Seven hills of Seattle

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The term seven hills of Seattle refers unofficially to the hills the U.S. city was built on and around, though there is no consensus on exactly which hills it refers to. [1] [2] [3] The term has been used to refer to several other cities, most notably Rome and Constantinople.

Contents

The seven hills

Walt Crowley considered the main candidates for the seven hills to be: [3]

The hills above were associated with seven boulders in the City of Seattle's Seven Hills Park. [7] [8]

Other hills people sometimes consider among the "seven hills of Seattle" include:

Geology

Seattle's topography is due largely to Pleistocene ice age glaciation. Nearly all of the city's seven hills are characterized as drumlins (Beacon Hill, First Hill, Capitol Hill, Queen Anne Hill, Mount Baker) or drift uplands (Magnolia, West Seattle). [11] [12]

"Seven Hills of Seattle" annual walk

The Seattle-Bergen Sister City Association (Sister Cities International) sponsors an annual "Seven Hills of Seattle" walk. [13] [14] [15] Seattle's sister city, Bergen, Norway, is known as the City of Seven Mountains. [16]

See also

Notes

  1. City of Seattle 2011 press release: "Seating walls on the plaza highlight the seven hills of Seattle and orient the viewer to the highest points of our city."
  2. Nelson 1990: "We can only imagine how Chief Sealth would view his Duwamish homeland today-the seven hills of Seattle bulldozed to fill tidelands where his people once gathered food..."
  3. 1 2 Crowley 2003
  4. Sophie Frye Bass, When Seattle Was a Village, 1947
  5. also noted as one of the seven hills by Williams 1989
  6. also noted as one of the seven hills by Johnston 2008
  7. Seattle Parks and Recreation, 2010
  8. Seattle Times 2009
  9. 1 2 Wilma 2005
  10. Ferriss 1953: "the 'floating bridge' leading over Lake Washington to the unique city portal that pierces Mt. Baker, one of the 'seven hills of Seattle'"
  11. Zentner 2015
  12. Troost & Booth 2008, p. 5.
  13. Seattle Times 2011
  14. Norwegian American Weekly 2009
  15. Seattle Parks and Recreation 2013
  16. Seattle International Sister City: Bergen, Norway, Seattle Office of Intergovernmental Relations, retrieved 2013-10-24

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References