The city of Jericho history dates back 11,000 years ago in 9000 BC. At that time it was contained by a city wall, five meters in height, with a round tower nearly eight meters in diameter.
Jericho is known as the ‘moon city’. The city itself is shaped like the crescent moon in its first quarter or like amphitheater or elliptical-oblong with rounded ends.
Jericho is also known as the ‘city of fragrance’, and the ‘city of palm tree’.
The abundance of fresh water in such an arid area, has led Jericho to play an important role in history – that of the oldest continuously settled city in the world.
Jericho is one of the first places where evidence of man as a member of a settled community and a food producer rather than a food gatherer exist.
Evidence suggests that the city has been inhabited on and off through the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze-Iron ages.
The first mention of the city of Jericho appeared in the Old Testament.
Ancient Jericho was the meeting place of several important trade routes and thus a strategically important place to control.
Jericho, the first town encountered in the Promised Land after the exodus from Egypt, was the gateway to Israel.
In the last quarter of the second century BC, John Hyrcanus (134-104) conquered Jericho and revitalized it, and from that time on Jericho became city of major importance.
Ancient city of Jericho
