronicle. The blemmyes or the people have also been illustrated and described on medieval maps. The Hereford Mappa Mundi places the Blemee in Ethiopia, deriving its information from Solinus, one Blemee standing has his face on their chest, and another below him has eyes and mouth at their shoulders
12.
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
