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834 cards. Each one is a 40-second story with a five-minute read behind it. Page 10 of 14.

  1. Burma’s last royal capital on the IrrawaddyMandalay, Myanmar’s second city after Yangon, sits on the Irrawaddy’s east bank 631 km north of Yangon, with 1,225,553 people counted in 2014. King Mindon founded it in 1857 to re…
  2. Maynila fell; Legazpi’s city still rules the bayManila, capital of the Philippines and second-most populous city after Quezon City, held 1,902,590 people in the 2024 census on Manila Bay’s eastern Luzon shore. Tagalog Maynila s…
  3. Lourenço Marques reborn as Mozambique’s bay capitalMaputo, Mozambique’s capital and largest city, sits near the country’s south within 120 km of Eswatini and South Africa, with 1,088,449 residents in recent counts. Ancestral Tsong…
  4. Oil made Venezuela’s strait city richMaracaibo, Zulia’s capital on the strait linking Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela, ranks as the country’s second-largest city. Petroleum along the lake shores made it weste…
  5. Awadh's court city that still feeds poetry and spiceLucknow is Uttar Pradesh’s capital and second city, with 2.8 million people in the 2011 census—India’s eleventh-largest city. Nawabi patronage made it North India’s cultural capit…
  6. Punjab's densest city, nicknamed India's ManchesterLudhiana is Punjab’s most populous and densest city, with 1,618,879 residents in the 2011 census across 310 square kilometres. The BBC dubbed it India’s Manchester; it is also cal…
  7. China's earliest great capital still watches the LuoLuoyang sits where the Luo meets the Yellow River in western Henan, among China’s oldest cities and the earliest of the Four Great Ancient Capitals. Its name means the sunny north…
  8. A railway water stop that became Zambia's capitalLusaka is Zambia’s capital and largest city, about 1,279 metres up on the central plateau, with roughly 2.2 million people in 2022. Founded in 1905 as a British South Africa Compa…
  9. Ancient Thebes still drawing five million visitors a yearLuxor, once Thebes, is Upper Egypt’s temple city and Luxor Governorate’s capital, with about 285,000 people in 2023 on forty-three square kilometres of urban ground. Nicknamed the…
  10. Leo's city that traded under Magdeburg rightsLviv is western Ukraine’s largest city and the country’s fifth-largest, with about 723,000 people in a 2025 estimate. King Daniel of Galicia founded it around 1250 for his son Lev…
  11. Roman Lugdunum still lights up at the Rhône forkLyon stands where the Rhône meets the Saône, 391 kilometres southeast of Paris. France’s third city holds about 519,000 people inside a tight 48-square-kilometre commune (2023), w…
  12. A Ming lease that became the world's densest regionMacau packs about 720,000 people onto 32.9 square kilometres of peninsula, Taipa, Coloane, and Cotai fill—Earth’s densest territory, with two-thirds of its land reclaimed from the…
  13. A Manzanares fortress that became Spain's permanent courtMadrid is Spain’s capital and largest city, with over 3.4 million residents in 2025 and a metro near 6.8 million—the EU’s second city after Berlin. It sits about 660 metres up on …
  14. A muddy creek that became Britain's Atlantic powerhouseLiverpool sits on the Mersey Estuary 178 miles northwest of London, a Merseyside port of about 509,000 people in 2024 within a city region over 1.5 million. Old English lifer and …
  15. Londinium burned, rebuilt, and never stopped rewriting itselfLondon, capital of England and the United Kingdom, held about 9.14 million people in 2025, with a Western European-leading metro near 15.4 million along the tidal Thames. Romans f…
  16. From Tongva Yaanga to a three-time Olympic hostLos Angeles is California’s largest city and the U.S. second after New York, with about 3.87 million residents inside city limits in 2025 and a metro near 12.9 million. Spanish se…
  17. Africa's oldest Portuguese capital on a foggy dry coastLuanda is Angola’s capital, chief Atlantic port, and largest city—over 8.8 million people in 2024, about a third of the nation. Paulo Dias de Novais founded São Paulo da Assunção …
  18. Katanga's copper capital once named for a Belgian queenLubumbashi, formerly Élisabethville, is the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s second city and Haut-Katanga’s capital, a mining hub near Zambia. Urban-area estimates put about 2.5…
  19. Europe’s second-oldest capital on the Tagus mouthLisbon, Portugal’s capital, held about 658,236 residents inside city limits and 3.35 million across its metropolis in 2025 estimates, fronting the Tagus where it meets the Atlanti…
  20. Yunnan’s ‘eternal spring’ city above Dian LakeKunming, capital of China’s Yunnan province, sits about 1,900 metres up on the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau just north of the Tropic of Cancer. Mild weather earned it the nickname City …
  21. From Gulf fishing village to oil-era primate capitalKuwait City crowns the south shore of Kuwait Bay as the emirate’s political, cultural, and economic core, housing corporate headquarters and the entire banking system. The metro h…
  22. Dnieper capital that once ruled Kievan Rus’Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital and largest city, straddles both banks of the Dnieper in the country’s north-centre. In January 2022 it counted 2,952,301 residents—Europe’s seventh-most p…
  23. Eleven centuries of emperors in a feng-shui gridKyoto, capital of Kyoto Prefecture on Honshu, held about 1.46 million people in 2020—Japan’s ninth-largest city and home to 56.8 percent of its prefecture. Emperor Kanmu seated th…
  24. World’s highest big seat of government in a canyon bowlLa Paz—officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz—is Bolivia’s seat of government, with 755,732 residents in 2024 and a metro of about 2.2 million with El Alto. Set in a Choqueyapu River…
  25. Africa’s surging megacity built between lagoon and seaLagos, southwestern Nigeria’s port metropolis, was estimated in November 2025 at roughly 17 to 21 million people—the country’s largest city, Africa’s most populous urban area, and…
  26. Punjab’s literary giant on the Ravi’s east bankLahore, capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province, is the country’s second-largest city after Karachi and about the world’s twenty-seventh, with over fourteen million people. For cent…
  27. Yellow River hinge at China’s landlocked centreLanzhou, capital of Gansu in northwestern China, hugs the Yellow River as a rail bridge between western provinces and the east. Once a Northern Silk Road fortress, it now aims to …
  28. Desert meadow that became Sin City’s neon machineLas Vegas, Nevada’s largest city and Clark County seat, counted 641,903 residents in 2020 within a metro of about 2.4 million. Famous for Strip and downtown casino resorts, it dre…
  29. Guanajuato’s shoe city that tints workers greenLeón de los Aldama, Guanajuato’s municipal seat, held 1,579,803 city residents and 1,721,215 in the municipality in Mexico’s 2020 census—fourth-largest city, third-largest municip…
  30. Wool town that became Yorkshire’s private-sector engineLeeds, West Yorkshire’s largest settlement, grew from a thirteenth-century manor and sixteenth-century market into a wool powerhouse, winning city status from Queen Victoria in 18…
  31. High river basin capital called City of the GodsLhasa is the capital and largest city of China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, a prefecture-level unit of roughly 29,000-plus square kilometres whose urban core in Chengguan District h…
  32. Malawi’s planned capital that replaced highland ZombaLilongwe is Malawi’s capital and largest city, with 989,318 people in the 2018 census and about 1,122,000 by 2020, growing near 4.3 percent a year. Named for its river and set in …
  33. Pacific desert capital named for a talking oracleLima, Peru's capital, fills the Chillón, Rímac, and Lurín valleys on a Pacific coastal desert and merges with Callao's port. A 2023 projection puts about 10.1 million inside city …
  34. Kazan’s name means cauldron at the Volga’s bendTatarstan’s capital sits where the Volga meets the Kazanka, covering about four hundred twenty-five square kilometres with over one point three million residents—Russia’s fifth-la…
  35. Kermanshah began as a Sasanian king’s namesake cityWestern Iran’s Zagros capital holds about nine hundred forty-seven thousand people by the 2016 census, some five hundred twenty-five kilometres from Tehran. Its name preserves Kir…
  36. Kharkiv began as a 1654 Cossack fort on steppe riversUkraine’s second-largest city anchors historic Sloboda Ukraine in the northeast. Founded in sixteen fifty-four as a Cossack fortress, it later served as capital of the Ukrainian S…
  37. Khartoum sits where the Blue and White Niles meetSudan’s capital and largest city anchors a metro of about seven point one million people at al-Mogran—the confluence. White Nile water from Lake Victoria joins Blue Nile flow from…
  38. Kigali was a hilltop German outpost before becoming capitalRwanda’s capital fills rolling ridges near the country’s geographic centre. German resident Richard Kandt chose the site in nineteen hundred seven for views and security; at indep…
  39. Kingston rose after Port Royal’s 1692 earthquake collapseJamaica’s coastal capital faces a natural harbour sheltered by the Palisadoes spit toward Port Royal. Founded on twenty-two July sixteen ninety-two for earthquake survivors, it be…
  40. Kinshasa faces Brazzaville across four unbridged river kilometresThe Democratic Republic of the Congo’s capital, once Léopoldville, may hold about eighteen point five million people in twenty twenty-six—among Africa’s largest metros. Teke and H…
  41. Kobe opened to the West and briefly housed Japan’s emperorHyōgo Prefecture’s capital holds about one point five million people on Osaka Bay, Japan’s seventh-largest city and a historic treaty port. Its name comes from kanbe—shrine suppor…
  42. Kolkata was Britain’s Indian capital before New Delhi roseWest Bengal’s capital on the Hooghly counts about four point five million in the city proper and over fifteen million across its metro. Known as Calcutta until two thousand one, i…
  43. Kraków ruled Poland from Wawel until Warsaw took the courtPoland’s second-largest city holds about eight hundred seventeen thousand people on the Vistula in Lesser Poland. A fortified Wawel Hill seat by the eighth century, it became the …
  44. Kuala Lumpur means muddy confluence of tin-rush riversMalaysia’s federal capital covers two hundred forty-three square kilometres with about two point one million residents, anchoring an eight-point-eight-million Klang Valley metro. …
  45. Kumasi grew under a sacred kum tree as Asante capitalGhana’s Ashanti Region capital counts about four hundred forty-four thousand people by the twenty twenty-one census, set in rainforest near Lake Bosomtwe some two hundred kilometr…
  46. Karachi grew from a 1729 fishing fort into Pakistan’s enginePakistan’s Sindh capital holds over twenty million people along the Arabian Sea, ranking among the world’s largest cities. Founded as fortified Kolachi in seventeen twenty-nine, i…
  47. Kathmandu’s name still means a wooden pavilion cityNepal’s capital sits at one thousand three hundred twenty-four metres in a Himalayan valley, with about eight hundred forty-six thousand city residents and roughly four million in…
  48. A highland city holy to three Abrahamic faithsJerusalem sits on a Judaean Mountains plateau between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea—among the world's oldest continuously storied cities and sacred in Judaism, Christianity, …
  49. Shandong's capital still called the City of SpringsJinan, capital of China's Shandong province, counts about 9.2 million people and a nickname earned from seventy-two famed artesian springs. The name means "south of the Ji," a riv…
  50. Rao Jodha's desert capital painted a famous blueJodhpur is Rajasthan's second-largest city after Jaipur, with sources citing about 1.6 million people as of 2025. Rao Jodha of the Rathore clan founded it in 1459 as capital of Ma…
  51. Gold rush city that hit 100,000 in a decadeJohannesburg—Jozi, Joburg, the City of Gold—is Gauteng's capital and South Africa's largest city. The 2022 census gave the metro municipality about 4.8 million people and the wide…
  52. New Johor that grew from a fishing village to a causeway hubJohor Bahru is capital of Malaysia's Johor state and, with 858,118 residents in 2020, the country's largest state capital by population. Sitting at the Malay Peninsula's tip oppos…
  53. High valley capital on Asia's oldest trade crossroadsKabul, Afghanistan's capital and largest city, sits about 1,791 metres up in a Hindu Kush valley beside the Kabul River—among the world's highest capitals. Sources estimate over 5…
  54. Colonial rail town that became Northern Nigeria's capitalKaduna, capital of Kaduna State on the Kaduna River, was founded by British colonists in 1900 when Frederick Lugard picked a Lagos-Kano railway site. It served as capital of Niger…
  55. Uganda's capital began as a hill of impalaKampala's name traces to Buganda hunting ground: British officials called Old Kampala hill the Hill of the Impala, and locals rendered that as Akasozi k'empala. Today the city pro…
  56. Alexander founded Old Kandahar as Alexandria ArachosiaSouthern Afghanistan's largest city sits between the Arghandab and Tarnak rivers at about 1,010 metres elevation, with roughly 733,000 settled residents across 273 square kilometr…
  57. Nigeria's second city was a Sahel trade capitalKano, capital of Kano State, holds more than four million people across 449 square kilometres of Sudanian savanna. For centuries it was a Hausa kingdom and a hinge of trans-Sahara…
  58. On the Ganges, Cawnpore became Uttar Pradesh's giantKanpur, once named Kanhapur and anglicized as Cawnpore, is a Ganges city in Uttar Pradesh founded by Rajput ruler Hindu Singh Chandel. The 2011 census ranked it India's twelfth-mo…
  59. Takau became Kaohsiung, Taiwan's port powerhouseKaohsiung City holds about 2.7 million people, Taiwan's third-largest city and southern giant. After absorbing Kaohsiung County in 2010 it spans 2,952 square kilometres from harbo…
  60. Sindh’s lion city rose when the Indus drowned KhudabadHyderabad, also called Neroonkot, is Sindh’s second city after Karachi and Pakistan’s seventh-largest—capital of Hyderabad Division. Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhoro founded it in 1768 on…

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