Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
Agriculture and tourism are the important industries of the region. Mining of tin and copper was also formerly very important in Devon and Cornwall. Traditionally, the South West of England has been well known for producing Cheddar cheese, named after Cheddar, Somerset in the Mendip Hills, for Devon cream teas, and for Somerset cider.  It is now probably equally well known as the home of the Eden Project (in Cornwall), Aardman Animations, the Glastonbury festival (in Somerset), trip hop music, Cornwall's seafood restaurants, and surfing beaches.  Two National Parks (Dartmoor and Exmoor) and four World Heritage Sites lie in this region.

Local government
The official region consists of the following geographic counties and local government areas:

Other websites 
Government Office for the South West 
South West Regional Assembly 
South West Regional Development Agency 
Government's list of councils in the South West 
Campaign for a Cornish Assembly
Attractions South West
Photographs
 Bristol   
 Cornwall:    
 Devon:   
 Dorset:     
 Somerset:
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It was created in 1994. It includes Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex.

Its population as of the 2001 census was 8,000,550, making it the most populous English region. The highest point is Walbury Hill in Berkshire at 297m/974 ft. The major urban areas of the region include Brighton and Hove, Portsmouth, Southampton, and Reading. Settlements closer to London are part of the Greater London Urban Area.

Local government
The official region consists of the following subdivisions:

Other websites 
 South East England Development Agency  - Abolished in 2012 
 Tourism Information - Visit South East England

South East England
1994 establishments in England
North-East England is one of the nine official regions of England and includes the combined area of Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear and a small part of North Yorkshire.

The highest point in the region is The Cheviot, in Northumberland, at 815m and the largest city is Newcastle. Sunderland is the second-largest.
 
The region is known for its urban centres and for its natural beauty: Northumberland National Park, the region's coastline, its section of the Pennines and Weardale. It also has great historic importance. There are two World Heritage Sites: Durham Cathedral and Hadrian's Wall.

Local government 
The official region consists of the following subdivisions:

Key: shire county = † | metropolitan county = *

Other websites 

 North East England 
 The North East HUB 
 North East Regional Assembly 
 The North East Biodiversity Forum 
 Future Races in North East England
Sussex is a historic county in South East England. Its area is more or less the same as that of the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is divided for local government into West Sussex and East Sussex and the City of Brighton and Hove. The city of Brighton and Hove became a unitary authority in 1997; and got City status in 2000. Until then Chichester had been Sussex's only city.

Sussex still has a strong local identity and the county's unofficial anthem is Sussex by the Sea. The county's motto, "We wun't be druv", shows the  strong-willed nature of its people in past centuries.

Towns and cities
Major towns and cities of Sussex include:

Arundel
Bognor Regis
Brighton (home of the University of Sussex and the University of Brighton)
Burgess Hill
Chichester (home of the University of Chichester)
Crawley
Eastbourne
East Grinstead
Hastings
Haywards Heath
Horsham
Lewes
Littlehampton
Midhurst
Worthing

Further reading
Further reading 

"Angels in the Sussex Air", an anthology of poetry by Sussex authors chosen and edited by Patrick Garland, 
"An Historical Atlas of Sussex", An Atlas of the History of the Counties of East and West Sussex, edited by Kim Leslie and Brian Short, with maps by Susan Rowland, published by Phillimore & Co. Ltd, Chichester, 1999,

Links and references 
The Sussex Association 
The Sussex Local Internet Portal  Justsussex
Sussex Community Website 
Sussex County Cricket Club
Sussex County Football Association
Sussex Enterprise 
Sussex Past (The Sussex Archaeological Society)
Sussex Wildlife Trust
Sussex Police
The Royal Sussex Regimental Association
The Kingdom of Sussex, (Suth Seaxe, i.e. the South Saxons), was one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, its area was more or less that of the later county of Sussex. A large part of that district, however, was covered in early times by the forest called Andred.  It was ruled by the kings of Sussex.

History 

According to the traditional account given in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, it was in 477 that a certain Ælle led the invaders ashore at a place called Cymenes ora and defeated the inhabitants. A further battle at a place called Mearcredes burne is recorded under the year 485, and in the annal for 491 we read that Ælle and his son Cissa robbed Anderitum (Pevensey Castle) and killed all the inhabitants. 

Based on a 1911 encyclopedia article.

Anglo-Saxons
Petty kingdoms of England
Annals (Latin Annales, from annus, a year) are a short form of historical writing which record events chronologically, year by year.

History

Ancient Rome
Cicero ( in De Oratore, ii. 12. 52) tells that from the earliest period down to the pontificate of Publius Mucius Scaevola (c. 131 BC), it was usual for the pontifex maximus to record on a white tablet (album), which was exhibited in an open place at his house, so that the people might read it. On this tablet were written down (according to Cicero) the name of the consuls and other magistrates, and then the important events of the year.  

In Cicero's time these records were called Annales Maximi. The practice of writing annals was carried on by several unofficial writers. Cicero speaks of Cato, Pictor and Piso.
Medieval
In the Middle Ages in the Western Church there were written tables to show that date of Easter for a certain number of years or even centuries. These Paschal tables were thin books in which each annual date was separated from the next by a more or less considerable blank space. In these spaces some monks wrote down the important events of the year. The writing of these Annals was begun at the end of the 7th century and among the Irish – see the Annals of the Four Masters, the Annals of Ulster, the Annals of Innisfallen and the Annales Cambriae or Annals of Wales, one of the earliest sources for King Arthur. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is also in annalistic, year-by-year form.
In the 9th century, during the Carolingian Renaissance, these Annals became the usual form of contemporary history. There were the Annales Einhardi, the Annales Laureshamenses (or "of Lorsch"), and the Annales S. Bertini. They were written officially in order to preserve the memory of the more interesting acts of Charlemagne, his ancestors and his successors. At this stage, the Annals now began to lose their primitive character, and became more and more Chronicles. But the term was still used for many documents, such as the Annals of Waverley.

History books
Marcus Tullius Cicero (3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, consul, lawyer, political theorist and philosopher. He is often thought to be one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.

His Latin is thought to be the model of Classical Latin. He introduced Greek philosophy to the Romans.

Cicero was heavily involved in the politics of the Roman Republic. After Julius Caesar's death, Cicero became an enemy of Mark Antony. In the power struggle, Cicero attacked Antony in a series of speeches. Cicero was proscribed as an enemy of the state by the Second Triumvirate. He was executed in 43 BC by soldiers working for the Triumvirate.

References
References

Sources 
 Everitt, Anthony 2001, Cicero: the life and times of Rome's greatest politician, Random House, hardback, 359 pages,  
 Haskell, H.J.: (1946) This was Cicero,  Fawcett publications, Inc. Greenwich, Conn. USA
 Rawson, Elizabeth (1975) Cicero, A portrait, Allen Lane, London  
 Taylor, H. (1918). Cicero: A sketch of his life and works. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co.

Other websites

General 
 Links to Cicero resources 
 University of Texas Cicero Homepage  
  The Internet Encyclopædia of Philosophy
Works by Cicero 
 
 Perseus Project (Latin and English): Classics Collection (see: M. Tullius Cicero)
 The Latin Library (Latin): Works of Cicero
 UAH (Latin, with translation notes): Cicero Page 
 De Officiis, translated by Walter Miller
 Cicero's works: text, concordances and frequency list
 Biographies and descriptions of Cicero's time:
 At Project Gutenberg
 Plutarch's biography of Cicero contained in the Parallel Lives
 Life of Cicero by Anthony Trollope, Volume I – Volume II
 Cicero by Rev. W. Lucas Collins (Ancient Classics for English Readers)
 Roman life in the days of Cicero by Rev. Alfred J. Church
 Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero by W. Warde Fowler
 At Heraklia website 
 Dryden's translation of Cicero from Plutarch's Parallel Lives 
 At Middlebury College website
  Prætor Brutus 
 News article on a museum-guide robot named after him

106 BC births
43 BC deaths
Ancient Roman writers
Ancient Roman philosophers
In boxing, the term heavyweight is used for a specific group of people based on weight. Usually a heavyweight is a boxer who weighs more than 200 lbs (91kg). Below 200 is cruiserweight. A few organizations classify differently. In the late 20th century boxing organizations created many divisions so that fighters could fight people of the same size. This allows making more champions thus more profit. Most divisions only separate each other by few lbs. Before the 1960s there were 8 divisions.

The first heavyweight champion under modern rules was John L. Sullivan. Famous heavyweight champions have included Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Vitali Klitshko, Tyson Fury and Lennox Lewis.

Boxing
Genealogy is the study of family history. It is the study of family relationships and ancestry (parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc.). It is a popular hobby in the United States and in many other countries.

Some people show their family history using a family tree. A family tree is a diagram of the members of a family. With a family tree you use lines to show how people are related, for example, people who are married or have children.
People study genealogy (family history) for many reasons. 
 They may want to help someone be reunited with their family after war, natural disasters, foster care, or adoption, or find living relatives. 
 They may have an interest in history and want to know how and where their family lived during interesting times of history. 
 They may want to track hereditary diseases that may be passed from parents to their children. (This would overlap with the study of genetics.)  
 The Mormons believe that they can give baptisms and other religious rites to their ancestors to help them in the afterlife.  This belief drives them to find as many of their ancestors as they can, and they have collected many genealogy records from around the world.
 Some people use genealogy to keep track of money, land and power so that they can inherit what belongs to their family. These people use genealogy to help it stay in the family and prevent false claims to the wealth, land or power.

References 

Genealogy
Niels Bohr (7 October 1885  18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who helped discover quantum physics, the structure of the atom, and the atomic bomb. Bohr was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1922 for, in short, discovering the quantization of atomic energy levels. He worked also in a project of physicists known as Manhattan Project. He married Margrethe Nørlund in 1912. One of his sons was Aage Bohr, who was also an important physicist. Aage won in 1975 his own Nobel prize. Niels Bohr worked also with Albert Einstein. He is also considered one of the most important physicists of the 20th century.
Biography 
Niels Henrik David Bohr, or Niels Bohr was born in Copenhagen, Denmark,1885 as the son of Christian Bohr, who was also professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen. Bohr's mother was Ellen Adler Bohr and was Jewish with a rich family of bankers and politicians. Niels was also the brother of Harald Bohr. Bohr was a mathematician, a physicist, and funnily enough, was a football player of the national team.  

In 1903 Bohr began studies of philosophy and mathematics at the Copenhagen University. 

In 1905 the Royal Danish Academy of Science organized a competition. Niels Bohr participated with some experiments in surface tension. He used the laboratory of his father in the university, because he knew it since he was a boy. 

His work won the prize. For this reason, he decided to stop the studies of philosophy and mathematics and changed to physics. 

He received his doctorate in 1911.
Bohr did experiments in the Trinity College in Cambridge under the direction of J.J. Thomson. After it, he went to the University of Manchester under the direction of Ernest Rutherford. On the basis of the theories of Rutherford, he published his theory of electrons. He introduces the theory of electrons traveling in orbits around the nucleus of the atom in 1913 and the chemical properties of the orbit.

He introduced the idea that an electron can drop from a higher energy orbit to a lower one. Then it can emit a photon of discrete energy. This is the basis of quantum theory. 

Niels Bohr and his wife Margrethe Nørlund Bohr had four sons. Their oldest died in a tragic boating accident and another died from childhood meningitis. The others went on to lead successful lives, including Aage Bohr, who became a very successful physicist and, like his father, won a Nobel Prize in physics, in 1975.

British actor Kenneth Branagh played Bohr in the 2023 Christopher Nolan movie Oppenheimer.
1885 births
1962 deaths
Danish Jews
Danish physicists
Jewish scientists
Nuclear physicists
Scientists from Copenhagen
Theoretical physicists
Danish Nobel Prize winners
Academics of the University of Manchester
Świnoujście  () is a town in Pomerania, northwestern Poland, with about 42,000 people (). It is on the Swina river, which flows into the Baltic Sea. In Świnoujście is the largest and longest beach in Poland. Świnoujście is also a health resort and has a modern harbour.

The port can handle of dry bulk and general cargo (especially coal, ore and chemical materials).

The ferry terminal (run by the Polish Baltic Shipping Company) provides ferry berths and facilities for passenger services to Sweden and Denmark. There are lines to Malmo in Sweden, Copenhagen and Ronne (Bornholm) in Denmark.

There are also facilities for deep-sea fishing, fish processing, and ship repair services.

Other websites

 Official website of Świnoujście 
 Tourist Information for Swinemünde 

Towns in Pomeranian Voivodeship
Sky Odyssey (or The Sky Odyssey in Japan) is an action/adventure flight simulator (or flight videogame) for the SonyPlayStation 2.  It was made by Cross, published by Activision and was sold in store’s in the year 2000.

The games story is a Indiana Jones-like adventure in which the person playing the game flies an airplane in a fictional (or not real) world collecting very old objects as well as pieces of a map.

The game's music was made by Kō Ōtani, who also made the music for Shadow of the Colossus, different types of Gamera films, and many other anime.

It is one of the few videogames that you can fly the Japanese Shinden and Shinden Kai, the Shinden is the airplane shown on the game's box.

Other websites 
Official website 

Simulator video games
2000 video games
Activision video games
PlayStation 2 games
PlayStation 2-only games
Video games developed in Japan
A landform is a word that describes a form of land. Each type of landform is defined by its size, shape, location, and what it is made of. The scientific study of landform is called geomorphology.

List of landforms

Slope landforms
alas
bluff
cliff      
cuesta
dale
dell
escarpment (scarp)
glen
gully
hill
knoll
mountain
plain
plateau
ravine
ridge
rock shelter
terrace & terracettes
vale
valley
valley shoulder

Coastal and oceanic landforms
abyssal fan
abyssal plain
arch
archipelago
atoll
confluence
barrier island
bay & gulf
baymouth bar
headwaters
beach & raised beach
beach ridge
bight
boondock
cape
cave
cliff
coast
coral reef
cove
delta
dune system
estuary
fjord
headland
isthmus
island, islet, island arc, archipelago & atoll
lagoon
machair
meadow
notch
ocean
Ocean ridge & oceanic trench
peninsula
ria
salt marsh
sea
shoal
sound
spit
stack & stump
tombolo
cut landform
Wave cut platform
Fluvial landforms
Landforms that are related to flowing water.
ait
anabranch
arroyo
bar
bayou
Carolina Bay
basin
beach
cave
cliff
gully
island
lake
levee
marsh
meander
oasis
ox-bow lake
pond
pool
riffle
river
spring
stream
stream terrace
swamp
valley and vale
waterfall
watershed

Mountain and glacial landforms
arête
cirque
crevasse
corrie or cwm
dirt cone
drumlin
drumlin field
esker
fjord
U-shaped valley
glacial horn
glacier
hanging valley
inselberg 
kame
kame delta
kettle
moraine
mountain & mountain range
outwash fan and outwash plain
pingo
stream terrace
summit
tunnel valley
valley

Volcanic landforms
Butte
Caldera
Cinder cone
Geyser
lava dome
lava flow & lava plain
mesa
Mid-ocean ridge
Oceanic trench
Vent
Volcanic island
Volcano, shield volcano &  composite volcano (or stratovolcano)
Erosion landforms
Landforms made by erosion and weathering usually occur in coastal or fluvial areas, and many are listed under those headings.  Some other erosion landforms that are not listed in those categories include:
canyon
cave
lavaka
limestone pavement
rock formations
tea table

Deposition landform -- landforms produced by deposition of load or sediment (usually coastal or fluvial).
Eolian landform - landforms produced by wind weathering.

Other websites 
Landform Design
The Piri Reis map is a map of the world drawn on a parchment of gazelle skin by a Turk named Piri Reis (Hadji Muhiddin Piri Ibn Hadji Mehmed) in 1513. This map has been used to support claims for a pre-modern exploration of Antarctica.

Sources 

Cartography
Shadow of the Colossus is a Japanese-made action-adventure video game made and sold by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEI) for the PlayStation 2. The game was sold in North America and Japan in October 2005, and was then sold in Europe and Oceania in February 2006. The game was made by SCEI's International Production Studio 1, the same video game makers that made the game Ico.

The game is about a person called Wander, a young man who must travel across a large area on a horse and destroy sixteen giant creatures called the colossi to bring back the life of a dead girl. The game is not a normal action-adventure type of game because there are no towns or dungeons to explore, no characters to talk to, and no enemies to destroy other than the colossi. Shadow of the Colossus has been described as a puzzle game, because each colossus has a weakness which must be found and somehow used to defeat the colossi.

Remake 
A remake game title Shadow of the Colossus (2018) released for PlayStation 4.
2005 video games
PlayStation 2 games
PlayStation 2-only games
Video games developed in Japan
A Verbandsgemeinde (plural Verbandsgemeinden) is an administrative unit unique to the German Bundeslands (federal states) of Rhineland-Palatinate and, since 2009, Saxony-Anhalt.

Rhineland-Palatinate
There are 163 Verbandsgemeinden in Rhineland-Palatinate, which are grouped into the 24 districts and subdivided into nearly 2200 Ortsgemeinden.  
Most of these Verbandsgemeinden were established in 1969. Formerly the name of the administrative units was Amt.  Most of the functions of municipal government for several villages are consolidated and administered centrally from a larger or more central village among the group, while the individual villages (Ortsgemeinden) still maintain a limited degree of local autonomy.

Districts

The 24 districts:

Settlements in Rhineland-Palatinate
Settlements in Saxony-Anhalt
Collective municipalities in Germany
Osburg is a municipality in the Trier-Saarburg district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is near Trier. As of 31 December 2018, 2,422 people lived there.

Other websites 

 Official website 

Municipalities in Rhineland-Palatinate
Trier-Saarburg
Farschweiler is a municipality in the Trier-Saarburg district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. As of 31 December 2018, 802 people lived there.

Other websites 

 Official website 

Municipalities in Rhineland-Palatinate
Trier-Saarburg
A Requiem (or Requiem Mass) is a Eucharist service in the Roman Catholic Church to pray for the repose of the soul of someone who has died. There are special words for a Requiem Mass. They are in Latin. The best-known part of the Requiem Mass starts with the words “Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine” (“Give them eternal rest, O Lord”). This is why it is called a “Requiem”.

Many composers throughout the centuries have composed music to these words. The word “Requiem” can mean a piece of music which sets the words of the Requiem Mass.

Celebration of the Eucharist to pray for people who have died goes back at least as far as the 2nd century.

In the Middle Ages the words of the Requiem Mass were sung to Gregorian chant.

In the Renaissance church music was generally polyphonic. This sort of music, which has several voices weaving in and out of one another, is the kind of music used at the time for requiems. The composer Johannes Ockeghem is an example of a composer who wrote such music.
Polyphonic settings of the Requiem Mass continued during the Baroque period (17th and early 18th centuries), even although other musical forms (e.g. opera) had developed a much more modern style.

The most famous Requiem from the 18th century is the one by Mozart. Many musicians think it was one of the greatest pieces of music ever written. It was left unfinished when Mozart died.

In the 19th century many composers wrote Requiems. Most of these were written for performance at concerts, not for church services, but they still used the Latin words of the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass.

Luigi Cherubini wrote a Requiem in C minor for the annual remembering of the execution of Louis XVI. He wrote another Requiem in D minor, which he wrote for himself. It was performed at his own funeral.

Giuseppe Verdi wrote a very exciting Messa da Requiem (1874) which sounds very operatic. Verdi rearranged some of the text (words) of the traditional Requiem Mass.

Bruckner, Saint-Saëns and Dvořák all wrote requiems.
Brahms wrote a work which he called Ein Deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem). It is unusual because, instead of setting the traditional Latin words, he took some words from the German translation of the Bible.

In 1888 Gabriel Fauré wrote a Requiem which uses an orchestra without violins except for a solo violin in the movement called “Sanctus”. In 1900 he made some changes and added an important baritone solo.

In the 20th century many composers continued to write Requiems. The most famous one is Britten’s War Requiem (1961). Secular Anglican non Roman The message of this work is that war is cruel and pointless. Britten uses the Latin words of the Requiem Mass, but also some English poems by Wilfred Owen who was killed in the First World War. The baritone and tenor soloists who sing these English words represent the German and the English soldiers. The work was written for Coventry Cathedral which had been rebuilt after the old cathedral had been totally destroyed in World War II.
Different parts of a Requiem

Older Requiems
 Introitus: Requiem aeternam dona eis, domine
 Kyrie
 Dies irae: Dies irae, dies illa solvet saeclum in favilla
 Offertorium: Domine Jesu Christe
 Sanctus
 Benedictus
 Agnus Dei
 Lux aeterna
For example, Mozart's Requiem follows this. In his requiem, the Lux aeterna (written by someone else) is the same as the Introitus, with different words.

Some musical examples:
 Mozart's "Requiem" with the completion of its unfinished musical score of musicologist Robert Levin. Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Carlos Kalmar, conductor.
 Dvořák's "Requiem". Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Carlos Kalmar, conductor. 
 Fauré's "Requiem". (together with works of Nielsen and Sibelius). Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Petri Sakari, conductor.
Newer Requiems
 Introitus
 Kyrie
 Graduale (same text as Introitus)
 Tractus: Absolve domine
 Offertorium: Domine Jesu Christe
 Sanctus
 Benedictus
 Agnus Dei
This sequence was fixed by the Council of Trent in the 16th century. It was slightly modified in the Second Vatican Council.

Other websites
 New completion of the original uncompleted musical score of Mozart's Requiem by the musicologist Robert Levin. Live concert.
 Fauré's Requiem. Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Petri Sakari, conductor. Live concert.

Christian music
Musical forms
Middle C is the musical note C that is in the middle of the piano keyboard.  It is not perfectly in the middle of the keyboard, but very nearly. When you compare all the Cs in the piano, it is the one nearest to the middle.

When writing Middle C in music notation, it is below the stave when using the treble clef and just above the stave when using the bass clef.  This is shown in the first and last notes of the musical example below.  The Middle C sits on a ledger line (an extension of the stave written just for one note).

On the piano the Middle C key is C4.
When starting to learn the piano, most books make their easiest pieces start on Middle C.  This is because the right hand can then play tunes using 5 notes (C to G) using white notes only (no sharps or flats).  It is also easy to recognize Middle C in notation.  It is also a help to find the correct place to sit at the piano (Middle C is opposite the player's "middle" (tummy)).  One problem can be that young children learning the piano may think that all pieces start on Middle C.  Pieces can start anywhere on the keyboard.

Middle C is the lowest note of the flute.  It is a fairly low note for a child or woman to sing, but a fairly high note for a man to sing.

Middle C vibrates at 262Hz.

Musical terminology
Musical notation
A principality (sometimes also called princedom) is a country or territory which is ruled by a sovereign prince or princess. Principalities were common in the Middle Ages. Principalities tend to have quite a small territory.

Current principalities 
There are currently three countries which are principalities: Andorra, Monaco and Liechtenstein.
The Principality of Andorra is a small country in Western Europe which borders Spain and France. Andorra has two heads of state known as "Co-Princes". The two Co-Princes are Emmanuel Macron (also President of France) and Joan Enric Vives Sicília (who is also Bishop of Urgell).
  The Principality of Liechtenstein is a very small country located in the Alps. It was named after the ruling family, the House of Liechtenstein. The principality was once a part of the Holy Roman Empire but eventually became independent. The ruler of Liechtenstein holds the title "Fürst", which is usually translated as "Prince".
  The Principality of Monaco is the second-smallest country in the world. It borders France. Monaco's ruler is the "Sovereign Prince".

Sub-national principalities 
Many states of the Holy Roman Empire were small principalities with their own royal families.
In modern Europe, there are some cases where the heir to the throne of a country holds the title "Prince of...", followed by the name of a significant region of the country. This mostly has some historical meaning.

  The Principality of Asturias is one of Spain's autonomous communities. The heir to the throne of Spain has the title "Prince/Princess of Asturias".
  Wales is one of the four countries part of the United Kingdom. The heir to the throne of the UK holds the title Prince of Wales. This is because the Principality of Wales formerly existed before Wales and England became a single legal entity.

Micronations 
Some states claim to be principalities but are not recognised by other countries: Sealand (a Sea Fort off the English coast), Seborga (a small town in Italy), the Principality of Hutt River in Australia and the Principality of Minerva in the Pacific. These states are examples of micronations.
Colonialism 
Sometimes the word is also used to mean dependent territories in  Africa, Asia and India, pre-Columbian America and Oceania. For these, the word princely states is generally preferred, especially if they came under the authority of a European colonial power.

Forms of government
Vlad III, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler ( ) or Vlad Dracula (;  ; November 14311476/77), was Prince of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death in 1476/77. He is often considered one of the most important rulers in Wallachian history and a national hero of Romania.

In the English-speaking world, Vlad is best known for the legends of his cruelty. These legends gave Bram Stoker the idea for his main character in the popular Dracula novel.

Historical background

Wallachia was placed between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. The Turks were fighting against the Kingdom of Hungary led by John Hunyadi and this made Wallachia a battle ground between Turks and Hungarians. The rulers of Wallachia were chosen by the Romanian aristocrats, called boyars. The ruler was often from a noble house, sometimes an illegitimate prince born outside of marriage. The country rulers were struggling with each other, and this was resulting in instability, family disputes and murders.

Biography
Biography

Family background

Vlad the Impaler was born in 1431. His father was Vlad II Dracul. His mother is unknown. Vlad II was married to princess Cneajna of Moldavia. He had several mistresses. Vlad III was raised by Cneajna with the help of her household. He had two brothers, Mircea born c. 1430 and Radu born 1435. He also had a half-brother, Vlad the Monk born around 1425-1430.

Vlad II went to the court of Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund of Luxemburg as a young man. Sigismund was supporting Vlad II for the throne of Wallachia, and made Vlad II knight 1431 of the Order of the Dragon (Societas Draconis in Latin).

The oldest brother, probably named Mircea, was sent by Vlad II to fight the war against the Turks in 1444. This war called the Battle of Varna was lost. Mircea and his father died in 1447.

Vlad's half-brother. Vlad the Monk was waiting in Transylvania for a chance to rule Wallachia. Vlad the Monk was a monk until he became prince of Wallachia in 1482.
Radu, known as Radu III the Fair or Radu the Handsome, the youngest brother, was also Vlad’s most important rival as he continuously tried to replace Vlad on the throne.

Marriage 
From his first marriage, Vlad the Impaler (or Vlad III) had a son, later prince of Wallachia, as Mihnea the Evil. His first wife, whose name we do not know, died during the war 1462. Vlad III the Impaler was fighting against the Turks. The legend says that the Turkish army surrounded Vlad's castle, the Poienari Castle, led by his brother Radu the Handsome. Vlad's wife threw herself off the tower into the Argeş River below the castle. According to legend she remarked that she "would rather have her body be eaten by the fish of the Argeş than be captured by the Turks."
Vlad had another two sons with his second wife Ilona Szilágyi a fraternal cousin of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. Some historians strongly believe they may have also had a daughter named Maria Zaleska (Princess Zaleska).
Early years 
Vlad was very likely born in the city of Sighişoara in Transylvania, then a part of the Kingdom of Hungary, during the winter of 1431. Sighişoara was a military fortress at that time. He was born as the second son to his father Vlad Dracul. He had an older brother, Mircea, and a younger brother, Radu the Handsome. Although his native country was Wallachia, the family lived in exile in Transylvania because his father had been chased away by pro-Ottoman boyars.

A hostage of the Ottoman Empire 
Vlad's father was pressured by the (Turkish) Ottoman sultan. He gave a promise to be the vassal of the Sultan and gave up his two younger sons as hostages so that he would keep his promise.

Vlad suffered much at the hands of the Ottomans, and was locked up in an underground prison; however, his younger brother, Radu, caught the eye of the sultan's son. Radu was released and converted to Islam, and he was allowed into the Ottoman royal court.
These years had a great influence on Vlad. They shaped Vlad's character. He was often whipped and beaten by the Turks for being stubborn and rude. He developed a well-known hatred for Radu and for Mehmed, who would later become the sultan.

Short reign and exile 
Vlad's father and Vlad's older brother, Mircea, were dead at this point. The Turks invaded Wallachia and the Sultan put Vlad III on the throne as his puppet ruler. His rule at this time was short; Hunyadi invaded Wallachia and chased him away the same year. Vlad fled to Moldavia and was put under the protection of his uncle, Bogdan II.

War 

Bogdan was assassinated. Vlad took a chance and fled to Hungary. Impressed by Vlad's knowledge of the Ottoman Empire, Hunyadi pardoned him and took him in as an adviser. Later, Hunyadi made him the Kingdom of Hungary's candidate for the throne of Wallachia.
In 1456, Hungary invaded Serbia to chase away the Turks, and at the same time Vlad III invaded Wallachia. Both invasions were successful. Hunyadi suddenly died of the plague. Vlad became prince of Wallachia.

Main reign (1456–62) 
Vlad was spending most of his time at the court of the city of Târgovişte. He made laws, met foreign ambassadors, judged in trials. He reinforced some castles and probably enjoyed hunting with his friends.
The constant state of war since the death of his grandfather, Mircea the Elder, in 1418, led to increased crime levels and less agricultural production. Trade had almost disappeared in Wallachia.

Vlad tried to solve these problems with severe methods. He needed an economically stable country.
Vlad wanted to eliminate all threats to his power, mainly the rival nobility groups, such as the boyars. This was done mainly by killing them and reducing the their economic role. The Wallachian nobility had connections with the Saxon merchants. The Saxons lived in the free towns of Transylvania, making trade flourish. Vlad cut their towns trade privileges with Wallachia, and started war against them.

Vlad gave key positions in the Prince’s Council to people of lower rank who were loyal to him. Vlad preferred to knight men from the free peasants.
Vlad III was always on guard against the Dăneşti clan. Some of his attacks into Transylvania may have been efforts to kill or capture Dăneşti princes. Several members of the Dăneşti clan died at Vlad's hands. Rumors say that thousands of citizens of the free towns that sheltered his rivals were impaled by Vlad. One captured Dăneşti prince was forced to read his own funeral speech while he kneeled at an open grave before his execution.

Personal crusade
Personal crusade 

There was a war between the Ottoman Empire and the Hungarian Kingdom. Following family traditions, Vlad decided to side with the Hungarians. To the end of the 1450s there was once again talk about a war against the Turks, in which the king of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus would play the main role. Knowing this, Vlad stopped paying money to the Ottomans in 1459, and at around 1460, he made a new alliance with Corvinus. The Turks did not like this and tried to remove him from power but they failed. In the winter of 1461 Vlad attacked and devastated the area between Serbia and the Black Sea, leaving over 20,000 people dead.
In response to this, the Sultan Mehmed II headed towards Wallachia with an army of 60,000 men in the spring of 1462. With his army of 20,000-30,000 men Vlad was not able to stop the Turks from entering Wallachia. The Turks occupied the capital Târgovişte (June 4, 1462) and chased Vlad away. Vlad was hiding and made small attacks on the Turks. On the night of June 16 Vlad and some of his men entered the main Turkish camp, wearing Turkish clothing, and attempted to kill Mehmed. Later the Turkish army retired and left Vlad’s brother, Radu the Handsome, as the new ruler prince.
Radu the Handsome gathered support from the nobility and Vlad fled to Hungary.
In August 1462 Radu made a deal with the Hungarian Crown.
In captivity 
Vlad was living in exile because he was afraid of the boyars of Wallachia. Vlad escaped to Hungary but he was put in prison there. The exact time of Vlad's captivity is not known for sure. Apparently his imprisonment was not too dangerous. He was able to gradually win his way back into the favor of King Matthias. He was able to meet and marry a member of the royal family (the cousin of King Matthias). However, some do not believe that it was likely to happen that a prisoner was permitted to marry into the royal family.

He had two sons with his new wife. Vlad also became a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Diplomatic letters and writings from Buda during this time show that Vlad's actual period of imprisonment was short.
The openly pro-Turkish policy of Vlad's brother, Radu was probably a cause in Vlad's good treatment while in prison. It is interesting to note that the Russian texts, normally very favorable to Vlad Ţepeş, tells that even in captivity he could not give up his favorite games; he often captured birds and mice which he tortured and mutilated, and some were impaled on tiny spears.

The years before his final release in 1474 (when he began making plans for the reconquest of Wallachia), Vlad lived with his new wife in a house in the Hungarian capital. His sons were about ten years old when he reconquered Wallachia in 1476.

Return to Wallachia and death
Around 1475 Vlad and Stefan Báthory of Transylvania invaded Wallachia with a mixed force of Transylvanians, some dissatisfied Wallachian boyars, and Moldavians sent by Prince Stephen III of Moldavia, Vlad's cousin. Vlad's brother, Radu the Handsome, died a couple of years earlier and had been replaced on the Wallachian throne by another Turkish candidate, Prince Basarab the Elder, a member of the Dăneşti clan. When Vlad's army arrived, Prince Basarabs army fled, some to the Turks, others in the mountains. After placing Vlad Ţepeş on the throne, Stephen Báthory and his forces returned to Transylvania, leaving Vlad in a very weak position. Vlad had little time to get support before a large Turkish army entered Wallachia to put back Prince Basarab on the throne. Vlad's cruelties over the years made the boyars to believe that they had a better chance to survive under Prince Basarab. Even the peasants, tired of the cruelty of Vlad, abandoned him
. Vlad had to meet the Turks with the small forces at his disposal, which were made up of less than four thousand men.
There are several variants of Vlad III the Impaler's death. Some sources say he was killed in battle against the Turks near Bucharest in December 1476. Others say he was killed by disloyal Wallachian boyars in the war against the Turks, or during a hunt. Others believe Vlad was killed in the war, surrounded by the bodies of his loyal Moldavian bodyguards. Still other reports claim that Vlad was accidentally killed by one of his own men. Vlad's body was decapitated by the Turks and his head was sent to Istanbul preserved in honey. The sultan had it displayed on a stake as proof that Kazıklı Bey was dead. The exact place of his grave is unknown.

Legacy 

Tales and legends about Vlad stayed a part of folklore among the Romanian peasants. By constant retelling they have become confused and created an ideal picture of a big national hero. Among the Romanian peasants, Vlad Ţepeş was sometimes remembered as a prince who defended his country.
But sometimes he is remembered as a very cruel and often capricious ruler. There are several events that are common to all tales.
One tale is about foreign ambassadors whom Vlad Ţepeş was meeting at Târgovişte. All versions agree that Vlad, in response to some real or imagined insult, (perhaps because they refused to remove the hats in Vlad's presence), had their hats nailed to their heads.

A good description of Vlad Dracula survives, courtesy of Nicholas of Modrussa, who wrote:
He was not very tall, but very stocky and strong, with a cruel and terrible appearance, a long straight nose, distended nostrils, a thin and reddish face in which the large wide-open green eyes were enframed by bushy black eyebrows, which made them appear threatening. His face and chin were shaven but for a moustache. The swollen temples increased the bulk of his head. A bull's neck supported the head, from which black curly locks were falling to his wide-shouldered person.
His famous portrait was rediscovered in the late 1800s, in the gallery of horrors at Innsbruck's Ambras Castle.

Cruelty 

Vlad III Ţepeş has been described as very cruel. The old Romanian word for dragon is Dracul, which in modern Romanian means "devil". In Old Romanian, it means "dragon". Dracul was the name given to his father, Vlad II, by other members of the Order of the Dragon. Impalement was Ţepeş's preferred method of torture and execution. His method of torture was a horse attached to each of the victim's legs while sharpened stake was forced into the body. Vlad often had the stakes arranged in patterns. The most common pattern was a ring outside of a city that was his target. The height of the spear indicated the rank of the victim. The corpses were often left there for months.
Vlad Ţepeş is also believed to have tortured and impaled some of the Turkish forces. It was reported that an invading Ottoman army turned back when they saw thousands of rotting corpses impaled on the banks of the river Danube. In 1462, Mehmed II returned to Constantinople after being sickened by the sight of 20,000 impaled corpses outside of Vlad's capital of Târgovişte. Many of the victims were Turkish prisoners of war.

Anecdotal evidence 

Much of the information we have about Vlad III Ţepeş comes from texts published in the Holy Roman Empire in German texts from 1488 and books written in Russian. These were entertainment in a society where the printing press was new. The texts were reprinted over the thirty years following Vlad's death. The German texts said Vlad Ţepeş was a person who terrorized the land and killed innocents. The Russian texts said his actions were justified, because Vlad helped them. The texts agree on some details.
According to the texts, he was particularly cruel against women and wanted his people to work hard. Merchants who cheated their customers were likely to be killed because of that.

The vampire legend 
The fictional vampire in the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker was inspired by the legends of this Wallachian prince. The cruel person of the Impaler was a suitable character for Stoker's purposes possibly combined with Oscar Wilde, a poet whom dated Stoker's wife and was outed as homosexual near the making of Stoker's famous novel. The events of Vlad's life happened in a region of the world that was still medieval in Stoker's time.
Further reading 
 Florescu, Radu R.; McNally, Raymond T. (1989). Dracula: Prince of Many Faces. Little Brown and Company. 
 Radu R., Florescu; McNally, Raymond T. (1994). In Search of Dracula. Houghton Mifflin. 
 Treptow, Kurt W. (2000). Vlad III Dracula: The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula. Center for Romanian Studies. 
 Babinger, Franz (1992). Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. Princeton University Press. 
 Dracula: Essays on the Life and Times of Vlad the Impaler by Kurt W Treptow, Center for Romanian Studies, 2018, amzn.to/2rYx93U via @amazon

References

Other websites 

 Vlad Tepes - Dracula Between Hero and Vampire 
 Vlad III Dracula
 Vlad's History
 Vlad's Biography
 Vlad III Dracula
 The Tale of Dracula Russian manuscript circa 1490, with English translation (MS Word format)
 The Real Life of Dracula 
 Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula (2000) (TV)
 Coins attributed to Vlad III Tepes

1431 births
1476 deaths
Romanian leaders
Princes and princesses
All these lands are watered by important rivers: Nile, Jordan, Euphrates and Tigris. Together they cover some 400-500,000 square kilometers, and the region extends from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea around the north of the Syrian Desert and through the Jazirah and Mesopotamia to the Persian Gulf. These areas are in present-day Egypt, Israel, West Bank, Gaza strip, and Lebanon and parts of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, south-eastern Turkey and south-western Iran. The population of the Nile River basin is about 70 million, the Jordan River basin about 20 million, and the Tigris and Euphrates basins about 30 million, giving the present-day Fertile Crescent a total population of around 120 million, or at least a quarter of the population of the Middle East.

The Fertile Crescent has a very long record of past human activity.

Related pages 
Mesopotamia
Ancient Egypt 

Middle East
Ancient history
In art and symbolism, a crescent is generally the shape produced when a circular disk has a segment of another circle removed from its edge, so that what remains is a shape enclosed by two circular arcs of different diameters which intersect at two points (usually in such a manner that the enclosed shape does not include the center of the original circle). 

The crescent was long used as the symbol of Byzantium. Now it is the main symbol for the religion Islam.

Other websites 

The origin of the Islamic crescent
MathWorld article on geometric "Lune"
Worldwide Moon Sighting Reports

Symbols
Religious symbols
Moons
Crescent may also refer to:
 Crescent (Amtrak), an American passenger train
 Crescent Engineering College, a private engineering college in Vandalur, Chennai (Madras), India
 Crescent School, an all-male private school in Toronto, Canada
 Crescent (Dallas), an ornate office tower in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas, Texas, United States
 Crescent (John Coltrane), a 1964 album by John Coltrane
 Crescent (album), a 2003 album by Gackt
 Crescent (architecture), an architectural structure where a number of houses are laid out in an arc to form of a crescent shape
 Crescent (pigeon), a breed of domestic pigeon
 "Crescent" is the literal translation of croissant - a popular buttery French bread in the shape of a crescent moon.
 Crescent, a Swedish bicycle brand manufactured by Nymanbolagen
 the Crescent meteorite of 1936, which fell in Oklahoma, United States (see meteorite falls)
Crescent is also often found as part of street names. Such streets are often (but not always) curved in some way.
Crescent Records, a record label
 HMCS Crescent, a WWII Royal Canadian Navy destroyer.
 The Crescent, a defunct department store chain.
 Crescent Arms, a firearms manufacturer bought by Savage Arms.
The Levant is a term in geography that refers to an area in the Middle East. It includes the historic areas of Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Israel and Syria. 

The Levant is bounded by the Taurus Mountains to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, the northern Arabian Desert to the south and Upper Mesopotamia to the east. 
 
The word "Levant" entered the English language in the 16th century, together with the first English merchant adventurers in the region. English ships appeared in the Mediterranean in the 1570s and the English merchant company signed its agreement ("capitulations") with the Grand Turk in 1579 (Braudel).
Today, the word "Levant" is usually used by archaeologists and historians  who are talking about the prehistory and the ancient and medieval history of the region, as when discussing the Crusades. The term is also used sometimes to refer to modern or contemporary events, peoples, states, or parts of states in the same region, such as Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories.

Regions 
 Iraq
 Syria
 Palestinian territories
 Israel
 Lebanon
 Jordan
 Egypt
 Cyprus
 Turkey

Related pages 
 Canaan
 Palestine
 Land of Israel
 Mesopotamia

References
Braudel, Fernand, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Phillip II
http://www.levantine.plus.com/index.htm . Levantine Heritage Site. Includes many oral and scholarly histories, and genealogies for some Levantine Turkish families.

Other websites
France and the Levant from 1920

Middle East