Wikipedia:Portal:Portal
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The portal of portals
A portal is an opening in the walls of a building, gate or fortification, and especially a grand entrance to an important structure. Doors, metal gates or portcullis in the opening can be used to control entry or exit. The surface surrounding the opening may be made of simple building materials or decorated with ornamentation. Elements of a portal can include the voussoir, tympanum, an ornamented mullion or trumeau between doors, and columns with carvings of saints in the westwork of a church.
Portals in science fiction, such as wormholes and gates, allow rapid travel between distant locations, often originating from some combination of natural phenomenon and technological device. These fictional devices are required for most stories on an inter-solar scale, otherwise transit time would be excessive for storytelling purposes. An advantage of portal technology over a faster-than-light drive is that it can be imagined to work instantly, and can travel to the past or future. In other forms of fiction, a portal may be magical, and connect to an alternate universe or plane of existence.
Selected article
ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal is an action-adventure computer game by German Funatics Development, released in 2002 by publisher THQ. An add-on, ZanZarah: The Lost Village (an unofficial title used by fans), was in development in 2002, but was later cancelled.
The game follows the story of Amy, a young girl from London who on her eighteenth birthday receives the strangest present in her life - a magic rune - from an even stranger creature, a goblin who appeared out of nowhere and disappeared without saying anything. The rune was one of the teleportation runes that the inhabitants of a magic parallel world ZanZarah used to travel across their lands.
Upon her arrival in ZanZarah, Amy discovers that she is the one an ancient prophecy told of and that it is her destiny to become the greatest fairy trainer of all times and save both her world and ZanZarah from impending destruction. Of course, to accomplish that she must undertake a long journey, but being an inquisitive and optimistic person, Amy readily accepts her destiny.
Selected biography
Gerald Herbert Portal (1858–1894) was a British diplomat, the Consul General for British East Africa and British Special Commissioner to Uganda. Educated at Eton, he joined the diplomatic service as an attaché in 1879, and was posted to the Egyptian Agency the same year. In 1886 he became Acting Agent and Consul General, and the following year he was sent to Ethiopia. In 1889 he was appointed to Zanzibar as the Consul General for British East Africa.
In 1892 Portal was appointed British Special Commissioner to Uganda to report to the British Government on setting up a British Protectorate to replace the East Africa Company, which was becoming increasingly ineffective amidst conflicts between rival factions, including the Kabaka (King) of Buganda, French Catholic, and British Protestant missionaries.
Portal established a settlement between the French and British Missionaries in Uganda, and on May 29, 1893 he signed a treaty with Kabaka Mwanga of Buganda. On April 1, 1893, he hauled down the flag of the British East Africa Company and hoisted the Union Jack. He returned to Britain and recommended the declaration of Uganda as a protectorate.
Portal was made Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1886, and Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1893. He died from typhoid fever in London on January 25, 1894, three months before his advice was acted upon. The town of Fort Portal in western Uganda, where Portal had his base, is named after him.
In the news
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- Kids game portal BBC Jam to close after competition complaints
- With pressure from France, Chad and Sudan open door to possible troop deployment
- Switzerland shut door on Korean Republic 2-0 in Group G
- Sydney train doors stuck, passengers delayed
- Entrepreneur's RFID chip implant to open doors, start car
Categories
- Doors — panels or barriers used to cover an opening
- Gates — entry points to an enclosed space
- Portals — focus pages which highlight a particular subject
- Portals on Wikimedia Commons - images of portals
Did you know?
- Portal hypertension is often the result of cirrhosis of the liver
- The Dark Portal is the first book in the Deptford Mice trilogy
- Fort Portal in Uganda is the seat of both Kabarole and the Toro Kingdom
- Portal's Weighted Companion Cube has fan-created plush and papercraft versions
Selected picture
Selected geography
Portal is a town in Bulloch County, Georgia, United States. The population was 597 at the 2000 census.
Portal's past residents include Dr. Leila Denmark, once the oldest practicing pediatrician in the world.
Selected quote
Here goes…Eenie Meenie Peter Piper and the cow jumped over the moon!
So, is that how you open the portal?
Yes, I think so. Sometimes it just makes a pothole…
- — Portal Master and Shobu, Duel Masters
Related portals
