Stop 1 · Egypt
Alexandria
Alexander the Great founded it and never saw it finished. Of the seventy-odd cities he named for himself, this is the one that endured.
Cities named after a real person
Each stop carries the name of someone who actually lived — a conqueror, a president, a navigator, two British politicians and a queen.
The five stops
Stop 2 · United States
Washington, D.C.
Named for the first president, who chose the site himself in 1790 — and is the only president never to have lived in the city named after him.
Stop 3 · Canada
Vancouver
Named for George Vancouver, who surveyed the coast for the Royal Navy. The city adopted the name in 1886 — and burned down entirely two months later.
Stop 4 · Australia
Melbourne
Named in 1837 after Lord Melbourne, the British prime minister of the day — who almost certainly never gave the place a second thought.
Stop 5 · Australia
Adelaide
Named for Queen Adelaide, consort of William IV. Its ring of parkland was mandated in the original 1837 plan and has never been built on.
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Think you'd have found them? Play today's expedition, or replay this one from the archive.