The interior of the Taj Mahal is a large
room that contains monuments to Jahan
and his wife. A carved marble screen
surrounds these monuments. Beneath
the monuments lie the actual tombs of
Jahan and his wife.
Over the years the Taj Mahal has been
affected by pollution from nearby factories
as well as from motor vehicles.
However, steps are being taken to prevent
further damage to the site.
Tallahassee
Population
(2000 census)
150,624;
(2007 estimate)
168,979
Tallahassee is the capital of the U.S. state
of Florida. The city lies on a series of
rolling hills.
Many people in Tallahassee work for the
government or in services such as health
White marble and gemstones cover the outside
of the Taj Mahal. Some 20,000 people
worked on the monument, which took 22
years to build.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Tallahassee 11
care or education. The city is home to
Florida State University and other
schools of higher learning. Tallahassee is
also the trade center for crops and dairy
products produced on nearby farms.
Factories in the city make electronics
and other products.
Tallahassee was originally an Apalachee
Indian village. The village was already
established by the time the Spanish
explorer Hernando de Soto visited the
area in 1539. Creek Indians later moved
to Tallahassee. The U.S. government
forced the Indians to leave the area in
the early 1800s. In 1824 Tallahassee
became the capital of the Florida Territory.
Florida became a U.S. state in
1845. Tallahassee then became the state
capital.
#More to explore
Florida
Tallchief, Maria
Maria Tallchief was one of the greatest
U.S. ballerinas. She danced with the
New York City Ballet for 18 years. There
she performed many dances created by
George Balanchine, an important ballet
director.
Tallchief was born on January 24, 1925,
in Fairfax, Oklahoma, a town on an
Osage Indian reservation. Her father was
Osage. She began dancing at a young
age. In 1942 she joined the Ballet Russe
de Monte Carlo. In 1946 she married
Balanchine, the company’s choreographer,
or dance arranger. The couple soon
moved to New York City. There Balanchine
founded what later became the
New York City Ballet.With that company
Tallchief became known for her
performances in The Firebird and The
Nutcracker. For one season she was the
prima ballerina, or lead dancer.
Tallchief retired as a dancer in 1965. She
then taught ballet and directed the Lyric
Opera Ballet in Chicago. In 1980
Cypress trees grow from beneath the waters
of Lake Bradford, in Tallahassee, Florida.
Maria Tallchief was a famous ballerina. She
was known for her fine ballet technique.
12 Tallchief, Maria BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
Tallchief and her sister, who was also a
dancer, founded the Chicago City Ballet.
The company lasted until 1987.
..More to explore
Ballet • Dance
Tallinn
Population
(2007 estimate)
396,850
Tallinn is the capital of Estonia, a country
in northeastern Europe. Tallinn has a
port on the Baltic Sea. It is Estonia’s
largest city.
Tallinn’s economy is based mainly on
engineering, banking, trade, and other
services. The shipment of goods through
the port also brings money to the city.
Factories in Tallinn make electronic
equipment, machinery, cloth, and food
products.
People settled in the Tallinn area in
ancient times. The town was established
by the 1100s. It suffered many invasions.
It was ruled by Denmark, by German
knights, and then by Sweden.
Russia took control of all of Estonia in
the early 1700s. In 1918 Estonia became
an independent country with Tallinn as
its capital.
In 1940 Estonia was forced to become
part of the Soviet Union. For a time
duringWorldWar II (1939–45),
Germany controlled Tallinn.
Estonia became an independent country
again in 1991. Tallinn remained its
capital.
..More to explore
Estonia
Talmud
The Talmud is a collection of ancient
Jewish teachings. The written laws of
Judaism are found in the Torah, the first
five books of the Hebrew Bible. People
in ancient Israel also followed many oral,
or unwritten, teachings. Jewish leaders,
called rabbis, eventually wrote down
those oral laws and traditions. They also
added their own comments. These
included interpretations of the laws as
Eastern Orthodox Christians worship at the
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Tallinn,
Estonia.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Talmud 13
well as stories that helped explain moral
lessons. Together, these collections of
laws, interpretations, and stories are
known as the Talmud.
The Talmud was written by many rabbis
over hundreds of years. The first part of
the Talmud is the Mishna, which states
the oral laws. Scholars think that a rabbi
in Palestine (a region of the Middle
East) finished the Mishna in the early
200s. It has six sections, for laws on
daily prayer and farming, special rituals,
marriage, criminal and civil law, rules of
the temple, and cleanliness.
The second part of the Talmud is the
Gemara, which contains comments on
the ideas in the Mishna. Rabbis wrote
the Gemara from the 200s through the
500s. There are two versions of the
Gemara—one written in Palestine and
one written in Babylonia (a historic
region of southwestern Asia). Modern
