Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Europe yo͝orˈəp [key], 6th largest continent, c.4,000,000 sq mi (10,360,000 sq km) including adjacent islands (2015 est. pop. 740,814,000). It is actually a vast peninsula of the great Euras...

(Encyclopedia) Hittite art and architecture, works of art and structures created by the ancient Hittites The principal architectural remnant of the Hittite civilization is at Boğazköy, where temple structures ...

(Encyclopedia) river, stream of water larger than a brook or creek. Land surfaces are never perfectly flat, and as a result the runoff after precipitation tends to flow downward by the shortest and steepest course i...

(Encyclopedia) Gaul gôl [key], Lat. Gallia, ancient designation for the land S and W of the Rhine, W of the Alps, and N of the Pyrenees. The name was extended by the Romans to include Italy from Lucca and Rimini no...

(Encyclopedia) pottery, the baked-clay wares of the entire ceramics field. For a description of the nature of the material, see clay. American art pottery flourished in the first half of the 20th cent., with wor...

(Encyclopedia) mummy, dead human or animal body preserved by embalming or by unusual natural conditions. As a rule mummies are from ancient times. The word is of Arabic derivation and refers primarily to the burials...

(Encyclopedia) mountain men, fur trappers and traders in the Rocky Mts. during the 1820s and 30s. Their activities opened that region of the United States to general knowledge. Since the days of French domination th...

(Encyclopedia) Yucatán yo͞okətănˈ [key], peninsula, c.70,000 sq mi (181,300 sq km), mostly in SE Mexico, separating the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico. It comprises the states of Yucatán, Campeche, and ...

(Encyclopedia) Sumatra so͝omäˈtrə [key], island (1990 pop. 36,471,731), c.183,000 sq mi (473,970 sq km), Indonesia, in the Indian Ocean along the equator, S and W of the Malay Peninsula (from which it is separat...

(Encyclopedia) Punjab pŭnˌjäbˈ [key] [Pers.,=five rivers], historic region in the NW of the Indian subcontinent. Since 1947 it has been separated into an Indian state and a Pakistani province bearing the same na...