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Albert II, prince of Monaco

(Encyclopedia)Albert II, 1958–, prince of Monaco (2005–), grad. Amherst College (B.A., 1981). A member of the long-ruling Grimaldi family, he is the son of Prince Rainier III, upon whose death he succeeded to t...

Ptolemaïs, ancient cities, Asia and Africa

(Encyclopedia)Ptolemaïs tŏləmāˈīs [key], ancient name given to several cities to honor members of the dynasty of the Ptolemies. One of these later became known as Akko, in modern Israel. Another was one of th...

Berenice, c.280–46 b.c., queen-consort of ancient Syria

(Encyclopedia)Berenice, c.280–46 b.c., queen-consort of ancient Syria; wife of Antiochus II. She was called Berenice Syra. She was the daughter of Ptolemy II, and her marriage (252) to Antiochus II marked a tempo...

Hadad, in ancient Middle Eastern religions

(Encyclopedia)Hadad āˈdăd [key], ancient weather god of Semitic origin, worshiped in Babylonia and Assyria. Important throughout the Middle East, he was worshiped under many names. As god of the storm, he was, a...

ice skating

(Encyclopedia)ice skating, gliding along an ice surface on keellike runners known as ice skates. The earliest skates (c.9th cent.), made of bone, were found in Sweden. Wooden skates with iron facings appeared in ...

Troy , ancient city, Asian Turkey

(Encyclopedia)Troy, ancient city made famous by Homer's account of the Trojan War. It is also called Ilion or, in Latin, Ilium. Its site is almost universally accepted as the mound now named Hissarlik, in Asian Tur...

Colossus of Rhodes

(Encyclopedia)Colossus of Rhodes kəlŏsˈəs [key], large statue of Helios, the sun god, destroyed by an earthquake in antiquity. Consider one of the Seven Wonders of the World by the ancients, it was built in par...

Berenice, c.273–21 b.c., queen of ancient Cyrene and Egypt

(Encyclopedia)Berenice, c.273–21 b.c., queen of ancient Cyrene and Egypt. She was the daughter and successor of King Magas of Cyrene. In 247 b.c. she married Ptolemy III, thereby effectively annexing Cyrene to Eg...

Urgench , ancient city, present-day Turkmenistan

(Encyclopedia)Urgench o͝orgyĕnchˈ [key], ancient city of central Asia, on the site of present-day Kunya-Urgench (Köhne Ürgenç), in Turkmenistan. It lies c.85 mi (140 km) NW of modern Urganch, Uzbekistan. A ma...

Aulis

(Encyclopedia)Aulis ôˈlĭs [key], small port of ancient Greece, in Boeotia, E central Greece. From there the Greek fleet sailed against Troy after the sacrifice of Iphigenia. Its ancient temple of Artemis is in r...