CHIEF CITIES IN THE WORLD THROUGHOUT HISTORY
Added on: 9th Oct 2016
PARIS
For the biggest part of its modern history, Paris has always been
a city of culture, fashion, and influence where millions of
people (famous and otherwise) have chosen to live. Paris is
also the city with the most tourists in the world, and with
32.3 million visitors in 2013, it was officially declared the world’s
top tourist destination, measured by hotel occupancy.
In 1684 and during the reign of Louis XIV, Paris became the
world’s largest city with more than 540,000 citizens.
YINXU
Nowadays, the archaeological site of Yin Xu, close to
Anyang City, some five hundred km south of Beijing,
reminds tourists of the ancient capital city of the late
Shang Dynasty (1300–1046 BC). It testifies to the
golden age of early Chinese culture, crafts and sciences,
a time of great prosperity in the Chinese Bronze Age.
The city was also the largest in the world around
1300 BC with 120,000 people.
UR
Ur was a city in the region of Sumer, in southern Mesopotamia,
in what is modern-day Iraq. According to biblical tradition,
the city is named after the man who founded the first
settlement there, though this has been disputed. In
2100 BC it became the world’s largest city with
100,000 people.
MARI
Mari was an ancient Mesopotamian city situated on the
right bank of the Euphrates River in what is now Syria.
Excavations, initially directed by André Parrot and begun in
1933, uncovered remains extending from about 3100 BC
to the seventh century AD. It is believed this city was
once the biggest in the world (2400 BC) with an
estimated population of about 50,000 people.
URUK
Uruk was one of the most important cities (at one time,
the most important) in ancient Mesopotamia. According to
the Sumerian King List, it was founded by King Enmerkar
sometime around 4500 BC and about a thousand years
later would become the largest city in the world with
4,000 people living within its borders.
JERICHO
It might be hard for some to believe that this small city in
Jordan, with less than 20,000 citizens today, was once
the largest city in the world but it’s one hundred percent true.
Jericho is described in the Hebrew Bible as the
“City of Palm Trees” and is believed to be the oldest
continually occupied place in the world, with settlements
dating to 9000 BC. It was the world’s largest city in
7000 BC with about 2,000 citizens at the time.
NEW YORK
Back in the early days of the twentieth century, New York
began to build the largest buildings the world had ever seen:
skyscrapers. Despite the Great Depression that hit in
1929, New York built some of the most incredible sky
scrapers ever, including the Chrysler Building and the
Empire State Building. Moreover the city temporarily
became the largest in the world with a total
population of about 8 million
TOKYO
The disaster Japan suffered due to its involvement in WWII
was completely catastrophic. However, Tokyo would go on
to take the lead in what would later be described as a
“post war economic miracle,” the most prosperous
time in Japan’s history. During the process, Tokyo
became the world’s largest city (in the late 1960’s),
a title that still holds with an estimated population
of about 33 million.
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