Historical Cities on River Mouths?

[Sanderling]

Some of my favorite maps here on CG, such as Max's Yphyrion and Jardhen, show cities densely sprawled around a river's mouth as it empties into a shallow sea.

Are there any historical examples of cities which followed the same pattern? There must be, but I can't think of any right now.

[Azélor]

There is Amsterdam that look similar.

[Midgardsormr]

London is on the Thames estuary and has been a large city for a long time. Alexandria is on the Nile Delta. And Nanjing is on the Yangtze River.

[Pixie]

Major rivers will have extensive estuaries, normally with large areas of shallow wetlands. Very close to the sea the estuaries will also have a shoreline that varies a lot with the tides. All this makes building a city in the mouth of a large river something only modern technology can do.

Depending on the tech era, cities will normally be built a little inland, where tides don't affect the shoreline and where seasonal floods won't span a very large area - think of Rome: the river is navigable for barges, which is good for trade, but it doesn't carry so much water that floods are disastrous and the city is located in a hilly area. Older civilizations, with limited masonry tech, can't simply afford to risk heavy floods on floodplains. Once the cities spawn in a place further upstream, they won't normally be relocated as technology evolves. Athens wasn't built right on the coast as well..

Lisbon (my hometown) is a curious example: the city lies very close to the mouth of a major river, but that is because the river bends around a hilly area. In fact, the city grew around small streams that go into the Tagus River, and originally occupied the heights in the hilly area. Obviously the city grew into the river shore over time... We still suffer flooding every winter, in spite of technology!
Max's fictional towns are also good examples - both seem to be built in the mouth of smaller rivers or streams - these aren't subject to violent floods. If I had to guess, Jardhen occupies rocky outcrops and Yphyrion gets flooded every now and then and it is a city of later growth.

Later nations will worry less about flooding. New world cities were built in floodplains and coastal plains more often, like New Orleans, New York or Buenos Aires, for example, and even Amsterdam (a late city for european standards) is built on the coast.

So, to answer your question (sorry for the rambling) - ancient historical cities don't get built on the mouth of rivers - medieval or later cities will... hope it helps

[Sanderling]

Thanks for the replies so far. I did think of London right off, but it's not right on the river's-mouth itself, since Londinium began as a Roman river crossing. Seville is another example of a major shipping port which was located well upriver from its mouth.

As Pixie pointed out, smaller rivers aren't as prone to heavy flooding, and I was thinking along those lines anyhow. To clarify my question, does anyone know of a late medieval or Renaissance city which was built directly around the mouth of a small river? In essence, are there any real-world examples of the kind of small city which Max has illustrated?



(As for Athens, it wasn't built directly on the seacoast--but the Piraeus was, to take advantage of three small but excellent natural harbors, and limestone quarries directly adjacent.)