city in northern Honan sheng (province), China. Until 1955 it was the provincial capital (now transferred to Cheng-chou). K'ai-feng is situated in the southern section of the North China Plain, to the south of the Huang Ho (Yellow River), in ...
member of a former religious community in Honan province, China, whose adoption of Judaism and careful observance of its precepts over many centuries has long intrigued scholars. Matteo Ricci, the famous Jesuit missionary, was apparently the first Westerner to learn ...
city in southern Yunnan sheng (province), China. K'ai-yuan is the natural transport centre for a mining district that has developed rapidly in the 20th century. K'ai-yuan was a small village until the completion in 1910 of the railway from the ...
Chinese scholar, a leader of the Reform Movement of 1898 and a key figure in the intellectual development of modern China. During the last years of the empire and the early years of the republic he sought to promote Confucianism ...
second emperor of the Ch'ing dynasty (reigning 1661-1722). To the Chinese empire he added parts of Russia and Outer Mongolia and extended control over Tibet. He opened four ports to foreign trade and encouraged the introduction of Western education and ...
town in western Szechwan sheng (province), China. K'ang-ting is on the T'o River, a tributary of the Ta-tu River, 62 miles (100 km) west of Ya-an on the main route from Szechwan into the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Lying at an ...
Chinese silk tapestry woven in a pictorial design. The designation k'o-ssu, which means "cut silk," derives from the visual illusion of cut threads that is created by distinct, unblended areas of colour.
Taoist who organized many of the ceremonies and rites of the Taoist cult and reformulated its theology. His influence was such that he had Taoism established as the official state religion of the Northern Wei dynasty (386-534/535); this act, however, ...
city in east-central Yunnan sheng (province), China. K'un-ming is the provincial capital of Yunnan. Situated in a fertile lake basin on the northern shore of the Tien Lake and surrounded by mountains to the north, west, and east, K'un-ming has ...
knight commander of the British Empire, member of the second highest class of a British order of knighthood. See British Empire, The Most Excellent Order of the.
knight commander of the Bath, member of the second highest rank of knightly class in a British order of knighthood. See Bath, The Most Honourable Order of the.
knight commander of St. Michael and St. George, member of the second highest rank of a British order of knighthood. See Saint Michael and Saint George, The Most Distinguished Order of.
the world's second highest peak (28,251 feet [8,611 m]), second only to Mount Everest. K2 forms part of the Karakoram Range (Himalayas) and lies partly in China and partly on the western side of the Indian-Pakistani line of control in ...
in ancient Egyptian religion, with ba and akh, a principal aspect of the soul of a human being or of a god. The exact significance of ka remains a matter of controversy, chiefly for lack of an Egyptian definition; the ...
small shrine located near the centre of the Great Mosque in Mecca and considered by Muslims everywhere to be the most sacred spot on Earth. Muslims orient themselves toward this shrine during the five daily prayers, bury their dead facing ...
group of eight meteorite craters on Saaremaa Island in the Baltic Sea, 12 miles (20 km) northeast of Kingisepp, Estonia. The largest is 333 feet (110 m) in diameter, with a rim 20-23 feet (6-7 m) above the surrounding land. ...
nomadic Arab people of the desert scrub of northern Kordofan region, Sudan, numbering about 70,000. Of mixed origins, they have been described as a loose tribal confederation whose composition, since the time of the Turkish occupation in 1821, has undergone ...
(Japanese: "family name"), hereditary title that denoted the duty and social rank of an individual within the Japanese sociopolitical structure from the late 5th to the late 7th century. Titles, or kabane, included the categories omi, muraji, tomo no miyatsuko, ...
language spoken in Kabardino-Balkaria republic, in southwestern Russia, in the northern Caucasus. It is related to the Abkhaz, Abaza, Adyghian, and Ubykh languages, which constitute the Abkhazo-Adyghian, or Northwest Caucasian, language group. These languages are noted for the great number ...
republic in southwestern Russia, on the northern flank of the Greater Caucasus range. It is divided into three main relief regions. In the south is the Greater Caucasus, the crest of which forms the boundary. Four mountain ranges-Glavny, Peredovoy, Skalisty, ...
waterfall on the lower Victoria Nile River in northwestern Uganda, 20 miles (32 km) east of Lake Albert. The Victoria Nile passes through many miles of rapids before narrowing to a width of about 20 feet (6 m) and dropping ...
town, Kogi state, south-central Nigeria, in the Yoruba Hills (elevation 1,300 feet [400 m]). It lies near the Osse River, at the intersection of roads from Lokoja, Okene, Ikare, Ado-Ekiti, and Egbe. Kabba is a trade centre for the yams, ...
esoteric Jewish mysticism as it appeared in the 12th and following centuries. Kabbala has always been essentially an oral tradition in that initiation into its doctrines and practices is conducted by a personal guide to avoid the dangers inherent in ...
historical village of the Lofoten island group, Nordland fylke (county), northern Norway. It is on the southern shore of Austvagoya island, just southwest of Svolvaer, chief town of the Lofoten. Kabelvag was founded as Vagan in the early 12th century ...
leader of a rebellion that overthrew President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire in May 1997. He subsequently became president and restored the country's former name, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Indian mystic and poet who attempted to bridge or unite Hindu and Muslim thought and preached the essential unity of all religions and the essential equality of all men. He was a forerunner of Sikhism, established by his disciple Nanak.
traditional Japanese popular drama with singing and dancing performed in a highly stylized manner. A rich blend of music, dance, mime, and spectacular staging and costuming, it has been the chief theatrical form in Japan for almost four centuries. The ...
capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It lies along the Kabul River at an elevation of about 5,900 feet (1,800 metres) in the east-central part of the country. The nation's cultural and economic centre, the city lies in a triangular ...
river in eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan, 435 miles (700 km) long, of which 350 miles are in Afghanistan. Rising in the Sanglakh Range 45 miles west of Kabul city, it flows east past Kabul and Jalalabad, north of the ...
town, central Zambia. It is an important transportation and mining centre north of Lusaka on the Great North Road, at an elevation of 3,879 feet (1,182 m). The Rhodesian Broken Hill Development Company (formed 1903) was instrumental in opening the ...
fossilized skull of an extinct human species (genus Homo) found near the town of Kabwe, Zambia (formerly Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia), in 1921. It was the first discovered remains of premodern Homo in Africa and until the ...
Berber people of Algeria inhabiting a partially mountainous region stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the southern slopes of the Great Kabylie mountains and from Dellys to Cape Aokas. Numbering about 2,000,000 in the late 20th century, they are mainly ...
mountainous coastal region in northern Algeria, between Algiers and Skikda. It comprises: (1) the Great Kabylie (Grande Kabylie) or Djurdjura Mountains bounded on the west by the Isser River and on the southeast by the Wadi Soummam; (2) the Little ...
northeastern arm of the Arabian Sea, extending between the Rann of Kachchh (a salt waste) and the Kathiawar Peninsula of west-central India. Reaching eastward for some 110 miles (180 km), the gulf varies in width from 10 to 40 miles ...
saline mudflats, west-central India and southern Pakistan. The Great Rann covers an area of about 7,000 square miles (18,000 square km) and lies almost entirely within Gujarat state, India, along the border with Pakistan. The Little Rann of Kachchh extends ...
a culture found around the Kachemak Bay of the southern Kenai Peninsula in central southern Alaska. It is divided into three phases, the oldest of which may date back as far as the 8th century BC and the most recent ...
tribal peoples occupying parts of northeastern Myanmar (Burma) and contiguous areas of India (Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland) and China (Yunnan). The greatest number of Kachin live in Myanmar (roughly 590,000), but some 120,000 live in China and a few thousand ...
heavily forested group of highlands situated in the northeasternmost section of Myanmar (Burma). They range north-south and are bordered on the northwest by Arunachal Pradesh state of India, on the north by the Tibet autonomous region of China, and on ...
in Pueblo Indian religious practice, any of more than 500 divine ancestral spirits who act as intermediaries between man and god. Each tribe has its distinct forms and variations. Kachinas are believed to reside with the tribe for half of ...
small tribe of southern India residing along the hilly border between Cochin in the state of Kerala and Coimbatore in the state of Tamil Nadu. They appear Australoid and may be Negrito.
