Aragon
once a kingdom, now a captaincy-general of Spain, divided into the three provinces of Saragossa, Huesca, and Teruel; greatest length from N. to S., 190 miles; breadth, 130; area, 18,294 square miles; pop. about 1,000,000.
It is bounded on the N. by the Pyrenees, and borders on Navarre, the Castiles, Valencia, and Catalonia. The Ebro flows through through Aragon in a S. E. direction, receiving numerous tributaries. Aragon is naturally divided into the level country along the Ebro, and the N. mountainous district of upper Aragon. The central plain is sterile, poorly supplied with water, and intersected by deep ravines.
The valleys of upper Aragon are the most fertile of all the Pyrenean valleys.
The slopes of the hills are clothed with forests of oak, beech, and pine. The minerals of the province are copper, lead, iron, salt, alum, saltpeter, coal, and amber. The silkworm industry has been ARAGONITE introduced. Aragon early became a Roman province; and, on the fall of the empire, passed into the hands of the West Goths, but was conquered by the Moors in the beginning of the 8th century. The rulers of Aragon, after it had been recovered from the Moors and united with Catalonia (1137) obtained possession of the Balearic Isles in 1213, of Sicily in 1282, of Sardinia in 1326, and of Naples in 1440. By the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon with Isabella, heiress of Castile, in 1469, the two states of Aragon and Castile were united, and formed the foundation of the later Spanish monfoundation of the later Spanish monarchy. The chief towns are Saragossa, Calatayud, Huesca, and Teruel. Pop. of Saragossa about 120,000.
Russian Central Asia, embracing an area of about 25,000 square miles. It is fed only deep water being on the W. coast, no outlet, and is generally shallow, its (or ancient Oxus) on the S. E. It has where it reaches a depth of 225 feet; but it shoals gradually eastward to a only deep water being on the W. coast, where it reaches a depth of 225 feet; but it shoals gradually eastward to a mere marshy swamp. Fish, including sturgeon, carp, and herring, are abundant, though the water is brackish. The its waters, and its frequent exposure to fierce and sudden storms, navigation is been dry land twice within historical difficult. The area it now occupies has times. This was the case during the the 13th and 14th centuries.
Græco-Roman period, and again during