A rapid automatic 3D city model reconstruction method based on multi-view images is proposed. First, the multi-view images are captured from the region to be reconstructed. After the processing of digital photometric information, the 3D information on terrain is extracted automatically. Then, the geometrical information about buildings are captured semiautomatically with an interactive mapping process and the roof and wall texture of the buildings is extracted automatically from the multi-view images. Thus, the model of buildings and the 3D scene of the reconstructed region can be established. Experimental results have shown that this method is feasible and effective.