Geographic Locations
Bolívar is a large state in eastern Venezuela, bordering Brazil and Guyana. It is one of the 23 states (estados) into which Venezuela is divided. The state capital city is Ciudad Bolívar which has colorful colonial buildings. Vast Canaima National Park is home to Angel Falls, billed as the world’s highest waterfall. It sits within the Gran Sabana region, characterized by forests and large stretches of grassy plain interspersed with massive, flat-top mountains called tepuis.
Bolívar is a department of Colombia. It was named after one of the original nine states of the United States of Colombia. It is in the north of the country, extending from the coast at Cartagena near the mouth of the Magdalena River, then south along the river to a border with Antioquia. Its capital is Cartagena, other important cities include Magangue and Turbaco. According to press reports, the Caribbean Bloc of the FARC-EP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) controlled several of the department's gold mines and managed 48.000 hectares of land through figureheads.
Bogotá is Colombia's beating heart – an interesting, beautiful and vibrant capital. It is the city of Colombia with the largest number of universities and research centers, and has an important cultural offer, which is represented in many museums, theaters and libraries. Bogotá is also known for its trendy nightlife.
Bodrum is a Turkish port town in Muğla Province, in the southwestern Aegean Region of the country. It is located on the southern coast of Bodrum Peninsula, at a point that checks the entry into the Gulf of Gökova, and it faces the Greek island of Kos. Today, it is an international center of tourism and yachting. The city was called Halicarnassus of Caria in ancient times. The Mausoleum of Mausolus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was here. Bodrum Castle, built by the Crusaders in the 15th century, overlooks the harbor and the International Marina. The castle grounds includes a Museum of Underwater Archeology and hosts several cultural festivals throughout the year.
Bochum is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area and is surrounded by the cities of Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Herne, Castrop-Rauxel, Dortmund, Witten and Hattingen. Bochum dates from the 9th century, when Charlemagne set up a royal court at the junction of two important trade routes. It was first officially mentioned in 1041 by the name Cofbuokheim in a document of the archbishops of Cologne. Originally, it may have meant "Brookhome" or "Bacheim" and later seems to have gained the notorious reputation of "Bookhorn" or "Horn Book". In 1321, Count Engelbert II von der Marck granted Bochum a town charter, but the town remained insignificant until the 19th century, when the coal mining and steel industries emerged in the Ruhr area, leading to the growth of the entire region.
Boca Raton is the southernmost city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, first incorporated on August 2, 1924 as "Bocaratone", and then incorporated as "Boca Raton" in 1925. As a business center, the city is one of the wealthiest communities in the United States. Boca Raton is home to the main campus of Florida Atlantic University and the corporate headquarters of Office Depot and ADT. It is also home to the Evert Tennis Academy, owned by professional tennis player Chris Evert. Town Center Mall, an upscale shopping center in West Boca Raton, is the largest indoor mall in Palm Beach County. Another major attraction to the area is Boca Raton's downtown, known as Mizner Park.
Blainville is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It forms part of the Thérèse-De Blainville Regional County Municipality within the Laurentides region of Quebec. Blainville sits at the foot of the Laurentian Mountains. It is located 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of downtown Montreal.
Louis de Buade de Frontenac, granted the land, including what is today known as Blainville, to the elite members of society, in order to promote the development of New France. The recipients of the land became lords ("seigneurs"). This act created the Seigneurie des Mille Îles (Lordship of the Thousand Islands), located to the north of the Mille Îles River.
Blainville is named for the third lord of the seigneurie, Jean-Baptiste Céloron de Blainville (1660-1756). On June 14, 1968, the parish of Sainte-Thérèse-de-Blainville was split from the city of Blainville to form its own town.
Bishkek formerly Pishpek and Frunze, is the capital and the largest city of Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek is also the administrative centre of Chuy Province which surrounds the city, even though the city itself is not part of the province but rather a province-level unit of Kyrgyzstan. The name is thought to derive from a Kyrgyz word for a churn used to make fermented mare's milk (kumis), the Kyrgyz national drink. Founded in 1825 as the Kyrgyz-Khokand fortress of "Bishkek", then, in 1862, named as the Russian fortress Pishpek in 1926 the city was renamed Frunze, after the Bolshevik military leader Mikhail Frunze. In 1991, the Kyrgyz parliament restored the city's historical name.
Birmingham is a major city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. A medium-sized market town in the medieval period, Birmingham grew to international prominence in the 18th century at the heart of the Midlands Enlightenment and subsequent Industrial Revolution, which saw the town at the forefront of worldwide advances in science, technology and economic development, producing a series of innovations that laid many of the foundations of modern industrial society. By 1791 it was being hailed as "the first manufacturing town in the world". It's distinctive economic profile, with thousands of small workshops practising a wide variety of specialised and highly skilled trades, encouraged exceptional levels of creativity and innovation and provided a diverse and resilient economic base for industrial prosperity that was to last into the final quarter of the 20th century. Perhaps the most important invention in British history, the industrial steam engine, was invented in Birmingham.
Birmingham's major cultural institutions – including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the Library of Birmingham and the Barber Institute of Fine Arts – enjoy international reputations, and the city has vibrant and influential grassroots art music, literary, and culinary scenes. The city is the fourth-most visited city in the UK by foreign visitors and offers many wonderful things to its people and guests.
Birmingham is an important city and the most populous city in the US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Jefferson County. Founded in 1871, it grew from annexing many more of its smaller neighbors, into an industrial and railroad transportation center with a focus on mining, the iron and steel industry, and railroading. Birmingham was named for Birmingham, England, one of the UK's major industrial cities.
From its founding through the end of the 1960s, Birmingham was a primary industrial center of the southern United States. The pace of Birmingham's growth during the period from 1881 through 1920 earned its nicknames ''The Magic City'' and ''The Pittsburgh of the South''. Though the manufacturing industry maintains a strong presence in the city, other businesses and industries such as banking, telecommunications, transportation, electrical power transmission, medical care, college education, and insurance have risen in stature. The city ranks as one of the most important business centers in the Southeastern United States and is also one of the largest banking centers in the United States. In addition, the Birmingham area serves as headquarters to one Fortune 500 company: Regions Financial, along with five other Fortune 1000 companies.