Dresden Basin between 2004 and 2009 by UNESCO due to their cultural and natural significance. During the East German era, the Basin was jokingly referred to by its inhabitants as the Valley of the Clueless, because they were not able to receive West German television until the late 1980s, and then only patchily. The most important towns and cities are (in downstream order): Dresden Basin The Dresden Basin ( or "Dresdner Elbtalweitung") is a roughly 45 km long and 10 km wide area of the Elbe Valley between the towns of Pirna and Meißen. The city of Dresden lies in the Dresden
Dresden Dresden twinned with the Dutch city of Rotterdam. The Coventry Blitz and Rotterdam Blitz bombardments by the German Luftwaffe are also considered to be disproportional. Dresden has had a triangular partnership with Saint Petersburg and Hamburg since 1987. Dresden has 14 twin cities. Carl Maria von Weber and Richard Wagner had a number of their works performed for the first time in Dresden. Other famous artists, such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Dix, Oskar Kokoschka, Richard Strauss, Gottfried Semper and Gret Palucca, were also active in the city. Dresden is also home to several important art collections, world-famous musical ensembles,