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Franks

(Encyclopedia)Franks, group of Germanic tribes. By the 3d cent. a.d., they were settled along the lower and middle Rhine. The two major divisions were the Salian Franks in the north and the Ripuarian Franks in the ...

Sinan

(Encyclopedia)Sinan sēnän [key], Muslim architect, 1490?–1588?. He is regarded as the greatest of Islamic builders, and his finest achievements lie in his solutions to spatial problems posed by dome-topped stru...

barley

(Encyclopedia)barley, annual cereal plant (Hordeum vulgare and sometimes other species) of the family Poaceae (grass family), cultivated by humans probably as early as any cereal. It was known to the ancient Greeks...

Lebanon, mountain range, Asia

(Encyclopedia)Lebanon, ancient Libanus, mountain range, c.100 mi (160 km) long, paralleling the Mediterranean Sea from S Lebanon N into Syria and rising steeply from the coast. Qurnet as Sawda (10,131 ft/3,088 m) i...

Izvolsky, Aleksandr Petrovich

(Encyclopedia)Izvolsky, Aleksandr Petrovich əlyĭksänˈdər pētrôˈvĭch ēzvôlˈskē [key], 1856–1919, Russian diplomat instrumental in fostering the Triple Entente with France and Great Britain. He rose in...

MERS

(Encyclopedia)MERS or Middle East respiratory syndrome, relatively rare viral disease caused by MERS-CoV, a coronavirus. Although some infected persons have no or only coldlike symptoms, in most known cases of MERS...

Peace

(Encyclopedia)Peace, river, 945 mi (1,521 km) long, formed by the junction of the Finlay and Parsnip rivers at Williston Lake, N central British Columbia, Canada. It flows east through the Rocky Mts., then generall...

brasses, ornamental

(Encyclopedia)brasses, ornamental. Brass, a copper-zinc alloy produced since imperial Roman times, is closely associated in art with bronze, a copper-tin alloy (see bronze sculpture). Brass was generally fashioned ...

cyclone

(Encyclopedia)cyclone, atmospheric pressure distribution in which there is a low central pressure relative to the surrounding pressure. The resulting pressure gradient, combined with the Coriolis effect, causes air...

Mound Builders

(Encyclopedia)Mound Builders, in North American archaeology, name given to those people who built mounds in a large area from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian ...
 

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