# Anhk-Morpork, what cities is it based on? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 9, 2007, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anhk-morpork-what-cities-is-it-based-on/411043 "2007-07-09T14:05:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anhk-morpork-what-cities-is-it-based-on/411043/41 "2007-07-11T19:07:08Z")
Bristol gives out Reds, the university of London gives out Purples, and of course my Alma Mater gives out Pinks,(but they’re much harder to get). Wiki is quite [helpful](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Sporting_Blue). As a child I never understood why my dad was so fond of his stupid pink scarf (which is now more of a sort of Guinness colour). ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anhk-morpork-what-cities-is-it-based-on/411043/42 "2007-07-12T01:16:59Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] Trolls are not Balrogs, but they were _playing_ Balrogs for the film. That’s why they had fake wings on. Therefore, ipso facto, Balrogs have wings, at least on the Disc. [/QUOTE] Or at least pretend ones do, since we have no indication that they actually exist in PTerry’s world except in the movies. For some reason I mixed up the trolls and the parts they were playing. My bad. > [@Malacandra](#): > > At Oxford or Cambridge, if you represent your university at a certain sport you may be awarded a “Blue”. And now I get that joke. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anhk-morpork-what-cities-is-it-based-on/411043/43 "2007-07-12T04:05:17Z")
Pratchett mentions the cleanliness of the river’s water in one of his books, and says, “it should be clean, considering all the kidneys it has passed through.” ---
**Author:** ![Sri\_Theo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Sri\_Theo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sri_Theo)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anhk-morpork-what-cities-is-it-based-on/411043/44 "2007-07-12T12:57:40Z")
I always thought it was pretty much a London thing- especially with regards to Nightwatch; There’s the battle of Cable Street which actually happened just before WWII, something to do with Oswald Mosley and his facist supporters being beaten up by local residents when they were trying to have a march (I don’t think it was quite as the mythology puts it though). Vimes mentions police officers being called ‘Sammies’ = ‘Bobbies’ nicknamed after the founder of the first London police force, Sir Robert Peel. Vimes great grandfather (I think) - the one who killed the king, has always carried shades of Oliver Cromwell to me, he tried to create a future without monarchy- but it just ended up not working. Theres also a lot of other stuff that I can’t remember off the top of my head- someone needs to re-start the discworld reading club so we can discuss this stuff, especially Nightwatch which is my favourite book of the series. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anhk-morpork-what-cities-is-it-based-on/411043/45 "2007-07-21T16:24:48Z")
[QUOTE=Sri Theo] I always thought it was pretty much a London thing- especially with regards to Nightwatch; Vimes great grandfather (I think) - the one who killed the king, has always carried shades of Oliver Cromwell to me, he tried to create a future without monarchy- but it just ended up not working. . [/QUOTE] I think the same ref.Vimes I also think Carrot is based on King Arthur (before he was famous) and the Patrician is definitley Machievelli. The Night Watch (now the painting has been cleaned it turns out it was the Day Watch all along in round world)was Dutch and I go with the poster who saw a similarity between the twin cities of Bude and Pesht(Budapest)and Ankh Morpork. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anhk-morpork-what-cities-is-it-based-on/411043/46 "2007-07-21T16:54:35Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] I think the same ref.Vimes I also think Carrot is based on King Arthur (before he was famous) and the Patrician is definitley Machievelli. [/quote] No – [Machiavelli,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiavelli) in his personal political career, was a failure. After he was purged from the government of Florence, he wrote _The Prince_ – which historians believe was intended at least in part as a book-length resume to get him a job advising some prince, preferably Machiavelli’s idol, Cesar Borgia. But it never did get him a job. Vetinari is not Machiavelli, he is Machiavelli’s **ideal** of a prince. (Except that Vetinari never seems to do some things Machiavelli regarded as essential to a complete prince, such as hunting, or leading troops in battle.) ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anhk-morpork-what-cities-is-it-based-on/411043/47 "2007-07-21T16:57:23Z")
[QUOTE=Telperien] Slow down! I’ve only read two, and since I seem to be the only person (besides you) who hasn’t read them all by now, I need some company. [/QUOTE] I haven’t read them all either, but I think I’m about 50-60% through them. Get thee to a public library and read more! (No, seriously; every public library system I’ve been a member of has at least a handful of Pratchett books hiding and constantly checked out. Hold requests are your friend.) Ankh-Morpork is obviously based on a number of different cities, London, New York, and others included as details are added. Little snippets of reality from different time periods for each, though, and as Terry Pratchett has gone along in the novels, his original description of A-M being walkable in about thirty minutes’ time has been stretched to a near impossibility. (Well, I guess you _could_ do it if you had enormous legs, walked quickly, and everything was squished together so that only rail-thin people could exist in A-M… but that’s unlikely.) I don’t really qualify A-M in terms of the cities that inspired its creation and description, but generally think of it as a representation of a lot of “great Western cosmopolitan cities” from different areas and time periods all rolled together. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anhk-morpork-what-cities-is-it-based-on/411043/48 "2007-07-21T19:33:59Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] No – [Machiavelli,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiavelli) in his personal political career, was a failure. After he was purged from the government of Florence, he wrote _The Prince_ – which historians believe was intended at least in part as a book-length resume to get him a job advising some prince, preferably Machiavelli’s idol, Cesar Borgia. But it never did get him a job. Vetinari is not Machiavelli, he is Machiavelli’s **ideal** of a prince. (Except that Vetinari never seems to do some things Machiavelli regarded as essential to a complete prince, such as hunting, or leading troops in battle.) [/QUOTE] Whoops ,I’ll just get my brain into gear ,I actually meant Cesare Borgia but obviously the Patrician is not quite so overtly violent as he was. My only weak defence apart from being brain dead is that Cesare was Machievellian in character. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anhk-morpork-what-cities-is-it-based-on/411043.md?page=2)