The Oldest Continuously Inhabited City In The World

People have lived in this spot for thousands and thousands of years

Grant Piper
4 min readSep 20, 2021
A modern view of the city (Daniel Case / CC BY-SA 3.0)

In the Bible, the walls of Jericho are a big deal. That is because, according to archeological data, Jericho has the oldest stone fortifications in the world. Cities back then did not have the kinds of walls that Jericho sported. That is because Jericho is old. Very, very old. When other cities were toying with the idea of building stone fortifications to protect themselves, Jericho had already done it hundreds of years before.

The oldest parts of Jericho also had some of the first stone towers ever built by humans that predate even the impressive walls that would later follow.

Evidence suggests that Jericho was inhabited in roughly 9000BCE, meaning it has been inhabited by humans for 11,000 years. That is incredible. It also puts Jericho in firm control of the title of the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the world.

An inexact science

A map of Jericho found in a 14th century Bible (Public domain)

There is a lot of debate (and squabbling) about what city is indeed the oldest in the world. This is due in large part to…

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Grant Piper
Grant Piper

Written by Grant Piper

Professional writer. Amateur historian. Husband, father, Christian.

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