However, it wouldn’t acquire the ranking of city (despite its abstract and questionable nature) precisely until the end of the Bronze Age and the arrival of the Doric invasions, which would ultimately lead to the collapse of the Mycenaean culture. The origins of Chania as an urban settlement go back to one of the ancient Greek civilizations, the Mycenaean, long before the classical splendor of the end of the Bronze Age. Only the neighborhood of Alfama was saved, in the historic center, and the rest was redesigned as the city expanded. Today, Lisbon is the capital of Portugal and has suffered dramatic modifications in its urban appearance due to the fire in the 18th Century, which completely demolished the city center. This city has many similarities with Cadiz´s development and competes with Cadiz as being Europe’s most historical Western city.ĭespite the destruction Lisbon suffered in the 18th century due to a devastating earthquake, it has a mix of cultures and many notable architectural ruins. Settlements in Lisbon have been registered before 1200 BC, but there was no urban development worthy of such name until the Phoenicians arrived and created a trading port. Cadiz was used as a trading port of entry for Phoenician and Greek colonies.Ĭurrently, Cadiz is the capital of the province, named after the city, and forms an important piece of the history of modern Spain, due to being the home of the Constitution of 1812. Named Gadir in its early days by its Phoenician founders, Gades later on, and finally Cadiz, the city has been a permanent mixture of cultures in a small islet in the Atlantic. Cadiz, Spain (~1100 AC) Ancient City of Cadizįounded by the Phoenicians around 1100 BC, Cadiz is, by all means, the oldest urban settlement in Spain, and perhaps the whole of the Iberian Peninsula (competing only with Lisbon, as we will see below) and one of the most ancient in all Western Europe. Beijing has grown so much it has become shaped by its demographic expansion and by the architectural rigors of Chinese communism, in a radical transformation that, nevertheless, is coherent with its traditional position of relevance and power in the region. To date, the Chinese capital is one of the largest cities on the planet, and one of the major economic and financial centers of East Asia. It is, in all likelihood, the oldest city in East Asia. The Chinese government considers the year 1045 BC to be the official year of the birth of today’s Eastern capital. It is known that around 10,000 BC there were settlements of some sort in Ancient China, but they were not big enough to be officially called a city. There are different theories about the origin of Beijing as an urban settlement. Ancient Civilizations Cities: The Oldest Cities in the World From there many dates have been obtained. By defect, those of the Fertile Crescent are the most notable. Generally, it is not known which is the oldest permanently habited city.
Note: all the dates are archaeological estimations and interpretations, and refer to the origins of the settlements, not to their definitions as a “city” per se. We have chosen 21 of the world’s oldest cities and compared how they were with how they are today. They are living museums and relics of the past which, unlike others (Babylon or Angkor in memoriam) have survived over time, and are still important social and economic hubs today. Cities whose existence, in the same place they are found today, can be traced back millennia, witnesses of man’s evolution throughout the centuries. This is what has happened to some of the oldest cities known to man.
Their existence throughout history is also proof of the stubbornness and resistance of human beings: there are times where, when we have chosen to make a place our home, we have never abandoned it, and ended up spending thousands of years there. Since then, cities have been an essential part of our world, although not always the most important. So it was goodbye to nomadism, and hello to sedentism. The development of agriculture and livestock farming allowed human beings to settle and live more permanently on fixed land.
What were the oldest cities and civilizations in the ancient world?
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