Social Studies: Important Notes

Notes 4

The Himalayas, or Himalaya, are a mountain range in South and East Asia separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has many of Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest, at the border between Nepal and China.

The Pyrenees Mountain range separates the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe, stretching more than 430km between Spain and France and rising higher than 3,400m in elevation. Hiking trails traverse the entire length of the range and national parks offer shorter trails, while dozens of ski resorts can be found on both sides of the Pyrenees. Andorra is a tiny sovereign state in the heart of the chain.

The Ural Mountains or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan. The mountain range forms part of the conventional boundary between the regions of Europe and Asia.

The Andes, running along South America's western side, is among the world's longest mountain ranges. Its varied terrain encompasses glaciers, volcanoes, grassland, desert, lakes and forest. The mountains shelter pre-Columbian archaeological sites and wildlife including chinchillas and condors. From Venezuela in the north, the range passes through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile.

The continents are, from largest to smallest: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.

Cape Horn (sailor's graveyard) is a rocky headland on Hornos Island, in southern Chile's Tierra del Fuego archipelago. It's surrounded by wild seas off the southern tip of South America where the Pacific and Atlantic oceans meet. The albatross-shaped Cape Horn Monument commemorates the lives of thousands of seafarers who perished attempting to sail around the cape because of frequent storms. A secluded lighthouse and the tiny Stella-Maris Chapel are nearby.

The land of Iraq is often called the "Cradle of Civilization" because the oldest civilization in the world, the Sumerians, was formed here. The Sumerians invented writing and started the first recorded history. For over 3000 years the Sumerian civilization flourished in the Tigris-Euphrates river valley.

The Akkadian Empire was an ancient Semitic empire centered in the city of Akkad, which united all the indigenous Akkadian speaking Semites and Sumerian speakers under one rule. The Empire controlled Mesopotamia, the Levant, and parts of Iran. Akkad is sometimes regarded as the first empire in history.

Babylonia was a state in ancient Mesopotamia. The city of Babylon, whose ruins are located in present-day Iraq, was founded more than 4,000 years ago as a small port town on the Euphrates River. It grew into one of the largest cities of the ancient world under the rule of Hammurabi.

Chaldeans are Aramaic-speaking, Eastern Rite Catholics. They have a history that spans more than 5,500 years, dating back to Mesopotamia, which was known as the cradle of civilization and is present-day Iraq.

Stylus- pointed instrument for writing and marking.

Cuneiform- system of writing used in the ancient Middle East. The name, a coinage from Latin and Middle French roots meaning "wedge-shaped," has been the modern designation from the early 18th century onward. Cuneiform was the most widespread and historically significant writing system in the ancient Middle East.

Hieratic Script- hieroglyphic writing, system that employs characters in the form of pictures. Those individual , called , may be read either as pictures, as symbols for objects, or as symbols for .

Hieroglyphics- The Egyptian cursive script, called , received its name from the Greek hieratikos ("priestly") at a time during the late period when the script was used only for sacred texts, whereas everyday documents were written in another style, the demotic script (from Greek dēmotikos, "for the people" or "in common use").

Savanna- vegetation type that grows under hot, seasonally dry climatic conditions and is characterized by an open tree canopy (i.e., scattered trees) above a continuous tall grass understory (the vegetation layer between the forest canopy and the ground).

An ecosystem is a geographic area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as well as weather and landscape, work together to form a bubble of life. Ecosystems contain biotic or living, parts, as well as abiotic factors, or non-living parts. Ecosystems can be very large or very small.

Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainforest, but other types have been described.

In physical geography, tundra is a type of biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons.

Suez Canal- connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, making it the shortest maritime route to Asia from Europe. Since its completion in 1869, it has become one of the world's most heavily used shipping lanes.

Canal Grande- during Venice's heyday, the Grand Canal was used by traders, making their way to the Rialto Bridge. It is a major water traffic corridors in Venice.

Erie Canal- provided a direct water route from New York City to the Midwest, triggering large-scale commercial and agricultural development—as well as immigration—to the sparsely populated frontiers of western New York, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and points farther west.

Panama Canal- artificial 82 km waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with Pacific Ocean. To reduce the time it takes for ships to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific.