A skyline is best described as the overall or partial view or relief of a city's tall buildings and structures consisting of many skyscrapers. It can also be described as the artificial horizon that a city's overall structure creates. Skylines are a good representation of a city’s overall power; the more prominent the skyline, the more money the city has to spend. Skylines also serve as a kind of fingerprint of a city, as no two skylines are alike. Skylines that are stretched out to a large (sometimes panoramic) view because of large cities or twin cities are called cityscapes. In many but not all metropolises, skyscrapers play a significant role in defining the skyline. In more strongly planned metropolises (such as Minneapolis), the skyline tends to form the shape of an artificial mountain, with the tallest buildings toward the center of town.

Types of skyline views

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• Daytime: A normal, generally widestretched view of a city's skyline that is during the daytime. Sometimes used during dawn and dusk to use the setting and rising sun in the background.
• Silhouette: A skyline where buildings are blended together as one black shape that usually includes only one layer of the skyline.
• Nightime: A skyline during the nightime. What one sees of buildings is mainly the lighting inside, and sometimes illumination on the outside, for eye candy or advertising. For cities on lakes and oceans the reflective water adds to the view, and is also commonly used in pictures.

The 20 Most Impressive Skylines

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This list is calculated from the number and height of skyscrapers in each city. It is a quantitative as opposed to qualitative measure of impressiveness and, as such, reflects no subjective judgement of impressiveness. For a complete list (approximately 500 cities) and details about the algorithm see The World's Best Skylines.

1. Hong Kong
2. New York City
3. Tokyo
4. Shanghai
5. Chicago
6. Bangkok
7. Dubai
8. Seoul
9. Singapore
10. Kuala Lumpur
11. Shenzhen
12. Chongqing
13. Guangzhou
14. Manila
15. Toronto
16. Houston
17. Sydney
18. Osaka
19. Moscow
20. Miami

Most impressive skylines in particular regions

This list borrowed its sources from Emporis and Skyscraperpage.

• East and South East Asia - Hong Kong, Seoul, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Manila, Osaka, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo
• Australia - Sydney, Melbourne
• Canada - Toronto, Calgary, Montreal
• Europe - Frankfurt, Paris, Rotterdam, Warsaw
• Middle East - Dubai
• USA - New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta

External links

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• SkyscraperPage
• Birmingham UK
• http://www.skyscrapernews.com
• The Skyline Project Collection of Skyline Photographs from across the United States
• Skyscrapercity Skyscraper enthusiasts forum
• Skycraper City Skyline Rankings
• The World's Best Skylines calculated ranking list of skylines
• Emporis Skyline Rankings
• Diserio's top 15 Skylines

Cities | Art genres

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