The Blue Banana (also known as the Hot Banana, Bluemerang, European Megalopolis or European Backbone) is a discontinuous corridor of urbanisation in Western Europe, with a population of around 110 million. It stretches approximately from North West England in the north to Milan in the south.
The curvature of this corridor (hence the "banana" in the name) takes in cities such as Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham, London, Lille, Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Brussels, Antwerp, Eindhoven, the Ruhr, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Munich, Zürich, Turin, Milan, Venice, and Genoa and covers one of the world's highest concentrations of people, money and industry. The concept was developed in 1989 by RECLUS, a group of French geographers managed by Roger Brunet.
Read more about Blue Banana: List of Cities and Regions, History, Criticism, Implications, Development
Famous quotes containing the words blue and/or banana:
“And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows
In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs
Before the children green and golden
Follow him out of grace.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“I never liked bananas much anyway. Two-thirds of the way down even one banana I am willing to concede defeat smilingly and give the rest to the nearest monkey.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)