Aden City | |
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State | Aden Governorate |
Country | Yemen |
Capital | |
Population | 0 |
Aden is the UK's AY-d@n and US's AH-den. It is located near the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden) at 170 km (110 miles) east of Bab-el-Mandeb. The city is home to approximately 800,000. Aden's natural harbour is located in the crater a dormant volcano. It now forms a peninsula that connects to the mainland via a low isthmus. Front Bay was the first harbour to be used by the ancient Kingdom, Awsan, between the 7th and 5th centuries BC. On the opposite side of the peninsula is the modern harbour. The Gulf of Aden is named after Aden.
Aden is made up of several sub-centres. Crater was the original port city. Maalla was the modern port. Tawahi, also known as Steamer Point during colonial times, and the resorts at Gold Mohur are all part of the main centre. Khormaksar is located on the isthmus connecting Aden with the mainland. It houses the city's diplomatic missions and the main offices for Aden University. Aden International Airport, which was formerly the British Royal Air Force station RAF Khormaksar (Yemens second largest airport), is also here. The sub-centres and Al-Mansura are located on the mainland. These were once an oasis area. Madinat ash-Shab, formerly Madinat al-Itihad, is now the capital of South Arabian Federation. It also houses Aden University's large power/desalinization plant and additional faculties.
Aden surrounds the eastern end of the vast, natural harbour that forms the modern port. This made it necessary to create the Cisterns at Tawila, Aden's reservoirs.
Be'er Sheva | |
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State | South District |
Country | Israel |
Capital | |
Population | 220126 |
Beersheba (; Hebrew: בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע Be'er Sheva [be(ʔ)eʁ ˈʃeva(ʕ)], Arabic: بئر السبع, lit. Well of the Oath) is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the center of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most populous Israeli city with a population of 209,687, and the second-largest city (after Jerusalem) with a total area of 117,500 dunams.
The Biblical site of Beersheba is Tel Be'er Sheva, lying some 4 km distant from the modern city, which was established at the start of the 20th century by the Ottoman Turks. The city was captured by the British-led Australian Light Horse in the Battle of Beersheba (1917) during World War I. In 1947, Bir Seb'a (Arabic: بئر السبع), as it was known, was envisioned as part of the Arab state in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. Following the declaration of Israel's independence, the Egyptian army amassed its forces in Beersheba as a strategic and logistical base.