Informal learning activities/Plcs bldgs

The group of lists described below provides informal access to a variety of the places and, occasionally, the buildings (e.g., cathedrals and canals) described on Wikipedia.

To start wandering straight away, skip the following explanation.

Places and Buildings
&emsp; The items in the lists of specific or proper names have a variety of formats because some such names have more than one word. Two well-known examples are The Tower of London and the city of New York. However most names chosen for these lists are simple.

&emsp; Thus the item may have more than the basic three components which are: the main name that provides the main link to Wikipedia, the location (maybe the state or the nation) of the item proper that provides a secondary link to Wikipedia, and the hint that gives or suggests the nature of the place or building of the item.

&emsp; Here are two examples of list items&mdash;  &mdash;and you can click on their name (Huntington or Golant) to see how they work. Don't click on the name unless you know how to get back (for example, on many browsers it's Alt and left arrow). And at this stage it would be best if you just clicked on the surname to see the effect, then came straight back here.

Names
&emsp; Most items will have a single word main name, which keeps their items down to three simple components.

&emsp; Items with two word names come in two varieties.

&emsp; One of the words may name the kind of place or building of the item, as in Lake Baikal and Blackdown Hills, in which case that word is used as the hint.

&emsp; Otherwise, one of the words merely qualifies the main name, as in New York and Mirboo North, and is placed in the item without being made a link.

Locations
&emsp; The main name is followed by an indicative abbreviation of the country or area holding the place or building. The indication is a link to the Wikipedia page describing that country or area. It also acts as an adjunct to the following hint.

Hints
&emsp; The location is followed by an indication in parentheses of the nature of the place or building, given as a hint for memory retrieval or for sparking interest. If the hint starts with a capital letter then it is a formal part of a multiword name, whether leading or following the main name in the formal world.

Lists by Initial Letter
&emsp; The following group links will bring up the items for place names and building names with the initial letters shown in the group link.

&emsp; The group files all deal with more than one initial letter, and, as the following list shows, the groupings are of successive letters within the alphabet. In addition, links are provided in the headings of the item lists to move between initial letter lists, and, because placenames and surnames are often related, a link is provided in each file heading to the corresponding other specific name file.