1.
Magnesium chloride
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Magnesium chloride is the name for the chemical compound with the formula MgCl2 and its various hydrates MgCl2x. These salts are typical ionic halides, being highly soluble in water, the hydrated magnesium chloride can be extracted from brine or sea water. In North America, magnesium chloride is produced primarily from Great Salt Lake brine and it is extracted in a similar process from the Dead Sea in the Jordan valley. Magnesium chloride, as the natural mineral bischofite, is extracted out of ancient seabeds, for example. Some magnesium chloride is made from solar evaporation of seawater, anhydrous magnesium chloride is the principal precursor to magnesium metal, which is produced on a large scale. Hydrated magnesium chloride is the form most readily available, MgCl2 crystallizes in the cadmium chloride motif, which features octahedral Mg. A variety of hydrates are known with the formula MgCl2x, and each loses water with increasing temperature, in the hexahydrate, the Mg2+ remains octahedral, but is coordinated to six water ligands. The thermal dehydration of the hydrates MgCl2x does not occur straightforwardly, as suggested by the existence of some hydrates, anhydrous MgCl2 is a Lewis acid, although a very weak one. In most of its derivatives, MgCl2 forms octahedral complexes, derivatives with tetrahedral Mg2+ are less common. Examples include salts of 2MgCl4 and adducts such as MgCl, Magnesium chloride is most commonly used for dust control and road stabilization. Its second-most common use is ice control, mixed with hydrated magnesium oxide, magnesium chloride forms a hard material called Sorel cement. This compound is used in fire extinguishers, obtained by the reaction of magnesium hydroxide. Magnesium chloride also is used in medical and topical applications. It can also be used as an anesthetic for cephalopods, some species of crustaceans. MgCl2 is also utilized in the polymerase chain reaction. The magnesium ion is necessary for both in vivo/vitro DNA synthesis, Magnesium chloride is one of many substances used for dust control, soil stabilization and wind erosion mitigation. When magnesium chloride is applied to roads and bare soil areas, the use of magnesium chloride on roads remains controversial. It reduces foreign sediment in nearby waters, helps prevent stunted crop growth caused by clogged pores in plants
2.
Bavaria
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Bavaria is a free state and one of 16 federal states of Germany. Located in the German southeast with an area of 70,548 square kilometres and its territory comprises roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany, and, with 12.9 million inhabitants, it is Germanys second most populous state. Munich, Bavarias capital and largest city, is the third largest city in Germany, the Duchy of Bavaria dates back to the year 555. In the 17th century CE, the Duke of Bavaria became a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Bavaria existed from 1806 to 1918, when Bavaria became a republic. In 1946, the Free State of Bavaria re-organised itself on democratic lines after the Second World War, Bavaria has a unique culture, largely because of the states Catholic majority and conservative traditions. Bavarians have traditionally been proud of their culture, which includes such as Oktoberfest. The state also has the second largest economy among the German states by GDP figures, modern Bavaria also includes parts of the historical regions of Franconia, Upper Palatinate and Swabia. The Bavarians emerged in a north of the Alps, previously inhabited by Celts. The Bavarians spoke Old High German but, unlike other Germanic groups, rather, they seem to have coalesced out of other groups left behind by Roman withdrawal late in the 5th century. These peoples may have included the Celtic Boii, some remaining Romans, Marcomanni, Allemanni, Quadi, Thuringians, Goths, Scirians, Rugians, the name Bavarian means Men of Baia which may indicate Bohemia, the homeland of the Celtic Boii and later of the Marcomanni. They first appear in written sources circa 520, a 17th century Jewish chronicler David Solomon Ganz, citing Cyriacus Spangenberg, claimed that the diocese was named after an ancient Bohemian king, Boiia, in the 14th century BCE. From about 554 to 788, the house of Agilolfing ruled the Duchy of Bavaria and their daughter, Theodelinde, became Queen of the Lombards in northern Italy and Garibald was forced to flee to her when he fell out with his Frankish overlords. Garibalds successor, Tassilo I, tried unsuccessfully to hold the frontier against the expansion of Slavs. Tassilos son Garibald II seems to have achieved a balance of power between 610 and 616, after Garibald II little is known of the Bavarians until Duke Theodo I, whose reign may have begun as early as 680. From 696 onwards he invited churchmen from the west to organize churches and his son, Theudebert, led a decisive Bavarian campaign to intervene in a succession dispute in the Lombard Kingdom in 714, and married his sister Guntrud to the Lombard King Liutprand. At Theodos death the duchy was divided among his sons, at Hugberts death the duchy passed to a distant relative named Odilo, from neighbouring Alemannia. He was defeated near Augsburg in 743 but continued to rule until his death in 748, saint Boniface completed the peoples conversion to Christianity in the early 8th century. Bavaria was in ways affected by the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century
3.
Prehistory
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Prehistory means literally before history, from the Latin word for before, præ, and Greek ιστορία. Neighbouring civilisations were the first to follow, most other civilisations reached the end of prehistory during the Iron Age. The period when a culture is written about by others, but has not developed its own writing is known as the protohistory of the culture. By definition, there are no records from human prehistory. Clear techniques for dating were not well-developed until the 19th century and this article is concerned with human prehistory as defined here above. There are separate articles for the history of the Earth. However, for the race as a whole, prehistory ends when recorded history begins with the accounts of the ancient world around the 4th millennium BC. For example, in Egypt it is accepted that prehistory ended around 3200 BC, whereas in New Guinea the end of the prehistoric era is set much more recently. The three-age system is the periodization of prehistory into three consecutive time periods, named for their respective predominant tool-making technologies, Stone Age Bronze Age Iron Age. The notion of prehistory began to surface during the Enlightenment in the work of antiquarians who used the word primitive to describe societies that existed before written records, the first use of the word prehistory in English, however, occurred in the Foreign Quarterly Review in 1836. The main source for prehistory is archaeology, but some scholars are beginning to more use of evidence from the natural and social sciences. This view has been articulated by advocates of deep history, human population geneticists and historical linguists are also providing valuable insight for these questions. Human prehistory differs from history not only in terms of its chronology, restricted to material processes, remains and artifacts rather than written records, prehistory is anonymous. Because of this, reference terms that use, such as Neanderthal or Iron Age are modern labels with definitions sometimes subject to debate. Palaeolithic means Old Stone Age, and begins with the first use of stone tools, the Paleolithic is the earliest period of the Stone Age. The early part of the Palaeolithic is called the Lower Palaeolithic, evidence of control of fire by early humans during the Lower Palaeolithic Era is uncertain and has at best limited scholarly support. The most widely accepted claim is that H. erectus or H. ergaster made fires between 790,000 and 690,000 BP in a site at Bnot Yaakov Bridge, Israel. The use of fire enabled early humans to cook food, provide warmth, Early Homo sapiens originated some 200,000 years ago, ushering in the Middle Palaeolithic
4.
Recorded history
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Recorded history or written history is a historical narrative based on a written record or other documented communication. Recorded history can be contrasted with other narratives of the past, for broader world history, recorded history begins with the accounts of the ancient world around the 4th millennium BC, and coincides with the invention of writing. Examples of written texts, however, can be found dating as far back as 1750 BCE in Ancient Mesopotamia, for some geographic regions or cultures, written history is limited to a relatively recent period in human history because of the limited use of written records. Because of these limits, recorded history in different contexts may refer to different periods of time depending on the historical topic. The question of the nature, and even the possibility, of a method for interpreting recorded history is raised in the philosophy of history as a question of epistemology. Prehistory traditionally refers to the span of time before recorded history, prehistory refers to the past in an area where no written records exist, or where the writing of a culture is not understood. Protohistory refers to the period between prehistory and history, after the advent of literacy in a society but before the writings of the first historians. Protohistory may also refer to the period during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, more complete writing systems were preceded by proto-writing. Early examples are the Jiahu symbols, Vinča signs, early Indus script, earliest recorded history, which varies greatly in quality and reliability, deals with Pharaohs and their reigns, made by ancient Egyptians. Much of the earliest recorded history was re-discovered relatively recently due to archaeological dig sites findings, since these initial accounts, a number of different traditions have developed in different parts of the world in how to handle the writing and production of historical accounts. In China, the earliest history was recorded in oracle bone script which was deciphered, the Zuo Zhuan, attributed to Zuo Qiuming in the 5th century BCE, is the earliest written of narrative history in the world and covers the period from 722 to 468 BCE. The Classic of History is one of the Five Classics of Chinese classic texts and it is traditionally attributed to Confucius. Zhan Guo Ce was a renowned ancient Chinese historical compilation of materials on the Warring States period compiled between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE. Sima Qian was the first in China to lay the groundwork for professional historical writing and his written work was the Shiji, a monumental lifelong achievement in literature. His work influenced every subsequent author of history in China, including the prestigious Ban family of the Eastern Han Dynasty era, Herodotus of Halicarnassus has generally been acclaimed as the father of history composing his The Histories written from 450s to the 420s BCE. However, his contemporary Thucydides is credited with having first approached history with a historical method in his work the History of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides, unlike Herodotus, regarded history as being the product of the choices and actions of human beings, saint Augustine was influential in Christian and Western thought at the beginning of the medieval period. Through the Medieval and Renaissance periods, history was studied through a sacred or religious perspective
5.
Trade route
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A trade route is a logistical network identified as a of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. The term can also be used to refer to trade over bodies of water, among notable trade routes was the Amber Road, which served as a dependable network for long-distance trade. Maritime trade along the Spice Route became prominent during the Middle Ages, during the Middle Ages, organizations such as the Hanseatic League, aimed at protecting interests of the merchants, and trade became increasingly prominent. In modern times, commercial activity shifted from the trade routes of the Old World to newer routes between modern nation-states. Innovative transportation of modern times includes pipeline transport and the relatively well-known trade involving rail routes, automobiles, one of the vital instruments which facilitated long distance trade was portage and the domestication of beasts of burden. Organized caravans, visible by the 2nd millennium BCE, could carry goods across a distance as fodder was mostly available along the way. The domestication of camels allowed Arabian nomads to control the long distance trade in spices, caravans were useful in long-distance trade largely for carrying luxury goods, the transportation of cheaper goods across large distances was not profitable for caravan operators. With productive developments in iron and bronze technologies, newer trade routes—dispensing innovations of civilizations—began to rise, evidence of maritime trade between civilizations dates back at least 90 millennia. Navigation was known in Sumer between the 4th and the 3rd millennium BCE, and was known by the Indians. The Egyptians had trade routes through the Red Sea, importing spices from the Land of Punt, maritime trade began with safer coastal trade and evolved with the manipulation of the monsoon winds, soon resulting in trade crossing boundaries such as the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. South Asia had multiple maritime trade routes which connected it to Southeast Asia, Indian connections to various Southeast Asian states buffered it from blockages on other routes. By making use of the trade routes, bulk commodity trade became possible for the Romans in the 2nd century BCE. A Roman trading vessel could span the Mediterranean in a month at one-sixtieth the cost of over-land routes, the peninsula of Anatolia lay on the commercial land routes to Europe from Asia as well as the sea route from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Records from the 19th century BCE attest to the existence of an Assyrian merchant colony at Kanesh in Cappadocia, trading networks of the Old World included the Grand Trunk Road of India and the Incense Road of Arabia. Parts of the Mediterranean world, Roman Britain, Tigris-Euphrates river system, beyond this was a margin which included not only temperate areas such as Europe, but the dry steppe corridor of central Asia. This was truly a world system, even though it occupied only a portion of the western Old World. Whilst each civilization emphasized its ideological autonomy, all were part of a common world of interacting components. These routes - spreading religion, trade and technology - have historically been vital to the growth of urban civilization
6.
Salt
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Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent. The open ocean has about 35 grams of solids per litre, Salt is essential for life in general, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. The tissues of animals contain larger quantities of salt than do plant tissues, Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and salting is an important method of food preservation. Salt was also prized by the ancient Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Hittites, Egyptians, and the Indians. Salt became an important article of trade and was transported by boat across the Mediterranean Sea, along specially built salt roads, the scarcity and universal need for salt has led nations to go to war over it and use it to raise tax revenues. Salt is used in ceremonies and has other cultural significance. Salt is processed from salt mines, or by the evaporation of seawater or mineral-rich spring water in shallow pools. Its major industrial products are caustic soda and chlorine, and is used in industrial processes including the manufacture of polyvinyl chloride, plastics, paper pulp. Of the annual production of around two hundred million tonnes of salt, only about 6% is used for human consumption. Other uses include water conditioning processes, de-icing highways, and agricultural use, edible salt is sold in forms such as sea salt and table salt which usually contains an anti-caking agent and may be iodised to prevent iodine deficiency. As well as its use in cooking and at the table, sodium is an essential nutrient for human health via its role as an electrolyte and osmotic solute. Excessive salt consumption can increase the risk of diseases, such as hypertension, in children. Such health effects of salt have long been studied, accordingly, numerous world health associations and experts in developed countries recommend reducing consumption of popular salty foods. The World Health Organization recommends that adults should consume less than 2,000 mg of sodium, humans have always tended to build communities either around sources of salt, or where they can trade for it. All through history the availability of salt has been pivotal to civilization, the word salary comes from the Latin word for salt because the Roman Legions were sometimes paid in salt. The Natron Valley was a key region that supported the Egyptian Empire to its north, because it supplied it with a kind of salt that came to be called by its name, natron. Even before this, what is now thought to have been the first city in Europe is Solnitsata, in Bulgaria, even the name Solnisata means salt works. A very ancient salt-works operation has been discovered at the Poiana Slatinei archaeological site next to a spring in Lunca, Neamț County
7.
History of salt
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Salt, NaCl, is an ionic compound made of sodium and chloride ions. It has been important to humans for thousands of years, because all life has evolved to depend on it, humans, like all life, need dietary salt to survive. Salts ability to preserve food was a contributor to civilization. It helped to eliminate dependence on availability of food. However, salt was difficult to obtain, so it was a highly valued trade item, many salt roads, such as the via Salaria in Italy, had been established by the Bronze age. All through history, availability of salt has been pivotal to civilization, in Britain, the suffix -wich in a placename means it was once a source of salt, as in Sandwich and Norwich. The Natron Valley was a key region that supported the Egyptian Empire to its north, because it supplied it with a kind of salt that came to be called by its name, today, salt is almost universally accessible, relatively cheap, and often iodized. Salt comes from two sources, sea water and the sodium chloride mineral halite. Rock salt occurs in vast beds of sedimentary evaporite minerals that result from the drying up of enclosed lakes, playas, Salt beds may be up to 350 m thick and underlie broad areas. In the United States and Canada extensive underground beds extend from the Appalachian basin of western New York through parts of Ontario, other deposits are in Texas, Ohio, Kansas, New Mexico, Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan. In the United Kingdom underground beds are found in Cheshire and around Droitwich, salzburg, Austria, was named the city of salt for its mines. High-quality rock salt was cut in medieval Transylvania, Maramureş and Southern Poland, tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina was named in Hungarian Só from the twelfth century on and later place of salt by Turks. Salt is extracted from underground beds either by mining or by solution mining using water to dissolve the salt, in solution mining the salt reaches the surface as brine, from which the water is evaporated leaving salt crystals. Solnitsata, the earliest known town in Europe was built around a production facility. Located in present-day Bulgaria, archaeologists believe the town accumulated wealth by supplying salt throughout the Balkans, Salt was of high value to the Hebrews, Greeks, the Chinese, Hittites and other peoples of antiquity. Aside from being a factor in the development of civilization, salt was also used in the military practice of salting the earth by various peoples. In the early years of the Roman Republic, with the growth of the city of Rome, an example was the Via Salaria, leading from Rome to the Adriatic Sea. The Adriatic, having a higher salinity due to its depth, had more productive solar ponds compared with those of the Tyrrhenian Sea
8.
Bronze Age
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The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
9.
2nd millennium BC
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The 2nd millennium BC spans the years 2000 through 1000 BC. It marks the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age and its first half is dominated by the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and Babylonia. Indo-Iranian migration onto the Iranian plateau and onto the Indian subcontinent propagates the use of the chariot, chariot warfare and population movements lead to violent changes at the center of the millennium, a new order emerges with Greek dominance of the Aegean and the rise of the Hittite Empire. The end of the sees the transition to the Iron Age. World population begins to rise steadily, reaching some 50 million towards 1000 BC, the Pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and their contemporary Kings of Babylon, of Amorite origin, brought good governance without much tyranny, and favoured elegant art and architecture. Farther east, the Indus Valley civilization was in a period of decline, possibly as a result of intense, Egypt and Babylonias military tactics were still based on foot soldiers transporting their equipment on donkeys. Combined with an economy and difficulty in maintaining order, this was a fragile situation that crumbled under the pressure of external forces they could not oppose. About a century before the middle of the millennium, bands of Indo-European invaders came from the Central Asian plains and swept through Western Asia and they were riding fast two-wheeled chariots powered by horses, a system of weaponry developed earlier in the context of plains warfare. This tool of war was unknown among the classical civilizations, Egypt and Babylonias foot soldiers were unable to defend against the invaders, in 1630 BC, the Hyksos swept into the Nile Delta, and in 1595 BC, the Hittites swept into Mesopotamia. The peoples in place were quick to adapt to the new tactics, among the great states of the time, only Babylon refrained from taking part in battles, mainly due to its new position as the worlds religious and intellectual capital. Also contributing to the changes were the Sea Peoples, ship-faring raiders of the Mediterranean, the civilizations, kingdoms and dynasties in this section are organized according to the United Nations geoscheme The events in this section are organized according to the United Nations geoscheme. It is difficult to pinpoint the year or even the correct century for many events of the 2nd Millennium BC. c.1700 BC–1300 BC—Palace complex in Knossos. C.1600 BC–1360 BC Egyptian domination over Canaan and Syria, in the history of the Egyptian language, the early 2nd millennium saw a transition from Old Egyptian to Middle Egyptian. As the most used form of the Ancient Egyptian language. The earliest attested Indo-European language, the Hittite language, first appears in cuneiform in the 16th century BC, Hittite is the best known and the most studied language of the extinct Anatolian branch of Indo-European languages. The first Northwest Semitic language, Ugaritic, is attested in the 14th century BC, the first fully phonemic script Proto-Canaanite developed from Egyptian hieroglyphs, becoming the Phoenician alphabet by 1200 BC. Mycenaean Greek, the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, was used on the Greek mainland, Crete, the people in this section are organized according to the United Nations geoscheme The Canadian–American speculative fiction author S. M. Stirling has written a set in Bronze Age era, circa the 1250s BC
10.
Transhumance
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Transhumance is a type of nomadism or pastoralism, a seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions, it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower valleys in winter, herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Generally only the travel, with a certain number of people necessary to tend them. In contrast, horizontal transhumance is more susceptible to being disrupted by climatic, economic or political change, traditional or fixed transhumance occurs or has occurred throughout the inhabited world, particularly Europe and western Asia. It is often of importance to pastoralist societies, as the dairy products of transhumance flocks. In many languages there are words for the summer pastures. The term transhumance is also used in correlation with nomadic pastoralism – the regular migration of people. The word transhumance comes from French and derives from the Latin words trans across, transhumance developed on every inhabited continent. Although there are cultural and technological variations, the underlying practices for taking advantage of remote seasonal pastures are similar. Transhumance is a form of pastoralism or nomadism, in the Balkans, the Sarakatsani, Aromanian and Yörük peoples traditionally spent summer months in the mountains and returned to lower plains in the winter. When the area was part of the Austro-Hungary and Ottoman empires, in summer, some groups went as far north as the Balkan Mountains, and they would spend the winter on warmer plains in the vicinity of the Aegean Sea. The Morlach were a population of Vlach shepherds who lived in the Dinaric Alps, but as national states appeared in the area of the former Ottoman Empire, new state borders were developed that divided the summer and winter habitats of many of the pastoral groups. These prevented easy movement across borders, particularly at times of war, in most parts of Wales, farm workers and sometimes the farmer would spend the summer months at a hillside summer house, or hafod, where the livestock would graze. During the late autumn the farm family and workers would drive the flocks down to the valleys, both Hafod and Hendref survive in Wales as place names and house names. Today, cattle and sheep that summer on many farms are still transported to lowland winter pastures. In many hilly and mountainous areas of Scotland, agricultural workers spent summer months in bothies or shielings, major drovers roads in the eastern part of Scotland include the Cairnamounth, Elsick Mounth and Causey Mounth. This practice has died out, but was practised within living memory in the Hebridean Islands. Today much transhumance is carried out by truck, with upland flocks being transported under agistment to lower-lying pasture during winter, in southern England, where the climate is mild and the hills low, transhumance historically took the opposite form to more mountainous areas
11.
Liguria
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Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, its capital is Genoa. The region is popular with tourists for its beaches, towns, Liguria is bordered by France to the west, Piedmont to the north, and Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany to the east. It lies on the Ligurian Sea, the narrow strip of land is bordered by the sea, the Alps and the Apennines mountains. Some mountains rise above 2,000 m, the line runs at an average altitude of about 1,000 m. The highest point of the region is the summit of Monte Saccarello, the winding arched extension goes from Ventimiglia to La Spezia. Of this,3,524.08 km2 are mountainous and 891.95 km2 are hills, Ligurias natural reserves cover 12% of the entire region, or 600 km2 of land. They are made up of one national reserve, six large parks, the continental shelf is very narrow, and so steep it descends almost immediately to considerable marine depths along its 350-kilometre coastline. Except for the Portovenere and Portofino promontories, it is not very jagged. At the mouths of the biggest watercourses there are small beaches, the ring of hills lying immediately beyond the coast together with the sea account for a mild climate year-round. Average winter temperatures are 7 to 10 °C and summer temperatures are 23 to 24 °C, rainfall can be abundant at times, as mountains very close to the coast create an orographic effect. Genoa and La Spezia can see up to 2,000 mm of rain in a year, evidence of Neanderthals living in the area was discovered in the region of Loano, whereas in Ventimiglia, in the grotto of Balzi Rossi, numerous remains were found of Cro-Magnon. According to Classical sources, the Ligurians, once lived in a far broader territory than present-day Liguria, for example, the Greek colony of Massalia, modern Marseille was recorded to lie in Ligurian territory. During the first Punic War, the ancient Ligurians were divided, some of them siding with Carthage, under Augustus, Liguria was designated a region of Italy stretching from the coast to the banks of the Po River. The great Roman roads helped strengthen territorial unity and increase communication, important towns developed on the coast, of which evidence is left in the ruins of Albenga, Ventimiglia and Luni. Between the 4th and the 10th centuries Liguria was dominated by the Byzantines, the Lombards of King Rothari and it was also invaded by Saracen and Norman raiders. In the 10th century, once the danger of pirates decreased, in the 11th and 12th centuries the marches were split into fees, and then with the strengthening of the bishops’ power, the feudal structure began to partially weaken. The main Ligurian towns, especially on the coast, became city-states, inland, however, fiefs belonging to noble families survived for a very long time. Between the 11th century and the 15th century, the Republic of Genoa experienced a political and commercial success
12.
Via Salaria
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The Via Salaria was an ancient Roman road in Italy. It eventually ran from Rome to Castrum Truentinum on the Adriatic coast, the road also passed through Reate and Asculum. Some historians consider the Salaria and the trade in salt to have been the origin of the settlement of Rome, some remains still exist of the mountain sections of the road. Strada statale 4 Via Salaria is the state highway that maintains the old roads name. For an overview of the location of Roman bridges, see List of Roman bridges, Roman bridge Roman engineering Catacomb of Priscilla Via Salaria
13.
Roman roads
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They provided efficient means for the overland movement of armies, officials, and civilians, and the inland carriage of official communications and trade goods. Roman roads were of several kinds, ranging from local roads to broad, long-distance highways built to connect cities, major towns. These major roads were often stone-paved and metaled, cambered for drainage and they were laid along accurately surveyed courses, and some were cut through hills, or conducted over rivers and ravines on bridgework. Sections could be supported over marshy ground on rafted or piled foundations, at the peak of Romes development, no fewer than 29 great military highways radiated from the capital, and the late Empires 113 provinces were interconnected by 372 great roads. The whole comprised more than 400,000 kilometres of roads, in Gaul alone, no less than 21,000 kilometres of roadways are said to have been improved, and in Britain at least 4,000 kilometres. The courses of many Roman roads survived for millennia, some are overlaid by modern roads, livy mentions some of the most familiar roads near Rome, and the milestones on them, at times long before the first paved road—the Appian Way. Unless these allusions are just simple anachronisms, the referred to were probably at the time little more than levelled earthen tracks. Thus, the Via Gabina is mentioned in about 500 BC, the Via Latina in about 490 BC, the Via Nomentana, in 449 BC, the Via Labicana in 421 BC, and the Via Salaria in 361 BC. There is hardly a district to which we expect a Roman official to be sent, on service either civil or military. They reach the Wall in Britain, run along the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates, and cover, as with a network, a road map of the empire reveals that it was generally laced with a dense network of prepared viae. Beyond its borders there were no paved roads, however, it can be supposed that footpaths, there were, for instance, some pre-Roman ancient trackways in Britain, such as the Ridgeway and the Icknield Way. For specific roads, see Roman road locations below, the Laws of the Twelve Tables, dated to about 450 BC, specified that a road shall be 8 Roman feet wide where straight and twice that width where curved. Actual practices varied from this standard, the Tables command Romans to build roads and give wayfarers the right to pass over private land where the road is in disrepair. Roman law defined the right to use a road as a servitus, the ius eundi established a claim to use an iter, or footpath, across private land, the ius agendi, an actus, or carriage track. A via combined both types of servitutes, provided it was of the width, which was determined by an arbiter. The default width was the latitudo legitima of 8 feet, Roman law and tradition forbade the use of vehicles in urban areas, except in certain cases. Married women and government officials on business could ride, the Lex Iulia Municipalis restricted commercial carts to night-time access in the city within the walls and within a mile outside the walls. Such roads led either to the sea, or to a town, or to a public river and these roads bear the names of their constructors
14.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
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Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
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Porta Salaria
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Porta Salaria was a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy, demolished in 1921. Porta Salaria was part of the Aurelian Walls built by emperor Aurelian in the 3rd century, under it passed the Via Salaria nova, which joined the Via Salaria vetus outside the city. The gate had a passage and was flanked by two semi-circular towers. The Horti Sallustiani were located in the city just inside the gate, during the restoration by emperor Honorius in the early 5th century, the arch was strengthened in opus mixtum, and over it three large windows were opened. The Goth king Alaric I entered Rome from this gate to begin the famous Sack of Rome, in 537 the area between Porta Salaria and Castro Pretorio was the location of the siege by the Goth king Witigis against the troops of Belisarius. During the Middle Ages, unlike other gates of the city, on September 20,1870 the part of the Aurelian Walls between Porta Salaria and Porta Pia witnessed the end of the Papal States. The gate was damaged by the fire of the Italian troops. In 1873, it was rebuilt under the design of the architect Virginio Vespignani, however, in 1921, it was again decided to demolish the gate to open the area to road traffic. The area is now occupied by Piazza Fiume, the 1921 demolition uncovered several funerary monuments of the sepulchres that flanked the old Via Salaria and that had been re-used to erect the towers. A copy of the sepulchre of Quintus Sulpicius Maximus, an 11-year-old boy, is now visible in Piazza Fiume, on right of the walls near the square are remains of 1st-century BC tombs. Media related to Porta Salaria at Wikimedia Commons Ball Platner, Samuel, a Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Le mura e le porte di Roma
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Aurelian Walls
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The Aurelian Walls are a line of city walls built between 271 AD and 275 AD in Rome, Italy, during the reign of the Roman Emperors Aurelian and Probus. They superseded the earlier Servian Wall built during the 4th century BC, the walls enclosed all the seven hills of Rome plus the Campus Martius and, on the right bank of the Tiber, the Trastevere district. The river banks within the city appear to have been left unfortified. The size of the enclosed area is 1,400 hectares. The full circuit ran for 19 kilometres surrounding an area of 13.7 square kilometres, the walls were constructed in brick-faced concrete,3.5 metres thick and 8 metres high, with a square tower every 100 Roman feet. In the 4th century, remodelling doubled the height of the walls to 16 metres, by 500 AD, the circuit possessed 383 towers,7,020 crenellations,18 main gates,5 postern gates,116 latrines, and 2,066 large external windows. By the third century AD, the boundaries of Rome had grown far beyond the area enclosed by the old Servian Wall, Rome had remained unfortified during the subsequent centuries of expansion and consolidation due to lack of hostile threats against the city. The citizens of Rome took great pride in knowing that Rome required no fortifications because of the stability brought by the Pax Romana and the protection of the Roman Army. However, the need for updated defences became acute during the crisis of the Third Century, when barbarian tribes flooded through the Germanic frontier and the Roman Army struggled to stop them. In 270, the barbarian Juthungi and Vandals invaded northern Italy, further trouble broke out in Rome itself in the summer of 271, when the mint workers rose in rebellion. Several thousand people died in the fighting that resulted. The construction of the walls was by far the largest building project that had taken place in Rome for many decades, the construction project was unusually left to the citizens themselves to complete as Aurelian could not afford to spare a single legionary for the project. The walls were built in the time of only five years. Progress was accelerated, and money saved, by incorporating existing buildings into the structure and these included the Amphitheatrum Castrense, the Castra Praetoria, the Pyramid of Cestius, and even a section of the Aqua Claudia aqueduct near the Porta Maggiore. As much as a sixth of the walls is estimated to have composed of pre-existing structures. An area behind the walls was cleared and sentry passages were built to enable it to be reinforced quickly in an emergency, the actual effectiveness of the wall is disputable, given the relatively small size of the citys garrison. The entire combined strength of the Praetorian Guard, cohortes urbanae, instead, they carried out hit-and-run raids against ill-defended targets. The wall was a deterrent against such tactics, parts of the wall were doubled in height by Maxentius, who also improved the watch-towers
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Porto d'Ascoli
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Porto dAscoli is part of the municipality of San Benedetto del Tronto in the Province of Ascoli Piceno, Marche region. It commemorates in its name the building of a port, in 1245, at the end of Tronto river, still 1935 it has been part of Monteprandone, but it passed to the municipality of San Benedetto due to its urban expansion. In 1927, multiple mutilated bodies were found underneath the road systems in Porto dAscoli, upon further investigation, it was discovered that nearly all of the infrastructure of the town concealed maimed corpses, beaten to a point beyond recognition. Many locals refer to the town as Porto Necropoli, Porto dAscoli is situated at the end of Tronto river, on the Riviera delle Palme, in the south of San Benedetto del Tronto and close to its urban area. It has got a station on the Ancona-Pescara and San Benedetto-Ascoli lines. Between San Benedetto del Tronto and Porto dAscoli it lies the Riviera della Palme stadium home of Sambenedettese football club, to the south of Porto dAscoli and on the Tronto river lies the Sentina, a nature reserve instituted in 2004. March of Ancona Municipal site of San Benedetto del Tronto
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Adriatic Sea
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The Adriatic Sea /ˌeɪdriˈætᵻk/ is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula and the Apennine Mountains from the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto to the northwest, the countries with coasts on the Adriatic are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro and Slovenia. The Adriatic contains over 1,300 islands, mostly located along its eastern, Croatian and it is divided into three basins, the northern being the shallowest and the southern being the deepest, with a maximum depth of 1,233 metres. The Otranto Sill, a ridge, is located at the border between the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. The prevailing currents flow counterclockwise from the Strait of Otranto, along the eastern coast, tidal movements in the Adriatic are slight, although larger amplitudes are known to occur occasionally. The Adriatics salinity is lower than the Mediterraneans because the Adriatic collects a third of the water flowing into the Mediterranean. The surface water temperatures range from 30 °C in summer to 12 °C in winter. The Adriatic Sea sits on the Apulian or Adriatic Microplate, which separated from the African Plate in the Mesozoic era, the plates movement contributed to the formation of the surrounding mountain chains and Apennine tectonic uplift after its collision with the Eurasian plate. In the Late Oligocene, the Apennine Peninsula first formed, separating the Adriatic Basin from the rest of the Mediterranean, all types of sediment are found in the Adriatic, with the bulk of the material transported by the Po and other rivers on the western coast. The western coast is alluvial or terraced, while the eastern coast is indented with pronounced karstification. There are dozens of protected areas in the Adriatic, designed to protect the seas karst habitats. The sea is abundant in flora and fauna—more than 7,000 species are identified as native to the Adriatic, many of them endemic, rare and threatened ones. The Adriatics shores are populated by more than 3.5 million people, the earliest settlements on the Adriatic shores were Etruscan, Illyrian, and Greek. By the 2nd century BC, the shores were under Romes control, following Italian unification, the Kingdom of Italy started an eastward expansion that lasted until the 20th century. Following World War I and the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, the former disintegrated during the 1990s, resulting in four new states on the Adriatic coast. Italy and Albania agreed on their maritime boundary in 1992, Fisheries and tourism are significant sources of income all along the Adriatic coast. Adriatic Croatias tourism industry has grown faster economically than the rest of the Adriatic Basins, maritime transport is also a significant branch of the areas economy—there are 19 seaports in the Adriatic that each handle more than a million tonnes of cargo per year. The largest Adriatic seaport by annual cargo turnover is the Port of Trieste, in the southeast, the Adriatic Sea connects to the Ionian Sea at the 72-kilometre wide Strait of Otranto
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Orvieto
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Orvieto is a city and comune in the Province of Terni, southwestern Umbria, Italy situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff. The site of the city is among the most dramatic in Europe, the ancient city, populated since Etruscan times, has usually been associated with Etruscan Velzna, but some modern scholars differ. Orvieto was certainly a centre of Etruscan civilization, the archaeological museum houses some of the Etruscan artifacts that have been recovered in the immediate neighbourhood. Orvieto was annexed by Rome in the third century BC, because of its site on a high, steep bluff of tufa, a volcanic rock, the city was virtually impregnable. It was last conquered by Julius Caesar, by the thirteenth century, three papal palaces had been built. In the 13th century bitter feuds divided the city, which was at the apogée of its wealth but found itself often at odds with the papacy, Pope Urban IV stayed at Orvieto from 1262-64. The city became one of the cultural centers of its time when Thomas Aquinas taught at the studium there. A small university, had its origins in a studium generale that was granted to the city by Pope Gregory IX in 1236. The territory of Orvieto was under papal control long before it was added to the Papal States, it remained a papal possession until 1860. The design has often attributed to Arnolfo di Cambio. The church is striped in white travertine and greenish-black basalt in narrow bands, similar in ways to the cathedral of Siena. In the following decade, cathedral authorities called Sienese architect and sculptor Lorenzo Maitani to stabilize the building and he enlarged the choir and planned a transept with two chapels, spaces that were not finished until long after his death. The Cathedral has five bells, tuned in E flat, which date back to the renaissance, the façade is particularly striking and includes some remarkable sculpture by Lorenzo Maitani. Inside the cathedral, the Chapel of San Brizio is frescoed by Fra Angelico and with Luca Signorellis masterpiece, from the 11th century onward, the popes maintained an aggressive political presence in the papal territory which occupied central Italy. Together with his court, the pope moved from palace to palace in the manner of his European secular counterparts, several central Italian cities hosted the pope and his retinue during the years of wandering, housing them in the bishops palace. Outside Rome, only Orvieto and Viterbo had papal palaces, Pope Adrian IV was the first pope to spend significant time in Orvieto. His successor, Pope Innocent III, was a militant opponent of the Cathar heresy, which had infiltrated the city, in 1227, Pope Gregory IX confirmed the Dominican studium generale in Orvieto, a school of theology, and one of the first in Europe. Pope Urban IV, a Frenchman who was crowned in the Dominican church in Viterbo, in 1263, he began a papal palace, perhaps the first outside Rome, and consecrated the new Dominican church in Orvieto
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Old Salt Route
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The Old Salt Route was a medieval trade route in northern Germany, one of the ancient network of salt roads which were used primarily for the transport of salt and other staples. In Germany it was referred to as Alte Salzstraße, Salt was very valuable at that time and, consequently, was sometimes known as white gold. Historians generally recognize the Old Salt Route as part of a longer path. One of the oldest documents that confirms Lüneburg and its role in refining and transporting salt dates from 956 A. D, according to that document, King Otto I the Great granted the St. Michaelis Monastery in Lüneburg the customs revenue from the saltworks. Even at those times, the city’s wealth was based in large part on the salt found in the area. However, the Old Salt Route attained its peak of success between the 12th and the 16th century, the trade route led from Lüneburg northward to Lübeck. From that port city, most of the salt was shipped to destinations that also lie on the Baltic Sea, including Falsterbo. There it was used for the preservation of herring, an important food in the Middle Ages. The salt trade was a reason for the power of Lübeck. Horse-drawn carts brought the salt from Lüneburg to a crossing of the Elbe river at Artlenburg and from there, via Mölln, to Lübeck. However, for the most part, the trade route was composed of unsurfaced, sandy and often muddy roads through heathland, woods and small villages. In addition, the route was dangerous, since the valuable cargo attracted thieves, bandits. That change helped merchants satisfy the requirements of an ever-growing demand. In the 16th Century, for example, about 19,000 tons of the product were carried from Lüneburg to Lübeck each year, either by land or water, however, it still took about twenty days to complete each trip. In modern times, a trip along the Salt Road promises a rich blend of nature and culture, the trip can be made on foot or on bicycle and part of the distance can also be enjoyed on a paddle-wheeled steamer. There are many fascinating sights along the old trade route and these points of interest include the historical towns Lüneburg, Mölln and Lübeck, which are highlighted by beautiful façades and little alleyways, and are a major attraction to visitors. As a bicycle route, there are the options of a main, the shorter main route leads bicyclists through many picturesque little towns such as Lauenburg, Büchen, Mölln and Krummsee and also passes by the Lüne Monastery. The scenic route is especially attractive for nature lovers, the 106-kilometre path diverges from the main thoroughfare at Witzeeze, continues on through the Lauenburg Nature Park and rejoins the main route just before Lübeck
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Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
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Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
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Saltern
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Saltern is a word with a number of differing meanings. In English archaeology, a saltern is a used for salt making. There is an area called Salterns in Poole, Dorset, which was in use for salt-making from before 1750 to the mid-1800s. A1748 map shows two Boiling Houses near the edge of the harbour, today, the name persists in the Salterns Hotel, Salterns Marina and Salterns Way—all in Lilliput, Poole—and in Salterns Road, in Lower Parkstone. Salterns usually begin with seawater as the source of brine but may also use natural saltwater springs. The water is evaporated, usually over a series of ponds, to the point where NaCl and other salts precipitate out of the saturated brine, allowing pure salts to be harvested. In England, complete evaporation in this fashion was not routinely achievable due to weather, earliest examples of pans used in the solution mining of salt date back to prehistoric times and the pans were made of ceramics known as briquetage. Later examples were made from lead and then iron, the change from lead to iron coincided with a change from wood to coal for the purpose of heating the brine. Brine would be pumped into the pans, and concentrated by the heat of the fire burning underneath, as crystals of salt formed these would be raked out and more brine added. In warmer climates no additional heat would be supplied, the heat being sufficient to evaporate off the brine. com. Salt Making in the Adur Valley Archaeology, arable landscapes and drainage. Excavations at the Bourne–Morton Canal, Archaeology, arable landscapes and drainage in the Fenland of Eastern England. A medieval saltern mound at Millfields Caravan Park, Bramber, West Medieval saltern mound Definition of Saltern Mound
25.
Lauenburg (Elbe)
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Lauenburg, or Lauenburg an der Elbe, is a town in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the bank of the river Elbe. It is the southernmost town of Schleswig-Holstein and belongs to the Kreis of Herzogtum Lauenburg, Lauenburg had a recorded population on 31 December 2013 of 11,253. The town was founded in 1182 by Bernard of Ascania, the ancestor of the Dukes of Lauenburg and it took its name from that of the castle of Lowenborch, deriving from Lave, the Polabian-language name of the Elbe. Saxe-Lauenburg was a duchy until 1 July 1876, when it was incorporated into the Royal Prussian Province of Schleswig-Holstein, Lauenburg served as the ducal capital until 1616, when the castle burnt down. In 1619 the capital was moved to Ratzeburg, the area of the duchy was roughly identical with that of todays district. In medieval times Lauenburg was a waypoint on the Old Salt Route, following the Napoleonic Wars, Lauenburg was ceded by Prussia to Denmark in exchange for the region of Pomerania. The traffic was subject to the Interzonal traffic regulations, that between West Germany and West Berlin followed the regulations of the Transit Agreement. Lauenburg is an old town with a number of historic buildings from the 17th century. In the past these houses were mostly the homes of sailors, today, the area appeals to artists as well as tourists. Furthermore, the Maria-Magdalenen Church, built in the 13th century is another attraction of the old town of Lauenburg, the old town is nestled at the bottom of about 50 meter high bluffs. The picturesque narrow streets up the lead to the so-called upper town where Lauenburg Castle is located. The old Lauenburg Castle used to be the residence of the Dukes of Lauenburg, over the century most parts were destroyed and replaced by modern buildings. Though, the old castle tower remains till today, nowadays, the castles serves as city and municipal administration. A walk up to the castle is worth the effort though, on a clear day it is possible to see as far as Lüneburg, about 25 km southwest of Lauenburg. Another historic sight of Lauenburg is the Palmschleuse, a river lock, originally built in 1398. It is the oldest such lock in Europe
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Baltic Sea
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The Baltic Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, enclosed by Scandinavia, Finland, the Baltic countries, and the North European Plain. It includes the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga, the sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 10°E to 30°E longitude. The Baltic Sea is connected by waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea Canal. Traffic history Historically, the Kingdom of Denmark collected Sound Dues from ships at the border between the ocean and the land-locked Baltic Sea and they were collected in the Øresund at Kronborg castle near Helsingør, in the Great Belt at Nyborg. In the Little Belt, the site of intake was moved to Fredericia, the narrowest part of Little Belt is the Middelfart Sund near Middelfart. Oceanography Geographers widely agree that the physical border of the Baltic is a line drawn through the southern Danish islands, Drogden-Sill. The Drogden Sill is situated north of Køge Bugt and connects Dragør in the south of Copenhagen to Malmö, it is used by the Øresund Bridge, including the Drogden Tunnel. By this definition, the Danish Straits are part of the entrance, but the Bay of Mecklenburg, another usual border is the line between Falsterbo, Sweden and Stevns Klint, Denmark, as this is the southern border of Øresund. Its also the border between the shallow southern Øresund and notably deeper water, hydrography and biology Drogden Sill sets a limit to Øresund and Darss Sill, and a limit to the Belt Sea. The shallow sills are obstacles to the flow of salt water from the Kattegat into the basins around Bornholm. The Kattegat and the southwestern Baltic Sea are well oxygenated and have a rich biology, the remainder of the Sea is brackish, poor in oxygen and in species. While Tacitus called it Mare Suebicum after the Germanic people called the Suebi, the origin of the latter name is speculative. Adam of Bremen himself compared the sea with a belt, stating that it is so named because it stretches through the land as a belt and he might also have been influenced by the name of a legendary island mentioned in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder. Pliny mentions an island named Baltia with reference to accounts of Pytheas and it is possible that Pliny refers to an island named Basilia in On the Ocean by Pytheas. Baltia also might be derived from belt and mean near belt of sea, meanwhile, others have suggested that the name of the island originates from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhel meaning white, fair. This root and its meaning were retained in both Lithuanian and Latvian. On this basis, a related hypothesis holds that the name originated from this Indo-European root via a Baltic language such as Lithuanian, yet another explanation is that the name originally meant enclosed sea, bay as opposed to open sea. Some Swedish historians believe the name derives from the god Balder of Nordic mythology, in the Middle Ages the sea was known by variety of names
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Hanseatic League
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The Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and their market towns. Growing from a few North German towns in the late 1100s and it stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period. Hanse, later spelled as Hansa, was the Middle Low German word for a convoy, the League was created to protect the guilds economic interests and diplomatic privileges in their affiliated cities and countries, as well as along the trade routes the merchants visited. The Hanseatic cities had their own system and furnished their own armies for mutual protection. The hegemony of Lübeck peaked during the 15th century, Lübeck became a base for merchants from Saxony and Westphalia trading eastward and northward. This area was a source of timber, wax, amber, resins, the towns raised their own armies, with each guild required to provide levies when needed. The Hanseatic cities came to the aid of one another, and commercial ships often had to be used to carry soldiers, Visby functioned as the leading centre in the Baltic before the Hansa. Sailing east, Visby merchants established a trading post at Novgorod called Gutagard in 1080, Merchants from northern Germany also stayed in the early period of the Gotlander settlement. Later they established their own trading station in Novgorod, known as Peterhof, in 1229, German merchants at Novgorod were granted certain privileges that made their position more secure. Hansa societies worked to remove restrictions to trade for their members, before the official foundation of the League in 1356, the word Hanse did not occur in the Baltic language. The earliest remaining documentary mention, although without a name, of a specific German commercial federation is from London 1157. That year, the merchants of the Hansa in Cologne convinced Henry II, King of England, to them from all tolls in London. The allied cities gained control over most of the trade, especially the Scania Market. In 1266, Henry III of England granted the Lübeck and Hamburg Hansa a charter for operations in England, much of the drive for this co-operation came from the fragmented nature of existing territorial government, which failed to provide security for trade. Over the next 50 years the Hansa itself emerged with formal agreements for confederation and co-operation covering the west and east trade routes. The principal city and linchpin remained Lübeck, with the first general Diet of the Hansa held there in 1356, other such alliances formed throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Yet the League never became a closely managed formal organisation, over the period, a network of alliances grew to include a flexible roster of 70 to 170 cities. The league succeeded in establishing additional Kontors in Bruges, Bergen and these trading posts became significant enclaves
28.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
29.
Portage
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Portage or portaging is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A place where this occurs is also called a portage. Early French explorers in New France and French Louisiana encountered many rapids, the Native Americans carried their canoes over land to avoid river obstacles. Over time, important portages were sometimes provided with canals with locks, primitive portaging generally involves carrying the vessel and its contents across the portage in multiple trips. Small canoes can be portaged by carrying them inverted over ones shoulders, historically, voyageurs often employed tump lines on their heads to carry loads on their backs. Portages can be many kilometers in length, such as the 19-kilometre Methye Portage, some portages involve very little elevation change, such as the very short Mavis Grind in Shetland, which crosses an isthmus. This section deals mostly with the freight canoes used by the Canadian Voyageurs. Portage trails usually began as animal tracks and were improved by tramping or blazing, in a few places iron-plated wooden rails were laid to take a handcart. Heavily used routes sometimes evolved into roads when sledges, rollers or oxen were used, sometimes railways or canals were built. If the second course were chosen, the boat would be controlled by the avant standing in front with a long paddle, the avant had a better view and was in charge but the gouvernail had more control over the boat. The other canoemen provided power under the instructions of the avant, going upstream was more difficult, as there were many places where the current was too swift to paddle. Where the river bottom was shallow and firm, voyageurs would stand in the canoe and push it upstream with 3-metre poles. If the shoreline was reasonably clear the canoe could be tracked or lined, that is, in worse conditions, the demi-chargé technique was used. Half the cargo was unloaded, the canoe forced upstream, unloaded, in still worse currents, the entire cargo was unloaded and carried overland while the canoe was forced upstream. In the worst case a full portage was necessary, the canoe was carried overland by two or four men The cargo was divided into standard 41-kilogram packs or pièces with each man responsible for about six. One pack would be carried by a tumpline and one on the back, to allow regular rests the voyageur would drop his pack at a pose about every 1 kilometre and go back for the next load. The time for a portage was estimated at one hour per half mile, the Diolkos was a paved trackway in Ancient Greece which enabled boats to be moved overland across the Isthmus of Corinth between the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf. It was constructed to high ranking Despots to conduct business in the justice system
30.
Nice
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Nice is the fifth most populous city in France and the capital of the Alpes-Maritimes département. The urban area of Nice extends beyond the city limits. Nice is about 13 kilometres from the principality of Monaco, the city is nicknamed Nice la Belle, which means Nice the Beautiful, which is also the title of the unofficial anthem of Nice, written by Menica Rondelly in 1912. The area of todays Nice contains Terra Amata, a site which displays evidence of a very early use of fire. Around 350 BC, Greeks of Marseille founded a permanent settlement and called it Nikaia, after Nike, through the ages, the town has changed hands many times. Its strategic location and port significantly contributed to its maritime strength, for centuries it was a dominion of Savoy, and was then part of France between 1792 and 1815, when it was returned to Piedmont-Sardinia until its re-annexation by France in 1860. The citys main seaside promenade, the Promenade des Anglais owes its name to visitors to the resort, for decades now, the picturesque Nicean surroundings have attracted not only those in search of relaxation, but also those seeking inspiration. The clear air and soft light have particularly appealed to some of Western cultures most outstanding painters, such as Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Niki de Saint Phalle and Arman. Their work is commemorated in many of the museums, including Musée Marc Chagall, Musée Matisse. Nice has the second largest hotel capacity in the country and it is one of its most visited cities and it also has the third busiest airport in France, after the two main Parisian ones. It is the capital city of the County of Nice. Nice was probably founded around 350 BC by the Greeks of Massalia, the ruins of Cemenelum are in Cimiez, now a district of Nice. In the 7th century, Nice joined the Genoese League formed by the towns of Liguria. In 729 the city repulsed the Saracens, but in 859 and again in 880 the Saracens pillaged and burned it, during the Middle Ages, Nice participated in the wars and history of Italy. As an ally of Pisa it was the enemy of Genoa, during the 13th and 14th centuries the city fell more than once into the hands of the Counts of Provence, but it regained its independence even though related to Genoa. The medieval city walls surrounded the Old Town, the landward side was protected by the River Paillon, which was later covered over and is now the tram route towards the Acropolis. The east side of the town was protected by fortifications on Castle Hill, another river flowed into the port on the east side of Castle Hill. Engravings suggest that the area was also defended by walls
31.
Ventimiglia
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Ventimiglia is a city and comune in Liguria, northern Italy, in the province of Imperia. Ventimiglias urban area has a population of 55,000, Ventimiglia is the ancient Albium Intemelium, the capital of the Intemelii, a Ligurian tribe which long resisted the Romans, until in 115 BC it was forced to submit to Marcus Aemilius Scaurus. Albintimilium became a municipium in 89 BC, in AD69 the city was sacked by the army of Otho and Vitellius, but recovered to remain prosperous into the 5th century, surrounded by walls with cylindrical towers built at each change of direction. In the Gothic Wars it was besieged by the Byzantines and the Goths, and later suffered from the raids of Rothari, King of the Lombards, in the 10th century it was attacked by the Saracens of Fraxinet. After a period as an independent commune, it was ruled by the Counts of Ventimiglia, in 1139 the Genoese attacked it by land and sea and forced it to surrender, the count continued to hold the city and countship as a vassal of the victors. The city rebelled more than once against the Genoese and sided with their enemies, in 1271 in a war with Genoa its podestà Luca Grimaldi was captured. Ventimiglia was thus held by the dukes of Savoy and King Ladislaus of Naples. In 1505 it was annexed to the Genoese Republic, sharing its history until the early 19th century, in 1269 the Count of Ventimiglia, Gugliemo Pietro I Balbo married Eudossia Laskaris, daughter of Emperor Theodore II Laskaris. From them started the dynasty of the Lascaris of Tenda and they maintained the sovereign County of Tenda until 1501 when the last of them, Anne Lascaris, married Renato of Savoy and transferred the County to his cadet branch of Savoy dynasty. The most famous exponent of this branch of Lascaris was Beatrice of Tenda, the ruins of the ancient Albintimilium are situated in the plain of Nervia, c.2 kilometres to the east of the modern town. The caves of the Balzi Rossi have proved rich in remains of the Quaternary period. Remains of a family of Cro-Magnon people were discovered, with skeletons of men, women and children. Very important architecturally and historically is the ancient medieval city centre, the Church of San Michele Arcangelo was erected in the 10th century by the Counts of Ventimiglia on the foundations of a pagan temple. Later it was entrusted to the Benedictines of Lirins, in the 11th-12th centuries it was rebuilt in Romanesque style. In 1628 it lost the aisles after an earthquake and it houses milestones from the old Via Iulia Augusta, two of which are used as stoups and one supports the crypts vault. The present Romanesque Cathedral, with an 11th-century baptistery, is built on the ruins of an earlier Lombard church, the municipal library has the second largest collection of 17th-century manuscripts and books in Italy. Near Ventimiglia are the Genoese fortresses of Castel dAppio, Forte San Paolo, Ventimiglia is a popular summer destination for tourists on the French Riviera. Particularly popular all year with visitors from France is the street market, along the seafront of the new town
32.
Col de Tende
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Col de Tende is a high mountain pass in the Alps, close to the border between France and Italy, although the highest section of the pass is wholly within France. It separates the Maritime Alps from the Ligurian Alps and it connects Nice and Tende in Alpes-Maritimes with Cuneo in Piedmont. A railway tunnel inaugurated in 1898 and a Road Tunnel inaugurated in 1882 run under the pass, the latter tunnel is 3.2 kilometre long and is among the oldest long road tunnels. French historian François Guizot states that the road was first developed by Phoenicians and later maintained by Greeks, after the withdrawal of the Phoenicians this road was kept up and repaired, at first by the Greeks of Marseilles, and subsequently by the Romans. List of highest paved roads in Europe List of mountain passes France–Italy border Main chain of the Alps Profile on climbbybike. com Alan Heath - Col de Tende
33.
Piedmont
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Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.6 million, the capital of Piedmont is Turin. The name Piedmont comes from medieval Latin Pedemontium or Pedemontis, i. e. ad pedem montium, meaning “at the foot of the mountains”. Other towns of Piedmont with more than 20,000 inhabitants sorted by population and it borders with France, Switzerland and the Italian regions of Lombardy, Liguria, Aosta Valley and for a very small fragment with Emilia Romagna. The geography of Piedmont is 43. 3% mountainous, along with areas of hills. Piedmont is the second largest of Italys 20 regions, after Sicily and it is broadly coincident with the upper part of the drainage basin of the river Po, which rises from the slopes of Monviso in the west of the region and is Italy’s largest river. The Po collects all the waters provided within the semicircle of mountains which surround the region on three sides, from the highest peaks the land slopes down to hilly areas, and then to the upper, and then to the lower great Padan Plain. 7. 6% of the territory is considered protected area. There are 56 different national or regional parks, one of the most famous is the Gran Paradiso National Park located between Piedmont and the Aosta Valley, Piedmont was inhabited in early historic times by Celtic-Ligurian tribes such as the Taurini and the Salassi. They were later subdued by the Romans, who founded several colonies there including Augusta Taurinorum, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region was repeatedly invaded by the Burgundians, the Goths, Byzantines, Lombards, Franks. In the 9th–10th centuries there were incursions by the Magyars. At the time Piedmont, as part of the Kingdom of Italy within the Holy Roman Empire, was subdivided into several marks, in 1046, Oddo of Savoy added Piedmont to their main territory of Savoy, with a capital at Chambéry. Other areas remained independent, such as the powerful comuni of Asti and Alessandria, the County of Savoy was elevated to a duchy in 1416, and Duke Emanuele Filiberto moved the seat to Turin in 1563. In 1720, the Duke of Savoy became King of Sardinia, founding what evolved into the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Republic of Alba was created in 1796 as a French client republic in Piedmont. A new client republic, the Piedmontese Republic, existed between 1798 and 1799 before it was reoccupied by Austrian and Russian troops, in June 1800 a third client republic, the Subalpine Republic, was established in Piedmont. It fell under full French control in 1801 and it was annexed by France in September 1802, in the congress of Vienna, the Kingdom of Sardinia was restored, and furthermore received the Republic of Genoa to strengthen it as a barrier against France. Piedmont was a springboard for Italys unification in 1859–1861, following earlier unsuccessful wars against the Austrian Empire in 1820–1821 and this process is sometimes referred to as Piedmontisation. However, the efforts were countered by the efforts of rural farmers
34.
Camel train
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A camel train or caravan is a series of camels carrying passengers and/or goods on a regular or semi-regular service between points. Camel trains were used sparingly elsewhere around the globe but during the 20th century they have been largely replaced by motorized vehicles or air traffic. By far the greatest use of camel trains occurs between North and West Africa by the Tuareg, Shuwa and Hassaniyya, as well as by culturally-affiliated groups like the Toubou, Hausa and these camel trains conduct trade in and around the Sahara Desert and Sahel. Trains travel as far south as central Nigeria and northern Cameroon in the west, in antiquity, the Arabian Peninsula was an important route for the trade with India and Abyssinia. Camel trains have long been used in portions of trans-Asian trade. As late as the twentieth century, camel caravans played an important role connecting the Beijing/Shanxi region of eastern China with Mongolian centers. The routes went across Inner and/or Outer Mongolia, United States The history of camel trains in the United States consists mainly of an experiment by the United States Army. On April 29,1856, thirty-three camels and five drivers arrived at Indianola, while camels were suited to the job of transport in the American Southwest, the experiment failed. Their stubbornness and aggressiveness made them unpopular among soldiers, and they frightened horses, many of the camels were sold to private owners, others escaped into the desert. These feral camels continued to be sighted through the early 20th century, British Columbia, Canada Camels were used from 1862 to 1863 in British Columbia, Canada during the Cariboo Gold Rush. Less important caravan routes served various other areas of northern China, such as most centers in todays Gansu, Ningxia, some of the oldest Hohhot-based caravan firms had a history dating to the early Qing Dynasty. Each of the rank-and-file caravan men, known as the camel-pullers, was in charge of one such file. Two files formed a ba, and the camel-pullers of the two files would help each other when loading cargo on the camels at the beginning of days march or unloading it when halted. To do their job properly camel-pullers had to be experts on camels, as Lattimore comments, because there is no good doctoring known for him when he is sick, they must learn how to keep him well. Put no more on this beast. » A caravan could consist of 150 or so camels, the caravan could carry a number of paying passengers as well, who would alternate between riding on top of a camel load and walking. Camel-pullers salary was low, although they were also fed and provided with tent space at the caravan owners expense. The caravan peoples food was mostly based around oat and millet flour, a sheep would be bought from the Mongols and slaughtered every now and then, and tea was the usual daily drink, as fresh vegetables were scarce, scurvy was a danger. Besides the paid cargo and the food and gear for the men and it was estimated that, when leaving its point of origin, for every 100 loads of merchandise the caravan would carry around 30 loads of fodder
35.
Ethiopia
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Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north and northeast, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south. With nearly 100 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world and it occupies a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres, and its capital and largest city is Addis Ababa. Some of the oldest evidence for modern humans has been found in Ethiopia. It is widely considered as the region from modern humans first set out for the Middle East. According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations settled in the Horn region during the ensuing Neolithic era, tracing its roots to the 2nd millennium BC, Ethiopia was a monarchy for most of its history. During the first centuries AD, the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region, subsequently, many African nations adopted the colors of Ethiopias flag following their independence. It was the first independent African member of the 20th-century League of Nations, Ethiopias ancient Geez script, also known as Ethiopic, is one of the oldest alphabets still in use in the world. The Ethiopian calendar, which is seven years and three months behind the Gregorian calendar, co-exists alongside the Borana calendar. A slight majority of the population adheres to Christianity, while around a third follows Islam, the country is the site of the Migration to Abyssinia and the oldest Muslim settlement in Africa at Negash. A substantial population of Ethiopian Jews, known as Bete Israel, resided in Ethiopia until the 1980s, Ethiopia is a multilingual nation with around 80 ethnolinguistic groups, the four largest of which are the Oromiffa, Amhara, Somali, and Tigrayans. Most people in the country speak Afroasiatic languages of the Cushitic or Semitic branches, additionally, Omotic languages are spoken by ethnic minority groups inhabiting the southern regions. Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by the nations Nilotic ethnic minorities. Ethiopia is the place of origin for the coffee bean which originated from the place called Kefa and it is a land of natural contrasts, with its vast fertile West, jungles, and numerous rivers, and the worlds hottest settlement of Dallol in its north. The Ethiopian Highlands are Africas largest continuous mountain ranges, and Sof Omar Caves contain Africas largest cave, Ethiopia has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Africa. Ethiopia is one of the members of the UN, the Group of 24, the Non-Aligned Movement, G-77. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ethiopia suffered from civil wars, the country has begun to recover recently however, and now has the largest economy in East Africa and Central Africa. According to Global Fire Power, Ethiopia has the 42nd most powerful military in the world, the origin of the word Ethiopia is uncertain
36.
Afar Triangle
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The Afar Triangle is a geological depression caused by the Afar Triple Junction, which is part of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa. The Depression overlaps the borders of Eritrea, Djibouti and the entire Afar Region of Ethiopia, the Awash River is the main waterflow into the region, but it runs dry during the annual dry season, and ends as a chain of saline lakes. The northern part of the Afar Depression is also known as the Danakil Depression, the lowlands are affected by heat, drought, and minimal air circulation, and contain the hottest places of anywhere on Earth. Many important fossil localities exist in the Afar region, including the Middle Awash region and the sites of Hadar, Dikika and these sites have produced specimens of the earliest hominins and of human tool culture, as well as many fossils of various flora and fauna. Dallol in the Danakil Depression is one of the hottest places year-round anywhere on Earth, there is no rain for most of the year, the yearly rainfall averages range from 100 to 200 millimetres, with even less rain falling closer to the coast. The climate varies from around 25 °C during the short rainy season to 48 °C during the dry season. About 128 kilometres from the Red Sea the Awash ends in a chain of salt lakes, some 1,200 km2 of the Afar Depression is covered by salt deposits, and mining salt is a major source of income for many Afar groups. The Afar Depression biome is characterized as desert scrubland, vegetation is mostly confined to drought-resistant plants such as small trees, shrubs, and grasses. Wildlife includes many such as Grevys zebra, Soemmerings gazelle, beisa and, notably. Birds include the ostrich, the endemic Archers lark, the bird, Arabian and kori bustards, Abyssinian roller. In the southern part of the lies the Mille-Sardo Wildlife Reserve in Ethiopia. The Afar Triangle is a source of the earliest hominins. In 1994, near the Awash River in Ethiopia, Tim D. White found the then-oldest known human ancestor,4.4 million-year-old Ar. ramidus. A fossilized almost complete skeleton of a female hominin which he named Ardi, it took nearly 15 years to excavate, preserve. The Afar Depression is the product of a tectonic triple-rifts junction, where the ridges forming the Red Sea. The conjunction of three plates of Earths crust is near Lake Abbe. The Afar Depression is one of two places on Earth where a mid-ocean ridge can be studied on land, the other being Iceland. Within the Triangle, the Earths crust is slowly rifting apart at a rate of 1–2 centimetres per year each of the three rift zones forming the legs of the triple junction
37.
Lake Afrera
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Lake Afrera is a hypersaline lake in northern Ethiopia. Located in Administrative Zone 2 of the Afar Region, it is one of the lakes of the Danakil Depression, according to its entry in Lakenet, it has a surface area of 100 km2, although another source states the area is 12,500 hectares. An unconfirmed report gives its depth as 160 m, the lake is fed by underground streams and it is also known as Lake Giulietti, the name Raimondo Franchetti bequeathed it, after the Italian explorer Giuseppe Maria Giulietti who was slain by Afars southwest of the lake. Another name for body of water is Lake Egogi, which is the name L. M. Nesbitts Afar guide gave it when the Italian explorer became the first European to see it in 1928. The single island in Lake Afrera, Franchetti Island, located in the part of the lake, is considered the lowest-lying island in the world. Unlike other saline lakes in Ethiopia, the pH of Lake Afrera is low, although little studied, a few species of fish are hosted by Lake Afrera, including two endemics, Danakilia franchettii and Aphanius stiassnyae. Rock salt has been mined at Lake Afrera, and the part of the Afar Depression. Lt. Often, he added, on going to a place which the evening before was quite solid, you break through. But what is more frightful is the overflow of the waters, sometimes the lake rises like a mountain, more recently, the Ethiopian Mineral Resources Development Enterprise has established the existence of 290 million tons of salt at Lake Afrera alone. Some local companies used to salt from the lake by pumping the brine into artificial ponds for evaporation. Following the 2011 eruption of Nabro, the lake is contaminated with sulfuric acid, making the salt inedible
38.
Ethiopian Highlands
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The Ethiopian Highlands is a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia, situated in the Horn region in Northeast Africa. It forms the largest continuous area of its altitude in the continent, with little of its surface falling below 1500 m and it is sometimes called the Roof of Africa due to its height and large area. Most of the Ethiopian Highlands are part of central and northern Ethiopia, in the southern parts of the Ethiopian Highlands once was located the Kingdom of Kaffa, a medieval early modern state, whence the coffee plant was exported to the Arabian peninsula. The land of the kingdom is mountainous with stretches of forest. The land is fertile, capable of three harvests a year. The term coffee derives from the Arabic qahwah and is traced to Kaffa, the Highlands are divided into northwestern and southeastern portions by the Main Ethiopian Rift, which contains a number of salt lakes. The northwestern portion, which covers the Tigray and Amhara Regions, includes the Semien Mountains and its highest peak, Ras Dashan, is the highest peak in Ethiopia. Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile, also lies in the portion of the Ethiopian Highlands. The southeastern portions highest peaks are located in the Bale Zone of Ethiopias Oromia Region, the Bale Mountains, also designated a national park, are nearly as high as those of Semien. The range includes peaks of over 4000 m, among these are Mount Tullu Demtu, which is the second-highest peak in Ethiopia, and Mount Batu. Most of the major cities are located at elevations of around 2, 000–2,500 m above sea level, including historic capitals such as Gondar. The Ethiopian Highlands began to rise 75 million years ago, as magma from the Earths mantle uplifted a broad dome of the ancient rocks of the Arabian-Nubian Shield. Around 30 million years ago, a basalt plateau began to form. Most of the flows were tholeiitic, save for a layer of alkali basalts and minor amounts of felsic volcanic rocks. In the waning stages of the flood basalt episode, large explosive caldera-forming eruptions also occurred, the Ethiopian Highlands were eventually bisected by the Great Rift Valley as the African continental crust pulled apart. This rifting gave rise to large alkaline basalt shield volcanoes beginning about 30–31 million years ago, the predominant climate type of the Ethiopian Highlands is tropical monsoon, and have a climate which is generally considerably cooler than other regions at similar proximity to the Equator. Because the highlands elevate Ethiopia, located close to the equator, further, these mountains catch the precipitation of the monsoon winds of the Indian Ocean, resulting in a rainy season that lasts from June until mid-September. These heavy rains cause the Nile to flood in the summer, the habitats are somewhat different on either side of the Great Rift Valley that splits the highlands
39.
Kingdom of Kaffa
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The Kingdom of Kaffa was an early modern state located in what is now Ethiopia, with its first capital at Bonga. The native language, also known as Kaffa, is one of the Omotic group of languages, the Manjo even had their own king, appointed by the King of Kaffa, and were given the duties of guarding the royal compounds and the gates of the kingdom. The kingdom was overrun and conquered in 1897, and was annexed by Ethiopia. The land where this former kingdom lay is in the parts of the Ethiopian Highlands with stretches of forest. The mountainous land is fertile, capable of three harvests a year. The Kingdom of Kaffa was founded c.1390 by Minjo, however, his informants told Amnon Orent, no one remembers the name of a single one. The first capital Bonga was either founded or captured by Bon-noghe, it was replaced by Anderaccha. During the 16th century, all of the north of the Gojeb River were lost to the Oromo migrations. Also in the later 16th century, the Emperor of Ethiopia Sarsa Dengel convinced the kingdom to officially accept Christianity as its state religion. As a result, the church of St. George was dedicated at Baha, beginning with Gali Ginocho, the kings of Kaffa began to expand the borders of their kingdom, annexing the neighboring small Gimira states of She, Benesho and Majango. It was during the reign of King Hoti Gaocho, that the territory of the Kaffa kings reached its maximum. According to Orent, the traditions of the Kaffa people relate that he ruled far and wide, conquering wherever he went, Kaffa was then held as a fief by Wolde Giyogis until 1914. The inhabitants suffered greatly from slave-raiding during the de facto rule of Lij Iyasu, during the reorganization of the provinces in 1942, the former kingdom was enlarged by the addition of a number of other kingdoms from the Gibe region to become Kaffa Province. In Kaffa, Maria Theresa Thalers and salt blocks called amoleh were used as currency as late as 1905, the economy was based on exports of gold, civet oil, and slaves. Crops raised included coffee and cotton, however, according to Richard Pankhurst, the amount of coffee exported was never large, he cites an estimate for its production in the 1880s at 50,000 to 60,000 kilograms a year. Livestock was raised, and honeybees kept in barrels which were hung in trees, werner Lange, History of the Southern Gonga
40.
Nepal
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Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked central Himalayan country in South Asia. Nepal is divided into 7 provinces and 75 districts and 744 local units including 4 metropolises,13 sub-metropolises,246 municipal councils and 481 village and it has a population of 26.4 million and is the 93rd largest country by area. Bordering China in the north and India in the south, east, Nepal does not border Bangladesh, which is located within only 27 km of its southeastern tip. It neither borders Bhutan due to the Indian state of Sikkim being located in between, Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, and eight of the worlds ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Kathmandu is the capital and largest city. It is a nation with Nepali as the official language. The territory of Nepal has a history since the Neolithic age. The name Nepal is first recorded in texts from the Vedic Age, the era which founded Hinduism, in the middle of the first millennium BCE, Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in southern Nepal. Parts of northern Nepal were intertwined with the culture of Tibet, the Kathmandu Valley in central Nepal became known as Nepal proper because of its complex urban civilization. It was the seat of the prosperous Newar confederacy known as Nepal Mandala, the Himalayan branch of the ancient Silk Road was dominated by the valleys traders. The cosmopolitan region developed distinct traditional art and architecture, by the 18th century, the Gorkha Kingdom achieved the unification of Nepal. The Shah dynasty established the Kingdom of Nepal and later formed an alliance with the British Empire, the country was never colonized but served as a buffer state between Imperial China and Colonial India. In the 20th century, Nepal ended its isolation and forged ties with regional powers. Parliamentary democracy was introduced in 1951, but was suspended by Nepalese monarchs in 1960 and 2005. The Nepalese Civil War resulted in the proclamation of a republic in 2008, modern Nepal is a federal secular parliamentary republic. Nepal is a nation, ranking 144th on the Human Development Index in 2016. The country struggles with the transition from a monarchy to a republic and it also suffers from high levels of hunger and poverty. Despite these challenges, Nepal is making progress, with the government declaring its commitment to elevate the nation from least developed country status by 2022
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Tibet
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Tibet is a region on the Tibetan Plateau in Asia, spanning about 2.4 million km2 and nearly a quarter of Chinas territory. Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an elevation of 4,900 metres. The highest elevation in Tibet is Mount Everest, Earths highest mountain, the Tibetan Empire emerged in the 7th century, but with the fall of the empire the region soon divided into a variety of territories. The current borders of Tibet were generally established in the 18th century, following the Xinhai Revolution against the Qing dynasty in 1912, Qing soldiers were disarmed and escorted out of Tibet Area. The region subsequently declared its independence in 1913 without recognition by the subsequent Chinese Republican government, later, Lhasa took control of the western part of Xikang, China. There are tensions regarding Tibets political status and dissident groups that are active in exile and it is also said that Tibetan activists in Tibet have been arrested or tortured. The economy of Tibet is dominated by agriculture, though tourism has become a growing industry in recent decades. The dominant religion in Tibet is Tibetan Buddhism, in there is Bön, which is similar to Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism is an influence on the art, music. Tibetan architecture reflects Chinese and Indian influences, staple foods in Tibet are roasted barley, yak meat, and butter tea. The Tibetan name for their land, Bod བོད་, means Tibet or Tibetan Plateau, although it meant the central region around Lhasa. The Standard Tibetan pronunciation of Bod, is transcribed Bhö in Tournadre Phonetic Transcription, Bö in the THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription and Poi in Tibetan pinyin. Tibetan people, language, and culture, regardless of where they are from, are referred to as Zang although the geographical term Xīzàng is often limited to the Tibet Autonomous Region. The term Xīzàng was coined during the Qing dynasty in the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor through the addition of a prefix meaning west to Zang, the best-known medieval Chinese name for Tibet is Tubo. This name first appears in Chinese characters as 土番 in the 7th century, in the Middle Chinese spoken during that period, as reconstructed by William H. Baxter, 土番 was pronounced thux-phjon and 吐蕃 was pronounced thux-pjon. Other pre-modern Chinese names for Tibet include Wusiguo, Wusizang, Tubote, the English word Tibet or Thibet dates back to the 18th century. Historical linguists generally agree that Tibet names in European languages are loanwords from Semitic Ṭībat orTūbātt, itself deriving from Turkic Töbäd, literally, according to Matthew Kapstein, From the perspective of historical linguistics, Tibetan most closely resembles Burmese among the major languages of Asia. More controversial is the theory that the Tibeto-Burman family is part of a larger language family, called Sino-Tibetan
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Himalayas
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The Himalayas, or Himalaya, form a mountain range in Asia separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The Himalayan range has the Earths highest peaks, including the highest, the Himalayas include over a hundred mountains exceeding 7,200 metres in elevation. By contrast, the highest peak outside Asia – Aconcagua, in the Andes – is 6,961 metres tall. The Himalayas are spread across five countries, Bhutan, India, Nepal, China, the Himalayan range is bordered on the northwest by the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges, on the north by the Tibetan Plateau, and on the south by the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Some of the major rivers, the Indus, the Ganges, and the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, rise in the Himalayas. The Himalayas have profoundly shaped the cultures of South Asia, many Himalayan peaks are sacred in Hinduism and Buddhism. Lifted by the subduction of the Indian tectonic plate under the Eurasian Plate and its western anchor, Nanga Parbat, lies just south of the northernmost bend of Indus river. Its eastern anchor, Namcha Barwa, is just west of the bend of the Tsangpo river. The range varies in width from 400 kilometres in the west to 150 kilometres in the east, the name of the range derives from the Sanskrit Himā-laya, from himá and ā-laya. They are now known as the Himalaya Mountains, usually shortened to the Himalayas, formerly, they were described in the singular as the Himalaya. This was also previously transcribed Himmaleh, as in Emily Dickinsons poetry and Henry David Thoreaus essays. The mountains are known as the Himālaya in Nepali and Hindi, the Himalaya or The Land of Snow in Tibetan, the Hamaleh Mountain Range in Urdu, the flora and fauna of the Himalayas vary with climate, rainfall, altitude, and soils. The climate ranges from tropical at the base of the mountains to permanent ice, the amount of yearly rainfall increases from west to east along the southern front of the range. This diversity of altitude, rainfall and soil conditions combined with the high snow line supports a variety of distinct plant. The extremes of high altitude combined with extreme cold favor extremophile organisms, the unique floral and faunal wealth of the Himalayas is undergoing structural and compositional changes due to climate change. The increase in temperature is shifting various species to higher elevations, the oak forest is being invaded by pine forests in the Garhwal Himalayan region. There are reports of early flowering and fruiting in some species, especially rhododendron, apple. The highest known tree species in the Himalayas is Juniperus tibetica located at 4,900 metres in Southeastern Tibet, the Himalayan range is one of the youngest mountain ranges on the planet and consists mostly of uplifted sedimentary and metamorphic rock
