title: World Games

text: For example, Sloss Furnaces, a former pig iron-producing blast furnace now in public use, hosted the sport climbing, breakdancing, parkour and beach handball competitions in Birmingham 2022. Athletes stayed at the student accommodations of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, several of whose sports facilities were used for various events.


title: World Games

text: Past venues have included the Lahti City Theatre (bodybuilding), Landschaftspark Nord (a former iron foundry in Duisburg), Wrocław Zoo, and Wrocław's Philharmonic Hall, the National Forum of Music.


title: World Games

text: Even though it is not required, some venues are constructed or renovated for The World Games. For instance, for the 2017 World Games in Wrocław, a new swimming pool and speed skating rink were built, and Olympic Stadium, built in 1928, was renovated and is still used for American football and speedway. Also, for the 2009 World Games, Kaohsiung built a National Stadium – the first stadium in the world to use solar energy technology for its power.


title: World Games

text: Athletes are selected to compete at The World Games by their sport's international federation, as opposed to their sport's national governing body or National Olympic Committee, as in other multi-sport events. The selections are intended to "achieve a satisfactory balance between competitors' positions on world ranking lists and the fair representation of as many as possible of its member nations".


title: World Games

text: International federations are obliged to send their best athletes, with The World Games development agenda setting out that sports are only to be included if "the best athletes/teams in the world are present".


title: World Games

text: The International World Games Association (IWGA) is the international association responsible for the direction and control of The World Games. Its headquarters are located in Lausanne, Switzerland, and its official language is English.


title: World Games

text: Its membership consists of 39 international sporting federations. It also works very closely with the Local Organising Committees (LOCs), temporary committees responsible for the organisation of each World Games. LOCs are dissolved after each Games. The IWGA is officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee.


title: World Games

text: The opening ceremony marks the official start of The World Games. Until Duisburg 2005, athletes paraded into the ceremony grouped by sport. From 2005, they were grouped by nation, and now march in alphabetical order, with the host country and then the judges last.


title: World Games

text: The Athletes' Oath is taken by an athlete of the host nation, and the Judges' Oath is taken by the chairman of the Tournament Judges' Commission. Parading of flags, speeches and official opening also make up the required parts of the ceremony.


title: World Games

text: There is also often a musical and artistic aspect of the ceremony. For example, more than 400 artists took part in the opening ceremony of the 2017 World Games in Wroclaw.


title: World Games

text: Since 1993 at The Hague, an athlete party has been held in the middle of the competition, and a similar event is planned for Birmingham 2022. It was intended to allow all athletes to participate in at least one ceremony (opening, athlete party, or closing) during the competition.


title: World Games

text: The closing ceremony ends The World Games and follows the last awards ceremony. Official aspects include speeches, a presentation by the next host city and a handing of the flag of the Games to the representatives of the next host city. In Wroclaw, the second part of the ceremony was a concert performed by local artists.


title: World Games

text: For The World Games in 2017 and before, official sports were selected solely by the IWGA. Only sports whose international federations were members of the IWGA could be selected. From 2022, the official sports are selected by both the IWGA and host city and can include some sports whose federations are not part of the IWGA.


title: World Games

text: As formalised in the memorandum of understanding, "only events that are not on the programme of the Olympic Games can be included in the programme of The World Games". For example, canoe polo is a discipline at The World Games, while canoe sprint and canoe slalom are disciplines at the Olympic Games, despite all three being governed by the International Canoe Federation.


title: World Games

text: Sports which have been contested at all editions of The World Games are bowling, finswimming, trampoline and tumbling disciplines of gymnastics, karate, powerlifting, roller sports, tug of war and water skiing.


title: World Games

text: In addition to the official sports, the host city, in coordination with the IWGA, has been allowed to invite sports to participate in the individual programme. Therefore, these sports can be those whose international federations are not part of the IWGA. For example, the Birmingham Organising Committee have selected men's lacrosse (women's being selected by the IWGA), duathlon, flag football, wushu, and wheelchair rugby.


title: World Games

text: Some sports or disciplines started in The World Games as invitational sports and then became official, often as their international federations became part of the IWGA. These include the lyonnaise discipline of boules sports, beach handball, sumo, and indoor tug of war.


title: World Games

text: Starting in Birmingham 2022, there will be no distinction between official and invitational sports. The host city is still able to select up to five optional sports, but they are designated "official" sports, rather than invitational. In addition, the host city will be able to designate "demonstration sports".


title: World Games

text: Sports or disciplines which have been part of The World Games and the Olympics include badminton, baseball and softball, karate, rugby, sport climbing, taekwondo, triathlon, beach volleyball and water polo.


title: Election Day (United States)

text: Election Day in the United States is the annual day for general elections of federal public officials. It is statutorily set by the U.S. government as "the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November", i.e. the Tuesday that occurs within November 2 to November 8.


title: Election Day (United States)

text: For federal offices (president, vice president, and United States Congress) and most gubernatorial offices (all except for Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia), Election Day occurs only in even-numbered years. Presidential elections are held every four years, in years divisible by four, in which electors for president and vice president are chosen according to the method determined by each state. Elections to the US House of Representatives and the US Senate are held every two years; all representatives are elected to serve two-year terms and are up for election every two years, while senators serve six-year terms, staggered so that one third of senators are elected in any given general election. General elections in which presidential candidates are not on the ballot are referred to as midterm elections. Terms for those elected begin in January the following year; the president and vice president are inaugurated (sworn in) on Inauguration Day, which is usually January 20.


title: Election Day (United States)

text: Many state and local government offices are also elected on Election Day as a matter of convenience and cost saving, although a handful of states hold elections for state offices (such as governor) during odd-numbered off years, or during other even-numbered midterm years, and may hold special elections for offices that have become vacant. Congress has mandated a uniform date for presidential () and congressional ( and ) elections, though early voting is nonetheless authorized in many states, and states also have mail voting procedures.


title: Election Day (United States)

text: The fact that Election Day falls on a Tuesday has become controversial in recent decades, as many people might be unable to vote because they have to work. It is a public holiday in some states, including Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, as well as the territory of the Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico. Some other states require that workers be permitted to take time off with pay. California requires that employees otherwise unable to vote must be allowed two hours off with pay, at the beginning or end of a shift. A federal holiday called Democracy Day, to coincide with Election Day, has been proposed, and some have proposed moving election day to the weekend. Other movements in the IT and automotive industries encourage employers to voluntarily give their employees paid time off on Election Day.


title: Election Day (United States)

text: By 1792, federal law permitted each state legislature to choose Presidential electors any time within a 34-day period before the first Wednesday in December. A November election was convenient because the harvest would have been completed but the most severe winter weather, impeding transportation, would not yet have arrived, while the new election results also would roughly conform to a new year. Tuesday was chosen as Election Day so that voters could attend church on Sunday, travel to the polling location (usually in the county seat) on Monday, and vote before Wednesday, which was usually when farmers would sell their produce at the market. Originally, states varied considerably in the method of choosing electors. Gradually, states converged on selection by some form of popular vote.


title: Election Day (United States)

text: Development of the Morse electric telegraph, funded by Congress in 1843 and successfully tested in 1844, was a technological change that clearly augured an imminent future of instant communication nationwide. To prevent information from one state from influencing Presidential electoral outcomes in another, Congress responded in 1845 by mandating a uniform national date for choosing Presidential electors. Congress chose the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November to harmonize current electoral practice with the existing 34-day window in federal law, as the span between Election Day and the first Wednesday in December is always 29 days. The effect is to constrain Election Day to the week between November 2 and 8 inclusive. Beginning with Presidential elections, states gradually brought most elections into conformity with this date.


title: Election Day (United States)

text: The Twentieth Amendment, passed in 1933, changed the beginning and end date for the terms of the President, Vice President, Congressmen, and Senators. It did not affect the timing of Election Day.


title: Election Day (United States)

text: The majority of the electorate have to attend work on Tuesdays. This has led activists to promote alternatives to increase voter turnout. Alternative solutions include making Election Day a federal holiday or merging it with Veterans Day, observed annually on November 11, allowing voting over multiple days, mandating paid time off to vote, encouraging voters to vote early or vote by postal voting, and encouraging states to promote flexible voting.


title: Election Day (United States)

text: Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, and the territory of Puerto Rico have declared Election Day a civic holiday. Some other states require that workers be permitted to take time off from employment without loss of pay. California Elections Code Section 14000 and New York State Election Law provide that employees without sufficient time to vote must be allowed two hours off with pay, at the beginning or end of a shift.


title: Election Day (United States)

text: Some employers allow their employees to begin later or leave their workplace early on Election Day to allow them the opportunity to get to their precinct and vote. The United Auto Workers union has negotiated making Election Day a holiday for workers of U.S. domestic auto manufacturers. In January 2019, Sandusky, Ohio became the first city in the country to make Election Day a paid holiday for city employees by eliminating Columbus Day.


title: Election Day (United States)

text: On April 12, 2020, the Governor of Virginia Ralph Northam signed legislation that established Election Day as a holiday. On June 16, 2020, the Governor of Illinois J.B. Pritzker signed legislation that established Election Day as a holiday.


title: Election Day (United States)

text: Democratic Representative John Conyers of Michigan proposed H.R. 63 – Democracy Day Act of 2005 for the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every even-numbered year, to be a legal public holiday called Democracy Day. The purpose of the holiday was to increase voter turnout by giving citizens more time to vote, as well as to allow for the opening of more polling stations with more workers while raising awareness of the importance of voting and civic participation. The bill was reintroduced on November 12, 2014, and again on September 25, 2018, by independent Senator Bernie Sanders. It has never been enacted.


title: Election Day (United States)

text: Most states allow early voting, letting voters cast their ballots before Election Day. Early voting periods vary from 4 to 50 days prior to Election Day. Unconditional early voting in person is allowed in 32 states and in D.C. In the 2008 presidential election, 30% of votes were early votes.


title: Election Day (United States)

text: Also, all states have some kind of absentee ballot system. Unconditional absentee voting by mail is allowed in 27 states and D.C., and with an excuse in another 21 states. Unconditional permanent absentee voting is allowed in 7 states and in D.C. In Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Hawaii all major elections are by postal voting, with ballot papers sent to voters several weeks before Election Day.


title: Election Day (United States)

text: In 29 states, postal votes must be received on or before Election Day. Other states have later deadlines, with California election law allowing mailed in ballots to arrive at the elections office up to 17 days after Election Day. Some states, like Texas, give overseas and military voters extra time to mail in their ballots.


title: Election Day (United States)

text: Louisiana, to date, is the only U.S. state to hold de facto general elections on a Saturday, as the state's statewide elections are held on odd years and the state's unique primary method, a variation of the nonpartisan blanket primary, only requires a further runoff to be held on the federal Election Day (Tuesday) for those offices for which neither of the top two candidates receive an absolute majority of the vote.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: Vanitha Vijayakumar (born 5 October 1980) is an Indian actress who has appeared predominantly in Tamil. She has also acted in Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada language films. She made her cinematic acting debut in 1995, along with actor Vijay in "Chandralekha", where she played the title role. She has acted more than 20 films in languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: She made her acting debut at the age of 14 in the 1995 Tamil film "Chandralekha" with Vijay. She made her debut in Malayalam cinema with "Hitler Brothers" (1997) and Telugu with "Devi" (1999).


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: Vanitha is also one of the highest paid television personalities in the South Indian film and television industry along with other popular personalities such as Priyanka Deshpande and Sreemukhi who are also leading ladies in the Indian television industry. In "Bigg Boss Tamil 3" Vanitha was the highest paid contestant in history and broke records in India alone for her income after the show, making her one of the richest women in Tamil Nadu after her networth and income was counted.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: In 2020, Vanitha filled a defamation lawsuit against her partner Peter Paul. Vijayakumar wanted an immediate defamation case against Paul and the court of Tamil Nadu awarded Vanitha US$8.56 million in cash after the jury voted for her in favour of the court case. She later immediately filled a divorce against Paul and the couple broke up soon after the case ended and the divorce papers were approved. After her defamtion case with Peter paul ended, she immediately filled another defamation case against actress Lakshmy Ramakrishnan and demanding Rs 2.5 crore worth of money for violating her privacy and defaming her on various different social media platforms. However Lakshmy Ramakrishnan also filled a defamation report against Vanitha in return demanding around 1.25 crores of cash, the court and jury favored Lakshmy over Vanitha. Vanitha was also involved in creating rumors of actress Kasthuri on social media and defaming her reuptution on social media by creating false information, Vanitha was later taken to trial by supreme court of Tamil Nadu and was found guilty for defamation and was forced to remove herself from every social media platform. However Vanitha later rejoined social media in late 2021.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: Vanitha is the eldest daughter of Tamil actor Vijayakumar and his second wife, Tamil actress Manjula. Vanitha has two younger sisters, Preetha and Sridevi, who are former actresses. From his first marriage to Muthukannu Vellalar, Vijayakumar had three children. Actor Arun Vijay and former actress Kavitha are among her half-siblings.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: In September 2018, she had another public fallout with her family after she refused to leave a family property that she had initially rented for a shoot in Ashtalakshmi Nagar. Her father, Vijayakumar, subsequently filed a police complaint against her.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: Vanitha made her acting debut opposite Vijay in "Chandralekha" (1995). Directed by Nambirajan, the film was shot in a small village and owing to the lack of caravans, Vanitha had to make use of basic conditions. The film opened to mixed reviews and eventually did not perform well at the box office, effectively curtailing Vanitha's career. Vanitha subsequently appeared alongside Rajkiran in "Manikkam" (1996), before moving on to act in the Malayalam film "Hitler Brothers" (1997) and Telugu devotional fantasy film "Devi" (1999). As film offers began to reduce, Vanitha worked as a costume designer for her sister Preetha's films, and then also worked as an assistant director to P. Vasu during the making of "Kakkai Siraginilae" (2000). After her first marriage to Akash, Vanitha quit the film industry.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: Vanitha made a brief comeback to acting in the mid-2010s, and first appeared in a small role in "Naan Rajavaga Pogiren" (2013). She followed this up with a longer role in the comedy drama, "Summa Nachunu Irukku" (2013). Vanitha then chose to turn producer and make a film titled "MGR Sivaji Rajini Kamal" (2015), to be directed by her then-boyfriend Robert. She produced the film under the Vanitha Film Production banner, suggesting that the script of the film originated from a joke they discussed at a social gathering. Following the commercial failure of the film, Vanitha lodged a police complaint against distribution studio Vibrant Medias, alleging that they did not release the film in 80 cinemas as agreed in their contract. She was also rejected by most directors and didn't receive any film offers from directors, and she decided to quit acting for some time due to criticisms.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: In 2019, Vanitha appeared in the Tamil reality television show "Bigg Boss Tamil 3" on Star Vijay. She was the second contestant to be eliminated from the show. After a few weeks of request from fans


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: for Vanitha to enter the house as a wild card, and as after she left the TRP rating reduced, they sent her again as a contestant.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: In 2020, Vanitha appeared on season 1 of the Tamil Cooking show "Cooku with Comali" on Star Vijay and became the winner.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: She also later participated in the spin-off version show called "Bigg Boss Ultimate (season 1)" as a contestant.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: She also appeared as a cameo appearance in the Zee Tamil soap opera "Pudhu Pudhu Arthangal" playing a small role in the serial.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: She also signed up for the upcoming Tamil thriller film "Andhagan" playing a supporting role in the film. She also signed up for other Tamil films such as "Anal Kaatru", "2K Azhaganathu Kaadhal", "Sivappu Manithargal", "Vasuvin Karppinigal", "Kodooran", "Kaathu", "Kenny", "Dhil Irandha Poradu", "Rajini" and "Pickup Drop" which all are currently undergoing filming. As of 2022 she has signed up more than 15 films in Tamil overall.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: Vanitha Vijayakumar married actor Akash on 10 September 2000. Their son was born in 2001 and their daughter was born in 2005. Following a lengthy custody dispute, the Madras High Court ordered that the children split their time between both parents. Her son later moved in permanently with his grandfather and then Akash.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: Vanitha Vijayakumar got then married again with businessman Anand Jay Rajan, in 2007. The pair has a daughter. The couple separated soon after and were officially divorced in 2012, with Rajan being awarded custody of their child. Vanitha suggested that the pair divorced as a result of her disputes with Vijayakumar, and that Rajan had effectively become indirectly involved in the controversy costing her peace and career opportunities. In 2019, police questioned Vanitha while on the set of "Bigg Boss Tamil 3" in Chennai over a complaint filed by Rajan alleging that she had kidnapped their daughter. Vanitha was not arrested after her daughter confirmed that she had voluntarily come to Chennai with her mother.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: Following her separation with Anand Rajan in 2010, Vanitha dated choreographer Robert beginning in 2013. The duo also worked together professionally by producing a film titled "MGR Sivaji Rajini Kamal" (2015), before ending their relationship in 2017.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: Vanitha was a born Hindu to Tamil parents. On 30 March 2022 she converted to Buddhism embracing the religion and underwent many various different religious rituals in which later she officially converted to the religion.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: Vanitha was also suffering from Depression for more than 10 years, however she later underwent medical treatment and professional counselling and fully recovered.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: She was in relationship with Peter Paul, who is already married and a father of two children. The couple got married on 27 June 2020 in Chennai. Vanitha's marital relationship with Peter was controversial among people. Peter's first wife, Elizabeth, had filed a case on Vanitha and her husband for not getting an official divorce before. As of October 2020, Vanitha had divorced Peter with mutual consent, owing to his ongoing addiction to cigarettes and alcohol.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: In 2020, Vanitha involved Nayanthara in her argument about relationships stating that Nayanthara was a "Bitch" when she was dating dance expert Prabhu Deva back in 2011, this statement quickly circulated on social media and news channels rapidly and Vanitha's Twitter account was immediately removed by authorities and cyber security placing a permanent ban on her account for violation of conduct. In result to this Vanitha was also denied entry into Thailand due to a court case laid against her in India.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: During Bigg Boss Jodigal season 1 which aired on Star Vijay, Vanitha accused actress Ramya Krishnan of torturuing her on television sets and calling Vanitha by vulgur language. However Vanitha later demanded Ramya for USD 5.5 million dollars as a defamation case against Ramya and sued her in court, however Vanitha's court request was denied by Tamil Nadu government and revoked the case. Hence after the controversy Vanitha stepped out of Star Vijay and cancelled her contract with the network.


title: Vanitha Vijayakumar

text: In 2021, Vanitha officially opened up her own clothing store outlet named as "Vanitha Vijayakumar Styling" which is located in Chennai. She is also a part time costume designer.


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; ) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in the EY Tower in Toronto's Financial District, the TSX is a wholly owned subsidiary of the TMX Group for the trading of senior equities.


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: The Toronto Stock Exchange was established in 1861, and incorporated by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1878. The Toronto Stock Exchange became the sole Canadian exchange for senior equities in 1999. In 2002, the exchange became a publicly-traded company and rebranded from the TSE to the "TSX"


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: A broad range of businesses from Canada and abroad are represented on the exchange. In addition to conventional securities, the exchange lists various exchange-traded funds, split share corporations, income trusts and investment funds. More mining and oil and gas companies are listed on Toronto Stock Exchange than any other stock exchange.


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: The Toronto Stock Exchange likely descended from the Association of Brokers, a group formed by Toronto businessmen on July 26, 1852. No records of the group's transactions have survived. It is however known that on October 25, 1861, twenty-four brokers gathered at the Masonic Hall to create and participate in the "Toronto Stock Exchange". Between 1852 and 1870, two other distinct, commodity-orientated, exchanges were founded : the "Toronto Exchange" in 1854 and the "Toronto Stock and Mining Exchange" in 1868. Initially the TSE had 13 listings but it grew to 18 in 1868 (a majority of bonds and bank's issues). Many banks of Upper Canada failed during 1869, which halted any sort of trading in the city as the market was just too small. A bull market in 1870 boosted investor's confidence and eight of the original 24 brokers joined again to re-establish the TSE. The exchange was incorporated by an act of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1878.


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: The TSE grew continuously in size and in shares traded, save for a three-month period in 1914 when the exchange was shut down for fear of financial panic due to World War I. The day of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Toronto's exchange was better connected to New York's and received the bad news before Montreal's (prior to 1931, exchanges communicated via telephone or by brokers’ private wires, as they were not yet interconnected by ticker). By the afternoon, its three most popular stocks were down by at least 8%: International Nickel, Hiram Walker & Sons and Brazilian Light & Power. The following day, a record number of 331,000 shares changed hands on the TSE, with an overall loss of value of 20% (in Montreal, 525,000 shares and 25% loss).


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: Meanwhile, a British Columbia gold rush in the 1890s stimulated the demand for start-up capital but Montreal and Toronto's exchanges deemed the ventures too risky. The boom was handled with the Toronto Stock and Mining Exchange, founded in 1896 and which merged with its rival Standard Stock and Mining Exchange in 1899. The SSME, after years of ups and downs, was amalgamated into the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1934. While a durable surge in mining trading was recorded in Toronto (either commodities or securities), in Montreal the volume of the equity-centric market was going down. Toronto found itself a reputation as a financial centre for mining and from 1934, the total trading volume on the TSE surpassed that of Montreal's.


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: The TSE moved on Bay Street in 1913 and in 1937 opened a new trading floor and headquarters in an Art Deco building, still on Bay. By 1936, the Toronto Stock Exchange grew to become the third largest in North America.


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: In 1977, it launched the TSE 300 index and introduced the CATS (Computer Assisted Trading System), an automated trading system, and began to use it for the quotation of less liquid equities. In 1983, the TSE vacated its Art Deco headquarters on Bay Street and moved into the Exchange Tower. The old TSE building later became the Design Exchange, a museum and education centre. On April 23, 1997, the TSE's trading floor closed, making it the second-largest stock exchange in North America to choose a floorless, electronic (or virtual trading) environment.


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: In 1999, through a major realignment plan, Toronto Stock Exchange became Canada's sole exchange for the trading of senior equities. The Bourse de Montréal/Montreal Exchange assumed responsibility for the trading of derivatives and the Vancouver Stock Exchange and Alberta Stock Exchange merged to form the Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX) handling trading in junior equities. The Canadian Dealing Network, Winnipeg Stock Exchange, and equities portion of the Montreal Exchange later merged with CDNX. In 2000, the Toronto Stock Exchange became a for-profit company. In 2002 its acronym was rebranded to TSX and it became a public company.


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: In 2001, the Toronto Stock Exchange acquired the Canadian Venture Exchange, which was renamed the TSX Venture Exchange in 2002; this resulted in the creation of a parent to the TSX, the TSX Group. This ended 123 years of the usage of TSE as a Canadian stock exchange. On May 11, 2007, the S&P/TSX Composite, the main index of the Toronto Stock Exchange, traded above the 14,000 point level for the first time ever. On December 17, 2008, for the first time in TSX history, the exchange was closed for an entire trading day due to a technical glitch.


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: On February 9, 2011, the London Stock Exchange announced that it had agreed to merge with the TMX Group, Toronto Stock Exchange's parent, hoping to create a combined entity with a market capitalization of $5.9 trillion (£3.7 trillion). Xavier Rolet, who is CEO of the LSE Group, would have headed the new enlarged company, while TMX Chief Executive Thomas Kloet would become the new firm president. Based on data from December 30, 2010 the new stock exchange would have been the second largest in the world with a market cap 48% greater than the Nasdaq. Eight of the 15 board members of the combined entity were to be appointed by LSE, 7/15 by TMX. The provisional name for the combined group would be LTMX Group plc. About two weeks after Maple Group launched a competing bid the LSEG-TMX deal was terminated after failing to receive the minimum 67% voter approval from shareholders of TMX Group. The rejection came amidst new concerns raised by Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney regarding foreign control of clearing systems and opposition to the deal by Ontario's finance minister.


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: On June 13, 2011, a rival, and hostile bid from the Maple Group of Canadian interests, was unveiled. A cash and stock bid of $3.7 billion CAD, in hopes of blocking the LSE Group's takeover of TMX. The group composed of the leading banks and financial institutions of Canada.


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: The exchange has a normal trading session from 09:30am to 04:00pm ET and a post-market session from 4:15pm to 5:00pm ET on all days of the week except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays declared by the Exchange in advance.


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: As of August 2019, Toronto Stock Exchange had 1,569 listed issuers (including ETFs and other structured financial products) with a combined market capitalization of CAD $3,059,755,023,680. By the end of 2019, the total market capitalization of companies listed on TSX & TSXV reached $3.2 trillion.


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: The exchange is home to all of Canada's Big Five commercial banks—Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), Bank of Montreal (BMO), Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank), Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), and the Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD)—making the exchange the centre for banking in the country. This was seen as being most evident during the proposed mergers of Royal Bank with Bank of Montreal, and CIBC with the Toronto-Dominion Bank in 1998. Then-Finance Minister Paul Martin blocked the mergers to preserve competition.


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: The exchange is the primary listing for a number of energy companies including; Enbridge, Suncor, TC Energy, Canadian Natural Resources, Imperial Oil, Pembina and Cenovus all within the S&P/TSX 60 index.


title: Toronto Stock Exchange

text: Many of the large companies listed on the TSX, especially those on the S&P/TSX 60 index, have a secondary listing on an American exchange such as the New York Stock Exchange.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Zamalek Sporting Club (), commonly referred to as Zamalek, is an Egyptian sports club based in Giza. It is one of the most successful football clubs in Africa and the Middle East,


title: Zamalek SC

text: The club was founded on 5 January 1911 as Qasr El Nile Club and was first headed by the Belgian lawyer George Merzbach. The name was changed two years later to Cairo International Sports Club (C.I.S.C.), colloquially El Qāhirah El Mokhtalat Club or El Mokhtalat Club. The club was renamed in 1941 after King Farouk of Egypt and became known as Farouk El Awal Club (). After the 1952 Egyptian revolution, the club changed its name again to Zamalek SC .


title: Zamalek SC

text: Zamalek established itself as the second major force in Egyptian football during the 1920s, as it became the second Egyptian team to win titles. Zamalek was the first Egyptian team to win Sultan Hussein Cup in 1921 and 1922, the Egypt Cup in 1922; and the Cairo League in 1922–23. It is one of two clubs that have played in every season of the Egyptian Premier League, and one of seven that have never been relegated to the Egyptian Second Division.


title: Zamalek SC

text: At the international level, it has won five CAF Champions League titles, one CAF Confederation Cup title, four CAF Super Cup titles and one African Cup Winners' Cup title; making it one of the most successful clubs in Africa. It is also the first Egyptian team to ever win the CAF Super Cup when it beat archrival Al Ahly in the 1994 CAF Super Cup. Zamalek was the first Egyptian team to participate in and win the Afro-Asian Cup in 1987; and holds the record for most participations (1987, 1994, and 1997) and most titles after winning it a second time in 1997.Zamalek is also the first


title: Zamalek SC

text: Little is known about the very early years of the club. According to historians, the club was established by Belgian lawyer George Merzbach. On the 25 December 1910, Merzbach realized that the Cairo Tramways Company’s guest house hosting the celebration on the Nile banks was suitable as a sports club headquarters while attending the company's Christmas celebration. Merzbach decided to establish a new club for Belgians, Egyptians, and foreigners. At the time, Gezira Sporting Club, the main sporting club in Cairo, was exclusively for the British Army and unavailable for non-British foreigners and Egyptians. For the new club, he chose the name Qasr El Nile (). He did not have difficulties in establishing the club, as he enjoyed strong ties within the Palace of Khedive Abbas II, as well as many friendships with senior officials of Egyptian society. He was also the private lawyer for both Baron Empain and the Cairo Tramways Company. On 5 January 1911 the club was established, and it was officially opened on February 6 of the same year.


title: Zamalek SC

text: The first board of directors consisted of Merzbach as president, archaeologist Howard Carter as vice president, and Noah Amin Abdullah, Ahmed Mahmoud Azzam, Khoury Chalhoub (Lebanese, Representative of the Cairo Tramways Company), and Paolo Esposito (Italian, Representative of the Khedivial Palace) as board members. It was the first club in Cairo to emerge from non-English expatriate communities. They formed sports and social clubs, each with its own identity. An essential aspect of the club was that it was for all people and not for any specific social, economic, or ethnic community. It started out and continued through World War I under Merzbach's presidency.


title: Zamalek SC

text: In 1913, the club moved to what is currently known as the High Court and changed its name to Cairo International Sports Club (C.I.S.C.), colloquially referred to as the El Qāhirah El Mokhtalat Club or El Mokhtalat Club. The second president of the club was Nicolas Arfagi Bianchi, who played as a left winger for the club's football team. In 1915, Ibrahim Allam "Juhainah" moved to the club with his football team, coming from EL Sekka EL Hadid SC. In 1917, Zamalek had the legacy of participating as the first and only Egyptian football club in Sultan Hussein Cup, the first official football competition in Egypt. Zamalek played great matches and reached the final match against the English GHQ Signals team, the first champion of the competition. The championship was managed by the Egyptian Ibrahim Allam and was organized under the auspices of the Sultan of Egypt Hussein Kamel. After Zamalek's historic first season, many Egyptian cubs announced their desire to participate in the competition as they found it serious, official, bearing the name of the country's sultan, and includes a trophy for the winning team. Also in 1917, Ibrahim Allam and the Egyptian members of the club began their revolution to nationalize the club and remove the foreigners from the club's board of directors which mainly consisted of members of the Belgian and French communities. It started with informing the authorities that the club did not have a general assembly for 3 years, the club records are illegally kept with the club secretary, and have not been legally audited. Allam also put the club under the protection of 17-20 men from Bulaq, to preserve it and protect its Egyptian members. The Ministry of the Interior and some foreign embassies in Cairo interfered, but non-Egyptians were not allowed to enter the club. Finally Allam agreed to turn in the club to Mr. Bianchi in the presence of an official force from the police. The Egyptian members realized that it was important to gain a majority at the general members meeting. Accordingly, Allam and the Egyptian members called for an extraordinary general assembly for the club at Al-Shawarby Street. A decision was made by the general assembly to withdraw confidence from the club's foreign board of directors and elect a new Egyptian board of directors. When the elections were held, the first Egyptian board was elected with Mohammad Badr as president, Mostafa Hassan as treasurer, Ibrahim Allam as General Secretary, and Nicola Arkaji, Mahmoud Bassyouni, Hussein Fawzy, and Abdo El Jabalawy as board members. After the first board, a new saif in 1923 was formed with Mohamed Heidar as president and Youssef Mohamad as secretary. The new board of directors held its first meeting and decided to continue the fight. They informed the authorities of the missing club records. As a result, no general members' meetings were held for the next few years and later, Mr. Shoudoi, the Belgian club secretary was summoned and agreed to turn in the club records.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Around that time Zamalek received the moniker "Qahir-al-Aganib" (the conqueror of foreigners) due to their many wins against renowned foreign teams. In 1921, Zamalek won the Sultan Hussein Cup, becoming the first Egyptian team to ever win a title, after its victory over Britain's Sherwood Foresters (2–1). In 1922, Zamalek won the first Egyptian Cup and two weeks later won the Sultan Hussein Cup for the second time. Also in 1922, the Cairo Region League was launched, and the club won twice (1922 and 1940).In the winter of 1924, the club moved to a location on the west bank of the River Nile, and west of Gezira island, and became known as the Cairo International Sports Club (C.I.S.C.)-Zamalek.


title: Zamalek SC

text: In the 1940s, Zamalek won the King's Cup, and the Cairo Region League Championship in its 1940–41 season. After a year, Zamalek lost the final of the cup to Al-Ahly. In 1941, Farouk I, King of Egypt and Sudan, bestowed the royal sponsorship on the club, and the club name was renamed to Nady Farouk El Awal (). Ismail Bak Shirin of Mohammed Ali's family took the post of vice president.


title: Zamalek SC

text: This period witnessed the biggest victories in the history of the Cairo derby (contested with Al Ahly), a pair of 6–0 wins for Zamalek in 1941–42 and 1943–1944.This record scoreline in the Cairo derby has not been broken since then.


title: Zamalek SC

text: After the army coup in 1952, the club was renamed Zamalek after the area where the club was situated. The club later moved for the last time to 26 July Street, and occupied an area of 35 acres (140,000 m) and hosted 24 different sports. A new board was formed with Mohammad Shawky as president and secretary and Mohammad Hassan Helmy as assistant secretary. At the time, the rules required that half the club board be changed every year, and Helmy took the position of secretary-general. In 1954, the stadium needed renovations, so the board sought a businessman to take over the club and guide the renovation. Abd El Hamid El Shawarbi became the president, and although he was elected for a second period, he was not able to do the job he wanted. Heidar Pasha and Haj Sayed El Annany contributed to forming the VIP stands and the first-class stands, which happened while El Shawarbi was outside Egypt. When he returned, he resigned and the board continued after Shawky stepped up from his deputy position to continue till September 1955. Businessman Abd El Latif Abo Regeila became the club president in 1956; by then, the rules had been changed allowing the board to stay for three years. Shawky stepped down for Regeila, although he was re-elected as a club president. Although Regeila was re-elected for a second term, he had to leave Egypt after he lost money from the governmental policy against private property. The club continued to search for another businessman, and chose Alwe El Gazzar, the owner of El Sheikh Sherieb Company and the president of the board of the Coca-Cola Company at this time.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Abu Regeila was an Egyptian businessman and pioneer of public transport buses in Cairo. During his reign, the construction of the Zamalek Stadium was established, as well as the social building continued as the club's official president until 1961. In 1961, Zamalek paid Real Madrid to play against Zamalek. Hamada Emam was a popular player on the club who helped raise the club's profile. In 1962, there was a new board with Hassan Amer as a president, emeritus deputy Shawky, Mohammad Lateef, Galal Kereitam, Mahmoud Emam, and Mahmoud Hafez. Amer stayed as president until the Egyptian army's defeat in 1967.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Zamalek won the Egyptian Premier League in its 1959–60 season. Zamalek won the Egyptian Premier League five times (1959–60, 1963–64, 1964–65, 1977–78, and 1983–84) and the Egyptian Cup in 1960, 1962, 1975, 1977, and 1979. The club also won the October Cup, which is the tournament that was held as an alternative to the Egyptian Premier League because of Egypt hosting the 1974 African Nations Cup.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Zamalek won the first African title against Nigeria's Shooting Stars after beating them in Cairo (2–0) and in Nigeria (0–1).


title: Zamalek SC

text: In 1984, Amer became president, followed by Hasan Abo el Fetouh in 1988. In 1990, Galal Ibrahim became the temporary president of the club after Fetouh died until September 1990, when the general club meeting was held and Mohamad Nour El Daly was elected president. In 1992, Galal Ibrahim became the new president. The club's president from 1992 to 1996 was Jalal Ibrahim, and the rules were changed to require that the vice treasurer be selected mostly by the board members; Hamada Emam was selected by default to that position while Abdel Hamid Shaheen was elected treasurer. The board members were Ahmed Shereen Fawzy, Mahmoud Marouf, Mohamad Fayez El Zummur, Raouf Gaser, and Tarek Ghonaim. The new rules required the board to have two members under the age of 30; for these two spots, Samy Abo El Kheir and Ihab Ibrahim were elected. The members appointed by the high committee for youth and sports were Mohamad Amer, General Hanafy Reyad, and Farouk Abo El Nasr.


title: Zamalek SC

text: In 1993, Zamalek won the CAF Champions League. By 1994, Shaheen was not able to continue his duties due to his sickness, but the board chose to keep him in the position in honor of his devotion to the club, and Farouk Abo El Nasr was appointed to take over his duties while Shaheen stayed in his position. In 1995, four members in the board were removed due to their six absences from board meetings: Mahmoud Marouf, Mohamad Fayez El Zummur, and Amer. They were replaced with Mortada Mansour, Mahmoud Abdallah, Mounnir Hassan, and Ibrahim Latif. The high committee for youth and sports objected on linking the appointed members with the elected ones, so Hassan and Ibrahim Latif forfeited their positions. The newly two appointed members for the club board were Amer and El Nasr in support of their abilities and dedication. Fawzy was selected to be treasurer till the new elections. On 4 July, Abd El Menem Emarah decided to release the club board and the Egyptian Football Federation board after the game between Al-Ahly and Zamalek in 1995–96, and the board froze football activities in the club. A one-year temporary club board was selected with Kamal Darweesh as president, Abd EL Aziz Kabil as vice president, and board members Hanafy Reyad, Magdy Sharaf, Ismail Selim, Azmy Megahed, and Mohamad Abd El Rahman Fawzy. Accountant Mahmoud Badr El Deen was appointed as treasurer.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Kamal Darwish was the president of Zamalek club for two terms from 1996 to 2005. Zamalek won 16 football championships during his reign, but overall he achieved 1186 championships in 24 games and he assumed the chairmanship of the Board of Directors in 2013 on a temporary board for the second time. He is the president with the most achievements in the history of Zamalek.


title: Zamalek SC

text: In 2000, there was a friendly match between Zamalek and Palestine national football team in Gaza after breaking the Zionist siege. Zamalek was named the best club in the world by the IFFHS in February 2003. It was also the first Egyptian team to qualify for the 2001 FIFA Club World Cup in Spain, though that competition did not happen because of funding problems. Zamalek won the African Champions League in 2002, two African Super Cups in 1996 and 2003, and the first two championships in the Egyptian Super Cup in 2001 and 2002.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Zamalek FC is the only team to achieve seven championships between the 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons, surpassing FC Barcelona, who won six championships in one year.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Zamalek also won the Egyptian Premier League three times (2000–01, 2002–03 and 2003–04), and the Egypt Cup in 1999 and 2002.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Hazem emam is the icon of the Zamalek club, which won 14 championships with Zamalek club and the Egyptian national team, and he was called the imam of the talented players .


title: Zamalek SC

text: In 2005, many boards were dismissed by the Minister of Sport, which led to organizational uncertainty from 2005 to 2013, and changed the form of competition in Egypt for years. The football team only won two championships: the Egypt Cup in 2008 and 2013. The level of Zamalek continued to decline, and its administration destabilized since Mortada Mansour assumed the presidency of the club in 2005. The council did not last long and was dissolved, and a council headed by Morsi Atallah came to run the club before Mansour returned to head the council. Mansour dissolved the board of directors before restoring it, and the National Sports Council intervened to appoint a council headed by Muhammad Amir for a year before elections were held in May 2009, which resulted in the election of Mamdouh Abbas as the club's president; Abbas' council was dissolved in 2010 after Mansour obtained a court ruling stating that the elections were rigged. The administrative authority appointed an interim council to manage the club headed by Jalal Ibrahim, before Abbas' council returned when Mansour abandoned his lawsuit. Taher Abu Zaid disbanded Abbas' council, and formed an interim council headed by Kamal Darwish to head Zamalek, but by appointment.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Mahmoud Shikabala was one of the most prominent talents in the history of Egyptian football, who carried the banner of Zamalek and preserved the popularity of Zamalek in that difficult period.


title: Zamalek SC

text: In 2014, Mortada Mansour took over the club. Zamalek won the Egypt Cup in 2014 against Smouha (1–0). In the next season 2014–15 season, Zamalek won the Egyptian Premier League, and broke the record in obtaining the largest number of points in the league. The team won the Egypt Cup championship at the end of the year against Al-Ahly team (2–0), and reached the semifinals of the African CAF Confederation Cup in 2015.


title: Zamalek SC

text: The Ministry of Youth and Sports suspended Zamalek's board of directors due to financial violations on Sunday 29 November 2020. The Egyptian Ministry of Sports and Youth named Emad Abdel-Aziz as Zamalek's new president to succeed Ahmed Bakry, who died due to COVID-19. Then Hussein Labib has been appointed the new Zamalek president of normalization committee. And the football team was able to obtain the Egyptian Premier League championship after the absence of six years from achieving the championship and The club was also able to win the Egypt Cup in the same year , despite the difficult conditions that the club was going through in 2021.


title: Zamalek SC

text: On 22 November 2021, Mansour and his board of directors officially returned back to Zamalek SC management, following the departure of the normalization committee until the club's elections. On 12 February 2022, Mansour became the president of Zamalek club for the third time, after the elections held by the club through the general assembly.


title: Zamalek SC

text: In the 2021-2022 season,the football team managed to achieve the Egyptian League for the second year in a row, despite the penalty of the International Football Association (FIFA) to suspend the players’ registration.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Renamed after Egypt's Zamalek Nile Island, one of the most prestigious areas of the capital and the word itself is an Egyptian-slang of the classical and standard Arabic word, (, ), meaning "Preciously owned".


title: Zamalek SC

text: In 1941, the royal emblem of the Kingdom of Egypt and Sudan was the official emblem of the club at the time; when the club's name changed from "Mixed Club" to "Farouk Club" by royal order from Farouk I. After the revolution on the royal rule in Egypt, the club's name and logo changed after the revolution of July 23, 1952; the logo became a mixture of the sporting model and the ancient Egyptian civilization. The logo's main colors express peace and struggle and have not changed since its establishment. The home jersey uses the original Zamalek colours. In the upper half of the logo, the arrow that points towards the target appears in a pharaonic uniform as an indication of the common goal between it and Zamalek.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Zamalek is famous for the stability of its basic colors, which have not changed throughout the club's history, which extends since 1911, as it is distinguished by the white dress with two parallel red lines in the middle. The team shirt is displayed on the chest, and the color symbolizes.


title: Zamalek SC

text: The club does not have a home ground. Their old stadium, Abdel-Latif Abu-Rajelha Stadium was not suitable for hosting the first team's official matches due to its limited capacity, its central downtown location, and need for renovations. The players train in Abdel-Latif Abo Regeila but play their home matches in Cairo International Stadium for local matches and continental matches.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Abdel-Latif Abu-Rajelha Stadium, formerly known as Zamalek Stadium, then Mohammed Hassan Helmy "Zamora" Stadium, is a multi-use stadium in Cairo, Egypt. The stadium was initially named in honor of Helmy. It was renamed in 2014 to Abdel-Latif Abu-Rajelha Stadium after the former president of Zamalek, Abdel-Latif Abu-Rajelha. It is mostly used for football matches and was the home of Zamalek before they moved to Cairo International Stadium because of its small capacity. The stadium could hold 40,000 spectators before the capacity was reduced to 20,000 .


title: Zamalek SC

text: Zamalek has an ultras group named the Ultras White Knights that was founded on 17 March 2007 and is known for its pyrotechnic displays. Their motto is "Brotherhood in blood and fans of the free public Club". They were involved in clashes on 8 February 2015 before the league match between Zamalek and ENPI Club at the Cairo Air Defense Stadium, where 20 people were killed.


title: Zamalek SC

text: At least 48 people died in a stampede at a friendly game against Czechoslovak club Dukla Prague at the Helmy Zamora Stadium in 1974.


title: Zamalek SC

text: In February 2014 administration of Zamalek announced the nickname of the club as the Club of the Century, as the most successful club of the 20th century in Africa (gaining 9 titles versus 7 for its closest rival).


title: Zamalek SC

text: The Cairo Derby is a football match between Zamalek and Al Ahly. The derby is played twice each season with two matches in the Egyptian Premier League, but it is not uncommon to find the teams meeting each other in the Egypt Cup, especially in the finals, and in the CAF Champions League.


title: Zamalek SC

text: The Mit Okba derby is a football match between Zamalek and Tersana SC. Both teams are located in the Mit Okba region in Giza. The derby was one of the most important matches of the Egyptian Premier League during the sixties and seventies of the twentieth century, but it gradually lost its value after Tersana SC's performance started to deteriorate and the club has been relegated more than once to the Egyptian Second Division where it currently plays after being relegated for the sixth time in the 2008–09 season.


title: Zamalek SC

text: In 2018, Presentation Sports obtained a contract that increased from 100 million Egyptian pounds to 120 million annually to sponsor the club increased This increase in the sponsorship contract will be other than 20% over the amount mentioned in each year including broadcasting rights.


title: Zamalek SC

text: The Board of Directors of the National Bank of Egypt signed a contract with Zamalek's management to rent three stores in the club wall on the League of Arab States Street with a usufruct for 25 years, with a rent for two years in advance.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Zamalek Club signed a cooperation protocol with Banque Misr, from which it obtains immediate returns of 10 million pounds under the protocol. In return, Banque Misr has the right to use two local walls of the Zamalek Club wall for 20 years in exchange for 5 million pounds and an annual rent of 1.560 million pounds.


title: Zamalek SC

text: The report of the Controller at the Zamalek Club revealed that the budget surplus for the fiscal year 2018–2019 reached 170 million Egyptian pounds.


title: Zamalek SC

text: The temporary committee that runs the Zamalek club has signed a cooperation protocol with the Ministry of Military Production (Egypt) for a construction and sports boom.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Imad Abdel Aziz, head of the temporary committee at Zamalek Club, stated that this protocol will contribute to building the 6th of October branch.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Zamalek Club and Aerosport Sports Club of the Ministry of Civil Aviation signed a protocol of joint cooperation aimed at benefiting from the expertise of Zamalek.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Zamalek SC has signed a cooperation protocol with the “I-Friends Sports” company, to establish a branch of the club in the United Arab Emirates.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Zamalek Club owns a TV channel known as Zamalek TV, which broadcasts on Nilesat in SD quality. The broadcast began experimentally on 31 December 2019 before the channel launched on 22 January 2020. The channel focuses on news about the club.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Zamalek SC Magazine is an official Zamalek weekly magazine that is issued every Thursday, and contains news and reviews about the club and interviews with the players.


title: Zamalek SC

text: In 2015, a documentary entitled "Zamalek, O Engineering, playing, Art and Engineering", was produced by Abu Dhabi Sports. It was presented in two parts, and presents the history of the club since its foundation.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Another documentary film produced in 2016, "The Story is Mpethanish"(we don't forget ), covers the club's history in the five championships in the African Champions League, and was produced by DMC Sport channel.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Another documentary film was produced by the CBC network in 2017, entitled "Helmy Zamora". It covers the story of Helmy or Zamora the icon of Zamalek club.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Another documentary film was produced in 2019 with the title "Zamalek Club, the National and Dignity Club". It was produced by the club, and shows the history of the club since its establishment.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Another documentary film produced in 2020 entitled "Zamalek Legends: A long history of stars who inhabited the memory", produced by Abu Dhabi Sports channel, covers the highlight of the club's most prominent stars from different generations.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Another documentary film produced in 2020 entitled "Zamalek – The Road to the African Super 2020", produced by beIN SPORTS Arabia channel, documents Zamalek's journey in winning the 2019 CAF Confederation Cup.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Another documentary film produced in 2020 entitled "Zamalek, the Road to the Semi-finals 2020", produced by beIN SPORTS Arabia channel, describes Zamalek won the African Super Cup championship against Espérance Sportive de Tunis , and won the local super championship against Al Ahly.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Zamalek is one of the top twenty clubs that won the most championships in the world, and is the seventh with the most continental and international championships, with a total of 13 continental honors.


title: Zamalek SC

text: This list includes players that have appeared in at least 100 league games and/or have reached international status.


title: Zamalek SC

text: Zamalek participates in many sports besides football, such as Handball, Athletics, Volleyball, and Basketball. Zamalek has won many local, Arab and African tournaments and participated in world championships.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, also called the Ghent Altarpiece (), is a large and complex 15th-century polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. It was begun around the mid-1420s and completed by 1432, and it is attributed to the Early Netherlandish painters and brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck. The altarpiece is considered a masterpiece of European art and one of the world's treasures, it was “the first major oil painting,” and it marked the transition from Middle Age to Renaissance art.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The panels are organised in two vertical registers, each with double sets of foldable wings containing inner and outer panel paintings. The upper register of the inner panels represent the heavenly redemption, and include the central classical "Deësis" arrangement of God (identified either as Christ the King or God the Father), flanked by the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. They are flanked in the next panels by angels playing music and, on the far outermost panels, the figures of Adam and Eve. The central panel of the lower register shows a gathering of saints, sinners, clergy, and soldiers attendant at an adoration of the Lamb of God. There are several groupings of figures, overseen by the dove of the Holy Spirit. The four lower panels of the closed altar are divided into two pairs; sculptural grisaille paintings of St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist, and on the two outer panels, donor portraits of Joost Vijdt and his wife Lysbette Borluut; in the upper row are the archangel Gabriel and the Annunciation, and at the very top are the prophets and sibyls. The altarpiece is one of the most renowned and important artworks in European history.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Art historians generally agree that the overall structure was designed by Hubert during or before the mid-1420s, probably before 1422, and that the panels were painted by his younger brother Jan. Yet, while generations of art historians have attempted to attribute specific passage to either brother, no convincing separation has been established, it may be that Jan finished panels begun by Hubert.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The altarpiece was commissioned by the merchant and Ghent mayor Jodocus Vijd and his wife Lysbette as part of a larger project for the Saint Bavo Cathedral chapel. The altarpiece's installation was officially celebrated on 6 May 1432. It was much later moved for security reasons to the principal cathedral chapel, where it remains.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Indebted to the International Gothic as well as Byzantine and Romanic traditions, the altarpiece represented a significant advancement in western art, in which the idealisation of the medieval tradition gives way to an exacting observation of nature and human representation. A now lost inscription on the frame stated that Hubert van Eyck "maior quo nemo repertus" (greater than anyone) started the altarpiece, but that Jan van Eyck—calling himself "arte secundus" (second best in the art)—completed it in 1432. The altarpiece is in its original location, while its original, very ornate, carved outer frame and surround, presumably harmonizing with the painted tracery, was destroyed during the Reformation; it may have included clockwork mechanisms for moving the shutters and even playing music.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The altarpiece was commissioned by the merchant Jodocus Vijd, then Mayor of Ghent, and his wife Lysbette, as part of a larger development project for the Saint Bavo Cathedral chapel. The installation of the altarpiece was officially celebrated on 6 May 1432; it was much later moved for security reasons to the principal cathedral chapel, where it remains.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Art historians broadly agree that the overall structure was designed and built by Hubert in the early 1420s, and that most of the panels paintings were completed by his younger brother Jan between 1430 and 1432. Yet there has been considerable debate, and many art historians, especially in the mid 20th century, attempted to attribute specific passages to either brother. However no convincing separation of their contributions has been established. A now lost inscription on the frame stated that Hubert van Eyck "maior quo nemo repertus" (greater than anyone) started the altarpiece, but that Jan van Eyck—calling himself "arte secundus" (second best in the art)—completed it in 1432. The original, very ornate carved outer frame and surround, presumably harmonizing with the painted tracery, was destroyed during the Reformation; it may have included clockwork mechanisms for moving the shutters and even playing music.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Attribution to the van Eyck brothers is supported by the small amount of surviving documentary evidence attached to the commission, and from Jan's signature and dating on a reverse frame. Jan seems to minimize his contribution in favor of his brother, who died six years before the work's completion in 1432. A less explicit indicator is their seeming portraits as the third and fourth horseman in the Just Judges panel. Ramsay Homa notes lettering in the central panel of the lower register that might be read as an early formation of what was to become van Eyck's well known signature, built around various formations of ("As I Can"), a pun on his full name; and lettering is found on the headdress of one of the prophets standing at the back of the grouping. It is written in Hebrew script that roughly translates into French as "Le chapeau ... orne de trois lettres herbraiques formant le mot Saboth", or more likely as "Yod, Feh, Aleph", which when transliterated represents Jan's initials, JvE.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Since the 19th century, art historians have debated which passages are attributable to the obscure Hubert and which are by Jan, famous across Europe by the early 1430s. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it was often assumed that Jan had found a number of random panels left behind after Hubert's death and assembled them into the current format. This view has been discounted since the early 19th century, on the basis of the obvious overall design of the work, although there are obvious stylistic differences between many passages.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: It is generally accepted that the majority were completed by Jan, from an overall design by Hubert, who probably oversaw the construction of most of the frames. A number of difficulties present themselves, not least that there is no surviving work confidently attributed to Hubert, and it is thus impossible to detect his style. Instead, art historians compare individual passages to known works by Jan, looking for stylistic differences that might indicate the work of another hand. Advances in dendrochronology have for example established that parts of the wing panels were felled around 1421. Allowing a seasoning time of at least 10 years, we must assume a completion date well after Hubert's death in 1426, thus ruling out his hand from large portions of the wings.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The polyptych differs in a number of aspects to the other paintings attributed to Jan van Eyck, not least in scale. It is the only one of his works intended for public, rather than private, worship and display. Van Eyck pays as much attention to the beauty of earthly things as to the religious themes. The clothes and jewels, the fountain, nature surrounding the scene, the churches and landscape in the background – are all painted with remarkable detail. The landscape is rich with vegetation, which is observed with an almost scientific accuracy, and much of it non-European.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Lighting is one of the major innovations of the polyptych. The panels contain complex light effects and subtle plays of shadow, the rendering of which was achieved through new techniques of handling both oil paint and transparent glazes. The figures are mostly cast with short, diagonal shadows which serve to, in the words of art historian Till-Holger Borchert, "not only heighten their spatial presence, but also tell us that the primary light source is located beyond the picture itself." In the "Annunciation" scene, shadows imply that they emanate from the daylight within the chapel in which they are housed. Further innovations can be found in the detailing of surface textures, especially in the reflections of light. These are best seen in light falling on the armor in the "Knights of Christ" panel, and the ripple of the water in the Fountain of life in the "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb".


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The altarpiece was opened on feast days, when the richness, colour and complexity of inner view was intended to contrast with the relative austerity of the outer panels. As viewed when open, the panels are organised along two registers (levels), and contain depictions of hundreds of figures. The upper level consists of seven monumental panels, each almost six feet high, and includes a large central image of Christ flanked by frames showing Mary (left) and John the Baptist (right), which contain over twenty inscriptions each referring to the figures in the central Deësis panels.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: These panels are flanked by two pairs of images on the folding wings. The two panel closest to the Deësis show singers in heaven; the outermost pair show Adam and Eve, naked save for strategically placed leaves. The lower register has a panoramic landscape stretching continuously across five panels. While the individual panels of the upper tier clearly contain separate—albeit paired—pictorial spaces, the lower tier is presented as a unified "Mise en scène". Of the 12 panels, eight have paintings on their reverse visible when the altarpiece is closed.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The three central upper panels show a Deësis of monumental and enthroned figures, each with a halo. They are the Virgin Mary to the left, John the Baptist to the right, and a central figure who may be either God or Christ – a distinction much debated amongst art historians. Theories include that the panel shows Christ in Majesty dressed in priestly vestments, God the Father, or the Holy Trinity amalgamated into a single person. The figure looks directly towards the viewer with his hand raised in blessing, in a panel filled with inscriptions and symbols. There are Greek inscriptions decorated with pearls on the hem of his mantle (possibly a cope, fastened by a bejewelled morse or clasp) which are from Revelation: ("King of Kings, and Lord of Lords").


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The golden brocade on the throne features pelicans and vine, probable references to the blood spilled during the Crucifixion of Jesus. Pelicans were at the time believed to spill their own blood to feed their young. The vines allude to sacramental wine used to confect the Eucharist.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: An openwork crown is at his feet, and on either side the step is lined with two levels of text. The left hand upper line reads ("Life without death on his head"), that on the right ("Youth without age on his forehead"). These are placed above—on the left and right respectively—the words ("Joy without sorrow on his right side") and ("Safety without fear on his left side"). On his head is another jewel-encrusted crown similar to the papal tiara or "triregnum," with its white body, three tiers, green lappets, and monde with a cross on top.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Mary reads from a girdle book draped with a green cloth. A book is a normal attribute for Mary, as one of her titles is "Seat of Wisdom" and this image might be based on the figure in Robert Campin's "Virgin Annunciate". She wears an open crown adorned with flowers and stars, and is dressed as a bride. The inscription above her arched throne reads: "She is more beautiful than the sun and the army of the stars; compared to the light she is superior. She is truly the reflection of eternal light and a spotless mirror of God".


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Like his aunt Mary, John the Baptist also holds a holy book – an unusual attribute; these are two of the 18 books in the entire piece. He wears a green mantle over a cilice of camel-hair, his usual attribute. He looks towards the Almighty in the center panel, his hand also raised in blessing, uttering the words most typically attributed to him, ("Behold the Lamb of God").


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: It is often assumed that given the foreshortening seen in the representation of God the Father, the artist was familiar with either of the Italian painters Donatello or Masaccio. However, Susie Nash believes van Eyck was already leading toward this development, and it was something he was "perfectly capable of producing without such models", and believes the technique represents "a shared interest [rather than] a case of influence."


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The two musical panels are commonly known by variants of the titles "Singing Angels" and "Music-making Angels", and are both 161 cm × 69.3 cm. Each features a choir; on the left angels gather behind a wooden carved music stand positioned on a swivel, to the right a group with stringed instruments gather around a pipe organ, played by a seated angel, shown full-length. The presence of the two groups on either side of the Deësis reflects a by then well-established motif in representations of the heavens opening; that of musical accompaniment provided by celestial beings. As was common in the Low Countries in the 15th century, the angels are dressed in liturgical robes, a custom that migrated from Latin liturgical drama to the art of the period.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The angels attend the King of Kings, that is, to God the father in the central Deësis panel. Unusually, they lack most of the attributes usually associated with angels depicted in northern art of the time. They do not have wings, and their faces are unidealised, and show a number of different individual expressions. Music historian Stanley Boorman notes that their depiction contains many earthly qualities, writing that "the naturalism is so seductive that the viewer is tempted to consider the scenes as depictions of contemporary church music." Yet he concludes that the inscriptions "reinstalls them in the heavenly sphere". In both panels the angels stand on maiolica tiles decorated with the IHS Christogram, representations of the lamb and other images.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The left hand panel's frame is inscribed with the words ("Music in Praise of God"), the frame of to the right with ("Praise him with stringed instruments and organs"). A number of art historians have defined the figures as angels based on their positioning and role within the overall context of the registers. They are sexless and possess cherub faces, which contrast with the realistic depictions of the other full-sized non-divine females in the work; Eve in the same register and Lysbette Borluut in the outer panels. The angels are dressed in elaborately brocaded ecclesiastical copes or chasubles, mostly painted in reds and greens. Their robes indicate that they are intended as representative of the celebration of mass before the altar in the lower central panel.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The left-hand group shows eight fair haired angels wearing crowns and gathered in front of a music stand singing, although none of them looks towards the score on the stand. As in a number of the other panels, here van Eyck used the device of the open mouth to give a sense of life and motion to his figures. Borchert writes that the emphasis on the open mouths is "specifically motivated by the desire to characterize the angel's facial expressions according to the various ranges of polyphonic singing. To that end the position of the angel's tongues are carefully registered, as are that of their teeth." Art historian Elisabeth Dhanens notes how "One can easily see by their singing who is the soprano, who is the alto, who is the tenor and who is the bass".


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The figures are positioned in a wave-like order of body height, with the orientation of each of the eight faces in looking in different directions. A number of scholars have remarked on their physiognomy. Their cherub faces and long, open, curly hair are similar but also show a clear intention by the artist to establish individual traits. Four angels are shown frowning, three have narrowed eyelids which give the appearance of peering, a trait also seen in some of the apostles in the "Adoration of the Lamb". Pächt doesn't see Jan's hand in the rendering of their expressions, and speculates if they are remnants from Hubert's initial design.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: In the right-hand panel, the only angel fully visible is the organist around whom the others gather. Although a larger group is suggested, only another four angel's faces can be seen in the closely cropped huddle. These other angels carry stringed instruments, including a small harp and a type of viol. Their instruments are shown in remarkable detail. The organ at which Saint Cecilia sits is detailed with such precision that in places its metal surfaces show reflections of light.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Modern musicologists have been able to recreate a working copy of the instrument. Until the Trecento, when the idea of orchestration was introduced, music playing angels were typically winged, depicted holding stringed or wind instruments as they hovered "on the wing" around on the edges of images of saints and deities. In French illuminated manuscripts of the first two decades of the 15th century, winged angels often seemingly floated on the margins of the page, as illustrations to the accompanying text.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The two outer panels show near life-sized nudes of Adam and Eve standing in niches. They are the earliest treatment in art of the human nude with Early Netherlandish naturalism, and are almost exactly contemporary with the equally ground-breaking pair in Masaccio's "Expulsion from the Garden of Eden" in Florence of about 1425. They face inwards towards the angels and the Deësis, separating them. They self-consciously attempt to cover their nakedness with a leaf as in the Genesis account (although apparently not a figleaf), indicating that they are depicted as after the fall of man. Eve holds a fruit in her raised right hand; not the traditional apple but a small citrus, most probably a citron. Erwin Panofsky drew particular attention to this element, and described it as emblematic of the "disguised" symbolism he saw running through the work as a whole. Both figures' eyes are downcast and they appear to have forlorn expressions. Their apparent sadness has led many art historians to wonder about van Eyck's intention in this portrayal. Some have questioned if they are ashamed of their committal of original sin, or dismayed at the world they now look upon.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The realism with which Jan approached his figures is especially evident in these two panels. The depiction of Eve exemplifies the Late Gothic ideal for the female figure, as developed in International Gothic art around the start of the century, and pioneered in nude form by the Limbourg brothers, especially their Adam and Eve in the "Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry". Comparing the Limbourg's Eve to a classical female nude, Kenneth Clark observed that "her pelvis is wider, her chest narrower, her waist higher; above all there is the prominence given to her stomach". Clark describes her as "a proof of how minutely 'realistic' a great artist may be in the rendering of details, and yet subordinate the whole to an ideal form. Hers is the supreme example of the bulb-like body. The weight-bearing leg is concealed, and the body is so contrived that on one side is the long curve of the stomach, on the other the downward sweep of the thigh, uninterrupted by any articulation of bone or muscle."


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The precision and detail with which their nakedness is recorded offended many over the years. During a visit to the cathedral in 1781, Emperor Joseph II found them so disagreeable that he demanded they be removed. The couple's nakedness further offended 19th century sensibilities, when their presence in a church came to be considered unacceptable. The panels were replaced by reproductions in which the figures were dressed in skin cloth; these are still on display in Saint Bavo Cathedral. In comparison to contemporary depictions of Adam and Eve, this version is very spare and omits the usual motifs associated with the theme; there is no serpent, tree or any trace of the Garden of Eden normally found in contemporary paintings.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: In contrast to the other panels in the register, Adam and Eve are positioned near the edge of each panel, and neither is entirely "within" the border of their setting. Adam's foot appears to protrude out of the niche and frame and into real space. More subtly, Eve's arm, shoulder and hip appear to extend beyond her architectural setting. These elements give the panel a three-dimensional aspect. The trompe-l'œil become more pronounced when the wings are turned slightly inwards, an especially interesting fact when it is considered that the polyptych was wider than the original chapel it was executed for and could never be opened fully.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Above Adam is a grisaille depiction of Abel making a sacrifice of the first lamb of his flock and Cain presenting part of his crops as a farmer to the Lord. Above Eve is a representation of the murder of Abel by his brother Cain with an ass's jawbone.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: A continuous panoramic landscape unifies the five panels of the lower register. The large central panel shows the adoration of the Lamb of God ("Agnus Dei") arranged in a scene derived from the Gospel of John. A series of crowds of people stream towards the lamb to worship; four groupings congregate at each corner of the central panel, another four arrive in the two pairs of outer panels – representing the Warriors of Christ and Just Judges on the left-hand side, and the holy hermits and pilgrims on the right. Of the eight groupings only one consists of females. The groupings are segregated by their relationship to the old and new testaments, with those from the older books positioned to the left of the altar.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Among the pilgrims is Saint Christopher, patron saint of travelers. At the rear of the hermits on the inner right-hand panel is Mary Magdalene, carrying unguents.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Measuring 134.3 × 237.5 cm, the center panel has as its centerpiece an altar on which the Lamb of God is positioned, standing in a verdant meadow, while the foreground shows a fountain. Five distinct groups of figures surround altar and fountain. In the mid-ground two further groups of figures are seen gathering; the dove of the Holy Spirit is above. The meadow is framed by trees and bushes; with the spires of Jerusalem visible in the background. Dhanens says the panel shows "a magnificent display of unequaled color, a rich panorama of late medieval art and the contemporary world-view." The iconography, suggested by the groupings of the figures, appears to follow the liturgy of All Saints' Day.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The lamb stands on an altar, and is surrounded by 14 angels arranged in a circle, some holding symbols of Christ's Passion, and two swing censers. The lamb has a wound on its breast from which blood gushes into a golden chalice, yet it shows no outward expression of pain, a reference to Christ's sacrifice. The lamb has a human-like face which appears to be looking directly out of the panel, similar to the subjects of Jan van Eyck's single head portraits. The angels have multicolored wings and hold instruments of Christ's passion, including the cross and the crown of thorns. The antependium on the upper portion of the front of the altar is inscribed with the words taken from John 1:29; ("Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world"). The lappets bear the phrases ("Jesus the Way") and ("the Truth, the Life").


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: A dove, representing the Holy Spirit, hovers low in the sky directly above the lamb, surrounded by concentric semicircles of white and yellow hues of varying luminosity, the outermost of which appear like nimbus clouds. Thin golden beams emanating from the dove resemble those surrounding the head of the lamb, as well as those of the three figures in the Deësis in the upper register. The rays seem to have been painted by van Eyck over the finished landscape, and serve to illuminate the scene in a celestial, supernatural light. This is especially true with the light falling on the saints positioned directly in front of the altar. The light does not give reflection or throw shadow, and has traditionally been read by art historians as representing the New Jerusalem of Revelation which in 21:23, had "no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did Lighten it".


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The illumination contrasts with the natural and directional lighting of the four upper interior wings, and of each of the outer wings. It has been interpreted as a device to emphasize the presence of the divine and accentuate the paradise of the central landscape. The dove as the Holy Spirit, and the lamb as Jesus, are positioned on the same axis as that of God The Father in the panel directly above; a reference to the Holy Trinity.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: In the center foreground, the fountain of life consists of a large stream of water, ending with a jewel-laden bed. In the distance, a minutely detailed cityscape recalls New Jerusalem. The detail and close attention to landscape and nature is at a level previously unseen in Northern European art. The numerous recognisable species of plants are minutely depicted with high levels of botanical accuracy. Similarly, the clouds and rock formations in the distance contain degrees of verisimilitude that evince studied observation. The far landscape contains representations of actual churches, while the depiction of the mountains beyond contain the first known example in art of aerial perspective. Yet the panel does not strive for exact realism; the sum of the forensically detailed natural elements, in combination with the apparition of the Holy Spirit and extended beams of light, serve to create a wholly individual and uniquely creative interpretation of a classic biblical scene.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The inscription on the fountain's rim reads ("This is the fountain of the water of life, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb", cf. Rev. 22:1), symbolizing the fountain of life is "watered by the blood of the Lamb". From its center rises a column with an angel above bronze dragons, from which streams of water fall into the fountain's basin. A vertical axis forms between the fountain, the altar, and the dove signifying the agreeing testimony of The Spirit, the water, and the blood, as cited in 1 John 5:6–8. There is also similarity between the altar and its ring of angels, and the fountain surrounded by figures arranged in distinct groupings.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The representation of figures gathering on each side of the fountain are drawn from biblical, pagan and contemporary ecclesiastical sources. Some are crowded around the fountain in what Pächt describes as two "processions of figures [that] have crowded to a halt". To the left are representatives of figures from Judaism and prophets who have foretold the coming of Christ; to the right representatives from the Church. The figures directly to the left of the fountain represent witnesses from the Old Testament; dressed in pink robes, kneeling, reading aloud from open copies of the Bible, facing the mid-ground with backs turned to the viewer.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: A larger group of pagan philosophers and writers stand behind them. These men seem have traveled from all over the world, given the Oriental faces of some, and their different styles of headdress. The figure in white, holding a laurel wreath, is generally accepted to be Virgil, who is said to have predicted the coming of the Saviour. Isaiah stands to his side holding a twig, a symbol of his own prophecy of Christ as recorded in Isaiah 11:1.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: On the right, twelve apostles from the New Testament kneel, and behind them is a group of male saints. These are dressed in red vestments symbolizing martyrs; the Popes and other clergy representing the church hierarchy. A number are recognizable, including Saint Stephen who carries the rocks with which he was stoned. Three popes in the foreground represent the Western Schism—a dispute that festered and lingered in Ghent—and are identifiable as Martin V, Gregory VII and Antipope Alexander V. Dhanens suggest the positioning of popes standing beside antipope shows "an atmosphere of reconciliation".


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The groups of figures in the mid-ground, to the left and right of the altar, are known as the male and female martyrs. Identifiable biblical figures carry palms. They enter the pictorial space as though through a path in the foliage, males standing to the left, women to the right. The female martyrs, sometimes known as the holy virgins, are gathered by an abundant meadow, a symbol of fertility. A number are identified by their attributes: in front St. Agnes carries a lamb, St. Barbara a tower, Saint Catherine of Alexandria is finely dressed, and St. Dorothy carries flowers; further back St. Ursula carries an arrow. The women wear flowered crowns. The men on the left include confessors, popes, cardinals, abbots and monks who are dressed in blue.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The wing panels to the left of the "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" show groups of approaching knights and judges. Their biblical source can be identified from inscriptions on the panel frames. The far left-hand panels contain lettering reading ("Righteous" (or "Just") "Judges"), the inside left panel reads ("Warriors of Christ"). The presence of the Judges, none of whom were canonised saints, is an anomaly which art historians have long sought to explain. The most likely explanation is that they refer to Jodocus Vijd's position as a city alderman.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The "Just Judges" may contain portraits of Jan and Hubert as the third and fourth Judges on horseback. The evidence is based on the similarity of one of the figures to Jan's 1433 "Portrait of a Man", now in the National Gallery, London, generally thought to be a self-portrait. The second, closer, figure is thought to be Hubert, because of facial similarity to Jan. Although the judge in the Ghent panel appears to be younger than the sitter in the London painting, they wear similar chaperons with the cornette tightly bound around the bourrelet. The judges in the Ghent panel became the basis for a number of later portraits of the brothers, including that of Dominicus Lampsonius.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The Ghent altar shows depictions of herbs, shrubs, (mainly Mediterranean) trees, lichens, mosses and ferns, many of which are so lifelike that orange and pomegranate trees, date palms and cypresses, rose bushes and vines as well as lilies, iris, peonies, lily of the valley, woodruff, daisies, can be identified. This has received scholarly attention for at least two centuries:


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: In 1822 Johanna Schopenhauer identified many of the plants in the flora of the Ghent altar, including medicinal plants A number of them have a connection to the Christian symbolism


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: In 1984, plant ecologist Sam Segal counted 81 different plants. In 1996, German biologist Esther Gallwitz published a plant guide to the flora of the Ghent altar, describing their symbolism and in 2018, the latest critical examination after restoration of the Ghent altar piece found 75 plants, 48 of which could be determined with certainty and 44 of which appear on the panel of the adoration of the lamb, as per exhibition catalogue.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The altarpiece measures 375 × 260 cm when the shutters are closed. The upper panels contain lunettes showing prophets and Sibyls looking down on the annunciation; the lower tier shows the donors on the far left and right panels flanked by saints. The exterior panels are executed with relative sparseness in comparison to the often fantastical colour and abundance of the interior scenes. Their settings are earthly, pared down and relatively simple. Yet there is the same striking use of illusionism which also characterises the inner panels; this is especially true of the faux stone grisaille statues of the saints. Lighting is used to great effect to create the impression of depth; van Eyck handles the fall of light and casting of shadow to make the viewer feel as if the pictorial space is influenced or lit by light entering from the chapel in which he stands.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: The figures in the lunettes refer to prophecies of the coming of Christ. The far left lunette shows the prophet Zechariah and the far right one shows Micah. The two much taller inner shutters show the Erythraean Sibyl (on the left) and the Cumaean Sibyl on the right. Each panel includes a text inscribed on a floating ribbon or "banderole", while the identities of the figures are carved on the lower border of each panel. Zechariah's text, taken from Zechariah 9:9, reads ("Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion ... behold, your king comes"), while the Erythraean Sibyl's words are ("Sounding nothing mortal you are inspired by power from on high"). To the right the Cumaean Sibyl's reads ("The Highest King shall come and shall be in the flesh through the ages").


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Zechariah and Micah look down on the fulfillment of their prophecies contained in the banderoles floating behind them. The Erythraean Sibyl is shown observing, while the Cumaean Sibyl, wearing a green dress with thick fur sleeves, gazes down at Mary, her hand held in empathy over her own womb. Micah's lunette employs one of the first instances of an illusionistic motif best known from Petrus Christus's "Portrait of a Carthusian" (c.1446), wherein the sense of the boundary between the painting, frame and viewer's space becomes blurred. In this instance, the prophet knowingly places his hand outwards on the lower border of the frame.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: eldest daughter of John I of Portugal (1385–1433) for Philip. After a storm forced them to spend four weeks in England, the Burgundians arrived in Lisbon in December. In January they met the King in the castle of Aviz, and van Eyck painted the Infanta's portrait, probably in two versions to


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Sterling, fig.), which indicates that Jan used the princess's Portuguese dress for the Erythrean sibyl on the Ghent Altarpiece.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: In the mid 20th century, art historian Volker Herzner noted the facial similarity between the Cumaean Sibyl and Philip's wife Isabella of Portugal, especially as she is portrayed in van Eyck's lost 1428–29 betrothal portrait. Herzner speculated that the text in the banderole in the sibyl's panel has a double meaning, referring not only to the coming of Christ, but also to the 1432 birth of Philip's first son and heir to survive infancy. Others reject this idea, given the high rates of infant mortality at the time, and the connotations of bad luck usually associated with acclaiming a son before he is born.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Beneath the lunettes are the four panels of the upper register. The two outer panels of the middle register show the Annunciation to Mary, with the Archangel Gabriel on the left and the Virgin Mary on the right. Both are dressed in white robes, and occupy what appear to be the opposite ends of the same room. Gabriel and Mary's panels are separated by two much narrower images showing unoccupied domestic interior scenes. The back wall in the left-hand image has a window opening onto a view of street and city square, while that in the right-hand image has a niche. Some art historians have attempted to associate the street with an actual location in Ghent, but it is generally accepted that it is not modeled on any specific place. The sparseness of these narrow panels seem anomalous in the overall context of the altarpiece; a number of art historians have suggested that they were compromises worked out by Jan as he struggled to accommodate his design within the original framework set out by Hubert.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Mary and Gabriel are disproportionately large in relation to the scale of the rooms they occupy. Art historians agree that this follows the conventions of both the International Gothic and late Byzantine traditions of the icon by showing saints, especially Mary, in a much larger scale than their surroundings. In this instance their size is probably a device to convey the idea that they are heavenly apparitions who have come momentarily before the donors who are in the lower register. Van Eyck used this conceit most dramatically in his "Madonna in the Church", (c. 1438–40) which is likely a panel from a dismantled diptych.


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Gabriel has blond hair and multicoloured wings. His right hand is raised and in his left he holds lilies, traditionally found in paintings of the annunciation as symbols of Mary's virginity. His words to Mary are written alongside him in Latin: ("Hail who art full of grace, the Lord is with you"). The horizontal inscription extends out of the panel and halfway across the neighbouring image. As in van Eyck's Washington "Annunciation" of c. 1434–6, the letters of Mary's reply are inscribed in reverse and upside-down; as if for God to read from heaven, or for the holy spirit, as represented by the dove, to read as he hovers directly above her. She answers ("Behold the handmaiden of the Lord").


title: Ghent Altarpiece

text: Art historian Penny Jolly suggests that in the mid to late 1420s Jan may have traveled to Italy at the behest of the Duke of Burgundy where, in Florence, he probably saw an iconic 14th century annunciation, and perhaps visited more contemporary annunciation scenes. The Florentine annunciations have a number of iconographic similarities to the Ghent panels, including Gabriel's multi-colored wings, the upside down writing, the treatment of light beams, and the separation between angel and virgin by a thin architectural feature. Some of these elements, particularly the spatial separation between the two figures, can be found in Lorenzo Monaco's "Bartolini Salimbeni Annunciation" in Santa Trinita, finished before his death in 1424, and one that Jan may have seen. In Monaco's painting the angel and Mary are separated by two small spaces, one external and one internal, similar to the city-scape and domestic lavabo panels in the Ghent annunciation.