Curated playlist
Populated places established in the 10th century
- StuttgartThe German city of Stuttgart sits inside a natural bowl. Locals call it the Stuttgarter Kessel, or Cauldron.
- GdańskThe first shots of World War II were fired at Westerplatte, in Gdańsk. Decades later, the city helped end communism.
- NiueNiue is a self-governing island country in the South Pacific, and its 2022 census counted fewer than 1,700 people. Its nickname is The Rock, drawn from the traditional name Rock of Polynesia. It is among the largest coral islands in the…
- EsztergomIn 1147, a French visitor named Odo of Deuil wrote that "the Danube carries the economy and treasures of several countries to Esztergom." The city sits on the river's right bank, 46 km northwest of Budapest. Slovakia lies on the opposite…
- 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…
- LundLund, a Swedish city, was Danish for nearly seven centuries. Archeologists date its founding to around 990.
- CairoCairo's name means the Vanquisher, and Mars may have inspired it. Mars was said to be rising at its founding.
- TórshavnTórshavn, capital of the Faroe Islands, lost 250 of its roughly 300 people to smallpox in 1709.
- BrattahlíðBrattahlíð is an old Norse name meaning "the steep slope," and it belonged to Erik the Red. He built this estate in southwestern Greenland, in the Eastern Settlement, a Viking colony he founded toward the end of the 10th century. Today the…
- RoskildeIn 1370, the city of Roskilde owned 2,600 farms spread across the island of Zealand. That is the landholding of a great power, not of a country town. Today Roskilde has 53,354 residents and lies 30 km west of Copenhagen, close enough that…