Those of us who love cities might think of the world as a collection of them, but it obviously wasn’t always that way. This video shows a timeline of how cities popped up and spread across the globe, starting with Mesopotamia in 3700 BC.

Watch cities pop up as humans move across the globe. Video by Max Galka.

Max Galka of Metrocosm used extensive data on urban settlements recently out of Yale University to create the video. In it, cities appear at the time they were first documented, with the earliest cities’ dots being yellow and the newest ones being red.

Galka also gives context by noting different historic events at the bottom of the map, like the beginning of the Egyptian Kingdom and the formation of different dynasties in China.

The first North American city that appears on the map is St. Louis, in 1000 AD, about a hundred years before the first crusade.

What surprises you about this video map?

Tagged: cities, history, video

Arego Mitchell is a digital design pro living in the Brentwood neighborhood of DC. Originally from Arizona, Arego has spent the last three years getting to know the region, usually by bicycle. He’s passionate about design, vegetables, and the National Arboretum.