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Mazandaran

(Encyclopedia)Mazandaran dĕränˈ [key], province (1991 pop. 3,793,149), c.20,400 sq mi (52,840 sq km), N Iran, bordering the Caspian Sea in the north. Sari is the capital; other cities include Babol, Amul, and Go...

Kara Kum

(Encyclopedia)Kara Kum kärˌə ko͝omˈ [key], two deserts, one in Kazakhstan and one in Turkmenistan. The Caspian Kara Kum or Garagum, the larger desert (c.115,000 sq mi/297,900 sq km), is W of the Amu Darya Rive...

Aetolian League

(Encyclopedia)Aetolian League, confederation centering in the cities of Aetolia. It was formed in the 4th cent. b.c. and began to gain power in the 3d cent. in opposing the Achaean League and the Macedonians. At it...

Togo, Heihachiro

(Encyclopedia)Togo, Heihachiro hāˈhächĭrōˈ tōˈgō [key], 1846–1934, Japanese admiral, Japan's greatest naval hero. He studied naval science in England (1871–78), gained international recognition for his...

croaker

(Encyclopedia)croaker, member of the abundant and varied family Sciaenidae, carnivorous, spiny-finned fishes including the weakfishes, the drums, and the kingcroakers (or kingfish). The croaker has a compressed, el...

Essenes

(Encyclopedia)Essenes ĕsˈēnz [key], members of a small Jewish religious order, originating in the 2d cent. b.c. The chief sources of information about the Essenes are Pliny the Elder, Philo's Quod omnius probus ...

Galilee

(Encyclopedia)Galilee gălˈĭlē [key], region, N Israel, roughly the portion north of the plain of Esdraelon. Galilee was the chief scene of the ministry of Jesus. The Sea of Galilee (see Galilee, Sea of), the co...

Shackleton, Sir Ernest Henry

(Encyclopedia)Shackleton, Sir Ernest Henry, 1874–1922, British antarctic explorer, b. Ireland. The first of his voyages to Antarctica was made as a member of the expedition (1901–4) of Robert F. Scott. Shacklet...

troubadours

(Encyclopedia)troubadours tro͞oˈbədôrz [key], aristocratic poet-musicians of S France (Provence) who flourished from the end of the 11th cent. through the 13th cent. Many troubadours were noblemen and crusader ...

Coos

(Encyclopedia)Coos kōˈŏs [key], in the New Testament, island in the Aegean Sea, the present-day Kós. ...