The Disc's largest and most important city, a teeming, chaotic, deeply corrupt metropolis on the banks of the River Ankh (a river so polluted it could be said to have a crust rather than a surface). Ruled by the Patrician Lord Vetinari, Ankh-Morpork operates on a pragmatic system where crime is regulated rather than prohibited, guilds control professional life, and the City Watch attempts to maintain something resembling order. It is Pratchett's satirical lens on urbanity, politics, and human nature.