Highest Cities and Towns in Europe and in the world

[GiCa]

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/...-impact-height

evolution has favored short stature and perhaps thick skin among Peruvians. Many live at high altitudes, and animal studies show that species living at such elevations tend to be smaller, an apparent evolutionary adaptation to the scarcity of food in those places. Thick skin might also protect the body from the strong ultraviolet light at high altitudes

[GiCa]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High...tion_in_humans

High-altitude adaptation in humans is an instance of evolutionary modification in certain human populations, including those of Tibet in Asia, the Andes of the Americas, and Ethiopia in Africa, who have acquired the ability to survive at extremely high altitudes. This adaptation means irreversible, long-term physiological responses to high-altitude environments, associated with heritable behavioural and genetic changes.

While the rest of the human population would suffer serious health consequences, the indigenous inhabitants of these regions thrive well in the highest parts of the world. These people have undergone extensive physiological and genetic changes, particularly in the regulatory systems of oxygen respiration and blood circulation, when compared to the general lowland population.

This special adaptation is now recognised as an example of natural selection in action. The adaptation account of the Tibetans has become the fastest case of human evolution in the scientific record, as it is estimated to have occurred in less than 3,000 years.

Modern humans dispersed from Africa less than 100,000 years ago, and eventually colonized the rest of the world, including the harshest environments of extreme cold and high mountains. The abundance of oxygen in the atmosphere is inversely related to altitude from the sea level; hence, the highest mountain ranges of the world are considered unsuitable for human habitation.

Nevertheless, around 140 million people, just under 2% of the world's human population, live permanently at high altitudes, that is, at heights above 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) in South America, East Africa, and South Asia. These populations have done so for millennia without apparent complications.[9] The overwhelming majority, over 98% of humans from other parts of the world, normally suffer symptoms of altitude sickness in these regions, often resulting in life-threatening trauma and even death.

Studies on the detail biological mechanism have revealed that adaptation of the Tibetans, Andeans and Ethiopians is indeed an observable instance of the process of natural selection in acting on favourable characters such as enhanced respiratory mechanisms in humans.

Humans are naturally adapted to lowland environment where oxygen is abundant. When people from the general lowlands go to altitudes above 2,500 metres (8,200 ft), with atmospheric pressure 74% of normal they experience mountain sickness, which is a type of hypoxia, a clinical syndrome of severe lack of oxygen. Complications include fatigue, dizziness, breathlessness, headaches, insomnia, malaise, nausea, vomiting, body pain, loss of appetite, ear-ringing, blistering and purpling of the hands and feet, and dilated veins.

The sickness is compounded by related symptoms such as cerebral oedema (swelling of brain) and pulmonary oedema (fluid accumulation in lungs). For several days, they breathe excessively and burn extra energy even when the body is relaxed. The heart rate then gradually decreases. Hypoxia, in fact, is one of the principal causes of death among mountaineers. In women, pregnancy can be severely affected, such as development of high blood pressure, called preeclampsia, which causes premature labour, low birth weight of babies, and often complicated with profuse bleeding, seizures, and death of the mother.

More than 140 million people worldwide are estimated to live at an elevation higher than 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) above sea level, of which 13 million are in Ethiopia, 1.7 million in Tibet (total of 78 million in Asia), 35 million in the South American Andes, and 0.3 million in Colorado Rocky Mountains. Certain natives of Tibet, Ethiopia, and the Andes have been living at these high altitudes for generations and are protected from hypoxia as a consequence of genetic adaptation. It is estimated that at 4,000 metres (13,000 ft), every lungful of air only has 60% of the oxygen molecules that people at sea level have. At elevations above 7,600 metres (24,900 ft), lack of oxygen becomes seriously lethal. That is, these highlanders are constantly exposed to an intolerably low oxygen environment, yet they live without any debilitating problems. Basically, the shared adaptation is the ability to maintain relatively low levels of haemoglobin, which is the chemical complex for transporting oxygen in the blood. One of the best documented effects of high altitude is a progressive reduction in birth weight. It has been known that women of long-resident high-altitude population are not affected. These women are known to give birth to heavier-weight infants than women of lowland inhabitants. This is particularly true among Tibetan babies, whose average birth weight is 294-650 (~470) g heavier than the surrounding Chinese population; and their blood-oxygen level is considerably higher.

The first scientific investigations of high-altitude adaptation was done by A. Roberto Frisancho of the University of Michigan in the late 1960s among the Quechua people of Peru. However, the best scientific studies were started among the Tibetans in the early 1980s by an anthropologist Cynthia Beall of the Case Western Reserve University.

[GiCa]

Tibetans



Scientists started to notice the extraordinary physical performance of Tibetans since the beginning of Himalayan climbing era in the early 20th century. The hypothesis of a possible evolutionary genetic adaptation makes sense.[27] The Tibetan plateau has an average elevation of 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) above sea level, and covering more than 2.5 million km, it is the highest and largest plateau in the world. In 1990, it was estimated that 4,594,188 Tibetans live on the plateau, with 53% living at an altitude over 3,500 metres (11,500 ft). Fairly large numbers (about 600,000) live at an altitude exceeding 4,500 metres (14,800 ft) in the Chantong-Qingnan area.[28] Where the Tibetan highlanders live, the oxygen level is only about 60% of that at sea level. The Tibetans, who have been living in this region for 3,000 years, do not exhibit the elevated haemoglobin concentrations to cope with oxygen deficiency as observed in other populations who have moved temporarily or permanently at high altitudes. Instead, the Tibetans inhale more air with each breath and breathe more rapidly than either sea-level populations or Andeans. Tibetans have better oxygenation at birth, enlarged lung volumes throughout life, and a higher capacity for exercise. They show a sustained increase in cerebral blood flow, lower haemoglobin concentration, and less susceptibility to chronic mountain sickness than other populations, due to their longer history of high-altitude habitation.[29][30]

General people can develop short-term tolerance with careful physical preparation and systematic monitoring of movements, but the biological changes are quite temporary and reversible when they return to lowlands.[31] Moreover, unlike lowland people who only experience increased breathing for a few days after entering high altitudes, Tibetans retain this rapid breathing and elevated lung-capacity throughout their lifetime.[32] This enables them to inhale larger amounts of air per unit of time to compensate for low oxygen levels. In addition, they have high levels (mostly double) of nitric oxide in their blood, when compared to lowlanders, and this probably helps their blood vessels dilate for enhanced blood circulation.[33] Further, their haemoglobin level is not significantly different (average 15.6 g/dl in males and 14.2 g/dl in females),[34] from those of people living at low altitude. (Normally, mountaineers experience >2 g/dl increase in Hb level at Mt. Everest base camp in two weeks.[35]) In this way they are able to evade both the effects of hypoxia and mountain sickness throughout life. Even when they climbed the highest summits like Mt. Everest, they showed regular oxygen uptake, greater ventilation, more brisk hypoxic ventilatory responses, larger lung volumes, greater diffusing capacities, constant body weight and a better quality of sleep, compared to people from the lowland.[36]

[GiCa]

Andeans



In contrast to the Tibetans, the Andean highlanders, who have been living at high-altitudes for no more than 11,000 years, show different pattern of haemoglobin adaptation. Their haemoglobin concentration is higher compared to those of lowlander population, which also happens to lowlanders moving to high altitude. When they spend some weeks in the lowland their haemoglobin drops to average of other people. This shows only temporary and reversible acclimatisation. However, in contrast to lowland people, they do have increased oxygen level in their haemoglobin, that is, more oxygen per blood volume than other people. This confers an ability to carry more oxygen in each red blood cell, making a more effective transport of oxygen in their body, while their breathing is essentially at the same rate.[32] This enables them to overcome hypoxia and normally reproduce without risk of death for the mother or baby. The Andean highlanders are known from the 16th-century missionaries that their reproduction had always been normal, without any effect in the giving birth or the risk for early pregnancy loss, which are common to hypoxic stress.[37] They have developmentally acquired enlarged residual lung volume and its associated increase in alveolar area, which are supplemented with increased tissue thickness and moderate increase in red blood cells. Though the physical growth in body size is delayed, growth in lung volumes is accelerated.[38] An incomplete adaptation such as elevated haemoglobin levels still leaves them at risk for mountain sickness with old age.

Among the Quechua people of the Altiplano, there is a significant variation in NOS3 (the gene encoding endothelial nitric oxide synthase, eNOS), which is associated with higher levels of nitric oxide in high altitude.[39] Nuñoa children of Quechua ancestry exhibit higher blood-oxygen content (91.3) and lower heart rate (84.8) than their counterpart school children of different ethnicity, who have an average of 89.9 blood-oxygen and 88-91 heart rate.[40] High-altitude born and bred females of Quechua origins have comparatively enlarged lung volume for increased respiration.[41]

Blood profile comparisons show that among the Andeans, Aymaran highlanders are better adapted to highlands than the Quechuas.[42][43] Among the Bolivian Aymara people, the resting ventilation and hypoxic ventilatory response were quite low (roughly 1.5 times lower), in contrast to those of the Tibetans. The intrapopulation genetic variation was relatively less among the Aymara people.[44][45] Moreover, unlike the Tibetans, the blood haemoglobin level is quite normal among Aymarans, with an average of 19.2 g/dl for males and 17.8 g/dl for females.[34] Among the different native highlander populations, the underlying physiological responses to adaptation are quite different. For example, among four quantitative features, such as are resting ventilation, hypoxic ventilatory response, oxygen saturation, and haemoglobin concentration, the levels of variations are significantly different between the Tibetans and the Aymaras.[46] The Andeans, in general are the most poorly adapted, as particularly shown by their frequent mountain sickness and loss of adaptative characters when they move to lowlands.[47]

[GiCa]

Ethiopians


The peoples of the Ethiopian highlands also live at extremely high altitudes, around 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) to 3,500 metres (11,500 ft). Highland Ethiopians exhibit elevated haemoglobin levels, like Andeans and lowlander peoples at high altitudes, but do not exhibit the Andean’s increased in oxygen-content of haemoglobin.[48] Among healthy individuals, the average haemoglobin concentrations are 15.9 and 15.0 g/dl for males and females respectively (which is lower than normal, almost similar to the Tibetans), and an average oxygen saturation of haemoglobin is 95.3% (which is higher than average, like the Andeans).[49] Additionally, Ethiopian highlanders do not exhibit any significant change in blood circulation of the brain, which has been observed among the Peruvian highlanders (and attributed to their frequent altitude-related illnesses).[50] Yet, similar to the Andeans and Tibetans, the Ethiopian highlanders are immune to the extreme dangers posed by high-altitude environment, and their pattern of adaptation is definitely unique from that of other highland peoples.[22]

[GiCa]

Lowest town on earth, JERICHO, Palestine 20,300 habitants and -258 m elevation




https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho

Jericho (/ˈdʒɛrɪkoʊ/; Hebrew: יְרִיחוֹ‬ Yərīḥō; Arabic: أريحا‎ Arīḥā [ʔaˈriːħaː] (About this sound listen)) is a city in the Palestinian Territories and is located near the Jordan River in the West Bank. It is the administrative seat of the Jericho Governorate, and is governed by the Fatah faction of the Palestinian National Authority. In 2007, it had a population of 18,346. The city was occupied by Jordan from 1949 to 1967, and has been held under Israeli occupation since 1967; administrative control was handed over to the Palestinian Authority in 1994. It is believed to be one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and the city with the oldest known protective wall in the world. It was thought to have the oldest stone tower in the world as well, but excavations at Tell Qaramel in Syria have discovered stone towers that are even older.

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of more than 20 successive settlements in Jericho, the first of which dates back 11,000 years (9000 BC), almost to the very beginning of the Holocene epoch of the Earth's history.

Copious springs in and around the city have attracted human habitation for thousands of years. Jericho is described in the Hebrew Bible as the "City of Palm Trees".

[GiCa]

TIBERIAS, Israel is the second lowest town on earth, but the first for population above 40,000 i habitants

-207 m




https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberias

Tiberias (/taɪˈbɪəriəs/; Hebrew: טְבֶרְיָה‬, Tverya, About this sound (audio) (help·info); Arabic: طبرية‎, Ṭabariyyah) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Established around 20 CE, it was named in honour of the second emperor of the Roman Empire, Tiberius. In 2017 it had a population of 43,664.

Tiberias was held in great respect in Judaism from the middle of the 2nd century C'è and since the 16th century has been considered one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Hebron and Safed. In the 2nd–10th centuries, Tiberias was the largest Jewish city in the Galilee and the political and religious hub of the Jews of Israel. Its immediate neighbour to the south, Hammat Tiberias, which is now part of modern Tiberias, has been known for its hot springs, believed to cure skin and other ailments, for some two thousand years.

[GiCa]

BAKU, Azerbaijan is the lowest town on earth with a population of. More than 50,000

-28 m



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baku

Baku (/bəˈkuː/ bə-KOO, /ˈbɑːkuː/ BAH-koo; Azerbaijani: Bakı, IPA: [bɑˈcɯ]) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region, with a population of 2,374,000. Baku is located 28 metres (92 ft) below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world located below sea level. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, alongside the Bay of Baku. At the beginning of 2009, Baku's urban population was estimated at just over two million people. Officially, about 25 percent of all inhabitants of the country live in Baku's metropolitan area. Baku is the sole metropolis in Azerbaijan.

Baku is divided into twelve administrative districts (raions) and 48 townships. Among these are the townships on the islands of the Baku Archipelago, and the town of Oil Rocks built on stilts in the Caspian Sea, 60 kilometres (37 miles) away from Baku. The Inner City of Baku, along with the Shirvanshah's Palace and Maiden Tower, were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. According to the Lonely Planet's ranking, Baku is also among the world's top ten destinations for urban nightlife.[6]

The city is the scientific, cultural, and industrial center of Azerbaijan. Many sizeable Azerbaijani institutions have their headquarters there. The Baku International Sea Trade Port is capable of handling two million tons of general and dry bulk cargoes per year.[7] In recent years, Baku has become an important venue for international events. It hosted the 57th Eurovision Song Contest in 2012, the 2015 European Games, 4th Islamic Solidarity Games, the F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix since 2016, and will host UEFA Euro 2020. The city is bidding for Expo 2025 against Yekaterinburg, Russia and Osaka, Japan.

The city is renowned for its harsh winds, which is reflected in its nickname, the "City of Winds".

[Rocinante]

Highest elevation in europe for cities over 100,000 inhabitants

BURGOS, Castile and León, Spain 859 m
LEON, Castile and León, Spain 837 m
SALAMANCA, Castile and León, Spain 802 m


Highest Elevation in europe for cities over 50,000 inhabitants

AVILA, Castile and León, Spain 1,132 m
SEGOVIA, Castile and León, Spain 1,002 m


Highest elevation in europe for cities over 10,000 inhabitants

DAVOS, Prättigau/Davos, Graübunden, Switzerland 1,560 m
BRIANÇON, Haute Alps, Provence Alps Cote d'Azur, France 1,326 m
SORIA, Castile and León, Spain 1,063 m
GUARDA, Beira Interior Norte, Centro, Portugal 1,056 m
SAN GIOVANNI IN FIORE, Cosenza, Calabria, Italy 1,050 m
SMOLYAN, Bulgaria 1,050 m
ANDORRA LA VELLA, Andorra 1,023 m
SJENICA, Zlatibor, Serbia 1,010 m
LA CHAUX De FONDS, Neuchatel, Switzerland 1,001 m

Nice information, my father was born in Llión (León in castillian), very beautiful city.