Amritsar
or UMRITSIR, a wellbuilt city of the Punjab, 32 miles E. of Lahore by rail. It is the religious metropolis of the Sikhs, a distinction which, along with its name (literally, "pool of immortality"), it owes to its sacred tank, in the midst of which stands the marble temple of the Sikh faith. Founded in 1574, but all of it more recent than 1762, it is, next to Delhi, the richest and most prosperous city in northern India, with manufactures of cashmere shawls, cotton, silks, etc. The huge Govindgarh, or fortress, is the most prominent feature of Amritsar. Pop. about 150,000.
AMSTERDAM ("dam" or "dike of the Amstel"), the capital of the Netherlands, is situated at the influx of the Amstel to the Ij or Y (pronounced eye), an arm (now mostly drained) of the Zuyder Zee, 44% miles N. N. E. of Rotterdam by rail.
It is divided by the Amstel and numerous canals into a hundred small islands, connected by more than 300 bridges. Almost the whole city, which extends in the shape of a crescent, is founded on piles driven 40 or 50 feet through soft peat and sand to a firm substratum of clay.
At the beginning of the 13th century it was merely a fishing village, with a small castle, the residence of the Lords of Amstel. In 1296, on account of its share in the murder of Count Floris of Holland, the rising town was demolished; but in 1311, with Amstelland (the district on the banks of the Amstel), it was taken under the protection of the Counts of Holland. In 1482 it was walled and fortified. After the revolt of the seven provinces (1566), it speedily rose to be their first commercial city, a great asylum for the Flemish Protestants; and in 1585 it was considerably enlarged by the building of the new town on the W. The establishment of the Dutch East India Company (1602) did much to forward the well-being of Amsterdam. In the middle of that century the war with England nearly ruined the commerce of the port. Amsterdam had to surrender to the Prussians in 1787, to the French in 1795; and the union of Holland with France in 1810 entirely destroyed its foreign trade. In 1815 commerce again began to expand-an expansion greatly AMSTERDAM promoted by the opening in 1876 of the new and more direct waterway between the North Sea and the city.
The city has a fine appearance when seen from the harbor, or from the high bridge over the Amstel. Church towers and spires, and a perfect forest of masts, relieve the flatness of the prospect. The three chief canals-the Heerengracht, Keizersgracht, and Prinsengracht-run in semi-circles within each other, and are from two to three miles long. The defenses of Amsterdam now consist in a row of detached forts, and in the sluices, several miles distant from the city, which can flood, in a few hours, the surrounding land. Pop. (1917) 640,993. The chief industrial establishments are sugar refineries, engineering works, mills for polishing diamonds and other prepolishing shing diamonds and other precious stones, dockyards, manufactories of sails, ropes, tobacco, silks, gold and silver plate and jewelry, colors, and chemicals, breweries, distilleries, with export houses for corn and colonial produce; cotton-spinning, book-printing, and type-founding are also carried on.
The former Stadhuis ("townhouse"), converted in 1808 into a palace for King Louis Bonaparte, and still retained by the reigning family, is a noble structure.
It was built by Van Kampen in 1648- 1655. It has a hall, 120 feet long, 57 wide, and 90 high, lined with white Italian marble-an apartment of great splendor. The cruciform Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), a Gothic edifice of 1408- 1414, is the finest ecclesiastical structure in the city, with a splendidly carved pulpit, and the tombs of Admiral de Ruyter, the great Dutch poet Vondel, and various other worthies. The Old Church (Oude Kerk), built in the 14th century, is rich in painted glass, has a grand organ, and contains several monuments of naval heroes. Literature and science are represented by a university, by academies of arts and sciences, by museums and picture galleries, a palace of national industry, a botanical garden, etc. The new Rijksmuseum contains a truly national collection of paintings, its choicest treasure being Rembrandt's "Night-guard." REMBRANDT (q. v.), made Amsterdam his home; and his statue (1852) now fronts the house he occupied.
Spinoza was a native. The North Holland canal, to which Amsterdam is so largely indebted for the rapid increase of its commerce, is noticed under ZUIDER ZEE.
In the European War, Amsterdam became a most flourishing port, as all the trade that formerly went to Antwerp came here while the Belgian city was in German hands.
Paul Thompson THE ALPS-MONT BLANC AND THE MER DE GLACE Enc. Vol. 1-p. 154 E. M. Newman CREST OF THE CORDILLERAS, OR ANDES MOUNTAINS, AS SEEN ABOVE THE EVENING MIST BELT FROM SANTIAGO, CHILE Photo by Ewing Galloway THE STARS AND STRIPES AND THE UNION JACK SIDE BY SIDE AT THE BOUNDARY LINE BETWEEN ALASKA AND CANADA. Brown & Dawson TOTEMS AT SITKA. THESE ARE HISTORY AND GRAVE MONUMENTS Keystone View Company A PARTY IN THOMPSON'S PASS, VALDEZ TRAIL, ALASKA Publishers Photo Service