# Iconic landmarks or features that make cities instantly recognisable



## Kadzman (Aug 10, 2015)

Many cities have buildings, bridges, natural features that make them universally recognisable to many all over the world. Here are some cities with arguably notable associated landmarks:

NYC: Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building

Niagara Falls (US/Canada): Niagara Falls

San Francisco: Golden Gate bridge, Transamerica Tower, Cable Car 

Paris: Eifel Tower, Norte Dame Cathedral, Arc de Triomphe

Sydney: Opera House, Harbour Bridge

Rio de Janeiro: Christ the Redeemer Statue, Sugar Loaf mountain

Agra: Taj Mahal (maybe they won't know Agra, but they'll know it's in India?)

Cairo: The Pyramids

London: Big Ben, Tower Bridge

Shanghai: Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai Tower

Tokyo: Mount Fuji

Moscow: Kremlin, Red Square

Cape Town: Table Mountain

Rome: Colosseum, St. Peter's (technically Vatican City)

Singapore: Marina Bay Sands

Dubai: Burj Khalifa

Copenhagen: Little Mermaid statue

You get the idea. Add more cities and discuss the iconic merits of their representative landmarks or add more iconic landmarks to the cities already listed.


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## al-numbers (May 4, 2016)

Kuala Lumpur: Petronas Towers. Put us on the map then, and is still recognizable today!


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## Kadzman (Aug 10, 2015)

Athens: The Parthenon


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## Küsel (Sep 16, 2004)

The Jet d'eau - Geneva


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## KeanoManu (Mar 1, 2012)

Agra and Cairo are a stretch. Most people that are not specifically interested in cities, travelling and geography don't know how close to Cairo the pyramids are and would not recognize Agra as a city. Taj Mahal are widely recognized, but more as a symbol of India and not Agra as a city. The same with the Pyramids. I've spoked to a lot of people who got surprised when learning that the Pyramids are basically in the city of Cairo. They are portraited as something out in the middle of the desert.

I also think a few other of those are questionable. Niagara Falls for the same reason as Agra - it's not seen as a city but as a symbol of a larger area. Not sure if the specific skyscrapers of Shanghai and Singapore are iconic enough for someone with no interest in cities. The same with the Table Mountain of Cape Town. For Tokyo I personally think more of the neon/led lights. Marina Bay Sands can become iconic for Singapore and it's on the way to get there, but it's still too new to be universally recognized I think. Shanghai and Singapore are iconic cities, but I don't feel that any building or feature are much more iconic than the other in those cities.

I think Saint Basils Cathedral would be a better choice for Moscow. Few people would know that a picture was taken in Moscow if the picture was taken showing the other end of the square. But as soon as the Cathedral with the iconic round architecture are visible everyone will instantly know.

Los Angeles and the Hollywood Sign.
Barcelona and Sagrada Familia.
Milano and Duomo.
Berlin and Brandenburger Tor.
Toronto and the CN Tower.

These might also be a stretch but the Art Deco in Miami? Bosphorus and Golden Horn in Istanbul? Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong?


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## Küsel (Sep 16, 2004)

Sorry but Cairo is a city that is also recognizable without the pyramids. It has a lot of famous landmarks.


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## Mr_Dru (Dec 15, 2008)

This reminds you of, wich city?


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## Eric Offereins (Jan 1, 2004)

Rotterdam: the cube houses,









Or perhaps more recently: the Markthal


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## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

CANADA

I suppose there will always be people that recognize next to nothing but this is how I see it. My favourite iconic landmark in Canada is the Banff Springs Hotel in the town of Banff, Alberta. I'm always surprised how under the radar it is. It's obscurity is almost certainly due to its location in the Canadian wilderness. Here it is below:










*Instantly recognizable*

Quebec City - Chateau Frontenac
Ottawa - Parliament Hill
Toronto - CN Tower

*Instantly recognizable to Canadians*

Halifax - Halifax Town clock, Citadel, Bluenose
Quebec City - Plains of Abraham
Ottawa - Rideau Canal, Supreme Court, Chateau Laurier
Montreal - Mount Royal Cross, Place Ville Marie, Habitat 67, Stade Olympique
Toronto - Royal York Hotel, Skydome, Casa Loma, Toronto sign, City Hall, Dundas Square
Niagara Falls - Skylon Tower
Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
Sudbury - Big Nickel
Winnipeg - Manitoba Legislature, CMHR, Esplanade Riel
Calgary - Saddledome, Calgary Tower
Banff - Banff Springs Hotel
Vancouver - Lions Gate Bridge
Victoria - BC Legislature


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## Afro Circus (Jul 30, 2014)

Rapidly urbanizing Chinese cities (and many others in general) are facing the misfortune of not having that iconic landmark and just therefore look like any other city from that region generally. 

But i loved this Chinese city, the CBD is in itself a landmark. Its just that its name isn't easy to standout from other Chinese city names as viewed by the rest of the World. And also there's the issue of the immense number of impressively built Chinese cities

Here it is:-


*Hangzhou*
Hangzhou City, Capital of Zhejiang Province, Eastern China


By *LST* from 500px.com












By *视觉杭州部落* from 500px.com











​credit to little universe


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## Rekarte (Mar 28, 2008)

*Forbidden City in Beijing*


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## lucias (Nov 11, 2010)

Beautiful unique big capital city, Bangkok Thailand


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## MarkoUtr (Aug 26, 2011)

Utrecht - The Domtoren


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## 009 (Nov 28, 2007)

To the Mexicans on here or people who know Mexico City well, what would you consider the most iconic monument? 

I guess it's probably the Angel of Independence, but you also have Bellas Artes, Chapultepec Castle, The Zocalo, revolution monument, etc


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

For Hangzhou, I would think the West Lake is the city's iconic landmark as it has for centuries, and not some weirdly-shaped building.


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## tongue_tied_danny (Nov 25, 2007)

Outside of London the most famous recognisable landmarks in the UK are probably...

Forth Bridge and the Castle - Edinburgh
Tyne Bridge - Newcastle
Liver Building and Pier Head - Liverpool

I'm not criticising any other cities. I love Glasgow and Manchester, for example, but I can't think of any iconic landmarks that are unique and instantly recognized.


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## Little Spoon (Apr 1, 2020)

tongue_tied_danny said:


> Outside of London the most famous recognisable landmarks in the UK are probably...
> 
> Forth Bridge and the Castle - Edinburgh
> Tyne Bridge - Newcastle
> ...


Stone Henge? Although strictly not in a city.

The various London landmarks, Edinburgh Castle and Stone Henge, are recognisable the world over. After that I would say we are in football ground territory as far as UK landmarks go. 

I think everything else is just recognisable on a U.K. scale. Cambridge & Oxford could be instantly recognisable as a city scape, but it is easy to mix the two up. Tyne Bridge definitely. Liver Building certainly. York Minster too. Clifton Suspension Bridge, Severn Bridge, the Humber Bridge, the Forth Bridge (see a theme?). In Manchester we are just talking about Old Trafford & the Beetham Tower and in Birmingham it would be the Bullring.


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## Blackpool88 (Nov 15, 2007)

Little Spoon said:


> Stone Henge? Although strictly not in a city.
> 
> The various London landmarks, Edinburgh Castle and Stone Henge, are recognisable the world over. After that I would say we are in football ground territory as far as UK landmarks go.
> 
> I think everything else is just recognisable on a U.K. scale. Cambridge & Oxford could be instantly recognisable as a city scape, but it is easy to mix the two up. Tyne Bridge definitely. Liver Building certainly. York Minster too. Clifton Suspension Bridge, Severn Bridge, the Humber Bridge, the Forth Bridge (see a theme?). In Manchester we are just talking about Old Trafford & the Beetham Tower and in Birmingham it would be the Bullring.


From an internal UK perspective I'd throw in the Blackpool tower as top 5 most recognisable.


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## Kaisel (Sep 17, 2018)

What happens when you stay in Cambridge for too long? You shoot a video!


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## Tsurumi (Dec 4, 2020)

Kadzman said:


> Many cities have buildings, bridges, natural features that make them universally recognisable to many all over the world. Here are some cities with arguably notable associated landmarks:
> 
> Tokyo: Mount Fuji
> 
> ...


Mount Fuji is not anywhere close to Tokyo and is not even near the prefectures (Tokyo-to, Saitama, Kanagawa) around Tokyo. Mount Fuji is pretty far in part of Yamanashi Prefecture and Shizuoka Prefecture.


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## Kadzman (Aug 10, 2015)

Tsurumi said:


> Mount Fuji is not anywhere close to Tokyo and is not even near the prefectures (Tokyo-to, Saitama, Kanagawa) around Tokyo. Mount Fuji is pretty far in part of Yamanashi Prefecture and Shizuoka Prefecture.


Ya, true but in many pictures the sight of Mt Fuji looming behind the skyline of Tokyo make the city instantly recognisable. It doesn't have to be physically close to the city to be considered as a landmark as long it's prominently visible as part of the skyline.


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## gabrielbabb (Aug 11, 2006)

Something that happens with Mexico City is that it has plenty of landmarks and touristic spots, but I feel it doesn't have any recognizable landmark that everyone can recognize, because we have not been able to exploit a single building as the main image of the city, and because the city has plenty of styles and even environments. Even our volcanoes Ajusco, Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl are nearer from our city center and higher, than Mount Fuji is to Tokyo, but they're still far away, as well as Teotihuacan pyramids. 




Küsel said:


> Sorry but Cairo is a city that is also recognizable without the pyramids. It has a lot of famous landmarks.


Well I guess for someone who has not visited it, and who hasn't seen many pictures of the city itself, the most recognizable landmark are the pyramids.


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## Blackpool88 (Nov 15, 2007)

For Tokyo I'd say Shibuya Crossing is instantly recognisable.


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## Marty10 (Jun 29, 2010)

Hello, people in this thread.

I was just wondering. Is my city, Oslo, famous for anything for you?

In that case. What?


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## Kadzman (Aug 10, 2015)

Marty10 said:


> Hello, people in this thread.
> 
> I was just wondering. Is my city, Oslo, famous for anything for you?
> 
> In that case. What?


The wooden Stav church? I know it by sight but not really sure just where in Oslo.


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## Marty10 (Jun 29, 2010)

Kadzman said:


> The wooden Stav church? I know it by sight but not really sure just where in Oslo.


Hm. Thanks for the reply. We have one, but it is in an outdoor museum, so not sure if that counts. But the stav churches are spread around the entire country.


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## Ian A (Aug 27, 2019)

Marty 10...hope you don't take offence with my comments. In 1983 my wife and I visited Oslo, then Stockholm, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. I found Oslo the least impressive of these four cities. People now tell me that Oslo is much improved and we are thinking of visiting again some time. What do you think?


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## Tsurumi (Dec 4, 2020)

Many cities have a landmark that makes them instantly recognizable like the Statue of Liberty in New York, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Arch in St. Louis, or the Space Needle in Seattle among US cities. How about cities like Minneapolis?

*Minneapolis* really doesn't have one except perhaps the following five landmarks: the Stone Arch Bridge (the oldest bridge on the Mississippi River), the Weisman Museum, the Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture, First Avenue night club that Prince made so famous or the Bob Dylan mural. However, none of them really make Minneapolis instantly recognizable to a global population. It might simply boil down to a city's effort to market itself to the world.









_Source: Stone Arch Bridge by Paul D on Flickr









Source: Spoonbridge and Cherry by Jim and Jane on Flickr









Source: Weisman Art Museum by baobee on Flickr









Source: First Avenue and 7th Street Entry by Chad Davis on Flickr









Source: Warehouse District Bob Dylan mural by Charles Hollman on Flickr_


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## Ian A (Aug 27, 2019)

Although Edinburgh castle is the most famous building in the city, I think it is the views looking down on the city centre from Calton Hill and other viewpoints that are so special.


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## Ian A (Aug 27, 2019)

The Forth road bridge outside Edinburgh was also mentioned. Nowadays there are actually three Forth bridges which together form a unique combination. The rail bridge built in the 19th century, the first road bridge built in the 20th and the scond road brige constructed in the 21st century. Together they make a stunning and possibly unrivalled group?


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## Ian A (Aug 27, 2019)

Can I suggest this image for Glasgow. It shows the river Clyde, the 'squinty' bridge and the Finneston Crane.


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## chicagobuildingnerd1833 (Sep 23, 2021)

Chicago has many landmarks including...
Cloud Gate








Chicago Theatre








Navy Pier








Buckingham Fountain








and many more.


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## lawdefender (Aug 25, 2013)

The iconic Canton Tower (600m) - Guangzhou 

Photo by lyndonHuang on 500px




















photo by Forest_Lin on 500px










Photo by Arrowsun孫弋 on 500px










photo by VR全景小样 on 500px


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## ssiguy2 (Feb 19, 2005)

Washington.........Capitol Hill, White House, Washington Monument
Seattle..........Space Needle
St.Louis........Gateway Arch
Orlando........ Disney Magic Kingdom Castle


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## lawdefender (Aug 25, 2013)

The iconic Statue of Five Goats in Yuexiu Park of Guangzhou 

*The Legend of Five Goats* comes from the ancient Guangzhou city, and is an origin of Guangzhou's nicknames like 'City of Five Goats', 'City of the Goat', 'City of the Rice'.


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## Kadzman (Aug 10, 2015)

The Potala, Lhasa Tibet. I love this structure.










https://www.picuki.com/profile/clickfor_unesco


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## weirdo (Feb 15, 2003)

My city, Manila, has none that is universally recognizable. Within the country, it's these landmarks:
1. Rizal Monument
2. Fort Santiago gate
3. City Hall clock tower
4. Manila Cathedral

From my ASEAN POV, for my favorite world cities in this side of the earth in descending order of recognize-ability:

Bangkok - Grand Palace, Reclining Buddha, Wat Arun, Mahanakhon building, floating markets. Robot Building and Elephant Building are SSC-famous.

Beijing - Forbidden City, Great Wall of China (also outside BJ, but the BJ stretch are the most visited), Temple of Heaven, Olympic Stadium, CCTV Building, Tiananmen Square, Water Cube, Beijing Opera

Cebu - Cebu-Cordova Bridge will takeover Magellan's Cross as the city's main landmark. Sinulog festival is more iconic than my architecture though. Minor basilica is next. Minor landmarks are Fort San Pedro, SM Seaside, Taoist Temple, Temple of Leah, Lapu-lapu in Mactan

Ha Noi - Haven't visited VN. Nearby Ha Long Bay comes to mind.

Ho Chi Minh City - Colonial buildings (opera building, post office, cathedral), war related sites.

Hong Kong - Victoria Harbor and Skyline, Bank of China Tower, double decker trams, Ocean Park and Disneyland for kids. Walled city is demolished. Minor landmarks are mid-levels, Central colonial buildings, Causeway Bay, etc.

Jakarta - I've never visited but Merdeka Square comes to mind, plus a few more roundabouts. Kota Tua also.

Kuala Lumpur - Petronas Towers. The taller new buildings may take a while before they're iconic. KL Tower and Menara Telekom are more memorable IMHO. Batu Caves is also iconic for KL, although it's in nearby Selangor. Minor landmarks are Merdeka Square and Pasar Seni.

Kyoto - Kinkaku-ji, Fushimi Inari tori gates, Gion district (you can argue geishas themselves are the biggest icons of Kyoto), Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto Tower and Kyoto Station

Macau - Saint Paul Ruins, Fort, casinos like Grand Lisboa, Venetian, etc

Nara - Todai-ji, deer

Osaka - Osaka Castle, Umeda Sky, Dotonbori and Glico man

Shanghai - I've yet to see in person but Pudong supertalls, including Oriental Pearl Tower, The Bund buildings, City God Temple, Expo Gate, water towns outside the city.

Singapore - Merlion, Marina Bay Sands, Gardens by the Bay. The development of that side demoted the landmark status of Esplanade and Suntec City on the other side. Minor landmarks include Tooth Relic Temple, Fullerton, Raffles Hotel, Orchard Road, Sentosa Island

Taipei - Taipei 101, Ximen Walking Street, CKS Memorial. More minor landmarks in New Taipei City

Tokyo - Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo SKYTREE, Asakusa Temple, Shinjuku neon signs, Tokyo Tower, Imperial Palace Gardens, Akihabara Electric Town, Ginza district shops, Tokyo Station. I think the rest are minor (Nihonbashi, Godzilla, Hachiko, etc.)


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## 1ajs (Jul 21, 2005)

dunno how reconizeable this building in winnpeg is in canada other then its on the 10$ bill


https://www.grocerybusiness.ca/images/2018/11/New_vertical_10_dollar_bill.png



canadian museum of human rights


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## MihailToshew (Oct 22, 2021)

Weirdly Vienna has no such. You could say the palace but it's far away from the main central part.


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## alexandru.mircea (May 18, 2011)

^ St. Stephen's cathedral is quite recognizable because of the decoration of its roof. For me it's an iconic landmark, but then I am also an art historian. 🤷‍♀️ Also the theater is iconic, one of the most influential buildings of the 19th century.


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