Follow the city from its upper streets to its shaded working waterfront. One immense metropolis, with very different lives at each level.
The canyon metropolis
01 / CITY ATLAS
The canyon metropolis
One vast city spans both rims of an extraordinarily deep and narrow inhabited canyon.
The metropolis is physically connected across the canyon. Its upper districts are larger and more monumental, while crowded homes, workshops and markets occupy terraces descending toward the river.
Stone viaducts cross high overhead; smaller wooden bridges and walkways connect closely spaced buildings. Below, sunlight often arrives only by reflection, but ordinary life continues throughout the heights.
An immense metropolis beyond the canyon rims, with grand civic architecture and everyday neighborhoods.
Beyond the canyon, the Upper City stretches across generations of streets, homes, commercial districts and public spaces.
Its architecture is larger and more monumental than the Lower City. Entry from below is regulated through the main guarded route approached from Upper Heights.
A single guarded legal entrance separates the Lower City from the Upper City.
Residents travel between Lower City neighborhoods, but entry into the Upper City is controlled at the gate reached from Upper Heights.
Upper City citizenship permits residence above. Non-citizens require approved work authorization or special permission to enter and must follow the limits of that permission. Bridges joining the upper districts do not provide unrestricted entry from below.
