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The modern state of Romania was formed by the merging of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859 and Transylvania in 1918. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest (Romanian: Bucureşti /bu.kuˈreʃtʲ/ (help·info)), the sixth largest city in the EU. Romania joined NATO on March 29, 2004, and the European Union (EU) on January 1, 2007. Romania has the seventh largest population and the ninth largest territory in the EU. Geography With a surface area of 238,391 km˛, Romania is the largest country in southeastern Europe and the twelfth-largest in Europe. A large part of Romania's border with Serbia and Bulgaria is formed by the Danube. The Danube is joined by the Prut River, which forms the border with the Republic of Moldova. The Danube flows into the Black Sea on Romanian territory, forming the Danube Delta, the largest delta in Europe, which is currently a biosphere reserve and World Heritage-listed site due to its biodiversity. The country's most significant rivers are the Danube, which marks part of the border between Romania and Bulgaria, the Siret, running vertically through Moldavia, the Olt, running from the oriental Carpathian Mountains to Oltenia, the Tisa, marking a part of the border between Romania and Hungary, the Mureş, running through Transylvania from East to West, and the Someş. Romania's terrain is distributed roughly equally between mountainous, hilly and lowland territories. The Carpathian Mountains dominate the centre of Romania, with fourteen of its peaks reaching above the altitude of 2,000 metres. The highest mountain in Romania is Moldoveanu Peak (2544 m). In south-central Romania, the Carpathians sweeten into hills, towards the Bărăgan Plains. Romania's geographical diversity has led to an accompanying diversity of flora and fauna. The country has the largest brown bear population in Europe, while chamois are also known to live in the Carpathian Mountains, which dominate the centre of Romania. History One of the fossils found - a male, adult jawbone - has been dated to be between 34,000 and 36,000 years old, which would make it one of the oldest fossils found to date of modern humans in Europe.[3] In 513 BCE, south of the Danube, the tribal confederation of the Getae were defeated by the Persian Emperor Darius the Great during his campaign against the Scythians (Herodotus IV). Over half a millennium later, the Getae (also named Daci by Romans) were defeated by the Roman Empire under Emperor Trajan in two campaigns stretching from 101 CE to 106 CE, and the core of their kingdom was turned into the Roman province of Dacia. The Gothic and Carpic campaigns in the Balkans during 238–269 CE(from the beginning of the period of military anarchy to the battle of Naissus), forced the Roman Empire to reorganize a new Roman province of Dacia south of the Danube, inside former Moesia Superior. Counties Romania is divided into forty-one counties (judeţe), as well as the municipality of Bucharest (Bucureşti), which is its own administrative unit. Each county is administered by a county council (consiliu judeţean), responsible for local affairs, as well as a prefect, who is appointed by the central government but cannot be a member of any political party. In alphabetical order, the counties are: Alba, Arad, Argeş, Bacău, Bihor, Bistriţa-Năsăud, Botoşani, Braşov, Brăila, Buzău, Caraş-Severin, Călăraşi, Cluj, Constanţa, Covasna, Dâmboviţa, Dolj, Galaţi, Giurgiu, Gorj, Harghita, Hunedoara, Ialomiţa, Iaşi, Ilfov, Maramureş, Mehedinţi, Mureş, Neamţ, Olt, Prahova, Satu Mare, Sălaj, Sibiu, Suceava, Teleorman, Timiş, Tulcea, Vaslui, Vâlcea,Vrancea Part of the information are from www.wikipedia.org respecting the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
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