10 Of The World’s Greatest Ancient Cities

4. Babylon: The Jewel Of Mesopotamia’s Ancient Cities



Reconstruction of Babylon’s Ishtar Gate, 1992, via Pergamon Museum
Straddling both banks of the Euphrates, Babylon is one of the most legendary ancient cities in history. After centuries of harsh rule under the Assyrians, Babylon led a coalition that overthrew their brutal rulers in 612 BC. 
This heralded a golden age that saw Babylon’s greatest architect, Nebuchadnezzar II, turn the city into an almost mythical metropolis. At its height, three square miles of urban sprawl was believed to be contained within Babylon’s monumental walls. Nebuchadnezzar expanded these mighty fortifications and constructed the famous Ishtar Gate, a vibrant portal made out of dazzling blue tiles.
The Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, are also believed to have been built during Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. Babylon’s mighty central ziggurat, the temple of the city’s patron god Marduk, may have inspired the Bible’s Tower of Babel.
The city also hosted the raucous Akitu New Year festival every year to honor Marduk. The Persian ruler Cyrus the Great used the celebration as a distraction to conquer the city in 539 BC but allowed Babylon to retain its prestige and treated the city with admiration. However, Xerxes I was not so respectful, razing Babylon in 485 BC as punishment for revolting against him. 
Some 150 years later, Alexander the Great brought the Achaemenid Empire to its knees and declared that Babylon was not to be harmed. The ancient city’s mystique outlived its physical presence, and after Alexander’s death, Babylon gradually became abandoned.
5. Athens: The Birthplace Of Western Civilisation

The Acropolis and Parthenon, by Constantinos Kollias, via Unsplash

Among all ancient cities, Athens alone can be considered the birthplace of Western culture. Democracy, history, and philosophy all flourished under the shadow of the Acropolis. 

After being ruled by aristocrats and tyrants for centuries, the Athenians revolted in 510 BC. The statesman Cleisthenes established the world’s earliest-known democracy. All of the free men of Athens had a say in the government of the city. 
The father of Western philosophy, Socrates, taught his students to question everything. He was forced to take poison after being accused of corrupting the city’s youth. But Socrates’ ideas endured through his pupil, Plato. 
Xerxes I razed Athens twice during his invasion of Greece in 480 BC but was defeated by an alliance of Greek city-states led by Athens and Sparta. The great statesman Pericles then oversaw a grand rebuilding of the Acropolis on the rocky plateau overlooking the city. Contained within was the Parthenon, an impressive temple dedicated to Athena. 
The center of Athens was the Agora, a civic square, and marketplace. Commodities such as silver, wine, and olives were abundant in Attica’s surrounding lands and powered Athens’ rise to prominence.
Athens then formed a coalition with several other city-states called the Delian League. Expanded across the Aegean by Pericles and generals such as Cimon, the Delian League was a vessel for Athenian power for almost 75 years. 
But during the Peloponnesian War, Athens was toppled by Sparta, who became Greece’s dominant city-state until Athens’ resurgence following the Corinthian War.