What's the largest city you've never heard of?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Here is a list of the world’s 100 most populous cities. Start from the top and count down until you reach one you’ve never heard of, then tell me which one it was.

from http://www.citypopulation.de

1 Tokyo Japan 34500000 incl. Yokohama, Kawasaki
2 New York USA 21400000 incl. Newark, Paterson
3 Soul (Seoul) South Korea 20250000 incl. Inchon, Songnam
4 Ciudad de México Mexico 19300000 incl. Nezahualcóyotl, Ecatepec, Naucalpan
5 Mumbai (Bombay) India 18950000 incl. Kalyan, Thane, Ulhasnagar
6 São Paulo Brazil 18450000 incl. Guarulhos
7 Osaka Japan 17900000 incl. Kobe, Kyoto
8 Los Angeles USA 16600000 incl. Riverside, Anaheim
9 Al-Qahirah [Cairo] Egypt 14700000 incl. Al-Jizah, Shubra al-Khaymah
10 Manila Philippines 13800000 incl. Quezon City, Calookan
11 Buenos Aires Argentina 13400000 incl. San Justo, La Plata
12 Jakarta Indonesia 13400000
13 Calcutta India 13200000 incl. Haora
14 Moskva [Moscow] Russia 13200000
15 Delhi India 12250000
16 London Great Britain and Northern Ireland 11800000
17 Shanghai China 11800000
18 Rio de Janeiro Brazil 11200000 incl. Nova Iguaçu, São Gonçalo
19 Karachi (incl. div. cantonments) Pakistan 10750000
20 Istanbul Turkey 10600000
21 Tehran [Teheran] Iran 10600000 incl. Karaj
22 Dhaka (Dacca) Bangladesh 9800000
23 Paris France 9750000
24 Chicago USA 9300000
25 Beijing [Peking] China 8500000
26 Washington USA 7750000 incl. Baltimore
27 Bogotá (Santa Fe de) Colombia 7700000
28 Lima Peru 7550000
29 Hong Kong (Xianggang) China 7350000
30 T’aipei Taiwan 7350000
31 Al-Khartum [Khartoum] Sudan 7200000
32 Lagos Nigeria 7200000
33 San Francisco USA 7150000 incl. Oakland, San Jose
34 Krung Thep [Bangkok] Thailand 7050000
35 Hyderabad India 6700000
36 Johannesburg South Africa 6650000 incl. Soweto, East Rand, West Rand
37 Chennai (Madras) India 6600000
38 Chongqing China 6450000
39 Philadelphia USA 6250000
40 Essen Germany 6050000 Ruhrgebiet / The Ruhr
41 Kinshasa Congo (Dem. Rep.) 6050000
42 Boston USA 5900000
43 Lahore (incl. Cantonment) Pakistan 5850000
44 Detroit USA 5800000 incl. Windsor (Canada)
45 Saint-Petersburg (Leningrad) Russia 5550000
46 Bangalore India 5500000
47 Dallas USA 5400000 incl. Fort Worth
48 Santiago Chile 5400000
49 Tianjin China 5350000
50 Toronto Canada 5200000
51 Nagoya Japan 5150000
52 Madrid Spain 5050000
53 Baghdad [Bagdad] Iraq 4950000
54 Al-Iskandariyah [Alexandria] Egypt 4850000
55 Houston USA 4800000
56 Yangon (Rangoon) Myanmar 4600000
57 Wuhan China 4450000
58 Belo Horizonte Brazil 4400000
59 Guangzhou [Canton] China 4400000
60 Harbin China 4400000
61 Shenyang China 4350000
62 Atlanta USA 4300000
63 Caracas Venezuela 4300000
64 Ar-Riyad Saudi Arabia 4250000
65 Barcelona Spain 4200000
66 Berlin Germany 4200000
67 Sydney Australia 4200000
68 Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) Vietnam 4200000
69 Ahmadabad India 4150000
70 Miami USA 4000000 incl. Fort Lauderdale
71 Pusan (Busan) South Korea 3950000
72 El Djazaïr (Algiers, Algier) Algeria 3900000
73 Guadalajara Mexico 3900000 incl. Zapopan
74 Abidjan Côte d Ivoire 3800000
75 Medellín Colombia 3800000
76 Milano [Milan] Italy 3800000
77 Porto Alegre Brazil 3650000
78 Seattle USA 3650000
79 P’yongyang North Korea 3550000
80 Casablanca (Dar-el-Beida) Morocco 3500000
81 Chengdu China 3500000
82 Monterrey Mexico 3500000
83 Montréal Canada 3500000
84 Athínai [Athens] Greece 3450000
85 Melbourne Australia 3450000
86 Pune (Poona) India 3450000
87 Recife Brazil 3450000
88 Phoenix USA 3400000
89 Ankara Turkey 3350000
90 Kyyiv [Kiev, Kiew] Ukraine 3350000
91 Roma [Rome] Italy 3300000
92 Singapore Singapore 3250000
93 Cape Town (Kaapstad) South Africa 3200000
94 Jiddah Saudi Arabia 3150000
95 Salvador Brazil 3150000
96 Cali Colombia 3100000
97 Chittagong Bangladesh 3050000
98 Minneapolis USA 3050000
99 Cleveland USA 3000000
100 Fortaleza Brazil 3000000
Mine was #40 (Essen, Germany), although I had heard of the Ruhr; after that, it was #49 (Tianjin, China).

[Edited by bibliophage on 09-08-2001 at 07:16 PM]

2

Oh, how annoying is that? Mods, could one of you please fix the garbage characters? Thanks.

And no joking about how you’ve never heard of Tōkyō, if you don’t mind.

3

49 Tianjin China 5350000

Below that I’ve heard of most of them, this the exception of some of the Chinese cities.
Does Tianjin have an anglicized name I might have heard of?

4

If I’m reading the name right (with all the funky characters), I must admit that #35 – Hyder, India is unfamiliar to me.

Sir Rhosis

5

#22 Dhaka, Bangladesh

6

Unless you’re counting the sub-cities, #46 Bangalore was the first one I’d never heard of. I know about bangalore torpedoes, but I had no idea they were named after a city.

But if you count the sub-cities, I’m eliminated at #1. I didn’t know Kawasaki was a city; I thought it was just a brand name.

Other names unfamiliar to me: Belo Horizonte, Shenyang, Ahmadabad, Porto Alegre, Salvador, and Chittagong. I knew all the rest of the major cities. But some of them I did not know by their native names: i.e. I know of Bombay and Cairo, but wouldn’t have recognized them by the names Mumbai and Al-Qahirah. I am also unfamiliar with many of the sub-city names.

7

I think that’s Hyderabad.

8

Still don’t know it, and like Danimal, if you count sub-cities, I’m out of the runnng on #3, and the Seoul sub-city of Songnam.

Sir Rhosis

9

I never hear of many of these Chinese cities before now, unless they are known by other names.

I point out also that No. 40, Essen, is an interloper in this list, as Essen is populated by 647,643 citizens, at least in 1981, so the number of citizens is overstated, by a factor of ten.

10

I’ve never heard of #38, Chongqing.

BTW, I had no idea Khartoum was that big – isn’t it in the middle of the Sahara? How do they support a population that size?

11

al-Khartûm is hardly “in the middle of the Sahara.” It’s where the White Nile and the Blue Nile flow together. You know how Egypt is the “gift of the Nile”? That’s true for Nubia too.

12

Good game, matt_mcl!

Mine was also #49 Tianjin (and also 57 Wuhan, 61 Shenyang, 81 Chengdu, 71 Busan and 100 Fortaleza). I suppose you’d expect plenty of “minor” towns in China would have lots of people living there, and the country was closed to us westerners for a long time, but all the same it gives you some perspective doesn’t it?

Fretful, Khartoum is at the junction between the Blue Nile and White Nile.

13

He explains that he lists agglomerations under their largest city, so Essen is standing in for the entire Ruhr.

14

#49, Tianjin.

15

Yes, I figured they were probably getting their water from the Nile, but I’m still wondering how they produce enough food for seven million people – I mean, there’s only so much land near the river. Good irrigation system, I suppose…

16

You might know it as “Chunking,” which is how it is spelled in the Wade-Giles system.

17

#43 Lahore (incl. Cantonment) Pakistan
I was surprised at the number of cities I recognized, but I suppose working for a manufacturer that contracts production all over the world has some advantages.

18

#43 Lahore (incl. Cantonment) Pakistan

19

#86 Pune, India, after that, #100, Fortaleza, Brazil. Then again, I mostly knew the Chinese cities because of my last history class.

20

#49, Tianjin, too.

But I’ve got to wonder about the list - for example they include the population of Baltimore to get the number for DC. I would never do that (it doesn’t even make sense to me to do that, especially since Baltimore has more people). So are some of the other inclusions equally as iffy?