Curated playlist
Megacities
- LahoreRanjit Singh's army stripped white marble from Lahore's famous tombs and gardens.
- KinshasaAcross a stretch of the Congo River four kilometers wide, with no bridge to cross it, two national capitals face each other. Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, stands on the south bank. Brazzaville, the smaller…
- OsakaOsaka merchants created the world's first futures market, trading rice not yet harvested.
- GuangzhouGuangzhou, the southern Chinese city also called Canton, saw its Baiyun International Airport briefly become the busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic in 2020. Worldwide travel restrictions at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic…
- ShanghaiShanghai counted 29,558,908 people in its urban area in 2025. That figure makes it the most populous city in China and the fifth-largest city in the world. A place this large began as a fishing village and market town. Why does a…
- São PauloSão Paulo began in 1554 as a hilltop mission of twelve priests. It is now the most populous city in Brazil.
- BangkokBangkok's full ceremonial name has 168 letters, a Guinness World Records entry.
- LagosLagos has no single city government, despite being Africa's largest urban area. The state runs roads, power and water.
- SeoulSeoul must stay South Korea's capital, a court ruled in 2004. Ministries still drift to Sejong City.
- WuhanA bomb that went off too early in Wuchang in 1911 set off the fall of dynastic rule. The city is now called Wuhan.
- JakartaParts of Jakarta already sit below sea level, and the ground is still sinking.
- Mexico CityMexico City sinks almost 50 centimeters every year. It rests on the clay bed of a drained lake.
- CairoCairo's name means the Vanquisher, and Mars may have inspired it. Mars was said to be rising at its founding.
- Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro was named after a river that never existed. Sailors mistook Guanabara Bay for a river mouth in 1502.
- DhakaDhaka's muslin was so famous that distant markets simply called the cloth "Daka".
- JohannesburgJohannesburg began in June 1884 with one gold find on a farm. Within two years, a city stood where farmland had been.
- KolkataKolkata, known as Calcutta until its official name changed in 2001, is a city whose founder a court refused to name. In 2003, answering a public petition, the Calcutta High Court ruled that the city does not have a founder at all. That is…
- HyderabadHyderabad began as an answer to a water problem. In 1591 the Qutb Shahi ruler Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah founded a new city on the banks of the Musi River, because the fortress capital of Golconda kept running short of water. Today Hyderabad…
- BeijingBeijing once tore down its own Ming city wall to build a subway. The wall stood until 1965.
- MoscowIn 1712, Peter the Great moved Russia's government out of Moscow. Lenin brought the capital back in 1918.
- LondonQueen Boudica's Iceni tribe burnt Roman London to the ground around AD 61. The city was rebuilt and prospered.
- MumbaiMumbai was once seven separate islands of Koli fishermen. English engineers later merged them into one peninsula.
- ParisParis has twenty districts that spiral clockwise because Napoleon III annexed nearby towns in 1860.
- TokyoBy 1990, the land under Tokyo's Imperial Palace was estimated to be worth more than all of California.
- IstanbulIn 1453, Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople after a 55-day siege. Hours later he made Hagia Sophia a mosque.
- DelhiDelhi's name has three competing origin stories. One says a king named Dhillu built the city in 50 BCE.
- New York CityAn estimated 800 languages are spoken in New York City, more than in any other city on earth.
- ChongqingFrom November 1937 to May 1946, Chongqing was Chiang Kai-shek's provisional capital.
- Los AngelesIn 1908, a librarian reported at least 12 ways to say Los Angeles. The federal government picked one in 1934.