Encyclopedia of the Orient

This posting may be somewhat 'off topic' for this Blog, but I found it so interesting when I stumbled over it today, that I would like to present it here.
This Norwegian Encyclopedia of the Orient is an impressive online encyclopedia comprising over 600 articles, and still growing. Well, it does not contain any article on Philo, but there is one on Alexandria, and on Paul; I checked both and found them informed and reliable.
The lexicon is presented thus by its author: The Encyclopaedia of the Orient is a one-stop online resource which covers all countries and cultures between Mauritania in the west and Iran in the east, Turkey in the north and Sudan in south. It is exactly what the name indicates, an encyclopaedia. And even better, you will never come to a page that suddenly tells you that you can't get any further unless you pay for a subscription. Everything is free. This time, and the next time you come back. The only change is that the next time you visit us, you will find more information. The Encyclopaedia of the Orient grows all the time.
The Encyclopaedia contains original material, what you read here is written for this publication, only. The content is updated on a weekly basis, and as long as the world does not change to quickly for our small staff, you will always find the freshest information here.
The Encyclopaedia of the Orient has articles which aim at both the high school- level and university- level student, who needs a good resource of reference material. It will therefore never be the most comprehensive on all subjects, but it will hopefully be able to help anyone to find just the right
It further turns out that the man behind the Encyclopedia; Tore Kjeilen is a Norwegian, who has some education in Religion, but who also have worked in the computer industry. Or as he presents himself: I'm 35 years old, and live in the centre of Oslo, the capital of Norway. I have an honors degree (somewhat longer study than a Master) in Science of Religion from the University of Bergen, with Arabic and History as supporting subjects. I specialized in modern Islam for my honors, where I wrote Tunis - Islam - 1994 - 1995. I have also studied architecture for 2,5 years.
Encyclopaedia of the Orient is the most visited web site of LexicOrient with more than 500,000 unique visitors every month. In fact this Encyclopedia is a part of an even more impresssive site, called LexicOrient. You may visit this mmain page here.

I find such private initiatives highly impressive, and as long as they are scholarly up to date, highly recommendable. I'll have to make the guy include an article on Philo! :-)