mostly hilly, with a range of mountains in the west, and plain areas in the southeast. Moldavia's highest altitude is Ineu peak (2,279 m), which is also the westernmost point of the region. The parts of Moldavia populated by Csángó Hungarians are sometimes referred to as Csángó Land. Administrative divisions Population Historical population Contemporary historians estimate the population (historically referred to as Moldavians) of the Moldavian Principality in the 15th century, at between 250,000 and 600,000 people, but an extensive census was first conducted in 1769–1774. In 1848, the northwestern part, annexed in 1775 by the Habsburg Empire, Bukovina, had a population of 377,571; in 1856, the eastern half of Moldavia, Bessarabia, annexed in 1812 by the Russian Empire, had a population of 990,274, while the population of Moldavia proper (the western half), in 1859, was 1,463,927. The contemporary population peaked in 1992, at 10.07 million inhabitants in all three historical divisions (Western Moldavia, Bessarabia and Bukovina). As of 2011, the population was 8.63 million people, of which 3.67 million were in Western Moldavia, 3.86 million in Bessarabia and 1.08 million in Bukovina. Cities The largest cities (as per last censuses) and metropolitan areas in the Moldavia region are: Romania: Iași - 290,422 (465,477 in metropolitan area) - capital of Moldavia between 1564 and 1859 Galați - 249,432 (323,563) Bacău - 144,307 (223,239) Botoșani - 106,847 (144,617) Suceava - 92,121 (144,100) - capital of Moldavia between 1388 and 1564 Piatra Neamț - 85,055 (131,334) Focșani - 79,315 (125,699) Ukraine: Chernivtsi (Cernăuți) - 240,600 Izmail (Ismail) - 84,815 Moldova: Chișinău - 532,513 (662,836 in metropolitan area) Bălți - 97,930 (102,457) Tighina (Bender) - 91,882 Education In 1562, the so-called Schola Latina (a Latin Academic College) was founded in Cotnari, near Iași, a school which marked the beginnings of the organized humanistic education institutions in Moldavia. The first institute of higher learning that functioned on the territory of Romania was Academia Vasiliană (1640), founded by Prince Vasile Lupu as a Higher School for Latin and Slavonic Languages, followed by the Princely Academy, in 1707. The first high education structure in Romanian language was established in the autumn of 1813, when Gheorghe Asachi laid the foundations of a class of engineers, its activities taking place within the Greek Princely Academy. After 1813, other moments marked the development of higher education in Romanian language, regarding both humanities and the technical science. Academia Mihăileană, founded