Canberra | |
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State | |
Country | Australia |
Capital | |
Population | 426709 |
Postcode | 2601 |
Canberra ( (listen) KAN-bə-rə)
is the capital city of Australia. Founded after the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest town overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory; 280 km (170 mi) south-west of Sydney and 660 km (410 mi) north-east of Melbourne. On 1 January 1901, federation of the colonies of Australia has been attained. Section 125 of the new Australian Constitution provided that property, situated in New South Wales and at least 100 miles (160 km) from Sydney, would be ceded to the new national government. Following discussion and exploration of various areas within New South Wales, the Seat of Government Act 1908 was passed in 1908 that given a capital in the Yass-Canberra area. The land has been transferred to the Commonwealth by New South Wales in 1911, producing the Australian Capital Territory, two years prior to the capital city being founded and formally named as Canberra in 1913. It is unusual among Australian cities, being an entirely planned city beyond any state, like Washington, D.C. in america or Brasília in Brazil. Following an international contest for the city's layout, a blueprint by American architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin was selected and building began in 1913. The Griffins' plan featured geometric themes such as circles, hexagons and triangles, and has been centred on axes aligned with significant topographical landmarks in the Australian Capital Territory. The town's design was influenced by the garden city movement and incorporates significant areas of natural vegetation. Since the chair of the government of Australia, Canberra is home to many important institutions of the national government, national monuments and museums. This includes Parliament House, the official residence of the monarch's representative that the Governor-General, the High Court and numerous government departments and agencies.Belo Horizonte | |
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State | Minas Gerais |
Country | Brazil |
Capital | |
Population | 0 |
Belo Horizonte (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈbɛlu oɾiˈzõtʃi], locally [ˌbɛloɾiˈzõtʃi] (listen); "Beautiful Horizon") is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropolis is anchor to the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area, ranked as the third-most populous metropolitan area in Brazil and the 17th-most populous in the Americas. Belo Horizonte is the capital of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil's second-most populous state. It is the first planned modern city in Brazil.
The region was first settled in the early 18th century, but the city as it is known today was planned and constructed in the 1890s, to replace Ouro Preto as the capital of Minas Gerais. The city features a mixture of contemporary and classical buildings, and is home to several modern Brazilian architectural icons, most notably the Pampulha Complex. In planning the city, Aarão Reis and Francisco Bicalho sought inspiration in the urban planning of Washington, D.