[newbie] Equivalent to PHP?

[Gilles]

Hello

I'm an amateur programmer, and would like to know what the main
options are to build web applications in Python instead of PHP.

I notice that Python-based solutions are usually built as long-running
processes with their own web server (or can run in the back with eg.
Nginx and be reached through eg. FastCGI/WSGI ) while PHP is simply a
language to write scripts and requires a web server (short running
processes).

Since web scripts are usually very short anyway (user sends query,
server handles request, sends response, and closes the port) because
the user is waiting and browsers usually give up after 30 seconds
anyway... why did Python solutions go for long-running processes while
PHP was built from the start as short-running processes?

Thank you.