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)
2 Comments
When we talk about "sustainable" design, there is so much focus on emerging and future approaches. We definitely need to remember history is just as valuable
Aleppo is older than that. And Sana'a has been inhabited longer than Varanasi or Luoyang. It was part of the Kingdom of Sheba in the Old Testament.
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