Ashgabat vs Murmansk

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Ashgabat (Turkmen: Aşgabat; Ашгабат, pronounced [ɑʃʁɑˈbɑt], Persian: عشق آباد‎; Russian: Ашхабад), formerly named Poltoratsk (Russian: Полтора́цк, IPA: [pəltɐˈratsk]) between 1919 and 1927, is the capital and the largest city of Turkmenistan. It is situated between the Karakum Desert and the Kopet Dag mountain range in Central Asia. It is also near the Iran-Turkmenistan border. The city was founded in 1881 on the basis of an Ahal Teke tribal village, and made the capital of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic in 1924.

Much of the city was destroyed by the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake but has since been extensively rebuilt under the rule of Saparmurat Niyazov’s "White City" urban renewal project, resulting in monumental projects sheathed in costly white marble. The Soviet-era Karakum Canal runs through the city, carrying waters from the Amu Darya from east to west. Since 2019, the city has been recognized as having one of the highest costs of living in the world largely due to Turkmenistan's inflation and import issues.

Source: Wikipedia

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Murmansk (Russian: Му́рманск, IPA: [ˈmurmənsk]) is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far northwest part of Russia. It sits on both slopes and banks of a modest ria or fjord, Kola Bay, an estuarine inlet of the Barents Sea. Its bulk is on the east bank of the inlet. It is in the north of the rounded Kola Peninsula which covers most of the oblast. The city is 108 kilometres (67 mi) from the border with Norway and 182 kilometres (113 mi) from the Finnish border. The city is named for the Murman Coast, which is in turn derived from an archaic term in Russian for "Norwegian". Benefiting from the North Atlantic Current, Murmansk resembles cities of its size across western Russia, with highway and railway access to the rest of Europe, and the northernmost trolleybus system on Earth.

It lies over 2° north of the Arctic Circle. Its connectivity contrasts to the isolation of Arctic ports like the Siberian Dikson on the shores of the Kara Sea and Iqaluit, Nunavut in Canada on Baffin Island's Frobisher Bay off the Davis Strait. Despite long, snowy winters, Murmansk's climate is moderated by the generally ice-free waters around it. Although there was a building boom in the early twentieth century's arms races, Murmansk's population has been in decline since the Cold War, from 468,039 (1989 Census); 336,137 (2002 Census); 307,257 (2010 Census); to 299,148 (2014 estimate). It remains the largest city north of the Arctic Circle, with over 100,000 more inhabitants than Norilsk, Russia, and is a major port on the Arctic Ocean.

Source: Wikipedia