Ankhata
by WingofCootPopulation 110,000 (30,000 in city walls; 80,000 elsewhere in valley)
While neither the political nor cultural center of Deshret, Ankhata has the largest population of any of the oasis city-states, simply because its oasis valley is the largest and provides the most farmland.
Ankhata's valley oasis was the last constructed by the ancient Nithian magic, and was meant to provide for a very large population. This is a nearly rectangular valley running east to west, walled by sheer cliffs on three sides, about 40 by 20 miles. Along the center line of the valley are three major lakes, totaling about 25 square miles in surface area. The fourth, eastern side of the valley rises in wooded hills.
The city itself of Ankhata is set on the shore of the largest and westernmost of the three lakes. Most of the population outside city walls lives on farms in the valley floor, but there are fishing village on each of the other two lakes, and a town at the foot of the hills to the east, which serves as a center for mining in the hills as well as for the farmers farthest from the city.
While Ankhata is highly populous, it lacks the cultural and intellectual prestige it enjoyed before the shift to theocracy as a means of preserving Deshri culture under Imperial rule.