Containing fewer than five square miles, the approximately 1,700 chō of Edo were densely packed. Not only was the density of residence four times that of the buke areas and ten times that of the 20 percent of Edo allocated to temple lands, but land use in the chō was highly mixed. Shops and residences were combined in a single dwelling. Within a chō it was prestigious to occupy a street front, resulting in the back alleyways being left for poor servants, peddlers, and hired labor.