Norwich vs Bethlehem

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Norwich ( (listen)) is a city in Norfolk, England, about 100 miles (160 km) north-east of London. Located on the River Wensum, it is the county town of Norfolk and traditionally seen as the chief city of East Anglia. Its population in 2019 was estimated at 197,212. The local authority is Norwich City Council. The site of Norwich was settled by the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th–7th centuries, near the former Iceni capital and Roman town of Venta Icenorum. It became established as a town in the 10th century and developed into a prominent centre for trade and commerce in East Anglia. Norwich Cathedral and Norwich Castle were founded soon after the Norman Conquest in 1066. Norwich was granted city status by Richard the Lionheart in 1194.

The city benefited from the wool trade throughout the Middle Ages and prospered as a port with the status of a staple port. Until the 18th century it was the second-largest city in England after London. Its fortunes declined with the Industrial Revolution and the rise of new towns in the north. The city underwent de-industrialisation in the 19th century but remained a regional agricultural and manufacturing centre, with a prominent shoemaking industry. After the Second World War, Norwich gradually changed into a service-based economy. The University of East Anglia, established in 1963, lies on its outskirts.

Source: Wikipedia

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Bethlehem (; Arabic: بيت لحم‎ Bayt Laḥm, "House of Meat"; Hebrew: בֵּית לֶחֶם‎ Bet Leḥem, Hebrew pronunciation: [bet ˈleχem], "House of Bread"; Ancient Greek: Βηθλεέμ Greek pronunciation: [bɛːtʰle.ém]; Latin: Bethleem; initially named after Canaanite fertility god Lehem) is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about 10 km (6.2 miles) south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000, and it is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. The economy is primarily tourist-driven, peaking during the Christmas season, when Christians make pilgrimage to the Church of the Nativity. The important holy site of Rachel's Tomb is at the northern entrance of Bethlehem, though not freely accessible to the city's own inhabitants and in general Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank due to the Israeli West Bank barrier. The earliest known mention of Bethlehem was in the Amarna correspondence of 1350–1330 BCE when the town was inhabited by the Canaanites. The Hebrew Bible, which says that the city of Bethlehem was built up as a fortified city by Rehoboam, identifies it as the city David was from and where he was crowned as the king of Israel. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke identify Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus. Bethlehem was destroyed by the Emperor Hadrian during the second-century Bar Kokhba revolt; its rebuilding was promoted by Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, who commissioned the building of its great Church of the Nativity in 327 CE.

The church was badly damaged by the Samaritans, who sacked it during a revolt in 529, but was rebuilt a century later by Emperor Justinian I. Bethlehem became part of Jund Filastin following the Muslim conquest in 637. Muslim rule continued in Bethlehem until its conquest in 1099 by a crusading army, who replaced the town's Greek Orthodox clergy with a Latin one. In the mid-13th century, the Mamluks demolished the city's walls, which were subsequently rebuilt under the Ottomans in the early 16th century. Control of Bethlehem passed from the Ottomans to the British at the end of World War I. Bethlehem came under Jordanian rule during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and was later captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. Since the 1995 Oslo Accords, Bethlehem has been administered by the Palestinian Authority.Following an influx of refugees as a result of Israeli advances in the 1967 war, Bethlehem has a Muslim majority, but is still home to a significant Palestinian Christian community. It is now encircled and encroached upon by dozens of Israeli settlements and the Israeli West Bank barrier, which separates both Muslim and Christian communities from their land and livelihoods, and sees a steady exodus from both communities.

Source: Wikipedia