Amman | |
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State | Amman |
Country | Jordan |
Capital | |
Population | 0 |
Amman (English:; Arabic: عَمّان ʻammān pronounced [ʕamːaːn]) is the capital and largest city of Jordan and the country's economic, cultural and political centre. With a population of 4,007,526, Amman is the biggest city in the Levant area and the sixth-largest town in the Arab world.The earliest evidence of settlement in Amman is in a Neolithic site known as'Ain Ghazal, where some of the oldest human statues ever discovered dating to 7250 BC were uncovered. During the Iron Age, the city was known as Ammon, home to the Kingdom of the Ammonites. It was called Philadelphia during its Greek and Roman periods, and was finally called Amman during the Islamic period. For much of the middle and early Islamic periods (7th--14th centuries), it served as a centre for the Balqa district of Syria. Afterwards, Amman was a largely abandoned site before the late 19th century when Circassian immigrants were settled there by the Ottoman Empire in 1878. The first municipal council was established in 1909. Amman witnessed rapid growth after its designation as Transjordan's capital in 1921, and after several successive waves of refugees: Palestinians in 1948 and 1967; Iraqis in 1990 and 2003; and Syrians since 2011. It was originally built on seven hills but now spans over 19 hills combining 22 areas, which are administered by the Greater Amman Municipality headed by its mayor Yousef Shawarbeh.
Brisbane | |
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State | Queensland |
Country | Australia |
Capital | |
Population | 0 |
Postcode | 4029 |
Brisbane ( (listen) BRIZ-bən) is the capital of and the most populated city in the Australian state of Queensland, and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2.5 million, and the South East Queensland metropolitan region, centred on Brisbane, encompasses a population of more than 3.6 million. The Brisbane central business district stands on the historic European settlement and is situated inside a peninsula of the Brisbane River, about 15 kilometres (9 miles) from its mouth at Moreton Bay, a bay of the Coral Sea. The metropolitan area extends in all directions along the hilly floodplain of the Brisbane River Valley between Moreton Bay and the Taylor and D'Aguilar mountain ranges. It sprawls across several of Australia's most populous local government areas (LGAs)—most centrally the City of Brisbane, which is by far the most populous LGA in the nation. The demonym of Brisbane is "Brisbanite", whilst common nicknames include "Brissy", "River City" and "Brisvegas".One of the oldest cities in Australia, Brisbane was founded upon the ancient traditional lands of the Jagera people, including the Turrbal group, who named the area Meanjin. Named after the Brisbane River on which it is located—which in turn takes its name from Scotsman Sir Thomas Brisbane, the Governor of New South Wales at the time of the city's founding—the area was chosen as a place for secondary offenders from the Sydney Colony. The Moreton Bay penal settlement was founded in 1824 at Redcliffe, 28 kilometres (17 mi) north of the central business district, but was soon abandoned and moved to North Quay in 1825, opening to free settlement in 1842.