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101-582: The Promethians are the natives of a planet called Phase World, and are the undisputed masters and administrators of the transdimensional city of Center, a super- metropolis that stands thousands of feet high and covers many tens of miles in land area. The Promethians allow only the Draconid and Phantom races to co-exist outside of this massive arcology ; the rest of the populace is not allowed to roam any part of Phase World's surface outside of Center – which holds over 600 million inhabitants from species throughout

202-771: A city cluster , such as the Yangtze River Delta Megalopolis and the Pearl River Delta Megalopolis . India (Republic of India) is the seventh-largest country by geographical area and the most populous country with over 1.5 billion people . The 74th Amendment to the Indian Constitution defines a metropolitan area as an area having a population of 10 Lakh or 1 Million or more, comprised in one or more districts and consisting of two or more Municipalities or Panchayats or other contiguous areas, specified by

303-577: A central area containing buildings with special economic, political, and religious significance. Archaeologists refer to this area by the Greek term temenos or if fortified as a citadel . These spaces historically reflect and amplify the city's centrality and importance to its wider sphere of influence . Today cities have a city center or downtown , sometimes coincident with a central business district . Cities typically have public spaces where anyone can go. These include privately owned spaces open to

404-665: A central authority. The term can also refer either to the physical streets and buildings of the city or to the collection of people who dwell there and can be used in a general sense to mean urban rather than rural territory . National censuses use a variety of definitions – invoking factors such as population , population density , number of dwellings , economic function, and infrastructure – to classify populations as urban. Typical working definitions for small-city populations start at around 100,000 people. Common population definitions for an urban area (city or town) range between 1,500 and 50,000 people, with most U.S. states using

505-461: A central point. This form could evolve from successive growth over a long time, with concentric traces of town walls and citadels marking older city boundaries. In more recent history, such forms were supplemented by ring roads moving traffic around the outskirts of a town. Dutch cities such as Amsterdam and Haarlem are structured as a central square surrounded by concentric canals marking every expansion. In cities such as Moscow , this pattern

606-552: A combination of these. Societies that live in cities are often called civilizations . The degree of urbanization is a modern metric to help define what comprises a city: "a population of at least 50,000 inhabitants in contiguous dense grid cells (>1,500 inhabitants per square kilometer)". This metric was "devised over years by the European Commission , OECD , World Bank and others, and endorsed in March [2021] by

707-526: A conquering force attempts to take over Phase World altogether. On one occasion, the Promethians allowed a civil war to be waged for two years within Center's confines, killing over thirty million of its inhabitants; the Promethians' only course of action was to selectively apply a series of force fields to keep the fighting from reaching the spaceports or from breaking out of Center and spilling out onto

808-620: A continuous urban landscape called urban agglomeration , conurbation , or megalopolis (exemplified by the BosWash corridor of the Northeastern United States .) The emergence of cities from proto-urban settlements , such as Çatalhöyük , is a non-linear development that demonstrates the varied experiences of early urbanization . The cities of Jericho , Aleppo , Byblos , Faiyum , Yerevan , Athens , Matera , Damascus , and Argos are among those laying claim to

909-430: A distinctive elite social class, but it should indeed be considered a city based on a functional redefinition of urban development. In particular, Jenné-Jeno featured settlement mounds arranged according to a horizontal, rather than vertical, power hierarchy, and served as a center of specialized production and exhibited functional interdependence with the surrounding hinterland. More recently, scholars have concluded that

1010-477: A grid plan with specialized districts used across the Hellenistic Mediterranean . The urban-type settlement extends far beyond the traditional boundaries of the city proper in a form of development sometimes described critically as urban sprawl . Decentralization and dispersal of city functions (commercial, industrial, residential, cultural, political) has transformed the very meaning of

1111-511: A key role in both the economy and government. Late antique cities in the East were also undergoing intense transformations, with increased political participation of the crowds and demographical fluctuations. Christian communities and their doctrinal differences increasingly shaped the urban fabric. The locus of power shifted to Constantinople and to the ascendant Islamic civilization with its major cities Baghdad , Cairo , and Córdoba . From

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1212-492: A metropolis is usually observed within its regional context, thus the focus is mainly set on the metropolitan regions. These regions can be mono central or multi central. Eleven metropolitan regions have been defined due to these indicators: Berlin-Brandenburg , Bremen-Oldenburg , Dresden-Halle-Leipzig , Frankfurt-Rhine-Main , Hamburg , Hannover-Braunschweig-Göttingen-Wolfsburg , Munich , Nuremberg , Rhine-Neckar , Rhine-Ruhr (with Cologne/Bonn ), and Stuttgart . Athens

1313-551: A million include Astana , Shymkent . Tashkent is Uzbekistan 's most populous and largest city. Tashkent is the only city with over 3 million residents.Other largest cities are Samarkand , Bukhara and Fergana . Vienna is the capital city of Austria , an old imperial city, and the seat of many international organisations, including OPEC , as well as hosting a main office of the United Nations . Together with its cultural acumen and history, these features make Vienna

1414-531: A minimum between 1,500 and 5,000 inhabitants. Some jurisdictions set no such minima. In the United Kingdom , city status is awarded by the Crown and then remains permanent. (Historically, the qualifying factor was the presence of a cathedral , resulting in some very small cities such as Wells , with a population of 12,000 as of 2018 , and St Davids , with a population of 1,841 as of 2011 .) According to

1515-482: A narrower sense, a city can be defined as a permanent and densely populated place with administratively defined boundaries whose members work primarily on non-agricultural tasks. Cities generally have extensive systems for housing , transportation , sanitation , utilities , land use , production of goods , and communication . Their density facilitates interaction between people, government organizations , and businesses , sometimes benefiting different parties in

1616-527: A population increase of 5.6 percent per year from 2002 to 2012, Dar es Salaam is the third-fastest-growing city in Africa, after Bamako and Lagos , and the ninth-fastest-growing in the world. The metro population is expected to reach 15.12 million by 2020. The largest city in South Africa is its economic hub of Johannesburg which has an estimated metro population of 5 635 127 in 2019, followed by

1717-424: A population of 1,750,000, more than eight times the population of the second largest city, Debrecen . City A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agreed definition of the lower boundary for their size. In

1818-703: A privileged elite among towns having won self-governance from their local lord or having been granted self-governance by the emperor and being placed under his immediate protection. By 1480, these cities, as far as still part of the empire, became part of the Imperial Estates governing the empire with the emperor through the Imperial Diet . By the 13th and 14th centuries, some cities become powerful states, taking surrounding areas under their control or establishing extensive maritime empires. In Italy, medieval communes developed into city-states including

1919-495: A rule cannot produce their own food and therefore must develop some relationship with a hinterland that sustains them. Only in special cases such as mining towns which play a vital role in long-distance trade, are cities disconnected from the countryside which feeds them. Thus, centrality within a productive region influences siting, as economic forces would, in theory, favor the creation of marketplaces in optimal mutually reachable locations. The vast majority of cities have

2020-549: A super-wealthy elite living in gated communities and large masses of people living in substandard housing with inadequate infrastructure and otherwise poor conditions. Cities around the world have expanded physically as they grow in population, with increases in their surface extent, with the creation of high-rise buildings for residential and commercial use, and with development underground. Urbanization can create rapid demand for water resources management , as formerly good sources of freshwater become overused and polluted, and

2121-423: A temple. A minority viewpoint considers that cities may have arisen without agriculture, due to alternative means of subsistence (fishing), to use as communal seasonal shelters, to their value as bases for defensive and offensive military organization, or to their inherent economic function. Cities played a crucial role in the establishment of political power over an area, and ancient leaders such as Alexander

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2222-655: A true global metropolis, the only one in Austria. The region of Brussels contains the capital city of Belgium with a population of over 1.2 million people, it is the largest urban area in the Benelux . The region is the seat of the European Union , NATO and various other international institutions such as the World Customs Organization . It is nicknamed the 'Capital of Europe'. Sarajevo

2323-567: A workers' town associated with the pyramid of Senusret II , and the religious city Amarna built by Akhenaten and abandoned. These sites appear planned in a highly regimented and stratified fashion, with a minimalistic grid of rooms for the workers and increasingly more elaborate housing available for higher classes. In Mesopotamia, the civilization of Sumer , followed by Assyria and Babylon , gave rise to numerous cities, governed by kings and fostered multiple languages written in cuneiform . The Phoenician trading empire, flourishing around

2424-471: A world of intensifying globalization , all cities are to varying degrees also connected globally beyond these regions. This increased influence means that cities also have significant influences on global issues , such as sustainable development , climate change , and global health . Because of these major influences on global issues, the international community has prioritized investment in sustainable cities through Sustainable Development Goal 11 . Due to

2525-436: Is Berlin , while Rhine-Ruhr is the largest metropolitan area (with more than 10 million people). The importance of a city is measured with three groups of indicators, also called metropolitan functions: The decision making and control function, the innovation and competition function, and the gateway function. These functions are seen as key domains for metropolitan regions in developing their performance. In spatial planning,

2626-630: Is metropolises , although the Latin plural is metropoles , from the Greek metropoleis ( μητρoπόλεις ). For urban areas outside metropolitan areas that generate a similar attraction on a smaller scale for their region, the concept of the regiopolis ("regio" for short) was introduced by urban and regional planning researchers in Germany in 2006. Metropolis (μητρόπολις) is a Greek word, (plural: metropoleis ) coming from μήτηρ, mḗtēr meaning "mother" and πόλις, pólis meaning "city" or "town", which

2727-503: Is a sovereign island country and city-state located in maritime Southeast Asia . The country has no capital city. In the Republic of Korea there are seven special and metropolitan cities at autonomous administrative levels. These are the most populous metropolitan areas in the country. In decreasing order of the population of 2015 census, they are Seoul , Busan , Incheon , Daegu , Daejeon , Gwangju and Ulsan . According to

2828-404: Is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city belonging to a larger urban agglomeration , but which is not the core of that agglomeration, is not generally considered a metropolis but a part of it. The plural of the word

2929-589: Is by designation to be translated as "metropolis". However, existing translations predate the designation . Structured like a prefecture instead of a normal city, there is only one to in Japan, namely Tokyo. As of 2020 , Japan has 12 other cities with populations greater than one million. The same Kanji character in Chinese, or in generic Japanese (traditional or non-specific), translates variously—city, municipality, special municipality—all qualify. In Malaysia ,

3030-466: Is how the Greek colonies of antiquity referred to their original cities, with whom they retained cultic and political-cultural connections. The word was used in post-classical Latin for the chief city of a province, the seat of the government and, in particular, ecclesiastically for the seat or see of a metropolitan bishop to whom suffragan bishops were responsible. This usage equates the province with

3131-668: Is one of the most important economic and cultural hubs in the Eastern Mediterranean and key trade route between Europe and the East. At the heart of the ancient city of Athens lies the world-famous Acropolis of Athens , a classical 5th C. BCE UNESCO World heritage site , built in honour of the Goddess Athena . At its heart lies the Parthenon , a masterpiece of classical architecture, built by architect Iktinoos (Ictinus) and sculptor Kallikratis (Callicrates) at

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3232-517: Is still clearly visible. A system of rectilinear city streets and land plots, known as the grid plan , has been used for millennia in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The Indus Valley Civilization built Mohenjo-Daro , Harappa , and other cities on a grid pattern, using ancient principles described by Kautilya , and aligned with the compass points . The ancient Greek city of Priene exemplifies

3333-503: Is termed "Mega Damage Capacity" (M.D.C.), and all attacks directed at them inflict only one-quarter damage, no matter how powerful the originating force. Second-stage Promethians make up the majority of the Promethians on the planet outside Center (actually, second-stage Promethians are found nowhere else in the Megaverse except on Phase World), and it is they who are the ones tasked with the universal mission of identifying and countering

3434-459: Is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Its metropolitan area is the most populous Portuguese-speaking city in Africa, with over 8.3 million inhabitants. Kinshasa is a megacity with a population of about 15 million. Kinshasa is Africa's third-largest urban area after Cairo and Lagos. It is projected to be one of

3535-467: Is the capital and largest city of Greece, with an urban population of over 4,000,000. It is also the 8th largest urban area in the European Union . Athens dominates the Attica peninsula and is one of the world's oldest cities, with a recorded history of over 3,400 years, and earliest human presence in the 11th millennium BC. Together with the port of Piraeus , one of Europe’s busiest passenger ports, Athens

3636-489: Is the capital and largest city of Uganda. Kampala's metropolitan area is estimated at 6,709,900 people in 2019 by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics in an area of 8,451.9 square kilometres (3,263.3 sq mi). Kampala is reported to be among the fastest-growing cities in Africa, with an annual population growth rate of 4.03 percent. The capital city, Kabul , has grown to become the country's sole metropolis, and

3737-599: Is the capital and the largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina , seat of the country's Presidency , government , parliament and the only metropolis in the country. Prague is the Czech Republic 's only metropolis, with more than 1.3 million people living within the city limits and with more than 2.6 million living in its metropolitan area. This makes the Prague metropolitan area one of largest in Europe. In Denmark

3838-467: Is the capital and the largest city of Kenya. The city proper had a population of 4,397,073 in the 2019 census, while the metropolitan area has a population of 9,354,580. Lagos is projected to be one of the ten biggest cities in the world in 2050. As of 2015, unofficial figures put the population of "Greater Metropolitan Lagos", which includes Lagos and its surrounding metro area, extending as far as into Ogun State , at approximately 21 million. With

3939-418: Is the contiguous urbanization region or Extended Metropolitan Manila surrounding Metro Manila. This built-up zone includes Metro Manila and the neighboring provinces of Bulacan to the north, Cavite and Laguna to the south, and Rizal to the east. Though sprawl continues to absorb new zones, some urban zones are independent clusters of settlements surrounded by non-urban areas. The Republic of Singapore

4040-502: Is the largest city in Sri Lanka . The Colombo Metropolitan Area is Sri Lanka's most urbanized region with a population of over 5 million people. Taipei City is the political, economic, and cultural centre of Taiwan . The Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area consists of 4 administrative divisions ( Taipei , Keelung , New Taipei , and sometimes including Taoyuan ) with a total of more than 9 million residents. The metropolis houses

4141-478: Is the largest metropolitan area of Pakistan with a population of about 19.31 million, followed by Lahore (15.12 million), Faisalabad (9.873 million), Islamabad-Rawalpindi (8.412 million), Gujranwala (7.01 million), Multan (4.745 million), Peshawar (4.269 million), Sargodha (3.903 million), Sialkot (3.893 million), Bahawalpur (3.668 million), Quetta (2.275 million) and Hyderabad (2.199 million). The Philippines has three metropolises as defined by

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4242-420: Is the most urban continent, with four-fifths of its population living in cities, including one-fifth of the population said to live in shantytowns ( favelas , poblaciones callampas , etc.). Batam , Indonesia , Mogadishu , Somalia , Xiamen , China , and Niamey , Niger , are considered among the world's fastest-growing cities, with annual growth rates of 5–8%. In general, the more developed countries of

4343-523: Is the only city in Afghanistan with more than one million people. In the People's Republic of Bangladesh , there are eleven metropolitan areas: Dhaka , Chittagong , Rajshahi , Rangpur , Sylhet , Khulna , Mymensingh , Cumilla , Barisal , Gazipur and Narayanganj . Lands are highly priced and residents are considered to have a better urban lifestyle. Special police departments are allotted for

4444-627: The National Economic and Development Authority . They are Manila , Cebu , and Davao . Metropolitan Manila , or Metro Manila, is the metropolitan region encompassing the city of Manila and its surrounding areas in the Philippines . It is composed of 16 cities and 1 municipality namely the city of Manila , Caloocan , Las Piñas , Makati , Malabon , Mandaluyong , Marikina , Muntinlupa , Navotas , Pasay , Pasig , Parañaque , Quezon City , San Juan , Taguig , Valenzuela and

4545-548: The Republic of Venice and the Republic of Genoa . In Northern Europe, cities including Lübeck and Bruges formed the Hanseatic League for collective defense and commerce. Their power was later challenged and eclipsed by the Dutch commercial cities of Ghent , Ypres , and Amsterdam . Similar phenomena existed elsewhere, as in the case of Sakai , which enjoyed considerable autonomy in late medieval Japan. In

4646-884: The United Nations ... largely for the purpose of international statistical comparison". The word city and the related civilization come from the Latin root civitas , originally meaning 'citizenship' or 'community member' and eventually coming to correspond with urbs , meaning 'city' in a more physical sense. The Roman civitas was closely linked with the Greek polis —another common root appearing in English words such as metropolis . In toponymic terminology, names of individual cities and towns are called astionyms (from Ancient Greek ἄστυ 'city or town' and ὄνομα 'name'). Urban geography deals both with cities in their larger context and with their internal structure. Cities are estimated to cover about 3% of

4747-505: The Uruk period . In the fourth and third millennium BC , complex civilizations flourished in the river valleys of Mesopotamia , India , China , and Egypt . Excavations in these areas have found the ruins of cities geared variously towards trade, politics, or religion. Some had large, dense populations , but others carried out urban activities in the realms of politics or religion without having large associated populations. Among

4848-730: The civilization of Djenne-Djenno was likely established by the Mande progenitors of the Bozo people . Their habitation of the site spanned the period from 3rd century BCE to 13th century CE. Archaeological evidence from Jenné-Jeno, specifically the presence of non-West African glass beads dated from the third century BCE to the fourth century CE, indicates that pre-Arabic trade contacts probably existed between Jenné-Jeno and North Africa. Additionally, other early urban centers in West Africa, dated to around 500 CE, include Awdaghust , Kumbi Saleh ,

4949-471: The diocese or episcopal see . In a colonial context, it is the "mother city" of a colony , that is, the city which sent out settlers. The word has distant roots in the colonial past of Ancient Greece with first usage in Middle English around the 14th century. This was later generalized to a city regarded as a center of a specified activity, or any large, important city in a nation. Luanda

5050-427: The government workers . (This arrangement contrasts with the more typically horizontal relationships in a tribe or village accomplishing common goals through informal agreements between neighbors, or the leadership of a chief.) The governments may be based on heredity, religion, military power, work systems such as canal-building, food distribution, land-ownership, agriculture, commerce, manufacturing, finance, or

5151-538: The knowledge economy . A new smart city paradigm, supported by institutions such as the RAND Corporation and IBM , is bringing computerized surveillance , data analysis, and governance to bear on cities and city dwellers. Some companies are building brand-new master-planned cities from scratch on greenfield sites. Urbanization is the process of migration from rural to urban areas, driven by various political, economic, and cultural factors. Until

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5252-590: The second most populous country with over 1.4 billion people and is also known for its large number of metropolises, with recognised " tiers " that classify mainland metropolises. Nationally, the largest metropolises include Beijing , Shanghai , Guangzhou and Shenzhen , the four cities are classified as the "First-Tier Cities" (一线城市). Second-tier cities are numerous and consist of regional centres, such as Changsha , Chengdu , Chongqing , Hangzhou , Jinan , Nanjing , Qingdao , Shenyang , Tianjin , Wuhan , and Xi'an , etc. Many of China's metropolises constitute

5353-564: The service economy and public-private partnerships , with concomitant gentrification , uneven revitalization efforts , and selective cultural development. Under the Great Leap Forward and subsequent five-year plans continuing today, China has undergone concomitant urbanization and industrialization and become the world's leading manufacturer . Amidst these economic changes, high technology and instantaneous telecommunication enable select cities to become centers of

5454-535: The " Global North " remain more urbanized than the less developed countries of the " Global South "—but the difference continues to shrink because urbanization is happening faster in the latter group. Asia is home to by far the greatest absolute number of city-dwellers: over two billion and counting. The UN predicts an additional 2.5 billion city dwellers (and 300 million fewer country dwellers) worldwide by 2050, with 90% of urban population expansion occurring in Asia and Africa. Megacities , cities with populations in

5555-539: The "functional definition", a city is not distinguished by size alone, but also by the role it plays within a larger political context. Cities serve as administrative, commercial, religious, and cultural hubs for their larger surrounding areas. The presence of a literate elite is often associated with cities because of the cultural diversities present in a city. A typical city has professional administrators , regulations, and some form of taxation (food and other necessities or means to trade for them) to support

5656-532: The 18th century), Ile-Ifẹ̀ (70,000 to 105,000 inhabitants in the 14th and 15th centuries), Niani (50,000 inhabitants in 1400 AD) and Timbuktu (100,000 inhabitants in 1450 AD). In the West, nation-states became the dominant unit of political organization following the Peace of Westphalia in the seventeenth century. Western Europe's larger capitals (London and Paris) benefited from the growth of commerce following

5757-420: The 18th century, an equilibrium existed between the rural agricultural population and towns featuring markets and small-scale manufacturing. With the agricultural and industrial revolutions urban population began its unprecedented growth, both through migration and demographic expansion . In England , the proportion of the population living in cities jumped from 17% in 1801 to 72% in 1891. In 1900, 15% of

5858-459: The 2014 census, Abidjan 's population was 4.7 million, which is 20 percent of the overall population of the country, and this also makes it the sixth most populous city proper in Africa, after Lagos, Cairo, Kinshasa, Dar es Salaam, and Johannesburg. It has officially been designated as the "economic capital" of the country. In 2020 the Urban area population was over 5 million inhabitants. Nairobi

5959-718: The 30th and 18th centuries BC. Mesoamerica saw the rise of early urbanism in several cultural regions, beginning with the Olmec and spreading to the Preclassic Maya , the Zapotec of Oaxaca, and Teotihuacan in central Mexico. Later cultures such as the Aztec , Andean civilizations , Mayan , Mississippians , and Pueblo peoples drew on these earlier urban traditions. Many of their ancient cities continue to be inhabited, including major metropolitan cities such as Mexico City , in

6060-697: The 9th through the end of the 12th century, Constantinople , the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire , was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe, with a population approaching 1 million. The Ottoman Empire gradually gained control over many cities in the Mediterranean area, including Constantinople in 1453 . In the Holy Roman Empire , beginning in the 12th century, free imperial cities such as Nuremberg , Strasbourg , Frankfurt , Basel , Zürich , and Nijmegen became

6161-566: The Andes, the first urban centers developed in the Norte Chico civilization , Chavin and Moche cultures, followed by major cities in the Huari , Chimu , and Inca cultures. The Norte Chico civilization included as many as 30 major population centers in what is now the Norte Chico region of north-central coastal Peru . It is the oldest known civilization in the Americas, flourishing between

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6262-512: The Cape Town metropolis ( City of Cape Town ) with an estimated metro population of 4 488 546 and the Durban metropolis ( eThekwini ) with an estimated metro population of 3 145 000. Smaller metropolises within South Africa include Pretoria ( City of Tshwane ), East Rand ( City of Ekurhuleni ), Gqeberha ( Nelson Mandela Bay ), East London ( Buffalo City ) and Bloemfontein ( Mangaung ). Kampala

6363-609: The Governor by public notification to be a Metropolitan area. As of 2011 Census of India , India has 46 other cities with populations greater than one million. Delhi , Mumbai , Kolkata , Chennai , Bangalore , Hyderabad , Pune , Ahmedabad , Kochi , are among the largest of 23 metropolitan cities in India . In Indonesia, the metropolitan cities are in Jabodetabek ( Jakarta , Bekasi , Bogor , Depok , and Tangerang ),

6464-529: The Great founded and created them with zeal. Jericho and Çatalhöyük , dated to the eighth millennium BC , are among the earliest proto-cities known to archaeologists. However, the Mesopotamian city of Uruk from the mid-fourth millennium BC (ancient Iraq) is considered by most archaeologists to be the first true city, innovating many characteristics for cities to follow, with its name attributed to

6565-513: The Palladium Megaverse. For reasons unknown, the Promethians do very little to restrict activities within Center itself; absolutely anything is allowed within the arcology, including but not limited to mass starvation , slavery , murder , and cannibalism . The only time that the Promethians show any interest in the goings-on of Center is when an enemy force tries to take control of the transdimensional spacegates and rifts, or when

6666-536: The ancient capital of Ghana, and Maranda , a center located on a trade route between Egypt and Gao. The dissolution of the Roman Empire in the West was connected with profound changes in urban fabric of western Europe. In places where Roman administration quickly weakened urbanism went through a profound crisis, even if it continued to remain an important symbolic factor. In regions like Italy or Spain cities diminished in size but nevertheless continued to play

6767-464: The athletic, artistic, spiritual, and political life of the polis. Rome was the first city that surpassed one million inhabitants. Under the authority of its empire , Rome transformed and founded many cities ( Colonia ), and with them brought its principles of urban architecture, design, and society. In the ancient Americas , early urban traditions developed in the Andes and Mesoamerica . In

6868-407: The benefit of mitigating the urban heat island effect, especially in cities that are in warmer climates. These spaces prevent carbon imbalances, extreme habitat losses, electricity and water consumption, and human health risks. The urban structure generally follows one or more basic patterns: geomorphic, radial, concentric, rectilinear, and curvilinear. The physical environment generally constrains

6969-561: The biggest metropolitan area in Southeast Asia and the fifth biggest metropolitan area in the world (2007). The other metropolises are Bandung , Batam , Medan , Semarang , and Surabaya . In Iran, the metropolitan cities are in Greater Tehran and Greater Isfahan Metropolitan Area , and other cities such as Mashhad , Karaj , Shiraz , Tabriz , Qom , Ahvaz , Kermanshah and Rasht . The Japanese legal term to (都)

7070-611: The capital Kuala Lumpur is the largest city, with a population of 7.8 million. The other metropolises in Malaysia are Johor Bahru , Seremban , Malacca City , Shah Alam , Kuantan , Kuala Terengganu , Kota Bahru , Ipoh , Georgetown , Alor Setar , Kangar , Kota Kinabalu and Kuching . According to the census of 2017, there are about 12 metropolitan areas in Pakistan each with a metro population of at least 2 million and city proper population of at least 0.5 million. Karachi

7171-590: The census of 2015, cities of Changwon and Suwon also qualify for being elevated to the level of metropolitan cities (having population over 1 million), but any future plans to promote them into metropolitan city are unlikely to be accepted because of political concerns about the structure of administrative divisions . There are also some county-level cities with increasing population near 1 million, namely Goyang , Yongin , and Seongnam , but they are also unlikely to be promoted into metropolitan city because they are all satellite cities of Seoul . The City of Colombo

7272-537: The country. A 2014 law allowed any group of communes to cooperate in a larger administrative division called a métropole . One métropole, Lyon , also has status as a department . France's national statistics institute, Insee , designates 12 of the country's urban areas as metropolitan areas . Paris , Lyon and Marseille are the biggest, the other nine being Toulouse , Lille , Bordeaux , Nice , Nantes , Strasbourg , Rennes , Grenoble and Montpellier . The largest German city by administrative borders

7373-542: The early Old World cities, Mohenjo-daro of the Indus Valley civilization in present-day Pakistan , existing from about 2600 BC, was one of the largest, with a population of 50,000 or more and a sophisticated sanitation system . China's planned cities were constructed according to sacred principles to act as celestial microcosms . The Ancient Egyptian cities known physically by archaeologists are not extensive. They include (known by their Arab names) El Lahun ,

7474-671: The efficiency of transportation and the smaller land consumption , dense cities hold the potential to have a smaller ecological footprint per inhabitant than more sparsely populated areas. Therefore, compact cities are often referred to as a crucial element in fighting climate change. However, this concentration can also have some significant negative consequences, such as forming urban heat islands , concentrating pollution , and stressing water supplies and other resources. A city can be distinguished from other human settlements by its relatively great size, but also by its functions and its special symbolic status , which may be conferred by

7575-484: The emergence of an Atlantic trade. However, most towns remained small. During the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the old Roman city concept was extensively used. Cities were founded in the middle of the newly conquered territories and were bound to several laws regarding administration, finances, and urbanism. The growth of the modern industry from the late 18th century onward led to massive urbanization and

7676-539: The entire Megaverse, such as the effort to keep the Old Ones from waking, and that "little things" like world-spanning wars and " morality " are simply too much of a distraction from the importance of their universal mission. Promethians are a notable species in that they are always in a constant state of partial phase – unlike most characters in contemporary literature with the ability to phase – which serves to greatly reduce any damage dealt to them. Furthermore, by using

7777-812: The first millennium AD, the Khmer capital of Angkor in Cambodia grew into the most extensive preindustrial settlement in the world by area, covering over 1,000 km and possibly supporting up to one million people. West Africa already had cities before the Common Era , but the consolidation of Trans-Saharan trade in the Middle Ages multiplied the number of cities in the region, as well as making some of them very populous, notably Gao (72,000 inhabitants in 800 AD), Oyo-Ile (50,000 inhabitants in 1400 AD, and may have reached up to 140,000 inhabitants in

7878-440: The form in which a city is built. If located on a mountainside, urban structures may rely on terraces and winding roads. It may be adapted to its means of subsistence (e.g. agriculture or fishing). And it may be set up for optimal defense given the surrounding landscape. Beyond these "geomorphic" features, cities can develop internal patterns, due to natural growth or to city planning . In a radial structure, main roads converge on

7979-418: The greatest threats to the Megaverse. Second-stagers are also the ones who are possessed of "an alien way of thinking" and do not live by morals as most other sentient beings understand them; they are prepared to do whatever it takes to safeguard the Megaverse, even if their actions appear " evil " to outside observers. Metropolis A metropolis ( / m ɪ ˈ t r ɒ p əl ɪ s / )

8080-472: The land surface of the Earth. Town siting has varied through history according to natural, technological, economic, and military contexts. Access to water has long been a major factor in city placement and growth, and despite exceptions enabled by the advent of rail transport in the nineteenth century, through the present most of the world's urban population lives near the coast or on a river. Urban areas as

8181-595: The largest international airport in Taiwan and the 36th busiest airport in the world – Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport , which has an annual passenger traffic of nearly 50 million. There are 8 metropolises in the UAE: Dubai , Abu Dhabi , Sharjah , Al Ain , Ajman , Ras Al-Khaimah , Fujairah , and Umm Al-Quwain . Of these, Dubai is the largest. Almaty is Kazakhstan’s largest metropolitan area with over 2 million inhabitants. Other cities with population over

8282-475: The longest continual inhabitation . Cities, characterized by population density , symbolic function, and urban planning , have existed for thousands of years. In the conventional view, civilization and the city were both followed by the development of agriculture , which enabled the production of surplus food and thus a social division of labor (with concomitant social stratification ) and trade . Early cities often featured granaries , sometimes within

8383-401: The metropolitan cities, and there are city corporations for which mayors are elected for five-year regimes. Most of these cities have population density of 35,000/square mile or more. Dhaka is the wealthiest city out of all and is considered a megacity because its population surpassed 10 million. China (People's Republic of China) is the fourth-largest country by geographical area and

8484-497: The multi-millions, have proliferated into the dozens, arising especially in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Economic globalization fuels the growth of these cities, as new torrents of foreign capital arrange for rapid industrialization, as well as the relocation of major businesses from Europe and North America, attracting immigrants from near and far. A deep gulf divides the rich and poor in these cities, which usually contain

8585-577: The municipality of Pateros . The region is the political, economic, social, cultural, and educational center of the Philippines. As proclaimed by Presidential Decree No. 940, Metro Manila as a whole is the Philippines' seat of government but the city of Manila is the capital. The largest city in the metropolis is Quezon City, while the largest business district is the Makati Central Business District. Greater Manila Area

8686-543: The natural phase powers innate to their species, they can at times opt to completely phase themselves, eliminating any threat to their person by phasing out of sync with the dimension that they're in. This allows them to choose whether to walk through solid matter or to render themselves completely invisible and undetectable by all means, including magic. The Promethians exist in two forms: namely, first- and second-stage Promethians. First-stage Promethians are 7 feet (2.1 m) to 10 feet (3.0 m) tall, are entirely "human" in

8787-483: The only metropolis is the capital, Copenhagen , situated in the Capital Region of Denmark . It has more than 750,000 people living in city proper and 1.28 million in its urban area. Finland's capital, Helsinki , along with the neighboring areas (including Espoo , Kauniainen and Vantaa ) forms a metropolitan area with an approximate population of 1.45 million people. This area is the only metropolis in

8888-418: The planet's surface. Furthermore, the Promethians are well known for selling their technology to any buyer that can afford it, friend or foe, and in similar fashion neither help nor hinder fugitives that manage to reach Center – or any bounty hunters and law enforcement agents that may be pursuing them. It is strongly implied that the Promethians are concerned first and foremost about cosmic-level threats to

8989-573: The process, such as improving the efficiency of goods and service distribution. Historically, city dwellers have been a small proportion of humanity overall, but following two centuries of unprecedented and rapid urbanization , more than half of the world population now lives in cities, which has had profound consequences for global sustainability . Present-day cities usually form the core of larger metropolitan areas and urban areas —creating numerous commuters traveling toward city centres for employment, entertainment, and education. However, in

9090-500: The public as well as forms of public land such as public domain and the commons . Western philosophy since the time of the Greek agora has considered physical public space as the substrate of the symbolic public sphere . Public art adorns (or disfigures) public spaces. Parks and other natural sites within cities provide residents with relief from the hardness and regularity of typical built environments . Urban green spaces are another component of public space that provides

9191-732: The range of possible outlooks and alignments, and the natural phase abilities of their bodies renders any force or energies directed against them to cause no more than a point-for-point conversion to "Standard Damage Capacity" (termed S.D.C. in the Palladium game setting), no matter how powerful the originating force. Those Promethians that manage to survive and pass the Test of Maturity are transformed into larger, more durable versions of their old selves that range from 15 feet (4.6 m) to 30 feet (9.1 m) in height. These creatures are immune to S.D.C. weapons; they each gain up to 2,400 points of what

9292-597: The request of Pericles , at the height of the City’s power. Coined the Golden age of Athens, the Acropolis symbolises the culmination of Greek civilisation, that lay the foundations of empirical thinking in the arts, philosophy , theatre , music, mathematics , sciences and astronomy, and became the reference point of modern western civilisation. Today Athens receives more than 6.4 million visitors every year. Budapest has

9393-873: The rise of new great cities, first in Europe and then in other regions, as new opportunities brought huge numbers of migrants from rural communities into urban areas. England led the way as London became the capital of a world empire and cities across the country grew in locations strategic for manufacturing . In the United States from 1860 to 1910, the introduction of railroads reduced transportation costs, and large manufacturing centers began to emerge, fueling migration from rural to city areas. Some industrialized cities were confronted with health challenges associated with overcrowding , occupational hazards of industry, contaminated water and air, poor sanitation , and communicable diseases such as typhoid and cholera . Factories and slums emerged as regular features of

9494-698: The same location as Tenochtitlan ; while ancient continuously inhabited Pueblos are near modern urban areas in New Mexico , such as Acoma Pueblo near the Albuquerque metropolitan area and Taos Pueblo near Taos ; while others like Lima are located nearby ancient Peruvian sites such as Pachacamac . From 1600 BC, Dhar Tichitt , in the south of present-day Mauritania , presented characteristics suggestive of an incipient form of urbanism. The second place to show urban characteristics in West Africa

9595-485: The ten biggest cities in the world in 2050. Cairo and Alexandria are considered Egypt's biggest metropolises. Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia, and where the African Union is headquartered. As of 2008 the metro population is approximately 4.5 million. Accra is an economic and administrative hub, and serves as the anchor of the larger Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA). According to

9696-489: The term and has challenged geographers seeking to classify territories according to an urban-rural binary. Metropolitan areas include suburbs and exurbs organized around the needs of commuters , and sometimes edge cities characterized by a degree of economic and political independence. (In the US these are grouped into metropolitan statistical areas for purposes of demography and marketing .) Some cities are now part of

9797-412: The turn of the first millennium BC , encompassed numerous cities extending from Tyre , Cydon , and Byblos to Carthage and Cádiz . In the following centuries, independent city-states of Greece , especially Athens , developed the polis , an association of male landowning citizens who collectively constituted the city. The agora , meaning "gathering place" or "assembly", was the center of

9898-446: The urban landscape. In the second half of the 20th century, deindustrialization (or " economic restructuring ") in the West led to poverty , homelessness , and urban decay in formerly prosperous cities. America's "Steel Belt" became a " Rust Belt " and cities such as Detroit , Michigan, and Gary, Indiana began to shrink , contrary to the global trend of massive urban expansion. Such cities have shifted with varying success into

9999-589: The volume of sewage begins to exceed manageable levels. The local government of cities takes different forms including prominently the municipality (especially in England , in the United States , India , and other British colonies ; legally, the municipal corporation ; municipio in Spain and Portugal , and, along with municipalidad , in most former parts of the Spanish and Portuguese empires) and

10100-523: The world's population lived in cities. The cultural appeal of cities also plays a role in attracting residents. Urbanization rapidly spread across Europe and the Americas and since the 1950s has taken hold in Asia and Africa as well. The Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs reported in 2014 that for the first time, more than half of the world population lives in cities. Latin America

10201-543: Was Dia , in present-day Mali , from 800 BC. Both Dhar Tichitt and Dia were founded by the same people: the Soninke , who would later also found the Ghana Empire . Another ancient site, Jenné-Jeno , in what is today Mali , has been dated to the third century BCE. According to Roderick and Susan McIntosh, Jenné-Jeno did not fit into traditional Western conceptions of urbanity as it lacked monumental architecture and

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