What Makes Madrid And Riyadh So Different?
Towns and cities have traditionally been build on major waterways as they deliver such a broad array of utilities which are important for life as we humans enjoy it. They deliver clean water while they remove waste, they offer ease of transport, why build a road if there’s already a river you can float a boat on? Indeed, until relatively recently it was safer to travel by water, be that up and down river or by sea than it was to travel over land. Over land you’d need a road or track, a cart, some horses or oxen and somewhere safe to rest each night. You would have the threat of brigands and wild animals to contend with every step of your journey while those who took to the water would find themselves simply in need of a boat.
There are two exceptional capital cities which don’t lay on rivers, Madrid, which was deliberately located at the centre of Spain and Riyadh, because Saudi Arabia doesn’t have any rivers.
Rivers also provided the power that would initially drive the industrial revolution in Britain until the advent of steam but even when that came about barges would still be used to transport thousands of tonnes about the country until it was put aboard ships to be taken off throughout the rest of the Empire and beyond.
Because of the trade that the rivers brought the cities that lay upon them quickly became centres of education and culture and a fantastic way to see how cities were tied up with one another is to take one of many river cruises. As the river was the artery of traffic for centuries before the motorcar buildings were built facing the river rather than backing onto it as they do now meaning that a Rhine river cruise or a Nile river cruise will afford the most amazing views of classic, historic and culturally important buildings, gardens and parks that a similar tour by bus or on foot would only see the back of.
October 9, 2010
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Posted by Jam Man
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