Basel is Switzerland's third most populous city (166,209 inhabitants (2008)).With 830000 inhabitants in the tri-national metropolitan area (as of 2004),Basel is Switzerland's second-largest urban area.
Located in northwest Switzerland on the river Rhine,Basel functions as a major industrial centre for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry.The city borders both Germany and France.The Basel region,culturally extending into German Baden-Württemberg and French Alsace,reflects the heritage of its three states in the modern Latin name:"Regio TriRhena".It has the oldest university of the Swiss Confederation (1460).
Basel is often known in English as "Basle",pronounced as in French.
Basel is German-speaking.The local variant of the Swiss German dialects is called Basel German.
Sport
Basel has a reputation in Switzerland as a successful sporting city.The football club FC Basel continues to be successful and in recognition of this the city was one of the Swiss venues for the 2008 European Championships,as well as Geneva,Zürich and Bern.The championships were jointly hosted by Switzerland and Austria.BSC Old Boys and Concordia Basel are the other football teams in Basel.
Basel features a large football stadium,a modern ice hockey hall and an admitted sports hall.
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A large indoor tennis event takes place in Basel every October.Some of the best ATP-Professionals play every year at the Swiss Indoors,including Switzerland's biggest sporting hero and frequent participant Roger Federer,who is also from the city of Basel originally and he describes it as "one of the most beautiful cities in the world".
