List of cities of the ancient Near East

The earliest cities in history were in the ancient Near East, an area covering roughly that of the modern Middle East: its history began in the 4th millennium BC and ended, depending on the interpretation of the term, either with the conquest by the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC or that by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC.

The ancient Near East
Regions and states

Fertile Crescent

Mesopotamia

Egypt

Persia

Anatolia

The Levant
Archaeological periods
Languages
Literature
Mythology
Other topics

The largest cities of the Bronze Age Near East housed several tens of thousands of people. 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 50,000–60,000. Niniveh had some 20,000–30,000, reaching 100,000 only in the Iron Age (ca. 700 BC).

The KI 𒆠 determinative was the Sumerian term for a city or city state.[1] In Akkadian and Hittite orthography, URU𒌷 became a determinative sign denoting a city, or combined with KUR𒆳 "land" the kingdom or territory controlled by a city, e.g. 𒄡𒆳𒌷𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭 LUGAL KUR URUHa-at-ti "the king of the country of (the city of) Hatti".

Mesopotamia
Further information: Geography of Mesopotamia and Mesopotamia

Lower Mesopotamia

(ordered from north to south)

Upper Mesopotamia
Map of Syria in the second millennium BC

(ordered from north to south)

Iran

Anatolia
Settlements of Bronze Age Anatolia, based on Hittite records.

(ordered from north to south)

The Levant

In alphabetical order:

Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, separated by just a few miles of the Red Sea, have a history of related settlements, especially near the coast

Nubia

Horn of Africa

Egypt
For a more comprehensive list, see List of ancient Egyptian towns and cities.

See also

References
  1. Electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary (EPSD)
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