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https://www.britannica.com/place/Barasat
Barasat
Barasat Barasat, city, southeastern West Bengal state, northeastern India. It lies in the eastern part of the Kolkata (Calcutta) urban agglomeration, just north-northeast of the Dum Dum suburban complex and about 15 miles (24 km) northeast of central Kolkata. Barasat was constituted a municipality in 1869. The city is...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Barataria-Bay
Barataria Bay
Barataria Bay Barataria Bay, inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, about 15 miles (24 km) long and 12 miles (19 km) wide, in southeastern Louisiana, U.S. Its entrance, largely blocked by Grand Isle and the Grand Terre Islands, is via a narrow Gulf channel navigable through connecting waterways into the Gulf Intracoastal Waterw...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona Barcelona, city, seaport, and capital of Barcelona provincia (province) and of Catalonia comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), northeastern Spain, located 90 miles (150 km) south of the French border. It is Spain’s major Mediterranean port and commercial centre and is famed for its individuality, cultur...
5b58099f3e8f52d27681688c5584c4eb
https://www.britannica.com/place/Barcelona-province-Spain
Barcelona
Barcelona Barcelona, provincia (province) in the comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Catalonia, northeastern Spain. It was formed in 1833. The province follows the axis of the Llobregat River basin, from which its regions are symmetrically arranged. No province has a more diverse landscape; it is a cross sect...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bardstown
Bardstown
Bardstown Bardstown, city, seat (1784) of Nelson county, in the outer Bluegrass region of central Kentucky, U.S., 39 miles (63 km) southeast of Louisville. Founded as Salem in 1778, it was later renamed to honour William Bard, one of the original landowners. During the American Civil War, it was occupied (September 20...
815ef4dcb3fcd967e2f810fc59b0fbfd
https://www.britannica.com/place/Barisal
Barisal
Barisal Barisal, officially called Barishal, city, south-central Bangladesh. It lies in the delta of the Padma (Ganges [Ganga]) and Jamuna (Brahmaputra) rivers on the Kirtonkhola, an offshoot of the Arial Khan River. Incorporated as a municipality in 1876, it is a trade centre, most notably for rice, jute, and fish. I...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Barnsley-England
Barnsley
Barnsley Barnsley, town and metropolitan borough, metropolitan county of South Yorkshire, historic county of Yorkshire, northern England. The borough encompasses in addition to Barnsley a number of smaller towns, including Cudworth, Darton, Wombwell, and Penistone, and some open countryside, including a section of the...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Barnstable-Massachusetts
Barnstable
Barnstable Barnstable, in full Town of Barnstable, city, Barnstable county, southeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It is situated between Cape Cod Bay and Nantucket Sound, on the “biceps” of Cape Cod. It was settled in 1638 by farmers who were attracted to the site by salt hay found in the surrounding marshes, and in 1685 i...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Barrie
Barrie
Barrie Barrie, city, seat (1837) of Simcoe county, southeastern Ontario, Canada. It lies along Kempenfelt Bay, an arm of Lake Simcoe, 55 miles (90 km) north-northwest of Toronto. In 1812 a storehouse was probably built on the site, which during the War of 1812 was the landing and starting point of the Nine-Mile-Portag...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Barrio-Norte
Barrio Norte
Barrio Norte On the other hand, Barrio Norte, north of Plaza de Mayo, is an upscale area built during Argentina’s Gilded Age (the late 19th century). It is sometimes referred to as a miniature Paris. The area, which also encompasses the neighbourhoods of Palermo, Recoleta, and Retiro, was constructed around the…
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Barrow-in-Furness-England
Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness, port town and borough (district), administrative county of Cumbria, historic county of Lancashire, northwestern England. It lies on the seaward side of the Furness peninsula between the estuary of the River Duddon and Morecambe Bay. A narrow channel of the Irish Sea, now bridged, l...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Barrow-Island
Barrow Island
Barrow Island Barrow Island, Australian island in the Indian Ocean, 30 miles (50 km) off the northwest coast of Western Australia and 10 miles (16 km) southwest of the Montebello Islands. Measuring 12 by 5 miles (19 by 8 km), it has an area of 78 square miles (202 square km). It is geologically an extension of the Car...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Barry-Wales
Barry
Barry Barry, Welsh Y Barri, port town, Vale of Glamorgan county, historic county of Glamorgan (Morgannwg), southern Wales. It is situated on the Bristol Channel, just west of where the channel is met by the mouth of the River Severn estuary, and is the administrative centre of Vale of Glamorgan county. Barry has assoc...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Barstow
Barstow
Barstow Barstow, city, San Bernardino county, south-central California, U.S. Located in the Mojave Desert, the city lies at a junction of pioneer trails. It was founded in 1880 during a silver-mining rush and was first called Fishpond and then Waterman Junction. It was renamed in 1886 to honour William Barstow Strong,...
7a1aee5754d6f1e7aaff01c16ac36c4a
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bartlesville
Bartlesville
Bartlesville Bartlesville, city, seat (1907) of Washington county, northeastern Oklahoma, U.S., on the Caney River. It was settled in the 1870s around Jacob Bartles’s trading post. Growth was spurred by the discovery of oil in 1897 and the arrival of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in 1899. A replica of Okl...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bartow
Bartow
Bartow Bartow, city, seat (1861) of Polk county, central Florida, U.S. It lies near the Peace River and Lake Hancock, 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Lakeland. In 1851 the Readding Blount family built a stockade community known as Fort Blount on the site of an earlier settlement (Peas Creek). It was later named for Fran...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Basel-Stadt
Basel-Stadt
Basel-Stadt Basel-Stadt, (German), French Bâle-Ville, Halbkanton (demicanton), northern Switzerland, consisting of the city of Basel (q.v.) and two small villages north of the Rhine. Occupying an area of 14 square miles (37 square km), it was formed in 1833 by the division of Basel canton into two half cantons, or de...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Basin-and-Range-Province
Basin and Range Province
Basin and Range Province Basin and Range Province, arid physiographic province occupying much of the western and southwestern part of the United States. The region comprises almost all of Nevada, the western half of Utah, southeastern California, and the southern part of Arizona and extends into northwestern Mexico. ...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Basque-Country-region-Spain
Basque Country
Basque Country Basque Country, Spanish País Vasco, Basque Euskadi or Euskal Herria, comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) and historic region of northern Spain encompassing the provincias (provinces) of Álava, Guipúzcoa, and Vizcaya (Biscay). The Basque Country is bounded by the Bay of Biscay to the north and the ...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bass-Strait
Bass Strait
Bass Strait Bass Strait, channel separating Victoria, Australia, from the island of Tasmania on the south. Its maximum width is 150 miles (240 km), and its depth is 180–240 feet (50–70 m). King Island and the Indian Ocean lie at its western extremity, and the Furneaux Group is at its eastern end. Banks Strait is the s...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Basse-Terre-Guadeloupe
Basse-Terre
Basse-Terre Basse-Terre, administrative capital of Guadeloupe (an overseas département of France), on the eastern Caribbean island of Basse-Terre. The town, dating from 1643, is situated on the southwestern coast of the island between the sea and the 4,813-foot (1,467-metre) peak of Soufrière and is some 4 miles (6 km...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Basseterre
Basseterre
Basseterre Basseterre, chief town of St. Kitts (St. Christopher) island and capital of St. Kitts and Nevis, a parliamentary federated state located in the eastern Caribbean. It lies on the island’s southwestern coast, 60 miles (100 km) west of St. John’s, Antigua. Founded in 1627 and rebuilt after being destroyed by f...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bata
Bata
Bata Bata, port, northwestern Equatorial Guinea, West Africa, lying on the Gulf of Guinea 18 miles (29 km) north of the Río Mbini. One of the deepest seaports in the region, Bata serves as one of the country’s main ports. Because Bata has no natural harbour, a jetty was built to facilitate offshore handling of ships’ ...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bataclan
Bataclan
Bataclan …being carried out at the Bataclan, a historic theatre and concert hall. The American rock band Eagles of Death Metal was playing to a sold-out crowd at the 1,500-capacity venue when three attackers burst in and fired on the audience. Some of the concertgoers were able to escape through a…
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Batangas
Batangas
Batangas Batangas, city, southern Luzon, Philippines. It lies in a small plain on the west bank of the Calumpang River about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the coast of Batangas Bay, which issues through straits ultimately into the South China Sea. The city is connected with Manila, about 70 miles (110 km) north, by good roads ...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Batavia-New-York
Batavia
Batavia Batavia, city, seat (1802) of Genesee county, northwestern New York, U.S. It lies along Tonawanda Creek, midway between Buffalo (west) and Rochester (northeast). Batavia is a distribution point and trade centre for a dairy and truck-farm region and has some industry, including the manufacture of heat-exchange ...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Batdambang
Bătdâmbâng
Bătdâmbâng Bătdâmbâng, also spelled Battambang, city, western Cambodia. It is the third largest urban area in Cambodia and lies along the Sângkê River northwest of Phnom Penh, the national capital. From 1794 to 1904 and again from 1941 to 1946 the town was under Siamese (Thai) sovereignty. Bătdâmbâng had a substantial...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bath-England
Bath
Bath Bath, city, unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset, historic county of Somerset, southwestern England. Bath lies astride the River Avon (Lower, or Bristol, Avon) in a natural arena of steep hills. It was built of local limestone and is one of the most elegant and architecturally distinguished of Britis...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bath-Maine
Bath
Bath Bath, city, port of entry (since 1789), seat (1854) of Sagadahoc county, southwestern Maine, U.S. The city lies along the Kennebec River near its mouth on the Atlantic coast, 36 miles (58 km) northeast of Portland. Settled about 1670 and named for the English city, it was part of Georgetown until incorporated as ...
7398a78a0b5fa0fecf56f3dbc1f9c2c6
https://www.britannica.com/place/Baths-of-Diocletian
Baths of Diocletian
Baths of Diocletian …is a portion of the Baths of Diocletian (c. 298–306) with a span of 26 metres (85 feet); it was converted into the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli by Michelangelo in the 16th century. The other is the Basilica of Constantine (307–312 ce), also with a span of 26… The ancient Baths of Diocletian (...
701aabd95b4bb5da3a5448a9976e4c32
https://www.britannica.com/place/Batman-Turkey
Batman
Batman Batman, town, southeastern Turkey, in the centre of the country’s oil-producing region. It is located about 5 miles (8 km) west of the town of Siirt and lies in a region of broad plateaus. A government-owned refinery is located at Batman, and a pipeline extends for nearly 320 miles (515 km) from the oil fields ...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Baton-Rouge
Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge Baton Rouge, city, capital of Louisiana, U.S., and seat (1811) of East Baton Rouge parish. Baton Rouge is a port situated at the head of deepwater navigation on the Mississippi River, in the southeast-central part of the state. The French-Canadian explorer Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville visited the area in 16...
56acc86128555f04cfad7f2e2a182466
https://www.britannica.com/place/Battersea
Battersea
Battersea Battersea, area on the south bank of the River Thames in the London borough of Wandsworth. It is known for its riverside park and its (now defunct) power station; in the mid-18th century it was the production site of Battersea enamelware. The area was settled in the Iron Age, as evidenced by excavated object...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Battle-Creek
Battle Creek
Battle Creek Battle Creek, city, Calhoun county, south-central Michigan, U.S. It lies at the juncture of Battle Creek with the Kalamazoo River, about 20 miles (30 km) east of Kalamazoo and about 45 miles (70 km) southwest of Lansing. Settled in 1831 and named in 1834 for a “battle” that had taken place on the riverban...
f13f20dc0d0d7f6e97b65fa4cb6b9e66
https://www.britannica.com/place/Batu-Caves
Batu Caves
Batu Caves Batu Caves, complex of limestone grottoes in Peninsular Malaysia. The caves are one of the country’s biggest tourist attractions and are a place of pilgrimage for Tamil Hindus. They are named for the Sungai Batu (Batu River), which flows nearby, and are located 7 miles (13 km) north of Kuala Lumpur, the ca...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Batu-Islands
Batu Islands
Batu Islands Batu Islands, Indonesian Kepulauan Batu, Dutch Batoe Eilanden, group of three major islands and 48 islets off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Administratively, they are part of North Sumatra (Sumatera Utara) propinsi (province). The three largest islands are Pini, Tanahmasa, and Tanahbala; the total...
b665e42f511f5dd0049b484f20ad354b
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bauchi-Nigeria
Bauchi
Bauchi Bauchi, town, capital of Bauchi state and traditional emirate, northeastern Nigeria. Bauchi town lies on the railroad from Maiduguri to Kafanchan (where it joins the line to Port Harcourt) and has road connections to Jos, Kano, and Maiduguri. The emirate was founded (1800–10) by Yakubu, one of Sheikh Usman dan ...
5d5c4b5c14a93650715d197782fa4b4e
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria Bavaria, German Bayern, largest Land (state) of Germany, comprising the entire southeastern portion of the country. Bavaria is bounded to the north by the states of Thuringia and Saxony, to the east by the Czech Republic, to the south and southeast by Austria, and to the west by the states of Baden-Württemberg...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bay-of-Baku
Bay of Baku
Bay of Baku …wide curving sweep of the Bay of Baku. The bay, sheltered by the islands of the Baku Archipelago, provides the best harbour of the Caspian, while the Abşeron Peninsula gives protection from violent northerly winds. The name Baku is possibly a contraction of the Persian bad kube (“blown upon by…
9ef8bbe6ac365454b1806f2417b0c360
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bay-of-Bengal
Bay of Bengal
Bay of Bengal Bay of Bengal, large but relatively shallow embayment of the northeastern Indian Ocean, occupying an area of about 839,000 square miles (2,173,000 square km). It lies roughly between latitudes 5° and 22° N and longitudes 80° and 90° E. It is bordered by Sri Lanka and India to the west, Bangladesh to the ...
56df84a18f1279e45cafd41dc4fd183c
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bay-of-Biscay
Bay of Biscay
Bay of Biscay Bay of Biscay, Spanish Golfo De Vizcaya, French Golfe De Gascogne, wide inlet of the North Atlantic Ocean indenting the coast of western Europe. Forming a roughly triangular body with an area of about 86,000 square miles (223,000 square km), it is bounded on the east by the west coast of France and on th...
8238eb3b131684ca2cc57373fdb84a63
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bay-of-Cadiz
Bay of Cádiz
Bay of Cádiz Bay of Cádiz, Spanish Bahía de Cádiz, small inlet of the Gulf of Cádiz on the North Atlantic Ocean. It is 7 miles (11 km) long and up to 5 miles (8 km) wide, indenting the coast of Cádiz province, in southwestern Spain. It receives the Guadalete River and is partially protected by the narrow Isle of León,...
d8087bd3e819edb3fc6190ae8f863f2a
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bay-of-Naples
Bay of Naples
Bay of Naples Bay of Naples, Italian Golfo Di Napoli, Latin Sinus Cumanus, semicircular inlet of the Tyrrhenian Sea (an arm of the Mediterranean Sea), southwest of the city of Naples, southern Italy. It is 10 miles (16 km) wide and extends southeastward for 20 miles (32 km) from Cape Miseno to Campanella Point. The ba...
dd3edf59ae886a9643242bfc53235584
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bayeux-Cathedral
Bayeux Cathedral
Bayeux Cathedral Its Gothic cathedral, mainly 13th century, has an 11th-century crypt. The Bishop’s Palace (11th–14th century) now serves as the hôtel de ville, law courts, and art gallery. The renowned Bayeux Tapestry, telling the story of the Norman Conquest of England, is displayed in the palace in the… …decorate th...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bayonne-France
Bayonne
Bayonne Bayonne, town, Pyrénées-Atlantiques département, Nouvelle-Aquitaine région, southwestern France, at the confluence of the Nive with the Adour River, 5 miles (8 km) from its mouth. With Biarritz, the noted Atlantic resort, it forms an extended built-up area. As Lapurdum, it was the chief port of Roman Novempopu...
8b2c9fcb0f86095092b45ef763166446
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bayonne-New-Jersey
Bayonne
Bayonne Bayonne, city, Hudson county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S., on a 3-mile (5-km) peninsula between Newark and Upper New York bays, adjacent to Jersey City, New Jersey, and within the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Bayonne is connected with Staten Island, New York City (south), by a bridge over Kill ...
822bfc68d6ff2c7ccb74fff7379c7177
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bayswater
Bayswater
Bayswater Bayswater, neighbourhood in the Paddington district of Westminster, London. It lies west of Edgware Road and north of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. The name Bayswater is a derivation of Bayards Watering Place, which was first recorded in 1380. The area was largely rural and isolated until the 1830s, when...
c2f873b4a1a3301e42ef77a7e733b62a
https://www.britannica.com/place/Beachy-Head
Beachy Head
Beachy Head Beachy Head, prominent headland on the English Channel coast in the administrative county of East Sussex, historic county of Sussex, England, in the borough of Eastbourne. Its chalk cliffs, more than 500 ft (150 m) high, represent the seaward extension of the South Downs. The cliffs face southward and are ...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Beaugency
Beaugency
Beaugency Beaugency, town, Loiret département, Centre région, north-central France. It lies on the right bank of the Loire River. The lords of Beaugency were powerful from the 11th to the 13th century. The first council of Beaugency (1104) excommunicated Philip I, who had repudiated his queen and abducted and married ...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Beaujolais-ancient-province-France
Beaujolais
Beaujolais Beaujolais, ancient province of France, of which Beaujeu and Villefranche were successively the capital and which corresponded in area to much of the modern département of Rhône, with a small portion of Loire. Crossed by the mountains of Beaujolais (Monts du Beaujolais) and bounded on the east by the Saône...
d3fb25f217b3b575d84a9732d800ee67
https://www.britannica.com/place/Beautiful-Indonesia-in-Miniature-Park
Beautiful Indonesia in Miniature Park
Beautiful Indonesia in Miniature Park The Beautiful Indonesia in Miniature Park (Taman Mini Indonesia Indah; “Taman Mini”), in Jakarta, is a “living museum” that highlights the current diversity of Indonesia’s peoples and lifestyles. The park contains furnished and decorated replicas of houses of various ethnic groups ...
e7d27a2ebd6adfc1dd66c4b3c3d53868
https://www.britannica.com/place/Beccles
Beccles
Beccles Beccles, town (parish), Waveney district, administrative and historic county of Suffolk, eastern England, on the River Waveney. The land was given to St. Edmund’s Church at Bury about 956, and Beccles was established as a fishing village, responsible for supplying the Benedictine abbey in Bury with tens of tho...
154b05c79f407ccb510bba761d3ceda0
https://www.britannica.com/place/Beckley
Beckley
Beckley Beckley, city, seat (1850) of Raleigh county, southern West Virginia, U.S., approximately 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Charleston. The first settlement was established by Gen. Alfred Beckley in 1838, but the city’s growth dates from 1890, with the start of commercial shipments of smokeless coal from local min...
9ec38a52a097a58ff89b69b9e3d4f108
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bedford-Indiana
Bedford
Bedford Bedford, city, seat of Lawrence county, southern Indiana, U.S., 25 miles (40 km) south of Bloomington. Founded in 1825 as the county seat and named by Joseph Rawlins for his home county of Bedford, Tennessee, it developed with the discovery of oolitic limestone in the 1830s. Bedford limestone is a highly prize...
fdfc9036983e369db5538717e4c7b14d
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bedford-Massachusetts
Bedford
Bedford Bedford, town (township), Middlesex county, northeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies near the Concord River, just northwest of Boston. Settled in 1642, it developed around an Algonquian Indian trading post called the Shawsheen House. It was incorporated in 1729 and named for Bedford, England. The Bedford flag,...
dcd6861ae6a5364aed564856e5158bc0
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bedford-New-York
Bedford
Bedford Bedford, town (township), Westchester county, southeastern New York, U.S., north of White Plains, near the Connecticut state line. Bedford Village, the original settlement, was founded in 1680 by 22 farmers from Stamford, Connecticut, on a tract known as the hop ground that was purchased from Katonah and other...
de09199f1351a4a753394962cee6ee8b
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bedford-Pennsylvania
Bedford
Bedford Bedford, borough (town), seat (1771) of Bedford county, southern Pennsylvania, U.S., on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the Raystown Branch Juniata River, in the Allegheny Mountains, 38 miles (61 km) south of Altoona. A settlement made on the site about 1750 by John Wray (or Ray), a Scottish trader, was known as...
6f67807776c2df360e0fdaddc523c70b
https://www.britannica.com/place/Beersheba
Beersheba
Beersheba Beersheba, Hebrew Beʾer Shevaʿ, biblical town of southern Israel, now a city and the main centre of the Negev (ha-Negev) region. Beersheba is first mentioned as the site where Abraham, founder of the Jewish people, made a covenant with the Philistine king Abimelech of Gerar (Genesis 21). Isaac and Jacob, the...
04c41b789f415daf4284645a7c82f120
https://www.britannica.com/place/Beeston-and-Stapleford
Beeston and Stapleford
Beeston and Stapleford Beeston and Stapleford, urban area (from 2011 built-up area), Broxtowe borough, administrative and historic county of Nottinghamshire, central England. The community developed during the 19th century as a result of its proximity to the coal measures of western Nottinghamshire and the railways th...
a2da6f3bf3ad3fa42e200a6f3bf67b58
https://www.britannica.com/place/Beijing-Zoo
Peking Zoological Garden
Peking Zoological Garden Peking Zoological Garden, also called Peking Zoo, zoological garden on the western outskirts of Peking, founded in 1906 by the empress dowager Tz’u-hsi. The zoo is managed by the Peking Office of Parks and Forestry, financed with government funds, and noted for its collection of rare Asian spe...
c3940ddeea6b9d30b4a58815c3fbaaf6
https://www.britannica.com/place/Beira-historical-province-Portugal
Beira
Beira Beira, former principality and historical province, north-central Portugal, extending from the banks of the Douro River in the north to the upper course of the Tagus in the southeast and from the Spanish frontier in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. The region was reconquered from the Moors in the 8th ...
dc4ea5d58f3a710c0d84edb5c29be2c5
https://www.britannica.com/place/Beira-Mozambique
Beira
Beira Beira, port city, central Mozambique. Beira is situated on the Mozambique Channel (Indian Ocean) at the mouths of the Púngoè and Búzi rivers. Beira was founded in 1891 as the headquarters of the Companhia de Moçambique (“Mozambique Company”) on the site of an old Muslim settlement. The city’s administration pass...
c584073f3edbc823b7962a45c9caf034
https://www.britannica.com/place/Beirut/Economic-and-political-conditions
Economic and political conditions
Economic and political conditions Between 1952 and 1975 Beirut was the hub of economic, social, intellectual, and cultural life in the Arab Middle East. In an area dominated by authoritarian or militarist regimes, the Lebanese capital was generally regarded as a haven of liberalism, though a precarious one. With its se...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Beit-Bridge-Zimbabwe
Beit Bridge
Beit Bridge Beit Bridge, also spelled Beitbridge, town, southern Zimbabwe. It lies near the bridge across the Limpopo River named for Alfred Beit, a British South African financier. The bridge is situated on the border with Limpopo province, South Africa, opposite Musina and is a port of entry and a customs and immigr...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Belarus/Government-and-society
Government and society
Government and society A new constitution that characterized the republic as a “democratic, social state” and guaranteed a broad range of rights and freedoms entered into force in Belarus in March 1994. It was based on the separation of legislative, executive, and judicial powers. Under the 1994 constitution, deputies ...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Belarus/People
People
People Ethnic Belarusians make up about four-fifths of the country’s population. Russians, many of whom migrated to the Belorussian S.S.R. in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, form the second largest ethnic group, accounting for roughly one-tenth of the population. Most of the remainder are Poles and Ukrainians, with much sma...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Belfort
Belfort
Belfort Belfort, town, capital of the Territoire de Belfort, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté région, eastern France, on the Savoureuse River, southwest of Mulhouse. Inhabited in Gallo-Roman times, Belfort was first recorded in the 13th century as a possession of the counts of Montbéliard, who granted it a charter in 1307. Pas...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Belgium
Belgium
Belgium Belgium, country of northwestern Europe. It is one of the smallest and most densely populated European countries, and it has been, since its independence in 1830, a representative democracy headed by a hereditary constitutional monarch. Initially, Belgium had a unitary form of government. In the 1980s and ’90s...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Belgium/Cultural-life
Cultural life
Cultural life Belgium’s long and rich cultural and artistic heritage is epitomized in the paintings of Pieter Bruegel, the Elder, Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling, Dieric Bouts, Peter Paul Rubens, René Magritte, and Paul Delvaux (see also Flemish art); in the music of Josquin des Prez, Orlando di Lasso, Peter Benoit, and Cés...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Belgium/Federalized-Belgium
Federalized Belgium
Federalized Belgium After tensions led to the division of the still bilingual University of Louvain into a Flemish-speaking campus on Flemish territory and a French-speaking campus on Walloon territory in 1969–70, a slow but definitive process of federalization got under way. The parliament accorded cultural autonomy t...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Belgium/Finance
Finance
Finance The economic importance of the financial sector has increased significantly since the 1960s. Numerous Belgian and foreign banks operate in the country, particularly in Brussels. The National Bank, the central bank of Belgium, works to ensure national financial security, issues currency, and provides financial s...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Belgium/The-Austrian-Netherlands
The Austrian Netherlands
The Austrian Netherlands In 1700 the Spanish Habsburg dynasty died out with Charles II, and a new conflict with France arose. By the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), ending the War of the Spanish Succession, the territory comprising present-day Belgium and Luxembourg (the independent principality of Liège not included) passed...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Belize/The-arts
The arts
The arts The music to which Belizeans listen largely reflects the traditions of their ethnic group, though recorded music from the Caribbean and the United States is widely enjoyed by young people. One hybrid musical form, “punta rock,” blends Caribbean soca, calypso, and reggae styles with merengue, salsa, and hip-hop...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bellinzona
Bellinzona
Bellinzona Bellinzona, capital of Ticino canton, southern Switzerland, on the Ticino River, at the junction of roads to the St. Gotthard, Lukmanier, and San Bernardino passes, east of Locarno. Possibly of Roman origin, it was first mentioned in ad 590 and played a considerable part in the early history of Lombardy bec...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Belmopan
Belmopan
Belmopan Belmopan, capital of Belize. It is located near the town of Roaring Creek, in the Belize River valley 50 miles (80 km) inland from Belize City, the former capital on the Caribbean coast. The new capital was conceived after Hurricane Hattie and an associated tidal wave did extensive damage to Belize City in 19...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Belovezhskaya-Forest
Belovezhskaya Forest
Belovezhskaya Forest Belovezhskaya Forest, also called Belovezh Forest and Białowieża Forest, Belarusian Byelavyezhskaya Pushcha, Polish Puszcza Białowieska, forest in western Belarus and eastern Poland. One of the largest surviving areas of primeval mixed forest (pine, beech, oak, alder, and spruce) in Europe, it occ...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Ben-Tre
Ben Tre
Ben Tre Ben Tre, formerly True Giang, city on the flat Mekong River delta, southern Vietnam. Ben Tre is linked by highway and ferry boat to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) 53 miles (85 km) to the northeast. It is served by a commercial airfield and functions as a link on the My Tho-Phu Vinh river-canal system. The ...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Beni-Democratic-Republic-of-the-Congo
Beni
Beni …epicentre of the outbreak was Beni, a town that was also the site of violent attacks and protests in a conflict between armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The complexity of the situation in Beni raised significant challenges for health response teams that were mobilized to bring…
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Beni-department-Bolivia
Beni
Beni …parts of the department of Beni. Unlike other Indians of the Chiquitos-Moxos region, the Sirionó are linguistically Tupians (q.v.) who long ago became separated from the main group of Tupian-speakers through migration; their traditional seminomadic culture was less complex than those of their neighbours. Early ef...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Benin
Benin
Benin Benin, officially Republic of Benin, French République du Bénin, formerly (until 1975) Dahomey or (1975–90) People’s Republic of Benin, country of western Africa. It consists of a narrow wedge of territory extending northward for about 420 miles (675 kilometres) from the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean, on ...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Benin-historical-kingdom-West-Africa
Benin
Benin Benin, one of the principal historic kingdoms of the western African forest region (fl. 13th–19th century). Tradition asserts that the Edo people became dissatisfied with the rule of a dynasty of semimythical kings, the ogisos, and in the 13th century they invited Prince Oranmiyan of Ife to rule them. His son Ew...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bennington-Vermont
Bennington
Bennington Bennington, town (township), one of the seats of Bennington county (the other is Manchester Village), in the southwest corner of Vermont, U.S., on the Walloomsac River between the Taconic Range and the Green Mountains. It includes the villages of Old Bennington, Bennington, and North Bennington. The site, c...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Benton-Arkansas
Benton
Benton Benton, city, seat (1835) of Saline county, central Arkansas, U.S. It lies along the Saline River, 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Little Rock. The site, on the old Military Road (a main Missouri-Texas route), was settled about 1815 and originally called Saline. The community was later renamed in honour of Missou...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Berbera
Berbera
Berbera Berbera, port, northwestern Somalia, on the Gulf of Aden; it is also under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Somaliland (a self-declared independent state without international recognition that falls within the recognized borders of Somalia) and serves as Somaliland’s primary port. Berbera lies at the termin...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Berchtesgaden
Berchtesgaden
Berchtesgaden Berchtesgaden, town, Bavaria Land (state), southern Germany. It is situated on the Berchtesgaden Stream in a deep valley surrounded on three sides by Austrian territory, just north of Berchtesgaden National Park. The opening of its salt mines in the 12th century was the beginning of many centuries of bit...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Berdychiv
Berdychiv
Berdychiv Berdychiv, Russian Berdichev, city, northwestern Ukraine. Founded in 1482 as a Lithuanian fortress, Berdychiv was Polish from 1569 until 1793. The 16th-century fortress walls survive, as does the Roman Catholic church in which the French novelist Honoré de Balzac married Eveline Hanska, a wealthy Polish wido...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Berea-Kentucky
Berea
Berea Berea, city, Madison county, central Kentucky, U.S., near the Cumberland Mountains, 14 miles (23 km) south of Richmond. The history of the city is centred on Berea College, founded by abolitionists in 1855 and one of the most highly regarded private colleges in the South. The school gives each student a full-tui...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bergen-county-New-Jersey
Bergen
Bergen Bergen, county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S., bordered by New York state to the north and east, the Hudson River constituting the eastern boundary. Its topography consists of a hilly piedmont region that rises to the Watchung Mountains in the west and includes the Palisades, sheer sandstone bluffs along the ed...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bering-Canyon
Bering Canyon
Bering Canyon Bering Canyon, submarine canyon in the Bering Sea that is about 250 miles (400 km) long—possibly the longest submarine canyon in the world. The canyon head is situated at the edge of the continental shelf north of Umnak Island in the Aleutians. Its upper half is fed by a number of tributary valleys and t...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Berkhamsted
Berkhamsted
Berkhamsted Berkhamsted, town (parish), Dacorum borough, administrative and historic county of Hertfordshire, southeastern England, 28 miles (45 km) northwest of London. It lies on an old coaching route along the valley of the River Bulbourne of the Chiltern Hills, which now contains modern road, rail, and canal route...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Berkshire-county-England
Berkshire
Berkshire Berkshire, geographic and ceremonial county of southern England. The geographic county occupies the valleys of the middle Thames and its tributary, the Kennet, immediately to the west of London. It is divided into six unitary authorities: Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenh...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Berlin/Berlin-divided
Berlin divided
Berlin divided Greater Berlin was created in 1920 by fusing 7 districts, 59 country communities, and 27 landed estates into a single association. Twenty resultant districts (now 12) became integral parts of metropolitan Berlin but still remained largely autonomous. At the end of World War II the Soviet Union took eight...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bernburg
Bernburg
Bernburg Bernburg, city, Saxony-Anhalt Land (state), central Germany, on the Saale River at the mouth of the Wipper River, south of Magdeburg. First mentioned in 961, it was important in the Middle Ages for its position on an old trade route. Its castle, probably dating from the 10th century and later converted into a...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bernina-Alps
Bernina Alps
Bernina Alps Bernina Alps, part of the Rhaetian Alps in eastern Switzerland along the Italian border, lying southeast of the Engadin (valley of the Upper Inn River). The scenic range rises to Bernina Peak (13,284 feet [4,049 m]), which was first ascended in 1850 by the Swiss climber Johann Coaz. Bernina Pass (7,638 fe...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Berry-historical-region-France
Berry
Berry Berry, historical and cultural region encompassing the Indre and Cher départements in the Centre région of central France. It is coextensive with the former province of Berry, which included the départements of Cher (roughly corresponding to Upper Berry) and Indre (Lower Berry). The home of a people called the B...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Betelgeuse-star
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse Betelgeuse, also called Alpha Orionis, second brightest star in the constellation Orion, marking the eastern shoulder of the hunter. Its name is derived from the Arabic word bat al-jawzāʾ, which means “the giant’s shoulder.” Betelgeuse is one of the most luminous stars in the night sky. It is a variable st...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bethesda-Chevy-Chase
Bethesda–Chevy Chase
Bethesda–Chevy Chase Bethesda–Chevy Chase, northwestern suburban area of Washington, D.C., in Montgomery county, Maryland, U.S. It is not an incorporated entity but a group of communities (Bethesda and several associated with Chevy Chase) that prior to 1949 were governed by county commissioners and thereafter came mos...
fb250a7a6e36f49304896e8f613e9b74
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bethlehem-Pennsylvania
Bethlehem
Bethlehem Bethlehem, city, Northampton and Lehigh counties, eastern Pennsylvania, U.S. It lies on both sides of the Lehigh River and with Allentown and Easton forms an urban industrial complex. Founded in 1741 by Moravian missionaries, it received its name from a carol about Jesus Christ’s traditional birthplace, sung...
0433d5910ee01541fa0e05ffd9fe92d0
https://www.britannica.com/place/Bhopal-India
Bhopal
Bhopal Bhopal, city, capital of Madhya Pradesh state, central India. Situated in the fertile plain of the Malwa Plateau, the city lies just north of the Vindhya Range, along the slopes of a sandstone ridge. It is a major rail junction and has an airport. Pop. (2001) 1,437,354; (2011) 1,798,218. Bhopal was formerly a p...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Bhubaneshwar
Bhubaneshwar
Bhubaneshwar Bhubaneshwar, historically Bhuvaneshvara, city, capital of Odisha (Orissa) state, eastern India. It is situated in the eastern part of the state on the Kuakhai River, a constituent stream of the Mahanandi River delta. Bhubaneshwar’s history from the 3rd century bce is represented in the nearby Dhauligiri...