avoidance behaviour: Protection reflexes, armour, and spines: South American toothless animals (edentates) such as anteaters are probably survivors of a comparable early development in mammals. The armour of armadillos and the presence of bony plates in the skin of the extinct sloths suggest that the whole group may derive from an armoured ancestor. The appearance of…

Edenton, town, seat of Chowan county, northeastern North Carolina, U.S., on Albemarle Sound. Settled about 1660, the first permanent settlement in colonial North Carolina, it went under several names before it was incorporated in 1722 and named for Charles Eden, the first royal governor. Edenton

Gertrude Ederle was an American swimmer who was the first woman to swim (1926) the English Channel and one of the best-known American sports personages of the 1920s. Ederle early became an avid swimmer. She was a leading exponent of the eight-beat crawl (eight kicks for each full arm stroke) and

Gertrude Ederle was an American swimmer who was the first woman to swim (1926) the English Channel and one of the best-known American sports personages of the 1920s. Ederle early became an avid swimmer. She was a leading exponent of the eight-beat crawl (eight kicks for each full arm stroke) and

EDES, nationalist guerrilla force that, bolstered by British support, constituted the only serious challenge to EAM-ELAS control of the resistance movement in occupied Greece during World War II. Led by Gen. Napoleon Zervas, EDES was originally liberal and antimonarchist, but it moved steadily to

Dezső Kosztolányi: Édes Anna (1926; Wonder Maid, 1947), the tale of a servant girl, is perhaps his best novel. He translated poetry from several European languages and also from Chinese and Japanese. In his later years he devoted much effort to the preservation of the purity of the Hungarian language.…

Benjamin Edes was the founder and co-owner with John Gill of the New England newspaper, the Boston Gazette and Country Journal. As editor and publisher of the Gazette, Edes made the paper a leading voice favouring American independence. Edes was 23 and had received only a modest education when he

Edessa, city and dímos (municipality), Central Macedonia (Modern Greek: Kendrikí Makedonía) periféreia (region), northern Greece. It is situated on a steep bluff above the valley of the Loudhiás Potamós (river). A swift, fragmented stream flowing through the city was known in ancient times as the

Siege of Edessa: …of the crusader city of Edessa to Seljuq Muslim troops after a siege carried out from November 28 to December 24, 1144, was the spark that ignited the Second Crusade. The victory entrenched Zangī as leader of the Muslims in the Holy Land, a mantle that would be taken up…

Şanlıurfa, city, southeastern Turkey. It lies in a fertile plain and is ringed by limestone hills on three sides. The city, of great age, controls a strategic pass to the south through which runs a road used since antiquity to travel between Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia. The modern name

Battle of Edessa, battle fought in 260 ce between the later Sassanid Persian Empire and the Roman Empire, culminating in the crushing defeat of Roman Emperor Valerian at Edessa (modern Şanlıurfa, in what is now southeastern Turkey). “A great battle took place beyond Carrhae and Edessa between us

Crusades: The Crusader states: The county of Edessa, an ill-defined domain extending into the upper Euphrates region with a population consisting mainly of Armenians and Syrians, had already been established by Godfrey’s brother Baldwin. When Baldwin left to become ruler of Jerusalem, he bestowed the county, under his suzerainty, on…

Nestorianism: …Nestorius gathered at the theological school of Edessa, it was closed by imperial order in 489, and a vigorous Nestorian remnant migrated to Persia.

The fall of the crusader city of Edessa to Seljuq Muslim troops after a siege carried out from November 28 to December 24, 1144, was the spark that ignited the Second Crusade. The victory entrenched Zangī as leader of the Muslims in the Holy Land, a mantle that would be taken up by his son Nūr

protein: Plant proteins: …in crystalline form; they include edestin from hemp, molecular weight 310,000; amandin from almonds, 330,000; concanavalin A (42,000) and B (96,000); and canavalin (113,000) from jack beans. They are polymers of smaller subunits; edestin, for example, is a hexamer of a subunit with a molecular weight of 50,000, and concanavalin…

soap and detergent: Sequestering or chelating agents: EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) or its sodium salt has the property of combining with certain metal ions to form a molecular complex that locks up or chelates the calcium ion so that it no longer exhibits ionic properties. In hard water, calcium and magnesium ions are…

Idfū, town on the west bank of the Nile River in Aswān muḥāfaẓah (governorate), Upper Egypt. The chief god of the city of ancient times was Horus of the Winged Disk, called the Behdetite. His consort was Hathor of Dandarah, whose statue during the late empire was brought to Idfū annually by boat on

Giacomo Puccini: Early life and marriage: Puccini’s second opera, Edgar, based on a verse drama by the French writer Alfred de Musset, had been performed at La Scala in 1889, and it was a failure. Nevertheless, Ricordi continued to have faith in his protégé and sent him to Bayreuth in Germany to hear Wagner’s…

King Lear: …and spurns his honest son, Edgar. Driven into exile disguised as a mad beggar, Edgar becomes a companion of the truly mad Lear and the Fool during a terrible storm. Edmund allies himself with Regan and Goneril to defend Britain against the French army mobilized by Cordelia. He turns his…

Edgar was the king of the Mercians and Northumbrians from 957 who became king of the West Saxons, or Wessex, in 959 and is reckoned as king of all England from that year. He was efficient and tolerant of local customs, and his reign was peaceful. He was most important as a patron of the English

Edgar was the king of Scots from 1097, the eldest surviving son of Malcolm III Canmore and Queen Margaret (granddaughter of King Edmund II of England) and thus the first king of the Scots to unite Celtic and Anglo-Saxon blood. As vassal to King William II Rufus of England, he was placed on the

Edgar Award, any of several annual awards presented by the Mystery Writers of America (MWA), a professional organization founded in 1945 to promote and elevate the standards of mystery writing. It is named for American writer Edgar Allan Poe, whose short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841)

Edgar Award, any of several annual awards presented by the Mystery Writers of America (MWA), a professional organization founded in 1945 to promote and elevate the standards of mystery writing. It is named for American writer Edgar Allan Poe, whose short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841)

Edgar The Aetheling was an Anglo-Saxon prince, who, at the age of about 15, was proposed as king of England after the death of Harold II in the Battle of Hastings (Oct. 14, 1066) but instead served the first two Norman kings, William I, Harold’s conqueror, and William II. His title of aetheling (an

English literature: Drama: David Edgar developed into a dramatist of impressive span and depth with plays such as Destiny (1976) and Pentecost (1994), his masterly response to the collapse of communism and rise of nationalism in eastern Europe. David Hare similarly widened his range with confident accomplishment; in…

Illinois: Progress and politics since 1900: …election as governor in 1990, Jim Edgar followed a more fiscally prudent path than his fellow Republican Thompson. Edgar, aided somewhat by a healthy national economy, put the state’s fiscal house in order and during the last two years of his administration increased funding for education. George Ryan, a conservative…

Edgartown, town (township), seat of Dukes county, southeastern Massachusetts, U.S. The town comprises Chappaquiddick Island and the eastern tip of the island of Martha’s Vineyard. The oldest settlement on the island, Edgartown dates from 1642 and was incorporated in 1671 and named for Edgar, son of

Fort Pierce, city, seat (1905) of St. Lucie county, east-central Florida, U.S. It is situated on the Indian River (a lagoon connected to the Atlantic Ocean by inlets), about 55 miles (90 km) north of West Palm Beach. The fort (1838–42), built during the Seminole Wars, was named for Lieutenant

browser: …Explorer and replaced it with Edge in 2015.

number game: Graphs and networks: …the lines are called the edges. If every pair of vertices is connected by an edge, the graph is called a complete graph (Figure 13B). A planar graph is one in which the edges have no intersection or common points except at the edges. (It should be noted that the…

glass frog: This phenomenon, called edge diffusion, softens the line separating the colour of the frog’s skin from the colour of the background. Not all species have a translucent underside. Viewed from above, most glass frogs appear light green. Their patterning ranges from uniform green to green with white to…

ceramic composition and properties: Brittleness: …one kind, known as an edge dislocation, an extra plane of atoms can be generated in a crystal structure, straining to the breaking point the bonds that hold the atoms together. If stress were applied to this structure, it might shear along a plane where the bonds were weakest, and…

ecotone: …other is known as the edge effect. An ecotonal area often has a higher density of organisms of one species and a greater number of species than are found in either flanking community. Some organisms need a transitional area for activities such as courtship, nesting, or foraging for food.

Common Figure Skating Jumps Explained: To perform an edge jump a skater uses the edge (either inside or outside) of one skate blade to propel themselves into the air without allowing the other skate to touch the ice. The three edge jumps are the axel, the loop, and the salchow. When executing a…

art conservation and restoration: Paintings on canvas: The practice of edge lining (sometimes referred to as “strip lining”), which has been increasingly used as an alternative to overall lining, aims to reinforce weak and torn edges where the canvas is prone to give way. This treatment is often used in conjunction with local or overall…

Dambisa Moyo: Her later works included Edge of Chaos: Why Democracy Is Failing to Deliver Economic Growth—and How to Fix It (2018) and How Boards Work: And How They Can Work Better in a Chaotic World (2021).

Lewis Milestone: War dramas: Edge of Darkness (1943) was a top-notch war picture, with Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, and Huston as residents of a Nazi-occupied village in Norway who are involved in the resistance. The North Star (1943) was another war drama. It centres on Ukrainian peasants (headed by…

Mel Gibson: …investigating his daughter’s murder in Edge of Darkness; it was his first starring role in eight years. In 2011 he portrayed a depressed man whose life is invigorated by his use of a hand puppet in the drama The Beaver. Gibson’s later films included the over-the-top action thrillers Machete Kills…

Cider with Rosie, autobiographical novel by Laurie Lee (1914–1997), published in 1959. An account of the author’s idyllic childhood in an isolated village in the Cotswolds of Gloucestershire immediately after World War I, the book was an instant classic, widely read in British schools. The book

Mark Robson: Films of the 1950s: Robson began the decade with Edge of Doom (1950), a grim film noir about religious belief and social inequality that was a commercial disappointment; Farley Granger starred as an unstable man who becomes distraught over the death of his mother and kills a priest who refuses to provide a costly…

Elizabeth George: The Edge of Nowhere (2012), about the supernatural happenings on an island near Seattle, was her first effort aimed at young adults. Other books in the series included The Edge of Water (2014) and The Edge of the Shadows (2015). George eventually returned to teaching,…

Anthony Perkins: …the Orient Express (1974), and Edge of Sanity (1989). Perkins also appeared in such plays as Look Homeward, Angel; Harold; Steambath; and Romantic Comedy, as well as the television movie In the Deep Woods (1992), which was broadcast after his death.

Fleetwood Mac: …featured singles such as “Edge of Seventeen” and the Tom Petty duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” and Buckingham broke the Billboard Top Ten with his single “Trouble.” The band produced the noteworthy Mirage (1982) and Tango in the Night (1987) before the departure of Buckingham. Further lineup changes…

Hailee Steinfeld: Breakout in True Grit and subsequent roles: … for her lead performance in The Edge of Seventeen (2016). Her nuanced portrayal of the misanthropic teenager Nadine was lauded for its true-to-life complexity. Indeed, a review on RogerEbert.com stated that she “doesn’t seem interested in making us like this girl who’s perched on the edge of womanhood. She just…

Janet Frame: The Edge of the Alphabet (1962) centres on the struggles of several dislocated people and their largely futile efforts to connect with society. In Scented Gardens for the Blind (1963), a girl becomes mute after her parents’ marriage dissolves. The Adaptable Man (1965) is a…

Martin Ritt: First films: …in 1957, when he directed Edge of the City, a gritty adaptation of Robert Alan Arthur’s Playhouse 90 television drama A Man Is Ten Feet Tall (1955). The film featured strong performances by John Cassavetes as a white soldier who has gone AWOL, Sidney Poitier as the black stevedore who…

Agustín Yáñez: The Edge of the Storm), his masterpiece, presents life in a typical Mexican village just before the Mexican Revolution. Its use of stream of consciousness, interior monologue, and complex structure anticipates many traits of the Latin American new novel of the 1950s and 1960s. La…

Emily Blunt: Breakthrough films: The Devil Wears Prada, Young Victoria, and Sicario: …another, more action-driven time-travel film, Edge of Tomorrow (2014). Her singing was on display in Into the Woods (2014), the Disney adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical. She then won plaudits for her turn as an FBI agent in the gritty crime drama Sicario (2015).

sound: Variations in air pressure: …to flutes and recorders, an edge tone is a stream of air that strikes a sharp edge, where it creates pressure changes in the air column that propagate down the tube. Reflections of these pressure variations then force the air stream back and forth across the edge, reinforcing the vibration…

the Moody Blues: were Mike Pinder, Ray Thomas, Graeme Edge, Denny Laine, and Clint Warwick. Later members included Justin Hayward, John Lodge, and Patrick Moraz.

Bono: U2: …friends David Evans (later “the Edge”), Larry Mullen, Jr., and Adam Clayton formed a band that would become U2. They shared a commitment not only to ambitious rock music but also to a deeply spiritual Christianity. Indeed, one of the few genuine threats to U2’s extraordinary longevity (a collaboration—with…

Alec Baldwin: Stardom: Beetlejuice, The Hunt for Red October, and The Aviator: …drama Ghosts of Mississippi (1996); The Edge (1997), an adventure thriller written by Mamet; and Mercury Rising (1998), in which he starred opposite Bruce Willis. In 2004 Baldwin received an Academy Award nomination for his performance as a casino owner in the dark comedy The Cooler (2003). Later that year…

Nucky Johnson: …politics and succeeded in getting Walter Edge elected governor in 1916. Two years later, Edge named Johnson clerk of the state’s Supreme Court. (Both of Johnson’s positions were by appointment, and, aside from his time as sheriff, he never ran for office.)

Wars of the Roses: The ascendancy of Warwick: …was defeated in July at Edgecote (near Banbury), and the king himself became the earl’s prisoner, while the queen’s father and brother, together with a number of their friends, were executed at his command.

Sitka: Mount Edgecumbe (3,201 feet [976 meters]), a dormant volcano on Kruzof Island, is a conspicuous landmark in Sitka’s island-studded, mountain-locked harbor. Inc. 1913. Pop. (2000) 8,835; (2010) 8,881.

sea star: Edged sea stars, order Phanerozonia, have distinct marginal plates and therefore tend to be rigid. Members of the order have suction-tube feet; the anus may be lacking. Most of the deep-sea sea stars belong to this order, and many are burrowers. Albatrossaster richardi has been…

Edgefield, county, western South Carolina, U.S. It consists of a hilly piedmont region bounded to the southwest by the Savannah River border with Georgia. Much of the county is within the southern portion of Sumter National Forest. Algonquian-speaking Indians inhabited the region in the 1670s.

Battle of Edgehill, (Oct. 23, 1642), first battle of the English Civil Wars, in which forces loyal to the English Parliament, commanded by Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex, fatally delayed Charles I’s march on London. The Battle of Edgehill took place in open country between Banbury and Warwick.

Belize: The arts of Belize: Belize’s best-known contemporary author is Zee Edgell. Her most widely read novel, Beka Lamb (1982), describes the emerging sense of nationalism in the 1950s in Belize City through the eyes of a young Creole girl. Another of Edgell’s novels, Time and the River (2007), looks at the slave society of…

Edgerton Bible case, decision by the Supreme Court of the state of Wisconsin that outlawed devotional Bible reading in Wisconsin public schools in 1890. The decision, which was the first of its kind in the United States, came in response to complaints by Roman Catholic parents who objected to the

Rocky Flats: …plant by the defense contractor Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Grier (EG&G), Inc., and a federal grand jury was impaneled to investigate apparent violations of the Clean Water Act and federal toxic-waste laws. The grand jury’s report, completed in 1992, found that Rockwell, EG&G, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) were…

Harold Edgerton was an American electrical engineer and photographer who was noted for creating high-speed photography techniques that he applied to scientific uses. Edgerton earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nebraska in 1925 and received master’s (1927)

Harold Edgerton was an American electrical engineer and photographer who was noted for creating high-speed photography techniques that he applied to scientific uses. Edgerton earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nebraska in 1925 and received master’s (1927)

Francis Ysidro Edgeworth was an Irish economist and statistician who innovatively applied mathematics to the fields of economics and statistics. Edgeworth was educated at Trinity College in Dublin and Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in 1869. In 1877 he qualified as a barrister. He lectured at

comet: The modern era: …Irish army officer and astronomer, Kenneth Edgeworth. Therefore, some scientists refer to the comet belt as the Kuiper belt, while others call it the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt.

Maria Edgeworth was an Anglo-Irish writer, known for her children’s stories and for her novels of Irish life. She lived in England until 1782, when the family went to Edgeworthstown, County Longford, in midwestern Ireland, where Maria, then 15 and the eldest daughter, assisted her father in

Richard Lovell Edgeworth was an Anglo-Irish inventor and educationalist who had a dominant influence on the novels of his daughter Maria Edgeworth. An estate owner in Ireland, Edgeworth did much to improve the conditions of his tenantry by land reclamation and road-improvement schemes. In 1798,

Francis Ysidro Edgeworth was an Irish economist and statistician who innovatively applied mathematics to the fields of economics and statistics. Edgeworth was educated at Trinity College in Dublin and Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in 1869. In 1877 he qualified as a barrister. He lectured at

Kuiper belt, flat ring of icy small bodies that revolve around the Sun beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune. It was named for the Dutch American astronomer Gerard P. Kuiper and comprises hundreds of millions of objects—presumed to be leftovers from the formation of the outer planets—whose orbits

Germany: Charlemagne of Germany: Their independent edhelingi (nobles) lived on estates among forest clearings, dominating the frilingi (freemen), lazzi (half-free), and unfree members of Saxon society and leading raids into the rich Frankish kingdom. Thus each of Charlemagne’s punitive expeditions, which began in 772 and lasted until 804, bit deeper into…

Edessa, city and dímos (municipality), Central Macedonia (Modern Greek: Kendrikí Makedonía) periféreia (region), northern Greece. It is situated on a steep bluff above the valley of the Loudhiás Potamós (river). A swift, fragmented stream flowing through the city was known in ancient times as the

Ediacara fauna, unique assemblage of soft-bodied organisms preserved worldwide as fossil impressions in sandstone from the Ediacaran Period (approximately 635 million to 541 million years ago)—the final interval of both the Proterozoic Eon (2.5 billion to 541 million years ago) and Precambrian time

Ediacara fauna, unique assemblage of soft-bodied organisms preserved worldwide as fossil impressions in sandstone from the Ediacaran Period (approximately 635 million to 541 million years ago)—the final interval of both the Proterozoic Eon (2.5 billion to 541 million years ago) and Precambrian time

Ediacara fauna: Discoveries and analysis: …occurrence is in South Australia’s Ediacara Hills, where more than 1,500 well-preserved specimens have been collected. The Ediacara Hills are part of the Flinders Range and are located 650 km (about 400 miles) north of Adelaide. More than 60 species representing about 30 genera have been defined from the fossils…

Ediacaran Period, uppermost division of the Proterozoic Eon of Precambrian time and latest of the three periods of the Neoproterozoic Era, extending from approximately 635 million to 541 million years ago. The Ediacaran followed the Cryogenian Period (approximately 720 million to approximately 635

Halide Edib Adıvar was a novelist and pioneer in the emancipation of women in Turkey. Educated by private tutors and at the American College for Girls in Istanbul, she became actively engaged in Turkish literary, political, and social movements. She divorced her first husband in 1910 because she

copra: Whole copra, also called ball or edible copra, is produced by the less common drying of the intact, whole nut kernel.

crab: Economic importance: …important and valuable are the edible crab of the British and European coasts (Cancer pagurus) and, in North America, the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) of the Atlantic coast and the Dungeness crab (Cancer magister) of the Pacific coast. In the Indo-Pacific region the swimming crabs, Scylla and Portunus, related to…

dormouse: …ounces), is the fat, or edible, dormouse (Glis glis) of Europe and the Middle East, with a body up to 19 cm (7.5 inches) long and a shorter tail up to 15 cm. One of the smallest is the Japanese dormouse of southern Japan (Glirulus japonicus), weighing up to 40…

oil, any greasy substance that is liquid at room temperature and insoluble in water. There are many types, such as essential oil; orris oil; mineral oil (see petroleum); whale oil; pine oil; linseed oil; perilla oil; fish oil; tall oil; citronella oil. There is also cooking oil, such as olive,

Alice Waters: …became best known was the Edible Schoolyard, originally established in 1995. Waters began the program by planting a garden in the yard of Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. A cooking classroom was installed a few years later, and by 2009 the Edible Schoolyard was a thriving educational tool,…

gastropod: Importance to humans: …of the European edible snails Helix aspersa and H. pomatia (the most common species used to prepare escargot) are raised on snail farms or collected wild. Several species of Otala and Eobania from Morocco and Algeria are exported for food.

Margaret Atwood: Novels: …by Atwood include the surreal The Edible Woman (1969); Surfacing (1972; film 1981), an exploration of the relationship between nature and culture that focuses on a woman’s return to her childhood home in the northern wilderness of Quebec; Lady Oracle (1976); Cat’s Eye (1988); The Robber Bride (1993; television

apodiform: Importance to humans: …nest of one species, the edible-nest swiftlet (C. fuciphaga), is composed almost entirely of concentric layers of this salivary cement. These nests and, to a lesser extent, those of some other swiftlets are gathered commercially in the East Indies and form the base for the famous bird’s-nest soup of the…

Theodoric: Ruler of Italy: …6th century Theodoric published his Edict, a collection of 154 rules and regulations. With one or two exceptions, these were not new laws but brief restatements in simple language of Roman laws that were already in existence. The Edict was a handbook issued for the convenience of judges, and it…

Germanic law: …Merovingian kings called their legislation edicta or praecepta, but the succeeding Carolingians characterized them as capitularia—i.e., royal ordinances divided into articles (capitula). These included modifications of the leges of the Franks or other nations in the Frankish kingdom, administrative orders to officials, and independent legislation. Like the Roman emperors before…

constitutiones principum: …of imperial legislation were (1) edicta, or proclamations, which the emperor, like other magistrates, might issue, (2) mandata, or instructions to subordinates, especially provincial governors, (3) rescripta, written answers to officials or others who consulted the emperor, in particular on a point of law, and (4) decreta, or decisions of…

constitutiones principum: …of imperial legislation were (1) edicta, or proclamations, which the emperor, like other magistrates, might issue, (2) mandata, or instructions to subordinates, especially provincial governors, (3) rescripta, written answers to officials or others who consulted the emperor, in particular on a point of law, and (4) decreta, or decisions of…

ancient Rome: Hadrian and the other Antonine emperors: …his expert jurists codify the edictum perpetuum (the set of rules gradually elaborated by the praetors for the interpretation of the law). He also appointed four former consuls to serve as circuit judges in Italy. This brought Italy close to becoming a province; Hadrian’s intent, however, was not to reduce…

Germanic law: …had similar functions, while the Edictum Rothari (643) applied to Lombards only.

Battle of the Vorskla River: …Temür Kutlugh as khan and Edigü as emir. In order to restore his authority, Tokhtamysh requested aid from Vytautas, who was eager to extend his domain, which reached the Dnieper River in the east, into the lands of the Golden Horde. Vytautas gathered an army of his Russian-Lithuanian forces, Tokhtamysh’s…

Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, U.S. It is one of 14 universities in Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education. The university includes the schools of Liberal Arts, Education, and Science, Management, and

Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, U.S. It is one of 14 universities in Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education. The university includes the schools of Liberal Arts, Education, and Science, Management, and

Edinburg, city, seat (1908) of Hidalgo county, extreme southern Texas, U.S. It lies in the lower Rio Grande valley 55 miles (89 km) west-northwest of Brownsville. With McAllen and other nearby communities, it forms a metropolitan complex. Old Edinburgh, which no longer exists, was founded by John

Edinburgh, capital city of Scotland, located in southeastern Scotland with its centre near the southern shore of the Firth of Forth, an arm of the North Sea that thrusts westward into the Scottish Lowlands. The city and its immediate surroundings constitute an independent council area. The city and

Tristan da Cunha: …on the north coast at Edinburgh of the Seven Seas (frequently shortened to Edinburgh), the only permanent settlement. Plant and animal life includes elephant seals and other species not found elsewhere in the world.

Edinburgh Castle, stronghold that was once the residence of Scottish monarchs and now serves mostly as a museum. It stands 443 feet (135 metres) above sea level and overlooks the city of Edinburgh from a volcanic crag called Castle Rock. Castle Rock has been the site of human activity for at least

Scottish Enlightenment, the conjunction of minds, ideas, and publications in Scotland during the whole of the second half of the 18th century and extending over several decades on either side of that period. Contemporaries referred to Edinburgh as a “hotbed of genius.” Voltaire in 1762 wrote in

the Fringe, Edinburgh arts festival that presents a variety of plays, performances, and exhibitions for three weeks every August. It is one of several annual festivals held in Edinburgh. The Fringe began in 1947, concurrently with the Edinburgh International Festival, an invitation-only festival.

Ian Rankin on Edinburgh: A City of Stories: Meantime, the annual Edinburgh International Book Festival is the largest in Europe, bringing authors of worldwide repute such as Harold Pinter, Gore Vidal, and Seamus Heaney to the city to meet, converse, and share tales and anecdotes—very like the get-togethers of old where Scott or Burns might be…