Biratnagar vs Skopje

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Biratnagar (Nepali: विराटनगर) is a metropolitan city in Nepal, which serves as the capital city of Province No. 1. With a population of 242,548 as per the 2011 census, it is the largest city in the province and also serves as the headquarters of Morang district. Biratnagar is located 399 km (248 mi) east of the capital, Kathmandu and 6 km (3.7 mi) north of the bordering town of Jogbani in the Indian state of Bihar. The highest peak in the world, Mount Everest, is located 174 km (108 mi) north of the city. Biratnagar was declared a metropolitan city on 22 May 2017, thus pushing the total population to over 240,000 making it the fourth most populated metropolitan city in the country after the urban agglomeration of Kathmandu and Lalitpur, Pokhara, and Bharatpur.

The city is home to the Biratnagar Jute Mills, the first large scale industry of Nepal. It also serves as an entry point to eastern Nepal as well as north-eastern India. Biratnagar is the second Nepalese city, after Janakpur, to have a connection with the Indian Railways and the only city after Birgunj to operate an integrated check post (ICP) on the Indian border. Considered to be the industrial capital of Nepal, the city is also the birthplace of five prime ministers of Nepal, in addition to being host to a number of revolutionary incidents in the country including the first labor strike which led to the anti-Rana movements.

Source: Wikipedia

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Skopje ( SKOP-yee, -⁠yay, US also SKOHP-; Macedonian: Скопје [ˈskɔpjɛ] (listen); Albanian: Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; remains of Neolithic settlements have been found within the old Kale Fortress that overlooks the modern city centre. Originally a Paeonian city, Scupi became the capital of Dardania in the second century BC. On the eve of the 1st century AD, the settlement was seized by the Romans and became a military camp. When the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western halves in 395 AD, Scupi came under Byzantine rule from Constantinople. During much of the early medieval period, the town was contested between the Byzantines and the Bulgarian Empire, whose capital it was between 972 and 992. From 1282, the town was part of the Serbian Empire, and acted as its capital city from 1346 to 1371. In 1392, Skopje was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, who called it Üsküb, with this name also being in use in English for a time. The town stayed under Ottoman control for over 500 years, serving as the capital of pashasanjak of Üsküp and later the Vilayet of Kosovo. In 1912, it was annexed by the Kingdom of Serbia during the Balkan Wars.

During the First World War the city was seized by the Kingdom of Bulgaria, and, after the war, it became part of the newly formed Kingdom of Yugoslavia as the capital of Vardarska Banovina. In the Second World War the city was again captured by Bulgaria and in 1944 became the capital of SR Macedonia, a federated state within the Yugoslavia. The city developed rapidly, but this trend was interrupted in 1963 when it was hit by a disastrous earthquake. Skopje is located on the upper course of the Vardar River, and is located on a major north–south Balkan route between Belgrade and Athens. It is a centre for metal-processing, chemical, timber, textile, leather, and printing industries. Industrial development of the city has been accompanied by development of the trade, logistics, and banking sectors, as well as an emphasis on the fields of transportation, culture and sport. According to the last official count from 2002, Skopje had a population of 428,988 inhabitants in its urban area and 506,926 in ten municipalities that form the city and, beside Skopje, include many other less urbanized and rural settlements some of which are located 20 kilometres away from the city itself or even border the neighbouring Kosovo.

Source: Wikipedia