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81d410c227e063b46e3bc2eceed32991 | https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jun-30-bk-radosh30-story.html | Even Worse Than We Thought | Even Worse Than We Thought
It is the claim of Jerrold and Leona Schecter, a husband-and-wife journalist-historian team, that the Cold War was made up “sacred secrets,” that is, critical intelligence operations carried out by major nations, in particular by the Soviet Union. These operations were of such vital importance that they virtually demand a rewriting of history, because much of what has been written fails to consider the meaning and effect of these intelligence campaigns.
“Sacred Secrets” is the latest in a reevaluation of the impact that Soviet espionage had on our past, particularly during World War II and the Cold War. The Schecters’ work builds on that of previous authors, especially on Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes’ interpretation of the Venona decrypts in their 1999 study, “Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America” and Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev’s revelations surrounding Soviet espionage in “The Haunted Wood.” In their telling, the Schecters provide new information about how widespread the Soviet espionage network was. If true, their reporting--especially the revelation that J. Robert Oppenheimer was a Soviet asset--will change our central assumptions about the Cold War.
“Sacred Secrets” is a historically accurate account not only of how that espionage effectively hurt America’s national interest but also of how it served the interests of the Soviet Union. While many Americans have assumed that those accused of spying for the Soviets were victims of false charges brought by McCarthyites, the truth is that most of them were guilty of what they had been charged with. The Venona files and Soviet archives established that Alger Hiss, Laurence Duggan, Lauchlin Currie, William Remington and others working in the U.S. government had been Soviet agents or sources of information for the Soviets, as Whitaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley had charged. The Schecters add to this by providing new details about Soviet espionage success, and they put to an end any claim that, if espionage had occurred, it was of little effect and no harm.Two episodes are of immense importance and show the extent to which the Schecters have mined valuable information from the KGB archives. Since the release of Venona, we have known that Harry Dexter White, assistant secretary of the Treasury and the formulator of the so-called Morgenthau Plan for postwar Germany, was a major Soviet asset. Critics have argued that it made no sense that White could have been a Soviet agent because he was a major player in creating the International Monetary Fund.
The Schecters look at White and his efforts before the start of World War II to encourage the U.S. to pursue a policy that would counter Japanese expansion, which would keep Japanese troops under pressure in China and therefore clear of Soviet borders near Siberia. The goal was simple: to aggravate strained negotiations between the U.S. and Japan. Formally, White was not a Soviet agent but what the authors call a “star,” with satellites working around him who gave the data he supplied to the Soviets. Thus his memoranda to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. was handed to the Soviets by actual Soviet agents in Treasury, including Nathan Gregory Silvermaster, Victor Perlo and others.
Under the pretext of supporting peace and friendly relations with the Soviets, White introduced “Soviet goals into Treasury Department initiatives,” for the purpose of gaining support for the “Soviet policy of averting a Japanese invasion of Siberia.” That policy led not to peace but to a provocation that led the Japanese to attack the United States at Pearl Harbor. Stalin’s ultimate goal, the Schecters emphasize, was to try to provoke war between Japan and the U.S., to prevent Japan from striking the Soviet Union and hence to promote Soviet interests in the Far East.
In “Sacred Secrets,” the authors also tell the story of how, in 1944, White developed the policy of giving the Soviets printing plates that enabled them to print unlimited amounts of occupation currency in the Eastern zone of Germany. On the face of it, the providing of plates could be justified as part of the reparation for Soviet suffering at Germany’s hand during the war. But the Schecters make it clear that Gen. George C. Marshall was opposed to this plan because it would interfere with the Allied currency. But White moved ahead after he received instructions to do so from the NKVD center in Moscow, and the marks flooded the Russian zone and created a black market and inflation throughout Germany.
“White’s efforts to provide unlimited occupation currency for the Red Army was another thread in the tapestry of service he wove on behalf of the Soviet Union,” the Schecters write, noting that White also gave Stalin “direct access to a broad range of information and high-level thinking.” It was similar to the role that Hiss played at Yalta, meeting each day with the Soviet military intelligence agent and giving him American positions on unresolved issues in advance of negotiations, before they were to be discussed by Stalin, Churchill and FDR, thereby helping Stalin impose his iron curtain on Eastern Europe.
The second and perhaps most important revelation in “Sacred Secrets” concerns Oppenheimer, the fabled chief of the Manhattan Project. The revocation of Oppenheimer’s security clearance in 1953 by the Eisenhower administration because of the scientist’s past communist affiliations and the lies he told to Army security in the early 1940s has been viewed as a major capitulation to the McCarthyites. Oppenheimer’s defenders have argued that his opposition to development of an H-bomb led them to use his past affiliations against him and thus remove his voice from the ears of policymakers and members of the Atomic Energy Commission.
The authors quote Oppenheimer in a 1948 interview in which he referred to his brief flirtation with communism as stemming from a humanitarian concern. “Most of what I believed then,” he said, “now seems complete nonsense, but it was an essential part of becoming a whole man.” By the war’s end, Oppenheimer was seemingly an anti-communist, and it appeared that his access to classified material was being taken from him without consideration of his service to the nation. What “Sacred Secrets” reveals is virtually a bombshell and will become highly contested and debated.
It has been long known that Oppenheimer’s wife and his brother Frank were both Communist Party members and that, like other intellectuals of his time, Oppenheimer was sympathetic to the Communist movement. Yet his service to America was deemed essential if an A-bomb was to be built, and it was with knowledge about his past that he was allowed to head the top secret atomic lab at Los Alamos.
But the Schecters offer the proof that Oppenheimer himself was a Communist Party member well into 1942, after which time he was ordered by the NKVD to drop his membership and go undercover. Soviet documents prove that Oppenheimer functioned as a major Soviet asset, agreeing to hire communist scientists who would ferret out secrets for the Soviets and meeting with the NKVD’s resident in San Francisco, Gregory Kheifitz, to whom he reported secret information. As the writers reveal, “from the first meeting between Kheifitz and Oppenheimer in December 1941, through the early months of 1942 while the Manhattan Project was being organized and Oppenheimer was preparing to move to Los Alamos, the American Communist Party underground and Soviet intelligence were enlisting Oppenheimer’s cooperation to obtain atomic secrets.”
Indeed, the authors reproduce in their appendix the actual document from Soviet archives, dated Oct. 2, 1944, received and signed by NKVD head Lavrenti Beria, referring to Oppenheimer as a “member of the apparatus of Comrade Browder” who, at the request of Kheifitz, “provided cooperation in access to research for several of our tested sources including a relative of Comrade Browder.” Then, working through Maj. Vasili Zarubin of State Security and his wife, also an NKVD officer, they befriended Oppenheimer’s wife and, through her, convinced Oppenheimer to hire “antifascists of German origin,” which paved the way for the hiring of Klaus Fuchs by the Manhattan Project.
Oppenheimer also placed young communist scientists in the other three major government research labs, and they in turn gave Soviet couriers secret documents pertaining to the development of atomic weapons from uranium. Much of the atomic espionage--details of which are not to be found in Venona--took place through Soviet residents and from couriers working through a Soviet safe house for illegals, operated out of Zuck’s Drugstore in Santa Fe. Run by Kitty Harris, a courier for atomic secrets, Zuck’s was purchased by the NKVD as a support center to arrange Leon Trotsky’s assassination in 1940.
The authors also challenge those who have asserted that President Harry Truman did not know about Venona and suggest that, had their revelations been made known, the witch hunts of the 1950s might never have taken place. They reveal that the FBI struggled with whether to let Venona be used as the basis for prosecutions and decided that to do so would be disadvantageous both legally and logistically. They challenge former U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s assertion that no one past the rank of Gen.Omar Bradley knew about Venona, and they cite interviews with Oliver Kirby, deputy director of the Russian code-breaking program, establishing that Truman had been informed of Venona by Secretary of Defense James Forrestal. Truman, they write, distrusted the Venona findings and worried that their contents would “open up this whole Red Panic again.”
Moreover, Truman believed that communist infiltration of the government could not have been widespread. Indeed, when told that Venona files had identified White and Hiss as agents, Truman worried that the news was “likely to take us down.” By not making Venona public, Truman delayed the Red panic, the Schecters write, and “allowed his political enemies to take control of the issue and magnify it for their own ends.” Truman’s fear was that Venona was the equivalent of a time bomb “that could explode and destroy the party of the New Deal in the 1952 election.”
The remainder of “Sacred Secrets” concerns events not directly related to the book’s thesis. Some material is interesting but remain peripheral, such as how the authors obtained and published Khrushchev’s diaries and the role of the mysterious Soviet journalist and agent Victor Louis. The authors unnecessarily retell the already well-known stories of the Hiss case and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case, and they end their book with boilerplate about the war against terrorism and the need for intelligence in our new struggle. All of which is not relevant to the point of their book and might best have been omitted. Despite these irrelevancies, the main story they tell is essential for our understanding of how Soviet espionage affected our country.
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4cb4a7f4b2c25205ae60910652c5cc03 | https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-mar-04-sp-tennis04-story.html | Hewitt Outlasts Agassi for Title | Hewitt Outlasts Agassi for Title
Lleyton Hewitt’s return to tennis tested his stamina, both mentally and physically.
The top-ranked Australian got off to a rocky start but recovered to beat Andre Agassi, 4-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4), in the Siebel Open final Sunday in San Jose.
Second-seeded Agassi, playing in his first tournament of the year after a wrist injury, had won the San Jose tournament four times. Hewitt was playing his first tournament since losing in the first round of the Australian Open after a bout with chickenpox.
Agassi was also playing his first tournament under new coach Darren Cahill, Hewitt’s old coach.
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Serena Williams did her older sister a favor by beating Jennifer Capriati, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, in the final of the State Farm Women’s Tennis Classic in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Capriati’s loss means Venus Williams will keep the No. 1 world ranking for at least a second week.
“I owe her a ton,” said Serena, who will improve from No. 9 to No. 6 when the WTA announces its rankings today.
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Fabrice Santoro of France won the Dubai Open, beating Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.... The U.S. Tennis Assn. selected Houston as the site for a Davis Cup quarterfinal match against Spain on April 5-7. The match will be played on grass.
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9932084abc5fdf94e7cab0aa42da8bba | https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-mar-05-mn-31165-story.html | U.S. Boosting Allies’ Military Aid | U.S. Boosting Allies’ Military Aid
The Bush administration is preparing to provide U.S. military advisors, weapons and special training to governments in Central Asia, the Mideast and Africa over the next six months as part of an expanded effort to mount proxy fights against terrorists in more than half a dozen countries, administration officials say.
The administration has sought a 27% funding increase for a federal program designed to bolster militaries in other countries. Money, materiel and U.S. military trainers would go to Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Jordan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, a senior Defense Department official said.
The United States has traditionally conducted training exercises with friendly militaries and has helped them buy military equipment and services. But the expanded effort is designed to allow the U.S. to more directly use other nations’ armed forces to strike at terrorists who threaten American interests.
The new push comes despite years of controversy over misuse of U.S. training and materiel by foreign militaries. Now, however, the expanded ties are seen as essential to the administration’s plan to conduct proxy fights against terrorist cells in many places at once.
“All these programs were predicated on the idea that if we get together, U.S. values will be transferred and U.S. interests will be served. Right now, our interest is in curbing terrorism,” said D. B. Des Roches, a spokesman for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
While the Pentagon says it will not disclose publicly where the war on terrorism will take U.S. resources next, military officials said the Pentagon is sending a surplus patrol boat and rifles to the Philippines and spare helicopter parts to Pakistan. It has sent military trainers to Djibouti, Ethiopia and Oman and has trained Georgian pilots at U.S. military flight schools.
“We will continue to train and equip countries that face terrorist threats. We will establish or, in some cases, reestablish military-to-military contacts with countries that face terrorist threats,” Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday. “The power and reach of weapons today are too great and too lethal to do otherwise.”
Senior defense officials say the preparations are a central part of the next phase in the war on terrorism, in which the United States hopes to be able to wage military operations against its enemies around the world without using U.S. troops. Administration officials believe that by sending military equipment to countries that have long sought such aid, then training their militaries, Washington will build relationships strong enough that U.S. leaders can later ask those nations to use what they have learned on the United States’ behalf.
“This is more of a long-term investment than an immediate fix,” said one senior military official. “It’s an attempt to get more exposure to democracy for front-line states in the war against terrorism, and to equip them to fight on their turf. It’s part of the realization that there are an awful lot of nasty things out there that could touch us more directly than we ever thought they could in the past.”
The military aid is being channeled through three Cold War era programs. Two of the programs--Foreign Military Financing, or FMF, which awards credits, loans and grants to other militaries to buy military equipment; and International Military Education and Training, or IMET, which provides education at home and in the United States to officers of foreign militaries--are run by the State Department and implemented by the Pentagon. A third program, which awards excess defense equipment to friendly countries, is run by the Pentagon.
The programs have been used in the past primarily for funding military aid to Israel, Egypt, Jordan and countries in Latin America. But they were also used in 2001 to train and educate more than 9,000 foreign military personnel and to equip the 100 countries those personnel came from.
In its 2003 budget request to Congress, the State Department is asking for an increase of 27% over this year’s budget for FMF and 13% for IMET.
The increases reflect “new conditions” after Sept. 11, a State Department official said. “Certainly we want to use [the programs] to complement our objectives in the war on terrorism.”
Military officials say the relationships the Pentagon has been cultivating for almost a decade with the militaries of Central Asian countries have already paid dividends. The U.S. has been making heavy use of air bases in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to support the war in Afghanistan. And the Air Force is building an air base in Kyrgyzstan it plans to use for years.
“There’s no guarantee this will buy you anything in the long term, but if you’re coming into these places starting from ground zero, the chances that you will get anything from them are near zero,” said Jay Cope, a retired Army colonel and a senior research fellow at the National Defense University.
Critics say that strengthening militaries without strengthening government institutions in unstable parts of the globe could create more problems than it solves.
“What do we actually buy when we train these militaries? Presumably they can shoot better and train better, but are they more likely to be our friends? We don’t actually know,” said Deborah Avant, an assistant professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University.
“We’re partly going on hope here,” Avant said. “You might be shooting yourself in the foot, particularly when you’re talking about getting terrorist threats under control.”
Pentagon officials said that while the programs are not perfect, they are gambling that they can be used effectively to leverage U.S. interests in the war on terrorism.
“We can’t change where these people come from and the culture of their particular institution,” a senior military official said. “We can expose them to a lot, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that, when they go back home and they become part of that particular institution, they are going to respond as expected.”
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97dae8d73068df669e50e357aad0b207 | https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-mar-09-sp-pucin09-story.html | Walton Knows the Drill So Well | Walton Knows the Drill So Well
Luke Walton is a quiet basketball player. He is not prone to back-slapping, high-fiving, bring-the-fans-to-their-feet dunks or between-the-leg passes or behind-the-back cleverness.
He is not often heard whooping or hollering or seen wiggling his rear end or pounding his chest in proud affirmation of a routine basket or ordinary pass.
Walton leads the Pacific 10 Conference in assists and yet his coach, Lute Olson, says Walton doesn’t get credit for many of his passes that lead to baskets because those passes come before the assist pass; they are made to the player who is in perfect position to make the assist.
To see basketball played well and soundly, keep your eyes on the 6-foot-8, 240-pound University of Arizona junior forward. Watch how he knows which square inch on the floor is the right place for him to be and which square inch is the right place for a teammate to catch the ball.
Friday night, the euphoria had not evaporated from USC’s 89-78 victory over Oregon in the first Pac-10 tournament semifinal game when Walton got an assist on Jason Gardner’s first basket, scored a layup of his own and threw a bullet pass to Rick Anderson at precisely the moment Anderson arrived in front of the basket in position for a layup. All this in the first three minutes of Arizona’s matchup against Cal.
Up above sat a proud father, a good friend, a man happy to be known as Luke’s dad. Bill Walton is not happy because his son, against the predictions of many experts who thought Luke too slow and too floor-bound to star at the top level of NCAA Division I basketball, is an emerging star.
Bill Walton is happy because his son has found in Tucson what Bill once found in Westwood at UCLA.
“A home,” the father says. “A philosophy of life. A family led by a man who should be in the Hall of Fame and who has taught Luke about life and about basketball. Lute Olson is to Luke what Coach Wooden is to me.”
Luke Walton makes basketball seem a simple game. He makes it easy for teammates to get shots. He makes the choreography of Olson’s scripted offense seem an easy one-two-three, one-two-three rhythm when it’s not, when it’s complicated and filled with pitfalls if there is not someone wise and talented with the ball.
Olson estimates that Walton handles the basketball 60% of the time the Wildcats have it. ESPN analyst Dick Vitale has called Walton the best-passing big man in the country and that’s not typical Dickie V hyperbole.
Bill Walton is proud to say his No. 3 son soaked in the lessons taught by Boston Celtic teams on which Larry Bird and he starred. Maybe a boy can’t learn basketball instincts--Luke has those too--but he can learn about the game, including the parts that aren’t always appreciated.
If a vote were taken on who is the star of this Arizona team, guard Gardner would be the winner. “Jason’s the leader of that team,” Bill Walton says emphatically. “Jason Gardner is a great player.”
A father is hard on a son, that’s for sure, and maybe it is Gardner, who leads the Wildcats in scoring and who will be the go-to man if, say, Arizona needs a last-second field goal to win an NCAA tournament game. But if Gardner gets the shot he wants, it most likely will be because Walton gets it to him at the right place at the right time.
And if Gardner can’t get the shot, Walton will get one of his young teammates a layup. Or Walton will get himself a little jump hook in the lane. And he’ll probably make it.
There has been a secret unfolding of young Luke’s career out in the desert. He pops into Los Angeles a couple times a year when the Wildcats make their UCLA-USC swing and the local fans, especially those in Westwood, shake their heads and wonder why Luke isn’t playing for his father’s alma mater.
Bill is diplomatic. Kind of.
“I wanted Luke to go to a place where the coach would enable him to find a basketball identity, a style, that would make Luke become a complete basketball player and a complete person,” Bill says. “And Luke has that. At this point in time, Arizona, under Lute Olson, is a special place to experience basketball and team. The foundation Luke has received at Arizona is going to serve Luke well in the rest of his life, and that’s all you can ask of a coach.”
You can also ask a coach to teach your son how to improve every year as a basketball player. That Olson has also done for Walton.
Besides leading the conference in assists--the only non-guard among the top nine--Walton is also fifth in assist-to-turnover ratio; sixth in steals; seventh in rebounding (third in defensive rebounding); and 12th in scoring. There is no more well-rounded player in the league and maybe not in the country.
With 52 seconds left in the first half, Walton had accepted a pass from Gardner. Walton was about four feet from the basket and had a good shot.
But his teammate, Dennis Latimore, a strong but slow-footed freshman, was even closer to the basket. Walton saw Latimore, saw that Latimore’s defender was taking a step toward Walton and in a split second Latimore was grabbing the ball and scoring. The right play at the right time. Again.
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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com.
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f9c6e0d0eefaa83ae0af497d7d1bb5fb | https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-mar-16-me-nixon16-story.html | Nixon Rift Much More Than a Sister Act | Nixon Rift Much More Than a Sister Act
In a simmering controversy over the stewardship of the Richard M. Nixon Library & Birthplace, advocates for the former president’s feuding daughters sought to frame the dispute Friday in sharply different terms--and to lay some of the bad blood to backroom politicking within the Nixon Foundation itself.
One board member said Friday that legal challenges over a multimillion-dollar bequest to the foundation are part of a power grab by library executives and an attempt to bypass the foundation’s 24-member board of directors.
The board member, former Nixon aide Ken Khachigian, said several board members opposed taking legal action over the bequest by Nixon chum Bebe Rebozo, but were overruled by the foundation’s executive committee.
Those lawsuits have pushed what was a private dispute between Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower into courtrooms in Orange County and Miami.
“You’ve got a couple folks who are employed by the foundation who are trying to accumulate more power,” Khachigian said. “A minimum of three of us felt this action should not be taken. The full board was not consulted, and I think it should have been. I think this is inappropriate and unfortunate.”
While the roots of the dispute grow from a philosophical difference between the sisters over how to preserve their father’s legacy, other personality conflicts brew. Cox has been adamant about maintaining control over the Rebozo bequest because, according to a source familiar with foundation affairs, Rebozo once told her that he did not want his money in the hands of library executive director John H. Taylor.
Rebozo’s will specifies that Cox, Eisenhower and Robert H. Abplanalp must determine how the foundation spends the bequest.
The source added that the sisters’ estrangement was fueled by Taylor and Dimitri K. Simes, president of the Nixon
Center in Washington, D.C., which is also supported by the foundation.
“Taylor and Simes have worked very hard to separate the two,” he said. “That’s part of their controlling the library, and there came a point when they succeeded. They want control, total control. That’s what’s going on here.”
Taylor dismissed that analysis as the fruits of bitterness over a 1997 reorganization of the foundation board in which he sided with Eisenhower in establishing a 24-member independent body rather than a family-controlled committee.
Letters written in February by Cox and Eisenhower--both board members--paint the dispute in stark and challenging terms.
“It is sad that my father’s library has been used to create a public controversy about the Nixon family, which only harms my father’s legacy,” Cox wrote to the board, condemning the lawsuits as “senseless,” “unwise and meritless.”
She wrote, “I am deeply concerned that Bebe’s wishes and will be faithfully implemented....My father would expect no less.”
Eisenhower was equally direct a day later in a reply to fellow board member Abplanalp.
“It pains me to have a dispute with you and Tricia, but my father’s legacy is at stake,” Eisenhower wrote.
At issue is a bequest that could be worth as much as $20 million--rather than the $12-million estimate provided earlier to The Times. Part of the problem in sizing the bequest is that much of it is in real estate holdings whose values cannot be readily determined, said Nicholas Christin, a Miami lawyer representing the Rebozo trust.
Under terms of the Rebozo will, the Nixon Foundation would receive 65% of the estate, which could be worth $30 million.
Christin said the lawsuits surprised him.
“These were minor differences. I thought we were at the 5-yard line, ready to go in for a touchdown,” he said.
He said the Rebozo trust believes that the Nixon sisters and Abplanalp must decide how the money is spent.
In the court filings, attorneys for the library foundation questioned nearly $1 million paid to three Rebozo trustees from the estate. Christin, though, said there was nothing untoward about the payments, and that the bulk of the estate would have been released to the foundation long ago if the Nixon sisters and Abplanalp could agree on how the money would be managed.
“We’d be happy to distribute when we get the instructions,” Christin said. “The trustees always expected these people would work out agreements.”
Christin noted that the lawsuits could erode the estate with legal bills.
“I think everybody would be far better off without litigation,” Christin said. “It certainly doesn’t reduce costs that they chose to file litigation in Florida and California.”
Although the current dispute revolves around Rebozo’s money, the sisters’ falling out dates back to the months after Nixon’s death, when differences over how to preserve Nixon’s legacy first surfaced. The Rebozo controversy isn’t the first time that split has rocked the foundation.
In 1997, the foundation halted a project to establish an institute at the library named after the late Nixon advisor Elmer Bobst when letters and phone messages surfaced containing anti-Semitic comments by Bobst.
The Nixon Foundation was divided over the issue. Some of those involved, including Cox’s husband Edward Cox, wanted to keep the letters quiet--and keep the money, said Taylor. But the board agreed to turn back a $6-million grant from the Elmer and Mamdouha Bobst Foundation, including $850,000 of $1.5 million it had already accepted. The rest had been spent on plans for the institute. On Friday, one partisan in the current dispute said that the Nixon Foundation still has not returned the money, which Taylor acknowledged.
“There’s always been a strong feeling that the Bobst Foundation ought to have some funds returned to it,” he said. “We have members of our board who believe it should be returned. We have members of our board who feel there should be a halfway-point meeting.”
While the drama unfolds behind the scenes, there was little talk of the controversy Friday in Yorba Linda, where the library is based and where Nixon and his wife, Pat Nixon, are buried.
But as word spread among library visitors who hold the Nixon family in high regard, the reigning emotions were surprise and consternation.
“You always hate to see siblings crossed up over anything--especially over money,” said the Rev. Sewell Hall of Atlanta, in town to deliver a series of sermons at the Tustin Church of Christ.
For some, the falling out spoke of a failure in a family that remained solid--at least on the outside--through the turmoil of the Watergate era and the president’s resignation from office.
“That is very discouraging--I hate to hear that,” said Jo Ella Evans, in town for two weeks from Monroe, Ind. “I always thought they were pretty united. They would have had to be to have gone through everything they went through. I wish it wouldn’t be like that.”
Carl Sferrazza Anthony, a Los Angeles-based historian specializing in first ladies, said the Nixon sisters were extremely close as children and that seemed to evolve into a close adult relationship as well.
Eisenhower’s 1986 book about their mother, “Pat Nixon: The Untold Story,” included warm references to Cox and detailed how the two women sought to shore up their father during the dark days of Watergate. Eisenhower also quoted liberally from Tricia’s diary.
“They’d have to be close for Tricia to open her diary,” Anthony said.
Anthony said that Cox is more “politically savvy” than Eisenhower and quicker to take umbrage over attacks on their father’s legacy, even though she has avoided public appearances. Eisenhower, meanwhile, has been a well-regarded ambassador for the Nixon Library, remaining loyal to her father, even as she’s maintained the open-minded perspective of a historian, Anthony said.
“She’s not a ferocious, sink-or-swim person. She’s a very fair, judicious person,” Anthony said. “It’s really impossible for me to imagine Julie ever doing something as rash as instituting a lawsuit.”
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Times staff writer John J. Goldman and Times Washington Bureau Chief Doyle McManus contributed to this report.
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61a4f54ccdd8001d7cc20f8199add5ce | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bacau-county-Romania | Bacău | Bacău
Bacău, județ (county), eastern Romania, occupying an area of 2,551 square miles (6,606 square km). The Eastern Carpathians and the sub-Carpathians rise above the settlement areas that are situated in intermontane valleys and lowlands. The county is drained southeastward by the Siret River and its tributaries. It was formerly included in feudal Moldavia. Manufactures of Bacău city, the county capital, include military airplanes, metal products, textiles, and timber. Onești city, located in the Trotuș valley, was designated an industrial area in 1955 and has oil-processing, chemical, and synthetic-rubber factories. Agăș and Comănești are timber centres. Oil wells operate in Molinești, Zemeș, Solonț, and Lucăcești. Coal mines are worked near Comănești and Asău towns, and salt is mined near Târgu Ocna. Borzești village was the birthplace of Stephen the Great, who declared Moldavia’s independence from the Turks in 1503. The regional museum, located in Bacău city, contains Neolithic idols and Dacian pottery and coins found in the surrounding area. Several hydroelectric plants are located on the Bistrița River, north of Bacău city. Railway lines and highways usually parallel the district’s river courses. An airport is located near Bacău city. Pop. (2002 prelim.) 708,751.
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3a92205a8a4e49c92d6d84a83f1cb95a | https://www.britannica.com/place/Back-Bay-area-Boston-Massachusetts | Back Bay | Back Bay
…and known collectively as the Back Bay. The Charles River flowed through the Back Bay to Boston Harbor and separated the peninsula from the mainland to the north and west. To the east, Town Cove indented Boston’s harbour front and divided the city into the North End and the South…
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38a700a481f68077b8d0bc7b329b3c02 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bad-Harzburg | Bad Harzburg | Bad Harzburg
Bad Harzburg, city, Lower Saxony Land (state), eastern Germany. It is located on the northern slope of the Oberharz (Upper Harz) mountains, at the entrance to the Radau River valley about 25 miles (40 km) south of Braunschweig and near Harz National Park. It developed around a castle built about 1066 by the emperor Henry IV on the nearby Grosser Burgberg (1,585 feet [483 m]). The ruins of the castle remain, and there are also remnants of an altar (now in the museum at Goslar) dedicated to the pagan god Krodo (Crodo). The city is now a winter-sports resort and a fashionable spa. Its industries include metalworking and the manufacture of auto parts. Pop. (2005) 22,734.
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a4b810095ad119049b83ab6b10943b99 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bad-Homburg | Bad Homburg | Bad Homburg
Bad Homburg, in full Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, city, Hesse Land (state), west-central Germany. It lies at the foot of the wooded Taunus, just north of Frankfurt am Main.
First mentioned in records of the 12th century, it changed hands often, passing to the house of Hesse in 1521 and later becoming the independent city and landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg (1622–1866). In 1834 the rediscovery of the Elisabeth mineral spring and other springs known first to the Romans led to the founding of a casino (1841) and the building of the new city. It became an internationally fashionable spa; in the 1890s Edward, prince of Wales (later Edward VII of England), borrowed the headgear of a local militiaman and popularized the soft-felt Homburg hat.
The landgraves’ palace (1680–85, with a 12th-century tower) and the modern casino dominate the city. Nearby is the Saalburg, a Roman frontier fortress that was excavated and reconstructed in the 19th century. After 1918 Bad Homburg expanded into a residential town. Its leading economic assets include the spa and high-technology firms that produce both computer software and hardware. Pop. (2003 est.) 52,171.
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78e5968c5ec6ef25c0a6f62dd0cce160 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Badacsony | Badacsony | Badacsony
Badacsony, basalt-covered residual butte, 1,437 feet (438 metres) in elevation, on the north bank of Lake Balaton in the Balaton Highlands of western Hungary. The butte bears witness to the original level of the basalt layer that formed at the end of the Pliocene Epoch (i.e., about 5.3 to 2.6 million years ago).
In shape, Badacsony resembles a low truncated cone. The edge of this butte is continuously eroded, leaving huge standing pillars known as basaltic organ pipes. There have been vineyards on the southern slopes of the hill since Roman times. Their wines, especially the Graumönch and a Hungarian type called Kéknyelű (“Blue Stalk”), once were renowned throughout Europe. The hill and its environs, commemorated in many poems and works of art, are part of the Balaton Highlands National Park.
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0d665d89069ad11046617baed0518065 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Badalona | Badalona | Badalona
Badalona, city, Barcelona provincia (province), in the comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Catalonia, northeastern Spain. It is a northeastern industrial suburb of Barcelona, lying on the Mediterranean coast at the mouth of the Besós River. The city’s outstanding landmark is the 15th-century Monastery of San Jerónimo de la Murtra. The local museum preserves relics from Roman times, when Baetulo, an important centre before the foundation of Barcelona, occupied the site. Badalona’s manufactures include metals, chemicals, textiles, leather goods, liquor, foodstuffs, motors, and perfumes. Badalona’s services and infrastructure have merged with those of Barcelona city. Pop. (2007 est.) mun., 216,201.
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8ded80ce281590ceb3f26c7fcaa6de5f | https://www.britannica.com/place/Baden-Baden-Germany | Baden-Baden | Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden, city, Baden-Württemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. It lies along the middle Oos River in the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). Baden-Baden is one of the world’s great spas. Its Roman baths (parts of which survive) were built in the reign of Caracalla (211–217 ce) for the garrison of Strasbourg. The town fell into ruins but reappeared in 1112 as the seat (until 1705) of the margravate of Baden. The city was occupied by French troops in 1688, and it was almost entirely destroyed by a fire the following year. It was revived in the late 18th century as an asylum for refugees of the French Revolution. The popularity of Baden-Baden as a spa dates from the early 19th century, when the Prussian queen visited the site to improve her health, but it reached its zenith under Napoleon III during the 1850s and ’60s, when it became a fashionable resort for European nobility and society. Notable buildings include the casino, the modern baths, the Stiftskirche (founded 7th century, rebuilt 1753, and now the parish church) with tombs of the margraves, and the 15th-century Neues Schloss, the former castle-residence of the margraves and later of the grand dukes of Baden. Nearby are the ruins of the Altes Schloss, the Lichtental Convent (founded 1254), and the Greek Chapel (1863). The resort is popular for its thermal saline and radioactive waters. Pop. (2010 est.) 54,445.
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391c834542aab7eb5e97fb30b80d98f0 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Baffin | Baffin | Baffin
Baffin, northernmost and easternmost region of Nunavut territory, Canada. In 1967 it was created as Baffin region, Northwest Territories, from most of what was formerly Franklin district, and it took on its present borders with the creation of Nunavut in April 1999. The largest of Nunavut’s three regions, Baffin extends southward from the northern tip of Ellesmere Island. It encompasses all of Ellesmere, Baffin, Devon, Bathurst, and the Belcher islands, as well as Melville Peninsula (on the mainland). It also includes the northern portions of Prince of Wales and Somerset islands and the eastern part of Melville Island. The landscape, which mostly consists of Arctic tundra and icecap, supports a small, largely Inuit population that is engaged in fur trapping, fishing, and mining. Major settlements include the Baffin Island towns of Iqaluit (the regional headquarters and territorial capital), Pangnirtung (Panniqtuuq), Pond Inlet (Mittimatalik), and Cape Dorset (Kingnait), as well as Igloolik (Iglulik) on Melville Peninsula. Pop. (2006) 15,765; (2011) 16,939.
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a5fd138d4ab3d2872090cfd5ad434828 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Baffin-Bay | Baffin Bay | Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay, arm of the North Atlantic Ocean with an area of 266,000 square miles (689,000 square km), extending southward from the Arctic for 900 miles (1,450 km) between the Greenland coast (east) and Baffin Island (west). The bay has a width varying between 70 and 400 miles (110 and 650 km). Davis Strait (south) leads from the bay to the Atlantic, whereas Nares Strait (north) leads to the Arctic Ocean. A pit at the bay’s centre, the Baffin Hollow, plunges to a depth of 7,000 feet (2,100 m), and the bay, although little exploited by humans because of its hostile environment, is of considerable interest to geologists studying the evolution of the North American continent.
The first European visitor to explore the bay was Robert Bylot, an English sea captain, in May 1616, but his name was not given to the entity, the honour going instead to his lieutenant, William Baffin. Even the latter’s discoveries came to be doubted until the later explorations of Captain (later Sir) John Ross, in 1818. The first scientific investigations since Bylot’s mapping of the shores were conducted in 1928 by a Danish and also by an American expedition, followed by another, more extensive survey in the 1930s. Patrol vessels, now aided by aircraft, have long investigated ice distribution in the region, and after World War II a Canadian expedition undertook complex investigations.
Baffin Bay’s oval floor is fringed by the submarine shelves of Greenland and Canada and by ledges at the mouths of sounds. Apart from the central pit, depths range from 800 feet (240 m) in the north to 2,300 feet (700 m) in the south. The bottom sediments are mostly terrigenous (originating on land) and include gray-brown homogeneous silts, pebbles, and boulders. Gravel lies everywhere.
The climate is severe, especially in winter, when northeast winds blow off Baffin Island (in the south) and in the bay’s northern sector. Northwesterly and southwesterly winds predominate in summer. Easterlies blow off the Greenland coast, and storms are frequent, notably in the winter. January temperatures average -4° F (-20° C) in the south and -18° F (-28° C) farther north, but the warm, dry foehn winds that sweep down from the valleys containing Greenland’s glaciers sometimes cause winter thaws. In July the temperature on the shores averages 45° F (7° C), with some snow. Overall, the annual precipitation off Greenland is 4–10 inches (100–250 mm), reaching twice this off Baffin Island.
Icebergs are dense even in August; the ice cover is formed from Arctic pack ice entering through the northern sounds, from local sea ice, and from icebergs that have broken off adjacent glaciers. By late October, ice fields reach Hudson Strait (between Baffin Island and the Quebec mainland), a region where coastal ice has already been thickening, mostly near Greenland, where prevailing easterly winds make for sheltered conditions. The centre of Baffin Bay is covered with compounded ice in winter, but in the north there is actually a permanent ice-free area (the “northern water”) that may be related to the warming effect of the West Greenland Current.
The salinity of Arctic waters flowing into Baffin Bay ranges from 30.0 to 32.7 parts per thousand, and their temperature warms up to 41° F (5° C) on the surface in summer, cooling in winter to 29° F (-2° C). The layers 1,300–2,000 feet (400–600 m) deep reach 34° F (1° C) and a salinity of 34.5 parts per thousand. Below 3,300 feet (1,000 m) in the central regions, the water—probably Atlantic in origin—reaches 31° F (-0.5° C) and has a salinity of 34.4 parts per thousand.
Tides are an important and interesting feature. Near Baffin Island and the shores of Greenland the tidal range is about 13 feet (4 m), reaching as much as 30 feet (9 m) where the water is forced through narrow passages. The tidal rate varies between 0.6 and 2.3 miles per hour (1 and 3.7 km per hour), and the direction of the tides varies by as much as 180°. This phenomenon produces unequal pressure on the fields of floating ice and results in the churning together and crushing of fresh, old, and pack ice.
The dissolution of salts in the water and the warming effect of southerly currents make Baffin Bay a haven for myriad life-forms. The numerous single-cell algae nourish small invertebrates, notably euphausiids (an order of small, shrimplike crustaceans), and these in turn are food for larger invertebrates, fish, birds, and mammals. Among the fish found in Baffin Bay are the Arctic flounder, four-horned sculpin (a spiny, large-headed, broad-mouthed fish), polar cod, and capelin (a small fish of the smelt family). Migrant fish from Atlantic waters include cod, haddock, herring, halibut, and grenadier (a tapering-bodied, soft-finned fish). Wildlife also includes ringed seals, bearded seals, harp seals, and—in the north—walrus, dolphins, and whales (including killer whales). Coastal birds include gulls, ducks, geese, eiders, snowy owls, snow buntings, ravens, gyrfalcons, and sea eagles.
The plant cover of the lands bordering the bay is similarly varied, with about 400 types represented. Shrubs include birch, willow, and alder and also halophytic plants (i.e., those adapted to salty soils), as well as lyme (or tussock) grass, mosses, and lichens. These provide food for rodents and the splendid caribou of the area. Polar bears and Arctic foxes also abound. Large-scale fishing remains undeveloped because of the perils of the heavy ice cover, but local residents—who are mainly Eskimo (Inuit)—carry on some fishing and hunting, often with traditional methods.
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84f31e9ffaebd5a224efb74550ef6b4d | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bago | Bago | Bago
Bago, city, western portion of the island of Negros, Philippines. Bago lies along Guimaras Strait at the mouth of the Bago River and is situated between Bacolod and its outport to the southwest, Pulupandan. Bago is located in an agricultural area that produces rice and sugarcane. Sugar milling is the principal industry. There are road connections to Bacolod and the other cities of western Negros. Pop. (2000) 141,721; (2010) 163,045.
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2e9c816bbfc0543abca8c79ae59db24e | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bahr-al-Zaraf | Baḥr al-Zarāf | Baḥr al-Zarāf
Baḥr al-Zarāf, also spelled Bahr el-Zaraf, English Giraffe River, river, an arm of the Nile River in Al-Sudd region of South Sudan. It is formed in the swamps north of Shambe, diverting water from the Baḥr al-Jabal (Mountain Nile), and flows 150 miles (240 km) north, past Fangak, to join the Baḥr al-Jabal, 35 miles (56 km) west of Malakal. It is not navigable but is permanently connected to the Baḥr al-Jabal by two cuts dredged where the streams are close together.
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742623cd27ca6fa6939b2d7832ce4785 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Baikalsky-Nature-Reserve | Baikalsky Nature Reserve | Baikalsky Nature Reserve
Baikalsky Nature Reserve, natural area set aside for research in the natural sciences, on the southern shore of Lake Baikal, southeastern Russia. The reserve was established in 1969 and has an area of 640 square miles (1,657 square km). It includes part of the Khamar-Daban mountain range. The park’s vegetation includes poplar forests in the lowlands; taiga of spruce, fir, and larch on the mountain slopes; and thickets of dwarf Siberian pine and birch in the higher meadows. Among the wildlife are brown bear, wild pig, musk and roe deer, badger, stoat, lynx, wolverine, and birds such as the swan goose, rock ptarmigan, crested honey buzzard, and the great bustard. Scientific research on the ecosystem of southern Lake Baikal and the Khamar-Daban range is carried on in the reserve.
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fd218adcabc93d66adb63c61dce5d927 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Baikonur | Baikonur Cosmodrome | Baikonur Cosmodrome
Baikonur Cosmodrome, also spelled Baykonur, Baykonyr, or Bajkonur, also called Tyuratam or Turatam, former Soviet and current Russian space centre in south-central Kazakhstan. Baikonur was a Soviet code name for the centre, but American analysts often called it Tyuratam, after the railroad station at Tyuratam (Leninsk), the nearest large city. The Baikonur Cosmodrome lies on the north bank of the Syr Darya, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Qyzylorda. The Soviet Union’s secretiveness about its exact location led to confusion of the site with another Baikonur, a town about 200 miles (320 km) northeast of the space centre in the desert area near Zhezqazghan.
The Baikonur Cosmodrome was the chief operations centre of the Soviets’ ambitious space program from the 1960s through the ’80s and is equipped with complete facilities for launching both crewed and uncrewed space vehicles. The facility and supporting town were originally built in the mid-1950s as a long-range-missile centre, which was later expanded to include spaceflight facilities. Several historic flights originated there: that of the first artificial satellite (1957), the first crewed orbital flight (carrying Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space; 1961), and the flight of the first woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova; 1963). The town supporting the facility was raised to city status in 1966 and named Leninsk. The facility remained the base of the Soviet space program until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, after which it continued to function under Russian auspices.
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32c0dca9696a11bd63ce9a7af8b63048 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bailudong-Academy | Bailudong Academy | Bailudong Academy
The Bailudong (“White Deer Grotto”) Academy, near Lushan, where Zhu Xi taught, became a renowned centre of Confucian learning. From 1069 to 1076 Wang Anshi, a native of Linquan, southeast of Nanchang, was prime minister; Wang introduced reforms to curb the rich and help the poor,…
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3c8e286a3f76a1777bf8e416f56edbf2 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Baima-Temple | Baima Temple | Baima Temple
In 68 ce the Baima (“White Horse Temple”), one of the earliest Buddhist foundations in China, was built about 9 miles (14 km) east of the present-day east town.
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7c052bb555a6081423584525957a2d56 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bainsizza-Plateau | Bainsizza Plateau | Bainsizza Plateau
…Army captured much of the Bainsizza Plateau (Banjška Planota), north of Gorizia, strained Austrian resistance very severely. To avert an Austrian collapse, Ludendorff decided that the Austrians must take the offensive against Italy and that he could, with difficulty, lend them six German divisions for that purpose.
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83155d1e1280b12f27d2eeb5fdf4cbc6 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Baishui-River | Baishui River | Baishui River
…receives its largest tributary, the Baishui River. In the 1950s, in order to prevent flooding, a large retention basin was built at the confluence with the Baishui to accumulate floodwaters and to regulate the flow of the Han itself; four extensive irrigation projects were also built in the area.
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6a514dfcbe3f6f8986c7d3bddb69cfdc | https://www.britannica.com/place/Baixo-Alentejo | Baixo Alentejo | Baixo Alentejo
…of Beja, in the Baixo Alentejo, ridges of quartz and marble oriented northwest-southeast account for a monotonously undulating relief between 300 and 600 feet (90 and 180 metres). This terminates in the east with the schistose Caldeirão Mountains (1,893 feet [577 metres]). Sheltered by the mountains from northern climatic influences…
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c910a2a6aee73e92fe3c24f7c8d62056 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Balaghat | Balaghat | Balaghat
Balaghat, town, southeastern Madhya Pradesh state, central India. The town lies in a plateau region at the southern base of the Satpura Range, just east of the Wainganga River, and is about 95 miles (155 km) south of Jabalpur.
Balaghat formerly consisted of two villages, Burha and Burhi, which collectively were constituted a municipality in 1877. The British amalgamated the two to form the present town in 1895.
It is a major road and rail junction, and it is an agricultural-trade and manganese-mining centre. The main mines are at Bharweli and Ukwa, the former being one of the largest manganese mines in Asia. Sugar milling is also an important industry. Jatashankar College and Balaghat Polytechnic, both affiliated with the University of Sagar, are situated here. Rice, millet, and pulses are the chief crops raised in the fertile Wainganga River valley. Pop. (2001) 75,091; (2011) 84,261.
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ff2ec74bea9c614fd68c4ae5c2ea4aad | https://www.britannica.com/place/Balbala | Balbala | Balbala
…expansive squatter community known as Balbala, which originally developed just beyond the barbed-wire boundary erected by the French colonial administration to prevent migration to the capital, tripled in size within a decade after independence. In 1987 it was officially incorporated into the city, with the promise of development of basic…
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281fa4c3e79ffbaa8c050243101b627b | https://www.britannica.com/place/Balboa-Heights | Balboa Heights | Balboa Heights
Balboa Heights, residential area, situated on a hill overlooking Balboa, central Panama. It was the administrative headquarters for the U.S.-owned Panama Canal Company during the period (1903–79) when the Canal Zone was in operation. Murals in the administration building (still in use by the Panama Canal Authority) depict the canal’s construction. The Canal Zone Library and Museum (founded 1914) in Balboa Heights exhibits relics and miniatures of important ships in Panama’s history.
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881531198c7d75d4ee172741fbd79cca | https://www.britannica.com/place/Baldy-Mountain-Arizona | Baldy Mountain | Baldy Mountain
Baldy Mountain, summit (11,403 feet [3,476 metres]) in the White Mountains, Apache county, eastern Arizona, U.S. Springs on the mountain’s northern slope form the headwaters of the Little Colorado River. Also called Dzil Ligai (Apache: “Mountain of White Rock”), Baldy is located within a 7,000-acre (2,833 hectare) wilderness area; the summit and southern flank lie within the White Mountain Apache Reservation, and access by non-Apaches is prohibited. It is the second highest point in Arizona, exceeded only by Humphreys Peak (12,633 feet [3,851 metres]) in the San Francisco Mountains. Nineteenth-century documents sometimes refer to the mountain as Mount Thomas.
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6da1c569193f10d6c87683685c4e53b5 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Balearic-Islands | Balearic Islands | Balearic Islands
Balearic Islands, Spanish Islas Baleares, Catalan Illes Balears, archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea and a comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Spain coextensive with the Spanish provincia (province) of the same name. The archipelago lies 50 to 190 miles (80 to 300 km) east of the Spanish mainland. There are two groups of islands. The eastern and larger group forms the Balearics proper and includes the principal islands of Majorca (Mallorca) and Minorca (Menorca) and the small island of Cabrera. The western group is known as the Pitiusas and includes the islands of Ibiza (Eivissa) and Formentera. The archipelago is an extension of the sub-Baetic cordillera of peninsular Spain, and the two are linked by a sill near Cape Nao in the province of Alicante. The Balearic Islands autonomous community was established by the statute of autonomy of 1983. Palma is the capital as well as the military, judicial, and ecclesiastical centre of the autonomous community. The government encompasses the insular councils of Majorca, Minorca, and Ibiza-Formentera. Area 1,927 square miles (4,992 square km). Pop. (2007 est.) 1,030,650.
The Balearics exhibit a varied terrain, with undulating hills, plateaus, and lowlands. Minorca has extensive plains. Annual precipitation is low, rarely exceeding 18 inches (450 mm), and occurs mainly in the autumn and spring.
The raids of Barbary pirates discouraged settlement along the coast until the 19th century. The spread of tourism since the mid-19th century has led to the concentration of population along the coastal areas and the depopulation of the hinterland. The populations of Majorca and Minorca are heavily concentrated in the larger cities, while those of the islands of Ibiza and Formentera tend to be dispersed. Farmland is often subdivided into minifundios (small landholdings), the number of latifundios (large landholdings) having declined sharply since 1920.
Emigration from the hinterland has sharply reduced the agricultural workforce in the islands. The traditional Mediterranean crops of wheat, grapes, and olives predominated until 1830, when improved transport allowed new cash crops to be taken to more-distant markets. These included almonds, peaches, apricots, carob, and tomatoes. Dry farming predominates, though the waterwheels and windmills that were introduced by the Muslims for irrigation persist. Sir Richard Kane, governor of Minorca between 1712 and 1736, introduced cattle and sheep from North Africa and pigs from Sardinia; these breeds continue to be raised.
Manufacturing is of relatively little importance, and most establishments have few employees. Manufactures include shoes, furniture, and textiles. Fine lace and embroidery are made for tourists. Tourism, which dominates the economy, offers only seasonal employment, with much of the workforce idle during the winter.
Varied civilizations have left their marks on the islands, and, although the prehistoric Talayotic civilization (so termed from its characteristic rough stone towers called talayots) seems to have continued without much modification, the focal position of the islands in the Mediterranean laid them open to continued influence from civilizations centred farther to the east, as many archaeological finds attest. Important discoveries of bronze swords and single and double axes, antennae swords, and heads and figures of bulls and other animals all bear witness to foreign influence over long periods of time. Pottery, mostly of the native Talayotic types, seems to have persisted with little change until the Roman occupation. Historical evidence points to at least 2,600 years of settlement, for the islands were successively ruled by Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Moors, and Spaniards, all of whom have left their mark.
The Balearics were conquered by the Vandals in 526 and fell to the Byzantines in 534. The Muslim occupation of the islands was complete by 903. James I of Aragon conquered the islands of Majorca and Ibiza between 1229 and 1235, and Minorca fell to his descendant, Alfonso III, in 1287. The Balearics were established as an autonomous kingdom in 1298 and rejoined Aragon in 1349. The British captured Maó in 1708, and the Treaties of Utrecht in 1713 ceded Minorca to the British, who occupied it until 1802. The Balearics were established as a Spanish province in 1833. A regionalist movement emerged in the late 19th century but failed to consolidate. A statute of autonomy was proposed in 1931 but not enacted until 1983.
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89dca48f8fbc5a0064a3fbab9dca3cf7 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Balkan-Mountains | Balkan Mountains | Balkan Mountains
Balkan Mountains, Bulgarian Stara Planina (“Old Mountains”), Latin Haemus, chief range of the Balkan Peninsula and Bulgaria and an extension of the Alpine-Carpathian folds. The range extends from the Timok River valley near the Yugoslav (Serbian) border, spreading out eastward for about 330 miles (530 km) into several spurs, rising to 7,795 feet (2,376 m) at Botev peak, and breaking off abruptly at Cape Emine on the Black Sea. The Balkan Mountains form the major divide between the Danube River (north) and the Maritsa River (south) and are crossed by about 20 passes (notably Shipka Pass), by several railway lines, and by the Iskŭr River. Mineral resources include bituminous and anthracite coal, graphite, and metallic ores, and there are thermal and mineral springs. High alpine meadows descend to coniferous and deciduous forests. Mountain towns such as Veliko Tŭrnovo were focuses for early Bulgarian nationalist movements in the 19th century.
Although no longer a barrier to movement, except in winter, when snow cover is deep, the range is a climatic barrier between the continental climate of the Danube River valley and the transitional continental climate south of the mountains. Rainfall exceeds 40 inches (1,000 mm) on the range, with long, severe winters. The valleys and basins are suitable for agriculture, and there is a small tourist industry.
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810429ee24c9fbc82f8dd156edb00881 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Balkans/In-the-Roman-Empire | In the Roman Empire | In the Roman Empire
The Romans were different from other major conquerors of the Balkans in that they first arrived in the west. Later attacks were launched from the southeast as well, so that by the 1st century ce the entire peninsula was under Roman control. At the height of Roman power, the Balkan peoples were the most united of any time in their history, with a common legal system, a single ultimate arbiter of political power, and absolute military security. In addition, a vibrant commerce was conducted along the Via Egnatia, a great east-west land route that led from Dyrrhachium (modern Durrës, Albania) through Macedonia to Thessalonica (modern Thessaloníki, Greece) and on to Thrace. The northwestern part of the peninsula, including Dalmatia along the Adriatic coast as well as Pannonia around the Danube and Sava rivers, became the province of Illyricum. What is now eastern Serbia was incorporated into Moesia, which reached farther eastward between the Balkan Mountains and the Danube all the way to the Black Sea. The southeastern part of the peninsula was ruled as Thrace, and the southern part was brought into Macedonia.
The Romans largely regarded the Danube River as their northern frontier, but in the 2nd and 3rd centuries their authority was extended northward into Dacia, in what is now western Romania. Dacia had been the home of a people closely related to the Thracians. The Dacians had suffered invasion by a number of peoples, including the Scythians, a mysterious people probably of Iranian origin who were absorbed into the resident population. In the 3rd century bce they managed to contain Macedonian pressure from the south, but in later years they were much less able to fend off Celtic invaders from the northwest. By the 1st century ce a substantial Dacian state extended as far west as Moravia and threatened Roman command of the Danube in the Balkans. The extension of the Dacian state and Dacian raids across the river into Moesia prompted the emperor Trajan in the first decade of the 2nd century to march into Dacia, obliterate the Dacian state and Dacian society, and establish a Roman colony that lasted until barbarian incursions forced a withdrawal back across the Danube beginning in 271.
The abandonment of Dacia in the second half of the 3rd century was a symptom of Rome’s decline, leading to major changes in the 4th century. In 330 the imperial capital was moved to Byzantium, so that any tribe intent on attacking the seat of Roman power and opulence would thenceforth move through the Balkans rather than into Italy. In 391 Christianity became the official religion, and in 395 the empire was divided in two. The dividing line ran through the Balkans: Illyricum went to the western sector under Rome; the remainder went to the eastern half and was ruled from Byzantium (by this time named Constantinople). This deep and long-lasting division did little to alleviate the barbarian incursions of the times. The 5th century saw devastation by, among others, the Alani, the Goths, and the Huns. Most of these invaders soon left or were assimilated, but such was not to be the case with the Slavs, who first arrived in the 6th century.
The Slavs were settlers and cultivators rather than plunderers and within 100 years had become a powerful factor in the region. They separated into four main groups: Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, and Bulgarians (the last being a Turkic tribe, the Bulgars, that was eventually absorbed by Slavs who had already settled in the eastern Balkans). Although in 681 the Bulgars established their own state, the Slavs acknowledged the suzerainty of the emperor in Constantinople.
In the second half of the 9th century, Christianity was adopted by the Bulgarians and the Serbs, both of whom chose the Byzantine rather than Roman variant of the new religion. To the north of the Danube, the Romanians, though not Slav, made the same choice, while the Croats, together with most of the rest of what had been Rome’s section of the divided empire, became part of the western Christian community. The Albanians, isolated behind their mountain chains, were not much affected by either branch of Christianity. The divisions and competition between Rome and Constantinople intensified, with the two communities separating irrevocably in 1054. The dividing line of 395 was thus reinforced: the Croats and Slovenes became an integral part of Roman Catholic Europe, with its Latin script and culture, and the Serbs, Bulgarians, and Romanians joined the Greeks in their allegiance to Eastern Orthodoxy.
Within the Orthodox world two monks, Cyril and Methodius, devised an alphabet that enabled their disciples to translate religious texts into Slavonic. This new alphabet enabled the establishment of a liturgical and literary language of the Balkans, but it also meant that, with Greek remaining in use in commerce and in the administration of the Byzantine Empire, the Orthodox world no longer had a common language that functioned as Latin did in the Catholic world. The lack of a universal language developed in part from a political assumption established at the very beginning of the Orthodox Christian world: that the church and the state were twin pillars of legitimate authority. Therefore, whenever a state separated from the Byzantine Empire, the impulse was for an accompanying church to be established. This association of state and church was intensified by the fear of invasion by non-Christians, a fear shared by state and church and ruler and ruled. Ruler and ruled were much less united, however, when social tensions arose—especially when, as was frequently the case, these tensions found expression in support for religious heresies. Any sign of independent thinking within the church was persecuted as a danger to temporal as well as spiritual power, and this hindered the development of those forms of intellectual exchange that later proved vital to the flowering of intellectual life in the West—Catholic Croatia-Slavonia and Dalmatia included.
The Byzantine state’s military power, like that of the Slavic kingdoms that were eventually to challenge it, rested upon landlords who held property in return for furnishing an agreed number of troops in time of war. The Byzantines developed an extensive and highly corrupt civil service, and the imperial capital’s wealth acted as a dangerous magnet, drawing ambitious Balkan leaders to it with disastrous results. There were recurrent conflicts between Constantinople and the first Bulgarian empire until the latter was crushed in the early 11th century. Although reinvigorated by its victory, the Byzantine Empire soon faced further threats. From the east came the Seljuq Turks, a Muslim people whose victory in the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 destroyed Byzantium’s security in Anatolia. Some 125 years later the threat came from Western crusaders, who in 1204 descended upon and seized the imperial capital, holding it until 1261. They also divided the empire into small fiefdoms, most of which lasted little longer than their first rulers. The Crusades had two profound effects upon the Balkans. In the first place the experience of Norman rule greatly intensified the hatred of the Eastern Orthodox against Westerners and Catholics. Second, the weakening of the empire allowed the Venetians to assume domination of seaborne trading in the eastern Mediterranean. The loss of both Anatolia and maritime supremacy deprived the empire of essential reserves of manpower, food, and wealth—losses that it could replenish only in its Balkan possessions.
In the late 12th century, attempts to levy higher taxes led the Bulgarians to revolt and establish a second empire, but this was soon enfeebled by costly wars and by the inability of the ruling Asen dynasty to control local notables. Byzantium’s life was prolonged by these inadequacies and by the inability of the Slavs to unite. In the 14th century Bulgaria was eclipsed by the rising power of Serbia, where Stefan Dušan became king in 1331. This greatest of Serbia’s medieval rulers left behind a legal code, drawn up in 1349, and a legacy of conquest that was legendary. He is also thought to have pondered the seizure of Constantinople, though by the time of his death in 1355 he had taken no positive action toward securing that goal.
Political stability and unity were no more apparent among the Catholic Balkan Christians than among the Orthodox. The Croats established their own kingdom in the 10th century under Tomislav but in 1102 agreed to become part of the Hungarian monarchy. In the 14th century there was a short-lived Bosnian kingdom under the Kotromanić dynasty, but it also joined Hungary—even though Bosnia was less Catholic in its composition because many Bogomil heretics had taken refuge there.
Hungary had already established its authority as early as the 11th century in Transylvania, where it introduced both Szeklers, a Hungarian-speaking people, and German-speaking Saxons. To the east the kingdoms of Walachia and Moldavia did not emerge until the 14th century; their preoccupations were less with the Turks than with the Hungarians and the Mongols.
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9eb8c082166c77a34ab2b85b25a59f34 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Ballymoney-Northern-Ireland | Ballymoney | Ballymoney
Ballymoney, Irish Baile Monaidh, town and former district (1973–2015) within the former County Antrim, now part of Causeway Coast and Glens district, northern Northern Ireland. The town of Ballymoney, located on the eastern side of the valley on a tributary of the River Bann, was the birthplace of James McKinley, grandfather of U.S. Pres. William McKinley. The town preserves a marketplace of 1775 and an old parish church (1637). Ballymoney town is now a thriving agricultural centre with textile and engineering industries as well as several bacon- and ham-processing plants.
The former district of Ballymoney was bordered by the former districts of Coleraine to the west, Moyle to the north and east, and Ballymena and Magherafelt to the south. From its eastern border, the Antrim Mountains gradually descend to the Bann valley in the west. Significant quantities of potatoes, barley, and livestock (mostly pigs) are produced. Primary roads connect Ballymoney town with the towns of Coleraine to the northwest and Ballymena to the southeast. Area former district, 162 square miles (419 square km). Pop. (2001) town, 9,009; (2011) town, 10,393.
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fceab94382228bd99790c94e6b0050be | https://www.britannica.com/place/Ballymun | Ballymun | Ballymun
…developments in the towns of Ballymun and Ballyfermot; unfortunately, these proved no more immune to the crime and vandalism that plagued such buildings practically everywhere. Recognizing this, in the early 21st century Dublin City Council approved the demolition of nearly all the tower buildings in Ballymun as part of a…
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5a516cfc89a01e724f00edd56b439fc6 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Balqash | Balqash | Balqash
Balqash, also spelled Balkhash, city, east-central Kazakhstan. The city is a landing on the north shore of Lake Balqash (Balkhash).
Balqash is a major centre of nonferrous (copper, predominantly, and molybdenum) metallurgy. It came into being in 1937 in connection with the construction of large copper-smelting works for the Kounrad mines to the north. Fish canning declined as pollution and increasing salinity in the lake reduced the catch. There is a botanical garden of the Kazakh Academy of Sciences. Pop. (2009) 68,833; (2012 est.) 70,305.
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40d8f29efaa61fc41a1e5ad1ca1adc43 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Baltic-states/The-early-modern-age | The early modern age | The early modern age
During its first two centuries Lithuania’s political union with Poland consisted of a loose alliance based on a joint ruler. On July 1, 1569, the purely personal union was refashioned by a joint parliament meeting in Lublin into a Commonwealth of Two Peoples. While the state entity thereafter had a common elected sovereign and a joint parliament, the legal and administrative structures of the two lands, as well as their armed forces, remained separate. This situation lasted more than two centuries.
The Polish-Lithuanian union (sometimes called the Union of Lublin) initiated a period of political glory, prosperity, and cultural development. Until the middle of the 17th century, the Commonwealth contained the threat from Moscow. Indeed, during the Time of Troubles in Muscovy at the beginning of the 17th century, a Polish-Lithuanian force occupied Moscow. The Catholic Counter-Reformation that accompanied the union placed an indelible stamp on Lithuania. Vilnius emerged as a centre of Baroque culture. Its university, founded in 1579, is the oldest institution of higher learning in that part of the world.
The internal strength of the Confederation of Livonia diminished during the 16th century, though trade with Russia by the Hanseatic League (an organization of German merchants) brought prosperity to the towns. The Reformation rendered the ecclesiastical states anachronisms. The Confederation was unable to withstand the onslaughts of the Russian tsar Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible), who in 1558 had laid claim to the region in an effort to gain an outlet to the sea. The region broke up into three duchies—Courland, Livonia, and Estland—an administrative division that lasted until 1917. Estland, the northern part of modern Estonia, came under Swedish rule. Livonia, with its capital, Riga, became a part of Lithuania, while Courland became a hereditary duchy nominally under Lithuanian suzerainty. German law and administration were retained. The nobility and the magistrates of the free cities kept their privileges.
In 1592 the Baltic lands became an object of contention between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden. The bulk of Livonia, with Riga, was ceded to Sweden in 1629. The southeastern portion, Latgale, remained a part of Lithuania.
The Swedish period remains one of happy memory among the Estonians and Latvians. The Swedish kings, accustomed to a free peasantry in their home country, sought in their struggles with the local nobility to improve the lot of the peasant serfs. Compulsory elementary education was introduced, and the Bible was translated into the indigenous languages. A secondary school was opened in Riga in 1631 and a university in Dorpat in 1632. Swedish administrative efforts, however, were largely thwarted by external turbulence and intermittent warfare in the region.
Courland, nominally under Lithuanian suzerainty, developed as a virtually independent state. Duke Jacob (1642–82) actively fostered trade and industry and created a navy. He acquired two colonies: Tobago in the West Indies and a settlement in Gambia on the west coast of Africa.
From the second half of the 17th century, the Baltic region faced increasing Russian pressure. During the first decade of the 18th century, Estland and Livonia came under Russian rule. By the end of the century, the remainder of Latvia and Lithuania had likewise been incorporated into the Russian Empire. In the middle of the 17th century, peasant unrest among the Cossacks in Ukraine and endemic war with Sweden over Livonia strained the resources of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Vilnius was taken for the first time by a Russian army in 1655. The Truce of Andrusovo in 1667 reestablished a temporary balance with Moscow, with some territory lost in the east. Even though the Commonwealth lost no territory as a result of the Great Northern War (1700–21), this conflict signaled the definite decline of the Polish-Lithuanian state.
The Great Northern War was a watershed in the historical development of Estonia and Latvia. As a result, the Swedish dominion over Livonia and Estland passed to Russia, though a special status of wide autonomy was maintained. In 1795 Courland, a fief of Lithuania, likewise came under Russian rule with a similar status. Incorporation into the Russian Empire provided great opportunities for the German nobility to increase its privilege and power over the peasants as well as to serve in the administration of the Russian Empire as a whole. The servile status of the peasantry increased.
During the greater part of the 18th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth remained an insignificant pawn ruled by a succession of Saxons who tended to embroil it in their dynastic struggles in Germany. An attempt at rejuvenation under Stanisław II August (Stanisław Poniatowski), who ruled from 1764 to 1795, led to direct foreign intervention. As a result of three partitions (1772, 1793, and 1795), the Commonwealth was erased from the political map of Europe. The first two partitions affected only the East Slav lands of Lithuania, which were ceded to Russia. As a result of the third and last partition, the bulk of the ethnographically Lithuanian lands passed to Russia as well. Only the southwestern part, between the Neman River and East Prussia, was annexed by Prussia. In 1815 that area also came under Russian control.
Throughout the 19th century tsarist rule differed considerably between the Baltic provinces of Estland, Livland, and Courland on the one hand and the Lithuanian lands and Latgale on the other. The former maintained a wide degree of autonomy, especially during the period of liberal reforms during the 1860s and ’70s. After 1881 there was a policy of Russification that lasted until 1905. It extended to education as well as to the legal and administrative systems. However, it could not affect the considerable progress that had been made in education over the century. By the middle of the 19th century, the German University of Dorpat (Tartu), reopened in 1802, had become a focal point in the development of Estonian and Latvian national consciousness. By the end of the century, there was virtually no illiteracy among the Estonians and Latvians.
The Lithuanian lands participated in the abortive Polish risings of 1830–31 and 1863–64 and suffered considerable repression in their aftermath. In 1832 the University of Vilnius was closed, and in 1840 the distinctive law code, in force since the 16th century, was abrogated. After the 1863 revolt Russification was extended to public life. Books in Lithuanian or Latgalian could be published only in the Cyrillic (i.e., the Russian) alphabet. Use of the Russian language became mandatory in all areas of public life, including education. Lithuanian resistance capitalized on the not insignificant Lithuanian population across the border in East Prussia. Books and periodicals printed there were smuggled across the border into Lithuania. Private “schools of the hearth” were organized in villages to provide a substitute for the Russian educational system.
The process of social and national emancipation began in the 19th century. The first step came with the abolition of serfdom. The earliest emancipation occurred in southwestern Lithuania, which had come under Prussian control in 1795. In 1807 it became part of the Napoleonic Grand Duchy of Warsaw and participated in the social reform that French rule introduced. Between 1816 and 1819 serfdom was abolished in the German Baltic provinces of Estland, Livland, and Courland. While the peasants acquired personal freedom, they were not allowed to own land. By the middle of the century, however, this prohibition had been lifted, and the peasantry could acquire leased land as personal property. The Baltic provinces and southwestern Lithuania began to develop a social structure quite distinct from that prevalent in Russia. The big estates, however, remained untouched, and most peasants were unable to acquire enough land to be self-supporting.
In the 19th century there was considerable socioeconomic change in the three Baltic provinces. Emancipation without land in the early part of the century stimulated migration to the cities. The coming of the railroad age during the second half of the century connected these port cities with a vast hinterland. Reval (Tallin), Narva, Riga, and Libau (modern Liepāja, Latvia) emerged as significant centres of export and industry and as homes for substantial commercial fleets. By the end of the century, Riga had become a port of worldwide significance. Its population grew from 250,000 to 500,000 in the period between 1900 and 1914.
Growth affected the character of the urban population. The Baltic German population, which had never made up more than 10 percent of the total, declined in proportion and importance. While German influence remained strong in industry, banking, and the professions, it was slowly superseded by the rising Estonian and Latvian urban classes in the trades, business, and civil service. The percentage of Estonians in the city of Reval rose from 51.8 in 1867 to 88.7 in 1897. That of Latvians in Riga rose from 23.5 to 41.6 during the same period.
Such developments were not mirrored in Lithuania. The peasantry in the greater part of the Lithuanian lands were not emancipated from serfdom until 1861, along with those in the rest of the Russian Empire. Unlike Russia, where land was given to peasant communes, in Lithuania it was granted to individual peasant farmers. As the tsarist government distrusted the Polonized Lithuanian nobility, rural reorganization was frequently carried out in favour of the peasantry. As a result, by the end of the century, Lithuania had become a distinctive region of free farmers unparalleled elsewhere in the Russian Empire. Nevertheless, rural overpopulation led to extensive emigration during the last two decades of the 19th century. The bulk of this emigration did not fuel urbanization in Lithuania but went, for the most part, to North America. Lithuanian cities remained small, underdeveloped administrative centres populated largely by Slavs and Jews.
The Russian Revolution of 1905 was felt in all three lands. Marxism had appeared in the Baltic provinces in the 1880s. Although a Social Democratic Party was founded earliest in Lithuania (1895), it never became as significant as its Latvian and Estonian counterparts, founded in 1904 and 1906, respectively. In 1905 Estonian and Latvian politicians joined revolutionaries in demanding national autonomy. A revolutionary wave swept the Estonian and Latvian countryside. Looting and burning of manor houses had to be subdued by armed force. About 1,000 people were shot, and thousands were exiled to Siberia or fled abroad. In the year 1905 dramatic events also occurred in Lithuania, though not as turbulent as those to the north. In the fall of that year, a congress of 2,000 delegates representing all tendencies in Lithuanian public life gathered in Vilnius and passed a resolution demanding the establishment of an autonomous Lithuanian state within ethnic boundaries.
The last decade of Russian rule in the Baltic lands was a relatively liberal period, allowing the consolidation of the national societies. The liberalization of the imperial Russian government allowed the Baltic peoples to elect representatives to the imperial parliament (Duma). Moreover, in Lithuania the prohibitions against use of the indigenous language in public life and its press in the Latin alphabet had been abrogated in 1904.
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88ee76fc360e48473c53aaa2c2be7bc0 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Banana-Democratic-Republic-of-the-Congo | Banana | Banana
Banana, port on the Atlantic coast in far southwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo, central Africa, at the mouth of the Congo River. One of the nation’s older towns, it was known as a trading centre in the 19th century, mainly during the slaving era. In the 1970s and 1980s its port was developed to increase its facilities as a deepwater port, and a rail line was built to link Banana with Boma and Kinshasa, the national capital. Banana lies in a delta of mangrove forests, but northward along the coast lie some beaches, near which is Moanda, an offshore oil centre. Pop. (latest est.) 3,165.
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7f78553c4dde58ab35dc5700bcc680d3 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bandar-Seri-Begawan | Bandar Seri Begawan | Bandar Seri Begawan
Bandar Seri Begawan, formerly (until 1970) Brunei Town, capital of Brunei. The city lies along the Brunei River near its mouth on Brunei Bay, an inlet of the South China Sea on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Bandar Seri Begawan was once predominantly an agricultural trade centre and river port. After suffering extensive damage during World War II, it was largely rebuilt and became the country’s administrative and financial centre, with a port at the nearby mouth of the Muara River. Notable buildings include the Istana Nurul Iman (the royal palace), the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium, and the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, which is among the largest mosques in Southeast Asia. Located on the main road running southwestward along Borneo’s coast to Seria and Kuala Belait, Bandar Seri Begawan is home to Brunei’s only international airport. It also has ferry terminals offering service to neighbouring ports. Pop. (2001) city, 27,285; (2004 est.) urban area, 81,500.
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02966e9d696af7799e96d8f1c99b8a2b | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bankura | Bankura | Bankura
Bankura, city, western West Bengal state, northeastern India. It lies on a densely populated alluvial plain just north of the Dhaleshwari (Dhalkisor) River (known locally as the Dwarkeswar River, a tributary of the Damodar River to the east), about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Durgapur.
Bankura was constituted a municipality in 1869. It is a major rail and road junction northwest of Kolkata (Calcutta) and is an agricultural distribution centre. Rice and oilseed milling, cotton weaving, metalware manufacture, and railway workshops are the major industries. The city has several colleges, including a medical school, affiliated with the University of Burdwan in Burdwan.
Rice, wheat, corn (maize), and sugarcane are the chief crops in the surrounding agricultural region. Mica, china clay, iron ore, lead, zinc, and wolframite (tungsten ore) deposits are worked in the locality. The area long remained a focus of Hindu culture based on the Mallabhum kingdom, with its capital at Bishnupur. Pop. (2001) 128,781; (2011) 137,386.
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17980e81cae8dccc8ae190ca85ce8974 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bannack | Bannack | Bannack
) Nearby Bannack, now a ghost town and site of Montana’s first major gold strike (1862), was once a bustling community of 8,000 and the first territorial capital. Dillon’s economy now depends on ranching and farming (livestock, hay, and seed potatoes), mining, and tourism. Dude ranches dot…
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a3ea9e9a66d7c71f2bcf780c21dbe898 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Banyuwangi | Banyuwangi | Banyuwangi
Banyuwangi, also spelled Banjuwangi or Banjoewangi, city, East Java (Jawa Timur) propinsi (or provinsi; province), Java, Indonesia. A major port on the Bali Strait, opposite Bali just to the east, it is located about 120 miles (195 km) southeast of Surabaya, the capital of East Java.
It is linked by railway and road with Jember to the west and by road with Situbondo to the northwest. Exports are copra, lumber, and rubber from the inland area. Industries include sawmilling, wood carving, paper making, leather tanning, and printing. The population is predominantly Javanese, and Islam, influenced by Hindu and Buddhist customs, is the dominant religion. About 50 miles (80 km) south of Banyuwangi is the Sukameda beach and Meru Betiri, a national park that was one of the last refuges of the now-extinct Javan tiger. Baluran and Alas Purwo national parks are also located nearby. Pop. (2010) 106,000.
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645a53224dcf728365ed9cc434f80dd0 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Baptistery-of-the-Orthodox | Baptistery of the Orthodox | Baptistery of the Orthodox
…his fellow apostles in the Baptistery of the Orthodox, Ravenna (c. 450). But the designer’s mastery and sophistication are nowhere more overwhelmingly illustrated than in the glowing interior of the so-called Mausoleum of Galla Placidia (c. 450) at Ravenna, with its blue star-filled mosaic dome, and in the decoration of…
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96d54e28f18ff9792ea882dc69e3c0bf | https://www.britannica.com/place/Baranagar | Baranagar | Baranagar
Baranagar, also spelled Barahanagar, city, southeastern West Bengal state, northeastern India. It lies on the east bank of the Hugli (Hooghly) River opposite Bally and is part of the Kolkata (Calcutta) urban agglomeration.
The site was originally a Portuguese settlement that became the seat of a Dutch trading station and an important river anchorage for Dutch shipping. In 1795 it was ceded to the British. Constituted as the municipality of North Suburban in 1869, the city was renamed Baranagar in 1889. In 1899 it was divided, the northern half becoming Kamarhati municipality.
Baranagar is connected by road and rail with Kolkata, just to the south, and a bridge across the Hugli links it to Bally. The city is a major industrial centre engaged in jute and cotton milling, cotton ginning and baling, and the manufacture of chemicals, castor oil, matches, and agricultural and industrial machinery. Baranagar is also home to the Indian Statistical Institute (founded 1931). Pop. (2001) 250,768; (2011) 245,213.
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f7f143706783b38c0af8391e275947ec | https://www.britannica.com/place/Baranof-Island | Baranof Island | Baranof Island
…and the mountains of Admiralty, Baranof, and Chicagof islands. Those islands have small glaciers and rugged coastlines indented by fjords. The archipelago is composed of southeast–northwest-trending belts of Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary, metasedimentary, and volcanic rocks. Metamorphic facies rocks are exposed in the eastern sectors. Those have been intruded by…
…the city of Sitka on Baranof Island in the Gulf of Alaska. The site was named a federal park by Pres. Benjamin Harrison in 1890. It was established as a national monument in 1910 and became a national historical park in 1972. It occupies 112 acres (45 hectares).
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b7d486a331c2d49210eac969d2b9d0ba | https://www.britannica.com/place/Barcelona-Cathedral | Barcelona Cathedral | Barcelona Cathedral
He was commissioned by the Barcelona Cathedral in 1517 to make wooden reliefs for the choir stalls and marble reliefs for the trascoro (a screen wall at the rear of the choir).
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404e1fec37ad6be8132cc372d3349b1d | https://www.britannica.com/place/Barcelona/History | History of Barcelona | History of Barcelona
According to tradition, Barcelona was founded by either the Phoenicians or the Carthaginians, who had trading posts along the Catalonian coast. It is no longer thought, however, that the city owes its name to the family of the Carthaginian leader Hamilcar Barca. In Roman times the Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino did not become a centre of any real importance until the 3rd century ad. During the three centuries of Visigothic occupation, the city was known as Barcinona. It became an important religious centre before the arrival of the Moors in ad 717.
Barjelūnah, as the Moors called the city, was seen as a prime objective by the Carolingian Franks, who gained control of it in 801 and, under an appointed count, established the Ebro River on the edge of Catalonia as the southerly limit of their power. In 985 the city was sacked by the forces of al-Manṣūr, chief minister of the Umayyad caliphate of Córdoba. The counts of Barcelona consolidated their influence over Catalonia in the 10th and 11th centuries, and, after the union of Catalonia and Aragon in 1137, Barcelona grew into a major trading city.
Barcelona was weakened by outbreaks of plague in the 14th century and began to decline when Naples became the capital of the Catalan-Aragonese kingdom in 1442. The advent of the Habsburg monarchy, the rise of Turkish power in the Mediterranean, and the discovery of America all furthered this decline. Relations with the court in Madrid worsened in the 17th century. After 1705, when the Catalans permitted the archduke Charles III of Austria to establish his court in Barcelona, honouring his claim to the Spanish throne during the War of the Spanish Succession, Philip V of Spain besieged Barcelona. After the city fell in 1714, Philip dismantled all forms of local self-government. Ironically, this led to a period of prosperity spurred largely by the development of the cotton industry.
Barcelona found itself occupied again, this time by Napoleon’s troops, from 1808 to 1813. The war with the French left the province ravaged, but the postwar period saw the start of industrialization. The growth of the textile industry was to have a twofold effect: It led to the development of a modern industrial sector and to the emergence of Catalonia as Spain’s wealthiest region. It also led to rapid population growth and the development of class conflict between the bourgeoisie and industrial workers. Anarchist movements flourished, and the period up to the Spanish Civil War was punctuated by unrest. Notable incidents include the uprising of 1835 in which a number of convents were burned; the riots in the mid-1850s over the introduction of automated machinery; and the Setmana Tràgica (Catalan: “Tragic Week”) in 1909, which led to more church burning.
On a positive note, the exhibition of 1888 attracted 400,000 visitors, and by 1900 nearly half of Spain’s imports came via Catalonia. The area’s economic strength led to the reemergence of calls for self-rule, culminating in a period of semiautonomy from 1913 to 1923. In 1931 a Catalan republic was declared in Barcelona. The following year the region attained a significant level of self-government, and it was the main centre of Republican strength when the Civil War broke out in 1936. Its fall in January 1939 led to the final surrender of the Republic.
Defeat brought the loss of many regional rights and privileges, and even the Catalan language was prohibited for a time. Only in 1977 was the Generalitat, an autonomous Catalan government, restored. Agreements with the Spanish national government, signed in 1979, outlined new areas for self-government and encouraged a wide range of developments in Barcelona.
Barcelona hosted the Olympic Games in 1992, which helped revitalize the city; the once run-down waterfront was renovated to include a promenade, marina, restaurants, beaches, and cultural attractions. A convention centre and auditorium were built in the east of the city to host Forum 2004, an international conference promoting economic development and cultural diversity.
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10983b9dd9bb77c97113bdfa17cfd1af | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bareilly | Bareilly | Bareilly
Bareilly, city, northwest-central Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. It is situated just east of the Ramganga River (a tributary of the Ganges [Ganga] River), about 130 miles (210 km) east-southeast of Delhi.
The city, founded in 1537, was built largely by the Mughal governor Makrand Ray. It later became the capital of the Rohillas, a migrant Afghan clan that gained control of the surrounding territory. In 1774, during the Rohilla War, the ruler of Oudh (Ayodhya) conquered the area with British aid, and Bareilly was ceded to the British in 1801. It was a centre of the 1857–58 Indian Mutiny against British rule.
Bareilly is situated at a major rail and road junction and is a trade centre for agricultural products. Industries include sugar processing and cotton ginning and pressing. The city is the site of MJP Rohilkhand University (founded 1975) and Bareilly College (1837), and the Indian Veterinary Research Institute is in the city’s northern Izatnagar district. The Invertis Institute of Management Studies (1998), now part of Invertis University, is just southeast of the city.. Bareilly has many fine mosques. The ancient fortress city of Ahicchattra near Bareilly is believed to have been visited by the Buddha. Pop. (2001) 718,395; (2011) 903,668.
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37c8c3dd81ead541eebb94baf201e804 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Barisan-Mountains | Barisan Mountains | Barisan Mountains
…plain along the west; the Barisan Mountains, which extend the length of the island close to its western edge and include a number of active volcanoes; an inner nonvolcanic zone of low hills grading down toward the stable platform of the Asian mainland; and the broad alluvial lowland, lying no…
…province is covered by the Barisan Mountains in the west, whose spurs thrust eastward, forming deep ravines and valleys. The mountains are surmounted by volcanic cones, including Mount Masurai (9,623 feet [2,933 metres]) and Mount Sumbing (8,228 feet [2,508 metres]). Mangroves are found in the estuaries and along the tidal…
The southernmost portion of the Barisan Mountains runs the length of the province from the northwest to southeast and is surmounted by volcanic cones including Mounts Batai, 5,518 feet (1,682 metres) and Tebak, 6,939 feet (2,115 metres). The mountains are flanked by narrow coastland on the southwest and by rapidly…
The southern portion of the Barisan Mountains extends along the western border of South Sumatra and is surmounted by volcanic cones with an average elevation of 8,000 feet (2,400 metres), including Mount Dempo (10,364 feet [3,159 metres]) and Mount Resagi (7,323 feet [2,232 metres]). The highlands descend rapidly to a…
The Barisan Mountains run northwest-southeast; they are flanked by lowlands on the southern half and by swamps on the northern half of the western coast. On the eastern side of the mountains, the Padang Highlands stretch almost to the eastern boundary of the province. The mountain…
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55bd53bda36c8de8d238467986985a92 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Barrois | Barrois | Barrois
Barrois, ancient county, then duchy, on the western frontier of Lorraine, a territory of the Holy Roman Empire, of which Barrois was long a fiefdom or holding before being absorbed piecemeal by France. The centre and capital was the town that later came to be known as Bar-le-Duc, in the modern French département of Meuse.
Because of its location between France and Germany, the dukedom was for many years of uncertain loyalty. In 951 the German emperor Otto I gave the countship of Barrois (i.e., the district of Bar), at the time a fief of the duchy of Lorraine, to Frederick of Ardenne. When Frederick’s great-great-grandson Renaud (Reynald) inherited the countship, he founded the House of Bar. The counts of Bar increased their wealth and became the most powerful vassals of the dukes of Lorraine, with whom, however, they carried on endless struggles, usually fighting in the French ranks, while the dukes adhered to the Germans. Count Henry III made an alliance with Edward I of England and the German king Adolf of Nassau against France. Defeated in battle with the French, Henry III was forced in 1301 to do homage to the French king Philip IV for that part of the Barrois west of the Meuse River, which was claimed as being in the mouvance, or feudal dependency, of France and which from then on was called the “Barrois mouvant.”
In 1354 Robert of Bar took the title of duke of Bar. In 1420 René of Anjou, who had inherited the dukedom, married Isabella, heiress of the Duke of Lorraine, so that on the death of the latter (1431) the Barrois and Lorraine were united. From then on the Barrois shared the fate of Lorraine, which was annexed to the French crown in 1766 on the death of Stanisław Leszczyński, the former king of Poland, to whom it had been granted in 1738.
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728f3a63bd2fa263256276540f64f28b | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bartica | Bartica | Bartica
Bartica, town, north-central Guyana, in tropical rainforests in which the Essequibo, Mazaruni, and Cuyuni rivers meet. A small commercial centre, Bartica is situated at the head of the Essequibo River, 50 miles (80 km) inland from the Atlantic Ocean, and it is linked by air with Georgetown, the national capital. Roads from Bartica lead to the gold and diamond mines of the surrounding region. Pop. (latest est.) 4,087.
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61ce6b7a5d622f0b34c1acf07e4baec0 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Basilica-of-Our-Lady-of-Lourdes | Basilica of Our Lady of Lourdes | Basilica of Our Lady of Lourdes
The basilica, built above the grotto in 1876, eventually became overcrowded by the increasing number of pilgrims, and in 1958 an immense prestressed concrete underground church, seating 20,000, was dedicated. Lourdes is visited by millions every year, and tourism plays a dominant role in the local…
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7bdcf2e8b10e055f37d5e4a2a78fe737 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Basodino | Basodino | Basodino
…feet (3,273 m) at the Basodino. The canton is dominated physically by three river systems occupying steep-sided valleys extending from the mountain frontier southward to Lake Maggiore. The chief system is that of the Ticino River, which rises in the northwest, flows east through the Bedretto valley and then southeast…
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1606185ab8a85f2d6265fd9d813ceed4 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bassac | Bassac | Bassac
…with the Hau Giang (Bassac) River, which is a major branch of the lower Mekong River. The city has a hospital and a commercial airport. Cultural features include a pagoda built under the emperor Gia Long and a Cambodian Buddhist pagoda 2 miles (3 km) north of the city.…
…the Mekong proper and the Bassac (Basak). Below this point the delta spreads out to the sea. It has a total area of about 25,000 square miles (65,000 square km) and can be divided into three major sections. The upper section, above Chau Doc (Chau Phu), has strong natural levees…
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cdf42b7d24564b49caf0a617e181002b | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bastille-Opera | Bastille Opera | Bastille Opera
…artistic director of the new Bastille Opera in Paris, but he fell into disputes with representatives of the socialist government in Paris and was dismissed (in January 1989) before the first season was to commence, in 1990. Almost immediately, in January 1989, he accepted the post of music director of…
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607d41bd08fd4437f23d6c9ac2821358 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bastrop | Bastrop | Bastrop
Bastrop, city, Morehouse parish, northeastern Louisiana, U.S., 24 miles (38 km) northeast of Monroe. Settlement of the area began after a Dutch nobleman, Baron de Bastrop, was given a large land grant by the Spanish in 1796. The baron subsequently sold much of his land to Abram Morehouse, a settler from Kentucky. Bastrop was founded in 1846 as the parish seat. It experienced an industrial boom after 1916, when natural gas was discovered in the area.
The city has a diversified economy based on manufacturing and services. Manufactures include paper, wood products, carbon black, and chemicals. Bastrop is also an agricultural centre (cattle, cotton, corn [maize], rice, and soybeans) and the site of the North Louisiana Cotton Festival and Fair, held annually in October. Nearby are Chemin-A-Haut State Park and Bussey Brake Reservoir. Inc. town, 1852; city, 1952. Pop. (2000) 12,988; (2010) 11,365.
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9ed044e65b1800f342076e53747bfd86 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Batavian-Republic | Batavian Republic | Batavian Republic
Batavian Republic, French République Batave, Dutch Bataafse Republiek, republic of the Netherlands, established after it was conquered by the French during the campaign of 1794–95. Formalized in a constitution of 1798, it possessed a centralized government patterned after that of the Directory in France and was bound to France by alliance. In March 1805 Napoleon changed the system of government once more: the Batavian Republic was renamed Batavian Commonwealth, and executive power was given to a kind of dictator called the council pensionary. In June 1806, however, the Batavian Commonwealth was replaced by the Kingdom of Holland under Napoleon’s brother Louis; this monarchy lasted until July 1810, when the northern Dutch provinces were incorporated into the French Empire.
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76b077942db44b8c86761dceea59d12c | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bathinda | Bathinda | Bathinda
Bathinda, also spelled Bhatinda, city, southwest-central Punjab state, northwestern India. It is situated in the Malwa Plains on the Bathinda Branch Canal (which joins the Sutlej River to the northeast).
Bathinda is a major rail hub, with lines converging on it from other Indian states and from nearby Pakistan. It is a trade centre for the area’s agricultural products; industries include flour milling and hand-loom weaving. The city is home to the Central University of Punjab (established 2009) and to Government Rajindra College (1940), which is affiliated with Punjabi University in Patiala. Bathinda also has a huge fort, Govindgarh, built in the 16th century, with walls 118 feet (36 metres) high, as well as the shrine of a Muslim saint, Bābā Ratan. The surrounding region forms part of the generally flat alluvial plain south of the Sutlej River. The area’s light rainfall is augmented by irrigation canals. Wheat, cotton, sugarcane, and gram (chickpeas) are among the crops grown. Pop. (2001) 217,256; (2011) 285,788.
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83f4ddf672da6e66c660400699619d1e | https://www.britannica.com/place/Batyr-Depression | Batyr Depression | Batyr Depression
…flatlands, with some depressions (the Batyr Depression is 425 feet [130 m] below sea level). It is rich in petroleum and natural gas, especially in the oil and gas region of the Mangghystaū Peninsula. The peninsula also contains deposits of phosphorites and coquina. The desert climate is continental and extremely…
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139a61e8a2671f2b538ec0f0d1ec7009 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bavarian-Alps | Bavarian Alps | Bavarian Alps
Bavarian Alps, German Bayerische Alpen, northeastern segment of the Central Alps along the German-Austrian border. The mountains extend east-northeastward for 70 miles (110 km) from the Lechtaler Alps to the bend of the Inn River near Kufstein, Austria. Zugspitze (9,718 feet [2,962 metres]) is the highest point in the range and in Germany. Subranges include the Wetterstein Range, Karwendel Range, and Nord Chain; the Austrian portion is also known as the North Tirol Limestone Alps. To the south the range’s steep wall overlooks the Inn River valley, whereas to the north its gentle slopes allow the grazing of cattle. The mountains hold lignite mines and petroleum deposits and are crossed at Scharnitz Pass (3,133 feet [955 metres]) by road and railway and at Achen Pass (3,087 feet [941 metres]) by road. Tourism and winter sports are the region’s main activities. A large national park preserves the original Alpine landscape, plants, and animals from the steady encroachment of urbanization.
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f4d1b7f870bd26a999f5b26d0a1e7b3f | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bay-of-Quinte | Bay of Quinte | Bay of Quinte
Bay of Quinte, arm of Lake Ontario, southeastern Ontario, Canada, extending for 75 miles (121 km) from its entrance near Amherst Island to Murray Canal at the western end. It is a narrow bay, ranging from one to six miles in width. The bay is scenic, having many small inlets; and it receives several rivers from the north, including the Trent, Moira, Salmon, and Napanee. The head of the bay connects with Presqu’ile Bay and Lake Ontario through the Murray Canal; the Trent Canal runs northwestward to Georgian Bay. Major settlements around the bay include Trenton, Belleville, Deseronto, and Picton.
In 1615 the French explorers Étienne Brûlé and Samuel de Champlain became the first Europeans to enter the Bay of Quinte. From 1668 to 1680 French missionaries were based near Trenton. The bay’s name was derived from Kenté, an Indian village that was situated at its west end. Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory lies along part of the northern shore.
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acb77eee3f48b112012572a040230d7d | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bayan-Har-Mountains | Bayan Har Mountains | Bayan Har Mountains
…of the province extend the Bayan Har (Bayankala) Mountains (a spur of the Kunlun Mountains), which help delineate the northern limit of the Plateau of Tibet region in Qinghai and serve as the watershed of the headwaters of the Huang He (Yellow River) and Yangtze River (Chang Jiang). In the…
…feet (4,600 metres) in the Bayan Har Mountains, in the eastern Plateau of Tibet. In its upper reaches the river crosses two large bodies of water, Lakes Ngoring and Gyaring. Those shallow lakes, each covering an area of about 400 square miles (1,000 square km), are rich in fish and…
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95c820c32835e1d48f98611c4a4607e2 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Baylor-University | Baylor University | Baylor University
Baylor University, private, coeducational institution of higher learning located in Waco, Texas, U.S. Baylor, affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, is the world’s largest Baptist university and the oldest college in Texas. The university offers about 160 bachelor’s, 75 master’s, and 20 doctoral degrees through nine academic divisions: the college of arts and sciences, the Hankamer School of Business, the Louise Herrington School of Nursing, the graduate school, the law school, the George W. Truett Theological Seminary, and schools of education, music, and engineering and computer science. Baylor Law School awards Juris Doctor degrees, and the theological seminary offers master’s and doctoral degrees in divinity. The School of Nursing is housed at the Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. Research facilities include the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies and the W.M. Keck Foundation Seismological Observatory. Total enrollment is approximately 14,000.
Chartered by the Republic of Texas in 1845, Baylor was founded by the Texas Baptist Education Society and named for Judge R.E.B. Baylor, one of its founders. Instruction in law began in 1849, and the law school was organized in 1857. Originally located in the town of Independence, the university was moved in 1886 to Waco, where it merged with Waco University. The business school was organized in 1923. Baylor University College of Medicine (established in Waco in 1900, affiliated with Baylor in 1903, and moved to Houston in 1943) included such distinguished heart surgeons as Denton A. Cooley and Michael DeBakey and endocrinologist Andrew V. Schally, a Nobel laureate, on its staff; in 1969 it became an independent institution, renamed the Baylor College of Medicine. At one time the university was also affiliated with the Baylor College of Dentistry, located in Dallas (1918–71). Track-and-field athlete Michael Johnson is a Baylor alumnus.
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d5882d4c98d452b8f581c5b272361429 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bayt-al-Hikmah | Bayt al-Ḥikmah | Bayt al-Ḥikmah
The Bayt al-Ḥikmah (“House of Wisdom”), founded in ad 830 in Baghdad, contained a public library with a large collection of materials on a wide range of subjects, and the 10th-century library of Caliph al-Ḥakam in Cordova, Spain, boasted more than 400,000 books.
…the House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Ḥikmah) to which the translators, most often Christians, were attached. He also imported manuscripts of particularly important works that did not exist in the Islāmic countries from Byzantium. Developing an interest in the sciences as well, al-Maʾmūn established observatories at which Muslim scholars could…
…was founded the great library Bayt al-Ḥikmah (“House of Wisdom”), which, until the sack of the city by the Mongols in 1258, served as a huge repository for the series of works from the Hellenistic tradition that were translated into Arabic. Al-Andalus became to the rest of Europe a model…
…partly Sanskrit) at the famous bayt al-ḥikmah (“house of wisdom”) at Baghdad, which was officially sponsored by the caliph al-Maʾmūn. The Fāṭimid caliph al-Ḥākim set up a dār al-ḥikmah (“hall of wisdom”) in Cairo in the 10th–11th centuries. With the advent of the Seljuq Turks, the famous vizier
…translation and research centre, the House of Wisdom, in Baghdad during his reign (813–833). Most of the translations were done from Greek and Syriac by Christian scholars, but the impetus and support for this activity came from Muslim patrons. These included not only the caliph but also wealthy individuals such…
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059b391df0b7ede36d1ce13cafbb971d | https://www.britannica.com/place/Beagle-Channel | Beagle Channel | Beagle Channel
Beagle Channel, strait in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago at the southern tip of South America. The channel, trending east–west, is about 150 miles (240 km) long and 3 to 8 miles wide; it separates the archipelago’s main island to the north from Navarino, Hoste, and other smaller islands to the south. At its western end the channel splits into two branches that encircle Isla Gordon. The eastern portion forms part of the Chile–Argentina border, while the western portion lies entirely within Chile. The three islands at the channel’s eastern end, Picton, Nueva, and Lennox islands, were the subject of a territorial dispute between Chile and Argentina that began in the 1840s and which almost led to war between the two countries in 1978. The dispute officially ended on May 2, 1985, when a treaty awarding the three islands to Chile went into effect between the two countries. The Beagle Channel was named for the British ship Beagle, in which Charles Darwin explored the area (1833–34).
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79c7605d9d0952796c166ecd7473c5a9 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Beardmore-Glacier | Beardmore Glacier | Beardmore Glacier
Beardmore Glacier, glacier in central Antarctica, descending about 7,200 ft (2,200 m) from the South Polar Plateau to Ross Ice Shelf, dividing the Transantarctic Mountains of Queen Maud and Queen Alexandra. One of the world’s largest known valley glaciers, it is 125 mi (200 km) long and is 25 mi in width. The British explorers Ernest Henry Shackleton (1908) and Robert Scott (1911) discovered the glacier on their route to the South Pole. Later scientific research found the glacier and the mountains to either side to contain petrified wood and fossils of dinosaurs, mammal-like reptiles, ferns, and coral—evidence of a time when Antarctica possessed a temperate climate.
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115dc7c05a5066995e12b38f9449f075 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Beas-River | Beas River | Beas River
Beas River, Beas also spelled Bias, ancient Greek Hyphasis, Sanskrit Vipasha, river in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab states, northwestern India. It is one of the five rivers that give the Punjab (“Five Rivers”) its name.
The Beas rises at an elevation of 14,308 feet (4,361 metres) at Rohtang Pass in the western (Punjab) Himalayas (a section of the vast Himalayas mountain range), in central Himachal Pradesh. From there it flows south through the Kullu Valley, receiving tributaries from the flanking mountains, and then turns west to flow past Mandi into the Kangra Valley. After crossing the valley, the Beas enters Punjab state and veers south and then southwest to its confluence with the Sutlej River at Harike after a course of about 290 miles (470 km). The Beas River was the approximate eastern limit of Alexander the Great’s invasion of India in 326 bce.
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c90fed8f62459be13d8a85731e2affbc | https://www.britannica.com/place/Beaucaire | Beaucaire | Beaucaire
Beaucaire, town, Gard département, Occitanie région, southeastern France. It lies along the Rhône River, opposite Tarascon, to which it is linked by several bridges.
Called Ugernum by the Romans, Beaucaire derived its modern name from the medieval Belli Quadrum, which described the pine-clad rock rising abruptly from the river. Atop the rock is a castle built by the counts of Toulouse in the 13th century. Beaucaire suffered severely in the Wars of Religion when both the town and its castle were destroyed on the Cardinal de Richelieu’s orders in 1632. The chief remains of the castle are its Romanesque chapel and the triangular keep, or stronghold. From its gardens there is an extensive view over the Rhône delta and the Camargue. The most important buildings of the old town itself are the churches of St. Paul (15th century) and the hôtel de ville (1683).
Beaucaire was formerly an important river port, and for more than six centuries (13th–19th) the July Beaucaire fair was known throughout Europe, attracting as many as 300,000 visitors a year. Most goods were brought to Beaucaire by boat, however, and thus the market subsequently declined with the coming of the railways. Now a purely local event, the fair involves mainly leather goods. The port, linked to the Canal-du-Rhône, is used extensively by pleasure craft, helping to foster tourism. The town is also an important commercial centre for local produce, especially wines. Beaucaire has a number of small industries, including food processing and chemical manufacturing. Pop. (1999) 13,748; (2014 est.) 15,859.
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1b9f200531fdcd585ecca6832947aa84 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Beaufort-Sea | Beaufort Sea | Beaufort Sea
Beaufort Sea, outlying sea of the Arctic Ocean situated north of Canada and Alaska. It extends northeastward from Point Barrow, Alaska, toward Lands End on Prince Patrick Island, and westward from Banks Island to the Chukchi Sea. Its surface area is about 184,000 sq mi (476,000 sq km). The average depth is 3,239 ft (1,004 m) and the greatest depth 15,360 ft. It is named for the British rear admiral Sir Francis Beaufort.
The continental shelf is narrow, especially near and east of Point Barrow; it widens somewhat north of the Mackenzie River mouth but nowhere exceeds 90 mi (145 km). The usual depth is less than 210 ft, although the slope descends steeply to 5,000 or 6,500 ft in the sea’s upper part. Small gravel islands or shallows are often found. The largest islands are west of the Mackenzie River mouth—Herschel (7 sq mi) and Barter (5 sq mi). Very small islands and banks are found in the Mackenzie River Delta.
The continental slope of the sea is cut by numerous submarine valleys. The Beaufort plateau, with depths from 6,500 to 10,000 ft, protrudes far into the sea, west of Banks Island. The geological structure of the bottom is that of a massive platform, and seismic data indicate a similarity between the crust of the Canadian Basin and of the oceans.
The coasts along the Beaufort Sea are low-lying and almost entirely covered with tundra. Only west of the Mackenzie River’s mouth do spurs of the Brooks Range approach the coastline. Banks and Prince Patrick islands are also fairly low, maximum elevations being from about 900 to 2,450 ft.
The Beaufort Sea is under ice almost the year round; only in August and September does the ice break up, and then only near the coasts. Four water masses may be distinguished. The surface water mass is nearly 330 ft thick and ranges in temperature from 29.5° F (-1.4° C) in late summer to 28.8° F (-1.8° C) in winter. The subsurface water mass, formed by the waters of the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea flowing through the Bering Strait, is much warmer than the surface water and almost reaches the North Pole. The deep Atlantic water is the warmest of all, its temperature ranging from 32° to 34° F (0° to 1° C). The bottom water has temperatures ranging from 30.6° to 31.3° F (-0.4° to -0.8° C).
The direction of the surface and subsurface currents is closely related to the general current system of the Arctic Ocean. A clockwise water gyre flows north of the Beaufort Sea; the majority of the sea’s currents are thus westward or southwestward. Only in the vicinity of the mouth of the Mackenzie River is an eastward current recorded.
The Mackenzie River deposits about 15 million tons of sedimentary material annually into the sea, including high concentrations of dolomite and calcium carbonate, which are found at great distances from the river delta. Gravel, pebble, and sand deposits, sometimes mixed with mud, are widely distributed on the continental shelf underlying the sea.
More than 70 phytoplankton species are found in the Beaufort Sea, but the total biomass is not large. Nearly 80 zooplankton species have been found, and the bottom fauna consists of nearly 700 species of polychaetes, bryozoans, crustaceans, and mollusks.
The chief settlement along the Beaufort Sea is Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, which is the centre of petroleum production on the coastal lowland known as the North Slope. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline carries crude oil south from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, an ice-free port almost 800 miles (1,300 km) away on Alaska’s southern coast. Fishing and sea hunting along the Beaufort Sea are for local supply only.
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183744e8a73b8574e3320d79ebabefb8 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Beaverhead-Deerlodge-National-Forest | Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest | Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest
…between several divisions of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, for which it is headquarters, in an area of old mining camps. (This history is reflected in the Beaverhead County Museum in Dillon.) Nearby Bannack, now a ghost town and site of Montana’s first major gold strike (1862), was once a bustling…
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92e122fd31684596f01377f857c23205 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bechar | Béchar | Béchar
Béchar, formerly Colomb-Béchar, town, western Algeria. It lies in the northern reaches of the Sahara, 36 miles (58 km) south of the border with Morocco. The town is named for nearby Mount Béchar, rising to 1,600 feet (488 metres). Béchar’s former European quarter contains a military station and has modern buildings, while the traditional quarter has covered, narrow streets. Surrounded by date-palm groves watered by the Wadi Béchar, the town is noted for its leatherwork and jewelry. It is a trade centre at the junction of trans-Saharan roads, is the terminus of the railroad running southward from Oran, and has an airport. Béchar Djedid (New Béchar), 3 miles (5 km) south, was built to house the employees of the nearby coalfields at Kenadsa.
The surrounding region presents a varied landscape. Near the Moroccan border the land is composed primarily of flat, stony sandstone plateaus (hammadas). To the southeast the landscape is typified by ergs (sand dunes), specifically, parts of the Grand Erg Occidental, the Erg er-Raoui, and the Erg Iguidi. The region is bisected in the north by the Wadi Saoura, which forms the valley where the oasis town of Beni Abbes (Béni-Abbas) lies. Along the Saoura (known as Wadi Messaoud farther south), date-palm groves extend about 200 miles (320 km). To the west the region is crisscrossed by numerous wadis and ravines, forming a landscape known as sabkhah. Locally important crops include dates, cereals, vegetables, figs, and almonds. Bituminous-coal reserves in the region are exploited minimally because of high transportation costs. Pop. (1998) 131,010; (2008) 165,241.
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bed7be224966f31b03da14e3d4d090b0 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Beijing/Landscape | Landscape of Beijing | Landscape of Beijing
The city of Beijing is situated at the northern apex of the roughly triangular North China Plain and lies at an elevation between about 100 and 130 feet (30 and 40 metres) above sea level. The larger municipality is almost completely surrounded by Hebei province, except for two short stretches bordering Tianjin municipality to the southeast. The Yan Mountains lie along the municipality’s northeastern side, and the Jundu Mountains occupy its entire western region; together these form a concave arc that circles the Beijing lowland from the northeast to the southwest to form what is known to geologists as the “Bay of Beijing.”
The city was built at the mouth of this embayment, which opens onto the great plain to the south and east, and between two rivers, the Yongding and the Chaobai, which eventually join to empty into the Bo Hai (Gulf of Chihli) in Tianjin municipality, some 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Beijing. To the south of the city the plain spreads out for about 400 miles (650 km) until it merges into the lower valley and the delta of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang). On the east the plain is bounded by the sea, except for the break caused by the Shandong Hills; on the west it is flanked by the Taihang Mountains, which constitute the eastern edge of the Loess Plateau (loess is loamy material deposited by wind).
Because Beijing stands at the apex of the triangle, it is a natural gateway on the long-distance land communication route between the North China Plain and the northern ranges, plains, and plateaus, and routes running across the great plain naturally converge on the city. In addition, since the dawn of Chinese history, the Yan range has constituted a formidable barrier between the North China Plain to the south, the Mongolian Plateau to the north, and the Liao River Plain in the southern region of the Northeast (historically Manchuria). A few passes, however, cut through the ranges—the most important being Juyong (northwest of Beijing), Gubei (northeast), and Shanhai (east in Hebei, on the Bo Hai)—and are so situated that all roads leading from Mongolia and the Northeast to the North China Plain are bound to converge on Beijing. For centuries, therefore, Beijing was an important terminus of the caravan routes leading to and from the vast Central Asian hinterland.
No large streams flow through the central city, although the municipality is drained by the Chaobai and Yongding rivers. East of the city, the Chaobai flows southward out of the Miyun Reservoir (itself formed by the combined inflows of the Chao and Bai rivers) in the northeastern corner of the municipality. The tumultuous Yongding, which drains the Shanxi uplands and northwestern Hubei before entering the municipality, is to the west. After following a twisting course through the mountains, it reaches the Beijing plain, passes under the Marco Polo Bridge, 9 miles (14 km) southwest of the central city, and then turns southward to meet the Grand Canal north of Tianjin. The flow of the Yongding is irregular; in the rainy season it rises rapidly, carrying with it large quantities of silt, which raise the level of the riverbed considerably. At the Marco Polo Bridge it is 50 feet (15 metres) above the level of the city, thus constituting a hazard when the river is in flood but also facilitating canalization and irrigation.
Since the early 15th century, the city of Beijing and its surrounding territories have been organized as a metropolitan district of enormous size, having a governor—formerly appointed by the emperor himself—equal in rank to a provincial governor. This special district organization was continued by the Qing (Manchu) dynasty (1644–1911/12) and, since 1949, in the People’s Republic. The present metropolitan boundary was established in 1959. The metropolis may be divided into three concentric zones, based on urban functions. The central zone coincides with the central city; it is occupied mainly by old palaces, government buildings, commercial districts, and old residential areas and makes up roughly 1 percent of the total metropolitan area. The second zone, the near suburb, immediately surrounds the old walled city and is the site of the newer factories, schools, government buildings, and workers’ dormitories. The outer fringe of this zone is intensively cultivated and supplies vegetables and fruits to the population of the central zone. The near suburb accounts for about 8 percent of the metropolitan area. The third zone, the far suburb, constitutes the remainder of the metropolitan area. This zone functions as the economic base—supplying coal, lumber, construction materials, vegetables and fruits, dairy products, water, and some grain crops to the urban population in the central zone and the near suburb.
Though Beijing is a relatively short distance from the sea, the general air circulation in the region is mainly from the northwest throughout the year; maritime effects on the region’s weather are meagre. The climate is clearly of the continental monsoon type that occurs in the temperate zone. Local topography also has a great effect on Beijing’s climate. Because it lies in a lowland area and is protected by mountains, the city is a little warmer in winter than other areas of China located at the same latitude; nonetheless, the mean monthly temperature drops below 50 °F (10 °C) for five months out of the year. In addition, wind direction in Beijing is influenced by topography, with changes occurring from day to night. Generally, there are more southerly winds in the day but northerly or northwesterly winds at night.
The annual mean temperature of the city is 53 °F (12 °C). The coldest month is January, when the monthly mean is 24 °F (–4 °C), and the warmest month is July, when it is 79 °F (26 °C). In an average year, the city experiences 132 days of freezing temperatures between October and March; the mean annual precipitation is 25 inches (635 mm), with most of the total falling from June to August. July is ordinarily the wettest month of the year, with an average of 9 inches (230 mm).
One of the characteristics of the region’s precipitation is its variability. In 1959—an extremely wet year for Beijing—the total precipitation amounted to 55 inches (1,400 mm), whereas in 1891—an extremely dry year—only 7 inches (180 mm) fell. The average number of rainy days per year is about 80, and the average relative humidity for the city is 57 percent.
Winter in Beijing is long and usually begins in late October, when northwesterly winds gradually gain strength. This seasonal wind system dominates the region until March; the Siberian air that passes southward over the Mongolian Plateau and into China proper is cold and dry, bringing little snow or other precipitation. The monthly mean temperature from December to February is below freezing. Spring, the windiest season, is short and rapidly becomes warm. The prevailing high spring winds produce an evaporation rate that averages about nine times the total precipitation for the period and frequently is sufficient to cause droughts that are harmful to agriculture. Dust storms in the region, exacerbated by increasing desertification in Inner Mongolia, are common in April and May. In addition to being the season of torrential rains, summer is rather hot, as warm and humid air from the southeast often penetrates into North China. Autumn begins in late September and is a pleasant, though short, season with clear skies and comfortable temperatures.
Although the city of Beijing with its surrounding districts is one of the most densely populated parts of China, portions of the municipality (notably in the mountainous hinterland) are much more sparsely settled and support a wide variety of vegetation. The municipality’s mountain areas are within the temperate deciduous forest zone, while the more southerly plains area is part of the wooded steppe zone. Continuous deforestation by humans for centuries, however, has stripped the woodlands in most sections of the metropolitan area. Mixed forests—composed mainly of pine, oak, and Manchurian birch—now cover only mountains in the northeast and the west. Distinct vertical forest zones can be seen at higher elevations. The lower slopes of many hills to the west of the city, being the most accessible to humans, have lost their original forest cover; only bushes and shrubs now dot the landscape there. A variety of species grow on sunny slopes between elevations of about 2,300 and 5,600 feet (700 and 1,700 metres), including Manchurian birch, Dahurian birch, trembling poplar, Mongolian oak, and Liaotung oak. Between 5,600 and 6,250 feet (1,700 and 1,900 metres), a mixed forest of truncated maple and trembling poplar replaces all other species. Above 6,250 feet, goat willow becomes the dominant tree.
The larger part of the lowland areas of Beijing has been either cultivated or occupied by various settlements, and, for the most part, it is bare of any natural vegetation. Occasionally, some small groves of planted trees may be seen in the vicinity of villages; these are composed mainly of mixed woods consisting of oil pine, Chinese juniper, Chinese cypress, willow, elm, and Chinese locust. In addition, the government has made a concerted and sustained effort to plant trees in and around the central city.
The traditional core of Beijing essentially consisted of two walled cities (the walls no longer stand), the northern inner city and the southern outer city. The inner city, also known conventionally as Tatar City, lay to the southwest of the site of the Mongol city of Dadu; it was in the form of a square, with walls having a perimeter of nearly 15 miles (24 km). The outer city, also known as the Chinese City, was added during the reign of the Ming emperor Jiajing (1521–66/67); it was in the form of an oblong adjoining the inner city, with walls that were 14 miles (23 km) in length, including 4 miles (6 km) of the southern wall of the inner city. Within the inner city was the Imperial City, also in the form of a square, which had red plastered walls 6.5 miles (10.5 km) in length. The only remaining portions of that wall are on either side of the Tiananmen (Tian’anmen; “Gate of Heavenly Peace”), the southern, and main, entrance to the Imperial City that stands at the northern end of Tiananmen Square. Within the Imperial City, in turn, was the moated Forbidden City, with walls 2.25 miles (3.6 km) long. The Forbidden City contains the former Imperial Palaces, which are now the Palace Museum.
Beijing represents, better than any other existing city, the heritage of Chinese architectural achievement. During each dynasty in which the city was the capital, care was consistently taken to preserve tradition when it was rebuilt or remodeled. Few cities in the world can thus rival Beijing in the regularity and harmony of its city plan.
The urban plan, based on traditional Chinese geomantic practices, was composed about a single straight line, drawn north and south through the centre of the Forbidden City, on which the internal coherence of the city hinged. All the city walls, important city gates, main avenues and streets, religious buildings, and daily shopping markets were systematically arranged in relation to this central axis. Because the central axis has historically signified the authority of the ruling dynasty, many official buildings, public grounds, and city gates were located along this line. From north to south this line passed through the Bell Tower (Zhonglou); the Drum Tower (Gulou); Jingshan Park; the Forbidden City, including the Imperial Palaces; Tiananmen Square; Qianmen (Front Gate); the Tianqiao neighbourhood; and (no longer standing) Yongding Gate.
The symmetrical layout of the city to the east and west of this line is quite striking. In front of the palaces, the Temple of the Imperial Ancestors (now in the People’s Cultural Park) on the east side of the axis is balanced by the Altar of Earth and Harvests (now in Zhongshan Park) on the west. Farther away from the palaces, the market area of Dongdan to the east was balanced by the Xidan market to the west; these still form two of Beijing’s main business districts. The Tiantan (Temple of Heaven) Park to the south of the inner city is counterbalanced by the Ditan (Altar of the Earth) Park to the north of the city. Of the 16 city gates constructed in Ming times, 7 were located on each side of the north-south line, and 2 were situated on the line itself. Only a few of the old gates still stand, but the city streets adjacent to their sites continue to carry their names.
The main avenues of the old city, whether running north-south or east-west, connected the gates on the opposite walls and divided the whole city into a rectangular grid. Within the walls, buildings were constructed around a courtyard or series of courtyards, with every important building facing south. Buildings often stood behind one another along the north-south line, with small courtyards in between. This prevailing southern orientation of buildings has a climatic functional basis, but it also appears to have been sanctified or conventionalized early in the Bronze Age in connection with ancestral ceremonies and with the worship of heaven and earth.
Since 1949 the greatest changes in Beijing’s appearance have been the extension of its streets immediately outside the former old city walls and the accelerating pace of new construction throughout the city. On the west side of the old city, an area extending about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the spot where the Fuxing Gate stood has become an extension of the avenue Xichang’an Jie and is used primarily for government offices. Toward the Summer Palace, to the northwest, is the Haidian district, where the most important universities and research institutes of the country are located. To the north of the city, the outlying districts have been developed as a housing area adjoining the educational district in the northwest. The eastern suburb is an industrial district dominated by the manufacture of chemicals, automobiles, and agricultural machinery. Vegetable fields in the southern suburb are gradually being supplanted by industrial plants. More recently, the look of the central city, especially in the eastern sections, has been transformed by growing numbers of high-rise office and apartment buildings. This construction increased rapidly from 1995, reaching a fever pitch in the years leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games.
To cope with the rapid population growth, a number of housing projects have been constructed for office and factory workers since 1949. In the mid-1950s housing projects were concentrated in western areas of the city, where apartment buildings were erected near government offices outside the Fuxing Gate site. Subsequently, a large number of multiunit housing estates were built in the northern districts between the Anding Gate site and Desheng Gate, centring on the residential neighbourhood of Hepingli. The Hepingli housing development contains primary and secondary schools, nurseries, hotels, and recreational facilities, as well as scores of four- or five-story apartment buildings. In addition, there are many groups of single-family houses in the northern suburbs, with associated parks, theatres, and recreational centres. All these buildings were supplied with water and natural gas as they were constructed, in contrast with structures in the older parts of the city, where it took longer to provide such services.
In the area outside the Jianguo Gate site, to the east of the central city, apartment buildings accommodate the families of office workers employed in nearby government office buildings. This area has also become the diplomatic district, containing many foreign embassies and a number of Western-style houses for diplomatic representatives and their families, and a locus of high-rise construction.
Many dilapidated houses have been pulled down in the older districts inside the former city walls and have been replaced by multistory apartment buildings. Urban-renewal projects, however, have been unable to match population growth. As a consequence, many traditional living compounds—originally designed centuries ago to house the families of officials during the Qing dynasty—have been repaired or renovated and subdivided to provide quarters for three or four families per compound. Each family in a compound faces a public courtyard and shares a common front gate with other families.
Many factories in the eastern and southern outskirts of the city have erected apartment buildings to house workers as a way to reduce commuting traffic in the metropolis. These workers’ residences constitute independent communities and are located so that they are easily accessible from the place of work yet are far enough away to minimize noise and smoke. Satellite towns also have been developed in the rural counties in an effort to disperse population and industries from the central city. Industries have been established in rural areas in order to absorb surplus labourers and to supplement farmers’ incomes.
Beijing’s heritage of Chinese architectural achievement is exemplified by both private housing and public buildings. As the whole city was laid out in a rectangular street pattern symmetrically arranged around the palace compound, almost every dwelling in the city is also rectangular in form, with the four sides squarely facing the cardinal directions. Most houses in the inner city were designed as residences for former officials and their families, and almost every dwelling compound is surrounded by high walls, with an open courtyard in the centre flanked by houses on the eastern, western, and northern sides, usually one story high. The former residences of high-ranking officials were composed of two or three compounds, interconnected along a north-south axis.
Just inside the high wooden sill of the front gate of a large compound was a brick screen wall, a structure that was supposed to shut off intruding evil spirits as well as prevent curious passersby from looking inside. Beyond the screen was the outer, or service, courtyard, flanked by houses to the east and west. In former days, these structures held the compound’s kitchen and the living quarters for the gatekeeper, servants, and any visiting guests and relatives. A red-painted gate led through the north wall of the outer court into the main part of the house, built around three sides of the main courtyard; the courtyard, usually shaded by a large tree, was the centre of the family’s life. All the windows looked inward to it, and a double door opened into it from each of the three wings. The windows extended from about three feet (one metre) above the ground up to the deep, overhanging eaves. As they faced south, the rooms in the main building got the maximum possible sunshine in winter, and the eaves provided a pleasant shade in summer, when the sun was high. The wing at the northern end of the court was intended for the head of the family and his wife. It was divided into three compartments: the central one was the living or community room, and the smaller rooms at either side were the bedroom and study. The rooms facing east and west—three on each side of the court—were for married sons and their families. This was the basic plan of all the old houses in Beijing. Larger families built an extra courtyard behind the main house, because the traditional ideal was that all the existing generations should live together. Since 1949, however, a great many of the old-style houses have been adapted for use by several families.
While the style and architecture of private dwelling units are uniform throughout the city, the public buildings and temples are characterized by a variety of designs and structures. Beijing, the country’s political and cultural centre for more than 700 years, has more buildings of historical and architectural significance than any other contemporary city in China. Since 1949 many new government and municipal buildings, combining both traditional and Western architecture, have been constructed.
The Imperial Palaces (Palace Museum) of the Forbidden City, with their golden roofs, white marble balustrades, and red pillars, stand in the heart of Beijing and are surrounded by a moat and walls with a tower on each of the four corners. The palaces, collectively designated a World Heritage site in 1987, consist of outer throne halls and an inner court. North of the three tunnel gates that form the Wu (Meridian) Gate (the southern entrance to the Forbidden City), a great courtyard lies beyond five marble bridges. Farther north is the massive, double-tiered Hall of Supreme Harmony (Taihedian), once the throne hall. A marble terrace rises above the marble balustrades that surround it, upon which stand beautiful ancient bronzes in the shapes of caldrons, cranes, turtles, compasses, and ancient measuring instruments. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the largest wooden structure in China.
North of it, beyond another courtyard, is the Hall of Central (or Complete) Harmony (Zhonghedian), where the emperor paused to rest before going into the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Beyond the Hall of Central Harmony is the last hall, the Hall of Preserving Harmony (Baohedian), after which comes the Inner Court (Neiting). The Inner Court was used as the emperor’s personal apartment. It contains three large halls, the Palace of Heavenly Purity (Qianqinggong), the Hall of Union (Jiaotaidian), and the Palace of Earthly Tranquillity (Kunninggong).
The Palace of Heavenly Purity is divided into three parts. The central part was used for family feasts and family audiences, audiences for foreign envoys, and funeral services; the eastern section was used for mourning rites and the western section for state business. The other two palaces, one behind the other, were imperial family residences. The three throne halls in the Outer Court and the three main halls in the Inner Court lie along the central axis. On either side are smaller palaces, with their own courtyards and auxiliary buildings. Behind the buildings, before the northern gate of the Imperial Palaces is reached, lies the Imperial Garden. Each palace, its courtyard and side halls, forms an architectural whole.
Among the historical and religious structures in Beijing, the Temple of Heaven (Tiantan), located south of the palace compound in the old outer city, is unique both for its unusual geometric layout and because it represents the supreme achievement of traditional Chinese architecture. In 1998 it too was designated a World Heritage site. A path, shaded by ancient cypresses, runs about 1,600 feet (490 metres) from the western gate of the temple to a raised passage about 1,000 feet (300 metres) long. This broad walk connects the two sets of main buildings in the temple enclosure. To the north lies the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests (Qiniandian) and to the south the Imperial Vault of Heaven (Huangqiongyu) and the Circular Mound Altar (Huanqiutan), all three built along a straight line. Seen from the air, the wall of the enclosure to the south is square, while the one to the north is semicircular. This pattern symbolizes the traditional Chinese belief that heaven is round and Earth square.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, built in 1420 as a place of heaven worship for the emperors, is a lofty, cone-shaped structure with triple eaves, the top of which is crowned with a gilded ball. The base of the structure is a large, triple-tiered circular stone terrace. Each ring has balustrades of carved white marble, which gives the effect of lace when seen from a distance. The roof of the hall is deep blue, resembling the colour of the sky. The entire structure, 125 feet (38 metres) high and about 100 feet (30 metres) in diameter, is supported by 28 massive wooden pillars. The four central columns, called the “dragon-well pillars,” represent the four seasons; there are also two rings of 12 columns each, the inner ring symbolizing the 12 months and the outer ring the 12 divisions of day and night, according to a traditional system. The centre of the stone-paved floor is a round marble slab that has a design of a dragon and a phoenix—traditional imperial symbols. The hall has no walls, only partitions of open latticework doors.
The Imperial Vault of Heaven, first erected in 1530 and rebuilt in 1752, is a smaller structure some 65 feet (20 metres) high and about 50 feet (15 metres) in diameter. The circular building has no crossbeam, and the dome is supported by complicated span work. Its decorative paintings still retain their fresh original colours.
South of the enclosure lies the Circular Mound Altar, built in 1530 and rebuilt in 1749. The triple-tiered white stone terrace is enclosed by two sets of walls that are square outside and round inside; thus, the whole structure forms an elaborate and integrated geometric pattern. The inner terrace is 16 feet (5 metres) above the ground and about 100 feet (30 metres) in diameter; the middle terrace is about 165 feet (50 metres) across and the lowest terrace some 230 feet (70 metres) across. Each terrace is encircled by nine rings of stones. Both the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the Circular Mound Altar were erected to portray the geometric structure of heaven, as conceived by the architects of the Ming dynasty. After 1949 the whole enclosure of the Temple of Heaven was repaired; it is now a public park.
To the east of Tiananmen Square within the People’s Cultural Park is the Working People’s Cultural Palace (formerly the Temple of the Imperial Ancestors), where the tablets of the emperors were displayed. The temple, like the Imperial Palaces in style, was built in three stonework tiers, each with double eaves. On either side are two rows of verandas surrounding a vast courtyard large enough to hold 10,000 people. Exhibitions of economic and cultural achievements, both of China and of other countries, are frequently mounted in the three halls. Lectures by leading scholars on science, literature, and the arts are also held there.
Perhaps the most imposing structure constructed in the heart of the city since 1949 is the Great Hall of the People. The Great Hall is located on the western side of Tiananmen Square and is an immense building with tall columns of gray marble set on red marble bases of floral design. It has a flat roof with a golden-yellow tile cornice over green eaves shaped like lotus petals. The base of the building is of pink granite, and its walls are apricot yellow. Its frontage is 1,100 feet (335 metres) long—about the equivalent of two city blocks—and its floor space is some 1,850,000 square feet (172,000 square metres). Inside the building, the ceiling and walls are rounded. The grand auditorium, with seating for 10,000, is where the National People’s Congress holds its sessions; the focus of the room’s lighting system is a red star in the ceiling surrounded by golden sunflower petals. Other components are a banquet hall that can hold 5,000, huge lobbies, and scores of meeting rooms and offices for the standing committee of the congress.
The extraordinary pace of building construction in Beijing since the mid-1990s produced a vast number of new and gleaming medium- and high-rise buildings. Many of these structures are commercial—banks, corporate headquarters, hotels, and apartment blocks—and, although most of them are fairly conventional towers, a number of them were built with innovative and eye-catching designs. Of note are the China Central Television (CCTV) Building, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas; the National Centre for the Performing Arts complex, featuring an enormous egg-shaped dome that houses an opera house, a concert hall, and a theatre; the new National Stadium, built for the Olympics and popularly called the “Bird’s Nest” because of its irregular interlocking outer framework; and the National Aquatics Center, also built for the Olympics and distinctive because its exterior resembles a giant cube of water.
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439eacfb78e9c7ca12454bdbe6488b35 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Beirut | Beirut | Beirut
Beirut, Arabic Bayrūt, French Beyrouth, capital, chief port, and largest city of Lebanon. It is located on the Mediterranean coast at the foot of the Lebanon Mountains.
Beirut is a city of baffling contradictions whose character blends the sophisticated and cosmopolitan with the provincial and parochial. Before 1975 Beirut was widely considered the most thoroughly Westernized city in the Arab Middle East; after that, however, 15 years of civil war ravaged most parts of the city and eroded much of the lustre that had formerly concealed the Arab—as distinct from the Levantine—side of its character. Despite the sectarian and ideological passions unleashed by the civil war, Beirut retains its basically liberal and tolerant way of life, albeit in changed circumstances. In the 1990s Beirut began extensive rebuilding efforts to restore its economic base and cultural landmarks. Area governorate, 7 square miles (18 square km); city, 26 square miles (67 square km). Pop. (2003 est.) city, 1,171,00; (2005 est.) urban agglom., 1,777,000.
The city sits atop two hills, al-Ashrafiyyah (East Beirut) and al-Muṣayṭibah (West Beirut), that protrude into the sea as a roughly triangular peninsula. In the immediate hinterland lies a narrow coastal plain (Al-Sāḥil) that extends from the mouth of the Nahr al-Kalb (Dog River) in the north to that of the Nahr al-Dāmūr (Damur River) in the south.
Beirut has a subtropical climate that is cool and temperate in winter and hot and humid in summer. In January, the coolest month, the average afternoon maximum temperature is 62 °F (17 °C), and the nighttime low is 51 °F (11 °C). Comparable maximum and minimum temperatures in July are 87 and 73 °F (31 and 23 °C). The rainy season extends from mid-autumn to early spring, and the average annual rainfall is 36 inches (914 mm).
Under the Ottoman vilāyet administration and the French mandate, the growth of Beirut was planned, but after independence in 1943 it was as haphazard as it was rapid. It is estimated that the population of the city increased 10-fold between the early 1930s and early 1970s, and the city’s area grew to three times the size it had been in 1900. By the 1950s few traces of the old city were left, and most of those were destroyed in the 1975–90 civil war.
Street plans and block arrangements in the city and its suburbs are not consistent or uniform. In most quarters, modern high-rise buildings, walk-up apartments, slum tenements, modern villas, and traditional two-story houses with red-tiled roofs—all in varying states of repair—stand side by side. After 1975 countless houses and apartments, particularly in West Beirut, were forcibly occupied by refugees and squatters from rural areas, especially from the Shiʿi areas of southern Lebanon.
The downtown area of central Beirut (the old city) was destroyed during the civil war, becoming a belt of squatter-occupied ruins between East and West Beirut. Because of the sporadic fighting that occurred between rival factions, central Beirut could not be reconstructed during the war, and all business moved out of the area to establish new premises in the Christian and Muslim sides of the city. When the war ended in 1990, strong divisions arose between official and popular opinion over plans for reconstructing the old city. Standing property rights, which were largely in the hands of Sunni Muslim and Christian landowners, clashed with the then de facto situation that most of the resident squatters in the area were Shiʿi Muslims. Progress in the direction of reconstruction in the 1990s was thus slow-coming. A combination of payoffs and eminent domain cleared the way for the rapid development of the Beirut Central District (BCD) in the first decade of the 21st century. Investment slowed in the 2010s, however, amid instability in the region.
According to the government, the resident population of Beirut is more or less evenly divided between Muslims and Christians. In the absence of reliable statistics, however, this official supposition has never been possible to verify. The influx of large numbers of Shiʿis into West and central Beirut during the civil war probably tipped the population balance in favour of the Muslims. The overwhelming majority in both religious groups—Christians and Muslims—is ethnically Arab and includes Palestinian refugees, Syrian residents, and others. The most important ethnic minority is the Christian Armenians; there is also a Kurdish ethnic minority among the Muslims. East Beirut is almost solidly Christian, West Beirut is predominantly Muslim, and a number of mixed neighbourhoods (notably in the district of Raʾs Bayrūt) are cosmopolitan in character. The small Jewish community, once concentrated in the downtown neighbourhood of Wādī Abū Jamīl, was reduced further by emigration during the war. Most of those who remained have shifted their residence to East Beirut and adjacent Christian suburbs. The larger Christian communities are the Maronites and the Greek Orthodox; the Christian minorities, apart from the Armenians, include Greek Catholics, Protestants, Roman Catholics, and others. Originally, the Sunnis were the dominant Muslim community, but Shiʿi Muslims began moving into the city in increasing numbers in the 1960s.
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295198e8d9c9b5bc5dc7f771d4123f15 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Beja-Tunisia | Béja | Béja
Béja, also spelled Bājah, town in northern Tunisia, located in the hills on the northern edge of the Majardah (Medjerda) valley. Béja is built on the site of ancient Vacca (or Vaga)—a Punic town and Roman colony. It became an important agricultural market beginning in the 1st century bce and was conquered by the Vandals and rebuilt in part by Justinian in the 6th century ce. The old section of Béja lies on the flank of a steep hill and is still partly encircled by Byzantine walls. The town was made an administrative and military centre by the Turks in the 16th century. Béja has historically been the centre of the Majardah valley wheat-growing region; an 11th-century Arab geographer thus described the town as “the granary of Tunisia.”
Modern Béja is a relatively prosperous market town. In addition to flour mills, the town has sugar refineries and is the site of an agricultural research college; the casbah (citadel) is still used by the army. Béja is linked by road and rail with Tunis, 65 miles (105 km) east.
The surrounding area encompasses the wet coastal plain along the Mediterranean Sea southeastward across the cork- and oak-covered highlands to the fertile Majardah valley. It is an important wheat-growing and livestock-raising region and includes the towns of Nafzah, centre of the Nafzah plain, and Mājaz al-Bāb, a grain market on the site of ancient Membressa. Pop. (2004) 56,677.
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f6f7ac9b0311cf6a914c6ab1bf548c41 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Belarus/Resources-and-power | Resources and power | Resources and power
Belarus is generally poorly endowed with mineral resources. The government is attempting to accelerate the development of its raw-material base, but Belarus remains dependent on Russia for most of its energy and fossil-fuel requirements. In the 1960s, petroleum was discovered in the southeastern part of the republic, near Rechytsa. Production peaked in 1975 and fell to one-fourth of that total by the 1990s, when it stabilized.
Belarus does possess, however, one of the world’s largest reserves of potash (potassium salts), which was discovered south of Minsk in 1949 and exploited from the 1960s around the new mining town and fertilizer-manufacturing centre of Salihorsk. Potash exports remained high into the early 21st century. The country also is a world leader in the production of peat, which is especially abundant in the Pripet Marshes. In briquette form it is used as fuel. Among the other minerals recovered are salt, an important deposit of which, near Mazyr, was opened in the 1980s; building materials, chiefly limestone and, near Hrodna, quartz sands for glassmaking, both used locally; and small deposits of gold and diamonds.
Nearly all electricity is generated at thermal power stations using piped oil and natural gas; however, there is some local use of peat, and there are a number of low-capacity hydroelectric power plants. In the early 21st century Belarus began construction of its first nuclear power plant. The Lithuanian government strenuously objected to the plant, which was located less than 15 miles (24 km) from the Lithuanian border.
Military production was of high industrial priority during the Soviet era, and the transition to primarily civilian production was difficult. Nevertheless, mining and manufacturing remain major components of the Belarusian economy and together account for more than one-fourth of GDP, with the processing of minerals and hydrocarbons playing an important role. A large facility for producing potash fertilizers is located at Salihorsk. There are oil refineries in the Polatsk area and at Mazyr in the south. Both are served by branches of a major pipeline originating in western Siberia, but the facilities at Mazyr also process local oil from Rechytsa. There also is a large petrochemical plant at Polatsk. Nitrogenous fertilizers are made at Hrodna, using natural gas piped from Dashava in Ukraine.
Heavy industry is well developed in Belarus. Heavy-duty vehicles, particularly trucks and tractors, are manufactured in Minsk, Zhodzina, and Mahilyow. Other engineering products include machine tools, such as metal-cutting equipment. Precision manufacturing was developed during the 1970s and ’80s, notably of such consumer goods as radios, television sets, watches, bicycles, and computers. Other industries are small-scale, and products are mostly for local consumption. These have included timber processing, furniture making, match and paper making, textile and clothing manufacture, and food processing.
Independent Belarus restructured its Soviet-style banking system into a two-tier system consisting of the National Bank of Belarus and a growing number of commercial banks, most of which are either joint-stock or limited-liability companies. The republic introduced its own currency, the Belarusian rubel, in 1992. A securities market and stock exchange were also established that year.
During much of the Soviet period, the republic was a net exporter, with the bulk of its trade conducted with other Soviet republics, principally Russia and Ukraine. Independent Belarus became a net importer, however, when the price of previously inexpensive raw materials and energy from Soviet sources rose to meet world market levels. Nonetheless, in the early 21st century Russia and Ukraine remained the republic’s main trading partners, with trade increasing with China, Germany, Poland, and other countries of the European Union. Chief exports include refined petroleum, machinery, trucks, tractors, potassium chloride, metals, and foodstuffs. Major imports include crude petroleum, machinery, natural gas, rolled metal, chemical products, and foodstuffs.
The service sector accounts for about two-fifths of GDP and employs the largest portion of the labour force. In the early 21st century the banking, communications, and real-estate industries experienced some of the highest rates of growth. Although the tourism industry is less developed in Belarus than in neighbouring countries, the revenue derived from tourist activities increased dramatically in the early 21st century. The Belovezhskaya Forest is one of the most visited destinations, and homestays on farmsteads have become popular. Another frequently visited site is the 19th-century fortress in Brest, known as the Hero Fortress for the courageous defense made there by Soviet soldiers against invading Nazis in 1941.
A large majority of the Belarusian labour force is employed in either services or mining and manufacturing. Belarus has one of the highest percentages of women in the workforce of any country, and women occupy key roles in the education, health care, communications, manufacturing, and agricultural sectors. Most employees in Belarus are members of a trade union. There are dozens of trade unions, and most are subordinated to the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus, the body that oversees the unions.
In the early 21st century Belarus’s taxation system was simplified to bring it more in line with European standards. Taxes for individuals include an income tax, a social security tax, and property taxes. For businesses taxes include a corporate income tax, a social security tax, a value-added tax, ecological taxes (for the use of natural resources), and property taxes.
Belarus has a good railway network that is headed by major interregional railways that crisscross the country: east-west between Berlin and Moscow; north-south between St. Petersburg and Kiev (Ukraine); and northwest-southeast between the Baltic countries and Ukraine. The country’s main highway connects the city of Brest in the west to Minsk and the Russian border in the east. There are also good road connections between the capital and all regional centres. Buses operate throughout the country.
The city of Minsk is served by an extensive mass transit system that includes buses, streetcars, and an underground railway known as the Minsk Metro. Minsk has good air connections as well. Minsk National Airport, also called Minsk-2, is located about 25 miles (40 km) east of the city; it opened in 1982 and began international service in 1989. A domestic airport for smaller planes, located within the city, serves Belarusian regions and Moscow.
The state-owned telecommunications company of Belarus is the sole provider of fixed-line telephone service. Mobile phones are used much more extensively, however. Though privately owned, mobile phone companies in Belarus are subject to government oversight. In addition, opposition groups have reported that at times the government has monitored or interfered in individuals’ cell phone communications, and on occasion officials have confiscated mobile phones belonging to Belarusians suspected of criminal or antigovernment activities. The government also monitors and regulates Internet usage, which increased steadily during the opening years of the 21st century.
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725605f6a034e23ad54bc22a724da269 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Belgian-Congo | Belgian Congo | Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo, French Congo Belge, former colony (coextensive with the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) in Africa, ruled by Belgium from 1908 until 1960. It was established by the Belgian parliament to replace the previous, privately owned Congo Free State, after international outrage over abuses there brought pressure for supervision and accountability. The official Belgian attitude was paternalism: Africans were to be cared for and trained as if they were children. They had no role in legislation, but traditional rulers were used as agents to collect taxes and recruit labour; uncooperative rulers were deposed. In the late 1950s, when France and the United Kingdom worked with their colonies to prepare for independence, Belgium still portrayed the Congo as an idyllic land of parent-child relationships between Europeans and Africans.
Private European and American corporations invested heavily in the Belgian Congo after World War I. Large plantations (growing cotton, oil palms, coffee, cacao, and rubber) and livestock farms were developed. In the interior, gold, diamonds, copper, tin, cobalt, and zinc were mined; the colony became an important source of uranium for the United States during World War II. Africans worked the mines and plantations as indentured labourers on four- to seven-year contracts, in accordance with a law passed in Belgium in 1922. Roads, railroads, electric stations, and public buildings were constructed by forced labour.
African resistance challenged the colonial regime from the beginning. A rebellion broke out in several eastern districts in 1919 and was not suppressed until 1923. Anti-European religious groups were active by the 1920s, including Kimbanguism and the Negro Mission in the west and Kitawala in the southeast. Unrest increased in the depression years (1931–36) and during World War II. Because political associations were prohibited at the time, reformers organized into cultural clubs such as Abako, a Bakongo association formed in 1950. The first nationwide Congolese political party, the Congo National Movement, was launched in 1958 by Patrice Lumumba and other Congolese leaders. In January 1959, riots broke out in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) after a rally was held calling for the independence of the Congo. Violent altercations between Belgian forces and the Congolese also occurred later that year, and Belgium, which previously maintained that independence for the Congo would not be possible in the immediate future, suddenly capitulated and began making arrangements for the Congo’s independence. The Congo became an independent republic on June 30, 1960.
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edc248a1f8a25907c185b4d911bb8e7f | https://www.britannica.com/place/Belgrano | Belgrano | Belgrano
…the north of Once lies Belgrano, home to a relatively small Chinese community. Belgrano is dominated by high-rise apartment buildings and private homes squeezed between a series of small hills.
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5c5a33210f606bf1656a36323566529f | https://www.britannica.com/place/Belitung | Belitung | Belitung
Belitung, also spelled Belitoeng or Belitong, also called Billiton, island and kabupaten (regency), Bangka Belitung propinsi (or provinsi; province), Indonesia. With 135 associated smaller islands, it lies between the South China and Java seas, southwest of Borneo and east of Bangka island. Tanjungpandan on the west coast is the main town, port, and site of the airport. Belitung’s area is 1,853 square miles (4,800 square km). Its coasts are sandy and marshy and studded with rocks and coral banks, but the tidal Cerutuk River is navigable for 7 miles (11 km). Most of the land lies less than 130 feet (40 metres) above sea level. Groups of hills rise from flat or slightly undulating country, and in the central parts are treeless plains covered with cogon grass (used for thatching).
The island is important for its tin mines, discovered in 1851. First exploited by a private Dutch company and later with participation of the colonial government, the tin is now worked by the Indonesian government. Most ore comes from alluvial deposits, but there is some lode mining. The island was ceded to the British in 1812 by the sultan of Palembang, Sumatra, but Britain recognized the Dutch claim in 1824. In 2000 Belitung, Bangka, and neighbouring islands were split from the province of South Sumatra (Sumatera Selatan) to form the new province of Bangka Belitung.
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d20e46f11723f08567548c2868a2d28e | https://www.britannica.com/place/Belize | Belize | Belize
Belize, country located on the northeast coast of Central America. Belize, which was known as British Honduras until 1973, was the last British colony on the American mainland. Its prolonged path to independence was marked by a unique international campaign (even while it was still a British colony) against the irredentist claims of its neighbour Guatemala. Belize achieved independence on September 21, 1981, but it has retained its historical link with the United Kingdom through membership in the Commonwealth.
Belize is often thought of as a Caribbean country in Central America because it has a history similar to that of English-speaking Caribbean nations. Indeed, Belize’s institutions and official language reflect its history as a British colony. However, its culture is more typical of that of other Central American countries. Belize’s small population is ethnically diverse and includes a large proportion of immigrants. Since the 1970s, migration has shifted Belize’s ethnic composition from a predominantly Creole (mixed African and British descent) population to one in which mestizos (in Belize, people of mixed Mayan and Spanish ancestry) make up half of the total inhabitants. Belize has one of the most stable and democratic political systems in Central America. After its original capital, Belize City, was ravaged by a hurricane in 1961, a new capital, Belmopan, was built inland, about 50 miles (80 km) west of Belize City, which remains the country’s commercial and cultural centre as well as its most populous city.
The name Belize is traditionally believed to have been derived from the Spanish pronunciation of the last name of Peter Wallace, a Scottish buccaneer who may have begun a settlement at the mouth of the Belize River about 1638. It is also possible that the name evolved from the Mayan word belix (“muddy water”) or belikin (“land facing the sea”).
Situated south of the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize is a land of mountains, swamps, and tropical jungle. It is bounded by Mexico to the north, Guatemala to the west and south, and the Caribbean Sea to the east. The country has a 174-mile (280-km) coastline.
The southern half of the country is dominated by the rugged Maya Mountains, a plateau of igneous rock cut by erosion into hills and valleys that stretch in a southwesterly to northeasterly direction. The Cockscomb Range, a spur of the Maya Mountains, runs toward the sea and rises to Doyle’s Delight. The northern half of the country consists of limestone lowlands and swamps less than 200 feet (60 metres) above sea level.
The lowlands are drained by the navigable Belize River (on which stands Belize City), the New River, and the Hondo River (which forms the northern frontier with Mexico). Both the New and the Hondo rivers drain into Chetumal Bay to the north. South of Belize City the coastal plain is crossed by short river valleys. Along the coast is the Belize Barrier Reef, the second largest barrier reef in the world, which is fringed by dozens of small islands called cays. The reef reserve system was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996. Belize’s most fertile soils are the limestone soils found in the northern half of the country and in the coastal plain and river valleys in the south.
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8983fdb90749e58fee55dc5f48f667e2 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Belleville-section-Paris-France | Belleville | Belleville
…19th arrondissement is known as Belleville, a formerly independent village that stretches south into the 20th arrondissement. The 20th also is home to the Ménilmontant neighbourhood and Père-Lachaise Cemetery—the site of the Federalists’ Wall (Mur des Fédérés), against which the last of the fighters of the Commune of Paris were…
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a57d35e473f2bf7abf15faf40ef43dc2 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bellville | Bellville | Bellville
Bellville, city, Western Cape province, South Africa. It lies east of Cape Town within the Cape Peninsula urban area. Originally a village called Twelfth Mile Stone, Bellville was established by proclamation in 1861 and named after Charles D. Bell, surveyor general of the Cape. It became a town in 1940 and a city in 1979. It is built on the slopes of the Tygerberg (1,362 feet [415 metres]).
The Elsies River runs through Bellville, and there is a park in the river’s valley. Bellville South, an industrial zone of Bellville, produces paper and food products, bricks and tiles, and fertilizers. Bellville, which is also a centre of automobile retailing, is located on the main railway from Cape Town to Johannesburg, and Bellville South has the largest marshaling yard in the Cape provinces. The University of the Western Cape was founded in Bellville in 1960. A gravel track from the suburb of Welgemoed leads to the Tygerberg summit, giving magnificent views of Cape Flats and the interior mountains. Cape Town International Airport is 5 miles (8 km) southwest. Pop. (2001) 89,733.
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51d4cf13502a4566fd253de1130e828b | https://www.britannica.com/place/Benjamin-Franklin-Bridge | Benjamin Franklin Bridge | Benjamin Franklin Bridge
…board of engineers of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge over the Delaware River, which, upon completion in 1926, was the longest suspension bridge in the world.
…Philadelphia-Camden Bridge (now called the Benjamin Franklin Bridge), over the Delaware River, is another wire-cable steel suspension bridge; when completed in 1926, it was the world’s longest span at 525 metres (1,750 feet). However, it was soon exceeded by the Ambassador Bridge (1929) in Detroit and the George Washington Bridge…
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8f04c6a2582da79fa8f58efaae42ac69 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bensonville | Bensonville | Bensonville
Bensonville, also called Bentol, city, northwestern Liberia. Bensonville is a marketing and commercial centre for the surrounding agricultural area. Prior to the outbreak of civil war in the 1990s, its industrial activity included the production of milled rice, sawn wood, soap, plastics, paints, furniture and fixtures, cement blocks, oils, processed fish, and confections. Bensonville’s proximity to Monrovia spurred its development. Pop. (2008) 520.
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3c5382f3578f2fae9c14b978de60100c | https://www.britannica.com/place/Benue | Benue | Benue
Benue, state, east-central Nigeria. A wooded savanna region, it is bounded on the south by Cross River, Ebonyi, and Enugu states, on the west by Kogi state, on the north by Nassawara state, and on the northeast by Taraba state. The Benue River defines the western half of Benue’s northern boundary; to the southeast it has a common border of less than 25 miles (40 km) with Cameroon, where the Mokamoun River rises in the mountains of that country. The area is inhabited by the Tiv (the largest ethnic group in the state), the Idoma, and a number of smaller groups; all are mainly agricultural peoples, cultivating sesame seed, soybeans, shea nuts, cotton, yams, corn (maize), and rice as cash crops. Yams, sorghum, millet, peanuts (groundnuts), and cassava are raised as staple foods.
Mining is important in several scattered areas: south of the Benue River there are lead deposits near Akwana and limestone deposits near Yandev; north of the river there are saline springs in the Benue valley and major deposits of tin, niobium, and marble.
Makurdi (the state capital) and Oturkpo, on the railway from Port Harcourt, are among Benue’s largest urban centres. Makurdi is the chief port of the Benue River. Gboko, which has a cement factory, and Katsina Ala are also sizable market towns. There are postsecondary institutions at Makurdi. Pop. (2006) local government area, 4,219,244.
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3b723af2b02d19536e053940480d3bc8 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bergen-Norway | Bergen | Bergen
Bergen, city and port, southwestern Norway. The principal port and business section is on a peninsula projecting into By Fjord, bounded to the north by the inlet and harbour of Vågen (for small ships) and on the south by Pudde Bay (for larger vessels) and the Store Lungegårds Lake.
Originally called Bjørgvin, the city was founded in 1070 by King Olaf III Haraldsson. About 1100 a castle was built on the northern edge of Vågen harbour, and Bergen became commercially and politically important; it was Norway’s capital in the 12th and 13th centuries. An episcopal see was established there in the 12th century. A trade centre for centuries, Bergen exported fish and furs and imported grain and manufactured goods. In the 14th century, German Hanseatic merchants acquired control over the city’s trade; their influence in a weakened Norway lasted into the 17th century. Bergen has remained the most important port on the west coast of Norway, despite its repeated destruction by fire (most notably in 1702 and 1916); wider streets and buildings of brick and stone have been built in response to these disasters.
Bergen is now the second largest city in Norway. It has developed a diversified economy, based largely on fishing, shipbuilding and associated industries (repairing and equipment), machinery and metal products, and food processing. Tourism has also grown in importance. Notable buildings are the 12th-century St. Mary’s Church, the city’s oldest structure; Bergenhus fortress, including Håkonshallen (Haakon’s Hall, built in the 13th century); and the Rosenkrantz Tower. The latter two buildings were severely damaged during the German occupation (1940–45). Bryggen, the city’s historic harbour district, is notable for the wooden structures lining the waterfront; it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979.
Bergen is the seat of a university (1946) as well as of the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (1936). Its West Norway Museum of Decorative Art (1887) has a fine collection. The well-known Bergen International Music Festival takes place each year. Bergen was the birthplace of composer Edvard Grieg, violinist Ole Bull, landscape painter Johan Christian Dahl, and dramatist Ludvig Holberg. Pop. (2007 est.) mun., 244,620.
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1a2f3b278599ecdbc29d396a7653d006 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bering-Sea | Bering Sea and Strait | Bering Sea and Strait
Bering Sea and Strait, Russian Beringovo More and Proliv Beringa, northernmost part of the Pacific Ocean, separating the continents of Asia and North America. To the north the Bering Sea connects with the Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait, at the narrowest point of which the two continents are about 53 miles (85 kilometres) apart. The boundary between the United States and Russia passes through the sea and the strait.
The Bering Sea roughly resembles a triangle with its apex to the north and its base formed by the 1,100-mile-long arc of the Alaska Peninsula in the east; the Aleutian Islands, which constitute part of the U.S. state of Alaska, in the south; and the Komandor (Commander) Islands in the west. Its area is about 890,000 square miles (2,304,000 square kilometres), including its islands. The maximum width from east to west is about 1,490 miles and from north to south about 990 miles.
The Bering Strait is a relatively shallow passage averaging 100 to 165 feet (30 to 50 metres) in depth. During the Ice Age the sea level fell by several hundred feet, making the strait into a land bridge between the continents of Asia and North America, over which a considerable migration of plants and animals occurred.
In addition to the Aleutian and Komandor groups, there are several other large islands in both the sea and strait. These include Nunivak, St. Lawrence, and Nelson islands in Alaskan waters and Karagin Island in Russian waters.
The Bering Sea may be divided into two nearly equal parts: a relatively shallow area along the continental and insular shelves in the north and east and a much deeper area in the southwest. In the shelf area, which is an enormous underwater plain, the depths are, in most cases, less than 500 feet. The deep part in the southwestern portion of the sea is also a plain, lying at depths of 12,000 to 13,000 feet and divided by separate ridges into three basins: the larger Aleutian Basin to the north and east, the Bowers Basin to the south, and the Komandor Basin to the west. The sea’s deepest point, 13,442 feet (4,097 metres), is in the Bowers Basin.
The continental crust is more than 12 miles thick along the shallow shelves and in the Aleutian Islands. The thickness decreases in the slope areas, and in the deep part of the sea the crust is 6 to 9 miles thick.
Enormous quantities of sedimentary material enter the sea annually from the land as a result of erosion of the shore. Plant and animal life at the surface also produce sedimentary material, but very little reaches the bottom, and consequently most of the sediment on the floor of the sea is from the land. Along with a great deal of silica, the bottom ooze holds a large quantity of boulders, pebbles, and gravel torn from the shores by ice and carried out to sea. In the southern part, the sediments are rich in material of volcanic origin.
Although the Bering Sea is situated in the same latitude as Great Britain, its climate is much more severe. The southern and western parts are characterized by cool, rainy summers with frequent fogs and comparatively warm, snowy winters. Winters are extreme in the northern and eastern portions, with temperatures of -31° to -49° F (-35° to -45° C) and high winds. The summers in the north and east are cool, with comparatively low precipitation. Snow persists on the Koryak coast for as long as 8 months and on the Chukchi Peninsula for nearly 10 months, with a snow cover one to two feet thick. The annual precipitation in the southern part of the sea is more than 40 inches (1,000 millimetres), mainly in the form of rainfall, while in the northern part the precipitation is less than half as much and is mainly snow.
Mean annual air temperatures range from -14° F (-10° C) in the northern areas to about 39° F (4° C) in the southern parts. Water temperatures on the surface average from 34° F (1° C) in the north to 41° F (5° C) in the south. The period without frosts lasts for about 80 days in the northern part of the sea, where snow is common even in the summer and maximum temperatures are only 68° F (20° C). In the southern area there are nearly 150 days without frost, and the temperature seldom falls much below freezing. January and February are the coldest months, July and August the warmest. Severe storms caused by strong centres of low atmospheric pressure occasionally penetrate the southern part of the sea.
Practically all of the Bering Sea water comes from the Pacific Ocean. The salinity of the surface water is relatively low, 31 to 33 parts per thousand; in the deeper parts of the sea the salinity increases to 35 parts per thousand near the bottom. In winter the northern portion of the sea is covered with ice, and even in summer the water below the surface retains a subfreezing temperature. The structure of the Bering Sea waters in general is subarctic, characterized by the presence in summer of a cold intermediate layer with warmer waters above and below. During the summer the surface water is heated, but a considerable layer of water that was cooled during the winter remains cold and is known as the cold intermediate layer. The maximum thickness of this intermediate layer is about 475 feet in the northern part of the sea and as much as 280 feet in the south. Underneath this layer is one that is slightly warmer, below which lie the colder bottom waters. In the northern and eastern shallow regions of the sea, only two upper layers develop: surface water and a cooler intermediate layer.
Warm oceanic waters from the south enter the Bering Sea through the numerous straits of the Fox Islands, through the Amchitka and Tanaga passes, and to a great extent through the Blizhny Strait between Attu and Medny islands. The Attu, Tanaga, and Transverse currents carry the warm water to the northwest. The Transverse Current, proceeding along the Asian continental slope in the direction of Cape Navarin, branches in two: one branch forms the Lawrence Current moving northward, and the other joins the Anadyr Current, which in turn gives birth to a powerful Kamchatka Current that governs the southward movement of the Bering Sea waters along the Asian coasts. Near the Alaska coast the general direction of the water is to the north, a factor responsible for the less severe ice conditions in that part of the sea as compared with the western part. Some of the Bering Sea water passes through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean, but the bulk of it returns to the Pacific. The deep Bering Sea waters rise gradually to the surface and return to the Pacific as surface waters. Thus, the Bering Sea is an important factor in the general circulation of the northern part of the Pacific Ocean waters. The rise to the surface of oceanic waters rich in nutrient salts gives the sea a high biological productivity.
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7fa87ed5a08855f202078f00f20725c3 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Berlin | Berlin | Berlin
Berlin, capital and chief urban centre of Germany. The city lies at the heart of the North German Plain, athwart an east-west commercial and geographic axis that helped make it the capital of the kingdom of Prussia and then, from 1871, of a unified Germany. Berlin’s former glory ended in 1945, but the city survived the destruction of World War II. It was rebuilt and came to show amazing economic and cultural growth.
Germany’s division after the war put Berlin entirely within the territory of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany). The city itself echoed the national partition—East Berlin being the capital of East Germany and West Berlin a Land (state) of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany). West Berlin’s isolation was later reinforced by the concrete barrier erected in 1961 and known as the Berlin Wall. Its status as an enclave made Berlin a continuous focus of confrontation between the Eastern and Western powers as well as a symbol of Western lifestyle for 45 years. The fall of the East German communist regime—and the accompanying opening of the wall—in late 1989 unexpectedly raised the prospect for Berlin’s reinstatement as the all-German capital. That status was restored in 1990 under the terms of the unification treaty, and subsequently Berlin was designated a state, one of the 16 constituting Germany. These developments heralded the city’s return to its historic position of prominence in European culture and commerce. Area 344 square miles (891 square km). Pop. (2005 est.) 3,395,189.
Berlin is situated about 112 miles (180 km) south of the Baltic Sea, 118 miles (190 km) north of the Czech-German border, 110 miles (177 km) east of the former inner-German border, and 55 miles (89 km) west of Poland. It lies in the wide glacial valley of the Spree River, which runs through the centre of the city. The mean elevation of Berlin is 115 feet (35 metres) above sea level. The highest point near the centre of Berlin is the peak of the Kreuzberg, a hill that rises 218 feet (66 metres) above sea level.
Measuring approximately 23 miles (37 km) from north to south and 28 miles (45 km) from east to west, Berlin is by far the largest city in Germany. It is built mainly on sandy glacial soil amid an extensive belt of forest-rimmed lakes, formed from the waters of the Dahme River to the southeast and the Havel to the west; indeed, about one-third of the Greater Berlin area is still covered by sandy pine and mixed birch woods, lakes, and beaches. “Devil’s Mountain” (Teufelsberg), one of several hills constructed from the rubble left by World War II bombing, rises to 380 feet (116 metres) and has been turned into a winter sports area for skiing and sledding.
Berlin lies where the influence of the Atlantic Ocean fades and the climate of the continental plain begins. The city’s mean annual temperature is about 48 °F (9 °C), and mean temperatures range from 30 °F (−1 °C) in winter to 65 °F (18 °C) in summer. The average precipitation is 22 inches (568 mm). About one-fifth to one-fourth of the total falls as snow.
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4df2e269ad4d270f30c4c87634f0cd1a | https://www.britannica.com/place/Berlin/History | History of Berlin | History of Berlin
The name Berlin appears for the first time in recorded history in 1244, seven years after that of its sister town, Kölln, with which it later merged. Both were founded near the beginning of the 13th century. In 1987 both East and West Berlin celebrated the city’s 750th anniversary. Whatever the date of foundation, it is certain that the two towns were established for geographic and mercantile reasons, as they commanded a natural east-west trade route over the Spree River.
The way for their founding was opened by a Germanic resurgence in the area, which had been abandoned to the Slavs by the original Germanic tribes as they had migrated westward. The Slavs were subdued by Albert I the Bear, a Saxon who crossed the Elbe River from the west. His successors took the title margrave of the mark (border territory) of Brandenburg. Berlin still retains as its symbol a defiant black bear standing on its hind legs.
The settlements of Spandau and Köpenick, now metropolitan districts, preceded the establishment of Berlin-Kölln; fortified settlements at both sites date to the 8th century. The Ascanians, followers of Albert I the Bear, established their fortress in 1160 at Spandau in the north where the Spree flows into the Havel River; by 1232 the fortress had earned the privileges of a town. Berlin-Kölln emerged between Spandau to the northwest and Köpenick to the southeast. By 1250 Berlin-Kölln dominated the mark of Brandenburg east to the Oder River, where a fort had been built in 1214, and in the 14th century it became the centre of the city league of the mark of Brandenburg (founded in 1308) and joined the Hanseatic League of northern German towns.
In 1411 the mark of Brandenburg came under the governorship of the Nürnberg feudal baron Frederick VI. This began Berlin’s association with the Hohenzollerns, who from the end of the 15th century as electoral princes of Brandenburg established Berlin-Kölln as their capital and permanent residence.
The Thirty Years’ War of 1618–48 laid a heavy financial burden on the city, and the population was reduced from 12,000 to 7,500. When Frederick William the Great Elector assumed power in 1640, he embarked on a building program, which included fortifications that enabled him to expel Swedish invaders. His rule also marked the beginning of the development of canals, which by 1669 provided a direct link between Breslau (now Wrocław, Pol.) in the east and Hamburg and the open sea in the west. His successor, Frederick III, crowned Prussian king (as Frederick I) in 1701 in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), made Berlin the royal residence city. In 1709 the framework of Greater Berlin was laid when Berlin-Kölln and the newer towns of Friedrichswerder, Dorotheenstadt, and Friedrichstadt were put under a single magistrate. The population grew from 12,000 in 1670 to 61,000 in 1712, including 6,000 French Huguenot refugees.
During the first half of the 18th century, Berlin expanded in all directions. Frederick II the Great adorned the city with new buildings and promoted its economic and infrastructural development. The Napoleonic occupation of 1806–08 caused a serious setback to its development. Part of the administrative, economic, and cultural reconstruction was the foundation, in 1810, of the Frederick William University by the scholar and minister of education Wilhelm von Humboldt. (The university was renamed Humboldt University in 1949.) But colleges and academies had already existed in Berlin since the mid-17th century. Berlin early attracted outstanding thinkers, including the philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Karl Marx. The city had its first popular uprising in 1830 when tailors’ apprentices took to the streets over working conditions. The Revolution of 1848 led to a bloody clash between soldiers and citizenry. By this time the city’s population had risen to 415,000, from about 100,000 a century before. With the opening of the Berlin-Potsdam line in 1838, Berlin became the centre of an expanding rail network.
The period of the Industrial Revolution was also that of Otto von Bismarck, who as prime minister of Prussia united Germany in 1871. At this time the population of Berlin, the capital of the German Empire, was 826,000. The population continued to grow rapidly (1880: 1,300,000; 1925: 4,000,000). From the 18th to the late 20th century, French, Jewish, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Austrian, and Turkish immigrants contributed to the population mix of the metropolitan area.
Four times in the 20th century, the date of November 9 has marked dramatic events in the history of Germany and Berlin. On that date in 1918, Berlin became the capital of the first German republic. Five years later Hitler’s putsch was put down in Munich. In 1938 Nazi storm troopers vandalized Jewish synagogues, shops, and other properties in the night of violence known as Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). And on November 9, 1989, East German authorities opened the wall that had divided the city for 28 years. Because of the associations attached to this date, October 3, rather than November 9, became the new national holiday (Unity Day).
The period 1918–33 was one of runaway inflation, mass unemployment, and the rise to power of Adolf Hitler. On January 31, 1933, Hitler became chancellor and, based on the infamous Enabling Act, adopted by a Reichstag majority, he took absolute power that very year.
In 1933 the Nazis began to persecute communists, social democrats, and labour unionists and to deprive the German Jews of their rights as citizens. Owing to voluntary and forced emigration, the Jewish population of Berlin decreased from 4.3 percent, or 170,000, in 1925 to 1.8 percent in 1939. The spectacle of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin only superficially veiled the reality of Nazi Germany, which was soon revealed by Kristallnacht. Five thousand Jews survived the Holocaust in the city of Berlin. In 1990 the World Jewish Congress met for the first time in Germany, in Berlin.
Allied aerial bombing during World War II cost Berlin an estimated 52,000 people. Another 100,000 civilians died in the battle for Berlin launched by the Soviet army on April 16, 1945. Most of Berlin’s residential districts, factories, military facilities, streets, and cultural buildings were destroyed. On April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide in his bunker below the Chancellery.
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f02e07759a1bd98b0ea9597446c221b4 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bermuda | Bermuda | Bermuda
Bermuda, self-governing British overseas territory in the western North Atlantic Ocean. It is an archipelago of 7 main islands and about 170 additional (named) islets and rocks, situated about 650 miles (1,050 km) east of Cape Hatteras (North Carolina, U.S.). Bermuda is neither geologically nor spatially associated with the West Indies, which lie more than 800 miles (1,300 km) to the south and southwest.
The archipelago is about 24 miles (40 km) long and averages less than 1 mile (1.6 km) in width. The main islands are clustered together in the shape of a fishhook and are connected by bridges. The largest island is Main Island, 14 miles (22.5 km) long and 1 mile wide. The Peak, at 259 feet (79 metres) on Main Island, is the highest point. The capital is Hamilton.
The coral islands of Bermuda are composed of a layer 200 feet (60 metres) thick of marine limestone that caps an extinct and submerged volcanic mountain range rising more than 14,000 feet (4,300 metres) above the ocean floor. The limestone surface is overlain by a shallow layer of fertile soil. The islands are fringed by coral reefs and have no lakes or rivers, but the soil is highly porous, and standing water is not a problem.
The climate is mild, humid, and equable. August is the warmest month, with an average daytime high of 86 °F (30 °C), and February is the coldest month, with an average nighttime low of 57 °F (14 °C). Mean annual precipitation is about 57 inches (1,450 mm). Occasional dry spells can be critical, as the supply of drinking water depends almost entirely on rainfall. (There also are a number of wells and seawater distillation plants). The vegetation is subtropical and includes flowering shrubs such as bougainvillea, Easter lilies, oleander, hibiscus, and poinsettia. Palm, pine, casuarina, and mangrove trees are found on most of the islands. A number of migratory birds visit the islands annually; other wildlife is limited to lizards and frogs.
About three-fifths of the population is of full or mixed African ancestry, including immigrants from the West Indies or their descendants, Cape Verdeans, and descendants of slaves brought from other parts of the New World or Africa before Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807. Whites (people of European ancestry) constitute another one-third of the population and include those of British and American descent as well as descendants of Portuguese labourers from Madeira and the Azores who have immigrated to Bermuda since the mid-19th century.
English is the official language, but some Portuguese is also spoken. Christianity predominates, and about one-sixth of the population is Anglican. Bermuda’s rate of population growth is low by world standards, comparable to that of the United States. Less than one-fifth of the population is younger than 15 years.
Virtually all of Bermuda’s larger islands are inhabited, and Main Island has the largest concentration of people. Bermuda has one of the world’s highest population densities.
Bermuda has a predominantly market economy based on tourism and international finance. The gross national product (GNP) is growing more rapidly than the population, and the GNP per capita is one of the highest in the world.
Agriculture is of negligible importance in the overall economy, and most food must be imported. Fresh vegetables, bananas, citrus fruits, milk, eggs, and honey are produced locally. There is a small fishing industry. Mineral industries are limited to the production of sand and limestone for local construction. There are a few light manufacturing industries that produce paint, pharmaceuticals, electronic wares, and printed material.
Tourism and international financial services account for the major share of the GNP and employ virtually all the workforce directly or indirectly. Some half million tourists visit Bermuda each year; most come from the United States. The island is famous for its pink sand beaches, which get their colour from one of the sand’s main components, pulverized coral and shells. Another attraction for tourists is the historic town of St. George (founded 1612) and its fortifications, which together were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000.
Airlines typically account for most arrivals, but there are also dozens of calls by cruise ships each year. Bermuda has low income taxes; the government derives most of its revenues from tariffs and various taxes on real estate and tourism. As a result, the territory has become an important offshore financial centre, and many insurance and investment companies have established offices there. Principal trading partners include the United States, which supplies nearly seven-tenths of Bermuda’s imports by value; the countries of the European Union; Canada; and various Caribbean countries.
Bermuda is an internally self-governing British overseas territory with a parliamentary government. Under its 1968 constitution, the British monarch, represented by the governor, is the head of state. The governor maintains control over external affairs, defense, internal security, and the police but acts on the advice of the cabinet, led by the premier, who is head of government and of the majority party in the legislature. The bicameral legislature is composed of the House of Assembly, with 36 members elected to terms of up to five years, and the Senate, with 11 members appointed by the governor (5 on the advice of the premier, 3 on the advice of the leader of the opposition, and 3 at the governor’s discretion). The Supreme Court heads the judicial system. The system of local government comprises nine parishes: St. George’s, Hamilton, Smith’s, Devonshire, Pembroke, Paget, Warwick, Southampton, and Sandys.
Bermuda enjoys a high standard of health, as reflected in the average life expectancy of about 73 years for men and 79 years for women and in the relatively low infant-mortality rate. Social security provisions, first enacted in 1965, include old-age, disability, and survivor pensions and compulsory hospitalization insurance for all citizens.
Nearly the entire population is literate. Education is compulsory and free between the ages of 5 and 16. There is one junior college, and government scholarships are available for overseas study.
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878c140cc45e00a60aee9d27b66833fd | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bet-Shean | Bet Sheʾan | Bet Sheʾan
Bet Sheʾan, also spelled Beth-shan, Arabic Baysān, or Beisān, town, northeastern Israel, principal settlement in the low ʿEmeq Bet Sheʾan (ʿemeq, “valley”), site of one of the oldest inhabited cities of ancient Palestine. It is about 394 ft (120 m) below sea level. Overlooking the town to the north is Tel Bet Sheʾan (Arabic Tall al-Ḥuṣn), one of the most important stratified mounds in Palestine. It was excavated in 1921–33 by University of Pennsylvania archaeologists, who found that the lowest strata date from the late Chalcolithic period in the country (c. 4000–3000 bc) and progress successively upward to Byzantine times (c. ad 500). A series of buildings, including temples and administrative buildings, span the Egyptian period—the earliest from the time of Thutmose III (ruled 1504–1450 bc), and the latest dating to Ramses III (1198–66 bc). The local Canaanite deity Mekal was especially venerated. Important stelae (stone monuments) tell of the conquests of Pharaoh Seti I (1318–04 bc) and of the worship of the goddess Astarte. It was to the temple of this goddess that King Saul’s armour was brought after his death, and his body was hung from the city wall (I Sam. 31:10). Later, the town’s Jewish community is mentioned in rabbinic literature.
During the Hellenistic period, the city was called Scythopolis; it was taken by the Romans in 64 bc and given the status of an imperial free city by Pompey. In 1960 a finely preserved Roman amphitheatre, with a seating capacity for about 5,000, was uncovered. The city was an important centre of the Decapolis (a league of 10 Hellenistic cities) and under Byzantine rule was the capital of the northern province of Palaestina Secunda. It declined after the Arab conquest (ad 636).
Although an Arab town for centuries, Bet Sheʾan long had a Jewish settlement; in the Middle Ages the topographer Ashtori ha-Parḥi settled there and completed his work Kaftor wa-feraḥ, the first Hebrew book on the geography of Palestine (1322).
In modern times the town was one of the centres of Arab terrorism, 1936–39. Part of the territory allocated to Israel by the United Nations partition plan of November 1947, it was taken by the Haganah, the Jewish defense forces, on May 12, 1948, three days before the proclamation of Israel’s statehood. The Arab population fled; after the Arab–Israeli War (1948–49), the town was resettled with new immigrants, including many refugees from Arab countries. Bet Sheʾan is a centre of Israel’s chief cotton-growing region, and many of its residents work in the neighbouring kibbutzim. Local industries include a textile mill and clothing factory. Pop. (2004 est.) 16,000.
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a89c9c5c31087b4bb88b624d2ef64844 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Beta-Pictoris | Beta Pictoris | Beta Pictoris
Beta Pictoris, fourth-magnitude star located 63 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Pictor and notable for an encircling disk of debris that might contain planets. The star is of a common type somewhat hotter and more luminous than the Sun. In 1983 it was discovered to be an unexpectedly strong source of infrared radiation of the character that would be produced by a disk of material surrounding the star. The disk was later imaged and found to have a width roughly 2,000 times the Earth-Sun distance (2,000 astronomical units [AU]). Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope revealed the disk to be warped and its inner regions to be relatively clear. The explanation for these characteristics is that an extrasolar planet exists there. This planet was first seen in infrared images in 2003, and its existence was confirmed in subsequent images taken in 2009. The planet is estimated to have a mass nine times that of Jupiter and is at a distance from Beta Pictoris of 8 AU. The outer part of the disk shows rings, possibly caused by a passing star.
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82719f562d744da9542088317cb73013 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Betul | Betul | Betul
Betul, city, south-central Madhya Pradesh state, central India. It is situated in a plateau region south of the Satpura Range and just north of the Tapti River. Formerly called Badnur, Betul was constituted a municipality in 1867.
The city is a major road junction and agricultural trade centre. Sawmilling, oilseed milling, essential-oil distilling, and silk production are its chief industries. It has a government college affiliated with the University of Sagar. A weekly cattle market is held. The ruined 14th-century Kherla fortress, just to the northeast, was the seat of a major Gond dynasty. Pop. (2001) 83,524; (2011) 103,330.
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27849ead73e798581d753dbd9a38ba71 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Betwa-River | Betwa River | Betwa River
Betwa River, Sanskrit Vetravati (“Containing Reeds”), river in northern India, rising in the Vindhya Range just north of Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh. It flows generally northeast through Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh states and empties into the Yamuna River just east of Hamirpur after a 380-mile (610-km) course. Nearly half of its course, which is not navigable, runs over the Malwa Plateau before it breaks into the upland of Bundelkhand. The Jamni and Dhasan rivers are the main tributaries. The Betwa is dammed at Dukwan and Deogarh.
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b5648cc035911ef47f52583e832eb658 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Beziers | Béziers | Béziers
Béziers, city, Hérault département, Occitanie région, southern France, 9 miles (14 km) from the Mediterranean Sea, on a hilly site overlooking the Orb River where it is intersected by the Canal of the Midi, southwest of Montpellier.
There are remains of an arena from the Roman colony Beterrae. In the 12th century it was a stronghold of the viscounts of Carcassonne. In 1209 Simon de Montfort, sent by the pope to extirpate the Catharist heresy of good and evil as creators of the next world and this one, massacred the inhabitants, and the Roman-Gothic church of La Madeleine was a scene of great bloodshed. The city walls, rebuilt in 1289, were destroyed in 1632. The former cathedral of Saint-Nazaire, dominating the old town, is a typical ecclesiastical fortification of the 13th–14th century. The street named for Paul Riquet, who built the Canal of the Midi, separates the old town (west) from the modern.
Béziers distills alcohol and makes artificial fertilizers and spray chemicals for the vineyards. The city is an important railway junction and has a major service facility for the French national railway system. Its principal trade has been in the vin ordinaire of Languedoc, notably Muscat, said to have been introduced by the Romans, but this has diminished because of the centralization of the wine industry in Montpellier. Pop. (1999) 69,153; (2014 est.) 75,701.
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a57984f0a7bc58b8f9d34de9e277a7b9 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bhagirathi-River | Bhagirathi River | Bhagirathi River
Bhagirathi River, river in West Bengal state, northeastern India, forming the western boundary of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta. A distributary of the Ganges (Ganga) River, it leaves that river just northeast of Jangipur, flows south, and joins the Jalangi at Nabadwip to form the Hugli (Hooghly) River after a total course of 120 miles (190 km). Until the 16th century, when the Ganges shifted eastward to the Padma, the Bhagirathi formed the original bed of the Ganges. Its banks sheltered the great ancient capitals of Bengal, and the river is held sacred by the Hindus. A bridge at Baharampur spans the Bhagirathi.
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58d677023a1e0b6996b83a69b446e470 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bhimbetka-rock-shelters | Bhimbetka rock shelters | Bhimbetka rock shelters
Bhimbetka rock shelters, series of natural rock shelters in the foothills of the Vindhya Range, central India. They are situated some 28 miles (45 km) south of Bhopal, in west-central Madhya Pradesh state. Discovered in 1957, the complex consists of some 700 shelters and is one of the largest repositories of prehistoric art in India. The shelters were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2003. The complex is surrounded by the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary.
The Bhimbetka region is riddled with massively sculpted formations in the sandstone rock. On the Bhimbetka site’s hill alone, where the bulk of the archaeological research has been concentrated since 1971, 243 shelters have been investigated, of which 133 contain rock paintings. In addition to the cave paintings, archaeologists have unearthed large numbers of artifacts in the caves and in the dense teak forests and cultivated fields around Bhimbetka, the oldest of which are Acheulean stone tool assemblages.
The paintings, which display great vitality and narrative skill, are categorized into different prehistoric periods. The oldest are dated to the Late Paleolithic Period (Old Stone Age) and consist of large linear representations of rhinoceroses and bears. Paintings from Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) times are smaller and portray, in addition to animals, human activities. Drawings from the Chalcolithic Period (early Bronze Age) showcase the early humans’ conceptions of agriculture. Finally, the decorative paintings dating to early historical times depict religious motifs, including tree gods and magical sky chariots.
The caves provide a rare glimpse at a sequence of cultural development from early nomadic hunter-gatherers to settled cultivators to expressions of spirituality. It has been observed that the present-day cultural traditions of agrarian peoples inhabiting the villages surrounding Bhimbetka resemble those represented in the paintings.
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2640f232ff29006e34baa632280e9f53 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bhutan | Bhutan | Bhutan
Bhutan, country of south-central Asia, located on the eastern ridges of the Himalayas. Historically a remote kingdom, Bhutan became less isolated in the second half of the 20th century, and consequently the pace of change began to accelerate. With improvements in transportation, by the early 21st century a trip from the Indian border to the Bhutanese capital, Thimphu, that once took six days by mule could be made in just a few hours by car along a winding mountain road from the border town of Phuntsholing. The governmental structure also changed radically. Reforms initiated by King Jigme Dorji Wangchuk (reigned 1952–72) in the 1950s and ’60s led to a shift away from absolute monarchy in the 1990s and toward the institution of multiparty parliamentary democracy in 2008.
The economic core of Bhutan lies in the fertile valleys of the Lesser Himalayas, which are separated from one another by a series of high and complex interconnecting ridges extending across the country from north to south. The political nucleus of Bhutan is centred in the Paro and Thimphu valleys in the Lesser Himalayan region. Its location between the Assam-Bengal Plain of India to the south and the Plateau of Tibet of southwestern China to the north gives the country considerable geopolitical significance.
Bhutan’s northern and western boundary with the Tibet Autonomous Region (part of China), although undefined, generally follows the crest of the Great Himalayas. In the Duars Plain to the south of the Himalayan range lies Bhutan’s boundary with the Indian states of West Bengal and Assam. Bhutan borders the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the east and Sikkim to the southwest.
Physically, Bhutan may be divided into three regions from north to south: the Great Himalayas, the Lesser Himalayas, and the Duars Plain.
The northern part of Bhutan lies within the Great Himalayas; the snowcapped peaks in this region reach an elevation of more than 24,000 feet (7,300 metres). High valleys occur at elevations of 12,000 to 18,000 feet (3,700 to 5,500 metres), running down from the great northern glaciers. Alpine pastures on the high ranges are used for grazing yaks in the summer months. To the north of the Great Himalayas are several “marginal” mountains of the Plateau of Tibet that form the principal watershed between the northward- and the southward-flowing rivers. A dry climate is characteristic of the Great Himalayan region.
Until about 1960 the tempo of life in the Great Himalayas continued much as it had for centuries. Long relatively undisturbed in their ways, Bhutanese traders carried cloth, spices, and grains across the mountain passes into Tibet and brought back salt, wool, and sometimes herds of yaks. The absorption of Tibet by China, however, necessarily pushed Bhutan toward ending its isolation; the event brought major changes to the way of living in those high regions, as military precautions were taken to guard against the potential danger of a Chinese incursion from Tibet.
Spurs from the Great Himalayas radiate southward, forming the ranges of the Lesser Himalayas (also called Inner Himalayas). The north-south ranges of the Lesser Himalayas constitute watersheds between the principal rivers of Bhutan. Differences in elevation and the degree of exposure to moist southwest monsoon winds determine the prevailing vegetation, which ranges from dense forest on the rain-swept windward slopes to alpine vegetation at higher elevations. Several fertile valleys of central Bhutan are in the Lesser Himalayas at elevations varying from 5,000 to 9,000 feet (1,500 to 2,700 metres). These valleys, notably the Paro, Punakha, Thimphu, and Ha, are relatively broad and flat, receive moderate rainfall (from 40 to 50 inches [about 1,000 to 1,270 mm] or less a year), and are fairly well populated and cultivated.
South of the Lesser Himalayas and the foothills lies the narrow Duars Plain, which forms a strip 8 to 10 miles (12 to 16 km) wide along the southern border of Bhutan. The Himalayan ranges rise sharply and abruptly from this plain, which constitutes a gateway to the strategic mountain passes (known as dwars or dooars) that lead into the fertile valleys of the Lesser Himalayas. Subject to abundant rainfall (200 to 300 inches [5,100 to 7,600 mm] a year), the entire Duars tract is hot and steamy and is covered with dense semitropical forest and undergrowth.
The northern part of the Duars, immediately bordering the mountains, consists of a rugged, irregular, and sloping surface. At the foot of the mountains, small villages are found in forest clearings, but most of the area is thickly covered with vegetation inhabited by an array of large wild animals. The southern part of the Duars, bordering India, is mostly covered with savanna (grassy parkland) and bamboo jungle. In many areas the savannas have been cleared for rice cultivation. The principal trade routes between central Bhutan and India follow the valleys of the main rivers.
Bhutan’s mountainous territory is dissected by numerous rivers. The main rivers from west to east are the Torsa (Amo), Wong (Raidak), Sankosh (Mo), and Manas. All the rivers flow southward from the Great Himalayas and join the Brahmaputra River in India.
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839b35add3574252cebc4986bda62032 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bibai | Bibai | Bibai
Bibai, city, western Hokkaido, northern Japan. It is located on the Ishikari Plain between the cities of Asahikawa to the northeast and Sapporo to the southwest.
Bibai was settled in 1891 by Japanese farmer-soldiers (tondenhei) and became the main rice-producing centre of the Sorachi region in the early 20th century. Development of the city was spurred by the opening of a national road (1890) and a railway line (1891). Exploitation of the Ishikari Coalfield on nearby Mount Bibai began in 1913, but later, with a decline in yield and the introduction of petroleum, the population decreased, beginning in the 1960s and continuing into the early 21st century. The city’s industrial sector produces plastic goods, chemicals, beds, and briquettes. Pop. (2005) 29,083; (2010) 26,034.
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e177ec63a0b50ef4d7dfcef1a554d23f | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bicetre | Bicêtre | Bicêtre
…London in 1247) and the Bicêtre (the Paris asylum for men) were typical of 18th-century mental institutions in which the sufferers were routinely shackled. Inmates of these places often were believed to be devoid of human feeling, and their management was indifferent if not brutal; the primary consideration was to…
…placed in charge of the Bicêtre, the hospital for the mentally ill in Paris. Under Pinel’s supervision a completely new approach to the care of mental patients was introduced. Chains and shackles were removed, and dungeons were replaced by sunny rooms; patients were also permitted to exercise on the hospital…
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409c805c03aa175e73f4b4b2db00dd24 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bien-Hoa | Bien Hoa | Bien Hoa
Bien Hoa, city, southern Vietnam. It is located 19 miles (30 km) northeast of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), on the left bank of the Dong Nai River, northeast of the Mekong River delta.
Bien Hoa is one of the oldest cities of southern Vietnam. The French conquered it in 1861 after prolonged Vietnamese resistance. It has several hospitals and a ceramics school. Prior to 1975 the city’s industrial park district had industries producing steel, metal products, refrigeration equipment, motorbikes, batteries, paper products, knitted textiles, chlorine, caustic soda, and radios and televisions. The industrial park underwent heavy damage during the fighting in 1975, but many factories were restored to operation and new factories were constructed. Paper pulp, pressed wood, rolled steel, tools, refined sugar, condensed and powdered milk, and tractors are some of the manufactured products. Power is provided by the Dai Nham hydroelectric plant. Older industries include brick, tile, and pottery making and the production of construction stone. Granite quarries are worked. There is a large airfield nearby. Pop. (1999) 435,400; (2009) 652,646.
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f8b204617e51ff903a72cc7f94a4dcf0 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Big-Horn-Hot-Springs | Big Horn Hot Springs | Big Horn Hot Springs
…polis, “city,” for the nearby Big Horn Hot Springs (within present-day Hot Springs State Park), which are among the world’s largest, with an outflow of 18,600,000 gallons (70,400,000 litres) a day and a water temperature of 135 °F (57 °C). Gottsche Rehabilitation Center for hot-water treatment of disease is there.…
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9a8cf21952f33ddfb19d20cf10395806 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Big-Wood-River | Big Wood River | Big Wood River
Big Wood River, watercourse, south-central Idaho, U.S., that rises in the south slopes of the Sawtooth Range in the Sawtooth National Forest and flows south past Sun Valley, Ketchum, and Hailey, then west to join the Snake River near Gooding after a course of about 129 miles (208 km). Magic Reservoir, impounded just above Shoshone Ice Caves, is used for irrigation. The scenic river drains an area of about 3,070 square miles (7,951 square km) and includes some of Idaho’s most productive trout streams.
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54a66b428c566ffd789d614dff94a1d8 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Bijlmermeer | Bijlmermeer | Bijlmermeer
…south, and, in the 1970s, Bijlmermeer in the southeast. Bijlmermeer was the ultimate in modernist utopian urban planning, with bicycle paths, playgrounds, and high-rises built along the city’s new metro line. However, it was not a success and was later partly demolished and redeveloped in a mix of building styles…
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