CITIES OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

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'Uru' was the Sumerian term for a city or city state, written with the cuneiform ideogram 'URU' .
In Akkadian and Hittite orthography, URU became a determinative sign denoting a city, or combined with KUR "land" the kingdom or territory controlled by a city, e.g. "the king of the country of [the city of] Hatti".
The largest cities in the Bronze Age Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands. 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 50-60,000, while Niniveh had some 20-30,000, reaching 100,000 only in the Iron Age (ca. 700 BC).

Contents

Mesopotamia

Upper

Lower

Egypt and the Levant

Elam

Anatolia

See also

Mesopotamia

Upper

Assyria and Mitanni


★ Mari --

★ Assur --

★ Nuzi

★ Arrapha

★ Nineveh

★ Nimrud

★ Aleppo

★ Washukanni

★ Ebla

★ Alalah

★ Emar

Lower

The principal Sumerian cities (from North to South) were:

★ Agade --

★ Kish (Tell Uheimir & Ingharra) --

★ Babylon --

★ Borsippa (Birs Nimrud) --

★ Nippur (Nuffar) --

★ Isin (Ishan al-Bahriyat) --

★ Adab (Tell Bismaya) --

★ Shuruppak (Fara) --

★ Girsu (Tello) --

★ Lagash (Al-Hiba) --

★ Bad-Tibira (Al Medina) --

★ Uruk (Warka) --

★ Larsa (Tell as-Senkereh) --

★ Ur (al Muqayyar) --

★ Eridu (Abu Shahrain) --
Minor cities:

★ Sippar (Abu Habba) --

★ Kutha (Tell Ibrahim) --

★ Dilbat (Tell ed-Duleim) --

★ Marad ((Wanna es-) Sadun) --

★ Kisurra (Abu Hatab) --

★ Zabala (Tell Ibzeikh) --

★ Umma (Tell Jokha) --

★ Kisiga (Tell el-Lahm) --

★ Eshnunna

★ Akshak

★ Zimbir

Egypt and the Levant

★ Ugarit

★ Qadesh

★ Byblos

★ Tyre

★ Damascus

★ Sidon

★ Jerusalem

★ Hebron

★ Jericho

★ Gaza

★ Tanis

★ Heliopolis

★ Giza

★ Memphis, Egypt

★ Amarna

★ Thebes, Egypt

Elam

★ Susa

★ Anshan (Persia)

★ Awan

★ Hamazi

Anatolia

★ Hattusa

★ Carchemish

★ Samuha

★ Sapinuwa

★ Tarhuntassa

★ Kizzuwatna, Tarsus (city)

★ Nesa

★ Troy

★ Miletus

See also

★ KUR

★ KI (cuneiform)

★ city state

★ Polis

★ Historical cities

★ List of oldest continuously inhabited cities