Cities and When They Were Founded

Minoan palace complex on Crete whose labyrinthine ruins inspired the myth of the Minotaur

Assyrian capital on the Tigris whose vast library of clay tablets preserved Mesopotamian myths and laws

Phoenician port city that produced purple dye and sent fleets across the Mediterranean

Sumerian city whose royal tombs contained gold jewelry and the famous standard of war and peace mosaic

Egyptian city on the Nile that became the capital during the New Kingdom and home to the Karnak temple complex

Ancient Egyptian capital near the Nile delta that served as a major religious and political center for centuries

Anatolian city whose legendary siege inspired the epic poems of Homer and later archaeological digs

Phoenician island city whose merchants founded colonies including Carthage and traded across the known world

Desert caravan city whose queen Zenobia briefly challenged Roman control of the eastern provinces

Mesopotamian city on the Euphrates famous for its hanging gardens and the towering ziggurat temple

Indian city on the Ganges, held by Hindus to be among the oldest continuously inhabited places on Earth

Greek sanctuary on Mount Parnassus where the oracle of Apollo gave prophecies to kings and city-states

Greek city on the isthmus that controlled trade between the Aegean and Ionian seas with two major ports

Greek city in Asia Minor famous for the Temple of Artemis and later an important Roman provincial center

Greek city in Asia Minor whose ruler Mausolus built a tomb that became one of the seven wonders

Holy city in the Levant revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims, and besieged repeatedly throughout antiquity

Chinese city that was the capital of several dynasties and the eastern end of the old Silk Road

Greek sanctuary where the Olympic Games were held every four years in honor of Zeus

Capital city of Italy on the river Tiber, and for centuries the center of the whole ancient world

Sicilian Greek colony that became a powerful naval state and birthplace of the mathematician Archimedes

Central Asian city on the Silk Road, rebuilt by Timur as the showpiece capital of his own empire

Greek colony on the Bosporus that later became the site of the Roman capital Constantinople

Greek colony in North Africa famous for its silphium plant and the philosopher Carneades

Ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire whose ruins still display grand staircases and palaces

Greek island city whose colossal statue of Helios stood at the harbor entrance for decades

Egyptian port city founded by Alexander the Great that housed the largest library of the ancient Mediterranean world

Nabataean city carved into rose-red cliffs that controlled caravan trade routes across the desert

Hellenistic city on the Orontes that became a major Roman center in the eastern provinces

Gridded city in the valley of Mexico, one of the largest in the world when Rome was at its height

Eastern Roman capital built on the site of Byzantium that controlled trade between Europe and Asia

Historic capital of Ukraine and major medieval center of the Kievan Rus state on the Dnieper

Flemish port city on the Scheldt that rose as Bruges declined in the late middle ages

Capital city of Iraq on the Tigris, founded as a perfect circle and seat of the Abbasid caliphate

Japanese city laid out on a Chinese grid plan, and the imperial capital for more than a thousand years

Former Abbasid capital in Iraq built along the Tigris with a famous spiral minaret

Capital of Ireland founded by Vikings as a longphort trading settlement on the River Liffey

Ancient Russian city and important trading post on the Volkhov river near Lake Ilmen

Flemish trading city whose canals connected it to the North Sea in medieval times

Capital of the Czech Republic and seat of the Bohemian kings centered on a castle hill above the Vltava

Capital of Iceland established by Norse settlers near hot springs on the southwest coast

Largest city in Egypt and capital of the Fatimid Caliphate built north of the older settlement of Fustat

Polish port city on the Baltic founded by Slavic tribes and later joined the Hanseatic League

Capital of Norway founded as a trading post at the head of Oslofjord

Important German city in Franconia that became a free imperial city with its own walls

Major city in Morocco founded by the Almoravid dynasty as a desert trading hub

City on the southern edge of the Sahara where the caravan routes met the Niger, and a center of learning

Capital of Austria located where the Danube meets the Vienna Woods and a key trading crossroads

Capital of Russia and largest city in Europe, founded as a wooden fortress on the Moskva river

Largest city in Bavaria founded by Henry the Lion as a bridge toll station on the Isar river

German trade-fair city at a crossing of two old roads, and a center of printing and publishing

Capital of Denmark founded as a fishing village that grew into a fortified port

Capital of Latvia and major Baltic port founded by German crusaders at the mouth of the Daugava

City on the Elbe river that grew from a Slavic fishing village into a fortified town

English port in Devon that grew around a natural harbor used by medieval traders

Capital of Estonia founded as a Danish stronghold on a limestone hill overlooking the gulf

Capital of Sweden built on islands where Lake Malaren meets the Baltic Sea

Former capital of Poland and major medieval trading center on the Vistula river

Capital of China, rebuilt as a Mongol capital on a grid and later walled around a forbidden inner palace city

Capital of Poland that grew from a small Mazovian settlement on the Vistula river

Aztec capital razed by the Spanish, whose lake was drained and whose site now lies under Mexico City

Cuban port city established by Spain as a key stop for treasure fleets crossing the Atlantic

Capital of Mexico, rebuilt by the Spanish directly on top of the Aztec island city they had destroyed

Walled Caribbean port in Colombia, built to hold the silver fleets and to survive the pirates hunting them

Peruvian capital founded by Spanish conquistadors on a coastal plain near the Pacific

Capital of Chile, founded in a valley between the Andes and the coastal range and shaken by earthquakes ever since

Brazilian coastal city founded by Portuguese colonists near a large natural harbor

Philippine capital founded by Spanish colonizers on the shore of a large natural bay

Japanese port that was the country's only window on European trade during two centuries of near-total closure

Capital of Angola on the Atlantic, founded by the Portuguese and for centuries the main port of the slave trade

Argentine port city refounded by Spanish colonists after an earlier settlement failed

Fortified Canadian city on the St Lawrence River that served as the capital of New France

Indonesian port city established by the Dutch as the headquarters of their East India Company

Major American port city on the Atlantic coast originally established by Dutch traders as a fur-trading outpost

Historic New England port and colonial capital that became a center of resistance against British rule

Indian coastal city established by the British East India Company as a trading factory

Canadian island city founded by French missionaries as a base for fur trade and Catholic missions

South African port established by the Dutch East India Company as a supply station for ships

Indian port city originally developed by the Portuguese and later expanded by the British East India Company

South Carolina port founded by English colonists, and the main slave-trading harbor of the American colonies

Pennsylvania city planned on a grid by William Penn as a haven for Quakers and other religious dissenters

Indian city on the Hooghly River that grew from a trading post into the capital of British India

American industrial city founded by the French on the strait between two Great Lakes

Russian city on the Gulf of Finland built from nothing as a new capital deliberately facing toward Europe

Louisiana port city founded by the French at the mouth of the Mississippi River

Maryland port city founded on the Chesapeake Bay as a tobacco shipping center

American industrial city founded at the fork of three rivers as a strategic fort

California city founded by Spanish missionaries and soldiers near a large natural bay

California city founded by Spanish settlers as a farming village near a river

Capital of Thailand on the Chao Phraya, laid out with canals that gave it the name Venice of the East

Australian harbor city founded as the first British penal colony on the continent

Purpose-built capital of the United States, laid out on marshy ground between two slave-holding states

Capital of Canada, chosen for its location on the Ottawa River after a political compromise among provinces

Capital of Western Australia, founded on the Swan River as the administrative center of a distant British colony

American city at the foot of Lake Michigan that grew from a swampy portage into a railway and meatpacking capital

Gulf city that grew from a pearling and trading port into a hub of towers and airline traffic

Australian city on the Yarra, transformed by a gold rush into one of the richest cities of its century

Largest city in Texas, founded near the Buffalo Bayou shortly after the Texas Revolution as a new commercial port

Capital of Georgia, founded as the end point of a railway line and named for the railroad that made it

Capital of New Zealand, founded at the southern tip of the North Island as the first major colonial settlement

Largest city in New Zealand, founded on a volcanic isthmus shortly after the Treaty of Waitangi

Special administrative region on the south coast of China, founded as a British colony after the First Opium War

Largest city in Washington state, established on Puget Sound as a timber and shipping outpost in the Pacific Northwest

Capital of Colorado, founded during the Pike's Peak gold rush as a supply town at the edge of the Rockies

Largest city in British Columbia, founded as a sawmill town on Burrard Inlet during the colonial timber boom

Capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the river, and one of the largest French-speaking cities anywhere

Capital of Arizona, established on the Salt River after earlier Hohokam canals were rediscovered by American settlers

Capital of Ethiopia, founded on a highland plateau by an empress who chose the site for its hot springs

Largest city in South Africa, founded after the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand ridge

Major city in southern Florida, founded as a resort town after a freeze destroyed the citrus industry farther north

Capital of Kenya, begun as a railway depot on swampy ground halfway between the coast and the lake

Largest city in Nevada, founded as a railroad stop in the desert and later became a gambling and entertainment center

Israeli coastal city founded by families who drew their building plots by lottery on empty sand dunes

Capital district of India, planned by the British as a new administrative center south of the older city of Delhi

Purpose-built capital of Australia, chosen after a long political dispute between Sydney and Melbourne interests

Purpose-built capital of Brazil, laid out on empty savannah to draw settlement and government away from the coast

Purpose-built capital of Pakistan, constructed in the 1960s on the Potohar Plateau to replace Karachi

Chinese city on the Hong Kong border, created as a special economic zone and grown to millions in one lifetime

Purpose-built capital of Nigeria, chosen in the 1970s to replace Lagos and located near the geographic center

Planned federal administrative center of Malaysia, built south of Kuala Lumpur to relieve congestion

Capital of Kazakhstan, relocated from Almaty in 1997 and rapidly expanded with new government districts