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List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

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41–50 of 224 posts

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#41
post #36

As a Tunisian, I'm confused by why Carthage is not on the list. Yes, it was destroyed and rebuilt by the Romans, but the general vicinity has been continuously inhabited ever since. Actually, a few other Tunisian cities are missing that trace their origins back to late B.C./early A.D., such as Monastir, Mahdia, and El Jem. Any thoughts on this?

you can probably add them? it's wikipedia after all

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#43
With the world explored and mapped, it is hard to fathom new cities being built. Nevertheless, that will certainly happen in the future.

What will the catalyst be? Will it be nuclear war, which devastates and contaminates an area for decades? Will it be disease that makes existing urban areas less desirable to live in? Will it be economic opportunity, as we discover new uses for land or a new way to use land? Space Travel?

I see a small parallel to startups: it is easy but dangerous to say "there are no new ideas in that industry". Yet often some of the primary companies are those that survived the early "land grab" of customers.

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#44
post #16

This list seems hardly complete. There’s no mention of Central Asia for instance.

Do you have a city to propose? Feel free to add it to the list, especially as it shouldn't be too hard to check the age using the Wikipedia article on the city.

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#46

What interests me the most is not so much the #1 oldest, but more those cities where the past is still visible, or the city is similar to the same one that stood there thousands of years ago. Specifically, I find Yerevan very interesting. If someone from 2,000 years ago stood there today, they'd certainly realize it was the same city: the same Mount Ararat towering over the city, the same river Hrazdan running by the…

Rome?

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#47
post #8

Splitting these by continent is somewhat disingenuous since many of the oldest civilizations and settlements are at the intersection of Africa, Asia and Europe.

There are many awful lists like this on Wikipedia as it seems the criteria for them are a lot less strict than for articles. I guess whoever creates the list can argue that each individual item is sourced, even though the selection of items and their organisation is original research [0], and thus should not be allowed. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research

I agree, I don't mind lists like "Largest countries" as that is fairly definitive but when you get into subjective lists of things that are hard to properly define, measure or record like "costliest hurricane damage"[1], "longest-living organisms"[2] or "deadliest animals"[3] then the articles become a joke.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Atlantic_hurricane_rec...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest-living_organis...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deadliest_animals_to_h...

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#48

What interests me the most is not so much the #1 oldest, but more those cities where the past is still visible, or the city is similar to the same one that stood there thousands of years ago. Specifically, I find Yerevan very interesting. If someone from 2,000 years ago stood there today, they'd certainly realize it was the same city: the same Mount Ararat towering over the city, the same river Hrazdan running by the…

Rome, Jerusalem, Athens, maybe Istanbul.

Re: List of oldest continuously inhabited cities

#49
post #8

Splitting these by continent is somewhat disingenuous since many of the oldest civilizations and settlements are at the intersection of Africa, Asia and Europe.

There are many awful lists like this on Wikipedia as it seems the criteria for them are a lot less strict than for articles. I guess whoever creates the list can argue that each individual item is sourced, even though the selection of items and their organisation is original research [0], and thus should not be allowed. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research

I think your analysis is overly critical. The stated purpose of Wikipedia's no-OR policy is not to "reach or imply a conclusion not stated by the sources". The only novel conclusion being drawn here is that one can conceive of a list of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Wikipedia policy also notes that "The potential for creating lists is infinite." and prohibits lists that do not comply with Wikipedia's overall content policy as being "trivial, non-encyclopedic, or not related to human knowledge". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Stand-alone_lists#Ap...

I personally think that this list is really interesting and does in fact advance the state of human knowledge. The fact that it's currently at the top of HN and has garnered comment interest shows that you're probably in the minority in your disagreement.

If you feel strongly that this list is trivial, poorly organized, or simply "awful" you're absolutely free to join the discussion and contribute edits at Wikipedia.

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