Land use along rivers in pre-mechanized western cultures always seems to look the same: long thin strips radiating away from the river (or road, or whatever the linear shared resource is) to maximize land area of each owner while maximizing total number of accessable riverfront properties. Even in the US such things were continuing: http://www.google.ca/maps?f=q&source...07274&t=k&z=12

And there are lots of very square ceremonial building complexes around the world built at lots of differing times:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...07274&t=h&z=12

http://maps.google.com/maps?source=s...38409&t=h&z=15

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...76818&t=k&z=14

As far as a convergence of interesting geology and "interesting" humanity, I like http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...916382&t=h&z=8 as an example. In the west is the empty lakebed of Tulare Lake, in the North the empty bed of Owens Lake, just off the south is the Salton Sea, and just off the east edge is Lake Mead - all of these things were destroyed or created by getting water into Los Angeles within the last 100 years. Also within the area are the highest and lowest points in the continental US, plus a great many high-aspect mountain ranges. The eastern face of the Sierra Nevada, for example, drops a couple of miles vertically in just about the same distance, making it one of the more rugged mountain edges in the world. The Panamint range on the west edge of Death Valley is etched in high relief with the classic "caterpillar" pattern that many folks like to map. There are also dozens of volcanoes within that area. To the south is the nighmare that is the LA/San Diego metropolitan area with roughly 20 million people living cheek by jowl in their own filth.