If you have a thing for place names with a lot of letters (I don’t, but you might) then you’ve come to the right place. These names are bananas. Even a not-fussed-about-long-names person like me was thoroughly impressed. And my research also brought out a fun little surprise.

Ok. Ready. Steady. Go!

The Longest Name Award Goes To:

Officially, the place with the longest name in the world according to the Guiness World Records is — drumroll — Bangkok!

Wait. What? Yep. Bangkok. Capital of Thailand. That’s because Bangkok’s official name is:

Krungthepmahanakhonamonrattanakosinmahintharaayuthayamahadilokphopnoppharatratchathaniburiromudomratchaniwetmahasathanamonpimanawatansathitsakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit.

That’s 168 letters. Dang. That’s Thai-tanic.

Kaboom! Mind blown. Who knew? Not me. Bangkok — always surprising us. That 168-letter name is Bangkok’s ceremonial title (still counts). Though locals I’m told shorten it to either Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or Krung Thep.

In 2022, the Thai government generously declared that those using the roman alphabet (that’s most likely you and me) can use either Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or Bangkok. Thank you Thai government, we appreciate you.

Ready for Two More Long Place Names?

The Second Longest Place Name Award Goes To:

Let me share two more stunners with you.

Next up, after Bangkok pulled a cheeky-one, we have a small but beautiful hill in New Zealand called:

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaunga
horonukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu.

85 letters. Solid.

Thankfully, locals shorten the name of this spot to Taumata or Taumata Hill. Taumata Hill is located on the North Island of New Zealand, near Pōrangahau.

Taumata comes from the Māori language and sources say it roughly translates to “The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one” in Māori.

“Big knees”. Love the specificity.

The Third Longest Place Name Award Goes To:

Next — let’s fly from New Zealand to the other side of the world and land ourselves in Wales, United Kingdom.

Here we find ourselves in a small, quaint looking village with the 3rd longest place name on the planet called:

Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch.

That’s a modest 58 letters. Very respectable.

This town is also known as Llanfair PG or Llanfairpwll for short.

The translation is something like “St Mary's Church in the Hollow of the White Hazel Near to the Rapid Whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the Red Cave.” Very Game of Thrones.

What I love (perhaps, love the most) about Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogerychwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch is that the name was supposedly extended as a publicity stunt in 1869 to give the station the longest name of any railway station in Britain. To be fair, it was already a long name. An ecclesiastical directory from just before 1869 records the parish name as Llanfair­pwll­gwyn­gyll­goger­bwll­tysilio­gogo, with a note that locals almost always shortened it. In 1869 though, they decided long wasn’t long enough and added a few more letters to the mix. The Welsh … am I right?

And there you have it. Three places with names so long, even the locals bailed. Bangkok, New Zealand, Wales. The world and the people who name its places are quirkier than any of us gave them credit for. Even those of us who don't have a thing for long place names.

Subscribe now

Meet the Corinth Canal in Greece. This little beauty is just 4 miles long and 70 feet wide. And it only took 2,500 years to build.

The idea was first proposed around 600 BC by a Corinthian ruler named Periander. Cheeky. He settled instead for a limestone-paved road on which small ships could be carted across. Weak.

Julius Caesar wanted to dig it (talk about ego). So did Caligula (ditto). But they never got to it. Slack.

Nero actually broke ground in 67 AD using a golden pick. He was dead the following year. Project cancelled. Bummer. But at least he started. Right, Julius?

Anyway, it finally opened in 1893. Which was a bittersweet moment because it was open, but the construction ultimately bankrupted its original builders. Classic.

Then, after all that, modern cruise ships developed fast and grew too wide to use the canal anyways. The modern cruise ship is typically 130 to 160 feet wide.

Talk about adding insult to injury.

Today, the Corinth Canal is primarily a tourist attraction, with stunning sheer rock walls rising nearly 260 feet from the waterline. Amazing.

You can sail it (on a smaller boat) or visit some of the bridges that cross the canal and take some selfies. You can also do a bungee jump of it, if you tend to like those sorts of things.

Emperors dreamed of it for two millennia. Now, you can visit it and do a nice little 4 mile sail. Just keep you arms and legs inside the boat please.

The Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa. It’s a thin ribbon, never more than 31 miles (~50km) wide and approximately 200 miles (~300km) long. It looks like someone drew it with a ruler along a river. Because, mostly, they did.

The popular story is that a British warship sailed up the Gambia River firing cannonballs off each side, claiming whatever land they could reach. It’s a great story. It’s also mostly myth, sadly. The real border was drawn in Paris in 1889. The French had long recognized Britain's claim to the Gambia River (that’s nice). So British and French diplomats simply agreed to take 10km either side of the river and call it British territory.

No cannonballs. Just two colonial powers in a room, drawing lines through land like they owned the place. Shocker.