|
Cave Of Swimmers
The Cave of Swimmers is a rock shelter with ancient rock art in the mountainous Gilf Kebir plateau of the Libyan Desert section of the Sahara Desert. It is located in the New Valley Governorate of southwest Egypt, near the border with Libya. Modern discovery The rock shelter and rock art were discovered in October 1933 by the Hungarian explorer László Almásy. It contains Neolithic pictographs (rock painting images) and is named due to the depictions of people with their limbs bent as if they were swimming. The drawings include those of a giraffe and a hippopotamus. They are estimated to have been created as early as 8000 BC with the beginning of the African Humid Period, when the Sahara was significantly greener and wetter than it is today. The climate change 5000 years ago was due to changes in summer solar insolation and vegetation and dust feedbacks. Almásy devoted a chapter to the rock shelter in his 1934 book, ''The Unknown Sahara''. In it he postulates that the swim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilf Kebir
Gilf Kebir () (var. Gilf al-Kebir, Jilf al Kabir, Gilf Kebir Plateau) is a plateau in the New Valley Governorate of the remote southwest corner of Egypt, and southeast Libya. Its name translates as "the Great Barrier". This sandstone plateau, roughly the size of Puerto Rico, rises from the Libyan Desert floor. It is the true heart of the Gilf Kebir National Park. The name Gilf Kebir was given to the plateau by Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein in 1925, as it had no local name. It is known for its rugged beauty, remoteness, geological interest, and the dramatic cliff paintings-pictographs and rock carvings-petroglyphs which depict an earlier era of abundant animal life and human habitation. Geography and climate The Uweinat mountain range at the very south of the plateau extends from Egypt into Libya and Sudan. Wadis The plateau is crisscrossed by Wadis (dry, seasonal riverbeds). These include: * Wadi Hamra * Wadi Akhdar * Wadi Bakht * Wadi Dayiq * Wadi Firaq * Wadi Gazay ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Valley Governorate
New Valley (or El Wadi El Gedid ( , )) is a governorate of Egypt. It is in the southwestern part of the country, in the south of Egypt Western Desert (part of the Sahara Desert), between the Nile, northern Sudan, and southeastern Libya. Comprising roughly half of Egypt's area, this governorate is the country's largest and most sparsely populated, and one of the largest country subdivisions in the world. The capital is Kharga. New Valley Governorate is named after the New Valley Project, which aims to irrigate parts of the Western Desert. Municipal divisions The governorate is divided into municipal divisions with a total estimated population, as of January 2024, a270,854 In the case of New Valley governorate, there is one kism with urban and rural parts, and four marakiz. In an effort to decentralize the administration of Kharga, it was divided into four sections effective 19 June 2018. Population According to population estimates, in 2015 the majority of residents i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Temperateness
In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout the year and more distinct seasonal changes compared to tropical climates, where such variations are often small; they usually differ only in the amount of precipitation. In temperate climates, not only do latitudinal positions influence temperature changes, but various sea currents, prevailing wind direction, continentality (how large a landmass is) and altitude also shape temperate climates. The Köppen climate classification defines a climate as "temperate" C, when the mean temperature is above but below in the coldest month to account for the persistence of frost. However, some adaptations of Köppen set the minimum at . Continental climates are classified as D and considered to be varieties of temperate climates, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The English Patient (film)
''The English Patient'' is a 1996 Epic film, epic Romance film, romantic war drama film directed by Anthony Minghella from his own script based on the The English Patient, 1992 novel by Michael Ondaatje, and produced by Saul Zaentz. The film stars Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas alongside Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe and Colin Firth in supporting roles. The eponymous protagonist, a man burned beyond recognition who speaks with an Received Pronunciation, English accent, recalls his history in a series of flashbacks, revealing to the audience his true identity and the love affair in which he was involved before the war. The film ends with a definitive onscreen statement that it is a highly fictionalized account of László Almásy (died 1951) and other historical figures and events. The film received widespread critical acclaim and emerged as a major commercial success at the box-office. The film received twelve nominations at the 69th Academy Awards, winning nine, includi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The English Patient
''The English Patient'' is a 1992 novel by Michael Ondaatje. The book follows four dissimilar people brought together at an Italian villa during the Italian Campaign (World War II), Italian Campaign of the Second World War. The four main characters consist of: an unrecognizably burned man — the eponymous patient who is presumed to be English; his Canadian Army, Canadian Army nurse; a Sikh British Army sapper; and a Canadians, Canadian self described as a thief. The story is set during the North African Campaign and centers on the incremental revelations of the patient's actions prior to his injuries, and the emotional effects of these revelations on the other characters. The story is told through the characters' perspectives and "authors" of books the characters are reading. The book is a sequel to the 1987 novel ''In the Skin of a Lion'', which continues the story of characters of his stories of Hana and Caravaggio; as well as revealing the fate of the latter's main character, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Ondaatje
Philip Michael Ondaatje (; born 12 September 1943) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer and essayist. Ondaatje's literary career began with his poetry in 1967, publishing ''The Dainty Monsters'', and then in 1970 the critically acclaimed '' The Collected Works of Billy the Kid.'' His novel '' The English Patient'' (1992), adapted into a film in 1996 and won the 1992 Golden Man Booker Prize. Ondaatje has been "fostering new Canadian writing""Michael Ondaatje." In ''An Anthology of Canadian Literature in English'', edited by Donna Bennett and Russell Brown, 928-30. 3rd ed. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press, 2010. with two decades commitment to Coach House Press (ca. 1970–1990), and his editorial credits include the journal ''Brick'', and the ''Long Poem Anthology'' (1979), among others. Early life and education Ondaatje was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1943, to Major Mervyn Ondaatje and Doris Gratiaen of Tamil and Burgher descent ( Dutch and Sinhalese). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cave Of Beasts
The Cave of the Beasts (also named ''Foggini-Mestikawi Cave'' or ''Foggini Cave'' or ''Cave Wadi Sura II'') is a huge natural rock shelter in the Western Desert of Egypt featuring Neolithic rock paintings, more than 7,000 years old, with about 5,000 figures. Geographical location The shelter is located in the Wadi Sura at the south-western foot of the Gilf Kebir Mountains in the remote south-western corner of Egypt’s New Valley Governorate near the border of Libya and Sudan. The area, abandoned in the present day, is one of the most arid locations of the Sahara. Discovery The shelter was discovered in 2002 by archaeologists Massimo and Jacopo Foggini and Ahmed Mestikawi. In 2010, scientists of the University of Cologne carried out an in-depth study of the shelter, calling it Wadi Sura II to distinguish it from the Cave of Swimmers (Wadi Sura I) located some further east. Age and paleo-climatology The rock paintings were created more than 7000 years ago at the beginni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nu (mythology)
Nu ("Watery One") or Nun ("The Inert One") (Ancient Egyptian: ; Coptic: ), in ancient Egyptian religion, is the personification of the primordial watery abyss which existed at the time of creation and from which the creator sun god Ra arose. Nu is one of the eight deities of the Ogdoad representing ancient Egyptian primordial Chaos from which the primordial mound arose. Nun can be seen as the first of all the gods and the creator of reality and personification of the cosmos. Nun is also considered the god that will destroy existence and return everything to the Nun whence it came. No cult was addressed to Nun. Nun's consort (or his female aspect) was the goddess Nunut or Naunet (Ancient Egyptian: ). Name The name on Nu is paralleled with "inactivity" in a play of words in, "I raised them up from out of the watery mass [], out of inactivity []". The name has also been compared to the Coptic ''noun'' "abyss; deep". Origin myth The ancient Egyptians envisaged the oc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coffin Texts
The Coffin Texts are a collection of ancient Egyptian funerary spells written on coffins beginning in the First Intermediate Period. They are partially derived from the earlier Pyramid Texts, reserved for royal use only, but contain substantial new material related to everyday desires, indicating a new target audience of common people. Coffin texts are dated back to 2100 BCE. Ordinary Egyptians who could afford a coffin had access to these funerary spells and the pharaoh no longer had exclusive rights to an afterlife. As the modern name of this collection of some 1,185 spells implies, they were mostly inscribed on Middle Kingdom coffins. They were also sometimes written on tomb walls, stelae, canopic chests, papyri and mummy masks. Due to the limited writing surfaces of some of these objects, the spells were often abbreviated, giving rise to long and short versions, some of which were later copied in the Book of the Dead. Content In contrast to the Pyramid Texts which focus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astrobiology Magazine
''Astrobiology Magazine (Exploring the Solar System and Beyond)'', or ''Astrobiology Mag'', was an American, formerly NASA-sponsored, international online popular science magazine that contained popular science content, which referred to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. The magazine reported on missions of NASA and other space agencies, as well as present news of relevant research conducted by various institutions, universities, and non-profit groups. In addition, the magazine provided a forum through which researchers and the general public could oversee the progress made in fields of study that were associated with the science of astrobiology. The magazine was created by Helen Matsos, who was the chief editor and executive producer. It began publication in 1999 and as of 2021 is now offline. See also * Abiogenesis * ''Astrobiology'' journal * ''Astronomy'' * ''Discover'' * Earliest known life forms * ''National Geographic'' * ''Popul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sudan
Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the southeast, and South Sudan to the south. Sudan has a population of 50 million people as of 2024 and occupies 1,886,068 square kilometres (728,215 square miles), making it Africa's List of African countries by area, third-largest country by area and the third-largest by area in the Arab League. It was the largest country by area in Africa and the Arab League until the 2011 South Sudanese independence referendum, secession of South Sudan in 2011; since then both titles have been held by Algeria. Sudan's capital and most populous city is Khartoum. The area that is now Sudan witnessed the Khormusan ( 40000–16000 BC), Halfan culture ( 20500–17000 BC), Sebilian ( 13000–10000 BC), Qadan culture ( 15000–5000 BC), the war of Jebel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
