# Metropolis

A **metropolis** is a very big city, that usually has over 500,000 people living in it. A metropolis often has many smaller towns and cities in its metropolitan area.

The word began in ancient Greece, from the words for "mother" and "city". It meant the city-state of origin of a colony. Later it came to mean the seat of a Bishop who also supervised the Church in other cities, or a city regarded as a center of some specified activity, or a large and important city. In India a "metropolis" is a city with more than a million people.

In the past many large cities were called metropolitan due to their size or importance; such as: Alexandria, Angkor, Antioch, Athens, Babylon, Baghdad, Beirut, Benares, Byblos, Carthage, Constantinople, Corinth, Damascus, Ephesus, Great Zimbabwe, Harappa, Jerusalem, Kangla, Nanjing, Nineveh, Macchu Picchu, Mohenjo-Daro, Rome, Sarai, Side, Syracuse, Tenochtitlan, Teotihuacan, Tikal, Tyre, Xian and Ur.

The modern metropolises are increasing day by day in this world since pre-21st century.

## Africa

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Abidjan
* Accra
* Addis Ababa
* Alexandria
* Algiers
* Antananarivo
* Brazzaville
* Cairo
* Cape Town
* Casablanca
* Conakry
* Dakar
 | * Dar es Salaam
* Douala
* Durban
* Freetown
* Fes
* Harare
* Ibadan
* Johannesburg
* Kampala
* Kano
* Khartoum
* Kinshasa
 | * Lagos
* Luanda
* Lusaka
* Maputo
* Marrakech
* Mogadishu
* Nairobi
* Pretoria
* Rabat
* Tangier
* Tripoli
* Tunis
 |

## North America

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Atlanta
* Austin
* Baltimore
* Boston
* Buffalo
* Calgary
* Charlotte
* Chicago
* Cincinnati
* Cleveland
* Columbus
* Dallas
* Denver
* Detroit
* Edmonton
* Houston
* Indianapolis
 | * Jacksonville
* Kansas City
* Las Vegas
* Los Angeles
* Louisville
* Memphis
* Miami
* Milwaukee
* Minneapolis
* Montreal
* Nashville
* New Orleans
* New York City
* Oklahoma City
* Orlando
* Ottawa
* Philadelphia
 | * Phoenix
* Pittsburgh
* Portland
* Sacramento
* Saint Louis
* Salt Lake City
* San Antonio
* San Diego
* San Francisco
* San Jose
* Seattle
* Tampa
* Toronto
* Vancouver
* Virginia Beach
* Washington, D.C.
 |

## Middle America

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| * Acapulco
* Cancún
* Chihuahua
* Ciudad Juárez
* Culiacan
* Guadalajara
* Guatemala City
* Havana
* Kingston
* León
* Los Cabos
* Managua
* Mexico City
* Monterrey
* Morelia
* Panama City
 | * Puebla
* San Juan
* Port-au-Prince
* San Jose
* Santiago de Cuba
* Santiago de los Caballeros
* Santiago de Querétaro
* Santo Domingo
* San Luis Potosí
* San Salvador
* Tampico
* Tegucigalpa
* San Pedro Sula
* Tijuana
* Toluca
* Torreón
* Tuxtla Gutiérrez
 |

## South America

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Asunción
* Barranquilla
* Belém
* Belo Horizonte
* Bogotá
* Brasília
* Buenos Aires
* Bucaramanga
* Cali
* Campinas
* Caracas
* Cartagena
* Córdoba
 | * Curitiba
* Fortaleza
* Goiânia
* Guayaquil
* La Paz
* Lima
* Maceió
* Manaus
* Maracaibo
* Medellín
* Mendoza
* Montevideo
* Niterói
 | * Pereira
* Porto Alegre
* Quito
* Recife
* Rio de Janeiro
* Rosario
* Salvador
* Santiago
* São Luís
* São Paulo
* Valencia
* Vitória
 |

## Eastern Asia

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Anshan
* Baotou
* Beijing
* Benxi
* Busan
* Changchun
* Changsha
* Chengdu
* Chiba
* Chongqing
* Daegu
* Daejeon
* Dalian
* Datong
* Fukuoka
* Fushun
* Fuzhou
* Guangzhou
* Guiyang
* Gwangju
* Haikou
* Hamamatsu
* Handan
* Hangzhou
* Harbin
* Hefei
* Hiroshima
* Hohhot
 | * Hong Kong
* Huainan
* Incheon
* Jilin City
* Jinan
* Kaohsiung
* Kawasaki
* Kitakyūshū
* Kobe
* Kunming
* Kyoto
* Lanzhou
* Luoyang
* Macau
* Nagoya
* Nanchang
* Nanjing
* Nanning
* Niigata
* Ningbo
* Osaka
* Pyongyang
* Qingdao
* Qiqihar
* Saitama
* Sakai
* Sapporo
* Sendai
 | * Seoul
* Shanghai
* Shantou
* Shenyang
* Shenzhen
* Shijiazhuang
* Shizuoka
* Suzhou
* Taichung
* Tainan
* Taipei
* Taiyuan
* Tangshan
* Tianjin
* Tokyo
* Ulsan
* Ürümqi
* Wuhan
* Wuxi
* Xiamen
* Xi'an
* Xining
* Xuzhou
* Yinchuan
* Yokohama
* Zhengzhou
* Zhuhai
* Zibo
 |

## Southern Asia

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Ahmedabad
* Amravati
* Bangalore
* Bhopal
* Bhubaneswar
* Chandigarh
* Chennai
* Coimbatore
* Chittagong
* Dhaka
* Comilla
* Delhi
 | * Hyderabad
* Indore
* Islamabad
* Jabalpur
* Jaipur
* Jodhpur
* Kabul
* Kanpur
* Karachi
* Kathmandu
* Kolkata
 | * Lahore
* Ludhiana
* Lucknow
* Madurai
* Mumbai
* Nagpur
* Nashik
* Patna
* Prayagraj
* Pune
* Raipur
* Ranchi
* Surat
* Vadodara
* Vijayawada
* Visakhapatnam
 |

## Southeastern Asia

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Bandung
* Bangkok
* Cebu City
* Chiang Mai
* Davao City
* Haiphong
* Hanoi
 | * Ho Chi Minh City
* Ipoh
* Jakarta
* Kuala Lumpur
* Makassar
* Mandalay
* Manila
 | * Medan
* Palembang
* Phnom Penh
* Singapore
* Surabaya
* Semarang
* Yangon
 |

## Western and Central Asia

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Adana
* Abu Dhabi
* Aleppo
* Almaty
* Amman
* Ankara
* Baghdad
* Baku
* Barnaul
* Basra
* Beirut
* Bursa
 | * Chelyabinsk
* Damascus
* Doha
* Dubai
* Gaziantep
* Irkutsk
* İzmir
* Jeddah
* Jerusalem
* Krasnoyarsk
* Mashhad
* Mecca
* Muscat
* Novosibirsk
 | * Omsk
* Riyadh
* San‘a’
* Tabriz
* Tashkent
* Tbilisi
* Tehran
* Tel Aviv
* Yekaterinburg
* Yerevan
 |

### Europe

#### Central Europe

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Basel
* Berlin
* Bremen
* Budapest
* Cologne
* Dortmund
* Dresden
* Duisburg
* Düsseldorf
 | * Essen
* Frankfurt
* Geneva
* Hamburg
* Hannover
* Katowice
* Kraków
* Leipzig
* Łódź
 | * Munich
* Poznań
* Prague
* Stuttgart
* Vienna
* Warsaw
* Wrocław
* Zürich
 |

#### Eastern Europe

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Chişinău
* Dnipro
* Donetsk
* Kazan
* Kharkiv
* Kyiv
* Krasnodar
 | * Lviv
* Minsk
* Moscow
* Nizhny Novgorod
* Odesa
* Perm
* Rostov-on-Don
 | * Samara
* Sankt Petersburg
* Ufa
* Volgograd
* Voronezh
* Zaporizhia
 |

#### Northern Europe

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Birmingham
* Copenhagen
* Dublin
* Glasgow
* Gothenburg
* Helsinki
 | * Leeds
* Liverpool
* London
* Manchester
* Newcastle
* Oslo
 | * Riga
* Sheffield
* Stockholm
* Tallinn
* Vilnius
 |

## Southern Europe

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Athens
* Barcelona
* Belgrade
* Bilbao
* Bologna
* Bucharest
* Florence
* Genoa
 | * Istanbul
* Lisbon
* Madrid
* Málaga
* Milan
* Naples
* Palermo
* Porto
 | * Rome
* Seville
* Sofia
* Thessaloniki
* Turin
* Valencia
* Zagreb
* Zaragoza
 |

## Western Europe

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Amsterdam
* Antwerp
* Bordeaux
* Brussels
* Charleroi
* Eindhoven
 | * Ghent
* The Hague
* Liège
* Lille
* Lyon
* Marseille
 | * Nantes
* Paris
* Rotterdam
* Toulouse
* Utrecht
 |

## Oceania

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Auckland
* Adelaide
* Brisbane
 | * Gold Coast
* Melbourne
* Newcastle
 | * Perth
* Sydney
* Wellington
 |

## Related pages

* Megacity
* Metropolitan area

* Allen J. Scott (ed.) *Global City Regions: Trends, Theory, Policy*, Oxford University Press (2001).
* Monti, Daniel J., Jr., *The American City: A Social and Cultural History*. Oxford, England and Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 1999. 391 pp. ISBN 978-1-55786-918-0.

## Other websites

* **U.S. Census Bureau**: *About Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistics*
* **Megalopolis, my Arcadia** Archived 2012-12-10 at Archive.today, a podcast with a worldwide analysis of megacities (focus Latin America)