The Republic of Seychelles is a country made up of about 115 islands in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa. Its area is 455 square kilometers. Seychelles is made up of two main island groups. The Mahé group has40 islands. These islands are rocky and hilly, with narrow strips of coastline. The other group, coralline group, is built up from the skeletons of coral animals. Very few people live on them.
Most of the people are Creole, with a mixture of Asian, African, and European heritage. The French and then the British used to rule the islands. In 1976, Seychelles was given its independence by Britain. Creole (mixture of French, English, and African languages), English, and French are all national languages. Roman Catholicism is the main religion.
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The Republic of Indonesia consists of a group of islands lying between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It is the largest country, both in area and in population, in Southeast Asia. Its area is 1,919,440 square kilometers. Its capital is Jakarta on the island of Java.
Indonesia is made up of about 13,670 islands. The largest island is New Guinea, which Indonesia shares with Papua New Guinea. Parts of Borneo, the second largest island in the group, belong to Malaysia and Brunei. Sumatra, Java, and Celebes are the other major islands of Indonesia. Indonesia has many active volcanoes. The area is also known for earthquakes.
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People dreamed of the construction of the bridge across the Golden Gate Strait, which would connect San Francisco and Marin County, back in the XIX century. But only at the beginning of the XX century there were real technical possibilities for its construction. Engineer Joseph Strauss, developer of about 400 bridge structures, proposed to extend the suspension bridge with two supports over 2.5 km in length. People didn’t believe that it was possible to build such a bridge, but they became interested in the project.
Motorization in many ways accelerated the process of creating a bridge across the Golden Gate Strait. San Francisco grew rapidly, and the number of cars on the streets of the city increased.
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The Suez Canal is one of the most important waterways that people have ever made. The idea to connect the Red and Mediterranean seas appeared in the Ancient World. Egyptian pharaoh Necho II (609-595 BC) tried to do it … and 120 thousand slaves died. Persian king Darius dug the canal from the Red Sea only to the Nile, as witnessed on the stone tablets. Later the canal was filled with sand.
The construction of this artificial 161-kilometer-long sea route also excited the French Emperor Louis XIV, and later Napoleon. The project, as the court advisers proved, promised considerable benefits. Merchant ships from the Indian Ocean could enter the Mediterranean, to the shores of France and further to the Atlantic Ocean. They would not have to go around Africa and the way would be 8-15 thousand km shorter. If the trade route connects the three continents – Asia, Africa and Europe, the one who owns the canal, becomes the richest man, will become the ruler of the world.
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Namibia is a country in southwestern Africa. It is named for the Namib Desert, which covers much of the west side of the country. The desert is huge and empty and is at least 80 million years old. It is one of the most arid places on Earth.
South Africa controlled Namibia until March 1990, when Namibia gained its independence. Windhoek is the capital of the country. English is the official language of Namibia. But most of the people usually speak African languages. The majority of the population is Christian.
Namibia shares borders with Angola, Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa. Its area is 825,418 square kilometers. Its official name is Republic of Namibia.
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Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius is 70 km to the north-east of Moscow on the southern slope of the Smolensk-Moscow Upland in the city of Sergiev Posad. It is famous not only in the religious world. It was founded in 1345 by Sergius of Radonezh, who was a spiritual leader and monastic reformer. A century later the monastery became widely known spiritual and cultural center of the Moscow principality.
He was called Bartholomew, his parents were the Rostov boyars Cyril and Maria. From his childhood he was reading holy books. As a boy he wanted to devote his life to the Orthodox Church. But eventually his parents became impoverished and in 1328 the family moved to the Pokrovsky Monastery in Khotkovo – one of the first monasteries that was built on the lands of the Moscow principality. There lived men and women at that time, but later it became a nunnery. His parents and elder brother diligently served God and were buried there.
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More people live in India than in any other country in the world except China. The people speak dozens of languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, and Tamil. The country is the birthplace of two major religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. Its official name is Republic of India.
Its area is 3,287,590 square kilometers. Much of India’s territory is a peninsula that extends into the Indian Ocean. India shares borders with Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.
The high Himalayas rise in the north. The Indus River gave the country its name. The Ganges is sacred to followers of Hinduism. The Thar Desert is in the northwest.
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