Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Pendentives pendentive, in architecture, a constructive device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. The pendentives, whic...

(Encyclopedia) Constantine I, 1868–1923, king of the Hellenes, eldest son of George I, whom he succeeded in 1913. Married to Sophia, sister of the German emperor William II, he opposed the pro-Allied policy of the...

(Encyclopedia) Nicosia nĭkəsēˈə [key], Gr. Levkosia, Turkish Lefkoşa, city (1992 pop. 177,410), capital of Cyprus, on the Pedieos River in the central plain of the island. It is also the center of an administr...

(Encyclopedia) Yaroslav (Yaroslav the Wise) yərəslävˈ [key], 978–1054, grand duke of Kiev (1019–54); son of Vladimir I. Designated by his father to rule in Novgorod, he became grand duke of Kiev after defeat...

(Encyclopedia) Hanover hănˈōvər [key], Ger. Hannover, former independent kingdom and former province of Germany; Lower Saxony, NW Germany. Very irregular in outline, Hanover stretched from the Dutch border and t...

(Encyclopedia) Kiev or Kyiv kēˈĕf, –ĕv [key], Ukrainian Kyyiv, Rus. Kiyev, city (1990 est. pop. 2,600,000) and municipality with the status of a region (oblast), capital of Ukraine and of Kiev region, a port o...

(Encyclopedia) Tolstoy, Leo, Count, Rus. Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoi (lyĕf), 1828–1910, Russian novelist and philosopher, considered one of the world's greatest writers. About 1876 the doubts that had beset Tols...

(Encyclopedia) narthex närˈthĕks [key], entrance feature peculiar to early Christian and Byzantine churches, although also found in some Romanesque churches, especially in France and Italy. Usually extending acro...

(Encyclopedia) Hanover, Ger. Hannover, city, capital of Lower Saxony, N Germany, on the Leine River and the Midland Canal. It is a major industrial, commercial, ...

(Encyclopedia) baptistery băpˈtĭstrē [key], part of a church, or a separate building in connection with it, used for administering baptism. In the earliest examples it was merely a basin or pool set into the flo...