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Giarratana
Giarratana is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Ragusa, Sicily, southern Italy. Its name is likely derived from Arabic. History An elaborate late-imperial Roman villa with floor mosaics was found in 1989 near Giarratana in the Orto Mosaico district along the "regia trazzera" road. Several mosaics not only on the floors but also on walls and various decorations were found. The mosaics have floral references and geometric figures that often intertwine with each other. It covered an area of about 2000 m2, with at least three building wings arranged around a central garden. The excavation campaigns brought to light the north-eastern sector of the villa consisting of seven rooms, a corridor or peristyle, and the east and west wings, added later and probably never completed. Artifacts found during the excavations include a marble relief depicting the goddess Aphrodite. Another villa was discovered a few km further south along the SS 194. Main sights *Church of San Bartolome ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Casmenae
Casmenae or Kasmenai ( grc, Κασμέναι, Casmene in Italian) was an ancient Greek colony located on the Hyblaean Mountains, founded in 644 BC by the Syracusans at a strategic position for the control of central Sicily. It was also intended as a military forward-position on the ''Via Selinuntina'' road that connected Syracuse to ''Akragas'' (modern-day Agrigento) - also on that road were Gela and Akrillai to Casmenae's west and Akrai to its east. Destroyed by the Romans in 212 BC, Casmenae was abandoned during the 3rd century BC and never inhabited again. The site was discovered by the Sicilian archeologist Paolo Orsi during the first half of the 20th century, after he had identified the most probably site at Monte Casale in Buscemi at above sea level, on an extinct volcano near Monte Lauro, from Giarratana and from Palazzolo Acreide. Remains of the defensive walls, long, are still visible along with the base of one of the temples and some dwellings. Historic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Province Of Ragusa
The Province of Ragusa ( it, Provincia di Ragusa; Sicilian: ''Pruvincia 'i Rausa'') was a province in the autonomous region of Sicily in southern Italy, located in the south-east of the island. Following the abolition of the Sicilian provinces, it was replaced in 2015 by the Free municipal consortium of Ragusa. Its capital is the city of Ragusa, which is the most southerly provincial capital in Italy. Geography From Scoglitti to Pozzallo, the Ragusan coastline is approximately long. Along the Ragusan coast are many fishing villages such as Kaukana, Punta Secca, Marina di Ragusa and Marina di Modica. The Hyblaean Mountains are dominating the north of the province and its highest peaks are Monte Lauro, Monte Casale and Monte Arcibessi. The rivers of the province are the Irminio, Dirillo and Ippari and the only lake in the province is the Lago di Santa Rosalia along the course of the Irminio river. The skyline of Ragusa is punctuated by the towers, domes and cupolas of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Institute Of Statistics (Italy)
The Italian National Institute of Statistics ( it, Istituto nazionale di statistica; Istat) is the main producer of official statistics in Italy. Its activities include the census of population, economic censuses and a number of social, economic and environmental surveys and analyses. Istat is by far the largest producer of statistical information in Italy, and is an active member of the European Statistical System, coordinated by Eurostat. History The Italian National Institute of Statistics (IT ISTAT) was founded in compliance with Law Decree no. 1162 of 9 July 1926 as the Central Institute of Statistics (IT Istituto Centrale di Statistica) in order to replace the General Statistics Division of the Ministry for Agriculture (now known as Ministero delle politiche agricole alimentari, forestali e del turismo). The direction of the institution, which was subordinated to the head of state, was given to Corrado Gini. The ISTAT institute, with a staff of about 170 workers, was supp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comune
The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also have the title of ('city'). Formed '' praeter legem'' according to the principles consolidated in medieval municipalities, the is provided for by art. 114 of the Constitution of Italy. It can be divided into ''frazioni'', which in turn may have limited power due to special elective assemblies. In the autonomous region of the Aosta Valley, a ''comune'' is officially called a ''commune'' in French. Overview The provides essential public services: registry of births and deaths, registry of deeds, and maintenance of local roads and public works. Many have a '' Polizia Comunale'' (communal police), which is responsible for public order duties. The also deal with the definition and compliance with the (general regulator plan), a docu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Sicilian , demographics1_info1 = 98% , demographics1_title2 = , demographics1_info2 = , demographics1_title3 = , demographics1_info3 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = CEST , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , area_code_type = ISO 3166 code , area_code = IT-82 , blank_name_sec1 = GDP (nominal) , blank_info_sec1 = €89.2 billion (2018) , blank1_name_sec1 = GDP per capita , blank1_info_sec1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical region. Italy is also considered part of Western Europe, and shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. It has a territorial exclave in Switzerland, Campione. Italy covers an area of , with a population of over 60 million. It is the third-most populous member state of the European Union, the sixth-most populous country in Europe, and the tenth-largest country in the continent by land area. Italy's capital and largest city is Rome. Italy was the native place of many civilizations such as the Italic peoples and the Etruscans, while due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, the country has also historicall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston, 2011. Having emerged in the 1st century, it is named after the Arab people; the term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula, as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece. Since the 7th century, Arabic has been characterized by diglossia, with an opposition between a standard prestige language—i.e., Literary Arabic: Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Classical Arabic—and diverse vernacular varieties, which serve as mother tongues. Colloquial dialects vary significantly from MSA, impeding mutual intelligibility. MSA is only acquired through formal education and is not spoken natively. It is the language of literature, official documents, and formal writ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the sound and the meaning of a word, cognates may not be obvious, and often it takes rigorous study of historical sources and the application of the comparative method to establish whether lexemes are cognate or not. Cognates are distinguished from loanwords, where a word has been borrowed from another language. The term ''cognate'' derives from the Latin noun '' cognatus blood relative'. Characteristics Cognates need not have the same meaning, which may have changed as the languages developed independently. For example English '' starve'' and Dutch '' sterven'' 'to die' or German '' sterben'' 'to die' all descend from the same Proto-Germanic verb, '' *sterbaną'' 'to die'. Cognates also do not need to look or sound sim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Locust
Locusts (derived from the Vulgar Latin ''locusta'', meaning grasshopper) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstances they become more abundant and change their behaviour and habits, becoming gregarious. No taxonomic distinction is made between locust and grasshopper species; the basis for the definition is whether a species forms swarms under intermittently suitable conditions; this has evolved independently in multiple lineages, comprising at least 18 genera in 5 different acridid subfamilies. Normally, these grasshoppers are innocuous, their numbers are low, and they do not pose a major economic threat to agriculture. However, under suitable conditions of drought followed by rapid vegetation growth, serotonin in their brains triggers dramatic changes: they start to breed abundantly, becoming gregarious and nomadic (loosely described as migratory) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aphrodite
Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include myrtles, roses, doves, sparrows, and swans. The cult of Aphrodite was largely derived from that of the Phoenician goddess Astarte, a cognate of the East Semitic goddess Ishtar, whose cult was based on the Sumerian cult of Inanna. Aphrodite's main cult centers were Cythera, Cyprus, Corinth, and Athens. Her main festival was the Aphrodisia, which was celebrated annually in midsummer. In Laconia, Aphrodite was worshipped as a warrior goddess. She was also the patron goddess of prostitutes, an association which led early scholars to propose the concept of "sacred prostitution" in Greco-Roman culture, an idea which is now generally seen as erroneous. In Hesiod's ''Theogony'', Aphrodite is born off the coast of Cythera from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palazzolo Acreide
Palazzolo Acreide ( Sicilian: ''Palazzolu'', in the local dialect: ''Palazzuolu'') is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily (southern Italy). It is from the city of Syracuse in the Hyblean Mountains. History The area around Palazzolo Acreide has been inhabited since ancient times. In the 10th-11th centuries BC, the Sicels lived here in small villages. The town occupies the site of the ancient Akrai (Latin ''Acrae''), founded by Syracuse around 664 BC. The city was important as it controlled the paths of communication between the towns on the southern coast of the island. According to Thucydides, the Syracusans defeated the Athenians here in 413 BC. In the treaty between the Romans and Hiero II of Syracuse in 263 BC it was assigned to the latter. After the Roman conquest, it became a ''civitas stipendiaria'', and was still prospering in the course of the early Christian age. The old city was probably destroyed by the Arabs, in the first h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
