11,000 year lease: the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities

2015-08-06T09:35:00-04:00

What makes a city habitable for centuries, even millennia? This list of the twelve longest-inhabited cities compiled by the Mother Nature Network, which includes several in ISIS-plagued Syria, one in China, and one in India, unsurprisingly points toward temperate climate, relatively stable water supply, and a certain intangible tenacity on the part of its human inhabitants (perhaps due to the existence of sacred religious sites). Here's the full list and number of years of estimated continuous occupation:

12. Varanasi, India (3,000 Years)

11. Luoyang, China (4,000 Years)

10. Jerusalem (4-5,000 Years)

9. Rayy, Iran (5-6,000 Years)

8. Sidon, Lebanon (6,000 Years)

7. Byblos, Lebanon (5,000 Years)

6. Plovdiv, Bulgaria (6,000 Years)

5. Argos, Greece (7,000 Years)

4. Athens, Greece (7,000 Years)

3. Aleppo, Syria (8,000 Years)

2. Jericho, West Bank (11,000 Years)

1. Damascus, Syria (11,000 Years)

Law Number 66 and L'invraisemblable "politique d’urbanisme"

2012-10-18T23:56:00-04:00

“The authorities would have us believe this is urban planning when we are in the middle of a war”

Journalist Sarra Grira alerts us to the latest turn of events in the ongoing Syrian crisis. The government of Bashar al-Assad has begun selective implementation of Law Number 66. While the law’s official goal is demolition of buildings built in southern Damascus without state approval, for purposes of better urban policy/form. Ms. Grira wonders "Is it just a coincidence that the pro-rebellion suburbs are the first ones being targeted?".

Archinect - News

11,000 year lease: the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities

Law Number 66 and L'invraisemblable "politique d’urbanisme"