Cities and towns

Bahawalpur (بہاولپور)

Bahawalpur (بہاولپور) is a city in southern Punjab, Pakistan, on the Sutlej River; founded 1748, capital of the former Abbasi princely state that acceded to Pakistan in 1947, population 762,111 (2017).

Bahía Blanca

Bahía Blanca: Atlantic port city in southwest Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, founded 1828 as Fortaleza Protectora Argentina; 301,572 inhabitants (2010), deep-water port, UNS university, devastated by March 2025 flood.

Bahir Dar

Bahir Dar (ባህር ዳር), capital of Ethiopia's Amhara region on Lake Tana at the Blue Nile source; 14th-century origins, 1994 capital designation, population near 500,000 by 2020.

Bahri

Bahri (Khartoum North, الخرطوم بحري) is the industrial third of Sudan's Triangular Capital on the north bank of the Blue Nile, founded around 1898 railway sheds, Sudan's largest industrial center, recaptured by the army in early 2025.

Baicheng, Jilin

Baicheng (白城) is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Jilin, China, at the junction of Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Inner Mongolia. Population about 2.03 million, area 25,758.73 km², known for the Xianghai and Momoge wetlands and cranes.

Baie-Comeau

Baie-Comeau, Quebec town on the Côte-Nord founded by Chicago Tribune owner Colonel Robert R. McCormick; incorporated 20 May 1937 around a newsprint mill, merged with Hauterive in 1982, about 21,750 inhabitants.

Bailleul-sur-Thérain

Bailleul-sur-Thérain, a commune in the Oise (Hauts-de-France), France, near Beauvais; INSEE code 60041; about 2,330 inhabitants in 2023; home of the Mont-César Gallic oppidum of the Bellovaci, a listed monument since 1979.

Baishan

Baishan is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Jilin province, China, on the western side of the Changbai Mountains, bordering North Korea across the Yalu River.

Băişoara

Băişoara (Băișoara), a settlement in the Iara Valley of the Apuseni Mountains, Transylvania, Romania; mining district with pits opened from 1972 under ME Iara, and a 1948-1949 anti-communist partisan area.

Bakersfield, California

Bakersfield, California: county seat of Kern County in the San Joaquin Valley, ninth-largest California city (422,165 in 2025), founded by Thomas Baker, boomtown of the 1899 Kern River oilfield, home of the Bakersfield Sound, and ranked worst U.S. city for annual particle pollution.

Bakhmut (Бахмут)

Bakhmut, formerly Artemivsk, is a city in Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine, founded as a Cossack salt settlement and reduced to rubble in the 2022–2023 battle.

Bakhmut Municipality

Bakhmut Municipality (Бахмутська територіальна громада) is a territorial hromada in Bakhmut raion, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, centered on Bakhmut; it was created in 2019 and comprises 19 settlements.

Baku

Baku (Bakı), capital and largest city of Azerbaijan on the Absheron peninsula at the Caspian Sea; historic oil boomtown, home of the UNESCO-listed Walled City, Maiden Tower, and Baku Metro, host of COP29.

Baladīyat al Ghuwayrīyah

Baladīyat al Ghuwayrīyah (بلدية الغويرية), also Al Ghuwairiya, was a municipality of Qatar centered on Al Ghuwairiya town, zone 76; population 2,159 in 2004; merged into Al Khor municipality in 2004.

Balakovo

Balakovo (Балаково) is a city on the left bank of the Volga River in eastern Saratov Oblast, Russia, the third largest after Saratov and Engels and a major energy center hosting the Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant.

Balashikha

Balashikha (Балашиха) is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, east of Moscow; founded 1830 by Prince Trubetskoy's textile factory, city status 1939, merged with Zheleznodorozhny in 2015, over 500,000 residents.

Balasore (ବାଲେଶ୍ୱର)

Balasore (ବାଲେଶ୍ୱର, Baleshwar) is a coastal district and town in northernmost Odisha, India, created in 1828; known for the 1642 East India Company factory, paddy agriculture, Chandipur beach, and recurring river floods.

Balikpapan

Balikpapan is a coastal oil-refining city in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, founded around the 1897 Mathilda oil well, with about 503 km², six districts, an HDI of 82.24, and proximity to the new capital Nusantara.

Balingen

Balingen, seat of the Zollernalbkreis in Baden-Württemberg, is documented here through TSG Balingen von 1848 e.V., its >1250-member sports club, the Bizerba Arena football ground, and the town's 28 Kitas.

Balıkesir (city)

Balıkesir, provincial capital in western Turkey's Marmara Region, inland plain city at 130 m elevation in ancient Mysia; center of the Karesi Beyliği, Ottoman from the 14th century, province since 1926.

Balkh (بلخ)

Balkh (بلخ), ancient Bactra, is a town in northern Afghanistan about 20 km west of Mazar-e Sharif, capital of ancient Bactria, an Achaemenid, Hellenistic, and Islamic center that declined after 1220 and lost administrative status to Mazar-e Sharif in 1866.