Geography.

Located on the mouth of the Berdan River (Cydnus in antiquity), which empties into the Mediterranean, Tarsus is a junction point of land and sea routes connecting the Cilician plain (today called Çukurova), central Anatolia and the Mediterranean sea. The climate is typical of the Mediterranean region, with very hot summers and chilly, damp winters.  Tarsus has a long history of commerce, and is still a commercial centre today, trading in the produce of the fertile Çukurova plain; also Tarsus is a thriving industrial centre of refining and processing that produces some for export. Industries include agricultural machinery, spare parts, textiles, fruit-processing, brick-making and ceramics.  Agriculture is an important source of income: half the land area in the district is farmland (1,050 km2) and most of the remainder is forest and orchard. The farmland is mostly well-irrigated, fertilised and managed with up-to-date equipment.  Tarsus has also one of the most famous and important highschool of Turkey which is Tarsus American College, known as TAC as well.

Etymology.

The ancient name is Tarsos, derived from, the original name given to the city by the Hittites, who were among the earliest settlers of the region in the historical period. It was possibly derived from the storm god Tarḫunz. Tarsus is first mentioned in the historical record in Akkadian texts of the Neo-Assyrian era as. During the Hellenistic era it was known as "Antiochia on the Cydnus" (, ), to distinguish it from Syrian Antioch. It was known as to the Romans, in Western Armenian and in Eastern Armenian.

History.

Antiquity.

Foundation and prehistory.

Excavation of the mound of Gözlükule reveals that the prehistoric development of Tarsus reaches back to the Neolithic Period and continues unbroken through Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages.  The settlement was located at the crossing of several important trade routes, linking Anatolia to Syria and beyond. Because the ruins are covered by the modern city, archaeology has barely touched the ancient city. The city may have been of Anatolian or Semitic origin; it is first mentioned as Tarsisi in Neo-Assyrian records of the campaigns of Esarhaddon, as well as several times in the records of Shalmaneser I and Sennacherib, the latter having the city rebuilt. A Greek legend connects it with the memory of the Assyrian king Sardanapalus (Ashurbanipal), still preserved in the Dunuk-Tach, called 'tomb of Sardanapalus', a monument of unknown origin.  Stephanus of Byzantium quotes Athenodorus of Tarsus as relating another legend:  Much of this legend of the foundation of Tarsus, however, appeared in the Roman era, and none of it is reliable. The geographer Strabo states that Tarsus was founded by people from Argos who were exploring this coast. Another legend states that Bellerophon fell off his winged horse Pegasus and landed here, hurting his foot, and thus the city was named "tar-sos" ("the sole of the foot"). Other candidates for legendary founder of the city include the hero Perseus and Triptolemus, son of the earth-goddess Demeter, doubtless because the countryside around Tarsus is excellent farmland. Later the coinage of Tarsus bore the image of Hercules, due to yet another tale in which the hero was held prisoner here by the local god Sandon. Tarsus has been suggested as a possible identification of the biblical Tarshish, where the prophet Jonah wanted to flee, but Tartessos in Spain is a more likely identification for this. (See further)

Early antiquity, Greece and Persia.

In historical times, the city was first ruled by the Hittites, followed by Assyria, and then the Persian Empire. Tarsus, as the principal town of Cilicia, was the seat of a Persian satrapy from 400 BC onward. Indeed, Xenophon records that in 401 BC, when Cyrus the Younger marched against Babylon, the city was governed by King Syennesis in the name of the Persian monarch.  At this period the patron god of the city was Sandon, of whom a large monument existed at Tarsus at least until the 3rd century AD. Coins showed Sandon standing on a winged and horned lion, and it is now thought likely that the Lion of Saint Mark on the pillar in the Piazza San Marco in Venice was in origin a winged lion-griffin from such a monument at Tarsus.  Alexander the Great passed through with his armies in 333 BC and nearly met his death here after a bath in the Cydnus. By this time Tarsus was already largely influenced by Greek language and culture, and as part of the Seleucid Empire it became more and more hellenized. Strabo praises the cultural level of Tarsus in this period with its philosophers, poets and linguists. The schools of Tarsus rivaled those of Athens and Alexandria. 2 Maccabees (4:30) records its revolt in about 171 BC against Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who had renamed the town Antiochia on the Cydnus. The name did not last, however, due to the confusion of so many cities named Antioch. At this time the library of Tarsus held 200,000 books, including a huge collection of scientific works.

Roman period.

In 67 BC, Pompey, after crushing the Cilician pirates, subjected Tarsus to Rome, and it became capital of the Roman province of Cilicia. To flatter Julius Caesar, for a time it took the name Juliopolis. It was also here that Cleopatra and Mark Antony met and was the scene of the celebrated feasts they gave during the construction of their fleet (41 BC). In William Shakespeare's 1606 play Antony and Cleopatra (Act 5, Scene 2), after Antony's death Cleopatra says she is going to Cydnus to meet Antony, i.e., she will commit suicide to meet him in the afterlife; ""Go fetch / My best attires: I am again for Cydnus, / To meet Mark Antony"" In the Roman period, the city was also an important intellectual centre, boasting its own academy. One of its leading disciples, the philosopher Athenodorus Cananites, was the tutor of the first Roman emperor, Augustus, a fact which secured continuous imperial patronage for the city.  When the province of Cilicia was divided, Tarsus remained the civil and religious metropolis of Cilicia Prima, and was a grand city with palaces, marketplaces, roads and bridges, baths, fountains and waterworks, a gymnasium on the banks of the Cydnus, and a stadium. Tarsus was later eclipsed by nearby Adana, but remained important as a port and shipyard. Several Roman emperors were interred here: Marcus Claudius Tacitus, Maximinus II, and Julian the Apostate, who planned to move his capital here from Antioch if he returned from his Persian expedition.

Christianity and Byzantine era.

Tarsus was the city where, according to the Acts of the Apostles, "Saul of Tarsus" was born, but he was "brought up" () in Jerusalem. Paul was a Roman citizen (Acts 21:39; Acts 22: 25-29) "from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city". Saul became Paul the Apostle after his encounter with Christ (Acts ), and he returned here after his conversion (). After about eight years, Barnabas retrieved him from Tarsus to help with the work in Syrian Antioch ().  Already by this time a Christian community probably existed, although the first recorded bishop, Helenus, dates only from the 3rd century. Owing to the importance of Tarsus, many martyrs were put to death there, among them Saint Pelagia of Tarsus, Saint Boniface of Tarsus, Saint Marinus of Tarsus, Saint Diomedes, Saint Quiricus and Saint Julitta.  The city remained largely pagan, however, up to the time of Julian the Apostate (r. 361–363), who reportedly planned to make it his capital. Following his death during his campaign against Sassanid Persia, he was buried next to the city walls, opposite the earlier tomb of the Tetrarch Maximinus Daia. Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) undertook public works in the city, altering the course of the Cydnus river and rebuilding the bridge. Towards the end of his reign, the city suffered from riots of the Blues hippodrome faction.  A cave in Tarsus is one of a number of places said to be the location of the legend of the Seven Sleepers, common to Christianity and Islam.

Bishopric.

The first recorded bishop of Tarsus, Helenus, went several times to Antioch in connection with the dispute concerning Paul of Samosata. Le Quien  Tarsus was the metropolitan see of the province of Cilicia Prima, under the Patriarchate of Antioch. From the 6th century, the metropolitan see of Tarsus had seven suffragan bishoprics (Échos d'Orient, X, 145).  The Greek archdiocese, again mentioned in the 10th century (Échos d'Orient, X, 98), has existed down to the present day, as part of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch.  At about the end of the 10th century, the Armenians established a diocese of their rite; Saint Nerses of Lambron was its most distinguished representative in the 12th century.  Tarsus is included in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees as a metropolitan see of both the Latin, the Maronite and the Melkite Catholic Church.

Middle Ages.

Following the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 630s, the city came first into contact with the forces of the Rashidun Caliphate. It is unclear when the town was first captured by the Arabs, but it is clear that it, and the wider region of Cilicia, remained contested between the Byzantines and the new Caliphate for several decades, up to the early 8th century. According to the Muslim sources, during his retreat the Byzantine emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641) deliberately withdrew the population and devastated the region between Antioch and Tarsus, creating an empty no man's land between the two empires.  It was not until the early Abbasid period that Tarsus, by then lying in ruins, was once more reoccupied and refortified, this time as an advanced strongpoint within the fortified zone of the "al-ʿAwāṣim", stretching from Tarsus northeast to Malatya, and as an assembly centre for expeditions against the Byzantine Empire. The first attempt was undertaken by al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba al-Ta'i in 778/9, but it was apparently unsuccessful, and the city was not fully restored until 787/8, by Faraj ibn Sulaym on the orders of Caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809). 3,000 Khurasanis and 2,000 Syrians (a thousand each from Antioch and al-Massisa) were given houses and land in the new fortress city. Tarsus was apparently recovered by the Byzantines soon after, at some point at the turn of the century. The city probably remained in Byzantine hands during the Abbasid civil war of the Fourth Fitna, but returned to Muslim control by 830, when Caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833) recommenced offensive campaigns against Byzantium, using the city as a base.  Henceforth and until the Byzantine reconquest in the 10th century, Tarsus was one of the main centres for the holy war ("jihād") against Byzantium, comprising annual raids ("ṣawāʿif") into Byzantine lands through the Cilician Gates when the mountain snows had melted and passage was possible. These were mounted by the local garrisons, maintained by the taxation not only of the frontier zone of the "al-ʿAwāṣim" but also by generous subsidies from the caliphal government, and large numbers of volunteer warriors of the faith ("mujahidun" or "ghazis"). Tarsus remained under direct Abbasid control until 878/9, when it and wider Cilician border zone were granted to the autonomous ruler of Egypt, Ahmad ibn Tulun. The local governor Yazaman al-Khadim returned the city to the direct allegiance to Baghdad from 882 on, but was forced to recognize the Tulunids again in 890. Tulunid possession of the border zone lasted until the death of Ibn Tulun's heir Khumarawayh in 896, after which Caliph al-Mu'tadid (r. 892–902) re-asserted direct control. The area remained under Abbasid rule for the next four decades. After a brief period where the border zone was under Ikhshidid control, in 946/7, Tarsus recognized the overlordship of the Hamdanid emir Sayf al-Dawla of Aleppo, who had become the new master of northern Syria and of the Byzantine borderlands. Facing a resurgent Byzantium, he was able to stem the tide for a while, but in 965, the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II Phokas (r. 963–969) captured the city, ending Muslim rule there. Throughout this period, the governors of Tarsus also operated an active mint in the city.  The terms of surrender of the city allowed any Muslim who wished to leave with as many of his possessions as he could carry. Many of those who left eventually settled, according to al-Muqaddasi, at Baniyas. Most of those who remained behind became Christians, and the local main mosque was either torn down or turned into a stable. The city remained under Byzantine rule until 1085. It was thereafter disputed between Latin Crusaders, Byzantines (1137–72), Seljuk Turks, and the Armenians of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (Kingdom of Lesser Armenia). The city was the capital of the Armenian Principality of Cilicia for 118 years, between 1080 and 1198.These last became definitively masters until about 1359, when it was captured by the Ramadanids with Mamluks. Finally, the area was brought under the control of the Ottoman Empire by Selim I in 1516.  In the Middle Ages Tarsus was renowned throughout the Middle East; a number of Arab writers praised it as a beautiful and well-defended city, its walls being in two layers with five gates and earthworks outside, surrounded by rich farmland, watered by the river and the lake. By 1671 the traveller Evliya Çelebi records ""a city on the plain, an hour from the sea, surrounded by strong walls two-storeys high, moated on all sides, with three distinct neighbourhoods inside the walls"".

Ottoman and modern period.

Under Ottoman rule, it initially formed part of the Eyalet of Aleppo. After the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus in 1571 it became seat of a "sanjak" (sub-province) within the Cyprus Eyalet, before being transferred in 1608 to the "sanjak" of Adana as a "kaza" (district).  Despite its excellent defences, Tarsus was captured from the Ottomans in 1832 by the Mamluks of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt, son of Muhammad Ali, and for 8 years remained in the hands of the Egyptians, who began growing cotton on the surrounding plain. Upon the return of the Ottomans this cotton drove a substantial growth in the economy of the area, due to increased world demand for the crop during shortages caused by the U.S. Civil War. A new road was built to the port in Mersin and the city of Tarsus grew and thrived. Still today many large houses in the city stand as reminders of the wealth generated during this period. However, after being a port for 3,000 years, by the end of the 19th century neglect resulted in Tarsus no longer having access to the sea, and the delta became a swamp. At this point Tarsus was a typical Ottoman city with communities of Muslim Turks, Christian Greeks and Armenians. At the founding of the Turkish Republic in the 1920s the swamp was drained and the River Berdan was dammed to build Turkey's first hydro-electric power station. Irrigation, roadworks and a railway brought the economy of Tarsus back to life, with new factories, particularly producing textiles.

Cuisine.

The local cuisine includes: chargrilled chicken; hummus; şalgam (pickled turnips); tantuni (a sandwich of grilled meats); the tiny pizzas (lahmacun) called ""fındık lahmacun""; and cezerye (a confection made out of carrots).

Economy.

As of 1920, Tarsus was producing cotton, and had two cotton spinning mills with over 26,000 spindles.

Sports.

Tarsus has two football statiums, Tarsus City Stadium and Burhanettin Kocamaz Stadium, and an arena, Tarsus Arena. Local football club is Tarsus Idman Yurdu.

Main sights.

Tarsus is home to numerous ancient sites, with many in need of restoration and research. These have been well described by travellers over many years. For instance Blackwood's Magazine (Edinburgh) in 1890,  and H. V. Morton's "In the Steps of St Paul" in 1936. The best known include:  Sites of religious interest and pilgrimage include:  From the Turkish era are:  Places of natural beauty include:

Tarsus (; Hittite: ; ; ; ) is a historic city in south-central Turkey, inland from the Mediterranean. It is part of the Adana-Mersin metropolitan area, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Turkey with a population of 3 million people. Tarsus forms an administrative district in the eastern part of the Mersin Province and lies in the core of region.

塔尔苏斯(),又译大数,位于今日土耳其的小亚细亚半岛的东南部,位于托鲁斯山脉之下、西德奴斯河流往地中海的出海口。现属于梅尔辛省。是罗马帝国时期基利家省的首府、使徒保罗的出生地。


Etymology.

The name "Gauteng" is derived from the Sotho name, meaning "gold" (itself derived from Dutch "goud") with the locative suffix. There was a thriving gold industry in the province following the 1886 discovery of gold in Johannesburg. In Sesotho, the name was used for Johannesburg and surrounding areas long before it was adopted in 1994 as the official name of a province.

History.

Gauteng was formed from part of the old Transvaal Province after South Africa's first multiracial elections on 27 April 1994. It was initially named Pretoria–Witwatersrand–Vereeniging (PWV) and was renamed "Gauteng" in December 1994. The term "PWV", describing the region existed long before the establishment of the province.  Gauteng's history has only been properly documented since the 19th century and as a result, not much information regarding its history predating the 19th century is available. At the Sterkfontein caves, some of the oldest fossils of hominids have been discovered, such as Mrs. Ples and Little Foot. The recorded history of the area that is now Gauteng can be traced back to the early 19th century when settlers originating from the Cape Colony defeated chief Mzilikazi and started establishing villages in the area.  The city of Pretoria was founded in 1855 as capital of the South African Republic (ZAR - ). After the discovery of gold in 1886, the region became the single largest gold producer in the world and the city of Johannesburg was founded. The older city Pretoria was not subject to the same attention and development. Pretoria grew at a slower rate and was highly regarded due to its role in the Second Boer War. The Cullinan Diamond which is the largest diamond ever mined was mined near Pretoria in a nearby town called Cullinan in the year 1905.  Many crucial events happened in present-day Gauteng with regards to the anti-apartheid struggle, such as the Women's March of 1956, Sharpeville massacre of 1960, the Rivonia Trial in 1963 and 1964 and the Soweto Uprising of 1976. Today, the Apartheid Museum stands testament to these struggles in Johannesburg.

Law and government.

Gauteng is governed by the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, a 73-person unicameral legislature elected by party-list proportional representation. The legislature elects one of its members as Premier of Gauteng to lead the executive, and the Premier appoints an Executive Council of up to 10 members of the legislature to serve as heads of the various government departments. The provincial government is responsible for the topics allocated to it in the national constitution, including such fields as basic education, health, housing, social services, agriculture and environmental protection.  The most recent election of the provincial legislature was held on 8 May 2019, and the African National Congress (ANC) won 50.19% of the vote and a 37-seat majority in the legislature. The official opposition is the Democratic Alliance, which won 27.45% of the vote and 20 seats. Other parties represented are the Economic Freedom Fighters with eleven seats and the Freedom Front Plus with three seats. The Inkatha Freedom Party and African Christian Democratic Party hold one seat each. Premier David Makhura of the ANC was re-elected as premier on 22 May 2019, at the first meeting of the legislature after the general election.  The Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa, which has seats in Pretoria and Johannesburg, is a superior court with general jurisdiction over the province. Johannesburg is also home to the Constitutional Court, South Africa's highest court, and to a branch of the Labour Court and Labour Appeal Court.

Geography.

Gauteng's southern border is the Vaal River, which separates it from the Free State. It also borders on North West to the west, Limpopo to the north, and Mpumalanga to the east. Gauteng is the only landlocked province of South Africa without a foreign border. Most of Gauteng is on the Highveld, a high-altitude grassland (circa above sea level). Between Johannesburg and Pretoria there are low parallel ridges and undulating hills, some part of the Magaliesberg Mountains and the Witwatersrand. The north of the province is more subtropical, due to its lower altitude and is mostly dry savanna habitat.

Witwatersrand area.

In the southern half of Gauteng the Witwatersrand area is an old term describing a 120 km wide oblong-shaped conurbation from Randfontein in the West to Nigel, Gauteng in the East. This area is also often referred to simply as "Witwatersrand", "the Rand" or "the Reef" (archaic). It has traditionally been divided into the three areas of East Rand (now Ekurhuleni), Central Rand (approximately today's Johannesburg Municipality) and West Rand.

Climate.

The climate is mostly influenced by altitude. Even though the province is at a subtropical latitude, the climate is comparatively cooler, especially in Johannesburg, at above sea level (Pretoria is at ). Most precipitation occurs as brief afternoon thunderstorms; however, relative humidity never becomes uncomfortable. Winters are crisp and dry with frost occurring often in the southern areas. Snow is rare, but it has occurred on some occasions in the Johannesburg metropolitan area.

Administrative divisions.

The Gauteng Province (as of May 2011) is divided into three metropolitan municipalities and two district municipalities. The district municipalities are in turn divided into six local municipalities:

Metropolitan municipalities.

The former Metsweding district consisting of Nokeng Tsa Taemane and Kungwini in the North of the province was incorporated into Tshwane in 2011.

Demographics.

Gauteng Province is home to 15.7 million (2019 Stats SA Mid-year estimates), with 25.8% of the total South African population. Gauteng Province is also the fastest growing province, experiencing a population growth of over 33% between the 1996 and 2011 censuses, thus Gauteng now has the largest population of any province in South Africa, though the smallest area.  As of the census of 2011, there are 12,272,263 people and 3,909,022 households residing in Gauteng. The population density is 680/km2. The density of households is 155.86/km2.  About 22.1% of all households are made up of individuals. The average household size is 3.33.  The province's age distribution was 23.6% under the age of 15, 19.6% from 15 to 24, 37.9% from 25 to 44, 15.0% from 45 to 64, and 4.0% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 27 years. For every 100 females there are 101.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 102.3 males.  In the province, 14.4% of residents speak Afrikaans at home, 12.5% speak English, 1.5% speak IsiNdebele, 6.3% speak IsiXhosa, 19.5% speak IsiZulu, 10.7% speak Sepedi, 13.1% speak Sesotho, 11.4% speak Setswana, 1.2% speak SiSwati, 3.2% speak Tshivenda, and 4.1% speak Xitsonga. 2.0% of the population speaks a non-official language at home.  76.0% of residents are Christian, 18.4% have no religion, 1.7% are Muslim, 0.5% are Jewish, and 0.8% are Hindu. 2.6% have other or undetermined beliefs.  8.4% of residents aged 20 and over have received no schooling, 11.2% have had some primary, 5.5% have completed only primary school, 34.3% have had some high education, 28.0% have finished only high school, and 12.6% have an education higher than the high school level. Overall, 40.6% of residents have completed high school.  56.1% of housing units have a telephone and/or mobile phone in the dwelling, 41.5% have access to a phone nearby, and 2.3% have access that is not nearby or no access. 82.8% of households have a flush or chemical toilet. 84.2% have refuse removed by the municipality at least once a week and 2.6% have no rubbish disposal. 47.2% have running water inside their dwelling, 83.6% have running water on their property, and 97.5% have access to running water. 73.2% of households use electricity for cooking, 70.4% for heating, and 80.8% for lighting. 77.4% of households have a radio, 65.7% have a television, 15.1% own a computer, 62.1% have a refrigerator, and 45.1% have a mobile phone.  25.8% of the population aged 15–65 is unemployed.  The median annual income of working adults aged 15–65 is R 23 539 ($3,483). Males have a median annual income of R 24 977 ($3,696) versus R 20 838 ($3,083) for females.

Life expectancy.

Gauteng is the province with the second highest life expectancy in the country in 2019 with females having a life expectancy of 69 years and males having a life expectancy of 64 years. At birth, life expectancy for 2013 is approximated at 57 years and 61 years for males and females respectively. This marks an improvement of a whole year in the life expectancy of South Africans as a whole.

Urban conurbation, The Gauteng City Region (GCR).

Previously described as the, the urban conurbation of Gauteng, referred to as the Gauteng City Region, contains the major urban populations of Johannesburg (7,860,781 ), Pretoria (1,763,336), Vereeniging (377,922), Evaton (605,504) and Soshanguve (728,063), coming to an urban population of over 11 million. Thomas Brinkhoff lists a "Consolidated Urban Area" in Gauteng as having a population of 13.1 million. The future governmental plans for the region indicate the gradual urbanisation and consolidation towards the creation of a megalopolis that connects these metros.

The Gauteng City Region Observatory (GCRO).

The GCRO is a collaboration between the Universities of Johannesburg and Witwatersrand, the city of Johannesburg, Gauteng Provincial Government, and SALGA-Gauteng. The GCRO's purpose is to collect information and create a database on the Gauteng City Region to provide to Government, Lawmakers and civil society an informed understanding of the fastest urbanizing region in Southern Africa.

Economy.

Gauteng is considered the economic hub of South Africa and contributes heavily in the financial, manufacturing, transport, technology, and telecommunications sectors, among others. It also plays host to a large number of overseas companies requiring a commercial base in and gateway to Africa.  Gauteng is home to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the largest stock exchange in Africa. Some of the largest companies in Africa and abroad are based in Gauteng, or have offices and branches there, such as Vodacom, MTN, Neotel, Microsoft South Africa and the largest Porsche Centre in the world.  Although Gauteng is the smallest of South Africa's nine provinces—it covers a mere 1.5% of the country's total land area, the province is responsible for a third of South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP). Gauteng generates about 10% of the total GDP of sub-Saharan Africa and about 7% of total African GDP.

Transport.

SANRAL, a parastatal, is responsible for the maintenance, development and management of all national road networks in South Africa. SANRAL is responsible for instituting the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, which was met with a lot of opposition due to the tolling of Gauteng motorists. Many important national routes run through Gauteng such as the N1, N3, N4, N12, N14 and the N17. Johannesburg is quite dependent on freeways for transport in and around the city. The R21, R24, R59, M1 and M2 all run through Johannesburg. The Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project led to a large decrease in traffic congestion when construction finished 2011–2012. Cape Town, for the first time in decades, is now the most congested city in South Africa.  PUTCO, the largest commuter bus operator in South Africa, services the Gauteng area extensively. The bus rapid transit system Rea Vaya also serves to transport people from Johannesburg's southern neighbourhoods into and around the CBD. In an interview, Parks Tau stated that by the year 2040, Johannesburg will be dominated by pedestrians and public transport as opposed to the use of private transport or informal transport, such as minibus taxis.  Gautrain and Metrorail both service the province's public transport sector where trains are concerned and Gautrain offers a bus service that transports commuters to and from various train stations and predetermined bus stops. Metrorail trains are considered one of the most cost-effective methods of transportation in and around Gauteng.  The OR Tambo International Airport, Rand Airport, Lanseria International Airport, Wonderboom Airport and Grand Central Airport are located in Gauteng.  There is a large informal transport sector in Gauteng, consisting of thousands of minibus taxis, which many of the urban and rural population makes use of. However, it is noted that taxis are often unsafe as their drivers ignore the rules of the road and the vehicles are often not roadworthy. The City of Johannesburg stated that: "major initiatives are under way to completely reform the taxi industry and provide more comfort and safety to customers."

Education.

Gauteng is a large center of learning in South Africa, and it has many universities and educational institutions of higher learning.  In 2002, the Gauteng Department of Education founded an initiative called "Gauteng Online" in an attempt to get the entire province to utilize a wide assortment of electronic and telecommunications systems. In 2007, this initiative was handed over to the Gauteng Department of Finance.  In the 2013 national budget speech, it was announced that the Gauteng Department of Education would be granted over R700 million to improve education and to alleviate issues concerning the overcrowding in schools, a shortage in teaching staff and transport for poor pupils.  In 2017/2018, the Gauteng Provincial government spent R42.4 billion on education which accounted for 38% the province's total expenditure.

Conservation.

Although Gauteng province is dominated by the urban areas of Johannesburg and Pretoria, it has several nature reserves. Gauteng is home to the Cradle of Humankind UNESCO World Heritage Site which includes the Sterkfontein caves and the Wonder Cave Kromdraai. Johannesburg is home to the largest man-made urban forest in the world.

Provincial reserves.

There are 5 provincial reserves managed by the Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Land Affairs:

Sport.

Gauteng is home to many stadiums and sporting grounds, notably Soccer City, Ellis Park Stadium, Odi Stadium, Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Orlando Stadium, Johannesburg Stadium, the Wanderers Stadium and SuperSport Park.  Several teams from Gauteng play in the country's top-level association football (more commonly referred to as soccer) league, the Premier Soccer League (PSL), including Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. The national squad Bafana Bafana's home stadium is Soccer City in Johannesburg. During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the first ever world cup held by an African nation, Gauteng's stadia hosted many games. The first ever FIFA world cup match on African soil took place at Soccer City on 11 June 2010. Along with Soccer City, Loftus Versfeld Stadium and Ellis Park Stadium hosted matches in Gauteng.  Rugby, or more accurately rugby union, is a popular sport in South Africa, and in Gauteng in particular. Two rugby teams from Gauteng participate in the Southern Hemisphere Super Rugby championship: the Pretoria-based Bulls, and the Johannesburg-based Lions (previously the Cats). Three Gauteng-based teams play in the country's domestic competition, the Currie Cup: the Blue Bulls from Pretoria, the Golden Lions from Johannesburg and the Falcons from the East Rand. In 1995, South Africa hosted the 1995 Rugby World Cup and proceeded to win the tournament at Ellis Park Stadium on 24 June 1995. The events surrounding the world cup formed the basis of the story for the movie Invictus.  Many South African universities take part in the Varsity Rugby league. Of these, the Gauteng universities include the University of Pretoria, the University of Johannesburg and the University of the Witwatersrand.  Cricket is also widely popular among all cultural groups in the country, and is the only sport to feature in the top two among all of South Africa's major ethnic/racial groups. The Highveld Lions represent both Gauteng and North West in the country's three domestic competitions—the first-class SuperSport Series, the List A one-day MTN Domestic Championship and the Twenty20 Standard Bank Pro 20 Series.  Many marathons take place in Gauteng, such as the Gauteng Marathon, the Arwyp Medical Centre 15 km Nite Race and the Trisport Joburg City Triathlon.  Gauteng's favourable weather conditions throughout the year make it an ideal hub for sports and other out door activities. This makes golf, horse racing and swimming very popular. The Vaal River facilitates water sports in the forms of jet skiing, water skiing and motor boating. Adventure sports are also quite popular in Gauteng, particularly skydiving, paragliding and hang-gliding.  The amusement park Gold Reef City is situated in Gauteng, as is the Johannesburg Zoo and the Pretoria Zoo. Botanical gardens in the province include the Pretoria and Walter Sisulu national botanical gardens maintained by the South African National Botanical Institute as well as the Johannesburg and Manie van der Schijff botanical gardens.  The Ticketpro Dome and the Gallagher Convention Centre, which are both popular events and expos venues, are also located within Gauteng. The province has also got a F1 racetrack, the Kyalami Circuit. The last F1 race at the venue was in 1993, with a re-make in 2016.

Gauteng ( ; ; Sotho: "Gauteng" ; ; Tsonga: "Gauteng/eXilungwini;" Ndebele, ; ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana means "place of gold".

豪登省(,英语:Gauteng),意为“黄金之地”,是南非九个省之一。


History.

From 1250 Egypt had been ruled by the first Mamluk dynasty, the mostly Cuman-Kipchak Turkic Bahri dynasty. In 1377 a revolt broke out in Syria which spread to Egypt, and the government was taken over by the Circassians Barakah and Barquq; Barquq was proclaimed sultan in 1382, ending the Bahri dynasty. He was expelled in 1389 but recaptured Cairo in 1390. Early on, the Zahiri Revolt threatened to overthrow Barquq though the conspiracy was discovered before agitators could mobilize. Permanently in power, he founded the Burji dynasty.  Faced with a common enemy, Timur, Barquq joined with Bayezid I and Toktamish in a combined resistance and executed Timur's peace envoys. In the following months Timur was engaged in Georgia and unable to respond to Barquq's actions, while Barquq had died by 1399. In 1401, Timur invaded Syria and sacked Aleppo and Damascus. Syria was regained by sultan Nasir-ad-Din Faraj after Timur died in 1405, but Faraj continually faced rebellions from the emirs there and he was forced to abdicate in 1412.  In 1421 Egypt was attacked by the Kingdom of Cyprus, and although the Egyptians were unable to capture the island they forced the Cypriotes to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Egyptian sultan Barsbay. During Barsbay's reign Egypt's population was greatly reduced from what it had been a few centuries before, with only 1/5 the number of towns. He frequently raided Asia Minor, but died in 1438.  During the reign of Sayf-ad-Din Jaqmaq an attempt to conquer Rhodes in 1444 from the Knights of St. John was repelled.  Sayf ad-Din Inal came to power in 1453 and had friendly relations with the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II, who captured Constantinople later that year, causing great rejoicings in Egypt. However, under the Greek reign of Khoshkadam,<ref name="https://books.google.se/books?id=J6v9jhUd-r8C&pg=PA502&dq=burji+dynasty&hl=sv&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj6t-mM7s7RAhWKjSwKHQq6AXE4FBDoAQgpMAI#v=onepage&q=burji%20dynasty&f=false"></ref> who took power in 1463, Egypt began the struggle between the Egyptian and the Ottoman sultanates which finally led to the incorporation of Egypt in the Ottoman Empire. Both Koshkadam and Mehmed II supported different candidates to the principality of Karaman; then in 1467 sultan Kait Bey offended the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II, whose brother was poisoned while being entertained by Kait. Bayezid II seized Adana, Tarsus and other places within Egyptian territory, but was eventually defeated by Kait. Kait also tried to help the Muslims in Spain by threatening the Christians in Syria, but without effect. He died in 1496, leaving several hundred thousand ducats debts to the great Venetian trading families.

Conquest by Ottomans.

The relationship between the Ottomans and the Mamluks had been adversarial since the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453; both states vied for control of the spice trade, and the Ottomans aspired to eventually taking control of the Holy Cities of Islam. An earlier conflict, which lasted from 1485 to 1491, had led to a stalemate.  By 1516, the Ottomans were free from other concerns—Sultan Selim I had just vanquished the Safavid Persians at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514—and turned their full might against the Mamluks, who ruled in Syria and Egypt, to complete the Ottoman conquest of the Middle East.  In 1517 the Ottoman Turks and their Sultan Selim I defeated the Mamluks with the capture of Cairo on January 20. The centre of power transferred from Cairo to Constantinople. However, the Ottoman Empire retained the Mamluks as an Egyptian ruling class and the Mamluks and the Burji family succeeded in regaining much of their influence, but remained technical vassals of the Ottomans.

The Burji dynasty () was a Circassian Mamluk dynasty which ruled Egypt from 1382 until 1517, during the Mamluk Sultanate. It proved especially turbulent, with short-lived sultans. Political power-plays often became important in designating a new sultan. During this time Mamluks fought Timur and conquered Cyprus. Constant bickering may have contributed to the ability of the Ottomans to challenge them. Their name means 'of the tower', referring to them ruling from the Citadel east of Cairo.

布尔吉王朝,(1382-1517),是第二期的埃及马木路克王朝,由切尔克斯人组成出租车兵统治埃及和叙利亚。


Life.

Ali Bey was born in Abkhazia and was of ethnic Georgian origin. The "Encyclopedia of Islam" adds that according to Ali Bey's contemporary biographer, Sauveur Lusignan, he was "supposedly" the son of a certain David, a Greek Orthodox priest. However, according to Alexander Mikaberidze, Ali Bey's father was a priest in the Georgian Orthodox Church. He was kidnapped and brought to Cairo in 1743 where he was sold into slavery. He was recruited into the Mamluk force in which he gradually rose in ranks and influence, winning the top office of Shaykh al-Balad (chief of the country) in 1760. Attempting to gain complete control, he sought to exile his rival Abd el-Rahman in 1762 when the latter was conducting the caravan of Mecca, but was instead sentenced to exile at Gaza; Ali Bey started for that city, but on the third day made to the Hijaz where he was joined by a number of his followers, and from there travelled to Girga where he spent the next two years, until his supporters in Cairo effected his recall.  "During his time in power, he successfully expanded Egypt's trade with Britain and France. He also hired European advisers to the military and bought European weapons".  However, "... he did not make use of native Egyptians or call in foreigners for technical advice. He made no effort to build a modern army..."  In 1768, Ali Bey deposed the Ottoman governor Rakım Mehmed Pasha and assumed the post of acting governor. He stopped the annual tribute to the Sublime Porte and in an unprecedented usurpation of the Ottoman Sultan's privileges had his name struck on local coins in 1769 (alongside the sultan's emblem), effectively declaring Egypt's independence from Ottoman rule. In 1770 he gained control of the Hijaz and a year later temporarily occupied Syria, thereby reconstituting the Mamluk state that had disappeared in 1517. However, a few days after a major victory over Governor Uthman Pasha al-Kurji by the allied forces of Zahir al-Umar and Ali Bey's forces on 6 June 1771, Abu al-Dhahab, the commander of his troops in Syria, refused to continue the fight after an Ottoman agent stirred up mistrust between him and Ali Bey, and hastily returned to Egypt. As a result, Ali Bey lost power in 1772. The following year, he was killed in Cairo.  However, the date of 1772 is highly disputed; other sources and historians give varying dates for the end of Ali Bey's power in Egypt. Uzunçarşılı claims that he held power until 1773 (when Kara Halil Pasha became governor), but "Sicill-i Osmani" disagrees, saying that he fell out of power in 1769 and naming three interceding governors by name between the end of Ali Bey's reign in 1769 and Kara Halil Pasha's appointment in 1773; these are Köprülü Hafız Ahmed Pasha (1769), Kelleci Osman Pasha (1769–1771), and Vekil Osman Pasha (1772–1773). First-person source Al-Jabarti declares that Ali Bey gave up power in 1769 when a new governor from the Ottoman capital of Istanbul was assigned by the sultan (although he doesn't name him). It is likely that Uzunçarşılı read Al-Jabarti's chronicle, but failed to note the narrative about the new governor coming from Istanbul in 1769, since after that, Al-Jabarti does not name any other pasha by name or sequence until 1773 with Kara Halil Pasha.

Ali Bey al-Kabir (Mgebrishvili) () (1728–1773) was a Mamluk leader in Egypt. Nicknamed Jinn Ali ("Ali the Devil") and Bulut Kapan ("Cloud-Catcher"), Ali Bey rose to prominence in 1768 when he rebelled against his Ottoman rulers, making the Egypt Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire independent for a short time. His rule ended following the insubordination of his most trusted general, Abu al-Dahab, which led to Ali Bey's downfall and death.

阿里贝伊(原名为:阿里·卡比尔,1728年-1773年5月8日)埃及的马木留克统治者(1760年起)。生于高加索地区的阿布哈兹(在格鲁吉亚西部)。


History.

Kajaani was one of the cities founded in 1651 by the Swedish Governor General of Finland, Per Brahe. At that time, the Kainuu region—as wood country—was an important producer of tar derived from pine, and the tar trade was its major industry. In 1653-4 the district court sessions of Kajaani and Sotkamo were responsible for authorizing a road to be built between Säräisniemi and Raahe, improving communications in the region.  During the Greater Wrath in the 18th century, Kajaani Castle was forced to surrender to Russian forces. The Russians blew the castle up in March 1716, and it has been in ruins ever since. On 17 October 1808, General Johan August Sandels won a key victory to the south of Kajaani near Iisalmi during the Battle of Koljonvirta of the Finnish War, when his army of just 1,800 defeated over 6,000 Russians. There is a monument on the east side of the river marking where the spot where Lieutenant Jakob Henrik Zidén and Major-General Mikhail Petrovich Dolgorukov fell.  In early 1833, medical doctor Elias Lönnrot, best known for compiling the "Kalevala", the national epic of Finland, was appointed district physician in Kajaani and was assigned to assist in dealing with the typhoid and cholera epidemic which was raging during the 1830s. The disease was difficult to treat and he soon fell ill himself with typhus at the end of February 1833 but recovered. Kajaani was severely affected by famine in 1867-1868 which devastated much of Finland, but the town gradually recovered and by the end of the century had grown to more than 1200 inhabitants. Kajaani Town Hall was built in 1831, the former City Library in 1852, Kainuu's first elementary school in 1883, and Kajaani Church in 1896 as it grew into a notable settlement.  The paper industry took off in Kajaani in the early 20th century in particular. Kajaani Paper Mill was built in 1907 and was run by the firm Kajaani Oy, which had a capital of FMK 5,000,000 (£137,615) in 1948. Kajaani Oy was eventually acquired by Valmet in 1983, and the subsidiary Kajaani Electronics was formed. Ämmäkoski power plant was built on the river in 1917 by the Kajaani Lumber Company, and underwent alterations under architect Eino Pitkänen in the 1940s.  The city's grew in the 1960s to 14,600 inhabitants. Industrial development in the 1970s, and the merger of the separate rural municipality of Kajaani, Kajaanin maalaiskunta, and the city in 1977 saw the population jump to 34,574 by 1980. Vuolijoki was consolidated with Kajaani at the beginning of 2007.  In 2012, an oil spill occurred in Kajaani. 110,000 liters of oily water leaked into a river that eventually flowed into the Oulujärvi lake.

Geography.

Kajaani is situated in the heart of central Finland. By road is it north-northwest of Helsinki, north of Kuopio, and southeast of Oulu. Villages in the vicinity include Jormua, Koutaniemi, Kuluntalahti, Lahnasjärvi, Lehtovaara, Linnantaus, Mainua, Murtomäki and Paltaniemi. Districts of Kajaani include: Heinisuo, Hetteenmäki, Hoikankangas, Huuhkajanvaara, Katiska, Kettu, Komiaho, Kuurna, Kylmä, Kättö, Kätönlahti, Laajankangas, Lehtikangas, Lohtaja, Nakertaja, Onnela, Palokangas, Petäisenniska, Puistola, Purola, Soidinsuo, Suvantola, Teppana, Tihisenniemi, Tikkapuro, Variskangas and Yläkaupunki.  Kajaani lies on the Kajaani River, between the lakes of Oulujärvi, which drains to the Gulf of Bothnia along the Oulu River, and Nuasjärvi. Between Kajaani and Oulujärvi are the smaller lakes of Sokajärvi and Paltajärvi, which are frozen during winter. Paltajärvi stands between the Kajaani River and Oulujärvi. The Kajaani and Vuolijoki rivers are noted for their fishing. Cuckoo Island (Käkisaari) lies on Oulu lake to the northwest of the town and features residential houses and about 150 summer cottages and holiday apartments, and Caterpillar Island (Toukka) lies in the eastern part of the lake. Also within the municipality is the Laakajärvi, a lake with a maximum depth of, which is a notable nesting area for Great black-backed gull and ospreys.  The surrounding area is dominated by mainly conifer forest, with broad-leafed birch and alder woods on some of the steeper banks and streams. An early 20th century analysis of vegetation cover in Kajaani county recorded 385 different species of vascular plants. Talaskangas Nature Reserve, with nearly pristine natural forest and about 50 different wildlife species, is in the Vieremä and Sonkajärvi local area. Logging was planned in the 1980s, but environmental activists prevented exploitation through lobbying. The reserve was formally established in 1994.

Climate.

Kajaani lies within the subarctic climate zone (Köppen: "Dfc"), but the proximity of the Baltic Sea and warm airflows from the Atlantic Ocean (as well as warm current) result in a much milder climate than many locations at this latitude. Summers are cool, with the hottest month usually in July, with the average high temperature reaching, although during severe heatwaves highs of have been reached in July and August. The summers also have the most rainfall, reaching a peak in July with. Rainfall is fairly constant throughout the year, with no dry season. Winters can be harsh, and temperatures can drop below. The peak of the cold season on average lasts from December 11 to March 8, with an average daily high temperature below, with the greatest snowfall in January.

Demographics.

As of, the municipality has a population of (around 34,000 in the town itself) and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is.  The municipality is unilingually Finnish (only of people from Kajaani speak Swedish as their first language).

Government.

The Kajaani City Council consists of 51 members and following the 2012 municipal election the seats are divided for the Centre Party (13), the Finns Party (9), the National Coalition Party (8), the Left Alliance (8), the Social Democratic Party (7), independent (3), the Green League (2) and the Christian Democrats (1). The chairperson of the City Council is Jaana Sankilampi from the Finns Party. The City Government, which includes all parties with the exception of the Christian Democrats and independents, is headed by Marjatta Immonen. The Mayor, whose duty is that of a civil servant independent of the city council, is Jari Tolonen.

Economy.

The budgeted income of Kajaani was FIM 930 million in 1996. In its earlier history, Kajaani was a thriving center of the tar industry. A channel built in 1846 especially for the transportation of tar out of the town still exists today.  Today the local economy is driven by mainly the sawmill, lumber and paper industries. Kajaani paper mill, established in 1907 by Kajaani Oy (ex Kajaanin Puutavara Osakeyhtio), was the largest private employer in Kajaani. The factories are on the river bank, at Tihisenniemi. They built a new paper machine in the town in 1980 which was projected to have an annual output of 170,000 tons. Kajaani Oy was eventually acquired by Valmet in 1983, and the subsidiary Kajaani Electronics was formed. Kajaani Electronics was cited as "one of the leading makers of special sensors and analyzers for the pulp and paper industry" in 1990. When the paper mill was acquired by UPM Kymmene in 1989 it became the third-largest paper company in Finland. It closed in 2008 due to lack of profitability and high energy costs, but has since continued its operations, and was sold to Pölkky Oy in 2012.  In the early 1970s an electronics manufacturing plant was built in Kajaani, and the firm Kajaani Automation was established in 1980. As of 1999 the peat industry in Kajaani earned FIM 0.5 million annually. Some 222 hectares is allocated to peat production, with private firm Vapo Oy contracted to exploit it and deliver peat to the power plant.  According to 1999 figures, Kajaani earns FIM 3 million a year by selling forestry products, and also receives a sizable income from tourist-related activities from its forests. Fishing also contributes to the income of people in the town. Kajaani has three main hotels, the 191-room Scandic Kajanus Kajaani, Hotel Kajaani and Original Sokos Hotel Valjus, although the Karolineburg Manor House now also functions as a hotel with 20 rooms. The "Sirius" restaurant, cited as the best restaurant in the town, serves Finnish cuisine, and is housed in a former government building which hosted conferences between Leonid Brezhnev and Urho Kekkonen. Also of note is the Chinese restaurant "Golden Dragon", the "Torero" which serves Spanish cuisine, "Hospoda Kourna" and "Pikantti". The Central Hospital of Kainuu, which serves the wider region, is situated in Kajaani. Opened in 1968, it has a number of specialist medical departments andworks in cooperation with the Oulu University Hospital. The town also has an eye clinic.  Kainuu Brigade, a unit of the Finnish Army established in 1966, is the third biggest employer in the city. The brigade trains around 4,000 conscripts each year and employs 500 military personnel and 100 civilians.

Landmarks.

Kajaani Castle, located on an island on the Kajaani river in the centre of the city, was originally built in 1604 and was commissioned by Charles IX of Sweden. The castle served as an administrative centre, prison, military base and a refuge for the citizens. The Town Hall of Kajaani, on the main square, Raatihuoneentori, was built to the design of Carl Engel in 1831 with a central rooftop clocktower and turret. It underwent restoration in 1990 when it was painted in a "fetching yellow ochre" color.  Kajaani Church was built in 1896 in the Neo-Gothic style by architect Jac Ahrenberg. It replaced an earlier church on the spot which was originally built in 1656 and destroyed by the Russians in 1716 at the time when Kajaani castle was destroyed. The second church was built 1734-35 which served the parish for 160 years until replaced with Ahrenberg's new church. The church, built from wood, has three naves and features a delicate, slender bell tower. It is decorated with English Gothic style carvings. Kajaani Orthodox Church ("Kajaanin ortodoksinen seurakunta"), which has a regional membership of about 1880 members is centred at Christ Church of the Transfiguration in Kajaani. The church was completed in 1959 to designs by Ilmari Ahonen. It contains murals painted by Petros Sasaki and Alkiviadis Kepolas. In the suburb of Paltaniemi is a church, originally built in 1599, and considered to be the regional centre for the Lutheran Church.  There is a mosque in the town, which is the center of the regional Kainuu Islamic community, which in 2013 had 174 members. Eino Leno House, containing a cafe, was built in 1978 to commemorate famous poet Eino Leino, a native of the town. Keisarintalli, a wooden stable, was used as a boarding house for Tsar Alexander I of Russia during his tour of Finland in 1819. Also of note is the Urho Kekkonen Memorial, dedicated to the eighth Finnish president, Urho Kekkonen. The high monument was carved by sculptor Pekka Kauhanen and was unveiled on 3 September 1990, exactly 90 years after Kekkonen's birth.

Culture.

The Kajaani Town Theatre, established in 1969, puts on plays and concerts, typically seen by around 200 people. The Art Museum of Kajaani ('), located in a building that was a police station, which is connected to Kajaani's former city hall. was founded in 1993 and centers on Finnish modern art. Kainuu Museum (') displays information related to the tar industry, the "Kalevala" (the national epic of Finland) and author Elias Lönnrot and others on the ground floor, and regularly hosts temporary exhibitions upstairs.  The most notable annual cultural events in Kajaani are Kajaanin Runoviikko (The Kajaani Poetry Week), originally known as Sana ja Sävel, and Kainuun JazzKevät (The Kainuu Jazz Spring). Kajaani Orchestra began in the 1950s, and was expanded when the Kuopio garrison band moved to Kajaani in 1963.  Radio Kajaus, one of Finland's oldest local radios, began operations in Kajaani in 1989, and remains one of the few completely independent radio stations in Finland. Kainuu Radio, which belongs to the Yle, broadcasts Monday to Friday from 6.30 to 17.00.

Education.

The town is served by the Kajaani University of Applied Sciences, a small university of applied sciences which was established in 1992. It provides courses in Activity Tourism, Information Systems, Nursing and Healthcare, Mechanical and Mining Engineering and Business and Innovations, and offers 8 Bachelor's degree programmes and 5 Master programmes delivered in Finnish. The Research Center for Developmental Teaching and Learning at Kajaani University Consortium is associated with the University of Oulu. There is also a polytechnical institute in Kajaani, which had an enrollment of 653 students in the mid 1990s.  The government-run Kainuu Music Institute was founded in 1957, and is part of the Kaukametsä Congress and Culture Centre. It is one of the largest musical institutes in Finland, with an enrollment of about 900 from the wider Kainuu region. Kainuu Music dance department Ballet Kaukametsä teaches dance to dancers of different ages. The public library of Kajaani is situated on Kauppakatu street and has free Internet access, and there is also a mobile library service. The "Kajaani Journal" has been publishing since at least 1919.

Sports.

Kajaani has two football clubs, AC Kajaani and Kajaanin Haka. AC Kajaani was formed in 2006 after the merger of FC Tarmo and Kajaanin Palloilijat (KaPa), and plays their home games at the Kajaanin Liikuntapuisto. The men's football first team currently plays in the Kakkonen (Division 2). Kajaanin Haka was formed in 1953 and plays at the Kajaanin liikuntapuisto stadium. The men's football first team currently plays in the Kolmonen (Division 3). The local ice hockey team, Hokki, plays in the Mestis league. Kajaani ice rink (Kajaanin jäähalli) was inaugurated in 1989 and accommodates for 2372 spectators, 781 in seating and 1591 in standing. There is a race course (Kajaanin ravirata) about to the north of the centre of Kajaani in Kuluntalahden, which hosts competitions only during the summer season. The track was completed in 2008 with a new café-restaurant.  Kajaani has hiking paths, skiing tracks, gyms, and sports grounds within the municipality. Pöllyvaara and the Vimpeli Hills are notable local ski areas, frequented by tourists during the winter months. Fishing is popular along the banks of the river. Kajaani also has a golf course, and there are also several dancing pavilions in the town.

Transport.

There is a daily bus service operating between Kajaani, Oulu, Kemijärvi and Rukatunturi, and Bus No.4 runs hourly during weekdays from Pohjolankatu in Kajaani to Paltaniemi. During the summer months there is a cruise service operating between Joensuu and Nurmes. Kajaani railway station opened in 1905 when the railway from Iisalmi to Kajaani was completed as an extension to the Savonia railroad. The station building was designed by Gustaf Nyström. The Kajaani station trackyard underwent significant upgrading and repair work in 2005, when the railway from Iisalmi to Kontiomäki was electrified. Four trains arrive daily from Helsinki via Kouvola and Kuopio, with the journey taking 7–10 hours to Helsinki depending on the train. There are also daily trains from Joensuu, and connecting trains between Nurmes and Kajaani.  Kajaani Airport, approximately northwest of Kajaani in the Paltaniemi area, is the main local airport. It is operated by Finavia, and also serves needs of non-commercial general aviation. Construction of the airport began in 1939 with the runway being completed in the autumn, but due to World War it was not fully opened until 22 June 1956. Aegean Airlines and Flybe Nordic provides flights to Chania and Helsinki. The Finnair connection to Helsinki operates during the summer twice daily and three times a day during the winter schedule period. In 2013 the airport served 74,558 passengers.

International relations.

Twin towns — Sister cities.

Kajaani is twinned with:

Kajaani () is a town and municipality in Finland. It is the center and capital of the Kainuu region. It is located southeast of Oulujärvi (Lake Oulu), which drains to the Gulf of Bothnia along the Oulujoki (river Oulu). As of, it had a population of.

卡亚尼(,),是芬兰共和国北部一城市,位于奥卢湖东南岸,是凯努区的首府,成立于1651年。辖区总面积2264.06平方千米,其中陆地面积1835.40平方千米、水域面积428.66平方千米。2009年6月30日登记人口总数为38070人,人口密度为20.74人/平方千米。芬兰语人口和瑞典语人口比例分别为97.7%和0.1%。19世纪,芬兰民俗学者艾里阿斯·隆洛特从这里开始旅行,在全国各地收集民间传说。


Geography.

Limpopo Province shares international borders with districts and provinces of three countries: Botswana's Central and Kgatleng districts to the west and northwest respectively, Zimbabwe's Matabeleland South and Masvingo provinces to the north and northeast respectively, and Mozambique's Gaza Province to the east. Limpopo is the link between South Africa and countries further afield in sub-Saharan Africa. On its southern edge, from east to west, it shares borders with the South African provinces of Mpumalanga, Gauteng, and North West. Its border with Gauteng includes that province's Johannesburg-Pretoria axis, the most industrialised metropolis on the continent. The province is at the centre of regional, national, and international developing markets.  Limpopo contains much of the Waterberg Biosphere, a massif of approximately which is the first region in the northern part of South Africa to be named a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

Law and government.

The current Premier of Limpopo Province is Stanley Mathabatha, representing the African National Congress.

Municipalities.

Limpopo Province is divided into five district municipalities. The district municipalities are in turn divided into 25 local municipalities:

Economy.

The province is a typical developing area, exporting primary products and importing manufactured goods and services. It is also one of the poorest regions of South Africa with a big gap between poor and rich residents, especially in rural areas.

Agriculture.

The bushveld is beef cattle country, where extensive ranching operations are often supplemented by controlled hunting. About 80% of South Africa's game hunting industry is found in Limpopo. Sunflowers, cotton, maize and peanuts are cultivated in the Bela-Bela and Modimolle areas. Modimolle is also known for its table grapes. Tropical fruit, such as bananas, litchis, pineapples, mangoes and pawpaws, as well as a variety of nuts, are grown in the Tzaneen and Louis Trichardt areas. Tzaneen is also at the centre of extensive citrus, tea and coffee plantations, and a major forestry industry. Most of the farmers and house holds suffer from water supply, therefore they drill their boreholes in their premises.

Mining.

Limpopo's rich mineral deposits include the platinum group metals, iron ore, chromium, high- and middle-grade coking coal, diamonds, antimony, phosphate, and copper, as well as mineral reserves like gold, emeralds, scheelite, magnetite, vermiculite, silicon, and mica. Commodities such as black granite, corundum, and feldspar are also found. Mining contributes to over a fifth of the provincial economy.  Limpopo has the largest platinum deposit in South Africa. The Waterberg Coalfield, the eastern extension of Botswana's Mmamabula coalfields, is estimated to contain 40% of South Africa's coal reserves.

Tourism.

Near Modjadjiskloof, at Sunland Baobab farms, there is a large Baobab tree which has been fashioned into a rather spacious pub.  The Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism has targeted the province as a preferred eco-tourism destination. Its Environment and Tourism Programme encompasses tourism, protected areas and community environment development to achieve sustainable economic growth.  While Limpopo is one of South Africa's poorest provinces, it is rich in wildlife, which gives it an edge in attracting tourists. Both the private and public sectors are investing in tourism development.

Transportation and communications.

The province has excellent road, rail, and air links. The N1 route from Johannesburg, which extends the length of the province, is the busiest overland route in Africa in terms of cross-border trade in raw materials and beneficiated goods. The port of Durban, South Africa’s busiest, is served directly by the province, as are the ports of Richards Bay and Maputo. Polokwane International Airport is situated just north of Polokwane.

Education.

The Department of Education is charged with the responsibility of effecting quality education and training for all. The Department has to coordinate all professional development and support. Policies, systems, and procedures had to be developed.

Demographics.

The population of Limpopo consists of several ethnic groups distinguished by culture, language and race. 97.3% of the population is Black, 2.4% is White, 0.2% is Coloured, and 0.1% is Indian/Asian. The province has the smallest percentage and second smallest total number of white South Africans in the country. It also has the highest Black percentage out of all the provinces.  The Northern Sotho people make up the largest percentage of the population, making 52% of the province. The Tsonga people comprise about 24.0% of the province; the Tsonga also comprise about 11.5% of Mpumalanga province since the southern part of their homeland, Gazankulu, was cut off from Limpopo and allocated to Mpumalanga. The Venda make up about 16.7%. Afrikaners make up the majority of Limpopo's white population, about 95,000 people; English-speaking whites number just over 20,000. Vhembe district has the smallest share of white people in Limpopo, about 5,000 total, while the Waterberg district has the largest share of whites, with more than 60,000 whites residing there. Coloureds and Asians/Indians make up a very small percentage of the province's total population.

HIV / AIDS.

At 18.5% (2007), Limpopo has a fairly high incidence of HIV compared to other South African provinces. Cases rose from 14.5% to 21.5% between 2001 and 2005, with a slight fall between 2005 and 2007.

Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane (formerly Pietersburg).

林波波省(,英语:Limpopo),是南非九个省之一,前身是德兰士瓦省的北部。面积123,900平方公里,2001年人口为5,273,637人。首府及最大城市波罗克瓦尼。


List of Wetlands of International Importance (the "Ramsar List").

The List of Wetlands of International Importance included 2,331 Ramsar Sites in May 2018 covering over. The countries with most sites are the United Kingdom with 175 and Mexico with 142. And, the country with the greatest area of listed wetlands is Bolivia, with around.  The Ramsar Sites Information Service (RSIS) is a searchable database which provides information on each Ramsar Site.

International cooperation.

As of 2016 there are 18 Transboundary Ramsar Sites, and 15 Ramsar Regional Initiatives covering regions of the Mediterranean, Asia, Africa and South America.

International organization partners.

The Ramsar Convention works closely with six other organisations known as International Organization Partners (IOPs). These are: These organizations support the work of the Convention by providing expert technical advice, helping implement field studies, and providing financial support. The IOPs also participate regularly as observers in all meetings of the Conference of the Parties and as full members of the Scientific and Technical Review Panel.

Other partners.

The Convention collaborates with a network of partners:

Bodies established by the Convention.

This is the Convention's governing body consisting of all governments that have ratified the treaty. This ultimate authority reviews progress under the Convention, identifies new priorities, and sets work plans for members. The COP can also make amendments to the Convention, create expert advisory bodies, review progress reports by member nations, and collaborate with other international organizations and agreements.  The Standing Committee is the intersessional executive body which represents the COP between its triennial meetings, within the framework of the decisions made by the COP. The Contracting Parties that are members of the Standing Committee are elected by each meeting of the COP to serve for the three years until the next one.  The Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP)  The Scientific and Technical Review Panel provides scientific and technical guidance to the Conference of the Parties, the Standing Committee, and the Ramsar Secretariat.  The Secretariat carries out the day-to-day coordination of the Convention's activities. It is based at the headquarters of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Gland, Switzerland.  The implementation of the Ramsar Convention is a continuing partnership between the Contracting Parties, the Standing Committee, and the Convention Secretariat, with the advice of the subsidiary expert body, the Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP), and the support of the International Organization Partners (IOPs).  Martha Rojas Urrego is the sixth Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

World Wetlands Day.

The 2nd of February each year is World Wetlands Day, marking the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971. Established to raise awareness about the value of wetlands for humanity and the planet, WWD was celebrated for the first time in 1997 and has grown remarkably since then. In 2015 World Wetlands Day was celebrated in 59 countries.

History.

The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance – the "Ramsar Convention", was co-founded by Ezkandar Firouz (former environment minister of Iran), Luc Hoffmann of Tour du Valat research station in the Camargue in France, and Geoffrey Matthews of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge in the late 1960s. The conference which adopted the terms of the agreement was held in the Iranian Caspian city of Ramsar on 2 February 1971.

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands. It is named after the city of Ramsar in Iran, where the Convention was signed in 1971.

湿地公约(英文:Ramsar Convention),全称为《特别针对水禽栖地之国际重要湿地公约》(英文:Convention of Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitats),是为了保护湿地而签署的全球性政府间保护公约。湿地公约的宗旨是:通过国家行动和国际合作来保护与合理利用湿地。


The palace.

The main building replaces a 17th-century hunting lodge built on the foundations of an older moated castle of which it also retains some foundations and walling (hence the slightly irregular layout). It was built in its current form in several building campaigns between 1700 and 1750, in part to plans of the Heidelberg architect, Johann Adam Breunig. Construction began in the reign of Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz, for whom the palace was not yet to be an official summer residence, but a simple hunting lodge. However, an ornate, if comparatively modestly scaled first garden was laid out at the same time, which was retained and embellished by Karl Philip. When the new, greatly expanded gardens of Charles Theodore began to take shape in the 1750s and 60s, plans were commissioned from the court architect, Nicolas de Pigage, for a new palace that would have been of a scale on a par with its surroundings. However, mostly due to concurrent projects that siphoned off funds (the completion of the gigantic new residential palace at Mannheim and the reconstruction of Schloss Benrath), nothing came of these plans. As a result, the modest building as it stands today is completely overwhelmed by the garden's sheer size and magnificence. It would, therefore, be more appropriate to call it "the gardens and palace of Schwetzingen", and not the reverse.  Much of the original interior decoration and furnishings survive. Following a major restoration effort in the late 20th century, several of the electoral and ducal apartments are now back in the state their previous occupants would have known. These rooms may not have the supreme splendour found elsewhere in German princely dwellings, but they do convey a particularly vivid image of the court's everyday life. The building was too small to also accommodate the reception rooms required for the gatherings of the court. These - comprising two large halls and the theater- were instead incorporated into the two symmetrical curved outbuildings (the "Zirkelbauten") on the garden front, initially intended to serve only as orangeries.

The gardens.

During the second half of the 18th century, when the current Schwetzingen garden was created, the "French" formal garden was gradually being supplanted by the "English" landscape garden as the prevalent style of gardening. The numerous princely estates in the Holy Roman Empire were quick to pick up the change, often remodelling older gardens according to the new taste. The Schwetzingen garden perhaps uniquely reflects this fundamental change in attitude, as its creators actually sought to reconcile the two conflicting styles. Accordingly, while the oldest portions are strictly formal, the newer ones subsequently introduced more "natural" features. However, great care was taken so that the finished work would still form a coherent whole. As a result, Schwetzingen is sometimes described as the principal surviving example of an intermediary style, the "anglo-chinese" garden, but in its diversity actually transcends the boundaries of that particular - and short-lived - style.  The first plan, devised by the gardener Petrie of Zweibrücken, introduced one highly unusual motive, namely the layout of the main parterre as a full circle. This remains unchanged and is a prominent feature that distinguishes Schwetzingen from most contemporary creations. Other than that, the first design was fairly conventional, even somewhat antiquated, in character. It appears to have relied heavily on French theorist Dezallier d'Argenville's influential textbook "Théorie et practique du jardinage", with a certain penchant for the less revolutionary solutions Dezallier d'Argenville proposed; as a case in point, the design of the parterre's "broderie" ("embroidery") plantings, pretty though it is, looks rather timid when compared to some of d'Argenville's bolder suggestions.  Under the auspices of Nicolas de Pigage, the garden's plan was thoroughly updated and substantially expanded, all the while preserving most of its original features. Unlike his predecessor, Pigage was familiar with the latest developments in style. Most of the designs he prepared for Schwetzingen, spanning a period of more than twenty years, have to be considered progressive and up-to-date. However, not all of them were carried out, and as time progressed, the prince's (and possibly also the architect's) reluctance to make a full switch towards the "English" style also provoked critical scorn (most notably from the garden-design theorist Christian Cay Lorenz Hirschfeld). Exempt from Hirschfeld's criticism were only the numerous fabriques that Pigage built in various parts of the garden. The outstanding architectural quality of these small, yet elaborate, buildings was universally acknowledged (Hirschfeld, in fact, objected mostly to their number - he would have preferred fewer of them). On the newer, more fully developed landscaped portions, Pigage collaborated closely with the up-and-coming garden designer Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell.  The sculpture throughout the garden is of varied quality, with a few mediocre decorative pieces, salvaged from the earlier garden and various other locations, as well as some impressive works by Gabriël Grupello and Peter Anton von Verschaffelt, among others. One sculpture in particular, a depiction of Pan sitting atop a cliff and playing his flute, was very highly regarded in its time. It is a work by the Mannheim sculptor, Peter Simon Lamine. A similar statue, by the same master, was unveiled some twenty years later at Nymphenburg Palace. Most of the sculpture within the parterre, and some of the works scattered elsewhere, was acquired at auction in the 1760s. Most of it is the work of then-celebrated French artist Barthélemy Guibal and had previously adorned the Lunéville palace of the deposed Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński. The majority of the sculpture is now replaced with modern replicas to avoid further degradation. The originals are on display within the premises themselves, in the "new orangery" building.

The theatre.

Much like the gardens, the theatre is in many ways a synthesis of conflicting styles. Originally built in 1753, to the plans of Nicolas de Pigage (1723 - 1796)and in a very short time, it could be considered a pure rococo creation. In the course of a later refurbishment, this was blended with early neoclassical tendencies. In its first state, the theatre, following the example of French court theatres of the time, did not have boxes (these were a staple of "Italian" theatres). In order to enlarge it, the auditorium's back wall was then pierced with a row of arcades, thus creating a more "box-like" impression. As a result, the theatre can, at least visually, also be considered a combination of the customary "French" and "Italian" layouts, even if the adjustment was, in this case, made mostly for practical reasons. As with the garden, the overall effect is very homogeneous as well as esthetically pleasing. Well into the 20th century, the theatre had preserved its original stage machinery. This was then lost and replaced with modern facilities, first in the 1950s, and again in the 1970s, when the backstage area was also expanded.

The mosque.

The mosque (German: “Moschee”) in the gardens complex is the earliest mosque-style building in Germany. It was built in 1779–1791 by a French architect for the Prince Elector of the Palatinate. Built at a time when the “Turkish” style was fashionable in Germany, it was never intended for prayer but later served religious purposes at various times.  After many years of restoration, and at great expense, the mosque is fully restored and open to the public.

Schloss Schwetzingen, or Schwetzingen Palace is a schloss in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Schwetzingen was the summer residence of the Electors Palatine Charles III Philip and Charles IV Theodore (of the House of Wittelsbach). It is situated in Schwetzingen, roughly equidistant from the electors' seats at Heidelberg and Mannheim, and is most notable for its spacious and ornate gardens. Other than these exceptionally well preserved gardens and the palace proper, the compound also features the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen, the principal venue for the annual Schwetzingen Festival.

施韦芩根宫()是一座位于德国巴登-符腾堡州的宫殿建筑。这里曾是卡尔·菲利普三世和卡尔·泰奥多尔的夏宫。宫殿以其宽敞而华丽的花园而著称,并且保存状态良好。宫殿主要修建于17世纪,内部还有一个剧场。施韦芩根宫还是施韦芩根节的主办会场。


Applications.

Websites.

In the early 2000s, Flash was widely installed on desktop computers, and was commonly used to display interactive web pages, online games, and to playback video and audio content. In 2005, YouTube was founded by former PayPal employees, and it used Flash Player as a means to display compressed video content on the web.  Between 2000 and 2010, numerous businesses used Flash-based websites to launch new products, or to create interactive company portals. Notable users include Nike, Hewlett-Packard, Nokia, General Electric, World Wildlife Fund,

RIAs.

After Flash 5 introduced ActionScript in 2000, developers combined the visual and programming capabilities of Flash to produce interactive experiences and applications for the Web. Such Web-based applications eventually came to be known as "Rich Internet Applications" (RIAs).  In 2004, Macromedia Flex was released, and specifically targeted the application development market. Flex introduced new user interface components, advanced data visualization components, data remoting, and a modern IDE (Flash Builder). Flex competed with Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) and Microsoft Silverlight during its tenure. Flex was upgraded to support

Video games.

Flash video games are popular on the Internet, with portals like Newgrounds, Miniclip, and Armor Games dedicated to hosting of Flash-based games. Popular games developed with Flash include "Angry Birds", "Clash of Clans", "FarmVille", "AdventureQuest", "Machinarium", "Hundreds", "N", "QWOP" and "Solipskier".  Adobe introduced various technologies to help build video games, including Adobe AIR (to release games for desktop or mobile platforms), Adobe Scout (to improve performance), CrossBridge (to convert C++-based games to run

Film and animation.

Adobe Animate is one of the common animation programs for low-cost 2D television and commercial animation, in competition with Anime Studio and Toon Boom Animation.  Notable users of Flash include DHX Media Vancouver for productions including "Pound Puppies" and "", Fresh TV for Total Drama, Nelvana for "6teen" and "Clone High", Williams Street for "Metalocalypse" and "Squidbillies", Nickelodeon Animation Studios for "Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!", "", among others.  Flash

History.

FutureWave.

The precursor to Flash was a product named SmartSketch, published by FutureWave Software. The company was founded by Charlie Jackson, Jonathan Gay, and Michelle Welsh. SmartSketch was a vector drawing application for pen computers running the PenPoint OS. When PenPoint failed in the marketplace, SmartSketch was ported to Microsoft Windows and Mac OS.  As the Internet became more popular, FutureWave realized the potential for

Macromedia.

In November 1996, FutureSplash was acquired by Macromedia, and Macromedia re-branded and released "FutureSplash Animator" as "Macromedia Flash 1.0". Flash was a two-part system, a graphics and animation editor known as Macromedia Flash, and a player known as Macromedia Flash Player.  "FutureSplash Animator" was an animation tool originally developed for pen-based computing devices. Due to the small size of the "FutureSplash Viewer", it was particularly suited for download on the Web. Macromedia distributed Flash Player as a free browser plugin in order to quickly gain market share. By 2005, more computers worldwide had Flash Player installed

Adobe.

Macromedia was acquired by Adobe Systems on December 3, 2005, and the entire Macromedia product line including Flash, Dreamweaver, Director/Shockwave, Fireworks (which has since been discontinued) and Authorware is now handled by Adobe.  In 2007, Adobe's first version release was "Adobe Flash CS3 Professional", the ninth major version of Flash. It introduced the ActionScript 3.0 programming language, which supported modern programming practices and enabled business applications to be developed with Flash. Adobe Flex Builder (built on Eclipse) targeted the enterprise application development market, and was also released the same year. Flex Builder included the Flex SDK, a set of components that included charting, advanced UI, and data services ("Flex Data Services").  In 2008, Adobe released the tenth version of Flash, "Adobe Flash CS4". Flash 10 improved animation capabilities within the Flash editor, adding a motion editor panel (similar to Adobe After Effects), inverse kinematics (bones), basic 3D object animation, object-based animation, and other text and graphics features. "Flash Player 10" included an in-built 3D

Open Screen Project.

On May 1, 2008, Adobe announced the "Open Screen Project", with the intent of providing a consistent application interface across devices such as personal computers, mobile devices, and consumer electronics. When the project was announced, seven goals were outlined: the abolition of licensing fees for Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Integrated Runtime, the removal of restrictions on the use of the Shockwave Flash (SWF) and Flash Video (FLV) file formats, the publishing of application programming interfaces for porting Flash to new devices, and the

End of life.

Although Flash was previously a dominant platform for online multimedia content, it is slowly being abandoned as Adobe favors a transition to HTML5 due to inherent security flaws and significant resources required to maintain the platform. Apple restricted the use of Flash on iOS in 2010 due to concerns that it performed poorly on its mobile devices, had negative impact on battery life, and was deemed unnecessary for online content. As a result, it was not adopted by Apple for its smartphone and tablet devices, which also reduced its user base and encouraged wider adoption of HTML5 features such as the canvas and video elements, which can replace Flash without the need for plugins. In 2015, Adobe rebranded its Flash authoring environment as Adobe Animate to emphasize its expanded support for HTML5 authoring, and stated that it would "encourage

Format.

FLA.

Flash source files are in the FLA format and contain graphics and animation, as well as embedded assets such as bitmap images, audio files, and FLV video files. The Flash source

SWF.

Flash movie files are in the "SWF" format, traditionally called "ShockWave Flash" movies, "Flash movies", or "Flash applications", usually have a.swf file extension, and may be used in the form of a web page plug-in, strictly "played" in a standalone Flash Player, or incorporated into a self-executing Projector movie (with the.exe extension in Microsoft Windows). Flash Video files have a.flv file extension and are either used from within.swf files or played through a flv-aware player, such as VLC, or QuickTime and Windows Media Player with

3D.

Flash Player 11 introduced a full 3D shader API, called Stage3D, which is fairly similar to WebGL. Stage3D enables GPU-accelerated rendering of 3D graphics within Flash games and applications, and has been used

Flash Video.

Virtually all browser plugins for video are free of charge and cross-platform, including Adobe's offering of Flash Video, which was introduced with Flash version 6. Flash Video has been a popular choice for websites due to the large installed user base and programmability of Flash. In 2010, Apple publicly criticized Adobe Flash, including its implementation of video playback for not taking advantage of hardware acceleration, one reason Flash is not to be found on Apple's mobile devices. Soon after Apple's criticism, Adobe

Flash Audio.

Flash Audio is most commonly encoded in MP3 or AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) however it can also use ADPCM, Nellymoser (Nellymoser Asao Codec) and Speex audio codecs. Flash allows sample rates of 11, 22 and 44.1 kHz. It cannot have 48 kHz audio sample rate, which is the standard TV and DVD sample rate.  On August 20, 2007, Adobe announced on its blog that with Update 3 of Flash Player 9, Flash Video will also implement some parts of the MPEG-4 international standards. Specifically, Flash Player will work with video compressed in H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10), audio compressed using AAC (MPEG-4 Part

Scripting language.

"ActionScript" is the programming language used by Flash. It is an enhanced

Specifications.

In October 1998, Macromedia disclosed the Flash Version 3 Specification on its website. It did this in response to many new and often semi-open formats competing with SWF, such as Xara's Flare and Sharp's Extended Vector Animation formats. Several developers quickly created a C library for producing SWF. In February 1999, MorphInk 99 was introduced, the first third-party program to create SWF files. Macromedia also hired Middlesoft to create a freely available developers' kit for the SWF file format versions 3 to 5.  Macromedia made the Flash Files specifications for versions 6 and later available only under a non-disclosure agreement, but they are widely available from various sites.  In April 2006, the

Animation tools.

Official tools.

The Adobe Animate authoring program is primarily used to design graphics and animation and publish the same for websites, web applications, and video games. The program also offers limited support for audio and video embedding and ActionScript scripting.  Adobe

Third-party tools.

Various free and commercial software packages can output animations into the Flash SWF format, suitable for display on the web, including:  The Flash 4 Linux project was an initiative to develop an open source Linux application as an alternative to Adobe Animate. Development plans included authoring

Programming tools.

Official tools.

Adobe provides a series of tools

Third-party tools.

Third-party development tools have been created to

Players.

Proprietary.

Adobe Flash Player is the multimedia and application player originally developed by Macromedia and acquired by Adobe Systems. It plays SWF files, which can be created by Adobe Animate, Apache Flex, or a number of other Adobe Systems and 3rd party tools. It has support for a scripting language called ActionScript, which can be

Open source.

OpenFL is an open-source implementation of the Adobe Flash API. It allows developers to build a single application against the OpenFL APIs and simultaneously target multiple platforms including iOS, Android, HTML5 (choice of Canvas, WebGL, SVG or DOM), Windows, macOS, Linux, WebAssembly, Flash, AIR, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, Wii U, TiVo, Raspberry Pi, and Node.js.  OpenFL mirrors the Flash API for graphical operations. OpenFL applications can be written in Haxe, JavaScript (EcmaScript 5 or 6+), or TypeScript.  Lightspark is a free and open source SWF player that supports most of ActionScript 3.0 and has a Mozilla-compatible plug-in. It will fall back on Gnash,

Availability.

Desktop computers.

Flash Player.

Adobe Flash has been deprecated. The latest version of Adobe Flash Player is available for three major desktop platforms, including Windows, macOS and Linux. On Linux the PPAPI plug-in is available; the NPAPI version wasn't updated to new major versions for a while until Adobe changed its mind on stopping support and its former plan

Adobe AIR.

Adobe AIR, version 18, contains Adobe Flash Player 18, and is available for Windows XP and later, as well as macOS. Official support for desktop Linux distributions ceased in June 2011 with version 2.6. The latest Adobe AIR is AIR 32, while HARMAN supplies AIR 33.

Mobile devices.

Flash Player.

Adobe Flash Player was available for a variety of mobile operating systems, including Android (between versions 2.2 and 4.0.4), Pocket PC/Windows CE, QNX (e.g. on BlackBerry PlayBook), Symbian, Palm OS, and webOS (since version 2.0). Flash Player for smart phones was made available to handset manufacturers at the end of 2009.  However, in November 2011, Adobe announced the withdrawal of support for Flash Player on mobile devices. Adobe continues to support deploying Flash-based content as mobile applications via Adobe AIR.

Adobe AIR.

Adobe AIR was released in 2008, and allows the creation of mobile applications and mobile games using Flash and ActionScript. Notable mobile games built with Flash include "Angry Birds", "Machinarium" and "Defend Your Castle".  Using AIR, developers can access the full Adobe Flash functionality, including text, vector graphics, raster graphics, video, audio, camera and microphone capability. Adobe AIR also includes additional features such as file system integration, native client extensions, desktop integration and access to connected devices and sensors.  AIR applications can be published as native phone applications on certain mobile operating systems, such as Android (ARM Cortex-A8 and above) and Apple iOS.  The following table explains to what extent Adobe AIR can run on various mobile operating systems:

Portable electronic devices.

Adobe Flash Lite is a lightweight version of Adobe Flash Player intended for mobile phones and other portable electronic devices like Chumby

Alternatives.

OpenFL.

OpenFL is an open-source implementation of the Adobe Flash technology. It allows developers to build a single application against the OpenFL APIs, and simultaneously target multiple platforms including Flash/AIR, HTML5, Windows, Android,

HTML5.

HTML5 is often cited as an alternative to Adobe Flash technology usage on web pages. Adobe released a tool that

Flash to HTML5.

The following tools allow running

Criticisms.

Mobile support.

Websites built with Adobe Flash will not function on most modern mobile devices running Google Android or iOS (iPhone, iPad). The only alternative is using HTML5 and responsive

Vendor dependence.

The reliance on Adobe for decoding Flash makes its use on the World Wide Web a concern—the completeness of its public specifications are debated, and no complete implementation of Flash is publicly available in source code form with a license that permits reuse. Generally, public specifications are what makes a format re-implementable (see future proofing data storage), and reusable codebases can be ported to new platforms without the endorsement of the format creator.  Adobe's restrictions on the use of the SWF/FLV specifications were lifted in February 2009 (see Adobe's Open Screen Project). However, despite efforts of projects like Gnash, Swfdec and Lightspark, a complete free Flash player is yet to be seen, as of September 2011. For example, Gnash cannot use SWF v10 yet. Notably, Gnash was listed

Accessibility.

Usability consultant Jakob Nielsen published an Alertbox in 2000 entitled, "Flash: 99% Bad", stating that "Flash tends to degrade websites for three reasons: it encourages design abuse, it breaks with the Web's

Flash blocking in web browsers.

Flash content is usually embedded using the codice_1 or codice_2 HTML element. A web browser that does not fully implement one of these elements displays the replacement text, if supplied by the web page. Often, a plugin is required for the browser to fully implement these elements, though some users cannot or will not install it.  Since Flash can be used to produce content (such as advertisements) that some users find obnoxious or take a large amount of bandwidth to download, some web browsers, by default, do not play Flash content until the user clicks on it, e.g. Konqueror, K-Meleon.  Most current browsers have a feature

Security.

For many years Adobe Flash Player's security record has led many security experts to recommend against installing the player, or to block Flash content. The US-CERT has recommended blocking Flash, and security researcher Charlie Miller recommended "not to install Flash"; however, for people still using Flash, Intego recommended that users get trusted updates "only directly from the vendor that publishes them." As of February 12, 2015, Adobe Flash Player has over 400 CVE entries, of which over 300 lead to arbitrary code execution, and past vulnerabilities have enabled spying via web cameras. Security experts have long predicted the demise of Flash, saying

Flash cookies.

Like the HTTP cookie, a flash cookie (also known as a "Local Shared Object") can be used to save application data. Flash cookies are not shared across domains. An August 2009 study by the Ashkan Soltani and a team of researchers at UC Berkeley found that 50% of websites using Flash were also employing flash cookies, yet privacy policies rarely disclosed them, and user controls for privacy preferences were lacking. Most browsers' cache

Adobe Flash is a deprecated multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich Internet applications, desktop applications, mobile applications, mobile games and embedded web browser video players. Flash displays text, vector graphics and raster graphics to provide animations, video games and applications. It allows streaming of audio and video, and can capture mouse, keyboard, microphone and camera input. Related development platform Adobe AIR continues to be supported.

Adobe Flash(前称Macromedia Flash和Shockwave Flash;简称Flash),前身为FutureSplash,既指Adobe Flash Professional多媒体创作程序,也指Adobe Flash Player。自从Macromedia公司于2005年12月3日被Adobe公司收购,Flash也就成为了Adobe旗下的软体。2011年11月9日,Adobe公司宣布停止开发个人电脑平台以外的Flash Player,而专注于开发非专利标示语言HTML5。目前已经走向HTML和APP双并行模式并在2014年技术趋于成熟。