Strange place names. Interesting place names

Sometimes geographic objects are too long or too short, extremely funny or difficult to pronounce names. Sometimes they are so ridiculous that one has to wonder - how could such a person come to mind? So, see for yourself.

The longest place names in the world

An example might be not big lake v American state Massachusetts. The name of this reservoir consists of more than 40 letters and it is almost impossible to pronounce it without stopping and the first time. The name of this lake is Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. This gibberish, translated from the Indian language of the area, means: "I will fish on this side, you will fish on the other side, and no one catches anything in the middle." This is how the two Indian tribes, who once lived on opposite sides, entered into an agreement. Thus, the lake received such a long name.

An even longer name is a small station near Wales in Great Britain. Train tickets starting or ending point, which this station is, are entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest Railway tickets... Their length is 15 cm. In length. The station's name consists of 54 letters and sounds like: Llanfirepulguiguillgogherikutridrobullaantisiliogogok, for the convenience of pronunciation and spelling of the name it was abbreviated to Llanfire. The name of the station, translated from the Welsh dialect, means: "a church in the lowlands, which is overgrown with white hazel, located near a river with a whirlpool near the cave." The translation of the name reliably accurately describes the geographical area in which the old station... Old-timers say that the name of the once old and unknown station was invented by a local joker who wished to remain in the shadows. He did this in order to glorify his unremarkable little-known village. Since then, tourists began to flock to the small town, who were attracted here by an unusual name. There is a known case of theft from the station building of a sign with full name city, apparently it was stolen by some collector.

“The place where Tamatea, a man with very long legs, a famous person the one who devoured mountains, who moved them, climbed mountains to play the flute for his beloved. " This is how the even longer name of the village located in the northern part of the island is translated. New Zealand... The name itself consists of 83 letters and is pronounced as: Taumatavhakatangihangaburial kupokaivkhenuakitanatahu.

The well-known capital of Thailand, the city of Bangkok has the longest name in the world written in Thai. It is officially listed in the Guinness Book of Records. It consists of 147 characters and is very difficult to read. The translation of the name describes the location of the city in the style of oriental sages and means: “The great city, the city of angels, which contains the treasures of the gods, the great land that no one can conquer, the kingdom that will always prosper, this is the place where the palace of the gods is located, in which there are gods who can be reincarnated as spirits, a wonderful land given by the gods. "

The shortest place names in the world

For example, the names that are presented on maps in the form of the letter A are found in many parts of the world. For example, a river in Germany or a place on the Lofots Islands, as well as small villages in France and Sweden.

The letter I as a name has two small towns located in the north and west of France and the coast of Finland, respectively.

A unique French town located in the south is called Nah, which reads as O.

In the territories of Sweden and France there are cities with the name Yu. The river in the north of Russia has the same name.

The letter E denotes the name of a small town in Belgium, and the port with the same name is located near Burma.

U is the geographical name that cities in South Korea and the Caroline Islands located in the Pacific Ocean. The same name belongs to the left tributary of the Mekong River, located in Asia.

The funniest place names in the world

Cockroach is the name of a small island and the city of the same name near eastern shores Indonesian island Kalimantan.

Penyok is a village in the Novosibirsk region.

Kalach - a city in the Volgograd region

Sapozhok - a city in the Ryazan region

Bottom - a village in the Pskov region

Zheludok - a village in the Grodno region of Belarus

The strangest place names in the world

Village of Nothing in Arizona, USA.

The city of Swastika in Ontario, Canada is a rather strange place. In fact, this is not a haven for the Nazis at all - the city was founded almost 30 years before Adolf Hitler began using the swastika. The name of the city was chosen in honor of the ancient Indian sign of prosperity and fertility.

On earth, there are cities and geographical places named after hell. For example, two cities in the United States (in the states of Vermont and Massachusetts) are called the Kingdom of Satan.

There are cities with the name of the North Pole in the states of Alaska and New York. The New York North Pole has a theme park with live reindeer and Santa Claus.

Nameless is a small town in Colorado, which got its name when a highway was planned in this place with a turn to a still non-existent city. During the construction of the road, a temporary sign with the inscription "Nameless" was installed at the turn. As a result, the name stuck.

To the northwest of Pittsburgh there is a town named Luna, which was probably named so because it sits in a crescent-shaped bend in the river.

Tourists have recently been frequenting the city of Mars in Pennsylvania. Not only is a non-working former spaceship installed in the city, it can also be said that he visited the Martians (this is what they call local residents).

In the 1770s, the town of Accident was built in Western Maryland. Two surveyors marked out the ground, randomly selecting the same oak as the anchor point. It was on that place that the city was founded.

Great pleasure is experienced by people who travel on own car... They get vivid impressions not only from contemplating the beauty of the surrounding area, but also from the names of settlements, rivers, lakes.

If you plan to travel a considerable distance in your car, then bring a pen and a notebook with you to write down the names of cities, settlements, villages and rivers that you meet on your way. In the future, you will not only be guaranteed victory in the game "Cities", but you will also be able to amuse your friends and family with funny and unusual toponyms.

For starters, I want to bring to your attention the following interesting names of real geographic objects:

Cocaine Mountains - a river in the Perm region;
Lysaya Balda - a river in the Ukrainian village of Zaryanoe;
Bottom - the name of the city near Pskov;
Hare bubble - a river in the Kemerovo region;
In the Ulyanovsk region - the village of Musorka;
Krasnaya Mogila - a village in the Donetsk region;
Chuvaki - a village in the Perm region;
Tukhlyanka - a river on Sakhalin;
Bolshie Pupsy - a village in the Tver region;
Machekhin Konets - a village in the Tver region;
Abrupt Khutora - a village in the Lipetsk region;
Tsatsa - a village in the Volgograd region;
The village of Kurilovka in the Saratov region;
Yes, yes - a village in the Khabarovsk Territory;
Such is a village on the island of Sakhalin;
Kuyoknulo - a village in the Tver region.

If you are going to Omsk, then you will meet on your way:

rivers Bernyazhka, Nyukhalovka, Byzovka, Ingaly, Avlukha;

the villages of Pochekuevo, Shchuevoz, Takmyk, Kurnosovo, Bolshiye Murly, Chebakly, Uvalnaya Bitiya and others.

These are so interesting geographical names meet! Each such name, of course, has its own origin story. What now seems funny to us in ancient times had a completely different meaning. You can ask local residents where the name of their village or village or river came from. Old people will tell a lot of interesting things, although they are getting smaller and smaller every day.

It is a pity that our history flows like a river into oblivion.

Wish we were ready to laugh at unusual name without being interested in the history of its origin.

Fortunately, there are enthusiasts who collect bit by bit and preserve this kind of information. After all, the people who do not know their history, their roots, are weak and vulnerable. Esotericists, clairvoyants and healers say that the strength of living people is given by their ancestors, the so-called family tree or ancestral egregor.

Don't forget to take your notebook and pen with you!

In fact, such unusual and funny names a huge number throughout Russia. Who comes up with them, I wonder?

I bring to your attention some of them.

In the city of Myshkin, everything is really saturated with a mouse spirit. Not in the sense of smell, no. The mouse is everywhere present as a symbol. Firstly, the city itself has quite a mouse scale: 6 thousand people live in it. Secondly, there is a wonderful Mouse Museum here. And thirdly, the city, like a mouse, hid from the present and quietly exists somewhere between Uglich and Rybinsk. There is a city called Koshki, it is located in the Samara region.

A village with an exotic name Polovinka (located in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, 30 km from UrAy).

I suggest you visit the village of Chuvaki in the Perm region. Far away, of course, but what a name.

Somewhere in the water basin of the Lukhovitsky region, a river with the breathtaking name Voblya flows. And the old ambassadorial road from the time of Boris Godunov passed along the banks of the Potudan and Ublya rivers. The names have survived to this day.

Most recently, residents of the village of Lokhovo, Cheremkhovsky district Irkutsk region decided to change the name of their settlement. The villagers even arranged a competition for a new geographical name. But in vain! Actually, “goof” is the name of a shrub with strong-smelling flowers and edible berries, and the term “goof” is used by ichthyologists for salmon in the period after spawning. In the explanatory dictionary of Vladimir Dal there is a word close to the current jargon, but only the feminine gender - in the old days a stupid woman was called "sucker".

Do not snooze. The name of this place near the town of Artemovskiy Sverdlovsk region, they say, appeared after 1914, when a railway line was extended there. There were no buildings, and therefore the train slowed down a little there. Future passengers had to jump on the train literally on the move, following the driver's shouts: "DO NOT Yawn!"

In the Sverdlovsk region there are locality Newspaper. Where the name came from - no one remembers.

The village of Rassol got its name not from the famous drink, but from the Rassolka river. The river was named in connection with the steel industry that existed here in the old days.

Village Kosyakovka, Sterlitamak district of Bashkiria.

Bolshaya Pyssa is a settlement in the Komi-Udora region. Of course, there is also Malaya Pyssa nearby. And you shouldn't have refused to live here! It is here that the unique holiday “chechchalan luns” is celebrated. On the Annunciation, they put chocks near the walls of houses, put boards on them and jump for a whole week. Children, youth and unmarried women participate in this action. They compete - who will jump higher and will not fall off the board. The higher you jump, the longer and happier your life will be.

There are geographical names that we use in everyday life in a different sense. There are many such words that have entered our language from maps and geography textbooks. Let's consider the most interesting of them.

From the name of the city of Basra in Iraq comes the name of alabaster, which is valuable building material... Translated from Arabic, the word "al-basra" means "soft" and is associated with the peculiarities of the local soil. The word "kaolin" is associated with the Kaoliang area in China, where white clay was first mined for the purpose of making porcelain. The word "faience" is associated with the name of the city of Faenza in Italy. The rock is intended as a facing material in the construction process and during the construction of monuments. The breed has the name labradorite from the name of the peninsula of the same name. North America.

If we turn to the periodic table of chemical elements of D.I. Mendeleev, you can see a large number of names that are attested to certain parts of the world, for example, americium, europium, and individual countries, gallium (the ancient name of France), ruthenium, translated from Latin meaning Russia, francium, polonium meaning Poland. In honor of Paris, such an element is named as lutetium (from Latin "lutetia"), and in honor of the Greek city of Magnesia, such an element as magnesium is named. Chemical elements such as californium and scandium speak of the geographic name of the same name.

The names of the four chemical elements - ytterbium, yttrium, erbium and terbium - come from the small town of Ytterby, which is located on the Swedish island of Ruslagen. In 1787, an unusual heavy mineral was found in the vicinity of this city, containing these rare earth elements. The town of Ytterby became famous thanks to this miracle of nature.

An example of a chemical named for a city is Veronal (from the Italian city of Verona); cologne which means "water from Cologne". In 1972, the cologne was first made in Cologne. Cologne today is the largest industrial center in Germany, where various kinds of machine tools, cars, television and radio equipment are produced. However, all over the world Cologne is known for its "water from Cologne".

The name of the valuable topaz stone comes from the island of the same name in the Red Sea.

And what about the name of the fabrics? Not everyone knows that the name of the tulle fabric comes from the French city where it was first made. In the state of northwestern India, the name of a thin woolen fabric was born - cashmere, from the name of the state of Kashmir. Madepolam fabric is also of Indian origin. It got its name from the small town of the same name.

A city in Scotland - Cheviot, the name of the ridge in the Pennine Mountains of Great Britain duplicates the coverkot. Jersey fabric owes its name to the English island of Jersey from the group of the Norman islands near France. The city of the same name in the United States is the birthplace of Boston wool fabric. The name waltz-boston came from here. Translated from French, the name of the crepe de Chine silk fabric means “Chinese crepe”. Crepe-Moroccan in translation means "Moroccan crepe". In the 60-60s. in the Italian city of Bologna, raincoats made of synthetic material, which received the same name, first appeared. The breed name for indoor dogs has the same origin. In the old spelling, the capital of Turkey sounds like Angora, hence the origin of Angora cats.

The word trousers came from the name of the city of Bruges in a slightly modified pronunciation. In this city, a special fabric "bruggish" was produced for sewing trousers. The city of Bruges itself comes from the ancient Norse language of the Normans and is translated as a bridge ("brigia").

The origin of the word jeans also has a connection with geography. The appearance of the first jeans dates back to the 50s. last century, and San Francisco (USA) is their homeland. Jeans in those days were made only for laborers. The material was tarpaulin. The country of supply of fabric for sewing was italian city Genoa. The name was misinterpreted by the Americans, so the end result was the word jeans.

From the name of the city of Fez, which is located in Morocco, the name of the male fez hat was formed, made of red felt in the shape of a truncated cone with a tassel, until recently common in the countries of North America and the Middle East. From the Austrian province of Tyrol comes the name of the hat with a feather - Tyrol.

Geographic sound is also inherent in a large number of foods. In the city of Mayon on the island of Menorca, part of the group of the Spanish Balearic Islands, the first widely known mayonnaise was made for the first time.

From the French city of Plombier, the name of the ice cream variety was formed - ice cream. From the river Torto, flowing on the island of Sicily, the name was formed - cake.

Of the same name French city Roquefort cheese owes its name. The names of such cheeses as Dutch, Poshekhonsky, Uglich, Kostroma, Swiss have a similar origin. And also sausages: Hamburg, Odessa, Krakow, Lviv, Moscow, Odessa, Minsk, etc.

From Greece comes buckwheat, from Persia - peach. Orange means "Chinese apple".

In the names of brands of refrigerators, mineral waters, motorcycles, TVs, cars, there are also a large number of geographical names. For example, the Landau horse carriage got its name from the Bavarian city of Landau. It was there that it was first made.

To this day, the name Landau has come down to the name of the bodies of a convertible car. The closed body of a high-class passenger car got its name from the historical province of France Limousin.

Geographically, there will also be interesting name US dollar. The name of this monetary unit is not of American origin and is not at all associated with English language... In the small German town of Joachimstal (present-day Czech Republic), they minted a large silver coin called Joachimstaler. Later the name was shortened to the word "thaler", which later became "dollar" in English pronunciation. The village of Dollar is located in the UK.

For the most part, place names have a meaning corresponding to them.

But there are a large number of those that appeared on the geographical map by chance and were the result of errors and misunderstandings.

Spring is approaching and there is a desire for change. So you want to change your usual environment and go somewhere on a journey. There are many unique ones in the world, interesting places that are worth seeing with your own eyes. We will present some of them - the most unusual, the most extraordinary.

1. The most high mountain In Canada

In Canada, the highest is Mount Logan with a height of 5959m. it belongs to the Southwest Yukon Territory, the Saint Elias Ridge system. The name of the mountain was given in honor of William Edmond Logan - Canadian geologist

2. Most Southern City in the world

Ushuaia (Argentina) is the southernmost city in the world. The population of this administrative center of the province Tierra del Fuego is 45 thousand people.

3. The lowest point in Africa

At 155 meters below sea level, Lake Assal in Djibouti is located - the lowest point in Africa.

4. The largest lake on an island in a lake

The system of these lakes resembles a nesting doll - in Canada, on Lake Huron, Manitoulin Island is located, on Manitoulin Island there is Lake Manitouline. Manitou turns out to be the most big lake in a lake with an area of 104 square kilometers.

5. The richest city in the world

The richest and most beautiful city the world - Dubai. It is not at all difficult to buy cheap in Dubai, and therefore this city is the most visited city in the world. Interestingly, 80% of its population consists of foreigners.

6. The longest lake in the world

Lake Tanganyika is located on the border of Zambia, Tanzania, Burundi and Democratic Republic Congo and is the longest in the world. It was discovered in 1858 by English explorers John Speke and Richard Burton. The lake is interesting not only for its length (673 km), but it is the second in the world in terms of depth (1470 m) and water volume.

And Tanganyika is also famous for its interesting and varied fauna, bright and unusual fish.

7. Most high waterfall in Africa

On the territory of South Africa, in the Drakensberg Mountains, there is the Tugela Falls. Here water falls from a height of 948 meters in five cascades. The largest cascade is 411 meters high.

8. The most deep depression on earth not filled with water

We have heard a lot about deep sea trenches, but there are also deepest faults on the surface of the Earth. The deepest of them was discovered in Antarctica in 1961. The deepest point of the Bentley depression is 2540 meters below sea level and is filled with ice.

9. The highest peak in the Scandinavian mountains

In the Scandinavian mountains high peak is Gallhopiggen. Arnesen, Flaatten and Sulheim climbed this 2,469-meter mountain in Norway for the first time in 1850.

10. The longest river in Eurasia

The deepest and longest river in Eurasia is the Yangtze. It carries its waters from its sources in Tibet to the East China Sea along the territory of China for 6300 km.

11. The longest braid in the world

The longest braid in the world is located in Ukraine. The Arabat Spit, located on the Crimean Peninsula, 112 km long and 270 m to 8 km wide, separates from Sea of Azov Sivash Bay.

12. Most small city in the world