Skip this Advertisement

A-Z Browse

  • Ramanya (Buddhism)
    ...that admitted only members of the Goyigama, the highest Sinhalese caste. The Amarapura sect, founded in the early 19th century, opened its ranks to members of lower castes. The third division, the Ramanya sect, is a small modernist group that emerged in the 19th century. In addition, several reform groups were established among the laity. These groups include the important Sarvodaya community,....
  • Rāmapāla (Pāla king)
    ...revived during the reign of Mahipala (reigned c. 988–1038), although its stronghold now was Bihar rather than Bengal. Further attempts to recover the old Pala territories were made by Ramapala, but Pala power gradually declined. There was a brief revival of power in Bengal under the Sena dynasty (c. 1070–1289)....
  • Ramapithecus (fossil primate genus)
    fossil primate genus dating from the Middle and Late Miocene epochs (about 16.6 to 5.3 million years ago). For a time in the 1960s and ’70s Ramapithecus was thought to be the first direct ancestor of modern humans....
  • Rama’s Bridge (shoals, India)
    chain of shoals, between the islands of Mannar, near northwestern Sri Lanka, and Rāmeswaram, off the southeastern coast of India. The bridge is 30 miles (48 km) long and separates the Gulf of Mannar (southwest) from the Palk Strait (northeast). Some of the sandbanks are dry, and nowhere are the shoals deeper than 4 feet (1 m); thus, they seriously hinder navigation. Dredging operations, now...
  • Rama’s Incarnation (work by Kampan)
    sometimes called the finest Tamil poet, whose principal achievement is the epic Irāmāvatāram (Rama’s Incarnation)....
  • Ramat Gan (Israel)
    city, west-central Israel, on the Plain of Sharon just east of Tel Aviv–Yafo. Founded in 1921, it is the largest satellite city in the Tel Aviv–Yafo metropolitan area, with fine residential quarters, extensive parks and gardens, including a national park, and the nation’s principal athletic stadium, seating 50,000 persons. It is also the home of Bar-Ilan University, a religio...
  • Ramat ha-Golan (region, Middle East)
    hilly area overlooking the upper Jordan River valley on the west. The area was part of extreme southwestern Syria until 1967, when it came under Israeli military occupation, and in December 1981 Israel unilaterally annexed the part of the Golan it held. The area’s name is from the biblical city of refuge Golan in Bashan (Deuteronomy 4:43; Joshua 20:8)....
  • Ramathibodi I (king of Ayutthaya)
    founder and first king (1351–69) of the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya....
  • Ramatirtha (Hindu religious leader)
    Hindu religious leader known for the highly personal and poetic manner in which he taught what he styled “Practical Vedānta,” using common experiences to illustrate the divine nature of man. For Ramatirtha, any object whatever could be approached as a “mirror to God.”...
  • Ramatirthan, L. S. (Indian writer)
    ...who writes novels, short stories, and plays with themes from urban Tamil middle-class family life; Jayakanthan, a sharp and passionate writer, with a tendency to shock his readers; and L.S. Ramatirthan, probably the finest stylist at work in Tamil today, who started by writing in English....
  • Ramayana (dance-drama by Shanti Bardhan)
    ...a junior colleague of Uday Shankar, produced some of the most imaginative dance-dramas of the modern period. After founding the Little Ballet Troupe in Andheri, Bombay, in 1952 he produced Ramayana, in which the actors moved and danced like puppets. His posthumous production Panchatantra (The Winning of Friends) is based on an ancient fable of four friends (Mouse, Turtle,......
  • Rāmāyaṇa (Indian epic)
    shorter of the two great epic poems of India, the other being the Mahābhārata (“Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty”). The Rāmāyaṇa was composed in Sanskrit, probably not before 300 bc, by the poet Vālmīki, and in its present form consists of some ...
  • Ramayana (Indian epic)
    shorter of the two great epic poems of India, the other being the Mahābhārata (“Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty”). The Rāmāyaṇa was composed in Sanskrit, probably not before 300 bc, by the poet Vālmīki, and in its present form consists of some ...
  • Ramazan (Turkmen ruler)
    In 1352 Ramazan, founder of the dynasty, was recognized by the Mamlūk sultan of Egypt as the ruler of the Üçok branch of Oğuz Turkmen in Çukurova. After a period of attempts to overthrow Mamlūk suzerainty, the dynasty’s principality about 1418 came under direct Mamlūk control and lost its significance....
  • Ramazan dynasty (Turkmen dynasty)
    Turkmen dynasty (c. 1352–c. 1610) that ruled in the Çukurova (Cilicia) region of southern Anatolia....
  • Ramazzini, Bernardino (Italian medical professor)
    Italian physician, considered a founder of occupational medicine....
  • Ramazzotti, Eros (Italian singer)
    Having mesmerized European and South American audiences with his yearning ballads of love, Italian pop superstar Eros Ramazzotti hoped to croon his way into the hearts of North Americans in 1998. Since its 1997 release, almost four million copies of Eros, his ninth album, had been sold worldwide. To promote Eros in the United States, the handsome balladeer embarked on a national tour...
  • Rambach, Miriam (Polish ballet director)
    ballet producer, director, and teacher who founded Ballet Rambert, the oldest English ballet company still performing....
  • Rambam (Jewish philosopher, scholar, and physician)
    Jewish philosopher, jurist, and physician, the foremost intellectual figure of medieval Judaism. His first major work, begun at age 23 and completed 10 years later, was a commentary on the Mishna, the collected Jewish oral laws. A monumental code of Jewish law followed in Hebrew, The Guide for the Perplexed in Arabic, and numerous other works, many of ma...
  • Rambam, Cyvia (Polish ballet director)
    ballet producer, director, and teacher who founded Ballet Rambert, the oldest English ballet company still performing....
  • Ramban (Spanish scholar and rabbi)
    Spanish scholar and rabbi and Jewish religious leader. He was also a philosopher, poet, physician, and Kabbalist....
  • Ramberg, Miriam (Polish ballet director)
    ballet producer, director, and teacher who founded Ballet Rambert, the oldest English ballet company still performing....
  • Ramberg-Bäcklund reaction
    DMSO finds considerable use in organic synthesis as a mild oxidant in a process termed Swern oxidation. Notable rearrangements of the sulfone group include the Ramberg-Bäcklund reaction and the Truce-Smiles rearrangement....
  • Rambert, Dame Marie (Polish ballet director)
    ballet producer, director, and teacher who founded Ballet Rambert, the oldest English ballet company still performing....
  • Rambert Dance Company (British ballet company)
    oldest existing ballet company in England. Since the 1930s the Ballet Rambert has been an important training ground for young talent; among the famous artists who gained early experience with the company were the dancers Alicia Markova and Margot Fonteyn and the choreographers Antony Tudor, Sir Frederick Ashton, Agnes deMille, Andrée Howard, Walter Gore, and Peggy van Praagh....
  • Ramblas (promenade, Barcelona, Spain)
    For the visitor, the main attraction still tends to be in the city centre, particularly around the Ramblas. The famous promenade is separated from L’Eixample by the monumental Catalunya Square, and it leads down to the port and the Portal de la Pau Square, where the Christopher Columbus monument stands in commemoration of the discovery of America and the explorer’s announcement of it...
  • Rambler (automobile)
    ...control the market, continued unchecked. In 1954 Nash and Hudson joined to form AMC. The company enjoyed temporary prosperity in the late 1950s when it introduced the first American compact car, the Rambler, in response to growing imports of small foreign cars. A merger of Studebaker and Packard in 1954 was less successful. The new company stopped production in the United States in 1964 and in....
  • Rambler (Roman Catholic periodical)
    ...in Aldenham, Shropshire, and was elected to the House of Commons for Carlow, Shropshire, in 1859. In the same year he became editor, following John Henry Newman, of the Roman Catholic monthly the Rambler, but he laid down his editorship in 1864 because of papal criticism of his rigorously scientific approach to history as evinced in that journal....
  • Rambler, The (18th-century English periodical)
    a twopenny sheet issued twice weekly in London by the publisher John Payne between 1750 and 1752, each issue containing a single anonymous essay; 208 such periodical essays appeared, all but four written by Samuel Johnson. Johnson’s intention in this project was that of a moralist aware of his duty to make the world better. This sense of responsibility determined the styl...
  • Ramblers’ Association (British sports organization)
    For regular and intensive walkers there are available services offered by such associations as the Ramblers’ Association in Great Britain and the Wilderness Society in the United States. These organizations encourage hiking and preserve footpaths, bridle paths, and rights of way in parkland and recognized open spaces in areas of natural beauty against the encroachment of builders, local......
  • rambling (sport)
    walking as a recreational activity and sport. Especially among those with sedentary occupations, hiking is a natural exercise that promotes physical fitness, is economical and convenient, and requires no special equipment. Because the hiker can walk as far as he wants, there is no physical strain unless he walks among hills or mountains....
  • Rambo, Dottie (American songwriter and singer)
    American songwriter and singer who wrote more than 2,500 songs, many of which became gospel standards, including “I Go to the Rock,” “Stand by the River” (2003; a megahit sung with Dolly Parton), and “He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need,” probably her best-known hymn. Rambo began songwriting at age 8, and by the time she was 12, she had launched her ...
  • ramboetan (plant)
    (Nephelium lappaceum), tree of the soapberry family (Sapindaceae). It is native to Malaysia, where it is commonly cultivated for its tasty fruit, also called rambutan. The bright-red, oval fruit, about the size of a small hen’s egg, is covered with long, soft spines and has a tasty acid pulp. The tree grows to about 10.5–12 metres (35–40 feet)....
  • rambotan (plant)
    (Nephelium lappaceum), tree of the soapberry family (Sapindaceae). It is native to Malaysia, where it is commonly cultivated for its tasty fruit, also called rambutan. The bright-red, oval fruit, about the size of a small hen’s egg, is covered with long, soft spines and has a tasty acid pulp. The tree grows to about 10.5–12 metres (35–40 feet)....
  • Rambouillet (breed of sheep)
    breed of sheep, developed from selections of a few hundred of the best Merino sheep of Spain in 1786 and 1799 by the French government at its national sheepfold at Rambouillet, France. First imported to the United States in 1840, the breed was successfully molded through selective breeding to meet the needs of a large class of U.S. sheep producers. Rambouillets prevail on the western ranges, where...
  • Rambouillet (France)
    town, Yvelines département, Paris region, northern France, just southwest of Versailles. Flanked by its famous château and surrounded by an extensive forest, it is a favoured tourist spot for Parisians. The château, built in 1375 by a courtier of Charles V of France, passed into the hands of Jacques d’Angennes, captain of King Francis I’s bodyguard. In 15...
  • Rambouillet, Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de (French patroness)
    aristocratic hostess who exerted a powerful influence on the development of French literature in the first half of the 17th century....
  • ramboutan (plant)
    (Nephelium lappaceum), tree of the soapberry family (Sapindaceae). It is native to Malaysia, where it is commonly cultivated for its tasty fruit, also called rambutan. The bright-red, oval fruit, about the size of a small hen’s egg, is covered with long, soft spines and has a tasty acid pulp. The tree grows to about 10.5–12 metres (35–40 feet)....
  • rambustan (plant)
    (Nephelium lappaceum), tree of the soapberry family (Sapindaceae). It is native to Malaysia, where it is commonly cultivated for its tasty fruit, also called rambutan. The bright-red, oval fruit, about the size of a small hen’s egg, is covered with long, soft spines and has a tasty acid pulp. The tree grows to about 10.5–12 metres (35–40 feet)....
  • rambutan (plant)
    (Nephelium lappaceum), tree of the soapberry family (Sapindaceae). It is native to Malaysia, where it is commonly cultivated for its tasty fruit, also called rambutan. The bright-red, oval fruit, about the size of a small hen’s egg, is covered with long, soft spines and has a tasty acid pulp. The tree grows to about 10.5–12 metres (35–40 feet)....
  • Rambutyo Island (island, Papua New Guinea)
    ...objects, each island having its own specialties. For example, the people on Baluan made bird-shaped bowls, ladles, and spatulas; on Lou, obsidian was carved into great hemispheric bowls; on Rambutyo figures and anthropomorphic lime spatulas were common; and the people on Pak made beds (used nowhere else in Melanesia) and slit gongs. Although the Matankor were neither culturally nor......
  • Ramcandra (Vijayanagar ruler)
    The short reigns of Devaraya’s two sons, Ramcandra and Vijaya, were disastrous. In a war against the Bahmanīs, many temples were destroyed, and Vijaya was forced to pay a huge indemnity. A combined invasion by the king of Orissa and the Velamas of Andhra resulted in the loss of the territories newly gained in the partition of the Reddi kingdom of Kondavidu. Vijaya’s son and su...
  • Rāmcaritmānas (work by Tulsīdās)
    version, written in a dialect of Hindi, of the Sanskrit epic poem the Rāmāyaṇa, one of the masterpieces of medieval Hindu literature and a work with significant influence on modern Hinduism. Written in the 16th century by the poet Tulsīdās, the poem is distinguished both by its great expression of love for a personal g...
  • Ramchandra Panduranga (Indian rebel leader)
    a leader of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Though without formal military training, he was probably the best and most effective of the rebels’ generals....
  • “Rāmcharitmānas” (work by Tulsīdās)
    version, written in a dialect of Hindi, of the Sanskrit epic poem the Rāmāyaṇa, one of the masterpieces of medieval Hindu literature and a work with significant influence on modern Hinduism. Written in the 16th century by the poet Tulsīdās, the poem is distinguished both by its great expression of love for a personal g...
  • Ramdaspur (India)
    city, northern Punjab state, northwestern India. It lies about 15 miles (25 km) east of the border with Pakistan. Amritsar is the largest and most important city in Punjab and is a major commercial, cultural, and transportation centre. It is also the centre of Sikhism and the site of the Sikhs’ principal place of worship, the Harimandir, or Golden Temple. ...
  • Rame, Franca (Italian actress)
    Fo’s first theatrical experience was collaborating on satirical revues for small cabarets and theatres. He and his wife, the actress Franca Rame, founded the Campagnia Dario Fo–Franca Rame in 1959, and their humorous sketches on the television show “Canzonissima” soon made them popular public personalities. They gradually developed an agitprop theatre of politics, often...
  • Ramé, Maria Louise (British writer)
    English novelist, known for her extravagant melodramatic romances of fashionable life....
  • Rameau, Jean-Philippe (French composer)
    French composer of the late Baroque period, best known today for his harpsichord music, operas, and works in other theatrical genres but in his lifetime also famous as a music theorist....
  • Rameau, Pierre (French choreographer)
    ...feet fundamental to all classical ballet. The term may also denote the various poses of the body. First used by Thoinot Arbeau in 1588, codified by Pierre Beauchamp c. 1680, and set down by Pierre Rameau in Le Maître à danser (1725; The Dancing Master, 1931), the positions are the starting and ending points for the intricate ballet movements (q.v.)....
  • Rameau’s Nephew (work by Diderot)
    ...with his master, who does not, as they journey along retelling the story of their lives and loves. Diderot’s philosophical standpoint in this work is ambivalent, as is his ethical standpoint in Le Neveu de Rameau. The latter work is a dialogue between Diderot and a bohemian musician who is based partly on the nephew of the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. This work may proper...
  • Ramée, Joseph Jacques (French architect)
    ...in joint-degree programs and is a member of a 15-school consortium that permits cross-registration. The Union campus (known as College Grounds) was designed by French architect and landscape planner Joseph Jacques Ramée in 1813. Historic landmarks include Jackson’s Gardens, which opened in the 1830s, and Nott Memorial, a 16-sided Gothic Revival building that was designed by Edward...
  • Ramée, Maria Louise de la (British writer)
    English novelist, known for her extravagant melodramatic romances of fashionable life....
  • Ramée, Pierre de la (French philosopher)
    French philosopher, logician, and rhetorician....
  • Ramenskoe (Russia)
    city and centre of a rayon (sector), Moscow oblast (province), western Russia. It lies southeast of the city of Moscow. In the 1820s Ramenskoye became the site of one of Russia’s first cotton factories and soon developed as an industrial village. Incorporated in 1926, the city is now a textile and engineering centre as well as a residential suburb of Moscow. It has a medical s...
  • Ramenskoje (Russia)
    city and centre of a rayon (sector), Moscow oblast (province), western Russia. It lies southeast of the city of Moscow. In the 1820s Ramenskoye became the site of one of Russia’s first cotton factories and soon developed as an industrial village. Incorporated in 1926, the city is now a textile and engineering centre as well as a residential suburb of Moscow. It has a medical s...
  • Ramenskoye (Russia)
    city and centre of a rayon (sector), Moscow oblast (province), western Russia. It lies southeast of the city of Moscow. In the 1820s Ramenskoye became the site of one of Russia’s first cotton factories and soon developed as an industrial village. Incorporated in 1926, the city is now a textile and engineering centre as well as a residential suburb of Moscow. It has a medical s...
  • Rames (Israel)
    city in Israel, on the coastal plain southeast of Tel Aviv–Yafo. Ramla is the only city founded by the Arabs in Palestine. It was established in 716 by the caliph Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (reigned 715–717), who made it the administrative capital of Palestine, replacing nearby Lod (Lydda). He built marketplaces, fortifications, and, above all, the W...
  • Rameses (ancient city, Egypt)
    This conclusion, however, is at variance with most of the biblical and archaeological evidence. The storage cities Pitḥom and Rameses, built for the pharaoh by the Hebrews, were located in the northeastern part of the Egyptian delta, not far from Goshen, the district in which the Hebrews lived. It is implicit in the whole story that the pharaoh’s palace and capital were in the area, ...
  • Ramessesnakht (Egyptian high priest)
    ...tried to counter by appointing outside men to the high priesthood. One such family had developed at Thebes in the second half of the 19th dynasty, and Ramses IV tried to control it by installing Ramessesnakht, the son of a royal steward, as Theban high priest. Ramessesnakht participated in administrative as well as priestly affairs; he personally led an expedition to the Wadi......
  • Ramesseum (temple, Egypt)
    funerary temple of Ramses II (1279–13 bc), erected on the west bank of the Nile River at Thebes in Upper Egypt. The temple, famous for its 57-foot (17-metre) seated statue of Ramses II (of which only fragments are left), was dedicated to the god Amon and the deceased king. The walls of the Ramesseum, which is only about half preserved, are decorated with re...
  • Ramesuan (Ayutthayan prince)
    Ramathibodi prepared his son Ramesuan to succeed him, but on his death in 1369 the throne was seized by his Suphan Buri brother-in-law, Borommaraja I, who reigned for nine years before Ramesuan could regain the throne and restore Ramathibodi’s dynasty....
  • Rāmeswaram (island, India)
    island, southeastern Tamil Nādu state, southeastern India. It forms part of Adams Bridge, a series of coral reef islands connecting India and Sri Lanka. The island contains a temple that is one of the most venerated of all Hindu shrines. The great Temple of Rāmeswaram was built in the 17th century on the traditional site said to be sanctified by the god Rāma’s footprin...
  • Rāmeswaram, Temple of (temple, Rāmeswaram, India)
    ...India. It forms part of Adams Bridge, a series of coral reef islands connecting India and Sri Lanka. The island contains a temple that is one of the most venerated of all Hindu shrines. The great Temple of Rāmeswaram was built in the 17th century on the traditional site said to be sanctified by the god Rāma’s footprints when he crossed the island on his journey to rescue hi...
  • ramie (plant)
    any of several fibre-yielding plants of the genus Boehmeria, belonging to the nettle family (Urticaceae), and their fibre, one of the bast fibre group. Boehmeria nivea, native to China, is the species usually cultivated for fibre, although B. nivea variety tenacissima, native to Malaysia and frequently called rhea, is also a fibre source....
  • ramie fabric (textile)
    The ramie plant has been cultivated in eastern Asia for fibre since prehistoric times. Ramie fabric was used in ancient Egypt and was known in Europe during the Middle Ages. Ramie fibre, also known as China grass, and ramie fabric, variously known as grass linen, grass cloth, or China linen, have been exported from East Asia to the Western Hemisphere since early in the 18th century, but......
  • ramified theory of types (logic)
    ...members with lower types. (F.P. Ramsay offered a criticism that was subsequently accommodated in later editions of Principia Mathematica; as modified, the theory came to be known as the “ramified” theory of types.) Consequently, to speak of sets that are, or are not, “members of themselves” is simply to violate this rule governing the specification of sets.......
  • Ramillies (ship)
    During the War of 1812 between the United States and England, a copy of the Turtle was built, which attacked HMS Ramillies at anchor off New London, Conn. This time the craft’s operator succeeded in boring a hole in the ship’s copper sheathing, but the screw broke loose as the explosive was being attached to the ship’s hull....
  • Ramillies, Battle of (European history)
    (May 23, 1706), victory won by Allied (Anglo-Dutch) forces led by the Duke of Marlborough over the French during the War of the Spanish Succession. The victory led to the Allied capture of the whole north and east of the Spanish Netherlands....
  • Ramin, Sid (American composer and arranger)
    ...Leven for West Side StoryMusic Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture: Henry Mancini for Breakfast at Tiffany’sScoring of a Musical Picture: Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Irwin Kostal, Sid Ramin for West Side StorySong: “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s; music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Johnny MercerHonorary Award: Fred L. Metzler and...
  • Ramírez de León, Ricardo Arnoldo (Guatemalan politician)
    Guatemalan guerrilla leader and politician who in the 1990s, following decades of rebellion against the government, served as a leader in negotiations that resulted in a peace agreement in December 1996 (b. Dec. 29, 1930--d. Sept. 11, 1998, Guatemala City, Guat.)....
  • Ramírez, José Luis (Mexican boxer)
    ...(a fight whose outcome is determined by judges’ scoring) over American Roger Mayweather to take the North American Boxing Federation (NABF) lightweight title. Although he lost a 12-round decision to José Luis Ramírez of Mexico for the World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight title on March 12, 1988, Whitaker came back to win the International Boxing Federation (IBF) lightweig...
  • Ramírez, Pedro P. (president of Argentina)
    General Pedro P. Ramírez replaced Rawson as president. He maintained neutrality in the war but faced increasing opposition from all political groups except the nationalist right wing and the fascist sympathizers. The government, reflecting an emergent authoritarianism, censored the press and dissolved political parties. Under pressure from the United States, the regime broke off......
  • Ramiro el Monje (king of Aragon)
    king of Aragon from 1134 to 1137. He was the third son of Sancho V Ramirez. His elder brother, Alfonso I the Battler, left no issue and bequeathed his kingdom to the military orders. Ramiro, who had entered a monastery and was bishop-elect of Barbastro, renounced his vows, married, and received the crown. His daughter Petronila was betrothed to the son of Count Ramón Berenguer IV...
  • Ramiro I (king of Aragon)
    first king of Aragon, who reigned from 1035. He was the (probably) illegitimate son of King Sancho III of Navarre. During his father’s lifetime he governed this territory and was made king of it by his father’s will. In 1045 he annexed the territories belonging to his brother Gonzalo upon the latter’s death. Ramiro later conquered some territory from the Moo...
  • Ramiro II (king of Leon and Asturias)
    king of Leon and Asturias in Christian Spain from 931 to 951. The second son of King Ordoño II, he became king on the abdication of his elder brother, Alfonso IV. Ramiro was an exceptional general who scored several major victories (e.g., the Battle of Simancas, 939) over the caliphate of Córdoba in Muslim Spain. In 944 he negotiated a five-year truce with the caliph ...
  • Ramiro II (king of Aragon)
    king of Aragon from 1134 to 1137. He was the third son of Sancho V Ramirez. His elder brother, Alfonso I the Battler, left no issue and bequeathed his kingdom to the military orders. Ramiro, who had entered a monastery and was bishop-elect of Barbastro, renounced his vows, married, and received the crown. His daughter Petronila was betrothed to the son of Count Ramón Berenguer IV...
  • Ramiro the Monk (king of Aragon)
    king of Aragon from 1134 to 1137. He was the third son of Sancho V Ramirez. His elder brother, Alfonso I the Battler, left no issue and bequeathed his kingdom to the military orders. Ramiro, who had entered a monastery and was bishop-elect of Barbastro, renounced his vows, married, and received the crown. His daughter Petronila was betrothed to the son of Count Ramón Berenguer IV...
  • Ramis River (river, South America)
    More than 25 rivers empty their waters into Titicaca; the largest, the Ramis, draining about two-fifths of the entire Titicaca Basin, enters the northwestern corner of the lake. One small river, the Desaguadero, drains the lake at its southern end. This single outlet empties only 5 percent of the lake’s excess water; the rest is lost by evaporation under the fierce sun and strong winds of t...
  • Ramitha (Syria)
    city and muḥāfaẓah (governorate), northwestern Syria. The city, capital of the governorate, is situated on the low-lying Raʿs Ziyārah promontory that projects into the Mediterranean Sea. It was known to the Phoenicians as Ramitha and to the Greeks as Leuke Akte. Its present name is a corruption of Laodicea, for the mother of Seleucus II ...
  • ramjet (aviation)
    air-breathing jet engine that operates with no major moving parts. It relies on the craft’s forward motion to draw in air and on a specially shaped intake passage to compress the air for combustion. After fuel sprayed into the engine has been ignited, combustion is self-sustaining. As in other jet engines, forward thrust is obtained as a reaction to the rearward rush of hot exhaust gases....
  • Ramkhamhaeng (king of Sukhothai)
    third king of Sukhothai in what is now north-central Thailand, who made his young and struggling kingdom into the first major Tai state in 13th-century Southeast Asia....
  • Ramkhamhaeng National Park (park, Thailand)
    third king of Sukhothai in what is now north-central Thailand, who made his young and struggling kingdom into the first major Tai state in 13th-century Southeast Asia.......
  • ramkie (musical instrument)
    ...1353) may have originated in ancient Egypt. The khalam is claimed to be the ancestor of the banjo. Another long-necked lute is the ramkie of South Africa....
  • Ramla (Israel)
    city in Israel, on the coastal plain southeast of Tel Aviv–Yafo. Ramla is the only city founded by the Arabs in Palestine. It was established in 716 by the caliph Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (reigned 715–717), who made it the administrative capital of Palestine, replacing nearby Lod (Lydda). He built marketplaces, fortifications, and, above all, the W...
  • Ramlah, Ar- (desert, Arabia)
    vast desert in the southern Arabian Peninsula, covering about 250,000 square miles (650,000 square km) in a structural basin lying mainly in southeastern Saudi Arabia, with lesser portions in Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. It is the largest area of continuous sand in the world. It occupies more than one-quarter of Saudi Arabia. The topography is varied. In the west the elevation is as ...
  • Ramlat Āl Wahībah (desert, Oman)
    sandy desert, east-central Oman. It fronts the Arabian Sea on the southeast and stretches along the coast for more than 100 miles (160 km). The desert consists of honey-coloured dunes that are dark red at their base and rise to heights of 230 feet (70 m). The sands are crisscrossed with tracks and routes for vehicles. There is very little surface water, but underground water traditionally is tappe...
  • Ramlat Al-Sabʿatayn (desert, Arabia)
    ...interior valley cleaving through the jawl, with its lower course reaching the sea under the name Wadi Al-Masīlah. In the interior the sand desert of Ramlat As-Sabʿatayn lies on the slope descending from Al-Kawr to the Rubʿ al-Khali, which is gentle both here and going down from the jawl....
  • rāmlīlā (Indian theatre)
    In the rāmlīlā and rāslīlā, the principal characters—Rāma and Krishna—are always played by boys under 14, because tradition decreed they must be pure and innocent. They are considered representatives of the gods and are worshipped on these occasions. In the rāmlīlā the vyas......
  • Ramm, Mount (mountain, Jordan)
    ...uplands east of the Jordan River, an escarpment overlooking the rift valley, have an average elevation of 2,000–3,000 feet (600–900 metres) and rise to about 5,755 feet (1,754 metres) at Mount Ramm, Jordan’s highest point, in the south. Outcrops of sandstone, chalk, limestone, and flint extend to the extreme south, where igneous rocks predominate....
  • Ramman (ancient god)
    the Old Testament Rimmon, West Semitic god of storms, thunder, and rain, the consort of the goddess Atargatis. His attributes were identical with those of Adad of the Assyro-Babylonian pantheon. He was the chief baal (“lord”) of the West Semites (including both sedentary and nomadic Aramaeans) in north Syria, along the Phoenician coast, an...
  • rammed earth (building material)
    building material made by compacting certain soils, used by many civilizations. The most durable of the earth-building forms, rammed earth may be used for making building blocks or for constructing whole walls in place, layer by layer. In making building blocks, the soil is rammed into a box-shaped mold. In building up whole walls, two wooden planks separated...
  • Rammohan Roy (Indian religious leader)
    Indian religious, social, and educational reformer who challenged traditional Hindu culture and indicated the lines of progress for Indian society under British rule. He is sometimes called the father of modern India....
  • Rammohun Roy (Indian religious leader)
    Indian religious, social, and educational reformer who challenged traditional Hindu culture and indicated the lines of progress for Indian society under British rule. He is sometimes called the father of modern India....
  • Rāmnād (India)
    town, Ramanathapuram district, Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India. A former capital of the Maravan rajas, it produces textiles and jewelry and has two colleges affiliated with Madurai-Kamaraj University. Its name refers to the Hindu deity Rama....
  • Râmnicu Vâlcea (Romania)
    city, capital of Vâlcea judeţ (county), south-central Romania, on the Olt River. Documented as a town in the late 14th century, it was a local market town during the Middle Ages. Historic buildings in the city include the house of Anton Pann, folklorist and writer; a fortified church, Cetăţuia; and the local museum, with art and history sections. Since World War ...
  • Ramo, Simon (American engineer)
    American engineer who made notable contributions to electronics and was chief scientist (1954–58) of the U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program....
  • Ramolino, Maria Letizia (mother of Napoleon)
    mother of Napoleon I by Carlo Maria Buonaparte, whom she married in 1764. Simple and frugal in her tastes and devout in thought, she helped to bind her children to the life of Corsica....
  • ramon (tree genus)
    prolific trees closely related to the breadfruit and found widely in second-growth Central American tropical rainforests, where its presence in deep forest is considered evidence of pre-Colombian Mayan silviculture. The tree has since been cultivated in many tropical countries....
  • Ramon Berenguer Cap d’Estopes (count of Barcelona)
    count of Barcelona who reigned jointly with his twin brother, Berenguer Ramon II, from 1076 to 1082....
Skip this Advertisement

Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog-post.

If you think a reference to this article on "" will enhance your Web site, blog-post, or any other web-content, then feel free to link to this article, and your readers will gain full access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.

You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.

copy link

We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.

Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.

The Britannica Store
A-Z Browse

Image preview