Tag: cultural-history

Introduction

Man is a social animal. He has left the jungles and started living in artificial settlements called villages, towns, and cities for more than 12000 years. From the ancient towns of Jericho in modern-day Palestine, in 9000 BCE, and  Plovdiv in Bulgaria, in 6000 BCE, to the modern cities of Dubai in the UAE and Canberra in Australia, human beings have always looked up to some political, cultural, or economic capitals of the world to consider their own standards of living. Between Jericho and Dubai, many cities came, became important socializing centres, and slowly lost their importance in the sands of time, if not totally destroyed. In this blog, we discuss five ancient cities that have been continuously inhabited for more than 3000 years and have still never lost their importance. Communities, Empires, and even Civilizations had fallen around them, but they still kept standing. I have already included those cities that have always had either political or cultural, or educational influences on that region continuously for at least 3000 years.

1. Luxor/Thebes (Egypt) – 3200 BCE

Also known by the Ancient Egyptians as Waset, the city of Thebes, Egypt, is one of the oldest continuously living cities of the world. It is located along the River Nile, almost 800 km away from the Mediterranean Sea. It began as the capital of Upper Egypt in 3200 BCE, although the royal residence remained in the city of Memphis. Thebes remained the political capital of Upper Egypt till 2100 BCE, when the political power was moved to Itjtawy by the Twelfth Dynasty. Thebes continued to be the religious capital of Egypt. Thebes got its new height under the New Kingdom of Egypt around 1600 BCE, when it was made the capital of a unified Egypt. It continued to flourish till 1100 BCE, when it became a cultural and economic hub due to its business through the Red Sea. Although Thebes lost its grandeur under the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten (1351-1334 BCE), who abandoned the city, his son Pharaoh Tutankhamun restored Thebes’ glory by building temples and monuments (Although he made Memphis his capital). Later, Thebes became more like the religious capital of Egypt under the high priests of Amun, before the Nubians took control over it. In 667 BCE, the city came under the control of King Ashurbanipal of the Neo-Assyrian Empire when he invaded Egypt. He sacked and destroyed Thebes, after which Thebes never regained its political importance, although continuing to be a deeply religious and cultural centre. The city later came under the Achaemenid Empire and the Macedonian Empire in the late 6th century BCE and the late 4th century BCE, respectively. After the death of Alexander the Great, Egypt came under the control of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, and later the Roman Empire. Although Thebes lost most of its significance after the invasion by Ashurbanipal. But during the 7th century CE, after the Arab conquest of Egypt, a new settlement began to grow around Thebes called al-Uqsur or the palaces. Soon, al-Aqsur became an enlarged city and took Thebes within itself. In a way, it can be said that Thebes evolved into al-Aqsur. al-Aqsur began to grow rapidly as a cultural center, and today thrives as a prosperous city and the guardian of Egypt’s past in the name of Luxor.

2. Damascus (Syria) – 3000 BCE

The city of Damascus is presently the capital of the country of Syria, but it has a history that goes back beyond 5000 years. Although the earliest settlements found in Damascus date back to around 7000 BCE, Damascus as a city began to develop around 3000 BCE. The city was originally known as Dimashka and was ruled by many dynasties, including the Egyptians and the Hittites. During the 1100 BCE, the city came under the rule of the Arameans, a Semitic clan, and the city was called Dimashqu. The city was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser III in the 8th century BCE, and later by the Neo-Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BCE. Damascus later came under Macedonian rule by Alexander the Great and under Roman rule by Pompey.  The city first began to prosper under the Roman Empire and became a metropolis in the 2nd century BCE. Due to its link with the Silk Roads, the city began to flourish at its fullest and became a cultural and intellectual hub for the Romans in the east. The city was then conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate in the early 7th century CE under the second Caliph Umar. Damascus progressed to further heights when it became the capital city of the Umayyad Caliphate in the  mid-7th century CE. Damascus continued to be the capital of the Islamic World for more than 100 years, until Baghdad was made the capital in the 8th century by the Abbasid Caliphate. The city then came under the control of the Seljuk Turks in the 12th century BCE and later by the Ottoman Empire till the First World War in the early 20th century. The city of Damascus passed through many hands from the Egyptians to the Ottomans for the last five thousand years, but always continued to exist as an important city or province in spite of conquests and disasters.

3. Varanasi (India) – 1500 BCE

Varanasi, also known as Benaras or Kashi, is a city situated on the banks of the river Ganga in northern India. The city is considered one of the holiest places of Hindu tradition, whose history goes back thousands of years. Its name comes from the two tributaries of the Ganga, the ‘Varuna’ and the ‘Asi’. Its earliest evidence goes back to at least 1500 BCE during the Vedic Period, as a prosperous town. Around 900 BCE, Varanasi rose to be the capital of the Mahajanapada(great state) of Kashi. From 900 BCE to the late 500 BCE, it continued to be a regional capital until it was conquered by the Magadhan Dynasty. The city continued to flourish under the Mauryas, the Shungas, the Guptas, the Vardhanas, the Palas, and the Sena Dynasties, from 400 BCE to 1100 CE, until India was invaded by Mahmud of Ghazni, when Varanasi was destroyed for the first time. After the destruction, the city was again reborn and continued to grow as the cultural and religious capital of India. Chandradeva of the Gahadvala dynasty made Varanasi his secondary capital, and the city emerged as a political power for a brief period after about 1600 years. The city lost its political influence again after 150 years, when Northern India came under the Islamic rule for the first time in the early 13th century. The city was then raided and looted, and later rebuilt multiple times by various dynasties from the 13th to the 18th century CE. The city now stands as the settlement with the largest Hindu temples in the world (more than 1000) and is considered one of the seven holiest places in Hinduism.

4. Athens (Greece) – 1400 BCE

Athens is the capital and the largest city of the nation of Greece and the cradle of Western Civilization. The oldest known settlement in the city of Athens dates back to 1400 BCE, when it was a part of the Mycenaean Civilization. After the Bronze Age collapse of the old world (except China and India) around 1200 BCE, the city continued to live unlike other cities. By the 6th century BCE, Athens became a Naval power and played an important role in the Greco-Persian wars of the 5th century BCE. They also became a democracy, one of the earliest known in the world. Athens also saw the emergence of great Greek geniuses like the playwrights  Aeschylus and Sophocles, the historian Herodotus, the physician Hippocrates, and the philosopher Socrates. Rome later came under Roman rule in the 2nd century BCE and under Byzantine rule from the 4th century CE to the 13th century CE. The city was then ruled by the Duchy of Athens for around 200 years and later by the Ottoman Empire from the 15th century to the 19th century. Today, the city is the capital of a nation with political importance. It also has a great cultural influence over Southeast Europe and on Western philosophy in general.

5. Xi’an/Chang’an (China) – 1100 BCE

The city of Chang’an, known today as Xi’an, was one of the earliest known cities of China, whose history goes back to the 12th-10th century BCE. The city gained its political importance during the Zhou period around the 10th century BCE. The city came under the rule of the Qin dynasty in the late 4th century BCE. After the Qin rule, Chang’an became the main capital of the Western Han dynasty from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE. But during the rule of the Eastern Han dynasty, the capital was changed to Luoyang, thus  Chang’an lost its political significance. The city still possessed its cultural significance till the 6th century CE when it again became a capital under the Sui Dynasty, renamed as Daxing. The Golden era of Chang’an came from the 7th century to the early 10th century CE under the Tang Dynasty, when it was the economic, cultural, and political capital of  East Asia. After the collapse of the Tang in the 10th century, the capital was shifted permanently, but the city of Xi’an continued to grow. Today, Xi’an acts as the capital of the province of Shaanxi and is the most populous city in northwestern China.

Conclusion

These five cities have lived for at least five millennia and still continue to grow as important political, cultural, and economic centres. These cities can be easily termed as the “Immortal Cities” as they stood through the ages without getting lost in the sands of time. That’s all for this blog. Please like, comment, and share if you like this post. Thanks for reading it.

Suggested Readings

• The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan

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