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Quirky facts about Madrid we bet you never knew
04/09/2021
DESPITE being its capital and welcoming the highest number of international tourists of anywhere in Spain, Madrid does not immediately leap into people's heads when they think of this multi-faceted, beautiful and fascinating south-western European country.
Rather like Canberra, Washington DC, Brasilia, Ankara and Rabat, when conjuring up images of a major Spanish city, it tends to come about third or fourth on the list after the likes of Barcelona, Sevilla, and perhaps either Valencia, Granada, Málaga, Alicante or Palma de Mallorca, depending upon whether you have a sightseeing tour or beach holiday in mind.
Just as the five mentioned above tend to find themselves shoved down the list behind the more famous cities in their countries – Sydney, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, and Marrakech.
But Madrid is the second-largest capital city in the European Union in terms of population (just over 3.2 million, only beaten by Berlin with slightly more than 3.5 million), and is the fifth-largest city and fourth-largest capital on the continent of Europe when counting the entire metropolitan area – Istanbul, with 15.2 million, tops the list, but for capitals, Moscow with 12.6 million is the biggest, followed by Paris (11 million) and London (9.3 million), then Madrid at 6.6 million.
And, considering it is a capital, Madrid is not as crowded as you'd expect, either: Out of the top 55 most densely-populated municipalities in Europe – not all of them cities – Madrid comes 29th.
Spain's capital, as well as being home to the 'Big Three' art museums – El Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemizsa – and the spectacular Royal Palace and huge, verdant Retiro Park, also houses some intriguing facts and features which not everyone is aware of.
For fans of useless but fun information, here are 10 little gems about Madrid we've unearthed.
It's the highest-altitude capital city in the European Union
By a long way, in fact. It's not exactly perched on the tip of Mont Blanc, and it's definitely not another Cusco or La Paz, but Madrid is not as flat as you thought it was: It stands a whole 657 metres above sea-level. So if it was right on the coast, it'd dominate the horizon when you looked at it from the beach, and it's a wonder Madrid isn't engulfed in clouds most of the time.
On the continent of Europe, only Andorra la Vella is higher up (1,023 metres); otherwise, Madrid's nearest rival in terms of height is Prague, at 399 metres above sea-level, followed by Kiev, Ukraine at 179 metres, and Athens at 170 metres.
Che Guevara bought his famous beret in Madrid's oldest hat shop
We can even tell you the date and where to find the store.
Cuban revolutionary Ernesto Ché first visited the Spanish capital on June 13, 1959, when he made a pit-stop there en route to Cairo, Egypt.
Whilst there, he popped over to the iconic Plaza Mayor – just around the corner from the Puerta del Sol square, with its New Year's Eve clock and helpfully-named Sol metro station – and visited the milliner's known as La Favorita (literally, 'The Favourite').
The beret he picked up from it is the one that he wears in practically every typical portrait photo you see of him.
It has a fountain dedicated to Lucifer. And guess at what altitude?
We're not sure whether Madrid holds any sort of record for the most fountains per square metre, but if you visit the centre, you'll notice there are quite a few.
The Cibeles fountain, a unique, splendid stone carving of the Roman goddess on her chariot, is quite difficult to photograph as it's a roundabout on a busy road, but is one of Madrid's star attractions. It also has several on the Paseo del Prado and in the Retiro Park, among other locations.
The Monument of the Fallen Angel, or Ángel Caído, in the Retiro shows Lucifer being expelled from Heaven, and the superstitious among the madrileños believe the statue and its fountain sit directly above the gateway to Hell (move over Turkmenistan with your giant fiery holes).
And we're certain the altitude our Fallen Angel sits at was calculated deliberately – it cannot be pure coincidence that it's 666 metres above sea-level...
One of its metro stations is built over a cemetery
Ghosts of monks and friars past probably hover around the ticket booths and turnstiles of Tirso de Molina metro station – named after one of Spain's key 'Golden Age' playwrights – given that the bodies were not removed from the graveyard when this stop on the underground was built in 1834.
The station sits below what used to be the La Merced Convent (pictured), whose name means 'The Mercy', and which housed a cemetery where all the monks based there were eventually buried.
Although the convent was demolished nearly 200 years ago, the remains of the deceased occupants were left behind, and remain inside the walls and floors of the station.
You know those announcements that you think are coming over a tannoy system...?
Madrid is not a city.
That's right. Country capital it may be, and second-most populated in the EU, but Madrid is not a city.
It's a town.
Different countries have their own criteria for classifying municipalities into 'village', 'town' or 'city'; in the UK, for example, one location might have a town charter from centuries ago and still be officially a 'town', despite another having twice the population and being considered a village, and a 'city' in Britain must have a cathedral and a charter from the Queen, or preceding monarch. Others merely use headcount as a distinction (technically, 6,000 people or fewer is a village, anything above is a town, and from 100,000 onwards, it's a city), although in Spain, charters are also key.
Villa is the word for 'town', but in everyday speak, is never used – you either live in a pueblo or a ciudad, the latter being a very big town or city, the former a village or small town – and although the word aldea is, technically, a small village or hamlet, you'll never actually employ it in conversation.
Then there are pedanías and entidades menores, or EATIMs, which are basically villages that 'belong' to a larger municipality and are governed and funded by the latter's local council – a 'parish', if you will, and often with its own parish committee or sub-council, but the buck stops at the bigger borough.
Anyway, Madrid. It's plenty big enough – it's a national capital, for goodness' sakes – and has several cathedrals, so why shouldn't we call it a city?
King Alfonso VIII founded Madrid in 1202 and registered it as a villa on its municipal charter, and it has never been changed since.
Madrid has been the capital of Spain for 460 years, since King Felipe II named it as such after consulting 'wise men' to calculate the exact centre of mainland Spain to build his Imperial Court on (they were about 20 kilometres too far to the north, as it happens), but all attempts to change the charter – whenever anyone remembers, that is – have failed.
It's home to the world's oldest restaurant
Although the eatery is known as Casa Botín, when it was founded in 1725, it was given the name of its French owner, chef Jean Botin, so should not, technically, have an accent over the 'I' and should be pronounced 'bot-ang' (bɒtã) rather than 'bot-een' (bɒti:n); however, it has been known by the Spanish pronunciation and spelling for generations, and is often called 'El Sobrino Botín' ('Botín the Nephew').
Back in 1930, it was sold to the González Martín family.
Not only is it still in business, but it has never shut. Not even for the Civil War. Not even for lockdown 2020, since home deliveries of food were still permitted, and it's in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest-running restaurant on earth.
Its name was originally Arabic
This comes as no surprise. The Moors, or Arabs from northern Africa, were the dominant population in Spain for around 700 years, the most common religion was Islam, the most-spoken language was Arabic, and the 'native' Spaniards often communicated in a kind of 'street' Arabic mixed with Spanish – those who followed a Moorish lifestyle, or were Muslims, but were of Spanish descent and mother tongue, were called mozárabes, or 'Mozarabs', and even had their own style of architecture: Catholic churches built in Islamic style.
Any town in Spain with a name that starts with 'Ben-' (such as 'Benidorm'), or with 'Al-' (such as Alicante), are of Arab origin, but these are not the only ones.
Built on the banks of a small river, the name 'Madrid' came from Majerit, which was an evolution of the Arabic word mayrit, meaning 'original stream' or 'mother stream' (arroyo matriz, in Spanish), alluding to the vast network of rivers in the area at the time.
Although not officially founded as a town until 1202, it was a settlement centuries before then, and was known as Majerit whilst it was under Muslim rule and inhabited by the Moors, between the years 852 and 1085.
Originally, it was built as a fortress, or a settlement with a defensive wall around it – and a part of it still exists.
The ninth-century dry-stone construction close to the Almudena Cathedral, and the watchtower in the Plaza de Oriente, were both built to protect Majerit from enemy invasion.
Although the wall is one of the oldest structures, the oldest building is somewhat newer
To date, the most ancient building still standing dates back to the 13th century, towards the latter end of the Moorish era – the last of them were expelled by the Inquisition in the late 15th century – and is Mudéjar in structure.
This architectural style was created by the gradually diminishing and much poorer Moorish communities, who could not afford high-quality building materials and had to make do with wood and mud-brick, although ended up erecting some of the most attractive structures in the country.
The Santa María de la Antigua hermitage, or hilltop chapel, is one of them; built in homage to Santa María Magdalena (Saint Mary Magdalene), you'll find it in the Carabanchel district, near the old prison.
Actually, Madrid does have an older building. The Debod Temple was constructed well over 2,000 years ago, but was only gifted to the city in 1968, so it was someone else's until 53 years back and so probably doesn't count.
That 'someone else' was, in fact, Aswan, in southern Egypt – when the famous Aswan dam was built, authorities were concerned the temple would become flooded and damaged, so they gave it to Spain.
Want to know where to find the Bank of Spain's gold reserve? Underneath a roundabout
Remember the Cibeles roundabout we mentioned? It's just across the road from the Bank of Spain, and right underneath the goddess' chariot is a 2,000-square-metre vault housing over 90 tonnes of gold.
It's armour-plated, and 35 metres underground.
Now you know where it is, are you tempted to try a heist?
Well, don't forget fountains involve water, and this one is supplied by the Pascualas Canal which runs below it – sometimes known as the 'Oropesa Canal' (no connection to the Costa del Azahar beach town of Oropesa del Mar; the word oro means 'gold', and pesa is the third person conjugation of the verb pesar, meaning 'to weigh' or 'to be heavy').
So what, though, if you can swim?
This is where it all gets a bit Dan Brown: If anyone tries to break into the vault, a lever automatically cranks down and opens the floodgates, so the Pascuala Canal fills the entire chamber with water, from floor to ceiling, in a matter of seconds.
After all, if you're going to tell the world where you keep the national gold reserve, you're going to have the possibility of a break-in covered, aren't you?
Metro trains are driven on the left, UK-style
Now you're going to keep a close eye on trains at every metro station wherever you travel in the world, Spain included – but yes, in countries where cars drive on the right-hand side of the road (that's 66% of the global population), underground trains also travel on the right-hand side of the platform, and vice versa for the countries home to the 34% of the planet which drives on the left.
Why do Madrid metro trains travel on the left, then, when Spain drives on the right?
That's because Madrid drives on the left, too.
Well, it used to. Until 97 years ago, Madrid's cars and carriages drove 'the British way', and those of Barcelona the 'continental way', but by 1924, Spain's government decided it was time to streamline the situation nationwide. Otherwise, there could have been a few mishaps along the highway between the country's two largest cities – where is the cross-over? At the city limits, or the halfway point?
Now Spain is, thankfully, all heading in the same direction, only four countries in Europe drive on the left, and all of them are island nations: Great Britain – including the Channel Islands - the Republic of Ireland, Malta, and Cyprus.
In fact, Sweden used to be a left-hand driving country long after Madrid made the switch – it only started to follow the majority of Europe in 1967.
Other countries in the world which do likewise also have historical ties to the UK, or are former colonies, including New Zealand, Australia, South Africa.
But not all left-hand driving nations are old British colonies – the Chinese State of Macau, the Oceania State of East Timor (Timor-Leste) and the south-east African country of Mozambique, are ex-Portuguese colonies, and Britain did not 'own' Japan, Nepal, Surinam, or Indonesia.
Only one land border in the Americas involves drivers having to change sides as they cross it – between Brazil (right-hand driving) and Guyana (left-hand driving), a curved cross sign appears along the Takutu river bridge that joins the two countries.
Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei, Hong Kong, Dominica, eSwatini (formerly Swaziland), Fiji, Grenada (that's the Caribbean island, not Granada in Spain), India, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, The Maldives, Mauritius, Namibia, Nauru, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Santa Lucía, Saint Vincent & The Grenadines, Samoa, The Seychelles, Singapore, The Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Turks & Caicos, The Pitcairn Islands, the US Virgin Islands, Zambia, and Zimbabwe also drive on the left.
Curiously, Gibraltar is the only British region which drives on the right.
Why we drive on the right or left
As for why one or the other side of the road was chosen, it turns out the Romans rode on the left-hand side of the road – unlike today – since, as the majority of people are right-handed, horsemen would have their right hand free to fend off attackers with their swords as they kept their left hands on the reins; when driving carriages, it was more comfortable to use a whip in the right hand, and by keeping to the left side of the road, you were less likely to bash a pedestrian by accident.
Right-hand driving in Europe started with Napoleon – some claim he switched direction because he was left-handed – although with the arrival of the first motor cars, the USA opted to drive them on the right, and the trend took off.
Colonisation also caused right-hand driving to increase in popularity, starting with Europe and then with the countries they invaded: As they were typically heading west in search of new land, rather than east, and in very large carriages pulled by four or six horses, now they had no need of swords to defend themselves, the right-handed among them found it easier to manage their vehicles from the right-hand side of the road.
It would not be until after World War II that driving directions were standardised, however. This came in the shape of the Geneva Convention of 1949, which the majority of Europe opted to adhere to.
Of the 195 territories that the United Nations officially recognises as 'countries', 141 of them drive on the right, and 54 of them on the left.
Related Topics
You may also be interested in ...
DESPITE being its capital and welcoming the highest number of international tourists of anywhere in Spain, Madrid does not immediately leap into people's heads when they think of this multi-faceted, beautiful and fascinating south-western European country.
Rather like Canberra, Washington DC, Brasilia, Ankara and Rabat, when conjuring up images of a major Spanish city, it tends to come about third or fourth on the list after the likes of Barcelona, Sevilla, and perhaps either Valencia, Granada, Málaga, Alicante or Palma de Mallorca, depending upon whether you have a sightseeing tour or beach holiday in mind.
Just as the five mentioned above tend to find themselves shoved down the list behind the more famous cities in their countries – Sydney, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, and Marrakech.
But Madrid is the second-largest capital city in the European Union in terms of population (just over 3.2 million, only beaten by Berlin with slightly more than 3.5 million), and is the fifth-largest city and fourth-largest capital on the continent of Europe when counting the entire metropolitan area – Istanbul, with 15.2 million, tops the list, but for capitals, Moscow with 12.6 million is the biggest, followed by Paris (11 million) and London (9.3 million), then Madrid at 6.6 million.
And, considering it is a capital, Madrid is not as crowded as you'd expect, either: Out of the top 55 most densely-populated municipalities in Europe – not all of them cities – Madrid comes 29th.
Spain's capital, as well as being home to the 'Big Three' art museums – El Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemizsa – and the spectacular Royal Palace and huge, verdant Retiro Park, also houses some intriguing facts and features which not everyone is aware of.
For fans of useless but fun information, here are 10 little gems about Madrid we've unearthed.
It's the highest-altitude capital city in the European Union
By a long way, in fact. It's not exactly perched on the tip of Mont Blanc, and it's definitely not another Cusco or La Paz, but Madrid is not as flat as you thought it was: It stands a whole 657 metres above sea-level. So if it was right on the coast, it'd dominate the horizon when you looked at it from the beach, and it's a wonder Madrid isn't engulfed in clouds most of the time.
On the continent of Europe, only Andorra la Vella is higher up (1,023 metres); otherwise, Madrid's nearest rival in terms of height is Prague, at 399 metres above sea-level, followed by Kiev, Ukraine at 179 metres, and Athens at 170 metres.
Che Guevara bought his famous beret in Madrid's oldest hat shop
We can even tell you the date and where to find the store.
Cuban revolutionary Ernesto Ché first visited the Spanish capital on June 13, 1959, when he made a pit-stop there en route to Cairo, Egypt.
Whilst there, he popped over to the iconic Plaza Mayor – just around the corner from the Puerta del Sol square, with its New Year's Eve clock and helpfully-named Sol metro station – and visited the milliner's known as La Favorita (literally, 'The Favourite').
The beret he picked up from it is the one that he wears in practically every typical portrait photo you see of him.
It has a fountain dedicated to Lucifer. And guess at what altitude?
We're not sure whether Madrid holds any sort of record for the most fountains per square metre, but if you visit the centre, you'll notice there are quite a few.
The Cibeles fountain, a unique, splendid stone carving of the Roman goddess on her chariot, is quite difficult to photograph as it's a roundabout on a busy road, but is one of Madrid's star attractions. It also has several on the Paseo del Prado and in the Retiro Park, among other locations.
The Monument of the Fallen Angel, or Ángel Caído, in the Retiro shows Lucifer being expelled from Heaven, and the superstitious among the madrileños believe the statue and its fountain sit directly above the gateway to Hell (move over Turkmenistan with your giant fiery holes).
And we're certain the altitude our Fallen Angel sits at was calculated deliberately – it cannot be pure coincidence that it's 666 metres above sea-level...
One of its metro stations is built over a cemetery
Ghosts of monks and friars past probably hover around the ticket booths and turnstiles of Tirso de Molina metro station – named after one of Spain's key 'Golden Age' playwrights – given that the bodies were not removed from the graveyard when this stop on the underground was built in 1834.
The station sits below what used to be the La Merced Convent (pictured), whose name means 'The Mercy', and which housed a cemetery where all the monks based there were eventually buried.
Although the convent was demolished nearly 200 years ago, the remains of the deceased occupants were left behind, and remain inside the walls and floors of the station.
You know those announcements that you think are coming over a tannoy system...?
Madrid is not a city.
That's right. Country capital it may be, and second-most populated in the EU, but Madrid is not a city.
It's a town.
Different countries have their own criteria for classifying municipalities into 'village', 'town' or 'city'; in the UK, for example, one location might have a town charter from centuries ago and still be officially a 'town', despite another having twice the population and being considered a village, and a 'city' in Britain must have a cathedral and a charter from the Queen, or preceding monarch. Others merely use headcount as a distinction (technically, 6,000 people or fewer is a village, anything above is a town, and from 100,000 onwards, it's a city), although in Spain, charters are also key.
Villa is the word for 'town', but in everyday speak, is never used – you either live in a pueblo or a ciudad, the latter being a very big town or city, the former a village or small town – and although the word aldea is, technically, a small village or hamlet, you'll never actually employ it in conversation.
Then there are pedanías and entidades menores, or EATIMs, which are basically villages that 'belong' to a larger municipality and are governed and funded by the latter's local council – a 'parish', if you will, and often with its own parish committee or sub-council, but the buck stops at the bigger borough.
Anyway, Madrid. It's plenty big enough – it's a national capital, for goodness' sakes – and has several cathedrals, so why shouldn't we call it a city?
King Alfonso VIII founded Madrid in 1202 and registered it as a villa on its municipal charter, and it has never been changed since.
Madrid has been the capital of Spain for 460 years, since King Felipe II named it as such after consulting 'wise men' to calculate the exact centre of mainland Spain to build his Imperial Court on (they were about 20 kilometres too far to the north, as it happens), but all attempts to change the charter – whenever anyone remembers, that is – have failed.
It's home to the world's oldest restaurant
Although the eatery is known as Casa Botín, when it was founded in 1725, it was given the name of its French owner, chef Jean Botin, so should not, technically, have an accent over the 'I' and should be pronounced 'bot-ang' (bɒtã) rather than 'bot-een' (bɒti:n); however, it has been known by the Spanish pronunciation and spelling for generations, and is often called 'El Sobrino Botín' ('Botín the Nephew').
Back in 1930, it was sold to the González Martín family.
Not only is it still in business, but it has never shut. Not even for the Civil War. Not even for lockdown 2020, since home deliveries of food were still permitted, and it's in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest-running restaurant on earth.
Its name was originally Arabic
This comes as no surprise. The Moors, or Arabs from northern Africa, were the dominant population in Spain for around 700 years, the most common religion was Islam, the most-spoken language was Arabic, and the 'native' Spaniards often communicated in a kind of 'street' Arabic mixed with Spanish – those who followed a Moorish lifestyle, or were Muslims, but were of Spanish descent and mother tongue, were called mozárabes, or 'Mozarabs', and even had their own style of architecture: Catholic churches built in Islamic style.
Any town in Spain with a name that starts with 'Ben-' (such as 'Benidorm'), or with 'Al-' (such as Alicante), are of Arab origin, but these are not the only ones.
Built on the banks of a small river, the name 'Madrid' came from Majerit, which was an evolution of the Arabic word mayrit, meaning 'original stream' or 'mother stream' (arroyo matriz, in Spanish), alluding to the vast network of rivers in the area at the time.
Although not officially founded as a town until 1202, it was a settlement centuries before then, and was known as Majerit whilst it was under Muslim rule and inhabited by the Moors, between the years 852 and 1085.
Originally, it was built as a fortress, or a settlement with a defensive wall around it – and a part of it still exists.
The ninth-century dry-stone construction close to the Almudena Cathedral, and the watchtower in the Plaza de Oriente, were both built to protect Majerit from enemy invasion.
Although the wall is one of the oldest structures, the oldest building is somewhat newer
To date, the most ancient building still standing dates back to the 13th century, towards the latter end of the Moorish era – the last of them were expelled by the Inquisition in the late 15th century – and is Mudéjar in structure.
This architectural style was created by the gradually diminishing and much poorer Moorish communities, who could not afford high-quality building materials and had to make do with wood and mud-brick, although ended up erecting some of the most attractive structures in the country.
The Santa María de la Antigua hermitage, or hilltop chapel, is one of them; built in homage to Santa María Magdalena (Saint Mary Magdalene), you'll find it in the Carabanchel district, near the old prison.
Actually, Madrid does have an older building. The Debod Temple was constructed well over 2,000 years ago, but was only gifted to the city in 1968, so it was someone else's until 53 years back and so probably doesn't count.
That 'someone else' was, in fact, Aswan, in southern Egypt – when the famous Aswan dam was built, authorities were concerned the temple would become flooded and damaged, so they gave it to Spain.
Want to know where to find the Bank of Spain's gold reserve? Underneath a roundabout
Remember the Cibeles roundabout we mentioned? It's just across the road from the Bank of Spain, and right underneath the goddess' chariot is a 2,000-square-metre vault housing over 90 tonnes of gold.
It's armour-plated, and 35 metres underground.
Now you know where it is, are you tempted to try a heist?
Well, don't forget fountains involve water, and this one is supplied by the Pascualas Canal which runs below it – sometimes known as the 'Oropesa Canal' (no connection to the Costa del Azahar beach town of Oropesa del Mar; the word oro means 'gold', and pesa is the third person conjugation of the verb pesar, meaning 'to weigh' or 'to be heavy').
So what, though, if you can swim?
This is where it all gets a bit Dan Brown: If anyone tries to break into the vault, a lever automatically cranks down and opens the floodgates, so the Pascuala Canal fills the entire chamber with water, from floor to ceiling, in a matter of seconds.
After all, if you're going to tell the world where you keep the national gold reserve, you're going to have the possibility of a break-in covered, aren't you?
Metro trains are driven on the left, UK-style
Now you're going to keep a close eye on trains at every metro station wherever you travel in the world, Spain included – but yes, in countries where cars drive on the right-hand side of the road (that's 66% of the global population), underground trains also travel on the right-hand side of the platform, and vice versa for the countries home to the 34% of the planet which drives on the left.
Why do Madrid metro trains travel on the left, then, when Spain drives on the right?
That's because Madrid drives on the left, too.
Well, it used to. Until 97 years ago, Madrid's cars and carriages drove 'the British way', and those of Barcelona the 'continental way', but by 1924, Spain's government decided it was time to streamline the situation nationwide. Otherwise, there could have been a few mishaps along the highway between the country's two largest cities – where is the cross-over? At the city limits, or the halfway point?
Now Spain is, thankfully, all heading in the same direction, only four countries in Europe drive on the left, and all of them are island nations: Great Britain – including the Channel Islands - the Republic of Ireland, Malta, and Cyprus.
In fact, Sweden used to be a left-hand driving country long after Madrid made the switch – it only started to follow the majority of Europe in 1967.
Other countries in the world which do likewise also have historical ties to the UK, or are former colonies, including New Zealand, Australia, South Africa.
But not all left-hand driving nations are old British colonies – the Chinese State of Macau, the Oceania State of East Timor (Timor-Leste) and the south-east African country of Mozambique, are ex-Portuguese colonies, and Britain did not 'own' Japan, Nepal, Surinam, or Indonesia.
Only one land border in the Americas involves drivers having to change sides as they cross it – between Brazil (right-hand driving) and Guyana (left-hand driving), a curved cross sign appears along the Takutu river bridge that joins the two countries.
Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei, Hong Kong, Dominica, eSwatini (formerly Swaziland), Fiji, Grenada (that's the Caribbean island, not Granada in Spain), India, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, The Maldives, Mauritius, Namibia, Nauru, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Santa Lucía, Saint Vincent & The Grenadines, Samoa, The Seychelles, Singapore, The Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Turks & Caicos, The Pitcairn Islands, the US Virgin Islands, Zambia, and Zimbabwe also drive on the left.
Curiously, Gibraltar is the only British region which drives on the right.
Why we drive on the right or left
As for why one or the other side of the road was chosen, it turns out the Romans rode on the left-hand side of the road – unlike today – since, as the majority of people are right-handed, horsemen would have their right hand free to fend off attackers with their swords as they kept their left hands on the reins; when driving carriages, it was more comfortable to use a whip in the right hand, and by keeping to the left side of the road, you were less likely to bash a pedestrian by accident.
Right-hand driving in Europe started with Napoleon – some claim he switched direction because he was left-handed – although with the arrival of the first motor cars, the USA opted to drive them on the right, and the trend took off.
Colonisation also caused right-hand driving to increase in popularity, starting with Europe and then with the countries they invaded: As they were typically heading west in search of new land, rather than east, and in very large carriages pulled by four or six horses, now they had no need of swords to defend themselves, the right-handed among them found it easier to manage their vehicles from the right-hand side of the road.
It would not be until after World War II that driving directions were standardised, however. This came in the shape of the Geneva Convention of 1949, which the majority of Europe opted to adhere to.
Of the 195 territories that the United Nations officially recognises as 'countries', 141 of them drive on the right, and 54 of them on the left.
Related Topics
You may also be interested in ...
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