Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Ta-ch'ing ... Tachos

Ta-ch'ing: oil field in Heilungkiang province, China, one of the country's most important sources of oil. It is situated in the north of the Sungari-Liao River basin, between Tsitsihar and Harbin, in the general vicinity of An-ta, northwest of Harbin. The ...
Ta-hsueh Mountains: great mountain range in the west of Szechwan province, China. These enormously high and rugged mountain chains were formed around the eastern flank of the ancient stable block of the Tibetan Plateau; their formation occurred during successive foldings that took ...
Ta-li: city in western Yunnan sheng (province), China. It is situated at the southern end of the Erh Hai (lake) in a fertile basin about 10 miles (16 km) southeast of the original Ta-li. It has traditionally been an important centre ...
Ta-li: city in west-central Yunnan sheng (province), China. Ta-li is situated in a fertile basin on the west side of the Erh Hai (lake); this Ta-li should not be confused with another community also called Ta-li (formerly Hsia-kuan) that lies 10 ...
Ta-pa Mountains: mountain range dividing Szechwan province from Shensi province, China. Like the Tsinling Mountains to the north, from which it is separated by the Han River valley and the basin near Han-chung in Shensi, it is an eastward continuation of the ...
Ta-pieh Mountains: mountain range in central China. It has a roughly northwest-to-southeast axis, which forms the watershed between the upper Huai River and the Yangtze River and also marks the boundary between Hupeh province and its eastern and northern neighbours, the provinces ...
Ta-t'ung: city, northern Shansi sheng (province), China. The city is situated at the northern limits of traditional Chinese settlement, standing just inside the Great Wall on a fertile plain watered by the Sang-kan River and its tributaries.
Ta-tu: the city of Peking (q.v.) under the Mongols.
Ta-yeh: town in eastern Hupeh sheng (province), China. Ta-yeh is situated on the south bank of the Yangtze River near Huang-shih and about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Han-k'ou (Wu-han). The site is low-lying and has many swamps and lakes, ...
Taaffe, Eduard, Count von: statesman and twice prime minister of Austria (1868-70 and 1879-93) who controlled most of the empire's quarreling nationalities and forged a conservative coalition that remained in power longer than any other ministry during the reign of the emperor Francis Joseph.
Taal Lake: lake in southwestern Luzon, Philippines, occupying a volcanic crater with a maximum width of 15 miles (24 km), at less than 10 feet (3 m) above sea level. It has an area of 94 square miles (244 square km) and ...
Tabari, at-: Muslim scholar, author of enormous compendiums of early Islamic history and Qur'anic exegesis, who made a distinct contribution to the consolidation of Sunni thought during the 9th century. He condensed the vast wealth of exegetical and historical erudition of the ...
tabasco: hot red pepper, a variety of Capsicum frutescens of the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family. See pepper.
Tabasco: state, southeastern Mexico, bounded on the northwest by the Bay of Campeche of the Gulf of Mexico, east by Campeche, southeast by Guatemala, south by Chiapas, and west by Veracruz. Tabasco's 9,756-sq-mi (25,267-sq-km) territory is generally low and flat, largely ...
Tabasco Plain: tropical lowland on the Gulf of Mexico, Tabasco state, southeastern Mexico. Occupying the coastal lowlands south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and north of the Yucatan Peninsula, the Tabasco Plain is a hot and humid land made up of alluvial ...
Tabataba'i, Sayyid Zia od-Din: Iranian statesman who led the coup d'etat of 1921 in which he was made prime minister.
tabby: type of dark-striped coat colouring found in both wild and domestic cats. One of the most common coat colours, the tabby pattern dates back to domestic cats in ancient Egypt. It is a recognized colour variety in purebred cats and ...
Tabernacle: ("dwelling"), in Jewish history, the portable sanctuary constructed by Moses as a place of worship for the Hebrew tribes during the period of wandering that preceded their arrival in the Promised Land. The Tabernacle no longer served a purpose after ...
tabes dorsalis: rare neurologic form of tertiary syphilis, involving sensory deficits, loss of neuromuscular coordination, and diminished reflexes. Symptoms of this form of neurosyphilis chiefly affect the legs and may not appear for more than 25 years after the initial infection. Untreated, ...
Tabinshwehti: king who unified Myanmar (reigned 1531-50). He was the second monarch of the Toungoo dynasty, which his father, Minkyinyo, had founded in 1486.
tabla: pair of small drums fundamental (since the 18th century) to Hindustani music of northern India. The higher-pitched of the two drums, which is played with the right hand, is also referred to individually as the tabla or as the daya ...
Tablas de Damiel National Park: nature reserve, located about 19 miles (30 km) northeast of the city of Ciudad Real, south-central Spain. The park, created in 1973, occupies 4,633 acres (1,875 hectares) and lies at the confluence of the Guadiana and Ciguela rivers, where fresh ...
tablature: system of musical notation based on a player's finger position, as opposed to notes showing rhythm and pitch. Tablatures were used for lute and keyboard music during the Renaissance and Baroque eras.
table: basic article of furniture, known and used in the Western world since at least the 7th century BC, consisting of a flat slab of stone, metal, wood, or glass supported by trestles, legs, or a pillar.
Table Bay: bay of the Atlantic Ocean near the southern tip of Africa forming the harbour of Cape Town. Extending north from Cape Town to Melkbosstrand, the bay is 12 mi (19 km) long and 8 mi wide; it contains Robben Island ...
Table Mountain: flat-topped mountain, overlooking Cape Town and Table Bay, South Africa, dominating the northern end of the high, rocky Cape Peninsula. Its tabular shape results from nearly horizontal layers of sandstone, exposed by vigorous wind and water erosion. The stark, scarred, ...
table talk: informal conversation at or as if at a dining table; especially, the social talk of a celebrity recorded for publication. Collections of such conversations exist from as early as the 3rd century AD, and the term has been in use ...
table tennis: ball game similar in principle to lawn tennis and played on a flat table divided into two equal courts by a net fixed across its width at the middle. The object is to hit the ball so that it goes ...
tableware: utensils used at the table for holding, serving, and handling food and drink. Tableware includes various types of containers (known as hollowware, q.v.), spoons and forks (flatware, q.v.), knives (cutlery, q.v.), and a variety of dishes and accessories.
Taboga Island: island in the Bay of Panama, central Panama. Taboga and its small neighbour, Taboguilla Island, lie 11 miles (18 km) south of Panama City, with which they are connected by boat service. Taboga, about 2 miles (3 km) long and ...
taboo: the prohibition of an action or the use of an object based on ritualistic distinctions of them either as being sacred and consecrated or as being dangerous, unclean, and accursed. The term taboo is of Polynesian origin and was first ...
Tabor: city, Jihocesky kraj (region), Czech Republic. It lies along a bend in the Luznice River 50 miles (80 km) south of Prague. Founded in 1420 by Jan Zizka and other followers of the Bohemian religious reformer Jan Hus, Tabor became ...
Tabor, Mount: historic elevation of northern Israel, in Lower Galilee near the edge of the Plain of Esdraelon ('Emeq Yizre'el). Though comparatively low (1,929 feet [588 m]), it dominates the level landscape around it, leading to the biblical expression "like Tabor among ...
Tabora: town, west-central Tanzania. Lying on the Central Plateau at an elevation of 4,000 feet (1,200 m), it has a mean annual temperature of 73° F (23° C). The town has been the capital of the Nyamwezi people and was the ...
taboret: type of armless and backless seat or stool. Early taborets were probably named for their cylindrical shape, which resembled a drum (Old French: tabour).
Taborite: member of a militant group of Bohemian Hussite reformers who in 1420 gave the biblical name of Tabor (Czech: Tabor) to their fortified settlement south of Prague. Like their more moderate coreligionists, the Utraquists, they were strict biblicists and insisted ...
Tabriz: fourth largest city of Iran, lying about 4,485 feet (1,367 m) above sea level in the extreme northwestern part of the country. The climate is continental: hot and dry in summer and severely cold in winter. The city lies in ...
Tabriz carpet: floor covering handmade in or around Tabriz, the principal city of northwestern Iran and one of its best-known carpet-producing centres. The identification of the court carpets of the early 16th-century Safavid shahs who made Tabriz their capital is no longer ...
Tabriz school: in painting, school of miniaturists founded by the Mongol Il-Khans early in the 14th century and active through the first half of the 16th century. The style represented the first full penetration of East Asian traditions into Islamic painting, an ...
Tabuaeran Atoll: coral formation of the Northern Line Islands, part of Kiribati, in the west-central Pacific Ocean. Discovered in 1798 by an American, Edmund Fanning, the atoll is composed of several islets, with a total area of 13 square miles (35 square ...
Tabuk: oasis city, northwestern Saudi Arabia. The city is situated amid a grove of date palms. In former times it was a station on the Hejaz railway (now defunct). At the edge of the old part of Tabuk stands a Turkish ...
tabula rasa: (Latin: "scraped tablet," i.e., "clean slate"), in epistemology (theory of knowledge) and psychology, a supposed condition that empiricists attribute to the human mind before ideas have been imprinted on it by the reaction of the senses to the external world ...
Tabulata: major division of extinct coral animals found as fossils in Ordovician to Jurassic marine rocks (505 million to 144 million years old). Tabulata is characterized by the presence of interior platforms, or tabulae, and by a general lack of vertical ...
Tabun: site of paleoanthropological excavations in a deep rock shelter located on the edge of Mount Carmel and facing the Mediterranean Sea in northern Israel. Artifacts discovered in a long sequence of deposits at this site document patterns of change in ...
Tabwa: a people who live mainly on the southwestern shores of Lake Tanganyika, on the high grassy plateaus of the Marungu massif in extreme southeastern Congo (Kinshasa). Some also live in northeasternmost Zambia and along the Luapula River. Tabwa speak a ...
Tachikawa: city, Tokyo to (metropolis), Honshu, Japan. It lies along the Chuo Line (railway), east of Tokyo city. In 1922 an army airfield was constructed nearby, and large munitions and aircraft factories were concentrated in the city. After World War II ...
tachinid fly: a member of any species of the insect family Tachinidae (order Diptera), with larvae that are internal parasites of other insects. Ranging in size from 2 to 18 mm (0.08 to 0.7 inch), many hairy adult tachinids superficially resemble houseflies. ...
Tachira: state, western Venezuela, bounded on the west by Colombia. The territory of 4,300 square miles (11,100 square km) lies in the southwestern reaches of the Andean Cordillera de Merida. Agriculture dominates the state's economy; coffee and sugarcane are the leading ...
Tachism: (from tache, "spot"), style of painting practiced in Paris after World War II and through the 1950s that, like its American equivalent, Action painting, featured the intuitive, spontaneous gesture of the artist's brushstroke. Developed by the young painters Hans Hartung, ...
tachometer: device for indicating the angular (rotary) speed of a rotating shaft. The term is usually restricted to mechanical or electrical instruments that indicate instantaneous values of speed in revolutions per minute, rather than devices that count the number of revolutions ...
Tachos: second king (reigned 365-360 BC) of the 30th dynasty of Egypt; he led an unsuccessful attack on the Persians in Phoenicia. Tachos was aided in the undertaking by the aged Spartan king Agesilaus II, who led a body of Greek ...