# Cities that look tiny and feels huge



## aaabbbccc (Mar 8, 2009)

As anyone have experienced being in a metro area that looks very big but in a map it is small 
example my home town of Casablanca , Morocco ( pop 4 million in the metro area )
when you look at it in map , it is almost look like a village , tiny very small 
but when you go there , and you drive around Casablanca is a very large city with a lot of sprawl . it looks endless almost like LA California 
is that an urban illusion ?? how is that possible ? when you drive miles upon miles of sprawl and yet in a map it is tiny 
there is must be a lot of factors 
any opinions ??


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## NordikNerd (Feb 5, 2011)

aaabbbccc said:


> As anyone have experienced being in a metro area that looks very big but in a map it is small
> example my home town of Casablanca , Morocco ( pop 4 million in the metro area )
> when you look at it in map , it is almost look like a village , tiny very small
> but when you go there , and you drive around Casablanca is a very large city with a lot of sprawl . it looks endless almost like LA California
> ...


Russian cities are very densely populated, in the soviet era Leningrad covered an area similar to the one of Stockholm, allthough Leningrad had about 6 times bigger population.


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## eklips (Mar 29, 2005)

Spanish cities.


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## Gobbo (Jul 26, 2007)

Italian cities and latin cities in general tend to be very dense. Therefore they often don´t look big on a map, but still have surprisingly many inhabitants...

Firenze, for example, on a map doesn´t seem bigger than many scandinavian cities with only 100-200.000 inhabitants. But still Firenze has 370.000 inhabitants. Torino has about 1 million inhabitants, but on a map it looks more like 500.000. And so on...I could also mention Lecce, it has 91.000 inhabitants but on a map it looks like Hjørring in Denmark with only 25.000 inhabitants. Italian cities are SO dense...:nuts:

Here in Denmark we like to have enough space around us. Therefore Danish cities tend NOT to be very dense. My own city Aalborg only has 125.000 inhabitans even that on a map it occupies the same space as Firenze LOL


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## DiggerD21 (Apr 22, 2004)

I have been to Castellon de la Plana, which is a small city with ca. 180.000 inhabitants (1/10th the size of Hamburg) near Valencia, Spain. But it felt much more urban in the centre than Hamburg.


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## tk780 (Jun 21, 2007)

eklips said:


> Spanish cities.


I second this. Spanish cities are in a league of their own in Europe in terms of building density.


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## Isek (Feb 13, 2005)

aaabbbccc said:


> Casablanca , Morocco ( pop 4 million in the metro area )
> when you look at it in map , it is almost look like a village , tiny very small
> but when you go there , and you drive around Casablanca is a very large city with a lot of sprawl


Casa does not look like a village on satellite fotos. With a length of about 20 km and a width of 15 km it is a compact and big city. Of course it is not a huge or very large city by global standards. 

For African/Arab standards it's density is just normal. I really can not see any sprawl in the Casa Metro area that is mainly consisting of the core urban area of Casa but has very limited satellite towns. Even in case of this new urbanities the density is enormous compared to Europe or even the US. 

While driving through Casa one gets the feeling of being in an very unstructured and chaotic city. If you relate this to a "big-city-feeling" Casa may qualify for. Actually due to the lack of infrastructure you do have a very little traveling speed while crossing the city. For me a city feels huge if you drive constantly 80 km per hour on a multi lane motorway and you still need 1 hour to get through it - e.g. Paris, Rhine-Ruhr or even Berlin or Madrid.


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## aaabbbccc (Mar 8, 2009)

Isek said:


> Casa does not look like a village on satellite fotos. With a length of about 20 km and a width of 15 km it is a compact and big city. Of course it is not a huge or very large city by global standards.
> 
> For African/Arab standards it's density is just normal. I really can not see any sprawl in the Casa Metro area that is mainly consisting of the core urban area of Casa but has very limited satellite towns. Even in case of this new urbanities the density is enormous compared to Europe or even the US.
> 
> While driving through Casa one gets the feeling of being in an very unstructured and chaotic city. If you relate this to a "big-city-feeling" Casa may qualify for. Actually due to the lack of infrastructure you do have a very little traveling speed while crossing the city. For me a city feels huge if you drive constantly 80 km per hour on a multi lane motorway and you still need 1 hour to get through it - e.g. Paris, Rhine-Ruhr or even Berlin or Madrid.


thanks for explaining this , it seems that the Rabat Metro area is about the same size of Casablanca ( area wise )? but the population of Rabat urban area is 1/2 of Casablanca's maybe even less ? I am not sure 
Compared to Casablanca , Rabat seem to be a lot less compacted ? correct ?
Rabat has some urban sprawl relative to Casablanca ?


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## PadArch (Apr 1, 2010)

tk780 said:


> I second this. Spanish cities are in a league of their own in Europe in terms of building density.


also paris - its the densest city in europe.


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## poshbakerloo (Jan 16, 2007)

I always think that Manchester, UK feels bigger than it is. Metro population only 2 million but when you drive through it, it goes on for aaaaages!


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## Isek (Feb 13, 2005)

aaabbbccc said:


> it seems that the Rabat Metro area is about the same size of Casablanca ( area wise )? but the population of Rabat urban area is 1/2 of Casablanca's maybe even less ? I am not sure
> Compared to Casablanca , Rabat seem to be a lot less compacted ? correct ?
> Rabat has some urban sprawl relative to Casablanca ?


You are right. The area of the built up land of Casa and Rabat is almost the same. Regarding the population size Rabat-Sale agglomeration is more like 60 % of Casa or so. It really depends what kind of statistics you take. And of course Rabat is much more loose built up. I guess not any European or North American diplomat could stand a dense city like Casa. :lol:


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## Galro (Aug 9, 2010)

Venice, Italy.


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## drunkenmunkey888 (Aug 13, 2005)

Shanghai feels absolutely massive when you're actually there. If you look out from the 60th floor of Plaza 66, all you see are massive skyscrapers stretching far into the horizon. But the google satellite image shows a very compact city that covers only a third of the area of NYC or Tokyo.


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## roe5745 (May 24, 2010)

Barcelona and Rome are both feel bigger than how they look on the map.


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## Jundiaiense da Silva (Aug 14, 2008)

Campinas (São Paulo state) isn't even mentioned on most of the maps, but its metro area has nearly 3 million inhabitants. Cities in Brazil are mostly very dense.


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## Humberto123 (Oct 1, 2005)

Caracas is in parts super dense...but overall footprint is relatively small for a city of 4.9 million.


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## oliver999 (Aug 4, 2006)

chinese cities may be smallest at the same population.shenzhen has 10 million population,but eara is small.


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

Athens a sea of 6-12 storey buildings to the horizon. Official population 3 million (unofficial anything up to 5 million)


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## Galro (Aug 9, 2010)

^^ Yeah, but Athens look huge too.


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

yes that's the point of the thread, it looks absolutely huge, much larger than its official population. This is mostly due to Athens' intense density, and the vast size of its hyper urban areas (read: much less suburbanised areas than in other cities) - it seems every Athenian lives in a highrise. In the 1990s some areas of the city were the 3rd most crowded in the world.


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## RafiKaS (Apr 11, 2013)

http://shortyy.net/r/i/h/BGGD


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## elliot (Dec 19, 2003)

I got confused and thought for a minute that Gold Coast was being compared to Monaco LOL.

I'm poor and hate the rich but my first drive from Italy to Monaco was "gasp" breath-taking..... astonishing, disgusting (I'm poor), unforgettable place.


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## AmoreUrbs (Mar 6, 2013)

Nolke said:


> I remember some statistics regarding the subject of the size of dwellings in Eurostat. They show (for core cities) that while the number of m2 of "habitat" per person is generally larger in the north (between 35 and 55), specially in nordic countries (more than 50), in the south it ranges between 30 and 40, so while there's a difference it isn't that significative. Former socialist Europe, however, seems to be another story as m2 per person are usually under 30 and often under 20m2 (and the number of persons per dwelling doesn't change much, so it's the commieblock's fault).


It's quite obvious that detached houses offer more space (and although not as popular as the north, America &c are spreading here as well), but the "comforts" are all there.. Sometimes what Italy and Spain lack as far as midrises in urban or suburban area are concerned, is good green spaces near the houses for everyone, in a playful and joyful innovative way.. As I said elsewhere, the Dutch planning on this has been quite good.. However, Italy doesn't lack also some suburbanities proper, and because of some lack of real planning on this (as they're not so popular), these houses are sometimes bigger than they should be (US way) as they're often sold for the rich(est) hno:.. I think Spain and Portugal are similar to that.. However here countryside houses are also very popular, especially as a 2nd house


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## Nolke (Oct 25, 2003)

AmoreUrbs said:


> Sometimes what Italy and Spain lack as far as midrises in urban or suburban area are concerned, is good green spaces near the houses for everyone, in a playful and joyful innovative way..


Absolutely. The combination of high quality mid-rises and green areas is very often found in Germany. They lack the ubiquity of commerce and services that you can find in Italy or Spain though; nothing is perfect.


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## AmoreUrbs (Mar 6, 2013)

Nolke said:


> Absolutely. The combination of high quality mid-rises and green areas is very often found in Germany. They lack the ubiquity of commerce and services that you can find in Italy or Spain though; nothing is perfect.


Yes, that's what every country should be heading for, a perfect combination of those things, as, despite all the problems of (semi-)urban spaces here, they offer almost everything one needs for everyday situations, without the overuse of cars.. As you said, nothing is perfect, but it could be improved


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## bozenBDJ (Jul 18, 2012)

^^^^^^^^^^^ :applause: :applause: :applause:


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## Kolony (Jan 20, 2012)

Wow! People, have you ever heard of Eastern Europe or Southern Asia? Those cities are small in size but HUGE in population.

i.e. 

Moscow, Russia. 
Has a land area of only 2,500 km.
Has nearly 12 million people.
Tianjin has a land area of 7,200 km.
Has only 3 million.


Mumbai, India. 
Has a land area of 603 km.
Has 12.5 million people.
Vancouver is around the same size. 
Has only 2.4 million.


Chennai, India. 
Has a land area of only 173 km.
Yet has only 4.5 million people.
My city (Edmonton)has a land area of 200 km.
But has only 900K.


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