Which spot on earth have the most human beings set foot?

Keep in mind, history is overrated with respect to this question. Throughout the whole middle ages the average World population was maybe 250 million - thus as many people were around from 500-1500 as there have been in the last 40 years. So that's why a city like New York with a large population and lots of visitors can have so many.

My first reaction was Mecca, because of the number of unique visitors. Otherwise it would be a current large city.

conficious wrote:

Hahahahahahhaah Times Square????

What are you on kiddo

I'm a little surprised at how little effort all of you are putting into backing up the words coming out of your keyboards. About 5 seconds on Google produces numbers like:

1,828,195: Number of pilgrims who performed the Hajj in 2011

39,000,000: Estimated average number of visitors to Times Square

Those 5 seconds made my post 10000000000 more valuable than yours, conficious.

this is just false, dinosaurs lived MILLIONS of years ago, yes on earth. you may be thinking of the existance of humans but the earth is much much older than 6000 years old

My initial thought was the Masjid al-Haram. Lots of visitors and the fact that all able bodied Muslims must travel to Mecca once in their lifetime. Currently there are 1.5billion Muslims in the world. So if everyone adheres 1.5billion unique people will go to Mecca. The Mosque has been around for 1400 years. Not as long as some other places and not as highly used like the Atlanta airport or Terminal 3 in Beijing like some others have posted. But it does have longevity and new set of unique visitors every generation. While the airports have a great flow of people they may not all be unique.It will still take some time for Atlanta or Beijing to catch up in terms of unique visitors.

Sailor Bob wrote:

I'll go with Sabarimala

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabarimala

40-50mm pilgrims/year for at least 200 years.

I need to learn more about this one.

India is so dense, highly populated with a very devoted religious culture. Hinduism is one of the oldest religions in the world. They could be a couple of hundred million up on the airports and other various temples, mosques, squares and churches in terms of unique visitors.

the Hajj is based on if you can afford, which most can't.

See the above post about vistors to mecca

Today's world population dwarfs anything the from the past.

Most populous cities today are also very old.

1

Shanghai, China

17,836,133

2011c

2

Karachi, Pakistan

12,991,000

2008p

3

Mumbai, India

12,478,447

2011c

4

Dhaka, Bangladesh

11,875,000

2011c

5

Beijing, China

11,716,000

2010c

6

Moscow, Russia

11,514,300

201

Read more: Most Populous Cities of the World — Infoplease.com

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762524.html#ixzz1loQ94HHf

Those populations are just for the city proper. It's probably more useful to look at the population of the entire urban area.

http://www.worldatlas.com/citypops.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_by_population

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_urban_areas_by_population

A couple of other cities that have not been mentioned:

Istanbul/Byzantium/Constantinople - alternately the capital of the Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, and Ottoman Empire. For thousands of years a crossroad between Europe and Asia, and today one of the larger cities in the world.

Paris - according some sites the most visited city in the world for international visitors (London is second). And the largest city on the continent for a long time.

Lindsay Lohan's bedroom?

asdfasdf wrote:

old coach man wrote:

Masjid al-Haram

Seconded

Thirded. It was built over 55,000 years ago.

"Masjid al-Haramwas was first built by the angels before the creation of mankind"

Tian'anmen Square. It's cheap to get to for most Chinese, and it's like their Mecca sort of (where Mao is buried). Plus a ton of foreigners go there.

Also, it's in front of the Forbidden city / palace which was built in 14-1500.

You Ass

The answer has less to do with the number of years the city has been around and more to do with traffic over the last 200 years (because the worlds population over the last 200 years is approximately equal 40% of the total population since 10,000 BC. And in early times people were more migratory and didn't live in large cities.

let me guess wrote:

The answer has less to do with the number of years the city has been around and more to do with traffic over the last 200 years (because the worlds population over the last 200 years is approximately equal 40% of the total population since 10,000 BC. And in early times people were more migratory and didn't live in large cities.

____

I am still going with a modern airport terminal, but the argument for Rome is solid - 600 years of a greater than a million population with a life expectancy of maybe 50 years adds up to a lot of unique individuals.

But a modern airport - a million people every four days...adds up fast. Not sure how to think about the unique repeats question per airports.

I think Mecca is wrong - it is a once a year migration - Atlanta airport would do a full Hajj every week or two.

I would say that the vast majority of travelors to most airports are repeat trips.

For many years I flew 50-100 times a year, but 90% of that was through the same 6-7 airports, including Atlanta. I always flew the same airline and often the same gate, so it was very routine - very similar to taking a subway. Since most air travel is biz travel it makes the unique visitors question difficult to estimate.

Probably an airport, particularly if we're talking about unique visitors. 90,000,000 people went through Atlanta Airport in 2010 alone.

I've only read a few posts, but my guess is around the Kaaba in Mecca. I'm sure others have pointed that out though.

I just read up on the Kaaba at Mecca. If when we say "spot" we mean one very specific spot, like one square foot, the spot you would stand on to kiss the Black Stone at the Kaaba could be it.

Somebody else said Space Mountain at Disney world. The idea of an amusement park ride's line is not bad, because essentially every single person who goes on the ride would step on a literal spot. Additionally, I bet Disney world gets a lot of international visitors. I always noticed how the wood hand rails that form the lines are worn so smooth from the millions of hands that have been dragged over them.

Mar26 wrote:

"the 1st Civilization peoples arrived from Kenya 20,000 years ago."

Wrong. The Earth is only 6,000 years old (give or take a few).

UR right:

The Age of the Earth has been a matter of interest to humans for millennia. The subject is still debated today, particularly between young-Earth scientists, who believe that the Earth is only approximately 6,000-10,000 years old, and Old Earth creationists and scientists who argue that Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old.[1] The scientific evidence points to a young age of the earth and the universe. The biblical creation organization Creation Ministries International published an article entitled 101 evidences for a young age of the earth and the universe, that provides much of the scientific evidence in support of a young Earth.

What about somewhere in the Rift Valley? People have been there for what, like 160,000 years?

Consider This wrote:

What about somewhere in the Rift Valley? People have been there for what, like 160,000 years?

Mitochnodrial Eve, the most recent matrilineal ancestor of all living humans, is believed to be even older than that.

Contrary to what has often been said on this forum, Y-chromosomal Adam, the most recent patrilineal ancestor of all living humans, is believed to have lived many tens of thousands of years later.

The whole thing is irrelevant, since such a high percentage of humans have lived recently.