Alliterative Administrative Areas Quiz

Answer: Menelik II

Mount Entoto is a highland area in central Ethiopia that has had a settlement since the early 15th century, and served as the residence of Ethiopia's monarchs since the 16th century, with the establishment of a fortified city called Barara, which also served as the country's capital. In the 19th century, Menelik II, at the time the King of Shewa, made the area his capital, having visited the ruins of the medieval city and found it useful as a base for military operations in the southern areas of his realms. Both he and his wife endowed churches in the area, and Menelik established Entoto as the capital of Shewa in 1884. However, he soon found that it was less than suitable as a result of its cold climate, shortage of wood and lack of water.

Two years after the establishment of Entoto, Menelik's wife, Taytu, built a house for herself in a valley south of the mountain containing a network of hot springs. This then led other members of the royal court to relocate their households to the same locale, which saw Menelik expand his wife's house into a new Imperial Palace. As the settlement around the new palace grew, it was named as Addis Ababa, an Amharic term meaning "new flower", and became the new capital of Shewa. In 1889, three years after it was established, Addis Ababa became the capital of Ethiopia when Menelik's crown was united with the imperial crown of Ethiopia, which led to the new town expanding rapidly into the major urban centre in central Ethiopia.

Answer: Black Forest

Although named as a forest, the Black Forest is in fact a forested mountain area located in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg. The town of Baden-Baden is in a valley of the River Oos on the north-west edge of the Black Forest, ten kilometers north of the Rhine, with the old town on the right hand bank, and the spa resorts on the left bank. The spa water flows from almost thirty natural springs that originate in artesian wells underneath the Florentinerberg and flow through pipes into the town's baths.

While the town's history dates back to the Roman period, with the emperor Caracalla visiting the area to use the waters to aid his arthritic pain, Baden-Baden's modern history as a spa town dates from the early 19th century, when Queen Louise of Prussia came to take the waters. The government of the Grand Duchy of Baden decided to develop the location into a resort to bring people in. This led to the town becoming a magnet for royalty and famous people, who visited the town for the springs, as well as the additional amenities that were constructed, including horse racing, casino and gardens. Today, Baden-Baden remains one of Germany's major resort towns, with its location used for both mountaineering and hiking in the summer, and skiing in the winter.

Answer: California

Carson City was initially founded in 1858, when Abraham Curry, a settler from New York, purchased the Eagle Station ranch, a stopover on the Carson River for travellers on the California Trail. At the time, the area was governed as part of the Utah Territory, but Curry was one of a group that sought to separate the region into a distinct new territory. As part of this proposal, Eagle Station was renamed as Carson City, with a view that it might one day serve as the capital of the new Nevada territory. After the discovery of gold and silver deposits nearby, the population of Carson City began to grow, and this influence led to its being named as the capital of the newly founded Nevada Territory in 1861. Its status as the capital was retained when, in 1864, Nevada became the 36th state.

Carson City began to lose population following the construction of a branch of the Central Pacific Railroad through the Donner Pass, which was too far north to prove of benefit. From its boom of the 1880s, by 1930 its population was just 1500. So, in the late 1940s, discussions began about merging Carson City itself with neighbouring Ormsby County, which was approved in 1966, and led to Carson City absorbing a number of other small towns in the area. This had the effect of extending Carson City's city limits, as Lake Tahoe's shoreline was partly in Ormsby County. The state line between Nevada and California runs through the centre of Lake Tahoe and thus, the extension of Carson City led to its city limits also extending out to the middle of the lake. This made Carson City one of just two state capitals to sit on the border with another state, the other being Trenton.

Answer: Andorra

Although it is one of Europe's smallest countries, Andorra, a microstate in the Pyrenees straddling the border between France and Spain, is big enough to be subdivided into smaller administrative units that are referred to as "parishes", each of which contains a number of villages and small towns; there are a total of seven parishes, of which the largest geographically is Canillo in the country's north-east, while the parish of Andorra la Vella, which contains the country's capital of the same name, has the largest population with around 20,000 people living there. However, until 1978, there were just six parishes - it was only in June 1978 that the seventh, Escaldes-Engordany, was formed when the area surrounding the two villages from which the new parish took its name were separated from Andorra la Vella.

During the 1930s, the villages of Escaldes and Engordany both experienced significant economic growth, with the improvement to the local road network allowing the exploitation of the area for tourism, of which Escaldes was a centre, and improvement of Engordany's agricultural economy. This saw the population of both increase during the mid 20th century, and led to them receiving greater autonomy from the governing parish of Andorra la Vella. This ultimately led to the area, which also included the villages of Els Vilars, Engolasters and El Fener, being agglomerated into a single new parish under the name Escaldes-Engordany, which was proclaimed by a decree issued by the Co-Princes of Andorra, Joan Martí i Alanis and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, on 14 June 1978.

Answer: James River

Newport News is one of a number of separate cities that together make up the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. Located on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, it extends along much of the northern shore of the James River, one of three separate waterways that together flow into Hampton Roads itself. Although the city was originally established in 1691, it was generally a small fishing village that sat in the middle of plantation country until after the American Civil War, when an extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway opened to allow the transport of coal from West Virginia. This saw the expansion of Newport News into a major industrial port, with the Chesapeake and Ohio constructing a number of coal piers that allowed their freight trains direct access to the harbour.

The man behind the Chesapeake and Ohio, Collis P. Huntington, also saw the potential of Newport News's location for shipbuilding, with his concept being for ships to be built in his shipyard that would be used to transport goods brought in on his railway from the piers in his port. As a result, the Chesapeake Dry Dock & Construction Company was established right at the mouth of the James River as it emptied into Hampton Roads. Initially used to build commercial shipping on its establishment in 1886, the shipyard, which was renamed as the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, soon became a major builder of warships for the US Navy. Today, Newport News is the home of major warship construction, with every US aircraft carrier since 1960 built in the shipyard.

Answer: Gorky

Nizhny Novgorod traces its history back to the 13th century, when Prince Yuri II of Vladimir founded a wooden hilltop fort at the confluence of the Volga and Oka rivers. Initially named as simply "Novgorod", which means "New Town", it was renamed as Nizhny Novgorod ("Lower New Town") to distinguish it from the nearby city of Veliky Novgorod, which is generally referred to as just Novgorod. By the early 19th century, the city had become a major trade centre within the Russian Empire, when the Makaryev Fair was transferred to the city. It was from this that Nizhny Novgorod began to establish itself as one of Russia's major industrial cities, culminating in the 1896 All-Russia Exhibition of arts and industry being held there.

Following the communist revolution, a number of Russian cities were renamed after significant members of the Communist Party. In 1932, Maxim Gorky, a writer who had been an open opponent of the Tsarist regime in Russia, and a supporter of Lenin, who had spent two separate periods in exile, was invited to return to Russia by Stalin. In honour of his return, Stalin ordered that the city of Nizhny Novgorod, where Gorky was born, together with the surrounding province, be renamed for Gorky. During the Soviet era, Gorky came to be known as the "Russian Detroit", as it was a major centre of the Soviet car industry. However, because it was home to facilities that undertook research and production for the armed forces, Gorky was classed as a closed city, with foreigners not allowed, until 1990. It was in this year that the city's closed status was lifted, and it was returned to its original name.

Answer: American Samoa

Pago Pago is the largest urban area on the island of Tutuila, the main island of American Samoa, and forms the territory's only major urban centre. Centred around one of the deepest natural harbours in the South Pacific, the urban area actually consists of a string of six individual villages, each of which undertakes part of the overall city's functioning. While one of the villages is also named Pago Pago, the "downtown" area of the city is formed by the village of Fagatogo, which contains the territorial legislature, the port, and the city's commercial district. The harbour itself is dominated by Mount Pioa, also known as Rainmaker Mountain, which contributes to Pago Pago's annual rainfall level, which is higher than that of any other harbour in the world.

Pago Pago is located 125km from Apia, on the island of Upolu, which is the capital of the independent nation of Samoa. Despite this, as a result of a decision by the government of Samoa in 2011 to move their time zone to one three hours ahead of Eastern Australia, the two cities are precisely 24 hours apart in terms of their time zone, with Pago Pago a full day behind Apia.

While the area around Pago Pago was first settled by humans 4,000 years ago, westerners only reached the island in the 1830s. As early as 1839, the United States showed an interest in Tutuila, with the large natural, sheltered harbour being an attractive opportunity. In 1871, in response to increasing German interest in the Samoan islands, the US Navy sent the sloop USS Narragansett to evaluate Pago Pago's suitability as a coaling station. Commander Richard Meade made a treaty that allowed the United States exclusive use of the harbour. In 1877, the United States acquired the island, with Pago Pago Naval Station established in 1888. The growing importance of the town led to it being named as the administrative capital of American Samoa in 1899.

Answer: Norodom

The city of Phnom Penh was originally founded in 1372, with the story of its foundation one of Cambodia's great legends - a woman named Daun Penh was gathering firewood on the banks of the river when she saw a koki tree floating, which she pulled out. In the tree were four statues of the Buddha and one of Vishnu. This was taken as a divine blessing, with Daun Penh raising a small hill on the bank of the Tonle Sap River, and crowning it with a shrine. This is the hill known today as Wat Phnom, with "phnom" being the Khmer word for "hill". Amalgamated with the name of Daun Penh, the area became known as Phnom Penh after the hill.

Although Phnom Penh was initially used as Cambodia's royal capital between 1432 and 1505, it was then abandoned for more than 350 years as a result of fighting between the various pretenders to the Cambodian throne, with a number of other cities used as the capital. It was only in 1866 that King Norodom elected to move his capital from Oudong to Phnom Penh, which became not only the royal capital, but also the permanent seat of government. This move saw the town undergo a major expansion, thanks in no small part to the French, who were the ruling colonial power in Cambodia, constructing most of the basic infrastructure. The expansion of the city was such that, by the 1920s, Phnom Penh had become known as the "Pearl of Asia".

Answer: Feast of the Transfiguration

San Salvador was founded in 1525 on the site of Cuzcatlan, the abandoned capital of the Pipil people. Upon its foundation, it was named by the Spanish conquistador Gonzalo de Alvarado after the Transfiguration of Jesus, a feast of the Christian church celebrated on 6 August. It was on 6 August 1456 that Pope Callixtus III chose to commemorate the victory of the Hungarians in the Siege of Belgrade against the Ottoman Empire, and led to many places around the world being named for the celebration of Jesus's transfiguration, when Christians believe He began to shine with radiant light at the top of a mountain, and was referred to as "Son" by the Voice of God, at which point Jesus was acknowledged as the Divine Saviour. Gonzalo de Alvarado named the city in this way as others had done in other areas to designate it as a Christian area, but also to serve as a representation of his brother, Pedro, the Spanish governor of Guatemala, who was charged with Spain's expansion in Central America.

Although it has a long history, and has served as the capital of what became El Salvador since 1840, the city was relatively undeveloped and had a small population until the 20th century, when there was an explosion of construction work on various projects that saw the city begin a rapid expansion. This saw new infrastructure built, including hospitals, parks and schools, and led to the creation of modern San Salvador. While the city itself has a population of around 200,000, Metropolitan San Salvador, consisting of the city and 13 surrounding municipalities, accommodates around 2.5 million, which is more than 30% of El Salvador's total population.

Answer: Crow

Wagga Wagga is a major city in the Riverina region of New South Wales in Australia. Located at a midway point between Melbourne and Sydney, it serves as a major agricultural and transport hub. The area around the city was originally inhabited by the Wiradjuri, an Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, who maintain a relationship to the area to the present day. Europeans began exploring the area in the 1820s, with Captain Charles Sturt leading an expedition along the Murrumbidgee River in 1829.

This soon led to settlers arriving and the beginnings of a small village, that adopted a word from the Wiradjuri language as its name - "wagga" was thought to mean "crow" and, as the area was home to a large crow population, the new settlement became known as Wagga Wagga, or "place of many crows". However, in 2019, the definition of wagga to mean crow was dropped by the city, with instead another Wiradjuri meaning, "to dance, slide or grind", adopted instead, making the meaning of the name into "dance and celebration".

Wagga Wagga rapidly expanded thanks to its location as a transport crossroads, with the river being a major source of traffic until 1878, when the government of New South Wales extended the railway to the town. Its location also saw it being put forward as a potential location for the proposed capital of the newly formed country of Australia - with it being at a point equidistant from what were the two primary cities, and on a major river, thus giving it a plentiful supply of water. Although this bid was not successful, with Canberra ultimately chosen, the town's population voted overwhelmingly in favour of federation in the 1899 referendum. During the 20th century, the Australian Armed Forces became a major presence in Wagga Wagga, as first the Royal Australian Air Force, and then the Army opened major facilities in and around the town. Today, Kapooka, a suburb of Wagga Wagga, is the location of the Australian Army's Recruit Training Centre, while Forest Hill, another suburb, is home to RAAF Base Wagga, the air force's main ground training centre.