Why it looks like this

Caracas was founded in 1567 with a small Spanish grid, in a valley separated from the Caribbean by the green wall of the Ávila mountain. The valley runs east–west and is only a few kilometres wide, so the city grew lengthwise along it — the metro and the main highway share the same thin corridor.

The flat floor got the planned city: grids, superblocks, towers. The steep edges got the barrios — dense self-built neighbourhoods whose winding stairs and lanes wrap the hillsides, holding a large share of the city's people.