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Tashkent

(Encyclopedia)Tashkent tŏsh– [key], city (1992 pop. 2,133,000), capital of Tashkent region and of Uzbekistan, in the foothills of the Tian Shan mts.; the name is also spelled Dashkent. The largest and one of the...

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

(Encyclopedia)International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) (IBRD), independent specialized agency of the United Nations, with headquarters at Washington, D.C.; one of five closely associated develop...

Avars

(Encyclopedia)Avars äˈvärz [key], mounted nomad people who in the 4th and 5th cent. dominated the steppes of central Asia. Dislodged by stronger tribes, the Avars pushed west, increasing their formidable army by...

lake dwelling

(Encyclopedia)lake dwelling, prehistoric habitation built over the shallow waters of a lake shore or a marsh, usually erected on pile-supported platforms, but sometimes on artificial islands or mounds. Such a site ...

Manzikert

(Encyclopedia)Manzikert mănˈzĭkərt [key], Turk. Malazgirt, village, E Turkey, SE of Erzurum. It was an important town of ancient Armenia. A council held there in a.d. 726 reasserted the independence of the Arme...

Sargon, king of Akkad

(Encyclopedia)Sargon särˈgŏn [key], king of Akkad in Mesopotamia (reigned c.2340–c.2305 b.c.). By conquest he established a great empire that included the whole of Mesopotamia and extended over Syria and Elam,...

Rawlinson, Sir Henry Creswicke

(Encyclopedia)Rawlinson, Sir Henry Creswicke, 1810–95, English Orientalist and administrator; brother of George Rawlinson. In the course of his service with the Persian army and as consul at Baghdad, Rawlinson be...

Taylor, Bayard

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, Bayard, 1825–78, American journalist and author, b. Kennett Square, Pa. His romantic verse in Ximena … and Other Poems (1844) secured him a long-standing assignment as correspondent fo...

Toba

(Encyclopedia)Toba tōˈbä [key], largest lake of Indonesia, 448 sq mi (1,160 sq km), N Sumatra. Situated in a vast volcanic caldera that is 1,475 ft (450 m) deep and was formed by a tremendous eruption some 74,00...

Richthofen, Ferdinand, Baron von

(Encyclopedia)Richthofen, Ferdinand, Baron von fĕrˈdēnänt bärōnˈ fən rĭkhtˈhōfən [key], 1833–1905, German geographer, geologist, and traveler. He took part in a Prussian expedition in E Asia (1860–6...