Europa
The name of the second-smallest continent came, like that of Asia, from
the Ancient Greeks. To them it meant "not Asia or Libya" (Libya was
their name for the African continent), that is, "the mainland". Apart
from themselves, it was seen as a barbarian continent in opposition to
the more civilized peoples of Egypt and the Levant, Mesopotamia and Persia.
* * *
At least this continent was named by people who lived there.
* * *
Some may have heard of the Silk Road city Dura-Europos.
In fact it is not located in Europe at all, but rather in the Syrian desert.
So how did this originally Babylonian Dura get such a name?
* * *
After the area was conquered by Alexander the Great and after his subsequent
death, it came to be ruled by one of Alexander's generals, Seleucus I.
As a memory of the Macedonian town in which he had been born, he added this
suffix to the name. Today the place is in ruins, but as a result
is a valuable site for archaeological study.
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