The World’s Oldest Cities that are Still Populated Today

By Shahid Hussain on Dec 13, 2007 in World News, featured

Today it seems that more people come into urban areas from rural regions and the process of urbanization is becoming more popular. You might think that cities have a rather short history, but it may surprise you to discover that some of the oldest cities on the planet, where life is still boiling, have been around for several thousands of years. Since the nomadic tribes started settling in one location, they noticed that the location was rather fruitful and overall good for dwelling, which is why the population in such locations increased. After centuries of wars, climate change and migration some of the cities managed to survive till nowadays and below you will find ten of them that not only survived but carried on prospering and increasing the number of their populations.

10. Lahore, Pakistan

Lahore (Punjabi: ਲਾਹੋਰ لہور Hindi: लाहौर; Urdu: لاہور, pronounced [laːˈhoːr]  (Speaker Icon.svg listen)) is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in Pakistan after Karachi. Historically the main city of the undivided Punjab,[3] it is often called the Garden of Mughals because of its rich Mughal heritage. It successively served as the capital of the empires of the Shahi kingdoms in the 11th century, The Ghaznavids in the 12th century, the Ghurid State in the 12th and 13th century, the Mughal Empire in the 16th century, the Sikh Empire in the early 19th century, and it was the capital of the Punjab region under the British Raj in the mid 19th and early 20th century. Mughal structures such as the Badshahi Mosque, the Lahore Fort, Shalimar Gardens, and the mausolea of Jehangir and Nur Jehan are popular tourist attractions for the city. Lahore is also home to many British colonial structures built in the Mughal-Gothic style, such as the Lahore High Court, the General Post Office (GPO), the Lahore Museum, and many older universities including the University of the Punjab. Lahore is often referred to as the cultural heart of Pakistan, as it is the center of Pakistani arts, films and intelligentsia.

Punjabi is the native language of the province and is the most widely-spoken language in Lahore. Urdu has started to become more prominent in many areas due to its official status as the national language and due to increasing migration from other parts of the country, despite this Punjabi remains the primary means of communication in both the city and adjoining rural areas. English has also become increasingly more popular with educated and younger people due to its official status in government and preferred language status for business. Many Punjabi speakers in Lahore are known as Lahori Punjabi due to their use of a mixture of Punjabi and colloquial Urdu. According to the 1998 census, Lahore’s population was nearly 7 million. Mid-2006 government estimates now put the population at approximately 10 million.[2] This makes Lahore the fifth largest city in South Asia and the 26th largest city in the world. Lahore has been regarded as a city with High Sufficiency to become a Gamma world city, as of 2008.[4][5] Furthermore, its been ranked by The Guardian as the 2nd Best Tourist Destination in Pakistan.

9. Cholula, Mexico

Cholula is considered to be the oldest city that is inhabited till nowadays in the western hemisphere. About 100,000 people inhabited the city by the late Aztec period. Today, lying 2135 meters (about 7000 ft) above sea level, Cholula houses about 90,000 people. In the pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, the city was one of the most important in the area and its foundation dates back to at least the 2nd century BC, but as a village Cholula stretches back a thousand years. The monumental buildings unearthed in the city are some of the world’s largest. Archaeologists discovered in the city the Great Pyramid of Cholula, which is up till now the largest man-made monument, with a base covering 25 acres and a volume of 4.3 million cubic yards.

8. Varanasi, India

For English-speakers the city is known as Benares. For about 3,000 years Varanasi has been a major religious and cultural center. Each year the city is visited by one million pilgrims that arrive from different parts of the Hindu world. They come to the city in order to take part in ceremonies and take a dive in the sacred Ganges river. The city’s residents speak Kashika Bhojpuri, a language closely related to the Hindi. According to Wikipedia, people often describe Varanasi as “the city of temples”, “the holy city of India”, “the religious capital of India”, “the city of lights”, and “the city of learning.”

7. Lisbon, Portugal

This is the capital and the largest city in the country. The Lisbon Metropolitan Area houses 2.8 million inhabitants. The Romans conquered Lisbon in 205 BC, when it was already 1000-years-old. Roman Emperor Julius Caesar made Lisbon a municipium. Starting with the 5th century the city housed different Germanic tribes, including Moors that captured Lisbon in the 8th century. It was always a perfect military and commercial place because of its extraordinary harbor located on the site where the Tangus river falls into the Atlantic Ocean. In 1147, it attracted the Crusaders who, under Afonso Henriques re-conquered Lisbon for the Christians. After that the city turned into an important political, economic and cultural center of the country. Several Phoenician objects were unearthed in Lisbon, dating back to 1200 BCE. An interesting fact is worth mentioning – Lisbon has never been officially confirmed as the capital of Portugal.

6. Tyre, Lebanon

Tyre is an ancient Phoenician city located in the South Governorate of Lebanon. Currently it houses about 117,000 inhabitants. It is the 4th largest city in Lebanon and boasts a large number of ancient sites, such as Roman Hippodrome. Its history goes back about 6,000 years. No one managed to conquer the city until Alexander the Great constructed a causeway for his army, allowing soldiers to march up the walls of Tyre. In 1979 the city was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

5. Athens, Greece

Besides being the capital of Greece, Athens is also the country’s largest city. The history of Athens, one of the oldest cities in the world, dates back around 3,400 years. Going beyond the administrative city limits, Athens houses a population of about 4 million inhabitants. In Classical Greece, Athens was considered a powerful city-state, the place where arts and philosophy was born and the home of Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum. This is where Socrates and Sophocles along with many other famous philosophers were born. Athens is considered to be the cradle of Western civilization and the place where democracy was born. But the city has not always been one of the most famous and rich in Europe, by the beginning of the 19th century it was a remote town with just several thousands of inhabitants. But everything changed in 1834 when the city was named capital of Greece. Athens saw a great evolution and even housed the 2004 Olympic Games.

4. Plovdiv, Bulgaria

This is the city that boasts the largest number of names it had changed during its long life. Initially it was called Eumolpias, then in 342 BCE, after Plovdiv was conquered by Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, the name was changed to Philippoupolis. The latter remained unchanged for several centuries, until it finally became Trimontium and soon after that once again renamed into Philippoupolis. But before it became Plovdiv, the city was called Paldin and then Filibe. Nowadays, about 380,000 people live in the city. It is considered to the second largest city in Bulgaria and one of the oldest in Europe. Archaeologists found traces of urban activity that stretch back 9,000 years.

3. Susa, Iran

This Iranian city was established somewhere around 8,000 BCE. Susa saw a lot of civilizations coming and going. It prospered under such civilizations as Elamite, Babylonian, Achaemenian, Greek, Parthian, Sasanian and Persian. At present the city is considered to be a quiet one, but throughout history a lot of wars took place on its territory. It is the place where archaeologists discovered the Code of Hammurabi, a well-preserved ancient law code that was made in about 1790 BC in ancient Babylon. It came into force by the 6th Babylonian king, Hammurabi. Just one example of the Code managed to survive till nowadays, being inscribed on a 7-foot, 4-inch tall basalt in the Akkadian language in the cuneiform script. Currently the Code can be found in Louvre Museum, Paris.

2. Jericho, West Bank

This is officially the oldest walled city on the planet, featuring 9,000-year-old stone fortifications. Archaeologists working in the region managed to find evidence that people lived in Jericho about 11,000 years ago. Not only did the city house people for over eleven millenniums, experts also discovered twenty settlements constructed one on top of another that survived till nowadays.

1. Damascus, Syria

Damascus is the capital of Syria and its rich history dates back about 12,000 years. It stands on a fertile land that is watered by the River Barada. At lot of kings attempted to conquer the city and most of them failed. Currently the city houses a population of about 4 million. It features a lot of green places mainly due to a well-built network of canals that is about 3,500 years old. It is worth mentioning that since 1979 the city has been UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Shahid Hussain is webmaster of Systems Limited Software House and Creative Head of Visionet Systems. You can contact Shahid via email here or online here.

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