Ancient site · Settlement
Jericho (Tell es-Sultan)
Also known as Tell es-Sultan, Tel Jericho
One of the oldest continuously settled places on Earth, beside a strong spring near the Dead Sea. By about 8000 BCE the farming town was enclosed by a stone wall over 3.6 m high, with an 8.5 m stone tower inside, among the oldest monumental buildings known.
Kathleen Kenyon excavated the tower in the 1950s. Later Bronze Age Jericho was destroyed in the 16th century BCE; the Bible's tale of its walls falling is not supported by the excavations.
- Dates
- c. 10,000 BCE – Persian period; tower and wall c. 8000 BCE
- Still standing
- Yes
- UNESCO World Heritage
- Yes
- Location
- 31.87° N, 35.44° E
How we know
The Neolithic town is dated by excavation and radiocarbon; excavators found no walled city at the time the Bible's story of Joshua is usually placed.
Nearby sites
- ʿAin Ghazal c. 7250–5000 BCE
- Raqefet Cave c. 12,000–9700 BCE (Natufian burials)
- ʿAin Mallaha (Eynan) c. 12,400–10,200 BCE
- Petra c. 4th century BCE – 7th century CE; Treasury 1st century CE
- Palmyra early 2nd millennium BCE – 1932 CE; height 1st–3rd century CE
- Ugarit (Ras Shamra) c. 7000–1185 BCE; golden age c. 1500–1200 BCE
Related
- Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) archaeological culture