1.
Summit
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A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically, a summit is a maximum in elevation. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak, and zenith are synonymous, the UIAA definition is that a summit is independent if it has a prominence of 30 metres or more, it is a mountain if it has a prominence of at least 300 metres. This can be summarised as follows, A pyramidal peak is an exaggerated form produced by ice erosion of a mountain top, Summit may also refer to the highest point along a line, trail, or route. In many parts of the western United States, the term refers to the highest point along a road, highway. For example, the highest point along Interstate 80 in California is referred to as Donner Summit while the highest point on Interstate 5 is Siskiyou Mountain Summit, geoid Hill List of highest mountains Maxima and minima Nadir Summit accordance Peak finder
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Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Sudan
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Sudan, also known as North Sudan since South Sudans independence and officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northern Africa. It is the third largest country in Africa, the River Nile divides the country into eastern and western halves. Before the Sudanese Civil War, South Sudan was part of Sudan, Sudan was home to numerous ancient civilizations, such as the Kingdom of Kush, Kerma, Nobatia, Alodia, Makuria, Meroë and others, most of which flourished along the Nile. During the pre-dynastic period Nubia and Nagadan Upper Egypt were identical, by virtue of its proximity to Egypt, the Sudan participated in the wider history of the Near East inasmuch as it was Christianized by the 6th century, and Islamized in the 15th. As a result of Christianization, the Old Nubian language stands as the oldest recorded Nilo-Saharan language, Sudan was the largest country in Africa and the Arab world until 2011, when South Sudan separated into an independent country, following an independence referendum. Sudan is now the third largest country in Africa and also the third largest country in the Arab world and its capital is Khartoum, the political, cultural and commercial centre of the nation. It is a representative democratic federal republic. The politics of Sudan are regulated by an organization called the National Assembly. The Sudanese legal system is based on Islamic law, the countrys place name Sudan is a name given to a geographical region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from Western Africa to eastern Central Africa. The name derives from the Arabic bilād as-sūdān, or the lands of the Blacks, during the fifth millennium BC migrations from the drying Sahara brought neolithic people into the Nile Valley along with agriculture. The population that resulted from this cultural and genetic mixing developed social hierarchy over the centuries become the Kingdom of Kush at 1700 BC. The Kingdom of Kush was an ancient Nubian state centered on the confluences of the Blue Nile and White Nile, and the Atbarah River and it was established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt, centered at Napata in its early phase. After King Kashta invaded Egypt in the eighth century BC, the Kushite kings ruled as pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt for a century before being defeated and driven out by the Assyrians. At the height of their glory, the Kushites conquered an empire that stretched from what is now known as South Kordofan all the way to the Sinai, pharaoh Piye attempted to expand the empire into the Near East, but was thwarted by the Assyrian king Sargon II. Sennacheribs successor Esarhaddon went further, and invaded Egypt itself, deposing Taharqa, Taharqa fled back to his homeland where he died two years later. Egypt became an Assyrian colony, however, king Tantamani, after succeeding Taharqa, Esarhaddon died while preparing to leave the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in order to eject him. However, his successor Ashurbanipal sent an army into southern Egypt and routed Tantamani. During Classical Antiquity, the Nubian capital was at Meroë, in ancient Greek geography, the Meroitic kingdom was known as Ethiopia
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South Sudan
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South Sudan, officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in northeastern Africa that gained its independence from Sudan in 2011. Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city and it was planned that the capital city would be changed to the more centrally located Ramciel in the future before civil war broke out. It includes the vast swamp region of the Sudd, formed by the White Nile, following the First Sudanese Civil War, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was formed in 1972 and lasted until 1983. A second Sudanese civil war soon developed and ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005, later that year, southern autonomy was restored when an Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan was formed. South Sudan became an independent state on 9 July 2011, following a referendum passed with 98. 83% of the vote. It is a United Nations member state, a state of the African Union, of the East African Community. In July 2012, South Sudan signed the Geneva Conventions, South Sudan has suffered ethnic violence and has been in a civil war since 2013, as of 2016 it has the second highest score on the Fragile States Index. The Nilotic people of South Sudan—the Acholi, Anyuak, Bari, Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk, Kaligi, Zande, the Azande, Mundu, Avukaya and Baka, who entered South Sudan in the 16th century—established the regions largest state of Equatoria Region. The Dinka are the largest, Nuer the second largest and Azande are the third-largest ethnic group in South Sudan while the Bari are fourth-largest. They are found in the Maridi, Yambio, and Tombura districts in the tropical rainforest belt of Western Equatoria, in the 18th century, the Avungara sib rose to power over the rest of Azande society and this domination continued into the 20th century. The major reasons include the history of British policy preference toward developing the Arab north. After Sudans first independent elections in 1958, the ignoring of the south by Khartoum led to uprisings, revolt. As of 2012, peoples include Acholi, Anyuak, Azande, Baka, Balanda Bviri, Bari, Boya, Didinga, Dinka, Jiye, Kaligi, Kuku, Lotuka, Mundari, Murie, Nilotic, Nuer, Shilluk, Toposa and Zande. Slavery had been an institution of Sudanese life throughout history, the slave trade in the south intensified in the 19th century and continued after the British had suppressed slavery in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Annual Sudanese slave raids into non-Muslim territories resulted in the capture of thousands of southern Sudanese. In the 19th century, the Azande fought the French, the Belgians, Egypt, under the rule of Khedive Ismail Pasha, first attempted to control the region in the 1870s, establishing the province of Equatoria in the southern portion. Egypts first governor was Samuel Baker, commissioned in 1869, followed by Charles George Gordon in 1874, the Mahdist Revolt of the 1880s destabilized the nascent province, and Equatoria ceased to exist as an Egyptian outpost in 1889. Important settlements in Equatoria included Lado, Gondokoro, Dufile and Wadelai, european colonial maneuverings in the region came to a head in 1898, when the Fashoda Incident occurred at present-day Kodok, Britain and France almost went to war over the region
5.
South Kordofan
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South Kordofan is one of the 18 wilayat or provinces of Sudan. It has an area of 158,355 km² and a population of approximately 1,100,000 people. Kaduqli is the capital of the state and it is centered on the Nuba Hills. It was erroneously believed that South Kordofan is the state in Sudan that is producing oil. Oil has since been discovered in White Nile State in larger quantities, under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, residents of South Kordofan were to hold popular consultations in 2011 to determine the constitutional future of the state. However, South Kordofan governor Ahmed Haroun suspended the process and violence followed, Haroun had previously been charged with war crimes against civilians and crime against humanity by the International Criminal Court. Although South Kordofan is part of Sudan, it is home to many pro South Sudan communities, especially in the Nuba Mountains, in 2009 and 2010 a series of conflicts between rival nomadic tribes in South Kordofan caused a large number of casualties and displaced thousands. On June 6,2011 armed conflict broke out between the forces of Northern and Southern Sudan, ahead of the independence of the South on July 9. This followed an agreement for both sides to withdraw from Abyei, on June 20, the parties agreed to demilitarize the contested area of Abyei where Ethiopian peacekeepers will be deployed
6.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
7.
Nuba peoples
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For the musical form, see Andalusi nubah or Nuubaat. Nuba is a term used here for the various indigenous peoples who inhabit the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan state. Estimates of the Nuba population vary widely, the Sudanese government estimated that they numbered 1.07 million in 2003, the Nuba people reside in the foothills of the Nuba Mountains. Villages consist of family compounds, and the mens in which unmarried men sleep, a family compound consisting of a rectangular compound enclosing two round mud huts thatched with sorghum stalks facing each other called a shal. The shal was fenced with wooden posts interwoven with straw, two benches ran down the each side of the shal with a fire in the middle where families will tell stories and oral traditions. Around the shal was the larger yard, the tog placed in front. The fence of the tog was made of tree branches as high as the roof of the huts. Small livestock like goats and chickens and donkeys were kept in the tog, each compound had tall conical granaries called durs which stood on one side of the tog. At the back of the compound was a yard were maize and vegetables like pumpkin, beans. For families that were small a compound was not needed and a mud hut with a fence would be enough, the entrance was as large as a man so people could climb the ladder and dive in to get grain. Inside the hut there was little furniture, only a bamboo bed frame with a baobab rope mat on top. Possessions and tools were hung or leaned against the wall, a small garden behind the was used to grow vegetables like beans and pumpkin while sorghum and peanuts were grown away in the hills. Ones wealth is measured by cattle so they are kept in an enclosure called a coh for cows, the Nuba people eat sorghum as their staple. It is boiled with water or milk to make kal eaten with meat stew called waj, corn is also roasted and eaten with home made butter. Main, Index, Kordofanian languages Most of the Nuba peoples speak one of the languages in the geographic Kordofanian languages group of the Nuba Mountains. This language group is in the major Niger–Congo languages family, several Nuba languages are in the Nilo-Saharan languages family. Over one hundred languages are spoken in the area and are considered Nuba languages, although many of the Nuba also speak Sudanese Arabic, the Nuba people are primarily farmers, as well as herders who keep cattle, chickens, and other domestic animals. A distinctive characteristic of the Nubas is their passion for athletic competition, the strongest young men of a community compete with athletes from other villages for the chance to promote their personal and their village’s pride and strength
8.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
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Nubians
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Nubians are an ethnic group that originated in present-day Sudan and Egypt. Today, people of Nubian descent primarily live in Sudan, a significant number of Nubians, estimated at 100,000, live in Kenya. The main Nubian groups from north to south are the Halfaweyen, Sikut, Mahas and they speak a variety of Nilo-Saharan languages in the Nubian language family. Nubian people have a history dating back to dynastic Egypt. Nubians founded a dynasty that ruled upper and lower Egypt during the 8th century BCE, Ancient Nubians were famous for their skill and precision with the bow. The Nubian people historically inhabited the south of Egypt, known today as Sudan. They were noted for their horsemanship, riding their horses bareback and they were light, mobile and efficient this way, and became valued for cavalry duties in later years. They speak Nubian language, an Eastern Sudanic language that is part of the Nilo-Saharan phylum, the Old Nubian language is attested from the 8th century, and is the oldest recorded language of Africa outside of the Afro-Asiatic group. Nobadia was converted to Miaphysitism by the Orthodox priest Julian and Bishop Longinus of Constantinople, the name Nubia or Nubian has a contested origin. It may originate with an ancient Egyptian noun, nebu, meaning gold, another etymology claims that it originates with the name of a distinct group of people, the Noubai, living in the area that would become known as Nubia. Scholars may also refer to Nubians as Kushites, a reference to the Kush and it may originate with the Greek historian Strabo, who referred to the Nubas people. The earliest history of ancient Nubia comes from the Paleolithic Era of 300,000 years ago, by around 6000 BCE, the Nubians had developed an agricultural economy and had contact with Egypt. The Nubians began using a system of writing relatively late in their history, the Nile river and its valley lay in the north and central parts of Nubia, allowing farming using irrigation. The western Sudan had a mixture of peasant agriculture and nomadism, Eastern Sudan had primarily nomadism, with a few areas of irrigation and agriculture. Finally, there was the fertile region of the south. Nubia was dominated by kings from clans that controlled the gold mines, trade in exotic goods from other parts of Africa—ivory, animal skins—passed to Egypt through Nubia. The descendants of the ancient Nubians still inhabit the area of what was ancient Nubia. Today, they live in what is called the former Old Nubia, Nubians have been resettled in large numbers away from southern Egypt since the 1960s, when the Aswan High Dam was built on the Nile, flooding ancestral lands
10.
Alodia
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Alodia, also referred to as Alwa or Aloa, was a Medieval Nubian kingdom in what is now Sudan. Its capital was Soba, located near the confluence of the Blue, compared to its two Nubian cousins in the north, Nobatia and Makuria, Alodia is still rather badly understood. This is mostly due to the scarcity of sources as well as the limited amount of fieldwork undertaken in its territory. Long before the kingdom of Alodia becomes tangible several similar-sounding variations of its name appear in various sources, the earliest reference to Alodia might be a Kushitic stela from the reign of Nastasen, which mentions a region called Alut. It is however not yet possible to connect named Alut with any region or town. A reference made by Pliny the Elder is more interesting, He not only includes Alwa on his list of towns in Meroitic Kush, sadly, Pliny does not give us any concrete details about its location. Therefore, we can guess that his Alwa is related to the later kingdom. The last ancient source which should be noted is the most important one and we are dealing with a Geez inscription of the Aksumite king Ezana, who lived in the mid 4th century AD. This inscription mentions a city named Alwa. It is however assumed that this Alwa has to be located near the confluence of the Nile, not all towns were in the hands of Kushites though. Instead, the account makes it clear that in fact, the heartland of the Kingdom of Kush was partially occupied by the Nubians. Be it as it may, it doesnt seem as if Aksums presence in the Middle Nile Valley was overly long-lasting and this era of transformation is known as the Post-Meroitic period. While the formation of Nobatia and Makuria are both fairly well studied and understood, same cant be said for Alodia, what seems clear is that several aspects of Meroitic culture were largely dismissed during that period, like pyramids and mastabas, wheel-made pottery and faiences. When Alodia came into existence is unknown, just as much as when, archaeology suggests that Soba was already settled during the Meroitic period, but it was not until the later post-Meroitic period, perhaps during the 6th century that it became a major urban center. This dating coincides with the first mention of Alodia and its conversion to Christianity, as the southernmost of the three Nubian kingdoms, Alodia was the last to be converted to Christianity. If we can believe John, the Alodian king was aware of the baptisms of Nobadia in 543. He describes how the Alodian king sent a delegation to the king of Nobadia, requesting a bishop to be sent to him to instruct his people, the request was granted in 580, leading to the baptism of the king, his family and the local nobility. This event marked the end of the period and the dawn of the Medieval or Christian period of central Sudan
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Media related to Nuba Mountains at Wikimedia Commons