Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. Crete and a number of surrounding islands and islets constitute the region of Crete, one of the 13 top-level administrative units of Greece; the capital and the largest city is Heraklion. As of 2011, the region had a population of 623,065. Crete forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece, while retaining its own local cultural traits, it was once the centre of the Minoan civilisation, the earliest known civilisation in Europe. The palace of Knossos lies in Crete; the island is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari dating from the 18th century BC, repeated in Neo-Assyrian records and the Bible. It was known in ancient Egyptian as Keftiu suggesting a similar Minoan name for the island; the current name of Crete is thought to be first attested in Mycenaean Greek texts written in Linear B, through the words ke-re-te, ke-re-si-jo, "Cretan".
In Ancient Greek, the name Crete first appears in Homer's Odyssey. Its etymology is unknown. One proposal derives it from a hypothetical Luwian word, *kursatta. In Latin, it became Creta; the original Arabic name of Crete was Iqrīṭiš, but after the Emirate of Crete's establishment of its new capital at ربض الخندق Rabḍ al-Ḫandaq, both the city and the island became known as Χάνδαξ or Χάνδακας, which gave Latin and Venetian Candia, from which were derived French Candie and English Candy or Candia. Under Ottoman rule, in Ottoman Turkish, Crete was called Girit. Crete is the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, it is located in the southern part of the Aegean Sea separating the Aegean from the Libyan Sea. The island has an elongated shape: it spans 260 km from east to west, is 60 km at its widest point, narrows to as little as 12 km. Crete covers an area of 8,336 km2, with a coastline of 1,046 km, it lies 160 km south of the Greek mainland. Crete is mountainous, its character is defined by a high mountain range crossing from west to east, formed by three different groups of mountains: The White Mountains or Lefka Ori 2,454 m The Idi Range (Psiloritis 35.18°N 24.82°E / 35.18.
The island has a number of gorges, such as the Samariá Gorge, Imbros Gorge, Kourtaliotiko Gorge, Ha Gorge, Platania Gorge, the Gorge of the Dead and Richtis Gorge and waterfall at Exo Mouliana in Sitia. The rivers of Crete include the Ieropotamos River, the Koiliaris, the Anapodiaris, the Almiros, the Giofyros, Megas Potamos. There are only two freshwater lakes in Crete: Lake Kournas and Lake Agia, which are both in Chania regional unit. Lake Voulismeni at the coast, at Aghios Nikolaos, was a freshwater lake but is now connected to the sea, in Lasithi. Lakes that were created by dams exist in Crete. There are three: the lake of Aposelemis Dam, the lake of Potamos Dam, the lake of Mpramiana Dam. A large number of islands and rocks hug the coast of Crete. Many are visited by tourists, some are only visited by biologists; some are environmentally protected. A small sample of the islands includes: Gramvousa the pirate island opposite the Balo lagoon Elafonisi, which commemorates a shipwreck and an Ottoman massacre Chrysi island, which hosts the largest natural Lebanon cedar forest in Europe Paximadia island where the god Apollo and the goddess Artemis were born The Venetian fort and leper colony at Spinalonga opposite the beach and shallow waters of Elounda Dionysades islands which are in an environmentally protected region together the Palm Beach Forest of Vai in the municipality of Sitia, LasithiOff the south coast, the island of Gavdos is located 26 nautical miles south of Hora Sfakion and is the southernmost point of Europe.
Crete straddles two climatic zones, the Mediterranean and the North African falling within the former. As such, the climate in Crete is Mediterranean; the atmosphere can be quite humid, depending on the proximity to the sea, while winter is mild. Snowfall is rare in the low-lying areas. While some mountain tops are snow-capped for most of the year, near the coast snow only stays on the ground for a few minutes or hours. However, a exceptional cold snap swept the island in February 2004, during which period the whole island was blanketed with snow. During the Cretan summer, average temperatures reach the high 20s-low 30s Celsius, with maxima touching the upper 30s-mid 40s; the south coast, including the Mesara Pla
Serpentinite
Serpentinite is a rock composed of one or more serpentine group minerals, the name originating from the similarity of the texture of the rock to that of the skin of a snake. Minerals in this group, which are rich in magnesium and water, light to dark green, greasy looking and slippery feeling, are formed by serpentinization, a hydration and metamorphic transformation of ultramafic rock from the Earth's mantle; the mineral alteration is important at the sea floor at tectonic plate boundaries. Serpentinization is a geological low-temperature metamorphic process involving heat and water in which low-silica mafic and ultramafic rocks are oxidized and hydrolyzed with water into serpentinite. Peridotite, including dunite, at and near the seafloor and in mountain belts is converted to serpentine, brucite and other minerals — some rare, such as awaruite, native iron. In the process large amounts of water are absorbed into the rock increasing the volume, reducing the density and destroying the structure.
The density changes from 3.3 to 2.7 g/cm3 with a concurrent volume increase on the order of 30-40%. The reaction is exothermic and rock temperatures can be raised by about 260 °C, providing an energy source for formation of non-volcanic hydrothermal vents; the magnetite-forming chemical reactions produce hydrogen gas under anaerobic conditions prevailing deep in the mantle, far from the Earth's atmosphere. Carbonates and sulfates are subsequently reduced by hydrogen sulfide; the hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide provide energy sources for deep sea chemotroph microorganisms. Serpentinite is formed from olivine via several reactions. Olivine is a solid solution between the magnesium-endmember forsterite and the iron-endmember fayalite. Serpentinite reaction 1a and 1b, exchange silica between forsterite and fayalite to form serpentine group minerals and magnetite; these are exothermic reactions. Reaction 1c describes the hydration of olivine with water only to yield serpentine and Mg2. Serpentine is stable at high pH in the presence of brucite like calcium silicate hydrate, phases formed along with portlandite in hardened Portland cement paste after the hydration of belite, the artificial calcium equivalent of forsterite.
Analogy of reaction 1c with belite hydration in ordinary Portland cement: After reaction, the poorly soluble reaction products can be transported in solution out of the serpentinized zone by diffusion or advection. A similar suite of reactions involves pyroxene-group minerals, though less and with complication of the additional end-products due to the wider compositions of pyroxene and pyroxene-olivine mixes. Talc and magnesian chlorite are possible products, together with the serpentine minerals antigorite and chrysotile; the final mineralogy depends both on rock and fluid compositions and pressure. Antigorite forms in reactions at temperatures that can exceed 600 °C during metamorphism, it is the serpentine group mineral stable at the highest temperatures. Lizardite and chrysotile can form at low temperatures near the Earth's surface. Fluids involved in serpentinite formation are reactive and may transport calcium and other elements into surrounding rocks. In the presence of carbon dioxide, serpentinitization may form either magnesite or generate methane.
It is thought that some hydrocarbon gases may be produced by serpentinite reactions within the oceanic crust. Or, in balanced form: Reaction 2a is favored if the serpentinite is Mg-poor or if there isn't enough carbon dioxide to promote talc formation. Reaction 2b is favored in magnesian compositions and low partial pressure of carbon dioxide; the degree to which a mass of ultramafic rock undergoes serpentinisation depends on the starting rock composition and on whether or not fluids transport calcium and other elements away during the process. If an olivine composition contains sufficient fayalite olivine plus water can metamorphose to serpentine and magnetite in a closed system. In most ultramafic rocks formed in the Earth's mantle, the olivine is about 90% forsterite endmember, for that olivine to react to serpentine, magnesium must be transported out of the reacting volume. Serpentinitization of a mass of peridotite destroys all previous textural evidence because the serpentine minerals are weak and behave in a ductile fashion.
However, some masses of serpentinite are less deformed, as evidenced by the apparent preservation of textures inherited from the peridotite, the serpentinites may have behaved in a rigid fashion. Serpentine is the product of the reaction between fayalite's ferrous ions. Considering three formula units of fayalite for the purpose of stoichiometry and reaction mass balance, four ferrous ions will undergo oxidation by water protons while the two remaining will stay unoxidised. Neglecting the orthosilicate anions not involved in the redox process, it is possible to schematically write the two half-redox reactions as follows: The process is of interest because it generates hydrogen gas; the two unoxidised ferrous ions still available in the three formula units of fayalite combine with the four ferric cations and oxide anions to form two formula units of magnetite. Considering the required rearrangement of the orthosilicate anions into
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, or Rio, is anchor to the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area and the second-most populous municipality in Brazil and the sixth-most populous in the Americas. Rio de Janeiro is the capital of the state of Brazil's third-most populous state. Part of the city has been designated as a World Heritage Site, named "Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea", by UNESCO on 1 July 2012 as a Cultural Landscape. Founded in 1565 by the Portuguese, the city was the seat of the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, a domain of the Portuguese Empire. In 1763, it became the capital of the State of Brazil, a state of the Portuguese Empire. In 1808, when the Portuguese Royal Court transferred itself from Portugal to Brazil, Rio de Janeiro became the chosen seat of the court of Queen Maria I of Portugal, who subsequently, in 1815, under the leadership of her son, the Prince Regent, future King João VI of Portugal, raised Brazil to the dignity of a kingdom, within the United Kingdom of Portugal and Algarves.
Rio stayed the capital of the pluricontinental Lusitanian monarchy until 1822, when the War of Brazilian Independence began. This is one of the few instances in history that the capital of a colonising country shifted to a city in one of its colonies. Rio de Janeiro subsequently served as the capital of the independent monarchy, the Empire of Brazil, until 1889, the capital of a republican Brazil until 1960 when the capital was transferred to Brasília. Rio de Janeiro has the second largest municipal GDP in the country, 30th largest in the world in 2008, estimated at about R$343 billion, it is headquarters to Brazilian oil and telecommunications companies, including two of the country's major corporations – Petrobras and Vale – and Latin America's largest telemedia conglomerate, Grupo Globo. The home of many universities and institutes, it is the second-largest center of research and development in Brazil, accounting for 17% of national scientific output according to 2005 data. Despite the high perception of crime, the city has a lower incidence of crime than Northeast Brazil, but it is far more criminalized than the south region of Brazil, considered the safest in the country.
Rio de Janeiro is one of the most visited cities in the Southern Hemisphere and is known for its natural settings, samba, bossa nova, balneario beaches such as Barra da Tijuca, Copacabana and Leblon. In addition to the beaches, some of the most famous landmarks include the giant statue of Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado mountain, named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Rio de Janeiro was the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2016 Summer Paralympics, making the city the first South American and Portuguese-speaking city to host the events, the third time the Olympics were held in a Southern Hemisphere city; the Maracanã Stadium held the finals of the 1950 and 2014 FIFA World Cups, the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, the XV Pan American Games. Europeans first encountered Guanabara Bay on 1 January 1502, by a Portuguese expedition under explorer Gaspar de Lemos, captain of a ship in Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet, or under Gonçalo Coelho; the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci participated as observer at the invitation of King Manuel I in the same expedition.
The region of Rio was inhabited by the Tupi, Puri and Maxakalí peoples. In 1555, one of the islands of Guanabara Bay, now called Villegagnon Island, was occupied by 500 French colonists under the French admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon. Villegagnon built Fort Coligny on the island when attempting to establish the France Antarctique colony; the city of Rio de Janeiro proper was founded by the Portuguese on 1 March 1565 and was named São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro, in honour of St. Sebastian, the saint, the namesake and patron of the Portuguese then-monarch Sebastião. Rio de Janeiro was the name of Guanabara Bay; until early in the 18th century, the city was threatened or invaded by several French pirates and buccaneers, such as Jean-François Duclerc and René Duguay-Trouin. In the late 17th century, still during the Sugar Era, the Bandeirantes discovered gold and diamonds in the neighbouring captaincy of Minas Gerais, thus Rio de Janeiro became a much more practical port for exporting wealth than Salvador, much farther northeast.
On 27 January 1763, the colonial administration in Portuguese America was moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro. The city remained a colonial capital until 1808, when the Portuguese royal family and most of the associated Lisbon nobles, fleeing from Napoleon's invasion of Portugal, moved to Rio de Janeiro; the kingdom's capital was transferred to the city, thus, became the only European capital outside of Europe. As there was no physical space or urban structure to accommodate hundreds of noblemen who arrived many inhabitants were evicted from their homes. In the first decades, several educational establishments were created, such as the Military Academy, the Royal School of Sciences and Crafts and the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, as well as the National Library of Brazil – with the largest collection in Latin America – and The Botanical Garden; the first printed newspaper in Brazil, the Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro, came into circulation during this period. When Brazil was elevated to Kingdom in 1815, it
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Greenland and Alaska. The Inuit languages are part of the Eskimo–Aleut family. Inuit Sign Language is a critically endangered language isolate used in Nunavut. In Canada and the States, the term "Eskimo" was used by ethnic Europeans to describe the Inuit and Siberia's and Alaska's Yupik and Iñupiat peoples. However, "Inuit" is not accepted as a term for the Yupik, "Eskimo" is the only term that applies to Yupik, Iñupiat and Inuit. Since the late 20th century, Indigenous peoples in Canada and Greenlandic Inuit consider "Eskimo" to be a pejorative term, they more identify as "Inuit" for an autonym. In Canada, sections 25 and 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982 classified the Inuit as a distinctive group of Aboriginal Canadians who are not included under either the First Nations or the Métis; the Inuit live throughout most of Northern Canada in the territory of Nunavut, Nunavik in the northern third of Quebec and NunatuKavut in Labrador, in various parts of the Northwest Territories around the Arctic Ocean.
These areas are known in the Inuktitut language as the "Inuit Nunangat". In the United States, the Iñupiat live on the Alaska North Slope and on Little Diomede Island; the Greenlandic Inuit are descendants of ancient indigenous migrations from Canada, as these people migrated to the east through the continent. They are citizens of Denmark. Inuit are the descendants of what anthropologists call the Thule people, who emerged from western Alaska around 1000 CE, they had split from the related Aleut group about 4000 years ago and from northeastern Siberian migrants related to the Chukchi language group, still earlier, descended from the third major migration from Siberia. They spread eastwards across the Arctic, they displaced the related Dorset culture, called the Tuniit in Inuktitut, the last major Paleo-Eskimo culture. Inuit legends speak of the Tuniit as people who were taller and stronger than the Inuit. Less the legends refer to the Dorset as "dwarfs". Researchers believe that Inuit society had advantages by having adapted to using dogs as transport animals, developing larger weapons and other technologies superior to those of the Dorset culture.
By 1300, Inuit migrants had reached west Greenland. During the next century, they settled in East Greenland Faced with population pressures from the Thule and other surrounding groups, such as the Algonquian and Siouan-speaking peoples to the south, the Tuniit receded; the Tuniit were thought to have become extinct as a people by about 1400 or 1500. But, in the mid-1950s, researcher Henry B. Collins determined that, based on the ruins found at Native Point, the Sadlermiut were the last remnants of the Dorset culture, or Tuniit; the Sadlermiut population survived up until winter 1902–03, when exposure to new infectious diseases brought by contact with Europeans led to their extinction as a people. In the early 21st century, mitochondrial DNA research has supported the theory of continuity between the Tuniit and the Sadlermiut peoples, it provided evidence that a population displacement did not occur within the Aleutian Islands between the Dorset and Thule transition. In contrast to other Tuniit populations, the Aleut and Sadlermiut benefited from both geographical isolation and their ability to adopt certain Thule technologies.
In Canada and Greenland, Inuit circulated exclusively north of the "arctic tree line", the effective southern border of Inuit society. The most southern "officially recognized" Inuit community in the world is Rigolet in Nunatsiavut. South of Nunatsiavut, the descendants of the southern Labrador Inuit in NunatuKavut continued their traditional transhumant semi-nomadic way of life until the mid-1900s; the Nunatukavummuit people moved among islands and bays on a seasonal basis. They did not establish stationary communities. In other areas south of the tree line, non-Inuit indigenous cultures were well established; the culture and technology of Inuit society that served so well in the Arctic were not suited to subarctic regions, so they did not displace their southern neighbors. Inuit had trade relations with more southern cultures. Warfare was not uncommon among those Inuit groups with sufficient population density. Inuit such as the Nunamiut, who inhabited the Mackenzie River delta area engaged in warfare.
The more sparsely settled Inuit in the Central Arctic, did so less often. Their first European contact was with the Vikings who settled in Greenland and explored the eastern Canadian coast; the sagas recorded meeting skrælingar an undifferentiated label for all the indigenous peoples whom the Norse encountered, whether Tuniit, Inuit, or Beothuk. After about 1350, the climate grew colder during the period known as the Little Ice Age. During this period, Alaskan natives were able to continue their whaling activities. But, in the high Arctic, the Inuit were forced to abandon their hunting and whaling sites as bowhead whales disappeared from Canada and Greenland; these Inuit had to subsist on a much poorer diet, lost access to the essential raw materials for their tools and architecture which they had derived from whaling. The changing climate forced the Inuit to work their way south, pushing them into marginal niches along the edges of the tree line; these were areas which Native Americans had not occupied or where they were weak enough for the Inuit to live near them.
Researchers have difficulty defining when Inuit stopped this territorial
Schist
Schist is a medium-grade metamorphic rock. Schist has medium to large, sheet-like grains in a preferred orientation, it is defined by having more than 50% platy and elongated minerals finely interleaved with quartz and feldspar. These lamellar minerals include micas, talc, hornblende and others. Quartz occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is produced. Schist is garnetiferous. Schist has larger grains than phyllite. Geological foliation with medium to large grained flakes in a preferred sheetlike orientation is called schistosity; the names of various schists are derived from their mineral constituents. For example, schists composed of biotite and muscovite are called mica schists. Most schists are mica schists, but graphite and chlorite schists are common. Schists are named for their prominent or unusual mineral constituents, as in the case of garnet schist, tourmaline schist, glaucophane schist; the individual mineral grains in schist, drawn out into flaky scales by heat and pressure, can be seen with the naked eye.
Schist is characteristically foliated, meaning that the individual mineral grains split off into flakes or slabs. The word schist is derived from the Greek word σχίζειν meaning "to split", a reference to the ease with which schists can be split along the plane in which the platy minerals lie. Most schists are derived from clays and muds that have passed through a series of metamorphic processes involving the production of shales and phyllites as intermediate steps. Certain schists are derived from fine-grained igneous rocks such as tuffs. Before the mid-18th century, the terms slate and schist were not differentiated by those involved with mining. During metamorphism, rocks which were sedimentary, igneous or metamorphic are converted into schists and gneisses. If the composition of the rocks was similar, they may be difficult to distinguish from one another if the metamorphism has been great. A quartz-porphyry, for example, a fine grained feldspathic sandstone, may both be converted into a grey or pink mica-schist.
However, it is possible to distinguish between sedimentary and igneous schists and gneisses. If, for example, the whole district occupied by these rocks has traces of bedding, clastic structure, or unconformability it may be a sign that the original rock was sedimentary. In other cases intrusive junctions, chilled edges, contact alteration or porphyritic structure may prove that in its original condition a metamorphic gneiss was an igneous rock; the last appeal is to the chemistry, for there are certain rock types which occur only as sediments, while others are found only among igneous masses, however advanced the metamorphism may be, it modifies the chemical composition of the mass greatly. Such rocks as limestones, dolomites and aluminous shales have definite chemical characteristics which distinguish them when recrystallized; the schists are classified principally according to the minerals they consist of and on their chemical composition. For example, many metamorphic limestones and calc-schists, with crystalline dolomites, contain silicate minerals such as mica, diopside, scapolite and feldspar.
They are derived from calcareous sediments of different degrees of purity. Another group is rich in quartz, with variable amounts of white and black mica, feldspar and hornblende; these were once arenaceous rocks. The graphitic schists may be believed to represent sediments once containing coal or plant remains. Among schists of igneous origin there are the silky calc-schists, the foliated serpentines, the white mica-schists and banded halleflintas, which have been derived from rhyolites, quartz-porphyries and felsic tuffs; the majority of mica-schists, are altered claystones and shales, pass into the normal sedimentary rocks through various types of phyllite and mica-slates. They are among the most common metamorphic rocks; the diversity in appearance and composition is great, but they form a well-defined group not difficult to recognize, from the abundance of black and white micas and their thin, schistose character. A subgroup is the andalusite-, staurolite-, kyanite- and sillimanite-schists which make their appearance in the vicinity of gneissose granites, have been affected by contact metamorphism.
In geotechnical engineering a schistosity plane forms a discontinuity that may have a large influence on the mechanical behavior of rock masses in, for example, foundation, or slope construction. List of rock textures – A list of rock textural and morphological terms Greenschist Pelite An Examination of Mica Schist by Andrea Samuels, Micscape magazine. Photographs of Manhattan schist. by USGS: Idaho, Univ. of Idaho, articles cited
Ife
Ife is an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria. The city is located in present day Osun State. Ife is about 218 kilometers northeast of Lagos with a population of 509,813. According to the Yoruba religion Ife was founded by the order of the Supreme God Olodumare to Obatala and fell into the hands of his brother Oduduwa, which created turmoil between the two. Oduduwa created his own dynasty through his sons and daughters that became different rulers of many kingdoms; the first Oòni of Ife is a descendant of Oduduwa, the 401st Orisha. The present ruler since 2015 is Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, Ooni of Ife, a Nigerian accountant. Named as the city of 401 deities Ife is home to many worshipers of these deities which are celebrated through festivals. Along with the culture of Ife, their beliefs extend along the concept of the Ase, which help make art of the Kings and Gods. Ilé-Ifè is famous worldwide for its ancient and naturalistic bronze and terracotta sculptures, dating back to between 1200 and 1400 A.
D. According to Yoruba religion, the Supreme God, ordered Obatala to create the earth, but on his way he found palm wine which he drank and became intoxicated. Therefore, the younger brother of the latter, took the three items of creation from him, climbed down from the heavens on a chain and threw a handful of earth on the primordial ocean put a cockerel on it so that it would scatter the earth, thus creating the land on which Ile Ife would be built. Oduduwa planted a palm nut in a hole in the newly formed land and from there sprang a great tree with sixteen branches, a symbolic representation of the clans of the early Ife city-state; the usurpation of creation, by Oduduwa, gave rise to the ever-lasting conflict between him and his elder brother Obatala, still re-enacted in the modern era by the cult groups of the two clans during the Itapa New Year festival. On account of his creation of the world, Oduduwa became the ancestor of the first divine king of the Yoruba, while Obatala is believed to have created the first Yoruba people out of clay.
The meaning of the word "ife" in Yoruba is "expansion". Oduduwa had sons, a grandson, who went on to found their own kingdoms and empires, namely Ila Orangun, Ketu, Sabe and Oyo. Oranmiyan, Oduduwa's last born, was one of his father's principal ministers and overseer of the nascent Edo empire after Oduduwa granted the plea of the Edo people for his governance; when Oranmiyan decided to go back to Ile Ife, after a period of service in Benin, he left behind a child named Eweka that he had in the interim with an indigenous princess. The young boy went on to become the first legitimate ruler of the second Edo dynasty that has ruled what is now Benin from that day to this. Oranmiyan went on to found the Oyo Empire that stretched at its height from the western banks of the river Niger to the Eastern banks of the river Volta, it would serve as one of the most powerful of Africa's medieval states, prior to its collapse in the 19th century. The Oòni of Ife is a descendant of the godking Oduduwa, is counted first among the Yoruba kings.
He is traditionally considered the only one that speaks. In fact, the royal dynasty of Ife traces its origin back to the founding of the city more than ten thousand years before the birth of Jesus Christ; the present ruler is Adeyeye Ogunwusi, styled His Imperial Majesty by his subjects. The Ooni ascended his throne in 2015. Following the formation of the Yoruba Orisha Congress in 1986, the Ooni acquired an international status the likes of which the holders of his title hadn't had since the city's colonisation by the British. Nationally he had always been prominent amongst the Federal Republic of Nigeria's company of royal Obas, being regarded as the chief priest and custodian of the holy city of all the Yorubas. In former times, the palace of the Ooni of Ife was a structure built of authentic enameled bricks, decorated with artistic porcelain tiles and all sorts of ornaments. At present, it is a more modern series of buildings; the current Ooni, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, Ooni of Ife, is a Nigerian accountant and the 51st Ooni of Ife.
He succeeded the late Oba Okunade Sijuwade, who had died on July 28, 2015. Ife is well known as the city of 401 deities, it is said that every day of the year the traditional worshippers celebrate a festival of one of these deities. The festivals extend over more than one day and they involve both priestly activities in the palace and theatrical dramatisations in the rest of the kingdom; the King only appeared in public during the annual Olojo festival. Kings and Gods were depicted with large heads because the artists believed that the Ase was held in the head, the Ase being the inner power and energy of a person. Both historic figures of Ife and the offices associated with them are represented. One of the best documented among this is the early king Obalufon II, said to have invented bronze casting and is honored in the form of a naturalistic copper life-size mask; the city was a settlement of substantial size between the 12th and 14th centuries, with houses featuring potsherd pavements. Ilé-Ifè is known worldwide for its ancient and naturalistic bronze and terracotta sculptures, which reached their peak of artistic expression between 1200 and 1400 A.
D. In the period around 1300 C. E. the artists at Ife developed a refined and naturalistic sculptural tradition in terracotta and copper alloy - coppe
Christ the Redeemer (statue)
Christ the Redeemer is an Art Deco statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, created by French sculptor Paul Landowski and built by Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, in collaboration with French engineer Albert Caquot. Romanian sculptor Gheorghe Leonida fashioned the face. Constructed between 1922 and 1931, the statue is 30 metres high, excluding its 8-metre pedestal; the arms stretch 28 metres wide. The statue weighs 635 metric tons, is located at the peak of the 700-metre Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro. A symbol of Christianity across the world, the statue has become a cultural icon of both Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, is listed as one of the New7Wonders of the World, it is made of reinforced soapstone. Vincentian priest, Pedro Maria Boss, first suggested placing a Christian monument on Mount Corcovado in the mid 1850s to honor Princess Isabel, regent of Brazil and the daughter of Emperor Pedro II, but the project was not approved.
In 1889 the country became a republic, due to the separation of church and state, the proposed statue was dismissed. The Catholic Circle of Rio made a second proposal for a landmark statue on the mountain in 1920; the group organized an event called Semana do Monumento to attract donations and collect signatures to support the building of the statue. The organization was motivated by; the donations came from Brazilian Catholics. The designs considered for the "Statue of the Christ" included a representation of the Christian cross, a statue of Jesus with a globe in his hands, a pedestal symbolizing the world; the statue of Christ the Redeemer with open arms, a symbol of peace, was chosen. Local engineer Heitor da Silva Costa designed the statue. French sculptor Paul Landowski created the work. In 1922, Landowski commissioned fellow Parisian Romanian sculptor Gheorghe Leonida, who studied sculpture at the Fine Arts Conservatory in Bucharest and in Italy. A group of engineers and technicians studied Landowski's submissions and felt building the structure of reinforced concrete instead of steel was more suitable for the cross-shaped statue.
The concrete making up the base was supplied from Sweden. The outer layers are soapstone, ease of use. Construction took nine years, from 1922 to 1931 and cost the equivalent of US$250,000 and the monument opened on October 12, 1931. During the opening ceremony, the statue was to be lit by a battery of floodlights turned on remotely by Italian shortwave radio inventor Guglielmo Marconi, stationed 9,200 kilometres away in Rome but because of bad weather, the lights were activated on-site. In October 2006, on the 75th anniversary of the statue's completion, Archbishop of Rio, Cardinal Eusebio Oscar Scheid, consecrated a chapel, named after Brazil's patron saint—Our Lady of the Apparition, under the statue, allowing Catholics to hold baptisms and weddings there. Lightning struck the statue during a violent thunderstorm on February 10, 2008, causing some damage to the fingers and eyebrows; the Rio de Janeiro state government initiated a restoration effort to replace some of the outer soapstone layers and repair the lightning rods on the statue.
Lightning damaged it again, on January 2014, dislodging a finger on the right hand. In 2010, a massive restoration of the statue began. Work included cleaning, replacing the mortar and soapstone on the exterior, restoring iron in the internal structure, waterproofing the monument. Vandals attacked the statue during renovation. Mayor Eduardo Paes called the act "a crime against the nation"; the culprits apologized and presented themselves to the police. In reference to Brazil striker Ronaldo's usual goal celebration of both arms outstretched, the Pirelli tyre company ran a 1998 commercial in which he replaced the statue while in an Inter Milan strip; the commercial was controversial with the Catholic Church. In 2015 two Russian and Ukrainian urban explorers, Vadim Makhorov and Vitaly Raskalov from Ontheroofs, climbed the statue with captured video footage and photos. In 1990, several organizations, including the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro, media company Grupo Globo, oil company Shell do Brasil, environmental regulator IBAMA, National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage, the city government of Rio de Janeiro entered an agreement to conduct restoration work.
More work on the statue and its environs was conducted in 2003 and early 2010. In 2003, a set of escalators and elevators were installed to facilitate access to the platform surrounding the statue; the four-month restoration in 2010 focused on the statue itself. The statue's internal structure was renovated and its soapstone mosaic covering was restored by removing a crust of fungi and other microorganisms and repairing small cracks; the lightning rods located in the statue's head and arms were repaired, new lighting fixtures were installed at the foot of the statue. The restoration involved one hundred people and used more than 60,000 pieces of stone taken from the same quarry as the original statue. During the unveiling of the restored statue, it was illuminated with green-and-yellow lighting in support of the Brazil national football team playing in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Maintenance work needs to be conducted periodically due to the strong winds and erosion to which the statue is exposed, as well as lightning strikes.
The original pale stone is no longer available in suff
