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Saudi Literature, Publishing, Translation Commission Launches Pavilion at Frankfurt Book Fair

The pavilion showcases the commission's programs and initiatives designed to advance the publishing and translation industry in the Kingdom. SPA
The pavilion showcases the commission's programs and initiatives designed to advance the publishing and translation industry in the Kingdom. SPA
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Saudi Literature, Publishing, Translation Commission Launches Pavilion at Frankfurt Book Fair

The pavilion showcases the commission's programs and initiatives designed to advance the publishing and translation industry in the Kingdom. SPA
The pavilion showcases the commission's programs and initiatives designed to advance the publishing and translation industry in the Kingdom. SPA

The Saudi Literature, Publishing, and Translation Commission has officially launched its pavilion at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair, which will take place from October 16 to 20 in Frankfurt, Germany.

The initiative aims to strengthen the Kingdom's presence on the global literary stage and highlight its expanding cultural contributions.

The pavilion showcases the commission's programs and initiatives designed to advance the publishing and translation industry in the Kingdom. It also highlights investment opportunities in the Saudi publishing market and features a range of publications from Saudi publishing houses.

A vital feature of the pavilion is its platform for connecting Saudi publishers and literary agencies with their international counterparts. The pavilion opens new avenues for professional collaboration and promotes international cultural dialogue through professional meetings, interactive workshops, and other activities.

The Frankfurt Book Fair, one of the world's most prestigious cultural events, attracts global leaders from the publishing industry, thinkers, and writers. It serves as a vital hub for publishers, literary agencies, and book creators, offering a unique opportunity to foster cooperation and innovation in this dynamic sector.

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Thousands Greet the Winter Solstice at the Ancient Stonehenge Monument

A person holds up a smart phone as they wait for sunrise during the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)
A person holds up a smart phone as they wait for sunrise during the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)
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Thousands Greet the Winter Solstice at the Ancient Stonehenge Monument

A person holds up a smart phone as they wait for sunrise during the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)
A person holds up a smart phone as they wait for sunrise during the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)

Thousands of tourists, pagans, druids and people simply yearning for the promise of spring marked the dawn of the shortest day of the year at the ancient Stonehenge monument on Saturday.

Revelers cheered and beat drums as the sun rose at 8:09 a.m. (0809 GMT) over the giant standing stones on the winter solstice — the shortest day and the longest night in the Northern Hemisphere. No one could see the sun through the low winter cloud, but that did not deter a flurry of drumming, chanting and singing as dawn broke.

There will be less than eight hours of daylight in England on Saturday — but after that, the days get longer until the summer solstice in June.

The solstices are the only occasions when visitors can go right up to the stones at Stonehenge, and thousands are willing to rise before dawn to soak up the atmosphere.

The stone circle, whose giant pillars each took 1,000 people to move, was erected starting about 5,000 years ago by a sun-worshiping Neolithic culture, according to The AP. Its full purpose is still debated: Was it a temple, a solar calculator, a cemetery, or some combination of all three?

In a paper published in the journal Archaeology International, researchers from University College London and Aberystwyth University said the site on Salisbury Plain, about 128 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of London, may have had political as well as spiritual significance.

That follows from the recent discovery that one of Stonehenge’s stones — the unique stone lying flat at the center of the monument, dubbed the “altar stone” — originated in Scotland, hundreds of miles north of the site. Some of the other stones were brought from the Preseli Hills in southwest Wales, nearly 240 kilometers (150 miles) to the west,

Lead author Mike Parker Pearson from UCL’s Institute of Archaeology said the geographical diversity suggests Stonehenge may have served as a “monument of unification for the peoples of Britain, celebrating their eternal links with their ancestors and the cosmos.”