Gabalfa

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Gabalfa
Nation Bettia
Province Gabalfa
Population 24.7 million (approx)
Districts 39 boroughs
Elevation 467 metres
Principal Industries Tourism, Financial, Media, IT,
Computers, Food & Drink, Clothing
Twinned Cities Rêvane (capital city of Ariddia)

Cenwick (political captial of Bostopia)
Sonoma City (Unified Capitalizt States)
Ariana (Cookesland)

Dialling Code (0)1
Gabalfa is the capital, largest and core city of Bettia, located in the central province of the same name, which was formerly known as Maes Canolog. Although the outlying parts of Maes Canolog formed part of the same greater metropolitan area - and therefore regarded as being part of Gabalfa itself - strictly speaking, the city of Gabalfa is the part of the city within the centre. However, this seemed to cause a great deal of confusion and so the decision was taken to rename the entire province.
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Map of Gabalfa province
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History

The first mention of Gabalfa dates back around 2000 years ago, with a written record of a small town established on the banks of the River Balfa. It is thought the city was established by members of the Banast tribe. Ancient folklore has it that they settled here after getting lost on a hunting expedition along the banks of the river - given their legendary bad sense of direction, this could very well be true. They had already named the river Balfa after an ancient legend of a water spirit who was drowned there many centuries before, and so they named their new home Gabalfa - home on the Balfa.

The town slowly grew and 1000 years afterwards, shortly after the introduction of Islam to the country, a sultanate was established there as a rival to Tamrida. Thanks to its centrel location and good water links with the coast, it quickly grew as a centre of trading. However, a rivalry had also started to grow with the neighbouring sultanate and they often squabbled over territory and trading routes. This rivalry came to a head in 1055 CE / 447 AH when Gabalfa laid claim to the nearby city of Sukatra, resulting in a brief war which they lost.

However, the city continued to prosper and, when the Treaty of Lorshill was signed, Gabalfa was chosen as the capital and the nation was named after Betty, the wife of the Sultan. With its newfound power and prosperity, Gabalfa flourished remarkably well and balooned in size. With its base secured, Gabalfa went on to play on major role in Bettia's turbulant history. The city saw major bloody riots during the last days of the Sultanate, and again during the Ahlil-Kitab Revolution.

Since then, life for the citizens of Gabalfa has been largely peaceful, save for the bizarre Invasion of the Giant Ants which saw the national stadium become the focal point for a major attack on Bettian sovereignty, and the Jinn Evacuation, which saw the spectacular evacuation of millions of Jinn occuring live on world television.

Geography

Gabalfa is located in the centre of Bettia, bordered by Gwlad Teg to the north, Al Maghrib to the west, Banastra to the east and Clodien to the south. The River Balfa flows eastwards from the northwest and through the centre, then northwards towards the port city of Porthbalfa. Due to its location, the topography of Gabalfa is generally a gentle slope running north-south with a slight west-east incline - this is most prominent towrds the northwest of the city, where the river forms a narrow valley. The slope levels off nearer the centre where the River Balfa flows.

The hills to the north rise up steeper as they run into the Gwlad Teg highlands, as opposed to those slopes to the south running down to the coast.

Environment

The city is situated at approximately 500 metres above sea level, with the predictable effect that average temperatures are slightly cooler than coastal parts of the country. Being a major urban area, Gabalfa is often warmer than other areas at a similar altitude, especially during the dry summer season. Rainfall is more or less consistant with the rest of the country.

Being an urbanised area, air quality is predictably poorer in comparison to more rural areas due to the increased traffic and industry. This has improved greatly in recent years as the provincial council has taken some steps to alleviate this, including heavy investment in public transport and studies into alternative fuels and power sources.


Sports

Gabalfa is home to a large number of sports teams, providing a healthy distraction for residents.

By far the most popular of sports is football, and Gabalfa currently boasts no less than fifteen teams within the Apex League. Out of these fifteen, three teams play in the First Division, namely Butetown Dragons, Tiddles Park and Gabalfa Rovers. As with a number of town around Bettia, a large number of permanent big screens are erected throughout the city, including one outside the national stadium itself.

A number of other sports are also played in the city. Gabalfa hosts two Gridball teams, the Gabalfa Gasheads and the Bettialis Blasters. In the world of Ice Hockey, four of the ten teams making up the BetHL are located within the city.


Industries

Many of Bettia's largest commercial enterprises are based in Gabalfa and the surrounding province. One of the largest is the Foyle's Old Yellow Natural Lemon Soda company (or FOYNLS) - which produces Bettia's most popular soft drinks, as well as owning a 2nd Division football club of the same name. FOYNLS is best known for it's isotonic sports drink Arorade, although it has recently gone into the sportswear business producing the national football kits for Bettia, Kylaai and Shearer Heaven.

Bettia's fast growing IT sector is largely based in the town of Fortuna Bettialis, earning it the nickname of the Motherboard. Major comanies include Impeccable Computers, Zenit Tecnasi, Brace-Ellisa, and Touchstone Design & Consultancy.

One local business which has recently emerged as a centre for excellence is MapStar, Bettia's foremost map producer. As well as producing the national and provincial maps of Bettia, they have also produced a national maps for Nedalia and Hypocria with further possible projects in the pipeline.


Places of Interest

Central Gabalfa

Tiddles Park

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Tiddles Park Stadium
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Formerly called Gabalfa Gardens, Gabalfa's vast central parkland area was renamed in honour of Tiddles, the former mascot of the Bettian national football team. Tiddles Park is a popular destination for tourists and locals looking for a spot of tranquility and natural beauty in the centre of the city, with its many varieties of trees and flowers attracting many forms of wildlife, including the relatively rare Silver Arora. The park is also notable for the monorail which runs through it connecting Tiddles Park Stadium to the central railway station. In this regard, its not the actual monorail which causes most interest, but rather the way in which an experimental form of holographic projection has been used to disguise the monorail's columns as trees. It works to some degree, although ornithologists have noted that birds sometimes become confused when trying to land in their 'branches'.

Tiddles Park Stadium

Formerly known as Stadiwm Bettia, Tiddles Park is the main base for Bettia's football team. Designed by reknowned architect Kenzo Violin, Tiddles Park is instantly recognisable by its prominent roof and green and yellow colour scheme, reflecting the squad's famous shirts. Originally designed as a 81000-capacity all-seater stadium, the FAB (Football Association of Bettia) took the decision to remove the entire lower tier of seats plus the middle and top tiers behind each goal in favour of good old-fashioned terracing. The result - an unbelievably loud atmosphere that can intimidate all but the most hardy of opponents.

Grand Shura Debating Chambers

The Grand Shura Debating Chambers

Designed by acclaimed minimlist architect Taha Evans, the recently-completed debating chambers provides a home for the ruling Grand Shura of Bettia and its associated adminstration. Its main structure is comprised of four large steel pillars supporting a flat roof slab with its edges raised at the corners, from which a trio of highly distinctive conical chimneys rise for natural ventilation purposes. The whole building is set at the top of a stepped plinth, and is linked to the MCPC building via an elevated walkway.

Maes Canolog Provincial Council building

In stark contrast to the simple elegant stylings of the Grand Shura Debating Chambers, the MCPC Building is a highly abstract deconstructivist design based on the concept of working from the inside out. The central debating chamber was taken as a starting point, with the surrounding parts built around it. Although it received initial criticism from traditionalists who felt it was unsympathetic to the surrounding parkland, it has become a popular distinctive part of central Gabalfa's landscape, framing the top end of the city's civic centre.

Masjid-i-Nur (Mosque of Light)

Set in one corner of Tiddles Park, this magnificent place of worship has dominated the Gabalfa skyline for centuries, even surviving the recent war of independance relatively unscathed. Its most striking features are its distinctive green dome and matching minerets, mirroring the mosque's verdant suuroundings. This along with the muted yellow of its sandstone walls has led some historians to speculate that this is the reason why Bettia's flag is green and yellow. The main prayer hall can hold 10000 men on the ground floor and 5000 women on its mezzanine level. It also provides space for schooling, a vast library (with some volumes dating back over 500 years), and is a major focal point for many local communities.

The Rambles

A vast curved street set into an otherwise regular grid-plan of streets in south-central Gabalfa, now used as the main shopping and socialising area. The Rambles was originally two separate streets built around 130 years ago to accommodate the new northern railway line. Around 40 years ago, the then government took the decision to take the railway line running through the centre of Gabalfa and move it underground, but decided against reinstating the regular street grid. They instead chose to develop this new space, a choice that proved popular with the locals.

Blue Arora

A large shopping centre located on the south bank of the River Balfa, the Blue Arora has a total of over 90000 m2 of shopping floor space and contains over 200 stores of varying sizes, along with the city's central library and 300 luxury apartments. Built at a cost of approximately 635 million Groats, the Blue Arora was constructed on the site of a number of smaller shops. It met with initial opposition from the owners of these shops, but they relented when they were given a guarantee that they would have first pick of centre's units, and at half the normal rent.

Greater Gabalfa

Butetown

Home to a large proportion of Gabalfa's Arab and Jewish populations, Butetown is known as one of the most ethnically-diverse parts of the city and has played a big part in the recent history of Bettia. It is the home to some of Bettia's largest mosques and synagogues as well as it's nationally reknowned open-air market - here, all manner of goods, clothing, exotic foods and knick-knacks can be bought and bartered for.

Fortuna Bettialis

Fortuna Bettialis is known as being the hub of the Bettian IT and computer industry, with a large number of Bettia's top firms located here earning it the nickname 'The Motherboard'. The town was formerly known as Whitchurch, but the town's council took the decision to rename it due to the fact that the last church there has closed some fifty years beforehand. However, they were unable to think of a suitable name themselves, and so a request was put out to the world for suggestions. In the end, they decided to combine two names - Fortuna (as suggested by Nedalia), and Bettialis (as suggested by Lamoni).

Fortuna Bettialis is twinned with Cerignola, Pacitalia.

Portway

Portway is Gabalfa's major port, situated on the banks of the River Balfa on the eastern suburbs of the capital. This is the main industrial area of the city, particularly in the haulage and manufacturing industries, as the proximity to the easily-navigable river makes exporting from the city centre relatively easy and cheap.


Transportation

Gabalfa is served by an interconnecting grid of streets, with a Riverside Boulevard running along the length of the River Balfa on either side for some ten miles. The city is served by an Inner Ring Road (the A51), and outer orbital motorway (the M25) linked to three national motorways; an interstate motorway (the M1) running from west to east connects Gabalfa with Nedalia and Hypocria, with direct access to Northern Bettia provided via the M2 running to the north, and access to the cities of Sukatra and Subarnas provided via the M3 running to the south-west.

Gabalfa is connected to the national railway network, with rail links provided to all major cities. The line is run underground within the city centre, a decision made some years ago by the provincial council in order to improve pedestrian access within the centre. International rail links are available from Gabalfa to Anyuna (Northern Bettia), Kafra (Nedalia), Pylos, Hypocrium and Thraxus (Hypocria), and Fonstown (Spruitland, via an undersea tunnel).

The high-speed Gabalfa Underground Transport System (GUTS) originally provided a link between Gabalfa Central Station and Gabalfa International Airport (located to the north of the city), with numerous stations positioned along its route. After wide demand, this service was extended to other parts of the city.

The streets running through Tiddles Park and most of central Gabalfa are closed to private transport for the sole use of residents and public transportation only. An extensive bus network operates within Gabalfa and the surrounding suburbs, run by the Gabalfa Bus Company.

A new monorail system runs in a ring around the centre of Gabalfa. Starting from the central station, it runs down the entire length of The Rambles, past the Blue Arora and around the Civic Centre, from where it takes passengers to the national stadium and through the centre of Tiddles Park.

It is also possible to travel to and from Gabalfa via the River Balfa, which is wide and easily navigable eastwards from the city right down to Porthbalfa on the northern coast. To the west lies the Great Western Waterway, a long canal linking Gabalfa with the city of Tamrida.

Gabalfa International Airport (GBI) is Gabalfa's main airport and the largest in Bettia. The national airline Arorair currently provides daily flights from GBI to the following airports:

  • Akani Sands airport (AKS)
  • Kafra International Airport (Nedalia)
  • Nephi International Airport (Lamoni)
  • Drax International Airport (Hypocria)

Map of Gabalfa City Centre

Gabalfa City Centre

Administration

1. Grand Shura of Bettia debating chambers
2. Maes Canolog Provincial Council (MCPC)
3. Gabalfa City Hall

Embassies

4. Nedalia
5. currently vacant
6. Khazaron
7. currently vacant
8. Bostopia
9. Starblaydia
10. Lamoni
11. currently vacant
12. Hypocria
13. Western Afghanistan

(Other embassies will be allocated throughout the city as and when needed)

Places of Interest

14. War Memorial
15. Balfa Place
16. Masjid-i-Nur (Mosque of Light)
17. Tiddles Park
18. Tiddles Park Stadium
19. Blue Arora Shopping Centre
20. The Rambles
21. Market Square

Transportation

22. Gabalfa Bus Station
23. Gabalfa Central railway station
24. The Rambles railway station
25. Gabalfa Civic Centre railway station

Gabalfa Underground Transport System (GUTS) stations

26. Gabalfa Central
27. Masjid-i-Nur (Mosque of Light)
28. Tiddles Park
29. South Bank
30. The Rambles