October 31 is World Cities Day, featuring the megacities uv mentioned. Pavel Pryanikov, here is the deal: they can be divided into three categories - an ocean port, a port on a large navigable river, and a large inland city. It is clear why large cities are located on the sea and large rivers - there is plenty of water, cheap transportation, and food can be brought in if necessary. But how did Delhi (30.9 million), Beijing (18.2 million), Moscow (15.3 million), Mexico City (17.2 million), Sao Paulo (19.1 million), Bangalore (16.1 million), and Lahore (14.5 million) make the list of the biggest legends - because the first question is - what did these cities eat (and keep eating)? Everything is clear with Lahore - it stood in the very heart of Punjab, India's breadbasket, boasting the most fertile agricultural plain. Lahore became the natural administrative center, the capital of the Mughal Empire and the Sikh State. Mexico City was a different story - there were no fertile plains, it was a swampy basin with lakes. But the Aztecs solved the problem purely through engineering, creating chinampas - artificial "floating gardens" made of lake silt and reeds. The yields there were huge, which made it possible to feed Tenochtitlan, which was massive by those standards (about 200,000 people). The Spaniards, who arrived there in the 16th century, turned the Aztec capital into the center of their colonial bureaucracy. But the largest cities deep in Eurasia grew not because it was convenient to trade or produce food there - all of them were in the zone of risky agriculture - but because it was convenient to collect tribute there. These are classical fiscal and administrative centers of conquerors. Beijing was the capital of the Jurchens, Mongols, and Manchus - who came from the steppes - an ideal point to control sedentary China: close to the local steppes, but in the center of the resource base. Food was brought here along the Grand Canal from the south (otherwise the million-city simply would not have survived). Delhi is the capital of the Sultanate and the Mughals, of Turkic-Mongol origin.

October 31 is World Cities Day, featuring the megacities uv mentioned. Pavel Pryanikov, here is the deal: they can be divided into three categories - an ocean port, a port on a large navigable river, and a large inland city. It is clear why large cities are located on the sea and large rivers - there is plenty of water, cheap transportation, and food can be brought in if necessary. But how did Delhi (30.9 million), Beijing (18.2 million), Moscow (15.3 million), Mexico City (17.2 million), Sao Paulo (19.1 million), Bangalore (16.1 million), and Lahore (14.5 million) make the list of the biggest legends - because the first question is - what did these cities eat (and keep eating)? Everything is clear with Lahore - it stood in the very heart of Punjab, India's breadbasket, boasting the most fertile agricultural plain. Lahore became the natural administrative center, the capital of the Mughal Empire and the Sikh State. Mexico City was a different story - there were no fertile plains, it was a swampy basin with lakes. But the Aztecs solved the problem purely through engineering, creating chinampas - artificial "floating gardens" made of lake silt and reeds. The yields there were huge, which made it possible to feed Tenochtitlan, which was massive by those standards (about 200,000 people). The Spaniards, who arrived there in the 16th century, turned the Aztec capital into the center of their colonial bureaucracy. But the largest cities deep in Eurasia grew not because it was convenient to trade or produce food there - all of them were in the zone of risky agriculture - but because it was convenient to collect tribute there. These are classical fiscal and administrative centers of conquerors. Beijing was the capital of the Jurchens, Mongols, and Manchus - who came from the steppes - an ideal point to control sedentary China: close to the local steppes, but in the center of the resource base. Food was brought here along the Grand Canal from the south (otherwise the million-city simply would not have survived). Delhi is the capital of the Sultanate and the Mughals, of Turkic-Mongol origin.