Monastery

Local community or residence of a religious order, particularly an order of monks. See abbey; monasticism.

Punic War, Second

In the years after the First Punic War, Rome wrested Corsica and Sardinia from Carthage and forced Carthaginians to pay an even greater indemnity than the payment exacted immediately following the war. Eventually,

Allergy

Antigens that provoke an allergic reaction are called allergens. Typical allergens include pollens, drugs, lints, bacteria, foods, and dyes or chemicals. The immune system contains several mechanisms

Aust-agder

Fylke (county), southern Norway. With an area of 3,557 square miles (9,212 square km), it extends 120 miles (190 km) northwestward into the mountains from the coastline on the Skagerrak (strait between Norway and Denmark). The landscape is broken and uneven, with the Setes Valley in the west bounded by steep coniferous-forested mountains rising to 3,500 feet (1,070 m); branching valleys in the middle of the

Caria

Ancient district of southwestern Anatolia. One of the most thoroughly Hellenized districts, its territory included Greek cities along its Aegean shore and a mountainous interior bounded by Lydia in the north and by Phrygia and Lycia in the east. The non-Greek Carians of the interior considered themselves an indigenous people and claimed kinship with the Lydians

Biblical Literature, French versions

The first complete Bible was produced in the 13th century at the University of Paris and toward the end of that century Guyart des Moulins executed his Bible Historiale. Both works served as the basis of future redactions of which

Crawford, William H(arris)

After living in Virginia and South Carolina, the Crawford family moved to Georgia, where William attended Moses Waddel's Carmel Academy. He then taught school in Augusta,

Macbeth

Tragedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, performed at the Globe Theatre, London, in 1605–06 and published in the First Folio of 1623, from a promptbook of a version prepared for court performance. Some portions of the original text are corrupted or missing from the published edition. The play is the shortest of Shakespeare's tragedies, without diversions or subplots. It chronicles

Fabius Maximus Cunctator, Quintus

Fabius was consul in 233 and 228 and censor

Arabia, Plant life

The date palm grows almost everywhere, except at very high elevations and in Dhofar, on the coast of which it is replaced by the coconut palm. The date is a source of food, and uses are found for the trunk, branches, and fibre of the date palm. Among places noted for high-quality date-palm production are Medina, Bishah, and Al-Hasa. Alfalfa (lucerne), widely used as fodder, often fills

Qanat

Also spelled  kanat  (Arabic), Persian  karez , Berber Arabic  foggara  ancient type of water-supply system developed and still used in arid regions of the world. A qanat taps underground mountain water sources trapped in and beneath the upper reaches of alluvial fans and channels the water downhill through a series of tunnels, often several kilometres long, to the places where it is needed for irrigation and domestic use. The development

Earth Exploration

The overall oblate shape of the Earth was established by French Academy expeditions between 1735 and 1743. The Earth's mean density and total mass were determined by the English physicist and chemist Henry Cavendish in about 1797. It was later ascertained that the density of rocks on the Earth's surface is significantly less than the mean density, leading to the assumption that