10 Of The World’s Greatest Ancient Cities

10 Of The World’s Greatest Ancient Cities
All of the ancient world's greatest civilizations boasted a mighty metropolis. These ancient cities rose and fell with powerful empires and left legendary legacies that still endure today.
When we think of the Ancient World, our minds are drawn to the mighty ancient cities at the heart of great empires and cultured civilizations. Legendary urban centers like Babylon, Nineveh, Persepolis, Athens, and Rome all shaped the course of history in their own way. Some were the seat of powerful empires that ruled the known world. Others, like Carthage, had tragic falls that are seared into our memory.One metropolis, Athens, even laid the very foundations of Western culture itself. Here are nine of the greatest cities of the Ancient world.


1. Memphis: One Of Egypt’s Most Important Ancient Cities

City of Memphis and Colossus of Ramesses II in Memphis, Egypt, via flickr

One of Egypt’s oldest and most important ancient cities, Memphis, was the capital of the Old Kingdom. Memphis occupied a prominent position at the beginning of the Nile Valley and is close to the pyramid at Giza and the necropolis at Saqqara. Such was the symbolism of Memphis that Pharaohs throughout Egypt’s long history would be crowned in the city. 

Memphis was one of several major cities expanded by the great Pharaoh Ramesses II in the 13th Century BC. The most important monument in the city was the Temple of Ptah, one of the oldest Egyptian gods. Despite being superseded as the capital by cities such as Thebes, Memphis was still hugely significant as a cultural and religious metropolis.
When the Assyrians invaded Egypt in 671 BC, Memphis was razed to the ground twice. But the city was rapidly rebuilt due to its religious importance even though Egypt continued to be subjugated by foreign powers. In 525 BC, the Achaemenid Persian king Cambyses II captured Memphis, which became the capital of the Persian satrapy of Egypt. 
In 331 BC, Alexander the Great was crowned Pharaoh at Memphis after seizing Egypt from the Persians. After he died, Alexander was entombed at Memphis, and one of his commanders, Ptolemy, established the Ptolemaic Dynasty.
In 196 BC, Ptolemy V issued a decree, which was transcribed onto a tablet in three languages by scribes at Memphis. This was the Rosetta Stone, one of the most important archaeological discoveries in human history.