Destroyed!? There's actual evidence of that!? [Now that's intense!]

Ahhh...well, depending on how large your continent is, it might not necessarily be the case; Japan for example, is actually quite small- it's a handful of islands, and you could feasibly walk end to end across them within the span of a little more than half a year. There are numerous cities there, certainly, but I would say this is more due to the density of the population more than anything.