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Gloucestershire

(Encyclopedia)Gloucestershire glŏsˈtərshĭrˌ, glôˈstər– [key], county, 1,025 sq mi (2,655 ...

Sierra Nevada, mountain range, United States

(Encyclopedia)Sierra Nevada sēĕrˈə nəväˈdə [key], mountain range, c.400 mi (640 km) long and from c.40 to 80 mi (60–130 km) wide, mostly in E Calif. It rises to 14,495 ft (4,418 m) in Mt. Whitney, the hig...

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...

Christianity

(Encyclopedia)Christianity, religion founded in Palestine by the followers of Jesus. One of the world's major religions, it predominates in Europe and the Americas, where it has been a powerful historical force and...

apocalypse

(Encyclopedia)apocalypse əpŏkˈəlĭps [key] [Gr.,=uncovering], genre represented in early Jewish and in Christian literature in which the secrets of the heavenly world or of the world to come are revealed by ang...

Vorarlberg

(Encyclopedia)Vorarlberg fōrˌärlˈbĕrkh [key], province (1991 pop. 331,472), 1,004 sq mi (2,600 sq km), extreme W Austria, bordering on Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Germany. Bregenz, on the eastern shore of ...

sacrifice

(Encyclopedia)sacrifice [Lat. sacrificare=to make holy], a type of religious offering, or gift to a superior or supreme being, in which the offering is consecrated through its destruction. The Paleolithic evidenc...

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...

Tavener, Sir John Kenneth

(Encyclopedia)Tavener, Sir John Kenneth tăvˈənər, –nə [key], 1944–2013, English composer, b. London; studied Royal Academy of Music. Tavener, whose work shows a consistent but evolving tonal or modal style...

Cheyne, Thomas Kelly

(Encyclopedia)Cheyne, Thomas Kelly chāˈnē [key], 1841–1915, English cleric and biblical critic, educated at Oxford. While studying at Göttingen, he was influenced by Georg Ewald and gained a view of German bi...