For travelers, most often the key role is played by the place of rest, its characteristics and features, rather than the name. In this case, the principle “it is not the name that paints the area, but the name of the place” applies, and in this regard, we often fall in love with the names of those cities in which we were the best. Beautiful city names are most often found in Europe, they are pleasant and melodious to our ears. But many Russian settlements, whose names sound charming in our native language.

Romanesque towns-museums

It is believed that the most beautiful names cities of the world are concentrated in historical area, in the Mediterranean. It is noteworthy that this region is located between two parts of the world - Europe and Asia, and all the settlements that have ever been here or still have very beautiful names. Many cities of the former Roman Empire have survived to this day. Among them are Rome, Florence, Venice. Along with them, very beautiful names of the regions can be distinguished: Liguria, Tuscany, Sicily. Agree, a treat for the ear?

Greece, a neighbor of Italy, also has beautiful names of cities that are located on its territory. These are Athens, Kallithea, Heraklion. It is noteworthy that, in addition to the most beautiful names, these settlements managed to preserve architectural monuments of stunning beauty on their territories. You can admire them forever, and gradually they will become synonymous with the names of cities.

Ancient East - sophistication and beauty

It is surprising that beautiful names were much more amiable in the territories of the Middle East. Firstly, it is the center of the origin of the Akkadian civilization. A few centuries later, it was replaced by the majestic Nineveh. In the south of the same Mesopotamia, the king of all the powers of that time was located - Babylon with its famous tower, still not excavated from the golden sands. On the territory of Egypt, two megacities with beautiful names can be distinguished - Memphis and Alexandria. In present-day Turkey, which once bore the names of Anatolia and Cappadocia (also names that are very attractive to hear), there was the legendary city of Troy, famous for its history with a wooden horse.

Well, Syria has such beautiful city names as Damascus, Alalakh, Amarna and others. It is noteworthy that most of the above names have survived to this day. An exception can be considered Memphis, which changed its name to no less beautiful - Cairo.

Spain - a modern treasure trove of uniqueness

The country, located in the southwest of the European continent, is famous for having beautiful city names. We will not list them, but only go through the most famous ones, which are unique not only in their sound, but also in architecture.

It is probably worth starting a trip to Spain from Catalonia, where the metropolis of Barcelona is located. This name has been thundering all over the world for many centuries and appears either in the creative sphere of life, or in sports, or in tourism.

Valencia is located below, and the regions stretch even closer to the south. Among the cities of this country, one can distinguish a complex but very beautiful name - La Manga del Mar Menor. It is important to note that the Spanish colonization caused the spread of this culture to a wider area. So, beautiful city names that are pronounced and written in this language can be found in Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and many other states.

Far and mysterious North

The names of the Scandinavian settlements are also recognized as the most beautiful. It is important to note that Romano-Germanic and Finno-Ugric peoples coexist on this peninsula, so the names of local geographical units are fundamentally different. Filled with severity and grandeur - the city of Stockholm. Östersund, Malmö, Skelleftea and Sundsvall appear along with him. Finland is famous for the famous cities of Helsinki, Viitasaari, Tornio, Rovaniemi and Nilsia. Most importantly, in many settlements of these cold countries, even in the smallest ones, the primitive traditions and culture of these peoples have been preserved, which gives them even more charm and charm.

Surprise of the new century - South Africa and its heritage

Who would have thought that on the expanses of the southernmost point of the African continent, real urban jungles would grow, which would bear beautiful names. Among the cities that are more reminiscent of America with their panoramas, we highlight Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and East London. These unique names of these settlements are due to the synthesis of local dialects and the English language, which appeared here after British colonization.

Russia and its uniqueness

For our compatriots, the most beautiful are the names of cities in Russia, and mainly the native one, which is unique and individual in each of its letters.

Saint Petersburg is an ancient and incredibly beautiful city.

Remote cities also have beautiful names: Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Astrakhan, Arkhangelsk, Kaliningrad. It can be stated with full confidence that in Russia where more places, regions and cities with beautiful names, but it is simply impossible to list them in one article.

There are settlements on the planet with such amazing names that it is difficult to believe in the fact of their existence. And to live in the city of Swastika or in the city of the Kingdom of Satan can, perhaps, only love with a good sense of humor. And it should be noted that these are not the strangest names in existence.

1. Swastika

The city of Swastika in Ontario, Canada is a rather strange place. In fact, this is not a Nazi haunt at all - the city was founded almost 30 years before Adolf Hitler began to use the swastika. The name of the city was chosen in honor of the ancient Indian sign of well-being and fertility.

2. Kingdom of Satan

In a funny and strange way, there are cities and geographic places on Earth named after hell. For example, two cities in the USA (in the states of Vermont and Massachusetts) are called the Kingdom of Satan.

3. Peniston

The name of the town of Peniston in Yorkshire, England, probably comes from older forms of Welsh and English. Originally, the name meant "Hilltop Village". Today, everyone who is not lazy is giggling over him.

4. Nothing

The formerly inhabited (although very few people lived in it) village of Nothing in Arizona was completely abandoned in 2005. A sign at the entrance to the city says: "The devoted citizens of Nothing are full of hope and faith in the need for work. For many years these people believed in Nothing, hoped for Nothing and worked for Nothing."

5. North Pole

There are cities with the name of the North Pole in the states of Alaska and New York. New York's North Pole has a theme park with live reindeer and Santa Claus.

6. Nameless

Nameless - a small town in the state of Colorado, which got its name when a highway was planned to be laid in this place with a turn to the still non-existent city. During the construction of the road, a temporary sign with the inscription "Nameless" was installed at the turn. In the end, the name stuck.

7. Moon

To the northwest of Pittsburgh there is a town called Luna, which was probably so named because it is located in a crescent-shaped bend in the river.

8. Mars

Tourists have recently been frequenting the city of Mars in Pennsylvania. Not only is a non-working former spaceship, so you can also say that you visited the Martians (that's what the locals are called).

9. George Washington

George Washington is the only city in the United States that bears the full name of its founding father.

10. Ganja

The city with the most Rastaman name can be found in Azerbaijan. Moreover, this is not even a village that was named as a joke, but the second largest city in the country.

11. Chinatown

Chinatowns or Chinatowns exist in major cities around the world, but Wisconsin has whole city which has a similar name.

12. Batman

Everyone knows the famous comic book hero, but few people know that in Turkey, in the province of Batman, on the banks of the Batman River (a tributary of the Tigris River), there is a city of Batman. The main local attractions are oil refineries and a large military airbase.

13. Bastardtown

Bastardtown in County Wexford, despite its name, is a picturesque seaside Irish village.

14. Å

The settlement with such a laconic name is a beautiful seaside village in the very north of Norway. Also, six other Norwegian towns, Swedish and Danish cities have a similar name.

15. Accident

Interestingly, the town of Accident was built in the 1770s in Western Maryland by accident. Two surveyors were marking the ground by randomly choosing the same oak tree as a reference point. It was on that spot that the city was founded.

Great pleasure is experienced by people who travel on own car. They get vivid impressions not only from contemplating the beauty of the surrounding area, but also from the names of settlements, rivers, lakes.

If you plan to drive a significant distance in your car, then take a pen and notebook with you to write down the names of cities, towns, villages and rivers that you meet on your way. In the future, you will not only be guaranteed victory in the Cities game, but you will also be able to amuse your friends and family with funny and unusual toponyms.

For starters, I want to bring to your attention the following interesting names of real geographical objects:

• Cocaine mountains - a river in the Perm region;
• Lysaya Balda - a river in the Ukrainian village of Zaryanoye;
• Dno is the name of a city near Pskov;
• Bunny bubble - a river in the Kemerovo region;
• In the Ulyanovsk region - the village of Musorka;
• Red Grave - a village in the Donetsk region;
• Chuvaki - a village in the Perm region;
• Tukhlyanka - a river on Sakhalin;
• Bolshie Pupsy - a village in the Tver region;
• Machekhin End - a village in the Tver region;
• Krutye Khutora - a village in the Lipetsk region;
• Tsatsa - a village in the Volgograd region;
• The village of Kurilovka in the Saratov region;
• Yes, yes - a village in the Khabarovsk Territory;
• This is a village on Sakhalin Island;
• Kuyoklo is a village in the Tver region.

If you are going to Omsk, then you will meet on your way:

the rivers Bernyazhka, Nyukhalovka, Byzovka, Ingaly, Avlukha;

the villages of Pochekuevo, Shchuevoz, Takmyk, Kurnosovo, Bolshie Murly, Chebakly, Uvalnaya Bitiya and others.

These are so interesting geographical names meet! Each such name, of course, has its own history of origin. What now seems funny to us in ancient times had a completely different meaning. You can ask the locals where the name of their village or village or river came from. Old people will tell a lot of interesting things, however, there are fewer and fewer of them every day.

It is a pity that our history flows like a river into oblivion.

It is a pity that we are ready to laugh at an unusual name without asking about the history of its origin.

Fortunately, there are enthusiasts who collect bit by bit and save such information. After all, a nation that does not know its history, its roots, is weak and vulnerable. Esotericists, clairvoyants and healers say that living people are given strength by their ancestors, the so-called family tree or family egregore.

Don't forget to bring a notepad and pen with you!

There are geographical names that we use in everyday life in a different meaning. There are many such words that have entered our language from maps and geography textbooks. Let's consider the most interesting of them.

From the name of the city of Basra in Iraq comes the name of alabaster, which is a valuable building material. Translated from Arabic, the word "al-basra" means "soft" and is associated with the characteristics of the local soil. The word "kaolin" is associated with the Kaolian area in China, where white clay was first mined for the purpose of making porcelain. The word "faience" is associated with the name of the city of Faenza in Italy. Rock is intended as a facing material in the construction process and in the construction of monuments. The breed is called labradorite from the name of the peninsula of the same name. North America.

If we turn to the periodic system of chemical elements D.I. Mendeleev, you can see a large number of names that attested to certain parts of the world, for example, americium, europium, and individual countries, gallium (the ancient name of France), ruthenium, translated from Latin meaning Russia, francium, polonium, meaning Poland. In honor of Paris, such an element as lutetium (from the Latin. "Lutetium") is named, and in honor of the Greek city of Magnesium, such an element as magnesium is named. Chemical elements like californium and scandium also speak of the geographical name of the same name.

The name of the four chemical elements - ytterbium, yttrium, erbium and terbium comes from the small town of Ytterby, which is located on the Swedish island of Ruslagen. In 1787, an unusual heavy mineral containing these rare earth elements was found in the vicinity of this city. The town of Ytterby became famous thanks to this miracle of nature.

An example of a chemical named after a city is veronal (from the Italian city of Verona); cologne, which means "water from Cologne". In 1972, cologne was first made in Cologne. Cologne today is the largest industrial center in Germany, where various types of machine tools, cars, television and radio equipment are produced. However, around the world Cologne is known for its "water from Cologne".

From the island of the same name in the Red Sea comes the name of the valuable topaz stone.

What about fabric names? Not everyone knows that the name of the tulle fabric comes from the French city where it was first made. In the state of northwestern India, the name of a thin woolen fabric - cashmere, was born, from the name of the state of Kashmir. Madepolam fabric is also of Indian origin. It got its name from a small town of the same name.

The city in Scotland is Cheviot, the name of the ridge in the Pennine Mountains of Great Britain duplicates the covercot. Jersey fabric owes its name to the English island of Jersey from the group of the Channel Islands next to France. The city of the same name in the United States is the birthplace of the Boston woolen fabric. The name waltz-boston came from here. Translated from French, the name of crepe de chine silk fabric means "Chinese crepe". Moroccan crepe in translation means "Moroccan crepe". In the 60-60s. in the Italian city of Bologna, raincoats made of synthetic material, which received the same name, first appeared. The name of the breed of indoor dogs have the same origin. In the old spelling, the capital of Turkey sounds like Angora, hence the origin of Angora cats.

From the name of the city of Bruges, in a slightly modified pronunciation, the word trousers came. IN this city produced a special fabric "bruggisch" for sewing trousers. The city of Bruges itself comes from the ancient Norwegian language of the Normans and is translated as a bridge (“brigia”).

The origin of the word jeans also has a connection with geography. The appearance of the first jeans dates back to the 50s. last century, and San Francisco (USA) is their homeland. Jeans in those days were made only for laborers. The material was canvas. The country-supplier of fabric for tailoring was italian city Genoa. The name was somewhat distorted by the Americans, so the end result was the emergence of the word jeans.

From the name of the city of Fez, which is located in Morocco, the name of the men's cap fez was formed, made of red felt in the shape of a truncated cone with a tassel, until recently common in North America and the Middle East. From the Austrian province of Tyrol came the name of a hat with a feather - Tyroleans.

Geographic sound is also inherent in a large number of food products. In the city of Mayon on the island of Menorca, which is part of the Spanish Balearic Islands, mayonnaise, widely known today, was made for the first time.

From the French city of Plombier, the name of the ice cream variety was formed - ice cream. From the river Torto, flowing on the island of Sicily, the name was formed - cake.

Roquefort cheese owes its name to the French city of the same name. The names of such cheeses as Dutch, Poshekhonsky, Uglichsky, Kostroma, Swiss have a similar origin. As well as sausages: Hamburg, Odessa, Krakow, Lviv, Moscow, Odessa, Minsk, etc.

From Greece came buckwheat, from Persia - peach. Orange means "Chinese apple".

In the names of brands of refrigerators, mineral waters, motorcycles, televisions, cars, there are also a large number of place names. For example, the landau horse-drawn carriage got its name from the Bavarian city of Landau. It was there that it was first made.

The name landau has survived to this day in the name of the body of a convertible car. The closed body of a high-class passenger car got its name from the historical province of France, Limousin.

WITH geographic point vision will also interesting title US dollar. Name of this monetary unit is not of American origin and is not at all connected with English language. In a small German town Joachimstal (now Czech Republic) minted a large silver coin called Joachimstaler. The name was later shortened to the word "thaler", which later became "dollar" in English pronunciation. The village of Dollar is located in Great Britain.

For the most part, geographical names have their corresponding meaning.

But there are a large number of those that appeared on a geographical map by chance and were the result of errors and misunderstandings.

Sometimes geographic features are too long or too short, extremely funny or difficult to pronounce names. Sometimes they are so ridiculous that you have to wonder - how could someone come up with such a thing? So, see for yourself.

The longest place names in the world

An example would be a small lake in US state Massachusetts. The name of this reservoir consists of more than 40 letters and it is almost impossible to pronounce it non-stop and the first time. The name of this lake is Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. This abracadabra, translated from the Indian language of the locality, means: "I will fish on this side, you will fish on the other side, and no one catches anything in the middle." It was in this way that two Indian tribes, who once lived on opposite sides, concluded an agreement. Thus, the lake got such a long name.

An even longer name is given to a small station near Wales in the UK. Train tickets starting or ending at this station are listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest Railway tickets. Their length is 15 cm long. The name of the station consists of 54 letters and sounds like: Llanfirepulguiguillgogericutridrobullaantisiliogogogok, for ease of pronunciation and spelling of the name, it was shortened to Llanfire. The name of the station, translated from the Welsh dialect, means: "a church in the lowland, which is overgrown with white hazel, located near a river with a whirlpool near the cave". The translation of the name reliably accurately describes the geographical area in which the old station is located. Old-timers say that such a name of the once old and unknown station was invented by a local joker who wished to remain in the shadows. He did this in order to glorify his unremarkable little-known village. Since then, tourists began to flock to the small town, who were attracted here unusual name. There is a known case of theft of a sign from the station building with full title city, apparently it was stolen by some collector.

"The place where Tamatea, a man with a very long legs, a famous person the one who devoured mountains, who moved them, climbed mountains to play the flute for his beloved.” This is how the even longer name of the village located in the northern part of the island is translated New Zealand. The name itself consists of 83 letters and is pronounced as:

The well-known capital of Thailand, the city of Bangkok has the longest name in the world written in Thai. It is officially listed in the Guinness Book of Records. It consists of 147 characters, and it is very difficult to read it. The translation of the name describes the location of the city in the style of the Eastern sages and means: " great city, the city of angels, which contains the treasures of the gods, the great land that no one can conquer, the kingdom that will always flourish, this is the place where the palace of the gods is located, in which the gods live, capable of reincarnating into spirits, a wonderful land bestowed by the gods.

The shortest place names in the world

For example, the names that are presented on the maps in the form of the letter A are found in many parts of the world. For example, a river in Germany or a place on the Lofot Islands, as well as small towns in France and Sweden.

The letter I as the name has two small towns located in the north and west of France and the coast of Finland, respectively.

The unique French town, located in the south, is called Nauh, which is read as O.

On the territories of Sweden and France there are cities with the name Yu. The river in the north of Russia has the same name.

The letter E stands for the name of a small town in Belgium, and the port with an analogous name is located near Burma.

Y is the geographical name given to cities in South Korea and in the Caroline Islands located in Pacific Ocean. The same name belongs to the left tributary of the Mekong River, located in Asia.

The funniest place names in the world

Tarakan is the name of a small island and the city of the same name. eastern shores Indonesian island of Kalimantan.

Penyok is a village in Novosibirsk Oblast.

Kalach is a city in Volgograd Oblast

Sapozhok is a city in Ryazan Oblast

Dno is a village in the Pskov region

Zheludok is a village in the Grodno region of Belarus

The strangest place names in the world

The village of Nothing in Arizona, USA.

The city of Swastika in Ontario, Canada is a rather strange place. In fact, this is not a Nazi haunt at all - the city was founded almost 30 years before Adolf Hitler began to use the swastika. The name of the city was chosen in honor of the ancient Indian sign of well-being and fertility.

On Earth, there are cities and geographical places named after hell. For example, two cities in the USA (in the states of Vermont and Massachusetts) are called the Kingdom of Satan.

There are cities with the name of the North Pole in the states of Alaska and New York. New York's North Pole has a theme park with live reindeer and Santa Claus.

Nameless is a small town in the state of Colorado, which got its name when a highway was planned to be laid in this place with a turn to the still non-existent city. During the construction of the road, a temporary sign with the inscription "Nameless" was installed at the turn. In the end, the name stuck.

To the northwest of Pittsburgh there is a town called Luna, which was probably so named because it is located in a crescent-shaped bend in the river.

Tourists have recently been frequenting the city of Mars in Pennsylvania. Not only is a non-working former spaceship installed in the city, but you can also say that you visited the Martians (that's what the locals are called).

In the 1770s, the town of Casualty was built in Western Maryland. Two surveyors were marking the ground by randomly choosing the same oak tree as a reference point. It was on that spot that the city was founded.