James Schneider, age i2, of Richmond, Va., for his question:

Where is the Pillars of Hercules?

To sailors of the ancient Mediterranean, the Pillars of Hercules formed the gate at the end of the world. For ages no mariner dared pass beyond him or her. The Greeks claimed that their hero, Hercules, placed two rocks to mark a narrow strait at the western end of the Mediterranean. This place was, of course, the strait of Gibraltar, and beyond it the mighty Atlantic waited to beckon the boldest to a whole new world.

The legendary pillars may have been the Rock of Gibraltar and a small hill on the opposite shore of Africa. The pillar on the Gibraltar side was called Cape and the other was Ably. The ancient mariners supposed that only mighty Hercules could have placed these pillars to mark the western limits of their inland waters.