The Blue Banana (also known as the Hot Banana) is a discontinuous corridor of urbanisation in Western Europe. It stretches from Birmingham (approximately) in the north to Milan in the south. The curvature of this corridor (hence the 'banana' in the name) takes in cities such as London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne, Frankfurt, Basel, and Zurich, and covers holds one of the world's highest concentrations of people, money, and industry^[1]. The curvature was coloured blue in maps produced by RECLUS, a group of French geographers managed by Roger Brunet, leading to the name.^[1] A common understanding of Western Europe in modern times. ... The city from above Centenary Square. ... Country Italy Region Lombardy Province Milan (MI) Mayor Letizia Moratti Elevation 120 m Area 182 km² Population  - Total (as of December 31, 2004) 1,308,311  - Density 6,988/km² Time zone CET, UTC+1 Coordinates Gentilic Milanesi Dialing code 02 Postal code 20100 Patron St. ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... Nickname: The Capital Of Europe, Comic City City of a 100 Museums Map showing the location of Brussels in Belgium Coordinates: Country Belgium Region Brussels-Capital Region Founded 797 Founded (Region) June 18, 1989 Mayor (Municipality) Freddy Thielemans Area    - City 162 (Region) km²  (62. ... Amsterdam Location Flag Country Netherlands Province North Holland Population 743,905 (1 April 2006) Demonym Amsterdammer Coordinates Website www. ... Köln redirects here. ... Main Station Frankfurt Frankfurt International Airport For other uses, see Frankfurt (disambiguation). ... Basel (British English traditionally: Basle and more recently Basel , German: Basel , French: Bâle , Italian, Spanish: Basilea and Czech: Basilej ) is Switzerlands third most populous city (166,563 inhabitants (2004); 690,000 inhabitants in the conurbation stretching across the immediate cantonal and national boundaries made Basel Switzerlands second... Location within Switzerland   Zürich[?] (German pronunciation IPA: ; usually spelled Zurich in English) is the largest city in Switzerland (population: 366,145 in 2004; population of urban area: 1,091,732) and capital of the canton of Zürich. ...

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