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فتيات اكبر موقع وتطبيق نسائي في الخليج والوطن العربي يغطي كافة المجالات و المواضيع النسائية مثل الازياء وصفات الطبخ و الديكور و انظمة الحمية و الدايت و المكياج و العناية بالشعر والبشرة وكل ما يتعلق بصحة المرأة.
روان الحلوه
07-08-2022 - 10:18 am
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاتة
اتمنى انكم تساعدوني في ايجاد
بحث لأخي بعد ما يأست اني احصل
مقرر: eng 101,102
شرط ان يكون البحث ان يتعلق باحد المواضيع الخمسة التالية:-
1-the internet=الانترنت
2-the under sea life=الحياة تحت البحر
3-great travellers=رحالة عظام
4-anciant civiliation=الحضارات القديمة
5-great buildings=بنايات ضخمة
حجم الخط 14
يحتوي على مقدمة عرض خاتمة
لا يقل عن 5 صفحات
السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاتة
اتمنى انكم تساعدوني في ايجاد
بحث لأخي بعد ما يأست اني احصل
مقرر: eng 101,102
شرط ان يكون البحث ان يتعلق باحد المواضيع الخمسة التالية:-
1-the internet=الانترنت
2-the under sea life=الحياة تحت البحر
3-great travellers=رحالة عظام
4-anciant civiliation=الحضارات القديمة
5-great buildings=بنايات ضخمة
حجم الخط 14
يحتوي على مقدمة عرض خاتمة
لا يقل عن 5 صفحات
التعليقات (7)
2-the under sea life
The ocean gives us life. It gives us oxygen, the rain, food, excitement, wonder, and mystery. The ocean buffers the weather and helps regulate global temperature, manages vast amounts of our pollutants, contains all kinds of amazing creatures, and supports all life on our planet. But—the ocean is just now beginning to be understood and with that understanding comes the increasing realization that the ocean is in deep trouble. Marine conservation efforts are outnumbered by the problems. MarineBio.org is here to call attention to those issues and to provide information to inspire the actions necessary to address them.
History of the Ocean
The Ocean / NEXT: Ocean Chemistry »
Starting when the Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago....
Solar System Simulator by NASA/JPL/Caltech.The ocean is not just where the land happens to be covered by water. The sea floor is geologically distinct from the continents. It is locked in a perpetual cycle of birth and destruction that shapes the ocean and controls much of the geology and geological history of the continents. Geological processes that occur beneath the waters of the sea affect not only marine life, but dry land as well. The processes that mold ocean basins occur slowly, over tens and hundreds of millions of years. On this timescale, where a human lifetime is but the blink of an eye, solid rocks flow like liquid, entire continents move across the face of the earth and mountains grow from flat plains. To understand the sea floor, we must learn to adopt the unfamiliar point of view of geological time. Geology is very important to marine biology. Habitats, or the places where organisms live, are directly shaped by geological processes. The form of coastlines; the depth of the water; whether the bottom is muddy, sandy, or rocky; and many other features of a marine habitat are determined by this geology. The geologic history of marine life is also called Palentology.
The presence of large amounts of liquid water makes our planet unique. Most other planets have very little water, and on those that do the water exists only as perpetually frozen ice or as vapor in the atmosphere. The earth, on the other hand, is very much a water planet. The ocean covers most of the globe and plays a crucial role in regulating our climate and atmosphere. Without water, life itself would be impossible.
Our ocean covers 71% of the earth's surface. It is not distributed equally with respect to the Equator. About two-thirds of the earth's land area is found in the Northern Hemisphere, which is only 61% ocean. About 80% of the Southern Hemisphere is ocean.
The ocean is traditionally classified into four large basins. The Pacific is the deepest and largest, almost as large as all the others combined. The Atlantic "Ocean" is a little larger than the Indian "Ocean", but the two are similar in average depth. The Arctic is the smallest and shallowest. Connected or marginal to the main ocean basins are various shallow seas, such as the Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the South China Sea.
Though we usually treat the oceans as four separate entities, they are actually interconnected. This can be seen most easily by looking at a map of the world as seen from the South Pole. From this view it is clear that the Pacific, the Atlantic and Indian oceans are large branches of one vast ocean system. The connections among the major basins allow seawater, materials, and some organisms to move from one "ocean" to another. Because the "oceans" are actually one great interconnected system, oceanographers often speak of a single world ocean. They also refer to the continuous body of water that surrounds Antarctic as the Southern Ocean.
The earth and the rest of the solar system are thought to have originated about 4.5 billion years ago from a cloud or clouds of dust. This dust was debris remaining from a huge cosmic explosion called the big bang, which astrophysicists estimate occurred about 15 billion years ago. The dust particles collided with each other, merging into larger particles. These larger particles collided in turn, joining into pebble-sized rocks that collided to form larger rocks, and so on. The process continued, eventually building up the earth and other planets.
So much heat was produced as the early earth formed that the planet was probably molten. This allowed materials to settle within the planet according to their density. Density is the weight, or more correctly, the mass, of a given volume of a substance. Obviously, a pound of styrofoam weighs more than an ounce of lead, but most people think of lead as "heavier" than styrofoam. This is because lead weighs more than styrofoam if equal volumes of the two are compared. In other words, lead is denser than styrofoam. The density of a substance is calculated by dividing its mass by its volume. If two substances are mixed, the denser material will tend to sink and the less dense will float.
During the time that the young earth was molten, the densest material tended to flow toward the center of the planet, while lighter materials floated toward the surface. The light surface material cooled to make a thin crust. Eventually, the atmosphere and oceans began to form. If the earth had settled into orbit only slightly closer to the sun, the planet would have been so hot that all the water would have evaporated into the atmosphere. With an orbit only slightly farther from the sun, all the water would be perpetually frozen. Fortunately for us, our planet orbits the sun in a narrow zone in which liquid water can exist. Without liquid water, there would be no life on earth.
The earth is composed of three main layers: the iron-rich core, the semiplastic mantle and the thin outer crust. The crust is the most familiar layer of earth. Compared to the deeper layers it is extremely thin, like a rigid skin floating on top of the mantle. The composition and characteristics of the crust differs greatly between the oceans and the continents.
The geological distinction between ocean and continents is caused by the physical and chemical differences in the rocks themselves, rather than whether or not the rocks happen to be covered with water. The part of earth covered with water, the ocean, is covered because of the nature of the underlying rock.
Oceanic crustal rocks, which makes up the sea floor, consists of minerals collectively called basalt, that have a dark color. Most continental rocks are of general type called granite, which has a different mineral composition than basalt and is generally lighter in color. Ocean crust is denser than continental crust, though both are less dense than the underlying mantle. The continents can be thought of as thick blocks of crust floating on the mantle much as icebergs float in the water. Oceanic crust floats on the mantle too, but because it is denser it doesn't float as high. This is why the continents lie high and dry above sea level and oceanic crust lies below sea level and is covered by water. Oceanic crust and continental crust also differ in geological age. The oldest oceanic rocks are less 200 million years old, quite young by geological standards. Continental rocks, on the other hand, can be very old, as old as 3.8 billion years...!
In the years after World War II, sonar allowed the first detailed surveys of large areas of the sea floor. These surveys resulted in the discovery of the mid-oceanic ridge system, a 40,000 mile continuous chain of volcanic submarine mountains and valleys that encircles the globe like the seams of a baseball. The mid-oceanic ridge system is the largest geological feature on the planet. At regular intervals the mid-ocean ridge is displaced to one side or the other by cracks in the earth's crust known as transform faults. Occasionally the submarine mountains of the ridge rise so high that they break the surface to form islands, such as Iceland and the Azores.
The portion of the mid-ocean ridge in the Atlantic, known as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, runs right down the center of the Atlantic Ocean, closely following the curves of the opposing coastlines. The ridge forms an inverted Y in the Indian Ocean and runs up the eastern side of the Pacific. The main section of ridge in the eastern Pacific is called the East Pacific Rise. Surveys also revealed the existence of a system of deep depressions in the sea floor called trenches. Trenches are especially common in the Pacific.
When the mid-ocean ridge system and trenches were discovered, geologists wanted to know how they were formed and began studying them intensively. They found that there is a great deal of geological activity around these features. Earthquakes are clustered at the ridges, for example, and volcanos are especially common near trenches. The characteristics of sea floor rocks are also related to the mid-oceanic ridges. Beginning in 1968, a deep-sea drilling ship, the Glomar Challenger, obtained samples of the actual sea floor rock. It was found that the farther rocks are from the ridge crest the older they are. One of the most important findings came from the studying the magnetism of rocks on the sea floor. Bands of rock alternating between normal and reversed magnetism parallel the ridge.
It was the discovery of the magnetic anomalies on the sea floor, together with other evidence, that finally led to an understanding of plate tectonics. The earth surface is broken up into a number of plates. These plates, composed of the crust and the top parts of the mantle, make up the lithosphere. The plates are about 100km thick. As new lithosphere is created, old lithosphere is destroyed somewhere else. Otherwise, the earth would have to constantly expand to make room for the new lithosphere. Lithosphere is destroyed at the tenches. A trench is formed when two plates collide and one the plates dips below the other and slides back down in to the mantle. This downwards movement of the plate into the mantle is called subduction. Because subduction occurs at the trenches, trenches are often called subduction zones. Subduction is the process that produces earthquakes and volcanoes, also underwater. The volcanoes may rise from the sea floor to create chains of volcanic islands.
We now realize that the earth's surface has undergone dramatic alterations. The continents have been carried long distances by the moving sea floor, and the ocean basins have changed in size and shape. In fact, new oceans have been born. Knowledge of the process of plate tectonics has allowed scientists to reconstruct much of the history of these changes. Scientists have discovered, for example, that the continents were once united in a single supercontinent called Pangaea that began to break up about 180 million years ago. The continents have since moved to their present position.
Seawater
The characteristics of seawater are due both to the nature of pure water and to the materials dissolved in it. The solids dissolved in seawater come from two main sources. Some are produced by the chemical weathering of rocks on land and are carried to sea by rivers. Other materials come from the earth's interior. Most of these are released into the ocean at hydrothermal vents. Some are released into the atmosphere from volcanoes and enter the ocean in rain and snow. Seawater contains at least a little of almost everything, but most of the solutes or dissolved materials, are made up of a surprisingly small group of ions. In fact, only six ions compose over 98% of the solids in seawater. Sodium and chloride account for about 85% of the solids, which is why seawater tastes like table salt. The salinity of the water strongly affects the organisms that live in it. Most marine organisms, for instance, will die in fresh water. Even slight changes in salinity will harm some organisms.
The Light and Color of the Oceans
The penetration of sunlight into the sea and its interaction with water and dissolved and suspended materials is an important physical phenomenon in the ocean.
Evaporation and precipitation determine the salinity of the ocean in any given region and both of these processes depend on energy from the sun. Heat from the sun drives the ocean currents and modifies our climate. Sunlight also provides an energy source for the photosynthetic processes of phytoplankton, on which most life in the sea depends. Thus, it behooves us to know a little about sunlight in the sea. The study of light in the sea is a recent sub discipline of oceanography called optical oceanography. Oceanographers who study light in the sea and its interactions with the flora and fauna are called bio-optical oceanographers.
When you look at a blue piece of fabric, a red car, the blue sky, have you ever stopped to consider why you see that particular color? It's very simple, really. Objects of a particular color cannot absorb that color; thus, what we see are reflected or scattered wavelengths of light that are not absorbed.
In the case of the fabric, it absorbs all the greens and yellows and oranges and reds, and what's left is blue. Same with the car and the sky. They absorb all the wavelengths of light except the one you see. Gradations in color or combinations of colors work the same way, only a spectrum of colors is not absorbed, or different segments of the visible spectrum are absorbed differentially.
The same is true for the oceans. Water (and seawater) is a very good absorber of all wavelengths of light except blue. Because water makes up a significant percentage of the atmosphere, our skies are also blue. But what about when the ocean is green or blue green?
Changes in ocean color are primarily due to changes in the type and concentration of organisms suspended in the water, namely phytoplankton (which include photosynthetic bacteria, such as the cyanobacteria). Areas of river outflow, sewage outfall, or intense land runoff, near the coasts, may contain large amounts of suspended sediments, which give seawater a milky or dirty color.
In some areas, such as near pulp mills, discharges of dissolved organic material can cause changes in the color of the ocean. For the most part, however, it is the phytoplankton that cause variability in ocean color.
Before we can appreciate the changes in the color of the ocean, we need to know something about how light in general changes as it penetrates into the ocean. When sunlight hits the ocean surface, some of it is reflected (around 5% on average) and the rest is transmitted through the water where it is eventually absorbed by water and the chemical and particulate components in the water. The zone of penetration of light into the water column is called the euphotic zone.
In general, the euphotic zone is defined as the area between the sea surface and the depth where light diminished to 1% of its surface value. The depth of the euphotic zone depends largely on the concentration of organic and inorganic materials dissolved or suspended in the water column. Thus, with more materials, such as in coastal waters, the depth of the euphotic zone will be shallow, perhaps only a few feet. In waters like the open ocean or tropical waters where terrigenous influences are negligible and concentrations of plankton are sparse, the euphotic zone may be quite deep, perhaps 150 meters (~450 feet) or more.
Oceans cover almost 3/4 of the Earth's surface and contain roughly 97% of the Earth's water supply. Life on Earth originated in the salty seas, and contines to be home to an incredibly diverse web of life.
The Earth's oceans are all connected to one another. There are five oceans: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern. There are also many seas (smaller branches of an ocean); seas are partly enclosed by land. The largest seas are the South China Sea, the Caribbean Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.
The ocean gives us life. It gives us oxygen, the rain, food, excitement, wonder, and mystery. The ocean buffers the weather and helps regulate global temperature, manages vast amounts of our pollutants, contains all kinds of amazing creatures, and supports all life on our planet. But—the ocean is just now beginning to be understood and with that understanding comes the increasing realization that the ocean is in deep trouble. Marine conservation efforts are outnumbered by the problems. MarineBio.org is here to call attention to those issues and to provide information to inspire the actions necessary to address them.
History of the Ocean
The Ocean / NEXT: Ocean Chemistry »
Starting when the Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago....
Solar System Simulator by NASA/JPL/Caltech.The ocean is not just where the land happens to be covered by water. The sea floor is geologically distinct from the continents. It is locked in a perpetual cycle of birth and destruction that shapes the ocean and controls much of the geology and geological history of the continents. Geological processes that occur beneath the waters of the sea affect not only marine life, but dry land as well. The processes that mold ocean basins occur slowly, over tens and hundreds of millions of years. On this timescale, where a human lifetime is but the blink of an eye, solid rocks flow like liquid, entire continents move across the face of the earth and mountains grow from flat plains. To understand the sea floor, we must learn to adopt the unfamiliar point of view of geological time. Geology is very important to marine biology. Habitats, or the places where organisms live, are directly shaped by geological processes. The form of coastlines; the depth of the water; whether the bottom is muddy, sandy, or rocky; and many other features of a marine habitat are determined by this geology. The geologic history of marine life is also called Palentology.
The presence of large amounts of liquid water makes our planet unique. Most other planets have very little water, and on those that do the water exists only as perpetually frozen ice or as vapor in the atmosphere. The earth, on the other hand, is very much a water planet. The ocean covers most of the globe and plays a crucial role in regulating our climate and atmosphere. Without water, life itself would be impossible.
Our ocean covers 71% of the earth's surface. It is not distributed equally with respect to the Equator. About two-thirds of the earth's land area is found in the Northern Hemisphere, which is only 61% ocean. About 80% of the Southern Hemisphere is ocean.
The ocean is traditionally classified into four large basins. The Pacific is the deepest and largest, almost as large as all the others combined. The Atlantic "Ocean" is a little larger than the Indian "Ocean", but the two are similar in average depth. The Arctic is the smallest and shallowest. Connected or marginal to the main ocean basins are various shallow seas, such as the Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the South China Sea.
Though we usually treat the oceans as four separate entities, they are actually interconnected. This can be seen most easily by looking at a map of the world as seen from the South Pole. From this view it is clear that the Pacific, the Atlantic and Indian oceans are large branches of one vast ocean system. The connections among the major basins allow seawater, materials, and some organisms to move from one "ocean" to another. Because the "oceans" are actually one great interconnected system, oceanographers often speak of a single world ocean. They also refer to the continuous body of water that surrounds Antarctic as the Southern Ocean.
The earth and the rest of the solar system are thought to have originated about 4.5 billion years ago from a cloud or clouds of dust. This dust was debris remaining from a huge cosmic explosion called the big bang, which astrophysicists estimate occurred about 15 billion years ago. The dust particles collided with each other, merging into larger particles. These larger particles collided in turn, joining into pebble-sized rocks that collided to form larger rocks, and so on. The process continued, eventually building up the earth and other planets.
So much heat was produced as the early earth formed that the planet was probably molten. This allowed materials to settle within the planet according to their density. Density is the weight, or more correctly, the mass, of a given volume of a substance. Obviously, a pound of styrofoam weighs more than an ounce of lead, but most people think of lead as "heavier" than styrofoam. This is because lead weighs more than styrofoam if equal volumes of the two are compared. In other words, lead is denser than styrofoam. The density of a substance is calculated by dividing its mass by its volume. If two substances are mixed, the denser material will tend to sink and the less dense will float.
During the time that the young earth was molten, the densest material tended to flow toward the center of the planet, while lighter materials floated toward the surface. The light surface material cooled to make a thin crust. Eventually, the atmosphere and oceans began to form. If the earth had settled into orbit only slightly closer to the sun, the planet would have been so hot that all the water would have evaporated into the atmosphere. With an orbit only slightly farther from the sun, all the water would be perpetually frozen. Fortunately for us, our planet orbits the sun in a narrow zone in which liquid water can exist. Without liquid water, there would be no life on earth.
The earth is composed of three main layers: the iron-rich core, the semiplastic mantle and the thin outer crust. The crust is the most familiar layer of earth. Compared to the deeper layers it is extremely thin, like a rigid skin floating on top of the mantle. The composition and characteristics of the crust differs greatly between the oceans and the continents.
The geological distinction between ocean and continents is caused by the physical and chemical differences in the rocks themselves, rather than whether or not the rocks happen to be covered with water. The part of earth covered with water, the ocean, is covered because of the nature of the underlying rock.
Oceanic crustal rocks, which makes up the sea floor, consists of minerals collectively called basalt, that have a dark color. Most continental rocks are of general type called granite, which has a different mineral composition than basalt and is generally lighter in color. Ocean crust is denser than continental crust, though both are less dense than the underlying mantle. The continents can be thought of as thick blocks of crust floating on the mantle much as icebergs float in the water. Oceanic crust floats on the mantle too, but because it is denser it doesn't float as high. This is why the continents lie high and dry above sea level and oceanic crust lies below sea level and is covered by water. Oceanic crust and continental crust also differ in geological age. The oldest oceanic rocks are less 200 million years old, quite young by geological standards. Continental rocks, on the other hand, can be very old, as old as 3.8 billion years...!
In the years after World War II, sonar allowed the first detailed surveys of large areas of the sea floor. These surveys resulted in the discovery of the mid-oceanic ridge system, a 40,000 mile continuous chain of volcanic submarine mountains and valleys that encircles the globe like the seams of a baseball. The mid-oceanic ridge system is the largest geological feature on the planet. At regular intervals the mid-ocean ridge is displaced to one side or the other by cracks in the earth's crust known as transform faults. Occasionally the submarine mountains of the ridge rise so high that they break the surface to form islands, such as Iceland and the Azores.
The portion of the mid-ocean ridge in the Atlantic, known as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, runs right down the center of the Atlantic Ocean, closely following the curves of the opposing coastlines. The ridge forms an inverted Y in the Indian Ocean and runs up the eastern side of the Pacific. The main section of ridge in the eastern Pacific is called the East Pacific Rise. Surveys also revealed the existence of a system of deep depressions in the sea floor called trenches. Trenches are especially common in the Pacific.
When the mid-ocean ridge system and trenches were discovered, geologists wanted to know how they were formed and began studying them intensively. They found that there is a great deal of geological activity around these features. Earthquakes are clustered at the ridges, for example, and volcanos are especially common near trenches. The characteristics of sea floor rocks are also related to the mid-oceanic ridges. Beginning in 1968, a deep-sea drilling ship, the Glomar Challenger, obtained samples of the actual sea floor rock. It was found that the farther rocks are from the ridge crest the older they are. One of the most important findings came from the studying the magnetism of rocks on the sea floor. Bands of rock alternating between normal and reversed magnetism parallel the ridge.
It was the discovery of the magnetic anomalies on the sea floor, together with other evidence, that finally led to an understanding of plate tectonics. The earth surface is broken up into a number of plates. These plates, composed of the crust and the top parts of the mantle, make up the lithosphere. The plates are about 100km thick. As new lithosphere is created, old lithosphere is destroyed somewhere else. Otherwise, the earth would have to constantly expand to make room for the new lithosphere. Lithosphere is destroyed at the tenches. A trench is formed when two plates collide and one the plates dips below the other and slides back down in to the mantle. This downwards movement of the plate into the mantle is called subduction. Because subduction occurs at the trenches, trenches are often called subduction zones. Subduction is the process that produces earthquakes and volcanoes, also underwater. The volcanoes may rise from the sea floor to create chains of volcanic islands.
We now realize that the earth's surface has undergone dramatic alterations. The continents have been carried long distances by the moving sea floor, and the ocean basins have changed in size and shape. In fact, new oceans have been born. Knowledge of the process of plate tectonics has allowed scientists to reconstruct much of the history of these changes. Scientists have discovered, for example, that the continents were once united in a single supercontinent called Pangaea that began to break up about 180 million years ago. The continents have since moved to their present position.
Seawater
The characteristics of seawater are due both to the nature of pure water and to the materials dissolved in it. The solids dissolved in seawater come from two main sources. Some are produced by the chemical weathering of rocks on land and are carried to sea by rivers. Other materials come from the earth's interior. Most of these are released into the ocean at hydrothermal vents. Some are released into the atmosphere from volcanoes and enter the ocean in rain and snow. Seawater contains at least a little of almost everything, but most of the solutes or dissolved materials, are made up of a surprisingly small group of ions. In fact, only six ions compose over 98% of the solids in seawater. Sodium and chloride account for about 85% of the solids, which is why seawater tastes like table salt. The salinity of the water strongly affects the organisms that live in it. Most marine organisms, for instance, will die in fresh water. Even slight changes in salinity will harm some organisms.
The Light and Color of the Oceans
The penetration of sunlight into the sea and its interaction with water and dissolved and suspended materials is an important physical phenomenon in the ocean.
Evaporation and precipitation determine the salinity of the ocean in any given region and both of these processes depend on energy from the sun. Heat from the sun drives the ocean currents and modifies our climate. Sunlight also provides an energy source for the photosynthetic processes of phytoplankton, on which most life in the sea depends. Thus, it behooves us to know a little about sunlight in the sea. The study of light in the sea is a recent sub discipline of oceanography called optical oceanography. Oceanographers who study light in the sea and its interactions with the flora and fauna are called bio-optical oceanographers.
When you look at a blue piece of fabric, a red car, the blue sky, have you ever stopped to consider why you see that particular color? It's very simple, really. Objects of a particular color cannot absorb that color; thus, what we see are reflected or scattered wavelengths of light that are not absorbed.
In the case of the fabric, it absorbs all the greens and yellows and oranges and reds, and what's left is blue. Same with the car and the sky. They absorb all the wavelengths of light except the one you see. Gradations in color or combinations of colors work the same way, only a spectrum of colors is not absorbed, or different segments of the visible spectrum are absorbed differentially.
The same is true for the oceans. Water (and seawater) is a very good absorber of all wavelengths of light except blue. Because water makes up a significant percentage of the atmosphere, our skies are also blue. But what about when the ocean is green or blue green?
Changes in ocean color are primarily due to changes in the type and concentration of organisms suspended in the water, namely phytoplankton (which include photosynthetic bacteria, such as the cyanobacteria). Areas of river outflow, sewage outfall, or intense land runoff, near the coasts, may contain large amounts of suspended sediments, which give seawater a milky or dirty color.
In some areas, such as near pulp mills, discharges of dissolved organic material can cause changes in the color of the ocean. For the most part, however, it is the phytoplankton that cause variability in ocean color.
Before we can appreciate the changes in the color of the ocean, we need to know something about how light in general changes as it penetrates into the ocean. When sunlight hits the ocean surface, some of it is reflected (around 5% on average) and the rest is transmitted through the water where it is eventually absorbed by water and the chemical and particulate components in the water. The zone of penetration of light into the water column is called the euphotic zone.
In general, the euphotic zone is defined as the area between the sea surface and the depth where light diminished to 1% of its surface value. The depth of the euphotic zone depends largely on the concentration of organic and inorganic materials dissolved or suspended in the water column. Thus, with more materials, such as in coastal waters, the depth of the euphotic zone will be shallow, perhaps only a few feet. In waters like the open ocean or tropical waters where terrigenous influences are negligible and concentrations of plankton are sparse, the euphotic zone may be quite deep, perhaps 150 meters (~450 feet) or more.
Oceans cover almost 3/4 of the Earth's surface and contain roughly 97% of the Earth's water supply. Life on Earth originated in the salty seas, and contines to be home to an incredibly diverse web of life.
The Earth's oceans are all connected to one another. There are five oceans: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern. There are also many seas (smaller branches of an ocean); seas are partly enclosed by land. The largest seas are the South China Sea, the Caribbean Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.
3-great travellers
Explorers
Today’s world has been mapped, its peoples discovered, delights and curiosities brought in the light for all of us to share. But it was not always so…Great explorers and travelers, writers and seekers, like Captain James Cook, Mark Twain, Richard Burton and others set out into new lands and cultures with keen insight and a thrill for adventure.
Read some bios here and get inspired to venture into the world yourself. There are still stones to be unturned. But don’t wait too long. The secrets underneath those stones may soon be buried forever under newly constructed Walmart parking lots.
"To the world of today the men of medieval Christendom already seem remote and unfamiliar. Their names and deeds are recorded in our history-books, their monuments still adorn our cities, but our kinship with them is a thing unreal, which costs an effort of imagination. How much more must this apply to the great Islamic civilization, that stood over against medieval ****pe, menacing its existence and yet linked to it by a hundred ties that even war and fear could not sever. Its monuments too abide, for those who may have the fortunate to visit them, but its men and manners are to most of us utterly unknown, or dimly conceived in the romantic image of the Arabian Nights. Even for the specialist it is difficult to reconstruct their lives and see them as they were. Histories and biographies there are in quantity, but the historians for all their picturesque details, seldom show the ability to select the essential and to give their figures that touch of the intimate which makes them live again for the reader. It is in this faculty that Ibn Battuta excels."
Thus begins the book, "Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia andAfrica 1325-1354" published by Routledge and Kegan Paul (1).
Introduction
Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta, also known as Shams ad - Din, was born at Tangier, Morocco, on the 24th February 1304 C.E. (703 Hijra). He left Tangier on Thursday, 14th June, 1325 C.E. (2nd Rajab 725 A.H.), when he was twenty one years of age. His travels lasted for about thirty years, after which he returned to Fez, Morocco at the court of Sultan Abu 'Inan and dictated accounts of his journeys to Ibn Juzay. These are known as the famous Travels (Rihala) of Ibn Battuta. He died at Fez in 1369 C.E.
Ibn Battuta was the only medieval traveller who is known to have visited the lands of every Muslim ruler of his time. He also travelled in Ceylon (present Sri Lanka), China and Byzantium and South Russia. The mere extent of his travels is estimated at no less than 75,000 miles, a figure which is not likely to have been surpassed before the age of steam.
Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354
Here begins Ibn Battuta's travels p. 43
I left Tangier, my birthplace, on Thursday, 2nd Rajab 725
, being at that time twenty-two years of age
, with the intention of making the Pilgrimage to the Holy House
and the Tomb of the Prophet
.
I set out alone, finding no companion to cheer the way with friendly intercourse, and no party of travellers with whom to associate myself. Swayed by an overmastering impulse within me, and a long-cherished desire to visit those glorious sanctuaries, I resolved to quit all my friends and tear myself away from my home. As my parents were still alive, it weighed grievously upon me to part from them, and both they and I were afflicted with sorrow.
On reaching the city of Tilimsan
, whose sultan at that time was Abu Tashifin, I found there two ambassadors of the Sultan of Tunis, who left the city on the same day that I arrived. One of the brethren having advised me to accompany them, I consulted the will of God in this matter, and after a stay of three days in the city to procure all that I needed, I rode after them with all speed. I overtook them at the town of Miliana, where we stayed ten days, as both ambassadors fell sick on account of the summer heats. When we set out again, one of them grew worse, and died after we had stopped for three nights by a stream four miles from Miliana. I left their party there and pursued my journey, with a company of merchants from Tunis.
Ibn Battuta travels overland from Algiers to Tunis pp. 43-45.
On reaching al-Jaza'ir
we halted outside the town for a few days, until the former party rejoined us, when we went on together through the Mitija
to the mountain of Oaks
and so reached Bijaya
we camped outside the town, but a heavy rain forced us to leave our tents during the night and take refuge in some houses there. Next day the governor of the city came to meet us. Seeing my clothes all soiled by the rain he gave orders that they should be washed at his house, and in place of my old worn headcloth sent me a headcloth of fine Syrian cloth, in one of the ends of which he had tied two gold dinars. This was the first alms I received on my journey.
From Qusantinah we reached Bona
where, after staying in the town for several days, we left the merchants of our party on account of the dangers of the road, while we pursued our journey with the utmost speed. I was again attacked by fever, so I tied myself in the saddle with a turban-cloth in case I should fall by reason of my weakness. So great was my fear that I could not dismount until we arrived at Tunis.
Ibn Battuta and his party arrive at Tunis pp. 43-46.
The population of the city came out to meet the members of our party, and on all sides greetings and question were exchanged, but not a soul greeted me as no one there was known to me. I was so affected by my loneliness that I could not restrain my tears and wept bitterly, until one of the pilgrims realized the cause of my distress and coming up to me greeted me kindly and continued to entertain me with friendly talk until I entered the city.
The Sultan of Tunis at that time was Abu Yahya, the son of Abu' Zakariya IL, and there were a number of notable scholars in the town. During my stay the festival of the Breaking of the Fast fell due, and I joined the company at the Praying-ground. The inhabitants assembled in large numbers to celebrate the festival, making a brave show and wearing their richest apparel. The Sultan Abu Yahya arrived on horseback, accompanied by all his relatives, courtiers, and officers of state walking on foot in a stately procession. After the recital of the prayer and the conclusion of the Allocution the people returned to their homes.
Ibn Battuta leaves Tunis with the annual pilgrim caravan
Some time later the pilgrim caravan for the Hijaz was formed, and they nominated me as their qadi
. We left Tunis early in November
, following the coast road through Susa Sfax, and Qabis, where we stayed for ten days on account of incessant rains. Thence we set out for Tripoli, accompanied for several stages by a hundred or more horsemen as well as a detachment of archers, out of respect for whom the Arabs
kept their distance.
I had made a contract of marriage at Sfax with the daughter of one of the syndics at Tunis, and at Tripoli she was conducted to me, but after leaving Tripoli I became involved in a dispute with her father, which necessitated my separation from her. I then married the daughter of a student from Fez, and when she was conducted to me I detained the caravan for a day by entertaining them all at a wedding party.
Arrival at Alexandria pp. 47-50
At length on April 5th (1326) we reached Alexandria. It is a beautiful city, well-built and fortified with four gates and a magnificent port. Among all the ports in the world I have seen none to equal it except Kawlam
and Calicut in India, the port of the infidels
at Sudaq
in the land of the Turks, and the port of Zaytun
in China, all of which will be described later.
The famous lighthouse, one of the "wonders of the ancient world"
I went to see the lighthouse on this occasion and found one of its faces in ruins. It is a very high square building, and its door is above the level of the earth. Opposite the door, and of the same height, is a building from which there is a plank bridge to the door; if this is removed there is no means of entrance. Inside the door is a place for the lighthouse-keeper, and within the lighthouse there are many chambers. The breadth of the passage inside is nine spans and that of the wall ten spans; each of the four sides of the lighthouse is 140 spans in breadth. It is situated on a high mound and lies three miles from the city on a long tongue of land which juts out into the sea from close by the city wall, so that the lighthouse cannot be reached by land except from the city. On my return to the West in the year 750
I visited the lighthouse again, and found that it had fallen into so ruinous a condition that it was not possible to enter it or climb up to the door.
Al-Malik an-Nasir had started to build a similar lighthouse alongside it but was prevented by death from completing the work. Another of the marvellous things in this city is the awe-inspiring marble column
on its outskirts which they call the Pillar of Columns. It is a single block, skilfully carved, erected on a plinth of square stones like enormous platforms, and no one knows how it was erected there nor for certain who erected it.
Two holy men of the city
One of the learned men of Alexandria was the qadi, a master of eloquence, who used to wear a turban of extraordinary size. Never either in the eastern or the western lands have I seen a more voluminous headgear.
Another of them was the pious ascetic Burhan ad-Din, whom I met during my stay and whose hospitality I enjoyed for three days. One day as I entered his room he said to me "I see that you are fond of travelling through foreign lands." I replied "Yes, I am " (though I had as yet no thought of going to such distant lands as India or China). Then he said "You must certainly visit my brother Farid ad-Din in India, and my brother Rukn ad-Din in Sind, and my brother Burhan ad-Din in China, and when you find them give them greeting from me." I was amazed at his prediction and the idea of going to these countries having been cast into my mind, my journeys never ceased until I had met these three that he named and conveyed his greeting to them.
A visit to a holy man in the country
During my stay at Alexandria I had heard of the pious Shaykh al-Murshidi, who bestowed gifts miraculously created at his desire. He lived in solitary retreat in a cell in the country where he was visited by princes and ministers. Parties of men in all ranks of life used to come to him every day and he would supply them all with food. Each one of them would desire to eat some flesh or fruit or sweetmeat at his cell, and to each he would give what he had suggested, though it was frequently out of season. His fame was carried from mouth to mouth far and wide, and the Sultan too had visited him several times in his retreat. I set out from Alexandria to seek this shaykh and passing through Damanhur came to Fawwa
, a beautiful township, close by which, separated from it by a canal, lies the shaykh's cell. I reached this cell about mid-afternoon, and on saluting the shaykh I found that he had with him one of the sultan's aides-de-camp, who had encamped with his troops just outside. The shaykh rose and embraced me, and calling for food invited me to eat. When the hour of the afternoon prayer arrived he set me in front as prayer-leader, and did the same on every occasion when we were together at the times of prayer during my stay. When I wished to sleep he said to me "Go up to the roof of the cell and sleep there " (this was during the summer heats). I said to the officer "In the name of God," but he replied
"There is none of us but has an appointed place." So I mounted to the roof and found there a straw mattress and a leather mat, a water vessel for ritual ablutions, a jar of water and a drinkingcup, and I lay down there to sleep.
A dream of travels to come
That night, while I was sleeping on the roof of the cell, I dreamed that I was on the wing of a great bird which was flying with me towards Mecca, then to Yemen, then eastwards and thereafter going towards the south, then flying far eastwards and finally landing in a dark and green country, where it left me. I was astonished at this dream and said to myself "If the shaykh can interpret my dream for me, he is all that they say he is." Next morning, after all the other visitors had gone, he called me and when I had related my dream interpreted it to me saying: "You will make the pilgrimage
and visit
the Prophet, and you will travel through Yemen, Iraq, the country of the Turks, and India. You will stay there for a long time and meet there my brother Dilshad the Indian, who will rescue you from a danger into which you will fall." Then he gave me a travelling-provision of small cakes and money, and I bade him farewell and departed. Never since parting from him have I met on my journeys aught but good fortune, and his blessings have stood me in good stead.
Ibn Battuta leaves for Cairo via Damietta
We rode from here to Damietta through a number of towns, in each of which we visited the principal men of religion. Damietta lies on the bank of the Nile, and the people in the houses next to the river draw water from it in buckets. Many of the houses have steps leading down to the river. Their sheep and goats are allowed to pasture at liberty day and night; for this reason the saying goes of Damietta "Its walls are sweetmeats and its dogs are sheep." Anyone who enters the city may not afterwards leave it except by the governor's seal. Persons of repute have a seal stamped on a piece of paper so that they may show it to the gatekeepers; other persons have the seal stamped on their forearms. In this city there are many seabirds with extremely greasy flesh, and the milk of its buffaloes is unequalled for sweetness and pleasant taste. The fish called buri is exported thence to Syria, Anatolia, and Cairo. The present town is of recent construction; the old city was that destroyed by the Franks in the time of al Malik as as-Salih.
From Damietta I travelled to Fariskur, which is a town on the bank of the Nile, and halted outside it. Here I was overtaken by a horseman who had been sent after me by the governor of Damietta. He handed me a number of coins saying to me "The Governor asked for you, and on being informed about you, he sent you this gift"--may God reward him! Thence I travelled to Ashmun, a large and ancient town on a canal derived from the Nile. It possesses a wooden bridge at which all vessels anchor, and in the afternoon the baulks are lifted and the vessels pass up and down. From here I went to Samannud, whence I journeyed upstream to Cairo, between a continuous succession of towns and villages. The traveller on the Nile need take no provision with him because whenever he desires to descend on the bank he may do so, for ablutions, prayers, provisioning, or any other purpose. There is an uninterrupted chain of bazaars from Alexandria to Cairo, and from Cairo to Assuan
in Upper Egypt.
Arrival in Cairo pp. 50-55.
I arrived at length at Cairo, mother of cities and seat of Pharaoh the tyrant, mistress of broad regions and fruitful lands, boundless in multitude of buildings, peerless in beauty and splendour, the meeting-place of comer and goer, the halting-place of feeble and mighty, whose throngs surge as the waves of the sea, and can scarce be contained in her for all her size and capacity. It is said that in Cairo there are twelve thousand water-carriers who transport water on camels, and thirty thousand hirers of mules and donkeys, and that on the Nile there are thirty-six thousand boats belonging to the Sultan and his subjects which sail upstream to Upper Egypt and downstream to Alexandria and Damietta, laden with goods and profitable merchandise of all kinds.
A pleasure garden
On the bank of the Nile opposite Old Cairo is the place known as The Garden, which is a pleasure park and promenade, containing many beautiful gardens, for the people of Cairo are given to pleasure and amusements. I witnessed a fete once in Cairo for the sultan's recovery from a fractured hand; all the merchants decorated their bazaars and had rich stuffs, ornaments and silken fabrics hanging in their shops for several days.
Religious institutions
The mosque of 'Amr is highly venerated and widely celebrated. The Friday service is held in it and the road runs through it from east to west. The madrasas
of Cairo cannot be counted for multitude. As for the Maristan
, which lies "between the two castles" near the mausoleum of Sultan Qala'un, no description is adequate to its beauties. It contains an innumerable quantity of appliances and medicaments, and its daily revenue is put as high as a thousand dinars.
There are a large number of religious establishments
which they call khanqahs, and the nobles vie with one another in building them. Each of these is set apart for a separate school of darwishes, mostly Persians, who are men of good education and adepts in the mystical doctrines. Each has a superior and a doorkeeper and their affairs are admirably organized. They have many special customs one of which has to do with their food. The steward of the house comes in the morning to the darwishes, each of whom indicates what food he desires, and when they assemble for meals, each person is given his bread and soup in a separate dish, none sharing with another. They eat twice a day. They are each given winter clothes and summer clothes, and a monthly allowance of from twenty to thirty dirhams. Every Thursday night they receive sugar cakes, soap to wash their clothes, the price of a bath, and oil for their lamps. These men are celibate; the married men have separate convents.
At Cairo too is the great cemetery of al-Qarafa, which is a place of peculiar sanctity and contains the graves of innumerable scholars and pious believers. In the Qarafa the people build beautiful pavilions surrounded by walls, so that they look like houses. They also build chambers and hire Koran-readers who recite night and day in agreeable voices. Some of them build religious houses and madrasas beside the mausoleums and on Thursday nights they go out to spend the night there with their children and women-folk, and make a circuit of the famous tombs. They go out to spend the night there also on the "Night of midSha'ban," and the market-people take out all kinds of eatables. Among the many celebrated sanctuaries
is the holy shrine where there reposes the head of alHusayn. Beside it is a vast monastery of striking construction, on the doors of which there are silver rings and plates of the same metal.
The great river Nile
The Egyptian Nile surpasses all rivers of the earth in sweetness of taste, length of course, and utility. No other river in the world can show such a continuous series of towns and villages along its banks, or a basin so intensely cultivated. Its course is from South to North, contrary to all the other great rivers. One extraordinary thing about it is that it begins to rise in the extreme hot weather at the time when rivers generally diminish and dry up, and begins to subside just when rivers begin to increase and overflow. The river Indus resembles it in this feature. The Nile is one of the five great rivers of the world, which are the Nile, Euphrates, Tigris, Syr Darya and Amu Darya; five other rivers resemble these, the Indus, which is called Panj Ab
, the river of India which is called Gang
--it is to it that the Hindus go on pilgrimage, and when they burn their dead they throw the ashes into it, and they say that it comes from Paradise--the river Jun
in India, the river Itil
in the Qipchaq steppes, on the banks of which is the city of Sara, and the river Saru
in the land of Cathay. All these will be mentioned in their proper places, if God will. Some distance below Cairo the Nile divides into three streams, none of which can be crossed except by boat, winter or summer. The inhabitants of every township have canals led off the Nile; these are filled when the river is in flood and carry the water over the fields.
Upriver
From Cairo I travelled into Upper Egypt, with the intention of crossing to the Hijaz. On the first night I stayed at the monastery of Dayr at-Tin, which was built to house certain illustrious relics--a fragment of the Prophet's wooden basin and the pencil with which he used to apply kohl, the awl he used for sewing his sandals, and the Koran belonging to the Caliph Ali written in his own hand. These were bought, it is said, for a hundred thousand dirhams by the builder of the monastery, who also established funds to supply food to all comers and to maintain the guardians of the sacred relics.
Thence my way lay through a number of towns and villages to Munyat Ibn Khasib
, a large town which is built on the bank of the Nile, and most emphatically excels all the other towns of Upper Egypt. I went on through Manfalut, Asyut, Ikhmim, where there is a berba with sculptures and inscriptions which no one can now read-another of these berbas there was pulled down and its stones used to build a madrasa--Qina, Qus, where the governor of Upper Egypt resides, Luxor, a pretty little town containing the tomb of the pious ascetic Abu'l-Hajjaj, Esna, and thence a day and a night's journey through desert country to Edfu.
Camels, Hyenas, and Bejas
Here we crossed the Nile and, hiring camels, journeyed with a party of Arabs through a desert, totally devoid of settlements but quite safe for travelling. One of our halts was at Humaythira, a place infested with hyenas. All night long we kept driving them away, and indeed one got at my baggage, tore open one of the sacks, pulled out a bag of dates, and made off with it. We found the bag next morning, torn to pieces and with most of the contents eaten. After fifteen days' travelling we reached the town of Aydhab, a large town, well supplied with milk and fish; dates and grain are imported from Upper Egypt. Its inhabitants are Bejas. These people are black-skinned; they wrap themselves in yellow blankets and tie headbands about a fingerbreadth wide round their heads. They do not give their daughters any share in their inheritance. They live on camels milk and they ride on Meharis
. One-third of the city belongs to the Sultan of Egypt and two-thirds to the King of the Bejas, who is called al-Hudrubi. On reaching Aydhab we found that al-Hudrubi was engaged in warfare with the Turks
, that he had sunk the ships and that the Turks had fled before him. It was impossible for us to attempt the sea-crossing
, so we sold the provisions that we had made ready for it, and returned to Qus with the Arabs from whom we had hired the camels.
Back downriver to Cairo; from Cairo to Syria and Jerusalem
We sailed thence down the Nile (it was at the flood time) and after an eight days' journey reached Cairo, where I stayed only one night, and immediately set out for Syria. This was in the middle of July, 1326. My route lay through Bilbays and as-Salihiya, after which we entered the sands and halted at a number of stations. At each of these there was a hostelry which they call a khan, where travellers alight with their beasts. Each khan has a water wheel supplying a fountain and a shop at which the traveller buys what he requires for himself and his beast.
Crossing the border into Syria
At the station of Qatya customs-dues are collected from the merchants, and their goods and baggage are thoroughly examined and searched. There are offices here, with officers, clerks, and notaries, and the daily revenue is a thousand gold dinars. No one is allowed to pass into Syria without a passport from Egypt, nor into Egypt without a passport from Syria, for the protection of the property of the subjects and as a measure of precaution against spies from Iraq. The responsibility of guarding this road has been entrusted to the Badawin
. At nightfall they smooth down the sand so that no track is left on it, then in the morning the governor comes and looks at the sand. If he finds any track on it he commands the Arabs to bring the person who made it, and they set out in pursuit and never fail to catch him. He is then brought to the governor, who punishes him as he sees fit. The governor at the time of my passage treated me as a guest and showed me great kindness, and allowed all those who were with me to pass. From here we went on to Gaza, which is the first city of Syria on the side next the Egyptian frontier.
On the road to Jerusalem: Hebron and Bethlehem pp. 55-57
From Gaza I travelled to the city of Abraham
, the mosque of which is of elegant, but substantial construction, imposing and lofty, and built of squared stones At one angle of it there is a stone, one of whose faces measures twenty-seven spans. It is said that Solomon commanded the jinn to build it. Inside it is the sacred cave containing the graves of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, opposite which are three graves, which are those of their wives. I questioned the imam, a man of great piety and learning, on the authenticity of these graves, and he replied: "All the scholars whom I have met hold these graves to be the very graves of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives. No one questions this except introducers of false doctrines; it is a tradition which has passed from father to son for generations and admits of no doubt." This mosque contains also the grave of Joseph, and somewhat to the east of it lies the tomb of Lot, which is surmounted by an elegant building. In the neighbourhood is Lot's lake
, which is brackish and is said to cover the site of the settlements of Lot's people.
On the way from Hebron to Jerusalem, I visited Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus. The site is covered by a large building; the Christians regard it with intense veneration and hospitably entertain all who alight at it.
Jerusalem and its holy sites
We then reached Jerusalem (may God ennoble her !), third in excellence after the two holy shrines of Mecca and Medina and the place whence the Prophet was caught up into heaven. Its walls were destroyed by the illustrious King Saladin and his Successors, for fear lest the Christians should seize it and fortify themselves in it. The sacred mosque is a most beautiful building, and is said to be the largest mosque in the world. Its length from east to west is put at 752 "royal" cubits and its breadth at 435. On three sides it has many entrances, but on the south side I know of one only, which is that by which the imam enters. The entire mosque is an open court and unroofed, except the mosque al-Aqsa, which has a roof of most excellent workmanship, embellished with gold and brilliant colours. Some other parts of the mosque are roofed as well. The Dome of the Rock is a building of extraordinary beauty, solidity, elegance, and singularity of shape. It stands on an elevation in the centre of the mosque and is reached by a flight of marble steps. It has four doors. The space round it is also paved with marble, excellently done, and the interior likewise. Both outside and inside the decoration is so magnificent and the workmanship so surpassing as to defy description. The greater part is covered with gold so that the eyes of one who gazes on its beauties are dazzled by its brilliance, now glowing like a mass of light, now flashing like lightning. In the centre of the Dome is the blessed rock from which the Prophet ascended to heaven, a great rock projecting about a man's height, and underneath it there is a cave the size of a small room, also of a man's height, with steps leading down to it. Encircling the rock are two railings of excellent workmanship, the one nearer the rock being artistically constructed in iron and the other of wood.
Ibn Battuta ends his long and many travels p, 339.
I arrived at the royal city of Fa's
, the capital of our master the Commander of the Faithful (may God strengthen him), where I kissed his beneficent hand and was privileged to behold his gracious countenance.
I settled down under the wing of his bounty after long journeying. May God Most High recompense him for the abundant favours and ample benefits which he has bestowed on me; may He prolong his days and spare him to the Muslims for many years to come.
Here ends the travel-narrative entitled "A Donation to those interested in the Curiosities of the Cities and Marvels of the Ways." Its dictation was finished on 3rd Dhu'l-hijja 756
. Praise be to God, and peace to His creatures whom He hath chosen.
This is the end of Ibn Battuta's book of travels
Travels
In the course of his first journey, Ibn Battuta travelled through Algiers, Tunis, Egypt, Palestine and Syria to Makkah. After visiting Iraq, Shiraz and Mesopotamia he once more returned to perform the Hajj at Makkah and remained there for three years. Then travelling to Jeddah he went to Yemen by sea, visited Aden andset sail for Mombasa, East Africa. After going up to Kulwa he came back to Oman and repeated pilgrimage to Makkah in 1332 C.E. via Hormuz, Siraf, Bahrain and Yamama. Subsequently he set out with the purpose of going to India, but on reaching Jeddah, he appears to have changed his mind (due perhaps to the unavailability of a ship bound for India), and revisited Cairo, Palestine and Syria, thereafter arriving at Aleya (Asia Minor) by sea and travelled across Anatolia and Sinope. He then crossed the Black Sea and after long wanderings he reached Constantinople through Southern Ukraine.
On his return, he visited Khurasan through Khawarism (Khiva) and having visited all the important cities such as Bukhara, Balkh, Herat, Tus, Mashhad and Nishapur, he crossed the Hindukush mountains via the 13,000 ft Khawak Pass into Afghanistan and passing through Ghani and Kabul entered India. After visiting Lahri (near modern Karachi), Sukkur, Multan, Sirsa and Hansi, he reached Delhi. For several years Ibn Battuta enjoyed the patronage of Sultan Mohammad Tughlaq, and was later sent as Sultan's envoy to China. Passing through Cental India and Malwa he took ship from Kambay for Goa, and after visiting many thriving ports along the Malabar coast he reached the Maldive Islands, from which he crossed to Ceylon. Continuing his journey, he landed on the Ma'bar (Coromandal) coast and once more returning to the Maldives he finally set sail for Bengal and visited Kamrup, Sylhet and Sonargaon (near Dhaka). Sailing along the Arakan coast he came to Sumatra and later landed at Canton via Malaya and Cambodia. In China he travelled northward to Peking through Hangchow. Retracing his steps he returned to Calicut and taking ship came to Dhafari and Muscat, and passing through Paris (Iran), Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Egypt made his seventh and last pilgrimage to Makkah in November 1348 C.E. and then returned to his home town of Fez. His travels did not end here - he later visited Muslim Spain and the lands of the Niger across the Sahara.
On his return to Fez, Ibn Battuta dictated the accounts ofhis travels to Ibn Juzay al-Kalbi (1321-1356 C.E.) at the court of Sultan Abu Inan (1348-1358 C.E). Ibn Juzay took three months to accomplish this work ,which he finished on 9th December 1355 C.E.
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Writings
In order to experience the flavour of Ibn Battuta's narrative one must sample a few extracts. The following passage illustrates the system of social security in operation in the Muslim world in the early 14th century C.E. :
"The variety and expenditure of the religious endowmentsat Damascus are beyond computation. There are endowments in aid of persons who cannot undertake the pilgrimage to Makkah, out of which ate paid the expenses of those who go in their stead. There are other endowments for supplying wedding outfits to girls whose families are unable to provide them, and others for the freeing of prisoners. There are endowments for travellers, out of the revenues of which they are given food, clothing, and the expenses of conveyance to their countries. Then there are endowments for the improvement and paving of the streets, because all the lanes in Damascus have pavements on either side, on which the foot passengers walk, while those who ride use the roadway in the centre". p.69, ref l
Here is another example which describes Baghdad in the early 14th century C.E. :
"Then we travelled to Baghdad, the Abode of Peace andCapital of Islam. Here there are two bridges like that at Hilla, on which the people promenade night and day, both men and women. The baths at Baghdad are numerous and excellently constructed, most of them being painted with pitch, which has the appearance of black marble. This pitch is brought from a spring between Kufa and Basra, from which it flows continually. It gathers at the sides of the spring like clay and is shovelled up and brought to Baghdad. Each establishment has a number of private bathrooms, every one of which has also a wash-basin in the corner, with two taps supplying hot and cold water. Every bather is given three towels, one to wear round his waist when he goes in, another to wear round his waist when he comes out, and the third to dry himself with." p.99, ref 1
In the next example Ibn Battuta describes in great detailsome of the crops and fruits encountered on his travels:
"From Kulwa we sailed to Dhafari
, at the extremity of Yemen. Thoroughbred horses are exported from here to India, the passage taking a month with favouring wind.... The inhabitants cultivate millet and irrigate it from very deep wells, the water from which is raised in a large bucket drawn by a number of ropes. In the neighbourhood of the town there are orchards with many banana trees. The bananas are of immense size; one which was weighed in my presence scaled twelve ounces and was pleasant to the taste and very sweet. They also grow betel-trees and coco-palms, which are found only in India and the town of Dhafari." p.113, ref 1
Another example of In Battuta's keen observation is seen in the next passage:
"Betel-trees are grown like vines on can trellises or else trained up coco-palms. They have no fruit and are only grown for their leaves. The Indians have a high opinion of betel, and if a man visits a friend and the latter gives him five leaves of it, you would think he had given him the world, especially if he is a prince or notable. A gift of betel is a far greater honour than a gift of gold and silver. It is used in the following way: First one takes areca-nuts, which are like nutmegs, crushes them into small bits and chews them. Then the betel leaves are taken, a little chalk is put on them, and they are chewed with the areca-nuts." p.114, ref 1
Ibn Battuta - The Forgotten Traveller
Ibn Battuta's sea voyages and references to shipping reveal that the Muslims completely dominated the maritime activity of the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Chinese waters. Also it is seen that though the Christian traders were subject to certain restrictions, most of the economic negotiations were transacted on the basis of equality and mutual respect.
Ibn Battuta, one of the most remarkable travellers of all time, visited China sixty years after Marco Polo and in fact travelled 75,000 miles, much more than Marco Polo. Yet Battuta is never mentioned in geography books used in Muslim countries, let alone those in the West. Ibn Battuta's contribution to geography is unquestionably as great as that of any geographer yet the accounts of his travels are not easily accessible except to the specialist. The omission of reference to Ibn Battuta's contribution in geography books is not an isolated example. All great Musiims whether historians, doctors, astronomers, scientists or chemists suffer the same fate. One can understand why these great Muslims are ignored by the West. But the indifference of the Muslim governments is incomprehensible. In order to combat the inferiority complex that plagues the Muslim Ummah, we must rediscover the contributions of Muslims in fields such as science, medicine, engineering, architecture and astronomy. This will encourage contemporary young Muslims to strive in these fields and not think that major success is beyond their reach.
References
1. Ibn Buttuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1345, Published by Routledge and Kegan Paul (ISBN O 7100 9568 6)
2. The Introduction to the "Voyages of Ibn Battutah" by Vincent Monteil in The Islamic Review and Arab Affairs. March 1970: 30-37
Explorers
Today’s world has been mapped, its peoples discovered, delights and curiosities brought in the light for all of us to share. But it was not always so…Great explorers and travelers, writers and seekers, like Captain James Cook, Mark Twain, Richard Burton and others set out into new lands and cultures with keen insight and a thrill for adventure.
Read some bios here and get inspired to venture into the world yourself. There are still stones to be unturned. But don’t wait too long. The secrets underneath those stones may soon be buried forever under newly constructed Walmart parking lots.
"To the world of today the men of medieval Christendom already seem remote and unfamiliar. Their names and deeds are recorded in our history-books, their monuments still adorn our cities, but our kinship with them is a thing unreal, which costs an effort of imagination. How much more must this apply to the great Islamic civilization, that stood over against medieval ****pe, menacing its existence and yet linked to it by a hundred ties that even war and fear could not sever. Its monuments too abide, for those who may have the fortunate to visit them, but its men and manners are to most of us utterly unknown, or dimly conceived in the romantic image of the Arabian Nights. Even for the specialist it is difficult to reconstruct their lives and see them as they were. Histories and biographies there are in quantity, but the historians for all their picturesque details, seldom show the ability to select the essential and to give their figures that touch of the intimate which makes them live again for the reader. It is in this faculty that Ibn Battuta excels."
Thus begins the book, "Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia andAfrica 1325-1354" published by Routledge and Kegan Paul (1).
Introduction
Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta, also known as Shams ad - Din, was born at Tangier, Morocco, on the 24th February 1304 C.E. (703 Hijra). He left Tangier on Thursday, 14th June, 1325 C.E. (2nd Rajab 725 A.H.), when he was twenty one years of age. His travels lasted for about thirty years, after which he returned to Fez, Morocco at the court of Sultan Abu 'Inan and dictated accounts of his journeys to Ibn Juzay. These are known as the famous Travels (Rihala) of Ibn Battuta. He died at Fez in 1369 C.E.
Ibn Battuta was the only medieval traveller who is known to have visited the lands of every Muslim ruler of his time. He also travelled in Ceylon (present Sri Lanka), China and Byzantium and South Russia. The mere extent of his travels is estimated at no less than 75,000 miles, a figure which is not likely to have been surpassed before the age of steam.
Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354
Here begins Ibn Battuta's travels p. 43
I left Tangier, my birthplace, on Thursday, 2nd Rajab 725
, being at that time twenty-two years of age
, with the intention of making the Pilgrimage to the Holy House
and the Tomb of the Prophet
.
I set out alone, finding no companion to cheer the way with friendly intercourse, and no party of travellers with whom to associate myself. Swayed by an overmastering impulse within me, and a long-cherished desire to visit those glorious sanctuaries, I resolved to quit all my friends and tear myself away from my home. As my parents were still alive, it weighed grievously upon me to part from them, and both they and I were afflicted with sorrow.
On reaching the city of Tilimsan
, whose sultan at that time was Abu Tashifin, I found there two ambassadors of the Sultan of Tunis, who left the city on the same day that I arrived. One of the brethren having advised me to accompany them, I consulted the will of God in this matter, and after a stay of three days in the city to procure all that I needed, I rode after them with all speed. I overtook them at the town of Miliana, where we stayed ten days, as both ambassadors fell sick on account of the summer heats. When we set out again, one of them grew worse, and died after we had stopped for three nights by a stream four miles from Miliana. I left their party there and pursued my journey, with a company of merchants from Tunis.
Ibn Battuta travels overland from Algiers to Tunis pp. 43-45.
On reaching al-Jaza'ir
we halted outside the town for a few days, until the former party rejoined us, when we went on together through the Mitija
to the mountain of Oaks
and so reached Bijaya
we camped outside the town, but a heavy rain forced us to leave our tents during the night and take refuge in some houses there. Next day the governor of the city came to meet us. Seeing my clothes all soiled by the rain he gave orders that they should be washed at his house, and in place of my old worn headcloth sent me a headcloth of fine Syrian cloth, in one of the ends of which he had tied two gold dinars. This was the first alms I received on my journey.
From Qusantinah we reached Bona
where, after staying in the town for several days, we left the merchants of our party on account of the dangers of the road, while we pursued our journey with the utmost speed. I was again attacked by fever, so I tied myself in the saddle with a turban-cloth in case I should fall by reason of my weakness. So great was my fear that I could not dismount until we arrived at Tunis.
Ibn Battuta and his party arrive at Tunis pp. 43-46.
The population of the city came out to meet the members of our party, and on all sides greetings and question were exchanged, but not a soul greeted me as no one there was known to me. I was so affected by my loneliness that I could not restrain my tears and wept bitterly, until one of the pilgrims realized the cause of my distress and coming up to me greeted me kindly and continued to entertain me with friendly talk until I entered the city.
The Sultan of Tunis at that time was Abu Yahya, the son of Abu' Zakariya IL, and there were a number of notable scholars in the town. During my stay the festival of the Breaking of the Fast fell due, and I joined the company at the Praying-ground. The inhabitants assembled in large numbers to celebrate the festival, making a brave show and wearing their richest apparel. The Sultan Abu Yahya arrived on horseback, accompanied by all his relatives, courtiers, and officers of state walking on foot in a stately procession. After the recital of the prayer and the conclusion of the Allocution the people returned to their homes.
Ibn Battuta leaves Tunis with the annual pilgrim caravan
Some time later the pilgrim caravan for the Hijaz was formed, and they nominated me as their qadi
. We left Tunis early in November
, following the coast road through Susa Sfax, and Qabis, where we stayed for ten days on account of incessant rains. Thence we set out for Tripoli, accompanied for several stages by a hundred or more horsemen as well as a detachment of archers, out of respect for whom the Arabs
kept their distance.
I had made a contract of marriage at Sfax with the daughter of one of the syndics at Tunis, and at Tripoli she was conducted to me, but after leaving Tripoli I became involved in a dispute with her father, which necessitated my separation from her. I then married the daughter of a student from Fez, and when she was conducted to me I detained the caravan for a day by entertaining them all at a wedding party.
Arrival at Alexandria pp. 47-50
At length on April 5th (1326) we reached Alexandria. It is a beautiful city, well-built and fortified with four gates and a magnificent port. Among all the ports in the world I have seen none to equal it except Kawlam
and Calicut in India, the port of the infidels
at Sudaq
in the land of the Turks, and the port of Zaytun
in China, all of which will be described later.
The famous lighthouse, one of the "wonders of the ancient world"
I went to see the lighthouse on this occasion and found one of its faces in ruins. It is a very high square building, and its door is above the level of the earth. Opposite the door, and of the same height, is a building from which there is a plank bridge to the door; if this is removed there is no means of entrance. Inside the door is a place for the lighthouse-keeper, and within the lighthouse there are many chambers. The breadth of the passage inside is nine spans and that of the wall ten spans; each of the four sides of the lighthouse is 140 spans in breadth. It is situated on a high mound and lies three miles from the city on a long tongue of land which juts out into the sea from close by the city wall, so that the lighthouse cannot be reached by land except from the city. On my return to the West in the year 750
I visited the lighthouse again, and found that it had fallen into so ruinous a condition that it was not possible to enter it or climb up to the door.
Al-Malik an-Nasir had started to build a similar lighthouse alongside it but was prevented by death from completing the work. Another of the marvellous things in this city is the awe-inspiring marble column
on its outskirts which they call the Pillar of Columns. It is a single block, skilfully carved, erected on a plinth of square stones like enormous platforms, and no one knows how it was erected there nor for certain who erected it.
Two holy men of the city
One of the learned men of Alexandria was the qadi, a master of eloquence, who used to wear a turban of extraordinary size. Never either in the eastern or the western lands have I seen a more voluminous headgear.
Another of them was the pious ascetic Burhan ad-Din, whom I met during my stay and whose hospitality I enjoyed for three days. One day as I entered his room he said to me "I see that you are fond of travelling through foreign lands." I replied "Yes, I am " (though I had as yet no thought of going to such distant lands as India or China). Then he said "You must certainly visit my brother Farid ad-Din in India, and my brother Rukn ad-Din in Sind, and my brother Burhan ad-Din in China, and when you find them give them greeting from me." I was amazed at his prediction and the idea of going to these countries having been cast into my mind, my journeys never ceased until I had met these three that he named and conveyed his greeting to them.
A visit to a holy man in the country
During my stay at Alexandria I had heard of the pious Shaykh al-Murshidi, who bestowed gifts miraculously created at his desire. He lived in solitary retreat in a cell in the country where he was visited by princes and ministers. Parties of men in all ranks of life used to come to him every day and he would supply them all with food. Each one of them would desire to eat some flesh or fruit or sweetmeat at his cell, and to each he would give what he had suggested, though it was frequently out of season. His fame was carried from mouth to mouth far and wide, and the Sultan too had visited him several times in his retreat. I set out from Alexandria to seek this shaykh and passing through Damanhur came to Fawwa
, a beautiful township, close by which, separated from it by a canal, lies the shaykh's cell. I reached this cell about mid-afternoon, and on saluting the shaykh I found that he had with him one of the sultan's aides-de-camp, who had encamped with his troops just outside. The shaykh rose and embraced me, and calling for food invited me to eat. When the hour of the afternoon prayer arrived he set me in front as prayer-leader, and did the same on every occasion when we were together at the times of prayer during my stay. When I wished to sleep he said to me "Go up to the roof of the cell and sleep there " (this was during the summer heats). I said to the officer "In the name of God," but he replied
"There is none of us but has an appointed place." So I mounted to the roof and found there a straw mattress and a leather mat, a water vessel for ritual ablutions, a jar of water and a drinkingcup, and I lay down there to sleep.
A dream of travels to come
That night, while I was sleeping on the roof of the cell, I dreamed that I was on the wing of a great bird which was flying with me towards Mecca, then to Yemen, then eastwards and thereafter going towards the south, then flying far eastwards and finally landing in a dark and green country, where it left me. I was astonished at this dream and said to myself "If the shaykh can interpret my dream for me, he is all that they say he is." Next morning, after all the other visitors had gone, he called me and when I had related my dream interpreted it to me saying: "You will make the pilgrimage
and visit
the Prophet, and you will travel through Yemen, Iraq, the country of the Turks, and India. You will stay there for a long time and meet there my brother Dilshad the Indian, who will rescue you from a danger into which you will fall." Then he gave me a travelling-provision of small cakes and money, and I bade him farewell and departed. Never since parting from him have I met on my journeys aught but good fortune, and his blessings have stood me in good stead.
Ibn Battuta leaves for Cairo via Damietta
We rode from here to Damietta through a number of towns, in each of which we visited the principal men of religion. Damietta lies on the bank of the Nile, and the people in the houses next to the river draw water from it in buckets. Many of the houses have steps leading down to the river. Their sheep and goats are allowed to pasture at liberty day and night; for this reason the saying goes of Damietta "Its walls are sweetmeats and its dogs are sheep." Anyone who enters the city may not afterwards leave it except by the governor's seal. Persons of repute have a seal stamped on a piece of paper so that they may show it to the gatekeepers; other persons have the seal stamped on their forearms. In this city there are many seabirds with extremely greasy flesh, and the milk of its buffaloes is unequalled for sweetness and pleasant taste. The fish called buri is exported thence to Syria, Anatolia, and Cairo. The present town is of recent construction; the old city was that destroyed by the Franks in the time of al Malik as as-Salih.
From Damietta I travelled to Fariskur, which is a town on the bank of the Nile, and halted outside it. Here I was overtaken by a horseman who had been sent after me by the governor of Damietta. He handed me a number of coins saying to me "The Governor asked for you, and on being informed about you, he sent you this gift"--may God reward him! Thence I travelled to Ashmun, a large and ancient town on a canal derived from the Nile. It possesses a wooden bridge at which all vessels anchor, and in the afternoon the baulks are lifted and the vessels pass up and down. From here I went to Samannud, whence I journeyed upstream to Cairo, between a continuous succession of towns and villages. The traveller on the Nile need take no provision with him because whenever he desires to descend on the bank he may do so, for ablutions, prayers, provisioning, or any other purpose. There is an uninterrupted chain of bazaars from Alexandria to Cairo, and from Cairo to Assuan
in Upper Egypt.
Arrival in Cairo pp. 50-55.
I arrived at length at Cairo, mother of cities and seat of Pharaoh the tyrant, mistress of broad regions and fruitful lands, boundless in multitude of buildings, peerless in beauty and splendour, the meeting-place of comer and goer, the halting-place of feeble and mighty, whose throngs surge as the waves of the sea, and can scarce be contained in her for all her size and capacity. It is said that in Cairo there are twelve thousand water-carriers who transport water on camels, and thirty thousand hirers of mules and donkeys, and that on the Nile there are thirty-six thousand boats belonging to the Sultan and his subjects which sail upstream to Upper Egypt and downstream to Alexandria and Damietta, laden with goods and profitable merchandise of all kinds.
A pleasure garden
On the bank of the Nile opposite Old Cairo is the place known as The Garden, which is a pleasure park and promenade, containing many beautiful gardens, for the people of Cairo are given to pleasure and amusements. I witnessed a fete once in Cairo for the sultan's recovery from a fractured hand; all the merchants decorated their bazaars and had rich stuffs, ornaments and silken fabrics hanging in their shops for several days.
Religious institutions
The mosque of 'Amr is highly venerated and widely celebrated. The Friday service is held in it and the road runs through it from east to west. The madrasas
of Cairo cannot be counted for multitude. As for the Maristan
, which lies "between the two castles" near the mausoleum of Sultan Qala'un, no description is adequate to its beauties. It contains an innumerable quantity of appliances and medicaments, and its daily revenue is put as high as a thousand dinars.
There are a large number of religious establishments
which they call khanqahs, and the nobles vie with one another in building them. Each of these is set apart for a separate school of darwishes, mostly Persians, who are men of good education and adepts in the mystical doctrines. Each has a superior and a doorkeeper and their affairs are admirably organized. They have many special customs one of which has to do with their food. The steward of the house comes in the morning to the darwishes, each of whom indicates what food he desires, and when they assemble for meals, each person is given his bread and soup in a separate dish, none sharing with another. They eat twice a day. They are each given winter clothes and summer clothes, and a monthly allowance of from twenty to thirty dirhams. Every Thursday night they receive sugar cakes, soap to wash their clothes, the price of a bath, and oil for their lamps. These men are celibate; the married men have separate convents.
At Cairo too is the great cemetery of al-Qarafa, which is a place of peculiar sanctity and contains the graves of innumerable scholars and pious believers. In the Qarafa the people build beautiful pavilions surrounded by walls, so that they look like houses. They also build chambers and hire Koran-readers who recite night and day in agreeable voices. Some of them build religious houses and madrasas beside the mausoleums and on Thursday nights they go out to spend the night there with their children and women-folk, and make a circuit of the famous tombs. They go out to spend the night there also on the "Night of midSha'ban," and the market-people take out all kinds of eatables. Among the many celebrated sanctuaries
is the holy shrine where there reposes the head of alHusayn. Beside it is a vast monastery of striking construction, on the doors of which there are silver rings and plates of the same metal.
The great river Nile
The Egyptian Nile surpasses all rivers of the earth in sweetness of taste, length of course, and utility. No other river in the world can show such a continuous series of towns and villages along its banks, or a basin so intensely cultivated. Its course is from South to North, contrary to all the other great rivers. One extraordinary thing about it is that it begins to rise in the extreme hot weather at the time when rivers generally diminish and dry up, and begins to subside just when rivers begin to increase and overflow. The river Indus resembles it in this feature. The Nile is one of the five great rivers of the world, which are the Nile, Euphrates, Tigris, Syr Darya and Amu Darya; five other rivers resemble these, the Indus, which is called Panj Ab
, the river of India which is called Gang
--it is to it that the Hindus go on pilgrimage, and when they burn their dead they throw the ashes into it, and they say that it comes from Paradise--the river Jun
in India, the river Itil
in the Qipchaq steppes, on the banks of which is the city of Sara, and the river Saru
in the land of Cathay. All these will be mentioned in their proper places, if God will. Some distance below Cairo the Nile divides into three streams, none of which can be crossed except by boat, winter or summer. The inhabitants of every township have canals led off the Nile; these are filled when the river is in flood and carry the water over the fields.
Upriver
From Cairo I travelled into Upper Egypt, with the intention of crossing to the Hijaz. On the first night I stayed at the monastery of Dayr at-Tin, which was built to house certain illustrious relics--a fragment of the Prophet's wooden basin and the pencil with which he used to apply kohl, the awl he used for sewing his sandals, and the Koran belonging to the Caliph Ali written in his own hand. These were bought, it is said, for a hundred thousand dirhams by the builder of the monastery, who also established funds to supply food to all comers and to maintain the guardians of the sacred relics.
Thence my way lay through a number of towns and villages to Munyat Ibn Khasib
, a large town which is built on the bank of the Nile, and most emphatically excels all the other towns of Upper Egypt. I went on through Manfalut, Asyut, Ikhmim, where there is a berba with sculptures and inscriptions which no one can now read-another of these berbas there was pulled down and its stones used to build a madrasa--Qina, Qus, where the governor of Upper Egypt resides, Luxor, a pretty little town containing the tomb of the pious ascetic Abu'l-Hajjaj, Esna, and thence a day and a night's journey through desert country to Edfu.
Camels, Hyenas, and Bejas
Here we crossed the Nile and, hiring camels, journeyed with a party of Arabs through a desert, totally devoid of settlements but quite safe for travelling. One of our halts was at Humaythira, a place infested with hyenas. All night long we kept driving them away, and indeed one got at my baggage, tore open one of the sacks, pulled out a bag of dates, and made off with it. We found the bag next morning, torn to pieces and with most of the contents eaten. After fifteen days' travelling we reached the town of Aydhab, a large town, well supplied with milk and fish; dates and grain are imported from Upper Egypt. Its inhabitants are Bejas. These people are black-skinned; they wrap themselves in yellow blankets and tie headbands about a fingerbreadth wide round their heads. They do not give their daughters any share in their inheritance. They live on camels milk and they ride on Meharis
. One-third of the city belongs to the Sultan of Egypt and two-thirds to the King of the Bejas, who is called al-Hudrubi. On reaching Aydhab we found that al-Hudrubi was engaged in warfare with the Turks
, that he had sunk the ships and that the Turks had fled before him. It was impossible for us to attempt the sea-crossing
, so we sold the provisions that we had made ready for it, and returned to Qus with the Arabs from whom we had hired the camels.
Back downriver to Cairo; from Cairo to Syria and Jerusalem
We sailed thence down the Nile (it was at the flood time) and after an eight days' journey reached Cairo, where I stayed only one night, and immediately set out for Syria. This was in the middle of July, 1326. My route lay through Bilbays and as-Salihiya, after which we entered the sands and halted at a number of stations. At each of these there was a hostelry which they call a khan, where travellers alight with their beasts. Each khan has a water wheel supplying a fountain and a shop at which the traveller buys what he requires for himself and his beast.
Crossing the border into Syria
At the station of Qatya customs-dues are collected from the merchants, and their goods and baggage are thoroughly examined and searched. There are offices here, with officers, clerks, and notaries, and the daily revenue is a thousand gold dinars. No one is allowed to pass into Syria without a passport from Egypt, nor into Egypt without a passport from Syria, for the protection of the property of the subjects and as a measure of precaution against spies from Iraq. The responsibility of guarding this road has been entrusted to the Badawin
. At nightfall they smooth down the sand so that no track is left on it, then in the morning the governor comes and looks at the sand. If he finds any track on it he commands the Arabs to bring the person who made it, and they set out in pursuit and never fail to catch him. He is then brought to the governor, who punishes him as he sees fit. The governor at the time of my passage treated me as a guest and showed me great kindness, and allowed all those who were with me to pass. From here we went on to Gaza, which is the first city of Syria on the side next the Egyptian frontier.
On the road to Jerusalem: Hebron and Bethlehem pp. 55-57
From Gaza I travelled to the city of Abraham
, the mosque of which is of elegant, but substantial construction, imposing and lofty, and built of squared stones At one angle of it there is a stone, one of whose faces measures twenty-seven spans. It is said that Solomon commanded the jinn to build it. Inside it is the sacred cave containing the graves of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, opposite which are three graves, which are those of their wives. I questioned the imam, a man of great piety and learning, on the authenticity of these graves, and he replied: "All the scholars whom I have met hold these graves to be the very graves of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives. No one questions this except introducers of false doctrines; it is a tradition which has passed from father to son for generations and admits of no doubt." This mosque contains also the grave of Joseph, and somewhat to the east of it lies the tomb of Lot, which is surmounted by an elegant building. In the neighbourhood is Lot's lake
, which is brackish and is said to cover the site of the settlements of Lot's people.
On the way from Hebron to Jerusalem, I visited Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus. The site is covered by a large building; the Christians regard it with intense veneration and hospitably entertain all who alight at it.
Jerusalem and its holy sites
We then reached Jerusalem (may God ennoble her !), third in excellence after the two holy shrines of Mecca and Medina and the place whence the Prophet was caught up into heaven. Its walls were destroyed by the illustrious King Saladin and his Successors, for fear lest the Christians should seize it and fortify themselves in it. The sacred mosque is a most beautiful building, and is said to be the largest mosque in the world. Its length from east to west is put at 752 "royal" cubits and its breadth at 435. On three sides it has many entrances, but on the south side I know of one only, which is that by which the imam enters. The entire mosque is an open court and unroofed, except the mosque al-Aqsa, which has a roof of most excellent workmanship, embellished with gold and brilliant colours. Some other parts of the mosque are roofed as well. The Dome of the Rock is a building of extraordinary beauty, solidity, elegance, and singularity of shape. It stands on an elevation in the centre of the mosque and is reached by a flight of marble steps. It has four doors. The space round it is also paved with marble, excellently done, and the interior likewise. Both outside and inside the decoration is so magnificent and the workmanship so surpassing as to defy description. The greater part is covered with gold so that the eyes of one who gazes on its beauties are dazzled by its brilliance, now glowing like a mass of light, now flashing like lightning. In the centre of the Dome is the blessed rock from which the Prophet ascended to heaven, a great rock projecting about a man's height, and underneath it there is a cave the size of a small room, also of a man's height, with steps leading down to it. Encircling the rock are two railings of excellent workmanship, the one nearer the rock being artistically constructed in iron and the other of wood.
Ibn Battuta ends his long and many travels p, 339.
I arrived at the royal city of Fa's
, the capital of our master the Commander of the Faithful (may God strengthen him), where I kissed his beneficent hand and was privileged to behold his gracious countenance.
I settled down under the wing of his bounty after long journeying. May God Most High recompense him for the abundant favours and ample benefits which he has bestowed on me; may He prolong his days and spare him to the Muslims for many years to come.
Here ends the travel-narrative entitled "A Donation to those interested in the Curiosities of the Cities and Marvels of the Ways." Its dictation was finished on 3rd Dhu'l-hijja 756
. Praise be to God, and peace to His creatures whom He hath chosen.
This is the end of Ibn Battuta's book of travels
Travels
In the course of his first journey, Ibn Battuta travelled through Algiers, Tunis, Egypt, Palestine and Syria to Makkah. After visiting Iraq, Shiraz and Mesopotamia he once more returned to perform the Hajj at Makkah and remained there for three years. Then travelling to Jeddah he went to Yemen by sea, visited Aden andset sail for Mombasa, East Africa. After going up to Kulwa he came back to Oman and repeated pilgrimage to Makkah in 1332 C.E. via Hormuz, Siraf, Bahrain and Yamama. Subsequently he set out with the purpose of going to India, but on reaching Jeddah, he appears to have changed his mind (due perhaps to the unavailability of a ship bound for India), and revisited Cairo, Palestine and Syria, thereafter arriving at Aleya (Asia Minor) by sea and travelled across Anatolia and Sinope. He then crossed the Black Sea and after long wanderings he reached Constantinople through Southern Ukraine.
On his return, he visited Khurasan through Khawarism (Khiva) and having visited all the important cities such as Bukhara, Balkh, Herat, Tus, Mashhad and Nishapur, he crossed the Hindukush mountains via the 13,000 ft Khawak Pass into Afghanistan and passing through Ghani and Kabul entered India. After visiting Lahri (near modern Karachi), Sukkur, Multan, Sirsa and Hansi, he reached Delhi. For several years Ibn Battuta enjoyed the patronage of Sultan Mohammad Tughlaq, and was later sent as Sultan's envoy to China. Passing through Cental India and Malwa he took ship from Kambay for Goa, and after visiting many thriving ports along the Malabar coast he reached the Maldive Islands, from which he crossed to Ceylon. Continuing his journey, he landed on the Ma'bar (Coromandal) coast and once more returning to the Maldives he finally set sail for Bengal and visited Kamrup, Sylhet and Sonargaon (near Dhaka). Sailing along the Arakan coast he came to Sumatra and later landed at Canton via Malaya and Cambodia. In China he travelled northward to Peking through Hangchow. Retracing his steps he returned to Calicut and taking ship came to Dhafari and Muscat, and passing through Paris (Iran), Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Egypt made his seventh and last pilgrimage to Makkah in November 1348 C.E. and then returned to his home town of Fez. His travels did not end here - he later visited Muslim Spain and the lands of the Niger across the Sahara.
On his return to Fez, Ibn Battuta dictated the accounts ofhis travels to Ibn Juzay al-Kalbi (1321-1356 C.E.) at the court of Sultan Abu Inan (1348-1358 C.E). Ibn Juzay took three months to accomplish this work ,which he finished on 9th December 1355 C.E.
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Writings
In order to experience the flavour of Ibn Battuta's narrative one must sample a few extracts. The following passage illustrates the system of social security in operation in the Muslim world in the early 14th century C.E. :
"The variety and expenditure of the religious endowmentsat Damascus are beyond computation. There are endowments in aid of persons who cannot undertake the pilgrimage to Makkah, out of which ate paid the expenses of those who go in their stead. There are other endowments for supplying wedding outfits to girls whose families are unable to provide them, and others for the freeing of prisoners. There are endowments for travellers, out of the revenues of which they are given food, clothing, and the expenses of conveyance to their countries. Then there are endowments for the improvement and paving of the streets, because all the lanes in Damascus have pavements on either side, on which the foot passengers walk, while those who ride use the roadway in the centre". p.69, ref l
Here is another example which describes Baghdad in the early 14th century C.E. :
"Then we travelled to Baghdad, the Abode of Peace andCapital of Islam. Here there are two bridges like that at Hilla, on which the people promenade night and day, both men and women. The baths at Baghdad are numerous and excellently constructed, most of them being painted with pitch, which has the appearance of black marble. This pitch is brought from a spring between Kufa and Basra, from which it flows continually. It gathers at the sides of the spring like clay and is shovelled up and brought to Baghdad. Each establishment has a number of private bathrooms, every one of which has also a wash-basin in the corner, with two taps supplying hot and cold water. Every bather is given three towels, one to wear round his waist when he goes in, another to wear round his waist when he comes out, and the third to dry himself with." p.99, ref 1
In the next example Ibn Battuta describes in great detailsome of the crops and fruits encountered on his travels:
"From Kulwa we sailed to Dhafari
, at the extremity of Yemen. Thoroughbred horses are exported from here to India, the passage taking a month with favouring wind.... The inhabitants cultivate millet and irrigate it from very deep wells, the water from which is raised in a large bucket drawn by a number of ropes. In the neighbourhood of the town there are orchards with many banana trees. The bananas are of immense size; one which was weighed in my presence scaled twelve ounces and was pleasant to the taste and very sweet. They also grow betel-trees and coco-palms, which are found only in India and the town of Dhafari." p.113, ref 1
Another example of In Battuta's keen observation is seen in the next passage:
"Betel-trees are grown like vines on can trellises or else trained up coco-palms. They have no fruit and are only grown for their leaves. The Indians have a high opinion of betel, and if a man visits a friend and the latter gives him five leaves of it, you would think he had given him the world, especially if he is a prince or notable. A gift of betel is a far greater honour than a gift of gold and silver. It is used in the following way: First one takes areca-nuts, which are like nutmegs, crushes them into small bits and chews them. Then the betel leaves are taken, a little chalk is put on them, and they are chewed with the areca-nuts." p.114, ref 1
Ibn Battuta - The Forgotten Traveller
Ibn Battuta's sea voyages and references to shipping reveal that the Muslims completely dominated the maritime activity of the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Chinese waters. Also it is seen that though the Christian traders were subject to certain restrictions, most of the economic negotiations were transacted on the basis of equality and mutual respect.
Ibn Battuta, one of the most remarkable travellers of all time, visited China sixty years after Marco Polo and in fact travelled 75,000 miles, much more than Marco Polo. Yet Battuta is never mentioned in geography books used in Muslim countries, let alone those in the West. Ibn Battuta's contribution to geography is unquestionably as great as that of any geographer yet the accounts of his travels are not easily accessible except to the specialist. The omission of reference to Ibn Battuta's contribution in geography books is not an isolated example. All great Musiims whether historians, doctors, astronomers, scientists or chemists suffer the same fate. One can understand why these great Muslims are ignored by the West. But the indifference of the Muslim governments is incomprehensible. In order to combat the inferiority complex that plagues the Muslim Ummah, we must rediscover the contributions of Muslims in fields such as science, medicine, engineering, architecture and astronomy. This will encourage contemporary young Muslims to strive in these fields and not think that major success is beyond their reach.
References
1. Ibn Buttuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1345, Published by Routledge and Kegan Paul (ISBN O 7100 9568 6)
2. The Introduction to the "Voyages of Ibn Battutah" by Vincent Monteil in The Islamic Review and Arab Affairs. March 1970: 30-37
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt -- a land of mysteries. No other civilization has so captured the imagination of scholars and laypeople alike. Mystery surrounds its origins, its religion and its monumental architecture: colossal temples, pyramids and the enormous Sphinx. The Egyptian pyramids are the most famous of all the ancient monuments, the only remaining wonder of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Ancient Egypt was a long-standing civilization in north-eastern Africa. It was concentrated along the middle to lower reaches of the Nile River, reaching its greatest extent in the second millennium BC, during the New Kingdom. It reached from the Nile Delta in the north, as far south as Jebel Barkal at the Fourth Cataract of the Nile. Extensions to the geographic range of ancient Egyptian civilization included, at different times, areas of the southern Levant, the Eastern Desert and the Red Sea coastline, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Western body (focused on the several oases). Ancient Egypt developed over at least three and a half millennia. It began with the incipient unification of Nile Valley polities around 3150 BC, and is conventionally thought to have ended in 31 BC when the early Roman Empire conquered and absorbed Ptolemaic Egypt as a state. This last event did not represent the first period of foreign domination; however the Roman period was to witness a marked, if gradual transformation in the political and religious life of the Nile Valley, effectively marking the termination of independent civilizational development.
The civilization of ancient Egypt was based on a finely balanced control of natural and human resources, characterised primarily by controlled irrigation of the fertile Nile Valley; the mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions; the early development of an independent writing system and literature; the organization of collective projects; trade with surrounding regions in east / central Africa and the eastern Mediterranean; and finally, military ventures that exhibited strong characteristics of imperial hegemony and territorial domination of neighbouring cultures at different periods. Motivating and organising these activities were a socio-political and economic elite that achieved social consensus by means of an elaborate system of religious belief under the figure of a semi-divine ruler (usually male) from a succession of ruling dynasties, and related to the larger world by means of polytheistic beliefs.
History of Ancient Egypt
Dynasties of Pharaohs
in ancient Egypt
Predynastic Egypt
Protodynastic Period
Early Dynastic Period
1st 2nd
Old Kingdom
3rd 4th 5th 6th
First Intermediate Period
7th 8th 9th 10th
11th (Thebes only)
Middle Kingdom
11th (All Egypt)
12th 13th 14th
Second Intermediate Period
15th 16th 17th
New Kingdom
18th 19th 20th
Third Intermediate Period
21st 22nd 23rd 24th 25th
Late Period
26th 27th 28th
29th 30th 31st
Graeco-Roman Period
Alexander the Great
Ptolemaic dynasty
Roman
Archaeological evidence indicates that a developed Egyptian society extended far, beyond the borders into prehistory (see Predynastic Egypt). The Nile River, around which much of the population of the country clusters, has been the lifeline for Egyptian culture since nomadic hunter-gatherers began living along the Nile during the Pleistocene. Traces of these early peoples appear in the form of artifacts and rock carvings along the terraces of the Nile and in the oases. Egypt is a place with a unique combination of geographical features. The location is a huge factor in that. The Nile River runs through it. First of all, Egypt is in northeast Africa bordered by Libya, Sudan, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It was divided into two parts; Upper and Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt; however, was the southern half towards the rest of Africa. The Nile was a key factor of why this civilization could flourish. The resources it provided the Egyptians were a very important factor to their success. The fertile silt deposited along the banks of the Nile after the annual floods meant the Egyptians were able to practise a relatively stress free form of agriculture. This gave them more free time for cultural advancement compared to the more difficult conditions faced in the rest of Africa. The large agricultural output also led to great wealth which was another developmental factor that differentiated Ancient Egypt from the rest of Africa at the time. Farming for the Egyptians was centered on the cycle of the Nile River. There were three season: Akhet, Peret, and Shemu. Akhet, the flooding season, lasted from June to September. After the flooding, a layer of silt was left on the banks, perfect for growing crops. Peret, the growing season, was between October and February. The farmers waited until the water drained away, around November, to plow and plant the rich soil. When that was done, they would irrigate the crops with dikes or canals. Shemu, the harvesting season, followed in March, April, and May. Reapers would then cut the ripe crops with wooden sickles. Women and children followed close behind to collect the fallen crops. The cycle just kept going as long as the Nile kept providing the resources which in turn kept the ancient Egyptian civilization alive. Flax plants were used to make linen which was made into clothing. Papyrus growing on the banks of the Nile River was used to make paper.
Along the Nile, in the 11th millennium BC, a grain-grinding culture using the earliest type of sickle blades had been replaced by another culture of hunters, fishers, and gathering peoples using stone tools. Evidence also indicates human habitation in the southwestern corner of Egypt, near the Sudan border, before 8000 BC. Geological evidence and computer climate modeling studies suggest that natural climate changes around 8000 BC began to desiccate the extensive pastoral lands of Egypt, eventually forming the Sahara (c.2500 BC). Early tribes in the region naturally tended to aggregate close to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. There is evidence of pastoralism and cultivation of cereals in the East Sahara in the 7th millennium BC.
By about 6000 BC, organized agriculture and large building construction had appeared in the Nile Valley. At this time, Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and also constructing large buildings. Mortar was in use by 4000 BC. The Predynastic Period continues through this time, variously held to begin with the Naqada culture. Some authorities however place the start of the Predynastic Period earlier, in the Lower Paleolithic.
Between 5500 and 3100 BC, during Egypt's Predynastic Period, small settlements flourished along the Nile. By 3300 BC, just before the first Egyptian dynasty, Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, known as Upper Egypt (Ta Shemau) and Lower Egypt (Ta Mehu).
The dividing line was drawn roughly in the area of modern Cairo.
The history of ancient Egypt proper starts with Egypt as a unified state, which occurred sometime around 3150 BC. Menes, who unified Upper and Lower Egypt, was the first king. Egyptian culture was remarkably stable and changed little over a period of nearly 3000 years. This includes religion, customs, art expression, architecture and social structure.
Egyptian chronology, which involves regnal years, began around this time. The conventional Egyptian chronology is the chronology accepted during the 20th century, but it does not include any of the major revision proposals that have also been made in that time. Even within a single work, often archaeologists will offer several possible dates or even several whole chronologies as possibilities. Consequently, there may be discrepancies between dates shown here and in articles on particular rulers. Often there are also several possible spellings of the names. Typically, Egyptologists divide the history of pharaonic civilization using a schedule laid out first by Manetho's Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt).
* List of pharaohs: The time of the Pharaohs stretches from before 3000 BC to about 30 BC.
* Dynasties (see also: List of Egyptian dynasties):
o Early Dynastic Period of Egypt (1st to 2nd Dynasties; until ca. 27th century BC)
o Old Kingdom (3rd to 6th Dynasties; 27th to 22nd centuries BC)
o First Intermediate Period (7th to 11th Dynasties)
o Middle Kingdom of Egypt (11th to 14th Dynasties; 20th to 17th centuries BC)
o Second Intermediate Period (14th to 17th Dynasties)
+ Hyksos (15th to 16th Dynasties, c. 1674 BC to 1548 BC)
o New Kingdom of Egypt (18th to 20th Dynasties; 16th to 11th centuries BC)
o Third Intermediate Period (21st to 25th Dynasties; 11th to 7th centuries BC)
o Late Period of Ancient Egypt (26th to 31st Dynasties; 7th century BC to 332 BC)
+ Achaemenid Dynasty
o Graeco-Roman Egypt (332 BC to AD 639)
+ Macedonian Kings (332 BC to 305 BC)
+ Ptolemaic Dynasty (305 BC to 30 BC)
+ Roman Empire (30 BC to 639 AD)
Administration and taxation
For administrative purposes, ancient Egypt was divided into nomes (the Greek word for "district"; they were called sepat in ancient Egyptian). The division into nomes can be traced back to the Predynastic Period (before 3100 BC), when the nomes originally existed as autonomous city-states. The nomes remained in place for more than three millennia, with the area of the individual nomes and their order of numbering remaining remarkably stable. Under the system that prevailed for most of pharaonic Egypt's history, the country was divided into 42 nomes: 20 comprising Lower Egypt, whilst Upper Egypt was divided into 22. Each nome was governed by a nomarch, a provincial governor who held regional authority. The position of the nomarch was at times hereditary, at times appointed by the pharaoh.
The ancient Egyptian government imposed a number of different taxes upon its people. As there was no known form of currency during that time period, taxes were paid for "in kind" (with produce or work). The Vizier (ancient Egyptian: tjaty) controlled the taxation system through the departments of state. The departments had to report daily on the amount of stock available, and how much was expected in the future. Taxes were paid for depending on a person's craft or duty. Landowners paid their taxes in grain and other produce grown on their property. Craftsmen paid their taxes in the goods that they produced. Hunters and fishermen paid their taxes with produce from the river, marshes, and desert. One person from every household was required to pay a corvée or labor tax by doing public work for a few weeks every year, such as digging canals or mining. However, a richer noble could hire a poorer man to fulfill his labor tax.
Language
Ancient Egyptian constitutes an independent part of the Afro-Asiatic language phylum. Its closest relatives are the Berber, Semitic, and Beja groups of languages. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3200 BC, making it one of the oldest and longest documented languages. Scholars group Egyptian into six major chronological divisions:
* Archaic Egyptian (before 3000 BC)
Consists of inscriptions from the late Predynastic and Early Dynastic period. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing appears on Naqada II pottery vessels.
* Old Egyptian (3000–2000 BC)
The language of the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period. The Pyramid Texts are the largest body of literature written in this phase of the language. Tomb walls of elite Egyptians from this period also bear autobiographical writings representing Old Egyptian. One of its distinguishing characteristics is the tripling of ideograms, phonograms, and determinatives to indicate the plural. Overall, it does not differ significantly from the next stage.
* Middle Egyptian (2000–1300 BC)
Often dubbed Classical Egyptian, this stage is known from a variety of textual evidence in hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts dated from about the Middle Kingdom. It includes funerary texts inscribed on sarcophagi such as the Coffin Texts; wisdom texts instructing people on how to lead a life that exemplified the ancient Egyptian philosophical worldview (see the Ipuwer papyrus); tales detailing the adventures of a certain individual, for example the Story of Sinuhe; medical and scientific texts such as the Edwin Smith Papyrus and the Ebers papyrus; and poetic texts praising a god or a pharaoh, such as the Hymn to the Nile. The Egyptian vernacular already began to change from the written language as evidenced by some Middle Kingdom hieratic texts, but classical Middle Egyptian continued to be written in formal contexts well into the Late Dynastic period (sometimes referred to as Late Middle Egyptian).
* Late Egyptian (1300–700 BC)
Records of this stage appear in the second part of the New Kingdom. It contains a rich body of religious and secular literature, comprising such famous examples as the Story of Wenamun and the Instructions of Ani. It was also the language of Ramesside administration. Late Egyptian is not totally distinct from Middle Egyptian, as many "classicisms" appear in historical and literary documents of this phase. However, the difference between Middle and Late Egyptian is greater than that between Middle and Old Egyptian. It's also a better representative than Middle Egyptian of the spoken language in the New Kingdom and beyond. Hieroglyphic orthography saw an enormous expansion of its graphemic inventory between the Late Dynastic and Ptolemaic periods.
* Demotic Egyptian (7th century BC–4th century AD)
Main article: Demotic Egyptian
* Coptic (3rd–17th century AD)
Main article: Coptic language
Writing
For many years, the earliest known hieroglyphic inscription was the Narmer Palette, found during excavations at Hierakonpolis (modern Kawm al-Ahmar) in the 1890s, which has been dated to c.3150 BC. However recent archaeological findings reveal that symbols on Gerzean pottery, c.3250 BC, resemble the traditional hieroglyph forms.
Also in 1998 a German archaeological team under Günter Dreyer excavating at Abydos (modern Umm el-Qa'ab) uncovered tomb U-j, which belonged to a Predynastic ruler, and they recovered three hundred clay labels inscribed with proto-hieroglyphics dating to the Naqada IIIA period, circa 33rd century BC.
Egyptologists refer to Egyptian writing as hieroglyphs, today standing as the world's earliest known writing system. The hieroglyphic script was partly syllabic, partly ideographic. Hieratic is a cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphs and was first used during the First Dynasty (c. 2925 BC – c. 2775 BC). The term Demotic, in the context of Egypt, came to refer to both the script and the language that followed the Late Ancient Egyptian stage, i.e. from the Nubian 25th dynasty until its marginalization by the Greek Koine in the early centuries AD. After the conquest of Amr ibn al-A'as in the 7th century AD, the Coptic language survived as a spoken language into the Middle Ages. Today, it continues to be the liturgical language of the Christian minority.
Beginning from around 2700 BC, Egyptians used pictograms to represent vocal sounds -- both vowel and consonant vocalizations (see Hieroglyph: Script). By 2000 BC, 26 pictograms were being used to represent 24 (known) main vocal sounds. The world's oldest known alphabet (c. 1800 BC) is only an abjad system and was derived from these uniliteral signs as well as other Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The hieroglyphic script finally fell out of use around the 4th century AD. Attempts to decipher it in the West began after the 15th century, though earlier attempts by Muslim scholars are attested (see Hieroglyphica).
Culture
The Egyptian religion, embodied in Egyptian mythology, is a succession of beliefs held by the people of Egypt, as early as predynastic times and all the way until the coming of Christianity and Islam in the Græco-Roman and Arab eras. These were conducted by Egyptian priests or magicians, but the use of magic and spells is questioned.
Every animal portrayed and worshiped in ancient Egyptian art, writing and religion is indigenous to Africa, all the way from the predynastic until the Graeco-Roman eras, over 3000 years. The Dromedary, domesticated first in Arabia, first appears in Egypt (and North Africa) beginning in the 2nd millennium BC.
The temple was a sacred place where only priests and priestesses were allowed. On special occasions people were allowed into the temple courtyard.
The religious nature of ancient Egyptian civilization influenced its contribution to the arts of the ancient world. Many of the great works of ancient Egypt depict gods, goddesses, and pharaohs, who were also considered divine. Ancient Egyptian art in general is characterized by the idea of order.
Evidence of mummies and pyramids outside ancient Egypt indicate reflections of ancient Egyptian belief values on other prehistoric cultures, transmitted in one way over the Silk Road. Ancient Egypt's foreign contacts included Nubia and Punt to the south, the Aegean and ancient Greece to the north, the Levant and other regions in the Near East to the east, and also Libya to the west.
Although analyzing the hair of ancient Egyptian mummies from the Late Middle Kingdom has revealed evidence of a stable diet,
mummies from circa 3200 BC show signs of severe anæmia and hæmolytic disorders.
Ancient achievements and unsolved problems
See Predynastic Egypt for inventions and other significant achievements in the Sahara region before the Protodynastic Period.
The achievements of ancient Egypt are well known, and the civilization achieved a very high standard of productivity and sophistication. The art and science of engineering was present in Egypt, such as accurately determining the position of points and the distances between them (known as surveying). These skills were used to outline pyramid bases. The Egyptian pyramids took the geometric shape formed from a polygonal base and a point, called the apex, by triangular faces. Hydraulic cement was first invented by the Egyptians. The Al Fayyum Irrigation (water works) was one of the main agricultural breadbaskets of the ancient world. There is evidence of ancient Egyptian Pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty using the natural lake of the Fayyum as a reservoir to store surpluses of water for use during the dry seasons. From the time of the First dynasty or before, the Egyptians mined turquoise in the Sinai Peninsula. The sarcophagus found in the great pyramid has been recently re-examined. According to the author Nigel Appleby ('Hall of the Gods') the holes drilled in the sides were considered to have been drilled at a speed and bore rate that cannot be reproduced today. Independent published corroboration by scientists and engineers is awaited for both of these claims. The earliest evidence (circa 1600 BC) of traditional empiricism is credited to Egypt, as evidenced by the Edwin Smith and Ebers papyri. The roots of the scientific method may be traced back to the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians created their own alphabet (however, it is debated as to whether they were the first to do this because of the margin of error on carbon dated tests), decimal system
and complex mathematical formularizations, in the form of the Moscow and Rhind Mathematical Papyri. The golden ratio seems to be reflected in many constructions, such as the Egyptian pyramids,
however this may be the consequence of combining the use of knotted ropes with an intuitive sense of proportion and harmony.
Glass making was highly developed in ancient Egypt, as is evident from the glass beads, jars, figures and ornaments discovered in the tombs.
Recent archeology has uncovered the remains of an ancient Egyptian glass factory.
Ancient Egypt -- a land of mysteries. No other civilization has so captured the imagination of scholars and laypeople alike. Mystery surrounds its origins, its religion and its monumental architecture: colossal temples, pyramids and the enormous Sphinx. The Egyptian pyramids are the most famous of all the ancient monuments, the only remaining wonder of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Ancient Egypt was a long-standing civilization in north-eastern Africa. It was concentrated along the middle to lower reaches of the Nile River, reaching its greatest extent in the second millennium BC, during the New Kingdom. It reached from the Nile Delta in the north, as far south as Jebel Barkal at the Fourth Cataract of the Nile. Extensions to the geographic range of ancient Egyptian civilization included, at different times, areas of the southern Levant, the Eastern Desert and the Red Sea coastline, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Western body (focused on the several oases). Ancient Egypt developed over at least three and a half millennia. It began with the incipient unification of Nile Valley polities around 3150 BC, and is conventionally thought to have ended in 31 BC when the early Roman Empire conquered and absorbed Ptolemaic Egypt as a state. This last event did not represent the first period of foreign domination; however the Roman period was to witness a marked, if gradual transformation in the political and religious life of the Nile Valley, effectively marking the termination of independent civilizational development.
The civilization of ancient Egypt was based on a finely balanced control of natural and human resources, characterised primarily by controlled irrigation of the fertile Nile Valley; the mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions; the early development of an independent writing system and literature; the organization of collective projects; trade with surrounding regions in east / central Africa and the eastern Mediterranean; and finally, military ventures that exhibited strong characteristics of imperial hegemony and territorial domination of neighbouring cultures at different periods. Motivating and organising these activities were a socio-political and economic elite that achieved social consensus by means of an elaborate system of religious belief under the figure of a semi-divine ruler (usually male) from a succession of ruling dynasties, and related to the larger world by means of polytheistic beliefs.
History of Ancient Egypt
Dynasties of Pharaohs
in ancient Egypt
Predynastic Egypt
Protodynastic Period
Early Dynastic Period
1st 2nd
Old Kingdom
3rd 4th 5th 6th
First Intermediate Period
7th 8th 9th 10th
11th (Thebes only)
Middle Kingdom
11th (All Egypt)
12th 13th 14th
Second Intermediate Period
15th 16th 17th
New Kingdom
18th 19th 20th
Third Intermediate Period
21st 22nd 23rd 24th 25th
Late Period
26th 27th 28th
29th 30th 31st
Graeco-Roman Period
Alexander the Great
Ptolemaic dynasty
Roman
Archaeological evidence indicates that a developed Egyptian society extended far, beyond the borders into prehistory (see Predynastic Egypt). The Nile River, around which much of the population of the country clusters, has been the lifeline for Egyptian culture since nomadic hunter-gatherers began living along the Nile during the Pleistocene. Traces of these early peoples appear in the form of artifacts and rock carvings along the terraces of the Nile and in the oases. Egypt is a place with a unique combination of geographical features. The location is a huge factor in that. The Nile River runs through it. First of all, Egypt is in northeast Africa bordered by Libya, Sudan, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It was divided into two parts; Upper and Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt; however, was the southern half towards the rest of Africa. The Nile was a key factor of why this civilization could flourish. The resources it provided the Egyptians were a very important factor to their success. The fertile silt deposited along the banks of the Nile after the annual floods meant the Egyptians were able to practise a relatively stress free form of agriculture. This gave them more free time for cultural advancement compared to the more difficult conditions faced in the rest of Africa. The large agricultural output also led to great wealth which was another developmental factor that differentiated Ancient Egypt from the rest of Africa at the time. Farming for the Egyptians was centered on the cycle of the Nile River. There were three season: Akhet, Peret, and Shemu. Akhet, the flooding season, lasted from June to September. After the flooding, a layer of silt was left on the banks, perfect for growing crops. Peret, the growing season, was between October and February. The farmers waited until the water drained away, around November, to plow and plant the rich soil. When that was done, they would irrigate the crops with dikes or canals. Shemu, the harvesting season, followed in March, April, and May. Reapers would then cut the ripe crops with wooden sickles. Women and children followed close behind to collect the fallen crops. The cycle just kept going as long as the Nile kept providing the resources which in turn kept the ancient Egyptian civilization alive. Flax plants were used to make linen which was made into clothing. Papyrus growing on the banks of the Nile River was used to make paper.
Along the Nile, in the 11th millennium BC, a grain-grinding culture using the earliest type of sickle blades had been replaced by another culture of hunters, fishers, and gathering peoples using stone tools. Evidence also indicates human habitation in the southwestern corner of Egypt, near the Sudan border, before 8000 BC. Geological evidence and computer climate modeling studies suggest that natural climate changes around 8000 BC began to desiccate the extensive pastoral lands of Egypt, eventually forming the Sahara (c.2500 BC). Early tribes in the region naturally tended to aggregate close to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. There is evidence of pastoralism and cultivation of cereals in the East Sahara in the 7th millennium BC.
By about 6000 BC, organized agriculture and large building construction had appeared in the Nile Valley. At this time, Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and also constructing large buildings. Mortar was in use by 4000 BC. The Predynastic Period continues through this time, variously held to begin with the Naqada culture. Some authorities however place the start of the Predynastic Period earlier, in the Lower Paleolithic.
Between 5500 and 3100 BC, during Egypt's Predynastic Period, small settlements flourished along the Nile. By 3300 BC, just before the first Egyptian dynasty, Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, known as Upper Egypt (Ta Shemau) and Lower Egypt (Ta Mehu).
The dividing line was drawn roughly in the area of modern Cairo.
The history of ancient Egypt proper starts with Egypt as a unified state, which occurred sometime around 3150 BC. Menes, who unified Upper and Lower Egypt, was the first king. Egyptian culture was remarkably stable and changed little over a period of nearly 3000 years. This includes religion, customs, art expression, architecture and social structure.
Egyptian chronology, which involves regnal years, began around this time. The conventional Egyptian chronology is the chronology accepted during the 20th century, but it does not include any of the major revision proposals that have also been made in that time. Even within a single work, often archaeologists will offer several possible dates or even several whole chronologies as possibilities. Consequently, there may be discrepancies between dates shown here and in articles on particular rulers. Often there are also several possible spellings of the names. Typically, Egyptologists divide the history of pharaonic civilization using a schedule laid out first by Manetho's Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt).
* List of pharaohs: The time of the Pharaohs stretches from before 3000 BC to about 30 BC.
* Dynasties (see also: List of Egyptian dynasties):
o Early Dynastic Period of Egypt (1st to 2nd Dynasties; until ca. 27th century BC)
o Old Kingdom (3rd to 6th Dynasties; 27th to 22nd centuries BC)
o First Intermediate Period (7th to 11th Dynasties)
o Middle Kingdom of Egypt (11th to 14th Dynasties; 20th to 17th centuries BC)
o Second Intermediate Period (14th to 17th Dynasties)
+ Hyksos (15th to 16th Dynasties, c. 1674 BC to 1548 BC)
o New Kingdom of Egypt (18th to 20th Dynasties; 16th to 11th centuries BC)
o Third Intermediate Period (21st to 25th Dynasties; 11th to 7th centuries BC)
o Late Period of Ancient Egypt (26th to 31st Dynasties; 7th century BC to 332 BC)
+ Achaemenid Dynasty
o Graeco-Roman Egypt (332 BC to AD 639)
+ Macedonian Kings (332 BC to 305 BC)
+ Ptolemaic Dynasty (305 BC to 30 BC)
+ Roman Empire (30 BC to 639 AD)
Administration and taxation
For administrative purposes, ancient Egypt was divided into nomes (the Greek word for "district"; they were called sepat in ancient Egyptian). The division into nomes can be traced back to the Predynastic Period (before 3100 BC), when the nomes originally existed as autonomous city-states. The nomes remained in place for more than three millennia, with the area of the individual nomes and their order of numbering remaining remarkably stable. Under the system that prevailed for most of pharaonic Egypt's history, the country was divided into 42 nomes: 20 comprising Lower Egypt, whilst Upper Egypt was divided into 22. Each nome was governed by a nomarch, a provincial governor who held regional authority. The position of the nomarch was at times hereditary, at times appointed by the pharaoh.
The ancient Egyptian government imposed a number of different taxes upon its people. As there was no known form of currency during that time period, taxes were paid for "in kind" (with produce or work). The Vizier (ancient Egyptian: tjaty) controlled the taxation system through the departments of state. The departments had to report daily on the amount of stock available, and how much was expected in the future. Taxes were paid for depending on a person's craft or duty. Landowners paid their taxes in grain and other produce grown on their property. Craftsmen paid their taxes in the goods that they produced. Hunters and fishermen paid their taxes with produce from the river, marshes, and desert. One person from every household was required to pay a corvée or labor tax by doing public work for a few weeks every year, such as digging canals or mining. However, a richer noble could hire a poorer man to fulfill his labor tax.
Language
Ancient Egyptian constitutes an independent part of the Afro-Asiatic language phylum. Its closest relatives are the Berber, Semitic, and Beja groups of languages. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3200 BC, making it one of the oldest and longest documented languages. Scholars group Egyptian into six major chronological divisions:
* Archaic Egyptian (before 3000 BC)
Consists of inscriptions from the late Predynastic and Early Dynastic period. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing appears on Naqada II pottery vessels.
* Old Egyptian (3000–2000 BC)
The language of the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period. The Pyramid Texts are the largest body of literature written in this phase of the language. Tomb walls of elite Egyptians from this period also bear autobiographical writings representing Old Egyptian. One of its distinguishing characteristics is the tripling of ideograms, phonograms, and determinatives to indicate the plural. Overall, it does not differ significantly from the next stage.
* Middle Egyptian (2000–1300 BC)
Often dubbed Classical Egyptian, this stage is known from a variety of textual evidence in hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts dated from about the Middle Kingdom. It includes funerary texts inscribed on sarcophagi such as the Coffin Texts; wisdom texts instructing people on how to lead a life that exemplified the ancient Egyptian philosophical worldview (see the Ipuwer papyrus); tales detailing the adventures of a certain individual, for example the Story of Sinuhe; medical and scientific texts such as the Edwin Smith Papyrus and the Ebers papyrus; and poetic texts praising a god or a pharaoh, such as the Hymn to the Nile. The Egyptian vernacular already began to change from the written language as evidenced by some Middle Kingdom hieratic texts, but classical Middle Egyptian continued to be written in formal contexts well into the Late Dynastic period (sometimes referred to as Late Middle Egyptian).
* Late Egyptian (1300–700 BC)
Records of this stage appear in the second part of the New Kingdom. It contains a rich body of religious and secular literature, comprising such famous examples as the Story of Wenamun and the Instructions of Ani. It was also the language of Ramesside administration. Late Egyptian is not totally distinct from Middle Egyptian, as many "classicisms" appear in historical and literary documents of this phase. However, the difference between Middle and Late Egyptian is greater than that between Middle and Old Egyptian. It's also a better representative than Middle Egyptian of the spoken language in the New Kingdom and beyond. Hieroglyphic orthography saw an enormous expansion of its graphemic inventory between the Late Dynastic and Ptolemaic periods.
* Demotic Egyptian (7th century BC–4th century AD)
Main article: Demotic Egyptian
* Coptic (3rd–17th century AD)
Main article: Coptic language
Writing
For many years, the earliest known hieroglyphic inscription was the Narmer Palette, found during excavations at Hierakonpolis (modern Kawm al-Ahmar) in the 1890s, which has been dated to c.3150 BC. However recent archaeological findings reveal that symbols on Gerzean pottery, c.3250 BC, resemble the traditional hieroglyph forms.
Also in 1998 a German archaeological team under Günter Dreyer excavating at Abydos (modern Umm el-Qa'ab) uncovered tomb U-j, which belonged to a Predynastic ruler, and they recovered three hundred clay labels inscribed with proto-hieroglyphics dating to the Naqada IIIA period, circa 33rd century BC.
Egyptologists refer to Egyptian writing as hieroglyphs, today standing as the world's earliest known writing system. The hieroglyphic script was partly syllabic, partly ideographic. Hieratic is a cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphs and was first used during the First Dynasty (c. 2925 BC – c. 2775 BC). The term Demotic, in the context of Egypt, came to refer to both the script and the language that followed the Late Ancient Egyptian stage, i.e. from the Nubian 25th dynasty until its marginalization by the Greek Koine in the early centuries AD. After the conquest of Amr ibn al-A'as in the 7th century AD, the Coptic language survived as a spoken language into the Middle Ages. Today, it continues to be the liturgical language of the Christian minority.
Beginning from around 2700 BC, Egyptians used pictograms to represent vocal sounds -- both vowel and consonant vocalizations (see Hieroglyph: Script). By 2000 BC, 26 pictograms were being used to represent 24 (known) main vocal sounds. The world's oldest known alphabet (c. 1800 BC) is only an abjad system and was derived from these uniliteral signs as well as other Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The hieroglyphic script finally fell out of use around the 4th century AD. Attempts to decipher it in the West began after the 15th century, though earlier attempts by Muslim scholars are attested (see Hieroglyphica).
Culture
The Egyptian religion, embodied in Egyptian mythology, is a succession of beliefs held by the people of Egypt, as early as predynastic times and all the way until the coming of Christianity and Islam in the Græco-Roman and Arab eras. These were conducted by Egyptian priests or magicians, but the use of magic and spells is questioned.
Every animal portrayed and worshiped in ancient Egyptian art, writing and religion is indigenous to Africa, all the way from the predynastic until the Graeco-Roman eras, over 3000 years. The Dromedary, domesticated first in Arabia, first appears in Egypt (and North Africa) beginning in the 2nd millennium BC.
The temple was a sacred place where only priests and priestesses were allowed. On special occasions people were allowed into the temple courtyard.
The religious nature of ancient Egyptian civilization influenced its contribution to the arts of the ancient world. Many of the great works of ancient Egypt depict gods, goddesses, and pharaohs, who were also considered divine. Ancient Egyptian art in general is characterized by the idea of order.
Evidence of mummies and pyramids outside ancient Egypt indicate reflections of ancient Egyptian belief values on other prehistoric cultures, transmitted in one way over the Silk Road. Ancient Egypt's foreign contacts included Nubia and Punt to the south, the Aegean and ancient Greece to the north, the Levant and other regions in the Near East to the east, and also Libya to the west.
Although analyzing the hair of ancient Egyptian mummies from the Late Middle Kingdom has revealed evidence of a stable diet,
mummies from circa 3200 BC show signs of severe anæmia and hæmolytic disorders.
Ancient achievements and unsolved problems
See Predynastic Egypt for inventions and other significant achievements in the Sahara region before the Protodynastic Period.
The achievements of ancient Egypt are well known, and the civilization achieved a very high standard of productivity and sophistication. The art and science of engineering was present in Egypt, such as accurately determining the position of points and the distances between them (known as surveying). These skills were used to outline pyramid bases. The Egyptian pyramids took the geometric shape formed from a polygonal base and a point, called the apex, by triangular faces. Hydraulic cement was first invented by the Egyptians. The Al Fayyum Irrigation (water works) was one of the main agricultural breadbaskets of the ancient world. There is evidence of ancient Egyptian Pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty using the natural lake of the Fayyum as a reservoir to store surpluses of water for use during the dry seasons. From the time of the First dynasty or before, the Egyptians mined turquoise in the Sinai Peninsula. The sarcophagus found in the great pyramid has been recently re-examined. According to the author Nigel Appleby ('Hall of the Gods') the holes drilled in the sides were considered to have been drilled at a speed and bore rate that cannot be reproduced today. Independent published corroboration by scientists and engineers is awaited for both of these claims. The earliest evidence (circa 1600 BC) of traditional empiricism is credited to Egypt, as evidenced by the Edwin Smith and Ebers papyri. The roots of the scientific method may be traced back to the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians created their own alphabet (however, it is debated as to whether they were the first to do this because of the margin of error on carbon dated tests), decimal system
and complex mathematical formularizations, in the form of the Moscow and Rhind Mathematical Papyri. The golden ratio seems to be reflected in many constructions, such as the Egyptian pyramids,
however this may be the consequence of combining the use of knotted ropes with an intuitive sense of proportion and harmony.
Glass making was highly developed in ancient Egypt, as is evident from the glass beads, jars, figures and ornaments discovered in the tombs.
Recent archeology has uncovered the remains of an ancient Egyptian glass factory.
great buildings
Leaning Tower of Pisa
The Leaning Tower of Pisa (Italian: Torre pendente di Pisa) or simply The Tower of Pisa (La Torre di Pisa) is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa. It is situated behind the Cathedral and it is the third structure in Pisa's Campo dei Miracoli (field of Miracles).
Although intended to stand vertically, the tower began leaning to the southeast soon after the onset of construction in 1173 due to a poorly laid foundation and loose substrate that has allowed the foundation to shift.
The height of the tower is 55.86 m (183.27 ft) from the ground on the lowest side and 56.70 m (186.02 ft) on the highest side. The width of the walls at the base is 4.09 m (13.42 ft) and at the top 2.48 m (8.14 ft). Its weight is estimated at 14,500 tonnes. The tower has 294 steps.
Construction
The Tower of Pisa was a work of art, performed in three stages over a period of about 174 years. Construction of the first floor of the white marble campanile began on August 9, 1173, a period of military success and prosperity. This first floor is surrounded by pillars with classical capitals, leaning against blind arches. Today, it is still unscarred from centuries of weather and age.
History
Galileo Galilei is said to have dropped two cannon balls of different masses from the tower to demonstrate that their descending speed was independent of their mass. Many parts of this story, though reported by Galileo's own student, are widely considered to be merely legendary. While Galileo probably did climb to the top of the tower and drop two items to further prove his already-proven theory, more than likely, the items were not two cannonballs.
Benito Mussolini ordered that the tower be returned to a vertical position, so concrete was poured into its foundation. However, the result was that the tower actually sank further into the soil.
During World War II, the Allies discovered that the Nazis were using it as an observation post. A humble U.S. Army sergeant was briefly entrusted with the fate of the tower. His decision not to call in an artillery strike saved the edifice.
On February 27, 1964, the government of Italy requested aid in preventing the tower from toppling. It was however considered important to retain the current tilt, due to the vital role that this element played in promoting the tourism industry of Pisa.
A multinational task force of engineers, mathematicians and historians was assigned and met on the Azores islands to discuss stabilization methods. After over two decades of work on the subject, the tower was closed to the public in January 1990. While the tower was closed, the bells were removed to relieve some weight, and cables were cinched around the third level and anchored several hundred meters away. Apartments and houses in the path of the tower were vacated for safety. After a decade of corrective reconstruction and stabilization efforts, the tower was reopened to the public on December 15, 2001. It was found that lean was increasing due to the stonework expanding and contracting each day due to the heat of sunlight. This was working in combination with the softer foundations on the lower side. Many methods were proposed to stabilize the tower, including the addition of 800 metric tons of lead counterweights to the raised end of the base.
The final solution to preventing collapse of the tower was to slightly straighten the tower to a safer angle, by removing 38 m3 of soil from underneath the raised end. The tower has been declared stable for at least another 300 years.
In 1987, the tower was declared as part of the Campo dei Miracoli UNESCO World Heritage Site along with neighbouring cathedral, baptistery and cemetery.
Technical information
View looking up
View looking up
* Geographic coordinates: 43.7231° N 10.3964° ECoordinates: 43.7231° N 10.3964° E
* Elevation of Piazza dei Miracoli: about 2 metres (6 feet, DMS)
* Height: 55.863 metres (183 ft 3 in), 8 stories
* Outer diameter of base: 15.484 m
* Inner diameter of base: 7.368 m
* Angle of slant: 5.5 degrees
or 4.5 m from the vertical
* Weight: 14,700 tonnes
* Thickness of walls at the base: 8 ft (2.4 m)
* Total number of bells: 7, tuned to musical scale, clockwise
o 1st bell: L'assunta, cast in 1654 by Giovanni Pietro Orlandi, weight 3,620 kg (7,981 lb)
o 2nd bell: il Crocifisso, cast in 1572 by Vincenzo Possenti, weight 2,462 kg (5,428 lb)
o 3rd bell: San Ranieri, cast in 1719-1721 by Giovanni Andrea Moreni, weight 1,448 kg (3,192 lb)
o 4th bell: La Terza (1st small one), cast in 1473, weight 300 kg (661 lb)by
o 5th bell: La Pasquereccia, cast in 1262 by Lotteringo, weight 1,014 kg (2,235 lb)
o 6th bell: il Vespruccio (2nd small one), cast in the 14th century and again in 1501 by Nicola di Jacopo, weight 1,000 kg (2,205 lb)
o 7th bell: Del Pozzetto, cast in 1606, weight 652 kg (1,437 lb)
* Steps to bell tower: 294
In Popular Culture
* The movie Superman III features an evil Superman doing several "bad deeds" around the world - one of which is straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa, played to comedic effect. The famous final scene of the film features Superman pushing the tower back to its normal inclination.
* In the Histeria! episode "The Wheel of History", Froggo is shown attempting to push the tower into its leaning position, unsuccessfully. He soon manages to accomplish the task with the help of Archimedes (played by Chit Chatterson) and his lever.
* In the Cartoon series Futurama the leaning tower is knocked straight by Fry and Bender and then knocked back again on a joy ride in the Planet Express Ship.
* In the Disney movie Sky High, the very beginning shows Will Stronghold's superhero mom getting "take out" pizza from Italy. In one shot of the comic strip, she is seen with a pizza box, flying past the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
* In the Bartimaeus Trilogy, the djinni Bartimaeus claims that he helped build the Tower of Pisa, but his advice to the archiects was ignored and that is the reason that it leans.
* On a Tool Time segment on Home Improvement, Tim Taylor shows a picture of the tower as an example of how men create and build masterpieces with tools. His assistant Al Borland then goes on to say that the tower is actually an example of a mistake by mankind.
* In a flashback in an episode Rocko's Modern Life, it is shown an ancestor of Heffer was standing at a side of the tower, causing the tower to lean.
* In Disney's A Goofy Movie, Max's friend Bobby (Pauly Shore) makes a reference to the tower with Eazy Cheeze that he piled in his hand and says "look, it's the leaning tower of cheesa."
* In MTV's Viva La Bam, Bam visits the tower and his uncle, Don Vito, who calls it "The Leaning Tower of Pizza" and says there is a pizza shop at the bottom of the tower . He then says in a hysterical voice that the whole town was named after pizza.
* In the Disney movie the Return of Jafar, the Genie's song 'Nothing in the world' refers to the Leaning Tower of Pisa where, comically, the Genie is seen cycling into the tower, which falls on top of him.
(PISA, Italia, Sept, 1995) - The placing of the first stone
for the construction of the most famous Tower on Earth
occurred on 9 August 1173. But the problems for the bell
tower began almost immediately, so much that less than 100
years after the date of the start of the work, precisely
March 15 1298, the first commission of entrusted experts
was already facing the task of "the Tower Emergency".
Since then there have been 17 committees of experts called
to deal with the mysteries of the bell tower of Pisa and with
its inclination. The last one, composed of scholars of world
fame, installed the day after the closing of the Tower, the
day of the Epiphany in 1990. Then, mayor of Pisa, Giacomino
Granchi, shut the front door of the bell tower. The event
was transmitted live on television, during the transmission
"Restart from Two" conducted by Raffaella Carra.
In the last day of opening to the public, a record number of
visitors was reached: in fact, they bought 2,644 tickets from
the ticket office . But padlocks were not installed 24 hours
when already good merchants were thinking about how to take
advantage of the closing of the Pisan monument. They did in
fact print a manifesto on which the Guinigi tower (in Lucca)
was promoted. Only too clear is the allusion of the
invitation: "The Guinigi tower in Lucca has only one thing
that leans: the tree that grows on its top."
The technical commission, which repeatedly has made reports
noting "empty" legislative and bureaucratic delays in the
disbursement of the necessary financings for intervention
of the consolidation, for the moment takes on the job and
decides to proceed urgently with work of any sum. In May
1992 strong rings of steel had been placed at the height
of the first story of the Campanile. The beneficient effect
of this "band of steel" is the closing of cracks in the
external walls.
After the installation of the rings, operation
"counterweight": at the foot of the tower, at the location
of the greatest displacement, 600 tons of lead ingots
have been placed. The installation began in July 1993 and
proceeded for any months. The measure works: only the speed
of inclination of the monument is halted, but the Tower is
not straightened.
The complex system of computerized monitors (counting more
than two hundred sophisticated tools) gives a miraculous
response: in little more than six months the Campanile has
recovered millimeters, reversing the process of inclination
that seemed irreversible. The news goes out to the world.
The immediate red alert is gone for now. But the mysteries
of the Tower still swirl around the steep spiral of the its
294 stairs.
in1992 various institutions and bodies were commissioned by the Consorzio Progetto Torre di Pisa to set up a documentary archive relating to the archaeological, archival, bibliographical, photographic, iconographic and historical investigations into the Tower of Pisa.
This site offers users a powerful free text search engine allowing the consultation of this material, subdivided in a bibliographical archive and a body of information relative to the history of the building.
Leaning Tower of Pisa
The Leaning Tower of Pisa (Italian: Torre pendente di Pisa) or simply The Tower of Pisa (La Torre di Pisa) is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa. It is situated behind the Cathedral and it is the third structure in Pisa's Campo dei Miracoli (field of Miracles).
Although intended to stand vertically, the tower began leaning to the southeast soon after the onset of construction in 1173 due to a poorly laid foundation and loose substrate that has allowed the foundation to shift.
The height of the tower is 55.86 m (183.27 ft) from the ground on the lowest side and 56.70 m (186.02 ft) on the highest side. The width of the walls at the base is 4.09 m (13.42 ft) and at the top 2.48 m (8.14 ft). Its weight is estimated at 14,500 tonnes. The tower has 294 steps.
Construction
The Tower of Pisa was a work of art, performed in three stages over a period of about 174 years. Construction of the first floor of the white marble campanile began on August 9, 1173, a period of military success and prosperity. This first floor is surrounded by pillars with classical capitals, leaning against blind arches. Today, it is still unscarred from centuries of weather and age.
History
Galileo Galilei is said to have dropped two cannon balls of different masses from the tower to demonstrate that their descending speed was independent of their mass. Many parts of this story, though reported by Galileo's own student, are widely considered to be merely legendary. While Galileo probably did climb to the top of the tower and drop two items to further prove his already-proven theory, more than likely, the items were not two cannonballs.
Benito Mussolini ordered that the tower be returned to a vertical position, so concrete was poured into its foundation. However, the result was that the tower actually sank further into the soil.
During World War II, the Allies discovered that the Nazis were using it as an observation post. A humble U.S. Army sergeant was briefly entrusted with the fate of the tower. His decision not to call in an artillery strike saved the edifice.
On February 27, 1964, the government of Italy requested aid in preventing the tower from toppling. It was however considered important to retain the current tilt, due to the vital role that this element played in promoting the tourism industry of Pisa.
A multinational task force of engineers, mathematicians and historians was assigned and met on the Azores islands to discuss stabilization methods. After over two decades of work on the subject, the tower was closed to the public in January 1990. While the tower was closed, the bells were removed to relieve some weight, and cables were cinched around the third level and anchored several hundred meters away. Apartments and houses in the path of the tower were vacated for safety. After a decade of corrective reconstruction and stabilization efforts, the tower was reopened to the public on December 15, 2001. It was found that lean was increasing due to the stonework expanding and contracting each day due to the heat of sunlight. This was working in combination with the softer foundations on the lower side. Many methods were proposed to stabilize the tower, including the addition of 800 metric tons of lead counterweights to the raised end of the base.
The final solution to preventing collapse of the tower was to slightly straighten the tower to a safer angle, by removing 38 m3 of soil from underneath the raised end. The tower has been declared stable for at least another 300 years.
In 1987, the tower was declared as part of the Campo dei Miracoli UNESCO World Heritage Site along with neighbouring cathedral, baptistery and cemetery.
Technical information
View looking up
View looking up
* Geographic coordinates: 43.7231° N 10.3964° ECoordinates: 43.7231° N 10.3964° E
* Elevation of Piazza dei Miracoli: about 2 metres (6 feet, DMS)
* Height: 55.863 metres (183 ft 3 in), 8 stories
* Outer diameter of base: 15.484 m
* Inner diameter of base: 7.368 m
* Angle of slant: 5.5 degrees
or 4.5 m from the vertical
* Weight: 14,700 tonnes
* Thickness of walls at the base: 8 ft (2.4 m)
* Total number of bells: 7, tuned to musical scale, clockwise
o 1st bell: L'assunta, cast in 1654 by Giovanni Pietro Orlandi, weight 3,620 kg (7,981 lb)
o 2nd bell: il Crocifisso, cast in 1572 by Vincenzo Possenti, weight 2,462 kg (5,428 lb)
o 3rd bell: San Ranieri, cast in 1719-1721 by Giovanni Andrea Moreni, weight 1,448 kg (3,192 lb)
o 4th bell: La Terza (1st small one), cast in 1473, weight 300 kg (661 lb)by
o 5th bell: La Pasquereccia, cast in 1262 by Lotteringo, weight 1,014 kg (2,235 lb)
o 6th bell: il Vespruccio (2nd small one), cast in the 14th century and again in 1501 by Nicola di Jacopo, weight 1,000 kg (2,205 lb)
o 7th bell: Del Pozzetto, cast in 1606, weight 652 kg (1,437 lb)
* Steps to bell tower: 294
In Popular Culture
* The movie Superman III features an evil Superman doing several "bad deeds" around the world - one of which is straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa, played to comedic effect. The famous final scene of the film features Superman pushing the tower back to its normal inclination.
* In the Histeria! episode "The Wheel of History", Froggo is shown attempting to push the tower into its leaning position, unsuccessfully. He soon manages to accomplish the task with the help of Archimedes (played by Chit Chatterson) and his lever.
* In the Cartoon series Futurama the leaning tower is knocked straight by Fry and Bender and then knocked back again on a joy ride in the Planet Express Ship.
* In the Disney movie Sky High, the very beginning shows Will Stronghold's superhero mom getting "take out" pizza from Italy. In one shot of the comic strip, she is seen with a pizza box, flying past the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
* In the Bartimaeus Trilogy, the djinni Bartimaeus claims that he helped build the Tower of Pisa, but his advice to the archiects was ignored and that is the reason that it leans.
* On a Tool Time segment on Home Improvement, Tim Taylor shows a picture of the tower as an example of how men create and build masterpieces with tools. His assistant Al Borland then goes on to say that the tower is actually an example of a mistake by mankind.
* In a flashback in an episode Rocko's Modern Life, it is shown an ancestor of Heffer was standing at a side of the tower, causing the tower to lean.
* In Disney's A Goofy Movie, Max's friend Bobby (Pauly Shore) makes a reference to the tower with Eazy Cheeze that he piled in his hand and says "look, it's the leaning tower of cheesa."
* In MTV's Viva La Bam, Bam visits the tower and his uncle, Don Vito, who calls it "The Leaning Tower of Pizza" and says there is a pizza shop at the bottom of the tower . He then says in a hysterical voice that the whole town was named after pizza.
* In the Disney movie the Return of Jafar, the Genie's song 'Nothing in the world' refers to the Leaning Tower of Pisa where, comically, the Genie is seen cycling into the tower, which falls on top of him.
(PISA, Italia, Sept, 1995) - The placing of the first stone
for the construction of the most famous Tower on Earth
occurred on 9 August 1173. But the problems for the bell
tower began almost immediately, so much that less than 100
years after the date of the start of the work, precisely
March 15 1298, the first commission of entrusted experts
was already facing the task of "the Tower Emergency".
Since then there have been 17 committees of experts called
to deal with the mysteries of the bell tower of Pisa and with
its inclination. The last one, composed of scholars of world
fame, installed the day after the closing of the Tower, the
day of the Epiphany in 1990. Then, mayor of Pisa, Giacomino
Granchi, shut the front door of the bell tower. The event
was transmitted live on television, during the transmission
"Restart from Two" conducted by Raffaella Carra.
In the last day of opening to the public, a record number of
visitors was reached: in fact, they bought 2,644 tickets from
the ticket office . But padlocks were not installed 24 hours
when already good merchants were thinking about how to take
advantage of the closing of the Pisan monument. They did in
fact print a manifesto on which the Guinigi tower (in Lucca)
was promoted. Only too clear is the allusion of the
invitation: "The Guinigi tower in Lucca has only one thing
that leans: the tree that grows on its top."
The technical commission, which repeatedly has made reports
noting "empty" legislative and bureaucratic delays in the
disbursement of the necessary financings for intervention
of the consolidation, for the moment takes on the job and
decides to proceed urgently with work of any sum. In May
1992 strong rings of steel had been placed at the height
of the first story of the Campanile. The beneficient effect
of this "band of steel" is the closing of cracks in the
external walls.
After the installation of the rings, operation
"counterweight": at the foot of the tower, at the location
of the greatest displacement, 600 tons of lead ingots
have been placed. The installation began in July 1993 and
proceeded for any months. The measure works: only the speed
of inclination of the monument is halted, but the Tower is
not straightened.
The complex system of computerized monitors (counting more
than two hundred sophisticated tools) gives a miraculous
response: in little more than six months the Campanile has
recovered millimeters, reversing the process of inclination
that seemed irreversible. The news goes out to the world.
The immediate red alert is gone for now. But the mysteries
of the Tower still swirl around the steep spiral of the its
294 stairs.
in1992 various institutions and bodies were commissioned by the Consorzio Progetto Torre di Pisa to set up a documentary archive relating to the archaeological, archival, bibliographical, photographic, iconographic and historical investigations into the Tower of Pisa.
This site offers users a powerful free text search engine allowing the consultation of this material, subdivided in a bibliographical archive and a body of information relative to the history of the building.
والله مايوفيكِ الشكر حقك حبيبتي " سفيرة الغد
بارك الله بيك
وجزيت خيرا
تقبلي
اصدق تحياتي
بارك الله بيك
وجزيت خيرا
تقبلي
اصدق تحياتي
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Check our price list:
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We have access to any mobile numbers database for any country you request. Our numbers are updated directly from operators on monthly basis.
Download sample numbers for sample countries
http://bulkforsale.org/downloads/Lebanon.txt
http://bulkforsale.org/downloads/Saudi_Arabia.txt
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Check our website for the list of countries and prices.
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bulkforsale.org - The Home of Promotion and Email Marketing!
اللي عندها خبرة تساعدني قبل الاربعاء→
1-the internet=
he Internet is the worldwide, publicly accessible network of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked Web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web.
Terminology: Internet vs. Web
The Internet and the World Wide Web are not synonymous: the Internet is a collection of interconnected computer networks, linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, etc.; the Web is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. The World Wide Web is accessible via the Internet, as are many other services including e-mail, file sharing, and others described below.
The best way to define and distinguish between these terms is with reference to the Internet protocol suite. This collection of standards and protocols is organized into layers such that each layer provides the foundation and the services required by the layer above. In this conception, the term Internet refers to computers and networks that communicate using IP (Internet protocol) and TCP (transfer control protocol). Once this networking structure is established, then other protocols can run “on top.” These other protocols are sometimes called services or applications. Hypertext transfer protocol, or HTTP, is the application layer protocol that links and provides access to the files, documents and other resources of the World Wide Web.
Creation of the Internet
The USSR's launch of Sputnik spurred the United States to create the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, later known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA) in February 1958 to regain a technological lead. ARPA created the Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) to further the research of the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) program, which had networked country-wide radar systems together for the first time. J. C. R. Licklider was selected to head the IPTO, and saw universal networking as a potential unifying human revolution.
In 1950, Licklider moved from the Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory at Harvard University to MIT where he served on a committee that established MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He worked on the SAGE project. In 1957 he became a Vice President at BBN, where he bought the first production PDP-1 computer and conducted the first public demonstration of time-sharing.
Licklider recruited Lawrence Roberts to head a project to implement a network, and Roberts based the technology on the work of Paul Baran who had written an exhaustive study for the U.S. Air Force that recommended packet switching (as opposed to Circuit switching) to make a network highly robust and survivable. After much work, the first node went live at UCLA on October 29, 1969 on what would be called the ARPANET, one of the "eve" networks of today's Internet. Following on from this, the British Post Office, Western Union International and Tymnet collaborated to create the first international packet switched network, referred to as the International Packet Switched Service (IPSS), in 1978. This network grew from ****pe and the US to cover Canada, Hong Kong and Australia by 1981.
The first TCP/IP wide area network was operational by 1 January 1983, when the United States' National Science Foundation (NSF) constructed a university network backbone that would later become the NSFNet. (This date is held by some to be technically that of the birth of the Internet.) It was then followed by the opening of the network to commercial interests in 1985. Important, separate networks that offered gateways into, then later merged with, the NSFNet include Usenet, BITNET and the various commercial and educational X.25 Compuserve and JANET. Telenet (later called Sprintnet), was a large privately-funded national computer network with free dialup access in cities throughout the U.S. that had been in operation since the 1970s. This network eventually merged with the others in the 1990s as the TCP/IP protocol became increasingly popular. The ability of TCP/IP to work over these pre-existing communication networks, especially the international X.25 IPSS network, allowed for a great ease of growth. Use of the term "Internet" to describe a single global TCP/IP network originated around this time.
The network gained a public face in the 1990s. On August 6, 1991 CERN, which straddles the border between France and Switzerland publicized the new World Wide Web project, two years after Tim Berners-Lee had begun creating HTML, HTTP and the first few Web pages at CERN.
An early popular Web browser was ViolaWWW based upon HyperCard. It was eventually replaced in popularity by the Mosaic Web Browser. In 1993 the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign released version 1.0 of Mosaic and by late 1994 there was growing public interest in the previously academic/technical Internet. By 1996 the word "Internet" was coming into common daily usage, frequently misused to refer to the World Wide Web.
Meanwhile, over the course of the decade, the Internet successfully accommodated the majority of previously existing public computer networks (although some networks such as FidoNet have remained separate). This growth is often attributed to the lack of central administration, which allows organic growth of the network, as well as the non-proprietary open nature of the Internet protocols, which encourages vendor interoperability and prevents any one company from exerting too much control over the network.
Today's Internet
Aside from the complex physical connections that make up its infrastructure, the Internet is facilitated by bi- or multi-lateral commercial contracts (e.g., peering agreements), and by technical specifications or protocols that describe how to exchange data over the network. Indeed, the Internet is essentially defined by its interconnections and routing policies.
As of January 11, 2007, 1.093 billion people use the Internet according to Internet World Stats.
Internet protocols
For more details on this topic, see Internet Protocols.
In this context, there are three layers of protocols:
* At the lowest level is IP (Internet Protocol), which defines the datagrams or packets that carry blocks of data from one node to another. The vast majority of today's Internet uses version four of the IP protocol (i.e. IPv4), and although IPv6 is standardized, it exists only as "islands" of connectivity, and there are many ISPs who don't have any IPv6 connectivity at all.
* Next come TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) - the protocols by which one host sends data to another. The former makes a virtual 'connection', which gives some level of guarantee of reliability. The latter is a best-effort, connectionless transport, in which data packets that are lost in transit will not be re-sent.
* On top comes the application protocol. This defines the specific messages and data formats sent and understood by the applications running at each end of the communication.
Internet structure
There have been many analyses of the Internet and its structure. For example, it has been determined that the Internet IP routing structure and hypertext links of the World Wide Web are examples of scale-free networks.
Similar to the way the commercial Internet providers connect via Internet exchange points, research networks tend to interconnect into large subnetworks such as:
* GEANT
* GLORIAD
* Abilene Network
* JANET (the UK's Joint Academic Network aka UKERNA)
These in turn are built around relatively smaller networks. See also the list of academic computer network organizations
In network schematic diagrams, the Internet is often represented by a cloud symbol, into and out of which network communications can pass.
ICANN
For more details on this topic, see ICANN.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the authority that coordinates the assignment of unique identifiers on the Internet, including domain names, Internet protocol addresses, and protocol port and parameter numbers. A globally unified namespace (i.e., a system of names in which there is one and only one holder of each name) is essential for the Internet to function. ICANN is headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, but is overseen by an international board of directors drawn from across the Internet technical, business, academic, and non-commercial communities. The US government continues to have the primary role in approving changes to the root zone file that lies at the heart of the domain name system. Because the Internet is a distributed network comprising many voluntarily interconnected networks, the Internet, as such, has no governing body. ICANN's role in coordinating the assignment of unique identifiers distinguishes it as perhaps the only central coordinating body on the global Internet, but the scope of its authority extends only to the Internet's systems of domain names, Internet protocol addresses, and protocol port and parameter numbers.
On Nov. 16, 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society, held in Tunis, established the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) to discuss Internet-related issues.
Language
For more details on this topic, see English on the Internet.
The prevalent language for communication on the Internet is English. This may be a result of the Internet's origins, as well as English's role as the lingua franca. It may also be related to the poor capability of early computers to handle characters other than those in the basic Latin alphabet.
Further information: Unicode
After English (30% of Web visitors) the most-requested languages on the World Wide Web are Chinese 14%, Japanese 8%, Spanish 8%, German 5%, and French 5% (from Internet World Stats, updated January 11, 2007).
By continent, 36% of the world's Internet users are based in Asia, 29% in ****pe, and 21% in North America (
updated January 11, 2007).
The Internet's technologies have developed enough in recent years that good facilities are available for development and communication in most widely used languages. However, some glitches such as mojibake (incorrect display of foreign language characters, also known as krakozyabry) still remain.
Internet and the workplace
The Internet is allowing greater flexibility in working hours and location, especially with the spread of unmetered high-speed connections and Web applications.
The mobile Internet
The Internet can now be accessed virtually anywhere by numerous means. Mobile phones, datacards, and cellular routers allow users to connect to the Internet from anywhere there is a cellular network supporting that device's technology.
Common uses of the Internet
E-mail
For more details on this topic, see E-mail.
The concept of sending electronic text messages between parties in a way analogous to mailing letters or memos predates the creation of the Internet. Even today it can be important to distinguish between Internet and internal e-mail systems. Internet e-mail may travel and be stored unencrypted on many other machines and networks out of both the sender's and the recipient's control. During this time it is quite possible for the content to be read and even tampered with by third parties, if anyone considers it important enough. Purely internal or intranet mail systems, where the information never leaves the corporate or organization's network and servers, is much more secure, although in any organization there will be IT and other personnel whose job may involve monitoring, or at least occasionally accessing, the email of other employees not addressed to them. Web-based email (webmail) between parties on the same webmail system may not actually 'go' anywhere—it merely sits on the one server and is tagged in various ways so as to appear in one person's 'sent items' list and in one or more others' 'in boxes' or other 'folders' when viewed.
E-mail attachments have greatly increased the usefulness of e-mail in many ways. When a file is attached to an email, a text representation of the attached data (which may itself be binary data) is actually appended to the e-mail text, later to be reconstituted into a 'file' on the recipient's machine for their use. See MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) for details of how the problems involved in doing this have been overcome.
The World Wide Web
For more details on this topic, see World Wide Web.
Through keyword-driven Internet research using search engines, like Google, millions worldwide have easy, instant access to a vast and diverse amount of online information. Compared to encyclopedias and traditional libraries, the World Wide Web has enabled a sudden and extreme decentralization of information and data.
Many individuals and some companies and groups have adopted the use of "Web logs" or blogs, which are largely used as easily-updatable online diaries. Some commercial organizations encourage staff to fill them with advice on their areas of specialization in the hope that visitors will be impressed by the expert knowledge and free information, and be attracted to the corporation as a result. One example of this practice is Microsoft, whose product developers publish their personal blogs in order to pique the public's interest in their work.
For more information on the distinction between the World Wide Web and the Internet itself — as in everyday use the two are sometimes confused — see Dark internet where this is discussed in more detail.
Remote access
The Internet allows computer users to connect to other computers and information stores easily, wherever they may be across the world. They may do this with or without the use of security, authentication and encryption technologies, depending on the requirements.
This is encouraging new ways of working from home, collaboration and information sharing in many industries. An accountant sitting at home can audit the books of a company based in another country, on a server situated in a third country that is remotely maintained by IT specialists in a fourth. These accounts could have been created by home-working book-keepers, in other remote locations, based on information e-mailed to them from offices all over the world. Some of these things were possible before the widespread use of the Internet, but the cost of private, leased lines would have made many of them infeasible in practice.
An office worker away from his desk, perhaps the other side of the world on a business trip or a holiday, can open a remote desktop session into his normal office PC using a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection via the Internet. This gives him complete access to all his normal files and data, including e-mail and other applications, while he is away.
This concept is also referred to by some network security people as the Virtual Private Nightmare, because it extends the secure perimeter of a corporate network into its employees' homes; this has been the source of some notable security breaches, but also provides security for the workers.
Collaboration
See also: Collaborative software
The low-cost and nearly instantaneous sharing of ideas, knowledge, and skills has made collaborative work dramatically easier. Not only can a group cheaply communicate and test, but the wide reach of the Internet allows such groups to easily form in the first place, even among niche interests. An example of this is the free software movement in software development which produced GNU and Linux from scratch and has taken over development of Mozilla and OpenOffice.org (formerly known as Netscape Communicator and StarOffice).
Internet 'chat', whether in the form of IRC 'chat rooms' or channels, or via instant messaging systems allow colleagues to stay in touch in a very convenient way when working at their computers during the day. Messages can be sent and viewed even more quickly and conveniently than via e-mail. Extension to these systems may allow files to be exchanged, 'whiteboard' drawings to be shared as well as voice and video contact between team members.
Version control systems allow collaborating teams to work on shared sets of documents without either accidentally overwriting each other's work or having members wait until they get 'sent' documents to be able to add their thoughts and changes.
File sharing
For more details on this topic, see File sharing.
A computer file can be e-mailed to customers, colleagues and friends as an attachment. It can be uploaded to a Web site or FTP server for easy download by others. It can be put into a "shared location" or onto a file server for instant use by colleagues. The load of bulk downloads to many users can be eased by the use of "mirror" servers or peer-to-peer networks. In any of these cases, access to the file may be controlled by user authentication; the transit of the file over the Internet may be obscured by encryption and money may change hands before or after access to the file is given. The price can be paid by the remote charging of funds from, for example a credit card whose details are also passed - hopefully fully encrypted - across the Internet. The origin and authenticity of the file received may be checked by digital signatures or by MD5 or other message digests.
These simple features of the Internet, over a world-wide basis, are changing the basis for the production, sale, and distribution of anything that can be reduced to a computer file for transmission. This includes all manner of office documents, publications, software products, music, photography, video, animations, graphics and the other arts. This in turn is causing seismic shifts in each of the existing industry associations, such as the RIAA and MPAA in the United States, that previously controlled the production and distribution of these products in that country.
Streaming media
Many existing radio and television broadcasters provide Internet 'feeds' of their live audio and video streams (for example, the BBC). They may also allow time-shift viewing or listening such as Preview, Classic Clips and Listen Again features. These providers have been joined by a range of pure Internet 'broadcasters' who never had on-air licenses. This means that an Internet-connected device, such as a computer or something more specific, can be used to access on-line media in much the same way as was previously possible only with a TV or radio receiver. The range of material is much wider, from pornography to highly specialized technical Web-casts. Podcasting is a variation on this theme, where—usually audio—material is first downloaded in full and then may be played back on a computer or shifted to a digital audio player to be listened to on the move. These techniques using simple equipment allow anybody, with little censorship or licensing control, to broadcast audio-visual material on a worldwide basis.
Webcams can be seen as an even lower-budget extension of this phenomenon. While some webcams can give full frame rate video, the picture is usually either small or updates slowly. Internet users can watch animals around an African waterhole, ships in the Panama Canal, the traffic at a local roundabout or their own premises, live and in real time. Video chat rooms, video conferencing, and remote controllable webcams are also popular. Many uses can be found for personal webcams in and around the home, with and without two-way sound.
Voice telephony (VoIP)
For more details on this topic, see VoIP.
VoIP stands for Voice over IP, where IP refers to the Internet Protocol that underlies all Internet communication. This phenomenon began as an optional two-way voice extension to some of the Instant Messaging systems that took off around the year 2000. In recent years many VoIP systems have become as easy to use and as convenient as a normal telephone. The benefit is that, as the Internet carries the actual voice traffic, VoIP can be free or cost much less than a normal telephone call, especially over long distances and especially for those with always-on ADSL or DSL Internet connections.
Thus VoIP is maturing into a viable alternative to traditional telephones. Interoperability between different providers has improved and the ability to call or receive a call from a traditional telephone is available. Simple inexpensive VoIP modems are now available that eliminate the need for a PC.
Voice quality can still vary from call to call but is often equal to and can even exceed that of traditional calls.
Remaining problems for VoIP include emergency telephone number dialing and reliability. Currently a few VoIP providers provide some 911 dialing but it is not universally available. Traditional phones are line powered and operate during a power failure, VoIP does not do so without a backup power source for the electronics.
Most VoIP providers offer unlimited national calling but the direction in VoIP is clearly toward global coverage with unlimited minutes for a low monthly fee.
VoIP has also become increasingly popular within the gaming world, as a form of communication between players. Popular gaming VoIP clients include Ventrilo and Teamspeak, and there are others available also.
Censorship
Some governments, such as those of Iran and the People's Republic of China restrict what people in their countries can access on the Internet, especially political and religious content. This is accomplished through software that filters domains and content so that they may not be easily accessed or obtained without elaborate circumvention.
In Norway, Finland and Sweden, major Internet service providers have voluntarily (possibly to avoid such an arrangement being turned into law) agreed to restrict access to sites listed by police. While this list of forbidden URL's is only supposed to contain addresses of known child pornography sites, content of the list is secret.
Many countries have enacted laws making the possession or distribution of certain material, such as child pornography, illegal, but do not use filtering software.
There are many free and commercially available software programs with which a user can choose to block offensive Web sites on individual computers or networks, such as to limit a child's access to pornography or violence. See Content-control software.
Internet access
Common methods of home access include dial-up, landline broadband (over coaxial cable, fibre optic or copper wires), Wi-Fi, satellite and cell phones.
Public places to use the Internet include libraries and Internet cafes, where computers with Internet connections are available. There are also Internet access points in many public places such as airport halls and coffee shops, in some cases just for brief use while standing. Various terms are used, such as "public Internet kiosk", "public access terminal", and "Web payphone". Many hotels now also have public terminals, though these are usually fee based.
Wi-Fi provides wireless access to computer networks, and therefore can do so to the Internet itself. Hotspots providing such access include Wi-Fi-cafes, where a would-be user needs to bring their own wireless-enabled devices such as a laptop or PDA. These services may be free to all, free to customers only, or fee-based. A hotspot need not be limited to a confined location. The whole campus or park, or even the entire city can be enabled. Grassroots efforts have led to wireless community networks. Commercial WiFi services covering large city areas are in place in London, Vienna, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, Pittsburgh and other cities, including Toronto by the end of 2006. The Internet can then be accessed from such places as a park bench.
Apart from Wi-Fi, there have been experiments with proprietary mobile wireless networks like Ricochet, various high-speed data services over cellular phone networks, and fixed wireless services.
High-end mobile phones such as smartphones generally come with Internet access through the phone network. Web browsers such as Opera are available on these advanced handsets, which can also run a wide variety of other Internet software. More mobile phones have Internet access than PCs, though this is not as widely used. An internet access provider and protocol matrix differentiates the methods used to get online.
Leisure
The Internet has been a major source of leisure since before the World Wide Web, with entertaining social experiments such as MUDs and MOOs being conducted on university servers, and humor-related Usenet groups receiving much of the main traffic. Today, many Internet forums have sections devoted to games and funny videos; short cartoons in the form of Flash movies are also popular. Over 6 million people use blogs or message boards as a means of communication and for the sharing of ideas.
The pornography and gambling industries have both taken full advantage of the World Wide Web, and often provide a significant source of advertising revenue for other Web sites. Although many governments have attempted to put restrictions on both industries' use of the Internet, this has generally failed to stop their widespread popularity. A song in the Broadway musical show Avenue Q is titled "The Internet is for Porn" and refers to the popularity of this aspect of the internet.
One main area of leisure on the Internet is multiplayer gaming. This form of leisure creates communities, bringing people of all ages and origins to enjoy the fast-paced world of multiplayer games. These range from MMORPG to first-person shooters, from role-playing games to online gambling. This has revolutionized the way many people interact and spend their free time on the Internet.
While online gaming has been around since the 1970s, modern modes of online gaming began with services such as GameSpy and MPlayer, which players of games would typically subscribe to. Non-subscribers were limited to certain types of gameplay or certain games.
Many use the Internet to access and download music, movies and other works for their enjoyment and relaxation. As discussed above, there are paid and unpaid sources for all of these, using centralized servers and distributed peer-to-peer technologies. Discretion is needed as some of these sources take more care over the original artists' rights and over copyright laws than others.
Many use the World Wide Web to access news, weather and sports reports, to plan and book holidays and to find out more about their random ideas and casual interests.
People use chat, messaging and email to make and stay in touch with friends worldwide, sometimes in the same way as some previously had pen pals. Social networking Web sites like Friends Reunited and many others like them also put and keep people in contact for their enjoyment.
The Internet has seen a growing amount of Internet operating systems, where users can access their files, folders, and settings via the Internet. An example of an opensource webos is Eyeos.
Cyberslacking has become a serious drain on corporate resources; the average UK employee spends 57 minutes a day surfing the Web at work, according to a study by Peninsula Business Services
.
Complex architecture
Many computer scientists see the Internet as a "prime example of a large-scale, highly engineered, yet highly complex system".
The Internet is extremely heterogeneous. (For instance, data transfer rates and physical characteristics of connections vary widely.) The Internet exhibits "emergent phenomena" that depend on its large-scale organization. For example, data transfer rates exhibit temporal self-similarity. Further adding to the complexity of the Internet is the ability of more than one computer to use the internet through only one node, thus creating the possibility for a very deep and hierarchal based sub-network that can theoretically be extended infinitely (disregarding the programmatic limitations of the IPv4 protocol).
Marketing
The Internet has also become a large market for companies; some of the biggest companies today have grown by taking advantage of the efficient nature of low-cost advertising and commerce through the Internet; also known as e-commerce. It is the fastest way to spread information to a vast amount of people simultaneously. The Internet has also subsequently revolutionized shopping—for example; a person can order a CD online and receive it in the mail within a couple of days, or download it directly in some cases. The Internet has also greatly facilitated personalized marketing which allows a company to market a product to a specific person or a specific group of people more so than any other advertising medium.
Examples of personalized marketing include online communities such as MySpace, Friendster, and others which thousands of Internet users join to advertise themselves and make friends online. Many of these users are young teens and adolescents ranging from 13 to 25 years old. In turn, when they advertise themselves they advertise interests and hobbies, which online marketing companies can use as information as to what those users will purchase online, and advertise their own companies' products to those users.
A very ineffective way of advertising on the internet is through spamming an email with advertisements.
This is ineffective because, now, most email providers offer protection against email spam. Most spam messages are sent automatically to everybody in the email database of the company/person that is spamming. This way of advertising is almost like using adware.
Adware is another ineffective way of advertising because most people simply close a popup window when it shows up, not bothering to read it.
Further information: Disintermediation#Impact of Internet-related disintermediation upon various industries and Travel agency#The Internet threat
The name Internet
Internet is traditionally written with a capital first letter, as it is a proper noun. The Internet Society, the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the World Wide Web Consortium, and several other Internet-related organizations use this convention in their publications.
Many newspapers, newswires, periodicals, and technical journals capitalize the term (Internet). Examples include the New York Times, the Associated Press, Time, The Times of India, Hindustan Times, and Communications of the ACM.
Others assert that the first letter should be written in lower case (internet). A significant number of publications use this form, including The Economist, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, and The Sydney Morning Herald. As of 2005, many publications using internet appear to be located outside of North America—although one U.S. news source, Wired News, has adopted the lower case spelling.
Historically, Internet and internet have had different meanings, with internet being a contraction of internetwork or internetworking and Internet referring to the International Network.
Under this distinction, the Internet is a particular internet, but the reverse does not apply. The distinction was evident in many RFCs, books, and articles from the 1980s and early 1990s (some of which, such as RFC 1918, refer to "internets" in the plural), but has recently fallen into disuse.
Instead, the term intranet is generally used for private networks. See also: extranet.
Some people use the lower-case term as a medium (like radio or newspaper, e.g. I've found it in internet), and capitalised (or first letter capitalised) as the global network.
Significant Internet events
Malfunctions and attacks
* Morris worm — November 2, 1988
* Predicted Y2K Bug - January 1, 2000
* UUNet/Worldcom backbone difficulties — October 3, 2002
* 2002 DNS Backbone DDoS — October 22, 2002
* SQL Slammer worm — January 24, 2003