What is the oldest city in the world?
Jericho, in the West Bank, is often called the oldest city in the world, with settlements dating back about 11,000 years. Damascus is often named the oldest continuously inhabited capital.
Archaeologists have found evidence of people living at Jericho as early as about 9000 BC. By around 8000 BC, it had a stone wall and a tower, among the oldest known town defenses. It has been destroyed and rebuilt many times, but people have lived there, on and off, for most of the past 11,000 years.
Several other cities claim to be among the oldest continuously inhabited. Damascus in Syria and Aleppo have been settled for thousands of years. Byblos in Lebanon, Plovdiv in Bulgaria, Argos and Athens in Greece and Varanasi in India also have very long histories.
Before cities
Çatalhöyük in Turkey, a large settlement from about 7400 to 6000 BC, had thousands of residents living in mud-brick houses entered through the roof. Even older is Göbekli Tepe, also in Turkey, a site of huge carved stone pillars built more than 11,000 years ago.
Did You Know?
Jericho is also one of the lowest cities on Earth, lying about 250 meters below sea level near the Dead Sea.