Did you know that Philadelphia was home to not just America's first Museum and its first Public Zoo, but also its first working programmable computer? Or that Miami is the only major US city to be formally founded by a woman? It's true, and as it turns out, there are countless pieces of unexpected and surprising trivia about virtually every place you've ever seen on a postcard.
When we think about old cities, many Americans' minds immediately jump to the most famed and storied destinations of the ancient world. Iconic statue-filled locales like Rome or Carthage or Troy. But there are plenty of other spots on the map where humans have been living for thousands of years that don't have quite the same classical brand recognition. Take Portugal, for example. The area that's now Lisbon was first settled in 1200 BCE by Phoenicians in need of a trading post. That's 400 years before early Romans put down roots on the banks of the Tiber. It actually makes Lisbon the second oldest standing city in Europe, behind only Athens, Greece.
Lisbon just doesn't have the same antiquity-wise because we have so much less documentation about what was going on there specifically during this time period. Eventually, it became part of the expanding Roman Empire. The area was ruled by Rome from 25 BCE up to 409 CE before falling to various migratory peoples and tribes. North African Muslims known as Moors overran the Iberian Peninsula, including Lisbon, in the 8th Century, before they too lost it in 1147 to its current owners - the Portuguese.
Paris is home to a number of memorable structures and landmarks, from the Seine and its famous Pont des Arts to the Eiffel Tower. The city is also notable for what it lacks, namely, stop signs. The Parisian city government had them all removed in 2016. But even before that, there was just one stop sign in Paris - on Rue de Moscou in the 8th arrondissement. Due to its infamy, signs at the intersection kept getting stolen, leading the city government to ultimately cease replacing them, leaving the town utterly stop-signless. Despite the lack of signage, the rules for motoring through intersections remain largely unchanged from most other big cities. In the absence of a traffic light, cars on the right have the right of way, and if there are no other cars present, you're not expected to stop.
Along with Paris, London likely sits at the top of any American's list of the largest and most prominent European cities. If only due to its notoriety in central place in so much pop culture. But the City of London itself is actually one of England's smaller towns by population. That's because the actual technical City of London is much smaller than the area we think of when we picture London, England in our heads. The City of London is basically just the center cluster of buildings downtown, spread out over 1.12 square miles, comprising the financial district. During the day, this chunk of London swells up to around 53,000 people, but they're mostly commuters who travel there for work. In fact, the City of London itself only has around 8,000 residents, making it technically England's third smallest city, behind only St David's and St. Asaph.
The Grand Bazaar of Istanbul, Turkey, ranks among the world's largest and oldest covered markets and is often regarded as history's first Shopping Mall. Construction started in the winter of 1455, shortly after the takeover of the former Byzantine Capital by the Ottoman Empire. Back then, it was still known as Constantinople. You've probably heard the song. The Ottomans hoped that a large Central Market would help to stimulate economic prosperity in the city, so Sultan Mehmed II ordered one built close to his Palace. Modern analysis of the building's brickwork demonstrates that there was some other Byzantine structure on the spot in the 15th century, but it's unknown what specifically the market replaced.
At first, it was designed largely around the trading of textiles and jewelry and was known as Jah bistan or bedesten of the gems. The word bedesten was derived from an old Persian term and referred to a clothing market. Still, a number of goods that had also been popular for commerce in the city during its previous Byzantine era remained for sale in the new market, including slaves. The area had already taken on its final shape by the start of the 17th century, which it still mostly resembles to this day. Today, the market comprises more than 4,000 shops across 61 covered streets, taking up a total area of around 30,000 square meters and employing more than 26,000 people. Between 250,000 and 400,000 shoppers visit the bazaar each day, ranking it among the world's most popular tourist attractions. In fact, in 2014, Travel and Leisure declared the bazaar the world's number one most visited destination with over 91.3 million annual visitors. That parking lot must be a nightmare on Ramadan Eve.
Another iconic structure, Moscow's Kremlin, also has a long and storied history. The term Kremlin itself means fortress in a city, and, in fact, it's the largest medieval fortress that's still in use by modern European leaders today. The land that's currently Moscow has been occupied continuously since around the 2nd Century BC when it was the home of various Finnic peoples. Based on findings by Soviet archaeologists, it's believed that the first fortified structure was built from wood on the site by a group known as the Vyatichi around the year 1090. This first fortification was destroyed by Mongols in 1237 but later rebuilt by Moscow's Grand Prince Ivan Danilovich Kalita in 1339. When Prince Dmitri Donskoy fortified the structure in the 1360s, he was essentially laying the foundation that the building still sits on today. Nothing wrong with a hand-me-down fortress. Renaissance-era ruler Ivan III of Russia, also known as Ivan the Great, organized a grand reconstruction of the Kremlin and invited a number of skilled artisans from Italy to work on and design the new building. He added cathedrals, a banquet hall known as the Palace of Facets, and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower. Which kind of sounds like the tower's name is Ivan, and they were all really proud of him at the time. It was the tallest building in Muscovite Russia.
