50 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 outlawed gum sales in January 1992 under its new prime minister Goh Chok Tong; since 2004, dental and nicotine gum can be bought from a doctor or pharmacist.

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 Red Square owes its name to an archaic word meaning 'beautiful', not to the colour?

Moscow's Red Square was first recorded under its krasnaya name in 1661–62, when the Russian word still meant 'beautiful' rather than 'red'.

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's fourteen central islands run straight on into the island chain of the Stockholm archipelago, and its Old Town, Gamla Stan, grew on the central island from the mid-13th century.

Which city's MOSE flood barriers, first raised against a high tide in October 2020, seal its lagoon from the Adriatic?

Venice first activated MOSE on 3 October 2020, keeping Piazza San Marco dry; the mobile gates lie on the seafloor at three inlets and rise for tides forecast above 1.30 metres.

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's official song, 'Cidade Maravilhosa' by André Filho, gives it the nickname Marvelous City?

Rio de Janeiro's anthem 'Cidade Maravilhosa' means 'marvelous city', and the city also holds Tijuca National Park, described as the world's first urban forest.

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

The Han runs about 1.2 kilometres wide through Seoul, an unusually broad river to split a major metropolis, and Gangnam's name simply means 'south of the Han'.

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

Chennai took its present name on 17 July 1996, part of a nationwide move to shed anglicised names; the city began in 1639 with an East India Company grant around the village of Madrasapattinam.

Which Gulf capital opened an outpost of the Louvre beneath a 7,000-tonne dome in November 2017?

Louvre Abu Dhabi was inaugurated on 8 November 2017 by Emmanuel Macron and Mohammed bin Zayed, with Jean Nouvel, architect of Paris's Arab World Institute, designing its dome.

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's port serves a hinterland of more than 500 million consumers across Europe and ranked as the world's tenth-largest container port in 2020.

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, the City of London, covers just 2.9 square kilometres, which makes it the smallest city in the United Kingdom by area.

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

Volgograd took its present name in 1961 under Khrushchev, having been Tsaritsyn until 1925; the 1942–43 battle fought there is widely held to be the turning point of World War II.

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

Milan Cathedral, the Duomo, took nearly six centuries to finish; Archbishop Antonio da Saluzzo started it in 1386 and the final portal opened on 6 January 1965.

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

Hamburg claims more bridges inside its city limits than any other city in the world, and it also has five of the world's 29 churches taller than 100 metres.

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 2007 Clean City Law led advertisers to strip some 15,000 billboards from its streets?

São Paulo's anti-billboard law targeted both advertising and commerce, and the authorities dismantled more than 1,600 signs and 1,300 towering metal panels as well.

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 lasted nearly a thousand years until the Rashidun Caliphate restored the older Ammonite name in the 7th century.

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, founded in 1725, is listed by Guinness as the world's oldest restaurant?

Madrid's Botín is said to have been opened by the French cook Jean Botín and his Asturian wife, and it has served continuously ever since, a run of three centuries.

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

Vienna's Schönbrunn Zoo was the idea of Francis Stephen of Lorraine, husband of Empress Maria Theresa, and it opened to guests in the grounds of the Habsburg summer residence.

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

Johannesburg grew on the Witwatersrand ridge, whose streams feed two of southern Africa's great rivers, the Limpopo and the Orange, instead of any river flowing through the city.

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 sits at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône and also hosts the International Agency for Research on Cancer, plus a four-day Fête des Lumières every December.

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

Melbourne hosted the first federal parliament on 9 May 1901 in its Royal Exhibition Building, and parliament sat in the Victorian Parliament House until the new capital 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 nickname turns up in Walter Scott's 1820 novel The Abbot, where a character sees Auld Reekie's smoke hovering from twenty miles away.

Which Chinese city opened the world's first commercial high-speed maglev, running to its Pudong airport, in 2004?

Shanghai's maglev cruised at 431 km/h until May 2021, which made it the fastest train in regular commercial service, and it still reaches 300 km/h 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 crown also carries 2,317 rubies, and the gold on the stupa is genuine plate riveted over a brick core.

Which capital's Malay name means 'muddy confluence', for the meeting of the Gombak and Klang rivers?

Kuala Lumpur strictly ought to be called Kuala Gombak, since a kuala is usually named after the smaller river that joins the larger Klang.

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

Jakarta was the Dutch East India Company's Batavia from 1619, and the name Jakarta took hold during the Japanese occupation and after independence was declared on 17 August 1945.

Which capital's Orloj, first recorded in October 1410, marked its 600th birthday with a light show in 2010?

Prague's astronomical clock was built in 1410 by the horologist Mikuláš of Kadaň with the mathematician Jan Šindel, and legend says the city will suffer if it is ever neglected.

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

The Vistula gave Warsaw both its name, from a fishing settlement on its banks, and its mermaid emblem, through the tale of the fisherman Wars and the mermaid Sawa.

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 Schwebebahn is the oldest electric elevated railway with hanging cars in the world, its tracks and stations built between 1897 and 1903.

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

Koblenz comes from the Latin ad confluentes, and the meeting point itself is the Deutsches Eck, the 'German Corner', with its equestrian statue of Emperor William I.

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

Chemnitz was renamed on 10 May 1953 for the Karl Marx Year, and 76% of its voters chose the old name back on 23 April 1990.

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 is crossed by four bridges at Kolkata, and the Howrah Bridge remains the city's symbol despite newer spans such as the Vidyasagar Setu.

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 was at one point the largest city in the world, with around 200,000 residents, and its traditional narrow street fabric still keeps cars out.

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

Cairo's full formal name was al-Qahirah al-Mu'izziyyah, 'the Vanquisher of al-Mu'izz', after the caliph al-Mu'izz, who arrived from Mahdia in Tunisia to take up his new capital.

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

Buenos Aires' Avenida 9 de Julio measures 110 metres across and is flanked on both sides by parallel two-lane streets.