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Indus Worm
The skōlex (Indus worm or the horrible Indian worm), in ancient Greek writings, was a supposed giant, white, carnivorous worm with a large pair of teeth that lived in the Indus River. Etymology Gustav Oppert in the 19th century reasoned that ''skōlex'' referred to a like-sounding word in the Indian language, and was convinced the word was ''culukī'' ( sa, चुलुकी) for "fish" or "porpoise". In his opinion, the word could refer even to a "crocodile" by extension. Scholar Erik Seldeslachts, in a 1998 paper, has suggested parallel with ''kṛmiḥ'' ( sa, कृमिः) which has the dual meaning of "worm" and a name of a nāgarāja or "serpent king". Description Ctesias's ''Indica'' described the worm or ''skōlex'' ( gr, σκώληξ) as the only creature to inhabit the Indus. It resembled the worm which infested figs, but averaged 7 cubits (10 ft) in length. It had a pair of large teeth, one on the upper jaw and one on the lower. The teeth were square, measur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indus River
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, Quote: "Kashmir, region of the northwestern Indian subcontinent. It is bounded by the Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang to the northeast and the Tibet Autonomous Region to the east (both parts of China), by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south, by Pakistan to the west, and by Afghanistan to the northwest. The northern and western portions are administered by Pakistan and comprise three areas: Azad Kashmir, Gilgit, and Baltistan, ... The southern and southeastern portions constitute the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian- and Pakistani-administered portions are divided by a "line of control" agreed to in 1972, although neither country recognizes it as an international boundary. In addition, China became ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil and petroleum products that consist of refined crude oil. A fossil fuel, petroleum is formed when large quantities of dead organisms, mostly zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock and subjected to both prolonged heat and pressure. Petroleum is primarily recovered by oil drilling. Drilling is carried out after studies of structural geology, sedimentary basin analysis, and reservoir characterisation. Recent developments in technologies have also led to exploitation of other unconventional reserves such as oil sands and oil shale. Once extracted, oil is refined and separated, most easily by distillation, into innumerable products for direct use or use in manufacturing. Products include fuels such as gasol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mongolian Death Worm
The Mongolian death worm ( mn, олгой-хорхой, ''olgoi-khorkhoi'', "large intestine-worm") is a creature alleged to exist in the Gobi Desert. The creature first came to Western attention as a result of Roy Chapman Andrews's 1926 book ''On the Trail of Ancient Man''. The American paleontologist described second-hand tales of the monster that he heard at a gathering of Mongolian officials: "None of those present ever had seen the creature, but they all firmly believed in its existence and described it minutely." In 1983 a specimen of Tartar sand boa (''Eryx tataricus'') was shown to locals who claimed to have seen "olgoi-khorkhoi" and they confirmed that this was the same animal. Appearance In ''On the Trail of Ancient Man'', Andrews cites Mongolian Prime Minister Damdinbazar, who in 1922 described the worm: In 1932, Andrews published this information again in the book ''The New Conquest of Central Asia'', adding: "It is reported to live in the most arid, sandy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander The Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II of Macedon, Philip II to the throne in 336 BC at the age of 20, and spent most of his ruling years conducting a lengthy military campaign throughout Western Asia and ancient Egypt, Egypt. By the age of thirty, he had created one of the List of largest empires, largest empires in history, stretching from Greece to northwestern Historical India, India. He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered to be one of history's greatest and most successful military commanders. Until the age of 16, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle. In 335 BC, shortly after his assumption of kingship over Macedon, he Alexander's Balkan campaign, campaigned in the Balkans and reasserted control ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odontotyrannos
Odontotyrannos ( gr, όδοντοτύραννος), also odontotyrannus or dentityrannus ("tooth-tyrant") is a mythical three-horned beast said to have attacked Alexander the Great and his men at their camp in India, according to the apocryphal '' Letter from Alexander to Aristotle'' and other medieval romantic retellings of Alexandrian legend. Descriptions According to the Latin ''Letter from Alexander'', the creature had a black, horse-like head with three horns protruding from its forehead, and exceeded the size of an elephant. It was undeterred by the sight of fire, killing twenty-six Macedonians and incapacitating fifty-two before being put down by thrusts from hunting spears. The local Indians reportedly called the beast "tooth-tyrant" (''dentityrranus'' or ''odontatyrannus''). A fourth-century Latin translation of the ''Alexander Romance'' by Julius Valerius Alexander Polemius, known as the ''Res gestae Alexandri Macedonis'', spells the beast's name as ''odontotyrannus' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ganges Dolphin
The Ganges river dolphin (''Platanista gangetica'') is a species of toothed whale classified in the family Platanistidae. It lives in the Ganges and related rivers of South Asia, namely in the countries of India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. It is related to the much smaller Indus river dolphin which lives in the Indus River in Pakistan and the Beas River of northwestern India. It is also known by the name ''susu'' (popular name) or "Sisu" (Assamese language) and ''shushuk'' (Bengali)., page 451 etter Aand page 568 etter S The Ganges river dolphin has been recognized by the government of India as its National Aquatic Animal and is the official animal of the Indian city of Guwahati. Its first occurrence, within the Hooghly River, was documented bWilliam Roxburgh Taxonomy The Ganges river dolphin split from the Indus river dolphin during the Pleistocene, around 550,000 years ago. This species and the Indus river dolphin, were initially classified as a single species, ''Platanista g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crocodilian
Crocodilia (or Crocodylia, both ) is an order of mostly large, predatory, semiaquatic reptiles, known as crocodilians. They first appeared 95 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period ( Cenomanian stage) and are the closest living relatives of birds, as the two groups are the only known survivors of the Archosauria. Members of the order's total group, the clade Pseudosuchia, appeared about 250 million years ago in the Early Triassic period, and diversified during the Mesozoic era. The order Crocodilia includes the true crocodiles (family Crocodylidae), the alligators and caimans (family Alligatoridae), and the gharial and false gharial (family Gavialidae). Although the term 'crocodiles' is sometimes used to refer to all of these, crocodilians is a less ambiguous vernacular term for members of this group. Large, solidly built, lizard-like reptiles, crocodilians have long flattened snouts, laterally compressed tails, and eyes, ears, and nostrils at the top o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naphtha
Naphtha ( or ) is a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture. Mixtures labelled ''naphtha'' have been produced from natural gas condensates, petroleum distillates, and the distillation of coal tar and peat. In different industries and regions ''naphtha'' may also be crude oil or refined products such as kerosene. ''Nephi'' and ''naphthar'' are sometimes used as synonyms. It is also known as Shellite in Australia. Etymology The word ''naphtha'' is from Latin and Ancient Greek (νάφθα), derived from Middle Persian ''naft'' ("wet", "naphtha"), the latter meaning of which was an assimilation from the Akkadian ''napṭu'' (see Semitic relatives such as Arabic ''nafṭ'' petroleum" Syriac ܢܰܦܬܳܐ ''naftā'') and Hebrew נֵפְט ''neft'' (meaning petroleum). In Ancient Greek, it was used to refer to any sort of petroleum or pitch. There is a hypothesis that the word is connected with the name of the Indo-Iranian god Apam Napat, which occurs in Vedic and in Avestic; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grenades
A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade generally consists of an explosive charge ("filler"), a detonator mechanism, an internal striker to trigger the detonator, and a safety lever secured by a cotter pin. The user removes the safety pin before throwing, and once the grenade leaves the hand the safety lever gets released, allowing the striker to trigger a primer that ignites a fuze (sometimes called the delay element), which burns down to the detonator and explodes the main charge. Grenades work by dispersing fragments ( fragmentation grenades), shockwaves ( high-explosive, anti-tank and stun grenades), chemical aerosols (smoke and gas grenades) or fire (incendiary grenades). Fragmentation grenades ("frags") are probably the most common in modern armies, and when the word ''gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gustav Solomon Oppert
Gustav Solomon Oppert, (30 July 1836 – 1 March 1908) was a German Indologist and Sanskritist. He was a professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology, Presidency College, Madras, a Telugu translator to government, and a curator in the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library. He was a professor in Madras from 1872 to 1893. He was also editor of the ''Madras Journal of Literature and Science'' from 1878 to 1882. After traveling in north India from 1893 to 1894, he returned to Europe in 1894. Early life Oppert was born in Hamburg on 30 July 1836 and counted Julius Oppert and Ernst Oppert among his eleven siblings. He obtained a PhD in 1860, having attended four universities - Bonn, Leipzig, Berlin and Halle - and in 1866 became an assistant librarian at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England. He also took a similar post at Windsor Castle for Queen Victoria. Orientalist In 1872, Oppert was appointed professor of Sanskrit at the Presidency College in Madras. He stayed in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beas River
The Beas River (Sanskrit: ; Hyphasis in Ancient Greek) is a river in north India. The river rises in the Himalayas in central Himachal Pradesh, India, and flows for some to the Sutlej River in the Indian state of Punjab. Its total length is and its drainage basin is large. As of 2017, the river is home to a tiny isolated population of the Indus dolphin. Etymology Veda Vyasa, the author of Indian epic Mahabharata, is the eponym of the river Beas; he is said to have created it from its source lake, the Beas Kund. Before Veda Vyasa, the Vipasa river was known as Saraswati. Rishi Vashishta, the great grandfather of Vyasa tried to jump into this river from an overlooking hillock, to sacrifice his soul. He tied himself with several cords to drown himself. However, the river altered form to become a sandbed, saving him. And in this course, the cords got broken, so Vashishta named the river Vipasa, which means cord-breaker. On account of this incident, the great Rishi opted to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philostratus
Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; grc-gre, Φιλόστρατος ; c. 170 – 247/250 AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He was born probably around 170, and is said by the ''Suda'' to have been living in the reign of emperor Philip the Arab (244–249). His death possibly occurred in Tyre c. 250 AD. Name and identity Some ambiguity surrounds his name. The name ''Flavius'' is given in ''The Lives of the Sophists'' and Tzetzes. Eunapius and Synesius call him a Lemnian; Photius a Tyrian; his letters refer to him as an Athenian. It is probable that he was born in Lemnos, studied and taught at Athens, and then settled in Rome (where he would naturally be called ''Atheniensis'') as a member of the learned circle with which empress Julia Domna surrounded herself. Works attributed to Philostratus Historians agree that Philostratus authored at least five works: ''Life of Apollo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
