Grenoble | |
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State | |
Country | |
Capital | |
Population | 155637 |
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.
Beirut | |
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State | Beirut Governorate |
Country | Lebanon |
Capital | |
Population | 1252000 |
Beirut ( bay-ROOT; Arabic: بيروت, romanized: Bayrūt; French: Beyrouth, pronounced [bɛʁut]) is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. As of 2007 it had an estimated population of slightly more than 1 million to 2.2 million as part of Greater Beirut, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region and the fifteenth-largest in the Arab world. On a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coast, Beirut is an important regional seaport.
It is one of the oldest cities in the world, having been inhabited for more than 5,000 years. The first historical mention of Beirut is found in the Amarna letters from the New Kingdom of Egypt, which date to the 15th century BC.