The Need to Build on High

There’s a need among humans to occupy and build on the highest places around. These places act like magnets for anyone living around them. There are many reasons for this, but they all boil down to verticality. Occupying or building on a high place means you’ve done battle with gravity, and you’ve won.

Take the above illustration as an example. The buildings shown are perched atop the highest places on the landscape. Compared to buildings built down below, they were harder to build and harder to access. In order to reach them, you must climb up to them. They command vast views of the surrounding landscape, and are much more visible from the surrounding landscape. They are easier to defend. They have a higher status than buildings built down below. I love this illustration, because it encapsulates all of these facts together into a single landscape.

Illustration originally appeared in Walsh, Robert. Constantinople: and the scenery of the seven churches of Asia Minor. London: Fisher, Son, & Co., 1838.

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