When we think of Paris, Rome, Madrid, Lisbon, Athens and other European capitals, we think of them as "cities". When we think of the whole of modern London, that great area covering several hundred square miles, we do not think of it as a "city", not even a city and its suburbs. Modern London is not one city that has steadily grown larger through the centuries: it is a number of cities, towns and villages that have, during the past centuries, grown together to make one vast urban area.               London today extends for nearly thirty miles from north to south and for nearly thirty miles from east to west. This is the area known as "Greater London", with a population of nine million. The "city of London" is a very small part of the whole. It is only one square mile in area, and the number of people who live and sleep in the "city" is only about ten thousand. Greater London is   _   the city of London.
several hundred times as large as fifty times as large as twice as large as as large as