document_title: Red Sea

question_text: what is the salinity of the red sea

question_tokens: what is the salinity of the red sea

text: Red Sea

text: Extent

text: The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Red Sea as follows:[4]

text: Names

text: Red Sea is a direct translation of the Greek Erythra Thalassa (Ερυθρὰ Θάλασσα), Latin Mare Rubrum (alternatively Sinus Arabicus, literally "Arabian Gulf"), Arabic: البحر الأحمر, translit. Al-Baḥr Al-Aḥmar (alternatively بحر القلزم Baḥr Al-Qulzum, literally "the Sea of Clysma"), Somali Badda Cas and Tigrinya Qeyyiḥ bāḥrī (ቀይሕ ባሕሪ). The name of the sea may signify the seasonal blooms of the red-coloured Trichodesmium erythraeum near the water's surface.[5] A theory favored by some modern scholars is that the name red is referring to the direction south, just as the Black Sea's name may refer to north. The basis of this theory is that some Asiatic languages used color words to refer to the cardinal directions.[6] Herodotus on one occasion uses Red Sea and Southern Sea interchangeably.[7]

text: Historically, it was also known to western geographers as Mare Mecca (Sea of Mecca), and Sinus Arabicus (Gulf of Arabia).[8] Some ancient geographers called the Red Sea the Arabian Gulf[9] or Gulf of Arabia.[10][11]

text: The association of the Red Sea with the biblical account of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea is ancient, and was made explicit in the Septuagint translation of the Book of Exodus from Hebrew to Koine Greek in approximately the third century B.C. In that version, the Yam Suph (Hebrew: ים סוף, lit. 'Sea of Reeds') is translated as Erythra Thalassa (Red Sea). The Red Sea is one of four seas named in English after common color terms — the others being the Black Sea, the White Sea and the Yellow Sea. The direct rendition of the Greek Erythra thalassa in Latin as Mare Erythraeum refers to the north-western part of the Indian Ocean, and also to a region on Mars.

text: History

text: Ancient era

text: The earliest known exploration of the Red Sea was conducted by ancient Egyptians, as they attempted to establish commercial routes to Punt. One such expedition took place around 2500 BC, and another around 1500 BC (by Hatshepsut). Both involved long voyages down the Red Sea.[12] Historically, scholars argued whether these trips were possible.[13] The biblical Book of Exodus tells the tale of the Israelites' crossing of a body of water, which the Hebrew text calls Yam Suph (Hebrew: יַם סוּף). Yam Suph was traditionally identified as the Red Sea. Rabbi Saadia Gaon (882‒942 CE), in his Judeo-Arabic translation of the Pentateuch, identifies the crossing place of the Red Sea as Baḥar al-Qulzum, meaning the Gulf of Suez.[14]

text: In the 6th century BC, Darius the Great of Persia sent reconnaissance missions to the Red Sea, improving and extending navigation by locating many hazardous rocks and currents. A canal was built between the Nile and the northern end of the Red Sea at Suez. In the late 4th century BC, Alexander the Great sent Greek naval expeditions down the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. Greek navigators continued to explore and compile data on the Red Sea. Agatharchides collected information about the sea in the 2nd century BC. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea ("Periplus of the Red Sea"), a Greek periplus written by an unknown author around the 1st century AD, contains a detailed description of the Red Sea's ports and sea routes.[15] The Periplus also describes how Hippalus first discovered the direct route from the Red Sea to India.

text: The Red Sea was favored for Roman trade with India starting with the reign of Augustus, when the Roman Empire gained control over the Mediterranean, Egypt, and the northern Red Sea. The route had been used by previous states but grew in the volume of traffic under the Romans. From Indian ports goods from China were introduced to the Roman world. Contact between Rome and China depended on the Red Sea, but the route was broken by the Aksumite Empire around the 3rd century AD.[16]

text: Middle Ages and modern era

text: During the Middle Ages, the Red Sea was an important part of the spice trade route. In 1513, trying to secure that channel to Portugal, Afonso de Albuquerque laid siege to Aden[17] but was forced to retreat. They cruised the Red Sea inside the Bab al-Mandab, as the first European fleet to have sailed these waters.

text: In 1798, France ordered General Napoleon to invade Egypt and take control of the Red Sea. Although he failed in his mission, the engineer Jean-Baptiste Lepère, who took part in it, revitalised the plan for a canal which had been envisaged during the reign of the Pharaohs. Several canals were built in ancient times from the Nile to the Red Sea along or near the line of the present Sweet Water Canal, but none lasted for long. The Suez Canal was opened in November 1869. At the time, the British, French, and Italians shared the trading posts. The posts were gradually dismantled following the First World War. After the Second World War, the Americans and Soviets exerted their influence whilst the volume of oil tanker traffic intensified. However, the Six Day War culminated in the closure of the Suez Canal from 1967 to 1975. Today, in spite of patrols by the major maritime fleets in the waters of the Red Sea, the Suez Canal has never recovered its supremacy over the Cape route, which is believed to be less vulnerable.

text: Oceanography

text: The Red Sea is between arid land, desert and semi-desert. Reef systems are better developed along the Red Sea mainly because of its greater depths and an efficient water circulation pattern. The Red Sea water mass-exchanges its water with the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean via the Gulf of Aden. These physical factors reduce the effect of high salinity caused by evaporation in the north and relatively hot water in the south.

text: The climate of the Red Sea is the result of two monsoon seasons; a northeasterly monsoon and a southwesterly monsoon. Monsoon winds occur because of differential heating between the land and the sea. Very high surface temperatures and high salinities make this one of the warmest and saltiest bodies of seawater in the world. The average surface water temperature of the Red Sea during the summer is about 26 °C (79 °F) in the north and 30 °C (86 °F) in the south, with only about 2 °C (3.6 °F) variation during the winter months. The overall average water temperature is 22 °C (72 °F). Temperature and visibility remain good to around 200 m (656 ft). The sea is known for its strong winds and unpredictable local currents.

text: The rainfall over the Red Sea and its coasts is extremely low, averaging 0.06 m (2.36 in) per year. The rain is mostly short showers, often with thunderstorms and occasionally with dust storms. The scarcity of rainfall and no major source of fresh water to the Red Sea result in excess evaporation as high as 205 cm (81 in) per year and high salinity with minimal seasonal variation. A recent underwater expedition to the Red Sea offshore from Sudan and Eritrea[19] found surface water temperatures 28 °C in winter and up to 34 °C in the summer, but despite that extreme heat the coral was healthy with much fish life with very little sign of coral bleaching, with only 9% infected by Thalassomonas loyana, the 'white plague' agent. Favia favus coral there harbours a virus, BA3, which kills T. loyana.[20] Plans are afoot to use samples of these corals' apparently heat-adapted commensal algae to salvage bleached coral elsewhere.

text: Salinity

text: The Red Sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world, owing to high evaporation. Salinity ranges from between ~36 ‰ in the southern part because of the effect of the Gulf of Aden water and reaches 41 ‰ in the northern part, owing mainly to the Gulf of Suez water and the high evaporation. The average salinity is 40 ‰. (Average salinity for the world's seawater is ~35 ‰ on the Practical Salinity Scale, or PSU; that translates to 3.5% of actual dissolved salts.)

text: The salinity of the Red Sea is greater than the world average, by approximately 4 percent. This is due to several factors:

text:
High rate of evaporation and very little precipitation.
Lack of significant rivers or streams draining into the sea.
Limited connection with the Indian Ocean, which has lower water salinity.

text: Tidal range

text: In general tide ranges between 0.6 m (2.0 ft) in the north, near the mouth of the Gulf of Suez and 0.9 m (3.0 ft) in the south near the Gulf of Aden but it fluctuates between 0.20 m (0.66 ft) and 0.30 m (0.98 ft) away from the nodal point. The central Red Sea (Jeddah area) is therefore almost tideless, and as such the annual water level changes are more significant. Because of the small tidal range the water during high tide inundates the coastal sabkhas as a thin sheet of water up to a few hundred metres rather than flooding the sabkhas through a network of channels. However, south of Jeddah in the Shoiaba area the water from the lagoon may cover the adjoining sabkhas as far as 3 km (2 mi), whereas, north of Jeddah in the Al-Kharrar area the sabkhas are covered by a thin sheet of water as far as 2 km (1.2 mi). The prevailing north and northeast winds influence the movement of water in the coastal inlets to the adjacent sabkhas, especially during storms. Winter mean sea level is 0.5 m (1.6 ft) higher than in summer. Tidal velocities passing through constrictions caused by reefs, sand bars and low islands commonly exceed 1–2 m/s (3–6.5 ft/s). Coral reefs in the Red Sea are near Egypt, Eritrea, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan.

text: Current

text: In the Red Sea detailed current data is lacking, partially because they are weak and variable both spatially and temporally. Temporal and spatial currents variation is as low as 0.5 m (1.6 ft) and are governed all by wind. During the summer, NW winds drive surface water south for about four months at a velocity of 15–20 cm/s (6–8 in/s), whereas in winter the flow is reversed resulting in the inflow of water from the Gulf of Aden into the Red Sea. The net value of the latter predominates, resulting in an overall drift to the north end of the Red Sea. Generally, the velocity of the tidal current is between 50–60 cm/s (20–23.6 in/s) with a maximum of 1 m/s (3.3 ft/s) at the mouth of the al-Kharrar Lagoon. However, the range of the north-northeast current along the Saudi coast is 8–29 cm/s (3–11.4 in/s).

text: Wind regime

text: The north part of the Red Sea is dominated by persistent north-west winds, with speeds ranging between 7 km/h (4.3 mph) and 12 km/h (7.5 mph). The rest of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden are subjected to regular and seasonally reversible winds. The wind regime is characterized by seasonal and regional variations in speed and direction with average speed generally increasing northward.

text: Wind is the driving force in the Red Sea to transport material as suspension or as bedload. Wind-induced currents play an important role in the Red Sea in resuspending bottom sediments and transferring materials from sites of dumping to sites of burial in quiescent environment of deposition. Wind-generated current measurement is therefore important in order to determine the sediment dispersal pattern and its role in the erosion and accretion of the coastal rock exposure and the submerged coral beds.

text: Geology

text: The Red Sea was formed by the Arabian peninsula being split from the Horn of Africa by movement of the Red Sea Rift. This split started in the Eocene and accelerated during the Oligocene. The sea is still widening, and it is considered that it will become an ocean in time (as proposed in the model of John Tuzo Wilson). In 1949, a deep water survey reported anomalously hot brines in the central portion of the Red Sea. Later work in the 1960s confirmed the presence of hot, 60 °C (140 °F), saline brines and associated metalliferous muds. The hot solutions were emanating from an active subseafloor rift. The high salinity of the waters was not hospitable to living organisms.[21]

text: Sometime during the Tertiary period, the Bab el Mandeb closed and the Red Sea evaporated to an empty hot dry salt-floored sink. Effects causing this would have been:

text:
A "race" between the Red Sea widening and Perim Island erupting filling the Bab el Mandeb with lava.
The lowering of world sea level during the Ice Ages because of much water being locked up in the ice caps.

text: A number of volcanic islands rise from the center of the sea. Most are dormant. However, in 2007, Jabal al-Tair island in the Bab el Mandeb strait erupted violently. Two new islands were formed in 2011 and 2013 in the Zubair Archipelago, a small chain of islands owned by Yemen. The first island, Sholan Island, emerged in an eruption in December 2011, the second island, Jadid, emerged in September 2013.[22][23][24]

text: Mineral resources

text: In terms of mineral resources the major constituents of the Red Sea sediments are as follows:

text: Biogenic constituents:

text: Volcanogenic constituents:

text: Terrigenous constituents:

text: Authigenic minerals:

text: Evaporite minerals:

text: Brine precipitate:

text: Ecosystem

text: The Red Sea is a rich and diverse ecosystem. More than 1200 species of fish[25] have been recorded in the Red Sea, and around 10% of these are found nowhere else.[26] This also includes 42 species of deepwater fish.[25]

text: The rich diversity is in part due to the 2,000 km (1,240 mi) of coral reef extending along its coastline; these fringing reefs are 5000–7000 years old and are largely formed of stony acropora and porites corals. The reefs form platforms and sometimes lagoons along the coast and occasional other features such as cylinders (such as the Blue Hole (Red Sea) at Dahab). These coastal reefs are also visited by pelagic species of Red Sea fish, including some of the 44 species of shark.

text: The Red Sea also contains many offshore reefs including several true atolls. Many of the unusual offshore reef formations defy classic (i.e., Darwinian) coral reef classification schemes, and are generally attributed to the high levels of tectonic activity that characterize the area.

text: The special biodiversity of the area is recognized by the Egyptian government, who set up the Ras Mohammed National Park in 1983. The rules and regulations governing this area protect local marine life, which has become a major draw for diving enthusiasts.

text: Divers and snorkellers should be aware that although most Red Sea species are innocuous, a few are hazardous to humans: see Red Sea species hazardous to humans.[27]

text: Other marine habitats include sea grass beds, salt pans, mangroves and salt marshes.

text: Desalination plants

text: There is extensive demand for desalinated water to meet the needs of the population and the industries along the Red Sea.

text: There are at least 18 desalination plants along the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia which discharge warm brine and treatment chemicals (chlorine and anti-scalants) that bleach and kill corals and cause diseases to the fish. This is only localized, but it may intensify with time and profoundly impact the fishing industry.[28]

text: The water from the Red Sea is also used by oil refineries and cement factories for cooling. Used water drained back into the coastal zones may harm the nearshore environment of the Red Sea.

text: Security

text: The Red Sea is part of the sea roads between Europe, the Persian Gulf and East Asia, and as such has heavy shipping traffic. Government-related bodies with responsibility to police the Red Sea area include the Port Said Port Authority, Suez Canal Authority and Red Sea Ports Authority of Egypt, Jordan Maritime Authority, Israel Port Authority, Saudi Ports Authority and Sea Ports Corporation of Sudan.

text: Facts and figures

text:
Length: ~2,250 km (1,398.1 mi) - 79% of the eastern Red Sea with numerous coastal inlets
Maximum Width: ~ 306–355 km (190–220 mi)– Massawa (Eritrea)
Minimum Width: ~ 26–29 km (16–18 mi)- Bab el Mandeb Strait (Yemen)
Average Width: ~ 280 km (174.0 mi)
Average Depth: ~ 490 m (1,607.6 ft)
Maximum Depth: ~2,211 m (7,253.9 ft)
Surface Area: 438-450 x 102 km2 (16,900–17,400 sq mi)
Volume: 215–251 x 103 km3 (51,600–60,200 cu mi)

text:
Approximately 40% of the Red Sea is quite shallow (under 100 m/330 ft), and about 25% is under 50 m (164 ft) deep.
About 15% of the Red Sea is over 1,000 m (3,300 ft) depth that forms the deep axial trough.
Shelf breaks are marked by coral reefs
Continental slope has an irregular profile (series of steps down to ~500 m or 1,640 ft)
Centre of Red Sea has a narrow trough (Suakin Trough) (~ 1,000 m or 3,281 ft; with maximum depth 3,040 m or 9,974 ft)

text: Tourism

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: The sea is known for its recreational diving sites, such as Ras Mohammed, SS Thistlegorm (shipwreck), Elphinstone Reef, The Brothers, Daedalus Reef, St.John's Reef, Rocky Island in Egypt[29] and less known sites in Sudan such as Sanganeb, Abington, Angarosh and Shaab Rumi.

text: The Red Sea became a popular destination for diving after the expeditions of Hans Hass in the 1950s, and later by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Popular tourist resorts include El Gouna, Hurghada, Safaga, Marsa Alam, on the west shore of the Red Sea, and Sharm-el-Sheikh, Dahab, and Taba on the Egyptian side of Sinaï, as well as Aqaba in Jordan and Eilat in Israel in an area known as the Red Sea Riviera.

text: The popular tourist beach of Sharm el-Sheikh was closed to all swimming in December 2010 due to several serious shark attacks, including a fatality. As of December 2010, scientists are investigating the attacks and have identified, but not verified, several possible causes including over-fishing which causes large sharks to hunt closer to shore, tourist boat operators who chum offshore for shark-photo opportunities, and reports of ships throwing dead livestock overboard. The sea's narrowness, significant depth, and sharp drop-offs, all combine to form a geography where large deep-water sharks can roam in hundreds of meters of water, yet be within a hundred meters of swimming areas.

text: Bordering countries

text: The Red Sea may be geographically divided into three sections: the Red Sea proper, and in the north, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez. The six countries bordering the Red Sea proper are:

text:
Eastern shore:

 Saudi Arabia
 Yemen

Western shore:

 Egypt
 Sudan
 Eritrea
 Djibouti

text: The Gulf of Suez is entirely bordered by Egypt. The Gulf of Aqaba borders Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

text: In addition to the standard geographical definition of the six countries bordering the Red Sea cited above, areas such as Somalia are sometimes also described as Red Sea territories. This is primarily due to their proximity to and geological similarities with the nations facing the Red Sea and/or political ties with said areas.[30][31]

text: Towns and cities

text: Towns and cities on the Red Sea coast (including the coasts of the Gulfs of Aqaba and Suez) include:

text:
Al Hudaydah (الحديدة)
 Al Lith (الليِّث)
 Al Qunfudhah (القنفذة)
 Al-Qusair (القصير)
 Al Wajh (الوجه)
 Aqaba (العقبة)
 Asseb (ዓሳብ)
 Dahab (دهب)
 Duba (ضباء)
 Eilat (אילת ، ايلات)
 El Gouna (الجونة)

 El Suweis (السويس)
/ Hala'ib (حلايب) (disputed)
 Haql (حقل)
 Hirgigo (ሕርጊጎ)
 Hurghada (الغردقة)
 Jeddah (جدة)
 Jazan (جازان)
 Marsa Alam (مرسى علم)
 Massawa (ምጽዋ)
 Moulhoule (مول هولة )

 Nuweiba (نويبع)
 Port Safaga (ميناء سفاجا)
 Port Sudan (بورت سودان)
 Rabigh (رابغ)
 Sharm el Sheikh (شرم الشيخ)
 Soma Bay (سوما باي)
 Suakin (سواكن)
 Taba (طابا)
 Thuwal (ثول)
 Yanbu (ينبع)


document_title: Right-to-work law

question_text: when did nebraska became a right to work state

root

text: Right-to-work law

text: History[edit]

text: Origins[edit]

text:
According to Slate,
right-to-work laws are derived from legislation forbidding unions from forcing strikes on workers, as well as from legal principles such as liberty of contract, which as applied here sought to prevent passage of laws regulating workplace conditions.[8]

tag: p

text: According to PandoDaily and NSFWCORP, the term itself was coined by Vance Muse, a Republican operative who headed an early right-to-work group, the "Christian American Association", to replace the term "American Plan" after it became associated with the anti-union violence of the First Red Scare.[9][10] Muse used racist rhetoric in his defense of "right-to-work" laws.[9][10]

text: According to the Conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, the term "right to work" was coined by Dallas Morning News editorial writer William Ruggles.[11]

text: (An unrelated use of term "right to work" had been coined by French socialist leader Louis Blanc before 1848.[12])

text: Wagner Act (1935)[edit]

text: The National Labor Relations Act, generally known as the Wagner Act, was passed in 1935 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Second New Deal." Among other things, the Act provided that a company could lawfully agree to be any of the following:

text:
A closed shop, in which employees must be members of the union as a condition of employment. Under a closed shop, an employee who ceased being a member of the union for whatever reason, from failure to pay dues to expulsion from the union as an internal disciplinary punishment, was required to be fired even if the employee did not violate any of the employer's rules.
A union shop, which allows for hiring non-union employees, provided that the employees then join the union within a certain period.
An agency shop, in which employees must pay the equivalent of the cost of union representation, but need not formally join the union.
An open shop, in which an employee cannot be compelled to join or pay the equivalent of dues to a union or be fired for joining the union.[13]

tag: ul

text: The Act tasked the National Labor Relations Board, which had existed since 1933, with overseeing the rules.

text: Taft–Hartley Act (1947)[edit]

text: In 1947 Congress passed the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, generally known as the Taft–Hartley Act, over President Harry S. Truman's veto. The Act repealed some parts of the Wagner Act, including outlawing the closed shop. Section 14(b) of the Taft–Hartley Act also authorizes individual states (but not local governments, such as cities or counties) to outlaw the union shop and agency shop for employees working in their jurisdictions. Any state law that outlaws such arrangements is known as a "right-to-work state."

text: In the early development of the right-to-work policy, segregationist sentiment was used as an argument, as many people in the South felt that it was wrong for blacks and whites to belong to the same unions. Vance Muse, one of the early developers of the policy in Texas, used that argument in the development of anti-union laws in Texas in the 1940s.[14]

text: Current status[edit]

text: The federal government operates under open shop rules nationwide, but many of its employees are represented by unions. Unions that represent professional athletes have written contracts that include particular representation provisions (such as in the National Football League),[15] but their application is limited to "wherever and whenever legal," as the Supreme Court has clearly held that the application of a right-to-work law is determined by the employee's "predominant job situs."[16]  Players on professional sports teams in states with right-to-work laws are thus subject to those laws and cannot be required to pay any portion of union dues as a condition of continued employment.[17]

text: Twenty-three states, as well as the District of Columbia, do not have right-to-work laws.

text: On November 18, 2016, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the right of local governments to enact local right-to-work laws in Kentucky, Ohio, and the other states of its jurisdiction.[18]

text: In August 2018, 67% of Missouri voters rejected a right-to-work with 33% voting in favor.[19][20][21]

text: Arguments[edit]

text: Minority rights and due process[edit]

text: The first arguments concerning the right to work centered on the rights of a dissenting minority with respect to an opposing majoritarian collective bargain. President  Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal had prompted many U.S. Supreme Court challenges, among which were challenges regarding the constitutionality of the National Industry Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA).  In 1936, as a part of its ruling in Carter v. Carter Coal Co. the Court ruled against mandatory collective bargaining, stating:

text: The effect, in respect to wages and hours, is to subject the dissentient minority ... to the will of the stated majority .... To 'accept' in these circumstances, is not to exercise a choice, but to surrender to force. The power conferred upon the majority is, in effect, the power to regulate the affairs of an unwilling minority.  This is legislative delegation in its most obnoxious form; for it is not even delegation to an official or an official body ... but to private persons .... [A] statute which attempts to confer such power undertakes an intolerable and unconstitutional interference with personal liberty and private property. The delegation is so clearly arbitrary, and so clearly a denial of rights safeguarded by the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, that it is unnecessary to do more than refer to decisions of this Court which foreclose the question.[22]

text: Freedom of association[edit]

text: Besides the U.S. Supreme Court, other proponents of right-to-work laws also point to the Constitution and the right to freedom of association.  They argue that workers should both be free to join unions or to refrain, and thus, sometimes refer to non-right-to-work states as forced unionism states.  These proponents argue that by being forced into a collective bargain, what the majoritarian unions call a fair share of collective bargaining costs is actually financial coercion and a violation of freedom of choice. An opponent to the union bargain is forced to financially support an organization they did not vote for, in order to receive monopoly representation they have no choice over.[23]

text: The Seventh-Day Adventist Church discourages the joining of unions,[24] citing the writings of Ellen White, one of the church's founders, and what writer Diana Justice calls the "Loss of free will" that occurs when a person joins a labor union.

text: Unfairness[edit]

text: Proponents such as the Mackinac Center for Public Policy contend that it is unfair that unions can require new and existing employees to either join the union or pay fees for collective bargaining expenses as a condition of employment under union security agreement contracts.[25] Other proponents contend that unions may still be needed in new and growing sectors of the economy, for example, the voluntary and third party sectors, to assure adequate benefits for new immigrant, "part-time" aides in America (e.g., US Direct Support Workforce).

text: Political contributions[edit]

text: Right-to-work proponents, including the Center for Union Facts, contend that political contributions made by unions are not representative of the union workers.[26] The agency shop portion of this had previously been contested with support of National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation in Communications Workers of America v. Beck, resulting in "Beck rights" preventing agency fees from being used for expenses outside of collective bargaining if the non-union worker notifies the union of their objection.[27] The right to challenge the fees must include the right to have it heard by an impartial fact finder.[28] It should be noted that Beck applies only to unions in the private sector, given agency fees were struck down for public-sector unions in Janus v. AFSCME in 2018.

text: Cost of Living[edit]

text: States enforcing union security provisions in union collective bargaining agreements generally have a higher cost of living,[29][30] however, no systematic analysis identifies union security agreements as a significant cause of this variance.

text: Free riders[edit]

text: Opponents such as Richard Kahlenberg have argued that right-to-work laws simply "gives employees the right to be free riders—to benefit from collective bargaining without paying for it".[31][32][6][33]  In Abood v. Detroit BoE, the Supreme Court of the United States permitted public-sector unions to charge non-members agency fees so that employees in the public sector could be required to pay for the costs of representation, even as they opted not to be a member, as long as these fees are not spent on the union's political or ideological agenda. This decision was reversed, however, in Janus v. AFSCME, with the Supreme Court ruling that such fees violate the first amendment in the case of public-sector unions, since all bargaining by a public-sector union can be considered political activity.

text: Freedom of contract and association[edit]

text: Opponents argue that right-to-work laws restrict freedom of association, and limit the sorts of agreements individuals acting collectively can make with their employer, by prohibiting workers and employers from agreeing to contracts that include fair share fees.  Moreover, American law imposes a duty of fair representation on unions; consequently non-members in right to work states can and do force unions to provide without compensation grievance services that are paid for by union members.[34]

text: In December 2012,  libertarian writer J.D. Tuccille, in Reason magazine, wrote:

text: I consider the restrictions right-to-work laws impose on bargaining between unions and businesses to violate freedom of contract and association. ... I'm disappointed that the state has, once again, inserted itself into the marketplace to place its thumb on the scale in the never-ending game of playing business and labor off against one another. ... This is not to say that unions are always good. It means that, when the state isn't involved, they're private organizations that can offer value to their members.[35]

text: Corporate interests[edit]

text: The unions also contend that the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and National Right to Work Committee have received millions of dollars in grants from foundations controlled by major U.S. industrialists like the New York-based Olin Foundation, Inc., which grew out of a family manufacturing business, but now funds primarily conservative think tanks, media outlets, and university law programs.[36][37]

text: Kahlenberg and Marvit also argue that, at least in efforts to pass a right-to-work law in Michigan, excluding police and firefighter unions—traditionally less hostile to Republicans—from the law caused some to question claims that the law was simply an effort to improve Michigan's businesses climate, not to seek partisan advantage.[31]

text: Studies of economic effect[edit]

text: According to Tim Bartik of the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, studies of the effect of right-to-work laws abound, but are not consistent. Studies have found both "some positive effect on job growth," and no effect.[38]  Thomas Holmes argues that it is difficult to analyze right-to-work laws by comparing states due to other similarities between states that have passed these laws. For instance, right-to-work states often have some strong pro-business policies, making it difficult to isolate the effect of right-to-work laws.[39] Looking at the growth of states in the Southeast following World War II, Bartik notes that while they have right-to-work laws they have also benefited from "factors like the widespread use of air conditioning and different modes of transportation that helped decentralize manufacturing".[40]

text: Economist Thomas Holmes compared counties close to the border between states with and without right-to-work laws (thereby holding constant an array of factors related to geography and climate). He found that the cumulative growth of employment in manufacturing in the right-to-work states was 26 percentage points greater than that in the non-right-to-work states.[41] However, given the study design, Holmes points out "my results do not say that it is right-to-work laws that matter, but rather that the 'probusiness package' offered by right-to-work states seems to matter."[42] Moreover, as noted by Kevin Drum and others, this result may reflect business relocation rather than an overall enhancement of economic growth, since "businesses prefer locating in states where costs are low and rules are lax."[43]

text: A February 2011 study by the Economic Policy Institute found:[32]

text:
Wages in right-to-work states are 3.2% lower than those in non-RTW states, after controlling for a full complement of individual demographic and socioeconomic variables as well as state macroeconomic indicators. Using the average wage in non-RTW states as the base ($22.11), the average full-time, full-year worker in an RTW state makes about $1,500 less annually than a similar worker in a non-RTW state. The study goes on to say "How much of this difference can be attributed to RTW status itself? There is an inherent endogeneity problem in any attempt to answer that question, namely that RTW and non-RTW states differ on a wide variety of measures that are also related to compensation, making it difficult to isolate the impact of RTW status."[32]
The rate of employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) is 2.6 percentage points lower in RTW states compared with non-RTW states, after controlling for individual, job, and state-level characteristics. If workers in non-RTW states were to receive ESI at this lower rate, 2 million fewer workers nationally would be covered.
The rate of employer-sponsored pensions is 4.8 percentage points lower in RTW states, using the full complement of control variables in [the study's] regression model. If workers in non-RTW states were to receive pensions at this lower rate, 3.8 million fewer workers nationally would have pensions.

text: A 2008 editorial in The Wall Street Journal comparing job growth in Ohio and Texas stated that from 1998 to 2008, Ohio lost 10,400 jobs, while Texas gained 1,615,000. The opinion piece suggested right-to-work laws might be among the reasons for the economic expansion in Texas, along with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the absence of a state income tax in Texas.[44]  Another Wall Street Journal editorial in 2012, by the president and the labor policy director of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, reported 71% employment growth in right-to-work states from 1980 to 2011, while employment in non-right-to-work states grew just 32% during the same period.[45] The 2012 editorial also stated that since 2001, compensation in right-to-work states had increased 4 times faster than in other states.[45]

text: Polling[edit]

text: In January 2012, in the immediate aftermath of passage of Indiana's right-to-work law, Rasmussen Reports found that 74% of likely U.S. voters supported right-to-work laws, but "most also don't think a non-union worker should enjoy benefits negotiated by the union."[46]

text: In Michigan in January through March 2013, a poll found that 43 percent of those polled thought the law would help Michigan's economy, while 41 percent thought it would hurt.[47]

text: U.S. states with right-to-work laws[edit]

text: The following states (27) are right-to-work states:

text:
Alabama (adopted 1953, Constitution 2016)
Arizona (Constitution, State Constitution Article 25 approved 1946)[48] (adopted 1944)
Arkansas (Constitution, 1947, Amendment 34)
Florida (Constitution, 1944, revised 1968, Article 1, Section 6)[49]
Georgia (adopted 1947)
Idaho (adopted 1985)
Indiana[4] (State law, 2012)
Iowa (adopted 1947)
Kansas (Constitution, 1958, Article 15, Section 12)
Kentucky (adopted 2017)
Louisiana (adopted 1976)
Michigan (State law, 2012)[3]
Mississippi (Constitution, adopted 1954)
Nebraska (Constitution and statute, adopted 1946)
Nevada (adopted 1951)
North Carolina (adopted 1947)
North Dakota (adopted 1947)
Oklahoma (Constitution, adopted 2001)
South Carolina[50] (adopted 1954)
South Dakota (adopted 1946)
Tennessee (adopted 1947)
Texas[51] (adopted 1947, revised 1993)
Utah (adopted 1955)
Virginia (adopted 1947)
West Virginia (adopted 2016) (Went into effect September 2017 due to lower court injunctions)
Wisconsin (adopted 2015)
Wyoming (adopted 1963)

text: In addition, the territory of Guam also has right-to-work laws, and employees of the US Federal Government have the right to choose whether or not to join their respective unions.[52]

text: New Hampshire adopted a right-to-work bill in 1947, but it was repealed in 1949 by the state legislature and governor.[53] Missouri's legislature passed a right-to-work bill in 2017, however, the law was put on hold by a voter-initiative ballot and was defeated by the state's voters in a 2018 referendum before it could take effect.[54]


document_title: List of extreme points of the United States

question_text: what is the northernmost point in the continental united states

text: Northernmost points[edit]

text:
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text:
Point Barrow, Alaska 71°23′20″N 156°28′45″W / 71.38889°N 156.47917°W / 71.38889; -156.47917 (Point Barrow) – northernmost point in all U.S. territory
Barrow (Utqiaġvik), Alaska 71°17′44″N 156°45′59″W / 71.29556°N 156.76639°W / 71.29556; -156.76639 (Barrow) – northernmost incorporated place in all U.S. territory, population about 4,000
Fairbanks, Alaska 64°50′22.94″N 147°43′14.63″W / 64.8397056°N 147.7207306°W / 64.8397056; -147.7207306 (Fairbanks City Hall)  – northernmost city of more than 20,000 residents, and northernmost city with public road access
Anchorage, Alaska 61°13′4.17″N 149°53′33.17″W / 61.2178250°N 149.8925472°W / 61.2178250; -149.8925472 (Anchorage City Hall) – northernmost city of more than 250,000 residents
Northwest Angle Inlet in Lake of the Woods, Minnesota 49°23′04.1″N 95°9′12.2″W / 49.384472°N 95.153389°W / 49.384472; -95.153389 (Northwest Angle) – northernmost point in the 48 contiguous states (because of incomplete information at the time of the Treaty of Paris (1783) settling the American Revolutionary War)
Sumas, Washington 49°00′08.6″N 122°15′40″W / 49.002389°N 122.26111°W / 49.002389; -122.26111 (Sumas, WA) – northernmost incorporated place in the 48 contiguous states (because of 19th century survey inaccuracy placing the international border slightly north of the 49th parallel here.[1])
Lynden, Washington 48°56′43″N 122°27′10″W / 48.94528°N 122.45278°W / 48.94528; -122.45278 (Lynden City Hall)  – northernmost city of more than 10,000 residents in the 48 contiguous states
Bellingham, Washington 48°45′19.12″N 122°28′43.54″W / 48.7553111°N 122.4787611°W / 48.7553111; -122.4787611 (Bellingham City Hall)  – northernmost city of more than 50,000 residents in the 48 contiguous states
Everett, Washington 47°58′41″N 122°12′27″W / 47.97806°N 122.20750°W / 47.97806; -122.20750 (Everett City Hall)  – northernmost city of more than 100,000 residents in the 48 contiguous states
Spokane, Washington 47°39′37″N 117°25′25″W / 47.66028°N 117.42361°W / 47.66028; -117.42361 (Spokane City Hall)  – northernmost city of more than 200,000 residents in the 48 contiguous states
Seattle, Washington 47°36′13.81″N 122°19′48.56″W / 47.6038361°N 122.3301556°W / 47.6038361; -122.3301556 (Seattle City Hall)  – northernmost city of more than 500,000 residents in the United States
Alaska has the northernmost geographic center of all the states. North Dakota has the northernmost geographic center of the 48 contiguous states.

text: Southernmost points[edit]

text:
Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica (90°0′0″S 0°0′0″E / 90.00000°S 0.00000°E / -90.00000; 0.00000 (South Pole)) – southernmost point under United States jurisdiction
Rose Atoll, American Samoa (14°34′11″S 168°9′10″W / 14.56972°S 168.15278°W / -14.56972; -168.15278 (Rose Atoll)) – southernmost point in all U.S.-controlled territory
Palmyra Atoll - southernmost point in all U.S. incorporated territory
Ka Lae, Hawaii (18°54′39″N 155°40′52″W / 18.91083°N 155.68111°W / 18.91083; -155.68111 (Ka Lae)) – southernmost point in the 50 states
Nā'ālehu, Hawaii (19°3′57″N 155°35′15″W / 19.06583°N 155.58750°W / 19.06583; -155.58750 (Nā'ālehu, HI)) – southernmost town in the 50 states
Hilo, Hawaii (19°41′58″N 155°4′51″W / 19.69944°N 155.08083°W / 19.69944; -155.08083) - southernmost place with a population over 25,000 in the 50 states
City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii – southernmost incorporated place in the 50 states (Hawaii's only incorporated place)
Western Dry Rocks, Florida (24°26.8′N 81°55.6′W / 24.4467°N 81.9267°W / 24.4467; -81.9267 (Western Dry Rocks)) – In the Florida Keys - southernmost point in the 48 contiguous states occasionally above water at low tide
Ballast Key, Florida (24°31′15″N 81°57′49″W / 24.52083°N 81.96361°W / 24.52083; -81.96361 (Ballast Key)) – southernmost point in the 48 contiguous states continuously above water
Key West, Florida (24°32′38.724″N 81°48′17.658″W / 24.54409000°N 81.80490500°W / 24.54409000; -81.80490500 (Key West, FL)) – southernmost incorporated place in the contiguous 48 states
Cape Sable, Florida (25°7′6″N 81°5′11″W / 25.11833°N 81.08639°W / 25.11833; -81.08639 (Cape Sable)) – southernmost point on the U.S. mainland
Florida City, Florida – Southernmost municipality in continental USA
Miami, Florida – the southernmost major metropolitan city in the 48 contiguous states
Cameron County, Texas 25°50′14.5″N 97°23′39.9″W / 25.837361°N 97.394417°W / 25.837361; -97.394417 – Southernmost point on the Mexico–United States border.
Hawaii has the southernmost geographic center of all the states. Florida has the southernmost geographic center of the 48 contiguous states.

text: Easternmost points[edit]

text:
Point Udall, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 17°45′19″N 64°33′54″W / 17.75528°N 64.56500°W / 17.75528; -64.56500 (Point Udall, St. Croix) – easternmost point in all U.S. territory, by direction of travel
Christiansted, United States Virgin Islands 17°44′54″N 64°43′00″W / 17.7482°N 64.7168°W / 17.7482; -64.7168 (Christainsted) – easternmost town in all US territory, by direction of travel
Sail Rock, Maine 44°48′45.2″N 66°56′49.3″W / 44.812556°N 66.947028°W / 44.812556; -66.947028 (Sail Rock), just offshore of West Quoddy Head, Maine – easternmost point in the 50 states, by direction of travel
West Quoddy Head, Maine 44°48′55.4″N 66°56′59.2″W / 44.815389°N 66.949778°W / 44.815389; -66.949778 (West Quoddy Head) – easternmost point on the U.S. mainland
Lubec, Maine 44°49′03″N 66°57′00″W / 44.817419°N 66.949895°W / 44.817419; -66.949895 (Lubec, ME) – easternmost incorporated place in the 50 states
Eastport, Maine – easternmost incorporated city in the 50 states[2]
Calais, Maine – easternmost city of more than 2,500 residents in the 50 states
Houlton, Maine – easternmost city of more than 5,000 residents in the 50 states
Bangor, Maine – easternmost city of more than 20,000 residents in the 50 states
Portland, Maine – easternmost city of more than 50,000 residents in the 50 states
Boston, Massachusetts – easternmost major U.S. city (more than 500,000 residents)
Pochnoi Point, Semisopochnoi Island, Alaska 51°57′42″N 179°46′23″E / 51.96167°N 179.77306°E / 51.96167; 179.77306 (Pochnoi Point, Semisopochnoi Island) – easternmost point in all U.S. territory by longitude—ironically, in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands "west" of the westernmost point in the U.S. by longitude (Amatignak Island) due to interposition of 180° longitude, which conventionally divides "west" from "east" in geographic terms.
Peacock Point, Wake Island 19°16′13.2″N 166°39′26.3″E / 19.270333°N 166.657306°E / 19.270333; 166.657306 (Peacock Point, Wake Island) – first sunrise (at equinox) in all U.S. territory
Northern Islands Municipality, Northern Mariana Islands 16°01′38″N 146°03′52″E / 16.0271°N 146.0645°E / 16.0271; 146.0645 (Farallon de Medinilla) – easternmost municipality in all U.S. territory, by longitude
Maine has the easternmost geographic center of the 50 states.

text: Westernmost points[edit]

text:
Point Udall, Guam (13°26′51″N 144°37′5.5″E / 13.44750°N 144.618194°E / 13.44750; 144.618194 (Point Udall, Guam)) – westernmost point in all U.S. territory, by direction of travel
Peaked Island, offshore from Cape Wrangell, Attu Island, Alaska 52°55′14″N 172°26′16″E / 52.92056°N 172.43778°E / 52.92056; 172.43778 (Peaked Island) – westernmost point in the 50 states by direction of travel, and last sunset (at equinox) in all U.S. territory. West of it passes the International Date Line, after which come Russian territorial islands
Amatignak Island, Alaska 51°16′7″N 179°8′55″W / 51.26861°N 179.14861°W / 51.26861; -179.14861 (Amatignak Island) – technically, westernmost point in all of U.S. territory by longitude, but not the westernmost of the U.S. Aleutian Islands. It possesses the highest longitude west figure (179°8'55"W) before 180° longitude, which passes west of it. After 180°, longitude is termed "east" and declines numerically.
Adak, Alaska 51°49′21″N 176°42′53″W / 51.8224°N 176.7147°W / 51.8224; -176.7147 (Adak, AK) – westernmost incorporated city in the 50 states
Unalaska, Alaska 53°53′20″N 166°31′38″W / 53.888984°N 166.527239°W / 53.888984; -166.527239 (Unalaska, AK) - westernmost city of more than 2,500 residents in the 50 states
Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska 65°38′32″N 168°7′8″W / 65.64222°N 168.11889°W / 65.64222; -168.11889 (Cape Prince of Wales) – westernmost point on the North American continent
Anchor Point, Alaska (59°46′20.8914″N 151°52′2.373″W / 59.772469833°N 151.86732583°W / 59.772469833; -151.86732583 (Anchor Point, AK)) – Westernmost point on the continuous road system of North America[3]
Umatilla Reef, offshore from Cape Alava, Washington (48°11.1′N 124°47.1′W / 48.1850°N 124.7850°W / 48.1850; -124.7850 (Umatilla Reef)) – westernmost point in the 48 contiguous states occasionally above water at low tide
Bodelteh Islands, offshore from Cape Alava, Washington 48°10′42.7″N 124°46′18.1″W / 48.178528°N 124.771694°W / 48.178528; -124.771694 (Bodelteh Islands) – westernmost point in the 48 contiguous states continuously above water
Cape Alava, Washington (48°9′51″N 124°43′59″W / 48.16417°N 124.73306°W / 48.16417; -124.73306 (Cape Alava)) – westernmost point on the U.S. mainland (contiguous)
Ozette, Washington 48°09′17″N 124°40′02″W / 48.154722°N 124.667222°W / 48.154722; -124.667222 (Ozette, WA) – westernmost town in the 48 contiguous states
Port Orford, Oregon 42°45′15″N 124°30′45″W / 42.754065°N 124.512605°W / 42.754065; -124.512605 (Port Orford, OR) – westernmost incorporated place in the 48 contiguous states
Brookings, Oregon – westernmost city of more than 5,000 residents in the 48 contiguous states
Coos Bay, Oregon – westernmost city of more than 10,000 residents in the 48 contiguous states
Eureka, California – westernmost city of more than 25,000 residents in the 48 contiguous states
Corvallis, Oregon – westernmost city of more than 50,000 residents in the 48 contiguous states
Eugene, Oregon – westernmost city of more than 100,000 residents in the 48 contiguous states
Portland, Oregon – westernmost city of more than 500,000 residents in the United States
Hawaii has the westernmost geographic center of all the states. Oregon has the westernmost geographic center of the 48 contiguous states.

text: Interpretation of easternmost and westernmost[edit]

text: There are three methods for reckoning the eastern and western extremes of the United States.

text: One method is to use the Prime Meridian as the dividing line between east and west. This meridian running through Greenwich, London, is defined as zero degrees longitude and could be called the least eastern and least western place in the world. The 180th meridian, on the opposite side of the globe, is therefore the easternmost and westernmost place in the world.

text: Another method is to use the International Date Line as the easternmost–westernmost extreme. On the equinox, the easternmost place would be where the day first begins, and the westernmost is where the day last ends.[citation needed]

text: Still another method is to first determine the geographic center of the country and from there measure the shortest distance to every other point. All U.S. territory is spread across less than 180° of longitude, so from any spot in the U.S. it is more direct to reach Point Udall, U.S. Virgin Islands, by traveling east than by traveling west. Likewise, there is not a single point in U.S. territory from which heading east is a shorter route to Point Udall, Guam, than heading west would be, even accounting for circumpolar routes. The two Udalls for whom the two Points are named were brothers, Mo Udall in Guam and Stewart Udall in the Virgin Islands.[4]

text: Highest points[edit]

text:
Denali, Alaska, United States 63°4′9″N 151°0′23″W / 63.06917°N 151.00639°W / 63.06917; -151.00639 (Mount McKinley) – highest summit in the United States, all US territories, and North America at 20,310 feet (6,190.5 m)[5]
Mount Whitney,[note 1][6][7][8] California 36°34′43″N 118°17′31″W / 36.57861°N 118.29194°W / 36.57861; -118.29194 (Mount Whitney) – highest point in the 48 contiguous states at 14,505 feet (4,421 m)
Mount Elbert,[note 2][9][10] Colorado  – highest point on the Continental Divide of North America at 14,440 feet (4,400 m)
Mauna Kea,[note 3][11] Hawaiʻi 19°49′14″N 155°28′5″W / 19.82056°N 155.46806°W / 19.82056; -155.46806 (Mauna Kea) – highest island summit in all U.S. territory and the entire Pacific Ocean at 13,796 feet (4,205 m)
Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico 36°35′52″N 105°26′42″W / 36.59778°N 105.44500°W / 36.59778; -105.44500 (Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico) – highest village limits in all U.S. territory at 12,581 feet (3,835 m) (No residents of Taos Ski Valley live above 10,350 feet (3,150 m))[12]
Winter Park, Colorado 39°53′34″N 105°45′43″W / 39.89278°N 105.76194°W / 39.89278; -105.76194 (Winter Park, CO) – highest city limits in all U.S. territory at 12,060 feet (3,680 m) (No residents of Winter Park live above 9,550 feet (2,910 m))
San Juan County, Colorado 37°49′N 107°40′W / 37.817°N 107.667°W / 37.817; -107.667 (San Juan County, Colorado) – highest U.S. county based on a mean elevation (11,240 feet (3,430 m))
Alma, Colorado 39°17′2″N 106°3′46″W / 39.28389°N 106.06278°W / 39.28389; -106.06278 (Alma, Colorado) – highest town in all U.S. territory at 10,355 feet (3,156 m); contiguous residential areas extend to 11,680 feet (3,560 m).
Leadville, Colorado 39°14′50″N 106°17′30″W / 39.24722°N 106.29167°W / 39.24722; -106.29167 (Leadville, Colorado) – highest city in all U.S. territory at 10,152 feet (3,094 m). (No residents of Leadville live above 10,360 feet (3,160 m))
Lake County Airport, Colorado 39°13′13″N 106°19′00″W / 39.22028°N 106.31667°W / 39.22028; -106.31667 (Lake County Airport) – highest airfield in all U.S. territory and North America at 9,927 feet (3,026 m)
New Mexico State Capitol, Santa Fe 35°40′56″N 105°56′23″W / 35.68222°N 105.93972°W / 35.68222; -105.93972 (New Mexico State Capitol) – highest state capitol in the United States at 7,005 feet (2,135 m)
State of Colorado 39°00′N 105°30′W / 39.000°N 105.500°W / 39.000; -105.500 (State of Colorado) – highest U.S. state based on an average elevation of 6,800 feet (2,100 m)
Mount Mitchell, North Carolina 35°45′53″N 82°15′54″W / 35.76472°N 82.26500°W / 35.76472; -82.26500 (Mount Mitchell) – highest point in eastern United States at 6,684 feet (2,037 m)
Mount Washington, New Hampshire 44°16′13″N 71°18′12″W / 44.27028°N 71.30333°W / 44.27028; -71.30333 (Mount Washington) – highest point in northeastern United States at 6,288 feet (1,917 m)
Arikaree River, Yuma County, Colorado at Kansas state line 39°58′42″N 102°3′6″W / 39.97833°N 102.05167°W / 39.97833; -102.05167 (Arikaree River) – highest U.S. state low point at 3,317 feet (1,011 m)
Beech Mountain, North Carolina 36°12′23″N 81°52′59″W / 36.20639°N 81.88306°W / 36.20639; -81.88306 is the highest incorporated community at an elevation of 5,506 feet (1,678 m) east of the Mississippi River.
Boone, North Carolina 36°12′41″N 81°40′7″W / 36.21139°N 81.66861°W / 36.21139; -81.66861 has the highest elevation (3,333 feet, 1015.9 m) of any town of its size (over 10,000 population) east of the Mississippi River.
Eisenhower Tunnel west of Denver, Colorado is the highest point on the Interstate Highway System at 11,158 feet.

text: Lowest points[edit]

text:
Badwater Basin, Death Valley, California 36°14′23″N 116°50′5″W / 36.23972°N 116.83472°W / 36.23972; -116.83472 (Badwater Basin) – lowest surface point in all U.S. territory and North America at −279 feet (−85 m)[13]
Salton Sea, California 33°19′59″N 115°50′3″W / 33.33306°N 115.83417°W / 33.33306; -115.83417 (Salton Sea) – lowest lake in all U.S. territory and North America at −226 feet (−69 m)
Furnace Creek Airport, California 36°27′50″N 116°52′53″W / 36.46389°N 116.88139°W / 36.46389; -116.88139 (Furnace Creek Airport) – lowest airfield in all U.S. territory and Western Hemisphere at −210 feet (−64 m)
Furnace Creek, California[14] 36°27′29″N 116°52′15″W / 36.45806°N 116.87083°W / 36.45806; -116.87083 (Furnace Creek, California) – lowest settlement in all U.S. territory and Western Hemisphere at −190 feet (−58 m)
Calipatria, California 33°07′32″N 115°30′51″W / 33.12556°N 115.51417°W / 33.12556; -115.51417 (Calipatria, California) – lowest city in all U.S. territory and Western Hemisphere at −184 feet (−56 m)
Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana 30°02′40″N 89°56′47″W / 30.04444°N 89.94639°W / 30.04444; -89.94639 (Ninth Ward of New Orleans, LA) – lowest surface point in eastern United States at −7 feet (−2.1 m)
New Orleans, Louisiana 29°58′N 90°03′W / 29.967°N 90.050°W / 29.967; -90.050 (New Orleans, Louisiana) – lowest city over 250,000 population in all U.S. territory and Western Hemisphere with an average elevation of −1.5 feet (−0.46 m)
State of Delaware 39°0′17″N 75°32′46″W / 39.00472°N 75.54611°W / 39.00472; -75.54611 (State of Delaware) – lowest U.S. state with an average elevation of 60 feet (18 m)
Britton Hill, Florida 30°59′18″N 86°16′55″W / 30.98833°N 86.28194°W / 30.98833; -86.28194 (Britton Hill, FL) – lowest U.S. state high point at 345 feet (105 m)
Lake Superior bottom, Michigan 46°54′31″N 86°35′52″W / 46.90861°N 86.59778°W / 46.90861; -86.59778 (Deepest Point in Lake Superior) – lowest fresh water point in all U.S. territory at −732 feet (−223 m)[15]
Puget Sound bottom, Washington 47°44.9′N 122°25.7′W / 47.7483°N 122.4283°W / 47.7483; -122.4283 (Deepest Point in Puget Sound) – lowest sea water point in the interior of the United States at −956 feet (−291 m)[16]

text: Other points[edit]

text:
Most remote point in the 50 states: Ipnavik River, National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska, 68°45′N 156°41′W / 68.750°N 156.683°W / 68.750; -156.683 (most remote point); 120 miles (190 km) from nearest habitation
Geographic center of the 50 states: approximately 20 miles (32 km) north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota, 44°58′N 103°46′W / 44.967°N 103.767°W / 44.967; -103.767 (geographic center of 50 states)
Geographic center of the 48 contiguous states: approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Lebanon, Kansas, 39°50′N 98°35′W / 39.833°N 98.583°W / 39.833; -98.583 (geographic center of 48 contiguous states)
Closest to the equator: Baker Island is located at 0°11′41″N 176°28′46″W / 0.19472°N 176.47944°W / 0.19472; -176.47944 (Baker Island).[17][18][19]
The geographic center of the North American continent is located at 48°10′N 100°10′W / 48.167°N 100.167°W / 48.167; -100.167 (Geographic center of the North American continent), about 6 miles (10 km) west of Balta in Pierce County, North Dakota.[20]
The North American pole of inaccessibility is located at 43°22′N 101°58′W / 43.367°N 101.967°W / 43.367; -101.967 (North American pole of inaccessibility), about eleven miles (18 km) southeast of the town of Kyle on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Bennett County, South Dakota, 1,025 miles (1,650 km) from the nearest coastline.
The southwest most point of the contiguous United States is Border Field State Park, California.[21]
The northwest most point of the contiguous United States is Cape Flattery, Washington.[22]

text: Islands[edit]

text:
Island of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi 19°49′15″N 155°28′5″W / 19.82083°N 155.46806°W / 19.82083; -155.46806 (Island of Hawaii) – most extensive island in all U.S. territory at 4,028 square miles (10,430 km2) and tallest island in all U.S. territory and the entire Pacific Ocean at 13,796 feet (4,205 m)
Kodiak Island, Alaska 57°28′N 153°26′W / 57.467°N 153.433°W / 57.467; -153.433 (Kodiak Island) – most extensive Gulf of Alaska island at 3,595.09 square miles (9,311.2 km2)
Island of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico 18°15′N 66°30′W / 18.250°N 66.500°W / 18.250; -66.500 (Island of Puerto Rico) – most extensive island of U.S. Caribbean territory at 3,515.1 square miles (9,104 km2)
Prince of Wales Island, Alaska 55°37′55″N 132°54′27″W / 55.63194°N 132.90750°W / 55.63194; -132.90750 (Prince of Wales Island) – most extensive island of the Alexander Archipelago at 2,577 square miles (6,670 km2)
Saint Lawrence Island, Alaska 63°24′54″N 170°23′58″W / 63.41500°N 170.39944°W / 63.41500; -170.39944 (Saint Lawrence Island) – most extensive Bering Sea island at 1,791.56 square miles (4,640.1 km2)
Unimak Island, Alaska 54°46′6″N 164°11′12″W / 54.76833°N 164.18667°W / 54.76833; -164.18667 (Unimak Island) – most extensive Aleutian island at 1,571.41 square miles (4,069.9 km2)
Long Island, New York 40°52′10″N 73°00′00″W / 40.86944°N 73.00000°W / 40.86944; -73.00000 (Long Island) – most extensive island of the U.S. Atlantic coast at 1,401 square miles (3,630 km2)
Padre Island, Texas 26°50′40″N 97°22′04″W / 26.84444°N 97.36778°W / 26.84444; -97.36778 (Padre Island) – most extensive Gulf of Mexico island at 209 square miles (540 km2) and longest barrier island on Earth at 113 miles (182 km)
Isle Royale in Lake Superior, Michigan 48°0′N 88°55′W / 48.000°N 88.917°W / 48.000; -88.917 (Isle Royale) – most extensive island in a lake in all U.S. territory at 206.73 square miles (535.4 km2)
Whidbey Island, Washington 48°8′11″N 122°34′57″W / 48.13639°N 122.58250°W / 48.13639; -122.58250 (Whidbey Island) – most extensive island of Puget Sound at 168.67 square miles (436.9 km2)
Santa Cruz Island, California 34°0′13″N 119°43′35″W / 34.00361°N 119.72639°W / 34.00361; -119.72639 (Santa Cruz Island) – most extensive of the Channel Islands of California at 97 square miles (250 km2)

text: Lakes[edit]

text:
Lake Michigan-Huron 45°48′N 84°45′W / 45.800°N 84.750°W / 45.800; -84.750 (Lake Michigan-Huron) – largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area, at 45,300 square miles (117,000 km2), of which 31,507 square miles (81,600 km2) is within the United States.
Lake Superior 47°42′N 87°30′W / 47.700°N 87.500°W / 47.700; -87.500 – Located along the Canada–United States border, it is the second largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area, at 31,700 sq mi (82,100 km2), of which 20,600 square miles (53,350 km2) is within the United States.[23] It is also North America's largest by volume, at 2,900 cu mi (12,000 km3). Commonly called the largest lake by surface area when Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are called separate lakes.
Great Salt Lake, Utah 41°10′N 112°35′W / 41.167°N 112.583°W / 41.167; -112.583 (Great Salt Lake) – most extensive endorheic lake at 1,700 square miles (4,400 km2)
Crater Lake, Oregon 42°57′N 122°5′W / 42.950°N 122.083°W / 42.950; -122.083 (Deepest point in Crater Lake) – deepest lake at 1,943 feet (592 m)[24]

text: Rivers[edit]

text:
Mississippi River 29°9′4″N 89°15′12″W / 29.15111°N 89.25333°W / 29.15111; -89.25333 (Mississippi River) – most extensive river basin at 1,151,000 square miles (2,980,000 km2)
Mississippi-Missouri-Jefferson Rivers 29°9′4″N 89°15′12″W / 29.15111°N 89.25333°W / 29.15111; -89.25333 (Mississippi-Missouri-Jefferson Rivers) – longest river system at 3,902 miles (6,280 km)
Missouri River 38°48′49″N 90°7′11″W / 38.81361°N 90.11972°W / 38.81361; -90.11972 (Missouri River) – longest main stem river at 2,341 miles (3,767 km)
Mississippi River 29°9′4″N 89°15′12″W / 29.15111°N 89.25333°W / 29.15111; -89.25333 (Mississippi River) – longest Gulf of Mexico main stem river at 2,202 miles (3,544 km)
Yukon River 62°35′55″N 164°47′40″W / 62.59861°N 164.79444°W / 62.59861; -164.79444 (Yukon River) – longest Bering Sea main stem river at 1,979 miles (3,185 km)
Colorado River 31°48′57″N 114°48′22″W / 31.81583°N 114.80611°W / 31.81583; -114.80611 (Colorado River) – longest Gulf of California main stem river at 1,450 miles (2,330 km)
Columbia River 46°14′39″N 124°3′29″W / 46.24417°N 124.05806°W / 46.24417; -124.05806 (Columbia River) – longest Pacific Ocean main stem river at 1,243 miles (2,000 km)
Saint Lawrence River 49°40′N 64°30′W / 49.667°N 64.500°W / 49.667; -64.500 (Saint Lawrence River) – longest Atlantic Ocean main stem river at 600 miles (970 km)
Bear River 41°27′30″N 112°17′25″W / 41.45833°N 112.29028°W / 41.45833; -112.29028 (Bear River) – longest endorheic basin main stem river at 491 miles (790 km)

text: Extremes in distance[edit]

text:
Greatest east-west distance in the 48 contiguous states: 2,800 miles (4,500 km)
Greatest north-south distance in the 48 contiguous states: 1,650 miles (2,660 km).[25]
Greatest distance between any two points within U.S. Territory: 9,514 miles (15,311 km) from Point Udall, Guam to Point Udall, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands (formerly known as Orote Point and East Point, respectively).[26]
Greatest distance between any two points within the 50 states: 5,859 miles (9,429 km) from Kure Atoll, Hawaii to Log Point, Elliott Key, Florida.[26]
Greatest distance between any two points within the contiguous 48 states: 2,901 miles (4,669 km) from North Farallon Island, California to Sail Rock, east of West Quoddy Head, Maine.[26]
Greatest distance between any two mainland points within the contiguous 48 states: 2,892 miles (4,654 km) from Point Arena, California to West Quoddy Head, Maine.[26]
Greatest distance between two points on the same latitude: 5,823 miles (9,371 km) from Kure Atoll, Hawaii to Riviera Beach, Florida.[26]


document_title: Gandhara

question_text: where are the traces of gandhara art found

text: Gandhara

text: Name[edit]

text: Gandhara was known in Sanskrit as गन्धार gandhāra, in Avestan as Vaēkərəta, in Old Persian as Para-upari-sena, in Chinese as 犍陀罗, and in Greek as Παροπαμισάδαι Paropamisadae.

text: The name Gāndhāra occurs later in the classical Sanskrit of the epics. It is recorded in Avestan as Vaēkərəta. The Gandhari people are a tribe mentioned in the Rigveda, the Atharvaveda, and later texts.[7] One proposed origin of the name is from the Sanskrit word gandha, meaning "perfume" and "referring to the spices and aromatic herbs which they [the inhabitants] traded and with which they anointed themselves."[8] Some authors have connected the modern name Kandahar to Gandhara.[9]

text: A Persian form of the name, Gandara, is mentioned by Herodotus[10] in the context of the story of the Greek explorer Scylax of Caryanda, who sailed down the Indus River starting at the city of Caspatyrus in Gandara (Κασπάτυρος, πόλις Γανδαρική). Herodotus records that those Iranic tribes, which were adjacent to the city of Caspatyrus and the district of Pactyïce, had customs similar to the Bactrians, and are the most warlike amongst them. These are also the people who obtain gold from the ant-hills of the adjoining desert. On the identity of Caspatyrus, there have been two opinions, one equating it with Kabul, the other with the name of Kashmir (Kasyapa pur, condensed to Kaspapur as found in Hecataeus).[11]

text: Geography[edit]

text: The boundaries of Gandhara varied throughout history. Sometimes the Peshawar Valley and Taxila were collectively referred to as Gandhara; sometimes the Swat Valley (Sanskrit: Suvāstu) was also included. The heart of Gandhara, however, was always the Peshawar Valley. The kingdom was ruled from capitals at Kapisa (Bagram),[12] Pushkalavati (Charsadda), Taxila, Puruṣapura (Peshawar) and in its final days from Udabhandapura (Hund) on the River Indus.

text: History[edit]

text: Stone age[edit]

text: Evidence of the Stone Age human inhabitants of Gandhara, including stone tools and burnt bones, was discovered at Sanghao near Mardan in area caves. The artifacts are approximately 15,000 years old. More recent excavations point to 30,000 years before the present.

text: Vedic Gandhara[edit]

text: Gandhara was an ancient kingdom of Purushpura, extending between the Swat valley and Potohar plateau regions of Pakistan as well as the Jalalabad district of northeastern Afghanistan. Gandhara is mentioned in the Mahabharata as well as Ramayana also mentions it as a western kingdom. Gandhara prince Shakuni was the root of all the conspiracies of Duryodhana against the Pandavas, which finally resulted in the Kurukshetra War. Shakuni's sister was the wife of the Kuru king Dhritarashtra and was known as Gandhari. Gandhara was in modern Pakistan. Puskalavati, Takshasila (Taxila) and Purushapura (Peshawar) were cities in this Gandhara kingdom. Takshasila was founded by Raghava Rama's brother Bharata. Bharata's descendants ruled this kingdom afterwards. During epic period it was ruled by Shakuni's father Suvala, Shakuni and Shakuni's son. Arjuna defeated Shakuni's son during his post-war military campaign for Yudhishthira's Aswamedha Yagna.

text: The name of the Gandhāris is attested in the Rigveda (RV 1.126.7[13]) and in ancient inscriptions dating back to Achaemenid Persia. The Behistun inscription listing the 23 territories of King Darius I (519 BC) includes Gandāra along with Bactria and Sattagydia (Θataguš). In the book Histories by Herodotus, Gandhara is named as a source of tax collections for King Darius. The Gandhāris, along with the Balhika (Bactrians), Mūjavants, Angas, and the Magadhas, are also mentioned in the Atharvaveda (AV 5.22.14), as distant people. Gandharas are included in the Uttarapatha division of Puranic and Buddhistic traditions. The Aitareya Brahmana refers to King Sailusha of Gandhara who was a contemporary of Janaka, king of Videha.

text: The primary cities of Gandhara were Puruṣapura (Peshawar), Takṣaśilā (Taxila), and Pushkalavati (Charsadda). The latter remained the capital of Gandhara down to the 2nd century AD, when the capital was moved to Peshawar. An important Buddhist shrine helped to make the city a centre of pilgrimage until the 7th century. Pushkalavati, in the Peshawar Valley, is situated at the confluence of the Swat and Kabul rivers, where three different branches of the River Kabul meet. That specific place is still called Prang (from Prayāga) and considered sacred; local people still bring their dead there for burial. Similar geographical characteristics are found at site of Prang in Kashmir and at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna, where the sacred city of Prayag is situated, west of Benares. There are some legends[citation needed] in which the two rivers are said to be joined here by the underground Sarasvati River, forming a triveṇī, a confluence of three rivers. However, Rigvedic texts, and modern research, suggest that the path of the Sarasvati River was very different. It ended in the ocean at Kachchh in modern Gujrat and not at Prayag. The Gandharan city of Taxila was an important Buddhist and Hindu centre of learning from the 5th century BC[14] to the 2nd century.

text: Achaemenid Gandhara[edit]

text: The main Vedic tribes remaining in the Indus Valley by 550 BC were the Kamboja, Sindhu, Taksas of Gandhara, the Madras and Kathas of the River Chenab, Mallas of the River Ravi and Tugras of the River Sutlej. These several tribes and principalities fought against one another to such an extent that the Indus Valley no longer had one powerful Vedic tribal kingdom to defend against outsiders and to wield the warring tribes into one organized kingdom. The area was wealthy and fertile, yet infighting led misery and despair. King Pushkarasakti of Gandhara was engaged in power struggles against his local rivals and as such the Khyber Pass remained poorly defended. King Darius I of the Achaemenid Empire took advantage of the opportunity and planned for an invasion. The Indus Valley was fabled in Persia for its gold and fertile soil and conquering it had been a major objective of his predecessor Cyrus The Great.[15] In 542 BC, Cyrus had led his army and conquered the Makran coast in southern Balochistan. However, he is known to have campaigned beyond Makran (in the regions of Kalat[disambiguation needed], Khuzdar, Panjgur) and lost most of his army in the Gedrosian Desert (speculated today as the Kharan Desert).

text: In 518 BC, Darius led his army through the Khyber Pass and southwards in stages, eventually reaching the Arabian Sea coast in Sindh by 516 BC. Under Persian rule, a system of centralized administration, with a bureaucratic system, was introduced into the Indus Valley for the first time. Provinces or "satrapy" were established with provincial capitals:

text: Gandhara satrapy, established 518 BC with its capital at Pushkalavati (Charsadda).[16] Gandhara Satrapy was established in the general region of the old Gandhara grave culture, in what is today Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. During Achaemenid rule, the Kharosthi alphabet, derived from the one used for Aramaic (the official language of Achaemenids), developed here and remained the national script of Gandhara until 200 AD.

text: The inscription on Darius' (521–486 BC) tomb at Naqsh-i-Rustam near Persepolis records Gadāra (Gandāra) along with Hindush (Hənduš, Sindh) in the list of satrapies. By about 380 BC the Persian hold on the region had weakened. Many small kingdoms sprang up in Gandhara. In 327 BC, Alexander the Great conquered Gandhara as well as the Indian satrapies of the Persian Empire. The expeditions of Alexander were recorded by his court historians and by Arrian (around AD 175) in his Anabasis Alexandri and by other chroniclers many centuries after the event.

text: Sir Mortimer Wheeler conducted some excavations there in 1962, and identified various Achaemenid remains.

text: Macedonian Gandhara[edit]

text: In the winter of 327 BC, Alexander invited all the chieftains in the remaining five Achaemenid satraps to submit to his authority. Ambhi, then ruler of Taxila in the former Hindush satrapy complied, but the remaining tribes and clans in the former satraps of Gandhara, Arachosia, Sattagydia and Gedrosia rejected Alexander's offer.

text: The first tribe they encountered were the Aspasioi tribe of the Kunar Valley, who initiated a fierce battle against Alexander, in which he himself was wounded in the shoulder by a dart. However, the Aspasioi eventually lost and 40,000 people were enslaved. Alexander then continued in a southwestern direction where he encountered the Assakenoi tribe of the Swat & Buner valleys in April 326 BC. The Assakenoi fought bravely and offered stubborn resistance to Alexander and his army in the cities of Ora, Bazira (Barikot) and Massaga. So enraged was Alexander about the resistance put up by the Assakenoi that he killed the entire population of Massaga and reduced its buildings to rubble - similar slaughters followed in Ora.[17] A similar slaughter then followed at Ora, another stronghold of the Assakenoi. The stories of these slaughters reached numerous Assakenians, who began fleeing to Aornos, a hill-fort located between Shangla and Kohistan. Alexander followed close behind their heels and besieged the strategic hill-fort, eventually capturing and destroying the fort and killing everyone inside. The remaining smaller tribes either surrendered or like the Astanenoi tribe of Pushkalavati (Charsadda) were quickly neutralized where 38,000 soldiers and 230,000 oxen were captured by Alexander.[18] Eventually Alexander's smaller force would meet with the larger force which had come through the Khyber Pass met at Attock. With the conquest of Gandhara complete, Alexander switched to strengthening his military supply line, which by now stretched dangerously vulnerable over the Hindu Kush back to Balkh in Bactria.

text: After conquering Gandhara and solidifying his supply line back to Bactria, Alexander combined his forces with the King Ambhi of Taxila and crossed the River Indus in July 326 BC to begin the Archosia (Punjab) campaign. Alexander founded several new settlements in Gandhara, Punjab and Sindh.[19] and nominated officers as Satraps of the new provinces:

text: In Gandhara, Oxyartes was nominated to the position of Satrap by Alexander in 326 BC.

text: Mauryan Gandhara[edit]

text: Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Mauryan dynasty, is said to have lived in Taxila when Alexander captured the city. According to tradition, he trained under Kautilya, who remained his chief adviser throughout his reign. Supposedly using Gandhara and Vahika as his base, Chandragupta led a rebellion against the Magadha Empire and ascended the throne at Pataliputra in 321 BC. However, there are no contemporary Indian records of Chandragupta Maurya and almost all that is known is based on the diaries of Megasthenes, the ambassador of Seleucus at Pataliputra, as recorded by Arrian in his Indika. Ambhi hastened to relieve Alexander of his apprehension and met him with valuable presents, placing himself and all of his forces at his disposal. Alexander not only returned Ambhi his title, and the gifts, but he also presented him with a wardrobe of: "Persian robes, gold and silver ornaments, 30 horses and 1000 talents in gold". Alexander was emboldened to divide his forces, and Ambhi assisted Hephaestion and Perdiccas in constructing a bridge over the Indus where it bends at Hund (Fox 1973), supplied their troops with provisions, and received Alexander himself, and his whole army, in his capital city of Taxila, with every demonstration of friendship and the most liberal hospitality.

text: On the subsequent advance of the Macedonian king, Taxiles accompanied him with a force of 5000 men and took part in the battle of the Hydaspes River. After that victory he was sent by Alexander in pursuit of Porus, to whom he was charged to offer favourable terms, but narrowly escaped losing his life at the hands of his old enemy. Subsequently, however, the two rivals were reconciled by the personal mediation of Alexander; and Taxiles, after having contributed zealously to the equipment of the fleet on the Hydaspes, was entrusted by the king with the government of the whole territory between that river and the Indus. A considerable accession of power was granted him after the death of Philip (son of Machatas); and he was allowed to retain his authority at the death of Alexander himself (323 BC), as well as in the subsequent partition of the provinces at Triparadisus, 321 BC. Later Ambhi was deposed and killed by Chandragupta Maurya, emperor of the Mauryan Empire. Gandhara was acquired from the Greeks by Chandragupta Maurya.

text: After a battle with Seleucus Nicator (Alexander's successor in Asia) in 305 BC, the Mauryan Emperor extended his domain up to and including present Southern Afghanistan. With the completion of the Empire's Grand Trunk Road, the region prospered as a center of trade. Gandhara remained a part of the Mauryan Empire for about a century and a half.

text: Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta, was one of the greatest Indian rulers. Like his grandfather, Ashoka also started his career in Gandhara as a governor. Later he supposedly became a Buddhist and promoted this religion in his empire. He built many stupas in Gandhara. Mauryan control over the northwestern frontier, including the Yonas, Kambojas, and the Gandharas, is attested from the Rock Edicts left by Ashoka. According to one school of scholars, the Gandharas and Kambojas were cognate people.[20][21][22] It is also contended that the Kurus, Kambojas, Gandharas and Bahlikas were cognate people and all had Iranian affinities,[23] or that the Gandhara and Kamboja were nothing but two provinces of one empire and hence influencing each other's language.[24] However, the local language of Gandhara is represented by Panini's conservative bhāṣā ("language"), which is entirely different from the Iranian (Late Avestan) language of the Kamboja that is indicated by Patanjali's quote of Kambojan śavati 'to go' (= Late Avestan šava(i)ti).[note 4]

text: Graeco-Bactrians, Sakas, and Indo-Parthians[edit]

text: The decline of the Empire left the sub-continent open to Greco-Bactrian invasions. Present-day southern Afghanistan was absorbed by Demetrius I of Bactria in 180 BC. Around about 185 BC, Demetrius invaded and conquered Gandhara and the Punjab. Later, wars between different groups of Bactrian Greeks resulted in the independence of Gandhara from Bactria and the formation of the Indo-Greek kingdom. Menander I was its most famous king. He ruled from Taxila and later from Sagala (Sialkot). He rebuilt Taxila (Sirkap) and Pushkalavati. He became a Buddhist and is remembered in Buddhist records for his discussions with the great Buddhist philosopher, Nāgasena, in the book Milinda Panha.

text: Around the time of Menander's death in 140 BC, the Central Asian Kushans overran Bactria and ended Greek rule there. Around 80 BC, the Sakas, diverted by their Parthian cousins from Iran, moved into Gandhara and other parts of Pakistan and Western India. The most famous king of the Sakas, Maues, established himself in Gandhara.

text: By 90 BC the Parthians had taken control of eastern Iran and, around 50 BC, they put an end to the last remnants of Greek rule in today's Afghanistan. Eventually an Indo-Parthian dynasty succeeded in taking control of Gandhara. The Parthians continued to support Greek artistic traditions. The start of the Gandharan Greco-Buddhist art is dated to about 75–50 BC. Links between Rome and the Indo-Parthian kingdoms existed.[25] There is archaeological evidence that building techniques were transmitted between the two realms. Christian records claim that around AD 40 Thomas the Apostle visited India and encountered the Indo-Parthian king Gondophares.[26]

text: Kushan Gandhara[edit]

text: The Parthian dynasty fell about 75 to another group from Central Asia. The Kushans, known as Yuezhi in China (argued by some[who?] to be ethnically Asii) moved from Central Asia to Bactria, where they stayed for a century. Around 75, one of their tribes, the Kushan (Kuṣāṇa), under the leadership of Kujula Kadphises gained control of Gandhara and other parts of what is now Pakistan.

text: The Kushan period is considered the Golden Period of Gandhara. Peshawar Valley and Taxila are littered with ruins of stupas and monasteries of this period. Gandharan art flourished and produced some of the best pieces of Indian sculpture. Many monuments were created to commemorate the Jatakas.

text: Gandhara's culture peaked during the reign of the great Kushan king Kanishka the Great (128–151). The cities of Taxila (Takṣaśilā) at Sirsukh and Peshawar were built. Peshawar became the capital of a great empire stretching from Gandhara to Central Asia. Kanishka was a great patron of the Buddhist faith; Buddhism spread to Central Asia and the Far East across Bactria and Sogdia, where his empire met the Han Empire of China. Buddhist art spread from Gandhara to other parts of Asia. Under Kanishka, Gandhara became a holy land of Buddhism and attracted Chinese pilgrims eager to view the monuments associated with many Jatakas.

text: In Gandhara, Mahayana Buddhism flourished and Buddha was represented in human form. Under the Kushans new Buddhists stupas were built and old ones were enlarged. Huge statues of the Buddha were erected in monasteries and carved into the hillsides. Kanishka also built a great 400-foot tower at Peshawar. This tower was reported by Chinese monks Faxian, Song Yun, and Xuanzang who visited the country. This structure was destroyed and rebuilt many times until it was finally destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni in the 11th century.

text: Hepthalite Invasion[edit]

text: The Hephthalite Huns captured Gandhara around 451, and did not adopt Buddhism, but in fact "perpetrated frightful massacres." Mihirakula became a "terrible persecutor" of the religion.[27] During their rule, Hinduism revived itself and the Buddhist Gandharan civilization declined.

text: The travel records of many Chinese Buddhist pilgrims record that Gandhara was going through a transformation during these centuries. Buddhism was declining, and Hinduism was rising. Faxian traveled around 400, when Prakrit was the language of the people, and Buddhism was flourishing. 100 years later, when Song Yun visited in 520, a different situation was described: the area had been destroyed by the White Huns and was ruled by Lae-Lih, who did not practice the laws of the Buddha. Xuanzang visited India around 644 and found Buddhism on the wane in Gandhara and Hinduism in the ascendant. Gandhara was ruled by a king from Kabul, who respected Buddha's law, but Taxila was in ruins, and Buddhist monasteries were deserted.

text: Kabul Shahi[edit]

text: After the fall of the Sassanid Empire to the Arabs in 644, today's Afghanistan region and Gandhara came under pressure from Muslims. But they failed to extend their empire to Gandhara. Gandhara was first ruled by local kings who later expanded their kingdom onto an empire.

text: Gandhara was ruled from Kabul by Kabulshahi for next 200 years. Sometime in the 9th century the Kabul Shahi replaced the Shahi. Based on various Muslim records it is estimated this occurred in 870. According to Al-Biruni (973–1048), Kallar, a Brahmin minister of the Kabulshahi, founded the Shahi dynasty in 843. The dynasty ruled from Kabul, later moved their capital to Udabhandapura. They built great temples all over their kingdoms. Some of these buildings are still in good condition in the Salt Range of the Punjab.

text: Decline[edit]

text: Jayapala was the last great king of this dynasty. His empire extended from west of Kabul to the river Sutlej. However, this expansion of Gandhara kingdom coincided with the rise of the powerful Ghaznavid Empire under Sabuktigin. Defeated twice by Sabuktigin and then by Mahmud of Ghazni in the Kabul valley, Jayapala gave his life on a funeral pyre. Anandapala, a son of Jayapala, moved his capital near Nandana in the Salt Range. In 1021 the last king of this dynasty, Trilochanapala, was assassinated by his own troops which spelled the end of Gandhara. Subsequently, some Shahi princes moved to Kashmir and became active in local politics.

text: The city of Kandahar in Afghanistan is said to have been named after Gandhara. According to H.W. Bellow, an emigrant from Gandhara in the 5th century brought this name to modern Kandahar. Faxian reported that the Buddha's alms-bowl existed in Peshawar Valley when he visited around 400 (chapter XII). In 1872 Bellow saw this huge begging bowl (seven feet in diameter) preserved in the shrine of Sultan Wais outside Kandahar. When Olaf Caroe wrote his book in 1958 (Caroe, pp. 170–171), this relic was reported to be at Kabul Museum. The present status of this bowl is unknown.

text: Al Biruni writing c. 1030 CE, reported on the devastation caused during the conquest of Gandhara and much of northwest India by Mahmud of Ghazni following his defeat of Jayapala in the Battle of Peshawar at Peshawar in 1001:

text: Now in the following times no Muslim conqueror passed beyond the frontier of Kâbul and the river Sindh until the days of the Turks, when they seized the power in Ghazna under the Sâmânî dynasty, and the supreme power fell to the lot of Nâṣir-addaula Sabuktagin. This prince chose the holy war as his calling, and therefore called himself al-Ghâzî ("the warrior/invader"). In the interest of his successors he constructed, in order to weaken the Indian frontier, those roads on which afterwards his son Yamin-addaula Maḥmûd marched into India during a period of thirty years and more. God be merciful to both father and son ! Maḥmûd utterly ruined the prosperity of the country, and performed there wonderful exploits, by which the Hindus became like atoms of dust scattered in all directions, and like a tale of old in the mouth of the people. Their scattered remains cherish, of course, the most inveterate aversion towards all Muslims. This is the reason, too, why Hindu sciences have retired far away from those parts of the country conquered by us, and have fled to places which our hand cannot yet reach, to Kashmir, Benares, and other places. And there the antagonism between them and all foreigners receives more and more nourishment both from political and religious sources.[28]

text: During the closing years of the tenth and the early years of the succeeding century of our era, Mahmud the first Sultan and Musalman of the Turk dynasty of kings who ruled at Ghazni, made a succession of inroads twelve or fourteen in number, into Gandhar – the present Peshwar valley – in the course of his proselytizing invasions of Hindustan.<[29]

text: Fire and sword, havoc and destruction, marked his course everywhere. Gandhar which was styled the Garden of the North was left at his death a weird and desolate waste. Its rich fields and fruitful gardens, together with the canal which watered them (the course of which is still partially traceable in the western part of the plain), had all disappeared. Its numerous stone built cities, monasteries, and topes with their valuable and revered monuments and sculptures, were sacked, fired, razed to the ground, and utterly destroyed as habitations.[29]

text: Rediscovery[edit]

text: By the time Gandhara had been absorbed into the empire of Mahmud of Ghazni, Buddhist buildings were already in ruins and Gandhara art had been forgotten. After Al-Biruni, the Kashmiri writer Kalhaṇa wrote his book Rajatarangini in 1151. He recorded some events that took place in Gandhara, and provided details about its last royal dynasty and capital Udabhandapura.

text: In the 19th century, British soldiers and administrators started taking an interest in the ancient history of the Indian Subcontinent. In the 1830s coins of the post-Ashoka period were discovered, and in the same period Chinese travelogues were translated. Charles Masson, James Prinsep, and Alexander Cunningham deciphered the Kharosthi script in 1838. Chinese records provided locations and site plans for Buddhist shrines. Along with the discovery of coins, these records provided clues necessary to piece together the history of Gandhara. In 1848 Cunningham found Gandhara sculptures north of Peshawar. He also identified the site of Taxila in the 1860s. From then on a large number of Buddhist statues were discovered in the Peshawar valley.

text: Archaeologist John Marshall excavated at Taxila between 1912 and 1934. He discovered separate Greek, Parthian, and Kushan cities and a large number of stupas and monasteries. These discoveries helped to piece together much more of the chronology of the history of Gandhara and its art.

text: After 1947 Ahmed Hassan Dani and the Archaeology Department at the University of Peshawar made a number of discoveries in the Peshawar and Swat Valley. Excavation of many of the sites of Gandhara Civilization are being done by researchers from Peshawar and several universities around the world.

text: Taliban destruction of Buddhist relics[edit]

text: Swat Valley in Pakistan has many Buddhist carvings, and stupas, and Jehanabad contains a Seated Buddha statue.[30] Kushan era Buddhist stupas and statues in Swat valley were demolished after two attempts by the Taliban and the Jehanabad Buddha's face was dynamited.[31][32][33] Only the Buddhas of Bamiyan were larger than the carved giant Buddha statues in Swat near Mangalore which the Taliban attacked.[34] The government did nothing to safeguard the statue after the initial attempts to destroy the Buddha, which did not cause permanent harm. But when a second attack took place on the statue, the feet, shoulders, and face were demolished.[35] Islamists such as the Taliban, and looters, destroyed many of Pakistan's Buddhist artifacts from the Buddhist Gandhara civilization especially in the Swat Valley.[36] The Taliban deliberately targeted Gandhara Buddhist relics for destruction.[37] The Christian Archbishop of Lahore, Lawrence John Saldanha, wrote a letter to Pakistan's government denouncing the Taliban's activities in Swat Valley including their destruction of Buddha statues and their attacks on Christians, Sikhs, and Hindus.[38] Gandhara Buddhist artifacts were illegally looted by smugglers.[39] A group of Italians helped repair the Buddha.[40]

text: Language[edit]

text: The Gandharan Buddhist texts are both the earliest Buddhist as well as Asian manuscripts discovered so far. Most are written on birch bark and were found in labelled clay pots. Panini has mentioned both the Vedic form of Sanskrit as well as what seems to be Gandhari, a later form of Sanskrit, in his Ashtadhyayi.

text: Gandhara's language was a Prakrit or "Middle Indo-Aryan" dialect, usually called Gāndhārī. The language used the Kharosthi script, which died out about the 4th century. However, Punjabi, Hindko, and Kohistani, are derived from the Indo-Aryan Prakrits that were spoken in Gandhara and surrounding areas. However, a language shift occurred as the ancient Gandharan culture gave way to Iranian invaders from Central Asia.[41]

text: Buddhism[edit]

text: Mahāyāna Buddhism[edit]

text: Mahāyāna Pure Land sūtras were brought from the Gandhāra region to China as early as 147 CE, when the Kushan monk Lokakṣema began translating some of the first Buddhist sūtras into Chinese.[42] The earliest of these translations show evidence of having been translated from the Gāndhārī language.[43] Lokakṣema translated important Mahāyāna sūtras such as the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, as well as rare, early Mahāyāna sūtras on topics such as samādhi, and meditation on the buddha Akṣobhya. Lokaksema's translations continue to provide insight into the early period of Mahāyāna Buddhism. This corpus of texts often includes and emphasizes ascetic practices and forest dwelling, and absorption in states of meditative concentration:[44]

text: Paul Harrison has worked on some of the texts that are arguably the earliest versions we have of the Mahāyāna sūtras, those translated into Chinese in the last half of the second century CE by the Indo-Scythian translator Lokakṣema. Harrison points to the enthusiasm in the Lokakṣema sūtra corpus for the extra ascetic practices, for dwelling in the forest, and above all for states of meditative absorption (samādhi). Meditation and meditative states seem to have occupied a central place in early Mahāyāna, certainly because of their spiritual efficacy but also because they may have given access to fresh revelations and inspiration.

text: Some scholars believe that the Mahāyāna Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra was compiled in the age of the Kushan Empire in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, by an order of Mahīśāsaka bhikṣus which flourished in the Gandhāra region.[45][46] However, it is likely that the longer Sukhāvatīvyūha owes greatly to the Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda sect as well for its compilation, and in this sūtra there are many elements in common with the Lokottaravādin Mahāvastu.[45] There are also images of Amitābha Buddha with the bodhisattvas Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta which were made in Gandhāra during the Kushan era.[47]

text: The Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa records that Kaniṣka of the Kushan Empire presided over the establishment of the Mahāyāna Prajñāpāramitā teachings in the northwest.[48] Tāranātha wrote that in this region, 500 bodhisattvas attended the council at Jālandhra monastery during the time of Kaniṣka, suggesting some institutional strength for Mahāyāna in the northwest during this period.[48] Edward Conze goes further to say that Prajñāpāramitā had great success in the northwest during the Kushan period, and may have been the "fortress and hearth" of early Mahāyāna, but not its origin, which he associates with the Mahāsāṃghika branch of Buddhism.[49]

text: Buddhist translators[edit]

text: Gandharan Buddhist missionaries were active, with other monks from Central Asia, from the 2nd century AD in the Han-dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) at China's capital of Luoyang, and particularly distinguished themselves by their translation work. They promoted scriptures from Early Buddhist schools as well as those from the Mahāyāna. These translators included:

text:
Lokakṣema, a Kushan and the first to translate Mahāyāna scriptures into Chinese (167–186)
Zhi Yao (c. 185), a Kushan monk, second generation of translators after Lokakṣema
Zhi Qian (220–252), a Kushan monk whose grandfather had settled in China during 168–190
Zhi Yue (c. 230), a Kushan monk who worked at Nanjing
Dharmarakṣa (265–313), a Kushan whose family had lived for generations at Dunhuang
Jñānagupta (561–592), a monk and translator from Gandhāra
Śikṣānanda (652–710), a monk and translator from Oḍḍiyāna, Gandhāra
Prajñā (c. 810), a monk and translator from Kabul, who educated the Japanese Kūkai in Sanskrit texts

text: Textual finds[edit]

text: The Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang visited a Lokottaravāda monastery in the 7th century CE, at Bamiyan, Afghanistan. The site of this monastery has since been rediscovered by archaeologists.[50] Birchbark and palm leaf manuscripts of texts in this monastery's collection, including Mahāyāna sūtras, have been discovered at the site, and these are now located in the Schøyen Collection. Some manuscripts are in the Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣṭhī script, while others are in Sanskrit and written in forms of the Gupta script. Manuscripts and fragments that have survived from this monastery's collection include the following source texts:[50]

text:
Pratimokṣa Vibhaṅga of the Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda (MS 2382/269)
Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, a sūtra from the Āgamas (MS 2179/44)
Caṃgī Sūtra, a sūtra from the Āgamas (MS 2376)
Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, a Mahāyāna sūtra (MS 2385)
Bhaiṣajyaguru Sūtra, a Mahāyāna sūtra (MS 2385)
Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra, a Mahāyāna sūtra (MS 2378)
Pravāraṇa Sūtra, a Mahāyāna sūtra (MS 2378)
Sarvadharmapravṛttinirdeśa Sūtra, a Mahāyāna sūtra (MS 2378)
Ajātaśatrukaukṛtyavinodana Sūtra, a Mahāyāna sūtra (MS 2378)
Śāriputra Abhidharma Śāstra (MS 2375/08)

text: A Sanskrit manuscript of the Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhārāja Sūtra was among the textual finds at Gilgit, Pakistan, attesting to the popularity of the Medicine Buddha in Gandhāra.[51] The manuscripts in this find are dated before the 7th century, and are written in the upright Gupta script.[51]

text: Art[edit]

text: Gandhāra is noted for the distinctive Gandhāra style of Buddhist art, which developed from a merger of Greek, Syrian, Persian, and Indian artistic influences. This development began during the Parthian Period (50 BC – AD 75). The Gandhāran style flourished and achieved its peak during the Kushan period, from the 1st to the 5th centuries. It declined and was destroyed after the invasion of the White Huns in the 5th century.

text: Stucco as well as stone was widely used by sculptors in Gandhara for the decoration of monastic and cult buildings. Stucco provided the artist with a medium of great plasticity, enabling a high degree of expressiveness to be given to the sculpture. Sculpting in stucco was popular wherever Buddhism spread from Gandhara – Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Central Asia, and China.

text:
Standing Bodhisattva (1st–2nd century)

Buddha head (2nd century)

Buddha head (4th–6th century)

Buddha in acanthus capital

The Greek god Atlas, supporting a Buddhist monument, Hadda

The Bodhisattva Maitreya (2nd century)

Wine-drinking and music, Hadda (1st–2nd century)

Maya's white elephant dream (2nd–3rd century)

The birth of Siddharta (2nd–3rd century)

The Great Departure from the Palace (2nd–3rd century)

The end of ascetism (2nd–3rd century)

The Buddha preaching at the Deer Park in Sarnath (2nd–3rd century)

Scene of the life of the Buddha (2nd–3rd century)

The death of the Buddha, or parinirvana (2nd–3rd century)

A sculpture from Hadda, (3rd century)

The Bodhisattva and Chandeka, Hadda (5th century)

The Buddha and Vajrapani under the guise of Herakles

Hellenistic decorative scrolls from Hadda, Afghanistan

Hellenistic scene, Gandhara (1st century)

A stone plate (1st century).

"Laughing boy" from Hadda

Bodhisattva seated in meditation

text: Timeline[edit]

text:
Legend: Bharat, the brother of Lord Rama of Kosala, ruled from Gandhara, his sons were Taksh and Pushkala, who inhabited new cities called Taksha-shila (Taxila), and Pushkarvati (Peshawar).[52] Tentative timeline for this event is 5000 BC or before that [citation needed].
Legend: Gandhari, the princess of Gandhara is married to Dhritrashtra, the king of Hastinapur. The Ancient Indian scripture Mahabharata dates this event to be around 3000 BC [citation needed].
c. 2300 – c. 1900 BC Indus Valley civilization
c. 1900 – c. 520 BC No written records. Indo-Aryan migrations. Ramayana legend says Lord Rama's brother Bharat ruled from Gandhara.
c. 1500 – c. 500 BC Gandhara grave culture
c. 1200 – c. 800 BC Gandhari people mentioned in Rigveda and Atharvaveda.
c. 520 – c. 326 BC Persian Empire. Under direct Persian control and/or local control under Achaemenid suzerainty.
c. 326 – c. 305 BC Occupied by Alexander the Great and Macedonian generals
c. 305 – c. 180 BC Controlled by the Maurya dynasty, founded by Chandragupta. Converted to Buddhism under King Ashoka (273–232 BC)
c. 185 – c. 97 BC Under control of the Indo-Greek Kingdom, with some incursions of the Indo-Scythians from around 100 BC
c. 97 BC – c. AD 7 Saka (Indo-Scythian) Rule
c. 7 – c. 75 Parthian invasion and Indo-Parthian Kingdom, Rule of Commander Aspavarman?. Ambhi Kumar, king of Gandhara was a descendant of Lord Raghu and prince Bharat of Kosala Kingdom.
c. 75 – c. 230 Kushan Empire
c. 230 – c. 440 Kushanshas under Persian Sassanid suzerainty
c. 450 – c. 565 White Huns (Hephthalites)
c. 565 – c. 644 Nezak kingdom, ruled from Kapisa and Udabhandapura
c. 650 – c. 870 Kabul Shahi, ruled from Kabul
c. 870 – 1021 Hindu Shahi, ruled from Udabhandapura
c. 1032 – 1350 Conquered and controlled by the empire of Mahmud of Ghazni.