From Cairo to Tokyo: Can you guess these twin cities?

As a London borough moves to chopped ties with Haifa, trial your cognition of the world’s duplicate cities.

Hackney, a borough successful eastbound London, is consulting residents until October 14 connected whether to extremity its twinning with Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, a nexus that dates backmost to 1968.

The Green Party-led assembly voted connected July 28 to extremity the concern successful principle, citing its values and quality rights commitments amid Israel’s genocidal warfare connected Gaza. Councillors volition marque a last determination aft the consultation and a reappraisal of the borough’s twinning policy.

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What are duplicate cities?

Twin cities, besides called sister cities, are places successful antithetic countries linked by ceremonial relationship agreements. These relationships tin enactment schoolhouse exchanges, taste events and civic visits, though galore go inactive implicit time.

Can you conjecture which cities are twinned? Take our quiz below.

How duplicate cities began

Modern municipality twinning grew aft World War II arsenic a mode to rebuild spot and foster peace. Coventry and Stalingrad (now Volgograd), some heavy bombed during the war, established a relationship nexus successful 1944, often cited arsenic the archetypal modern city-twinning relationship.

Russian T-90 tanks thrust during the subject parade to commemorate the 75th day of the conflict of Stalingrad successful World War II, successful the metropolis of Volgograd, Russia, February 2, 2018 [Tatyana Maleyeva/Reuters]

The US metropolis of St Paul and Japan’s Nagasaki established a sister-city concern successful 1955 to beforehand reconciliation aft the atomic bombing of the second successful 1945. Cities person since formed links due to the fact that of shared histories, akin roles arsenic capitals oregon ports, oregon communities with roots successful some places.

Why bash cities chopped ties?

Because twinning is often symbolic, ending a nexus tin let a assembly to marque a statement. Several UK councils suspended oregon ended links with Russian cities aft the 2022 penetration of Ukraine.

Prague’s narration with Beijing besides ended successful 2019 amid a quality involving Taiwan, aft which the Czech Republic established a concern with Taipei. Hackney’s connection is the latest illustration of cities reassessing their planetary ties.