List of cities of the ancient Near East

List of cities of the ancient Near East
The earliest cities in history were in the ancient Near East, an area covering roughly that of the modern Middle East: its history began in the 4th millennium BC and ended, depending on the interpretation of the term, either with the conquest by the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC or with that by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC.
The largest cities of the Bronze Age Near East housed several tens of thousands of people. Memphis in the Early Bronze Age, with some 30,000 inhabitants, was the largest city of the time by far. Ebla is estimated to have had a population of 40,000 inhabitants in the Intermediate Bronze age. 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 50,000–60,000. Niniveh had some 20,000–30,000, reaching 100,000 only in the Iron Age (around 700 BC).
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 KI determinative is used following place names (toponyms) in both Sumerian and Akkadian.
Mesopotamia
Lower Mesopotamia
(ordered from north to south)
Upper Mesopotamia
(ordered from north to south)
Urfa
Shanidar cave
Urkesh (Urkish) (Tell Mozan)
Tell Leilan (Shekhna, Shubat-Enlil)
Tell Arbid
Harran
Chagar Bazar
Mardaman (Bassetki)
Kahat (Tell Barri)
Tell Fekheriye (Washukanni?)
Hadatu (Arslan Tash)
Carchemish (Djerabis)
Til Barsip (Tell Ahmar)
Tell Chuera
Mumbaqat (Tall Munbāqa, Ekalte)
Al-Rawda
Nabada (Tell Beydar)
Nagar (Tell Brak)
Telul eth-Thalathat
Tepe Gawra
Tell Arpachiyah (Tepe Reshwa)
Shibaniba (Tell Billa)
Tarbisu (Sherif Khan)
Nineveh (Ninua)
Qatara or Karana (Tell al-Rimah)
Tell Hamoukar
Dur Sharrukin (Khorsabad)
Tell Shemshara (Shusharra)
Erbil (Urbilim, Arba-Ilu)
Kurd Qaburstan (Qabra?)
Qasr Shemamok (Kilizu/Kilizi/Kakzu)
Tell Taya
Tell Hassuna
Balawat (Imgur-Enlil)
Tell es-Sweyhat
Tell Hadidi (Azu)
Nimrud
Emar (Tell Meskene)
Tall Bazi (Armanum?)
Qal'at Jarmo
Arrapha
Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta
Assur
Ekallatum
Nuzi (Yorghan Tepe, Gasur)
Tell al-Fakhar (Kurruhanni?)
Tell Taban (Ṭābetu, Ṭābatum)
Terqa (Tell Ashara)
Doura Europos
Mari (Tell Hariri)
Haradum (Khirbet ed-Diniyeh)
Tell es Sawwan
Nerebtum or Kiti (Tell Ishchali)
Tell Agrab
Dur-Kurigalzu (Aqar Quf)
Shaduppum (Tell Harmal)
Tell al-Dhiba'i
Seleucia
Ctesiphon (Taq Kisra)
Zenobia (Halabiye)
Hatra
Idu
Rabana-Merquly (Natounia?)
Iran
Anatolia (Turkey)
(ordered from north to south)
The Levant
Arabian Peninsula
Nubia
Jebel Barkal
Kerma
Meroë
Napata
Horn of Africa
Adulis
Aksum (Axum)
Keskese
Matara
Qohaito
Sembel
Yeha
Egypt
See also
City-state
Sumerian King List
Historical urban community sizes
Short chronology timeline
List of oldest continuously inhabited cities
Ancient towns in Saudi Arabia
List of Ancient Settlements in the UAE
List of largest metropolitan areas of the Middle East
References
External links
Geospatial: Mapping Iraq's Ancient Cities
Ancient cities grew pretty much like modern ones, say scientists (February 2015), Christian Science Monitor
Near East
Ancient Near East
Lists of cities
Ancient history-related lists