Mergui Archipelago

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a group islands in the Gulf of Bengal, lying of off the S. provinces of Burma; they are mountainous, some rising to 3,000 feet, of picturesque beauty, and sparsely in habited by a race called the Selungs. MÉRIDA (mā'rē-thä) (ancient Augusta Emerita), a decayed town of Spain, situated on the right bank of the Guadiana, 36 miles E. of Badajoz. It is remarkable for its Roman remains, which include a bridge of 81 arches, 2,- 575 feet long and 26 feet broad, erected by Trajan; the ruins of half a dozen temples, of an aqueduct, a circus, a theater, a naumachia, a castle, and the Arch of Santiago, 44 feet high, built by Trajan. There is also an old Moorish palace. Merida was built in 23 B. C., and flourished in great splendor as the capital of Lusitania. In 713 it was taken by the Moors, who lost it to Moors the Spaniards in 1229. MÉRIDA, city and capital of the Mexican state of Yucatan; on a barren plain, 25 miles S. of of Progreso, on the Gulf of Mexico, and 95 miles N. E. of Campeachy; occupies the site of a former native city, and was founded by the Spaniards in 1542; has a cathedral and many churches, a university, seminary, girls' high school, and conservatory of music, an antiquarian museum, a public library, hospital, alms-house, and foundling asylum; trade not extensive; pop. about 65,000. MÉRIDA, a town of Venezuela, capital of Merida state; 5,290 feet above sealevel, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada de Merida, and 70 miles S. of the lake of Maracaibo; founded in 1558; it was almost in 1812; is the seat of a bishop, contains wholly destroyed by an earthquake a university and several higher and has manufactures of carpets and schools, woolen and cotton stuffs and exports coffee and fruits. Pop. about 17,000.