Libya, Settlement patterns

Libya is divided into three regions—the western region (formerly Tripolitania province), the eastern region (formerly Cyrenaica province), and the southern region (formerly Fezzan province). Two-thirds of the population lives in the western region, the majority in Tripoli and other cities along the coast and on the Nafusah Plateau. About 20 percent of the people live in

Ansky, S.

Ansky was educated in a Hasidic environment and as a young man was attracted to the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskala) and to the populist doctrines of the Narodniki, a group of socialist revolutionaries. For a time he worked among the peasants and contributed

Biblical Literature, The Torah

The Book of the Chronicles, composed c. 400 BCE, frequently refers to the “Torah of Moses” and exhibits a familiarity with all the five books of the Pentateuch. The earliest record

Abukuma-sammyaku

(Japanese: Abukuma Mountains), range in northern Honshu, Japan, extending for 106 miles (170 km) north to south and paralleling the Pacific coast of Fukushima Prefecture (ken), Tohoku Region (chiho). Its southern end extends into Ibaraki Prefecture of Kanto Region. The mountain range is 30 miles wide, and the individual peaks are sphenoidal, or wedge shaped. They consist of schistose granite

Vistula Lagoon

German  Frisches Haff , Polish  Zalew Wislany , Russian  Vislinsky Zaliv  shallow, marsh-fringed lagoon on the Baltic coast, bisected by the Polish-Russian border and considered part of the Gulf of Gdansk. Covering 330 square miles (855 square km), it is 56 miles (90 km) long, 6 to 15 miles (10 to 19 km) wide, and up to 17 feet (5 m) deep. The Nogat, the eastern distributary of the Vistula River delta, is the principal river entering the lagoon. The long, narrow Vistula Spit protects the

Drag Racing

Contestants line

Puerto Cortés

City, northwestern Honduras, situated on the Gulf of Honduras. It is backed by Alvarado Lagoon and extends for 2 miles (3 km) along the southern shore of Caballos Point. Puerto Cortés serves as the seaport for San Pedro Sula and the Sula Valley. The town was founded in 1524 as Puerto Caballos, just to the south across Cortés Bay, but was moved and had its name changed to Puerto

Abkhazo-adyghian Languages

Also called  Northwest Caucasian Languages,   group of languages spoken primarily in the northwestern part of the Caucasus Mountains. The languages of this group—Abkhaz, Abaza, Adyghian, Kabardian (Circassian), and the nearly extinct Ubykh—are noted for the great number of distinctive consonants and limited number of distinctive vowels in their sound systems.