<p>In high-density urban environments, rooftops offer unique opportunities for enhancing cityscape aesthetics and providing expansive views. While existing research predominantly focuses on rooftops as visual objects within the urban landscape (roofscape), this study emphasizes the cityscape as seen from these elevated platforms (rooftop views) by using traversal calculations and a Semantic Cityscape Model (SCM) for quantitative evaluations. The study aims to identify rooftops with significant scenic value. Using the historic district of Guangzhou, China as a case study, this research analyzed over 210,000 images of city rooftop views from more than 26,500 rooftops, defining six Rooftop View Indices (RVIs) that encompassed various cityscape elements. The study revealed a certain correlation between different rooftop elements and their heights. At the city-wide level, rooftops surrounding high-rise clusters tended to have a higher Rooftop View Index (RVI) for modern high-rise landscapes, while rooftops offering views of multiple landscape elements were predominantly scattered among lower rooftops. At the building level, the prominence of features on lower rooftops was influenced by their location, and their potential visibility was also sensitive to positional factors. On this basis, a potential rooftop system was constructed, consisting of 27 individual rooftops and nine clustering rooftops at the urban scale. These indices and analytical results contributed to assessing the scenic value of urban rooftop views, providing updated development guidance for urban planners and developers.</p>