Portal:World

The World Portal

The world 

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The Blue Marble, a photograph of the planet Earth made on 7 December 1972 by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft.

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 -

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  A world war is "a war engaged in by all or most of the principal nations of the world". The term is usually reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century: World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945). (Full article...)
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  A free-trade area is the region encompassing a trade bloc whose member countries have signed a free trade agreement (FTA). Such agreements involve cooperation between at least two countries to reduce trade barriers, import quotas and tariffs, and to increase trade of goods and services with each other. If natural persons are also free to move between the countries, in addition to a free-trade agreement, it would also be considered an open border. It can be considered the second stage of economic integration.
  
  Customs unions are a special type of free-trade area. All such areas have internal arrangements which parties conclude in order to liberalize and facilitate trade among themselves. The crucial difference between customs unions and free-trade areas is their approach to third parties. While a customs union requires all parties to establish and maintain identical external tariffs with regard to trade with non-parties, parties to a free-trade area are not subject to this requirement. Instead, they may establish and maintain whatever tariff regime applying to imports from non-parties as deemed necessary. In a free-trade area without harmonized external tariffs, to eliminate the risk of trade deflection, parties will adopt a system of preferential rules of origin. (Full article...)
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  Economic globalization is one of the three main dimensions of globalization commonly found in academic literature, with the two others being political globalization and cultural globalization, as well as the general term of globalization.
  Economic globalization refers to the widespread international movement of goods, capital, services, technology and information. It is the increasing economic integration and interdependence of national, regional, and local economies across the world through an intensification of cross-border movement of goods, services, technologies and capital. Economic globalization primarily comprises the globalization of production, finance, markets, technology, organizational regimes, institutions, corporations, and people.
  
  While economic globalization has been expanding since the emergence of trans-national trade, it has grown at an increased rate due to improvements in the efficiency of long-distance transportation, advances in telecommunication, the importance of information rather than physical capital in the modern economy, and by developments in science and technology. The rate of globalization has also increased under the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the World Trade Organization, in which countries gradually cut down trade barriers and opened up their current accounts and capital accounts. This recent boom has been largely supported by developed economies integrating with developing countries through foreign direct investment, lowering costs of doing business, the reduction of trade barriers, and in many cases cross-border migration. (Full article...)
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  A world map on the Winkel tripel projection,
  a low-error map projection adopted by the National Geographic Society for reference maps

  
  A world map is a map of most or all of the surface of Earth. World maps, because of their scale, must deal with the problem of projection. Maps rendered in two dimensions by necessity distort the display of the three-dimensional surface of the earth. While this is true of any map, these distortions reach extremes in a world map. Many techniques have been developed to present world maps that address diverse technical and aesthetic goals.
  
  Charting a world map requires global knowledge of the earth, its oceans, and its continents. From prehistory through the Middle ages, creating an accurate world map would have been impossible because less than half of Earth's coastlines and only a small fraction of its continental interiors were known to any culture. With exploration that began during the European Renaissance, knowledge of the Earth's surface accumulated rapidly, such that most of the world's coastlines had been mapped, at least roughly, by the mid-1700s and the continental interiors by the twentieth century. (Full article...)
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  An almanac (also spelled almanack and almanach) is an annual publication listing a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and other tabular data often arranged according to the calendar. Celestial figures and various statistics are found in almanacs, such as the rising and setting times of the Sun and Moon, dates of eclipses, hours of high and low tides, and religious festivals. The set of events noted in an almanac may be tailored for a specific group of readers, such as farmers, sailors, or astronomers. (Full article...)
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  The Paris Agreement (French: Accord de Paris), often referred to as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords, is an international treaty on climate change, adopted in 2015. It covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance. The Agreement was negotiated by 196 parties at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference near Paris, France.
  
  The Paris Agreement was opened for signature on 22 April 2016 (Earth Day) at a ceremony in New York. After the European Union ratified the agreement, sufficient countries had ratified the Agreement responsible for enough of the world's greenhouse gases for the Agreement to enter into force on 4 November 2016. As of November 2021, 193 members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are parties to the agreement. Of the four UNFCCC member states which have not ratified the agreement, the only major emitter is Iran. The United States withdrew from the Agreement in 2020, but rejoined in 2021. (Full article...)
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  The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War adversaries, the Soviet Union and the United States, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II. The technological advantage demonstrated by spaceflight achievement was seen as necessary for national security, and became part of the symbolism and ideology of the time. The Space Race brought pioneering launches of artificial satellites, robotic space probes to the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and ultimately to the Moon.
  
  The competition began in earnest on August 2, 1955, when the Soviet Union responded to the American announcement four days earlier of intent to launch artificial satellites for the International Geophysical Year, by declaring they would also launch a satellite "in the near future". The developments in ballistic missile capabilities made it possible to take the competition between the two states into space. This competition gained public attention with the "Sputnik shock", when the USSR achieved the first successful artificial satellite launch on October 4, 1957 of Sputnik 1, and subsequently when the USSR sent the first human to space with the orbital flight of Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961. The USSR demonstrated an early lead in the race with these and other firsts over the next few years, reaching the Moon for the first time with the Luna programme by employing robotic missions. (Full article...)

General images -

The following are images from various world-related articles on Wikipedia.

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  Gutenberg Bible, ca. 1450, produced using movable type (from Human history)

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  Yggdrasil, a modern attempt to reconstruct the Norse world tree which connects the heavens, the world, and the underworld. (from World)

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  The first airplane, the Wright Flyer, flew, 1903. (from Human history)

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  Crusader Krak des Chevaliers, Syria (from Human history)

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  Tiktaalik, a fish with limb-like fins and a predecessor of tetrapods. Reconstruction from fossils about 375 million years old. (from History of Earth)

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  China urbanized rapidly in the 21st century (Shanghai pictured). (from Human history)

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  Graph showing range of estimated partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen through geologic time (from History of Earth)

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  Obelisk of Axum, Ethiopia (from Human history)

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  Top of Earth's blue-tinted atmosphere, with the Moon at the background (from Earth)

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  Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), Turkey (from Human history)

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  Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (c. 1490), Renaissance Italy (from Human history)

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  World War I trench warfare (from Human history)

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  Earthrise, taken in 1968 by William Anders, an astronaut on board Apollo 8 (from Earth)

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  Machu Picchu, Inca Empire, Peru (from Human history)

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  Monumental Cuneiform inscription, Sumer, Mesopotamia, 26th century BCE (from Human history)

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  Moai, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) (from Human history)

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  A 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)

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  Full moon as seen from Earth's Northern Hemisphere (from Earth)

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  Earth's history with time-spans of the eons to scale (from History of Earth)

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  A brass "Benin Bronze" from Nigeria (from Human history)

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  A reconstruction of Pannotia (550 Ma). (from History of Earth)

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  Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci epitomizes the advances in art and science seen during the Renaissance. (from History of Earth)

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  Chloroplasts in the cells of a moss (from History of Earth)

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  A reconstruction of human history based on fossil data. (from History of Earth)

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  Cave painting, Lascaux, France, c. 15,000 BCE (from Human history)

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  Lithified 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)

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  Great Mosque of Kairouan, Tunisia, founded 670 CE (from Human history)

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  Water is transported to various parts of the hydrosphere via the water cycle (from Earth)

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  Angkor Wat temple, Cambodia, early 12th century (from Human history)

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  St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. (from Human history)

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  Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt (from Human history)

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  Empires of the world in 1898 (from Human history)

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  Chennakesava Temple, Belur, India (from Human history)

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  University of Timbuktu, Mali (from Human history)

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  Earth's rotation imaged by Deep Space Climate Observatory, showing axis tilt (from Earth)

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  1570 world map, showing Europeans' discoveries (from Human history)

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  Trilobites first appeared during the Cambrian period and were among the most widespread and diverse groups of Paleozoic organisms. (from History of Earth)

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  Geologic 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.

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  Satellite picture of Upsala Glacier, showing mountains, icebergs, lakes, and clouds (from Earth)

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  Dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates throughout most of the Mesozoic (from History of Earth)

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  Schematic of Earth's magnetosphere, with the solar wind flows from left to right (from Earth)

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  Earth's axial tilt (or obliquity) and its relation to the rotation axis and plane of orbit (from Earth)

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  Artist's impression of the enormous collision that probably formed the Moon (from History of Earth)

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  Earth's major plates, which are:

  •   Pacific Plate
  •   African Plate
  •   North American Plate
  •   Eurasian Plate
  •   Antarctic Plate
  •   Indo-Australian Plate
  •   South American Plate

  (from Earth)
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  Artist's conception of Devonian flora (from History of Earth)

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  Pillar erected by India's Maurya Emperor Ashoka (from Human history)

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  Taj Mahal, Mughal Empire, India (from Human history)

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  World population, 10,000 BCE – 2,000 CE (vertical population scale is logarithmic) (from Human history)

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  A 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)

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  Carboniferous rocks that were folded, uplifted and eroded during the orogeny that completed the formation of the Pangaea supercontinent, before deposition of the overlying Triassic strata, in the Algarve Basin, which marked the start of its break-up (from Earth)

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  The Buddha (from Human history)

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  The Pantheon in Rome, Italy, originally a Roman temple, now a Catholic church (from Human history)

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  Planetary disk of a star, the inner ring has a radius equal to Earth and the Sun (from Earth)

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  Fungi are one of the kingdoms of life on Earth. (from Earth)

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  Earth topological map, the area is redder if it is raised higher in real-life (from Earth)

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  Notre-Dame de Paris in Paris, France: is among the most recognizable symbols of the civilization of Christendom. (from Human history)

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  Civilians (here, Mỹ Lai, Vietnam, 1968) suffered greatly in 20th-century wars. (from Human history)

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  Atomic bombings: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, 1945 (from Human history)

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  Artist's conception of Hadean Eon Earth, when it was much hotter and inhospitable to all forms of life. (from History of Earth)

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  The 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)

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  Pangaea 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)

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  Last Moon landing: Apollo 17 (1972) (from Human history)

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  Cross-section through a liposome (from History of Earth)

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  The Blue Marble, a photograph of the planet Earth made on 7 December 1972 by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft. (from World)

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  Battle during 1281 Mongol invasion of Japan (from Human history)

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  Watt's steam engine powered the Industrial Revolution. (from Human history)

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  Maya observatory, Chichen Itza, Mexico (from Human history)

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  Ming dynasty section, Great Wall of China (from Human history)

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  Persepolis, Achaemenid Empire, 6th century BCE (from Human history)

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  Astronaut Bruce McCandless II outside of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1984 (from History of Earth)

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  An artist's rendering of a protoplanetary disk (from History of Earth)

Megacities of the world -

Guangzhou (UK: /ɡwæŋˈdʒoʊ/, US: /ɡwɒŋ-/; simplified Chinese: 广州; traditional Chinese: 廣州; pinyin: Guǎngzhōu; Cantonese pronunciation: [kʷɔ̌ːŋ.tsɐ̂u] or [kʷɔ̌ːŋ.tsɐ́u] (listen); Mandarin pronunciation: [kwàŋ tʂóu] (listen)), also known as Canton /kænˈtɒn/ and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and the largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about 120 km (75 mi) north-northwest of Hong Kong and 145 km (90 mi) north of Macau, Guangzhou has a history of over 2,200 years and was a major terminus of the maritime Silk Road, and continues to serve as a major port and transportation hub, as well as one of China's three largest cities. Long the only Chinese port accessible to most foreign traders, Guangzhou was captured by the British during the First Opium War. No longer enjoying a monopoly after the war, it lost trade to other ports such as Hong Kong and Shanghai, but continued to serve as a major transshipment port. Due to a high urban population and large volumes of port traffic, Guangzhou is classified as a Large-Port Megacity, the largest type of port-city in the world. As of 2020, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, the major airport of Guangzhou, was the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic.

Guangzhou is at the heart of the most-populous built-up metropolitan area in Guangdong, which extends into the neighboring cities of Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Shenzhen and part of Jiangmen, Huizhou, Zhuhai and Macao, forming the largest urban agglomeration on Earth with approximately 47.6 million residents and part of the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone. Administratively, the city holds subprovincial status and is one of China's nine National Central Cities. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, nationals of sub-Saharan Africa who had initially settled in the Middle East and Southeast Asia moved in unprecedented numbers to Guangzhou in response to the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis. The domestic migrant population from other provinces of China in Guangzhou was 40% of the city's total population in 2008. Together with Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, Guangzhou has one of the most expensive real estate markets in China. As of the 2020 census, the registered population of the city's expansive administrative area was 18,676,605 individuals (up to 47% from the previous census in 2010) whom 16,492,590 lived in 9 urban districts (all but Conghua and Zengcheng). (Full article...)

Did you know -

• ... that the Bennett Building, once one of New York's most prominent buildings, is probably the world's tallest building with a cast-iron facade?
• ... that Judy McClintock and her brother Joel were the first pair of siblings to win Water Ski World Championship titles?
• ... that Swiss bass Peter Lagger performed in the world premieres of Louise Talma's Die Alkestiade at the Oper Frankfurt and of Penderecki's "Magnificat" at the Salzburg Festival?
• ... that American volunteer civilian physician Beulah Ream Allen survived three Japanese internment camps in the Philippines during World War II?
• ... that turbine manufacturer S. Morgan Smith Company made large gun lathes during World War I and large aircraft carrier, gun, and tank parts during World War II?
• ... that From Space I Saw Earth by Daníel Bjarnason was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic to be performed with three conductors simultaneously?
• ... that an observer once described a play-by-mail game as "the most complex game system on Earth"?
• ... that a brass rod with a length of 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) was inserted into the ground as a permanent art installation in Kassel, Germany?

Countries of the world -

The Republic of the Congo ( French: République du Congo, Kituba: Repubilika ya Kôngo), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa. The country is bordered to the west by Gabon, to its northwest by Cameroon and its northeast by the Central African Republic, to the southeast by the DR Congo, to its south by the Angolan exclave of Cabinda and to its southwest by the Atlantic Ocean. French is the official language of the Republic of the Congo.

The region was dominated by Bantu-speaking tribes at least 3,000 years ago, who built trade links leading into the Congo River basin. Congo was formerly part of the French colony of Equatorial Africa. The Republic of the Congo was established on 28 November 1958 and gained independence from France in 1960. It was a Marxist–Leninist state from 1969 to 1992, under the name People's Republic of the Congo. The sovereign state has had multi-party elections since 1992, although a democratically elected government was ousted in the 1997 Republic of the Congo Civil War, and President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who first came to power in 1979, has now ruled for over 4 decades. (Full article...)

Wonders of the World -

Eighth Wonder of the World is an unofficial title sometimes given to new buildings, structures, projects, designs or even people that are deemed to be comparable to the seven Wonders of the World. (Full article...)

Related portals

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  Africa
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  Asia
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  Australia
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  Caribbean
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  Europe
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  Latin America
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  North America
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  Oceania

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  Animals
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  Astronomy
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  Countries
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  Cities
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  Civilizations
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  Earth sciences
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  Environment
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  Geography
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  Global warming
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  Lakes
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  Maps
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  Marine life
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  Mountains
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  Oceans
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  Rivers
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  Roads
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  Science
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  Tornadoes
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  Tropical cyclones
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  Tsunamis
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  Volcanoes
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  Water
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  Weather
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  Wetlands
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  World War I
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  World War II

Protected areas of the world -

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  Protected areas of Indonesia comprise both terrestrial and marine environments in any of the six IUCN Protected Area categories. There are over 500 protected areas in Indonesia, of which 54 National Park are covering 16.4 million ha, and another 527 nature and game reserves cover further 28.3 million ha. The total protected land area represents over 15% of Indonesia's landmass. Marine Protected Areas comprise over 15.7 million ha representing ca. 5% of territorial waters. (Full article...)
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  A list of protected areas of Oman:
  

  • Ad Dimaniyat Islands
  • Al Saleel National Park
    
    
  • Arabian Oryx Sanctuary
  • Jabal Samhan Nature Reserve
    
  • Ra's Al Hadd Turtle Reserve
  • Khawrs of the Salalah Coast Reserve

  (Full article...)
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  The country of Burundi in Africa has the following national parks and other protected areas. (Full article...)
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  Greece is characterized by an extremely fragmented, rugged landscape hosting a great diversity of ecosystems and an outstanding biodiversity. Almost 5% of its extensive coastline consists of ecologically sensitive wetlands. Two thirds of the total population live no further than 2 km from the coast and most of the important urban centers are coastal, while almost all of the tourist infrastructure is divided among islands and the coastal mainland. (Full article...)
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  This 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...)
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  Protected areas of the Caribbean are significant in a region of particular ecological vulnerability, including the impact of climate change and the impact of tourism.
  
  The University of the West Indies' "Caribbean Protected Areas Gateway" supports informational resources for the 16 Caribbean member states of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States. It forms the regional component of the ACP's Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management program, building on the World Database on Protected Areas. (Full article...)
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  Canada's National Parks and National Reserves by provinces and territories

  
  This is a list of protected areas of the Northwest Territories. (Full article...)
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  Redwood grove in Redwood National Park

  According to the California Protected Areas Database (CPAD), in the state of California, United States, there are over 14,000 inventoried protected areas administered by public agencies and non-profits. In addition, there are private conservation areas and other easements. They include almost one-third of California's scenic coastline, including coastal wetlands, estuaries, beaches, and dune systems. The California State Parks system alone has 270 units and covers 1.3 million acres (5,300 km²), with over 280 miles (450 km) of coastline, 625 miles (1,006 km) of lake and river frontage, nearly 18,000 campsites, and 3,000 miles (5,000 km) of hiking, biking, and equestrian trails.
  
  Obtaining an accurate total of all protected land in California and elsewhere is a complex task. Many parcels have inholdings, private lands within the protected areas, which may or may not be accounted for when calculating total area. Also, occasionally one parcel of land is included in two or more inventories. Over 90% of Yosemite National Park for example, is listed both as wilderness by the National Wilderness Preservation System, and as national park land by the National Park Service. The Cosumnes River Preserve is an extreme example, owned and managed by a handful of public agencies and private landowners, including the Bureau of Land Management, the County of Sacramento and The Nature Conservancy. Despite the difficulties, the CPAD gives the total area of protected land at 49,294,000 acres (199,490 km²), or 47.05% of the state (not including easements); a considerable amount for the most populous state in the country. (Full article...)
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  A National Biodiversity Conservation Area (NBCA) is an environmentally protected area in Laos. There are all together 21 different NBCAs in Laos, protecting 29,775 square kilometers. Another 10 NBCAs have been proposed, many of them being treated by authorities as though they were already officially protected. (Full article...)
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  "Temple Gate" Rock formation at Alkhanay National Park

  
  Protected areas of Russia, (official Russian title: Russian: Особо охраняемые природные территории, literally "Specially Protected Natural Areas"), is governed by the corresponding 1995 law of the Russian Federation. (Full article...)
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  A view at Kintrishi National Park

  
  The South Caucasian nation of Georgia is home to several protected areas, which receive protection because of their environmental, cultural or similar value. The oldest of these – now known as the Lagodekhi Protected Areas – dates back to 1912, when Georgia was part of the Russian Empire.
  
  The total area of Georgia’s protected terrestrial territories is 6,501 km² (2,510 sq mi), which amounts to approximately 9.29 % of the country’s territory. In addition 153 km² (59 sq mi) of marine area protected, or 0.67 % of the country’s territorial waters. The are a total of 89 protected areas, including 14 Strict Nature Reserves, 12 National Parks, 20 Managed Nature Reserves, 40 Natural Monuments, 2 Ramsar sites and 1 Protected Landscape. Strict nature reserves comprise 140,672 ha, while national parks cover 276,724 ha. The total number of visitors to Georgia's protected areas was just under 1.2 million in 2019. (Full article...)
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  Maintained by the Kentucky Department of Parks, Kentucky's system of 49 state parks has been referred to as "the nation's finest" and experiences more repeat business annually than those of any other U.S. state. The state's diverse geography provides a variety of environments to experience. From mountain lakes to expansive caves to forests teeming with wildlife, park-goers have their choice of attractions, and they are all within a day's drive of each other.
  
  Unless otherwise specified, data in the following lists are taken from Kentucky State Parks by Bill Bailey. (Full article...)
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  Protected areas of the European Union are areas which need and/or receive special protection because of their environmental, cultural or historical value to the member states of the European Union.
  

  • NATURA 2000
  • Special Area of Conservation (SAC)
  • Special Protection Area (SPA)

  (Full article...)
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  Protected areas in Tanzania are extremely varied, ranging from sea habitats over grasslands to the top of the Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa. About a third of the country's total area is protected to a certain degree as a national park, game reserve, marine park, forest reserve or the like.
  
  The following list gives an overview on the various protected areas in Tanzania including their predominant habitat, wildlife and flora. Especially remarkable species (endemics or those occurring in unusually large numbers) are set in bold. (Full article...)
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  This is a list of the nationally-designated protected areas of China. There are many forms of protected areas in China. Based on their relative importance, each type of protected area can be further graded into two to three levels (national, provincial and prefectural/county level). Nevertheless, the highest rank for "pocket nature preserve" (social and mass-based), "no-hunting area", "no-fishing area", "no-logging area", "wild medicinal material resources conservation area", "crop germplasm resources conservation area", "forest tree germplasm resources conservation area" or "source water protection area" is practically restricted to provincial level. The local government at county level is also responsible for the delimitation and declaration of "basic farmland protection area" and "basic grassland". Qinling National Botanical Garden, said to be the world's largest (639 km², of which 575.31 km² being set aside for in-situ conservation purposes), was opened (Phase 1) to the public on September 27, 2017.
  
  Take note that many protected areas in China have multiple official designations, and the statutory boundaries of these multi-designated PAs may be identical or may vary one from the other. For instance, the boundaries of Huangshan NSHA coincide with those of the Huangshan NGP, whereas Fujian province's Wuyi Mountains NNR, NSHA and NFP are adjacent to each other. In Heilongjiang, 27,642.14 hectares out of 115,340.27 hectares of Huzhong NFP are intersected with the experiment zone of Huzhong NNR. (Full article...)

Selected world maps

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  Only 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

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  The world map by Gerardus Mercator (1569), the first map in the well-known Mercator projection

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  Mollweide projection of the world

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  1516 map of the world by Martin Waldseemüller

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  A plate tectonics map with volcano locations indicated with red circles

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  Index map from the International Map of the World (1:1,000,000 scale)

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  The Goode homolosine projection is a pseudocylindrical, equal-area, composite map projection used for world maps.

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  United Nations Human Development Index map by country (2016)

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  Time zones of the world

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

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