Ever since our Homosapien ancestors decided to stop living the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, we have organized ourselves into cities. But while modern meccas like New York, London and Tokyo dominate world markets today, they weren't always the most powerful cities of their time.

Cities like Athens, Rome, and Istanbul were around for hundreds of years before any superpower decided to sail across the Atlantic Ocean, and the powerhouses of ancient civilizations like Hattusa, Persepolis, Babylon, Ur, and Palmyra are either extinct or a shell of their former selves. 

In short, while we'd like to think that the cities will live in today will last forever, history tells us they certainly won't. So, we might as well appreciate them before they too fade into history dust. Here are renderings of 24 powerful ancient cities, and what they look like today.