Cities of the Ancient Near East
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This SourceUru 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
Upper Mesopotamia
Assyria and Mitanni
- Nimrud
- Nineveh
- Arrapha
- Nuzi
- Assur
- Nagar (Tell Brak)
- Mari (Tell Hariri)
- Emar
- Alalah
- Washukanni
- Aleppo
- Ebla
Elam
Anatolia
the Levant
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
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Last updated on Thursday March 06, 2008 at 08:43:55 PST (GMT -0800)
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