Lubeck vs Aleppo

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Lübeck ( LOO-bek, German: [ˈlyːbɛk] (listen); Low German also: Lübeek; Danish: Lybæk), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (German: Hansestadt Lübeck), is, with around 217,000 inhabitants, the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, after its capital of Kiel, and it is the 35th-largest city in Germany. The city lies in Holstein, northeast of Hamburg, on the mouth of the River Trave, which flows into the Bay of Lübeck in the borough of Travemünde, and on the Trave's tributary Wakenitz. The Elbe–Lübeck Canal, which connects the Baltic to the Elbe River at Lauenburg, also crosses the city. Lübeck is surrounded by the lakes of the Lauenburg Lakes Nature Park in the southeast, and the lakes of Wagria in the northwest. The city is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, and is the southwesternmost city on the Baltic, as well as the closest point of access to the Baltic from Hamburg. The port of Lübeck is the second-largest German Baltic port after the port of Rostock. There is a regional airport in the southern borough of Blankensee.

The city lies in the Northern Low Saxon dialect area of Low German. Lübeck had once been founded as the Slavic village Liubice, and its name is of Slavic origin. The city is famous for having been the cradle and the de facto capital of the Hanseatic League. Its city centre is Germany's most extensive UNESCO World Heritage Site. While the city's symbol is the Holsten Gate, Lübeck's skyline is dominated by the seven towers of its five main churches St Mary's, Lübeck Cathedral, St Jacob's, St Peter's, and St Giles'. The cathedral, finished around 1230, was the first large brickwork church in the Baltic region. St Mary's, finished in 1351, served as model for the other Brick Gothic churches around the Baltic. It has the second-tallest two-steeples façade after Cologne Cathedral, which only surpassed it in 1880, the tallest brick vault, and is the second-tallest brickwork structure after St Martin's in Landshut. Travemünde is a famous seaside resort, and its Maritim high-rise serves as the second-tallest lighthouse in the world at 114 metres high. Lübeck is also known for Lübeck Marzipan.

Source: Wikipedia

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Aleppo ( ə-LEH-poh; Arabic: ﺣَﻠَﺐ‎ / ALA-LC: Ḥalab, IPA: [ˈħalab]) is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 4.6 million in 2010, Aleppo was the largest Syrian city before the Syrian Civil War; however, it is now the second-largest city in Syria, after the capital Damascus.Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world; it may have been inhabited since the sixth millennium BC. Excavations at Tell as-Sawda and Tell al-Ansari, just south of the old city of Aleppo, show that the area was occupied by Amorites by the latter part of the third millennium BC. That is also the time at which Aleppo is first mentioned in cuneiform tablets unearthed in Ebla and Mesopotamia, which speak of it as part of the Amorite state of Yamhad, and note its commercial and military importance. Such a long history is attributed to its strategic location as a trading center between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia. For centuries, Aleppo was the largest city in the Syrian region, and the Ottoman Empire's third-largest after Constantinople and Cairo.

The city's significance in history has been its location at one end of the Silk Road, which passed through Central Asia and Mesopotamia. When the Suez Canal was inaugurated in 1869, much trade was diverted to sea and Aleppo began its slow decline. At the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Aleppo lost its northern hinterland to modern Turkey, as well as the important Baghdad Railway connecting it to Mosul. In the 1940s it lost its main access to the sea, Antakya and İskenderun, also to Turkey. The growth in importance of Damascus in the past few decades further exacerbated the situation. This decline may have helped to preserve the old city of Aleppo, its medieval architecture and traditional heritage. It won the title of the "Islamic Capital of Culture 2006", and has had a wave of successful restorations of its historic landmarks. The Battle of Aleppo (2012–2016) occurred in the city during the Syrian Civil War, and many parts of the city suffered massive destruction. Affected parts of the city are currently undergoing reconstruction. An estimated 31,000 people were killed in Aleppo during the conflict.

Source: Wikipedia