Since the colonisation of Mars, cities have been set up which began as colonies and have grown with some cities being as large as capital cities on Earth. With there being little surface water on Mars it means that even being a smaller planet than Earth there is a lot more building space and most cities are very much spaced out.
The first Martian city strictly speaking was called 'Hypatia' but this was mainly the habitation module for the first two people who landed on Mars. Since the first manned mission to Mars was "a mission of discovery in the pursuit of wisdom" 'Hypatia' was named after one of the last people to work at the ancient Library of Alexandria. The capital of Mars is now situated close to the position of Hypatia and is the first permanent Martian city.
Joanna Surf and Andrew Badger were the first people to land on Mars near to the end of the 21st century. They explored many of the Mars regions. Among those regions were the Vikings and site of the Pathfinder and Olympus Mons, Nix Olympica the Tharsis region, Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons, Ascraeus Mons and Valles Marineris. Hypatia was sent ahead of Challenger in order to be operational when the landing took place. Is is a well known fact that both Joanna and Andrew were looking forward to picking fresh strawberries when they landed along with all the other produce that was grown. There was also the option to taste Martian 'Perrier'.
The original name for New York, New Amsterdam was chosen to be the name for the capital of Mars for a few reasons. One reason was that the most well known space probes to land on Mars before Pathfinder were the Vikings and the Vikings from the 7th century founded the town of York in England. Another reason was due to the canals that Lowell thought he had seen on Mars. Amsterdam is the capital of Holland and is the city people first think of when thinking of canals. It is also partly because if you connected all the canals in Holland together, they would stretch from Amsterdam to New York!
New Amsterdam being the capital of Mars and the first Martian city shows the centuries through which it had stood comprising mainly of two sections. New Amsterdam also had Mars' busiest space port and airport with most landings on Mars being at New Amsterdam which then has connections of everywhere else on Mars.
When New Amsterdam was first constructed is was made up of domes with the city being under the domes. The only think that held the domes up was the pressure of air beneath them. New domes were added as the city got bigger. After the city was made up of six domes it was decided to add one single dome that would double the size of the city. This dome was so large that natural clouds could form inside it.
The second part of New Amsterdam was added later. It is in the form that many colonies on other bodies in the Solar System. It is a large complex made up of shops, homes and everything else a colony needs. It is very much like an on the surface version of a space station or a sea city like the ones built in 2020.
Throughout both sections of the city are raised waterways that look very much like levadas. When the domes were first built it was impractical to include real canals and so levadas were the nearest they could come up with.
For people who arrive at New Amsterdam, there is never any problem for transport. Getting round the later part of the city itself can be achieved either by bike, by using the trams or by going by metro. You can also use the bike to travel through the domes.
If you wish the leave the city however you're still going to have no problems. There are connections from New Amsterdam to everywhere. Since the main space port is in New Amsterdam connections into space are also included. There are space planes and delta planes that go to all the other major cities on Mars. Monorail also crossed the Red Planet with Grand Central Station being at New Amsterdam. There is metro to some of the nearby places and hiring sojourners is a favourite option.
Very close to New Amsterdam is the receiver for all the data sent down to Mars' surface from the Ares Array. New Amsterdam holds the ground station for the Ares Array and a large amount of work goes on in this section. This along with many other points on interest that New Amsterdam has to offer make the capital of Mars a very well recommended stop for anyone who wants to stop on Mars even for only a few hours.
Situated on the opposite side of Mars to New Amsterdam is its sister city, New Venice. New Venice like New Amsterdam was named due to canals. New Venice however is much younger than New Amsterdam is even though it was built in the era where domes we no longer used, New Venice consists entirely of domes having the largest domes on Mars.
There are two reasons for New Venice to be made from domes. The first is that New Venice is the only city to have canals that isn't on Earth. The canals are actual canals dugs into the surface or Mars but with Mars' atmosphere being thin and prone to dust storms it is impractical to have them open to the atmosphere. Domes were built over them and large domes are needed to cover at least both side of the canal and the canal itself. The second reason is that domes being large enough to contain natural clouds became extremely popular and so domes started to make a come back and even cities that were built after the first era of cities are now having dome sections added.
New Venice very much resembles Petit Venice in the city of Colmar in France. It is by far the prettiest city on Mars and very popular. Great lengths are being made to make sure that none of homes are being bought in New Venice are to be used entirely as holiday homes but with plenty of business opportunities easily reachable my metro from New Venice it looks that most people who by homes there will live there all year round. It is defiantly worth a visit if you're on that side of Mars and there is an express plane leaving from New Amsterdam every couple of hours.
At just over half a days drive by sojourner, Ericville is the largest major city of New Amsterdam. Ericville is quite a quiet city and has no domes or spaceport. It is however regarded as a very nice place to visit and being a very peaceful place it ideal for anyone who wishes for peace and quiet.
The hotels in Ericville are varied a well priced and all have large choices of leisure facilities. There are plenty of restaurants and cafés, some of which give good views of Mars. The best known bar on Mars is in Ericville although it is best known due to its name being infamous — The Mars Bar.
One days drive by sojourner from New Amsterdam, Lara is a small secluded city. This however doesn't stop it from being a very popular spot. This is because Lara is one of the only few places, and nearest city to New Amsterdam where it is possible to go below to surface and see indigenous Martian life. Although there is very little to see in the water caverns, there are magnifiers and people there to help you. Lara is always worth a visit and anyone studying Astrobiology or Alien Natural History would find a Lara a useful place to visit for those in the inner Solar System who don't want to venture past the asteroid belt.
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