5th c.

, Hippodamus of Miletus
Roman Grids:
Large, square blocks
Standardized fort plan

The first planned Greek city was

probably Miletus, built after 479 BC.
Its gridded design has been credited
to Hippodamus (although this is
probably apocryphal), a Greek
intellectual associated with the
Pythagoreans. The grid plan was
often used by Roman city planners,
based originally on its use in military
camps known
as castra (singular: castrum). One of
the best-preserved can be found in
the ruins of Timgad in present-day
Algeria. The Roman castrum is
characterized by a precisely
orthogonal grid, traversed by two
axial streets called the cardo and
the decumanus that cross at right
angles at the center.

16-10-2019 PROF.PAVANIKA A PATIL 27