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Opar (fictional City)
Opar is a fictional lost city in the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs and later the Khokarsa novels of Philip José Farmer and Christopher Paul Carey, as well as various derivative works in other media. The city first appeared in Burroughs' second Tarzan novel, ''The Return of Tarzan'' (1913). In the works of Burroughs As envisioned by Burroughs, Opar is a lost colony of Atlantis located deep in the jungles of Africa, in which incredible riches have been stockpiled down through the ages. The city's population exhibits extreme sexual dimorphism caused by a combination of excessive inbreeding, cross-breeding with apes, and selective culling of offspring. Consequently, female Oparians appear perfectly human, while male Oparians are apelike brutes. The ruler and high priestess of the city is Queen La, who on her first encounter with Tarzan falls in love with him, and subsequently carries a torch for him. Tarzan, already committed to Jane Porter, spurns her advances, thus endan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Return Of Tarzan
''The Return of Tarzan'' is a novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the second in his series of twenty-four books about the title character Tarzan. It was first published in the pulp magazine '' New Story Magazine'' in the issues for June through December 1913; the first book edition was published in 1915 by A. C. McClurg. Plot summary The novel picks up soon after where ''Tarzan of the Apes'' left off. The ape man, feeling rootless in the wake of his noble sacrifice of his prospects of wedding Jane Porter, leaves USA for Europe to visit his friend Paul d'Arnot. On the ship he becomes embroiled in the affairs of Countess Olga de Coude, her husband, Count Raoul de Coude, and two shady characters attempting to prey on them, Nikolas Rokoff and his henchman Alexis Paulvitch. Rokoff, it turns out, is also the countess's brother. Tarzan thwarts the villains' scheme, making them his deadly enemies. Later, in France, Rokoff tries time and time again to eliminate the ape man, f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Culling
In biology, culling is the process of segregating organisms from a group according to desired or undesired characteristics. In animal breeding, it is the process of removing or segregating animals from a breeding stock based on a specific trait. This is done to exaggerate desirable characteristics, or to remove undesirable characteristics by altering the genetic diversity of the population. For livestock and wildlife, culling often refers to the act of killing removed animals based on their individual characteristics, such as their sex or species membership, or as a means of preventing infectious disease transmission. In fruits and vegetables, culling is the sorting or segregation of fresh harvested produce into marketable lots, with the non-marketable lots being discarded or diverted into food processing or non-food processing activities. This usually happens at collection centres located at, or close to farms. Etymology The word ''cull'' comes from the Latin verb '' coll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allan Quatermain
Allan Quatermain is the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel ''King Solomon's Mines'', its one sequel ''Allan Quatermain'' (1887), twelve prequel novels and four prequel short stories, totalling eighteen works. An English professional big game hunter and adventurer, in film and television he has been portrayed by Richard Chamberlain, Sean Connery, Cedric Hardwicke, Patrick Swayze and Stewart Granger among others. History The character Quatermain is an English-born professional big game hunter and occasional trader living in South Africa. An outdoorsman who finds English cities and climate unbearable, he prefers to spend most of his life in Africa, where he grew up under the care of his widower father, a Christian missionary. In the earliest-written novels, native Africans refer to Quatermain as ''Macumazahn'', meaning "Watcher-by-Night," a reference to his nocturnal habits and keen instincts. In later-written novels, Macumazahn is said to be a short form of ''Macu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Backwater (river)
A backwater is a part of a river in which there is little or no current. It can refer to a branch of a main river, which lies alongside it and then rejoins it, or to a body of water in a main river, backed up by the sea tide or by an obstruction such as a dam. Manmade restrictions to natural stream flow or temporary natural obstructions such as ice jams, vegetation blockage, or flooding of a lower stream can create backwater. Alternative channel If a river has developed one or more alternative courses in its evolution, one channel is usually designated the main course, and secondary channels may be termed backwaters. The main river course will usually have the fastest stream and will likely be the main navigation route; backwaters may be shallower and flow more slowly, if at all. Some backwaters are rich in mangrove forest. This results in a more diverse environment of scientific interest and worthy of preservation. Backwaters also provide opportunities for leisure activities such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantis In Fiction
The island of Atlantis has often been depicted in literature, television shows, films and works of popular culture. Fiction Start of genre fiction Before 1900 there was an overlap between verse epics dealing with the fall of Atlantis and novels with a pretension to fine writing which are now regarded as pioneering genre fiction. Jules Verne’s ''20,000 Leagues Under The Sea'' (1869/71) includes a visit to sunken Atlantis aboard Captain Nemo's submarine ''Nautilus'' - with protagonists walking for miles over the sea bottom until reaching the impressive sunken ruins, an obviously impossibility (Verne was not aware of water pressure in the ocean deeps). In Elizabeth Birkmaier's ''Poseidon's Paradise: the Romance of Atlantis'' (San Francisco 1892), the island sinks following an earthquake. C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne also depicted the end of Atlantis in his fantasy '' The Lost Continent: The Story of Atlantis'', first published in 1899. The main character there, the soldier-priest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip of Palestine and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. The Gulf of Aqaba in the northeast separates Egypt from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt, while Alexandria, the second-largest city, is an important industrial and tourist hub at the Mediterranean coast. At approximately 100 million inhabitants, Egypt is the 14th-most populated country in the world. Egypt has one of the longest histories of any country, tracing its heritage along the Nile Delta back to the 6th–4th millennia BCE. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, ur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inland Sea (geology)
An inland sea (also known as an epeiric sea or an epicontinental sea) is a continental body of water which is very large and is either completely surrounded by dry land or connected to an ocean by a river, strait, or "arm of the sea". An inland sea will generally have higher salinity than a freshwater lake, but usually lower salinity than the open ocean. Definition What constitutes an "inland sea" is complex and somewhat necessarily vague. The United States Hydrographic Office defined it as "a body of water nearly or completely surrounded by land, especially if very large or composed of salt water". Geologic engineers Heinrich Ries and Thomas L. Watson say an inland sea is merely a very large lake. Rydén, Migula, and Andersson and Deborah Sandler of the Environmental Law Institute add that an inland sea is "more or less" cut off from the ocean. It may be semi-enclosed, or connected to the ocean by a strait or "arm of the sea". An inland sea is distinguishable from a bay in that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flight To Opar
''Flight to Opar'' is a fantasy novel by American writer Philip José Farmer, first published in paperback by DAW Books in June 1976, and reprinted twice through 1983. The first British edition was published by Magnum in 1977; it was reprinted by Methuen in 1983. It was later gathered together with a preceding novel, ''Hadon of Ancient Opar'', and a sequel, ''The Song of Kwasin'', into the omnibus collection ''Gods of Opar: Tales of Lost Khokarsa'' (2012). The work has also been translated into French. It and the other books in the series purport to fill in some of the ancient prehistory of the lost city of Opar, created by Edgar Rice Burroughs as a setting for his Tarzan series. Plot In this continuation of Hadon's adventures in the ancient Africa of 12,000 years ago, the last-ditch defense of the High Priestess he and his allies mounted against the tyrannical King's evil schemes segues into a perilous chase through various exotic cities, seas and islands. Hadon undertakes to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Ape
The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the eastern and western gorilla); '' Pan'' (the chimpanzee and the bonobo); and ''Homo'', of which only modern humans remain. Several revisions in classifying the great apes have caused the use of the term ''"hominid"'' to vary over time. The original meaning of "hominid" referred only to humans (''Homo'') and their closest extinct relatives. However, by the 1990s humans, apes, and their ancestors were considered to be "hominids". The earlier restrictive meaning has now been largely assumed by the term ''"hominin"'', which comprises all members of the human clade after the split from the chimpanzees (''Pan''). The current meaning of "hominid" includes all the great apes including humans. Usage still varies, however, and some scientists and laypers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Definitive Biography Of Lord Greystoke
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tarzan And The Tarzan Twins
''Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins'' is a collection of two Tarzan novellas by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, for younger readers. It was originally published as two children's books, ''The Tarzan Twins'' by Voland in October 1927, and ''Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins, with Jad-bal-ja, the Golden Lion'', by Whitman in March 1936. These were brought together in November 1963 under the title of ''Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins'' in the first complete edition. Despite the gap in when they were written and first published, the events of the two stories occur in the same time-frame. The opening passage of "Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins, with Jad-bal-ja, the Golden Lion" specifies that its events occur immediately after those of "The Tarzan Twins." In relation to other Tarzan stories, the two parts of the Tarzan Twins tale presumably fall between '' Tarzan and the Ant Men'' and ''Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle'' chronologically, as the initial part was published between these two novels. The sec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tarzan The Invincible
''Tarzan the Invincible'' is a novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the fourteenth in his series of twenty-four books about the title character Tarzan. The novel was originally serialized in the magazine ''Blue Book'' from October, 1930 through April, 1931 as ''Tarzan, Guard of the Jungle''. Plot summary Tarzan, his monkey friend Nkima, and Chief Muviro and his faithful Waziri warriors prevent Soviet communists from looting the lost city of Opar. The story also prominently features Tarzan's lion ally Jad-bal-ja. Due to Tarzan's earlier expeditions to Opar, rumors of the lost city's existence have become widespread enough that a Communist-led expedition heads there, seeking its gold to finance a plot to embroil France and Italy in a colonial war. Tarzan, discovering their presence and purpose in his domain, arrives in Opar ahead of them, only to find his ally Queen La overthrown and her treacherous subordinate Oah in power as high priestess, supported by Dooth, suc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
