Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Nara Canal ... narthex

Nara Canal: important water channel in Sindh province, Pakistan. From its source above Rohri, it runs southward and discharges into the Puran River, an old channel of the Indus River, which flows to the sea farther south through the Rann of Kutch. ...
Nara National Museum: in Nara, Japan, art museum devoted primarily to Buddhist art. Exhibits include dry-lacquer works, wooden statues, and lacquered wood from the earlier and later Heian periods. There are Kamakura sculptures, including Jizo-Bosatsu, and a relief of 1327 from Kochi of ...
Nara period: (AD 710-784), in Japanese history, period in which the imperial government was at Nara, and Sinicization and Buddhism were most highly developed. Nara, the country's first permanent capital, was modeled on the Chinese T'ang dynasty (618-907) capital, Ch'ang-an. Nara artisans ...
Naracoorte: town and rail junction, southeastern South Australia. It lies 190 miles (310 km) southeast of Adelaide, near the Victoria border. Founded as Kincraig in 1845, it took its present name in 1869 from an Aboriginal word meaning "large waterhole." During ...
Narai: king of Siam (1656-88), who was best known for his efforts in foreign affairs and whose court produced the first "golden age" of Thai literature.
Narameikhla: founder and first king (reigned 1404-34) of the Mrohaung dynasty in Arakan, the maritime country lying to the west of Lower Burma on the Bay of Bengal, which had been settled by the Burmese in the 10th century.
Narashino: city, Chiba ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. Narashino is situated on the northeastern shore of Tokyo Bay. Formed in 1951 by the merger of Minomi, Maka, Tsuda-numa, and Okubo, the settlement has no city centre because the former ...
Narasimha: (Sanskrit: "Man-Lion"), fourth of the 10 avatars (incarnations) of the Hindu god Vishnu. The demon Hiranyakasipu, twin brother of the demon overthrown by Vishnu in his previous incarnation as Varaha, obtained a boon from Brahma that he could not be ...
Narathiwat: town, extreme southern Thailand, on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula. Narathiwat is a minor port inhabited largely by Malay Muslims. Fishing and shipping are the main activities. The surrounding area is heavily planted in coconuts, rice, and rubber. ...
Narayan, Jaya Prakash: Indian political leader and theorist.
Narayan, R.K.: one of the finest Indian authors of his generation writing in English.
Narayanan, Kocheril Raman: Indian politician and diplomat, who was the president of India from 1997 to 2002. He was the first member of the country's lowest social caste, the group traditionally considered to be untouchable, to occupy the office.
Narayanganj: city, east-central Bangladesh, situated along both banks of the Lakhya River at its confluence with the Dhaleswari. The chief river port for nearby Dhaka, the city also has steamer connections with major inland ports and Chittagong. Narayanganj is the busiest ...
Narbonensis: ancient Roman province that lay between the Alps, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Cevennes Mountains. It comprised what is now southeastern France.
Narbonne: city, Aude departement, Languedoc-Roussillon region, southeastern France. It lies on a vine-growing plain 8 miles (13 km) from the Mediterranean and east of Carcassonne.
Narcissus: in Greek mythology, the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Leiriope; he was distinguished for his beauty. His mother was told that he would have a long life, provided he never looked upon his own features. His ...
Narcissus: freedman who used his position as correspondence secretary (ab epistulis) to the Roman emperor Claudius (ruled 41-54) to become, in effect, a minister of state.
narcissus: any member of a genus (Narcissus) of bulbous, often fragrant, ornamental plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The genus contains about 40 species, native primarily to Europe. Daffodil, or narcissus (N. pseudonarcissus), jonquil (N. jonquilla), and poet's narcissus (N. poeticus) are ...
narcolepsy: a sleep disturbance that is characterized by sudden, uncontrollable spells of sleep during the day, with disturbances of sleep at night.
narcotic: drug that produces analgesia (pain relief), narcosis (state of stupor or sleep), and addiction (physical dependence on the drug). In some people narcotics also produce euphoria (a feeling of great elation).
Nardi, Jacopo: Florentine statesman and historian who wrote a history of Florence that sharply criticized the ruling Medici family.
Nardini, Pietro: Italian violinist and composer, one of the most eminent violinists of the 18th century.
Nardo: town, Lecce provincia, Puglia (Apulia) regione, southeastern Italy, southwest of Lecce city. Originally the Roman city of Neretum, Nardo was both Byzantine and Norman; it has a 13th-14th-century cathedral in the Gothic style and an unusual circular chapel called the ...
Naresuan: king of Siam (1590-1605), regarded as a national hero by the Thai people for having liberated the country from the Myanmar (Burmese).
Narew River: east-bank tributary of the Vistula River that rises in western Belarus and flows into eastern Poland. The Narew River is 272 miles (438 km) long and drains an area of more than 10,800 square miles (28,000 square km). It rises ...
Narino: departamento, southwestern Colombia, bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west and Ecuador on the south. Its population is concentrated principally in the volcanic Andean highlands above 5,000 feet (1,500 m). The densely settled Altiplano (high plateau) of Tuquerres-Ipiales, which ...
Nariokotome: site in northern Kenya known for the 1984 discovery of a nearly complete skeleton of African Homo erectus (also called H. ergaster) dating to approximately 1.5 million years ago.
Narita: city, Chiba ken, central Honshu, Japan. It is located approximately 30 miles (50 km) east of Tokyo, on the Ryoso Plateau. Originally an agricultural region producing rice, peanuts (groundnuts), sweet potatoes, and other vegetables, Narita developed as a temple town ...
Narke: landskap (province) lying mostly in the administrative lan (county) of Orebro, south-central Sweden. Its land area of 1,592 square miles (4,122 square km) lies between the traditional landskap (provinces) of Vastmanland on the north, Sodermanland on the east, Ostergotland on ...
Narmada River: river in central India, rising in the Maikala Range in east-central Madhya Pradesh state. Following a tortuous course through the hills of Mandla, it enters the structural trough between the Vindhya and Satpura ranges at Marble Rocks Gorge and then ...
Narni: town, Terni provincia, Umbria regione, central Italy, situated on a hilltop above the Nera River. It originated as the Umbrian Nequinum (later Narnia, after the Roman conquest) and was the birthplace of Pope John XIII (10th century), the Roman emperor ...
Naro-Fominsk: city and centre of a rayon (sector), Moscow oblast (province), western Russia, on the Nara River southwest of the capital. It was formed in 1926 from three villages and textile centres. The town Fominsk was totally destroyed in World War ...
Narodnaya Volya: 19th-century Russian revolutionary organization that regarded terrorist activities as the best means of forcing political reform and overthrowing the tsarist autocracy.
Narodnaya, Mount: ("People's Mountain"), peak of the Nether-Polar section of the Ural Mountains in west-central Russia. Rising to 6,217 feet (1,895 m), it is the highest mountain in the Urals range. Several small glaciers are found on the slopes of Narodnaya and ...
Narodnik: member of a 19th-century socialist movement in Russia who believed that political propaganda among the peasantry would lead to the awakening of the masses and, through their influence, to the liberalization of the tsarist regime. Because Russia was a predominantly ...
narodnost: doctrine or national principle, the meaning of which has changed over the course of Russian literary criticism. Originally denoting simply literary fidelity to Russia's distinct cultural heritage, narodnost, in the hands of radical critics such as Nikolay Dobrolyubov, came to ...
narra: any of several timber trees of the genus Pterocarpus of the pea family (Fabaceae or Leguminosae). The name refers especially to P. indicus, or India padauk, or the hard wood, noted for its ability to take a high polish, that ...
Narrabri: town, northeastern New South Wales, Australia. It lies along Narrabri Creek (tributary of the Namoi River), just west of the Nandewar Range. Surveyed in 1859 and declared a municipality in 1883, it derives its name from an Aboriginal word meaning ...
Narraganset: Algonkian-speaking Indian tribe that occupied most of what is now the U.S. state of Rhode Island west of Narragansett Bay. They were grouped in eight territorial divisions, each with a chief who was in turn subject to a head chief. ...
Narragansett: town (township), southeastern Washington county, southern Rhode Island, U.S., at the entrance to Narragansett Bay. The Pettaquamscutt River (north) and Point Judith Pond (south) form the western boundary of the town, which includes the village of Narragansett Pier and the ...
Narragansett Bay: inlet of the North Atlantic, extending northward (from Rhode Island Sound) for 28 mi (45 km) into Rhode Island, U.S., almost dividing the state into two parts. The bay is 3 to 12 mi wide and receives the Taunton, Providence, ...
Narrandera: town, south central New South Wales, Australia, on the Murrumbidgee River. Settled in 1863 as a livestock station, it was proclaimed a town in 1880 and given an Aboriginal name meaning "place of lizards." Gazetted a borough in 1885, it ...
narratology: in literary theory, the study of narrative structure. Like structuralism, from which it derived, narratology is based on the idea of a common literary language, or a universal pattern of codes that operates within the text of a work. The ...
narrator: one who tells a story. In a work of fiction the narrator determines the story's point of view. If the narrator is a full participant in the story's action, the narrative is said to be in the first person. A ...
Narrogin: town, southwestern Western Australia. It developed in the 1880s, when the Great Southern Railway came through the site, and a hotel was erected at the trackside. The settlement grew around the hotel and became a town in 1895. Its name ...
narrow-mouthed toad: any amphibian of the family Microhylidae, which includes more than 50 genera and more than 200 species. Narrow-mouthed toads are found in North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Typically, they are small, stocky, and smooth skinned with short ...
Narses: Byzantine general under Emperor Justinian I; his greatest achievement was the conquest of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy for Byzantium.
Narses: king of the Sasanian Empire whose reign (293-302) saw the beginning of 40 years of peace with Rome.
Narsimhapur: town, administrative headquarters of Narsimhapur district, Madhya Pradesh state, central India, on the Singri River. Once called Chhota Gadarwara, the town was renamed Narsinghpur after the Narasimha (the man-lion, an incarnation of Vishnu) temple, erected c. 1800. The Singri River ...
Narsinghgarh: town, Rajgarh district, Madhya Pradesh state, central India. A major road and rail junction, it is an agricultural market centre. Cloth weaving is the chief industry. Founded in 1681, it served as capital of the former princely state of Narsinghgarh. ...
narthex: long, narrow, enclosed porch, usually colonnaded or arcaded, crossing the entire width of a church at its entrance. The narthex is usually separated from the nave by columns or a pierced wall, and in Byzantine churches the space is divided ...