What did the largest cities in the world look like at the dawn of their formation

Any city has its age. There are such young people as, for example, Paris, and there are very ancient ones, which are up to 2000 years old. Others are too young compared to them.

The article lists maps, paintings and old photographs that show the greatest cities.

Rio de Janeiro

The beginning of the city of Rio de Janeiro was laid by Portuguese colonists. It happened in 1565.

Guanabara Bay, which is considered the second largest in Brazil, has long been untouched by human civilization.

By 1711 the city grew.

And to this day it is mentioned among the most attractive places in the world.

New York

New York, as you may have heard, was first called New Amsterdam. It was founded by the Dutch colonialists in the early 17th century. The city received a completely new name - New York - in 1664.

This woodcut in southern Manhattan dates back to 1651, when it was still called New Amsterdam.

Between 1870 and 1915, the population of New York increased threefold. It increased from 1.5 to 5 million people. In this photo of 1900 immigrants from Italy crowded on the Mulberry Street of the Lower East Side.

Urban infrastructure was actively developing. For example, the Manhattan Bridge (below you can see his photo taken in 1909) was erected due to the fact that the number of the population has increased noticeably.

In 2013, there were 8.4 million people in five districts of New York.

Paris

Archaeologists state that the first inhabitants of Paris were representatives of the ancient Celtic tribe. They built a settlement on the river Seine around 250 BC. E.

People settled in the Île de la Cité. Today, here is the cathedral of Notre Dame.

Look at this image ... Parisians really had such exquisite coins. Today they are kept in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

By the early 1400s, Paris had become a major city in Europe, but it was by no means the largest.

This is the palace de la Cité, the castle on the Île de la Cité.

The modern city looks more than attractive.

Shanghai

The Bund district, which is located along the Huangpu River in central Shanghai, became a financial center of global significance in the late 1800s. Here are the largest trading companies from the US, Russia, Britain and Europe.

The old city of Shanghai was too noisy.

Commercial success turned the fishing city into the largest metropolis, which was called the "pearl of the East".

Back in 1987, the Shanghai Pudong District was completely undeveloped. This is a marshy area, located on the other side of the Huangpu River, opposite the Bund.

In the early 1990s, Pudong was open to foreign investment.

This area has since started to develop very rapidly.

Today, the Bund is one of the most beautiful places in China.

Pudong has a futuristic nature.

Istanbul

Istanbul, originally called Byzantium, and later Constantinople, was founded in 660 BC. In 1453 the city was conquered by the Ottomans.

Ottomans quickly turned the city from the center of Christianity into a symbol of the culture of Islam, having built richly decorated mosques.

Beginning in the 19th century, the northern part of the city intensively expanded. The shopping center of Istanbul was built near the Galata Bridge, which was reconstructed five times.

Today Istanbul is the cultural center of Turkey.

London

The Romans founded Londinium in 43 AD. Today the city is known as London. You can contemplate the first bridge crossing the River Thames in the figure below.

By the eleventh century, London was already the largest port city.

Westminster Abbey, founded in the 10th century, is considered one of the oldest and most important historical buildings in London. Below you can see how it looked in 1749.

In the XVII century, London suffered from the Great Plague, which provoked the death of approximately 100,000 people. In 1666 a great fire broke out. To restore the city after the disaster took ten years.

From 1714 to 1830, new districts were formed in London, and one of them is Mayfair. Also, modernized bridges across the Thames were built. They contributed to the development of the economy in South London.

The city continued its steady growth development, and its impact reached a global level. However, this London can boast today.

Mexico City

Mexico City, originally called Tenochtitlan, was founded by the Aztec Empire in 1325.

A researcher from Spain, Hernan Cortes, landed here in 1519 and eventually managed to conquer this city. Tenochtitlan was renamed Mexico City in the 15th century, because it was easier for the Spaniards to pronounce this name.

In Mexico City, a networked building system was established, on the basis of which several colonial Spanish cities had already been established at that time.

Since the XVI century Zocalo was considered the main area of Mexico City. At the end of the XIX century, Mexico City began to develop modern infrastructure, although many of the buildings were concentrated in rich areas.

Mexico City began to transform in the 1950s with the construction of the first skyscraper Torre Latinoamericana.

The population in Mexico City at the moment is 8.9 million people.

Moscow

Moscow was founded in the XII century. By the 17th century, the dynasty of the Romanovs had established itself on the throne.

The city grew up around the Moscow River.

Around the Kremlin there were trading rows.

The world-famous Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed was built in 1561. He still continues to amaze visitors with his historical charm ...

... while Moscow is becoming more advanced and modern every year.

Johannesburg

The region near today's Johannesburg was originally inhabited by people of San, a group of local hunter-gatherers. This happened about 20,000 years ago. In the XIII century, people who spoke Bantu, moved to this area and formed a small village. They were engaged in the extraction of iron.

The golden basin, called Witwatersrand, was discovered in 1884. This attracted many Europeans to this region. Today, the pool has the world's largest gold reserves and yields more than 1.5 billion ounces of precious metal annually.

Around this time, the city was named Johannesburg, although historians do not know exactly why. The earliest records of the city, which could provide information about the etymology of the name, are lost.

By 1900, more than 100,000 people lived in Johannesburg.

And today it has more than 4.4 million inhabitants.

This makes it the largest city in South Africa.