Carol Barbour, age 13, of Baltimore, Md., for her question:

WHEN WAS THE FIRST GAZETTEER PUBLISHED?

A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary in which political and physical features of the earth, such as countries, cities, rivers and mountains, are listed alphabetically, and some information of a descriptive and statistical nature is given about them. The oldest known work of this type was the "Ethnika" of the Byzantine geographer Stephanus Byzantinus in the early part of the 6th century.

The term originally meant anyone who wrote a gazette or newspaper. It acquired its geographical connotation in the 18th Century because of the popularity of "The Gazetteer's or Newsman's Interpreter" in 1703. This was a geographical dictionary by the English historian Lawrence Echard.

One of the first modern gazetteers was the 1552 "La guide des chemins pour aller et venir par tous lea pays et contrees du royaume de France" ("Road guide to all districts and regions of the Kingdom of France") by the French printer and writer Charles Etienne.

Many gazetteers, for the most part full of serious errors, were complied during the 17th and 18th centuries. The 19th Century was a great period of development in gazetteers because of greater knowledge of geography and the need for geographical information in international commerce.