Kaf, Al-

Also spelled  El-kef, or Le Kef,   town, northwestern Tunisia. The town is situated at an elevation of 2,559 feet (780 m) on the slopes of the Haut (high) Tell, 22 miles (35 km) from the Algerian border. It occupies the site of an ancient Carthaginian town and later Roman colony—Sicca Veneria. Al-Kaf (“The Rock”) was an important stronghold during Turkish rule and is now a regional marketplace and strategic road junction on the

Andreini, Francesco

Andreini began his career as a soldier but was captured by the Turks and held in slavery by them for several years. Upon his return to Italy,

Wang Xizhi

It is said that even in his lifetime a few of Wang's characters or his signature were priceless; down through the ages, aspiring students of that most basic yet highest art in China, calligraphy, have copied and preserved traces of his style. The most famous example of his writing is the

Integument, Variations among vertebrates

The vertebrates belong to the phylum Chordata and are closely related to a small, fishlike, almost transparent invertebrate called amphioxus. Amphioxus represents chordate integument at its simplest: an epidermis, consisting of one layer of columnar or cuboidal epithelial cells and scattered mucous cells, covered by a thin cuticle, and a thin dermis of soft connective

Koda Rohan

Rohan's early education was strong in the Japanese and Chinese classics, and although he was graduated from a technical school in 1884, before long

Dubbo

City, east-central New South Wales, Australia, on the Macquarie River. Visited in 1818 by the explorer John Oxley, the district received its first settlers in 1824. Founded in 1841, Dubbo was an established village by 1849. It became a municipality in 1872 and a city in 1966. It is the trade centre of an area producing wheat, livestock, timber, and fruits and vegetables. Dubbo has slaughterhouses, flour

Bavand Dynasty

The origins and early years of the dynasty

Tyumen

Also spelled  Tiumen, or T'umen  ', oblast (province), central Russia, occupying an area of 554,100 square miles (1,435,200 square km) in the Ob-Irtysh Basin. In the extreme west the Ural Mountains attain 6,217 feet (1,895 m) in Mount Narodnaya, but the remainder of the oblast's huge area is a low, exceptionally flat plain, with innumerable lakes and very extensive swamps. The oblast stretches from tundra in the north, with its scanty vegetation

Solomon Islands

In midyear and at the invitation

Sevilla

, also spelled  Seville , ancient  Hispalis  city and capital of the provincia of Sevilla, in the Andalusia comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”) of southern Spain. Sevilla lies on the left (east) bank of the Guadalquivir River at a point about 54 miles (87 km) north of the Atlantic, and about 340 miles (550 km) southwest of Madrid. An inland port, it is the chief city of Andalusia and the fourth largest in Spain. Sevilla was important

Greece, History Of

Geographically, Greece forms the southernmost extension of the Balkan Peninsula. It is a region dominated by mountain systems, and, although not particularly high, these cover some 80 percent

Thomas, J.h.

In full  James Henry Thomas   British trade-union leader and politician, a shrewd and successful industrial negotiator who lost his standing in the labour movement when he joined Ramsay MacDonald's coalition government (August 1931). Later (May 1936) he was found responsible for the leakage of details of a proposed national budget to Stock Exchange speculators,