Cities of the Ancient Near East

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Uru was the Sumerian term for a city or city state, written with the cuneiform ideogram URU .

In Akkadian and Hittite orthography, URU became a determinative sign denoting a city, or combined with KUR "land" the kingdom or territory controlled by a city, e.g. "the king of the country of [the city of] Hatti".

The largest cities in the Bronze Age Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands. Memphis in the Early Bronze Age with some 30,000 inhabitants was the largest city of the time by far. Ur in the Middle Bronze Age is estimated to have had some 65,000 inhabitants; Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had a population of some 50-60,000, while Niniveh had some 20-30,000, reaching 100,000 only in the Iron Age (ca. 700 BC).

Mesopotamia

Lower Mesopotamia

Sumerian, Akkadian and early Amorite cities

The five "first" cities said to have exercized pre-dynastic kingship:

• Eridu (Tell Abu Shahrain) :
• Bad-tibira (Tell al-Madain, Tell Medinah) :
• Larsa (Tell as-Senkereh) :
• Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah) :
• Shuruppak (Tell Fara) :

Other principal cities:

• Kish (Tell Uheimir & Ingharra)
• Uruk (Warka)
• Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar)
• Nippur (Afak)
• Lagash (Tell al-Hiba)
• Girsu (Tello or Telloh)
• Umma (Tell Jokha)
• Hamazi ¹
• Adab (Tell Bismaya)
• Akshak ¹
• Akkad ¹
• Isin (Ishan al-Bahriyat)

(¹location uncertain)

Minor cities (from south to north):

• Kuara (Tell al-Lahm)
• Zabala (Tell Ibzeikh)
• Kisurra (Tell Abu Hatab)
• Marad (Tell Wannat es-Sadum)
• Dilbat (Tell ed-Duleim)
• Borsippa (Birs Nimrud)
• Kutha (Tell Ibrahim)
• Eshnunna (Tell Asmar)

Babylonian cities

• Babylon

Upper Mesopotamia

Assyria and Mitanni

• Nimrud
• Nineveh
• Arrapha
• Nuzi
• Assur
• Nagar (Tell Brak)
• Mari (Tell Hariri)
• Emar
• Alalah
• Washukanni
• Aleppo
• Ebla

Elam

• Susa
• Anshan (Persia)
• Awan
• Hamazi

Anatolia

• Hattusa
• Carchemish
• Samuha
• Sapinuwa
• Tarhuntassa
• Kizzuwatna, Tarsus (city)
• Nesa
• Troy
• Miletus

the Levant

• Ugarit
• Qadesh
• Byblos
• Tyre
• Damascus
• Sidon
• Jerusalem
• Hebron
• Jericho
• Gaza

Egypt

• Heraclion :
• Pikuat (Canopus, Kanobos) :
• Per-Wadjet (Buto, Butosos) :
• Alexandria :
• Khaset (Xois) :
• Tell Kedua :
• Djanet (Tanis / Zoan) :
• Zau (Sais) :
• Tell er-Herr :
• Tell Hebua I :
• Tell Hebua II :
• Tell el-Borg :
• T-78 :
• Naucratis :
• Tjafanet (Tahpanhes, Daphnae, Baal Zephon) :
• Tell Abu Sefeh :
• Pi-Ramesse (Per-Ramessu, Raamses) :
• Hatwaret (Avaris) :
• Pa-Kes (Faqus / Goshen) :
• Tell abu ar-Rus :
• Tjeku (Succoth, Tell el Maskhuta) :
• Per-Bastet (Bubastis) :
• Pi-Atum (Pithom) :
• Taremu (Leontopolis) :
• Iunu (Heliopolis) :
• Saqqara Serapeum :
• Saqqara :
• Mennefer (Memphis) :
• Itj-Tawy (Lisht) :
• Hatwaret (Hawara) :
• Hat-nen-nesu (Heracleopolis) :
• Jebel Musa (Mount Sinai) :
• Khnum (Hermopolis) :
• Akhetaten (Amarna) :
• Apu (Akhmim, Khen-min, Panopolis) :
• Tjenu (Thinis, Girga) :
• Abdju (Abydos) :
• Ta-ynt-netert (Dendera) :
• Nubt :
• Naqada (Nagade) :
• Waset (Thebes) :
• Nekheb (Eileithyiaspolis) :
• Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) :
• Behdet (Idfu) :
• Abu (Elephantine) :
• Pilak (Philae) :
• Nabta :
• Qustul :
• Buhen :

See also

• KUR
• KI (cuneiform)
• city state
• Polis
• Historical cities
• List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

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