Why are cities often built in valleys instead of on mountains?

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Why are cities often built in valleys instead of on mountains?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

More abundance of things needed to survive. Easier to farm, typically close to a significant source of water, more shelter from wind and inclement weather, easier transportation options (road, rails and now air), easier to build in flatter ground. To name a few things

Anonymous 0 Comments

Water plays a major role. Valleys may have surface water like rivers and streams, and are much more likely to have underground aquifers.

Anonymous 0 Comments

There are a number of reasons. Not all of these apply to every city.

– Transport: Before railroads, most things were transported by water. Being on a river could make getting your crop to market a lot easier.

– Water: Water for drinking and water for crops is usually a lot easier to get at the bottom of a valley than at the top of a mountain.

– Better soil: Rivers and streams often leave behind areas of rich soil for growing crops.

– Flatter ground: Areas that have flooded in that past can often be relatively flat due to the buildup of material left after the floods. It’s easier to build on flat ground.

– More pleasant climate: If in a hot dry region, it can bee cooler with trees for shade in the valleys. If in a region that gets cold and snowy, the mountains are likely to be colder, snowier, and windier than the valleys.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Cities need to be built and stay connected. It is harder and more expensive to build the more uneven the terrain is. And cities benefits from having rivers nearby because transportation on ships is (or at least used to be, nor sure if trains aren’t better now) the cheapest and easiest way of transporting large amounts of cargo. Rivers in the mountains are useless for ships

Anonymous 0 Comments

Valleys are where water runs. You need water for drinking, cooking, washing, irrigation, watering animals, fishing, and transportation. Water runs away from mountains and into valleys.

Valleys are where roads run. No one wants to climbs a mountain to get to your village. The easy route that the water takes is the easy route that the roads take. Roads run around mountains, not over them.

Valleys are where soil collects. Soil erodes from the mountains into the valleys, and from upstream to downstream. You need good soil for growing crops.

Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s a lot easier to transport materials to a valley. Gravity helps you transport trees from the hills and mountains to the valley floor.

That’s generally where rivers flow, & ground water is usually plentiful and shallow compared to the surrounding mountains.

Mountain peaks tend to be really windy. Not good for farming or building homes without a ton of insulation.