Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Burckhardt, Johann Ludwig

(Encyclopedia)Burckhardt, Johann Ludwig or John Lewis bo͝orkˈhärt [key], 1784–1817, European explorer, b. Switzerland, educated in Germany. Supported by an English association for promoting African discovery,...

Algiers

(Encyclopedia)Algiers älzhāˈ [key], city (2021 pop. 2,809,158), capital of Algeria, N Algeria, on the Bay of Algiers of the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the leading ports of North...

loosestrife

(Encyclopedia)loosestrife, common name for the Lythraceae, a widely distributed family of plants most abundant as woody shrubs in the American tropics but including also herbaceous species (chiefly of temperate zon...

Menelik II

(Encyclopedia)Menelik II mĕnˈəlĭk [key], 1844–1913, emperor of Ethiopia after 1889. He was originally ras (ruler) of Shoa (central Ethiopia). After the death (1868) of Emperor Tewodros II, Menelik, with Itali...

Michael, archangel

(Encyclopedia)Michael mīˈkəl [key] [Heb.,=who is like God?], archangel prominent in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim traditions. In the Bible and early Jewish literature, Michael is one of the angels of God's prese...

Mostar

(Encyclopedia)Mostar môˈstär [key], city (2013 pop. 65,286), in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the Neretva River. Its name means “Old Bridge,” referring to the 16th-century stone bridge built by Ottoman sultan S...

Muhammad, Benjamin Franklin Chavis

(Encyclopedia)Muhammad, Benjamin Franklin Chavis, 1948–, African-American civil-rights and religious leader, b. Oxford, N.C., as Benjamin Franklin Chavis, Jr. An activist from boyhood, he was a youth coordinator ...

Madurai

(Encyclopedia)Madurai mədo͝orīˈ [key], city (1991 pop. 1,085,914), Tamil Nadu state, S India, on the Vaigai River. It is known as the “city of festivals and temples” and is the second largest city in Tamil ...

Igbo

(Encyclopedia)Igbo ēˈbō [key], one of the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria, deriving mainly from SE Nigeria, numbering around 15 million. Originally settled in many autonomous villages, the Igbo nevertheless had...

Ternate

(Encyclopedia)Ternate tĕrnäˈtā [key], volcanic island (c.40 sq mi/100 sq km), E Indonesia, in the Molucca Sea, one of the Moluccas. Forested and mountainous, the nearly conical Ternate rises to the summit of Ga...