If you want to choose the most famous cities in Africa, Casablanca must be among them, and it is likely to be ranked first.
The reason is that everyone knows that everything stems from the so-called greatest love movie in history, "Casablanca".
There are so many cities in this world, so many taverns, and she walked into my house.
This famous line seems to have exhausted all the true meanings of love and fate.
This movie made Casablanca truly a world famous city.
You can't help but acknowledge the charm of popular culture like film and literature.
For example, the name Shangri-La was originally just a fictitious place name
But now it is a sentiment, a religion, a unique landmark.
In addition to movies and novels, popular songs can also greatly enhance the image of the city. For example, the song "Chengdu" is popular, and the first two years have given Chengdu the confidence to claim to be the fifth city after the north, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen; Even if the song title of "Kill that Shijiazhuang Man" is a bit of that, it has more or less increased the fame of Shijiazhuang on the Internet.
The city of Casablanca not only has a movie of the same name, but also a song of the same name
And the amazing thing is that this song was also inspired by the film.
This adds to Casablanca's legend.
Well, since Casablanca is so well known, but if I ask you, which country does this city belong to?
If you don't search, can you answer?
I reckon many people will be confused, most people know that this is an African city, and perhaps many people will answer that it belongs to Egypt.
In fact, it is located in the northwestern corner of Africa, belonging to the small African country of Morocco, across the Strait of Gibraltar and across the sea from Spain.
Casablanca was originally named Dar Beda, meaning "white house", and later became a Spanish colony, so it was changed to Casablanca according to the Spanish meaning of "white house".
The film was filmed in the 1940s, when Casablanca was already a French colony. In January 1943, Roosevelt, Churchill, and de Gaulle also held a meeting here to discuss cooperation against Nazi Germany.
This was the prelude to the later group photo of the Allied Triumvirate.
After Morocco's independence, Casablanca was changed back to its original name. But until now, tourists from most countries around the world come here for the name Casablanca.
In fact, as a tourist city, Casablanca is really nothing special, if it is not this movie, it is destined to be a small city without a name. Just like Morocco, how many people in the world care about this country?
But history is so magical, a movie changed a city and made it a world famous city.
But then again, Casablanca in the movie and Casablanca in reality are fundamentally different things.
The border towns in the context of the chaotic era of the 1940s have long since changed time and space, not to mention that Hollywood is all shot in American studios.
If you do go to the small Moroccan town of Casablanca, you will be disappointed.
It's an unreal city that can only exist in movies.
But no matter how illusory it is, it does not hinder Casablanca's fame.
In fact, this is also in line with our real life experience. Try to think about it carefully, each of our memories, there will always be more or less mixed with some, after the brain to make up the impression, it may have happened, may not have happened; It may have existed, or it may be so illusory, but it is some of the scene images like this that people will never forget.
How to say it?
Just as we can't see the real Buddha, so we have to use a stone clay statue of the Buddha to pin some feeling. Casablanca is actually a symbol that pins on a certain yearning in the audience's mind.
No matter what era, people need such sustenance.
It's a spiritual need.
Well, in any case, Casablanca's fame is so great that it far exceeds its country. This is a very interesting phenomenon.
So, what other cities are similar to Casablanca?
The first thing that comes to my mind is Jerusalem. It is also a city full of religious sustenance.
It may be the only city in the world that transcends the state.
Jerusalem is revered as a holy place by both Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Its status in Western history is very high.
The history of Jerusalem is also very long and complex, in the dimension of 3 or 4 thousand years, here has gone through vicissitudes, different peoples and civilizations come and go, you sing and I appear.
Countless wars have broken out here, and many lives have been destroyed.
Jerusalem seems to be a place destined for no calm.
To this day, it is not clear whether it belongs to Israel or Palestine.
Because the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is well known to the world, Jerusalem is not as famous as Israel or Palestine. But Jerusalem's fame and stature clearly surpass that of Israel or Palestine.
Since it comes to Jerusalem, in the Mediterranean circle of civilization, there is a similar city, Constantinople.
It is also a city full of history, with many nationalities and civilizations.
Then again, our capital, Beijing, is actually similar. History has also experienced many battles between the agricultural civilization of the Central Plains and the nomadic civilization of the north, but in the end the nomadic civilization and the agricultural civilization were integrated in the Han culture, and Europe did not achieve this unification, so the history of Constantinople is still relatively divided, and the civilization of Beijing seems to have continuity.
It is for this reason that Constantinople's historical status and fame are certainly greater than those of Turkey today.
If Jerusalem and Constantinople are more famous than their kingdoms and less than Casablanca, Dubai is truly worthy of its name.
Similar to Morocco, I am afraid that many people are not sure which country Dubai belongs to.
I guess 80% of people would say that Dubai belongs to Saudi Arabia, right? After all, this is the most famous of the Middle East oil producers. Dubai, on the other hand, is the most famous city in the Middle East.
Dubai is synonymous with the middle east tycoon, mention Dubai, everyone can think of the famous seven-star hotel
Or the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building
Or the countless local luxury cars on the street.......
In short, Dubai is a symbol of paper drunkenness
But the country where Dubai is located, the UAE, the sense of presence is indeed too low.
Of course, there is also a reason that the UAE is a collective name for 7 emirates, and Dubai itself is one of them.
In addition to Dubai, there is a doha that is also very famous, which may be a little more famous than Qatar.
However, this year, because of the World Cup, Qatar's fame will definitely be greatly enhanced.
These cities seem to be largely concentrated along the Mediterranean coast to the Middle East.
For example, Prague may be more famous than the Czech Republic, thanks to the song composed by Jay Chou and the historical Prague Spring.
And because of the filming of the movie "The Grand Budapest Hotel", but also out of a Chen Peisi's Budapest, the fame is probably greater than today's Hungary.
In short, these areas where cities are more famous than countries are generally because the country is too small, and cities are particularly famous for some reasons, especially due to popular culture.
As for the other continents. The most famous cities are mostly concentrated in East Asia, North America and Europe, and others like Brazil and India, no matter how famous the city is, it will not be more famous than the country where it is located.
In places like Black Africa and South America, many countries are unknown, but they also have few famous cities. So there is no such trouble.
Well, that's all I know, cities that are more well-known globally than in their countries. Do you have anything to add?