History.

Tucana is one of the twelve constellations established by the Dutch astronomer Petrus Plancius from the observations of the southern sky by the Dutch explorers Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman, who had sailed on the first Dutch trading expedition, known as the "Eerste Schipvaart", to the East Indies. It first appeared on a celestial globe published in 1598 in Amsterdam by Plancius with Jodocus Hondius. The first depiction of this constellation in a celestial atlas was in the German cartographer Johann Bayer's "Uranometria" of 1603. Both Plancius and Bayer depict it as a toucan. De Houtman included it in his southern star catalogue the same year under the Dutch name "Den Indiaenschen Exster, op Indies Lang ghenaemt" "the Indian magpie, named Lang in the Indies", by this meaning a particular bird with a long beak—a hornbill, a bird native to the East Indies. A 1603 celestial globe by Willem Blaeu depicts it with a casque. It was interpreted on Chinese charts as "Niǎohuì" "bird's beak", and in England as "Brasilian Pye", while Johannes Kepler and Giovanni Battista Riccioli termed it "Anser Americanus" "American Goose", and Caesius as "Pica Indica". Tucana and the nearby constellations Phoenix, Grus and Pavo are collectively called the "Southern Birds".

Characteristics.

Irregular in shape, Tucana is bordered by Hydrus to the east, Grus and Phoenix to the north, Indus to the west and Octans to the south. Covering 295 square degrees, it ranks 48th of the 88 constellations in size. The recommended three-letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is "Tuc". The official constellation boundaries, as set by Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of 10 segments. In the equatorial coordinate system, the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between and, while the declination coordinates are between −56.31° and −75.35°. As one of the deep southern constellations, it remains below the horizon at latitudes north of the 30th parallel in the Northern Hemisphere, and is circumpolar at latitudes south of the 50th parallel in the Southern Hemisphere.

Features.

Stars.

Although he depicted Tucana on his chart, Bayer did not assign its stars Bayer designations. French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille labelled them Alpha to Rho in 1756, but omitted Omicron and Xi, and labelled a pair of stars close together Lambda Tucanae, and a group of three stars Beta Tucanae. In 1879, American astronomer Benjamin Gould designated a star Xi Tucanae—this had not been given a designation by Lacaille who had recognized it as nebulous, and it is now known as the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. Mu Tucanae was dropped by Francis Baily, who felt the star was too faint to warrant a designation, and Kappa's two components came to be known as Kappa and Kappa.  The layout of the brighter stars of Tucana has been likened to a kite. Within the constellation's boundaries are around 80 stars brighter than an apparent magnitude of 7. At an apparent magnitude of 2.86, Alpha Tucanae is the brightest star in the constellation and marks the toucan's head. It is an orange subgiant of spectral type K3III around 199 light-years distant from the Solar System. A cool star with a surface temperature of 4300 K, it is 424 times as luminous as the sun and 37 times its diameter. It is 2.5 to 3 times as massive. Alpha Tucanae is a spectroscopic binary, which means that the two stars have not been individually resolved using a telescope, but the presence of the companion has been inferred from measuring changes in the spectrum of the primary. The orbital period of the binary system is 4197.7 days (11.5 years). Nothing is known about the companion. Two degrees southeast of Alpha is the red-hued Nu Tucanae, of spectral type M4III and lying around 290 light-years distant. It is classified as a semiregular variable star and its brightness varies from magnitude +4.75 to +4.93. Described by Richard Hinckley Allen as bluish, Gamma Tucanae is a yellow-white sequence star of spectral type F4V and an apparent magnitude of 4.00 located around 75 light-years from Earth. It also marks the toucan's beak.  Beta, Delta and Kappa are multiple star systems containing six, two and four stars respectively. Located near the tail of the toucan, Beta Tucanae's two brightest components, Beta and Beta are separated by an angle of 27 arcseconds and have apparent magnitudes of 4.4 and 4.5 respectively. They can be separated in small telescopes. A third star, Beta Tucanae, is separated by 10 arcminutes from the two, and able to be seen as a separate star with the unaided eye. Each star is itself a binary star, making six in total. Lying in the southwestern corner of the constellation around 251 light-years away from Earth, Delta Tucanae consists of a blue-white primary contrasting with a yellowish companion. Delta Tucanae A is a main sequence star of spectral type B9.5V and an apparent magnitude of 4.49. The companion has an apparent magnitude of 9.3. The Kappa Tucanae system shines with a combined apparent magnitude of 4.25, and is located around 68 light-years from the Solar System. The brighter component is a yellowish star, known as Kappa Tucanae A with an apparent magnitude of 5.33 and spectral type F6V, while the fainter lies 5 arcseconds to the northwest. Known as Kappa Tucanae B, it has an apparent magnitude of 7.58 and spectral type K1V. Five arcminutes to the northwest is a fainter star of apparent magnitude 7.24 —actually a pair of orange main sequence stars of spectral types K2V and K3V, which can be seen individually as stars one arcsecond apart with a telescope such as a Dobsonian with high power. Lambda Tucanae is an optical double—that is, the name is given to two stars (Lambda and Lambda) which appear close together from our viewpoint, but are in fact far apart in space. Lambda is itself a binary star, with two components—a yellow-white star of spectral type F7IV-V and an apparent magnitude of 6.22, and a yellow main sequence star of spectral type G1V and an apparent magnitude of 7.28. The system is 186 light-years distant. Lambda is an orange subgiant of spectral type K2III that is expanding and cooling and has left the main sequence. Of apparent magnitude 5.46, it is approximately 220 light-years distant from Earth.  Epsilon Tucanae traditionally marks the toucan's left leg. A B-type subgiant, it has a spectral type B9IV and an apparent magnitude of 4.49. It is approximately 373 light-years from Earth. It is around four times as massive as our Sun.  Theta Tucanae is a white A-type star around 423 light-years distant from Earth, which is actually a close binary system. The main star is classified as a Delta Scuti variable—a class of short period (six hours at most) pulsating stars that have been used as standard candles and as subjects to study asteroseismology. It is around double the Sun's mass, having siphoned off one whole solar mass from its companion, now a hydrogen-depleted dwarf star of around only 0.2 solar masses. The system shines with a combined light that varies between magnitudes 6.06 to 6.15 every 70 to 80 minutes.  Zeta Tucanae is a yellow-white main sequence star of spectral type F9.5V and an apparent magnitude of 4.20 located 28 light-years away from the Solar System. Despite having a slightly lower mass, this star is more luminous than the Sun. The composition and mass of this star are very similar to the Sun, with a slightly lower mass and an estimated age of three billion years. The solar-like qualities make it a target of interest for investigating the possible existence of a life-bearing planet. It appears to have a debris disk orbiting it at a minimum radius of 2.3 astronomical units. As of 2009, no planet has been discovered in orbit around this star.  Five star systems have been found to have planets, four of which have been discovered by the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) in Chile. HD 4308 is a star with around 83% of the Sun's mass located 72 light-years away with a super-Earth planet with an orbital period of around 15 days. HD 215497 is an orange star of spectral type K3V around 142 light-years distant. It is orbited by a hot super-Earth every 3 days and a second planet around the size of Saturn with a period of around 567 days. HD 221287 has a spectral type of F7V and lies 173 light-years away, and has a super-Jovian planet. HD 7199 has spectral type KOIV/V and is located 117 light-years away. It has a planet with around 30% the mass of Jupiter that has an orbital period of 615 days. HD 219077 has a planet around 10 times as massive as Jupiter in a highly eccentric orbit.

Deep-sky objects.

The second-brightest globular cluster in the sky after Omega Centauri, 47 Tucanae (NGC 104) lies just west of the Small Magellanic Cloud. Only 14,700 light-years distant from Earth, it is thought to be around 12 billion years old. Mostly composed of old, yellow stars, it does possess a contingent of blue stragglers, hot stars that are hypothesized to form from binary star mergers. 47 Tucanae has an apparent magnitude of 3.9, meaning that it is visible to the naked eye; it is a Shapley class III cluster, which means that it has a clearly defined nucleus. Near to 47 Tucana on the sky, and often seen in wide-field photographs showing it, are two much more distant globular clusters associated with the SMC: NGC 121, 10 arcminutes away from the bigger cluster's edge, and Lindsay 8.  NGC 362 is another globular cluster in Tucana with an apparent magnitude of 6.4, 27,700 light-years from Earth. Like neighboring 47 Tucanae, NGC 362 is a Shapley class III cluster and among the brightest globular clusters in the sky. Unusually for a globular cluster, its orbit takes it very close to the center of the Milky Way—approximately 3,000 light-years. It was discovered in the 1820s by James Dunlop. Its stars become visible at 180x magnification through a telescope.  Located at the southern end of Tucana, the Small Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy that is one of the nearest neighbors to the Milky Way galaxy at a distance of 210,000 light-years. Though it probably formed as a disk shape, tidal forces from the Milky Way have distorted it. Along with the Large Magellanic Cloud, it lies within the Magellanic Stream, a cloud of gas that connects the two galaxies. NGC 346 is a star-forming region located in the Small Magellanic Cloud. It has an apparent magnitude of 10.3. Within it lies the triple star system HD 5980, each of its members among the most luminous stars known.  The Tucana Dwarf galaxy, which was discovered in 1990, is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy of type dE5 that is an isolated member of the Local Group. It is located from the Solar System and around from the barycentre of the Local Group—the second most remote of all member galaxies after the Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy.  The barred spiral galaxy NGC 7408 is located 3 degrees northwest of Delta Tucanae, and was initially mistaken for a planetary nebula.  In 1998, part of the constellation was the subject of a two-week observation program by the Hubble Space Telescope, which resulted in the Hubble Deep Field South. The potential area to be covered needed to be at the poles of the telescope's orbit for continuous observing, with the final choice resting upon the discovery of a quasar, QSO J2233-606, in the field.

Tucana(The Toucan) is a constellation of stars in the southern sky, named after the toucan, a South American bird. It is one of twelve constellations conceived in the late sixteenth century by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. Tucana first appeared on a celestial globe published in 1598 in Amsterdam by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius and was depicted in Johann Bayer's star atlas "Uranometria" of 1603. French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille gave its stars Bayer designations in 1756. The constellations Tucana, Grus, Phoenix and Pavo are collectively known as the "Southern Birds".

Tukan je jedno z 88 souhvězdí moderní astronomie, leží na jižní obloze. Zavedli ho nizozemští mořeplavci Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser a Frederick de Houtman. Johann Bayer ho roku 1603 zobrazil ve svém atlase Uranometrie a pomohl tak jeho rozšíření. Souhvězdí představuje ptáka tukana, žijícího v Jižní Americe.


Overview.

A province of the Italian Republic is composed of many municipalities (). Usually several provinces together form a region; the region of Aosta Valley is the sole exception—it is not subdivided into provinces, and provincial functions are exercised by the region.  The three main functions devolved to provinces are:  The number of provinces in Italy has been steadily growing in recent years, as many new ones are carved out of older ones. Usually, the province's name is the same as that of its capital city.  According to the 2014 reform, each province is headed by a President (or Commissioner) assisted by a legislative body, the Provincial Council, and an executive body, the Provincial Executive. President (Commissioner) and members of Council are elected together by mayors and city councilors of each municipality of the province. The Executive is chaired by the President (Commissioner) who appoint others members, called. Since 2015, the President (Commissioner) and other members of the Council will not receive a salary.  In each province, there is also a Prefect (), a representative of the central government who heads an agency called. The Questor () is the head of State Police () in the province and his office is called. There is also a provincial police force depending from local government, called provincial police ().  The South Tyrol and Trentino are autonomous provinces: unlike all other provinces they have the same legislative powers as regions and are not subordinated to Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, the region they are part of.

History.

Kingdom of Italy.

In 1861, at the birth of the Kingdom of Italy, there were 59 provinces. However, at that time the national territory was smaller than the current one: regions of Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Lazio were not included in the kingdom.  In 1866, following the Third Independence War, territories of Veneto, Friuli and Mantua were annexed. There were therefore nine more provinces: Belluno, Mantua, Padua, Rovigo, Treviso, Venice, Verona, Vicenza and Udine, all previously part of the Austrian Empire. Eventually, in 1870, following the union of Rome and its province from the Papal States, the provinces rose in number to 69.  After the First World War, new territories were annexed to Italy. The Province of Trento was created in 1920. Provinces of La Spezia, Trieste and Ionio in 1923. In 1924 the new provinces of "Fiume", "Pola", and "Zara" were created, increasing the total number of provinces in Italy to 76.

Between the two World Wars.

In 1927, following a Royal charter, a general province rearrangement took place. 17 new provinces were created (Aosta, Vercelli, Varese, Savona, Bolzano, Gorizia, Pistoia, Pescara, Rieti, Terni, Viterbo, Frosinone, Brindisi, Matera, Ragusa, Castrogiovanni, Nuoro) and the province of Caserta was suppressed. In the same year the institution of "circondari", sub-provincial wards created before the unification, was abolished. Province of Littoria (Latina) was created in 1934, and the Province of Asti in 1935. Following the annexion of Yugoslavia in 1941, the Province of Zara was enlarged and joined the Governatorate of Dalmatia (comprising the provinces of Zara, Spalato, and Cattaro), while in the occupied central part of the present-day Slovenia the new Province of Ljubljana was created. This lasted only until 1945, when Yugoslavia was recreated.

After World War II.

In 1945, after World War II, the province of Aosta changed its name to Valle d'Aosta and Littoria to Latina; the new province of Caserta was created. With the Paris Treaties, signed on 10 February 1947, Italy lost the provinces in the regions of Istria, Carnaro and Dalmazia and part of the provinces of Trieste and Gorizia. Moreover, the province of Trieste was occupied by United States and British forces. The Italian Republic therefore had 91 provinces at its birth.  The province of Ionio was renamed as Taranto in 1951, and in 1954 the province of Trieste was returned to Italy.

Recent history.

The Province of Pordenone was created in 1968, the province of Isernia in 1970, and the Province of Oristano in 1974. In a reorganization in 1992 eight provinces were created: Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Biella, Lecco, Lodi, Rimini, Prato, Crotone, and Vibo Valentia, while Forlì was renamed as Forlì-Cesena.  Four new provinces were created in Sardinia in 2001, with effect from 2005: Olbia-Tempio, Ogliastra, Medio Campidano and Carbonia-Iglesias. In 2004 three further provinces were created: Monza and Brianza, Fermo, and Barletta-Andria-Trani, making a total of 110 provinces.  In May 2012, a referendum abolished the eight provinces of Sardinia, and this suppression was to take effect on 1 March 2013. On 6 July 2012, new plans were published to reduce the number of provinces by around half. In January 2014 the Sardinian Regional Administrative Court declared "unconstitutional" the abolition of the Sardinian provinces, which occurred in 2013.

Controversies.

Provinces are often deemed useless, and many proposals have been made in recent years to eliminate them. However, the difficulty of changing the constitution and the opposition of groups of politicians and citizens halted any proposal of reform.  In 2013, during his speech to the Chamber of Deputies, newly appointed Prime Minister Enrico Letta announced that a revision of the second part of the constitution was needed, in order to change the bicameral parliamentary system and to abolish the provinces. The proposal, presented during the Renzi premiership, was rejected in the constitutional referendum held in December 2016.

The provinces of Italy () are the constituent entities of the Italian Republic, on an intermediate level between a municipality () and a region (). Since 2015, provinces have been classified as ‘institutional bodies of second level’.

Provincie v Itálii (v češtině též "okresy") představují územně-správní celky 2. úrovně - mezistupeň mezi regiony a obcemi. 14 provincií okolo velkých italských měst bylo v období 2014-2016 přetransformováno do tzv. metropolitních měst a 6 provincií na Sicílii změnilo postavení na volná společenství obcí.


The name "Tanakh".

"Tanakh" is an acronym of the first Hebrew letter of each of the Masoretic Text's three traditional divisions: Torah (‘Teaching’, also known as the Five Books of Moses), Nevi'im (’Prophets’), and Ketuvim (’Writings’)—hence TaNaKh. (On the "a"s of the word, see abjad.) Central to Judaism is that the books of the Tanakh are passed from generation to generation, "l'dor v'dor" in the Hebrew phrase. According to rabbinic tradition, they were accompanied by an oral tradition, called the Oral Torah.  The three-part division reflected in the acronym ’Tanakh’ is well attested in the literature of the Rabbinic period. During that period, however, ’Tanakh’ was not used. Instead, the proper title was "Mikra" (or "Miqra", מקרא, meaning ’reading’ or ’that which is read’) because the biblical texts were read publicly. The acronym 'Tanakh' is first recorded in the medieval era. "Mikra" continues to be used in Hebrew to this day, alongside Tanakh, to refer to the Hebrew scriptures. In modern spoken Hebrew, they are interchangeable.

The term "Hebrew Bible".

Many biblical studies scholars advocate use of the term "Hebrew Bible" (or "Hebrew Scriptures") as a substitute for less-neutral terms with Jewish or Christian connotations (e.g. "Tanakh" or Old Testament). The Society of Biblical Literature's "Handbook of Style", which is the standard for major academic journals like the "Harvard Theological Review" and conservative Protestant journals like the "Bibliotheca Sacra" and the "Westminster Theological Journal", suggests that authors "be aware of the connotations of alternative expressions such as...Hebrew Bible [and] Old Testament" without prescribing the use of either. Alister McGrath points out that while the term emphasizes that it is largely written in Hebrew and "is sacred to the Hebrew people", it "fails to do justice to the way in which Christianity sees an essential continuity between the Old and New Testaments", arguing that there is "no generally accepted alternative to the traditional term 'Old Testament.'" However, he accepts that there is no reason why non-Christians should feel obliged to refer to these books as the Old Testament, "apart from custom of use."  Christianity has long asserted a close relationship between the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, although there have sometimes been movements like Marcionism (viewed as heretical by the early church), that have struggled with it. Modern Christian formulations of this tension include supersessionism, covenant theology, new covenant theology, dispensationalism and dual-covenant theology. All of these formulations, except some forms of dual-covenant theology, are objectionable to mainstream Judaism and to many Jewish scholars and writers, for whom there is one eternal covenant between God and the Israelites, and who therefore reject the term "Old Testament" as a form of antinomianism.  Christian usage of "Old Testament" does not refer to a universally agreed upon set of books but, rather, varies depending on denomination. Lutheranism and Protestant denominations that follow the Westminster Confession of Faith accept the entire Jewish canon as the Old Testament without additions, although in translation they sometimes give preference to the Septuagint (LXX) rather than the Masoretic Text; for example, see.  "Hebrew" refers to the original language of the books, but it may also be taken as referring to the Jews of the Second Temple era and their descendants, who preserved the transmission of the Masoretic Text up to the present day. The Hebrew Bible includes small portions in Aramaic (mostly in the books of Daniel and Ezra), written and printed in Aramaic square-script, which was adopted as the Hebrew alphabet after the Babylonian exile.

Development and codification.

There is no scholarly consensus as to when the Hebrew Bible canon was fixed: some scholars argue that it was fixed by the Hasmonean dynasty, while others argue it was not fixed until the second century CE or even later.  According to Louis Ginzberg's "Legends of the Jews", the twenty-four book canon of the Hebrew Bible was fixed by Ezra and the scribes in the Second Temple period.  According to the Talmud, much of the Tanakh was compiled by the men of the Great Assembly ("Anshei K'nesset HaGedolah"), a task completed in 450 BCE, and it has remained unchanged ever since.  The twenty-four book canon is mentioned in the Midrash Koheleth 12:12: "Whoever brings together in his house more than twenty four books brings confusion".

Language and pronunciation.

The original writing system of the Hebrew text was an abjad: consonants written with some applied vowel letters (""matres lectionis""). During the early Middle Ages scholars known as the Masoretes created a single formalized system of vocalization. This was chiefly done by Aaron ben Moses ben Asher, in the Tiberias school, based on the oral tradition for reading the Tanakh, hence the name Tiberian vocalization. It also included some innovations of Ben Naftali and the Babylonian exiles. Despite the comparatively late process of codification, some traditional sources and some Orthodox Jews hold the pronunciation and cantillation to derive from the revelation at Sinai, since it is impossible to read the original text without pronunciations and cantillation pauses. The combination of a text ( "mikra"), pronunciation ( "niqqud") and cantillation ( "te`amim") enable the reader to understand both the simple meaning and the nuances in sentence flow of the text.

Number of different words used.

The number of distinct words in the Hebrew Bible is 8,679, of which 1,480 are hapax legomena. The number of distinct roots, on which many of these Biblical words are based, is roughly 2000.

Books of the Tanakh.

The Tanakh consists of twenty-four books: it counts as one book each Samuel, Kings, Chronicles and Ezra–Nehemiah and counts the Twelve Minor Prophets () as a single book. In Hebrew, the books are often referred to by their prominent first word(s).

Torah.

The Torah (תּוֹרָה, literally ""teaching""), also known as the Pentateuch, or as the ""Five Books of Moses"". Printed versions (rather than scrolls) of the Torah are often called ""Chamisha Chumshei Torah""" ( ""Five fifth-sections of the Torah"") and informally a ""Chumash"".

Nevi'im.

"Nevi'im" (, ""Prophets"") is the second main division of the Tanakh, between the Torah and Ketuvim. It contains three sub-groups. This division includes the books which cover the time from the entrance of the Israelites into the Land of Israel until the Babylonian captivity of Judah (the ""period of prophecy"").  Their distribution is not chronological, but substantive.  The Former Prophets ( )  The Latter Prophets ( )  The Twelve Minor Prophets (, "Trei Asar", ""The Twelve""), which are considered one book

Ketuvim.

"Ketuvim" (, ""Writings"") consists of eleven books, described below. They are also divided into three subgroups based on the distinctiveness of "Sifrei Emet" and "Hamesh Megillot".  The three poetic books ("Sifrei Emet")  The Five Megillot ("Hamesh Megillot"). These books are read aloud in the synagogue on particular occasions, the occasion listed below in parenthesis.  Other books  The Jewish textual tradition never finalized the order of the books in Ketuvim. The Babylonian Talmud (Bava Batra 14b — 15a) gives their order as Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Daniel, Scroll of Esther, Ezra, Chronicles.  In Tiberian Masoretic codices, including the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex, and often in old Spanish manuscripts as well, the order is Chronicles, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Esther, Daniel, Ezra.

Poetic books.

In Masoretic manuscripts (and some printed editions), Psalms, Proverbs and Job are presented in a special two-column form emphasizing the parallel stichs in the verses, which are a function of their poetry. Collectively, these three books are known as "Sifrei Emet" (an acronym of the titles in Hebrew, איוב, משלי, תהלים yields "Emet" אמ"ת, which is also the Hebrew for "truth").  These three books are also the only ones in Tanakh with a special system of cantillation notes that are designed to emphasize parallel stichs within verses. However, the beginning and end of the book of Job are in the normal prose system.

Five scrolls ("Hamesh Megillot").

The five relatively short books of the Song of Songs, the Book of Ruth, the Book of Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and the Book of Esther are collectively known as the "Hamesh Megillot" (Five Megillot). These are the latest books collected and designated as "authoritative" in the Jewish canon, with the latest parts having dates ranging into the 2nd century BCE. These scrolls are traditionally read over the course of the year in many Jewish communities.

Other books.

Besides the three poetic books and the five scrolls, the remaining books in Ketuvim are Daniel, Ezra–Nehemiah and Chronicles. Although there is no formal grouping for these books in the Jewish tradition, they nevertheless share a number of distinguishing characteristics.

Nach.

Nach, also anglicized "Nakh", refers to the "Neviim" and "Kesuvim/Ketuvim" portions of "Tanakh".  "Nach" is often referred to as being its own subject, separate from "Chumash".  It is a major subject in the curriculum of Orthodox high schools for girls and in the seminaries which they subsequently attend, and is often taught by different teachers than those who teach Chumash. In addition to Rashi, the major commentary taught for Chumash, for "Nach" it's also "Metzudot".  In Orthodox high schools for boys, by contrast, the curriculum does not include much of "Nach", except to a limited extent "Yeshoshua" and "Shoftim" plus the five "Megilos".

Jewish commentaries.

There are two major approaches towards study of, and commentary on, the Tanakh. In the Jewish community, the classical approach is religious study of the Bible, where it is assumed that the Bible is divinely inspired. Another approach is to study the Bible as a human creation. In this approach, Biblical studies can be considered as a sub-field of religious studies. The latter practice, when applied to the Torah, is considered heresy by the Orthodox Jewish community. As such, much modern day Bible commentary written by non-Orthodox authors is considered forbidden by rabbis teaching in Orthodox yeshivas. Some classical rabbinic commentators, such as Abraham Ibn Ezra, Gersonides, and Maimonides, used many elements of contemporary biblical criticism, including their knowledge of history, science, and philology. Their use of historical and scientific analysis of the Bible was considered acceptable by historic Judaism due to the author's faith commitment to the idea that God revealed the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai.  The Modern Orthodox Jewish community allows for a wider array of biblical criticism to be used for biblical books outside of the Torah, and a few Orthodox commentaries now incorporate many of the techniques previously found in the academic world, e.g. the Da'at Miqra series. Non-Orthodox Jews, including those affiliated with Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism, accept both traditional and secular approaches to Bible studies. "Jewish commentaries on the Bible", discusses Jewish Tanakh commentaries from the Targums to classical rabbinic literature, the midrash literature, the classical medieval commentators, and modern day commentaries.

The Hebrew Bible, which is also called the Tanakh (;, or ; also "Tenakh", "Tenak", "Tanach"), or sometimes the Miqra (מִקְרָא), is the canonical collection of Hebrew scriptures, including the Torah. These texts are almost exclusively in Biblical Hebrew, with a few passages in Biblical Aramaic instead (in the books of Daniel and Ezra, the verse, and some single words). The Hebrew Bible is also the textual source for the Christian Old Testament. The form of this text that is authoritative for Rabbinic Judaism is known as the Masoretic Text (MT) and it consists of 24 books, while the translations divide essentially the same material into 39 books for the Protestant Bible.

Hebrejská bible označuje tu část biblického kánonu, která je společná židovství a křesťanství. Pojmu se užívá mezi biblisty jako neutrálního termínu, který se upřednostňuje před označením "Tanach", kterého užívají židé, a "Starý zákon", jímž označují tyto spisy křesťané.


Taxonomy.

The great white shark was one of the many amphibia originally described by Linnaeus in the landmark 1758 10th edition of his "Systema Naturae", its first scientific name, "Squalus carcharias". Later, Sir Andrew Smith gave it "Carcharodon" as its generic name in 1833, and also in 1873. The generic name was identified with Linnaeus' specific name and the current scientific name, "Carcharodon carcharias", was finalized. "Carcharodon" comes from the Ancient Greek words (,'sharp' or 'jagged'), and (), (, 'tooth').

Ancestry and fossil record.

The earliest-known fossils of the great white shark are about 16 million years old, during the mid-Miocene epoch. However, the phylogeny of the great white is still in dispute. The original hypothesis for the great white's origins is that it shares a common ancestor with a prehistoric shark, such as the "C. megalodon". "C. megalodon" had teeth that were superficially not too dissimilar with those of great white sharks, but its teeth were far larger. Although cartilaginous skeletons do not fossilize, "C. megalodon" is estimated to

Distribution and habitat.

Great white sharks live in almost all coastal and offshore waters which have water temperature between, with greater concentrations in the United States (Northeast and California), South Africa, Japan, Oceania, Chile, and the Mediterranean including Sea of Marmara and Bosphorus. One of the densest-known populations is found around Dyer Island, South Africa.  The great white is an epipelagic fish, observed mostly in the presence of rich game, such as fur seals ("Arctocephalus" ssp.), sea lions, cetaceans, other sharks, and large bony fish species. In the open ocean, it has been recorded at depths as great as. These findings challenge the traditional notion that the great white is a coastal species.  According to a recent study, California great whites have migrated to an area between Baja California Peninsula and Hawaii known as the White Shark Café to spend at least 100 days before migrating back to Baja. On the journey out, they swim slowly and dive down to around.

Anatomy and appearance.

The great white shark has a robust, large, conical snout. The upper and lower lobes on the tail fin are approximately the same size which is similar to some mackerel sharks. A great white displays countershading, by having a white underside and a grey dorsal area (sometimes in a brown or blue shade) that gives an overall mottled appearance. The coloration makes it difficult for prey to spot the shark because it breaks up the shark's outline when seen from the side. From above, the darker shade blends with the sea and from below it exposes a minimal silhouette against the sunlight. Leucism is extremely rare in this species, but has been documented in one great white shark (a pup that washed ashore in Australia and died). Great white sharks, like many other sharks, have rows of serrated teeth behind the main ones, ready to replace any that break off. When the shark bites, it shakes its head side-to-side, helping the teeth saw off large chunks of flesh. Great white sharks, like other mackerel sharks, have larger eyes than other shark species in proportion to their body size. The iris of the eye is a deep blue instead of black.

Size.

In great white sharks, sexual dimorphism is present, and females are generally larger than males. Male great whites on average measure long, while females at. Adults of this species weigh on average; however, mature females can have an average mass of. The largest females have been verified up to in length and an estimated in weight, perhaps up to. The maximum size is subject to debate because some reports are rough estimations or speculations performed under questionable circumstances. Among living cartilaginous fish, only the whale shark ("Rhincodon typus"), the basking shark ("Cetorhinus maximus") and the giant manta ray ("Manta birostris"), in that order, are on average larger and heavier. These three species are generally quite docile in disposition and given to passively filter-feeding on very small organisms. This makes the

Examples of large unconfirmed great whites.

A number of very large unconfirmed great white shark specimens have been recorded. For decades, many ichthyological works, as well as the "Guinness Book of World Records", listed two great white sharks as the largest individuals: In the 1870s, a great white captured in southern Australian waters, near Port Fairy, and an shark trapped in a herring weir in New Brunswick, Canada, in the 1930s. However, these measurements were not obtained in a rigorous, scientifically valid manner, and researchers have questioned the reliability of these measurements for a long time, noting they were much larger than any other accurately reported sighting. Later studies proved these doubts to be well founded. This New Brunswick shark may have been a misidentified basking shark, as the two have similar body shapes. The question of the Port Fairy shark was settled in the 1970s when J. E. Randall examined the shark's jaws and "found that the Port Fairy shark was of the order of in length and suggested that a mistake had been made in the original record, in 1870, of the shark's length". These wrong measurements would make the alleged shark more than five times heavier than it really was.  While these measurements have not been confirmed, some great white sharks caught in modern times have been estimated to be more than long, but these claims have received some criticism. However, J. E. Randall believed that great white shark may have exceeded in length. A great white shark was captured near Kangaroo Island in Australia on 1 April 1987. This shark was estimated to be more than long by Peter Resiley, and has been designated as KANGA. Another great white shark was caught in Malta by Alfredo Cutajar on 16 April 1987. This shark was also estimated to be around long by John Abela and has been designated as MALTA. However, Cappo drew criticism because he used shark size estimation methods proposed by J. E. Randall to suggest that the KANGA specimen was long. In a similar fashion, I. K. Fergusson also used shark size estimation methods proposed by J. E. Randall to suggest that the MALTA specimen was long. However, photographic evidence suggested that these specimens were larger than the

Adaptations.

Great white sharks, like all other sharks, have an extra sense given by the ampullae of Lorenzini which enables them to detect the electromagnetic field emitted by the movement of living animals. Great whites are so sensitive they can detect variations of half a billionth of a volt. At close range, this allows the shark to locate even immobile animals by detecting their heartbeat. Most fish have a less-developed but similar sense using their body's lateral line.  To more successfully hunt fast and agile prey such as sea lions, the great white has adapted to maintain a body temperature warmer than the surrounding water. One of these adaptations is a "rete mirabile" (Latin for "wonderful net"). This close web-like structure of veins and arteries, located along each lateral side of the shark, conserves heat by warming the cooler arterial blood with the venous blood that has been warmed by the working muscles. This keeps certain parts of the body (particularly the stomach) at temperatures up to

Bite force.

A 2007 study from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, used CT scans of a shark's skull and computer models to measure the shark's maximum bite force. The study reveals the

Ecology and behaviour.

This shark's behaviour and social structure is complex. In South Africa, white sharks have a dominance hierarchy depending on the size, sex and squatter's rights: Females dominate males, larger sharks dominate smaller sharks, and residents dominate newcomers. When hunting, great whites tend to separate and resolve conflicts with rituals and displays. White sharks rarely resort to combat although some individuals have been found with bite marks that match those of other white sharks. This suggests that when a great white approaches too closely to another, they react with a warning bite. Another possibility is that white sharks bite to show their dominance.  The great white shark is one of only a few sharks known to regularly lift its head above the sea surface to gaze at other objects such as prey. This is known as spy-hopping. This behaviour has also been seen in at least one group of blacktip reef sharks, but this might be learned from interaction with humans (it is theorized that the shark may also be able to smell better this way because smell travels through air faster than through water). White sharks are generally very curious animals, display intelligence and may also turn to socializing if the situation demands it. At Seal Island, white sharks have been observed arriving and departing in stable "clans" of two to six individuals on a yearly basis. Whether clan members are related is unknown, but they get along peacefully enough. In fact, the social structure of a clan is probably most aptly compared to that of a wolf pack; in that each member has a clearly established rank and each clan has an alpha leader. When members of different clans meet, they establish social rank nonviolently through any of a variety of interactions.

Diet.

Great white sharks are carnivorous and prey upon fish (e.g. tuna, rays, other sharks), cetaceans (i.e., dolphins, porpoises, whales), pinnipeds (e.g. seals, fur seals, and sea lions), sea turtles, sea otters ("Enhydra lutris") and seabirds. Great whites have also been known to eat objects that they are unable to digest. Juvenile white sharks predominantly prey on fish, including other elasmobranchs, as their jaws are not strong enough to withstand the forces required to attack larger prey such as pinnipeds and cetaceans until they reach a length of or more, at which point their jaw cartilage mineralizes enough to withstand the impact of biting into larger prey species. Upon approaching a length of nearly, great white sharks begin to target predominantly marine mammals for food, though individual sharks seem to specialize in different types of prey depending on their preferences. They seem to be highly opportunistic. These sharks prefer prey with a high content of energy-rich fat. Shark expert Peter Klimley used a rod-and-reel rig and trolled carcasses of a seal, a pig, and a sheep from

Reproduction.

Great white sharks were previously thought to reach sexual maturity at around 15 years of age, but are now believed to take far longer; male great white sharks reach sexual maturity at age 26, while females take 33 years to reach sexual maturity. Maximum life span was originally believed to be more than 30 years, but a study by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution placed it at upwards of 70 years. Examinations of vertebral growth ring count gave a maximum male age of 73 years and a maximum female age of 40 years for the specimens studied. The shark's late sexual maturity, low reproductive rate, long gestation period of 11 months and slow growth make it vulnerable to pressures such as overfishing

Breaching behaviour.

A breach is the result of a high speed approach to the surface with the resulting momentum taking the shark partially or completely clear of the water. This is a hunting technique employed by great white sharks whilst hunting seals. This technique is often used on cape fur seals at Seal Island in False Bay, South Africa. Because the behaviour is unpredictable, it is very hard to document. It was first photographed by Chris Fallows and Rob Lawrence

Natural threats.

Interspecific competition between the great white shark and the orca is probable in regions where dietary preferences of both species may overlap. An incident was documented on 4 October 1997, in the Farallon Islands off California in the United States. An estimated female orca immobilized an estimated great white shark. The orca held the shark upside down to induce tonic immobility and kept the shark still for fifteen minutes, causing it to suffocate. The orca then proceeded to eat the dead shark's liver. It is believed that the scent of the slain shark's carcass caused all the great whites in the region to flee, forfeiting an opportunity for a great seasonal feed.

Conservation status.

It is unclear how much of a concurrent increase in fishing for great white sharks has caused the decline of great white shark populations from the 1970s to the present. No accurate global population numbers are available, but the great white shark is now considered vulnerable. Sharks taken during the long interval between birth and sexual maturity never reproduce, making population recovery and growth difficult.  The IUCN notes that very little is known about the actual status of the great white shark, but as it appears uncommon compared to other widely distributed species, it is considered vulnerable. It is included in Appendix II of CITES, meaning that international trade in the species requires a permit. As of March 2010, it has also been included in Annex I of the CMS Migratory Sharks MoU, which strives for increased international understanding and coordination for the protection of certain migratory sharks. A February 2010 study by Barbara Block of Stanford University estimated the world population of great white sharks to be lower than 3,500 individuals, making the species more vulnerable to extinction than the tiger, whose population is in the same range. According to another study from 2014 by George H. Burgess, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, there are about 2,000 great white sharks near the California coast, which is 10 times higher than the previous estimate of 219 by Barbara Block.  Fishermen target many sharks for their jaws, teeth, and fins, and as game fish in general. The great white shark, however, is rarely an object of commercial fishing, although its flesh is considered valuable. If casually captured (it happens for example in some tonnare in the Mediterranean), it is misleadingly sold as "smooth-hound shark".

In Australia.

The great white shark was declared Vulnerable by the Australian Government in 1999 because of significant population decline and is currently protected under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. The causes of decline prior to protection included mortality from sport fishing harvests as well as being caught in beach protection netting.  The national conservation status of the great white shark is reflected by all Australian states under their respective laws, granting the species full protection throughout Australia regardless of jurisdiction. Many states had prohibited the killing or possession of great white sharks prior to national legislation coming into effect. The great white shark is further listed as Threatened in Victoria under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act, and as rare or likely to become extinct under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife Conservation Act in Western Australia.  In 2002, the Australian government created the White Shark Recovery Plan, implementing government-mandated conservation research and monitoring for conservation in addition to federal protection and stronger regulation of shark-related trade and tourism activities. An updated recovery plan was published in 2013 to review progress, research findings, and to implement further conservation

In New Zealand.

As of April 2007, great white sharks were fully protected within of New Zealand and additionally from fishing by New Zealand-flagged boats outside this range. The maximum penalty is a $250,000 fine and up to six months in

In North America.

In 2013, great white sharks were added to California's Endangered Species Act. From data collected, the population of great whites in the North Pacific was estimated to be fewer than 340 individuals. Research also reveals these sharks are genetically distinct from other members of their species elsewhere in Africa, Australia,

Relationship with humans.

Shark bite incidents.

Of all shark species, the great white shark is responsible for by far the largest number of recorded shark bite incidents on humans, with 272 documented unprovoked bite incidents on humans as of 2012.  More than any documented bite incident, Peter Benchley's best-selling novel "Jaws" and the subsequent 1975 film adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg provided the great white shark with the image of being a "man-eater" in the public mind. While great white sharks have killed humans in at least 74 documented unprovoked bite incidents, they typically do not target them: for example, in the Mediterranean Sea there have been 31 confirmed bite incidents against humans in the last two centuries, most of which were non-fatal. Many of the incidents seemed to be "test-bites". Great white sharks also test-bite buoys, flotsam, and other unfamiliar objects, and they might grab a human or a surfboard to identify what it is.  Contrary to popular belief, great white sharks do not mistake humans for seals. Many bite incidents occur in waters with low visibility or other situations which impair the shark's senses. The species appears to not like the

Shark culling.

Shark culling is the deliberate killing of sharks by a government in an attempt to reduce shark attacks; shark culling is often called "shark control". These programs have been criticized by environmentalists and scientists—they say these programs harm the marine ecosystem; they also say such programs are "outdated, cruel, and ineffective". Many different species (dolphins, turtles, etc.) are also killed in these programs (because of their use of shark nets and drum lines)—15,135 marine animals were killed in New South Wales' nets between 1950 and 2008, and 84,000 marine animals were killed by Queensland authorities from 1962 to 2015.  Great white sharks are currently killed in both Queensland and New South Wales in "shark control" (shark culling) programs. Queensland uses shark nets and drum lines with baited hooks, while New South Wales only uses nets. From 1962 to 2018, Queensland authorities killed about 50,000 sharks, many of which were great whites. From 2013 to 2014 alone, 667 sharks were killed by Queensland authorities, including great white sharks. In Queensland, great white sharks found alive on the drum

Attacks on boats.

Great white sharks infrequently bite and sometimes even sink boats. Only five of the 108 authenticated unprovoked shark bite incidents reported from the Pacific Coast during the 20th century involved kayakers. In a few cases they have bitten boats up to in length. They have bumped or knocked

In captivity.

Prior to August 1981, no great white shark in captivity lived longer than 11 days. In August 1981, a great white survived for 16 days at SeaWorld San Diego before being released. The idea of containing a live great white at SeaWorld Orlando was used in the 1983 film "Jaws 3-D".  Monterey Bay Aquarium first attempted to display a great white in 1984, but the shark died after 11 days because it did not eat. In July 2003, Monterey researchers captured a small female and kept it in a large netted pen near Malibu for five days. They had the rare success of getting the shark to feed in captivity before its release. Not until September 2004 was the aquarium able to place a great white on long-term exhibit. A young female, which was caught off the coast of Ventura, was kept in the aquarium's Outer Bay exhibit for 198 days before she was released in March 2005. She was tracked for 30 days after release. On the evening of 31 August 2006, the

Shark tourism.

Cage diving is most common at sites where great whites are frequent including the coast of South Africa, the Neptune Islands in South Australia, and Guadalupe Island in Baja California. The popularity of cage diving and swimming with sharks is at the focus of a booming tourist industry. A common practice is to chum the water with pieces of fish to attract the sharks. These practices may make sharks more accustomed to people in their environment and to associate human activity with food; a potentially dangerous situation. By drawing bait on a wire towards the cage, tour operators lure the shark to the cage, possibly striking it, exacerbating this problem. Other operators draw the bait away from the cage, causing the shark to swim past the divers.  At present, hang baits are illegal off Isla Guadalupe and reputable dive operators do not use them. Operators in South Africa and Australia continue to use hang baits and pinniped decoys.

The great white shark ("Carcharodon carcharias"), also known as the great white, white shark or "white pointer", is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. It is notable for its size, with larger female individuals growing to in length and in weight at maturity. However, most are smaller; males measure, and females measure on average. According to a 2014 study, the lifespan of great white sharks is estimated to be as long as 70 years or more, well above previous estimates, making it one of the longest lived cartilaginous fish currently known. According to the same study, male great white sharks take 26 years to reach sexual maturity, while the females take 33 years to be ready to produce offspring. Great white sharks can swim at speeds of 25 km/hr (16 mph) for short bursts and to depths of.

Žralok bílý ("Carcharodon carcharias") či velký bílý žralok, dříve často nazývaný žralok lidožravý, je žralok z čeledi lamnovitých vyskytující se většinou v pobřežních vodách. Dosahuje maximální délky okolo 7 metrů a hmotnosti i více než 3 tun. Pohlavně dospělý bývá až po 26 letech a dožívá se i více než 70 let, což z něj činí jednu z nejdéle žijících chrupavčitých paryb. Patří k nejrychlejším žralokům, může nakrátko zrychlit až na 56 km/h. Je považován za člověku velmi nebezpečného predátora, neboť je zodpovědný za nejvíce nevyprovokovaných útoků na lidi mezi všemi žraloky a jako takový byl dlouhodobě systematicky huben námořníky a rybáři. Jeho pronásledování ještě zesílilo po uvedení úspěšného filmu "Čelisti". Ve skutečnosti tito žraloci člověka systematicky neloví, smrtelných útoků bývá v průměru jen 1,5 ročně. Živí se především mořskými rybami a savci (zvláště ploutvonožci), v menší míře i plazy a ptáky. Jeho jediným predátorem mimo člověka je kosatka dravá. Podle kritérií IUCN je veden jako zranitelný druh, který může v brzké době čelit hrozbě vyhubení.


Background.

In the Brussels Conference Act of 1890 the signatories "declared that they were equally animated by the firm intention of putting an end to the traffic in African slaves." The Brussels Act was supplemented and revised by the Convention of Saint-Germain-en-Laye signed by the Allied Powers of the First World War on 10 September 1919, in which the signatories undertook to "endeavour to secure the complete suppression of slavery in all its forms and of the slave trade by land and sea." (Art.11)  A Temporary Slavery Commission was appointed by the Council of the League of Nations in June 1924. The commission was mixed in composition including former colonial governors, as well as a Haitian, and a representative from the International Labour Organization Frederick Lugard was the British representative on the commission.

Significance.

The 1926 Slavery Convention established concrete rules and articles to advance the suppression of slavery and the slave trade.  Slavery was defined (Art.1) as: the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised and the slave trade was defined as including: all acts involved in the capture, acquisition or disposal of a person with intent to reduce him to slavery; all acts involved in the acquisition of a slave with a view to selling or exchanging him; all acts of disposal by sale or exchange of a slave acquired with a view to being sold or exchanged, and, in general, every act of trade or transport in slaves.

Contents (summarised).

Article 2 The parties agreed to prevent and suppress the slave trade and to progressively bring about the complete elimination of slavery in all its forms.  Article 6 The parties undertook to promulgate severe penalties for slave trading, slaveholding, and enslavement.

Participants.

As of 2013, 99 countries have signed, acceded to, ratified, succeeded to or otherwise committed to participation in the Convention (as amended) and its subsequent Protocol. The countries and the year of their first commitment to participation (bracketed) are:  "Afghanistan "(1954)," Albania "(1957)," Algeria "(1963)," Australia "(1953)," Austria "(1954)," Azerbaijan "(1996)," Bahamas "(1976)," Bahrain "(1990)," Bangladesh "(1985)," Barbados "(1976)," Belarus "(1956, as the Byelorussian SSR)," Belgium "(1962)," Bolivia "(1983)," Bosnia and Herzegovina "(1993), " Brazil "(1966)," Cameroon "(1984)," Canada "(1953)," Chile "(1995)," China "(1955)," Croatia "(1992)," Cuba "(1954)," Cyprus "(1986)," Denmark "(1954)," Dominica "(1994)," Ecuador "(1955)," Egypt "(1954)," Ethiopia "(1969)," Fiji "(1972)," Finland "(1954)," France "(1963)," Germany "(1973)," Greece "(1955)," Guatemala "(1983)," Guinea "(1963)," Hungary "(1958)," India "(1954)," Iraq "(1955)," Ireland "(1961)," Israel "(1955)," Italy "(1954)," " Jamaica "(1964)," Jordan "(1959)," Kazakhstan" (2008), " Kuwait "(1963), "Kyrgyzstan "(1997)," Lesotho (1974), Liberia (1953), Libya (1957), Madagascar (1964), Malawi "(1965)," Mali "(1973)," Malta "(1966)," Mauritania "(1986)," Mauritius "(1969)," Mexico "(1954)," Monaco "(1954)," Mongolia "(1968)," Montenegro" (2006)," Morocco "(1959)," Myanmar "(1957)," Nepal "(1963)," Netherlands "(1955)," New Zealand "(1953)," Nicaragua "(1986)," Niger "(1964)," Nigeria "(1961)," Norway "(1957)," Pakistan "(1955), "Paraguay "(2007)," Papua New Guinea "(1982)," Philippines "(1955)," Romania "(1957)," Russia "(1956), as the Soviet Union)," St Lucia "(1990)," St Vincent and the Grenadines "(1981)," Saudi Arabia "(1973)," Serbia "(2001, as Serbia and Montenegro)," Sierra Leone (1962), Solomon Islands "(1981)," South Africa "(1953)," Spain "(1927)," Sri Lanka "(1958)," Sudan "(1957)," Sweden "(1954)," Switzerland "(1953)," Syria" (1954)," Tanzania "(1962)," Trinidad and Tobago "(1966)," Tunisia "(1966)," Turkey "(1955)," Turkmenistan "(1997)," Uganda "(1964)," Ukraine "(1959, as the Ukrainian SSR)," United Kingdom "(1953), " United States "(1956)," Uruguay "(2001)," Viet Nam "(1956)," Yemen "(1987)," Zambia "(1973)" "

Supplementations.

The Convention was amended by the Protocol entering into force on 7 July 1955.  The definition of slavery was further refined and extended by a 1956 Supplementary Convention.

The 1926 Slavery Convention or the Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery was an international treaty created under the auspices of the League of Nations and first signed on 25 September 1926. It was registered in "League of Nations Treaty Series" on 9 March 1927, the same day it went into effect. The objective of the Convention was to confirm and advance the suppression of slavery and the slave trade.

Úmluva o otroctví byla sjednána dne 25. září 1926 v Ženevě v rámci Společnosti národů. Státy, které se staly smluvními stranami této úmluvy, se zavázaly zabraňovat a potlačovat obchod s otroky a usilovat o postupné a co nejrychlejší úplné potlačení otroctví ve všech jeho podobách.


Background.

Motivation for the bombing.

The Irgun committed the attack in response to Operation Agatha, known in Israel as "Black Saturday". British troops had searched the Jewish Agency on June 29 and confiscated large quantities of documents directly implicating

Hotel layout.

In plan form, the six-story hotel, which was opened in 1932 as the first modern luxury hotel in Jerusalem, had an I-shape, with a long central axis connecting wings to the north and south. Julian's Way, a main road,

Government and military usage.

In 1946, the Secretariat occupied most of the southern wing of the hotel, with the military headquarters occupying the top floor of the south wing and the top, second and third floors of the middle of the hotel. The military telephone exchange was situated in the basement. An annex housed the military police and a branch of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Palestine Police.  Rooms had first been requisitioned in the hotel in

Previous attacks.

Amichai Paglin, Chief of Operations of the Irgun, developed a remote-controlled mortar with a range of four miles, which was nicknamed the V3 by British military engineers. In 1945, after attacks using the mortar had been made on several police stations, six V3s were buried in the olive

Preparations for the attack.

Planning.

The leaders of Haganah opposed the idea initially. On July 1, 1946, Moshe Sneh, chief of the Haganah General Headquarters, sent a letter to the then leader of the Irgun, Menachem Begin, which instructed him to "carry out the operation at the 'chick'", code for the King David Hotel. Despite this approval for the project, repeated delays in executing the operation were requested by the Haganah, in response to changes unfolding in the political situation. The plan was finalized between Amichai Paglin (Irgun alias 'Gidi'), Chief of Operations of the Irgun, and Itzhak Sadeh, commander of the Palmach.  In the plan, Irgun men, disguised as Arabs, except for Gideon, the leader, who would be dressed as one of the hotel's distinctive Sudanese waiters, would enter the building through a basement service entrance carrying the explosives concealed in milk cans. The cans were to be placed by the main

Warnings.

Since the bombing, much controversy has ensued over the issues of when warnings were sent and how the British authorities responded. Irgun representatives have always stated that the warning was given well in advance of the explosion, so that adequate time was available to evacuate the hotel. Menachem Begin, for example, wrote that the telephone message was delivered 25–27 minutes before the explosion. It is often stated that the British authorities have always denied that a warning was sent. However, what the British Government said, five months after the bombing, once the subsequent inquest and all the inquiries had been completed, was not that no warning had been sent, but that no such warning had been received by anyone at the Secretariat "in an official position with any power to take action."  American author Thurston Clarke's analysis

Leaks and rumours.

Shortly after noon Palestine time, the London UPI bureau received a short message stating that 'Jewish terrorists have just blown up the King David Hotel!'. The UPI stringer who had sent it, an

Execution.

The perpetrators met at 7 am at the Beit Aharon Talmud Torah. This was the first time they were informed of the target. The attack used approximately of explosives spread over six charges. According to Begin, due to "consultations" about the cancellation of the attack on the David Brothers Building, the operation was delayed and started at about 12:00, an hour later than planned.  After placing the bombs in the La Regence Cafe, the Irgun men quickly slipped out and detonated a small explosive in the street outside the hotel, reportedly to keep passers-by away from the area. The police report written in the aftermath of the bombing says that this explosion resulted in a higher death toll because it caused spectators from the hotel to gather in its south-west corner, directly over the

Explosion and aftermath.

The explosion occurred at 12:37. It caused the collapse of the western half of the southern wing of the hotel. Soon after the explosion, rescuers from the Royal Engineers arrived with heavy lifting equipment. Later that night, the sappers were formed into three groups, with each working an eight-hour shift. The rescue operation lasted for the next three days and 2,000 lorry loads of rubble were removed. From the wreckage and rubble the rescuers managed to extract six survivors. The last to be found alive was Assistant Secretary Downing C. Thompson, 31 hours after

Reactions.

British reactions.

The bombing inflamed public opinion in Britain. After the bombing, editorials in British newspapers argued that the bombing deflated statements by the government that it had been winning against the Jewish paramilitaries. "The Manchester Guardian" argued that "British firmness" inside Palestine had brought about more terrorism and worsened the situation in the country, the opposite effect that the government had intended.  Speaker after speaker in the House of Commons expressed outrage. Ex-Prime Minister Winston Churchill, a prominent and enthusiastic supporter of Zionism, criticized the attack. He also related the bombing to the problems within the Mandate system, and he advocated allowing further Jewish immigration into Palestine. Chief Secretary for the Government of Palestine, Sir John Shaw, noted

Israeli and Zionist reactions.

The Jewish political leadership publicly condemned the attack. The Jewish Agency expressed "their feelings of horror at the base and unparalleled act perpetrated today by a gang of criminals", despite the fact that the Irgun was acting in response to the Jewish Resistance Movement, an organisation governed by the Jewish Agency. The Jewish National Council denounced the bombing. According to "The Jerusalem Post", "although the Hagana had sanctioned the King David bombing, world-wide condemnation caused the organization to distance itself from the attack." David Ben-Gurion deemed the Irgun "the enemy of the Jewish people" after the attack. "Hatsofeh", a Jewish newspaper in Palestine, labelled the Irgun perpetrators "fascists".  The Irgun issued an initial statement accepting responsibility for the attack, mourning their Jewish victims, and calling into fault the British for what

Sir John Shaw controversy.

At the time of the explosion, Chief Secretary, Sir John Shaw was in his office, which was in the eastern half of the south wing, rather than the destroyed western half. Jewish militant organisations sought to shift the blame to Shaw for the deaths.  Begin said that Shaw had been responsible for the failure to evacuate the hotel: "A police officer called Shaw and told him, 'The Jews say that they have placed bombs in the King David.' And the reply was, 'I am here to give orders to the Jews, not to take orders from them.'" The 1947 Irgun pamphlet "Black Paper" said that Shaw had forbidden anyone to leave the hotel: "For reasons best known to himself Shaw, the Chief Secretary of the Occupation administration, disregarded the warning. That is, he forbade any of the other officials to leave the building, with the result that some of his collaborators were killed, while he himself slunk away until after the explosion.... Shaw thus sent nearly 100 people to their deaths—including Hebrews, including friends of our struggle." Begin said that he had heard the information about Shaw from Israel Galili, Chief of Staff of Haganah, when they met on July 23, the day after the bombing. In an interview with Bethell, Galili said that his source for the Shaw story had been Boris Guriel, the future head of Israel's intelligence service, who had heard it in turn from the American Associated Press bureau chief Carter Davidson. Thurston Clarke interviewed both Galili and Guriel, the former in 1977. Guriel denied that he had been the source of the story. Galili was unable to produce any evidence that Shaw had received a warning. Carter Davidson died in 1958 and so could not be asked to confirm or deny what Galili had said. Clarke's assessment was that the story about Shaw was, in fact, "a baseless rumour promoted by the Haganah in order to mollify the Irgun and fix responsibility for the carnage on Shaw."

Legacy and later reports.

In Israeli history.

The attack ramped up the conflict between Jewish militants and the Mandate government to a much higher level. Early on July 30, 1946, in order to capture wanted underground members, 'Operation Shark' was mounted in Tel Aviv. Four army brigades, about twenty thousand soldiers and police, established a cordon round the city. A historian later described the situation as looking for a few needles of militants in a haystack 170,000 people deep. Nearly eight hundred people were detained and then sent to Rafah detention camp.  The attack led the British government to enact widely unpopular restrictions on the civil liberties of Jews in Palestine, which included a renewed use of random personal searches, random

Terrorism.

The bombing has been discussed in literature about the practice and history of terrorism. It has been called one of the most lethal terrorist attacks of the 20th century.  Security analyst Bruce Hoffman wrote of the bombing in his book "Inside Terrorism" that: "Unlike many terrorist groups today, the Irgun's strategy was not deliberately to target or wantonly harm civilians. At the same time, though, the claim of Begin and other apologists that warnings were issued cannot absolve either the group or its commander for the ninety-one people killed and forty-five others injured... Indeed, whatever nonlethal intentions the Irgun might or might not have had, the fact remains that a tragedy of almost unparalleled magnitude was inflicted... so that to this day the bombing remains one of the world's single most lethal terrorist incidents of the twentieth century."  Enders Walter and Todd Sandler theorized in a 2006 book on the political economy of terrorism that it provided a model for the terrorist bombings of the 1980s. In another 2006 book,

Army and police reports.

Various British government papers relating to the bombing were released under the thirty year rule in 1978, including the results of the military and police investigations. The reports contain statements and conclusions which are contradicted by other evidence, including that submitted to the inquest held after the bombing. Affidavits which reflected badly on the security of the hotel were removed from the army report before it was submitted to the High

60th anniversary controversy.

In July 2006, the Menachem Begin Heritage Center organized a conference to mark the 60th anniversary of the bombing. The conference was attended by past and future Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former members of Irgun. A plaque commemorating the bombing was unveiled, stating "For reasons known only to the British, the hotel was not evacuated." The British Ambassador in Tel Aviv and the Consul-General in Jerusalem protested, saying "We do not think that it is right for an act of terrorism, which led to the loss of many lives, to be commemorated", and wrote to the Mayor of Jerusalem that such an act of terror could not be honoured, even if it was preceded by a warning. The British government also demanded

The King David Hotel bombing was a terrorist attack carried out on Monday, July 22, 1946, by the militant right-wing Zionist underground organization the Irgun on the British administrative headquarters for Palestine, which was housed in the southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem during the Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine. 91 people of various nationalities were killed, and 46 were injured.

Bombový útok na hotel Krále Davida, který se uskutečnil 22. července 1946, byl teroristickým útokem provedeným militantní revizionisticko-sionistickou skupinou Irgun na hotel Krále Davida v západním Jeruzalémě, v němž sídlily orgány britské mandátní správy v Palestině. Útok byl namířen na křídlo, ve kterém sídlilo kromě vládních kanceláří i CID (Criminal Investigation Division) a vojenské velitelství, jako odvetu za „Černý Šabat“ a následné protižidovské zátahy z 29. 6. 1946.


Geography.

The low mountain range covers an area of about 20 x 30 km and lies roughly within the triangle formed by the towns of Budweis, Freistadt and Gmünd.  Its highest mountain is the Viehberg near Sandl which reaches 1,112 metres, but another 16 mountains exceed 1,000 metres in height. Of these, 13 lie on Austrian soil and 3 in Bohemia.  The area of the mountains on the Czech side of the border is 162 km2. Their highest point is the Kamenec ("Steinberg", ) in the Pohorská foothills and in the municipality of Pohorská Ves.  The Freiwald is a major part of the natural region of the "Freiwald and Weinsberg Forest".  The Lower Austrian part of the Freiwald is defined as a rural subregion ("Teilraum") according to the conservation concept of the state.  After "die Wende", a nature park was established called the "Novohradské hory" with many natural attractions like the "Terčino údolí", "Žofínský prales" (Sophien-Urwald) and "Hojná Voda" (Heilbrunn). The region has remained largely unspoilt. As a result of its location on the Iron Curtain, the German Bohemians were forced out of the area after the Second World War and it remained inaccessible to tourists. After the border re-opened the trails were waymarked again and tourist infrastructure built.  About three quarters of the region is covered in coniferous and deciduous forest. An almost unabating wind builds up in the autumn often into strong gales.  In the Gratzen Mountains rise the Lainsitz, Maltsch, Bucherser Bach, Strobnitz and Schwarzau rivers.

The Gratzen Mountains ( or, more rarely, "Gratzener Gebirge"; ) are part of the Bohemian Massif and run along either side of the border between the Czech Republic and the Austrian states of Upper and Lower Austria.

Novohradské hory (; také ) jsou geomorfologický celek a pohoří nacházející se na hranicích Česka a Rakouska. Na českém území se rozprostírají na ploše 190,21 km2 kolem obcí Nové Hrady, Horní Stropnice, Benešova nad Černou, Dolního Dvořiště a Malont až ke státní hranici. Jejich jižní částí je v Rakousku a Weinsberger Wald táhnoucí se až k údolí Dunaje.


Name and etymology.

Late Latin authors referred the name "Aegaeus" to Aegeus, whom they said to have jumped into that sea (instead of jumping from the Athenian acropolis, as told by some Greek authors). He was the father of Theseus, the mythical king and founder-hero of Athens. Aegeus had told Theseus to put up white sails when returning if he was successful in killing the Minotaur. When Theseus returned, he forgot these instructions, and Aegeus thinking his son to have died then drowned himself in the sea.  The sea was known in Latin as "Aegaeum mare" under the control of the Roman Empire. The Venetians, who ruled many Greek islands in the High and Late Middle Ages, popularized the name "Archipelago" (Greek: αρχιπέλαγος, meaning "main sea" or "chief sea"), a name that held on in many European countries until the early modern period. In the South Slavic languages, the Aegean is called "White Sea" (Bulgarian: /; Macedonian: /; Serbo-Croatian: /). The Turkish name for the sea is "Ege Denizi," derived from the Greek name.

Geography.

The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea, and covers about in area, measuring about longitudinally and latitudinal. The sea's maximum depth is, located at a point east of Crete. The Aegean Islands are found within its waters, with the following islands delimiting the sea on the south, generally from west to east: Kythera, Antikythera, Crete, Kasos, Karpathos and Rhodes. The Anatolian peninsula marks the eastern boundary of the sea, while the Greek mainland marks the west. Several seas are contained within the Aegean Sea; the Thracian Sea is a section of the Aegean located to the north, the Icarian Sea to the east, the Myrtoan Sea to the west, while the Sea of Crete is the southern section.  The Greek regions that border the sea, in alphabetical order, are Attica, Central Greece, Central Macedonia, Crete, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, North Aegean, Peloponnese, South Aegean, and Thessaly. The historical region of Macedonia also borders the sea, to the north.  The Aegean Islands, which almost all belong to Greece, can be divided into seven groups:  Many of the Aegean islands or island chains, are geographically extensions of the mountains on the mainland. One chain extends across the sea to Chios, another extends across Euboea to Samos, and a third extends across the Peloponnese and Crete to Rhodes, dividing the Aegean from the Mediterranean.  The bays and gulfs of the Aegean beginning at the South and moving clockwise include on Crete, the Mirabello, Almyros, Souda and Chania bays or gulfs, on the mainland the Myrtoan Sea to the west with the Argolic Gulf, the Saronic Gulf northwestward, the Petalies Gulf which connects with the South Euboic Sea, the Pagasetic Gulf which connects with the North Euboic Sea, the Thermian Gulf northwestward, the Chalkidiki Peninsula including the Cassandra and the Singitic Gulfs, northward the Strymonian Gulf and the Gulf of Kavala and the rest are in Turkey; Saros Gulf, Edremit Gulf, Dikili Gulf, Gulf of Çandarlı, Gulf of İzmir, Gulf of Kuşadası, Gulf of Gökova, Güllük Gulf.  The Aegean sea is connected to the Sea of Marmara by the Dardanelles, also known from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont. The Dardanelles are located to the northeast of the sea. It ultimately connects with the Black Sea through the Bosphoros strait, upon which lies the city of Istanbul. The Dardanelles and the Bosphoros are known as the Turkish Straits.

Extent.

According to the International Hydrographic Organization, the limits of the Aegean Sea as follows:

Hydrography.

Aegean surface water circulates in a counterclockwise gyre, with hypersaline Mediterranean water moving northward along the west coast of Turkey, before being displaced by less dense Black Sea outflow. The dense Mediterranean water sinks below the Black Sea inflow to a depth of, then flows through the Dardanelles Strait and into the Sea of Marmara at velocities of. The Black Sea outflow moves westward along the northern Aegean Sea, then flows southwards along the east coast of Greece.  The physical oceanography of the Aegean Sea is controlled mainly by the regional climate, the fresh water discharge from major rivers draining southeastern Europe, and the seasonal variations in the Black Sea surface water outflow through the Dardanelles Strait.  Analysis of the Aegean during 1991 and 1992 revealed three distinct water masses:

Climate.

The climate of the Aegean Sea largely reflects the climate of Greece and Western Turkey, which is to say, predominately Mediterranean. According to the Köppen climate classification, most of the Aegean is classified as Hot-summer Mediterranean ("Csa"), with hotter and drier summers along with milder and wetter winters. However, high temperatures during summers are generally not quite as high as those in arid or semiarid climates due to the presence of a large body of water. This is most predominant in the west and east coasts of the Aegean, and within the Aegean islands. In the north of the Aegean Sea, the climate is instead classified as Cold semi-arid "(BSk)", which feature cooler summers than Hot-summer Mediterranean climates. The Etesian winds are a dominant weather influence in the Aegean Basin.  The below table lists climate conditions of some major Aegean cities:

Population.

Numerous Greek and Turkish settlements are located along their mainland coast, as well as on towns on the Aegean islands. The largest cities are Athens and Thessaloniki in Greece and İzmir in Turkey. The most populated of the Aegean islands is Crete, followed by Euboea and Rhodes.

Biogeography and ecology.

Protected Areas.

Greece has established several marine protected areas along its coasts. According to the Network of Managers of Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean (MedPAN), four Greek MPAs are participating in the Network. These include Alonnisos Marine Park, while the Missolonghi–Aitoliko Lagoons and the island of Zakynthosare not on the Aegean.

History.

Ancient history.

The current coastline dates back to about 4000 BC. Before that time, at the peak of the last ice age (about 18,000 years ago) sea levels everywhere were 130 metres lower, and there were large well-watered coastal plains instead of much of the northern Aegean. When they were first occupied, the present-day islands including Milos with its important obsidian production were probably still connected to the mainland. The present coastal arrangement appeared around 9,000 years ago, with post-ice age sea levels continuing to rise for another 3,000 years after that.  The subsequent Bronze Age civilizations of Greece and the Aegean Sea have given rise to the general term "Aegean civilization". In ancient times, the sea was the birthplace of two ancient civilizations – the Minoans of Crete and the Myceneans of the Peloponnese.  The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean islands, flourishing from around 2700 to 1450 BC before a period of decline, finally ending at around 1100 BC. It represented the first advanced civilization in Europe, leaving behind massive building complexes, tools, stunning artwork, writing systems, and a massive network of trade. The Minoan period saw extensive trade between Crete, Aegean, and Mediterranean settlements, particularly the Near East. The most notable Minoan palace is that of Knossos, followed by that of Phaistos.  After the decline of the Minoan civilization, the Mycenaean Greeks arose, becoming the first advanced civilization in mainland Greece, which lasted from approximately 1600 to 1100 BC. It is believed that the site of Mycenae, which sits close to the Aegean coast, was the center of Mycenaean civilization. The Mycenaeans introduced several innovations in the fields of engineering, architecture and military infrastructure, while trade over vast areas of the Mediterranean, including the Aegean, was essential for the Mycenaean economy. Their syllabic script, the Linear B, offers the first written records of the Greek language and their religion already included several deities that can also be found in the Olympic Pantheon. Mycenaean Greece was dominated by a warrior elite society and consisted of a network of palace-centered states that developed rigid hierarchical, political, social and economic systems. At the head of this society was the king, known as "wanax".  The civilization of Mycenaean Greeks perished with the collapse of Bronze Age culture in the eastern Mediterranean, to be followed by the so-called Greek Dark Ages. It is undetermined what cause the collapse of the Mycenaeans. During the Greek Dark Ages, writing in the Linear B script ceased, vital trade links were lost, and towns and villages were abandoned.

Ancient Greece.

The Archaic period followed the Greek Dark Ages in the 8th century BC. Greece became divided into small self-governing communities, and adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. By the 6th century BC several cities had emerged as dominant in Greek affairs: Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Thebes, of which Athens, Sparta, and Corinth were closest to the Aegean Sea. Each of them had brought the surrounding rural areas and smaller towns under their control, and Athens and Corinth had become major maritime and mercantile powers as well. In the 8th and 7th centuries BC many Greeks emigrated to form colonies in Magna Graecia (Southern Italy and Sicily), Asia Minor and further afield.  The Aegean Sea would later come to be under the control, albeit briefly, of the Kingdom of Macedonia. Philip II and his son Alexander the Great led a series of conquests that led not only to the unification of the Greek mainland and the control of the Aegean Sea under his rule, but also the destruction of the Achaemenid Empire. After Alexander the Great's death, his empire was divided among his generals. Cassander became king of the Hellenistic kingdom of Macedon, which held territory along the western coast of the Aegean, roughly corresponding to modern-day Greece. The Kingdom of Lysimachus had control over the sea's eastern coast. Greece had entered the Hellenistic period.

Roman rule.

The Macedonian Wars were a series of conflicts fought by the Roman Republic and its Greek allies in the eastern Mediterranean against several different major Greek kingdoms. They resulted in Roman control or influence over the eastern Mediterranean basin, including the Aegean, in addition to their hegemony in the western Mediterranean after the Punic Wars. During Roman rule, the land around the Aegean Sea fell under the provinces of Achaea, Macedonia, Thracia, Asia and Creta et Cyrenica (island of Crete)

Medieval period.

The Fall of the Western Roman Empire allowed its successor state, the Byzantine Empire, to continue Roman control over the Aegean Sea. However, their territory would later be threatened by the Early Muslim conquests initiated by Muhammad in the 7th century. Although the Rashidun Caliphate did not manage to obtain land along the cost of the Aegean sea, its conquest of the Eastern Anatolian peninsula as well as Egypt, the Levant, and North Africa left the Byzantine Empire weakened. The Umayyad Caliphate expanded the territorial gains of the Rashidun Caliphate, conquering much of North Africa, and threatened the Byzantine Empire's control of Western Anatolia, where it meets the Aegean Sea.  During the 820s, Crete was conquered by a group of Berbers Andalusians exiles led by Abu Hafs Umar al-Iqritishi, and it became an independent Islamic state. The Byzantine Empire launched a campaign that took most of the island back in 842 and 843 under Theoktistos, but the reconquest was not completed and was soon reversed. Later attempts by the Byzantine Empire to recover the island were without success. For the approximately 135 years of its existence, the emirate of Crete was one of the major foes of Byzantium. Crete commanded the sea lanes of the Eastern Mediterranean and functioned as a forward base and haven for Muslim corsair fleets that ravaged the Byzantine-controlled shores of the Aegean Sea. Crete returned to Byzantine rule under Nikephoros Phokas, who launched a huge campaign against the Emirate of Crete in 960 to 961.  Meanwhile, the Bulgarian Empire threatened Byzantine control of Northern Greece and the Aegean coast to the south. Under Presian I and his successor Boris I, the Bulgarian Empire managed to obtain a small portion of the northern Aegean coast. Simeon I of Bulgaria led Bulgaria to its greatest territorial expansion, and managed to conqueror much of the northern and western coasts of the Aegean. The Byzantines later regained control. The Second Bulgarian Empire achieved similar success along, again, the northern and western coasts, under Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria.  The Seljuq Turks, under the Seljuk Empire, invaded the Byzantine Empire in 1068, from which they annexed almost all of Anatolia, including the east coast of the Aegean Sea, during the reign of Alp Arslan, the second Sultan of the Seljuk Empire. After the death of his successor, Malik Shah I, the empire was divided, and Malik Shah was succeeded in Anatolia by Kilij Arslan I, who founded the Sultanate of Rum. The Byzantines yet again recaptured the eastern coast of the Aegean.  After Constantinople was occupied by Western European and Venetian forces during the Fourth Crusade, the area around the Aegean sea was fragmented into multiple entities, including the Latin Empire, the Kingdom of Thessalonica, the Empire of Nicaea, the Principality of Achaea, and the Duchy of Athens. The Venetians created the maritime state of the Duchy of the Archipelago, which included all the Cyclades except Mykonos and Tinos. The Empire of Nicaea, a Byzantine rump state, managed to effect the Recapture of Constantinople from the Latins in 1261 and defeat Epirus. Byzantine successes were not to last; the Ottomans would conquer the area around the Aegean coast, but before their expansion the Byzantine Empire had already been weakened from internal conflict. By the late 14th century the Byzantine Empire had lost all control of the coast of the Aegean Sea and could exercise power around their capital, Constantinople. The Ottoman Empire then gained control of all the Aegean coast with the exception of Crete, which was a Venetian colony until 1669.

Modern Period.

The Greek War of Independence allowed a Greek state on the coast of the Aegean from 1829 onward. The Ottoman Empire held a presence over the sea for over 500 years until its dissolution following World War I, when it was replaced by modern Turkey. During the war, Greece gained control over the area around the northern coast of the Aegean. By the 1930s, Greece and Turkey had about resumed their present-day borders.  In the Italo-Turkish War of 1912, Italy captured the Dodecanese islands, and had occupied them since, reneging on the 1919 Venizelos–Tittoni agreement to cede them to Greece. The Greco-Italian War took place from October 1940 to April 1941 as part of the Balkans Campaign of World War II. The Italian war aim was to establish a Greek puppet state, which would permit the Italian annexation of the Sporades and the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea, to be administered as a part of the Italian Aegean Islands. The German invasion resulted in the Axis occupation of Greece. The German troops evacuated Athens on 12 October 1944, and by the end of the month, they had withdrawn from mainland Greece. Greece was then liberated by Allied troops.

Economy and politics.

Many of the islands in the Aegean have safe harbours and bays. In ancient times, navigation through the sea was easier than travelling across the rough terrain of the Greek mainland, and to some extent, the coastal areas of Anatolia. Many of the islands are volcanic, and marble and iron are mined on other islands. The larger islands have some fertile valleys and plains.  Of the main islands in the Aegean Sea, two belong to Turkey – Bozcaada (Tenedos) and Gökçeada (Imbros); the rest belong to Greece. Between the two countries, there are political disputes over several aspects of political control over the Aegean space, including the size of territorial waters, air control and the delimitation of economic rights to the continental shelf. These issues are known as the Aegean dispute.

Transport.

Multiple ports are located along the Greek and Turkish coasts of the Aegean Sea. The port of Piraeus in Athens is the chief port in Greece, the largest passenger port in Europe and the third largest in the world, servicing about 20 million passengers annually. With a throughput of 1.4 million TEUs, Piraeus is placed among the top ten ports in container traffic in Europe and the top container port in the Eastern Mediterranean. Piraeus is also the commercial hub of Greek shipping. Piraeus bi-annually acts as the focus for a major shipping convention, known as Posidonia, which attracts maritime industry professionals from all over the world. Piraeus is currently Greece's third-busiest port in terms of tons of goods transported, behind Aghioi Theodoroi and Thessaloniki. The central port serves ferry routes to almost every island in the eastern portion of Greece, the island of Crete, the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, and much of the northern and the eastern Aegean Sea, while the western part of the port is used for cargo services.  As of 2007, the Port of Thessaloniki was the second-largest container port in Greece after the port of Piraeus, making it one of the busiest ports in Greece. In 2007, the Port of Thessaloniki handled 14,373,245 tonnes of cargo and 222,824 TEU's. Paloukia, on the island of Salamis, is a major passenger port.

Fishing.

Fish are Greece's second largest agricultural export, and Greece has Europe's largest fishing fleet. Fish captured include sardines, mackerel, grouper, grey mullets, sea bass, and seabream. There is a considerable difference between fish catches between the pelagic and demersal zones; with respect to pelagic fisheries, the catches from the northern, central and southern Aegean area groupings are dominated, respectively, by anchovy, horse mackerels, and boops. For demersal fisheries, the catches from the northern and southern Aegean area groupings are dominated by grey mullets and pickerel ("Spicara smaris") respectively.  The industry has been impacted by the Great Recession. Overfishing and habitat destruction is also a concern, threatening grouper, and seabream populations, resulting in perhaps a 50% decline of fish catch. To address these concerns, Greek fishermen have been offered a compensation by the government. Although some species are defined as protected or threatened under EU legislation, several illegal species such as the molluscs "Pinna nobilis", "Charonia tritonis" and "Lithophaga lithophaga", can be bought in restaurants and fish markets around Greece.

Tourism.

The Aegean islands within the Aegean Sea are significant tourist destinations. Tourism to the Aegean islands contributes a significant portion of tourism in Greece, especially since the second half of the 20th century. A total of five UNESCO World Heritage sites are located the Aegean Islands; these include the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian and the Cave of the Apocalypse on Patmos, the Pythagoreion and Heraion of Samos in Samos, the Nea Moni of Chios, the island of Delos, and the Medieval City of Rhodes.  Greece is one of the most visited countries in Europe and the world with over 33 million visitors in 2018, and the tourism industry around a quarter of Greece's Gross Domestic Product. The islands of Santorini, Crete, Lesbos, Delos, and Mykonos are common tourist destinations. An estimated 2 million tourists visit Santorini annually. However, concerns relating to overtourism have arisen in recent years, such as issues of inadequate infrastructure and overcrowding. Alongside Greece, Turkey has also been successful in developing resort areas and attracting large number of tourists, contributing to tourism in Turkey. The phrase "Blue Cruise" refers to recreational voyages along the Turkish Riviera, including across the Aegean. The ancient city of Troy, a World Heritage Site, is on the Turkish coast of the Aegean.  Greece and Turkey both take part in the Blue Flag beach certification programme of the Foundation for Environmental Education. The certification is awarded for beaches and marinas meeting strict quality standards including environmental protection, water quality, safety and services criteria. As of 2015, the Blue Flag has been awarded to 395 beaches and 9 marinas in Greece. Southern Aegean beaches on the Turkish coast include Muğla, with 102 beaches awarded with the blue flag, along with İzmir and Aydın, who have 49 and 30 beaches awarded respectively.

The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the Greek and Anatolian peninsulas. The sea has an area of some 215,000 square kilometres. In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea and the Black Sea by the straits of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus. The Aegean Islands are located within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The sea reaches a maximum depth of 3,544 meters, to the east of Crete.

Egejské moře (řecky "Αιγαίο Πέλαγος," "Aigaio Pelagos [egeo pelagos]," turecky "Ege Denizi)" je polouzavřené moře Středozemního moře. Nachází se mezi Balkánským poloostrovem, ostrovem Krétou a Anatolií, velká část jeho plochy patří Řecku. Jeho rozloha činí 190 000 km2, maximální hloubka dosahuje 2561 m.


Name.

The name of the river derives from the Latin word "sana", which means "healthy".

Course and sections.

Springs and Upper Sana.

The Sana in its upper course is fast mountain river with upland freshwater ecology, and its waters being very clear and cold. Gushing out of the karst plateau with Ovčara as most prominent summit (1576 m), between Klekovača and Vitorog mountains, and flows toward alluvial plains of the Bosanska Krajina with lowland freshwater ecology. Well-spring areal is located in the vicinity of Marići village, between surrounding villages of Gornja and Donja Pečka, Gornji and Donji Vrbljani, and Medna, on the territories of Ribnik and Mrkonjić Grad municipality not far from the town of Šipovo. The source itself consists of four major and water abundant karstic well-springs, with relatively high average discharge, and after about hundred meters first three individual wellsprings merge with a main course, which is set by the small stream of Korana coming from the right form direction of Gornja Pečka village, receiving the Sana springs one-by-one, with first three supplementing it from the left and, after just a little more than one kilometre downstream, with the fourth from the right. This fourth well-spring is also known for the Mračaj karstic cave from which it emerges. From this point the Sana is formed river, with steady average discharge. The river at this point is still with low average discharge, and receiving the waters of several other smaller streams, but after just about 17 km the Sana meet with its first major tributary, the short but water abundant river, the Ribnik. The area surrounding confluence of the two rivers is called Ribnik, and is divaded between two settlements, Gornji and Donji Ribnik. From Ribnik, the Sana runs through a valley in a south-to-north-northwestern direction as it reach the historic town of Ključ.

Middle course.

At this point, passing through Ključ, the upper course ends and river enters its midsection narrow gorge, with steep but relatively low slopes, while turning its course to more clear south-to-north direction. The river here combines with the waters of several typical karstic streams, abundant in water but short in length. Its main tributary is water abundant the Sanica river, which flows east-to-west from the direction of Grmeč mountain, and in this section reaches the Sana from the left at. After 72 km and the altitude difference of 262.52 m, the Sana then passes through Sanski Most and combines with the significant tributary rivers, the Dabar, the Zdena and the Bliha river, both from the left, and two other smaller one. From here it runs toward the town of Prijedor, where its middle section ends, and where it receives the waters of Gomjenica river from the right.

Lower Sana.

The Sana then turns sharply under an angle of almost 90 degrees and heads west toward its final destination in Bosanski Novi (also known as Novi Grad), where it empties into the Una river as its most important and largest tributary. From Sanski Most, through Prijedor, to its confluence with the Una in Bosanski Novi, average drop is 41.21 m. Between Prijedor and Bosanski Novi, the river also serves as a natural border between the two subregions, Potkozarje and Podgrmeč. In this section the Sana is characteristically lowland river.  Before the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a paper mill "Celpak" in Prijedor was draining wastewater into the Sana, just downstream from the town, so that the further flow of the river was considered polluted. From the outset of the war, and after the war to this day, the factory has been shut down and the discharge of wastewater is reduced to significantly smaller scale. At the center of Bosanski/Novi Grad the Sana reaches the Una river.

Sana (; ) is a river in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a tributary of the Una, into which it flows near Bosanski Novi. It is the longest of the nine rivers that flow through Sanski Most, and is 142 km long. It is not a navigable waterway.

Sana () je řeka na západě Bosny a Hercegoviny (Unsko-sanský kanton ve Federaci Bosny a Hercegoviny a region Banja Luka v Republice srbské), přítok Uny dlouhý 146 km s povodím o rozloze 3370 km2.