Why Ancient Cities Were Chaotic

A deep dive into daily life in ancient cities like Rome, Babylon, and Chang’an — overcrowding, crime, markets, noise, and everything in between.

INTRO — WELCOME TO THE ANCIENT CITY EXPERIENCE

Imagine your city.
Now remove:

• plumbing

• electricity

• police cars

• traffic laws

• noise regulations

• building codes

• garbage collection

Now add:

• twice as many people

• animals roaming the streets

• random open-air markets

• neighbors throwing trash out the window

• constant fires

• smells you do NOT want to identify

Congratulations, you’re now living in an ancient city.

Contrary to Hollywood, ancient cities were not calm, orderly marble utopias.
They were chaotic, vibrant, overcrowded, creative disaster zones — and also humanity’s greatest engines of culture.

Today we enter the chaos.

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