The World Portal
![Information.svg](https://web.archive.org/web/20221010195940im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/28/Information.svg/18px-Information.svg.png)
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20221010195940im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/97/The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17.jpg/255px-The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17.jpg)
In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique while others talk of a "plurality of worlds". Some treat the world as one simple object while others analyze the world as a complex made up of many parts. In scientific cosmology the world or universe is commonly defined as "[t]he totality of all space and time; all that is, has been, and will be". Theories of modality, on the other hand, talk of possible worlds as complete and consistent ways how things could have been. Phenomenology, starting from the horizon of co-given objects present in the periphery of every experience, defines the world as the biggest horizon or the "horizon of all horizons". In philosophy of mind, the world is commonly contrasted with the mind as that which is represented by the mind. Theology conceptualizes the world in relation to God, for example, as God's creation, as identical to God or as the two being interdependent. In religions, there is often a tendency to downgrade the material or sensory world in favor of a spiritual world to be sought through religious practice. A comprehensive representation of the world and our place in it, as is commonly found in religions, is known as a worldview. Cosmogony is the field that studies the origin or creation of the world while eschatology refers to the science or doctrine of the last things or of the end of the world.
In various contexts, the term "world" takes a more restricted meaning associated, for example, with the Earth and all life on it, with humanity as a whole or with an international or intercontinental scope. In this sense, world history refers to the history of humanity as a whole or world politics is the discipline of political science studying issues that transcend nations and continents. Other examples include terms such as "world religion", "world language", "world government", "world war", "world population", "world economy" or "world championship". (Full article...)
Selected articles - show another
- Image 1Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all human beings are members of a single community. Its adherents are known as cosmopolitan or cosmopolite. Cosmopolitanism is both prescriptive and aspirational, believing humans can and should be "world citizens" in a "universal community". The idea encompasses different dimensions and avenues of community, such as promoting universal moral standards, establishing global political structures, or developing a platform for mutual cultural expression and tolerance.
For example, Kwame Anthony Appiah articulates a cosmopolitan community where individuals from varying locations (physical, economic, etc.) enter relationships of mutual respect despite their differing beliefs (religious, political, etc.). By comparison, Immanuel Kant envisioned a cosmopolitan world where armies were abolished and humans were governed under a representative global institution. In all instances, proponents of cosmopolitanism share an emphasis that all humans should form one cohesive and united community. (Full article...) - Image 2
The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transformed the views of society about nature. The Scientific Revolution took place in Europe starting towards the end of the Renaissance period, with the 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus publication De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) often cited as its beginning.
The era of the Scientific Renaissance focused to some degree on recovering the knowledge of the ancients, and is considered to have culminated in the 1687 Isaac Newton publication Principia which formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, thereby completing the synthesis of a new cosmology. The subsequent Age of Enlightenment saw the concept of a scientific revolution emerge in the 18th-century work of Jean Sylvain Bailly, who described a two-stage process of sweeping away the old and establishing the new. There continues to be scholarly engagement regarding the boundaries of the Scientific Revolution and its chronology. (Full article...) - Image 3A megacity is a very large city, typically with a population of more than 10 million people. Precise definitions vary: the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in its 2018 "World Urbanization Prospects" report counted urban agglomerations having over 10 million inhabitants. A University of Bonn report held that they are "usually defined as metropolitan areas with a total population of 10 million or more people". Others list cities satisfying criteria of either 5 or 8 million and also having a population density of 2,000 per square kilometre. The terms conurbation, metropolis, and metroplex are also applied to the latter.
The total number of megacities in the world varies between different sources: The world had 33 according to the UN (in 2018), 37 according to CityPopulation.de (in 2020), and 35 according to Demographia (in 2020). About half these urban agglomerations are in China and India. The other four countries with more than one megacity are Brazil, Japan, Pakistan, and the United States. African megacities are present in Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, and the DRC; European megacities are present in Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and Turkey (also in Asia); megacities can be found in Latin America in the countries of Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Argentina. Some sources identify Tokyo's Greater Tokyo Area as the largest megacity in the world, while some others give the title to Pearl River Delta. (Full article...) - Image 4
While the future cannot be predicted with certainty, present understanding in various scientific fields allows for the prediction of some far-future events, if only in the broadest outline. These fields include astrophysics, which studies how planets and stars form, interact, and die; particle physics, which has revealed how matter behaves at the smallest scales; evolutionary biology, which studies how life evolves over time; plate tectonics, which shows how continents shift over millennia; and sociology, which examines how human societies and cultures evolve.
The far future begins after the current millennium comes to an end, starting with the 4th millennium in 3001 CE, until the furthest reaches of future time. These timelines include alternative future events that address unresolved scientific questions, such as whether humans will become extinct, whether protons decay, and whether the Earth survives when the Sun expands to become a red giant. (Full article...) - Image 5
The age of Earth is estimated to be 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years (4.54 × 109 years ± 1%). This age may represent the age of Earth's accretion, or core formation, or of the material from which Earth formed. This dating is based on evidence from radiometric age-dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the radiometric ages of the oldest-known terrestrial and lunar samples.
Following the development of radiometric age-dating in the early 20th century, measurements of lead in uranium-rich minerals showed that some were in excess of a billion years old. The oldest such minerals analyzed to date—small crystals of zircon from the Jack Hills of Western Australia—are at least 4.404 billion years old. Calcium–aluminium-rich inclusions—the oldest known solid constituents within meteorites that are formed within the Solar System—are 4.567 billion years old, giving a lower limit for the age of the Solar System. (Full article...) - Image 6The atmosphere of Earth or air is the layer of gases retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for liquid water to exist on the Earth's surface, absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention (greenhouse effect), and reducing temperature extremes between day and night (the diurnal temperature variation).Blue light is scattered more than other wavelengths by the gases in the atmosphere, surrounding Earth in a visibly blue layer when seen from space on board the ISS at an altitude of 335 km (208 mi).
By mole fraction (i.e., by number of molecules), dry air contains 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases.
Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor, on average around 1% at sea level, and 0.4% over the entire atmosphere. Air composition, temperature, and atmospheric pressure vary with altitude. Within the atmosphere, air suitable for use in photosynthesis by terrestrial plants and breathing of terrestrial animals is found only in Earth's troposphere. (Full article...) - Image 7
Global Peace Index (GPI) is a report produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) which measures the relative position of nations' and regions' peacefulness. The GPI ranks 163 independent states and territories (collectively accounting for 99.7 per cent of the world's population) according to their levels of peacefulness. In the past decade, the GPI has presented trends of increased global violence and less peacefulness.
The GPI is developed in consultation with an international panel of peace experts from peace institutes and think tanks with data collected and collated by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The Index was first launched in May 2009, with subsequent reports being released annually. In 2015 it ranked 165 countries, up from 121 in 2007. The study was conceived by Australian technology entrepreneur Steve Killelea, and is endorsed by individuals such as former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Dalai Lama, archbishop Desmond Tutu, former President of Finland and 2008 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, economist Jeffrey Sachs, former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Jan Eliasson and former United States president Jimmy Carter. The updated index is released each year at events in London, Washington, DC, and at the United Nations Secretariat in New York. (Full article...)
General images - load new batch
Image 1James Watt's steam engine powered the Industrial Revolution. (from Human history)
Image 2Artist's impression of Earth during the later Archean,the largely cooled planetary crust and water-rich barren surface, marked by volcanoes and continents, features already round microbialites. The Moon, still orbiting Earth much closer than today and still dominating Earth's sky, produced strong tides. (from History of Earth)
Image 3A diagram of the layers of Earth's atmosphere (from Earth)
Image 4Earth's surface is mainly ocean water. (from Earth)
Image 5Great Mosque of Kairouan, Tunisia, founded 670 CE (from Human history)
Image 6Cross-section through a liposome (from History of Earth)
Image 7Yggdrasil, a modern attempt to reconstruct the Norse world tree which connects the heavens, the world, and the underworld. (from World)
Image 8Artist's impression of the Archean, the eon after Earth's formation, featuring round stromatolites which are early oxygen producing forms of life from billions of years ago. After the Late Heavy Bombardment Earth's crust had cooled, its water-rich barren surface is marked by continents and volcanoes, with the Moon still orbiting Earth much closer than today, producing strong tides. (from Earth)
Image 9Crusader Krak des Chevaliers, Syria (from Human history)
Image 10University of Timbuktu, Mali (from Human history)
Image 111570 world map, showing Europeans' discoveries (from Human history)
Image 12Artist's rendition of an oxinated fully-frozen Snowball Earth with no remaining liquid surface water. (from History of Earth)
Image 13An artist's rendering of a protoplanetary disk (from History of Earth)
Image 14The pale orange dot, an artist's impression of the early Earth which might have appeared orange through its hazy methane rich prebiotic second atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere at this stage was somewhat comparable to today's atmosphere of Titan. (from History of Earth)
Image 15Earth's rotation imaged by Deep Space Climate Observatory, showing axis tilt (from Earth)
Image 16Machu Picchu, Inca Empire, Peru (from Human history)
Image 17A reconstruction of human history based on fossil data. (from History of Earth)
Image 18Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), Turkey (from Human history)
Image 19Chennakesava Temple, Belur, India (from Human history)
Image 20Ming dynasty section, Great Wall of China (from Human history)
Image 22An artist's impression of ice age Earth at glacial maximum. (from History of Earth)
Image 23Artist's conception of Devonian flora (from History of Earth)
Image 24Tiktaalik, a fish with limb-like fins and a predecessor of tetrapods. Reconstruction from fossils about 375 million years old. (from History of Earth)
Image 25Afterglow of the troposphere (orange), the stratosphere (whitish), the mesosphere (blue) with remains of a spacecraft reentry trail, and above the thermosphere without a visible glow (from Earth)
Image 26Maya observatory, Chichen Itza, Mexico (from Human history)
Image 27Battle during 1281 Mongol invasion of Japan (from Human history)
Image 28A 580 million year old fossil of Spriggina floundensi, an animal from the Ediacaran period. Such life forms could have been ancestors to the many new forms that originated in the Cambrian Explosion. (from History of Earth)
Image 29Reconstruction of Lucy, the first Australopithecus afarensis skeleton found (from Human history)
Image 30World War I trench warfare (from Human history)
Image 31Cave painting, Lascaux, France, c. 15,000 BCE (from Human history)
Image 32Pale orange dot artist's impression of the early Earth tinted orange by its methane-rich early atmosphere (from Earth)
Image 33Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci epitomizes the advances in art and science seen during the Renaissance. (from History of Earth)
Image 34Taj Mahal, Mughal Empire, India (from Human history)
Image 36Geologic map of North America, color-coded by age. From most recent to oldest, age is indicated by yellow, green, blue, and red. The reds and pinks indicate rock from the Archean.
Image 37Image of the physical world, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope (from World)
Image 38Artist's impression of the early Solar System's protoplanetary disk, out of which Earth and other Solar System bodies formed (from Earth)
Image 39Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt (from Human history)
Image 40A brass "Benin Bronze" from Nigeria (from Human history)
Image 41Artist's conception of Hadean Eon Earth, when it was much hotter and inhospitable to all forms of life. (from History of Earth)
Image 42A banded iron formation from the 3.15 Ga Moodies Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa. Red layers represent the times when oxygen was available; gray layers were formed in anoxic circumstances. (from History of Earth)
Image 43World population, from 10000 BCE to 2000 CE, with projection to 2100 CE (from Human history)
Image 44Civilians (here, Mỹ Lai, Vietnam, 1968) suffered greatly in 20th-century wars. (from Human history)
Image 45Pangaea was a supercontinent that existed from about 300 to 180 Ma. The outlines of the modern continents and other landmasses are indicated on this map. (from History of Earth)
Image 46Artist's impression of the enormous collision that probably formed the Moon (from History of Earth)
Image 47Dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates throughout most of the Mesozoic (from History of Earth)
Image 48Empires of the world in 1898 (from Human history)
Image 49Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (c. 1490), Renaissance Italy (from Human history)
Image 50Monumental Cuneiform inscription, Sumer, Mesopotamia, 26th century BCE (from Human history)
Image 51Tracy Caldwell Dyson in the Cupola module of the International Space Station observing the Earth below (from Earth)
Image 52Last Moon landing: Apollo 17 (1972) (from Human history)
Image 53Gutenberg Bible, ca. 1450, produced using movable type (from Human history)
Image 54A computer-generated image mapping the prevalence of artificial satellites and space debris around Earth in geosynchronous and low Earth orbit (from Earth)
Image 55Earth's land use for human agriculture (from Earth)
Image 56The first aeroplane, the Wright Flyer, flew on 17 December 1903. (from Human history)
Image 57Earth–Moon system seen from Mars (from Earth)
Image 59Angkor Wat temple, Cambodia, early 12th century (from Human history)
Image 60Artist's impression of a Hadean landscape with the relatively newly formed Moon still looming cloesely over Earth and both bodies sustaining strong volcanism. (from History of Earth)
Image 61China urbanized rapidly in the 21st century (pictured: Shanghai). (from Human history)
Image 62The Pantheon in Rome, Italy, originally a Roman temple, now a Catholic church (from Human history)
Image 63Lithified stromatolites on the shores of Lake Thetis, Western Australia. Archean stromatolites are the first direct fossil traces of life on Earth. (from History of Earth)
Image 64Processes leading to movements and phase changes in Earth's water (from Earth)
Image 65Earth topological map, the area is redder if it is raised higher in real-life (from Earth)
Image 66The Buddha (from Human history)
Image 67Graph showing range of estimated partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen through geologic time (from History of Earth)
Image 68Atomic bombings: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, 1945 (from Human history)
Image 69Notre-Dame de Paris in Paris, France: is among the most recognizable symbols of the civilization of Christendom. (from Human history)
Image 70Chloroplasts in the cells of a moss (from History of Earth)
Image 71Obelisk of Axum, Ethiopia (from Human history)
Image 72Overview map of the peopling of the world by early humans during the Upper Paleolithic, following the Southern Dispersal paradigm. Labels are in thousands of years ago. (from Human history)
Image 73Schematic of Earth's magnetosphere, with the solar wind flows from left to right (from Earth)
Image 74Persepolis, Achaemenid Empire, 6th century BCE (from Human history)
Image 75Earth's axial tilt and its relation to the rotation axis and planes of orbit (from Earth)
Image 76A composite image of artificial light emissions at night on a map of Earth (from Earth)
Image 77The replicator in virtually all known life is deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is far more complex than the original replicator and its replication systems are highly elaborate. (from History of Earth)
Image 78Hagia Sophia, in Istanbul, is among the most recognizable symbols of the Byzantine civilization. (from Human history)
Image 79St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. (from Human history)
Image 80The ocean dominates Earth's surface and hydrosphere, producing the global thermohaline circulation seawater flow (animation) (from Earth)
Image 81Change in average surface air temperature and drivers for that change. Human activity has caused increased temperatures, with natural forces adding some variability. (from Earth)
Image 82Astronaut Bruce McCandless II outside of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1984 (from History of Earth)
Image 83A reconstruction of Pannotia (550 Ma). (from History of Earth)
Image 84Pillar erected by India's Maurya Emperor Ashoka (from Human history)
Image 85Moai, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) (from Human history)
Image 86Trilobites first appeared during the Cambrian period and were among the most widespread and diverse groups of Paleozoic organisms. (from History of Earth)
Image 87Earth's history with time-spans of the eons to scale (from History of Earth)
Image 88A pillar from Göbekli Tepe (from Human history)
Image 89An animation of the changing density of productive vegitation on land (low in brown; heavy in dark green) and phytoplankton at the ocean surface (low in purple; high in yellow). (from Earth)
Megacities of the world - show another
Tokyo (/ˈtoʊkioʊ/; Japanese: 東京, Tōkyō, [toːkʲoː] (listen)), officially the Tokyo Metropolis (東京都, Tōkyō-to), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area (spanning 13,452 square kilometres or 5,194 square miles) is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 million residents ; the city proper has a population of 13.99 million people. Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, the prefecture forms part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan's economic centre and is the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan.
Did you know - load new batch
- ... that Harry Kent managed his family's garden nursery after winning New Zealand's first Commonwealth Games gold medal in cycling and first world track championships medal?
- ... that American rapper Lil Uzi Vert took more than a year to release his second studio album Eternal Atake, but released its deluxe edition only a week later?
- ... that the 2018–2020 Kivu Ebola epidemic was the Democratic Republic of the Congo's 10th and longest Ebola outbreak and the second largest in the world after the outbreak in West Africa?
- ... that an underground home was featured at the 1964 New York World's Fair?
- ... that many post-World War II anti-Jewish attacks in Slovakia were committed by former anti-Nazi partisans?
- ... that at the time of its construction in 1920, the Howard Theatre in Atlanta was the second-largest movie theater in the world, with a seating capacity of 2,700?
- ... that the 1766 Istanbul earthquake claimed 4,000 victims, 880 of them in the city?
- ... that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, the most common liver disorder worldwide, is present in approximately 25 percent of the world's population?
Countries of the world - show another
Jamaica (/dʒəˈmeɪkə/ (listen); Jamaican Patois: Jumieka) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about 145 kilometres (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119 mi) west of Hispaniola (the island containing the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic); the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands lies some 215 kilometres (134 mi) to the north-west.
Related portals
Protected areas of the world - load new batch
- Image 1The Valley of the Giants skywalk at Walpole-Nornalup National Park
Western Australia is the second largest country subdivision in the world. It contains no fewer than 1224 separate Protected Areas with a total area of 170,610 km2 (65,870 sq mi) (land area: 159,151 km2 (61,449 sq mi) – 6.30% of the state’s area). Ninety-eight of these are National Parks, totalling 56,680.65 km2 (21,884.52 sq mi) (2.14% of the state’s area). (Full article...) - Image 2This is a list of protected areas of Romania.
About 5.18% of the area of Romania has a protected status (12,360 km²), including the Danube Delta, which makes half of these areas (2.43% of Romania's area). (Full article...) - Image 3Cadw is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government which manages historical buildings and ancient monuments in Wales.
||Free||Swansea||Ilston||Glamorganshire|| map SS537898 ||
|-
|Penarth-fawr
(Full article...) - Image 4Protected areas of Tasmania consist of protected areas located within Tasmania and its immediate onshore waters, including Macquarie Island. It includes areas of crown land (withheld land) managed by Tasmanian Government agencies as well as private reserves. As of 2016, 52% of Tasmania's land area has some form of reservation classification, the majority is managed by the Tasmania Parks & Wildlife Service (about 42% of total Tasmanian land area). Marine protected areas cover about 7.9% of state waters.
Within each classification of reserve there may be a variation of IUCN categories Australia is a signatory to the Convention of Biological Diversity and as such has obligations to report the status of its National Reserve System.IUCN provides on its website a prescription for activities consistent with the categorisation system. Changes made to the Nature Conservation Act 2002 in 2014 permit timber harvesting. These changes made in addition to the already established right to access minerals means that many of the IUCN categorisations assigned to individual reserves in Tasmania are no longer fit for purpose. In addition many reserves have had their reserve status downgraded from a class excluding timber harvesting and mineral extraction to ones where these activities are now permitted. This mis-application of the IUCN protected area categories needs to be remedied or the reserves protected land class under the Nature Conservation Act 2002 should be adjusted to reflect its currently assigned IUCN category. (Full article...) - Image 5This is a list of protected areas of Afghanistan.
- Ab-i-Estada Nature Reserve, Ghazni Province
- Ajar Valley Nature Reserve, Bamyan Province
- Bamiyan National Heritage Park, Bamyan Province
- Bamiyan Plateau Protected Landscape, Bamyan Province
- Band-e Amir National Park, Bamyan Province
- Darqad (Takhar) Wildlife Reserve, Takhar Province
- Dasht-i-Nawar Waterfowl Sanctuary, Ghazni Province
- Hamun-i-Puzak Waterfowl Sanctuary, Farah and Nimroz provinces
- Imam Sahib (Kunduz) Wildlife Reserve, Kunduz Province
- Khulm Landmark Protected Area, Balkh Province
- Koh-e Baba (Shah Foladi) Protected Landscape, Bamyan province
- Kol-i-Hashmat Khan Waterfowl Sanctuary, Kabul Province
- Northwest Afghanistan Game Managed Reserve, Herat Province
- Nuristan National Park and Wildlife Reserve, Nuristan Province
- Pamir-i-Buzurg Wildlife Reserve, Badakhshan Province
- Registan Desert Wildlife Managed Reserve, Kandahar Province
- Wakhan National Park, Badakhshan Province
- Zadran National Reserve, Paktia Province
- Image 6This list of protected areas of Manitoba groups the protected areas of Manitoba by the agency that is responsible for their protection. (Full article...)
- Image 7Vegetation outside Goz Beïda
The wildlife of Chad is composed of its flora and fauna. Bush elephants, West African lions, buffalo, hippopotamuses, Kordofan giraffes, antelopes, African leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, and many species of snakes are found there, although most large carnivore populations have been drastically reduced since the early 20th century. Elephant poaching, particularly in the south of the country in areas such as Zakouma National Park, is a severe problem. (Full article...) - Image 9Protected areas of Estonia are regulated by the Nature Conservation Act (Estonian: Looduskaitseseadus), which was passed by the Estonian parliament on April 21, 2004 and entered into force May 10, 2004.
Overall Estonia has 15403 Protected Areas covering 21.21% of the country land and 18.78% of it marine and coastal territory. (Full article...) - Image 10Part of the Brecon Beacons National Park, looking from the highest point of Pen y Fan (886 m/2907 feet) to Cribyn (795 m/2608 feet).
Protected areas of the United Kingdom are areas in the United Kingdom which need and /or receive protection because of their environmental, historical or cultural value to the nation. Methods and aims of protection vary depending on the nature and importance of the resource. Protection operates at local, regional, national and international levels, and may be backed by legislation and international treaty, or less formally by planning policy.
Within the United Kingdom, different approaches are taken to some forms of protection within the constituent countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, while other forms of protection are more consistent across the UK. Protected areas can be divided according to the type of resource which each seeks to protect. Primarily, these are: scenic or landscape value; biodiversity value (species and habitats); geodiversity value (relating to geology and geomorphology); and cultural or historic value. Several types of protected areas are focused on more than one of these areas. (Full article...) - Image 11
- Image 12The protected areas of South Africa include national parks and marine protected areas managed by the national government, public nature reserves managed by provincial and local governments, and private nature reserves managed by private landowners. Most protected areas are intended for the conservation of flora and fauna. National parks are maintained by South African National Parks (SANParks). A number of national parks have been incorporated in transfrontier conservation areas.
Protected areas may also be protected for their value and importance as historical, cultural heritage or scientific sites. More information on these can be found in the list of heritage sites in South Africa. (Full article...) - Image 13There are four categories of protected areas in India, constituted under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Tiger reserves consist of areas under national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. There are 52 tiger reserves in India. As of May 2012, the protected areas of India cover 156,700 square kilometres (60,500 sq mi), roughly 4.95% of the total surface area. (Full article...)
- Image 14Protected areas of Turkmenistan include nine nature reserves (zapovednik) and 13 sanctuaries (zakaznik) with a total area of 19,750 km2 or more than 4% of Turkmenistan's territory. (Full article...)
- Image 15The Ulyanovsk Oblast in Russia contains about 118 protected natural areas. (Full article...)
Selected world maps
Image 1The Goode homolosine projection is a pseudocylindrical, equal-area, composite map projection used for world maps.
Image 2Only a few of the largest large igneous provinces appear (coloured dark purple) on this geological map, which depicts crustal geologic provinces as seen in seismic refraction data
Image 3Index map from the International Map of the World (1:1,000,000 scale)
Image 4A plate tectonics map with volcano locations indicated with red circles
Image 51516 map of the world by Martin Waldseemüller
Image 6The world map by Gerardus Mercator (1569), the first map in the well-known Mercator projection
Image 7Time zones of the world
Image 8Mollweide projection of the world
Image 9United Nations Human Development Index map by country (2016)
World records
- List of Olympic records in athletics
- List of world records in athletics
- List of junior world records in athletics
- List of world records in masters athletics
- List of world youth bests in athletics
- List of IPC world records in athletics
- List of world records in canoeing
- List of world records in chess
- List of cycling records
- List of world records in track cycling
- List of world records in finswimming
- List of world records in juggling
- List of world records in rowing
- List of world records in speed skating
- List of world records in swimming
- List of IPC world records in swimming
- List of world records in Olympic weightlifting
Topics
Continents of Earth | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
|
Cenozoic Era (66.0 Ma–present) |
| ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mesozoic Era (252–66.0 Ma) |
| ||||||||||||
Paleozoic Era (539–252 Ma) |
| ||||||||||||
Proterozoic Eon (2.5 Ga–539 Ma) |
| ||||||||||||
Archean Eon (4–2.5 Ga) | |||||||||||||
Hadean Eon (4.6–4 Ga) | |||||||||||||
ka = kiloannum (thousands years ago); Ma = megaannum (millions years ago); Ga = gigaannum (billions years ago). See also: Geologic time scale • ![]() ![]() |
City proper | |
---|---|
Metropolitan area | |
Urban area/agglomeration | |
Historical | |
Related articles |
Locations | ||
---|---|---|
Related |
Retrospectively recognized expositions | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BIE-recognized Universal expositions | |||||||||||||
BIE-recognized specialized expositions |
| ||||||||||||
BIE-recognized horticultural exhibitions (AIPH) | |||||||||||||
Not BIE- recognized |
| ||||||||||||
†Postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic |
Confederations | |
---|---|
World Championships | |
World Cup | |
Special events | |
Presidents |
|
Awards |
Summer Games |
| |
---|---|---|
Winter Games |
| |
|
Economic classification of countries | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Three-World Model | |||||
Gross domestic product (GDP) |
| ||||
Gross national income (GNI) | |||||
Wages | |||||
Wealth | |||||
Other national accounts | |||||
Human development | |||||
Digital divide | |||||
Net international investment position (NIIP) | |||||
Technological |
| ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sociological | |||||
Ecological |
| ||||
Biological |
| ||||
Astronomical | |||||
Eschatological |
| ||||
Others |
| ||||
Fictional | |||||
Organizations | |||||
Theatres |
| ||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Principal participants |
| ||||||||||||||||||
Timeline |
| ||||||||||||||||||
Aspects |
| ||||||||||||||||||
General |
| ||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Participants |
| ||||||||||||||||
Timeline |
| ||||||||||||||||
Categories
Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikispecies
Directory of species -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus