prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Where is the province of Gonbad-e Qabus County located?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Kuhdasht County
Kuhdasht County (Persian: شهرستان کوهدشت) is in Lorestan province, Iran  The capital of the county is the city of Kuhdasht  At the 2006 census, the county's population was 209,821 in 43,159 households  The following census in 2011 counted 218,921 people in 52,799 households  At the 2016 census, the county's population was 166,658 in 45,155 households, by which time Rumeshkhan District had been separated from the county to become Rumeshkhan County 

Administrative divisions
The population history and structural changes of Kuhdasht County's administrative divisions over three consecutive censuses are shown in the following table  The latest census shows four districts, nine rural districts, and four cities 
Passage 2:
Champlain, Quebec
Champlain is a municipality in the province of Quebec, Canada   It is located in Les Chenaux Regional County Municipality and the administrative region the Mauricie, on the north shore of St  Lawrence River  Champlain is also part of the metropolitan area of Trois-Rivières 
Champlain is a member of the Association of the Most Beautiful Villages of Quebec 

Origin of the place name
In 1632, Samuel de Champlain, founder of New France, gave his name to the Champlain River   The Commission de toponymie du Québec has noted a "popular version" of the origin of the name, which suggests that Champlain gave the area its name because, "amazed by the beauty of the place, [he] exclaimed to himself, 'What a beautiful flat plain', from the Latin campus planus, 'flat field' "  However, the Commission concludes that it is certain that Champlain named the area after himself, as his contemporary record indicates that he named the river the "Rivière de Champlain" The deed of the seigniory of Champlain, dated April 8, 1664, does not name the seigniory  The deed only mentions that the granted land extended "from the Champlain River following the said river [Saint Lawrence] to the said Trois-Rivières"  It appears that it was the first seigneur, Étienne Pézard de la Touche, who gave the name of "Champlain" to the seigniory, then to the parish By 1668, the documents relating to the residents of Champlain mention they live in "La Touche-Champlain", or simply "Champlain" from 1669 onwards  In 1684, the area was already well known as Champlain, demonstrated when Bishop Laval, finally giving the official titles of the parish twenty years after its foundation, referred to: "the place commonly called Champlain" As for the family name of the seigneurs, by 1680 the first seigneur referred to himself as La Touche-Champlain, and Pézard Champlain by 1693  His successor referred to himself as Pézard Latouche-Champlain by 1702 In 1829 the name was used for the electoral district for the area in the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, and in 1841, the electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada   The name was given to the municipality in 1845, and then to the federal and provincial electoral districts in 1867 

History
Beginnings of French settlement
The Champlain municipality lies on the territory of the former seigniories of Marsolet and l'Arbre-à-la-Croix, both granted on April 5, 1644, and the seigniory of Champlain, granted on August 8, 1664 
The first French occupants of Champlain settled in 1664 or 1665  There had been a first attempt to settle on land granted August 16, 1643, but the distance from other settlements and the Iroquois threat discouraged settlement  In 1664 or 1665, the first settlers established settlements in the land of the seigniory of Champlain  The following year, in 1666, concessions were granted in the seigniory of Hertel, and in 1667 in the seigniory of Marsolet  Some of the first families came from Trois-Rivières, such as the families of Antoine Desrosiers, François Chorel and Pierre Dandonneau 

Photos
Champlain River, at few meters of its mouth, in the St  Lawrence River, Champlain (Québec)

Chronology
April 5, 1644: Grants of the Marsolet and Arbre-à-la-Croix seigniories 
August 8, 1664: Grant of the seigniory of Champlain  This date is considered the founding of the town of Champlain, the eighth oldest town of New France 
1664: Construction of Fort Champlain 
1830-1850: Emergence of the present village in the centre of the area 
1845: Creation of the parish municipality of Champlain effective July 1, pursuant to a new provincial statute, the first formal municipal government for the area 
1847:  Parish municipality of Champlain is merged with other local municipalities to form the County of Champlain, effective September 1, pursuant to a provincial statute re-organising municipal government 
1855: Parish municipality of La Visitation-de-Champlain re-created from the County of Champlain, effective July 1, pursuant to a provincial statute re-organising municipal government 
1860: Twenty buildings in the village 
1879: Construction of the present church
1882: Construction of the present monastery
1886: The streets Sainte-Anne and Saint-Joseph are authenticated by the municipal council 
1917: The village municipality of Champlain is created by a division of the parish municipality of La Visitation-de-Champlain 
1933: 150 buildings in the village 
1979 : Celebration of the tricentennial of Champlain  The 300th anniversary was based on an erroneous understanding of the date of the foundation of the village, assumed from the oldest surviving parish records of baptisms, marriages and burials   It was not known that the parish registers from 1665 to 1679 had been lost 
1982:  Champlain municipalities are included in the Francheville Regional County Municipality 
1982: The parish municipality of La Visitation-de-Champlain and the village municipality of Champlain are merged to create the municipality of Champlain 
1984:  10: Pope John Paul II passes though Champlain on September 10, travelling by train from Quebec City to Trois-Rivières 
1986: On April 7, the municipal council passes a resolution formalizing the term "Champlainois-Champlainoise" to designate inhabitants of Champlain 
2002: The regional county municipality of Francheville is dissolved, and the municipality of Champlain is included in the new regional county municipality, Les Chenaux Regional County Municipality 
2004: On October 13, the Astronomical Observatory of Champlain discovers an asteroid from the Astronomical Observatory Champlain  It is given the number 157329 and is provisionally named 2004 TM16 
2006: On November 24, the Astronomical Observatory discovers a second asteroid, given the number 161815 and the temporary name of 2006 WK30 
2014: Celebration of the 350th anniversary of Champlain   This time, the celebration is based on the grant of the seigniory of Champlain in 1664 

Demographics
Population trend:
Population in 2011: 1664 (2006 to 2011 population change: 6 3%)
Population in 2006: 1566
Population in 2001: 1623
Population in 1996: 1608
Population in 1991: 1610Private dwellings occupied by usual residents: 766 (total dwellings: 861)
Mother tongue:

English as first language: 0 7%
French as first language: 97 9%
English and French as first language: 0 7%
Other as first language: 0 7%

Population
Passage 3:
Minsk Region
Minsk Region, also known as Minsk Oblast or Minsk Voblasts (Belarusian: Мі́нская во́бласць, romanized: Minskaja voblasć, IPA: [ˈmʲinskaja ˈvobɫasʲtsʲ]; Russian: Минская о́бласть, romanized: Minskaya oblast), is one of the regions of Belarus  Its administrative center is Minsk, although it is a separate administrative territorial entity of Belarus  As of 2011, the region's population is 1,411,500 

Geography
Minsk Region covers a total of 39,900 km2, about 19 44% of the national total area  Lake Narach, the largest lake in the country, is located in the northern part of the region  There are four other large lakes in this region: Svir (8th largest), Myadel (11th largest), Syalyava (14th largest) and Myastro (15th largest)  It is the only region of Belarus whose border is not part of the international border of Belarus 

History
Beginning the 10th century, the territory of the current Minsk Region was part of Kievan Rus', the Principality of Polotsk, and later it was included in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania  With the unification of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, the territory became part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 
In 1793, as a result of the second partition of Polish territory, the area was annexed by Russia as the Minsk Region  During the collapse of the Russian Empire due to the Civil War, the western part was annexed to Poland in 1921, while the east became Soviet Belarus 
The Minsk region was established on 15 January 1938, based on the amendment of the Constitutional Law of the USSR  As of 20 February 1938, the area included 20 districts   Following the Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939, the former Eastern lands of the Second Polish Republic were annexed in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact partitioning Poland and added to the Minsk Region 
On 20 September 1944, by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Gressky, Kopyl, Krasnoslobodski, Luban, Slutsky, Starobin, Starodorozhski districts and the city of Sluck were removed from the Minsk region and transferred to the newly formed Bobruisk Region 
On 8 January 1954, by the decree of the USSR Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the Nesvizhski and Stolbtsovsky districts from the abolished Baranovichi Region, as well as the Glusk, Gressky, Kopyl, Krasnoslobodski, Luban, Slutsky, Starobin, Starodorozhski districts and the city of Sluck from the abolished Bobruisk Region, were added to the Minsk Region 
In 1960, following the abolition of Molodechno Region, its southern part became the northern part of the Minsk Region 

Tourism
The number of travel agencies in Minsk Region grew from twelve in 2000 to seventy in 2010  The most popular tourist destinations of the region are Zaslavskoye Lake, the Zhdanovichi area which has health resorts, Nesvizh Palace and its surroundings, as well as the alpine ski resorts of Logoysk and Silichi 

Administrative subdivisions
The Minsk Region comprises 22 districts (raions), 307 selsovets, 22 cities, 8 city municipalities, and 20 urban-type settlements 

Districts of Minsk Region
Cities and towns
Population of cities and towns in Minsk Region

Demographics
See also
Administrative divisions of Belarus
Villages in Minsk Region
Passage 4:
College of Agriculture in Gonbad
The College of Agriculture in Gonbad was first established as a junior college in 1985 in the city of Gonbad-e Qabus, Iran  The junior college changed into the Gonbad College in 1999, an upgrade in terms of organizational level  Associate degree courses in several fields such as crop production and technology, forest technology, range and watershed management, wood technology, fisheries and animal sciences are offered at the college  The college possesses a farmland covering around 200 hectares for training and research purposes 
Passage 5:
Plumtree, North Carolina
Plumtree is an unincorporated community in Avery County, North Carolina, United States  The community is located along US 19-E, between the communities of Roaring Creek and Ingalls 

See also
Grassy Ridge Bald
Little Yellow Mountain
North Toe River
Unaka Range
Passage 6:
Wonsevu, Kansas
Wonsevu is an unincorporated community in southwest Chase County, Kansas, United States   It is located at the intersection of Cedar Creek Rd and E Rd, which is 4 5 miles (7 2 km) north of the Chase-Butler county line and 3 75 miles (6 04 km) east of the Chase-Marion county line in the Flint Hills 

History
Early history
For many millennia, the Great Plains of North America was inhabited by nomadic Native Americans   From the 16th century to 18th century, the Kingdom of France claimed ownership of large parts of North America   In 1762, after the French and Indian War, France secretly ceded New France to Spain, per the Treaty of Fontainebleau 

19th century
In 1802, Spain returned most of the land to France   In 1803, most of the land for modern day Kansas was acquired by the United States from France as part of the 828,000 square mile Louisiana Purchase for 2 83 cents per acre 
In 1854, the Kansas Territory was organized, then in 1861 Kansas became the 34th U S  state   In 1859, Chase County was established within the Kansas Territory, which included the land for modern day Wonsevu 
A post office existed in Wonsevu from August 23, 1875 to October 15, 1907 

21st century
The town today is almost a ghost town, with only a vacant church, school, two vacant houses, and several ruins left 

Geography
Wonsevu is located at 38°9′3″N 96°46′20″W (38 1508506, -96 7722418), in the scenic Flint Hills of the Great Plains 

Climate
The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters   According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Wonsevu has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps 

Education
Wonsevu is served by Peabody–Burns USD 398 public school district   All students attend schools in Peabody at two schools:

Peabody-Burns Junior/Senior High School, located in Peabody 
Peabody-Burns Elementary School, located in Peabody 

Media
Print
Peabody Gazette-Bulletin, local newspaper for Burns, Florence, Peabody 
The El Dorado Times, regional newspaper from El Dorado 
The Newton Kansan, regional newspaper from Newton 

Infrastructure
Utilities
Internet
Satellite Internet is provided by HughesNet, StarBand, WildBlue 
TV
Satellite TV is provided by DirecTV, Dish Network 
Free over-the-air ATSC digital TV 

See also
Cedar Township, Chase County, Kansas
Passage 7:
McCormack, Minnesota
McCormack is an unorganized territory in Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States, located near Hibbing and Balkan Township  The population was 237 at the 2000 census 

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the unorganized territory has a total area of 37 0 square miles (95 7 km2), of which 35 3 square miles (91 4 km2) is land and 1 7 square miles (4 3 km2) (4 49%) is water 

Demographics
At the 2000 census there were 237 people, 89 households, and 75 families living in the unorganized territory   The population density was 6 7 people per square mile (2 6/km2)   There were 128 housing units at an average density of 3 6/sq mi (1 4/km2)   The racial makeup of the unorganized territory was 99 16% White, and 0 84% from two or more races 
Of the 89 households 39 3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 74 2% were married couples living together, 6 7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 15 7% were non-families  13 5% of households were one person and 7 9% were one person aged 65 or older   The average household size was 2 66 and the average family size was 2 92 
The age distribution was 25 7% under the age of 18, 5 9% from 18 to 24, 28 7% from 25 to 44, 29 5% from 45 to 64, and 10 1% 65 or older   The median age was 41 years  For every 100 females, there were 104 3 males   For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102 3 males 
The median household income was $45,250 and the median family income  was $50,417  Males had a median income of $37,083 versus $20,682 for females  The per capita income for the unorganized territory was $20,121   None of the families and 6 2% of the population were living below the poverty line 
Passage 8:
E Township, Maine
E is an unincorporated township located in Aroostook County, Maine, United States  It is part of the Central Aroostook Unorganized Territory and borders the towns of Blaine to the east and Westfield to the north  As of the 1990 census, when it was still organized as a plantation, E Plantation had 64 residents  However, in 1990 its residents decided to disorganize the community and give up control to the state in an effort to reduce taxes  K–12 education for the community is provided by Maine School Administrative District 42, which also serves neighboring Blaine and Mars Hill  However, because E Plantation withdrew from the school district following its disorganization, its students are tuitioned 
Passage 9:
Sant Martí d'Empúries
Sant Martí d'Empúries is an entity of the town of L'Escala  It is located next to the ruins of Empúries or Empòrion  Ancient Greeks established the settlement in the 6th century BC  It was the county seat until 1079 Empúries moved to Castelló d'Empúries place less exposed to attack 
Sant Martí d'Empúries is a staging point on the GR 92 long distance footpath, which roughly follows the length of the Mediterranean coast of Spain  Stage 5, to the north, takes a route behind the coast to the El Cortalet pond in the Parc Natural dels Aiguamolls de l'Empordà, a distance of 20 2 kilometres (12 6 mi)  Stage 6, to the south, follows the coast to l'Escala and then takes an inland route across the Montgri Massif to reach the next staging point of Torroella de Montgrí, a distance of 20 0 kilometres (12 4 mi) 

History
It was an inhabited place since the arrival of Greeks from Massalia, actual Marseille (France) in the 6th century BC  Greeks established a settlement there called it, Kypsela (Greek: Κύψελα)  At the ancient times there is a possibility that there was a temple of Artemis on the island It was Christianized by Saint Feliu, an African martyr who died in 304 in Girona  He was bishop between 516 and 693  Charlemagne mentions Ermenguer as first Count of Empúries in 812 
Passage 10:
Golestan Province
Golestan province (Persian: استان گلستان, (Golestân), Ostâne Golestân) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, located in the northeast of the country and southeast of the Caspian Sea  Its capital is Gorgan, formerly called Esterabad until 1937  Golestan was split off from Mazandaran province in 1997 
The province was made a part of Region 1 upon the division of the provinces into 5 regions, solely for coordination and development purposes, on 22 June 2014  Majority of its population are Sunni Muslims At the 2006 census, the province's population was 1,593,055 in 379,354 households  The following census in 2011 showed an increase in population to 1,777,014 in 482,842 households  At the most recent census conducted in 2016, the population had risen to 1,868,819 in 550,249 households 

Etymology
Gulistan, Golestan, or Golastan translates to "gul-" meaning "flower" and "-stan" meaning "land" or "region " Golestan, therefore, literally means "land of flowers" in Iranian languages (e g , Persian, Kurdish, and Mazandarani   This is a common toponym in countries with Persian linguistic roots (see Gulistan) 
The capital of Gorgan derives its name from a wider region known historically as Gorgân (گرگان), Middle Persian Gurgān, and Old Persian Varkāna (in the Behistun Inscription) meaning "land of wolves"  This is also the root of the Ancient Greek Ὑρκανία (Hyrkanía) and Latin Hyrcania   Wild wolves are still found in Golestan 

History
Human settlements in this area date back to 10,000 BC  Evidence of the ancient city of Jorjan can still be seen near the current city of Gonbad-e Kavus  It was an important city of Persia located on the Silk Road 
Under the Achaemenid Iran, it seems to have been administered as a sub-province of Parthia and is not named separately in the provincial lists of Darius and Xerxes  The Hyrcanians, however, under the leadership of Megapanus, are mentioned by Herodotus in his list of Xerxes' army during the invasion of Greece 

Administrative divisions
Cities
According to the 2016 census, 1,015,774 people (over 54% of the population of Golestan province) live in the following cities: Aliabad-e Katul 52,838, Anbar Olum 7,003, Aqqala 35,116, Azadshahr 43,760, Bandar Torkaman 53,970, Bandar-e Gaz 20,742, Daland 20,754, Faraqi 5,777, Fazelabad 19,461, Galikash 23,394, Gomishan 19,191, Gonbad-e Kavus 151,910, Gorgan 350,676, Incheh Borun 2,494, Jelin 7,417, Kalaleh 36,176, Khan Bebin 10,878, Kordkuy 39,881, Maraveh Tappeh 8,671, Mazraeh 4,009, Minudasht 30,085, Neginshahr 8,138, Now Deh Khanduz 2,989, Now Kandeh 6,650, Ramian 12,426, Sangdevin 4,203, Sarkhon Kalateh 7,589, Siminshahr 17,205, and Tatar-e Olya 4,782 

Demographics
In 2006, the Ministry of Education of Iran estimated the ethnic breakdown of the province to be:

Turkmens: 34 20%
Mazandaranis: 30 40%
Sistanis & Persians: 14 90%
Baluchis: 10 90%
Qizilbash: 7 30%
Others (including Azeris, Kazakhs, Kurds, Armenians and Georgians): 2 3%Apparently, the Mazandaranis who inhabit the foothills all the way to Shah Pasand were subsumed under the rubric "Persian" by this official statistics 
The Persians/Mazandaranis are considered by nearly all inhabitants of the province to be "the old natives" while all others are considered ethnic immigrants in the past 
Most Mazandaranis live in Gorgan, Ali Abad, Kordkuy, Bandar-e Gaz and Gonbad-e Kavus  They speak Mazanderani language The Turkmens reside in the north of the province, a plain called Turkmen Sahra  From the 15th century, these formerly nomadic people have lived in this area, the main cities, of which are Gonbad-e Kavus and Bandar Torkaman  Turkmens are Sunni Muslim  They are a sizable minority in cities such as Gorgan, Ali Abad, Kalaleh and many eastern townships 
Azeris and the Qizilbash predate the Turkmen by centuries and have in time become completely Shia, and therefore, culturally associate with the Persians and other Shias 
The Sistani Persians and the Baluch are relatively of recent arrival and date back to the early 20th century  They are still arriving in the area in some numbers due to the lasting drought in their home areas of Sistan 
The people of Kordkuy are originally from the Kurdish areas of west Iran, Kermanshah and Kurdistan provinces  They belong to the Kord-rostami tribe and are also found in significant numbers in other cities like Gorgan and Bandare Gaz 
Other ethnic groups such as Kazakhs, Kurds, Georgians, and Armenians also reside in this area, and have preserved their traditions and rituals 
A small minority of Baháʼí Faith also live in Golestan (in Shahpasand) 

Culture
The world's tallest brick structure of its kind, the Gonbad-e Qabus tower, stands in this province 

Climate and geography
Golestan enjoys mild weather and a temperate climate most of the year  Geographically, it is divided into two sections: The plains, and the mountains of the Alborz range  In the eastern Alborz section, the direction of mountains faces northeast and gradually decreases in height  The highest point of the province is Shavar, with a height of 3,945 meters  Two of the main rivers are the Gharasu and Gorganrud 

Golestan National Park
Golestan National Park in northern Iran is faced with the construction of a road through the forest, allegedly for the ease of traffic for the villagers and woodmen but at the expense of losing the only national park in Iran throughout which a range of different climates (humidity near the Caspian Sea and desert farther south) is spread 
Golestan National Park is Iran's biggest national park which spans three provinces, Golestan, Mazandaran and North Khorasan  Surprisingly, the authorities ignore repeated calls by experts to construct such roads around, instead of through, the forests, which in this way would no longer threaten the animal and plant life 

Colleges and universities
Golestan University
Golestan University of Medical Sciences
Gonbad Kavous University
Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
Islamic Azad University of Azadshahr
Islamic Azad University of Gorgan
Islamic Azad University of Ali Abad katool
Passage 11:
Sabin, Wisconsin
Sabin is an unincorporated community in the Town of Sylvan, Richland County, Wisconsin, United States  It is located at the intersection of County Highway E and Robbson Drive 

History
Sabin was settled in the 1850s and named for Dr  Eli Sabin, one of the first settlers  Sabin lies near the head waters of Mill Creek, known originally as Eagle Creek or Eagle River  In early days the only access to Sabin was a rough road that followed the creek about 20 miles (30 km) south to its mouth on the Wisconsin River at Orion 
Sabin had two churches   The Disciples or Christian Church of Sabin was organized in 1858 and erected a frame building about 1872  This building was replaced with a new building seating about 400 in 1904  Baptisms were performed in Mill Creek during the summer and in the cheese factory during the winter  The last service in the Christian Church was December 11, 1966, and the building was burned on April 25, 1979  The other church was the Mt  Tabor Methodist Church for which land was deeded in 1868  The local Independent Order of Odd Fellows lodge contributed to the erection of this church and used it for their meetings  This church no longer exists but it was holding services as late as 1900  The Mt  Tabor Methodist Church stood next to the Mt Tabor Cemetery, which received its first burials in the 1860s and remains in use for new burials 
The first school building at Sabin was a log structure erected in 1856  It burned down in 1880 and was replaced the following year by a frame building  This building burned in 1917 and was replaced by another frame structure which burned down in 1929 and was replaced by a brick school house which still stands, although it ceased to be used as a school in 1962  The Sabin Livewires 4-H club has been active in the community since 1946 
There was a cheese factory in Sabin at least as early as 1901, and through a succession of ownership, cheesemakers, and at least three buildings, cheese was made in Sabin until 1960  The second cheese factory, constructed about 1915, was a two-story structure with the factory on the first floor and a large hall and kitchen on the second floor used for community gatherings  Sabin had its own post office from 1886 to 1911  Through several changes of ownership and location, there was a general store in Sabin from before 1896 until 1966  In the 1920s the Jones Lumber Company of Appleton, Wisconsin operated a saw mill at Sabin that produced 1,500,000 board feet (4,000 m3) of lumber in six years 
Passage 12:
Tumaraa
Tumaraa is a commune of French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean  The commune of Tumaraa is located on the island of Raiatea, in the administrative subdivision of the Leeward Islands, themselves part of the Society Islands  At the 2017 census it had a population of 3,721, making it the least populous commune on Raiatea Tumaraa consists of the following associated communes:

Fetuna
Tehurui
Tevaitoa
VaiaauThe administrative centre of the commune is the settlement of Tevaitoa  The tallest mountain on Raiatea - Mont Temehani - is located within Tumaraa 
Passage 13:
Essex County Park Commission Administration Building
The Essex County Park Commission Administration Building is located in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States  The building was built in 1916 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 11, 1977 

See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Essex County, New Jersey
Essex County Park System, New Jersey
Passage 14:
Kaskan Qajaq
Kaskan Qajaq (Persian: كسكن قجق, also Romanized as Kasḵan Qajaq; also known as Kasgenqojoq) is a village in Aqabad Rural District, in the Central District of Gonbad-e Qabus County, Golestan Province, Iran  At the 2006 census, its population was 991, in 182 families 
Passage 15:
Hylestad
Hylestad is a former municipality in the old Aust-Agder county in Norway  The 570-square-kilometre (220 sq mi) former municipality existed from 1915 until its dissolution in 1962  It was located in the southern part of the present-day municipality of Valle in the traditional region of Setesdal in Agder county  The administrative centre was the village of Rysstad where the Hylestad Church was located 

History
The parish of Hylestad was established as a municipality on 1 July 1915 when the municipality of Valle was divided into two municipalities: Hylestad (population: 658) in the south and Valle (population: 1,051) in the north  During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee  On 1 January 1962, Hylestad was reincorporated into Valle  Prior to the merger Hylestad had a population of 662 

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) was named after the old Hylestad farm (Old Norse: Hyljastaðir), since the first Hylestad Church was built there  The first element comes from hylja meaning a "pool" (possibly referring to the pool in the river) and the last element is staðir which means "homestead" or "farm" 

Government
All municipalities in Norway, including Hylestad, are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads  The municipality was governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elected a mayor 

Municipal council
The municipal council (Herredsstyre) of Hylestad was made up of 13 representatives that were elected to four year terms   The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

Notable residents
Osmund Faremo (1921-1999), a Norwegian politician
Aani Aanisson Rysstad (1894-1965), a Norwegian politician

See also
List of former municipalities of Norway
Passage 16:
Motru Coal Mine
Motru Coal Mine is an open-pit mining exploitation, one of the largest in Romania located in Motru, Gorj County  The legal entity managing the Motru mine is the National Company of Lignite Oltenia which was set up in 1997 The exploitation has two open pits Lupoaia, Roșiuța that produced 6 6 million tonnes of lignite in 2008  The mine has around 2,300 workers and is endowed with 13 bucket-wheel excavators, seven spreaders, two mixed machines and two deposits spreader  The total proven recoverable reserves of the mine amount to 108 million tonnes of lignite 
Passage 17:
Beheshti, Tehran
Beheshti (Persian: بهشتي, also Romanized as Beheshtī; also known as Behesht-e Zahrā) is a village in Azimiyeh Rural District, in the Central District of Ray County, Tehran Province, Iran  At the 2006 census, its population was 8,569, in 2,262 families   Behesht-e Zahra cemetery is located nearby 
Passage 18:
Golestan Province
Golestan province (Persian: استان گلستان, (Golestân), Ostâne Golestân) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, located in the northeast of the country and southeast of the Caspian Sea  Its capital is Gorgan, formerly called Esterabad until 1937  Golestan was split off from Mazandaran province in 1997 
The province was made a part of Region 1 upon the division of the provinces into 5 regions, solely for coordination and development purposes, on 22 June 2014  Majority of its population are Sunni Muslims At the 2006 census, the province's population was 1,593,055 in 379,354 households  The following census in 2011 showed an increase in population to 1,777,014 in 482,842 households  At the most recent census conducted in 2016, the population had risen to 1,868,819 in 550,249 households 

Etymology
Gulistan, Golestan, or Golastan translates to "gul-" meaning "flower" and "-stan" meaning "land" or "region " Golestan, therefore, literally means "land of flowers" in Iranian languages (e g , Persian, Kurdish, and Mazandarani   This is a common toponym in countries with Persian linguistic roots (see Gulistan) 
The capital of Gorgan derives its name from a wider region known historically as Gorgân (گرگان), Middle Persian Gurgān, and Old Persian Varkāna (in the Behistun Inscription) meaning "land of wolves"  This is also the root of the Ancient Greek Ὑρκανία (Hyrkanía) and Latin Hyrcania   Wild wolves are still found in Golestan 

History
Human settlements in this area date back to 10,000 BC  Evidence of the ancient city of Jorjan can still be seen near the current city of Gonbad-e Kavus  It was an important city of Persia located on the Silk Road 
Under the Achaemenid Iran, it seems to have been administered as a sub-province of Parthia and is not named separately in the provincial lists of Darius and Xerxes  The Hyrcanians, however, under the leadership of Megapanus, are mentioned by Herodotus in his list of Xerxes' army during the invasion of Greece 

Administrative divisions
Cities
According to the 2016 census, 1,015,774 people (over 54% of the population of Golestan province) live in the following cities: Aliabad-e Katul 52,838, Anbar Olum 7,003, Aqqala 35,116, Azadshahr 43,760, Bandar Torkaman 53,970, Bandar-e Gaz 20,742, Daland 20,754, Faraqi 5,777, Fazelabad 19,461, Galikash 23,394, Gomishan 19,191, Gonbad-e Kavus 151,910, Gorgan 350,676, Incheh Borun 2,494, Jelin 7,417, Kalaleh 36,176, Khan Bebin 10,878, Kordkuy 39,881, Maraveh Tappeh 8,671, Mazraeh 4,009, Minudasht 30,085, Neginshahr 8,138, Now Deh Khanduz 2,989, Now Kandeh 6,650, Ramian 12,426, Sangdevin 4,203, Sarkhon Kalateh 7,589, Siminshahr 17,205, and Tatar-e Olya 4,782 

Demographics
In 2006, the Ministry of Education of Iran estimated the ethnic breakdown of the province to be:

Turkmens: 34 20%
Mazandaranis: 30 40%
Sistanis & Persians: 14 90%
Baluchis: 10 90%
Qizilbash: 7 30%
Others (including Azeris, Kazakhs, Kurds, Armenians and Georgians): 2 3%Apparently, the Mazandaranis who inhabit the foothills all the way to Shah Pasand were subsumed under the rubric "Persian" by this official statistics 
The Persians/Mazandaranis are considered by nearly all inhabitants of the province to be "the old natives" while all others are considered ethnic immigrants in the past 
Most Mazandaranis live in Gorgan, Ali Abad, Kordkuy, Bandar-e Gaz and Gonbad-e Kavus  They speak Mazanderani language The Turkmens reside in the north of the province, a plain called Turkmen Sahra  From the 15th century, these formerly nomadic people have lived in this area, the main cities, of which are Gonbad-e Kavus and Bandar Torkaman  Turkmens are Sunni Muslim  They are a sizable minority in cities such as Gorgan, Ali Abad, Kalaleh and many eastern townships 
Azeris and the Qizilbash predate the Turkmen by centuries and have in time become completely Shia, and therefore, culturally associate with the Persians and other Shias 
The Sistani Persians and the Baluch are relatively of recent arrival and date back to the early 20th century  They are still arriving in the area in some numbers due to the lasting drought in their home areas of Sistan 
The people of Kordkuy are originally from the Kurdish areas of west Iran, Kermanshah and Kurdistan provinces  They belong to the Kord-rostami tribe and are also found in significant numbers in other cities like Gorgan and Bandare Gaz 
Other ethnic groups such as Kazakhs, Kurds, Georgians, and Armenians also reside in this area, and have preserved their traditions and rituals 
A small minority of Baháʼí Faith also live in Golestan (in Shahpasand) 

Culture
The world's tallest brick structure of its kind, the Gonbad-e Qabus tower, stands in this province 

Climate and geography
Golestan enjoys mild weather and a temperate climate most of the year  Geographically, it is divided into two sections: The plains, and the mountains of the Alborz range  In the eastern Alborz section, the direction of mountains faces northeast and gradually decreases in height  The highest point of the province is Shavar, with a height of 3,945 meters  Two of the main rivers are the Gharasu and Gorganrud 

Golestan National Park
Golestan National Park in northern Iran is faced with the construction of a road through the forest, allegedly for the ease of traffic for the villagers and woodmen but at the expense of losing the only national park in Iran throughout which a range of different climates (humidity near the Caspian Sea and desert farther south) is spread 
Golestan National Park is Iran's biggest national park which spans three provinces, Golestan, Mazandaran and North Khorasan  Surprisingly, the authorities ignore repeated calls by experts to construct such roads around, instead of through, the forests, which in this way would no longer threaten the animal and plant life 

Colleges and universities
Golestan University
Golestan University of Medical Sciences
Gonbad Kavous University
Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
Islamic Azad University of Azadshahr
Islamic Azad University of Gorgan
Islamic Azad University of Ali Abad katool
Passage 19:
Varangerbotn
Varangerbotn (Northern Sami: Vuonnabahta) is the administrative centre of Nesseby Municipality, Troms og Finnmark county, Norway  It is located at the innermost part of the large Varangerfjorden   The village is located at the intersection of the European route E6 and European route E75 highways  The villages of Karlebotn and Nesseby lie a short distance to the south and east (respectively) from Varangerbotn The band The BlackSheeps and previous lead vocalist Agnete Johnsen comes from Varangerbotn   The Varanger Sami Museum is located in the village and it shows the cultural history of the Sami people in the Varanger region 
Passage 20:
Gonbad-e Kavus County
Gonbad-e Kavus County (Persian: شهرستان گنبد کاووس) is in Golestan province, Iran  The capital of the county is the city of Gonbad-e Kavus, founded by German engineers and architects with high urban engineering standards; by the order of Reza Pahlavi  At the 2006 census, the county's population was 283,331 in 63,482 households  The following census in 2011 counted 325,789 people in 83,369 households  At the 2016 census, the county's population was 348,744 in 97,147 households Formerly called Gorgan or Jorjan, because of the ruins of the historical city called Gorgan, the capital of the Ziyarid dynasty, in its southwest corner  It was called Hyrcania in ancient times 

Administrative divisions
The population history of Gonbad-e Kavus County's administrative divisions over three consecutive censuses is shown in the following table  The latest census shows two districts, six rural districts, and two cities 
Context 2: Passage 1:
2017 Cincinnati mayoral election
The 2017 Cincinnati mayoral election took place on November 7, 2017, to elect the Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio  The election was officially nonpartisan, with the top two candidates from the May 2 primary election advancing to the general election, regardless of party  Incumbent Democratic Mayor John Cranley won re-election to a second term 
While the election was nonpartisan, all the candidates were known Democrats 

Primary election
Candidates
Declared
John Cranley (D), incumbent Mayor of Cincinnati
Rob Richardson, Jr  (D), former University of Cincinnati board chairman
Yvette Simpson (D), Cincinnati City Council member

Declined
Greg Hartmann (R), former Hamilton County Commissioner
Charlie Winburn (R), Cincinnati City Council member

Endorsements
Polling
Results
General election
Candidates
John Cranley (D), incumbent Mayor of Cincinnati
Yvette Simpson (D), Cincinnati City Council member, President Pro-Tempore

Endorsements
Polling
Results
Passage 2:
2017 Atlanta mayoral election
The 2017 Atlanta mayoral election occurred on November 7, 2017, with a runoff election held on December 5, 2017   Incumbent mayor Kasim Reed, a member of the Democratic Party who had been in office since 2010, was ineligible to run for reelection due to term limits 
A total of 14 candidates qualified for the November 7 non-partisan election   However, no candidate revived a majority, so a runoff was held between Keisha Lance Bottoms and Mary Norwood, the top two finishers, on December 5   On election night, unofficial results suggested that Keisha Lance Bottoms had narrowly won, but Norwood called for a recount The election was first certified on December 11, 2017, and had Bottoms winning by a margin of 823 votes   This margin was less than the 1 percent threshold needed to avoid a mandatory recount   The recount, which occurred on December 14, resulted in Norwood gaining five votes and Bottoms losing six in Fulton County, while the vote totals in DeKalb County remained the same   The election was re-certified on December 17 after Fulton County accepted the new results   Norwood officially conceded the race on December 21, and Lance Bottoms was inaugurated as the 60th mayor of Atlanta on January 2, 2018 

Candidates
Declared
Peter Aman, former Chief Operating Officer of Atlanta
Rohit Ammanamanchi, Georgia Institute of Technology graduate
Keisha Lance Bottoms, Atlanta City Councilmember (District 11)
John Eaves, Fulton County Chairman, District 7, At-Large
Vincent Fort, Georgia State Senator 
Kwanza Hall, Atlanta City Councilmember (District 2)
Laban King, co-founder of the real estate investment firm, Millennial Global Investments
Ceasar Mitchell, Atlanta City Council President
Mary Norwood, Atlanta City Councilmember (Post 2 At Large) and candidate for Mayor in 2009
Cathy Woolard, former Atlanta City Council President
Glenn Wrightson

Failed to qualify
Alex Barrella, cartoonist

Dropped out
Al Bartell, Certified Mediator  Dropped out August 22, 2017 
Margaret Kaiser, Georgia State Representative, District 59, 2007–2016  Dropped out October 25, 2016 
Michael Sterling, former Executive Director of the City of Atlanta Workforce Development Agency  Dropped out October 24, 2017

Endorsements
Polling
Results
General election
Runoff
See also
Mayor of Atlanta
2017 United States elections
Passage 3:
Merrill Elam
Merrill Elam is an American architect and educator based in Atlanta, Georgia  She is a principal with Mack Scogin in Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects where their work spans between buildings, interiors, planning, graphics and exhibition design, and research 

Biography and education
She received a Bachelor of Architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1971 and a Master of Business Administration at the J  Mack Robinson College of Business Georgia State University in 1982 

Career
She worked as an architect and senior associate at Heery & Heery Architects & Engineers for 12 years prior to establishing Scogin Elam and Bray Architects in 1984  In 2000, Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam Architects was established  She has been a licensed architect in 13 states, a member of the American Institute of Architects and is NCARB certified 
In addition to an active practice, she  has been a visiting architecture professor in architecture programs across the country including Harvard University, Yale University, University of Toronto, University of Virginia, Ohio State University, Syracuse University, and University of Texas at Austin  She also formerly acted as president of the Georgia State Board of Architects  In addition she aided in founding the Architecture Society of Atlanta and is the former organization's former president 

Selected projects
The Round House, Connecticut, 2020 
One Midtown Plaza Lobby, Atlanta, Georgia, 2007
Health Services Center, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 2006
Ernie Davis Hall, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, 2005
Gates Center for Computer Science and Hillman Center for Future Generation Technologies, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2005
Zhongkai Sheshan Villas, Shanghai, China, 2004
Carroll A  Campbell Jr  Graduate Engineering Center, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, 2004
U S  Federal Courthouse, General Services Administration, Austin, Texas, 2003
Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center and Davis Garage, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, 2001
Carol Cobb Turner Branch Library, Marrow, Georgia, 1991
John J  Ross - William C  Blakley Law Library, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, 1993
Austin E  Knowlton School of Architecture, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 1998
Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, 1998
Mountain Tree House, Dillard, Georgia, 1998

Honors and awards
2014 Design Leader award, Women in Architecture Awards, Architectural Record, 2014
Shutze Medal, Georgia Institute of Technology with Mack Scogin, 2013
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture with Mack Scogin, 2012 
Arnold W  Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture, American Academy of Arts and Letters with Mack Scogin, 2011
Royal Institute of British Architects, International Fellow, 2008
Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design with Mack Scogin, 1996
Arts and Letters Award in Architecture, American Academy of Arts and Letters with Mack Scogin, 1995
Passage 4:
Joseph Rakowski
Joseph Rakowski is an American Democratic Party politician who served as Acting Mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey  He became acting mayor when he was elected to serve as City Council President of Jersey City  Rakowski was the third person to hold the office in the same year 

Biography
During his four-month term of office, Rakowski worked with New York City Mayor David Dinkins and New Jersey Attorney General Robert J  Del Tufo to address a problem where trucks full of garbage were being driven from New York City to Jersey City, New Jersey and their full trailers abandoned  Rakowski did not seek to complete the unexpired term as mayor in the special election that was held during his tenure  He was succeeded by Bret Schundler 
Passage 5:
Joan McBride
Joan Leslie McBride (born 1951 or 1952) is an American politician  A Democrat, she was the mayor of Kirkland, Washington, from 2010 to 2013, after which she was elected to the Washington House of Representatives as a member from District 48  She also served on the Kirkland City Council since 1998, sitting as deputy mayor from 2002 until her election as mayor in 2010 McBride originally announced a bid to succeed state Senator Rodney Tom  However, in April 2014, she and state Representative Cyrus Habib announced they would switch races, with Habib running for Tom's seat and McBride running to replace Habib in the House  McBride was elected in November and sworn on January 12, 2015  She was named assistant Democratic whip McBride announced her retirement from the State legislature on March 29, 2018 

Personal life
McBride is married with children  She has a background in nonprofit work and community relations  She resides in Kirkland 
Passage 6:
Rusty Paul
Russell K  Paul (born June 23, 1952) is an American politician serving as the mayor of Sandy Springs, Georgia since 2014 

Early life and education
Paul was born in 1952, and grew up in the Birmingham, Alabama area  He received a Bachelor’s degree at Samford University and attended graduate school at Georgia State University 

Career
Paul was the Stone Mountain city council member from 1977 to 1983  From1989 to 1993, he served as Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations for the Housing and Urban Development Department under Secretary Jack Kemp  He chaired the Georgia Republican Party from 1995 to 1999, and became a State Senator representing northern Fulton County from 2001 to 2003  In 2005, he was elected to Sandy Springs city council  Paul was elected to succeed Eva Galambos in November 2013 

Personal life
Paul is married to Jan Paul and has 5 children  He is an Episcopalian 

Controversies
Paul has courted controversy for his lobbying work in relation to the Development Authority of Fulton County while serving as a publicly elected official 
Passage 7:
Kraków
Kraków (Polish: [ˈkrakuf] (listen)) is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland  Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century  Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 and has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, economic, cultural and artistic life  Cited as one of Europe's most beautiful cities, its Old Town with Wawel Royal Castle was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978, one of the world's first sites granted the status 
The city has grown from a Stone Age settlement to Poland's second-most-important city  It began as a hamlet on Wawel Hill and was reported by Ibrahim Ibn Yakoub, a merchant from Córdoba, as a busy trading centre of Central Europe in 985  With the establishment of new universities and cultural venues at the emergence of the Second Polish Republic in 1918 and throughout the 20th century, Kraków reaffirmed its role as a major national academic and artistic centre  As of 2022, the city has a population of 800,653, with approximately 8 million additional people living within a 100 km (62 mi) radius of its main square After the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany at the start of World War II, the newly defined Distrikt Krakau (Kraków District) became the capital of Germany's General Government  The Jewish population of the city was forced into a walled zone known as the Kraków Ghetto, from where they were sent to Nazi extermination camps such as the nearby Auschwitz, and Nazi concentration camps like Płaszów  However, the city was spared from destruction and major bombing 
In 1978, Karol Wojtyła, archbishop of Kraków, was elevated to the papacy as Pope John Paul II—the first non-Italian pope in 455 years  Also that year, UNESCO approved Kraków's entire Old Town and historic centre and the nearby Wieliczka Salt Mine as Poland's first World Heritage Sites  Kraków is classified as a global city with the ranking of "high sufficiency" by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network  Its extensive cultural heritage across the epochs of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture includes Wawel Cathedral and Wawel Royal Castle on the banks of the Vistula, St  Mary's Basilica, Saints Peter and Paul Church and the largest medieval market square in Europe, Rynek Główny  Kraków is home to Jagiellonian University, one of the oldest universities in the world and traditionally Poland's most reputable institution of higher learning  The city also hosts a number of institutions of national significance such as the National Museum, Kraków Opera, Juliusz Słowacki Theatre, National Stary Theatre and the Jagiellonian Library  The city is served by John Paul II International Airport, the country's second busiest airport and the most important international airport for the inhabitants of south-eastern Poland 
In 2000, Kraków was named European Capital of Culture  In 2013, Kraków was officially approved as a UNESCO City of Literature  The city hosted World Youth Day in July 2016 

Etymology
The name of Kraków is traditionally derived from Krakus (Krak, Grakch), the legendary founder of Kraków and a ruler of the tribe of Vistulans  In Polish, Kraków is an archaic possessive form of Krak and essentially means "Krak's (town)"  The true origin of the name is highly disputed among historians, with many theories in existence and no unanimous consensus  The first recorded mention of Prince Krakus (then written as Grakch) dates back to 1190, although the town existed as early as the seventh century, when it was inhabited by the tribe of Vistulans  It is possible that the name of the city is derived from the word kruk, meaning 'crow' or 'raven' The city's full official name is Stołeczne Królewskie Miasto Kraków, which can be translated as "Royal Capital City of Kraków"  In English, a person born or living in Kraków is a Cracovian (Polish: krakowianin or krakus)  Until the 1990s the English version of the name was often written as Cracow, but now the most widespread modern English version is Krakow 

History
Kraków's early history begins with evidence of a Stone Age settlement on the present site of the Wawel Hill  A legend attributes Kraków's founding to the mythical ruler Krakus, who built it above a cave occupied by a dragon, Smok Wawelski  The first written record of the city's name dates back to 965, when Kraków was described as a notable commercial centre controlled first by Moravia (876–879), but captured by a Bohemian duke Boleslaus I in 955  The first acclaimed ruler of Poland, Mieszko I, took Kraków from the Bohemians and incorporated it into the holdings of the Piast dynasty towards the end of his reign 
In 1038, Kraków became the seat of the Polish government  By the end of the tenth century, the city was a leading centre of trade  Brick buildings were constructed, including the Royal Wawel Castle with St  Felix and Adaukt Rotunda, Romanesque churches such as St  Andrew's Church, a cathedral, and a basilica  The city was sacked and burned during the Mongol invasion of 1241  It was rebuilt practically identically, based on new location act and incorporated in 1257 by the high duke Bolesław V the Chaste who following the example of Wrocław, introduced city rights modelled on the Magdeburg law allowing for tax benefits and new trade privileges for the citizens  In 1259, the city was again ravaged by the Mongols  A third attack in 1287 was repelled thanks in part to the newly built fortifications 

In 1335, King Casimir III the Great (Polish: Kazimierz) declared the two western suburbs to be a new city named after him, Kazimierz (Latin: Casimiria)  The defensive walls were erected around the central section of Kazimierz in 1362, and a plot was set aside for the Augustinian order next to Skałka  The city rose to prominence in 1364, when Casimir founded the University of Kraków, the second oldest university in central Europe after the Charles University in Prague  Casimir also began work on a campus for the academy in Kazimierz, but he died in 1370 and the campus was never completed 
The city continued to grow under the joint Lithuanian-Polish Jagiellon dynasty  As the capital of the Kingdom of Poland and a member of the Hanseatic League, the city attracted many craftsmen from abroad, businesses, and guilds as science and the arts began to flourish  The royal chancery and the university ensured a first flourishing of Polish literary culture in the city 

Kraków's "Golden Age"
The 15th and 16th centuries were known as Poland's Złoty Wiek or Golden Age  Many works of Polish Renaissance art and architecture were created, including ancient synagogues in Kraków's Jewish quarter located in the north-eastern part of Kazimierz, such as the Old Synagogue  During the reign of Casimir IV, various artists came to work and live in Kraków, and Johann Haller established a printing press in the city after Kasper Straube had printed the Calendarium Cracoviense, the first work printed in Poland, in 1473 In 1520, the most famous church bell in Poland, named Zygmunt after Sigismund I of Poland, was cast by Hans Behem  At that time, Hans Dürer, a younger brother of artist and thinker Albrecht Dürer, was Sigismund's court painter  Hans von Kulmbach made altarpieces for several churches  In 1553, the Kazimierz district council gave the Jewish Qahal (council of a Jewish self-governing community) a licence for the right to build their own interior walls across the western section of the already existing defensive walls  The walls were expanded again in 1608 due to the growth of the community and influx of Jews from Bohemia  In 1572, King Sigismund II, the last of the Jagiellons, died childless  The Polish throne passed to Henry III of France and then to other foreign-based rulers in rapid succession, causing a decline in the city's importance  Furthermore, in 1596, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa moved the administrative capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from Kraków to Warsaw  The city was destabilised by pillaging in the 1650s during the Swedish invasion, especially during the 1655 siege  Later in 1707, the city underwent an outbreak of bubonic plague that left 20,000 of the city's residents dead 

19th century
Already weakened during the 18th century, by the mid-1790s the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had twice been partitioned by its neighbors: Russia, the Habsburg empire and Prussia  In 1791, the Austrian and Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II changed the status of Kazimierz as a separate city and made it into a district of Kraków  The richer Jewish families began to move out  However, because of the injunction against travel on the Sabbath, most Jewish families stayed relatively close to the historic synagogues  In 1794, Tadeusz Kościuszko initiated an unsuccessful insurrection in the town's Main Square which, in spite of his victorious Battle of Racławice against a numerically superior Russian army, resulted in the third and final partition of Poland In 1802, German became the town's official language  Of the members appointed by the Habsburgs to the municipal council only half were Polish  From 1796 to 1809, the population of the city rose from 22 000 to 26 000 with an increasing percentage of nobles and officials  In 1809, Napoleon Bonaparte captured former Polish territories from Austria and made the town part of the Duchy of Warsaw  During the time of the Duchy of Warsaw, requirements to upkeep the Polish army followed by tours of Austrian, Polish and Russian troops, plus Russian occupation and a flood in the year 1813 all added up to the adverse development of the city with a high debt burden on public finances and many workshops and trading houses needing to close their activities  Following Napoleon's defeat, the 1815 Congress of Vienna restored the pre-war boundaries but also created the partially independent Free City of Kraków  An insurrection in 1846 failed, resulting in the city being annexed by Austria under the name the Grand Duchy of Kraków (Polish: Wielkie Księstwo Krakowskie, German: Großherzogtum Krakau) 

This Republic of Kraków (1815–1846) included the towns of Chrzanow, Trzebinia and Nowa Gora and 224 villages  Outside the city, mining and metallurgy started developing  The population of Cracow itself grew in this time from 23 000 to 43 000, the one in the Republic from 88 000 to 103 000  The population of the city had an increasing number of catholic clergy, officials and intelligentsia with which the rich townspeople sympathised  They were opposed to the conservative landed aristocracy who also were drawn more and more to the city real estates even though their income still mainly came from their agricultural possessions in the Republic, the Kingdom of Poland and Galicia  The percentage of the Jewish population in the city also increased in this time from 20 8% to 30 4%  A free trade zone led to positive economic development  But because of the unstable political situation and insecurity about the future, not much of the accumulated wealth was invested  Through the increase of taxes, customs and regulations, prices soared and the city fell into a recession  From 1844 to 1850 the population was diminished by over 4 000 inhabitants  
In 1866, Austria granted a degree of autonomy to Galicia after its own defeat in the Austro-Prussian War  Politically freer Kraków became a Polish national symbol and a centre of culture and art, known frequently as the "Polish Athens" (Polskie Ateny)  Many leading Polish artists of the period resided in Kraków, among them the seminal painter Jan Matejko, laid to rest at Rakowicki Cemetery, and the founder of modern Polish drama, Stanisław Wyspiański  Fin de siècle Kraków evolved into a modern metropolis; running water and electric streetcars were introduced in 1901, and between 1910 and 1915, Kraków and its surrounding suburban communities were gradually combined into a single administrative unit called Greater Kraków (Wielki Kraków) At the outbreak of World War I on 3 August 1914, Józef Piłsudski formed a small cadre military unit, the First Cadre Company—the predecessor of the Polish Legions—which set out from Kraków to fight for the liberation of Poland  The city was briefly besieged by Russian troops in November 1914  Austrian rule in Kraków ended in 1918 when the Polish Liquidation Committee assumed power 

20th century to the present
Following the emergence of the Second Polish Republic in 1918, Kraków resumed its role as a major Polish academic and cultural centre, with the establishment of new universities such as the AGH University of Science and Technology and the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, including a number of new and essential vocational schools  The city became an important cultural centre for Polish Jews, including both Zionist and Bundist groups  Kraków was also an influential centre of Jewish spiritual life, with all its manifestations of religious observance - from Orthodox to Hasidic and Reform Judaism - flourishing side by side 
Following the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in September 1939, the city of Kraków became part of the General Government, a separate administrative region of the Third Reich  On 26 October 1939, the Nazi régime set up Distrikt Krakau, one of a total of four districts within the General Government  On the same day, the city of Kraków also became the capital of the administration  The General Government was ruled by Governor-General Hans Frank, who was based in the city's Wawel Castle  The Nazis envisioned turning Kraków into a completely Germanised city; after removal of all the Jews and Poles, renaming of locations and streets into the German language, and sponsorship of propaganda trying to portray it as a historically German city  On 28 November 1939 Hans Frank set up Judenräte ('Jewish Councils') to be run by Jewish citizens for the purpose of carrying out orders for the Nazis  These orders included the registration of all Jewish people living in each area, the collection of taxes, and the formation of forced-labour groups  The Polish Home Army maintained a parallel underground administrative system On the eve of World War II some 56,000 Jews resided in Krakow, almost one-quarter of a total population of about 250,000  By November 1939, the Jewish population of Krakow had grown to approximately 70,000  According to German statistics from 1940, over 200,000 Jews lived within the entire Kraków District, comprising more than 5 percent of the total population in the district  These statistics, however, probably underestimate the situation In November 1939, during an operation known as "Sonderaktion Krakau", the Germans arrested more than 180 university professors and academics and sent them to the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps, though the survivors were later released on the request of prominent Italians 

Before the formation of ghettos, which began in the Distrikt in December 1939, Jews were encouraged to flee the city  For those who remained the German authorities decided in March 1941 to allocate a then suburban neighborhood, Podgórze District, to become Kraków's ghetto - there many Jews would die of illness or starvation  Initially, most ghettos were open and Jews were allowed to enter and exit freely  However, with time ghettos were generally closed and security became tighter  From autumn 1941, the SS developed the policy of Extermination through labour, which further worsened the already bleak conditions for Jews  The ghetto inhabitants were later murdered or sent to German Extermination camps, including Bełżec and Auschwitz, and to Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp  The largest deportations within the Distrikt occurred from June to September 1942  More specifically, the Kraków ghetto deportation occurred in the first week of June 1942, and in March 1943 the ghetto was definitely liquidated Roman Polanski, the film director, survived the Kraków ghetto  Oskar Schindler selected employees from the ghetto to work in his enamelware factory Deutsche Emailwaren Fabrik (Emalia for short), saving them from the camps  Similarly, many men capable of physical labor were saved from the deportations to extermination camps and instead sent to labor camps across the General Government  By September 1943, the last of the Jews from the Kraków ghetto had been deported  Although looted by occupational authorities, Kraków remained relatively undamaged at the end of World War II, with most of the city's historical and architectural legacy spared  Soviet forces under the command of Marshal Ivan Konev entered the city on 18 January 1945, and began arresting Poles loyal to the Polish government-in-exile or those who had served in the Home Army 

After the war, under the Polish People's Republic (officially declared in 1952), the intellectual and academic community of Kraków came under complete political control  The universities were soon deprived of printing rights and autonomy  The Stalinist government of Poland ordered the construction of the country's largest steel mill in the newly created suburb of Nowa Huta  The creation of the giant Lenin Steelworks (now Sendzimir Steelworks owned by Mittal) sealed Kraków's transformation from a university city into an industrial centre  The new working-class population, drawn by the industrialization of Kraków, contributed to rapid growth 
In an effort that spanned two decades, Karol Wojtyła, cardinal archbishop of Kraków from 1964 to 1978, successfully lobbied for permission to build the first churches in the newly-industrial suburbs  In 1978 the Catholic Church elevated Wojtyła to the papacy as John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope in 455 years  In the same year, UNESCO, following the application of local authorities, placed Kraków Old Town on the first-ever list of World Heritage Sites 

Geography
Kraków lies in the southern part of Poland, on the Vistula River, in a valley at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, 219 m (719 ft) above sea level; halfway between the Jurassic Rock Upland (Polish: Jura Krakowsko-Częstochowska) to the north, and the Tatra Mountains 100 km (62 mi) to the south, constituting the natural border with Slovakia and the Czech Republic; 230 km (143 mi) west from the border with Ukraine 
There are five nature reserves in Kraków, with a combined area of ca  48 6 hectares (120 acres)  Due to their ecological value, these areas are legally protected  The western part of the city, along its northern and north-western side, borders an area of international significance known as the Jurassic Bielany-Tyniec refuge  The main motives for the protection of this area include plant and animal wildlife and the area's geomorphological features and landscape  Another part of the city is located within the ecological 'corridor' of the Vistula River valley  This corridor is also assessed as being of international significance as part of the Pan-European ecological network  The city centre is situated on the left (northern) bank of the river 

Climate
Officially, Kraków has a temperate oceanic climate, denoted by Köppen classification as Cfb, best defined as a semicontinental climate  In older reference periods it was classified as a warm summer continental climate (Dfb)  By classification of Wincenty Okołowicz, it has a warm temperate climate in the centre of continental Europe with the "fusion" of different features Due to its geographic location, the city may be under marine influence, sometimes Arctic influence, but without direct influence, giving the city variable meteorological conditions over short spaces of time Being towards Eastern Europe and a relatively considerable distance from the sea, Krakow has significant temperature differences according to the progress of different air masses, having four defined seasons of the year  Average temperatures in summer range from 18 6 to 20 4 °C (65 to 69 °F) and in winter from −0 6 to 0 8 °C (31 to 33 °F)  The average annual temperature is 10 0 °C (50 °F)  In summer temperatures often exceed 25 °C (77 °F), even reaching 30 °C (86 °F), while in winter temperatures drop to −5 °C (23 °F) at night and about 0 °C (32 °F) during the day  During very cold nights the temperature can drop to −15 °C (5 °F)  The city lies near the Tatra Mountains, there are often occurrences of halny blowing (a foehn wind), causing temperatures to rise rapidly, and even in winter reach up to 20 °C (68 °F) In relation to Warsaw, temperatures are very similar for most of the year, except that in the colder months southern Poland has a larger daily temperature range, more moderate winds, generally more rainy days and with greater chances of clear skies on average, especially in winter  The higher sun angle also allows for a longer growing season  In addition, for older data there was less sun than the capital of the country, about 30 minutes daily per year, but both have small differences in relative humidity and the direction of the winds is northeast The climate table below presents weather data from 2000 to 2012, although the official Köppen reference period was from 1981 to 2010 (therefore not being technically a climatological normal)  According to ongoing measurements, the temperature has increased during these years as compared with the last series  This increase averages about 0 6 °C (1 1 °F) over all months  Warming is most pronounced during the winter months, with an increase of more than 1 0 °C (1 8 °F) in January 

Cityscape
Developed over many centuries, Kraków provides a showcase setting for many historic styles of architecture  As the city expanded, so too did the architectural achievements of its builders  It is for this reason that the variations in style and urban planning are so easily recognisable Built from its earliest nucleus outward, and having escaped much of the destruction endured by Poland during the 20th-century wars, Kraków's many architectural monuments can typically be seen in historical order by walking from the city centre out, towards its later districts  Kraków is one of the few medieval towns in Poland that does not have a historic Ratusz town hall in its Main Square, because it has not survived the Partitions of Poland Kraków's historic centre, which includes the Old Town, Kazimierz and the Wawel Castle, was included as the first of its kind on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1978  The Stare Miasto is the most prominent example of an old town in the country  For many centuries Kraków was the royal capital of Poland, until Sigismund III Vasa relocated the court to Warsaw in 1596  The whole district is bisected by the Royal Road, the coronation route traversed by the Kings of Poland  The Route begins at St  Florian's Church outside the northern flank of the old city-walls in the medieval suburb of Kleparz; passes the Barbican of Kraków (Barbakan) built in 1499, and enters Stare Miasto through the Florian Gate  It leads down Floriańska Street through the Main Square, and up Grodzka to Wawel, the former seat of Polish royalty, overlooking the Vistula river  Old Town attracts visitors from all over the World  Kraków historic centre is one of the 13 places in Poland that are included in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites  The architectural design of the district had survived all cataclysms of the past and retained its original form coming from the medieval times 

In addition to the old town, the city's district of Kazimierz is particularly notable for its many renaissance buildings and picturesque streets, as well as the historic Jewish quarter located in the north-eastern part of Kazimierz  Kazimierz was founded in the 14th century to the south-east of the city centre and soon became a wealthy, well-populated area where construction of imposing properties became commonplace  Perhaps the most important feature of medieval Kazimierz was the only major, permanent bridge (Pons Regalis) across the northern arm of the Vistula  This natural barrier used to separate Kazimierz from the Old Town for several centuries, while the bridge connected Kraków to the Wieliczka Salt Mine and the lucrative Hungarian trade route  The last structure at this location (at the end of modern Stradom Street) was dismantled in 1880 when the northern arm of the river was filled in with earth and rock, and subsequently built over 

By the 1930s, Kraków had 120 officially registered synagogues and prayer houses that spanned across the old city  Much of Jewish intellectual life had moved to new centres like Podgórze  This in turn, led to the redevelopment and renovation of much of Kazimierz and the development of new districts in Kraków  Most historic buildings in central Kazimierz today are preserved in their original form  Some old buildings, however, were not repaired after the devastation brought by the Second World War, and have remained empty  Most recent efforts at restoring the historic neighborhoods gained new impetus around 1993  Kazimierz is now a well-visited area, seeing a booming growth in Jewish-themed restaurants, bars, bookstores and souvenir shops 

As the city of Kraków began to expand further under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the new architectural styles also developed  Key buildings from the 19th and early 20th centuries in Kraków include the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, the directorate of the Polish State Railways as well as the original complex of Kraków Główny railway station and the city's Academy of Economics  It was also at around that time that Kraków's first radial boulevards began to appear, with the city undergoing a large-scale program aimed at transforming the ancient Polish capital into a sophisticated regional centre of the Austro-Hungarian Empire  New representative government buildings and multi-story tenement houses were built at around that time  Much of the urban-planning beyond the walls of the Old Town was done by Polish architects and engineers trained in Vienna  Some major projects of the era include the development of the Jagiellonian University's new premises and the building of the Collegium Novum just west of the Old Town  The imperial style planning of the city's further development continued until the return of Poland's independence, following the First World War  Early modernist style in Kraków is represented by such masterpieces as the Palace of Art by Franciszek Mączyński and the 'House under the Globe'  Secession style architecture, which had arrived in Kraków from Vienna, became popular towards the end of the Partitions 

With Poland's regained independence came the major change in the fortunes of Kraków—now the second most important city of a sovereign nation  The state began to make new plans for the city development and commissioned a number of representative buildings  The predominant style for new projects was modernism with various interpretations of the art-deco style  Important buildings constructed in the style of Polish modernism include the Feniks 'LOT' building on Basztowa Street, the Feniks department store on the Main Square and the Municipal Savings Bank on Szczepański Square  The Józef Piłsudski house is also of note as a particularly good example of interwar architecture in the city After the Second World War, new government turned toward Soviet influence and the Stalinist monumentalism  The doctrine of Socialist realism in Poland, as in other countries of the People's Republics, was enforced from 1949 to 1956  It involved all domains of art, but its most spectacular achievements were made in the field of urban design  The guidelines for this new trend were spelled-out in a 1949 resolution of the National Council of Party Architects  Architecture was to become a weapon in establishing the new social order by the communists  The ideological impact of urban design was valued more than aesthetics  It aimed at expressing persistence and power  This form of architecture was implemented in the new industrial district of Nowa Huta with apartment blocks constructed according to a Stalinist blueprint, with repetitious courtyards and wide, tree-lined avenues 

Since the style of the Renaissance was generally regarded as the most revered in old Polish architecture, it was also used for augmenting Poland's Socialist national format  However, in the course of incorporating the principles of Socialist realism, there were quite a few deviations introduced by the communists  One of these was to more closely reflect Soviet architecture, which resulted in the majority of works blending into one another  From 1953, critical opinions in the Party were increasingly frequent, and the doctrine was given up in 1956 marking the end of Stalinism  The soc-realist centre of Nowa Huta is considered to be a meritorious monument of the times  This period in postwar architecture was followed by the mass-construction of large Panel System apartment blocks, most of which were built outside the city centre and thus do not encroach upon the beauty of the old or new towns  Some examples of the new style (e g , Hotel Cracovia) recently listed as heritage monuments were built during the latter half of the 20th century in Kraków After the Revolutions of 1989 and the birth of the Third Republic in the latter half of the 20th century, a number of new architectural projects were completed, including the construction of large business parks and commercial facilities such as the Galeria Krakowska, or infrastructure investments like the Kraków Fast Tram  A good example of this would be the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology designed by Arata Isozaki, the 2007-built Pawilon Wyspiański 2000, which is used as a multi-purpose information and exhibition space, or the Małopolski Garden of Arts (Małopolski Ogród Sztuki), a multi-purpose exhibition and theatre complex located in the historic Old Town 

Parks and gardens
There are about 40 parks in Kraków including dozens of gardens and forests  Several, like the Planty Park, Botanical Garden, Zoological Garden, Royal Garden, Park Krakowski, Jordan Park and Błonia Park are located in the centre of the city; with Zakrzówek, Lasek Wolski forest, Strzelecki Park and Park Lotników (among others) in the surrounding districts  Parks cover about 318 5 hectares (787 acres), 1 2 sq mi) of the city 
The Planty Park is the best-known park in Kraków  It was established between 1822 and 1830 in place of the old city walls, forming a green belt around the Old Town  It consists of a chain of smaller gardens designed in various styles and adorned with monuments  The park has an area of 21 hectares (52 acres) and a length of 4 kilometres (2 5 mi), forming a scenic walkway popular with Cracovians The Jordan Park founded in 1889 by Dr Henryk Jordan, was the first public park of its kind in Europe  The park built on the banks of the Rudawa river was equipped with running and exercise tracks, playgrounds, the swimming pool, amphitheatre, pavilions, and a pond for boat rowing and water bicycles  It is located on the grounds of a larger Kraków's Błonia Park  The less prominent Park Krakowski was founded in 1885 by Stanisław Rehman but has since been greatly reduced in size because of rapid real estate development  It was a popular destination point with many Cracovians at the end of the 19th century 

Environment
There are five nature reserves in Kraków with a total area of 48 6 hectares (120 acres)  Smaller green zones constitute parts of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland Jurassic Landscape Parks' Board, which deals with the protection areas of the Polish Jura  Under its jurisdiction are: the Bielany-Tyniec Landscape Park (Park Bielańsko-Tyniecki), Tenczynek Landscape Park (Park Tencziński) and Kraków Valleys Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Dolinki Krakowskie), with their watersheds  All natural reserves of the Polish Jura Chain are part of the CORINE biotopes programme due to their unique flora, fauna, geomorphology and landscape  The western part of Kraków constitutes the so-called Obszar Krakowski ecological network, including the ecological corridor of the Vistula river  The southern slopes of limestone hills provide conditions for the development of thermophilous vegetation, grasslands and scrubs 
The city is spaced along an extended latitudinal transect of the Vistula River Valley with a network of tributaries including its right tributary Wilga, and left: Rudawa, Białucha, Dłubnia and Sanka  The rivers and their valleys along with bodies of water are some of the most interesting natural wonders of Kraków 
Kraków and its environment, surrounded by mountains, suffer from Europe's dirtiest air pollution because of smog, caused by burning coal for heating, especially in winter 

Governance
The Kraków City Council has 43 elected members, one of whom is the mayor, or President of Kraków, elected every four years  The election of the City Council and of the local head of government, which takes place at the same time, is based on legislation introduced on 20 June 2002  The President of Kraków, re-elected for his fourth term in 2014, is Jacek Majchrowski  Several members of the Polish national Parliament (Sejm) are elected from the Kraków constituency  The city's official symbols include a coat of arms, a flag, a seal, and a banner 

The responsibilities of Kraków's president include drafting and implementing resolutions, enacting city bylaws, managing the city budget, employing city administrators, and preparing against floods and natural disasters  The president fulfills his duties with the help of the City Council, city managers and city inspectors  In the 1990s, the city government was reorganised to better differentiate between its political agenda and administrative functions  As a result, the Office of Public Information was created to handle inquiries and foster communication between city departments and citizens at large In 2000, the city government introduced a new long-term program called "Safer City" in cooperation with the Police, Traffic, Social Services, Fire, Public Safety, and the Youth Departments  Subsequently, the number of criminal offences dropped by 3 percent between 2000 and 2001, and the rate of detection increased by 1 4 percent to a total of 30 2 percent in the same period  The city is receiving help in carrying out the program from all educational institutions and the local media, including TV, radio and the press 

Districts
Kraków is divided into 18 administrative districts (dzielnica) or boroughs, each with a degree of autonomy within its own municipal government  Prior to March 1991, the city had been divided into four quarters which still give a sense of identity to Kraków – the towns of Podgórze, Nowa Huta, and Krowodrza which were amalgamated into the city of Kraków as it expanded, and the ancient town centre of Kraków itself 

The oldest neighborhoods of Kraków were incorporated into the city before the late-18th century  They include the Old Town (Stare Miasto), once contained within the city defensive walls and now encircled by the Planty park; the Wawel District, which is the site of the Royal Castle and the cathedral; Stradom and Kazimierz with its historic Jewish quarter, the latter originally divided into Christian and Jewish quarters; as well as the ancient town of Kleparz 
Major districts added in the 19th and 20th centuries include Podgórze, which until 1915, was a separate town on the southern bank of the Vistula, and Nowa Huta, east of the city centre, built after World War II 

Among the most notable historic districts of the city are: Wawel Hill, home to Wawel Castle and Wawel Cathedral, where many historic Polish kings are buried; the medieval Old Town, with its Main Market Square (200 metres (660 ft) square); dozens of old churches and museums; the 14th-century buildings of the Jagiellonian University; and Kazimierz, the historical centre of Kraków's Jewish social and religious life The Old Town district of Kraków is home to about 6,000 historic sites and more than 2,000,000 works of art  Its rich variety of heritage architecture includes Romanesque (e g , St  Andrew's Church, Kraków), Renaissance, Baroque and Gothic buildings  Kraków's palaces, churches, theatres and mansions display a great variety of color, architectural details, stained glass, paintings, sculptures, and furnishings In the Market Square stands the Gothic St  Mary's Basilica (Kościół Mariacki)  It was rebuilt in the 14th-century and features the famous wooden altar (Altarpiece of Veit Stoss), the largest Gothic altarpiece in the world, carved by Veit Stoss  From the church's main tower a trumpet call (hejnał mariacki), is sounded every hour  The melody, which used to announce the opening and closing of city gates, ends unexpectedly in midstream  According to legend, the tune was played during the 13th-century Tatar invasion by a guard warning citizens against the attack  He was shot by an archer of the invading Tatar forces whilst playing, the bugle call breaking off at the moment he died  The story was recounted in a book published in 1928 called The Trumpeter of Krakow, by Eric P  Kelly, which won a Newbery Award 
The current divisions were introduced by the Kraków City Hall on 19 April 1995  Districts were assigned Roman numerals as well as the name: Stare Miasto (I), Grzegórzki (II), Prądnik Czerwony (III), Prądnik Biały (IV), Łobzów (V), Bronowice (VI), Zwierzyniec (VII), Dębniki (VIII), Łagiewniki-Borek Fałęcki (IX), Swoszowice (X), Podgórze Duchackie (XI), Bieżanów-Prokocim (XII), Podgórze (XIII), Czyżyny (XIV), Mistrzejowice (XV), Bieńczyce (XVI), Wzgórza Krzesławickie (XVII), and Nowa Huta (XVIII) 

Map of districts of the City of Kraków

Economy
Kraków is one of Poland's most important economic centres and the economic hub of the Lesser Poland (Małopolska) region  Since the fall of communism, the private sector has been growing steadily  There are about 50 large multinational companies in the city, including Google, Uber, IBM, Shell, UBS, HSBC, Motorola, Aptiv, MAN, General Electric, ABB, Aon, Akamai, Cisco, Hitachi, Altria, Capgemini, and Sabre Holdings, along with other British, German and Scandinavian-based firms  The city is also the global headquarters for Comarch, an enterprise software house  Kraków is the second most-visited city in Poland (after Warsaw)  According to the World Investment Report 2011 by the UN Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Kraków is also the most emergent city location for investment in global BPO projects (Business Process Outsourcing) in the world 

In 2011, the city budget, which is presented by the Mayor of Kraków on 15 November annually, has a projected revenue of 3,500,000,000 złoty  The primary sources of revenue were as follows: 14% from the municipal taxation on real estate properties and the use of amenities, 30% in transfers from the national budget, and 34% in state subsidies  Projected expenditures, totaling 3,520,000,000 złoty, included 21% in city development costs and 79% in city maintenance costs  Of the maintenance costs, as much as 39% were spent on education and childcare  The City of Kraków's development costs included; 41% toward construction of roads, transport, and communication (combined), and 25% for the city's infrastructure and environment  The city has a high bond credit rating, and some 60% of the population is under the age of 45 Unity Tower was completed in 2020 after almost 30 years, creating a new business and residential centre  It is the tallest building in the city 

Entrepreneurship
Krakow has a long history of entrepreneurship, perhaps best reflected in the fact the most important square in the city is called the Main Market Square (Rynek Główny) 

Startup community
Since the early 2000s a startup community has emerged in Krakow, In the early days the Krakow: Europe's Silicon Valley web page was the on line hub of the community  Most important now is the OMGKRK foundation and its Facebook group which has over 5000 members and acts as a community notice board for the startup community 

Entrepreneurs
Jan Thurzo, a Hungarian entrepreneur and mining engineer who was from 1477 an Alderman and later Mayor of Kraków  He established the Fugger–Thurzo company with Jakob Fugger  Fugger monopolised copper mining and trade in the Holy Roman Empire around 1500 and has been described as the richest man who has ever lived Michal Hornstein, born in Krakow, and graduate of a Krakow Business School, escaped from a Nazi death camp transport  He moved to Montreal in 1951 where he founded Federal Construction Ltd , a real estate company focussing on apartments and shopping centres  He was recognised as a major philanthropist in Montreal and supported the arts, education and medicine, for example with this Gift of Old Masters to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts 
Helena Rubinstein, born in Kraków, established the Helena Rubenstein inc  cosmetics company which was sold to Colgate Palmolive in 1973 for $142 3 million in stock and cash, and was said to be one of the world's richest women 
Janusz Filipiak established the successful IT company Comarch in 1993 which in 2018 employed 5500 people, and sponsors the Cracovia football team 
Piotr Wilam established the Pascal Publishing House, the internet portal Onet pl and seed capital fund Innovation Nest 
Rafal Brzoska Rafal Brzoska is the founder and CEO of InPost, which went public in January 2021 raising $3 billion 

Knowledge and innovation community
Kraków is one of the co-location centres of Knowledge and Innovation Community (Sustainable Energy) of The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) InnoEnergy is an integrated alliance of reputable organisations from the education, research and industry sectors  It was created based on long standing links of cooperation as well as the principles of excellence  The partners have jointly developed a strategy to tackle the weaknesses of the European innovation landscape in the field of sustainable energy 

Transport
Public transport is based on a fairly dense network of tram and bus routes operated by a municipal company, supplemented by a number of private minibus operators  Local trains connect some of the suburbs  The bulk of the city's historic area has been turned into a pedestrian zone with rickshaws and horse-drawn carriages; however, the trams run within a three-block radius  The historic means of transportation in the city can be examined at the Museum of Municipal Engineering in the Kazimierz district, with many old trams, cars and buses 

Railway connections are available to most Polish cities, e g  Katowice, Częstochowa, Szczecin, Gdynia and Warsaw  International destinations include Bratislava, Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Hamburg, Lviv, Kyiv, and Odesa (June–September)  The main railway station is located just outside the Old Town District and is well-served by public transport 
Kraków's airport, officially named Kraków John Paul II International Airport (IATA: KRK), is located 11 km (7 mi) west of the city  Direct trains cover the route between Kraków Główny train station and the airport in 20 minutes  Kraków Airport served around 5,800,000 passengers in 2017  Also, the Katowice International Airport is located 80 kilometres (50 miles) or about 75 minutes from Kraków In Autumn 2016 Poland's oldest Bicycle-sharing system was modernized and now offers 1,500 bikes at 150 stations under the name of Wavelo (pl), which is owned by BikeU of the French multinational company Egis 

Demographics
Kraków had a recorded population of 774,839 in 2019  Selected demographic indicators are presented in a table (below), compiled on the basis of only the population living in Kraków permanently  The larger metropolitan area of the city encompasses a territory in which (in 2010) 1,393,893 inhabitants live Already in the Middle Ages, the population of Kraków consisting of numerous ethnic groups, began to grow rapidly  It doubled between 1100 and 1300 from 5,000 to 10,000, and in 1400 counted 14,000 inhabitants  By 1550, the population of metropolitan Kraków was 18,000; although it decreased to 15,000 in the next fifty years due to calamity  By the early 17th century the Kraków population had reached 28,000 inhabitants In the historical 1931 census preceding World War II, 78 1% of Cracovians declared Polish as their primary language, with Yiddish or Hebrew at 20 9%, Ukrainian 0 4%, German 0 3%, and Russian 0 1%  The ravages of history have greatly reduced the percentage of ethnic minorities living in Kraków 
In the last two decades, Kraków has seen a large growth of immigrant population  In the 2002 census, only 0 25% of respondents living in the city declared a non-Polish nationality primarily Ukrainian and Russian  As of 2019, it was estimated that foreigners accounted for as much as 10% of the city's population, with Ukrainians being the most numerous group (between 11,000 and 50,000) 
Population growth in Kraków since 1791

Religion
The metropolitan city of Kraków is known as the city of churches  The abundance of landmark, historic temples along with the plenitude of monasteries and convents earned the city a countrywide reputation as the "Northern Rome" in the past  The churches of Kraków comprise over 120 places of worship (2007) of which over 65 were built in the 20th century  More are still being added  In addition to Roman Catholicism, other denominations present include Jehovah's Witnesses, Mariavite Church, Polish Catholic Church, Polish Orthodox Church, Protestantism and Latter-Day Saints As of 2017, weekly Mass attendance in the Archdiocese of Krakow was 49 9 percent, above the national Polish average of 38 3 percent 

Kraków contains also an outstanding collection of monuments of Jewish sacred architecture unmatched anywhere in Poland  Kraków was an influential centre of Jewish spiritual life before the outbreak of World War II, with all its manifestations of religious observance from Orthodox to Hasidic and Reform flourishing side by side  There were at least 90 synagogues in Kraków active before the Nazi German invasion of Poland, serving its burgeoning Jewish community of 60,000–80,000 (out of the city's total population of 237,000), established since the early 12th century Most synagogues of Kraków were ruined during World War II by the Nazis who despoiled them of all ceremonial objects, and used them as storehouses for ammunition, firefighting equipment, as general storage facilities and stables  The post-Holocaust Jewish population of the city had dwindled to about 5,900 before the end of the 1940s  Poland was the only Eastern Bloc country to allow free Jewish aliyah (emigration to Israel) without visas or exit permits upon the conclusion of World War II  By contrast, Stalin forcibly kept Russian Jews in the Soviet Union, as agreed to in the Yalta Conference  In recent time, thanks to efforts of the local Jewish and Polish organisations including foreign financial aid from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, many synagogues underwent major restorations and serve religious and tourist purposes 

Education
Kraków is a major centre of education  Twenty-four institutions of higher education offer courses in the city, with more than 200,000 students  Jagiellonian University, the oldest university in Poland and ranked by the Times Higher Education Supplement as the second-best university in the country, was founded in 1364 as Studium Generale and renamed in 1817 to commemorate the royal Jagiellonian dynasty of Poland and Lithuania  Its principal academic asset is the Jagiellonian Library, with more than 4 million volumes, including a large collection of medieval manuscripts like Copernicus' De Revolutionibus and the Balthasar Behem Codex  With 42,325 students (2005) and 3,605 academic staff, the Jagiellonian University is also one of the leading research centres in Poland  Famous historical figures connected with the university include Saint John Cantius, Jan Długosz, Nicolaus Copernicus, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski, Jan Kochanowski, King John III Sobieski, Pope John Paul II and Nobel laureates Ivo Andrić and Wisława Szymborska AGH University of Science and Technology, established in 1919, is the largest technical university in Poland, with more than 15 faculties and student enrollment exceeding 30,000  It was ranked by the Polish edition of Newsweek as the best technical university in the country in 2004  During its 80-year history, more than 73,000 students graduated from AGH with master's or bachelor's degrees  Some 3,600 persons were granted the degree of Doctor of Science, and about 900 obtained the qualification of Habilitated Doctor 

Other institutions of higher learning include Academy of Music in Kraków first conceived as conservatory in 1888, one of the oldest and most prestigious conservatories in Central Europe and a major concert venue; Kraków University of Economics, established in 1925; Pedagogical University, in operation since 1946; Agricultural University of Kraków, offering courses since 1890 (initially as a part of Jagiellonian University); Academy of Fine Arts, the oldest Fine Arts Academy in Poland, founded by the Polish painter Jan Matejko; Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts; The Pontifical Academy of Theology; AGH University of Science and Technology and Krakow University of Technology, which has more than 37,000 graduates 
Scientific societies and their branches in Kraków conduct scientific and educational work in local and countrywide scale  The Academy of Learning, Krakow Scientific Society, Association of Law Students' Library of the Jagiellonian University, Polish Copernicus Society of Naturalists, Polish Geological Society, Polish Theological Society in Kraków, Polish Section of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and Polish Society for Synchrotron Radiation all have their main seats in Kraków 

Culture
Kraków was named the official European Capital of Culture for the year 2000 by the European Union  It is a major attraction for both local and international tourists, attracting nearly 13 million visitors a year  Major landmarks include the Main Market Square with St  Mary's Basilica and the Sukiennice Cloth Hall, the Wawel Castle, the National Art Museum, the Zygmunt Bell at the Wawel Cathedral, and the medieval St  Florian's Gate with the Barbican along the Royal Coronation Route  Kraków has 28 museums and public art galleries  Among them is the Czartoryski Museum featuring works by Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt as well as the EUROPEUM - European Culture Centre and the Archaeological Museum of Kraków whose collection highlights include the Zbruch Idol and the Bronocice Pot 

Museums and national art galleries
Kraków's 28 museums are separated into the national and municipal museums; the city also has a number of art collections and public art galleries  The National Museum, established in 1879, as well as the National Art Collection on Wawel Hill, are all accessible to the general public 
The National Art Collection is located at the Wawel, the former residence of three dynasties of Polish monarchs  Royal Chambers feature art, period furniture, Polish and European paintings, collectibles, and a major collection of 16th-century monumental Flemish tapestries  Wawel Treasury and Armoury features Polish royal memorabilia, jewels, applied art, and 15th- to 18th-century arms  The Wawel Eastern Collection features Turkish tents and military accessories  The National Museum holds the largest body of artworks in the country with collections consisting of several hundred thousand items kept in big part in the Main Building at Ul  3 Maja, although there are eleven other separate divisions of the museum in the city, one of the most popular being The Gallery of the 19th Century Polish Art in Sukiennice with the collection of some of the best known paintings and sculptures of the Young Poland movement  The latest division called Europeum with Brueghel among a hundred Western European paintings was inaugurated in 2013 

Other notable museums in Kraków include the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology (at M  Konopnickiej 26), Stanisław Wyspiański Museum (at 11 Szczepanska St), Jan Matejko Manor House in Krzesławice, – a museum devoted to the master painter and his life, Emeryk Hutten Czapski Museum, and Józef Mehoffer Manor The Rynek Underground museum, under the main square, showcases Kraków's over 1,000-year history though its streets, activities and artifacts  The construction of the museum was preceded by extensive excavations which started in 2005 and, as more and more was found, continued eventually until 2010 
Krakil - Museum of illusions is a space where illusions meet scientific inventions and the arts: physics and optics are displayed together with artworks and classical riddles 
The Polish Aviation Museum, considered the world's eighth best aviation museum by CNN, features over 200 aircraft including a Sopwith Camel among other First World War biplanes; a comprehensive display of aero engines; and a complete collection of airplane types developed by Poland after 1945  Activities of smaller museums around Kraków and in the Lesser Poland region are promoted and supported by the Małopolska Institute of Culture; the Institute organises annual Małopolska Heritage Days  The Lenin Museum was open from 1954 to 1989 

Performing arts
The city has several famous theatres, including the Narodowy Stary Teatr (the National Old Theatre), the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre, the Bagatela Theatre, the Ludowy Theatre, and the Groteska Theatre of Puppetry, as well as the Opera Krakowska and Kraków Operetta  The city's principal concert hall and the home of the Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra is the Kraków Philharmonic (Filharmonia Krakowska) built in 1931 Kraków hosts many annual and biannual artistic events, some of international significance such as the Misteria Paschalia (Baroque music), Sacrum-Profanum (contemporary music), the Krakow Screen Festival (popular music), the Festival of Polish Music (classical music), Dedications (theatre), the Kraków Film Festival (one of Europe's oldest short films events), Etiuda&Anima International Film Festival (the oldest international art-film event in Poland), Biennial of Graphic Arts, and the Jewish Culture Festival  Kraków was the residence of two Polish Nobel laureates in literature, Wisława Szymborska and Czesław Miłosz; a third Nobel laureate, the Yugoslav writer Ivo Andric, lived and studied in Kraków  Other former longtime residents include internationally renowned Polish film directors Andrzej Wajda and Roman Polanski, both of whom are Academy Award winners 

Music
Opera Krakowska one of the leading national opera companies, stages 200 performances each year including ballet, operettas and musicals  It has, in its main repertoire, the greatest world and Polish opera classics  The Opera moved into its first permanent House in the autumn of 2008  It is in charge also of the Summer Festival of Opera and Operetta 
Kraków is home to two major Polish festivals of early music presenting forgotten Baroque oratorios and operas: Opera Rara, and Misteria Paschalia  Meanwhile, Capella Cracoviensis runs the Music in Old Krakow International Festival 
Academy of Music in Kraków, founded in 1888, is known worldwide as the alma mater of the contemporary Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki and it is also the only one in Poland to have two winners of the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw among its alumni  The academy organises concerts of its students and guests throughout the whole year Music organisations and venues include: Kraków Philharmonic, Sinfonietta Cracovia (a k a  the Orchestra of the Royal City of Kraków), the Polish Radio Choir of Kraków, Organum Academic Choir, the Mixed Mariański Choir (Mieszany Chór Mariański), Kraków Academic Choir of the Jagiellonian University, the Kraków Chamber Choir, Amar Corde String Quartet, Consortium Iagellonicum Baroque Orchestra of the Jagiellonian University, Brass Band of T  Sendzimir Steelworks, and Camerata Chamber Orchestra of Radio Kraków 

Tourism
According to official statistics, in 2019 Kraków was visited by over 14 million tourists including 3 3 million foreign travellers  The visitors spent over 7 5 billion zlotys (ca  €1 7 billion) in the city (without travel costs and pre-booked accommodation)  Most foreign tourists came from Germany (14 2%), United Kingdom (13 9%), Italy (11 5%), France (11 2%), Spain (10 4%) and Ukraine (5 4%)  The Kraków tour-guide from the Lesser Poland Visitors Bureau indicated that not all statistics are recorded due to the considerable number of those who come, staying in readily available private rooms paid for by cash, especially from Eastern Europe The main reasons for visiting the city are: its historical monuments, recreation as well as relatives and friends (placing third in the ranking), religion and business  There are 120 quality hotels in Kraków (usually about half full) offering 15,485 overnight accommodations  The average stay last for about 4 to 7 nights  The survey conducted among the travelers showed that they enjoyed the city's friendliness most, with 90% of Polish tourists and 87% foreigners stating that they would recommend visiting it  Notable points of interest outside the city include the Wieliczka salt mine, the Tatra Mountains 100 km (62 mi) to the south, the historic city of Częstochowa (north-west), the well-preserved former Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, and Ojcowski National Park, which includes the Renaissance Castle at Pieskowa Skała  Kraków has been awarded a number of top international rankings such as the 1st place in the Top city-break destinations 2014 survey conducted by the British consumer association Which? 

Sports
Kraków was the host city of the 2014 FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship and 2016 European Men's Handball Championship  It has also been selected as the European City of Sport for 2014 Football is one of the most popular sports in the city  The two teams with the largest following are thirteen-time Polish champion Wisła Kraków, and five-time champion Cracovia, both founded in 1906 as the oldest still existing in Poland  They have been involved in the most intense rivalry in the country and one of the most intense in all of Europe, known as the Holy War (Święta Wojna)  Other football clubs include Hutnik Kraków, Wawel Kraków, Wieczysta Kraków and one-time Polish champion Garbarnia Kraków  There is also the first-league rugby club Juvenia Kraków  Kraków has a number of additional, equally valued sports teams including twelve-time Polish ice hockey champions Cracovia and the twenty-time women's basketball champions Wisła Kraków 

The Cracovia Marathon, with thousands of participants from two dozen countries annually, has been held in the city since 2002  Poland's first F1 racing driver Robert Kubica was born and brought up in Kraków, as was former WWE tag team champion Ivan Putski, and Top 10 ranked women's tennis player Agnieszka Radwańska 
The construction of a new Tauron Arena Kraków began in May 2010; for concerts, indoor athletics, hockey, basketball, futsal and other events  The facility area has 61,434 m2, with maximum area of the arena court of 4 546 m2  The average capacity is 18,000 for concerts, and 15,000 for sport events, with maximum number of spectators being 22,000  The Arena boasts Poland's largest LED media façade, with a total surface of 5,200 m2 of LED strip lighting, wrapping around the stadium, and one of Europe's largest LED screens, measuring over 540 m2 Kraków was bidding to host the 2022 Winter Olympics with Jasná but the bid was rejected by a majority (69 72%) of the vote in a referendum on 16 May 2014  The referendum was organised after a wave of criticism from citizens who believed that the Olympics would not promote the city  The organizing committee of "Krakow 2022" spent almost $40,000 to pay for a citizen-approved logo, but many citizens considered this a waste of public money  The committee was rumoured to have fraudulently used several million zlotys for unknown expenses 
In May 2019, the Polish Olympic Committee announced Kraków as host of the Polish bid for the 2023 European Games, On 22 June 2019, The European Olympic Committees at the General Assembly in Minsk, Belarus announced that Kraków will host the 2023 edition 

Notable people
International relations
Contemporary foreign names for the city
Kraków is referred to by various names in different languages  An old English name for the city is Cracow; though it has become less common in recent decades, some sources still use it  The city is known in Czech, Slovak and Serbian as Krakov, in Hungarian as Krakkó, in Lithuanian as Krokuva, in Finnish as Krakova, in German and Dutch as Krakau, in Latin, Spanish and Italian as Cracovia, in French as Cracovie, in Portuguese as Cracóvia and in Russian as Краков  Ukrainian and Yiddish languages refer to it as Krakiv (Краків) and Kroke (קראָקע) respectively 

Twin towns and sister cities
Kraków is twinned, or maintains close relations, with 36 cities around the world:

See also
Cracow Circle Thomism
Tourism in Poland
Context 3: Passage 1:
Justice League (film)
Justice League is a 2017 American superhero film based on the DC Comics superhero team of the same name  Produced by Warner Bros  Pictures, DC Films, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, Atlas Entertainment, and Cruel and Unusual Films and distributed by Warner Bros  Pictures, it is the fifth installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU)  Directed by Zack Snyder and written by Chris Terrio and Joss Whedon, the film features an ensemble cast including Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Jeremy Irons, Diane Lane, Connie Nielsen, and J  K  Simmons  In the film, following the events of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) Batman and Wonder Woman recruit The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg after the death of Superman to save the world from the catastrophic threat of Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons 
Warner Bros  began to develop a live-action Justice League film in 2007 with George Miller set to direct, but the project was canceled due to production delays and budgetary concerns  Principal photography took place from April to October 2016  After Snyder stepped down from the film following the death of his daughter, Whedon was hired to oversee the remainder of post-production, including writing and directing additional scenes, as well as reshooting a large portion of the film, which changed many aspects of it; Snyder ultimately retained sole credit as director  With an estimated production budget of $300 million, Justice League is one of the most expensive films ever made 
Justice League premiered in Los Angeles on November 13, 2017, and was released in the United States four days later  The film grossed $657 9 million worldwide against an assumed break-even point of $750 million, becoming a box office bomb and losing Warner Bros  an estimated $60 million  It received mixed reviews from critics, with criticism aimed towards the plot, pacing, generic villain, cinematography, and computer-generated imagery, while its humor and light tone were met with polarized responses, although the action sequences and performances (particularly Gadot and Miller) were praised  Whedon's major involvement during post-production also received harsh criticism especially from the cast, particularly Gadot and Fisher  A director's cut, titled Zack Snyder's Justice League, was released on HBO Max in March 2021, after fans had begun to advocate for Snyder's original version of the film since the film's theatrical release 

Plot
Thousands of years ago, Steppenwolf and his legions of Parademons attempted to take over the Earth using the combined energies of the three Mother Boxes  The attempt was foiled by a unified alliance including the Olympian Gods, Amazons, Atlanteans, humanity, and extraterrestrial beings  After Steppenwolf's army was repelled, the Mother Boxes were separated and hidden in different locations  In the present, humanity is still in mourning two years after the death of Superman, which triggered the Mother Boxes' reactivation and Steppenwolf's return to Earth  Steppenwolf aims to gather the boxes to form "The Unity", which will destroy Earth's ecology and terraform it in the image of Steppenwolf's homeworld 
Steppenwolf retrieves one Mother Box from Themyscira, prompting Queen Hippolyta to warn her daughter Diana  Diana joins Bruce Wayne in an attempt to unite other metahumans to their cause: Wayne goes after Arthur Curry and Barry Allen, while Diana locates Victor Stone  Wayne fails to persuade Curry but finds Allen enthusiastic  Although Diana fails to persuade Stone, he agrees to help them locate the threat  Stone joins after his father Silas and several other S T A R  Labs employees are kidnapped by Steppenwolf, who is seeking the Mother Box protected by humanity 
Steppenwolf attacks an Atlantean outpost to retrieve the next Mother Box, forcing Curry into action  Stone retrieves the last Mother Box for the group, revealing that his father used the Mother Box to rebuild Stone's body after an accident almost cost him his life  Wayne decides to use the Mother Box to resurrect Superman, not only to help them fight off Steppenwolf's invasion but also to restore hope to humanity 
Clark Kent's body is exhumed and placed in the amniotic fluid of the genesis chamber in the Kryptonian scout ship, along with the Mother Box, successfully resurrecting Superman  However, Superman's memories have not returned, and he attacks the group  Batman enacts his contingency plan: Lois Lane  Superman calms down and leaves with her to his family home in Smallville, where his memories come back  In the turmoil, the last Mother Box is left unguarded, allowing Steppenwolf to retrieve it  Without Superman to aid them, the five heroes travel to a village in Russia where Steppenwolf aims to unite the Mother Boxes once again to remake Earth  They fight their way through the Parademons to reach Steppenwolf but are unable to distract him enough for Stone to separate the Mother Boxes  Superman arrives and assists Allen in evacuating the city, as well as assisting Stone in separating the Mother Boxes  The team defeats Steppenwolf, who, overcome with fear, is attacked by his own Parademons 
After the battle, Bruce and Diana agree to set up a base of operations for the team, with room for more members  As the team establishes, Diana steps back into the public spotlight as a heroine; Barry acquires a job in Central City's police department, impressing his father; Victor continues to enhance his abilities with his father in S T A R  Labs; Arthur continues protecting people on the seas; Superman resumes his life as reporter Clark Kent and as protector of Earth 
In a post-credits scene, Lex Luthor has escaped from Arkham Asylum and recruits Slade Wilson to form a league of their own 

Cast
Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne / Batman: A wealthy socialite, and the owner of Wayne Enterprises  He dedicates himself to protecting Gotham City from its criminal underworld as a highly trained, masked vigilante equipped with various tools and weapons  Affleck noted on how the film gave him an opportunity to reinvent Batman and portray a more classic take on the character  He described that in the film, audiences will see Batman as more heroic, and more of a leader  "Batman is by nature, [while] not necessarily anti-social, pretty private, pretty a loner," Affleck says  "And then in this movie he's thrust into the role of having to not only work with people, but bring them together and convince them to come in and try to     somehow with Wonder Woman hold all that community effort together  That was a really interesting thing to play for me, and it also does take us to a more traditional role for Batman in the Justice League comics, and his role with the Justice League versus the sort of less typical version we saw in Batman v Superman, where he was blinded by rage and wanted to take on Superman "
Henry Cavill as Clark Kent / Superman: A member of, and inspiration for, the Justice League  He is a Kryptonian survivor and a journalist for the Daily Planet based in Metropolis  In Justice League, Superman was portrayed as more optimistic and hopeful  The character was intentionally excluded from all Justice League marketing materials to emphasize his death as depicted on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 
Amy Adams as Lois Lane: An undaunted and compassionate award-winning journalist for the Daily Planet and the love interest for Kent 
Gal Gadot as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman: An antiquities dealer, acquaintance of Wayne, and an immortal Amazonian warrior who is the crown princess of Themyscira and daughter of Hippolyta and Zeus  She is endowed with metahuman attributes and abilities inherited from her parents 
Ezra Miller as Barry Allen / The Flash: A Central City University student who can move at superhuman speeds with his ability to tap into the Speed Force 
Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry / Aquaman:Half-human and half Atlantean metahuman with superhuman strength and aquatic abilities  Momoa was cast as Aquaman in June 2014, and made a cameo appearance in Batman v  Superman: Dawn of Justice 
Ray Fisher as Victor Stone / Cyborg: A former college athlete who, after being cybernetically reconstructed after a nearly fatal car accident, is turned into a techno-organic being enhanced by reactive, adaptive biomimetic alien technology  His enhancements include the abilities of flight, variable weaponry and technopathy  Fisher portrays the character through the use of motion capture for the cybernetic portion of his body  Fisher was cast as Cyborg in April 2014, and made a cameo in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 
Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth: Wayne's butler, chief of security, and trusted confidant 
Diane Lane as Martha Kent: Kent's adoptive mother 
Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta: Diana's mother and the Amazonian Queen of Themyscira 
J  K  Simmons as Commissioner James Gordon: The Gotham City Police Department Commissioner, and close ally of Batman 
Ciarán Hinds as Steppenwolf:An alien military officer from Apokolips who leads an army of Parademons and is searching for the three Mother Boxes held on Earth  The character is described as "old, tired" and trying to find a way to escape his role of servitude under Darkseid  Hinds portrayed the villain through use of motion capture and received some advice in the process from Liam Neeson, who had recently done similar work in A Monster Calls  After the release of the film, Hinds was reportedly unhappy with the final cut of the film, which trimmed down the backstory and characterization of Steppenwolf 
Amber Heard as Mera: A princess of Xebel who approaches Curry to discuss the nature of the Mother Boxes 
Joe Morton as Silas Stones: Victor Stone's father and head of S T A R  Labs During a scene a half-hour into the film, depicting Steppenwolf's first invasion thousands of years earlier, Olympian Old Gods Zeus, Ares, and Artemis are portrayed by fitness model Sergi Constance, stuntman Nick McKinless, and MMA fighter Aurore Lauzeral, respectively  All three were required to reach a specific degree of physicality, with Snyder instructing McKinless to sport "veins like worms and paper thin skin"  In the finished film, McKinless' face was replaced with that of David Thewlis using special effects; Thewlis received the credit as Ares  The scene also shows a Green Lantern, named Yalan Gur, created through motion-capture CGI and embodied by an uncredited actor  Two ancient leaders of Earth appear during the scene, including King Atlan of Atlantis and King Arthur Pendragon of ancient England; portrayed by Julian Lewis Jones and Francis Magee, respectively  Billy Crudup appears, uncredited, as Henry Allen, Barry Allen's father  Joe Manganiello and Jesse Eisenberg appear uncredited in a post-credits scene as Slade Wilson / Deathstroke and Lex Luthor, respectively  Michael McElhatton appears as the leader of a group of terrorists who clash with Wonder Woman early in the film, while Holt McCallany makes an uncredited appearance as a burglar  Marc McClure, who portrayed Jimmy Olsen in the Christopher Reeve Superman film series, has a brief cameo as a police officer Willem Dafoe and Kiersey Clemons filmed scenes as Nuidis Vulko and Iris West, although their roles were cut from the final film  Both actors are signed for multiple films and are set to appear in the future installments of the franchise  A scene depicting Green Lanterns Kilowog and Tomar-Re visiting Batman was filmed as an additional post-credits scene, further teasing the upcoming Green Lantern Corps, but the scene was later scrapped  Other scenes that were filmed, but cut from the theatrical film, include: Ryan Zheng as Ryan Choi, setting up the character's future as The Atom; a fight between Ares and Darkseid, with the villain portrayed by Ray Porter; Harry Lennix reprising his role from Man of Steel and Batman v Superman as Calvin Swanwick, in a scene where it would have been revealed that his character is actually J'onn J'onzz / Martian Manhunter; and scenes featuring Darkseid's servant DeSaad, with the character voiced by Peter Guinness  These characters were included in Zack Snyder's Justice League 

Production
Background
In February 2007, it was announced that Warner Bros  Pictures had hired husband-and-wife duo Michele and Kieran Mulroney to write a script for a Justice League film  The news came around the same time that Joss Whedon's long-developed Wonder Woman film was canceled, as well as The Flash, written and directed by David S  Goyer  Reportedly titled Justice League: Mortal, the script by Michele and Kieran Mulroney was submitted to Warner Bros  in June 2007, receiving positive feedback, which prompted the studio to immediately fast track production in the hope of beginning filming before the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike  Warner Bros  was less willing to proceed with development of a sequel to Superman Returns, having been disappointed with its box office  Brandon Routh was not approached to reprise the role of Superman in Justice League: Mortal, nor was Christian Bale from Batman Begins  Warner Bros  intended for Justice League: Mortal to be the start of a new film franchise, and to branch out into separate sequels and spin-offs  Shortly after filming The Dark Knight, Bale stated in an interview that "It'd be better if it doesn't tread on the toes of what our Batman series is doing," and felt it would make more sense for Warner Bros  to release the film after The Dark Knight Rises  Jason Reitman was the original choice to direct Justice League, but he turned it down, as he considers himself an independent filmmaker and prefers to stay out of big budget superhero films  George Miller signed to direct in September 2007, with Barrie Osbourne producing on a projected $220 million budget The following month, roughly 40 actors and actresses auditioned for the ensemble superhero roles, among them Joseph Cross, Michael Angarano, Max Thieriot, Minka Kelly, Adrianne Palicki, and Scott Porter  Miller had intended to cast younger actors, as he wanted them to "grow" into their roles over the course of several films  D  J  Cotrona was cast as Superman, along with Armie Hammer as Batman  Jessica Biel reportedly declined to play Wonder Woman role after negotiations  The character was also linked to actresses Teresa Palmer and Shannyn Sossamon, along with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who confirmed that she had auditioned  Ultimately, Megan Gale was cast as Wonder Woman, while Palmer was cast as Talia al Ghul, whom Miller had in mind to act with a Russian accent  The script for Justice League: Mortal would have featured John Stewart as Green Lantern, a role originally offered to Columbus Short  Hip hop recording artist and rapper Common was cast, with Adam Brody as Barry Allen / Flash, and Jay Baruchel as the lead villain, Maxwell Lord  Longtime Miller collaborator Hugh Keays-Byrne had been cast in an unnamed role, rumored to be Martian Manhunter  Santiago Cabrera was eventually revealed to be Aquaman after the film was cancelled  Marit Allen was hired as the original costume designer before her untimely death in November 2007, and the responsibilities were assumed by Weta Workshop However, the writers strike began that same month and placed the film on hold  Warner Bros  had to let the options lapse for the cast, but development was fast tracked once more in February 2008 when the strike ended  Warner Bros  and Miller wanted to start filming immediately, but production was pushed back three months  Originally, the majority of Justice League: Mortal was to be shot at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, with other locations scouted nearby at local colleges, and Sydney Heads doubling for Happy Harbor  The Australian Film Commission had a say with casting choices, giving way for George Miller to cast Gale, Palmer and Keays-Bryne, all Australian natives  The production crew was composed entirely of Australians, but the Australian government denied Warner Bros  a 40 percent tax rebate as they felt they had not hired enough Australian actors  Miller was frustrated, stating that "A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Australian film industry is being frittered away because of very lazy thinking  They're throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars of investment that the rest of the world is competing for and, much more significantly, highly skilled creative jobs " Production offices were then moved to Vancouver Film Studios in Canada  Filming was pushed back to July 2008, while Warner Bros was still confident they could produce the film for a summer 2009 release 
With production delays continuing, and the success of The Dark Knight in July 2008, Warner Bros  decided to focus on the development of individual films featuring the main heroes, allowing director Christopher Nolan to separately complete his Batman trilogy with The Dark Knight Rises in 2012  Warner Bros  relaunched development for a solo Green Lantern film, released in 2011 as a critical and financial disappointment  Meanwhile, film adaptations for The Flash and Wonder Woman continued to languish in development, while filming for a Superman reboot commenced in 2011 with Man of Steel, produced by Nolan and written by Batman screenwriter David S  Goyer  In October 2012, following its legal victory over Joe Shuster's estate for the rights to Superman, Warner Bros  announced that it planned to move ahead with the Justice League film  Shortly after filming on Man of Steel was complete, Warner Bros hired Will Beall to write the script for a new Justice League film  Warner Bros  president Jeff Robinov explained that Man of Steel would be "setting the tone for what the movies are going to be like going forward  In that, it's definitely a first step " The film included references to the existence of other superheroes in the DC Universe, and set the tone for a shared fictional universe of DC Comics characters on film  Goyer stated that should Green Lantern appear in a future installment, it would be a rebooted version of the character, unconnected to the 2011 film With the release of Man of Steel in June 2013, Goyer was hired to write a sequel, as well as a new Justice League, with the Beall draft being scrapped  The sequel was later revealed to be Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, a team-up film featuring Henry Cavill as Superman, Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, and Ray Fisher as Victor Stone / Cyborg, the latter three in minor roles that became more significant in the Justice League film  The universe is separate from Nolan and Goyer's work on The Dark Knight trilogy, although Nolan was still involved as an executive producer for Batman v Superman  In April 2014, it was announced that Zack Snyder would also direct Goyer's Justice League script  Warner Bros  was reportedly courting Chris Terrio to rewrite Justice League the following July, after having been impressed with his rewrite of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice  On October 15, 2014, Warner Bros  announced the film would be released in two parts, with Part One on November 17, 2017, and Part Two is announced but release date not confirmed  Snyder was set to direct both films  In early July 2015, EW revealed that the script for Justice League Part One had been completed by Terrio  Zack Snyder stated that the film would be inspired by the New Gods comic series by Jack Kirby  Although Justice League was initially announced as a two-part film, with the second part set for release two years after the first, Snyder stated in June 2016 that they would be two distinct, separate films and not one film split into two parts, both being stand-alone stories 

Filming
Principal photography began on April 11, 2016, with shooting taking place at Warner Bros  Studios, Leavesden, as well as various locations around London and Scotland  Additional filming took place in Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles; and Djúpavík, in the Westfjords of Iceland  Snyder's longtime cinematographer Larry Fong was replaced by Fabian Wagner due to scheduling conflicts  Ben Affleck served as executive producer  In May 2016, it was revealed that Geoff Johns and Jon Berg would produce the Justice League films, and would also be in charge of the DC Extended Universe, after the largely negative critical reception of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice  The same month, Irons stated that the Justice League storyline would be more linear and simple, compared to the theatrical version of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice  Johns confirmed on June 3, 2016, that the title of the film is Justice League, and later stated that the film would be "hopeful and optimistic" in comparison to previous DC Extended Universe (DCEU) films Justice League had a troubled production  During filming, it was reported that the rewrites by Geoff Johns caused issues with Chris Terrio and Warner Bros  executives  Warner Bros  was unsatisfied with how the film was shaping up under Snyder due to the negative feedback that the theatrical version of Batman v Superman received  It was reported that Warner Bros  held a footage summit for writers that include Joss Whedon, Wonder Woman screenwriter Allan Heinberg, Seth Grahame-Smith, and Andrea Berloff  This caused numerous rewrites as Justice League was filming  Whedon was eventually hired by Warner Bros  He then took over as director of the film after Snyder stepped down during the post-production  Filming wrapped in October 2016 

Post-production
In May 2017, Snyder stepped down from directorial duties during post-production of the film to properly deal with the death of his daughter, Autumn Snyder  Joss Whedon took over to handle post-production duties in Snyder's place  In July 2017, it was announced the film was undergoing two months of reshoots in London and Los Angeles, with Warner Bros  putting about $25 million into them, more than the typical $6–10 million additional filming costs, which brought the budget of the film up to $300 million  The reshoots coincided with Cavill's schedule for Mission: Impossible – Fallout, for which he had grown a mustache which he was contracted to keep while filming  While Fallout director Christopher McQuarrie initially gave the producers of Justice League permission to have Cavill shave the mustache in exchange for the $3 million it would cost to shut down production on Fallout and then digitally fill the mustache in, executives from Paramount Pictures rejected the idea  Justice League's VFX team was then forced to use special effects to digitally remove the mustache in post-production Whedon received a screenwriting credit on the film alongside Chris Terrio, while Snyder received sole director's credit  Producer Charles Roven said in an interview that the film was shot originally by eighty to eighty-five percent  Conversely, Snyder estimates that only a fourth of his material was used in the theatrical version based on what he has been told of the theatrical cut, as he has not watched it  Cinematographer Fabian Wagner estimates that only 10% of the original footage shot by him and Snyder was used in the final cut  Whedon's rewrites were around 80 pages, further confirming that the theatrical cut was mostly his work Warner Bros  CEO Kevin Tsujihara mandated the film to be under two hours  In consequence, the final cut runs for that exact time  The company also did not opt to delay the film's release despite the fact that there had been numerous problems in post-production, so that the executives would receive their cash bonuses before the company's merger with AT&T  In February 2018, it was reported that Snyder was fired from directorial duties from Justice League, after his cut was deemed "unwatchable" according to Collider's Matt Goldberg  "I'd heard similar things from separate sources over the last year as well, I also heard that Snyder's rough-cut of the movie was 'unwatchable' (a word that jumped out at me because it's rare you hear two separate sources use exactly the same adjective)  Of course, even if that's true, there's obviously more to the story since rough cuts can be fixed up with reshoots, rewrites, etc ", Goldberg wrote  According to DC Comics publisher, comic book artist Jim Lee, Snyder was not fired  Speaking at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo, Lee stated "that [Snyder] was not fired at all and that he stepped down from the production due to a family matter", as far as he knew  In July 2020, Ray Fisher claimed that Whedon's on-set treatment of the film's cast and crew was "gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable " Justice League and Batman v Superman writer Chris Terrio called the theatrical cut an act of vandalism, and attempted unsuccessfully to get his name removed from the film 

Music
In March 2016, Hans Zimmer, who co-composed the score for Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, stated that he had officially retired from the "superhero business", though he would later score X-Men: Dark Phoenix and Wonder Woman 1984  Junkie XL, who wrote and composed the soundtrack of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice with Zimmer, was originally scoring the film, but was replaced by Danny Elfman the following year in June  Elfman had previously composed the films Batman and Batman Returns, and the theme music for Batman: The Animated Series  Elfman used the Batman theme music from the 1989 film Batman  The John Williams' Superman theme was used during "a dark, twisted moment" in the film where a resurrected Superman fights the Justice League and later during the climax where Superman arrives to defeat Steppenwolf  The film features a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" performed by Sigrid, "Icky Thump" performed by the White Stripes, and a cover of the Beatles' "Come Together" performed by Gary Clark Jr  and Junkie XL  WaterTower Music released the soundtrack album digitally on November 10 the same year, with a release of the physical format on December 8 

Marketing
Superman was intentionally left out on all early Justice League marketing materials, including trailers, clips, and posters, which actor Cavill commented as "ridiculous"  Despite his character being hidden from promotional materials, Cavill still joined the rest of the cast on the film's press tour  Clark Kent was revealed in a final trailer before the release of the film, but edited in a way that writers felt Lois Lane was dreaming about Clark  Sponsorship and marketing partners of the film included AT&T, Gillette, Mercedes-Benz, and TCL 

Release
Theatrical
Justice League had its world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on November 13, 2017, and was released in the United States on November 17, 2017 to coincide with the 16th anniversary of the Justice League animated series 

Home media
The film was released on digital download on February 13, 2018, and was released on Blu-ray Disc, Blu-ray 3D, 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray, and DVD on March 13, 2018, in various international markets  The Blu-ray features two deleted scenes titled Return of Superman  It is also notable for having no director commentary from either Zack Snyder or Joss Whedon  As of August 20, 2021, it has made $30 4 million in DVD sales and $41 5 million in Blu-ray sales, totaling an estimated $71 9 million in domestic video sales according to The Numbers 

Reception
Box office
Justice League grossed $229 million in the United States and Canada and $428 9 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $657 9 million  It had a worldwide opening of $278 8 million  Up against an estimated break-even point of as much as $750 million, Deadline Hollywood reported that the film lost the studio around $60 million  Due to the film losing the studio money, the movie was deemed a "box office bomb" or "flop" In the United States and Canada, industry tracking initially forecast the film debuting to $110–120 million from 4,051 theaters (including 400 IMAX screens)  It made $13 million from Thursday night previews, up from the $11 million made by Wonder Woman the previous June  However, after making $38 5 million on its first day (including Thursday previews), weekend projections were lowered to $95 million  It ended up debuting to $93 8 million, down 45% from Batman v Superman's opening of $166 million, and being the first film of the DCEU to open under $100 million  Deadline attributed the low figure to lukewarm audience reaction to the film and most of its predecessors, as well as poor critical reception, and film review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes not posting their aggregated score until the day before release, causing speculation and doubt from filmgoers  In its second weekend, the film dropped 56% to $41 1 million, finishing second at the box office, behind newcomer Coco  It was the second-best second weekend hold of the DCEU, behind Wonder Woman's 43%, but the lowest overall gross  In its third week it again finished second behind Coco, grossing $16 7 million  It made $9 7 million in its fourth week and $4 3 million in its fifth, finishing a respective second and fifth at the box office  In 2018, Forbes compared the drastic incohesive shift from Snyder's darker films Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to the lighter Justice League (co-written by Whedon), to the similarly drastic and incohesive change in tone experienced from the older 1989 and 1992 Tim Burton's Batman films to the direct light-hearted sequels directed by Schumacher, although noting the former shift in tone was better received than the one in Justice League, affecting box office, due to going against the expectations of Snyder fans in its attempt to reach a higher demographic, while alienating its own established core audience In other territories, the film was projected to debut to $215–235 million for a worldwide opening of $325–355 million  It made $8 5 million on its first day from nine countries, including South Korea, France, and Brazil  It ended up having a $185 million international debut from 65 countries, including $57 1 million from China, $9 8 million from the United Kingdom, $9 6 million from Mexico, and $8 8 million from South Korea  The film broke a record in the Philippines with a debut of $1 12M (PHP 57 3M), making it the biggest industry opening day for a film in 2017 and eventually becoming the 7th-most successful film of all time  In Brazil, the film opened to $14 2 million, the biggest opening in the country's history  Outside North America, the film's largest markets were China ($106 million), Brazil ($41 million), Mexico ($24 8 million), and United Kingdom ($24 million) 

Critical response
Justice League received mixed reviews  It was praised for the action sequences and performances (particularly Gadot and Miller), but was criticized for its plot, pacing, generic villain, cinematography, and CGI  On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 39% of 409 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5 3/10  The website's consensus reads: "Justice League leaps over a number of DC movies, but its single bound isn't enough to shed the murky aesthetic, thin characters, and chaotic action that continue to dog the franchise " Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 45 out of 100, based on 52 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews"  Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, and those by PostTrak gave the film an 85% overall positive score (average 4 out of 5 stars) and a 69% "definite recommend "Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 5 out of 4 stars, praising the cast, especially Gadot, and saying "It's a putting-the-band-together origins movie, executed with great fun and energy " Owen Gleiberman of Variety gave the film a positive review, which conceived the film and described it was not "messy or bombastic," and light, clean, and simple  Bilge Ebiri of the Village Voice similarly gave it a positive review, and said the action scenes of the film went "start and stop and then start again, [and] then go in different directions " Ebiri also describes the film had a "few moments into the Big Climactic Face-Off," but the "rhythms actually lend the film a pleasant unpredictability " Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers gave the film 2 5 out of 4 stars, praising the cast but criticizing the action sequences and writing, saying: "The scenes of the League members together, bickering and bonding, spike the film with humor and genuine feeling, creating a rooting interest in the audience  Without it, the film would crumble " Conversely, Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter, while praising Gadot and Miller, called the film visually ugly and boring, saying, "Fatigue, repetition and a laborious approach to exposition are the keynotes of this affair, which is also notable for how Ben Affleck, donning the bat suit for the second time, looks like he'd rather be almost anywhere else but here "Writing for The Washington Post, Alyssa Rosenberg also returned with a negative review, and described the film was a "symbol of just how entrenched superhero movies have become in the Hollywood ecosystem, it's also a potent illustration that success hasn't necessarily artistically elevated the genre " Rosenberg felt the film was nearly identical to lots of superhero films that "have come before," and featured some of "the ugliest, most pointless special effects " James Berardinelli gave it 2 out of 4 stars, said that the film and DC Films "came late to the party," as Marvel Studios planned their Cinematic Universe, which they were "sometimes criticized for overthinking and overplanning," and compared to The Avengers, which has its "formula worked", and The Avengers was "a popcorn bliss [and] a superhero nirvana " Writing for the Film Ireland Magazine, Ellen Murray found the characters interesting, but their setting unworthy, said that "there is something undeniably thrilling in seeing these iconic characters work together on the big screen



ground_truth: in the north-east of the country south of the Caspian Sea

Caspian Sea

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Who is the mayor presiding now where Merrill Elam was born?

The following are given passages.
Context 4: Passage 1:
Veera Ballala II
Veera Ballala II (Kannada: ವೀರ ಬಲ್ಲಾಳ 2) (r  1173–1220 CE) was the most notable monarch of the Hoysala Empire  His successes against the Yadavas of Devagiri, the Southern Kalachuris, the Pandyas of Madurai and the waning Western Chalukya Empire, and his domination over the diminishing Cholas of Tanjore took the Hoysalas to their peak of power  The historian Chaurasia claims by the end of the 12th century, Ballala II's conquests had made the Hoysalas the most powerful dynasty of the Deccan  According to historian Derrett, Ballala II was "the most outstanding among Hoysala kings", and historian William Coelho in comparing Ballala II to King Vishnuvardhana writes, "he vied in glory with his grandfather" His court was adorned with some of the most notable of medieval Kannada language poets including the Jain poets Janna and Nemichandra, and the Brahman poet Rudrabhatta  According to the historians Chopra et al , during his rule, the Hoysala kingdom consolidated into an independent empire commencing an age of "Hoysala imperialism"  His architectural legacy includes among numerous ornate temples, the Kedareshwara temple, the Veera Narayana temple and the Amrutesvara temple  He was ably supported in war and in administrative matters by his son, prince Vira Narasimha II, and crowned queen Umadevi  His other queen Cholamahadevi was a Chola princes  His daughter Somaladevi was given in marriage to the Chola monarch Kulothunga Chola III 

Wars against the neighbouring kingdoms
Ballala II's ascendancy to the Hoysala throne in c  1173 was preceded by his successful rebellion against his weak father Narasimha I with the help of some malnad chiefs, such as the Chengalvas and the Kongalvas  He later ensured the same chiefs' could not rise against him  In the late 12th century, the weakening Chalukya throne became the bone of contention between the main vassals, the Yadavas, the Hoysalas and the Kalachuris  Around c 1168, the Kalachuri King Bijjala II had gained control of the Chalukyan capital Basavakalyan (then called Kalyani, in modern Bidar district of Karnataka state)  According to historian Kamath, in c 1171, an ambitious Ballala tasted first victory against Pandya king Kavadeva of the Uchchangi family  This was followed by the annexation of Hangal in c 1178  But an attempt by him to invade Belvola-300 in c 1179 led to his defeat by Kalachuri commander Sankama who seized Hangal  According to Chopra et al , in c 1179, a Kalachuri invasion into the Hoysala territory resulted in a truce with Ballala II agreeing to accept nominal subordination and to help the Kalachuri in their designs against the Chalukyas  However, by c 1183, the Kalachuris themselves were in serious decline due to the inept rule of the sons of Bijjala II  The last Chalukya scion, Someshvara IV, was back in control of his capital Basavakalyan with help from the Kalachuri commander Brahma 
The real contention now, for the territories in the Krishna-Tungabhadra doab region was between the Yadava King Bhillama V and the Hoysala monarch Ballala II  By c 1189, Basavakalyana had fallen to Bhillama V who nevertheless failed to gain recognition from Chalukya vassals such as the Rattas, the Kadambas of Banavasi and the Shilahara  Taking advantage of this uncertainty, Ballala II led several expeditions to Banavasi against the exiled Chalukya King Someshvara VI and defeated him by c 1190  In c 1191, the Hoysala monarch gained the upper hand over Yadava Bhillama V in the critical battles of Soratur and Lakkundi (in the modern Gadag district) where he appears to have spent much time consolidating his gains  Thus, Ballala II was able to push the northern boundaries of the Hoysala empire up to the Malaprabha river and Krishna rivers  By c 1192, Ballala II had crowned himself the emperor over the entire modern Karnataka region  A record of his dated c 1196 claims him victorious over several minor ruling families including those of Banavasi, Hangal, Halashi, Nolambavadi (Nolamba dynasty), Bagalkot, and Gulbarga (Yelburgi) indicating he had complete control over the rich Tungabhadra-Krishna river region  After c 1212, he lost all these territories north of the Tungabhadra river to Yadava king Singhana II 

Relationship with Cholas
Around c 1216, Maravarman Sundara Pandya ascended the throne at Madurai  To seek revenge for the humiliation of his elder brother Jatavarman Kulashekara by the Chola monarch Kulothunga III, he invaded the Chola territory and drove Kulothunga into exile  Kulothunga III sought the help of the Hoysalas  Ballala II promptly sent his forces under the command of prince Narasimha II who succeeded in repulsing the Pandya and re-establishing the Chola kingdom  With this victory, Ballala II not only assumed imperial titles such as Cholarajyapratishtacharya ("Establisher of the Chola kingdom"), Hoysala Chakravarti ("Hoysala emperor") and Dakshina Chakravarti ("Emperor of the south"), he also brought under his direct control parts of the rich Kaveri plains around Srirangam (central Tamil Nadu)  A Hoysala army was left standing in Kanchi to pursue hostilities with the Telugu Chodas and their overlords, the Kakatiya dynasty  In words of historian John Keay, "Gloriously if briefly the Hoysalas were paramount throughout most of the Kannada speaking Deccan, and could pose a arbiters in the lusher lands below the Eastern Ghats" 

Patron of art and architecture
Veera Ballala II was a great patron of Kannada literature  Janna, one of the most influential Kannada poets of the 13th century, graced his court and was honored with the title Kavichakravarthi ("Emperor among poets")  His most noteworthy writing and magnum opus, the Yashodhara Charitre (c 1209) deals with Jain tenets  Nemichandra was court poet to both Ballala II and the Shilahara King Lakshmana of Kholapur  He wrote Lilavati Prabandha (about c 1170), the earliest available romantic true fiction in Kannada, and an unfinished Jain epic called Neminathapurana at the instance of Ballala II's minister  Rudrabhatta, a noteworthy Brahman writer of the late 12th century was patronized by the king and one of his ministers  He composed the Jagannatha Vijaya in c 1180, the earliest available Vaishnava epic in the Kannada language Ballala II's rule saw the proliferation of the temple construction adhering to the Vesara architecture, a style first made popular by the Western Chalukyas  Some of the best known temples built during his rule were the Kedareshwara temple at Halebidu, the Veera Narayana temple at Belavadi, the Amrutesvara Temple at Amruthapura and the twin ensemble of the Chennakeshava and Nageshvara temples at Mosale Ballala II donated Meruhalli village and other lands in 1174 CE for providing food to Jain monks  He further gifted two villages to Vajranandi-Siddhantadeva for the same purpose  Nanjedevaragudda stone inscription of 1192 CE describes the donations by Hoysala rulers and subjects for Jain monks at Abhinava Shantideva temple at Somepur, Hassan district 
Passage 2:
George VI
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death on 6 February 1952  He was also the last Emperor of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947, and the first Head of the Commonwealth following the London Declaration of 1949 
The future George VI was born in the reign of his great-grandmother Victoria; he was named Albert at birth after his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort, and was known as "Bertie" to his family and close friends  His father ascended the throne as George V in 1910  As the second son of the king, Albert was not expected to inherit the throne  He spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Prince Edward, the heir apparent  Albert attended naval college as a teenager and served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during the First World War  In 1920, he was made Duke of York  He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923, and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret  In the mid-1920s, he engaged speech therapist Lionel Logue to treat his stutter, which he learned to manage to some degree  His elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII after their father died in 1936, but Edward abdicated later that year to marry the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson  As heir presumptive to Edward VIII, Albert thereby became the third monarch of the House of Windsor, taking the regnal name George VI 
In September 1939, the British Empire and most Commonwealth countries—but not Ireland—declared war on Nazi Germany  War with the Kingdom of Italy and the Empire of Japan followed in 1940 and 1941, respectively  George VI was seen as sharing the hardships of the common people and his popularity soared  Buckingham Palace was bombed during the Blitz while the King and Queen were there, and his younger brother the Duke of Kent was killed on active service  George became known as a symbol of British determination to win the war  Britain and its allies were victorious in 1945, but the British Empire declined  Ireland had largely broken away, followed by the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947  George relinquished the title of Emperor of India in June 1948 and instead adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth  He was beset by smoking-related health problems in the later years of his reign and died at Sandringham House, aged 56, of a coronary thrombosis in 1952  He was succeeded by his elder daughter, Elizabeth II 

Early life
Albert was born at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria  His father was Prince George, Duke of York (later King George V), the second and only surviving son of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra)  His mother, the Duchess of York (later Queen Mary), was the eldest child and only daughter of Francis, Duke of Teck, and Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck  His birthday, 14 December 1895, was the 34th anniversary of the death of his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort  Uncertain of how the Prince Consort's widow, Queen Victoria, would take the news of the birth, the Prince of Wales wrote to the Duke of York that the Queen had been "rather distressed"  Two days later, he wrote again: "I really think it would gratify her if you yourself proposed the name Albert to her "The Queen was mollified by the proposal to name the new baby Albert, and wrote to the Duchess of York: "I am all impatience to see the new one, born on such a sad day but rather more dear to me, especially as he will be called by that dear name which is a byword for all that is great and good " Consequently, he was baptised "Albert Frederick Arthur George" at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham on 17 February 1896  Formally he was His Highness Prince Albert of York; within the royal family he was known informally as "Bertie"  The Duchess of Teck did not like the first name her grandson had been given, and she wrote prophetically that she hoped the last name "may supplant the less favoured one"  Albert was fourth in line to the throne at birth, after his grandfather, father and elder brother, Edward 
Albert was ill often and was described as "easily frightened and somewhat prone to tears"  His parents were generally removed from their children's day-to-day upbringing, as was the norm in aristocratic families of that era  He had a stutter that lasted for many years  Although naturally left-handed, he was forced to write with his right hand, as was common practice at the time  He had chronic stomach problems as well as knock knees, for which he was forced to wear painful corrective splints Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901, and the Prince of Wales succeeded her as King Edward VII  Prince Albert moved up to third in line to the throne, after his father and elder brother 

Military career and education
Beginning in 1909, Albert attended the Royal Naval College, Osborne, as a naval cadet  In 1911 he came bottom of the class in the final examination, but despite this he progressed to the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth  When his grandfather Edward VII died in 1910, his father became King George V  Prince Edward became Prince of Wales, with Albert second in line to the throne Albert spent the first six months of 1913 on the training ship HMS Cumberland in the West Indies and on the east coast of Canada  He was rated as a midshipman aboard HMS Collingwood on 15 September 1913  He spent three months in the Mediterranean, but never overcame his seasickness  Three weeks after the outbreak of World War I he was medically evacuated from the ship to Aberdeen, where his appendix was removed by Sir John Marnoch  He was mentioned in dispatches for his actions as a turret officer aboard Collingwood in the Battle of Jutland (31 May – 1 June 1916), the great naval battle of the war  He did not see further combat, largely because of ill health caused by a duodenal ulcer, for which he had an operation in November 1917 In February 1918 Albert was appointed Officer in Charge of Boys at the Royal Naval Air Service's training establishment at Cranwell  With the establishment of the Royal Air Force Albert transferred from the Royal Navy to the Royal Air Force  He served as Officer Commanding Number 4 Squadron of the Boys' Wing at Cranwell until August 1918, before reporting for duty on the staff of the RAF's Cadet Brigade at St Leonards-on-Sea and then at Shorncliffe  He completed a fortnight's training and took command of a squadron on the Cadet Wing  He was the first member of the British royal family to be certified as a fully qualified pilot Albert wanted to serve on the Continent while the war was still in progress and welcomed a posting to General Trenchard's staff in France  On 23 October, he flew across the Channel to Autigny  For the closing weeks of the war, he served on the staff of the RAF's Independent Air Force at its headquarters in Nancy, France  Following the disbanding of the Independent Air Force in November 1918, he remained on the Continent for two months as an RAF staff officer until posted back to Britain  He accompanied King Albert I of Belgium on his triumphal re-entry into Brussels on 22 November  Prince Albert qualified as an RAF pilot on 31 July 1919 and was promoted to squadron leader the following day In October 1919, Albert went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied history, economics and civics for a year, with the historian R  V  Laurence as his "official mentor"  On 4 June 1920 his father created him Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killarney  He began to take on more royal duties  He represented his father and toured coal mines, factories, and railyards  Through such visits he acquired the nickname of the "Industrial Prince"  His stutter, and his embarrassment over it, together with a tendency to shyness, caused him to appear less confident in public than his older brother, Edward  However, he was physically active and enjoyed playing tennis  He played at Wimbledon in the Men's Doubles with Louis Greig in 1926, losing in the first round  He developed an interest in working conditions, and was president of the Industrial Welfare Society  His series of annual summer camps for boys between 1921 and 1939 brought together boys from different social backgrounds 

Marriage
In a time when royalty were expected to marry fellow royalty, it was unusual that Albert had a great deal of freedom in choosing a prospective wife  An infatuation with the already-married Australian socialite Lady Loughborough came to an end in April 1920 when the King, with the promise of the dukedom of York, persuaded Albert to stop seeing her  That year, he met for the first time since childhood Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the youngest daughter of the Earl and Countess of Strathmore  He became determined to marry her  Elizabeth rejected his proposal twice, in 1921 and 1922, reportedly because she was reluctant to make the sacrifices necessary to become a member of the royal family  In the words of Lady Strathmore, Albert would be "made or marred" by his choice of wife  After a protracted courtship, Elizabeth agreed to marry him Albert and Elizabeth were married on 26 April 1923 in Westminster Abbey  Albert's marriage to someone not of royal birth was considered a modernising gesture  The newly formed British Broadcasting Company wished to record and broadcast the event on radio, but the Abbey Chapter vetoed the idea (although the Dean, Herbert Edward Ryle, was in favour) 

From December 1924 to April 1925, the Duke and Duchess toured Kenya, Uganda, and the Sudan, travelling via the Suez Canal and Aden  During the trip, they both went big-game hunting Because of his stutter, Albert dreaded public speaking  After his closing speech at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley on 31 October 1925, one which was an ordeal for both him and his listeners, he began to see Lionel Logue, an Australian-born speech therapist  The Duke and Logue practised breathing exercises, and the Duchess rehearsed with him patiently  Subsequently, he was able to speak with less hesitation  With his delivery improved, Albert opened the new Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, during a tour of the empire with the Duchess in 1927  Their journey by sea to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji took them via Jamaica, where Albert played doubles tennis partnered with a black man, Bertrand Clark, which was unusual at the time and taken locally as a display of equality between races The Duke and Duchess had two children: Elizabeth (called "Lilibet" by the family, and the future Elizabeth II) who was born in 1926, and Margaret who was born in 1930  The close family lived at White Lodge, Richmond Park, and then at 145 Piccadilly, rather than one of the royal palaces  In 1931, the Canadian prime minister, R  B  Bennett, considered Albert for Governor General of Canada—a proposal that King George V rejected on the advice of the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, J  H  Thomas 

Reign
Reluctant king
King George V had severe reservations about Prince Edward, saying "After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months" and "I pray God that my eldest son will never marry and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne " On 20 January 1936, George V died and Edward ascended the throne as King Edward VIII  In the Vigil of the Princes, Prince Albert and his three brothers (the new king, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and Prince George, Duke of Kent) took a shift standing guard over their father's body as it lay in state, in a closed casket, in Westminster Hall 
As Edward was unmarried and had no children, Albert was the heir presumptive to the throne  Less than a year later, on 11 December 1936, Edward abdicated in order to marry Wallis Simpson, who was divorced from her first husband and divorcing her second  Edward had been advised by British prime minister Stanley Baldwin that he could not remain king and marry a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands  He abdicated and Albert, though he had been reluctant to accept the throne, became king  The day before the abdication, Albert went to London to see his mother, Queen Mary  He wrote in his diary, "When I told her what had happened, I broke down and sobbed like a child "On the day of Edward's abdication, the Oireachtas, the parliament of the Irish Free State, removed all direct mention of the monarch from the Irish constitution  The next day, it passed the External Relations Act, which gave the monarch limited authority (strictly on the advice of the government) to appoint diplomatic representatives for Ireland and to be involved in the making of foreign treaties  The two acts made the Irish Free State a republic in essence without removing its links to the Commonwealth Across Britain, gossip spread that Albert was physically and psychologically incapable of being king  No evidence has been found to support the contemporaneous rumour that the government considered bypassing him, his children and his brother Prince Henry, in favour of their younger brother Prince George, Duke of Kent  This seems to have been suggested on the grounds that Prince George was at that time the only brother with a son 

Early reign
Albert assumed the regnal name "George VI" to emphasise continuity with his father and restore confidence in the monarchy  The beginning of George VI's reign was taken up by questions surrounding his predecessor and brother, whose titles, style and position were uncertain  He had been introduced as "His Royal Highness Prince Edward" for the abdication broadcast, but George VI felt that by abdicating and renouncing the succession, Edward had lost the right to bear royal titles, including "Royal Highness"  In settling the issue, George's first act as king was to confer upon his brother the title "Duke of Windsor" with the style "Royal Highness", but the letters patent creating the dukedom prevented any wife or children from bearing royal styles  George VI was forced to buy from Edward the royal residences of Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House, as these were private properties and did not pass to him automatically  Three days after his accession, on his 41st birthday, he invested his wife, the new queen consort, with the Order of the Garter 

George VI's coronation at Westminster Abbey took place on 12 May 1937, the date previously intended for Edward's coronation  In a break with tradition, his mother Queen Mary attended the ceremony in a show of support for her son  There was no Durbar held in Delhi for George VI, as had occurred for his father, as the cost would have been a burden to the Government of India  Rising Indian nationalism made the welcome that the royal party would have received likely to be muted at best, and a prolonged absence from Britain would have been undesirable in the tense period before the Second World War  Two overseas tours were undertaken, to France and to North America, both of which promised greater strategic advantages in the event of war The growing likelihood of war in Europe dominated the early reign of George VI  The King was constitutionally bound to support British prime minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler  When the King and Queen greeted Chamberlain on his return from negotiating the Munich Agreement in 1938, they invited him to appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with them  This public association of the monarchy with a politician was exceptional, as balcony appearances were traditionally restricted to the royal family  While broadly popular among the general public, Chamberlain's policy towards Hitler was the subject of some opposition in the House of Commons, which led historian John Grigg to describe George's behaviour in associating himself so prominently with a politician as "the most unconstitutional act by a British sovereign in the present century" 

In May and June 1939, the King and Queen toured Canada and the United States; it was the first visit of a reigning British monarch to North America, although George had been to Canada prior to his accession  From Ottawa, George and Elizabeth were accompanied by Canadian prime minister Mackenzie King, to present themselves in North America as King and Queen of Canada  Both Mackenzie King and the Canadian governor general, Lord Tweedsmuir, hoped that George's presence in Canada would demonstrate the principles of the Statute of Westminster 1931, which gave full sovereignty to the British Dominions  On 19 May, George personally accepted and approved the Letter of Credence of the new U S  ambassador to Canada, Daniel Calhoun Roper; gave royal assent to nine parliamentary bills; and ratified two   international treaties with the Great Seal of Canada  The official royal tour historian, Gustave Lanctot, wrote "the Statute of Westminster had assumed full reality" and George gave a speech emphasising "the free and equal association of the nations of the Commonwealth" The trip was intended to soften the strong isolationist tendencies among the North American public with regard to the developing tensions in Europe  Although the aim of the tour was mainly political, to shore up Atlantic support for the United Kingdom in any future war, the King and Queen were enthusiastically received by the public  The fear that George would be compared unfavourably to his predecessor was dispelled  They visited the 1939 New York World's Fair and stayed with President Franklin D  Roosevelt at the White House and at his private estate at Hyde Park, New York  A strong bond of friendship was forged between Roosevelt and the royal couple during the tour, which had major significance in the relations between the United States and the United Kingdom through the ensuing war years 

Second World War
Following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, the United Kingdom and the self-governing Dominions other than Ireland declared war on Nazi Germany  The King and Queen resolved to stay in London, despite German bombing raids  They officially stayed in Buckingham Palace throughout the war, although they usually spent nights at Windsor Castle  The first night of the Blitz on London, on 7 September 1940, killed about one thousand civilians, mostly in the East End  On 13 September, the couple narrowly avoided death when two German bombs exploded in a courtyard at Buckingham Palace while they were there  In defiance, Elizabeth declared: "I am glad we have been bombed  It makes me feel we can look the East End in the face " The royal family were portrayed as sharing the same dangers and deprivations as the rest of the country  They were subject to British rationing restrictions, and U S  First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt remarked on the rationed food served and the limited bathwater that was permitted during a stay at the unheated and boarded-up Palace  In August 1942, the King's brother, the Duke of Kent, was killed on active service 

In 1940, Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister, though personally George would have preferred to appoint Lord Halifax  After the King's initial dismay over Churchill's appointment of Lord Beaverbrook to the Cabinet, he and Churchill developed "the closest personal relationship in modern British history between a monarch and a Prime Minister"  Every Tuesday for four and a half years from September 1940, the two men met privately for lunch to discuss the war in secret and with frankness  George related much of what the two discussed in his diary, which is the only extant first-hand account of these conversations Throughout the war, George and Elizabeth provided morale-boosting visits throughout the United Kingdom, visiting bomb sites, munitions factories, and troops  George visited military forces abroad in France in December 1939, North Africa and Malta in June 1943, Normandy in June 1944, southern Italy in July 1944, and the Low Countries in October 1944  Their high public profile and apparently indefatigable determination secured their place as symbols of national resistance  At a social function in 1944, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Alan Brooke, revealed that every time he met Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, he thought Montgomery was after his job  George replied: "You should worry, when I meet him, I always think he's after mine!"In 1945, crowds shouted "We want the King!" in front of Buckingham Palace during the Victory in Europe Day celebrations  In an echo of Chamberlain's appearance, the King invited Churchill to appear with the royal family on the balcony to public acclaim  In January 1946, George addressed the United Nations at its first assembly, which was held in London, and reaffirmed "our faith in the equal rights of men and women and of nations great and small" 

Empire to Commonwealth
George VI's reign saw the acceleration of the dissolution of the British Empire  The Statute of Westminster 1931 had already acknowledged the evolution of the Dominions into separate sovereign states  The process of transformation from an empire to a voluntary association of independent states, known as the Commonwealth, gathered pace after the Second World War  During the ministry of Clement Attlee, British India became the two independent Dominions of India and Pakistan in August 1947  George relinquished the title of Emperor of India, and became King of India and King of Pakistan instead  In late April 1949, the Commonwealth leaders issued the London Declaration, which laid the foundation of the modern Commonwealth and recognised George as Head of the Commonwealth  In January 1950, he ceased to be King of India when it became a republic  He remained King of Pakistan until his death  Other countries left the Commonwealth, such as Burma in January 1948, Palestine (divided between Israel and the Arab states) in May 1948 and the Republic of Ireland in 1949 In 1947, George and his family toured southern Africa  The prime minister of the Union of South Africa, Jan Smuts, was facing an election and hoped to make political capital out of the visit  George was appalled, however, when instructed by the South African government to shake hands only with whites, and referred to his South African bodyguards as "the Gestapo"  Despite the tour, Smuts lost the election the following year, and the new government instituted a strict policy of racial segregation 

Illness and death
The stress of the war had taken its toll on George's health, made worse by his heavy smoking, and subsequent development of lung cancer among other ailments, including arteriosclerosis and Buerger's disease  A planned tour of Australia and New Zealand was postponed after George developed an arterial blockage in his right leg, which threatened the loss of the leg and was treated with a right lumbar sympathectomy in March 1949  His elder daughter and heir presumptive, Elizabeth, took on more royal duties as her father's health deteriorated  The delayed tour was re-organised, with Princess Elizabeth and her husband, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, taking the place of the King and Queen 
George was well enough to open the Festival of Britain in May 1951, but on 4 June it was announced that he would need immediate and complete rest for the next four weeks, despite the arrival of Haakon VII of Norway the following afternoon for an official visit  On 23 September 1951, he underwent a surgical operation where his entire left lung was removed by Clement Price Thomas after a malignant tumour was found  In October 1951, Elizabeth and Philip went on a month-long tour of Canada; the trip had been delayed for a week due to George's illness  At the State Opening of Parliament in November, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Simonds, read the King's speech from the throne  The King's Christmas broadcast of 1951 was recorded in sections, and then edited together On 31 January 1952, despite advice from those close to him, George went to London Airport to see Elizabeth and Philip off on their tour to Australia via Kenya  It was his last public appearance  Six days later, at 07:30 GMT on the morning of 6 February, he was found dead in bed at Sandringham House in Norfolk  He had died in the night from a coronary thrombosis at the age of 56  His daughter flew back to Britain from Kenya as Queen Elizabeth II From 9 February George's coffin rested in St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, before lying in state at Westminster Hall from 11 February  His funeral took place at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on the 15th  He was interred initially in the Royal Vault until he was transferred to the King George VI Memorial Chapel inside St George's on 26 March 1969  In 2002, fifty years after his death, the remains of his widow, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the ashes of his younger daughter, Princess Margaret, who both died that year, were interred in the chapel alongside him  In 2022, the remains of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, were also interred in the chapel 

Legacy
In the words of Labour Member of Parliament (MP) George Hardie, the abdication crisis of 1936 did "more for republicanism than fifty years of propaganda"  George VI wrote to his brother Edward that in the aftermath of the abdication he had reluctantly assumed "a rocking throne" and tried "to make it steady again"  He became king at a point when public faith in the monarchy was at a low ebb  During his reign, his people endured the hardships of war, and imperial power was eroded  However, as a dutiful family man and by showing personal courage, he succeeded in restoring the popularity of the monarchy The George Cross and the George Medal were founded at the King's suggestion during the Second World War to recognise acts of exceptional civilian bravery  He bestowed the George Cross on the entire "island fortress of Malta" in 1943  He was posthumously awarded the Order of Liberation by the French government in 1960, one of only two people (the other being Churchill in 1958) to be awarded the medal after 1946 Colin Firth won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as George VI in the 2010 film The King's Speech 

Titles, honours and arms
As Duke of York, Albert bore the royal arms of the United Kingdom differenced with a label of three points argent, the centre point bearing an anchor azure—a difference earlier awarded to his father, George V, when he was Duke of York, and then later awarded to his grandson Prince Andrew, Duke of York  As king, he bore the royal arms undifferenced 

Issue
Ancestry
Notes
Passage 3:
The King's Speech
The King's Speech is a 2010 historical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler  Colin Firth plays the future King George VI who, to cope with a stammer, sees Lionel Logue, an Australian speech and language therapist played by Geoffrey Rush  The men become friends as they work together, and after his brother abdicates the throne, the new king relies on Logue to help him make his first wartime radio broadcast upon Britain's declaration of war on Germany in 1939 
Seidler read about George VI's life after learning to manage a stuttering condition he developed during his own youth  He started writing about the relationship between the therapist and his royal patient as early as the 1980s, but at the request of the King's widow, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, postponed work until her death in 2002  He later rewrote his screenplay for the stage to focus on the essential relationship between the two protagonists  Nine weeks before filming began, the filmmakers learned of the existence of notes written by Logue that were being used by his grandson Mark and Peter Conradi as the basis of a book, and were granted permission to incorporate material from the notes and book into the script 
Principal photography took place in London and around Britain from November 2009 to January 2010  Hard light was used to give the story a greater resonance and wider-than-normal lenses were employed to recreate the Duke of York's feelings of constriction  A third technique Hooper employed was the off-centre framing of characters 
The King's Speech was a major box office and critical success  It was widely praised by film critics for its visual style, art direction, screenplay, directing, score, and acting  Other commentators discussed the film's representation of historical detail, especially the reversal of Winston Churchill's opposition to abdication  The film received many awards and nominations, particularly for Colin Firth's performance, which resulted in his first Academy Award for Best Actor  At the 83rd Academy Awards, The King's Speech received 12 Oscar nominations, more than any other film in that year, and subsequently won four, including Best Picture  Censors initially gave it adult ratings due to profanity, though these were later revised downwards after criticism by the makers and distributors in the UK and some instances of swearing were muted in the US



ground_truth: Lance Bottoms

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Who did the person portraying Batman in the Justice League movie play in Dazed and Confused?

The following are given passages.
Context 3: "Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins particularly disliked Justice League because the film itself seemed to contradict her film, as both she and Zack Snyder worked together to keep continuity between their films, in details like not changing Wonder Woman's costume, but Joss Whedon reshot the film to the point the characters were not being portrayed as previously shown in past films 

Accolades
Director's cut
The divisive reaction towards the theatrical cut of the film, with Zack Snyder leaving directorial duties and the final cut of the film in the hands of Joss Whedon, has led to an argument comparing the situation to the one experienced by the film Superman II  Both Justice League and Superman II feature a director who was replaced, for different reasons, before completion of a film, which led to a second director coming in and making substantial changes to the tone of each film  Although the reasoning behind each director's departure differs, Richard Donner was able to complete his Superman II cut in 2006  In the belief that Snyder had shot enough material for a finished film, a campaign for a "Snyder Cut" was started to allow Snyder to receive a similar treatment to Donner  Arguments were made that Snyder's vision would be more cohesive to the previous films than the actual theatrical cut, which Snyder has refused to see  Warner Bros  initially remained silent regarding any intention of making a "Snyder Cut" In March 2019, Snyder confirmed his original cut existed, and stated that it was up to Warner Bros  to release it  In November, an insider claimed that Warner Bros  was unlikely to release Snyder's version of Justice League in theaters, calling it a "pipe dream"  In December, Snyder posted a photo in his Vero account, which showed boxes with tapes labeled "Z S  J L Director's cut", and with the caption "Is it real? Does it exist? Of course it does"  Snyder officially confirmed in May 2020 that his cut of Justice League will be released for HBO Max service in 2021  The cut cost $70+ million to complete the special effects, musical score, and editing  Some of the film's original cast, including Affleck, Fisher, and Miller (remotely), returned to help complete the project, which also included limited additional filming  Jared Leto, Amy Adams, and J  K  Simmons appeared in the cut as the Joker, Lois Lane, and James Gordon respectively  As a result of the new cut, the original theatrical cut is referred to by fans as the "Whedon Cut" or "Josstice League", referring to the film's replacement director Joss Whedon  Despite being far better received than the theatrical version, Snyder stated that his cut would not be made canon to the DCEU, with Warner Bros  still considering the 2017 cut to be the official version 

Future
A sequel was originally scheduled to be released in June 2019 but was subsequently delayed to accommodate the release for The Batman  By March 2017, producer Charles Roven said that Zack Snyder would direct the film and in October J  K  Simmons stated that the studio was working on the script of the sequel, alongside The Batman  Shortly after the release of Justice League, Henry Cavill said that he was under contract with Warner Bros  to play Superman for one more film  In December, it was revealed that there were "no immediate plans" for Zack Snyder to direct any future DC films, being relegated to an executive producer position instead  This came after a reshuffling of film production staff at Warner Bros  due to the film's mixed critical reception and disappointing financial performance  By 2019, Warner Bros  had prioritized solo films over the project 
In 2019, after previously declining an offer to direct the first film, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins noted she was open to directing a Justice League sequel Though Snyder's cut of Justice League has been described by DC Films executives as "a storytelling cul-de-sac" with no sequels planned, Snyder stated that he would be willing to return to direct the sequels if the studio offered him the chance  In January 2021, Ray Fisher (who had a fallout with Joss Whedon, Geoff Johns, Jon Berg and former DC Films president Walter Hamada) stated that he would only be willing to reprise his role as Cyborg in a future DCEU film if Justice League Part Two were to be made by Snyder  However, shortly after the 'Snyder Cut' was released Warner Bros CEO Ann Sarnoff said in March that there were no current plans in place for Snyder to return as a director/writer for future DCEU films suggesting a direct sequel to his version of Justice League remained unlikely  Later in August, DC Films producer Charles Roven stated that a Justice League sequel was still possible, though it would be several years away  A sequel was once again under consideration while De Luca and Abdy were in charge of DC Films (later renamed DC Studios), before James Gunn and Peter Safran took over in 2022 

Notes
Passage 2:
Sadie Plant
Sadie Plant (born Sarah Jane Plant; 16 March 1964 in Birmingham, England) is a British philosopher, cultural theorist, and author 

Education
She earned her PhD in Philosophy from the University of Manchester in 1989 and subsequently taught at the University of Birmingham's Department of Cultural Studies (formerly the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies) before going on to found the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit with colleague Nick Land at the University of Warwick, where she was a faculty member  Her original research was related to the Situationist International before turning to the social and political potential of cyber-technology  Her writing in the 1990s would prove influential in the development of cyberfeminism 

Career
Sadie Plant left the University of Warwick in 1997 to write full-time  She published a cultural history of drug use and control, and a report on the social effects of mobile phones, as well as articles in publications as varied as the Financial Times, Wired, Blueprint, and Dazed and Confused  She published the book Zeros + Ones in 1997, in which she reveals how women's role in programming has been overlooked  She was interviewed as one of the 'People to Watch' in the Winter 2000–2001 issue of Time 

Publications
The Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist International in a Postmodern Age (1992, Routledge) ISBN 0-415-06222-5
Zeroes + Ones : Digital Women and the New Technoculture (1997, Doubleday) ISBN 0-385-48260-4
Writing on Drugs (1999, Faber and Faber) ISBN 0-571-19616-0
Passage 3:
Glenn Chapman
Glenn Justice Chapman (January 21, 1906 – November 5, 1988) was an American Major League Baseball player  Nicknamed "Pete", he played in 67 games for the  Brooklyn Dodgers during the 1934 season 

External links
Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference, or Baseball Reference (Minors)
Passage 4:
Dazed and Confused (film)
Dazed and Confused is a 1993 American coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by Richard Linklater  The film features a large ensemble cast of actors who would later become stars, including Jason London, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Cole Hauser, Parker Posey, Adam Goldberg, Matthew McConaughey, Nicky Katt, Joey Lauren Adams, and Rory Cochrane  The plot follows the exploits of several teenagers during the last day of school in 1976 Austin, Texas  
Released on September 24, 1993 Dazed and Confused was a commercial disappointment at the box office, grossing less than $8 million in the United States  The film later found success on the home video market and has since become a cult classic  It ranked third on Entertainment Weekly magazine's list of the 50 Best High School Movies  The magazine also ranked it 10th on its "Funniest Movies of the Past 25 Years" list 

Plot
It is May 28, 1976, the last day of school at Lee High School in Austin, Texas  The next year's group of seniors are preparing for the annual hazing of incoming freshmen  Randall "Pink" Floyd, the school's star football player, is asked to sign a pledge promising not to take drugs during the summer or do anything that would "jeopardize the goal of a championship season"  When classes end, the incoming freshman boys are hunted down by the seniors and paddled  The incoming freshman girls are also hazed; they are rounded up in the school parking lot by senior girls, covered in mustard, ketchup, flour and raw eggs and forced to propose to senior boys 
As day fades to night, freshman Mitch Kramer escapes the initial hazing with his best friend Carl Burnett, but is later cornered after a baseball game and violently paddled  Fred O'Bannion, a senior participating in the hazing tradition for a second year after failing to graduate, delights in punishing Mitch  Pink gives the injured Mitch a ride home and offers to take him cruising with friends that night  Plans for the evening are ruined when Kevin Pickford's parents discover his intention to host a keg party  Elsewhere, the intellectual trio of Cynthia Dunn, Tony Olson, and Mike Newhouse decide to participate in the evening's festivities  Pink and his friend David Wooderson, a man in his early 20s who still socializes with high school students, pick up Mitch and head for the Emporium, a pool hall frequented by teenagers 
As the night progresses, students loiter around the Emporium, listen to rock music, cruise the neighborhood and frequent a local drive-through restaurant  Mitch is introduced to sophomore Julie Simms, with whom he shares a mutual attraction  While cruising again with Pink, Pickford and Don Dawson, Mitch drinks beer and smokes marijuana for the first time  After a game of mailbox baseball, a neighborhood resident brandishing a gun threatens to call the police  They barely escape after the resident fires at their car  After returning to the Emporium, Mitch runs into his middle school friends  They hatch a plan to exact revenge on O'Bannion  It culminates with them dumping paint on O'Bannion, who leaves in a fit of rage 
After the Emporium closes, an impromptu keg party is planned in a field under a moonlight tower  Cynthia, Tony, and Mike arrive at their first keg party, where Mike is threatened by tough guy Clint Bruno  Tony runs into freshman Sabrina Davis, whom he met earlier during the hazing and they begin hanging out together  Cynthia likes Wooderson and exchanges phone numbers with him  Mike, suffering from the humiliation of his confrontation with Clint, decides to make a stand by punching him; in return, he gets tackled by Clint and receives a beating from him  The fight is broken up by Pink and Wooderson  Football player Benny O'Donnell confronts Pink about his refusal to sign the pledge  Pink, the only player not to have signed, believes it violates his individuality and beliefs  Mitch leaves the keg party with Julie  They drive to a nearby hill overlooking town to make out  Tony gives Sabrina a ride home and they kiss goodnight 
As night turns to dawn, Pink, Wooderson, Don, Ron Slater and several other friends decide to smoke marijuana on the 50-yard line of the football field  The police arrive so they ditch the drugs  Recognizing Pink and Dawson, the police call Coach Conrad, his football coach  Conrad lectures Pink about hanging out with "losers" and insists that he sign the pledge  Pink says that he might play football, but he is not going to sign it  Pink leaves with his friends to Houston to obtain tickets to an Aerosmith concert  Mitch arrives home after sunrise to find his mother has waited up for him  She decides against punishment, but warns him about coming home late again  Mitch goes to his bedroom, puts on headphones, and listens to "Slow Ride" by Foghat, as Pink, Wooderson, Slater, and Simone Kerr travel down a highway to purchase their tickets 

Cast
Production
Development
When asked in an interview what he wanted to do after Slacker, director Richard Linklater said "I want to make this teenage rock'n'roll spree  I knew I wanted the story to take place on one day in the spring of 1976, but at one point it was much more experimental  The whole movie took place in a car with the characters driving around listening to ZZ Top " Lee Daniel, the director of photography, described the concept: "It would have been two shots—one of a guy putting in an eight-track of ZZ Top's Fandango! and one of two guys driving around talking  The film would be the length of the actual album, and you'd hear each track in the background as a source " Eventually, Linklater decided to write a script "to represent different points of view", the first draft of which took a month to complete  Universal Studios fast tracked production of Linklater's script, jumping ahead of 30 other films which were in development at that time 

Casting
Casting searches were done in Austin, New York, and Los Angeles  Vince Vaughn was almost cast as the bully O'Bannion before Ben Affleck was chosen  As Linklater put it, "Ben was smart and full of life  You don't cast the unappealing person, you cast the appealing person " Other young actors considered for roles include Elizabeth Berkley, Mira Sorvino, Ashley Judd, Brendan Fraser, Jon Favreau, Ron Livingston and Claire Danes  Casting director Don Phillips said, "We wanted Claire Danes for the girl, but she was too young  She couldn't leave school " Renee Zellweger has a nonspeaking role in the film, but was originally considered for the part of Darla, which went to Parker Posey instead  Linklater said, "Parker was just crazier " Wiley Wiggins was the "big find" in Austin, according to Linklater, who described him as "a 15-year-old with all the bad habits of a grad student: smoking cigarettes, hanging out at coffee shops, my kind of guy "Some roles which were intended to be larger were reduced  The Kevin Pickford character, played by Shawn Andrews, was meant to be a larger role, but due to his behavior with other cast members, Pickford's screen time was cut in favor of Matthew McConaughey's character, Wooderson  Linklater recalled "There was another actor, [Shawn Andrews], who was kind of the opposite [of McConaughey]  He wasn't really getting along with everybody  I could tell the actors weren't responding to him " Linklater had to break up a fight between Andrews and London at one point  On screen, the two characters barely speak to each other during the film  Milla Jovovich, who played Michelle, Pickford's girlfriend, had her role reduced because, in Linklater's words, "it didn't really gel "McConaughey was not originally cast in the film, as the role of Wooderson was originally small and meant to be cast locally for budget purposes  He was a film student at the University of Texas in Austin and went out drinking with his girlfriend one night  They ended up at the Hyatt hotel bar since his friend was a bartender there and could get them a discount  He approached casting director Phillips in the bar  Phillips recalls, "The bartender says to him, 'See that guy down there? That's Don Phillips  He cast Sean Penn in Fast Times ' And Matthew goes, 'I'm gonna go down and talk to this guy '" Phillips also recalls that Linklater didn't like McConaughey at first because he was "too handsome " Much of the Wooderson role was improvised or written on the spot, giving McConaughey more screen time 

Reception
Dazed and Confused was released on September 24, 1993, in 183 theaters, grossing $918,127 on its opening weekend  It went on to make $7 9 million in North America The film received positive reviews from critics  On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 92% approval rating based on 62 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 7 90/10  The website's critical consensus reads: "Featuring an excellent ensemble cast, a precise feel for the 1970s, and a killer soundtrack, Dazed and Confused is a funny, affectionate, and clear-eyed look at high school life " Metacritic provides a score of 78 out of 100 from 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews Film critic Roger Ebert awarded the film three stars out of four, praising the film as "art crossed with anthropology" with a "painful underside"  Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "Dazed and Confused has an enjoyably playful spirit, one that amply compensates for its lack of structure"  Desson Howe of The Washington Post, wrote, "Dazed succeeds on its own terms and reflects American culture so well, it becomes part of it"  In her review for The Austin Chronicle, Marjorie Baumgarten gave particular praise to Matthew McConaughey's performance: "He is a character we're all too familiar with in the movies but McConaughey nails this guy without a hint of condescension or whimsy, claiming this character for all time as his own" Rolling Stone's Peter Travers gave the film four stars out of four, and praised Linklater as a "sly and formidable talent, bringing an anthropologist's eye to this spectacularly funny celebration of the rites of stupidity  His shitfaced American Graffiti is the ultimate party movie – loud, crude, socially irresponsible and totally irresistible"  In his review for Time, Richard Corliss wrote, "Linklater is surely no ham-fisted moralist, and his film has lots of attitude to shake a finger at  But it also has enough buoyant '70s music to shake anybody's tail feather, and a kind of easy jubilance of narrative and character"  Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A" rating, and wrote, "Yet if Linklater captures the comic goofiness of the time, he also evokes its liberating spirit  The film finds its meaning in the subtle clash between the older, sadistic macho-jock ethos and the follow-your-impulse hedonism that was the lingering legacy of the '60s" 

Legacy
Quentin Tarantino included it on his list of the 10 greatest films of all time in the 2002 Sight and Sound poll  In 2003, Entertainment Weekly ranked the film #17 on its list of "The Top 50 Cult Films", third on its list of the 50 Best High School Movies, 10th on its "Funniest Movies of the Past 25 Years" list, and ranked it #6 on its "The Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field Movie Hits Since '83" list In October 2004, three of Linklater's former classmates from Huntsville High School, whose surnames are Wooderson, Slater, and Floyd, filed a defamation lawsuit against Linklater, claiming to be the basis for the similarly named characters on the film  The lawsuit was filed in New Mexico rather than Texas because New Mexico has a longer statute of limitations  The suit was subsequently dismissed In 2012, McConaughey reprised his role as Wooderson in the Butch Walker and The Black Widows music video "Synthesizers"  To celebrate the film's 20th anniversary in 2013, the film received the Star of Texas award from the Texas Film Hall of Fame  Linklater accepted the award after being introduced by Tarantino, who reiterated his appreciation of the film as his favorite of the 1990s  The event featured a reunion of several cast members including Joey Lauren Adams, Wiley Wiggins, Christin Hinojosa, Nicky Katt, Mona Lee, Catherine Avril Morris, Anthony Rapp, Marissa Ribisi, Michelle Burke Thomas, and Mark Vandermeulen  At the event, Linklater described his intent to create an inverse John Hughes film: "The drama is so low-key in [Dazed & Confused]  I don't remember teenage being that dramatic  I remember just trying to go with the flow, socialize, fit in and be cool  The stakes were really low  To get Aerosmith tickets or not? That's a big thing  It was really rare when the star-crossed lovers from the opposite side of the tracks and the girl gets pregnant and there's a car crash and somebody dies  That didn't really happen much  But riding around and trying to look for something to do with the music cranked up, now that happened a lot!"After Boyhood was released Linklater announced that his next film, Everybody Wants Some!!, would be a "spiritual sequel" to Dazed and Confused  The newer film takes place at a Texas college in 1980 The line "alright, alright, alright" became a catchphrase for Matthew McConaughey Rotten Tomatoes' editorial team credits the film for "putting Austin, Texas on the map "

Home video
MCA/Universal released Dazed and Confused on laserdisc in January 1994, followed by a VHS release two months later The film was released on HD DVD in 2006  The Criterion Collection released a two-disc boxed-set edition of the film on June 6, 2006, in the U S  and Canada  Features included an audio commentary by Richard Linklater, deleted scenes, the original trailer, the 50 minute "Making Dazed" documentary that aired on the American Movie Classics channel on September 18, 2005, on-set interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, cast auditions and footage from the ten-year anniversary celebration  Also included is a 72-page book featuring new essays by Kent Jones, Jim DeRogatis, and Chuck Klosterman as well as memories from the cast and crew, character profiles and a mini reproduction of the original film poster designed by Frank Kozik  Entertainment Weekly gave it an "A" rating and stated that it "grants this enduring cult classic the DVD treatment it deserves" Universal Studios released Dazed and Confused on Blu-ray in August 2011, in a 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 transfer, with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5 1 soundtrack The Blunt Truth is a four-minute and twenty second long 1970s anti-cannabis hoax educational film  It appeared as a bonus feature on 2004's Dazed and Confused: Flashback Party Edition On February 21, 2023, The Criterion Collection re-released the film on 4K UHD Blu-ray  In their review, Svet Atanasov at Blu-ray com states that "The 2022 restoration on the 4K Blu-ray disc was undertaken by the Criterion Collection from the 35mm original camera negative, scanned on a Lasergraphics Director film scanner  Based on the 2011 color transfer, this restoration was newly remastered in Dolby Vision HDR and approved by director Richard Linklater  The 2011 SDR restoration on the Blu-ray -- supervised by Linklater and director of photography Lee Daniel -- was undertaken by the Criterion Collection -- from a 35mm interpositive, scanned on a Spirit 4K DataCine  The original 5 1 surround soundtrack was remastered from the 35mm magnetic audio tracks" 

Soundtrack
The soundtrack for the film was released on September 28, 1993, by The Medicine Label, and they consist of hit songs (mostly rock) from the 1970s, the film's setting  The songs "Hurricane" by Bob Dylan, "Hey Baby" by Ted Nugent, and "Sweet Emotion" by Aerosmith were also included in the film, but not on the commercial soundtracks  "The Alien Song (For Those Who Listen)" by Milla Jovovich was briefly performed by Jovovich's character Michelle Burroughs, but was not included in the soundtrack either  Geffen Records attempted to get up-and-coming band Jackyl to do a cover of Grand Funk's "We're an American Band" to play over the end credits and be released as a single, but Linklater refused 

Certifications
Book
In September 1993, St  Martin's Press published a 127-page, softcover book (ISBN 0-312-09466-3) inspired by Richard Linklater's screenplay  It was compiled by Linklater, Denise Montgomery, and others, and designed by Erik Josowitz  It was presented as a kind of yearbook, with character profiles, essays by characters, a timeline focusing on the years 1973 to 1977, and various 1970s pop culture charts and quizzes  It also featured dozens of black-and-white photos from the film 
Passage 5:
Gal Gadot
Gal Gadot-Varsano (Hebrew: גל גדות Hebrew pronunciation: [ˈɡal ɡaˈdot]; born 30 April 1985) is an Israeli actress and model  She was crowned Miss Israel 2004 and represented her country at the Miss Universe 2004 pageant  She then served in the Israel Defense Forces for two years as a combat fitness instructor, whereafter she began studying at IDC Herzliya while building her modeling and acting careers Her first international film performance was as Gisele Yashar in Fast & Furious (2009), a part she reprised in the sequels Fast Five (2011), Fast & Furious 6 (2013), and Fast X (2023)  Gadot went on to achieve global stardom for her portrayal of Wonder Woman in the DC Extended Universe, including Wonder Woman (2017) and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)  She has since starred in the Netflix action-comedy film Red Notice (2021) and the mystery film Death on the Nile (2022) 
Gadot was included on the list of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2018, and has placed twice in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actresses 

Early life
Gadot was born on 30 April 1985 in Petah Tikva, where she first lived; she was later raised in the city of Rosh HaAyin  In Hebrew, her given name means "wave" and her surname means "riverbanks"  
Prior to her birth, her parents had Hebraized their surname from "Greenstein" to "Gadot"  Her father is Michael Gadot, an engineer, and her mother is Irit (née Weiss), a physical education teacher  Gadot has a younger sister named Dana  Gadot's father is a sixth-generation Sabra  Her maternal grandparents were born in 20th-century Europe; her grandfather survived the Holocaust following his imprisonment at the Auschwitz concentration camp during Nazi Germany's occupation of Czechoslovakia, while her grandmother managed to escape the continent before the outbreak of World War II Gadot has stated that she was brought up in a "very Jewish, Israeli family environment"  Growing up in Israel, she learned and danced jazz and hip-hop for 12 years, and her first jobs were working at a local Burger King as well as babysitting  She graduated from Begin High School in Rosh HaAyin, majoring in biology  As Jewish high schools in Israel often take their sophomores on trips to Holocaust memorial sites, Gadot went to Poland to gain a first-hand understanding of two Nazi concentration camps: Auschwitz and Majdanek  About the experience, she reminisced: "I stood there on top of a mountain of ashes  I, an entitled child, felt the suffering the Muselmann experienced back then  When it was time to give my speech at the memorial ceremony, my eyes filled up with tears, and I could not control the shivering  I returned home more mature and cried with my grandfather about that, coming a full circle from his childhood to mine "At 20, Gadot enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces as a combat fitness instructor as part of her mandatory two years of military service  She has said that her military background helped her to win the role of Gisele Yashar in the 2009 film Fast & Furious, stating: "I think the main reason was that the director Justin Lin really liked that I was in the military, and he wanted to use my knowledge of weapons " After her military service, Gadot studied law at IDC Herzliya college in Israel (now Reichman University) 

Career
Modeling and beauty pageant career
Gadot entered the Miss Israel national beauty pageant at 18, under the impression that it would be a "fun" experience, and stated in a Glamour interview: "I never thought I would win " She subsequently won and went on to compete for Israel in the Miss Universe 2004 pageant that took place that year in Ecuador She has led international campaigns as a model for Miss Sixty, Huawei smartphones, Captain Morgan rum, Gucci fragrances, Vine Vera skincare and Jaguar Cars  In 2015, she became the face of Gucci's Bamboo perfume brand  She has been featured as the covergirl on Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Bride Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, UMM, Cleo, Fashion, Lucire, FHM  Gadot was the main model for fashion brand Castro from 2008 to 2016  In 2013, her combined annual modeling and acting salary was estimated at NIS 2 4 million In 2007, a then 21-year-old Gadot was in the Maxim photo shoot "Women of the Israel Defense Forces" and was then featured on the cover of the New York Post In 2017, Gadot was placed at number one on FHM's "100 Sexiest Women in the World" list In 2018, Gadot became a brand ambassador for Revlon and Reebok  She appeared in advertisements for Revlon's "Live Boldly" campaign and Reebok's "Be More Human" campaign 

Acting
After Gadot had completed her first year of college, a casting director contacted her agent to have Gadot audition for the part of Camille Montes in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace  Although she lost the part to Olga Kurylenko, a few months later, Gadot starred in the 2008 Israeli drama Bubot  Three months later, the casting director from her Quantum of Solace audition chose Gadot over six other actresses for the role of Gisele Yashar in the action film Fast & Furious, the fourth film in the Fast & Furious franchise  Gadot performed some of her own stunt work in those films In 2010, she had small roles in the action comedy Date Night and the action-adventure comedy Knight and Day  2011 brought her back to the Fast & Furious franchise, reprising her role as Gisele in Fast Five; she played the character again in 2013's Fast & Furious 6 

Gadot portrayed Wonder Woman in the superhero film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)  Gadot received swordsmanship, Kung Fu, kickboxing, capoeira and Brazilian jiu-jitsu training in preparation for the role  She was almost cast as Faora-Ul in Man of Steel, but she rejected the part for her pregnancy  Antje Traue was cast instead  Gadot's performance as the superhero, which was the character's first appearance in film, was singled out as one of the best parts of the film Gadot, fellow Wonder Woman actress Lynda Carter, DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins and U N  Under-Secretary-General Cristina Gallach appeared at the United Nations on 21 October 2016, the 75th anniversary of the first appearance of Wonder Woman, to mark the character's designation by the United Nations as its "Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls"  The gesture was intended to raise awareness of UN Sustainable Development Goal No  5, which seeks to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030  The decision was met with protests from UN staff members who stated in their petition to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the character is "not culturally encompassing or sensitive" and served to objectify women  As a result, the character was stripped of the designation, and the project ended on 16 December Also in 2016, she had a small role in John Hillcoat's crime-thriller Triple 9, where she starred along with Kate Winslet and Aaron Paul  Later that year, she co-starred in the action crime thriller film Criminal, as the wife of Ryan Reynolds' character, alongside Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, and Tommy Lee Jones  Her final film of 2016 was the action comedy Keeping Up with the Joneses, in which she played a secret agent, alongside Zach Galifianakis, Jon Hamm, and Isla Fisher In 2017, Gadot starred in a solo film for her character, Wonder Woman  She reprised the role in the ensemble film Justice League, which was released in November 2017, and was her third DC Extended Universe installment  That same year, Gadot was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences In 2018, Time magazine named Gadot one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and Forbes ranked her as the tenth highest-paid actress in the world, with annual earnings of $10 million  In the same year, Gadot voiced Shank in the Walt Disney Animation Studios film Ralph Breaks the Internet Gadot appeared in the music video for Maroon 5's song "Girls Like You" featuring Cardi B In 2020, Forbes ranked Gadot as the third highest-paid actress in the world, with annual earnings of $31 5 million  On 11 October 2020, Gadot was confirmed to be reuniting with Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins on Cleopatra, an epic film centered on Cleopatra, which was originally going to be distributed by Paramount Pictures  Later, Jenkins moved to produce the project with Kari Skogland set to direct  In December, Gadot was cast in the spy thriller Heart of Stone In 2021, Gadot starred alongside Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds in the Netflix action comedy film Red Notice, written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber  The following year, she co-starred with Kenneth Branagh, Armie Hammer, Ali Fazal, Tom Bateman, and Annette Bening in the 2022 mystery film Death on the Nile, which was also directed by Branagh  In 2023, Gadot made an uncredited cameo appearance as Wonder Woman in Shazam! Fury of the Gods and returned to the Fast & Furious franchise with a cameo appearance in Fast X Gadot will star as the Evil Queen in a live-action adaptation of Disney's 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and also produce and star in a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 film To Catch a Thief 

Producer
In October 2019, Gadot formed a film and television production company, Pilot Wave, with her husband Jaron "Yaron" Varsano, and said she will star in and co-produce an Apple TV+ limited series about actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr, as well as the Warner Bros  historical thriller film Irena Sendler, following the life of WWII humanitarian Irena Sendler In 2020, Gadot co-produced, as well as starred, in the film Wonder Woman 1984 

Other work
In 2008, Gadot participated in Tfos Ta'Festigal – Harpatka BaMetzulot (Festigal 2008), the highest-grossing annual Israeli musical show for kids during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, where Gadot took part as one of the local Israeli celebrities; and she acted, sang and danced – dressed as a mermaid Gadot was named as celebrity endorser for Smartwater in 2020, replacing Jennifer Aniston, who had served in that role since 2008 

"Imagine" video
In March 2020, Gadot and a number of other celebrities, including her Wonder Woman 1984 co-star Kristen Wiig, performed an online version of the song "Imagine" by John Lennon, intended to raise morale during the COVID-19 pandemic  The video received backlash with critics dismissing it as an ineffective response to the pandemic; Jon Caramanica of The New York Times called it "an empty and profoundly awkward gesture"  Gadot later acknowledged the video did not garner the positive reaction that had been intended, but was unapologetic in explaining the thinking behind it  In a 2022 interview with InStyle magazine, Gadot admitted that the video was done in "poor taste", but still maintained that it had "pure intentions" 

Personal life
Gadot married Israeli real estate developer Jaron "Yaron" Varsano in 2008  They have three daughters, born in 2011, 2017, and 2021  The two formed their own film-television production company, Pilot Wave, in 2019  Gadot and Varsano owned a boutique hotel in Tel Aviv, Israel, which she helped run, that eventually was sold to Roman Abramovich in 2015 for $26 million Gadot is an avid martial arts enthusiast  She possesses a black belt in both karate and Krav Maga  She has served as a trainer and combat instructor for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)  Her extensive background knowledge in martial arts played a key part in helping her land the role of Wonder Woman During the 2014 Gaza War, Gadot posted on Facebook a picture of herself and her daughter praying in front of Shabbat candles in support of the IDF, accompanied by a comment that quickly accumulated over 200,000 likes as well as more than 15,000 comments of both support and criticism:
I am sending my love and prayers to my fellow Israeli citizens  Especially to all the boys and girls who are risking their lives protecting my country against the horrific acts conducted by Hamas, who are hiding like cowards behind women and children     We shall overcome!!! #weareright #freegazafromhamas #stopterror #coexistance #loveidf
During the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, Gadot called for peace between the two territories in a statement that drew backlash for expressing support for Israel and referring to the Palestinians as her "neighbours" 

Recognition
On June 26, 2023, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced that Gadot would receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, class 2024, making her the first person of Israeli descent to receive the honor 
In 2023, Gadot was awarded the LifeSaver Award by ELEM/Youth in Distress in Israel 

Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Commercials
Beauty pageants
Awards and nominations
See also
Israeli fashion
Women in Israel
Women in the Israel Defense Forces
List of Israelis

Notes



ground_truth: Fred O'Bannion