the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
The speedway was built in 1959 by Bruton Smith.
It is considered the home track for NASCAR with many race teams located in the Charlotte area.
The track is owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) with Marcus G. Smith (son of Bruton Smith) as track president.
The  complex also features a state-of-the-art quarter mile (0.40 km) drag racing strip, ZMAX Dragway.
It is the only all-concrete, four-lane drag strip in the United States.
It hosts NHRA events.
Alongside the drag strip is a modern clay oval that hosts dirt racing including the World of Outlaws finals.
Socks was an adopted stray cat and the only pet of the Clintons during the first years of Clinton's presidency.
A picture of Socks was always on the children's White House website.
After Clinton left office, Socks went to live with  Clinton's secretary, Betty Currie and her husband.
This was because Socks fought a lot with the Clinton family dog Buddy.
Socks never got along with the dog.
Socks became the pet cat of the Clintons in 1991 after he jumped into Chelsea Clinton's arms at her piano teacher's home in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Socks was playing with his sibling, Midnight, who was later adopted by another family.
When Bill Clinton became President, Socks moved with the family from the governor's mansion in Arkansas to the White House.
Even though he was the official 'first pet', he shared his food and water with a stray tabby cat, named Slippers.
Socks was often taken to schools and hospitals to visit.
Children visiting the White House website would be shown around by a cartoon version of Socks.
Things changed for the worse for Socks in 1997.
The Clintons got a pet dog named Buddy, a Labrador Retriever.
Socks hated this dog.
Hillary Clinton said Socks "despised Buddy from first sight, instantly and forever."
Bill Clinton said, "I did better with ... the Palestinians and the Israelis than I've done with Socks and Buddy."
When the Clintons left the White House in 2001, they took Buddy to their new home, but left Socks with Betty Currie.
Buddy died within a year, being hit by a car in 2002.
In June 2008, Socks was still living with Currie and her husband in Hollywood, Maryland, about 60 miles from Washington.
But Socks was losing weight and losing his fur.
In December 2008, Socks was again reported to be in failing health from cancer.
Socks was euthanized on February 20, 2009, in Hollywood, Maryland.
He had cancer in his jaw.
Letters written to Socks
First Lady Hillary Clinton wrote a children's book called Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets in 1998.
It included more than 50 letters written to the First Pets by children.
It had more than 80 photos of Socks and Buddy.
Pic - with photographers
Purr 'n' Fur Famous Felines: Socks Clinton, and other Presidential Felines
A web-based version of the children's book, Socks Goes to the White House - A Cats-eye view of the President's house
A small bird with a red chest
Australian robin
Robin (comics), a character in the Batman comic series and movies
Batman & Robin, a movie featuring the character
Egyptian chronology is the study of events in ancient Egypt, and trying to date to when they took place.
There is a general agreement about this chronology among Egyptologists.
The Old Kingdom began in the 27th century BC, the Middle Kingdom in the 21st century BC and the New Kingdom in the mid-16th century BC.
But there are details which are still being argued about.
The dates for the Early Dynastic Period can vary by up to 300 years, up to 30 years in the New Kingdom, and a few years for the Late Period.
Some individual Egyptologists have come up with "alternative chronologies".
For example the "New Chronology" proposed in the 1990s, changes the New Kingdom dates by 350 years, or the "Glasgow Chronology" (proposed 1978–1982), which changes the New Kingdom dates by 500 years.
Agreement about the general chronology used in Egyptology has not changed much over the last 100 years.
For the Old Kingdom, there have been changes by as much as a few centuries.
The Middle and New Kingdoms dates have only changed by a few decades.
These changes can be seen by comparing the chronology of two Egyptologists, the first from 1906, the second in 2000 (all dates in the table are BC).
There are differences between the two sets of dates.
This is because of new discoveries, and a better understanding of what is already known.
For example, in Breasted's 1906 list, he added a ruler in the Twentieth dynasty that further research showed did not exist.
Using Manetho writings, Breasted also believed each new dynasty followed the old one in a sequence.
Now we know that several dynasties existed at the same time.
These changes have changed the chronology by 400 years at the beginning of Dynasty I.
Regnal years
The main way to work out the chronology is to use the ancient Egyptian lists of kings.
The number of years each king ruled, regnal years, can be added up.
However there are problems with these lists.
Some, such as the Turin King List, are quite detailed but they are not complete.
The whole of Abydos King List has survived, but it does not have a complete list of rulers.
Sometimes different versions of the same text are different.
For example, Manetho's history of Egypt has not survived.
Later writers such as Eusebius and Sextus Julius Africanus used Manetho's work for their histories, but their dates for the same ruler are often very different.
The dates for king's rule can be pieced together from inscriptions.
These often give a date in the form of the regnal year of the ruling pharaoh.
They may or may not include any coregencies with a predecessor or successor.
Some Egyptian dynasties may have overlapped, with different pharaohs ruling in different regions at the same time.
This may lead to widely different chronologies.
Egyptologists have two other ways to find the total number of years.
For the Old Kingdom, they can use the number of cattle censuses.
For later periods, they can use the celebration of a sed festival.
In the Old Kingdom, there was a regular census where the number of cattle was counted.
At first this was believed to have taken place every two years.
There were 24 cattle censuses during the rule of Sneferu, who therefore ruled for 48 years.
However new research has shown the census was sometimes held every year, or at gaps of more than two years.
The sed festival was held on the 30th anniversary of the Pharaoh's rule.
A ruler with one sed festival recorded would have ruled at least 30 years.
However, this may not be the usual practice in all cases.
Linking to other events
A useful way to work around these gaps in knowledge is to find links to other known events.
This can lead to a precise date.
A number of these have been found, although they are of varying degrees of usefulness and reliability.
Archeological sequences
This is using archeaology to put events in order, or a sequence.
This does not fix a person or event to a exact year.
A series of events can provide evidence to provide or support a precise date.
For example, a number of stone vessels of the rulers of the first two dynasties were placed in rooms under the Step Pyramid of Djoser.
These were sealed off by during the building of the pyramid during the Third Dynasty.
Another example are stone blocks from the Old Kingdom with the names of several kings.
These stones were later used to build the Middle Kingdom pyramid-temples at Lisht.
The third pylon at Karnak, built by Amenhotep III had "fill" material from the kiosk of Sesostris I, as well as stelae of the Second Intermediate Period and the Eighteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom.
Other chronologies
The chronologies of other cultures can be used to find links to Egypt.
The most important are the Assyrian and Babylonian chronologies.
Chronologies of the Hittites, ancient Palestine, and ancient Greece are also used.
For example in the 18th century BC a stela of the Governor of Byblos Yantinu says that pharaoh Neferhotep I was ruled at the same time as kings Zimri-Lim of Mari and Hammurabi of Babylon.
In the 15th century BC, during the Amarna Period, there are letters between the Egyptian Kings Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, and various Near Eastern monarchs.
Inscriptions on objects often provides clues.
The burial of Apis bulls began in the reign of Amenhotep III.
The bulls were killed in a sacrifice and placed in tombs.
The details of each bull were included, as well as details of the rulers.
It is possible to estimate dates of regnal years using this information.
The bulls were still being buried in Ptolemaic times.
There is a significant gap in the record between Ramesses XI and the 23rd year of Osorkon II.
Poor documentation of these finds in the Serapeum also makes it difficult to use these records.
Astronomy can also provide clues for dates.
The best known of these is the Sothic cycle.
A study of this led Richard A. Parker to argue that the dates of the Twelfth dynasty could be fixed exactly.
New research does not agree with some of the information used in to work out dates this way For example, Donald B. Redford, in attempting to fix the date of the end of the Eighteenth dynasty, did not use the Sothic evidence.
Instead he used, links between Egypt and Assyria (by way of the Hittites), and help from astronomical observations.
Radiocarbon dating is another way to work out dates.
This is useful for the Early Dynastic period where other methods have dates as different as 400 years.
A 2013 study put the start of the First Dynasty in the 32nd or 31st century.
This matches other information which placed it in between the 34th and 30th centuries.
The Thera eruption
The Thera eruption is a problem for both Egyptian and Aegean (Minoan) chronology.
The radiocarbon date for the eruption is between 1627 and 1600 BC.
The date used in archaeology is c. 1500 BC.
This date is important in the study of the civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Since 2012, there have been suggestions that the answer would be to change both dates towards a "compromise" date in the mid 16th century BC.
As of 2014 the problem has not been satisfactorily resolved.
Dendrochronology uses patterns found in tree growth rings to work out a date.
It is possible to do this for Egyptian chronology.
For example there is the Uluburun shipwreck from the New Kingdom.
Using both dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating, tree rings can be dated as far back as the Middle Kingdom.
This was used for the  coffin of Ipi-ha-ishutef (dated 2073±9 BC) and the funerary boat of Senusret III (dated 1887±11 BC; conventional reign date 1878 BC–1839 BC).
Alternative chronologies
The Revised Chronology of Immanuel Velikovsky as explained in his Ages in Chaos series.
The chronology of Donovan Courville as described in The Exodus Problem and Its Ramifications.
The Glasgow Chronology developed by members of Velikovsky's Society for Interdisciplinary Studies in 1978.
The New Chronology of David Rohl, as described in his Test of Time series.
Scientific tool for converting calendar dates mentioned in Greek and Demotic Papyri from Egypt into Julian dates
Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss, and David A. Warburton (editors), Ancient Egyptian Chronology.
Leiden: Brill, 2006.
Scribd copy
"Earthrise" is a photo of the Earth from the Moon taken on the Apollo 8 mission.
It was taken by astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968.
It was a very important picture, because it helped people realize how fragile the Earth looks.
It started making a large amount of people want to pass laws and create government programs that help the environment.
It also became the symbol for Earth Day because of how powerful it was, and it started the environmental movement of the 1970's.
Earthrise's most notable use is as the symbol of Earth Day.
Pale Orange Dot (Early Earth)
Earthrise image
Daewoo Motor was a South Korean automotive company owned by General Motors.
The company started in 1937 as National motors in Bupyeong-gu, Incheon, South Korea.
In 1965 it became Shinjin Motor after becoming affiliated with Toyota.
In 1972 Toyota withdrew.
The same year Shinjin became General Motors Korea, a joint venture with General Motors.
The company was renamed Saehan Motors in 1976.
In 1982 the company was bought by the Daewoo group.
Daewoo was known for its affordable cars many of which were made in partnership with GM until the mid '90s.
The Daewoo Group ran into financial trouble in the late 1990s.
It was then put up for sale and acquired by General Motors in 2001.
It was renamed GM Daewoo, and began to produce GM vehicles again.
This included the Chevrolet Aveo which is based on Daewoo's Kalos model.
In 2011 GM Daewoo was renamed GM Korea.
Robert Solomon Wistrich (April 7, 1945 – May 19, 2015) was a British-Israeli academic and author.
He was a leading scholar of antisemitism in Europe.
He was also the Neuburger Professor of European and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He wrote and edited at least 30 books.
Wistrich was born in Lenger, Kazakh SSR (now Kazakhstan).
His parents were leftist Polish Jews who moved to escape antisemitism.
He later moved to France with his family, and grew up in England.
Wistrich died from a heart attack on May 19, 2015 in Rome, Italy.
John Marks "Jack" Templeton Jr. (February 19, 1940 – May 16, 2015) was an American medical doctor.
He served as the Chairman and President of the John Templeton Foundation until his death, and also worked as a pediatric surgeon.
Templeton was born in New York City.
He was the elder son of Judith (Folk) and the American-born British stock investor, businessman and philanthropist John Templeton.
He studied at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and at Harvard Medical School.
He was married to Josephine and had three daughters.
Templeton was an Evangelical.
He gave large sums of money to conservative organizations, like those opposing same-sex marriage.
Templeton died from brain cancer on May 16, 2015 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
John Mahaffy (July 18, 1918 – May 2, 2015) was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre.
He played 37 games in the National Hockey League for the New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens.
Mahaffy was born in Montreal, Quebec.
He was married to Angie Péloquin.
He died on May 2, 2015, aged 96.
Ahmad Latifovich Alasgarov (, ; born 5 October 1935 – 19 May 2015) was an Azerbaijani footballer and manager.
He played as a defender from 1955 until 1965.
He managed nine teams between 1966 and 2006, including the Azerbaijan national football team.
He was born in Baku.
Trajan's Column is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy.
It was built to remember Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars.
It was probably built by the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate.
It is in Trajan's Forum, near the Quirinal Hill, north of the Roman Forum.
It was completed in AD 113.
It has a spiral bas relief, which shows the wars between the Romans and Dacians (101–102 and 105–106).
Its design has inspired numerous victory columns, both ancient and modern.
The column is about 30 metres (98 ft) in height, 35 metres (125 ft) including its large pedestal.
It is made from a series of 20 hollow Carrara marble pieces.
Each one weighs about 32 tons, with a diameter of 3.7 metres (11 ft).
The 190-metre (625 ft) frieze winds around the column 23 times.
Inside the column, a spiral staircase of 185 steps gives access to a viewing platform at the top.
The capital block of Trajan's Column weighs 53.3 tons, which had to be lifted to a height of c. 34 m.
Ancient coins show plans to put a statue of an eagle on top of the column.
However it was built with a statue of Trajan.
This statue disappeared in the Middle Ages.
On December 4, 1587, the top was crowned by Pope Sixtus V with a bronze figure of St. Peter.
When it was built the column was next to two libraries, which perhaps held the soldier-emperor's account of the Roman-Dacian Wars.
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau (11 February 1805 – 16 May 1866) was the son of Toussaint Charbonneau and Sacagawea.
He was a fur trapper and guide.
He was an important figure in the Mexican-American War.
Charbonneau and his mother are pictured on a one-dollar coin.
Anthony James "A. J." Allmendinger (born December 16, 1981) is an American open-wheel and stock car racing driver.
He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series driving the No.
16 car for Kaulig Racing.
Allmendinger earned five wins and a third championship place in the 2006 Champ Car season.
Afterwards, he began competing in NASCAR.
He has competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona, finishing first in 2012, second in 2006 and third in 2013.
He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
7 Chevrolet SS for Tommy Baldwin Racing.
He also races part-time in the Xfinity Series.
There he drives the No.
88 Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports, and the No.
2 Chevrolet Camaro for Richard Childress Racing.
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is a non-profit organization funded by at least 75 insurance companies.
IIHS was started in 1959 with their headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
Their goal is to reduce deaths, injuries and property loss from automobile crashes on US highways.
It researches and rates popular passenger vehicles.
IIHS also rates consumer products such as child safety seat.
They also research road design and traffic regulations.
It carries out research and produces ratings for popular passenger vehicles as well as for certain consumer products such as child safety seats.
It also conducts research on road design and traffic regulations, and has been involved in promoting policy decisions.
According to their own bylaws IIHS does not lobby the United States Congress and other lawmaking bodies to change laws.
They educate lawmakers and by invitation.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety was established by insurance companies in 1959 to advise other organizations about highway safety.
In 1966 the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act was enacted by Congress.
It set up what is now called the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In 1968 when Richard Nixon became president, William Haddon, Jr., was replaced as head of the agency.
He was hired by the IIHS to reorganize and set up a crash testing program.
In the 1970s the IIHS was involved in the then controversial airbag standard.
Automobile crash ratings
Two organizations in the US perform destructive testing to establish crash test ratings.
The other is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a government agency.
Both test new cars and issue ratings, but the tests are different.
They also use different rating systems.
The NHTSA uses three tests.
The first is a 35 mph frontal crash test.
It determines what injuries a driver or passenger might experience in that type of accident.
The second is a side-impact test (made up of two tests using different weights).
The third test is not an actual test.
It is a rating based on a mathematical formula based on the car's width and center of gravity.
NHTSA uses a five star rating system.
A single star is poor while five stars is the best rating.
The IIHS uses five tests.
They do two frontal tests.
A small-overlap is set up with 25% of the front of the car hitting a barrier at 40 mph.
A moderate overlap test allows more of the front of the car to hit the barrier.
In a side-impact test a movable barrier hits the car side at 31 mph.
A roof test involves a flat piece of metal pushed down against the roof to see at what point it collapsed.
It is not an actual roll-over test.
The last test is on the seats and head restraints.
The IIHS classifies its rankings as Poor, Marginal, Acceptable or Good.
IIHS also gives out two awards each year.
They are "Top Safety Pick" and "Top Safety Pick+".
Vehicles that have good results all five tests and have Collision avoidance systems win the top award.
The Top Safety Pick award goes to vehicles that pass the five tests alone.
Unrated vehicles
Not every model of car is tested.
Both agencies test the most widely sold vehicles.
Convertibles and other limited production cars are often not tested.
In 2007 the IIHS did test 10 models.
Test results often appear months after a car goes on sale.
Both agencies buy their vehicles from car dealerships.
The IIHS has only begun to mention upcoming (to be tested) models while the NHTSA has noted this for some time.
Report lists cars with highest and lowest rates of deaths
Sudha Shivpuri (14 July 1937 – 20 May 2015) was an Indian stage, movie and television actress.
She was known for her role as "Baa" in the Hindi TV serial Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (2000–2008).
The Academy of Urbanism is a non-profit academic research organization dedicated to urban planning and urban development.
The institute is located in London.
It has branches in Europe and other places in the world.
The Academy employs 500 professionals engaged in various subjects related to the field of urban planning and the chief of the Mossad motto is: "to recognize, encourage, and celebrate great places".
National workshops, lectures, an internet site and spend magazine.
In addition, the Academy maintains Festival prizes and conducting congresses in the UK each year and operates a voluntary activity.
The Academy of Urbanism
World Community Grid (WCG) is a large public computing grid to work on scientific research projects that help people.
People donate time on their personal computers to the project.
The software can be set up to run only when the computer is not being used for other work.
WCG began operation on November 16, 2004.
It is coordinated by IBM to use their Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) software.
Software for the grid of personal computers is available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Android operating systems.
Open projects running as of May 2015 are looking for drug treatments for the Ebola virus and HIV, seeking new materials for the next generation of solar cells, comparing genomes of many organisms, and investigating cancer genes.
As of May 2015, the organization has partnered with 467 other companies and organizations to help its work, and has over 65,000 active registered users.
World Community Grid website
The New York Times > Technology > Unused PC Power to Run Grid for Unraveling Disease
Computerworld announcement article (2004)
Raymond Gosling (15 July 1926 – 18 May 2015) was a British biophysicist.
He was known for doing X-ray diffraction studies on DNA.
These studies were the first step in understanding the 3-D structure of DNA.
He did these studies as a doctoral student in the research group headed by Maurice Wilkins at Kings College London.
Gosling's first supervisor was A.R. Stokes of the Physics Department.
By 1950, Gosling's diffraction photographs were described by Wilkins at the time as "much better than Astbury's, and almost like single crystals".
Gosling was re-assigned to Rosalind Franklin when she joined Wilkins' group in 1951.
For the next two years, they worked closely together to improve the X-ray diffraction photography of DNA and get a sharper image.
Gosling made the X-ray diffraction image of DNA known as "Photo 51".
This work led directly to the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine being awarded to Francis Crick, James D. Watson and Maurice Wilkins.
Gosling was the co-author with Franklin of one of the three DNA double helix papers published in Nature in April 1953.
Detailed interview 2013 in Genome Biology
Raymond Gosling in The King's story
Doppler-shifted ultrasound units (1974-1981) jointly developed by Dr.B.A.Coghlan and Prof.R.G.Gosling's Blood Flow Group at the Physics Dept.,
Guy's Hospital Medical School, London.
These early devices were used for haemodynamic assessment of normal volunteers and assessment of patients with peripheral vascular disease.
The work reflects a close and extensive collaboration with Dr.M.G.Taylor.
Donald L. D. Caspar (born January 8, 1927) is an American structural biologist.
He is known for his works on the structures of biological molecules such as tobacco mosaic virus.
He is an emeritus professor of biological science at the Institute of Molecular Biophysics, Florida State University, and an emeritus professor of biology at the Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center, Brandeis University.
Roscoe Gardner Bartlett, Jr. (born June 3, 1926) is an American politician and physiologist.
He is a former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1993 to 2013.
He is a member of the Republican Party and was a member of the Tea Party Caucus.
At the end of his tenure in Congress, Bartlett was the second-oldest serving member of the House of Representatives, behind only fellow Republican Ralph Hall of Texas.
Representative Roscoe Bartlett  official U.S. House site
An interview with Rep. Bartlett regarding peak oil  April 18, 2005
Transcript of Bartlett speech in Congress on Peak Oil  May 2005
Video of Rep. Bartlett in Congress on Peak Oil February 2005
Bill Text 109th Congress (2005–2006) H.RES.507.IH, THOMAS
A pack hunter or social predator is a predator belonging to the animal kingdom, which has evolved to hunt its prey by working together with other members of its species.
Normally animals hunting in this way are closely related.
Except where only males normally hunt (humans and chimpanzees), all individuals in a family group will contribute to hunting.
The most commonly known pack hunter is the gray wolf.
The wolf is the closest wild relative of all breeds of domesticated dog.
Other pack hunting mammals include dolphins, lions and spotted hyenas.
A number of avian social predators exist.
These include the Harris's hawk, butcherbirds, three of four kookaburra species and many helmetshrikes.
There are a few cold-blooded pack hunters.
Forexample, simple arthropods such as army ants.
Another example is the yellow saddle goatfish Occasionally crocodiles are pack hunters.
Hunting in packs allows smaller predators to hunt larger prey.
The Abu Simbel temples are two very large rock temples built by the ancient Egyptians, at Abu Simbel.
This is a village in Nubia, southern Egypt, near the border with Sudan.
The temples are on the western bank of Lake Nasser, about 230 km southwest of Aswan.
They are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Nubian Monuments."
The temples were cut into solid rock in side of a cliff during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II in the 13th century BC.
It was a lasting monument to himself and his queen Nefertari, to remember his victory at the Battle of Kadesh.
The complete temples were moved in 1968, to a place high above the Aswan High Dam reservoir.
They would have been flooded by water from Lake Nasser which was formed by the building of a dam on the Nile River.
Work on the temples began about 1264 BC and lasted for about 20 years.
It was called the "Temple of Ramesses, beloved by Amun".
It was one of six rock temples built in Nubia by Ramesses II.
The temple was meant to impress Egypt's southern neighbours.
It also helped to strengthen Egyptian religion in the area.
Historians say that the design of Abu Simbel shows Ramesses II's ego and pride.
Over time people stopped using the temples which became covered with sand.
In the 6th century BC, the sand covered the statues of the main temple up to their knees.
The temple was forgotten until 1813, when Jean-Louis Burckhardt saw the top frieze of the main temple.
He told Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni, who went to the site, but was unable to dig out an entry to the temple.
Belzoni went back in 1817, and was able to enter the temples.
Details of the temples, with drawings, are in Edward William Lane's Description of Egypt (1825-1828).
Tour guides at the temples tell a story that "Abu Simbel" was a young local boy who took Burckhardt and Belzoni to see the buried temple.
He had seen the temples from time to time in the shifting sands.
Eventually, the temples were named after him.
One plan put forward was to build a dam around the temples to keep the water at the same level as the river.
It was thought that raising the temples would put them in danger of being eroded by the wind.
This plan was rejected.
The moving of the temple began in 1964, with archaeologists, engineers and workers coming from all over the world as a UNESCO project.
It cost $40 million at the time.
Between 1964 and 1968, the entire site was carefully cut into large blocks.
Some blocks weighed up to 30 tons, with most around 20 tons.
These blocks were lifted and put back together on a new site 65 meters higher, and 200 meters further back from the river.
This was one of the greatest challenges of archaeological engineering in history.
Some parts had to be saved from under the waters of Lake Nasser.
Today hundreds of visitors come to the temples every day.
Buses and cars leave twice a day from Aswan, the nearest city.
Many visitors also come by plane, to an airfield that was specially built near the temples.
There are two temples.
The larger one was built for the gods Ra-Harakhty, Ptah and Amun.
It has four large statues of Ramesses II on the facade.
The smaller temple was built for the goddess Hathor, who is shown as Nefertari, Ramesses's favourite of his many wives.
The temple is open to the public.
The Great Temple at Abu Simbel took about 20 years to build.
It was completed in the 24th year of the rule of Ramesses the Great (about 1265 BC).
It was built for the gods Amun, Ra-Horakhty, and Ptah, as well as for Rameses himself, who was treated as a god.
It is one the grandest and most beautiful temples from the time of Rameses II, and one of the most beautiful in Egypt.
The facade of the temple has four 20 meter tall statues of the pharaoh with the double Atef crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.
The facade is 35 meters wide.
Across the top is a frieze with 22 baboons.
The baboons have their hands raised to welcome the rising sun at dawn.
These huge statues were carved into solid rock.
All statues show Ramesses II, seated on a throne and wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.
The statue on the left of the entrance was damaged in an earthquake soon after it was built.
The head and body are on the ground at the statue's feet.
Next to the legs of the large statue, there are others no higher than the knees of the pharaoh.
These show Nefertari, Ramesses's chief wife, and queen mother Mut-Tuy, his first two sons Amun-her-khepeshef, Ramesses, and his first six daughters Bintanath, Baketmut, Nefertari, Meritamen, Nebettawy and Isetnofret.
Above the entrance is a bas-relief with two images of the king praising the falcon-headed Ra Harakhti.
This god is holding the hieroglyph meaning user and a feather in his right hand, with Ma'at, the goddess of truth and justice, in his left.
This is a really just a large puzzle with the answer being Ramesses II's throne name, User-Maat-Re.
A stele  on the facade records the marriage of Ramesses with a daughter of king Hattusili III, which sealed the peace between Egypt and the Hittites.
Like most Egyptian temples it has a triangle shaped layout inside.
The rooms become smaller in size from the entrance to the sanctuary.
The temple has a complicated and unusual structure with many side chambers.
The hypostyle hall (sometimes also called a pronaos) is 18 meters long and 16.7 meters wide.
It is supported by eight huge Osirid pillars.
These show Ramesses as a god, with Osiris (Orion), the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life and vegetation, to indicate the everlasting nature of the pharaoh.
The big statues along the left-hand wall have the white crown of Upper Egypt, while those on the opposite side are wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt (pschent).
The bas-reliefs on the walls of the pronaos show battle scenes from Ramesses's many wars.
They show the Battle of Kadesh, on the Orontes river, in present-day Syria, where Ramesses fought against the Hittites.
The most famous image shows the king on his chariot shooting arrows against his enemies, who are being taken prisoner.
Other scenes show Egyptian victories in Libya and Nubia.
From the hypostyle hall, one enters the second pillared hall.
This has four pillars covered with beautiful scenes of offerings to the gods.
Ramesses and Nefertari are seen with the sacred boats of Amun and Ra-Harakhti.
This hall leads to another room which is the way in to the sanctuary.
On a back wall are rock cut sculptures of four seated figures: Ra-Horakhty, Ramesses (as a god), and the gods Amun Ra and Ptah.
Ra-Horakhty, Amun Ra and Ptah were the main gods during this time and their cult centers were at Heliopolis, Thebes and Memphis respectively.
The role of the sun
It is believed that the temple was positioned so that on October 22 and February 22, light from the sun would reach the sanctuary.
This would light up the sculptures on the back wall, except for the statue of Ptah, the god linked with the Underworld, who always remained in the dark.
These dates could be the king's birthday and coronation day.
It makea sense that these dates had some relation to a great event, such as the 30th anniversary of the pharaoh's rule.
October 22 is 60 days before the solstice and February 20 is 60 days after the Solstice.
People gather at Abu Simbel to see this remarkable sight, on October 21 and February 21.
The dates have changed by one day because of the movement of the Tropic of Cancer in the last 3280 years.
The Small Temple
The Small Temple was built about 100 meters northeast of the Great Temple.
It was built for the goddess Hathor and Ramesses II's favorite wife, Nefertari.
The facade is cut into solid rock, with two groups of very large statues on either side of the large gateway.
The statues, slightly more than ten meters high, are of the king and his queen.
On the sides of the entrance are two statues of the king, one wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt and the other with double crown.
On sides of these are statues of the queen and the king.
This is the only example in Egyptian art where the statues of the king and queen are equal size.
Usually the statues of the queens stand next to those of the pharaoh, but were never taller than his knees.
Ramesses went to Abu Simbel with his wife in the 24th year of his rule.
There are small statues of princes and princesses next to their parents.
On the south side they are (facing them from left to right), princes Meryatum and Meryre, princesses Meritamen and Henuttawy, and princes Rahirwenemef and Amun-her-khepeshef.
On the north side the same figures are in reverse order.
The plan of the Small Temple is a simple copy of the Great Temple.
The hypostyle hall or pronaos is supported by six pillars.
They show scenes with the queen playing the sinistrum (an instrument sacred to the goddess Hathor), together with the gods Horus, Khnum, Khonsu, and Thoth, and the goddesses Hathor, Isis, Maat, Mut of Asher, Satis and Taweret.
In one scene Ramesses is presenting flowers or burning incense.
The capitals of the pillars have the face of the goddess Hathor; known as a Hathoric column.
The bas-reliefs in the hall show Ramesses becoming a god.
There are scenes of the king (with his wife) defeating his enemies.
Another scene shows the queen making offerings to the goddess Hathor and Mut.
Three large doors open into another room.
On the south and the north walls of this room there are scenes of the king and his wife giving papyrus plants to Hathor.
Hathor is shown as a cow on a boat sailing through papyri plants.
On the west wall, Ramesses II and Nefertari are shown making offerings to god Horus and the gods of the Cataracts — Satis, Anubis and Khnum.
This room leads to the sanctuary and two side rooms.
The sanctuary has bas-reliefs on the side walls with scenes of offerings to various gods made either by the pharaoh or the queen.
On the back wall, there is a niche in which Hathor, as a divine cow, seems to be coming out of the mountain.
Queen Nefertari is closely linked to this goddess.
Each temple has its own priest to represent the king in daily religious ceremonies.
The Pharaoh should be the only celebrant in daily religious ceremonies performed in different temples throughout Egypt.
In reality, the high priest also played that role.
A priest, like the king, needed education in art and science.
Reading, writing, engineering, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, space measurement, time calculations, were all part of this learning.
The priests of Heliopolis, for example, became guardians of sacred knowledge and were seen as wise men.
The temple is the field headquarters of MI6 in the 1977 James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me.
It has M's office, a conference room, and Q's laboratory.
The main temple was used in Shusei Nagaoka's cover illustration for Earth, Wind & Fire's 1977 album All 'N All.
The temple is shown in 2001's The Mummy Returns, as a way to the Oasis of Ahm-Shere.
Team America mistakenly blows up the temple when they miss fleeing terrorists in Team America: World Police (2004).
The temple can be seen in the background of the city-planet of Coruscant when Queen Amidala's ship first arrives in Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace.
In Anne Michaels' second novel The Winter Vault the relocation of Abu Simbel is one of the main themes.
The temple is a playable tomb in The Sims 3: World Adventures.
In the video game TimeSplitters, the entrance to the tomb in the first level – "1935 Tomb" – looks like Abu Simbel.
The 1985 computer game Abu Simbel Profanation written by Dinamic Software and released by Gremlin Graphics in the UK, has gameplay based around the temples and Egyptian setting.
In the book by Matthew Reilly - The Six Sacred Stones, the lead character - Captain Jack West Jr., leads an expedition to the temple to find the First Vertex, and to place a "Piller" in said Vertex.
Abu Simbel is one of the Wonders in the Wonder Pack expansion for the board game 7 Wonders.
It is one of the locations in the 1954 movie Valley of the Kings.
Abu Simbel is a site of one of the riddles in the 2006 novel Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst.
- Highly detailed article describing the process of saving and creating a new location for the temples.
Abu Simbel archeological site @ Google Maps
Abu Simbel at the website of Egypt State Information Service
Abu Simbel at Aldokkan
Abu Simbel temples' plan
Abu Simbel temples images
Abu Simbel map, images and info
Abu Simbel UNESCO page
An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch.
Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust held by the abutments at either side.
A viaduct (a long bridge) may be made from a series of arches.
However other less expensive structures are typically used today.
The oldest existing arch bridge may be the Mycenaean Arkadiko bridge in Greece.
It was built in about 1300 BC.
The stone corbel arch bridge is still used.
The well-preserved Hellenistic Eleutherna Bridge has a triangular corbel arch.
The 4th century BC Rhodes Footbridge rests on an early voussoir arch.
Both the Etruscans and ancient Greeks knew about arches.
But the Romans were the first to use arches for bridge construction.
Roman arch bridges were usually semicircular.
A number were also segmental arch bridges (such as Alconétar Bridge), meaning it has a curved arch that is less than a semicircle.
Such a ssegmental arch bridge allowed great amounts of flood water to pass under it.
This would prevent the bridge from being swept away during floods.
Also the bridge itself could be more lightweight.
Generally, Roman bridges had wedge-shaped primary arch stones (called voussoirs) of the same in size and shape.
The Romans built both single spans and lengthy multiple arch aqueducts.
Their bridges featured flood openings in the piers.
In medieval Europe, bridge builders improved on the Roman structures by using narrower piers.
They used thinner arch barrels and lower span-rise ratios on bridges.
Gothic pointed arches were also introduced reducing lateral thrust.
In particular the 14th century saw  bridge construction reaching new heights.
Spans of up to  were previously unheard of in masonry arch construction.
In the 19th century steel became cheaper and allowed even longer bridges.
Tied arch bridges became commonplace because they don't need such large, expensive foundations.
Some in the late 20th century were made over .
Simple compression arch bridges
Advantages of simple materials
Stone, brick and other similar materials are strong in compression.
They are fairly strong in shear.
But they cannot resist much force in tension.
As a result, masonry arch bridges are designed to be constantly under compression.
Each arch is constructed over a temporary falsework frame, known as a centring.
In the first compression arch bridges, a keystone in the middle of the bridge bore the weight of the rest of the bridge.
Masonry arch bridges use fill material (typically compacted rubble) above the arch in order to increase this dead-weight on the bridge.
This also prevents tension from occurring in the arch ring as loads move across the bridge.
Unreinforced concrete was also used.
When masonry (cut stone) is used, the angles of the faces are cut to minimize shear forces.
Where random masonry (uncut and unprepared stones) is used they are mortared together.
The mortar is allowed to set before the falsework is removed.
Construction sequence
Where the arches are placed in a watercourse bed (on piers or banks) the water is diverted.
This is so the gravel can first be excavated and replaced with a good footing (of strong material).
From these, the foundation piers are erected or raised to the height of the intended base of the arches.
This is a point known as the springing.
Falsework centering (in British English: arch frame) is built, typically from lumber.
Each arch of a multi-arch bridge will create a thrust upon the arches next to it.
For that reason it is necessary either that all arches of the bridge be raised at the same time, or that very wide piers be used.
The thrust from the end arches is taken into the earth by substantial (vertical) footings at the canyon walls.
The several arches are (or single arch is) constructed over the centering.
Once each basic arch barrel is constructed.
The arches are (or arch is) stabilized with infilled masonry.
These may be laid in horizontal running bond courses (layers).
They may form two outer walls, known as the spandrels, which are then infilled with appropriate loose material and rubble.
The road is paved and parapet walls direct traffic to the bridge.
Arch bridges are one of the oldest types of bridges and have been aroundd for thousands of years.
Arch bridges have great natural strength.
They were originally built of stone or brick but these days are built of reinforced concrete or steel.
The introduction of these new materials allow arch bridges to be longer with lower spans.
Instead of pushing straight down, the load of an arch bridge is carried outward along the curve of the arch to the supports at each end.
The weight is transferred to the supports at either end.
These supports, called the abutments, carry the load and keep the ends of the bridge from spreading out.
The striped hyaena (Hyaena hyaena) is a widespread small carnivore.
It is native to North and East Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
It is listed by the IUCN as near threatened, and the global population may be under 10,000 mature individuals.
It is persecuted, and its prey base is declining.
It is the smallest of its genus and has many primitive viverrid characteristics which are lost in the larger species.
For example, it has a smaller and less specialised skull.
The striped hyaena features prominently in Middle Eastern and Asian folklore.
It is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, where it is referred to as tzebua or zevoa, though the species is absent in some English translations.
Béziers () is a commune in the Hérault département in the Occitanie region in southern France.
It is a subprefecture of the department and also the capital of the arrondissement of the same name.
Béziers is one of the oldest cities in France.
Research shows that Béziers was built by Greeks in the 6th century BC.
Some archaeologists think that Béziers could be the oldest town of France, even before Marseille.
The site where is Béziers has been occupied since Neolithic times, before the arrival of Celts.
Roman Betarra was on the road that linked Provence with Iberia.
The Romans refounded the city as a new place for veterans in 36–35 BC and called it Colonia Julia Baeterrae Septimanorum.
Stones from the Roman amphitheatre were used to construct the city wall during the 3rd century.
The city was occupied by the Moors between 720 and 752.
Béziers was the first place to be attacked.
The crusaders got to the town on 21 July 1209 and burned the cathedral of Saint Nazaire.
A few parts of the Romanesque cathedral survived, and repairs started in 1215.
The restoration, along with that of the rest of the city, continued until the 15th century.
After the Louis Napoléon's coup d'état in 1851, troops killed protesters in Béziers.
Others were condemned to death or taken to the Guiana.
The city is in the southeastern of the department, in the plain of Hérault (the plaine héraultoise).
It is on a small cliff on the eastern side of the Orb river, a tributary of the Hérault river.
The commune has an area of , the largest commune in the department, and is at an altitude of about  above sea level.
Béziers is at  to the southeast of the city of Montpellier and at  from the Mediterranean Sea.
The commune of Béziers is surrounded by the communes Boujan-sur-Libron, Maraussan, Lignan-sur-Orb, Villeneuve-lès-Béziers, Corneilhan, Sauvian, Colombiers, Cers, Montady, Maureilhan, Bassan and Vendres.
The inhabitants of Béziers are known, in French, as Biterrois (women: Biterroises), from Baeterrae, the Latin name of the city.
With a population of 75,701, Béziers has a population density of  inhabitants/km2.
Béziers forms with other four communes the urban area of Béziers with a population of 89,243 inhabitants (2013) and an area of .
This urban area is the centre of the metropolitan area of Béziers, formed by 40 communes with a population of 168,960 inhabitants (2013) and an area of .
Béziers is a subprefecture of the Hérault department, the capital of the arrondissement of Béziers and the administrative centre () of three cantons: Béziers-1, Béziers-2 and Béziers-3.
It is part of the intercommunality Béziers Méditerranée ().
Chiclana de la Frontera, Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain, since 1993
Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, since 1965
Stavropol, Stavropol Krai, Russia, since 1982
Stockport, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom, since 1972
Saint-Nazaire Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Nazaire), from the 14th century.
Pont Vieux, a stone bridge over the Orb, from the Middle Ages.
Canal du Midi, a canal (17th century).
Ville de Béziers website
Communauté d'agglomération Béziers Méditerranée website
Béziers in Méditerranée Tourism Office
The two listed historical monuments are the Saint-Thomas-de-Canterbury collegiate church and the Porte de Paris.
The first one goes back to its oldest elements in the 12th century, when the city prospered under the guidance of the Dukes of Valois.
The second one dates from 1788-1792 and is located rue Charles de Gaulle.
The origins of the city of Crépy-en-Valois remain uncertain.
During 10th century, the first lords of Crépy fortified the area, this rocky promontory overlooking the streams of Taillandiers and Sainte- Agathe.
The castrum didn't stop developing since then: firstly under the impetus of the Counts of Amiens Valois, who founded the Abbey Saint Arnoul in 1008, then with the Counts of Vermandois, particularly Philip d'Alsace and his wife Elizabeth who founded in 1182 in the suburbs a collegiate dedicated to Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, who was assassinated in his cathedral.
Civil and religious protection drew a more and more numerous population.
Prosperity settled thanks to the pilgrimages and grew even after 1213, the date of the reattachment of Valois to the French crown.
In 1790, the revolutionary district was created.
Thereafter, it became an administrative center of the canton, arrondissement of Senlis, department of Oise.
The 19th century announced winds of change.
The city expanded to the East with new neighborhoods.
The arrival of the railroad facilitated the establishment of prosperous industries and therefore the installation of a workforce.
The wars of 1914 and 1939 wounded city by multiple bombings; but the successive mayors knew how to look after and maintain the city's dignity and dynamism.
The fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox) is a cat-like, carnivorous mammal endemic to Madagascar.