The 3 Greatest Ancient Cities

My selections are based on the influence these ancient places have had on the ancient world and the Western world and what they gave to the world. Although Sparta was a military super power that rivaled Athens, it still came up short. Thebes, Attica, Syracuse, Delhi, Jericho, and Damascus also came up short. Babylon was almost among the three because of it contains one of the Seven Wonders of the World which is the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the ancient Hammurabi law code. Jerusalem would make my 5 because of its important religious connections ancient to now.Other honorable mentioned ancient cities included are Memphis(Egypt), Alexandria(Egypt), Akkad, and Nineveh.

My first selection is held as one of the most beautiful cities of the ancient world. Ancient Athens was not only the birth place of democracy, and precursor of Western Civilization, it was also the most influential city-state of all the poleis on Crete (Ancient Greece). Descendent from Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations, ancient Athens may have been influenced by ancient Babylon, and Egypt but it would go on to eclipse them both. In the European Ancient world, it was the greatest center for arts and sciences; it was also the greatest center for math, philosophy and literature. It was one of the richest trading centers as well. As the birth place for fraternities located at universities, some of the finest minds of the ancient world made residence or either studied in Athens; these names were Solon, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Euclid, Thucydides, Herodotus, Cimon, Euripides, Pythagoras, Aristophanes, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Pericles, Hippocrates, Simonides, and Phidias. Leading the Delian League in the 5th Century B.C.E, ancient Athens also had a naval supremacy as well as army supremacy mainly responsible for the defeat of the Persian Empire's invasion led by King Xerxes. Lasting for 1,000 years, it would eventually fall at the end of the Peloponnesian War in 404 b.c.e. to the Spartans. Athens would have a significant influence on the next great Empire on the list, the Roman Empire.