Portal:World

The World Portal

A world is a totality of entities. In philosophy, the world is customarily viewed as all of existence or the whole of reality. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others examine the character of entities that exist in the world or talk of a plurality of worlds, challenging the idea that the world is a all-inclusive whole. The term is also commonly used as a context-dependent expression to denote a specific domain of discourse and everything within it, such as the Earth and all life on it or the whole of human existence.

Theories of modality 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 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 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 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, and 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...)

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Selected articles - show another

Image 1

The top 10 busiest container ports by year (2004–2023)

This article lists the world's busiest container ports (ports with container terminals that specialize in handling goods transported in intermodal shipping containers), by total number of twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) transported through the port. The table lists volume in thousands of TEU per year. The vast majority of containers moved by large, ocean-faring container ships are 20-foot (1 TEU) and 40-foot (2 TEU) ISO-standard shipping containers, with 40-foot units outnumbering 20-foot units to such an extent that the actual number of containers moved is between 55%–60% of the number of TEUs counted.

The latest ranking reflected the figures for the year 2023, as published in the Lloyds List Top 100 and World Shipping Council (2024 figures) (Full article...)
Image 2
Painting of a turn-of-century trading fair, Hessisches Volksfest (Hessian Folk Festival), 1887, Louis Toussaint (1826–1887), oil on canvas

Cultural globalization is the accelerating transnational circulation of ideas, meanings, values, and cultural practices that reshape collective identities and social relations across geographic, linguistic, and political boundaries. This process is characterized by the common consumption of cultures that have been disseminated by the Internet, popular culture media, and international travel. This has contributed to the processes of commodity exchange and colonization, both of which have a longer history of carrying cultural meaning around the globe.

The creation and expansion of such social relations is not merely observed on a material level. Cultural globalization involves the formation of shared norms and knowledge with which people associate their individual and collective cultural identities. It brings increasing interconnectedness among different populations and cultures. The idea of cultural globalization emerged in the late 1980s, but was diffused widely by Western academics throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. For some researchers, the idea of cultural globalization is reaction to the claims made by critics of cultural imperialism in the 1970s and 1980s. (Full article...)
Image 3
Path of the Centurion under the command of George Anson

While Great Britain was fighting the War of Jenkins' Ear with Spain in 1740, Commodore George Anson led a squadron of eight ships on a mission to disrupt or capture the Spanish possessions in the Pacific. He returned to Britain in 1744 by way of China, thereby completing a circumnavigation of the globe. The voyage was notable for the capture of the Manila galleon and for its horrific losses due to powerful storms and disease, with only 188 men of the original 1,854 crew and officers surviving. An account of the voyage was published in 1748. It was widely read by the general public and was a great commercial success. It has been described in 1899 as being "still esteemed as the story of a remarkable voyage extremely well told." (Full article...)
Image 4
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that comprises private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information services and resources, such as the interlinked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, discussion groups, internet telephony, streaming media and file sharing.

Most traditional communication media, including telephone, radio, television, paper mail, newspapers, and print publishing, have been transformed by the Internet, giving rise to new media such as email, online music, digital newspapers, news aggregators, and audio and video streaming websites. The Internet has enabled and accelerated new forms of personal interaction through instant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking services. Online shopping has also grown to occupy a significant market across industries, enabling firms to extend brick and mortar presences to serve larger markets. Business-to-business and financial services on the Internet affect supply chains across entire industries. (Full article...)
Image 5
Map of global water stress (a symptom of water scarcity) in 2019. Water stress is the ratio of water use relative to water availability and is therefore a demand-driven scarcity.

Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of any, local or economically viably transportable, sources of fresh water resources to meet the standard water demand in a region. There are two types of water scarcity. One is physical. The other is economic water scarcity. Physical water scarcity is where there is not enough water to meet all demands. This includes water needed for ecosystems to function. Regions with a desert climate often face physical water scarcity. Central Asia, West Asia, North Africa, and most of Australia are examples of arid areas. Economic water scarcity results from a lack of investment in infrastructure or technology to draw usable water from rivers, aquifers, and other water sources. It also results from weak human capacity to meet water demand. Many people in sub-Saharan Africa are living with economic water scarcity.

There is and has always been enough physical supply of freshwater for current or near or distant future demand in a global scale. As such, water scarcity is caused by a mismatch between when and where people need water, and when and where it is available. This can happen due to an increase in the number of people in a region, changing living conditions and diets, and expansion of irrigated agriculture. Climate change (including droughts or floods), deforestation, water pollution and wasteful use of water can also mean there is not enough water. These variations in scarcity may also be a function of prevailing economic policy and planning approaches. (Full article...)
Image 6
Brave New World is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931, and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation, and classical conditioning that are combined to make a seemingly utopian society which is challenged by an outsider character, John the Savage. Huxley followed this book with a reassessment in essay form, Brave New World Revisited (1958), and with his final novel, Island (1962), the utopian counterpart. This novel is often used as a companion piece or inversion counterpart to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).

In 1998 and 1999, the Modern Library ranked Brave New World at number 5 on its list of the 100 Best Novels in English of the 20th century. In 2003, Robert McCrum, writing for The Observer, included Brave New World chronologically at number 53 in "the top 100 greatest novels of all time", and the novel was listed at number 87 on The Big Read survey by the BBC. Brave New World has frequently been banned and challenged since its original publication. It has landed on the American Library Association list of top 100 banned and challenged books of the decade since the association began the list in 1990. (Full article...)
Image 7
Alaska's McCarty Glacier retreated about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) in less than a century, and dense, diverse vegetation has become established on the slopes.

The retreat of glaciers since 1850 is a well-documented effect of climate change. The retreat of mountain glaciers provides evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century. Examples include mountain glaciers in western North America, Asia, the Alps in central Europe, and tropical and subtropical regions of South America and Africa. Since glacial mass is affected by long-term climatic changes, e.g. precipitation, mean temperature, and cloud cover, glacial mass changes are one of the most sensitive indicators of climate change. The retreat of glaciers is also a major reason for sea level rise. Excluding peripheral glaciers of ice sheets, the total cumulated global glacial losses over the 26 years from 1993 to 2018 were likely 5500 gigatons, or 210 gigatons per year.

On Earth, 99% of glacial ice is contained within vast ice sheets (also known as "continental glaciers") in the polar regions. Glaciers also exist in mountain ranges on every continent other than the Australian mainland, including Oceania's high-latitude oceanic island countries such as New Zealand. Glacial bodies larger than 50,000 km² (19,000 sq mi) are called ice sheets. They are several kilometers deep and obscure the underlying topography. (Full article...)

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General images - load new batch

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

Image 1James Watt's steam engine powered the Industrial Revolution.
Image 2Earth's history with time-spans of the eons to scale. Ma means "million years ago", Ga means "billion years ago". (from History of Earth)
Image 3Ming dynasty section, Great Wall of China
Image 4A view of the Southern Pacific under moonlight with different layers of Earth's atmosphere visible: the troposphere with its clouds casting shadows, a band of stratospheric blue sky at the horizon, and a line of green airglow of the lower thermosphere around an altitude of 100 km, at the edge of space (from Earth)
Image 5Map of Earth's 16 principal tectonic plates (from Earth)
Image 6Overall increase in average surface air temperature juxtaposed with natural drivers: human activity has caused increased temperatures, with natural forces adding some variability. (from Earth)
Image 7Benin Bronze head from Nigeria, 16th century AD
Image 8One of the 11 Rock-hewn Churches of Lalibela constructed during the Zagwe dynasty in Ethiopia (from Human history)
Image 9Trilobites first appeared during the Cambrian period and were among the most widespread and diverse groups of Paleozoic organisms. (from History of Earth)
Image 10Artist's impression of a Hadean landscape with the relatively newly formed Moon still looming closely over Earth and both bodies sustaining strong volcanism. (from History of Earth)
Image 11Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
Image 12Successive dispersals of Homo erectus (yellow), Homo neanderthalensis (ochre) during Out of Africa I and Homo sapiens (red, Out of Africa II), with the numbers of years since they appeared before present. (from Human history)
Image 13COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 (from Human history)
Image 14Worldwide Köppen climate classifications (from Earth)
Image 15Artist's conception of Hadean Eon Earth, when it was much hotter and inhospitable to all forms of life. (from History of Earth)
Image 16Pillar erected by Ashoka, a Mauryan Emperor in India
Image 17The 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)
Image 18Chloroplasts in the cells of a moss (from History of Earth)
Image 19A view of Earth with its global ocean and cloud cover, which dominate Earth's surface and hydrosphere; at Earth's polar regions, its hydrosphere forms larger areas of ice cover. (from Earth)
Image 20Geologic 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.
Image 21Earth's land use for human agriculture in 2019 (from Earth)
Image 22The first airplane, the Wright Flyer, flew on 17 December 1903.
Image 23Artist's impression of the enormous collision that probably formed the Moon (from History of Earth)
Image 24A depiction of the early Solar System's protoplanetary disk from which Earth and other Solar System bodies were formed (from Earth)
Image 25Olmec colossal head, now at the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa
Image 26The pale orange dot, an artist's impression of the early Earth which might have appeared orange through its hazy methane rich prebiotic second atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere at this stage was somewhat comparable to today's atmosphere of Titan. (from History of Earth)
Image 27A conception of the scorched Earth after the Sun has entered the red giant phase, about 5–7 billion years in the future (from Earth)
Image 28Notre-Dame de Paris, France
Image 29Taj Mahal, Mughal Empire, India
Image 30The Colosseum in Rome (from Human history)
Image 31A computer-generated image mapping the prevalence of artificial satellites and space debris around Earth in geosynchronous and low Earth orbit (from Earth)
Image 32A map of heat flow from Earth's interior to the surface of Earth's crust, mostly along the oceanic ridges (from Earth)
Image 33A pillar at Neolithic Göbekli Tepe
Image 34Yggdrasil, an attempt to reconstruct the Norse world tree which connects the heavens, the world, and the underworld. (from World)
Image 35Machu Picchu, Inca Empire, Peru
Image 36Maya observatory, Chichen Itza, Mexico
Image 37An artist's impression of ice age Earth at glacial maximum. (from History of Earth)
Image 38A composite image of Earth with an opaque cloud cover, making the different types of surface discernible: Earth's surface dominating Ocean (blue), Africa with lush (green) to dry (brown) land and Earth's polar ice in the form of Antarctic sea ice (grey) covering the Antarctic or Southern Ocean and the Antarctic ice sheet (white) covering Antarctica. (from Earth)
Image 39Angkor Wat temple complex, Cambodia, early 12th century
Image 40Last Moon landing: Apollo 17 (1972)
Image 41Cuneiform inscription, eastern Turkey
Image 42Battle during the 1281 Mongol invasion of Japan
Image 43Atomic bombing of Nagasaki, 1945
Image 44Image of the physical world, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope (from World)
Image 45Scientific worldview (from World)
Image 46Earth and the Moon as seen from Mars by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (from Earth)
Image 47Pale orange dot, an impression of Early Earth, featuring its tinted orange methane-rich early atmosphere (from Earth)
Image 48Earth depicted to scale alongside the planetary-mass objects of the Inner Solar System. From left: Mercury, Venus, Earth, the Moon, Mars and Ceres. (from Earth)
Image 49A combination of different cosmological Middle Eastern axis mundi ideas from the post-classical age (The Wonders of Creation by Zakariya al-Qazwini) showing a flat round Earth surrounded by a range of Qaf Mountains, resting on the back of a giant bull (Kujata or Behemoth), which in turn stands on a vast fish (Bahamut or Leviathan) in a cosmic ocean held up by an angel or jinn (from Earth)
Image 50Dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates throughout most of the Mesozoic (from History of Earth)

Megacities of the world - show another

Osaka

Keihanshin (京阪神; Japanese pronunciation: [kei.haꜜɰ̃.ɕiɴ, keː-], lit. 'Kyoto–Osaka–Kobe') is a metropolitan region in the Kansai region of Japan encompassing the metropolitan areas of the cities of Kyoto in Kyoto Prefecture, Osaka in Osaka Prefecture and Kobe in Hyōgo Prefecture. The entire region has a population (as of 2015^[update]) of 19,302,746 over an area of 13,228 km² (5,107 sq mi). It is the second-most-populated urban region in Japan (after the Greater Tokyo Area), containing approximately 15% of Japan's population.

The GDP in Osaka–Kobe is $681 billion as measured by PPP as of 2015^[update], making it one of the world's most productive regions, a match with Paris and London. MasterCard Worldwide reported that Osaka is the 19th ranking city of the world's leading global cities and has an instrumental role in driving the global economy. If Keihanshin were a country, it would be the 16th-largest economy in the world, with a GDP of nearly $953.9 billion in 2012. (Full article...)

List of megacities

Did you know - load new batch

... that Joey Comiso first became interested in science after his village mistook an airplane contrail for the end of the world?
... that the publisher of Serious Sam II petitioned Guinness World Records to recognise it for the most enemies simultaneously displayed in a video game?
... that astronauts orbiting the Moon celebrated the moment at which they lost contact with Earth by eating maple leaf cream cookies?
... that Malaysian percussionist Lewis Pragasam was drumming to "Joy to the World" at a Christmas concert when he suffered a fatal heart attack?
... that more than 90 world leaders have made a pledge to achieve nature-positive goals?
... that the "fall and rise of Femke Bol" refers to her fall in the mixed 4 × 400 m relay followed by her world title in the 400 metres hurdles?
... that the walls of Babylon were included in many early lists of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?
... that Keely Hodgkinson broke an athletics world record that had been set on the day that she was born?

Countries of the world - show another

Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country comprising the western and northernmost parts of the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe, the remote Arctic island Jan Mayen and the archipelago Svalbard. Bouvet Island, located in the Subantarctic, is a dependency, and not a part of the Kingdom; Norway also claims the Antarctic territories of Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land. Norway has a population of approximately 5.6 million, and a total area of 385,207 square kilometres (148,729 sq mi). Its capital and largest city is Oslo. The country shares a long eastern border with Sweden, and is bordered by Finland and Russia to the northeast. Norway has an extensive coastline facing the Skagerrak strait, the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea, and the Barents Sea.

The unified kingdom of Norway was established in 872 as a merger of petty kingdoms and has existed continuously for over a millennium. From 1537 to 1814, Norway was part of Denmark–Norway, and from 1814 to 1905, it was in a personal union with Sweden. Norway was neutral during the First World War, and in the Second World War until April 1940 when it was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany until the end of the war. (Full article...)

List of countries

See also: List of sovereign states

Wonders of the World - show another

Various lists of the Wonders of the World have been compiled from antiquity to the present day, in order to catalogue the world's most spectacular natural features and human-built structures.

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is the oldest known list of this type, documenting the most iconic and remarkable human-made creations of classical antiquity; the canonical list was established in the 1572 Octo Mundi Miracula, based on classical sources which varied widely. The classical sources only include works located around the Mediterranean rim and in the ancient Near East. The number seven was chosen because the Greeks believed it represented perfection and plenty, and because it reflected the number of planets known in ancient times (five) plus the Sun and Moon. (Full article...)

List of articles

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Protected areas of the world - load new batch

Image 1
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...)
Image 2
Protected areas in the U.S. state of Ohio include national forest lands, Army Corps of Engineers areas, state parks, state forests, state nature preserves, state wildlife management areas, and other areas. (Full article...)
Image 3
Part of the Brecon Beacons National Park, looking from the highest point of Pen y Fan (886 m/2907 feet) to Cribyn (795 m/2608 feet).

Protected areas of the United Kingdom are areas in the United Kingdom which need and /or receive protection because of their environmental, historical or cultural value to the nation. Methods and aims of protection vary depending on the nature and importance of the resource. Protection operates at local, regional, national and international levels, and may be backed by legislation and international treaty, or less formally by planning policy.

Within the United Kingdom, different approaches are taken to some forms of protection within the constituent countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, while other forms of protection are more consistent across the UK. Protected areas can be divided according to the type of resource which each seeks to protect. Primarily, these are: scenic or landscape value; biodiversity value (species and habitats); geodiversity value (relating to geology and geomorphology); and cultural or historic value. These categories can overlap. (Full article...)
Image 4
China has more than 10,000 protected areas, covering eighteen percent of the country's land. 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".

Many protected areas (PAs) in China have multiple official designations, and the statutory boundaries of these multi-designated PAs may be identical or may vary from one another. 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...)
Image 5
Desert landscape of Khor Al Adaid in southern Qatar

Protected areas of Qatar include:
- Al Reem Biosphere Preserve (designated in 2007, part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves in the Arab States) in northwest Qatar
- Al Thakira Nature Reserve in Al Thakhira
- Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation in Al-Shahaniya
- Dahl Al Hamam Park, a sinkhole in the Dahl Al Hamam district of Doha (entrance to the hole is now closed to the public)
- Dahl Al Misfir in Rawdat Rashed
- Khor Al Adaid Reserve in Khor Al Adaid
- Khor Al Adaid Fish Sanctuary in Khor Al Adaid
- Mudhlem Cave in Mukaynis
- Ras Abrouq Nature Reserve (also known as Bir Zekreet and Zekreet Beach) in Ras Abrouq
- Ras Ushairij Gazelle Conservation Park in Ras Ushairij
- Umm Tais National Park in Umm Tais
(Full article...)
Image 6
This list of protected areas of Manitoba groups the protected areas administered by the Government of Manitoba through its parks and protected areas program. (Full article...)
Image 7
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...)
Image 8
The northernmost tip of Prins Karls Forland in Forlandet National Park

Svalbard is an Arctic wilderness archipelago comprising the northernmost part of Norway. There are twenty-nine protected natural areas, consisting of seven national parks, six nature reserves, fifteen bird sanctuaries and one geotope protected area. In addition, human traces dating from before 1946 are automatically protected. The protected areas make up 39,800 square kilometers (15,400 sq mi) or 65% of the land area, and 78,000 square kilometers (30,000 sq mi) or 86.5% of the territorial waters. The largest protected areas are Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve and Søraust-Svalbard Nature Reserve, which cover most of the areas east of the main island of Spitsbergen, including the islands of Nordaustlandet, Edgeøya, Barentsøya, Kong Karls Land and Kvitøya. Six of the national parks are located on Spitsbergen. Ten of the bird sanctuaries and the Moffen Nature Reserve are located within national parks. Five of the bird sanctuaries are Ramsar sites and fourteen of the bird sanctuaries are islands. Svalbard is on Norway's tentative list for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The supreme responsibility for conservation lies with the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment, which has delegated the management to the Governor of Svalbard and the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management. The foundation for conservation was established in the Svalbard Treaty of 1920, and has been further specified in the Svalbard Environmental Act of 2001. The first round of protection took force on 1 July 1973, when most of the current protected areas came into effect. This included the two large nature reserves and three of the national parks. Moffen Nature Reserve was established in 1983, followed by four national parks, three nature reserves and one geotope protection area between 2002 and 2005. (Full article...)
Image 9

Canada's National Parks and National Reserves by provinces and territories

This is a list of protected areas of Saskatchewan. (Full article...)
Image 10
A National Biodiversity Conservation Area (NBCA) is an environmentally protected area in Laos. There are altogether 21 different NBCAs in Laos, protecting 29,775 square kilometers. Another 10 NBCAs have been proposed, the territory of many of them being treated by authorities as though they were already officially protected. (Full article...)
Image 11
The protected areas of Michigan come in an array of different types and levels of protection. Michigan has five units of the National Park Service system. There are 14 federal wilderness areas; the majority of these are also tribal-designated wildernesses. It has one of the largest state forest systems as well having four national forests. The state maintains a large state park system and there are also regional parks, and county, township and city parks. Still other parks on land and in the Great Lakes are maintained by other governmental bodies. Private protected areas also exist in the state, mainly lands owned by land conservancies. (Full article...)
Image 12

There are numerous parks throughout the sovereign island country of Singapore. This is a list of parks in Singapore that currently exist and have articles on Wikipedia. Under the National Parks Board Act 1996, the National Parks Board (NParks) maintains public parks, nature reserves, and national parks. Most of these parks are connected via the Park Connector Network (PCN) walking/running/cycling paths. (Full article...)
Image 13
Entrance to Tanintharyi Nature Reserve.

This list of protected areas of Myanmar includes national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and botanical gardens that were established since 1927. (Full article...)
Image 14
Protected areas of West Bengal cover 4% of the state area. Forests make up 14% of the geographical area of West Bengal, which is lower than the national average of 33%. West Bengal has a wide variety of fauna, including Bengal tigers, Indian leopards, sloth and Himalayan black bears, chital and sambar (deer), Indian boars, pygmy hogs, Indian elephants, Indian peafowl, great Indian hornbills, Eurasian spoonbills, brahminy ducks, king and Indian cobras, white-lipped pit viper, Indian and reticulated pythons, mugger crocodiles, saltwater crocodiles, gharials, and many more. A huge montane forest, Dooars, is situated in the Northern West Bengal districts of Alipur Duar, Darjeeling, and Kalimpong. Part of the world's largest mangrove forest, Sundarbans, is located in southern West Bengal.
There are 6 national parks and 15 wildlife sanctuaries in West Bengal. (Full article...)
Image 15
Argentina has 35 national parks covering a very varied set of terrains and biotopes, from Baritú National Park on the northern border with Bolivia to Tierra del Fuego National Park in the far south of the continent. The Administración de Parques Nacionales (National Parks Administration) is the agency that preserves and manages these national parks along with Natural monuments and National Reserves within the country.

The headquarters of the National Parks Service are in downtown Buenos Aires, on Santa Fe Avenue. A library and information centre are open to the public. The administration also covers the national monuments, such as the Jaramillo Petrified Forest, and natural and educational reserves. (Full article...)

List of protected areas

Selected world maps

Image 1Index map from the International Map of the World (1:1,000,000 scale)
Image 2United Nations Human Development Index map by country (2016)
Image 3The Goode homolosine projection is a pseudocylindrical, equal-area, composite map projection used for world maps.
Image 4Mollweide projection of the world
$Image 5Only a few of the largest large igneous provinces appear (coloured dark purple) on this geological map, which depicts crustal geologic provinces as seen in seismic refraction data$
Image 5Only 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
Image 6A plate tectonics map with volcano locations indicated with red circles
Image 7The world map by Gerardus Mercator (1569), the first map in the well-known Mercator projection
Image 8Time zones of the world
Image 91516 map of the world by Martin Waldseemüller

See also: Clickable world map • List of map projections

World records

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[WW1-1] Cancelled due to World War I

[WW2-2] 1 2 3 4 Cancelled due to World War II

[COVID2021-3] Postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic

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v t e Earth
Continents	Africa Antarctica Asia Australia Europe North America South America
Oceans	Arctic Ocean Atlantic Ocean Indian Ocean Pacific Ocean Southern Ocean
Geology	Age of Earth Geology Earth science Erosion Extremes on Earth Future Geological history time scale Geologic record Geophysics Gravity History of Earth Magnetic field Plate tectonics Structure
Atmosphere	Atmosphere of Earth Climate Global warming Weather
Environment	Biome Biosphere Ecology Ecosystem Human impact on the environment Evolutionary history of life Nature
Cartography	Digital mapping Satellite imagery Virtual globe World map
Culture and society	List of sovereign states dependent territories In culture Earth Day World economy Etymology World history Time zones World
Planetary science	Earth's orbit Evolution of Solar System Geology of solar terrestrial planets Location in the Universe The Moon Solar System
Outline of Earth

v t e World's largest cities
City proper	Capitals Americas (North Latin Central South) Asia (Arab world ASEAN Arabia East, South and Southeast Asia) Europe (European Union Nordic)
Metropolitan area	Americas (North South West Indies) Europe (European Union Nordic) Asia Africa Middle East
Urban area/agglomeration	Asia Africa Europe European Union Nordic North America Oceania Transborder
Historical	World Europe
Related articles	Arcology Ecumenopolis Global city Megacity Megalopolis Conurbation Satellite city population Primate city Secondary city

v t e Lists of World Heritage Sites
Locations	Africa Americas North America Central America Caribbean South America Asia Eastern Northern and Central Southeast Southern Western Europe Eastern Northern Southern Western Oceania
Related	World Heritage in Danger Former sites By country By year of inscription

v t e World Sailing
World championships in sailing Sailing at the Summer Olympics Sailing at the Summer Paralympics Sailing at the Youth Olympic Games
Confederations	ASF ASCON EUROSAF OSAF SASC
World Championships	Sailing World Championships Youth Sailing World Championships ISAF Offshore Team Racing World Championship ISAF Open Match Racing World Championship Para World Sailing Championships ISAF Team Racing World Championship Women's Match Racing World Championship eSailing World Championship
World Cup	Sailing World Cup
Special events	America's Cup Extreme Sailing Series PWA World Tour Star Sailors League Vendée Globe Volvo Ocean Race World Match Racing Tour
Presidents	Sir Ralph Gore (1946–1955) Sir Peter Scott (1955–1969) Beppe Croce (1969–1986) Peter Tallberg (1986–1994) Paul Henderson (1994–2004) Göran Petersson (2004–2012) Carlo Croce (2012–2016) Kim Andersen (2016–2020) Quanhai Li (2020-present)
Awards	World Sailor of the Year ISAF Sailing Hall of Fame Beppe Croce Trophy