All the cities of the world are interesting, surprising and curious in their own way. Well, maybe not all, but many of them. Given the cultural differences in different parts of the world, sometimes you never cease to be surprised at how different the settlements that people consider convenient for themselves look. But many cities are truly unique, and despite all attempts to repeat their success, no one has yet succeeded, and it is unlikely that they will ever succeed.
Facts about the cities of the world
- In 2009, for the first time in the world, the number of urban dwellers equaled the number of rural dwellers. Since then, their share has continued to increase.
- The most visited city in the world by tourists is Paris, the capital of France.
- Scales are treated differently in different countries. So, in Norway, a city is considered large if more than 20,000 people live in it.
- There are more cities in Russia than in any other country in the world – more than 1100.
- The most populous city in the world is Manila, the capital of the Philippines. The population density here exceeds 43,000 people per square kilometer.
- Most of all people live in Shanghai, China – about 25 million people.
- Shanghai’s antipode is the Croatian city of Hum, in which only about 20 people.
- Greek Argos is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe. It originated about 5000 years ago.
- The oldest capital among all the countries of Europe is the Greek Athens. They are even older than Rome (interesting facts about the countries of Europe).
- Disputes about which of the world’s cities is the most ancient are still ongoing. Many of them are already over 10,000 years old, but it is extremely difficult to determine the exact age. For example, people lived in Damascus already 10,000-12,000 years ago.
- The most expensive city in the world for foreigners is Luanda, the capital of the African country of Angola. This is a very poor country, but due to the growth in the arrival of foreign investors, Luanda began to grow rapidly, and even surpassed Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore in terms of cost of living.
- The shortest street in the world, Ebenezer Place, is located in Scotland, in the town of Vic. Its length is only 206 centimeters.
- Three cities in the world are independent states. These are Singapore, the Vatican and Monaco.
- The least visited city in the world by foreigners is Funafuti, the capital of the Pacific country of Tuvalu. On average, about 2,000 foreigners visit here a year.
- The city of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, is the only capital in the world that borders immediately with two neighboring states, Hungary and Austria.
- The longest street in the world, Avenida Rivadavia, 14.6 kilometers long, is located in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires.
- The widest street in the world, 9th of July Avenue, is also in Buenos Aires. It has 12 car lanes and is 140 meters wide.
- In the US, many cities are named after European capitals. There are many settlements with names like London, Moscow, St. Petersburg or Paris.
- The only divided capital in the world is Nicosia, in Cyprus. Part of it belongs to the Republic of Cyprus, and part to the partially recognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. For both of them, Nicosia is the capital.
- The city with the most bridges in the world is not St. Petersburg or even Venice, but German Hamburg. There are as many as 2376 bridges here.
- The largest length of the subway among all cities in the world is in Shanghai. Metro lines here are laid for about 600 kilometers.