Amman (; ,  ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant region, the fifth-largest city in the Arab world, and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the Middle East.

The earliest evidence of settlement in Amman dates to the 8th millennium BC, in a Neolithic site known as 'Ain Ghazal, where the world's oldest statues of the human form have been unearthed. The city was known as Rabat Aman during the second millennium BC and served as the capital of the Ammonite Kingdom, centered at the Amman Citadel. In the 3rd century BC, the city was renamed Philadelphia and made a regional center of Hellenistic culture. Under Roman rule, Philadelphia was one of the ten Greco-Roman cities of the Decapolis. The Rashidun Caliphate conquered the city from the Byzantines in the 7th century AD, and renamed it Amman. Throughout most of the Islamic era, the city alternated between periods of devastation and abandonment and periods of relative prosperity as the center of the Balqa region. Amman was largely abandoned from the 15th century until 1878, when Ottoman authorities began settling Circassians there.

After the Ottoman Empire inaugurated the Hejaz railway station in 1904, Amman became connected to other nearby cities, and the then mainly Circassian village witnessed growth that led to the establishment of its first municipal council in 1909. The city witnessed rapid growth after its designation as Transjordan's capital in 1921, receiving migrations from different Jordanian and Levantine cities, and later several successive waves of refugees: Palestinians in 1948 and 1967; Iraqis in 1990 and 2003; and Syrians since 2011. It was initially built on seven hills, but now spans over 19 hills combining 22 areas, which are administered by the Greater Amman Municipality. Areas of Amman have gained their names from either the hills (jabal) or the valleys (wadi) they occupy, such as Jabal al-Luweibdeh and Wadi Abdoun. East Amman is predominantly filled with historic sites that frequently host cultural activities, while West Amman is more modern and serves as the economic center of the city.

Approximately one million visitors arrived in Amman in 2018, which made it the 89th most-visited city in the world and the 12th most-visited Arab city. Amman has a relatively fast growing economy and it is ranked as a Beta− global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Moreover, it was named one of the Middle East and North Africa's best cities according to economic, labor, environmental, and socio-cultural factors. The city is among the most popular locations in the Arab world for multinational corporations to set up their regional offices, alongside Doha and only behind Dubai. The city is served by the Amman Bus and the Amman Bus Rapid Transit public transportation systems. Another BRT system under-construction will connect the city to nearby Zarqa.

Etymology
Amman derives its name from the ancient people of the Ammonites, whose capital the city had been since the 13th century BC. The Ammonites named it Rabat ʿAmmān (𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍), with the term Rabat meaning the "Capital" or the "King's Quarters". In the Hebrew Bible, the town is referred to as  () or simply  (), and it appears in English translations as "Rabbath Ammon". Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the Macedonian ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom who reigned from 283 to 246 BC, renamed the city "Philadelphia" (; literally: "brotherly love"), after himself, after occupying it. By the Islamic era, the Rashidun Caliphate restored its ancient semitic name and called it Amman in the 7th century AD.

History

Neolithic period

The Neolithic site of ʿAin Ghazal today lies in the outskirts of Amman. At its height, around 7000 BC (9000 years ago), it had an area of  and was inhabited by ca. 3000 people (four to five times the population of contemporary Jericho). At that time, the site was a typical aceramic Neolithic village. Its houses were rectangular mud-bricked buildings that included a main square living room, whose walls were made up of lime plaster. The site was discovered in 1974 as construction workers were working on a road crossing the area. By 1982, when the excavations started, around  of road ran through the site. Despite the damage brought by urban expansion, the remains of ʿAin Ghazal provided a wealth of information.

ʿAin Ghazal is well known for a set of small human statues found in 1983, when local archeologists stumbled upon the edge of a large pit containing them. These statues are human figures made with white plaster, with painted eyes. Thirty-two figures were found in two caches, fifteen of them full figures, fifteen busts, and two fragmentary heads. Three of the busts depicted two-headed characters, the significance of which is not clear.

Iron Age: the Ammonites

In the 13th century BC, Amman was the capital of the Ammonite Kingdom, and became known as "Rabat Amman". Rabat Amman provided several natural resources to the region, including sandstone and limestone, along with a productive agricultural sector that made it a vital location along the King's Highway, the ancient trade route connecting Egypt with Mesopotamia, Syria and Anatolia. As with the Edomites and Moabites, trade along this route gave the Ammonites considerable revenue. Milcom is named in the Hebrew Bible as the national god of Rabat Amman. Another ancient deity, Moloch, usually associated with the use of children as offerings, is also mentioned in the Bible as a god of the Ammonites, but this is probably a mistake for Milcom. However, excavations by archeologists near Amman Civil Airport uncovered a temple, which included an altar containing many human bone fragments. The bones showed evidence of burning, which led to the assumption that the altar functioned as a pyre and used for human sacrifice.

Amman is mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible. According to the biblical narrative, the Ammonite king Hanun allied with Hadadezer, king of Aram-Zobah, against the United Kingdom of Israel. During the war, Joab, the captain of King David's army, laid siege to Rabbah, Hanun's royal capital, and destroyed it (, ). David took a great quantity of plunder from the city, including the king's crown, and brought it to his capital, Jerusalem (). Hanun's brother, Shobi, was made king in his place, and became a loyal vassal of David (). Hundreds of years later, the prophet Jeremiah foresaw the coming destruction and final desolation of the city ().

Several Ammonite ruins across Amman exist, such as Rujm Al-Malfouf and some parts of the Amman Citadel. The ruins of Rujm Al-Malfouf consist of a stone watchtower used to ensure the protection of their capital and several store rooms to the east. The city was later conquered by the Assyrians, followed by the Babylonians and the Achaemenid Persians.

Classical period

Conquest of the Middle East and Central Asia by Alexander the Great firmly consolidated the influence of Hellenistic culture. The Greeks founded new cities in the area of modern-day Jordan, including Umm Qays, Jerash and Amman. Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the Macedonian ruler of Egypt, who occupied and rebuilt the city, named it "Philadelphia" (), evoking "brotherly love" in Greek. The name was given as an adulation to his own nickname, Philadelphus.

One of the most original monuments in Jordan, and perhaps in the Hellenistic period in the Near East, is the village of Iraq al-Amir in the valley of Wadi Al-Seer, southwest of Amman, which is home to Qasr al-Abd ('Castle of the Slave'). Other nearby ruins include a village, an isolated house and a fountain, all of which are barely visible today due to the damage brought by a major earthquake that hit the region in the year 362. Qasr al-Abd is believed to have been built by Hyrcanus of Jerusalem, who was the head of the powerful Jewish Tobiad family. Shortly after he began the construction of that large building, in -168 BC, upon returning from a military campaign in Egypt, Antiochus IV conquered Jerusalem, ransacked the Second Temple where the treasure of Hyrcanus was kept, and appeared determined to attack Hyrcanus. Upon hearing this, Hyrcanus committed suicide, leaving his palace in Philadelphia uncompleted. The Tobiads fought the Arab Nabateans for twenty years until they lost the city to them. After losing Philadelphia, the Tobiad family disappears from written sources.

The Romans conquered much of the Levant in 63 BC, inaugurating a period of Roman rule that lasted for four centuries. In the northern modern-day Jordan, the Greek cities of Philadelphia (Amman), Gerasa, Gedara, Pella and Arbila joined with other cities in Palestine and Syria; Scythopolis, Hippos, Capitolias, Canatha and Damascus to form the Decapolis League, a fabled confederation linked by bonds of economic and cultural interest. Philadelphia became a point along a road stretching from Ailah to Damascus that was built by Emperor Trajan in AD 106. This provided an economic boost for the city in a short period of time.

Roman rule in Jordan left several ruins across the country, some of which exist in Amman, such as the Temple of Hercules at the Amman Citadel, the Roman Theatre, the Odeon, and the Nymphaeum. The two theaters and the nymphaeum fountain were built during the reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius around AD 161. The theatre was the larger venue of the two and had a capacity for 6,000 attendees. It was oriented north and built into the hillside, to protect the audience from the sun. To the northeast of the theatre was a small odeon. Built at roughly the same time as the theatre, the Odeon had 500 seats and is still in use today for music concerts. Archaeologists speculate that the structure was originally covered with a wooden roof to shield the audience from the weather. The Nymphaeum is situated southwest of the Odeon and served as Philadelphia's chief fountain. The Nymphaeum is believed to have contained a  pool which was  deep and was continuously refilled with water. During the late Byzantine period in the seventh century, several bishops and churches were based in the city.

Islamic era (7th–15th centuries)

In the 630s, the Rashidun Caliphate conquered the region from the Byzantines, beginning the Islamic era in the Levant. Philadelphia was renamed "Amman" by the Muslims and became part of the district of Jund Dimashq. A large part of the population already spoke Arabic, which facilitated integration into the caliphate, as well as several conversions to Islam. Under the Umayyad caliphs who began their rule in 661 AD, numerous desert castles were established as a means to govern the desert area of modern-day Jordan, several of which are still well-preserved. Amman had already been functioning as an administrative centre. The Umayyads built a large palace on the Amman Citadel hill, known today as the Umayyad Palace. Amman was later destroyed by several earthquakes and natural disasters, including a particularly severe earthquake in 747. The Umayyads were overthrown by the Abbasids three years later.

Amman's importance declined by the mid-8th century after damage caused by several earthquakes rendered it uninhabitable. Excavations among the collapsed layer of the Umayyad Palace have revealed remains of kilns from the time of the Abbasids (750–969) and the Fatimids (969–1099). In the late 9th century, Amman was noted as the "capital" of the Balqa by geographer al-Yaqubi. Likewise, in 985, the Jerusalemite historian al-Muqaddasi described Amman as the capital of Balqa, and that it was a town in the desert fringe of Syria surrounded by villages and cornfields and was a regional source of lambs, grain and honey. Its inhabitants he reports, at the time, were Shia Muslims. Furthermore, al-Muqaddasi describes Amman as a "harbor of the desert" where Arab Bedouin would take refuge, and that its citadel, which overlooked the town, contained a small mosque.

The occupation of the Citadel Hill by the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem is so far based only on interpretations of Crusader sources. William of Tyre writes in his Historia that in 1161 Philip of Milly received the castle of Ahamant, which is seen to refer to Amman, as part of the lordship of Oultrejordain. In 1166 Philip joined the military order of the Knights Templar, passing on to them a significant part of his fief including the castle of Ahamant or "Haman", as it is named in the deed of confirmation issued by King Amalric. By 1170, Amman was in Ayyubid hands. The remains of a watch tower on Citadel Hill, first attributed to the Crusaders, now are preferentially dated to the Ayyubid period, leaving it to further research to find the location of the Crusader castle. During the Ayyubid period, the Damascene geographer al-Dimashqi wrote that Amman was part of the province of al-Karak, although "only ruins" remained of the town.

During the Mamluk era (late 13th–early 16th centuries), the region of Amman was a part of Wilayat Balqa, the southernmost district of Mamlakat Dimashq (Damascus Province). The capital of the district in the first half of the 14th century was the minor administrative post of Hisban, which had a considerably smaller garrison than the other administrative centers in Transjordan, namely Ajlun and al-Karak. In 1321, the geographer Abu'l Fida, recorded that Amman was "a very ancient town" with fertile soil and surrounded by agricultural fields. For unclear, though likely financial reasons, in 1356, the capital of Balqa was transferred from Hisban to Amman, which was considered a madina (city). In 1357, Emir Sirghitmish bought Amman in its entirety, most likely to use revenues from the city to help fund the Madrasa of Sirghitmish, which he built in Cairo that same year. After his purchase of the city, Sirghitmish transferred the courts, administrative bureaucracy, markets and most of the inhabitants of Hisban to Amman. Moreover, he financed new building works in the city.

Ownership of Amman following Sirghitmish's death in 1358 passed to successive generations of his descendants until 1395, when his descendants sold it to Emir Baydamur al-Khwarazmi, the na'ib as-saltana (viceroy) of Damascus. Afterward, part of Amman's cultivable lands were sold to Emir Sudun al-Shaykhuni (died 1396), the na'ib as-saltana of Egypt. The increasingly frequent division and sale of the city and lands of Amman to different owners signalled declining revenues coming from Amman, while at the same time, Hisban was restored as the major city of the Balqa in the 15th century. From then until 1878, Amman was an abandoned site periodically used to shelter seasonal farmers who cultivated arable lands in its vicinity and by Bedouin tribes who used its pastures and water. The Ottoman Empire annexed the region of Amman in 1516, but for much of the Ottoman period, al-Salt functioned as the virtual political center of Transjordan.

Modern era (1878–present)

Amman began to be resettled in 1878, when several hundred Muslim Circassians arrived following their expulsion from the formerly Ottoman Balkans. Between 1878 and 1910, tens of thousands of Circassians had relocated to Ottoman Syria after being displaced by the Russian Empire during the events of the Russo-Circassian War. The Ottoman authorities directed the Circassian, who were mainly of peasant stock, to settle in Amman, and distributed arable land among them. Their settlement was a partial manifestation of the Ottoman statesman Kamil Pasha's project to establish a vilayet centered in Amman, which, along with other sites in its vicinity, would become Circassian-populated townships guaranteeing the security of the Damascus–Medina highway. The first Circassian settlers, who belonged to the Shapsug dialect group, lived near Amman's Roman theater and incorporated its stones into the houses they built. The English traveller Laurence Oliphant noted in his 1879 visit that most of the original Circassian settlers had left Amman by then, with about 150 remaining. They were joined by Circassians from the Kabardian and Abzakh groups in 1880–1892.

Until 1900 settlement was concentrated in the valley and slopes of the Amman stream and settlers built mud-brick houses with wooden roofs. The French Dominican priest Marie-Joseph Lagrange commented in 1890 about Amman: "A mosque, the ancient bridges, all that jumbled with the houses of the Circassians gives Amman a remarkable physiognomy". The new village became a nahiye (subdistrict) center of the kaza of al-Salt in the Karak Sanjak established in 1894. By 1908 Amman contained 800 houses divided between three main quarters, Shapsug, Kabartai and Abzakh, each called after the Circassian groupings which respectively settled there, a number of mosques, open-air markets, shops, bakeries, mills, a textile factory, a post and telegraph office and a government compound (saraya). Kurdish settlers formed their own quarter called "al-Akrad" after them, while a number of townspeople from nearby al-Salt and al-Fuheis, seeking to avoid high taxes and conscription or attracted by financial incentives, and traders from Najd and Morocco, had also moved to the town.

The city's demographics changed dramatically after the Ottoman government's decision to construct the Hejaz Railway, which linked Damascus and Medina, and facilitated the annual Hajj pilgrimage and trade. Operational in central Transjordan since 1903, the Hejaz Railway helped to transform Amman from a small village into a major commercial hub in the region. Circassian entrepreneurship, facilitated by the railway, helped to attract investment from merchants from Damascus, Nablus, and Jerusalem, many of whom moved to Amman in the 1900s and 1910s. Amman's first municipal council was established in 1909, and Circassian Ismael Babouk was elected as its mayor.

The First and Second Battle of Amman were part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I and the Arab Revolt, taking place in 1918. Amman had a strategic location along the Hejaz Railway; its capture by British forces and the Hashemite Arab army facilitated the British advance towards Damascus. The second battle was won by the British, resulting in the establishment of the British Mandate.

In 1921, the Hashemite emir and later king Abdullah I designated Amman instead of al-Salt to be the capital of the newly created state, the Emirate of Transjordan, which became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1950. Its function as the capital of the country attracted immigrants from different Levantine areas, particularly from al-Salt, a nearby city that had been the largest urban settlement east of the Jordan River at the time. The early settlers who came from Palestine were overwhelmingly from Nablus, from which many of al-Salt's inhabitants had originated. They were joined by other immigrants from Damascus. Amman later attracted people from the southern part of the country, particularly al-Karak and Madaba. The city's population was around 10,000 in the 1930s.

The British report from 1933 shows around 1,700 Circassians living in Amman. Yet the community was far from insulated. Local urban and nomadic communities formed alliances with the Circassians, some of which are still present today. This cemented the status of Circassians in the re-established city.

Jordan gained its independence in 1946 and Amman was designated the country's capital. Amman received many refugees during wartime events in nearby countries, beginning with the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. A second wave arrived after the Six-Day War in 1967. In 1970, Amman was a battlefield during the conflict between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Jordanian Army known as Black September. The Jordanian Army defeated the PLO in 1971, and the latter were expelled to Lebanon. The first wave of Iraqi and Kuwaiti refugees settled in the city after the 1991 Gulf War, with a second wave occurring in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

On 9 November 2005, Al-Qaeda under Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's leadership launched coordinated explosions in three hotel lobbies in Amman, resulting in 60 deaths and 115 injured. The bombings, which targeted civilians, caused widespread outrage among Jordanians. Jordan's security as a whole was dramatically improved after the attack, and no major terrorist attacks have been reported since then. Most recently a wave of Syrian refugees have arrived in the city during the ongoing Syrian Civil War which began in 2011. Amman was a principal destination for refugees for the security and prosperity it offered.

During the 2010s, the city has experienced an economic, cultural and urban boom. The large growth in population has significantly increased the need for new accommodation, and new districts of the city were established at a quick pace. This strained Jordan's scarce water supply and exposed Amman to the dangers of quick expansion without careful municipal planning.

Geography

Amman is situated on the East Bank Plateau, an upland characterized by three major wadis which run through it. Originally, the city had been built on seven hills. Amman's terrain is typified by its mountains. The most important areas in the city are named after the hills or mountains they lie on. The area's elevation ranges from . Al-Salt and al-Zarqa are located to the northwest and northeast, respectively, Madaba is located to the west, and al-Karak and Ma'an are to Amman's southwest and southeast, respectively. One of the only remaining springs in Amman now supplies the Zarqa River with water. Trees found in Amman include Aleppo pine, Mediterranean cypress and Phoenician juniper.

Climate

Amman features a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa) in its western and northern neighborhoods, while its eastern and southern neighborhoods experience a semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSh/BSk).

The summer season in Amman is moderately long, characterized by mild heat and refreshing breezes. However, occasional heatwaves may occur during this period. Spring is brief yet warm, with temperatures reaching highs of 28 °C (82 °F). This season typically commences between April and May, lasting for about a month. Winter usually sets in around the end of November, extending through early to mid-March. During winter, temperatures typically hover around or below 17 °C (63 °F), with sporadic snowfall occurring once or twice a year.

The average annual rainfall in Amman is around 375 mm (15 in), with variations between different parts of the city. The western areas receive approximately 500 mm (20 in) of rainfall, whereas the eastern areas receive about 250 mm (10 in). Rainfall primarily occurs between November and April, and periodic droughts are not uncommon.

Amman experiences heavy fog on about 120 days each year. The city's diverse weather conditions are heavily influenced by differences in elevation. While snow might accumulate in the higher-altitude western and northern regions of Amman (with an average altitude of 1,000 m or 3,300 ft above sea level), the city center (at an elevation of 700 m or 2,300 ft) might experience rainfall simultaneously. This variation in elevation leads to extreme microclimates within Amman, with each district having its own distinct weather patterns.

Local government

Amman is governed by a 41-member city council elected in four-year term direct elections. All Jordanian citizens above 18 years old are eligible to vote in the municipal elections. However, the mayor is appointed by the king and not through elections. In 1909 a city council was established in Amman by Circassian Ismael Babouk who became the first-ever mayor of the capital, and in 1914 Amman's first city district center was founded.

The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) has been investing in making the city a better place, through a number of initiatives. Green Amman 2020 was initiated in 2014, aiming to turn the city to a green metropolis by 2020. According to official statistics, only 2.5% of Amman is green space. In 2015 GAM and Zain Jordan started operating free-of-charge Wi-Fi services at 15 locations, including Wakalat Street, Rainbow Street, The Hashemite Plaza, Ashrafieh Cultural Complex, Zaha Cultural Center, Al Hussein Cultural Center, Al Hussein Public Parks and others.

Administrative divisions
Jordan is divided into twelve administrative divisions, each called a governorate. Amman Governorate divides into nine districts, five of which are divided into sub-districts. The Greater Amman Municipality has 22 areas which are further divided into neighborhoods.

The city is administered as the Greater Amman Municipality and covers 22 areas which include:

Economy

Banking sector
The banking sector is one of the principal foundations of Jordan's economy. Despite the unrest and economic difficulties in the Arab world resulting from the Arab Spring uprisings, Jordan's banking sector maintained its growth in 2014. The sector consists of 25 banks, 15 of which are listed on the Amman Stock Exchange. Amman is the base city for the international Arab Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the Middle East, serving clients in more than 600 branches in 30 countries on five continents. Arab Bank represents 28% of the Amman Stock Exchange and is the highest-ranked institution by market capitalization on the exchange.

Tourism

Amman is the 4th most visited Arab city and the ninth highest recipient of international visitor spending. Roughly 1.8 million tourists visited Amman in 2011 and spent over $1.3 billion in the city. The expansion of Queen Alia International Airport is an example of the Greater Amman Municipality's heavy investment in the city's infrastructure. The recent construction of a public transportation system and a national railway, and the expansion of roads, are intended to ease the traffic generated by the millions of annual visitors to the city.

Amman, and Jordan in general, is the Middle East's hub for medical tourism. Jordan receives the most medical tourists in the region and the fifth highest in the world. Amman receives 250,000 foreign patients a year and over $1 billion annually.

Business
Amman is introducing itself as a business hub. The city's skyline is being continuously transformed through the emergence of new projects. A significant portion of business flowed into Amman following the 2003 Iraq War. Jordan's main airport, Queen Alia International Airport, is located south of Amman and is the hub for the country's national carrier Royal Jordanian, a major airline in the region. The airline is headquartered in Zahran district. Rubicon Group Holding and Maktoob, two major regional information technology companies, are based in Amman, along with major international corporations such as Hikma Pharmaceuticals, one of the Middle East's largest pharmaceutical companies, and Aramex, the Middle East's largest logistics and transportation company.

In a report by Dunia Frontier Consultants, Amman, along with Doha, Qatar and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, are the favored hubs for multinational corporations operating in the Middle East and North Africa region. In FDI magazine, Amman was chosen as the Middle Eastern city with the most potential to be a leader in foreign direct investment in the region. Furthermore, several of the world's largest investment banks have offices in Amman including Standard Chartered, Société Générale, and Citibank.

Demographics

The population of Amman reached 4,007,526 in 2015; the city contains about 42% of Jordan's entire population. It has a land area of  which yields a population density of about . The population of Amman has risen exponentially with the successive waves of immigrants and refugees arriving throughout the 20th century. From a population of roughly 1,000 in 1890, Amman grew to around 1,000,000 inhabitants in 1990, primarily as a result of immigration, but also due to the high birthrate in the city. Amman had been abandoned for centuries until hundreds of Circassians settled it in the 19th century. Today, about 40,000 Circassians live in Amman and its vicinity. After Amman became a major hub along the Hejaz Railway in 1914, many Muslim and Christian merchant families from al-Salt immigrated to the city. A large proportion of Amman's inhabitants have Palestinian roots (urban or rural origin), and the two main demographic groups in the city today are Arabs of Palestinian or Jordanian descent. Other ethnic groups comprise about 2% of the population. There are no official statistics about the proportion of people of Palestinian or Jordanian descent.

New arrivals consisting of Jordanians from the north and south of the country and immigrants from Palestine had increased the city's population from 30,000 in 1930 to 60,000 in 1947. About 10,000 Palestinians, mostly from Safed, Haifa and Acre, migrated to the city for economic opportunities before the 1948 war. Many of the immigrants from al-Salt from that time were originally from Nablus. The 1948 war caused an exodus of urban Muslim and Christian Palestinian refugees, mostly from Jaffa, Ramla and Lydda, to Amman, whose population swelled to 110,000. With Jordan's capture of the West Bank during the war, many Palestinians from that area steadily migrated to Amman between 1950 and 1966, before another mass wave of Palestinian refugees from the West Bank moved to the city during the 1967 War. By 1970, the population had swelled to an estimated 550,000. A further 200,000 Palestinians arrived after their expulsion from Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War. Several large Palestinian refugee camps exist around the center of Amman.

Because Amman lacks a deep-rooted native population, the city does not have a distinct Arabic dialect, although recently such a dialect utilizing the various Jordanian and Palestinian dialects, has been forming. The children of immigrants in the city are also increasingly referring to themselves as "Ammani", unlike much of the first-generation inhabitants who identify more with their respective places of origin.

Religion
Amman has a mostly Sunni Muslim population, and the city contains numerous mosques. Among the main mosques is the large King Abdullah I Mosque, built between 1982 and 1989. It is capped by a blue mosaic dome beneath which 3,000 Muslims may offer prayer. The Abu Darweesh Mosque, noted for its checkered black-and-white pattern, has an architectural style that is unique to Jordan. The mosque is situated on Jabal Ashrafieh, the highest point in the city. The mosque's interior is marked by light-colored walls and Persian carpets. During the 2004 Amman Message conference, edicts from various clergy-members afforded the following schools of thought as garnering collective recognition: Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki, Shafi'i, Ja'fari, Zahiri, Zaydi, Ibadi, tassawuf-related Sufism, Muwahhidism and Salafism. Amman also has a small Druze community.

Large numbers of Christians from throughout Jordan, particularly from al-Salt, have moved to Amman. Nearby Fuheis is a predominantly Christian town located to the northwest of the city. A small Armenian Catholic community of around 70 families is present in the city. Ecclesiastical courts for matters of personal status are also located in Amman. A total of 16 historic churches are located in Umm ar-Rasas ruins in Al-Jeezah district; the site is believed to have initially served as Roman fortified military camps which gradually became a town around the 5th century AD. It has not been completely excavated. It was influenced by several civilizations including the Romans, Byzantines and Muslims. The site contains some well-preserved mosaic floors, particularly the mosaic floor of the Church of Saint Stephen.

Cityscape

Downtown Amman, the city center area (known in Arabic as Al-Balad), has been dwarfed by the sprawling urban area that surrounds it. Despite the changes, much remains of its old character. Jabal Amman is a tourist attraction in old Amman, where the city's largest souks, museums, ancient constructions, monuments, and cultural sites are found. Jabal Amman also contains the famous Rainbow Street and the cultural Souk Jara market.

Architecture

Residential buildings are limited to four stories above street level and if possible another four stories below, according to the Greater Amman Municipality regulations. The buildings are covered with thick white or beige limestone or sandstone. The buildings usually have balconies on each floor, with the exception of the ground floor, which has a front and back yard. Some buildings make use of Mangalore tiles on the roofs or on the roof of covered porches. Hotels, towers and commercial buildings are either covered by stone, plastic or glass.

High-rise construction and towers

Zahran district in west Amman is the location of the Jordan Gate Towers, the first high-rise towers in the city. It is a high-class commercial and residential project under construction, close to the 6th Circle. The towers are one of the best-known skyscrapers in the city. The southern tower will host a Hilton Hotel, while the northern tower will host offices. The towers are separated by a podium that is planned to become a mall. It also contains bars, swimming pools and conference halls. The developers are Bahrain's Gulf Finance House, the Kuwait Investment and Finance Company (KIFC). The project is expected to be opened by 2025.

Abdali Urban Regeneration Project in Abdali district will host a mall, a boulevard along with several hotels, commercial and residential towers. Valued at more than US$5 billion, the Abdali project will create a new visible center for Amman and act as the major business district for the city. The first phase contains about ten towers, five of which are under construction to be completed by 2016. Across 30,000 square meters of land, a central dynamic park is the main feature of phase II which will serve as a focal theme for mainly residential, office, hotel and retail developments over 800,000 square meters.

The towers in the first phase include Rotana Hotel Amman, W Hotel Amman, The Heights Tower, Clemenceau Medical Center tower, Abdali mall tower, Abdali Gateway tower, K tower, Vertex Tower, Capital tower, Saraya headquarters tower and Hamad tower.

Culture

Museums

The largest museum in Jordan is The Jordan Museum. It contains much of the valuable archeological findings in the country, including some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Neolithic limestone statues of 'Ain Ghazal, and a copy of the Mesha Stele. Other museums include the Duke's Diwan, Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Jordan Archaeological Museum, The Children's Museum Jordan, The Martyrs' Memorial and Museum, the Royal Automobile Museum, the Prophet Mohammad Museum, the Museum of Parliamentary Life, the Jordan Folklore Museum, and museums at the University of Jordan.

Lifestyle

Amman is considered one of the most liberal cities in the Arab world. The city has become one of the most popular destinations for expatriates and college students who seek to live, study, or work in the Middle East or the Arab world in general. The city's culinary scene has changed from its shawarma stands and falafel joints to embrace many popular international restaurants and fast-food outlets such as Asian fusion restaurants, French bistros and Italian trattorias. The city has become famous for its fine dining scene among Western expatriates and Persian Gulf tourists.

Large shopping malls were built during the 2000s in Amman, including the Mecca Mall, Abdoun Mall, City Mall, Al-Baraka Mall, Taj Mall, Zara Shopping Center, Avenue Mall, and Abdali Mall in Al Abdali. Wakalat Street ("Agencies Street") is Amman's first pedestrian-only street and carries a lot of name-label clothes. The Sweifieh area is considered to be the main shopping district of Amman.

Nightclubs, music bars and shisha lounges are present across Amman, changing the city's old image as the conservative capital of the kingdom. This burgeoning new nightlife scene is shaped by Jordan's young population. In addition to the wide range of drinking and dancing venues on the social circuit of the city's affluent crowd, Amman hosts cultural entertainment events, including the annual Amman Summer Festival. Souk Jara is a Jordanian weekly flea market event that occurs every Friday throughout the summer. Sweifieh is considered to be the unofficial red-light district of Amman as it holds most of the city's nightclubs, bars. Jabal Amman and Jabal al-Luweibdeh are home to many pubs and bars as well, making the area popular among bar hoppers.

Alcohol is widely available in restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and supermarkets. There are numerous nightclubs and bars across the city, especially in West Amman. , there were 77 registered nightclubs in Jordan (excluding bars and pubs), overwhelmingly located in the capital city. In 2009, there were 222 registered liquor stores in Amman.

Cuisine

Danielle Pergament of The New York Times described Ammani cuisine as a product of several cuisines in the region, writing that it combines "the bright vegetables from Lebanon, crunchy falafels from Syria, juicy kebabs from Egypt and, most recently, spicy meat dishes from Jordan's neighbor, Iraq. It's known as the food of the Levant – an ancient word for the area bounded by the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian peninsula. But the food here isn't just the sum of its calories. In this politically, religiously and ethnically fraught corner of the world, it is a symbol of bloodlines and identity." However, the city's street food scene makes the Ammani cuisine distinctive.

Sports

Amman-based football clubs Al-Wehdat and Al-Faisaly, both former league champions, share one of the most popular rivalries in the local football scene. Amman hosted the 2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup along with Irbid and Zarqa.

The 2007 Asian Athletics Championships and more than one edition of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships were held in the city. Amman also hosts the Jordan Rally, which form part of the FIA World Rally Championship, becoming one of the largest sporting events ever held in Jordan.

Amman is home to a growing number of foreign sports such as skateboarding and rugby; the latter has two teams based in the city: Amman Citadel Rugby Club and Nomads Rugby Club. In 2014, German non-profit organization Make Life Skate Life completed construction of the 7Hills Skatepark, a 650 square meter concrete skatepark located at Samir Rifai park in Downtown Amman.

Media and music

The majority of Jordan's radio stations are based in Amman. The first radio station to originate in the city was Hunna Amman in 1959; it mainly broadcast traditional Bedouin music. In 2000, Amman Net became the first de facto private radio station to be established in the country, despite private ownership of radio stations being illegal at the time. After private ownership was legalized in 2002, several more radio stations were created.

Most Jordanian newspapers and news stations are situated in Amman. Daily newspapers published in Amman include Alghad, Ad-Dustour, The Jordan Times, and Al Ra'i, the most circulated newspaper in the country. In 2011, Al Ra'i was ranked the 5th most popular newspaper in the Arab world by Forbes Middle-East report. Al-Arab Al-Yawm is the only daily pan-Arab newspaper in Jordan. The two most popular Jordanian TV channels, Ro'ya TV and JRTV, are based in Amman.

Aside from mainstream Arabic pop, there is a growing independent music scene in the city which includes many bands that have sizable audiences across the Arab world. Local Ammani bands along with other bands in the Middle East gather in the Roman Theater during the Al-Balad Music Festival held annually in August. Music genres of the local bands are diverse, ranging from heavy metal to Arabic Rock, jazz and rap. Performers include JadaL, Torabyeh, Bilocate, Akher Zapheer, Autostrad and El Morabba3.

Events

Many events take place in Amman, including Red Bull-sponsored events Soundclash and Soapbox race, the second part of Jerash Festival, Al-Balad Music Festival, Amman Marathon, Made in Jordan Festival, Amman Book Festival and New Think Festival. Venues for such cultural events often include the Roman and Odeon Theaters downtown, the Ras al Ain Hanger, King Hussein Business Park, Rainbow Theater and Shams Theater, the Royal Film Commission, Shoman libraries and Darat al Funun, and the Royal Cultural Center at Sports City. In addition to large-scale events and institutional planning, scholars point to tactical urbanism as a key element of the city's cultural fabric.

Transportation

Airports

The main airport serving Amman is Queen Alia International Airport, situated about  south of Amman. Much smaller is Amman Civil Airport, a one-terminal airport that serves primarily domestic and nearby international routes and the army. Queen Alia International Airport is the major international airport in Jordan and the hub for Royal Jordanian, the flag carrier. Its expansion was recently done and modified, including the decommissioning of the old terminals and the commissioning of new terminals costing $700M, to handle over 16 million passengers annually. It is now considered a state-of-the-art airport and was named 'the best airport in the Middle East' for 2014 and 2015 and 'the best improvement in the Middle East' for 2014 by Airport Service Quality Survey, the world's leading airport passenger satisfaction benchmark program.

Roads

Amman has an extensive road network. Eight roundabout "circles", which formerly marked neighborhoods, are used as landmarks. The road network includes many bridges and tunnels due to the mountainous nature of the terrain. A leading example is the Abdoun Bridge, which spans Wadi Abdoun and connects the 4th Circle to Abdoun Circle. It is considered one of Amman's many landmarks and is the first curved suspended bridge to be built in the country.

Successive waves of refugees to the city has led to the rapid construction of new neighborhoods, but Amman's capacity for new or widened roads remains limited despite the influx. This has resulted in increasing traffic jams, particularly during summer when there are large numbers of tourists and Jordanian expatriates visiting. In 2015, a ring road encompassing the city was constructed, which aims to connect the northern and southern parts of the city in order for traffic to be diverted outside Amman and to improve the environmental conditions in the city.

Bus and taxi

The city has frequent bus connections to other cities in Jordan, as well as to major cities in neighboring countries; the latter are also served by service taxis. Internal transport is served by a number of bus routes and taxis. Service taxis, which most often operate on fixed routes, are readily available and inexpensive. The two main bus and taxi stations are Abdali (near the King Abdullah Mosque, the Parliament and Palace of Justice) and the Raghadan Central Bus Station near the Roman theater in the city center. Popular Jordanian bus company services include JETT and Al-Mahatta. Taxis are the most common way to get around in Amman due their high availability and inexpensiveness.

The Amman Bus and the Amman Bus Rapid Transit public transportation systems currently serve the city. Construction work on the BRT system started in 2010, but was halted soon after amid feasibility concerns. Resuming in 2015, the first route of the BRT system was inaugurated in 2021, and the second in 2022. Another BRT route connecting Amman with Zarqa is also under construction and is expected to be operational by 2023.

The BRT system in Amman runs on 2 routes: the first from Sweileh in northwest Amman to the Ras Al-Ain area next to downtown Amman, and the second from Sweileh to Mahatta terminal in eastern Amman. Both routes meet at the Sports City intersection. The first route is currently served by three lines: 98, 99 and 100. Ticket price for all lines of Amman Bus and Amman BRT are bought either online via the Amman Bus mobile application or as a rechargeable card in major terminals. Passengers scan their cards or QR codes on phone when boarding the bus, where the price ticket is subtracted from the available balance. The buses are air-conditioned, accessible, monitored with security cameras and have free internet service.

Education

Amman is a major regional center of education. The Amman region hosts Jordan's highest concentration of education centers. There are 20 universities in Amman. The University of Jordan is the largest public university in the city. There are 448 private schools in the city attended by 90,000 students, including Jubilee School, Amman Baccalaureate School, Amman Academy, Amman National School, Modern American School, American Community School in Amman, and National Orthodox School.

Universities include:
University of Jordan
Al-Ahliyya Amman University
Al-Isra University
Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan
Amman Arab University
Applied Science University
Arab Academy for Banking and Financial Sciences
Arab Open University
Columbia University: Amman Branch
German-Jordanian University: Amman Branch
Jordan Academy for Maritime Studies
Jordan Academy of Music
Jordan Institute of Banking Studies
Jordan Media Institute
Middle East University
University of Petra
Philadelphia University
Princess Sumaya University for Technology
Queen Noor Civil Aviation Technical College
World Islamic Sciences and Education University

Twin towns – sister cities

Amman is twinned with:

 Muscat, Oman (1986)
 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (1988)
 Cairo, Egypt (1988)
 Rabat, Morocco (1988)
 Sanaa, Yemen (1989)
 Islamabad, Pakistan (1989)
 Ankara, Turkey (1992)
 Khartoum, Sudan (1993)
 Doha, Qatar (1995)
 Istanbul, Turkey (1997)
 Algiers, Algeria (1998)
 Bucharest, Romania (1999)
 Nouakchott, Mauritania (1999)
 Tunis, Tunisia (1999)
 Sofia, Bulgaria (2000)
 Beirut, Lebanon (2000)
 Pretoria, South Africa (2002)
 Tegucigalpa, Honduras (2002)
 Chicago, United States (2004)
 Calabria, Italy (2005)
 Moscow, Russia (2005)
 Astana, Kazakhstan (2005)
 Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2006)
 Central Governorate, Bahrain (2006)
 Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (2006)
 San Francisco, United States (2010)
 Sylhet, Bangladesh
 Singapore, Singapore (2014)
 Yerevan, Armenia (2015)
 Cincinnati, United States (2015)

Gallery

See also
 List of tallest buildings in Amman

References

Bibliography

External links

 Amman Digital Community Facebook page
 Greater Amman Municipality Facebook page
 Amman public transportation map
 Photos of Amman from the American Center of Research

Capitals in Asia
Levant
Populated places in Amman Governorate
Populated places established in 1878
Populated places established in the 8th millennium BC

Amman


Christian Friedrich (or Frederick) Wilhelm von der Ahe (; October 7, 1851 – June 5, 1913) was a German-American entrepreneur, best known as the owner of the St. Louis Brown Stockings of the American Association, now known as the St. Louis Cardinals.

Career
Born in the fall of 1851 in Hille, Kingdom of Prussia, von der Ahe immigrated alone to New York City around 1870, but quickly moved to St. Louis, where he worked as a clerk in a grocery store. Later, he bought out the store owner and expanded business by establishing a saloon in the back of the store. Von der Ahe noticed that a number of his patrons visited the saloon after baseball games, so in 1882 he bought the bankrupt and scandal-ridden St. Louis Brown Stockings baseball franchise for $1,800 and joined the American Association baseball league. He named the team the Browns and hired future Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey to play first base and eventually manage the team.

Von der Ahe took a very active role in the team, even though he knew almost nothing about baseball. Other than player/manager/owner Albert Spalding, Von der Ahe was the first baseball owner with a significant public persona, the predecessor of Bill Veeck, Charlie Finley and George Steinbrenner in this regard.  With his thick German accent ("I am der boss bresident of der Prowns!"), bushy mustache and showmanship, he was as much of a story as his players.

The Browns dominated the American Association, winning four straight league championships starting in 1885. Von der Ahe's baseball, beer, and other investments made him very rich. He made $500,000 off the baseball team alone. He set the ticket price at 25 cents, hoping fans would spend money on beer. As a result, the Browns led the league in attendance and soon had to expand the ballpark. The term fan (from fanatic) is sometimes attributed to von der Ahe.

In 1885, von der Ahe erected a larger-than-life statue outside of Sportsman's Park, not of any of his star players, but of himself. A sportswriter from Denver mockingly dubbed the statue "Von der Ahe discovers Illinois." Although eccentric, von der Ahe made a number of innovations, including operating a farm club called the St. Louis Whites. Also, tradition holds that von der Ahe was the first to sell hot dogs at the ballpark, although some historians dispute this. Von der Ahe billed himself as the "Millionaire Sportsman".

In 1887, after a poor showing in the World Series, the ill-tempered von der Ahe threatened to withhold his players' share of the earnings. In 1891, he was also majority owner of the Cincinnati Kelly's Killers, which played for part of one season in the American Association.

In 1892 the team joined the National League after the American Association folded. Unfortunately for the Browns, they, along with three other AA refugees, were forced to place their players in a pool and give the established NL clubs first choice to sign them. By this time, Comiskey had lost patience with von der Ahe, and signed with the Cincinnati Reds. Without Comiskey's eye for talent, the Browns crumbled to only their second losing record as a fully professional team, finishing 11th. They would never come close to contention again during von der Ahe's ownership, never finishing higher than ninth in their first seven years in the NL and even finishing last twice.

Legal problems plagued von der Ahe's ownership, especially in the later years. In an effort to recoup his losses, in 1892 he moved to a larger ballpark, which he surrounded with an amusement park, complete with beer garden, a horse track in the outfield, a "shoot-the-shoots" water flume ride, and an artificial lake (used for ice skating in winter). The league, which prohibited gambling on its grounds, disapproved of the race track; so did von der Ahe's outfielders. The press called the facility "Coney Island West" and nicknamed von der Ahe "Von der Ha Ha."

With losses still piling up, von der Ahe resorted to selling off his best players, mostly to Brooklyn. In 1898, part of the ballpark burned down during an April game with Chicago; his second wife divorced him; and his bondsman kidnapped him for not paying his debts. In a highly publicized trial connected with the fire, von der Ahe lost his baseball team. The Browns changed hands twice and changed their name twice, first to the Perfectos (1899) and then to the Cardinals (1900). The American League team known as the St. Louis Browns from 1902 to 1953 had no connection to von der Ahe's team aside from the name, which was designed to invoke the memory of the 1885–1889 era.

Von der Ahe soon lost his other wealth as well and was reduced to tending bar in a small saloon. Comiskey frequently sent von der Ahe money to help make ends meet. In April 1908, the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns played each other in a benefit game for him. The club raised $4,300.

Death
Due to a life of heavy alcohol consumption, he died of cirrhosis of the liver on June 5, 1913. He was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, with the statue that once stood in front of Sportsman's Park adorning his grave.

Tribute
In 2015 Von der Ahe was named to the Pre-Integration Committee ballot for the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

References

Further reading
Achorn, Edward, The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America's Game, 978-1610392600, 2013
Egenriether, Richard. "Chris Von der Ahe: Baseball's Pioneering Huckster." Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Social Policy Perspectives, v. 7:no.2. Edmonton, Alberta. 1999. Also abbr. in Baseball Research Journal, v.18. SABR: Cleveland, Ohio. 1989.
Hetrick, J. Thomas. Chris Von der Ahe and the St. Louis Browns. Pocol Press: Clifton, Virginia. 2016. ()
Hetrick, J. Thomas. Chris Von der Ahe and the St. Louis Browns. Scarecrow: Lanham, Maryland. 1999. ()
Rygelski, James. Chris Von der Ahe: "The Boss President." Gateway Heritage: St. Louis, Missouri. April 1992.
Seymour, Harold. Baseball: the Early Years. Oxford: New York City. 1960. ( )
Voigt, Davis Quinten. American Baseball, v. 1: From Gentleman's Sport to the Commissioner System. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, Oklahoma. 1966. ()
Voigt, Davis Quinten. American Baseball, v. 2: From Commissioners to Continental Expansion. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, Oklahoma. 1970. ()
Voigt, Davis Quinten. American Baseball, v. 3: From Postwar Expansion to the Electronic Age. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, Oklahoma. 1983. ()

External links
Baseball-Reference.com – managing record

1851 births
1913 deaths
Baseball executives
Burials at Bellefontaine Cemetery
Deaths from cirrhosis
Prussian emigrants to the United States
Major League Baseball owners
People from Minden-Lübbecke
St. Louis Browns (NL) managers
19th-century American businesspeople

Chris von der Ahe


Cytology is the study of the cells, especially their appearance and structure. Cells are the small parts that make up all living things, and their effects on each other and their environment.

There are two types of cells. Prokaryotic cells do not have a clear and easy-to-see nucleus, and do not have a membrane, or wall, around them. Eukaryotic cells have an easy-to-see nucleus where all of the cell's functions take place, and a membrane around them. The main organelles of a cell and their uses are:
 Mitochondria: produces energy for the cell
 Endoplasmic reticulum: makes proteins and carbohydrates for the cell to use
 Golgi bodies: store and package products that the cell uses
 Plastid (present in plant cells only): contains chemicals needed to photosynthesize (create energy from sunlight); in plants only.
 Nucleus: directs the actions of the cell
 Centrosomes: guides the cell in mitosis and meiosis, the processes for cell division.

Related pages
Cell biology is mostly about how cells work, and about cell division and molecular biology.
Histology deals with techniques for looking at tissues under a microscope.
Cytopathology is a medical discipline that deals with techniques for looking at cells under a microscope.

Molecular biology

Cytology


Zorba is an open source query processor written in C++, implementing
 several W3C XQuery and XML specifications and
 the JSONiq language for processing JSON data.

Zorba is distributed under Apache License, Version 2.0.
The project is mainly supported by the FLWOR Foundation, Oracle, and 28msec.

Specifications

Zorba provides the implementation of the following W3C specifications:
 XQuery 1.0
 XQuery 3.0
 XQuery Update Facility 1.0
 XQuery and XPath Full Text 1.0
 XML Syntax for XQuery 1.0
 XML Schema
 XSL Transformations (XSLT)
 XSL Formatting Objects

Zorba also provides implementations of:
 JSONiq
 Scripting Extension
 Data Definition Facility

Scripting
Scripting Extension is an open specification that provides semantic for side-effects in XQuery or JSONiq programs.
It also provides a user-friendly syntax for imperative programming within such programs.
The following code snippet is an example of the Scripting syntax. It computes a sequence containing all the Fibonacci numbers that are less than 100.
(: this is a variable declaration statement :)
variable $a as xs:integer := 0;
variable $b as xs:integer := 1;
variable $c as xs:integer := $a + $b;
variable $fibseq as xs:integer* := ($a, $b);

while ($c lt 100) {
   (: this is a variable assignment statement :)
   $fibseq := ($fibseq, $c);
   $a := $b;
   $b := $c;
   $c := $a + $b;
}
$fibseq

The following is an example of CRUD operations using Scripting, XQuery, and XQuery Update.
variable $stores := doc("stores.xml")/stores;
(: Create :)
insert node <store><store-number>4</store-number><state>NY</state></store> into $stores;
(: Update :)
replace value of node $stores/store[state="NY"]/store-number with "5";
(: Delete :)
delete node $stores/store[state != "NY"];
(: Read :)
$stores

Data Definition Facility
Data Definition Facility provides a semantic for persistent artifacts such as collections and indexes in XQuery or JSONiq programs.
For instance, the following code snippets declares a collection named entries and an index on that collection named entry.
module namespace g = "http://www.zorba-xquery.com/guestbook";

import module namespace db = "http://www.zorba-xquery.com/modules/store/static/collections/dml";

declare namespace an = "http://www.zorba-xquery.com/annotations";

(: Declares a collection named entries :)
declare collection g:entries as element(entry);
(: Declares a variable that points to the g:entries collection :)
declare variable $g:entries := xs:QName('g:entries');

(: Declares an index named entry on top of the entries collection :)
declare %an:automatic %value-equality index g:entry
  on nodes db:collection(xs:QName('g:entries'))
  by xs:string(@id) as xs:string;

Storage
Zorba provides a pluggable store so it can be used on different kind of environments: disk, database, browser.
By default, Zorba is built with a main memory store.
28msec implements a store on top of MongoDB.
The XQuery in the Browser project has built a browser plugin for Zorba and leverages the DOM as its store.

APIs
Zorba is usable through different host languages: C++,  C, XQJ / Java, PHP, Python, C#, Ruby, and even XQuery/JSONiq.

Zorba is also available as a command-line tool.

XQDT is an XQuery plugin for the Eclipse (IDE). It fully supports Zorba API and syntax.

Modules
Zorba provides more than 70 XQuery modules for building applications. Some of these modules are:
 File system, Email, HTTP client, OAuth client
 XQuery and JSONiq Data Model Processing: typing, atomic items, and nodes.
 Full-text: tokenizer, stemmer, thesaurus lookup.
 Data Cleaning: phonetic similarities, set similarities, conversions.
 Data Conversion: Base64, CSV, HTML, JSON, XML
 Data Formatting: XSL-FO
 Introspection and Reflection
 Cryptography
 Image processing

External links
 Zorba website
 Zorba live demo
 Zorba modules

XQuery processors
XML

Zorba (XQuery processor)


Tharsis Tholus is a volcano on the planet Maurs, an it meisurs aboot 93 mile athort an is 5 mile heich. The aest an wast leets is duntit in giein it an orra cast. Ae possible cause for its cast is that whan the lava supplee dwined awa, the mids o the volcano foondered.

Maurs

Tharsis Tholus


दातुक ली चोंग वेई (सरलीकृत चीनी: 李宗伟; जन्म 21 अक्टूबर 1982) मलेशियाई पेशेवर बैडमिंटन खिलाड़ी हैं। बुकित मर्ताजम के निवासी ली विश्व के सर्वश्रेष्ठ बैडमिंटन खिलाड़ियों में से एक हैं। एकल खिलाड़ी के रूप में ली 21 अगस्त 2008 से 14 जून तक 2012 लगातार 199 हफ्तों तक विश्व रैंकिंग में नंबर एक खिलाड़ी रहे। राशिद सीडक और रोसलिन हाशिम के पश्चात वे तीसरे ऐसे मलेशियाई खिलाड़ी हैं जिन्हें प्रथम रैंक प्राप्त हुई और पहले ऐसे मलेशियाई खिलाड़ी जो दो सप्ताह से अधिक इस स्थान पर काबिज रहे।

सन्दर्भ

व्यक्तिग जीवन
ली का जन्म एक मलेशियाई चीनी परिवार में हुआ। अपने प्रारंभिक वर्षों में वह बास्किटबॉल को पसंद करते थे। परन्तु उनकी माता ने तुरन्त ही उन्हें इस खेल से दूर किया क्योंकि खुले मैदान के बास्किटबॉल में कड़ी धूप का सामना करना पड़ता था। ली ने ११ साल की आयु में बैडमिंटन सीखना शुरू किया जब उनके पिता इस खेल से प्रभावित थे और उन्हें बैडमिंटन हॉल ले गए। स्थानीय कोच का ध्यान आकर्षित हुआ तो कोच ने ली को शिक्षा देना चाही। पिता की सहमति के पश्चात स्कूल के समय के बाद कोच ली को सिखाने लगे। मिस्बुक सादिक से खोजे जाने के बाद ली १७ साल की आयु में राष्ट्रीय स्क्वॉड का हिस्सा बने।

Lee received RM300,000 on 21 August 2008, as a reward for his silver medal effort in the 2008 Olympic Games. Also, he received RM3,000 a month as a lifetime pension beginning in August 2008.[8] For the same achievement, he was conferred with a Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negeri (DSPN), which carried the title Dato' by Governor of Penang, Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas on 30 August 2008.[9]

He was appointed as the UNICEF Malaysia's National Ambassador in February 2009.[10]

On 6 June 2009, Lee received the Darjah Bakti (DB) award, from Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, in conjunction with the Birthday of Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong, for his achievements in the 2008 Olympics.[11] He was in a relationship with Wong Mew Choo, his teammate.[12] In 2009, Lee and Wong announced they are no longer together during the 2009 World Championships in Hyderabad, India. However, Lee announced his reconciliation with Mew Choo after winning a silver medal in 2012 Summer Olympics.[13] They were married on 9 November 2012,[14] and had two children, Kingston and Terrance, which were born in April 2013 and July 2015 respectively.[15][16]

On 16 March 2011, Lee received Permodalan Nasional Berhad shares worth RM100,000 from Najib Tun Razak soon after his triumph in the All England Open.[17] He was appointed as KDU University College ambassador on 31 July 2011.[18]

Lee's autobiography Dare to be a Champion was officially published on 18 January 2012.[19]

On 15 October 2016, Lee was made a recipient of Darjah Cemerlang Seri Melaka (DCSM) carrying the title of "Datuk Wira" from Malacca Governor Mohd Khalil Yaakob.[20]

Career[edit]

2002–2007[edit]
Lee picked up only one title in 2002 and 2003, reaching the final of the 2003 Malaysia Open (his first final of a major tournament) where he was defeated by Chen Hong of China.[21]

Lee then secured two titles in 2004, the Malaysia Open and the Chinese Taipei Open. Lee gained a spot for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. In his first Olympic appearance, Lee defeated Ng Wei of Hong Kong in the first round. His journey ended in the second round when he was defeated by Chen Hong.[22] Lee scored another two titles in 2005, his second Malaysia Open title and the Denmark Open. Lee won a bronze in his first appearance in the world meet, the 2005 World Championships after losing to eventual winner Taufik Hidayat in the semi-final.[23]

Lee won three titles out of six finals in 2006. He was crowned as the winner of the Swiss Open,[24] Asian Badminton Championships and his third Malaysia Open title. He also reached the final of the Chinese Taipei Open, Macau Open and Hong Kong Open. In the Malaysia Open, Lee fought back from 13–20 down in the rubber match and scored eight match points against Lin Dan, and finally won the game with a score of 23–21 to secure the title.[25] Lee won Malaysia's two gold medals in the badminton event for 2006 Commonwealth Games, in both the men's singles and mixed team events.[26] Lee reached the top spot twice in the Badminton World Federation's world rankings in 2006,[27] and he participated in the World Championships as top seed.[28] However, he was upset by Bao Chunlai of China in the quarter-final despite Lee winning at their previous meeting. The match was also marred by two controversial line calls that were not in favour of Lee.[29]

During the 2007 season, Lee failed to reach the final of the Malaysia Open for the first time in five years. He also suffered an early exit in five competitions afterward. Later on that season he took the Indonesia Open crown, his first title since the 2006 Malaysia Open after reuniting with former coach Misbun Sidek from Li Mao.[30] His performance at the second half of the year was solid, as he achieved three titles in the Philippines Open, the Japan Open, and the French Open. He also managed to reach the final of the China Open and Hong Kong Open, despite his knee injury haunting him on both occasions.[31] Lee won all matches he played in the Sudirman Cup in June, despite Malaysia finishing just fifth in the tournament.[32] Lee's low point of the year was in the World Championships, despite the tournament being held in front of his home crowd and his solid performance during the second half of the year, he was defeated in the third round by Indonesia's Sony Dwi Kuncoro.[33] Lee took a swipe at chief coach Yap Kim Hock soon after the defeat, claiming that Yap treated him indifferently and was putting pressure on his preparation for the championships.[34]

2008[edit]
Playing in the semifinals of the 2008 Olympics
Lee kicked off 2008 with success, capturing his fourth Malaysia Open title in five years.[35] However, Lee only captured one other title that year, the Singapore Open,[36] which was the final tournament in his pre-Olympic preparations. Other tournaments he took part in were th Korea Open;[37] the All England Open;[38] the Swiss Open;[39] the Badminton Asia Championships;[40] and Thomas Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia where Lee helped Malaysia advance to the semi-final. In the semi-final he defeated Lin Dan to give Malaysia a 1–0 lead in its clash with defending champion China, but Malaysia eventually lost 2–3 due to the defeat of its first doubles team in the vital final match.[41]

In the 2008 Olympic Games, Lee was given a bye in the first round. He cruised to straight game victories over Ronald Susilo in the second round, Kęstutis Navickas in the third round,[42] and Sony Dwi Kuncoro in the quarter-finals.[43] In the semi-finals Lee Hyun-ilgave him a tough fight, but eventually Lee was able to beat the South Korean and reach the final.[44] However, it was a one-sided final, as Lee was completely outplayed by Lin Dan and salvaged only 20 points, losing 12–21, 8–21.[45] He came second place overall.

Lee participated in several tournaments after the Olympic Games without capturing a title. He advanced to the finals of the Japan Open, the Macau Open and the China Open, but lost to Sony Dwi Kuncoro,[46] Taufik Hidayat,[47] and Lin Dan respectively.[48] In the French Open Lee was eliminated in the semi-finals.[49] His coach, Misbun Sidek, cited the pressure of being ranked world number one to explain Lee's recent failure to capture a title.[50]

Lee ended his last Super Series tournament of the year, the Hong Kong Open, with a sudden withdrawal due to a knee injury, conceding a walkover to Germany's Marc Zwiebler.[51] His last minute withdrawal led to the Chinese media tagging him as the "weakest world number one".[52] The Chinese media speculated that three factors had hampered Lee's performance since the Olympic Games: the stress of the Olympic final, a phobia of Lin Dan due to his lopsided Olympic defeat at Lin's hands, and (echoing Misbun Sidek's conjecture) the pressure of being the world number one.[53]

Despite Lee's difficulties in international play, he recorded his seventh consecutive victory at the National Badminton Grand Prix Final in Kedah on 12 December 2008, thus breaking the record of six consecutive titles set by Misbun Sidek.[54] Lee ended the year with a title in the Super Series Masters Finals. However, Lin Dan and China's other top players did not compete, their association citing injuries and fatigue.[55]

2009[edit]
Lee Chong Wei started the 2009 season with his fifth Malaysia Open title.[56] He failed to secure his first Korea Open and All England Open title despite marching into the final.[57][58] However, he secured his second title of the year in the Swiss Open which was held in Basel, defeating Lin Dan in straight sets and marking his first win in the finals against the Chinese opponent outside home turf.[59] Next, Lee was surprisingly defeated by Chen Long of China in the India Open.[60] He cited the loss was due to food poisoning and insisted the authorities improve the conditions before the World Championships.[61] In May, Lee helped Malaysia reach the semi-finals of the Sudirman Cup, the first in national history, despite his unbeaten record in the tournament being blown out by Lin Dan.[62] He won another two titles in June, the Indonesia Open[63] and the Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold,[64] despite failing to defend his Singapore Open title when he was taken by Nguyen Tien Minh in the second round.[65]

Lee kicked off the second half of the season with defeat by Sony Dwi Kuncoro in the world meets,[66] but went on to win the Macau Open in August.[67] He reached the semi-final in the China Masters, but once again failed to beat his all time rival Lin Dan.[68] Then, Lee participated in the Japan Open. He only managed to reach the second round of the Open,[69] before winning the Hong Kong Open in November.[70] His inconsistency saw him tumble down in the first round of the China Open.[71] In December, Lee defended his Super Series Masters Finals title, which saw the competition played without the top badminton players in the world.[72]

2010[edit]
Lee started the year with the title in all events he took part, his first treble in the Super Series titles. He gained his first ever Korea Open crown,[73] sixth Malaysia Open,[74] and defeated Kenichi Tago to win the oldest and prestigious badminton championship in the world, the All England Open, his first since he took part in 2004.[75]

Lee participated in the Thomas Cup in his home ground. He managed to defeat Kenichi Tago and take the first point, despite Malaysia's eventual loss (2–3) to Japan.[76] In the quarter-finals, he beat Peter Gade, thus helping to secure Malaysia's place in the semi-finals.[77] In the semi-finals against China, Lee was defeated by Lin Dan, which ended his 18-match unbeaten record since the start of the year.[78]

In June, Lee participated in the Singapore Open losing in the quarter-finals.[79] However, Lee bounced back winning the Indonesia Open,[80] Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold in July,[81] and Macau Open in August.[82] In late August, Lee suffered a shock exit in another attempt for the World Championships, but was beaten by Taufik Hidayat in the quarter-finals.[83] Misbun cited that the loss was due to the back injury he picked-up after the match against Rajiv Ouseph in the third round.[84] On 26 September, Lee beat his archrival Lin Dan in the Japan Open, the only title not taken by Chinese players in the tournament.[85]

In October, he helped Malaysia to beat India to defend the gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games mixed team event, then he successfully defended his gold medal once again in the singles event a few days later.[86] The following month he won a silver medal at the Asian Games. Despite beating reigning World Champion Chen Jin in the semi-final, Lee once again tasted defeat at the hands of his great rival, Lin Dan, in the final.[87] At season's end, he won his second consecutive Hong Kong Open title,[88] and third consecutive Super Series Master Finals title, where the tournament was held in January 2011.[89]

2011[edit]
In January, Lee won his seventh Malaysia Open title by defeating Taufik Hidayat from Indonesia in the final.[90] However, he failed to defend the Korea Open title, the world's first ever million-dollar badminton tournament, after being beaten by Lin Dan from China in three games.[91] In March, Lee cruised into the final of the All England Open for the third consecutive time and retained his title successfully with a convincing straight games victory over Lin Dan, and was praised by prime minister Najib Tun Razak.[92]

On Labour Day, he won his first ever India Open,[93] and also his third consecutive Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold title a week later.[94] Despite the fact that Lee won all the matches he played during the Sudirman Cup, Malaysia's journey ended in quarterfinals, after being beaten by South Korea 2–3.[95][96][97] In late June, he won the Indonesia Open, becoming the first non-Indonesian player to complete the hat-trick in the tournament.[98]

Lee's hopes of becoming the first Malaysian to win gold in the World Championships were dashed after defeat by Lin Dan in the final. Lee led for most of the match but lost two important match points in the rubber game.[99] In September, Lee also failed to defend his Japan Open crown after defeat by China's rising star Chen Long.[100] In October, he lost to Chen Long again in his bid for his second Denmark Open title.[101] He won the French Open a week later.[102] This was followed by triple semi-finals exit in the Hong Kong Open,[103] the China Open,[104] and the Super Series Master Finals.[105]

2012[edit]
Playing in the semifinals of the 2012 Olympics
Lee started the Olympic year with the first Super Series tournament of the season, the Korea Open. In a repeat of the previous year's final, he avenged his loss to Lin Dan by defeating him in three sets.[106] A week later, he captured his fifth straight and eighth Malaysia Open title, thus equalling the number of home titles held by Wong Peng Soon who won them between 1940 and 1953.[107]

In March, Lee lost in the All England Open when he bowed out in the second game after receiving medical help on three occasions. This also dashed Lee's hopes of becoming the first man to win three successive All England Open titles.[108] In April, he was defeated by South Korean Shon Wan-ho in the final of the India Open,[109] but retained his Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold title for the fourth time in a row in May.[110] Lee was out for three to four weeks after suffering an ankle injury during the Thomas Cup Group C tie against Denmark.[111]

Lee returned to the court for the first time after recovering from his injury to play in the London Olympic Games. He closely beat Ville Lång of Finland in rubber games for the first round,[112] and blamed pressure for close defeat.[113] In the second round, he eased to a victory against Indonesia's Simon Santoso,[114] before beating Kashyap Parupalli of India in the quarter-finals.[115] In the semi-finals, he beat Chen Long of China in straight sets despite early predictions that Chen would be difficult to beat, and set up a repeat of 2008's final against Lin Dan.[116] This is the second meeting in the Wembley Arena for both players after the 2011 World Championships. Lee led the match after winning the first game but Lin brought it to the rubber games. Despite leading for most of the time in the third game, Lin managed to level the point and edge him narrowly by 21–19, forcing Lee to settle for silver once more.[5] BBC Sport analyst Gail Emms said, "You couldn't have asked for any more from Lee Chong Wei."[117] This epic episode was documented in an academic article entitled "Silver lining in winning silver: an exploratory study of supporters' reactions and coping on the social media towards Lee Chong Wei's London Olympics defeat".[118]

He won the Japan Open and Denmark Open on his return since the London Olympic Games,[119][120] but lost in the final of the Hong Kong Open, only a few days after his marriage.[121] Lee ended the year with a loss in the opening match of the Super Series Master Finals and subsequently pulled out of tournament due to thigh injury.[122]

2013[edit]
Playing in the quarterfinals of the 2013 French Open.
Lee took the Korea Open title for the third time.[123] A week later, he captured his ninth Malaysia Open title, which broke the record of eight titles previously held by Wong Peng Soon.[124] Lee then lost in the final of the All England Open to Chen Long. Lee said he was disappointed with his performance during the tournament, despite marching into the final.[125][126]

In April, he lost in the semi-finals of the Australia Open, to the young Chinese player Tian Houwei.[127] He then won the second India Open title and fifth Indonesia Open.[128][129] In August, Lee eventually marched into the final of the World Championships, but Lee's hopes were once again dashed in a repeat of his 2011 final and 2010 Asian Games defeat against Lin Dan. He suffered leg cramps late into the third game. After attempting to continue, he had to retire and was subsequently stretchered to hospital.[130]

After the World Championships, Lee participating in four Super Series tournaments. First, he took the Japan Open title for fourth time.[131] Then, he lost in the final of Denmark Open and semifinal of the French Open,[132][133] and triumph again in the Hong Kong Open.[134]

Lee won record fourth Masters Finals title, the season ending Super Series tournament.[135]

2014[edit]
In January, Lee lost in the final of Korea Open to Chen Long, his fourth straight defeat by the Chinese.[136] He recorded his tenth Malaysia Open title a week later. Soon after the triumph, he announced this would be his last Malaysia Open outing, as he would assess his condition after the Asian Games and may retire if the results are not good.[137]

However, his form improved and he won his third All England Open and India Open titles,[138][139] although he was beaten by Simon Santoso in final of the Singapore Open.[140] In the Thomas Cup, Lee won every match he played. Malaysia reached the finals, but lost to Japan with a score of 3–2.[141]

In June, he won the Japan Open for the third consecutive year and fifth time overall.[142] He then lost in the semifinals of the Indonesia Open, ending his hopes of nine straight Super Series finals. Due to a serious hamstring injury, Lee withdrew from the 2014 Commonwealth Games in July, also ending his hopes of being the first men's singles shuttler to win 3 back-to-back gold medals at the games.[143]

Lee resumed play in August where he finished second for the third time at the World Championships, losing to Chen Long of China in straight sets.[144] He again lost to Chen in the semifinals of Asian Games team competition,[145] and to Lin Dan in the semifinals of the singles event a few days later.[146]

Doping[edit]
In October 2014, local media reported that the Badminton Association of Malaysia has confirmed that one of the nation's top shuttlers has tested positive for dexamethasoneafter urine samples were taken during the World Championships in late August.[147] The identity of the shuttler was not revealed but was widely believed to be Lee Chong Wei. Dexamathasone is not a performance-enhancing drug but a commonly-administered anti-inflammatory corticosteroid that is not illegal when used off-season for injury rehabilitation, but deemed illegal if discovered in an athlete's body during competition.[148]

On 5 November 2014, Lee flew to Norway to witness the testing of his "B" sample at the Oslo University Hospital after the "A" sample had already been tested positive in October.[149] The results were announced on 8 November 2014 by a Malaysian sports official who confirmed that the "B" sample had tested positive as well. He declined to identify the player but confirmed to The Associated Press that it was Lee.[150]

On 11 November 2014, the Badminton World Federation confirmed that Lee is temporarily suspended from competing due to an apparent anti-doping regulation violation.[151]The hearing was held on 11 April 2015 in Amsterdam.[152]

On 27 April 2015, it was announced that Lee has been handed a backdated eight-month ban for his anti-doping rule violation. The panel was convinced that Lee had no intent to cheat and allowed him to resume his career by 1 May 2015. Lee was stripped of his silver medal from the 2014 World Championships but allowed to keep his two bronze medals from the 2014 Asian Games.[153]

2015[edit]
The Sudirman Cup was Lee's first tournament after serving an eight-month suspension for a doping violation. He went on to win all three matches he played in the tournament.[154] He then took back to back titles by winning the US Open and Canada Open.[155] Lee again had to settle for the second at the World Championships as he lost to Chen Long in the final.[156]

After the World Championships, Lee endured three early round exits. First, in the second round of the Japan Open,[157] followed by the qualifying rounds of the Korea Open,[158] and then in the second round of Denmark Open.[159]

After three early round losses, Lee bounced back to win the French Open,[160] followed by his first ever China Open title, thus making him the first ever men's singles shuttler to have won all Super Series titles.[161] The following week, Lee won the Hong Kong Open.[162] However Lee did not qualify for the Super Series Finals. Therefore, ending the year with three back-to-back titles.

2016[edit]
In January, Lee won his fifth Malaysia Masters title.[163] In March, Lee lost in the first round of All England Open,[164] and also in the second round of the India Open.[165]

In April, Lee won his 11th Malaysia Open title,[166] then followed by his second Badminton Asia Championships title.[167] At the Thomas Cup in May, Malaysia lost to eventual winners Denmark in the semi-finals despite Lee winning all the matches he contested in the tournament.[168]

In June, Lee won his 6th and record-equaling Indonesia Open title, becoming the third shuttler and first non-Indonesian to win the title six times.[169] He was set to play in the Australian Open, but withdrew due to muscle injury.[170]

On 5 August 2016, Lee led the Malaysia contingent during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.[171] In the men's singles competition he made it to the final, defeating his longtime rival Lin Dan in the semifinals in a dominating performance.[172] However, he was defeated by Chen Long in the final, his third successive defeat in the final of the Olympic Games.[173]

Awards[edit]
Below is the list of awards won by Lee.

Achievements[edit]
Further information: Lee Chong Wei career statistics

Career finals (65 titles, 31 runners-up)[edit]

 Super Series tournament
 Grand Prix Gold and Grand Prix tournament
जीवित लोग
1982 में जन्मे लोग
बैडमिंटन में ओलम्पिक पदक विजेता
चीनी मूल के मलेशियाई लोग
मलेशिया के बैडमिंटन खिलाड़ी

ली चोंग वेई


A local area network (LAN) is a computer network in a small area like a home, office, or school.  Many computers can be connected to share information and Internet connections. Most LANs use Ethernet to connect together.

Topology
LAN topologies tell you how ROM devices are organised. Five common LAN topologies exist: bus, ring, star, tree, and mesh. These topologies are logical architectures.  This means that they tell you the directions that signals go between devices, but that the actual cables that connect the devices might not be connected the same way. For example, logical bus and ring topologies are commonly organized physically as a star.

 A bus ROM means that the signal is put onto the medium and every device on the bus receives the signal.  If more than one device tries to send a signal at the same time, they can interfere with each other.  A long copper wire with other wires tapped into it is an example of a bus topology.
 A ring ROM means that each device talks to two other devices in the network and the devices all talk in a circle. If a computer sends data out one of its interfaces, it could get an answer back on the other one.  Some rings send traffic in only one direction, other ring networks send traffic in both directions.  Token Ring and FDDI are examples of ring topologies.
 A star ROM means that one device (the middle of the star) connects to several other devices. The only way devices on the points of the star can talk to each other is through the device in the middle.  A ROM is an example of a star topology.  Computers on the ROM need to go through the switch to talk to each other.
 A tree (or hybrid) topology is named because when you draw a picture of how the devices in this topology are connected, it starts off narrow with few devices at the bottom, then branches out at the top.  Large networks are an example of a tree topology.  There are switches and servers near the bottom of the tree, then all the user's computers "branch out" at the top of the tree.
 A mesh network topology means that every device can talk to every other device, and they will not interfere with each other.  You can also have a partial mesh, where some devices do not talk to all of the others.  There are not many simple examples of a mesh network.  A wireless data network where all of the devices use ROM READING or different frequencies to avoid interfering with each other would be one example.

Computer networking

Local area network


The World Music Awards is an international awards show that honors recording artists every year. The awards are given out based on artists' worldwide sales figures, which are provided by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The World Music Awards was founded in 1989. John Martinotti is an executive producer and co-founder of the show.

Music awards
1989 establishments

World Music Award


Stalagmites may also refer to a type of fungus.

A stalagmite is a  form that can be found on the floor of a cave. It rises from the floor of a limestone cave when mineralized solutions drip from the ceiling and deposits of calcium carbonate form columns on the ground. The corresponding formation on the ceiling of a cave is known as a stalactite.

There are several methods to help remember which formation hangs from the ceiling (stalactite) and which rises from the floor (stalagmite):

 StalaCtite has a "c" for "ceiling".
 StalaGmite has a "g" for "ground".
 The T in StalacTite resembles one hanging from the ceiling, while the M in StalagMite resembles a formation rising from the floor.

When touring caves with stalactites and stalagmites you might be asked to not touch the rock formations. This is generally because the formation is considered to still be growing and forming. Since the rock buildup is formed by minerals solidifying out of the water solution, skin oils can disturb where the mineral water will cling. So the development of the rock formation will be affected and not will not be natural anymore.

Stalactites and stalagmites can also form on concrete ceilings and floors, but they form much more quickly on concrete than in the natural cave environment.

Related pages
 Stalactite

References

Other websites
 The Virtual Cave: Stalagmites

Caves

Stalagmite


The Fort Smith Council (September 21, 1865), also known as the Indian Council,  was a series of meetings held at Fort Smith, Arkansas from September 8–21, 1865, that were organized by the United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Dennis N. Cooley, for Indian tribes east of the Rockies (and particularly those living in what was then defined as Indian Territory).

Other members of Cooley's party representing the U. S. government were: Elijah Sells, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southern Superintendency; William Harney, an  Army officer who had spent most of the Civil War in Europe; Ely Parker, a Seneca chief and U. S. Army officer who had been the military secretary for General Grant; Charles Mix,  secretary of the council and long-time chief clerk at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

As president of the Treaty Commission, D. N. Cooley started the second day with his opening address. First, he reminded all present of the reasons for the meeting. The purpose was to discuss the future treaties and land allocations following the close of the American Civil War. Attendance was mandatory for all the tribes that had signed treaties with the Confederate States government—Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, Cherokee, Shawnee, Delaware, Wichita, Comanche, Great Osage, Seneca, and Quapaw. The purpose was to notify them that, by taking up war against the United States, they had abrogated all their previous treaties and forfeited all their lands and annuities, and to discuss terms of the new treaties. He noted that Congress had already passed a law to that effect on July 5, 1862, forming the starting point for any new treaties. It was also to notify those tribes living in Indian Territory that some of their previous lands were to be turned over to the tribes who were being relocated from their reservations in Kansas.

Government stipulations
Cooley pointed out that the new treaties would be executed with individual tribes, and that each must address the following stipulations:
1. Each tribe must enter into a treaty for permanent peace and amity with themselves, each nation and tribe, and with the United States.

2. Those settled in the Indian territory must bind themselves, when called upon by the government, to aid in compelling the Indians of the plains to maintain peaceful relations with each other, with the Indians in the territory, and with the United States.

3. The institution of slavery, which has existed among several of the tribes, must be forthwith abolished, and measures taken for the unconditional emancipation of all persons held in bondage, and for their incorporation into the tribes on an equal footing with the original members, or suitably provided for.

4. A stipulation in the treaties that slavery, or involuntary servitude, shall never exist in the tribe or nation, except in punishment of crime.

5. A portion of the lands hitherto owned and occupied by you must be set apart for the friendly tribes in Kansas and elsewhere, on such terms as may be agreed upon by the parties and approved by government, or such as may be fixed by the government.

6. It is the policy of the government, unless other arrangement be made, that all the nations and tribes in the Indian territory be formed into one consolidated government after the plan proposed by the Senate of the United States, in a bill for organinzing the Indian territory.

7. No white person, except officers, agents, and employes of the government, or of any internal improvement authorized by the government, will be permitted to reside in the territory, unless formally incorporated with some tribes, according to the usages of the band.

Several of these stipulations were new to the tribes, and caused much consternation and argument. They were already aware that the government planned to take part of their lands in the territory, and realized that they had no bargaining power on that point. They were prepared to make peace with each other (they had agreed to that in principle at the Camp Napoleon Council, which the government refused to recognize), and they knew, of course, about the outlawing of slavery. They were unprepared for the demand that the freed slaves (freedmen) be made full members of the tribe who had formerly owned them. And they were equally opposed to forming one consolidated government, which they recognized as dissolving tribal government outright, effectively extinguishing their identities.

Treaties of 1866
Before the Fort Smith council adjourned, it was agreed that the delegations would reconvene in Washington D. C. in early 1866 to complete their individual treaties with the government.
 The Seminoles, whose obligations were straightforward, completed their work first, on March 21, 1866.
 The Choctaws and Chickasaws confederated for the purposes of their treaty. They completed it on April 28, 1866. It was ratified with one amendment on June 28. The amendment was accepted by the government on July 2, and became effective July 10.
 The Creeks completed their treaty on June 14.
 The Cherokees came to terms on July 19, but the treaty was not proclaimed (put into effect) until August 14, 1866.

Notes

See also
Camp Napoleon Council
Indian Territory in the American Civil War
Reconstruction Treaties

References

External links

Fort Smith Council at Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture

History of Arkansas
Indian Territory in the American Civil War
Native Americans in the American Civil War
Pre-statehood history of Oklahoma
1865 conferences
1865 in Arkansas
September 1865 events

Fort Smith Council


Marie Eugène François Thomas Dubois (; 28 January 1858 – 16 December 1940) was a Dutch paleoanthropologist and geologist. He earned worldwide fame for his discovery of Pithecanthropus erectus (later redesignated Homo erectus), or "Java Man". Although hominid fossils had been found and studied before, Dubois was the first anthropologist to embark upon a purposeful search for them.

Life and work

MEFT. Dubois was born and raised in the village of Eijsden, Limburg, where his father, Jean Joseph Balthazar Dubois, an immigrant from Thimister-Clermont, Liège, Belgium, was an apothecary, later the mayor. Interested in all phenomena of the world of nature, Eugène explored the "caves" ("grotten", actually underground limestone mines) of Mount Saint Peter and amassed collections of plant parts, stones, insects, shells, and animal skulls. From age 12-13 on, he attended school in the Limburg city of Roermond, boarding with a family there and then he dropped out. In Roermond he attended lectures on Charles Darwin's new theory of evolution given by the German biologist, Carl Vogt.

Resisting his father's plan for him to train to follow in his footsteps, Dubois, encouraged by his teachers, decided in 1877 to study medicine at the University of Amsterdam. While a student, he taught anatomy at both of the brand new (founded 1880) art schools housed at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (Amsterdam State Museum) the Rijksschool voor Kunstnijverheid (State School for Applied Arts) and the Rijksnormaalschool voor Teekenonderwijzers (State Normal School for Drawing Instructors). In 1884 he completed his medical degree. He declined an offer from the University of Utrecht of a position as a docent. Instead, at the invitation of his anatomy instructor, Max Fürbringer, he decided to train as an academic. From 1881 to 1887 he studied comparative anatomy and became Fürbringer's assistant. In 1885 he investigated the larynx of vertebrates, which led him to develop a hypothesis of the evolution of this organ. Nevertheless, his chief interest was in human evolution, influenced by Ernst Haeckel, who reasoned that there must be intermediate species between ape and human.

Dubois contributed an article on whale anatomy to a book by the Dutch zoologist, Max Weber, and, inspired by the fresh discovery of new Neanderthal fossils at the Belgian town of Spy, he spent his vacation fossil hunting in the vicinity of his birthplace. In the Henkeput near the village of Rijckholt, where a prehistoric flint mine had just been discovered in 1881, he found some prehistoric human skulls.

Reasoning that the origins of the human species must be in the tropics, in 1887 he joined the Dutch army and arranged to be posted in the Dutch East Indies (the Dutch colony that is now independent Indonesia), to the dismay of his academic colleagues. With his wife and newborn daughter he moved to the colony to search for the missing link in human evolution. (He was unalterably convinced there was only one missing link.)

Hominid discoveries
Between 1887 and 1895, Dubois searched at potential sites near rivers and in caves, first on the island of Sumatra, then on the Indonesian island of Java.

In 1891, Dubois discovered remains of what he described as "a species in between humans and apes". He called his finds Pithecanthropus erectus ("ape-human that stands upright") or Java Man. Today, they are classified as Homo erectus ("human that stands upright"). These were the first specimens of early hominid remains to be found outside of Africa or Europe. During this period Dubois carried out fieldwork at sites such as Sangiran in Central Java and Trinil in East Java.

Later years
In 1897, the University of Amsterdam awarded Dubois an honorary doctorate in botany and zoology, but he had to wait until 1899 for a professorship. In that year, he was appointed a professor in geology, a function that did not keep him from his research in anatomy. He was also (from 1897 until 1928) keeper of paleontology, geology and mineralogy at Teylers Museum, where he also kept the H. erectus remains.

In 1919 he became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Although the scientific debate slowly began to turn in his favour in the 1920s and 1930s, he died embittered in 1940. He was buried in unconsecrated ground on the 16th of December 1940 in Venlo, "Algemene Begraafplaats", grave number NH2\26\-\BR.

Legacy
His paleontological collection and scientific archive remain at Naturalis in Leiden. The institute dedicated an exhibition to his findings of Homo erectus in their renovated museum, where the holotype Trinil 2 is on display. According to Pat Shipman, adjunct professor of anthropology at Pennsylvania State University, Dubois was "an extremely influential person in founding paleo-anthropology. He not only found the fossils. He analyzed them in wholly new ways. He pulled human fossils out of this context of racial identification and shoved it into an evolutionary context and that was a real revolution." A special section of Museum Het Ursulinenconvent - International Museum for Family History is devoted to Dubois' life and work. Asteroid 206241 Dubois, discovered by the NEAT program in 2002, was named in his memory. The official  was published by the Minor Planet Center on 7 June 2009 ().

See also

 List of fossil sites (with link directory)
 List of hominina (hominid) fossils (with images)
 International Museum for Family History

References

 Morwood, Mike, and van Oosterzee, Penny. 2007. A new human: the startling discovery and strange story of the "hobbits" of Flores, Indonesia. Smithsonian Books.

Further reading
Pat Shipman, The Man who Found the Missing Link. Eugène Dubois and His Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin Right, Harvard University Press (April 30, 2002), 528 pages, .

External links

 DUBOIS - The Quest for the Missing Link, www.eugenedubois.eu
 Biographies: Eugene Dubois at TalkOrigins Archive
 https://web.archive.org/web/20180903062402/http://www.cryingvoice.com/Evolution/ApeMen2.html
 Fossil Hominids, Human Evolution: Thomas Huxley & Eugene Dubois at www.understandingevolution.org

1858 births
1940 deaths
20th-century Dutch geologists
Dutch paleontologists
Dutch anatomists
Dutch anthropologists
Paleoanthropologists
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
People from Eijsden-Margraten
19th-century Dutch anatomists
20th-century Dutch anatomists
19th-century Dutch geologists
University of Amsterdam alumni
Dutch people of Walloon descent

Eugène Dubois


In psychology and medicine, a syndrome is when there are multiple symptoms. These symptoms may be related. In some cases the way in which they are related is known, in other cases it is not.  When both the relationship of symptoms and their causes are known, people generally talk about a disease.

Symptoms that occur together in similar contexts are often related, or have a common cause. Some syndromes, such as Down syndrome have only one cause. In the case of Down syndrome, the cause is known. Other syndromes, such as Pakinsonian syndrome may have many causes, and finding the exact cause may be difficult.

Syndrome