Orizaba

Oriza'ba, a town or the Mexican state of Vera Cruz, 82 miles WSW. of Vera Cruz City, and 181 ESE. of Mexico, lies in a fertile garden country, 4030 feet above the sea. It has a cotton-factory, paper and corn mills, and railway-shops. Pop. 31,500. - The volcano of Orizaba, 25 miles to the north, is a noble pyramid of 18,205 feet. Its last severe eruption was in 1566.

Ormes Head

Orme's Head, Great. See Llandudno.

Ormiston

Or'miston, a Haddingtonshire village, on the Tyne, 12 miles ESE. of Edinburgh. Moffat, the missionary, was born here.

Ormskirk

Ormskirk, a town of Lancashire, 12 miles NNE. of Liverpool. It has a grammar-school (1612); a church, with a spire and the burial-vault of the Earls of Derby; and manufactures of cordage, iron, silk, cotton, etc. Pop. 6898.

Ormuz

Or'muz, or Hormuz, a ruined town on the island of Jerun (12 miles in circuit), in the strait of Ormuz, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, 4 miles S. of the Persian coast. About 300 b.c. there existed on the mainland, 12 miles E., a city Ormuz; this in the 13th century was the headquarters of the Persian trade with India. But about 1300 its ruler transferred his people to the site of the present town, to escape the Mongols. The new city maintained its commercial supremacy even after Albuquerque's capture of it in 1507. It was taken from the Portuguese in 1622 by an English fleet, and given to Shah Abbas of Persia, who transferred the trade to his port of Gombroon, 12 miles north-west on the mainland. The Portuguese castle still stands.

Orne

Orne (Orn), a French dep. formed out of the provinces of Normandy, Alengon, and Perche. Area, 2353 sq. m.; pop. (1861) 423,350; (1901) 326,952. Its arrondissements are Alencon (the capital), Argentan, Domfront, and Mortagne.

Orontes

Orontes (Oron'tees), the ancient name of a river in Syria, now called Nahr-el-Asi. It rises in the highest part of Cœ;le-Syria, near Baalbek, and flows 147 miles N. and W. past Antioch to the Mediterranean. Its lower course is remarkably beautiful, the rocky banks rising 300 feet.

Orotava

Orota'va (a as ah), a town on the north coast of Teneriffe, one of the Canaries. Pop. 9293.

Orpington

Orpington, a village of Kent, 12 miles by rail SE. of London, where Ruskin's books began to be published in 1873 (see E. T. Cook's Studies in Buskin, 1890). Pop. of parish, 4299.

Orrell

Orrell, a town of Lancashire, 3 miles W. of Wigan. Pop. 5440.

Orsova

Or'sova, the name of two towns on the Danube at the Iron Gates. Old Orsova, a Hungarian place, is 478 miles by rail SE. of Vienna, and is a station for the Danube steamers. Pop. 5381. - New Orsova, on the Servian side, is a fortified town held by Austria (since 1878).

Ortegal

Ortegal', Cape, the north-west extremity of Spain (q.v.), in Galicia.

Orthez

Orthez (Or-tay), a town in the French dep. of Basses-Pyrenees, on the Gave de Pau, 41 miles by rail E. of Bayonne. The 'Tour de Moncade' (1240), the stately castle of the Counts of Foix, which Froissart visited in 1388, was reduced to a ruin by Richelieu. Near Orthez Wellington defeated Soult, 27th February 1814. Pop. 6374.