Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Karachay-Cherkessia ... Kariba

Karachay-Cherkessia: republic, Stavropol kray (region), southwestern Russia. It extends south from the foreland plains across the northern ranges and deep intervening valleys and gorges of the Greater Caucasus range as far as the crestline, which reaches 13,274 feet (4,046 m) in ...
Karachi: city and capital of Sindh province, southern Pakistan. It is the country's largest city and principal seaport and is a major commercial and industrial centre. Karachi is located on the coast of the Arabian Sea immediately northwest of the Indus ...
Karadjordje: leader of the Serbian people in their struggle for independence from the Turks and founder of the Karadjordjevic (Karageorgevic, or Karadordevici) dynasty.
Karadjordjevic dynasty: rulers descended from the Serbian rebel leader Karadjordje (Karageorge, or Karadorde). It rivaled the Obrenovic dynasty for control of Serbia during the 19th century and ruled that country as well as its successor state, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and ...
Karadzic, Vuk Stefanovic: language scholar and the father of Serbian folk-literature scholarship, who, in reforming the Cyrillic alphabet for Serbian usage, created one of the simplest and most logical spelling systems.
Karaganda: oblast (province), central Kazakhstan. It lies mostly in the Kazakh Uplands in a dry steppe zone, rising gradually in elevation eastward to a maximum in the Karkaraly Mountains of 5,115 feet (1,559 m). The principal rivers, the Nura and Sarysu, ...
Karaganda: city in central Kazakstan. It lies at the centre of the important Qaraghandy (Karaganda) coal basin. It is the second largest city in the republic and derives its name from the caragana bush, which grows abundantly in the surrounding steppe.
Karagoz: (Turkish: "Black Eyes," or "Gypsy"), type of Turkish shadow play, named for its stock hero, Karagoz. The comically risque plays are improvised from scenarios for local audiences in private homes, coffee shops, public squares, and innyards. The Karagoz play apparently ...
Karaikal: city, Pondicherry union territory, an enclave on the Coromandel Coast within eastern Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India, near the mouth of the Arasalar River. The chief city of the Karaikal territory and a former French colony in India, it is ...
Karaiskakis, Georgios: a klepht, or brigand chief, who played an important role in the Greek War of Independence. He is remembered both for his treachery and for his reckless courage.
Karaism: (from Hebrew qara, "to read"), a Jewish religious movement that repudiated oral tradition as a source of divine law and defended the Hebrew Bible as the sole authentic font of religious doctrine and practice. In dismissing the Talmud as man-made ...
Karaja rug: floor covering handmade in or near the village of Qarajeh (Karaja), in the Qareh Dagh (Karadagh) region of Iran just south of the Azerbaijan border, northeast of Tabriz. The best-known pattern shows three geometric medallions that are somewhat similar to ...
Karajan, Herbert von: Austrian-born orchestra and opera conductor, a leading international musical figure of the mid-20th century.
Karaji, al-: mathematician and engineer who held an official position in Baghdad (c. 1010-1015), perhaps culminating in the position of vizier, during which time he wrote his three main works, al-Fakhri fi'l-jabr wa'l-muqabala ("Glorious on algebra"), al-Badi' fi'l-hisab ("Wonderful on calculation"), and ...
Karak, al-: town, west-central Jordan. It lies along the Wadi al-Karak, 15 miles (24 km) east of the Dead Sea. Built on a small, steep-walled butte, about 3,100 feet (950 m) above sea level, the town is the Kir-hareseth, or Kir-heres, of ...
Karakalpakstan: autonomous republic in Uzbekistan, situated southeast and southwest of the Aral Sea.
Karakhan Manifesto: manifesto issued on July 25, 1919, by Lev Karakhan, a member of the foreign ministry of the newly formed Soviet republic, in which he offered to relinquish all Soviet claims to the special rights and privileges won by the Russian ...
Karakol: city, eastern Ysyk-kol oblast (province), Kyrgyzstan, at the northern foot of the Terskey-Alatau Mountains at an elevation of 5,807 feet (1,770 m) on the Karakol River. The city was founded in 1869 as a Russian military and administrative outpost; it ...
Karakoram Highway: roadway that connects Kashgar, China, with Islamabad, Pak. The road, which took almost 20 years (1959-78) to complete, extends for about 500 miles (800 km) through some of the most rugged and inaccessible terrain in Asia; it runs through or ...
Karakoram Range: great mountain system extending some 300 miles (500 kilometres) from the easternmost extension of Afghanistan in a southeasterly direction along the watershed between Central and South Asia. Found there are the greatest concentration of high mountains in the world and ...
Karakorum: ancient capital of the Mongol empire, whose ruins lie on the upper Orhon River in north-central Mongolia.
Karakul: sheep breed of central or west Asian origin, raised chiefly for the skins of very young lambs, which are covered with glossy, tightly curled black coats and are called Persian lamb in the fur trade. The wool of mature Karakul ...
Karakum Canal: waterway in Turkmenistan. The main section, begun in 1954 and completed in 1967, runs some 520 miles (840 km) from the Amu Darya (river) to Gokdepe, west of Ashgabat, skirting the Karakum Desert. In the 1970s and '80s the canal ...
Karakum Desert: great sandy region in Central Asia. It occupies about 70 percent of the area of Turkmenistan. Another, smaller desert in Kazakhstan near the Aral Sea is called the Aral Karakum.
Karamanlis, Konstantinos: Greek statesman who was prime minister from 1955 to 1963 and again from 1974 to 1980. He then served as president from 1980 to 1985 and from 1990 to 1995. Karamanlis gave Greece competent government and political stability while his ...
Karamanlis, Kostas: Greek politician who became prime minister of Greece in 2004.
Karamay: city in northern Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang, China. Located in the Dzungarian Basin, it is about 200 miles (320 km) northwest of Wu-lu-mu-ch'i (Urumchi), the provincial capital. Rich oil reserves were discovered in this area in 1955, and the ...
Karamzin, Nikolay Mikhaylovich: Russian historian, poet, and journalist who was the leading exponent of the sentimentalist school in Russian literature.
Karankawa: several groups of North American Indians (now extinct) that lived along the Gulf of Mexico from about Galveston Bay to Corpus Christi Bay. They were first encountered by the French explorer La Salle in the late 17th century, and their ...
Karaosmanoglu, Yakup Kadri: writer and translator, one of the most renowned figures in modern Turkish literature, noted for vigorous studies of 20th-century Turkish life.
Karasi Dynasty: Turkmen dynasty (c. 1300-60) that ruled in the Balikesir-Canakkale region of western Anatolia.
karat: a measure of the fineness (i.e., purity) of gold. It is spelled carat outside the United States but should not be confused with the unit used to measure the weight of gems, also called carat. A gold karat is 124 ...
Karatau: mountain range, a northwestern spur of the Tien Shan, in southern Kazakstan. The name is Turkic, meaning "black mountain." The range extends for 260 miles (420 km) along the Syr Darya (river) and rises to 7,139 feet (2,176 m), with ...
karate: unarmed martial-arts discipline employing kicking, striking, and defensive blocking with arms and legs. Emphasis is on concentrating as much of the body's power as possible at the point and instant of impact. Striking surfaces include the hands (particularly the knuckles ...
Karatepe: (Turkish: "Black Hill"), site of a Late Hittite fortress city, located in the piedmont country of the Taurus Mountains in south-central Turkey. The city, dating from the 8th century BC, was discovered in 1945 by Helmuth T. Bossert and Halet ...
Karatsu: city, Saga ken (prefecture), northern Kyushu, Japan. Located about 30 miles (50 km) southeast of Fukuoka, it faces Karatsu Bay. Its name is derived from the Japanese terms kara (referring to China) and
Karatsu ware: Japanese ceramic ware of Korean origin produced in Kyushu. The actual date of production is thought to be sometime during the first half of the 16th century, in the late Muromachi period.
Karavelov, Lyuben Stoychev: Bulgarian writer and revolutionary who contributed to the national reawakening of Bulgaria.
Karawanken: mountain range of the Eastern Alps, extending eastward along the Slovenian-Austrian border for 50 miles (80 km) from the town of Tarvisio in Italy. The range lies between the Drava River (north) and the upper Sava River (south) and rises ...
Karbala': city, capital of Karbala' muhafazah (governorate), central Iraq. One of Shi'ite Islam's foremost holy cities, it lies 55 miles (88 km) southwest of Baghdad, with which it is connected by rail.
Karbala', Battle of: (Oct. 10, 680 [10th of Muharram, AH 61]), brief military engagement in which a small party led by al-Husayn ibn 'Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and son of 'Ali, the fourth caliph, was defeated and massacred by an army ...
Kardelj, Edvard: Yugoslav revolutionary and politician, a close colleague and chosen successor of Josip Broz Tito. He was the chief ideological theoretician of Yugoslav Marxism, or Titoism.
Kardhitsa: market town and capital, nomos (department) of Kardhitsa, Greece. It lies in the southwestern Thessaly (Thessalia) plain near the Pamisos River. Laid out in rectilinear fashion by the Ottoman Turks, the town serves the Agrafa region of the eastern Pindus ...
Karelia: respublika (republic), far northwestern Russia. It is bordered to the north by Nenets, to the east by the White Sea, to the south by Lake Ladoga, and to the west by Finland. The capital is Petrozavodsk, on ...
Karelian Isthmus: neck of land lying between Lake Ladoga (east; in Saint Petersburg oblast [province]) and the Gulf of Finland (west; part of the Baltic Sea). The isthmus shows evidence of ancient glaciation; its long, winding morainic hills, which reach an elevation ...
Karelian language: member of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family, spoken in Karelia republic of northwestern Russia and by emigrants in neighbouring Finland. There are two dialects of Karelian-Karelian proper and Olonets. Ludic, a minor group of dialects spoken to ...
Kareline, Aleksandr: Russian Greco-Roman wrestler revered for his extraordinary strength and unprecedented success in international competition.
Karen: variety of tribal peoples of southern Myanmar (Burma), speaking languages of the Sino-Tibetan family. They are not a unitary group in any ethnic sense, differing linguistically, religiously, and economically. One classification divides them into White Karen and Red Karen. The ...
Karen languages: languages spoken in lower Myanmar (Burma) and on the borders of Thailand. The Karen languages are usually divided into three groups: northern (including Taungthu), central (including Bwe and Geba), and southern (including Pwo and Sgaw); only Pwo and Sgaw of ...
Karg-Elert, Sigfrid: a principal German organ composer of his generation.
Kariba: town, northern Zimbabwe. Situated on the south bank of the Zambezi River and built on the twin hills of Botererkwa overlooking the Kariba Gorge and the man-made Lake Kariba (one of the world's largest man-made lakes), the town was established ...