Prague is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people. During the thousand years of its existence, the city grew from a settlement stretching from Prague Castle in the north to the fort of Vyšehrad in the south. The Czech name Praha is derived from an old Slavic word, práh, which means “ford” or “rapid”, referring to the city’s origin at a crossing point of the Vltava river.