Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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alabaster ... Alava

alabaster: fine-grained, massive gypsum (q.v.) that has been used for centuries for statuary, carvings, and other ornaments. It normally is snow-white and translucent but can be artificially dyed; it may be made opaque and similar in appearance to marble by heat ...
Alabaster, William: English poet, mystic, and scholar in Latin and Hebrew, author of a Latin tragedy, Roxana (1597, published 1632), which the 18th-century critic Samuel Johnson thought was the finest Latin writing in England before John Milton's elegies.
alabastron: elongated, narrow-necked flask, used as a perfume or unguent container. The Greek alabastron has no handles but often lugs (ear-shaped projections), sometimes pierced with string holes. There are three types of classical alabastron: a basic Corinthian bulbous shape about 3 ...
Alaca Huyuk: ancient Anatolian site northeast of the old Hittite capital of Hattusa at Bogazkoy, north-central Turkey. Its excavation was begun by Makridi Bey in 1907 and resumed in 1935 by the Turkish Historical Society. Inside a sphinx gate, traces of a ...
Aladdin: hero of one of the best known stories in The Thousand and One Nights. The son of a deceased Chinese tailor and his poor widow, Aladdin is a lazy, careless boy who meets an African magician claiming to be his ...
Aladura: (Yoruba: "Owners of Prayer"), religious movement among the Yoruba peoples of western Nigeria, embracing some of the independent prophet-healing churches of West Africa. The movement, which in the early 1970s had several hundred thousand adherents, began about 1918 among the ...
Alagoas: estado ("state") of northeastern Brazil. It is the second smallest of Brazil's states and is an agricultural region in the early stages of industrialization. Situated on the northern bank of the Sao Francisco River, it is bounded ...
Alagoinhas: city, northeastern Bahia state, northeastern Brazil, lying 35 miles (56 km) inland from the Atlantic coast at 607 feet (185 metres) above sea level. It was elevated to city rank in 1880, and its municipality is the largest orange-producing region ...
Alain: French philosopher whose work profoundly influenced several generations of readers.
Alain de Lille: theologian and poet so celebrated for his varied learning that he was known as "the universal doctor."
Alain-Fournier: French writer whose only completed novel, Le Grand Meaulnes (1913; The Wanderer, 1928, or The Lost Domain, 1959), is a modern classic. Based on his happy childhood in a remote village in central France, it reflects his longing for a ...
Alajuela: city, northwestern Costa Rica. It lies on the central plateau at an altitude of 3,141 feet (957 metres). Known in colonial days as La Lajuela and Villahermosa, the town was active in support of independence from Spain in 1821; five ...
Alakol, Lake: salt lake in Kazakstan, 110 miles (180 km) east of Lake Balqash, near the border with the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang, China. Lake Alakol has a drainage basin of about 26,500 square miles (68,700 square km), an area of ...
Alalakh: ancient Syrian city in the Orontes (Asi) valley, southern Turkey. Excavations (1936-49) by Sir Leonard Woolley uncovered numerous impressive buildings, including a massive structure known as the palace of Yarim-Lim, dating from c. 1780 BC, when Alalakh was the chief ...
Alaman, Lucas: politician and historian, the leader of Mexican conservatives for nearly 30 years and the spokesman for a strong, centralized government that would support industrialization, educational expansion, and agricultural modernization. Living during a corrupt and brutal period of Mexican politics, he ...
Alameda: city, Alameda county, California, U.S. It lies on a 6.5-mile- (11-km-) long by 1-mile- (1.6-km-) wide island in San Francisco Bay, across the Oakland Harbor Channel from Oakland, with which it is connected by bridges and underground tunnels. The site ...
Alamein, El-: coastal town in northwestern Egypt, about 60 miles (100 km) west of Alexandria, that was the site of two major battles between British and Axis forces in 1942 during World War II. El-Alamein is the seaward (northern) end of a ...
Alamgir II: Mughal emperor of India who disgraced his reign (1754-59) by his weakness and his disregard for his subjects' welfare.
Alamo: 18th-century Franciscan mission in San Antonio, Texas, U.S., that was the site of a historic resistance effort by a small group of determined fighters for Texan independence (1836) from Mexico.
Alamogordo: city, seat (1899) of Otero county, southern New Mexico, U.S. It lies at the western base of the Sacramento Mountains and east of the Tularosa Basin. Founded by John A. and Charles B. Eddy in 1898 and named for its ...
Alamosa: city, seat (1913) of Alamosa county, southern Colorado, U.S. It lies along the Rio Grande in the San Luis Valley, on the western flank of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Founded as Garland City near the site of a small ...
Alanbrooke, Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount, Baron Alanbrooke of Brookeborough: British field marshal and chief of the Imperial General Staff during World War II.
Aland Islands: archipelago comprising Ahvenanmaan autonomous kunta (commune), southwestern Finland. The islands lie at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia, 25 miles (40 km) east of the Swedish coast, at the eastern edge of the Aland Sea. The archipelago has a ...
Alani: an ancient nomadic pastoral people that occupied the steppe region northeast of the Black Sea. The Alani were first mentioned in Roman literature in the 1st century AD and were described later as a warlike people that specialized in horse ...
alanine: either of two amino acids, one of which (alpha-alanine) is a constituent of proteins. An especially rich source of alpha-alanine is silk fibroin, from which the amino acid was first isolated in 1879. Alanine is one of several so-called nonessential ...
alapa: (Sanskrit: "conversation"), in the art music of India and Pakistan, improvised melody structured to reveal a raga and occurring principally in the introductory section of a performance. There the alapa is performed without rhythmic accompaniment and is free and rhapsodic ...
Alapayevsk: city, Sverdlovsk oblast (province), west-central Russia, on the Neyva River. It is one of the oldest centres of the iron and steel industry in the Urals (an ironworks was established there in 1704). It also has machine-tool, timbering, and metalworking ...
Alarcon y Ariza, Pedro Antonio de: writer remembered for his novel El sombrero de tres picos (1874; The Three-Cornered Hat).
Alarcos, Battle of: (July 18, 1195), celebrated Almohad victory in Muslim Spain over the forces of King Alfonso VIII of Castile. In 1190 the Almohad caliph Abu Yusuf Ya'qub forced an armistice on the Christian kings of Castile and Leon, after repulsing their ...
Alaric: chief of the Visigoths from 395 and leader of the army that sacked Rome in August 410, an event that symbolized the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Alaric II: king of the Visigoths, who succeeded his father Euric on Dec. 28, 484.
alarm signal: in zoology, a ritualized means of communicating a danger or threat among the members of an animal group. In many cases the signal is visual or vocal, but some animals-ants, bees, and certain fishes, for example-secrete chemical substances. Alarm communications ...
Alas, Leopoldo: novelist and the most influential literary critic of Spain in the late 19th century. His biting and often bellicose articles, sometimes called paliques ("chit-chat"), and his advocacy of naturalism and anticlericalism not only made him the nation's most feared critical ...
Alasehir: town, western Turkey. It lies in the Kuzu River valley, at the foot of the Boz Mountain. Founded about 150 BC by a king of Pergamum, it became an important town of the Byzantine Empire. It was not taken by ...
Alaska: constituent state of the United States of America. It lies at the extreme northwest of the North American continent and is the largest peninsula in the Western Hemisphere. Its 591,004 square miles (1,530,700 square km) include some 15,000 square miles ...
Alaska blackfish: (species Dallia pectoralis), Arctic freshwater fish, assigned by some authorities to the family Umbridae but by others to the separate family Dalliidae. The fish is about 20 cm (8 inches) long, with a dark, streamlined body, protruding lower jaw, and ...
Alaska Current: surface oceanic current, a branch of the West Wind Drift that forms a counterclockwise gyre in the Gulf of Alaska. In contrast to typical sub-Arctic Pacific water, Alaska Current water is characterized by temperatures above 39° F (4° C) and ...
Alaska Highway: road (1,523 miles [2,451 km] long) through the Yukon, connecting Dawson Creek, B.C., with Fairbanks, Alaska. It was previously called the Alaskan International Highway, the Alaska Military Highway, and the Alcan (Alaska-Canadian) Highway. It was constructed by U.S. Army engineers ...
Alaska Peninsula: stretch of land extending southwest from mainland Alaska, U.S. It spreads for 500 miles (800 km) between the Pacific Ocean (southeast) and Bristol Bay, an arm of the Bering Sea. The volcanic Aleutian Range runs along its entire length; the ...
Alaska Purchase: (1867), acquisition by the United States from Russia of 586,412 square miles (1,518,800 square km) of land at the northwestern tip of the North American continent.
Alaska Range: segment of the Pacific mountain system that extends generally northward and eastward in an arc for about 400 miles (650 km) from the Aleutian Range to the Yukon boundary in southern Alaska, U.S. Mount McKinley, which reaches an elevation of ...
Alaska, Gulf of: broad inlet of the North Pacific on the south coast of Alaska, U.S. Bounded by the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island (west) and Cape Spencer (east), it has a surface area of 592,000 square miles (1,533,000 square km). The coast ...
Alaska, University of: system of public land-, sea-, and space-grant universities in Alaska, U.S., with campuses (regional university centres) in Fairbanks (main campus), Anchorage, and Juneau (known as the University of Alaska Southeast). The university traces its origins to 1917, two years after ...
Alaskan brown bear: race or subspecies of grizzly bear (q.v.).
Alaskan Malamute: sled dog developed by the Malemiut, an Eskimo group from which it takes its name. The Alaskan Malamute is a strongly built dog, with a broad head, erect ears, and a plumelike tail carried over its back. Its thick coat ...
Alaskan mountains: three principal mountain groups-the Brooks Range, Alaska Range, and Aleutian Range-found in Alaska.
Alastor: any of certain avenging deities or spirits, especially in Greek antiquity. The term is associated with Nemesis, the goddess of divine retribution who signified the gods' disapproval of human presumption. Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude ...
Alatri: town, Frosinone provincia, Lazio (Latium) regione, central Italy. It lies in the Cosa River valley, at 1,647 feet (502 m) above sea level, just north of Frosinone city. Said to have been founded in 1830 BC as Alatrium (mentioned by ...
Alaungpaya: king (1752-60) who unified Myanmar (Burma) and founded the Alaungpaya, or Konbaung, dynasty, which held power until the British annexed Upper (northern) Burma on Jan. 1, 1886. He also conquered the independent Mon kingdom of Pegu (in the Irrawaddy River ...
Alaungpaya Dynasty: the last ruling dynasty (1752-1885) of Myanmar (Burma). The dynasty's collapse in the face of British imperial might marked the end of Myanmar sovereignty for more than 60 years. (Some authorities limit the name Konbaung dynasty to the period beginning ...
Alava: provincia, northern Spain. Alava is the southernmost of the three Basque Country provincias of northern Spain and is located mainly on the southern slope of the Pyrenees Range. It is bounded by the Ebro River (southwest) and surrounds the enclaves ...