Ankara | |
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Country | Turkey |
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Population | 0 |
Ankara ( ANK-ə-rə, also US: AHNK-ə-rə, Turkish: [ˈaŋkaɾa] (listen)), historically known as Ancyra ( an-SY-rə) and Angora ( ang-GOR-ə, also US: ANG-gə-rə), is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 4.5 million in its urban center and over 5.6 million in Ankara Province, making it Turkey's second-largest city after Istanbul.
Serving as the capital of the early Celtic country of Galatia (280--64 BC), and later of the Roman province with the identical name (25 BC--7th century), the city is very old with various Hattian, Hittite, Lydian, Phrygian, Galatian, Greek, Persian, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman archaeological sites. The Ottomans made the city the capital first of the Anatolia Eyalet (1393--late 15th century), and the Angora Vilayet (1867--1922). The historic center of Ankara is a rocky mountain climbing 150 m (500 ft) over the left bank of the Ankara River, a tributary of the Sakarya River. The hill remains crowned by the ruins of Ankara Castle. Although few of its outworks have survived, there are well-preserved examples of Roman and Ottoman architecture across the city, the most remarkable being the 20 BC Temple of Augustus and Rome that boasts the Monumentum Ancyranum, the inscription recording the Res Gestae Divi Augusti.
Gdansk | |
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State | |
Country | |
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Population | 0 |
Gdańsk ( gə-DANSK, also US: gə-DAHNSK; Polish: [ɡdaj̃sk] (listen); Kashubian: Gduńsk; German: Danzig [ˈdantsɪç] (listen)) is a city on the Baltic coast of northern Poland. With a population of 470,907, Gdańsk is the capital and largest city of the Pomeranian Voivodeship and one of the most prominent cities within the cultural and geographical region of Kashubia. It is Poland's principal seaport and the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city is situated on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay on the Baltic Sea, in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, the resort town of Sopot, and suburban communities; these form a metropolitan area called the Tricity (Trójmiasto), with a population approaching 1.4 million. Gdańsk lies at the mouth of the Motława River, connected to the Leniwka, a branch in the delta of the nearby Vistula River, which drains 60 percent of Poland and connects Gdańsk with the Polish capital, Warsaw. Together with the nearby port of Gdynia, Gdańsk is also a notable industrial centre.
The city's history is complex, with periods of Polish, Prussian and German rule, and periods of autonomy or self-rule as a free city state. In the early-modern age, Gdańsk was a royal city of Poland. It was considered the wealthiest and the largest city of Poland, before the 18th century rapid growth of Warsaw. In the late Middle Ages it was an important seaport and shipbuilding town and, in the 14th and 15th centuries, a member of the Hanseatic League.