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.
Palermo | |
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State | |
Country | |
Capital | |
Population | 658071 |
Palermo ( pə-LAIR-moh, -LUR-, Italian: [paˈlɛrmo] (listen); Sicilian: Palermu, locally [paˈlɛmmʊ]; Latin: Panormus, from Greek: Πάνορμος, romanized: Pánormos) is a city of southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is in the northwest of the island of Sicily, by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The city was founded in 734 BC by the Phoenicians as Ziz. Palermo then became a possession of Carthage. Two Greek colonies were established, known collectively as Panormos or "All-Port"; the Carthaginians used this name on their coins after the 5th century BC. As Panormus, the town became part of the Roman Republic and Empire for over a thousand years. From 831 to 1072 the city was under Arab rule during the Emirate of Sicily when the city first became a capital. The Arabs shifted the Greek name into Balarm (Arabic: بَلَرْم), the root for Palermo's present-day name. Following the Norman conquest, Palermo became the capital of a new kingdom (from 1130 to 1816), the Kingdom of Sicily and the capital of the Holy Roman Empire under Emperor Frederick II and King Conrad IV.
The population of Palermo urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 855,285, while its metropolitan area is the fifth most populated in Italy with around 1.2 million people. In the central area, the city has a population of around 676,000 people.