The 20 Largest Cities in the World from 2800 BC to 2100 AD

Let’s take a incredible journey through history to see the world’s largest cities over time with this animated visualization. This video, created by CityGlobeTour on YouTube, reveals the 20 largest cities in the world at any given moment throughout history from 2800 BC to 2100 AD. Hit play to live through the rise and fall of nearly every civilization of human history.

Play by play:

Starting in the year 2800 BC, the largest city by population was Uruk, Iraq. At a population of 80,000 people, Uruk had double the number of the next largest city which was also located in Iraq, the city of Larak; which had a population of 40,000. Out of the 14 cities listed in the year 2800, ten are located in Iraq, three are in Syria and one is in Iran. By 2500 BC, Uruk’s population is still the largest however it has shrunk to just over 46,000 people and the city of Mari in Syria has moved up the list with a population of 43,853. Just a few hundred years before in 2730 BC, the city of Mari had a population of just 13,797. Jumping even further to 2000 BC the moving chart shows that Egypt and Pakistan are added to the mix and in 1930 BC the city of Memphis Egypt jumps into the number one spot with a population of 56,517. It isn’t until the year 1660 BC that China pops up on the list and very quickly jumps to the top four largest with the city of Erlitou, population of 39,813. In 1500 BC Greece has had a boom in the city of Knossos, population of 42,857. It isn’t until the year 1300 BC that a city has a population of more than 100 thousand. Thebes (Luxor) in Egypt tops the list with 100,726 people in the city. As you can see, this animated bar graph is super interesting, and spoiler alert: it gets even more interesting! As you continue your way through the animation, you’ll notice the US first appear in the year 1834 with New York City’s population of 255,797!