This is a city map for a novel manuscript I'm working on. It's the capitol city of an empire of demons, built over the ruins of Cairo in post-apocalyptic Earth, 300 years after the apocalypse. It's ruled by a dragon pharaoh who's into necromancy and wants to destroy the world (more thoroughly than the previous cataclysm). The population is around 7 million, mostly demons and other monstrosities, with some human and alien slaves.

Since the population is slightly less than present-day Chicago, the scale of this map is very big. Only three structures are big enough to warrant me depicting them individually. Instead of trying to draw individual structures, I focused on highways and major streets.

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I welcome your comments/critiques, and I have a few issues I'd really like some advice on a few issues:

1. Other than the presence of small roads, there's nothing showing an urban area vs the empty desert around the city. Are there any good techniques for showing urban terrain that won't require me to blow up this map to an implausible scale?

2. This is a really evil place. Lots of horrible things happen on a daily basis, and life is cheap. What are some techniques I can use to suggest that it's a living embodiment of the valley of the shadow of death?

3. The pharaoh's palace in the south is supposed to be a huge complex; my vision was to have a big palace inside, with enormous gardens. Granted, the scale is tiny, and this is a greyscale map meant for the interior of a book, but is there a better way of depicting or suggesting trees, vegetation, or a garden around the building down there?