Dar es-Salaam

Dar es-Salaam (Arabic: دار السلام, meaning: Place of Peace) is the largest megacity in and the ; it is known to Covenant religious pilgrims as Earth City. Established by Majid bin Said of Zanzibar in the mid-1860s, Dar es-Salaam grew to prominence as a trade city during German colonization. By the late twenty-first century, the city's population boomed into the Earth's most populace residency and developed a heated rivalry with Mombasa. The pair of cities eventually transformed the incorporated East African Protectorate of the , making the nation among the most prosperous on Earth.
Since the 23rd century, Dar es-Salaam's skyline was dominated by "the Baobab", a distinctive multi-decked vertical metroplex. The structure, which was kilometers tall and wide, was originally pitched as an self-sufficient arcology to alleviate extreme population density. However, it became quickly embedded into the city's expanding urban sprawl in ways far more organic than designers intended. The structure expanded several times, with entire sub-cities rising from its surface. By the 26th century, many sections of the megastructure have become unmappable and overrun by the city's underworld gangs and disenfranchised.
During the , the city was evacuated and ransacked in the invasion but avoided the same destruction that befell Mombasa. Dar es-Salaam temporarily served as the security center for the and housed representatives. After the , the city became home to millions of Mombasa refugees and the first Earth-side alien refugee epicenter due to surrendering Covenant loyalists and -worshipping pilgrims. Dar es-Salaam's industrial community played a key role in and funded construction for the in the late 2550s.
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