Olynthos

**Laying out cities on a regular grid — and Olynthos is among its clearest surviving examples.** ✅ **The idea**: the scheme is credited to **Hippodamus of Miletus** in the 5th century BC, **and its essence is that the city is planned before it is built**: **parallel streets crossing at right angles** dividing the ground into **equal rectangular blocks**, **uniform house plots** within them, **and public spaces allotted in advance**. ⚠ **The opposite of a city grown organically** with winding lanes, like old Athens. ✅ **Why it was radical**: **the grid is a political idea as well** — **equal plots distributed to equal citizens**; the form expresses a conception of society, not only a geometry. ✅ **Why Olynthos is such a good example**: **its north hill was built in one go** around 432 BC to the grid, **and the city was then destroyed and abandoned less than a century later** — **so no later growth distorted it**. ✅ **What you see in practice**: you walk a straight street **and see the houses on either side at almost identical size**, **and see how each opens onto its courtyard** rather than onto the street.