Saint-Hélier vs Mashhad

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Saint Helier (; French: Saint-Hélier; Norman: Saint Hélyi) is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. St Helier has a population of about 33,500, roughly 34.2% of the total population of Jersey, and is the capital of the island (although Government House is situated in St Saviour). The urban area of the parish of St Helier makes up most of the largest town in Jersey, although some of the town area is situated in adjacent St Saviour, with suburbs sprawling into St Lawrence and St Clement.

The greater part of St Helier is rural. The parish covers a surface area of 4.1 square miles (10.6 km2), being 9% of the total land area of the island (this includes reclaimed land area of 494 acres (2.00 km2) or 200 ha). The parish arms are two crossed gold axes on a blue background, the blue symbolising the sea, and the axes symbolising the martyrdom of Helier at the hands of Saxon pirates in 555 AD.

Source: Wikipedia

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Mashhad (Persian: مشهد‎, romanized: Mašhad [mæʃˈhæd] (listen)), also spelled Mashad or Meshad, is the second-most-populous city in Iran and the capital of Razavi Khorasan Province. It is located in the northeast of the country. It has a population of 3,001,184 (2016 census), which includes the areas of Mashhad Taman and Torqabeh. It was a major oasis along the ancient Silk Road connecting with Merv to the east. The city is named after the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia Imam. The Imam was buried in a village in Khorasan, which afterward gained the name Mashhad, meaning the place of martyrdom. Every year, millions of pilgrims visit the Imam Reza shrine. The Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid is also buried within the same shrine. Mashhad has been governed by different ethnic groups over the course of its history.

The city enjoyed relative prosperity in the Mongol period. Mashhad is also known colloquially as the city of Ferdowsi, after the Iranian poet who composed the Shahnameh. The city is the hometown of some of the most significant Iranian literary figures and artists, such as the poet Mehdi Akhavan-Sales, and Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, the traditional Iranian singer and composer. Ferdowsi and Akhavan-Sales are both buried in Tus, an ancient city that is considered to be the main origin of the current city of Mashhad. On 30 October 2009 (the anniversary of Imam Reza's martyrdom), Iran's then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Mashhad to be "Iran's spiritual capital".

Source: Wikipedia