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Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh ( ភ្នំពេញ, Phnum Pénh, lit. 'Penh's Hill, Penh's Mountain') is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, industrial, and cultural centre. Before Phnom Penh became capital city, Oudong was the capital of the country.

Phnom Penh succeeded Angkor Thom as the capital of the Khmer nation but was abandoned several times before being reestablished in 1865 by King Norodom. The city formerly functioned as a processing center, with textiles, pharmaceuticals, machine manufacturing, and rice milling. Its chief assets, however, were cultural. Institutions of higher learning included the Royal University of Phnom Penh (established in 1960 as Royal Khmer University), with schools of engineering, fine arts, technology, and agricultural sciences, the latter at Chamkar Daung, a suburb. Also located in Phnom Penh were the Royal University of Agronomic Sciences and the Agricultural School of Prek Leap.

The city was nicknamed the "Pearl of Asia" for its early 20th century colonial French architecture, which included Art Deco works. Phnom Penh, along with Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, are significant global and domestic tourist destinations for Cambodia. Founded in 1372, the city is noted for its historical architecture and attractions. It became the national capital in 1434 following the fall of Angkor, and remained so until 1497. It regained its capital status during the French colonial era in 1865. There are a number of surviving colonial-era buildings scattered along the grand boulevards.

On the banks of the Tonlé Sap, Mekong, and Bassac Rivers, Phnom Penh is home to more than 2 million people, approximately 14% of the Cambodian population. The Greater Phnom Penh area includes the nearby Ta Khmau city and some districts of Kandal province.

The city has hosted numerous regional and international events, the most notable being the 2002, 2012, and 2022 ASEAN Summit, the 32nd Southeast Asian Games, and the 12th ASEAN Para Games. Phnom Penh will be the first Cambodian city and the second city in Southeast Asia to host the Asian Youth Games in 2029.

Etymology
Phnom Penh (lit. "Penh's hill") takes its name from the present Wat Phnom (lit. "hill temple"), or from the ancient Funan Kingdom, which existed from the 1st to the 7th century AD in Southeast Asia and was the forerunner of the current Cambodian monarchy. Legend has it that in 1372, a wealthy widow named Penh found a Koki tree floating down the Tonlé Sap River after a storm. Inside the tree were four bronze Buddha statues and a stone statue of Vishnu. Penh ordered villagers to raise the height of the hill northeast of her house and used the Koki wood to build a temple on the hill to house the four Buddha statues, and a shrine for the Vishnu image slightly lower down. The temple became known as Wat Phnom Daun Penh, which is now known as Wat Phnom, a small hill 27 m in height.

Phnom Penh's former official name is Krong Chaktomuk Serei Mongkol (ក្រុងចតុមុខសិរីមង្គល, lit. "city of Brahma's faces"), in its short form as Krong Chaktomuk (lit. "city of four faces"). Krong Chaktomuk is an abbreviation of the full name, given to it by King Ponhea Yat: Krong Chaktomuk Mongkol Sakal Kampuchea Thipadei Serei Theakreak Bavar Intabat Borei Roat Reach Seima Moha Nokor (ក្រុងចតុមុខមង្គលសកលកម្ពុជាធិបតី សិរីធរបវរ ឥន្ទបត្តបុរី រដ្ឋរាជសីមាមហានគរ ). This loosely translates as "the place of four rivers that gives the happiness and success of the Khmer Kingdom, the highest leader as well as impregnable city of the God Indra of the great kingdom".

History
The initial settlement of Phnom Penh is believed to have been established since the 5th century AD, according to the discovery of ancient kiln site in Choeung Ek commune of Dangkao district, southern part of central Phnom Penh in the early 2000s. Choeung Ek archaeological site was one of the largest kiln pottery center in Cambodia and the earliest known kiln sites in Southeast Asia to produce the ceremonial vessels known as kendi from 5th to 13th century. Archaeologists stated that a large community is surrounded by a circular earthwork structure that is 740 metres in diameter and 4 metres high, built in the 11th century. In addition, there are remnants of other ancient village infrastructure, irrigation system, inscription, Shiva linga as well as an ancient brick temple foundation and its ornate remains which dated back to Funan era.

First recorded a century after it is said to have taken place, the legend of the founding of Phnom Penh tells of a local woman, Penh (commonly referred to as Daun Penh (Lady Penh in Khmer), living at Chaktomuk, the future Phnom Penh. It was the late 14th century, and the Khmer capital was still at Angkor near Siem Reap 350 km to the north. Gathering firewood along the banks of the river, Lady Penh spied a floating koki tree in the river and fished it from the water. Inside the tree she found four Buddha statues and one of Vishnu.

The discovery was taken as a divine blessing, and to some a sign that the Khmer capital was to be brought to Phnom Penh from Angkor. To house the new-found sacred objects, Penh raised a small hill on the west bank of the Tonle Sap River and crowned it with a shrine, now known as Wat Phnom at the north end of central Phnom Penh. "Phnom" is Khmer for "hill" and Penh's hill took on the name of the founder, and the area around it became known after the hill.

Phnom Penh first became the capital of Cambodia after Ponhea Yat, king of the Khmer Empire, moved the capital from Angkor Thom after it was captured and destroyed by Siam a few years earlier. There is a stupa behind Wat Phnom that houses the remains of Ponhea Yat and the royal family as well as the remaining Buddhist statues from the Angkorean era. In the 17th century, Japanese immigrants also settled on the outskirts of present-day Phnom Penh. A small Portuguese community survived in Phnom Penh until the 17th century, undertaking commercial and religious activity in the country.

Phnom Penh remained the royal capital for 73 years, from 1432 to 1505. It was abandoned for 360 years (from 1505 to 1865) by subsequent kings due to internal fighting between the royal pretenders. Later kings moved the capital several times and established their royal capitals at various locations in Tuol Basan (Srey Santhor), Pursat, Longvek, Lavear Em and Oudong.

It was not until 1866, under the reign of King Norodom I (1860–1904), the eldest son of King Ang Duong, who ruled on behalf of Siam, that Phnom Penh became the permanent seat of government and capital of Cambodia, and the current Royal Palace was built. Beginning in 1870, the French colonial authorities turned a riverside village into a city where they built hotels, schools, prisons, barracks, banks, public works offices, telegraph offices, law courts, and health services buildings. In 1872, the first glimpse of a modern city took shape when the colonial administration employed the services of French contractor Le Faucheur to construct the first 300 concrete houses for sale and rental to Chinese traders.

By the 1920s, Phnom Penh was known as the "Pearl of Asia", and over the next four decades, Phnom Penh continued to experience rapid growth with the building of railways to Sihanoukville and Pochentong International Airport (now Phnom Penh International Airport). Phnom Penh's infrastructure saw major modernisation under the rule of Sihanouk.

During the Vietnam War, Cambodia was used as a base by the People's Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong, and thousands of refugees from across the country flooded the city to escape the fighting between their own government troops, the People's Army of Vietnam, the Viet Cong, the South Vietnamese and their allies, the Khmer Rouge, and American air strikes. By 1975, the population was 2–3 million, the bulk of whom were refugees from the fighting. The Khmer Rouge cut off supplies to the city for more than a year before it fell on 17 April 1975. Reports from journalists stated that the Khmer Rouge shelling "tortured the capital almost continuously", inflicting "random death and mutilation" on millions of trapped civilians. The Khmer Rouge forcibly evacuated the entire city after taking it, in what has been described as a death march: François Ponchaud wrote that "I shall never forget one cripple who had neither hands nor feet, writhing along the ground like a severed worm, or a weeping father carrying his ten-year old daughter wrapped in a sheet tied around his neck like a sling, or the man with his foot dangling at the end of a leg to which it was attached by nothing but skin"; Jon Swain recalled that the Khmer Rouge were "tipping out patients from the hospitals like garbage into the streets....In five years of war, this is the greatest caravan of human misery I have seen". All of its residents, including the wealthy and educated, were evacuated from the city and forced to do difficult labour on rural farms as "new people". Tuol Sleng High School was taken over by Pol Pot's forces and was turned into the S-21 prison camp, where people were detained and tortured. Pol Pot sought a return to an agrarian economy and therefore killed many people perceived as educated, "lazy", spies, or political enemies. Many others starved to death as a result of failure of the agrarian society and the sale of Cambodia's rice to China in exchange for bullets and weaponry. The former high school is now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, where Khmer Rouge torture devices and photos of their victims are displayed. Choeung Ek (the Killing Fields), 15 km away, where the Khmer Rouge marched prisoners from Tuol Sleng to be murdered and buried in shallow pits, is also now a memorial to those who were killed by the regime.

The Khmer Rouge were driven out of Phnom Penh by the People's Army of Vietnam in 1979, and people began to return to the city. Vietnam is historically a state with which Cambodia has had many conflicts, therefore this liberation was and is viewed with mixed emotions by the Cambodians. A period of reconstruction began, spurred by the continuing stability of government, attracting new foreign investment and aid by countries including France, Australia, and Japan. Loans were made from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank to reinstate a clean water supply, roads and other infrastructure. The 1998 Census put Phnom Penh's population at 862,000; and the 2008 census was 1.3 million. By 2019, its population reached over 2.2 million, based on general population census.

Geography
Phnom Penh is in the south-central region of Cambodia, and is fully surrounded by the Kandal province. The municipality is on the banks of the Tonlé Sap, Mekong, and Bassac Rivers. These rivers provide freshwater and other natural resources to the city. Phnom Penh and the surrounding areas consist of a typical flood plain area for Cambodia. Although Phnom Penh is at 11.89 m above the river, monsoon season flooding is a problem, and the river sometimes overflows its banks.

The city, at 11.55°N, 104.91667°W (11°33' North, 104°55' East), covers an area of 678.46 km2, with some 11401 ha in the municipality and 26106 ha of roads. The agricultural land in the municipality amounts to 34.685 km2 with some 1.476 km2 under irrigation.

Climate
Phnom Penh has a tropical wet and dry climate (Köppen climate classification Aw). The climate is hot year-round with only minor variations. Temperatures typically range from 22 to 35 C and weather is subject to the tropical monsoons. The southwest monsoon blows inland bringing moisture-laden winds from the Gulf of Thailand and Indian Ocean from May to November, sees high temperatures accompanied by high humidity. The dry season lasts from December to April; when overnight temperatures can drop to 22 C.

Administration
Phnom Penh is an autonomous municipality of area 678.46 km2 with a government status equal to that of the provinces. The autonomous municipality is subdivided into 14 administrative divisions called khans (sections). The district s are subdivided into 105 sangkats (quarters), and further subdivided into 953 phums (villages). All khans are under the governance of Phnom Penh. Dangkao, Meanchey, Porsenchey, Sen Sok and Russey Keo are considered the outskirts of the city.

Phnom Penh is governed by the governor who acts as the top executive of the city as well as overseeing the Municipal Military Police, Municipal Police, and Bureau of Urban Affairs. Below the governor is the first vice governor and five vice governors. The chief of cabinet, who holds the same status as the vice governors, heads the cabinet consisting of eight deputy chiefs of cabinet who in turn are in charge of the 27 administrative departments. Every khans also has a chief.

Demographics
, Phnom Penh had a population of 2,129,371 people, with a total population density of 3,136 inhabitants per square kilometre in a 679 km2 city area. The population growth rate of the city is 3.92%. The city area has grown fourfold since 1979, and the metro area will continue to expand in order to support the city's growing population and economy.

A survey by the National Institute of Statistics in 2017 showed that 95.3% of the population in Phnom Penh are Khmer, 4% Chams, and 0.7% others, predominantly Chinese, Vietnamese, and other small ethnic groups who are Thai, Budong, Mnong Preh, Kuy and Chong.

The official language is Khmer, but English and French are widely used in the city.

The number of slum-inhabitants at the end of 2012 was 105,771, compared with 85,807 at the start of 2012.

Note: As stated in the "History" paragraph (The 1998 Census put Phnom Penh's population at 862,000; and the 2008 census was 1.3 million. ) ''the information collides with the information provided in the "Historical population" table. Needs editing.''

Religion
The state religion is Theravada Buddhism. More than 97.8% of the people in Phnom Penh are Buddhists. Chams have been practicing Islam for hundreds of years. A small percentage follow Christianity.

Politics
Phnom Penh is allocated 12 seats in the National Assembly, making it the largest constituency.

Economy

Phnom Penh is Cambodia's economic centre as it accounts for a large portion of the Cambodian economy. Double-digit economic growth rates in recent years have triggered an economic boom in Phnom Penh, with new hotels, restaurants, schools, bars, high rises and residential buildings springing up in the city.

The economy is based on commercial interests such as garments, trading, and small and medium enterprises. In the past few years the property business has been booming, with rapidly increasing real estate prices. Tourism is also a major contributor in the capital as more shopping and commercial centres open, making Phnom Penh one of the major tourist destinations in South East Asia along with Siem Reap and Sihanoukville. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism made up 19.2 percent (US$2,053 million) of Cambodia's GDP in 2009 and accounts for 13.7 percent of total employment. One of the most popular areas in Phnom Penh for tourists is Sisowath Quay, alongside the Tonle Sap River. Sisowath Quay is a five kilometre strip of road that includes restaurants, bars, and hotels.

The US$2.6 billion new urban development, Camko City, is meant to bolster the city landscape. The Bureau of Urban Affairs of Phnom Penh Municipality has plans to expand and construct new infrastructure to accommodate the growing population and economy. High rise buildings will be constructed at the entrance of the city and near the lakes and riverbanks. Furthermore, new roads, canals, and a railway system will be used to connect Camko City and Phnom Penh.

Other projects include: With booming economic growth seen since the 1990s, new shopping venues have opened, such as Sorya Center Point, Aeon Mall Phnom Penh, Aeon Mall Sen Sok City, Aeon Mall Mean Chey and Olympia Mall. Many international brands have opened such as Mango, Salvatore Ferragamo, Hugo Boss, Padini Concept Store, Lily, Timberland, Jimmy Choo, CC Double O, MO, Brands Outlet, Nike, Converse, Pony, Armani Exchange, and Super Dry.
 * Grand Phnom Penh International City (under construction)
 * Gold Tower 42 (On hold 32 floors construction begins again in the mid of 2018)
 * Kokling super second floor house
 * Vattanac Capital Tower
 * The Peak

The tallest skyscraper in Phnom Penh is Vattanac Capital Tower at a height of 188 m, dominating Phnom Penh's skyline with its neighbour skyscraper Canadia Tower (OCIC Tower). The tower was completed in December 2014. Modern high rises have been constructed all around the city, not concentrated in any one particular area.

The Central Market Phsar Thmei is a tourist attraction. The four wings of the yellow colored market are teeming with numerous stalls selling gold and silver jewelry, antique coins, clothing, clocks, flowers, food, fabrics and shoes. Phsar Thmei is undergoing under a major renovation, along with the creation of newer stalls.

Supplementary and extra schools
The Japanese Supplementary School of Phnom Penh, formerly known in English as the Phnom Penh Japanese School, is a part-time Japanese School, operated by the Japanese Association of Cambodia (JACAM;カンボジア日本人会 Kambojia Nihonjin-kai). It is in Sangkat Toek Thla in Sen Sok. It was established in 2002. It had 60 students in June 2011.

Culture
Phnom Penh also has its own dialect of Khmer. Speakers of the Phnom Penh dialect often elide syllables, which has earned it a reputation for being lazy speech. Phnom Penh is also known for its influence on New Khmer Architecture. Phnom Penh is notable for Ka tieu Phnom Penh, its variation on rice noodle soup, a dish available in sit-down cafes as well as street cafes.

The city hosts a number of music events throughout the city. Indie bands have grown in number due also in part to the emergence of private music schools such as SoundsKool Music (also operating in the city of Siem Reap), and Music Arts School (registered as a non-governmental organization). The Cambodian fishing dance originated in Phnom Penh at the Royal University of Fine Arts in the 1960s.

The two most visited museums in the city are the National Museum, which is the country's leading historical and archaeological museum, and Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a former Khmer Rouge prison. The National Museum hosts celebrations of Cambodian dance and music, including a popular classic Apsara dance show of traditional folk dances as well as original creations.

Cambodian New Year
At this time, Phnom Penh celebrates Cambodian New Year, an occasion increasingly popular with tourists. During this typically hottest part of the year, water gets thrown around adding to the party atmosphere along with dancing and music. The precise date changes year-by-year but this holiday lasts, at least, three days. This festival marks the turn of the year based on the ancient Khmer calendar and also marks the end of the prior year harvest.

Water Festival
The largest annual festival in Phnom Penh, this lively gathering celebrates the reversing of the flow of the Tonlé Sap River. The holiday lasts three days as people flood into the city to enjoy the fireworks, boat races, live concerts, eating and partying. The boat racing dates back to ancient times marking the strengths of the Khmer marine forces during the Khmer Empire.

On 22 November 2010, at least 348 people were crushed to death in a bridge stampede at the festival.

Ancestors' Day
Ancestors' Day, also called Pchum Ben, is a very important aspect of Cambodian culture. It may be translated as "gathering together" to make offerings and is a time of reunion, commemoration, express love and appreciation for one's ancestors. By offering food and good karma to those possibly trapped in the spirit world, living relatives help assuage their misery and guide them back into the cycle of reincarnation.

Visak Bochea
Vesākha is an annual holiday observed traditionally by Buddhists in Cambodia. Sometimes informally called "Buddha's Birthday", it actually encompasses the birth, enlightenment (nirvāṇa), and passing away (Parinirvāna) of Gautama Buddha.

Cityscape and architecture
The oldest structure is Wat Phnom from the founding days of the city, constructed in 1373. The main tourist attractions are the Royal Palace with the Silver Pagoda, and the National Museum, constructed during the French colonial era in the late-19th century in the classical Khmer style and hosting a vast collection of Khmer antiquities. The Independence Monument (Khmer: Vimean Akareach), although from the 1950s, is also constructed in the ancient Khmer style.

The French, who were the colonial masters from the 19th century to the 1940s, also left their mark, with various colonial villas, French churches, boulevards, and the Art Deco market Phsar Thom Thmei. A notable landmark of the colonial era is the Hotel Le Royal.

Starting with independence from the French in the 1950s and lasting until the era of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, Phnom Penh underwent tremendous growth as the capital city of a newly independent country. King Sihanouk was eager to present a new style of architecture and thus invigorate the process of nation building. A new golden era of architecture took off, with various projects and young Khmer architects, often educated in France, given opportunities to design and construct. This new movement was called "New Khmer Architecture" and was often characterised by a fusion of Bauhaus, European post-modern architecture, and traditional elements from Angkor. The most prominent architect was Vann Molyvann, who was nominated chief national architect by the king himself in 1956. Molyvann created landmark buildings such as the Preah Suramarit National Theatre or the Vann Molyvann House. Other architects helped construct the newly founded Royal Khmer University, the Institute of Foreign Languages, and the National Sports Centre. With the growth of the upper and entrepreneurial middle classes, new suburbs were built in the 1950s and 1960s. Although these buildings survived the Khmer Rouge era and the civil war, today they are under threat due to economic development and financial speculation. Villas and gardens from that era are being destroyed and redeveloped to make place for bigger structures. The landmark National Theatre by Molyvann was razed in 2008. A movement is rising in Cambodia to preserve this modernist heritage. Old villas are sometimes being converted into boutique hotels, such as the Knai Bang Chatt.

Monuments and memorials to the genocide of the Khmer Rouge era in the 1970s are the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (a former high school used as a concentration camp) and, on the outskirts of the city, the Choeung Ek Genocide Center. The Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument was commissioned by the Vietnamese communists as symbol of Khmer-Vietnamese friendship during the late-1970s following the liberation of Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge.

The population, foreign investment, and urban development in Phnom Penh grew dramatically during the 1990s and early-2000s. The rapid growth resulted in the city's infrastructure distinctly lacking (the drainage system is particularly notorious, and Phnom Penh frequently floods during the wet season), and a need for both residential and commercial spaces. The simultaneous demand for residential and commercial housing and the increase of international investment has led to the planning, if not construction, of several satellite cities. The largest of these cities are: Grand Phnom Penh International City, CamKo City, Diamond Island City, Boeung Kak Town, and Chruy Cangva City.

On the outskirts of the city, farmland has been developed into garment factories and housing for lower economic classes and those displaced by the new development in the city center.

2035 master plan
Originally intended to be completed by 2020, the 2035 master plan is a French-funded project for the development of Phnom Penh. Although the plan was approved by the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction in 2005, it has yet to be ratified by the Cabinet of Cambodia. The original plan details five edge-city projects connected to the historical city centre by waterways and tree-lined corridors.

Khmer

 * Sralagn' Khmer (Love Khmer)
 * Chakraval Daily (Universe)
 * Kampuchea Thmei Daily (New Cambodia)
 * Kampuchea Tgnai Nis (Cambodia Today)
 * Kanychok Sangkhum (Social Reflection)
 * Koh Santepheap (Island of Peace)
 * Moneaksekar Khmer (Khmer Conscience) – Published by the Sam Rainsy Party.
 * Rasmei Kampuchea (Light of Kampuchea) – Cambodia's largest daily, it circulates about 18,000 copies.
 * Samleng Yuvachun (Voice of Khmer Youth)
 * Udomkate Khmer (Khmer Ideal)
 * Wat Phnom Daily (Mount Temple)

English

 * Phnom Penh Post, a daily English-language newspaper published in Phnom Penh.
 * The Cambodia Daily, an English-language daily newspaper (fled from Cambodia in 2017, still operating online).
 * Khmer Times, an English-language daily newspaper.

Chinese

 * 《柬華日報》(Jianhua Daily), a daily Chinese-language newspaper published in Phnom Penh.
 * 《星洲日報》(Sin Chew Daily), a Chinese-language daily newspaper, the Cambodian edition of the Malaysian Chinese daily of the same name.
 * 《華商日報》(Huashang Daily), a Chinese-language daily newspaper.
 * 《高棉日报》(Khmer Daily), a Chinese-language daily newspaper.
 * 《新柬埔寨》(New Cambodia), a Chinese-language daily newspaper.

Magazines

 * AsiaLIFE Guide Phnom Penh, a monthly English-language lifestyle magazine published in Phnom Penh. (Ceased in 2018)
 * F Magazine, the first fashion-forward magazine in Cambodia. Bi-lingual, written in English and Khmer.
 * SOVRIN Magazine, is the fashion glossy magazine in Cambodia which written in khmer language.

Online news

 * Thmey Thmey Phnom Penh
 * Sabay News Phnom Penh
 * Fresh News Phnom Penh

Sport
The martial arts of Bokator, Pradal Serey (Khmer kick boxing) and Khmer traditional wrestling have venues in Phnom Penh watched by dedicated spectators. Cambodia has increasingly become involved in modern sports over the last 30 years. As with the rest of the country, football and the martial arts are particularly popular. Ultimate fighting and freestyle boxing have also become more common in recent years.

The most prominent sporting venue in the city is the Phnom Penh National Olympic Stadium with a capacity of 50,000 —although the country never hosted the Olympic Games due to disruption by the civil war and the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Built in 1964, it is home to the Cambodia national football team. On completion the stadium was one of the largest in Asia. Volleyball, basketball, and Tai-Kwon-Do games are often hosted at the stadium. The stadium closed in 2000, but was redeveloped and reopened.

In footballing ventures, Phnom Penh is formally represented by Phnom Penh Crown FC despite being home to numerous football teams who plays in the Cambodian League. Including Visakha, Nagaworld, Boeungket and the aforementioned Phnom Penh Crown, amongst many others.

The National Sports Centre of Cambodia hosts swimming, boxing, and volleyball competitions. Noted local football clubs include Phnom Penh Empire, Khemara Keila FC and Military Police. The city hosted the 2023 Southeast Asian Games and the 2023 ASEAN Para Games, this marked the first time that Cambodia has hosted a multi-sport event. The city will host the 2029 Asian Youth Games.

Transport

Phnom Penh International Airport is the largest and busiest airport in Cambodia. It is seven kilometres west of central Phnom Penh. The airport is connected to the city center by taxi, train, and shuttle bus. The airport is set to be replaced with the new Techo Takhmao International Airport in 2025.

Cambodia's national flag carrier, Cambodia Angkor Air, launched in 2009, is headquartered in Phnom Penh and has its main hub there, with an additional hub at the Angkor International Airport.

Air France used to serve Phnom Penh from Paris-Charles de Gaulle but this service has since stopped. Qatar Airways now flies to and from Phnom Penh, via Saigon.

Taxis, pick-ups, and minibuses leave the city for destinations all over the country, but are fast losing ground to cheaper and more comfortable buses. Phnom Penh also has a rail service.

There are numerous bus companies, including Phnom Penh Public Transport and GST Express, running services to most provincial capitals, including Sihanoukville, Kampong Chhnang, Oudong and Takéo. Phnom Penh Sorya Transport Co. offers bus service to several provincial destinations along the National Routes and to Saigon. Giant Ibis is another bus company based in Phnom Penh, which travels to Sihanoukville, Kampot, Siem Reap and Saigon, and has free Wi-Fi, air conditioning and modest pricing.

The city is Cambodia's main freshwater port, a major port on the Mekong River. It is linked to the South China Sea, 290 kilometres distant, via a channel of the Mekong in Vietnam.

Public transport

Phnom Penh is served by air conditioned public buses. Initial attempts by the Japanese government to develop a Phnom Penh bus service began in 2001. An update of the JICA urban transport master plan for Phnom Penh was completed and implemented in 2014. The city is now served by 21 bus lines, operated by the Phnom Penh municipal government. Private transportation within the city include the cycle rickshaw, known in Khmer as "cyclo", the motorcycle taxi known in Khmer as "moto", the auto rickshaw known locally as "tuk-tuk", the trailer attached to a motorcycle taxi known in Khmer as "remorque", and the standard automobile taxicab known in Khmer as "taxi". Private forms of transportation used by locals include bicycles, motorbikes, and cars.

Highways
As the capital of Cambodia, a number of national highways connect the city with various parts of the country:

In 2023, a new expressway linking Phnom Penh with Sihanoukville came into operation. The expressway was built by China, which has a major role in infrastructure development in Cambodia through the Belt and Road Initiative.

Water supply
Water supply in Phnom Penh has improved dramatically in terms of access, service quality, efficiency, cost recovery and governance between 1993 and 2006. The number of customers has increased ninefold, service quality has improved from intermittent to continuous supply, water losses have been cut dramatically and the city's water utility went from being bankrupt to making a modest profit. These achievements were recognized through international awards such as the 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award and the 2010 Stockholm Industry Water Award. The city's water utility is the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA). Its main water sources are the Mekong River, the Tonle Sap river and the Tonle Bassac river.

Twin towns – sister cities
Phnom Penh is twinned with:

 * Bangkok, Thailand
 * Beijing, China
 * Busan, South Korea
 * Chongqing, China
 * Hanoi, Vietnam
 * Hefei, China
 * Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
 * Incheon, South Korea
 * Kitakyushu, Japan
 * Kunming, China
 * Long Beach, United States
 * Lowell, United States
 * Shanghai, China
 * Shenzhen, China

Notable people

 * George Groslier, French polymath, historian, archaeologist
 * Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia
 * Patricia Hy-Boulais, professional tennis player
 * Preap Sovath, Cambodian singer
 * Theavy Mok (born 1963), first plastic surgeon in Cambodia
 * Phal Sophorn, champion pradal serey boxer

title: Phnom Penh


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Nouakchott

Nouakchott (نواكشوط; Nuwaaksoot; Nuwaasoot; ; Nwakcoṭ, originally derived from Nawākšūṭ, 'place of the winds') is the capital and largest city of Mauritania. Located in the southwestern part of the country, it is one of the largest cities in the Sahara. The city also serves as the administrative and economic center of Mauritania.

Once a mid-sized coastal village, Nouakchott was selected as the capital for the nascent nation of Mauritania, with construction beginning in 1958. It was originally designed to accommodate a population of 15,000, but experienced significant population growth in the 1970s when many Mauritanians fled their home villages due to drought and increasing desertification. Many of the newcomers settled in slum areas of the city that were poorly maintained and extremely overcrowded. By the mid-1980s, Nouakchott's population was estimated to be between 400,000 to 500,000.

, the city had a population of nearly 1.2 million people and serves as the hub of the Mauritanian economy. It is home to a deepwater port and Nouakchott–Oumtounsy International Airport, one of the country's two international airports. It also hosts the University of Nouakchott and several other more specialized institutions of higher learning.

History
Not too long ago, Nouakchott was known for being a small fishing town, fortified fishing village (ksar) in pre-colonial times and under French rule. As Mauritania prepared for independence, it lacked a capital city. The area of present-day Nouakchott was chosen by Moktar Ould Daddah, the first President of Mauritania, and his advisors. Ould Daddah desired the new capital to symbolize modernity and national unity, which ruled out existing cities or towns in the interior. The village was selected as the capital city for its central location between Saint-Louis, Senegal, the city from which the colony of Mauritania was governed, and Nouadhibou. Its location also meant that it avoided the sensitive issue of whether the capital was built in an area dominated by the Arabs, Amazigh (Berbers) or Sub-Saharan Africans.

Construction began in March 1958 to enlarge the village to house a population of 15,000, in 1959 Nouakchott started with its founding by indigenous people from the surrounding region, and the basics were completed by the time that the French granted independence on 28 November 1960. Nouakchott was planned with the expectation that commerce and other economic activities would not take place in the city. Nouakchott's central business district was planned with broad streets and a grid-like structure; the new Cinquième Quartier (Fifth District) was located close to this area and became the location of a large open-air market and residential area within a few years. During the 1960s, the city obtained its own local government. By the 1970s, these new areas had grown so much that they replaced the old ksar in terms of importance, as they also hosted the governmental buildings and state enterprises.

The city was attacked twice in 1976 by the Polisario Front during the Western Sahara conflict, but the guerrillas caused little damage. The city has had massive and unconstrained growth, driven by the North African drought, since the beginning of the 1970s; hundreds of thousands moved there in search of a better life. The official censuses showed 134,000 residents in 1977 and 393,325 in 1988, although both figures were probably smaller than reality. The population is now estimated to consist of at least one third of the country's population of 3.3 million, and the 2013 census showed a population of 958,399.

Geography
Located on the Atlantic coast of the Sahara Desert, it lies on the west coast of Africa. With the exception of Friendship Port and a small fishing port, the coastal strip is mostly left empty and allowed to flood. The coastline includes shifting sandbanks and sandy beaches. There are areas of quicksand close to the harbor. Nouakchott is largely flat, and some of the city lies below sea level. It is threatened by the sand dunes advancing from its eastern side which pose a daily problem. There have been efforts to save particular areas, including work by Jean Meunier. Owing to the rapid build-up, the city is quite spread out, with few tall buildings. Most buildings are one-story.

Nouakchott is built around a large tree-lined street, Avenue Gamal Abdel Nasser, which runs northeast through the city centre from the airport. It divides the city into two, with the residential areas in the north and the medina quarter, along with the kebbe, a shanty town formed due to the displacement of people from other areas by the desert. Other major streets are named (in French) for notable Mauritanian or international figures of the 1960s: Avenue Gamal Abdel Nasser, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, Avenue Kennedy, and Avenue Lumumba, for example.

The kebbe consists of cement buildings that are built overnight and made to look permanent to avoid destruction by the authorities. In 1999, it was estimated that more than half of the city's inhabitants lived in tents and shacks, which were used for residential as well as business purposes. The city is broken into nine arrondissements, sub-divided into alphabetized Îlots. These are Teyarett, Ksar, Tevragh-Zeïna, Toujounine, Sebkha, El Mina, Dar-Naïm, Arafat and Riad. The Sebkha (Cinquième) Arrondissement is home to a large shopping area.

Climate
Nouakchott features a hot desert climate (Köppen: BWh) with hot temperatures throughout the year but cool winter night temperatures. Due to the city's oceanside location, Nouakchott is generally not quite as hot as other cities with this climate. Still, the city can experience sweltering days. While average high temperatures are relatively constant at around 33 C, average low temperatures can range from 25 C during the fall months (in this city fall is hotter than summer, with September and October being the hottest months) to 13 C during the winter months. Minimum temperatures can be as low as 10 C during winter nights in Nouakchott. Average rainfall in the city is 95 mm a year.

Climate change
A 2019 paper published in PLOS One estimated that under Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5, a "moderate" scenario of climate change where global warming reaches ~2.5-3 C-change by 2100, the climate of Nouakchott in the year 2050 would most closely resemble the current climate of Khartoum. The annual temperature would increase by 2.3 C-change, and the temperature of the warmest month by 2.8 C-change, while the temperature of the coldest month would decrease by 0.3 C-change. According to Climate Action Tracker, the current warming trajectory appears consistent with 2.7 C-change, which closely matches RCP 4.5.

Sustainability
Responding to a 450% projected increase in electricity demand between 2010 and 2030, Nouakchott's Sheikh Zayed solar power plant was completed in 2012 and is considered the largest solar power plant in Africa. The desert climate causes dust accumulation, which negatively impacts the performance of photovoltaic solar panels.

Government

Nouakchott is divided into three administrative regions (wilayat) led by governors appointed by the central government, each of which contains three departments (moughataa):

 * Nouakchott-Nord (Nouakchott-North): Dar-Naim, Teyarett, Toujouonine
 * Nouakchott-Ouest (Nouakchott-West): Ksar, Sebkha, Tevragh-Zeina
 * Nouakchott-Sud (Nouakchott-South): Arafat, El Mina, Riyad

Separate from the wilayat, a directly elected regional council was established in Nouakchott in 2018, which took over the roles of promoting social and economic development from the Urban Community that it replaced. Fatimatou Abdel Malick was elected Council president in September 2018, and re-elected in May 2023.

Nouakchott was initially divided into four departments in 1973. In 1986 the current nine departments were created.

Formerly a district, in 1990 Nouakchott became a region of Mauritania. On 25 November 2014, it was split into the three current regions, with the previous governor of Nouakchott Mahi Ould Hamed becoming the first governor of Nouakchott-Nord.

Demographics
For comparison, its population was only 20,000 in 1969. Part of the difficulty in estimating the city's population is that part of it is nomadic, setting up tents in suitable locations, then packing up when the need strikes. Some estimates put the 2008 population at over 2 million. The 2013 census gave the city's population as 958,399.

Slum resettlement
In 2009, the government of Mauritania announced that it would begin a process of clearing the slum on the outskirts of Nouakchott, as 24,000 families would eventually be relocated to planned housing in the city. The process was scheduled to begin with the relocation of 9,000 families from the outskirts into the poor Arafat department neighborhood of "Kosovo", popularly named for its high crime rate and poor services. The government planned to begin moving families in June 2009, despite concerns from aid agencies that needed infrastructure could not be put in place in the receiving neighborhood.

In 2013, it was reported that "slums have been replaced by social dwellings for the poorest", with the World Bank reporting that the plan met with substantial success, resulting in access to improved services for 181,035 people in the slum areas. Now in 2024 the population is approximately 1.6M people.

Economy
Nouakchott is the center of the Mauritanian economy, with three-quarters of service sector enterprises located in the city with 90% of the city's economic activity consisting of informal transactions. Some inhabitants have multiple addresses and maintain strong ties with their regions of origin, at times returning for labor.

Transport
Nouakchott has a Chinese-built deepwater port that opened in 1986. It was designed for a capacity of of cargo a year, but has been handling 1,500,000 tons (DWT) by 2009. China agreed in 2009 to invest US$282 million in the port, aiming to extend the main quay by over 900 m. As of 2011, the World Bank was investigating funding a new shipping container facility at the port.

Air service is provided by Nouakchott–Oumtounsy International Airport, which replaced the previous Nouakchott International Airport in June 2016.

The Cairo–Dakar Highway leg from Nouakchott to Nouadhibou was paved in 2004, although the Nouakchott-Rosso leg was paved before independence. A 1100 km road (Route de l'Espoir (Road of Hope)) connects the city with Néma via Boutilimit and Kiffa. In the city, there is a public transport and commuter system, with vehicles serving major boulevards.

In July 2022 a tramway project was presented, without a scheduled opening date.

Education
The city is home to the University of Nouakchott Al Aasriya, the main university in Mauritania, opened in 1981. As of 1995, it had 70 professors and 2,800 students. There are also many international schools more specifically the american school tlc international school.

Other higher education facilities include the Lebanese International University of Mauritania, the National School of Administration, the College of Science and Technology and the Higher Scientific Institute.

There are many primary and secondary schools, among the most prominent are the American International School of Nouakchott, the Lycée Français Théodore Monod, and TLC International School.

Culture
Attractions in Nouakchott include the National Museum of Mauritania, the National Library, the Port de Péche, and the National Archives. The city hosts several markets, including the Marocaine market and the beaches. One beach is devoted to fishing boats where fish can be bought fresh at the Fish market. Nouakchott is a principal selling place of native Saharan meteorites.

Places of worship
Among the places of worship, they are predominantly Muslim mosques like the Saudi Mosque and the Sudanese Embassy Mosque.

There are also Christian churches and temples: Roman Catholic Diocese of Nouakchott (Catholic Church), Protestant churches, Evangelical Churches.

Sport
Nouakchott hosts ten of the fourteen teams of the Mauritanian Super D1 as of the 2023-2024 season, including ACS Ksar, AS Douanes, AS Garde Nationale, ASAC Concorde, ASC Police, ASC Tidjikja, FC Gourel Sangue, FC Tevragh-Zeina, Kaedi FC, and Nouakchott Kings. There is also the stadium olympique next to bon prix which is a place with a lot of sport activities

Twin towns – Sister cities
Nouakchott is twinned with:
 * 🇪🇸 Madrid, Spain (1986)
 * 🇯🇴 Amman, Jordan (1999)
 * Lanzhou, China (2000)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Nouakchott


text:
Minsk

Minsk (Мінск, ; Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administrative centre of Minsk Region and Minsk District. As of 2024, it has a population of about two million, making Minsk the 11th-most populous city in Europe. Minsk is one of the administrative capitals of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

First mentioned in 1067, Minsk became the capital of the Principality of Minsk, an appanage of the Principality of Polotsk, before being annexed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1242. It received town privileges in 1499. From 1569, it was the capital of Minsk Voivodeship, an administrative division of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was part of the territories annexed by the Russian Empire in 1793, as a consequence of the Second Partition of Poland. From 1919 to 1991, after the Russian Revolution, Minsk was the capital of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a republic of the Soviet Union in 1922. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Minsk became the capital of the newly independent Republic of Belarus.

Etymology and historical names
The Old East Slavic name of the town was Мѣньскъ (i.e. Měnsk < Early Proto-Slavic or Late Indo-European Mēnĭskŭ), derived from a river name Měn (< Mēnŭ). The resulting form of the name, Minsk (spelled either Минскъ or Мѣнскъ), was taken over both in Russian (modern spelling: Минск) and Polish (Mińsk), and under the influence of Russian this form also became official in Belarusian. The direct continuation of the name in Belarusian is Miensk (Менск, ), which some Belarusian-speakers continue to use as their preferred name for the city.

When Belarus was under Polish rule, the names Mińsk Litewski ("Minsk of Lithuania") and Mińsk Białoruski ("Minsk of Belarus") were used to differentiate this place name from Mińsk Mazowiecki 'Minsk in Masovia'. In modern Polish, Mińsk without an attribute usually refers to the city in Belarus, which is about 50 times bigger than Mińsk Mazowiecki; (cf. Brest-Litovsk and Brześć Kujawski for a similar case).

Early history
The area of today's Minsk was settled by Lithuanians in the 9th and 10th centuries AD. The Svislach River valley was the settlement boundary between two early East Slavic tribes – the Krivichs and Dregovichs. By 980, the area was incorporated into the early medieval Principality of Polotsk, one of the earliest East Slavic principalities of Kievan Rus'. Minsk was first mentioned in the name form Měneskъ (Мѣнескъ) in the Primary Chronicle for the year 1067 in association with the Battle on the River Nemiga. 1067 is now widely accepted as the founding year of Minsk. City authorities consider the date of 3 March 1067 to be the exact founding date of the city, though the town (by then fortified by wooden walls) had certainly existed for some time by then. The origin of the name is unknown but there are several theories.

In the early 12th century, the Principality of Polotsk disintegrated into smaller fiefs. The Principality of Minsk was established by one of the Polotsk dynasty princes. In 1129, the Principality of Minsk was annexed by Kiev, the dominant principality of Kievan Rus'; however in 1146 the Polotsk dynasty regained control of the principality. By 1150, Minsk rivalled Polotsk as the major city in the former Principality of Polotsk. The princes of Minsk and Polotsk were engaged in years of struggle trying to unite all lands previously under the rule of Polotsk.

Late Middle Ages
Minsk escaped the Mongol invasion of Rus in 1237–1239. In 1242, Minsk became a part of the expanding Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It joined peacefully and local elites enjoyed high rank in the society of the Grand Duchy. In 1413, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kingdom of Poland entered into a union. Minsk became the centre of Minsk Voivodship (province). In 1441, as Grand Duke of Lithuania, Casimir IV included Minsk in a list of cities enjoying certain privileges, and in 1499, during the reign of his son, Alexander I Jagiellon, Minsk received town privileges under Magdeburg law. In 1569, after the Union of Lublin, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland merged into a single state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

By the middle of the 16th century, Minsk was an important economic and cultural centre in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was also an important centre for the Eastern Orthodox Church. Following the Union of Brest, both the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Roman Catholic Church increased in influence.

In 1655, Minsk was conquered by troops of Tsar Alexei of Russia. Russians governed the city until 1660 when it was regained by John II Casimir, Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland. By the end of the Polish-Russian War, Minsk had only about 2,000 residents and just 300 houses. The second wave of devastation occurred during the Great Northern War, when Minsk was occupied in 1708 and 1709 by the army of Charles XII of Sweden and then by the army of Peter the Great. The last decades of the Polish rule involved decline or very slow development, since Minsk had become a small provincial town of little economic or military significance.

Russian rule
Minsk was annexed by Russia in 1793 as a consequence of the Second Partition of Poland. In 1796, it became the centre of the Minsk Governorate. All of the initial street names were replaced by Russian names, though the spelling of the city's name remained unchanged. It was briefly occupied by the Grande Armée during French invasion of Russia in 1812.

Throughout the 19th century, the city continued to grow and significantly improve. In the 1830s, major streets and squares of Minsk were cobbled and paved. A first public library was opened in 1836, and a fire brigade was put into operation in 1837. In 1838, the first local newspaper, Minskiye gubernskiye vedomosti ("Minsk province news") went into circulation. The first theatre was established in 1844. By 1860, Minsk was an important trading city with a population of 27,000. There was a construction boom that led to the building of two- and three-story brick and stone houses in Upper Town.

Minsk's development was boosted by improvements in transportation. In 1846, the Moscow-Warsaw road was laid through Minsk. In 1871, a railway link between Moscow and Warsaw ran via Minsk, and in 1873, a new railway from Romny in Ukraine to the Baltic Sea port of Libava (Liepāja) was also constructed. Thus Minsk became an important rail junction and a manufacturing hub. A municipal water supply was introduced in 1872, the telephone in 1890, the horse tram in 1892, and the first power generator in 1894. By 1900, Minsk had 58 factories employing 3,000 workers. The city also boasted theatres, cinemas, newspapers, schools and colleges, as well as numerous monasteries, churches, synagogues, and a mosque. According to the 1897 Russian census, the city had 91,494 inhabitants, with some 47,561 Jews constituting more than half of the city population.

20th century

In the early years of the 20th century, Minsk was a major centre for the worker's movement in Belarus. The 1st Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, the forerunner to the Bolsheviks and eventually the CPSU, was held there in 1898. It was also one of the major centres of the Belarusian national revival, alongside Vilnius. However, the First World War significantly affected the development of Minsk. By 1915, Minsk was a battlefront city. Some factories were closed down, and residents began evacuating to the east. Minsk became the headquarters of the Western Front of the Russian army and also housed military hospitals and military supply bases.

The Russian Revolution had an immediate effect in Minsk. A Workers' Soviet was established in Minsk in October 1917, drawing much of its support from disaffected soldiers and workers. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, German forces occupied Minsk on 21 February 1918. On 25 March 1918, Minsk was proclaimed the capital of the Belarusian People's Republic. The republic was short-lived; in December 1918, Minsk was taken over by the Red Army. In January 1919 Minsk was proclaimed the capital of the Byelorussian SSR, though later in 1919 (see Operation Minsk) and again in 1920, the city was controlled by the Second Polish Republic during the course of the Polish-Bolshevik War between 8 August 1919 and 11 July 1920 and again between 14 October 1920 and 19 March 1921. Under the terms of the Peace of Riga, Minsk was handed back to the Russian SFSR and became the capital of the Byelorussian SSR, one of the founding republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

A programme of reconstruction and development was begun in 1922. By 1924, there were 29 factories in operation; schools, museums, theatres and libraries were also established. Throughout the 1920s and the 1930s, Minsk saw rapid development with dozens of new factories being built and new schools, colleges, higher education establishments, hospitals, theatres and cinemas being opened. During this period, Minsk was also a centre for the development of Belarusian language and culture.

Before the Second World War, Minsk had a population of 300,000 people. The Germans captured Minsk in the Battle of Białystok–Minsk, as part of Operation Barbarossa; after it had been devastated by the Luftwaffe. However, some factories, museums, and tens of thousands of civilians had been evacuated to the east. The Germans designated Minsk the administrative centre of Generalbezirk Weißruthenien. Communists and sympathisers were killed or imprisoned, both locally and after being transported to Germany. Homes were requisitioned to house invading German forces. Thousands starved as food was seized by the German Army and paid work was scarce. Minsk was the site of one of the largest Nazi-run ghettos in the Second World War, temporarily housing over 100,000 Jews (see Minsk Ghetto). Some anti-Soviet residents of Minsk, who hoped that Belarus could regain independence, did support the Germans, especially at the beginning of the occupation, but by 1942, Minsk had become a major centre of the Soviet partisan resistance movement against the invasion, in what is known as the German-Soviet War. For this role, Minsk was awarded the title Hero City in 1974.

Minsk was recaptured by Soviet troops on 3 July 1944 in Minsk Offensive as part of Operation Bagration. The city was the centre of German resistance to the Soviet advance and saw heavy fighting during the first half of 1944. Factories, municipal buildings, power stations, bridges, most roads, and 80% of the houses were reduced to rubble. In 1944, Minsk's population was reduced to a mere 50,000. The historical centre was replaced in the 1940s and 1950s by Stalinist architecture, which favoured grand buildings, broad avenues and wide squares. Subsequently, the city grew rapidly as a result of massive industrialisation. Since the 1960s Minsk's population has also grown apace, reaching 1 million in 1972 and 1.5 million in 1986. Construction of Minsk Metro began on 16 June 1977, and the system was opened to the public on 30 June 1984, becoming the ninth metro system in the Soviet Union. The rapid population growth was primarily driven by mass migration of young, unskilled workers from rural areas of Belarus, as well as by migration of skilled workers from other parts of the Soviet Union. To house the expanding population, Minsk spread beyond its historical boundaries. Its surrounding villages were absorbed and rebuilt as mikroraions, districts of high-density apartment housing.

Recent developments
Throughout the 1990s, after the fall of Communism, the city continued to change. As the capital of a newly independent country, Minsk quickly acquired the attributes of a major city. Embassies were opened, and a number of Soviet administrative buildings became government centres. During the early and mid-1990s, Minsk was hit by an economic crisis and many development projects were halted, resulting in high unemployment and underemployment. Since the late 1990s, there have been improvements in transport and infrastructure, and a housing boom has been underway since 2002. On the outskirts of Minsk, new mikroraions of residential development have been built. Metro lines have been extended, and the road system (including the Minsk BeltWay) has been improved. In recent years Minsk has been continuously decentralizing, with a third line of the Minsk Metro opening in 2020. More development is planned for several areas outside the city centre, while the future of the older neighborhoods is still unclear.

Geography
Minsk is located on the southeastern slope of the Minsk Hills, a region of rolling hills running from the southwest (upper reaches of the river Nioman) to the northeast – that is, to Lukomskaye Lake in northwestern Belarus. The average altitude above sea level is 220 m. The physical geography of Minsk was shaped over the two most recent ice ages. The Svislach River, which flows across the city from the northwest to the southeast, is in the urstromtal, an ancient river valley formed by water flowing from melting ice sheets at the end of the last Ice Age. There are six smaller rivers within the city limits, all part of the Black Sea basin.

Minsk is in the area of mixed forests typical of most of Belarus. Pinewood and mixed forests border the edge of the city, especially in the north and east. Some of the forests were preserved as parks (for instance, the Chelyuskinites Park) as the city grew.

The city was initially built on the hills, which allowed for defensive fortifications, and the western parts of the city are the most hilly.

In 5 km from the northwestern edge of city lies large Zaslawskaye reservoir, often called the Minsk sea. It is the second largest reservoir in Belarus, constructed in 1956.

Climate
Minsk has a warm summer humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) though unpredictable many a times, owing to its location between the strong influence of the moist air of the Atlantic Ocean and the dry air of the Eurasian landmass. Its weather is unstable and tends to change relatively often. The average January temperature is −4.2 °C, while the average July temperature is 19.1 °C. The lowest temperature was recorded on 17 January 1940, at −39.1 °C and the warmest on 8 August 2015 at 35.8 °C. Fog is frequent, especially in the autumn and spring. Minsk receives annual precipitation of 686 mm, of which one third falls during the cold period (as snow and rain) and two-thirds in the warm period. Throughout the year, most winds are westerly and northwesterly, bringing cool and moist air from the Atlantic.

Ecological situation
The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Centre of Radioactive and Environmental Control. During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change from gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened the ecological situation. However, the majority of overall air pollution is produced by cars. Belarusian traffic police DAI every year hold operation "Clean Air" to prevent the use of cars with extremely polluting engines. Sometimes the maximum normative concentration of formaldehyde and ammonia in air is exceeded in Zavodski District. Other major contaminants are Chromium-VI and nitrogen dioxide. Zavodski, Partyzanski and Leninski districts, which are located in the southeastern part of Minsk, are the most polluted areas in the city.

Demographics

Ethnic groups
During its first centuries, Minsk was a city with a predominantly Early East Slavic population (the forefathers of modern-day Belarusians). After the 1569 Polish–Lithuanian union, the city became a destination for migrating Poles (who worked as administrators, clergy, teachers and soldiers) and Jews (Ashkenazim, who worked in the retail trade and as craftsmen, as other opportunities were prohibited by discrimination laws). During the last centuries of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, many Minsk residents became polonised, adopting the language of the dominant Poles and assimilating to its culture.

After the second partition of Poland-Lithuania in 1793, Minsk and its larger region became part of the Russian Empire. The Russians dominated the city's culture as had the Poles in the earlier centuries.

At the time of the 1897 census under the Russian Empire, Jews were the largest ethnic group in Minsk, at 52% of the population, with 47,500 of the 91,000 residents. Other substantial ethnic groups were Russians (25.5%), Poles (11.4%) and Belarusians (9%). The latter figure may be not accurate, as some local Belarusians were likely counted as Russians. A small traditional community of Lipka Tatars had been living in Minsk for centuries.

Between the 1880s and 1930s, many Jews, as well as peasants from other backgrounds, emigrated from the city to the United States as part of a Belarusian diaspora. The high mortality of the First World War and the Second World War affected the demographics of the city, particularly the destruction of Jews under the Nazi occupation of the Second World War. Working through local populations, Germans instituted deportation of Jewish citizens to concentration camps, murdering most of them there. The Jewish community of Minsk suffered catastrophic losses in the Holocaust. From more than half the population of the city, the percentage of Jews dropped to less than 10% more than ten years after the war. After its limited population peaked in the 1970s, continuing anti-Semitism under the Soviet Union and increasing nationalism in Belarus caused most Jews to emigrate to Israel and western countries in the 1980s; by 1999, less than 1% of the population of Minsk was Jewish.

In the first three decades of the post-war years, the most numerous new residents in Minsk were rural migrants from other parts of Belarus; the proportion of ethnic Belarusians increased markedly. Numerous skilled Russians and other migrants from other parts of the Soviet Union migrated for jobs in the growing manufacturing sector. In 1959 Belarusians made up 63.3% of the city's residents. Other ethnic groups included Russians (22.8%), Jews (7.8%), Ukrainians (3.6%), Poles (1.1%) and Tatars (0.4%). Continued migration from rural Belarus in the 1960s and 1970s changed the ethnic composition further. By 1979 Belarusians made up 68.4% of the city's residents. Other ethnic groups included Russians (22.2%), Jews (3.4%), Ukrainians (3.4%), Poles (1.2%) and Tatars (0.2%).

According to the 1989 census, 82% percent of Minsk residents have been born in Belarus. Of those, 43% have been born in Minsk and 39% – in other parts of Belarus. 6.2% of Minsk residents came from regions of western Belarus (Grodno and Brest Regions) and 13% – from eastern Belarus (Mogilev, Vitebsk and Gomel Regions). 21.4% of residents came from central Belarus (Minsk Region).

According to the 1999 census, Belarusians make up 79.3% of the city's residents. Other ethnic groups include Russians (15.7%), Ukrainians (2.4%), Poles (1.1%) and Jews (0.6%). The Russian and Ukrainian populations of Minsk peaked in the late 1980s (at 325,000 and 55,000 respectively). After the break-up of the Soviet Union many of them chose to move to their respective mother countries, although some families had been in Minsk for generations. Another factor in the shifting demographics of the city was the changing self-identification of Minsk residents of mixed ancestry – in independent Belarus they identify as Belarusians.

The Jewish population of Minsk peaked in the early 1970s at 50,000 according to official figures; independent estimates put the figure at between 100,000 and 120,000. Beginning in the 1980s, there has been mass-scale emigration to Israel, the US, and Germany. Today only about 10,000 Jews live in Minsk. The traditional minorities of Poles and Tatars have remained at much the same size (17,000 and 3,000 respectively). Rural Poles have migrated from the western part of Belarus to Minsk, and many Tatars have moved to Minsk from Tatarstan.

Some more recent ethnic minority communities have developed as a result of immigration. The most prominent are immigrants from the Caucasus countries – Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Georgians each numbering about 2,000 to 5,000. They began migrating to Minsk in the 1970s, and more immigrants have joined them since. Many work in the retail trade in open-air markets. A small but prominent Arab community has developed in Minsk, primarily represented by recent economic immigrants from Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, etc. (In many cases, they are graduates of Minsk universities who decide to settle in Belarus and bring over their families). A small community of Romani, numbering about 2,000, are settled in suburbs of north-western and southern Minsk.

Languages
Throughout its history Minsk has been a city of many languages. Initially most of its residents spoke Ruthenian (which later developed into modern Belarusian). However, after 1569 the official language was Polish. In the 19th-century Russian became the official language and by the end of that century it had become the language of administration, schools and newspapers. The Belarusian national revival increased interest in the Belarusian language – its use has grown since the 1890s, especially among the intelligentsia. In the 1920s and early 1930s Belarusian was the major language of Minsk, including use for administration and education (both secondary and tertiary). However, since the late 1930s Russian again began gaining dominance.

A short period of Belarusian national revival in the early 1990s saw a rise in the numbers of Belarusian speakers. However, in 1994 the newly elected president Alexander Lukashenko slowly reversed this trend. Most residents of Minsk now use Russian exclusively in their everyday lives at home and at work, although Belarusian is understood as well. Substantial numbers of recent migrants from the rural areas use Trasyanka (a Russo-Belarusian mixed language) in their everyday lives.

Religion
There are no reliable statistics on the religious affiliations of those living in Minsk, or among the population of Belarus generally. The majority of Christians belong to the Belarusian Orthodox Church, which is the exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in Belarus. There is a significant minority of Roman Catholics.

As of 2006, there are approximately 30 religious communities of various denominations in Minsk. The only functioning monastery in the city is St Elisabeth Convent; its large complex of churches is open to visitors.

Crime
Minsk has the highest crime rate in Belarus – 193.5 crimes per 10,000 citizens. 20–25% of all serious crimes in Belarus, 55% of bribes and 67% of mobile phone thefts are committed in Minsk. However, attorney general Grigory Vasilevich stated that the homicide rate in Minsk in 2008 was "relatively fine".

The crime rate grew significantly in 2009 and 2010: for example, the number of corruption crimes grew by 36% in 2009 alone. Crime detection level varies from 13% in burglary to 92% in homicide with an average 40.1%. Many citizens are concerned for their safety at night and the strongest concern was expressed by residents of Chizhovka and Shabany microdistricts (both in Zavodski District).

The SIZO-1 detention center, IK-1 general prison, and the KGB special jail called "Amerikanka" are all located in Minsk. Alexander Lukashenko's rivals in the 2010 presidential election were imprisoned in the KGB jail along with other prominent politicians and civil activists. Ales Michalevic, who was kept in this jail, accused the KGB of using torture.

On 15 November 2020, more than 1,000 protesters were arrested during an anti-government protest. Protesters took to the streets in the capital, Minsk, following the death of an opposition activist, Roman Bondarenko. The activist died after allegedly being beaten up by the security forces. The protesters put flowers at the site where he was detained before succumbing to his injuries.

Economy
Minsk is the economic capital of Belarus. It has developed industrial and services sectors which serve the needs not only of the city, but of the entire nation. Minsk's contributions form nearly 46% of Belarusian budget. According to 2010 results, Minsk paid 15 trillion BYR to state budget while the whole income from all other regions was 20 trillion BYR. In the period January 2013 to October 2013, 70.6% of taxes in the budget of Minsk were paid by non-state enterprises, 26.3% by state enterprises, and 1.8% by individual entrepreneurs. Among the top 10 taxpayers were five oil and gas companies (including two Gazprom's and one Lukoil's subsidiaries), two mobile network operators (MTS and A1), two companies producing alcoholic beverages (Minsk-Kristall and Minsk grape wines factory) and one producer of tobacco goods.

In 2012, Gross Regional Product of Minsk was formed mainly by industry (26.4%), wholesale (19.9%), transportation and communications (12.3%), retail (8.6%) and construction (5.8%).

GRP of Minsk measured in Belarusian rubles was 55 billion (€20 billion) or around 1/3 of Gross domestic product of Belarus.

Minsk city has highest salaries in Belarus. As of December 2023 average gross salary in Minsk was 3,240 BYN per month (~ US$ 1,000).

Industry
Minsk is the major industrial centre of Belarus. According to 2012 statistics, Minsk-based companies produced 21.5% of electricity, 76% of trucks, 15.9% of footwear, 89.3% of television sets, 99.3% of washing machines, 30% of chocolate, 27.7% of distilled alcoholic beverages and 19.7% of tobacco goods in Belarus.

Today the city has over 250 factories and plants. Its industrial development started in the 1860s and was facilitated by the railways built in the 1870s. However, much of the industrial infrastructure was destroyed during World War I, especially during World War II. After the last war, the development of the city was linked to the development of industry, especially of R&D-intensive sectors (heavy emphasis of R&D intensive industries in urban development in the USSR is known in Western geography as 'Minsk phenomenon'). Minsk was turned into a major production site for trucks, tractors, gears, optical equipment, refrigerators, television sets and radios, bicycles, motorcycles, watches, and metal-processing equipment. Outside machine-building and electronics, Minsk also had textiles, construction materials, food processing, and printing industries. During the Soviet period, the development of the industries was linked to suppliers and markets within the USSR. The break-up of the union in 1991 led to a serious economic meltdown in 1991–1994.

However, since the adoption of the neo-Keynesean policies under Alexander Lukashenko's government in 1995, much of the gross industrial production was regained. Unlike many other cities in the CIS and Eastern Europe, Minsk was not heavily de-industrialised in the 1990s. About 40% of the workforce is still employed in the manufacturing sector.

Major industrial employers include:
 * Minsk Tractor Plant – specialised in manufacturing tractors. Established in 1946 in eastern Minsk, is among major manufacturers of wheeled tractors in the CIS. Employs about 30,000 staff.
 * Minsk Automobile Plant – specialising in producing trucks, buses, and mini-vans. Established in 1944 in south-eastern Minsk, is among major vehicle manufacturers in the CIS.
 * Minsk Refrigerator Plant (also known as Atlant) – specialised in manufacturing household goods, such as refrigerators, freezers, and recently also of washing machines. Established in 1959 in the north-west of the city.
 * Horizont – specialised in producing TV-sets, audio and video electronics. Established in 1950 in north-central Minsk.

Unemployment
In 2011 official statistics quote unemployment in Minsk at 0.3%. During the 2009 census 5.6% of Minsk residents of employable age called themselves unemployed. The government discourages official unemployment registration with tiny unemployment benefits and obligatory public works. Until 2018 there was an 'unemployment tax' taken from those who were suspected of loitering.

Government and administrative divisions

Minsk is subdivided into nine raions (districts):
 * 1) {{legend|#E3D2E3|Tsentralny (Цэнтральны, Центральный), or "Central District"}}
 * 2) {{legend|#FDFD5D|Savetski (Савецкі, Советский, Sovetsky), or "Soviet District"}}
 * 3) {{legend|#7EDBEF|Pershamayski (Першамайскі, Первомайский, Pervomaysky), named after 1 May}}
 * 4) {{legend|#EFDB72|Partyzanski (Партызанскі, Партизанский, Partizansky), named after the Soviet partisans}}
 * 5) {{legend|#CFDBFD|Zavodski (Заводскі, Заводской, Zavodskoy), or "Factory district" (initially it included major plants, Minsk Tractor Works (MTZ) and Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ), later the Partyzanski District with MTZ was split off it)}}
 * 6) {{legend|#5DFB5D|Leninski (Ленінскі, Ленинский, Leninsky), named after Lenin}}
 * 7) {{legend|#F1FBC8|Kastrychnitski (Кастрычніцкі, Октябрьский, Oktyabrsky), named after the October Revolution}}
 * 8) {{legend|#F68282|Maskouski (Маскоўскі, Московский, Moskovsky), named after Moscow}}
 * 9) {{legend|#6FA3F1|Frunzenski (Фрунзенскі, Фрунзенский, Frunzensky), named after Mikhail Frunze}}

In addition, a number of residential neighbourhoods are recognised in Minsk, called microdistricts, with no separate administration.

Culture
Minsk is the major cultural center of Belarus. Its first theatres and libraries were established in the middle of the 19th century. Now it has 11 theatres and 16 museums. There are 20 cinemas and 139 libraries.

Churches

 * The Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Spirit is actually the former church of the Bernardine convent. It was built in the simplified Baroque style in 1642–87 and went through renovations in 1741–46 and 1869.
 * The Cathedral of Saint Mary was built by the Jesuits as their principal church in 1700–10, restored in 1951 and 1997; it overlooks the recently restored 18th-century city hall, located on the other side of the Liberty Square;
 * Two other historic churches are the cathedral of Saint Joseph, formerly affiliated with the Bernardine monastery, built in 1644–52 and repaired in 1983, and the fortified church of Sts. Peter and Paul, originally built in the 1620s and recently restored, complete with its flanking twin towers.
 * Church of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Dominican monastery in Minsk was a Catholic monastery complex founded in the early 17th century, destroyed in 1950. It was built in the Baroque style.
 * The impressive Neo-Romanesque Roman Catholic Red Church (Cathedral of Sts. Simeon and Helene) was built in 1906–10 immediately after religious freedoms were proclaimed in Imperial Russia and the tsar allowed dissidents to build their churches;
 * The largest church built in the Russian imperial period of the town's history is dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene;
 * Church of St. Adalbert and Benedictine monastery was a Roman Catholic monastic complex in Minsk originally belonging to the Benedictine order. Currently, the General Prosecutor's Office of Belarus is located on this site;
 * Many Orthodox churches were built after the dissolution of the USSR in a variety of styles, although most remain true to the Neo-Russian idiom. A good example is St. Elisabeth's Convent, founded in 1999.

Cemeteries

 * Kalvaryja (Calvary Cemetery) is the oldest surviving cemetery in the city. Many famous Belarusians are buried here. The cemetery was closed to new burials in the 1960s.
 * Military Cemetery
 * Eastern Cemetery (Minsk)|Eastern Cemetery
 * Čyžoŭskija Cemetery (Minsk)|Čyžoŭskija Cemetery
 * Northern Cemetery (Minsk)|Northern Cemetery

Theatres
Major theatres are:
 * National Academic Grand Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of Belarus Theatre opera&ballet, Minsk.JPG
 * Belarusian State Musical Theatre (performances in Russian)
 * Maxim Gorky National Drama Theatre (performances in Russian)
 * Janka Kupala National Theatre (performances in Belarusian)

Museums
Major museums include:
 * Belarusian National Arts MuseumNational Arts Museum of the Republic of Belarus 2019.jpg]]
 * Belarusian Great Patriotic War Museum
 * Belarusian National History and Culture Museum
 * Belarusian Nature and Environment Museum
 * Maksim Bahdanovič Literary Museum
 * Old Belarusian History Museum
 * Yanka Kupala Literary Museum

Art galleries include:
 * Ў galleryYgallery.jpg]]

Recreation areas

 * Chelyuskinites Park
 * Children's Railroad
 * Gorky Park (Minsk)
 * Yanka Kupala Park

Tourism
There are more than 400 travel agencies in Minsk, about a quarter of them provide agent activity, and most of them are tour operators.

Football

 * FC Dinamo Minsk
 * FC Minsk
 * FC Energetik-BGU Minsk
 * FC Krumkachy Minsk

Ice hockey

 * HC Dinamo Minsk
 * HC Yunost Minsk

Handball

 * SKA Minsk

Basketball

 * BC Tsmoki-Minsk

International sporting events
In 2013, Minsk hosted the European Junior Rowing Championships at the Republican Center of Olympic Training for Rowing And Canoeing to the north-west of the city.

Minsk hosted the 2014 IIHF World Championship at the Minsk Arena.

In January 2016, the 2016 European Speed Skating Championships were held in the Minsk Arena. Minsk Arena is the only indoor speed skating rink in Belarus.

Minsk hosted the 2019 European Games in June.

The 2019 European Figure Skating Championships were held in the Minsk Arena from the 21 to 27 January.

Local transport
Minsk has an extensive public transport system. Passengers are served by 8 tramway lines, over 70 trolleybus lines, 3 subway lines and over 100 bus lines. Trams were the first public transport used in Minsk (since 1892 – the horse-tram, and since 1929 – the electric tram). Public buses have been used in Minsk since 1924, and trolleybuses since 1952. All public transport is operated by Minsktrans, a government-owned and -funded transport not-for-profit company. As of November 2021, Minsktrans used 1,322 buses (plus 93 electric buses), 744 trolleybuses and 135 tramway cars in Minsk.

The Minsk city government in 2003 decreed that local transport provision should be set at a minimum level of 1 vehicle (bus, trolleybus or tram) per 1,500 residents. The number of vehicles in use by Minsktrans is 2.2 times higher than the minimum level.

Public transport fares are controlled by the city's executive committee (city council). Single trip ticket for bus, trolleybus or tramway costs 0.75 BYN (≈ USD 0.3), 0.80 BYN for metro and 0.90 BYN for express buses. Monthly ticket for one kind of transport costs 33 BYN and 61 BYN for all five. Commercial marshrutka's prices varies from 1.5 to 2 BYN.

Rapid transit

Minsk is the only city in Belarus with an underground metro system. Construction of the metro began in 1977, soon after the city reached over a million people, and the first line with 8 stations was opened in 1984. Since then it has expanded into three lines: Maskoŭskaja, Aŭtazavodskaja, and Zielienalužskaja which are 19.1, long with 15, 14 and 4 stations, respectively. On 7 November 2012, three new stations on the Moskovskaya Line were opened and another on 3 June 2014.. Construction of the third line began in 2011 and the first stage opened in 2020. Some layout plans speculate on a possible fourth line running from Vyasnyanka to Serabranka micro-rayons. Trains use 243 standard Russian metro-cars. On a typical day Minsk metro is used by 800,000 passengers. In 2007 ridership of Minsk metro was 262.1 million passengers, in 2017 ridership of Minsk metro was 284,1 million passengers, making it the 5th busiest metro network in the former USSR (behind Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv and Kharkiv). During peak hours trains run each 2–2.5 minutes. The metro network employs 3,435 staff.

Most of the urban transport is being renovated to modern standards. For instance, all metro stations built since 2001 have passenger lifts from platform to street level, thus enabling the use of the newer stations by disabled passengers.

Railway and intercity bus
Minsk is the largest transport hub in Belarus. Minsk is located at the junction of the Warsaw-Moscow railway (built in 1871) running from the southwest to the northeast of the city and the Liepaja-Romny railway (built in 1873) running from the northwest to the south. The first railway connects Russia with Poland and Germany; the second connects Ukraine with Lithuania and Latvia. They cross at the Minsk-Pasažyrski railway station, the main railway station of Minsk. The station was built in 1873 as Vilenski Vazkal. The initial wooden building was demolished in 1890 and rebuilt in stone. During World War II the Minsk railway station was completely destroyed. It was rebuilt in 1945 and 1946 and served until 1991. The new building of the Minsk-Pasažyrski railway station was built during 1991–2002. Its construction was delayed due to financial difficulties; now, however, Minsk boasts one of the most modern and up-to-date railway stations in the CIS. There were plans to move all suburban rail traffic from Minsk-Pasažyrski to the smaller stations, Minsk- Uschodni (East), Minsk-Paŭdniovy (South) and Minsk-Paŭnočny (North), by 2020. However, those plans were scrapped in favour of developing a more integrated system of suburban rail (branded as City Lines, operated by Belarusian Railways state enterprise). The system currently consists of 3 routes (to stations Bielaruś, Čyrvony Ściah, Rudziensk) all terminating at the central train station and is being served by 6 Stadler FLIRT train sets.

There is an intercity bus station that links Minsk with the National Airport "Minsk", with the suburbs and other cities in Belarus and the neighboring countries. There are frequent services to Moscow, Smolensk, Vilnius, Riga and Warsaw.

Cycling
According to the 2019 survey of 1934 people, Minsk had around 811,000 adult bicycles and 232,000 child and adolescent bicycles. In Minsk there is one bike for every 1.9 people. The total number of bicycles in Minsk exceeds the total number of cars (770,000 personal automobiles). 39% of Minsk residents have a personal bike. 43% of Minsk residents ride a bicycle once a month or more. As of 2017, the level of bicycle use is about 1% of all transport movements (for comparison: 12% in Berlin, 50% in Copenhagen). Since 2015, an annual bicycle parade / bicycle carnival is held in Minsk, during which vehicles are blocked for several hours along Pobediteley (Peramohi) Avenue. The number of participants in 2019 was more than 20,000 and the number of registrations was about 12,000. In 2017, the European Union funded the project "Urban cycling in Belarus" at a cost of €560,000, within the framework of which the public association Minsk Cycling Society together with the Council of Ministers created the regulatory document National Concept for the Development of Cycling in Belarus. In 2020, Minsk entered the top 3 most cycling cities in the CIS – after Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Airports
Minsk National Airport is located 42 km to the east of the city. It opened in 1982 and the current railway station opened in 1987. It is an international airport with flights to Europe and the Middle East.

The former Minsk-1 Airport closed in 2015.

Minsk Borovaya Airfield (UMMB) is located in a suburb north-east of the city, next to Zaliony Luh Forest Park, housing Aero Club Minsk and Minsk Aviation Museum.

Education
Minsk has about 451 kindergartens, 241 schools, 22 further education colleges, and 29 higher education institutions, including 12 major national universities.

Major higher educational institutions

 * Academy of Public Administration under the aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus. The Academy was established in 1991 and it acquired the status of a presidential institution in 1995. The Academy has 3 institutes: Institute of Administrative Personnel which has 3 departments, Institute of Civil Service which has 3 departments and Research Institute of the Theory and Practice of Public administration.
 * Belarusian State University. Major Belarusian universal university, founded in 1921. In 2006 had 15 major departments (Applied Mathematics and Informatics; Biology; Chemistry; Geography; Economics; International relations; Journalism; History; Humanitarian Sciences; Law; Mechanics and Mathematics; Philology; Philosophy and Social sciences; Physics; Radiophysics and Electronics). It also included 5 R&D institutes, 24 Research Centres, 114 R&D laboratories. The University employs over 2,400 lecturers and 1,000 research fellows; 1,900 of these hold PhD or Dr. Sc. degrees. There are 16,000 undergraduate students at the university, as well as over 700 PhD students. In 2018 Olga Chupris was the first female Vice-Rector appointed to the institution (Academic Work and Educational Innovations).
 * Research Institute for Nuclear Problems of Belarusian State University
 * Belarusian State University of Agricultural Technology. Specialised in agricultural technology and agricultural machinery.
 * Belarusian National Technical University. Specialised in technical disciplines.
 * Belarusian State Medical University. Specialised in Medicine and Dentistry. Since 1921 – Medicine Department of the Belarusian State University. In 1930 becomes separate as Belarusian Medical Institute. In 2000 upgraded to university level. Has six departments.
 * Belarusian State Economic University. Specialised in Finance and Economics. Founded in 1933 as Belarusian Institute for National Economy. Upgraded to university level in 1992.
 * Maxim Tank Belarusian State Pedagogical University. Specialised in teacher training for secondary schools.
 * Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics. Specialised in IT and radioelectronic technologies. Established in 1964 as Minsk Institute for Radioelectronics.
 * Belarusian State University of Physical Training. Specialised in sports, coaches and PT teachers training.
 * Belarusian State Technological University. Specialised in chemical and pharmaceutical technology, in printing and forestry. Founded in 1930 as Forestry Institute in Homel. In 1941 evacuated to Sverdlovsk, now Yekaterinburg. Returned to Gomel in 1944, but in 1946 relocated to Minsk as Belarusian Institute of Technology. Upgraded to university level in 1993. Has nine departments.
 * Minsk State Linguistic University. Specialised in foreign languages. Founded in 1948 as Minsk Institute for Foreign Languages. In 2006 had 8 departments. Major focus on English, French, German and Spanish.
 * Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts. Specializes in cultural studies, visual and Performing Arts. Founded in 1975 as Minsk Institute of Culture. Reorganized in 1993.
 * International Sakharov Environmental Institute. Specialised in environmental sciences. Established in 1992 with the support from the United Nations. Focus on study and research of radio-ecological consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster in 1986, which heavily affected Belarus.
 * Minsk Institute of Management. The largest private higher educational institution in Belarus. Established in 1991. Specializes in Economics, Management, Marketing, Finance, Psychology and Information technology.

Honors
A minor planet 3012 Minsk discovered by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Chernykh in 1979 is named after the city.

Notable residents

 * Andrei Pavlovich Ablameyko (born 1970) Belarusian Greek Catholic priest
 * Anton Adamovič (1909–1998), literary critic, novelist, publicist and historian
 * Viktar Babaryka (born 1963), Belarusian public and opposition political figure, political prisoner
 * Maksim Bahdanovič (1891–1917), poet, considered one of the founders of modern Belarusian literature
 * Raman Bandarenka (1989–2020), designer killed during the protests against the 2020 Belarusian presidential election
 * Masha Bruskina (1924–1941) World War II partisan
 * Veronika Cherkasova (1959–2004), journalist
 * Illia Chrenaǔ (nom de guerre "Litvin") (1994–2022), Belarusian volunteer killed in action defending Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion
 * Olga Chupris (born 1969) first female Vice Rector of the Belarusian State University
 * Avraham Even-Shoshan (1906–1984), Israeli linguist and lexicographer
 * Sophie Fedorovitch (1893–1953) ballet, opera and theatre designer, birthplace
 * Ella German (born 1937), girlfriend of Lee Harvey Oswald
 * Moisei Ginzburg (1892–1946) constructivist architect
 * Gennady Grushevoy (1950–2014) academic, politician, human rights and environmental activist, winner of the 1999 Rafto Prize
 * Alés Harun (1887–1920), poet, writer and journalist
 * Anatol Hrytskievich (1929–2015), Belarusian historian
 * Hienadź Karpienka (1949–1999), scientist and politician
 * Uładzimir Katkoŭski (1976–2007), one of the founders of the Belarusian Wikipedia
 * Jauhien Kulik (1937–2002), artist and graphic designer who designed the 1991–95 coat of arms of Belarus, which was a version of the medieval symbol Pahonia
 * Pavel Latushka (b.1973), Belarusian politician and opposition leader
 * Maryna Linchuk (born 1987) fashion model
 * Ivan Lubennikov (1951–2021) Russian painter, birthplace
 * Janka Lučyna (Jan Niesłuchowski (1851–1897), poet
 * Leanid Marakou (1958–2016), journalist, writer
 * Valery Marakoǔ (1909–1937), Belarusian poet and translator, victim of Stalin's purges
 * Yan Matusevich (1946–1998) Catholic priest, and dean of the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church
 * Louis B. Mayer (1884–1957) American film producer, one of the founders of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
 * Bronislava Nijinska (1890–1972) ballerina and choreographer of the Ballets Russes, birthplace
 * Lee Harvey Oswald (1939–1963) assassin of US President John F Kennedy, resided in Minsk from January 1960 to June 1962
 * Grigoriy Plaskov (1898-1972) Soviet artillery lieutenant, birthplace
 * Alexander Rybak (born 1986), winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 for Norway, birthplace
 * Vitali Silitski (1972–2011), political scientist, analyst, the first director of the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies
 * Aliaksiej Skoblia (nom de guerre Aliaksiej "Tur") (1990–2022), Belarusian fighter-volunteer of the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Battalion posthumously awarded the title “Hero of Ukraine”
 * Vanda Skuratovich (1925–2010) Roman Catholic activist
 * Stanislav Shushkevich (1934–2022), Belarusian politician and scientist, the first head of state of independent Belarus
 * Stefaniya Stanyuta (1905–2000), theater and movie actress
 * Alexander Taraikovsky (1986–2020) entrepreneur killed during the protests against the 2020 Belarusian presidential election
 * Barys Tasman (1954–2022), journalist, sports writer
 * George Tsisetski (b. 1985), film director, screenwriter, dramatist and visual artist
 * Rachel Wischnitzer (1885–1989) architect and art historian
 * Jazep Jucho (1921–2004), lawyer, historian and writer and a leading Belarusian authority on the laws of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
 * Simcha Zorin (1902–1974) World War II partisan

Musicians

 * Angelica Agurbash (born 1970), Belarusian singer, Eurovision participant
 * Marina Gordon (1917–2013) soprano, birthplace
 * Irma Jaunzem (1897–1975), mezzo-soprano singer and folk song specialist
 * Boris Khaykin (1904–1978), conductor
 * Yung Lean (born 1996), Swedish rapper & musician, birthplace
 * Źmicier Sidarovič (1965–2014), musician
 * Lavon Volski (b. 1965), musician

Sport

 * Andrei Arlovski, grew up and lived in Minsk before moving to the US to fight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship
 * Victoria Azarenka, former World No. 1 tennis player and 2012 and 2013 Australian Open winner, born in Minsk moving to Arizona at 16
 * Yuri Bessmertny, kickboxer
 * Svetlana Boginskaya, gold medal-winning gymnast at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics, birthplace
 * Isaac Boleslavsky, chess grandmaster
 * Darya Domracheva, gold (4 times) and bronze medal-winning biathlete at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics
 * Boris Gelfand (born 1968), Israeli chess Grandmaster
 * Max Geller (born 1971), Israeli Olympic wrestler
 * Alexei Ignashov, kickboxer, multiple Muay Thai and K-1 world champion
 * Oleg Karavayev, wrestler and Olympic champion
 * Viktar Kuprejčyk (1949–2017), chess grandmaster
 * Isaak Mazel (1911-1945), chess master
 * Max Mirnyi, tennis player
 * Artsiom Parakhouski (born 1987), basketball player
 * Yulia Raskina, individual rhythmic gymnast, won the All-Around Silver at the 2000 Sydney Olympics
 * Roman Rubinshteyn (born 1996), Belarusian-Israeli basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League
 * Aryna Sabalenka (born 1998), 2023 Australian Open winner and former world No. 1 tennis player, born in Minsk moving to Miami at 23
 * Yegor Sharangovich (born 1998), ice hockey player
 * Yuri Shulman (born 1975), Belarusian-American chess grandmaster
 * Mark Slavin (1954-1972), Israeli Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler and victim of the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics
 * Anna Smashnova (born 1976), Belarusian-born Israeli tennis player
 * Roman Sorkin (born 1996), Belarusian-born Israeli basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League
 * Diana Vaisman (born 1998), Belarusian-born Israeli sprinter

Twin towns – sister cities
Minsk is twinned with:

 * Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (2007)
 * Ankara, Turkey (2007)
 * Bangalore, India (1986)
 * Beijing, China (2016)
 * Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (1997)
 * Bonn, Germany (1993)
 * Changchun, China (1992)
 * Chişinău, Moldova (2000)
 * Detroit, United States (1979)
 * Dushanbe, Tajikistan (1998)
 * Eindhoven, Netherlands (1994)
 * Gaziantep, Turkey (2018)
 * Hanoi, Vietnam (2004)
 * Havana, Cuba (2005)
 * Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2008)
 * Islamabad, Pakistan (2015)
 * Kaluga, Russia (2015)

 * Murmansk, Russia (2014)
 * Nizhny Novgorod, Russia (2017)
 * Novosibirsk, Russia (2012)
 * Rostov-on-Don, Russia (2018)
 * Sendai, Japan (1973)
 * Shanghai, China (2019)
 * Shenzhen, China (2014)
 * Tbilisi, Georgia (2015)
 * Tehran, Iran (2006)
 * Ufa, Russia (2017)
 * Ulyanovsk, Russia (2015)

title: Minsk