Paris is known today as the City of Lights. Thousands of years ago it was called Midwater-Dwelling—which is how its Latin name, Lutetia, can be translated. Britannica has created a list of just a few of the most notable structures built in Paris over all of these years. The Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA, or Arab World Institute) is the smallest of François Mitterrand’s so-called “Grands Projets,” but it cannot be called the least daring. It was crowned with the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) in 1989—thus catapulting its architect, Jean Nouvel, to stardom. With France being a former colonial power in North Africa and the Middle East, IMA’s purpose was to spread knowledge of Arab culture in France and throughout Europe.