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Kubu Island
Kubu Island (Ga'nnyo) is a dry granite rock island located in the Makgadikgadi Pan area of Botswana. The island is located a few kilometers away from Orapa and Letlhakane mining towns and can be accessed through Mmatshumo in the Boteti district. The entire island is a national monument, and is considered a sacred site by the indigenous people of the area. It is accessible by four wheel drive vehicles and has basic camping facilities. The campsite is run for the benefit of the local population. ''Top Gear'' presenter Jeremy Clarkson described the island as "just about the most astonishing place I've ever been" on the Botswana Special episode. Natural history The Makgadikgadi Pan is a large salt pan in northern Botswana, the largest salt flat complex in the world. These salt pans cover approximately 16,000 km2 and form the bed of the ancient Lake Makgadikgadi that began evaporating millennia ago. Archaeological heritage The name ''Kubu'' means either "large rock" in the Kal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tswana
Tswana may refer to: * Tswana people, the Bantu speaking people in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other Southern Africa regions * Tswana language, the language spoken by the (Ba)Tswana people * Bophuthatswana, the former bantustan for the Tswana people * Tswana cattle Tswana is an indigenous beef cattle breed of Botswana. It is a Sanga cattle, Sanga type, similar to Barotse and Tuli (cattle), Tuli. Its colour is plain black or multi coloured: usually red pied, and rarely black pied. The breed can also be found ..., an indigenous beef cattle breed of Botswana {{disambiguation Language and nationality disambiguation pages ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeremy Clarkson
Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' and ''The Grand Tour'' alongside Richard Hammond and James May. He also currently writes weekly columns for ''The Sunday Times'' and ''The Sun (United Kingdom), The Sun''. Since 2018, Clarkson has hosted the ITV (TV network), ITV game show ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (British game show), Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?''. From a career as a local journalist in northern England, Clarkson rose to public prominence as a presenter of the Top Gear (1977 TV series), original format of ''Top Gear'' in 1988. Since the mid-1990s, he has become a recognised public personality, regularly appearing on British television presenting his own shows for BBC and appearing as a guest on other shows. As well as motoring, Clarkson has produced programmes an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cairn
A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistoric times, they were raised as markers, as memorials and as burial monuments (some of which contained chambers). In modern times, cairns are often raised as landmarks, especially to mark the summits of mountains. Cairns are also used as trail markers. They vary in size from small stone markers to entire artificial hills, and in complexity from loose conical rock piles to elaborate megalithic structures. Cairns may be painted or otherwise decorated, whether for increased visibility or for religious reasons. A variant is the inuksuk (plural inuksuit), used by the Inuit and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America. History Europe The building of cairns for various purposes goes back into prehistory in Eurasia, ranging in s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes. Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. It is usually considered an independent academic discipline, but may also be classified as part of anthropology (in North America – the four-field approach), history or geography. Archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology is distinct from palaeontology, which is the study of fossil remains. Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for which, by definition, there are no written records. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the adven ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tswana Language
Tswana, also known by its Endonym and exonym, native name , and previously spelled Sechuana in English, is a Bantu language spoken in Southern Africa by about 8.2 million people. It belongs to the Bantu languages, Bantu language family within the Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana branch of Guthrie classification of Bantu languages#Zone S, Zone S (S.30), and is closely related to the Northern Sotho language, Northern Sotho and Sotho language, Southern Sotho languages, as well as the Kgalagadi language and the Lozi language. Setswana is an official language of Botswana and South Africa. It is a lingua franca in Botswana and parts of South Africa, particularly North West Province. Tswana tribes are found in more than two provinces of South Africa, primarily in the North West (South African province), North West, where about four million people speak the language. An urbanised variety, which is part slang and not the formal Setswana, is known as Pretoria Sotho, and is the prin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hippopotamus
The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae, the other being the pygmy hippopotamus (''Choeropsis liberiensis'' or ''Hexaprotodon liberiensis''). Its name comes from the ancient Greek for "river horse" (). Aside from elephants and rhinos, the hippopotamus is the largest land mammal. It is also the largest extant land artiodactyl. Despite their physical resemblance to pigs and other terrestrial even-toed ungulates, the closest living relatives of the hippopotamids are cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises, etc.), from which they diverged about 55 million years ago. Hippos are recognisable for their barrel-shaped torsos, wide-opening mouths with large canine tusks, nearly hairless bodies, pillar-like legs, and large size: adults average ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kalanga Language
Kalanga, or ''TjiKalanga'' (in Zimbabwe), is a Bantu language spoken by the Kalanga people in Botswana and Zimbabwe. It has an extensive phoneme inventory, which includes palatalised, velarised, aspirated and breathy-voiced consonants, as well as whistled sibilants. Kalanga is recognised as an official language by the Zimbabwean Constitution of 2013 and is taught in schools in areas where its speakers predominate.The iKalanga language is closely related to the Nambya, TshiVenda, and KheLobedu languages of Zimbabwe and South Africa. Classification and varieties Linguists place Kalanga (S.16 in Guthrie's classification) and Nambya (in the Hwange region of Zimbabwe) as the western branch of the Shona group (or Shonic, or Shona-Nyai) group of languages, collectively coded as S.10. Kalanga has a dialectal variation between its Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Makgadikgadi
Lake Makgadikgadi ( tn, Letsha la Makgadikgadi, label=Setswana, ) was a paleolake that existed in what is now the Kalahari Desert in Botswana from 2,000,000 years BP to 10,000 years BP. It may have once covered an area of from and was 30 m deep. The Okavango, Upper Zambezi, and Cuando rivers once all emptied into the lake. Its remains are seen in the Makgadikgadi salt pans, one of the largest salt pans in the world. DNA research suggests the lake region is the homeland of ''Homo sapiens'', where humans first evolved as a distinct species about 200,000 years ago, before expanding to other parts of Africa about 70,000 years later. Origin and history Approximately 3 million years ago, strong easterly winds formed long dunes, which ran from east to west across the middle of the Kalahari Desert. During wetter times, these dunes channeled the great rivers of the area, the Okavango, Chobe, and Upper Zambezi, southeastward to join with the Limpopo River and drain into the Ind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salt Pan (geology)
Natural salt pans or salt flats are flat expanses of ground covered with salt and other minerals, usually shining white under the sun. They are found in deserts and are natural formations (unlike salt evaporation ponds, which are artificial). A salt pan forms by evaporation of a water pool, such as a lake or pond. This happens in climates where the rate of water evaporation exceeds the rate of that is, in a desert. If the water cannot drain into the ground, it remains on the surface until it evaporates, leaving behind minerals precipitated from the salt ions dissolved in the water. Over thousands of years, the minerals (usually salts) accumulate on the surface. These minerals reflect the sun's rays (through radiation) and often appear as white areas. Salt pans can be dangerous. The crust of salt can conceal a quagmire of mud that can engulf a truck. The Qattara Depression in the eastern Sahara Desert contains many such traps which served as strategic barriers during World ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Top Gear (current Format)
Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the original show * ''Top Gear'' (2011 TV series), a Chinese adaptation * ''Top Gear'' (2014 TV series), another Chinese adaptation * ''Top Gear'' (American TV series), 2010–2016 * ''Top Gear America'', a 2017 series * ''Top Gear Australia, 2008–2012 * ''Top Gear France'', from 2015 * ''Top Gear Italia'', 2016 * ''Top Gear Korea'', from 2011 * ''Top Gear Russia'', 2009 Other uses * ''Top Gear'' (magazine), a British magazine based on the TV show ** ''Top Gear'' (Indian magazine) * ''Top Gear'' (radio programme), BBC radio music programme 1964–1975 *Top Gear (retailer), clothes boutique of the 1960s in London * ''Top Gear'' (video game series) ** ''Top Gear'' (video game), for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System See also * Propulsi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Makgadikgadi Pan
The Makgadikgadi Pan (Tswana pronunciation ), a salt pan situated in the middle of the dry savanna of north-eastern Botswana, is one of the largest salt flats in the world. The pan is all that remains of the formerly enormous Lake Makgadikgadi, which once covered an area larger than Switzerland, but dried up tens of thousands of years ago. Recent studies of human mitochondrial DNA suggest that modern ''Homo sapiens'' first began to evolve in this region some 200,000 years ago, when it was a vast, exceptionally fertile area of lakes, rivers, marshes, woodlands and grasslands especially favorable for habitation by evolving hominins and other mammals. Location and description Lying southeast of the Okavango Delta and surrounded by the Kalahari Desert, Makgadikgadi is technically not a single pan, but many pans with sandy desert in between, the largest being the Sua (Sowa), Ntwetwe and Nxai Pans. The largest individual pan is about . In comparison, Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Monument
A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a specific monument status, such as a national heritage site, by reason of their cultural importance rather than age (''see National Monument (United States)''). National monument status is usually granted to colossal symbols of national identity. Overview Structures or areas deemed to be of national importance and afforded protection by the state are part of a country's cultural heritage. These national heritage sites are often called something different per country and are listed by national conservation societies. Romania has listed at least one plant as a national monument, ''Nymphaea lotus'' f. ''thermalis''. Example National monument * National Monument (Bosnia and Herzegovina) *The National Monument ( Central Jakarta) *Maqam Echah ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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