1.
Provinces of Turkey
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Turkey is divided into 81 provinces. Each province is divided into a number of different districts, the provincial government is seated in the central district. The central area usually bears the name of the province, there are only two exceptions to this naming scheme, Antakya of Hatay province İzmit of Kocaeli province A province is administered by an appointed governor from the ministry of interior. Below is a list of the 81 provinces of Turkey, sorted according to their license plate code, after Zonguldak the ordering is not alphabetical but in the order of the creation of provinces, as these provinces were created more recently and thus their plate numbers were assigned thereafter. The numbers of the ISO code, the first two digits of the registration plates of Turkey and the first digits of the postal codes in Turkey are the same
2.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
3.
NUTS statistical regions of Turkey
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As a candidate country of the European Union, Turkey is included in the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. Interactive map of statistics indicators by NUTS levels
4.
Electoral system of Turkey
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The Electoral system of Turkey varies for general, presidential and local elections that take place in Turkey every four years, five years and five years respectively. Turkey has been a multi-party democracy since 1950, with the first democratic election held on 14 May 1950 leading to the end of the single-party rule established in 1923. The current electoral system for electing Members of Parliament to the Grand National Assembly has a 10% election threshold, the highest of any country. Presidential elections, A Two-round system, with the top two contesting a run-off election two weeks after the initial election should no candidate win at least 50%+1 of the popular vote. Turkey elects 550 Members of Parliament to the Grand National Assembly using the DHondt method, E. g. in the 2002 general election the AKP won 34. 28% of the vote but won nearly two-thirds of the seats. This was the case in the 2007 and 2011 general election, where the Kurdish Democratic Society Party, the main criticism of the current system is the high 10% threshold necessary to gain seats. Under these proposals, the threshold would fall from 10% to either 7 or 8% while Turkey would be split into 129 electoral districts rather than the existing 85, İstanbul itself would have been split into 17 or 20 districts. The two main opposition parties CHP and MHP do not have a number of electoral strongholds. The AKPs proposals for reform have raised concerns about gerrymandering, Turkey is split into 85 electoral districts, which elect a certain number of Members to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The Grand National Assembly has a total of 550 seats, which each district allocated a certain number of MPs in proportion to their population. The Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey conducts population reviews of each district before the election, in all but three cases, electoral districts share the same name and borders of the 81 Provinces of Turkey. The exceptions are İzmir, İstanbul and Ankara, Provinces electing between 19 and 36 MPs are split into two electoral districts, while any province electing above 36 MPs are divided into three. As the countrys three largest provinces, İzmir and Ankara are divided into two subdistricts while İstanbul is divided into three, the distribution of elected MPs per electoral district is shown below. A total of eight districts had their number of MPs adjusted since the 2011 general election by the electoral council. The two electoral districts of Ankara also had their boundaries changed, the number of voters in each province was announced on 17 May 2015. In total, there are 53,741,838 voters in the provinces, however, because of the electoral system, this was not distributed equally to the provinces. In İzmir, where voters per MP was the highest,118,669 votes corresponded to an MP, two factors caused this more than fourfold disparity. Namely, the electoral law favours provinces smaller in size, which caused İzmir, İstanbul and Ankara, Turkeys largest cities and provinces, to have the least representation per voter
5.
Vehicle registration plate
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A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate or a license plate, is metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric ID that uniquely identifies the owner within the issuing regions database. The first two letters indicate the state to which the vehicle is registered, the next two digit numbers are the sequential number of a district. Due to heavy volume of vehicle registration, the numbers were given to the RTO offices of registration as well, the third part indicates the year of registration of the vehicle and is a 4 digit number unique to each plate. In some countries, the identifier is unique within the entire country, whether the identifier is associated with a vehicle or a person also varies by issuing agency. In the vast majority of jurisdictions, the government holds a monopoly on the manufacturing of vehicle registration plates for that jurisdiction. Thus, it is illegal for private citizens to make and affix their own plates. Alternately, the government will merely assign plate numbers, and it is the owners responsibility to find an approved private supplier to make a plate with that number. In some jurisdictions, plates will be assigned to that particular vehicle for its lifetime. If the vehicle is destroyed or exported to a different country. Other jurisdictions follow a policy, meaning that when a vehicle is sold the seller removes the current plate from the vehicle. Buyers must either obtain new plates or attach plates they already hold, as well as register their vehicles under the buyers name, a person who sells a car and then purchases a new one can apply to have the old plates put onto the new car. One who sells a car and does not buy a new one may, depending on the laws involved, have to turn the old plates in or destroy them. Some jurisdictions permit the registration of the vehicle with personal plates, in some jurisdictions, plates require periodic replacement, often associated with a design change of the plate itself. Vehicle owners may or may not have the option to keep their original plate number, alternately, or additionally, vehicle owners have to replace a small decal on the plate or use a decal on the windshield to indicate the expiration date of the vehicle registration. Plates are usually fixed directly to a vehicle or to a frame that is fixed to the vehicle. Sometimes, the plate frames contain advertisements inserted by the service centre or the dealership from which the vehicle was purchased. Vehicle owners can also purchase customized frames to replace the original frames, in some jurisdictions licence plate frames are illegal
6.
Turkish language
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Outside of Turkey, significant smaller groups of speakers exist in Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, Greece, the Caucasus, and other parts of Europe and Central Asia. Cyprus has requested that the European Union add Turkish as an official EU language, in 1928, as one of Atatürks Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with a Latin alphabet. The distinctive characteristics of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination, the basic word order of Turkish is subject–object–verb. Turkish has no classes or grammatical gender. Turkish has a strong T–V distinction and usage of honorifics, Turkish uses second-person pronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a person out of respect. Turkic languages belong to the Altaic language group, the Turkic family comprises some 30 living languages spoken across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Siberia. Turkish is a member of the Oghuz group of languages, a subgroup of the Turkic language family, there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Turkish and the other Oghuz Turkic languages, including Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, and Balkan Gagauz Turkish. The earliest known Old Turkic inscriptions are the three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia, erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan, these date back to the second Turk Kaghanate. The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks, in particular, brought their language, following the adoption of Islam c. Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry, was influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a reform to replace loanwords of Arabic. By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before the 1940s tend to use the terms of Arabic or Persian origin. The past few decades have seen the work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance, however, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as bölem to replace fırka, political party—also failed to meet with popular approval, some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings, for example betik is now used to mean script in computer science
7.
Denizli Province
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Denizli Province is a province of Turkey in Western Anatolia, on high ground above the Aegean coast. Neighbouring provinces are Uşak to the north, Burdur, Isparta, Afyon to the east, Aydın, Manisa to the west and it is located between the coordinates 28° 30’ and 29° 30’ E and 37° 12’ and 38° 12’ N. It covers an area of 11,868 km², and the population is 931,823, the population was 750,882 in 1990. The provincial capital is the city of Denizli, approximately 28-30% of the land is plain, 25% is high plateau and tableland, and 47% is mountainous. At 2571m Mount Honaz is the highest in the province, babadag in the Mentes range has a height of 2308 meters. The biggest lake in Denizli is Acıgöl, which means bitter lake, there is a thermal spring to the west of Sarayköy, at the source of the Great Menderes River, which contains bicarbonates and sulfates. There is another hot spring in Kizildere which reaches 200˚C, a geothermal steam source was first found in the region in 1965 during drilling work. Today there is a plant producing electricity from the geothermal steam. Only 11% of the energy source is used to produce electricity and 89% of it. In general the Aegean region has a mild climate, however, it becomes harsher at altitude. Temperatures can rise to 55 °C during summer and fall to -5 °C in winter, there are about 80 days with precipitation, mainly during winter. There are traces of prehistoric cultures throughout the province, including evidence of pre-Hittite cultures, the Hittites were followed by Phrygians, Lydians and Persians, and then cities founded by the ancient Greeks and Alexander the Great. The first real settlement was the city of Laodicea on the Lycus which was established by King Antiochus II for his wife Laodice, Laodicea is located 6 km north of the city of Denizli. The city of Hierapolis was established around 190 BC by the Pergamene Kingdom, the calcified terraces and pools of Pamukkale now stand below the ruins of Hierapolis. The two cities, Laodicea and Hierapolis later came under Roman rule, and with the division of the Empire in 395 were left within the boundaries of the East Roman Empire. The province has strong connections, in the Book of Revelation. The voice says, Write down what you see and send the book to the Churches in these seven cities, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. The Church of Laodicea was a place even in pre-Christian times
8.
Manisa
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Manisa is a large city in Turkeys Aegean Region and the administrative seat of Manisa Province. Under Ottoman rule in the centuries that followed, the city had already extended into the terrain at the start of the plain. It is also a point for other visitor attractions of international acclaim which are located nearby within Manisas depending region, such as Sardes. Historically, the city was also called Magnesia, and more precisely as Magnesia ad Sipylum to distinguish from Magnesia on the Maeander at a short distance to the south. Traditional view held that the name Magnesia derived from the tribe of Magnetes who would have immigrated here from Thessaly at the dawn of the recorded history. A connection with native Anatolian languages has also been suggested of recent date, the name is rendered as Μαγνησία in ancient and modern Greek language. The names Sipylus or Sipylum in reference to a settlement here are also encountered in some sources, again in reference to the mountain and as abbreviated forms. Traces of prehistory in the Manisa region, although few in number, the second finds are tombs contemporaneous with Troy II and found in the village of Yortan near Kırkağaç district center, north of Manisa. Original burial practices observed in these sepulchres led scholars to the definition of a Yortan culture in Anatolias prehistory, cybele monument by itself represents a step of innovation in Hittite art where full-faced figures in high relief are rare. The first millennium BC saw the emergence in the region of Phrygians and Maeonians, the accounts concerning which are blended with myths. The vestiges from their capital which reached our day bring together remains from successive civilizations. It became a city of importance under the Roman dominion and, though nearly destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius, was restored by that emperor and flourished through the Roman empire. It was an important regional centre through the Byzantine Empire, Magnesia housed the Imperial mint, the Imperial treasury, and served as the functional capital of the empire until the recovery of Constantinople in 1261. Ruins of the Nicean-era fortifications attest to the importance in the Late Byzantine period. In the early 13th century the region of Magnesia was subject to repeated raids by invading Turkish bands, the local population was unable to repulse the Turkish raids. Thus, after an unsuccessful defence lead by the Byzantine Emperor most inhabitants fled to the Aegean coast, as a result of the Turkish invasion in the region and the destruction of the city the area was largely abandoned. His sons held the region until 1390, when the first incorporation of their lands into the expanding Ottoman state took place, after a brief interval caused by the Ottoman interregnum after the Battle of Ankara, Manisa and its surroundings definitely became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1410. Even during the 15th century Magnesia was recorded as being in ruins due to the previous Turkish raids
9.
Ahmetli
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Ahmetli is a town and district of Manisa Province in the Aegean region of Turkey. According to the 2000 census, population of the district is 18,852 of which 11,011 live in the town of Ahmetli, the district covers an area of 298 km2, and the town lies at an elevation of 501 m. District governors official website Road map of Ahmetli and environs Various images of Ahmetli, Manisa
10.
Akhisar
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Akhisar is a county district and its town center in Manisa Province in the Aegean region of Western Turkey. Akhisar is also the ancient city of Thyatira and it was one of the cities where money was first used. Akhisar also hosted one of the Seven Churches of Revelation, the name of the city is mentioned in the Bible. Akhisar maintained its importance as a trade center during 600 years of the Ottoman Empire. Todays Akhisar is still the trade and business center in its region, akhisars name is internationally associated with tobacco. The fertile Akhisar Plain produces about 10% of total Turkish tobacco production, akhisars high-quality olives and olive oil are also globally known. The town was the most important center in ancient North Lydia, findings suggest a possible earlier period of pre-eminence under the Hittites. Persian occupation of the region took place around 500 BC, Thyateira was later conquered by Alexander the Great. In later years, Thyateira was captured successively by the Seleucid Empire, the Attalid dynasty of Pergamon, in 214 AD, the Roman Emperor Caracalla promoted the town to the status of a regional and administrative center with powers of adjudication. The city flourished considerably under the Romans and became a metropolis with 3 gymnasiums. As of the 2nd century AD, Christianity spread in western Anatolia by the actions of apostles like John the Evangelist, Thyatira is mentioned twice in the New Testament. The Book of Acts refers to a woman of Thyatira named Lydia, though the Apostle Paul converted her to Christ in Philippi of Macedonia, in the 12th century, a large-scale inflow of Turkish tribes started. Akhisar swayed back and forth between Byzantine and Turkish rulers during for two centuries, in the 14th century, Turks under the Anatolian Beylik of Saruhan regained all Western Anatolian lands and Akhisar went under Turkish rule in 1307. Towards the end of the century, Akhisar became part of the extending Ottoman Empire. Under Ottoman administration, Akhisar was at first a subdistrict in the sanjak of Saruhan within the vilayet of Kütahya. The sanjak of Saruhan was later incorporated into the vilayet of Aydın until the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, in August 1922, as a result of the capture of the city by the Turkish nationalist army, an estimated of 7,000 local Greeks were killed. Since then, there has been no Christian community in Akhisar, in ancient times, Thyateira was an important center of activity. It was on the ancient roads from Istanbul to Pergamum, Sardis, Thyateira was at the center of many small towns and villages which were administratively and politically bound to it
11.
Demirci
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Demirci is a town and district of Manisa Province in the Aegean region of Turkey. According to the 2000 census, population of the district is 59,314, the district covers an area of 1,473 km2, and the town lies at an elevation of 853 m. Demirci is one of the well known handmade Turkish carpet production centers in Manisa, Demirci carpets have different pattern and styles, such as Yağcıbedir carpet. District governors official website Road map of Demirci and environs Various images of Demirci, Manisa
12.
Kula, Manisa
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Kula is a town and district of Manisa Province in the Aegean region of Turkey. According to the 2000 census, population of the district is 52,986 of which 24,217 live in the town of Kula, the district covers an area of 918 km2, and the town lies at an elevation of 665 m. As of 1920, Kulas main industry was carpet making, Kula Volcanic Geopark was accepted and certificated by UNESCO on 6 September 2013 at 37th UNESCO general conference in Naples. So that Kula Volcanic Geopark joined UNESCO Global Geopark Network, also this patent became the first geopark of Turkey, 58th geopark in Europe, and 96th geopark in the world. Kula volcano Gökçeören, a town in the district
13.
Selendi
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Selendi is a town and district of Manisa Province in the Aegean region of Turkey. According to the 2000 census, population of the district is 26,061 of which 8,095 live in the town of Selendi, the district covers an area of 701 km2, and the town lies at an elevation of 431 m. It was located in antiquity on a tributary of the Hermos River, the town remains a titular See in the Roman Catholic Church. Archived from the original on 2012-11-02, district municipalitys official website Road map of Selendi and environs Various images of Selendi, Manisa Communication portal of Selendi
14.
Soma, Manisa
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Soma is a town and district of Manisa Province in the Aegean region of Turkey. According to the 2009 census, the population of the district is 101,011, the district covers an area of 839 km2, and the town lies at an elevation of 161 m. Lignite mining and a thermal power plant are the main economic activities in Soma. During World War I the mines were opened up for production, the lignite extracted during that time was described as being of very bad quality. That lignite was burned with German coal for trains in the region, a small portion was exported to İzmir. The Soma Wind Farm, with 119 wind turbines and a total capacity of 140.4 MW, is one of Turkeys largest wind farms. On 13 May 2014, as a result of an explosion caused by a fire at the Soma coal mine,301 workers were killed. District governors official website Road map of Soma and environs
15.
Turgutlu
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Turgutlu, also known as Kasaba is a city and district in Manisa Province in the Aegean region of Turkey. According to 2009 census, its population is 140,753,115,930 live in the city itself. The district covers an area of 473 km2 at an elevation of 68 m, the district is the most populous after the provincial center of Manisa and the second most populous district center, in Turkeys Aegean Region. Their settlement in Turgutlu region is thought to have taken some time in the 15th century at the same time as the Ottoman unification of Anatolia which resulted in the demise of Karamanids. The city was alternatively called Kasaba, which means the town. There are two townships with their own municipalities within the district and 37 villages and nine village dependencies or hamlets. Turgutlu center is at a distance of only 31 km to Manisa, to which it depends administratively and its closeness to these two metropolitan centers both of which have a deep and rooted history marked Turgutlus destiny since its foundation in the 15th century. There are 44 primary schools and 14 schools providing education in Turgutlu district. There is also a professional school, a department of Celal Bayar University. The state hospital at Turgutlu center has a bed capacity of 250, the towns industrial sector as a whole displays as high a degree of dynamism as its agricultural production, with many small- and medium-sized enterprises active in various fields. Experimental mining of nickel laterites by using a heap leach process in Mount Çal near Turgutlu started in 2005 by a Turkish subsidiary of European Nickel PLC, the reserves are estimated to be 33 million tons of ore at 1. 13% Nickel and 0. 08% cobalt content. The planned development of a mine and processing plant could deeply influence the districts economy with a potential to become one of the most important investments in Turkeys Aegean Region. For more information about Turgutlu http, //turgutlulu. com can visit the web site, the town was an important regional trade center and hub already since the 18th century. It acquired further importance once it became the first terminus of the 93 km, Smyrna Cassaba Railway whose construction was started from İzmir in 1863 and which arrived in Kasaba in 1866. This railway was the third started within the territory of the Ottoman Empire at the time, belkahve Pass between Mount Nif and Mount Sipylus on the direct road from İzmir and Turgutlu must have been judged too difficult for a track at the time. This railway was extended further eastwards reaching a total length exceeding seven hundred kilometers. The line was nationalized in 1934 by the young Republic of Turkey in the frame of a move started in the 1920s regarding Turkeys railways. The town was made into a kaza in 1868, during the final years of the Ottoman Empire, Kasaba was already a large town whose population well exceeded ten thousand people
16.
Mount Sipylus
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Mount Spil, the ancient Mount Sipylus, is a mountain rich in legends and history in Manisa Province, Turkey, in what used to be the heartland of the Lydians and what is now Turkeys Aegean Region. Its summit towers over the city of Manisa as well as over the road between İzmir and Manisa. The Manisa relief, a full faced statue carved into a face is found near Mount Sipylus. It is traditionally identified as Cybele and dated to the late-Hittite or Luwian period in late second millennium BCE, the sculpture is known as Taş Suret in Turkish and sometimes referred to as such also in international literature. The mountain was considered a favorite haunt of the mother goddess, according to an old myth the sculpture was carved by Broteas, Tantalus ugly son. Presumably located on or very near the mountain, the ruins were reportedly still visible around in the beginning of the Common Era. The same Tantalus is famed through Greek mythology by the accounts relating that he had cut up his son Pelops and his son Pelops is said to have migrated later to the Peloponnese, named after him, and to have founded a kingdom. Tantalus daughter was the tragic Niobe, who is associated with the Weeping Rock, later in ancient times, Mount Sipylus, located in Lydia, rose above the site of Magnesia ad Sipylum, whose existence is traced back as far as the 5th century BCE. Magnesia was located along the Hermus River on the plain below and was the scene of the defeat of Antiochus III the Great by the Romans, the famous Weeping Rock is still widely visited. The mountain as a whole presents an area of forests and beautiful scenery. The mountain is also a spot for camping, parachuting, hiking. The highest point of the pass corresponds to a point very near the boundary between İzmir Province and Manisa Province, to bypass the steep and twisted Sabuncubeli Pass, the Sabuncubeli Tunnel is under construction. The 6,480 metres -long tunnel is expected to be opened end 2016, the Locust Plagues of Mount Sipylus
17.
National park
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A national park is a park in use for conservation purposes. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns, although individual nations designate their own national parks differently, there is a common idea, the conservation of wild nature for posterity and as a symbol of national pride. An international organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, although Yellowstone was not officially termed a national park in its establishing law, it was always termed such in practice and is widely held to be the first and oldest national park in the world. The first area to use national park in its legislation was the USs Mackinac Island. Australias Royal National Park, established in 1879, was the third official national park. In 1895 ownership of Mackinac Island was transferred to the State of Michigan as a state park, as a result, Australias Royal National Park is by some considerations the second oldest national park now in existence. The largest national park in the meeting the IUCN definition is the Northeast Greenland National Park. According to the IUCN,6,555 national parks worldwide met its criteria in 2006, IUCN is still discussing the parameters of defining a national park. National parks are almost always open to visitors, in 1971, these criteria were further expanded upon leading to more clear and defined benchmarks to evaluate a national park. In 1810, the English poet William Wordsworth described the Lake District as a sort of property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive. It was known as Hot Springs Reservation, but no authority was established. Federal control of the area was not clearly established until 1877, John Muir is today referred to as the Father of the National Parks due to his work in Yosemite. He published two articles in The Century Magazine, which formed the base for the subsequent legislation. President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress on July 1,1864, ceding the Yosemite Valley, according to this bill, private ownership of the land in this area was no longer possible. The state of California was designated to manage the park for use, resort. Leases were permitted for up to ten years and the proceeds were to be used for conservation, a public discussion followed this first legislation of its kind and there was a heated debate over whether the government had the right to create parks. The perceived mismanagement of Yosemite by the Californian state was the reason why Yellowstone at its establishment six years later was put under national control, in 1872, Yellowstone National Park was established as the United States first national park, being also the worlds first national park. In some European countries, however, national protection and nature reserves already existed, such as Drachenfels, Yellowstone was part of a federally governed territory
18.
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
19.
Niobe
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In Greek mythology, Niobe was a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione, the most frequently cited, or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa, and the sister of Pelops and Broteas. Her father was the ruler of a city located near Manisa in todays Aegean Turkey that was called Tantalis or the city of Tantalus, or Sipylus. The city was located at the foot of Mount Sipylus and its ruins were reported to be visible in the beginning of the 1st century AD. Pliny reports that Tantalis was destroyed by an earthquake and the city of Sipylus was built in its place. References to his son and Niobes brother as Pelops the Lydian led some scholars to the conclusion that there would be grounds for believing that she belonged to a primordial house of Lydia. Once the gods interred them, she retreated to her native Sipylus, where Nymphs dance around the River Acheloos, and although being a stone, she broods over the sorrows sent from the Gods. Later writers asserted that Niobe was wedded to Amphion, one of the founders of Thebes, where there was a single sanctuary where the twin founders were venerated. Niobe boasted of her fourteen children, seven male and seven female, the number varies in different sources. Her attire was splendid with gold and gems, and her face as beautiful as the face of a woman can be. She stood and surveyed the people with haughty looks, what folly, said she, is this. To prefer beings whom you never saw to those who stand before your eyes, why should Latona be honored with worship rather than I. My father was Tantalus, who was received as a guest at the table of the gods and my husband built and rules this city, Thebes, and Phrygia is my paternal inheritance. Wherever I turn my eyes I survey the elements of my power, nor is my form, to all this let me add, I have seven sons and seven daughters, and look for sons-in-law and daughters-in-law of pretensions worthy of my alliance. Have I not cause for pride, will you prefer to me this Latona, the Titans daughter, with her two children. I have seven times as many, fortunate indeed am I, and fortunate I shall remain. Using arrows, Artemis killed Niobes daughters and Apollo killed Niobes sons, according to some versions, at least one Niobid was spared. Their father, Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, devastated, Niobe fled back to Mount Sipylus and was turned into stone, and, as she wept unceasingly, waters started to pour from her petrified complexion. Mount Sipylus indeed has a rock formation which resembles a female face
20.
Hittites
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The Hittites were an Ancient Anatolian people who established an empire centered on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia around 1600 BC. Between the 15th and 13th centuries BC the Hittite Empire came into conflict with the Egyptian Empire, Middle Assyrian Empire, the Assyrians eventually emerged as the dominant power and annexed much of the Hittite empire, while the remainder was sacked by Phrygian newcomers to the region. They referred to their land as Hatti. The conventional name Hittites is due to their identification with the Biblical Hittites in 19th century archaeology. Before the discoveries, the source of information about Hittites had been the Old Testament. Francis William Newman expressed the view, common in the early 19th century. Uriah was a captain in King Davids army and counted among one of his mighty men in 1 Chronicles 11, french scholar Félix Marie Charles Texier discovered the first Hittite ruins in 1834, but did not identify them as Hittite. The first archaeological evidence for the Hittites appeared in tablets found at the Assyrian colony of Kültepe, some names in the tablets were neither Hattic nor Assyrian, but clearly Indo-European. The script on a monument at Boğazköy by a People of Hattusas discovered by William Wright in 1884 was found to match peculiar hieroglyphic scripts from Aleppo, in 1887, excavations at Tell El-Amarna in Egypt uncovered the diplomatic correspondence of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaton. Shortly after this, Archibald Sayce proposed that Hatti or Khatti in Anatolia was identical with the kingdom of Kheta mentioned in these Egyptian texts, as well as with the biblical Hittites. Others, such as Max Müller, agreed that Khatti was probably Kheta, sayces identification came to be widely accepted over the course of the early 20th century, and the name Hittite has become attached to the civilization uncovered at Boğazköy. He also proved that the ruins at Boğazköy were the remains of the capital of an empire that, at one point, under the direction of the German Archaeological Institute, excavations at Hattusa have been under way since 1907, with interruptions during the world wars. Kültepe was successfully excavated by Professor Tahsin Özgüç from 1948 until his death in 2005, the Hittites used Mesopotamian Cuneiform script. The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, Turkey houses the richest collection of Hittite, the Hittite kingdom was centred on the lands surrounding Hattusa and Neša, known as the land Hatti. For example, the reward for the capture of a slave after he managed to flee beyond the Halys is higher than that for a slave caught before he could reach the river. To the west and south of the core territory lay the region known as Luwiya in the earliest Hittite texts and this terminology was replaced by the names Arzawa and Kizzuwatna with the rise of those kingdoms. Nevertheless, the Hittites continued to refer to the language originated in these areas as Luwian. Prior to the rise of Kizzuwatna, the heart of territory in Cilicia was first referred to by the Hittites as Adaniya
21.
Cybele
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Cybele is an Anatolian mother goddess, she may have a possible precursor in the earliest neolithic at Çatalhöyük, where statues of obese women, sometimes sitting, have been found in excavations. She is Phrygias only known goddess, and was probably its state deity and her Phrygian cult was adopted and adapted by Greek colonists of Asia Minor and spread to mainland Greece and its more distant western colonies around the 6th century BC. In Greece, Cybele met with a mixed reception and she was partially assimilated to aspects of the Earth-goddess Gaia, her Minoan equivalent Rhea, and the Harvest-Mother goddess Demeter. Uniquely in Greek religion, she had a eunuch mendicant priesthood, many of her Greek cults included rites to a divine Phrygian castrate shepherd-consort Attis, who was probably a Greek invention. In Greece, Cybele is associated with mountains, town and city walls, fertile nature, in Rome, Cybele was known as Magna Mater. The Roman State adopted and developed a form of her cult after the Sibylline oracle recommended her conscription as a key religious component in Romes second war against Carthage. Roman mythographers reinvented her as a Trojan goddess, and thus an ancestral goddess of the Roman people by way of the Trojan prince Aeneas, with Romes eventual hegemony over the Mediterranean world, Romanised forms of Cybeles cults spread throughout the Roman Empire. The meaning and morality of her cults and priesthoods were topics of debate and dispute in Greek and Roman literature, no contemporary text or myth survives to attest the original character and nature of Cybeles Phrygian cult. Cybele may have evolved from an Anatolian Mother Goddess of a type found at Çatalhöyük, in Phrygian art of the 8th century BC, the cult attributes of the Phrygian mother-goddess include attendant lions, a bird of prey, and a small vase for her libations or other offerings. She is ancient Phrygias only known goddess, and was probably the highest deity of the Phrygian State, in the 2nd century AD, the geographer Pausanias attests to a Magnesian cult to the Mother of the Gods, whose image was carved into a rock-spur of Mount Sipylus. This was believed to be the oldest image of the goddess and this was the aniconic stone that was removed to Rome in 204 BC. In this view, the desire to harness her power led to her installation as a goddess of the city by Anatolian elites. To show her role as protector of cities, or city states, she was shown wearing a Mural Crown. At the same time, her power transcended any purely political usage, over time, her Phrygian cults and iconography were transformed, and eventually subsumed, by the influences and interpretations of her foreign devotees, at first Greek and later Roman. The Greeks called her Mātēr or Mētēr, or from the early 5th century Kubelē, in Pindar, walter Burkert places her among the foreign gods of Greek religion, a complex figure combining the Minoan-Mycenaean tradition with the Phrygian cult imported directly from Asia Minor. In Greece, as in Phrygia, she was a Mistress of animals, with her mastery of the world expressed by the lions that flank her. She was readily assimilated to the Minoan-Greek earth-mother Rhea, Mother of the gods, whose raucous, as an exemplar of devoted motherhood, she was partly assimilated to the grain-goddess Demeter, whose torchlight procession recalled her search for her lost daughter, Persephone. As with other deities viewed as foreign introductions, the spread of Cybeles cult was attended by conflict and her cults most often were funded privately, rather than by the polis, and her vivid and forceful character and association with the wild set her apart from the Olympian gods
22.
Tulip
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The tulip is a Eurasian and North African genus of perennial, bulbous plants in the lily family. It is a herb with showy flowers, of which around 75 wild species are currently accepted. The tulips centre of diversity is in the Pamir, Hindu Kush and it is a common element of steppe and winter-rain Mediterranean vegetation. A number of species and many cultivars are grown in gardens or as potted plants. Tulips are spring-blooming perennials that grow from bulbs, depending on the species, tulip plants can be between 4 inches and 28 inches high. The tulips large flowers usually bloom on scapes with leaves in a rosette at ground level, larger species tend to have multiple leaves. Plants typically have two to six leaves, some species up to 12, the tulips leaf is strap-shaped, with a waxy coating, and the leaves are alternately arranged on the stem, these fleshy blades are often bluish green in color. Most tulips produce only one flower per stem, but a few species bear multiple flowers on their scapes, the generally cup or star-shaped tulip flower has three petals and three sepals, which are often termed tepals because they are nearly identical. These six tepals are often marked on the surface near the bases with darker colorings. Tulip flowers come in a variety of colors, except pure blue. The flowers have six distinct, basifixed stamens with filaments shorter than the tepals, each stigma has three distinct lobes, and the ovaries are superior, with three chambers. The tulips seed is a capsule with a covering and an ellipsoid to globe shape. Each capsule contains numerous flat, disc-shaped seeds in two rows per chamber and these light to dark brown seeds have very thin seed coats and endosperm that does not normally fill the entire seed. Tulipanin is a found in tulips. It is the 3-rutinoside of delphinidin, the chemical compounds named tuliposides and tulipalins can also be found in tulips and are responsible for allergies. Tulipalin A, or α-methylene-γ-butyrolactone, is an allergen, generated by hydrolysis of the glucoside tuliposide A. It induces a dermatitis that is mostly occupational and affects tulip bulb sorters and florists who cut the stems, tulipanin A and B are toxic to horses, cats and dogs. The genus Tulipa was traditionally divided into two sections, Eriostemones and Tulipa, and comprises ca.76 species
23.
Mountaineering
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The term mountaineering describes the sport of mountain climbing, including ski mountaineering. Hiking in the mountains can also be a form of mountaineering when it involves scrambling, or short stretches of the more basic grades of rock climbing. All require experience, athletic ability, and technical knowledge to maintain safety, mountaineering is often called Alpinism, especially in European languages, which implies climbing with difficulty such high and often snow and ice-covered mountains as the Alps. A mountaineer with such great skill is called an Alpinist, historically, many cultures have harbored superstitions about mountains, which they often regarded as sacred due to their proximity with heaven, such as Mount Olympus for the Ancient Greeks. In 1492 Antoine de Ville, lord of Domjulien and Beaupré, was the first to ascend the Mont Aiguille, in France, with a team, using ladders. It appears to be the first recorded climb of any technical difficulty, in 1573 Francesco De Marchi and Francesco Di Domenico ascended Corno Grande, the highest peak in the Apennine Mountains. During the Enlightenment, as a product of the new spirit of curiosity for the natural world, in 1741 Richard Pococke and William Windham made a historic visit to Chamonix. By the early 19th century many of the peaks were reached, including the Grossglockner in 1800, the Ortler in 1804, the Jungfrau in 1811, the Finsteraarhorn in 1812. In 1808 Marie Paradis became the first female to climb Mont Blanc and this inaugurated what became known as the Golden age of alpinism, with the first mountaineering club - the Alpine Club - being founded in 1857. Well-known guides of the era include Christian Almer, Jakob Anderegg, Melchior Anderegg, J. J. Bennen, Michel Croz, in the early years of the golden age, scientific pursuits were intermixed with the sport, such as by the physicist John Tyndall. In the later years, it shifted to a more competitive orientation as pure sportsmen came to dominate the London-based Alpine Club and this ascent is generally regarded as marking the end of the mountaineering golden age. By this point the sport of mountaineering had largely reached its modern form, with a body of professional guides, equipment, mountaineering in the Americas became popular in the 1800s. In North America, Pikes Peak in the Colorado Rockies was first climbed by Edwin James, though lower than Pikes Peak, the heavily glaciated Fremont Peak in Wyoming was thought to be the tallest mountain in the Rockies when it was first climbed by John C. Frémont and two others in 1842, pico de Orizaba, the tallest peak in Mexico and third tallest in North America, was first climbed by U. S. military personnel which included William F. Raynolds and a half dozen other climbers in 1848. Heavily glaciated and more technical climbs in North American were not achieved until the late 19th, in 1897 Mount Saint Elias on the Alaska-Yukon border was summitted by the Duke of the Abruzzi and party. But it was not until 1913 that Mount Mckinley, the tallest peak in North America was successfully climbed by Hudson Stuck, Mount Logan, the tallest peak in Canada was first summitted by a half dozen climbers in 1925 in an expedition that took more than two months. In 1879-1880 the exploration of the highest Andes in South America began when English mountaineer Edward Whymper climbed Chimborazo, the summit of Aconcagua was finally reached on January 14,1897 by Swiss mountaineer Matthias Zurbriggen during an expedition led by Edward FitzGerald that began in December 1896. The Andes of Bolivia were first explored by Sir William Martin Conway in 1898 and it took until the late 19th century for European explorers to penetrate Africa
24.
Sardis
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Sardis or Sardes was an ancient city at the location of modern Sart in Turkeys Manisa Province. Sardis was situated in the middle of Hermus valley, at the foot of Mount Tmolus and it was about 4 kilometres south of the Hermus. Today, the site is located by the present day village of Sart, near Salihli in the Manisa province of Turkey, the part of remains including the bath-gymnasium complex, synagogue and Byzantine shops is open to visitors year-round. It is, however, more probable that Sardis was not the capital of the Maeonians. The city was captured by the Cimmerians in the 7th century BC, by the Persians in the 6th, by the Athenians in the 5th, and by Antiochus III the Great at the end of the 3rd century BC. In the Persian era, Sardis was conquered by Cyrus the Great and formed the end station for the Persian Royal Road which began in Persepolis, during the Ionian Revolt, the Athenians burnt down the city. Sardis remained under Persian domination until it surrendered to Alexander the Great in 334 BC, the early Lydian kingdom was very advanced in the industrial arts and Sardis was the chief seat of its manufactures. The most important of these trades was the manufacture and dyeing of delicate woolen stuffs, the stream Pactolus which flowed through the market-place carried golden sands in early antiquity, which was in reality gold dust out of Mount Tmolus. It was during the reign of King Croesus that the metallurgists of Sardis discovered the secret of separating gold from silver and this was an economic revolution, for while gold nuggets panned or mined were used as currency, their purity was always suspect and a hindrance to trade. Such nuggets or coinage were naturally occurring alloys of gold and silver known as electrum and one could never know how much of it was gold and how much was silver. Sardis now could mint nearly pure silver and gold coins, the value of which could be — and was — trusted throughout the known world and this revolution made Sardis rich and Croesus name synonymous with wealth itself. For this reason, Sardis is famed in history as the place where modern currency was invented and it was one of the great cities of western Asia Minor until the later Byzantine period. Later, trade and the organization of commerce continued to be sources of great wealth, after Constantinople became the capital of the East, a new road system grew up connecting the provinces with the capital. Sardis then lay rather apart from the lines of communication. It still, however, retained its titular supremacy and continued to be the seat of the bishop of the province of Lydia. It was enumerated as third, after Ephesus and Smyrna, in the list of cities of the Thracesion thema given by Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the 10th century. However, over the four centuries it was in the shadow of the provinces of Magnesia-upon-Sipylum and Philadelphia. When Constantinople was taken by the Venetians and Franks in 1204 Sardis came under the rule of the Byzantine Empire of Nicea, the city continued its decline until its capture by the Turco-Mongol warlord Timur in 1402
25.
Lydia
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Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish provinces of Uşak, Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian, at its greatest extent, the Kingdom of Lydia covered all of western Anatolia. Lydia was a satrapy of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, with Sardis as its capital, tabalus, appointed by Cyrus the Great, was the first satrap. Lydia was later the name of a Roman province, coins are said to have been invented in Lydia around the 7th century BC. The endonym Śfard survives in bilingual and trilingual stone-carved notices of the Achaemenid Empire and these in the Greek tradition are associated with Sardis, the capital city of King Gyges, constructed during the 7th century BC. The region of the Lydian kingdom was during the 15th-14th centuries part of the Arzawa kingdom, the Lydian language is not part of the Luwian subgroup. An Etruscan/Lydian association has long been a subject of conjecture, however, recent decipherment of Lydian and its classification as an Anatolian language mean that Etruscan and Lydian were not even part of the same language family. The boundaries of historical Lydia varied across the centuries and it was bounded first by Mysia, Caria, Phrygia and coastal Ionia. Later, the power of Alyattes II and Croesus expanded Lydia. Lydia never again shrank back into its original dimensions, the Lydian language was an Indo-European language in the Anatolian language family, related to Luwian and Hittite. It used many prefixes and grammatical particles, Lydian finally became extinct during the 1st century BC. Lydia developed after the decline of the Hittite Empire in the 12th century BC, in Hittite times, the name for the region had been Arzawa. According to Greek source, the name of the Lydian kingdom was Maionia, or Maeonia. Homer describes their capital not as Sardis but as Hyde, Hyde may have been the name of the district in which Sardis was located. Later, Herodotus adds that the Meiones were renamed Lydians after their king Lydus, son of Atys and this etiological eponym served to account for the Greek ethnic name Lydoi. During Biblical times, the Lydian warriors were famous archers, some Maeones still existed during historical times in the upland interior along the River Hermus, where a town named Maeonia existed, according to Pliny the Elder and Hierocles. In Greek myth, Lydia had also adopted the symbol, that also appears in the Mycenaean civilization. Omphale, daughter of the river Iardanos, was a ruler of Lydia, all three heroic ancestors indicate a Lydian dynasty claiming Heracles as their ancestor
26.
Croesus
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Croesus was the king of Lydia who, according to Herodotus, reigned for 14 years, from 560 BC until his defeat by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 546 BC. Croesus was renowned for his wealth, Herodotus and Pausanias noted that his gifts were preserved at Delphi, the fall of Croesus made a profound impact on the Greeks, providing a fixed point in their calendar. By the fifth century at least, J. A. S, evans has remarked, Croesus had become a figure of myth, who stood outside the conventional restraints of chronology.1, and Ctesias, whose account is also an encomium of Cyrus. Croesus is a descendant of Gyges, of the Myrmnadae Clan, born about 595 BC, Croesus received tribute from the Ionian Greeks but was friendlier to the Hellenes than his father had been. Croesus is credited with issuing the first true gold coins with a standardised purity for general circulation, however, they were quite crude, and were made of electrum, a naturally occurring pale yellow alloy of gold and silver. The composition of these first coins was similar to alluvial deposits found in the silt of the Pactolus river, later coins, including some in the British Museum, were made from gold purified by heating with common salt to remove the silver. King Croesus gold coins follow the first silver coins that had been minted by King Pheidon of Argos around 700 BC, in Greek and Persian cultures the name of Croesus became a synonym for a wealthy man. Croesus wealth remained proverbial beyond classical antiquity, in English, expressions such as rich as Croesus or richer than Croesus are used to great wealth to this day. According to Herodotus, Croesus encountered the Greek sage Solon and showed him his enormous wealth, Solon goes on to explain that Croesus cannot be the happiest man because the fickleness of fortune means that the happiness of a mans life cannot be judged until after his death. The interview is in the nature of a philosophical disquisition on the subject Which man is happy and it is legendary rather than historical. Thus the happiness of Croesus is presented as an exemplum of the fickleness of Tyche. The story was retold and elaborated by Ausonius in The Masque of the Seven Sages, in the Suda. According to Herodotus, Croesus desired to discover which of the well known oracles of his time gave trustworthy omens. Then on the 100th day the envoys entered the oracle of Delphi in order to ask for the omen, the Pythia answered in verse, I know the sands number, I understand the mute and hear him though he does not speak. The smell has come to my senses of a hard-shelled tortoise Being cooked in bronze together with meat, There is bronze beneath it. The envoys wrote down the answer and returned to Sardis, Croesus read all the answers brought by his envoys from all the oracles. As soon as he read the answer of the Pythia he bowed, because he was persuaded that it was the only real oracle, along with that of Amphiaraus. Indeed, on the specific date Croesus had put pieces of a tortoise and lamb to boil together in a bronze cauldron, then, Croesus wanted to thank and take on his side the oracle of Delphi
27.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
28.
Artemis
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Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Some scholars believe that the name, and indeed the goddess herself, was originally pre-Greek, Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron, Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals. The Arcadians believed she was the daughter of Demeter, in the classical period of Greek mythology, Artemis was often described as the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. The deer and the cypress were sacred to her, in later Hellenistic times, she even assumed the ancient role of Eileithyia in aiding childbirth. The name Artemis is of unknown or uncertain origin and etymology although various ones have been proposed, for example, according to J. T. Jablonski, the name is also Phrygian and could be compared with the royal appellation Artemas of Xenophon. Anton Goebel suggests the root στρατ or ῥατ, to shake, babiniotis, while accepting that the etymology is unknown, states that the name is already attested in Mycenean Greek and is possibly of pre-Hellenic origin. It is believed that a precursor of Artemis was worshiped in Minoan Crete as the goddess of mountains and hunting, R. S. P. Beekes suggested that the e/i interchange points to a Pre-Greek origin. Artemis was venerated in Lydia as Artimus, various conflicting accounts are given in Classical Greek mythology of the birth of Artemis and her twin brother, Apollo. All accounts agree, however, that she was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, an account by Callimachus has it that Hera forbade Leto to give birth on either terra firma or on an island. Hera was angry with Zeus, her husband, because he had impregnated Leto, but the island of Delos disobeyed Hera, and Leto gave birth there. In ancient Cretan history Leto was worshipped at Phaistos and in Cretan mythology Leto gave birth to Apollo, a scholium of Servius on Aeneid iii. The myths also differ as to whether Artemis was born first, most stories depict Artemis as born first, becoming her mothers mid-wife upon the birth of her brother Apollo. The childhood of Artemis is not fully related in any surviving myth, the Iliad reduced the figure of the dread goddess to that of a girl, who, having been thrashed by Hera, climbs weeping into the lap of Zeus. She wished for no city dedicated to her, but to rule the mountains, Artemis believed that she had been chosen by the Fates to be a midwife, particularly since she had assisted her mother in the delivery of her twin brother, Apollo. All of her companions remained virgins, and Artemis closely guarded her own chastity and her symbols included the golden bow and arrow, the hunting dog, the stag, and the moon. Okeanus daughters were filled with fear, but the young Artemis bravely approached and asked for bow, Callimachus then tells how Artemis visited Pan, the god of the forest, who gave her seven bitches and six dogs. She then captured six golden-horned deer to pull her chariot, Artemis practiced with her bow first by shooting at trees and then at wild beasts. As a virgin, Artemis had interested many gods and men, Orion was accidentally killed either by Artemis or by Gaia
29.
Synagogue
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A synagogue, also spelled synagog, is a Jewish house of prayer. Synagogues have a hall for prayer, and may also have smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall. Some have a room for Torah study, called the beith midrash beis medrash —בית מדרש. Synagogues are consecrated spaces used for the purpose of prayer, Tanakh reading, study and assembly, halakha holds that communal Jewish worship can be carried out wherever ten Jews assemble. Worship can also be carried out alone or with fewer than ten people assembled together, however, halakha considers certain prayers as communal prayers and therefore they may be recited only by a minyan. The synagogue does not replace the long-since destroyed Temple in Jerusalem, israelis use the Hebrew term beyt knesset. Jews of Ashkenazi descent have traditionally used the Yiddish term shul in everyday speech, Sephardi Jews and Romaniote Jews generally use the term kal. Spanish Jews call the synagogue a sinagoga and Portuguese Jews call it an esnoga, persian Jews and some Karaite Jews also use the non-Hebrew term kenesa, which is derived from Aramaic, and some Arab Jews use kenis. Reform and some Conservative Jews use the word temple, the Greek word synagogue is used in English, to cover the preceding possibilities. The all-day Yom Kippur service, in fact, was an event in which the congregation both observed the movements of the kohen gadol as he offered the days sacrifices and prayed for his success. During the Babylonian captivity the Men of the Great Assembly formalized and standardized the language of the Jewish prayers, prior to that people prayed as they saw fit, with each individual praying in his or her own way, and there were no standard prayers that were recited. Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, one of the leaders at the end of the Second Temple era and this contributed to the continuity of the Jewish people by maintaining a unique identity and a portable way of worship despite the destruction of the Temple, according to many historians. A synagogue dating from between 75 and 50 BCE has been uncovered at a Hasmonean-era winter palace near Jericho, more than a dozen Second Temple era synagogues have been identified by archaeologists. Any Jew or group of Jews can build a synagogue, there is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. In fact, the influence from local religious buildings can often be seen in synagogue arches, domes. Historically, synagogues were built in the architectural style of their time. Thus, the synagogue in Kaifeng, China looked very like Chinese temples of that region and era, with its outer wall, the styles of the earliest synagogues resembled the temples of other sects of the eastern Roman Empire. The surviving synagogues of medieval Spain are embellished with mudéjar plasterwork, the surviving medieval synagogues in Budapest and Prague are typical Gothic structures
30.
Thyatira
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Thyateira was the name of an ancient Greek city in Asia Minor, now the modern Turkish city of Akhisar. The name comes from Koine Greek Θυάτειρα and it lies in the far west of Turkey, south of Istanbul and almost due east of Athens. It is about 50 miles from the Aegean Sea and it was an ancient Greek city called Pelopia, and during the Hellenistic era, in 290 BC, it was named Thyateira by king Seleucus I Nicator. He was at war with Lysimachus when he learned that his wife had given birth to a daughter, according to Stephanus of Byzantium, he called this city thuateira from Greek θυγατήρ, θυγατέρα, meaning daughter, although it is likely that it is an older, Lydian name. In classical times, Thyatira stood on the border between Lydia and Mysia, during the Roman era, it was famous for its dyeing facilities and was a center of the purple cloth trade. Among the ancient ruins of the city, inscriptions have been relating to the guild of dyers in the city. Indeed, more guilds are known in Thyatira than any other city in the Roman province of Asia. In early Christian times, Thyateira was home to a significant Christian church, according to Revelation, a woman named Jezebel taught and seduced the Christians of Thyateira to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols. The Apostle Paul and Silas might have visited Thyateira during Pauls second or third journey and they visited several small unnamed towns in the general vicinity during the second journey. While in Philippi, Paul and Silas stayed with a woman named Lydia from Thyateira, in 366, a battle fought near Thyateira saw the army of Roman emperor Valens defeat Roman usurper Procopius. The City was home to a Christian community from Apostolic times, the community continued until 1922, when the Greek orthodox population was deported. In 1922, the Patriarch of Constantinople appointed an Exarch for Western, the current Archbishop of Thyateira is Gregorios Theocharous. The Archbishop of Thyateira resides in London and has responsibility for the Greek Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom. The see of Thyatira is also included, without archiepiscopal rank, archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain List of archbishops of Thyateira and Great Britain
