The earliest relationships of urbanization with a feature of the natural environment may well be that between cities and rivers. In the decline of the last Ice Age, some twelve thousand years ago, the rivers flowing to the rising seas and flooding their banks created fertile grounds for flora, fauna, and subsequently, permanent settlements. Along the Tigris and Euphrates in Sumer, the Nile in Egypt, the Indus in present-day Pakistan, and the Yellow River in China, emerged the first Neolithic villages, and subsequently, cities that were the nuclei for the first urban civilizations.
Irrawaddy river cruiser near Mandalay. ©2002, James A. Clapp
In urban history since, it is somewhat difficult to find a great city whose location, if not strategic or economic prominence, owes something to the river on which it is located or its flanks. The riparian benefactors of Cairo, Rome, Paris, New York, and London, are so well known as to not require specification. However, there are a good many other river-city relationships of lesser renown perhaps, though not necessarily of lesser rank.
See if you can MATCH the rivers that gave life, fame, and/or fortune to the following cities.
The quiz is no longer available at this time.
___________________________________
©2004, ©2015, James A. Clapp (UrbisMedia Ltd. Pub. 1.1.2004)