How well do you know New Orleans?
New Orleans is famous for music, food and celebration. Six questions, from easy to hard, about the Big Easy, with explanations.
Did you know?
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport is named after the jazz legend, who was born in the city in 1901 and learned to play the cornet as a boy.
- Congo Square, in Treme, was a gathering place where enslaved and free Africans met on Sundays to play music and dance in the 1800s. It is considered an important site in the history of American music.
- The Superdome, home of the New Orleans Saints, has a roof covering about 9.7 acres. It is one of the largest fixed domed structures in the world.
The Big Easy
New Orleans sits on a bend of the Mississippi River near the Gulf of Mexico. Founded by the French in 1718, it later came under Spanish and then American control. Its unique blend of cultures produced jazz, Creole cuisine and traditions found nowhere else in the United States, earning it the nickname 'the Big Easy'.
The birthplace of jazz
In the early 1900s, musicians in New Orleans mixed blues, ragtime, brass band music and Caribbean rhythms into jazz. Louis Armstrong, born in the city, became one of its greatest stars. Live music still fills clubs on Frenchmen Street and in venues across the city every night.
Mardi Gras traditions
Mardi Gras season is a time of parades, costumes and parties. Krewes build elaborate floats, and certain throws, such as hand-decorated Zulu coconuts, are prized souvenirs. King cake, a sweet cake with a small plastic baby hidden inside, is eaten during the season.
Creole cooking
New Orleans cuisine blends French, Spanish, African, Caribbean and Native American influences. Dishes like gumbo, red beans and rice, muffulettas and po'boy sandwiches are local favorites, and some restaurants have served diners for more than a century.
Living with water
Much of New Orleans lies below sea level, protected by levees, floodwalls and pumps. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 caused catastrophic flooding when levees failed. Since then, the region has invested billions of dollars in an improved flood protection system.
Architecture
Beyond the French Quarter, the Garden District is known for grand 19th-century mansions and gardens, while shotgun houses, long narrow homes with rooms in a row, are found across the city. Their colorful facades are a signature of New Orleans streets.
Festivals all year
Beyond Mardi Gras, New Orleans hosts festivals throughout the year. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, known as Jazz Fest, brings hundreds of musicians to the city each spring, while the French Quarter Festival showcases local music for free. Many neighborhoods also hold street parties and 'second line' parades with brass bands.