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"Miastko (, ), is a town in the Middle Pomerania region of northwestern Poland. Administratively it has since 1999 been part of Bytów County in the Pomeranian Voivodeship; previously (1975–1998) it had been in Słupsk Voivodeship.\n\nHistory\nBetween 1815 and 1945 the town belonged to the Prussian Province of Pomerania. On 2 March 1945, it was taken by the Red Army, after which it was placed under Polish administration.\n\nIn 2012 a monument dedicated to the Polish Nation was unveiled in the town park.\n\nPopulation\n1950: 1,500\n1960: 5,500\n1970: 8,100\n1975: 9,800\n1980: 10,000\n2004: 12,000\n2016: 10,738\n\nGallery\n\nNotable residents\n Julius Heinrich Franz (1847–1913) a German astronomer\n Tadeusz Sapierzyński (born 1958) a Polish Army officer, former commander of the special forces unit JW GROM\n Krzysztof Gliszczyński (born 1962) a Polish painter\n Ewa Gawryluk (born 1967) a Polish actress\n Wojciech Kałdowski (born 1976) a retired Polish 800 metre runner\n\nInternational relations\n\nMiastko is twinned with:\n\nReferences\n\nCities and towns in Pomeranian Voivodeship\nBytów County",
"Żychlin (other rarely used names include Zechlin and Zichlin) is a town in Kutno County, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland, about 50 north of Łódź and west of Warsaw. It has 7,964 inhabitants (2020).\n\nHistory\n\nThe village of Żychlin existed at least since 1309. In 1331 it was captured by the Teutonic Knights, but shortly after was restored to Poland. It received city rights before 1397. Until the 19th century, the town was a private property. At the end of the Middle Ages, Żychlin was the place where away sessions of the Łęczyca town court took place. The town was administratively located in the Łęczyca Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown.\n\nIn the second half of the sixteenth century, the city suffered from a major fire disaster. The reconstruction was slow and even the privilege of fairs awarded to the king did not significantly affect the city's significant development. In 1790 Żychlin had 350 inhabitants and 68 houses.\n\nIn the late-18th-century Partitions of Poland, the town was annexed by Prussia. In 1807 it was regained by Poles and included with the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw, and in 1815 it fell to the Russian Partition of Poland. In the 19th century the population of the town increased significantly. The town was briefly liberated by local Polish insurgents during the January Uprising in 1863. In 1870, due to the Tsarist decree, Żychlin lost its city rights due to the towns support for the January Uprising. At the end of the 19th century, the city had over 4,500 inhabitants, with a sizeable Jewish minority, following the influx of Jews after the implementation of Russian discriminatory policies (see Pale of Settlement). Żychlin was again part of Poland, after the country regained independence after World War I in 1918.\n\n1921 saw the creation of electric plants by Zygmunt Okoniewski. Over time, due to the new electromechanical plant, the city grew and gained importance among the surrounding towns. In 1924 Żychlin regained its municipal rights.\n\nWorld War II\nDuring World War II, the town suffered great losses, mainly among the civilian population - almost 40% of the town's population. During the war September campaign, there were field hospitals in the town and in the Dobrzelin village, often bombarded by German air force. Numerous Polish soldiers are buried in the military quarters at the local parish cemetery and the parish cemetery in the village of Śleszyn and the military cemetery in Dobrzelin.\n\nIn the eve of World War II population of Żychlin reached 6,000 people, of whom 3,500 were Jewish, the rest Polish and German. In 1939 it was annexed by Nazi Germany to Wartheland. German beatings and harassment of Jews began when the Germans arrived in September 1939. The Germans confiscated Jewish business and property and Polish farms and houses and turned them over to ethnic Germans who had been resettled in the town in accordance with the Lebensraum policy. Jews were brought to Żychlin from surrounding areas. In April 1940, the Germans arrested both Polish Christian and Jewish members of the intelligentsia, especially teachers, and sent them to concentration camps. In June and July of 1940, Germans expelled 430 Poles from the town center, and their homes were handed over to German colonists, and in August 1940 further 90 Poles, owners of shops and workshops with entire families, were expelled. Expelled Poles were initially held in a transit camp in Łódź for three weeks, and then people aged 15-24 were deported to forced labour in Germany, and the rest were deported to the General Government. Later in 1940, Jews were moved to an overcrowded ghetto where many of the inhabitants had no means of support. In late 1941, hundreds of Jewish workers were sent to labor camps in the Poznań area. In 1942, murders of Jews began in large scale through public executions in the ghetto and at the Jewish cemetery. In March 1942, the remaining 3,200 Jews were rounded up, beaten and robbed, and taken to the Chełmno extermination camp where they were immediately murdered. Perhaps 25-50 of Żychlin's Jews survived, most were those who had been sent away to labor camps, those who had fled to the Soviet Union, and some who hid.\n\nHasidism in Zychlin\n\nThe founder of the Żychlin Hasidic dynasty Rabbi Shmuel Abba was born to Reb Zelig on the 19th of Kislev in the city of Luvitch. The first Rebbe of Zychlin, was Rabbi Shmuel Abba who had a small following of Hasidim and lived at his father-in-law's house. When he moved to Zychlin for monetary reasons he acquired a larger following. He was known as a miracle worker. He spent time in jail because his detractors were upset that he practiced practical Kabbalah.\n\nNinety-five percent of Zychliner Hassidim perished during the Holocaust, the last Rebbes dying at the hands of the Nazis.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official town webpage\n Lehav Eish\n \n\nCities and towns in Łódź Voivodeship\nKutno County\nŁódź Voivodeship (1919–1939)\nHolocaust locations in Poland",
"Tarnobrzeg is a city in south-eastern Poland (historic Lesser Poland), on the east bank of the river Vistula, with 49,419 inhabitants, as of 31 December 2009. Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Polish: Województwo podkarpackie) since 1999, it had previously been the capital of Tarnobrzeg Voivodeship (1975–1998). Tarnobrzeg lies in the Sandomierz Basin, and directly borders the town of Sandomierz, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. Its history dates back to the year 1593, when it was granted Magdeburg rights, and belonged to the Tarnowski family. For centuries Tarnobrzeg remained a small town, which did not develop until the post-World War II period, when it became center of an industrial area, based on rich sulfur deposits.\n\nEtymology \nThe name Tarnobrzeg refers to the founders of the town, the Tarnowski family. Other names were suggested, such as \"Tarnodwor\", \"Nowo Dwor\", and \"Nowy Tarnów\". Finally, Tarnobrzeg prevailed, and other towns, founded by the Tarnowski family, were also named in a similar fashion, such as Tarnogród and Tarnopol.\n\nUntil the 20th century, however, the name Tarnobrzeg was not popular among residents. In common use were such names, as Dzików (see also Dzików Castle) and Miechocin, as these two locations were older, larger and more important. After opening of a rail station called Tarnobrzeg (1887), and creation of the Tarnobrzeg County (1920), the name caught on and became commonly used. Nevertheless, patron saint of the region, is still called Our Lady of Dzików (see also Dominican Church and Convent of Assumption of Mary in Tarnobrzeg).\n\nLocation and area \nTarnobrzeg lies along National Road nr. 9, which also makes Polish part of the European route E371. The town also is a railroad hub, with five stations located within its limits (Ocice, Sobow, Tarnobrzeg, Tarnobrzeg Waskotorowy and Wielowieś). Rail lines stem from Tarnobrzeg into four directions: southwards towards Dębica, southeast towards Rzeszów, east towards Stalowa Wola, and northwards, towards Sandomierz.\n\nCurrently Tarnobrzeg is one of the largest towns of Poland in terms of territory. It covers the area of , and the distance between its extreme northern and southern locations reaches . This is because, in 1975, Tarnobrzeg unexpectedly became the capital of a newly created province, Tarnobrzeg Voivodeship. To expand the town, local authorities initiated a policy of annexation of local villages. As a result, in the late 1970s, the size of the town quickly grew, when several villages and settlements (Machow, Dzików, Miechocin, Wielowieś, Sielec, Podleze, Sobow, Mokrzyszow) became part of Tarnobrzeg as its districts. The Old Town and historic center of Tarnobrzeg covers a very small area of the town, as 80% of Tarnobrzeg was built after the war.\n\nAdministrative divisions of Tarnobrzeg \nBoroughs, districts and osiedla of Tarnobrzeg include: Wielowieś, Sielec, Chwałki, Borów, Wymysłów, Zakrzów, Zwierzyniec, Dzików, Podłęże, Serbinów, Nadole, Old Town, Wielopole, Biała Góra, Podchoiny, Chomki, Siarkowiec, Skalna Góra, Przywiśle, Mokrzyszów, Piastów, Sobów, Chałupki, Miechocin, Ocice, Kozielec, Kajmów, Machów, Nagnajów.\n\nHistory \n\nTarnobrzeg was founded in 1593, during the golden age of Poland, to become the residence of the Tarnowski family (see szlachta). In that year, King Sigismund III Vasa granted Magdeburg rights to the village (May 28, 1593). The founder of the town was Stanislaw Tarnowski, Castellan of Sandomierz. In 1772, it became part of the Austrian Empire and remained in the province of Galicia until November 1918. Tarnobrzeg, located very close to the Russian-Austrian border, sustained heavy damage during World War I by invading armies.\n\nIn the aftermath of World War I, the short-lived Republic of Tarnobrzeg was declared here, and in 1919, the town became part of Lwów Voivodeship of the newly independent Second Polish Republic. The city suffered significant emigration within the former Austrian empire and elsewhere during the interbellum years (1919–1939). A public school system was founded during that time.\n\nIn the 1950s, after geological research into fuel deposits, significant sulfur resources were discovered. From the early 1960s the city grew rapidly: the population rose from 5,000 to 50,000 in 1990s. After closing the sulfur mine \"Siarkopol\" in Machów and Jeziórko a stagnation of Tarnobrzeg followed. In 1999 it ceased being a Voivodeship capital and became a city-county (powiat grodzki).\n\nTimeline of Tarnobrzeg history (note: the history of Tarnobrzeg itself is not very long. Much older are several districts of the contemporary town, such as Wielowieś in its north, and Miechocin in the south).\n\nTill 1772 Poland during the Piast dynasty, Poland during the Jagiellon dynasty, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth: Sandomierz Voivodeship\n1772 – 1918 Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary: Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria\n1918 – 1919 Republic of Tarnobrzeg\n1919 – 1939 Second Polish Republic: Lwów Voivodeship\n1939 – 1944 Nazi Germany: General Government (Distrikt Krakau, Dębica Land)\n1944 – 1975 Polish People's Republic: Rzeszów Voivodeship\n1975 – 1998 Polish People's Republic, Third Polish Republic: Tarnobrzeg Voivodeship\nFrom 1999 Poland: Subcarpathian Voivodeship\n\nTarnowski family \n\nThe history of Tarnobrzeg is closely tied with the noble Leliwita family, which in the 16th century changed its name into Tarnowski. In 1349 Rafal of Tarnów married a woman named Dzierzka, who was the owner of Wielowieś, moving there after the wedding. Their estate gradually expanded, in 1365 they purchased Trzesn and Rzochow, in 1375 Sielec and Sobow, and in 1397, Jan Tarnowski purchased several villages. In the late 15th century, Jan Spytek Tarnowski purchased, among others, Dzików, together with its fortified stronghold. Stanislaw Tarnowski (1541–1609), who was a courtier of Kings Stefan Batory and Sigismund III, managed to convince the latter to grant town charter to Nowy Tarnów, later called Tarnobrzeg. His son Michal Stanislaw (1590–1654) in the 1620s began expansion and modernization of the town, planning a street system together with a market square with a town hall. Furthermore, he expanded the Dzików stronghold and the church at Miechocin.\n\nThe development of Nowy Tarnów was stopped during the catastrophic Swedish invasion of Poland (1655–1660), when the town was destroyed by the Swedes. After the invasion, Jan Stanislaw Tarnowski funded a Dominican Monastery, with the painting of Our Lady of Dzików (1678), which was moved there from the Dzików Castle. In 1734, the Dzików Confederation was formed in the Dzików Castle, and among its creators was Jozef Mateusz Tarnowski. In the late 18th century, the castle was remodelled in the late Baroque style, and last owners of Dzików were Jan Zdzislaw Tarnowski (1862–1937), and Artur Tarnowski (1903–1984).\n\nJewish community \n\nPre-Holocaust Tarnobrzeg, a shtetl of western Galicia, was home to a thriving traditional Jewish community. Tarnobrzeg is situated in a region of Poland that is relatively distant from the better-known, larger Jewish communities of the country which were located in cities such as Warsaw, Kraków, Lublin, Lwów, and Wilno. Nonetheless, the History of Jews in Poland is confluent with the history of the town. Jewish inhabitants of Tarnobrzeg, and their descendants, are considered Galitzianers or Galician Jews.\n\nIn the years 1772–1918 (see: Partitions of Poland), Tarnobrzeg was in the province of Galicia as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, based in Vienna. The 19th century after 1815 was, across Europe, a period of relative peace and stability following the conclusion of the extremely violent Napoleonic Wars. Due to progressive initiatives following Napoleonic times, Tarnobrzeg citizens including the Jewish Community benefited from free compulsory public education mandated by the Austrian Emperor. The same was not true for other Polish Jewry in areas outside of Galicia, e.g., Danzig or Warsaw. Compulsory public education was opposed by some Jewish religious authorities who believed that traditional Jewish Torah and Talmud studies should not even be partially supplanted by secular instruction.\n\nThe political stability in Tarnobrzeg and surrounding areas that ended with the collapse of the Austrian Empire as a result of World War I portended a difficult future for Tarnobrzeg's Jews. Although atrocities and population displacements during World War II dominated the history of Tarnobrzeg's Jews, deportations during World War I to trans-Ural Russia were also highly disruptive and destroyed much of the established community. Many emigrated to the United States or Palestine.\n\nNearby shtetlach of e.g. Rozwadów and Ulanów had many commercial and family ties to Tarnobrzeg. There were several affinity groups among the thriving Jewish population before World War II, including Hasidic, Zionist, Bundist, and others. Many Jewish citizens of Tarnobrzeg emigrated to Palestine, later to become Israel, during the pre-World War II period.\n\nProminent Tarnobrzeg citizen Moses Hauser, who was Jewish, was a centenarian whose lifespan nearly coincided with the 19th century. Hauser was a wealthy businessman, trader, and landholder dating from Napoleonic times through the reign of Austrian Emperor Franz Josef. His life is documented in a Yizkor (Memorial) Book published by Tarnobrzeg elders following the Holocaust. Hauser was father to twelve children and many descendants living in the United States, Israel, and elsewhere.\n\nWorld War II\nPrior to Nazi German and Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, there were 3,800 Jewish residents in Tarnobrzeg. The city was overrun by the Germans on 17 September 1939. In order to inflict terror, 5 prominent Jews were shot at the town square. Following the signing of the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty Jews were being expelled to the Soviet zone of occupation across the San river beginning 2 October 1939, with many others, deported to Mielec and Sandomierz. The atrocities committed by the German occupiers against Jewish and Polish citizens during the Holocaust forced the Jews to choose between mortally dangerous escape or perish by remaining. Very few Jews are known to have survived in the city, where they would have needed to be hidden for years by righteous gentiles. Those migrating east to Russia had to choose between permanent Soviet citizenship, service in the Red Army in its battles against the Wehrmacht, and loss of freedom to subsequently leave Russia, or alternatively to become displaced persons (DPs). The DPs were temporarily relocated by the Russian government to work camps in Siberia, there to wait out the war. Many of them died due to the extremely rugged conditions, for which they were unprepared, and the poor supplies available in wartime trans-Ural Russian Asia. Those who survived were permitted to depart Russian lands following World War II.\n\nEconomy \nThe city was a major center for the mining and processing of sulphur and sulphuric acid. However, due to declining profitability, its mines have closed. The mine in Piaseczno was closed first, followed by the Machów mine (after 40 years of working — it had been the biggest open-cast sulphur mine in Europe), and finally the Jeziórko mine in the 1990s. The Jeziórko mine stayed open as long as it did because of the introduction of the modern Frasch process of sulphur extraction.\n\nSince the 1980s, the land in the mining areas has gradually been reclaimed. The Machów mine has been filled with water to form a reservoir used for recreation, and the same is happening to the Jeziórko mine — it is being slowly filled from the nearby Vistula river.\n\nTourism\n\nRoman Catholic churches and parishes \n Church of Mary Magdalene – around 1160, parish since around 1132\n Church of Saint Gertrude and Saint Michael – first church 12th century, parish since 1215, current church 1884\n Monastery of Dominicans – 1667 (wooden), 1706, parish since 1922\n Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help – wooden church 1979, current church 1984, Parish of Our Lady since 1980\n Church of Good Shepherd – 1990, parish since 1972\n Church of Our Lady of Częstochowa in Tarnobrzeg – 1991, parish since 1969\n Church of Saint Barbara – wooden church 1988, current church 1996, parish since 1989\n Church of Divine Mercy – 1996, parish since 1997\n Church of Visitation – 1997, parish since 1985\n Church of Christ the King – 2003, parish since 2003\n Chapel of All Saints – 2009\n Monastery of Dominicans Sisters in Tarnobrzeg\n\nSport \n\n Siarka Tarnobrzeg – football club\n\nCyclical events \n New Year's Run – January\n Tarnobrzeg Days – May, June\n International Organ Virtuoso Performances – July, August\n Saint Dominic's Fair – August\n Bartoszki Film Festival – August\n Satyrblues – September\n International Alfred Freyer Vistula River Run – October\n Tarnobrzeg Social Days and Tarnobrzeg Days of The Christian Culture – October\n Barbórkowa Drama Teatralna – December\n\nTwin towns – sister cities \nTarnobrzeg is twinned with:\n\n Banská Bystrica in Slovakia (since 1995) \n Chernihiv in Ukraine (since 2008)\n\nSee also \nTarnowski family\nSiarka Tarnobrzeg – local football team\nDzików Castle\nLesser Polish Way\n\nReferences \nNotes\n\nExternal links \nTarnobrzeg city council\nTarnobrzeg Forum – City life\nTarnobrzeg's Jewish Community\nHistorical Museum of the City of Tarnobrzeg (polish)\n\n \nPopulated places established in 1593\nCities and towns in Podkarpackie Voivodeship\nSandomierz Voivodeship\nKingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria\nLwów Voivodeship\nCity counties of Poland\nHolocaust locations in Poland\nSocialist planned cities\nTarnobrzeg",
"Skórcz () is a town in Starogard County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, with 3,532 inhabitants (2004).\n\nNotable people\n Grzegorz Gajdus (born 1967) a long-distance runner, competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics\n Sławomir Pstrong (1975–2015), film and television director, screenwriter, and author of short stories.\n\nCities and towns in Pomeranian Voivodeship\nStarogard County",
"Pyzdry () is a town in Września County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, with 3,163 inhabitants (2004).\n\nHistory \n\nPyzdry was first mentioned in 1232, when army of Silesian Piast Duke Henry I the Bearded entered Greater Poland. Pyzdry is one of the oldest town of the province, as in 1257 it was mentioned as a location governed by a vogt, which means that a well-established urban center must have already existed here. It is not known when Pyzdry received Magdeburg rights; most likely it happened during the reign of Duke Bolesław the Pious.\n\nOn June 29, 1318 Ladislaus the Short called at Pyzdry a meeting of Polish nobility and bishops, during which it was agreed that a delegation be sent to Pope John XXII, asking for his permission to grant Polish Crown to Ladislaus. In 1331, Pyzdry was burned to the ground by the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Pyzdry. Following the destruction, King Casimir III of Poland ordered construction of a defensive wall with a mighty castle. In 1345, a truce between Casimir and John of Bohemia was signed here.\n\nOn June 6, 1346, Casimir presented at Pyzdry legal statutes for the province of Greater Poland. In 1390, King Władysław II Jagiełło met here with Wartislaw VII, Duke of Pomerania, who pledged vassalage to king of Poland. Pyzdry was a royal town and county seat, administratively located in the Kalisz Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland, and in 1562, it was named as the location of gatherings of pospolite ruszenie (levée en masse) for the Kalisz Voivodeship. The town was in 1655 captured and looted by Swedish soldiers (see Swedish invasion of Poland), and in 1704, a battle between supporters of Stanisław Leszczyński and Augustus II the Strong took place here. In 1768, Pyzdry burned in a great fire.\n\nFollowing the Second Partition of Poland, Pyzdry was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia (1793). In 1807 it was regained by Poles, and included within the newly established, however short-lived Duchy of Warsaw. Following the duchy's dissolution in 1815, it became part of Russian-controlled Congress Poland, in which it remained until World War I, and was the westernmost point of the Russian Empire. In 1818, Pyzdry County was disbanded. During the January Uprising, on April 17, 1863, the town was captured by Polish insurgents led by Edmund Taczanowski. On April 29, 1863, the Battle of Pyzdry was fought nearby, in which Polish insurgents led by Taczanowski defeated Russian troops. In 1867, as punishment for the January Uprising, Russians reduced Pyzdry to the status of a village. In 1918 Poland regained independence and control of Pyzdry, and in 1919 town rights were restored.\n\nFollowing the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, the town was occupied by Germany until 1945.\n\nSights\nThe town has several points of interest:\n historic urban center, which was shaped in the 14th century,\n parish church (built in mid-14th century, remodelled in the 15th century and in 1865–1870),\n Franciscan abbey (14th century),\n Baroque monastery (1690), located on the Warta river,\n ruins of a castle and defensive wall (early 14th century),\n houses from 18th and 19th centuries,\n\nNotable people\nAmong people born here are Mikołaj of Pyzdry (rector of Jagiellonian University), writer Stefan Otwinowski and film director Ewa Petelska.\n\nReferences\n\nCities and towns in Greater Poland Voivodeship\nGmina Pyzdry\nPoznań Voivodeship (1921–1939)",
"Etah is a municipality city which is also the headquarters of Etah District of the Uttar Pradesh state in India.Etah district is a part of the Aligarh Division and is located at the midpoint of the Delhi-Kanpur Highway(NH 91) Known as G.T Road.The nearest Big cities are Aligarh and Agra.\n\nHistory\nThe city lies in the cultural region of Braj and was a part of the Surasena Mahajanapada during the Vedic Age. It was later ruled by the bigger kingdoms like the Mauryas, Guptas, Scythians, Kushans, Indo-Greeks before falling into the hands of local Rajput and Jat rulers.[1]\n\nIt is the midpoint on the Kanpur-Delhi Highway. Historically, it is also known for being a center of the Revolt of 1857. In ancient times, Etah was called \"Aintha\" which means 'to respond aggressively' because of the people of the yadav community, who are very aggressive. It was when the king of Awagarh went hunting in the forest along with his two dogs. The dogs saw a fox and started barking and chasing it. The fox kept on running away trying to protect itself from the king's dogs but when it reached Etah, the fox responded very aggressively to the king's dogs. The King was surprised by the behavioral change in the fox. So, he thought that this place must have something which made the fleeing fox change attitude. Therefore, the place was called Aintha, which later was mispronounced as Etah. Another story found in Vidya Bharti's book states the old name of Etah as 'Einta' due to a person lost here. In search of water, he dug into the land and his shoe struck a brick (eint)which leads to the name Einta and later this word changed to Etah.\n\nGeography\nEtah is located at . It has an average elevation of 170 metres (557 feet).The upper and lower Ganga Canal flow through Etah.\n\nDemographics\nAs of the 2011 census, Etah's urban agglomeration had a population of 131,023 with 69,446 males and 61,577 females. The literacy rate was 85.62%. 11,786 of the population are of scheduled castes, while 65 are of scheduled tribes. The local languages are Brajbhasha and Kannauji.\n\nGovernment and politics\nEtah city is governed by a type of municipality called the Etah Nagar Palika Parishad. The city covers an area of 13.49 km2 and is divided into 25 wards for the purpose of administration. The municipality is headed by the municipal commissioner or president and represented by one Member of Parliament (MP) in the Lok Sabha, currently Rajveer Singh, and MP Rajya Sabha. The incumbent is Harnath Singh Yadav. The Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) representing the city is Vipin David.\n\nCivic amenities\nThe masterplan of the city (1984-2001) was created by the U.P. Town and Country Planning Department. The U.P. Jal Nigam is the body responsible for water supply, and electricity is provided by the Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd., the southern discom of the Uttar Pradesh state government.\n\nA thermal power project of 1320 MW has been proposed at Malawan, approximately 15 km from Etah, and Ministry of Environment has cleared the project. Land acquisition work has been completed and construction is scheduled to be completed in 2021.\n\nCulture\n\nEtah lies in the cultural region of Braj. Etah is a developing city and has been the district headquarters since British rule. The Padav maidan (open field) is the name of a field used by the army, and every year this field is used for Ram-Lila at Dussehra in the months of September and October and for exhibitions from December to February.\n\nAmir Khusro was born in Patiyali, Kasganj and is considered one of the best poets of Urdu.\n\nDress\nThe people of Etah dress in a variety of traditional and Western styles. Traditional styles of dress include colourful draped garments such as sari, dhoti or lungi and tailored clothes such as shalwar kameez and kurta-pyjama. Men often sport head gear like topi or pagri. Sherwani is a more formal male dress and is frequently worn along with chooridar on festive occasions. European-style trousers and shirts are also common.\n\nFood\nEtah's food consists of the cuisine prepared in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It consists of Mughlai cuisine and both vegetarian and non-vegetarian foods. Dum biryani, kababs, and kormas are some of the dishes made in this region.\n\nTransport\n\nThe opening of a railway line in Etah was done by the first president of India, Rajendra Prasad, in 1959, and the train runs from Etah to Tundla. The Etah–Agra Fort Passenger Special started running from Etah to Agra, when railway ministry approved the survey for direct trains to New Delhi, Agra and Aligarh.\n\nReligion\nDargah Hazrat Makhdoom Abdul Ghafur Shah Safvi is situated at holi gate. Hazrat was the Great Sufi of the silsila e chishtiya and safviya-khadimiya and Haji Mohammad Islam Safvi is the sajjada nashin of dargah sharif at present time..\n\nThe 148-year-old Kailash Mandir at Etah was built by King Dil Sukh Rai Bahadur. Noah Kera village was known for marriage of Lord Sri Krishna with Rukmini.. Bhooteshwar is a place for Hindu bodies to be cremated.\n\nEconomy\nAgriculture is the main source of Economy. And some little Factory are also.\n\nAgriculture \nEtah's primary economy is centered around agriculture. The area is situated between Ganga and Yamuna (Doaab) which is highly fertile (Alluvial soil). Farmers harvest three crops each year as irrigation is available year-round. Major agricultural products are rice, wheat, barley, jowar, bajra, and maize, and the soil is also suitable for the cultivation of tobacco.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nUttar Pradesh Assembly Elections\nEtah Assembly Elections\nhttp://etah.nic.in\n\n \nCities in Uttar Pradesh",
"Gandhinagar (, ) is the capital of the state of Gujarat in India. Gandhinagar is located approximately 23 km north of Ahmedabad, on the west central point of the Industrial corridor between Delhi, the political capital of India, and Mumbai, the financial capital of India.\n\nGandhinagar lies on the west bank of the Sabarmati River, about 545 km (338 miles) north of Mumbai and 901 km (560 miles) southwest of Delhi. \nThe Akshardham temple is located in Gandhinagar. There was a determination to make Gandhinagar a purely Indian enterprise, partly because the state of Gujarat was the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi. For this reason, the planning was done by two Indian town planners: Prakash M Apte and H. K. Mewada, who had apprenticed with Le Corbusier in Chandigarh.\n\nHistory\nThe city was planned by Chief Architect H.K. Mewada, a Cornell University graduate, and his assistant Prakash M Apte.\n\nDemographics\n\n census of India, Gandhinagar had a population of 195,891. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Gandhinagar has an average literacy rate of 77.11%. Male literacy is 82%, and female literacy is 73%. In Gandhinagar, 11% of the population is under 6 years of age. Over 95% of the population of Gandhinagar are Hindus.\n\nGeography\n\nGandhinagar has an average elevation of . The city sits on the banks of the Sabarmati River, in north-central-east Gujarat. The 20,543 km2 area around Gandhinagar is defined by Gujarat capital territory. Gandhinagar spans an area of . The river frequently dries up in the summer, leaving only a small stream of water. Gandhinagar is India's tree capital With 54% green cover on its land area.\n\nGovernance and politics\n\nOn 1 May 1960, Gujarat was created out of the 17 northern districts of former State of Bombay. These districts were further subdivided later on. There are 33 administrative districts in the state. Gandhinagar is a politics hub for the state of Gujarat.\n\nCongress won the first municipality election in 2011. Mahendrasinh Rana became the first mayor of the city. The current Member of the Lok Sabha for Gandhinagar is Amit Anil Chandra Shah from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).\n\nGandhinagar is also situated near the west command post of Indian Army and Indian Air force and also have a command centre in the city.\n\nGandhinagar has recently developed Gujarat State Emergency Disaster Management centre.\n\nClimate\n\nGandhinagar has a tropical wet and dry climate with three main seasons: summer, monsoon and winter. The climate is generally dry and hot outside of the monsoon season. The weather is hot to severely hot from March to June when the maximum temperature stays in the range of , and the minimum in the range of . It is pleasant in the winter days and quite chilling in the night during December to February. The average maximum temperature is around , the average minimum is , and the climate is extremely dry. The southwest monsoon brings a humid climate from mid-June to mid-September. The average annual rainfall is around .\n\nTransport\n\nAir\nSardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport located in Ahmedabad is 18 km away from Gandhinagar, providing both domestic and international flights.\n\nRail\n\nGandhinagar Capital railway station (GNC) is located in Sector 14. Many trains running on the western zones pass through Gandhinagar. Currently, there are five trains running from this station in which three are express trains and two are MEMU trains. Jaipur-Bandra Garib Rath, Haridwar mail for Delhi and Haridwar and Shanti Express for Indore Junction BG are main express trains running through this station.\n\nAhmedabad Railway Station (ADI) in Kalupur Ahmedabad is the nearest rail junction (25 km away) which provides connectivity with all the major cities and towns of India. The Indian Railways transports are available for moving in northern India and eastern India from Kalol Junction railway station (KLL).\n\nMetro-Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad\nThe governing body of Gujarat planned for rapid transit in the city by proposing the Metro-Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA) also known as the Ahmedabad Metro. The contract for the four corridors of the system were awarded to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) which also manages the Delhi Metro. Delhi Metro carried out a pre-feasibility survey in 2004–05. In 2003, when the project was conceived, its cost was worked out at Rs 45 billion but the work for the metro was not started for the next 15 years, but now in 2019 it has again gained momentum because of partially completion of metro project in Ahmedabad.\n\nThe DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd) has already done its techno-feasibility study and submitted its report.\n\nSee also\n Software Technology Parks of India\n Gujarat National Law University (NLU)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \n Gandhinagar Urban Development Authority \n Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation\n\n \nCities and towns in Gandhinagar district\n\nIndian capital cities\nMemorials to Mahatma Gandhi\nPlanned cities in India\nArticles containing potentially dated statements from 2001\nAll articles containing potentially dated statements",
"Shillong () is a hill station in the northeastern part of India and the capital of Meghalaya, which means \"The Abode of Clouds\". It is the headquarters of the East Khasi Hills district. Shillong is the 330th most populous city in India with a population of 143,229 according to the 2011 census. It is said that the rolling hills around the town reminded the British of Scotland. Hence, they would also refer to it as the \"Scotland of the East\".\n\nShillong has steadily grown in size since it was made the civil station of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills in 1864 by the British. In 1874, on the formation of Assam as the Chief Commissioner's Province, it was chosen as the headquarters of the new administration because of its convenient location between the Brahmaputra and Surma valleys and more so because the climate of Shillong was much cooler than tropical India. Shillong remained the capital of undivided Assam until the creation of the new state of Meghalaya on 21 January 1972, when Shillong became the capital of Meghalaya, and Assam moved its capital to Dispur in Guwahati.\n\nHistory\nShillong was capital for composite Assam during the British regime and later till a separate State of Meghalaya was formed. David Scott, the British civil servant of the East India Company, was the Agent of the Governor-General North East Frontier. During the First Anglo-Burmese War the British authorities felt the need for a road to connect Sylhet and Assam. The route was to traverse across the Khasi and Jaintia Hills. David Scott overcame the difficulties his administration faced from the opposition of the Khasi Syiems – their chiefs and people. Impressed by the favourable cool climate of Khasi Hills, they negotiated with the Syiem of Sohra in 1829 for a sanatorium for the British. Thus began the consolidation of British interests in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills.\n\nA serious uprising by the Khasis against foreign occupation of their land followed. It began early in 1829 and continued till January 1833. Eventually, the Khasi confederate chiefs were no match against the military might of the British. David Scott negotiated for the surrender of the leader of the Khasi resistance, Tirot Sing, who was then taken to Dacca (present-day Dhaka) for detention. After the resistance of the Khasis a political agent was posted in the hills, with its headquarters at Sohra, also known by the name Cherrapunjee. But the climatic condition and facilities of Sohra did not make the British happy. They then moved out to Shillong. \"Ïewduh\" is the biggest market in Shillong. The name \"Shillong\" was later adopted, as the location of the new town was below the Shillong Peak. Shillong is named after the god of the Khasis,\" U Blei Shillong\".\n\nIn 1874, a separate Chief Commissionership was formed with Shillong as the seat of administration. The new administration included Sylhet, now a part of Bangladesh. Also included in the Chief Commissionership were the Naga Hills (present-day Nagaland), Lushai Hills (present-day Mizoram) as well as Khasi, Jaintia and Garo Hills. Shillong was the capital of composite Assam till 1969 when the autonomous state of Meghalaya was formed. In January 1972 Meghalaya was made a full-fledged state.\n\nThe Shillong Municipal Board has a long history dating back to 1878, when a proclamation was issued constituting Shillong and its suburbs, including the villages of Mawkhar and Laban, into a station under the Bengal Municipal Act of 1876. Inclusion of the villages of Mawkhar (S.E. Mawkhar, Jaiaw and part of Jhalupara and Mawprem) and Laban (Lumparing, Madan laban, Kench's Trace and Rilbong) within the Municipality of Shillong was agreed to by Haiñ Manik Syiem of Mylliem under the agreement of 15 November 1878. But, there is no trace of Shillong in the British era maps dating back to 1878, up to 1900.\n\nShillong was also the subject of the great earthquake that occurred on 12 June 1897. The earthquake had an estimated moment magnitude of 8.1. Twenty-seven lives from Shillong town alone were lost and a major part of the town was destroyed.\n\nGeography\n\nShillong is at . It lies on the Shillong Plateau, the only major uplifted structure in the northern Indian shield. The city lies in the centre of the plateau and is surrounded by hills, three of which are revered in Khasi tradition: Lum Sohpetbneng, Lum Diengiei, and Lum Shyllong.\n\nShillong is just from Guwahati, which can be accessed by road along NH 40, a journey of about 2 hours 30 minutes through lush green hills and the Umiam lake in between.\n\nSmart Cities Mission\nShillong has been selected as the 100th city to receive funding under the centre's flagship \"Smart Cities Mission\" Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation AMRUT. In January 2016, 20 cities were announced under the Smart Cities Mission, followed by 13 cities in May 2016, 27 cities in September 2016, 30 cities in June 2017, and 9 cities in January this year. The total proposed investment in the finally selected 100 cities under the Smart Cities Mission would be 2,050,180 million. Under the scheme, each city will get 5000 million from the centre for implementing various projects.\n\nClimate\n\nWeather conditions in Shillong are typically pleasant, pollution-free. In the summer the temperature varies from . In the winter the temperature varies from .\n\nUnder Köppen's climate classification the city features a subtropical highland climate (Cwb). Its summers are cool and very rainy, while its winters are cool yet dry. Shillong is subject to vagaries of the monsoon. The monsoons arrive in June and it rains almost until the end of October.\n\nTransport\nAlthough well connected by road, Shillong has neither rail connections nor a proper air connection. Umroi Airport located from the city centre has only limited flights.\n\nRoadways\n\nShillong is well connected by roads with all major northeastern states. Three major National Highways pass through:\nNational Highway 6 (India) – Connected to Guwahati, Tripura and Mizoram\nNational Highway 106 (India) - Connected to Nongstoin\nNational Highway 206 (India) - Connected to Dawki\n\nPrivate bus operators, as well as state transport buses from other states, come to and from Shillong daily. Taxi services are also available to destination like Guwahati, Agartala, Kohima, Dimapur, Aizawl and other North Eastern towns and cities.\n\nThe Shillong Bypass (pictured) is a two lane road which stretches across connecting Umiam (NH-40) to Jorabat (NH-44) which then leads to other northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Tripura. The project estimated to have cost around was completed in a span of two years (2011–2013).\n\nAirways\n\nShillong is served by the Shillong Airport, which is located about 30km away at Umroi. The airport has daily flights to and from Kolkata. Presently IndiGo and FlyBig are operating regular services from the airport while Alliance Air is going to resume its operation from 18 October 2021.\n\nRailways\nTeteliya-Byrnihat line, long, from Guwahati's suburb Tetelia to Byrnihat near Shillong in Meghalaya is likely to be completed by March 2022. From Byrnihat it will be extended further to Shillong in future.\n\nDemographics\n\nAs of the 2011 Census of India, Shillong had a total population of 143,229, of which 70,135 were males and 73,094 were females. As per 2011 language census report, 67,154 of the city's population speak Khasi as their native language, 28,984 speak Bengali, 15,559 speak Hindi, 14,085 speak Nepali, 4,069 speak Assamese, 2,632 speak Punjabi, 3,580 speak Garo, 1,088 speak Urdu and 6,115 speak other languages. Population within the age group of 0 to 6 years was 14,317. The total number of literates in Shillong was 119,642, which constituted 83.5% of the population with male literacy of 84.8% and female literacy of 82.3%. The effective literacy rate of 7+ population of Shillong was 92.8%, of which male literacy rate was 94.8% and female literacy rate was 90.9%. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes population was 1,551 and 73,307, respectively. Shillong had 31025 households in 2011.\n\n \nAccording to 2011 census, Christianity is the dominant religion in the city, practised by 46.49% of the population, followed by Hinduism at 41.95%, Islam 4.89%, and to a lesser degree, that is, 2.01% includes Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism. An ancient indigenous religion of the Khasi and Jaintia tribes is still followed by 4.5% of the population. The Shillong metropolitan region, which includes the towns of Laitumkhrah, Lawsohtun, Madanrting, Mawlai, Mawpat, Nongkseh, Nongmynsong, Nongthymmai, Pynthorumkhrah, Shillong Cantonment, Umlyngka and Umpling,\nhad a population of 354,759, 12% of which being under six years of age. The literacy rate in the metro region was 91%.\n\nPlaces of interest\n\nTourist sites in and around the city include:\nElephant Falls: 12 km on the outskirts of the city, the mountain stream descends through three successive falls set in dells of fern covered rocks.\nKa Phan Nonglait Park: The park stretches over a kilometre and has an adjacent mini zoo.\nWard's Lake: Known locally as Nan-Polok. It is an artificial lake with garden and boating facilities, built during the colonial era.\nShillong Golf Course: Shillong has one of the largest natural golf courses in Asia: Gleneagles of the East. It enjoys the rare distinction of being one of the few natural golf courses in Asia. Not only is the Shillong Golf Course scenic and enjoyable, it is also challenging. A group of British civil service officers introduced golf to Shillong in 1898 by constructing a nine-hole course. The present 18-hole course was inaugurated in 1924. The course is set in a valley covered with pine and rhododendron trees. The tight fairways, carpeted with a local grass which hardens the soil, are difficult to negotiate. The number of out-of-bounds streams that criss-cross every fairway makes it all the more trying. Obstructions come in the form of bunkers, trees and rain. The longest hole is the 6th, which is a gruelling 594 yards. Shillong Golf Course is considered to be the \"Glen Eagle of the East\" at the United States Golf Association Museum. It was set in a valley at an altitude of 5,200 ft in 1898 as a nine-hole course and later converted into an 18-hole course in 1924 by Captain Jackson and C. K. Rhodes.\nMotphran: The \"Monument of France\" which is locally known as \"Motphran\" was erected in memory of the 26th Khasi Labour Corps who served under the British in France during World War I. It bears the words of the Latin poet Horace \"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori\" which can be roughly translated as \"It is sweet and honourable to die for one's country. Due to government neglect and public apathy, this monument is now in a dilapidated condition standing.\nShillong Peak: A picnic spot, 10 km from the city, 1966 m above sea level, offers a panoramic view of the scenic countryside and is the highest point in the state. Obeisance is paid to U Shyllong at the sanctum sanctorum at the peak's summit every springtime, by the religious priest of Khyrim/Mylliem State.\nCapt. Williamson Sangma State Museum: For those interested in ethnic tribal culture and tradition this government museum offers insights to the lifestyle of the people. This museum is in the State Central Library complex where monuments for the great patriots of the state were erected besides the statue of Smt. Indira Gandhi and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.\nDon Bosco Centre for Indigenous Cultures: The Don Bosco Museum is part of DBCIC (Don Bosco Centre for Indigenous Cultures). DBCIC comprises research on cultures, publications, training, animation programmes and the museum, which is a place of knowledge-sharing on the cultures of the northeast in particular, and of culture in general. DBCIC with its Don Bosco Museum is situated at Mawlai, Shillong.\nWankhar Entomological Museum (Butterfly Museum): A privately owned museum of M/s Wankhar, Riatsamthiah, Shillong about 2 km from police bazar is the only known museum in India devoted to moths and butterflies.\nChrysalis the Gallery: This art gallery is on the second floor of Salonsar Mansion at Police Bazaar, the commercial hub of Shillong. Chrysalis has flexible spacing to display paintings (canvases), sculpture, photography and handicrafts. Run by a local artist, Jaya Kalra, the gallery caters to exhibitions of artists and artisans especially from the northeast and also from the rest of India.\nState Museum: Located at the State Central Library complex\nCathedral of Mary Help of Christians is in Don Bosco Square\nBishop and Beadon Falls: Both cascade down the same escarpment into a deep valley\nSpread Eagle Falls: 3 km from polo grounds\nSweet Falls: Sweet Falls (also called \"Weitdem,\" in the native dialect) is a waterfall located about 5 km from the Happy Valley and is about 96 m in height.\nCrinoline Falls: Near Phan Nonglait Park\n\nSport\n\nShillong is one of the capital cities in Northeast India to produce three football clubs that participate in the I-League, namely, Rangdajied United FC, Royal Wanhingdoh FC and Shillong Lajong FC. All three have their home stadium at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Royal Wahingdoh FC was adjudged 2nd runners-up in the 2014–15 season of I-League.\n\nShillong Golf Course is one of the oldest golf course in the country and is surrounded by pine and rhododendron trees.\n\nAmong people of the Khasi tribe of Meghalaya, archery has been both a sport, a form of defence for several centuries and gambling (teer). While modern customs have replaced many of traditional aspects of the culture here, a pervasive fascination for archery remains.\n\nBinningstar Lyngkhoi from Shillong is a national marathon runner and represented India in the last 2010 Commonwealth Games. He is the fastest marathoner in India with a timing of 2:18 hours.\n\nEducation\n\nAutonomous Institutions\nNorth Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute Of Medical Sciences\n Indian Institute of Management\n National Institute of Technology Meghalaya\n National Institute of Fashion Technology, Shillong\n North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda and Homeopathy\n\nGeneral degree colleges\nLady Keane College\nRaid Laban College\nSt. Anthony's College, Shillong\nSt. Edmund's College\nSaint Mary's College\nSankardev College\nSeng Khasi College\nShillong College\nShillong Commerce College\nSynod College\nWomen's College, Shillong\n\nLaw college\nShillong Law College\n\nMedical College\n North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences\n\nUniversities\n\nCentral Universities\n English and Foreign Languages University\n North Eastern Hill University (NEHU)\n Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)\n\nPrivate Universities\n CMJ University\n Martin Luther Christian University\n Techno Global University\n University of Technology and Management (UTM, Shillong)\n William Carey University, Meghalaya\n\nMedia\nLocal media in Shillong is strong. There are a number of theatres, newspapers, magazines, local radio and television stations. Shillong is also often called as \"India's Rock Capital\" due to its inhabitants' great passion for music, hosting concerts featuring a number of western artists.\n\nCinema\nCinemas in Shillong include Bijou Cinema Hall, Gold Cinema and Anjalee Cinema Hall (also called Galleria Anjalee Cinema).\n\nPrint media\nNewspapers are published for Shillong both in Khasi and English. Prominent English dailies published here include Shillong Times, Meghalaya Guardian, Highland Post, Meghalaya Times and The Sentinel. Khasi dailies like U Mawphor, U Nongsaiñ Hima among others are published here. Weekly newspaper are \"Salonsar\" and \"Dongmusa\". There are magazines like \"Iing Khristan\" (100 years of publication), \"Pateng Mynta\" in Khasi and \"Youth Today\" and \"Eastern Panorama\" in English.\n\nElectronic media\nThe radio industry has expanded with a number of private and government-owned FM channels being introduced. State-owned Doordarshan transmits terrestrial television channels. Apart from these few weekly news channels like Peitngor Cable News (PCN), Ri Khasi Channel, Batesi and T7 are broadcast weekly on the local cable networks.\n\nCommunication services\nFixed telephone lines are available. Internet services are available both wired and wireless broadband. It is also well covered in mobile networks with all major cellular providers like Airtel, Vodafone Idea, BSNL and Jio are available here.\n\nHeadquarters Eastern Air Command, Indian Air Force\nHQ Eastern Air Command (HQ, EAC) was shifted to Shillong on 10 Jun 63 from Kolkata and housed in the old buildings located at Nonglyer village at Upper Shillong, some 10 km from (Lower) Shillong, but at a greater altitude of around 6,000 feet AMSL. Initially a British military base, it was taken over by No. 58 Gorkha Regiment of the Indian Army post Independence in 1947. The Regiment was redeployed after the Sino-Indian War of 1962, making way for the IAF to step in. Only helicopters can operate from HQ, EAC, using a 12.7 hectare (31.3 acre) helipad.\n\nEAC controls air operations in the eastern sector which include West Bengal, Assam, Mizoram and the other eastern states bordering Bangladesh, Burma, and Tibet. EAC comprises permanent airbases at Chabua, Gauhati, Bagdogra, Barrackpore, Hashimara, Jorhat, Kalaikunda and Tezpur with forward airbases at Agartala, Culcutta, Panagarh and Shillong.\n\nNeighbourhoods\n\nHistoric neighbourhoods of Shillong include Mawkhar, Jaiaw, Riatsamthiah, Umsohsun, Wahingdoh, Khyndailad (Police Bazar), Mawlai, Laitumkhrah, Laban, Malki, Nongthymmai and Polo.\n\nNotable personalities associated with Shillong\nPeople who have been associated with Shillong include:\n Amita Malik, a film critic.\n Anjum Hasan is a Bangalore-based writer from Shillong. Her debut novel Lunatic in my Head, which is set in Shillong, was launched on 7 December 2007. She has also written a book of verse titled Street on the Hill.\n Anwaruddin Choudhury, a naturalist who is known as the 'Birdman of Assam' was born and brought up in Shillong. He is the author of 28 books including The Birds of Assam and Pocket Guide to the Birds of Meghalaya.\n Arthur Llewellyn Basham, historian of Indian culture. He died in Kolkata in 1986 and is buried in Shillong.\n Arundhati Roy, writer and Booker Prize winner, was born in the KJP Robert Gordon Synod Hospital in Shillong.\n A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Former Indian President, and scientist while delivering a lecture at Indian Institute of Management Shillong on 27 July 2015, suffered a massive heart attack at around 6:30 p.m IST. He was rushed to the hospital in a critical condition and subsequently died of cardiac arrest.\n Bibek Debroy, economist and author; currently serving as the Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India.\n Edward Pritchard Gee, naturalist and author of The Wild Life of India spent his retired life in Evergreen cottage in Upper Shillong. He left for England in 1968 and died soon after.\n Chitta Ranjan Dutta Bir Uttom, Bangladeshi war hero \n Hanuman Prasad Poddar, a great saint who was the founder editor of Kalyan magazine and Gita Press, born in Shillong on 17 September 1892\n Indira Goswami (Mamoni Goswami) spent her early days in Shillong and studied at Pine Mount School.\n John Shepherd-Barron, inventor of the automated teller machine (ATM) was born in Shillong.\n Karen David, a Canadian-British actress, singer, and songwriter born in Shillong. She is best known for portraying \"Princess Isabella Maria Lucia Elizabetta of Valencia\" in ABC's fairytale-themed musical-comedy television series, Galavant, as well as Francesca \"Cesca\" Montoya in the BBC television series Waterloo Road, and Layla in the American action film The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior.\n Captain Keishing Clifford Nongrum, Kargil War veteran is from this city. He was posthumously awarded Mahavir Chakra for his heroics in the Kargil war.\n Leela Majumdar, the writer, spent her childhood days at Shillong, where she studied at Loreto Convent.\n Nirad C. Chaudhuri has written extensively about Shillong in his book The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian.\n Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel laureate, poet, author, thinker, artist, playwright, considered a patriarch of Bengali society, often sojourned in the cool climes of Shillong; besides living in a summer residence called Mitali (today in use as a temporary State Legislative Assembly on loan from the State Art and Culture Department). A writing desk and chair used by the Poet Laureate can still be seen (and used) in the Maharaja Suite of the Tripura Castle Heritage Hotel;\n Reep Hazarika, current Managing Director of Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Limted, did his schooling from St. Edmunds School. \nRobert D'Silva, Pakistani Roman Catholic priest attended seminary in Shillong\n Rono Dutta, president of United Airlines did his schooling from St. Edmunds School.\n Shillong Chamber Choir have performed in the World Choir Olympics and elsewhere in the world. They won the talent show India's Got Talent in 2010.\n Swami Vivekananda (12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born as Narendranath Dutta, was the chief disciple of the 19th-century mystic Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and is the founder of Ramakrishna Mission headquartered at Belur. He was primarily responsible for introducing Hindu philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga in the West and best known for his inspiring speech beginning with \"Sisters and Brothers of America\", in his opening remark at the Parliament of the World's Religions at Chicago in 1893. The Swami delivered the last public lecture of his life in Shillong. The place of his last public lecture have been immortalised by erecting his statue at the very spot (also known as Quinton Memorial/Vivekananda Cultural Centre).\n Utpal Dutt, actor of Bengali and Hindi cinema, studied initially in St. Edmund's School before moving to St. Xavier's Collegiate School Kolkata.\n Victor Banerjee, an actor, was a student of St. Edmund's School.\n Verrier Elwin, British anthropologist and author, recipient of the Padma Bhushan, eventually settled in Shillong and lived in the town until his death in 1964\n Eugeneson Lyngdoh, footballer who plays as a midfielder for Indian Super League side Odisha FC\n\nSee also\n Tourism in North East India\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \nGeography of Meghalaya\nHill stations in Meghalaya\n \nCities and towns in East Khasi Hills district\nTourism in Northeast India\n1864 establishments in India",
"Karaikudi is a City in Sivagangai district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the 20 th largest urban agglomeration of Tamil Nadu based on 2011 census data. It is part of the area commonly referred to as \"Chettinad\" and has been declared a Greater Municipal Corporation by the Government of Tamil Nadu, on account of the palatial houses built with limestone called karai veedu.\n\nKaraikudi comes under the Karaikudi assembly constituency, which elects a member to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly once every five years, and it is a part of the Sivaganga (Lok Sabha constituency), which elects its member of parliament (MP) once in five years. The town is administered by the Karaikudi special grade municipality, which covers an area of . As of 2011, the city had a population of 106,714. The city had a metropolitan population is 181,851 of which 90,799 are males and 91,052 are females in 2011. The municipality consists of karaikudi,Kanadukathan, Kandanur, Kottaiyur, Pallathur, Puduvayal, and Sankarapuram(census town)\n\nThis town is famous for karaikudi kandangi sarees a special type of sarees which come from and are woven in this area.The geogarphical indication presents the government of India of this kandaangi sarees.\n\nHistory\n\nThe town derives its name from the thorny plant Karai, referred to in ancient literature as Karaikudi, which in modern times has become Karaikudi. The town was established in the 19th century, and the oldest known structure is the Koppudaiya Nayagi Amman Temple.\nMahatma Gandhi delivered two speeches in Karaikudi in 1927 and Bharathiyar visited Karaikudi in 1919 to participate in a function. After independence, the town saw significant growth in the industrial sector. Karaikudi and surrounding areas are generally referred as \"Chettinad\". Chettinad comprises a network of 73 villages and 2 towns forming clusters spread over a territory of 1,550 km2 in the Districts of Sivagangai and Pudukottai in the State of Tamil Nadu. Karaikudi is the largest town in Chettinad. Karaikudi and surrounding areas are very popular for their unique palaces, Chettinad Architecture. \nKannadasan Manimandapam, Kamban Manimandapam and Thousand windows house are other visitor attractions in Karaikudi.\n\nThe first Temple for Mother Tamil, Tamil Thai Kovil is located in Karaikudi and was established in 1993. Tamil Thai Kovil is a temple in which the presiding deity is Tamil Thai representing Tamil language, is the only temple in the world for worshiping a language as a God or Goddess. The temple is situated inside the Kamban Mani Mandabam and the street in which the temple is located has been named Tamil Thai Kovil Street. The Tamil Thai Kovil remains closed except during the Kamban Vizha which happens during the month of April every year.\n\nKaraikudi is well known and growing shooting spot in Tamil Nadu. There are many films shot at karaikudi. The kollywood team likes to shoot at karaikudi because of the natural sceneries and the giant palaces and bungalows. Athangudi palace and thousand window house are very famous shooting spots in most of the films.\n\nDemographics \nAccording to 2011 census, Karaikkudi had a population of 181,125 with a sex-ratio of 1,000 females for every 1,000 males, much above the national average of 929. A total of 19,619 children were under the age of six, constituting 10,405 males and 10,214 females. The average literacy rate of the town was 81.48%, compared to the national average of 72.99%. The town had a total of 47504 households. There were a total of 60,069 workers, comprising 244 cultivators, 314 main agricultural labourers, 1,303 in household industries, 30,836 other workers, 17,372 marginal workers, 162 marginal cultivators, 2496 marginal agricultural labourers, 1345 marginal workers in household industries and 9,469 other marginal workers. In Karaikudi, Hinduism is the majority religion with 83.9% of the total population, followed by Islam, 11.39%, Christianity, 4.3%, Jainism, 0.05%, Sikism, 0.01% and Others, the rest.\n\nGeography\nKaraikudi is located in Sivagangai district of Tamil Nadu State. The Trichy–Rameswaram Highway passes through Karaikudi. The Thennar River flows through South Karaikudi. Karaikudi is located at . It has an average elevation of . The terrain of Karaikudi is predominantly flat. Rocky areas are found in the surrounding areas of Karaikudi town with more rocks towards the western side of the town. The soil is of the hard red lateritic type and is not suitable for cultivation. The water table in the area is generally at depths of and rises to nearly below the ground level during rainy seasons. Since the 1970s, the water supply of the Karaikudi residents has depended on the deeper aquifers. The average maximum temperature is about , and average minimum temperature is about . The annual average rainfall in Karaikudi is about .\n\nAdministration and politics\n\nKaraikudi was constituted as a municipality in 1928 and was upgraded to a Grade II Municipality in 1973, to Selection Grade in 1988, to special grade in 2013. The area of the municipality is about 13.75 km2, comprising the revenue villages of Kalanivasal, Sekkalai kottai, Elappakudi Area, Ariyakudi Area and Senjai. The Karaikudi municipality has 36 wards and there is an elected councillor for each of those wards. The functions of the municipality are devolved into six departments: general administration/personnel, Engineering, Revenue, Public Health, city planning and Information Technology (IT). The legislative powers are vested in a body of 36 members, one each from the 36 wards. The legislative body is headed by an elected Chairperson assisted by a Deputy Chairperson.\n\nKaraikudi is a part of the Karaikudi assembly constituency and it elects a member to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly once every five years. The current member of the legislative assembly is S. Mangudi from INC party. Karaikudi is a part of the Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency. The current Member of Parliament from the constituency is Karti Chidambaram from the INC.\n\nLaw and order in the city is maintained by the Sivaganga sub division of the Tamil Nadu Police headed by a Deputy Superintendent. There are three police stations in the city as North police station, south police station, Azhagappapuram police station are mainly being an all-women police station and town police station. There are special units like prohibition enforcement, district crime, social justice and human rights, district crime records and special branch that operate at the district level police division headed by a Superintendent of Police.\n\nCulture\n\nLandmarks\n\nSome prominent temples around the city are: \nKaraikudi Nagara Sivan Kovil, located at the center city of Karaikudi, built by Nagarathars/Chettiars in according to Dravidian Temple architecture\nKoppudaiya Amman Kovil, Kallukatti, Temple in Karaikudi \nAriyakudi Thiruvengamudayan Temple, one of the biggest Vishnu temples of the Chettinad region; located away\nPillayarpatti Karpagavinayagar temple located away \nThirumayam fort 20 km away from the city\nThousand window house, Kanadukathan palace, Athangudi palace, Kannadasan manimandapam, Kamban manimandapam, Azhagappar museum, Sankarapathi fort are other tourist attractions in the city\nThe very famous Chettinad cuisine originated in the areas around Karaikudi.\n\nEconomy\nKaraikudi is a developing urban center in Sivaganga district in Tamil Nadu. UNESCO has offered to set up a Chettinad Heritage Museum in Sivaganga district recognizing the unique style of architecture in the region.\n Chettinad Kottan are palm leaf baskets woven by the women of the region. Chettinad Kottan has been noted for its unique style and colors and was granted a Geographical Indication tag in 2013. Chettinadu Kandangi sarees are a popular type of sarees produced in the region.* In these area around 250 rice mills and paper mills located in puduvayal and pallathur are the sub urban region of karaikudi is one of the trade and commercial economical growth area. It is also called as second rice bowl of Tamil Nadu. Athangudi tiles are basically cement tiles like mosaic used for building the palatial houses in the town and in modern times, is a source for handicraft industry. Indian Overseas Bank was founded on 10 February 1937 in Karaikudi by M. Ct. M. Chidambaram Chettyar.\n\nTransport\n\nBy Air\nNearby airports include Tiruchirapalli International Airport () and Madurai International Airport ().\n\nThough this city is well connected by roadways and railways. This town also has an unused airstrip called Chettinad airport also known as Karaikudi airport. This old British era airfield had been used during the world war 2. The government of India is planning to reopen this airfield under the UDAN scheme\n\nBy Rail\nKaraikudi Junction railway station is a major rail head with 5 platforms and 6 tracks serves the city and Devakottai Road, \nChettinad railway station , Kandanur railway station are the stations around the city.\n\nBy Road\nThe town has two bus terminals namely \"Rajaji Bus-stand\" aka Old Bus terminal and new bus terminal. Buses that connect the Karaikudi city, nearby villages and smaller towns terminate at the Old bus-stand. The State Transport Corporation Buses To:Chennai, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy and near by cities run moffusil buses terminate at the New bus-stand Karaikudi Bus Terminal.\n\nEducation and utility services\nAs of 2011, there were government schools and many private schools in Karaikudi and Azhagappa university colleges, many private colleges in the city. Alagappa University is located in this town and Alagappa Chettiar College of Engineering and Technology is the oldest college here and was established in 1953. CSIR-CECRI's B.Tech. in Chemical and Electro Chemical Engineering is very famous at national level. Azhagappa Government Polytechnic College and Annamali Polytechnic Colleges are other renowned colleges located in Karaikudi area. Electricity supply to Karaikudi is regulated and distributed by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB). The town along with its suburbs forms the Sivaganga Electricity Distribution Circle. Water supply is provided by the Karaikudi Municipality from seven borewells is located at Sambai Oothu (Artesian aquifer). As per the municipal data for 2011, about 45 metric tonnes of solid waste were collected. The underground drainage system in the city is on board at process and the sewerage system for disposal of sullage is through septic tanks, open drains and public conveniences. The municipality maintained a total of of storm water drains in 2011. As of 2011, there was one government hospital and 13 private hospitals in the town. The municipality operates one daily market namely the Anna Daily Market and there are three weekly markets (Uzhavar Santhai) that cater to the needs of the town and the rural areas around it.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n Sivaganga District Administration\n\n \nCities and towns in Sivaganga district",
"Amreli is a city and a municipality in Amreli district in Indian state of Gujarat.\n\nHistory\nIt is believed that during 534 AD Amreli existed was formerly known as Anumanji, Amlik and then Amravati. The city is named in ancient Gujrati as Amarvalli. It is learnt from the inscription that Nagnath temple that ancient name of Amreli city was Amarpalli. It was also called Girvanvalli. Amongst the remains of the ancient town are the memorial stones or paliyas and foundations discovered in the fork of the Thebi and Vari rivers, and two old temples, Kamnath and Trimbaknath, on the west and east of the river.\n\nIn the eighteenth century only the west and south of modern Amreli, still called Juni or Old Amreli, were inhabited. The old inner fort, called Juna Kot, was used as a jail, and the Juna Masjid near it, belong to the old town. Modern Amreli dates from 1793, when Vakhatsingh of Bhavnagar sacked the neighboring Kathi possession of Chital and drove many of its people to Amreli and Jetpur.\n\nInitially Amreli was the part of the former Gaekwad of Vadodara. Very little information on historical background is available for Amreli District prior to becoming part of erstwhile Baroda State.\n\nWhen Damajirao Gaekwad, the Maratha general, came to Kathiawad in about 1730, three parties viz Kathis of Devalia carter, some Saiyads holding major part of Amreli. Obtained for the king of Delhi, and Faujdar of Junagadh, subordinate to suba of Ahmedabad, held sway. Damajirao and the Maratha forces defeated all three and levied tribute on all of them. Later Damajirao Gaekwad, established military camps at Amreli and Lathi in 1742–43 A.D. In 1800, the then Gaekwads appointed (1810–1815) Vithalrao Devaji (Dighe/Kathewad Diwanji) as Sar Subah of the Gaekwad's Kathiawad possessions. Vithalrao Devaji settled in Amreli and developed the city and its surrounding regions over the next 23 years. It was during this period that Amreli became a proper city. He built many works of public utility; among others, temples, offices, a market, and a dam for the water-supply of the town. It was under Amreli-Okhamandal division, one of four divisions of Baroda State.\n\nDuring the Gaekwad regime in 1886, compulsory and free education policy was adopted in Amreli for the first time. After Indian independence in 1947, the district became the part of Saurashtra State which was later merged with Bombay State in 1956. After bifurcation of Bombay State in 1960 into Gujarat and Maharashtra, it became part of Gujarat under Amreli district.\n\nClimate\n\nAttractions\nMost part of the commercial area is called Tower Road stretching from Tower to the Main Bus stand and further to Gopi Cinema.\n Nagnath Temple (built by Vithalrao Devaji)\n Shree Swaminarayan Mahila Sanskar Kendra\nBalaji Hanuman Temple\n Rokadiya Hanuman Temple\n Gebansha Peer Dargah\n Kamnath & Mahadev Temple\n Tower of Amreli\n Swaminarayan Temple\n Trimandir - This temple concept was developed by Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan. Within the temple a tall and attractive idol of Shree Simandhar Swami resides. \n Dwarkadhish Haveli\n Jafari Mazaar (Bohra Dargah of Jafarji Moala)\n Siddhi Vinayak Temple\n Guru Datta Temple\n Sai Baba Temple (Sardarnagar)\n Gayatri Temple\n Sukhnath Mahadev Temple\n Rameshwar mahadev Temple\n Mahatma Muldas Bapu Dham\n Jivan Mukteshwar Temple\n Balaji Hanumanji (Rangpur Road)\n Palace of King\n Shri Girdharilal Sangrahalaya Children Museum and Computer Education Centre (E-Library)\n Gandhi Baugh (Gandhi Garden)\n Kailash Muktidham\n Kamani Forward High School\n Kamani Science & Prataprai Arts College\n\nAttractions (Surrounding Amreli)\n Tapasvini Pujya Vasant Didi Ashram, Liliya Mota \n Shri Bhojalram Dham or Bhojaldham near Fatepur, located 7 km southerly to Amreli\n Pavan dham gaushala, Mota Ankadiya\n Garaneshvar Mahadev Temple, Garni\nMini kedariya of katrodi gam or village\n Hanumanji Temple, Charan Pipali.\n Bhurakhiya Hanuman Temple, Lathi\n Pania Wildlife Sanctuary, Dhari Gir\n Swaminarayan Gurukul, Taravada\n Dhari Khodiyar Dam \nGaladhara Khodiyar Mata Temple, Dhari\n Balmukund haveli, Dhari\n Dhari Gir National sanctuary, Dhari Gir\n Yogiji Temple, Dhari\n Dan gigave ashram and temple or Danevdham, Chalala\nShree balkrishnalallji ni haveli Babra\n Varhaswarup Temple, Jafrabad\n Sarkeshwar Mahadev Temple, Jafrabad\n Ratneshwar Mahadev Temple, Jafrabad\n Lunasapuriya Temple, Jafrabad\n Shiyal bet, Jafrabad\n Jafrabad Fort, Jafrabad\n Pipavav Port, Rajula\n Pipavav Dham, Rajula\n Ballad Mata Mandir, Rajula\n Chanch Bungalow, Rajula\n UltraTech Cement Factory, Rajula\n Sana Vakya Caves, Timbi\n Hanuman Gala, Khambha\n Pandav Kund, Babra\n Dadva Randal Mata Temple, Babra\n Varahi Mata Temple, Savarkundla\n Varudi Mata Temple, Amarpur (Varudi)\n There is a well near the Government offices, called Bakshi-kua from Nana Bakshi in the time of Vithalrao, who built it.\n The Mir Sahib's Haveli was erected about 1850 by Mir Sarfardz Ali; former manager of Amreli, for his own residence.\n\nNotable people\n\n Bhoja Bhagat was a saint.\nYogiji Maharaj – Sadhu Gnãnjivandas (23 May 1892 – 23 January 1971), commonly known as Yogiji Maharaj, was a Hindu sadhu and guru who is recognized as the fourth spiritual successor to Swaminarayan by the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam \n Jivraj Narayan Mehta is first chief minister of newly formed Gujarat state\nRamesh Parekh, famous poet of Gujarat.\nRamesh Oza, is a Hindu preacher famous for Bhagwat Kathakar from a small village Devka near Rajula of Amreli district\nDilip Shanghvi, said to be 2nd richest person in India.\n Savji Dhanji Dholakia, the Indian diamond merchant from Surat and the founder of Hari Krishna Exports Pvt. Ltd., hails from Dudhala village.\nVasant Gajera, founder of Laxmi Diamond Group. \nK Lal Magician, a magician born in Mavjinjava village, Amreli district.\nDina Pathak is famous Bollywood actress & president of National Federation of Indian Women.\n\nDemographics\n India census, Amreli had a population of 90,243. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Amreli has an average literacy rate of 78%, higher than the national average of 59.5%; with 55% of the males and 45% of females literate. 10% of the population is under 6 years of age.\n\nArea – 6,760 km².\nDistrict Population – 15,14,000\nCity Population – 2,75,000\nMale Literacy – 81.82%\nFemale Literacy – 66.97%\nHeadquarters – Amreli\nTalukas – 11\nVillages – 595\n\nSee also\nJalia\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n aapduamreli.com - provide amreli news everyday \n wahgujarat.com – \"Gujarati Cyber Vishamo\" view live \"Gujarat Gaurav Divas Mahotsav – 2008\" in Amreli\nkunkavav.com – kunkavav.com \n\n This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: \n\nCities and towns in Amreli district",
"Silopi () is a city and district of Şırnak Province in Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region, close to the borders of Iraq and Syria. The majority of its people are of ethnic Kurds. The district, composed of Silopi center, three townships with their own municipalities, and 23 villages, has an urban population of 73,400 (2009 census). The mayor Adalet Fidan of the HDP, who was elected in 2019, was deposed the same year and replaced by the sub-governor (kaymakam) Sezer Işiktaş as a \"state-appointed caretaker\" (acting mayor).\n\nThe Habur frontier gate, the only major crossing between Turkey and Iraq, is in the district of Silopi and is a decisive factor in the region's economy. Queues of lorries waiting for customs and security clearance that sometimes reach a few dozen kilometers on the motorway connecting the two countries are a common sight. The Khabur River, which carries the same name as the frontier gate, crosses in the district territory and joins the Tigris here. The Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline also crosses the district.\n\nHistory\n\nTurkish authorities placed the city of Silopi under curfew from 14 December 2015 – 4 January 2016. According to the Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey), 20 people were killed. Since July 2015, 34 people have been killed in Silopi. On August 7, 2015, clashes between Turkish security forces and the Kurdish militant PKK group may have killed three people. Government reports claimed \"terrorists\" were killed, while pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party lawmaker Faysal Sarıyıldız said that the casualties were civilians and that he had seen no sign of armed militants, according to Reuters. The Kurdish-Turkish conflict in the region has escalated since late July 2015.\n\nEmployment\n\nŞırnak Silopi power station is powered by asphaltite coal and is claimed both to emit air pollution and to be an important source of employment. In 2020 the EBRD proposed a just transition to support workers who may lose jobs due to the decline of coal in Turkey.\n\nPeanuts are grown.\n\nSee also\n Mount Judi\n Şırnak death well trials\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Governorship of Şırnak\n Şırnak local newspaper\n\nPopulated places in Şırnak Province\nDistricts of Şırnak Province\nKurdish settlements in Turkey",
"Şırnak () is a town in southeastern Turkey. It is the capital of Şırnak Province, a new province that split from the Mardin and Siirt provinces. The Habur border gate with Iraq which is one of Turkey's main links to Arab countries is also on Şırnak.\n\nNames\nThe settlement was originally called Şehr-i Nuh (City of Noah) since it was near Cudi Mountain where Noah's Ark finally believed to have landed after the Flood.\n\nHistory\n\nDuring the Guti Empire's reign in the region, a special inscription style called \"civi zend\" was invented. Mount Cudi, surrounded by other mountains to the east and northeast and plains to the west and southwest has a unique place in history. It is the mountain on which Noah's Ark is believed to have landed. One of its peaks, at over 2000 meters, is \"Noah's Visit\" (some Islamic scholars argue that Noah landed on Cudi mountain).\n\nOther historical assets of Şırnak include a rock carving from the Assyrians describing a figure on horseback (in Meseici village near Kasrik Pass); other rock carvings dating back to the Neolithic Age which corresponds to 7000 BC (in Beytüşşebap); fortresses of Kale, Meme Kale and Kaletivuru; bridges of the Kasrik Pass which reflect the art stone working in the time of Seljuks; and Virgin Mary Church in Cizre (not to be confused with the one in Ephesus).\n\n1992 Turkish military operation\n\nOn 18 August 1992, fighting broke out between Turkish security forces and Kurdish separatists of the PKK. 20,000 out of 25,000 residents fled the city during the three days of fighting.\n\nWhile the town was under bombardment, there was no way to get an account of what was happening in the region as journalists were prevented from entering the city centre which was completely burned down by the security forces.\nŞırnak was under fire for three days and tanks and cannons were used to hit buildings occupied by civilians.\n\nOn 26 August 1992, Amnesty International sent requests to then Prime Minister, Süleyman Demirel, Interior Minister Ismet Sezgin, Emergency Legislation Governor Ünal Erkan and Şırnak province governor Mustafa Mala, to immediately initiate an independent and impartial inquiry into the events, to ensure no-one was mistreated in police custody and to make their findings public.\n\n2016 Turkish military operation\nOn 13 March 2016 military operations by Turkish security forces began against PKK. The military curfew imposed on the Kurdish city was lifted after 246 days. Neighbourhoods like Gazipasha, Yeshilyurt, Ismetpasha, Dicle, Cumhuriyet and Bahçelievler were completely destroyed in the war.\n\nDemographics and Geography\nThe population of Şırnak province is 430,424 (2009 census) living in an area extending over 7,172 square kilometers. Beytüşşebap, Cizre, Guclukonak, Idil, Silopi and Uludere are the administrative districts of Şırnak. The population of the Şırnak city is 63,664. The total fertility rate is one of the highest in Turkey at 3.21 children per woman.\n\nClimate\nŞırnak has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa, Trewartha: Cs) with chilly, snowy winters and very hot, dry summers. Humidity is always low throughout the year due to its inland location. February and March are the wettest months, July and August are the driest, with virtually no precipitation at all.\n\nPolitics\nThe mayor of Şırnak, Ramazan Uysal, was arrested in October 2011, as part of the KCK investigation, and, as of 12 October 2011, remains in detention.\n\nOn 15 October 2011 it was announced that the Ministry of the Interior had suspended him from his functions.\n\nOn March 29, 2019, elections, Sirnak mayoral position has been win by AKP Mehmet Yarka (19.718 or 61,72%) over HDP Hişar Osal (11.194 or 35,04%).\n\nEconomy\nIn Şırnak, agriculture, animal husbandry and border trade form the backbone of economic life. Wheat, barley and lentil are the main crops. Cotton is grown as an industrial crop. Cizre and Silopi raise high quality pomegranate and grape. Animal husbandry is practiced by nomadic people. They mainly breed sheep and various types of goats (ordinary goat, Angora goat, and brown haired goat specific to the area).\nTraditional handicrafts consist of carpet, kilim and bag weaving. Şırnak scarves are woven out of sheep and goat wool. Beytüşşebap is well known for its kilims.\nNevertheless, Sirnak province is the poorest province of Turkey in terms of per capita income. Its per capita income comes around to around 700 USD, which is similar to that of many sub-Saharan African countries.\nBut in the future, Şırnak has the potential to flourish from meat processing, leather industries and asphalt mining, which has an estimated reserve of 29 million tons.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Tourism information is available in English at the Southeastern Anatolian Promotion Project site.\n\n \nDistricts of Şırnak Province\nPopulated places in Şırnak Province\nKurdish settlements in Turkey",
"Konya (), historically known as Iconium (), is a major city in south-central Turkey, on the south-western edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau. \n\nAs of the last 31/12/2019 estimation, the Metropolitan Province population was 2,232,274 inhabitants whom 1,346,330 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made of the 3 urban districts making it the seventh-most-populous city in Turkey. Konya is a large and industrially developed city and the capital of Konya Province.\n\nThe Konya region has been inhabited since the 3rd millennium BC and was ruled by various civilizations such as Hittite, Phrygian, Persian, Hellenistic and Roman ones. Konya was known as Iconium during classical antiquity. In the 11th century the Seljuk Turks conquered the area and began ruling over its Rûm (Byzantine) inhabitants making Konya the capital of their new Sultanate of Rum. Under the Seljuks, the city reached the height of its wealth and influence. Following the demise of Rum, Konya came under the rule of the Karamanids, before being taken over by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. After the Turkish War of Independence the city became part of the modern Republic of Turkey.\n\nName \nKonya was known in classical antiquity and during the medieval period as (Ikónion) in Greek (with regular Medieval Greek apheresis Kónio(n)) and as in Latin. Ikónion is the Hellenization of an older Luwian name Ikkuwaniya.\n\nBy some the name Ikónion is commonly explained as a derivation from (icon), as an ancient Greek legend ascribed its name to the \"eikon\" (image), or the \"gorgon's (Medusa's) head\", with which Perseus vanquished the native population before founding the city.\n\nAccording to the Suda, Perseus after he married Andromeda founded the city and called it Amandra (Ἄμανδραν) and the city had a stele depicting the Gorgon. The city later changed the name to Ikonion because it had the depiction (ἀπεικόνισμα) of the Gorgon.\n\nIn some historic English texts, the city's name appears as Konia or Koniah.\n\nHistory\n\nAncient history \n\nExcavations have shown that the region was inhabited during the Late Copper Age, around 3000 BC. The city came under the influence of the Hittites around 1500 BC. Later it was overtaken by the Sea Peoples in around 1200 BC.\n\nThe Phrygians established their kingdom in central Anatolia in the 8th century BC. Xenophon describes Iconium, as the city was called, as the last city of Phrygia. The region was overwhelmed by Cimmerian invaders c. 690 BC. It was later part of the Persian Empire, until Darius III was defeated by Alexander the Great in 333 BC. Alexander's empire broke up shortly after his death and the town came under the rule of Seleucus I Nicator. During the Hellenistic period the town was ruled by the kings of Pergamon. As Attalus III, the last king of Pergamon, was about to die without an heir, he bequeathed his kingdom to the Roman Republic. Once incorporated into the Roman Empire, under the rule of emperor Claudius, the city's name was changed to Claudioconium, and during the rule of emperor Hadrianus to Colonia Aelia Hadriana.\n\nAccording to the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles Paul and Barnabas preached in Iconium during their first Missionary Journey in about 47–48 AD, having been persecuted in Antioch. Their visit to the synagogue of the Jews in Iconium divided the Jewish and non-Jewish communities between those who believed Paul and Barnabas' message and those who did not believe, provoking a disturbance during which attempts were made to stone the apostles. They fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia. (This experience is also mentioned in the Second Letter to Timothy,. 19th century American theologian Albert Barnes suggested that Timothy had been present with Paul in Iconium, Antioch and Lystra). Paul and Silas probably visited it again during Paul's Second Missionary Journey in about 50, as well as near the beginning of his Third Missionary Journey several years later. The city became the seat of a bishop, which in ca. 370 was raised to the status of a metropolitan see for Lycaonia, with Saint Amphilochius as the first metropolitan bishop.\n\nIn Christian legend, based on the apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla, Iconium was also the birthplace of Saint Thecla, who saved the city from attack by the Isaurians.\n\nUnder the Byzantine Empire, the city was part of the Anatolic Theme. During the 8th to 10th centuries, the town and the nearby (Caballa) Kaballah Fortress (Turkish: Gevale Kalesi) (location) were a frequent target of Arab attacks as part of the Arab–Byzantine wars.\n\nSeljuk and Karamanid eras\n\nThe Seljuk Turks first raided the area in 1069, but a period of chaos overwhelmed Anatolia after the Seljuk victory in the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, and the Norman mercenary leader Roussel de Bailleul rose in revolt at Iconium. The city was finally conquered by the Seljuks in 1084. From 1097 to 1243 it was the capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum. It was briefly occupied by the Crusaders Godfrey of Bouillon (August 1097), and Frederick Barbarossa (May 18, 1190) after the Battle of Iconium (1190). The area was reoccupied by the Turks after the crusaders left.\n\nKonya reached the height of its wealth and influence in the second half of the 12th century when the Seljuk sultans of Rum also subdued the Anatolian beyliks to their east, especially that of the Danishmends, thus establishing their rule over virtually all of eastern Anatolia, as well as acquiring several port towns along the Mediterranean (including Alanya) and the Black Sea (including Sinop) and even gaining a momentary foothold in Sudak, Crimea. This golden age lasted until the first decades of the 13th century.\n\nMany Persians and Persianized Turks from Persia and Central Asia migrated to Anatolian cities either to flee the invading Mongols or to benefit from the opportunities for educated Muslims in a newly established kingdom.\n\nFollowing the fall of the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate in 1307, Konya became the capital of Karamanids, a Turkish beylik, which lasted until 1322 when the city was captured by the neighbouring Beylik of Karamanoğlu. In 1420, the Beylik of Karamanoğlu fell to the Ottoman Empire and, in 1453, Konya was made the provincial capital of Karaman Eyalet.\n\nOttoman Empire and Turkish Republic eras \n\nDuring Ottoman rule, Konya was administered by the Sultan's sons (Şehzade), starting with Şehzade Mustafa and Şehzade Cem (the sons of Sultan Mehmed II), and later the future Sultan Selim II. Between 1483 and 1864, Konya was the administrative capital of Karaman Eyalet. During the Tanzimat period, as part of the vilayet system introduced in 1864, Konya became the seat of the larger Vilayet of Konya which replaced Karaman Eyalet.\n\nKonya had a major air base during the Turkish War of Independence. In 1922, the Air Force was renamed as the Inspectorate of Air Forces and was headquartered in Konya. In 1923 in the frame of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the Greeks that inhabited Sille, a nearby village, left as refugees and settled in Greece.\n\nGovernment \n\nThe first local administration in Konya was founded in 1830. This administration was converted into a municipality in 1876. In March 1989, the municipality became a Metropolitan Municipality. As of that date, Konya had three central district municipalities (Meram, Selçuklu, Karatay) and a Metropolitan Municipality.\n\nEconomy \n\nThe city ranks among the Anatolian Tigers. There are a number of industrial parks. In 2012 Konya's exports reached 130 countries. A number of Turkish industrial conglomerates, such as Kombassan Holding, have their headquarters in Konya.\n\nWhile agriculture-based industries play a role, the city's economy has evolved into a center for the manufacturing of components for the automotive industry; machinery manufacturing; agricultural tools; casting industry; plastic paint and chemical industry; construction materials; paper and packing industry; processed foods; textiles; and leather industry.\n\nGeography \nKonya is the center of the largest province, the largest plain (Konya Plain) and is among the largest cities in the country. It is the seventh most populated city in Turkey.\n\nThe city is in the southern part of the Central Anatolia Region.\nThe land is broad and flat with a lot of lowlands and plateaus. The plateaus are covered with rich steppes; the southernmost part of Konya is largely surrounded by the Taurus Mountains.\n\nThe city and the southern parts of the greater Konya enjoy abundant sunshine across the country, resulting in big potential in solar farming. The largest solar farm of Turkey is located 20 miles west of the city.\n\nLakes \nLake Tuz, known in Turkish as Tuz Gölü, is the second-largest lake in all of Turkey. This lake supplies Turkey with a large amount of Turkey's salt demand.\n\nBeysehir Lake is on the western part of Konya and is near the border. It is the largest fresh water lake in Turkey and one of the most important national parks. Beysehir Lake is important for tourism in Konya and attracts thousands of people each year to its 2 beaches and 22 islands for water and mountain sports.\n\nMeke Lake is on the border of the Karapinar province and is considered to be a heavily protected natural area.\n\nLake Aksehir is on the border of the Afyon Karahisar province. The area also provides a good habitat for famous Aksehir cherries.\n\nClimate \nKonya has a cold semi-arid climate (BSk) under the Köppen classification and a temperate continental (Dc) climate under the Trewartha classification.\n\nSummers temperatures average , although nightly temperatures in the summer months are cool. The highest temperature recorded in Konya was on 30 July 2000. Winters average , and the lowest temperature recorded was on 6 February 1972. Precipitation levels are low, but precipitation can be observed throughout the year, most frequently in winter and spring.\n\nCulture \n\nKonya was the final home of Rumi (Mevlana), whose tomb is in the city. In 1273, his followers in Konya established the Mevlevi Sufi order of Islam and became known as the Whirling Dervishes. Konya has the reputation of being one of the more religiously conservative metropolitan centers in Turkey. It was once known as the \"citadel of Islam\" and its inhabitants are still comparatively more devout than those from other cities.\n\nEvery Thursday and Saturday, one can see a performance (Sama) by the Whirling Dervishes at the Mevlana Museum. Unlike commercial performances staged at other cities like Istanbul, this is a spiritual session meant to maintain the sanctity of the Order's tradition.\n\nKonya produced Turkish carpets that were exported to Europe during the Renaissance. These expensive, richly patterned textiles were draped over tables, beds, or chests to proclaim the wealth and status of their owners, and were often included in the contemporary oil paintings as symbols of the wealth of the painter's clients.\n\nA Turkish folk songs is named Konyalım, Konyalıya Güzel Derler and Konyalım Yaman Çalar Şak Şak Kaşığı, making reference to a loved one from Konya.\n\nThe local cuisine of Konya includes dishes made of bulgur wheat and lamb meat. One of the renowned dishes of the city is etli ekmek, which is similar to lahmacun and pizza.\n\nMain sights \n\n Sille, northwest from Mevlana Museum: antique village, mosques, churches, cave churches and catacombs\n Ince Minaret Medrese—Museum\n Karatay Medrese—Museum\n Konya Ethnography Museum\n Konya Archaeological Museum\n Atatürk's House Museum\n Mevlâna Museum\nÇatalhöyük\n\nFood\n\nEtli ekmek – flat bread baked with ground meat, peppers, onions, and tomatoes\n\nPişmaniye – similar to American cotton candy and resembling a fully white ball of yarn\n\nFırın kebab – oven-cooked meat (usually lamb)\n\nVarious candies – Konya is known for its sweets, including cezerye, an old Turkish sweet made of carrots\n\nTirit – a traditional rice dish that is made with meat and various vegetables\n\nTavuk suyu – a tomato broth-based soup made with shredded chicken and noodles\n\nSports \n\nThere is one stadium in the city. Its name is Konya Metropolitan Stadium.\n\nKonyaspor is the football club of the city, that appear in Turkish Professional Football League. On May 31, 2017, they won the first national trophy of their history, winning Türkiye Kupası in the final against İstanbul Başakşehir in penalty shootout. The team repeated on August 6, 2017, following winning Türkiye Süper Kupası against Turkey's Beşiktaş champion.\n\nThe city is scheduled to host the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games.\n\nEducation \nSelçuk University had the largest number of students, 76,080, of any public university in Turkey during the 2008–09 academic year. It was founded in 1975. The other public university is Necmettin Erbakan University which was established in Konya in 2010.\n\nPrivate colleges in Konya include the KTO Karatay University.\n\nKonya hosts the Tactical Training Center Anatolian Eagle, a center for training NATO Allies and friendly Air Forces.\n\nTransportation\n\nBus \nThe bus station has connections to a range of destinations, including Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir.\n\nTram \nKonya has a tramway network in the city center, on which the Škoda 28 T trams are being used. The Konya Metro is currently in the planning and development phase and is slated for construction starting in 2020.\n\nRailway \nKonya is connected to Ankara, Eskişehir and Istanbul via the high-speed railway services of the Turkish State Railways.\n\nAirport and airbase \nKonya Airport is a public airport and military airbase that is also used by NATO. In 2006, Konya Airport served 2,924 aircraft and 262,561 passengers. The Third Air Wing of the 1st Air Force Command is based at the Konya Air Base. The wing controls the four Boeing 737 AEW&C Peace Eagle aircraft of the Turkish Air Force.\n\nNotable people \n\n Amphilochius of Iconium, 4th century Christian bishop.\nKaloyan (Byzantine Greek: , \"Kalo Yianni,\" literally 'good John') architect of Cappadocian Greek origin who constructed the Gök Medrese in Sivas.\n Shah Jalal Famous Sufi Muslim figure in Bangladesh\n Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, also called mawlana or Mevlana, was the inspirer of the Sufi Mevlevi order (known for the Whirling Dervishes and Masnavi). He died in Konya in 1273 and his mausoleum is located here.\n Prokopios Lazaridis, Greek Orthodox metropolitan bishop of the Metropolis of Iconium\n Orkut Büyükkökten, a software engineer who developed the social networking service Orkut, was born in 1975 in Konya.\n Mehmet Oz, has a degree as a cardiothoraic surgeon from University of Columbia, a popular televised doctor on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and his own medical informative TV serie The Dr. Oz Show.\n Hilmi Şenalp (1957-), architect.\n\nTwin towns – sister cities\n\nKonya is twinned with:\n\n Bârlad, Romania\n Ganja, Azerbaijan\n Khoy, Iran\n Multan, Pakistan\n Nishapur, Iran\n Al Qadarif, Sudan\n Qom, Iran\n Sanaa, Yemen\n Sheki, Azerbaijan\n Sylhet, Bangladesh\n Kyoto, Japan\n Tetovo, North Macedonia\n Xi'an, China\n\nSee also \n\n Mevlâna Museum\n Anatolian Tigers\n Konya Carpets and Rugs\nChristian saints born in Iconium\n Theodosius the Cenobiarch (c. 423–529 AD), monk, abbot, and saint born in Iconium; a founder and organiser of the cenobitic way of monastic life\n Thecla or Tecla, 1st-century virgin saint of the early Christian Church born in Iconium\n\nSources \n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nGeneral\n\nFurther reading \nPublished in the 19th century\n\nPublished in the 20th century\n\nPublished in the 21st century\n\nExternal links \n\n Britannica.com: Konya\n\n More information about Konya\n Emporis: Database of highrises and other structures in Konya\n Detailed Pictures of Mevlana Museum\n Pictures of the city, including Mevlana Museum and several Seljuk buildings\n 600 Pictures of the city and sights\n Extensive collection of pictures of the Mevlana museum in Konya\n \n \n \n\n \nCities in Turkey\nPopulated places along the Silk Road\nHoly cities\nWorld Heritage Tentative List for Turkey\nLycaonia\nPopulated places in ancient Lycaonia",
"Bayburt () is a city in northeast Turkey lying on the Çoruh River and is the provincial capital of Bayburt Province. According to the 2021 census the population is determined as around 82,274.\n\nBayburt was once an important center on the ancient Silk Road. It was visited by Marco Polo and Evliya Çelebi. Remains of its medieval castle still exist. There are several historical mosques, Turkish baths, and tombs in the city. There are also ancient historical sites such as the Çatalçeşme Underground Complex and natural wonders like the Sirakayalar Waterfall in the other parts of the province.\n\nName and etymology\nThe name of the town was formerly written in Ottoman Turkish as بايبورد (Bayburd) and in English as Baiburt. It was known under a variety of names during the Byzantine period; Procopius naming the city Baiberdon, meanwhile Kedrenos calling it Paiperte. The name derives from the medieval Armenian Baydbert (). In Movses of Khoren's History of Armenia the town is being named as Բայբերդ (Paypert). Movses asserts that the city's ancient name was Smpadapert, in reference to the Smbat I, founder of the Bagratuni dynasty.\n\nHistory\n\nBayburt was subsequently settled or conquered by the Cimmerians in the the Medes in the then the Persians, Pontus, Rome, the Byzantines, the Bagratid Armenian Kingdom, the Seljuk Turks, the Aq Qoyunlu, Safavid Persia, and then the Ottoman Turks.\n\nThe town was the site of an Armenian fortress in the 1st century and may have been the Baiberdon fortified by the emperor Justinian. It was a stronghold of the Genovese in the late Middle Ages and prospered in the late 13th and early 14th century because of the commerce between Trebizond and Persia. It contained a mint under the Seljuks and Ilkhanids. From c. 1243 to 1266, Bayburt was under brief control of the Georgian princes of Samtskhe. A Christian church within the Bayburt castle was built in the 13th century under the Trapezuntine or Georgian influence.\n\nUnder Ottoman rule, the town was the center of the Bayburt Sanjak in Erzurum Eyalet. When Erzurum was devastated in the early 16th century, Bayburt served for a time as the de facto capital of the province. The area was raided by the Safavids in 1553. Bayburt was captured by a Russian army under General Paskevich and its fortifications thoroughly demolished in 1829. It was the furthest westward reach of the Russians during that campaign. The British traveller and geologist William Hamilton commented on the ruins in the 1840s, though the population grew to 6000 by the 1870s. The bazaar, however, remained poor and the town long lacked industry. Prior to the First World War, the population of 10,000 was mostly Turkish with some Armenians.\n\nAccording to the Qamus al-A'lam (Qāmūsu'l-aˁlām/قاموس الأعلام, “Dictionary of the World”) of Shemseddin Sami, Sanjak of Bayburt, comprising four kazas called Ispir, Şiran, Kelkit and Bayburt itself, had 505 villages and 40 nahiyes. The sanjak had a population of 124.019 people. 108.373 people of the population was Turkish and Muslim, and the rest of the population was Christian, predominantly Armenian. \n\nInside the Sanjak of Bayburt there were said to be 292 mosque and masjid, 176 madrasah, 87 church and monastery, 2 middle school (rushdiye), 108 primary school (sıbyan mektebi).\n\nGeography \nBayburt straddles the Çoruh amid an open and fertile plateau on the route between Trabzon and Erzurum.\n\nClimate\nBayburt has a continental climate with warm summers and cold winters. Precipitation is fairly frequent most of the year, with a peak in spring. The city gets frequent, but not necessarily heavy snow, the highest snow depth recorded was 110 cm (43.3 inches) in March 1976.\n\nSights\n\nNature\nBayburt has several parks and open spaces like ''Aslan dağı Ormanı '' (Lion Mount Forest ) \"Gençlik Parkı\" (Youth Park), \"Şehit Nusret Bahçesi\" (Martyr Nusret Gardens), and \"Yenişehir Parkı\" meaning \"New City Park\". The city has of nursery areas, where young plants are raised for the forests of Bayburt. Also there are two caves that visitors can see the interesting natural shapes of the stones. These caves are, \"Çimağıl Cave\" and \"Helva Village Ice Cave\".\n\nCastle\n\nBayburt Castle stands on the steep rocks north of Bayburt. It was held by the Bagratuni Dynasty in the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries. It was completely rebuilt by the Saltukid ruler Mugis-al-Din Tugrul Sah between 1200 and 1230, as attested by an inscription in the walls of the castle. The massive size of its walls and the quality of its masonry place it amongst the finest of all the castles in Anatolia but for its destruction by the Russians during the early nineteenth century. Rebuilding was done during the Ottoman period. The castle was inhabited till the destruction of 1829.\n\nAydıntepe Underground City \nLocated from Bayburt, the site consists of rock-cut galleries, vaulted rooms and wider spaces excavated out of natural rock, without using any building material within from the surface in the tuff. Vaulted galleries about one meter wide and 2 to 2.5 meters tall are expanding on both sides.\n\nThe Dome of Dede Korkut \nThe Dome of Dede Korkut is approximately away from Bayburt, and is located in Masat village. It is located in the middle of village's graveyard, has been hosting plenty of people from many countries including Turkic countries because of Dede Korkut Culture and Art Festival since 1995, and it is held every July. The dome, also known as Ali Baba and Korkut Ata, was restored in 1994, and it was released to the public. It has gained importance after has been included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO in November 2018.\n\nBaksı Museum \n\nThe Baksı Museum stands near the Black Sea, from Bayburt on a hilltop overlooking the Çoruh Valley. Rising in what used to be called Baksı and is now the village of Bayraktar, this unusual museum offers contemporary art and traditional handicrafts side by side under one roof.\n\nSport\nThere is a professional football stadium in the city and many private astroturfed sites. The local football club in Bayburt is Bayburt Özel İdarespor, which currently competes in the TFF Second League. Şalcilarspor played in the Third League between 1986 and 1988.\n\nThere are many indoor swimming pools in Bayburt, among them the semi-olympic swimming pool is the most notable one. It is located in the city center opposite of the Yenişehir Park. The pool water is kept at the same tempereture in summer and winter so that the users can enjoy the pool in the best possible way.\n\nThe city also hosts winter sport activities, such as skiing. Ski resorts are located away from the city center.\n\nEducation\nBayburt University is located at the center of the city, the university has several faculties such as Engineering, Arts and Sciences, and Administrative Sciences. The university also contains a guest house (Turkish: konukevi). There are several vocational schools.\n\nTransportation\nBayburt Bus Terminal, located in the south of the city, is the main transportation hub of Bayburt.\n\nNotable people \n İrşadi Baba (folk poet) (1879-1958)\n Suat Türker\n Dede Korkut\n Bayburtlu Kara Ibrahim Pasha\n Hovhannes XI (Çamaşırciyan) (Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople between 1800 and 1801)\n Krikor Amirian\n Lütfü Silo\n Selim Genç\n Mustafa Yeneroğlu\n Berhan Şimşek\n Hakan Çalhanoğlu\n Vasip Şahin\n Naci Ağbal\n Namık Kemal Zeybek\n Serdar Orçin\n\nTwin cities\n\nBayburt is twinned with:\n\nSee also\n Bayburt Museum of Modern Arts\n Şehit Osman Hill\n Arpalı Kasabası\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\n \n \n\nPopulated places in Bayburt Province\nAncient cities of the Middle East\nDistricts of Bayburt Province\nBayburt District",
"Syangela () was a town of ancient Caria. It was a polis (city-state) and a member of the Delian League, appearing in tribute lists of ancient Athens. It, along with Myndus, avoided synoecism into Halicarnassus when Mausolus united other ancient cities into Halicarnassus.\n \nIts site is located near Kaplan Dağ, Asiatic Turkey.\n\nReferences\n\nPopulated places in ancient Caria\nFormer populated places in Turkey\nGreek city-states\nMembers of the Delian League\nBodrum District\nHistory of Muğla Province",
"Cajamarca (), also known by the Quechua name, Kashamarka, is the capital and largest city of the Cajamarca Region as well as an important cultural and commercial center in the northern Andes. It is located in the northern highlands of Peru at approximately 2,750 m (8,900 ft) above sea level in the valley of the Mashcon river. Cajamarca had an estimated population of about 226,031 inhabitants in 2015, making it the 13th largest city in Peru.\n\nCajamarca has a mild highland climate, and the area has a very fertile soil. The city is well known for its dairy products and mining activity in the surroundings.\n\nAmong its tourist attractions, Cajamarca has numerous examples of Spanish colonial religious architecture, beautiful landscapes, pre-Hispanic archeological sites and hot springs at the nearby town of Baños del Inca (Baths of the Inca). The history of the city is highlighted by the Battle of Cajamarca, which marked the defeat of the Inca Empire by Spanish invaders as the Incan emperor Atahualpa was captured and murdered here.\n\nEtymology \nThe etymology of the Quechua language name Kasha Marka (Cajamarca dialect), sometimes spelled Cashamarka or Qasamarka is uncertain. It may mean 'town of thorns'. Another theory suggests that it is a hybrid name that combines a Quechua kasha 'cold' and the Quechua marca 'place'. All sources agree that the word has Quechua origin.\n\nHistory\n\nThe city and its surroundings have been occupied by several cultures for more than 2000 years. Traces of pre-Chavín cultures can be seen in nearby archaeological sites, such as Cumbe Mayo and Kuntur Wasi.\n\nHuacaloma is an archaeological site located 3.5 km southeast of the historic center of the city of Cajamarca (currently in the middle of the Metropolitan Area of Cajamarca). Its antiquity is calculated between 1500 and 1000 BC, that is to say, it belongs to the Andean Formative Period. It presents enclosures with bonfires, similar to those of La Galgada and Kotosh, but with simpler design. It was a ceremonial center where fire rituals were performed.\n\nIn 1986 the Organization of American States designated Cajamarca as a site of Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Americas.\n\nPre-Columbian Cajamarca\nThe Cajamarca culture began flourishing as a culture during the first millennium AD\n\nThe unbroken stylistic continuity (i.e., autonomy) of Cajamarca art from its inception around 200-100 BC up to the Spanish conquest is remarkable, given the presence of powerful neighbors and the series of imperial expansions that reached this area. It is known essentially only from its fine ceramics made with locally abundant white kaolin paste fired at high temperatures (over 1,000 °C).\n\nCajamarca culture pottery has long been recognized as a prestige ware, given its distinctiveness and wide, if sporadic, distribution. Initial Cajamarca ceramics (200 BC to AD 200) are largely confined to the Cajamarca Basin. Early Cajamarca ceramics (AD 200–450) have more complex and diverse decorations and extensive distribution. They are found in much of the North Highlands as well as in yunka zones on both the Amazonian and Pacific sides of the Andes. In fact, at least one Early Cajamarca high-prestige burial has been documented at the Moche site of San Jose de Moro (lower Jequetepeque), and a set of imported kaolin spoons has been found at the site of Moche, the city capital of the Southern Moche polity.\n\nCajamarca ceramics achieved their greatest prestige and widest distribution during Middle Cajamarca subphase B (700-900), coinciding with Moche demise and dominance of the Wari empire in Peru. Middle Cajamarca prestige ceramics have been found at a great deal of Wari sites, as far as southern-frontier Wari sites such as the city of Pikillacta located in Cusco region. Moreover, the construction of the north coastal settlement of Cerro Chepen, a massive terraced mountain city-fortress in Moche territory is attributed to an apparent joint effort between Wari and Cajamarca polities to ruler over this area of Peru.\n\nIn 2004 a large building erected in Cerro Chepen mountain was excavated, said structure follows high-altitude Andean architectural models, which is tentatively interpreted as an elite residential structure. Excavations have shown an unexpected association between Late Moche domestic ceramics and fine ceramics from the Cajamarca mountains inside the patios, galleries and rooms that make up the structure. The evidence recovered in this building suggests the presence of highland officials in the heart of the Cerro Chepen Monumental Sector.\n\nHowever, the rise of the Middle Sican state on the north coast around 900-1000 saw a notable reduction in the distribution of Late Cajamarca ceramics back to the extent seen during Moche Phase IV.\n\nAnalysis of settlement patterns in the Cajamarca Valley shows a significant reduction in the number of settlements during the Late Cajamarca phase (AD 850–1200). Scholars interpret this reduction in the number of settlements as the result of population reduction and/or dispersion, probably linked to the end of Wari influence in the region and the collapse of the EIP/MH regional polity organized around the center of Coyor in the Cajamarca Valley.\n\nWith the collapse of Wari influence in the Cajamarca region the number of settlements first dropped, but then gradually increased by the Final Cajamarca phase (1250–1532). Cajamarca maintained its prestige, as shown by the influence its ceramics still had on the coast. During the Final Cajamarca phase settlements like Guzmango Viejo or Tantarica in the western slopes of the cordillera to the coast, as well as Santa Delia in the Cajamarca Valley became particularly large (> 20ha). These centers have a larger number of clearly distinguishable elite residential units as well as a greater number of fine ceramics than any earlier sites. It is clear that they are top ranked settlements in the region. At least the centers of the upper sections of the coastal valleys to the west probably benefited from their strategic location in relation first to Sican and later to Chimu. Scholars interpret the changes of the Final Cajamarca phase as evidence of a renewed prosperity and integration of the region.\n\n15th century - Inca Empire and Cuismancu Kingdom\n\nDuring the period between 1463 and 1471, Ccapac Yupanqui and his nephew Tupac Inca Yupanqui, both Apuskispay-kuna or Inca generals, conquered the city of Cajamarca and brought it into the Tawantinsuyu or Inca Empire, at the time it was ruled by Tupac Inca Yupanqui's father, Pachacutiq. Nevertheless, the city of Kasha Marka had already been founded by other ethnic groups almost a century before its incorporation to the Inca empire, approximately in the year 1320.\n\nAlthough Ccapac Yupanqui conquered the city of Cajamarca, the supply line was poorly made and controlled, as he traveled hastily to Cajamarca without building or conquering on much of the journey from central Peru, Ccapac Yupanqui believed Inca army's supply line of troops and supplies wasn't optimal and thus put at risk the Inca control over the newly acquired city of Cajamarca. Ccapac Yupanqui left part of his troops garrisoned at Cajamarca, and then he returned to Tawantinsuyu in order to ask for reinforcements and conducted a more extensive campaign in the territories of central Peru, building a great quantity of infrastructure (such as tambos, colcas, pukaras, etc.) along the Inca road. Incas remodeled Cajamarca following Inca canons of architecture, however, not much of it has survived since the Spanish did the same after conquering Cajamarca.\n\nColonial accounts tell of Cuismancu Kingdom, the historical counterpart of the Final Cajamarca archaeological culture. According to the chroniclers, Cuismanco, Guzmango or Kuismanku (modern Quechua spelling) was the political entity that ruled the Cajamarca area before the arrival of the Incas and was incorporated into the Inca dominion.\n\nThe kingdom or domain of Cuismanco belongs to the last phase of the Cajamarca Tradition and of all the nations of the northern mountains of Peru it was the one to achieve the highest social, political and cultural development.\n\nOral tradition records their title, Guzmango Capac – Guzmango being the name of the ethnic group or polity, while Capac signified a divine ruler whose forefathers displayed a special force, energy, and wisdom in ruling. By the time the Spaniards began to ask about their history, the polity's residents (called Cajamarquinos today) could remember the names of only two brothers who had served as Guzmango Capac under the Incas.\n\nThe first was called Concacax, who was followed by Cosatongo. After Concacax died, his son, Chuptongo, was sent south to serve the emperor, Tupac Inca Yupanqui. There he received an education at court and, as a young adult, became the tutor of one of Inca Yupanqui's sons, Guayna Capac. Oral history records that \"he gained great fame and reputation in all the kingdom for his quality and admirable customs\". It was also said that Guayna Capac respected Chuptongo as he would a father. Eventually, Tupac Inca Yupanqui named Chuptongo a governor of the empire.\n\nWhen Guayna Capac succeeded his father as Sapan Inka, Chuptongo accompanied the new sovereign to Quito for the northern campaigns. After years of service, he asked Guayna Capac to allow him to return to his native people. His wish was granted; and, as a sign of his esteem, Guayna Capac made him a gift of one hundred women, one of the highest rewards possible in the Inca empire. In this way, Chuptongo established his house and lineage in the old town of Guzmango, fathered many children, and served as paramount lord until his death.\n\nThe struggle for the throne between the two half brothers Huascar and Atahualpa, sons of Guayna Capac, also divided the sons of Chuptongo. During the civil war that broke out after Guayna Capac's death, Caruatongo, the oldest of Chuptongo's sons, sided with the northern forces of Atahualpa, while another son, Caruarayco, allied with Huascar, ruler of the south faction.\n\nIn 1532 Atahualpa defeated his brother Huáscar in a battle for the Inca throne in Quito (in present-day Ecuador). On his way to Cusco to claim the throne with his army, he stopped at Cajamarca.\n\nCapture of Atahualpa (1532 A.D.); Colonial period\nOn reaching Cajamarca, Francisco Pizarro received news that Atahualpa was resting in Pultumarca, a nearby hot springs complex, Pizarro soon sent some of representatives under command of the young captain Hernando De Soto to invite the Inca to a feast.\n\nAfter arriving at Atahualpa's camp, Hernando de Soto interviewed with Atahualpa. The Inca Emperor was seated on his gold throne or usnu, with two of his concubines on both sides holding a veil that made only his silhouette recognizable. Atahualpa, impressed by the Spanish horses, asked Hernando de Soto to do an equestrian demonstration. In the final act of his demonstration, Hernando De Soto rode on horseback directly up to Atahualpa to intimidate him stopping at the last moment, however Atahualpa did not move or change his expression in the slightest. Nevertheless, some of Atahualpa's retainers drew back and for it they were executed that day, after the Spanish committee returned to Cajamarca.\n\nAtahualpa agreed to meet with Pizarro the next day, oblivious of the ploy Pizarro had prepared for him. The following day, Atahualpa arrives in procession with his court and soldiers, although unarmed, Spanish accounts tell of the splendor shown by Atahulpa's display, in addition to musicians and dancers, Indians covered the Inca road on which their king would travel with hundreds of colorful flower petals, moreover, Atahualpa's retainers marched unison without speaking a word.\n\nSeveral noble leaders from conquered nations were also present, mostly local kuraka-kuna from the towns nearby, however, there were also notable Tawantinsuyu's nobles among them, there were the prominent rulers known as the \"Lord of Cajamarca\" and the \"Lord of Chicha\", both descendants of kings and owners of huge accumulations of wealth and lands in the Inca Empire, each one accompanied with its own sumptuous court, moreover, both were carried on litters in the same manner of Atahualpa. The Lord of Chicha's court was so opulent, even more than Atahualpa's, that the Spanish, most of them who did not meet Atahualpa until then, at first thought the Lord of Chicha was the Inca Emperor.\n\nPizarro and his 168 soldiers met Atahualpa in the Cajamarca plaza after weeks of marching from Piura. The Spanish Conquistadors and their Indian allies captured Atahualpa in the Battle of Cajamarca, where they also massacred several thousand unarmed Inca civilians and soldiers in an audacious surprise attack of cannon, cavalry, lances and swords. The rest of the army of 40,000–80,000 (Conquistadors' estimates) was stationed some kilometers away from Cajamarca in a large military camp, near the Inca resort town of Pultamarca (currently known as \"Baños del Inca\"), with its thousands of tents as looking from afar \"like a very beautiful and well-ordered city, because everyone had his own tent\".\n\nHaving taken Atahualpa captive, they held him in Cajamarca's main temple. Atahualpa offered his captors a ransom for his freedom: a room filled with gold and silver (possibly the place now known as El Cuarto del Rescate or \"The Ransom Room\"), within two months. Although having complied with the offering, Atahualpa was brought to trial and executed by the Spaniards. the Pizarros, Almagro, Candia, De Soto, Estete, and many others shared in the ransom.\n\nCaruatongo, the \"Lord of Cajamarca\", who was privileged enough to have been carried into the plaza of Cajamarca on a litter, a sure sign of the Inca's favor, died there on 16 November 1532, when Francisco Pizarro and his followers ambushed and killed many of the emperor's retainers and captured the Inca, Atahualpa. Although Caruatongo left an heir (named Alonso Chuplingon, after his Christian baptism), his brother, Caruarayco, succeeded him as headman following local customs. Pizarro himself recognized Caruarayco and confirmed his right to assume the authority of his father. Caruarayco took the name Felipe at his baptism, becoming the first Christian kuraka of Cajamarca. He remained a steadfast ally of the Spaniards during his lifetime, helping to convince the lords of the Chachapoyas people to submit to Spanish rule. Felipe Caruarayco was paramount lord of the people of Guzmango, in the province of Cajamarca, under the authority of the Spaniard, Melchior Verdugo. Pizarro had awarded Verdugo an encomienda in the region in 1 535. Documentation from that year described Felipe as the cacique principal of the province of Cajamarca and lord of Chuquimango, one of seven large lineages or guarangas (an administrative unit of one thousand households) that made up the polity. By 1543, however, Felipe was old and sick. His son, don Melchior Caruarayco, whom he favored to succeed him, was still too young to rule, so two relatives were designated as interim governors or regents: don Diego Zublian and don Pedro Angasnapon. Zublian kept this position until death in 1560, and then don Pedro appropriated for himself the title \"cacique principal of the seven guarangas of Cajamarca\", remaining in office until his death two years later. After his death, the people of Cajamarca asked the corregidor, don Pedro Juares de Illanez, to name don Melchior as their kuraka. After soliciting information from community elders, Illanez named him \"natural lord and cacique principal of the seven guarangas of Cajamarca\". As the paramount Andean lord of Cajamarca, don Melchior was responsible for the guaranga of Guzmango and two more parcialidades (lineages or other groupings of a larger community): Colquemarca (later Espiritu Santo de Chuquimango) and Malcaden (later San Lorenzo de Malcadan. This charge involved approximately five thousand adult males, under various lesser caciques; and, counting their families, the total population that he ruled approached fifty thousand. Most of these mountain people, who lived dispersed in more than five hundred small settlements, subsisted by farming and by herding llamas. Their tribute responsibilities included rotating labor service at the nearby silver mines of Chilete. During one of his many long trips down from the highlands to visit the nearest Spanish city, Trujillo, don Melchior was stricken by a serious illness. He prudently dictated his last will and testament before the local Spanish notary, Juan de Mata, on 20 June 1565. Coming as he did from a relatively remote area where very few Spaniards resided, his will reflects traditional Andean conceptions of society and values before they were fundamentally and forever changed. This is evident in the care he took to list all of his retainers. He claimed ten potters in the place of Cajamarca, a mayordomo or overseer from the parcialidad of Lord Santiago, a retainer from the parcialidad of don Francisco Angasnapon, and a beekeeper who lived near a river. In the town of Chulaquys, his followers included a lesser lord (mandoncillo) with jurisdiction over seven native families. At the mines of Chilete, he listed twenty workers who served him. Don Melchior also claimed six servants with no specific residence and at least twenty-four corn farmers and twenty- two pages in the town of Contumasa. Nine different subjects cared for his chili peppers and corn either in Cascas or near the town of Junba (now Santa Ana de Cimba?). He also listed the towns of Gironbi and Guaento, whose inhabitants guarded his coca and chili peppers; Cunchamalca, whose householders took care of his corn; and another town called Churcan de Cayanbi. Finally, he mentioned two towns that he was disputing with a native lord whose Christian name was don Pedro. In total, don Melchior claimed jurisdiction over a minimum of 102 followers and six towns, including the two in dispute. This preoccupation of don Melchior with listing all of his retainers shows how strong Andean traditions remained in the Cajamarca region, even thirty years after the Spanish invasion. Among the indigenous peoples, numbers of followers denoted tangible wealth and power. An Andean chronicler, Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, wrote that lords \"will gain rank if the numbers [of their subjects] multiply according to the law of the dominion over Indians. And, if their numbers decline, they too lose [status]\". This concept of status was the same one held in the Inca system. The hatun curaca or huno apo, lord of ten thousand households, ranked higher than a guaranga curaca, the lord of one thousand. The latter dominated the lord of one hundred Indians, a pachaca camachicoc, who in turn was superior to the overseers (mandones and mandoncillos) with responsibility for as few as five households. Don Melchior, as a chief of seven guarangas, had jurisdiction over other lesser lords, who themselves ruled individual lineages.\n\nGeography\nCajamarca is situated at 2750 m (8900 ft) above sea level on an inter-Andean valley irrigated by three main rivers: Mashcon, San Lucas and Chonta; the former two join together in this area to form the Cajamarca river.\n\nCityscape\n\nArchitecture \n\nThe style of ecclesiastical architecture in the city differs from other Peruvian cities due to the geographic and climatic conditions. Cajamarca is further north with a milder climate; the colonial builders used available stone rather than the clay of used in the coastal desert cities.\n\nCajamarca has six Christian churches of Spanish colonial style: San Jose, La Recoleta, La Immaculada Concepcion, San Antonio, the Cathedral and El Belen. Although all were built in the seventeenth century, the latter three are the most outstanding due to their sculpted facades and ornamentation.\n\nThe facades of these three churches were left unfinished, most likely due to lack of funds. The façade of the Cathedral is the most elegantly decorated, to the extent that it was completed. El Belen has a completed façade of the main building, but the tower is half finished. The San Antonio church was left mostly incomplete.\n\nChurch of Belen \nThis church consists of a single nave with no lateral chapels. Its facade is the most complete of the three, as it was the first to be designed and built.\n\nCathedral of Cajamarca \nOriginally designated to be a parish church, the cathedral took 80 years to construct (1682–1762); the façade remains unfinished. The Cathedral shows how colonial Spanish influence was introduced in the Incan territory.\n\nSide Portals: The side portals are made of pilasters on corbels. It also bears the royal escutcheon of Spain. The portal is considered to have a seventeenth-century character, found in the rectangular emphasis of the design.\n\nPlan: The plan of the cathedral is based on a basilica plan, (with a single apse, barrel vaults in the nave, a transept and sanctuary), but the traditional dome over the crossing has been omitted.\n\nFaçade: The façade is noted for the detailing of its sculptures and the artistry in carving. Decorative details include grapevines carved into the spiral columns of the cathedral, with little birds pecking at the grapes. The frieze in the first story is composed of rectangular blocks carved with leaves. The detail of the main portal extends to flower pots and cherubs' heads next to pomegranates. \"The façade of Cajamarca Cathedral is one of the remarkable achievements of Latin American art.\"\n\nSan Antonio \nConstruction began in 1699, with the original plans made by Matias Perez Palomino. This church is similar in plan to the Cathedral, but the interiors are quite different. San Antonio is a significantly larger structure and has incorporated the large dome over the crossing. Features of the church include large cruciform piers with Doric pilasters, a plain cornice, and stone carved window frames.\n\nFaçade: This façade is the most incomplete. While designed in a style similar to that of the cathedral, it is a simplified version.\n\nClimate\nCajamarca has a subtropical highland climate (Cwb, in the Köppen climate classification) which is characteristic of high elevations at tropical latitudes. This city presents a semi-dry, temperate, semi-cold climate with presence of rainfall mostly on spring and summer (from October to March) with little or no rainfall the rest of the year.\n\nDaily average temperatures have a great variation, being pleasant during the day but cold during the night and dawn. January is the warmest month, with an average maximum temperature of 72 °F (22 °C) and an average minimum of 45 °F (7 °C). The coldest months are June and July, both with an average maximum of 71 °F (21 °C) but with an average minimum of 38 °F (3 °C). Frosts may occur but are less frequent and less intense than in the southern Peruvian Andes.\n\nDemographics \nIn recent years, the city has experienced a high rate of immigration from other provinces in the region and elsewhere in Peru, mainly due to the mining boom. This phenomenon has caused the city's population to increase considerably, from an estimated 80,931 in 1981 to an estimated 283,767 in 2014, an increase of almost three times the population for 33 years. Likewise, the city has recently entered into a conurbation process with the town of Baños del Inca (which by 2014 has more than 20,000 inhabitants in the urban area) and with some populated centers close to these cities. According to INEI, projections exist for the urban conglomerate to reach 500,000 inhabitants by 2030.\n\nEconomy\nCajamarca is surrounded by a fertile valley, which makes this city an important center of trade of agricultural goods. Its most renowned industry is that of dairy products. Yanacocha is an active gold mining site 45 km north of Cajamarca, which has boosted the economy of the city since the 1990s.\n\nTransportation \nThe only airport in Cajamarca is Armando Revoredo Airport located 3.26 km northeast of the main square. Cajamarca is connected to other northern Peruvian cities by bus transport companies.\n\nThe construction of a railway has been proposed to connect mining areas in the region to a harbor in the Pacific Ocean.\n\nEducation\nCajamarca is home of one of the oldest high schools in Peru: San Ramon School, founded in 1831. Some of the largest, most important schools in the city include Marcelino Champagnat School, Cristo Rey School, Santa Teresita School, and Juan XXIII School.\n\nCajamarca is also a centre of higher education in the northern Peruvian Andes. The city hosts two local universities: Universidad Nacional de Cajamarca (National University of Cajamarca), a public university, while Universidad Antonio Guillermo Urrelo is a private one. Five other universities have branches in Cajamarca: Universidad Antenor Orrego, Universidad San Pedro, Universidad Alas Peruanas, Universidad Los Angeles de Chimbote and Universidad Privada del Norte.\n\nCulture \nCajamarca is home to the annual celebration of Carnaval, a time when the locals celebrate Carnival before the beginning of Lent. Carnival celebrations are full of parades, autochthonous dances and other cultural activities. A local Carnival custom is to spill water and/or some paint among friends or bypassers. During late January and early February this turns into an all-out water war between men and women (mostly between the ages of 6 and 25) who use buckets of water and water balloons to douse members of the opposite sex. Stores everywhere carry packs of water balloons during this time, and it is common to see wet spots on the pavement and groups of young people on the streets looking for \"targets\".\n\nNotable people from Cajamarca \n\n Carlos Castaneda:(1925-1998) Author and anthropologist.\n :es:Lorenzo Iglesias:(1844-1885) Independence hero.\n Mariano Ibérico Rodríguez:(1892-1974) Philosopher.\n :es:Rafael Hoyos Rubio:(1924-1981) General.\n Fernando Silva Santisteban:(1929–2006) Anthropologist.\n Andrés Zevallos de la Puente:(1916-2017) Painter.\n Mario Urteaga Alvarado:(1875-1957) Painter.\n :es:Camilo Blas (José Alfonso Sánchez Urteaga):(1903-1985) Painter, and member of the \"Grupo Norte\" intellectual community of Peru.\n Amalia Puga de Losada:(1866-1963) Writer and poetess.\n :es:José Gálvez Egúsquiza:(1819-1866) War hero from the \"Combate del 2 de mayo\".\n :es:Toribio Casanova:(1926-1867) Founder of the Cajamarca region.\n :es:Aurelio Sousa y Matute:(1860-1925) Politician who served as minister, deputy and senator.\n\nSee also \n Spanish conquest of Peru\n Yanacocha\n Yanantin\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n Conquest of the Incas. John Hemming, 1973.\n\nExternal links \n \n Cajamarca map\n Cajamarca information, photos and travel \n Miracle Village International a charity that works in Cajamarca with\n Villa Milagro\n Davy College\n\n \nPopulated places in the Cajamarca Region\nCajamarca Region\nCities in Peru\n15th-century establishments in the Inca civilization\nPopulated places established in the 15th century\n16th-century disestablishments in the Inca civilization\n1533 establishments in the Spanish Empire\nPopulated places established in 1533\nRegional capital cities in Peru",
"Ilave, also known as Illawi, is the capital city of the Ilave District in El Collao Province, in the Puno Region of Peru. According to the projection of the 2012 census, it has 57,366 inhabitants.\n\nReferences\n\nPopulated places in the Puno Region",
"Canta is a town in the Lima Region, in western Peru. The town is located on the Chillón River and is the capital of the Canta Province. With a population of 2,385 (2017 census), it is also the capital of Canta District. It is frequently visited by tourists from Lima because of its quietness and the beauty of its natural landscapes. The town's altitude is 2,819 m above sea level.\n\nEtymology\nThe word canta comes from the Cauqui language spoken by the ancient inhabitants and their meaning can be indicated with these two meanings:\n canta = tie to catch vicunas\n canta = hillside, decline\n\nLocation\nThe town is from Lima, about a three-hour bus ride, and is often visited by geography students from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru. The small town of Obrajillo is nearby.\n\nHistory\nAt some time in the 16th century, it was dominated by the Inca Pachacutec during his path to the north. The Spanish conquistadors found Canta in a prosperous locality. It was given like a parcel to don Nicolás de Ribera. During the campaign for the Independence from the Spanish crown, its people had given strong support to the cause of liberation. For that, in 1839 it was declared \"heroic village\".\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n La Viuda myth\n Cantamarca, archaeological site\n\nPopulated places in the Lima Region",
"Tocache is a town in Northern Peru, capital of the province Tocache in the region San Martín. There were 23,511 inhabitants according to the 2007 census.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nSatellite map at Maplandia\n\nPopulated places in the San Martín Region",
"Candarave is a town in the Tacna Region in southern Peru. It is the capital of Candarave Province.\n\nClimate\n\nReferences\n\nPopulated places in the Tacna Region",
"Kulachi (کلاچی) is a city named after the Kulachi Baloch tribe and is the headquarters of Kulachi Tehsil (an administrative subdivision) of Dera Ismail Khan District in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is located at at an altitude of 209 metres (688 feet).\n\nEconomy \nKulachi is an agricultural city. The area lies at the foot of the Sulaiman Range and hence is irrigated by flood water from Sulaiman Mountains. The system of irrigation is called Rod Kohi, a system of mountain channels or hill-torrents inundating the whole valley of Damaan (\"Rod\" means \"channel\" and \"Koh\" means \"mountain\" in Persian). The Rod Kohi system based on \"Kulyat Riwajat\" (Fromulae and Traditions) governed the irrigation system ever since the Pathan tribes had moved into Damaan. The British officers reduced all these to writing during their Land Settlemts in the later part of nineteenth century. The Bolton Irrigation Notes of 1908 are still considered as the Bible of Rod Kohi Irrigation.\n\nNotes\n\nPopulated places in Dera Ismail Khan District\nCities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa\nhttps://www.citypopulation.de/en/pakistan/distr/admin/dera_ismail_khan/60704__kulachi/",
"Chishtian () is a city in Bahawalnagar district in Punjab Province, Pakistan. For administrative purposes, it is a part of the similarly named Chishtian Tehsil. It is the 59th largest city of Pakistan by population.\n\nEducation\n Daanish Schools\n Government Post Graduate College for Girls\n\nHealthcare\nA branch of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre is based in Chishtian.\n\nReligion\n\nThe city experienced armed sectarian violence in 2013 between Sunni and Shia Muslims. The local authorities called in the Pakistan Army to bring order to the situation, which may have been a reaction to similar violence in Rawalpindi on the preceding day.\n\nReferences\n\nPopulated places in Bahawalnagar District\nCities in Pakistan\nCities and towns in Punjab, Pakistan\nCities and towns in Bahawalnagar District",
"Gojra (Punjabi and ), the administrative capital of Gojra Tehsil, is the city of Toba Tek Singh District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Gojra is from Faisalabad, from Lahore and north of Toba Tek Singh. Founded in 1896 during the British colonial period, Gojra was the commercial centre of lands which had recently come under cultivation, and was known for its \"mandi\" (market) for cash crops.It is the 50th largest city of Pakistan by population according to the 2017 census.\n\nHistory\n\nPre-Independence\nGojra city was established in 1896, when the colonisation of Faisalabad began. The railway line between Faisalabad and Gojra was laid in 1899. The town was given the status of notified area committee in 1904 and upgraded to a B-Class Municipality in 1925. In 1906, the population was 2,589, according to The Imperial Gazetteer of India.\"The business done in this rising mart on the railway, which has sprung into existence in the last six years owing to the extension of the Chenab Canal to the surrounding country, bides fair to rival in importance that of Faisalabad itself\".</ref>\n\nIn 1919, following the Rowlatt Act, hartals broke out throughout Punjab. Gojra was affected by serious protests and a member of the Church Mission Society had to be escorted out of the town by loyal residents.\n\nPost-Independence\nIn August 1947, India and Pakistan achieved independence. Riots and local fighting followed the expeditious withdrawal of the British, resulting in an estimated one million civilians deaths, particularly in the western region of Punjab. Gojra, which was in the region of the Punjab Province that became West Pakistan, was populated by a number of Hindus and Sikhs who migrated to India, while Muslim refugees from India settled in the district.\n\nAfter independence from Britain, in view of its increasing size, it was declared as a 2nd class Municipal Committee in 1960. Gojra was raised to the status of tehsil town and affiliated with the newly established district Toba Tek Singh on 01.07.1982. After the introduction of Devolution of Powers Plan, the Tehsil Municipal Administration Gojra came into being on 12.08.2001.\n\nGeography\n\nGojra's coordinates are as UTM: BQ74\n\nGeographical coordinates in decimal degrees (WGS84)\nLatitude: 31.150\nLongitude: 72.683\nGeographical coordinates in degrees minutes seconds (WGS84)\nLatitude: 31 09' 00 \nLongitude: 72 41' 00\n\nGeology\n\nThe district of Toba Tek Singh is part of the alluvial plains between the Himalayan foothills and the central core of the Indian subcontinent. The alluvial deposits are typically over 1,000 feet thick. The interfluves are believed to have been formed during the Late Pleistocene and feature river terraces. These were later identified as old and young floodplains of the Ravi River on the Kamalia and Chenab Plains. The old floodplains consist of Holocene deposits from the Ravi and Chenab rivers.\n\nThe soil consists of young stratified silt loam or very fine sand loam that makes the subsoil weak in structure with common kankers at only five feet. The course of the rivers in Faisalabad are winding and often subject to frequent alternations. In the rainy season, the currents are very strong. This leads to high floods in certain areas which last for days.\n\nThe Rakh and Gogera canals have encouraged the water levels in the district; however, the belt on the Ravi River has remained narrow. The river bed includes the river channels which have shifted the sandbars and low sandy levees leading to river erosion.\n\nThis area is between the Chenab and Ravi rivers. There is a mild slope from the northeast to the southwest with an average fall of 0.2–0.3 metres per kilometre (1.1–1.6 feet per mile). The topography is marked by valleys, local depression and high ground.\n\nPlaces \nNotable places near Gojra include:\n\n Chak 95 JB Gill\n Chahal\n Chawinda\n Garden Town\n\nEconomy\nThe surrounding countryside, irrigated by the lower Chenab River, produces cotton, wheat, sugarcane, vegetables and fruits. The city is an industrial centre with major railway yards, engineering works, and mills that process sugar, flour, and oil seed. Gojra is known for producing crops, especially in wheat production, as well as sugarcane and cotton. Gojra has its own fabric mills, which import and export to other countries.\n\nGovernment and public services\n\nCivic administration \n\nThe city was raised to the status of Tehsil town and affiliated with the newly established district Toba Tek Singh on 1 July 1982. After the introduction of the Devolution of Powers Plan, the Tehsil Municipal Administration Gojra came into being on 12 August 2001. The Canal resthouse is the oldest building constructed during British government in 1898.\n\nAfter Gojra has reached tehsil status:\n\nIt has an area of 1,115 km2 and is administratively separated into 24 Union Councils. The aim of the city government is to empower politics by improving governance which basically involved decentralising administrative authority with the establishment of different departments and respective department heads, all working under one platform. The stated vision and mission of the city district government of Gojra is to \"establish an efficient, effective and accountable city district government, which is committed to respecting and upholding women, men and children's basic human rights, responsive towards people's needs, committed to poverty reduction and capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century. Our actions will be driven by the concerns of local people.\"\n\nMunicipal administration\n\nTMA Gojra was established in 2001. Under Govt rules it was stated that TMA is responsible for every action in municipal administration. TMA Gojra is currently working efficiently in its specified domain. After independence in view of its increasing size, it was declared a 2nd class Municipal Committee.\n\nThe functions of the TMA include preparation of the spatial and land use plans, management of these development plans and exercise of control over land use, land sub-division, land development and zoning by public and private sectors, enforcement of municipal laws, rules and by-laws, provision and management of water, drainage waste and sanitation along with allied municipal services.\n\nLaw enforcement\n\nLaw enforcement in Gojra is carried out by the city police, under the command of the Punjab police officer, an appointment by the provincial government. The office of the CPO is in the District Courts, Faisalabad. Police formations include district police, elite police, traffic police, Punjab highway patrolling, investigation branch, and special branch.\n\nDemographics\n\nThe province of Punjab, in which Gojra is the administrative seat, has prevalent sociocultural distinctions. Population sizes vary by district but some distinguishing factors include a young age structure, high age-dependency ratio, a higher percentage of males, a higher proportion of married population, and heterogeneity in castes and languages.\n\nIslam is the common heritage in the region with a 97.22% Muslim majority according to the 1998 Pakistan census report and 2001 population data sheet. Islamic influences are evident in the fundamental values of inhabitants including cultural traditions, marriage, education, diet, ceremonies and policies that may reflect stark differences in rural villages as compared to urban areas. People live in tight-knit joint families, although a nuclear family system is emerging due to changing socio-economic conditions .\n\nPrevalent minorities, particularly Hindu and Christian, feel a sense of vulnerability because of their religious beliefs. Labourers and farmhands comprise the countless Christian villages throughout Punjab. Many are descendants of people who converted from Hinduism to Christianity under the British Raj and considered low caste by virtue of their birth. A small population of wealthy, well-educated Christians have settled in Karachi; however, as a result of increasing Islamization, religious intolerance in Pakistani society, blasphemy laws and Islamist militancy, most have left Pakistan to settle where there is more religious tolerance, such as Canada and Australia.\n\nThe region was the scene of the 2009 Gojra riots in which a series of attacks targeting Christians led to the deaths of eight people including four women and a child.\n\nCulture\n\nFestivals \n\nThe Punjabi people celebrate cultural and religious festivals throughout the region, such as arts and craft, music, local events, and religious celebrations.\n\nThe city of Gojra customarily celebrates its independence day on 14 August by raising the Pakistan flag at every home and important Govt buildings. Bazaars are colourfully decorated for the celebration, government and private buildings are brightly lit, and there are similar flag–raising ceremonies that are typically held in the district and its tehsils.\n\nThe arrival of spring brings the annual \"Rang-e-Bahar\" festival during the month of March, where the Parks & Horticulture Authority of the Gojra Municipal Committee organise a flower show and exhibition at Civil Club, Gojra.\n\nBeing a Muslim majority city, religious observances include Ramadan(Ramzan) and Muharram. The festivals of Chaand Raat, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha are celebrated and are national holidays. The celebration of the Prophet Muhammad birthday is observed in the city which is often referred to as \"Eid Milād-un-Nabī\". There are darbar and shrines which attract devotees during the annual Urs. There are Christian churches in the city where Easter and Christmas services take place.\n\nAttire \nTraditional attire in Gojra is Punjabi clothing such as the dhoti, kurta and pagri. Gojra men wear white shalwar kameez as do women but with a dupatta (scarf). Mostly women wear burqas that may or may not cover the face. Combinations of Pakistani and Western attire are worn by women, such as an embroidered kurta worn with jeans or trousers, and half sleeve or sleeveless shirts with Capri pants. Men have adopted some of the modern Western styles for both casual and formal business dress such as dress pants, trousers, T-shirts and jeans.\n\nFood \nGojra's cuisine is very much Punjabi cuisine, with influences from the times of the Mughal and Colonial empires. Key ingredients include rice or roti (flatbread) served with a vegetable or non-vegetable curry, a salad consisting of spiced tomatoes and onions, and yogurt. This is usually accompanied by South Asian sweets such as jaggery, gajar ka halwa, gulab jamun, and jalebi. Tandoori barbecue specialties consist of naan bread served with tandoori chicken, chicken tikka or lamb shishkebab served with a mint chutney.\n\nStreet foods are a key element to cuisine. Samosas (deep fried pastry filled with vegetables or meat) are topped with an onion salad and two types of chutney. Other street foods include dahi bhale (deep fried vadas in creamy yoghurt), gol gappay (fried round puri filled with vegetables and topped with tamarind chutney) and vegetable or chicken pakoras. Biryani and murgh pilao rice are a specialty in Gojra.\n\nA typical breakfast in Gojra is halwa poori comprising a deep-fried flatbread served with a spicy chickpea curry and sweet orange-coloured halwa. It is customarily accompanied by a sweet or salty yoghurt-based drink called lassi. During winter, a common breakfast is roghni naan bread served with paya curry.\n\nSpecialty drinks vary depending on climate. During winter, hot drinks are available, such as rabri doodh, a creamy dessert drink commonly made with full-fat milk, almonds, pistachios and basil seeds, dhood patti (milky tea), and Kashmiri chai, a pink coloured milky tea containing almonds and pistachios. During summer, drinks such as sugarcane rusk, limo pani (iced lemon water), skanjvi (iced orange and black pepper) and lassi are common.\n\nEducation\n\nGovernment institutes\nGojra's public institutions for higher education include:\n Government College Of Commerce, Gojra\n Government Girls High School, Gojra\n Government Islamia High School, Gojra\n Government M. C. High School, Gojra\n Government Municipal Degree College, Gojra\n Government Postgraduate College, Gojra\n\nPrivate institutes\nThe city has 344 state-run primary and higher secondary educational institutions. Prominent institutions within the city boundary are\n Punjab Group of Colleges started classes in 2012. The Gojra Campus is on Gojra-Faisalabad Road near bypass stop.\n Al-Barkat Higher Secondary School Pensra Road Gojra \n Al-Islah Model High School Gojra\n Allama Iqbal Science College Sumandari Road Gojra\n Allied Schools is a school system which is working under the Punjab Group of Colleges in Gojra.\n Apna School System, Gojra\n Divisional Model College\n Divisional Public School\n Ghazali High School near Shell Pump Pensra road Gojra.\n Jinnah College, Gojra\n Junior Model School\n Knowledge House Institute of Technology, Pensra Road, Gojra \n Leaders Academy near Shell pump Pensra Road Gojra.\n Muslim College, Gojra\n Muslim College of Science, Gojra\n Muslim Scholars college for Girls\n Punjab College Bypass, Gojra\n Quaid Public High School, Bobak Chock\n Quaid-e-Azam High School\n Shiblee Group of Schools & Colleges, Gojra\n Skyline College for Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, Gojra.\n Superior Allama Iqbal Science College Takki Mohla Gojra\n The Arqam Schools, Gojra\n The Dawn School\n The Educators Amna Campus. \n The Royal Public School, Mahdi Bazar, Gojra\n The Scholars Public Middle School\n The Smart School Near Bypass Toba Road Gojra.\n\nLanguages\n\nThe population speaks Punjabi as mother tongue while the national language Urdu is widely spoken.\n\nArabic is taught in Madrasahs and Masjids as a religious language. English as the official language is taught in all schools.\n\nHealth\n\nPublicly funded Govt are various hospitals in Gojra. Government funded Govt Eye and General Hospital is also running in this area. This hospital built before Independence, has 150 bed facility. This hospital is very famous in area because of its special eye related services to its patients.\n\nThere are various private hospitals in Gojra. They provide quality health treatment to patients.These are specialized in providing primary to specialized health care facilities to its citizens. These hospitals provide beds facility for its patients. In addition, there are also running private welfare institutions with specialized health care like Hameed children hospital running by Dr. Ataullah Hameed.\n\nSports \nGojra contributed a number of players to the Pakistan Hockey team. In 2015, Gojra Hockey Club, a local club, won the Jat Tar Singh memorial U19 (Under 19) hockey tournament. This high-profile tournament was held in India, where Gojra city team competed again best of Indian U19 hockey teams and won the championship. The Gojra team won this title by defeating Amritsar Academy 4–2 at Ludhiana hockey stadium.\n\nIn cricket, Gojra's Ehsan Adil has represented the Faisalabad Wolves, Habib Bank Limited cricket team and Pakistan Under-19 cricket team. He has been selected in Pakistan's Test Squad for tour to South Africa in February 2013.\n\nNotable people \n\n Ehsan Adil - cricketer\n Tariq Imran - hockey player\n Muhammad Irfan - hockey player\n Mehak Malik - dancer and actress\n Muhammad Nadeem - hockey player\n Muhammad Qasim - hockey player\n Imran Shah - hockey player\n Tahir Zaman - hockey player\n\nReferences \n\nPopulated places in Toba Tek Singh District",
"Bhawana (also spelled as Bhowana) (, ) is the capital of Bhawana tehsil and a city in Punjab, Pakistan. It is located on the bank of the Chenab river, bounded by Faisalabad, Jhang, and Chiniot, three other cities in Punjab.\n\nHistory \nBhawana is basically a Sial cast. Bhawana is one of the ancient cities of Pakistan. The Mughal Emperor Zahir-ud-din Babur also mentions the area in his book the Tuzk-e-Babari for its fine architecture and finely handcrafted jharoka windows of many of the old havelis (manors) and other buildings of the old/medieval town.\n\nGeography and climate \nBhawana is located by the side of Jhang Chiniot road and on the left bank of the Chenab river. Recently, with a budget of 250 million rupees, a bridge from Bhawana to Kalri has been constructed over the Chenab river. Leaders of opposition political parties specially Imran Khan and Billawal Bhutto have criticised the Chief Minister Punjab Shabaz Sharif for spending such a huge amount on a bridge to benefit CM' owned Ramzan Sugar Mills. Its soil is very fertile and is among the largest agricultural areas, and the city itself also depends considerably on agriculture to bolster its economy. It is situated 37 km from Chiniot, 50 km from Faisalabad, 48 km from Jhang and 70 km from Sargodha. Its weather is much like the rest of Pakistan's, with summer, spring, winter and autumn seasons. Its temperatures are usually moderate.\n\nPersonalities \n Saqlain Anwar Sipra\n\nVisiting places \n Dost Muhammad Lali Bridge\n Karodiya Park\n\nSee also \n\n Economy of Faisalabad\n List of schools in Pakistan\n Mandi Shah Jeewna\n Sheikhan\n Sial Sharif\n Sultan Bahu\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Bhawana at the Google Maps\n\nChiniot District\nFaisalabad District\nPopulated places in Chiniot District\nCities in Punjab (Pakistan)",
"Multan (; ) is a city and capital of Multan Division located in Punjab, Pakistan. Situated on the bank of the Chenab River, Multan is Pakistan's 7th largest city and is the major cultural and economic centre of Southern Punjab.\n\nMultan's history stretches deep into antiquity. The ancient city was site of the renowned Hindu Multan Sun Temple, and was besieged by Alexander the Great during the Mallian Campaign. Multan was one of the most important trading centres of medieval Islamic India, and attracted a multitude of Sufi mystics in the 11th and 12th centuries, earning the city the sobriquet \"City of Saints\". The city, along with the nearby city of Uch, is renowned for its large number of Sufi shrines dating from that era.\n\nEtymology\nThe origin of Multan's name is unclear. Multan may derive its name from the Old Persian word mulastāna, meaning “frontier land,” or possibly from the Sanskrit word mūlasthāna (the root place), which itself may be derived from the Hindu deity worshipped at the Multan Sun Temple. Hukm Chand in the 19th century suggested that the city was named after an ancient Hindu tribe that was named Mulu.\n\nHistory\n\nAncient\nThe Multan region has been continuously inhabited for at least 2,000 years. The region is home to numerous archaeological sites dating to the era of the Early Harappan period of the Indus Valley Civilisation, dating from 3000 BCE until 2800 BCE.\n\nAccording to the Persian historian Firishta, the city was founded by a great grandson of Noah. According to Hindu religious texts, Multan was founded by the Hindu sage Kashyapa and also asserts Multan as the capital of the Trigarta Kingdom ruled by the Katoch dynasty at the time of the Kurukshetra War that is central the Hindu epic poem, the Mahabharata.\n\nAncient Multan was the center of a solar-worshiping tradition that was based at the ancient Multan Sun Temple. While the tradition was dedicated to the Hindu Sun God Surya, the cult was influenced by Persian Zoroastrianism. The Sun Temple was mentioned by Greek Admiral Skylax, who passed through the area in 515 BCE. The temple is also mentioned in the 400s BCE by the Greek historian, Herodotus.\n\nGreek invasion\nMultan is believed to have been the Malli capital that was conquered by Alexander the Great in 326 BCE as part of the Mallian Campaign. During the siege of the city's citadel, the Alexander leaped into the inner area of the citadel, where he killed the Mallians' leader. Alexander was wounded by an arrow that had penetrated his lung, leaving him severely injured. During Alexander's era, Multan was located on an island in the Ravi river, which has since shifted course numerous times throughout the centuries.\n\nIn the mid-5th century CE, the city was attacked by a group of Hephthalite nomads led by Toramana. By the mid 600s CE, Multan had been conquered by the Chach of Alor, of the Hindu Rai dynasty.\n\nIslamic conquest and Rule\n\nAfter his conquest of Sindh, Muhammad ibn Qasim in 712 CE captured Multan from the local ruler Raja Dahir following a two-month siege.\nMuhammad ibn Qasim's army was running out of supplies, but Multan's defenses were still holding strong. His army was considering a retreat when an unnamed Multani came to him and told him about and underground canal from which they derived their sustenance. He told them that if Muhammad's army were to block that canal, Multan would be under their control. Muhammad ibn Qasim blocked the canal and soon took control of Multan.\nFollowing ibn Qasim's conquest, the city's subjects remained mostly non-Muslim for the next few centuries.\n\nEmirate of Multan\n\nAbbassid Amirate\n\nBy the mid-800s, the Banu Munabbih (855–959) also known as the Banu Sama, who claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad's Quraysh tribe came to rule Multan, and established the Amirate of Banu Munabbih, which ruled for the next century.\n\nDuring this era, the Multan Sun Temple was noted by the 10th century Arab geographer Al-Muqaddasi to have been located in a most populous part of the city. The Hindu temple was noted to have accrued the Muslim rulers large tax revenues, by some accounts up to 30% of the state's revenues. During this time, the city's Arabic nickname was Faraj Bayt al-Dhahab, (\"Frontier House of Gold\"), reflecting the importance of the temple to the city's economy.\n\nThe 10th century Arab historian Al-Masudi noted Multan as the city where Central Asian caravans from Islamic Khorasan would assemble. The 10th century Persian geographer Estakhri noted that the city of Multan was approximately half the size of Sindh's Mansura, which along with Multan were the only two Arab principalities in South Asia. Arabic was spoken in both cities, though the inhabitants of Multan were reported by Estakhri to also have been speakers of Persian, reflecting the importance of trade with Khorasan. Polyglossia rendered Multani merchants culturally well-suited for trade with the Islamic world. The 10th century Hudud al-'Alam notes that Multan's rulers were also in control of Lahore, though that city was then lost to the Hindu Shahi. During the 10th century, Multan's rulers resided at a camp outside of the city named Jandrawār, and would enter Multan once a week on the back of an elephant for Friday prayers.\n\nIsmaili Emirate\n\nBy the mid 10th century, Multan had come under the influence of the Qarmatian Ismailis. The Qarmatians had been expelled from Egypt and Iraq following their defeat at the hands of the Abbasids there. Qarmatians zealots had famously sacked Mecca, and outraged the Muslim world with their theft and ransom of the Kaaba's Black Stone, and desecration of the Zamzam Well with corpses during the Hajj season of 930 CE. The governor of Jhang, Umar bin Hafas, was a cladestine supporter of the Fatimid movement and the Batiniya influence spread in Southern Punjab. Then, the Qarmatians who had established contacts with the Fatimids in Egypt set up an independent dynasty in Multan and ruled the surrounding areas. They wrested control of the city from the pro-Abbasid Amirate of Banu Munabbih, and established the Amirate of Multan, while pledging allegiance to the Ismaili Fatimid Dynasty based in Cairo.\nDuring this period, Uch and Multan remained a central pilgrimage site for Vaishnavite and Surya devotees, and their admixture with Isma’īlīsm created the Satpanth tradition. Hence, the beginning of the eleventh century witnessed a sacral and political diversity in Uch that was both unique and precarious.\nThe Qarmatian Ismailis opposed Hindu pilgrims worshipping the sun, and destroyed the Sun Temple and smashed its revered Aditya idol in the late 10th century. The Qarmatians built an Ismaili congregational mosque above the ruins to replace the city's Sunni congregational mosque that had been established by the city's early rulers.\n\nMedieval\n\nGhaznavid era\n\nMahmud of Ghazni in 1005 led an expedition against Multan's Qarmatian ruler Abdul Fateh Daud. The city was surrendered, and Fateh Daud was permitted to retain control over the city with the condition that he adhere to Sunnism. In 1007, Mahmud led an expedition to Multan against his former minister and Hindu convert, Niwasa Khan, who had renounced Islam and attempted to establish control of the region in collusion with Abdul Fateh Daud of Multan. In 1010, Mahmud led a punitive expedition against Daud to depose and imprison him, and suppressed Ismailism in favour of the Sunni creed. He destroyed the Ismaili congregational mosque that had been built above the ruins of the Multan Sun Temple, and restored the city's old Sunni congregational mosque.\n\nThe 11th century scholar Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi reported that thousands of Ismailis were killed or mutilated during Mahmud's invasion, though the community was not extinguished. Mahmud's rule over the region was noted by Al-Biruni to have ruined the region's former prosperity. Following the Ghaznavid invasion of Multan, the local Ismaili community split, with one faction aligning themselves with the Druze religion, which today survives in Lebanon, Syria, and the Golan Heights. Following Mahmud's death in 1030, Multan regained its independence from the Ghaznavid empire and came under the sway of Ismaili rule once again. Shah Gardez, who came to Multan in 1088, is said to have contributed in the restoration of the city.\n\nBy the early 1100s, Multan was described by the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi as being a \"large city\" commanded by a citadel that was surrounded by a moat. In the early 12th century, Multani poet Abdul Rahman penned the Sandesh Rasak, the only known Muslim work in the medieval Apabhraṃśa language.\n\nGhurid era\n\nIn 1175, Muhammad Ghori conquered Ismaili-ruled Multan, after having invaded the region via the Gomal Pass from Afghanistan into Punjab, and used the city as a springboard for his unsuccessful campaign into Gujarat in 1178. Multan was then annexed to the Ghurid Sultanate, and became an administrative province of the Delhi's Mamluk Dynasty — the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. Multan's Ismaili community rose up in an unsuccessful rebellion against the Ghurids later in 1175. According to Shah Gardez, the second invasion of Multan lead to the extinguishment of the remnants of Ismailism in the region.\n\nMamluk era\nFollowing the death of the first Mumluk Sultan, Qutb al-Din Aibak in 1210, Multan came under the rule of Nasiruddin Qabacha, who in 1222, successfully repulsed an attempted invasion by Sultan Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu of the Khwarazmian Empire, whose origins were rooted in Konye-Urgench in modern-day Turkmenistan. Qabacha also repulsed a 40-day siege imposed on the city by Mongol forces who attempted to conquer the city. Following Qabacha's death that same year, the Turkic king Iltutmish, the third Sultan of the Mamluk dynasty, captured and then annexed Multan in an expedition. The Punjabi poet Baba Farid was born in the village of Khatwal near Multan in the 1200s.\n\nQarlughids attempted to invade Multan in 1236, while the Mongols tried to capture the city in 1241 after capturing Lahore - though they were repulsed. The Mongols under Sali Noyan then successfully held the city to ransom in 1245–6, before being recaptured by Sultan Ghiyas ud din Balban, the ninth Mamluk Sultan. Multan then fell to the Qarlughids in 1249, but was captured by Sher Khan that same year. Multan was then conquered by Izz al-Din Balban Kashlu Khan in 1254, before he rebelled against Sultan Ghiyas ud din Balban in 1257 and fled to Iraq where he joined Mongol forces and captured Multan again, and dismantled its city walls. The Mongols again attempted an invasion in 1279, but were dealt a decisive defeat. Alauddin Khalji of Delhi dispatched his brother Ulugh Khan in 1296 to conquer Multan in order to eliminate surviving family members of his predecessor.\n\nTughluq era\n\nIn the 1320s Multan was conquered by Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, founder of the Turkic Tughluq dynasty, the third dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. The countryside around Multan was recorded to have been devastated by excessively high taxes imposed during the reign of Ghiyath's son, Muhammad Tughluq. In 1328, the Governor of Multan, Kishlu Khan, rose in rebellion against Muhammad Tughluq, but was quickly defeated. The Tomb of Shah Rukn-e-Alam was completed during the Tughluq era, and is considered to be the first Tughluq monument. The shrine is believed to have been originally built to be the tomb of Ghiyath ad-Din, but was later donated to the descendants of Rukn-e-Alam after Ghiyath became Emperor of Delhi.\n\nThe renowned Arab explorer Ibn Battuta visited Multan in the 1300s during the reign of Muhammad Tughluq, and noted that Multan was a trading centre for horses imported from as far away as the Russian Steppe. Multan had also been noted to be a centre for slave-trade, though slavery was banned in the late 1300s by Muhammad Tughluq's son, Firuz Shah Tughlaq.\n\nTimurid era\n\nIn 1397, Multan was besieged by Tamerlane's grandson Pir Muhammad. Pir Muhammad's forces captured the city in 1398 following the conclusion of the 6 month-long siege. Also in 1398, the elder Tamerlane and Multan's Governor Khizr Khan together sacked Delhi. The sack of Delhi lead to major disruptions of the Sultanate's central governing structure. In 1414, Multan's Khizr Khan captured Delhi from Daulat Khan Lodi, and established the short-lived Sayyid dynasty — the fourth dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.\n\nLangah Sultanate\n\nMultan then passed to the Langah, who established the Langah Sultanate in Multan under the rule of Budhan Khan, who assumed the title Mahmud Shah. The reign of Shah Husayn, grandson of Mahmud Shah, who ruled from 1469 to 1498 is considered to most illustrious of the Langah Sultans. Multan experienced prosperity during this time, and a large number of Baloch settlers arrived in the city at the invitation of Shah Husayn. The Sultanate's borders stretched encompassed the neighbouring regions surrounding the cities of Chiniot and Shorkot. Shah Husayn successfully repulsed attempted invasion by the Delhi Sultans led by Tatar Khan and Barbak Shah.\n\nMultan's Langah Sultanate came to an end in 1525 when the city was invaded by rulers of the Arghun dynasty, who were either ethnic Mongols, or of Turkic or Turco-Mongol extraction.\n\nSuri\n\nIn 1541, the Pashtun king Sher Shah Suri captured Multan, and successfully defended the city from the advances of the Mughal Emperor Humayun. In 1543, Sher Shah Suri expelled Baloch dynasty, who under the command of Fateh Khan Mirrani had overrun the city. Following its recapture, Sher Shah Suri ordered construction of a road between Lahore and Multan in order to connect Multan to his massive Grand Trunk Road project. Multan then served as the starting point for trade caravans from medieval India departing towards West Asia.\n\nMedieval trade\n\nMultan served as medieval Islamic India's trans-regional mercantile centre for trade with the Islamic world. It rose as an important trading and mercantile centre in the setting of political stability offered by the Delhi Sultanate, the Lodis, and Mughals. The renowned Arab explorer Ibn Battuta visited Multan in the 1300s during the reign of Muhammad Tughluq, and noted that Multan was a trading centre for horses imported from as far away as the Russian Steppe. Multan had also been noted to be a centre for slave-trade, though slavery was banned in the late 1300s by Muhammad Tughluq's son, Firuz Shah Tughlaq.\n\nThe extent of Multan's influence is also reflected in the construction of the Multani caravanserai in Baku, Azerbaijan — which was built in the 15th to house Multani merchants visiting the city. Legal records from the Uzbek city of Bukhara note that Multani merchants settled and owned land in the city in the late 1550s.\n\nMultan would remain an important trading centre until the city was ravaged by repeated invasions in the 18th and 19th centuries in the post-Mughal era. Many of Multan's merchants then migrated to Shikarpur in Sindh, and were found throughout Central Asia up until the 19th century.\n\nMughal period\n\nFollowing the conquest of Upper Sindh by the Mughal Emperor Akbar, Multan was attacked and captured by Akbar's army under the command of Bairam Khan in 1557, thereby re-establishing Mughal rule in Multan. In 1627, Multan was encircled by walls that were built on the order of Murad Baksh, son of Shah Jahan. Upon his return from an expedition to Balkh in 1648, the future emperor Aurangzeb was appointed Governor of Multan and Sindh — a post he held until 1652. In the second half of the 17th century, Multan's commercial fortunes were adversely affected by silting and shifting of the nearby river, which denied traders vital trade access to the Arabian Sea. Multan witnessed difficult times as the Mughal Empire waned in power following the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707.\n\nDar al-Aman era\nUnder Mughal rule, Multan enjoyed 200 years of peace in a time when the city became known as Dar al-Aman (\"Abode of Peace\"). During the Mughal era, Multan was an important centre of agricultural production and manufacturing of cotton textiles. Multan was a centre for currency minting, as well as tile-making during the Mughal era. Multan was also host to the offices of many commercial enterprises during the Mughal era, even in times when the Mughals were in control of the even more coveted city of Kandahar, given the unstable political situation resulting from frequent contestation of Kandadar with the Persian Safavid Empire.\n\nMuhammad Anas Khan Era\n\nPost-Mughal\nNader Shah conquered the region as part of his invasion of the Mughal Empire in 1739. Despite invasion, Multan remained northwest India's premier commercial centre throughout most of the 18th century.\n\nIn 1752 Ahmad Shah Durrani captured Multan, and the city's walls were rebuilt in 1756 by Nawab Ali Mohammad Khan Khakwani, who also built the Ali Muhammad Khan Mosque in 1757. In 1758, the Marathas under Raghunathrao briefly seized Multan, though the city was recaptured by Durrani in 1760. After repeated invasions following the collapse of the Mughal Empire, Multan was reduced from being one of the world's most important early-modern commercial centres, to a regional trading town.\n\nSikh era\nIn 1772, Ahmed Shah Durrani's son Timur Shah lost Multan to Sikh forces. However, Multan's association with Sikhism predates this, as the founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak, is said to have visited the city during one of his journeys.\n\nThe city had reverted to Afghan rule under the suzerainty of Nawab Muzaffar Khan in 1778. In 1817, Ranjit Singh sent a body of troops to Multan under the command of Diwan Bhiwani Das to receive from Nawab Muzaffar Khan the tribute he owed to the Sikh Darbar. In 1818, the armies of Kharak Singh and Misr Diwan Chand lay around Multan without making much initial headway, until Ranjit Singh dispatched the massive Zamzama cannon, which quickly led to disintegration of the Multan's defences. Misr Diwan Chand led Sikh armies to a decisive victory over Muzaffar Khan. Muzzafar Khan and seven of his sons were killed before the Multan fort finally fell on 2 March 1818 in the Battle of Multan.\n\nThe conquest of Multan established Ranjit Singh's superiority over the Afghans and ended their influence in this part of the Punjab. Diwan Sawan Mal Chopra was appointed to govern the city, remaining in his post for the following 25 years. Following the Sikh conquest, Multan declined in importance as a trading post, however the population of Multan rose from approximately 40,000 in 1827 to 60,000 by 1831. Sawan Mal adopted a policy of low taxation which generated immense land revenues for the state treasury. Following the death of Ranjit Singh, he ceased paying tribute to a successor and instead maintained alliances of convenience with selected Sikh aristocrats. He was assassinated in 1844, and succeeded by his son Diwan Mulraj Chopra, who unlike his father was seen as a despotic ruler by the local inhabitants.\n\n1848 Multan Revolt\n\nThe 1848 Multan Revolt and subsequent Siege of Multan began on 19 April 1848 when local Sikhs loyal to Diwan Mulraj Chopra murdered two emissaries of the British Raj, Vans Agnew and Lieutenant Anderson. The two British visitors were in Multan to attend a ceremony for Sardar Kahan Singh, who had been selected by the British East India Company to replace Diwan Mulraj Chopra as ruler of Multan.\n\nRebellion engulfed the Multan region under the leadership of Mulraj Chopra and Sher Singh Attariwalla. The Multan Revolt triggered the start of the Second Anglo-Sikh War, during which the sajjada nashin of the Shrine of Bahauddin Zakariya sided with the British to help defeat the Sikh rebels. The revolt eventually resulted in the fall of the Sikh Empire in 1849.\n\nBritish Raj\n\nBy December 1848, the British had captured portions of Multan city's outskirts, and destroyed the Multan Fort while bombarding the city. In January 1849, the British had amassed a force of 12,000 to conquer Multan. On 22 January 1849, the British had breached the walls of the Multan Fort, leading to the surrender of Mulraj and his forces to the British. The British conquest of the Sikh Empire was completed in February 1849, after the British victory at the Battle of Gujrat.\nBetween the 1890s and 1920s, the British laid a vast network of canals in the Multan region, and throughout much of central and Southern Punjab province. Thousands of \"Canal Towns\" and villages were built according to standardized plans throughout the newly irrigated swathes of land.\n\nModern\n\nThe predominantly Muslim population supported Muslim League and Pakistan Movement. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, the minority Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India en masse, while some Muslim refugees from the newly independent Republic of India settled in the city.\n\nGeography\n\nTopography\nMultan is located in Punjab, and covers an area of . The nearest major cities are Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalpur. Multan is located in a bend created by five rivers of central Pakistan. The Sutlej River separates it from Bahawalpur and the Chenab River from Muzaffar Garh. The area around the city is a flat, alluvial plain that is used for citrus and mango farms.\n\nClimate\n\nMultan features a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh) with extremely hot summers and mild winters. The normal annual precipitation measures .\n\nMultan is known for having some of the hottest weather in Pakistan. The highest recorded temperature is approximately , and the lowest recorded temperature is approximately .\n\nMultan's climate is primarily influenced by:\n\nWestern Disturbances which generally occurs during the winter months between December and February. The Western Disturbance provokes moderate rainfall, with hailstorms also sometimes occurring.\nDust storms occur during summer months. Multan's dust storm sometimes produce violent wind.\nHeat waves occur during the hottest months of May and June, and can result in temperatures approaching 50° Celsius (122° Fahrenheit)\nSouth West Monsoon occurs following the hottest months of the year, and lasts between June and September. Monsoon rains moderate temperatures, and can sometimes produce heavy rain storms.\nContinental air prevails during the remaining months generally yields clear weather with little to no precipitation.\n\nCityscape\n\nMultan's urban typology is similar to other ancient cities in South Asia, such as Peshawar, Lahore, and Delhi - all of which were founded near a major river, and included an old walled city, as well as a royal citadel. Unlike those cities, Multan has lost its royal citadel, as it was largely destroyed by the British in 1848, which negatively impacted the urban fabric of the city.\n\nMultan's old neighbourhood homes exemplify Muslim concerns regarding privacy, and defense against the city's harsh climate. The urban morphology is characterized by small and private cul-de-sacs branching off of bazaars and larger arteries.\n\nA distinct Multani style of architecture began taking root in the 14th century with the establishment of funerary monuments, and is characterized by large brick walls reinforced by wooden anchors, with inward sloping roofs. Funerary architecture is also reflected in the city's residential quarters, which borrow architectural and decorative elements from Multan's mausolea.\n\nDemographics\n\nMultan city had a population of 1,197,384 in the 1998 census. As of 2017 census, Multan's population jumped to 1.871 million.\n\nLanguage\nThe linguistic breakdown of the Multan City Tehsil as per the 1998 Census is as follows:\n\nCivic Administration\nAdministrators who are government servants have the powers of Nazims (Mayor). Multan district is spread over an area of 3,721 square kilometres, comprising four tehsils: Multan City, Multan Saddar, Shujabad and Jalalpur Pirwala. In 2005 Multan was reorganised as a City District composed of six autonomous towns:\n\n Bosan\n Shah Rukan e Alam\n Mumtazabad\n Sher Shah\n Shujabad\n Jalalpur Pirwala\n\nResidential areas\n\n Shah Rukan e Alam\n Multan Cantt\n Shah Faisal Colony\n\nTransportation\n\nMotorways\nMultan is connected to operational motorways M4 on northside connecting to Faisalabad and M5 on south side connecting Sukkar. M4 is further connected to M3 connecting Lahore and M2 connecting Islamabad and Peshawar to Multan. While M5 will be connecting to Karachi via Karachi-Lahore Motorway in future.\n\nMultan is situated along the under-construction 6-lane Karachi–Lahore Motorway (M3) connecting Southern and northern Pakistan that is being built as part of the $54 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor. Currently, Lahore to Multan travel time is 4 hours on motorway M3 and M4. The 6-lane, 392 kilometre long M-5 section of the motorway is built between Sukkur and Multan at a cost $2.89 billion. The M-5 is open since 2019. It is connecting Multan to Sukkar and will connect to Karachi when Sukkar-Karachi Motorway will be opened.\n\nMultan is also connected to the city of Faisalabad via the M-4 motorway, which in turn is connected to the M-1 and M-2 motorways that provide access to Islamabad and Peshawar. Further links with the Karakoram Highway will provide access to Xinjiang, China, and Central Asia.\n\nConstruction of the M3 motorway also at a cost of approximately $1.5 billion, and was launched in November 2015 The motorway is branch off of the M-4 motorway and connects Lahore to the M-4 at Abdul Hakeem. The M4 is now operational.\n\nRail\n\nMultan is connected by rail with all parts of the country and lies on the main track between Karachi, Peshawar, Lahore and Quetta. The Main Line-1 Railway that links Karachi and Peshawar passes through Multan district is being overhauled as part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor. As part of the project, railways will be upgraded to permit train travel at speeds of up to 160 kilometres per hour, versus the average 60 to 105 km per hour speed currently possible on existing track, The project is divided into three phases, with the Peshawar to Multan portion to be completed as part of the project's first phase by 2018, and the entire project is expected to be complete by 2021.\n\nFrom Multan, links to Khanewal, Lodhran and Muzafargarh are offered by rail. Multan Cantonment railway station is the main railway station of Multan.\n\nBus rapid transit (Metro Bus)\n\nThe Multan Metrobus is a bus rapid transit line which commenced service in January 2017, at a cost of 28.8 billion rupees. The BRT route serves 21 stations over the course of 18.5 kilometres, of which 12.5 kilometres are elevated. 14 stations are elevated, while the remainder are at street level. The BRT route begins at Bahauddin Zakariya University in northern Multan, and heads southward to pass by the eastern edge of Multan's old city at the Daulat Gate before turning east to finally terminate at the Kumharanwala Chowk in eastern Multan.\n\nThe route will be served initially by 35 buses, serving up to 95,000 passengers per day (or less than this but mostly students are using it). The Multan Metrobus is planned to ultimately have total of 4 BRT lines covering 68.82 kilometres, which will be complemented by feeder lines.\n\nAir\n\nMultan International Airport is located 10 km west of Multan's city centre, in the Multan Cantonment. The airport offers flights throughout Pakistan, as well as to the Persian Gulf States.\n\nIn March 2015, a new terminal building was formally inaugurated by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Following the opening of the new terminal, passenger traffic soared from 384,571 in 2014–2015, to 904,865 in 2015–2016.\n\nEducation\n\nBahauddin Zakariya University (formerly known as Multan University) is the main source of higher education for this region. Other universities include Air University Multan Campus, the NFC Institute of Engineering and Technology, Nishat School and College Nishtar Medical University, Multan Public School, Multan Medical and Dental College, Institute of Southern Punjab, and Women University Multan. In July 2021, Pakistan opened its first ever government-run school for transgender students in the city of Multan.\n\nHeritage\n\nPrahladpuri Temple\n\nPrahladpuri Temple, Multan is located on top of a raised platform inside the Fort of Multan, adjacent to tomb of Hazrat Baha’ul Haq Zakariya. A mosque has came subsequently built adjacent to temple.\n\nThe original temple of Prahladpuri is said to have been built by Prahlad, son of Hiranyakashipu, the king of Multan (Kashya-papura) in honor of Narsing Avatar, an incarnation of Hindu god Vishnu, who emerged from the pillar to save Prahlada.\n\nNotable saints of Multan\n\n Shah Yousaf Gardezi (d. 1136), tomb located inner Bohar Gate Multan\n Mai Maharban (11/12th Century), tomb located near Chowk Fawara, children complex Multan\n Bahauddin Zakariya (1170–1267), tomb located in Multan Fort\n Makhdoom Abdul Rasheed Haqani (1170 - 1260), tomb located in Makhdoom Rasheed Multan\n Shah Rukne Alam (1251–1335), tomb located in Multan Fort\n Khawaja Awais Kagha (d. 1300)3, tomb located in Dera Basti graveyard Multan\n Syed Musa Pak (d. 1592)\n Hafiz Muhammad Jamal Multani (1747–1811)\n Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari (1892–1961), buried in Jalal Bakri\n Syed Noor ul Hassan Bukhari (1902-1983), buried in Jalal Bakri\n Ahmad Saeed Kazmi (1913-1986), buried in Eid Gah, Multan\nHazrat Qazi Hisamuddin Multani known as Qazi Jamaluddin Multani Badauni\nBaha Ud Din Zikriya Tomb located on Ghanta Ghar Multan\n\nSports\n\nThe Multan Cricket Stadium has hosted many international cricket matches. Ibn-e-Qasim Bagh Stadium is the other stadium in Multan which is usually used for football along with other sports activities. Multan is home to the Multan Sultans, the franchise of Pakistan Super League founded in 2018. Multan Tigers, the domestic cricket team which had participated in domestic limited over tournaments was also based in the city. Multan has produced many international cricketers like Inzamam-ul-Haq, Sohaib Maqsood, Rahat Ali, Asmavia Iqbal and Sania Khan.\n\nNotable people\n\nAhmad Shah Durrani, founder of the Durrani Empire\nRukn-e-Alam, 13th/14th century Sufi and poet\nDiwan Mulraj Chopra, Diwan of Multan\nYousaf Raza Gillani, politician and former Prime Minister of Pakistan \nMahindar Pall Singh, politician\nShah Mehmood Qureshi, politician and present Foreign Minister of Pakistan \nHar Karan Ibn Mathuradas Kamboh Multani, scholar and Persian lettrist\nJaved Hashmi, politician\nMalik Muhammad Rafique Rajwana, lawyer and politician\nMalik Aamir Dogar, lawyer and politician\nFariduddin Ganjshakar, 12th-century Punjabi Muslim preacher and mystic\nInzamam-ul-Haq, former cricketer and captain\nSaima Noor, actress\nMazhar Kaleem, writer\nH. Gobind Khorana (Nobel Laureate)\nQandeel Baloch, (late) social media celebrity and model\n\nSister cities\n Rome, Italy\n Konya, Turkey\n Rasht, Iran\n Shihezi, China\n Ganja, Azerbaijan\n Xi'an, China (28 March 2019)\n\nSee also\n Climate of Multan\n City Wall of Multan\n Festivals in Multan\n History of Multan\n List of places in Multan\n Multan District\n Multan Division\n Multan Fort\n Multan International Airport\nMultan City railway station\n Multan Museum\n Siege of Multan\n Battle of Multan\n Mausoleums of Multan\n Hindu temples in Multan\n List of educational institutions in Multan\n Mosques of Multan\nSubah of Multan\nMultan Sun Temple\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \n Multan City government website \n Britannica: Multan\n\n \n \nMetropolitan areas of Pakistan\nSufism in Pakistan\nIsmailism in Pakistan\nQarmatians",
"Uusikaupunki (; ) is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southwest Finland region, northwest of Turku and south of Pori. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is inland water. The population density is .\n\nThe municipality is unilingually Finnish. Both its Finnish and Swedish names translate literally to \"new town\". The original name of the main village that was incorporated into Uusikaupunki was Kalainen (roughly translated from Finnish as \"rich in fish\"). The surrounding region, and especially the neighboring town of Kalanti, which merged with Uusikaupunki in 1993, was already a lively marketplace for wooden objects and salt in the early Middle Ages. Uusikaupunki was founded to legalize this trade.\n\nGeography\nUusikaupunki is located in the Vakka-Suomi sub-region on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia. The (Sirppujoki) flows through the town and flows into the reservoir of Uusikaupunki in the northern part of the town. The freshwater pool was built in 1965 when the bays of Velhovesi and Ruotsinvesi were dammed from the sea. The area of the basin is about 40 km², and the town and part of Vakka-Suomi get their domestic water from it. The acidity of the freshwater basin has caused some fish deaths as well as an overgrowth of aquatic plants.\n\nIn 2011, the Bothnian Sea National Park was established in the outer archipelago of Uusikaupunki. The area, named Finland's largest marine national park, begins in the south of the Kustavi archipelago and ends in the north in the Merikarvia archipelago.\n\nHistory\nThe town of Uusikaupunki was founded as a town with the rights of commerce on April 19, 1617 by decree by Gustav II Adolf. In 1721, the Peace of Nystad was signed in Uusikaupunki, ending the Great Northern War between Sweden and Russia, but as the Crimean War broke out in 1853, Uusikaupunki was attacked by French Navy and British Navy in 1855 during the Åland War. Up to the 19th century, Uusikaupunki was an important port for commerce and fishing, and up to the latter half of the 20th century, the Port of Uusikaupunki retained an important ship-building industry.\n\nEconomy\nUusikaupunki is the home of Valmet Automotive, a contract automobile mechanical production company, producing cars and vehicles for brands such as Mercedes-Benz. It was founded in 1968 as Saab-Valmet for manufacturing Saab cars. As of June 2017, Valmet is assembling Mercedes-Benz A-Class and Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class cars. Today, Valmet is one of the largest and most significant employers in Uusikaupunki.\n\nPolitics\nThe results of the 2011 Finnish parliamentary election in Uusikaupunki were:\nSocial Democratic Party 26.6%\nTrue Finns 23.4%\nNational Coalition Party 19.6%\nCentre Party 13.1%\nLeft Alliance 8.1%\nChristian Democrats 4.2%\nGreen League 2.3%\nCommunist Party of Finland 0.7%\nSwedish People's Party 0.6%\n\nPoints of interest\nUusikaupunki is home to the Bonk museum.\n\nOther attractions include:\nRestaurant Pursiseuran Paviljonki\nMyllymäki Park\n\nCulture\n\nMusic\nKarjurock, the annual rock music festival has been held in Uusikaupunki since 2007.\n\nSports\nThe town was co-host of the 1982 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship for Women.\n\nNotable people\nAimo Cajander, Prime Minister of Finland (1922, 1924, 1937–39)\nBernhard Henrik Crusell, virtuoso clarinetist and composer\nRobert Wilhelm Ekman, painter\nAnna Eriksson, singer\nJoni Haverinen (born 1987), ice hockey player\nGordon Herbert, basketball coach and former player\nEetu Koski (born 1992), ice hockey player\nAwak Kuier (born 2001), basketball player\nJarmo Kuusisto (born 1961), ice hockey player\nGerald Lee Sr., former basketball player\nGerald Lee Jr., basketball player\nAleksi Lehtonen, Archbishop of Finland (1945–1951)\nJohan Jakob Nervander, physicist, meteorologist and poet (1805–1848)\nIlmari Saarelainen, actor\nMartti Simojoki, Archbishop of Finland (1964–78)\nKari Takko, (born 1962) ice hockey goaltender\n\nInternational relations\n\nTwin towns – sister cities\nUusikaupunki is twinned with:\n Antsla, Estonia\n Haderslev, Denmark\n Veliky Novgorod, Novgorod Oblast, Russia\n Sandefjord, Norway\n Szentendre, Hungary\n Varberg, Sweden\n\nSee also\n Kalanti\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nTown of Uusikaupunki – Official site\n\n \nCities and towns in Finland\nPopulated coastal places in Finland\nGrand Duchy of Finland\nPopulated places established in 1617\n1617 establishments in Sweden",
"Laitila (; ) is a town and a municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southwest Finland region, and it is from Laitila to Turku. The municipality has a population of \n() and covers an area of of\nwhich \nis water. The population density is\n. Laitila is renowned for its poultry farms and \"egg festival\" (Laitilan Munamarkkinat), which is why the subject of the municipal coat of arms of Laitila also refers to the parish's fame for chicken care. Laitila has also been called the \"egg capital of Finland\".\n\nThe municipality is monolingually Finnish.\n\nCulture\nLaitila has a very large number of Iron Age antiquities, the most famous of which are the so-called the warrior's grave of Kodjala. Finland's oldest glass object, the Roman-era drinking horn, has been found in Laitila's Soukainen village. The nationally significant built cultural environments defined by the Finnish Heritage Agency in 2009 in Laitila include the Untamala and Suontaka villages and the Koukkela's the peasant house of Kauppila.\n\nPeople\n Kaarlo Heininen (1853–1926)\n Pasi Saarela (born 1973)\n Mika Kares (born 1978)\n Valle Mäkelä (born 1986)\n Markus Seikola (born 1992)\n Susanna Tapani (born 1993)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nTown of Laitila – Official site \n\nCities and towns in Finland\nMunicipalities of Southwest Finland\nPopulated places established in 1868",
"Kuhmo (known as Kuhmoniemi until 1937) is a town and a municipality in Finland and is located at the south-eastern corner of the Kainuu region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . It has a borderline of with Russia (Finnish-Russian border). Neighbour towns are Hyrynsalmi, Lieksa, Nurmes, Ristijärvi, Sotkamo and Suomussalmi. A neighbour city across the Russian border is Kostomuksha. Vartius, one of the border crossing points between Finland and Russia, is located in northern Kuhmo.\n\nKuhmo´s eastern border is located at a drainage divider and town area belongs to drainage basin of Oulujärvi.\n\nThe municipality is unilingually Finnish.\n\nHistory\nThe first inhabitants arrived in Kuhmo after the last ice-age, around 8000 BCE. Proof of Stone Age habitation has been found around Ontojärvi and Lammasjärvi. Sami people inhabited Kuhmo area until migration from Karelia and Savonia pushed Sami people up north. The influence of Sami culture is still found in the placenames. Wide spreading water routes are known to have attracted hunters, raiders, merchants and tax collectors since the 9th century.\n\nIn the Treaty of Nöteborg, the settlement between Sweden and the Novgorod Republic on August 12, 1323, the Kuhmo area belonged to Novgorod. Yet hunters and tax collectors kept on penetrating to the area from west. Swedish interest was to push the border further east.\n\nPermanent habitation settled to the area after Gustav I, king of Sweden, had promised tax relief to peasants who would move north. Almost all the habitation was destroyed in the Russo-Swedish war between 1570 and 1595. In the Treaty of Teusina, the region of Kuhmo was annexed into Sweden. In the following centuries, this area was continuously raided in a number of wars and quarrels.\n\nIn 1809, Finland was annexed from Sweden to the Russian Empire as the Grand Duchy of Finland. For merchants from Karelia and Russia, Kuhmo became a trade route and a place to sell their goods. As a memorial of those merchants, on the market of Kuhmo there stands the statue “Laukunkantaja” (in English, \"The Bag Bearer\"). In this era, Elias Lönnrot, compiler of the Finnish National Epic Kalevala made his poem-collecting trips via Kuhmo to Karelia. Lönnrot made some of the editing in Kuhmo. Reconstruction of the hut where he has staying can be seen in the Kalevala village. Publishing Kalevala in 1835 fueled birth of Karelianism, which became a major trend in culture spheres towards the end of 19th century. Akseli Gallen-Kallela, who is considered one of the founders of Karelianism, spent his honeymoon in Kuhmo. During their stay Gallen-Kallela painted some of his works at Lapinsalmi, lake Lentua. Scenery to lake Lentua based the background of the middle picture in his work Aino triptych.\n\nDuring the 19th century burn-beating was still essential in agriculture but in decline. At the end of 18th century tar production had arrived to the area as a new and steadily growing source of income. In the year 1900 tar production in Kuhmo was highest in Finland, at 1.6 million litres. Tar was shipped from Kuhmo to Oulu by rowboats. Largest boats could carry 25 – 27 barrels, 125 litres each. Remains of tar pits, where tar was distilled from pine, can be found everywhere in the Kuhmo area.\n\nThe Winter War is an important event in the history of Kuhmo. During the war Kuhmo was bombarded 48 times and ground battles took place as near as ten kilometers from the center of the town. The Soviet army´s objective in Kuhmo was to proceed through Kuhmo and Kajaani to Oulu and divide Finland into two. The offensive was stopped on the Kuhmo – Saunajärvi road at Jyrkänkoski and on the Kuhmo – Kiekinkoski road at Tyrävaara, Both battlescenes are approximately 10 km from the city center. At narrow Kuhmo (Saunajärvi road) the Soviet 54th Division was forced to spread its troops which made Finnish guerilla tactics efficient. After being stopped, Soviet forces were divided and encircled into small pockets. A campaign to destroy the pockets and prevent the Soviet 44th Division from rescuing encircled forces continued until the Moscow peace treaty. After the war Kuhmo kept its eastern borderline unchanged, thus having an unchanged borderline for 400 years straight since the Treaty of Teusina of 1595.\n\nCulture\nKuhmo is well known for its Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival which is held annually. The festival was founded in 1970 by cellist Seppo Kimanen and a small group of friends. A book on this subject was published in 2006.\n\nGeography and nature\nBy area the municipality is the second largest in the region (and the twelfth largest in the country), covering twice the land area of Luxembourg. The population is heavily concentrated in Kuhmo-town. Most of the area is very wild, featuring more than 600 lakes and for the rest extensively forested, providing a home to abundant wild life that includes bears, wolves and Finnish forest reindeer.\n\nThe Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has set Kuhmo as a part of Eastern Finland´s stable bear population area. According to the plan, the population density of bears in this area will be maintained higher than in the rest of the country. The wolf population is also dense by comparison to the rest of the country. In consequence, the number of reindeer has decreased lately.\n\nThe topography is made up of low hills, of which the most significant are near the Russian frontier on the eastern side. To the south, Kuhmo is bordered by North Karelia.\n\nSeveral nature reserves have been founded in Kuhmo for the protection of the frontier wilderness. Forest administration maintains several hiking routes on the reserves and almost all are accessible to the public.\n\nSights\n\nKuhmo Arts Centre\nKalevala Village\nJuminkeko – The Information Center for the Kalevala and Karelian Culture.\nPetola Visitor Centre\n\nNotable people\n Johan Gabriel Ståhlberg (1832–1873), Finnish priest and father of President K. J. Ståhlberg\n\nInternational relations\n\nTwin towns — Sister cities\nKuhmo is twinned with:\n Kostamus, Russia\n Oroszlány, Hungary\n Robertsfors, Sweden\n Šaľa, Slovakia\n\nThe Districts and Villages of the Town of Kuhmo\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nKuhmo Chamber Music Festival\nMany links and much information about Kuhmo's services.\n\n \nCities and towns in Finland\nMunicipalities of Kainuu\nPopulated places established in 1865",
"Helsinki ( or ; ; , ; ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city's urban area has a population of , making it by far the most populous urban area in Finland as well as the country's most important center for politics, education, finance, culture, and research; while Tampere in the Pirkanmaa region, located to the north from Helsinki, is the second largest urban area in Finland. Helsinki is located north of Tallinn, Estonia, east of Stockholm, Sweden, and west of Saint Petersburg, Russia. It has close historical ties with these three cities.\n\nTogether with the cities of Espoo, Vantaa, and Kauniainen (and surrounding commuter towns, including the eastern neighboring municipality of Sipoo), Helsinki forms the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, which has a population of over 1.5 million. Often considered to be Finland's only metropolis, it is the world's northernmost metro area with over one million people as well as the northernmost capital of an EU member state. After Copenhagen and Stockholm, Helsinki is the third largest municipality in the Nordic countries. Finnish and Swedish are both official languages. The city is served by the international Helsinki Airport, located in the neighboring city of Vantaa, with frequent service to many destinations in Europe and Asia.\n\nHelsinki was the World Design Capital for 2012, the venue for the 1952 Summer Olympics, and the host of the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest in 2007.\n\nHelsinki has one of the world's highest standards of urban living. In 2011, the British magazine Monocle ranked Helsinki the world's most liveable city in its liveable cities index. In the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2016 liveability survey, Helsinki was ranked ninth among 140 cities. In July 2021, the American magazine Time ranked Helsinki one of the greatest places in the world in 2021 as a city that \"can grow into a sprouting cultural nest in the future,\" and which has already been known in the world as an environmental pioneer. An international Cities of Choice survey conducted in 2021 by the consulting firm Boston Consulting Group and the BCG Henderson Institute raised Helsinki the third best city in the world to live, with London and New York City ranking the first and the second. Also, together with Rovaniemi in the Lapland region, Helsinki is one of Finland's most significant tourist cities in terms of foreign tourism.\n\nEtymology\nAccording to a theory presented in the 1630s, at the time of Swedish colonisation of coastal areas of Finland, colonists from Hälsingland in central Sweden had arrived at what is now known as the Vantaa River and called it Helsingå (\"Helsinge River\"), which gave rise to the names of Helsinge village and church in the 1300s. This theory is questionable, because dialect research suggests that the settlers arrived from Uppland and nearby areas. Others have proposed the name as having been derived from the Swedish word helsing, an archaic form of the word hals (neck), referring to the narrowest part of a river, the rapids. Other Scandinavian cities at similar geographic locations were given similar names at the time, e.g. Helsingør in Denmark and Helsingborg in Sweden.\n\nWhen a town was founded in Forsby village in 1548, it was named Helsinge fors, \"Helsinge rapids\". The name refers to the rapids at the mouth of the river. The town was commonly known as Helsinge or Helsing, from which the contemporary Finnish name arose.\n\nOfficial Finnish Government documents and Finnish language newspapers have used the name Helsinki since 1819, when the Senate of Finland moved itself into the city from Turku, the former capital of Finland. The decrees issued in Helsinki were dated with Helsinki as the place of issue. This is how the form Helsinki came to be used in written Finnish. As part of the Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire, Helsinki was known as Gel'singfors (Гельсингфорс) in Russian.\n\nIn Helsinki slang, the city is called Stadi (from the Swedish word stad, meaning \"city\"). People from other areas of Finland might use Hesa (short for Helsinki). is the Northern Sami name of Helsinki.\n\nHistory\n\nEarly history \nIn the Iron Age the area occupied by present-day Helsinki was inhabited by Tavastians. They used the area for fishing and hunting, but due to a lack of archeological finds it is difficult to say how extensive their settlements were. Pollen analysis has shown that there were cultivating settlements in the area in the 10th century and surviving historical records from the 14th century describe Tavastian settlements in the area.\n\nSwedes colonized the coastline of the Helsinki region in the late 13th century after the successful Second Crusade to Finland, which led to the defeat of the Tavastians.\n\nFounding of Helsinki \n\nHelsinki was established as a trading town by King Gustav I of Sweden in 1550 as the town of Helsingfors, which he intended to be a rival to the Hanseatic city of Reval (today known as Tallinn). In order to populate his newly founded town, the King issued an order to resettle the bourgeoisie of Porvoo, Ekenäs, Rauma and Ulvila into the town. In 1640, Count Per Brahe the Younger moved the city center to the Vironniemi peninsula by the sea, where the Senate Square and Helsinki Cathedral are now located. For a long time, Helsinki was mainly a small administrative city of the governors of the Nyland and Tavastehus County, but its importance began to grow as a more solid naval defense began to be built in front of the city in the 18th century. Little came of the plans as Helsinki remained a tiny town plagued by poverty, wars, and diseases. The plague of 1710 killed the greater part of the inhabitants of Helsinki. The construction of the naval fortress Sveaborg (in Finnish Viapori, today also Suomenlinna) in the 18th century helped improve Helsinki's status, but it was not until Russia defeated Sweden in the Finnish War and annexed Finland as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809 that the town began to develop into a substantial city. Russians besieged the Sveaborg fortress during the war, and about one quarter of the town was destroyed in an 1808 fire.\n\nEmperor Alexander I of Russia moved the Finnish capital from Turku to Helsinki in 1812 to reduce Swedish influence in Finland, and to bring the capital closer to Saint Petersburg. Following the Great Fire of Turku in 1827, the Royal Academy of Turku, which at the time was the country's only university, was also relocated to Helsinki and eventually became the modern University of Helsinki. The move consolidated the city's new role and helped set it on a path of continuous growth. This transformation is highly apparent in the downtown core, which was rebuilt in the neoclassical style to resemble Saint Petersburg, mostly to a plan by the German-born architect C. L. Engel. As elsewhere, technological advancements such as railroads and industrialization were key factors behind the city's growth.\n\nTwentieth century\nThe population of Helsinki was already over 100,000 in the 1910s, and despite the tumultuous nature of Finnish history during the first half of the 20th century (including the Finnish Civil War and the Winter War which both left marks on the city), Helsinki continued its steady development. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were approximately the same number of Finnish and Swedish speakers in Helsinki; the majority of the workers were Finnish-speaking. The local Helsinki slang (or stadin slangi) developed among Finnish children and young people as a mixed Finnish-Swedish language from the 1890s, and it was also influenced by the Russian language, and from the 1950s onwards, slang began to become more Finnish. A landmark event was the 1952 Olympic Games, held in Helsinki. Finland's rapid urbanization in the 1970s, occurring late relative to the rest of Europe, tripled the population in the metropolitan area, and the Helsinki Metro subway system was built. The relatively sparse population density of Helsinki and its peculiar structure have often been attributed to the lateness of its growth.\n\nGeography\n\nCalled the \"Daughter of the Baltic\" or the \"Pearl of the Baltic Sea\", Helsinki is on the tip of a peninsula and on 315 islands. The inner city is located on a southern peninsula, Helsinginniemi (\"Cape of Helsinki), which is rarely referred to by its actual name, Vironniemi (\"Cape of Estonia\"). Population density in certain parts of Helsinki's inner city area is comparatively higher, reaching in the district of Kallio, but as a whole Helsinki's population density of ranks the city as rather sparsely populated in comparison to other European capital cities. Outside of the inner city, much of Helsinki consists of postwar suburbs separated by patches of forest. A narrow, long Helsinki Central Park, stretching from the inner city to Helsinki's northern border, is an important recreational area for residents. The City of Helsinki has about 11,000 boat berths and possesses over 14,000 hectares (34,595 acres; 54.1 sq mi) of marine fishing waters adjacent to the Capital Region. Some 60 fish species are found in this area and recreational fishing is popular.\n\nMajor islands in Helsinki include Seurasaari, Vallisaari, Lauttasaari, and Korkeasaari – the latter being the site of Finland's largest zoo called Korkeasaari Zoo. Other noteworthy islands are the fortress island of Suomenlinna (Sveaborg), the military island of Santahamina, and Isosaari. Pihlajasaari island is a favorite summer spot for gay men and naturists, comparable to Fire Island in New York City.\n\nThere are 60 nature reserves in Helsinki with a total area of . Of the total area, are water areas and are land areas. In addition, the city owns seven nature reserves in Espoo, Sipoo, Hanko and Ingå. The largest nature reserve is the Vanhankaupunginselkä, with an area of . The city's first nature reserve, Tiiraluoto of Lauttasaari, was established in 1948.\n\nThe title plant of Helsinki is the Norway maple and the title animal is the red squirrel.\n\nMetropolitan area\n\nThe Helsinki metropolitan area, also known as the Capital Region (Finnish: Pääkaupunkiseutu, Swedish: Huvudstadsregionen) comprises four municipalities: Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, and Kauniainen. The Helsinki urban area is considered to be the only metropolis in Finland. It has a population of over 1.1 million, and is the most densely populated area of Finland. The Capital Region spreads over a land area of and has a population density of . With over 20 percent of the country's population in just 0.2 percent of its surface area, the area's housing density is high by Finnish standards.\n\nThe Helsinki Metropolitan Area (Greater Helsinki) consists of the cities of Helsinki Capital Region and ten surrounding municipalities: Hyvinkää, Järvenpää, Kerava, Kirkkonummi, Nurmijärvi, Sipoo, Tuusula, Pornainen, Mäntsälä and Vihti. The Metropolitan Area covers and has a population of over 1.4 million, or about a fourth of the total population of Finland. The metropolitan area has a high concentration of employment: approximately 750,000 jobs. Despite the intensity of land use, the region also has large recreational areas and green spaces. The Greater Helsinki area is the world's northernmost urban area with a population of over one million people, and the northernmost EU capital city.\n\nThe Helsinki urban area is an officially recognized urban area in Finland, defined by its population density. The area stretches throughout 11 municipalities, and is the largest such area in Finland, with a land area of and approximately 1.2 million inhabitants.\n\nClimate\nHelsinki has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb) similar to that of Hokkaido or Nova Scotia coastal. Owing to the mitigating influence of the Baltic Sea and North Atlantic Current (see also Extratropical cyclone), temperatures during the winter are higher than the northern location might suggest, with the average in January and February around .\n\nWinters in Helsinki are notably warmer than in the north of Finland, and the snow season is much shorter in the capital, due to it being in extreme Southern Finland and the urban heat island effect. Temperatures below occur a few times a year at most. However, because of the latitude, days last 5 hours and 48 minutes around the winter solstice with very low sun (at noon, the sun is a little bit over 6 degrees in the sky), and the cloudy weather at this time of year exacerbates darkness. Conversely, Helsinki enjoys long daylight during the summer; during the summer solstice, days last 18 hours and 57 minutes.\n\nThe average maximum temperature from June to August is around . Due to the marine effect, especially during hot summer days, daily temperatures are a little cooler and night temperatures higher than further inland. The highest temperature ever recorded in the city was , on 28 July 2019 at Kaisaniemi weather station, breaking the previous record of that was observed in July 1945 at Ilmala weather station. The lowest temperature ever recorded in the city was , on 10 January 1987 although an unofficial low of was recorded in December 1876. Helsinki Airport (in Vantaa, north of the Helsinki city centre) recorded a temperature of , on 29 July 2010, and a low of , on 9 January 1987. Precipitation is received from frontal passages and thunderstorms. Thunderstorms are most common in the summer.\n\nNeighbourhoods and other subdivisions\n\nHelsinki is divided into three major areas: (, ), (, ) and East Helsinki (, ). Of these, Helsinki Downtown means the undefined core area of capital, as opposed to suburbs. The designations business center and city center usually refer to Kluuvi, Kamppi and Punavuori. Other subdivisional centers outside the downtown area include Malmi (), located in the northeastern part of city, and Itäkeskus (), in the eastern part of city.\n\nCityscape\n\nNeoclassical and romantic nationalism trend\nCarl Ludvig Engel, appointed to plan a new city centre on his own, designed several neoclassical buildings in Helsinki. The focal point of Engel's city plan was the Senate Square. It is surrounded by the Government Palace (to the east), the main building of Helsinki University (to the west), and (to the north) the large Helsinki Cathedral, which was finished in 1852, twelve years after Engel's death. Helsinki's epithet, \"The White City of the North\", derives from this construction era. Most of Helsinki's older buildings were built after the 1808 fire; before that time, the oldest surviving building in the center of Helsinki is the (1757) at the intersection of Senate Square and the Katariinankatu street. Suomenlinna also has buildings completed in the 18th century, including the Kuninkaanportti on the (1753–1754). The oldest church in Helsinki is the Old Church (1826) designed by Engel.\n\nHelsinki is also home to numerous Art Nouveau-influenced (Jugend in Finnish) buildings belonging to the Kansallisromantiikka (romantic nationalism) trend, designed in the early 20th century and strongly influenced by Kalevala, which was a common theme of the era. Helsinki's Art Nouveau style is also featured in central residential districts, such as Katajanokka and Ullanlinna. An important architect of the Finnish Art Nouveau style was Eliel Saarinen, whose architectural masterpiece was the Helsinki Central Station. Opposite the Bank of Finland building is the Renaissance Revivalish the House of the Estates (1891).\n\nThe only visible public buildings of the Gothic Revival architecture in Helsinki are St. John's Church (1891) in Ullanlinna, which is the largest stone church in Finland, and its twin towers rise to 74 meters and have 2,600 seats. Other examples of neo-Gothic include the House of Nobility in Kruununhaka and the Catholic St. Henry's Cathedral.\n\nHelsinki's neoclassical buildings were often used as a backdrop for scenes set to take place in the Soviet Union in many Cold War era Hollywood movies, when filming in the USSR was not possible. Some of them include The Kremlin Letter (1970), Reds (1981), and Gorky Park (1983). Because some streetscapes were reminiscent of Leningrad's and Moscow's old buildings, they too were used in movie productions. At the same time the government secretly instructed Finnish officials not to extend assistance to such film projects. Rarely has Helsinki been represented on its own in films, most notably the 1967 British-American espionage thriller Billion Dollar Brain, starring Michael Caine. The city has large amounts of underground areas such as shelters and tunnels, many used daily as swimming pool, church, water management, entertainment etc.\n\nFunctionalism and modern architecture\nHelsinki also features several buildings by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, recognized as one of the pioneers of architectural functionalism. However, some of his works, such as the headquarters of the paper company Stora Enso and the concert venue Finlandia Hall, have been subject to divided opinions from the citizens.\n\nFunctionalist buildings in Helsinki by other architects include the Olympic Stadium, the Tennis Palace, the Rowing Stadium, the Swimming Stadium, the Velodrome, the Glass Palace, the Töölö Sports Hall, and Helsinki-Malmi Airport. The sports venues were built to serve the 1940 Helsinki Olympic Games; the games were initially cancelled due to the Second World War, but the venues fulfilled their purpose in the 1952 Olympic Games. Many of them are listed by DoCoMoMo as significant examples of modern architecture. The Olympic Stadium and Helsinki-Malmi Airport are also catalogued by the Finnish National Board of Antiquities as cultural-historical environments of national significance.\n\nWhen Finland became heavily urbanized in the 1960s and 1970s, the district of Pihlajamäki, for example, was built in Helsinki for new residents, where for the first time in Finland, precast concrete was used on a large scale. Pikku Huopalahti, built in the 1980s and 1990s, has tried to get rid of a one-size-fits-all grid pattern, which means that its look is very organic and its streets are not repeated in the same way. Itäkeskus in Eastern Helsinki was the first regional center in the 1980s. Efforts have also been made to protect Helsinki in the late 20th century, and many old buildings have been renovated. Modern architecture is represented, for example, by the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, which consists of two straight and curved-walled parts, though this style strongly divided the opinions from the citizens. Next to Kiasma is the glass-walled Sanomatalo (1999).\n\nThe start of the 21st century marked the beginning of highrise construction in Helsinki, when the city decided to allow the construction of skyscrapers; prior to this, Hotel Torni ), built in 1931, has generally been called Finland's first skyscraper, and was at time the tallest building in Finland until 1976. there are no skyscrapers taller than 100 meters in the Helsinki area, but there are several projects under construction or planning, mainly in Pasila and Kalasatama. An international architecture competition for at least 10 high-rises to be built in Pasila is being held. Construction of the towers will start in 2023. In Kalasatama, the first 35-story (; called Majakka) and 32-story (; called ) residential towers are already completed. Later they will be joined by a 37-story, two 32-story, 31-story, and 27-story residential buildings. In the Kalasatama area, there will be about 15 high-rises within 10 years. Even higher skyscrapers under the name Trigoni are planned for the Central Pasila area near the Mall of Tripla shopping centre; the highest of which is to become about 200 meters high, and it can be seen even in good weather all the way to the Estonian coast.\n\nStatues and sculptures\nWell-known statues and monuments strongly embedded in the cityscape of Helsinki include the statue of Russian Emperor Alexander II (1894), the fountain sculpture Havis Amanda (1908), the (1925), the Three Smiths Statue (1932), the Aleksis Kivi Memorial (1939), the Eino Leino Statue (1953), the Equestrian statue of Marshal Mannerheim (1960) and the Sibelius Monument (1967).\n\nGovernment\n\nAs is the case with all Finnish municipalities, Helsinki's city council is the main decision-making organ in local politics, dealing with issues such as urban planning, schools, health care, and public transport. The council is chosen in the nationally held municipal elections, which are held every four years.\n\nHelsinki's city council consists of eighty-five members. Following the most recent municipal elections in 2017, the three largest parties are the National Coalition Party (25), the Green League (21), and the Social Democratic Party (12).\n\nThe Mayor of Helsinki is Juhana Vartiainen.\n\nDemographics\n\nAt 53 percent of the population, women form a greater proportion of Helsinki residents than the national average of 51 percent. Helsinki's population density of 2,739.36 people per square kilometre makes Helsinki the most densely-populated city in Finland. The life expectancy for men and women is slightly below the national averages: 75.1 years for men as compared to 75.7 years, 81.7 years for women as compared to 82.5 years.\n\nHelsinki has experienced strong growth since the 1810s, when it replaced Turku as the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland, which later became the sovereign Republic of Finland. The city continued its growth from that time on, with an exception during the Finnish Civil War. From the end of World War II up until the 1970s there was a massive exodus of people from the countryside to the cities of Finland, in particular Helsinki. Between 1944 and 1969 the population of the city nearly doubled from 275,000 to 525,600.\n\nIn the 1960s, the population growth of Helsinki began to decrease, mainly due to a lack of housing. Some residents began to move to the neighbouring cities of Espoo and Vantaa, resulting in increased population growth in both municipalities. Espoo's population increased ninefold in sixty years, from 22,874 people in 1950 to 244,353 in 2009. Vantaa saw an even more dramatic change in the same time span: from 14,976 in 1950 to 197,663 in 2009, a thirteenfold increase. These population changes prompted the municipalities of Greater Helsinki into more intense cooperation in areas such as public transportation – resulting in the foundation of HSL – and waste management. The increasing scarcity of housing and the higher costs of living in the capital region have pushed many daily commuters to find housing in formerly rural areas, and even further, to cities such as Lohja, Hämeenlinna, Lahti, and Porvoo.\n\nIn 2015, there were about 3,500 homeless people in Helsinki. About a thousand of them are foreigners. 700 of the homeless are under the age of 25, which is 400 less than in 2013. According to Taru Neiman, Head of Housing Support in Helsinki, homelessness has decreased because there are more places in temporary housing units than before. In 2015, there were more than 800 places in Helsinki's housing units and the queuing times were on average one year.\n\nLanguage \n\nFinnish and Swedish are the official languages of Helsinki. 77.8% of the citizens speak Finnish as their native language. 5.5% speak Swedish. The remaining 16.7% of the population speaks a native language other than Finnish or Swedish.\n\nHelsinki slang is a regional dialect of the city. It combines influences mainly from Finnish and English, and has traditionally had strong Russian and Swedish influences. Finnish today is the common language of communication between Finnish speakers, Swedish speakers, and speakers of other languages (New Finns) in day-to-day affairs in the public sphere between unknown persons. Swedish is commonly spoken in city or national agencies specifically aimed at Finland-Swedish speakers, such as the Social Services Department on Hämeentie or the Luckan Cultural centre in Kamppi. Knowledge of Finnish is also essential in business and is usually a basic requirement in the employment market.\n\nFinnish speakers surpassed Swedish speakers in 1890 to become the majority of the city's population. At the time, the population of Helsinki was 61,530.\n\nImmigration\n\nAs the crossroads of many international ports and Finland's largest airport, Helsinki is the global gateway to and from Finland. The city has Finland's largest immigrant population in both absolute and relative terms. There are over 140 nationalities represented in Helsinki. It is home to the world's largest Estonian community outside of Estonia. Around 1,000 Sami people live in Helsinki.\n\nForeign citizens make up 9.6% of the population, while the total immigrant population makes up 16%. In 2018, 101,825 residents spoke a native language other than Finnish, Swedish, or one of the three Sami languages spoken in Finland, and 103,499 had a foreign background. The largest groups of residents not of Finnish background come from Russia (14,532), Estonia (9,065), and Somalia (6,845). One third of Finland's immigrant population lives in the city of Helsinki.\n\nThe number of people with a foreign mother tongue is expected to be 196,500 in 2035, or 26% of the population. 114,000 will speak non-European languages, which will be 15% of the population.\n\nReligion\n\nThe Temppeliaukio Church is a Lutheran church in the Töölö neighborhood of the city. The church was designed by architects and brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen and opened in 1969. Built directly into solid rock, it is also known as the Church of the Rock and Rock Church. The Cathedral of the Diocese of Helsinki is the Helsinki Cathedral, completed in 1852. It is a major landmark in the city and has 1,300 seats.\n\nThere are 21 Lutheran congregations in Helsinki, 18 of which are Finnish-speaking and 3 are Swedish-speaking. These form Helsinki's congregationgroup. Outside that there is Finland's German congregation with 3,000 members and Rikssvenska Olaus Petri-församlingen for Swedish-citizens with 1,000 members.\n\nThe largest Orthodox congregation is the Orthodox Church of Helsinki. It has 20,000 members. Its main church is the Uspenski Cathedral. The two largest Catholic congregations are the Cathedral of Saint Henry, with 4,552 members, established in 1860 and St Mary's Catholic Parish, with 4,107 members, established in 1954.\n\nAt the end of 2018, 52.4% of the population were affiliated to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Helsinki is the least Lutheran municipality in Finland.\n\nOther religions\n\nThere are around 30 mosques in the Helsinki region. Many linguistic and ethnic groups such as Bangladeshis, Kosovars, Kurds and Bosniaks have established their own mosques. The largest congregation in both Helsinki and Finland is the , established in 1995. It has over 2,800 members , and it received €24,131 in government assistance.\n\nIn 2015, imam estimated that on big celebrations around 10,000 Muslims visit mosques. In 2004, it was estimated that there were 8,000 Muslims in Helsinki, 1.5% of the population at the time.\n\nThe main synagogue of Helsinki is the Helsinki Synagogue from 1906, located in Kamppi. It has over 1,200 members, out of the 1,800 Jews in Finland, and it is the older of the two buildings in Finland originally built as a synagogue, followed by the Turku Synagogue in 1912. The congregation includes a synagogue, Jewish kindergarten, school, library, Jewish meat shop, two Jewish cemeteries and an retirement home. Many Jewish organizations and societies are based there, and the synagogue publishes the main Jewish magazine in Finland, .\n\nEconomy\n\nGreater Helsinki generates approximately one third of Finland's GDP. GDP per capita is roughly 1.3 times the national average. Helsinki profits on serviced-related IT and public sectors. Having moved from heavy industrial works, shipping companies also employ a substantial number of people.\n\nThe metropolitan area's gross value added per capita is 200% of the mean of 27 European metropolitan areas, equalling those of Stockholm and Paris. The gross value added annual growth has been around 4%.\n\n83 of the 100 largest Finnish companies have their headquarters in Greater Helsinki. Two-thirds of the 200 highest-paid Finnish executives live in Greater Helsinki and 42% in Helsinki. The average income of the top 50 earners was 1.65 million euro.\n\nThe tap water is of excellent quality and it is supplied by the Päijänne Water Tunnel, one of the world's longest continuous rock tunnels.\n\nEducation\n\nHelsinki has 190 comprehensive schools, 41 upper secondary schools, and 15 vocational institutes. Half of the 41 upper secondary schools are private or state-owned, the other half municipal. There are two major research universities in Helsinki, the University of Helsinki and Aalto University, and a number of other higher level institutions and polytechnics which focus on higher-level professional education.\n\nResearch universities\n\nUniversity of Helsinki\nAalto University (Espoo)\n\nOther institutions of higher education\nHanken School of Economics\nUniversity of the Arts Helsinki\nNational Defence University\nHaaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences\nLaurea University of Applied Sciences\nHelsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences\nArcada University of Applied Sciences\nDiaconia University of Applied Sciences\nHUMAK University of Applied Sciences\n\nHelsinki is one of the co-location centres of the Knowledge and Innovation Community (Future information and communication society) of The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).\n\nCulture\n\nMuseums\nThe biggest historical museum in Helsinki is the National Museum of Finland, which displays a vast collection from prehistoric times to the 21st century. The museum building itself, a national romantic-style neomedieval castle, is a tourist attraction. Another major historical museum is the Helsinki City Museum, which introduces visitors to Helsinki's 500-year history. The University of Helsinki also has many significant museums, including the Helsinki University Museum \"Arppeanum\" and the Finnish Museum of Natural History.\n\nThe Finnish National Gallery consists of three museums: Ateneum Art Museum for classical Finnish art, Sinebrychoff Art Museum for classical European art, and Kiasma Art Museum for modern art, in a building by architect Steven Holl. The old Ateneum, a neo-Renaissance palace from the 19th century, is one of the city's major historical buildings. All three museum buildings are state-owned through Senate Properties.\n\nThe city of Helsinki hosts its own art collection in the Helsinki Art Museum (HAM), primarily located in its Tennispalatsi gallery. Around 200 pieces of public art lie outside. The art is all city property.\n\nHelsinki Art Museum will in 2020 launch the Helsinki Biennial, which will bring art to maritime Helsinki – in its first year to the island of Vallisaari.\n\nThe Design Museum is devoted to the exhibition of both Finnish and foreign design, including industrial design, fashion, and graphic design. Other museums in Helsinki include the Military Museum of Finland, Didrichsen Art Museum, Amos Rex Art Museum, and the .\n\nTheatres\n\nHelsinki has three major theatres: The Finnish National Theatre, the Helsinki City Theatre, and the Swedish Theatre (Svenska Teatern). Other notable theatres in the city include the Alexander Theatre, , , , and .\n\nMusic\nHelsinki is home to two full-size symphony orchestras, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, both of which perform at the Helsinki Music Centre concert hall. Acclaimed contemporary composers Kaija Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Einojuhani Rautavaara, among others, were born and raised in Helsinki, and studied at the Sibelius Academy. The Finnish National Opera, the only full-time, professional opera company in Finland, is located in Helsinki. The opera singer Martti Wallén, one of the company's long-time soloists, was born and raised in Helsinki, as was mezzo-soprano Monica Groop.\n\nMany widely renowned and acclaimed bands have originated in Helsinki, including Nightwish, Children of Bodom, Hanoi Rocks, HIM, Stratovarius, The 69 Eyes, Finntroll, Ensiferum, Wintersun, The Rasmus, Poets of the Fall, and Apocalyptica. The most significant of the metal music events in Helsinki is the Tuska Open Air Metal Festival in Suvilahti, Sörnäinen.\n\nThe city's main musical venues are the Finnish National Opera, the Finlandia concert hall, and the Helsinki Music Centre. The Music Centre also houses a part of the Sibelius Academy. Bigger concerts and events are usually held at one of the city's two big ice hockey arenas: the Hartwall Arena or the Helsinki Ice Hall. Helsinki has Finland's largest fairgrounds, the Messukeskus Helsinki, which is attended by more than a million visitors a year.\n\nHelsinki Arena hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, the first Eurovision Song Contest arranged in Finland, following Lordi's win in 2006.\n\nArt\n\nThe Helsinki Day (Helsinki-päivä) will be celebrated on every June 12, with numerous entertainment events culminating in an open-air concert. Also, the Helsinki Festival is an annual arts and culture festival, which takes place every August (including the Night of the Arts).\n\nAt the Senate Square in fall 2010, Finland's largest open-air art exhibition to date took place: About 1.4 million people saw the international exhibition of United Buddy Bears.\n\nHelsinki was the 2012 World Design Capital, in recognition of the use of design as an effective tool for social, cultural, and economic development in the city. In choosing Helsinki, the World Design Capital selection jury highlighted Helsinki's use of 'Embedded Design', which has tied design in the city to innovation, \"creating global brands, such as Nokia, Kone, and Marimekko, popular events, like the annual , outstanding education and research institutions, such as the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, and exemplary architects and designers such as Eliel Saarinen and Alvar Aalto\".\n\nHelsinki hosts many film festivals. Most of them are small venues, while some have generated interest internationally. The most prolific of these is the Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy film festival, also known as Helsinki International Film Festival, which features films on a wide spectrum. Night Visions, on the other hand, focuses on genre cinema, screening horror, fantasy, and science fiction films in very popular movie marathons that last the entire night. Another popular film festival is , a festival that focuses solely on documentary cinema.\n\nMedia\n\nToday, there are around 200 newspapers, 320 popular magazines, 2,100 professional magazines, 67 commercial radio stations, three digital radio channels, and one nationwide and five national public service radio channels.\n\nSanoma publishes Finland's journal of record, Helsingin Sanomat, the tabloid Ilta-Sanomat, the commerce-oriented Taloussanomat, and the television channel Nelonen. Another Helsinki-based media house, Alma Media, publishes over thirty magazines, including the tabloid Iltalehti, and the commerce-oriented Kauppalehti.\n\nFinland's national public-broadcasting institution Yle operates five television channels and thirteen radio channels in both national languages. Yle is headquartered in the neighbourhood of Pasila. All TV channels are broadcast digitally, both terrestrially and on cable. Yle's studio area houses the high television and radio tower, Yle Transmission Tower (Pasilan linkkitorni), which is the third tallest structure in Helsinki and one of Helsinki's most famous landmarks, from the top of which, in good weather, can be seen even as far as Tallinn over the Gulf of Finland.\n\nThe commercial television channel MTV3 and commercial radio channel Radio Nova are owned by Nordic Broadcasting (Bonnier and Proventus).\n\nFood\n\nHelsinki was already known in the 18th century for its abundant number of inns and pubs, where both locals and those who landed in the harbor were offered plenty of alcoholic beverages. At that time, taxes on the sale of alcohol were a very significant source of income for Helsinki, and one of the most important sellers of alcohol was (1722–1805), a trade councilor who attracted rural merchants with alcohol and made good deals. Gradually, a new kind of beverage culture began to grow in the next century, and as early as 1852, the first café of Finland, , was established by confectioner (1825–1891) after attending his studies in St. Petersburg. Ekberg has also been said to have created Finland's \"national pastry tradition\". At first, café culture was only a prerogative of sophisticated elite, when it recently began to take shape as the right of every man. Today, there are several hundred cafés in Helsinki, the most notable of which is Cafe Regatta, which is very popular with foreign tourists.\n\nAs an important port city on the Baltic Sea, Helsinki has long been known for its fish food, and it has recently started to become one of the leading fish food capitals in Northern Europe. Helsinki's Market Square is especially known for its traditional herring market, which has been organized since 1743. Salmon is also typical Helsinki fish dish both fried and souped. The most prestigious restaurants specializing in seafood include Restaurant Fisken på Disken.\n\nHelsinki is currently experiencing a period of booming food culture, and it has developed into an internationally acclaimed food city, receiving recognition for promoting food culture. The local food culture is made up of cuisines from around the world and the fusions they form. Various Asian restaurants such as Chinese, Thai, Indian and Nepalese are particularly prominent in Helsinki's cityscape, but over the past couple of years, restaurants serving Vietnamese food have been very booming. Sushi restaurant buffets have also made their way into the city's restaurant offerings in one fell swoop. The third prominent trend is restaurants serving pure local food, many of which specialize primarily in serving pure Nordic flavors. Also, the Russian cuisine is still relatively strong in these days, one of which is the salty blinis, a thick Russian pancakes fried in a cast iron pan. One of the most significant food culture venues in Helsinki is the general public area known as Teurastamo in the Hermanni district, which operated as the city's slaughterhouse between 1933 and 1992, to which the name of the place also refers.\n\nA nationwide food carnival called Restaurant Day (Ravintolapäivä) has begun in Helsinki and has traditionally been celebrated since May 2011. The purpose of the day is to have fun, share new food experiences and enjoy the common environment with the group.\n\nOther\nVappu is an annual carnival for students and workers on May 1. The last week of June marks the Helsinki Pride human rights event, which was attended by 100,000 marchers in 2018.\n\nSports\n\nHelsinki has a long tradition of sports: the city gained much of its initial international recognition during the 1952 Summer Olympics, and the city has arranged sporting events such as the first World Championships in Athletics 1983 and 2005, and the European Championships in Athletics 1971, 1994, and 2012. Helsinki hosts successful local teams in both of the most popular team sports in Finland: football and ice hockey. Helsinki houses HJK Helsinki, Finland's largest and most successful football club, and IFK Helsingfors, their local rivals with 7 championship titles. The fixtures between the two are commonly known as Stadin derby. Helsinki's track and field club Helsingin Kisa-Veikot is also dominant within Finland. Ice hockey is popular among many Helsinki residents, who usually support either of the local clubs IFK Helsingfors (HIFK) or Jokerit. HIFK, with 14 Finnish championships titles, also plays in the highest bandy division, along with Botnia-69. The Olympic stadium hosted the first ever Bandy World Championship in 1957.\n\nHelsinki was elected host-city of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but due to World War II they were canceled. Instead Helsinki was the host of the 1952 Summer Olympics. The Olympics were a landmark event symbolically and economically for Helsinki and Finland as a whole that was recovering from the winter war and the continuation war fought with the Soviet Union. Helsinki was also in 1983 the first ever city to host the World Championships in Athletics. Helsinki also hosted the event in 2005, thus also becoming the first city to ever host the Championships for a second time. The Helsinki City Marathon has been held in the city every year since 1981, usually in August. A Formula 3000 race through the city streets was held on 25 May 1997. In 2009 Helsinki was host of the European Figure Skating Championships, and in 2017 it hosted World Figure Skating Championships. The city will host the 2021 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup.\n\nMost of Helsinki's sports venues are under the responsibility of the city's sports office, such as 70 sports halls and about 350 sports fields. There are nine ice rinks, three of which are managed by the Helsinki Sports Agency (Helsingin liikuntavirasto). In winter, there are seven artificial ice rinks. People can swim in Helsinki in 14 swimming pools, the largest of which is the , two inland swimming pools and more than 20 beaches, of which Hietaniemi Beach is probably the most famous.\n\nTransport\n\nRoads\n\nThe backbone of Helsinki's motorway network consists of three semicircular beltways, Ring I, Ring II, and Ring III, which connect expressways heading to other parts of Finland, and the western and eastern arteries of Länsiväylä and Itäväylä respectively. While variants of a Keskustatunneli tunnel under the city centre have been repeatedly proposed, the plan remains on the drawing board.\n\nMany important Finnish highways leave Helsinki for various parts of Finland; most of them in the form of motorways, but a few of these exceptions include Vihdintie. The most significant highways are:\n Finnish national road 1/E18 (to Lohja, Salo and Turku)\n Finnish national road 3/E12 (to Hämeenlinna, Tampere and Vaasa)\n Finnish national road 4/E75 (to Lahti, Jyväskylä, Oulu and Rovaniemi)\n Finnish national road 7/E18 (to Porvoo and Kotka).\n\nHelsinki has some 390 cars per 1000 inhabitants. This is less than in cities of similar population and construction density, such as Brussels' 483 per 1000, Stockholm's 401, and Oslo's 413.\n\nIntercity rail\n\nHelsinki Central Railway Station is the main terminus of the rail network in Finland. Two rail corridors lead out of Helsinki, the Main Line to the north (to Tampere, Oulu, Rovaniemi), and the Coastal Line to the west (to Turku). The Main Line (päärata), which is the first railway line in Finland, was officially opened on March 17, 1862, between cities of Helsinki and Hämeenlinna. The railway connection to the east branches from the Main Line outside of Helsinki at Kerava, and leads via Lahti to eastern parts of Finland and to Russia.\n\nA majority of intercity passenger services in Finland originate or terminate at the Helsinki Central Railway Station. All major cities in Finland are connected to Helsinki by rail service, with departures several times a day. The most frequent service is to Tampere, with more than 25 intercity departures per day . There are international services from Helsinki to Saint Petersburg and Moscow. The Saint Petersburg to Helsinki route is operated by Allegro high-speed trains.\n\nA Helsinki to Tallinn Tunnel has been proposed and agreed upon by representatives of the cities. The rail tunnel would connect Helsinki to the Estonian capital Tallinn, further linking Helsinki to the rest of continental Europe by Rail Baltica.\n\nAviation\nAir traffic is handled primarily from Helsinki Airport, located approximately north of Helsinki's downtown area, in the neighbouring city of Vantaa. Helsinki's own airport, Helsinki-Malmi Airport, is mainly used for general and private aviation. Charter flights are available from Hernesaari Heliport.\n\nSea transport\n\nLike many other cities, Helsinki was deliberately founded at a location on the sea in order to take advantage of shipping. The freezing of the sea imposed limitations on sea traffic up to the end of the 19th century. But for the last hundred years, the routes leading to Helsinki have been kept open even in winter with the aid of icebreakers, many of them built in the Helsinki Hietalahti shipyard. The arrival and departure of ships has also been a part of everyday life in Helsinki. Regular route traffic from Helsinki to Stockholm, Tallinn, and Saint Petersburg began as far back as 1837. Over 300 cruise ships and 360,000 cruise passengers visit Helsinki annually. There are international cruise ship docks in South Harbour, Katajanokka, West Harbour, and Hernesaari. In terms of combined liner and cruise passengers, the Port of Helsinki overtook the Port of Dover in 2017 to become the busiest passenger port in the world.\n\nFerry connections to Tallinn, Mariehamn, and Stockholm are serviced by various companies; very popular MS J. L. Runeberg ferry connection to Finland's second oldest city, medieval old town of Porvoo, is also available for tourists. Finnlines passenger-freight ferries to Gdynia, Poland; Travemünde, Germany; and Rostock, Germany are also available. St. Peter Line offers passenger ferry service to Saint Petersburg several times a week.\n\nUrban transport\n\nIn the Helsinki metropolitan area, public transportation is managed by the Helsinki Regional Transport Authority, the metropolitan area transportation authority. The diverse public transport system consists of trams, commuter rail, the metro, bus lines, two ferry lines and a public bike system.\n\nHelsinki's tram system officially began in Helsinki in 1891, when the first trams were horse-drawn; with electric drive, it has been in operation continuously since 1900. 13 routes that cover the inner part of the city are operated. , the city is expanding the tram network, with several major tram line construction projects under way. These include the Jokeri light rail (replacing the 550 bus line), roughly along Ring I around the city center, and a new tramway to the island of Laajasalo. Tram line 9 is planned to be extended from Pasila to Ilmala, largely along the new line, and line 6 from Hietalahti first to Eiranranta, later to Hernesaari. New line sections are also planned for the Kalasatama area; construction work on the new tram as the numeber line 13 (Nihti–Kalasatama–Vallilanlaakso–Pasila) has begun in May 2020, and the line is scheduled for completion in 2024. In August 2016, the city council decided to implement the Crown Bridges project, and the goal for the completion of the entire tram connection of the Crown Bridges is 2026.\n\nThe commuter rail system includes purpose-built double track for local services in two rail corridors along intercity railways, and the Ring Rail Line, an urban double-track railway with a station at the Helsinki Airport in Vantaa. Electric operation of commuter trains was first begun in 1969, and the system has been gradually expanded since. 15 different services are operated , some extending outside of the Helsinki region. The frequent services run at a 10-minute headway in peak traffic.\n\nInternational relations\n\nTwin towns and sister cities\n\nHelsinki is officially the sister city of Beijing, China (since 2006). In addition, the city has a special partnership relation with:\n\n Saint Petersburg\n Tallinn\n Stockholm\n Berlin\n Moscow\n\nNotable people\n\nBorn before 1900 \n\n Peter Forsskål (1732–1763), Swedish-Finnish naturalist and orientalist\n Axel Hampus Dalström (1829–1882), architect\nAgnes Tschetschulin (1859-1942), composer and violinist\n Jakob Sederholm (1863–1934), petrologist\n Karl Fazer (1866–1932), baker, confectioner, chocolatier, entrepreneur, and sport shooter\n Emil Lindh (1867–1937), sailor\n Oskar Merikanto (1868–1924), composer\n Maggie Gripenberg (1881–1976), dancer\n Gunnar Nordström (1881–1923), theoretical physicist\n Väinö Tanner (1881–1966), politician\n Walter Jakobsson (1882–1957), figure-skater\n Mauritz Stiller (1883–1928), Russian-Swedish director and screenwriter\n Karl Wiik (1883–1946), Social Democratic politician\n Lennart Lindroos (1886–?), swimmer, Olympic games 1912\n Erkki Karu (1887–1935), film director and producer\n Kai Donner (1888–1935), linguist, anthropologist and politician\n Gustaf Molander (1888–1973), Swedish director and screenwriter\n Johan Helo (1889–1966), lawyer and politician\n Minna Craucher (1891–1932), socialite and spy\n Artturi Ilmari Virtanen (1895–1973), chemist (Nobel Prize, 1945)\n Rolf Nevanlinna (1895–1980), mathematician, university teacher and writer\n Elmer Diktonius (1896–1961), Finnish-Swedish writer and composer\n Yrjö Leino (1897–1961), communist politician\n Toivo Wiherheimo (1898–1970), economist and politician\n\nBorn after 1900 \n\n Aku Ahjolinna (born 1946), ballet dancer and choreographer\n Lars Ahlfors (1907–1996), mathematician, Fields medalist\n Tuomas Holopainen (born 1976), songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer\n Helena Anhava (1925-2018), poet, author and translator\n Paavo Berglund (1929–2012), conductor\n Laci Boldemann (1921–1969), composer\n Irja Agnes Browallius (1901–1968), Swedish writer\n Bo Carpelan (1926–2011), Finland-Swedish writer, literary critic and translator\n Tarja Cronberg (born 1943), politician\n George Gaynes (1917-2016), television and film actor\n Ragnar Granit (1900–1991), Finnish-Swedish neurophysiologist and Nobel laureate\n Mika Waltari (1908–1979), writer\n Elina Haavio-Mannila (born 1933), social scientist and professor \n Tarja Halonen (born 1943), President of Finland\n Reino Helismaa (1913–1965), writer, film actor and singer\n Kim Hirschovits (born 1982), ice hockey player\n Bengt Holmström (born 1949), Professor of Economics, Nobel laureate\n Shawn Huff, Finnish basketball player\n Kirsti Ilvessalo (1920–2019), textile artist\n Tove Jansson (1914–2001), Finland-Swedish writer, painter, illustrator, comic writer, graphic designer\n Petteri Koponen, Finnish basketball player\n Lennart Koskinen (born 1944), Swedish, Lutheran bishop\n Olli Lehto (born 1925), mathematician\n Samuel Lehtonen (1921–2010), bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland\n Juha Leiviskä (born 1936), architect\n Magnus Lindberg (born 1958), composer and pianist\n Lill Lindfors (born 1940), Finland-Swedish singer and TV presenter\n Jari Mäenpää (born 1977), founder, former lead guitarist and current lead singer in melodic death metal band Wintersun, former lead singer and guitarist of folk metal band Ensiferum\n Klaus Mäkelä (born 1996), cellist and conductor\n Susanna Mälkki (born 1969), conductor\n Georg Malmstén (1902–1981), singer, musician, composer, orchestra director and actor\n Tauno Marttinen (1912–2008), composer\n Vesa-Matti Loiri (born 1945), actor, comedian, singer\n Abdirahim Hussein Mohamed (born 1978), Finnish-Somalian media personality and politician\n Hanno Möttölä Finnish basketball player\n Peter Nygård (born 1941), businessman, arrested in December 2020 for sex crimes\n Markku Peltola (1956–2007), actor and musician\n Elisabeth Rehn (born 1935), politician\n Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928–2016), composer\n Miron Ruina (born 1998), Finnish-Israeli basketball player\n Kaija Saariaho (born 1952), composer\n Riitta Salin (born 1950), athlete\n Sasu Salin, Finnish basketball player\n Esa-Pekka Salonen (born 1958), composer and conductor\n Asko Sarkola (born 1945), actor\n Heikki Sarmanto (born 1939), jazz pianist and composer\n Teemu Selänne (born 1970), Hall of Fame ice hockey player\n Aki Kaurismäki (born 1957), director, screenwriter and producer\n Märta Tikkanen (born 1935), Finland-Swedish writer and philosophy teacher\n Linus Torvalds (born 1969), software engineer, creator of Linux\n Elin Törnudd (1924– 2008), Finnish chief librarian and professor\n Sirkka Turkka (born 1939), poet\n Ville Valo (born 1976), lead singer of the rock band HIM\n Ulla Vuorela (1945–2011), professor of social anthropology\n Lauri Ylönen (born 1979), lead singer of the rock band The Rasmus\n Anne Marie Pohtamo (born 1955), actress, model, Miss Suomi 1975 and Miss Universe 1975\n\nSee also \n\n \n Greater Helsinki\n Helsinki urban area\n Subdivisions of Helsinki\n Helsinki Parish Village\n Underground Helsinki\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nHel.fi: Official City of Helsinki website\nwelcome.helsinki: An introduction to the city for new residents\nMy Helsinki: Your local guide to Helsinki\nLunch restaurants in Helsinki\n\n \nGreater Helsinki\nCapitals in Europe\nCities and towns in Finland\nGrand Duchy of Finland\nPort cities and towns in Finland\nPort cities and towns of the Baltic Sea\nPopulated coastal places in Finland\nPopulated places established in 1550\n1550 establishments in Europe\n16th-century establishments in Finland",
"Kuusamo (; ) is a town and municipality in Finland. It is located in the Northern Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is .\n\nThe municipality is unilingually Finnish.\n\nKuusamo is a major center for winter sports and receives approximately a million tourists every year. One of the largest ski resorts in Finland, Ruka, is situated in Kuusamo. Ruka is also the host of many international competitions in ski jumping, cross-country skiing, and Nordic combined. The 2005 World Championships of Freestyle Skiing was held in Kuusamo. Kuusamo Airport is located north-east from Kuusamo town centre.\n\nHistory\n\nSami settlement\nUntil the 17th century, the area of Kuusamo was inhabited by the semi-nomadic Sami. During the cold season they lived in the villages Maanselkä and Kitka. In spring they moved to the rivers and in summer, after the melting of the ice, to the lakes; there they fished and gathered berries and mushrooms; in autumn they hunted reindeer, bears and beavers in the forest. Apart from fishing and hunting the Sami earned their living by trading fur with the Finns settled on the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia and the Karelians of the White Sea coast.\n\nAs a Sami settlement the area belonged to Kuusamo Kemi-Lappmark at the time. Nominally it belonged to the territory of the Swedish province of Västerbotten, but the Swedish rule was limited to the collection of taxes. At the same time Russia collected taxes in the territory it deemed state-less.\n\nSwedish domination\nFrom the 15th century Finnish fishermen also took advantage of the fishing grounds on the lower reaches of the river Iijoki near Kuusamo. They took regular trips of a few weeks from Kuusamo, but because the land could not provide hay for the cattle other than near the river, they founded no fixed settlements. Only when, in 1673, the Swedish government granted all settlers in Lapland a tax exemption for 15 years, did settlers from Savo and Kainuu settle in Kuusamo. They practiced slash and burn as a form of shifting cultivation. This put the Sami's hunting way of life at risk. Within a few decades the Sami population was assimilated or ousted by the Finnish settlers. By 1718 there were only two Sámi families in Kuusamo, who had already adopted the Finnish language.\n\nThe first parish in Kuusamo was founded in 1685. In 1687 a temporary chapel was built, in 1695 the first church. From the end of the 17th century the area around the lake Kuusamojärvi began to be called Kuusamo. The precise etymology of the name is unclear, however, one possible derivation is from a Sami word for \"spruce forest\".\n\nThe Swedish–Russian border had already been withdrawn east of Kuusamo in the 1595 Treaty of Teusina, but was long and porous. With the constant influx of new settlers, Kuusamo grew steadily in the 18th century. Agriculture, cattle and reindeer husbandry replaced nomadic cropping. Kuusamo around 1770 had about 2,000 inhabitants. In 1775 Kuusamo was removed from Lappmark and added to the newly formed province of Oulu . Because the population had increased, a new, larger church was built between 1797 and 1804. By the beginning of the 19th century the population had reached 3000 inhabitants, but a famine in 1803 and a smallpox epidemic the following year reduced the population again.\n\nRussian domination\n\nIn 1809, Kuusamo, as with the rest of Finland, came under Russian rule. In the first half of the 19th century, the area was ravaged several times by devastating famine and epidemics. Kuusamo was spared by the catastrophic crop failure in 1867, and its population grew steadily thereafter. By 1886, 7,000 people inhabited the city; by 1894, that number grew to 8,000. With the advent of forestry at the end of the 19th century, workers moved into the area, so Kuusamo reached a population of 10,500 by 1910. In 1868, in Finland's administrative reform the parish of Kuusamo became a municipality.\n\nSince independence\n\nAfter the independence of Finland in 1917, the Russian border was closed and so Kuusamo was cut off from its hinterland. The forestry sector suffered as no wood could be rafted from Kuusamo to the ports on the White Sea. Even the reindeer economy suffered as some of the herds remained on the Russian side of the border. Therefore, between the wars agriculture developed as the most important part of the economy. By 1925 the population had risen to 14,634, but it fell by around 2000 the next year through the detachment of the villages and Posio Suolijärvi Kuusamo.\n\nAt the start of the Winter War Kuusamo was evacuated in December 1939 for fear of a Soviet invasion. In the Moscow Peace Treaty, the Winter War ended on 14 March 1940, Finland lost large parts of Karelia, the eastern areas of Salla and Kuusamo to the Soviet Union. The ceded part of Kuusamo had an area of 1653 square kilometers and included the villages Paanajärvi, Tavajärvi, Vatajärvi, Enojärvi, Pukari and Kenttikylä. Its 2100 residents were relocated to other parts of Kuusamo. During the Continuation War of 1941-1944 Kuusamo was used as a supply depot by German and Finnish troops. When it appeared that Germany might lose the war, Finland secretly negotiated a separate peace with the Soviet Union. After news of the armistice, the civilian population once again abandoned the town for fear of Russian occupation. The Russians did briefly occupy Kuusamo and burned the village to the ground upon their departure. One of the requirements on the treaty was the removal of any and all German troops currently on Finnish soil, which escalated into a minor separate war commonly known as the Lapland War between the Finns and the Germans.\n\nIn the years between 1945 and 1952 Kuusamo was rebuilt. By the late 1960s, the population had grown to almost 21,000. As agriculture in the village could not offer enough jobs for the baby boomer generation, the population began to decline rapidly. In 1954, the first ski run on the Rukatunturi was created. Through the expansion of the Ruka ski center, Kuusamo became a tourist center. In 2000, the municipality of Kuusamo was made a town.\n\nGeography\n\nKuusamo lies in the east of Finland in the Northern Ostrobothnia region on the border with Russia. The town of Kuusamo is only a small part of the municipality. The neighboring municipalities of Kuusamo are Suomussalmi in the south, Taivalkoski and Posio in the west, Salla in the north and Russia in the east. The nearest large towns are Rovaniemi, northwest, Oulu southwest, and Kajaani south. The distance to the capital Helsinki is .\n\nKuusamo covers an area of of which is water. The community center of Kuusamo, where nearly two-thirds of the population live, is only a small part of the territory. The rest of the municipality consists of sparsely populated, mostly wooded areas. Therefore, the population density of Kuusamo is only . Apart from the city, villages include Alakitka, Heikkilä, Hiltunen, Irni, Jokilampi, Kallunki, Kantokylä, Kemilä, Kero, Kesäniemi, Kiitämäjärvi, Koskenkylä, Kuolio, Kurvinen, Kärpänkylä, Käylä, Lämsänkylä, Maaselänkylä, Murtovaara, Poussu, Puutteenkylä, Rukajärvi, Määttälänvaara, Soivio, Suorajärvi, Tammela, Teeriranta, Törmäsenvaara, Vasaraperä, Virrankylä, Vuotunki, Lehto and Kiviperä.\n\nLandscape and nature\n\nThe city lies on a roughly 250-meter-high plateau, from which the waters flow in five directions. In the area of Kuusamo there are many hills (Finn. vaara) and fells (Finn. tunturi). The highest elevations are Valtavaara (492 m), Kuntivaara (481 m), Iivaara (469 m) and Rukatunturi (490 m), the site of the Ruka ski center.\n\nNinety percent of the land area is forested. The forests consist mainly of pine trees (70%) with some spruce (20%) and deciduous trees (10%). or 14% of the area of Kuusamo is covered by water. The largest of the 166 lakes in the area are Joukamojärvi, Kiitämä, Kitka, Kurkijärvi, Kuusamojärvi, Muojärvi and Suininki. Rivers in the area include Oulankajoki, Kitkajoki, Kuusinkijoki and Pistojoki flowing eastward to the White Sea and Iijoki westward to the Gulf of Bothnia.\n\nThe area of Oulanka National Park is shared between northern Kuusamo and neighboring Salla municipality. The landscape is dominated by pine forests, Oulankajoki river and its side branches with their sandbanks and rapids, and in the northern part vast marsh areas. In the wilderness live 30 species of mammals and 120 species of birds, including brown, stone and white-tailed eagle. Wolves and lynxes are rare. Rapids in Oulankajoki include Kiutaköngäs, Taivalköngäs, Jyrävä, Niskakoski and Myllykoski. Near the southern border with Suomussalmi is the canyon lake Julma Ölkky with up to high cliffs.\n\nClimate\n \nThe average annual temperature is −0.37 °C, annual precipitation . The warmest month is July with an average temperature of +14.3 °C, coldest January with −13.2 °C. The coldest ever measured temperature was −48 °C in Kiutaköngäs. Kuusamo is one of the snowiest areas in Finland: the ground is snow-covered for about 200 days a year, from late October until mid-May, with a thickness of .\n\nThe center of Kuusamo is located approximately south of the Arctic Circle, thus polar day and night play a major role. From 14 to 29 June Kuusamo has midnight sun.\n\nPopulation\n\nOn Kuusamo had inhabitants. Nearly two-thirds of the population lives in the city center, called the village of Kuusamo, the rest is divided among the villages in the rural hinterland. Like most communities in the Northern and Eastern Finland, there has been marked migration to larger urban areas. The population peaked in the late 1960s at nearly 21,000 residents. With the exception of a period in the 1990s, the population has steadily declined since then.\n\nThe migration has had an effect on Kuusamo's age structure, as it is mainly young people who leave the town. For example, between 1998 and 2001, the percentage of people aged less than 15 years fell from 25% to 23%, while the share of those aged over 64 years rose from 12 to 14%.\n\nEconomy and infrastructure\n\nEconomy\nThe main economic activities in Kuusamo include forestry, reindeer husbandry, small industries and tourism. The unemployment rate, at 16.2% (2003) is relatively high.\n\nIn 2002 there were 248 farms in Kuusamo. Given the climatic conditions, milk and meat production have a major role, including reindeer meat from the approximately 10,000 semi-domesticated reindeer which roam the pastures in Kuusamo. The forestry and wood processing industry also employs over 1,000 people.\n\nTourism\n\nAround one million tourists visit Kuusamo annually. In 2002, 291,222 overnight stays were registered, 17% of which were by foreign guests. There are around 6,000 cottages (mökki) in Kuusamo, more than any other municipality in Finland.\n\nThe Ruka ski center, centered on the 492-metre Rukatunturi, is one of the largest in Finland with a total of 16,000 beds, four hotels and 28 restaurants. Activities include skiing, snowmobile tours and excursions with reindeer and dog sleds. Ruka benefits from a long snowy season, from mid-October to mid-June.\n\nIn summer, Kuusamo is a popular wilderness destination for fishing, kayaking and hiking. The most famous hiking trail (as well as Finland's most popular) is Bear's Ring (Karhunkierros), which runs for , mostly in the Oulanka National Park.\n\nTransportation\n \nNational highway 5 (E63) connects Kuusamo to Southern Finland. Highway 20 leads from Kuusamo to Oulu, and the main road 81 to Rovaniemi. In Suoperä at Kuusamo, there is a border crossing to Russia, opened for international traffic in 2006. In 2007, 17,000 border crossings recorded.\n\nKuusamo Airport is from the city center and from Ruka. It was opened in 1969 and has since been expanded several times. The airline Finnair offers daily direct flights from Helsinki, adding charter flights during the tourist season. Seasonal flights are offered by Finncomm Airlines and Blue1 from Helsinki and Rossiya Airlines from St. Petersburg. In 2007, 108,394 passengers used the airport.\n\nCulture and attractions\n\nWhile Kuusamo mainly attracts visitors because of its natural beauty, the city has produced little of interest in the traditional sense. Because the city center was completely destroyed in the Lapland War and then had to be rebuilt quickly and economically, Kuusamo is seen as largely uninteresting from an architectural point of view. In contrast - at least considering the small population - the cultural life of the city is relatively lively.\n\nThe Kuusamo Hall in the town center, completed in 1996, acts as a convention and cultural center. In it one can find regular musical and theatrical performances as well as changing art exhibitions. The Kuusamo Local History Museum is an outdoor museum that has been established on a historic farm. Additionally, a school museum is set up in the old school of Kirkkoketo.\n\nThe church in the center of Kuusamo was built in 1951. It stands on the site of the old wooden church from 1802, which was burnt down in 1944 Lapland War by German troops. At that time German soldiers buried the two church bells (one endowed to the church by Charles XI of Sweden in 1698, and the other originating from the year 1721) in the cemetery to secure them from the advancing Soviet troops. The bells were considered lost until 1959, when the former German regimental commander visited Kuusamo and revealed the location of the buried bells. Today these same bells are housed in the rebuilt church.\n\nSports\n \nKuusamo is the venue of several international winter sports competitions. In Ruka skiing there is a stadium with the Rukatunturi-hill (HS142) and a smaller-K64 ski jumping hill and lighted trails and a biathlon facility. Since 2002, the World Cup kick-off in ski jumping and Nordic combined and cross country skiing World Cup races in Ruka Nordic Opening in late November at a joint event in Kuusamo instead. 2006's 16,000 spectators, the competition. Ruka in 2005, the Freestyle Skiing World Cup instead.\n\nInternational relations\n\nTwin towns—Sister cities\nKuusamo is twinned with:\n\n Hørning Municipality, Denmark \n Avesta Municipality, Sweden \n Askøy, Norway\n Loukhsky District, Russia\n\nFamous people from Kuusamo\n Alexander Kuoppala, former Children Of Bodom guitarist\n Enni Rukajärvi, slopestyle snowboarder and 2014 Winter Olympics silver medalist\n Hannu Hautala, photographer\n Tuomo Hänninen, politician\n Anssi Koivuranta, ski-jumper, former Nordic combined athlete\n Pirkko Määttä, cross-country skier\n Jarkko Oikarinen, developer of IRC\n Kalevi Oikarainen, cross-country skier\n Pauli Saapunki, parliamentarian\n Ulla Parviainen, former parliamentarian, headmaster\n Kepa Salmirinne, musician\n Veikko Törmänen, visual artist\n Päivi Uitto-Riipinen, Miss Suomi 1979\n Jarkko Petosalmi, musician (Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus)\n Tuomas \"Zuppi\" Törmänen, professional Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition player playing for Team Suomi\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n Town of Kuusamo – Official website\n Ruka, ski resort in Kuusamo - Official website\n\n \nCities and towns in Finland\nPopulated places established in 1868\nSki areas and resorts in Finland"
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