Category Archives: Cities

The rain in Spain: how an ancient Arabic technique saves Alicante from floods

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To protect itself from destructive flooding, the city has built a park designed to store and recycle rainwater

In Alicante it never rains but it pours. The city in southeast Spain goes without rain for months on end, but when it comes it’s torrential, bringing destructive and sometimes fatal flooding.

Or at least, it used to. In San Juan, a low-lying area of the city, authorities have built a new park with a twist. Called La Marjal, it serves as a typical recreation area and a nature reserve – but its primary purpose is to store, and then recycle, rainwater.

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Outcry as preschool sets up in former Nazi concentration camp

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Kindergarten to join other businesses operating inside Staro Sajmište, in Belgrade, Serbia, as long-planned Holocaust memorial remains unbuilt

The greying, box-like building that houses the Savsko Obdanište kindergarten has had many uses over the years.

At one point it was a restaurant; when you step through the front doors you find yourself surrounded by musty, brown 1970s-style dining furniture.

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From the highest slide to the narrowest street: the record-breaking cities quiz

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Which city is the most Instagrammed? Where’s the most expensive place to buy trainers? And where’s the smallest park?

Which city has the tallest city hall?

Hong Kong

Tokyo

Dubai

Shanghai

Which city is home to the world's narrowest street?

Toulouse, France

Stockholm, Sweden

Reutlingen, Germany

Beijing, China

Which city has the most bridges?

Hamburg, Germany

Venice, Italy

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Which is the most expensive city to buy trainers?

Singapore

Zurich, Switzerland

Seoul, South Korea

Oslo, Norway

Which is the world's most popular city for tourism?

New York

Bangkok, Thailand

Venice, Italy

London, UK

Which US city has the world's smallest park?

Austin, Texas

San Jose, California

Portland, Oregon

Jackson, Mississippi

Which city was home to the world’s oldest railway station?

Manchester

Birmingham

London

Leeds

Which city has the highest slide on the outside of a building?

Las Vegas

Beijing

Seattle

Los Angeles

Which is the largest gambling city (by revenue)?

Las Vegas

Blackpool

Macau

Atlantic City

Which is the most expensive city to park a car in?

London

Hong Kong

Geneva

Copenhagen

Which city has the most UK No.1s per population?

Manchester

London

Liverpool

Glasgow

Which city is most remote from the sea?

Urumqi

Ulaanbaatar

Moscow

Novosibirsk

Which city is home to the tallest building?

Dubai

Shanghai

Shenzhen

Seoul

Which city has hosted the most Olympic Games (in the modern era)?

Tokyo

Paris

London

Athens

Which is the largest city north of the arctic circle?

Kirovsk

Murmansk

Kandalaksha

Tromsø

Which city has the most cycle rickshaws?

Dhaka

Mumbai

Phnom Penh

Colombo

Which is the largest city to host a winter Olympics?

Sochi

Vancouver

Salt Lake City

Oslo

Which city has the tallest art nouveau church?

Strasbourg

Windhoek

Barcelona

Dresden

Which is the world’s oldest capital city?

Damascus

Rabat

Athens

Mexico City

Which is the most Instagrammed city?

Los Angeles

New York City

Paris

Sao Paolo

17 and above.

You're a city trivia master!

13 and above.

Nice result – bet you're popular at pub quiz nights

8 and above.

Not bad – but maybe a good excuse to take some city breaks?

0 and above.

Oh dear, better luck next time

1 and above.

Oh dear, looks like you need to brush up on your city trivia ... better luck next time

Answers supplied by Guinness World Records

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World’s largest urban farm to open – on a Paris rooftop

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The 14,000m² farm is set to open in the south-west of Paris early next year

It’s a warm afternoon in late spring and before us rows of strawberry plants rustle in the breeze as the scent of fragrant herbs wafts across the air. Nearby, a bee buzzes lazily past. Contrary to appearances, however, we are not in an idyllic corner of the countryside but standing on the top of a six-storey building in the heart of the French capital.

Welcome to the future of farming in Paris – where a whole host of rooftop plantations, such as this one on the edge of the Marais, have been springing up of late. Yet this thriving operation is just a drop in the ocean compared to its new sister site. When that one opens, in the spring of 2020, it will be the largest rooftop farm in the world.

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Regulator looking at use of facial recognition at King’s Cross site

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Information commissioner says use of the technology must be ‘necessary and proportionate’

The UK’s privacy regulator said it is studying the use of controversial facial recognition technology by property companies amid concerns that its use in CCTV systems at the King’s Cross development in central London may not be legal.

The Information Commissioner’s Office warned businesses using the surveillance technology that they needed to demonstrate its use was “strictly necessary and proportionate” and had a clear basis in law.

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Outdoor smoking ban escalates war over Barcelona’s restaurant terraces

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Restaurateurs say ban on top of new regulations on outdoor space threatens their survival – while residents claim the city’s real issues are being ignored

Enjoying a refreshing drink or a cup of coffee on the sunlit terrace of a bar or restaurant is a cherished pastime in Barcelona – and a fundamental feature of Mediterranean life.

“Terraces are part of who we are and how we live,” says Roger Pallarols, president of the Barcelona restaurateurs association. “For many people, the terrace is like their living room, especially as most of us don’t live in large apartments. If France is Europe’s kitchen, Spain is its terrace.”

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‘We are human beings too’: migrant-led walking tours tackle hate in Italian cities

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Guides show Italians the wealth of contributions made to their home cities by migrants

Essediya Magboul leads a group across the open-air market of Porta Palazzo in Turin on a windy Saturday morning. Stopping at a stall, she picks up a bottle of laban, and gives a detailed account of the meticulous mixing needed to prepare the Middle Eastern yoghurt drink. “It’s a Ramadan must,” she adds, smiling, before continuing to an Arab-owned bakery where the owners offer samples of ghoriba cookies and answer questions.

In the space of a few streets, she takes her guests from Eastern Europe to East Asia, via the Middle East. The walkers could easily be mistaken for tourists, but they are in fact locals.

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Should a notorious Buenos Aires slum become an official neighbourhood?

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Turning Villa 31 into a barrio will bring greater stability and prosperity, say city authorities, but the plan is stirring deep resentments about ownership and identity

For many Argentinians, especially those from Buenos Aires, Villa 31 is a household name. It is the most famous – and notorious – slum in Buenos Aires, synonymous with poverty and violence (it has the second-highest murder rate in the city), and with the narcotráficantes (organised drug gangs) and paco, a cocaine paste that destroys communities in Argentina.

As inflation climbed to 55% last year and the national poverty rate crept to 32%, the neighbourhood lurched further into the grip of gangs, such as the Sampedranos. Murder stories from the villa dominate headlines, the most recent one being the discovery of a woman’s dismembered corpse in March.

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Oil built Saudi Arabia – will a lack of water destroy it?

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As Riyadh continues to build skyscrapers at a dizzying rate, an invisible emergency threatens the desert kingdom’s existence

Bottles of water twirl on the conveyor belts of the Berain water factory in Riyadh, as a puddle of water collects on the concrete floor. In a second warehouse, tanks emit a low hum as water brought in from precious underground aquifers passes through a six-stage purification process before bottling.

“In Saudi Arabia there are only two sources of water: the sea and deep wells,” says Ahmed Safar Al Asmari, who manages one of Berain’s two factories in Riyadh. “We’re in the central region, so there are only deep wells here.”

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Suburb in the sky: how Jakartans built an entire village on top of a mall

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Depending who you ask, Cosmo Park is an ingenious urban oasis or an ill-conceived dystopia

It’s Thursday and the residents of Jakarta’s Cosmo Park are out jogging, watering their plants or walking their dogs along neat asphalt roads.

Neighbourhood kids pedal their bikes under frangipani trees and peach-coloured bougainvillea to the pool and tennis court. Apartments, comfortable and modern, sit side by side, with barbecues and toys stacked outside.

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Turf it out: is it time to say goodbye to artificial grass?

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It’s neat, easy – and a staggering £2bn global market. But as plastic grass takes over our cities, some say that it’s green only in colour

If your attention during the Women’s World Cup was on the pitch rather than the players, you might have noticed that the matches were all played on real grass. That was a hard-won change, made after the US team complained to Fifa that they sustained more injuries on artificial turf.

In private gardens, however, the opposite trend is happening: British gardens are being dug up and replaced with plastic grass. But this isn’t the flaky, fading stuff on which oranges were once displayed at the greengrocer. Today’s artificial grass is nearly identical to the real thing.

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Left to rot: the new global effort to preserve lost monuments

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From a railway run by children in Ljubljana to brutalist monuments in the Balkans, the Nonument Group maps abandoned 20th-century architecture

When he was 14, Ljubljana resident Janko Vrhunc spent every Sunday training to drive a steam locomotive. “We had to sign in, then check all the wagons, check the train, then talk to all the workers,” recalls Vrhunc, now 84. “I asked the train driver: is the fire strong enough? I asked the conductor: did we sell enough tickets to depart? Are the uniforms in order?”

After three months Vrhunc and about 20 other schoolchildren were deemed ready to run the small-gauge Pioneer Railway under adult supervision. “We moved the train from Ljubljana main station,” says Vrhunc. “The train driver stepped aside and let us do it. This is how … one of us fell under the wheels and lost a leg.”

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I followed the advice for Paris’s hottest day – it didn’t help | Megan Clement

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From walking the dog at midnight to a dip in the canal, I tested the heatwave plan as the city reached 42.6C. Here’s how it went

Last week, as Paris faced down its hottest day since records began, the city authorities declared their readiness. Since the notorious heatwave of 2003 that killed thousands across France, the capital has put in place a heat strategy: cooling areas, a checking system for vulnerable people, shady parks kept open all night.

Could these strategies actually work against a predicted record temperature of 42C (107.6F)? A study released this week shows that the world has never warmed faster than now. By 2050, the average temperature in the hottest month in Paris will rise by six degrees. This heatwave might be the new normal.

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Redesigning Delhi’s Champs Élysées: ‘It represents all that’s complex about urban India’

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From heaving traffic and dense crowds to car-free and tranquil: that’s the vision for Chandni Chowk. But is it achievable?

The Champs Élysées is one of the most famous streets in the world, but you could say the French were beaten to it by the Mughals. About 15 years before the avenue was laid out in 1667 in Paris, India’s Mughal emperor Shah Jehan built a grand mile-long street in his capital to reflect the glory of the empire at its height.

It ran from Fatehpuri mosque at one end to the colossal Red Fort at the other and was lined with trees, elegant mansions, mosques and gardens. Provisions for the Red Fort, the imperial residence, were carried down the boulevard by elephants, camels and horse-drawn carriages.

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Hungry herons and the great otter comeback: the wildlife of canals

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A guide to species you might spot on Britain’s urban waterways

Canals are often seen as a kind of second-class version of a river. Perhaps that goes back to their industrial history, but from a wildlife point of view canals and rivers are more or less interchangeable.

Visit a city canal on a fine, sunny day in spring or summer, and you’ll see plenty of dragonflies and damselflies on the wing. Some, such as the red-eyed damselfly, banded demoiselle and scarce chaser, have a special preference for the slow-flowing water of a canal, sometimes perching on waterlilies in the sunshine.

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Toilet chat and double-mooring: a guide to canal etiquette

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In the boating community, being a good neighbour is a must – here’s how to keep the peace

The boating community is growing rapidly, particularly in London. As a result, pressure on mooring spaces and facilities is also growing – making it more important than ever to be a good neighbour in order to make the life aquatic harmonious for everyone.

The general rule is: if someone is outside their boat, say hello. And be prepared to chat about your toilet – boaters love to talk about how they dispose of their waste. Whether you have a pump out, cassette or compost, it’s the quickest way to bond with another boater over a beer on the deck.

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Don’t stare too long: why our feral, polluted canals are so beguiling

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An urban waterway is more than just a short cut through the city – it’s a testament to the power of nature over neglect

The roar of the road is receding with each step down and with it the light is changing; it is dancing, mirrored and then dappled in the ripples of the water. One layer down and the city has become an entirely different place.

I, like many, am using the canal as a quiet cut-through. It smells different down here; there’s the dankness of the water, for sure, but there’s a wealth of green filtering the fumes from above. And the soundscape changes – song birds, the curious grunt of a bank of geese eyeing me and the dog warily, the lap of the water’s edge and the groan of metal sidings that are there to repair the bridge.

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The canal revolution: how waterways reveal the truth about modern Britain

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The remarkable transformation of canals is a global phenomenon and the ultimate symbol of how our cities have changed – for good and ill

Every second Monday of the month, a small group of volunteers meets in the training room of a Birmingham supermarket. They discuss what has long seemed to many of their friends a crazy and probably doomed idea: how to excavate a contaminated 40-year-old waste dump, create an urban marina, restore three miles of derelict canal and build several new bridges and locks.

Last month, however, the meeting of the 18-strong Lapal Canal Trust committee was joyous. After 20 years of trying to restore this short stretch of the 200-year-old Dudley No 2 canal, permission had finally been granted, they were told.

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Netherlands and Belgium record highest ever temperatures

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All-time records in Germany and Luxembourg could also fall in continent-wide heatwave

The Netherlands and Belgium have recorded their highest ever temperatures as the second extreme heatwave in consecutive months to be linked by scientists to the climate emergency advances across the continent.

The Dutch meteorological service, KNMI, said the temperature reached 39.1C (102F) at Gilze-Rijen airbase near the southern city of Tilburg on Wednesday afternoon, exceeding the previous high of 38.6C set in August 1944.

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Are motorcycle taxis making the Ebola crisis worse?

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The Congolese trading city of Butembo relies on its ‘taxi-motos’ to keep business running, but the taxi unions are resistant to helping government Ebola efforts – and their bikes could be spreading the disease

Swarms of motorcycle taxis overloaded with passengers and goods weave their way through traffic in the eastern Congolese city of Butembo. Motorbikes far outnumber four-wheeled vehicles on the dusty roads of the regional trading hub, especially downtown, where drivers laden with cargo carve their way through crowded street markets.

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