The proposed monograph is the main work of the famous Soviet architectural historian Professor of the Moscow Architectural Institute Andrei Vladimirovich Bunin (1905-1977). Work on the monograph lasted more than 20 years: the first volume was published in 1953, the second, co-authored with candidate of architecture Tatyana Fedorovna Savarenskaya, - in 1972. This work was awarded the USSR State Prize in the field of literature, art and architecture for 1976. The book has firmly entered the golden fund of research on the history of world urban planning art, having won wide recognition of Soviet and foreign specialists in the history of art and architecture. The first volume sets out the history of urban planning art of the peoples of the world during the slave-owning and feudal periods, as well as in the era of the formation of the capitalist mode of production, starting from the origin of ancient Eastern despotism.