A city is an area on which a quite important number of people are settled. The required size, in terms of population, for an area to benefit from the « city » status, varies from one country to an other. In France for instance, some US towns would be considered as being a « city » because their population exceeds 2000 inhabitants.

A city however has an administrative and legal status.
Flashback: a city is first a geographical zone, divided into more or less pertinent frontiers. Cities rose in the sky throughout history. Even before territories were cut in several administrative “lines”, cities were erected: be it that they were attracted by the profuse resources that came out from some natural sites or that they settled in block around a heir, men have almost always been living in cities. The first traces of cities date back the the birth of agriculture. We find here the main reasons that push men to settle in large communities: that of making the best “outputs” (or “yield” in this context) coming out of a place.

At first, all localities had the same characteristic features: a church, a school, a heir perhaps. With the population figures growing in some places, and with the necessity for a central government to distribute a part of its budget ( for education, housing, health, transportation...), cities and towns were strictly divided into 2 distinct entities.

Nowadays, almost every city benefits from its own legal and administrative powers. Some cities have the right to raise taxes and to handle the governmental money the way they desire. Smallest towns depend economically and “politically” on the city it is legally attached to.
Big cities have are industrialized areas, with transportation networks, and good communication services. The urban phenomenon intensifies for the early 20's century, an era of “rural depopulation”. Cities have employments and work opportunities. Little towns get dried. People run away from them, businesses switch out the lights...

Paris is the city of lights, Jerusalem the holy city, Beyrouth the city that never dies, Toulouse the pink city...