I call a trebuchet!

I can't remember where I was when this conversation came up, but there was talk about the New Jerusalem and how, if God wanted, he could create "enemies" to attack the city so that we could re-enact the siege of Gondor. Now I just happen to be reading through Revelation during my quiet times (I'll finish it up today) and I skipped ahead to the description of the city.

The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man's measurement, which the angel was using.
--Revelation 21:16-17 (NIV)
footnotes: 12,000 stadia ≈ 1400 miles; 144 cubits ≈ 200 feet; the word for thick may instead translate to "high"

Now one thing stands out to me: it will be as high as it is long. A city 1,400 miles high! For comparison, the International Space Station operates at around 200 miles up. I'm wondering if that's how high the structures we'll be living in (if there are any structures, we might just be chilling in God's presence, and not need homes) or if that's the height of the wall--and not 200 feet. If the wall is that tall, then the whole "let us play the part of Gondorians" idea won't work out too well.

However, there's also the problem of will. Would we even want to do anything besides bask in the Glory of God? I would say we probably wouldn't want to, and I know we wouldn't need to.

Anyway, the description of the size also makes my jaw drop. 1,400 miles square. If you were to drive from Des Moines to Las Vegas, you'd have gone about that far. But this is a city, not a country. That implies lots of people in close quarters. Figuring with the population density of Paris--no real reason for picking that city rather than any other--there will be around 106 billion people in New Jerusalem. 106 billion people! That's 15 times the current population of the earth, all living together and worshiping the King. And if the city is going to be 1,400 miles tall, using the population density of Paris is going to be very low--building codes in Paris don't allow for skyscrapers. Just being in that body of worship is going to be amazing. I can't wait to see it.