Human Geography Images

Urban Geography

The images below represent some of the themes of urban geography that have been discussed in class.

Palmyra, Syria. Ancient ruins of a city on the edge of the Roman Empire. The Castle on the hill is an old Turkish fortress. Note the use of Roman-style pillars to form the colonnades of a well-planned city center. This city was located near an oasis in the Syrian desert, on a trading route between the Roman and Persian Empires.

Sanaa, Yemen. A typical market scene in a society only recently introduced to the automobile. Note the small shops and crowded streets that serves a pedestrian shoppers. The pre-industrial mud-brick buildings are only a few stories high. Also note the complete absence of women.

Jerusalem, Israel. Another similar market in the Arab Quarter. Again note the low heights of the buildings, even though these are made mostly of limestone rather than mud-brick. Also note the presence of women and men, indicating that this is a less strict Islamic society. The streets are narrow and awnings are used to block the hot sun (although this is a relatively cool winter day).

Northeastern Macedonia. A seemingly unofficial market has formed in this location. This allows those who cannot afford the rents in shops to still sell their goods to customers looking for cheaper products. This is likely a weekly event. Many towns probably got their start in this way as some merchants began to establish themselves permanently in a certain location. The unfinished house on the left hand side of the picture is indicative of an economy beset by inflation, as Macedonia was in 1992. People spend their cash immediately on material goods before its value depreciates. In some cases, possessing bricks is better than possessing the national currency.

Gdansk, Poland (Danzig). One of the most prominent cities in the Hanseatic League that dominated trade in Early Modern Northern Europe. Buildings are tightly packed together because land in the commercial parts of town was expensive. The more building that could be place on a lot, the more rent that could be charged. No building is higher than 5 stories, which was about the maximum height a structure could be before the invention of steel frames. People were also not generally inclined to walk up more stairs than that.

Tubingen, Germany. The city hall dating from the 1500s is indicative of the wealth that was being acquired by German towns as they became more connected to the global trading networks. Tubingen is located in the hills of southwest Germany along the Neckar River, which is a navigable river that flows into the Rhine.

Nenana, Alaska. Nenana was once one of the most important cities in Alaska, where goods could be transferred from steamships on the Tanana River to the train that ran between Seward and Fairbanks. The train depot (with the river behind it) formed the center of town, which was just a fishing camp prior to the arrival of an industrial economy. Many villages along the Tanana and Yukon rivers are still dependent on barges operating out of Nenana for large goods that are not transportable by airplane. Even so, with the construction of highways in Alaska for automobile transport, Nenana’s economy has declined significantly.

Istanbul, Turkey. A modern shopping district in Istanbul. Streets of this nature are common throughout the world. They formed in times prior to the domination of the automobile, but after the invention of the elevator, therefore the buildings are taller, but still make maximum use of their real estate. Most commercial districts around the world appear similar because true skyscrapers are generally only built in cities that have acquired some status as a world city (one that plays a significant role in the global financial industries), rather than a city of mere national or regional importance.

Seattle, Washington. A typical industrial zone that evolved along the waterways. Because shipping is still relatively cheap by water, industrial zones and warehouses are still commonly located along rivers and ports. Most of Seattle’s industrial areas formed along the Duwamish River, just south of the city.

San Francisco, California. San Francisco has long been a financial center on the west coast of North America. Thus we see plenty of modern skyscrapers, along with their equivalent from the late 1800’s or early 1900’s, the steel-frame building with a brick exterior and elevators on the inside.

San Francisco, California. An Italian enclave in downtown that has probably been in existence for 80 to 100 years. The signage on the restaurants appears relatively old, indicating that no new Italian restaurants are being built. As Italian immigrants have melded into mainstream American society, they no longer see the benefits of living exclusively around their fellow countrymen.

San Francisco, California. This seems to be somewhat of a red-light district that formed on the opposite side of the street from me. This block was probably zoned in this fashion in order to keep commercial activities associated with “vice” away from standard businesses. This allows those citizens who do not frequent such businesses to feel safer and decreased the number of unpleasant social confrontations that may occur in a more mainstream shopping district.

San Francisco, California. Chinese businesses in Chinatown. A still functioning enclave in America.

San Francisco, California. This park in Chinatown seemed to be frequented by many people who had relatively recently arrived from China, as far as I could tell by their dress, language and mannerisms. San Francisco generally has clean streets, but an unusual amount of litter surrounded this park. I suspect this reflect different attitudes about these things between an average Chinese citizen and an average U.S. citizen. Most peripheral countries have a much higher incidence of littering than do many core countries. Many people here seemed poor and unemployed, so maybe we could consider Chinatown a ghetto to some degree.

Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix is one of the most modern of American cities. The relatively small downtown can be seen in the upper-right. A more modern commercial district stretches in a linear fashion along a major road across the center of the photo. Modern suburbs with non-gridlike street patterns are visible in the bottom of the photo. Something of an industrial district seems to inhabit the bottom right of the photo, near the train tracks.

Las Vegas, Nevada. Las Vegas is a city without a hinterland, due to its harsh desert climate and lack of water. Unlike many American cities, little development exists beyond its edges. No agriculture, villages or exurban settlements. This is largely because the city can only expand as its water system expands. Drilling a well to acquire water for a piece of property is not feasible, as it is in wetter climates. So while the city does sprawl in a manner similar to many American cities, it differs in that it has a clearly defined physical edge to it. Little or no economic activity occurs beyond this edge.

Gary, Indiana. Gary is an old industrial town on the shores of Lake Michigan near Chicago. It never had the economic diversity of Chicago and with the decline of its industrial economy, sunk into depression. We can see the effects of this in this photo. The buildings are old, the streets are cracked, and the most colorful thing in the photo is the McDonald’s sign. The downtowns of many older industrial cities appear similar.

Seattle, Washington. The Zymogenetics company is located on the south shore of Lake Union, in what used to be the a steam plant. This whole neighborhood is slowly changing from an industrial district to a biotechnology district.

Seattle, Washington. In the same neighborhood south of Lake Union, a former industrial building or shop of some kind has been renovated into a building housing residential lofts and suites for the growing population of medical and technology workers.

Szeged, Hungary. In the Communist countries, the government planners adopted to some degree Le Corbusier’s modernist idea of the radiant city, where people would live efficiently in large buildings with ample light surrounded by parks and gardens. These radiant cities would be constructed along large boulevards that allowed for rapid access to the commercial and industrial sections of the city. Planners of social housing in many of the Western countries used similar ideas throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Kutna Hora, Czechoslovakia (prior to its dissolution). During the era of communism, the old town centers of European towns also fell somewhat into disrepair. This occurred because the government was the owners of the buildings and had little incentive to keep up appearances, this is especially true when resources were scarce.

Szeged, Hungary. Beginning in the 1970s, some communist countries sought to imitate the trends and styles of the West, especially Hungary, which was never very strict about communism to begin with. This shopping mall housing a department store and other shops was constructed in the 1980s with a very modern external appearance. The name translates as Szeged Great (or Big) Department Store.

Nairobi, Kenya. The old British colonial capital of Kenya has grown into the wealthiest city in East Africa. The round tower was built after independence and part of its purpose was to portray Kenya to the world as a modern country. Many countries in their post-colonial era attempted to create this image of modernism by adopting the modernist (or internationalist) styles of architecture that was popular in the 1950s through the 1970s. While Nairobi did succeed in becoming the economic and financial center for East Africa, it is still a peripheral city in terms of the global economy.

Nairobi, Kenya. This is probably a lower middle class house in Nairobi. Despite Nairobi’s prominence in the region, most people probably live in conditions like this or worse. A picture of the densest slums of Nairobi can be found at this link.

Kitale, Kenya. This town was built as a service center for European farmers who colonized the area in the early 1900s. Thus we see the broad streets and sidewalks of a town not dissimilar from early towns built in the American West, which were likewise built by colonists of European descent in about the same time or slightly earlier. It connects to a rail line and serves as an administrative center, as well. Note the number of pedestrians, which is relatively large when compared to a similar sized town in the United States.

Tunis, Tunisia. These houses are on the northern outskirts of Tunis, which has been a significant city in North Africa for centuries. Tunisia is not among the poorest of countries, yet it too is rapidly urbanizing as people from the countryside flock to the larger urban centers. Relatively poorly planned, densely inhabited neighborhoods are the result of this migration. We can observe the Islamic influence by noting the numerous high walls creating small, private courtyards rather than the more open yard or garden that is common in Europe or North America. The flat roofs of all the buildings are indicative of the arid climate.

All photos taken by David Snyder.

Home