List of cities of the ancient Near East

The earliest cities in history were in the ancient Near East, an area covering roughly that of the modern Middle East: its history began in the 4th millennium BC and ended, depending on the interpretation of the term, either with the conquest by the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC or with that by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC.

The ancient Near East
Regions and states Fertile Crescent Mesopotamia Sumer Uruk Akkadian Empire Simurrum Sumerian Empire Assyria Babylonia Chaldea Assyrian Empire Babylonian Empire Egypt Ancient Egypt Old Kingdom Middle Kingdom New Kingdom Ptolemaic Kingdom Roman Egypt Iran Elam Lullubi Medes Achaemenid Empire Parthian Empire Sasanian Empire Anatolia Hattians Hurrians Hittites Luwians Neo-Hittite States Phrygians Shupria Urartu The Levant Kish civilization Ebla Armi Mari Nagar Amorites Qatna Mukish Amurru Yamhad Ugarit Hurrians Urkesh Mitanni Canaan Ancient Israel and Judah Ancient Palestine Phoenicia Alashiya Aram Syro-Hittite states Nabatea Iturea Seleucid Empire Coele-Syria Roman Syria Arabia Himyarite Kingdom Sabaeans
Archaeological periods Chronology Copper Age Bronze Age Bronze Age Collapse Iron Age
Languages Akkadian Amorite Old Arabic Old Aramaic Avestan Eblaite Egyptian Egyptian Hieroglyphs Elamite Hebrew Gutian Hattic Hittite Hurrian Kassite Luwian Anatolian Hieroglyphs Median Parthian Old Persian Phoenician Phoenician Alphabet Sumerian Cuneiform Script Ugaritic Ugaritic Alphabet Urartian
Literature Egyptian Babylonian Hittite Persian Sumerian Ugaritic
Mythology Mesopotamian Babylonia Sumer Egyptian Semitic Arabia Nabataean Levantine Hurrian Anatolia Hittite Luwian Iranian Persian Scythians
Other topics Archaeology Genetic History Cradle of civilization Ancient Near East Conflicts Egypt Egyptology Mathematics Technology Medicine Assyria Assyriology Law Babylonia Astronomy Law Mathematics Hittites Hittitology Law Cuneiform Law Early Alphabet History of the Ancient Levant History of the Middle East Timeline List of Cities

The largest cities of the Bronze Age Near East housed several tens of thousands of people. Memphis in the Early Bronze Age, with some 30,000 inhabitants, was the largest city of the time by far. Ebla is estimated to have had a population of 40,000 inhabitants in the Intermediate Bronze age.[1] Ur in the Middle Bronze Age is estimated to have had some 65,000 inhabitants; Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had a population of some 50,000–60,000. Niniveh had some 20,000–30,000, reaching 100,000 only in the Iron Age (around 700 BC).

In Akkadian and Hittite orthography, URU𒌷 became a determinative sign denoting a city, or combined with KUR𒆳 "land" the kingdom or territory controlled by a city, e.g. 𒄡𒆳𒌷𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭 LUGAL KUR ^URUHa-at-ti "the king of the country of (the city of) Hatti". The KI 𒆠 determinative is used following place names (toponyms) in both Sumerian and Akkadian.[2][3]