# "Beirut is the Paris of the Middle East" and its ilk **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 16, 2015, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951 "2015-01-16T01:54:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/41 "2015-01-16T22:43:28Z")
I guess I could Google this, but I’ll post from memory: Weren’t both Beirut and Havana gambling meccas before, say, 1960? I seem to remember both cities being touted as “The Monte Carlo of …” Presumably “… of the Middle East” and “… of the Carribean,” respectively. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/42 "2015-01-16T23:39:09Z")
Kuelap Fortress is the Machu Pïcchu of Northern Peru. ---
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/43 "2015-01-17T00:15:08Z")
Cape Town is sometimes called as “the San Francisco of Africa”, in reference to some or all of the Mediterranean climate/metropolitan coastal city/large gay community/tech industry. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/44 "2015-01-17T02:17:43Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Notably absent from that list is [Birmingham](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham), which has more miles of canal than Venice and has more canals (by volume of water) than any city in the world. Of course, it’s a Sharia-dominated hellhole these days, so they might have filled them in by now. 😉 Britain’s once massive canal innovations helped kick off the Industrial Revolution; but, from reading, I imagine that only rarely did leaning over a short iron bridge in the gray daylight of Brum or Manchester in the 1930s, watching the fag-packets float by in the rain whilst ducks pled for bread-crumbs, evoke the fading **[]grandeurs]([Category:Paintings of Venice by Joseph Mallord William Turner - Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paintings_of_Venice_by_Joseph_Mallord_William_Turner))** of the Queen of the Seas. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/45 "2015-01-17T02:29:24Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > With This Rusty Old Piston Ring I Thee Wed… Which reminds me… Rolls Royce is the Cadillac of cars. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/46 "2015-01-17T02:32:07Z")
I keep wanting to read the thread title as “Beirut is the Paris of Middle Earth”… ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/47 "2015-01-17T02:46:09Z")
Bangkok used to be known as the Venice of the East due to its large number of canals, but those have almost all been filled in and turned into roads. Thailand is a big carmaking country, ninth largest in the world as of 2012, and it’s become known as the Detroit of the East. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/48 "2015-01-17T04:24:13Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Bangkok used to be known as the Venice of the East due to its large number of canals, but those have almost all been filled in and turned into roads. > > Thailand is a big carmaking country, ninth largest in the world as of 2012, and it’s become known as the Detroit of the East. That’s gotta be whoosh bait, right? ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/49 "2015-01-17T05:15:35Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > On Suzhou, they are right on the money. Much older, more extensive canals, much bigger canals. China has many many canal cities but these are not on the ocean like venice. And, generally, these are _ahem_ pretty “fragrant” in warm weather _ahem_. lessee, there is Hainan island, which is the “Hawaii of Asia”, multiple contenders for “paris of the orient” including Shanghai and Hong Kong (and Saigon), and I’m sure many more that escape me right this minute. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/50 "2015-01-17T05:48:48Z")
Austin is the Nashville of Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/51 "2015-01-17T07:11:59Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Saigon was the Paris of the Orient. I’ve heard “Lahore is the Paris of Asia”. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/52 "2015-01-17T08:32:24Z")
Hokkaido is the Alaska of Japan. ---
**Author:** ![Dahu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahu/32/3416_2.png) [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/53 "2015-01-17T10:00:10Z")
I have it on good authority that a 1950’s encyclopedia once referred to Barcelona and the “Manchester of the Med”. And I found on wiki that Liverpool was once well known as the “New York of Europe”. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/54 "2015-01-17T10:22:39Z")
Back in the 1970s, Newcastle upon Tyne was dubbed “the Brasilia of the North”, but it was always more of an aspiration than anything else. Nowadays, it’s only ever mentioned in reference to past local government corruption, or the demolition of another ugly lump of brutalist architecture. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/55 "2015-01-18T00:36:45Z")
The small town of Paczków, in south-western Poland (German Patschkau until 1945) is known as the “Polish Carcassonne”, thanks to its well-preserved medieval fortifications – likened to the similarly-fortified tourist gem Carcassonne in France (in fact, the Polish town’s structures are much more original-still-in-place, than those of its French counterpart). The nameboards on Paczków’s railway station bear the inscription underneath, _Polski Carcassonne_. When I first visited the original Carcassonne, a couple of years ago, I had hoped against hope that the compliment might be returned by the station nameboards there reading underneath the name, _Le Paczków Français_. Unsurprisingly, this proved not to be the case. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/56 "2015-01-18T04:56:16Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Bangkok used to be known as the Venice of the East due to its large number of canals, but those have almost all been filled in and turned into roads. > > Thailand is a big carmaking country, ninth largest in the world as of 2012, and it’s become known as the Detroit of the East. > [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > That’s gotta be whoosh bait, right? No, not at all. I’m serious. Bangkok used to have an extensive series of canals. Some remain but only a minuscule proportion of what used to be. And Thailand’s Eastern Seaboard is a large industrial area. Many Japanese, US (Ford and GM), German and other carmakers have factories there. [Details here.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry_in_Thailand) ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/57 "2015-01-18T06:08:15Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Which one of these are your creations? None? I never heard of any of them. I do not know about the others, but when I was traveling Europe in the early 1970s, I encountered the “Venice of the North” claim made for Brugge, Stockholm, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), and Hamburg. (I am pretty sure I also heard it applied to Amsterdam.) ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/58 "2015-01-18T06:33:18Z")
> [@Hector\_St\_Clare](#): > > I’ve heard “Lahore is the Paris of Asia”. Thus managing to annoy both Lahoris and Parisians.😃 Paris of the east is quite a pretty [common description which has been applied to many cities.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_of_the_East) ---
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/59 "2015-01-19T06:11:29Z")
Ive heard Vladivostok referred to as the “San Francisco of Russia” because of its distance from Moscow, it’s a Pacific port and trading city, weather etc etc The Morocco Atlas Mountains region, or one province of it, IDRC the name, has been called the “Switzerland of North Africa”, with snow covered mountains and even a ski industry. Birmingham, Alabama =“Pittsburgh of the South” for its steelmaking industry ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951/60 "2015-02-04T16:17:19Z")
> [@Grotonian](#): > > I have a t-shirt, in maize and blue, that reads, “Harvard–The Michigan of the East”. > > > [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > > > …ETA: “maize” is a color? > > > > > [@Grotonian](#): > > > > > > The greatest golden hue around, “yellow” having unflattering connotations of cowardice. But yeah, it’s yellow. Wow. 1990 must have sucked for you. Were you a RUMPS member? As you probably know you can’t draw a picture of Nebraska or Idaho–or even parts of the Lehigh Valley–without using burnt umber and maize. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-is-the-paris-of-the-middle-east-and-its-ilk/709951.md?page=4)