Places: Rest of the World

This page is about places that aren't covered anywhere else (e.g. in Countries, States, or Towns and Cities). It includes such diverse places as National Parks, suburbs and streets.

See also Places: United Kingdom.

New York Boroughs

The only one that's on the mainland		The Bronx
Most populous: Coney Island Amusement Park is in		Brooklyn
Smallest by area, and the most densely populated; known regionally as 'the City', and described by Wikipedia as "the urban core of the New York metropolitan area"		Manhattan
Includes Times Square, Central Park, Grand Central Station, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the One World Trade Center, the Stonewall Inn, New York City Hall, Columbia University, the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, Liberty Island (Statue of Liberty), Chinatown, Harlem
Separated from The Bronx (the only borough on the mainland) by the Harlem River, from Brooklyn and Queens (on Long Island) by the East River, and from New Jersey by the Hudson River
Linked to Brooklyn by the Brooklyn Bridge (which spans the East River)
Largest in area; site of the city's two major airports (LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International); also home to the US Open tennis tournament (Flushing Meadow) and the New York Mets baseball team		Queens
Least populous: officially known until 1975 as Richmond		Staten Island
Linked to Brooklyn by the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge, and to New Jersey by the Outerbridge Crossing (which spans the Arthur Kill)

The second and fourth of the boroughs, in alphabetical order (as they're listed above) are on Long Island; the third and fifth are islands in their own right.

Other

Antarctic territory claimed by France; setting for the 2005 French nature documentary film March of the Penguins. Named by its discoverer, French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville, after his wife; gave its name in turn to a breed of penguin (or possibly vice versa); the scientific base there is named Dumont d'Urville		Adélie Land
Continent that produces around 48% of the world's cocoa and around 52% of its diamonds		Africa
Fortified mediaeval city, still standing, on borders of the Camargue		Aigues Mortes
Prison on an island in San Francisco Bay		Alcatraz
City (population 336,265 in 2010) in the Los Angeles metropolitan area: home of Disneyland (since it opened in 1955)		Anaheim
Continent that has the lowest annual precipitation (see McMurdo Dry Valleys)		Antarctica
Region of the Earth's surface whose name comes (directly) from the Greek word for a bear		Arctic
Military base in Nevada, whose existence is not widely acknowledged by the US government but which is believed by conspiracy theorists to contain evidence of extra–terrestrial contact		Area 51
Puerto Rico: site of the world's largest telescope dish		Arecebo
One of the five regions of Australia's Northern Territory – the north–eastern extremity of the peninsula that forms most of the territory's coastline; named after the ship of the Dutch East India Company that rounded it in 1623, which in turn was named after a Dutch city		Arnhem Land
Official name of Sixth Avenue, New York, since 1945		Avenue of the Americas
National Park in South Dakota: name refers to a type of dry terrain that is difficult to navigate on foot because softer sedimentary rocks and soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water, leaving steep slopes, canyons, ravines, gullies, buttes and mesas		Badlands
Miami, Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Bermuda: these are the three extremities of the		Bermuda Triangle
Pool found in Jerusalem in the 19th century (near the Sheep Gate), believed to be that mentioned in John 5; associated with healing, gave its name to a town or village in Snowdonia, famous for its slate quarries (among other places)		Bethesda
Geothermal spa near Reykjavik, which is one of Iceland's most popular tourist attractions despite a $64 entry fee; shares its name with a 1905 novel that was filmed in 1923, 1949 and 1980		(The) Blue Lagoon
Major international tourist destination in the western part of the Society Islands of French Polynesia – about 25 kilometres (16 miles) north–west of Tahiti – famous for its aqua–centric luxury resorts		Bora Bora
Region of France, famous for its wines: also (because of the wine) gives its name to a deep red colour		Burgundy
County Clare: part of one of Europe's largest karst landscapes, and Ireland's smallest national park (designated in 1998; less than 6 square miles) – famous for its wild flowers, caves and dolmens		The Burren
The hill (one of the so–called 'seven hills of Rome') where Rome's City Hall (the Palazzo Senatorio) was built in the 13th and 14th centuries AD, with its façade added later by Michelangelo		Capitoline
Region of southern India, between the Eastern Ghats and the Coromandel Coast: gave its name to a series of wars in the 18th century betwen the British and French East India Companies (and their Indian allies), which included the Battle of Plassey; from a Tamil phrase meaning 'coast dance'		Carnatic Coast
New York: lies between 59th and 110th Streets		Central Park
North–western suburb of Washington, DC – straddling the border between DC and Maryland: its name (also used by a well–known American comedian and actor) originates in a 14th–century battle over hunting grounds, in the English–Scottish borders		Chevy Chase
Sparsely populated, hot and semi–arid lowland region of the Rí­o de la Plata basin, divided among Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil: the usual name comes from the Quechua meaning 'great hunting land'		Gran (or Dry) Chaco; a.k.a. the Chaco Plain
Popular holiday region in north–eastern Greece, famous for its three peninsulas or 'fingers' ('legs' in Greek) – on one of which Mount Athos stands		Chalkidiki (Halkidiki)
Paris's most prestigious thoroughfare: runs from the Place de la Concorde to the Place Charles de Gaulle (f.k.a. Place de l'Étoile), location of the Arc de Triomphe		Champs Élysées
Area of France in the Saône–et–Loire département, Burgundy region: gives its name to breeds of cattle, horse and sheep		Charolais
Misleadingly–named peninsula in Brooklyn, New York, famous for its amusement parks; name comes from the Dutch for 'rabbit'		Coney Island
Picturesque hilly area of western Co. Galway, Ireland, including the Twelve Bens and the Maumturks; designated as a National Park in 1980		Connemara (Conamara)
The only break in the Pan–American Highway, caused by a swathe of swamp and rainforest; stretches for about 100 miles, spanning the border of Panama and Colombia; named after a province of Panama, which in turn is named after the language of the indigenous people		Darién Gap
US National Park (California): includes Badwater Basin – thought to be the lowest land point in the Western Hemisphere, until the discovery of Laguna del Carbón in Argentina		Death Valley
Europe's largest purpose–built business district: part of the Paris metropolitan area, named after a statue erected in 1883; includes La Grande Arche, a monument and building completed in 1989, and many of the city's tallest buildings		La Défense defense
Natural region of tropical wetlands in southern Florida: effectively a slow–moving river, 60 miles wide and 100 miles long, flowing south out of Lake Okeechobee; about 20% of it (the southern part) was dedicated as a National Park in 1947		Everglades
Coral cay archipelago that forms the southernmost extreme of the continental United States		Florida Keys
Name shared by a region of north–west Spain, on the Bay of Biscay, and a region of Eastern Europe that's partly in Poland and partly in Ukraine		Galicia
Wealthy district of Seoul, immortalised in a 2021 K–pop hit that reached No. 1 in the UK and over 30 other countries		Gangnam
Europe's only wild monkey population lives in		Gibraltar
Glacial valley in County Wicklow, Ireland, famous for a monastic settlement founded in the 6th century by St Kevin		Glendalough
Name given to an area of Manhattan, New York, said by some to originate in a remark made in 1835 by Davy Crockett; also used for films starring Ronald Reagan (1939) and Angelina Jolie (1998), and a TV programme featuring Gordon Ramsay (he was succeeded in the UK version by Gary Rhodes, then Marco Pierre White)		Hell's Kitchen
Originally erected in 1923 on Mount Lee, Los Angeles; took on its current form in 1949, and was rebuilt in 1978		The HOLLYWOOD sign
Stanley Market; Star Ferry; Happy Valley and Sha Tin racecourses		Hong Kong
Ireland's oldest National Park (created in 1932)		Killarney
Urban area at the southern tip of the Hong Kong peninsula: home to 2.1 million people – approx. 30% of the population of the Hong Kong SAR (Hong Kong Island has 1.3 million – approx. 20%)		Kowloon
Fortified complex in the centre of Moscow – sometimes called "the city within a city"		Kremlin
Mainland part of Newfoundland province (Canada)		Labrador
Flat, forested area of south–West France, between Bordeaux and Biarritz		Landes
National game reserve in Kenya, contiguous with the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania; named after its ancestral inhabitants, and their description of the area when looked at from afar: the second word of the name means 'spotted' in their language		Maasai (Masai) Mara
Former Portuguese colony, near Hong Kong, and like Hong Kong a special administrative region of China: famous for gambling and motor racing; Wikipedia lists it as the world's most densely populated state or territory, and describes it as "the world's largest gambling centre"; its most famous race is a Formula 3 GP (there are many others)		Macau
New York thoroughfare associated with the advertising industry – named after the 4th President		Madison Avenue
Famous sporting and concert venue in New York, built in the 1960s over Pennsylvania Station: home to the Knicks and Liberty (basketball – men's & women's), Rangers (ice hockey), Knights and CityHawks (indoor football)		Madison Square Garden
Arabic term for a large portion of North West Africa, including all of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia – means "place of sunset" or "the West"		The Maghreb
The driest place on Earth: an area of Antarctica, on the shores of the inlet of the Ross Sea after which it's named, which has seen no rainfall for nearly two million years and where any snow gets blown away by the powerful katabatic winds		McMurdo Dry Valleys
Area on the Gironde estuary, containing the famous Chateau Latour vineyard		Medoc
Mountainous region of Jordan, bordering the Dead Sea – mentioned in Psalms, but most famous in Britain today after Stephen Fry's unexplained use of a quotation from Psalms as the title of his 1997 autobiography		Moab
Paris: artists' quarter		Montmartre
Part of the Colorado Plateau, on the borders of Utah and Arizona, made famous in the films of John Ford (notably Stagecoach and The Searchers); also used in Marlboro adverts, 2001: a Space Odyssey, The Eiger Sanction, etc. etc.; has been described as "The five square miles that has defined what decades of moviegoers think of when they imagine the American West"		Monument Valley
The world's largest and most northerly National Park		Northeast Greenland
Region of the Pacific Ocean, variously defined as consisting of the three subregions of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, or the all islands in the region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago		Oceania
Dublin's main thoroughfare: originally named Drogheda Street, then (from the late 1700s) Sackville Street; renamed in 1924 in honour of a 19th century nationalist leader, whose statue stands at its southern end; nicknamed 'the street of the Three Adulterers' because it also has (or had) statues of Charles Stewart Parnell and Lord Nelson – all three being alleged adulterers. (Nelson's Pillar was blown up by republican activists in 1966)		O'Connell Street
French name for the Straits of Dover		Pas de Calais
The southernmost region of South America, extending from the Andes to the Atlantic and covering parts of both Argentina and Chile		Patagonia
Paris: location of the Arc de Triomphe (known prior to 1970 as Place de l'Étoile)		Place Charles de Gaulle
Paris: square formerly known as Place Louis XV and Place de la Revolution; known by its current name 1795–1826, and since 1830; the Luxor Obelisk (a.k.a. Cleopatra's Needle) has stood there since 1836		Place de la Concorde
Paris: former name of the Place Charles de Gaulle – because of the twelve streets that radiate from it		Place de l'Étoile
Region of the Pacific Ocean: name comes from the Greek meaning 'many islands'		Polynesia
Historical region on the shore of the Baltic Sea, partly in Germany but mainly in Poland; name comes from the Slavic for "land by the sea"; best known today because of the breed of dog that was named after it		Pomerania
Moscow: the Lublyanka is a		Prison
Metonym of the French Foreign Ministry – from the street in Paris where its headquarters are located		Quai d'Orsay
Red Square, Moscow, was known before 1917 as		Red Square
22–acre site in New York City: described as one of the greatest projects of the Great Depression era, it's named after the family that commissioned its fourteen original Art Deco buildings, including the Radio City Music Hall		Rockefeller Centre
Industrial area of north–western Germany (North Rhine–Westphalia) – including the cities of Duisburg, Oberhausen, Essen, Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Dortmund; named after the river that flows through it (or past it), and flows into the Rhine near Duisburg		Ruhr
Bay of Lake Huron that gives its name to Bay City, Michigan (shares its name with the river that flows through Bay City)		Saginaw Bay
Resort area near Salzburg, Austria, seen in the opening sequence to the film version of The Sound of Music: site of the salt mines of the Hapsburg empire; name translates roughly as "place of salt"		Salzkammergut
Paris suburb, location of the Stade de France		St. Denis
Tanzanian national park which includes the Ngorongoro crater		Serengeti
Suburb of Paris, known for its fine porcelain; also the home of the International Bureau of Weights & Measures		Sèvres
Maximum–security prison in Ossinning, New York: built in 1826, housing around 1,700 inmates		Sing Sing
The only stadium (to date) to have held finals of both the FIFA World Cup and the Rugby Union World Cup		Stade de France (Paris)
Memorial to John Lennon in New York's Central Park, inaugurated in 1985		Strawberry Fields
Controversial, luxury resort and casino, opened in 1979 in what was then the 'Bantuland' of Bophuthatswana – now in South Africa's North West Province (about 2 hours' drive from Johannesburg)		Sun City
New York: Broadway and 42nd street intersect at		Times Square
Unter Den Linden in Berlin, Alexander Garden in Moscow, Arc de Triomphe in Paris		Tomb of the Unknown Warrior
Famous tourist attraction in Rome, built in 1762: tradition has it that if you throw a coin into it (with your right hand over your left shoulder, or left hand over right shoulder, with your back to it) you will return to Rome		Trevi Fountain
Boulevard that runs from Berlin's former Royal Palace to the Brandenburg Gate – the name referring to the trees that line it		Unter den Linden
Famous New York thoroughfare, named after a defensive structure built around 1653 on the orders of Peter Stuyvesant, Director General of the Dutch West India Company		Wall Street
Near Kissimee, which itself is near Orlando, Florida (opened in 1971)		Walt Disney World
Strip of coastline surrounded by Namibia but belonging to South Africa; includes the town of Swapokmund		Walvis Bay
Weapons testing range in South Australia, opened jointly by the British and Australian governments in 1947; named after an Australian aboriginal spear–throwing device; includes a town or village of the same name, which grew up around the military establishment		Woomera
The world's oldest and the USA's largest National Park, famous for geysers etc., established in 1872; in the Rocky Mountains, chiefly in Wyoming		Yellowstone
National Park in the Sierra Nevada, California: founded in 1890, noted for its lakes, waterfalls (including the world's third highest, named after the park) and groves of giant sequoia trees; also Bridalveil Falls, El Capitan (rock face), Half Dome (peak)		Yosemite

© Haydn Thompson 2017–23