LEADING CITIES

UR

Ur was a city in Sumer, in southern Mesopotamia, in what is now

Iraq. According to biblical tradition, Ur was named after the man

who founded the first settlement there, though this has been

disputed. The city’s other biblical link is to the patriarch

Abraham, who left Ur to settle in Canaan. Whatever its biblical

connections may have been, Ur was a significant port city

on the Persian Gulf which began, most likely, as a small village

in the Ubaid Period of Mesopotamian history (5000–4100 BCE),

an established city by 3800, and continually inhabited until 450 BCE.

CONSTANTINOPLE

With a history of thousands of years Constantinople, founded by

the ancient Greeks as Byzantion and which is today known as

Istanbul, experienced its most glorious days as the capital of

the vast Byzantine Empire. The city was known for its architectural

masterpieces such as the Greek Orthodox cathedral Hagia

Sophia, which served as the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

and the sacred Imperial Palace where the Byzantine emperors resided.

BEIJING

Beijing, China’s massive capital, has an immense history stretching

back three millennia. It’s widely known for its modern architecture

as well as for its ancient sites including the grand Forbidden City

complex, the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

BABYLON

Located about sixty miles south of Baghdad in modern-day Iraq,

the ancient city of Babylon served for nearly two millennia as a

centre of Mesopotamian civilization. Hammurabi, one of its early

rulers, created the first recorded system of laws, while in later

times the Babylonian language would be used across the

Middle East as a way of communicating across borders.

Another of the city’s great accomplishments, according to

legend, was the construction of the Hanging Gardens, a wonder

of the ancient world, which some believe was built by the

biblical king Nebuchadnezzar II.

ROME

Rome is synonymous with the most famous empire in human

history, lasting for hundreds of years and dominating most of

the known world of antiquity. It is also the home of Catholicism

and the pope’s base, with millions of religious tourists

visiting every year.

MECCA

In the year 570 CE, in the city of Mecca, in what is today Saudi Arabia,

Mohammed was born. He would become the founder of Islam, a

mighty monotheistic religion that has over a billion adherents.

It is a religion that would come to exert a great influence on

civilization and human history in general. Today, more than

fifteen million Muslims visit Mecca each year, including several

million during the annual Hajj, the pilgrimage all Muslims

are required to take at least once in their lifetime.

JERUSALEM

Jerusalem, a city in central Israel west of the Dead Sea, has been a

place of pilgrimage and worship for Christians, Jews, and Muslims

since the biblical era. The Old City retains significant religious

sites including the Temple Mount compound and the Western Wall,

sacred to Judaism, and the Dome of the Rock, a

seventh-century Islamic shrine with a gold rotunda.

ATHENS

Birthplace of Western civilization, Athens is the most influential

city ever in the fields of philosophy, architecture, politics, science

and free thinking, as well as the original home of what is

considered the most ideal system of government: democracy.

Athens also became the first city to organize the first modern

Olympics back in 1896. Some of its most famous citizens include

giants such as Socrates, Plato, Solon, and Pericles.