Building a city on top of, alongside and inside a coastal cliff
The capital of the society my story revolves around is built on top of a cliff, similar to the White Cliffs of Dover (pictured below for reference). For story reasons, they settled in this location after fleeing another continent and had few options due to less than friendly neighbors.
In the present, the city has expanded outwards into the mainland. They use a Gothic style of architecture, meaning a lot of stone is used in construction. In order to better utilize the ocean and maintain a port, a network of wooden scaffolds have been built into the cliff face. Small rooms are carved into the stone at certain intervals, to anchor the scaffolds, act as places for shops, storage and a stable refuge if the scaffolding begins to collapse.
My question boils down to this: is the city's location practical? Would the stone in the cliff be able to support the weight of the city and would the scaffolding actually allow the city to act as an effective port? Is there anything else I might be missing?
I haven't seen an example of a city like this (real or fictional), so any examples for reference would be appreciated.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/79132. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
(NOTE: I started writing this answer before @amflare posted theirs, and before @AlexP posted his comment.)
The existing answers do a good job of demonstrating that you can build a city on the side of a cliff, so let's look at whether you should.
The main problem you'll have is that cliffs erode. They will, over time, retreat inwards, eating away at your caves and creating a gap between the scaffolding and the cliff face. It's a very gradual process, and depending on the geological makeup of the cliffs, it should be gradual enough for your townsfolk to be able to keep pace with it (moving the scaffolding, digging the caves deeper, and so on). I'd like to note that the cliffs in your picture are made of limestone, which erodes very quickly.
Cliff erosion will probably be more of a danger to the stuff on top of the cliff. There are numerous examples (@AlexP linked one of them in his comment) of cliffside houses that have had to be abandoned because the cliffs have eroded their way right up to the back door and the house is now about to crumble into the ocean.
In your case, if a cliffside house were to collapse, the falling debris would also wipe out anything on the cliff face below it, so it's probably not a good idea to build too close to the edge - or if you do, demolish the house as thoroughly as possible before the cliff edge reaches it, otherwise you're in trouble.
You'll also want some kind of coastal defences, because I imagine a city built on the side of a cliff is going to be wide open to naval bombardment. Fortunately, you can do all kinds of crazy stuff depending on your story's tech level, from Archimedes' solar mirror death ray thing to giant cannons hidden in alcoves inside the cliff face.
As for the positives: it would make a great port town; it'd be very easy to defend from land-based attacks, as enemies can only come from one direction; and you'd have one hell of a nice view.
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