Pretoria: The Jacaranda City

Ah Pretoria, home of the Blue Bulls and the Bulls.

Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive (administrative) capital; the other two being Cape Town and Bloemfontein, respectively the legislative and judicial capitals. It is contained in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, and therefore sometimes incorrectly referred to as Tshwane — this contentious issue is still being decided as of January 2006; see the discussion further down in this article.
The city has a population of approximately one million (or two million if the whole of the Tshwane metropolitan area is included). The main languages spoken in Pretoria include Tswana, Ndebele, Afrikaans, and English,
Pretoria is one of South Africa's leading academic cities, and it is home to both the largest residential university in the country (the University of Pretoria) and the largest distance education university (the University of South Africa, more commonly known by its initials, UNISA). The South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is also located in this city.
Interesting facts
-Pretoria's main street, Church Street, is the longest urban street in South Africa and one of the longest straight streets in the world.
-Many of the city's streets are lined with Jacaranda trees that blossom mauve (purplish blue) in spring, giving rise to the city's nickname "Jacaranda City".
-The Cullinan Diamond (the largest gem diamond ever found) was discovered in the town of Cullinan near Pretoria at the Premier Mine on January 26, 1905.
-Pretoria has the second largest number of embassies in the world after Washington, D.C..
-Pax Praetoriana was named after Pretoria.

Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
http://en.wikipedia.org