Sofia | |
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State | |
Country | |
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Population | 1286383 |
Sofia ( SOH-fee-ə, SOF-; Bulgarian: София, romanized: Sofiya, IPA: [ˈsɔfijɐ] (listen)) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the eponymous valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and has many mineral springs, such as the Sofia Central Mineral Baths. It has a humid continental climate. Being in the centre of the Balkans, it is midway between the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea, and closest to the Aegean Sea.Known as Serdica in Antiquity and Sredets in the Middle Ages, Sofia has been an area of human habitation since at least 7000 BC. The recorded history of the city begins with the attestation of the conquest of Serdica by the Roman Republic in 29 BC from the Celtic tribe Serdi. During the decline of the Roman Empire, the city was raided by Huns, Visigoths, Avars and Slavs. In 809 Serdica was incorporated into the Bulgarian Empire by Khan Krum and became known as Sredets. In 1018, the Byzantines ended Bulgarian rule until 1194, when it was reincorporated by the reborn Bulgarian Empire. Sredets became a major administrative, economic, cultural and literary hub until its conquest by the Ottomans in 1382. From 1530 to 1826, Sofia was the regional capital of Rumelia Eyalet, the Ottoman Empire's key province in Europe. Bulgarian rule was restored in 1878. Sofia was selected as the capital of the Third Bulgarian State in the next year, ushering a period of intense demographic and economic growth.
Sofia is the 13th largest city in the European Union. It is surrounded by mountainsides, such as Vitosha by the southern side, Lyulin by the western side, and the Balkan Mountains by the north, which makes it the third highest European capital after Andorra la Vella and Madrid. Being Bulgaria's primate city, Sofia is home of many of the major local universities, cultural institutions and commercial companies. The city has been described as the "triangle of religious tolerance".
Chiyoda | |
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State | |
Country | Japan |
Capital | |
Population | 0 |
Postcode | 100-0001 |
Chiyoda (千代田区, Chiyoda-ku) is a special ward located in central Tokyo, Japan. It is called Chiyoda City in English.It was formed in 1947 as a merger of Kanda and Kōjimachi wards after Tokyo City's transformation to Tokyo Metropolis. The modern Chiyoda ward exhibits contrasting Shitamachi and Yamanote cultural and geographical division. The Kanda region is in the heart of Shitamachi, the first commercial center of Edo-Tokyo. On the other hand, the western part of the Kōjimachi area typically represents a Yamanote district.
Chiyoda consists of the Imperial Palace and a surrounding radius of about a kilometer. As of June 2020, the ward has an estimated population of 66,575, and a population density of 5,709 people per km², making it by far the least populated of the special wards. The total area is 11.66 km², of which the Imperial Palace, Hibiya Park, National Museum of Modern Art, and Yasukuni Shrine take up approximately 2.6 km², or 22% of the total area.
Chiyoda is an economical powerhouse, the little region East of the palace in the districts of Otemachi, Marunouchi and Yurakucho (colloquially"Daimaruyu") houses the headquarters of 19 Fortune 500 companies, is the origin of roughly 10% of the combined earnings of all Japanese companies and produced in 2017 the equivalent of approximately 1/4th of the GDP of the nation.
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