Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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N'Djamena ... Nagaland

N'Djamena: capital of Chad, on the southwestern border, adjacent to Cameroon. It lies on the east bank of the Chari (Shari) River at its confluence with the Logone River in an alluvial plain that is flooded during the rainy season (July-September). ...
N-Town plays: an English cycle of 42 scriptural (or "mystery") plays dating from the second half of the 15th century and so called because an opening proclamation refers to performance "in N. town." Since evidence suggests that the cycle was not peculiar ...
Na'imah, Mikha'il: Lebanese literary critic, playwright, essayist, and short-story writer who helped introduce modern realism into Arabic prose fiction.
Na-Dene languages: major grouping (phylum or superstock) of North American Indian languages, consisting of three language families-Athabascan (or Athapascan), Haida, and Tlingit-with a total of 22 languages. Of these languages 20 belong to the Athabascan family; they are spoken in the Northwest ...
Naas: market and garrison town (urban district) and county seat of County Kildare, Ireland. Naas was one of the royal seats of the ancient province of Leinster, and St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is said to have visited it. ...
Nabataean: member of a people of ancient Arabia whose settlements lay in the borderlands between Syria and Arabia, from the Euphrates River to the Red Sea. Little is known about them before 312 BC, when they were unsuccessfully attacked by Demetrius ...
Nabataean alphabet: writing system used between approximately 150 BC and AD 150 in the Nabataean kingdom of Petra in the Arabian Peninsula. Used by the Nabataeans to write the Aramaic language, this alphabet was related to the Aramaic alphabet, one of the ...
Nabatiyah at-Tahta, an-: town, southern Lebanon. It is the major centre of tobacco growing in Lebanon. Other agricultural products are grapes, olives, figs, and grains. Most of the inhabitants of the town are Shi'ite Muslims. A main road crosses the region connecting an-Nabatiyah ...
Nabbes, Thomas: English dramatist and writer of verse, one of a number of lesser playwrights of the period. He is perhaps best known for his masques.
Naber, John: American swimmer who won four gold medals and a silver at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.
Naberezhnye Chelny: city, Tatarstan, west-central Russia, on the left bank of the Kama River. The city is best known for its Kama truck plant, the world's largest. Also located at Naberezhnye Chelny is the Lower Kama hydroelectric station. Because of these developments, ...
Nabha: city, southeastern Punjab state, northwestern India. It is located some 16 miles (26 km) west and slightly north of Patiala. Nabha (founded 1755) was the capital of the princely state of Nabha, established in 1763 and composed of 12 scattered ...
Nabighah, an-: one of the pre-Islamic Arab poets whose works were collected in the Mu'allaqat.
Nabis: group of artists who, through their widely diverse activities, exerted a major influence on the art produced in France during the late 19th century. They maintained that a work of art reflects an artist's synthesis of nature into personal aesthetic ...
Nabis: last ruler (207-192) of an independent Sparta. Nabis carried on the revolutionary tradition of Kings Agis IV and Cleomenes III. Since ancient accounts of him are mainly abusive, the details of his laws remain obscure, but it is certain that ...
Nabisco: former U.S. snack food and bakery product company. The National Biscuit Company was formed in 1898 when the American Biscuit Company merged with the New York Biscuit Company. Better known as Nabisco, it went on to introduce a number of ...
Nabokov, Vladimir: Russian-born American novelist and critic, the foremost of the post-1917 emigre authors. He wrote in both Russian and English, and his best works, including Lolita (1955), feature stylish, intricate literary effects.
Nabonidus: king of Babylonia from 556 until 539 BC, when Babylon fell to Cyrus, king of Persia. After a popular rising led by the priests of Marduk, chief god of the city, Nabonidus, who favoured the moon god Sin, made his ...
Nabu: major god in the Assyro-Babylonian pantheon. He was patron of the art of writing and a god of vegetation. Nabu's symbols were the clay tablet and the stylus, the instruments held to be proper to him who inscribed the fates ...
Nabu-rimanni: the earliest Babylonian astronomer known by name, who devised the so-called System A, a group of ephemerides, or tables, giving the positions of the Moon, Sun, and planets at any given moment. Based on centuries of observation, these tables were ...
Nabuco de Araujo, Joaquim Aurelio Barreto: statesman and diplomat, leader of the abolition movement in Brazil, and man of letters.
Nabul: town, northeastern Tunisia, on the Hammamet Gulf. Formerly a Phoenician settlement, it was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC and later rebuilt as a Roman colony called Neapolis. It is a noted pottery and ceramics handicraft centre and the ...
Nabulus: city of central Palestine, the largest community of the West Bank (Judaea and Samaria) territory under Israeli administration since 1967. The city lies in an enclosed, fertile valley and is the market centre of a natural oasis that is watered ...
Nacaome: city, southern Honduras, on the seasonally dry Nacaome River. It was founded in 1535 and given city status in 1845. Its colonial church, rebuilt in 1867, still stands. Nacaome is a manufacturing and commercial centre. Cement products are made in ...
Nachi-katsuura: town, Wakayama ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, facing the Pacific Ocean. Lying within Yoshino-Kumano National Park, the town is a summer resort renowned for its proximity to more than 40 waterfalls. The main fall is one of the highest in Japan, ...
Nachikufan industry: industry of the African Late Stone Age practiced by hunting-gathering peoples who occupied the wooded plateaus of south-central Africa some 10,000-11,000 years ago. The Nachikufan tool industry is characterized by projectiles with several kinds of microlithic heads, heavy stone scrapers ...
Nachtigal, Gustav: explorer of the Sahara who helped Germany obtain protectorates in western equatorial Africa. After spending several years as a military surgeon, he went to Tunisia as physician to the bey (ruler) and took part in several expeditions to the interior. ...
Nacka: town in the lan (county) of Stockholm, southeastern Sweden, on the Sodertorn peninsula of the landskap (province) of Sodermanland. A southeastern suburb of Stockholm, it developed into a residential and industrial area with the coming of the railroad in 1893, ...
Nacogdoches: city, seat (1837) of Nacogdoches county, eastern Texas, U.S., near the Angelina River, 140 miles (225 km) north-northeast of Houston. In 1716 a Spanish mission (Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe) was first established near a Nacogdoche Indian village (a pyramidal mound ...
nacrite: clay mineral, a form of kaolinite (q.v.).
Nadar: French writer, caricaturist, and photographer who is remembered primarily for his photographic portraits, which are considered to be among the best done in the 19th century.
Nadel, S F: Austrian-born British anthropologist whose investigations of African ethnology led him to explore theoretical questions.
Nadelman, Elie: Polish-born sculptor whose mannered, curvilinear human figures greatly influenced early 20th-century American sculpture.
Nader, Ralph: American lawyer and consumer advocate who was a three-time candidate for U.S. president (1996, 2000, and 2004).
Nadi, Nedo; and Nadi, Aldo: Italian brothers who were among the greatest and most versatile fencers in the history of the sport. At the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium, the Nadi brothers led Italy to a sweep of the gold medals in the three ...
Nadiad: city, east-central Gujarat state, west-central India. It is situated in the lowlands between the Vindhya Range and the Gulf of Cambay (an extension of the Arabian Sea). Nadiad is a major industrial and commercial centre and a road and rail ...
Nadig, Marie-Therese: Swiss Alpine skier who won surprise victories over the pre-Olympic favourite, Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proll, in the downhill and giant slalom events at the 1972 Olympic Games in Sapporo, Japan.
Nadir Shah: Iranian ruler and conqueror who created an Iranian empire that stretched from the Indus River to the Caucasus Mountains.
Nador: city, northeastern Morocco. The city is a small Mediterranean port on the Bou Areg Lagoon and a trading centre for fish, fruits, and livestock. It is linked to the Spanish plaza (North African enclave) of Melilla, 9 ...
Naestved: city, Storstrom amtskommune (county commune), southern Sjaelland (Zealand), Denmark, on the Susa River. Naestved originated around a Benedictine monastery, founded in 1135. The monks moved at the end of the 12th century, and the town developed as ...
Naevius, Gnaeus: second of a triad of early Latin epic poets and dramatists, between Livius Andronicus and Ennius. He was the originator of historical plays (fabulae praetextae) that were based on Roman historical or legendary figures and events. The titles of two ...
Nafels, Battle of: (April 9, 1388), major victory for the Swiss Confederation in the first century of its struggle for self-determination against Habsburg overlordship. Though the catastrophic defeat of the Austrians at Sempach in 1386 had been followed by a truce, hostilities against ...
Naftah: oasis town, southwestern Tunisia. It lies on the northwest shore of Al-Jarid saline lake, which is an important source of phosphates. It was known to the Romans as Aggarsel Nepte. Naftah has many small mosques and is a date-growing and ...
Nafud, An-: desert, northern Saudi Arabia, covering about 25,000 square miles (64,000 square km). The reddish, sandy An-Nafud (Arabic: "The Desert") is sometimes called the Great Nafud; it lies at an elevation of 3,000 feet (900 m) and has some watering places ...
Nafusah Plateau: hilly limestone massif, northwestern Libya. It extends in a west-northeasterly arc between Al-Jifarah (Gefara) plain and Al-Hamra' Plateau. With heights ranging from 1,500 to 3,200 feet (460 to 980 m), the plateau runs east for 120 miles (190 km) from ...
Naga: group of tribes inhabiting the Naga Hills of Nagaland (q.v.) state in northeastern India. They include more than 20 tribes of mixed origin, varying cultures, and very different physiques and appearances. The numerous Naga languages (sometimes classified as dialects) belong ...
naga: ("serpent"), in Hindu and Buddhist mythology, a member of a class of semidivine beings, half human and half serpentine. They are considered to be a strong, handsome race who can assume either human or wholly serpentine form. They are regarded ...
Naga: city, southeastern Luzon, Philippines. It is situated along the Bicol River, south of San Miguel Bay. Founded in 1573 as Nueva Caceres by the Spaniards, it is the site every September of a festival in honour of Nuestra Senora de ...
Naga Hills: part of the complex mountain barrier on the border of India and Myanmar (Burma). A northern extension of the Arakan Yoma system, the Naga Hills reach a height of 12,552 feet (3,826 m) in Mount Saramati on the India-Myanmar frontier. ...
Nagai Kafu: Japanese novelist strongly identified with Tokyo and its immediate premodern past.
Nagaland: state of India. It lies in the hills and mountains of the northeastern part of the country. One of the smallest states of India, it has a total area of just 6,401 square miles (16,579 square kilometres). It is bordered ...