Grand Palace
The Grand Palace are a complex of buildings at the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. The palace has been the official residence of the Kings of Siam since 1782; the king, his court, his royal government were based on the grounds of the palace until 1925. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, resided at the Chitralada Royal Villa and his successor King Vajiralongkorn at the Amphorn Sathan Residential Hall, both in the Dusit Palace, but the Grand Palace is still used for official events. Several royal ceremonies and state functions are held within the walls of the palace every year; the palace is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Thailand. Construction of the palace began on 6 May 1782, at the order of King Phutthayotfa Chulalok, the founder of the Chakri Dynasty, when he moved the capital city from Thonburi to Bangkok. Throughout successive reigns, many new buildings and structures were added during the reign of King Chulalongkorn. By 1925, the king, the Royal Family and the government were no longer permanently settled at the palace, had moved to other residences.
After the abolition of absolute monarchy in 1932, all government agencies moved out of the palace. In shape, the palace complex is rectangular and has a combined area of 218,400 square metres, surrounded by four walls, it is situated on the banks of the Chao Phraya River at the heart of the Rattanakosin Island, today in the Phra Nakhon District. The Grand Palace is bordered by Sanam Luang and Na Phra Lan Road to the north, Maharaj Road to the west, Sanam Chai Road to the east and Thai Wang Road to the south. Rather than being a single structure, the Grand Palace is made up of numerous buildings, pavilions set around open lawns and courtyards, its asymmetry and eclectic styles are due to its organic development, with additions and rebuilding being made by successive reigning kings over 200 years of history. It is divided into several quarters: the Temple of the Emerald Buddha; the Grand Palace is partially open to the public as a museum, but it remains a working palace, with several royal offices still situated inside.
The construction of the Grand Palace began on 6 May 1782, at the order of King Phutthayotfa Chulalok. Having seized the crown from King Taksin of Thonburi, King Rama I was intent on building a capital city for his new Chakri Dynasty, he moved the seat of power from the city of Thonburi, on the west side of the Chao Phraya River, to the east side at Bangkok. The new capital city was turned into an artificial island; the island was given the name'Rattanakosin'. The previous royal residence was the Derm Palace, constructed for King Taksin in 1768; the new palace was built on a rectangular piece of land on the west side of the island, between Wat Pho to the south, Wat Mahathat to the north and with the Chao Phraya River on the west. This location was occupied by a Chinese community, whom King Rama I ordered to relocate to an area south and outside of the city walls. Desperate for materials and short on funds, the palace was built out of wood, its various structures surrounded by a simple log palisade.
On 10 June 1782, the king ceremonially crossed the river from Thonburi to take permanent residence in the new palace. Three days on 13 June, the king held an abbreviated coronation ceremony, thus becoming the first monarch of the new Rattanakosin Kingdom. Over the next few years the king began replacing wooden structures with masonry, rebuilding the walls, gates, throne halls and royal residences; this rebuilding included the royal chapel. To find more material for these constructions, King Rama I ordered his men to go upstream to the old capital city of Ayutthaya, destroyed in 1767 during a war between Burma and Siam, they dismantled structures and removed as many bricks as they could find, while not removing any from the temples. They began by taking materials from the walls of the city. By the end they had leveled the old royal palaces; the bricks were ferried down the Chao Phraya by barges, where they were incorporated into the walls of Bangkok and the Grand Palace itself. Most of the initial construction of the Grand Palace during the reign of King Rama I was carried out by conscripted or corvée labour.
After the final completion of the ceremonial halls of the palace, the king held a full traditional coronation ceremony in 1785. The layout of the Grand Palace followed that of the Royal Palace at Ayutthaya in location, in the divisions of separate courts, walls and forts. Both palaces featured a proximity to the river; the location of a pavilion serving as a landing stage for barge processions corresponded with that of the old palace. To the north of the Grand Palace there is a large field, the Thung Phra Men, used as an open space for royal ceremonies and as a parade ground. There was a similar field in Ayutthaya, used for the same purpose; the road running north leads to the residence of the Second King of Siam. The Grand Palace is divided into four main courts, separated by numerous walls and gates: the Outer Court, the Middle Court, the Inner Court and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha; each of these court's functions and access are defined by laws and traditions. The Outer Court
Basel
Basel is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine. Basel is Switzerland's third-most-populous city with about 180,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss and German borders meet, Basel has suburbs in France and Germany; as of 2016, the Swiss Basel agglomeration was the third-largest in Switzerland, with a population of 541,000 in 74 municipalities in Switzerland. The initiative Trinational Eurodistrict Basel of 62 suburban communes including municipalities in neighboring countries, counted 829,000 inhabitants in 2007; the official language of Basel is German, but the main spoken language is the local Basel German dialect. The city is known for its many internationally renowned museums, ranging from the Kunstmuseum, the first collection of art accessible to the public in Europe and the largest museum of art in the whole of Switzerland, to the Fondation Beyeler; the University of Basel, Switzerland's oldest university, the city's centuries-long commitment to humanism, have made Basel a safe haven at times of political unrest in other parts of Europe for such notable people as Erasmus of Rotterdam, the Holbein family, Friedrich Nietzsche and in the 20th century Hermann Hesse and Karl Jaspers.
The city of Basel is Switzerland's second-largest economic centre after the city of Zürich and has the highest GDP per capita in the country, ahead of the cantons of Zug and Geneva. In terms of value, over 94% of Basel City's goods exports are in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors. With production facilities located in the neighboring Schweizerhalle, Basel accounts for 20% of Swiss exports and generates one third of the national product. Basel has been the seat of a Prince-Bishopric since the 11th century, joined the Swiss Confederacy in 1501; the city has been a commercial hub and an important cultural centre since the Renaissance, has emerged as a centre for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries in the 20th century. In 1897, Basel was chosen by Theodor Herzl as the location for the first World Zionist Congress, altogether the congress has been held there ten times over a time span of 50 years, more than in any other location; the city is home to the world headquarters of the Bank for International Settlements.
In 2019 Basel, was ranked among the ten most liveable cities in the world by Mercer together with Zürich and Geneva. There are traces of a settlement at the Rhine knee from the early La Tène period. In the 2nd century BC, there was a village of the Raurici at the site of Basel-Gasfabrik, to the northwest of the Old City identical with the town of Arialbinnum mentioned on the Tabula Peutingeriana; the unfortified settlement was abandoned in the 1st century BC in favour of an oppidum on the site of Basel Minster in reaction to the Roman invasion of Gaul. In Roman Gaul, Augusta Raurica was established some 20 km from Basel as the regional administrative centre, while a castra was built on the site of the Celtic oppidum; the city of Basel grew around the castra. In AD 83, Basel was incorporated into the Roman province of Germania Superior. Roman control over the area deteriorated in the 3rd century, Basel became an outpost of the Provincia Maxima Sequanorum formed by Diocletian; the Germanic confederation of the Alemanni attempted to cross the Rhine several times in the 4th century, but were repelled.
However, in the great invasion of AD 406, the Alemanni appear to have crossed the Rhine river a final time and settling what is today Alsace and a large part of the Swiss Plateau. From that time, Basel has been an Alemannic settlement; the Duchy of Alemannia fell under Frankish rule in the 6th century, by the 7th century, the former bishopric of Augusta Raurica was re-established as the Bishopric of Basel. Based on the evidence of a third solidus with the inscription Basilia fit, Basel seems to have minted its own coins in the 7th century. Under bishop Haito, the first cathedral was built on the site of the Roman castle replaced by a Romanesque structure consecrated in 1019. At the partition of the Carolingian Empire, Basel was first given to West Francia, but it passed to East Francia with the treaty of Meerssen of 870; the city was plundered and destroyed by a Magyar invasion in 917. The rebuilt city became part of Upper Burgundy, as such was incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire in 1032.
From the donation by Rudolph III of Burgundy of the Moutier-Grandval Abbey and all its possessions to Bishop Adalbero II of Metz in 999 until the Reformation, Basel was ruled by prince-bishops. In 1019, the construction of the cathedral of Basel began under Holy Roman Emperor. In 1225–1226, a bridge, now known as the Middle Bridge, was constructed by Bishop Heinrich von Thun and Lesser Basel founded as a bridgehead to protect the bridge; the bridge was funded by Basel's Jewish community who had settled there a century earlier. For many centuries to come Basel possessed the only permanent bridge over the river "between Lake Constance and the sea"; the Bishop allowed the furriers to establish a guild in 1226. About 15 guilds were established in the 13th century, they increased the town's, hence the bishop's, reputation and income from the taxes and duties on goods in Basel's expanding market. The plague came to Europe in 1347, but did not reach Basel until June 1349. The
Bhumibol Adulyadej
Bhumibol Adulyadej, conferred with the title King Bhumibol the Great in 1987, was the ninth monarch of Thailand from the Chakri dynasty as Rama IX. Reigning since 9 June 1946, he was, at the time of his death, the world's longest-reigning head of state, the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history and the longest-reigning monarch having reigned only as an adult, reigning for 70 years, 126 days. During his reign, he was served by a total of 30 prime ministers beginning with Pridi Banomyong and ending with Prayut Chan-o-cha. Forbes estimated Bhumibol's fortune – including property and investments managed by the Crown Property Bureau, a unique body, neither private nor government-owned – to be US$30 billion in 2010, he headed the magazine's list of the "world's richest royals" from 2008 to 2013 despite the fact the same magazine estimated the worth of the British monarchy triple that of the Thai one. In May 2014, Bhumibol's wealth was once again listed as US$30 billion. After 2006, Bhumibol suffered declining health and spent extended periods at Siriraj Hospital, where he died on 13 October 2016.
He was highly revered by the people in Thailand – many saw him as close to divine. Notable political activists and Thai citizens who criticized the king or the institution of monarchy were forced into exile or to suffer frequent imprisonments, yet many cases were dropped before being proceeded or were given royal pardon. His cremation was held on 26 October 2017 at the royal crematorium at Sanam Luang, his son, succeeded him as King. Bhumibol's U. S. birth certificate reads "Baby Songkla", as the parents had to consult his uncle, King Rama VII head of the House of Chakri, for an auspicious name. The king chose a name of Sanskrit origin, Bhumibol Adulyadej, a compound of Bhūmi, meaning "Land". Thus, Bhūmibala Atulyateja, or Bhumibol Adulyadej as it is transliterated in Thai means "Strength of the Land, Incomparable Power". Bhumibol was born at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States, on 5 December 1927, he was the youngest son of Prince Mahidol Adulyadej, the Prince of Songkla, his commoner wife Mom Sangwan.
His father was enrolled in the public health program at Harvard University, why Bhumibol was the only monarch to be born in the US. Bhumibol had an older sister, Princess Galyani Vadhana, an older brother, Prince Ananda Mahidol. Bhumibol came to Thailand in 1928, his father died of kidney failure in September 1929. He attended Mater Dei school in Bangkok, but in 1933 his mother took her family to Switzerland, where he continued his education at the École nouvelle de la Suisse romande in Lausanne. In 1934 Bhumibol was given his first camera; when Bhumibol's childless uncle Prajadhipok abdicated in 1935, his nine-year-old brother Ananda became the new King Rama VIII. However, the family remained in Switzerland and the affairs of the head of state were conducted by a regency council, they returned to Thailand for only two months in 1938. In 1942, Bhumibol became a jazz enthusiast, started to play the saxophone, a passion that he kept throughout his life, he received the baccalauréat des lettres from the Gymnase Classique Cantonal of Lausanne, by 1945 had begun studying sciences at the University of Lausanne, when World War II ended and the family was able to return to Thailand.
Bhumibol ascended the throne following the death by gunshot wound of his brother, King Ananda Mahidol, on 9 June 1946, under circumstances that remain unclear. While a first government statement stated that Ananda had accidentally shot himself, an investigation committee ruled this was impossible. Two palace aides were convicted of regicide and executed. A third possibility, that Bhumibol accidentally shot his brother while the brothers played with their pistols, was never considered. Bhumibol succeeded his brother, but returned to Switzerland before the end of the 100-day mourning period. Despite his interest in science and technology, he changed his major and enrolled in law and political science to prepare for his duties as head of state, his uncle, Prince of Chainat, was appointed Prince Regent. In Bhumibol's name, Prince Rangsit acknowledged a military coup that overthrew the government of Thamrongnawasawat in November 1947; the regent signed the 1949 constitution, which returned to the monarchy many of the powers it had lost by the 1932 Revolution.
In December 1946, the Siamese government allocated several hundred thousand dollars for the ceremonial cremation of the remains of the late King Ananda, a necessary preliminary to the coronation of Bhumibol, required by religious custom to light the funeral pyre. Unsettled conditions in 1947 following a coup d'état resulted in a postponement, court astrologers determined that 2 March 1949 was the most auspicious date. While doing his degree in Switzerland, Bhumibol visited Paris frequently, it was in Paris that he first met Mom Rajawongse Sirikit Kitiyakara, daughter of the Thai ambassador to France and a great-granddaughter
Diamond
Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. At room temperature and pressure, another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form, but diamond never converts to it. Diamond has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any natural material, properties that are utilized in major industrial applications such as cutting and polishing tools, they are the reason that diamond anvil cells can subject materials to pressures found deep in the Earth. Because the arrangement of atoms in diamond is rigid, few types of impurity can contaminate it. Small numbers of defects or impurities color diamond blue, brown, purple, orange or red. Diamond has high optical dispersion. Most natural diamonds have ages between 1 billion and 3.5 billion years. Most were formed at depths between 150 and 250 kilometers in the Earth's mantle, although a few have come from as deep as 800 kilometers. Under high pressure and temperature, carbon-containing fluids dissolved minerals and replaced them with diamonds.
Much more they were carried to the surface in volcanic eruptions and deposited in igneous rocks known as kimberlites and lamproites. Synthetic diamonds can be grown from high-purity carbon under high pressures and temperatures or from hydrocarbon gas by chemical vapor deposition. Imitation diamonds can be made out of materials such as cubic zirconia and silicon carbide. Natural and imitation diamonds are most distinguished using optical techniques or thermal conductivity measurements. Diamond is a solid form of pure carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal. Solid carbon comes in different forms known as allotropes depending on the type of chemical bond; the two most common allotropes of pure carbon are graphite. In graphite the bonds are sp2 orbital hybrids and the atoms form in planes with each bound to three nearest neighbors 120 degrees apart. In diamond they are sp3 and the atoms form tetrahedra with each bound to four nearest neighbors. Tetrahedra are rigid, the bonds are strong, of all known substances diamond has the greatest number of atoms per unit volume, why it is both the hardest and the least compressible.
It has a high density, ranging from 3150 to 3530 kilograms per cubic metre in natural diamonds and 3520 kg/m³ in pure diamond. In graphite, the bonds between nearest neighbors are stronger but the bonds between planes are weak, so the planes can slip past each other. Thus, graphite is much softer than diamond. However, the stronger bonds make graphite less flammable. Diamonds have been adapted for many uses because of the material's exceptional physical characteristics. Most notable are its extreme hardness and thermal conductivity, as well as wide bandgap and high optical dispersion. Diamond's ignition point is 720 -- 800 °C in 850 -- 1000 °C in air; the equilibrium pressure and temperature conditions for a transition between graphite and diamond is well established theoretically and experimentally. The pressure changes linearly between 1.7 GPa at 0 K and 12 GPa at 5000 K. However, the phases have a wide region about this line where they can coexist. At normal temperature and pressure, 20 °C and 1 standard atmosphere, the stable phase of carbon is graphite, but diamond is metastable and its rate of conversion to graphite is negligible.
However, at temperatures above about 4500 K, diamond converts to graphite. Rapid conversion of graphite to diamond requires pressures well above the equilibrium line: at 2000 K, a pressure of 35 GPa is needed. Above the triple point, the melting point of diamond increases with increasing pressure. At high pressures and germanium have a BC8 body-centered cubic crystal structure, a similar structure is predicted for carbon at high pressures. At 0 K, the transition is predicted to occur at 1100 GPa; the most common crystal structure of diamond is called diamond cubic. It is formed of unit cells stacked together. Although there are 18 atoms in the figure, each corner atom is shared by eight unit cells and each atom in the center of a face is shared by two, so there are a total of eight atoms per unit cell; each side of the unit cell is 3.57 angstroms in length. A diamond cubic lattice can be thought of as two interpenetrating face-centered cubic lattices with one displaced by 1/4 of the diagonal along a cubic cell, or as one lattice with two atoms associated with each lattice point.
Looked at from a <1 1 1> crystallographic direction, it is formed of layers stacked in a repeating ABCABC... pattern. Diamonds can form an ABAB... structure, known as hexagonal diamond or lonsdaleite, but this is far less common and is formed under different conditions from cubic carbon. Diamonds occur most as euhedral or rounded octahedra and twinned octahedra known as macles; as diamond's crystal structure has a cubic arrangement of the atoms, they have many facets that belong to a cube, rhombicosidodecahedron, tetrakis hexahedron or disdyakis dodecahedron. The crystals can be elongated. Diamonds are found coated in nyf, an opaque gum-like skin; some diamonds have opaque fibers. They are referred to as opaque if the fibers
Monarchy of Thailand
The monarchy of Thailand refers to the constitutional monarchy and monarch of the Kingdom of Thailand. The King of Thailand is the head of head of the ruling Royal House of Chakri. Although the current Chakri Dynasty was created in 1782, the existence of the institution of monarchy in Thailand is traditionally considered to have its roots from the founding of the Sukhothai Kingdom in 1238, with a brief interregnum from the death of Ekkathat to the accession of Taksin in the 18th century; the institution was transformed into a constitutional monarchy in 1932 after the bloodless Siamese Revolution of 1932. The monarchy's official ceremonial residence is the Grand Palace in Bangkok, while the private residence has been at the Dusit Palace; the King of Thailand's titles include Head of State, Head of the Royal Thai Armed Forces, Adherent of Buddhism and Upholder of religions. The current concept of Thai kingship evolved through 800 years of absolute rule; the first king of a unified Thailand was the founder of the Kingdom of Sukhothai, King Sri Indraditya, in 1238.
The idea of this early kingship is said to be based on two concepts derived from Hinduism and Theravada Buddhist beliefs. The first concept is based on the Vedic-Hindu caste of "Kshatriya", or warrior-ruler, in which the king derives his powers from military might; the second is based on the Theravada Buddhist concept of "Dhammaraja", Buddhism having been introduced to Thailand around the 6th century CE. The idea of the Dhammaraja, is that the king should rule his people in accordance with Dharma and the teachings of the Buddha; these ideas were replaced in 1279, when King Ramkhamhaeng came to the throne. Ramkhamhaeng departed from tradition and created instead a concept of "paternal rule", in which the king governs his people as a father would govern his children; this idea is reinforced in the title and name of the king, as he is still known today, Pho Khun Ramkhamhaeng meaning'Father Ruler Ramkhamhaeng'. This lasted briefly. By the end of the kingdom, the two old concepts returned as symbolized by the change in the style of the kings: "Pho" was changed to "Phaya" or Lord.
The Kingdom of Sukhothai was supplanted by the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, founded in 1351 by King Ramathibodhi I. During the Ayutthayan period, the idea of kingship changed. Due to ancient Khmer tradition in the region, the Hindu concept of kingship was applied to the status of the leader. Brahmins took charge in the royal coronation; the king was treated as a reincarnation of Hindu gods. Ayutthaya historical documents show the official titles of the kings in great variation: Indra and Vishnu, or Rama. Rama was the most popular, as in "Ramathibodhi". However, Buddhist influence was evident, as many times the king's title and "unofficial" name "Dhammaraja", an abbreviation of the Buddhist Dharmaraja; the two former concepts were re-established, with a third, older concept taking hold. This concept was called "Devaraja", an idea borrowed by the Khmer Empire from the Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms of Java the idea of a scholar class based on Hindu Brahmins; the concept centered on the idea that the king was an incarnation of the god Vishnu and that he was a Bodhisattva, therefore basing his power on his religious power, his moral power, his purity of blood.
The king, portrayed by state interests as a semi-divine figure became—through a rigid cultural implementation—an object of worship and veneration to his people. From on the monarchy was removed from the people and continued under a system of absolute rule. Living in palaces designed after Mount Meru, the kings turned themselves into a "Chakravartin", where the king became an absolute and universal lord of his realm. Kings demanded that the universe be envisioned as revolving around them, expressed their powers through elaborate rituals and ceremonies. For four centuries these kings ruled Ayutthaya, presiding over some of the greatest period of cultural and military growth in Thai History; the Kings of Ayutthaya created many institutions to support their rule. Whereas feudalism developed in the European Middle Ages, Ayutthayan King Trailokanat instituted sakdina, a system of social hierarchy which ranked the king's subjects according to the amount of land they were entitled to, according to their rank and position.
Rachasap is required by court etiquette as an honorific register consisting of a special vocabulary used for addressing the king, or for talking about royalty. The king was chief administrator, chief legislator, chief judge, with all laws, orders and punishments theoretically originating from his person; the king's sovereignty was reflected in the titles "Lord of the Land" and "Lord of Life". The king's powers and titles were seen by foreign observers as proof that the king was an absolute monarch in the European sense. However, in Siamese tradition the duty and responsibility of the king was seen as developed from the ancient Indian theories of royal authority, which resemble Enlightened Absolutism, although the emphasis is not on rationality but on Dhamma; this was disrupted in 1767, when Thai digests of the dhammasāt were lost when a Burmese army under the Alaungpaya Dynasty invaded and burned the city of Ayutthaya. An interlude filled by civil war was ended when King Taksin restored the dominion under what has been called the Thonburi Kingdom.
In 1782, King Buddha Y
South Africa
South Africa the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres of coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. South Africa is the largest country in Southern Africa and the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and, with over 57 million people, is the world's 24th-most populous nation, it is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different African languages, nine of which have official status; the remaining population consists of Africa's largest communities of European and multiracial ancestry. South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a wide variety of cultures and religions, its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the constitution's recognition of 11 official languages, the fourth highest number in the world. Two of these languages are of European origin: Afrikaans developed from Dutch and serves as the first language of most coloured and white South Africans.
The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup d'état, regular elections have been held for a century. However, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a large role in the country's recent history and politics; the National Party imposed apartheid in 1948. After a long and sometimes violent struggle by the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid activists both inside and outside the country, the repeal of discriminatory laws began in 1990. Since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the country's liberal democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. South Africa is referred to as the "rainbow nation" to describe the country's multicultural diversity in the wake of apartheid; the World Bank classifies South Africa as an upper-middle-income economy, a newly industrialised country.
Its economy is the second-largest in Africa, the 34th-largest in the world. In terms of purchasing power parity, South Africa has the seventh-highest per capita income in Africa; however and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population unemployed and living on less than US$1.25 a day. South Africa has been identified as a middle power in international affairs, maintains significant regional influence; the name "South Africa" is derived from the country's geographic location at the southern tip of Africa. Upon formation, the country was named the Union of South Africa in English, reflecting its origin from the unification of four separate British colonies. Since 1961, the long form name in English has been the "Republic of South Africa". In Dutch, the country was named Republiek van Zuid-Afrika, replaced in 1983 by the Afrikaans Republiek van Suid-Afrika. Since 1994, the Republic has had an official name in each of its 11 official languages. Mzansi, derived from the Xhosa noun umzantsi meaning "south", is a colloquial name for South Africa, while some Pan-Africanist political parties prefer the term "Azania".
South Africa contains human-fossil sites in the world. Archaeologists have recovered extensive fossil remains from a series of caves in Gauteng Province; the area, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has been branded "the Cradle of Humankind". The sites include one of the richest sites for hominin fossils in the world. Other sites include Gondolin Cave Kromdraai, Coopers Cave and Malapa. Raymond Dart identified the first hominin fossil discovered in Africa, the Taung Child in 1924. Further hominin remains have come from the sites of Makapansgat in Limpopo Province and Florisbad in the Free State Province, Border Cave in KwaZulu-Natal Province, Klasies River Mouth in Eastern Cape Province and Pinnacle Point and Die Kelders Cave in Western Cape Province; these finds suggest that various hominid species existed in South Africa from about three million years ago, starting with Australopithecus africanus. There followed species including Australopithecus sediba, Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Homo rhodesiensis, Homo helmei, Homo naledi and modern humans.
Modern humans have inhabited Southern Africa for at least 170,000 years. Various researchers have located pebble tools within the Vaal River valley. Settlements of Bantu-speaking peoples, who were iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen, were present south of the Limpopo River by the 4th or 5th century CE, they displaced and absorbed the original Khoisan speakers, the Khoikhoi and San peoples. The Bantu moved south; the earliest ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from around 1050. The southernmost group was the Xhosa people, whose language incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier Khoisan people; the Xhosa reached the Great Fish River, in today's Eastern Cape Province. As they migrated, these larger Iron Age populations
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Palo Alto means tall stick in Spanish; the city was established by Leland Stanford Sr. when he founded Stanford University, following the death of his son, Leland Stanford Jr. Palo Alto includes portions of Stanford University and shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Portola Valley, Menlo Park; as of the 2010 census, the city's total resident population is 64,403. Palo Alto is one of the five most expensive cities in the United States to live in and its residents are among the highest educated in the country. Palo Alto is headquarters to a number of high-technology companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Space Systems/Loral, VMware, Ford Research and Innovation Center, PARC, IDEO, Palantir Technologies and Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center. Palo Alto has served as an incubator and as headquarters to several other prominent high-technology companies such as Apple, Facebook, Intuit and PayPal.
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Ohlone lived on the San Francisco peninsula. The area of modern Palo Alto was first recorded by the 1769 party of Gaspar de Portolà, a 63-man, 200-horse expedition from San Diego to Monterey; the group overshot Monterey in the fog and when they reached modern-day Pacifica, ascended Sweeney Ridge and saw the San Francisco Bay. Portolà descended from Sweeney Ridge southeast down San Andreas Creek to Laguna Creek and the Filoli estate, thence to the San Francisquito Creek watershed camping from November 6–11, 1769 by a tall redwood to be known as El Palo Alto. Thinking the bay was too wide to cross, the group retraced their journey to Monterey, never became aware of the Golden Gate entrance to the Bay. In 1777, Father Junipero Serra established the Mission Santa Clara de Asis, whose northern boundary was San Francisquito Creek and whose lands included modern Palo Alto; the area was under the control of the viceroy of Mexico and under the control of Spain. On November 29, 1777, Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe was established by order of the viceroy despite the displeasure of the local mission.
The Mexican War of Independence ending in 1821 led to Mexico becoming an independent country, though San Jose did not recognize rule by the new Mexico until May 10, 1825. Mexico proceeded to grant much of the mission land. During the Mexican–American War, the United States seized Alta California in 1846. Mexican citizens in the area could choose to become United States citizens, their land grants were to be recognized if they chose to do so; the land grant, Rancho Rinconada del Arroyo de San Francisquito, of about 2,230-acre on the lower reaches of San Francisquito Creek was given to Maria Antonia Mesa in 1841. She and her husband Rafael Soto had settled in 1835 near present day Newell and Middlefield roads and sold supplies. In 1839, their daughter María Luisa Soto married John Coppinger, to be, in 1841, the grantee of Rancho Cañada de Raymundo. Upon Coppinger's death in 1847, Maria inherited it and married a visiting boat captain, John Greer. Greer owned a home on the site, now Town & Country Village on Embarcadero and El Camino Real.
Greer Avenue and Court are named for him. To the south of the Sotos, the brothers Secundino and Teodoro Robles in 1849 bought Rancho Rincon de San Francisquito from José Peña, the 1841 grantee; the grant covered the area south of Rancho Rinconada del Arroyo de San Francisquito to more or less present day Mountain View. The grant was bounded on the south by Mariano Castro's Rancho Pastoria de las Borregas grant across San Antonio Road; this became the Robles Rancho, which constitutes about 80% of Palo Alto and Stanford University today. In 1863, it was whittled down in the courts to 6,981 acres. Stories say the grand hacienda was built on the former meager adobe of José Peña near Ferne off San Antonio Road, midway between Middlefield and Alma Street, their hacienda hosted fiestas and bull fights. It was ruined in the 1906 earthquake and its lumber was used to build a large barn nearby, said to have lingered until the early 1950s. On April 10, 1853, 250 acres, comprising the present day Barron Park, Matadero Creek and Stanford Business Park, was sold for $2,000 to Elisha Oscar Crosby, who called his new property Mayfield Farm.
The name of Mayfield was attached to the community that started nearby. On September 23, 1856, the Crosby land was transferred to Sarah Wallis to satisfy a debt he owed her. In 1880, Secundino Robles, father to twenty-nine children, still lived just south of Palo Alto, near the location of the present-day San Antonio Shopping Center in Mountain View. Many of the Spanish names in the Palo Alto area represent the local heritage, descriptive terms and former residents. Pena Court, Miranda Avenue, Foothill Expwy, was the married name of Juana Briones and the name occurs in Courts and Avenues and other street names in Palo Alto and Mountain View in the quadrant where she owned vast areas between Stanford University, Grant Road in Mountain View and west of El Camino Real. Yerba Buena was to her credit. Rinconada wa
