Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia, a small country in northern Europe on the Baltic Sea. It sits right on the coast, and its port matters a great deal: ships and ferries run across to Helsinki in Finland in about two hours, and fishing and shipping have long been part of the city's life, along with making electrical and electronic goods. The old centre of Tallinn is famous — narrow stone streets, red roofs, a medieval town wall and towers still standing — and it is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage site. For hundreds of years the city was a trading town in the Hanseatic League, and it has been ruled at different times by Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Russia; Estonia became independent in 1918, was taken by the Soviet Union, and became independent again in 1991. Modern Tallinn is also known for technology — Skype was built largely by Estonian engineers there, and Estonia is famous for doing government business online. Say it 'TA-lin', with the stress on the first part. Note the two n's at the end, which look odd to English eyes but come straight from Estonian spelling.