One of the "Magnificent Seven" parkland cemeteries created in the early Victorian period, albeit set out in an entirely different way to the others and with somewhat wider purposes, Abney Park features an entrance designed by William Hosking FSA in collaboration with Joseph Bonomi the Younger and the cemetery's founder George Collison II. This frontage was built by John Jay in the then increasingly popular Egyptian Revival style, with hieroglyphics signifying the "Abode of the Mortal Part of Man": a venture too far into the architecture of the African continent for Augustus Pugin, who pilloried the idea, hoping no-one would repeat such a radical departure from "good" Christian gothic design (see illustration for Grounds of a Quaker School). A similar criticism had previously been made when the first Egyptian-style entrance to a western cemetery had been constructed at Mount Auburn Cemetery in the 1830s, on which Abney Park Cemetery was partially modelled. By contrast, figures who appreciated the composition complimented Hosking and Bonomi on their scholarly frontage design; an arbiter of design taste, John Loudon, described it as a "judicious combination of two lodges with gates between".
Abney Park has a claim to be the earliest complete design for a permanent "Egyptian Revival" entranceway at a cemetery anywhere in the world. The gateway at Mount Auburn Cemetery, from which it took its inspiration, was at that time still a temporary structure, being made of dusted wood and sand; its permanent design was not built until two years after Abney Park opened. In England there were already some examples of the use of Egyptian Revival architecture on a small scale, including one example of a small gate installed at a cemetery for Nonconformists near Sheffield in 1836. However, Abney Park Cemetery became the first to employ the style for cemetery buildings, and also the first to introduce it for a complete entrance design.
At Abney Park the use of motifs not associated with contemporary faith served a profound purpose, since it was consciously opened as the first wholly nondenominational garden cemetery in Europe. True, other garden cemeteries sometimes used the term loosely, meaning only that they had laid out more than one denominational area or built more than one chapel. Abney Park Cemetery was the first to be laid out with "no invidious dividing lines" separating the burial areas of one faith or religious group from any other. Even its one chapel, the Abney Park Chapel, a feast of Puritan or northern European brick gothic yet with ample stone dressings and a little neoclassical design woven into its early Dissenting Gothic design style, had but one central chamber for the common use of all, and but one entrance. As such it was the first nondenominational cemetery chapel in Europe. William Hosking, in being handed the task of achieving this vision, became the first architect to design a nondenominational cemetery chapel in Europe. Underpinning this was a unique legal basis in comparison with the other garden cemeteries of its period; Abney Park was not set aside solely for cemetery use by Act of Parliament, and was not formally consecrated as burial land. Perhaps more so than any other it was entitled to be considered as a park as well as a cemetery.
Today it is accommodating this wide role again; burial rights ceased when the private company closed in 1978, enabling the park to now facilitate a wide range of projects in the arts, education, nature conservation and walking/recreation, besides offering new memorial trees and benches where ashes are scattered, and the occasional discretionary or courtesy burial.


Such an elaborate planting scheme for a park cemetery may also be a reflection of the symbolic importance the founding directors attached to the land that formed Abney Park Cemetery. As nonconformists, who treasured the independence of their religious beliefs—and therefore practised Christianity outside of the established Church of England—they held the land itself to be of immense significance, for it had previously been two neighbouring and inter-related 18th-century parkland estates, the grounds of Abney House and Fleetwood House, where the non-conformist Doctor of Divinity, educationalist and poet Dr. Isaac Watts lived and taught, and indeed wrote several of his popular books and hymns.
Due to these religious associations, Abney Park Cemetery rapidly became the most attractive Victorian resting place for nonconformist or dissenting ministers and educationalists, principally those from a Protestant dissenting tradition. Indeed, it stands today as the most important burial place in the UK of 19th-century Congregational, Baptist, Methodist and Salvation Army ministers and educationalists, including Christopher Newman Hall and many others, some of whom are mentioned below. Whereas Bunhill Fields was described by the poet Robert Southey as "the Campo Santo of the Dissenters" (a reference to the monumental cemetery of that name in Pisa, Italy – campo santo translates as "sacred field" or "saints' abode" ) in respect of its late 17th- and 18th-century burials, Abney Park took on the mantle during the Victorian period in the writings of E. Paxton Hood for the Religious Tract Society.
Though it primarily attracted Congregational, Methodist and Salvation Army nonconformists, rather than certain other nonconformists such as Quakers, or non-Protestant nonconformists such as Catholics or Jewish people, Abney Park Cemetery more than any other 19th-century cemetery was open to the burial of all regardless of their religious convictions or leanings. Whilst its founding directors were all Congregationalists and they were concerned to find a place for such burials, they expressly established the Stoke Newington cemetery as the first fully nondenominational cemetery in Europe (where anyone could be buried anywhere). Selection of a site with historical associations with Dr Isaac Watts served this purpose well, for he had been honoured in death with a bust in the Anglican Westminster Abbey to complement his burial at the Independent's Bunhill Fields. Subsequently, his hymns and scholarly works had become widely used and referred to by many denominations, such that in the 19th century the Rev. John Stroughton could write: "Dr. Watts was as far removed from sectarianism as a man could be". Abney Park Chapel, sometimes referred to informally as Dr Watts' Chapel, became its spiritual and landscape focal point. It sits in the heart of the cemetery; its axial walk to Church Street, called Dr Watts' Walk, was chosen in 1845 as the most appropriate site in London for a public statue to the great man, sculpted by Edward Hodges Baily, RA FRS.


Most notably, William and Catherine Booth, founders of The Salvation Army, are buried in a prominent location close to Church Street and next to their son Bramwell Booth and various SA commissioners, including Elijah Cadman, John Lawley, William Ridsdel, Frederick Booth-Tucker, George Scott Railton, the Army's first Commissioner, Theodore Kitching and T. Henry Howard, its Chief of Staff.
Earlier in the 19th century, one of the hottest issues for political and social reform was the abolition of slavery, and Stoke Newington and the Quakers, separately and together, played a prominent role in this. Indeed, William Wilberforce himself planned to be buried in the village at St Mary's Church with his sister, his will being overturned on his death since parliament considered a state funeral at Westminster Abbey more fitting. Wilberforce's son-in-law, the abolitionist lawyer James Stephen, was also a frequent visitor, as his father lived at the Fleetwood Summerhouse adjacent to Abney Park. Dr Thomas Binney, the "Archbishop of Non-conformity", has a portrait in the National Portrait Gallery that shows him at the Anti-Slavery Society Convention in 1840 (with Josiah Conder); Binney is buried close to the Church Street entrance in Abney Park Cemetery. Christopher Newman Hall, who was influential on the side of slavery emancipation in the American Civil War, is buried here with his father. So is the Rev. James Sherman, who wrote the introduction to Harriet Beecher Stowe's hugely influential Uncle Tom's Cabin. The novel was partly based on Josiah Henson, whose escape to freedom in Britain was assisted by the philanthropist Samuel Morley, who is buried in the cemetery. The Rev. Joseph Ketley, a Congregational missionary and abolitionist in Demerara, is also interred here, as is Rev. Dr John Morison, patron of the escaped slave and influential African-American autobiographer Moses Roper.
Recently rediscovered is the grave of Olaudah Equiano's daughter Joanna Vassa, as he was a well-known former slave who worked for abolition. Jamaican emancipation is represented directly by the Rev. Samuel Oughton and the Rev. Thomas Burchell, who only narrowly escaped death at the hands of the planters; and their underlying Baptist support by Nathaniel Rogers M.D. A deacon at the Burchell Baptist church, the African Samuel Sharpe, became a Jamaican hero. Aaron Buzacott, the second Secretary of Anti-Slavery International, originally known as the Anti-Slavery Society, is buried here.
At Abney Park Cemetery there are also some of the early settlers in Britain from the four corners of the world, such as the African, Thomas Caulker, the son of the King of Bompey (now Sierra Leone), who signed an anti-slavery agreement that became part of an Act of Parliament in the 1850s; and Leota, a native of the Samoa Islands whose life in London was due to the work of the London Missionary Society who sought to build schools and bring scripture to the inhabitants of the South Seas. Abney Park is one of the main burial places of 19th-century missionaries; here, for example is the burial place of William Ellis, John Williams' wife and son, Dr Walter Henry Medhurst, and Edward Stallybrass. Also Sarah Buzacott, the wife of Aaron Buzacott the elder, who was a teacher at the London Missionary Society college at Rarotonga in the South Seas. Many nonconformist divines are also buried here, for example Dr Alexander Fletcher, 'The Children's Friend'.
The evangelist Emily Gosse is buried in a simple grave near Dr Watts' Mound.
Close to Church Street is the burial of one of the cemetery's early director and trustees, one of the first two members of parliament for Hackney Sir Charles Reed FSA. Close by lies his father Dr Andrew Reed (1788–1862), a student of Rev. George Collison and founder of the London Orphan Asylum. In 1834, along with the Rev. J. Matheson, Andrew Reed was sent to the Congregational Churches of America by the Congregational Union of England and Wales as a deputation to promote peace and friendship between the two communities. He spent six months in America and during his stay there Yale University conferred upon him an honorary Doctorate of Divinity. This strengthened the Congregationalists' transatlantic links, ensuring the Rev George Collison's son a welcome when he visited to gain ideas for Abney Park cemetery's design from Mount Auburn Cemetery.
Here too is the Welsh MP Henry Richard, a mid-19th-century secretary of the Peace Society, instrumental in encouraging the first university in Wales at Aberystwyth along with its founder Sir Hugh Owen, whose own memorial is to the east of the Abney Park Cedar Circle. Also buried here is Betsi Cadwaladr, a Welsh nurse who worked in the Crimea with Florence Nightingale. The Peace Society is well represented at Abney Park; two of its other 19th-century secretaries, Rev. Nun Morgan Harry and Rev. John Jefferson, original minister for the chapel and cemetery, are also buried here. Rajendra Chandra Chandra, Professor of Calcutta Medical College and physician, is buried here with his wife.
Pioneering fire fighter James Braidwood, credited with forming the first municipal fire brigade; Edward Calvert, painter; engraver and painter and novelist Isabella Banks; newspaper editor and playwright George Linnaeus Banks; and the African-Jamaican Baptist missionary Rev. Joseph Jackson Fuller, are also buried in the park. So too are Rev William Brock D.D., John Hoppus D.D. of University College London, and John Harris D.D. and Robert Halley of New College London.
Amongst the theatre and music hall performers resting at Abney Park are George Leybourne, Nelly Power, Albert Chevalier, G. W. Hunt, Herbert Campbell, Edmund Payne, Maie Ash, Fred Allandale, W. H. Pennington, Dan Crawley, Walter Laburnum and Fred Albert.  These graves are cared for by the theatre charity The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America who undertake memorial restorations.
Other burials at the cemetery include the Chartist leader and publisher James "Bronterre" O'Brien, whose life and work is celebrated at the cemetery each year, especially by the Irish community and those in the Labour Movement; Dr John Pye Smith, the first dissenter to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; Mary Hays, the feminist writer and friend of Mary Wollstonecraft; Eric Walrond, the African-American Harlem Renaissance writer; and Thomas William Robertson the dramatic author. John O'Connor Power (1846–1919), Irish Member of Parliament for Mayo, orator, barrister, radical journalist and author of The Making of an Orator is buried here with his wife's family. A Victoria Cross recipient from the Indian Mutiny, Private John Freeman, is buried here, as are world record-holder in motor-paced cycling Tommy Hall and the public hangman William Calcraft.
In a different way, Frank C. Bostock is remembered, largely due to the dominance of his life-sized marble lion alongside a path close to the chapel. Along with the Wombwells, the Bostocks were mainly responsible for bringing Asian and African animals to the attention of the Victorian and Edwardian public. For part of the year giraffes lived close to the cemetery at a small farm in Yoakley Road.


The graveyard scenes in the music video for the song "Back to Black" by singer Amy Winehouse were filmed at Abney Park Cemetery.
The Steampunk band Abney Park takes its name from the cemetery.
Abney Park is the setting for a murder in Elizabeth George's book The Body of Death.
Abney Park is used to depict Highgate Cemetery in Waking The Dead season 2 "Thin Air" episodes.
The graveyard scenes in the music video for the song "Celestica", by band Crystal Castles, were filmed at Abney Park Cemetery.
In Michelle Lowe's steampunk novel, Legacy: Volume One, Abney Park Cemetery is the setting where the protagonist, Pierce Landcross, and his older brother Joaquin are separated from their family, the gypsy tribe, as children.
The entire music video for the cover version of the song "Johnny Remember Me" by Dr. John Cooper Clarke and Hugh Cornwell was filmed at Abney Park Cemetery.
Reading band Sundara Karma filmed the music video for their single "Explore" at Abney Park Cemetery.


Chicka Dixon said that he had attended a political rally in 1946 where the initial idea and inspiration for the Embassy was raised by Jack Patten, President and co-founder of the Aborigines Progressive Association. Patten had called for an Aboriginal mission station to be placed in front of Parliament House, where the eyes of the world could see the plight of the land's First Peoples.
On 26 January 1972, four Aboriginal men, Michael Anderson, Billy Craigie, Tony Coorey and Bertie Williams (later Kevin "Bert" Johnson), arrived in Canberra from Sydney, to establish an Aboriginal Embassy by planting a beach umbrella on the lawn in front of Parliament House (now Old Parliament House). The embassy was established in response to the McMahon Coalition Government's refusal to recognise Aboriginal land rights or native title in Australia, instead offering 50-year general-purpose leases for Aboriginal people which would be conditional upon their "intention and ability to make reasonable economic and social use of land", while reserving for the Crown rights to minerals and forestry.
Williams suggested calling the tiny protest, at that point just a camp with a few placards, an embassy. The term was "embassy" was deliberately chosen to draw attention to the fact Aboriginal people had never ceded sovereignty, and that there had never been any kind of treaty process with the Crown; they were the only cultural group in Australia who did not have an embassy to represent them. Dr Gary Foley later wrote in his 2014 book about the embassy that the term "tent embassy" was intended to serve as a reminder that Aboriginal people were living in substandard conditions, and treated "like aliens in their own land".
On 6 February 1972 the Aboriginal Tent Embassy presented a list of demands to Parliament:
Control of the Northern Territory as a State within the Commonwealth of Australia; the parliament in the Northern Territory to be predominantly Aboriginal with native title and mining rights to all land within the Territory.
Legal title and mining rights to all other presently existing Aboriginal reserve lands and settlements throughout Australia.
The preservation of all sacred sites throughout Australia.
Legal title and mining rights to areas in and around all Australian capital cities.
Compensation money for lands not returnable to take the form of a down-payment of A$6 billion and an annual percentage of the gross national income.
The beach umbrella was soon replaced by several tents and Aboriginal people, including activists such as Gary Foley, Isabel Coe, John Newfong, Chicka Dixon, and Gordon Briscoe, and non-Indigenous supporters came from all parts of Australia to join the protest. The occupiers were told by Kep Enderby that they were legally entitled to camp outside Parliament since it was Commonwealth Land. Dixon said that he became the "Minister for Defence" and they all assigned themselves portfolios. They painted the gutter "No Parking – Aboriginal Staff Only", and then introduced the (Aboriginal) flag. Support grew around the world too.
In May 1972, with winter approaching, embassy spokesman Sammy Watson Jnr announced that it would be cutting down its staff to four people over winter. A new accounting system would be introduced, with their bookkeeping open to inspection. Any donations superfluous to the needs of running the embassy would be given to community projects. Watson and Gary Foley said that the aim of the embassy was "to develop awareness among urban Blacks, in particular, of Black nationalism, and to unite all Aborigines despite cultural or language difficulties in the fight for their rights". They also expressed solidarity with other oppressed groups, and class struggles. Michael Anderson resigned as High Commissioner for the embassy at this time as he wished to turn his attention to a voter registration among Aboriginal people in rural New South Wales.
The demands were rejected, and following an amendment to the Trespass on Commonwealth Lands Ordinance 1932 (which made the occupation a squat which could then be evicted), police moved in without notice in July 1972. They removed the tents and arrested eight people. Three days later, on 20 July, 200 activists returned to the site and were prevented from reoccupying it by 200 police, who dismantled the embassy. Chicka Dixon commented "we decided to fight the coppers, so we armed ourselves with little sticks". The police did not intervene, and after listening to speeches the crowd dispersed peacefully. The clash was later described by Anderson as "a bloody battle", which caused 36 police to be taken to hospital and 18 protesters to be sent to jail. A week later on 30 July, around 2000 people turned up, and the tents were re-erected afterwards removed by the protesters, in a peaceful demonstration.
The film Ningla A-Na, a documentary film charting Black activism in South-East Australia made in 1972, documents the events, including the eviction by police.
During the first six months of its life in 1972 the Embassy succeeded in uniting Aboriginal people throughout Australia in demanding uniform national land rights, and mobilised widespread non-Indigenous support for the cause. Other people associated with the Embassy demonstration in 1972 include Gary Williams, Sam Watson (aka Sammy Watson Jnr), Pearl Gibbs, Roberta Sykes, Alana Doolan, Cheryl Buchannan, Pat Eatock, Kevin Gilbert, Denis Walker, and Shirley Smith ("Mum Shirl").
The ACT Supreme Court ruled in September 1972 that the amendment to the Trespass on Commonwealth Lands Ordinance 1932 did not allow for the eviction of the Embassy. A Bill was quickly added to make the Ordinance retrospective, and the Embassy was evicted again the next day, after it had been symbolically re-erected.


In October 1973, around 70 Aboriginal protesters staged a sit-in on the steps of Parliament House and the Tent Embassy was re-established. The sit-in ended when Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam agreed to meet with protesters.
On 30 May 1974 the embassy was destroyed in a storm, but its contents were safeguarded by the Department of the Capital Territory, and it was re-established on 30 October by the Organisation of Aboriginal Unity (OAU), who staged a sit-in in at the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and on the steps of Parliament House and temporarily renamed it the Canberra Aboriginal Reserve. They charged Whitlam with forgetting his earlier promises. On 21 November the OAU said that the "mission" would remain on the Parliament House lawns until "The Department of Aboriginal Affairs was abolished; all reserves and land on which blacks were now living were handed back to them in full ownership; compensation for land lost was paid plus a percentage of the annual gross income; an Aboriginal commission was formed to handle Aboriginal affairs and distribute all funds; all budget submissions were met and approved in time to enable all black organisations to function at the requirement of the people".
In February 1975 Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins negotiated the "temporary" removal of the Embassy with the Government, pending Government action on land rights. In December 1976 the embassy was dismantled after the passing of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 with bipartisan support by the Fraser government, having been introduced by the Whitlam government in mid-1975. The protest site was then relocated to various sites in Canberra until 1992. In March 1976, the Embassy was established in a house in the nearby suburb of Red Hill; however, this closed in 1977.  For a short period in 1979, the embassy was re-established by Lyall Munro Jnr, Cecil Patten, and Paul Coe, as the "National Aboriginal Government" on Capital Hill, site of the proposed new Parliament House.
On the 20th anniversary of its founding in 1992, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy was re-established at the original site on the lawns of Old Parliament House. Despite being a continual source of controversy, with many calls for its removal, it has existed on the site since that time.
In 1993, the ashes of the poet Kevin Gilbert, who had been involved in the early days, were buried at the site.
The site of the Tent Embassy was added to the Australian Register of the National Estate in 1995, after bring registered in 1987, as the only Aboriginal site in Australia that is recognised nationally as representing political struggle for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.


The Abra del Acay in La Poma Department, Salta Province, Argentina is the highest point in Argentina's National Route 40. Located at 24°23′S 66°14′W, its altitude is 4,972 meters (16,312 ft), even though an old sign informs visitors it stands at 4,895 meters (16,060 ft).
The Abra del Acay is approximately 25 kilometers (16 mi) geodesic distance southeast from San Antonio de los Cobres, although the direct route by road is about 45 kilometers (28 mi).
Inaugurated on 8 July 1960 after three years of construction, this unpaved part of the National Route 40 is only suitable for all-terrain vehicles, with the exception of some months in the year when meteorological and maintenance conditions allow normal vehicles to transit. The road inclination of 4.5% and oxygen deprivation due to altitude make the crossing difficult for both people and vehicles with non-turbocharged engines.


The Absecon Lighthouse is a coastal lighthouse located in the north end of Atlantic City, New Jersey, overlooking Absecon Inlet.  At 171 feet (52 m) it is the tallest lighthouse in the state of New Jersey and the third-tallest masonry lighthouse in the United States. Construction began in 1854, with the light first lit on January 15, 1857. The lighthouse was deactivated in 1933 and, although the light still shines every night, it is no longer an active navigational aid. The lighthouse is open to public visitation and, for a small donation, one may climb to the watch room and external gallery.  A re-creation of the keepers' quarters was opened in 2002 and serves as a museum and gift shop. The original oil house now contains a Fresnel lens exhibit. Along with school and group tours, the Absecon Lighthouse offers an overnight program for Scouts, a winter arts program for children, and a wide variety of special events throughout the year.
The Absecon Lighthouse was designed by George Meade and still retains its original first-order fixed Fresnel lens. The lens is made of lead glass and weighs 12,800 pounds (5,800 kg) As the light was fixed (non-flashing), it does not have a landward segment allowing visitors to look up in the lens where the keepers entered it for maintenance.
Jack E. Boucher conceived and oversaw the preservation of the lighthouse in 1964.
The lighthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Historic American Buildings Survey, and the New Jersey Register of Historic Places.


Absecon Lighthouse has a history museum located in the replicated 1925 Keeper's House.  Exhibits include ocean life, shipwrecks, keepers and lighthouse history, local memorabilia, and restoration photos.  The Oil House has a Fresnel Lens exhibit.  Visitors can climb the 228 steps to the top of the lighthouse.  Educational programs are offered for groups and children.


Abu Tor, also Abu Thor or ath-Thori, (Arabic: أبو طور or الثوري, Hebrew: אבו תור; lit. Arabic meaning "Father of the Bull"; In Hebrew also called גבעת חנניה (Giv'at Hanania), lit. "Hananiah's hill") is a mixed Jewish and Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem, built on an eminence south of the Old City.


Abu Tor is bounded by the Valley of Hinnom on the north, by the Valley of Azal (Wadi Yasul/Nahal Azal) on the south, Hebron Road and the old Jerusalem Railway Station to the west, and the Sherover Promenade, Armon HaNetziv and Peace Forest to the south. The "official" Hebrew name of the neighborhood is Givat Hananya ("Hananya's Hill").


Abu Tor was developed as a residential quarter in the late 19th century by Muslim and Christian Arabs from Jerusalem. A Jewish neighborhood called Beit Yosef was established in 1888.


Abu Tor is one of the few Jerusalem neighborhoods with a mixed Arab and Jewish population. Due to its mixed population, many journalists, diplomats and United Nations employees choose to live there. While the Jewish section of Abu Tor is predominantly secular, the neighborhood has two synagogues - Har Refaim Synagogue for Ashkenazi Jews on Nachshon Street, and Shalom V'Achva Synagogue for Sephardi Jews.
Abu Tor had a population of 15,500 in 2010.


The mosque is located in the capital city, Abuja, and is situated on Independence Avenue, across from the National Christian Centre. It includes a library and a conference room.
The complex includes a conference centre capable of serving five hundred persons, the office for the Islamic Centre, and residential facilities for the imam and muezzin.  During construction, the general contractors were Lodigiani Nigeria Ltd., while design consultancy was provided by AIM Consultants Ltd.


WikiWeb_Academy of Music (Philadelphia)_2

An architectural competition for the Academy's design was announced in October 1854 and was won by the Philadelphia firm of Napoleon LeBrun and Gustavus Runge. A style of architecture that originated in Runge's native Germany now known as Rundbogenstil ("round arch style") was used for the exterior here and in a number of American buildings of the Civil War Era. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on June 18, 1855, with President Franklin Pierce in attendance and the venue opened with a grand ball on January 26, 1857.  The first opera performed there was the Western Hemisphere premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore, on February 25 of the same year.
In order to reserve as much of the budget for the interior as possible, the architects designed a relatively plain brick and brownstone exterior that could be clad in marble if funds became available later. The ornate auditorium has an "open horseshoe" shape and proscenium columns with elliptical cross-sections in order to provide more direct sight lines from the seats in the side balconies. The auditorium is enclosed by a solid three-foot brick wall with studding and pine boards lining the inner sides to prevent echoes and absorb sound. The upper balconies are recessed in a tiered fashion and supported by 14 Corinthian columns. An unusual feature was that the boxes were originally placed against the rear wall on the second and third levels (Balcony and Family Circle). They were divided from each other by walls that curved down from the ceilings. These have since been removed and boxes created elsewhere. The front of the first balcony is highly ornamented. The hall currently has a seating capacity of 2,389 which can be expanded to 2,509 when seats are placed in the orchestra pit and proscenium boxes. An 1860 account by Runge mentioned that the full auditorium, then nearly 3,000 persons, could be emptied in four minutes in "great calmness and order" owing to the wide corridors and stairways.
In 1947, it was reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer that, at the time, the venue sat up to 3,052 when 94 additional audience seats were added in the orchestra pit
.


WikiWeb_Academy of Music (Philadelphia)_3

The interior might be considered an early example of American Baroque Revival architecture.  The auditorium is graced by a large crystal chandelier, which measures 16 ft (4.9 m) in diameter,   and weighs 5,000 lb (2,300 kg). When installed, the chandelier contained 240 gas jets, which were converted to electricity in 1900, and rewired in 1957.  That same year, it was fitted with an electric-powered winch.  It previously required 12 people working four-hours to lower it by hand.  The fixture was restored to its original form and missing crystals replaced in 2008.  The heat produced by the original gas fixtures helped to ventilate the hall by causing air to rise to various vents along the back walls and in the center of the ceiling.
Atop the proscenium is a bas-relief bust of Mozart.  Seated on the cornice above are the figures of Poetry, on the left, and Music, on the right. The elaborate carvings and gilded wood sculpture decorations throughout the auditorium are the work of Charles Bushor and Joseph A. Bailly and the ceiling murals of allegorical figures were completed by Karl Hermann Schmolze.  In the 1880s, the ceiling was enriched with additional painted decorations placed around the original murals.
The original front stage curtain was a painted representation of draped crimson fabric with heavy golden fringe, ropes, tassels, etc. by J. R. Martin of Berlin.  A secondary curtain had a scene of Lake Como, Italy, painted by Russell Smith of Philadelphia.
The original seating on the Parquet and first balcony had arms and upholstery with springs and a covering of dark red plush fabric.  The second balcony had "sofas without arms" and the third, pew-like seating. These were mostly replaced with more typical theater seating. The installation of more spacious seating began in 2018.
A 2007 donation of $5.3 million by Leonore Annenberg was designated for restoration of the Academy's ballroom.  This was part of the almost $12 million (USD) in donations raised at the 150th anniversary concert for the Academy of Music.


The Ace of Clubs House (also known as the Draughon–Moore House) is a historic house museum in Texarkana, Texas. The house is distinctively shaped like a club, from a deck of playing cards, with three octagon-shaped wings and a fourth rectangular wing adjoining at a central octagon-shaped stair hall. The structure was built in 1885 as a private residence, in an Italianate Victorian architectural style. The design resulted in the house having 22 sides. The two-story house also features a 20-foot (6.1 m) tower and a spiral staircase.
According to local lore, it was shaped as a club because its builder and original owner, Confederate veteran, lumberman, and early Texarkana mayor James Draughon, built it with $10,000 that he won in a game of poker with an ace of clubs. Three families have lived in the house. In 1887, William Lowndes Whitaker, Sr., acquired the building. Whitaker lived in it until 1894, when he sold it to an attorney named Henry Moore, Sr. Henry Moore, Jr., and Tyler native Olivia Smith, his wife, moved into the house in 1920. After Moore, Jr., died in 1942, his widow remained in the house until her own death in 1985, at which point it was deeded to the Texarkana Museum System in her will. The house was refurbished in 1987, and it began operating as a museum in 1988. Each room was restored to represent a different time period in the history of the house, spanning from 1880 to 1940.
The Ace of Clubs House caters to business and club meetings, lawn parties, portrait photography, receptions, and weddings. In 2016, the house's lawn hosted the Texarkana Museums System's Moonlight & Movies classic film series. The house has also hosted a Victorian Christmas celebration.
The Ace of Clubs House has been featured on the HGTV television program Christmas Castles. It is both a property on the National Register of Historic Places and a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.


The diocese was established by the late 5th century, but the structure of the present Romanesque cathedral building dates from 1080, when construction was begun under archbishop Arnald of Cluny. The site however is far more ancient and traces remain in the present building both of a pagan temple to Hercules Acheruntinus and of the earlier Christian church.
It has a Latin cross ground plan, and three aisles, which terminate in a raised presbytery behind which is an apse with an ambulatory and three radiating chapels, an unusual feature in Italian church design; the transept also terminates at either end in a semi-circular chapel. The ambulatory contains the altar which houses the relics of Saint Canius (or Canus; Italian: San Canio).
The crypt dates from 1524 and contains what is believed to be the sarcophagus of Saint Canius.
The campanile was added in 1555, and reuses many interesting fragments of ancient stonework, including two Roman sarcophagi and a sacrificial altar decorated with bulls' heads.
The interior of the cathedral features many unusual zoomorphic and floral carvings, in the Cluniac manner, the possible symbolic significance of which has caused speculation.


In 1886, Theodor Friedrich Freiherr von Dreifuss proposed to connect Jenbach to the Achensee. Despite concerns by villagers in the area, the proposal was supported by the monastery at Fiecht, which owned the Achensee and ran steam boats on the lake.
Consent to build the line was given on 1 August 1888 by Emperor Franz Josef. The line was constructed by the Soenderop Company of Berlin. The official opening of the line was on 8 June 1889. The line originally ended a short distance short of the pier for the steamboats as it was intended to run a luggage service between Seespitz station and the pier at an extra charge. The railway was extended to a new station serving the steamboats in 1916.
The railway carried its highest numbers of passengers during World War II  and after the war the railway was an important method of supplying the region with goods and materials. In 1950, the Tirolean Water Company (TIWAG) acquired a majority of the shares in the railway, passing them to the villages of Achenkirch, Maurach and Eben in 1979. Carriage of freight ceased in 1973. The railway was remodelled with support from TIWAG, the Federal Government and State Government.
On 16 May 2008, the engine shed at Jenbach railway station was destroyed in a fire. Locomotive No. 1 was damaged, but will be restored, as will the engine shed. In 2009, the shed has been completed and the No. 1 was rebuilt.
On 25 March 2020, the railway company went bankrupt. Action is underway to salvage the railway.
From 2022, the Achenseebahn Infrastruktur- und Betriebs- GmbH , founded on March 2, 2021 as the successor company, is to be in charge of operations.  In May 2021, the new operating company was granted the license.  Management and operations management is taken over by the Zillertalbahn.  An operation resumption is scheduled for May 2022.


The Achensee Railway has four open and two closed four-wheeled coaches. The open coaches were built in Graz in 1889. The closed coaches were built in Esslingen in 1903 and 1907.


The Achi monastery is a single-nave hall church, built of hewn stone. Constructed at the end of the 13th century or in the early 14th, it was later reroofed, renovated and surrounded by a defensive wall. The whole interior is frescoed. Some murals, stylistically dated to the late 13th century and betraying affinities with the Palaeologan art, are iconographic rarities, such as those depicting the life of Saint George. One of the accompanying inscriptions, in Greek, mentions Onesimos, a Trapezuntine, probably a painter. A Georgian inscription in the asomtavruli script, mounted on the eastern façade, reads: "Saint George, intercede for the lords Saghir, Rati, and Ushanian, and intercede for Nikoloz of Achi and the stonemasons Mikel and Mkhetsidze."


Achnahaird Bay is an inlet of Enard Bay and is located on the Coigach peninsula, Wester Ross, Scotland. It can be reached by following the road to the scattered settlement of Achiltibuie. The beautiful, wide sandy beach and stunning views of the mountains Stac Pollaidh, Canisp and Suilven. Achnahaird Bay was used as a filming location for the 2011 film The Eagle, with a horse chase scene across the beach.
There is a caravan site a stone's throw from the beach.


Mentioned in the Bible by its ancient name Achzib, evidence of human settlement at the site dates back to the 18th century BCE. During the Roman period (and in classical literature) the imperial authorities called it Ecdippa, Ecdeppa, or Ecdippon.  By the early Middle Ages, the Arab name for the village "Az-Zeeb", or "al-Zib" (Arabic: الزيب meaning 'trickster') was locally in common usage.  Az-Zeeb is a shortened form of the site's original ancient Canaanite/Phoenician name, Achzib.


By the 1000 BCE, Achziv was a prosperous and fortified Phoenician town. Conquered by the Assyrian empire in the 8th century BCE, however, it was subsequently ruled by the Persians during the rule of the Roman Empire.
Achzib is mentioned in the Book of Joshua (19:29) and Book of Judges (1:31) as a town assigned to the tribe of Asher in the Hebrew Bible, but the Asherites did not manage to conquer it from the Phoenicians:
And the fifth lot came out for the tribe of the children of Asher ... and the outgoings thereof are at the sea from the coast to Achzib. (Joshua 19:24-29)
Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco, ... or of Achzib ... (Judges 1:31)
According to Biblical history, King David added the city into his Kingdom, but King Solomon returned it to Hiram I as part of the famous pact; archaeological evidence indicates that it remained Phoenician.
Positioned on a passage between the plain of Acre and the city of Tyre, Achzib was an important road station. Between the 10th and 6th centuries BCE, it was a prosperous town, with public buildings and tombs with Phoenician inscriptions, attesting to the identity of its inhabitants at the time. Conquered by the Assyrians in 701 BCE and listed in Sennacherib's annals as Ak-zi-bi, the continuation of Phoenician settlement through this period and during the decline endured during the Persian period, is evidenced in 5th and 4th century BCE Phoenician inscriptions that were found at the site.
During the invasions of Sennacherib the Assyrians conquered the city.


Ackergill Tower (or Ackergill Castle) is located on the coast of Sinclair's Bay, about 4 km north of Wick, Caithness, in northern Scotland. It was built in the early 16th century, and is a category A listed building. The building is a five-storey oblong tower house. The four-storey wing to the rear was added in the early 18th century.
From 2014, Ackergill Tower was operated as an events and wedding venue by AmaZing Venues, before being sold to US philanthropist, Dr Betsee Parker in February 2019.


The mountain was created by the subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South American Plate. Aconcagua used to be an active stratovolcano (from the Late Cretaceous or Early Paleocene through the Miocene) and consisted of several volcanic complexes on the edge of a basin with a shallow sea. However, sometime in the Miocene, about 8 to 10 million years ago, the subduction angle started to decrease, resulting in a stop of the melting and more horizontal stresses between the oceanic plate and the continent, causing the thrust faults that lifted Aconcagua up off its volcanic root. The rocks found on Aconcagua's flanks are all volcanic and consist of lavas, breccias and pyroclastics. The shallow marine basin had already formed earlier (Triassic), even before Aconcagua arose as a volcano. However, volcanism has been present in this region for as long as this basin was around and volcanic deposits interfinger with marine deposits throughout the sequence. The colorful greenish, blueish and grey deposits that can be seen in the Horcones Valley and south of Puente Del Inca, are carbonates, limestones, turbidites and evaporates that filled this basin. The red colored rocks are intrusions, cinder deposits and conglomerates of volcanic origin.


The first attempt to summit Aconcagua by Europeans was made in 1883 by a party led by the German geologist and explorer Paul Güssfeldt. Bribing porters with the story of treasure on the mountain, he approached the mountain via the Rio Volcan, making two attempts on the peak by the north-west ridge and reaching an altitude of 6,500 metres (21,300 ft). The route that he prospected is now the standard route up the mountain.
The first recorded ascent was in 1897 by a European expedition led by the British mountaineer Edward FitzGerald. FitzGerald failed to reach the summit himself over eight attempts between December 1896 and February 1897, but the (Swiss) guide of the expedition, Matthias Zurbriggen reached the summit on 14 January. On the final attempt a month later, two other expedition members, Stuart Vines and Nicola Lanti, reached the summit on 13 February.
The east side of Aconcagua was first scaled by a Polish expedition, with Konstanty Narkiewicz-Jodko, Stefan Daszyński, Wiktor Ostrowski and Stefan Osiecki summiting on 9 March 1934, over what is now known as the Polish Glacier. A route over the Southwest Ridge was pioneered over seven days in January 1953 by the Swiss-Argentine team of Frederico and Dorly Marmillod, Francisco Ibanez and Fernando Grajales. The famously difficult South Face was conquered by a French team led by René Ferlet. Pierre Lesueur, Adrien Dagory, Robert Paragot, Edmond Denis, Lucien Berardini and Guy Poulet reached the summit after a month of effort on 25 February 1954.
As of 2020 the youngest person to reach the summit of Aconcagua is Tyler Armstrong of California. He was nine years old when he reached the summit on 24 December 2013. Kaamya Karthikeyan of India at an age of 12 became the youngest girl to reach the summit on 1 February 2020. The oldest person to climb it was Scott Lewis, who reached the summit on 26 November 2007, when he was 87 years old.
In the base camp Plaza de Mulas (at 4,300 m (14,100 ft) above sea level) there is the highest contemporary art gallery tent called "Nautilus" of the Argentine painter Miguel Doura.
In 2014 Kilian Jornet set a record for climbing and descending Aconcagua from Horcones in 12 hours and 49 minutes. The record was broken less than two months later by Ecuadorian-Swiss Karl Egloff, in a time of 11 hours 52 minutes, nearly an hour faster than Kilian Jornet. The women's record is held by Ecuadorean Daniela Sandoval at 20 hours, 17 minutes.
On 25 September 2019, an Airbus Helicopters H145 landed on the very peak of Mount Aconcagua. This is the first time in history a twin-engine helicopter has landed at this altitude. It took a total of 45 minutes for the entire trip, 30 minutes from Mendoza and another 15 from the base camp up to the peak. Temperatures were reported as low as −22 °C, with wind gusts up to 30 knots. This is not the highest a helicopter has landed before, as a single-engine Airbus Helicopters H125 landed on Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world.


At nearly 7,000 m (23,000 ft), Aconcagua is the highest peak outside of Asia. It is believed to have the highest death rate of any mountain in South America – around three a year – which has earned it the nickname "Mountain of Death". More than 100 people have died on Aconcagua since records began.
Due to the improper disposal of human waste in the mountain environment there are significant health hazards that pose a threat to both animals and human beings. Only boiled or chemically treated water is accepted for drinking. Additionally, ecofriendly toilets are available only to members of an organised expedition, meaning climbers have to "be contracted to a toilet service" at the base camp and similar camps along the route. Currently, from two base camps (Plaza de Mulas and Plaza Argentina), over 120 barrels of waste (approx. 22,500 kg (49,600 lb)) are flown out by helicopter each season. In addition, individual mountaineers must make a payment before using these toilets. Some large organisers will give a price up to US$100, some smaller US$5/day or US$10 for the entire stay. Thus, many independent mountaineers defecate on the mountainside.


Designed by Ettore Bernich and built between 1885 and 1887, the building hosted an aquarium for few years. It was later used as a depot of the near Teatro dell'Opera, and sometimes as a venue for fairs and exhibitions.
A typical building of the age of king Umberto I, it has a circular plan and shows a pronaos with aediculas. Decorations with marine subject are inserted between the sculptures into the aediculas; between the caryatids are placed some medallions. The cylindrical body of the building is subdivided by lesenes and pilasters.
After a period of abandon, it was restored and used as a museum and seat for performances and concerts. It presently hosts the Casa dell'Architettura.


The available sources do indicate the Acra stood south of the temple, and because 1 Maccabees is a contemporaneous account of the Maccabean revolt, its account of the Acra (1:35–38) is considered the most reliable. Josephus provides an unlikely account of the razing of a hill on which the Acra had stood, yet his description of the end of the Great Revolt (70 CE) provides additional evidence for it being located south of the Temple Mount:
...but on the next day they set fire to the repository of the archives, to Acra, to the council-house, and to the place called Ophlas; at which time the fire proceeded as far as the palace of queen Helena, which was in the middle of Acra;
— Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 6:354
As the other buildings mentioned in the account all stood to the south in the Lower City, this also places the Acra there. This account attests to the persistence of the name "Acra" in this part of Jerusalem many years after Hellenistic rule ended and its citadels had been overthrown, and it can also be seen as referring not to a distinct building but rather to an entire region of the city. Indeed, several clauses in 1 Maccabees may be read as making a similar point:
About five hundred men of the army of Nicanor fell, and the rest fled into the city of David.
— 1 Maccabees 7:32.
And in his days things prospered in his hands, so that the Gentiles were put out of the country, as were also the men in the city of David in Jerusalem, who had built themselves a citadel [Greek: Acra] from which they used to sally forth and defile the environs of the sanctuary and do great damage to its purity.
— 1 Maccabees 14:36.
These suggest that, after the sacking of Jerusalem by Antiochus IV in 168 BCE, at least part of the City of David to the south of the Temple Mount was rebuilt as a fortified Hellenistic quarter of Jerusalem. More than a citadel, it was a Macedonian colony where Jewish renegades and supporters of the new regime lived. This is also supported by archaeological evidence, including Rhodian amphorae handles and 18 box graves found on the eastern slope of the City of David. The latter are dated to the early 2nd century CE, and are uncharacteristic of Second Temple era Jewish burial practices, yet similar to other known Hellenistic graveyards such as the one in Acre (Ptolemais).


The Acronauplia (Greek: Ακροναυπλία, romanized: Akronafplia, Turkish: Iç Kale, "Inner Castle") is the oldest part of the city of Nafplion in Greece. Until the thirteenth century, it was a town on its own. The arrival of the Venetians and the Franks transformed it into part of the town fortifications. Later, part of it was used as a prison until the Greek government decided that the view provided from its location would benefit the local tourism and built a hotel complex which still stands there today.


DAIMĀNIYĀT (ديمانيات), in: Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia Online, Edited by: Brill. Consulted online on 10 July 2018 <https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2405-447X_loro_COM_040131>
First published online: 2015 (online scan, online text)


The competition for the preliminary design of the bridge was held in 2004. Twelve companies submitted bids, with the winning design by the Slovenian company Ponting. The bridge designers were the architects Viktor Markelj and Peter Gabrijelčič. The winning conceptual design was unanimously selected by the jury which was chaired by Nikola Hajdin, President of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the architect of the New Railroad Bridge. The Belgrade Association of Architects also endorsed the project, assessing it as contemporary and relevant to the future skyline of Belgrade. The design was awarded the first prize by the Hajdin's jury in 2005 and was officially selected in 2006.
The bridge is a cable-stayed design with a single pylon. The foundation for the pylon is a circular diaphragm wall with 113 bored piles. The main span is constructed from 8,600 tons of bridge construction steel (grade S355J2+N), supported by 80 stay cables, and is counterbalanced by a post-tensioned, reinforced concrete back span of 200 m (660 ft). The approach towards New Belgrade is constructed as a 388m post-tensioned, reinforced concrete side span as continuous beam box girder with a similar arrangement of deck as the back span. Component parts of the deck were manufactured in China and delivered in transportable units on a sea and river-route via Rotterdam through the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal to the pre-assembly yard next to the construction site at Mala Ciganlija in Belgrade. The stay cables used to support the bridge deck have a maximum length of approximately 373 m (1,224 ft), and in total 1280 tons of high grade steel is used for the 80 cables with up to 91 strands.
The bridge is designed to significantly reduce traffic passing through the city centre, up to 40%, and the older Gazela Bridge. The traffic over the bridge is projected at 12,000 vehicles per hour. There is also a possibility that it will be used for the future Belgrade Metro lines. It is also planned to be part of the future Belgrade Inner City Semi-Ring Road. It will have three road lanes and a tram (light rail) track in each direction.


The Ada Bridge was featured in the fifth episode of season nine of the Discovery Channel documentary television series Build It Bigger.
The bridge became one of the symbols of Belgrade. It became a "must" in the music videos, TV serials or movies shot in Belgrade. It is filmed in numerous commercials, video cards and photo shoots.
In February 2022, Serbian singer Teodora released a single named "Most na Adi", after the bridge.


Ada Ciganlija has a unique ecosystem, creating an oasis in the urban area. Most of the peninsula is forested. The original, thick deciduous forest mainly consists of oaks, elms, birches and willows. In the mid 20th century, further planned forestation of Ada Ciganlija included the planting of American poplars and green ash. In 2010, total forested area covered 1.79 km² (0.69 sq mi), or two thirds of the island. This characteristic of Ada gives its visitors an illusion of being in complete wilderness, aided by the fact that city ambient noise is completely muted by the thick forest.
Most of the forest on the island is protected, including the entire central, northern and western sections. These parts of the peninsula are entirely wild with uncultivated vegetation and very little or no human presence, making it unique compared to other European city islands and peninsulas.
Part of the Ada's central forested complex was declared a protected habitat "Fungi of Ada Ciganlija" by the city on 29 November 2013. Apart from the wood fauna characterized for the wet soils, it hosts 250 species of fungi, many of which are listed on Serbian and international lists of rare or endangered species. It is the only known habitat in Serbia of Myriostoma coliforme.
In terms of fauna, besides having numerous amphibians and insects, Ada Ciganlija contains several mammal species, considered special due to the setting of the peninsula in an urban area. Foxes, hares and roe deer inhabit the peninsula. However, with environmentalists warning that the island's biocoenosis has been overly affected, a new population of 60 hares and 100 pheasants was introduced into the ecosystem in 2006.
Bird species include more common lapwings, mallards, quails and pheasants. Common woodland and parkland birds during the nesting season include great tit, blue tit, long-tailed tit, Eurasian nuthatch, European green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, golden oriole, nightingale, blackcap, common chaffinch, hooded crow, European magpie, common wood pigeon, feral pigeon, white wagtail and barn swallow.
Unlike other rivers and wetlands in Belgrade, swans rarely visited the lake, including occasional black swans. Starting in September 2020, swans began to arrive at the lake, until several dozens flocked in total, and remained on Ada. The number of swans in Belgrade had been constantly growing since the 2010s, reaching some 600 birds by the winter of 2021. They are mostly mute swans and are quickly adapted: more and more of them becoming sedentary rather than migratory, accustoming to humans who regularly feed them, becoming popular among the residents, and turning into the mascots of the neighborhoods they inhabit.
Ada is also the wintering ground for some threatened migratory birds, most notably the pygmy cormorant which winters in Belgrade in large numbers. Pygmy cormorant inhabited the Pančevački Rit marshland, just north of Belgrade, in the early 20th century, but after that area was drained and urbanized, they disappeared. Several hundreds of birds in the early 1990s began spending winters on the Malo Ratno Ostrvo, in the Danube. When their number exceeded 1,000, they resettled to three new locations: first at the willow grove on the Sava's bank (Belgrade Fair) and then to the area near the tip of Ada and the neighboring Mala Ciganlija. Their number rose every year to 6,750 in 2007/08, but since then is generally reducing and in 2015 it was 3,850 which is still 5,4% of the European and 2% of the world's pygmy cormorant population. There were concerns that the building of the new Ada Bridge in 2008-12 would disturb the habitat, but the birds endured it well. Their habitat was protected by law in 2008. Any destruction, clearing or pruning of the vegetation is forbidden, so as scaring, disturbing or killing of the birds.
In c. 1900, the last nests of yellow-legged gull in Serbia were spotted on Ada. The nesting couples are spotted again only in 2021, but in the Đerdap Gorge, some 250 kilometres (160 mi) to the east.
In April 2022, it was announced that plans are to declare Ada Ciganlija a protected area, as a landscape of outstanding features, by the end of 2022.


During Interbellum, Ada wasn't the most popular recreational area as the major beach area was across its northern tip, in the Gospodarska Mehana section of the Senjak  neighborhood. Still, even then, one of major Serbian writers Branislav Nušić, nicknamed it Vodeni cvet (watery flower) because of its beauty.
In 1920 city decided to arrange the Ada as part of the international design competition concerning the arrangement and expansion of Belgrade. Competition was announced in 1921. One of the submitted works,  titled Urbs Magna ("Great City"), proposed construction of the large, multi-functional stadium and transformation of the island into the sports park. First facilities of the swimming and rowing clubs on the island were built after that. The Belgrade's first general urban plan, completed in 1924, envisioned the island as an excursion and leisure area. In 1936 city government adopted a new general urban plan which projected Ada as the "sports island".


For decades, Ada Ciganlija was popular among loners and fishermen, including the famous actor Pavle Vujisić. After his death in 1988, it was proposed that the access road to Ada should be named after him, but another street in the new neighborhood of Altina in Zemun was later named after him. Other famous bohemians which dwelled occasionally on Ada after the 1960s were actor Dragan Nikolić, writers Momo Kapor and Zuko Džumhur and opera singers Živan Saramandić and Milka Stojanović. Nobelist author Ivo Andrić called Ada the "Boka Kotorska of Belgrade" and the "Green jewel of our Pannonian rivers".
Number of splavovi (float barges) began to grow by the late 1970s and the visitors began to include the members of the political and business elite also, including mayor Živorad Kovačević. One of the first barges was "JAT", opened in the late 1970s. It was originally intended only for the employees of the JAT Airways, but soon became a gathering place for the regular clientele, becoming a famous venue in the city. It was derelict by the 2000s, when it was sold to a private owner. Before it was renovated, the barge detached and was taken by the river downstream. The owner took only emergency measures to keep it afloat, but in January 2019 it sank under the heavy snowfall. The barge itself was considered one of the best on the river. "Argument", the first restaurant on splav in Belgrade was opened in 1983. It looked like a "railroad car", without any specificities. In the 1990s it was relocated to the neighborhood of Ušće. At the time, Ada wasn't that well connected to the rest of the city which gave this venues a certain aura of exclusivity. Splav "Sara" was the very first venue in Belgrade with solely electronic music. It was opened only for a year in 1994.
Belgrade has a reputation for offering a vibrant nightlife, and many clubs that are open until dawn can be found throughout the city. The most recognizable nightlife features of Belgrade are the splavovi, spread along the banks of the Sava and Danube Rivers. The island has over 70 restaurants, bars and cafés as well as a café-cinema.


Ever since Ada Ciganlija began gaining popularity, there have been varying views of its importance. During the economic hardship of the 1980s and subsequent wars of the 1990s, it was often regarded as an "necessary evil", as the only resort available to masses of economically disadvantaged people. Use of this recreation area has always been free of charge, leading to it often being overcrowded and regarded as having poor hygiene, because, for decades, Ada had no proper facilities or institutionalised care. That has changed however, and the zone is today properly maintained, and has suitable infrastructure and appropriate commercial and recreational content. It is now possible to play sports that were not even invented when transformation of Ada began and it has become a highly popular gathering place, especially among youth, and a must-see destination for foreign tourists visiting Belgrade.


Adadi Mariam is a rock-hewn monolithic church located approximately 66 km southwest of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A popular tourist destination, the site is believed to have been built in the 12th century.
Throughout its history the church has been damaged by both man-made and natural causes. Recently, restoration work to strengthen and restore the church have been done with the aid of Switzerland.


Built-in sandstone in the Solanki architectural style, the Adalaj stepwell is five stories deep. It is octagonal in a plan at the top, built on an intricately carved large number of pillars. Each floor is spacious enough to provide for people to congregate. It was dug deep to access groundwater at that level, accounting for seasonal fluctuations in water level due to rainfall over the years. The air and light vents in the roofs at various floors and the landing level are in the form of large openings. From the first story level, three staircases lead to the bottom water level of the well, which is considered a unique feature. Built along a north-south axis, the entrance is from the south, and the three staircases are from the south, west, and east directions leading to the landing, which is on the northern side of the well. Four small rooms with oriel windows decorated with minutely carved brackets are provided at the landing level, at the four corners. The structural system is typically Indian with traditional trabeate with horizontal beams and lintels. At the bottom of the well is a square stepped floor in the shape of a funnel extending to the lowest plane. This is chiseled into a circular well. Above the square floor, columns, beams, walls, and arched openings spiral around, a feature that continues to the top. However, the top part of the well is a vertical space open to the sky. The four corners of the square are strengthened with stone beams, set at 45 degrees angle.
The motifs of flowers and graphics of architecture blend very well with the symbols of Hindu and Jain gods carved at various levels of the well. The dominant carvings on the upper floors are of elephants (3 inches (76 mm) in size, each of a different design). The Islamic architectural style could be attributed to the Muslim king Begda who built it. The walls are carved with women performing daily chores such as churning of buttermilk, adorning themselves, scenes of the performance of dancers and musicians, and the King overlooking all these activities.
An interesting depiction carved from a single block of stone is of the Ami Khumbor (symbolic pot of the water of life) and the Kalp Vriksha (a tree of life). Also seen is a fresco of navagraha or nine planets. These depictions are said to attract villagers for worship during marriage and other ritualistic ceremonies.
The temperature inside the well is about five degrees lower than the outside hot summer temperatures. This encouraged the women who came to fetch water to spend more time in the cool climes here. They stayed to worship the gods and goddesses and gossip.
A tribute paid to the rich underground structures, which are intricately decorated with sculptures, is that they are said to resemble palaces.


The Adams Express Building is an office building at 61 Broadway in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. The building's primary frontage is on 57-61 Broadway, with additional frontage along 33–41 Trinity Place. Architect Francis Kimball designed the 32–story building for the Adams Express Company.
Construction began in 1912 at which point the cost was estimated at $2,000,000 (equivalent to $56,158,621 in 2021). Upon completion in 1914, the building was the seventh tallest structure in Manhattan. As of 2014 it is owned by RXR Realty.


The Adams Express Company occupied part of the Pinkerton Building at 57-59 Broadway. In 1903, there was discussion of combining 57-61 Broadway with an adjacent property occupied by American Express and Wells Fargo, and building one large building for the three companies. This did not happen, and American Express's adjacent building at 65 Broadway was completed in 1917.
A 1904 fire that began in the basement of the Morris Building at 63 Broadway, damaged the Pinkerton and other buildings on the block. Twenty-four engines and six hook and ladder companies responded. The Fire Department of New York recorded that the Adams Express Company building was destroyed, but Adams Express continued to occupy the site. By 1906, Adams Express was planning a new, fireproof building to be constructed on the site of the Pinkerton Building.


In 1910 Industrial World Magazine reported that Adams Express was proceeding with a 10-story, brick and limestone building designed by George K. Hooper of Hooper-Faulkenau Engineering Company. Then in 1911, Adams Express finally purchased the Pinkerton Building. Although Hooper's plans would have blended with existing buildings in the Financial District where, in 1912, nearly half of the buildings were five stories or lower, the Hooper design was never constructed, as it was apparently too small. Instead, in 1912, Francis Kimball was hired to build a 32-story structure.
When construction began in 1912 on the Kimball design, first The New York Times and later city planners became concerned about sunlight and airspace. The Adams Express Building was one of a growing number of behemoths, most notably the then-under-construction Equitable Building, that cast shadows not only on the street but on nearby smaller buildings and drove down real estate value, rent, and tax revenues. F.W. Fitzpatrick complained that the Adams Express Building cast an 875-foot shadow. The 1916 Zoning Resolution provided a remedy in the form of setbacks where new buildings would be stepped back at certain heights depending on the width at the street. The restrictions would have applied to 75% of the ground area of the building, but construction of the Adams Express Building had occurred before the new zoning restrictions were adopted.


The first mention of a manor on the land is following the Norman invasion of Ireland. In 1226, King Henry III gave a grant to Justiciary of Ireland Geoffroi de Morreis (de Marisco) to hold an eight-day annual fair following the Feast of St. James at his Manor of Adare.
The lands subsequently were granted to the Earls of Kildare, members of the Welsh-Norman FitzGerald family who came to Ireland in 1169. In 1536, the act of attainder was passed against Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare, whose lands, castles and manors were forfeited to the crown.
In a letter dated 24 March 1547, the boy king Edward VI granted the Earls of Desmond "the manors and dominions of Croom and Adare, in the county of Limerick, to hold for life." The grant was short lived; the Desmond Rebellions brought control of the lands to the St. Leger family. For the next century, the lands passed from 10 families: St. Leger, Zouch, Gold, Rigges, Wallop, Norreis (Norris), Jephson, Evans, Ormesby (Ormsby), and then Quin.
Thady Quin, Esq. (1645–1726) of Gortfadda, County Leitrim, purchased the moiety in 1669 and continued to add surrounding land through 1702. He received the last land grant for Adare, on 16 December 1684, to hold the lands for a thousand years, "paying to Gilbert Ormsby and his heirs the rent of £230." The earliest section of the first manor house was presumably a square or oblong tower, likely erected by Thady Quin at the end of the 17th century.
The deed of conveyance, dated 23 February 1721, transferred the following land to Thady's eldest son, Valentine Quin:
The estate of Adare extended northwards nearly to the Shannon, and comprehended a considerable portion of the parishes of Kildimo and Chapelrussell, and the north-western section of Adare situate in the barony of Coshma, with a portion of Drehidtarsna, and parts of Kilkeedy and Croom, lying in the barony of Pubblebrien. The Manor of Tobernea was situate in the south-eastern part of the county, embracing the extreme southern portion of the barony of Coshma, with the adjacent part of Coshlea, and contained a considerable part of the parishes of Effin, Ballingarry, and Kilbreedy Minor
— Caroline Wyndham-Quin, Countess of Dunraven, Memorials of Adare Manor, 1865
Valentine Quin was the grandfather of Valentine Richard Quin (1752–1824), the first Earl of Dunraven. Valentine Richard Quin, MP for Kilmallock (1799–1800), was created a Baronet of Great Britain in 1781 and was raised to the peerage in 1800 as Baron Adare. He was advanced to a Viscountcy in 1816 as Viscount Mount Earl and became Viscount Adare and the first Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl on 5 February 1822. He chose the title of Dunraven in honour of his daughter-in-law Caroline Wyndham, daughter and heiress of Thomas Wyndham of Dunraven Castle, who in 1810 had married his eldest son and heir, Windham Henry Quin.
Around 1785, the first Earl of Dunraven made significant alterations to Adare Manor, raising more walls and changing the entrance from the south front to the northwest side. In 1786, it was described as "a very noble structure with fine and extensive demesnes."
Valentine Richard Quin's earldom lasted only two years; upon his death to 1824 the title passed to Windham Henry Quin, the second Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl. The new Earl, who was suffering from gout and confined indoors, rebuilt his home, turning it from a classic Georgian mansion into a large Tudor Revival manor. Building the new manor involved the rebuilding, enlarging and subsequent demolition of the earlier 18th-century manor house of the Quin family. Begun in 1832, construction provided work for the people from the surrounding villagers during the Great Famine.
Some of the old walls of the manor were preserved and encased in the new work, including the north and south walls of the dining room, and the walls between the hall and gallery. When the walls of the old tower were broken to form the door between the hall and gallery, a silver coin "of considerable antiquity" was discovered. The construction was still unfinished by the death of the second earl in 1850, after which the family consulted architect Philip Charles Hardwick, who "with much talent and judgment completed the south and west fronts, after his own designs, following the general plan as intended by the late Earl," his widow wrote.
Although Lady Caroline claimed that Adare Manor was planned entirely by her husband at first, the initial architectural plans for the house were made by James and George Richard Pain. The client dispensed with their services, however, around 1838, and Lord Dunraven continued with the design of the house himself with help from English architect Lewis Nockalls Cottingham. The initial phase of construction was completed under master mason, James Connolly, together with the second Earl of Dunraven and his wife, who incorporated their favourite buildings into the design.
Augustus Pugin was hired in 1846 to design some of the interior features including the great hall. The three-storey southern range and the tower with pyramidal roof, completed by the third Earl of Dunraven between 1850 and 1862, were  built to the designs of Philip Charles Hardwick.
An inscription on the east front of Adare Manor commemorates "James Conolly of Adare, mason, faithful friend and servant of the Earl of Dunraven, from AD 1831 till his death in 1852."
The new manor was built of large blocks of grey, red and brown limestone. On the parapet of the south front, a verse from Psalms 127:1 is etched in old English characters: "Except the Lord build the house: their labour is but lost that build it." Further verses "Love God onely," "Honour and obey the Queen," and "Eschew evil and do good" are carved onto the colonnade.
At the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1868, the property was valued at only £130 (equivalent to £12,444 in 2021); in 1906 the buildings at Adare Manor were valued at just £182 (equivalent to £20,827 in 2021).


Thady Wyndham-Quin, 7th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl (1939–2011), who was crippled by polio while a schoolboy, lived with his family in a nearby house called Kilgobbin House. Unable to bear the expense of maintaining Adare Manor, he sold it and its contents in 1982 to an investment consortium. In 1987, the house was purchased by Irish American Thomas Kane from Florida. It was then renovated and converted to become the Adare Manor Hotel and Golf Resort.
On 30 January 2015, Adare Manor was bought by Limerick business man J. P. McManus for an estimated €30 million.  On 28 and 29 January 2016 many of the hotel contents were sold at a public auction.


Two major environmental issues facing the AENP: extinction and overpopulation, which are interrelated. Since the AENP's original mission was to reintroduce certain mega-herbivores, like the African elephant and black rhinoceros, primary ecological efforts were made to preserve mammalian species. However, by overlooking the other contributors to this environmental chain, certain plant species have been subjected to overgrazing and trampling, mostly by the elephants of the park. This overgrazing and trampling not only destroys much of the plant life, but also forces it to adapt its physiology to stimuli that are not inherent to its evolutionary progress. Some biologists argue that it is not herbivorization alone that is threatening the flora, but a number of other ecological factors including zoochory and nutrient cycling. Up to 77 species of South African endemic plant species have been listed as "vulnerable to elephant browsing."


In 2018 the highest visitor count in the park's 87-year history was recorded. The park received 305,510 visitors between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018 (up from 265,585 in the previous year). International visitors make up 55% of this number, with German, Dutch and British nationals in the majority.
There is a main camp, featuring a swimming pool, restaurant, flood lit water hole and various accommodation, four other rest camps and four camps run by concessionaires. The main entrance as well as two looped tourist roads in the park are tarred while the others are graveled. There is also an additional access road through the southern block of the park feeding off the N2 highway near Colchester; it joins up with the existing tourist roads in the park.


The health and safety of all workers and stakeholders associated with the project was a key concern for SA Water and the AdelaideAqua consortium.
In July 2010, worker Brett Fritsch was killed by a steel beam which fell from a soft sling at the construction site. Following a Safework SA investigation, the rigging company Ferro Con SA and its director Paolo Maione were found to be responsible and each was fined $200,000 by the Industrial Court. No charges were laid on SA Water or the principal contractor, AdelaideAqua.


The SA and Australian governments agreed to make all power used by the plant renewable.
The plant uses 3.47 to 3.70 kilowatt-hours of electricity per kilolitre of water produced.
The plant sources all its electricity from 100% GreenPower accredited Renewable Energy sources from within South Australia. The plant sources its electricity from renewable energy sources provided by AGL Energy under a 20-year contract at an annual cost initially estimated at over $75 million per year (for the first 50 GL plant). Energy supply cost is part of the overall operating cost of the facility which was confirmed by SA Water in December 2010 at $130 million per year (for double the capacity or 100 GL plant). SA Water advised that the $130 million per year would result in one of the lowest operating cost per unit of desalinated drinking water of any desalination plant in Australia. This was possible because of energy efficient technologies and innovations throughout the plant.
The plant's buildings have been designed to maximise natural light during the day and a selection of high thermal materials (e.g. solid precast concrete walls and insulation) to improve thermal properties, thereby minimising energy consumption. More specifically, solar photovoltaic cells have been placed on the reverse osmosis buildings for localised power generation. Each reverse osmosis building has an approximately 100 kW solar cell array providing a site capacity of approximately 200 kW at peak sun hours.
The high pressure pumps feeding the reverse-osmosis membranes are the largest consumers of energy in the plant. Energy recovery devices are installed to harness the pressure in the saline concentrate stream and use it to pressurise some of the feed water. As a result, the high pressure pumps are only needed to deliver half of the water feeding the reverse osmosis system, reducing energy consumption in the plant by up to 40 per cent. Likewise, two turbine generators in the outfall tunnel take advantage of the plant elevation 50 metres above sea level. This mini-hydroelectric system is capable of producing 1,290 kW of renewable electricity which is fed back into the plant, reducing energy consumption by approximately 2.5%.


The lack of tidal movement for up to 2–3 days during dodge tides, which occur twice a month in Gulf St Vincent, reduces mixing of the water column. This raised concerns during the planning phase of the project about the potential effects of the brine discharge on benthic flora and fauna.
Dodge tides and other local conditions were taken into account in the design of the outfall system. Discharge to the sea occurs via a 1,080 m undersea tunnel, with dispersal through one of 6 specially designed diffusers. Each diffuser has a head consisting of four duck bill valves that assist in maintaining high discharge velocity for optimum mixing, independent of plant operating conditions.
Marine monitoring buoys placed at 100-metre radius from the outfall structures allow real time data monitoring via the plant control system, to assess performance against Environment Protection Agency discharge licence conditions. Monitoring of the surrounding marine environment started before construction of the plant began and will continue into the future to ensure no adverse environmental impact.


Adelaide Festival Centre, Australia's first multi-purpose arts centre and the home of South Australia's performing arts, was built in the 1970s, designed by Hassell Architects. The Festival Theatre opened in June 1973 with the rest of the centre following soon afterwards. The complex includes Festival Theatre, Dunstan Playhouse (formerly The Playhouse and Optima Playhouse), Space Theatre (formerly The Space) and several gallery and function spaces. Located approximately 50 metres (160 ft) north of the corner of North Terrace and King William Road, lying near the banks of the River Torrens and adjacent to Elder Park, it is distinguished by its two white geometric dome roofs, and lies on a 45-degree angle to the city's grid.
Adelaide Festival Centre hosts Adelaide Festival and presents major festivals across the year including Adelaide Cabaret Festival, OzAsia Festival, DreamBIG Children's Festival, Adelaide Guitar Festival and OUR MOB. It is also home to Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, State Opera South Australia, Australian Dance Theatre, State Theatre Company of South Australia, The Australian Ballet, Brink and Windmill Theatre Co.
The Festival Centre is managed by a statutory corporation, the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust, which is responsible for encouraging and facilitating artistic, cultural and performing arts activities, as well as maintaining and improving the building and facilities of the Adelaide Festival Centre complex and Her Majesty's Theatre.
The Festival Centre was erected on the site of the Adelaide City Baths, which had been there for over a century.
As of May 2021 the site (external to the venues) is undergoing major redevelopment, started in 2016, but the theatre spaces have remained open. The car park has been completed. The redevelopment was completed in February 2022.


In the 1960s, the Adelaide Festival of the Arts started to outgrow the city's existing venues, and there was a push to build a "Festival Hall". The Adelaide Festival Theatre Act 1964 provided for the erection of the Festival Theatre building. The originally proposed site was the Carclew building in North Adelaide, which had been purchased from the Bonython family by the Adelaide City Council for the purposes of building a Festival Hall.
Liberal state Premier Steele Hall lobbied the Federal Government for tax concessions for a public appeal for the Festival Hall, which was initially unsuccessful, until Prime Minister John Gorton offered Hall either tax concessions or A$100,000. Hall accepted the money. While on a trip to London, Steele Hall visited the Royal Festival Hall on the banks of the River Thames and decided that the banks of the River Torrens was the ideal choice for the site of the Adelaide Festival of the Arts and the cultural heart of the city. During this time, the state government changed hands, but the drive for a new centre continued with fervour. When Don Dunstan became Premier he expanded the idea into a "Festival Centre", incorporating multiple smaller venues.
The Lord Mayor of Adelaide, Robert Porter, supported by Dunstan, launched a public appeal to raise funds to build the Festival Centre and establish Adelaide as a significant city in the art world. The appeal raised its target within a week, and was soon over-subscribed; the surplus was set aside to create a collection of artworks to grace the new building.
The building was designed by Hassell, McConnell and Partners for the Adelaide City Council and the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust, and has been "hailed as a major step forward in modern architecture in South Australia". It was designed "from the inside out" and is particularly associated with the architect John Morphett AM OBE and Colin Hassell. Prior to designing the buildings, Hassell led a team which included Morphett to the United States and Europe to undertake a study of theatre designs.
The Adelaide City Baths, which had stood on the site since their creation in 1861 and upgraded several times since, including the addition of an Olympic-sized swimming pool in 1940, were demolished in 1969 to make way for the new centre.


In 1971 the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust was established as a statutory authority by the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust Act 1971, reporting to the Minister for the Arts.
From about 1996 until late 2018, Arts SA (later Arts South Australia) had responsibility for this and several other statutory bodies such as the South Australian Museum and the Art Gallery of South Australia. Arts SA leased Her Majesty's Theatre and the Festival Centre to the Trust, which was responsible for "encouraging and facilitating artistic, cultural and performing arts activities throughout the State" and managing and maintaining the theatres.
In July 2017, the Trust bought Her Majesty's Theatre from Arts South Australia for A$8 million. It also borrowed A$62 million from the South Australian Government Financing Authority for a maximum term of 10 years to fund Her Majesty’s Theatre redevelopment.
From late 2018, the functions previously held by Arts SA were transferred to direct oversight by the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Arts and Culture section.


Adelaide Festival Centre houses the several theatres and galleries, as well as function spaces and the administrative hub of the Festival Centre.
Festival Theatre is the largest proscenium arch theatre in Adelaide, seating close to 2000 people. It was designed as both a lyric theatre and concert hall, and is used not only for theatrical productions and large concerts, but also for graduation ceremonies, seminars and many other community functions. Its huge backstage area makes the stage area one of the largest in the southern hemisphere. It also houses the Silver Jubilee Organ, a "hovering" pipe organ built and donated to mark the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
Dunstan Playhouse, initially known as The Playhouse, and in 1999–2000 the Optima Playhouse, and then renamed after Don Dunstan. It is located in the Drama Centre behind the main building, is a more intimate venue, seating 620 people on two levels. The State Theatre Company  has been based here since 1974, and uses the theatre, the rehearsal rooms and the extensive production workshop also housed in this second building.
Space Theatre is a versatile studio theatre, sharing the Drama Centre building with the Dunstan. It has no traditional stage or fixed seating, meaning its configuration is completely flexible. It can be turned into a theatre in the round, a corner stage setting, or a cabaret venue. The Space seats anywhere from 200 to 350 people, depending on the configuration.
Her Majesty's Theatre is 1500-seat theatre located on Grote Street. First opened in 1913, the theatre underwent extensive rebuilding from 2018 to 2020 to become a world-class venue.
Artspace Gallery is a gallery exhibition space situated in the second building above the Dunstan Playhouse.
The Terrace, formerly called the Amphitheatre, is an outdoor space overlooking Elder Park and the River Torrens.
Artspace Gallery and QBE Galleries are further exhibition spaces.


Adelaide Festival Centre is home to South Australia's leading professional performance companies, including Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, State Opera South Australia, Australian Dance Theatre, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Brink Productions and Windmill Theatre Co.
It is the host of Adelaide Festival and presents major festivals across the year including: Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Adelaide Guitar Festival, OzAsia Festival, DreamBIG Children's Festival and OUR MOB.


Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the city centre and North Adelaide. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby league, rugby union, soccer, tennis among other sports as well as regularly being used to hold concerts. Austadiums.com described Adelaide Oval as being "one of the most picturesque Test cricket grounds in Australia, if not the world". After the completion of the ground's most recent redevelopment in 2014, sports journalist Gerard Whateley described the venue as being "the most perfect piece of modern architecture because it's a thoroughly contemporary stadium with all the character that it's had in the past".
Adelaide Oval has been headquarters to the South Australian Cricket Association (SACA) since 1871 and South Australian National Football League (SANFL) since 2014. The stadium is managed by the Adelaide Oval Stadium Management Authority (AOSMA). Its record crowd for cricket was 55,317 for the Second Ashes Test on 2 December 2017 and its record crowd for an Australian rules football match was 62,543 at the 1965 SANFL Grand Final between Port Adelaide and Sturt.


In 1871 the ground was established after the formation of South Australian Cricket Association.
During 1888 a switchback rollercoaster was constructed and was adjacent to Adelaide Oval where the present Riverbank Stand resides.
In 1900 a picket fence was put in place around Oval's playing surface.
In 1911 the current Adelaide Oval scoreboard, designed by architect Kenneth Milne, began service.
In 1990 the Sir Donald Bradman Stand was built to replace the John Creswell stand and provided up to date facilities for spectators.
In 1997 lights were constructed at the ground allowing sport to be held at night. This was the subject of a lengthy dispute with the Adelaide City Council relating to the parklands area. The first towers erected were designed to retract into the ground; however one collapsed and they were replaced with permanent towers.
In 2003 two grandstands, named the Chappell Stands, after the South Australian cricketing brothers Ian Chappell, Greg Chappell and Trevor Chappell were completed.
Temporary stands were constructed for the 2006 Ashes Series to cope with demand. In August 2008 the South Australian Cricket Association (SACA) announced that it had approved plans to redevelop the ground, involving expanding its capacity to 40,000. Development plans showed a reconfiguration of the playing surface and a remodelled western stand. The redevelopment would make the ground a viable option for hosting Australian Football League games as well as international soccer and rugby. The state and federal Governments each pledged $25m to the project, leaving the SACA to raise at least $45m. The SACA planned for the new stand to be ready in time for the 2010–11 Ashes series. The South Australian government announced it would commit funding to redevelop Adelaide Oval into a multi-purpose sports facility that would bring AFL football to central Adelaide. Announcing an agreement negotiated with SACA, SANFL and the AFL, the Rann Labor government committed $450 million to the project.
The three original western stands were demolished (George Giffen stand (1882), Sir Edwin Smith stand (1922), Mostyn Evan stand (1920s)) were torn down in June 2009 and a single Western stand was developed in its place ahead of the 2010–11 Ashes series. The Adelaide Oval Stadium Management Authority (AOSMA), a joint venture of SACA and the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), was registered as a company on 23 December 2009 following the re-announcement of the plan.  The AOSMA has eight directors, four associated with SACA (Ian McLachlan-Chair, John Harnden, Creagh O’Connor & John Bannon) and four with SANFL (Leigh Whicker-CEO, Rod Payze, Philip Gallagher & Jamie Coppins).
In 2010 the new Western stand was completed incorporating 14,000 individual seats and features improved shading conditions and amenities for SACA members. In the lead up to the 2010 state election, the opposition SA Liberals announced that, if elected, it would build with a new stadium with a roof, located at Riverside West at the site of the state government's new hospital location. The incumbent SA Labor government subsequently announced it would fund a $450 million upgrade and redevelopment of the whole of Adelaide Oval, rather than just the Western Grand Stand. Labor narrowly won re-election in 2010, resulting in its Adelaide Oval upgrade policy going ahead though eventually for a steeper $535 million, of which this deal included the State Government clearing the SACA's $85 million debt.
However, in early-mid-2010, prior to the election, it became clear that $450m would be inadequate. Following the 2010 state election, the Rann Labor government capped the State Government's commitment, stating: "It's $450 million – and not a penny more", and set a deadline for the parties to agree.  In May, Treasurer Kevin Foley announced that "the Government's final offer to the SANFL and SACA for the redevelopment" was $535 million, and the deadline was extended to August 2010. Simultaneously, the SACA and the SANFL were in the process of negotiating an agreement that would enable Australian Rules Football (AFL) to use Adelaide Oval during the AFL season as their home ground. In August 2010, SANFL and SACA representatives signed letters of intent committing to the project, including the capped $535 million offer from the state government.
The redevelopment included a $40 million pedestrian bridge across the River Torrens to link the Adelaide railway station precinct with the Adelaide Oval precinct, which was partially completed for the Ashes cricket series in December 2013 and fully completed ahead of the 2014 AFL season.
In early 2011, the AFL, SANFL, SACA, the SA Government and the Australian Government reached an agreement to upgrade Adelaide Oval. The SACA and the SANFL proposed, if SACA members vote yes on the upgrade in early May, that the whole Stadium will undergo redevelopment, except for the Northern Mound, the Moreton Bay Fig trees and the scoreboard, which will stay as it is because of it being under heritage listing. A three-quarters majority of SACA members were required to vote in favour of the proposed upgrade for it to ahead, with a successful vote resulting in the SANFL and AFL having control over the stadium for 7 months of the year and SACA having control for 5 months of the year.
SACA members had the choice of voting online on 28 April 2011 or attending in person an Extraordinary Meeting at the Adelaide Showgrounds on 2 May 2011. At 6 pm, 28 April 2011, It was announced that 60% of SACA members that voted online voted yes, 15% short of the majority vote needed for the upgrade to go ahead. At 10.15 pm, on 2 May 2011, at the Adelaide Showgrounds, the final result was announced. 80.37% of total votes cast were in favour of Adelaide Oval being redeveloped, resulting in the upgrade and stadium reconfiguration being approved. In 2012 the two grandstands, named the Chappell Stands, after the South Australian cricketing brothers Ian Chappell, Greg Chappell and Trevor Chappell along with the Sir Donald Bradman stand were demolished.
The upgrade commenced in April 2012. By 2014 the new Eastern Stand was fully completed with a total capacity of 19,000, bringing the overall seating capacity of the stadium to 50,083 in time for the 2014 AFL season.
All stands of the Oval were redeveloped and upgraded while the already rebuilt Western grandstand (SACA and SANFL members only stand) had modifications to improve sightlines for some seats and the addition of a new media center and AFL standard interchange benches, the Northern Mound had its seating capacity increased, and the Historic Scoreboard and the Moreton Bay fig trees remained untouched. The Northern Mound, the Moreton Bay fig trees and the Scoreboard are all heritage listed and will likely never be demolished unless damaged beyond repair. This is the only manual scoreboard still operating in major Australasian cricket venues. Due to the 10-letter limit, some names had to be truncated, or be replaced by nicknames. Following a vote by SACA members in favour of the redevelopment of the oval, the South Australian government increased its funding commitment to $535 million.
† Note that a 75% threshold was required in order for approval to be granted.


The oval dimensions were originally 190m x 125m, both unusually long and unusually narrow for an Australian cricket/football ground. The arrangement was highly favourable for batsmen who played square of the wicket, and heavily penalised bowlers who delivered the ball short or wide so that the batsman could play cut, hook or pull shots. Before the far ends in front of and behind the wicket were roped off, making the playing area shorter, it was not uncommon for batsmen to hit an all-run four or even occasionally a five.


1904 July 20 – The South Australian British Football Association beat the crew aboard HMS Katoomba 9–0.
1920 July 5 – During a visit by the Prince of Wales, a soccer match was organised between the South Australian British Football Association and the crew aboard the visiting HMS Renown with the game resulting in a draw 0–0.
1924 October 6 – Over the course of a day three codes were played on Adelaide Oval, Australian rules football, rugby and soccer. The soccer match was between two teams, one called "Adelaide United" and the other "Hindmarsh" with the latter team winning 2–0.
1925 – During a tour of Australia, the English Soccer team was prevented from playing on Adelaide Oval by ground administrators.
1937 July 29 – England beat South Australia 10–0.
1951 June 23 – England beat Australia 13–1. Ike Clarke scored four goals.
1958 May 24 – English First Division club Blackpool beat Australia 1–0.
1959 June 6 – Heart of Midlothian beat Australia 6–0.
2007 December 28 – Adelaide United play Sydney FC in first A-League match held at the ground.
2011 June 5 – Australia beat New Zealand 3–0.
2014 July 25 – La Liga side Málaga CF beat Adelaide United 5–1.
2015 July 20 – Premier League side Liverpool beat Adelaide United 2–0 in front of 53,008 spectators.
2016 March 24 – Australia beat Tajikistan 7–0 in a FIFA World Cup qualifier in front of 35,439 spectators.
2016 May 1 – The first A-League Grand Final hosted at the ground saw Adelaide United beat Western Sydney Wanderers in front of 50,119 fans.
2017 June 8 – Australia beat Saudi Arabia 3–2 in a FIFA World Cup qualifier in front of 29,785 spectators.


Aside from the main sports of cricket and Australian rules football, 14 sports have been played at one time or another at the oval: Highland games, lacrosse, quoits, and Motorcycle racing.


Adelaide Town Hall was designed by Edmund Wright and E. J. Woods, with construction by Charles Farr commencing in 1863 and completed in 1866. The tower, whose foundation stone was laid on 13 January 1864, is named after Prince Albert and is slightly shorter than the Victoria Tower of the GPO on the other side of King William Street. Townsend Duryea's famous Panorama of 1865 was taken from the Albert Tower. The clock, by Thomas Gaunt & Co of Melbourne, was donated by Lavington Bonython and installed in 1935.
The Adelaide Town Hall was the venue on 1 August 1895 for the inaugural meeting of the Australasian Federation League of South Australia, this organisation having been formed at a meeting convened seven months earlier by the Australian Natives' Association in the colony. This league was the principal organisation that campaigned in favour of federation in South Australia. The meeting at the Town Hall was a major public gathering attended by many prominent South Australians. The meeting was also notable for the large number of women who attended.
The hall is famous for an appearance by The Beatles on the balcony in 1964, which attracted an estimated 300,000 fans, their biggest crowd. It serves as the seat of the Adelaide City Council, a principal venue for concerts with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and has function centre facilities available for hire. As a venue for symphony concerts, its acoustics and sense of history have often been praised.
Adelaide Town Hall is listed on the Register of the National Estate.


It is one of the shrines of the 275 Paadal Petra Sthalams. This is one of the 14 Shiva temples praised in Thevaram hymns which are located in Paandiya Naadu (south eastern part of Tamil Nadu ). Sages Agasthya, Markandeya and divine cow Kamadenu had worshipped Lord of this temple. Lord Muruga in the temple is praised in the Tirupugazh hymns of saint Arunagirinathar.