Test yourself! Take this World Cities Quiz | Cities of the World

Answer: Sao Paulo

Sao Paulo-Guarulhos is the largest airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the country's largest city. The Tropic of Capricorn travels directly through 09R/27L - the southernmost runway of the airport's only two.

Answer: Berlin

On June 12, 1987, Ronald Reagan famously exclaimed, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!". This was in response to the infamous Berlin Wall that split one city into two different countries for 28 years: the west side represented by democracy, and the east side represented by communism.

Many chunks of the former Berlin Wall are dispersed throughout the world, and are not as rare as one might think. One of my teachers has a piece of the wall in his classroom.

Answer: Tangshan

The Tangshan earthquake hit Tangshan, Hebei, China in late July 1976. Tangshan, a large industrial city 92 miles SSE of Beijing, was almost completely flattened within 25 seconds. Of a city with about one million residents at the time, at least 242,000 were killed. Some say the death toll could have been as high as 700,000, enough to be ranked as the not only the deadliest in the 20th century, but also one of the deadliest in recorded history.

Information about the other 3 earthquakes:

-Tokyo/Yokohama, Japan: 9/1/1923 Mag: 8.0 Casualties: 105,385-142,800
-Mexico City: 9/19/1985 Mag: 8.0 Casualties: 5,000-45,000
-San Fransisco, USA: 4/18/1906 Mag: 7.8 Casualties: 700-3,000

Answer: Wellington

Yes, the land of New Zealand is one of the latest discovered large landmasses. Evidence shows that the earliest arrival of humans occurred around the year 1280 AD; those people later formed the distinctive Maori culture. To put in perspective, Europe was in the heart of the revolutionary Middle Ages and the Mongolians had just proclaimed their dynasty in China. However, modern Europeans did not reach the land of New Zealand until the 17th century. The only other major landmass discovered later than New Zealand was Antarctica in 1820, but it does not constitute as a country.

Earliest arrival of humans of the other three territories:
Australia: ~68,000 BC
Greenland: 2500 BC
Madagascar: ~250 AD

Answer: Prague

If you were to travel from Zurich, the largest city of Switzerland, to the city of Prague, Czech Republic, the trip would be approximately 427 miles. That would be a 6 h 50 min road trip, or a 1 h 20 min nonstop flight. The distance between Zurich and the other three cities are as listed:
-Amsterdam, 508 mi
-Zagreb, 531 mi
-Barcelona, 660 mi

Answer: La Paz

Many global cities such as New York, Tokyo, and Miami are at extreme risk of rising sea levels in the future, but cities such as Quito, Bogota, Addis Ababa, and La Paz have no worries. Things are already interesting enough with extreme thin air as the result of high altitudes.

The highest capital city above sea level is actually La Paz, Bolivia in South America. The city soars 2.26 miles above sea level (11,942 ft), or nearly 33 football fields.

Answer: Paris

The first thing that comes to mind when someone thinks of France is probably mainland France, the entity that has Paris in it and is located in Western Europe. However, most people forget or are even unaware of the fact that the entire definition of France stretches out to their overseas territories, like French Guiana, Reunion, and New Caledonia - just to name a few. The distance between the capital of France, Paris, and its most distant territory - New Caledonia - is nearly 10,414 miles, or 16,760 km, the farthest of any country.

Other countries, such as the US, do have overseas possessions, but they do not have full status, the way [some of] the overseas regions of France do.

The next top three are shown below:
-London to Pitcairn Island, Oceania: 9,258 mi or 14,900 km
-Washington D.C. to Attu Island, Aleutian Islands, Alaska: 4,847 mi or 7,800 km
-Moscow to Kunashir Island, Russia: 4,381 mi or 7,050 km

Answer: New Orleans

The 30th parallel north passes directly through the city limits of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is actually extremely rare to have a city lie directly on top of a line of latitude, as 99% of cities lie upon random points in between latitudes. Interestingly, the city of Houston, which is about 348 miles west of New Orleans, is deemed similar.

The 30th parallel north goes directly through Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Answer: Milwaukee

The 88th meridian west is a line of longitude that passes directly through the city limits of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. If you would to draw a circle circumnavigating the entire earth with this line of longitude, it would form a circle with the 92nd meridian east. That line of longitude passes through eastern Russia, western China, far eastern India, Bhutan, and Bangladesh.

Answer: Wuhan

The Yangtze River (or Chang Jiang) is commonly accepted to be the third longest river in the world. It runs 3,950 miles entirely within China from the Pacific Ocean/East China Sea in Shanghai to the middle of Qinghai Province in the western part of the country.

The river is a vital source of economic development in China and plays a large role in ancient and modern Chinese culture. On the other hand, the city of Xian lies on the Wei River, Lanzhou lies on the Yellow (Huang He) River, and Busan lies on the Nakdong River in South Korea.