Ashgabat vs Volta Redonda

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Ashgabat (Turkmen: Aşgabat; Ашгабат, pronounced [ɑʃʁɑˈbɑt], Persian: عشق آباد‎; Russian: Ашхабад), formerly named Poltoratsk (Russian: Полтора́цк, IPA: [pəltɐˈratsk]) between 1919 and 1927, is the capital and the largest city of Turkmenistan. It is situated between the Karakum Desert and the Kopet Dag mountain range in Central Asia. It is also near the Iran-Turkmenistan border. The city was founded in 1881 on the basis of an Ahal Teke tribal village, and made the capital of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic in 1924.

Much of the city was destroyed by the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake but has since been extensively rebuilt under the rule of Saparmurat Niyazov’s "White City" urban renewal project, resulting in monumental projects sheathed in costly white marble. The Soviet-era Karakum Canal runs through the city, carrying waters from the Amu Darya from east to west. Since 2019, the city has been recognized as having one of the highest costs of living in the world largely due to Turkmenistan's inflation and import issues.

Source: Wikipedia

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Volta Redonda (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈvɔwtɐ ʁeˈdõdɐ]) is the name of a municipality in the Rio de Janeiro state of Brazil with an area of 182.81 km², located from 350m to 707m above the sea level (22º31'23" S, 44º06'15" W) and with a population of 259,811 inhabitants (estimated in 2009). The area around the city has nearly 700,000 km². Its name (which is Portuguese for Round Turn) is due to the round shape of a curve in the Paraíba do Sul river around which the city was built. Situated in Volta Redonda is Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN), Brazil's second largest steel producer. Today its economy, despite still being based on industry, is quite diverse, and largely focused on the areas of services and trade. Due to this, Volta Redonda is worldly known as Cidade do Aço (which is Portuguese for Steel City).

The city borders with the municipalities of Barra Mansa (north, northwest, west and southwest), Barra do Piraí (northeast), Pinheiral, Piraí (south and east), and Rio Claro (south) and is 130 km from the city of Rio de Janeiro. Along with the municipalities of Barra Mansa and Pinheiral, it is a conurbation of over 500,000 inhabitants, according to the IBGE estimates for 2008, and the state's largest urban spot outside the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro. Economical center of the South Fluminense region, Volta Redonda is a strategic area, close to major hub cities in other regional states, such as Juiz de Fora (190 kilometers) and Sao Jose dos Campos (220 kilometers).

Source: Wikipedia