Most Important City in History?

[andrewgprv]

I'm with Marla these polls do nothing but show how subjective CFC is to Western Culture. Far too much credit is given to Britain and Rome and far far too little credit is given to places like China.

These polls are fun though so keep them coming anyway

 

[Xen]

theres a reason for that you know-that reason is that, the domination of western culture, weather you, or anyone likes it or not, has sidelined other culture so much, that at best they are secondary, with the exception of perhaps the near east

 

[Emperor Xerxes]

The city of Ur.

Possibly the first advanced level city, or at the very least the foundation for civilization in Europe and the Middle East.

 

[Thorgrimm]

I myself agree with Emperor Xerxes, as Ur and the Sumerians started this thing we call Civilization!


Cheers Thorgrimm

 

[Sarevok]

id have to say Roma

 

[MattII]

1)Alexandria
2)London
3)Peking
4)Athens
5)Rome

 

[Ad Hominem]

Western-centric or not, here are my choices. First the two most prominent:

- Athens
home to democracy, philosophy, early center of commerce and home to great thinkers, artists and warriors.

- Rome
The city that dominated half the known warld for centuries. Dilluted the Greek wisdom and offered it to the West, thus creating what we call today "western culture".

I also rank those highly:

- Alexandria
- London
- Byzantium
- Babylon

I am not awfully familiar with far eastern history, so I don't really know what Peking or Hong Kong have offered to the human race. If someone knows more and can share some of his wisdome with us, we might even change our opinion on some (not on the top two though... )

 

[Xen]

as a general note, the first city was NOT ur.but a city called Jericho, more or less in modern day Syria

 

[yaroslav]

I always thought that the oldest city in the world was Erevan, the armenian capital.

 

[Ad Hominem]

Hmm... there is one (at least) city in modern day Iran that dates from 30.000 years back. There are other almost equaly ancient city-sized settlements in Asia Minor and some in Mesopotamia that date back to 20.000.

That "Jericho" (I bet that's not anything close to the real name, but some bible-loaded archeologists trying to make sure that the biblical sites are for true) is like 8000 years old, right? If it's "the official's archeology oldest city" then the official archeology has got some serious re-evaluation to do.

BTW is Athens the oldest place of consequitive and uninterrupted settlement of humans? The first city of Athens was build - on what is today Akropolis - around 3200 BC. And it is being inhabited every single day since then.

 

[Xen]

there are several Jerichos IIRC- just like one finds the name 'Sparta" in cities going all the wal into anatolia, no where near the real thing...

 

[Ad Hominem]

Right... btw Xen, what's the deal with Julian "apostate"? He is my favourite Roman emperor, you know.

 

[andrewgprv]

Originally posted by Xen
theres a reason for that you know-that reason is that, the domination of western culture, weather you, or anyone likes it or not, has sidelined other culture so much, that at best they are secondary, with the exception of perhaps the near east

For the last 500 years the west has been dominant. Before that the Near and Far East were dominant in comparison to the west. 500 years out of about 10,000 years of civilisation.

 

[Xen]

Originally posted by andrewgprv


For the last 500 years the west has been dominant. Before that the Near and Far East were dominant in comparison to the west. 500 years out of about 10,000 years of civilisation.

care to explain how? the west has been the dominat power in the world at least twice, considering that during Roman times, the mass importing of goods is what aided a great deal of world economies, includiong idia, and Chinas- sure they would have had taxes, but in india for example, there was so much trade with rome that the indians never started to mint thier own coinage...

no, no, take a look at all history, and like it or not, it has a western slant to it

 

[andrewgprv]

Originally posted by Xen


care to explain how? the west has been the dominat power in the world at least twice, considering that during Roman times, the mass importing of goods is what aided a great deal of world economies, includiong idia, and Chinas- sure they would have had taxes, but in india for example, there was so much trade with rome that the indians never started to mint thier own coinage...

no, no, take a look at all history, and like it or not, it has a western slant to it

Even during Greeco-Roman times places like Persia, China and India were on par with the west.

Let's see taking a look at all of history Europe is quite insignificant untill Greeco-Roman times (which are rather late in the history of civilisation) and after the fall of Rome Europe again falls in obsurity untill about 1500 AD.

 

[SanPellegrino]

Rome, but I agree, over the course of the millenia Europe was mostly backwards

 

[Xen]

Originally posted by andrewgprv


Even during Greeco-Roman times places like Persia, China and India were on par with the west.

Let's see taking a look at all of history Europe is quite insignificant untill Greeco-Roman times (which are rather late in the history of civilisation) and after the fall of Rome Europe again falls in obsurity untill about 1500 AD.

its all relative, need I remind you that more or less, before Roman times, China was little more then a bunch of backwards fueding states? oh yes, backwards, at least in the ways of war- but, going on the relitive standard, the only real standard to base things on, you have a great dea of nice European powers- i think the Minoans, now realised as not only the oldest european civlization, but old enough to be ranked with Both Egypt, and the various mesoptamian civs, iws quite advanced- can you name me another civ that had plumbing in the middle of the bronze age?

 

[Pangur Bán]

The indigenous civilization of the Orkneys was almost as old as Egypt.

 

[Al Zan]

1.Baghdad
2.Cairo
3.Istanbul
4.Damascus
5.Jerusalem
6.London

 

[andrewgprv]

Xen keep in mind that their are about 10,000 years of civilisation. I'm not trying to say the west hasn't been important, it has been very important to history and has had it's fair share of contributions to human development (espically in the last 500 years)

But most people on these boards have a slanted view of history, slanted in favor of the west. Not that I can blame them, in my high school education I could easily have thought that all of human accomplishment revolved around Europe. Xen may I suggest you read the book Guns, Germs and Steel for a less bias account of what made the west what it is.