<P> In ancient Rome, the grid plan method of land measurement was called centuriation . The grid plan dates from antiquity and originated in multiple cultures; some of the earliest planned cities were built using grid plans . </P> <P> By 2600 BC, Mohenjo - daro and Harappa, major cities of the Indus Valley Civilization (in what is now Pakistan), were built with blocks divided by a grid of straight streets, running north - south and east - west . Each block was subdivided by small lanes . The cities and monasteries of Gandhara (e.g. Sirkap and Taxila), dating from the 1st millennium BC to the 11th century AD, also had grid - based designs . Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan since 1959, was also founded on the grid - plan of the nearby ruined city of Sirkap . </P> <P> A workers' village (2570 - 2500 BC) at Giza, Egypt, housed a rotating labor force and was laid out in blocks of long galleries separated by streets in a formal grid . Many pyramid - cult cities used a common orientation: a north - south axis from the royal palace and an east - west axis from the temple, meeting at a central plaza where King and God merged and crossed . </P> <P> Hammurabi king of the Babylonian Empire in the 17th century BC, ordered the rebuilding of Babylon: constructing and restoring temples, city walls, public buildings, and irrigation canals . The streets of Babylon were wide and straight, intersected approximately at right angles, and were paved with bricks and bitumen . </P>

Why was chicago laid out in a grid pattern