Great Mother of the Gods or Cybele Vsi-b3-le\ Deity of the ancient Mediterranean world. Her cult originated in Phrygia in Asia Minor and spread to the Greek world, where she was identified with Rhea. It reached Rome by the 3rd century bc and became a major cult during the empire. Known by a variety of local names, Cybele was venerated as the universal mother of gods, humans, and animals. Her lover was the fertil¬ ity god Attis. Her priests, the Galli, castrated themselves when they entered her service, and on her festival day they spattered their blood on her altar and her sacred pine tree. See photo above.
Great Northern Railway Co. U.S. railroad founded by James J. Hill in 1890. Hill bought a Minnesota railroad, the St. Paul and Pacific Rail¬
road, in 1878, and extended it north to the Canadian border and west to the Pacific coast, encouraging thou¬ sands of homesteaders to settle along its tracks. Together with J. P. Morgan of the Northern Pacific Railway Co., Hill bought control of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad in 1901 and set up a holding company to control the three railroads. In 1904 the U.S. Supreme Court declared the company in violation of antitrust laws and ordered it dissolved, but the Burlington continued under control of the Great Northern and the North¬ ern Pacific. In 1970 the three were merged under the name Burlington Northern, Inc.
Great Northern War See Sec¬ ond Northern War
Great Ouse See River Ouse
Great Plague of London
(1664-66) Epidemic of plague that ravaged London, killing more than 75,000 of a total population esti¬ mated at 460,000. As early as 1625, 40,000 Londoners had died of the plague, but this was the worst and the last of the epidemics. Most of the devastation was in the city’s out¬ skirts, in areas where the poor were densely crowded. The disease spread throughout the country, but from 1667 only sporadic cases appeared until 1679. The plague’s decline was attributed to various causes, including the Great Fire of London. Daniel Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year (1722) provides a valuable picture of the time.
Great Plains Continental slope of central North America. It stretches from the Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border in the south to the Mac¬ kenzie River delta along the Arctic Ocean in the north and from the Inte¬ rior Lowlands and the Canadian Shield in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. The plains embrace parts of 10 U.S. states and 4 Canadian provinces, covering an area of about 1,125,000 sq mi (2,900,000 sq km). A high plateau of semiarid grassland, these prairie regions in both the U.S. and Canada produce the major proportion of wheat grown in each coun¬ try and are also important cattle- and sheep-herding areas. Parts of the plains have reserves of coal and lignite, petroleum, and natural gas.
Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution See Cultural Revolution
Great Red Spot Storm on the planet Jupiter that moves in longitude but remains centred at about latitude 22° south. A high-pressure centre, it is oval, measuring about 7,500 mi (12,000 km) north to south, roughly the diameter of Earth, and nearly twice as wide east to west. Its dis¬ covery in the 1660s is attributed to Gian Domenico Cassini or Robert Hooke. Its colour, whose cause is unknown, varies from brick-red to brownish; it tends to change colour over a period of years.
Great Rift Valley or Rift Val¬ ley or East African Rift Sys¬ tem Rift system (see rift valley), extending from Jordan in the Middle East south to Mozambique in south¬ ern Africa. It is some 4,000 mi (6,400 km) long and averages 30-40 mi (48-64 km) wide. The rift has been forming for some 30 million years, as Africa and the Arabian Peninsula
Cybele, terra-cotta statuette, from Cam- irus, Rhodes, early 5th century bc; in the British Museum, London.
COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM
Jupiter's Great Red Spot (top right) and the surrounding region. Below the spot is one of the large white ovals associ¬ ated with the feature.
NASA/JPL
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
796 i Great Saint Bernard Pass ► Greater Manchester
separate, and has produced such massifs as Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya. The system’s main branch, the Eastern Rift Valley, is occupied in the north by the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, and the Gulf of Aqaba. It continues south along the Red Sea to several lakes in Kenya. Less obvious in Tan¬ zania, with its eastern rim eroded, it continues south to the Indian Ocean near Beira, Mozam. The western branch of the system, the Western Rift Valley, extends north from the northern end of Lake Malawi in an arc that includes lakes Rukwa, Tanganyika, Kivu, Edward, and Albert.
Great Saint Bernard Pass ancient Mons Jovis Pass in the Alps. One of the highest of the Alpine frontier passes, at 8,100 ft (2,469 m) it lies on the Italian-Swiss border east of the Mont Blanc group and con¬ nects Martigny-Ville, Switz., with Aosta, Italy. Historically the most important trans-Alpine route, it was often used by pilgrims to Rome and later by medieval armies. In 1800 it was crossed by Napoleon and his 40,000 troops on their way to northern Italy. A famous hospice on the pass, founded by St. Bernard of Menthon in the 11th century, is still kept by Augustinian monks who, with their St. Bernard dogs, provide services to travelers. The old road, open only five months a year, has been partly superseded by a tunnel beneath the pass, which allows year-round travel.
Great Salt Lake Lake, northern Utah, U.S. It is the largest inland body of salt water in the Western Hemisphere and one of the most saline in the world. It fluctuates greatly in size, depending on rates of evaporation and the flow of the rivers into it. Its surface area has varied from about 2,400 sq mi (6,200 sq km) at its highest levels in 1873 and the mid 1980s to about 950 sq mi (2,460 sq km) at its low level in 1963. At times of median water level, it is generally less than 15 ft (4.5 m) deep. Surrounded by stretches of sand, salt land, and marsh, the lake remains isolated, though in recent years it has become important as a source of minerals, as a beach and water-sports attraction, and as a wildlife preserve.
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Natural area, south-central Colorado, U.S. It lies at the eastern edge of the San Luis Valley along the western base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Estab¬ lished in 1932 as a national monument, the 150,000-acre (60,700-hectare) region contains some of the highest inland sand dunes in the U.S., with changing crests that rise to 700 ft (215 m). In 2000 the Great Sand Dunes National Preserve was created, and after much land acquisition the monu¬ ment officially became a national park in 2004.
Great Sandy Desert Wasteland, northern Western Australia. It extends from Eighty Mile Beach on the Indian Ocean eastward into the Northern Territory and from the Kimberley Downs south to the Tropic of Capricorn and the Gibson Desert. An arid expanse of salt marshes and sand hills, it roughly coincides with the sedimentary Canning basin. Canning Stock Route (1,000 mi [1,600 km] long) spans the region from Wiluna via Lake Disappointment to Halls Creek.
Great Schism See Western Schism
great sea otter See sea otter
Great Slave Lake Lake, south-central Northwest Territories, Canada. Named for the Slave Indians, it is fed by several rivers, including the Slave, and drained by the Mackenzie River into the Arctic Ocean. The lake, with an area of 11,031 sq mi (28,570 sq km), is the fifth largest in North America. It is 300 mi (500 km) long and 30-140 mi (50-225 km) wide, with a maximum depth of more than 2,000 ft (600 m). While supporting a fishing industry, the lake is an integral part of the Mackenzie River waterway.
Great Smoky Mountains West range of the Appalachian Mountains in the U.S. It extends along the North Carolina-Tennessee boundary and blends into the Blue Ridge to the east. The highest part lies within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and includes Clingmans Dome, which at 6,643 ft (2,025 m) is the highest peak. Covered by forests, it was origi¬ nally the domain of the Cherokee, and the area includes the Cherokee Indian Reservation and parts of the Pisgah and Cherokee national forests. The mountains form a popular resort area that includes part of the Appa¬ lachian National Scenic Trail and the Blue Ridge Parkway.