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A skyline is best described as the overall or partial view of a silhouette
Silhouette

A silhouette is a view of an object or scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black....
 of a city's
City

A city is an urban area with a high population density and a particular administrative, legal, or historical status.Large industrialized cities generally have advanced systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, house, and transportation and more....
 tall buildings and structures consisting of many skyscrapers in front of the sky in the background. It can also be described as the artificial horizon
Horizon

The horizon is the apparent line that separates earth from sky.More precisely, it is the line that divides all of the directions one can possibly look into two categories: those which intersect the Earth's surface, and those which do not....
 that a city's overall structure creates.






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Victoriaharbour
A skyline is best described as the overall or partial view of a silhouette
Silhouette

A silhouette is a view of an object or scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black....
 of a city's
City

A city is an urban area with a high population density and a particular administrative, legal, or historical status.Large industrialized cities generally have advanced systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, house, and transportation and more....
 tall buildings and structures consisting of many skyscrapers in front of the sky in the background. It can also be described as the artificial horizon
Horizon

The horizon is the apparent line that separates earth from sky.More precisely, it is the line that divides all of the directions one can possibly look into two categories: those which intersect the Earth's surface, and those which do not....
 that a city's overall structure creates. Skylines serve as a kind of fingerprint
Fingerprint

A fingerprint is an impression of the friction ridges of all part of the finger. A friction ridge is a raised portion of the epidermis on the palmar or digits or plantar skin, consisting of one or more connected ridge units of friction ridge skin....
 of a city, as no two skylines are alike. For this reason news and sports programs, television shows, and movies often display the skyline of a city to set location.

Paul D. Spreiregen, FAIA
FAIA

Fellow of the American Institute of Architects is an postnomial, designating an individual who has been named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects....
, has called a skyline "a physical representation [of a city's] facts of life ... a potential work of art ... its collective vista."

In general, larger cities have broader and taller skylines, though lower density cities often have smaller skylines than expected for city size. Taller buildings are found where either land value or desire for visibility is higher, and the tallest buildings in a city are usually office buildings. Because of this, the skyline of a city can be seen as symbolic of the city's influence and economy.

External links

  • Collection of Skyline Photographs from across the United States
  • Calculated ranking by height and breadth of skylines
  • Calculated ranking strictly by height