The temple priests perform the pooja (rituals) during festivals and on a daily basis. Like other Vishnu temples of Tamil Nadu, the priests belong to the Vaishnavaite community, a Brahmin sub-caste. The temple rituals are performed six times a day: Ushathkalam at 7 a.m., Kalasanthi at 8:00 a.m., Uchikalam at 12:00 p.m., Sayarakshai at 6:00 p.m., Irandamkalam at 7:00 p.m. and Ardha Jamam at 10:00 p.m. The Vaikhanasa Agama Shastrams and Thengalai Vaishnava traditions are followed in all the temple rituals. Each ritual has three steps: alangaram (decoration), neivethanam (food offering) and deepa aradanai (waving of lamps) for both Adi Jagannatha and Padmasini. During the last step of worship, nagaswaram (pipe instrument) and tavil (percussion instrument) are played, religious instructions in the Vedas (sacred text) are recited by priests, and worshippers prostrate themselves in front of the temple mast. There are weekly, monthly and fortnightly rituals performed in the temple. The two major festivals celebrated in the temple are the Panguni Brahmotsavam for Adi Jagannathar and Rama Navami Utsavam during the Tamil month of Chittirai. Other major festivals celebrated in Vishnu temples in South India like Vaikunta Ekadashi, Krishna Jayanthi, Pongal and Diwali, are also celebrated.
The temple is revered in Nalayira Divya Prabandham, the 7th–9th century Vaishnava canon, by Thirumangai Alvar in one hymn. The temple is classified as a Divyadesam, one of the 108 Vishnu temples that are mentioned in the book. The temple is revered in 20 verses of Thirumangai Azhwar in his Periya Thirumozhi in Nalayira Divya Prabandham. The epic is also described by Kambar in his work Kamba Ramayanam.


WikiWeb_Adikesava Perumal Temple, Kanyakumari_1

The temple architecture is Dravidian style architecture with wooden pillars, doors and roofs. The Temple is surrounded by a thirty-feet-high fort wall. The outer corridor stand on 224 stone pillars. The adjacent forward facing mandapams includes sculptures and art works which depicts events from Ramayana. It also portrays Gods and goddesses from Hindu mythology including  Shiva, Parvati and Sri Krishna etc. The lord is lying on his snake couch and has to be viewed through three doors. We could see Lord Shiva near Lord Adikesava Perumal inside the sannidhi. Deepalakshmis are many but none resembles the other. The Otraikkal Mandapam (single stone hall) made of a single stone 3 feet thick, is a marvel. Oorthuva Thandavam, Venugopala, Rathi, Manmatha, Lakshmana and Indrajit are excellently carved. The temple is also renowned for its murals.
The composite columns of Virabhadra holding sword and horn are found be additions of the Vijayanagara kings during the early 1500s. Similar columns of Virabhadra are found in Meenakshi Temple at Madurai, Nellaiappar Temple at Tirunelveli, Kasi Viswanathar temple at Tenkasi, Krishnapuram Venkatachalapathy temple, Ramanathaswamy Temple at Rameswaram, Soundararajaperumal temple at Thadikombu, Srivilliputhur Andal temple, Srivaikuntanathan Perumal temple at Srivaikuntam, Avudayarkovil, Vaishnava Nambi and Thirukurungudivalli Nachiar temple at Thirukkurungudi.
The temple complex includes a Ayyappan temple behind which stands the Ksetra bala Balikkal. It also includes Sree Bali Prakaram and the Yanaikottil. Other deities being located in the south-western corner, the flagmast is located at the west at the  Sree Balippura. As per the stone inscriptions in the pedestal of the flag mast it was renovated by Sree Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma VI in 1071 KE.  The granite entrance of the Chitra Sabha  includes sculptures of the Dwara Palakas, Jaya and Vijaya. Sculptures of Lakshmana and Pathanjali Tandava carved to the left of Sabha Mandapam while that of Indrajith, Muralidhara and Kalabairava are carved  to the right. The image of the chief deity in his sayana posture, is sculpted on the wooden entrance door. Vatteluttu incriptions of Shilpa Shastra are found in adjacent walls. It also includes details about the 11th century Chola King Rajendra Chola.
Sculptures  of Rati and Manmadan is found opposite Udaya Marthanda Mandapam.  The epic scenes Vinayaka Kalyanam, Bharata War and deities Varuna, Niriyati, Yama, Kubera, Indra, Agni, Brahma and Monks in penance are sculpted in a row above the Mandapam. A variety of mural painting are found along the walls of the inner prakarams. A secret passage leading to the Palace is found beneath the west of the inner prakarams which is covered with a large stone slab.
Going by extant legends, the temple is closely associated with the famous Sree Anantha Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Thiruvananthapuram. Thiruvananthapuram Sri Anantha Padmanabhaswamy temple deity lies in the direction as to see the Thiruvattar Adi kesava deity. The main deity was originally covered with gold kavachams in which diamonds and other precious stones were embedded which the Kerala kings had presented to the temple. There is also a small shrine for Lord Lakshmi Narasimhaswamy near the river and opposite to the Adikesava Perumal Temple. Alvar saint Nammalvar had sung 11 pasurams in praise of Adi Kesava Swamy in the 6th Thiruvai mozhi. There are Three temples related to Adikesava Perumal Temple. It is believed that, the Moolasthanam of all three temples such as Padmanabhaswamy temple, Thiruvananthapuram; Adikesava Perumal Temple, Thiruvattar and Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam is Ananthapadmanabhaswamy Temple or Anantha Lake Temple near Kumbla in Manjeshwaram Taluk of Kasaragod District of Kerala, South India.


The Adina Mosque is a former mosque in Malda District, West Bengal, India. It was the largest such structure in the Indian subcontinent and was built during the Bengal Sultanate as a royal mosque by Sikandar Shah, who is also buried inside.  The mosque is situated in Pandua, a former royal capital.
The vast architecture is associated with the hypostyle of the Umayyad Mosque, which was used during the introduction of Islam in new areas. The early Bengal Sultanate harbored imperial ambitions after having defeated the Delhi Sultanate twice in 1353 and 1359. The Adina Mosque was commissioned in 1373. Its construction reused materials from pre-Islamic Hindu and Buddhist structures.
According to the List of Monuments of National Importance in West Bengal (serial no. N-WB-81) Adina Mosque is an ASI listed monument.


The design of the mosque incorporated Bengali, Arab, Persian and Byzantine architecture. Although the mosque is eye-catching from far because of its size, but because of the finely precise executed designed decoration makes it hard to see the characteristics it holds without standing in a good distance from it. It was built with rubble masonry that was covered with brick, stone, coatings of stucco, plaster, concrete, glazing or lime smoothing. Stone flowers were integrated into the arches of the interior and exterior all around the building. Its plan is similar to the Great Mosque of Damascus. It had a rectangular hypostyle structure with an open courtyard. There were several hundred domes. The structure measured 172 by 97 m. The entire western wall evokes the imperial style of pre-Islamic Sasanian Persia. The mosque's most prominent feature is its monumental ribbed barrel vault over the central nave, the first such huge vault built in the subcontinent, and another feature shared in common with the Sassanian style. The mosque consciously imitated Persianate imperial grandeur. The prayer hall is five aisles deep, while the north, south and east cloisters around the courtyard consist of triple aisles. In total, these aisles had 260 pillars and 387 domed bays. The interior of the courtyard is a continuous façade of 92 arches surmounted by a parapet, beyond which the domes of the bays can be seen. The ornament on the building is simple, but if you look closer you can see the intensity and disciple in the engravings that have been created on the walls and arches. The interior elevated platform, which was the gallery of the Sultan and his officials, still exists. The Sultan's tomb chamber is attached with the western wall.


The mosque was built during the reign of Sikandar Shah, the second Sultan of the Ilyas Shahi dynasty of the Bengal Sultanate. The mosque was designed to display the kingdom's imperial ambitions after its two victories against the Delhi Sultanate in the 14th century. Stones from demolished Hindu temples were used in construction. A few parts of the mosque's exterior wall have carvings like elephants and dancing figures. Historians have considered whether the builders used stone from pre-Islamic structures or whether the mosque was built on the site of a pre-existing ruin. Inscriptions on the mosque proclaimed Sikandar Shah as "the exalted Sultan" and the "Caliph of the faithful". The Sultan was buried in a tomb chamber attached to the wall facing the direction of Mecca.
The mosque was located in the historic city of Pandua, a former capital of the Bengal Sultanate. Pandua was a thriving and cosmopolitan trading center during the period of the sultanate.


The Adirondack Canoe Classic, also known as the 90-miler, is a three-day, 90-mile (140 km) canoe race from Old Forge to Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks of New York, United States.  The race has drawn as many as 500 competitors from California to Florida, New Zealand and Canada paddling 250 canoes, kayaks and guideboats.  Included in the ninety mile length is 5.25 miles (8.45 km) of carries.
Held every fall since 1983, the race follows routes traveled by the region’s early settlers and Adirondack guides, a chain of lakes, rivers and carries that is also the first leg of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail.


The race is limited to 275 boats, and fills soon after applications are made available.  While each year sees a substantial number of true racers, the largest classes are recreational paddlers.  Many older paddlers participate well into their 70s, and C4 boats with four generations of a family are not unknown.
There have been many collegiate teams that have competed in the race. Hamilton College has a canoe racing team that takes part in the 90-miler every year. In 2018, the Hamilton team sent 20 paddlers who all completed the course.
Classes include C1, C2, C4, K1, K2, War Canoe and Guideboats.


The original course followed the historic "Highway of the Adirondacks", a continuous route from Old Forge, via the Moose River through the Fulton Chain Lakes, to Raquette Lake, then via the Raquette River to Forked Lake, Long Lake and finally via the Stony Creek Ponds and the Indian Carry to Upper Saranac Lake. The route then proceeded via Bartletts Carry to Middle Saranac Lake and Lower Saranac Lake, ending at the New York State Boat Launch on Lake Flower.
Over the years, the route has been adjusted to deal with the logistics of what has become a 250-boat race.  The route is now broken into three discontinuous one-day segments—the endpoints are chosen with accommodations in mind.  As a result, the first day's route now proceeds from Raquette Lake via the Marion River and the Eckford chain of Lakes to Blue Mountain Lake.
The second day's race starts near the bottom of Long Lake proceeds via the Raquette River to the New York State boat launch on New York State Route 3, five miles (8 km) east of Tupper Lake.
The third day starts at the state campground on Fish Creek, off of Upper Saranac Lake and then proceeds via Bartletts Carry to Middle Saranac Lake, the Saranac River, Lower Saranac Lake, Oseetah Lake and Lake Flower, where the race ends at Prescott Park in the village of Saranac Lake.  There are 5.25 miles (8.45 km) of carries.
The race is hosted by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Central Adirondack Association, and the Adirondack Watershed Alliance.  In 2005 and 2006, the event was named race of the year by the New York Marathon Canoe Racing Association.


'Adler After Dark', the Adler Planetarium's 21+ evening event, was voted "Best After Hours Event" of 2013 by the Chicago Reader and "Best Date Night" by Chicago Parent. Guests at Adler After Dark have open museum access, themed programs, sky shows and views of the Chicago skyline. 'Astro Overnights' give families a chance to spend a night under the stars at the Adler. Guests have open museum access, a sky show and educational programming. The Astronomy Department at the Adler brings current topics in astronomy to guests through a quarterly lecture series.
The Adler hosts quarterly 'Hack Days', intended to encourage software developers, designers, scientists, engineers, artists and people who just like to create and build, to work together to solve problems. Participants at the Adler's summer camps build rockets, launch high-altitude balloons, and explore the edge of space. The Adler's hands-on summer camps are designed for children ages 5–14.


Adlington Hall stands in open countryside to the west of the village of Adlington, Cheshire, England.  It was designated a Grade I listed building on 25 July 1952.  Grade I listing means that the building is acknowledged to be "of exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important".  The hall is still privately owned by the Legh family, who live in the hall.  It is open to the public and for guided tours for groups at advertised times. The Great Hall and the Hunting Lodge are available to be hired for weddings and social functions.  The south wing of the stable block has been converted into eight flats and is known as The Mews.  It has been designated as a Grade II* listed building.  Grade II* listing applies to "particularly important buildings of more than special interest".  The east wing is listed Grade II and has been converted into two flats and tea rooms. The landscape park has been registered at Grade II* in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.  Designation as Grade II* on the Register means that the site is "particularly important, of more than special interest".
The Hall was used as the location for Stoke Moran, home of Dr Grimesby Roylott, in the episode "The Speckled Band" (1984) of the Granada TV series Sherlock Holmes.


The Admiralspalast (German for admiral palace) is a 1,756-seat theatre on Friedrichstraße in the Mitte district of Berlin, Germany. Opened in 1910, it is one of the few preserved variety venues of the pre-World War II era in the city.
As a place of amusement the Admiralspalast originally included a skating rink, a public bath, bowling alleys, a café and a cinema open day and night. After World War I it changed to a revue theatre, starting with the show Drunter und drüber by Walter Kollo, later continued by the performance of operettas.
As the building suffered little damage from World War II bombing, it was home to the Berlin State Opera until the reconstruction of the Berlin State Opera house in 1955. On April 21–22 1946, the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Communist Party of Germany in the Soviet occupation zone held a convention at the Admiralspalast where they merged to become the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. The performance of revues and operettas were continued under the name of Metropol-Theater until its disestablishment in 1997.
The GDR Union of Journalists had its offices inside the Admiralspalast.
On August 11, 2006, it reopened with The Threepenny Opera, directed by Klaus Maria Brandauer.


Admiralty Arch is a landmark building in London providing road and pedestrian access between The Mall, which extends to the southwest, and Trafalgar Square to the northeast. Admiralty Arch, commissioned by King Edward VII in memory of his mother, Queen Victoria, and designed by Aston Webb, is now a Grade I listed building. In the past, it served as residence of the First Sea Lord and was used by the Admiralty. Until 2011, the building housed government offices. In 2012, the government sold the building on a 125-year lease for £60m for a proposed redevelopment into a Waldorf Astoria luxury hotel and four apartments. The hotel is scheduled to open in 2023.


The arch was designed by Aston Webb, who also designed the Victoria Memorial and the new façade of Buckingham Palace at the other end of the Mall. Admiralty Arch was constructed by John Mowlem & Co and completed in 1912. It adjoins the Old Admiralty Building, hence the name. The building was commissioned by King Edward VII in memory of his mother Queen Victoria, although he did not live to see its completion in 1912. Admiralty Arch served as the official residence of the First Sea Lord, including Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma. It also housed various government offices, initially for the Admiralty.
The structure, which combines the features of a triumphal arch with those of a government office building, is asymmetrical. As viewed from the Mall, the right wing of the building has one floor more than the left one: below the cornice there are three on the right, but just two on the left.
A Latin inscription along the top reads:
The sculptural figures of Navigation (left) and Gunnery (right) at the end of the two wings were designed by the English sculptor Thomas Brock.
Beneath the building is a warren of tunnels and chambers, including vaults which used to house the government archives.
In 2000, the Cabinet Office moved into offices in the building, while maintaining its headquarters on Whitehall. It was also home to the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit and the Social Exclusion Task Force. In 2011, as part of the United Kingdom government austerity programme, the building became vacant and was put up for sale for a reported £75 million. In October 2012, the winning bidder was reported to be the Spanish real estate developer Rafael Serrano, who planned to turn the property into a luxury hotel. The property was sold as a 125-year lease.
In August 2013, Westminster City Council granted full planning permission for the restoration and conversion of Admiralty Arch into a 100-room hotel, residences and private members' club.
The architects Blair Associates have been retained by property developer Prime Investors Capital (run by Rafael Serrano) to convert the building into a hotel, restaurant and four apartments. The residences went on sale in July 2016. The hotel is scheduled to open as a Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts property by 2022.
There is reputedly an underground passage connecting Admiralty Arch to 10 Downing Street.


As the ceremonial entrance from Trafalgar Square to The Mall, itself the ceremonial road leading up to Buckingham Palace, Admiralty Arch plays an important role on ceremonial occasions. Processions at royal weddings, funerals, coronations and other public processions such as the 2012 processions at the end of the Olympic and Paralympic Games all passed under its arches. The central archway is reserved for use by royalty.


Two lighthouses have been built on Admiralty Head. Only the second remains. Admiralty Head, the east entrance point of Admiralty Inlet, is the southeast extremity of a succession of bluffs extending northward along the western shore of Whidbey Island to Point Partridge, where the bluffs attain their highest elevation.
Original lighthouse
In 1858, the United States purchased 10 acres (4.0 ha) on the headland for $400. The original lighthouse was a wooden, two-story house with tower projecting from the gable. It was completed in 1861. It had a fourth order Fresnel lens, which was visible at 16 miles (26 km). In 1890, construction of Fort Casey forced the relocation of the lighthouse to a spot close to the site of the present lighthouse. It was demolished in 1928.
Present lighthouse
A second, 30-foot-tall (9.1 m) lighthouse, constructed of brick and stucco, was built in 1903. The design by Carl Leick incorporated thick walls meant to withstand earthquakes and the concussion of Fort Casey's guns.  The lighthouse was deactivated in 1922, and the lantern moved to the New Dungeness Lighthouse in 1927. During its later occupancy by the Army, the lighthouse was used as a training facility for the K-9 dog program. In 1990, the U.S. Postal Service issued a 25-cent stamp featuring the Admiralty Head Light.
Restoration
The lighthouse has been restored by Washington State Parks and is sponsored by the Lighthouse Environmental Program (LEP), a collaborative function between Washington State University's Extension Office and local environmental programs. In 2012, an historically accurate reconstruction of the lantern house was installed atop the tower. The work was done by student volunteers from three Whidbey Island high schools.


Admiralty House is the Sydney official residence of the governor-general of Australia. It is located in the suburb of Kirribilli, on the northern foreshore of Sydney Harbour (adjacent to Kirribilli House, which is the Sydney official residence of the Australian Prime Minister). This large Victorian Regency and Italianate sandstone manor, completed in stages based on designs by James Barnet and Walter Liberty Vernon, occupies the tip of Kirribilli Point. Once known as "Wotonga", it has commanding views across Sydney Harbour to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.
Its current name originates in the fact that it served as the residence for the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy's Australia Squadron from 1885 to 1913.
The original building on the site was completed, as a private dwelling, in mid-to-late 1843, by John George Nathaniel Gibbes, the then Collector of Customs for New South Wales and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. A portrait of Gibbes, painted in 1808, hangs in the house.
On 22 June 2004 Admiralty House was placed on the Commonwealth Heritage List.


Admiralty House is an official residence of the Governor-General of Australia, and accommodates important overseas visitors to Sydney. The Royal Family and other dignitaries, such as the President of the United States and the Pope, are entertained at Admiralty House when they are in Sydney.
Admiralty House, its grounds, and Kirribilli House are usually open to the public once a year, sometime in spring when the gardens are at their best. Security concerns caused the cancellation of openings from 2001 to 2005.


The Adolphus W. Brower House, in Sycamore, Illinois, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since February 14, 1979. The home is located on Illinois Route 64 as it passes through the DeKalb County seat of Sycamore as DeKalb Avenue. The Italianate structure, constructed of stone and asphalt, was erected in 1876 by Sycamore merchant Adolphus W. Brower. It is also known as the George F. Beasley House.


This two-storey governmental structure follows a Neo-Classical tradition, with an emphasized horizontality and symmetrical form, particularly on the design of its façade. The central bay had three arched entrances and two principal staircases built around the two atriums. The rectangular fenestration on the upper most story were decorated with rustication. The window-like portals opening out to small balconies were framed with pilasters topped with ornate capitals and were adorned with elaborate geometrical grillework. Similar ornate grillework also decorated the main entryways in the building.


The bridge spans the Duluth Ship Canal, which was put through the miles-long sand spit named Minnesota Point — commonly called Park Point by locals — in 1870–1871. The natural mouth of the Saint Louis River is about seven miles (11 km) farther southeast, and is split between Minnesota and Wisconsin. Creating this gap in the sand spit  meant that residents who lived on the new island needed to have a way to get across. Several transportation methods were tried, though they were complicated by the weather.  Ferries could work in the summer, but ice caused problems in colder months. A swinging footbridge was used, but was considered rather rickety and unsafe.
In 1892, a contest was held to find a solution. The winning design came from John Low Waddell, who drew up plans for a high-rise vertical lift bridge. The city of Duluth was eager to build the bridge, which would have been about 130 feet (40 m) wide. However, the War Department objected to the design, and the project was canceled before it could be built. Waddell's design went on to be built in Chicago, Illinois, as the slightly larger South Halsted Street Bridge, which was removed in 1932.
New plans were later drawn up for a structure that would ferry people from one side to the other. This type of span, known variously as an aerial transfer, ferry, or transporter bridge, was first demonstrated in Bilbao's Vizcaya Bridge in 1893 and one in France in 1898. Duluth's bridge was inspired by the one in France, though the actual construction is quite different. The architect was a city engineer, Thomas McGilvray.
When it was completed in 1905, the Aerial Bridge's gondola had a capacity of 60 short tons (54 tonnes) and could carry 350 people plus wagons, streetcars or automobiles. A trip across the canal took about one minute, and the ferry car moved across once every five minutes during busy times of the day.  A growing population on Minnesota Point, a greater demand for cars, and an increase in tourism soon meant that the bridge's capacity was being stretched to the limit.
A remodeling was planned that would remove the gondola and incorporate a lifting platform into the structure. The firm finally commissioned with designing the new bridge was the descendant of Waddell's company. The new design, which closely resembles the 1892 concept, is attributed to C.A.P. Turner. Reconstruction began in 1929. In order to ensure that tall ships could still pass under the bridge, the top span had to be raised to accommodate the new deck when raised. The support columns on either side were also modified so that they could hold new counterweights to balance the weight of the lifting portion. The new bridge first lifted for a vessel, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tugboat Essayons, on March 29, 1930.
The bridge can be raised to its full height of 135 feet in about a minute, and is raised about 5,000 times per year.  The span is about 390 feet (120 meters). As ships pass, there is a customary horn-blowing sequence that is copied back. The bridge's "horn" is actually made up of two Westinghouse Airbrake locomotive horns. Long-short-short is known as the Captain's Salute and is the most common of the ship signal exchanges. However, on November 10th, the anniversary of the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald with all hands in Lake Superior, the Lift Bridge exchanges a special salute with the SS Arthur M. Anderson when she comes into Duluth Harbor in honor of the Fitzgerald and its crew as the Anderson was the last lake freighter to have contact with the Fitzgerald before she went down and was the first vessel on scene to search in vain for survivors. The exchange is known as the master salute consisting of the horn sequence of long-long-long-short-short.
The bridge was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2017.


Originally, on the site of the castle there was a hostel.  The castle was designed from the beginning as a representative, multi-story mansion.  Therefore, little value was placed on the defensive capability of the structure.  The nearby Pfeffingen Castle provided the family with a defensive fortress, and the power of gunpowder weapons at the time meant that castles were no longer effective as fortresses.
The main building has a basement with a vaulted cellar.  On the north and west of the palace buildings there were several support buildings including a wine-press and stables, some of which are still in existence today.  The builder is not known with certainty, but it could be, according to surviving receipts, be Michael Brauwn or Braun.
Baroque extensions to the castle took place in 1730 and 1740 and at this time the French garden was added.  The wall around the whole complex was decorated with several turrets and bartizans while lattice doors ensured accessibility to the grounds.
Most of the current castle exterior dates back to the state after the great expansion in the 18th Century.  However, the perimeter wall has been significantly adjusted and some portions have been totally demolished.  Due to the many different functions that the castle has served, the interiors have been changed significantly.
The park is easily accessible to the public and the castle can be visited whenever the local government offices are open.  The vaulted cellar is now expanded and used for special events and can be rented from the local authority.  In the west, a former outbuilding now houses the local museum of Aesch.


AfE-Turm ('AfE Tower') was a 38-story (32 office floors), 116 m (381 ft) skyscraper in the Westend district of Frankfurt, Germany. The building was part of the Bockenheim campus of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University and until 2013 housed the offices and seminar rooms of the departments of Social Sciences and Education. AfE is an acronym for Abteilung für Erziehungswissenschaft (Department of Pedagogy); however, this department never moved in because it was closed before the construction of the tower was finished, which happened in 1972. The tower was demolished on February 2, 2014.


The departments of Social Sciences and Education moved to the University's Westend Campus in Spring 2013. The building had been empty since the end of April 2013. The gradual demolition of the tower commenced in July 2013 and was finalized at the end of January 2014, when authorities gave the green light for its implosion. The implosion occurred on 2 February 2014, at 10:04 CET.


The Afan Forest Park (formally and locally known as Afan Argoed Country Park) is a 48-square-mile (120 km²) forest park in Britain. It is set in the Afan Valley in Neath Port Talbot, in south Wales. It is well known for its mountain biking and hiking or hillwalking trails. It is situated seven miles (11 km) from Junction 40 of the M4 (the Port Talbot turn).


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The African American Museum of Dallas was established in 1974 as a part of the Special Collections at Bishop College, a historically black college which closed in 1988. The Museum has operated independently since 1979. The $7 million edifice was funded through private donations and a 1985 Dallas City bond election that provided $1.2 million for the construction of the new facility. The Museum is the only one of its kind in the Southwestern United States devoted to the preservation and display of African American artistic, cultural and historical materials. It also boasts having one of the largest African American Folk Art collections in the U.S.
The Museum's operators say they strive to present a meaningful experience to children and adults who do not normally visit art museums. The museum houses a rich heritage of American art and history in four vaulted galleries that are augmented by a research library. The Museum's permanent collections include African art; African American art; magazine, historical, political, and community archives. Visitors can also experience African American culture through many educational and entertaining programs that are frequently presented in an "educational plaza", which includes a theater and classrooms.


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The current museum building occupies virtually the same site as the Texas Centennial Exposition's Hall of Negro Life. It boasts a permanent collection that consists of the works of such highly regarded African American artists as Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Larry D. Alexander, John T. Biggers, Clementine Hunter, Benny Andrews, Edward Mitchell Bannister, and Arthello Beck.


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African Burial Ground National Monument is a monument at Duane Street and African Burial Ground Way (Elk Street) in the Civic Center section of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Its main building is the Ted Weiss Federal Building at 290 Broadway. The site contains the remains of more than 419 Africans buried during the late 17th and 18th centuries in a portion of what was the largest colonial-era cemetery for people of African descent, some free, most enslaved. Historians estimate there may have been as many as 10,000–20,000 burials in what was called the Negroes Burial Ground in the 18th century. The five to six acre site's excavation and study was called "the most important historic urban archaeological project in the United States." The Burial Ground site is New York's earliest known African-American cemetery; studies show an estimated 15,000 African American people were buried here.
The discovery highlighted the forgotten history of enslaved Africans in colonial and federal New York City, who were integral to its development. By the American Revolutionary War, they constituted nearly a quarter of the population in the city. New York had the second-largest number of enslaved Africans in the nation after Charleston, South Carolina. Scholars and African-American civic activists joined to publicize the importance of the site and lobby for its preservation. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993 and a national monument in 2006 by President George W. Bush.
In 2003 Congress appropriated funds for a memorial at the site and directed redesign of the federal courthouse to allow for this. A design competition attracted more than 60 proposals. The memorial was dedicated in 2007 to commemorate the role of Africans and African Americans in colonial and federal New York City, and in United States history. Several pieces of public art were also commissioned for the site. A visitor center opened in 2010 to provide interpretation of the site and African-American history in New York.


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After the city closed the cemetery in 1794, the area was platted for development. The grade of the land was raised with up to 25 feet (7.6 metres) of landfill at the lowest points covering the cemetery, thus preserving the burials and the original grade level. As urban development took place over the fill, the burial ground was largely forgotten. The first large-scale development on the land was the construction of the A.T. Stewart Company Store, the country's first department store; it opened in 1846 at the corner of 280 Broadway and Chambers Street. Several skeletons were unearthed during the commencement of building the store.
The site's earliest discovery in the early 19th century seems to have aroused little interest.  According to an article in The New York Tribune, homeowner James Gemmel, who owned a house at 290 Broadway in the early 19th century, told an unnamed daughter that when the cellar for their house was being dug many human bones were found.  He assumed that he had discovered a potter's field. In 1897, when the building at 290 Broadway  was demolished to make way for the R. G. Dun and Company Building (later financial firm of Dun & Bradstreet), workers in excavating found a large number of human bones. Some concluded at that time that these were connected to a 1741 incident in which thirteen African Americans were burned at the stake and eighteen were hanged, however others wondered whether the bones were of Dutch or Indian origin. Many bones were taken as souvenirs by so-called "relic hunters."


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Initially, GSA had planned full archaeological retrieval of the remains as full mitigation of the effects of its construction project on the burial ground. Within the year, its teams removed the remains of 419 persons from the site, but it had become clear that the extent of the burial ground was too large to be fully excavated. In 1992, activists staged a protest at the site about GSA's handling of the burial issue, especially when it was found that some intact burials were broken up during construction excavation at part of the site. GSA halted construction until the site could be thoroughly assessed. It provided additional funding to conduct a further archaeological excavation to reveal any other bodies on the site and to assess the remains. Located between New York City Hall and the federal courts, the site had symbolic value. The "invisibility" of Black history in New York City partially accounts for the importance of the Foley Square site"; activists hoped to find a means there to redress "the injustice and the imbalance of the historic record, and to give voice to the silenced ones".
Although archaeologists studied the site and the remains for almost a dozen years, critics of the construction project believed GSA's original archaeological research design was inadequate, as it did not require a plan for the treatment of uncovered remains. In addition, the African-descendant community in New York City was not consulted in the development of the research design, nor were any archaeologists who had experience studying the African diaspora, although GSA had distributed the EIS to more than 200 state and local agencies and stakeholders, many recommended by the city. In the early stages of the project, national GSA officials and related Congressional committees directed that excavation and construction proceed.
Oversight of the project increased by stakeholders, such as the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and community activists. After continued protests from a coalition of community members, politicians, and scholars, in 1992 the House Subcommittee on Public Works held budget hearings for GSA in New York, at which it heard testimony from a wide variety of critics of GSA's handling of the project and also heard from the GSA Administrator. Several changes occurred. Control of the burial site was transferred from an archaeological firm in the city to the physical anthropologist Michael Blakey and his team at Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, D.C., for study at the Montague Cobb Biological Anthropology Laboratory. This ensured that African-American students would participate in studies of their ethnic ancestors' remains.


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In large part due to activism by the African-American community, the United States Congress passed, and on October 6, 1992 President George H. W. Bush signed, HR 5488 “The Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Appropriations Act” (which became Public Law 102-393) which ordered the GSA to immediately cease construction, archeological excavation & skeletal exhumation on the pavilion portion of the Ted Weiss Federal Building (where the remains had been found) and to appropriate $3 million to modify the pavilion foundation, prevent further deterioration of the burial ground & memorialize the site. The southern portion of the building, slated to be built on the parcel by Duane and Elk Streets, was eliminated to provide adequate room for a memorial.
In addition, activists lobbied for landmark status for the burial ground, and gathered 100,000 signatures to send to the U.S. Department of the Interior. On April 19, 1993, 0.34 acre of the African Burial Ground was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (#93001597) and became a National Historic Landmark. Given its importance, GSA proposed partial mitigation of the adverse effects to the burial ground of the construction of 290 Broadway, by undertaking programs of data analysis, curation, and education.  There was also growing support for a museum on the site to interpret African-American experience and history in New York. The discovery and long controversy received national media attention, raising interest and awareness in public archaeology projects. Theresa Singleton, an archaeologist at the Smithsonian Institution said,
The media exposure has created a larger, national audience for this type of research. I've been called by dozens of scholars and laypeople, all of them interested in African-American archaeology, all of them curious about why they don't know more about the field. Until recently, even some black scholars considered African-American archaeology a waste of time. That's changed now.
Government and private developers learned about the need to "include descendant communities in their salvage excavations, especially when human remains are concerned." The findings at the burial ground already had highlighted some of the losses of slavery, as African Americans had not been recently recognized as a major part of early New York history until then. As the journalist Edward Rothstein wrote, "Among the scars left by the heritage of slavery, one of the greatest is an absence: where are the memorials, cemeteries, architectural structures or sturdy sanctuaries that typically provide the ground for a people’s memory?"


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In total, the intact remains of 419 men, women and children of African descent were found at the site, where they had been buried individually in wooden boxes. There were no mass burials. Nearly half were children under 12, indicating the high mortality rate of the time. Historians and anthropologists estimate that over the decades, as many as 15,000–20,000 Africans were buried in Lower Manhattan. They have determined that this was the largest colonial-era cemetery for enslaved African people. It is also "possibly the largest and earliest collection of American colonial remains of any ethnic group." Some of the burials included items related to African origins and burial practices.
The work of excavation and study of the remains was considered the "most important historic urban archaeological project undertaken in the United States." These remains stand for the estimated tens of thousands of persons at the burial ground and historically in New York, representing Africans' "critical" role in "the formation and development of this city and, by extension, the Nation."
As a result of public engagement, the Howard University team identified four questions which the community hoped to have answered from studies of the remains:
"cultural background and origins of the burial population;
the cultural and biological transformations from African to African-American identities;
quality of life brought about by enslavement in the Americas; and
modes of resistance to enslavement."
Before the erection of the monument, the burial ground had endured an immense amount of abuse. Archeologists found a substantial amount of industrial waste and ceramics while excavating the site. Archaeologists concluded that burial ground was being used as a dumpsite by Europeans during the 18th century. The burial ground was also subject to grave robbing and looting during this time. In April 1788, the Doctor Riot spread throughout New York City. The riots were led by physicians that would steal corpses from graves to study them as the supply of medical corpses was extremely low. Many of these stolen corpses came from the African Burial Ground. There was speculation that the grounds were not only being looted but were overcrowding due to the burial of unclaimed bodies in the place of the stolen remains.
Some bodies had items buried with them, as part of personal and cultural rituals. An example is the silver pendant shown at right. Some heads showed filed teeth, an African ritual decoration. Howard University did forensic studies, assessing the remains for nutrition, diseases and indicators of general living conditions for African slaves and free blacks.
After the Howard University studies were completed, the 419 skeletons were placed in the Ancestral Reinterment Grove here on October 4, 2003 in a ceremony including the "Rites of Ancestral Return".  They were placed in hand-carved wooden coffins made in Ghana & lined with Kente cloth, which were placed in 7 sacrophagi & buried in 7 burial mounds with the heads facing west.  The "commemorative ceremony was inclusive and international in scope, and was organized by GSA and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture" of the New York Public Library. This emotional memorial stretched over multiple cities including Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, and finally Manhattan. Thousands attended the reinterment and commemoration.


On 3 April 2010, the African Renaissance Monument was unveiled in Dakar in front of 19 African heads of state, including President of Malawi and the African Union, Bingu wa Mutharika, Jean Ping of the African Union Commission and the Presidents of Benin, Cape Verde, Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, The Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania and Zimbabwe, as well as representatives from North Korea, and Jesse Jackson and musician Akon, both from the United States, all of whom were given a tour.
President Wade said, "It brings to life our common destiny. Africa has arrived in the 21st century standing tall and more ready than ever to take its destiny into its hands." President Bingu said, "This monument does not belong to Senegal. It belongs to the African people wherever we are."


The Aga Khan Museum (French: Musée Aga Khan) is a museum of Islamic art, Iranian (Persian) art and Muslim culture located at 77 Wynford Drive in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is dedicated to Islamic art and objects, and it houses approximately 1,200 rare objects assembled by His Highness the Aga Khan and Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan. As an initiative of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network, the museum is dedicated to presenting an overview of the artistic, intellectual, and scientific contributions that Muslim civilizations have made to world heritage. The Museum’s mission is to foster a greater understanding and appreciation of the contribution that Muslim civilizations have made to world heritage. Through education, research, and collaboration, the Museum will foster dialogue and promote tolerance and mutual understanding among people. In addition to the Permanent Collection, the Aga Khan Museum features several temporary exhibitions each year that respond to current scholarship, emerging themes, and new artistic developments. The Museum Collection and exhibitions are complemented by educational programs and performing arts events.


While a permanent home was being built for the collection, selected items went on tour in Europe.  Exhibitions took place at the following institutions:
Palazzo della Pilotta in Parma
Ismaili Centre in London
Louvre in Paris
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon
CaixaForum Madrid
CaixaForum Barcelona
Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin
Sakıp Sabancı Museum in Istanbul
The Hermitage in St. Petersburg
The exhibits received wide international acclaim. The exhibit conveys both Dīn and Dunya, which can be translated as 'Spirit & Life' — the religious and secular aspects of life which are inextricably linked in Muslim cultures. The first exhibitions were organized in two parts: The Word of God consisting of sacred texts and related objects and The Power of the Sovereign reflecting Muslim courts and their figures.  More recent exhibitions have been organized as The Word of God and The Route of the Travellers showing the geographic breadth of the Islamic world.


The Aga Khan Museum was open to the public on September 18, 2014. Michael Brand  served as the museum's first Director and CEO, followed by Henry Kim from 2012 to 2020. Prince Amyn Aga Khan was appointed the new Chairman of the Board effective May 18, 2016. The role was previously held by his brother, the Aga Khan, who still maintains a close connection to the museum as the sole Member of the Organization.
In 2016, RGD InHouse Design presented the Award of Distinction to the Aga Khan Museum for the exhibition Home Ground: Contemporary Art from the Barjeel Art Foundation (July 25, 2015 - January 3, 2016).
The Director of Collections and Public Programs, Dr. Ulrike Al-Khamis began her appointment on September 1, 2017. Dr.  Al-Khamis was appointed Director and CEO in 2021. In 2017, the Aga Khan Museum Shop also launched an online shopping platform. Most items online and onsite were commissioned exclusively for the Aga Khan Museum. In many instances, the items — jewellery, books, clothing, artwork, and more — are connected to the Aga Khan Museum’s temporary exhibitions as well as its Permanent Collection.
The Aga Khan Museum was recognized as one of the best museums in Toronto by Conde Nast Traveler in 2018. In the same year, the Aga Khan Museum’s exhibition, The World of the Fatimids, received a Global Fine Art Award in the Ancient Art (BC – 1200) category, and an honourable mention in the Global Humanity category for the 2017 exhibition, Skate Girls of Kabul. In June 2018, Sri Lankan-born chef Shen Ousmand launched a new menu at the Aga Khan Museum’s restaurant Diwan. The McEwan Group, led by Chef Mark McEwan, has been at the helm of the Museum’s food services since 2016.
In 2022, Line 5 Eglinton, a new line that is part of the Toronto subway system will open an Aga Khan Park & Museum stop.


The Aga Khan Museum is dedicated to the acquisition, preservation, display and interpretation of artifacts relating to the intellectual, cultural, artistic and religious traditions of Muslim communities, past and present. Artifacts include ceramics, metalwork, and paintings covering all periods of Islamic history. Manuscripts in the collection include the earliest known copy of Avicenna's Qanun fi'l-Tibb ("The Canon of Medicine") dated 1052.
The museum will become a repository of historical materials related to the Ismaili community and house research programs related to each one of the aspects of its institutional mission. It will also provide a space for permanent exchanges between the Islamic and the Western worlds on educational, cultural and socio-economic issues.
The collection, which comprises some 1,000 objects, includes several superb examples of Qur'an manuscripts that demonstrate the variety of script, media and decorative styles that evolved in the Muslim world. Among them, an eighth century North African folio demonstrates the earliest style of Kufic script written on parchment. A page from the well known Blue Qur'an provides an example of gold kufic script on indigo-dyed parchment. The Blue Qur'an is considered one of the most extraordinary Qur'an manuscripts ever created; its origins are 9th-tenth century North African, and it was likely created for the Fatimid caliphs ruling from Qayrawan.
Located on the main floor of the museum, the Bellerive Room displays a selection from the ceramics collection of the late Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan and Princess Catherine Aga Khan. The room is a recreation of the “La Chambre Persane,” or “Persian Salon,” in their home, Château de Bellerive in Geneva, Switzerland, where part of the collection was originally on display. There are approximately 60 ceramic objects on view in the Bellerive room. They date from the early Islamic periods through to the 17th century. Their styles reflect the innovative technological and aesthetic contributions of Islamic potters through the ages, which were often in dialogue with influences from as far afield as China and Europe.


Museums and History: At the Aga khan palace in Pune, we can see different objects and documents providing information about life of Mahatma Gandhi
Historically, the palace holds great significance. Mahatma Gandhi, his wife Kasturba Gandhi and his secretary Mahadev Desai were interned in the palace from 9 August 1942 to 6 May 1944, following the launch of Quit India Movement. Kasturba Gandhi and Mahadev Desai died during their captivity period in the palace and have their Samadhis located over there. Mahatma Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi have their memorials located in the same complex, near Mula river. Legend goes that the Sultan built the palace to provide employment to the famine struck villagers of the surrounding region; so he employed 1000 people, and the palace was constructed in five years. It was built in Rs 12 lakhs. The total area is 13 acres and built up palace covers seven acres, and the rest is a well maintained garden.
The palace housed National Model School until early 1970s.
In 1969, Aga Khan Palace was donated to the Indian people by Aga Khan IV as a mark of respect to Gandhi and his philosophy. Today the palace houses a memorial on Gandhi where his ashes were kept. The then prime minister Indira Gandhi had visited the place in 1974 where she allotted a sum of ₹200,000 (US$2,500) every year, for its maintenance. The amount rose to ₹1 million (US$13,000) until the 1990s, after which the national monument of India, was neglected for many years due to improper allocation of funds. There was a protest held at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi near Pune railway station in July 1999 to protest against the worsening condition of the monument. The present condition has improved quite a lot.


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Agate Fossil Beds National Monument is a U.S. National Monument near Harrison, Nebraska. The main features of the monument are a valley of the Niobrara River and the fossils found on Carnegie Hill and University Hill.
The area largely consists of grass-covered plains. Plants on the site include prairie sandreed, blue grama, little bluestem and needle and thread grass, and the wildflowers lupin, spiderwort, western wallflower and sunflowers.


The memorial is located in the heart of London's theatre district. This was chosen to pay homage to Christie's contribution to theatre: her 1952 murder mystery play The Mousetrap is the world's longest-running show, and she was the first female playwright to have three plays performing simultaneously in the West End.
The memorial depicts a book with Christie at its centre. It is about 2.4 metres high and made of bronze. It is lit from below as well as from within. An inscription on the front reads: Agatha / Christie / 1890–1976. It was designed by sculptor Ben Twiston-Davies.
The idea to create this memorial was conceived and implemented by Christie's grandson Mathew Prichard together with Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen, producer of The Mousetrap since 1994. Westminster City Council gave formal consent and offered advice on its construction. Although a bust of Christie had already been erected in Torquay, Devon, this was the first memorial to be erected in London, according to Twiston-Davies. The memorial was unveiled on 25 November 2012, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of The Mousetrap.
On the memorial appear some titles of her most popular books and plays, in English, and in some of the many languages into which Christie's work has been translated. The titles included were chosen in a competition among her fans. The details of the inscriptions can be seen on the official website.


Agathla Peak or Agathlan (Navajo: Aghaałą́, Spanish: El Capitan) is a peak south of Monument Valley, Arizona, which rises over 1500 feet (457 meters) above the surrounding terrain. It is 7 miles (11 km) north of Kayenta and is visible from U.S. Route 163. The English designation Agathla is derived from the Navajo name aghaałą́ meaning 'much wool', apparently for the fur of antelope and deer accumulating on the rock. The mountain is considered sacred by the Navajo.
Agathla Peak is an eroded volcanic plug consisting of volcanic breccia cut by dikes of an unusual igneous rock called minette. It is one of many such volcanic diatremes that are found in Navajo country of northeast Arizona and northwest New Mexico. Agathla Peak and Shiprock in New Mexico are the most prominent. These rocks are part of the Navajo Volcanic Field, in the southern Colorado Plateau. Ages of these minettes and associated more unusual igneous rocks cluster near 25 million years.


Rock climbing is not currently allowed on Aghala Peak and surrounding Navajo Nation lands; however in 1949 there were no such restrictions which lead to first known ascent of the peak was done on May 29, 1949, by Ray Garner, Herb Conn, and Lee Pedrick.
The climbers followed, what is now called "West Face" route (5.8), which is 550 feet long and they brought over 70 pounds of climbing equipment including: 50 pitons, 40 tamp-in bolts (plus two sets of drills, tamp tools and hammers), 15 carabiners, four 120-foot nylon ropes, and twelve quarts of water. The climbing took a whole day and they had to spend the night on the top before descending the next day.


30.07.2022 and 31.07.2022 agaya gangai will be closed due to heavy rain.
From 01.08.2022 to 03.08.2022 agaya gangai waterfalls will be closed due to heavy rain.
Agaya Gangai waterfalls are located in Kolli Hills of the Eastern Ghats, in India. Panchanathi, a jungle stream, cascades down as the Agaya Gangai (English: Ganges of Sky), near Arapaleeswarar temple atop the Kolli Hills in Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu. It is a 300 feet (91 m) waterfall of the river Aiyaru. It is located in a mountain valley. Agaya gangai is also known as Peraruvi or Pei aruvi by the people of Kolli hills because of its scary resemblance and heavy water flow. To reach the agaya gangai, one has to climb down 1196 steps. The stairs are steep. Climbing down takes only 10 minutes. Climibing up takes 20-25 minutes. There are lot of shelters built on the way to take rest.
The caves of Korakka Siddhar and Kalaanginatha Siddhar are situated near the Agaya Gangai waterfalls in the nearby forest.


The present building was constructed in the 12th century, beginning in 1173 under the direction of bishop William II of Agde, replacing a 9th century Carolingian church that had stood on the foundations of a 5th-century Roman church, which stood on the site of a temple of Diana.
The cathedral is remarkable for being built of black basalt from the nearby volcanic Mont St. Loup quarries. The building is extremely strong and was designed to serve as a fortress as much as a church: the walls are between 2 and 3 metres thick, and the square tower, 35 metres high, could also function as a keep (a fortified tower). The very prominent crenellations and machicolations are more characteristic of a fortress than of a church. It was declared a monument historique in 1840.
The Romanesque cloister which once adjoined the cathedral was demolished in 1857. Many of the materials, such as the capitals and the columns, were shortly afterwards reused for the construction of the lady chapel, which is now used as the entrance.
The 17th century high altar is made of polychromatic marble, which stands out against the austere setting of the cathedral's interior, as does the organ's Baroque architectural style.
Of the cathedral's five bells, four are hung in the belltower, and were cast by Burdin-Aîné of Lyon in 1894 and 1895. The fifth is on top of the bellower and is used only for the chiming of the clock. It was cast in 1665 by Damiac Fulcrand at Béziers, and declared a monument historique in 1959.


The Agde Round Lock (French: L'Écluse Ronde d'Agde) is a canal lock on the Canal du Midi that connects to the Hérault River in Agde France. It is almost unique because it is round, which allows a boat to turn around, and the fact that it has three sets of lock gates, each with a different water level.  It was built in 1676 of volcanic stone and was originally 29.20 m in diameter, 5.20 m deep.
The lock is no longer round.  It was expanded during a program begun in 1978 to expand locks to the Freycinet gauge to allow for barges up to 38.50 metres long.
Originally, buildings in the area of the lock included an administration building, stables, shops, and a chapel.
The exits are to Béziers via the western section of the Canal du Midi, to Étang de Thau via the upper Hérault river and the eastern section of the Canal du Midi,  and south to the Mediterranean via the lower Hérault river.
A second French round lock can be found in the form of the now-disused Écluse des Lorraines, connecting the Canal latéral à la Loire with the River Allier.


As with many churches in southern France, its plan is the form of a Latin cross. The nave dates from the 13th century.
Interesting architectural features include the Romanesque apse which is extended by a Gothic frame along a single nave. Replacing an old wooden bell tower, the current tower was built in 1835 at the behest of Bishop Lévézou de Vezins and has the peculiarity of being composed of three Gothic styles, curiously presented in reverse chronological order, ascending.
The paintings on the walls and ceilings represent the history of the coming of Christianity to the region.  A centrepiece is given to the first martyrs of Agen.  Other paintings are by series: the Evangelists, the Apostles, the patriarchs (Abraham, Noah ...) and the great kings of Israel.
The cathedral's nave is much shorter than might be expected judging from the size of the chancel: this was the consequence of earlier political and financial difficulties.


Agganis Arena is a 7,200-seat multi-purpose arena in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, on the campus of Boston University, built on the location of the former Commonwealth Armory. It is home to the five-time national champion Boston University Terriers men's ice hockey team. It is named after Harry Agganis, an outstanding football and baseball athlete for BU and the Boston Red Sox, who died at the age of 26 from a massive pulmonary embolism. A life-size bronze statue of Agganis sculpted by Armand LaMontagne stands outside the arena at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Harry Agganis Way. The hockey rink is named Jack Parker Rink, after the legendary BU hockey player and coach. The arena is part of Boston University's John Hancock Student Village, which also includes dormitories and the university's five-story Fitness and Recreation Center.
Agganis was dedicated in 2004 and hosted its first event in 2005. It replaced Walter Brown Arena, located at the Case Athletic Center, as the home of BU Men's Ice Hockey, though Walter Brown Arena is still in use as the home of BU Women's Ice Hockey.
In the arena's first decade, Boston University basketball played select home games at Agganis, with the remainder being played at Case Gym. The school made the decision before the 2015-2016 season to move all home games back to Case Gym due to poor attendance at Agganis. The last BU basketball game played at Agganis was a 77-70 loss to rival Holy Cross on Feb. 28, 2015.
It serves as a regional auditorium for large events, including concerts, ceremonies of other schools such as Berklee College of Music, musicals, awareness events, and appearances by speakers such as Barack Obama and Dave Chappelle.
Since 2008, Agganis has hosted the annual CRASH-B World Indoor Rowing Championship.


Artists that have performed at the stadium include Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Faith No More, The Eagles, Vans Warped Tour & Paul McCartney, among others.


Aghjots Vank (Armenian: Աղջոց վանք); also known as the Saint Stephen Monastery of Goght (Armenian: Գողթի Սուրբ Ստեփանոս վանք), is a 13th-century monastery situated along a tributary of the Azat River Valley within the Khosrov State Reserve located half a mile walk from the hamlet of Mets Gilanlar, and near the villages of Goght and Garni (approximately 3–4 miles) in the Ararat Province of Armenia.  Not far from this location and also within the reserve is the fortress of Kakavaberd and the monastic complex of Havuts Tar.


The church is a long rectangular building with high gables of which the original north, east and west walls survive. The granite west doorway is lintelled on the outside and arched inside. It has Romanesque moulding on the outside and a draw-bar socket as well as pre Romanesque influences. Two round-headed windows in the east wall have hood mouldings on the outside supported by pillars.


The church is built in the Byzantine architectural cruciform style with three domes. The main church is flanked by two smaller domed chapels, one of which is dedicated to the Life-Giving Spring (Zoodochos Pigi) and the other to Saint John the Theologian. The main church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity and the church has a narthex at the front set at right angles to the main aisle. There are two large Doric-style columns and one smaller, Corinthian-style column on either side of the main entrance. The facade of the church has double columns of Ionian and Corinthian style and bears an inscription in Greek, which is dated to 1631. The monastery's cellar door is dated to 1613. In the 19th century the monastery was established as an important theological school from 1833, and the belfry is dated to 1864. The monastery was later extensively damaged during conflicts with the Turks and in 1892, a seminary was established.


In 1881 the 4-hectare (9.9-acre) plot of land was purchased by Agneta Matthes and Jacob Cornelis van Marken at the price of 16,000 guilders. It was built after the plans of the architect Louis Paul Zocher, who designed an English  Landscape garden—scale park. 48 terraced houses, semi-detached houses and community buildings were placed around the park. The area had no urban infrastructure and was a disadvantage. There were three main buildings, De Gemeenschap (the community), a large house which included a kindergarten and an elementary school which included a dining room and a gym, de Tent (the tent), a music and event pavilion where a grocery store and a bakery business where there was late a clothing shop. Finally, the children's playground, which included a bowling alley, a shooting range and a boathouse for the ability to hire rowing boats. There was also a shooting club, a bowling club, a bicycle club and a brass band. After the death of Jacob Cornelis van Marken, the park became a desirable residential area which offered rental homes. Since 1989, the park has been listed. The villa later had one settlement built around it, the Rust Roest (meaning: resting rusts or: use it or lose it). The founders of the Rust Roest formed a corporation to help the development of the settlement and gave the park staff in 1870.


The shrine is the ancestral home of Emilio Aguinaldo, officially the first President of the Philippines, the only president of the First Philippine Republic.  The house was built in 1845 made from wood and thatch and reconstructed in 1849.  Here, Aguinaldo was born on March 22, 1869.


The castle ensemble consists of three successive buildings built exclusively as a summer residential accommodation for the Ottoman feudal, each as an exclusive functional building. It has three courtyards within which the residences of the feudal lord and his sons were built. The complex also provides for residential buildings for the attendants to the family and casual workers on the farm lands. The farm lands have a shed, barn and other structures related to farming. Each courtyard had a well. The residential area consists of several rooms, salons, passages, tunnels and secret enclosures. The entire complex is encircled by thick walls fortified with towers; with the outer high tower having a unique design. The height of the enclosure wall gradually rises from one end to the other. The entire complex is fitted with 221 windows, 86 doors and 24 chimneys. The towers, and interior walls have elegant decorations and the eaves projecting from the roof are colourfully painted. The towers and walls of the edifice are painted predominantly in white and brown colour, which gives it a very elegant appearance.


The Aialik Glacier is a glacier in the Kenai Peninsula Borough of Alaska. It drains into Aialik Bay. Part of Kenai Fjords National Park, it (along with many other glaciers) drains the Harding Icefield. Aialik Glacier, a little over 15 miles from Seward, is the largest glacier in Aialik Bay, located in Kenai Fjords National Park. While fairly stable, the glacier calves most actively in May and June.
A mural of two kayakers near the glacier painted by Byron Birdsall is at the office of the Kenai Fjords National Park.


The Aiguille Noire de Peuterey (3,773 m) is a mountain of the Mont Blanc massif in Italy, forming part of the Peuterey ridge to the summit of Mont Blanc with its higher neighbour, the Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey.
The best-known route on the mountain is the south ridge (TD), first climbed by Karl Brendelet and Hermann Schaller, on 26 and 27 August 1930; it remains one of the great classic rock routes in the massif.
The first ascent of the complete Peuterey ridge including the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey (the Intégrale) was on 28–31 July 1934 by Adolf Göttner, Ludwig Schmaderer and Ferdinand Krobath. On 21 August 2010 23-year-old Chloé Graftiaux, a leading Belgian sport climber, fell to her death on the mountain.


The Aiguille Verte ([eɡɥij vɛʁt]; 4,122 m (13,524 ft)), which is French for "Green Needle", is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps.
It was first climbed on 29 June 1865  by Edward Whymper, Christian Almer and Franz Biner, a fortnight before the fateful first ascent of the Matterhorn. Whymper was unable to climb with his usual guide, Michel Croz, who had to wait for a client in Chamonix. As a result, Whymper hired the services of Christian Almer, who had been with Alfred Wills on the Wetterhorn in 1854. Whymper describes the push for the summit:
At the top of the small gully we crossed over the intervening rocks into the large one [the eponymous Whymper couloir]. At last ice replaced snow, and we turned over to the rocks upon its left. Charming rocks they were; granitic in texture, gritty, holding the nails well. At 9.45 we parted from them, and completed the ascent by a little ridge of snow which descended in the direction of the Aiguille du Moine. At 10.15 we stood on the summit (13, 541 feet [sic]), and devoured our bread and cheese with a good appetite.
The second ascent was by Charles Hudson, T. S. Kennedy and Michel Croz via the Moine ridge. The first woman to climb the Aiguille Verte was Lucy Walker in 1870. The first ascent of the Arête Sans was accomplished by Nicolas Jaeger in 1972.


The  Aiguille de Bionnassay (elevation 4,052 metres (13,294 ft)) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif of the Alps in France and Italy. It has been described as "one of the most attractive satellite peaks of Mont Blanc", and is located on its western side. The mountain's south and east ridges form the frontier between the two countries, and its summit is a knife-edge crest of snow and ice. Reaching it via any route provides a "splendid and serious snow and ice climb".


The first ascent of the Aiguille de Bionnassay was undertaken on 28 July 1865 by Florence Crauford Grove, Edward N. Buxton and Reginald S. McDonald, with guides Jean Pierre Cachat and Michel Payot. They ascended the north-west face to reach the ridge above the Aiguille de Tricot, from where they continued to the knife-edged summit ridge, arriving in a thunderstorm. A detailed account is given below.
The mountain's south ridge was first climbed on 13 July 1888 by Kaspar Maurer, Andreas Jaun and the Austrian diplomat Georg Gruber.
The east ridge was first climbed in descent as part of a traverse from the Dômes de Miage by Katharine Richardson, Emile Rey and Jean-Baptiste Bich on 13 August 1888.
The long west ridge was first climbed in its entirety from the Col de Tricot in 1911 by Fraulein Eleonore Hasenclever and Freulein H. Wirthl with M. Helff, K.G. von Saar and Richard Weitzenbock.
The complete north-west face route was finally climbed in 1926 by billionaire businessman and art collector, Robert Wylie Lloyd, with his guides Adolf and Josep Pollinger.
The first winter ascent of the Aiguille de Bionnassay was made on 20 March 1929 by A. Charlet, F. Frison Roche, H. Hoerlin, E.Schneider and H. Schroeder.
The north face was first climbed on 30–31 August 1953 by Bertrand Kempf and Claude Laurendeau. It is ranked as one of the most difficult ice walls in the Alps, and is rarely attempted.


The Aiguille summit contains a panoramic viewing platform, a café and a gift shop. Even in summer, temperatures in the open viewing areas can fall to −10 °C (14 °F), and visitors require both warm clothing and protection from very bright sunlight. Because of the danger, tourists are unable to leave the visitor facilities on the Midi's summit. However, mountaineers and skiers are able to pass through a tunnel to reach the steep and extremely exposed ice ridge to descend to the glacier below.
In December 2013, a glass skywalk called "Step into the Void" opened at the top of the Aiguille du Midi peak. The view is 1,035 m (3,396 ft) straight down, and one can see Mont Blanc to the south. A further tourist attraction called "Le Tube" opened in 2016. It consists of an enclosed tubular walkway that completely circles the summit.
During summer months only, the Vallée Blanche Cable Car crosses "peak-to-peak" from Aiguille du Midi to Pointe Helbronner (3,462 m (11,358 ft)) at the Italian side of the Mont Blanc Massif. Pointe Helbronner is served by another cable car, Skyway Monte Bianco, to Entrèves, near the Italian town of Courmayeur in the Aosta Valley. This makes it possible to travel "by air" from Chamonix, France to Courmayeur, Italy – a route normally traversed by the highway running through the Mont Blanc Tunnel.


WikiWeb_Aiguilles Rouges National Nature Reserve_1

In the Haute-Savoie department, on the northern side of the Chamonix valley, the Aiguilles Rouges mountain range spreads from Les Houches to the Col des Montets. The nature reserve affects the communes of Chamonix and Vallorcine and encompasses two complementary sectors of this mountain range:
the North-East extremity overlooking the Argentière village;
the western part overlooking the Diosaz valley from the Aiguille de Salenton to the Brévent.


WikiWeb_Aiguilles Rouges National Nature Reserve_2

In the 1960s, a small reserve was created outside the alpine village of Argentière. In 1968, the Aiguilles Rouges mountain range became a game reserve. At the insistence of Jean Eyherald, the priest of Argentière, and a geologist, Yvonne Gubler, an observation site for the Alps was installed above Argentière. Accessible via chairlift, it became difficult to access following an accident. A site at the Col des Montets (a mountain pass) was chosen. In 1971 with the support of mountaineer Maurice Herzog, Chamonix-Mont-Blanc and Vallorcine created la réserve intercommunale du col des Montets (Intercommunal reserve of the Col des Montets). The reserve was created by ministerial decree on 1974-08-24. It covers 3,279 hectares (8,100 acres) in the communes of Chamonix and Vallorcine. The nature reserve is managed by the ASTERS association, which is responsible for all the nature reserves in Haute-Savoie.
Since 2006 the reserve has been under consideration for either declassification or reclassification, because of contention over a private landowner not being covered under the constitution in 1974. The reserve was reclassified on 2010-01-27 by a new ministerial decree, after a public inquiry.
The nature reserve is adjacent to two others:
Vallon de Bérard National Nature Reserve, established in 1992 in Vallorcine
Carlaveyron National Nature Reserve, established in 1991, situated near the Gorges de la Diosaz in Les Houches
In the reserve one can find typical mountainous plant and animal species, such as Alpine ibex, chamois, rock ptarmigan, golden eagle, Rhododendron, and heather. Multiple lakes are situated within the nature reserve, including Lac Blanc, Lac Noir, Lac Cornu, and Lac du Brévent.


Ailsa Craig had two quite separate rail transport systems, one dated from 1886 and supplied coal, oil fuel and provisions to the lighthouse and gas works via the North Port and later the New Jetty and the other transported road stone from the quarries at Kennedy's Nags via the stone crusher to the Quarry Pier. The Northern Lighthouse Board's tramway had a section worked via a powered cableway that hauled wagons up from the North Port and later from the new jetty.
This well-built tram line is largely intact and has a gauge of three feet with junction/points at the gas works and a further set of points that led to a siding that ran down parallel to the gable end of the gas works to presumably collect the coal ash for disposal. The main line runs on down to the lighthouse and its ancillary buildings, taking a right-angled bend to run parallel to the southern end of the lighthouse buildings block. This section of the line was worked by hand and at least two wagons remain at the site together with a set of spare wheels at the gas works.
The mineral line was built by the Ailsa Craig Granite Company Ltd. in 1909 and ran from the quarry at Kennedy's Nags via the stone crusher near the south foghorn to the Quarry Pier. This crudely constructed narrow gauge line was mainly horse drawn, although wagons were also moved by hand or hauled up inclines by winding engines. The mineral railway at the quarry end had a least one siding and a mobile steam crane loaded the larger granite blocks into the wagons that were transported to the stone crusher at the Trammins near the south foghorn, smaller stones being loaded and even moved by hand.
Wagons or bogies were winched up to the substantial stone crusher and gravity was used to deliver the different grades of road stone to the waggons below that were then hauled by horses to the Quarry Pier via a line that ran in front of the lighthouse buildings and took a tight right-angled bend to run up the substantial stone-built incline to the storage area in preparation for delivery via sea to the mainland. Kerb stones and stone railway sleepers for sections of the Scotch gauge horse-drawn railway from Ardrossan to Doura were also produced.
Photographs taken in the late 19th century show the horse-drawn wagons passing in front of the lighthouse and portray the substantial railway incline and storage area. At times the production outstripped the storage capacity and a photograph shows at least three piles of different grades of road stone stockpiled in front of the lighthouse enclosure. The track at the crusher had a siding that ran to the crusher and a set of points that led to the Quarry Pier main line.
The Ailsa Craig Granite Company was never a financially sound business and effectively closed in 1928. The course of the mineral line is still evident near the quarries as a linear embankment that ends below Kennedy's Nag. Various artefacts of the quarry enterprise remain, including concrete blocks at Kennedy's Nag and steel and concrete remnants of the stone crusher near the south foghorn.


In 1972, Jean Sibelius' daughters Eva, Ruth, Katarina, Margareta, and Heidi, sold Ainola to the Finnish state. The Ministry of Education and the Sibelius Society of Finland opened it as a museum in June 1974. It is currently open from May to September. Among the personal effects remaining there are a Steinway grand piano, which was a gift to Sibelius on his fiftieth birthday in 1915, and paintings by Aino's brother Eero Järnefelt.


Ainsley House is a 1925 California Arts and Crafts house in Campbell, California, built in the style of an English Tudor Cotswold cottage. The house and accompanying carriage house (now the Wyland R. Morgan Gallery) were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. It is now a museum and is open to the public.
The house was the third home of Campbell canning pioneer John Colpitts Ainsley (1860–1937) and his wife, Alcinda (1875-1939), and was originally located on the southwest corner of their 83-acre (340,000 m²) orchard at the northeast corner of Hamilton and Johnson (now Bascom) Avenues. After J.C. Ainsley's death in 1937, Alcinda left the house, living with friends until her death in 1939. The house remained in the family, but with the exception of occasional Christmas seasons and social events over the years, was vacant, though well-tended, for decades. The Ainsley family donated the house, its furnishings and the carriage house to the City of Campbell in 1989 and they were moved to their present location at 300 Grant Street in Downtown Campbell in 1990. The house museum, Morgan Gallery and nearby Campbell Historical Museum are supported by the Campbell Historical Museum and Ainsley House Foundation.


The memorial was commissioned and is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.  The architect was Sir Edward Maufe with sculpture by Vernon Hill. The engraved glass and painted ceilings were designed by John Hutton, and the poem engraved on the gallery window was written by Paul H Scott. It was the first post-World War II building to be listed for architectural merit.
From the memorial there are views over the River Thames and Runnymede Meadow, where Magna Carta was sealed by King John in 1215. Distant views of London may be had from the viewpoint in the memorial tower; such monuments as the London Eye and the arch of Wembley Stadium are visible on clear days. Windsor Castle and the surrounding area can be seen to the West.


Aira Force lies on land owned by the National Trust. The Trust purchased the 750-acre Gowbarrow Park (on which the force lies) in 1906 and has provided facilities, such as car parking, disabled access, graded paths, and viewing platforms to make Aira Force one of the most famous and most visited waterfalls in the Lake District. The National Trust has also provided public lavatories and a café, and the site is open to visitors throughout the year. A public footpath from the village of Dockray passes the waterfall.
Beside the walk that passes up the glen is located a good example of a Wish Tree, in this case using a large fallen tree trunk. Visitors hammer coins into it using stones from the site.
In 2015, Ullswater 'Steamers' opened a jetty on the lake shore near Aira Force, making the waterfall accessible by foot passenger ferry from Glenridding. A new footpath runs from Aira Force as far as Glencoyne Bay, but only a track exists from this point on.


Airavatesvara Temple is a Hindu temple of Dravidian architecture located in Kumbakonam, Thanjavur District in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. This temple, built by Chola emperor Rajaraja II in the 12th century CE is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the Brihadeeswara Temple at Thanjavur, the Gangaikondacholisvaram Temple at Gangaikonda Cholapuram that are referred to as the Great Living Chola Temples.
The Airavatesvarar temple is one among a cluster of eighteen medieval era large Hindu temples in the Kumbakonam area, Thanjavur District. The temple is dedicated to Shiva. It also reverentially displays Vaishnavism and Shaktism traditions of Hinduism, along with the legends associated with Nayanmars – the Bhakti movement saints of Shaivism.
The stone temple incorporates a chariot structure, and includes major Vedic and Puranic deities such as Indra, Agni, Varuna, Vayu, Brahma, Surya, Vishnu, Saptamtrikas, Durga, Saraswati, Sri devi (Lakshmi), Ganga, Yamuna, Subrahmanya, Ganesha, Kama, Rati and others. Shiva's consort has a dedicated shrine called the Periya Nayaki Amman temple. This is a detached temple situated to the north of the Airavateshvarar temple. This might have been a part of the main temple when the outer courts were complete. At present, parts of the temple such as the gopuram is in ruins, and the main temple and associated shrines stand alone. It has two sun dials namely morning and evening sun dials which  can be seen as wheels of the chariot. The temple continues to attract large gatherings of Hindu pilgrims every year during Magha, while some of the images such as those of Durga and Shiva are part of special pujas.


The museum was chartered under a 1901 law, and opened in 1964 with the help of donations from both residents and veterans. The Museum is located in Sainte-Mère-Église, in the La Manche region of Normandy, close to the beaches used for the Normandy landings. Sainte-Mère-Église became famous because of paratrooper John Steele whose parachute snagged on the belfry of the church on June 6, 1944, leaving him suspended in the air. The aim of the museum is to honor the American airborne forces troops of the 82nd and 101st Divisions.


The museum holds more than 10,000 items, including the CG-4 glider and the C-47 Skytrain; equipment used by generals James Gavin, Matthew Ridgway and J. Lawton Collins; and John Steele’s military decorations. The items on exhibit from World War II were used by paratroopers who jumped into Sainte-Mère-Église during the Battle of Normandy. The museum contains mostly American equipment, but there are some replicas of German military equipment from the period. There are at least a hundred uniformed dummies used to model uniforms and equipment of the period.


The Aire and Calder is a canalisation of the River Calder from Wakefield to Castleford, where it joins the branch from Leeds, which follows the River Aire. The Aire continues to flow eastwards to Bank Dole Junction, then continues in a north-easterly direction to Haddlesey, from where it follows a winding course to join the River Ouse at Airmyn. The section below Haddlesey is no longer part of the navigation, as a derelict lock blocks access to the lower river. Instead, the Selby Canal flows northwards from Haddlesey to the Ouse at Selby. Below Dole Bank Junction, the Knottingley and Goole Canal flows eastwards to join the Ouse at Goole. From just before Newbridge, where the modern A614 road crosses the waterway, this branch of the navigation runs parallel to the Dutch River, an artificial channel built in 1635 to alleviate flooding caused by Cornelius Vermuyden's original diversion of the River Don northwards to the River Aire in 1628.
The Aire and Calder still fulfils its original purpose of linking Leeds and Wakefield with York and the Humber (and thence the Trent), although the routes by which this is achieved have changed significantly. More recent canals now also make the Navigation a vital link in the English and Welsh connected inland waterway network. Beyond Leeds, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal carries boats over the Pennines. The Calder and Hebble Navigation, which connects to the Navigation at Wakefield, allows boats to reach the Huddersfield Broad and Narrow Canals, and the Rochdale Canal. The Selby Canal connects to the Ouse, from where boats can travel upstream to reach York, Boroughbridge and Ripon, or downstream to the River Derwent. Beyond Goole are the Humber and hence Hull, Immingham, and the North Sea. The Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation, which can be reached via the New Junction Canal, forms a link with Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield to the south west, and the tidal River Trent at Keadby to the east.


A 20th-century modification of the compartment boat system was used to feed the coal-fired Ferrybridge "C" power station. Starting in 1967, Cawoods Hargreaves used trains of three tubs or coal pans, which were rigidly connected, and pushed by a tug when loaded. The trains were filled with coal using canalside chutes at the colliery and pushed to the power station, where a hoist lifted each pan from the canal and upturned it to drop its contents onto a conveyor belt. Nine tugs and 35 pans were employed, with each pan holding around 170 tonnes. By the time the final load left Astley colliery in December 2002, 43 million tonnes had been delivered to Ferrybridge in this way. Experiments were made with trains of four pans, which allowed copper pipes to be carried on top of the coal for delivery to Goole, but this was short-lived. Coal carrying came to an abrupt halt in 2003 when the St Aidan's opencast mine was exhausted and the coal from Kellingley colliery was found to have levels of sulphur content high above the acceptable limit. During 2008, three of the trains were used on the River Don, to transport 250,000 tonnes of limestone from a quarry at Cadeby to Hexthorpe.
British Waterways introduced a similar system in September 1974. Called BACAT, for Barges Aboard Catamaran, the system consisted of trains of barges, which were pushed by a tug, and which would be loaded between the twin hulls of a custom-built delivery ship. The ship would then transport them across the North Sea to continental waterways, without their contents having to be transshipped. The concept failed after 18 months, as the dock workers at Hull blacklisted the entire British Waterways fleet, because they believed that the system would threaten their jobs. Most of the commercial traffic using the navigation now consists of petroleum tankers and gravel barges.


WikiWeb_Aivazovsky National Art Gallery_0

The Aivazovsky National Art Gallery is a national art museum in Feodosia, Crimea. The first exhibition was privately organised by Ivan Aivazovsky's in his house in 1845. The basis collection included his 49 paintings. In 1880 an additional exhibition hall was attached to the house. The gallery became the third museum in the Russian Empire, after the Hermitage Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery. After Aivazovsky's death in 1900, the ownership of the gallery was transferred to the city according to his testament.
Towards the end of 1920, the house was occupied by the Feodosia department of Cheka. Several paintings were damaged at that time.
Since 1922, the gallery became a state museum in the USSR. The collection consists of about 12 thousand nautical theme works, including the world's largest collection of works by Ivan Aivazovsky himself (417 paintings). The gallery exposition introduces the works of Aivazovsky, his family history, and the history of the gallery. A separate building (artist's sister house) presents mythological and biblical paintings, foreign marine paintings of the 18th-19th centuries, and the Cimmerian school of painting including Maximilian Voloshin, Lev Lagorio, Konstantin Bogaevsky, Mikhail Lattry, Adolf Faessler, and Arkhip Kuindzhi.
In 1930 a monument to Aivazovsky, by Ilya Ginzburg, with the inscription "Feodosia to Aivazovsky" was erected in front of the main building.


The city's large necropolis includes examples of door-shaped Phrygian tombstones. Inscriptions give the names of deceased or donor; accompanying decoration includes, for the tombs of men, bulls, lions and eagles, and for those of women, baskets of wool and a mirror.


Ujisato died of illness at the age of 39, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi reassigned his vast domain to Uesugi Kagekatsu, whom he relocated from Echigo Province. Although Aizuwakamatsu Castle was already large, Uesugi Kagekatsu started to build another castle on the outskirts of Aizuwakamatsu town, but it was never completed. After having sided with the Toyotomi clan during the Sekigahara campaign, the Uesugi Clan was demoted in status and relocated to a much reduced Yonezawa Domain. The domain was then assigned to Katō Yoshiaki, who was noted for his bravery at the Battle of Shizugatake. Under the Katō, the castle was reformed and a new layout was imposed on the surrounding jōkamachi. However, during a great earthquake in 1611, the castle was severely damaged, and the tenshu was rebuilt into the current configuration. The Katō were dispossessed in 1643 and were replaced by Hoshina Masayuki, the illegitimate son of Shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada and thus half-brother of Tokugawa Iemitsu. He later served a regent to the underage Shōgun Tokugawa Ietsuna. Within Aizu, he developed commerce and agriculture, and established han school, the Nisshinkan. His successors were permitted to take the "Matsudaira" surname. Throughout the Edo period, Aizu Domain was an  important Tokugawa stronghold in the Tōhoku region and was one of the strongest domains in terms of its military power.
During the Bakumatsu period, Matsudaira Katamori was one of the Shōgunate's most able and loyalist supporter. After the defeat of the Shōgunate at the Battle of Toba-Fushimi and the abdication of power by Shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu, Matsudaira Katamori become one of the leaders in the pro-Tokugawa alliance against the new Meiji government. During the Battle of Aizu in the Boshin War,  Aizuwakamatsu Castle was besieged by the forces of the Satchō Alliance in October 1868. Although the castle was very strong by traditional standards, the new government army was equipped with western artillery, which was able to shell the castle from surrounding hills for over a month. Faced with the inevitable eventual defeat, Matsudaira Katamori surrendered the castle and his remaining forces in November. The surviving castle buildings, pockmarked by artillery during the siege and structurally unstable, were demolished by the new government in 1874. One yagura survived the destruction by being relocated to a  Buddhist temple, Amida-ji, five-kilometers from the castle.
The castle site was mostly sold off to private landowners, with only the central portion (23 hectares) kept by the government for use by an Imperial Japanese Army garrison until 1908. This area forms the core of the modern National Historic Site. With the popularity of the Byakkotai story in pre-war Japan, a movement arose to preserve the site of the castle, and it was made into a public park. The National Historic Site status was granted in 1934, although the area still suffered from indignities, such as a velodrome operating in the inner bailey until 1957. In 1965, a reconstruction of the tenshu in concrete was completed as a symbol of the city.  Currently there is a museum inside, and an observation gallery on top with panoramic views of the city. A gate was completed at the same time.  In 1991, a yagura and a connecting corridor were also reconstructed.
The tea room, named Rinkaku, has been restored and is designated as an Fukushima Prefecture Important Cultural Property. It is open to the public, and at times tea ceremonies are held there.


The primary layout of the castle consists of an inner bailey and three secondary enclosures to the west, north and east. The southern face of the castle was protected by a river. The inner bailey is pentagonal, with length of approximately 200 meters, surrounded by deep moats and tall stone walls. The area is divided internally by walls and corridors, and the tenshu is in the northwest corner. The original tenshu under the Gamō clan was a massive seven-story structure with black walls and gold roof tiles, similar to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Osaka Castle. The tenshu rebuilt by the by Katō clan was smaller and was painted white. The secondary enclosures of the castle had clay ramparts, with stonework used in the gate areas. In the north and west of the central area were large bastions.
The total size of the castle area was 600 by 400 meters, but the castle  town itself was also guarded by an outer barrier and the river, enclosing a square kilometer.


The stadium is the home of J1 League football club FC Tokyo and J2 League football club Tokyo Verdy and is used as the venue of some lower divisions of football leagues. Rugby union games are also held there. For the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Saudi Arabia's national team based their training camp at Chōfu and used the stadium as a main training ground, although it did not host an actual World Cup match.
The stadium is often used for non-sport events, such as concerts and flea markets. It has been used as a shelter for survivors of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The stadium is the planned rugby venues for the 2020 Summer Olympics. During the Olympics, the stadium will be known as Tokyo Stadium due to International Olympic Committee's non-commercialization policy.  The stadium has also been one of the venues for 2019 Rugby World Cup and hosted the opening ceremony, followed by the opening match of the tournament, as well as other 7 matches including Bronze Final.


After Usama's death, the castle was enlarged in AD 1214–15 by Aibak ibn Abdullah, the Mamluk governor. He added a new tower in the southeast corner and built the gate.
The castle lost its military importance after the fall of Karak in AD 1187 to the Ayyubids. In the middle of the 13th century AD, the castle was conceded to Yousef ibn Ayoub, emir of Aleppo and Damascus, who restored the northeastern tower and used the castle as an administrative center.
In 1260 AD, the Mongols destroyed sections of the castle, including its battlements. Soon after the victory of the Mamluks over the Mongols at Ain Jalut, Sultan ad-Dhaher Baibars restored the castle and cleared the fosse. The castle was used as a storehouse for crops and provisions. When Izz ad-Din Aibak was appointed governor, he renovated the castle as indicated by an inscription found in the castle's south-western tower.


Two major destructive earthquakes struck the castle in 1837 and 1927. Recently, the Department of Antiquities of Jordan has sponsored a program of restoration and consolidation of the walls and has rebuilt the bridge over the fosse.


Akō Castle is located on the southern seashore of Akō city, and guarded the border between former Harima Province and Bizen Province.  It was originally a small fortification erected by the local Oka clan in the 15th century. However, after the area was awarded to Tokugawa Ieyasu's general and son-in-law Ikeda Terumasa after the Battle of Sekigahara, and a new castle was constructed. The Ikeda clan ruled from Himeji Castle, and Akō Castle was constructed as a secondary fortification to secure the domain's western borders. Ikeda Terumasa's vast holdings were broken up after his death, and his fifth son, Ikeda Masatsuna received a 35,000 koku portion which had been assigned as the widow's portion to his mother Tokuhime. His younger brother, Ikeda Teruoki, inherited the domain in 1631. However, he went insane in 1645, murdering his concubine and several ladies-in-waiting, and was dispossessed. The Ikeda were replaced by a cadet branch of the Asano clan. Asano Naganao spend 13 years rebuilding Akō Castle on a scale far in excess of his kokudaka of 53,000 koku and also reconstructed the castle town. The castle had  12 gates and 10 yagura towers. The design of the castle was unusual in that it consisted of concentric moated enclosure each shaped in a geometric pattern which may have been influenced by knowledge of Western star fort designs. The stone foundation base of a five-story tenshu was constructed, but it remained only as a foundation, and no tenshu was ever actually constructed. Although it is now far from the coastline, at the time of its construction it was built on the seashore, and it was possible to sail from docks located in the castle.
The Asano clan were dispossessed following the famous Forty-seven rōnin incident, and the castle passed into the hands of the Mori clan who ruled over a much reduced Akō Domain from 1706 until the Meiji restoration.


The architectural concept has been designed by Populous; according to lead designer Damon Lavelle, the stadium is a unique response to the local culture and place. As a multiple-purpose venture, Ak Bars Arena can be used as football matches and other sporting events, cultural events concerts. With a capacity of 45,379 seats and 28 ha stadium territory, Ak Bars Arena is one of the UEFA´s highest category stadium. The stadium has also 72 skyboxes and a fitness center. The general design stage: "TatInvestGrazhdanProekt", "Intex", "TsNIIpromzdany". It replaced Central Stadium as Kazan's main football stadium.