Lowest City In The World

The city of Jericho is the lowest city in the world; it is located 250 meters -1300 feet- below sea level. Joshua captured the city which is bible described in detail about history of the conquest. In the Roman period, Antony gave Jericho to Cleopatra, but Augustus returned it to Herod, who built his winter Palace here. During the Jewish war of BB-73, Emperor Hadrian destroyed and rebuilt the city.

In the VII century, after the conquest of the country by the Arabs, Jews settled here, expelled by Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula. In the course battles between crusaders and Muslims, it was destroying to Jericho during the nineteenth century.

The ruins of ancient Jericho are locating to the West of the modern city. During ages, people excaveted a powerful Neolithic tower, Chalcolithic tombs, early Bronze Age city, and middle Bronze Age city walls, possibly the same ones that fell from the loud trumpets of Israeli soldiers (Jericho trumpets). At the foot of Tell es-Sultan hill is the spring of the prophet Elisha (Elisha), who, according to the Bible, purified its bitter waters.

The Oldest City on Earth, Jericho

It remains inhabited today. These are the Palestinian territories. The first settlements here appeared in the 9th Millennium BC. According to researchers, there are the remains of twenty settlements, which were formed 11 thousand years ago. And since then, the city has had a continuous settlement. The Jericho is on the West Bank of the Jordan River. Now the population of the city is 20 thousand people. This city is repeatedly mentioned in the Bible. It is also called “the city of palms”. The ruins of the ancient city are located west of the center of modern Jericho.

There is a powerful 8-meter tower of the pre-ceramic Neolithic era A (this is 8400-7300 BC), as well as the burial of the Chalcolithic period, the walls of the city of the bronze age (probably those that according to legend fell from the loud “Jericho trumpets”).

Attractions of Jericho

Jericho is one of the richest cities in Palestine. Its surroundings are no less interesting. To fully explore the city, you need to lay on visit two or three days and stay in one of the hotels near the Old Town. Tourists who can come to Jericho only for a day should first of all visit the monastery Carantal and excavations of ancient Jericho-complex Tell es-Sultan.

Monastery of Temptation

The explorer founded the Orthodox Greek monastery on mount Karantal in the IV century. The Mountain is identified with the place of the temptation of Jesus Christ by the devil, described in the Gospels.

All the inner rooms of the monastery are cut into the rock. The temple has two tiers. The lower limit consists of a cave recessed into the mountain and an altar on an attached platform.

The Hasmonean fortress of Dok

On the top of mount Carantal, above the monastery of Temptation, there is a fortress built in the II century BC. It is the oldest fortress in the Jordan valley and the Judean desert. The fortress of Dok served to control the city and the roads leading to the crossings of the Jordan. It was in this fortress that Shimon, the first king of the Hasmonean dynasty, was killed, along with his wife and two sons.

Tell Es-Sultan Archaeological Park

Tel es-Sultan (tel Jericho) is a hill on which the ruins of the oldest city in the world are located. It was here that ancient settlements of the 10th Millennium BC were found. Now tel es-Sultan is an archaeological Park with an area of 3.4 hectares, where visitors can see the numerous cultural layers of Jericho.