Urbicide: killing the city

The narrative about the rise and fall of civilisations and their infrastructures is still omnipresent in scholarship about past cities. It is a story that sells well. Think, for example, of the ruins of Pompeii and Gerasa in the Mediterranean region, the monuments of Persepolis in modern Iran, the temples of Angkor in Cambodia, or the remains of Maya cities in the jungles of Mesoamerica. Many people will have heard about these places and images of ruins naturally spring to mind – frequently tied to romanticised visions of them crumbling amid what have become picturesque landscapes, where nature merges with the grand relics of past urban societies. In some modern cities, ancient remains als