Is Rhuidean based on a real city?

[Occams whiskey bottle]

Reading book 4 Shadow Rising last night I reached chapter 24 Rhuidean and started wondering if the city possibly represented Washington DC or some other American city. I'm sure i am not the first person to ask this question. At some point Rand and Mat are traveling towards the center of the city and take notice that there are a lot of Red, White, and Blue monuments. There seemed to be plenty of marble greek monuments, and possible the layout of Rhuidean is the same layout as DC.

 

If it wasn't for the comment about the Red, White, and Blue monuments I probably wouldn't be writing this. To be clear each monument was Red, White, or Blue as opposed to each one containing all 3; however, considering RJ's historical depth in the series, and ability to weave different stories and places into the WOT I wanted to see if anyone has talked about this...?

[DemandredFO]

No Shayol Ghul is Washington D.C.

[jack of shadows]

lol,

i laughed my head off reading your post.

tai'shar.

[MasterAblar]

More likely to be Jerusalem with Rand being the Jesus type and all.

[threadnecromancer]

You know I never thought of that but it actually makes a lot of sense. It probably is Jerusalem, the Waste would be around the Near East anyway, I am inclined to think Aeil Dashar is the former British Isles though we do know that the Mountains of Mist are near the former sea or Ocean,

[mb]

I do not recall any past thread wondering about this; though this might have been discussed at a earlier time than when I joined and/or at another site.

 

About which city (from our world) Rhuidean represents, not sure.

if either author commented about it, the comment might be found at either of these sites::

-the FAQ site

-Thirteenth Depository site

[Occams whiskey bottle]

There's nothing on Rhuidean that I have been able to find. I left a comment over at the 13th Depository though. We'll sweet comes of it. 

[szilard]

'Yes' (just like Paaran Disen)