The oldest city on earth. What is the oldest city on Earth? What cities were in the ancient world

The most ancient cities in the world - some of them disappeared from the face of the earth forever, only ruins and memories remained from them. And there are settlements whose names have paved a long way in history and have come down to our days. Their streets are full of architectural landmarks, magnificent in their beauty and monumentality, looking at which you are mentally transported back into the depths of centuries.

Jericho is the oldest city in the world

The Judean Hills rise on the West Bank of the Jordan River. At their foot at the mouth of the river flowing into the Dead Sea, the ancient city in the world - Jericho. On its territory, archaeologists have discovered fragments of ancient buildings dating back to 9500 BC. e.

The history of this settlement was described in the Old Testament. It is also mentioned in Roman chronicles. There is a legend that Jericho was brought as a gift to Cleopatra by Mark Antony. But the magnificent buildings in this city were built by King Herod, who received rule over this city from the emperor Augustus of Rome. It was in his era that many monuments of ancient architecture appeared that have survived in this city to this day.
There are records that the Christian church appeared in Jericho in the first century AD. The constant raids of the Bedouins and the enmity of the Muslims with the knights led to the decline of the city by the 9th century. AD In the 19th century, the Turks destroyed the once prosperous center of the ancient world, Jericho.

Only in 1920, the most ancient city in the world, Jericho, received its second life. It began to be populated by Arabs. Now about 20,000 people permanently live in it.

The main attraction is the Tel es-Sultan hill, on which rises a tower dating back to the 6000s. BC.

Now in Jericho, a disputed land between Palestine and Israel, there are constant hostilities. For this reason, the beauties of this place are hidden from tourists. At least, the governments of many countries do not recommend their citizens to visit it.

Notable surviving cities of antiquity

Over the centuries, civilizations have developed, cities have appeared. Some of them were destroyed as a result of wars or natural disasters. A few of the most ancient cities in the world that have survived the change of eras can still be visited today:

On earth, which are named as the most ancient cities in the world. Many of them are being destroyed even today, despite the establishment of special protection regimes by the international organization UNESCO.

This material will acquaint you not with the very first cities that appeared on our planet, but with such cities that, from the moment of their foundation, were constantly inhabited. Although, disputes about the most-most among them have been going on for more than one year.

1. Most often, the most ancient city, safely existing to this day, is considered Palestinian town of Jericho, which appeared in the copper age (9000 BC).

2. In second place is The capital of Syria is Damascus. It appeared in the same era as Jericho, but about a millennium later.

3. small town bible located in the suburbs Lebanese capital, Beirut, has a history that goes back to the Neolithic (7000 BC).

4. Iranian city of Susa (Shush) has a controversial date of foundation, which ranges from 5000-7000 BC.

5. Another controversial city is Syrian Aleppo. The problem is that there is no old and new city. On the site of the first settlements, the current Aleppo is located, which greatly complicates the conduct of archaeological excavations.

6. Sidon - Lebanese town, first settled 5500 BC

7. El Fayoum - an oasis city in the middle of the Libyan desert was founded around 4000 BC.

8. Oddly enough, but the oldest in Europe, still existing city with a permanent population throughout history, is Bulgarian Plovdiv (city on seven hills), on the modern territory of which the first settlements also appeared 4000 BC.

9. Turkish Gaziantep, according to one version, it appeared 3650 BC. But the date is also disputed downward.

10. Two Greek cities, Argos and Athens, appeared at about the same time. Nevertheless, disputes over the first permanent settlements are ongoing. The exact facts of the presence of urban settlements date back to 5000 BC. However, there is information about seven millennia BC. In short, the controversy continues.

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Ancient cities amaze with their grandeur: our history was born and unfolded in them. And although most of the ancient cities have not survived to our time, there are a few that we can see today. Some of these cities are small, while others are huge. This list contains cities that have not only survived to this day, but continue to function. Each city is photographed at sunrise and sunset. In addition, in some photographs you can find the sights of these places.

10. Plovdiv
Founded: before 400 BC

Plovdiv is located in present-day Bulgaria. It was founded by the Thracians and was originally called Eumolpias. It was conquered by the Macedonians and eventually became part of present-day Bulgaria. It is the second largest and most important city in Bulgaria after the capital Sofia, which is about 150 kilometers away.

9. Jerusalem
Founded: 2000 BC




Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world and is considered the holy city of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. It is the capital of Israel (although not all countries recognize this fact). In ancient times it was the famous city of David from the Bible, and then the place where Jesus spent his last week of life.

8. Xi'an
Founded: 1100 BC




One of the four great ancient capitals of China, Xi'an is now the capital of Shaanxi Province. The city is full of ancient ruins, monuments, and it still has an ancient wall built during the Ming Dynasty - pictured below. It also houses the tombs of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who is best known for his terracotta army.

7. Cholula
Founded: 500 BC




Cholula is located in the Mexican state of Puebla, which was founded before the arrival of Columbus to the shores of America. Its most famous landmark is the Great Pyramid of Cholula, which now looks like a hill with a church on top. However, in reality, the hill is the base of the pyramid. The pyramid temple is the largest in the new world.

6. Varanasi
Founded: 1200 BC




Varanasi (also known as Benares) is located in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Jains and Hindus consider it a holy city and believe that if a person dies there, he will be saved. It is the oldest inhabited city in India and one of the oldest in the world. Along the Ganges River, you can find many holes - these are stops on the way of believers, in which they perform religious ablutions.

5. Lisbon
Founded: 1200 BC




Lisbon is the largest city and capital of Portugal. It is the oldest city in Western Europe - much older than London, Rome, and similar cities. Religious and funerary monuments have been preserved there since the Neolithic era, and archaeological evidence also indicates that it was once an important trading city for the Phoenicians. In 1755, the city suffered a devastating earthquake, which almost completely destroyed it due to fires and tsunamis - this earthquake was one of the deadliest in history.

4. Athens
Founded: 1400 BC




Athens is the capital of Greece and also the largest city. Its 3,400 year history is eventful, and due to Athenian dominance of the region as a vast city-state, much of the culture and customs of the ancient Athenians found their way into many other cultures. The many archaeological sites make Athens an ideal city to visit for those with an interest in European history and culture.

3. Damascus
Founded: 1700 BC




Damascus is the capital of Syria and more than 2.6 million people live here. Unfortunately, however, recent civil uprisings have caused considerable damage to one of the most significant and ancient cities in history. Damascus was included in the top 12 cultural heritage sites that are in danger of being destroyed or in danger of being irreparably damaged. Only time will tell if this ancient city can survive, or whether it will go down in history as one of the ancient lost cities in the world.

2. Rome
Founded: 753 BC




Initially, Rome was a collection of small urban-type settlements. However, it eventually became a city-state, ruling over one of the greatest empires in human history. The period of existence of the Roman Empire (which grew from the Roman Republic) was relatively short - it was founded in 27 BC. its first emperor, Augustus, and the last, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed in 476 (although the Eastern Roman Empire lasted another 977 years).

1. Istanbul
Founded: 660 BC




As noted above, the Eastern Roman Empire, with its capital in the city of Constantinople - now known as Istanbul, continued to exist until 1453. Constantinople was captured by the Turks, who founded the Ottoman Empire in its place. The Ottoman Empire lasted until 1923, when the Republic of Turkey was established and the Sultanate was abolished. To this day, both Roman and Ottoman artifacts can be seen in Istanbul, the most significant of which is probably the Hagia Sophia. Initially, it was a church, then it was converted into a mosque by the Islamic Ottomans, and with the formation of the republic it became a museum.

The question of which city is the oldest is often researched by historians and archaeologists, but the truth is that tour operators are most interested in this. According to the survey, such a title could significantly increase the attendance even of popular tourist destinations. Recently, the British Guardian newspaper did a massive study, listing eight contenders for the title of the world's oldest still inhabited city.

The Palestinian city of Jericho is a truly ancient place and its name is even mentioned in the Bible. Archaeologists have discovered traces of human settlements 9,000 years before Christ. The walls of Jericho from the Old Testament were built about 4,000 years ago. In the "newer" history of Jericho, the city was occupied by Alexander the Great, was under Roman rule, and Emperor Mark Antony gave it to Cleopatra.

The ancient Lebanese city also ranks first in the ranking. Byblos, also called Jubil, is the administrative center of the Bialog region in the upper reaches of Lebanon. It is located on the Mediterranean coast, 20 km north of the capital - Beirut. The settlement dates back to the 8th millennium BC and is one of the largest cities of ancient Phoenicia. Byblos supplies Egyptian papyrus to ancient Greece, hence his name (from the Greek word for "book").

Varanasi, on the banks of the magnificent Ganges River, is a sacred place for two religions - Buddhism and Hinduism. Historical and archaeological evidence of the Indian city sends us several millennia before the birth of Christ, but the first reliable sources appear from 1100 BC. Indians believe that the city was built by Lord Shiva himself 5,000 years ago.

This small famous city is located south of Cairo. It is located in the heart of a desert oasis and is best known today for its lively market. There are Arsinoe barrows, near which there is a settlement about 6000 years old. Locals say that today's El Fayoum is the direct heir of the ancient settlement.

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Kirkuk is an Iranian city populated by many different peoples such as Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens. Proof of its ancient origins are the remains of an ancient citadel dating back to 2900 BC. The nearby city of Erbil has also been around for about 5,000 years.

Shushi

Shushi, the ancient Persian capital appeared at least 4200 BC. The age is precisely determined with carbon analysis of the remains of the ancient acropolis. But after the 15th century, the city gradually decreased and today it is just a small village.

There is also evidence that the Syrian city of Aleppo is one of the most ancient cities in the world. Its name is noted in the famous Ebla clay tablets dated around 2400 BC. Unfortunately, Aleppo today is a real battlefield - one of the most affected by armed conflicts. Until recently, one of the most beautiful cities in Syria, today it is almost completely destroyed and seriously deserted due to the horrors of war.

Archaeological studies show that the oldest settlement on the territory of today's Plovdiv was over 6,000 years old. It is reported that Plovdiv has been inhabited since 3000 BC. During this time, it was ruled by the Thracians, Greeks, Romans, Ottomans and Bulgarians.

The main rival of Plovdiv in terms of age is Provadia, which appeared in 4700 BC. e. A lot of rock salt was mined in the settlement.

Despite the ongoing debate about the moment of the emergence of each ancient settlement, there is a more or less agreed upon list that includes the oldest cities in the world in which life continued uninterruptedly and are now inhabited.

One of the oldest

This list is headed by Jericho, which is mentioned more than once in the Bible under the name "city of palm trees", although the name is translated from Hebrew as "lunar city". Historians attribute the date of its emergence as a settlement to the 7th millennium BC, although some of the found traces of habitation date back to the 9th. That is, people lived here during the Chalcolithic or before the Ceramic Neolithic. It so happened that the location of Jericho has been on the warpath since time immemorial, again in the Bible there is a description of the capture of the city. He endlessly passed from hand to hand, the last time happened in 1993, when Jericho went to Palestine. Repeatedly over the millennia, the inhabitants left it, but always returned and rebuilt. Now located 10 km from the Dead Sea, Jericho is readily visited by tourists, as it is rich in sights (for example, there was a farmstead of King Herod). In addition, this most ancient city on earth is also unique in that it is, so to speak, the deepest settlement, as it is located 240 meters below sea level.

Which one is older

The second (sometimes contesting the championship) on the list of "The oldest cities in the world" is modern Syria. Its origin also dates back to prehistoric times, but it becomes a major city after the Aramaic invasion, dating back to 1400 BC. One of the most charming cities in the Middle East, it is full of attractions. What is only included in the list of the greatest temples of the world, in which the head of the City is so ancient that there is a belief that the first wall built on earth after the Flood was precisely the Damascus Wall. The old city, which has not changed its appearance for many centuries, is also surrounded by a wall, but it was erected at the time of Ancient Rome.

Also the most ancient

Concludes the first three settlements of the list "Ancient cities of the world" Lebanese Bybl. Needless to say, in some lists he is given the second, and even the first in seniority. These three cities arose long before the Copper Age, but since then they have been continuously inhabited. Byblos is located in the suburbs of Beirut. The very name of the city suggests that it was once a biblical city and was called Gebal. A Phoenician settlement, in ancient times it was the center of the papyrus trade, and now it is a well-known tourist attraction. It is interesting in that a small number of inscriptions found on ancient artifacts have not yet been deciphered, because this type of proto-biblical writing has no spaces. There are about 100 signs, but there are few inscriptions. The date of the emergence of the next city of Susa is disputed, as well as the largest city of modern Syria, Aleppo - someone believes that these cities already existed in the 7th millennium BC, someone did not.

Closing the list of "ancient"

The birth of subsequent cities date back to the 4th millennium BC. Not all of the most frequently cited lists under the name "Ancient cities of the world" mention the Crimean Feodosia, although in Russia it was considered the "eternal city", since it was founded, according to some sources, in the 6th century BC and was known as Ardabra .

Another ten of the most ancient includes such settlements as the Lebanese Sidon (4 thousand BC). The emergence of the Egyptian Faiyum (Greek Crocodilefield) and the Bulgarian Plovdiv dates back to the same time. Turkish Gaziantep and Lebanese capital Beirut are several centuries younger. Further on the list, the following cities are most often mentioned: Jerusalem, Tire, Erbil, Kirkuk, Jaffa. All of them arose many centuries before our chronology and belong to the "most ancient".

The oldest in Russia

The most common lists under the title "Ancient cities of the world" do not include Derbent, Zurich, or Ningbo, although they have at least 6,000 years of existence behind them. So, Derbent (from the Arabic Bab-al-Abwab - its name - is translated as "gate of the gate" or "big gate"), according to some sources, was already a settlement in the 4th millennium BC. This southernmost city of the Russian Federation already existed in Azerbaijan. Translated from the Azerbaijani language, its name sounds like “closed gates”. It is located in the isthmus between the Caucasus Range and the western shore of the Caspian Sea. This ancient settlement has always been a gateway for caravans traveling from Europe to Asia.

Also "oldest"

For most people, the concept of ancient Europe is associated primarily with Greece. However, Swiss Zurich is much older. The first settlements on its territory arose in 4430-4230 BC, that is, in the 5th millennium.

Closer to our chronology, it was conquered by the Celts, then the settlement became part of the Roman Empire, and at that time it was already mentioned under the name Turicum. The Chinese city of Ningbo, which is directly related to the Hemudu culture that existed in the 5th millennium BC, according to some statements, was already inhabited in the Neolithic era. Archeology does not stand still, and the list of the most ancient cities on the planet will include new names.

Closer to our reckoning

The list of "Ancient cities of the world" is much wider than the "Ancient", because many civilizations belong to the 2nd millennium BC. The location of the settlements that arose in these centuries goes beyond the Middle East. In Europe, these are primarily cities. In this territory, Athens tops the list of “Permanently inhabited cities of the ancient world”. Notes about this city-state also begin with the words that these places were inhabited in the Neolithic era. But Athens is described in detail, starting from the late Helladic period, that is, from 1700-1200 BC. The golden age for this powerful policy began in the middle of the 1st millennium, during the reign of Pericles. The legendary monuments, known to the whole world, were built during this period, which is quite well studied and described by the ancient Greek classics. Such historical evidence as the works of Bacchelides, Hyperides, Menander and Herodes written on papyri have survived to this day. The works of later, world-famous Greek authors formed the basis of the popular "Myths and Legends" by N. Kuhn. Ancient Greek philosophy, science, culture are the foundation of modern knowledge.

Extensive list

The names of the ancient cities of the world are a very extensive list, taking up more than one page, because the period of Antiquity ends in our chronology, has a specific date - 476 AD, indicating the fall of the Western Roman Empire. This period is well studied, and the existence of many cities is documented.

Therefore, from the whole huge list, we can name several settlements known to literally everyone. It will also include cities that have disappeared from the face of the earth, but remained in historical evidence or in the memory of their descendants. These include such great cities of the Ancient World as Babylon and Palmyra, Pompeii and Thebes, Chichen Itza and Ur, Pergamon and Cusco, ancient Greek Knossos and Mycenae, many cities of Asia and other continents. The mysteries of the ruins of these cities are yet to be solved. For example, the mysterious Angkor, lost in the jungle, is the stone heart of Cambodia, rediscovered for the world in the middle of the 19th century, although its history goes back to the second century AD. Or located on the top of a mountain, located at an altitude of 2450 meters above sea level, no less mysterious Machu Picchu. This ancient "city in the sky" is located in Peru.

The highlight of the city

The ancient city of Demre, in comparison with the above settlements, is simply young. The first mention of it dates back to the 5th century (not the millennium) BC. But Known in ancient times under the name of Mira, it is famous not only for its unusual architectural monuments, but first of all for the fact that Saint Nicholas studied, lived and became famous here, he is also Nicholas the Pleasant, the Wonderworker, he is also Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus. The most wonderful tradition of giving New Year's gifts came from this city. The initiator was St. Nicholas, the first Bishop of Mira. The ancient city of Demre is a very popular tourist attraction.

The route "Demre-Mira-Kekova" is in great demand. The city has preserved a beautiful ancient Roman theater, the size of which allows one to judge the importance of this large seaside center in antiquity. Kekova is an island. It is notable for the fact that its shores are a continuation of the walls of the city sunk as a result of the earthquake. The modern city of Demre, which is the center of the province of the same name in Turkey, is very good.

Very short list

Ancient cities of the world are mysterious and beautiful. The list of the most famous is as follows: Byblos, Jericho and Aleppo, followed by Susa, Damascus, El Faiyum and Plovdiv. It would be fair to indicate Derbent and Zurich, the "eternal city" of Rome, as well as several settlements of ancient China (Ningbo, Changsha, Changzhou and others).

The disappeared Babylon, Palmyra, Pompeii, Ur and Mycenae complete this more than modest list of cities of antiquity. Ancient Persian Persipolis boasts unique sights. At one time it was the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, which founded a huge state in the 6th-5th centuries BC, later conquered by Alexander the Great. All ancient cities are surrounded by legends, which are very interesting to get acquainted with.