Map of "big cities" (over 100,000 people) of Europe and Middle East, and when they were founded

Hello, so I had too much free time due to pandemic and I have turned my urbanist obsession into this:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=14KYh2qR08ZjXuTn4NTUnfBxdrB3msC_3&usp=sharing

I am no historian however, so please don't take this too seriously. This is exactly what the thread title says: Google Map marking all +100,000 cities of Europe, North Africa and Middle East, divided between the historical periods in which they were settled. By clicking on the left side you can decide which layers do you wanna see in the same time. It also doubles as an alternative way to view population density (or at least urbanisation) between countries.

Most of it should be accurate, in few cases I have included cities which have slightly less than 100k pop but which they were simply very important in history. The least accurate part of the map is, by far, Arabian Peninsula, where informations regarding city history are extremely sparse and unclear (even on the Arabic wiki).

By "the beginning of a city" I meant either its official foundation date or first written mentions of it, sometimes also archeological statements.

 

Ooooh, very nice .
Also lots of work .

I just had a look, you put in the municipality of Westland in NL as somewhen in the last era, but maybe it would be nicer to put that earlier, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster,_Netherlands .
You also forgot the city of Marseille, which seems to be dated 600 BC, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marseille#History .

 

Good work. I do notice a couple of issues. Canterbury's population is 43k. The Romans built London to because that was where you could build a bridge, and because bridge, town. There was probably a bridge 1500 years earlier, and thus probably a settlement. But no written records.

If we go with the "written records" definition of establishing a city, the map seems to show the spread a surviving written records as much as it does the foundation of cities.

Please don't interpret this as me being snarky.

 

Thessalonike was founded 2300 years ago, by one of the epigonoi of Alexander the Great, general Kassander. He named it after his wife - daughter of Philip, Alexander's father.
Philip named his daughter thus, to commemorate the annexation of Thessaly, in the sacred war (some war between greek states, protecting the city of Delphoi). The event was very important, since it marks the rise of Macedon to first tier power, and also its passing south of Thermopylae (it had no fleet, so couldn't land armies against Athens).