City walls: Did you mean...?

A polis (plural: poleis) was the typical structure of a community in the ancient Greek world. A polis consisted of an urban centre, often fortified and with a sacred centre built on a natural acropolis or harbour, which controlled a surrounding...

Dion is located at the foot of Mount Olympus in the north of Greece, in what would have been ancient Macedon. It takes its name from the most important Macedonian sanctuary dedicated to Zeus ("Dios” meaning "of Zeus”). Legend claims this...

Xanadu (aka Shangdu, Shang-tu, and Kaiping) located in Inner Mongolia, northern China, was first the capital (1263-73) and then the summer capital (1274-1364) of the Mongol Empire. It came to prominence during the reign of Kublai Khan (r...

Eridu (present-day Abu Shahrein, Iraq) was considered the first city in the world by the ancient Sumerians and is among the most ancient of the ruins from Mesopotamia. Founded circa 5400 BCE, Eridu was thought to have been created by the...

Heiankyo (Kyoto), located in the centre of Honshu island, was the capital of Japan for over a thousand years and gave its name to one of the golden ages of Japanese history, the Heian Period (794-1185 CE). Built according to Chinese design...

Once upon a time, in the land known as Sumer, the people built a temple to their god, who had conquered the forces of chaos and brought order to the world. They built this temple at a place called Eridu, which, as scholar Gwendolyn Leick...

The city of Syracuse is located on the east coast of Sicily and was originally a Greek colony founded by Corinth in 734 BCE. The city enjoyed a period of expansion and prosperity under the tyrant Gelon in the 5th century BCE, survived a two-year...

Pi-Ramesses (also known as Per-Ramesses, Piramese, Pr-Rameses, Pir-Ramaseu) was the city built as the new capital in the Delta region of ancient Egypt by Ramesses II (known as The Great, 1279-1213 BCE). It was located at the site of the modern...

According to legend, Ancient Rome was founded by the two brothers, and demigods, Romulus and Remus, on 21 April 753 BCE. The legend claims that in an argument over who would rule the city (or, in another version, where the city would be located...

La Rochelle emerged early in the French Reformation as a Protestant political and military center. The city's fortifications withstood repeated sieges over the years. In 1627, La Rochelle was besieged by Cardinal Richelieu (l. 1585-1642...