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Kanaka: (Hawaiian: "Person," or "Man"), in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, any of the South Pacific islanders employed in Queensland, Australia, on sugar plantations or cattle stations or as ...
Kananga: city, south-central Congo (Kinshasa), situated just east of the Lulua River, a tributary of the Kasai. It is on road and rail routes to Lubumbashi (southeast) and the Kasai River ...
Kanapoi: site of paleoanthropological excavations in northern Kenya southwest of Lake Turkana (Lake Rudolf), best known for its fossils of Australopithecus anamensis, an early hominin (member of the human lineage) dating ...
Kanara: region along the Malabar Coast of the Arabian Sea, western Karnataka (formerly Mysore) state, India. It is bounded on the east by the Western Ghats. Formerly divided between Bombay to ...
Kanaris, Konstantinos: Greek naval officer and statesman who achieved fame for his exploits against the Turks during the War of Greek Independence (1821-32).
Kanawha River: river formed at Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, U.S., by the confluence of the New and Gauley rivers. It flows 97 miles (156 km) in a northwesterly direction to enter the ...
Kanazawa: capital, Ishikawa ken (prefecture), Japan, on the Sai River. In the 16th century the city and the province of Kaga were given to the Maeda family, the richest daimyo family ...
Kanchanaburi: town, western Thailand, 70 miles (110 km) northwest of Bangkok. The Khwae Noi River joins the Klong River near Kanchanaburi. Built in the 18th century as a defense against Burmese ...
Kanchenjunga: world's third highest mountain (28,169 feet [8,586 m]), in the Himalayas on the Nepalese border with Sikkim, India, 46 miles (74 km) north-northwest of Darjeeling. The Kanchenjunga massif is in ...
kanchil: any of several small chevrotains, or mouse deer, native to Southeast Asia. Formerly believed to be separate species, they are now generally thought to be varieties of the species Tragulus ...
Kanchipuram: town, northern Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India, on the Palar River and the Madras-Bangalore road and rail systems. One of the most ancient towns of southern India, it traces its ...
Kanchrapara: town, southeastern West Bengal state, northeastern India, just east of the Hooghly River, part of the Calcutta urban agglomeration. The town, within Halisahar municipality, has one of the largest railway ...
Kandahar: city in south-central Afghanistan. It lies on a plain next to the Tarnak River, at an elevation of about 3,300 feet (1,000 metres). It is southern Afghanistan's chief commercial centre ...
Kandel, Eric: Austrian-born American neurobiologist who, with Arvid Carlsson and Paul Greengard, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2000 for discovering the central role synapses play in memory ...
Kander, Lizzie Black: American welfare worker who created a popular cookbook that became a highly profitable fund-raising tool for the institution she served.
Kandersteg: village, Bern canton, southwest-central Switzerland. It lies in the upper valley of the Kander River, in the Bernese Oberland, southwest of Interlaken. It is a mountaineering and winter-sports resort; the ...
Kandi: town, northeastern Benin, 325 miles (523 km) north of the capital Porto-Novo. Iron deposits of high quality are in the vicinity, but the town is mainly an agricultural centre, with ...
Kandinsky, Wassily: Russian-born artist, one of the first creators of pure abstraction in modern painting. After successful avant-garde exhibitions, he founded the influential Munich group Der Blaue Reiter ("The Blue Rider"; 1911-14) ...
Kandla: town, northwestern Gujarat state, west-central India, a port on the Gulf of Kutch of the Arabian Sea. The port was opened on Kandla's natural deepwater harbour in the 1930s. Designed ...
Kandler, Johann Joachim: late Baroque sculptor who was a major innovator in European porcelain sculpture.
Kandy: important independent monarchy in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) at the end of the 15th century and the last Sinhalese kingdom to be subjugated by a colonial power. Kandy survived the attacks ...
Kandy: city in the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka, at an elevation of 1,640 feet (500 metres). It lies on the Mahaweli River on the shore of an artificial lake that ...
Kane, Elisha Kent: American physician and Arctic explorer who in 1850 led an unsuccessful expedition to northwestern Greenland to search for the British explorer Sir John Franklin, missing since 1845.
Kane, John: Scottish-born American artist who painted primitivist scenes of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Scotland.
Kane, Sheikh Hamidou: Senegalese writer best known for his autobiographical novel L'Aventure ambigue (1961; Ambiguous Adventure), which won the Grand Prix Litteraire d'Afrique Noire in 1962.
Kanem-Bornu: African trading empire ruled by the Sef (Sayf) dynasty that controlled the area around Lake Chad from the 9th to the 19th century. Its territory at various times included what ...
Kaneohe: town, Honolulu county, northeastern Oahu island, Hawaii, U.S. Situated 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Honolulu, it spreads from the foothills of the Koolau Range to Kaneohe Bay. Like neighbouring ...
Kaneohe Bay: bay on the northeastern shore of Oahu island, Hawaii, U.S. A major tourist destination, it contains clear, shallow waters and vivid underwater coral formations that can be viewed from glass-bottom ...
Kang Sheng: Chinese Communist official who is considered to have been one of the three or four most powerful individuals in the government during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76).
Kangar: town, extreme northwest Peninsular (West) Malaysia. It lies 5 miles (8 km) east of the Thailand border, on the Perlis River. Kangar is the largest town in the Perlis region ...
kangaroo: any of six large species of Australian marsupials noted for hopping and bouncing on their hind legs. The term kangaroo, most specifically used, refers to the eastern gray kangaroo, the ...
Kangaroo Island: third largest Australian offshore island, located at the entrance to the Gulf St. Vincent, South Australia, 80 miles (130 km) southwest of Adelaide. The island measures 1,680 square miles (4,350 ...
kangaroo mouse: either of two species of leaping bipedal rodents found only in certain deserts of the western United States. They have large ears and a large head with fur-lined external cheek ...
kangaroo rat: any of 22 species of bipedal North American desert rodents with a tufted tail. Kangaroo rats have large heads and eyes, short forelimbs, and very long hind legs and feet. ...
Kangean Islands: island group in the Java Sea, Jawa Timur provinsi ("province"), Indonesia. The Kangeans lie northwest of the Lesser Sunda Islands (Nusa Tenggara), some 75 miles (121 km) north of Bali, ...
Kanggye: city, northern North Korea. As a transportation junction of the inland plateau near the frontier with China, it has been a fortress and military base since the Choson (Yi) dynasty ...
Kanghwa Island: island, Kyonggi do (province), northwestern South Korea. Kanghwa Island lies in the Yellow Sea just off the northwestern coast, northwest of Inch'on. Roughly rectangular in shape, it lies at the ...
Kangnung: city, Kangwon do (province), northeastern South Korea. A coastal city on the Sea of Japan (East Sea), it has been the administrative and economic centre for the eastern areas of ...
Kango: town, northwestern Gabon. The town is situated about 50 miles (80 km) east of Libreville and lies on the Como River at the head of the Gabon Estuary. Kango is ...
Kangra: city, western Himachal Pradesh state, northwestern India. The city lies on a rail line just south-southwest of Dharmsala, at an elevation of 2,409 feet (734 m). Kangra was known as ...
KaNgwane: former nonindependent black state that was created under the apartheid system in 1977 in eastern Transvaal, South Africa. The state was created as a homeland for those Swazi people not ...
Kangwon: do (province), southeastern North Korea, facing the Sea of Japan (East Sea). The province consists of the small northern part of the former Kangwon Province, which was divided by the ...
Kangwon: do (province), northeastern South Korea, bounded (east) by the Sea of Japan (East Sea) and by the provinces of North Kyongsang and North Ch'ung-ch'ong (south) and Kyonggi (west). In the ...
Kanha National Park: national park in Mandla district, Madhya Pradesh state, central India, extending over 122 sq mi (316 sq km) of the central highlands, at an elevation of from 2,000 ft (600 ...
Kanibadam: city, Khodzhent oblast (province), Tajikistan, in the western Fergana Valley. The Kanibadam oasis was best known for almonds, from which its name, Place of Almonds, is derived. The city dates ...
Kanik, Orhan Veli: poet who was one of the most innovative poets in 20th-century Turkish literature.
Kanimblan orogeny: a mountain-building event in eastern Australia toward the end of Early Carboniferous time (about 325,000,000 years ago). Uplift and deformation occurred in a wide belt extending from Tasmania to Cape ...
Kanin Peninsula: peninsula in Arkhangelsk oblast (province), northwestern Russia. It separates the White Sea to the west from the Cheshskaya Guba (Bay), a gulf of the Barents Sea, to the east. It ...
Kanin, Garson: American writer and director of plays and films, best known for collaborations with his wife, the actress-writer Ruth Gordon.
Kaniska: greatest king of the Kushan dynasty that ruled over the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan, and possibly regions north of Kashmir in Central Asia. He is, however, chiefly ...
kanji: in Japanese writing, characters adapted from Chinese characters and usually employed for writing nouns, verb roots, adjectives, and other important words. The Japanese affixes for verb tenses, prepositions, and other ...
Kankakee: city, seat (1853) of Kankakee county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. It lies on the Kankakee River, about 60 miles (100 km) south of Chicago. Potawatomi Indians were early inhabitants of the ...
Kankakee River: navigable stream rising near South Bend, northern Indiana, U.S., and flowing south and west approximately 135 miles (217 km) to be joined by the Iroquois River near Kankakee, Ill. It ...
Kankan: town, eastern Guinea. Located at the head of navigation of the Milo River (a tributary of the Niger), it was founded as a caravan centre (salt, gold, kola nuts) by ...
Kankrin, Egor Frantsevich, Count: Russian minister of finance (1823-44) under Nicholas I. An extreme fiscal conservative, he resisted most efforts to modernize the Russian state. He was created a count in 1829.
Kanmon Tunnel: world's first under-ocean tunnel, stretching 2.25 miles (about 3.5 km) between the islands of Honshu and Kyushu in Japan. During its construction (1936-44), nearly every known tunneling technique was employed: ...
Kannada language: language of the Dravidian family, spoken in southwestern India; it is the official language of Karnataka (formerly Mysore) state.
Kannada literature: the literature written in Kannada, which, like the other languages of South India, is of the Dravidian family. The earliest records in Kannada are inscriptions dating from the 6th century ...
Kannauj: city, central Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. Kannauj is situated near the Ganges River, northwest of Kanpur, with which it has road and rail connections. Its name probably has more ...
Kanniyakumari: town, southern Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India. The town is situated on Cape Comorin, which is the southernmost point on the Indian subcontinent. Kanniyakumari is a tourist and pilgrimage centre ...
Kannon: in Japanese Buddhism, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion and mercy. See Avalokitesvara.
Kano: historic kingdom and traditional emirate in northern Nigeria. According to the Kano Chronicle (1890s), the best-known native history of the Hausa people, the Kano kingdom was founded as one of ...
Kano: city and capital of Kano state, northern Nigeria, on the Jakara River. It was traditionally founded by Kano, a blacksmith of the Gaya tribe who in ancient times came to ...
Kano: state, northern Nigeria. It was formed in 1968 from Kano province, and in 1991 its northeastern portion was split off to form Jigawa state. It consists of wooded savanna in ...
Kano Eitoku: original name Kano Kuninobu fifth-generation scion of the famous Kano family of Japanese artists who created the style of the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1574-1600) screen paintings.
Kano Masanobu: chief painter to the Ashikaga shoguns (family of military rulers who governed Japan from 1338 to 1573) and founder of the hereditary line of artists who, as official painters to ...
Kano Motonobu: great master of Japanese painting.
Kano Naonobu: seventh-generation member of the Kano family of Japanese artists, who served as painter to the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, and founded the Kobikicho branch of the Kano family.
Kano Sanraku: original name Kano Mitsuyori sixth-generation member of the famous Kano family of painters to the Japanese shoguns.
Kano school: family of artists who painted in a style developed in Japan in the 15th-19th century. For seven generations, more than 200 years, the leading Japanese artists came from this family, ...
Kano Tanyu: original name Kano Morinobu most influential Kano painter of the Tokugawa period in Japan.
kanon: (Greek: "canon"), one of the main forms of Byzantine liturgical office; it consists of nine odes, based on the nine biblical canticles of the Eastern Christian Church. (Compare canonical hours.) ...
Kanoya: city, Kagoshima prefecture (ken), Kyushu, Japan, in the central part of the Osumi Peninsula. The city developed rapidly with the establishment of an air base of the ...
Kanphata Yogi: member of an order of religious ascetics in India that venerates the Hindu deity Lord Siva. Kanphata Yogis are distinguished by the large earrings they wear in the hollows of ...
Kanpur: city, south-central Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. It lies southwest of Lucknow, on the Ganges River. Kanpur was only a village when it and the surrounding territory were acquired in ...
Kansa: North American Indian people of Siouan linguistic stock who lived along the Kansas and Saline rivers in what is now central Kansas. They are related to the Omaha, Osage, Quapaw, ...