19 photos that show why Kyoto and Tokyo were voted the best cities in the world

Over 300,000 readers voted for what they believed to be the best city in the world, not including those in the US.

Of all the cities in the world, the top two were in the same country - Japan. Kyoto bagged second place while Tokyo took top spot.

Despite sharing the same country (and the same letters in their names), Japan's ancient and current capitals are literally a tale of two cities, where tradition juxtaposes the ultra-modern.

The aptly nicknamed "city of a thousand years", Kyoto, was Japan's capital from 794 at the dawn of the Heian period until the Meiji restoration. Despite being the de facto seat of government since 1603, Tokyo was only made capital in 1868, when Japan's feudal shogunate system disintegrated and the Emperor was installed in the eastern city to restore his dominion over the empire.

Since then, Tokyo has exploded. It is now the most populous urban area in the world, according to the Demographia World Urban Areas - over 37 million people inhabit the Greater Tokyo Area. In 2014, The Brookings Institution estimated Tokyo's GDP at $1.6 trillion, the highest of any metropolitan area.

The result of this polarity is two cities that are each utterly mesmerising and beautiful but in completely different ways. Scroll down to see why they were voted the best in the world.