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XML - Managing Data Exchange/SVG

What is SVG?
Based on XML, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an open-standard vector graphics file format and Web development language created by the W3C, and has been designed to be compatible with other W3C standards such as DOM, CSS, XML, XSLT, XSL, SMIL, HTML, and XHTML. SVG enables the creation of dynamically generated, high-quality graphics from real-time data. SVG allows you to design high-resolution graphics that can include elements such as gradients, embedded fonts, transparency, animation, and filter effects.

SVG files are different from raster or bitmap formats, such as GIF and JPEG that have to include every pixel needed to display a graphic. Because of this, GIF and JPEG files tend to be bulky, limited to a single resolution, and consume large amounts of bandwidth. SVG files are significantly smaller than their raster counterparts. Additionally, the use of vectors means SVG graphics retain their resolution at any zoom level. SVG allows you to scale your graphics, use any font, and print your designs, all without compromising resolution. SVG is XML-based and written in plain text, meaning SVG code can be edited with any text editor. Additionally, SVG offers important advantages over bitmap or raster formats such as:

 * Zooming: Users can magnify their view of an image without negatively affecting the resolution.
 * Text stays text: Text remains editable and searchable. Additionally, any font may be used.
 * Small file size: SVG files are typically smaller than other Web-graphic formats and can be downloaded more quickly.
 * Display independence: SVG images always appear crisp on your screen, no matter the resolution. You will never experience “pixelated” images.
 * Superior color control: SVG offers a palette of 16 million colors.
 * Interactivity and intelligence: Since SVG is XML-based, it offers dynamic interactivity that can respond to user actions.

Data-driven graphics
Because it is written in XML, SVG content can be linked to back-end business processes, databases, and other sources of information. SVG documents use existing standards such as Cascading Stylesheets (CSS) and Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), enabling graphics to be easily customized. This results in:

 * Reduced maintenance costs: Because SVG allows image attributes to be changed dynamically, it eliminates the need for numerous image files. SVG allows you to specify rollover states and behaviors via scriptable attributes. Complex navigation buttons, for example, can be created using only one SVG file where normally this would require multiple raster files.
 * Reduced development time: SVG separates the three elements of traditional Web workflow – content (data), presentation (graphics), and application logic (scripting). With raster files, entire graphics must be completely recreated if changes are made to content.
 * Scalable server solutions: Both the client and the server can render SVG graphics. Because the “client” can be utilized to render the graphic, SVG can reduce server loads. Client-side rendering can enhance the user-experience by allowing users to “zoom in” on an SVG graphic. Additionally, the server can be used to render the graphic if the client has limited processing resources, such as a PDA or cell phone. Either way the file is rendered, the source content is the same.
 * Easily updated: SVG separates design from content, allowing easy updates to either.

Interactive graphics
SVG allows you to create Web-based applications, tools, or user interfaces. Additionally, you can incorporate scripting and programming languages such as JavaScript, Java, and Visual Basic. Any SVG element can be used to modify or control any other SVG or HTML element. Because SVG is text based, the text inside graphics can be translated for other languages quickly, which simplifies localization efforts. Additionally, if there is a connection to a database, SVG allows drill-down functionality for charts and graphs. This results in:

 * Improved end user experience: Users can input their own data, modify data, or even generate new graphics from two or more data sources.
 * In SVG, text is text: As mentioned previously, SVG treats text as text. This makes SVG-based graphics searchable by search engines.
 * SVG can create SVG: Enterprise applications such as an online help feature can be developed.

Personalized graphics
SVG can be targeted to people to overcome issues of culture, accessibility, and aesthetics, and can be customized for many audiences and demographic groups. SVG can also be dynamically generated using information gathered from databases or user interaction. The overall goal is to have one source file, which transforms seamlessly in a wide variety of situations. This results in:

 * One source, customized appearances: SVG makes it possible to change color and other properties based on aesthetics, culture, and accessibility issues. SVG can use stylesheets to customize its appearance for different situations.
 * Internationalization, localization: SVG supports Unicode characters in order to effectively display text in many languages and fashions – vertically, horizontally, and bi-directionally.
 * Utilizing existing standards: SVG works seamlessly with stylesheets in order to control presentation. Cascading Stylesheets (CSS) can be used for typical font characteristics as well as for other SVG graphic elements. For example, you can control the stroke color, fill color, and fill opacity of an element from an external stylesheet.

SVG vs. Macromedia Flash
Macromedia has been the dominant force behind vector-based graphics on the web for the last 10 years. It is apparent, however, that SVG provides alternatives to many of the functions of Flash and incorporates many others. The creation of vector-based graphical elements is the base structure of both SVG and Flash. Much like Flash, SVG also includes the ability to create time-based animations for each element and allows scripting of elements via DOM, JavaScript, or any other scripting language that the SVG viewer supports. Many basic elements are available to the developer, including elements for creating circles, rectangles, lines, ellipses, polygons, and text. Much like HTML, elements are styled with Cascading Stylesheets (CSS2) using a style element or directly on a particular graphical element via the style attribute. Styling properties may also be specified with presentation attributes. For each CSS property applicable to an element, an XML attribute specifying the same styling property can also be used. There is an on going debate about whether Flash or SVG is better for web development There are advantages to both, it usually comes down to the situation.

Flash Advantages:

 * Use Flash if you want to make a Flash-like website – replicating the same effect using SVG is hard.
 * Use Flash if you want complex animations, or complex games (SVG's built in SMIL animation engine is extremely processor intensive).
 * Use Flash if your users will not be so computer literate, for instance a children's site, or a site appealing to a wide audience.
 * Use Flash if sound is important – SVG/SMIL supports sound, but it's pretty basic.
 * Use Flash if you prefer WYSIWYG to script.

SVG advantages:

 * It's fully scriptable, using a DOM1 interface and JavaScript. That means you can start with an empty SVG image, and build it up using JavaScript.
 * SVG can easily be created by ASP, PHP, Perl, etc and extracted from a database.
 * It has a built-in ECMA-script (JavaScript) engine, so you don't have to code per browser, and you don't need to learn Flash's action-script.
 * SVG is XML, meaning it can be read by anything that can read XML . Flash can use XML, but needs to convert it before use.
 * This also allows SVG to be transformed through an XSLT stylesheet/parser.
 * SVG supports standard CSS1 stylesheets.
 * Text used in SVG remains selectable and searchable.
 * You only need a text editor to create SVG, as opposed to buying Flash.
 * SVG is an web real standard (not just “de facto”), supported by various different programs, some of which are free software (and thus available for most free computer operating systems).

Why use SVG?
SVG is emerging through the efforts of the W3C and its members. It is open source and as such does not require the use of proprietary languages and development tools as does Macromedia Flash. Because it is XML-based, it looks familiar to developers and allows them to use existing skills. SVG is text based and can be learned by leveraging the work (or code) of others, which significantly reduces the overall learning curve. Additionally, because SVG can incorporate JavaScript, DOM, and other technologies, developers familiar with these languages can create graphics in much the same way. SVG is also highly compatible because it works with HTML, GIF, JPEG, PNG, SMIL, ASP, JSP, and JavaScript. Finally, graphics created in SVG are scalable and do not result in loss of quality across platforms and devices. SVG can therefore be used for the Web, in print, as well as on portable devices while retaining full quality.

The Adobe SVG Viewer
The Adobe SVG Viewer is available as a downloadable plug–in that allows SVG to be viewed on Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems in all major browsers including Internet Explorer (versions 4.x, 5.x, 6.x), Netscape (versions 4.x, 6.x), and Opera in Internet Explorer and Netscape.

The Adobe SVG Viewer is the most widely deployed SVG Viewer and it supports almost all of the SVG Specification including support for the SVG DOM, animation and scripting.

Features of the Adobe SVG Viewer Click the right mouse button (CTRL-Key + mouse click in Mac) over your SVG image to get a context menu. The context menu gives you several options, which can all be accessed utilizing the menu itself or “hotkeys”:

Table 1: Features of the Adobe SVG Viewer

SMIL
The Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL, pronounced “smile”) enables simple authoring of interactive audiovisual presentations. SMIL is typically used for “rich media”/multimedia presentations which integrate streaming audio and video with images, text or any other media type. SMIL is an easy-to-learn HTML-like language, and many SMIL presentations are written using a simple text-editor. SMIL can be used with XML to enable video and sound when viewing a SVG.

Attention Microsoft Windows Mozilla users!
The Seamonkey and Mozilla Firefox browsers have SVG support enabled natively. If desired, the Adobe SVG Viewer plugin will work with Mozilla Firefox, or the Seamonkey browser. Webkit based browsers also have some SVG support natively.

Native SVG (Firefox)
The Mozilla SVG implementation is a native SVG implementation. This is as opposed to plug-in SVG viewers such as the Adobe viewer (which is currently the most popular SVG viewer).

Some of the implications of this are:

 * Mozilla can handle documents that contain SVG, MathML, XHTML, XUL, etc. all mixed together in the same 'compound' document. This is being made possible by using XML namespaces.
 * Mozilla is 'aware' of the SVG content. It can be accessed through the SVG DOM (which is compatible with the XML DOM) and manipulated by Mozilla's script engine.
 * Other Mozilla technologies can be used with SVG. XBL coupled with SVG is a particular interesting combination. It can be used to create graphical widgets (I wonder when we'll see the first SVG-based chrome!) or extend Mozilla to recognize other specialized languages such as e.g. CML (chemical markup language). There are samples of these kinds of more advanced usage patterns on http://croczilla.com/svg/.

rsvg-view
rsvg-view program is a part of the librsvg package. It may be used as the default svg opener. It can resize svgs and export them to png which is often the only thing one needs to do with an svg file.

Example : rsvg-view-3 name.svg

How to do it
One can use 4 groups of programs :

 * general text editors, like Notepad ++ (with XML syntax highlithning)
 * specialized svg editors
 * programs that can exports svg (like gnuplot, Maxima CAS)
 * own programs to create svg files directly thru concatenate of strings

SVG editors
As you can see from the previous example of a path definition, SVG files are written in an extremely abbreviated format to help minimize file size. However, they can be very difficult to write depending on the complexity of your image. There are SVG editor tools that can help make this task easier. Some of these tools are:

Table 3: SVG Editors

C
Here is example in C :

Haskell
Haskel code : lavaurs' algorithm in Haskell with SVG output by Claude Heiland-Allen

Matlab
Based on code by Guillaume JACQUENOT :

Lisp
One can use cl-svg library or your own procedure.

Maxima
BeginSVG(file_name,cm_width,cm_height,i_width,i_height):= block( destination : openw (file_name), printf(destination, "~%"), printf(destination,"~%", cm_width,cm_height,i_width,i_height), return(destination) ); CircleSVG(dest,center_x,center_y,_radius):=printf(dest,"~%", center_x,center_y,_radius); CloseSVG(destination):= ( printf(destination," ~%"), close (destination) ); /* */ cmWidth:10; cmHeight:10; iWidth:800; iHeight:600; radius:200; centerX:400; centerY:300; f_name:"b.svg"; /* --*/ f:BeginSVG(f_name,cmWidth,cmHeight,iWidth,iHeight); CircleSVG(f,centerX,centerY,radius); CloseSVG(f);

Python
One can use a prepared library, or wrap the svg code in single quotes. def svg_page: """ Function to write test code for a stub svg code page The raw code that uses double-quotes is captured by single quotes To become a python text string""" page='\n\n   \n \n' return page

def write_page(page, title): """ Function to write the svg code to disk """ filename = title + ".svg" f = open(filename, "w") f.write(page)

write_page (svg_page, "My svgstub")

Getting started
Because it is based on XML, SVG follows standard XML conventions. Every SVG file is contained within an tag as its parent element. SVG can be embedded within a parent document or used independently. For example, the following shows an independent SVG document:

Exhibit 1: Creating a SVG

The first line declares that the code that follows is XML. Note the “standalone” attribute. This denotes that this particular file does not contain enough processing instructions to function alone. In order to attain the required functionality it needs to display a particular image, the SVG file must reference an external document.

The second line provides a reference to the Document Type Definition, or DTD. As mentioned in Chapter 7: XML Schemas, the DTD is an alternate way to define the data contained within an XML instanced document. Developers familiar with HTML will notice the DTD declaration is similar to that of an HTML document, but it is specific for SVG. For more information about DTDs, visit: http://www.w3schools.com/dtd/dtd_intro.asp

Hint: Many IDEs (ex. NetBeans) do not have SVG “templates” built in to the tool. Therefore, it may be easier to use a simple text editor when creating SVG documents. Once you have an SVG Viewer installed, you should then be able to open and view your SVG document with any browser. When creating your SVG documents, remember to:

 * Declare your document as an XML file
 * Make sure your SVG document elements are between element tags, including the SVG namespace declaration.
 * Save your file with a .svg file extension.
 * It is not necessary do include a DOCTYPE statement, which includes information to identify this as an SVG document (since SVG 1.2 there is also not more such).

The element on the second line defines the SVG document, and can specify, among other things, the user coordinate system, and various CSS unit specifiers. Just like with XHTML documents, the document element must include a namespace declaration to declare the element as being a member of the relevant namespace (in this case, the SVG namespace). Within the element, there can be three types of drawing elements: text, shapes, and paths.

Text
The following is an example of the text element: Exhibit 2: Using text with SVG

The element specifies: 1) that white space within text elements will be retained, 2) the width and height of the SVG document — particularly important for specifying print output size. In this example, the text is positioned in a 5.5 inches wide by .5 inches tall image area. The “y” attribute on line 5 declares that the text element’s baseline is 15 pixels down from the top of the SVG document. An omitted “x” attribute on a text element implies an x coordinate of 0.

Because SVG documents use a W3C DTD, you can use the W3C Validator to validate your document. Notice that the “style” attribute is used to describe the presentation of the text element. The text could equivalently have been given a red color by use of a presentation attribute fill="red".

Shapes
SVG contains the following basic shape elements:

 * Rectangles
 * Circles
 * Ellipses
 * Lines
 * Polylines
 * Polygons

These basic shapes, along with “paths” which are covered later in the chapter, constitute the graphic shapes of SVG. In this introduction to SVG, we will only cover some of the shapes here.

Rectangles
The element defines a rectangle which is axis-aligned with the current user coordinate system, the coordinate system that is currently active and which is used to define how coordinates and lengths are located and computed on the current canvas. Rounded rectangles can be created by setting values for the rx and ry attributes.

The following example produces a blue rectangle with its top left corner aligning with the top left corner of the image area. This uses the default value of "0" for the x and y attributes.

Exhibit 3: Creating a rectangle in SVG

It will produce this result:

Circles
A circle element requires three attributes: cx, cy, and r. The 'cx’ and 'cy’ values specify the location of the center of the circle while the 'r’ value specifies the radius. If the 'cx’ and 'cy’ attributes are not specified then the circle's center point is assumed to be (0, 0). If the 'r’ attribute is set to zero then the circle will not appear. Unlike 'cx’ and 'cy’, the 'r’ attribute is not optional and must be specified. In addition the keyword stroke creates an outline of the image. Both the width and the color can be changed.

Exhibit 4: Creating a circle in SVG

It will produce this result:

Polygons
A polygon is any geometric shape consisting of three or more sides. The 'points' attributes describes the (x,y) coordinates that specify the corners points of the polygon. For this specific example, there are three points which indicate that a triangle will be produced.

Exhibit 5: Creating a Polygon in SVG

It will produce this result:

Paths
Paths are used to draw your own shapes in SVG, and are described using the following data attributes:

Table 2: SVG Paths

The following example produces the shape of a triangle. The “M” indicates a “moveto” to set the first point. The “L” indicates “lineto” to draw a line from “M” to the “L” coordinates. The “Z” indicates a “closepath”, which draws a line from the last set of L coordinates back to the M starting point.

Exhibit 6: Creating paths in SVG

It produces this result:

Validation
After creating file check its code with the W3C Validatior

Optimisation
Even code without errors can be improved. For example grouping elements makes code shorter.

Including SVG in HTML
There are three methods to include SVG in an HTML document. Basically, the SVG document is first created as a stand-alone file. It is then referenced in the HTML document using one of the following commands:

Table 4: Including SVG in HTML

Embed
The syntax is as follows: Exhibit 7: Embedding SVG into HTML using keyword embed

An additional attribute, “pluginspage”, can be set to the URL where the plug-in can be downloaded:

Object
The syntax is as follows and conforms to the HTML 4 Strict specification: Exhibit 8: Embedding SVG into HTML using keyword object

Between the opening and the closing <object> tags, information for browsers that do not support objects can be added:

Unfortunately some browsers such as Netscape Navigator 4 do not show this alternative content if the type attribute has been set to something other than text/html.

Iframe
The syntax is as follows and conforms to the HTML 4 Transitional specification: Exhibit 9: Embedding SVG into HTML using keyword iframe

Between the opening and the closing <iframe> tags, information for browsers that do not support iframes can be added:

Creating 3D SVG images
Section by Charles Gunti, UGA Master of Internet Technology Program, Class of 2007

Sometime we may want to view an SVG image in three dimensions. For this we will need to change the viewpoint of the graphic. So far we have created two dimensional graphics, such as circles and squares. Those exist on a simple x, y plane. If we want to look at something in three dimensions we have to add the z coordinate plane. The z plane is already there, but we are looking at it straight on, so if data is changed on z it doesn't look any different to the viewer. We need to add another parameter to the data file, the z parameter.

Once we have the data we will use XSLT to create the SVG file. The SVG stylesheet is the same as other stylesheets, but we need to ensure an SVG file is created during the transformation. We call the SVG namespace with this line in the declarations:

xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg

Another change we should make from previous examples is to change the origin of (0, 0). We change the origin in this example because some of our data is negative. The default origin is at the upper left corner of the SVG graphic. Negative values are not displayed because, unlike traditional coordinate planes, negative values are above positive values. To move the origin we simply add a line of code to the stylesheet. Before going over that line, let's look at The g element. The container element, g, is used for grouping related graphics elements. Here, we'll use g to group together our graphical elements and then we can apply the transform. Here is how we declare g and change the origin to a point 300 pixels to the right and 300 pixels down:

graphical elements

SVG transformations are pretty simple, until it comes to changing the viewpoint. SVG has features such as rotating and skewing the image in two dimensions, but it cannot rotate the coordinate system in three dimensions. For that we will need to use some math and a little Java. When rotating in three dimensions two rotations need to be made, one around the y axis, and another around the x axis. The first rotation will be around the y axis and the formula will look like this:

$$z' = z \cdot \cos(-Az) - x \cdot \sin(-Az)$$ Az is the angle the z axis will be rotated

$$x' = z \cdot \sin(-Az) - x \cdot \cos(-Az)$$

$$y' = y \,$$ y will not change because we are rotating around the y axis

The second rotation will be around the x axis. Keep in mind that one rotation has already been made, so instead of using x, y, and z values we need to use x', y', and z' (x-prime, y-prime and z-prime) found in the last rotation. The formula will look like this:

z" = z'*cos(Ay) – y'*sin(Ay) Ay is the angle of rotation on the y axis

y" = z'*sin(Ay) + y'*cos(Ay)

x" = x' Remember we are rotating around the x axis, so this does not change

Remember from trig class the old acronym SOH CAH TOA? This means

Sin = Opposite/Hypotenuse Cos = Adjacent/Hypotenuse Tan = Opposite/Adjacent

And we use those functions to find the angles needed for our rotations. Based of the previous two formulas we can make the following statements about Az and Ay:

tan(Az) = Xv/Zv

sin(Ay) = Yv/sqrt(Xv2 + Yv2 + Zv2)

With so many steps to take to make the rotation we should drop all of this information into a Java class, then call the class in the stylesheet. The Java class should have methods for doing all of the calculations for determining where the new data points will go once the rotation is made. Creating that java class is beyond the scope of this section, but for this example I'll call it ViewCalc.class.

Now that we can rotate the image, we need to integrate that capability into the transformation. We will use parameters to pass viewpoints into the stylesheet during the transformation. The default viewpoint will be (0, 0, 0) and is specified on the stylesheet like so:

Exhibit 10: 3D images with SVG

Java now needs to be added to the stylesheet so the processor will know what methods to call. Two lines are added to the namespace declarations:

Notice the exclude-result-prefixes="java" line. That line is added so things in the stylesheet with the java: prefix will be processed, not output. Be sure to have the ViewCalc class in the CLASSPATH or the transformation will not run.

The final step is to call the methods in the ViewCalc class from the stylesheet. For example:

Finally we pass new parameters and run the XSL transformation to create the SVG file with a different viewpoint.

Demos
The following table provides a sampling of SVG documents that demonstrate varying degrees of functionality and complexity:

Table 5: SVG Demos

The Basic demo demonstrates the effects of zooming, panning, and anti-aliasing (high quality).

The Fills demo demonstrates the effects of colors and transparency. The black circle is drag-able. Simply click and drag the circle within the square to see the changes.

The HTML, JS, Java Servlet demo describes an interactive, database-driven, seating diagram, where chairs represent available seats for a performance. If the user moves the mouse pointer over a seat, it changes color, and the seat detail (section, row, and seat number) and pricing are displayed. On the client side of the application, SVG renders the seating diagram and works with JavaScript to provide user interactivity. The SVG application is integrated with a server-side database, which maintains ticket and event availability information and processes ticket purchases. The Java Servlet handles form submission and updates the database with seat purchases.

The HTML, JS, DOM demo shows how SVG manages and displays data, generating SVG code from data on the fly. Although this kind of application can be written in a variety of different ways, SVG provides client-side processing to maintain and display the data, reducing the load on the server as well as overall latency. Using the DOM, developers can build documents, navigate their structure, and add, modify, or delete elements and content.

The PHP, MySQL demo shows the use of database driven SVG generation utilizing MySQL. It randomly generates a map of a European country. Each time you reload the page you will see a different country.

The HTML5, ANGULARJS, PostGreSQL demo shows how to create a SVG, then integrate variable data into the SVG & spool a variable data pdf.

Exercises

 * 1) Download and install the Adobe SVG Viewer. Once the Adobe SVG Viewer has been installed, go to this page to test that the install was successful: http://www.adobe.com/svg/viewer/install/svgtest.html
 * 2) * If your primary browser is Internet Explorer, you can download version 3.0 which is fully supported by Adobe and can be accessed at http://www.adobe.com/svg/viewer/install/main.html
 * 3) * If your primary browser is Mozilla-based, you must download the 6.0 version at http://download.adobe.com/pub/adobe/magic/svgviewer/win/6.x/6.0x38363/en/SVGView.exe
 * 4) ** After it has been installed you must copy the NPSVG6.dll and NPSVG6.zip files to your browser's plug-ins folder. These files are normally located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\SVG Viewer 6.0\Plugins\.
 * 5) Create your own stand-alone SVG file to produce an image containing a circle within a rectangle.
 * 6) Create your own stand-alone SVG file. Use 3 circles and 1 path element to create a yellow smiley face with black eyes and a black mouth. Use a text element so that the message “Have a nice day!” appears below the smiley face.
 * 7) * Hint: Because elements can be difficult to write, here is a sample path you can utilize:
 * 8) *

title: XML - Managing Data Exchange/SVG


text:
World History/Precolumbian History of the Americas

The Olmec
The Olmec rule lasted from 1200 BC to 600 AD in the swampy lowland regions of Mexico. To deal with this climate, the Olmec built permanent city-temple complexes at sites such as at San Lorenzo, Tenochtitlán, La Venta, Tres Zapotes, Chalcatzingo, and La Mojarra. Olmec culture originated at San Lorenzo, where distinctively Olmec features began to appear at about 1150 BC. As in Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt and other early civilizations, the emergence of the Olmec civilization was assisted by fertile, well-watered alluvial soil.

The Olmec were known for their art, which usually reflected their religion. They created ceramic vessels, figurines, and the unexplained enormous carvings of heads. The jaguar is an important motif throughout Olmec art.

In about 900 BC, San Lorenzo was all but abandoned, and La Venta became the primary city. The reasons behind this move are unknown, but it may have been due to environmental changes or invasions. By 400 BC, La Venta also came to an end.

Rise and Fall of the Maya
One of the three most powerful and interesting cultures to thrive during the Precolumbian period was that of the Maya, which centered on the city of Tikal in the Peten section of Guatemala (delete "the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico"). Though the Maya had existed for some time beforehand, the dates of 300 BC to 800 AD are the most accurate for the height of Maya culture. The Golden Age of the Maya might be described as about 500 to 850 AD, during which the most complex and fascinating parts of Maya culture were invented or built. The Maya political system involved, like other early civilizations, a system of city-states. However, a single king held sway over all the principalities. Mayan religion and daily life were very intertwined. Because of the importance of maize (corn) in their culture, the Maya believed the gods had created them from a stalk and water. They also created elaborate rituals involving dance, sacrifices, and some blood-letting to please their gods. They based their faith on a heaven, the earth (in the middle) and an underworld.

Maya life centered on agriculture. Because of the ease of its growth, the Maya relied heavily on maize as their staple crop. In addition, cotton was grown in abundant quantities and the Maya are known for their cotton textiles. Because the Maya had no large animals, slavery became widespread as a way to solve the labor shortage created by the animals' absence. The Maya were sufficiently developed enough to have a class of skilled artisans and a priesthood. Social structure held the king and nobles at the top, followed by priests, the merchant class, the peasants, and finally slaves. As in other ancient cultures, the peasants and slaves made up the majority of the Mayan population. The slaves were used to construct massive cities, such as Tikal and Chichen Itza. The tiered temple at Chichen Itza (the place of the Itzas or priests) is the greatest remaining relic of the Maya, and is similar in construction to Egyptian step pyramids. During the Fall Equinox on September 22 (and also at the spring equinox on March 21) one can witness the incredible accuracy of Mayan astronomy as it was integrated into architecture. The equinox phenomenon can actually be viewed in Chichen Itza on the El Castillo pyramid for up to four days. During the equinox the sun casts its rays on the pyramid, forming seven isosceles triangles that resemble the body of a serpent 37 yards long slithering downwards until it joins the huge serpent’s head carved in stone at the bottom of the stairway. It is said this snake is trying to make its way to the Sacred Cenote well of sacrifice which is in a straight line from the pyramid. Also at another nearby site, Dzibilchaltun, September 22 at 5 AM is the official day and exact time of the fall equinox when the sun sends its beams through the two windows of the Temple of the Seven Dolls providing a lovely spectacle of Mayan exactitude.

The Maya developed a complex scientific and mathematical knowledge throughout their existence. Their precise astronomical observations allowed them to develop a calendar almost as accurate as our own today. In mathematics, they developed a number system based on bars and dots, and pioneered multiplication and division. They were also the first in the New World to come up with the concept of "zero" (which is not just as in nothing - think as a placeholder in the number 10,000). The number system was also highly accurate. An ingenious alphabet allowed the Maya to record information on their monuments and temples, giving anthropologists an excellent way to learn about Maya life and culture. The system of writing the Maya developed was based on pictograms. Modern science has managed to decipher much of the alphabet.

The Maya began to decline in about 800 AD until the Maya disappeared completely from observable history. Although the cause is unknown, the standard answers of disease, drought, famine, or internal unrest are given. New evidence seems to lend some credence to the thought of a drought-famine connection, but this is unconfirmed. Whatever the reason, the Maya began to abandon their cities which shrank back into the jungle to await discovery by modern archaeologists. Interestingly, a small group of ethnic descendants still live in the jungles of the Yucatan, where they practice a mix of Christianity and traditional religions, as well as speak the same language as their Mayan ancestors.

The Putan Maya
After the fall of the Maya and a period of unrest, the city-state of Chichen Itza developed a confederacy in the north of the Yucatan. The confederacy limped along until around the 13th century when the center of activity was removed to Maryapan, whose rule lasted until about 1450 AD.

Further south, a relatively powerful group known as the Putan Maya established itself in the southwest of the Yucatan peninsula. The main city of Xicalango became the center of a powerful post-classical period maritime trading network which flourished from around 900 AD until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. The Putan Maya also established trade centers at Cacaxtla and Xochicalco, for interaction with the Toltec. The Putan Maya were heavily influenced by the culture of the Toltecs. In addition to the Putan Maya, several small kingdoms existed throughout Mesoamerica and Mexico under Mayan control, which made the area more resistant to invasion when the conquistadors arrived than their unfortunate cousins in Tenochtitlan.

The Aztecs
The Aztecs were one of the most memorable of all of the ancient Mesoamerican empires. They were located in central Mexico right where Mexico City is today.

Native American cultures north of the Rio Grande
Native American cultures were not as sophisticated as the Mesoamerican or Andean civilizations. Even Cahokia, the largest Precolumbian settlement in the modern United States, had only a small fraction of the population of cities like Teotihuacan or Cuzco. There was no writing north of Mexico, and the ancient civilizations of the Mississippi and the Southwest had long crumbled away by the time Europeans made substantial contact with the natives there. Therefore, study of the history of North America heavily relies on archaeology.

source: wikimedia

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Cookbook:Tuna Salad

| Salad Recipes

Variation I

 * 1 large can (12 oz) tuna
 * 1 can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
 * ½ small onion, chopped
 * 1–2 stalks celery, chopped
 * ½ cup carrot, shredded
 * ½ cup mayonnaise
 * 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
 * 1 teaspoon soy sauce
 * Salt to taste
 * Pepper to taste

Variation II

 * 1 can tuna, drained
 * 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
 * ¼ small onion, chopped

Variation III

 * 1 large can (12 oz) tuna
 * 2 cups mayonnaise
 * 1 large bag shredded cheddar cheese
 * 3 grapes, chopped
 * 4/3 hot dogs, roughly chopped
 * 4 bags tater-tots, just barely defrosted

Procedure

 * 1) Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
 * 2) Chill before serving.
 * 3) Serve on toast.

sr:Кувар:Салата са туњевином

title: Cookbook:Tuna Salad


text:
safety-valve

Etymology 1
From.

Verb

 * 1) Sometimes followed by off:
 * 2) To use a relief valve on (a container holding a gas or vapour) to relieve excessive pressure which has built up inside.
 * 3) To install a relief valve on (such a container) for that purpose.
 * 4)  To use some mechanism to relieve (physical or emotional pressure or tension).

Translations

 * Finnish: päästää painetta
 * Galician:
 * Macedonian:
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic:
 * Roman:

 * Finnish: asentaa varoventtiili
 * Galician:
 * Macedonian:
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic:
 * Roman:

 * Finnish:
 * Galician:
 * Macedonian:
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic:
 * Roman:

Etymology 2
See.

title: safety-valve


text:
Talk:Debbie Travis

Being Picky
The article contains no citations or references. As a bio of a living person doesn't it require these things in order to remain as an article or am I confused about what the word source means in the bio tag? Jasynnash2 (talk) 14:54, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

2015 update
This article was in a horrible state, so I've attempted to clean it up and reorganize it. --Drm310 (talk) 05:00, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Debbie Travis


text:
thenabouts

Adverb

 * 1)  about then
 * 2) * 1921, Maurice Browne, Theater Arts Magazine, “Lonely Places: An Open Letter to the Editors of the Theatre Arts Magazine”, Theater Publications, page 207:
 * Seven years ago my wife, Rupert Brooke and I were eastbound from New York, and—then or thenabouts—I wrote from shipboard an open letter on the theater to the Editor of Drama.
 * 1) * 1921, Maurice Browne, Theater Arts Magazine, “Lonely Places: An Open Letter to the Editors of the Theatre Arts Magazine”, Theater Publications, page 207:
 * Seven years ago my wife, Rupert Brooke and I were eastbound from New York, and—then or thenabouts—I wrote from shipboard an open letter on the theater to the Editor of Drama.

title: thenabouts


text:
Vermont Route 155

Vermont Route 155 (VT 155) is a 10.377 mi north–south state highway in central Vermont, United States. It runs from VT 100 in Weston in the south to VT 103 in East Wallingford in the north. Much of the highway goes through the Green Mountain National Forest.

VT 155 was part of VT 8 until May 1961, when the section between Weston and Wallingford was re-designated.

Route description
VT 155 begins at an intersection with VT 100 in the Windsor County town of Weston. Running along the eastern edge of Green Mountain National Forest, VT 155 runs northwest along the West River. A two-lane mountain road, the route runs straight into the forest, making a junction with the dead-ending Forest Highway 299 (FFH 299). At FFH–299, VT 155 turns northeast and crosses into Rutland County. Now in the town of Mount Holly, the route continues along the forest border, turning northwest as Weston Road.

VT 155 winds along the border northwestward for several miles, paralleling the nearby Mill River. Bypassing the hamlet of Belmont, the route runs up the forest line, turning more towards the north. Before the junction with Fowler Brook Road, VT 155 turns northwest again, crossing railroad tracks and into the town of Wallingford. Now in the hamlet of East Wallingford, VT 155 reaches the Hubbardton River and a junction with VT 140. At this junction, VT 155 and VT 140 become concurrent for 0.087 mi through East Wallingford.

At the junction with Village Street, VT 155 turns off of VT 140, running north for one block into a junction with VT 103. This junction marks the northern terminus of VT 155.

title: Vermont Route 155


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Clever (rapper)

The result was delete. Salvio 11:23, 25 August 2020 (UTC)

Clever (rapper)

 * – ( View AfD View log  Stats )

Most notable credit is his minor feature in a song with by Bieber and Malone. Doesn't pass WP:BASIC and WP:SINGER - hako9 (talk) 05:53, 17 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Bands and musicians-related deletion discussions. - hako9 (talk) 05:53, 17 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Alabama-related deletion discussions. - hako9 (talk) 05:53, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

 * Delete I see two sources not in the article: https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/clevers-new-tattoo-of-juice-wrlds-face-is-damn-near-perfect-news.102313.html and https://www.al.com/life/2020/02/alabama-rapper-clever-appears-on-new-justin-bieber-album.html, but neither seems substantial. The first about a tattoo and feels like a fluff piece while the second, about his collaboration with Bieber, seems like a "local boy done good" story, and is more about the singer than the rapper. Perhaps we'll see more coverage after the subject's next album is released, but it feels WP:TOOSOON right now. Walter Görlitz (talk) 06:10, 17 August 2020 (UTC)


text:
Talk:David Watson (footballer, born 1946)

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text:
Category talk:Illinois stubs

Stub types for deletion
This stub category was previously nominated for deletion at WP:SFD. The logged discussion can be found here. --TheParanoidOne 05:28, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

title: Category talk:Illinois stubs


text:
Talk:Denis Murphy (British politician)

Thus is my Grandad
My grandad has a wikipedia article <IP_ADDRESS> (talk) 19:22, 9 February 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Denis Murphy (British politician)


text:
Goodbye Old Paint

"Goodbye Old Paint" is a traditional Western song that was created by black cowboy Charley Willis. The song was first collected by songwriter N. Howard "Jack" Thorp in his 1921 book Songs of the Cowboys. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.

Authorship
In writing about "Goodbye Old Paint", Thorp wrote: "Heard this sung by a puncher who had been on a spree in Pecos City. He had taken a job temporarily as a sheep-rustler for an outfit in Independence Draw, down the river, and was ashamed of the job. I won't mention his name." Charley Willis, a former slave who became a cowboy and rode the Wyoming trail in the late 1800s, is now credited with authorship. Willis was in demand on cattle drives because his voice was reportedly calming to the herds.

Though folklorist John Lomax did credit Willis with the authorship of the song, Lomax never recorded a performance of the song by any black person. In spite of the somewhat-concealed history of the song, many people have been credited with writing it. In 1928, a newspaper in Amarillo, Texas reported that Texas cowboy fiddler Jess Morris had composed it. Apparently Morris' arrangement had previously caught Thorp's eye. Morris never claimed to have written the song, saying that he learned it from a black cowboy named Charley Willis. Western writer and singer Jim Bob Tinsley has said that credit for saving "Goodbye Old Paint" from being forever lost "...belongs to three Texans: a black cowboy (Willis) who sang it on cattle drives, a cowboy who remembered it (Jess Morris) and a college professor (Lomax) who put it down on paper."

title: Goodbye Old Paint


text:
Loriotus

Loriotus is a genus of birds in the tanager family Thraupidae. The species now placed in this genus were formerly placed in the genus Tachyphonus.

Taxonomy and species list
The three species now assigned to Loriotus were traditionally placed in the genus Tachyphonus. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that Tachyphonus was polyphyletic. In the subsequent reorganization the genus Loriotus was resurrected for these three species. The genus had been introduced in 1821 by the Polish zoologist Feliks Paweł Jarocki with the flame-crested tanager as the type species. The name is derived from the French word loriot that is used for the Old World orioles.

The three species in the genus are:

title: Loriotus


text:
painanne

Etymology
From.

Noun

 * 1) depression e.g. on ground

Usage notes
only refers to physical depressions. Economic depression is, while mental depression is or.

title: painanne


text:
Template:Disambig

''This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. If an internal link referred you to this page, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.'' __DISAMBIG__

cs:Šablona:Rozcestník

title: Template:Disambig


text:
Armenicum

Armenicum is a drug invented in Armenia in 1998 that its developers claim is an effective treatment for HIV infection and a number of associated diseases. No rigorously monitored clinical trials of Armenicum have been published, and most HIV experts outside of Armenia do not endorse its use.

Efficacy
In 1999, a BBC investigation involving interviews with scientists involved in administering the drug, patients and creator Alexander Ilyin raised serious doubts about the drug's efficacy, concluding that Armenicum might do more harm than good. Dr. Manfred Dietrich of the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg told the BBC "I would not recommend at all to take such a drug." while an American patient said "we’re in a worse state than we were before we went."

Ingredients
The main ingredient of Armenicum is iodine, a general antiseptic. According to the manufacturers it also contains dextrin, polyvinyl alcohol, sodium, potassium and lithium cations and chloride anions. It is described as a "blue-violet liquid with specific odor, packed in orange glass bottles per 20ml and corked tightly by a rubber plug clutched by aluminum caps."

Clinical studies
Clinical studies of the drug (1998–2000) were carried out in the Intensive Care Unit of the 1st Infectious Clinical Hospital in Yerevan: head of department, Ph.D. Petr Artishchev (1994–2000). Phase 2A of clinical trials revealed a good tolerance of the drug, a certain direction of adverse events, which constituted an insignificant percentage of the number of observations. Laboratory diagnostics of the tests under study was carried out by the "Prom-Test" Laboratory as a Central laboratory. The head: Arthur Melkonyan. The scientific supervisor from the beginning of the study and until the end of his life was the head of Infectious Diseases department of Yerevan State Medical University, Ph.D. Levon Mkhitaryan (d. 2009). General management was entrusted to Prof. Emil Gabrielyan (d. 2010) – Director of the Republican Pharmacological Agency, who was a Minister of Health of the Armenian SSR in the past.

Company
Later, the formed CJSC “Armenicum” acquired the buildings and the land of the 1st Infectious Clinical Hospital (2000). The reconstructed building was renamed into the “Armenicum Medical Center”, which to this day is engaged in the treatment of HIV infection and works on government orders.

Kolesnikov controversy
On 8 September 2000, Nikolai Kolesnikov, who had received treatment for AIDS in "Armenicum" center in Armenia was reported dead in one of Kaliningrad hospitals. According to his doctors, Armenicum turned out to be a simple immunity modular, without any effect on the virus which continues to damage the cells in the human body.

In March 2005, Kolesnikov was reported to have frozen to death in his native Kaliningrad. There have been several other reports on his death over the years.

title: Armenicum


text:
Dilvo Lotti

Dilvo Lotti (27 June 1914 – 22 April 2009) was an Italian painter.

Biography
Dilvo Lotti studied at Porta Romana Art Institute in Florence where he graduated in 1935 writing a thesis on Honoré Daumier.

His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1936 Summer Olympics.

In 1968 he painted a crucifix for the Church of the Autostrada del Sole near Florence.

He was Roman Catholic.

title: Dilvo Lotti


text:
User:JamesMason83

I got caught for smoking pot and lost my job. My goal is to provide more info on drug testing so others don't get caught.

title: User:JamesMason83


text:
Let Me Serenade You

"Let Me Serenade You" is a song written by John Finley. The original version of the song was entitled "I Will Serenade You" and performed by Rhinoceros, appearing on their 1968 self-titled album. It was later covered by Three Dog Night and featured on their 1973 album, Cyan. This version was produced by Richard Podolor and arranged by Podolor and Three Dog Night.

In the US, Three Dog Night's version "Let Me Serenade You" peaked at #17 on the Billboard chart. Outside the US, "Let Me Serenade You" reached #11 in Canada.

Cover versions

 * Melissa Manchester released a version of the song on her 1977 album, Singin'....

title: Let Me Serenade You


text:
Harlem Wizards

The Harlem Wizards is a professional basketball team created in 1962 by sports promoter Howie Davis. Unlike most basketball teams, the Harlem Wizards are not primarily focused on winning games. Instead, their aim is to entertain the crowd using a variety of basketball tricks and alley oops. They perform fundraisers at local schools for the students and the rest of the community, displaying their fancy trickery through dribbling, passing, shooting, and dunking. Through these fundraisers, they have raised millions of dollars for "charitable organizations, schools, and foundations around the world." The audience is not only there to watch the Wizards, but also to participate in the show. The Wizards get the crowd involved, often bringing children out onto the floor to be part of a basketball trick or a comedy act.

The Wizards are a comedy basketball team that tour the country. The theme for the Wizards' 2010–2011 campaign was the "Basketball and Beyond Tour." They hold the second longest known winning streak in all of professional sports—over 5,000 games after the Harlem Globetrotters 24-year, 8,829 game streak

History
According to harlemwizards.com, in 1943, Harlem Wizards creator Howie Davis was working as a Sports Promoter and the Sergeant and Recreation Director at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. The World Championship of Basketball Tournament in Chicago asked Davis to provide an emergency 8th team to compete in the tournament. Within one week, Davis assembled the Dayton Dive Bombers. The Dive Bombers' first round opponent in the tournament was the previous World Champion, the Harlem Globetrotters. The Dive Bombers pulled the upset and the Globetrotters' manager, Abe Saperstein, refused to even shake Davis' hand after the game. Davis was intrigued by this event, and twenty years later, he decided to create his own show basketball team, the Harlem Wizards.

Before Davis got into sports management and promotion, Howie Davis played semi-professional baseball for a couple years. He eventually managed the Brooklyn Dodgers football team, the Staten Island Stapes, and the Kokomo Clowns, who actually played in clown outfits. Before creating the Harlem Wizards, he was also a scout for the San Francisco Giants.

In 1962, Davis created the Wizards, wanting to expand on Saperstein's idea of the Globetrotters. Davis wanted the Wizards to be an even more competitive, creative, and entertaining team than the Globetrotters.

When Howie Davis died in 1992, his son, Todd Davis, took over as the President of the Harlem Wizards organization.

Since 1962, the Wizards have played over 10,000 games, both in the United States and abroad. They have played on five continents and in 22 countries.

Former players

 * Tiny Archibald
 * Frankie Bradshaw
 * Tom "Sundance Kid" Chapin
 * Larry "Butterfly" Cheatham
 * Hollis Copeland
 * Mario Elie
 * Dewyn "Air Revolution" Erwin
 * Connie Hawkins
 * Guy Hughes
 * Ollie Lee Ledbetter
 * Clarence "Mugsy" Leggett
 * Ken "Blenda" Rodriguez
 * Ralph " Rubber Legs" Sheets
 * Mike Simmel
 * Ed "Czar" Simmons
 * Frank "Shake & Bake" Streety
 * Vincent White
 * James "Speedy" Williams
 * Hawthorne Wingo
 * James "Peanuts" Woolard
 * Sam Worthen
 * "Headache"
 * "The Main Event"
 * Earl “Early” Christy
 * Lawrence "LaLa" Gable
 * Buffy "Mr Magic" Coleman
 * Javon "Dynamite" Jones
 * Claude "Tojo" Henderson
 * Luis Da Silva "Trikz"

title: Harlem Wizards


text:
Manoir de Ban

The Manoir de Ban, or Champ de Ban Estate Manor, is a manor house located at Corsier-sur-Vevey on the banks of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The property is known for having been Charlie Chaplin's home for 25 years, from 1952 until his death in 1977. It houses a museum dedicated to the life and work of its former owner, named Chaplin's World, which opened in April 2016 after 15 years in development. The manor is listed as a heritage site of Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National Significance.

Location
The manor lies on the Champ de Ban Estate, above Corsier-sur-Vevey, a wine-growing village on the Swiss Riviera. The 14 ha estate lies in stunning countryside, between the Lavaux vineyards (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), Lake Geneva and the peaks of the Swiss Alps.

The estate is 9 km from Montreux, 26 km from Lausanne and 91 km from Geneva.

Construction and successive alterations
Before the manor was built, Champ de Ban was a farm. Still standing from this era are a fountain and the farm building on the Fenil road, which has seen many alterations over the years.

Charles Emile Henri de Scherer (1791–1871) bought the estate on 27 May 1839. In 1840, he had a neoclassical mansion built on the site. It was recorded in the land registry in 1841.

The first plans drafted by architect Philippe Franel (1796–1867) date from September 1839. Franel was the Riviera's star architect at the time. He was responsible for various prestigious buildings in the Vevey region: the Clock Tower, the Trois-Couronnes hotel, Aile Castle, the Part-Dieu building and numerous local houses. Franel was both a carpenter and an architect, and studied in Basel and Zürich. Examples of his work can still be seen throughout the Riviera today.

As the cellars of the house show, and as can be seen in the environmental report from the town plan (which mentions vineyards on a currently wooded area in the south of the grounds), wine was also produced on the estate at one time.

The house was not named "Manoir de Ban" until 1946, following alterations carried out by the new owners, American diplomat Grafton Winthrop Minot and his wife Anne de Lancey.

Chronological list of owners

 * Michel de Crausaz, Lord of the Manor of Corsier Parish (shown on a plan from 1705)
 * Jean-Pierre Chiron, Captain (shown on a plan from 1776)
 * Abram David Doron Louis De Lom, Captain (before 1839)
 * Henri Baud (before 1839)
 * 27 May 1839: Charles Emile Henri de Scherer – he had the house built (which later became the manor) and had the grounds landscaped.
 * 3 May 1871: on Mr de Scherer's death, his second wife Jeanne-Marie Adélaïde de Winterfeld inherited the property.
 * 27 December 1898: the heirs of Mrs de Winterfeld (who did not have any children)
 * 27 November 1911: sisters Dorothée Rosalie and Rosalia de Winterfeld
 * 12 June 1914: Louis Alfred Friedel, a gentleman of private means
 * 6 June 1919: Charles-Louis Bonny, a watchmaker
 * 14 April 1938: ownership passed to Crédit Foncier Vaudois
 * 3 July 1939: Wilhelm Imperatori, an industrialist
 * 28 May 1940: on the death of Wilhelm Imperatori, his widow Edit Imperatori inherited the property. During the Second World War, she opened the house to refugees.
 * 9 December 1946: purchased by Grafton Winthrop Minot, an American diplomat, and his wife Anne de Lancey. They named the house "Manoir de Ban".
 * 31 December 1952: purchased by Charlie Chaplin
 * 25 December 1977: Charlie Chaplin died and his wife Oona inherited the manor
 * 27 September 1991: Oona Chaplin died and her children inherited the manor. They later entrusted it to the Charlie Chaplin Museum Foundation.
 * 8 April 2008: Genii Capital, a Luxembourg-based capital investment company, purchased the manor from the Charlie Chaplin Museum Foundation to secure the future of the Charlie Chaplin museum project.

Charlie Chaplin's home from 1952
In September 1952, Charlie Chaplin was on his way to Europe to promote his film Limelight when he learned that the USA had revoked his visa. The Chaplin family needed a new address in Europe and, on the advice of Charlie's half-brother Sydney, they visited Switzerland.

The family moved in on 6 January 1953. Although they had bought the manor furnished, the Chaplin family and their architects Burnat and Nicati renovated the property and reorganised the interior. Chaplin's wife Oona was pregnant with their fifth child on their arrival in Switzerland, and the couple went on to have eight children in total.

Charlie Chaplin lived at the manor for 25 years until his death in 1977. He spent his "happy years" there, walking in the grounds, playing with his children and hosting friends from the four corners of the globe, including Marlon Brando and Truman Capote.

The artist also spent a large percentage of his time working. The screenplays for his films A King in New York, A Countess from Hong Kong and The Freak (which was never filmed) were written at Manoir de Ban. He reworked the music for his films at the piano and wrote My Autobiography, published in 1964.

Sir Charles and his wife Lady Oona are buried in Corsier-sur-Vevey cemetery.

The Manor
The manor is a rectangular building with two side annexes with roof terraces. The facades are richly decorated for the period: the front door is flanked by fluted pilasters and the windows are outlined with fillets and rest on moulded sills on consoles. The window frames are topped with cornices or pediments. Under the hipped slate roof, the eaves are adorned with modillions. On the ground floor, a peristyle runs right across the back of the manor and extends onto the sides, towards the annexes. This Colonial-style gallery offers fabulous views of the park, the lake and the mountains.

After renovations carried out for the Chaplin family in 1952, the manor comprised nineteen rooms on three levels (the second attic floor was converted in 1977) providing 1,150m² of living space. In the basement lie the cellars inherited from the building's wine-making past. Chaplin had this area converted into constant-humidity archives to house his original works.

The manor was richly decorated, including marble mosaics or solid-wood parquet on the floors and carvings on the walls. The property was furnished when Charlie Chaplin bought it. Some of the furniture, purchased by Anne de Lancey, the previous owner, originated from one of the Loire Châteaux in France. The Chaplin family also had their own furniture transported from California.

Outbuildings
The property includes a farm which pre-dates the manor. It was altered several times, and under the Chaplin family served as staff accommodation, stables, a barn and a store.

Another building, a garage dating from 1900 and renovated around 1980, had space for three vehicles plus staff accommodation on the upper floor. The Chaplin family employed up to thirteen staff: a secretary, nursery nurses, governesses, cooks, gardeners and chauffeurs.

Grounds
The Champ de Ban estate is one of the largest and most attractive parks in the canton of Vaud. It covers almost 14 hectares, sloping gently down to the banks of the Veveyse and the Nant stream. Charles Emile Henri de Scherer employed Edmond Davall, a forestry engineer, to carry out initial landscaping in the park in 1840–50. He appears to have introduced numerous exotic trees with a view to them becoming acclimatised.

The estate includes:
 * a 6.1-hectare park with natural lawns and clusters of well-established trees including beeches, maples, elms, spruces, sequoia and cedars.
 * an orchard bordering the farm, a greenhouse dating from 1965 adjacent to a garage and a kitchen garden which Charlie Chaplin enjoyed tending, a courtyard, a fountain, a swimming pool and a tennis court.
 * a 7.5-hectare terraced forest of mainly deciduous trees. The wooded area in the south of the estate was formerly a vineyard.

Chaplin's World museum
Chaplin's World opened on 17 April 2016 at the Ban estate.

The tour begins in the manor with the story of Charlie Chaplin's personal and family life before moving on to a new building, dedicated to his public life and career. In total, the museum incorporates over 4,000m² of exhibition space. It is operated by Grévin, a subsidiary of Compagnie des Alpes.

It also includes a venue for temporary exhibitions and private functions, catering facilities and a souvenir shop. The museum's developers worked to restore the manor and grounds to their former glory while preserving the authentic traces of Chaplin's personal life.

Chaplin Museum Development initiated the museum project in 2000. The project became possible when the Luxembourgish company Genii Capital purchased the manor in April 2008, and thanks to the support of the Chaplin family, Roy Export and Bubbles Incorporated (which holds the rights to Charlie Chaplin's intellectual property and heritage), canton of Vaud and ten local municipalities, and Nestlé, a partner in the development of the museum.

Key dates

 * 1840: The manor is built
 * 1952: Charlie Chaplin moves into the manor
 * 1977: Death of Charlie Chaplin
 * 2000: Chaplin Museum Development begins the museum project
 * 2008: Luxembourg company Genii Capital purchases the manor
 * 2013: Construction work on the Charlie Chaplin museum begins
 * 2014: An agreement is reached with Compagnie des Alpes/Grévin to operate the museum
 * 2016: Chaplin's World opens on the 17 April

title: Manoir de Ban