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Fly, river, New Guinea

(Encyclopedia)Fly, largest river of the island of New Guinea, c.650 mi (1,050 km) long, rising in the Star Mts. and flowing generally SE through Papua New Guinea to the Gulf of Papua. The Fly is navigable for steam...

Cyrus the Great

(Encyclopedia)Cyrus the Great sīˈrəs [key], d. 529 b.c., king of Persia, founder of the greatness of the Achaemenids and of the Persian Empire. According to Herodotus, he was the son of an Iranian noble, the eld...

Santa Rosa Island

(Encyclopedia)Santa Rosa Island, narrow barrier beach between the Gulf of Mexico and Santa Rosa Sound, NW Fla. in the vicinity of Pensacola, extending c.50 mi (80 km) parallel to the coast. It is the site of Fort P...

San Fernando, city, Trinidad and Tobago

(Encyclopedia)San Fernando săn fərnănˈdō [key], city (1990 pop. 30,092), Trinidad and Tobago, on the Gulf of Paria. It is the country's second largest city and a commercial center for S Trinidad. ...

Saint Petersburg, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Saint Petersburg, city (1990 pop. 238,629), Pinellas co., W Fla., on Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico at the southern end of the Pinellas peninsula; settled in the mid-1800s, inc. 1892. A port with a ...

Astyages

(Encyclopedia)Astyages ăstīˈəjēz [key], fl. 6th cent. b.c., king of the Medes (584–c.550 b.c.), son and successor of Cyaxares. His rule was harsh, and he was unpopular. His daughter is alleged to have marrie...

Albumazar

(Encyclopedia)Albumazar älˌbo͞omäˈzər [key], 805?–885, Arab astronomer, more fully Abu-Mashar Jafar ibn Muhammad. In his De magnis conjunctionibus he claimed that the world had been created when the seven p...

Shaki, city, Azerbaijan

(Encyclopedia)Shaki shĕkˈ– [key], city (1989 pop. 56,223), N Azerbaijan, on the southern slopes of the Caucasus. It is a silk and manufacturing center in a district that grows fruit and rice. Until its annexati...

minaret

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Minaret minaret mĭnərĕtˈ [key], tower, used in Islamic architecture, from which the faithful are called to prayer by a muezzin. Most mosques have one or more small towers, which are usuall...

Omar Khayyam

(Encyclopedia)Omar Khayyam kīämˈ [key], fl. 11th cent., Persian poet and mathematician, b. Nishapur. He was called Khayyam [tentmaker] probably because of his father's occupation. The details of his life are mos...