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Which city do think is/was the greatest city in the history of the earth, and why? Im sure this should be interesting since Im posting this in the worldwide section and with all of our knowledge together we should get many good responses.
My vote goes to Seattle, Wa. in the Great Northwest of the United States of America. Not just because of the unmatched beauty of the land up here, but the city of Seattle seems to have it all together. Ill spare you the book Id like to write on this but trust me when I say Seattle is so awesome, it very well could be the greatest city in the history of civilized man.
In the U.S New York City, world geez I don't know? Possibly London, but in the ancient world Rome. So many considering the history of the Earth. I'll have check back.
In the U.S New York City, world geez I don't know? Possibly London, but in the ancient world Rome. So many considering the history of the Earth. I'll have check back.
There was already a thread just like this not too many months back, maybe a year ago.
Anyway, yes, among ancient pre-industrial cities, Rome or Constantinople/Istanbul (they sort of went hand-in-hand, at least for a while, or were rivals), among modern/industrial era cities, London or New York (they sort of go hand-in-hand, you could add Paris to that cluster, they are an incestuous bunch).
Any parallels in Asia or other parts of the world?
At any rate, the first pair dominated the Mediterranean-centered world for some 2,200 years at their peaks, the second the Atlantic-centered world and beyond for the last, what, four hundred years or so?
But it is still very early days in the history of the industrial era, and going forward things change, so who knows? But I expect the New York/London/Paris cluster to hang on for at least another century or two.
^Chang'An, Rome's counterpart and sister empire. In terms of population (and what people reckon ancient Rome's population was) it was smaller, or equal to. It may have been the worlds first city to ever reach 1 million depending on whether you belive Rome did that in 100AD, or Alexandria, Egypt in 100BC. In terms of the built environment it was far larger - 3 to 6x larger than Rome, which was densely populated with slaves. Chang'An was divided up into quarters by some streets 500ft wide, and was the birth of the original grid plan.
The palaces it had were as big as the city of Rome in it's entirety, and the largest palaces every built. Today the Forbidden City in Beijing is the world's largest - these ones were 3, 5.5 and 7x it's size, with pavilions that were the largest ancient buildings in China.
also Edo, or Tokyo - destroyed every 20 years until 1945 (periodic conflagrations known as the Flowers of Edo). It was often the world's largest city but would get annihilated every time, the most recent in 1945 when it had just surpassed NYC.
This is the 1630s, before the great fire of 1657 that killed 100,000, and took out 500 palaces and temples. At it's heart lay the largest castle ever built, laid in 5 concentric rings designed to confuse and trap marauding armies:
If it had survived the castle would have covered the Imperial Palace park, and some (all in all 3x the size of Central Park in NYC), with a 16km outer wall. For benefit of scale those skyscrapers have the largest average floorspace of any city but due to earthquakes have to be limited to 700ft and be twice as wide:
Seattle a greatest city in the history of the earth, so awesome, it very well could be the greatest city in the history of civilized man? Seriously? Oh, boy...
Most of the world never heard about Seattle.
Define "greatest": size, culture, importance, power, most known or visited, richest, influential, beautiful .....
"Ever" as including all times or contemporary?
Last 3000, 1000, 500, 100 years, or now?
Each era has their own important/influential cities
More on Asia... other great ancient cities over a million were the great multicultural nexuses of China ending the Silk Route- Hangzhou, Nanjing, Kaifeng, Suzhou and of course Beijing, plus Gwangju in Korea. Then there was SE Asia....
Quote:
Originally Posted by travelworld123
Anymore pictures/paintings of similar such as Ayutthaya etc...?
This is Ayutthaya, Thailand in 1665, (and the worlds largest city) before the Burmese armies laid waste to it all. What strikes it differently from other ancient cities like rival Bagan that was grander, or the largest ancient city ever, Angkor, it was mostly floating, hence it's moniker Venice of the East. It's one million inhabitants lived in ornate houseboats moored through myriad canals.
Painted by 17th Century French and Thai artists:
Recent floods showed more what the remains would have looked like back in the day. Everthing would have been encrusted with gold, gilt and jewels.
Bagan, Burmese rival city to Thailand's Ayutthaya had 4000 temples which were the only things stone built and to survive - 2300 still remain in the valley though all their gilt, jewels and gold is gone:
Oh yeah Seattle definitely beats the likes of New York, London, Paris, Rome, Istanbul, Tokyo
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