Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

76 results found

pre-Columbian art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)pre-Columbian art and architecture, works of art and structures created in Central and South America before the arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere. For many years the regions that are now ...

Montejo, Francisco de

(Encyclopedia)Montejo, Francisco de fränthēsˈkō dā mōntāˈhō [key], c.1479–c.1548, Spanish conquistador. He served in Cuba under Diego Velásquez, later commanded a vessel in the expedition of Juan de Gri...

Ríos Montt, José Efraín

(Encyclopedia)Ríos Montt, José Efraín hōsāˈ ĕfräēnˈ rēˈōs mōnt [key], 1926–2018, Guatemalan general and politician. A career army officer, he became head of the Guatamalan army in 1970. As a Christi...

Yucatán, peninsula, North America

(Encyclopedia)Yucatán yo͞okətănˈ, peninsula, c.70,000 sq mi (181,300 sq km), mostly in SE Mexico, separating the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico. It comprises the states of Yucatán, Campeche, and Quinta...

Petén

(Encyclopedia)Petén pātānˈ [key], region, c.15,000 sq mi (38,850 sq km), N Guatemala. A humid expanse of dense, tropical hardwood forests interrupted by savannas and crisscrossed by ranges of hills, it is relat...

Shakti

(Encyclopedia)Shakti shŭkˈtē [key] [Skt.,=power], in Hinduism, name given to the female consorts of male deities. The Shakti personifies the dynamic, manifesting energy that creates the universe, while the male ...

Aldan, river, Russia

(Encyclopedia)Aldan, river, c.1,400 mi (2,250 km) long, rising in the Stanovoy Range, Sakha Republic, SE Siberian Russia. It flows north and east, past Tommot and around the Aldan Plateau, before flowing generally ...

Quintana Roo

(Encyclopedia)Quintana Roo kēntäˈnä rōˈō [key], state (1990 pop. 493,277), 19,630 sq mi (50,842 sq km), SE Mexico, on the Caribbean. Chetumal is the capital. Occupying most of the eastern part of the Yucatá...

Stephens, John Lloyd

(Encyclopedia)Stephens, John Lloyd, 1805–52, American author and traveler, b. Shrewsbury, N.J., grad. Columbia College, 1822. His travels (1834–36) in Europe, the Middle East, and Central America provided the m...

Browse by Subject