Solomon Islands

Coordinates: 8°S 159°E / 8°S 159°E / -8; 159

Solomon Islands is a sovereign country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania lying to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu and covering a land area of 28,400 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi). The country's capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal. The country takes its name from the Solomon Islands archipelago, which is a collection of Melanesian islands that also includes the North Solomon Islands (part of Papua New Guinea), but excludes outlying islands, such as Rennell and Bellona, and the Santa Cruz Islands.

The islands have been inhabited for thousands of years. In 1568, the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to visit them, naming them the Islas Salomón. Britain defined its area of interest in the Solomon Islands archipelago in June 1893, when Captain Gibson R.N., of HMS Curacoa, declared the southern Solomon Islands as a British Protectorate with the proclamation of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. During World War II, the Solomon Islands campaign (1942–1945) saw fierce fighting between the United States and the Empire of Japan, such as in the Battle of Guadalcanal.

Solomon Islands (archipelago)

The Solomon Islands are an archipelago in the western South Pacific Ocean, located northeast of Australia. They are in the Melanesia subregion and bioregion of Oceania. The archipelago forms much of the territory of the nation of Solomon Islands, while the northwestern islands are within the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, in eastern Papua New Guinea.

Geography

The Solomon Islands consist of both volcanic islands of varying activity and of coral atolls. Bougainville Island is the largest in the archipelago.

Climate

The climate of the islands is tropical, however temperatures do not greatly fluctuate due to the heat sink of the surrounding ocean. Daytime temperatures are normally 25 to 32 degrees Celsius and 13 to 15 °C at night. From April to October (the Dry Season), the southeast trade winds blow, gusting at times up to 30 knots (55 km/h) or more.

November to March is the wet season, caused by the northwest monsoon, and is typically warmer and wetter. Cyclones arise in the Coral Sea and the area of the Solomon Islands, but they usually veer toward Vanuatu and New Caledonia or down the coast of Australia.

Solomon

Solomon (/ˈsɒləmən/; Hebrew: שְׁלֹמֹה, Modern Shlomo, Tiberian Šəlōmō ISO 259-3 Šlomo; Syriac: ܫܠܝܡܘܢ‎ Shlemun; Arabic: سُليمان‎ Sulaymān, also colloquially: Silimān or Slemān; Greek: Σολομών Solomōn; Latin: Salomon), also called Jedidiah (Hebrew יְדִידְיָהּ), was, according to the Bible (Book of Kings: 1 Kings 1–11; Book of Chronicles: 1 Chronicles 28–29, 2 Chronicles 1–9), Qur'an, and Hidden Words a fabulously wealthy and wise king of Israel and a son of David. The conventional dates of Solomon's reign are circa 970 to 931 BC, normally given in alignment with the dates of David's reign. He is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, which would break apart into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah shortly after his death. Following the split, his patrilineal descendants ruled over Judah alone.

According to the Talmud, Solomon is one of the 48 prophets. In the Qur'an, he is considered a major prophet, and Muslims generally refer to him by the Arabic variant Sulayman, son of David. Solomon (Arabic سليمان Sulaymān) was, according to the Qur'an, a king of ancient Israel as well as the son of David. The Qur'an recognizes Solomon as a prophet and a divinely-appointed monarch. Islamic tradition generally holds that Solomon was the third king of Israel and was a just and wise ruler for the nation.

Solomon (band)

Solomon is a New Zealand band, who in 2007 were crowned the overall winners (out of 650 bands) of the Smokefreerockquest. Along with this, they took home the award for best song for Grand Vocation.

Solomon's first success in the competition came the previous year when they came second.

Fronted by Michael Cho, and featuring keyboardist Philip Kim, the band has now been together for 5 years. All the band's members are originally from Rangitoto College, on Auckland's North Shore.

References

The Kingdom of Solomon

The Kingdom of Solomon is an Iranian religious/historical film trilogy, produced by Mojtaba Faravardeh and directed by Shahriar Bahrani who has made Saint Mary before. The Kingdom of Solomon was going to be released internationally on November 2010 after its screening in Iran, but due to some technicalities its global release has been delayed. The film tells the life story of Prophet Solomon, the King of Israelites. It is mostly based on the Islamic accounts of Solomon's prophetic life extracted from the Qur'an but it also draws upon parallels found in some Jewish texts.

Plot

Solomon is a wise prophet selected as the crown prince by his father King David (Dawud in Islamic texts) when he was 9. Following Prophet David's death, Solomon succeeds to the crown and God appoints him as a prophet. Requesting from God the establishment of a divine kingdom, Solomon takes the wind under his command and jinns and demons under his control. Inviting rulers of the neighbouring lands to the monotheistic religion, Prophet Solomon continues his divine mission in as much as Balqis, the Queen of Sheba professes monotheism. At the end, while leaning on his cane, Solomon bids farewell to the world, and the jinns and demons get out of reign and return to their own world.