TEN OLDEST CONTINUALLY INHABITED CITIES

Okay, so I am a week late. Sorry, but things have been a bit nuts as the holidays get closer. I am hoping to put at least one more blog up before Christmas and then I think I will probably break until the new year. So this blog is about ten oldest cities. They are not the 10 oldest cities, but they are 10 old cities. While I was researching for this blog I found out that it is not very clear what the oldest city anywhere is. I cannot believe that no one knows for sure what the oldest city in the world is. That just seems like something that should be known. Anyways, there are also different ways of measuring what the oldest city is. You can measure it by when it was first founded (that will find you the "oldest city") or by when it was first and continually occupied (that will find you the "oldest continually occupied city"). I have decided to go with the latter of the two. So then, the 10 cities you find below are the oldest continually occupied cities in the specified regions of the world. Oh, and by the way, the cities have links to more information about them when you click on them.

Oldest city in Texas: Nacogdoches

There were several cities that claimed to be the oldest cities in Texas, but after a little more digging I found out that they were not nearly as old as Nacogdoches. El Paso was one of those that claimed to be the oldest, but I could not find that it was older than Nacogdoches. There was one site that claimed San Antonio was the oldest city in Texas, but it was not nearly old enough to be the oldest. I settled on Nacogdoches as the oldest continually occupied city in Texas.

Oldest city in the USA: St. Augustine, FL

That is the oldest European occupied city. Nearly every site I found says that St. Augustine is the oldest continually occupied city in the USA. Jamestown is the oldest English occupied city. San Juan in Puerto Rico is the oldest city under US jurisdiction, but I would not consider it a part of the United States. The oldest continually occupied city is Acoma, New Mexico started in 700 AD but evidence says it was not continually occupied until 1150 AD by Native Americans. Childersberg, AL says that they are the oldest city because they were occupied by Indians, but it was a village, so I am sticking with St. Augustine. I think the main decision is between St. Augustine and Acoma, but because of Eurocentrism I think people mainly choose St. Augustine , FL even though Acoma existed long before St. Augustine did.

Oldest city in North America: Acoma, New Mexico

I found one site that claims Mexico City is probably the oldest city in North America, but it says it was founded in about 1325 which makes Acoma older. Also, it does not say anything about being continually occupied from then on. St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada was settled in 1528, and claims to be the oldest European-settled city in North America. See above for more information on Acoma.

Oldest city in South America: Cuzco, Peru

This 3000 year old city was settled, then occupied by various Indian tribes throughout the next two thousand years, until the arrival of the Inca civilization. Cuszco is recognized as the oldest continually occupied town in the Western Hemisphere.

Oldest city in western hemisphere: Cuzco, Peru

I found claims that Cadiz, Andalucia was the oldest continually occupied city in the west. But after doing more research I found that it wasn't continually occupied until the 16th century.

Oldest city in Asia: Chiang Mai

According to historians, King Mengrai, the first fully documented Lanna ruler, founded Chiang Mai on Thursday, 12th April 1296. Luang Prabang also claims to be China's oldest continually occupied city. Luang Prabang's recorded history begins in the fourteenth century, when it became the original capital of Lan Xang (Kingdom of a Thousand Elephants). If Damascus is a part of Asia Minor then that would be the oldest city, since it is considered the oldest city in the world.

Oldest city in Europe: Amsterdam

Amsterdam was established as a fishing village in the 13th century and has continued as a city ever since. I did not find anything else about any other cities in Europe being the oldest continually occupied cities.

Oldest city in Africa: not available
Oldest city in Australia: not available

I did not find anywhere on the world wide web anyone that claims the oldest continually occupied cities in Africa or Australia. How weird is that? I did find that Cape Town claims to be the oldest city in South Africa, but that was the only claim I found anywhere. It does not claim to be the oldest continually occupied city in South Africa, just the oldest city.

Oldest city in the world: Damascus

Benaras is a holy Hindu city based on the banks of river Ganges claiming to be the oldest continually inhabited city in the world, but I believe that Damascus is the oldest continually occupied city. Jericho also claims to be the oldest city in the world, but it does not go back as old as Damascus. I found different information about when Damascus, Benaras and Jericho started being occupied, but Damascus claimed the oldest dates.

TOP TEN RICHEST COUNTRIES

I realize that it is Monday and not last Friday when I am now posting this. You will have to excuse me and I will try to post my new blog this Friday. Well, you have been waiting for this blog for a week so I guess I might as well start, eh? As I was researching for this blog I found out that there are a lot of different ways to measure the wealth of a country. You could measure it by the exporting or by the importing. You could measure it my the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) but you have to choose between purchasing power parity, real growth rate or per capita. There are tons of ways to measure it, but I have decided to measure it by GDP (purchasing power parity). What is that, you ask? Purchasing power parity is basically measuring the gross domestic product of countries, but changing them all to the US Dollar so we can better understand. I have decided to use the CIA World Factbook as my resource for as many of the Tenner topics as possible. I think that since it is a government site it is probably the most accurate and up-to-date site around. So, the list below, then, is from the CIA World Factbook website of the GDP measured by purchasing power parity:

1. United States - $12,310,000,000,000
2. European Union - $12,180,000,000,000
3. China - $8,883,000,000,000
4. Japan - $4,025,000,000,000
5. India - $3,666,000,000,000
6. Germany - $2,480,000,000,000
7. United Kingdom - $1,818,000,000,000
8. France - $1,794,000,000,000
9. Italy - $1,667,000,000,000
10. Russia - $1,584,000,000,000

I should tell you that these are actually the top 11. The World was number one with $60,630,000,000,000. I did some calculations and these top ten wealthiest nations make up about 85% of the world's wealth. The remaining 200-something countries make up about 15% of the world's wealth then. Wow. I also did not realize that India was that wealthy. I would have guessed that it would be lower down on the list. Basically the list is America, Europe and some Asia. There are no African countries. There are no South or Central American countries. I thought that was interesting, although it was what I expected. Anyways, those are my results for this first Tenner. I am sure I will get more detailed and experienced as the blogs go on, but for now, I am just learning. So until Friday, adios, amigo and have a good week!
Jenna

Tenners?!?!?!?

So, this is my new blog. I will not be really "posting" on it until Friday, but I thought it would be pretty dumb to leave it for a whole week or at least four days without anything on it. So here is a short background on how I came up with the idea for this blog.

Last semester (Fall 2006) my mom and I were in a class known as the Galveston Bay Area Master Naturalist Program. There are eleven classes from August to November about everything you ever need to know about nature. Along with taking the classes you are required to do forty hours of volunteer work and eight hours of advanced training in order to become a Master Natralist. My mom and I got our pins at the last meeting, but we will not be official Master Naturalists until we complete our volunteer and advanced training hours. Anyways, while we were in the program we found out about something else called the Tenners Program. In the Tenners Program you find out and memorize the ten most common *insert whatever animal, mineral or object you would like here* in the Galveston Bay Area. When you memorize the ten most common *insert whatever animal, mineral or object you would like here* you then get a Tenner in whatever area you found out about. For instance if you found out about the ten most common shells in the Galveston Bay Area, then you would get a Tenner in shells. Make sense? We have finished the program now and since I am studying World Geography this year I thought a good way to study it would be to find out as many Tenners as possible about the world. Anything from the ten longest rivers in the world to the ten poorest countries in the world.

And there you have it folks. That is a brief synopsis of what I plan to do on this blog. It should continue, with some exceptions for the holidays, from now until about the end of May. So be expecting a new post every Friday on a different Tenner and I expect to learn quite a bit from this crazy little endeavor of mine. I'll be posting again soon!

Jenna