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It's a simile, that it's a simile is obvious, and you know that that's the case. No-one is reasonably going to expect that the Canaanites literally built an NYC. Don't be persnickety.

pretty obvious he was talking about the global relevancy of the restaurant and theater scene; not like he expected ancient subways!

Innovation relative to what had come before it is equally impressive. Gotta crawl before you walk, and its a marvel how babies somehow learn to do it.

You would at least need:

- A constant agrictultural surplus being able to support a city of this size.

- A political system with some form of taxation and probably a kind of military and/or police.

- A construction and manufacturing industry.

This is all really basic stuff for a modern society, but we only got here, because we built on giants.