# What's the largest city you've never heard of? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 8, 2001, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397 "2001-09-08T14:47:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/61 "2001-09-10T16:54:19Z")
35 Hyderabad India 6700000 ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/62 "2001-09-10T19:18:26Z")
Yet another person stopped by Dhaka. Perhaps they need to advertise or something! šŸ™‚ I, too, have problems with this list. Why is Washington, DC allowed to ā€œincludeā€ Baltimore and San Francisco allowed to ā€œincludeā€ Oakland and San Jose, but Minneapolis way down there at the bottom is not allowed to ā€œincludeā€ St. Paul? Is this just because St. Paul would be likely to complain? šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/63 "2001-09-10T20:23:00Z")
# 58, or 59 Belo Horizonte, Brazil. I thought I was going to cruise through that entire list. The funny thing is that the ones that I didnā€™t know were all from China and Brazil. Go figure. Natl Geo Atlas, here I comeā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/64 "2001-09-10T20:38:22Z")
# 49 for me. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Gazoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Gazoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Gazoo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/65 "2001-09-10T20:47:05Z")
Poona??? šŸ˜ƒ I love the name, but where is it in India??? Itā€™s not surprising that India has a lot of the biggest cities, though. I believe they are about to pass China as the most populous nation. ---
**Author:** ![Ivar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ivar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ivar)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/66 "2001-09-10T21:20:16Z")
First of all, Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh, so itā€™s fairly pathetic that you people havenā€™t heard of it. Also, there is no way that Minneapolis MN has 3.05 million people. The city only has 360,000, and if you include St. Paul and the whole 7 county metro area, you get about 2.4 million. Close, but not that close. ---
**Author:** ![sc913](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@sc913](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sc913)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/67 "2001-09-10T21:47:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Great Gazoo \* > \*\*Poona??? šŸ˜ƒ > > I love the name, but where is it in India??? \*\* Pretty close to Bombay. Kinda like a sister-city. With their methodology, they mightā€™ve even included it with Bombay, if there wasnā€™t a large mountain range in the middle šŸ™‚ I stopped at Tainjin, like most other people. Then most of the other Chinese and Brazilian cities following it. I love the name Belo Horizonteā€¦ what does it mean? Horizontal women? Sounds like my kind of place if that is the case šŸ˜ƒ Salil. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/68 "2001-09-10T22:18:47Z")
I believe that #4 is Mexico City, LDG. For me, itā€™s #22, Dacca. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/69 "2001-09-10T22:20:23Z")
Wow, what a lag time. I see that Mexico City has already been satisfactorily translated. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/70 "2001-09-10T23:27:52Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by sc913 \* \*\* > [@](#): > > I love the name Belo Horizonteā€¦ what does it mean? Horizontal women? Sounds like my kind of place if that is the case šŸ˜ƒ > > Salil. \*\* Getcher mind outta da gutterā€¦ I believe it means ā€œBeautiful Horizonā€, sort of a ā€œFairviewā€ kind of thing. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/71 "2001-09-11T08:12:07Z")
Another one for #49. Below that, however, there were only three I didnā€™t recognize. ---
**Author:** ![NiceGuyJack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/niceguyjack/32/3069_2.png) [@NiceGuyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NiceGuyJack)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/72 "2001-09-11T10:03:26Z")
**100 Fortaleza Brazil 3000000** I never heard of this one. On another note, Iā€™ve visited 43 of the listed cities and have lived in 7 of them. Itā€™s no wonder I feel like a nomad. Itā€™s time to settle down. ---
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/73 "2001-09-11T12:38:57Z")
#35 Hyderabad, India I also agree with earlier posters that the population totals are skewed. Boston is overstated by at least 10 times. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/74 "2001-09-11T16:25:22Z")
Youā€™re right! Thereā€™s an extra zero in Minneapolisā€™s population. Minneapolisā€™s population is much closer to 305,000 (which is what I read the number as, originally) than 3,050,000 (which seems too big even if you include St. Paul and all the suburbs). Is there an extra zero in all the populations? ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/75 "2001-09-11T21:58:48Z")
Sorry itā€™s not in the spirit of the OP, but arenā€™t some of these figures suspect? I live in London, and no way do 11 million people live here. We usually cite our population as somewhere between 5.5 and 6 million. Sorry, no time to dig out a cite (although there are plenty around). ---
**Author:** ![LindyHopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@LindyHopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LindyHopper)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/76 "2001-09-11T23:34:05Z")
Only two I havenā€™t heard of: #77, Porto Alegra, Brazil #100, Fortaleza, Brazil :goes to do a little research on Brazil: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397.md?page=3)