The Urban Sea

The Mediterranean is an urban sea. Some of the world's most famous cities are clustered in this remarkably compact area. They have extraordinary stories to tell.

From the earliest stirrings of civilization in the region to the Arab Spring these coastal cities have been on the frontline of change. Little has passed them by. Their histories are often measured in millennia, yet they remain highly topical in the modern world. The Mediterranean is at one the world's most important cultural crossroads, a rich source of progress in many ways but also notoriously volatile. It is a part of the world where change itself is a by-word.

In this modern odyssey, the reader is invited to trace the shoreline of the Mediterranean from its meeting with the Atlantic in the west to the Levant in the east; from the lands of southern Europe across the sea to the deserts of North Africa.

The book will appeal to visitors and others who want to know more about the region. There is a market amongst the millions who live there, and also the English-speaking diaspora in North America and the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Students of the Mediterranean and related studies will welcome the text to set their subjects in context, while tourism managers and urban development corporations promoting their various cities will find much that is relevant to their work.

It is authoritative but easy to read, and is illustrated with more than 160 specially commissioned photos.

Dennis Hardy is Emeritus Professor of Urban Planning at Middlesex University UK. His earlier books include subjects ranging from utopian communities to the makeshift landscapes of self-build housing, from garden city history to the iconic township of Poundbury in southern England and, most recently, a new town in South Australia.