Stavanger

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock ) Lysefjord Stavanger Norway

Greater Stavanger - Come for the job, stay for the lifestyle

Davidy Mponda - Stavanger (Norske talenter 7-9-2012)

Stavanger - European Capital of Culture 2008

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Aalborg
Aalborg (or Ålborg) (Danish pronunciation: [ˈʌlb̥ɒːˀ] ( listen)) is a Danish industrial and university city in North Jutland. The city of Aalborg has a population of 104,885 (126,556 including Nørresundby) making it the fourth largest city in Denmark in terms of population. The municipality of Aalborg has a population of 201,142 (2012) making it the third most populous municipality in the country after Copenhagen and Århus. The earliest settlements date back to around AD 700. Aalborg's location by the Limfjord made it an important harbour during the Middle Ages, and an industrial centre later. Today, the city is in transition from a working-class industrial city to a knowledge-based one.
Aalborg traces its history back over 1000 years. It was originally settled as a trading post because of its position on the Limfjord. The sites of what were two settlements and a visible burial ground can be seen on Lindholm Høje, a hill overlooking the city. The sizes of these settlements emphasise the significance of this place as a crossroads. The first mention of Aalborg under its original name Alabu, is found on a coin dated to 1040. An alternative spelling is Alebu and an approximate translation of the name is The (dwelling) place by the stream.

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Aarhus
Aarhus (Danish pronunciation: [ˈɒːhuːˀs] ( listen)) is the second-largest city in Denmark. The principal port of Denmark, Aarhus is on the east side of the peninsula of Jutland in the geographical center of Denmark. Aarhus is the seat of the council of Aarhus municipality with 315,193 inhabitants and 252,213 (1 January 2012) in the inner urban area. According to Aarhus municipality, the "Greater Aarhus" area has a population of about 1.2 million people. The city claims the unofficial title "Capital of Jutland".
Aarhus is the main and biggest city in the East Jutland metropolitan area (Danish: Byregion Østjylland), which is a co-operation in eastern Jutland with 17 municipalities. With more than 1.2 million people living in the East Jutland metropolitan area it represents approximately 23% of the population of Denmark. Aarhus has the second-largest urban area in Denmark after Copenhagen.
The city was mentioned for the first time by Adam of Bremen who stated that "Reginbrand, bishop of the church of Aarhus (Harusa)" participated in a church meeting in the city of Ingelheim in Germany.

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Aberdeen
Coordinates: 57°09′09″N 2°06′36″W / 57.1526°N 2.1100°W / 57.1526; -2.1100
Aberdeen ⁱ/æbərˈdiːn/ (Scots: Aiberdeen listen (help·info); Scottish Gaelic: Obar Dheathain [ˈopər ˈʝɛhɪn]) is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 29th most populous city, with an official population estimate of 220,420.
Nicknames include the Granite City, the Grey City and the Silver City with the Golden Sands. During the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries, Aberdeen's buildings incorporated locally quarried grey granite, whose mica deposits sparkle like silver. The city has a long, sandy coastline. Since the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s, other nicknames have been the Oil Capital of Europe or the Energy Capital of Europe. The area around Aberdeen has been settled since at least 8,000 years ago, when prehistoric villages lay around the mouths of the rivers Dee and Don.
Aberdeen received Royal Burgh status from King David I (1124–53), transforming the city economically. The city's two universities, the University of Aberdeen, founded in 1495, and The Robert Gordon University, which was awarded university status in 1992, make Aberdeen the educational centre of the north-east. The traditional industries of fishing, paper-making, shipbuilding, and textiles have been overtaken by the oil industry and Aberdeen's seaport. Aberdeen Heliport is one of the busiest commercial heliports in the world and the seaport is the largest in the north-east of Scotland.

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Amsterdam
Amsterdam (English /ˈæmstərdæm/; Dutch: [ˌɑmstərˈdɑm] ( listen)) is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The city's status as the capital of the nation is governed by the constitution. Amsterdam has a population of 790,654 within city limits, an urban population of 1,209,419 and a metropolitan population of 2,289,762. The city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. It comprises the northern part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe, with a population of approximately 7 million.
Amsterdam's name is derived from Amstelredamme, indicative of the city's origin: a dam in the river Amstel. Settled as a small fishing village in the late 12th century, Amsterdam became one of the most important ports in the world during the Dutch Golden Age, a result of its innovative developments in trade. During that time, the city was the leading center for finance and diamonds. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the city expanded, and many new neighborhoods and suburbs were formed. The 17th-century canals of Amsterdam (in Dutch: 'Grachtengordel'), located in the heart of Amsterdam, were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in July 2010.

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Antsirabe
Antsirabe (Malagasy [anˌtsiraˈbe]) is the third largest city in Madagascar and the capital of the Vakinankaratra region. The city had an estimated population of about 186,000 in 2001. In Madagascar, Antsirabe is known for its relatively cool climate, its industry and the high concentration of pulled rickshaws or "pousse-pousses", amongst other things.
The name Antsirabe translates into "the place of much salt".
Antsirabe is situated at an altitude of about 1,500 m (4,900 ft), ensuring a relatively cool climate. During the winter the temperature can fall below 0 °C (32 °F) at during the night.
May to September form the coldest and dryest part of the year with average monthly temperatures between 14 °C (57 °F) and 17 °C (63 °F) and an average number of days with precipitation per month of 1-2. From November to March the climate is warmer and wetter with on average 12 to 17 days with precipitation per month and average temeperature of about 20 °C (68 °F). April and October have average temperatures of 19.2 °C (66.6 °F) and 18.5 °C (65.3 °F) respectively and 5–6 days of rain.

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Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (ⁱ/ˌæzərbaɪˈdʒɑːn/ AZ-ər-by-JAHN; Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Respublikası) is the largest country in the Caucasus region located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bounded by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, while having a short borderline with Turkey to the northwest.
Azerbaijan has an ancient and historic cultural heritage. Aside from having been the first Muslim-majority country to have operas, theater and plays, Azerbaijan today is among the Muslim-majority countries where support for secularism and tolerance is the highest. The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the first democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world, was established in 1918, but was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920. Azerbaijan regained independence in 1991. Shortly thereafter, during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, neighboring Armenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, its surrounding territories and the enclaves of Karki, Yukhary Askipara, Barkhudarly and Sofulu. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which emerged in Nagorno-Karabakh, continues to be not diplomatically recognized by any nation and the region is still considered a de jure part of Azerbaijan, despite being de facto independent since the end of the war. Azerbaijan has come under repeated international criticism for its record on human rights.

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Baku
Baku (Azerbaijani: Bakı, IPA: [bɑˈcɯ]), sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal parts: the downtown and the old Inner City (21.5 ha). Baku's urban population at the beginning of 2009 was estimated at just over two million people. Officially, about 25 percent of all inhabitants of the country live in the metropolitan city area of Baku.
Baku is divided into eleven administrative districts (raions) and 48 townships. Among these are the townships on islands in the Baku Bay and the town of Oil Rocks built on stilts in the Caspian Sea, 60 km (37 mi) away from Baku. The Inner City of Baku along with the Shirvanshah's Palace and Maiden Tower were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. According to the Lonely Planet's ranking, Baku is also among the world's top ten destinations for urban nightlife.

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Bergen
Bergen (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈbærɡən] (listen)) is a city and municipality in Hordaland on the west coast of Norway. As of 26 June 2012, the municipality had a population of 265,800 and Greater Bergen had a population of 391,000, making Bergen the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and area of 465 square kilometers (180 sq mi) and is located on the peninsula of Bergenshalvøyen. The city center and northern neighborhoods are located on Byfjorden and the city is built around the Seven Mountains. Many of the extra-municipal suburbs are located on islands. Bergen is the administrative center of Hordaland and consists of eight boroughs—Arna, Årstad, Åsane, Bergenhus, Fana, Fyllingsdalen, Laksevåg and Ytrebygda.
Trading in Bergen may have started as early as the 1020s, but the city was not incorporated until 1070. It served as Norway's capital from 1217 to 1299, and from the end of the 13th century became a bureau city of the Hanseatic League. Until 1789, Bergen enjoyed exclusive rights to mediate trade between Northern Norway and abroad. The remains of the quays, Bryggen, is a World Heritage Site. The city was hit by numerous fires. The Norwegian School of Economics was founded in 1936 and the University of Bergen in 1946. From 1831 to 1972, Bergen was its own county, after which Bergen amalgamated with the surrounding municipalities.

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Berlin
Berlin ( /bɜrˈlɪn/; German pronunciation: [bɛɐ̯ˈliːn] ( listen)) is the capital city of Germany and one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.5 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city and is the second most populous city proper and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union. Located in northeastern Germany, it is the center of the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, which has 5.9 million residents from over 190 nations. Located in the European Plains, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes.
First documented in the 13th century, Berlin was the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918), the German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and the Third Reich (1933–1945).Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world. After World War II, the city became divided into East Berlin—the capital of East Germany—and West Berlin, a West German exclave surrounded by the Berlin Wall (1961–1989). Following German reunification in 1990, the city regained its status as the capital of Germany, hosting 147 foreign embassies.

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Borås
Borås (Swedish pronunciation: [bʊˈroːs]) is a locality and the seat of Borås Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 66,273 inhabitants in 2010.
Borås is located at the point of two crossing railways, among them the railway between Gothenburg and Kalmar, and is often considered^{[citation needed]} the Swedish city gaining the most from the nationwide railway system laid between 1870-1910.
The city of Borås received its privileges in 1621 by King Gustav II Adolf. The reason was to give local pedlars a legal place for vending their merchandise. The city developed soon after it was founded. After a century it had increased to over 2,000 inhabitants.
Borås has been ravaged by fires four times: in 1681, 1727, 1822 and 1827. The Caroli church is the oldest of Borås's buildings, and has withstood all fires.
The city arms depicts two sheep-shearing scissors, a tribute to the vast number of smiths in the town in early history. It currently holds the Swedish record in the number of established mail-order firms.

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Brussels
Brussels (French: Bruxelles, pronounced [bʁysɛl] ( listen); Dutch: Brussel, pronounced [ˈbrʏ.səɫ] ( listen); German: Brüssel, pronounced [ˈbʁyː.səl]), officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region (French: Région de Bruxelles-Capitale (help·info), Dutch: Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest (help·info)), is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union (EU). It is also the largest urban area in Belgium, comprising 19 municipalities, including the municipality of the City of Brussels, which is the de jure capital of Belgium, in addition to the seat of the French Community of Belgium and of the Flemish Community.
Brussels has grown from a 10th-century fortress town founded by a descendant of Charlemagne into a metropolis of more than one million inhabitants. The metropolitan area has a population of over 1.8 million, making it the largest in Belgium.
Since the end of the Second World War, Brussels has been a main centre for international politics. Hosting principal EU institutions as well as the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the city has become the polyglot home of numerous international organisations, politicians, diplomats and civil servants.

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Chesterfield
Chesterfield is a market town and a borough of Derbyshire, England. It lies 24 miles (39 km) north of Derby, on a confluence of the rivers Rother and Hipper. Its population is 70,260 (2001), making it Derbyshire's largest town (the larger Derby being a city). It is located on the A61, 6 miles (9.7 km) from the M1, and forms part of the Sheffield City Region.
Chesterfield received its market charter in the year 1204, and is currently home to one of the largest open air markets in Britain. The area around the town sits over a large coalfield, which was mined from many surrounding collieries until the 1980s. Little evidence of the mining industry remains today, and the town's economy has moved towards the tertiary sector. The town's most famous landmark, which is visible from many viewpoints outside the town, is the distinctive 'crooked' spire of its predominantly 14th century church.
The town received its market charter in the year 1204 from King John and around 250 stalls can still be found in the town centre every Monday, Friday and Saturday. The charter constituted the town as a free borough, granting the burgesses of Chesterfield the same privileges as those of Nottingham.

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Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( /ˈkoʊpənheɪɡən/ or /ˈkoʊpənhɑːɡən/; Danish: København pronounced [kʰøb̥m̩ˈhɑʊ̯ˀn] ( listen), Latin: Hafnia) is the capital of Denmark and its most populous city, with an urban population of 1,213,822 (as of 1 January 2012 (2012 -01-01)^[update]) and a metropolitan population of 1,935,746 (as of 1 April 2012 (2012 -04-01)^[update]). With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region. Within this region, Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmö are growing into a combined metropolitan area. Copenhagen is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager.
First documented in the 11th century, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the beginning of the 15th century. During the 17th century, under the reign of Christian IV, it became a significant regional centre.
Copenhagen is a major regional centre of culture, business, media, and science, as indicated by several international surveys and rankings (see International rankings below). Life science, information technology and shipping are important sectors, and research & development plays a major role in the city's economy. Its strategic location and excellent infrastructure, with the largest airport in Scandinavia,Kastrup, located 14 minutes by train from the city centre, have made it a regional hub and a popular location for regional headquarters and conventions.

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Cork (city)
Cork (Irish: Corcaigh, pronounced [ˈkorkɪɟ], from corcach, meaning "marsh") is the second largest city in Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork had a population of 119,418 in 2011, while the addition of the suburban areas contained in the county brings the total of the urban area to 198,582.Metropolitan Cork has a population of 399,216, while the Greater Cork area is about 518,128.
County Cork has earned the nickname of "the Rebel County", while Corkonians often refer to the city as the "real capital of Ireland", and themselves as the "Rebels". The city is built on the River Lee which divides into two channels at the western end of the city. The city centre is located on the island created by the channels. At the eastern end of the city centre they converge; and the Lee flows around Lough Mahon to Cork Harbour, one of the world's largest natural harbours. The city is a major Irish seaport; there are quays and docks along the banks of the Lee on the city's east side.

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Denmark
The Kingdom of Denmark (Danish: Kongeriget Danmark, pronounced [ˈkɔŋəʁiːəð ˈdanmɑɡ̊] ( listen)) is a constitutional monarchy and sovereign state consisting the country of Denmark in northern Europe and two autonomous constituent countries, the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic and Greenland in North America. The kingdom is a unitary state with some power being devolved from Denmark proper to Greenland and the Faroe Islands; this polity is referred to as the Danish Realm. Denmark proper is the hegemonial area, where judicial, executive, and legislative power resides. The Faroe Islands are defined to be a community of people within the kingdom, and the Greenlandic people are defined as a separate people with the right to self-determination.
Denmark is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, located southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. The country consists of a large peninsula, Jutland and many islands, most notably Zealand, Funen, Lolland, Falster and Bornholm, as well as hundreds of minor islands often referred to as the Danish Archipelago.

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Drøbak
Drøbak is a town and the centre of the municipality of Frogn, in Akershus county, Norway. The city is located along the Oslofjord, and has 13,358 inhabitants.
Drøbak and Frogn was a established as a parish on its own through a royal decree Sept. 8, 1823. It had been a part of Ås parish.
Drøbak was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). It was merged with Frogn January 1, 1962.
Traditionally, Drøbak was the winter harbour of Norway's capital, Oslo, since in severe winters the fjord will freeze from outside Drøbak all the way up to Oslo. It had a city status between 1842 and 1962, upon which point the municipality was merged into the rural municipality Frogn and lost its city status. The city status was regained by the municipality council on 13 February 2006. It was also decided that adjacent villages such as Heer would be included within the city.
A notable event in Drøbak's history is the World War II sinking of the German cruiser Blücher in the Drøbak narrows, on the early morning of 9 April 1940. The cruiser was transporting German soldiers and bureaucrats for the planned swift occupation of Oslo, but the sinking by the Oscarsborg fortress delayed this, and thus allowed for the evacuation of the Norwegian Royal Family, parliament, and cabinet, and for the nation's gold reserves to be denied the occupiers.

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Dublin
Dublin ( /ˈdʌblɨn/; locally /ˈdʊbᵊlən/; Irish: Baile Átha Cliath, meaning "town of the hurdled ford", pronounced [blʲaˈklʲiə] or Áth Cliath, [aː klʲiə], occasionally Duibhlinn) is the capital and most populous city of Ireland. The English name for the city is derived from the Irish name Dubhlinn, meaning "black pool". Dublin is situated near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and the centre of the Dublin Region.
Originally founded as a Viking settlement, it evolved into the Kingdom of Dublin and became the island's principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century; it was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire and the fifth largest in Europe. Dublin entered a period of stagnation following the Act of Union of 1800, but it remained the economic centre for most of the island. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, the new parliament, the Oireachtas, was located in Leinster House. Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State and later the Republic of Ireland.

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England
England ⁱ/ˈɪŋɡlənd/ is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, while the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separate it from continental Europe. Most of England comprises the central and southern part of the island of Great Britain in the North Atlantic. The country also includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Palaeolithic period, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world. The English language, the Anglican Church, and English law—the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world—developed in England, and the country's parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England's Royal Society laid the foundations of modern experimental science.

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Eritrea
Eritrea ( /ˌɛrɨˈtreɪ.ə/ or /ˌɛrɨˈtriːə/;Ge'ez: ኤርትራ ʾErtrā, Arabic: إرتريا Iritrīyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea is the Italian form of the Greek name Ἐρυθραίᾱ (Erythraíā), meaning "red [land]". The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The northeast and east of the country has an extensive coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands are part of Eritrea. Eritrea's size is approximately 117,600 km² (45,406 sq mi) with an estimated population of 6 million.
Together with northern Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and the Red Sea coast of Sudan, Eritrea is considered the most likely location of the land known to the ancient Egyptians as Punt (or "Ta Netjeru", meaning "God's Land"), whose first mention dates to the 25th century BC. The ancient Puntites were a nation of people that had close relations with Pharaonic Egypt during the times of Pharaoh Sahure and Queen Hatshepsut.

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Eskilstuna
Eskilstuna (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈɛskilsˈtʉːna]) is a city and the seat of Eskilstuna Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 97 692 inhabitants in 2012. Eskilstuna has a large Sweden Finn population. The town is located on the River Eskilstunaån, which connects Lake Hjälmaren and Lake Mälaren.
Eskilstuna's history dates back to medieval times when English monk Saint Eskil made "Tuna" his base and diocese of the South coast of Lake Mälaren. Saint Eskil was stoned to death by the pagan vikings of neighbouring town Strängnäs, 30 km east of Eskilstuna, trying to convert them to Christianity. Saint Eskil was buried in his monastery church in Tuna. Later the pagan city of Strängnäs was Christianised and was given the privilege of becoming diocese of South Lake Mälaren. Later "Eskil" was added in to the word "Tuna". However, the town of Eskilstuna did not receive municipal privileges due to its proximity to the medieval city of Torshälla. The monastery of Saint Eskil was completely destroyed by Swedish king Gustav Vasa during the Protestant Reformation and was replaced with the royal castle of Eskilstuna House. The city's first city privileges were granted in 1659, and its boundaries included Tunafors and the newly founded town of Karl Gustavs Stad ("City of Karl Gustav"), located on the west side of the river. Karl Gustavs Stad was built around the iron forges of master smith Reinhold Rademacher, encouraged by King Karl X Gustav. The first products of the forges were small arms and artillery.

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Estelí
Estelí, officially Villa de San Antonio de Pavia de Estelí is a city and municipality within the Estelí department. It is the third largest city in Nicaragua, an active commercial center in the north and is known as "the Diamond of the Segovias."
Located on the Pan-American Highway, 150 km north of Managua, Estelí is a fast growing and progressive city of about 119,000 people. It enjoys a pleasant climate throughout most of the year due to its location in the north central highlands at a mean elevation of 844 m above sea level. The city is also surrounded by forested mountains of pines, oaks, and walnuts, and plateaus that go up to 1600 m above sea level, some which are protected as natural reserves.
Estelí was the scene of heavy fighting in the civil war against the Somoza government from 1978 to 1979. The city was heavily air-bombed by the regime's National Guard to the point that most of the city looked like a giant cemetery of building shells. The human casualties were around 15,000; many of them youngsters massacred on suspicion of being part of the insurrection. The city was totally rebuilt but some structures still show bulletholes as a sad remainder of the destruction.

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Faroe Islands
Coordinates: 62°00′N 06°47′W / 62°N 6.783°W / 62; -6.783
The Faroe Islands (Faroese: Føroyar pronounced [ˈfœɹjaɹ], Danish: Færøerne Danish pronunciation: [ˈfæɐ̯øːˀɐnə]) are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Norway and Iceland. The islands form a self-governing country under the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark. The total area is approximately 1,400 km² (540 sq mi) with a 2010 population of almost 50,000 people.
The Faroe Islands has been a self-governing dependency of Denmark since 1948. Over the years, the Faroese have taken control of most domestic matters. Areas that remain the responsibility of Denmark include military defence, police, justice, currency and foreign affairs. The Faroe Islands also has representatives in the Nordic Council as members of the Danish delegation.
The Faroe Islands were associated with and taxed by Denmark and Norway up to 1814, when Norway fell under the rule of Sweden. Scandinavia was in political turmoil following the Sixth Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars, when the Treaty of Kiel granted Denmark control over the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland in 1814. The Danish trade monopoly ended in 1856.

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Finland
Coordinates: 65°N 27°E / 65°N 027°E / 65; 027
Finland ⁱ/ˈfɪnlənd/ ( Finnish: Suomi; Swedish: Finland (help·info)), officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.
Around 5.4 million people reside in Finland, with the majority concentrated in the southern region. It is the eighth largest country in Europe in terms of area and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in Helsinki and local governments in 336 municipalities, and an autonomous region of the Åland Islands. About one million residents live in the Greater Helsinki area, which consists of Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa, and a third of the country's GDP is produced there. Other larger cities include Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Jyväskylä, Lahti and Kuopio.

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Florence
Florence (Italian: Firenze [fiˈrɛntse] ( listen), alternate obsolete form: Fiorenza; Latin: Florentia) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area.
Florence is famous for its history. A centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, Florence is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1870 the city was also the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy.
The historic centre of Florence attracts millions of tourists each year, and Euromonitor International ranked the city as the world's 72nd most visited in 2009, with 1,685,000 visitors. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. Due to Florence's artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and the city is noted for its history, culture, Renaissance art and architecture and monuments. The city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Pitti Palace, amongst others, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics.

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Forus
Forus is an industrial district in the borough Hinna in Stavanger, Norway. It borders to the Gandsfjord and stretches south and west to the municipalities Sandnes and Sola. The name Forus originates from a farm, part of which is currently used for harness racing.
The drainage of the former Stokkavatnet (4 km²) with surrounding march area, from 1906 and onwards, gave 4.5 km² new land for the nearby farms. In 1940, at the start of World War II, the German occupants initiated construction of an airport. The area has later been developed mainly for industry purposes. The Statoil headquarters are located at Forus.
Coordinates: 58°53′N 5°44′E / 58.883°N 5.733°E / 58.883; 5.733

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France
France (English ⁱ/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km² (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km² / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.

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Fredrikstad
Fredrikstad (help·info) (previously Frederiksstad) (literally Fredrik's Town) is a city and municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad.
The city of Fredrikstad was founded in 1567 by King Frederick II, and established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipality of Glemmen was merged with Fredrikstad on 1 January 1964. The rural municipalities of Borge, Onsøy, Kråkerøy, and Rolvsøy were merged with Fredrikstad on 1 January 1994.
The city straddles the river Glomma where it meets the Skagerrak. Along with neighboring Sarpsborg, Fredrikstad forms the fifth largest city in Norway: Fredrikstad/Sarpsborg. As of 1 January 2008, according to Statistics Norway, these two municipalities have a total population of 123,029 with 71,976 in Fredrikstad and 51,053 in Sarpsborg.
Fredrikstad was built at the mouth of Glomma as a replacement after Sarpsborg (15 km upstream) was burned down by the Swedes. Almost half the population of Sarpsborg stayed behind, and rebuilt their old town at its original site.

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Galveston, Texas
Galveston ( /ˈɡælvɨstən/) is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 U.S. Census^[update], the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of 208 square miles (540 km²). Located within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area, the city is the seat and second-largest city of Galveston County in population.
Named after Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez, Galveston's first European settlements on the island were constructed around 1816. The Port of Galveston was established in 1825 by the Congress of Mexico following its successful independence from Spain. The city served as the main port for the Texas Navy during the Texas Revolution and later served as the capital of the Republic of Texas.
During the 19th century, Galveston became a major U.S. commercial center and one of the largest ports in the United States. Galveston is known for the hurricane that devastated the city in 1900. The natural disaster that followed still counts as the deadliest in American history.

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Gamle Stavanger
Gamle Stavanger ('Old Stavanger') is an area of the city of Stavanger in the county of Rogaland, Norway, and is believed to be Europe’s largest collection of wooden buildings^{[unreliable source?]}. The area includes the Norwegian Canning museum which displays a typical factory from the 1920's.
In the years after World War II, a new city plan was created for Stavanger. It included razing most of the old wooden buildings in the city centre, and replacing it with new modern structures in concrete. One single voice spoke up against this plan, and today it is recognized that Gamle Stavanger owes its existence to Einar Hedén, then City Architect of Stavanger. In 1956 the city council voted to conserve part of the old city centre.
The area selected for conservation was the one considered the least desirable, consisting of small rundown wooden buildings located on the western side of Vågen. This area has what is considered North Europe’s best kept wood houses, from both the 19th and 20th century. Some of the houses are owned by the municipality, but most are privately owned. Over the years the area has changed from seedy to trendy, and today is considered a choice location for the urban-minded with a sense of history.

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Genoa
Genoa /ˈdʒɛnoʊ.ə/ (Italian: Genova [ˈdʒɛːnova] ( listen); Genoese and Ligurian Zena [ˈzeːna]; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is the capital of Liguria and the sixth largest city in Italy, with a population of 608,676 within its administrative limits on a land area of 243.6 km² (94 sq mi). The urban zone of Genoa extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 718,896. The urban area of Genoa has a population of 800,709. In the metropolitan area live between 859,000 and 1.4 million or 1.5 million people. Genoa is one of Europe's largest cities on the Mediterranean Sea and the largest seaport in Italy.
Genoa has been nicknamed la Superba ("the Superb one") due to its glorious past and impressive landmarks. Part of the old town of Genoa was inscribed on the World Heritage List (UNESCO) in 2006 (see below). The city's rich art, music, gastronomy, architecture and history, allowed it to become the 2004's European Capital of Culture. It is the birthplace of Christopher Columbus.

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Glasgow
Coordinates: 55°51′29″N 4°15′32″W / 55.858°N 4.259°W / 55.858; -4.259
Glasgow (ⁱ/ˈɡlɑːzɡəʊ/, locally /ˈɡlazɡo/, GLAZ-goh; Scots: Glesga listen (help·info); Scottish Gaelic: Glaschu ([ˈkɫ̪as̪əxu] listen (help·info))) is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's West Central Lowlands.
Glasgow grew from a small rural settlement on the River Clyde to become one of the largest seaports in Britain. Expanding from the medieval bishopric of Glasgow and the later establishment of the University of Glasgow in the 15th century, it became a major centre of the Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th century. From the 18th century the city also grew as one of Britain's main hubs of transatlantic trade with British North America and the British West Indies. With the Industrial Revolution, the city and surrounding region shifted to become one of the world's pre-eminent centres of heavy engineering, most notably in shipbuilding and marine engineering industry, which produced many innovative and famous vessels. Glasgow was known as the "Second City of the British Empire" for much of the Victorian era and Edwardian period. Today it is one of Europe's top ten financial centres and is home to many of Scotland's leading businesses. Glasgow is also ranked as the 57th most liveable city in the world.

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Gothenburg
Gothenburg (Swedish: Göteborg; pronounced [jœtəˈbɔrj] ( listen)) is the second largest city in Sweden by population and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 520,374, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 938,580 inhabitants in the metropolitan area. Gothenburg is classified as a global city by GaWC, with a ranking of Gamma−.
The City of Gothenburg was founded in 1621 by King Gustavus Adolphus. It lies by the sea at the mouth of Göta Älv—the river running through the city—and is the largest seaport in the Nordic countries.
Gothenburg is home to many students, as the city includes both the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology. Volvo was founded in Gothenburg in 1927. The city is a major centre in Sweden for sports and home to the IFK Göteborg, BK Häcken, GAIS and Örgryte IS association football teams as well as the Frölunda HC ice hockey team.
Gothenburg is served by Gothenburg-Landvetter Airport, located 30 km (18.64 mi) southeast of the city centre. It is the second largest airport in Sweden. The city is also served by Gothenburg City Airport, located 15 km (9.32 mi) from the city centre.

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Guimarães
Guimarães (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɡimɐˈɾɐ̃jʃ]) is a northern Portuguese city located in the district of Braga, in the Ave Subregion (one of the more industrialized subregions of the country), with a population of 52 181 inhabitants, distributed throughout 20 parishes (freguesias in Portuguese), in an urban area of 23,5 km² with a population density of 2 223,9/km².
It is the seat of a municipality with an area of 241,05 km² and 162 636 inhabitants (2008), divided in 69 parishes. The municipality is bordered to the north by the municipality of Póvoa de Lanhoso, to the east by Fafe, to the south by Felgueiras, Vizela and Santo Tirso, to the west by Vila Nova de Famalicão and the northwest by Braga.
It is an historical city that had an important role in the formation of Portugal and it was settled in the 9th century, at which time it was called Vimaranes. This denomination might have had its origin in the warrior Vímara Peres, when he chose this area as the main government seat for the County of Portugal which he conquered for the Kingdom of Galicia.

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Gävle
Gävle [ˈjæːvlə] is a city in Sweden, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County. It had 71,033 inhabitants in December 2010. It is the oldest city in the historical Norrland (Sweden's Northern Lands), having received its charter in 1446 from Christopher of Bavaria.
It is believed that the name Gävle derives from the word gavel, meaning river banks in Old Swedish and referring to the Gavleån (Gävle River). The oldest settlement was called Gavle-ägarna, which means "Gavel-owners". This name was shortened to Gavle, then Gefle, and finally Gävle.
For a long time Gävle consisted solely of small, low, turf or shingle roofed wooden buildings. Boat-houses lined the banks of Gavleån, Lillån, and Islandsån. Until the 18th century the town was built, as was the practice then, around the three most important buildings: the church, the regional palace, and the town hall. Over the last 300 years Gävle has been ablaze on three different occasions. After the fire of 1776 the town was rebuilt with straight streets and rectangular city blocks. The number of stone and brick houses also started to increase. The biggest town fire occurred 1869, when out of a population of around 10,000 approximately 8,000 inhabitants lost their homes, and about 350 farms were destroyed. Almost the whole town north of Gavleån was burnt down. All the buildings south of Gavleån were saved. An area of the old town between the museum and the library has been preserved to this day as a historic reserve, Gamla Gefle.

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Halmstad
Halmstad [ˈhamsta] is a port, university, industrial and recreational city at the mouth of Nissan in the province of Halland on the Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat of Halmstad Municipality and the capital of Halland County. The city has a population of about 58,577, out of a municipal total of nearly 90,000. Halmstad is located about midway between Gothenburg and Malmö.
Halmstad, at the time part of the Kingdom of Denmark, received its first city charter in 1307, and the city celebrated its 700th anniversary in 2007. The oldest remains of that first town are to be found at "Övraby" upstream on Nissan, quite close to the regiment buildings. The remains of the church can still be seen today between a defunct brick industry and a former landfill.
In the 1320s the town moved to the present day town centre. At this time there were two monasteries in the town and during the 15th century the St. Nikolai church was built. Halland was the object of numerous battles, sieges and occupations by Swedish troops.

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Hamar
Hamar (help·info) is a town and municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Hedmarken. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Hamar. The municipality of Hamar was separated from Vang as a town and municipality of its own in 1849. Vang was merged back into Hamar on 1 January 1992.
The town is located on the shores of lake Mjøsa, Norway's largest lake, and is the principal city of Hedmark county. It is bordered to the northwest by the municipality of Ringsaker, to the north by Åmot, to the east by Løten, and to the south by Stange.
The municipality (originally the town) is named after the old Hamar farm (Old Norse: Hamarr), since the medieval town was built on its ground. The name is identical with the word hamarr which means "rocky hill".
The coat-of-arms shows a Black Grouse sitting in the top of a pine tree on a white background. It was first described in the anonymous Hamarkrøniken (The Hamar Chronicle) written in 1553.
Between 500 and 1000 AD, Aker farm was one of the most important power centres in Norway, located just a few kilometres away from today's Hamar. Three coins found in Ringerike in 1895 have been dated to the time of Harald Hardråde and are inscribed Olafr a Hamri.

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Harlow
Harlow is a new town and local government district in Essex, England. It is located in the west of the county and on the border with Hertfordshire, on the Stort Valley, The town is near the M11 motorway and forms part of the London commuter belt.The district has a current population of 78,889 (2010 estimate).
There is some dispute as to where the placename Harlow derives from. One theory is that it derives from the Anglo-Saxon words 'here' and 'hlaw', meaning "army hill", probably to be identified with Mulberry Hill, which was used as the moot or meeting place for the district.
The other theory is that it derives from the words 'here' and 'hearg', meaning "temple hill/mound", probably to be identified with an Iron Age burial mound, later a Roman temple site on River Way.
The original village, mentioned in the Norman Domesday Book, developed as a typical rural community around what is now known as Old Harlow, with many of its buildings still standing.
The earliest deposits are of a Mesolithic (circa 10,000 BC) hunting camp excavated by Davey in Northbrooks in the 1970s(Unpublished) closely followed by the large and unexcavated deposits of Neolithic flint located at Gilden Way. These deposits are mostly known of due to the large numbers of surface bound worked flint ; indeed there is substanital amounts to speculate on organised working of flint in the area. Large amounts of debetage litter the area and tools found include Axeheads, hammers, blades, dowles and other boring tools and multipuprpose flints such as scrapers. An organised Field Walk in the late 1990s by Bartlett(Unpublished)indicates that most of the area, some 80 hectares, produces worked flint from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age with a smattering of Mesolithic ; so basically it indicates organised industry from 5000 BC to 2000 BC. Indeed the deposits are so large and dispersed that any major archaeological work in the area will have to take this into consideration before any ground work is started.

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Helsingborg
Helsingborg (Swedish pronunciation: [hɛlsiŋˈbɔrj]) is a town and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden. It had 97,122 inhabitants in 2010. Helsingborg is the centre of an area in the Øresund region of about 320,000 inhabitants in north-west Scania, and is Sweden's closest point to Denmark, with the Danish city Helsingør clearly visible on the other side of the Øresund about 4 km to the west.
Between 1912 and 1971 the name of the town was officially spelled Hälsingborg (rather like Hälsingland but unlike Helsingør and Helsingfors (Helsinki)).
Historic Helsingborg, with its many old buildings, is a scenic coastal city. The buildings are a blend of old-style stone-built churches and a medieval fortress (Kärnan) in the city centre, which has stood guard in Helsingborg for over 600 years, and more modern commercial buildings. The streets vary from wide avenues to small alley-ways. Kullagatan, the main pedestrian shopping street in the city, was the first pedestrian shopping street in Sweden.

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Helsinki
Helsinki ( listen (help·info); Swedish: Helsingfors, listen (help·info)) is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is 596,233 (31 January 2012), making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is located some 400 kilometres (250 mi) east of Stockholm, Sweden, 300 kilometres (190 mi) west of St. Petersburg, Russia and 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Tallinn, Estonia. Helsinki has close historical connections with these three cities.
The Helsinki Metropolitan Area includes the city of Helsinki and three other cities: Espoo and Vantaa, which immediately border Helsinki to the west and north, respectively; and Kauniainen, which is an enclave within the city of Espoo. The Helsinki metropolitan area is the world's northernmost urban area among those with a population of over one million people, and the city is the northernmost capital of a EU member state. Altogether 1.1 million people, approximately one in five Finns, live in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.

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Hetland
Hetland is a former municipality in Rogaland county, Norway.
It was created as Hetland formannskapsdistrikt in 1837. On 1 July 1922, Randaberg was separated from Hetland to create a municipality of its own. The split left Hetland with a population of 10,167. In addition, areas of Hetland were moved to Stavanger in 1867, 1879, 1906, 1923 and 1953.
On 1 January 1965, the districts of Riska and Dale with 2,077 inhabitants became a part of Sandnes. The rest of Hetland, with 20,861 inhabitants, was incorporated into Stavanger.

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Hillevåg
Hillevåg is a borough of the city of Stavanger, Norway. It was a part of Hetland municipality, which was incorporated into Stavanger in 1965.
Although the borders of neighbourhoods do not correspond exactly to the borough borders, Hillevåg roughly consists of the following neighbourhoods (delområder): Ullandhaug, Vaulen, Kvalaberg, Tjensvoll and Bekkefaret.
Hillevåg has a borough council (bydelsutvalg). The council consists of 11 members, with the following party allegiance:

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Hinna
Hinna is a borough of the city of Stavanger, Norway.
Although the borders of neighbourhoods do not correspond exactly to the borough borders, Hinna roughly consists of the following neighbourhoods (delområder): Jåtten and southern Vaulen.
Hinna has a borough council (bydelsutvalg). The council consists of 11 members, with the following party allegiance:

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Hirtshals
Hirtshals is a town in Hjørring municipality in Region Nordjylland on the north coast of the island of Vendsyssel-Thy at the top of the Jutland peninsula in northern Denmark, Europe.
The town of Hirtshals has a population of 6,194 (1 January 2011). Located on the Skagerrak, it is especially known for its fishing and ferry harbours.
It is the home of one of the largest aquariums in Europe, the Nordsøen Oceanarium. It was built in 1984 as Nordsømuseet, The Norths Sea Museum. It got its present name after it was expanded in 1998 with a fish tank containing 4,5 million liters of water, making it the largest in northern Europe. The Oceanarium has 70 different species in its collection. A fire in December 2003 destroyed the new expansion, but the Nordsøen Oceanarium was rebuilt and reopened on July 22, 2005.
The town's 35 meter high lighthouse, Hirtshals fyr is a local landmark. Building was begun June 28, 1860, and it was first lit on January 1, 1863. It is constructed of red brick, and covered with Dutch tile.

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Houston, Texas
Houston ( /ˈhjuːstən/) (Alibamu: Yosti ) is the largest city in the state of Texas, and the fourth-largest city in the United States. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of 656.3 square miles (1,700 km²). Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown, which is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with 6.08 million people as of July 1st, 2011.
Houston was founded in 1836 on land near the banks of Buffalo Bayou. It was incorporated as a city on June 5, 1837, and named after then-President of the Republic of Texas—former General Sam Houston—who had commanded at the Battle of San Jacinto, which took place 25 miles (40 km) east of where the city was established. The burgeoning port and railroad industry, combined with oil discovery in 1901, has induced continual surges in the city's population. In the mid-twentieth century, Houston became the home of the Texas Medical Center—the world's largest concentration of healthcare and research institutions—and NASA's Johnson Space Center, where the Mission Control Center is located.

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Hundvåg
Hundvåg is an island and borough of the city of Stavanger, Norway.
In addition to the island Hundvåg, other islands are Sølyst, Grasholmen, Engøy, Buøy, Bjørnøy, Roaldsøy and Ormøy. These islands are connected to mainland Stavanger by the Stavanger City Bridge.
Although the borders of neighbourhoods do not correspond exactly to the borough borders, Hundvåg roughly consists of the following neighbourhoods (delområder): Buøy and Hundvåg.
Hundvåg has a borough council (bydelsutvalg). The council consists of 11 members, with the following party allegiance:

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Hämeenlinna
Hämeenlinna (Swedish: Tavastehus) is a city and municipality of about 67,000 inhabitants in the heart of the historical province of Häme in the south of Finland and is the birthplace of composer Jean Sibelius. Today, it belongs to the region of Tavastia Proper, and until 2010 it was the residence city for the Governor of the province of Southern Finland. Nearby cities include the capital Helsinki (98 km/61 mi), Tampere (73 km/45 mi) and Lahti (72 km/45 mi).
The medieval Häme Castle (Hämeen linna) is located in the city.
The municipalities of Hauho, Kalvola, Lammi, Renko and Tuulos were consolidated with Hämeenlinna on 1 January 2009.
There has been a settlement called Vanaja by the lake Vanajavesi where the city now stands since the Viking Age. The castle was built in the late 13th century to secure Swedish power in central Finland. A village was established near Häme Castle to provide services and goods to its inhabitants.
The village was granted city rights in 1639 and soon after that the King of Sweden moved it one kilometre south to the hill on which it still stands.

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Iceland
Iceland ⁱ/ˈaɪslənd/ (Icelandic: Ísland, IPA: [ˈislant]) is a Nordic European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The country has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km² (40,000 sq mi). The capital and largest city is Reykjavík, with the surrounding areas in the southwestern region of the country being home to two-thirds of the country's population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active. The interior mainly consists of a plateau characterised by sand fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle.
According to Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in AD 874 when the chieftain Ingólfur Arnarson became the first permanent Norse settler on the island. Others had visited the island earlier and stayed over winter. Over the following centuries, Norsemen settled Iceland, bringing with them thralls (slaves) of Gaelic origin. From 1262 to 1918 Iceland was part of the Norwegian and later the Danish monarchies. Until the 20th century, the Icelandic population relied largely on fisheries and agriculture, and the country was one of the poorest and least developed in the world. Industrialisation of the fisheries and aid from the Marshall Plan brought prosperity in the years after World War II, and by the 1990s it was one of the world's wealthiest countries. In 1994, Iceland became party to the European Economic Area, which made it possible for the economy to diversify into economic and financial services.

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Israel
Coordinates: 31°N 35°E / 31°N 35°E / 31; 35
Israel, officially the State of Israel ( /ˈɪzriːəl/ or /ˈɪzreɪəl/; Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל‎, Medīnat Yisrā'el, IPA: [me̞diˈnät jisʁäˈʔe̞l] ( listen); Arabic: دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل‎, Dawlat Isrāʼīl, IPA: [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl]), is a parliamentary republic in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and the Gaza Strip on the southwest, and the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea to the south, and it contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel is defined as a Jewish and Democratic State in its Basic Laws and is the world's only Jewish-majority state.
Following the adoption of a resolution by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 29 November 1947 recommending the adoption and implementation of the United Nations plan to partition Palestine, on 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, a state independent from the British Mandate for Palestine. Neighboring Arab states invaded the next day in support of the Palestinian Arabs. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. Portions of these territories, including east Jerusalem, have been annexed by Israel, but the border with the neighboring West Bank has not yet been permanently defined.^{[neutrality is disputed]} Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have so far not resulted in peace.

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Istanbul
Istanbul (Turkish: İstanbul) is the largest city in Turkey, forming the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With a population of 13.4 million, the city is at the center of the second-largest urban area in Europe after Moscow, and among the world's largest cities by population within city limits. Istanbul's vast area of 5,343 square kilometers (2,063 sq mi) is coterminous with Istanbul Province, of which the city is considered capital. Straddling the Bosphorus—one of the world's busiest waterways—in northwestern Turkey, between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, Istanbul is a transcontinental city, with one third of its population living in Asia but its commercial and historical center in Europe.
Founded around 660 BC as Byzantium on the Seraglio Point, the city now known as Istanbul developed to become one of the most significant cities in history. For nearly sixteen centuries following its reestablishment as Constantinople in 330 AD, it served as the capital of four empires — the late classical Roman Empire (330–395), the Eastern Roman ("Byzantine") Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). It was instrumental in the advancement of Christianity during Roman and Byzantine times, before the Ottomans conquered the city in 1453 and transformed it into an Islamic stronghold from which the last caliphate ruled. Although the Republic of Turkey established its capital elsewhere, in Ankara, remnants of Istanbul's previous central role still remain highly visible across the city, with palaces and imperial mosques lining its hills.

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Jessheim
Jessheim is a large village in the Ullensaker municipality in Akershus of Norway.
The name "Jessheim" is from Norse Jasseimr or Jesseímr where the first part has unknown origin, while the second part (heimr) means home. It is also possible that the first part "Jess" can mean jarl or jarls (earls). The name was originally used for the Hovin parish.
The railroad had at the initial construction of the railroad in 1854 called the stop "Trøgstad", but because of confusion with the town name Trøgstad in Østfold, the name was changed in 1897 to "Jessum". This name was used blasphemically, for example by military recruits who said they had passed through Bøn (town north of Jessheim) which sounds like "prayer" in Norwegian to Jessum, which could sound like Jesus. The priests in the area complained to the bishop who in 1900 brought the case up with the local council and suggested the form "Jessheim". The name was changed to "Jesseim". In 1920 the railroad changed the spelling to the current form, Jessheim.

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Joensuu
Joensuu (lit. "mouth of the river") is a city and municipality in North Karelia in eastern Finland. It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of North Karelia region. It was founded in 1848. The population of Joensuu is 73,871 (January 31, 2012).
Joensuu is a lively student city with over 15,000 students enrolled at the University of Eastern Finland and a further 4,000 at the North Karelia Technical School.
The largest employers are the municipal City of Joensuu, North Karelian Hospital District Federation of Municipalities, Abloy and Punamusta.
The European Forest Institute, the University and many other institutes and export enterprises such as Abloy and John Deere Forestry give Joensuu an international flavour.
The city of Joensuu, which was founded by the Czar Nicholas I of Russia in 1848, is the regional centre and the capital of North Karelia. During the 19th century Joensuu was a city of manufacture and commerce. When in 1860 the city received dispensation rights to initiate commerce, former restrictions against industry were removed and the local sawmills began to prosper and expand. Water traffic was improved by the building of the Saimaa Canal. Consequently, a lively commerce between the regions of North Karelia, St.Petersburg and Central Europe was enabled. At the end of the 19th century Joensuu was one of the largest harbour cities in Finland.

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Joint Warfare Center
The Joint Warfare Centre (JWC) is a NATO establishment headquartered in Stavanger, Norway.
It was established at Jåttå the 23 of October 2003. The purpose of this was to have a command with responsibility for training and exercise of the NATO headquarters. The old Joint Headquarters North (JHQ NORTH) was abolished and command transferred to the Allied Command Transformation (ACT) in Norfolk, Virginia, USA
Coordinates: 58°54′26.89″N 5°43′17.51″E / 58.9074694°N 5.7215306°E / 58.9074694; 5.7215306

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Jyväskylä
Jyväskylä (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈjyvæsˌkylæ]) is a city and municipality in Central Finland in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland. It is the largest city in central Finland and on the Finnish Lakeland. Jyväskylä is located on the northern coast of Lake Päijänne, 147 kilometres (91 mi) north-east of Tampere and 270 kilometres (170 mi) north of Helsinki. The hilly and forested terrain in Jyväskylä is surrounded by hundreds of lakes. The summers in Jyväskylä are warm and winters cold and snowy.
Elias Lönnrot, the compiler of the Finnish national epic Kalevala, gave the city a nickname "Athens of Finland". This nickname is used to describe the major role of Jyväskylä as an education centre and the first place in the world to provide education in Finnish.
The works of the most famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto can be seen throughout the city. The city hosts Neste Oil Rally Finland, which is part of the World Rally Championship. It is also home of the annual Jyväskylä Arts Festival.

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Jönköping
Jönköping (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈjœnːˈɕøːpiŋ]) is a city in southern Sweden with 89,396 inhabitants (2010). It is the 9th most populous city of Sweden. Jönköping is situated by the southern end of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern. The original town Jönköping has grown together with Huskvarna and Norrahammar forming a contiguous urban area, since 1971 wholly within the same municipality.
The city is the seat of Jönköping Municipality which has a population of 128 305 (2011), and also the seat of Jönköping County which has a population of 331,539 (2006). Jönköping is the seat of a district court and a court of appeal as well as the Swedish National Courts Administration. It is also the seat of the Swedish Board of Agriculture.
Jönköping is an old trading center (Köping), since it was located on a crossroad for the roads following along the rivers Nissan and Lagan, and the road between the provinces Östergötland and Västergötland. This was rather natural due to the geographical position of the city at the southern end of lake Vättern, which divided the two counties. On 18 May 1284, Jönköping received rights as a City in Sweden as one of the first communities in the country, by King Magnus Ladulås, who at that time largely ruled the nation from Vättern's largest island Visingsö. In the name of the city "Jön-" is derived from a creek, "Junebäcken", which was situated in the nowadays western part of the city, Talavid. This was the location of the first known settlement in the area. The second part of the name "-köping", as mentioned above, is an old word for a trading center or market place.

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Karlstad
Karlstad [ˈkɑːɭsta] is a city, the seat of Karlstad Municipality, the capital of Värmland County, and the largest city in the province Värmland in Sweden. The city had 61,685 inhabitants in 2010 out of a municipal total that during the first quarter 2010 was 84,885 inhabitants. Karlstad has a university and a cathedral.
Karlstad is built on the river delta where Sweden's longest river, Klarälven, runs into Sweden's largest lake, Vänern. It has the second largest lake port in the country after Västerås.
Karlstad is often associated with sunshine and the symbol for Karlstad is a happy sun. Karlstad is reputed to be one of the sunniest towns in Sweden and a local waitress, known as "Sola i Karlstad" (the Sun in Karlstad) for her sunny disposition, is also commemorated with a statue.
On Karlstad's largest islet, there was a place of counsel called Tingvalla in the medieval age, which had roots from the Viking Age before 1000 AD. It was also used as a market place.
Karlstad was granted its city charter on March 5, 1584 by the Swedish Duke Charles, who would later be crowned King Charles IX of Sweden. The city derives its name from the King – Karlstad literally means Charles' city. The Duke also granted Karlstad the right as a governmental seat in the region, and gave it a substantial amount of land.

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Kouvola
Kouvola is a town and municipality in southeastern Finland. It is located 134 kilometres (83 mi) northeast of the capital, Helsinki.
The city has a population of 87,592 (31 January 2012) and covers an area of 2,883.30 square kilometres (1,113.25 sq mi) of which 325.06 km² (125.51 sq mi) is water. The population density is 34.24 inhabitants per square kilometre (88.7 /sq mi).
Kouvola's central location within Finland's borders and as a border post between the European Union and Russian Federation makes it a quite lively town.^{[original research?]} The town originally grew up around the junction of the north–south and east–west rail tracks. It was also a major road transport junction.
In January 2009, the six municipalities – Kouvola, Kuusankoski, Elimäki, Anjalankoski, Valkeala and Jaala – were consolidated, forming the new municipality of Kouvola. Kouvola can now claim the natural beauty of Valkeala and Jaala as well as the cultural heritage of Elimäki and Anjalankoski as its own. Kouvola has also assumed the slogan Kymijoen kaupunki (the town of Kymijoki) previously used by Anjalankoski.

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Kraków
Kraków (Polish pronunciation: [ˈkrakuf] ( listen)) also Cracow, or Krakow (English /ˈkrækaʊ/), is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River (Polish: Wisła) in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life and is one of Poland's most important economic hubs. It was the capital of Poland from 1038 to 1569; the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569 to 1596; the Grand Duchy of Kraków from 1846 to 1918; and Kraków Voivodeship from the 14th century to 1999. It is now the capital of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship.
The city has grown from a Stone Age settlement to Poland's second most important city. It began as a hamlet on Wawel Hill and was already being reported as a busy trading centre of Slavonic Europe in 965. With the establishment of new universities and cultural venues at the emergence of the Second Polish Republic and throughout the 20th century, Kraków reaffirmed its role as a major national academic and artistic centre. The city has a population of approximately 760,000 whereas about 8 million people live within a 100 km radius of its main square.

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Kristiansund
Kristiansund [ˈkrɪstɪansʊn] (listen) (formerly "Christianssund") is a city and municipality on the western coast of Norway, in the Nordmøre district of Møre og Romsdal county. It was officially awarded township status in 1742, and it is still the major town for the region. The administrative center of the municipality is the city of Kristiansund. Other villages in the municipality include Kvalvåg, Rensvik, and Frei.
The municipality of Kristiansund was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). On 1 January 1964, the island municipality of Grip (population: 104) and the Dale area on Nordlandet island (population: 963) were merged into Kristiansund. The island and municipality of Frei was merged with Kristiansund on 1 January 2008.
The city, formerly named Christianssund, is named after the Danish-Norwegian king Christian VI in 1742. The last element of the name, sund, means "strait". The old name of the town/village (originally the island Kirkelandet) was Fosna or Fosen (Old Norse: fólgsn) which means "hiding place" (here 'hidden port'). It was also often named Lille Fosen ("the small Fosen") to distinguish it from the island Storfosna ("the big Fosen") in Ørland.

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Kuopio
Kuopio is a city and a municipality located in the region of Northern Savonia, Finland. A population of 97,552 makes it the ninth biggest city in the country. The city has a total area of 2,317.24 square kilometres (894.69 sq mi), of which 719.85 km² (277.94 sq mi) is water and half forest. The population density is only 61 /km² (160 /sq mi), but the city's urban areas are populated very densely (urban area: 1 617.6 /km²), nationally second only to capital Helsinki (urban area: 1,690.0/km²). The population of the entire Kuopio region is 119,472.
There are several explanations behind the name Kuopio. The first is that in the 16th century, a certain influential person named Kauhanen in Tavinsalmi changed his name to Skopa and the people's pronunciation was Coopia and finally Cuopio. The second explanation is that it comes from the verb kuopia, meaning when, for example, a horse paws the ground with its hoof. A third theory is that it came from a certain Karelian man's name Prokopij, from Ruokolahti in the Middle Ages. This is the most probable explanation, supported by the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland.

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Lahti
Lahti (Swedish: Lahtis) is a city and municipality in Finland.
Lahti is the capital of the Päijänne Tavastia region. It is situated on a bay at the southern end of lake Vesijärvi about 100 kilometres (60 mi) north-east of the capital Helsinki. In English, the Finnish word Lahti literally means bay and Vesijärvi means water lake.
The symbol of the city depicts a train wheel surrounded by sparkling flames.
Lahti was first mentioned in documents in 1445. The village belonged to the parish of Hollola and was located at the medieval trade route of Ylinen Viipurintie, which linked the towns of Hämeenlinna and Vyborg.
The completion of the Riihimäki – St. Petersburg railway line in 1870 and the Vesijärvi canal in 1871 turned Lahti into a lively station, and industrial installations began to spring up around it. For a long time, the railway station at Vesijärvi Harbour was the second busiest station in Finland. Craftsmen, merchants, a few civil servants and a lot of industrial workers soon mixed in with the existing agricultural peasantry.

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Lappeenranta
Lappeenranta (Swedish: Villmanstrand) is a city and municipality that resides on the shore of the lake Saimaa in South-Eastern Finland, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the Russian border. It belongs to the region of South Karelia. With approximately 72,000 inhabitants (31 January 2012) Lappeenranta is the 13th largest city in Finland. The neighboring municipality of Joutseno was consolidated with Lappeenranta on January 1, 2009, and the neighboring municipality of Ylämaa on January 1, 2010.
Lappeenranta was originally formed around a headland pointing to lake Saimaa. In the 16th century, the market place moved from Lappee's old centre Kauskila to the current fortress headland. The first mention of Lapwes, as it was called, is in a privilege charter from 1542 that subjugated the market place under Viborg's authority.
The town was chartered in 1649 by Queen Christina of Sweden, legitimizing the trade in the then popular marketplace of Lapvesi. However, the parliamentary privilege charter and the coat of arms were attested in 1652 after the town layout by Erik Aspegren was affirmed. At the time, Lappeenranta was an important port for tar.

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Lillehammer
Lillehammer (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈlɪləˈhɑmər] (listen)) is a town and municipality in Oppland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. As of May 2011, the population of the town of Lillehammer was 26,639 . The city centre is a late 19th century concentration of wooden houses, which enjoys a picturesque location overlooking the northern part of lake Mjøsa and the river Lågen, surrounded by mountains. Lillehammer hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics and will host the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics.
The municipality is named for the old timur (Old Norse: Hamarr, "rocky hill") farm, since the first church was built there. To distinguish it from the nearby town and bishopric of Hamar, it began to be called "little Hamar": Lilþlæ Hamar and Litlihamarr and finally Lillehammer.
It is also mentioned in the Old Norse sagas as Litlikaupangr ("Little Trading Place").
The coat-of-arms was granted in 1898. The arms show a birkebeiner, carrying a spear and a shield, who is skiing down a mountainside. It symbolizes the historical importance of when the Birkebeiners carried the to-be-King Haakon from Lillehammer to Rena on skis.

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Linköping
Linköping [ˈlɪnːˈɕøːpɪŋ] is a city in southern middle Sweden, with 104,232 inhabitants in 2010. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Church of Sweden) and is well known for its cathedral. Linköping is the center of an old cultural region and celebrated its 700th anniversary in 1987. Nowadays Linköping is known for its university and its high-technology industry. Dominating the city's skyline from afar is the steeple of the cathedral.
The city is possibly named after the Lionga ting assembly which according to Medieval Scandinavian laws was the most important thing in Östergötland. Exact location of the Lionga ting is not known, but it was along the Eriksgata. Köping means there was a market there.
Historically, Linköping is famed for being an early diocese, second in Sweden (within its pre-1658 boundaries) only to Skara. The diocese is first mentioned in 1104 in the so-called "List of Florence" (Lionga. Kaupinga). The monastery of Vreta Kloster near Roxen north of Linköping was established in 1128, and the oldest parts of the cathedral are also from the 12th century (although it has been changed many times since then, the eye-catching tower with copper roofing being a 19th century product). On several occasions attempts to achieve a separate Swedish archdiocese were based in Linköping, although, when they finally were successful in 1164, Uppsala was chosen instead.

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Liverpool
Liverpool ( /ˈlɪvəpuːl/) is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Liverpool was 445,200 and was part of a larger urban area of 816,216.
Historically a part of Lancashire, the urbanisation and expansion of Liverpool were both largely brought about by the city's status as a major port. By the 18th century, trade from the West Indies, Ireland and mainland Europe coupled with close links with the Atlantic Slave Trade furthered the economic expansion of Liverpool. By the early 19th century, 40% of the world's trade passed through Liverpool's docks, contributing to Liverpool's rise as a major city.
Inhabitants of Liverpool are referred to as Liverpudlians but are also colloquially known as "Scousers", in reference to the local dish known as "scouse", a form of stew. The word "Scouse" has also become synonymous with the Liverpool accent and dialect. Liverpool's status as a port city has contributed to its diverse population, which, historically, were drawn from a wide range of peoples, cultures, and religions, particularly those from Ireland. The city is also home to the oldest Black African community in the country and the oldest Chinese community in Europe.

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London
London ⁱ/ˈlʌndən/ is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who named it Londinium. London's ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its square-mile mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, governed by the elected Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
London is a leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism and transport all contributing to its prominence. It is the world's leading financial centre alongside New York City and has the fifth-largest city GDP in the world (and the largest in Europe). London has been described as a world cultural capital. It was the world's most visited city during 2011 and London Heathrow is the world's busiest airport by number of international passengers. London's 43 universities form the largest concentration of higher education in Europe. In 2012 London will become the first city to host the modern Summer Olympic Games three times.

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Lund
Lund (Swedish pronunciation: [lɵnd] ( listen)) is a city in the province of Scania, southern Sweden. The town has 82,800 inhabitants in 2010, out of a municipal total of 110,824. It is the seat of Lund Municipality, Skåne County. The city is believed to have been founded around 990, when Scania belonged to Denmark. It soon became a major Christian center of the Baltic Sea region, at a time when the area was still a frontier area for Christian mission, and within Scandinavia and especially Denmark through the Middle Ages. From 1103 it was the seat of an archbishop. At the center of the city stands the towering Lund Cathedral, built ca 1090-1145.
Lund University, established 1666, is today one of Scandinavia's largest institutions for education and research.
Along with Sigtuna, Lund is the oldest city in present-day Sweden. Lund's origins are unclear. Until the 1980s, the town was thought to have been founded around 1020 by either Sweyn I Forkbeard or his son Canute the Great of Denmark. The area was then part of the kingdom of Denmark. But, recent archaeological discoveries suggest that the first settlement dated to circa 990, possibly the relocation of settlers at Uppåkra. The Uppåkra settlement dates back to the first century B.C. and its remains are at the present site of the village of Uppåkra. King Sweyn I Forkbeard moved Loda to its present location, a distance of some five kilometres. The new location of Lund, on a hill and across a ford, gave the new site considerable defensive advantages in comparison with Uppåkra, situated on the highest point of a large plain.

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Luxembourg (city)
The city of Luxembourg (Luxembourgish: Lëtzebuerg, German: Luxemburg), also known as Luxembourg City (Luxembourgish: Stad Lëtzebuerg, French: Ville de Luxembourg, German: Stadt Luxemburg), is a commune with city status, and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg. The city contains the historic Luxembourg Castle, established by the Franks in the Early Middle Ages, around which a settlement developed.
Luxembourg City lies at the heart of Western Europe, situated 213 km (132 mi) by road from Brussels, 372 km (231 mi) from Paris, 209 km (130 mi) from Cologne, and 65 km (40 mi) from Metz in northeast France.
As of 2011, the commune of Luxembourg City had a population of 94,034, which was almost three times the population of the country's second most populous commune. The city's metropolitan population, including that of surrounding communes of Hesperange, Sandweiler, Strassen, and Walferdange, is 103,973.

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Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar (older name Malagasy Republic, Malagasy: Repoblikan'i Madagasikara [republiˈkʲan madaɡasˈkʲarə̥], French: République de Madagascar) is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar (the fourth-largest island in the world), as well as numerous smaller peripheral islands. Following the prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana, Madagascar split from India around 88 million years ago, allowing plants and animals on the island to evolve in complete isolation. Consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot in which over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The island's diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by human settlement.
Initial human settlement of Madagascar occurred from 350 BCE and 550 CE by Austronesian peoples arriving on outrigger canoes from Borneo who were later joined around 1000 CE by Bantu migrants crossing the Mozambique Channel. Other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. The Malagasy ethnic group is often divided into eighteen or more sub-groups of which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands.

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Madla
Madla is a former municipality and borough of the city of Stavanger, Norway.
Madla municipality was created by a split from Håland in 1930. At that time Madla had a population of 1,091. On 1 January 1965 Madla was incorporated into Stavanger along with the majority of Hetland municipality. Prior to the merger Madla had a population of 6,025.
Although the borders of neighbourhoods do not correspond exactly to the borough borders, Madla roughly consists of the following neighbourhoods (delområder): Madlamark, Hafrsfjord, Kvernevik and Sunde.
Madla has a borough council (bydelsutvalg). The council consists of 11 members, with the following party allegiance:

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Madrid
Madrid (English /məˈdrɪd/, Spanish: [ma'ðrid]) is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the third largest in the European Union after London and Paris. The city spans a total of 604.3 km² (233.3 sq mi).
The city is located on the Manzanares river in the centre of both the country and the Community of Madrid (which comprises the city of Madrid, its conurbation and extended suburbs and villages); this community is bordered by the autonomous communities of Castile and León and Castile-La Mancha. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political centre of Spain. The current mayor is Ana Botella from the People's Party (PP).
Madrid urban agglomeration has the 3rd largest GDP in the European Union and its influences in politics, education, entertainment, environment, media, fashion, science, culture, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities. Due to its economic output, high standard of living, and market size, Madrid is considered the major financial centre of Southern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula; it hosts the head offices of the vast majority of the major Spanish companies, such as Telefónica, Iberia or Repsol. Madrid is the most touristic city of Spain, the fourth-most touristic of the continent, and is the 10th most livable city in the world according to Monocle magazine, in its 2010 index. Madrid also ranks among the 12 greenest European cities in 2010. Madrid is currently a Candidate City for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

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Malmö
Malmö (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈmalːˈmøː] ( listen)), in the southernmost province of Scania, is Sweden's third largest city by population after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and is one of the largest cities in Scandinavia.
Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County. The administrative entity for most of the city is Malmö Municipality which has 300,515 inhabitants in eight different localities, with 30% being of foreign origin (either born outside of Sweden or having both parents born abroad). Malmö is also a bimunicipal locality, as part of it is formally situated in Burlöv Municipality. The total population of the urban area was 280,415 in December 2010.
Greater Malmö is one of Sweden's three officially recognized Metropolitan areas (storstadsområden) and since 2005 is defined as the municipality of Malmö and 11 other municipalities in the southwestern corner of Scania. On 30 June 2008, its population was recorded to be 628,388. The region covers an area of 2,535.76 square kilometres (979.06 sq mi). The municipalities included, apart from Malmö, are Burlöv, Eslöv, Höör, Kävlinge, Lomma, Lund, Skurup, Staffanstorp, Svedala, Trelleborg and Vellinge. Lund, with a municipal population of over 100,000 and home to one of Scandinavia's major universities, is together with Malmö the region's economic and education hub.

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Manchester
Coordinates: 53°28′N 2°14′W / 53.467°N 2.233°W / 53.467; -2.233
Manchester ⁱ/ˈmæntʃɛstər/ is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England with an estimated population of 498,800 in 2010. Manchester lies within one of the United Kingdom's largest urban areas; the Greater Manchester Urban Area which has a population of 2.2 million. The demonym of Manchester is Mancunian and the local authority is Manchester City Council.
Manchester is situated in the south-central part of North West England, fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south and the Pennines to the north and east. The recorded history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium, which was established in c. 79 AD on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. Historically, most of the city was a part of Lancashire, although areas south of the River Mersey were in Cheshire. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but it began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester's unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, and resulted in it becoming the world's first industrialised city. An early 19th-century factory building boom transformed Manchester from a township into a major mill town and borough that was granted city status in 1853. In 1894 the Manchester Ship Canal was built, creating the Port of Manchester.

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Maribor
Maribor ( pronunciation (help·info) German: Marburg an der Drau, Italian: Marburgo) is the second largest city in Slovenia with 95,200 inhabitants as of 2011^[update]. Maribor is also the largest city of the traditional region of Lower Styria and the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor.
Maribor is, jointly with Guimarães in Portugal, the 2012 European Capital of Culture. In November 2010, The European Youth Forum announced that Maribor will be the 2013 European Youth Capital.
In 1164, a castle known as the Marchburch (Middle High German for "March Castle") was documented in Styria. It was first built on Piramida Hill, which is located just above the city. Maribor was first mentioned as a market near the castle in 1204, and received town privileges in 1254. It began to grow rapidly after the victory of Rudolf I of Habsburg over Otakar II of Bohemia in 1278. Maribor withstood sieges by Matthias Corvinus in 1480 and 1481 and by the Ottoman Empire in 1532 and 1683, and the city remained under the control of the Habsburg Monarchy until 1918.

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Molde
Molde (help·info) is a town and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Romsdal region. The municipality is located on the Romsdal Peninsula, surrounding the Fannefjord and Moldefjord. The town is located on the northern shore of the Romsdalsfjord on the Romsdal Peninsula.
The town of Molde is the administrative center of Møre og Romsdal county, the administrative center of the municipality of Molde, the commercial hub of Romsdal, and the headquarters of the Diocese of Møre. Other main population centers in the municipality include Hjelset, Kleive, and Nesjestranda.
Molde has a maritime, temperate climate, with cool-to-warm summers, and relatively mild winters.
It is an old settlement which emerged as a trading post in the late Middle Ages. Formal trading rights were introduced in 1614, and the city was incorporated through a royal charter in 1742. Molde was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt)
The town continued to grow throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, becoming a centre for Norwegian textile and garment industry, as well as the administrative center for the region, and a major tourist destination.

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Moss, Norway
Moss (help·info) is a coastal town and a municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Moss. The city of Moss was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipality of Jeløy was merged with the city on 1 July 1943.
Its administrative district covers areas east of the town, such as the island of Dillingøy in the lake Vansjø. Parts of the town are located on the peninsula of Jeløy. Moss city has 30,723 inhabitants (2012).
The Old Norse form of the name was Mors. It may be derived from an old root mer- which means to "divide" or "split".
The adjacent topography shares similar etymology:
The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 2 April 1954. Moss became a separate city in 1786 and received its first seal in the same year. The seal showed a church under some clouds, the whole thing placed within a circle. Above the circle there were some fasces, the freedom symbol of the late 19th century. A later seal, dating from around 1829, shows the same composition, but now also with six birds flying around the church.

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Nablus
Nablus (Arabic: نابلس‎ Nāblus [næːblʊs] ( listen), Hebrew: שכם‎ Šəḵem, Biblical Shechem ISO 259-3 Škem) is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, approximately 63 kilometers (39 mi) north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132. Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.
Founded by the Roman Emperor Vespasian in 72 CE as Flavia Neapolis, Nablus has been ruled by many empires over the course of its almost 2,000-year-long history. In the 5th and 6th centuries, conflict between the city's Christian and Samaritan inhabitants climaxed in a series of Samaritan revolts against Byzantine rule, before their violent quelling in 529 CE drastically dwindled that community's numbers in the city. In 636, Neapolis, along with most of Palestine, came under the rule of the Islamic Arab Caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab; its name Arabicized to Nablus. In 1099, the Crusaders took control of the city for less than a century, leaving its mixed Muslim, Christian and Samaritan population relatively undisturbed. After Saladin's Ayyubid forces took control of the interior of Palestine in 1187, Islamic rule was reestablished, and continued under the Mamluk and Ottoman empires to follow.

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NATO
Coordinates: 50°52′34.16″N 4°25′19.24″E / 50.8761556°N 4.4220111°E / 50.8761556; 4.4220111
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO ( /ˈneɪtoʊ/ NAY-toh; French: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique Nord (OTAN)), also called the (North) Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. NATO's headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium, one of the 28 member states across North America and Europe, the newest of which, Albania and Croatia, joined in April 2009. An additional 22 countries participate in NATO's Partnership for Peace, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programs. The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% of the world's defence spending.
For its first few years, NATO was not much more than a political association. However, the Korean War galvanized the member states, and an integrated military structure was built up under the direction of two U.S. supreme commanders. The course of the Cold War led to a rivalry with nations of the Warsaw Pact, which formed in 1955. The first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismay, stated in 1949 that the organization's goal was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down." Doubts over the strength of the relationship between the European states and the United States ebbed and flowed, along with doubts over the credibility of the NATO defence against a prospective Soviet invasion—doubts that led to the development of the independent French nuclear deterrent and the withdrawal of the French from NATO's military structure in 1966.

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Neskaupstaður
Neskaupstaður is a town located on the fjord Norðfjörður on the eastern side of Iceland. It is part of the municipality of Fjarðabyggð and, as of 2011, it has a population of 1,437.
It suffered severe depopulation in the 1990s, but this has been reversed as a result of the building of an aluminum smelter and a new hydroelectric power-plant in East Iceland.
Neskaupstaður joined Eskifjörður and Reyðarfjörður in 1998 to form the new municipality of Fjarðabyggð ("fjords-settlement").
The 2002 Icelandic movie Hafið (The Sea) was filmed almost entirely in and around Neskaupstaður.
The other villages composing the municipality are: Eskifjörður (1,043 inh.), Fáskrúðsfjörður (662 inh.), Mjóifjörður (35 inh.), Reyðarfjörður (1,102 inh.) and Stöðvarfjörður (203 inh.).
Síldarvinnslan h/f operates one of the most advanced fish processing plants in Europe, it mainly produces fish for human consumption.
Norðfjörður. Neskaupstaður lies to the extreme right, out of picture
Coordinates: 65°09′N 13°42′W / 65.15°N 13.7°W / 65.15; -13.7

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Nesoddtangen
Nesoddtangen is a village in, and the administrative centre of Nesodden in Akershus, Norway. It had 11,795^{[citation needed]} residents in 2011; about two thirds of the municipality's population. It's located some 4 miles (7 kilometers) south west of Oslo, and passenger ferry is the most used commuting transportation. Of the working population in Nesoddtangen, more than 90% work in Oslo.
The name Nesoddtangen is a triple tautology, consisting of three parts, nes, odd (from odde) and tangen, all being synonyms signifying a small cape or promontory.

Coordinates: 59°52′N 10°39′E / 59.867°N 10.65°E / 59.867; 10.65

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Netanya
Netanya (Hebrew: נְתַנְיָה‎‎, lit., "gift of God"), sometimes spelled Nathania, is a city in the Northern Centre District of Israel, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is located 30 km (18.64 mi) north of Tel Aviv, and 56 km (34.80 mi) south of Haifa between the 'Poleg' stream and Wingate Institute in the south and the 'Avichail' stream in the north. Netanya was named in honor of Nathan Straus, a prominent Jewish American merchant and philanthropist in the early twentieth century.
Its 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) of beaches have made the city a very popular tourist resort. Today the city houses a notably large population of English-speaking immigrants from the United Kingdom, USA, and Canada.
According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), at the end of 2009 the city had a total population of 183,200. An additional 150,000 people live in the local and regional councils within 10 kilometers from Netanya which serves as a regional center for them. The city mayor is Miriam Feirberg. The city is expected to reach a population of 350,000 by 2020.

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Nicaragua
Nicaragua (ⁱ/ˌnɪkəˈrɑːɡwə/ nik-ə-RAH-gwə), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (Spanish: República de Nicaragua [reˈpuβlika ðe nikaˈɾaɣwa] ( listen)), is the largest country in the Central American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean lies to the west, and the Caribbean Sea to the east. The country's physical geography divides it into three major zones: Pacific lowlands; wet, cooler central highlands; and the Caribbean lowlands. On the Pacific side of the country are the two largest fresh water lakes in Central America—Lake Managua and Lake Nicaragua. Surrounding these lakes and extending to their northwest along the rift valley of the Gulf of Fonseca are fertile lowland plains, with soil highly enriched by ash from nearby volcanoes of the central highlands. Nicaragua's abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems contribute to Mesoamerica's designation as a biodiversity hotspot.

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Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland. In English, Scandinavia is sometimes used as a synonym for the Nordic countries (but excluding Greenland), despite the fact that that word is most strictly defined to refer only to Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
The region's five nation-states and three autonomous regions share much common history as well as common traits in their respective societies, such as political systems and the Nordic model. Politically, Nordic countries do not form a separate entity, but they co-operate in the Nordic Council. The Nordic countries have a combined population of approximately 25 million spread over a land area of 3.5 million km² (Greenland accounts for around 60% of the total area).
Although the area is linguistically heterogeneous, with three unrelated language groups, the common linguistic heritage is one of the factors making up the Nordic identity. The continental Scandinavian languages – Danish, Norwegian and Swedish – are considered mutually intelligible. These languages are taught in school throughout the Nordic countries; Swedish, for example, is a mandatory subject in Finnish schools, whereas Danish is mandatory in Icelandic, Faroese and Greenlandic schools. For this reason, (continental) Scandinavian language is considered the lingua franca of all of the Nordic countries. Besides these and the insular North Germanic languages Faroese and Icelandic, all belonging to the Indo-European language group, there are the Finnic and Sami branches of the Uralic languages, spoken respectively in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland, and Greenlandic, an Eskimo–Aleut language, spoken in Greenland.

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Norrköping
Norrköping [ˈnɔrːˈɕøːpɪŋ] is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County. The city has a population of 87,247 inhabitants in 2010, out of a municipal total of 130,050, making it Sweden's tenth largest city and eighth largest municipality.
The city is situated by the mouth of the river Motala ström, at Bråviken, an inlet of the Baltic Sea. Water power from the Motala ström and the good harbour were factors that facilitated the rapid growth of this once industrial city, known for its textile industry. It has several nicknames such as: "Sweden's Manchester", "Peking" and "Surbullestan" (Surbulle [sour bun] was a local nickname for the textile workers, and stan is short for Staden, which means The City or The Town in Swedish)
The city has medieval foundations by settlers around the Norrköping twin city with Linköping Motala stream estuary, who used the falls and rapids to power their mills. The stream was also full of fish such as salmon. Exact dates are uncertain, but there are mentions of a church in the 12th century. It was dedicated to Saint Olaf, Norway's patron.

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Norway
Norway ⁱ/ˈnɔrweɪ/ (Norwegian: Norge (Bokmål) or Noreg (Nynorsk)), officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and the subantarctic Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres (148,747 sq mi) and a population of about 5 million. It is the second least densely populated country in Europe. The majority of the country shares a border to the east with Sweden; its northernmost region is bordered by Finland to the south and Russia to the east; in its south Norway borders the Skagerrak Strait across from Denmark. The capital city of Norway is Oslo. Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, is home to its famous fjords.

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Odense
The city of Odense (Danish pronunciation: [ˈoðˀn̩sə] ( listen)) is the third largest city in Denmark. Odense City has a population of 168,798 (as of 1 January 2012 (2012 -01-01)^[update]) and is the main city of the island of Funen. The city is the seat of Odense Municipality, with a population of 191,610 (as of 1 January 2012 (2012 -01-01)^[update]), and was the seat of Odense County until 1970, and Funen County from 1970 until 1 January 2007, when Funen County became part of the Region of Southern Denmark.
Odense (from Odins Vé, meaning "Odin's shrine", referring to the god Odin of Denmark's indigenous Norse mythology), is one of the oldest cities of Denmark and had its 1000th anniversary in 1988. To celebrate this, a forest named "the Thousand Year Forest" (Danish: Tusindårsskoven) was cultivated. The shrine of Saint Canute (Danish: Sankt Knud / Knud den Hellige) in Saint Canute's Cathedral held great attraction for pilgrims throughout the Middle Ages.
In the 16th century, the town was the meeting-place of several parliaments, and down to 1805 it was the seat of the provincial assembly of Funen.

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Oslo
Oslo (English pronunciation: /ˈɒzloʊ/, OZ-loh,Norwegian pronunciation: [²ʊʃlʊ] ( listen) or [²ʊslʊ]) is the capital of and most populous city in Norway. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III, the city was elevated to a bishopric in 1070 and a capital under Haakon V around 1300. Personal unions with Denmark from 1397 to 1523 and again from 1536 to 1814 and with Sweden from 1814 to 1905 reduced its influence. After being destroyed by a fire in 1624, the city was moved closer to Akershus Castle during the reign of King Christian IV and renamed Christiania in his honour. It was established as a municipality (formannskapsdistrikt) on 1 January 1838. Following a spelling reform, it was known as Kristiania from 1877 to 1925, when its original Norwegian name was restored.
Oslo is the economic and governmental centre of Norway. The city is also a hub of Norwegian trade, banking, industry and shipping. It is an important centre for maritime industries and maritime trade in Europe. The city is home to many companies within the maritime sector, some of which are amongst the world's largest shipping companies, shipbrokers and maritime insurance brokers. Oslo is a pilot city of the Council of Europe and the European Commission intercultural cities programme.

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Oulu
Oulu (pronounced [ˈoulu] ( listen), Swedish: Uleåborg [ˈʉːleɔˌbɔrj]) is a city and municipality of 143,988 inhabitants (31 January 2012) in the region of Northern Ostrobothnia, in Finland. It is the most populous city in Northern Finland and the sixth most populous city in the country. It is one of the northernmost larger cities in the world.
Oulu was founded on April 8, 1605, by King Charles IX of Sweden opposite to the fort built on the island of Linnansaari. This took place after favourable peace settlements with the Russians, which removed the threat of attack via the main east-west waterway, the river Oulu. The surrounding areas were populated much earlier. Oulu is situated by the Gulf of Bothnia, at the mouth of river Oulujoki, which is an ancient trading site. One possible source for the name Oulu is a word in the Sami language meaning 'flood water', but there are other suggestions. Oulu was the capital of the Province of Oulu from 1776 to 2009.
In 1822, a major fire destroyed much of the city. The architect Carl Ludvig Engel, chiefly known for the neoclassical (empire style) buildings around Helsinki Senate Square, was enlisted to provide the plan for the rebuilding of the city. With minor changes, this plan remains the basis for the layout of Oulu's town center. The Oulu Cathedral was built in 1832 to his designs, with the spire being finished in 1844.

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Pori
Pori (Swedish: Björneborg) is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The city is located some 15 kilometres (9 mi) from the Gulf of Bothnia, on the estuary of the Kokemäenjoki river, which is the largest in Finland. It was established in 1558 by John III (Finnish: Juhana III or Juhana-herttua). Pori is the most important town in the Satakunta region.
The municipality has a population of 83,192 (31 January 2012) and covers an area of 1,704.07 square kilometres (657.95 sq mi) of which 870.01 km² (335.91 sq mi) is water. The population density is 99.74 /km² (258.3 /sq mi). The municipality is unilingually Finnish. Pori is the 11th largest city in Finland, and the 7th largest urban area.
The Neo-Gothic Juselius Mausoleum, located in the Käppärä cemetery in central Pori, was built in 1903 by the wealthy industrialist F.A. Juselius for his daughter Sigrid, who died when she was only 11 years old. The mausoleum was designed by the architect Josef Stenbäck. The mausoleum originally had frescoes painted by artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela, but these decayed after a short time. The frescoes were restored by Akseli's son Jorma Gallen-Kallela using his father's sketches.

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Prague
Prague ( /ˈprɑːɡ/; Czech: Praha pronounced [ˈpraɦa] ( listen)) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and fourteenth largest city in European Union. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of nearly 2.0 million. The city has a temperate oceanic climate with warm summers and chilly winters.
Prague has been a political, cultural, and economic centre of central Europe with waxing and waning fortunes during its 1,100 year existence. Founded during the Romanesque and flourishing by the Gothic and Renaissance eras, Prague was the seat of two Holy Roman Emperors and thus then also the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. It was an important city to the Habsburg Monarchy and its Austro-Hungarian Empire and after World War I became the capital of Czechoslovakia. The city played major roles in the Protestant Reformation, the Thirty Years' War, and in modern history generally as the principal conurbation in Bohemia and Moravia whose second city is Brno.

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Pécs
Pécs (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈpeːtʃ] ( listen); known by alternative names) is the fifth largest city of Hungary, located on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the south-west of the country, close to its border with Croatia. It is the administrative and economical centre of Baranya county. Pécs is also the seat of Roman Catholic Diocese of Pécs.
The city Sopianae was founded by Romans at the beginning of the 2nd century, on an area peopled by Celts and Pannoni tribes. By the 4th century it became the capital of Valeria province and a significant early Christian center. The early Christian necropolis is from this era which became an UNESCO World Heritage Site in December 2000.
Its episcopate was founded in 1009 by Steven I, and the first university in Hungary was founded in Pécs in 1367 by Louis I the Great. (The largest university still resides in Pécs with about 34,000 students). Pécs was formed into one of the cultural and arts center of the country by bishop Janus Pannonius, the great, Hungarian, humanist poet. Pécs has a rich heritage from the age of a 150 year long Ottoman occupation, like the mosque of Pasha Qasim the Victorious on Széchenyi square.

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Randers
Randers (Danish pronunciation: [ˈʁɑnɐs]) is a city in Randers municipality (Aarhus County, Region Midtjylland) on the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark. It is Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 61,121 (1 January 2012). Randers city is the main town of the municipality and the site of its municipal council.
Randers municipality has 94,750 inhabitants (2010). The municipality is also a part of the East Jutland metropolitan area, which has 1.2 million inhabitants..
Randers, Denmark's only natural river harbour, is on the banks of the River Guden (Gudenå), about 6 miles (10 km) above its mouth in Randers Fjord, and 111 miles (179 km) west-northwest of Copenhagen. This location has had great significance for trade by sea. Barges on the Guden River and the Northern River (Nørreå) transported goods into Randers from Silkeborg and Viborg for export. In return, items were imported.
A vast agricultural area, and good transportation by land and by water, helped make Randers a dynamic center for trade and commerce. Known for the many access roads leading into the city, it has engendered the popular saying, "Where the waterway meets the 13 highways" ("Hvor søvejen møder de 13 landeveje").

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Reykjavik
Reykjavík (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈreiːcaˌviːk] ( listen)) is the capital and largest city in Iceland.
Its latitude, at 64°08' N, makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay. With a population of around 120,000 (and over 200,000 in the Greater Reykjavík Area), it is the heart of Iceland's economic and governmental activity.
Reykjavík is believed to be the location of the first permanent settlement in Iceland, which Ingólfur Arnarson is said to have established around 870 C.E. Until the 18th century, there was no urban development in the city location. The city was founded in 1786 as an official trading town and grew steadily over the next decades, as it transformed into a regional and later national centre of commerce, population, and governmental activities.
The first permanent settlement in Iceland by Norsemen is believed to have been established in Reykjavík by Ingólfur Arnarson around AD 870; this is described in Landnámabók, or the Book of Settlement. Ingólfur Arnarson is said to have decided the location of his settlement using a traditional Viking method; by casting his high seat pillars (Öndvegissúlur) into the ocean when he saw the coastline, then settled where the pillars came to shore. Steam from hot springs in the region is said to have inspired Reykjavík's name, which loosely translates to Smoke Cove (the city is often referred to as the Bay of Smokes or Bay of Smoke) The original name was Reykjarvík with an additional "r" that vanished around 1300.^{[citation needed]}

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Reykjavík
Reykjavík (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈreiːcaˌviːk] ( listen)) is the capital and largest city in Iceland.
Its latitude, at 64°08' N, makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay. With a population of around 120,000 (and over 200,000 in the Greater Reykjavík Area), it is the heart of Iceland's economic and governmental activity.
Reykjavík is believed to be the location of the first permanent settlement in Iceland, which Ingólfur Arnarson is said to have established around 870 C.E. Until the 18th century, there was no urban development in the city location. The city was founded in 1786 as an official trading town and grew steadily over the next decades, as it transformed into a regional and later national centre of commerce, population, and governmental activities.
The first permanent settlement in Iceland by Norsemen is believed to have been established in Reykjavík by Ingólfur Arnarson around AD 870; this is described in Landnámabók, or the Book of Settlement. Ingólfur Arnarson is said to have decided the location of his settlement using a traditional Viking method; by casting his high seat pillars (Öndvegissúlur) into the ocean when he saw the coastline, then settled where the pillars came to shore. Steam from hot springs in the region is said to have inspired Reykjavík's name, which loosely translates to Smoke Cove (the city is often referred to as the Bay of Smokes or Bay of Smoke) The original name was Reykjarvík with an additional "r" that vanished around 1300.^{[citation needed]}

wn.com/Reykjavík
Riga
Riga (Latvian: Rīga, pronounced [riːɡa] ( listen)) is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 657,424 inhabitants ( 2011) Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial, cultural and financial centre of the Baltic Sea region.^{[citation needed]} The city lies on the Gulf of Riga, at the mouth of the river Daugava. Riga's territory covers 307.17 km² (118.60 sq mi) and lies between 1 and 10 metres (3.3 and 33 ft) above sea level, on a flat and sandy plain.
Riga was founded in 1201 and is a former Hanseatic League member. Riga's historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. The city will be the European Capital of Culture in 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden. The city hosted the 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 and the 2006 IIHF Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. It is home to the European Union's office of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). Riga is served by Riga International Airport, the largest airport in the Baltic states.

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Rogfast
Rogfast (from "Rogaland fast forbindelse", "Rogaland fixed connection") is a planned sub-sea northward tunnel between Randaberg near Stavanger and Bokn in Rogaland, Norway.
The tunnel is planned as a 25 km connection below the Boknafjord and Kvitsøfjord. A connection to Kvitsøy will be added. The project will be a world record with respect to length and maximum depth (380 m below sea level). The cost of the project is assumed to be around 500-600 million €. The project is currently, as of July 2010, being resolved by the Norwegian parliament.
Seismic survey and core sample drilling is scheduled to start late summer/early fall of 2010.
This will be a part of the main road on the link Oslo - Kristiansand - Sandnes - Stavanger - Haugesund - Bergen.
Coordinates: 59°04′26″N 5°27′19″E / 59.07389°N 5.45528°E / 59.07389; 5.45528

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Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( /ˈrɒtərdæm/; Dutch [ˌrɔ.tər.ˈdɑm] ( listen)) is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam constructed in 1270 on the Rotte River, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre. Its strategic location at the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta on the North Sea and at the heart of a massive rail, road, air and inland waterway distribution system extending throughout Europe is the reason that Rotterdam is often called the "Gateway to Europe".
Located in the Province of South Holland, Rotterdam is found in the west of the Netherlands and at the south end of the Randstad. The population of the city proper was 616,250 on February 1st 2012. The population of the greater Rotterdam area, called "Rotterdam-Rijnmond" or just "Rijnmond", is around 1.3 million people. Rotterdam is one of Europe's most vibrant, multicultural cities. The city is known for its university (Erasmus), its cutting-edge architecture, its lively cultural life, its striking riverside setting, its maritime heritage and the Rotterdam Blitz.

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Salamanca
Salamanca is a city in western Spain, in the community of Castile and León. Because it is known for its beautiful buildings and urban environment, the Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. It is the most important university city in Spain and supplies 16% of Spain's market for the teaching of the Spanish language. Salamanca attracts thousands of international students, generating a diverse, multicultural environment.
It is situated approximately 200 km (120 mi) west of Madrid and 80 km (50 mi) east of the Portuguese border. The University of Salamanca, which was founded in 1218, is the oldest university in Spain and the third oldest western university. With its 30,000 students, the university is, together with tourism, the economic engine of the city.
Salamanca is the capital of the province of Salamanca, which belongs to the autonomous community of Castile and León (Castilla y León). With a metropolitan population around 192,000 it is the second most populated urban area in Castile and León, after Valladolid (369,000), and closely followed by Leon (187,000) and Burgos (176,000).

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San Sebastián
San Sebastián (Spanish: [san seβasˈtjan]) or Donostia (Basque: [doˈnos̺tia]) is a city and municipality located in the north of Spain, on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and 20 km away from the French border. The city is the capital of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. The municipality’s population is 186,122 (2011), and its metropolitan area reaches 413,617 (2010). Locals call themselves donostiarras, in Spanish, and donostiarrak, in Basque.
The main economic activities are commerce and tourism, being one of the most famous tourism destinations in Spain. Despite the city’s small size, international events such as the San Sebastián International Film Festival have given it an international dimension. San Sebastián, along with Wrocław, Poland, will be the European Capital of Culture in 2016.
In spite of the apparent difference, both the Basque form Donostia and the Spanish form San Sebastián share the same meaning of Saint Sebastian. The dona/dono/doni element in Basque place-names signifies "saint" and is derived from Latin domine; the second part of Donosti(a) contains a shortened form of the saint's name.

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Sarajevo
Sarajevo (Cyrillic: Сарајево) (pronounced [sǎrajɛʋɔ]) is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with an estimated population of over 311,161 people within its administrative limits. It is also the capital of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity, as well as the center of the Sarajevo Canton, which has a population of 438,757. Nestled within the greater Sarajevo valley of Bosnia, it is surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans.
Sarajevo is the leading social and cultural center of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and its region-wide influence in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science, and the arts contribute to its status as Bosnia and Herzegovina's major economic center.
The city is historically famous for its traditional cultural and religious diversity, with adherents of Islam, Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Judaism coexisting there for centuries. Due to this long and rich history of religious and cultural variety, Sarajevo is often called the "Jerusalem of Europe" or "Jerusalem of the Balkans". It was, until recently in the 20th century, the only major European city to have a mosque, cathedral, Orthodox church and synagogue within the same neighborhood.

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Scotland
Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Alba ([ˈalˠ̪apə] listen (help·info))) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In addition to the mainland, Scotland constitutes over 790 islands including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.
Edinburgh, the country's capital and second largest city, is one of Europe's largest financial centres. Edinburgh was the hub of the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, which transformed Scotland into one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, was once one of the world's leading industrial cities and now lies at the centre of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third largest city in Scotland, the title of Europe's oil capital.

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Seinäjoki
Seinäjoki is a city located in Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland. Seinäjoki originated around the Östermyra bruk iron and gunpowder factories founded in 1798. Seinäjoki became a municipality in 1868, market town in 1931 and town in 1960. In the beginning of 2009, the neighbouring municipalities of Nurmo and Ylistaro were consolidated with Seinäjoki.
The Town library, Lakeuden Risti church and central administrative buildings are designed by Alvar Aalto.
The asteroid 1521 Seinäjoki bears the town's name.
Seinäjoki was historically called Östermyra in Swedish. Today this name is very seldom used even among the Swedish speakers. Literal translation for Seinäjoki is "Wallriver".
Seinäjoki Airport is located in the neighbouring municipality of Ilmajoki, 11 kilometres (10 mi) south of Seinäjoki city centre.
The settlement spread in the area of the present Seinäjoki during the first half of the 16th century. During the 1550s there is said to have been three houses in Seinäjoki, Marttila, Jouppi and Uppa houses. House of Jouppila, which separated from the house of Jouppi, was established during the same century. All of the houses were located on the shore of the river.

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Sibiu
Sibiu (Romanian pronunciation: [siˈbiw], antiquated, Sibiiu; German: Hermannstadt, Hungarian: Nagyszeben) is a city in Transylvania, Romania, with a population of 155,000. Located some 282 km north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Cibin River, a tributary of the river Olt. Nowadays the capital of Sibiu County, between 1692 and 1791 Sibiu was the capital of the Principality of Transylvania.
Sibiu is one of the most important cultural centres of Romania and, in tandem with Luxembourg, it was designated a European Capital of Culture for the year 2007. Formerly the centre of the Transylvanian Saxons, the old city of Sibiu was ranked as "Europe's 8th most idyllic place to live" by Forbes.
The city administers the ski resort Păltiniş.
Sibiu is situated near the geographical center of Romania at 45°47′34″N 24°09′07″E / 45.792784°N 24.152069°E / 45.792784; 24.152069 (Sibiu)Coordinates: 45°47′34″N 24°09′07″E / 45.792784°N 24.152069°E / 45.792784; 24.152069 (Sibiu). Set in the Cibin Depression, the city is about 20 km from the Făgăraş Mountains, 12 km from the Cibin Mountains, and about 15 km from the Lotrului Mountains, which border the depression in its southwestern section. The northern and eastern limits of Sibiu are formed by the Târnavelor Plateau, which descends to the Cibin Valley through Guşteriţei Hill.

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Statoil
Statoil ASA, trading as Statoil and formerly known as StatoilHydro, is a Norwegian oil and gas company, formed by the 2007 merger of Statoil with the oil and gas division of Norsk Hydro. The Government of Norway is the largest shareholder in Statoil with 67% of the shares. The ownership interest is managed by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.
Statoil is a fully integrated petroleum company with production operations in thirteen countries and retail operations in eight. By revenue Statoil is in 2010 ranked by Fortune Magazine as the world's 13th largest oil and gas company, and the largest company in the Nordic region by revenue, profit, and market capitalization.
Statoil is the largest operator on the Norwegian continental shelf, with 60% of the total production. The fields operated are Brage, Heimdal, Grane, Glitne, Gullfaks, Heidrun, Huldra, Kristin, Kvitebjørn, Mikkel, Njord, Norne, Ormen Lange, Oseberg, Sleipner, Snorre, Snøhvit, Statfjord, Sygna, Tordis, Troll, Veslefrikk, Vigdis, Visund, Volve and Åsgard. The company also has processing plants at Kolsnes, Kårstø, Mongstad, Tjeldbergodden and Melkøya.

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Stavanger Cathedral
Coordinates: 58°58′11″N 5°43′59″E / 58.969787°N 5.733162°E / 58.969787; 5.733162
Stavanger Cathedral (Stavanger domkirke) is Norway's oldest cathedral. It is situated in the middle of Stavanger, and is the seat of the Diocese of Stavanger.
Bishop Reinald, who may have come from Winchester, is said to have started construction of the Cathedral around 1100. It was finished around 1150, and the city of Stavanger counts 1125 as its year of foundation. The Cathedral was consecrated to Swithin as its patron saint. Saint Swithun was an early Bishop of Winchester and subsequently patron saint of Winchester Cathedral.
Stavanger was ravaged by fire in 1272, and the Cathedral suffered heavy damage. It was rebuilt under bishop Arne, and the Romanesque Cathedral was enlarged in the Gothic style.
In 1682, king Christian V decided to move Stavanger's episcopal seat to Kristiansand. However, on Stavanger's 800th anniversary in 1925, king Haakon VII instated Jacob Christian Petersen as Stavanger's first bishop in nearly 250 years.

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Stavanger Museum
Stavanger Museum is a museum of natural and cultural history established in 1877, located in the Norwegian city Stavanger. The museum's collections consist of several departments: the department of zoology, the department for cultural history (which also includes custodianship of the royal residence Ledaal).
Departments include the Stavanger Museum of Natural History, Stavanger Maritime Museum, Norwegian Children's Museum, Norwegian Printing Museum, Stavanger School Museum, Stavanger Art Museum, and Norwegian Canning Museum.
Stavanger Museum was founded in 1877, and was first located in a small wooden house in Gamle Stavanger. The museum got its own building, Muségata 3, in 1893, designed by architect Hartvig Sverdrup Eckhoff. The building was extended in 1930, and again in 1964. A major restoration and technical upgrade was performed in 1995.Ledaal, the summer house of the Kielland family built by Gabriel Schanche Kielland, was bought by Stavanger Museum in 1936, and opened as a royal residence in 1949. The archeological department was split out in 1975, as the new institution Arkeologisk museum i Stavanger. The Maritime Museum was included in 1979. The Graphical museum was established in 1991, and included in Stavanger Museum in 2006. The Children's Museum was established in 2000, and incorporated as a department of Stavanger Museum in 2007. The school museum was established in 1925, and incorporated into Stavanger Museum in 2008. The museum's cultural collections include the royal residence Ledaal from around 1800, and the villa Breidablikk, situated on Eiganes in Stavanger. Breidablikk villa is a well-preserved mansion which was built in 1881-1882 for the merchant and ship owner Lars Berentsen. The villa was designed by architect Henrik Nissen. The department also incorporates Den Kombinerede Indretning, a collection of local medical history established in 1989, and a part of Stavanger Museum from 2006. A yearbook has been published annually since 1890.

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Stavanger Region
Coordinates: 59°N 6°E / 59°N 6°E / 59; 6 Greater Stavanger Region is a statistical metropolitan region in the county of Rogaland in southwestern Norway. It is centered around the metro's economical and cultural centre Stavanger. The metropolitan area is the third most populous in Norway.
1/ km²
2/ Population per km²

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Stockholm
Stockholm (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈstɔkːˈhɔlm, ˈstɔkːˈɔlm, ˈstɔkːɔlm]( listen to the second one)) is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 864,324 in the municipality (2010), 1.4 million in the urban area (2010), and around 2.1 million in the 6,519 km² (2,517.00 sq mi) metropolitan area (2010). As of 2010, the Stockholm metropolitan area is home to approximately 22% of Sweden's population.
Founded no later than c. 1250, possibly as early as 1187, Stockholm has long been one of Sweden's cultural, media, political, and economic centres. Its strategic location on 14 islands on the south-central east coast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago, has been historically important. Stockholm has been nominated by GaWC as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-. In The 2008 Global Cities Index, Stockholm ranked 24th in the world, 10th in Europe, and first in Scandinavia. Stockholm is known for its beauty, its buildings and architecture, its abundant clean and open water, and its many parks. It is sometimes referred to as Venice of the North.

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Storhaug
Storhaug is a borough of the city of Stavanger, Norway.
Although the borders of neighbourhoods do not correspond exactly to the borough borders, Storhaug roughly consists of the following neighbourhoods (delområder): Johannes, Nylund, Varden, Bergjeland and Øyane.
Storhaug has a borough council (bydelsutvalg). The council consists of 11 members, with the following party allegiance:

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Strand, Norway
Strand is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is part of the region of Ryfylke. Strand was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). Høle (with Forsand) was separated from Strand in 1842.
To the north, lies Fiskå. Strand produces fruit, vegetables and dairy products, along with Fiskå Mølle (Fiskå Mill). To the south, Tau is the communication hub with ferry connections to Stavanger and bus services to Hjelmeland and deeper into Ryfylke. About 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) southeast, Jørpeland is the largest settlement with about 5,500 people. Following the road southwards one passes Botne before entering into Forsand. To the east Bjørheimsbygd is a thriving agricultural site.
The famous biker Gunn-Rita Dahle comes from Bjørheimsbygd. She has won a gold medal in the Summer Olympics 2004, in Athens. Holtaheia was the mountain behind Holta farm where 34 school boys, 2 teachers and 3 crew died, when the Cunard Viking flight 'Papa Mike' crashed into the mountain, en route to Stavanger.

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Sweden
Sweden (ⁱ/ˈswiːdən/ SWEE-dən; Swedish: Sverige [ˈsværjɛ] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige (help·info)), is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland, and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Øresund.
At 450,295 square kilometres (173,860 sq mi), Sweden is the third largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of about 9.4 million. Sweden has a low population density of 21 inhabitants per square kilometre (54 /sq mi) with the population mostly concentrated to the southern half of the country. About 85% of the population live in urban areas. Sweden's capital city is Stockholm, which is also the largest city.
Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages. In the 17th century, the country expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire. The empire grew to be one of the great powers of Europe in the 17th and early 18th century. Most of the conquered territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were lost during the 18th and 19th centuries. The eastern half of Sweden, present-day Finland, was lost to Russia in 1809. The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Sweden by military means forced Norway into a personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, practicing "non-participation in military alliances during peacetime and neutrality during wartime". However, Sweden has been a member of the European Union since 1 January 1995 and is a member of the OECD.

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Södertälje
Södertälje (Swedish pronunciation: [sœdəˈʈɛlːˈjə] ( listen)) is a city and the seat of Södertälje Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 64,619 inhabitants in 2010.
The industrial city, about 30 kilometers (19 mi) south of Stockholm, is the home to truck maker Scania AB and a top 10 pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
Södertälje is an international municipality and this fact is reflected in business, cultural life and the population.
Prior to 600 AD, the lake Mälaren was connected to the sea. Due to land elevation, the lake was slowly cut off, and boats had to be carried over land to and from the lake.
The name Telje is mentioned in the 11th century. To resolve a name conflict with another town that was founded north of Stockholm in the 17th century, Söder (meaning south) was added to create Södertälje; Norr (North) was added to the other to create Norrtälje.
In the 18th century Södertälje had a charter. Due to the Great Northern War and a series of plague epidemics, the population of the city dipped to barely above 200.

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Tallinn
Tallinn (/ˈtɑːlɪn/ or /ˈtælɪn/,Estonian pronunciation: [ˈtɑlʲˑinˑ]) is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of 159.2 km² (61.5 sq mi) with a population of 416,470. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, 80 km (50 mi) south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It is ranked as a global city and has been listed among the top 10 digital cities in the world. The city was a European Capital of Culture for 2011, along with Turku, Finland.
Tallinn is the oldest capital^{[clarification needed]} in Northern Europe. The city was known as Reval from the 13th century until the 1920s.
In 1154 a town called Qlwn or Qalaven (possible derivations of Kalevan or Kolyvan) was put on the world map of the Almoravid by the Muslim cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi, who described it as a small town like a large castle among the towns of Astlanda. It has been suggested that the Quwri in Astlanda may have denoted the predecessor town of today's Tallinn.

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Tampere
Tampere (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈtɑmpere] ( listen); Swedish: Tammerfors [tamərˈfɔrs] or [tamərˈfɔʂ]) is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of 215,315, growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in Finland, after the Greater Helsinki municipalities of Helsinki and Espoo. In 2007, the entire Pirkanmaa region had around 470,000 residents, of which 230,000 were employed, and a turnover of 25 billion euros.
Tampere is located between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. Since the two lakes differ in level by 18 metres (59 ft), the rapids linking them, Tammerkoski, have been an important power source throughout history, most recently for generating electricity. Tampere is dubbed the "Manchester of Finland" for its industrial past as the former center of Finnish industry, and this has given rise to its Finnish nickname "Manse" and terms such as "Manserock".

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Tasta
Tasta is a borough of the city of Stavanger, Norway.
Although the borders of neighbourhoods do not correspond exactly to the borough borders, Tasta roughly consists of the following neighbourhoods (delområder): Indre Tasta and Ytre Tasta.
Tasta has a borough council (bydelsutvalg). The council consists of 11 members, with the following party allegiance:

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Tau, Norway
Tau is a village in the municipality of Strand. Tau has about 3000 inhabitants and is connected to Stavanger by ferry.
The name might come from the Norse word taufr meaning 'witchcraft', as one believes there was a sacrificial field here in the Iron age.
Some days the place smells of puffed oats, because of the factory Tau Mølle AS. The factory is located in a white mill that was used to brew the Norwegian beer known as "Tou".
Comrod Communications is the largest employer in Tau, manufacturing mainly antennaes for military use.
Coordinates: 59°04′N 5°54′E / 59.067°N 5.9°E / 59.067; 5.9

wn.com/Tau,_Norway
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (Greek: Θεσσαλονίκη [θesaloˈnici] ( listen)), also known as Thessalonica ( /ˌθɛsəlɵˈnaɪkə/) and historically known as Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace. Its honorific title is Συμπρωτεύουσα (Symprotévusa), literally "co-capital", and stands as a reference to its historical status as the Συμβασιλεύουσα (Symvasilévousa), "co-reigning" city of the Byzantine Empire, alongside Constantinople.
According to the 2011 census the municipality of Thessaloniki today has a population of 322,240, while the Thessaloniki Urban Area (the contiguous built up area forming the "City of Thessaloniki") has a population of 790,824; making it the fifth largest and most populated city in the Balkans and the second most populated city that is not a capital. Furthermore, the Thessaloniki Metropolitan Area extends over an area of 1,455.62 km² (562.02 sq mi) and its population in 2011 reached a total of 1,006,730 inhabitants.

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Trondheim
Trondheim (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈtrɔnhæjm]), historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 176,348, it is the third most populous municipality in Norway and city in the country, although the fourth largest urban area. It is the administrative centre of Sør-Trøndelag county. Trondheim lies on the south shore of the Trondheimsfjord at the mouth of the river Nidelva. The city is dominated by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), SINTEF, St. Olavs University Hospital and other technology-oriented institutions.
The settlement was founded in 997 as a trading post, and was the capital of Norway during the Viking Age until 1217. From 1152 to 1537, the city was the seat of the Archdiocese of Nidaros; since it has remained the seat of the Diocese of Nidaros and the Nidaros Cathedral. It was incorporated in 1838. The current municipality dates from 1964, when Trondheim merged with Byneset, Leinstrand, Strinda and Tiller.

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Turku
Turku (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈturku] ( listen); Swedish: Åbo [ˈoːbu] ( listen)) is a city on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed to have been first settled around the end of the 13th century, making it the oldest city in Finland. It quickly became the most important city in Finland, a status it retained for hundreds of years. After Finland became part of the Russian Empire (1809), and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland was moved to Helsinki (1812), Turku continued to be the most populous city in Finland, until the end of the 1840s. Today it remains a regional capital and an important business and cultural center.
Because of its long history it has been the site of many important events, and has extensively influenced Finnish history. Along with Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, Turku was designated the European Capital of Culture for 2011. In 1996 it was declared the official Christmas City of Finland.

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Täby
Täby is a trimunicipal locality and the seat of Täby Municipality in Stockholm County, Sweden, with 61,272 inhabitants in 2010. It is also partly located in Danderyd Municipality (the Enebyberg area) and Sollentuna Municipality. However, Täby kyrkby in the northern part of Täby Municipality, forms part of the Vallentuna urban area.
Täby consists of the following districts: Arninge, Ella Gård, Ella Park, Enebyberg, Ensta, Erikslund, Gribbylund, Hägernäs, Lahäll, Löttingelund, Lövbrunna, Näsbypark, Roslags Näsby, Skarpäng, Täby Centrum, Viggbyholm, Vallatorp, and Visinge.
Täby is famous for its racecourse, which is called "Täby Galopp". The course opened in 1960 and it replaced the earlier course Ulriksdal in Solna. The Center of Täby is called "Täby centrum", and it is the largest mall in Sweden.
European route E18 and Norrortsleden pass through Täby, as does the urban railway Roslagsbanan.
The name Täby is derived from tä, which is an old word that was used for "narrow road between roundpole fences", and by which means village. It is therefore believed that the Täby area was rich in such roads in the Viking age. The name Täby is found carved into the Jarlabanke Runestones, close to Täby church.

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Umeå
Umeå (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈʉːmɛo] ( listen); Finnish: Uumaja, Northern Sami: Ubmi) is a university town in northern Sweden. It is the seat of Umeå Municipality and the capital of Västerbotten County. The city is located at the Ume River.
Umeå is the biggest city in Norrland and the twelfth biggest in Sweden, with 79,594 inhabitants in 2010. The municipality has 115,229 inhabitants as of 2010. When the university was established in 1965, growth sped up, and the number of housing has doubled in the last 30 years. As of 2011^[update], 700 to 800 new apartments are constructed each year.
Umeå is a center of education, technical and medical research in Sweden, with two universities and over 30,000 students. The city is elected European Capital of Culture of 2014.
The first written mention of Umeå is from the 14th century. The northern parts of Sweden, including the counties of Västerbotten and Norrbotten, were settled by Sami people before this time, though not necessarily in the city's exact location. Umeå in its first form was a parish with a wooden church and trade post located in the section of town now known as Backen (or Kyrkbacken). Its location near the coast and on a river was probably one of the reasons that people chose to settle there.

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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.

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Uppsala
Uppsala (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈɵpːˈsɑːla]; older spelling Upsala) is the capital of Uppsala County and the fourth largest city of Sweden. It had 140,454 inhabitants in 2010.
Located 67 km north of the capital, Stockholm, it is also the seat of the Uppsala Municipality. Since 1164, Uppsala has been the ecclesiastical centre of Sweden, being the seat of the Archbishop of the Church of Sweden. Founded in 1477, Uppsala University is the oldest centre of higher education in Scandinavia.
Uppsala was originally located a few kilometres to the north, at a location now known as Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala). Today's Uppsala was then called Östra Aros. (Old) Uppsala was, according to medieval writer Adam of Bremen, the main pagan centre of Sweden, and the Temple at Uppsala contained magnificent idols of the Æsir gods.
As a replacement for the Scandinavian gods, Uppsala was made into a strong Christian centre. A bishop was soon consecrated, and in 1164 Uppsala was made into an archdiocese, with Stefan, a monk from Alvastra Abbey, being consecrated the first Archbishop of Uppsala and primate of Sweden.

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Vaasa
Vaasa (Swedish: Vasa) is a city on the west coast of Finland. It received its charter in 1606, during the reign of Charles IX of Sweden and is named after the Royal House of Vasa. Today, Vaasa has a population of 60,435 (31 January 2012) (approximately 90,000 in the Vaasa sub-region), and is the regional capital of Ostrobothnia (Swedish: Österbotten, Finnish: Pohjanmaa).
The city is bilingual with 69.8% of the population speaking Finnish as their first language and 24.8% speaking Swedish. The city is an important centre for Finland-Swedish culture.^{[citation needed]}
Over the years, Vaasa has changed its name several times, due to alternative spellings, political decisions and language condition changes. At first it was called Mustasaari or Mussor after the village where it was founded in 1606, but just a few years later the name was changed to Wasa to honor the royal Swedish lineage. Mustasaari (Finnish) or Korsholm (Swedish) remains as the name of the surrounding mostly rural municipality, which since 1973 surrounds the city. The city was known as Wasa between 1606 and 1855, Nikolaistad (Swedish) and Nikolainkaupunki (Finnish) between 1855 and 1917, Vasa (Swedish) and Vaasa (Finnish) beginning from 1917, with the Finnish spelling of the name being the primary one from ca 1930 when Finnish speakers became the majority in the city.

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Viking Stadion
Viking Stadion is a football stadium, built at Jåttåvågen, in Stavanger, Norway. It was inaugurated in May 2004 and cost 160 million NOK to build (€ 20 million). 50 million NOK, plus the lot it was built on, was a gift from the municipality. It replaced Stavanger Stadion as the home stadium for Viking F.K.. Among the persons present at the official opening match were the coach of the Norwegian national football team Åge Hareide, Norwegian Idol winner Kjartan Salvesen and Kjell Inge Røkke.
The stadium can also host large music concerts and events, and among the artists who have played in Viking Stadium are Bryan Adams, R.E.M., Roger Waters, Bob Dylan, Sissel Kyrkjebø & Plácido Domingo.
In 2006, the stadium was expanded beyond the original capacity of 15,000, and now fits 16,300 people. The record attendance is 16,600 (vs Brann, 2007).
Right outside the stadium is Jåttåvågen Station, which serves the Jæren Commuter Rail.
The venue has hosted Norway national under-21 football team matches four times, playing 1–0 against Spain on 31 May 2006, 1–1 against Bosnia and Herzegovina on 6 September 2006, 2–2 against Slovakia on 10 June 2009 and 2–2 against Belgium on 10 November 2011.

wn.com/Viking_Stadion
Vilnius
Vilnius ([ˈvʲɪlʲnʲʊs] ( listen); see also other names) is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 554,060 (838, 852 together with Vilnius County) as of 2011. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County. The first known written record of Vilnius as the Lithuanian capital is known from Gediminas' letters in 1323. Vilnius is classified as a Gamma global city according to GaWC studies.
The name of the city originated from the Vilnia River. The city has also been known by many derivate spellings in various languages throughout its history. The most notable non-Lithuanian names for the city include: Polish: Wilno, Belarusian: Вiльнюс, Вiльня, German: Wilna, Latvian: Viļņa, Russian: Вильнюс, Yiddish: ווילנע (Vilne). An older Russian name was Вильна / Вильно (Vilna/Vilno), although Вильнюс (Vilnius) is now used. The names Wilno, Wilna and Vilna have also been used in older English, German, French and Italian language publications. The name Vilna is still used in Finnish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Hebrew.

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Västerås
Västerås [vɛstərˈoːs] (English exonym: West Aros) is a city in central Sweden, located on the shore of Lake Mälaren in the province Västmanland, some 100 km west of Stockholm. The city has a population of 110,877 inhabitants in 2010, out of the municipal total of 137,207 (2010).
Västerås is the seat of Västerås Municipality, the capital of Västmanland County and an episcopal see.
Västerås is one of the oldest cities in Sweden and Northern Europe. The name originates from Västra Aros, which refers to the river mouth of Svartån. The area has been populated since the Nordic Viking Age, before 1000 AD. In the beginning of the 11th century it was the second largest city in Sweden, and by the 12th century had become the seat of the bishop.
Anundshög is located just outside the City of Västerås. Anundshög is Sweden's largest burial mound. "Hög" is derived from the Old Norse word haugr meaning mound or barrow. It was built about 500 AD and is over 74 yards wide and is almost 10 yards high.
In the ensuing centuries a cathedral and a monastery were built. The first City Arms date from the end of the 13th century.

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Vågen
Vågen is a bay in the city centre of Bergen, Norway. It is the central harbour of the city centre, and is the center of the historical core of the city, which originated on the east shore of the bay. From there, it expanded to the southern and western shores over a few centuries.
Coordinates: 60°23′51″N 5°19′04″E / 60.3976°N 5.3179°E / 60.3976; 5.3179

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Winchester
Coordinates: 51°03′48″N 1°18′31″W / 51.0632°N 1.3085°W / 51.0632; -1.3085
Winchester (archaically known as Winton and Wintonceastre) is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of the River Itchen. At the time of the 2001 Census, Winchester had a population of 41,420.
Winchester developed from the Roman town of Venta Belgarum. Winchester's major landmark is Winchester Cathedral, one of the largest cathedrals in Europe, with the distinction of having the longest nave and overall length of all Gothic cathedrals in Europe. The town is also home to the University of Winchester and the famous public school, Winchester College. The city's architectural and historic interest, and its fast links to other towns and cities have led Winchester to become one of the most expensive and desirable areas of the country. A person who is from or resides in Winchester is sometimes locally known as a Wintonian.

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Wrocław
Wrocław ( /ˈvrɒtswəf/; Polish pronunciation: [ˈvrɔt͡swaf] ( listen); German: Breslau [ˈbʁɛslaʊ̯] ( listen); Czech: Vratislav), situated on the River Oder (Polish: Odra), in Lower Silesia. It is the largest city in western Poland.
Wrocław was the historical capital of Silesia, and today is the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. Over the centuries, the city has been part of either Poland, Bohemia, Austria, Prussia, or Germany, and has been part of Poland since 1945 as a result of border changes after World War II. According to official figures for 2010, its population is 632,996, making it the fourth largest city in Poland.
Wrocław is one of the hosts of UEFA Euro 2012, and has been selected as a European Capital of Culture for 2016. In 2017, Wrocław will host the World Games, a competition in 37 non-olympic sport disciplines.
The city's name was first recorded, in Latin, in the form "Wrotizlava", in the chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg, which mentions it as a seat of a newly installed bishopric in the context of the Congress of Gniezno. The first municipal seal stated Sigillum civitatis Wratislavie. A simplified name is given, in 1175, as Wrezlaw, Prezla or Breslaw. The Czech spelling was used in Latin documents as Wratislavia or Vratislavia. At that time, Prezla was used in Middle High German, which became Preßlau. In the middle of the 14th century the Early New High German (and later New High German) form of the name Breslau began to replace its earlier versions.

wn.com/Wrocław
Ålesund
Ålesund (help·info) is a town and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre, and the center of the Ålesund Region. It is a sea port, and is noted for its unique concentration of Art Nouveau architecture.
Ålesund town is the administrative centre of the municipality as well as the principal shipping town of the Sunnmøre district. Ålesund municipality has a population of 42,982 as of 2010, while the greater Ålesund area has a population of 47,772 (this also includes most of neighboring Sula as well).
The port of Ålesund was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt) and it received town rights in 1848. On 1 January 1875, part of Borgund (population: 902) was transferred to the town of Ålesund. In 1922, another part of Borgund (population: 1,148) was transferred to the town of Ålesund. On 1 January 1968, most of the neighboring municipality of Borgund (population: 20,132) was merged into Ålesund. This merger more than doubled the population of Ålesund, for a new total population of 38,589. On 1 January 1977, the island of Sula and some small surrounding islets (population: 6,302) were separated from Ålesund to form a separate municipality.

wn.com/Ålesund
Örebro
Örebro [œrəˈbruː] is a city, the seat of Örebro Municipality and the capital of Örebro County in Sweden with 107,038 inhabitants in 2010.
Örebro received its Royal Charter and city privileges not later than 1404.
Örebro literally means a bridge over gravel banks, which is how the geography looks, with the stream Svartån draining into the lake Hjälmaren. The location became a natural seat of commerce in the (Scandinavian) medieval time, and is mentioned in print in the 13th century. Old buildings from the early days include the foundations of the city church, a building which has undergone several modifications. The natural center of the city is otherwise the magnificent Örebro Castle, situated on an islet in the Svartån, and dividing the town into a northern and a southern part. This castle was constructed during the stewardship of Birger Jarl during the early 13th century and then modified and enlarged during the reign of King Gustav Vasa in the 1560s.
Notable events in Örebro's history include the national diet meeting at Örebro in 1810, where Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was elected crown prince of Sweden.

wn.com/Örebro

Gehenna (band)
Gehenna is a Norwegian black/death metal band.
Gehenna was formed in January, 1993 by original members Sanrabb, Dolgar, and Sir Vereda. Their first demo, entitled Black Seared Heart, was recorded between the 3rd and 7 June 1993 in Soundsuite Studios, and was released as a cassette. Around this same time, a 7" titled Ancestors of the Darkly Sky was released by Necromantic Gallery Productions.
Shortly after the release of these two recordings, Sir Verada left the band due to legal problems, and was replaced by Dirge Rep. The band also enlisted Svartalv as bass player during this time.
Up until this time, the band had yet to play any live shows. It was not until February, 1994 that the band made their live debut.
In 1994 Sarcana joined the band and added keyboards to the mix.
In March, 1994, the band entered Soundsuite Studios to record their debut album, First Spell. It was released as an MCD on Head Not Found. First Spell generated a larger fan-base for the band, and led to them signing 2-album record deal with Cacophonous Records.

wn.com/Gehenna_(band)
Geir Zahl
Geir Zahl (born May 19, 1975) is a Norwegian musician. He is known for playing guitar in the Norwegian rock group Kaizers Orchestra. The band was founded by Geir Zahl and Janove Ottesen who had both played together in some other bands, namely Blod, snått & juling and gnom. Geir Zahl is the composer and main vocalist on several songs, both on the recordings and live at concerts.
Geir was born in Bryne, Norway. He befriended Janove Ottesen at an early age, and together, they played in a multitude of bands such as Destruction and Blod, snått & juling. Zahl and Ottesen would write songs by themselves and record them to show to the other one, then work on those songs together. After releasing two cassettes as Blod, Snått & Juling, the two friends hit a creative wall, and their third tape was left, unfinished. Janove joined the army.
Upon his return, Ottesen and Zahl formed a new band, known as gnom. They only released one album, Mys, which did not sell well at all. However, when their new band, Kaizers Orchestra, was created, Geir and Janove started composing songs again.

wn.com/Geir_Zahl
Kaizers Orchestra
Kaizers Orchestra is a Norwegian alternative rock group formed on January 1, 2000. The two leading members, vocalist Janove Ottesen and guitarist Geir Zahl, had known each other for years, and first played together in a band called Blod, Snått & Juling (Blood, Snot & Beating) in 1989.
Kaizers Orchestra are notable for being among the first non-black metal Norwegian bands or artists singing in their native language to become popular beyond Scandinavia^{[citation needed]}. To other Norwegians, the band is instantly recognizable both because of their unique, unpredictable style, and because of vocalist Ottesen's marked Jæren dialect, shared by four of the other band members.
In 1995, childhood friends Janove Ottesen and Geir Zahl released their only album by their band gnom called Mys. Of its 1000 copies, only 500 or so were sold the first year, and they were pretty much ignored. However, they were known well in the area around Stavanger in Norway, having played as the local band Blod, snått & juling, and one of the songs they wrote after Mys called "Bastard" got good crowd response. A line from "Bastard" ("A certain Mr. Kaizer took me in/He is the proud owner of the world's heaviest siamese cat") and the song's overall crowd response became a source of inspiration for Ottesen, and after gnom dissolved after disappointing record sales, he formed Kaizers Orchestra.

wn.com/Kaizers_Orchestra
Norwegians
Norwegians (Norwegian: nordmenn) constitute both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegian people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in United States, Canada and Australia.
Towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC, Proto-Indo-European speaking Battle-Axe peoples migrated to Norway bringing domesticated horses, agriculture, cattle and wheel technology to the region.
During the Viking age, Harald Fairhair unified the Norse petty kingdoms after being victorious at the The Battle of Hafrsfjord in the 880s. Two centuries of Viking expansion tapered off following the decline of Norse paganism with the adoption of Christianity in the 11th century. During The Black Death, approximately 60% of the population died and in 1397 Norway entered a union with Denmark.
In 1814, following Denmark-Norway's defeat in the Napoleonic Wars, Norway entered a union with Sweden and adopted a new constitution. Rising nationalism throughout the 19th century led to a 1905 referendum granting Norway independence. Although Norway remained officially neutral in World War I, the country was unofficially allied with the Entente powers. In World War II Norway proclaimed its neutrality, but was nonetheless occupied for five years by Nazi Germany (1940–45). In 1949, neutrality was abandoned and Norway became a member of NATO. Discovery of oil and gas in adjacent waters in the late 1960s boosted Norway's economic fortunes but in referenda held in 1972 and 1994, Norway rejected joining the EU. Key domestic issues include integration of a fast growing immigrant population, maintaining the country's generous social safety net with an aging population, and preserving economic competitiveness.

wn.com/Norwegians
Theatre of Tragedy
Theatre of Tragedy was a Norwegian band from Stavanger, active between 1993 and 2010. They are best known for their earlier albums, which influenced the gothic metal genre.
Theatre of Tragedy was founded on 2 October 1993. Drummer Hein Frode Hansen had recently quit his former band Phobia and started looking for a new musical project to play in. A friend of his told Hein that a band called Suffering Grief was looking for a new drummer, and after contacting them, he joined the band. At the time, Suffering Grief was composed of vocalist Raymond István Rohonyi and guitarists Pål Bjåstad and Tommy Lindal. No bassist had joined the band yet, but Eirik T. Saltrø had agreed to play with them in live concerts.
After finding a rehearsal place, the band decided to work upon a couple of piano arrangements composed by Lorentz Aspen. The vocals, at the time, were mostly entirely composed by raw death grunts.
After composing their first song, "Lament of the Perishing Roses", the band changed its name to La Reine Noir and then to Theatre of Tragedy. They subsequently invited singer Liv Kristine Espenæs to do female vocals for one song, but quickly invited her to join the band permanently.

wn.com/Theatre_of_Tragedy
Tristania (band)
Tristania is a band from Norway, formed in 1996 by Morten Veland, Einar Moen and Kenneth Olsson. Tristania's music is usually classified as Symphonic gothic metal with death/doom influences (especially on the early albums), due to its strong ties with the goth metal's history.^{[citation needed]}
Tristania was founded 1996 in Stavanger, Norway by Einar Moen (keyboards), Morten Veland (vocals/guitar), and Kenneth Olsson (drums). A few weeks later Anders Høyvik Hidle (guitars/vocals) and Rune Østerhus (bass) joined the band. In May 1997 the band entered the studio for the first time and recorded their demo in Klepp Lydstudio. Vibeke Stene was initially recruited as a guest singer for the demo recording, but she later joined as a regular member. During the summer of 1997 different labels showed interest in the demo.^{[citation needed]} Tristania signed with Napalm Records and released the EP Tristania.
Tristania's first full-length album, Widow's Weeds, was recorded at the end of 1997 and released early 1998. The album is symphonic metal with elements from a large variety of genres including gothic metal, death metal, classical music, and black metal. Two guest performers who were involved in Widow's Weeds would later get more prominent roles on Tristania’s albums; singer Østen Bergøy (who would later become a full band member) and violinist Pete Johansen. Tristania got to do their first shows outside of Norway as support act for Lacrimosa in Belgium and at the Mind over Matter festival in Austria in August 1998. Later the same year Tristania went on their first European tour, with Solefald and Haggard.

wn.com/Tristania_(band)

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Stavanger

— City and Municipality —

Coat of arms

Nickname(s): The Oil Capital

Stavanger

Coordinates: 58°57′48″N 5°43′8″E / 58.96333°N 5.71889°ECoordinates: 58°57′48″N 5°43′8″E / 58.96333°N 5.71889°E

Stavanger

Established

1125

Government

• Mayor

Christine Sagen Helgø

Area

• City and Municipality

71 km² (27 sq mi)

• Urban

77.98 km² (30.11 sq mi)

• Metro

2,598 km² (1,003 sq mi)

Population (2011)

• City and Municipality

126,469

• Density

1,800/km² (4,600/sq mi)

• Urban

197,852

• Urban density

2,500/km² (6,600/sq mi)

• Metro

297,569

• Metro density

110/km² (300/sq mi)

• Municipality/ Urban rank

4th/3rd

• Metro rank

3rd

Demonym

Siddis

Ethnic groups^[1]

• Norwegians

84.8%

• Poles

1.4%

• British

1.1%

• Turks

0.9%

• Somalis

0.6%

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

Website

http://www.stavanger.kommune.no

Stavanger kommune

— Municipality —

Coat of arms

Stavanger within Rogaland

Country

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

ISO 3166 code

NO-1103

Official language form

Data from Statistics Norway

Historical populations
Year	Pop.	±%
1769	3,337	—
1951	50,617	+1416.8%
1960	52,835	+4.4%
1970	81,741	+54.7%
1980	89,913	+10.0%
1990	97,570	+8.5%
2000	108,818	+11.5%
2010	123,850	+13.8%
Source: Statistics Norway [3][4]

Domkirke of Stavanger, the oldest cathedral in Norway

Stavanger (Norwegian pronunciation: [stɑˈʋɑŋər] ( listen)) is a city and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway. Stavanger municipality has a population of 126,469.^[2] There are 197,852^[3] people living in the Stavanger conurbation, making Stavanger the fourth largest city, but the third largest urban area, in Norway. Stavanger is the centre of the Stavanger metropolitan area, which has a population of 297,569, and the administrative centre of Rogaland county. The city is commonly referred to as the Petroleum Capital of Norway.^[4]

Despite its age, dating back at least to the Viking Age, Stavanger only grew to its position among the most important Norwegian cities in the second half of the 20th century, after oil was discovered in the North Sea. Today, the city is marked by noticeable foreign influences as a result of the presence of several major international oil companies. Stavanger also houses the NATO Joint Warfare Center.

Norway's oldest cathedral, Stavanger domkirke, is situated in the city centre, right next to Breiavatnet lake. The two most popular recreational areas are situated around lakes, namely Mosvatnet and Stokkavatnet.

History [link]

Stavanger is the capital of Rogaland since 1939 The first traces of settlement in the Stavanger region come from the days when the ice retreated after the last ice age ca. 10,000 years ago. A number of historians have argued convincingly that North-Jæren was an economic and military centre as far back as the 9th-10th century with the consolidation of the nation at the Battle of Hafrsfjord around 872. Stavanger grew into a centre of church administration and an important south-west coast market town around 1100–1300.^[5]

Stavanger fulfilled an urban role prior to its status as city (1125), from around the time the Stavanger bishopric was established in the 1120s. Bishop Reinald, who may have come from Winchester, England, is said to have started construction of Stavanger Cathedral (Stavanger domkirke) around 1100.^[6] It was finished around 1125, and the city of Stavanger counts 1125 as its year of foundation.^[7]

With the Protestant Reformation in 1536, Stavanger's role as a religious centre declined, and the establishment of Kristiansand in the early 17th century led to the relocation of the bishopric. However, rich herring fisheries in the 19th century gave the city new life. Stavanger was established as a municipality 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The then rural municipalities of Hetland and Madla merged with Stavanger 1 January 1965.

The city's history is a continuous alternation between economic booms and recessions. ^[8] For long periods of time its most important industries have been shipping, shipbuilding, the fish canning industry and associated subcontractors.

In 1969, a new boom started as oil was first discovered in the North Sea. ^[9] After much discussion, Stavanger was chosen to be the on-shore center for the oil industry on the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, and a period of hectic growth followed.^[9]

Coat of arms [link]

Hallvard Trætteberg (1898–1987), a leading specialist in heraldry, was commissioned to design the official coat of arms of Stavanger, a work that lasted from the end of the 1920s and until approved in 1939. His design is also used as the city's arms, flag and seal. The coat of arms is based upon a seal which dated 1591. It shows a branch of vine (Vitis vinifera). Which leaves and branch type that is depicted on the coat of arms has been hotly debated. The original meaning and representation of the vine remains unknown.^[10]

Origin of the name [link]

The Old Norse form of the name was Stafangr. The origin of the name has been discussed for decades, and the most used interpretation is that it originally was the name of the inlet now called Vågen which was the original of the city on the east shore of the bay.^{[citation needed]}

The first element of the name is stafr meaning 'staff, branch'. This could refer to the form of the inlet, but also to the form of the mountain Valberget Staven meaning the staff is a common name of high and steep mountains in Norway. The last element is angr meaning 'inlet, bay'. Facing the North Sea, Stavanger has always been economically dependent on its access to the sea.^[11]

Boroughs [link]

Boroughs of Stavanger

Stavanger city centre

Stavanger is officially partitioned into 22 parts and 218 subparts. Stavanger is also divided into 7 boroughs.^[12]

Climate [link]

The city is located on a peninsula on the southwest coast of Norway. The climate is maritime mild temperate (marine west coast - cfb) and rather windy, with all monthly temperature averages above freezing, and precipitation 1180 mm/year. Summers are pleasant and lowland areas in and around Stavanger have the longest growing season in Norway.

Climate data for Stavanger(1961-90)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	3 (37)	3 (37)	5 (41)	9 (48)	14 (57)	16 (61)	18 (64)	18 (64)	15 (59)	11 (52)	7 (45)	5 (41)	10.3 (50.5)
Average low °C (°F)	−1 (30)	−1 (30)	0 (32)	3 (37)	7 (45)	9 (48)	12 (54)	12 (54)	10 (50)	7 (45)	4 (39)	2 (36)	5.3 (41.5)
Precipitation mm (inches)	92 (3.62)	66 (2.6)	75 (2.95)	50 (1.97)	68 (2.68)	73 (2.87)	91 (3.58)	115 (4.53)	156 (6.14)	148 (5.83)	136 (5.35)	110 (4.33)	1,180 (46.46)
Mean monthly sunshine hours	48	79	140	168	226	222	197	159	141	80	45	33	1,538.
Source: climatedata^[13]

Economy [link]

The oil industry is the backbone of Stavanger's economy.

Starting in the 1880s, industry grew in Stavanger, primarily based on treatment and exports of fish and fish-products. The industry was however one-sided which left it vulnerable to changes in demand and was therefore particularly hard hit by the economic depressions between World War I and World War II.^{[citation needed]}

After World War II, the canning-industry hit difficulties. Increased competition from abroad and old machinery led to decrease which was only partially compensated by an increase in shipping and boat-building.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1960s, exploratory oil-drilling in the North Sea changed the situation for Stavanger. It is located close to the oil-fields, and Stavanger with its good harbour and plane-connections was well-positioned to take advantage of the increased activity.

After petroleum-exploration and production became the most important business sector in the Stavanger area during the mid 1970s, business and cultural climate has changed considerably.

The largest oil company in Stavanger is mainly state-owned oil company Statoil who have their headquarters located in the suburban area of Forus, located between neighboring Sandnes and Stavanger.

The NATO Joint Warfare Centre is located at Jåttå.

The presence of oil companies offering high paying jobs have greatly increased the average income of the population. The influx of well-paid residents has also contributed to increasing the housing costs to among the highest in Norway, in some segments even surpassing Oslo. In 2011, the average price apartments at around 80 square metres was 41400 NOK per square metre.^[14]

Transport [link]

This article is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (November 2010)

Public transport [link]

The local bus service in Stavanger is administered by Rogaland Kollektivtrafikk (RKT) under the brand name "Kolumbus".^[15] The buses are operated by Boreal Transport. RKT administers all bus routes in Rogaland County.

On 12 January 2009, Kolumbus initiated an express bus service to the large commercial district Forus located south of the city. This service consists of seven direct express routes that run mornings and afternoons.^[16] The express buses run from different neighbourhoods in Stavanger directly to Forus, without passing through the city centre, like all other regular routes.

The recently upgraded Jæren Commuter Rail, which runs on the Sørlandet Line between Stavanger and Sandnes, operates up to four trains per hour.^[17]

The city has a number of bus services and taxis. There are two tunnel projects planned: Ryfast and Rogfast.

Stavanger by night - ferry going between Tau and Stavanger.

Education [link]

Stavanger has several schools for the expatriate community including the British International School of Stavanger^[18] and the International School of Stavanger.^[19]

Stavanger has one university, the University of Stavanger with about 8,000 students. The university was formerly a university college. It was granted status as University on 1 January 2005. ^[20]

The population of Stavanger has a high percentage of university educated persons, with 31.3% of those above the age of 16 having higher education, compared to the national average of 24.2% (2006 figures) .^[21]

Culture [link]

European Capital of Culture 2008 [link]

An aerial view of Stavanger's city center.

Stavanger and its region, along with Liverpool, United Kingdom, was selected as a European Capital of Culture for 2008. The Stavanger2008 vision is expressed through the concept "Open Port". This can be understood both in its English sense - "an open harbour", - and in its Norwegian meaning of "an open gate". Open Port – Openness towards the world. The region and its people is supposed to be even more open and inclusive towards art, ideas and opportunities.

Every May, Stavanger is host to MaiJazz, the Stavanger International Jazz Festival. The International Chamber Music Festival takes place every August. Stavanger was the host port of the Cutty Sark Tall Ships' Race in 1997 and 2004.

View over Breiavatnet towards the inner harbour Vågen in Stavanger.

European Capital of Culture 2008 - Opening parade in January 2008.

Sport and recreation [link]

The largest local football club Viking FK, plays in the Norwegian Premier League (2010). The club plays its home matches at the football stadium, Viking Stadion, which was opened in 2004.

FK Vidar, currently play football in the Norwegian third division.

Stavanger Oilers plays in the Norwegian ice hockey elite league, GET-ligaen. The handball team Stavanger Håndball plays in the Norwegian second division.

Stavanger is the host of the 2010 beach volleyball SWATCH FIVB World Championships.

Music [link]

Stavanger is the home of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (SSO). Covering another part of the musical spectrum, it is also home to gothic metal bands Theatre of Tragedy, Tristania, Sirenia and the singer Liv Kristine and the black metal band Gehenna (band), among others. Janove Ottesen and Geir Zahl founding members of the alternative rockband Kaizers Orchestra both live in Stavanger as well. The band Kvelertak has it's roots as well in Stavanger.

Film [link]

Stavanger has also been the shooting location for Norwegian movies such as Mongoland,NOKAS and Mannen som elsket Yngve (The Man Who Loved Yngve), which received some recognition by Variety magazine.^[22]

Tourism [link]

Outdoor activities [link]

Lysefjorden is popular for hiking. Tourists typically visit places like Prekestolen (aka the Pulpit Rock), and Kjeragbolten. Prekestolen is a massive rock overhanging the fjord (604 meters above). Kjeragbolten is a rock wedged in the cliff approx. 1000 meters above the fjord. The straight fall 1000 meters down to the fjord makes Kjerag a very popular location for BASE jumping.

Not too far from Stavanger, alpine centers are ready for skiers and snowboarders throughout the winter season. ^[23]

Along the coast south of Stavanger there are a number of large, sandy beaches, including at Sola is within closest reach from the city.^[24]

City centre [link]

Gamle Stavanger

Old Stavanger (Gamle Stavanger) is located right next to the city centre and has a collection of eighteenth and 19th century wooden structures.

Stavanger domkirke (St. Svithun's cathedral) was built between 1100 and 1150 by the English bishop Reinald in Anglo-Norman style, and in the late 13th century a new choir was added in Gothic style, with a vaulted roof. The cathedral is the only Norwegian cathedral that is almost unchanged since the 14th century.

The city centre itself is small and intimate, with narrow streets and open spaces protected from car traffic. The open-air vegetable market is one of the very few in Norway where you can buy produce directly from local farmers every working day through the year. Unfortunately the Market has been in decline of recent years, it is now filled with very few stall holders.^{[citation needed]}

Museums [link]

Stavanger Museum is also located in Old Stavanger, commemorating the city's past glory as the herring capital of Norway.^[25]

The Museum of Archaeology is one of five archaeological museums in Norway. According to the museum itself, it follows a profile of environmental archaeology and interdisciplinary study, with a scientific staff that includes representatives from archaeology, the natural sciences and modern cultural history.

The Norwegian Petroleum Museum is located at the harbour. The museum reflects the fact that Stavanger has been Norway's oil capital since oil drilling activities started in the North Sea in 1966.^[26]

Notable people [link]

Main category: People from Stavanger

Twin towns - sister cities [link]

Stavanger has several sister cities; they are:

Aberdeen, Scotland^[27]
Baku, Azerbaijan
Antsirabe, Madagascar
Esbjerg, Denmark
Eskilstuna, Sweden
Estelí, Nicaragua
Neskaupstaður, Iceland
Galveston, United States
Harlow, England
Toulouse, France
Houston, United States
Jyväskylä, Finland
Nablus, Palestinian Authority
Netanya, Israel
Massawa, Eritrea
Chesterfield, England

References [link]

^ "Immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents by country of birth1, (the 20 largest groups).Selected municipalities.1 January 2009". Statistics Norway. http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/02/01/10/innvbef_en/tab-2009-04-30-11-en.html. Retrieved 2010-06-01. ^{[dead link]}
^ "Statistics Norway: Figures on Stavanger Municipality". Statistics Norway. Ssb.no. 09-01-01. http://www.ssb.no/english/municipalities/1103. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
^ "Statistics Norway: Conurbations ranked after area and population" (in Norwegian). Statistics Norway. Ssb.no. 09-01-01. http://www.ssb.no/emner/02/01/10/beftett/tab-2009-06-16-01.html. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
^ Stavanger - The Norwegian Petroleum Capital
^ Phenomenology and the pioneer settlement on the Western Scandinavian Peninsula (Ingrid Fuglestvedt (2009) Lindome : Bricoleur Press) ISBN 978-91-85411-07-8
^ Ancient See of Stavanger (Catholic Encyclopedia)
^ http://www.uarctic.org/SingleNewsArticle.aspx?m=668&amid=6229
^ Stavanger kommune - Byhistorie
^ ^a ^b Stavanger kommune - Byhistorie
^ The Coat of Arms of Norway (The American-Scandinavian Review, June 1964)
^ stafr (Wiktionary)
^ List of boroughs in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Stavanger
^ "Climate Stavanger". Climatedata.
^ Solberg, Stig Martin (24 August 2011). "Her er det dyrest å være fattig" (in Norwegian). NA24. http://www.na24.no/article3215482.ece. Retrieved 1 April 2012.
^ [1]
^ [2]
^ http://www.aftenbladet.no/lokalt/1102953/Dobbeltsporet_endelig_godkjent.html
^ British International School of Stavanger
^ Norway, Stavanger: International School of Stavanger
^ University of Stavanger - Norway - About us
^ SSB: Figures on Stavanger Municipality
^ Simon, Alissa (2008-11-25). "The Man Who Loved Yngve Movie Review". Variety. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117939119.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&query=The+man+who+loved.
^ Statistics - Stavanger BASE Klubb
^ Beaches of Rogaland in west Norway - Stavanger Travel
^ Stavanger Museum
^ Norsk Oljemuseum
^ "Twinning". Aberdeen City Council. http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/ACCI/web/site/Tourism/SL/tur_TownTwinning.asp. Retrieved 2008-03-02.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Stavanger

External links [link]

v t e Municipalities of Rogaland

Bjerkreim Bokn Eigersund Finnøy Forsand Gjesdal Hå Haugesund Hjelmeland Karmøy Klepp Kvitsøy Lund Randaberg Rennesøy Sandnes Sauda Sokndal Sola Stavanger Strand Suldal Time Tysvær Utsira Vindafjord

42 most populous urban settlements (cities) of Norway

As of 2011, according to Statistics Norway [5]

1.	Oslo	906,681
2.	Bergen	235,046
3.	Stavanger/Sandnes	197,852
4.	Trondheim	164,953
5.	Fredrikstad/Sarpsborg	104,382
6.	Drammen	100,303

7.	Porsgrunn/Skien	88,335
8.	Kristiansand	69,380
9.	Tromsø	56,466
10.	Tønsberg	47,500
11.	Ålesund	47,772
12.	Haugesund	43,913

13.	Moss	42,781
14.	Sandefjord	41,811
15.	Bodø	37,834
16.	Arendal	33,303
17.	Hamar	30,565
18.	Larvik	24,252

19.	Halden	23,711
20.	Lillehammer	20,673
21.	Harstad	19,808
22.	Molde	19,808
23.	Kongsberg	19,515
24.	Gjøvik	19,092

25.	Askøy	18,899
26.	Horten	18,556
27.	Mo i Rana	18,141
28.	Kristiansund	17,352
29.	Jessheim	16,769
30.	Hønefoss	14,683

31.	Alta	14,308
32.	Narvik	13,973
33.	Elverum	13,777
34.	Askim	13,258
35.	Ski	13,619
36.	Drøbak	12,720

37.	Vennesla	11,806
38.	Nesoddtangen	11,795
39.	Steinkjer	11,750
40.	Leirvik	11,615
41.	Kongsvinger	11,509
42.	Stjørdalshalsen	11,185

50 most populous urban areas in the Nordic countries

1.	Stockholm	1,372,565
2.	Copenhagen	1,199,224
3.	Helsinki	1,061,798
4.	Oslo	907,288
5.	Gothenburg	549,839
6.	Malmö	280,415
7.	Turku	253,332
8.	Aarhus	252,107
9.	Bergen	234,800
10.	Stavanger	221,616

11.	Tampere	215,337
12.	Reykjavik	195,000
13.	Odense	167,615
14.	Trondheim	160,072
15.	Oulu	144,114
16.	Uppsala	140,454
17.	Jyväskylä	132,115
18.	Fredrikstad	126,971
19.	Aalborg	124,921
20.	Västerås	110,877

21.	Örebro	107,038
22.	Linköping	104,232
23.	Lahti	102,383
24.	Drammen	100,023
25.	Kuopio	97,610
26.	Helsingborg	97,122
27.	Jönköping	89,396
28.	Kouvola	87,548
29.	Norrköping	87,247
30.	Skien	86,923

31.	Pori	83,156
32.	Lund	82,800
33.	Umeå	79,594
34.	Joensuu	73,807
35.	Lappeenranta	72,156
36.	Esbjerg	71,576
37.	Gävle	71,033
38.	Kristiansand	67,547
39.	Hämeenlinna	67,293
40.	Tromsø	66,669

41.	Borås	66,273
42.	Eskilstuna	64,679
43.	Södertälje	64,619
44.	Karlstad	61,685
45.	Täby	61,272
46.	Rovaniemi	60,699
47.	Randers	60,656
48.	Vaasa	60,491
49.	Seinäjoki	58,836
50.	Halmstad	58,577

European Capitals of Culture

1985 Athens
1986 Florence
1987 Amsterdam
1988 West Berlin
1989 Paris
1990 Glasgow
1991 Dublin
1992 Madrid
1993 Antwerp
1994 Lisbon
1995 Luxembourg City
1996 Copenhagen
1997 Thessaloniki
London
1998 Stockholm
1999 Weimar
2000 Reykjavík
Bergen
Helsinki
Brussels
Prague
Kraków
Santiago de Compostela
Avignon
Bologna
2001 Rotterdam
Porto
2002 Bruges
Salamanca
2003 Graz
2004 Genoa
Lille
2005 Cork
2006 Patras
2007 Luxembourg City and Greater Region
Sibiu
2008 Liverpool
Stavanger
2009 Linz
Vilnius
2010 Essen
Istanbul
Pécs
2011 Turku
Tallinn
2012 Maribor
Guimarães
2013 Košice
Marseille
2014 Umeå
Riga
Sarajevo
2015 Mons
Plzeň
2016 San Sebastián
Wrocław

http://wn.com/Stavanger

http://it.wn.com/Stavanger

http://cs.wn.com/Stavanger

http://id.wn.com/Stavanger

http://es.wn.com/Stavanger

http://ru.wn.com/Ставангер

http://pl.wn.com/Stavanger

http://fr.wn.com/Stavanger

http://de.wn.com/Stavanger

http://pt.wn.com/Stavanger

http://nl.wn.com/Stavanger

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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.

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Aleksander Denstad With
Origin	Trondheim, Norway
Genres	Pop, Rock
Instruments	Voice, Piano
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Sony/BMG (2006-2007)
Website	AleksanderWith.com

Aleksander Denstad With (born 30 June 1987 in Trondheim) is a Norwegian who won season 4 of the TV show Idol in May 2006, becoming the youngest person ever to win the competition.

Aleksander released his first album, titled 'Coming Home', on 23 October 2006. The album was a major success and peaked at #4 on the Top 40 Norwegian Albums Chart upon release. So far, "A Little Too Perfect", "The Other Side" and "Free Ride" have been released as singles from the album.

On 1 December 2007, Aleksander performed alongside Norwegian Pop-Rock artist, Marion Raven, at the Norwegian "Idol Gives Back" show.

1 Pre-Idol
2 Norwegian Idol 2006 Performances
3 Discography
- 3.1 Albums
- 3.2 Singles
4 External links
- 4.1 Wimpylime

Pre-Idol [link]

WimpyLime were an unsigned project Aleksander and his former girlfriend, Vivian Sørmeland (who came third in Idol (Norway) Season 4) were a part of from the summer of 2004 until Idol in 2006. WimpyLime wrote all of their material as a group and together could play the keyboard, piano, guitar, bass, and drums. Aleksander and Vivian were the band's lead vocalists. Only two demos clips have leaked from WimpyLime's recorded catalog, one titled "Southern Skies" and another titled "The Secret". Members: Vivian Sørmeland, Aleksander With, Olav S. Flaa, Arne Fredrik Lånke

Norwegian Idol 2006 Performances [link]

Audition: "Dancing Shoes" Gavin DeGraw
Top 40: "Chariot" by Gavin DeGraw
Top 12: "Trouble" by Coldplay
Top 11: "American Woman" by Lenny Kravitz
Top 10: "Have Fun,Go Mad" by Blair
Top 9: "Unloved" by Espen Lind
Top 8: "I Don't Wanna Be" by Gavin DeGraw
Top 7: "The Way You Make Me Feel" by Michael Jackson
Top 6: "Glorious" by Andreas Johnson
Top 5: "Spider-Man Theme" by Michael Bublé
Top 4: "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M.
Top 4: "One" (duet with Vivian Sørmeland) by U2 and Mary J. Blige
Top 3: "I've Been Losing You" by a-ha
Top 3: "Kiss From A Rose" by Seal
Finale: "Glorious" by Andreas Johnson
Finale: "Kiss From A Rose" by Seal
Finale: "A Little Too Perfect" (Winning Single)

Discography [link]

Albums [link]

Year	Title	Chart positions	Sales
Year	Title	NO	Sales
2006	"Coming Home"	4	-
2010	"Still Awake"	4	-
2012	"Aleksander With"		-

Singles [link]

Year	Title	Chart positions	Album
Year	Title	NO	Album
2006	"A Little Too Perfect"	1	Coming Home
2006	"The Other Side"	2	Coming Home
2009	"What's The Story"	20	Still Awake
2009	"Worth It" (Featuring Lene Marlin)	2	Still Awake
2010	"Pictures"	10	Aleksander With
2011	"Satellites"	-
2012	"Once"	-

External links [link]

Aleksander With, Official Site
Aleksander With, Official Myspace
Aleksander With, Mobilblogg/Video Podcast

Wimpylime [link]

Preceded by Jorun Stiansen	Idol (Norway) winner Season 4 (2006)	Succeeded by Glenn Lyse

Idol (Norway)

Seasons

Hosts

Current	Guri Solberg Christian "Ravi" Johansen

Former	Thomas Numme Harald J. Rønneberg Solveig Kloppen Ingrid Gjessing Kåre Magnus Bergh Marte Stokstad Kyrre Holm Johannessen

Judges

Current	Bertine Zetlitz Hans Erik Dyvik Husby Marion Ravn Gunnar Greve Pettersen

Former	Jan Fredrik Karlsen Ole Evenrud Morten Ståle Nilsen Lena Midtveit Anneli Drecker Douglas Carr Thomas Strzelecki Tone-Lise Skagefoss Tor Milde David Eriksen Amund Bjørklund Hans Olav Grøttheim Asbjørn Slettemark Benedicte Adrian Mariann Thomassen

Winners

Kurt Nilsen
Kjartan Salvesen
Jorun Stiansen
Aleksander Denstad With
Glenn Lyse
Jenny Langlo

Winner's Singles

"She's So High"
"Standing Tall"
"This Is The Night"
"A little too perfect"
"Days Go By"
"Building An Aeroplane"

Runners-up

Notable alumni

Persondata
Name	Denstad With, Aleksander
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	30 June 1987
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death

http://wn.com/Aleksander_Denstad_With

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