The Biggest Cities Over Time Part 1

Here's a look at the most populated cities through the ages, starting with the first city, all the way to the 1 AD.
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[@awsomemodels]

I am from iraq uruk is basically a village right now and the old ruins still exist

[@chipskylark5500]

Is it hard to do your hobby in Iraq right now?

[@chipskylark5500]

Also thanks for the info from someone there

[@awsomemodels]

@@chipskylark5500 What kind of hobby ? Like football is really popular in Iraq .

[@chipskylark5500]

@@awsomemodels oh I was just thinking about your model cars cuz it's on your channel

[@awsomemodels]

@@chipskylark5500 Oh yes I love collecting model cars but I kinda got lazy and stopped buying them, my videos are really bad but I just kept them for fun but I'd like to return to it sometime.

[@feynstein1004]

I just realized something. KZbin channels are analogous to geographical places as hubs of activity for people. For instance, right now this channel has 12,000 subscribers so it's equivalent to a small town with the same population. There are fewer people in the comment section and you're likely to run into the same people in every video. There's a feeling of closeness and belonging, because of the fact that everyone is genuinely interested in the topics presented by the creator. By contrast, we have large-city channels like SciShow and RealLifeLore, where hundreds of thousands of people hang out. People are less friendly, and you're likely to meet trolls, critics and people trying to be popular by posting random comments or memes. Perhaps I'm overthinking but this is how I feel 😂

[@correctionguy7632]

keksi max it had 12k yesterday? its up at 19k now and was at 17k when I subscribed a couple of hours ago, this channel is blowing up fast.

[@feynstein1004]

@Correction Guy Whoa, dude. You're right. When I looked at it, it was just 12K. And in 2 days it's blown to 22K. This channel really is blowing up fast. The town is growing into a city lmao

[@deus_ex_machina_]

@@feynstein1004 26k now.

[@allamasadi7970]

Feynstein 100 That is a great analogy! I will go further and say that KZbin channel viewership and subscriptions can be seen as tribes - people who watch educational content will continue to get smarter, they will realise and understand that there is a huge opportunity cost of watching trash channels like Logan Paul and therefore will direct as much attention as possible to educational content like this channel and will look down on people like Logan Paul viewers. This is also a microcosm of what is going to be happening in the real world, the smart are going to get much smarter and richer while the stupid will watch trash and lag behind. This will mean greater inequality between the rich and poor. Also so pleased that this channel is blowing up!!

[@feynstein1004]

@Allama Sadi Wow, I hadn't even thought of that. Nice analysis. :)

[@jfkfromclonehigh8157]

Him: Yinxu was the first city outside of the middle east to be the world’s largest city That City in Ukraine: *Am I a joke to you*

[@cezarydudek6156]

Baked Alaska: That City in Ukraine Dobrovody: Am I a joke to you

[@aayushchaudhary714]

The entire indus valley: Am I a joke to you?

[@saadwaheed465]

Also Mohenjo Daro is in modern day Pakistan and Pakistan is a south asian country not a middle eastern country.

[@SantoshGairola]

@@aayushchaudhary714 Indeed; Bhirrana is much older (~ 9500 years old ) and Rakhigarhi is largest ( ~ 8500 years old ).

[@EstebanAlvarez_]

Atlantis: Am I a hoax to you?

[@isaacbakan1295]

I never would have thought Ukraine to be a holder of the world's largest cities.it makes sense though as Ukraine has very fertile land

[@Emperorerror]

yeah i wish i knew more about ukrainian history. had no idea they were such a big player on the world stage

[@Andrew-fn9oc]

@@Emperorerror Back in them days Ukraine just consisted of Steppe Nomads, Up to the 13-1400s I imagine. At first it was the Scythians, Dacians, Getaes, etc. Later on the Mongols came past, and the successor tribes such as the Golden Hordes, Crimea, etc. I'm not sure what was between then, even though it is a large piece of history, I never hear anything about it, which is why I imagine it was a lot of the same. Though Dacia and Getae were in Romania... For a while after the 1400s Lithuania did control most of Ukraine, after that it was conquered by the Ottomans and Russians. Ukraine itself has only existed in recent history... Idk why I'm tryna talk histroy, it's very late and I'm probs not thinking of large pieces of the puzzle, cya.

[@vitaliyzubenyuk2326]

@@Andrew-fn9oc how about Kievan Rus'? That was the first state that can be called kind of Ukrainian. Also Ukrainians probably are descending from scytians and other more ancient tribes.

[@brandonreckin4452]

ukraine/southern russia was actually the birthplace of the original indo-europeans, who eventually came to create societies such as the greeks, romans, russians, germans, english, french, spanish, persian, afghan and hindi peoples. it is definitely a hub of human civilisation. its just that they were original nomadic people with no writing system, and therefore their homeland in ukraine/southern russia doesnt have many historical sights to go and see or even read about

[@tobiascasares4153]

@Swapn Lok actually Indo-Europeans originated from the middle east

[@SaudiHaramco]

I swear to god i'm so used to educational videos being sponsored that i expected you to say something like "cities are one of mankinds most important inventions made possible by squarespace"

[@myakun830]

Dashlane, audible, and others. Damn, I need a break from KZbin.

[@andrewsucksatvideos4482]

Dash lane audible wisecrack squarespace shkillshare sufshark expressvpn nordvpn I need a break from KZbin

[@Jeetu311]

No wonder Strabo recorded Pataliputra(in India), the biggest and largest city in the world in 318 BCE. Never understood which research he is referring to!

[@amardave84]

Didn't realize you made this point. I made this same point. Thank you.

[@ravisingh-wp1lc]

I was also wondering about it, no wonder Alexander or Sikandar wanted to conquer india of that time . ( however as any westerner he too is ignorant or biased towards his European learning).

[@briekybo5343]

@@ravisingh-wp1lc and you over here are stereotyping all westerners. Btw, Alexander never conquered India because of his declining health and there isn’t the evidence nor research the back up the “theory” that Pataliputra was once the largest city in the world, and even if it was, it was only for less than a decennia let aside a year.

[@sundaramkumar7326]

​@@briekybo5343 have some research. Don't only depend upon limited knowledge. Google to accepts patliputra as largest city at it's time.

[@randomstuff8149]

Imagine being the worlds biggest city to only having a 7,000th of the population of the modern day biggest city

[@maythesciencebewithyou]

There was a point in time when there were only around 7000 people on the planet.

[@kakalimukherjee3297]

@@maythesciencebewithyou the bottleneck

[@Willybean08]

Utqiagvik, Alaska is thought to be the first "city" by a very small amount of people. It's thought to have been inhabited from anywhere between 10,000 to 17,000 years ago, and was estimated to have 100-200 people. That seems more like a village, but it was permanently inhabited, and had homes.

[@generalhyde007]

It’s literally a crime to not subscribe to this guy!! He is fantastic!!!!

[@AtlasPro1]

I agree :P Thanks for watching!

[@TobuscusGameing]

What do you think RIP 7+ billion

[@bramhajung]

Subscribed because of this comment. Few minutes into the video and I agree!!

[@alexey926]

I subbed after the first video I saw. You can just see that the quality is evident

[@Hwje1111]

Atlas Pro Just subscribed to you cuz i like your channel

[@gemis8]

I love love love how you contextualize, on macro level, the topic at the beginnings. You're channel will boom, keep it up!

[@allamasadi7970]

So someone from the city of Uruk could call themselves the Uruk-hai 😂😂. Love this channel 👍👍👍

[@fogshadow9112]

LMAO bro uruk is 10km from where I live.

[@-datnerd-3125]

@@fogshadow9112 سلام

[@HUNdAntae]

Is there a meaning of the word uruk in Semitic languages? In Hungarian "úr" means lord/sir or great one (kinda like æthel- was in saxon and old-english) and "-k" is the plural indicator. I wonder if there is a connection somehow, and Ur and Uruk were in fact "The city of the Lords" or "Urak Városa".

[@allamasadi7970]

HUNdAntae I don't know, but I am aware of the Ziggurat of Ur in Iraq

[@allamasadi7970]

Fog Shadow have you been to the Ziggurat of Ur in Iraq bro? 😂😂

[@PixelBytesPixelArtist]

Just an FYI for the next time you pronounce Chinese words, the "x" sound is like the "sh" sound in English 😉

[@The_NSeven]

Your videos are pretty cute, you should make more!

[@PixelBytesPixelArtist]

@@The_NSeven Oh thanks ^-^ i was planning on making more

[@The_NSeven]

@@PixelBytesPixelArtist Good! :D

[@vvjp5732]

It's not exactly 'sh' sounding either. Were speaking English I think there's nothing wrong pronouncing it in English. Chinese does not get a privileged status.

[@thorandlundeve]

zh

[@willydiaz9586]

The point that a city hit a million people before paper existed is mind blowing! Wow!!!

[@maythesciencebewithyou]

What's more mindblowing is that there were a million people strong cities long before a sewer system was invented.

[@nexusanphans3813]

"In Jericho." Me: Oh shit he's about to make some people upset, isn't he? "In the modern-day *West Bank*" Me: LOL

[@levspivak8759]

Only idiots would be upset about such stupid things

[@Mazzawak]

@@levspivak8759 Some idiots' entire lives are affected by these "stupid things", show some respect

[@levspivak8759]

@@Mazzawak Who gives a fuck about some bunch of terrorists...

[@Mazzawak]

@@levspivak8759 sure nobody gives a shit about Israel but still they should be stopped

[@levspivak8759]

@@Mazzawak lol, that tells why you are so stupid, I see now

[@filipnielsen1000]

Comment section be like “How has this channel only got x subs?” and now it’s deservingly on 308k. Good things come through

[@randomguy263]

420k now.

[@redturtle234xd5]

664k on July 6th 2020

[@redturtle234xd5]

664k on July 6th 2020

[@dukedub]

720k subs n November 2020

[@herisuryadi6885]

700k then meme number 69 For 25th of january 2021

[@thetooginator153]

It would be interesting to know why certain cities attracted so many people. My bet is that it was usually a combination of fertile land, a favorable climate, trade routes, access to fresh water, and politics.

[@TheYoungWolfI]

Gotta wonder though, since we homo sapiens have been wandering the earth for about 200k years, how many cities came and went where no records, foundations, nor artifacts survived to be found. We only ever speak of up to a few thousand years ago.

[@maythesciencebewithyou]

before the first cities there were only small settlements. Before the first cities, which first needed the invention of agriculture, there weren't that many humans on earth. if you want to allude to Atlantis, that's as real as Hogwarts.

[@rezoLute18]

@@maythesciencebewithyou gobekli tepe is a city that dates back further any other city in this video and that's a recent discovery. Truth is its possible there are other "cities", we don't know, and unfortunately, might never know

[@AlbertM170]

8:56 That pronunciation was so off 😂😂😂😂 But we forgive you.

[@ahmedkreem1363]

I from iraq and went to babylon it was beautiful, and we have so much ancient cities in there but sadly isis and throughout history Occupiers destroyed amount of them :(

[@WilliamFang173]

I have a sudden urge to play Sid Meyer's Civilization II after watching this video.

[@ronansuperfrog8425]

William Fang Have you tried Sid Meyer's Civilization XI

[@MerkhVision]

Why specifically Civ 2? Lol

[@WilliamFang173]

@@MerkhVision Civ because I and the AI can replay the human history and watch cities grow (or die). Civ 2 because that's the last version I played. Yes I'm old.

[@Vixezio]

@@ronansuperfrog8425 we're still on the VI not the XI, but man amni excited for XI

[@michelangelobuonarroti4958]

2:20 "...have remained Center to prosperity for 100s or even 1000s of years" * shows US city * Me: **_laughs in European_**

[@joshualariosa4235]

Michelangelo Buonarroti can’t be in the states, cars are on the left side hehe

[@doggo1098]

That's in Europe lol

[@dd-nz8ry]

doggo this is obviously japan

[@doggo1098]

@@dd-nz8ry True, could be

[@ThecRL0]

**cries in European**

[@poonpoon1374]

It wasn't Ramesses II who created the Egyptian empire but multiple pharaohs throughout the new kingdom, most notable Thutmose III. But you got it correct that Ramesses II saw Egypt through a golden age.

[@maldito_sudaka]

your history related geography videos are the best! I NEED MORE

[@allisonwest7079]

I sometimes think how amazing it is that just 150 years ago the notion of cars was nothing more then a dream. 50 years ago computers were as big as a room and now we literally have the all the knowledge of the world in a small, compact, handheld device! 500 years ago no one but native American lived in America and now we have millions of people here! I am astonished and astounded by how fast our civilization has grown in a Meer 100 years and I can't wait to see what the world will be like in another 50.

[@avinashzoom]

Recently research pushed back Indus valley civilization back to 7000 BC

[@sanjanajha5357]

If you count Mehrgarh

[@avinashzoom]

@@sanjanajha5357 no, just based on pottery and other things found in haryana

[@sanjanajha5357]

@@avinashzoom yes they also left out pataliputra

[@somerandumguy8281]

yes indus valley is very old but they r only telling the time at which moenjo daro had highest population

[@indrason6974]

@@somerandumguy8281 well rakhigiri was older and bigger than mohenjo daro

[@greeses5482]

8:49 Egypt looks like some badass axe

[@BoilingHotCoffee]

7:46 I see that Assassin's Creed Screenshot

[@CabooseTheMousse]

I think they used one for Alexandria too

[@J37-q4s]

This channel blew up because of this series. I hope you’re proud of this channel, it’s amazing. Just you wait, by the end of 2019 you’ll have a million subscribers.

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

Awesome video as always. However, just a couple of nit picks: First, there was no year 0. 1 BCE was immediately followed by 1 CE. (Weird and kind of dumb, but that's what happened.) Second, your pronunciations could use some work, especially of Chinese cities (a hint: x = sh).

[@AtlasPro1]

I thought my Chinese pronunciations were pretty good this time around (though I botched Hyksos on my first try).

[@kleuafflatus]

I'll say it was okay. X is actually showing your teeth instead of through your lips like sh.

[@biggusballuz5405]

@@AtlasPro1 Sorry, but they weren't really good at all XD, I'm Chinese. But if you need any help, feel free to ask!

[@AtarahDerek]

Do you also think it's weird and kind of dumb that the year doesn't begin on January 0? Or that Sunday isn't called the 0th day of the week? Year 1 indicates the first year following a date-altering turning point in history (in this case, the assumed date of Christ's birth--though later studies place His birth between 6 and 2 BC). There is no year 0 because that would imply that history stopped altogether. History never stops. When something new enters the world, its first 365 days are its year 1.

[@miqueasventura2060]

@@AtarahDerek yeah, but if you ask a mother the age of an 8 month old baby what would she say? not 1 year old. She would say its 8 months.

[@himanshusingh5214]

Actually, after Mohenjodaro, many more Indus valley civilization cities were discovered. Today the largest known city is Rakhigarhi, not Mohenjodaro. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakhigarhi Similarly, the only known port city of Indus valley civilization is Lothal which is in Gujarat. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lothal Similarly, the only known proto IVC civilization (Kalibangan) was found recently in Rajasthan en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalibangan

[@Sam-tw5jn]

Your channel deserves much much more subs! I hope you get there.

[@AtlasPro1]

Thanks for the support and thanks for watching!

[@muiscnight]

Assassin Creed Origins single handedly made me interested in ancient civilizations

[@isaacbakan1295]

It is still quite shocking how little attention rural areas get compared to cities. While city dwellers are the majority, they it is only by about 5% and city dwellers only became the majority very recently.

[@marcusrattray1158]

Part of it is that it is hard to get to rural inhabitants and another part is that rural people are poor vs the rich and middle class that live in cities and suburbs

[@howllingwilly]

Can you show where ancient Rome, and all the other ancient cities got the stone for there massive stone buildings? How far away were the ancient quarries?

[@ewp7615]

Amazing work as always

[@AtlasPro1]

Thanks!

[@jalucaru]

This is why i want to travel. The middle east. So much history there,even more than Europe

[@jalucaru]

@Caitlyn yes it is so sad that this garden of knowledge and beauty is destroyed in so many places

[@Dylax16874]

Your work is absolutely fantastic. I love this channel. Tiny tiny nitpick. But there is no year zero in our calendar system. It goes straight from 1 BCE to 1 CE. But that's just a nitpick. Your work is awesome

[@nevets2371]

You forgot to mention that as part of the punic wars, not only did the Romans kill or enslave almost everyone in Carthage, but they also plowed salt into the fields to make it difficult for anyone to rebuild the city. So yeah, the Romans definitely didn’t mess around.

[@kartik5876]

I remember there's a poem called Ozymandias.

[@meghaawatade2990]

I had this poem in my book

[@wayward4657]

I read a poem about Ozymandias's ruins last year. It was about no matter how big and powerful you get, everything you know will eventually turn to dust.

[@ArghyadeepPal]

Ikr, it was in the CBSE 10th English book..

[@phoebexxlouise]

A really famous poem by Shelley

[@DKtrek21]

It's actually kind of sad when I came back to my roots in a rural village jist this past December. Only a handful of families stayed there, back then we had 200+ families, now it is only about 50 and all of them have at least one member living in the city.

[@dougmcduffie]

Thoughts on Göbekli Tepe???

[@LEFT4BASS]

I live in a town of about 35,000 people and I’m from a town 2,000 people. It’s weird how both of these would have held major city status at some point in the past, but both are considered rural now.

[@ChrisBryantVideo]

The amount of research needed to create this video blows my mind. Amazing work!!

[@kunalghosh3378]

Varanasi of India is the oldest city on earth. It dates back to 7000 BCE. Dwarka is also another city of India which is also about 3000 BCE old.

[@g-rexsaurus794]

Wrong

[@morenofranco9235]

Wow! An incredible, and interesting presentation. Thanks, Atlas Pro. I would love to see this on an Info-graphic Time-Line

[@Mazzawak]

The origin of the name "Iraq" in Arabic is a subject of great debate and Uruk is only one of the few explanations. Regardless, great video as always.

[@goaten77]

I’ve gone through Jericho a couple of times and now I regret not staying there a bit longer

[@kelly2fly]

Not only do you produce great videos but your pronunciation of these foreign words are amazing. Props to you!

[@EdJones99]

Wow, that was really interesting. Can't wait for part 2!

[@AtlasPro1]

Glad you enjoyed! Coming soon!

[@geekinutopia5899]

@@AtlasPro1 So, will the majority of the global population really be living in major cities or cities and towns in general?

[@LukSkajvoker]

There’s no such thing as “year 0” Neither 0 CE nor 0 BCE

[@HUNdAntae]

BC/AD*

[@JeroenJA]

hihi, they didn't even have the concept of a number 0, that part of the reason it start with 1 ;-). the AD/BC system was only created around 525 AD , and is thus only a sort of estimate from how long before christ has been born! in theory 1 is the first year christ was born, and the year before is dus 1 year before christ would be born. Recent estimates, due to Herodes dying at 4 AD, put the real birth year of christ at probably 6 BC :-).

[@gavinwightman4038]

@Gary Allen what? BC means before christ. AD stands for Anno domini, meaning "year of our lord". The time system is based on Jesus crucifixion. Only in the past 60 years have textbooks changed BC to BCE, meaning "before common era", but i dont think that means anything.

[@gavinwightman4038]

@Gary Allen tell me, what else happened in arbitrary "year 1" that merited redating all of the past events in history to count backwards? Regardless of your opinions about Jesus, the time system we use today is 100% based on his death as recorded by his followers, who later based every event using his death year as a reference.

[@HUNdAntae]

@Gary Allen do you use the Alexandrian or the Julian calendar? Do you count the years from the Hijra or maybe from the foundation of Rome? If your answers are no, you are counting from the year that is said a hippyesque bloke called Jesus was born, you're just sniffing your fart pretending it is not what it is.

[@his5605]

no Athens? Well...when a city goes at war with the rest of Greece what did you expect?

[@xenotypos]

I think Athens reached 500k around Cartage's era, so it's weird it wasn't mentioned. Especially since he mentioned several cities that weren't strictly speaking "first".

[@g-rexsaurus794]

@@xenotypos No it didn't, stop inventing number. the only cities that were Greek that reached those sizes were outside modern Greece, like Seleucia, Alexandria or Antioch.

[@xenotypos]

@@g-rexsaurus794 I saw that in a documentary, which was probably refering to the ancient Athenian census, they talk about it here: www.quora.com/What-population-was-Ancient-Athens Whether you agree or not with those numbers (it's debatable), you shouldn't assume people "invent" numbers just because you don't know what they are talking about.

[@g-rexsaurus794]

​@@xenotypos Fuck off, if you believe Athens had 500k people you are the ignorant one, not me. You have ltierally no sense of scale, Not even the population of Attica was 500k, let alone the urban population of Athens, a stupid question on quora or a documentary isn't going to change scholarly consensus: www.princeton.edu/~pswpc/pdfs/morris/120509.pdf Serious estimates indicate at best 65k for Athens at its classical peak and Attica having at most 150k people in terms of carryng capacity. Another, really poor, estimate claims 168k during the Macedonian expansion, but it's based on weak assumption that are counter to the archaeological evidence, as Athens walls enclosed a space of 2.2 km2, so such numbers are impossible without unrealistic population densities. Outside carrying capacity, Attica is estimated by some to have had in total up to 350k people at most.

[@g-rexsaurus794]

@@wayward4657 What's your problem?

[@anupamboy96]

Amazing videos! This channel deserves so much more recognition.

[@laclarous9282]

I heard you say “Ozymadius” and I instantly thought of “Ye mighty, and despair!”

[@yellowflash6042]

I really enjoy your videos about old civilizations

[@hanzhang3589]

8:20 Yinxu literally means the corpse of Yin, and Yin was (and still is) an alternative name to Shang dynasty. So Shang rulers would not have called their capital by this name. Instead, it was called Chaoge back then.

[@Nikioko]

It is important to know that 5000 years ago the Persian Gulf extended up to Uruk and Euphates and Tigris were really two separate rivers while they nowadays join and form the Shatt al-Arab.

[@sanjanajha5357]

You have forgotten mehrgarh which existed in Indian subcontinent prior to indus valley.

[@mq5ey]

@vijaya varma euro centric? are you stupid? Most of those cities are middle eastern and chinese. How is that euro centric???? Even in part 2 of the video, apart from rome and london there is no european city in the list!!! I guess you're a indian nationalist who dreams all the time about your ""great""" past of the hindus valley civilization. I've met a lot of indian people exactly like you. You live in a bubble my friend.

[@nathan1634]

also forgot north and south american cities

[@prestonnichols3911]

@vijaya varma Hows that superpower thing coming along bud?

[@prestonnichols3911]

@vijaya varma damn bruh so maybe you ain't dumb, apologies

[@TanmoyBiswas]

@@mq5ey there is a reason why you have met "a lot of Indian people exactly like him"

[@Spikeupine]

Can you please lists sources in description on your videos?

[@g-rexsaurus794]

Source, he used one single source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cities_throughout_history The middle thing, honestly those estimations are very weak.

[@c4shallie]

@@g-rexsaurus794 XD

[@orderofazarath7609]

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the topic, but I'd love to see a follow-up video which describes how the cities were able to support such large populations, what limited those and which developments allowed to overcome such limits. As a somewhat unrelated example a ships length was limited until bronze hinges came along. So maybe the history of agricultural techniques or logistics/transportation or climatic reasons corresponds with overcoming various population limits.

[@kairon156]

Can you do a video on the different times empires controlled other nations and actually helped them grow before giving them up?

[@kairon156]

@Joshua Jung I was thinking what Britain did for Hong Kong. I kinda knew about India but I haven't looked into it.

[@oleksiyprotas6376]

I was so blown away by Dobrovody that went googling and well it's half a country away from where your map point says it is :P

[@emanuel9224]

I live in a city of about 180 000 people. I know its a small city but the fact that over 3200 years ago cities were already that big makes my city even much smaller.

[@germerican7484]

Would love to see a biggest countries over time video! Or most powerful counter per century video?

[@rovsea-3761]

While land area is less subjective, "most powerful country" is pretty hard to quantify accurately. Also, very early on there would be a lot of guess-work, as before more complicated civilizations emerged, most cities were simply city-states.

[@sindraxo9249]

Pataliputra in 300bc: *am I a joke to you?*

[@arjungoli6434]

Pataliputra never even crossed 300,000 population and do not forget, compared to other empires India had poor infrastructure and urbanisation, I mean India just got out of the mahajanapada period and most of it [70%] was sparsely populated compared to others

[@arjungoli6434]

@Shubham Johri No man, there are various estimates, you are only following Angus Madison but a majority of them say that India did not have a significant population compared to the Persian Empire or the Mediterranean

[@swargpatel7634]

I just discovered this channel and I have fell in love😍😘. It encompasses everything I like, Biology, History, Geography, and Geology!!Keep this up you make my week with just one video!

[@Ezol1]

@Atlas Pro - You're a legend for teaching me about all this. Finding the info and making it so clean and compelling!

[@KohanKilletz]

Notes: There is no such thing as year 0, it just goes from 1 BCE to 1 CE. Note 2: The egyptians were meddling in the Levant far before Ramesses II, most notably under Thutmose III, who conquered as far as the Euphrates and was called the Napoleon of Egypt. Note 3: Zhou is pronounced Joe. Note 4: X is pronounced in chinese Pinyin with a soft sh sound. I hope this helps!

[@hoperules8874]

@2:50 is the real reason you are the most valuable teacher on KZbin! So few are able to be objective!

[@thedrifter798]

The first city to reach over 1 million was Rome and Alexandria was likely the second

[@stantonfuerton]

Very surprised to see that Jbeil(Byblos) was not the biggest city around 3000 BCE despite its outsized cultural influence

[@mauriceofnassau5476]

Interesting, i have never heard that there was citys in Ukraine this early?

[@mirceagogoncea]

Can you add sources in your description please? I haven't heard of those places in the Ukraine before, though I am originally from a neighboring country, and either a) I need to brush up on my ancient history (bit unexpected honestly, considering I've been reading about it for decades - but hey, one has to always update their opinion when more/better facts become available!) or b) this list was compiled with the help of some article that was slightly biased. Not immediately jumping to conclusions though, really just wanna read more about your sources! :) Awesome idea for a video!

[@g-rexsaurus794]

Modelski 2001, it's the only source he used

[@smilefriend5024]

Hi Atlas!! Love The Video

[@AtlasPro1]

Great to hear :) Thanks for watching

[@quinnfederle5976]

Very interesting! congrats on 7.5K subs, I hope your channel continues to grow at this rate!

[@AtlasPro1]

Glad to hear it, it's been great growing lately!

[@iweoldtimer]

So China had already proven to us their capability thousands of years ago.

[@Markussiemens658]

@Nolan Nez yes kinda

[@mathewfinch]

The Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia have always had more people than anywhere else in the world. The temperate to warm climate allowed for year round food production, which allowed for larger populations. The only reason China declined as a superpower was because of the Ming dynasty's policy of isolationism in the 15th century.

[@mathewfinch]

@Nolan Nez they didnt so much enter a dark age as much as they just entered a period of isolationism that culturally stagnated their country and allowed the Portuguese, English, and Dutch to swoop in and gain influence in China's backyard.

[@ekx5120]

I'm only now learning that there was a world beyond Mesopotamia where people existed, I had no idea there so many populous cities when Babylon stood. We were only ever told of the civilizations around the Mediterranean.

[@muddrosal8065]

Ooh, a two part episode. Great video as always! Looks like your audience is starting to find this channel, bring on the exponential growth! :D

[@AtlasPro1]

Glad you enjoyed! I just want to hit 10k :P

[@PoetPedro1976]

Great narration, plus simple and informative

[@trystar-sl1mi]

I thought Rome was the first city to reach 1 million people

[@Alex-mr5ji]

We are all retards deep down

[@aryabhata499]

133 BC, and 1,5 millions people in 150 AD

[@Erikaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

It was. Atlas Pro is wrong. He's an expert on geography, not history. The overwhelming historical consensus was that Rome was the first city in human history to reach a population of one million.

[@abhinavdeshwar1097]

Loved the video Atlas Pro, I can't begin to imagine how much research you must have done before making this. Thank You Dear! Also if its alright could you please make a video about the biggest civilization, country, marvels, structures. Please🤗❤

[@Warlock1178x]

You just blew up bro, congrats ! Good content !

[@cadian101st]

I would contest that the first meaningful art arose with cities. There is some pretty phenomenal cave art, some of it incredibly detailed and realistic.

[@CelineAdobea]

As we continue exploring and expanding our knowledge and awareness it is going to be very fun (for me atleast😂) to look back at videos like this and see how much/little we really knew. and On & on it goes 🌀🌱

[@MarcTelang]

Atlas: Yinxu was the first city outside of the middle east to be the most populated Dobrovody: am i a joke to you

[@egoponte]

0:04 I thought they were made possible by squarespace

[@josephwalewski2028]

How do you only have 15K subs!?!?! Your work is on par with Real Life Lore, Wendover, & AHH

[@DCMarvelMultiverse]

I heard once from an archaeologist that humans have been around so long and the environment changed so drastically that advanced societies could have risen and fallen and we would never know. For example, there could have been large permanent settlements around Africa 's mega-lakes.

[@hedone13x]

Great video! Thanks

[@xhiddin]

Wonderful! Please make a part 2!

[@AtlasPro1]

Hopefully coming later this week :)

[@xhiddin]

@@AtlasPro1 Great! Just became a patron! :)

[@AtlasPro1]

Thank you! It's really appreciated :)

[@lorenzob19]

These videos are amazing; clearly explained, great animations and transitions which all leads into a great video with fantastic quality. Especially considering that you do not have many subscribers this is amazing. You deserve a million subscribers 👍

[@itsurboiaryan9550]

11:51 assassin's creed origins gameplay lol

[@GnarledStaff]

I would love to see something like this but for normal sized towns. I still have only a vague idea how large population centers were throughout history.

[@siddhantagrawal9926]

dwarka india under sea is about 10000 year old but the research has been stopped due to lack of government funding

[@Beyonder1987]

It's only suggested however it's not proven fact. Early settlement and civilastion are really two different things. Settment leads to civilization. Sumeria is earliest civilization and city ever.

[@Ariaa76]

I was watching a Civilization 6 guide video and I was recommended to this! Finally, thanks KZbin!

[@coolbits2235]

I have found some excellent 4k city fly overs (mov files)

[@AtlasPro1]

Do share :)

[@jack_9362]

Yes please do

[@Ennio444]

I enjoyed the video, but there's several points I'd like to make and mistakes I'd like to adress: I'm probably not the first to point it out, but right at the start, you say "the Fertile Crescent might look like a desert today, but it was lush with vegetation", which is a mistake. Obviously we don't know for sure if it was more or less lush than today, but we can infer from the strata and the few textual records. It was as it is today, less green even due to modern agricultural techniques. Here's the thing: agriculture was not first invented in the lush, rich places, like the tropics or the Nile Delta, places where food is abundant without humans needing to cultivate anything. Imagine being a man 20,000 years ago living in the Nile Delta, one of the most fertile places in the northern hemisphere. Hungry? Just reach for that apple, for those beans. Easy. Now, that same man will have a harder time in the Upper Nile or the Tigris-Euphrates basin, because they're less fertile. Still fertile, but less so. Civilizations tend to appear in the periphery of the "most fertile places", and then take over it. Happened with the Upper Nile conquering the Lower Nile, happened with the Chinese dynasties of the Upper Yang-Tse and Yellow River, the interior usually was the first to refine agriculture, and since refining agriculture, building cannals and dams and distributing food and resources requires planning and organisation, states were born. Usually strong states. These strong states then took over the weaker ones around them, and, of course, wanted to control "the most fertile place around", this time to maximise its potential. Just look at the first city you list: Jericho. Or others like it, Harappa, Mojenho-Daro, Uruk, all of the at the periphery of fabulously lush areas, all of them centers of trade (which is another very important factor in the appearance and growth of cities, trade intersection, which explains most big cities, old or new, from Babylon to Troy, from Hong Kong to New York, from Istanbul to Paris). So, the Fertile Crescent was, as far as we know, as desertic (or fertile) as today. There hasn't been any crass climatic Mad-Max-style desertification to leave the place barren. Also, I don't knwo where did you get your information about Çatal Hoyuk, buy you seem to have misinterpreted the information: the main living area was the inside of the houses, not the roof. I invite you to spend a summer at the outside in southern Turkey, you won't like the scorching hot wind and the pouring sun. No, the inside of the cave-like houses is much more confortable. The houses themselves were half-excavated so that humidity cooled them on, AND, this is the fun bit, they didn't have streets, they entered their houses through the roofs, which is why the pictures have so many people on the roof. As for Dobrodeny and other Trypillia culture settlements, there's a lot of debate on the matter, especially because the "cities" seem to be erased and rebuilt periodically. I'm not an expert on that specific area, but I think it's probably due to the inhabitants being mostly nomads. There's very little evidence of large-scale agriculture in the area, and supporting large populations would have left a mark in the building of cannals, warehouses, and the possibility of theft. Today Ukraine is a bread basket, but back in the day agriculture in such large scale required state organisation. On top of that, Ukraininan nationalism has leaned on these to show how ancient their country is, which has also blown the significance of these settlements out of proportion.

[@PratikGhore]

What about the Indus valley civilization?

[@zhubajie6940]

I was to Yinxu about a year ago. It is the site of the earliest Chinese civilization as it is a city with the earliest written records (oracle bones). I encourage everyone to visit the Anyang area which not only has the Yinxu site but the National Museum of Chinese Writing which many examples of the evolution of the various scripts from Oracle Bone (hundreds being displayed) to present day.

At 9:00 I think english speaking people shouldn’t raise their eyebrows about names being translated in a strange way. Why do you say ”Germany” about Deutchland for example?

[@sthuon]

I don't necessarily disagree with you, but Germany is not in any way a transliteration of Deutschland. It comes from Latin, and may ultimately come from the Celts.

[@404killer]

@@sthuon But there is no such thing as the Celts, technically.

[@sthuon]

@@404killer The Celts are definitely a thing, I don't know why you would dispute that?

[@JeroenJA]

aint it just Germany cause the area just happened to cover a lot of the land where the Germanic tribes used to live? We always loved looking back to Roman Age for naming stuff ;-). Belgium comes from the Belgica, a cluster of celtic tribes Julius Ceasar describes as very brave and such (but that he did manage to conquest too of course ;-) ) France comes from the name of the Frank tribes, that first had kingdoms around Belgium afther Roman Empire Callapse and actually spook Frank-languages, then slowly pushed more south and slowly as more of the new population spook some form of latin the language started to romanise into French, just as happened to Italian, Spanish, ... so the name France refers to German link, while the language connect mainly to latin origine.

[@JeroenJA]

@@404killer yes there is, the same way as today there is something like "the west". Not always that clear what is and isn't the west, but with clear similarities in way of life, beliefs, ... , As was the case with the Celts, that spread from Anglia, to northern Turkey, with a similar warriors culture, similar inclusion of females in that warrior culture, importance of the druids, a low willingness to adapt to written words (that why we mainly have to rely on accounts written be people that encountered Celts instead of being able to read in their own words how they described themselves. Enough similarities for a Celt 1000 km further encountering an other Celt to see many similarities and feeling some connection.

[@GL-ys8je]

Humans-We created cities. Ants-Hold my beer.