(urth) How Far in the Future is Urth?

[John Smith]

People seem to have significant differences of opinion as to how far in the future Severian's Urth is.   Is it a few thousand years in the future or a few hundred million?

I lean toward one million years for these reasons:

1.  The moon has been irrigated and now supports vast forests.  Changing a barren rock into a place that supports life would take a long time.
2.  Mining is done by digging up forgotten buried cities.   
3.  At some point in Claw, Severian climbs down a cliff, passing by layers of sediments that must have taken ages to lay down.
4.  Enough time has passed for star-faring civilizations to have arisen and fallen.
5.  Against the idea of hundreds of millions of years having passed, I would point out that there are still seven continents.
And North and South America seem to still be in the same relative positions.

However, I could change my mind if people have evidence for longer or shorter periods.



Best wishes,

Jack