History Main / CityofSpies

* ''Our Man in Havana'', by Creator/GrahamGreeneAuthor. Bet you can't guess which city.

* Grantville in ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' becomes this in later books, as everyone and his mother wants to get their hands on up-time technology. Subverted in that the spying is done fairly openly - most of the information they want is public knowledge, and the Americans don't actually care that much. Adding to the mix is that Grantville still has a functioning (if limited) Internet, which offers a very secure way for the aforementioned spies to swap information with one another.

** Coruscant, being a CityPlanet and the center of the Galaxy's government.

** For a while it looked like Helsinki had lost its importance as a spy city in the aftermath of the Cold War as Finland was no longer situated in between two powerful military alliances. However, following the Russian annexation of Crimea military intervention in Syria and the resulting tensions with NATO, spy activity has once again spiked and according to Finnish Security Intelligence Service, it has reached Cold War era levels. And as of 2023, Finland has joined NATO in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

* UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC (UsefulNotes/ColdWar, present)
** It's not just unfriendly countries (the Communist bloc during the Cold War, China, and Russia today) that have a major espionage presence in Washington. There was a major scandal in the late 1980s when Israel, one of the U.S.'s closest allies, was caught conducting nuclear-related espionage, and commercial competitors of the U.S. engage in serious industrial/technical espionage efforts. The F.B.I.'s counterintelligence division has a more than a full-time job on its hands keeping track of all these spies and controlling their efforts.
** The opening video on the National Spy Museum tour estimates that DC has more spies per capita than any other city on the planet.
** Which causes problems when selecting areas for dead drops or covert meetings between spies and their [[TheHandler handlers]]. Because thousands of spies have been working in cities like Washington and Moscow for over half a century, there are very few 'ideal' locations that haven't been used before. In theory, a security service could stake out these places permanently and have a good chance of catching a spy in the act.
** Also during the UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, with DC set between Confederate Virginia and Confederate-friendly Maryland and a good number of residents sympathetic to the Southern Cause. DC's mirror opposite city, the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, was riddled with Union spies and sympathizers,[[note]]Virginia was very reluctant to secede and one of the last to do so and join the Confederacy[[/note]] and perhaps more to the point, all of the slaves in Richmond--including those in Confederate President Jefferson Davis' own household--were natural Union sympathizers and therefore natural Union spies (Davis' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Bowser housekeeper]], for instance, was a Union agent).
* UsefulNotes/{{Moscow}} (same)

* Casablanca and Tangiers (UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo)
** Hence ''Film/{{Casablanca}}''.
* Istanbul (Practically Forever.)
** Istanbul has some claim to be the Trope Namer. It is after all a very "Byzantine" city.
*** The atmosphere is captured in the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII history ''Literature/IstanbulIntrigues'' by the author Barry Rubin who called it a "real life Casablanca".
*** Depicted as a nearly literal City of Spies in ''Literature/FromRussiaWithLove''.

* Kathmandu (since about the early 2000s): With Nepal being sandwiched between the two next likely superpowers of China and India, and a strategic prize for either, the capital has become like this. Sympathetic towards India mostly, but makes sure to keep Beijing in the loop.

* Tehran during UsefulNotes/WW2. Reza Shah's Pro-Axis administration was overthrown in a joint British-Soviet invasion shortly after the whole Operation Barbarossa thing and his Pro-Ally son was quickly crowned. British forces controlled the city while their enemies at the time (The Soviets) were ravaging the Gilan, Mazandaran, and Azerbaijan regions just north of the Alborz mountains. The strong American, British, French, Russian, and German presence in the city was one of the reasons the conference that finally got the Allies to pull themselves together was held there.
** And during the Cold War. Oil Money + U.S. Friendly Monarchy + Massive borders with the Soviet Union = Disaster. Even without all the [=MI6=], CIA and KGB agents running around there was a lot of crap going on. Most of the intellectuals were promoting Marxist-Leninist ideas, but American pop culture was insanely popular. Prime Minister Mosaddeq was trying to make Iran into a full Democracy which the CIA decided to prevent because the Tudeh party and the Jangal party (which were both Communist) were becoming worryingly popular. All political parties except the Rastakhiz party were [[ThePurge disbanded]] after the Mordad coup but that only led to Communist and Religious Terrorist groups (mostly with foreign benefactors) and the Iranian spy agency SAVAK failed to stop them decisively.
* Also in Iran, Bushehr has been a hotbed for spy activity forever. Since the 50s, it's been about as crazy as Tehran (look up the Nationalization of the Iranian Oil Industry) but the biggest Spy Magnet of the city is Iran's first Nuclear Power Plant which was built in the early 70s. A few years ago, the Islamic Republic's government decided to revive the Power Plant, flying in a few of the brilliant minds behind Chernobyl to help with the Reactor and triggering a massive load of sanctions from countries who believe the IR means to use nuclear energy for something else.
** Under the Safavids it was a sentinel of resistance against the Portuguese colonists, then when the Portuguese colonies were taken back it remained a major port in an era when the Safavids had developed relations with the Dutch and British East India Companies, which didn't quite get along. Nader Shah decided to put the Headquarters of his Navy in Bushehr, but he was killed before he was done conquering on land so the Navy went practically unused.
** Under the Qajar dynasty, Bushehr officially became a British Colony. The rest of Iran wasn't quite happy about it.
* Iga, Japan (Feudal ages): It's where ninjas originated and where most of them lived during the feudal ages in Japan. It became so independent of the rest of Japan that it became a de-facto city-state until 1581 when it was destroyed.

* Vientiane, Laos in the 1960's thanks to its unusual coalition government of neutralists, communists, and right-wingers, formed because JFK's administration didn't want to risk a direct confrontation in the region. Instead, all sides waged a proxy war through the various Laotian factions until the communist forces became powerful enough to take over by military force in 1975.

* Nearly any capital city or any city big enough to have a consulate, due to intelligence agents using diplomatic posts as cover, since they have diplomatic immunity. If they're caught, they can simply go back to their home country.

** [[https://www.graylinedc.com/tours/information.asp?p=1&tid=2 You can even take tours.]]

* {{Discussed|Trope}} in the ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' novels when revealing where Mithril had the administrative headquarters for their Pacific operations. They chose Sydney, Australia as its large enough that they can blend by pretending to be the regional headquarters of a multi-national corporation and geographically isolated enough that it's not a natural crossroads attracting a lot of attention.

* Academy City from ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex''.

** For a while it looked like Helsinki had lost its importance as a spy city in the aftermath of the Cold War as Finland was no longer situated in between two powerful military alliances. However, following the Russian annexation of Crimea military intervention in Syria and the resulting tensions with NATO, spy activity has once again spiked and according to Finnish Security Intelligence Service, it has reached Cold War era levels.

->''"Let me pass on to you the one thing I've learned about this place. \\
'''No one''' here is exactly what he appears. \\
Not Mollari, not Delenn, not Sinclair... And not me."''
-->-- '''G'kar''', ''Series/BabylonFive -- "Mind War"''

* Academy City of ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex''.

* One of the ''Marvelman''/''ComicBook/{{Miracleman}}'' comics ("Spy Story", #21 of the revived series, 1991, by Creator/NeilGaiman) was about a woman living in a city of spies. Turns out all the members of the intelligence agencies of the world who couldn't adjust to the {{Utopia}} were put into one big city to intrigue their little hearts out.

* During UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Franchise/WonderWoman, ComicBook/SteveTrevor, and Etta Candy couldn't go anywhere in Washington DC without running into someone doing espionage work for the Axis powers.

* ''[[Creator/GrahamGreeneAuthor Our Man in Havana]]''. Bet you can't guess which city.
* ''Film/OSS117CairoNestOfSpies'' -- OSS 117 indeed bumps into a variety of spies (Soviets, British, separate Egyptian factions, a goofy Belgian spy and even a hidden group of the ''Nazis''), most likely due to the Suez Canal crisis and Gamal Abdel Nasser's presidency at the epicenter of pan-Arabism.

* King's Landing in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', though to a lesser extent than some of the other examples on this page, does have a large number of spies for different factions. Although they don't figure into the War of the Five Kings much,supplementary materials indicate that Braavos and Volantis (as well as the other Free Cities) have in the past served in this role. Essentially anywhere [[TheSpymaster Varys']] influence extends could count as such, thanks to his network of "little birds".

* Grantville in ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' becomes this in later books, as everyone and his mother wants to get their hands on up-time technology. Subverted in that the spying is done fairly openly - most of the information they want is public knowledge, and the Americans don't actually care that much. Adding to the mix is that Grantville still has a functioning (if limited) Internet, which offers a very secure way for the aforementioned spies to swap information with one another.
* In ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresDeathAndDiplomacy Death and Diplomacy]]'', spying, deception and intrigue are the [[PlanetOfHats Hat]] of the Saloi, to the point that every Saloi is secretly spying on not only their two enemy cultures, but every other Saloi. (Except it's ''not'' a secret, because everybody ''knows'' that, so maybe that's just what they ''want'' people to think, and so on...)
* In Creator/WilliamTenn's short, "Lisbon Cubed", Earth itself turns out to be a conveniently located neutral site where dozens of alien species secretly run their competing spy rings, spying on each other, while Earth remains unaware of the ''existence'' of aliens. The name is a reference to the historical role the city of Lisbon in Portugal played as a spy center during [=WWII=].
* Discussed in the ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' novels when revealing where Mithril had the administrative headquarters for their Pacific operations. They chose Sydney, Australia as its large enough that they can blend by pretending to be the regional headquarters of a multi-national corporation and geographically isolated enough that its not a natural crossroads attracting a lot of attention.
* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' Ankh-Morpork is certainly implied to be one, but there's not a lot of focus on the spies themselves. It's just taken for granted that news ''will'' make it back to Lord Vetinari. At one point he's seen reading the report from the ThievesGuild inner inner council. Amusingly, protagonist Glenda of ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals'' who ''really is'' just a cook is mistaken for a spy because of this [[note]] She does do some spying, that's not her being a spy, just a well-intentioned busybody[[/note]]--Ridcully says that Vetinari is the largest employer in the city, and he wishes he knew exactly who he was employing.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': The station itself is a massive nest of intrigue, mostly because it's the only neutral port around and between the major powers. Being the hub of diplomats means it attracts the dark side of diplomacy, spying. Notably, when the Interstellar Alliance relocates its headquarters to Minbar at the end of season 5, the chief of the ISA's covert intelligence division chooses to remain stationed on Babylon 5.
* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'': In the episode "Chuck Versus the Suburbs", Chuck and Sarah go undercover in the suburb of Meadow Branch to find a Fulcrum agent. Later in the episode, it is revealed that the entire cul de sac is actually a front for Fulcrum, which is trying to build their own intersect.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': King's Landing is rife with spies for various members of the DecadentCourt. In one scene, Littlefinger is polite enough to point out several of them, including his own.
** At the time of ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'', both Mysaria (aka the "White Worm") and Larys Strong have networks of informants in King's Landing.
* UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}, of all places, on ''Series/{{Intelligence 2006}}''. This makes more sense than you might think. It's is a major world port right next to a major world power (the United States) and right across from two more (China and Russia) in Canada, which has traditionally served as a buffer between the three. Plus the fact that it's a very cosmopolitan city where any nationality blends right in, it could very well be a City Of Spies for much the same reason Kathmandu has become so popular.

* UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}} in ''Series/PanAm''. Of course, as the series is set in the '60s, during the Cold War, as noted below this is TruthInTelevision.
* ''Series/WonderWoman'': Washington, D.C. was a den of spies. From [[TheMole Steve Trevor's first secretary]] (who Wonder Woman personally knocked out to take her job) to [[TheBaroness Baroness Von Gunther]] to [[SurgicalImpersonation spies posing as Treasury Department managers]], the first season had so many spies that there must have been a shortage of both housing and abandoned warehouses.
* ''Series/TheAmericans'', set in Washington DC during TheEighties and featuring KGB spies as protagonists, makes use of this trope, showing how the KGB operates out of the Soviet embassy with impunity.

* Creator/DataEast's ''Pinball/SecretService'' pinball suggests that everyone in Washington D.C. is either an undercover agent or a Soviet spy.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* The planet Arden in ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}''
* ''Top Secret'', adventure "Operation: Sprechenhaltestelle''. The setting is a small neutral European town full of spies.
* Al Amarja, the Mediterranean BananaRepublic ''TabletopGame/OverTheEdge'' is based in, is crammed to the rafters with the weirdness of every description. The multiple espionage agencies fighting each other in the back alleys is one of the most mundane aspects of the setting.
* Every player character in ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' is required to be a member of at least one secret society, and most [=NPCs=] are part of one as well. Given that the characters are supposed to be hunting down secret society members, [[FlockOfWolves this can get ugly]].

* Krakow in ''TabletopGame/{{Twilight 2000}}''.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' goes a step further and has an entire ''country'' of spies - Zilargo, especially its capital of Trolanport. It's also the homeland of the gnomes. Adventurers in Zilargo are well advised to BewareTheNiceOnes, as Zilargo boasts the most terrifyingly capable secret police force in the setting.
** It's not that everyone is watching you that you should be worried about. It's when everyone stops watching you that you should really worry.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' has [[EldritchLocation Sigil]], City of Doors, which is a city of spies because it contains portals to every plane in the multiverse and is, therefore, the most strategically important location imaginable. Legions of ideological/philosophical or political factions, religious groups, business empires, crime syndicates, and both sides in the [[HellIsWar Blood War]] have agents here.
* The board game TabletopGame/SpyAlley takes place in one.
* In ''TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent'', any city with a huge Unchained presence quickly becomes a city of spies. The demons must constantly stay one step ahead of the God-Machine, unraveling its plans through moves and countermoves. Most demons organize themselves in small Rings, and many cities have Agencies that can offer demons resources, be they cash, safehouses, or host bodies.

* The AI in ''[[VideoGame/{{Civilization}} Civilization V]]'' will almost always plant its spies in the city with the highest espionage potential (because they can steal technologies from it faster), which is based on science output per turn and therefore [[ArtificialStupidity almost certainly a/the player's capital]], especially in single-player. Place one counterspy in your capital and watch him rapidly level up to Special Agent by killing spies from around the world every few turns as world leader after world leader crawls to you, embarrassed and begging for forgiveness.
* In ''VideoGame/GwentTheWitcherCardGame'' there's the Nilfgaard Empire. The most popular jobs in the Nilfgaardian empire are Spy, Assassin, and Courtesan. It's heavily implied that there is a major overlap between all three jobs.
* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', Manaan in some ways has this role in its nature as an extremely valuable world that maintains neutrality. While both the Republic and Sith have embassies on the world, neither are allowed to carry weapons on the streets and are both extremely limited and forced to combat by proxy. In addition, the trial of Sunry, where both he and his victim were being manipulated by the Republic and Sith, is an example of the types of manipulation that go on. [[spoiler: The way in which the Republic builds a secret base with the approval of elements of the Selkath rulers also fits into this type of system.]]

* As can be seen from the list below, if a city has been (or is) either the capital of a Great Power, or a focus of international conflict/intrigue at one time or another, it will become a real City Of Spies.

** At the time of ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'', both Mysaria (aka the "White Worm") and Larys Strong have networks of informants.

As can be seen from the list below, if a city has been (or is) either the capital of a Great Power, or a focus of international conflict/intrigue at one time or another, it will become a real City Of Spies. Some of the best examples are:

* Bothawui and the other Bothan-colonized worlds (especially Kothlis, home of the cell of Bothan spies who are mentioned in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'') in the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' are [[PlanetOfHats planets of spies]]. Also {{Playful Hacker}}s, backbiting status-obsessed politicians, and incredibly brave honor-bound people. With plenty of overlap between these categories. Bothans wear many Hats.
* Post-war Vienna is a hotbed of intrigue (and zither music) in ''Film/TheThirdMan''.
* ''[[Creator/GrahamGreeneAuthor Our Man in Havana]]''. Bet you can't guess which city.

* ''Film/AtomicBlonde'' takes place in Berlin during the end of the Cold War, so naturally, the city is full of spies from both the NATO nations and the Soviet Union.

** It isn't just technology that foreign operatives are after, but also political influence and intel. California Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein, one of the longest-serving U.S. Senators to date and a native of San Francisco, was revealed in 2018 to have had [[https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2018/08/01/details-chinese-spy-dianne-feinstein-san-francisco/ a Chinese spy on her staff]] that had been working for her for ''20 years.'' Feinstein's office only found out about it in 2013, after which they quietly fired him (no other information about this person has been officially publicized, but one theory is that he may be Russell Lowe, [[http://dailycaller.com/2018/08/06/feinstein-chinese-spy/ who matches all the information available]]).

It might even be that the number of posted spies are equivalent to, or even outmatches the numbers of regular citizens, potentially creating a FlockOfWolves situation. It might not be unlikely that some of the spies have ended up GoingNative to some degree or another, because who else would be around to actually maintain the city and making sure that goods and services are still flowing otherwise?

* During UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Franchise/WonderWoman, ComicBook/SteveTrevor and Etta Candy couldn't go anywhere in Washington DC without running into someone doing espionage work for the Axis powers.

* ''Film/AtomicBlonde'' takes place in Berlin during the end of the Cold War, so naturally the city is full of spies from both the NATO nations and the Soviet Union.

* In Creator/RobertSheckley's "Spy Story", there's an entire ''planet'' settled exclusively by the spies come to spy on the main protagonist.

* In Creator/WilliamTenn's short, "Lisbon Cubed", Earth itself turns out be a conveniently located neutral site where dozens of alien species secretly run their competing spy rings, spying on each other, while Earth remains unaware of the ''existence'' of aliens. The name is a reference to the historical role the city of Lisbon in Portugal played as a spy center during [=WWII=].
* Discussed in the ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' novels when revealing where Mithril had the administrative headquarters for their Pacific operations. The chose Sydney, Australia as its large enough that they can blend by pretending to be the regional headquarters of a multi-national corporation and geographically isolated enough that's its not a natural crossroads attracting a lot of attention.
* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' Ankh-Morpork is certainly implied to be one, but there's not a lot of focus on the spies themselves. It's just taken for granted that news ''will'' make it back to Lord Vetinari. At one point he's seen reading the report from the ThievesGuild inner inner council. Amusingly, protagonist Glenda of ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals'' who ''really is'' just a cook is mistaken for a spy because of this--Ridcully says that Vetinari is the largest employer in the city, and he wishes he knew exactly who he was employing.

* UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}} in ''Series/PanAm''. Of course as the series is set in the '60s, during the Cold War, as noted below this is TruthInTelevision.

* ''Series/TheAmericans'', set in Washington DC during TheEighties and featuring KGB spies as protagonists, makes use fo this trope, showing how the KGB operates out of the Soviet embassy with impunity.

* Al Amarja, the Mediterranean BananaRepublic ''TabletopGame/OverTheEdge'' is based in, is crammed to the rafters with weirdness of every description. The multiple espionage agencies fighting each other in the back alleys is one of the most mundane aspects of the setting.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' has [[EldritchLocation Sigil]], City of Doors, which is a city of spies because it contains portals to every plane in the multiverse and is therefore the most strategically important location imaginable. Legions of ideological/philosophical or political factions, religious groups, business empires, crime syndicates, and both sides in the [[HellIsWar Blood War]] have agents here.

* In ''VideoGame/GwentTheWitcherCardGame'' there's the Nilfgaard Empire. The most popular jobs in the Nilfgaardian empire are Spy, Assassin and Courtesan. It's heavily implied that there is a major overlap between all three jobs.
* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', Manaan in some ways has this role in its nature as an extremely valuable world that maintains neutrality. While both the Republic and Sith have embassies on the world, neither are allowed to carry weapons on the streets and are both extremely limited and forced to combat by proxy. In addition the trial of Sunry, where both he and his victim were being manipulated by the Republic and Sith, is an example of the types of manipulation that go on. [[spoiler: The way in which the Republic builds a secret base with the approval of elements of the Selkath rulers also fits into this type of system.]]
* ''VideoGame/EscapeVelocity Override'' has two separate things that fit this in different ways. One is Pax Station, which as pretty much the sole place in which in the United Earth-Voinian Empire peace treaty meaningfully exists is a centre of intrigue, from Voinians hiring human mercenaries to UE agents retrieving Voinian defectors. The other is the entire Igadzra culture -- all three of the Strands have a [[PlanetOfHats thing]] as a deliberate policy, and the Igadzra thing is something like devious paranoia. This both means that Igadzra tend to spy on ''other'' Igadzra and have led to the Igadzra having the most sophisticated and extensive intelligence agencies and clandestine scheming amongst the Strands.

** It's not just unfriendly countries (the Communist bloc during the Cold War, China and Russia today) that have a major espionage presence in Washington. There was a major scandal in the late 1980's when Israel, one of the U.S.'s closest allies, was caught conducting nuclear-related espionage, and commercial competitors of the U.S. engage in serious industrial/technical espionage efforts. The F.B.I.'s counterintelligence division has a more than full-time job on its hands keeping track of all these spies and controlling their efforts.

** Which causes problems when selecting areas for dead drops or covert meetings between spies and their [[TheHandler handlers]]. Because thousands of spies have been working in cities like Washington and Moscow for over half a century, there's very few 'ideal' locations that haven't been used before. In theory a security service could stake out these places permanently and have a good chance of catching a spy in the act.

** For a while it looked like that Helsinki had lost its importance as a spy city in the aftermath of the Cold War as Finland was no longer situated in between two powerful military alliances. However following the Russian annexation of Crimea military intervention in Syria and the resulting tensions with NATO, spy activity has once again spiked and according to Finnish Security Intelligence Service it has reached Cold War era levels.

* Vienna (UsefulNotes/ColdWar, Present). Most people don't realize this, but Austria, like Germany, was carved up into four occupation zones after the end of World War II, with Vienna also being divided. The terms under which the occupation of Austria ended mandated that Austria become a neutral state, which it did, so its situation ended up being rather like Finland's. Also, a large number of international institutions are based in or have major offices in Vienna; of these, the most important are the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
** The [[PeaceConference Congress of Vienna]] at the end of UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars was a great time for this as well. The British delegation went so far as to take their own service staff on the way with them, knowing that every Austrian they hired would [[TheButlerDidIt be working for the Austrian government]]. Others didn't think of this and as a result the Austrians picked them blind.
** More recently, spy swaps between countries like the US, Russia and Britain have still been known to take place in the area. The (now infamous) [=MI6=] informant Colonel Sergei Skripal was 'exchanged' at Schwechat airport in 2010.
* Tehran during UsefulNotes/WW2. Reza Shah's Pro-Axis administration was overthrown in a joint British-Soviet invasion shortly after the whole Operation Barbarossa thing and his Pro-Ally son was quickly crowned. British forces controlled the city while their enemies at the time (The Soviets) were ravaging the Gilan, Mazandaran and Azerbaijan regions just north of the Alborz mountains. The strong American, British, French, Russian and German presence in the city was one of the reasons the conference that finally got the Allies to pull themselves together was held there.

** Under the Safavids it was a sentinel of resistance against the Portugese colonists, then when the Portugese colonies were taken back it remained a major port in an era when the Safavids had developed relations with the Dutch and British East India Companies, which didn't quite get along. Nader Shah decided to put the Headquarters of his Navy in Bushehr, but he was killed before he was done conquering on land so the Navy went practically unused.
** Under the Qajar dynasty, Bushehr officially became a British Colony. The rest of Iran weren't quite happy about it.
* Iga, Japan (Feudal ages): It's where ninjas originated and where most of them lived during the feudal ages in Japan. It became so independent of the rest of Japan that it became a de-facto city state until 1581, when it was destroyed.

* UsefulNotes/{{London}} particularly during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII when it was the main staging ground for the war efffort but other periods as well. During the UsefulNotes/ColdWar [[Literature/JamesBond naturally]] and the early days of the age of sail, both [[UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar Civil]] [[UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses Wars]] and half a dozen other time periods, the place was swimming with people selling information to all sides of these conflicts. It probably has dozens of spies in residence to this day due to being one of the largest and most influential cites in the world.
* Vientiane, Laos in the 1960's thanks to its unusual coalition government of neutralists, communists and right-wingers, formed because JFK's administration didn't want to risk a direct confrontation in the region. Instead all sides waged a proxy war through the various Laotian factions until the communist forces became powerful enough to take over by military force in 1975.
* Geneva and other Swiss cities. Being a neutral country with many international agencies is enough to be a spy magnet in any era, but especially during World War 2 when Switzerland was a neutral in the middle of Nazi-controlled Europe that did extensive business with both sides.

* The city of Crossbell from the ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries'' edges into this, given that it’s located directly between the continents two major superpowers, the Erebonian Empire and Republic of Calvard, and is divided between factions that support Erebonia, Calvard or advocate for Crossbell to be independent of the two. Agents from both countries are also active in the background, along with [[spoiler:Wazy and Abbas keeping tabs on things for the Septian Church, and later Ries keeping tabs ''on'' the activities of the Church]]. During Azures’s final chapter, it's possible to find out that [[spoiler:Reins, a reporter at the Crossbell News Service, is actually an employee of R&A Research, meaning the Kingdom of Liberl is spying on Crossbell too]].

* The eponymous city in ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' qualifies. The Great Game has its players nearly everywhere in London, including the Admiralty, and the district of Wilmot's End may as well be the “District of Spies” since just about everyone you’ll meet there is a spy.

* The eponymous city of London in ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' qualifies. The Great Game has its players nearly everywhere in London, including the Admiralty, and the district of Wilmot's End may as well be the “District of Spies” since just about everyone you’ll meet there is a spy.

* In VideoGame/GwentTheWitcherCardGame there's the Nilfgaard Empire. The most popular jobs in the Nilfgaardian empire are Spy, Assassin and Courtesan. It's heavily implied that there is a major overlap between all three jobs.

* UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}, of all places, on ''Series/{{Intelligence 2006}}''. This makes more sense than you might think. It's is a major world port right next to a major world power (the United States) and right across from two more (China and Russia) in Canada, which has traditionally served as a buffer between the three. Plus the fact that it's a very cosmopolitan city where any nationality blends right in, it could very well be a CityOfSpies for much the same reason Kathmandu has become so popular.

As can be seen from the list below, if a city has been (or is) either the capital of a Great Power, or a focus of international conflict/intrigue at one time or another, it will become a real CityOfSpies. Some of the best examples are: