Cities of the World Educational Posters & Prints “Ba...-Bam...-”
for social studies classrooms, home schoolers, theme decor for office and studio.

Baalbek, a town in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, is famous for its large and well preserved temple ruins of the Roman period when the city was known as Heliopolis (sun+city).

Settlement of Baalbek dates back about 9000 years, with almost continual settlement of the tell (a mound created by human habitation over many centuries) under the Temple of Jupiter, which was probably a temple since the pre-Hellenistic era. As Heliopolis, it was one of the largest sanctuaries in the Roman Empire.

Eight Corinthian columns were disassembled and shipped to Constantinople under Justinian's orders circa 532-537 CE, for his basilica of Hagia Sophia.

The ancient site of the Mesopotamian city-state of Babylon, in current day Iraq, was founded in 1867 BC.

The Hebrew word for Babylon is Babel, coming to mean a place of “bustling diversity”. The Tower of Babel is familiar as the place where God decreed, “Come, let us go down and confound their speech.” The name Babylon was used in the sci-fi series Babylon 5 telling of a multi-racial future space station.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, were said to be destroyed by earthquakes. It is possible the gardens attributed to Babylon were actually in Nineveh.

Famous people associated with Babylon: Hammurabi

Baghdad, the capital and largest city in Iraq (6.5 million), is located on the Tigris River. The founding of Baghdad dates back to the 8th century, as the center of the Islamic world.

Baku, the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, on the western shore of the Caspian Sea.

The city is renowned for its fierce winter snow storms and harsh winds which explains the old Persian names that mean “wind-pounded city”.

The Absheron Peninsula is famous for oil oozing out of the ground naturally with the 10th century report from the Arabian traveler, Marudee, that both white and black oil were present and there were natural oil fires. At the beginning of the 20th century almost half of world oil production was being extracted in Baku. The city's past as a Soviet industrial center left it as one of the most polluted cities in the world, and the famous Ateshgah of Baku, Fire Temple depleted of its natural source of gas.

Balkh, an ancient city and center of Zoroastrianism, is located in what is now northern Afghanistan.

Today Balkh, considered one of the oldest cities in the world, is mostly in ruins: under Greek control it was known as Bactra, giving its name to Bactria, the Arabs called it Umm Al-Belaad or “Mother of Cities” due to its antiquity, and Marco Polo described Balkh as a “noble and great city”.

Baltimore is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maryland and the largest U.S. seaport in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Founded in 1729, the city is named after Lord Baltimore, a member of the Irish House of Lords and the founding proprietor of the Maryland Colony.

Notable people associated with Baltimore: Eubie Blake, Charles Bukowski, Cab Calloway, Frederick Douglass, Joe Gans, Dashiell Hammett, Alger Hiss, Billie Holiday, Thurgood Marshall, H. L. Mencken, Ogden Nash, Edgar Allan Poe, Adrienne Rich, Babe Ruth, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Upton Sinclair, Gertrude Stein.

Bamako, the capital and largest city of Mali, is estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa and sixth fastest in the world.

Bamako is located on the Niger River and the name Bamako comes from the Bambara language word meaning “crocodile river”.