The history of Nanjing city can be traced backed to more than 2000 years before.The Arial photos of urban Nanjing in 1949,1984,1995 and 2003 were collected and the urban zone of each temporal stage was interpreted.Thoroughly 134 soil samplings were taken at 2003,in which,56 sites located on the regions which were constructed before 1949,49 located on 1949-1984,20 on 1984-1995,9 on 1995-2003.The difference of soil attributes among different temporal stages tells the trends of urban soil evolution,the direction and intension of material cycling in urban eco-system in Nanjing for the past half century.Aimed at trends and driving factors of soil variation of inner urban area,temporal (different urban ages) analyzes and spatial distance analyzes were adopted.Soils in oldest urban area hold the highest content of coarse and sand fragments,which tells the continuously input to urban soil of constructing material and relics.Along the temporal series,urban zone older,soil pH and CaCO3 content higher.Average pH of soils in urban zone of 1949 is higher for 0.3 pH unit than that of urban zones between 1995 and 2003,for top soils,and 0.35 for sub soils.No obvious relationship between urban age and accumulation of soil OM.Soils in urban zone still received P input,urban zone older,P content higher along four stages of urban zones in Nanjing.Soils in residential zone hold the highest content of P,which can be explained by influence from daily waste water and sludge.TK shows the decline trend along the temporal series,AK in opposite.Content of Cu、Pb、Zn shows increasing trend with the urban history getting longer,which tells that island effect of heavy metals pollution in urban zone.The results also show that the sub-top layer is a better token than top layer soil,in the view of representing of alkalesceney,heavy metal pollution of urban soils,which shows steady and clear evolution trends along the temporal series.