Kathmandu is the capital and largest metropolitan city of Nepal. The city is the urban core of the Kathmandu Valley in the Himalayas, which also contains two sister cities namely Patan or Lalitpur, 3.1 miles to its southeast (an ancient city of fine arts and crafts) and Bhaktapur, 8.7 miles to its east. It is also acronymed as 'KTM' and named 'tri-city'. Kathmandu valley is only slightly smaller than Singapore in terms of area. The city stands at an elevation of approximately 4,600 feet in the bowl-shaped valley in central Nepal surrounded by four major mountains, namely: Shivapuri, Phulchowki, Nagarjun and Chandragiri. It is inhabited by 949,486 (2009) people.