Ever since Sumerians dedicated their cities to moon gods and raised ziggurats like it was going out of style, cities have always been more than a place to live. Whether it was the super-technological schemes of modern architects, the manic social engineering dreams of 19th century utopians or the Puritans' visions of a godly “city on a hill,” humans love to see cities as a way to finally solve the hard problems of humanity.

Of course, reality is a different beast. Cities are notoriously hard places to micromanage, let alone perfect, and the multiplicity of cultures they inevitably attract leads to their eventual form diverting, often blessedly, from even the most iron-clad plans.

But that doesn't mean people don't try to build perfection. Here are some examples of would-be utopian cities that human beings actually built and what eventually happened to them: