CHIEF CITIES IN THE WORLD THROUGHOUT HISTORY

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.