Aberdeen

Aberdeen  is Scotland's third largest city (28th in the United Kingdom 313th in Europe) with a population of 202,370. Locals call it the Granite City and the Silver City, since much of the city was built of grey granite, which the loyal locals see as shimmering like silver in the sun. It is also called the Oil Capital of Europe after the discovery of North Sea oil.

The area around Aberdeen has had human settlement for at least 8,000 years, when small villages lay around the mouths of the River Dee and River Don. The city name came from the celtic 'Aber' meaning "the mouth of" and the river name Dee, literally meaning at the mouth of the Dee. Old Aberdeen, to the north of the modern city and on the river Don was formerly known as "Aberdon".

In 1319, it received Royal Burgh status from Robert the Bruce, transforming the city economically. Its two universities, University of Aberdeen, founded in 1495, and the Robert Gordon University, which was awarded university status in 1992, make Aberdeen the educational centre of the north-east. The traditional industries were fishing, paper-making, ship-building and textiles, but they have been overtaken by the oil industry and Aberdeen's seaport, the largest in the northeast of Scotland.

Aberdeen is widely known for its parks and gardens, having won the Britain in Bloom competition ten times, and for the Aberdeen International Youth Festival.