What is "the Land of the Fire Keepers?"

McFlyFave

A documentary produced by the National Film Board of Canada profiling Canada's Native "warrior women" who are protecting and defending their land, their culture and their people in the time-honored tradition of their foremothers. http://www3.nfb.ca/collection/films/fiche/?id=32012 Feb 15 09, 8:28 AM

author

Maybe so, but I was actually looking for a country called "The Land of the Fire Keepers". Feb 15 09, 9:03 AM

zbeckabee

Land of the Fire Keepers? That would be Azerbaijan. Two German cartographers have produced a set of maps — The Atlas of True Names — that claims to return many of the world’s place names to their original linguistic meaning and renders that meaning into English, according to a report in the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel. New York? “New Wild Boar Village.” (Apparently, York, in England, derives from the Old English eofor for wild boar and the Latin vicus for village.) Great Britain? “Great Land of the Tatooed.” Halifax? “Remote Corner Where Rough Grass Grows.” Chicago? “Stink Onion,” after a Native American term for the smell of rotting marshland onions. “City of Boatmen?” Paris, after an original Celtic word. Grozny? “The Awesome.” Zimbabwe? “House of Stones.” Sahara? “Sea of Sand” (unsurprisingly). Seine?“The Gentle One.” London? “Hill Fort.” Hong Kong? “Fragrant Port.” http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/in-place-names-old-meanings-made-new/?hp Feb 15 09, 10:27 AM

author

Yes, this is what I had in mind. Quote: According to one legend, the name "Azerbaijan" descends from the Atropathena state which appeared in the 5th century B.C. in the southern part of Azerbaijan after the collapse of Alexander the Great's empire. Atropates, a Persian general in Alexander's command, whose name means "protected by fire," lent his name to the region when Alexander made him its governor. Another legend explains that Azerbaijan's name derives from the Persian words meaning "the land of fire," a reference either to the natural burning of surface oil deposits or to the oil-fueled fires in temples of the once-dominant Zoroastrian religion. http://www.radioodlaryurdu.com/Hist.html Feb 15 09, 11:34 AM