Reading path · 8 stops

Capitals of the World

Eight cities where power lived.

Every age has a city where the world's business seems to be decided. This path walks through eight of them at their height, from the gates of Babylon to the lakes of Tenochtitlan, asking what made each the centre of its world and what remains.

Suits the Builder · the Navigator

  1. 1 · Encyclopedia · PlaceBabylonGate of the gods: the ancient world's byword for the great city.
  2. 2 · Encyclopedia · PlaceRomeA million people at the centre of the Mediterranean world.
  3. 3 · Encyclopedia · PlaceConstantinopleThe new Rome on the Bosphorus, besieged by everyone and taken almost never.
  4. 4 · Encyclopedia · PlaceBaghdadThe round city of the caliphs, where the world's learning was translated.
  5. 5 · Encyclopedia · PlaceChang'anThe Tang capital, the largest city on earth and the eastern end of the Silk Road.
  6. 66 · Encyclopedia · PlaceCórdobaUmayyad Córdoba, where al-Andalus outshone every city of Latin Europe.
  7. 7 · Encyclopedia · PlaceCuscoThe navel of the Inca world, from which the four quarters ran.
  8. 8 · Encyclopedia · PlaceTenochtitlanThe island capital on the lake, larger than the European cities of its conquerors.

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