The 16 Greatest Cities In Human History

Business Insider ^ | 12/25/2011 | Robert Johnson and Gus Lubin

[SeekAndFind]

Cities have played an important role in human history for over 9,000 years.

Jericho, the oldest city on record with a population of 2,000, was the center of commerce and learning in its day. So was Uruk, Mari and other great cities through history to Tokyo, which is the largest city today.

Cities are becoming even more important as we passes through the biggest wave of urbanization in human history.

Determining the population of any city prior to the late 1700's is no easy task. Even the most casual census was unheard of before then, and studies to nail down city populations throughout history weren't even attempted until 1944.

It was then that Tertius Chandler and Gerald Fox undertook a 30 year study, completed in 1974, that looked at urban population in 2,000 cities, over several thousand years.

The numbers were drawn from the size of a city's military in peacetime and in war, household data, agricultural commerce, church records, fortification sizes, food distribution, loss of life in a disaster, and city comparisons. Chandler revised his opus in 1987, applying greater detail and further research to his numbers. In 2003, George Modelski expanded on Chandler's work and wrote World Cities, -3,000 to 2,000. The book remains the authoritative reference on historic population today.

The data here is all based on Modelski's numbers, except for London in 1825 which is Chandler. Jericho and Uruk, the two most ancient cities, are based on estimates made from Modelski's work.

[Straight Vermonter]

Mexico City has many, many people living off the grid, that is without city water or sewer, and with unofficial electrical hookups. It is probably larger than Tokyo, but no one can really say.

Lagos Nigeria is much the same.

[SunkenCiv]

The author notes that my favorite Sumerian town, Lagaash, was the largest city in the world, until of course it suffered an inopportune military defeat and was destroyed by Ur.

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Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census by Tertius Chandler paperback

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[BIGLOOK]

Cities are just repositories of facts of life and mistakes that others will research in the future. They just last longer but then the family farms, fishing villages and trails outlast them all. Then they deteriorate to seats of government (poorly managed over time), crime (evolving to the detriment of the city) and tourist attractions (ever seen a museum in a barn).

Well...so much for that mot of nonsense and erudition.

[tarheelswamprat]

And let’s not forget Minot, ND. It’s not the end of the world but you can see it from there.

Having traveled the whole state in a previous career, I'd say it's Williston... /g

BTW, is the billboard on the interstate heading west out of Bismarck that said "Custer was fine when he left here!" still there?

[colorado tanker]

Thanks for the post. Fascinating read!

Ayutthaya is a really interesting day trip out of Bangkok. Because the city was sacked and abandoned it is just like it was left. It's like something out of Indiana Jones.