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Xiangkhoang Plateau
The Xiang Khouang Plateau or Xiang Khwang Plateau, also known in French as Plateau du Tran-Ninh is a plateau in the north of Laos. The landscape is characterized by green mountains, rugged karst formations and verdant valleys with plenty of rivers, caves and waterfalls. Geography The Luang Prabang Range, and the Annamite Range separate the plateau from Thailand and Vietnam respectively. The ranges of the plateau are sandstone and limestone mountains between 2000 and 2800 meters high (about 6561 and 9842 feet high). These have been heavily deforested. The highest mountain of Laos, Phou Bia, is located to the south of the Xiangkhoang. Altitudes within the plateau area may reach 1000 m. Several tributaries of the Mekong drain in the plateau, such as the Nam Ngum, Ngiap and the Khan River. The major town in the area is the capital of Phonsavan. The plateau gives its name to present-day Xiangkhouang Province in which Phonsavan is located. History The plateau is the location of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phonsavan
Phonsavan (also spelled Phonesavanh, , ), population 37,507, is the capital of Xiangkhouang Province. Phonsavan is known for the nearby Plain of Jars, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. History The recorded history of Xiangkhouang is interlinked with the Phuan people, Tai Phuan. The Tai Phuan or Phuan people are a Buddhist Tai-Lao ethnic group that migrated to Laos from southern China and by the 13th century had formed the independent principality of Muang Phuan at the Plain of Jars, with Xiangkhouang (contemporary Muang Khoun) as the capital. In the 14th century, Muang Phuan was incorporated into the Lan Xang kingdom under King Fa Ngum. The Phuan population were able to retain a degree of autonomy, while they had to pay tax and tribute to Lan Xang. The capital was dotted with temples in a Xiangkhouang style, with lower roofs and a characteristic "waist" at the foundation. In 1930, Le Boulanger described it as "a large and beautiful city, protected by wide moats and forts occupyi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deforested
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. About 31% of Earth's land surface is covered by forests at present. This is one-third less than the forest cover before the expansion of agriculture, with half of that loss occurring in the last century. Between 15 million to 18 million hectares of forest, an area the size of Bangladesh, are destroyed every year. On average 2,400 trees are cut down each minute. Estimates vary widely as to the extent of deforestation in the tropics. In 2019, nearly a third of the overall tree cover loss, or 3.8 million hectares, occurred within humid tropical primary forests. These are areas of mature rainforest that are especially important for biodiversity and carbon storage. The direct cause of most deforestation is agriculture by far. More than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cluster Munitions
A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehicles. Other cluster munitions are designed to destroy runways or electric power transmission lines. Because cluster bombs release many small bomblets over a wide area, they pose risks to civilians both during attacks and afterwards. Unexploded ordnance, Unexploded bomblets can kill or maim civilians and unintended targets long after a conflict has ended, and are costly to locate and remove. This failure rate ranges from 2 percent to over 40 percent. Cluster munitions are prohibited for those nations that ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions, adopted in Dublin, Ireland, in May 2008. The Convention entered into force and became binding international law upon ratifying states on 1 August 2010, six months after being ratified by 30 st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plain Of Jars
The Plain of Jars ( Lao: ທົ່ງໄຫຫີນ ''Thong Hai Hin'', ) is a megalithic archaeological landscape in Laos. It consists of thousands of stone jars scattered around the upland valleys and the lower foothills of the central plain of the Xiangkhoang Plateau. The jars are arranged in clusters ranging in number from one to several hundred. The Xiangkhoang Plateau is at the northern end of the Annamese Cordillera, the principal mountain range of Indochina. French researcher Madeleine Colani concluded in 1930 that the jars were associated with burial practices. Excavation by Lao and Japanese archaeologists in the intervening years has supported this interpretation with the discovery of human remains, burial goods and ceramics around the jars. Researchers (using optically stimulated luminescence) determined that the jars were put in place as early as 1240 to 660 BC. The jars at Site 1 (using detrital zircon geochronology) were determined to have been transported to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xiangkhouang Province
Xiangkhouang (Lao alphabet, Lao: wikt:ຊຽງຂວາງ, ຊຽງຂວາງ, meaning 'Horizontal City') is a province of Laos on the Xiangkhoang Plateau, in the nation's northeast. The province has the distinction of being the most heavily-bombed place on Earth. Historically, the province was formerly the independent principality of Muang Phuan. Its later capital is Phonsavan. The population of the province as of the 2015 census was 244,684. Xiangkhouang province covers an area of and is mountainous. Apart from floodplains, the largest area of level land in the country is on the province's Xiangkhoang Plateau. The plateau is characterized by rolling hills and grassland whose elevation averages . The country's highest peak, Phou Bia (), rises at the south side of the plateau. Nam Et-Phou Louey is a National Biodiversity Conservation Area (NBCA) in the province, covering an area of 5,959 km2, and overlaps into Houaphanh province, Houaphanh and Luang Prabang province, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khan River
The river Khan is an ephemeral river crossing the Erongo region of central Namibia. It is the main tributary of the Swakop River and only occasionally carries surface water during the rainy season from November to February/March. Khan's catchment area including its tributaries Slang and Etiro stretches over . The Khan has its origin near the settlement of Otjisemba, north-west of Okahandja. From there the river course passes westwards to the town of Usakos, and further in a south-western direction through the Namib desert. It has its confluence with the Swakop River 40 km east of Swakopmund. It is a popular tourist attraction due to the proliferation of mammals such as the klipspringer The klipspringer (; ''Oreotragus oreotragus'') is a small antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. The sole member of its genus and subfamily/tribe, the klipspringer was first described by German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zi ... antelope, ostriches and jackals. Refe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nam Ngum
Nam Ngum (, ) is a 354 km long river in Laos. It is a major tributary of the Mekong River. Geography The Nam Ngum originates from the northern mountainous region of Xiangkhoang Province and flows south through Vientiane Province joining the Mekong at the capital of Laos, Vientiane (prefecture), Vientiane. The Nam Ngum river basin is home to about one million people in Laos. The current largest dam on Nam Ngum, Nam Ngum Dam (Nam Ngum 1 Hydropower Project) was originally constructed between 1968 and 1971. There are also four other hydropower projects under construction or planned for construction on the Nam Ngum River. Tourism destinations along Nam Ngum include the Nam Ngum Lake, Dansavanh Nam Ngum Resort, and Vang Vieng. The Nam Ngum river basin covers 16,906 square kilometers, including 8,297 km2 of watershed area. The Nam Ngum river basin covers 2.73 percent of the lower Mekong river basin. The water flow of the Nam Ngum River to the Mekong River is 700 m3/s. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mekong
The Mekong or Mekong River ( , ) is a transboundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth-longest river and the third-longest in Asia with an estimated length of and a drainage area of , discharging of water annually. From its headwaters in the Tibetan Plateau, the river runs through Southwest China (where it is officially called the Lancang River), Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and southern Vietnam. The extreme seasonal variations in flow and the presence of rapids and waterfalls in the Mekong make navigation difficult, though the river remains a major trade route between Tibet and Southeast Asia. The construction of hydroelectric dams along the Mekong in the 2000s through the 2020s has caused serious problems for the river's ecosystem, including the exacerbation of drought. Names The Mekong was originally called ''Mae Nam Khong'' from a contracted form of Kra-Dai shortened to ''Mae Khong''. In Thai and Lao, ''Mae Nam'' ("Mother ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phou Bia
Phou Bia (, ) is the highest mountain in Laos. It is in the Annamite Range, at the southern limit of the Xiangkhoang Plateau in Xaisomboun Province. Owing to its elevation—2,830 m (9,280 ft), the highest terrestrial point in Laos, the climate is cold and the area around the mountain is mostly cloudy. History Although no snow has been reported for decades, it is claimed that as late as the first years of the 20th century, snow fell occasionally on its summit. On 10 April 1970, an Air America (airline), Air America C-130A aircraft crashed into the mountain. The area is remote, covered with jungle, and has been used by Hmong people, Hmong guerrilla soldiers. In the 1970s, c. 60,000 Hmong supporting Raven Forward Air Controllers, FAC operations took refuge at the Phou Bia massif. There have been reports of smaller Hmong hideouts in the area as recently as 2006. Phou Bia rises in a restricted military area near the abandoned Long Chen air base, and for this reason sees f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Limestone
Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science), crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Limestone forms when these minerals Precipitation (chemistry), precipitate out of water containing dissolved calcium. This can take place through both biological and nonbiological processes, though biological processes, such as the accumulation of corals and shells in the sea, have likely been more important for the last 540 million years. Limestone often contains fossils which provide scientists with information on ancient environments and on the evolution of life. About 20% to 25% of sedimentary rock is carbonate rock, and most of this is limestone. The remaining carbonate rock is mostly Dolomite (rock), dolomite, a closely related rock, which contains a high percentage of the mineral Dolomite (mine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laos
Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and southwest. The country has a population of approximately eight million. Its Capital city, capital and most populous city is Vientiane. The country is characterized by mountainous terrain, Buddhist temples, including the UNESCO's World Heritage Site of Luang Prabang, and French colonial architecture. The country traces its historic and cultural identity to Lan Xang, a kingdom which existed from the 13th to 18th centuries. Through its location, the kingdom was a hub for overland trade. In 1707, Lan Xang split into three kingdoms: Kingdom of Luang Phrabang, Luang Prabang, Kingdom of Vientiane, Vientiane, and Kingdom of Champasak, Champasak. In 1893, these kingdoms were unified under French protection as part of French Indochina. Laos was und ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
