Ancient Jericho
Learn about ancient Jericho — one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities, with walls, towers, and settlements dating to 9000 BCE.
Jericho, located near a spring in the Jordan Valley, is one of the strongest candidates for the title of the world's oldest city. Archaeological evidence reveals a settlement here as early as 9000 BCE — thousands of years before the first Mesopotamian cities. By 8000 BCE, Jericho had a stone wall with a massive tower, structures that have puzzled archaeologists for decades. Were they defensive? Ceremonial? A response to flooding? The debate continues.
What is clear is that Jericho represents a critical moment in human history: the transition from nomadic life to permanent settlement. Fed by a perennial spring in an otherwise arid landscape, the site attracted some of the earliest farming communities in the Fertile Crescent. Over the millennia, layer upon layer of occupation built up a massive tell — an artificial mound created by the accumulated remains of successive settlements.
Jericho's plastered skulls — human skulls with facial features reconstructed in plaster — are among the most haunting artifacts of the Neolithic period, suggesting complex ancestor veneration practices. The site demonstrates that the shift to settled life brought not just new economies but new relationships with the dead, with community, and with place.