100 Fun Facts About World Cities

Which country's Monte Carlo casino forbids its own citizens from entering the gaming rooms?

Monaco's ban on Monégasques gambling or working at the casino was the idea of Princess Caroline, who amended the rules on moral grounds; the casino long funded the House of Grimaldi.

Which city has banned the sale of chewing gum since 1992, with a 2004 exception for therapeutic gum?

Singapore acted after vandals stuck gum on the door sensors of its new metro trains and stalled them; the 2004 exception for dental and nicotine gum came out of a free-trade deal with the United States.

Which city's name means 'fragrant harbour', possibly from the incense factories that once lined its coast?

Hong Kong translates as 'fragrant harbour' or 'incense harbour', a name that may also recall the sweet freshwater the Pearl River once pushed into the bay.

Which capital's main square takes its name from an old word for 'beautiful' that now means a colour?

Moscow's Red Square was earlier known as Pozhar, 'the burnt-out place', after fire cleared the site; krasnaya still meant 'beautiful' when Tsar Alexei made it the whole square's name in the 17th century.

Which Russian city, Petrograd from 1914 and Leningrad from 1924, voted in 1991 to restore its original name?

Saint Petersburg got its name back in a June 1991 referendum, months before the Soviet Union dissolved; Tsar Nicholas II had dropped the German-sounding original in 1914.

Which capital stretches across fourteen islands where Lake Mälaren flows into the Baltic Sea?

Stockholm first appears in 1252, in letters from the ruler Birger Jarl, as a town on the small island now called Gamla Stan; under him it grew so fast that it soon eclipsed Sweden's older towns.

Which Adriatic city first raised its MOSE flood barriers against a high tide in October 2020?

Venice named MOSE with a nod to Moses parting the Red Sea; begun in 2003 and years behind schedule, the gates first kept Piazza San Marco dry on 3 October 2020.

Which capital's Atomium, an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times, was built for the 1958 World's Fair?

Brussels built the Atomium for Expo 58 and never took it down: its nine stainless-steel spheres stand 102 metres tall, among the tallest structures in Belgium.

Which capital's bronze statue of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid has drawn tourists since 1913?

Copenhagen's Little Mermaid, by sculptor Edvard Eriksen, has been decapitated by vandals more than once; in 1998 the head came back anonymously to a television station.

Which city's sail-shaped Burj Al Arab hotel stands on an artificial island 280 metres off Jumeirah Beach?

Dubai's Burj Al Arab opened on 1 December 1999 with an outline modelled on the sail of a dhow; its management says it never called itself a 'seven-star' hotel.

Which Brazilian city shares its nickname, the Marvelous City, with its official anthem, a 1935 Carnival march?

Rio de Janeiro was dubbed the Cidade Maravilhosa by the writer Coelho Neto before André Filho borrowed the phrase for his march, a hit for Aurora Miranda whose lyrics never mention Rio by name.

Seoul's Gangnam district, whose name literally means 'south of the river', lies south of which river?

The Han's south bank was a little-developed fringe of Seoul until the 1970s, when the city pushed its growth across the river; Gangnam, a district only since 1975, is now among the richest parts of the city.

Which south Indian state capital, home to the Marina Beach seafront, officially dropped the name Madras in 1996?

Chennai may have dropped the name, but it celebrates Madras Day every 22 August, the date traditionally given for its 1639 founding, when the East India Company acquired the site of its fort.

Which Gulf capital opened an outpost of the Louvre beneath a vast latticed dome in November 2017?

Abu Dhabi agreed in 2007 to pay France €400 million simply for the use of the Louvre name; architect Jean Nouvel's dome filters the desert sun into a dappled 'rain of light'.

Which city's 25 de Abril suspension bridge, inaugurated in 1966, is painted the same orange as the Golden Gate?

Lisbon's bridge opened on 6 August 1966 as the Salazar Bridge, after the dictator who ordered it, and was finished six months ahead of schedule by the builders of the Bay Bridge.

Which Dutch city's seaport, the largest in Europe, is also the biggest anywhere outside Asia?

Rotterdam was the world's busiest port for four decades, from 1962 until Asian rivals overtook it in 2004; its docks now stretch for some 40 kilometres.

Which river does Dublin's cast-iron Ha'penny Bridge, which charged walkers a toll for a century, cross?

The Liffey's Ha'penny Bridge opened in May 1816 to replace seven ferries, and its builder William Walsh kept the right to a halfpenny toll for 100 years.

Which capital's historic core, nicknamed the Square Mile, is a separate city with its own Lord Mayor?

London's Square Mile began as the Roman settlement of Londinium in the 1st century AD, and its Lord Mayor is a separate office from the Mayor of London, who governs the whole capital.

Which Russian city, Stalingrad from 1925 to 1961, was renamed for its river during de-Stalinization?

Volgograd's council voted in 2013 to call it 'Hero City Stalingrad' again on set commemorative dates each year; before Stalin it was Tsaritsyn.

Which Italian city's Gothic cathedral was begun in 1386, yet its last portal was only inaugurated in 1965?

Milan's Duomo owes its façade to Napoleon, who ordered it finished in 1805 before his coronation there as King of Italy and promised that France would foot the bill, which was never paid.

Which German port city's rivers and canals are crossed by some 2,500 bridges, more than any other city in Europe?

Hamburg has more than five times as many bridges as Venice, because rivers, streams and a web of canals run right through its heart.

Which city only finished paying off the debt from its 1976 Summer Olympics in December 2006?

Montreal's mayor Jean Drapeau had declared that 'the Olympics can no more have a deficit than a man can have a baby', before the bill reached a billion dollars.

Which Brazilian city's Clean City Law, passed in 2006, led advertisers to strip thousands of billboards from its streets?

São Paulo's bare streets, a local reporter found, exposed shantytowns that the billboards had long hidden from view.

Which Bolivian city's Mi Teleférico, opened in 2014, grew into the longest aerial cable-car system in the world?

La Paz and El Alto sit about 400 metres apart in altitude, and Mi Teleférico's first line opened on 30 May 2014 to replace the winding, congested roads between them.

Which capital, renamed Philadelphia by Ptolemy II in the 3rd century BC, regained its older name under the caliphs?

Amman's Greek name was Ptolemy II's own: he was Philadelphus, 'sibling-lover', and named the city after himself; the Arab conquerors of the 7th century brought back the far older name of the Ammonites.

Which capital's Ryugyong Hotel, a 330-metre pyramid begun in 1987, was halted in 1992 and left a windowless shell?

Pyongyang's Ryugyong Hotel was halted in 1992 as North Korea's economy collapsed after the Soviet Union fell, and sat for over a decade as a windowless concrete shell.

Which Indian city's dabbawalas move up to 200,000 home-cooked lunchboxes a day by bicycle and suburban train?

Mumbai's lunch trade began in 1890 when Mahadeo Havaji Bachche started out with about a hundred men; the famous 'one error in six million' figure was only ever an estimate, not a study.

Which capital's Sobrino de Botín, said to date from 1725, is listed by Guinness as the world's oldest restaurant?

Madrid's Botín is said to have been opened by a French cook, Jean Botín, and passed to a nephew, the sobrino of its name.

Which capital's Schönbrunn Zoo, opened as an imperial menagerie in 1752, is the oldest zoo still operating?

Vienna's zoo began as Emperor Francis I's private menagerie, ringed around a pavilion where the court took breakfast; the arrival of its first giraffe in 1828 set off a city-wide craze for giraffe fashions.

Which city, the most populous in South Africa, was built on neither a river nor a harbour?

Johannesburg sprang up in 1886 where gold was found on the Witwatersrand, a ridge that is also a watershed: its streams drain north towards the Limpopo and south towards the Orange.

Which capital on the Congo River is the largest officially French-speaking city in the world?

Kinshasa uses French for government, schools, media and high-end commerce, while Lingala is the lingua franca of its streets and many residents struggle with French.

Which French city, where the Lumière brothers invented the cinematograph, hosts the headquarters of Interpol?

Lyon lights its windows every 8 December because in 1852 a storm cancelled the unveiling of a statue of the Virgin and, when the sky cleared, residents lit up the city themselves; Interpol moved in from the Paris suburbs in 1989.

Which city served as the seat of Australia's federal government from federation in 1901 until 1927?

Melbourne lent the new federal parliament Victoria's own Parliament House, so the state's politicians spent 26 years meeting in the Royal Exhibition Building until Canberra was ready in 1927.

Which Scottish city is nicknamed Auld Reekie, Scots for 'Old Smoky', after the smoke that hung over its Old Town?

Edinburgh's smoke could be seen from twenty miles off, a character says in Walter Scott's 1820 novel The Abbot; by then the same city was also being given a grander title, the Athens of the North.

Which Chinese city opened the world's first commercial high-speed maglev, a 30-kilometre airport link, in 2004?

Shanghai's maglev was the fastest train in regular service at 431 km/h until May 2021, when its cruising speed was cut to 300 km/h, a pace it still reaches in just over two minutes.

Which city's gold-plated Shwedagon Pagoda is crowned with 5,448 diamonds and a 76-carat stone at its very tip?

Yangon's Shwedagon wears real gold plates riveted over brick, a gilding ordered by Queen Shin Saw Pu in the 15th century and renewed ever since with gold donated by monarchs and ordinary Burmese alike.

Which capital, whose Malay name means 'muddy confluence', grew up where the Gombak river meets the Klang?

Kuala Lumpur strictly ought to be Kuala Gombak, since a kuala is usually named after the smaller river that joins the larger; with no firm record of who named it, rival theories abound.

Which Southeast Asian capital was called Batavia for about 320 years, until Japan occupied it in 1942?

Jakarta's Dutch name honoured the Batavi, an ancient Germanic tribe then thought to be the ancestors of the Dutch; it was given to the fort raised in 1619 on the ruins of the port of Jayakarta.

Which capital's astronomical clock, the Orloj, was first recorded in October 1410 and still runs today?

Prague long credited its clock to a Master Hanuš, said in legend to have been blinded by the councillors so that he could never build another; it is now known to be the work of Mikuláš of Kadaň and Jan Šindel.

Which river, where legend places the mermaid Sawa who won a fisherman's heart, flows through Warsaw?

The Vistula's mermaid still sits on Warsaw's coat of arms; the tale that Wars and Sawa gave the city its name is folk etymology, and where the name really comes from remains uncertain.

Which capital's Binondo district, founded in 1594 for Catholic Chinese settlers, is the world's oldest Chinatown?

Manila's Binondo was placed across the Pasig River from the walled Intramuros so that Spanish administrators could keep a close eye on their Chinese subjects.

Which German city has run the Schwebebahn, an electric railway whose cars hang beneath the track, since 1901?

Wuppertal's hanging railway once carried Tuffi, a young circus elephant put aboard as a publicity stunt in 1950: she panicked, broke through a window and dropped into the River Wupper with only minor injuries.

Which German city takes its name from the Latin for 'confluence', standing where the Moselle joins the Rhine?

Koblenz marks the spot with the Deutsches Eck, whose giant statue of Emperor William I was wrecked by American artillery in the Second World War; the plinth stood empty until a replica was raised in 1993.

Which city in Saxony was called Karl-Marx-Stadt from 1953 until a 1990 referendum restored its old name?

Chemnitz kept its seven-metre head of Karl Marx, nicknamed the Nischel, Saxon for 'head', even after 76% of voters chose in April 1990 to drop his name from the city.

Which capital, Pressburg to Germans and Pozsony to Hungarians, made its present name official only in March 1919?

Bratislava's Slavic name, previously used only by Slovak patriots, was adopted to back demands that the city join the new Czechoslovakia; Slovak Americans had proposed 'Wilsonov' instead.

Kolkata's Howrah Bridge, commissioned in 1943 to replace a pontoon crossing, spans which branch of the Ganges?

The Hooghly's Howrah Bridge was built without nuts or bolts, riveted throughout, and was renamed Rabindra Setu for the poet Tagore in 1965, though almost everyone still uses the old name.

Which city's Eixample district, laid out to Ildefons Cerdà's plan, is a grid of blocks with chamfered corners?

Barcelona's Cerdà blocks widen at every intersection for visibility and ventilation, though his plan for gardens inside each block was largely ignored.

Which Moroccan city's old medina is a 300-hectare car-free zone of alleys too narrow for vehicles?

Fez's Fes el-Bali quarter ranked among the largest cities in the world in the 12th century, with an estimated 200,000 residents, and the narrow street plan it kept from those days still shuts cars out.

Which capital's Arabic name means 'the Vanquisher', bestowed by a caliph who arrived from Tunisia in 973?

Cairo's al-Qahira honoured the caliph as 'the Vanquisher of al-Mu'izz'; another tradition says the name came from Mars, 'the Conquering Star', which was supposedly rising when the city was founded.

Which capital's Avenida 9 de Julio, with up to seven lanes in each direction, is often called the world's widest avenue?

Buenos Aires named the avenue for 9 July 1816, the day Argentina declared independence; it is so broad that parallel two-lane streets run along both of its sides.

Which capital city completely surrounds an independent state, the smallest country in the world?

Rome encloses Vatican City, a 44-hectare state ruled by the pope that only came into existence in 1929 under the Lateran Treaty.

Which city's iron tower, built for the 1889 World's Fair, was due to be dismantled just 20 years later?

Paris kept the Eiffel Tower because it proved its worth as a radio mast: in 1914 a transmitter in the tower jammed German communications during the advance on the city.

Which Japanese city, the imperial capital for eleven centuries, was taken off the atomic bomb target list?

Kyoto came off the list at the insistence of US Secretary of War Henry Stimson, and Nagasaki took its place, which is why so much of the city's prewar heritage survives.

Which American city reversed the flow of its river in 1900 to keep sewage out of its drinking water?

Chicago turned its river away from Lake Michigan toward the Mississippi watershed. The same river is dyed green each St. Patrick's Day, a tradition born when plumbers used dye to trace pollution.

Which city's Strip of casino resorts lies outside the city limits, in the towns of Paradise and Winchester?

Las Vegas proper ends just north of the Strip, and even the famous welcome sign of 1959 was built 4.5 miles outside the city limits.

Which Indian city, nicknamed the Pink City, was painted that colour in 1876 to welcome the Prince of Wales?

Jaipur was painted on the orders of its ruler Sawai Ram Singh II to greet the future Edward VII; the walled city, founded in 1727, joined UNESCO's World Heritage list in 2019.

Which African capital has a national park within its boundaries, home to lions and black rhinos?

Nairobi National Park lies about 7 km from the city centre and is fenced on three sides, leaving the south open so wildlife can migrate to the plains beyond.

Which city hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, in an ancient stadium rebuilt entirely in marble?

Athens staged the 1896 Games in the Panathenaic Stadium, the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble, on the site of a racecourse dating from the 6th century BC.

Which Indian city on the Yamuna river is home to the Taj Mahal, the marble tomb Shah Jahan built for his wife?

Agra was the capital of the Mughal Empire when work began, and the tomb took more than 20,000 workers and artisans to build.

Which California city runs the world's last manually operated cable car system, hauled by cables under the streets?

San Francisco once had 23 cable car lines, built between 1873 and 1890; only three remain, and the system is a National Historic Landmark.

Which canal-ringed European city's Royal Palace was built on a foundation of 13,659 wooden piles?

Amsterdam built the palace as its city hall, inaugurated in 1655; it only became a royal palace in 1808, during the Napoleonic era.

Which American city on the Mississippi, where jazz originated, has about half its area at or below sea level?

New Orleans grew after engineer A. Baldwin Wood designed pumps to drain its swamps, but the drained neighbourhoods then sank significantly below sea level.

Which Caribbean capital's Malecón, a seawall promenade begun in 1901, runs for 8 km along the waterfront?

Havana's Malecón was begun during temporary US military rule, built to protect the city from the waves that winter cold fronts whip against its seafront buildings.

Which city's walled Old City is divided into Armenian, Christian, Jewish and Muslim quarters?

Jerusalem's Old City covers just 0.9 square kilometres, and its division into four uneven quarters may date only from a British map of the 1840s.

Which city beneath Table Mountain is the legislative capital of South Africa and the seat of its parliament?

Cape Town is also South Africa's oldest city, begun in 1652 when the Dutch East India Company sent Jan van Riebeeck to set up a way-station for its ships.

Which capital, the northernmost of any sovereign state, heats its homes with geothermal water from volcanic ground?

Reykjavík lies at 64°08′ N, and its Old Norse name means 'Smoky Bay', said to be inspired by steam rising from the area's hot springs.

Which South American capital, inaugurated in 1960, has a plan by Lúcio Costa often likened to an airplane?

Brasília was built in just 41 months in the Brazilian Highlands, with Oscar Niemeyer designing its white modernist buildings.

Which American city, nicknamed Music City, has a full-scale replica of the Parthenon in its Centennial Park?

Nashville built its Parthenon for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition, and a re-creation of the lost statue of Athena, completed in 1990, stands inside.

Which English port city, birthplace of the Beatles, was stripped of its UNESCO World Heritage status in 2021?

Liverpool became only the third site ever delisted, after planners approved waterfront projects that included Everton's new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.

Which Saudi city's clock tower, overlooking the Grand Mosque, carries the largest clock faces in the world?

Mecca's tower complex replaced the Ajyad Fortress, an 18th-century Ottoman citadel on a hill above the mosque that was demolished to make way for it.

Which city's City Hall has hosted the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony since 1990, apart from the other Nobel Prizes?

Oslo hosts the ceremony because Alfred Nobel's will left the peace prize to a committee of five chosen by the Norwegian parliament, while his other prizes are awarded in Sweden.

Which European capital was created in 1873 by merging three towns, two of which survive in its name?

Budapest united Buda and Óbuda with Pest across the Danube, 24 years after the Chain Bridge opened as the first permanent link between the two banks.

Which Italian city's shop-lined Ponte Vecchio was its only bridge spared from destruction during World War II?

Florence's bridge carries part of the Vasari Corridor, built in 1565 to link the Medici's town hall and palace, and its shops, first let to butchers and tanners, were later taken over by jewellers.

Which Italian city's Teatro di San Carlo, opened in 1737, is the oldest continuously active opera venue in the world?

Naples inaugurated the theatre on 4 November 1737, the name day of its king, decades before the famous opera houses of northern Italy were built.

Which Balkan capital, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot in 1914, hosted the Winter Olympics seventy years later?

Sarajevo's 1984 Games were the first Winter Olympics held in a communist country, and host Yugoslavia won its first-ever Winter medal there.

Which planned capital follows a design by American architect Walter Burley Griffin, winner of an international contest?

Canberra was formally named in 1913, and Griffin drew its plan with his wife Marion Mahony Griffin; the lake at the city's heart is called Lake Burley Griffin.

Which capital, the southernmost of any sovereign state, is also the world's windiest city by average wind speed?

Wellington sits close to the mouth of the narrow Cook Strait, which leaves it open to strong gales and earned it the nickname 'Windy Wellington'.

Which US state capital is home to ʻIolani Palace, the official residence of a kingdom's monarchs until 1893?

Honolulu's palace changed sides after the monarchy was overthrown: it served as the capitol of the provisional government, republic, territory and state of Hawaii until 1969.

Which Canadian provincial capital has the only intact fortified colonial settlement in North America north of Mexico?

Quebec City's ramparts run for 4.6 km, their southern stretch forming part of the Citadelle, and the walled district became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

Which American city, set across a river from Windsor in Canada, lent its Motor City nickname to Motown Records?

Detroit's famous label took a name that is a portmanteau of 'motor' and 'town'; Berry Gordy founded it in 1959 as Tamla Records.

Which Peruvian city, capital of the Inca Empire until 1532, is the usual base for travellers visiting Machu Picchu?

Cusco's Church of Santo Domingo rests on stonework from the Coricancha, the most important temple of the Inca Empire, once enriched with plates of fine gold.

Which South American capital lies closer to the equator than any other, some 2,850 metres up in the Andes?

Quito's equator monument, the Mitad del Mundo, stands 26 km north of the centre, though modern GPS readings put the true line about 240 metres from the one it marks.

Which Moroccan city's Jemaa el-Fnaa square draws snake charmers by day and storytellers and magicians by night?

Marrakesh earned the nickname the Red City from its red walls, built in 1122–1123, and UNESCO proclaimed the square an Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2001.

Which East African city, whose Amharic name means 'new flower', hosts the headquarters of the African Union?

Addis Ababa was named by Empress Taytu Betul, who persuaded Emperor Menelik II to move his capital down from cold and windy Entoto to the plains below.

Which capital city follows a 1791 plan by the French engineer Pierre Charles L'Enfant, who was soon dismissed?

Washington grew from surveyor Andrew Ellicott's revision of the plan, made after the president dismissed L'Enfant for insubordination.

Which city's 101-storey tower, the world's tallest when it opened in 2004, is steadied by a 660-tonne steel pendulum?

Taipei 101 is built as eight segments of eight floors each, because the number eight is associated with prosperity and good fortune in Chinese-speaking cultures.

Which West African city, 20 km north of the Niger River, grew rich on the trade in salt, gold and ivory?

Timbuktu flourished after Mansa Musa's visit around 1325, and the scholars of its Sankoré Madrasah made it a centre of learning with a busy book trade.

Which Mediterranean city's White City holds over 4,000 Bauhaus-style buildings by architects who fled 1930s Germany?

Tel Aviv has more buildings in the Bauhaus or International Style than any other city in the world, most of them put up under the British Mandate of Palestine.

Which Uzbek city on the Silk Road did Timur make his capital, its Registan square framed by three madrasas?

Samarkand became the birthplace of the Timurid Renaissance, and centuries later it served as the first capital of Soviet Uzbekistan, from 1925 until 1930.

Which capital on the Caspian Sea sits 28 metres below sea level, the lowest-lying national capital in the world?

Baku is also the largest city in the world below sea level, and its territory takes in Neft Daşları, an industrial settlement built on oil rigs 60 km out to sea.

Which Central Asian capital was renamed Nur-Sultan in 2019 to honour a president, only to revert in 2022?

Astana, whose name simply means 'capital' in Kazakh, was earlier called Akmolinsk, Tselinograd and Aqmola, earning a Guinness World Record for the capital with the most name changes in modern times.

Which city in the Caucasus takes its name from a local word for 'warm', after its sulphur hot springs?

Tbilisi comes from the Old Georgian 'tpili', meaning warm, and the Sulfur Bath quarter fed by those springs is counted among the landmarks of the old city.

Which Indian city, built to a master plan by Le Corbusier, serves as the shared capital of two states?

Chandigarh is the capital of both Punjab and Haryana while belonging to neither: the city is governed separately as a union territory.

Which West African capital's Basilica of Our Lady of Peace is listed by Guinness as the largest church in the world?

Yamoussoukro's basilica was modelled on Saint Peter's, its dome kept slightly lower but topped with a larger cross, and Pope John Paul II consecrated it in 1990.

Which Southeast Asian capital took over from a port city in November 2005, its name revealed only in March 2006?

Naypyidaw is Burmese for 'abode of the king', and its first public event was a military parade of more than 12,000 troops on Armed Forces Day.

Which Siberian city, the largest built on continuous permafrost, has the coldest winters of any city its size on Earth?

Yakutsk has many houses raised on concrete piles above the frozen ground, and only one other large city, Norilsk, shares its continuous permafrost.

Which Iranian city, the capital under the Safavid ruler Abbas the Great, did a Persian proverb call half the world?

Isfahan's fame rests on monuments such as Naqsh-e Jahan Square, one of the largest city squares in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Which Bolivian city, over 4,000 metres up beneath the silver-rich Cerro Rico, housed Spain's colonial silver mint?

Potosí grew at speed after 1545, when an indigenous prospector, Diego Huallpa, is traditionally credited with discovering the mountain's ore.

Which Sri Lankan city, the last capital of the Sinhalese kings, is home to the Temple of the Tooth Relic?

Kandy's Buddhist rulers held out in turn against Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial expansion, repulsing a British invasion in the First Kandyan War.

Which Chilean port, seat of the National Congress since 1990, lost its golden age to the Panama Canal's opening?

Valparaíso was known to sailors as the jewel of the Pacific during its boom years, and its historic quarter became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.