Grenoble vs Athen

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Grenoble ( grə-NOH-bəl, French: [ɡʁənɔbl] (listen); Francoprovençal: Grenoblo) is the prefecture and largest city of the Isère department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It lies at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. A significant European scientific centre, the city advertises itself as the "Capital of the Alps", due to its size and its proximity to the mountains. The population of the commune of Grenoble was 158,180 at the 2016 census, while the population of the Grenoble metropolitan area (French: aire urbaine de Grenoble or "agglomération grenobloise") was 687,985 which makes it the largest metropolis in the Alps, ahead of Innsbruck and Bolzano. The residents of the city are called "Grenoblois". The many suburb communes that make up the rest of the metropolitan area include three with populations exceeding 20,000: Saint-Martin-d'Hères, Échirolles, Fontaine and Voiron.Grenoble's history goes back over 2,000 years, to a time when it was a small Gallic village.

It became the capital of the Dauphiné in the 11th century. This status, consolidated by the annexation to France, allowed it to develop its economy. Grenoble then became a parliamentary and military city, close to the border with Savoy. Industrial development increased the prominence of Grenoble through several periods of economic expansion over the last three centuries. This started with a booming glove industry in the 18th and 19th centuries, continued with the development of a strong hydropower industry in the late 19th to early 20th centuries and ended with a post-World War II economic boom symbolized by the holding of the X Olympic Winter Games in 1968. The city has grown to be one of Europe's most important research, technology and innovation centres, with one in five inhabitants working directly in these fields. Grenoble is classified as a global city with the ranking of "sufficiency" by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. The city will hold the title of European Green Capital in 2022.

Source: Wikipedia

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Athens ( ATH-inz; Greek: Αθήνα, romanized: Athína [aˈθina] (listen); Ancient Greek: Ἀθῆναι, romanized: Athênai (pl.) [atʰɛ̂ːnai̯]) is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica area and is one of the world's oldest cities, with its history spanning over 3,400 decades and its earliest human presence started somewhere between the 11th and 7th century BC.Classical Athens was a strong city-state. A centre for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum, it is widely referred to as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy, largely due to its cultural and political effect on the European continent, and particularly the Romans. These days, Athens is a large cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, marine, cultural and political life in Greece. Athens is a Beta worldwide city based on the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and is one of the biggest economic centers in southeastern Europe. It has a large financial industry, and its port Piraeus is both the largest passenger port in Europe, and the second largest in the world.The Municipality of Athens (also City of Athens), which really constitutes a tiny administrative unit of the entire city, had a population of 664,046 (in 2011) within its official limits, and a land area of 38.96 km2 (15.04 sq mi). The Athens Urban Area (Greater Athens and Greater Piraeus) extends beyond its administrative municipal city limits, with a population of 3,090,508 (in 2011) within an area of 412 km2 (159 sq mi). According to Eurostat in 2011, the functional urban area (FUA) of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union (the 6th most populous capital city of the EU), with a population of 3.

8 million people. Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland and the warmest major city in Europe. The heritage of the classical era is still evident in the city, represented by ancient monuments and works of art, the most famous of all being the Parthenon, considered a key landmark of ancient Western civilization. The town also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, in addition to a smaller number of Ottoman monuments, while its historical urban center features elements of continuity through its millennia of history. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery. Landmarks of the modern age, dating back to the establishment of Athens as the capital of the independent Greek state in 1834, include the Hellenic Parliament and the so-called"architectural trilogy of Athens", comprising the National Library of Greece, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Academy of Athens. Athens is also home to several museums and cultural institutions, like the National Archeological Museum, featuring the world's largest collection of ancient Greek antiquities, the Acropolis Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art, the Benaki Museum and the Byzantine and Christian Museum. Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 decades after it hosted the 2004 Summer Olympics, which makes it one of the few cities to have hosted the Olympics more than once.

Source: Wikipedia