Nineveh: the largest city in the world of 700 B.C.

Although we might consider cities a modern phenomenon, from ancient times the world has known some great cities. Today, the largest cities are found in Asia (notably China, Japan, India, South Korea and the Philippines) and also Brazil, Mexico and Egypt. In 2000 Tokyo's peoples numbered more than 26 million.

Just over one hundred years ago, London was the world's most populous city with 6.6 million inhabitants, while prior to that, according to Wikipedia, Rome (for 400 years from 1 C.E.) and Alexandria (600 B.C. - 300 B.C.) held the records, hovering around 1 million. 

So where did Nineveh, famed as the city to which the Biblical Jonah was commissioned (which duty he at first avoided) fit in the scale? It is believed that around 700 B.C., Nineveh had the then huge population of 100,000, topping the then-known world. The ruins of this ancient city are still visible near Mosul, Iraq.

Julie Swannell

Here are some helpful images - there are many more online.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Discoveries_among_the_ruins_of_Nineveh_and_Babylon%3B_with_travels_in_Armenia%2C_Kurdistan_and_the_desert-_being_the_result_of_a_second_expedition_undertaken_for_the_Trustees_of_the_British_museum_%281859%29_%2818167083711%29.jpg

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-ab&tbm=isch&q=ancient+cities&chips=q:ancient+cities,g_4:persia&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiBsu_In-3aAhUJQLwKHZ72DgwQ4lYIMigC&biw=1280&bih=565&dpr=1.25#imgrc=gGDPQSCtGEh2xM: