1.
Camp Pathfinder
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Camp Pathfinder is a boys Summer camp in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. The camp is best known for its canoe tripping program, Pathfinder follows a tradition of using wood and canvas canoes. Several other camps in Algonquin and elsewhere follow a tradition of tripping with. Pathfinders canoes are painted a bright red. The current director is Michael Sladden, Camp Pathfinder was founded in 1914 by William Bennett and Franklin Gray. In 1922, the camp was sold to Herman J, chief Norton, who became one of Pathfinders most influential owners. Pathfinder was almost shut down or sold to the Ontario Provincial Government when the government told Norton the lease for the camp would not be renewed, the government later renewed the lease and the camp remained in operation. Since then, owners or co-owners have included Frank J. Horton, Bill Swift, Roy Thrall, Mac Rand, Glen Arthurs, Camp Pathfinder is located on Source Lake, in Algonquin Provincial Park, just more than a mile away from Highway 60. Source Lake is a point to the Algonquin Park canoe route system. There are no campsites on Source Lake, there are, however, a few residential cabins and the camp itself on the lake. The camp is located on an island in the lake, commonly referred to as Camp Pathfinder Island or CPI, on the opening days of each session, the whole camp meets at the new Indian council ring, and a meeting introducing the camp session is held. This meeting, and other aspects of the camp, have a number of traditions, for example, there is a site believed be the grave of a First Nations man known as Algonquin Joe, and it is traditional to put a fallen leaf on the site. The camp also features a course and climbing walls. Recently, the camp completed its 100th season, Pathfinder has an extensive canoe tripping program. Trip duration and destination varies by age group of the campers on the trip, the youngest campers normally stay within the boundaries of Algonquin Park or very close to. The older campers venture on longer and more challenging trips with varying destinations, paddles Flashing in the Sun, The Stories of Pathfinder in Algonquin Park
2.
Algonquin Provincial Park
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Algonquin Provincial Park is a provincial park located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River in Southern Ontario, Canada, mostly within the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District. Established in 1893, it is the oldest provincial park in Canada, additions since its creation have increased the park to its current size of about 7,653 square kilometres. For comparison purposes, this is one and a half times the size of Prince Edward Island or about a quarter of the size of Belgium. The park is contiguous with several smaller, administratively separate provincial parks that protect important rivers in the area, resulting in a larger total protected area. Its size, combined with its proximity to the urban centres of Toronto and Ottawa, makes Algonquin one of the most popular provincial parks in the province. Highway 60 runs through the south of the park, while the Trans-Canada Highway bypasses it to the north, over 2,400 lakes and 1,200 kilometres of streams and rivers are located within the park. Some notable examples include Canoe Lake and the Petawawa, Nipissing, Amable du Fond, Madawaska and these were formed by the retreat of the glaciers during the last ice age. The park is considered part of the border between Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario, the park is in an area of transition between northern coniferous forest and southern deciduous forest. This unique mixture of forest types, and the variety of environments in the park, allows the park to support an uncommon diversity of plant. It is also an important site for wildlife research, Algonquin Park is the only designated park within the province of Ontario to allow industrial logging to take place within its borders. In the 19th century, the industry harvested the large white pine and red pine trees to produce lumber for domestic and American markets. The loggers were followed by numbers of homesteaders and farmers. Even at that time, however, the beauty was recognized by nature preservationists. To manage these conflicting interests, the Ontario Government appointed a commission to inquire into and report on the matter. The act to establish Algonquin Park was drawn up in 1892 by this five member Royal Commission, made up of Alexander Kirkwood, James Dickson, Archibald Blue, Robert Phipps, and Aubrey White. The commissioners remarked in their report, the experience of older countries had shown that the wholesale. Only licenses to cut pine would be issued, the commissioners had recommended that when the hardwood was mature, it too should be cut. Researchers believe that smoke from a forest fire in Algonquin Park was responsible for New Englands Dark Day of May 19,1780 and this is based on investigations into scar marks which are left in the growth rings of trees that survive forest fires
3.
New France
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The territory was divided into five colonies, each with its own administration, Canada, Hudsons Bay, Acadia, Newfoundland, and Louisiana. Acadia had a history, with the Great Upheaval, remembered on July 28 each year since 2003. The descendants are dispersed in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, in Maine and Louisiana in the United States, with populations in Chéticamp, Nova Scotia. In the sixteenth century, the lands were used primarily to draw from the wealth of natural resources, in the seventeenth century, successful settlements began in Acadia, and in Quebec by the efforts of Champlain. By 1765, the population of the new Province of Quebec reached approximately 70,000 settlers. In 1763 France had ceded the rest of New France, except the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, to Great Britain and Spain at the Treaty of Paris, in 1800, Spain returned its portion of Louisiana to France under the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso. However, French leader Napoleon Bonaparte in turn sold it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, New France eventually became part of the United States and Canada, with the only vestige remaining under French rule being the tiny islands Saint Pierre and Miquelon. In the United States, the legacy of New France includes numerous placenames as well as pockets of French-speaking communities. In Canada, institutional bilingualism and strong Francophone identities are arguably the most enduring legacy of New France, the Conquest is viewed differently among Francophone Canadians, and between Anglophone and Francophone Canadians. Around 1523, the Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano convinced King Francis I, late that year, Verrazzano set sail in Dieppe, crossing the Atlantic on a small caravel with 50 men. After exploring the coast of the present-day Carolinas early the year, he headed north along the coast. The first European to discover the site of present-day New York, he named it Nouvelle-Angoulême in honour of the king, verrazzanos voyage convinced the king to seek to establish a colony in the newly discovered land. Verrazzano gave the names Francesca and Nova Gallia to that land between New Spain and English Newfoundland, in 1534, Jacques Cartier planted a cross in the Gaspé Peninsula and claimed the land in the name of King Francis I. It was the first province of New France, however, initial French attempts at settling the region met with failure. French fishing fleets continued to sail to the Atlantic coast and into the St. Lawrence River, French merchants soon realized the St. Lawrence region was full of valuable fur-bearing animals, especially the beaver, which were becoming rare in Europe. Eventually, the French crown decided to colonize the territory to secure, another early French attempt at settlement in North America took place in 1564 at Fort Caroline, now Jacksonville, Florida. Intended as a haven for Huguenots, Caroline was founded under the leadership of René Goulaine de Laudonnière and it was sacked by the Spanish led by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés who then established the settlement of St. Augustine on 20 September 1565. Acadia and Canada were inhabited by indigenous nomadic Algonquian peoples and sedentary Iroquoian peoples and these lands were full of unexploited and valuable natural riches, which attracted all of Europe
4.
Louisiana (New France)
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Louisiana or French Louisiana was an administrative district of New France. Under French control 1682 to 1762 and 1802 to 1803, the area was named in honor of King Louis XIV, by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Louisiana was divided into two regions, known as Upper Louisiana, which began north of the Arkansas River, and Lower Louisiana. The U. S. state of Louisiana is named for the historical region, although French exploration of the area began during the reign of Louis XIV, French Louisiana was not greatly developed, due to a lack of human and financial resources. France regained sovereignty of the territory in the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso of 1800. But strained by obligations in Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte decided to sell the territory to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States ceded part of the Louisiana Purchase to the United Kingdom in the Treaty of 1818. This section lies above the 49th parallel north in a portion of present-day Alberta, in the 18th century, Louisiana included most of the Mississippi River Valley, from what is now the Midwestern United States south to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Both areas were dominated numerically by Native American tribal populations, at times, fewer than two hundred soldiers were assigned to all of the colony, on both sides of the Mississippi. In the mid-1720s, Louisiana Indians numbered well over 35,000, to the east was territory disputed with the British colonies on the Atlantic seaboard, the French claim extended to the Appalachian Mountains. The Rocky Mountains marked the extent of the French claim. The general flatness of the land aided movement through the territory, the topography becomes more mountainous towards the west, with the notable exception of the Ozark Mountains, which are located in the mid-south. A colonial government soon emerged, with its capital originally at Mobile, later at Biloxi, the government was led by a Governor-general, and Louisiana became an increasingly important colony in the early 18th century. French exploration of the area began with the 1673 expedition of Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette, as noted above, Upper Louisiana was primarily settled by colonists from French Canada. There was further substantial intermarriage and integration with the local Illinois peoples, French settlers were attracted by the availability of arable farmland as well as by the forests, abundant with animals suitable for hunting and trapping. Genevieve across the river in todays Missouri, the region was initially governed as part of Canada, but was declared to be part of Louisiana in 1712, with the grant of the Louisiana country to Antoine Crozat. Thus, Vincennes and Peoria were the limit of Louisianas reach, the outposts at Ouiatenon, Chicago, Fort Miamis, and Prairie du Chien operated as dependencies of Canada. Those fleeing British control founded outposts such as the important settlement of St. Louis and this became a French fur-trading center, connected to trading posts on the Missouri and Upper Mississippi rivers, leading to later French settlement in that area. In the 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau, France ceded Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to Spain, its ally in the war, even after France had lost its claim to Louisiana, settlement of Upper Louisiana by French-speakers continued for the next four decades. French explorers and frontiersmen, such as Pedro Vial, were employed as guides and interpreters by the Spanish
5.
Rapids
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Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a run and a cascade, rapids are characterised by the river becoming shallower with some rocks exposed above the flow surface. As flowing water splashes over and around the rocks, air bubbles become mixed in with it and portions of the surface acquire a white colour, forming what is called whitewater. Rapids occur where the bed material is resistant to the erosive power of the stream in comparison with the bed downstream of the rapids. Very young streams flowing across solid rock may be rapids for much of their length, rapids cause water aeration of the stream or river resulting in better water quality. Rapids are categorized in classes, generally running from I to VI, a Class 5 rapid may be categorized as Class 5. 1-5.9. While class I rapids are easy to negotiate and require no maneuvering, river rafting sports is carried out where many rapids are there in the course
6.
Fan waterfalls
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A waterfall is a place where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of drops in the course of a stream or river. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of an iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls are commonly formed in the course of a river. At these times the channel is narrow and deep. When the river courses over resistant bedrock, erosion happens slowly, as the watercourse increases its velocity at the edge of the waterfall, it plucks material from the riverbed. Whirlpools created in the turbulence as well as sand and stones carried by the increase the erosion capacity. This causes the waterfall to carve deeper into the bed and to recede upstream, often over time, the waterfall will recede back to form a canyon or gorge downstream as it recedes upstream, and it will carve deeper into the ridge above it. The rate of retreat for a waterfall can be as high as one, eventually, the outcropping, more resistant cap rock will collapse under pressure to add blocks of rock to the base of the waterfall. Waterfalls normally form in an area due to erosion. After a long period of being formed, the water falling off the ledge will retreat. Eventually, as the pit grows deeper, the waterfall collapses to be replaced by a steeply sloping stretch of river bed, a river sometimes flows over a large step in the rocks that may have been formed by a fault line. Waterfalls can occur along the edge of a trough, where a stream or river flowing into a glacier continues to flow into a valley after the glacier has receded or melted. The large waterfalls in Yosemite Valley are examples of this phenomenon, another reason hanging valleys may form is where two rivers join and one is flowing faster than the other. Waterfalls can be grouped into ten classes based on the average volume of water present on the fall using a logarithmic scale. Class 10 waterfalls include Niagara Falls, Paulo Afonso Falls and Khone Falls, young Wrote Waterfalls, form and process this work made waterfalls a much more serious topic for research for modern Geoscientists. Ledge waterfall, Water descends vertically over a cliff, maintaining partial contact with the bedrock. Block/Sheet. Classical, Ledge waterfalls where fall height is equal to stream width. Curtain, Ledge waterfalls which descend over a larger than the width of falling water stream
7.
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
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The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas and their descendants. The term Amerindian is used in Quebec, the Guianas, Indigenous peoples of the United States are commonly known as Native Americans or American Indians, and Alaska Natives. Application of the term Indian originated with Christopher Columbus, who, in his search for Asia, eventually, the Americas came to be known as the West Indies, a name still used to refer to the islands of the Caribbean Sea. This led to the blanket term Indies and Indians for the indigenous inhabitants, although some indigenous peoples of the Americas were traditionally hunter-gatherers—and many, especially in the Amazon basin, still are—many groups practiced aquaculture and agriculture. The impact of their agricultural endowment to the world is a testament to their time, although some societies depended heavily on agriculture, others practiced a mix of farming, hunting, and gathering. In some regions the indigenous peoples created monumental architecture, large-scale organized cities, chiefdoms, states, and empires. Many parts of the Americas are still populated by peoples, some countries have sizable populations, especially Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Greenland, Guatemala, Mexico. At least a different indigenous languages are spoken in the Americas. Some, such as the Quechuan languages, Aymara, Guaraní, Mayan languages, many also maintain aspects of indigenous cultural practices to varying degrees, including religion, social organization, and subsistence practices. Like most cultures, over time, cultures specific to many indigenous peoples have evolved to incorporate traditional aspects, some indigenous peoples still live in relative isolation from Western culture and a few are still counted as uncontacted peoples. The specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are the subject of ongoing research. According to archaeological and genetic evidence, North and South America were the last continents in the world with human habitation. During the Wisconsin glaciation, 50–17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the bridge of Beringia that joined Siberia to northwest North America. Alaska was a glacial refugium because it had low snowfall, allowing a small population to exist, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered most of North America, blocking nomadic inhabitants and confining them to Alaska for thousands of years. Indigenous genetic studies suggest that the first inhabitants of the Americas share a single population, one that developed in isolation. The isolation of these peoples in Beringia might have lasted 10–20,000 years, around 16,500 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to move south and east into Canada and beyond. These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct Pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheets. Another route proposed involves migration - either on foot or using primitive boats - along the Pacific Northwest coast to the south, archeological evidence of the latter would have been covered by the sea level rise of more than 120 meters since the last ice age
8.
Canoe
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A canoe is a lightweight narrow boat, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel using a single-bladed paddle. In International Canoe Federation nomenclature used in some European countries such as the United Kingdom the term refers to kayaks. Canoes are used for racing, whitewater canoeing, touring and camping, freestyle, the intended use of the canoe dictates its hull shape and length and construction material. Historically, canoes were dugouts or made of bark on a wood frame, most modern canoes are made of molded plastic or composites such as fiberglass. Until the mid-1800s the canoe was an important means of transport for exploration and trade, canoeing has been part of the Olympics since 1936. In places where the played a key role in history, such as the northern United States, Canada, and New Zealand. Canoes can be adapted to many purposes, for example with the addition of sails, outboard motors, the word canoe comes from the Carib kenu, via the Spanish canoa. Constructed between 8200 and 7600 BC, and found in the Netherlands, the Pesse canoe may be the oldest known canoe, excavations in Denmark reveal the use of dugouts and paddles during the Ertebølle period. Australian Aboriginal people made canoes using a variety of materials, including bark, the indigenous people of the Amazon commonly used Hymenaea trees. Many indigenous peoples of the Americas built bark canoes and they were usually skinned with birch bark over a light wooden frame, but other types could be used if birch was scarce. At a typical length of 4.3 m and weight of 23 kg, although susceptible to damage from rocks, they are easily repaired. When you reach them you load canoe and baggage upon your shoulders and go overland until the navigation is good, and then you put your canoe back into the water, and embark again. American painter, author and traveler George Catlin wrote that the canoe was the most beautiful. Native American groups of the north Pacific coast made dugout canoes in a number of styles for different purposes, from western red-cedar or yellow-cedar, different styles were required for ocean-going vessels versus river boats, and for whale-hunting versus seal-hunting versus salmon-fishing. The Quinault of Washington State built shovel-nose canoes, with double bows, the Kootenai of British Columbia province made sturgeon-nosed canoes from pine bark, designed to be stable in windy conditions on Kootenay Lake. The first explorer to cross the North American continent, Alexander Mackenzie, used extensively, as did David Thompson. Its dimensions were, length approximately 11 m, beam 1.2 to 1.8 m and it could carry 60 packs weighing 41 kg, and 910 kg of provisions. With a crew of eight or ten, they could make three knots over calm waters, four to six men could portage it, bottom up
9.
Canal
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Canals and navigations are human-made channels for water conveyance, or to service water transport vehicles. In the vernacular, both are referred to as canals, and in most cases, the works will have a series of dams. These areas are referred to as water levels, often just called levels. In contrast, a canal cuts across a drainage divide atop a ridge, many canals have been built at elevations towering over valleys and others water ways crossing far below. Cities need a lot of water and many canals with sources of water at a higher level can deliver water to a destination where there is a lack of water. The Roman Empires Aqueducts were such water supply canals, a navigation is a series of channels that run roughly parallel to the valley and stream bed of an unimproved river. A navigation always shares the drainage basin of the river, a vessel uses the calm parts of the river itself as well as improvements, traversing the same changes in height. A true canal is a channel that cuts across a drainage divide, most commercially important canals of the first half of the 19th century were a little of each, using rivers in long stretches, and divide crossing canals in others. This is true for many canals still in use, there are two broad types of canal, Waterways, canals and navigations used for carrying vessels transporting goods and people. These can be subdivided into two kinds, Those connecting existing lakes, rivers, other canals or seas and oceans and those connected in a city network, such as the Canal Grande and others of Venice Italy, the gracht of Amsterdam, and the waterways of Bangkok. Aqueducts, water canals that are used for the conveyance and delivery of potable water for human consumption, municipal uses, hydro power canals. Historically canals were of importance to commerce and the development, growth. In 1855 the Lehigh Canal carried over 1.2 million tons of burning anthracite coal, by the 1930s the company which built. By the early 1880s, canals which had little ability to compete with rail transport, were off the map. In the next couple of decades, coal was diminished as the heating fuel of choice by oil. Later, after World War I when motor-trucks came into their own, Canals are built in one of three ways, or a combination of the three, depending on available water and available path, Human made streams A canal can be created where no stream presently exists. Either the body of the canal is dug or the sides of the canal are created by making dykes or levees by piling dirt, stone, the water for the canal must be provided from an external source, like streams or reservoirs. Where the new waterway must change elevation engineering works like locks, lifts or elevators are constructed to raise, examples include canals that connect valleys over a higher body of land, like Canal du Midi, Canal de Briare and the Panama Canal
10.
Lock (water navigation)
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A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. Locks are used to make a more easily navigable, or to allow a canal to cross land that is not level. Later canals used more and larger locks to allow a direct route to be taken. Since 2016 the largest lock worldwide is the Kieldrecht Lock in the Port of Antwerp, a pound lock is a type of lock that is used almost exclusively nowadays on canals and rivers. A pound lock has a chamber with gates at both ends that control the level of water in the pound, in contrast, an earlier design with a single gate was known as a flash lock. Pound locks were first used in medieval China during the Song Dynasty, having been pioneered by the government official and engineer Qiao Weiyue in 984. The gates were hanging gates, when they were closed the water accumulated like a tide until the level was reached. The water level could differ by 4 feet or 5 feet at each lock, in medieval Europe a sort of pound lock was built in 1373 at Vreeswijk, Netherlands. This pound lock serviced many ships at once in a large basin, yet the first true pound lock was built in 1396 at Damme near Bruges, Belgium. A famous civil engineer of pound locks in Europe was the Italian Bertola da Novate, who constructed 18 of them on the Naviglio di Bereguardo between the years 1452 and 1458. When a stretch of river is navigable, a lock is sometimes required to bypass an obstruction such as a rapid, dam. In large scale river navigation improvements, weirs and locks are used together, a river improved by these means is often called a Waterway or River Navigation. Sometimes a river is made entirely non-tidal by constructing a sea lock directly into the estuary, in more advanced river navigations, more locks are required. Where a longer cut bypasses a stretch of river, the upstream end of the cut will often be protected by a flood lock. The longer the cut, the greater the difference in level between start and end of the cut, so that a very long cut will need additional locks along its length. At this point, the cut is, in effect, a canal, Early completely artificial canals, across fairly flat countryside, would get round a small hill or depression by simply detouring around it. However, locks continued to be built to supplement these solutions, all pound locks have three elements, A watertight chamber connecting the upper and lower canals, and large enough to enclose one or more boats. The position of the chamber is fixed, but its level can vary
11.
Yoke
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There are several types of yoke, used in different cultures, and for different types of oxen. A pair of oxen may be called a yoke of oxen, other animals that may be yoked include horses, mules, donkeys, and water buffalo. The word yoke is believed to derive from Proto-Indo-European *yugóm, from verb *yeug-, the verb to subjugate derives from the Latin form. A bow yoke /ˈboʊ/ is a shaped wooden crosspiece bound to the necks of a pair of oxen and it is held on the animals necks by an oxbow, from which it gets its name. The oxbow is usually U-shaped and also transmits force from the animals shoulders, a swivel between the animals, beneath the centre of the yoke, attaches to the pole of a vehicle or to chains used to drag a load. Bow yokes are traditional in Europe, and in the United States, Australia, a head yoke fits onto the head of the oxen. It usually fits behind the horns, and has carved-out sections into which the fit, it may be a single beam attached to both oxen, or each ox may have a separate short beam. The yoke is then strapped to the horns of the oxen with yoke straps, some types fit instead onto the front of the head, again strapped to the horns, and ox pads are then used for cushioning the forehead of the ox. A tug pole is held to the bottom of the yoke using yoke irons and chains, the tug pole can either be a short pole with a chain attached for hauling, or a long pole with a hook on the end that has no chain at all. Head yokes are used in southern Europe, much of South America. A withers yoke is a yoke that fits just in front of the withers, or the shoulder blades, of the oxen. The yoke is held in position by straps, either alone or with a pair of wooden staves either side of the oxs withers, withers yokes particularly suit zebu cattle, which have high humps on their withers. Withers yokes are used in Africa and India, where zebu cattle are common. Although all three types are effective, each has its advantages and disadvantages. As mentioned above, withers yokes suit zebu cattle, and head yokes can of course only be used for animals with suitable horns. A single-beam head yoke may offer better braking ability on downhill grades and appears to be preferred in rugged areas such as Switzerland, Spain. Bow yokes need to be the size for the animal, and new ones are often made as the animal grows. Whichever type is used, various lengths of yoke may be required for different agricultural implements or to adjust to different crop-row spacings, a yoke may be used with a single animal
12.
Voyageurs
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The voyageurs were French Canadians who engaged in the transporting of furs by canoe during the fur trade years. Voyageur is a French word, meaning traveler, the emblematic meaning of the term applies to places and times where transportation of materials was mainly over long distances. This major and challenging task of the fur trading business was done by canoe, the term in its fur trade context also applied, at a lesser extent, to other fur trading activities. Being a voyageur also included being a part of a licensed, organized effort, additionally, they were set apart from engagés, who were much smaller merchants and general laborers. Mostly immigrants, engagés were men who were obliged to go anywhere, until their contract expired, engagés were at the full servitude of their master, which was most often a voyageur. Less than fifty percent of engagés whose contracts ended chose to remain in New France, the voyageurs were regarded as legendary, especially in French Canada. They were heroes celebrated in folklore and music, for reasons of promised celebrity status and wealth, this position was very coveted. James H. Baker was once told by an unnamed retired voyageur, I could carry, paddle, walk, I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service, no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives, I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageurs life, despite the fame surrounding the voyageur, their life was one of toil and not nearly as glorious as folk tales make it out to be. For example, they had to be able to carry two 90-pound bundles of fur over portage, some carried up to four or five, and there is a report of a voyageur carrying seven for half of a mile. Hernias were common and frequently caused death, most voyageurs would start working when they were twenty two and they would continue working until they were in their sixties. They never made enough money to consider an early retirement from what was a physically grueling lifestyle, Europeans mainly traded alongside the coast of North America with Native Americans. The early fur trade with Native Americans, which developed alongside the coasts of North America, was not limited to the beaver, beavers were not particularly valued and people preferred fancy fur or fur that is used with or on the pelt. The fur trade was viewed as secondary to fishing during this era, soon, coureurs des bois achieved business advantages by travelling deeper into the wilderness and trading there. By 1681, the King of France decided to control the traders by publishing an edict that banned fur, also, as the trading process moved deeper into the wilderness, transportation of the furs became a larger part of the fur trading business process. The authorities began a process of issuing permits and those travellers associated with the canoe transportation part of the licensed endeavour became known as voyageurs, a term which literally means traveler in French
13.
Tumpline
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A tumpline is a strap attached at both ends to a sack, backpack, or other luggage and used to carry the object by placing the strap over the top of the head. This utilizes the spine rather than the shoulders as standard backpack straps do, tumplines are not intended to be worn over the forehead, but rather the top of the head just back from the hairline, pulling straight down in alignment with the spine. The bearer then leans forward, allowing the back to support the load. Tumplines are often used to heavy loads across uneven terrain such as footpaths. The voyageurs of the North American fur trade used tumplines exclusively to carry their cargo of pelts, backpacks for the military and recreational campers were redesigned to carry larger loads during the middle and late twentieth century, and tumplines have become less common in the developed world. The indigenous natives in Mexico traditionally have used the tumpline for carrying loads, such as firewood, baskets, bird cages. In the 1920s there was a man in Mexico City who delivered pianos on his back using a tumpline, in Mexico a common name for tumpline is mecapal. Modern highland Mayans of southern Mexico use tumplines for various pedestrian transport, during World War Two, the Canadian Army developed special supply packs for moving supplies over rough terrain where the soldier use the tump line. Beyond The Paddle, A Canoeists Guide to Expedition Skills, Poling, Lining, Portaging and Maneuvering through Ice
14.
Methye Portage
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The Methye Portage or Portage La Loche in northwestern Saskatchewan was one of the most important portages in the old fur trade route across Canada. The 19 km portage connected the Mackenzie River basin to rivers that ran east to the Atlantic and it was reached by Peter Pond in 1778 and abandoned in 1883 when steamboats began running on the Athabasca River with links to the railroad. It ranks with Grand Portage as one of the two most important and difficult portages used during the fur trade era, Methye is Cree and La Loche is French for a fish that is called burbot in English. Although Methye Portage is often used the name since 1957 is Portage La Loche. Both names are used in documents, books and journals. Alexander Mackenzie in his book Voyages from Montreal used both Portage la Loche and Mithy-Ouinigam Portage, the Methye Portage had been in use by indigenous peoples as a trade route for generations. They introduced it to Peter Pond in 1778, the portage was in constant use until 1883 when the Canadian Pacific Railway reached Calgary ending more than 100 years as the main access to the north. From the winter of 1822, York boats came into use on route in addition to canoes. Furs were transported up the Clearwater River by crews who would bring them to the centre of the portage and it also allowed for the spread of smallpox to previously untouched aboriginal populations, decimating them in a matter of years. From 1826 to the early 1870s the Portage La Loche Brigade from Fort Garry arrived at the Portage in July and this famous brigade of York boats would then return via Norway House and York Factory to the Red River Settlement, a 4,000 mi round trip. For a number of years this brigade was under the leadership of Alexis Bonami, after the first Oblates opened a mission in Île-à-la-Crosse in 1846 a Catholic priest was usually present when the brigades arrived at the portage. They were well received by the French Métis from the Red River Colony, Father Petitot describes his reception in 1862. We stayed at this mission, R. P. Grouard and myself until the departure of the Mackenzie brigade, I took advantage of the time to raise a conical chapel which I covered with white covers and colored decorations. An altar surrounded in white cloth stood the time we were there. In July 1845 Louis Laferte dit Schmidt, who was born on December 4,1844 at Old Fort near Fort Chipewyan, was baptised at Methye Portage by Father Jean-Baptiste Thibault, another noted baptism at Methye Portage was Francois Beaulieu who was baptised in 1848 by Bishop Alexandre-Antonin Taché. The portage proper, which is 19 km long, began at Wallis Bay on the side of Lac La Loche. The path ascends slowly for 8 mi to the small Rendezvous Lake, here, crews coming from the north and south would exchange their loads. Different boats were used on the two sides of the portage and were carried across it
15.
Grand Portage National Monument
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The Grand Portage is an 8. 5-mile footpath which bypasses a set of waterfalls and rapids on the last 20 miles of the Pigeon River before it flows into Lake Superior. This path is part of the trade route of the French-Canadian voyageurs. Composed of the Pigeon River and other strategic interior streams, lakes, and portages and it provided quick water access from Canadas settled areas and Atlantic ports to the fur-rich North-Western Territory. Grand Portage therefore was a link between the drainage basin of the Nelson River to Arctic Ocean and that of the Saint Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1729 Cree guide Auchagah drew a map for some of the first French fur traders, in time, Grand Portage became the gateway into rich northern fur-bearing country, where it connected remote interior outposts to lucrative international markets. The Grand Portage trail is an 8. 5-mile trail connecting Grand Portage with Fort Charlotte on the Pigeon River, voyageurs from the interior of Canada would carry their furs by canoe to Fort Charlotte, and portage the bundles of fur to Grand Portage. There they met traders from Montreal, and exchanged the furs for trade goods, each canoe brigade then returned to its starting place. The fur traders built Fort Charlotte as a fort at Grand Portage. There they built the Grand Hall in the French colonial style, which housed their meetings, a general store, in mid-July 1802, partners of the North West Company, the most successful fur trade company in North America, met in their Grand Hall at Grand Portage. They voted to move their headquarters from the protected shores of Lake Superior’s Grand Portage Bay 50 miles north to the mouth of the Kaministiquia River. Almost from the time the British Nor’Westers had organized at Grand Portage in the mid-1780s, the buildings were constructed from native squared spruce, pine and birch and were surrounded by more than 2,000 cedar pickets. In 1951 the property was designated as the Grand Portage National Historic Site, in 1958, it was designated a National Monument. The portage trail has also separately designated a Minnesota State Historic Site. The monuments 710 acres lie entirely within the boundaries of Grand Portage Ojibwe Indian Reservation, the depot was reconstructed to allow celebration of the fur trade and Ojibwe lifeways. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966, the portage trail exists in much the same location and condition as in historic times. Visitors can hike 8.5 miles from Lake Superior to the Pigeon River, volunteers and park staff at the monument dress in period attire. They staff the Kitchen, Canoe Warehouse and Great Hall in and around the Stockade, during the second weekend of August, the Grand Portage National Monument hosts a rendezvous re-enactment. At the same time, the Grand Portage Ojibwa Indian Reservation holds a pow wow, the Rendezvous and Pow Wow coincide with the Perseid meteor shower
16.
Mavis Grind
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Mavis Grind is a narrow isthmus joining the Northmavine peninsula to the rest of the island of Shetland Mainland in the Shetland Islands, UK. It is just 33 metres wide at its narrowest point and it carries the main A970 road to Hillswick in the north west of Shetland and is about two miles west of the settlement of Brae. Mavis Grind is said to be the place in the UK where you can toss a stone across land from the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is a crossing point for otters, which in Shetland are sea-dwelling. In 1999, local volunteers helped to demonstrate whether Viking ships could be carried across the isthmus. Remains of a late Bronze Age settlement have been close by
17.
Shetland
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Shetland /ˈʃɛtlənd/, also called the Shetland Islands, is a subarctic archipelago that lies northeast of the island of Great Britain and forms part of Scotland, United Kingdom. The islands lie some 80 km to the northeast of Orkney and 280 km southeast of the Faroe Islands, the total area is 1,466 km2 and the population totalled 23,210 in 2012. The largest island, known simply as Mainland, has an area of 967 km2, making it the third-largest Scottish island, there are an additional 15 inhabited islands. The archipelago has a climate, a complex geology, a rugged coastline and many low. Humans have lived in Shetland since the Mesolithic period, and the earliest written references to the date back to Roman times. The early historic period was dominated by Scandinavian influences, especially Norway, when Scotland became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707, trade with northern Europe decreased. Fishing has continued to be an important aspect of the economy up to the present day, the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s significantly boosted Shetland economy, employment and public sector revenues. The local way of life reflects the Scots and Norse heritage of the isles including the Up Helly Aa fire festival, the islands have produced a variety of writers of prose and poetry, often in Shetland dialect. There are numerous areas set aside to protect the fauna and flora. The Shetland pony and Shetland Sheepdog are two well known Shetland animal breeds, other distinguished local breeds include the Shetland sheep, cow, goose, and duck. The Shetland pig, or grice, has been extinct since approximately 1930, the islands motto, which appears on the Councils coat of arms, is Með lögum skal land byggja. This Icelandic phrase is taken from the Danish 1241 Basic Law, Codex Holmiensis, and is mentioned in Njáls saga. The name of Shetland is derived from the Old Norse words, hjalt, in AD43 and 77 the Roman authors Pomponius Mela and Pliny the Elder referred to the seven islands they call Haemodae and Acmodae respectively, both of which are assumed to be Shetland. Another possible early reference to the islands is Tacitus report in AD98, after describing the discovery and conquest of Orkney. In early Irish literature, Shetland is referred to as Inse Catt—the Isles of Cats, the Cat tribe also occupied parts of the northern Scottish mainland and their name can be found in Caithness, and in the Gaelic name for Sutherland. It is possible that the Pictish cat sound forms part of this Norse name and it then became Hjaltland in the 16th century. As Norn was gradually replaced by English in the form of the Shetland dialect which shares similarities with Scots English. The initial letter is the Middle Scots letter, yogh, the pronunciation of which is almost identical to the original Norn sound, /hj/
18.
Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad
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The Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad was a historic railway in Lower Canada, the first Canadian public railway and one of the first railways built in British North America. The C&SL was financed by Montreal entrepreneur and brewery owner, John Molson and it was intended as a portage road to connect the St. Lawrence River valley with Lake Champlain, cutting time from the trip between Montreal and New York. Throughout 1835 the grading, fencing, masonry and bridge work were completed, as well as stations and wharves at Laprairie and St. John. Orders were also placed for a locomotive, which was to be built in Newcastle upon Tyne, as well as four passenger cars, several freight cars were also built in Montreal. The 16-mile line was built as a 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in railway, with rails consisting of 6-inch pine logs which were joined by splice plates. The pine rails were protected by iron straps spiked to the upper surface and these rails remained the same until being replaced by completely iron rails in the 1850s. British North Americas first locomotive arrived at Molsons wharf in Montreal in June 1836 and it was named Dorchester and had been constructed by Robert Stephenson, son of George Stephenson who was the manufacturer of The Rocket. A wood burning 0-4-0 design, it was the 127th locomotive built by Stephenson and was nicknamed Kitten by those who observed its uneven skittish ride – a result of the short wheelbase. Trial runs took place at night to avoid frightening the public, over 300 guests crowded the passenger cars in Laprairie station for the first run. Two hours later, everyone was at the station in St. John where the ceremonies continued, in 1999, the Dorchester was inducted into the North America Railway Hall of Fame. Due to its status as the first locomotive used in Canada. Charles Dickens even rode the line and this latter line effectively reduced the line into Laprairie to branch line status and it would be later abandoned. The C&SL merged with the Montreal and New York Railroad in 1857, formerly known as the Montreal and Lachine Railroad, with the new company being named the Montreal, the Grand Trunk Railway leased the M&C in 1864 and purchased it outright in 1872. In 1923 the GTR was nationalized and the ex-M&C, née-C&SL trackage was incorporated into the Canadian National Railways, the line from Rouses Point to Brossard is now CNs Rouses Point Subdivision. Plateway Rail tracks Wagonway Rail transport in Canada The North America Railway Hall of Fame
19.
Three Gorges
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The Three Gorges are three adjacent gorges along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in the Peoples Republic of China. The Three Gorges have long been renowned for their scenery. The Yangtze River —Three Gorges region has a length of approximately 200 kilometres. The Three Gorges occupy approximately 120 kilometres within this region, although it is primarily famous for its scenery, the Three Gorges region is also a historically and culturally important location in China. Many settlements and archeological sites are under submersion from the rising Three Gorges Dam, the Three Gorges Dam was constructed at a place called Sāndòupíng in the middle of the Xiling Gorge. The reservoir dam was completed in the summer of 2006, the project was completed by the end of 2008, although a ship lift is still in course of construction, and expected to be completed in 2015. The dam and Three Gorges Reservoir has had an impact upon the regions ecology and people, involving the mass relocation of towns. The higher water level has changed the scenery of the Three Gorges, so that the river is wider, however, the mountains still tower above the river, and the gorges continue to offer spectacular views of the surrounding cliffs. The riverboat companies that operate in the Three Gorges are experiencing a boom in demand for river cruises. The increased width and depth of the river permits larger ships through the gorges, baiheliang Underwater Museum Chinese yuan note — the westernmost gorge image is on the ten yuan note. Three Gorges Locks Three Gorges Museum
20.
Yangtze
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The Yangtze River, known in China as the Cháng Jiāng or the Yángzǐ Jiāng, is the longest river in Asia and the third-longest in the world. The river is the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country and it drains one-fifth of the land area of the Peoples Republic of China and its river basin is home to one-third of the countrys population. The Yangtze is the sixth-largest river by volume in the world. The Yangtze River plays a role in the history, culture. The prosperous Yangtze River Delta generates as much as 20% of the PRCs GDP, for thousands of years, the river has been used for water, irrigation, sanitation, transportation, industry, boundary-marking and war. The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world, in recent years, the river has suffered from industrial pollution, agricultural run-off, siltation, and loss of wetland and lakes, which exacerbates seasonal flooding. Some sections of the river are now protected as nature reserves, a stretch of the upstream Yangtze flowing through deep gorges in western Yunnan is part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In mid-2014 the Chinese government announced it was building a transport network, comprising railways, roads and airports. Because the source of the Yangtze was not ascertained until modern times, Yangtze was actually the name of Chang Jiang for the lower part from Nanjing to the river mouth at Shanghai. In modern Chinese, Yangtze is still used to refer to the part of Chang Jiang from Nanjing to the river mouth. Yangtze never stands for the whole Chang Jiang, Chang Jiang is the modern Chinese name for the lower 2,884 km of the Yangtze from its confluence with the Min River at Yibin in Sichuan Province to the river mouth at Shanghai. Chang Jiang literally means the Long River, in Old Chinese, this stretch of the Yangtze was simply called Jiang/Kiang 江, a character of phono-semantic compound origin, combining the water radical 氵 with the homophone 工. Krong was probably a word in the Austroasiatic language of local peoples such as the Yue, similar to *krong in Proto-Vietnamese and krung in Mon, all meaning river, it is related to modern Vietnamese sông and Khmer kôngkea. By the Han Dynasty, Jiang had come to any river in Chinese. The epithet 長, means long, was first formally applied to the river during the Six Dynasties period, various sections of Chang Jiang have local names. From Yibin to Yichang, the river through Sichuan and Chongqing Municipality is also known as the Chuan Jiang or Sichuan River, in the Hubei Province, the river is also called the Jing Jiang or the Jing River after Jingzhou. In Anhui Province, the takes on the local name Wan Jiang after the shorthand name for Anhui. And Yangzi Jiang t 揚子江s 扬子江, p Yángzǐjiāng) or the Yangzi River, the name likely comes from an ancient ferry crossing called Yangzi or Yangzijin
21.
York boat
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It was named after York Factory, the headquarters of the HBC, and modeled after the Orkney yole. York boats were preferred as cargo carriers to the canoes used by the North West Company, because they were larger. The boats heavy wood construction was a significant advantage when travelling waterways where the bottom or sides of the hull were likely to strike rocks or ice, canoes then were commonly constructed with soft hulls of birch bark or animal hide and were vulnerable to tears and punctures. The solid, all-wood hull of the York boat could simply bounce off or grind past obstacles that could easily inflict fatal damage on a soft-hulled vessel and that advantage became a disadvantage, though, when portaging was necessary. The boat was far too heavy to carry and the crew had to cut a path through the brush, lay poplar rollers and drag the boat overland. Crewing a York boat was a task, and those who chose this life faced unending toil broken only by the terror of storms. The York boat had a length of about 14 metres and the largest could carry more than 6 tonnes of cargo and it had a pointed bow, a flat bottom, and a stern angled upward at 45°, making beaching and launching easier. The boat was propelled by oars and by a square canvas sail and it was steered by a long steering pole or, when under sail, by a rudder. It had a crew of six and eight men. The first boat was built in 1749, and by the late 18th century there were boat-building stations from James Bay to Fort Chipewyan, the advent of the steamboat in the 19th century signalled the end for the York boat. The very narrow Echimamish River flows from the Nelson River to the Hayes River, in some places the Echimamish is so narrow that the oars of the York boats touched the ground on either side. The route included portages around rapids on the Hayes of up to 3 kilometres, crews hauled a York boat 15 metres long and up to 12 tonnes of supplies or cargo. In 1811 the American Pacific Fur Company introduced the use of bateaux on the Columbia River, after the NWC took over the PFC, they quickly started using bateaux because birch bark suitable for canoes was not available in the Pacific Northwest. They are thirty feet long and five and a half feet beam, in building them, flat timbers of oak are bent to the requisite shape by steaming, they are bolted to a flat keel, at distances of a foot from each other. The planks are of cedar, and generally extend the length of the boat. The gunwale is of the kind of wood, but the rowlocks are of birch. The peculiarity in the construction of boats is, that they are only riveted at each end with a strong rivet. A York boat was featured in the Hayes River program of Great Canadian Rivers series on TVO in 2001, the documentary shows a reconstructed boat, the Maryann Muminawatum, rowed from Norway House by eight rowers, a coxwain, and a steersman
22.
Diolkos
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The Diolkos was a paved trackway near Corinth in Ancient Greece which enabled boats to be moved overland across the Isthmus of Corinth. The shortcut allowed ancient vessels to avoid the long and dangerous circumnavigation of the Peloponnese peninsula, the phrase as fast as a Corinthian, penned by the comic playwright Aristophanes, indicates that the trackway was common knowledge and had acquired a reputation for swiftness. The main function of the Diolkos was the transfer of goods, the 6 km to 8.5 km long roadway was a rudimentary form of railway, and operated from c.600 BC until the middle of the 1st century AD. The scale on which the Diolkos combined the two principles of the railway and the transport of ships remained unique in antiquity. By contrast, both the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf were relatively sheltered waters. In addition, the passage of the Isthmus, a neck of land 6.4 km wide at its narrowest, offered a much shorter route to Athens for ships sailing to. Ancient literature is silent on the date of the construction of the Diolkos, for Thucydides the Diolkos already seemed to be something ancient. The Diolkos remained reportedly in regular service until at least the middle of the 1st century AD, possibly the trackway was put out of use by Neros abortive canal works in 67 AD. Much later transports of warships across the Isthmus in the late 9th century, the Diolkos played an important role in ancient naval warfare. Greek historians note several occasions from the 5th to the 1st century BC when warships were hauled across the Isthmus in order to speed up naval campaigning. In 220 BC, Demetrius of Pharos had a fleet of fifty vessels dragged across the Isthmus to the Bay of Corinth by his men. Three years later, a Macedonian fleet of 38 vessels was sent across by Philip V, after his victory at Actium in 31 BC, Octavian advanced as fast as possible against Marc Antony by ordering part of his 260 Liburnians to be carried over the Isthmus. Comments by Pliny the Elder and Strabo, which described the Diolkos as being in service during times of peace. The Diolkos ran across the narrowest part of the Isthmus, where the trackway followed the topography in a curved course in order to avoid steeper gradients. The roadway passed the Isthmus ridge at c.79 m height with a gradient of 1,70. Its total length is estimated at 6–7 km,8 km or 8.5 km depending on the number of supposed bends taken into account, a total of 1,100 m has been archaeologically traced, mainly at its western end close to the Bay of Corinth. From there on, the Diolkos either followed in a line the course of the modern canal. The roadway ended at the Saronic Gulf at the village Schoinos, modern-day Kalamaki, sections of the Diolkos have been destroyed by the 19th-century Corinth Canal and other modern installations
23.
Ancient Greece
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Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Jewish, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. The end of the Dark Ages is also dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC
24.
Isthmus of Corinth
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The Isthmus of Corinth is the narrow land bridge which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the rest of the mainland of Greece, near the city of Corinth. The word isthmus comes from the Ancient Greek word for neck, the Isthmus was known in the ancient world as the landmark separating the Peloponnese from mainland Greece. In the first century CE the geographer Strabo noted a stele on the Isthmus of Corinth, to the west of the Isthmus is the Gulf of Corinth, to the east the Saronic Gulf. Since 1893 the Corinth Canal has run through the 6.3 km wide isthmus, today, two road bridges, two railway bridges and two submersible bridges at both ends of the canal connect the mainland side of the isthmus with the Peloponnese side. Also a military emergency bridge is located at the west end of the canal, the idea for a shortcut to save boats sailing all round the Peloponnese was long considered by the Ancient Greeks. The first attempt to build a canal there was carried out by the tyrant Periander in the 7th century BC and he abandoned the project owing to technical difficulties, and instead constructed a simpler and less costly overland stone ramp, named Diolkos, as a portage road. Remnants of Diolkos still exist today next to the modern canal, when the Romans took control of Greece, a number of different solutions were tried. Julius Caesar foresaw the advantages of a link for his newly built Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthiensis, by the reign of Tiberius, engineers tried to dig a canal, but were defeated by lack of modern equipment. Instead they built an Ancient Egyptian device, boats were rolled across the isthmus on logs and this was in use by AD32. In AD67, the philhellene Roman emperor Nero ordered 6,000 slaves to dig a canal with spades, historian Flavius Josephus writes that the 6000 slaves were Jewish pirates, taken captive by Vespasian during the Jewish wars. According to Pliny the Elder, the work advanced four stadia, the following year Nero died, and his successor Galba abandoned the project as being too expensive. In the modern era, the idea was first seriously proposed in 1830, soon after Greeces independence from the Ottoman Empire, near the canal runs an ancient stone trackway, the Diolkos, once used for dragging ships overland. There are major concerns about preservation of this path, Greek campaigners are calling for greater effort by the Greek government to protect this archaeological site. The Hexamilion wall is a Roman defensive wall constructed across the Isthmus of Corinth guarding the land route into the Peloponnese peninsula from mainland Greece
25.
Gulf of Corinth
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The Gulf of Corinth or the Corinthian Gulf is a deep inlet of the Ionian Sea separating the Peloponnese from western mainland Greece. The gulf is in tectonic movement comparable to movement in parts of Iceland and Turkey, in medieval times, the gulf was known as the Gulf of Lepanto. Shipping routes between the Greek commercial port Pireus to western Mediterranean and hemisphere ports pass along this gulf, a further crossing in the form of ferry links Aigio and Agios Nikolaos, towards the western part of the gulf. Length,130 km Width,8.4 to 32 km Max Depth 935 m The gulf was created by the expansion of a tectonic rift due to the movement of the Anatolian Plate. The surrounding faults can produce earthquakes up to magnitude 6.8, cetaceans such as fin whales or dolphins are known to come into the Corinthian gulf occasionally
26.
Saronic Gulf
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The Saronic Gulf or Gulf of Aegina in Greece forms part of the Aegean Sea and defines the eastern side of the isthmus of Corinth. It is the terminus of the Corinth Canal, which cuts across the isthmus. The gulf includes the islands of Aegina, Salamis, and Poros along with smaller islands of Patroklos, the port of Piraeus, Athens port, lies on the northeastern edge of the gulf. The site of the former Ellinikon International Airport is also in the northeast, beaches line much of the gulf coast from Poros to Epidaurus, Galataki to Kineta and from Megara to Eleusis and from Piraeus down to Anavyssos. Athens urban area surrounds the northern and the coasts of this gulf. Bays in the gulf include Phaleron Bay, Elefsina Bay to the north, Kechries Bay in the northwest, the volcano of Methana is located to the southwest along with Kromyonia at the Isthmus of Corinth, Aegina and Poros. Methana is also the youngest most active center and forms the northwestern end of the cycladic arch of active volcanoes that includes Milos island, Santorini island. A hydropathic institute at Methana makes use of the hot water that still surfaces in the area. The most recent eruption was of a submarine volcano north of Methana in the 17th century, the gulf has refineries around the northern part of the gulf including east of Corinth and west of Agioi Theodoroi, Eleusis, Aspropyrgos, Skaramangas and Keratsini. These refineries produce most of Greeces refined petroleum products, a proportion of which are then exported. Commercial shipping to the refineries, Piraeus, and to and from the make the gulf quite a busy area with commercial shipping. The origin of the name comes from the mythological king Saron who drowned at the Psifaei lake, the Saronic Gulf was a string of six entrances to the Underworld, each guarded by a chthonic enemy in the shape of a thief or bandit. Fault lines dominate especially in the northwestern part, the port of Cenchreae used to be situated here. Kechries Bay Saronic Bay Coast Lower Galataki Basin Upper Galataki Basin Examilia Basin Athikia Basin Loutro Basin Megara Bay/Megara Gulf Cephissus River Cephissus between Piraeus and Phaliron. The Gulf boasts two particularly notable archaeological sites, the ancient theatre at Epidaurus and nearby asclepieion and the The temple of Aphaia on Aegina, Saronic gulf is one of congregating areas for short-beaked common dolphins in Aegean Sea. On recent occasions, more of large whales such as fin whales have been sighted in the due to improving environmental conditions
27.
Despotism
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Despotism is a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. That entity may be an individual, as in an autocracy, or it may be a group, the English dictionary defines despotism as the rule of a despot, the exercise of absolute authority. The root despot comes from the Greek word despotes, which means master or one with power, the term has been used to describe many rulers and governments throughout history. Due to its reflexive connotation throughout history, the word despot cannot be objectively defined, colloquially, the word despot applies pejoratively to those who abuse their power and authority to oppress their populace, subjects, or subordinates. More specifically, the term applies to a head of state or government. In this sense, it is similar to the connotations that are associated with the terms tyrant. Of all the ancient Greeks, Aristotle was perhaps the most influential promoter of the concept of oriental despotism. He passed this ideology to his student, Alexander the Great, who conquered Persia, which at the time was ruled by the despotic Darius III, Aristotle asserted that oriental despotism was not based on force, but on consent. Hence, fear could not be said to be its motivating force, but rather the nature of those enslaved. Within ancient Greek society, every Greek man was free and capable of holding office, in contrast, among the barbarians, all were slaves by nature. Another difference Aristotle espoused was based on climates, possessing both spirit and intelligence, the Greeks were free to govern all other peoples. The story of Croesus of Lydia exemplifies this, leading up to Alexanders expansion into Asia, most Greeks were repelled by the Oriental notion of a sun-king, and the divine law that Oriental societies accepted. Herodotuss version of history advocated a society where men became free when they consented lawfully to the contract of their respective city-state. His eyebrows were tinged with black, and his cheeks painted with an artificial red, in its classical form, despotism is a state in which a single individual holds all the power and authority embodying the state, and everyone else is a subsidiary person. This form of despotism was common in the first forms of statehood and civilization, the word itself seems to have been coined by the opponents of Louis XIV of France in the 1690s, who applied the term despotisme to describe their monarchs somewhat free exercise of power. The word is ultimately Greek in origin, and in ancient Greek usage, the term now implies tyrannical rule. This movement was probably triggered by the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment. The Enlightenment philosopher Montesquieu believed that despotism was a government for large states
28.
Rail transport
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Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, also known as tracks. It is also referred to as train transport. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles run on a flat surface. Tracks usually consist of rails, installed on ties and ballast, on which the rolling stock, usually fitted with metal wheels. Other variations are possible, such as slab track, where the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface. Rolling stock in a transport system generally encounters lower frictional resistance than road vehicles, so passenger. The operation is carried out by a company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilities. Power is provided by locomotives which either draw electric power from a railway system or produce their own power. Most tracks are accompanied by a signalling system, Railways are a safe land transport system when compared to other forms of transport. The oldest, man-hauled railways date back to the 6th century BC, with Periander, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Rail transport blossomed after the British development of the steam locomotive as a viable source of power in the 19th centuries. With steam engines, one could construct mainline railways, which were a key component of the Industrial Revolution, also, railways reduced the costs of shipping, and allowed for fewer lost goods, compared with water transport, which faced occasional sinking of ships. The change from canals to railways allowed for markets in which prices varied very little from city to city. In the 1880s, electrified trains were introduced, and also the first tramways, starting during the 1940s, the non-electrified railways in most countries had their steam locomotives replaced by diesel-electric locomotives, with the process being almost complete by 2000. During the 1960s, electrified high-speed railway systems were introduced in Japan, other forms of guided ground transport outside the traditional railway definitions, such as monorail or maglev, have been tried but have seen limited use. The history of the growth, decline and restoration to use of transport can be divided up into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of motive power used. The earliest evidence of a railway was a 6-kilometre Diolkos wagonway, trucks pushed by slaves ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element. The Diolkos operated for over 600 years, Railways began reappearing in Europe after the Dark Ages. The earliest known record of a railway in Europe from this period is a window in the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany
29.
Ancient history
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Ancient history is the aggregate of past events from the beginning of recorded human history and extending as far as the Early Middle Ages or the Postclassical Era. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with Sumerian Cuneiform script, the term classical antiquity is often used to refer to history in the Old World from the beginning of recorded Greek history in 776 BC. This roughly coincides with the date of the founding of Rome in 753 BC, the beginning of the history of ancient Rome. In India, ancient history includes the period of the Middle Kingdoms, and, in China. Historians have two major avenues which they take to better understand the ancient world, archaeology and the study of source texts, primary sources are those sources closest to the origin of the information or idea under study. Primary sources have been distinguished from secondary sources, which cite, comment on. Archaeology is the excavation and study of artefacts in an effort to interpret, archaeologists excavate the ruins of ancient cities looking for clues as to how the people of the time period lived. The study of the ancient cities of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, the city of Pompeii, an ancient Roman city preserved by the eruption of a volcano in AD79. Its state of preservation is so great that it is a window into Roman culture and provided insight into the cultures of the Etruscans. The Terracotta Army, the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in ancient China, the discovery of Knossos by Minos Kalokairinos and Sir Arthur Evans. The discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann, most of what is known of the ancient world comes from the accounts of antiquitys own historians. Although it is important to take account the bias of each ancient author. Some of the more notable ancient writers include Herodotus, Thucydides, Arrian, Plutarch, Polybius, Sima Qian, Sallust, Livy, Josephus, Suetonius, furthermore, the reliability of the information obtained from these surviving records must be considered. Few people were capable of writing histories, as literacy was not widespread in almost any culture until long after the end of ancient history, the earliest known systematic historical thought emerged in ancient Greece, beginning with Herodotus of Halicarnassus. He was also the first to distinguish between cause and immediate origins of an event, the Roman Empire was one of the ancient worlds most literate cultures, but many works by its most widely read historians are lost. Indeed, only a minority of the work of any major Roman historian has survived, prehistory is the period before written history. The early human migrations in the Lower Paleolithic saw Homo erectus spread across Eurasia 1.8 million years ago, the controlled use of fire occurred 800,000 years ago in the Middle Paleolithic. 250,000 years ago, Homo sapiens emerged in Africa, 60–70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa along a coastal route to South and Southeast Asia and reached Australia
30.
Egypt (Roman province)
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The province encompassed most of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai Peninsula. Aegyptus was bordered by the provinces of Creta et Cyrenaica to the West, the province came to serve as a major producer of grain for the empire and had a highly developed urban economy. Aegyptus was by far the wealthiest Eastern Roman province, in Alexandria, its capital, it possessed the largest port, and the second largest city, of the Roman Empire. As a province, Egypt was ruled by a uniquely styled Augustal prefect, the prefect was a man of equestrian rank and was appointed by the Emperor. The second prefect, Aelius Gallus, made an expedition to conquer Arabia Petraea. The Red Sea coast of Aegyptus was not brought under Roman control until the reign of Claudius, the third prefect, Gaius Petronius, cleared the neglected canals for irrigation, stimulating a revival of agriculture. Petronius even led a campaign into present-day central Sudan against the Kingdom of Kush at Meroe, failing to acquire permanent gains, in 22 BC he razed the city of Napata to the ground and retreated to the north. From the reign of Nero onward, Aegyptus enjoyed an era of prosperity which lasted a century, under Trajan a Jewish revolt occurred, resulting in the suppression of the Jews of Alexandria and the loss of all their privileges, although they soon returned. Hadrian, who twice visited Aegyptus, founded Antinoöpolis in memory of his drowned lover Antinous, from his reign onward buildings in the Greco-Roman style were erected throughout the country. Under Antoninus Pius oppressive taxation led to a revolt in 139, of the native Egyptians and this Bucolic War, led by one Isidorus, caused great damage to the economy and marked the beginning of Egypts economic decline. Avidius Cassius, who led the Roman forces in the war, declared emperor in 175. On the approach of Marcus Aurelius, Cassius was deposed and killed, a similar revolt broke out in 193, when Pescennius Niger was proclaimed emperor on the death of Pertinax. The Emperor Septimius Severus gave a constitution to Alexandria and the capitals in 202. There was a series of revolts, both military and civilian, through the 3rd century, under Decius, in 250, the Christians again suffered from persecution, but their religion continued to spread. This warrior queen claimed that Egypt was a home of hers through a familial tie to Cleopatra VII. She was well educated and familiar with the culture of Egypt, its religion, two generals based in Aegyptus, Probus and Domitius Domitianus, led successful revolts and made themselves emperors. Diocletian captured Alexandria from Domitius in 298 and reorganised the whole province and his edict of 303 against the Christians began a new era of persecution. This was the last serious attempt to stem the growth of Christianity in Egypt
31.
Oribasius
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Oribasius or Oreibasius was a Greek medical writer and the personal physician of the Roman emperor Julian the Apostate. He studied at Alexandria under physician Zeno of Cyprus before joining Julians retinue and he was involved in Julians coronation in 361, and remained with the emperor until Julians death in 363. In the wake of this event, Oribasius was banished to foreign courts for a time, ISBN 0-19-866172-X Grant, Mark and Oribasius, Dieting for an Emperor, A Translation of Books 1 and 4 of Oribasius’ „Medical Compilations“. Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden – New York – Cologne 1997, ISBN 90-04-10790-8 Oribasius, Collectionum Medicarum Reliquiae, by J. Raeder Leipzig & Berlin, Teubner 1928–9
32.
Alexandria
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Alexandria is the second largest city and a major economic centre in Egypt, extending about 32 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country. Its low elevation on the Nile delta makes it vulnerable to rising sea levels. Alexandria is Egypts largest seaport, serving approximately 80% of Egypts imports and exports and it is an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez. Alexandria is also an important tourist destination, Alexandria was founded around a small Ancient Egyptian town c.331 BC by Alexander the Great. Alexandria was the second most powerful city of the ancient world after Rome, Alexandria is believed to have been founded by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC as Ἀλεξάνδρεια. Alexanders chief architect for the project was Dinocrates, Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile valley. The city and its museum attracted many of the greatest scholars, including Greeks, Jews, the city was later plundered and lost its significance. Just east of Alexandria, there was in ancient times marshland, as early as the 7th century BC, there existed important port cities of Canopus and Heracleion. The latter was rediscovered under water. An Egyptian city, Rhakotis, already existed on the shore also and it continued to exist as the Egyptian quarter of the city. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt and never returned to his city, after Alexanders departure, his viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the expansion. Although Cleomenes was mainly in charge of overseeing Alexandrias continuous development, the Heptastadion, inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the center of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian and Indian East, the city grew in less than a generation to be larger than Carthage. In a century, Alexandria had become the largest city in the world and and it became Egypts main Greek city, with Greek people from diverse backgrounds. Alexandria was not only a center of Hellenism, but was home to the largest urban Jewish community in the world. The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Tanakh, was produced there, in AD115, large parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the Kitos War, which gave Hadrian and his architect, Decriannus, an opportunity to rebuild it. On 21 July 365, Alexandria was devastated by a tsunami, the Islamic prophet, Muhammads first interaction with the people of Egypt occurred in 628, during the Expedition of Zaid ibn Haritha. He sent Hatib bin Abi Baltaeh with a letter to the king of Egypt and Alexandria called Muqawqis In the letter Muhammad said, I invite you to accept Islam, Allah the sublime, shall reward you doubly. But if you refuse to do so, you bear the burden of the transgression of all the Copts
33.
Ptolemy
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Claudius Ptolemy was a Greek writer, known as a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in the city of Alexandria in the Roman province of Egypt, wrote in Koine Greek, beyond that, few reliable details of his life are known. His birthplace has been given as Ptolemais Hermiou in the Thebaid in a statement by the 14th-century astronomer Theodore Meliteniotes. This is a very late attestation, however, and there is no reason to suppose that he ever lived elsewhere than Alexandria. Ptolemy wrote several treatises, three of which were of importance to later Byzantine, Islamic and European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest, although it was entitled the Mathematical Treatise. The second is the Geography, which is a discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. The third is the treatise in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day. This is sometimes known as the Apotelesmatika but more known as the Tetrabiblos from the Greek meaning Four Books or by the Latin Quadripartitum. The name Claudius is a Roman nomen, the fact that Ptolemy bore it indicates he lived under the Roman rule of Egypt with the privileges and political rights of Roman citizenship. It would have suited custom if the first of Ptolemys family to become a citizen took the nomen from a Roman called Claudius who was responsible for granting citizenship, if, as was common, this was the emperor, citizenship would have been granted between AD41 and 68. The astronomer would also have had a praenomen, which remains unknown and it occurs once in Greek mythology, and is of Homeric form. All the kings after him, until Egypt became a Roman province in 30 BC, were also Ptolemies, abu Mashar recorded a belief that a different member of this royal line composed the book on astrology and attributed it to Ptolemy. The correct answer is not known”, Ptolemy wrote in Greek and can be shown to have utilized Babylonian astronomical data. He was a Roman citizen, but most scholars conclude that Ptolemy was ethnically Greek and he was often known in later Arabic sources as the Upper Egyptian, suggesting he may have had origins in southern Egypt. Later Arabic astronomers, geographers and physicists referred to him by his name in Arabic, Ptolemys Almagest is the only surviving comprehensive ancient treatise on astronomy. Ptolemy presented his models in convenient tables, which could be used to compute the future or past position of the planets. The Almagest also contains a catalogue, which is a version of a catalogue created by Hipparchus
34.
Nile
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The Nile is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It is generally regarded as the longest river in the world, in particular, the Nile is the primary water source of Egypt and Sudan. The Nile has two tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile. The White Nile is considered to be the headwaters and primary stream of the Nile itself, the Blue Nile, however, is the source of most of the water and silt. The White Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa and it flows north through Tanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast, the two rivers meet just north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The northern section of the river flows north almost entirely through the Sudanese desert to Egypt, then ends in a large delta, Egyptian civilization and Sudanese kingdoms have depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan, in the ancient Egyptian language, the Nile is called Ḥpī or Iteru, meaning river. In Coptic, the words piaro or phiaro meaning the river come from the ancient name. The English name Nile and the Arabic names en-Nîl and an-Nîl both derive from the Latin Nilus and the Ancient Greek Νεῖλος, beyond that, however, the etymology is disputed. One possible etymology derives it from a Semitic Nahal, meaning river, the standard English names White Nile and Blue Nile, to refer to the rivers source, derive from Arabic names formerly applied only to the Sudanese stretches which meet at Khartoum. Above Khartoum, the Nile is also known as the White Nile, at Khartoum the river is joined by the Blue Nile. The White Nile starts in equatorial East Africa, and the Blue Nile begins in Ethiopia, both branches are on the western flanks of the East African Rift. The drainage basin of the Nile covers 3,254,555 square kilometers, the source of the Nile is sometimes considered to be Lake Victoria, but the lake has feeder rivers of considerable size. It is either the Ruvyironza, which emerges in Bururi Province, Burundi, or the Nyabarongo, the two feeder rivers meet near Rusumo Falls on the Rwanda-Tanzania border. Gish Abay is reportedly the place where the water of the first drops of the Blue Nile develop. The Nile leaves Lake Nyanza at Ripon Falls near Jinja, Uganda and it flows north for some 130 kilometers, to Lake Kyoga. For the remaining part it flows westerly through the Murchison Falls until it reaches the very northern shores of Lake Albert where it forms a significant river delta
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Mediterranean Sea
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The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a separate body of water. The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning inland or in the middle of land and it covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide. The Strait of Gibraltar is a strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar. In oceanography, it is called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere. The Mediterranean Sea has a depth of 1,500 m. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia and it is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, the seas average north-south length, from Croatia’s southern shore to Libya, is approximately 800 km. The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara, has an area of approximately 2,510,000 square km. The sea was an important route for merchants and travelers of ancient times that allowed for trade, the history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri, the term Mediterranean derives from the Latin word mediterraneus, meaning amid the earth or between land, as it is between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The Ancient Greek name Mesogeios, is similarly from μέσο, between + γη, land, earth) and it can be compared with the Ancient Greek name Mesopotamia, meaning between rivers. The Mediterranean Sea has historically had several names, for example, the Carthaginians called it the Syrian Sea and latter Romans commonly called it Mare Nostrum, and occasionally Mare Internum. Another name was the Sea of the Philistines, from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites, the sea is also called the Great Sea in the General Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer. In Ottoman Turkish, it has also been called Bahr-i Sefid, in Modern Hebrew, it has been called HaYam HaTikhon, the Middle Sea, reflecting the Seas name in ancient Greek, Latin, and modern languages in both Europe and the Middle East. Similarly, in Modern Arabic, it is known as al-Baḥr al-Mutawassiṭ, in Turkish, it is known as Akdeniz, the White Sea since among Turks the white colour represents the west. Several ancient civilisations were located around the Mediterranean shores, and were influenced by their proximity to the sea. It provided routes for trade, colonisation, and war, as well as food for numerous communities throughout the ages, due to the shared climate, geology, and access to the sea, cultures centered on the Mediterranean tended to have some extent of intertwined culture and history. Two of the most notable Mediterranean civilisations in classical antiquity were the Greek city states, later, when Augustus founded the Roman Empire, the Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum
36.
Adige
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The river sources near the Reschen Pass close to the borders with Austria and Switzerland above the Inn valley. It flows through the artificial alpine Lake Reschen, the lake is known for the church tower that marks the site of the former village of Alt Graun, it was evacuated and flooded in 1953 after the dam was finished. Near Glurns, the Rom river joins from the Swiss Val Müstair, the Adige runs eastbound through the Vinschgau to Merano, where it is met by the Passer river from the north. The section between Merano and Bolzano, is called Etschtal, meaning Adige Valley, the Chiusa di Salorno narrows at Salorno mark the southernmost part of the predominantly German-speaking province of South Tyrol. The Adige was mentioned in the Lied der Deutschen of 1841 as the border of the German language area. In 1922 Germany adopted the song as its anthem, although by that time Italy had taken control of all of the Adige. Near Trento, the Avisio, Noce, and Fersina rivers join, the Adige crosses Trentino and later Veneto, flowing past the town of Rovereto, the Lagarina Valley, the cities of Verona and Adria and the north-eastern part of the Po Plain into the Adriatic Sea. The Adige and the Po run parallel in the river delta without properly joining, the Adige is connected to Lake Garda by the Mori-Torbole tunnel, an artificial underground canal built for flood prevention. The Adige is a home to the Marble trout, but at far lower populations than in the past, fish stocking is one of the most significant causes of the sharp reduction in the original fish population of this subspecies. It will spawn with and interbreed with brown trout, which are stocked in the river
37.
Lake Garda
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Lake Garda is the largest lake in Italy. It is a holiday location and is located in northern Italy. Glaciers formed this region at the end of the last Ice Age. The lake and its shoreline are divided between the provinces of Verona, Brescia, and Trentino, the name Garda, which the lake has been seen referred to in documents dating to the eighth century, comes from the town of the same name. It is the evolution of the Germanic word warda, meaning place of guard or place of observation, the northern part of the lake is narrower, surrounded by mountains, the majority of which belong to the Gruppo del Baldo. The shape is typical of a valley, probably having been formed under the action of a Paleolithic glacier. Nearby to the south is Isola San Biagio, also known as the Isola dei Conigli, both are offshore of San Felice del Benaco, on the lakes western side. The three other islands are Isola dellOlivo, Isola di Sogno, and Isola di Trimelone. The main tributary is the Sarca River, others include the Ponale River, if the water level of the Adige river is too high, excess water is diverted to the lake through the Mori-Torbole tunnel. The particularly mild climate favours the growth of some Mediterranean plants, citrus trees can also be found, which are extremely rare at this latitude. This greatly favoured the development of tourism since the end of the world war. In ancient times, poets like Catullus wrote about Lacus Benacus with its mild climate vivified by the winds, the bottleneck formed by the lake basin affects the timing of the winds, many of which happen on a regular daily basis. The winds are all named, most in regional Italian dialect so a single wind may have different names, salmo carpio, also known as the carpione is a rare salmonid fish endemic to Lake Garda. It has been introduced to a number of lakes in Italy and elsewhere. The population in Lake Garda has been declining, and is considered critically endangered. The main threats are due to overfishing, pollution and possibly competition from introduced species such as Coregonus, adult lake trout outside the mating season are silvery with very few black spots on the body and almost none on the head. During the mating season males develop some a dark mottled body coloration, Garda lake trout reach a length of up to 50 centimeters. They live primarily in depths of 100 to 200 metres and they feed on zooplankton and bottom-dwelling crustaceans in summer
38.
Republic of Venice
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It was based in the lagoon communities of the historically prosperous city of Venice. It was a leading European economic and trading power during the Middle Ages, the Venetian city state was founded as a safe haven for people escaping persecution in mainland Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. In its early years, it prospered on the salt trade, in subsequent centuries, the city state established a thalassocracy. It dominated trade on the Mediterranean Sea, including commerce between Asia, Europe and North Africa, the Venetian navy was used in the Crusades. Venice achieved territorial conquests along the Adriatic Sea, the city became home to an extremely wealthy merchant class, who patronized renowned art and architecture along the citys lagoons. Venetian merchants were influential financiers in Europe, the city was also the birthplace of great European explorers, including Marco Polo, as well as the classical music composer Vivaldi. The republic was ruled by the Doge, who was elected by members of the Great Council of Venice, the ruling class was an oligarchy of merchants and aristocrats. Venice and other Italian maritime republics played a key role in fostering capitalism, Venetian citizens generally supported the system of governance. The city-state enforced strict laws and employed ruthless tactics in its prisons, the opening of new trade routes to the Americas and the East Indies via the Atlantic Ocean marked the beginning of Venices decline as a maritime republic. The city state suffered defeats from the navy of the Ottoman Empire, in 1797, the country was colonized by Austria and France, following an invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte. Venice became a part of a unified Italy in the 19th century and it was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in reference to its title as one of the Most Serene Republics. He was the first historical Doge of Venice, whichever the case, the first doges had their power base in Heraclea. Ursuss successor, Deusdedit, moved his seat from Heraclea to Malamocco in the 740s and he was the son of Ursus and represented the attempt of his father to establish a dynasty. Such attempts were more commonplace among the doges of the first few centuries of Venetian history. They desired to remain well-connected to the Empire, another faction, republican in nature, believed in continuing along a course towards practical independence. The other main faction was pro-Frankish, supported mostly by clergy, they looked towards the new Carolingian king of the Franks, Pepin the Short, as the best provider of defence against the Lombards. A minor, pro-Lombard faction was opposed to close ties with any of these further-off powers, the successors of Obelerio inherited a united Venice. By the Pax Nicephori, the two emperors had recognised that Venice belonged to the Byzantine sphere of influence, many centuries later, the Venetians claimed that the treaty had recognised Venetian de facto independence, but the truth of this claim is doubted by modern scholars
39.
Yermak Timofeyevich
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Vasiliy Yermak Timofeyevich Alenin was a Cossack who started the Russian conquest of Siberia, in the reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Russians fur-trade interests fueled their desire to expand east into Siberia, the tsars ultimate goal was to extend all the way to the Bering Strait. The Tatar khanate of Kazan was established as the best entryway into Siberia, in 1552, Ivan the Terribles modernized army toppled the khanate. After the takeover of Kazan, the tsar looked to the powerful, in the late 1570s, the Stroganovs recruited Cossack fighters to invade Asia on behalf of the tsar. These Cossacks elected Yermak as the leader of their armed forces, on October 26,1582, Yermak and his soldiers overthrew Kuchum Khans Tatar empire at Qashliq in a battle that marked the conquest of Siberia. Yermak remained in Siberia and continued his struggle against the Tatars until 1584, the specifics of Yermaks life, such as his appearance, background, and dates of events, remain points of controversy for historians because the texts that document his life are not reliable. There is less information about Yermak than most other notable explorers, much of what we know about Yermak is derived from folklore and legend. There are no descriptions of Yermak and all portraits are merely estimations. In addition to his features being unknown, the details of Yermak’s life. Russian writer Valentin Rasputin laments the lack of information that we have about Yermak considering the vast scope of his contributions to Russian society and our knowledge of Yermak’s upbringing and voyages pales in comparison to that of other renowned explorers such as Christopher Columbus. Historians encounter serious difficulties when attempting to piece together the specifics of Yermak’s life and these sources are the Stroganov Chronicle, another one of the Siberian chronicles, and the Sinodik. The Stroganov Chronicle was commissioned by the Stroganov family itself, therefore it exaggerates the family’s involvement in the conquest of Siberia, the Sinodik is an account of Yermak’s campaign written forty years after his death by the archbishop of Tobolsk, Cyprian. The text was formed based on tradition and memories of his expedition. The combination of forgotten details over time and the embellishment or omission of facts in order for Yermak to be accepted as a saint suggests that the Sinodik could be erroneous. Though Cyprian failed to canonize Yermak, he made an effort to immortalize the warrior and these documents, along with the various others that chronicle Yermak’s expeditions, are filled with contradictions that make the truth about Yermak’s life difficult to discern. Yermak is typically described as brutal, cunning, and daring and he also liked describing himself as we instead of I. However, these descriptions may be attributable to the characteristics of a Cossack. According to Rasputin, Cossack is a Tatar word that translates as daredevil, bold spirit, in official documents, Cossacks were referred to as vagabonds, thieves, robbers, deserters, and runaway peasants
40.
Ural Mountains
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The mountain range forms part of the conventional boundary between the continents of Europe and Asia. Vaygach Island and the islands of Novaya Zemlya form a continuation of the chain to the north into the Arctic Ocean. The mountains lie within the Ural geographical region and significantly overlap with the Ural Federal District and they have rich resources, including metal ores, coal, precious and semi-precious stones. Since the 18th century the mountains have contributed significantly to the sector of the Russian economy. As attested by Sigismund von Herberstein, in the 16th century Russians called the range by a variety of names derived from the Russian words for rock and it might have been a borrowing from either Turkic stone belt, or Ob-Ugric. From the 13th century, in Bashkortostan there has been a legend about a hero named Ural and he sacrificed his life for the sake of his people and they poured a stone pile over his grave, which later turned into the Ural Mountains. Possibilities include Bashkir үр elevation, upland or Mansi ур ала mountain peak, top of the mountain, tatischev believes that this oronym is set to belt and associates it with the Turkic verb oralu- gird. Dobrodomov suggests a transition from Aral to Ural explained on the basis of ancient Bulgar-Chuvash dialects, hawks believes that the name goes back to the Bashkir folklore Ural-Batyr. Shumilov suggested a Mongolian origin, Khural Uul, that is, the Evenk geographical term era mountain has also been theorized. Finno-Ugrist scholars consider Ural deriving from the Mansi word urr meaning a mountain, turkologists, on the other hand, have achieved majority support for their assertion that ural in Tatar means a belt, and recall that an earlier name for the range was stone belt. During the next few centuries Novgorodians engaged in fur trading with the population and collected tribute from Yugra and Great Perm. The rivers Chusovaya and Belaya were first mentioned in the chronicles of 1396 and 1468, in 1430 the town of Solikamsk was founded on the Kama at the foothills of the Ural, where salt was produced in open pans. Ivan III of Moscow captured Perm, Pechora and Yugra from the declining Novgorod Republic in 1472, with the excursions of 1483 and 1499–1500 across the Ural Moscow managed to subjugate Yugra completely. The Middle and Southern Ural were still largely unavailable and unknown to the Russian or Western European geographers, the Stroganovs land provided the staging ground for Yermaks incursion into Siberia. Yermak crossed the Ural from the Chusovaya to the Tagil around 1581, in 1597 Babinovs road was built across the Ural from Solikamsk to the valley of the Tura, where the town of Verkhoturye was founded in 1598. Customs was established in Verkhoturye shortly thereafter and the road was made the legal connection between European Russia and Siberia for a long time. In 1648 the town of Kungur was founded at the foothills of the Middle Ural. During the 17th century the first deposits of iron and copper ores, mica, gemstones, iron and copper smelting works emerged
41.
Vikings
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The term is also commonly extended in modern English and other vernaculars to the inhabitants of Viking home communities during what has become known as the Viking Age. Facilitated by advanced seafaring skills, and characterised by the longship, Viking activities at times also extended into the Mediterranean littoral, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. A romanticized picture of Vikings as noble savages began to emerge in the 18th century, current popular representations of the Vikings are typically based on cultural clichés and stereotypes, complicating modern appreciation of the Viking legacy. One etymology derives víking from the feminine vík, meaning creek, inlet, various theories have been offered that the word viking may be derived from the name of the historical Norwegian district of Viken, meaning a person from Viken. According to this theory, the word simply described persons from this area, however, there are a few major problems with this theory. People from the Viken area were not called Viking in Old Norse manuscripts, in addition, that explanation could only explain the masculine and ignore the feminine, which is a serious problem because the masculine is easily derived from the feminine but hardly vice versa. The form also occurs as a name on some Swedish rune stones. There is little indication of any negative connotation in the term before the end of the Viking Age and this is found in the Proto-Nordic verb *wikan, ‘to turn’, similar to Old Icelandic víkja ‘to move, to turn’, with well-attested nautical usages. In that case, the idea behind it seems to be that the rower moves aside for the rested rower on the thwart when he relieves him. A víkingr would then originally have been a participant on a sea journey characterized by the shifting of rowers, in that case, the word Viking was not originally connected to Scandinavian seafarers but assumed this meaning when the Scandinavians begun to dominate the seas. In Old English, the word wicing appears first in the Anglo-Saxon poem, Widsith, in Old English, and in the history of the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen written by Adam of Bremen in about 1070, the term generally referred to Scandinavian pirates or raiders. As in the Old Norse usages, the term is not employed as a name for any people or culture in general, the word does not occur in any preserved Middle English texts. The Vikings were known as Ascomanni ashmen by the Germans for the ash wood of their boats, Lochlannach by the Gaels, the modern day name for Sweden in several neighbouring countries is possibly derived from rōþs-, Ruotsi in Finnish and Rootsi in Estonian. The Slavs and the Byzantines also called them Varangians, Scandinavian bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors were known as the Varangian Guard. The Franks normally called them Northmen or Danes, while for the English they were known as Danes or heathen. It is used in distinction from Anglo-Saxon, similar terms exist for other areas, such as Hiberno-Norse for Ireland and Scotland. The period from the earliest recorded raids in the 790s until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 is commonly known as the Viking Age of Scandinavian history, Vikings used the Norwegian Sea and Baltic Sea for sea routes to the south. The Normans were descended from Vikings who were given feudal overlordship of areas in northern France—the Duchy of Normandy—in the 10th century, in that respect, descendants of the Vikings continued to have an influence in northern Europe
