Encyclopaedia

The Maurya period (c. 321–185 BC) The state of Indian architecture in the period between the Indus Valley civilization and the rise of the Maurya Empire is largely unknown since most work was done in such perishable material as wood or brick. Excavations at Rājgīr, Kauśāmbī, and other sites, however, testify to the existence of fortified cities with stūpas, monasteries, and temples of the type found at the later Maurya sites of Nagarī and Vidiśā; and there is evidence of the use of dressed stone in a palace excavated at Kauśāmbī. Considering the power of the Maurya Empire and the extensive territory it controlled, the architectural remains are remarkably few. The most important are stūpas (later enlarged) such as a famous example of Sānchi ; the ruins of a hall excavated at the site of Kumrāhar in Patna (ancient Pāṭaliputra), the capital city; and a series of rock-cut caves in the Barābar and Nāgārjunī Ḥills near Gayā, which are interesting because they preserve in the more permanen...

shorebird belonging to the family Glareolidae (order Charadriiformes ). The crocodile bird is a plover-like courser that derives its name from its frequent association with the Nile crocodile, from whose hide it picks parasites for food. By their cries, the birds also serve to warn crocodiles of approaching danger. They are also called black-backed coursers .

Birds-of-paradise occur in New Guinea highlands and on nearby islands; species called manucodes and riflebirds are found also in Australia. The largest manucode is the 45-centimetre (17 1/2-inch) curl-crested manucode (Manucodia comrii). The trumpetbird (Phonygammus keraudrenii) is 25 to 32 cm (10 to 12 1/2 in.) long and has head tufts as well as pointed neck feathers. It is named for the male's loud call. Others having special names include sicklebills and standardwings. Among the most notable birds-of-paradise are the plumebirds—the seven species of Paradisaea, 29 to 46 cm (11 1/2 to 18 in.) long. Their central tail feathers are elongated as wires or twisted narrow ribbons, and their filmy flank plumes can be raised and brought forward over the back, hiding the wings. The greater bird-of-paradise (P. apoda) has been introduced into the island of Little Tobago, in Trinidad and Tobago off the coast of Venezuela. The 12-wired bird-of-paradise (Seleucidis melanoleuca, sometimes S....

Arabic Al-Baḥr al-Mayyit , Hebrew Yam HaMelaẖ , also known as Salt Sea landlocked salt lake between Israel and Jordan, which lies some 1,300 feet (400 metres) below sea level—the lowest elevation and the lowest body of water on the surface of the Earth. Its eastern shore belongs to Jordan, and the southern half of its western shore belongs to Israel. The northern half of the western shore lies within the Palestinian West Bank and has been under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The Dead Sea lies between the hills of Judaea to the west and the Transjordanian plateaus to the east. The Jordan River flows from the north into the Dead Sea, which is 50 miles (80 km) long and attains a width of 11 miles (18 km). Its surface area is about 394 square miles (1,020 square km). The peninsula of Al-Lisān (Arabic: “The Tongue”) divides the lake on its eastern side into two unequal basins: the northern basin encompasses about three-fourths of the lake's total surface are...

Sometime in the first half of the 2 ND millennium BC Aryan peoples from the northwest entered the Indian subcontinent and displaced the Indus Valley civilization of what is now Pakistan (see Indus Valley civilization). The language of the Aryans was Sanskrit, which eventually became the classic literary language of Hinduism, the leading religion of India. Since about 1400 BC India has had a continuous literature in Sanskrit, which still remains a sacred and learned language for Hindus. The impact of the early literature cannot be overestimated because it had such a powerful impact on later works. From about the 1st century AD there developed a literature in Tamil, which has also persisted in literary use until the present. Much later, from the 12 Th century on, literature's in several other languages appeared—in Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Punjabi , and Urdu, among others. And from the 11 Th century an extensive Islamic literature, primarily in Persian and Urdu, developed as a...

Nostradamus began his medical practice in Agen in 1529 and moved to Salon in 1544, where he gained renown for his innovative medicine and treatment during outbreaks of the plague at Aix and Lyon in 1546–47. He began making prophecies about 1547, which he published in 1555 in a book entitled Centuries. The work consisted of rhymed quatrains grouped in hundreds, each set of 100 called a century. Astrology was then at a peak, and an enlarged second edition, dedicated to the French king, appeared in 1558. Some of his prophecies appeared to be fulfilled, and his fame became so widespread that he was invited to the court of Catherine de Médicis, queen consort of Henry II of France, where he cast the horoscopes of her children. He was appointed physician-in-ordinary by Charles IX when Charles became king in 1560. The subject of many commentaries, Nostradamus' prophecies were condemned in 1781 by the Congregation of the Index, the body set up by the Roman Catholic church for the examinati...

Introduction fifth in size among the world's continents. Its landmass is almost wholly covered by a vast ice sheet. Lying almost concentrically around the South Pole, Antarctica—the name of which means “opposite to the Arctic”—is the southernmost continent, a circumstance that has had momentous consequences for all aspects of its character. It covers about 5.5 million square miles (14.2 million square km), and would be essentially circular except for the outflaring Antarctic Peninsula, which reaches toward the southern tip of South America (some 600 miles [970 km] away), and for two principal embayments, the Ross Sea and the Weddell Sea. These deep embayments of the southernmost Pacific and Atlantic oceans make the continent somewhat pear-shaped, dividing it into two unequal-sized parts. The larger is generally known as East Antarctica because most of it lies in east longitudes. The smaller, wholly in west longitudes, is generally called West Antarctica. East and West Antarctica a...