Prehistoric Eras to 600 C.E xxxvii Nile River in Egypt Other factors can also explain the location of cities For example, Constantinople became a thriving city without either good local farmland or freshwater because of its strategic location Aqueducts and massive cisterns were built to bring in water from afar Important cities had to be defensible Examples of ancient sites that could withstand invasion were the Phoenician city of Tyre, situated on an island; Corinth in Greece had an acropolis on a high hill overlooking the harbor; and Petra in present-day Jordan, located in a desert and reachable only via a narrow and winding route through a pass Similarly Chang’an, ancient capital of China, was protected by nearby mountain passes that held back nomadic invaders Even cities that did not have natural defenses could survive, for example, Sparta, located on a plain, or Rome, whose seven hills above the Tiber River were not adequate for protection, because both developed formidable armies Protective Walls and Impressive Monuments Walls and fortifications protected most ancient cities One of the oldest cities in the world (7000 b.c.e.), Jericho was known in the Bible for its reputedly impenetrable walls that protected the 2,000 people who lived there, making it a large settlement for its day Other cities constructed ingenious gates, towers, and moats as safeguards against enemies Among the cities most famous for their gates were Mycenae (Agamemnon’s capital, 1200 b.c.e.), which had a famous “Lion Gate,” and Babylonia, which had its awesome Ishtar Gate (550 b.c.e.) Both of these gates were as much intended to impress as to defend The Mauryan capital, Pataliputra (200 b.c.e.), reputedly had 570 towers and a moat Moats were also used in Maya cities as early as 250 c.e Rulers decorated their capital cities with monuments and public works to flaunt their power and impress their residents and visitors A good example is the colossal complex of Teotihuacán (450 c.e.), located near modern-day Mexico City It had 200,000 residents and 600 pyramid temples (the largest one 700 feet long at its base, 215 feet high) in the city Later, the Aztec described it as the “Place of the Gods.” The bas-relief monumental art of Nineveh showed foreigners cringing in fear before Sennacherib, Assyria’s king The Egyptian pyramids of Giza were intended to solidify pharaoh’s image as the keeper of maat, or cosmic balance The Parthenon was built by Pericles to demonstrate Athens’s preeminence among the Greek city-states in the fifth century b.c.e The armies and laborers who defended the cities presupposed adequate manpower Many great states used mercenaries to staff defenses and slaves to labor on public works tasks The first emperor of China, who unified the country in 221 b.c.e., made intolerable demands on his people to build walls, canals, and roads Similarly, in the city of Jerusalem the biblical king Solomon put alien residents into servitude and taxed his subjects to poverty in order to build a temple, several palaces, and other huge projects Rome relied heavily on the labor of its slaves, which totaled one-third of its population by 100 b.c.e Cities of Myth and Origin Ur (5000 b.c.e.) was situated on the banks of the Euphrates River Ur was a Mesopotamian religious center for centuries and the site of a famous ziggurat tower, perhaps something like the Tower of Babel Several thousand years later it was cited in the Jewish Bible as the homeland of Abraham Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa (2300 b.c.e.) were cities on the banks of the Indus River and its tributary in present-day Pakistan Both were well populated and developed according to an urban plan The Shang dynasty built its capitals in the fertile, silt-enriched lands of the middle Yellow River basin of China One capital named Ao was surrounded by a wall, 30 feet high and 65 feet wide, that took 19,000 men working 330 days a year for 18 years to build The pharaohs ruled over Memphis and Thebes on the Nile, and their urban monuments stood as testimony to the power and prestige of Egypt According to their own reckoning, ancient Egyptians felt no need to colonize in this period because they felt that inferior peoples would come to them from abroad for their plentiful resources and superior culture Some of the most spectacular ancient urban centers were in the Americas, along the Peruvian coastal plain, the central Andes Mountains, and in Mesoamerica Each city celebrated its origin with a mythological tale If a city was newly founded, it would claim continuity with some other well-known divine figures and traditions to buttress its quest for respect