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Curated playlist

Historic Jewish communities

  • RecifeRecife, Brazil, is named for a stone reef that was once an ancient beach. It gave sailors a natural harbor.
  • FrankfurtFrankfurt was nearly the capital of West Germany. In 1949 it even built a parliament building for the job.
  • WuppertalIn 1950, a circus elephant named Tuffi plunged forty feet from Wuppertal's monorail into a river.
  • VeniceVenice has 472 bridges and no roads in its historic heart. The city sits on 126 islands in a shallow lagoon.
  • KrakówEvery hour, a trumpet call from a Kraków church tower breaks off mid-melody.
  • MannheimThe streets of central Mannheim have no names, only letters and numbers. Blocks have codes like C3.
  • Iberian PeninsulaThe name Iberian Peninsula is only about 200 years old. A French geographer coined it in 1823.
  • VilniusGrand Duke Gediminas dreamed of an Iron Wolf, and by legend built Vilnius. The legend was recorded around the 1530s.
  • SanaaSanaa could become the first national capital to run out of water. Its aquifer is estimated to run dry by around 2030.
  • ThessalonikiThessaloniki is now the second-largest city in Greece. In 1912, Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos was asked whether the Greek army should march on it or on Monastir. His reply was "Θεσσαλονίκη με κάθε κόστος!", which means…
  • UlmThe citizens of Ulm paid for their giant minster themselves, not the church. Work began in 1377 and finished in 1891.

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