8 Cities Once Among the Richest in the World—Then Declined

Today, the world’s richest cities are usually associated with finance, technology, real estate and multinational corporations.

Go back several centuries and the map looks completely different.

A mountain full of silver could create one of the world’s largest cities almost overnight. A port located at the right point between two oceans could become fabulously wealthy. A caravan stop in the desert could collect fortunes simply because merchants had no practical alternative route.

Then circumstances changed.

Mines became harder to exploit.

Harbors filled with sediment.

Empires collapsed.

Armies invaded.

Ships found new routes.

Trade moved somewhere else.

Some once-rich cities adapted and survived as important modern cities. Others became provincial towns. A few were abandoned almost completely.

Calling them cities that “lost everything” is deliberately dramatic. Venice and Bruges, for example, remain successful cities today. What they lost was something more specific: the extraordinary relative economic dominance they had once enjoyed.

It is also impossible to produce an exact ranking of the world’s wealthiest medieval or ancient cities. Modern GDP statistics did not exist.

Instead, historians rely on evidence including population, trade networks, coinage, taxation, luxury consumption, monumental architecture and contemporary accounts.

Using that evidence, these eight once-rich cities stand out as extraordinary examples of how rapidly economic geography can change.

Once-Rich Cities at a Glance

What connects these once-rich cities is not one particular civilization or economic system.

It is their dependence on location, resources and networks.

When the network changed, the city changed with it.

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1. Potosí — The Silver City That Helped Finance an Empire

Few examples are as dramatic as Potosí in present-day Bolivia.

Before 1545, the settlement was insignificant.

Then enormous silver deposits were exploited at Cerro Rico, the mountain towering over the city.

The transformation was extraordinary.

UNESCO describes Potosí as having become the world’s largest industrial complex in the 16th century. Silver from Cerro Rico flowed through an elaborate system of mines, reservoirs, hydraulic mills and refining operations before being minted and exported through the Spanish imperial economy. UNESCO World Heritage Centre

By the 17th century, UNESCO records about 160,000 colonial inhabitants, alongside thousands of Indigenous workers subjected to the forced-labor mita system. UNESCO World Heritage Centre

That made Potosí comparable in population with some of Europe’s greatest cities.

Its name became synonymous with wealth.

The Spanish expression vale un Potosí—“worth a Potosí”—came to mean something extraordinarily valuable.

Where Did All That Silver Go?

Much of it did not stay with ordinary residents.

Silver enriched mine owners, merchants, the Spanish Crown and international trading networks.

It also came at an enormous human cost.

Indigenous and other laborers faced brutal mining conditions, mercury exposure and forced work.

So Potosí demonstrates an important distinction:

A city can produce extraordinary wealth without distributing that wealth equally.

Why Did Potosí Decline?

The richest and easiest silver veins became progressively less productive.

A World Bank historical account notes that Potosí’s population, after reaching around 160,000, fell dramatically as the silver economy weakened; by the era of Bolivian independence the city had shrunk enormously. World Bank

Political upheaval, mining difficulties and changing technology compounded the problem.

Potosí did not disappear. Mining continues in the region.

But it lost the position that had made it one of history’s most astonishing once-rich cities.

Its story demonstrates the danger of a city depending overwhelmingly on one natural resource.

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2. Timbuktu — Where Gold, Salt and Knowledge Met

The name Timbuktu eventually became a Western expression for somewhere unimaginably remote.

That obscures what Timbuktu once was.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, the city occupied an important position between the Sahara and the wealthy states of West Africa.

Caravans brought salt from the north.

Gold moved through regional trading networks from areas farther south.

Cattle and grain changed hands.

Books and manuscripts became valuable commodities.

UNESCO describes Timbuktu during its golden age as a major commercial and intellectual center, with the Sankore learning complex, roughly 180 Koranic schools and 25,000 students. UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Its population may have reached roughly 100,000 during the 16th century. UNESCO World Heritage Centre

That was enormous for the era.

Timbuktu’s Wealth Was More Than Gold

Books themselves represented wealth.

Scholars copied, sold and collected manuscripts dealing with:

religion,

law,

mathematics,

astronomy,

medicine,

history,

and literature.

This transformed Timbuktu into both an economic market and an intellectual one.

The city therefore deserves its place among once-rich cities not simply because merchants handled gold.

Knowledge was part of its economy.

Why Did Timbuktu Decline?

The Songhai Empire collapsed following the Moroccan invasion of 1591.

Political stability weakened.

Trans-Saharan commerce also faced growing competition as European-controlled Atlantic maritime trade expanded.

Cities prosper when they sit on important routes.

They suffer when commerce discovers a cheaper or safer way around them.

Timbuktu survived.

Its mosques and manuscript traditions remain globally important.

But the age in which caravans made it one of Africa’s richest commercial centers was over.

The rise and decline of trading centers also appears throughout The News Ink’s Historical Travel guide, where ancient routes and surviving historical destinations show how geography shaped wealth.

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3. Venice — The Merchant Republic That Dominated Mediterranean Trade

Venice is obviously not a ruined or impoverished city today.

Millions of travelers know it as one of the world’s great cultural destinations.

But modern tourism can hide just how economically dominant medieval and Renaissance Venice once was.

The Republic of Venice built a commercial empire connecting Europe with the eastern Mediterranean and, indirectly, markets much farther east.

Venetian merchants traded:

spices,

silks,

cotton,

metals,

glass,

soap,

luxury textiles,

and numerous other goods.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes Venice as one of medieval and Renaissance Europe’s great trading powers and a major economic force by the late 12th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Venetian merchants obtained valuable trading privileges in Byzantine territories, while the Venetian gold ducat became widely recognized across international commerce. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Why Was Venice So Rich?

Location.

Ships sailing between European and eastern Mediterranean markets needed ports, merchants, credit and distribution networks.

Venice became an extraordinarily efficient intermediary.

Merchants imported valuable goods and redistributed them throughout Europe.

The republic also built naval power to protect commercial interests.

Money supported spectacular architecture.

Commerce financed art.

The city’s palaces became physical evidence of merchant fortunes.

Venice became one of the archetypal once-rich cities whose political influence followed economic power.

What Changed?

European trade increasingly shifted toward the Atlantic.

Portuguese explorers opened maritime routes around Africa toward Asian markets.

Dutch and English commercial powers expanded.

The Ottoman Empire altered the geopolitical environment of the eastern Mediterranean.

Venice did not suddenly collapse.

Its mercantile dominance gradually eroded as other states developed far-reaching commercial networks. The Met notes that Venetian mercantile power declined as rival states established new trade routes. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Venice eventually lost its independence to Napoleon in 1797.

The buildings survived.

The artistic wealth survived.

The city survived.

But the economic system that had once made Venice one of Europe’s commercial superpowers did not.

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4. Bruges — Europe’s Commercial Capital Before Antwerp Took Over

Modern Bruges looks almost designed for postcards.

Canals.

Medieval buildings.

Market squares.

Church towers.

Tourists.

In the Middle Ages, however, Bruges was not merely beautiful.

It was an economic machine.

Its access to the North Sea and position within the prosperous County of Flanders made it an international trading center.

Italian merchants established operations there.

Foreign traders followed.

The Flemish cloth industry generated enormous commercial activity.

Financial institutions developed around the merchant community.

Official city history notes that Bruges became one of Northwest Europe’s most important trading centers in the 14th century and enjoyed extraordinary prosperity under the Burgundian court during the 15th. The city reached around 60,000 inhabitants, making it one of Europe’s largest cities. Visit Bruges

It was unquestionably one of Europe’s great once-rich cities.

Then Geography Turned Against It

Bruges depended on its connection with the sea.

That connection progressively became less reliable as waterways silted.

But environmental change was only part of the story.

After the death of Mary of Burgundy in 1482, political conflict intensified.

The Burgundian court moved away.

Merchants followed.

Antwerp emerged as the new commercial powerhouse of the Low Countries.

Bruges’ own historical account states that trade shifted toward Antwerp while its sea connection increasingly silted. Visit Bruges

By around Belgian independence in 1830, Bruges was greatly impoverished, and the Industrial Revolution had largely bypassed it. Visit Bruges

The Irony of Bruges’ Decline

Its economic stagnation helped preserve much of its medieval urban fabric.

The city that failed to industrialize rapidly therefore retained architecture that later became enormously valuable for cultural tourism.

Bruges eventually found a new economic identity.

Its medieval decline became part of its modern attraction.

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5. Kilwa Kisiwani — The Swahili Port That Controlled a Gold Route

On an island off today’s Tanzanian coast sit the ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani.

They are evidence of a sophisticated and enormously wealthy Indian Ocean trading network that connected Africa with Arabia, Persia, India and China.

Between the 13th and 15th centuries, Kilwa reached extraordinary prosperity.

Gold and ivory from the African interior moved outward.

Imported silver, ceramics, textiles, perfumes and luxury objects moved inward.

UNESCO says Kilwa’s prosperity was based on control of Indian Ocean commerce and notes that the city minted its own currency between the 11th and 14th centuries. UNESCO World Heritage Centre

The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes Kilwa and nearby Songo Mnara as two of coastal East Africa’s wealthiest and most densely populated port cities by the time Portuguese ships reached the region. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The City Connected African Gold to Global Markets

Kilwa was important partly because it linked inland economic systems with maritime trade.

Gold associated with regions near Great Zimbabwe could reach the coast.

From there, merchants connected African commodities with the Indian Ocean world.

This made Kilwa a strategic intermediary.

Just like Venice.

Just like Timbuktu.

Just like Bruges.

Again, location created wealth.

Why Did Kilwa Decline?

Portuguese expansion disrupted the existing commercial system.

Portugal wanted greater control over Indian Ocean commerce.

The Portuguese established a fort at Kilwa during the 16th century, after which UNESCO dates the beginning of the city’s decline. UNESCO World Heritage Centre

The Met describes Portuguese pressure, tariffs and attempts to control regional gold and ivory networks as contributors to the economic collapse of Kilwa and related trading centers. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Kilwa remained inhabited and later participated in other trading networks.

But the medieval commercial system that had made it one of East Africa’s great once-rich cities never returned in the same form.

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6. Palmyra — The Desert City That Became Rich by Connecting Empires

Building a rich metropolis in the Syrian desert might seem improbable.

Palmyra proved otherwise.

Its location placed it near routes connecting the Roman world with commercial networks extending toward Persia, India and China.

Caravans carrying valuable goods crossed vast distances.

Those merchants needed:

water,

protection,

markets,

storage,

animals,

accommodation,

and intermediaries.

Palmyra provided them.

UNESCO describes the city as a wealthy caravan oasis and an important trade center positioned between major civilizations. UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Trade generated tax revenue.

Tax revenue generated monumental architecture.

The remains of Palmyra’s great colonnaded streets, temples and public structures reveal how much wealth passed through the desert city.

Palmyra Did Not Produce the Luxury Goods—It Controlled Their Movement

This is a recurring economic lesson.

Some of history’s richest cities became rich without producing the commodities themselves.

They controlled the network.

Modern equivalents might be global financial or logistics centers.

Palmyra’s merchants benefited because valuable east-west trade passed through a location they could serve and tax.

War Changed Everything

During the third century, Queen Zenobia’s Palmyrene kingdom challenged Roman power.

Roman Emperor Aurelian defeated Palmyra.

The city suffered destruction.

At the same time, the broader commercial environment changed.

UNESCO material notes that political instability and shifting caravan routes contributed to Palmyra’s decline from a wealthy commercial center into a far less important settlement. UNESCO

Its monuments survived long after its business model disappeared.

Palmyra is one of the clearest examples of once-rich cities whose wealth depended on being positioned between stronger powers.

When those powers went to war, the intermediary paid the price.

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7. Ani — The Silk Road Metropolis That Became an Abandoned City

Today, Ani is famous for ruins scattered across a plateau near the modern Türkiye-Armenia border.

A thousand years ago, the experience was dramatically different.

During the 10th and 11th centuries, Ani became capital of the medieval Armenian Bagratid kingdom.

Its position near important Silk Road branches made it a major commercial center.

UNESCO says Ani prospered from controlling one branch of the Silk Roads and later remained a major caravan crossroads connecting Byzantium, Persia, Syria and Central Asia. UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Merchants passed through.

Artisans worked there.

Religious institutions multiplied.

The city’s wealth financed sophisticated architecture.

Why Did Ani Collapse?

Ani suffered repeated political shocks.

Power changed between Armenian, Byzantine, Seljuk and Georgian rulers.

The Mongol invasions added further disruption.

Then came a devastating 1319 earthquake.

At the same time, trading patterns were changing.

UNESCO identifies the Mongol invasion, the earthquake and changing trade routes as major contributors to the city’s decline. By the 18th century Ani was essentially abandoned. UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Ani demonstrates how multiple pressures can reinforce one another.

War alone might be survivable.

An earthquake alone might be survivable.

A change in trade alone might be survivable.

Combine them and an economic center can become unsustainable.

Today its ruins provide an extraordinary record of medieval urban life.

The News Ink’s guide to ancient wonders you can still visit today explores the same broader phenomenon: places whose political power vanished while their architecture remained.

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8. Great Zimbabwe — Gold, Trade and a Capital That Was Eventually Abandoned

Great Zimbabwe was not a European-style medieval city.

It was the political and economic center of a major southern African state.

Its monumental stone architecture remains among Africa’s most important archaeological sites.

At its height, Great Zimbabwe controlled a region associated with cattle, agriculture, gold production and long-distance commerce.

UNESCO says the city was the principal center of a major state over the gold-rich Zimbabwe plateau during the 14th century. UNESCO World Heritage Centre

The Metropolitan Museum of Art estimates that Great Zimbabwe may have housed around 20,000 people at its peak, with economic activity involving agriculture, livestock, metalworking and the international trade of gold and ivory. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Archaeologists have discovered imported:

Chinese ceramics,

Persian goods,

glass beads,

and coins linked to Kilwa.

Those finds reveal how far the city’s commercial relationships extended.

Why Was Great Zimbabwe Abandoned?

There is still scholarly debate over the full combination of causes.

UNESCO points to pressure on the surrounding environment, including difficulty supplying food to a large population and deforestation, with abandonment occurring around the middle of the 15th century. UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Political and commercial power increasingly shifted toward other regional centers, including Khami.

The Met likewise describes Great Zimbabwe’s influence declining during the late 15th century as Khami became more powerful. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Great Zimbabwe therefore illustrates something the other once-rich cities do not as clearly:

Economic success itself can place pressure on the environment supporting a city.

A population and political center can grow beyond what its local ecological base can comfortably sustain.

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What Actually Makes a Rich City Collapse?

The eight stories look different, but their declines repeatedly involve the same mechanisms.

Trade Routes Move

This may be the single most important explanation.

Venice benefited when Mediterranean commerce dominated.

Bruges prospered because merchants could reach it through waterways.

Timbuktu thrived along trans-Saharan trade.

Palmyra served caravans crossing between empires.

Kilwa controlled an important part of Indian Ocean commerce.

Ani profited from Silk Road traffic.

Then routes moved.

A city does not have to become worse.

The world simply discovers a better way around it.

Natural Resources Run Out

Potosí’s extraordinary growth depended heavily on silver.

As exceptionally rich deposits became harder to exploit, the economy weakened.

This is the classic danger of a resource-dependent boomtown.

Modern economies sometimes call the problem the resource curse when enormous natural wealth creates dependence rather than a diversified economy.

War Destroys Commercial Confidence

Trade requires trust and security.

Merchants do not want caravans, ships or warehouses destroyed.

Palmyra suffered when imperial conflict engulfed it.

Ani endured successive invasions.

Timbuktu’s political order changed dramatically following Moroccan conquest.

War does not merely destroy buildings.

It changes the calculations of merchants.

If another route is safer, capital moves.

Geography Changes

Bruges is the classic example.

Its maritime access progressively deteriorated.

Infrastructure can sometimes overcome geographical problems, but only when the economic incentive remains strong enough.

New Competitors Appear

Bruges lost business to Antwerp.

Venice faced new Atlantic commercial powers.

Great Zimbabwe’s regional influence eventually shifted toward other political centers.

Cities compete just as companies do.

Today’s dominant hub can become tomorrow’s secondary market.

Environmental Pressure Builds

Great Zimbabwe demonstrates how population growth and ecological stress can contribute to urban decline.

History contains many examples in which water availability, soil productivity, deforestation or climate pressures interact with political problems.

Usually there is no single cause.

Collapse tends to be cumulative.

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The World’s Richest City Is Never Guaranteed to Stay Rich

One of the biggest lessons from once-rich cities is that economic dominance often looks permanent only while it is happening.

Imagine living in 15th-century Bruges.

International merchants filled the city.

Luxury goods were everywhere.

The Burgundian court spent fortunes.

It would have been easy to assume Bruges would remain a global commercial capital indefinitely.

A century later, Antwerp had taken much of that role.

Imagine a wealthy merchant in medieval Venice.

The Mediterranean seemed like the center of international trade.

Then sailors opened direct maritime routes toward Asian markets around Africa and Atlantic powers expanded.

Imagine investing everything in Potosí while Cerro Rico seemed to contain endless silver.

The mountain eventually became far less productive.

Economic geography never stops changing.

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Did These Cities Really “Lose Everything”?

No—and this distinction is important.

The phrase works as a headline, but history is more nuanced.

Venice

Lost its commercial empire but remains an internationally famous and economically active city.

Bruges

Declined severely but later reinvented itself partly through culture and tourism.

Potosí

Lost its extraordinary global dominance but remains a functioning Bolivian city and mining center.

Timbuktu

Lost much of its historical commercial importance but remains culturally and historically significant.

Kilwa

Lost medieval trading dominance; archaeological remains preserve evidence of its former prosperity.

Palmyra

Lost its position as a major international trading city and survives primarily through archaeological remains and nearby settlement.

Ani

Came closest to genuine urban disappearance and was largely abandoned.

Great Zimbabwe

Ceased functioning as its former capital but survives as an archaeological landscape and national symbol.

So once-rich cities rarely move directly from “richest city on Earth” to literally having nothing.

They lose networks.

Population declines.

Political importance moves.

Economic activity shifts elsewhere.

The city either reinvents itself—or becomes a monument to a former economic system.

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Which City Had the Most Dramatic Decline?

Potosí has one of the most dramatic numerical cases.

Its population reached roughly 160,000 during its silver-boom era, making it among the largest cities in the Americas.

Historical World Bank material records a collapse to only around 8,000 people by the early 19th century as mining declined and political conditions changed. World Bank

Ani provides perhaps the most dramatic physical transformation.

A wealthy medieval capital and commercial crossroads eventually became essentially abandoned.

Bruges experienced one of the most striking reversals among European commercial cities but later recovered through a different economic model.

There is therefore no objective single “winner.”

The cities declined in different ways.

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Why Some Declining Cities Recover and Others Do Not

Decline does not automatically mean death.

Successful cities can reinvent themselves.

Venice Became a Cultural Powerhouse

The commercial empire declined, but Venice’s architecture, art and history generated new forms of international value.

Bruges Turned Preservation Into an Asset

The lack of heavy industrial transformation helped preserve an unusually intact historic center.

Today that heritage attracts visitors from across the world.

Others Lost the Population Base Entirely

Ani’s repeated political and physical shocks eventually destroyed the conditions necessary for urban continuity.

Cities therefore need replacement industries when their original economic purpose disappears.

A mining town needs something after the mine closes.

A port needs another role if ships move elsewhere.

A trading center needs new businesses when trade routes bypass it.

Those lessons remain relevant to modern cities.

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Could Today’s Richest Cities Suffer the Same Fate?

Absolutely.

The mechanisms would look different, but the principle is unchanged.

Modern global cities depend on combinations of:

finance,

technology,

transport,

political stability,

talent,

infrastructure,

energy,

housing,

and international connectivity.

A city that becomes too expensive, politically unstable or technologically obsolete can lose companies and workers to competitors.

Climate risks can change where people invest.

Shipping patterns can move.

Financial regulations can redirect capital.

Remote work can weaken the value of traditional business districts.

New technologies can destroy industries that once supported entire regions.

History does not guarantee New York, London, Singapore, Dubai, San Francisco or any other major economic center permanent dominance.

That does not mean they are about to collapse.

It means urban wealth is always conditional.

The same was true for every city in this article.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are some cities that were once among the richest in the world?

Notable once-rich cities include Potosí, Timbuktu, Venice, Bruges, Kilwa Kisiwani, Palmyra, Ani and Great Zimbabwe. Each accumulated exceptional wealth through mining, trade or political control before losing much of its former economic importance.

Was Potosí really one of the richest cities in the world?

Potosí became one of the largest industrial and mining centers of the 16th and 17th centuries because of Cerro Rico’s enormous silver deposits. UNESCO describes the complex as the world’s largest industrial center of its era. UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Why did Timbuktu become rich?

Its location connected trans-Saharan commerce with West African markets. Gold, salt, food and manuscripts were traded there, while the city also became an important center of Islamic scholarship. UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Why did Venice lose its economic dominance?

Venice faced growing competition as European commercial power shifted toward Atlantic trade and other states developed direct long-distance shipping networks. Political changes in the Mediterranean also weakened its old commercial advantages. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Why did Bruges decline?

Political upheaval after 1482, the movement of merchants and the Burgundian court, competition from Antwerp and the silting of its connection to the sea all contributed. Visit Bruges

What happened to Ani?

Ani suffered invasions, political changes, a destructive earthquake in 1319 and shifting trade routes. Its decline continued until the city was essentially abandoned. UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Why was Kilwa so wealthy?

Kilwa controlled an important portion of Indian Ocean commerce linking African gold and ivory networks with merchants from Arabia, Persia, India and beyond. It even minted its own currency. UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Why was Great Zimbabwe abandoned?

UNESCO associates its decline with environmental pressure, including difficulty supplying its large population and deforestation, alongside a wider shift of political and economic power toward other centers. UNESCO World Heritage Centre

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Wealth Does Not Belong to a City Forever

The most striking thing about these once-rich cities is how powerful they looked at their peaks.

Potosí possessed a mountain whose silver influenced the global monetary system.

Timbuktu connected gold, salt and scholarship across the Sahara.

Venice commanded merchant fleets and commercial networks across the Mediterranean.

Bruges attracted bankers, luxury producers and traders from across Europe.

Kilwa connected African gold with Indian Ocean commerce.

Palmyra became rich because merchants crossing between empires needed it.

Ani stood on routes linking some of medieval Eurasia’s most important markets.

Great Zimbabwe commanded a wealthy southern African state connected indirectly to international trade.

None of those advantages was permanent.

A resource can decline.

A harbor can silt.

An empire can fall.

A competitor can rise.

A trade route can move.

An earthquake can destroy infrastructure.

An army can make merchants look elsewhere.

That is the recurring lesson behind once-rich cities.

Cities rarely become rich simply because of buildings.

They become rich because people, goods, capital and information flow through them.

When those flows change, economic power can move surprisingly quickly.

Sometimes the old metropolis reinvents itself.

Sometimes it becomes a smaller regional city.

And sometimes only ruins remain.

That is why the abandoned palaces of Ani, the silver mountain above Potosí and the coral-stone ruins of Kilwa matter today.

They are not merely remains of old civilizations.

They are evidence that even the world’s greatest concentrations of wealth can be temporary.

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