The oldest cities in the world
Jericho, West Bank The ancient city of Jericho, located in the West Bank on the shores of the Dead Sea, is widely considered the oldest in the world. First settled by Neolithic hunter-gatherers, by 8000 BCE Tell es-Sultan—as it is also known—had grown to a sizable town enclosed by a stone wall. The wall would be rebuilt many times as successive civilizations rose and fell, providing an important window into the evolution of humanity’s earliest urban settlements. Damascus, Syria The ancient city of Damascus in Syria, a World Heritage Site, is one of the oldest in the world. Evidence of human settlement may date as far back as 10,000 BCE. Seated at the crossroads between Asia and Africa, Damascus rose to prominence as a trade centre around 3000 BCE. Despite receiving little precipitation, it has been called “the Pearl of the East” thanks to its lush vegetation, sustained by a com...