Why Cities Are Where They Are
Why Worldbuilding Stack Exchange recommends it
Worldbuilding Stack Exchange answerers point people to it when they need realistic rules for placing cities, towns and capitals on an invented map.
Recommended by 4 people across 3 different months, 2017 to 2022.
What it is
A Wendover Productions explainer on the geography behind where cities and towns sprang up. It covers rivers and coasts for trade, natural resources, the spacing of settlements by walking distance, and how mountains help or hinder growth.
Cited in 1 Wikipedia article, including Settlement hierarchy.
What people said
Strong rec Gustav Bertram · 2017-03 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “Logical Location for Cities”
There is a wonderful Youtube video by Wendover Productions that explains why cities are where they are [this video] . A summary: Towns are usually 10-15 miles apart, because you can walk about five miles, go to a market, and walk about five miles back in a day. The distribution of settlements is related to the sphere of influence of the settlement The distribution of larger towns is more sparse than towns, and cities more sparse yet Cities are located near water, either ocean or river, to facilitate trade Cities are located near natural resources Mountains have varying effects on settlement locations, as they can hinder development, but also be a source of natural resources, and provide protectio
Recommends Lio Elbammalf · 2017-03 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “Capital placement on a country - are there any geographical trends?”
Essentially capitals of a country are those in the region that are best suited to contact all other regions of said country. There are some cases where the capital was the home of a particular leader that joined the region but on the whole contact with the rest of the country was key. This [this video] is a very good video on city placement, I think it would help a lot with your idea of where to place capitals in your story.
Recommends Lio Elbammalf · 2017-03 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “Logical Location for Cities”
Hi and welcome to Worldbuilding. One if the first things to do when writing a question on any stack exchange is to search the current questions and answers to see if we have an answer for you already (for example this search [LINK] . However you might find this video [this video] useful.
Recommends GiantCowFilms · 2017-04 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “In a medieval setting, how far apart should towns be?”
This video explains why cities are were they are. You can apply this logic to the distance between towns [this video] Its worth pointing out that there is no standard distance between towns necessarily. Generally speaking, chains of towns can be seen along rivers at surprisingly even spacing (see the video), but these are all relative to one another. It is possible to have a city and surrounding towns be highly isolated. The trick is to make a map and work backwards from it. It will be obvious where to place cities. As the video explains, the expected distance for towns on a route is usually the distance you can travel there and back in a day.
Recommends Patric Hartmann · 2022-07 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “How could I logically place cities and towns on my map?”
Factor #1: Access to fresh water This is the most important factor. Foods can be stored and transported to a certain degree (even in primitive societies), water cannot. Any settlement needs access to fresh water sources as the first and most important factor. Factor #2: Access to food Food is a bit easier to organise than water. It can, to a degree, be transported and stored. Plus you always have the option to hunt. Factor #3: Defensibility First it's wild animals going after your livestock, then it's big wild animals going after your children or even you and finally it's that neighbour who always envied you for your war charriot. There's just no place you can live in peace! And with defensi
Cites anarchistjudge · 2018-06 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “How spread apart were cities, towns, etc. in the Middle Ages given food production capabilities”
There is a video [this video] about why certain cities are a specific distance apart and how it has to do with travel capabilities of the time and other economic reasons. I was wondering how this applied to medieval settings, considering that food production was less than what it was right before the industrial revelation took hold (which is the time that many of the cities mentioned in the video were founded). I read somewhere that using data from the Domesday Book historians were able to calculate that the average village size was ~150, but that doesn't really explain how far apart they were. Given how much food could reliably be produced per acre, is there a formula for how many cities, towns,