No. 21

Jericho (Tell es-Sultan)

On land Near East & Persia

Aerial view of the archaeological area of Jericho, specifically showing Tell es-Sultan. The top and right parts of the image show trees, green crop fields, and other vegetation. On the bottom left of the image, you can s — Fullo88 at Italian Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Where: West Bank
Built by: Early settlers onward
Era: 9000 BCE onward
Known for: A stone tower from about 8000 BCE, one of the oldest known.
How it ended: Destroyed and rebuilt many times over 10,000 years.

An ancient residence discovered in Tel Al-Sultan in the city of Jericho. The history of Tel Al-Sultan dates back to the Stone Age and represents the oldest inhabited city in the world. — A. Sobkowski, Public domain

Map of Western Palestine in 26 sheets from the surveys conducted for the Committee of the en:Palestine Exploration Fund by Lietenanats C.R. Conder and H.H. Kitchener R.E. during the years 1872-1877. Photozincographed and — Unknown author, Public domain

Tower of Jericho, Tell es-Sultan archaeological site, ca. 7000 BC — Reinhard Dietrich, Public domain

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Background

Tell es-Sultan (Arabic: تل السلطان, lit. Sultan's Hill), also known as Tel Jericho or Ancient Jericho, is an archaeological site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 2023) in Palestine, in the city of Jericho, consisting of the remains of the oldest fortified city in the world. The site is managed as a National Archaeological Park by the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities/Department of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage (MoTA–DACH), which oversees on-site conservation in continued partnership with the Sapienza University of Rome archaeological expedition.

It is located adjacent to the Ein es-Sultan refugee camp, 2 km (1.2 mi) north of the centre of the Palestinian city of Jericho. The tell was inhabited from the 10th millennium BCE, which makes Jericho among the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. The site is notable for its role in the history of Levantine archaeology.

The area was first identified as the site of ancient Jericho in modern times by Charles Warren in 1868, on the basis of its proximity to the large spring of Ein es-Sultan, that had been proposed as the spring of Elisha by Edward Robinson three decades earlier.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.