Baghdad | |
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State | Baghdad Governorate |
Country | Iraq |
Capital | |
Population | 7216040 |
Baghdad (; Arabic: بَغْدَاد [baɣˈdaːd] (listen)) is the capital of Iraq and one of the largest cities in the Arab world. Located along the Tigris, near the ruins of the Akkadian city of Babylon and the ancient Iranian capital of Ctesiphon, Baghdad was founded in the 8th century and became the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. Within a short time, Baghdad evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center of the Muslim world. This, in addition to housing several key academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom, as well as hosting a multiethnic and multireligious environment, garnered the city a worldwide reputation as the "Centre of Learning".
Baghdad was the largest city in the world for much of the Abbasid era during the Islamic Golden Age, peaking at a population of more than a million. The city was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires.
Timișoara | |
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State | |
Country | |
Capital | |
Population | 0 |
Timișoara (UK: , US: , Romanian: [timiˈʃo̯ara] (listen); German: Temeswar [ˈtɛmɛʃvaːɐ̯], also Temeschburg or Temeschwar; Hungarian: Temesvár [ˈtɛmɛʃvaːr] (listen); Serbian: Темишвар; Turkish: Temeşvar) is the capital city of Timiș County, the third largest city in Romania and the main social, economic and cultural centre in western Romania.
Nicknamed the Little Vienna or the City of Flowers, Timișoara is considered the informal capital city of the historical Banat. The country's third most populous city is the economic hub of the region, with 319,279 inhabitants as of the 2011 census. It is home to almost a half-million inhabitants in the metropolitan area, as well as ca. 50,000 students from over 50 countries.Today, Timișoara, like many other large cities in Romania, is a medical tourism service provider especially for dental care. It also offers excellent academic institutions, attracting thousands of international students annually, mainly at its medical school.