I think you added some cities to this? I think the dates might extend back farther than they used to. Still no Akkad, Anyang or Uruk. This is much easier for me than the sports quizzes.
I still find it very interesting how it took almost 2000 years for a city to get well past 1 million people after Alexandria, despite the global population growing substantially during this time.
Well, Rome had about 1.2 million people as it surpassed Alexandria, unless you mean for a city to get into the multi-million people range. But even as the population of the world increased greatly, all civilizations remained predominantly agrarian, and the means didn't quite exist to support huge populations in the relatively small space of a city. It seems that around 1 million people was the sustainable spot until the late 1700s/early 1800s when the Industrial Revolution hit and changed everything.
Yes. It's pretty remarkable that cities never grew much larger than Alexandria until the 19th century.
I think this has to do with transportation. If you have to walk everywhere or take a horse, then city sizes are constrained. In ancient Rome, 1 million people were crammed into an area much smaller than the modern city, perhaps 15 square kilometers.
Trains and cars changed that, allowing people to commute from tens or hundreds of miles away. So density is much lower but the city size is much higher as continuous urban centers become spread out.
"We use the modern name for the city, but ancient names are accepted as type-ins" says the caveat, but the quiz itself seems inconsistent. Istanbul (modern name) is accepted as a type-in but Constantinople (old name) is what appears as the answer, while Beijing (modern name) is the answer but Peking (old name) isn't accepted as a type-in.
Oldest Cities by Country
But this may be the single most appropriate place to do so, the subject matter is so similar. And not everyone cares about ancient geography.
:::BOING!!!:::
Yaaaaaah!!!
I think this has to do with transportation. If you have to walk everywhere or take a horse, then city sizes are constrained. In ancient Rome, 1 million people were crammed into an area much smaller than the modern city, perhaps 15 square kilometers.
Trains and cars changed that, allowing people to commute from tens or hundreds of miles away. So density is much lower but the city size is much higher as continuous urban centers become spread out.