1.
Turkish folk music
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Turkish folk music combines the distinct cultural values of all civilisations that have lived in Turkey and its former territories in Europe and Asia. Its unique structure includes regional differences under one umbrella and it was the most popular music genre in the Ottoman Empire era. In the 1960s, Turkish folk music met with radio and folk musicians like Aşık Veysel, Neşet Ertaş, türkü, literally of the Turk, is a name given to Turkish folk songs as opposed to şarkı. Classically, Türküs can be grouped into two categories according to their melodies, Kırık havalar, These have regular melodies, Uzun havalar, These have irregular melodies. These are divided into free-forms or improvisations with no obligatory metrical or rhythmic form, known as Uzun Hava, both can also be employed at the same time. Music generally played without words, and dance tunes, go by the names Halay, Bengi, Karsilamas, Zeybek, Horon, Bar, each region in Turkey has its own special folk dances and costumes. Here are some of the most popular, Hora - A type of circle dance, Horon - This dance is from Black Sea region, was performed by men only living in Trabzon, dressed in black with silver trimmings. Today, the dancers link arms and quiver to the vibrations of the kemenche, kılıç Kalkan - The Sword and Shield Dance of Bursa represents the Ottoman conquest of the city. It is performed by men only, in Ottoman battle-dress, who dance to the sound of clashing swords and shields, Zeybek - In this Aegean dance, dancers, called efe, symbolize courage and heroism. Furthermore, in many Turkish folk songs only part of the scale is used, both forms of music are diatonic, but use notes that are additional to the 12 semitones of western music. In Turkish folk music, for example, some include a note roughly halfway between B and B flat. The scales of Turkish folk music are associated with different regions, and can be known by different names depending on the region, such as, Beşiri, Garip, Kerem, Misket, a wide variety of time signatures are used in Turkish folk music. In addition to simple ones such as 2/4, 4/4 and 3/4, others such as 5/8, 7/8, 9/8, 7/4, combinations of several basic rhythms often results in longer, complex rhythms that fit into time signatures such as 8/8, 10/8, and 12/8. Plucked stringed instruments include the saz, bağlama, tar and Cümbüş. Bowed stringed instruments include the kabak kemane and the kemenche or Pontian Lyra, an old shepherds instrument, made from an eagles wing bone, was the çığırtma. Percussion instruments include drums – davul and nağara – the tambourine-like tef, a mini drum darbuka, melodies of differing types and styles have been created by the people in various spheres and stages of life, joyful or sad, from birth to death. Minstrels, accompanying themselves on the saz, played the most important role in the development, musicias did not use accompaniment with saz, because Turkish Traditional Music was monophonic. Musicians played the melody of a song but, when musicians hit the middle
2.
Turku Cathedral
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Turku Cathedral is the Mother Church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. It is the church of the Archdiocese of Turku and the seat of the Archbishop of Finland. It is also regarded as one of the records of Finnish architectural history. The cathedral is situated in the heart of Turku next to the Old Great Square and its presence extends beyond the local precinct by having the sound of its bells chiming at noon broadcast on national radio. It is also central to Finlands annual Christmas celebrations, the cathedral was originally built out of wood in the late 13th century, and was dedicated as the main cathedral of Finland in 1300, the seat of the bishop of Turku. It was considerably expanded in the 14th and 15th centuries, mainly using stone as the construction material, the cathedral was badly damaged during the Great Fire of Turku in 1827, and was rebuilt to a great extent afterwards. At its earliest the cathedral was smaller than the present building and its east front was where the pulpit stands now, and its roof was considerably lower than at the moment. Extensions were made to the cathedral throughout the Middle Ages, during the 14th century a new choir was added, from which the octagonal Gothic pillars in the present chancel originate. During the 15th century, side-chapels were added along the north and south sides of the nave, by the end of the Middle Ages these numbered 42 in total. The roof-vaults were also raised during the part of the 15th century to their present height of 24 meters. Thus, by the beginning of the Modern era, the church had taken on its present shape. The major later addition to the cathedral is the tower, which has been several times. The worst damage was caused by the Great Fire of Turku in 1827, most of the present interior also dates from the restoration carried out in the 1830s, following the Great Fire. The altarpiece, depicting the Transfiguration of Jesus, was painted in 1836 by the Swedish artist Fredrik Westin, the current main organ of the Cathedral was built by Veikko Virtanen Oy of Espoo, Finland, in 1980 and features 81 ranks with a mechanical action
3.
Per Brahe the Younger
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Count Per Brahe the Younger was a Swedish soldier, statesman, and author. He was a Privy Councillor from 1630 and Lord High Steward from 1640, Brahe was born on Rydboholm in Uppland. Per Brahe the younger, after completing his education by several years’ travel abroad, became in 1626 chamberlain to Gustavus Adolphus, whose lasting friendship he gained. He fought with distinction in Prussia during the last three years of the Polish War and also, as colonel of a regiment of horse, after the death of Gustavus Adolphus in 1632 his military yielded to his political activity. He had been elected president or Lantmarskalk in the Riksdag of 1629, in 1635 he conducted the negotiations for an armistice with Poland. In 1637–1640 and again in 1648–1654 he was Governor General in Finland, to which country he rendered inestimable services by his wise and provident rule. He reformed the administration, introduced a postal system, founded ten new towns, improved and developed commerce and agriculture. In 1640 he opened the Royal Academy of Turku, of which he was the founder, still today the expression Kreivin aikaan, or at Counts Time in the Finnish language means at the correct/good time. The base of his statue in Turku bears the inscription I was well pleased with the land and he died on 2 September 1680 at his castle Bogesund in Uppland. He also held the castles Visingsborg at Visingsö and Brahehus on the mainland by Gränna, the town of Raahe in Finland is named after him. Queen Hedwig Eleonora of Sweden, Dowager, Builder, and Collector, queenship in Europe 1660-1815, The Role of the Consort
4.
Turku Castle
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Turku Castle is a medieval building in the city of Turku in Finland. Together with Turku Cathedral, the castle is one of the oldest buildings still in use in Finland, Turku Castle is the largest surviving medieval building in Finland. It was founded in the late 13th century and stands on the banks of the Aura River, a start was made on building the castle in about 1280. The Swedish conquerors of Finland intended it originally as a military fortress, during the next two centuries its defences were strengthened and living quarters were added. The castle served as a bastion and administrative centre in Eastland, the bailey was also supplemented and the round tower at the southeast corner of the bailey was added. Since then no part of the castle has been added or extended, the castle was ruled in different stages of its history by the castle sheriff, commander, regent, duke or governor-general. Its significance as a fortress and administrative centre varied throughout the ages according to the political situation. Only once did the castle actually figure in the defence of the realm and this was when Russian invaders from Novgorod destroyed Turku in 1318. On the other hand, it played a role in internal struggles for power within Sweden. Not until the end of 16th century did it really enjoy peace, the castle lost its status as an administrative centre in the 17th century after Per Brahes period as governor-general of Finland came to an end. Many accidents have assailed the castle, especially numerous sieges, in 1614, when King Gustav II Adolf visited the castle, a tremendous fire destroyed the wooden structure of the main castle almost completely. After this the castle was abandoned and used partly as a store. A new accident beset the castle in the summer of 1941 soon after the Continuation War had begun when a bomb hit the main castle. The bailey functioned as an administrative centre when the castle stood empty. In addition to the governor-general the lord-lieutenant lived there during the 17th century, one of the most colourful periods in the castles history was when it was a prison from the 18th century to the end of 19th century. The Turku Historical Museum founded in 1881 began its occupation of the immediately after the museum was founded. The renovation of the castle, which was begun before the Second World War, the completely restored castle was handed over on October 12,1993 to the City of Turku which is entrusted with its operation for the Finnish state, its owner. The building is owned and maintained by the Finnish state and is entrusted to the use of the city of Turku, the castle functions in its entirety as a historical museum as part of the Turku provincial museum
5.
Christmas Peace
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Christmas Peace is a tradition based on old Scandinavian legislation created by Birger Jarl in the 13th century, extending the tradition of the Truce of God. Offenders who committed crimes on religious holidays like Christmas were given harsher punishments, today it is a tradition to recommend that people behave in a respectful and peaceful manner at Christmas. The Declaration of Christmas Peace has remained in Finland where it is an part of the Christmas tradition. Declaration of Christmas Peace is announced in several Finnish cities on Christmas Eve, the oldest and most popular event is held at noon at the Old Great Square of the former Finnish capital Turku where the declaration has been read since the 1320s. There may also have been a break between 1800 and 1815, the Turku declaration has been broadcast by the Finnish Broadcasting Company since 1935. National television broadcasts started in 1983 and the Turku declaration has also seen on the Swedish television since 1986. The event can be viewed via the internet as well, besides Turku, the declaration is also announced in some of the oldest Finnish towns like Rauma, Porvoo, Pori and the Estonian city of Tartu. Music has been a part of the event since the 17th century, traditional instruments used include the bagpipes, timpanis and various string instruments. The current format was established in 1903 and it starts with the hymn A Mighty Fortress Is Our God and is followed by the declaration which is announced by a city official at midday. As the declaration is read in Finnish and Swedish, the public sings the Finnish national anthem in both languages afterward, the event ends with March of the Men of Pori which is usually played by a local military band, usually from the Finnish Navy. The present version of the Turku declaration was written down in 1827, the text used differs in other. Finally, a joyous Christmas feast is wished to all inhabitants of the city, Christmas truce of World War I2012 Declaration of Christmas Peace in Turku
6.
Aura (Archipelago Sea)
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The Aura is a river in south-western Finland. Its sources are in the town of Oripää, and it flows through Pöytyä, Aura, the waters of the Aura river are brown. The total length of the river is about 70 kilometres, and it contains eleven rapids, the reserve tap water for Turku Region is drawn from the Aura, the citys secondary waterworks being situated by the Halinen rapids. The word Aura appears to come from an archaic Swedish word for waterway, but in Finnish it translates as plough, situated in an agricultural zone, it is made turbid by surface runoff from nearby farms with eutrophication as the biggest threat. Its condition has been improving since the 1970s and the Aura river is now enough to support salmon. The banks of the river have been inhabited on locations at least 6,000 years ago and it is notable for the cultural heritage in Finland. The archdiocese of Finland has been situated near the river since the thirteenth century
7.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
8.
Finland
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Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a sovereign state in Northern Europe. A peninsula with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, the country has borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north. Estonia is south of the country across the Gulf of Finland, Finland is a Nordic country situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia, which also includes Scandinavia. Finlands population is 5.5 million, and the majority of the population is concentrated in the southern region,88. 7% of the population is Finnish people who speak Finnish, a Uralic language unrelated to the Scandinavian languages, the second major group are the Finland-Swedes. In terms of area, it is the eighth largest country in Europe, Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in the capital Helsinki, local governments in 311 municipalities, and an autonomous region, the Åland Islands. Over 1.4 million people live in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, from the late 12th century, Finland was an integral part of Sweden, a legacy reflected in the prevalence of the Swedish language and its official status. In the spirit of the notion of Adolf Ivar Arwidsson, we are not Swedes, we do not want to become Russians, let us therefore be Finns, nevertheless, in 1809, Finland was incorporated into the Russian Empire as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1906, Finland became the nation in the world to give the right to vote to all adult citizens. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Finland declared itself independent, in 1918, the fledgling state was divided by civil war, with the Bolshevik-leaning Reds supported by the equally new Soviet Russia, fighting the Whites, supported by the German Empire. After a brief attempt to establish a kingdom, the became a republic. During World War II, the Soviet Union sought repeatedly to occupy Finland, with Finland losing parts of Karelia, Salla and Kuusamo, Petsamo and some islands, Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and established an official policy of neutrality. The Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 gave the Soviet Union some leverage in Finnish domestic politics during the Cold War era, Finland was a relative latecomer to industrialization, remaining a largely agrarian country until the 1950s. It rapidly developed an advanced economy while building an extensive Nordic-style welfare state, resulting in widespread prosperity, however, Finnish GDP growth has been negative in 2012–2014, with a preceding nadir of −8% in 2009. Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, a large majority of Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, though freedom of religion is guaranteed under the Finnish Constitution. The first known appearance of the name Finland is thought to be on three rune-stones. Two were found in the Swedish province of Uppland and have the inscription finlonti, the third was found in Gotland, in the Baltic Sea. It has the inscription finlandi and dates from the 13th century, the name can be assumed to be related to the tribe name Finns, which is mentioned first known time AD98. The name Suomi has uncertain origins, but a candidate for a source is the Proto-Baltic word *źemē, in addition to the close relatives of Finnish, this name is also used in the Baltic languages Latvian and Lithuanian
9.
Regions of Finland
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Finland comprises 19 regions called maakunta in Finnish and landskap in Swedish. The regions are governed by councils, which serve as forums of cooperation for the municipalities of a region. The main tasks of the regions are planning and development of enterprise. In addition, the health services are usually organized on the basis of regions. Currently, the region where a popular election is held for the council is Kainuu. Other regional councils are elected by municipal councils, each municipality sending representatives in proportion to its population and they are each responsible for one or more of regions of Finland, and include offices of the Ministries of Employment and the Economy, Transport and Communications and Environment. The Finnish Defence Forces regional offices are responsible for the defence preparations. Regions represent dialectal, cultural and economic variations better than the former provinces, historically, regions are divisions of historical provinces of Finland, areas which represent dialects and culture more accurately
10.
Southwest Finland
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Southwest Finland, also known in English as Finland Proper is the region in south-western Finland that borders the regions of Satakunta and Tavastia Proper. Its capital and biggest city is Turku with 182,000 inhabitants, Turku was also the most important city in Finland from its establishment around the 13th century until the 1840s. The area comprising the southwest is largely the same as the province of Finland Proper. 5. 7% of population of the region speaks Swedish natively, the name of Finland Proper has a historial function. In historic times, in the area of the present southern Finland lived three tribes, which were the Finns, the Tavastians and the Karelians, the southwestern part of the country, the province where the Finns lived, was called simply Finland. In the 17th century the name began to be used to refer to the whole land, the Finnish term Varsinais-Suomi became established only around the 1850s. The region of Southwest Finland is made up of 27 municipalities, Finland Proper travel guide from Wikivoyage Regional Council of Southwest Finland — official website South Finland EU Office
11.
Turku sub-region
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The Turku Region, The City Region of Turku and Greater Turku all refer to regions of different size surrounding Turku, the capital city of the region of Southwest Finland. The Turku Region is one of the Sub-regions of Finland and it is located in the southwest of Finland and the area has around 300,000 inhabitants. More exclusive urban area the city region of Turku with population around 235,000, the region has three universities and four polytechnics. Biotechnology and ICT are one of their most important sectors, in fact the largest bio-industrial cluster in Finland locates in Turku, as well as from Turku to Salo is one of the principal concentrations of ICT in Finland. Because The Turku Region lies on the coast of the Baltic Sea it has strong logistical activity, regions two significant seaports the Port of Turku and the Port of Naantali and Shipyard industry are big employers in the area. The Turku Region has also growing activity on air cargo logistics, TNT Airways is one of the logistic operators in the LogiCity of Turku. In case of the Turku Region is defined according to LAU1 it will include all 11 municipalities listed below, the Turku Region is located in the southwestern corner of Finland around the city of Turku. It is part of the region Southwest Finland and Western Finland and it shares borders with the sub-region of Salo in east, the subregion of Loimaa in northeast, Vakka-Suomi in north and Åboland in southwest. The Turku Region has part of the Archipelago Sea southwest along with its several islands, the city region of Turku is form of four major cities. Turku in the middle, Naantali and Raisio in west and Kaarina east, coastline is occupied by two seaports one of Naantali and one of Turku. All four cities are connected with the Turku Ring Road and Kaarinantie and it has connections to E18, E63 highways, national roads 1,8,9 and 10. Turku Airport is located side of the city center and ohikulkutie. To north-east from Airport is where the city region ends and inner Finland with forest, because big part of the region is on the Archipelago Sea, there are several islands in the area and some of the municipalities are completely on them, such as Rymättylä for example. In the city region of Turku are some of the most notable islands of the Archipelago Sea like Luonnonmaa in Naantali, Hirvensalo, Kakskerta and Ruissalo in Turku, islands are not so populated excluding Hirvensalo in Turku which is really near the center. Most of them are covered by woods but near the mainland there are field areas, most of the waters in the Turku Region are concentrated in the Archipelago Sea, but there are also few lakes and reservoirs which of some are on the islands. The sea is at most part narrow straits between islands, at most part the waters are quite shallow but major sea routes can be used even by the biggest ship cruisers in the world which some are made in shipyard in Turku. Mainland is full of hills, valleys and river valleys. Some of the used to serve as guardian towers on the age of vikings
12.
Metropolitan area
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As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions. The Greater São Paulo is a term for one of the multiple definitions the large metropolitan area located in the São Paulo state in Brazil. A metropolitan area combines an urban agglomeration with zones not necessarily urban in character and these outlying zones are sometimes known as a commuter belt, and may extend well beyond the urban zone, to other political entities. For example, El Monte, California is considered part of the Los Angeles metro area in the United States, in practice, the parameters of metropolitan areas, in both official and unofficial usage, are not consistent. Population figures given for one area can vary by millions. A polycentric metropolitan area is one not connected by continuous development or conurbation, in defining a metropolitan area, it is sufficient that a city or cities form a nucleus that other areas have a high degree of integration with. The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines statistical divisions as areas under the influence of one or more major towns or a major city. However, this definition has become obsolete with the conurbation of several statistical divisions into a larger metropolitan areas. In Brazil, metropolitan areas are called metropolitan regions, each State defines its own legislation for the creation, definition and organization of a metropolitan region. The creation of a region is not intended for any statistical purpose, although the Brazilian Institute of Geography. Their main purpose is to allow for a management of public policies of common interest to all cities involved. They dont have political, electoral or jurisdictional power whatsoever, so living in a metropolitan region do not elect representatives for them. Statistics Canada defines a metropolitan area as an area consisting of one or more adjacent municipalities situated around a major urban core. To form a CMA, the area must have a population of at least 100,000. To be included in the CMA, adjacent municipalities must have a degree of integration with the core. As of the Canada 2011 Census, there were 33 CMAs in Canada, including six with a population over one million—Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton. In Denmark the only area is Greater Copenhagen, consisting of the Capital Region of Denmark along with the neighboring regions Region Zealand. Greater Copenhagen has an population of 1.25 million people
13.
Languages of Finland
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The two main official languages of Finland are Finnish and Swedish. There are also several minority languages, three variants of Sami, Romani, Finnish Sign Language and Karelian. Finnish is the language of the majority, 91% of the population and it is a Finnic language closely related to Estonian and less closely to the Sami languages. The Finnic languages belong to the Uralic language family, so Finnish is distantly related to languages as diverse as Hungarian, Swedish is the main language of 5. 4% of the population, down from 14% at the beginning of the 20th century. In 2012, 44% of Finnish citizens with another registered primary language than Swedish could hold a conversation in this language, Swedish is a North Germanic language, closely related to Norwegian and Danish. As a subbranch of Indo-European, it is closely related to other Germanic languages such as German. Swedish was the language of the administration until the late 19th century, today it is one of the two main official languages, with a position equal to Finnish in most legislation, though the working language in most governmental bodies is Finnish. Both Finnish and Swedish are compulsory subjects in school with an exception for children with a language as their native language. A successfully completed language test is a prerequisite for governmental offices where a university degree is required, the four largest Swedish-speaking communities in Finland, in absolute numbers, are those of Helsinki, Espoo, Porvoo and Vaasa, where they constitute significant minorities. Helsinki, the capital, had a Swedish-speaking majority until late in the 19th century, currently 6. 1% of the population of Helsinki are Swedish-speaking and 9. 6% speaks languages other than Finnish and Swedish. The Swedish dialects spoken in Finland mainland are known as Finland-Swedish, there is a rich Finland-Swedish literature, including authors such as Tove Jansson, Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Edith Södergran and Zacharias Topelius. Runeberg is considered Finlands national poet and wrote the anthem, Vårt land. The Sami languages are a group of related languages spoken across Lapland and they are distantly related to Finnish. The three Sami languages spoken in Finland, Northern Sami, Inari Sami and Skolt Sami, have a native speaker population of roughly 1,800. Up to World War II, Karelian was spoken in the historical Border-Karelian region on the shore of Lake Ladoga. After the war immigrant Karelians were settled all over Finland, in 2001 the Karelian Language Society estimated that the language is understood by 11, 000–12,000 people in Finland, most of whom are elderly. A more recent estimate is that the size of the community is 30,000. Karelian was recognized in a regulation by the President in November 2009, in fact, Finland places among the top four countries in the world when it comes to the fluency of English
14.
Finland Swedish
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Most Swedish-speaking Finns emphasize that Finland Swedish is not a language separate from the Swedish of Sweden. The Swedish dialects in Finland are considered varieties of Swedish, Swedish as spoken in Finland is regulated by the Swedish Department of the Institute for the Languages of Finland. An often repeated fact is that the municipality with the highest proportion of Swedish speakers in the world, korsnäs has also held this title and is often cited as such. However, as there are no statistics on the mother tongue of inhabitants of Sweden. In addition bilingualism is common for immigrants in Sweden, so the term Swedish-speaking may be diffuse in that sense. In the spoken vernacular, especially young people in Finnish-dominated areas. There are also words in Finland Swedish that would be considered slightly archaic in Sweden. Some government and public service terms that have created in recent centuries also differ. The same is true of other new words, notably loanwords from English. e. in normal, in 1809, when Finland was conquered by the Russian Empire and became an autonomous Grand Duchy, Swedish remained the only official language. Finland has since then been a country with a Swedish-speaking minority living mostly in the coastal areas of southern, south-western. During the 20th century, the following the Industrial Revolution has led to large majorities of Finnish speakers in all major cities. The capital Helsinki became predominantly Finnish-speaking as recently as around 1900, a large and important part of the Swedish-speaking population nevertheless lives in the capital. The autonomous island province of Åland is an exception, being monolingually Swedish-speaking according to international treaties and it is a matter of definition whether the Swedish dialects spoken on Åland are to be considered a kind of Finland Swedish or not. Most Swedish-speaking Finns and linguists consider them to be closer to some of the dialects spoken in parts of Sweden. Swedish is one of the two languages of the republic of Finland, the other being Finnish. These two languages have equal status in nearly all legislation. The other minority languages are regulated separately, Finland Swedish is regulated by the Institute for the Languages of Finland. Official Swedish is not supposed to be different from Swedish as found in Sweden
15.
Demography
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Demography is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. As a very general science, it can analyse any kind of dynamic living population, Demography encompasses the study of the size, structure, and distribution of these populations, and spatial or temporal changes in them in response to birth, migration, ageing, and death. Based on the research of the earth, earths population up to the year 2050 and 2100 can be estimated by demographers. Demographics are quantifiable characteristics of a given population, demographic analysis can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as education, nationality, religion, and ethnicity. Educational institutions usually treat demography as a field of sociology, though there are a number of independent demography departments, demographic thoughts can be traced back to antiquity, and were present in many civilizations and cultures, like Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, India and China. In ancient Greece, this can be found in the writings of Herodotus, Thucidides, Hippocrates, Epicurus, Protagoras, Polus, Plato and Aristotle. In Rome, writers and philosophers like Cicero, Seneca, Pliny the elder, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Cato, in the Middle ages, Christian thinkers devoted much time in refuting the Classical ideas on demography. Important contributors to the field were William of Conches, Bartholomew of Lucca, William of Auvergne, William of Pagula, and Ibn Khaldun. One of the earliest demographic studies in the period was Natural and Political Observations Made upon the Bills of Mortality by John Graunt. Among the studys findings were that one third of the children in London died before their sixteenth birthday, mathematicians, such as Edmond Halley, developed the life table as the basis for life insurance mathematics. Richard Price was credited with the first textbook on life contingencies published in 1771, followed later by Augustus de Morgan, at the end of the 18th century, Thomas Robert Malthus concluded that, if unchecked, populations would be subject to exponential growth. He feared that population growth would tend to outstrip growth in production, leading to ever-increasing famine. He is seen as the father of ideas of overpopulation. Later, more sophisticated and realistic models were presented by Benjamin Gompertz, the period 1860-1910 can be characterized as a period of transition wherein demography emerged from statistics as a separate field of interest. There are two types of data collection—direct and indirect—with several different methods of each type, direct data comes from vital statistics registries that track all births and deaths as well as certain changes in legal status such as marriage, divorce, and migration. In developed countries with good registration systems, registry statistics are the best method for estimating the number of births and deaths, a census is the other common direct method of collecting demographic data. A census is conducted by a national government and attempts to enumerate every person in a country. Analyses are conducted after a census to estimate how much over or undercounting took place and these compare the sex ratios from the census data to those estimated from natural values and mortality data
16.
Eastern European Time
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Eastern European Time is one of the names of UTC+02,00 time zone,2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. The zone uses daylight saving time, so that it uses UTC+03,00 during the summer, a number of African countries use UTC+02,00 all year long, where it is called Central Africa Time, although Egypt and Libya also use the term Eastern European Time. The following countries, parts of countries, and territories use Eastern European Time all year round, Egypt, since 21 April 2015, used EEST from 1988–2010, Kaliningrad Oblast, since 26 October 2014, also used EET in years 1945 and 1991–2011. Libya, since 27 October 2013, switched from Central European Time, used year-round EET from 1980–1981, 1990–1996 and 1998–2012. Belarus, in years 1922–30 and 1990–2011 In Poland this time was used in years 1918–22, in time of World War II, Germany implemented MET in east occupied territories. Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol used EET as part of Ukraine in years 1991-94 and 1996-2014 Turkey, used EET in years 1910-1978, now uses year round DST timezone called Further-eastern European Time or Turkey Time. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus also uses FET, sometimes, due to its use on Microsoft Windows, FLE Standard Time or GTB Standard Time are used to refer to Eastern European Time. Since political, in addition to geographical, criteria are used in the drawing of time zones. The EET time zone, were it drawn by purely geographical terms, the easternmost part of the Republic of Macedonia, including the city of Strumica. The absolutely easternmost part of Serbia, in the Pirot District, the easternmost town in Norway, Vardø, lies at 30°51 E, which is located east of even of the central meridian of UTC+2, i. e. east of Istanbul and Alexandria. The Norwegian-Russian border is the place where CET borders Moscow time. There is a point at the Norway-Finland-Russia tripoint, near the town of Rayakoski. Belarus is located between 23°11′E and 32°47′E and is fully located with the physical UTC+2 area, but it uses UTC+3 year around. This also includes the city of Anapa, at the westernmost tip of the Krasnodar Krai near the entrance to the Sea of Azov, the Norway–Russia–Finland tri-zone point at Muotkavaara is surrounded by three different times in winter, two in summer. It had three time zones year-around before 2014, two of the four tripoints of Belarus and the tripoint of the Kaliningrad Region are surrounded by three different times in winter
17.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
18.
Eastern European Summer Time
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Eastern European Summer Time is one of the names of UTC+3 time zone,3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries. During the winter periods, Eastern European Time is used, since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October, previously the rules were not uniform across the European Union. Syria, since 1983 Ukraine, Moscow Summer Time in years 1981–89, regular EEST from 1992 In one year 1991 EEST was used also in Moscow, egypt has previously used EEST from 1957–2010 and 2014–2015. Turkey, has previously used EEST from 1970-1978 EEST, Moscow Summer Time from 1979–1983, and EEST from 1985-2016
19.
Swedish language
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Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken natively by more than 9 million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is currently the largest of the North Germanic languages by number of speakers, Standard Swedish, spoken by most Swedes, is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties descended from the rural dialects still exist. The standard word order is, as in most Germanic languages, V2, Swedish morphology is similar to English, that is, words have comparatively few inflections. There are two genders, no cases, and a distinction between plural and singular. Older analyses posit the cases nominative and genitive and there are remains of distinct accusative and dative forms as well. Adjectives are compared as in English, and are inflected according to gender, number. The definiteness of nouns is marked primarily through suffixes, complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles, the prosody features both stress and in most dialects tonal qualities. The language has a large vowel inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless velar fricative, a highly variable consonant phoneme. Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, by many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language. In the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had some changes. This language began to undergo new changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, the dialects of Old East Norse that were spoken in Sweden are called Runic Swedish while the dialects of Denmark are referred to as Runic Danish. The dialects are described as runic because the body of text appears in the runic alphabet. Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, from 1200 onwards, the dialects in Denmark began to diverge from those of Sweden. An early change that separated Runic Danish from the dialects of Old East Norse was the change of the diphthong æi to the monophthong é. This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain, there was also a change of au as in dauðr into a long open ø as in døðr dead
20.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
21.
Grand Duchy of Finland
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The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed between 1809 and 1917 as an part of the Russian Empire and was ruled by the Russian Emperor as Grand Duke. The new title Grand Duke of Finland did not result in any Finnish autonomy, during the next two centuries, the title was used by some of Johns successors on the throne, but not all. Usually it was just a title of the king, used only on very formal occasions. The title Grand Duke of Finland was added to the long list of titles of the Russian Tsar, after his return to Finland in 1812, the Finnish-born Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt became counsellor to the Russian emperor. The formation of the Grand Duchy stems from the Treaty of Tilsit between Czar Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon Bonaparte of France, the treaty mediated peace between Russia and France and allied the two countries against Napoleons remaining threats, Great Britain and Sweden. Russia invaded Finland in February of 1808, claimed as an effort to impose sanctions against Sweden, but not a war of conquest. The oath also dubbed anyone person who gave aid to the Swedish or Finnish armies a rebel, the Finns complied, bitter over Sweden abandoning the country for their war against Denmark and France, and begrudgingly embraced Russian conquest. The Diet of Finland was now to only meet whenever requested, further on, Alexander I requested a deputation of the four Finnish estates, as he expressed concern over continued Finnish resistance. The deputation refused to act without the Diet, to which Alexander agreed with, by 1809, all of Finland had been conquered and The Diet was summoned in March. Finland was then united through Russia via crown, and Finland was able to keep the majority of its own laws, the earlier years of the Grand Duchy can be seen as uneventful. In 1812, the area of Old Finland, known as the Viipuri Province was returned to Finland after being annexed by Russia in the Great Northern War, despite the outcry, the borders remained set until 1940. Moreover, Alexander moved the capital from Turku to Helsinki, a fortified town protected by Suomenlinna. Finlands main university also transferred to Helsinki after a fire out in Turku. Alexander went a step further to demand a Finnish House of Nobles, the house was designed to register all noble families in Finland, so that the highest Finnish estate would be representative of the next Finnish diet. As for Sweden, the majority did not think too much about Finlands conquest, as Sweden itself annexed Norway from Denmark in 1814, despite this, Alexander I ceased to give in to Finnish affairs and returned to governing Russia. In 1823, Arseny Zakrevsky was made general of Finland and quickly became unpopular by the Finns. Zakrevsky abolished the Committee for Finnish Affairs and managed to obtain the right to submit Finnish affairs to the Czar, bypassing the Finnish Secretary of State
22.
Helsinki
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Helsinki is the capital and largest city of Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland. Helsinki has a population of 629,512, a population of 1,231,595. Helsinki is located some 80 kilometres north of Tallinn, Estonia,400 km east of Stockholm, Sweden, Helsinki has close historical connections with these three cities. The Helsinki metropolitan area includes the core of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen. It is the worlds northernmost metro area of one million people. The Helsinki metropolitan area is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the Nordic countries, Helsinki is Finlands major political, educational, financial, cultural, and research center as well as one of northern Europes major cities. Approximately 75% of foreign companies operating in Finland have settled in the Helsinki region, the nearby municipality of Vantaa is the location of Helsinki Airport, with frequent service to various destinations in Europe and Asia. In 2009, Helsinki was chosen to be the World Design Capital for 2012 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, the city was the venue for the 1952 Summer Olympics and the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest 2007. In 2011, the Monocle magazine ranked Helsinki the most liveable city in the world in its Liveable Cities Index 2011, in the Economist Intelligence Units August 2015 Liveability survey, assessing the best and worst cities to live in globally, Helsinki placed among the worlds top ten cities. Helsinki is used to refer to the city in most languages, the Swedish name Helsingfors is the original official name of the city. The Finnish name probably comes from Helsinga and similar names used for the river that is known as the Vantaa River. Helsingfors comes from the name of the parish, Helsinge and the rapids, which flowed through the original village. As part of the Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire, one suggestion for the origin of the name Helsinge is that it originated with medieval Swedish settlers who came from Hälsingland in Sweden. Others have proposed that the name derives from the Swedish word helsing, other Scandinavian cities located at similar geographic locations were given similar names at the time, for example Helsingør and Helsingborg. The name Helsinki has been used in Finnish official documents and in Finnish language newspapers since 1819, the decrees issued in Helsinki were dated with Helsinki as the place of issue. This is how the form Helsinki came to be used in written Finnish, in Helsinki slang the city is called Stadi. Hesa, is not used by natives to the city, helsset is the Northern Sami name of Helsinki
23.
History of Finland
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The land area that now makes up Finland was settled immediately after the last ice age, which ended in 9000 BC. Finnish nationalism emerged, focused on Finnish cultural traditions, including music and—especially—the highly distinctive language, the catastrophic Finnish famine of 1866–1868 was followed by eased economic regulations and extensive emigration. A civil war between the Finnish Red Guards and the White Guard ensued a few later, with the Whites gaining the upper hand during the springtime of 1918. After the internal affairs stabilized, the mainly agrarian economy grew relatively quickly. Relations with the West, especially Sweden and Britain, were strong, however, Finland remained an independent democracy in North Europe. In the latter half of its independent history, Finland has maintained a mixed economy, since its post-World War II economic boom in the 1970s, Finlands GDP per capita has been among the worlds highest. The expanded welfare state of Finland from 1970 and 1990 increased the public employees and spending. In 1992, Finland simultaneously faced economic overheating and depressed Western, Russian, Finland joined the European Union in 1995, and replaced the Finnish markka with the euro in 2002. According to a 2005 poll, most Finns at that point were reluctant to join NATO, if confirmed, the oldest archeological site in Finland would be the Wolf Cave in Kristinestad, in Ostrobothnia. The last ice age in the area of the modern-day Finland ended c.9000 BC, starting about that time, people migrated to the area of Finland from the Kunda and—possibly—Swiderian cultures, and they are believed to be ancestors of todays Finnish and Sami people in Finland. The oldest confirmed evidence of the human settlements in Finland are from the area of Ristola in Lahti and from Orimattila. Finland has been inhabited at least since the end of the last ice age. The earliest post-glacial inhabitants of the area of Finland were probably mainly seasonal hunter-gatherers. Their artifacts discovered are known to represent the Suomusjärvi and the Kunda cultures, among finds is the net of Antrea, the oldest fishing net known ever to have been excavated. By 5300 BC pottery was present in Finland, the earliest samples belong to the Comb Ceramic Cultures, known for their distinctive decorating patterns. This marks the beginning of the period for Finland, although subsistence was still based on hunting and fishing. Extensive networks of exchange existed across Finland and northeastern Europe during the 5th millennium BC, rock paintings — apparently related to shamanistic and totemistic belief systems — have been found, especially in Eastern Finland, e. g. Astuvansalmi. Between 3500 and 2000 BC, monumental stone enclosures colloquially known as Giants Churches were constructed in the Ostrobothnia region, the purpose of the enclosures is unknown
24.
Tallinn
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Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland,80 km south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm, from the 13th century until 1918, the city was known as Reval. Tallinn occupies an area of 159.2 km2 and has a population of 444,591, approximately 33% of Estonias total population lives in Tallinn. Tallinn was founded in 1248, but the earliest human settlements date back 5,000 years, making it one of the oldest capital cities of Northern Europe. The initial claim over the land was laid by the Danes in 1219 after a raid of Lyndanisse led by Valdemar II of Denmark. Due to its location, the city became a major trade hub, especially from the 14th to the 16th century. Tallinns Old Town is one of the best preserved cities in Europe and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tallinn is the political, financial, cultural and educational center of Estonia. Often dubbed the Silicon Valley of Europe, it has the highest number of startups per person in Europe and is a birthplace of international companies. The city is to house the headquarters of the European Unions IT agency, providing to the global cybersecurity it is the home to the NATO Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. It is ranked as a city and has been listed among the top 10 digital cities in the world. The city was a European Capital of Culture for 2011, along with Turku in Finland and it has been suggested that Quwri may have denoted a predecessor of the modern city. The earliest names of Tallinn include Kolyvan, which is known from East Slavic chronicles, up to the 13th century, the Scandinavians and Henry of Livonia in his chronicle called the town Lindanisa (or Lyndanisse in Danish, Lindanäs in Swedish and Ledenets in Old East Slavic. It has been suggested that the archaic Estonian word linda is similar to the Votic word lidna. According to this suggestion, nisa would have the meaning niemi, producing Kesoniemi, another ancient historical name for Tallinn in Finnish is Rääveli. The Icelandic Njals saga mentions Tallinn and calls it Rafala, which is a variant of the name Raphael, after the Danish conquest in 1219, the town became known in the German, Swedish and Danish languages as Reval. The name originated from Revelia Revala or Rävala, the adjacent ancient name of the surrounding area and it is usually thought to be derived from Taani-linn, after the Danes built the castle in place of the Estonian stronghold at Lindanisse. However, it could also have come from tali-linna, or talu-linna, the element -linna, like Germanic -burg and Slavic -grad / -gorod, originally meant fortress, but is used as a suffix in the formation of town names
25.
Estonia
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Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia, across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of Estonia consists of a mainland and 2,222 islands and islets in the Baltic Sea, covering 45,339 km2 of land and water, and is influenced by a humid continental climate. The territory of Estonia has been inhabited since at least 6500 BC, in 1988, during the Singing Revolution, the Estonian Supreme Soviet issued the Estonian Sovereignty Declaration in defiance of Soviet rule, and independence was restored on 20 August 1991. Estonia is a parliamentary republic divided into fifteen counties. Its capital and largest city is Tallinn, with a population of 1.3 million, it is one of the least-populous member states of the European Union, Eurozone, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, OECD and Schengen Area. Estonia is a country with an advanced, high-income economy that is among the fastest growing in the EU. Its Human Development Index ranks very highly, and it performs favourably in measurements of economic freedom, civil liberties, the 2015 PISA test places Estonian high school students 3rd in the world, behind Singapore and Japan. Citizens of Estonia are provided with health care, free education. Since independence the country has developed its IT sector, becoming one of the worlds most digitally advanced societies. In 2005 Estonia became the first nation to hold elections over the Internet, in the Estonian language, the oldest known endonym of the Estonians was maarahvas, meaning country people or people of the land. The land inhabited by Estonians was called Maavald meaning Country Parish or Land Parish, one hypothesis regarding the modern name of Estonia is that it originated from the Aesti, a people described by the Roman historian Tacitus in his Germania. The historic Aesti were allegedly Baltic people, whereas the modern Estonians are Finno-Ugric, the geographical areas between Aesti and Estonia do not match, with Aesti being further down south. Ancient Scandinavian sagas refer to a land called Eistland, as the country is called in Icelandic. Early Latin and other ancient versions of the name are Estia and Hestia, esthonia was a common alternative English spelling prior to 1921. Human settlement in Estonia became possible 13,000 to 11,000 years ago, the oldest known settlement in Estonia is the Pulli settlement, which was on the banks of the river Pärnu, near the town of Sindi, in south-western Estonia. According to radiocarbon dating it was settled around 11,000 years ago, the earliest human inhabitation during the Mesolithic period is connected to Kunda culture, which is named after the town of Kunda in northern Estonia. At that time the country was covered with forests, and people lived in communities near bodies of water
26.
European Capital of Culture
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The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by the European Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension. An international panel of experts is in charge of assessing the proposals of cities for the title according to criteria specified by the European Union. Consequently, the beneficial socio-economic development and impact for the city are now also considered in determining the chosen cities. The European Capital of Culture programme was called the European City of Culture and was conceived in 1983, by Melina Mercouri. Mercouri believed that at the time, culture was not given the attention as politics and economics. The European City of Culture programme was launched in the summer of 1985 with Athens being the first title-holder, during the German presidency of 1999, the European City of Culture programme was renamed the European Capital of Culture. 1 A new framework makes it possible for a city in a country or potential candidate for EU membership to hold the title every third year as of 2021. This will be selected through a competition, meaning that cities from various countries may compete with each other. Association for Tourism and Leisure Education
27.
Port
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A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land. Port locations are selected to optimize access to land and navigable water, for commercial demand, Ports with deeper water are rarer, but can handle larger ships. Since ports throughout history handled every kind of traffic, support and storage facilities vary widely, may extend for miles, some ports have an important military role. One of the worlds oldest known artificial harbors is at Wadi al-Jarf on the Red Sea, along with the finding of harbor structures, ancient anchors have also been found. Guangzhou was an important port during the ancient times as far back as the Qin Dynasty, canopus was the principal port in Egypt for Greek trade before the foundation of Alexandria. Athens port of Piraeus was the base for the Athenian fleet, lothal is one of the most prominent cities of the ancient Indus valley civilisation, located in the Bhāl region of the modern state of Gujarāt and dating from 3700 BCE. Ostia Antica was the port of ancient Rome with Portus established by Claudius, Ports often have cargo-handling equipment, such as cranes and forklifts for use in loading ships, which may be provided by private interests or public bodies. Often, canneries or other processing facilities will be located nearby, some ports feature canals, which allow ships further movement inland. Access to intermodal transportation, such as railroads and highways, is critical to a port, so that passengers, Ports with international traffic have customs facilities. Harbor pilots and tugboats may maneuver large ships in tight quarters when near docks, the terms port and seaport are used for different types of port facilities that handle ocean-going vessels, and river port is used for river traffic, such as barges and other shallow-draft vessels. An inland port is a port on a lake, river, or canal with access to a sea or ocean. An example of this is the St. Lawrence Seaway which allows ships to travel from the Atlantic Ocean several thousand kilometers inland to Great Lakes ports like Duluth-Superior, a fishing port is a port or harbor for landing and distributing fish. It may be a facility, but it is usually commercial. A fishing port is the port that depends on an ocean product. In recent decades, regulations to save fishing stock may limit the use of a fishing port, a dry port is an inland intermodal terminal directly connected by road or rail to a seaport and operating as a centre for the transshipment of sea cargo to inland destinations. A warm-water port is one where the water does not freeze in wintertime, because they are available year-round, warm-water ports can be of great geopolitical or economic interest. A seaport is further categorized as a port or a cargo port. Additionally, cruise ports are known as a home port or a port of call
28.
Port of Turku
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The Port of Turku is a port located in the south-west of Finland, where the mainland meets the beginning of the Turku archipelago. Sited within Finlands sixth largest city, the port handles traffic between Turku and the Swedish capital of Stockholm and the enclaved Åland Islands. The port spans an area on the southern coastline of the city of Turku. The area around the station is served by the four Silja line and Viking Line passenger ferry services to Stockholm via Mariehamn. Because of the location at the southwestern corner of Finland the harbour provides the most efficient route to serve the Baltic Sea. Turku Harbour is one of the most important shipment points in the country, handling over four million tonnes of cargo, as a comparison to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, Turku handles one third as many passengers per year, but thirty times as much freight annually. Daily passenger ferry traffic is operated from Turku to Åland and Stockholm, weekly ferry destinations include Travemünde, Hamburg, Lübeck, Antwerp, Harwich and Paldiski. There are also less frequent connections to popular destinations such as St Malo. The most important operators of ferry services are Silja Line, Viking Line, Port of Turku is also the name of a district of Turku, with boundaries roughly corresponding with those of the ports area. As of 2004, the district had a residential population of forty-four people. The port is mentioned in the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisis 1154 book Kitab Rudjdjar, reflecting Turkus status as a capital city, passengers walk directly off the platform and onto the car-park and bus-station area in front of the ferry terminals. Most traffic to the station is by people wishing to board a ship at the port, the station has direct boat-train services to Helsinki and towards Pieksämäki. All services to and from Turku Harbour call at Turku Central railway station, the phrase Turku Harbour is the semi-official English name of the railway station, being used in English-language timetables and next stop announcements on board VR trains. Turku is the port in Finland with a train ferry service. SeaWind Line provides a train ferry operation for cargo. Because of the difference between Finland and the rest of Europe, through service must be operated using special variable gauge rolling stock
29.
Stockholm
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The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC. It is also the capital of Stockholm County, Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the countrys GDP and it is an important global city, and the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region. The city is home to some of Europes top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and it hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the citys most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is known for its decoration of the stations. Swedens national football arena is located north of the city centre, Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city. The city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, and hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, and the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister. The government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, and the Prime Ministers residence is adjacent at the Sager House. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BCE, there were already a number of people living in the present-day Stockholm area. Thousands of years later, as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable, at the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings. They had a positive impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholms location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, and in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne, the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word meaning fortification, the second part of the name means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. Stockholms core, the present Old Town was built on the island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid 13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League, Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Visby, Reval, and Riga during this time
30.
Mariehamn
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Mariehamn is the capital of Åland, an autonomous territory under Finnish sovereignty. Mariehamn is the seat of the Government and Parliament of Åland, like all of Åland, Mariehamn is unilingually Swedish-speaking and around 88% of the inhabitants speak it as their native language. The town was named after the Russian empress Maria Alexandrovna, Mariehamn was founded in 1861, around the village of Övernäs, in what was at the time part of the municipality of Jomala. The city has expanded and incorporated more of Jomala territory. Mariehamn was built according to a very regular scheme which is well-preserved, one of the oldest streets is Södragatan where many wooden houses dating from the 19th century can be seen. The city is located on a peninsula and it has two important harbours, one located on the western shore and one on the eastern shore, which are ice-free for nearly the whole year, and have no tides. The Western Harbour is an important international harbour with daily traffic to Sweden, Estonia and mainland Finland. A powerful incentive for Baltic ferries to stop at Mariehamn is that, with respect to taxation, Åland is not part of the EU customs zone. Mariehamn Airport is located in the municipality of Jomala, some 3 kilometres north-west of Mariehamn city centre. Åland and Mariehamn have a heritage in shipping. The Flying P-Liner Pommern museum ship is anchored in the Western Harbour, the Eastern Harbour features one of the largest marinas in Scandinavia. The famous Dutch steamer Jan Nieveen can also be found here, the city is an important centre for Åland media, both of the local newspapers, several radio stations and the local TV channels operate out of the city. The islanders are traditionally fond of reading, and had public libraries before 1920, a printing works was established in the town in 1891. The municipal library, which was built in 1989, is one of the most interesting modern buildings, Mariehamn features several buildings drawn by Finnish architect Lars Sonck, who moved to Åland as a child. Buildings drawn by him include the church of Mariehamn, the building of the Åland Maritime College. Hilda Hongell also designed buildings, although only a few are still standing. Mariehamn has a climate between humid continental climate with certain maritime influence as a result of the strong maritime moderation from being an island in the Baltic Sea. This renders summers to be cooler than both the Swedish and Finnish mainlands, with winters being similar in cold to the adjacent coastal part of Sweden but milder than Finlands mainland
31.
Greater Helsinki
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Greater Helsinki is the metropolitan area including the smaller Capital Region urban kernel and commuter towns surrounding Helsinki, the capital city of Finland. Greater Helsinki is sometimes incorrectly called Helsinki Region due to a direct translation of the Finnish and Swedish terms Helsingin seutu. It is part of Uusimaa province and these regions are located in the south of Finland, on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, which is part of the Baltic Sea. The smaller Capital Region includes Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo, the Greater Helsinki region is the largest urbanised area in the country with 1,420,284 inhabitants and is by far the most important economic, cultural, and scientific region of Finland. In the strictest sense, the Finnish Capital Region consists of four municipalities with city status, Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo and Kauniainen, whose total population is about 1.1 million. This area is most often called the Capital region in English, Pääkaupunkiseutu in Finnish, the vast majority of the inhabitants live in the urban areas of the cities, but within the boundaries of these cities there are also suburban and rural areas. Commonly about ten more municipalities are considered to be part of Greater Helsinki, as they can be considered to be commuter towns and exurbs of Helsinki. When Hyvinkää, Järvenpää, Kerava, Kirkkonummi, Nurmijärvi, Sipoo, Tuusula, Mäntsälä, Pornainen and Vihti are included, all of the municipalities belong to the region of Uusimaa. Of these, Kerava, Järvenpää, Mäntsälä, Tuusula, and Nurmijärvi are part of the urban area, as a part of Urban audit project the Eurostat has attempted to standardise the concept of metropolitan area. According to this study the Metropolitan area of Helsinki consists of the kernel of Helsinki, Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Helsinki Larger Urban Area consists of 12 cities and municipalities, the kernel of Helsinki and the aforementioned eight municipalities. Statistics Finland define the commuter belt of Helsinki to include a total of 24 municipalities, with an area of 7,359.80 km2. In addition to that, there are people from as far as Lahti, the table below lists population, area, and population density for the largest municipalities of the Greater Helsinki area. The commuter towns of Lohja and Porvoo are not usually included, though, if they were, they would raise the overall population to nearly 1.5 million people
32.
Tampere
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Tampere is a city in Pirkanmaa, southern Finland. It is the most populous city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of 223,292 growing to 313,058 people in the urban area, Tampere is the second-largest urban area and third most-populous individual municipality in the country, after Helsinki and Espoo municipalities. Its also the most populous Finnish city outside the Greater Helsinki area and inner Finlands major urban, economic, Tampere is between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. Since the two differ in level by 18 metres, the rapids linking them, Tammerkoski, have been an important power source throughout history. Tampere is dubbed the Manchester of Finland for its industrial past as the center of Finnish industry. Helsinki is approximately 160 kilometres south of Tampere, and can be reached in 1.5 hours by train and 2 hours by car, the distance to Turku is roughly the same. Tampere–Pirkkala Airport is Finlands third-busiest airport, with over 400,000 passengers annually, there have been many debates on the origin of the name Tampere. One theory is that it comes from the Swedish word damber, other suggestions have been the Swedish tamper-dagar, fasting days, and also the Finnish word tammi. Although the name Tampere or its Swedish counterparts Tammer- part cannot be completely confirmed, Tampere was founded as a market place on the banks of the Tammerkoski channel in 1775 by Gustav III of Sweden and four years later,1 October 1779, Tampere was granted full city rights. At this time, it was a small town, consisting of only a few square kilometres of land around the Tammerkoski. Tampere grew as a market town and industrial centre in the 19th century. The towns industrial nature in the 19th and 20th centuries gave it the nickname Manchester of the North, Tampere was the centre of many important political events of Finland in the early 20th century. On 1 November 1905, during the strike, the famous Red Declaration was proclaimed on the Keskustori. In 1918, when Finland had recently gained independence, Tampere also played a major role, Tampere was a red stronghold during the war, with Hugo Salmela in command. White forces captured the town after the Battle of Tampere, seizing about 10,000 Red prisoners on 6 April 1918, prevalent in Tamperes post-World War II municipal politics was the Brothers-in-Arms Axis. From 2007 on, Tampere switched to a new model of having a mayor and four deputy mayors, timo P. Nieminen was elected by the city council as the first mayor of Tampere for the years 2007–09. He was re-elected in 2009 and was succeeded by Anna-Kaisa Ikonen in 2013, after World War II, Tampere was enlarged by joining some neighbouring areas
33.
Bilingual
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Multilingualism is the use of two or more languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the worlds population, more than half of all Europeans claim to speak at least one other language in addition to their mother tongue. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of globalization, people who speak several languages are also called polyglots. Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood, the first language is acquired without formal education, by mechanisms heavily disputed. Children acquiring two languages in this way are called simultaneous bilinguals, even in the case of simultaneous bilinguals, one language usually dominates the other. People who know more than one language have been reported to be adept at language learning compared to monolinguals. Multilingualism in computing can be considered part of a continuum between internationalization and localization, the definition of multilingualism is a subject of debate in the very same way as the definition of language fluency. On one end of a sort of continuum, one may define multilingualism as complete competence. The speaker would presumably have complete knowledge and control over the language so as to sound native, on the opposite end of the spectrum would be people who know enough phrases to get around as a tourist using the alternate language. Since 1992, Vivian Cook has argued that most multilingual speakers fall somewhere between minimal and maximal definitions, in addition, there is no consistent definition of what constitutes a distinct language. For instance, scholars disagree whether Scots is a language in its own right or a dialect of English. Many small independent nations schoolchildren are today compelled to learn multiple languages because of international interactions, for example, in, all children are required to learn at least two foreign languages, the other national language and one alien language. Many Finnish schoolchildren also select further languages, such as German or Russian, in some large nations with multiple languages, such as India, school children may routinely learn multiple languages based on where they reside in the country. In major metropolitan areas of Central, South and East India, thus a child of Telugu parents living in Bangalore will end up speaking his or her mother tongue at home and the state language, Hindi and English in school and his or her surroundings. Many myths and much prejudice has grown around the notions of bi- and these are all harmful convictions which have long been debunked, yet still persist among many parents. A multilingual person is someone who can communicate in more than one language, more specifically, the terms bilingual and trilingual are used to describe comparable situations in which two or three languages are involved. A multilingual person is referred to as a polyglot. Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood, the first language is acquired without formal education, by mechanisms heavily disputed
34.
Mother-tongue
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A first language is a language that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. If there are multiple L1, the designation first language is used for the L1 spoken the best or the one that is the basis for sociolinguistic identity. In some countries, the native language or mother tongue refers to the language of ones ethnic group rather than ones first language. Children brought up speaking more than one language can have more than one native language, by contrast, a second language is any language that one speaks other than ones first language. Native speakers are considered to be an authority on their language because of their natural acquisition process regarding the language. That is achieved by interaction with the language and speakers of the language. Native speakers will not necessarily be knowledgeable about every rule of the language. Sometimes, the mother tongue or mother language is used for the language that a person learned as a child at home. Children growing up in homes can, according to this definition, have more than one mother tongue or native language. It is quite possible that the first language learned is no longer a dominant language. According to Ivan Illich, the mother tongue was first used by Catholic monks to designate a particular language they used, instead of Latin. That is, the mother the Church introduced this term. J. R. R. Tolkien, in his 1955 lecture English and Welsh, on 17 November 1999, UNESCO designated 21 February as International Mother Language Day. The first language of a child is part of the personal, social and cultural identity, another impact of the first language is that it brings about the reflection and learning of successful social patterns of acting and speaking. It is basically responsible for differentiating the linguistic competence of acting and that has implications on the education of non-native speakers. The topic of native speaker also gives way to discussion about what exactly bilingualism is, one definition is that a person is bilingual by being equally proficient in both languages. A person who grows up speaking English and begins learning Spanish for four years is not necessarily bilingual unless he speaks the two languages with equal fluency, one can have two or more native languages, thus being a native bilingual or indeed multilingual. The order in which languages are learned is not necessarily the order of proficiency
35.
Old East Slavic
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Old East Slavic, Old Ruthenian, Old Rusian was a language used in the 10th–15th centuries by East Slavs in Kievan Rus and states which evolved after the collapse of Kievan Rus. Dialects of it were spoken, though not exclusively, in the area occupied by Belarus, central and northern Ukraine. Linguists from each of the three East Slavic countries tend to treat Old East Slavic as the predecessor of their own language. The Russian drevnerusskij jazyk means Old Rus’ian as well, Rusian is similarly used by some western scholars such as Horace Lunt. The language was a descendant of the Proto-Slavic language and faithfully retained many of its features, a striking innovation in the evolution of this language was the development of so-called pleophony, which came to differentiate the newly evolving East Slavic from other Slavic dialects. For instance, Common Slavic *gordъ settlement, town was reflected as OESl. gorodъ, Common Slavic *melko milk > OESl. moloko, other Slavic dialects are differed by resolving the closed-syllable clusters *eRC and *aRC as liquid metathesis, or by no change at all. Since extant written records of the language are sparse, it is difficult to assess the level of its unity, in consideration of the number of tribes and clans that constituted Kievan Rus, it is probable that there were many dialects of Old East Slavonic. Nonetheless, by 1150 it had more unity than any other branch of Slavic, with time, it evolved into several more diversified forms, which were the predecessors of the modern Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn and Ukrainian languages. The Ukrainian branch split away first, between 1200 and 1500, whereas Russian later separated from Belarusian by 1700, each of these languages preserves much of the Old East Slavic grammar and vocabulary. The Old Church Slavonic language was introduced, documentation of the language of this period is scanty, making it difficult at best fully to determine the relationship between the literary language and its spoken dialects. There are references in Arab and Byzantine sources to pre-Christian Slavs in European Russia using some form of writing, although the Glagolitic alphabet was briefly introduced, as witnessed by church inscriptions in Novgorod, it was soon entirely superseded by the Cyrillic. The following excerpts illustrate two of the most famous literary monuments, the spelling of the original excerpt has been partly modernized. The translations are best attempts at being literal, not literary,1110, from the Laurentian Codex,1377, Early language, fall of the yers in progress or arguably complete. South Slavic features include времѧньнъıх bygone, modern R прошлых, modern Ukr минулих, correct use of perfect and aorist, єсть пошла is/has come, нача began Note the style of punctuation. 1200, from the Pskov manuscript, fifteenth cent, illustrates the sung epics, with typical use of metaphor and simile. The Old East Slavic language developed a certain literature of its own, though much of it was influenced as regards style, the earliest dated specimen of Old East Slavic must be considered the written Slovo o zakone i blagodati, by Hilarion, metropolitan of Kiev. In this work there is a panegyric on Prince Vladimir of Kiev and this subtle and graceful oration admirably conforms to the precepts of the Byzantine eloquence. It is rivalled by another panegyric on Vladimir, written a decade later by Yakov the Monk, from the writings of Theodosius we see that many pagan habits were still in vogue among the people
36.
Market place
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A market, or marketplace, is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a place may be described as a souk, bazaar. Some markets operate on most days, others may be once a week. The term, market comes from the Latin mercatus, the exact phrase was “Ic wille þæt markete beo in þe selue tun, ” which roughly translates as “I want to be at that market in the good town. ”Markets have existed since ancient times. Open air, public markets were known in ancient Babylonia and Assyria and these markets were typically situated in the towns centre where they were surrounded by alleyways occupied by skilled artisans, such as metal-workers and leather workers. These artisans may have sold wares directly from their premises, in ancient Greece markets operated within the agora, and in ancient Rome the forum. In the Graeco-Roman world, the market primarily served the local peasantry. They would sell small surpluses from their farming activities, purchase minor farm equipment. Major producers such as the estates were sufficiently attractive for merchants to call directly at their farm-gates. The very wealthy landowners managed their own distribution, which may have involved exporting, the nature of export markets in antiquity is well documented in ancient sources and archaeological case studies. At Pompeii multiple markets served the population of approximately 12,000, produce markets were located in the vicinity of the Forum, while livestock markets were situated on the citys perimeter, near the amphitheatre. A long narrow building at the north-west corner of the Forum was some type of market, on the opposite corner stood the macellum, thought to have been a meat and fish market. Market stall-holders paid a tax for the right to trade on market days. Some archaeological evidence suggests that markets and street vendors were controlled by local government, a graffito on the outside of a large shop documents a seven-day cycle of markets, Saturn’s day at Pompeii and Nuceria, Sun’s day at Atella and Nola, Moon’s day at Cumae. etc. The presence of an official commercial calendar suggests something of the importance to community life. Markets were also important centres of social life, in early Western Europe, markets developed close to monasteries, castles or royal residences. Priories and aristocratic manorial households created considerable demand for goods and services - both luxuries and necessities and these centres of trade attracted sellers and would stimulate the growth of the town. A charter would protect trading privileges in return for an annual fee, from the 11th and 12th century, the number of markets and fairs burgeoned
37.
Old Swedish
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Old Swedish developed from Old East Norse, the eastern dialect of Old Norse. The differences were minute, however, and the dialects truly began to diverge around the 12th century, becoming Old Swedish. It is not known when exactly Old Gutnish and Elfdalian began to diverge from Swedish, Early Old Swedish was markedly different from modern Swedish in that it had a more complex case structure and had not yet experienced a reduction of the gender system and thus had three genders. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and certain numerals were inflected in four cases, the writing of the Westrogothic law marked the beginning of Early Old Swedish, which had developed from Old East Norse. It was the first Swedish language document written in the Latin alphabet, Old Swedish was relatively stable during this period. The phonological and grammatical systems inherited from Old Norse were relatively well preserved, most of the texts from the Early Old Swedish period were written in Latin, as it was the language of knowledge and the Church. However, Old Swedish was used as a language as well. Much of the knowledge of Old Swedish comes from these law texts, in addition to laws, some religious and poetic texts were also written in Old Swedish. The Catholic Church and its various monastic orders introduced many new Greek, Latin especially had an influence on the written language. The Middle Low German language also influenced Old Swedish due to the economic, many German speakers immigrated to Swedish cities and worked in trade and administration. Accordingly, loanwords relating to warfare, trade, crafts and bureaucracy entered the Swedish language directly from Low German, along with some grammatical suffixes and conjunctions. The prefixes be-, ge- and för- that can be found in the beginning of modern Swedish words came from the Low German be-, ge- and vor-. Some words were replaced new ones, the native word for window, vindøgha, was replaced with fönster, eldhus was replaced with kök. Some of these still exist in Modern Swedish but are often considered archaic or dialectal. Many words related to seafaring were borrowed from Dutch, the influence of Low German was so strong that the inflectional system of Old Swedish was largely broken down. The printing of the New Testament in Swedish in 1526 marked the point for modern Swedish. In this period Old Swedish had taken in an amount of new vocabulary primarily from Latin, Low German. When the country part of the Kalmar Union in 1397
38.
Abraham
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Abraham, originally Abram, is the first of the three patriarchs of Judaism. His story features in the texts of all the Abrahamic religions and Abraham plays a prominent role as an example of faith in Judaism, Christianity. The biblical narrative revolves around the themes of posterity and land, Abraham is called by God to leave the house of his father Terah and settle in the land originally given to Canaan, but which God now promises to Abraham and his progeny. Various candidates are put forward who might inherit the land after Abraham, Abraham later marries Keturah and has six more sons, but on his death, when he is buried beside Sarah, it is Isaac who receives all Abrahams goods, while the other sons receive only gifts. Terah, the ninth in descent from Noah, was the father of three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran, Haran was the father of Lot, and died in his native city, Ur of the Chaldees. Abram married Sarah, who was barren, Terah, with Abram, Sarai, and Lot, then departed for Canaan, but settled in a place named Haran, where Terah died at the age of 205. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and the substance and souls that they had acquired, and traveled to Shechem in Canaan. There was a famine in the land of Canaan, so that Abram and Lot and their households. On the way Abram told his wife Sarai to say that she was his sister, however, God afflicted Pharaoh and his household with great plagues, for which he tried to find the reason. Upon discovering that Sarai was a woman, Pharaoh demanded that they and their household leave immediately. When they came back to the Bethel and Hai area, Abrams and this became a problem for the herdsmen who were assigned to each familys cattle. But Lot chose to go east to the plain of Jordan where the land was well watered everywhere as far as Zoar, Abram went south to Hebron and settled in the plain of Mamre, where he built another altar to worship God. During the rebellion of the Jordan River cities against Elam, Abrams nephew, the Elamite army came to collect the spoils of war, after having just defeated the king of Sodoms armies. Lot and his family, at the time, were settled on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Sodom which made them a visible target, one person who escaped capture came and told Abram what happened. Once Abram received this news, he immediately assembled 318 trained servants, Abrams force headed north in pursuit of the Elamite army, who were already worn down from the Battle of Siddim. When they caught up with them at Dan, Abram devised a plan by splitting his group into more than one unit. Not only were able to free the captives, Abrams unit chased and slaughtered the Elamite King Chedorlaomer at Hobah. They freed Lot, as well as his household and possessions, upon Abrams return, Sodoms king came out to meet with him in the Valley of Shaveh, the kings dale
39.
University of Turku
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The University of Turku, located in Turku in southwestern Finland, is the second largest university in the country as measured by student enrollment, after University of Helsinki. It was established in 1920 and also has faculties at Rauma, Pori, the university is a member of the Coimbra Group. The first university to be established in Turku was The Royal Academy of Turku, in 1640, three famous Finns began their studies in Turku in 1822. These were Johan Vilhelm Snellman, Elias Lönnrot, and Johan Ludvig Runeberg who have a statue on University Hill, another reminder of the Royal Academy is the Old Academy Building near the Universitys campus. The modern University of Turku was founded in 1920, the Finnish intelligentsia wanted a purely Finnish university, the first of its kind in Finland. 22,040 people contributed to the fund-raising campaign, newly gained independence and the campaign are reflected in the motto of the University about a free peoples gift to free science. To honour the memory of these donors, the University has named its specially created liqueur 22040, developed by the Universitys own food chemists, the liqueur does homage to some of the distinctive fruits of the Finnish landscape, the cloudberry, the rowan and the sea buckthorn. The first premises of the University of Turku were in the centre of the city, in the 1950s a new campus was built on Ryssänmäki. In the 1960s the University started to rapidly, a process that still continues. The University was made a public institution in 1974, since 1995 the University of Turku has been a member of Coimbra Group. In January 2010, Turku School of Economics merged with the University of Turku, the University has approximately 18,000 students, of which 5,000 are postgraduate students having completed their MSc or MA. The largest faculties are the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Mathematics, the university is governed by three bodies, the Board of Directors, The Rector and the Chancellor. The Board is the highest decision-making organ of the University and is made up of 19 individuals both from academia, politics and studentship, the Rector directs the activities and processes of the University and solves any issues concerning its general management. The Rector represents the University and uses the Universitys right to speak in courts of law, prof Kalervo Väänänen is currently the elected Rector. The Chancellor confirms the standing orders and other corresponding general regulations of the University, the most visible task of the Chancellor is the appointment of the Professors and the Docents of the University. Professor Pekka Puska currently holds this position, the university is divided into seven faculties. Some of the departments are listed under the faculty header, the area also encompasses Turku University Hospital and the Student Village. The Administration Building and the complex was built in the fifties on what became to be known as the University Hill
40.
Great Fire of Turku
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The Great Fire of Turku was a conflagration that is still the largest urban fire in the history of Finland and the Nordic countries. The fires started burning on 4 September 1827 in burgher Carl Gustav Hellman’s house on the Aninkaistenmäki hill slightly before 9 p. m. The fire quickly swept through the quarter, spread to the southern quarter and jumped the Aura River. By the next day, the fire had destroyed 75% of the city, only 25% of the city was spared, mainly the western and southern portions. The fire destroyed the downtown area of Turku, including Turku Cathedral and the main building of the Imperial Academy of Turku, Akatemiatalo. The damage was considerable and was felt for a period of time in the aftermath of the event. 11,000 people were homeless, and 27 casualties. The night of the fire, Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander, Observator at the Imperial Academy of Turku, was in the Vartiovuori Observatory on Vartiovuorenmäki, due to the fire, he had to stop what he was doing. In his observation log, he wrote, Today observation was interrupted by a fire that reduced Turku to ashes”. The observatory, placed on the top of a hill, was spared though. As the rest of the academy has suffered damage, its indispensable activities such as meetings of the consistory. Most Finnish archives, including practically all material from the Middle ages, was destroyed in the fire. At the time of the fire, and for some time afterwards, Turku was the largest city in Finland, governor-General of the Grand Duchy of Finland Arseniy Zakrevskiy was responsible for rebuilding the city after the fire. His proposal resulted in the Senate of Finland selecting Architect Carl Ludvig Engel to create the new city plan for Turku, downtown Turku is still based on Engel’s grid plan, which was approved on 15 December 1828. The largest buildings in downtown Turku, the cathedral and Akatemiatalo, were refurbished, and some of the buildings, such as the Old Town Hall. The majority of the city, however, had to be completely rebuilt, turku’s grid plan design had a significant influence on how other Finnish towns were laid out. The Cloister Hill area, which was spared due to its location on the outskirts of the area hit by the fire, was protected and opened up as a handicrafts open-air museum in 1940
41.
Stone Age
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The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make implements with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 8700 BCE and 2000 BCE with the advent of metalworking, bone tools were used during this period as well but are rarely preserved in the archaeological record. The Stone Age is further subdivided by the types of tools in use. According to the age and location of the current evidence, the cradle of the genus is the East African Rift System, especially toward the north in Ethiopia, where it is bordered by grasslands. The closest relative among the living primates, the genus Pan, represents a branch that continued on in the deep forest. The rift served as a conduit for movement into southern Africa and also north down the Nile into North Africa and through the continuation of the rift in the Levant to the vast grasslands of Asia. The oldest indirect evidence found of stone tool use is fossilised animal bones with tool marks, the oldest stone tools were excavated from the site of Lomekwi 3 in West Turkana, northwestern Kenya, and date to 3.3 million years old. Prior to the discovery of these Lomekwian tools, the oldest known stone tools had been found at sites at Gona, Ethiopia, on the sediments of the paleo-Awash River. All the tools come from the Busidama Formation, which lies above a disconformity, or missing layer, the oldest sites containing tools are dated to 2. 6–2.55 mya. One of the most striking circumstances about these sites is that they are from the Late Pliocene, excavators at the locality point out that. the earliest stone tool makers were skilled flintknappers. The possible reasons behind this seeming abrupt transition from the absence of tools to the presence thereof include. The species who made the Pliocene tools remains unknown, fragments of Australopithecus garhi, Australopithecus aethiopicus and Homo, possibly Homo habilis, have been found in sites near the age of the Gona tools. Innovation of the technique of smelting ore ended the Stone Age, the first most significant metal manufactured was bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, each of which was smelted separately. The Chalcolithic by convention is the period of the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age, the transition out of the Stone Age occurred between 6000 BCE and 2500 BCE for much of humanity living in North Africa and Eurasia. Note the Rudna Glava mine in Serbia, Ötzi the Iceman, a mummy from about 3300 BCE carried with him a copper axe and a flint knife. In regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the Stone Age was followed directly by the Iron Age, the Middle East and southeastern Asian regions progressed past Stone Age technology around 6000 BCE. Europe, and the rest of Asia became post–Stone Age societies by about 4000 BCE, the proto-Inca cultures of South America continued at a Stone Age level until around 2000 BCE, when gold, copper and silver made their entrance
Finland
Southwest Finland
listen); Swedish: Åbo [ˈoːbʊ] (
Tallinn, Estonia (co-operation agreement)
Turku travel guide from Wikivoyage
