Bangkok vs Jerusalem

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Bangkok is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep. The town occupies 1,568.7 square kilometres (605.7 sq mi) from the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated population of 10.539 million as of 2020, 15.3 percent of the country's population. Over fourteen million people (22.2 percent) lived within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan Region in the 2010 census, making Bangkok an extreme primate town, dwarfing Thailand's other metropolitan centres in both size and importance to the national economy. Bangkok traces its roots to a small trading post during the Ayutthaya Kingdom in the 15th century, which eventually grew and became the site of two capital cities: Thonburi in 1768 and Rattanakosin in 1782. Bangkok was at the heart of the modernization of Siam, later renamed Thailand, during the late-19th century, as the country faced pressures from the West. The city was in the centre of Thailand's political conflicts throughout the 20th century, as the country abolished absolute monarchy, embraced constitutional rule, and underwent numerous coups and lots of uprisings. The city, incorporated as a special administrative area under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration in 1972, grew rapidly during the 1960s through the 1980s and now exerts a substantial impact on Thailand's politics, economy, education, media and modern society. The Asian investment boom in the 1980s and 1990s led many multinational corporations to locate their regional headquarters in Bangkok.

The town is now a regional force in finance and business. It is an international hub for transportation and health care, and has emerged as a center for the arts, fashion, and entertainment. The city is well known for its street life and cultural landmarks, as well as its red-light districts. The Grand Palace and Buddhist temples including Wat Arun and Wat Pho stand in contrast with other tourist attractions like the nightlife scenes of Khaosan Road and Patpong. Bangkok is among the world's top tourist destinations, and has been named the world's most visited city consistently in several international rankings. Bangkok's rapid growth coupled with small urban planning has resulted in a haphazard cityscape and inadequate infrastructure. Despite an extensive expressway network, an inadequate road network and substantial personal automobile usage have resulted in chronic and crippling traffic congestion, which caused severe air pollution in the 1990s. The town has since turned to public transportation in an attempt to address the problem, operating five rapid transit lines and construction other public transit, but congestion still remains a widespread issue. The town faces long-term environmental threats like land subsidence, which leads to frequent flooding, a problem expected to be exacerbated by the effects of climate change.

Source: Wikipedia

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Jerusalem (; Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם‎ Yerushaláyim; Arabic: القُدس‎ al-Quds or Bayt al-Maqdis, also spelled Baitul Muqaddas) is a Town in the Middle East, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea.

It is among the oldest cities in the world, and is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority claim Jerusalem as their capital, as Israel maintains its primary governmental institutions there and the State of Palestine ultimately foresees it as its seat of power; however, neither claim is broadly recognized internationally.Throughout its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least two, besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times. The component of Jerusalem known as the City of David shows first signs of settlement in the 4th millennium BCE, in the shape of encampments of nomadic shepherds. In the Canaanite period (14th century BCE), Jerusalem was named as Urusalim on ancient Egyptian tablets, probably meaning"City of Shalem" following a Canaanite deity. During the Israelite period, significant construction activity in Jerusalem began in the 9th century BCE (Iron Age II), and in the 8th century the city developed into the religious and administrative centre of the Kingdom of Judah. In 1538, the city walls were rebuilt for a last time around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent, when it was part of the Ottoman Empire. Today those walls specify the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four-quarters--known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Since 1860 Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old City's boundaries. In 2015, Jerusalem had a population of some 850,000 residents, including roughly 200,000 secular Jewish Israelis, 350,000 Haredi Jews and 300,000 Palestinians. In 2016, the population was 882,700, of which Jews included 536,600 (60.8percent ), Muslims 319,800 (36.2percent ), Christians 15,800 (1.8percent ), and 10,300 unclassified (1.2percent ).According to the Bible, King David conquered the city from the Jebusites and established it as the capital of the united kingdom of Israel, and his son, King Solomon, commissioned the construction of the First Temple.



Modern scholars argue that Jews branched out of the Canaanite peoples and culture through the creation of a distinct monolatrous -- and later monotheistic -- religion centered on El/Yahweh, These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, assumed central symbolic significance for the Jewish men and women. The sobriquet of holy city (עיר הקודש, transliterated'ir haqodesh) was attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved from the Septuagint which Christians adopted as their own authority, was bolstered by the New Testament account of Jesus's crucifixion there. In Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. In Islamic tradition, in 610 CE it became the first qibla, the focal point for Muslim prayer (salat), and Muhammad made his Night Journey there ten years later, ascending to heaven where he speaks to God, according to the Quran. Because of this, despite having an area of only 0.9 square kilometres (0.35 sq mi), the Old City is home to many sites of seminal religious significance, among them the Temple Mount with its Western Wall, Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Outside the Old City stands the Garden Tomb. Today, the status of Jerusalem is still one of the core issues in the Israeli--Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab--Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the areas captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured and later annexed by Jordan. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into Jerusalem, together with additional neighboring land. Among Israel's Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the Nation's undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli authorities are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset (Israel's parliament), the residences of the Prime Minister (Beit Aghion) and President (Beit HaNassi), and the Supreme Court. As the international community rejects the annexation as illegal and treats East Jerusalem as Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, Israel's claim of sovereignty over East Jerusalem is poorer than its claim over West Jerusalem.

Source: Wikipedia