thumbnail

Biggest Cities in the Middle East - Extreme

Can you name the 66 biggest urban area in the Middle East?
according to citypopulation.de as of September 2019
Quiz by HinesBrothers
Rate:
Last updated: December 14, 2021
You have not attempted this quiz yet.
First submittedSeptember 9, 2019
Times taken1,958
Average score50.0%
Rating3.68
Report this quizReport
8:00
Enter city name here:
0
 / 66 guessed
The quiz is paused. You have remaining.
Scoring
You scored / = %
This beats or equals % of test takers also scored 100%
The average score is
Your high score is
Your fastest time is
Keep scrolling down for answers and more stats ...
Population
Country
City
14,669,958
Istanbul
9,293,612
Cairo
8,693,706
Tehran
6,719,500
Baghdad
5,188,286
Riyadh
5,107,530
Alexandria
4,875,803
Ankara
4,212,750
Giza
3,430,697
Jeddah
3,001,184
Mashhad
2,931,414
Izmir
2,606,472
Tel-Aviv
2,401,067
Dubai
2,132,100
Aleppo
1,961,260
Isfahan
1,925,900
Bursa
1,812,059
Amman
1,715,226
Adana
1,707,531
Sanaa
1,650,000
Beirut
1,626,415
Gaziantep
1,592,492
Karaj
Population
Country
City
1,565,572
Shiraz
1,558,693
Tabriz
1,534,731
Mecca
1,414,913
Damascus
1,361,800
Mosul
1,340,800
Basra
1,274,749
Sharjah
1,268,915
Konya
1,202,756
Abu Dhabi
1,201,158
Qom
1,194,204
Antalya
1,187,747
Shubra el-Kheima
1,184,788
Ahvaz
1,100,093
Medina
1,010,032
Diyarbakir
974,091
Mersin
972,300
Kirkuk
957,090
Hawalli
946,651
Bakhtaran
929,712
Keyseri
903,312
Dammam
901,302
Jerusalem
Population
Country
City
892,915
Farwaniya
879,000
Erbil
760,152
Port Said
747,300
Najaf
746,536
Eskisehir
740,874
Suez
736,224
Urmia
711,500
Karbala
686,813
Gebze
679,995
Rasht
676,500
Sulaymaniyah
660,788
Hofuf
652,609
Homs
635,160
Zarqa
631,215
Gaza
611,158
Denizli
610,028
Haifa
595,373
Samsun
589,531
Ar-Rayyan
588,938
Aden
587,730
Zahedan
587,055
Doha
+7
Level 73
Jun 23, 2020
Turkey's Diyarbakir is misspelled, and I'm a bit suspicious about the way the urban areas are defined. Cairo and Giza are definitely one urban agglomeration, usually also grouped with Shubra el-Kheima. So are Al-Rayyan and Doha, and Dubai and Sharjah.
+1
Level 68
Jul 29, 2020
Nice quiz, good job.
+5
Level 45
Aug 14, 2020
Kuwait City?
+1
Level 75
Aug 14, 2020
Nope
+8
Level 77
Dec 15, 2021
Why not? If the quiz is urban areas, shouldn't the two districts of Kuwait City that you have allowed, actually be part of Kuwait City?
+2
Level 84
Jan 29, 2022
Agreed, if this quiz is "urban areas," not accepting Kuwait City urban area is a huge reach.
+1
Level 89
Feb 10, 2022
It says "urban areas", but also lists direct suburbs like Giza and Cairo. It's inconsistent.

It list the Kuwait City suburbs of Hawalli and Farwaniya, but not Kuwait City itself....

+1
Level 75
Nov 4, 2021
Accept Al Rayaan as a type-in for Ar Rayyan (it is the more commonly referred to name and the english spelling).
+1
Level 75
Nov 5, 2021
I can't find any evidence of it being spelled as Al Rayaan, but I will add Al Rayyan. That might be what you meant.
+1
Level 75
Dec 19, 2021
Yes, I meant Al-Rayyan
+2
Level 75
Jan 29, 2022
Imo the regex should be ^([AE][LR])?RAY+A+N

Al means "The" in Arabic and thus type-ins without that (as well as its variations because they're all transliterations) should also be accepted

+1
Level 75
Nov 4, 2021
You also still need to fix the spelling of Diyarbakir.
+1
Level 75
Nov 5, 2021
Fixed
+1
Level 70
Dec 13, 2021
Good quiz!

Please correct "Gebze" (not "Gezbe").

Also, I never heard of "Icel", so I put it in Google Maps, and it offered me "Icel, Akdeniz/Mersin, Turkey". Wikipedia says that Icel is the former name of Mersin Province. At any rate, please accept Mersin.

+8
Level 65
Dec 14, 2021
Gaza, Israel?? It really isn't.
+10
Level 40
Dec 14, 2021
I know that this site doesn't "recognize" Palestine, but using the Israeli flag to represent Gaza is pretty offensive.
+1
Level 75
Dec 14, 2021
Well, considering that Palestine isn't a country, I think it's less offensive to call it part of Israel than nowhere at all.
+12
Level 40
Dec 14, 2021
This isn't a country quiz. Palestine has a flag whether you like it or not.
+2
Level 81
Jan 29, 2022
Ok, no. My head hurts badly with this quiz. These are not urban areas. At all.

If you want to go by what citypopulation.de uses, then these are sometimes cities, sometimes districts, sometimes other things - which makes sense because different countries count population in different ways. And using those is of course fine. Many quizzes here do. (Seeing as how CP is one of the easiest international "authoritative" sources to reference, and all.)

But please don't call them "urban areas" (as has been done in the quiz description/instructions). Many of these fall into the same urban area. and there are many urban areas that should be here but aren't (because they're subdivided into several smaller jurisdictions which on their own are too small to make it).

As someone who's lived in several of these cities, the discrepancy of listing these as the largest urban areas, and the reality on the ground, is... startling.

+2
Level 65
Jan 29, 2022
Couldn't agree more. Perhaps the description can be edited for this quiz?
+1
Level 70
Jan 30, 2022
I agree, the description could be changed to "city-proper", since most of the data is not urban areas. One issue is the Israeli cities, I believe Tel Aviv's city limits have less than a million people, for example. Maybe there's a couple other examples I missed.

I can sympathise with HinesBrothers here, I've made quizzes on cities in the MENA countries before and it can be really hard to find good sources on just how many people live in those cities.

+3
Level 70
Jan 29, 2022
good quiz, especially design on the high level, nominated
+1
Level 44
Jun 10, 2022
incredibly inaccurate
+4
Level 49
Jul 18, 2022
Gaza is in Palestine as well as East Jerusalem
+1
Level 21
Oct 13, 2023
Please accept Shubra Al Khaymah as a type-in.