Patagonia is a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers in the west and deserts, tablelands, and steppes to the east. Patagonia is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and many bodies of water that connect them, such as the Strait of Magellan, the Beagle Channel, and the Drake Passage to the south.
Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville was a French admiral and explorer. A contemporary of the British explorer James Cook, he took part in the Seven Years' War in North America and the American Revolutionary War against Britain. Bougainville later gained fame for his expeditions, including a circumnavigation of the globe in a scientific expedition in 1763, the first recorded settlement on the Falkland Islands, and voyages into the Pacific Ocean. Bougainville Island of Papua New Guinea as well as the Bougainvillea flower are named after him.
Taï National Park is a national park in Côte d'Ivoire that contains one of the last areas of primary rainforest in West Africa. It was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1982 due to the diversity of its flora and fauna. Five mammal species of the Taï National Park are on the Red List of Threatened Species: pygmy hippopotamus, olive colobus monkeys, leopards, chimpanzees, and Jentink's duiker.
Lastoursville or Mandji is a city in east-central Gabon, lying on the Ogooué River, the Trans-Gabon Railway and the N3 road. It was founded as a slave depot named Mandji, renamed Maadiville in 1883 and finally took its current name for François Rigail de Lastours in 1886. It grew around palm oil production and as an administrative centre, and soon became a major missionary centre. The town is also known for its caves.
Ankarana Special Reserve is a protected area in northern Madagascar created in 1956. It is a small, partially vegetated plateau composed of 150-million-year-old middle Jurassic limestone. With an average annual rainfall of about 2,000 millimetres (79 in), the underlying rocks have been eroded to produce caves and feed subterranean rivers—a karst topography. The rugged relief and the dense vegetation have helped protect the region from human intrusion.
The Jeita Grotto is a system of two separate, but interconnected, karstic limestone caves spanning an overall length of nearly 9 kilometres (5.6 mi). The caves are situated in the Nahr al-Kalb valley within the locality of Jeita, 18 kilometres (11 mi) north of the Lebanese capital Beirut. Though inhabited in prehistoric times, the lower cave was not rediscovered until 1836 by Reverend William Thomson; it can only be visited by boat since it channels an underground river that provides fresh drinking water to more than a million Lebanese.
Puerto Natales is a city in Chilean Patagonia. It is the capital of both the commune of Natales and the province of Última Esperanza, one of the four provinces that make up the Magallanes and Antartica Chilena Region in the southernmost part of Chile. Puerto Natales is the only city in the province. It is located 247 km (153 mi) northwest of Punta Arenas. It is the final passenger port of call for the Navimag ferry sailing from Puerto Montt into the Señoret Channel as well as the primary transit point for travellers to Torres del Paine National Park, Chile.
The dwarf crocodile, also known as the African dwarf crocodile, broad-snouted crocodile or bony crocodile, is an African crocodile that is also the smallest extant (living) species of crocodile.
There are a number of caving organizations throughout the world.
The French Federation of Speleology, is a French organisation that represents all persons practicing or studying caving and canyoning and promotes the study and conservation of caves.
The era of European and American voyages of scientific exploration followed the Age of Discovery and were inspired by a new confidence in science and reason that arose in the Age of Enlightenment. Maritime expeditions in the Age of Discovery were a means of expanding colonial empires, establishing new trade routes and extending diplomatic and trade relations to new territories, but with the Enlightenment scientific curiosity became a new motive for exploration to add to the commercial and political ambitions of the past. See also List of Arctic expeditions and List of Antarctic expeditions.
Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry is an action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Quebec and published by Ubisoft. Set in the French colony of Saint-Domingue between 1735 and 1737, Freedom Cry follows Adéwalé, a prominent supporting character from the 2013 title Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. While attempting to disrupt Templar activities in the Caribbean Sea on behalf of their rival organization, the Brotherhood of Assassins, Adéwalé finds himself shipwrecked in Saint-Domingue, where he comes face-to-face with some of the most brutal slavery practices in the West Indies.
Qafzeh Cave, also known by other names, is a prehistoric archaeological site located at the bottom of Mount Precipice in the Jezreel Valley of Lower Galilee south of Nazareth. Important remains of prehistoric people were discovered on the site - some of the oldest examples in the world, outside of Africa, of virtually anatomically modern human beings. These were discovered on the ledge just outside the cave, where 18 layers from the Middle Paleolithic era were identified. The interior of the cave contains layers ranging from the Neolithic era to the Bronze Age.
Boybuloq is a limestone cave in Uzbekistan, the deepest cave in Central Asia and all Asia except its western part. The cave is 1,430 metres (4,690 ft) deep and 15,212 metres (49,908 ft) long with the main entrance at an elevation of 2,647 metres (8,684 ft). It is situated at the edge of Baysun-Tau mountain ridge, the southern spur of the Gissar Range, in the southeast of the country. The nearest village is Dehibolo, to the northeast of Boysun.
The Abanda Caves are a cave complex in Gabon, located in the upstream of Fernan Vaz Lagoon. They were first mentioned by Dr. Marco Marti and Claude Werotte in the early 2000s, and fully explored during several caving expeditions by Oslisly, Testa, Sebag and Shirley.
Iroungou Cave is a burial cave located near the city of Mouila in the Ngounié Province of Gabon. It is an archaeological site dating from pre-colonial Africa. It is a collective burial site with the remains of at least 28 people, and hundreds of iron, copper and shell artefacts. The site has no equivalent in West central Africa.
Ekaterinburg Speleo Club (SGS) (from Sverdlovskaja Gorodskaja Speleosekcija; Свердловская Городская Спелеосекция – СГС), founded in 1961, is a Russian, non-profit speleological organization dedicated to the exploration, research, and conservation of caves. It is based in Ekaterinburg (named Sverdlovsk from 1924 to 1991), the fourth largest city of Russia, in the Middle Urals and on the western edge of Siberia. SGS is most known for the exploration of caves in the northern Sverdlovsk Oblast and high-mountain karst areas of Surxondaryo Region in Uzbekistan, including Boybuloq, the deepest cave in Central Asia and one of the deepest caves in the world.
The Gouffre de la Pierre Saint-Martin, also called Gouffre Lépineux, is the original entrance to a major cave system located in the massif of La Pierre Saint-Martin, in the immediate vicinity of the Franco-Spanish border and the French commune of Arette, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, under which lies part of the cave network.
