Questions tagged [geography]
Science describing Earth and in wider understanding also other planets and moons. The other meaning refers to specific climate and terrain properties in particular place.
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What were the areas of European countries in 1936 and 1949?
Are there sources (e.g. gazetteers or encyclopedia) that list the precise areas of the different European countries in ~1936 (before Germany's Anschluß with Austria), and again in ~1949 (after the ...
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Who was the first person to get a more accurate measure of the earth's circumference than Eratosthenes?
When researching a paper on Eratosthenes for class I saw that one of his major accomplishments was the first more or less accurate measure of the earth's circumference,only between −2.4% and +0.8% off....
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When did swamp/wetland conversion first begin, and what were the early methods for doing so?
I have been trying to do some research into the early history of humans using wetlands, but haven't had much luck. As I understand it so far, there are a number of methods of "wetland conversion&...
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Is there any evidence to support the claim that Richard Burton told John Speke he would return home via Jerusalem after their Nile Quest?
The book "Explorers of the Nile: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Great Victorian Adventure" by Tim Jeal contradicts with every other books I read regarding the dispute between Richard Burton ...
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Did 15th century Europeans not know about south-east Asia?
Columbus headed west across the Atlantic expecting to reach India, and initially thought that he had landed there.
His latitude for India was correct, but even if his estimates of distance and the ...
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Where is Hermodontus?
In Le liber censuum de l'église romaine, Volume 6, pages 96-97, at the very end of the first and start of the latter, it says:
As I understand them, from all of what I've read and seen up until now, ...
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Where was Arielis?
In his book Panarion, Epiphanius of Salamis writes about a Jewish sect called the Osseans. Among other bits of information, he writes:
"ἀπὸ τῆς Ναβατικῆς χώρας καὶ Ἰτουραίας, Μωαβίτιδ��ς τε καὶ ...
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Were there duststorms in Louisiana in the 1930's?
I am researching the dust-bowl era of the US, and am wondering if the dust-bowl impacted Louisiana. I know it was mostly in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico etc. But I am wondering if it is plausible for a ...
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Where were the best ancient wine regions in Israel, called Kerutim & Hatoulim in the Mishna, located on a map?
I have not been able to find these locations that are mentioned in the Mishna. I came across this quote from Asaph Goor:
The Mishna also (Menahot, 8, 6) points to the regions where the best wine-...
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Were there any watermills within sailing distance of the sea?
Watermills were widely used in times when river transport was even considerably more economically important than it is now. This sometimes led to conflict between these two uses of a river, e.g.
The ...
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What was the error in 1790, if any, of the lat. and long. of Greenwich Observatory of 1783?
A YouTube video by Brady Haran, Mapping the Meridians - Objectivity 97, ended in a cliff hanger (the answer not found by Brady, and Keith Moore of The Royal Society). It's with regard to the Anglo-...
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Why was the northern boundary of the Mongol empire set where it was?
The Question
By the latter part of the 13th century, the Mongols' frantic territorial expansion was losing momentum. In the east, their empire reached the Pacific, and their efforts to conquer Japan ...
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Did pre-16th century Europeans call the Pacific Ocean the Atlantic?
If some Europeans visited China in antiquity by sailing around India and into the Pacific Ocean, did they give a name for that ocean other than the Indian Ocean? From what I understand, they thought ...
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Did Aztecs know how many continents there are on earth?
I was leafing through an old French magazine, Historia, and read something that caught my attention. The author of a small article on Aztecs games mentionned a god, Xochipilli Macuilxochitl, who was ...
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When and why did "Near East" become "Middle East?"
Wikipedia:
The Middle East is a transcontinental region in Afro-Eurasia which
generally includes Western Asia (except for Transcaucasia), all of
Egypt (mostly in North Africa), and Turkey (partly in ...
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