Siculi, ancient Sicilian tribe that occupied the eastern part of Sicily. Old tales related that the Siculi once lived in central Italy but were driven out and finally crossed to Sicily, leaving remnants behind—e.g., at Locri. They are hard to identify archaeologically, although some words of their

Strait of Messina, channel in the Mediterranean Sea separating Sicily (west) and Italy (east) and linking the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas. The strait is 20 miles (32 km) long, 2 miles (3 km) wide in the north (between Faro Point and the Rock of Scylla), and 10 miles (16 km) wide in the south

Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian, the author of a universal history, Bibliothēkē (“Library”; known in Latin as Bibliotheca historica), that ranged from the age of mythology to 60 bc. Diodorus lived in the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus, and his own statements make it clear that he

Sicyon, ancient Greek city in the northern Peloponnese about 11 miles (18 km) northwest of Corinth. Inhabited in Mycenaean times and later invaded by Dorians, Sicyon was subject to Argos for several centuries. In the 7th century bc, Sicyonian independence was established by non-Dorian tyrants, the

bur cucumber, (genus Sicyos), genus of about 60 species of prostrate or climbing vines in the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae). Bur cucumbers often have sticky hairy stems and feature sharply lobed leaves and forked vining tendrils. Clusters of five-petaled unisexual flowers are typically borne at the

bur cucumber: …(Sicyos angulatus), known also as star cucumber, is native to North America and is considered a noxious agricultural weed.

Joe Strummer: …sound tracks, including those for Sid and Nancy (1986) and Grosse Pointe Blank (1997). In 1999 he formed a new band, Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros. That outfit recorded three albums, Rock Art and the X-Ray Style (1999), Global a Go-Go (2001), and Streetcore (2003), the last released by the…

Sidamo, any of the Cushitic-speaking peoples of southwestern Ethiopia who are not Oromo; they are mostly concentrated in the Omo River and Rift Valley regions. The Sidamo founded the Kefa kingdom in about ad 1400 and were subsequently controlled by both the “Abyssinians” (Amhara and Tigray) and the

Sidamo, any of the Cushitic-speaking peoples of southwestern Ethiopia who are not Oromo; they are mostly concentrated in the Omo River and Rift Valley regions. The Sidamo founded the Kefa kingdom in about ad 1400 and were subsequently controlled by both the “Abyssinians” (Amhara and Tigray) and the

Cushitic languages: …Oromo (approximately 20 million speakers), Sidamo (some 3 million speakers), and Hadiyya (more than 1 million speakers) in southern Ethiopia; Somali, the official language of Somalia, with about 15 million speakers; and Saho-Afar, two closely related languages, spoken by more than 1 million people in Djibouti and adjacent areas. Agau…

siddha, in Jainism, one who has achieved perfection. By right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct a siddha has freed himself from the cycle of rebirths and resides in a state of perpetual bliss in the siddha-śīlā, at the top of the universe. The siddha and the other ascetics constitute the

Siddha medicine, traditional system of healing that originated in South India and is considered to be one of India’s oldest systems of medicine. The Siddha system is based on a combination of ancient medicinal practices and spiritual disciplines as well as alchemy and mysticism. It is thought to

siddha: …or brass tray called a siddha-cakra (saint-wheel), to which great sanctity and magical power are attributed. In the twice-yearly ceremony known as oḷī, the images are washed and anointed, and offerings of rice, sweetmeats, and fruit are made.

Shaiva-siddhanta, religious and philosophical system of South India in which Shiva is worshipped as the supreme deity. It draws primarily on the Tamil devotional hymns written by Shaiva saints from the 5th to the 9th century, known in their collected form as Tirumurai. Meykanadevar (13th century)

Bhāskara II: …other of his works, notably Siddhāntaśiromaṇi (“Head Jewel of Accuracy”) and Karaṇakutūhala (“Calculation of Astronomical Wonders”), he wrote on his astronomical observations of planetary positions, conjunctions, eclipses, cosmography, geography, and the mathematical techniques and astronomical equipment used in these

Bhāskara II: …other of his works, notably Siddhāntaśiromaṇi (“Head Jewel of Accuracy”) and Karaṇakutūhala (“Calculation of Astronomical Wonders”), he wrote on his astronomical observations of planetary positions, conjunctions, eclipses, cosmography, geography, and the mathematical techniques and astronomical equipment used in these

Siddhartha, novel by Hermann Hesse based on the early life of Buddha, published in German in 1922. It was inspired by the author’s visit to Sri Lanka and Indonesia before World War I. Illness prevented him from visiting India itself as he had planned, but Hesse returned from his visit to South Asia

Buddha was the founder of Buddhism, one of the major religions and philosophical systems of southern and eastern Asia and of the world. Buddha is one of the many epithets of a teacher who lived in northern India sometime between the 6th and the 4th century before the Common Era. His followers,

Indian philosophy: Jain philosophy: …the first systematic work, and Siddhasena (7th century ce) the first great logician. Other important figures are Akalanka (8th century), Manikyanandi, Vadideva, Hemchandra (12th century), Prabhachandra (11th century), and Yasovijaya (17th century).

Jainism: Time and the universe: …the occupied universe is the siddhashila, the crescent-shaped abode of liberated souls (siddhas). Finally, there are some areas inhabited solely by ekendriyas, single-sense organisms that permeate the occupied universe.

Buddha was the founder of Buddhism, one of the major religions and philosophical systems of southern and eastern Asia and of the world. Buddha is one of the many epithets of a teacher who lived in northern India sometime between the 6th and the 4th century before the Common Era. His followers,

South Asian arts: Medieval temple architecture: North Indian style of central India: The Siddheśvara temple at Nemāwar (early 12th century) is even larger than the Udayeśvara, though the proportions are not as well balanced and the quality of the carving is inferior. Structures in the bhūmija manner continued to be made in Mālava up to the 15th century;…

Abū Bakr was Muhammad’s closest companion and adviser, who succeeded to the Prophet’s political and administrative functions, thereby initiating the office of the caliph. Of a minor clan of the ruling merchant tribe of Quraysh at Mecca, Abū Bakr purportedly was the first male convert to Islam, but

Arabic literature: Modern Arabic drama: …century primarily by the multitalented al-Ṭayyib al-Ṣiddīqī, who adapted textual materials culled from the heritage of the past, as in Dīwān Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Majdhūb (1966; “The Collection of Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥman al-Majdhūb”), and produced them with his own troupe, often casting himself in a role in which he would…

Teepu Siddique, Pakistani American neurologist best known for his discoveries concerning the genetic and molecular abnormalities underlying the neurodegenerative disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; or Lou Gehrig disease). Siddique studied botany at the University of the Punjab’s Islamia

Sarah Siddons was one of the greatest English tragic actresses. She was the eldest of 12 children of Roger and Sarah Kemble, who led a troupe of traveling actors (and were progenitors of a noted family of actors to a third generation, including a famous granddaughter, Fanny Kemble). Through the

siddur, Jewish prayer book, which contains the entire Jewish liturgy used on the ordinary sabbath and on weekdays for domestic as well as synagogue ritual. It is distinguished from the mahzor, which is the prayer book used for the High Holidays. The prayers and benedictions of a siddur breathe Old

Amram bar Sheshna: …liturgy for the year, the Siddur Rav Amram (“Order of Prayers of Rabbi Amram”). Amram’s work, forerunner in this field of those of Saʿadia ben Joseph and Maimonides, laid the foundations for the liturgies of both the Sephardim (Spanish Jews) and Ashkenazim (Germanic Jews). In addition to the prayers, his…

stringed instrument: Lutes: …the belly, and the other side of the resonator is called the back. The portion between the back and belly is the side, or rib. A lute may be plucked with the fingers or a plectrum or may be bowed, but the means of sound production do not affect the…

Side, principal city and port of ancient Pamphylia, originally situated on the Mediterranean coast west of the mouth of the Manavgat River, in southwestern Turkey. (The site is now inland.) Though the city was founded by Aeolian Greeks, a peculiar non-Greek language was spoken there. Having a good

hand tool: European usage: …were produced by using a broadax, or side ax. Somewhat shorter handled than the felling ax, it had a flat face, the single bevel being on the opposite or right side; it sliced diagonally downward as the carpenter moved backward along the log. The head was heavy, about twice that…

television: Basic receiver circuits: …and picture carriers and their side bands reach a relatively fixed level of about one volt, whereas the signal levels applied to the antenna terminals may vary, depending on the distance of the station and other factors, from a few millionths to a few tenths of a volt. Intermediate-frequency amplifiers…

snare drum, military and orchestral percussion instrument having several gut, nylon, wire, or wire-covered silk strings (snares) stretched across the lower, or snare, head; the snares vibrate sympathetically with the lower head (to which vibration is transmitted from the upper, or batter, head by

human disease: Drugs: …used today that have no side effects (i.e., effects unintended when the drug is administered). Although these side effects may be harmless and inconsequential, certain drugs have side effects that are potent. Similarly, a drug may be useful in a certain dose range but harmful when larger doses are taken.…

Steven Soderbergh: Ocean’s series and Magic Mike: The following year he helmed Side Effects, a thriller in which a woman’s dependency on antidepressants has criminal consequences, and Behind the Candelabra, about a romantic relationship that the entertainer Liberace (Michael Douglas) began with a young man (Damon) in the late 1970s. The latter was produced by and for…

pommel horse, gymnastics apparatus, a leather-covered form 1.6 meters (63 inches) long, 34 to 36 cm (13.4 to 14.2 inches) wide, and (measured to its top) about 115 cm (45.3 inches) from the floor with a support in its center. Curved wooden pommels (handholds) 12 cm (4.7 inches) high are inserted 40

shoe: Materials: …many kinds of shoes, is side leather, made from cattle hide and called side because the large hide is cut down the middle lengthwise into two sides for handling.

Anthony Mann: The 1940s: film noirs: Side Street (1950) was a taut noir in which a mailman (Farley Granger) steals $30,000 from a pair of blackmailers, putting his life in jeopardy.

sideboard, piece of furniture designed to hold plates, decanters, side dishes, and other accessories for a meal and frequently containing cupboards and drawers. When the word first appeared in the Middle Ages as an alternative to “side table,” it described a stepped structure used (as sideboards

commercial fishing: Side trawlers: On this traditional type of trawler, the trawl is launched and recovered from the side of the vessel. The side trawler is characterized by the wheelhouse and superstructure at the stern and a raised forecastle at the bow. The hull lines follow a…

side-angle-side theorem, in Euclidean geometry, theorem stating that if two corresponding sides in two triangles are of the same length, and the angles between these sides (the included angles) in those two triangles are also equal in measure, then the two triangles are congruent (having the same

Uta: The common side-blotched lizard, or ground uta (Uta stansburiana), is widespread in the western United States. Uta species range in length from 10 to 27 cm (4 to 11 inches). They are usually dull-coloured; the males of some species have a blue throat and abdomen. These lizards…

flute: In transverse, or cross, flutes (i.e., horizontally held and side blown), the stream of breath strikes the opposite rim of a lateral mouth hole. Vertical flutes such as the recorder, in which an internal flue or duct directs the air against a hole cut in the side of…

harbours and sea works: Dredging: A special case is the side-boom dredge, which discharges straight back overside; by making the work coincide with an appropriate state of the tidal current, this arrangement secures the removal of the dredged silt by the tide’s operation.

chemotherapy: …there emerged (1901–04) Ehrlich’s well-known “side-chain” theory, in which he sought for the first time to correlate the chemical structure of a synthetic drug with its biological effects. In 1903 Ehrlich invented a dye, trypan red, which was the first drug to show activity against trypanosomal infections in mice. Ehrlich’s…

linear accelerator: …structural variation, known as the side-coupled cavity accelerator, in which acceleration occurs in on-axis cells that are coupled together by cavities mounted to their sides. These coupling cavities serve to stabilize the performance of the accelerator against changes in the resonant frequencies of the accelerating cells.

warning system: Radar: Side-looking radars are used to obtain higher resolution than conventional radar, improving the ability to recognize surface targets.

side-necked turtle, (suborder Pleurodira), any species of turtle belonging to the families Chelidae, Pelomedusidae, and Podocnemididae. The common name is derived from the animal’s defensive posture. Instead of retracting the head and neck into the shell for protection, turtles of this group lay

Euclidean geometry: Congruence of triangles: …are corresponding angle-side-angle (ASA) and side-side-side (SSS) theorems.

Earth: The outer shell: …type of plate boundary, the transform variety, two plates slide parallel to one another in opposite directions. These areas are often associated with high seismicity, as stresses that build up in the sliding crustal slabs are released at intervals to generate earthquakes. The San Andreas Fault in California is an…

rocket and missile system: The 19th century: These side-stick-mounted rockets were employed in a successful naval bombardment of the French coastal city of Boulogne in 1806. The next year a massed attack, using hundreds of rockets, burned most of Copenhagen to the ground. During the War of 1812 between the United States and…

jackal: mesomelas) and side-striped (C. adustus) jackals of southern and eastern Africa. Jackals grow to a length of about 85–95 cm (34–37 inches), including the 30–35-cm (12–14-inch) tail, and weigh about 7–11 kg (15–24 pounds). Golden jackals and African golden wolves are yellowish, the black-backed jackal is rusty…

television: Basic receiver circuits: …and picture carriers and their side bands reach a relatively fixed level of about one volt, whereas the signal levels applied to the antenna terminals may vary, depending on the distance of the station and other factors, from a few millionths to a few tenths of a volt. Intermediate-frequency amplifiers…

sideboard, piece of furniture designed to hold plates, decanters, side dishes, and other accessories for a meal and frequently containing cupboards and drawers. When the word first appeared in the Middle Ages as an alternative to “side table,” it described a stepped structure used (as sideboards

dress: The 19th century: …clean-shaven, were called burnsides or sideburns, after the U.S. Civil War general Ambrose Burnside. Other popular beard styles included the imperial, a small goatee named for Napoleon III, and the side-whiskers and drooping mustache known as the Franz Joseph in honour of the head of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After 1880…

jaunting car, two-wheeled, open vehicle, popular in Ireland from the early 19th century. It was unusual in having lengthwise, back-to-back or face-to-face passenger seats. The light, horse-drawn cart carried four passengers (although the earliest versions carried more). It usually had a narrow,

grama grass: Sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), blue grama (B. gracilis), black grama (B. eriopoda), and hairy grama (B. hirsuta) are some of the most important North American range species. Blue grama is sometimes cultivated for its attractive flower spikes, which can be dried for floral arrangements.

William Herschel: …British astronomer, the founder of sidereal astronomy for the systematic observation of the stars and nebulae beyond the solar system. He discovered the planet Uranus, hypothesized that nebulae are composed of stars, and developed a theory of stellar evolution. He was knighted in 1816.

day: The sidereal day is the time required for the Earth to rotate once relative to the background of the stars—i.e., the time between two observed passages of a star over the same meridian of longitude. The apparent solar day is the time between two successive transits…

Galileo: Telescopic discoveries of Galileo: …little book, Sidereus Nuncius (The Sidereal Messenger), in which he described them. He dedicated the book to Cosimo II de Medici (1590–1621), the grand duke of his native Tuscany, whom he had tutored in mathematics for several summers, and he named the moons of Jupiter after the Medici family:…

month: The sidereal month is the time needed for the Moon to return to the same place against the background of the stars, 27.321661 days (i.e., 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes 12 seconds); the difference between synodic and sidereal lengths is due to the orbital movement…

sidereal period, the time required for a celestial body within the solar system to complete one revolution with respect to the fixed stars—i.e., as observed from some fixed point outside the system. The sidereal period of a planet can be calculated if its synodic period (the time for it to return

sidereal time, time as measured by the apparent motion about the Earth of the distant, so-called fixed, stars, as distinguished from solar time, which corresponds to the apparent motion of the Sun. The primary unit of sidereal time is the sidereal day, which is subdivided into 24 sidereal hours,

year: …year is shorter than the sidereal year (365 days 6 hours 9 minutes 10 seconds), which is the time taken by the Sun to return to the same place in its annual apparent journey against the background of the stars. The anomalistic year (365 days 6 hours 13 minutes 53…

Galileo: Telescopic discoveries of Galileo: …little book, Sidereus Nuncius (The Sidereal Messenger), in which he described them. He dedicated the book to Cosimo II de Medici (1590–1621), the grand duke of his native Tuscany, whom he had tutored in mathematics for several summers, and he named the moons of Jupiter after the Medici family:…

iron meteorite, any meteorite consisting mainly of iron, usually combined with small amounts of nickel. When such meteorites, often called irons, fall through the atmosphere, they may develop a thin, black crust of iron oxide that quickly weathers to rust. Though iron meteorites constitute only

siderite, iron carbonate (FeCO3), a widespread mineral that is an ore of iron. The mineral commonly occurs in thin beds with shales, clay, or coal seams (as sedimentary deposits) and in hydrothermal metallic veins (as gangue, or waste rock). Manganese (Mn), magnesium (Mg), and calcium generally

blood disease: Hypochromic microcytic anemias: Sideroblastic anemia, characterized by the presence in the bone marrow of nucleated red blood cells, the nucleus of which is surrounded by a ring of iron granules (ringed sideroblasts) and by a proportion of small, pale red cells in the blood, is of unknown cause…

stony iron meteorite: The other common type, the mesosiderites (formerly called siderolites), are impact breccias. They are probably related to the basaltic achondrite group of stony meteorites, but they contain an unusually large quantity of interspersed metal. The source of the metal is not known for certain, but it may be from the…

Moon: Main groupings: …of elements classified geochemically as siderophiles—elements that tend to affiliate with iron when rocks cool from a melt. (This siderophile depletion is an important clue to the history of the Earth-Moon system, as discussed in the section Origin and evolution, below.) Some lavas were relatively rich in elements whose atoms…

transferrin, protein (beta1 globulin) in blood plasma that transports iron from the tissues and bloodstream to the bone marrow, where it is reused in the formation of hemoglobin. Found fixed to the surface of developing red blood cells, transferrin frees iron directly into the cell. Human beings

siderostat, any of a class of astronomical instruments consisting of a flat mirror that is turned slowly by a motor to reflect a given region of the sky continuously into a fixed telescope. In the traditional siderostat, the mirror is rotated by a lever arm connected to a motor that turns at a rate

Sideroxylon, genus of 75 species of woody trees and shrubs, within the sapodilla family (Sapotaceae), native to mainly warmer regions of North and South America. The plants typically have gummy or milky sap and extremely hard wood. The branches may be thorny, with alternate leaves that are entire

Sideroxylon: lanuginosa, variously known as chittamwood, shittamwood, gum elastic, and false buckthorn, is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental. It grows to about 15 metres (50 feet) tall. The leaves are 3.75–10 cm (1.5–4 inches) long, are dark lustrous green above and rusty beneath, and persist until late in the fall.…

horsemanship: Side saddle: Though now not so fashionable, the elegant and classical side-saddle seat was formerly favoured and considered correct by many horsewomen. On the near side the saddle has an upright pommel on which the rider’s right leg rests. There is a lower, or leaping,…

freak show: …legitimate stage, or in carnival sideshows (so named because they required a separate fee for entry from the main circus or carnival midway)—had become one of the chief attractions for American audiences. A major moment during that period was the “Revolt of the Freaks” in 1898, when a collection of…

Kelsey Grammer: …Simpsons, providing the voice of Sideshow Bob, who frequently tried to bring harm to the Simpson family. Grammer also voiced numerous characters in animated movies, including Stinky Pete the Prospector in Toy Story 2 (1999), the Tin Man in Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return (2013), and one of the title…

petroleum refining: Fractional distillation: Intermediate products, or “sidestreams,” are withdrawn at several points from the column, as shown in the figure. In addition, modern crude distillation units employ intermediate reflux streams. Sidestreams are known as intermediate products because they have properties between those of the top or overhead product and those of…

swimming: Strokes: …to be used were the sidestroke and the breaststroke. The sidestroke was originally used with both arms submerged. That practice was modified toward the end of the 19th century by bringing forward first one arm above the water, then the other, and then each in turn. The sidestroke was supplanted…

Sidetic language, one of the most sparsely documented of the ancient Anatolian languages, Sidetic was spoken in the ancient city of Side on the coast of Pamphylia. The language is known from a few coins and some half-dozen inscriptions, which appear to be votive in nature. The inscriptions date

skateboarding, form of recreation and sport, popular among youths, in which a person rides standing balanced on a small board mounted on wheels. Considered one of the so-called extreme sports, skateboarding as a professional sport boasts a range of competitions, including vertical and street-style

air-cushion machine: History: …produced in the form of sidewall craft. This was a nonamphibious vessel that had a solid hull down each side, with a plenum chamber beneath the hull sealed by flexible skirts at the bow and stern. In the displacement mode, the central hull section floated in the water with the…

Alexander Payne: …also emerged from the picaresque Sideways (2004), which focused on a hapless snob (Paul Giamatti) who escorts his lothario friend (Thomas Haden Church) on a getaway to California wine country. (It was Payne’s first film not set at least partially in his native Omaha.) The film earned Payne the best…

sidewinder: The sidewinder (Crotalus cerastes) is a rattlesnake. This pit viper (subfamily Crotalinae) has small horns above each eye, possibly to keep sand from covering the eyes when the snake is buried. It is a nocturnal inhabitant of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico (see Sonoran…

sidewinder, any of four species of small venomous snakes that inhabit the deserts of North America, Africa, and the Middle East, all of which utilize a “sidewinding” style of crawling. The sidewinder (Crotalus cerastes) is a rattlesnake. This pit viper (subfamily Crotalinae) has small horns above

rocket and missile system: Passive: …achieve wide success was the AIM-9 Sidewinder developed by the U.S. Navy in the 1950s. Many later passive homing air-to-air missiles homed onto ultraviolet radiation as well, using on-board guidance computers and accelerometers to compute optimal intercept trajectories. Among the most advanced passive homing systems were optically tracking munitions that…

locomotion: Sidewinding: Sidewinding, which is also used when the locomotor surface fails to provide a rigid frictional base, is a specific adaptation for crawling over friable sandy soils. Like serpentine locomotion but unlike concertina locomotion, the entire body of the snake moves forward continuously in sidewinding…

science fiction: Alternate histories and parallel universes: Murray Leinster’s Sidewise in Time (1934) expanded the possibilities by suggesting a vast multiplicity of “histories,” all occurring at the same “time.” Under the scheme Leister proposed, one need not limit oneself to one past or one future but might travel between many alternate worlds existing in…

Balfour Biological Laboratory: …the university, and by Newnham’s Eleanor Sidgwick, who favoured control by a joint committee of the two colleges. Sidgwick—who was Balfour’s sister and whose husband, philosopher and author Henry Sidgwick, had played an instrumental role in Newnham’s founding—spearheaded fund-raising efforts and eventually raised enough money to acquire an abandoned chapel…

Henry Sidgwick was an English philosopher and author remembered for his forthright ethical theory based on Utilitarianism and his Methods of Ethics (1874), considered by some critics as the most significant ethical work in English in the 19th century. (Read Peter Singer’s Britannica entry on

Nevil Vincent Sidgwick was an English chemist who contributed to the understanding of chemical bonding, especially in coordination compounds. Sidgwick’s work in organic nitrogen compounds, presented in his Organic Chemistry of Nitrogen (1910), was of enduring value. With Sir Ernest Rutherford he

sídh, in Irish folklore, a hill or mound under which fairies live. The phrase aos sídhe or the plural sídhe on its own (sometimes anglicized as shee) can denote fairy folk collectively. See also

kuchipudi: …century with the creation by Sidhyendra Yogi of the dance-drama Bhama Kalapam, a story of Satyabhāma, the charming but jealous wife of the god Krishna. The dance performance begins with the sprinkling of holy water and the burning of incense. Other rituals are performed, the goddesses of learning, wealth, and…

North Africa: Early humans and Stone Age society: … (near Tighenif, Algeria) and at Sidi Abd el-Rahmane, Morocco. Hand axes associated with the hominin Homo erectus have been found at Ternifine, and Sidi Abd el-Rahmane has produced evidence of the same hominin dating to at least 200,000 years ago.

Menzel Bourguiba: …dockyard at Sidi Abdallah (Sīdī ʿAbd Allāh) and was named after Tunisia’s first president, Habib Bourguiba. Although its prosperity declined considerably following the French evacuation of naval installations in 1963, the town and its economy were greatly rejuvenated after the establishment of an iron and steel complex, an automobile…

World War II: Egypt and Cyrenaica, 1940–summer 1941: …Italians in September 1940 occupied Sīdī Barrānī, 170 miles west of Mersa Matruh; but, after settling six divisions into a chain of widely separated camps, they did nothing more for weeks, and during that time Wavell received some reinforcements.

Sidi Bel Abbès, town, northwestern Algeria, on the Wadi Mekerra in the Tell Atlas Mountains. Named for the tomb of the marabout (saint) Sīdī Bel ʿAbbāss, it was established as a French military outpost in 1843 and became a planned agricultural town in 1849. Sidi Bel Abbès was the headquarters of

Sidi Bouzid, town in central Tunisia. It is located in the upland steppe country and was controlled by the Aghlabids in the 9th century ce. Sidi Bouzid lies in the semiarid land south of the Dorsale Mountains. Although the surrounding area has infertile soil and scanty rainfall, it has become a

Sidi Bouzid, town in central Tunisia. It is located in the upland steppe country and was controlled by the Aghlabids in the 9th century ce. Sidi Bouzid lies in the semiarid land south of the Dorsale Mountains. Although the surrounding area has infertile soil and scanty rainfall, it has become a

Sidi Bouzid, town in central Tunisia. It is located in the upland steppe country and was controlled by the Aghlabids in the 9th century ce. Sidi Bouzid lies in the semiarid land south of the Dorsale Mountains. Although the surrounding area has infertile soil and scanty rainfall, it has become a