Portal:World

The World Portal

The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plurality of worlds". Some treat the world as one simple object, while others analyze the world as a complex made up of parts.

In scientific cosmology, the world or universe is commonly defined as "the totality of all space and time; all that is, has been, and will be". Theories of modality talk of possible worlds as complete and consistent ways how things could have been. Phenomenology, starting from the horizon of co-given objects present in the periphery of every experience, defines the world as the biggest horizon, or the "horizon of all horizons". In philosophy of mind, the world is contrasted with the mind as that which is represented by the mind.

Theology conceptualizes the world in relation to God, for example, as God's creation, as identical to God, or as the two being interdependent. In religions, there is a tendency to downgrade the material or sensory world in favor of a spiritual world to be sought through religious practice. A comprehensive representation of the world and our place in it, as is found in religions, is known as a worldview. Cosmogony is the field that studies the origin or creation of the world, while eschatology refers to the science or doctrine of the last things or of the end of the world.

In various contexts, the term "world" takes a more restricted meaning associated, for example, with the Earth and all life on it, with humanity as a whole, or with an international or intercontinental scope. In this sense, world history refers to the history of humanity as a whole, and world politics is the discipline of political science studying issues that transcend nations and continents. Other examples include terms such as "world religion", "world language", "world government", "world war", "world population", "world economy", or "world championship". (Full article...)

Selected articles -

Image 1

Several cosmological and mythological systems portray four corners of the world or four quarters of the world corresponding approximately to the four points of the compass (or the two solstices and two equinoxes). At the center may lie a sacred mountain, garden, world tree, or other beginning-point of creation. Often four rivers run to the four corners of the world, and water or irrigate the four quadrants of Earth. (Full article...)
Image 2

The New World Order (NWO) is a term often used in conspiracy theories which speculate about a secretly emerging totalitarian world government. The common theme in conspiracy theories about a New World Order is that a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian one-world government—which will replace sovereign nation-states—and an all-encompassing propaganda whose ideology hails the establishment of the New World Order as the culmination of history's progress. Many influential historical and contemporary figures have therefore been alleged to be part of a cabal that operates through numerous front organizations to orchestrate significant political, social and economic events, including taking advantage of crises or even causing them in order to push through controversial policies at both national and international levels, as steps in an ongoing plot to achieve world domination.

Before the early 1990s, New World Order conspiracism was limited to two American countercultures, primarily the militantly anti-government right, and secondarily the part of fundamentalist Christianity concerned with the eschatological end-time emergence of the Antichrist. Academics who study conspiracy theories and religious extremism, such as Michael Barkun and Chip Berlet, observed that right-wing populist conspiracy theories about a New World Order not only have been embraced by many seekers of stigmatized knowledge but also have seeped into popular culture, thereby fueling a surge of interest and participation in survivalism and paramilitarism as many people actively prepare for apocalyptic and millenarian scenarios. These political scientists warn that mass hysteria over New World Order conspiracy theories could eventually have devastating effects on American political life, ranging from escalating lone wolf terrorism to the rise to power of authoritarian ultranationalist demagogues. (Full article...)
Image 3

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. Established on 1 January 1995, pursuant to the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement, it succeeded the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was created in 1948. As the world's largest international economic organization, the WTO has 166 members, representing over 98% of global trade and global GDP. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

The WTO's primary functions are to provide a framework for negotiating trade agreements and to resolve trade disputes among its members. Its agreements, which are negotiated and signed by the majority of the world's trading nations and ratified in their legislatures, cover trade in goods, services, and intellectual property. The organization operates on the principle of non-discrimination—enshrined in the most-favoured-nation and national treatment provisions—but allows for exceptions for environmental protection, national security, and other objectives. (Full article...)
Image 4

A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from the ocean, although they may be connected with the ocean by rivers. Lakes, like other bodies of water, are part of the water cycle, the processes by which water moves around the Earth. Most lakes are fresh water and account for almost all the world's surface freshwater, but some are salt lakes with salinities even higher than that of seawater. Lakes vary significantly in surface area and volume of water, but in total cover approximately 2.5 X 10⁶ km² (less than 2%) of the Earth's surface.

Lakes are typically larger and deeper than ponds, which are also water-filled basins on land, although there are no official definitions or scientific criteria distinguishing the two. Lakes are also distinct from lagoons, which are generally shallow tidal pools dammed by sandbars or other material at coastal regions of oceans or large lakes. Most lakes are fed by springs, and both fed and drained by creeks and rivers, but some lakes are endorheic without any outflow, while volcanic lakes are filled directly by precipitation runoffs and do not have any inflow streams. (Full article...)
Image 5
Global workforce refers to the international labor pool of workers, including those employed by multinational companies and connected through a global system of networking and production, foreign workers, transient migrant workers, remote workers, those in export-oriented employment, contingent workforce or other precarious work. As of 2012, the global labor pool consisted of approximately 3 billion workers, around 200 million unemployed. (Full article...)
Image 6
Global citizenship is a form of transnationality, specifically the idea that one's identity transcends geography or political borders and that responsibilities or rights are derived from membership in a broader global class of "humanity". This does not mean that such a person denounces or waives their nationality or other, more local identities, but that such identities are given "second place" to their membership in a global community. Extended, the idea leads to questions about the state of global society in the age of globalization.

In general usage, the term may have much the same meaning as "world citizen" or cosmopolitan, but it also has additional, specialized meanings in differing contexts. Various organizations, such as the World Service Authority, have advocated global transnational citizenship. (Full article...)
Image 7

Logo used since 2022

The BBC World Service is a British public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcasts radio news, speech and discussions in more than 40 languages to many parts of the world on analogue and digital shortwave platforms, internet streaming, podcasting, satellite, DAB, FM, LW and MW relays. In 2024, the World Service reached an average of 450 million people a week (via TV, radio and online).

BBC World Service English maintains eight regional feeds with several programme variations, covering, respectively, East and Southern Africa; West and Central Africa; Europe and Middle East; the Americas and Caribbean; East Asia; South Asia; Australasia; and the United Kingdom. There are also two online-only streams, a general one and the other more news-orientated, known as News Internet. The service broadcasts 24 hours a day. (Full article...)

General images -

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

Image 1Earth's history with time-spans of the eons to scale. Ma means "million years ago", Ga means "billion years ago". (from History of Earth)
Image 2Graph showing range of estimated partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen through geologic time (from History of Earth)
Image 3A composite image of artificial light emissions at night on a map of Earth (from Earth)
Image 4Standing Buddha from Gandhara, 2nd century CE
Image 5Earth's major plates, which are:
(from Earth)
Image 6The Blue Marble, Apollo 17, December 1972 (from Earth)
Image 7Earth and the Moon as seen from Mars by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (from Earth)
Image 8Wittenberg, birthplace of Protestantism (from Human history)
Image 9Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989
Image 10Japanese depiction of a Portuguese carrack, a result of globalizing maritime trade
Image 11Dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates throughout most of the Mesozoic (from History of Earth)
Image 12Yggdrasil, an attempt to reconstruct the Norse world tree which connects the heavens, the world, and the underworld. (from World)
Image 13Angkor Wat temple complex, Cambodia, early 12th century
Image 14Pillar erected by Ashoka, a Mauryan Emperor in India
Image 15Pale orange dot, an impression of Early Earth, featuring its tinted orange methane-rich early atmosphere (from Earth)
Image 16A reconstruction of human history based on fossil data. (from History of Earth)
Image 17James Watt's steam engine powered the Industrial Revolution.
Image 18Ming dynasty section, Great Wall of China
Image 19Maya observatory, Chichen Itza, Mexico
Image 20Artist's impression of the enormous collision that probably formed the Moon (from History of Earth)
Image 21Image of the physical world, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope (from World)
Image 22Scientific worldview. (from World)
Image 23Umayyad Mosque in Damascus (from Human history)
Image 24Olmec colossal head, now at the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa
Image 25Chennakesava Temple, Belur, India
Image 26Moai, Easter Island (from Human history)
Image 27Earth's night-side upper atmosphere appearing from the bottom as bands of afterglow illuminating the troposphere in orange with silhouettes of clouds, and the stratosphere in white and blue. Next the mesosphere (pink area) extends to the orange and faintly green line of the lowest airglow, at about one hundred kilometers at the edge of space and the lower edge of the thermosphere (invisible). Continuing with green and red bands of aurorae stretching over several hundred kilometers. (from Earth)
Image 28One of the eleven Rock-hewn Churches of Lalibela constructed during the Zagwe dynasty in Ethiopia (from Human history)
Image 29A conception of the scorched Earth after the Sun has entered the red giant phase, about 5–7 billion years in the future (from Earth)
Image 30Artist's impression of a Hadean landscape with the relatively newly formed Moon still looming closely over Earth and both bodies sustaining strong volcanism. (from History of Earth)
Image 31A map of heat flow from Earth's interior to the surface of Earth's crust, mostly along the oceanic ridges (from Earth)
Image 32COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 (from Human history)
Image 33Artist's impression of Earth during the later Archean, the largely cooled planetary crust and water-rich barren surface, marked by volcanoes and continents, features already round microbialites. The Moon, still orbiting Earth much closer than today and still dominating Earth's sky, produced strong tides. (from History of Earth)
Image 34The replicator in virtually all known life is deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is far more complex than the original replicator and its replication systems are highly elaborate. (from History of Earth)
Image 35Battle during the 1281 Mongol invasion of Japan
Image 36The first airplane, the Wright Flyer, flew on 17 December 1903.
Image 37Satellite time lapse imagery of Earth's rotation showing axis tilt (from Earth)
Image 38Artist's conception of Devonian flora (from History of Earth)
Image 39Earth's axial tilt causing different angles of seasonal illumination at different orbital positions around the Sun (from Earth)
Image 40Artist's conception of Hadean Eon Earth, when it was much hotter and inhospitable to all forms of life. (from History of Earth)
Image 41Notre-Dame de Paris, France
Image 42The Colosseum in Rome (from Human history)
Image 43Chloroplasts in the cells of a moss (from History of Earth)
Image 44Obelisk of Axum, Ethiopia
Image 45Relief of Earth's crust (from Earth)
Image 46Change in average surface air temperature and drivers for that change. Human activity has caused increased temperatures, with natural forces adding some variability. (from Earth)
Image 47A depiction of the early Solar System's protoplanetary disk from which Earth and other Solar System bodies were formed (from Earth)
Image 48Tiktaalik, a fish with limb-like fins and a predecessor of tetrapods. Reconstruction from fossils about 375 million years old. (from History of Earth)
Image 49A view of Earth with its global ocean and cloud cover, which dominate Earth's surface and hydrosphere; at Earth's polar regions, its hydrosphere forms larger areas of ice cover. (from Earth)
Image 50Atomic bombing of Nagasaki, 1945
Image 51Cross-section through a liposome (from History of Earth)
Image 52Exaggerated illustration of Earth's elliptical orbit around the Sun, marking that the orbital extreme points (apoapsis and periapsis) are not the same as the four seasonal extreme points, the equinox and solstice (from Earth)
Image 53European migrations by mostly Germanic peoples, 2nd–6th centuries (from Human history)
Image 54Florence, birthplace of the Italian Renaissance
Image 55Portrait of Alfraganus in the Compilatio astronomica, 1493. Islamic astronomers began just before the 9th century to collect and translate Indian, Persian and Greek astronomical texts, adding their own astronomy and enabling later, particularly European astronomy to build on. Symbolic for the post-classical period, a period of an increasing trans-regional literary culture, particularly in the sciences, spreading and building on methods of science. (from Human history)
Image 56Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
Image 57Successive dispersals of Homo erectus (yellow), Homo neanderthalensis (ochre) during Out of Africa I and Homo sapiens (red, Out of Africa II), with the numbers of years since they appeared before present. (from Human history)
Image 58Trilobites first appeared during the Cambrian period and were among the most widespread and diverse groups of Paleozoic organisms. (from History of Earth)
Image 59Taj Mahal, Mughal Empire, India
Image 60An artist's impression of ice age Earth at glacial maximum. (from History of Earth)
Image 61Vitruvian Man, c. 1490 by Leonardo da Vinci, epitomizes the advances in art and science seen during the Renaissance. (from History of Earth)
Image 62Carving of Persian and Median soldiers, Persepolis, Achaemenid Empire, 5th century BCE
Image 63Earth's western hemisphere showing topography relative to Earth's center instead of to mean sea level, as in common topographic maps (from Earth)
Image 64Artist's rendition of an oxinated fully-frozen Snowball Earth with no remaining liquid surface water. (from History of Earth)
Image 65Last Moon landing: Apollo 17 (1972)
Image 66Benin Bronze head from Nigeria
Image 67A 580 million year old fossil of Spriggina floundensi, an animal from the Ediacaran period. Such life forms could have been ancestors to the many new forms that originated in the Cambrian Explosion. (from History of Earth)
Image 68A composite image of Earth, with its different types of surface discernible: Earth's surface dominating Ocean (blue), Africa with lush (green) to dry (brown) land and Earth's polar ice in the form of Antarctic sea ice (grey) covering the Antarctic or Southern Ocean and the Antarctic ice sheet (white) covering Antarctica. (from Earth)
Image 69The flag of the United Nations (from Earth)
Image 70A view of Earth with different layers of its atmosphere visible: the troposphere with its clouds casting shadows, a band of stratospheric blue sky at the horizon, and a line of green airglow of the lower thermosphere around an altitude of 100 km, at the edge of space (from Earth)
Image 71An impression of the Archean, the eon after Earth's formation, featuring round stromatolites, which are early oxygen-producing forms of life from billions of years ago. After the Late Heavy Bombardment, Earth's crust had cooled, its water-rich barren surface is marked by continents and volcanoes, with the Moon still orbiting Earth half as far as it is today, appearing 2.8 times larger and producing strong tides. (from Earth)
Image 7213th-century French historiated initial with the three classes of medieval society: those who prayed (the clergy), those who fought (the knights), and those who worked (the peasantry)
Image 73Pangaea was a supercontinent that existed from about 300 to 180 Ma. The outlines of the modern continents and other landmasses are indicated on this map. (from History of Earth)
Image 74Machu Picchu, Inca Empire, Peru
Image 75A pillar at Neolithic Göbekli Tepe
Image 76A reconstruction of Pannotia (550 Ma). (from History of Earth)
Image 77Lithified stromatolites on the shores of Lake Thetis, Western Australia. Archean stromatolites are the first direct fossil traces of life on Earth. (from History of Earth)
Image 78An artist's rendering of a protoplanetary disk (from History of Earth)
Image 79The pale orange dot, an artist's impression of the early Earth which might have appeared orange through its hazy methane rich prebiotic second atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere at this stage was somewhat comparable to today's atmosphere of Titan. (from History of Earth)
Image 80A computer-generated image mapping the prevalence of artificial satellites and space debris around Earth in geosynchronous and low Earth orbit (from Earth)
Image 81A schematic view of Earth's magnetosphere with solar wind flowing from left to right (from Earth)
Image 82Cuneiform inscription, eastern Turkey
Image 83Geologic map of North America, color-coded by age. From most recent to oldest, age is indicated by yellow, green, blue, and red. The reds and pinks indicate rock from the Archean.
Image 84An animation of the changing density of productive vegetation on land (low in brown; heavy in dark green) and phytoplankton at the ocean surface (low in purple; high in yellow) (from Earth)
Image 85A banded iron formation from the 3.15 Ga Moodies Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa. Red layers represent the times when oxygen was available; gray layers were formed in anoxic circumstances. (from History of Earth)
Image 86Earth's land use for human agriculture in 2019 (from Earth)

Megacities of the world -

Skyline of the Central Business District

Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (its official name until 1 November 2014), is the capital and largest city of the southern Indian state of Karnataka. As per the 2011 census, the city had a population of 8.4 million, making it the third most populous city in India and the most populous in South India. The Bengaluru metropolitan area had a population of around 8.5 million, making it the fifth most populous urban agglomeration in the country. It is located towards the southern end of the Deccan Plateau, at an altitude of 900 m (3,000 ft) above sea level. The city is known as India's "Garden City", due to its parks and greenery.

Archaeological artefacts indicate that the human settlement in the region happened as early as 4000 BCE. The first mention of the name "Bengaluru" is from an old Kannada stone inscription from 890 CE found at the Nageshwara Temple in Begur. The region was ruled by the Western Ganga dynasty since 350 CE, and became part of the Chola Empire in the early eleventh century CE. In the late Middle Ages, it formed a part of the Hoysala kingdom and then the Vijayanagara Empire. In 1537 CE, Kempe Gowda I, a feudal ruler under the Vijayanagara Empire, established a mud fort which is considered the foundation of the modern city of Bengaluru with the earlier established areas (petes) still in existence. After the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire, Kempe Gowda declared independence, and the city was expanded by his successors. In 1638 CE, an Adil Shahi army defeated Kempe Gowda III, and the city became a jagir (feudal estate) of Shahaji. The Mughals later captured the city and sold it to Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar, the Maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore. After the death of Krishnaraja Wodeyar II in 1759 CE, Hyder Ali seized control of the kingdom and with it, the administration of Bengaluru, which passed subsequently to his son, Tipu Sultan. (Full article...)

List of megacities

Did you know -

... that a photograph of Frances "the Shape" Vorne wearing a swimsuit made from remnants of a captured Nazi parachute was one of the most sought-after pin-ups of World War II?
... that the Ten Arches Bridge in Amman, built as part of the Ottoman Hejaz railway, was one of the main targets for destruction during a 1918 Allied attack during World War I?
... that the project Called by Name aims to commemorate Poles who were murdered for aiding Jews during World War II?
... that Raymond Bushland and Edward F. Knipling won the 1992 World Food Prize for developing the sterile insect technique which eliminated parasitic screw-worms from the United States?
... that Edi Rama and Baba Mondi plan to create the smallest nation in the world?
... that an exhibition hall for the 1939 New York World's Fair later hosted athletic events at a historically Black university in Virginia?
... that both players in the final of the 2025 WPA Women's World Eight-ball Championship high-fived before the final rack?
... that World Pilots' Day is celebrated on 26 April to commemorate Fesa Evrensev's first flight, which took place 112 years ago today?

Countries of the world -

The Dominican Republic is a country on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and a land border with Haiti to the west, occupying the eastern five-eighths of Hispaniola which, along with Saint Martin, is one of only two islands in the Caribbean shared by two sovereign states. In the Antilles, the country is the second-largest nation by area after Cuba at 48,671 square kilometers (18,792 sq mi) and second-largest by population after Haiti with approximately 11.4 million people in 2024, of whom 3.6 million reside in the metropolitan area of Santo Domingo, the capital city.

The native Taíno people had inhabited Hispaniola prior to European contact, dividing it into five chiefdoms. Christopher Columbus claimed the island for Castile, landing there on his first voyage in 1492. The colony of Santo Domingo became the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas. In 1697, Spain recognized French dominion over the western third of the island, which became the independent First Empire of Haiti in 1804. A group of Dominicans deposed the Spanish governor and declared independence from Spain in November 1821, but were annexed by Haiti in February 1822. Independence came 22 years later in 1844, after victory in the Dominican War of Independence. The next 72 years saw several civil wars, failed invasions by Haiti, and a brief return to Spanish colonial status, before permanently ousting the Spanish during the Dominican Restoration War of 1863–1865. From 1930, the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo ruled until his assassination in 1961. Juan Bosch was elected president in 1962 but was deposed in a military coup in 1963. The Dominican Civil War of 1965 preceded the authoritarian rule of Joaquín Balaguer (1966–1978 and 1986–1996). Since 1996, the Dominican Republic has moved towards representative democracy. (Full article...)

List of countries

Wonders of the World -

The Seven Wonders of Colombia (Spanish: Siete maravillas de Colombia) was a 2007 competition sponsored by El Tiempo. The newspaper asked readers to nominate and vote for man-made structures whose engineering, architectural or historical value deserved special recognition. (Full article...)

List of articles

Related portals

Protected areas of the world -

Image 1

The protected areas of Nicaragua are areas that have natural beauty or significance and are protected by Nicaragua. Nicaragua has 78 protected areas that cover 22,422 km², about 17.3% of the nations landmass. The National System of Protected Areas (SINAP) is administered by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA). (Full article...)
Image 2
Protected areas of Libya include any geographical area protected for a specific use.

Most protected areas are intended for the conservation of flora and fauna. Libya's national parks and nature reserves are maintained by the "Technical Committee of Wildlife and National Parks" which was created in 1990, as part of the General Secretariat of Agricultural Reclamation and Land Reform. (Full article...)
Image 3

The protected areas of Bhutan are its national parks, nature preserves, and wildlife sanctuaries. Most of these protected areas were first set aside in the 1960s, originally covering most of the northern and southern regions of Bhutan. Today, protected areas cover more than 42% of the kingdom, mostly in the northern regions. Protected areas also line most of Bhutan's international borders with China and India. (Full article...)
Image 4
This is a list of protected areas in Thailand: (Full article...)
Image 5

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

This is a list of protected areas of Saskatchewan. (Full article...)
Image 6
The protected areas of Michigan come in an array of different types and levels of protection. Michigan has five units of the National Park Service system. There are 14 federal wilderness areas; the majority of these are also tribal-designated wildernesses. It has one of the largest state forest systems as well having four national forests. The state maintains a large state park system and there are also regional parks, and county, township and city parks. Still other parks on land and in the Great Lakes are maintained by other governmental bodies. Private protected areas also exist in the state, mainly lands owned by land conservancies. (Full article...)
Image 7

Peru is recognized as one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries, due to its high concentration of species and diverse ecosystems. Peru’s protected areas are continental and marine regions formally designated by the State to conserve the country’s biological diversity and associated cultural, scenic and scientific values, while contributing to sustainable development. These areas are administered at three levels: by the National System of State‑Protected Natural Areas (Spanish: Sistema Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas por el Estado, SINANPE) under the National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP); by regional governments as regional conservation areas (Áreas de Conservación Regional, ACR); and by private individuals or communities as private conservation areas (Áreas de Conservación Privada, ACP).
As of 2025, Peru has 258 protected natural areas covering terrestrial and marine environments: 78 managed nationally by SERNANP, 35 by regional governments, and 145 under private administration. These areas cover 21.67% of the country’s terrestrial territory and 7.89% of its marine territory. The system includes 15 national parks, 18 national reserves, 9 national sanctuaries, 4 historic sanctuaries, 2 landscape reserves, 3 wildlife refuges, 11 communal reserves, 6 protected forests, 2 game reserves, and 8 reserved zones, representing the country’s altitudinal gradients from the Amazon lowlands through Andean highlands to Pacific coastal deserts. Protected Natural Areas Day (Día de las Áreas Naturales Protegidas del Perú) is celebrated annually on 17 October, recognizing their critical role in biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and sustainable development for present and future generations. This list includes all terrestrial and marine areas formally designated as protected under Peruvian law—at the national, regional, or private level—as of 16 December 2025. (Full article...)
Image 8
China has more than 10,000 protected areas, covering eighteen percent of the country's land. There are many forms of protected areas in China. Based on their relative importance, each type of protected area can be further graded into two to three levels (national, provincial and prefectural/county level). Nevertheless, the highest rank for "pocket nature preserve" (social and mass-based), "no-hunting area", "no-fishing area", "no-logging area", "wild medicinal material resources conservation area", "crop germplasm resources conservation area", "forest tree germplasm resources conservation area" or "source water protection area" is practically restricted to provincial level. The local government at county level is also responsible for the delimitation and declaration of "basic farmland protection area" and "basic grassland".

Many protected areas (PAs) in China have multiple official designations, and the statutory boundaries of these multi-designated PAs may be identical or may vary from one another. For instance, the boundaries of Huangshan NSHA coincide with those of the Huangshan NGP, whereas Fujian province's Wuyi Mountains NNR, NSHA and NFP are adjacent to each other. In Heilongjiang, 27,642.14 hectares out of 115,340.27 hectares of Huzhong NFP are intersected with the experiment zone of Huzhong NNR. (Full article...)
Image 9

Protected areas of Ukraine (Ukrainian: охоронні території) are special areas of Ukraine established with the goal of protecting the natural and cultural heritage of the country from excessive changes as a result of human activity. The protection of the areas is the responsibility of the government of Ukraine, specifically the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

Ukraine has several categories of protected areas of Ukraine and the protected areas include: (Full article...)
Image 10

Wales, a country that is part of the United Kingdom, contains protected areas under various designations. The largest designation by land area is Wales's three national parks, followed by the five National Landscapes (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), with both sometimes collectively described as the "Designated Landscapes of Wales".

Among these protected areas is Snowdonia (Eryri), Wales's first and the UK's third designated national park, and the Gower AONB covering parts of the Gower Peninsula being both Wales's and the UK's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), as well as smaller designations. (Full article...)
Image 11

The following is a list of protected areas of Burkina Faso. (Full article...)
Image 12

Protected areas in Tanzania (Hifadhi za Mali hai za Tanzania, in Swahili) are extremely varied, ranging from sea habitats over grasslands to the top of the Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa. About a third of the country's total area is protected to a certain degree as a national park, game reserve, marine park, forest reserve or the like. 840 protected areas are spread across 7,330 km² of ocean and 361,594 km² of land in Tanzania. The coastal and marine areas are less protected than terrestrial ecosystems, which are given the highest level of protection. Tanzania is one of the world's major biodiversity hotspots thanks to its vast national parks, "the Eastern Arc" mountains, wetlands, coastal forests, marine, and freshwater systems as remarkable reservoirs of plant and animal species. A wide range of endemic species of birds, reptiles, snakes, amphibians, wild coffee variations, and the well-known African violet flower can also be found in Tanzania. (Full article...)
Image 13
The Protected areas of New South Wales include both terrestrial and marine protected areas. As of June 2020 there are 225 national parks in New South Wales. A number established since the late 1970s followed campaigns by local residents and environmentalists.

Based on the Collaborative Australian Protected Area Database (CAPAD) 2020 data there are 2136 separate terrestrial protected areas with a total land area of 7,696,641 hectares (19,018,810 acres) (9.61% of the state's area). CAPAD data also shows 18 marine protected areas with a total area of 348,849 hectares (862,020 acres), covering 39.63% of NSW waters. (Full article...)
Image 14
This is a list of protected areas of Cambodia.

A total of 8 forms of protected areas are recognized under the Cambodian Protected Area Law of 2008. These are: (Full article...)
Image 15
Protected areas of Australia include Commonwealth and off-shore protected areas managed by the Australian government, as well as protected areas within each of the six states of Australia and two self-governing territories, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, which are managed by the eight state and territory governments.

Commonwealth and off-shore protected areas in the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory, the Christmas Island Territory, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Territory, the Norfolk Island Territory and the Australian Antarctic Territory are managed by Director of National Parks, an agency within the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, with the exception of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which is managed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, a separate body within the department. (Full article...)

Selected world maps

Image 1The world map by Gerardus Mercator (1569), the first map in the well-known Mercator projection
Image 2Index map from the International Map of the World (1:1,000,000 scale)
Image 3Mollweide projection of the world
Image 41516 map of the world by Martin Waldseemüller
Image 5Time zones of the world
Image 6The Goode homolosine projection is a pseudocylindrical, equal-area, composite map projection used for world maps.
Image 7Only a few of the largest large igneous provinces appear (coloured dark purple) on this geological map, which depicts crustal geologic provinces as seen in seismic refraction data
Image 8United Nations Human Development Index map by country (2016)
Image 9A plate tectonics map with volcano locations indicated with red circles

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Earth
Continents	Africa Antarctica Asia Australia Europe North America South America
Oceans	Arctic Ocean Atlantic Ocean Indian Ocean Pacific Ocean Southern Ocean
Geology	Age of Earth Geology Earth science Erosion Extremes on Earth Future Geological history time scale Geologic record Geophysics Gravity History of Earth Magnetic field Plate tectonics Structure
Atmosphere	Atmosphere of Earth Climate Global warming Weather
Environment	Biome Biosphere Ecology Ecosystem Human impact on the environment Evolutionary history of life Nature
Cartography	Digital mapping Satellite imagery Virtual globe World map
Culture and society	List of sovereign states dependent territories In culture Earth Day World economy Etymology World history Time zones World
Planetary science	Earth's orbit Evolution of Solar System Geology of solar terrestrial planets Location in the Universe The Moon Solar System
Outline of Earth

World's largest cities
City proper	Capitals Americas (North Latin Central South) Asia (Arab world ASEAN Arabia East, South and Southeast Asia) Europe (European Union Nordic)
Metropolitan area	Americas (North South West Indies) Europe (European Union Nordic) Asia Africa Middle East
Urban area/agglomeration	Asia Africa Europe European Union Nordic North America Oceania Transborder
Historical	World Europe
Related articles	Arcology Ecumenopolis Global city Megacity Megalopolis Conurbation Satellite city population Primate city Secondary city

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

Carnival around the world
Asia	Indonesia Solo Jember Jakarta
Europe	Austria Belgium Aalst Binche Croatia Denmark England France Nice Paris Belarus, Russia, Ukraine Germany Cologne Mainz Greece Hungary Italy Venice Viareggio Ivrea Lithuania Malta Netherlands Portugal Madeira Ovar Spain Cádiz Las Palmas Santa Cruz Switzerland Basel Turkey
North America	Canada Ottawa Quebec City Toronto México United States Mobile New Orleans New York City
Caribbean	Antigua Bahamas Barbados Cayman Islands Cuba Dominica Dominican Republic Haiti Nevis Puerto Rico (Ponce) Trinidad and Tobago
South America	Argentina Buenos Aires Murga Bolivia Oruro Brazil Bahia Rio Colombia Barranquilla Negros y Blancos French Guiana Cayenne Guyana Uruguay
Oceania	Australia

World Sailing
World championships in sailing Sailing at the Summer Olympics Sailing at the Summer Paralympics Sailing at the Youth Olympic Games
Confederations	ASF ASCON EUROSAF OSAF SASC
World Championships	Sailing World Championships Youth Sailing World Championships ISAF Offshore Team Racing World Championship ISAF Open Match Racing World Championship Para World Sailing Championships ISAF Team Racing World Championship Women's Match Racing World Championship eSailing World Championship
World Cup	Sailing World Cup
Special events	America's Cup Extreme Sailing Series PWA World Tour Star Sailors League Vendée Globe Volvo Ocean Race World Match Racing Tour
Presidents	Sir Ralph Gore (1946–1955) Sir Peter Scott (1955–1969) Beppe Croce (1969–1986) Peter Tallberg (1986–1994) Paul Henderson (1994–2004) Göran Petersson (2004–2012) Carlo Croce (2012–2016) Kim Andersen (2016–2020) Quanhai Li (2020-present)
Awards	World Sailor of the Year ISAF Sailing Hall of Fame Beppe Croce Trophy