A cityscape is the view or appearance of a city, especially its buildings and skyline seen from a distance. When you stand on a hilltop or tall building and look out at all the towers, streets, and structures spread before you, you're seeing the cityscape.

The word combines city with scape, which means a view or scene (like landscape for natural scenery). Artists paint cityscapes to capture how a city looks at different times of day: morning light hitting glass skyscrapers, evening shadows between buildings, or night when windows glow like stars. Photographers seek out the best spots to capture dramatic cityscapes, perhaps from across a river or harbor where the whole city stands out against the sky.

Each city has its own distinctive cityscape. New York's includes the Empire State Building and streets packed with tall structures. San Francisco's shows hills covered with colorful houses. A city's cityscape changes slowly as new buildings rise and old ones come down, creating a visual record of the city's growth and character.