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“Even old New York was once New Amsterdam!” goes one of the more famous lines in the song “Istanbul (Not Constantinople).” But the Big Apple is hardly America’s only urban area to have undergone a major name change, especially when one considers the people who lived in the country in the first place. Here are the original Indigenous names given to the regions that would become 11 major U.S. cities.

A large portion of the city of brotherly love rests in a region dubbed Coaquannock by the Lenni Lenape. The name means “grove of tall pines.”

A village dubbed Ogapogee—or “the white shell-water place”—by the people of the Pueblo of Tesuque sat in the center of New Mexico’s modern-day capital sometime around the year 900 CE. A brief history of the area can be found here.

Rhode Island’s largest city, along with much of its surrounding territory, was called Pacanaset, meaning “little cleared place” in the Narragansett language [PDF]. An excellent database of Rhode Island’s historical Native American place names was compiled by the Aquidneck Indian Council.

There are several theories as to where Chicago’s name came from; the most widely accepted is that it derives from the French pronunciation of shikaakwa (“stinky onion”), a Miami-Illinois word for the wild leeks (Allium tricoccum) that grew in the area. It’s thought that the explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle was the first to refer to the site of the city by something close to its current name when he referred to it as “Checagou” in the late 17th century.

One theory of many [PDF] about the etymology of the word Manhattan is that it came from Menahatenk, a term meaning “where one gathers bows” in the Munsee language. Contrary to popular belief, however, the island was not purchased for $24 worth of beads.

Unlike the other entries on this list, Washington State’s largest city is actually named after an Indigenous leader: the Duwamish Chief Si’ahl (anglicized as Seattle). Long before the area acquired its current name, however, it was home to many villages, such as Stukw (“logjam”) and Choo-tuhb-AHLT’w (“flea’s house”).

Malibu occupies the ancestral lands of the Ventureño Chumash. The city’s current moniker comes from a former Chumash village named Humaliwo, meaning “where the surf sounds loudly”—a reference to the nearby ocean.

The name of the Shawmut peninsula, the location of present-day Boston, may be derived from the Algonquin word mashauwomuk, or it could be, in the words of researchers from Northeastern University, “an extreme anglicization of a Native American word.” Because of Shawmut’s uncertain origins, it’s unclear what it actually means, but one suggestion is “living waters.”

The area known for housing the University of Michigan was dubbed Kaw-goosh-kaw-nick, likely by the Potawatomi, who were apparently inspired by the sounds of a mill built there. The town was rechristened as Ann Arbor in the 1820s, though theories about the latter name’s origin vary significantly.

Tucson’s moniker was initially Cuk ṣon, meaning “black base” in the O’odham language. (Arizona, meanwhile, was derived from a Native term that meant something like “place of the small spring.”)

Tribes living in the area that would become New Orleans called it “Balbásha” (also spelled Bulbancha or Balbancha). According to John P. Dyson, the word—which means “foreign speakers are there” or “foreign speakers are upon it”—was used by the Chickasaw to refer to the Mississippi River “because of the large number of travelers and alien traders who plied its waters”; later, both the Choctaw and Chickasaw would use the word for New Orleans “due to the great variety of exotic tongues heard there,” Dyson writes [PDF].

A version of this story ran in 2016; it has been updated for 2023.

When you think of a pet rabbit, you probably imagine the fluffy little bunny you got to take care of for a weekend during kindergarten—not one that’s the size of a small, carrot-eating toddler. But if you’re in the market for a pet that hops like a bunny yet steals food off the kitchen table like a puppy, then the Flemish giant rabbit is the one for you. Here are seven facts you should know about these special creatures.

These rabbits are considered the largest breed in the world. On average, they weigh about 15 pounds and measure 2.5 feet long. However, the male Flemish giant can easily get up to 22 pounds and the female can get up to 20 pounds. One male Flemish giant named Darius actually set a world record, as he was a little over 4 feet long and tipped the scales at 49 pounds.

A male rabbit (a.k.a. a buck) has a broader head than a female (doe) does. The female rabbit has a dewlap—a large flap of skin under her chin—used to keep her offspring warm. While bucks can develop a dewlap as well, it is significantly more pronounced in females and can help set the rabbits apart.

The American Rabbit Breed Association (ARBA) officially recognizes seven different colors [PDF] for the breed: black, blue, fawn, light gray, steel gray, sandy, and white. In 1916, only those with light gray, steel, or black hues were recognized. Blues and whites were accepted in 1919, followed by sandy-shaded varieties in 1924, and fawns in 1938.

The National Federation of Flemish Giant Rabbit Breeders (NFFGRB) was founded in 1915 by a group of four Flemish giant rabbit breeders. They host national shows where breeders are encouraged to show off their beloved bunnies. At shows, rabbits are posed in specific ways so judges can examine their bodies and teeth. To be eligible to compete, the rabbit must be one of the seven recognized colors and be entered into the correct age class, as outlined by ARBA.

Flemish giants are known for their gentle demeanors: They’re generally regarded as docile and, as pets, they can even be trained to use a litter box. However, these furry bunnies were initially bred for other purposes—namely, for meat and fur. They can still be used for meat, but their large bone structure and expensive diet means you’re not getting much bang for your buck. Now, they’re mostly bred for show or as companions, due to their easy-going natures and lifespan (they can live to be 10 years old).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, these big rabbits have impressive appetites to match. Fresh hay constitutes a significant part of their daily diets, with Timothy hay and/or alfalfa recommended by many experts. High-quality protein pellets can also be important to include in their diets, as are certain fruits and vegetables, like carrot tops, apples, bell peppers, and bananas (just in moderation, and always be sure to remove any seeds, pits, and/or stems). Flemish giants also need plenty of water daily.

However, experts seem to agree that they were bred in 16th century Belgium. The first authentic record of their existence dates back to 1860, when Thomas Coatoam authored the Origins of the Flemish Giants. They made their first appearance in the U.S. in the 1890s, when they were brought over from England and Belgium.

A version of this article was originally published in 2016 and has been updated for 2023.

Trade routes stitching places of production to places of commerce have popped up throughout ancient history. Scarce commodities, such as salt or spices, that were only available in certain locations were the biggest driver of trade networks. Once established, these roads also facilitated cultural exchanges—including the spread of religion, ideas, knowledge, and even bacteria. Here are several that changed the world.

The Silk Road is the most famous ancient trade route, linking the major ancient civilizations of China and the Roman Empire. Silk was traded from China to the Roman Empire beginning in the 1st century BCE in exchange for wool, silver, and gold coming from Europe. In addition to fostering trade, the Silk Road also became a vital route for the spread of knowledge, technology, religion, and the arts, with many trading centers along the route, such as Samarkand in modern-day Uzbekistan, also becoming important centers of intellectual exchange.

The Silk Road originated in Xi’an, China, and traveled along the Great Wall of China before crossing the Pamir Mountains into Afghanistan and on to the Levant, where goods were loaded on to ships destined for Mediterranean ports. It was rare for tradespeople to travel the full 4000 miles, so most plied their trade on sections of the route. As the Roman Empire crumbled in the 4th century CE, the Silk Road became unsafe and fell out of use until the 13th century, when it was revived under the Mongols. Italian explorer Marco Polo followed the Silk Road during the 13th century, becoming one of the first medieval Europeans to visit China. But the famous route may have spread more than trade and cross-cultural links—some scientists think merchants traveling along the route carried Yersinia pestis, the plague bacteria that caused the Black Death.

Unlike most of the other trade routes in this list, the Spice Routes were maritime paths linking the East to the West. Pepper, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg were all hugely sought-after commodities in Europe, but before the 15th century, North African and Arab middlemen controlled access to trade with the East, making such spices extremely costly and rare. From the 15th to the 17th centuries, new navigation technology made sailing long distances from Europe possible. Europeans took to the seas to forge direct trading relationships with Indonesia, China, and Japan. Some have argued the spice trade fueled the development of faster ships, encouraged colonization, and fostered new diplomatic relationships between East and West. Christopher Columbus had spices on his mind when he set out on his famous voyage in 1492.

The Portuguese, Dutch, and English especially profited from the control of the spice trade in modern-day Indonesia, particularly the area called Malaku (also known as the Moluccas or Spice Islands), which was the only source of nutmeg and cloves at that time. Wars were fought, lands colonized, and fortunes made from the spice trade, making this trade route one of the most globally significant.

The Incense Route developed to transport frankincense and myrrh, which are found only in the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula (modern Yemen and Oman). Frankincense and myrrh are both derived from sun-dried tree sap; these nuggets can then be burned as incense or used as perfume, and were also popular in burial rituals to aid embalming. After Arab nomads domesticated the camel around 1000 BCE, traders began transporting their valuable incense to the Mediterranean, an important commercial hub. Frankincense and myrrh became a significant commodity for the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians. It was said the Roman Emperor Nero had a whole year’s harvest of frankincense burned at the funeral of his beloved mistress.

The trade flourished and, at its height, saw 3000 tons of incense traded along its length every year. Roman historian Pliny the Elder wrote that it took 62 days to complete the route, although it’s clear that at times, the exact route shifted when greedy settlements pushed their luck and demanded taxes that were too high from the caravans coming through. By the 1st century CE, this ancient overland route became largely redundant after improved ship design made sea routes more attractive.

Amber has been traded since about 3000 BCE, with archaeological evidence revealing amber beads from the Baltic Sea region having reached as far as Egypt. The Romans, who valued the stone-like resin for both decorative and medicinal purposes, developed an Amber Road linking the Baltic states with the rest of Europe.

Large deposits of amber are found under the Baltic Sea, formed millions of years ago when forests covered the area. The amber washes ashore after storms, and can be harvested from the beaches across the Baltic, which is how many local amber traders built their business. However, during the crusades in the 12th and 13th centuries, the Baltic became an important source of income for the Teutonic Knights, who were granted control of the amber-producing region. The knights persecuted their Prussian opponents brutally, and put anyone attempting to harvest or sell amber to death. Today, you can find traces of the old Amber Road in Poland, where one of the major routes is known as the Amber Highway.

This ancient route winds for more than 6000 miles, through the Hengduan Mountains—a major tea-producing area in China—and on to Tibet and India. The road also crosses numerous rivers, making it one of the most dangerous of the ancient trade routes. The main goods traveling the route were Chinese tea and Tibetan warhorses, with direct trades of tea-for-horses and vice versa being the main goal of merchants plying the route. Parts of the route were used starting about 1600 BCE, but people began using the entire path for trade from around the 7th century CE, and large-scale trade began taking place starting in the Song dynasty (960–1279).

Research suggests that between 960–1127, some 20,000 Tibetan warhorses were traded along the route every year in exchange for 8000 tons of tea. As sea routes became more popular, the road’s significance decreased. But during World War II, it once again gained importance as Japanese troops blocked many seaports and the Tea Horse Road became a key route for supplies traveling between inland China and India.

Salt has long been a precious commodity—it’s used to flavor and preserve food, and as an antiseptic, for example. But easily harvested salt was a scarce commodity in antiquity, so areas rich in the mineral became important trading centers. Routes connecting these centers to other settlements also became commonplace. Of the many such routes that sprang up, one of the most famous was the Roman Via Salaria (Salt Road), which ran from Ostia, near Rome, across Italy to the Adriatic coast. Salt was so precious, it made up a portion of a Roman soldier’s pay. From the Latin word for salt, sal, we get salary and the phrase not worth his salt—the latter because a soldier’s salt pay was docked if he did not work hard.

Another important salt route across Europe was the Old Salt Road. This path ran 62 miles from Lüneburg in northern Germany, which was one of the most plentiful salt sources in northern Europe, to Lübeck on the north German coast. During the Middle Ages, this route became vital for providing salt for the fishing fleets that left Germany for Scandinavia; the crews used salt to preserve the precious herring catch. It would take a cart delivering salt some 20 days to traverse the Old Salt Road, and many towns along the way grew wealthy by levying taxes and duties on wagons as they passed through.

The Trans-Saharan Trade Route from North Africa to West Africa was actually made up of a number of routes, creating a criss-cross of trading links across the vast expanse of desert. These trade routes first emerged in the 4th century CE. By the 11th century, caravans composed of more than a thousand camels would carry goods across the Sahara. Gold, salt, cloth, and enslaved people were traded along the route, as were objects like ostrich feathers and European guns.

The trade route was instrumental in the spread of Islam from the Berbers in North Africa into West Africa, and with Islam came Arabic knowledge, education, and language. The Trans-Saharan trade route also encouraged the development of monetary systems and state-building, as local rulers saw the strategic value in bringing large swaths of land, and thus their commodities, under their control. By the 16th century, as Europeans began to see the value in African goods, the Trans-Saharan trade routes were overshadowed by the European-controlled transatlantic trade, and the wealth moved from inland to coastal areas, making the perilous desert routes less attractive.

From the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, the Tin Route was a major artery that provided early settlements with access to a vital ingredient for metal-making. Copper must be alloyed with tin to make bronze, an advance that occurred in the Near East around 2800 BCE and created a stronger, better metal than the type used previously. This new technology created a demand for tin, and because it isn’t found in many places, the resource became an important item for trade.

One such tin route flourished in the 1st millennium BCE. It stretched from the tin mines in Cornwall in the far southwest of Britain, over the sea to France, and then southeast to Greece and beyond. Evidence for this route is provided by the many hillforts that sprang up along the way as trading posts. Historians believe trade passed both ways up and down this route. Evidence from the hillforts includes exotic artifacts, such as coral and gold. No written accounts survive from this period, but the archaeological record shows technology and art traveled the route between northern Europe and the Mediterranean alongside tin—thus providing a vital link across Europe.

A version of this story was published in 202; it has been updated for 2023.

Back in my day, kids learned about periods the old fashioned way: By being shoved into a gender-segregated classroom with the lights off and forced to watch a cartoon about deodorant, new hair growth, and monthly bleeding. But this is 2016, and ladies no longer need to hide in dark classrooms to learn about the joys of sanitary napkins and the maze that is the fallopian tubes. Champion swimmers talk about their periods on international television, and marathon runners let their blood flow freely down their legs as they cross the finish line.

Now you can learn about menarche with a spin of the ovaries. Designers Daniela Gilsanz and Ryan Murphy created the Period Board Game in a Rhode Island School of Design class to turn the awkwardness of menstruation education into a fun experience.

To play, you just have to turn one of the two ovaries, releasing a marble that’s either red or clear. If it’s red, you’re on your period, and you get to move forward on the game board. If it’s clear, sorry, you’ve just learned about vaginal discharge.

You can play cards that protect you from period woes like leaks and PMS, or end up without a tampon headed for the nurse’s office to sit out your next turn. The first person to get around the board—past ovulation, periods, and PMS—wins.

Will this actually turn talking about periods with young girls into a fun, positive experience? Maybe. It at least forces kids to say the word tampon a few times, although without a doubt, kids will find a way to find the whole situation mortifying regardless. But hey, every child should have to confront the realities of ovulation at some point. Plus, it’s so cute!

The game doesn’t have a distributor yet, since it was a student project, but hopefully some company will pick it up and put one in every kid’s hands soon enough.

See it in action in the video below:

The Period Game from Daniela Gilsanz on Vimeo.

All images courtesy The Period Game.