Jericho, town located in theWest Bank. Jericho is one of the earliest continuoussettlements in the world, dating perhaps from about 9000bce. Archaeologicalexcavations have demonstrated Jericho’s lengthy history. The city’s site is of great archaeological importance; it provides evidence of the first development of permanent settlements and thus of the first steps toward civilization.

Early settlement

The Stone Age

Traces have been found of visits ofEpipaleolithic hunter-gatherers, carbon-dated to about 9000bce, and of a long period of settlement by their descendants. By about 8000bce the inhabitants had grown into an organizedcommunity capable of building a massive stonewall around the settlement, strengthened at one point at least by a massive stone tower. The size of this settlement justifies the use of the termtown and suggests a population of some 2,000–3,000 persons. Thus, this 1,000 years had seen movement from ahunting and gathering way of life to full settlement. The development ofagriculture can be inferred from this, andgrains ofcultivated types ofwheat andbarley have been found. Jericho is thus one of the places providing evidence of very early agriculture. It is highly probable that, to provide enough land for cultivation,irrigation had been invented. This firstNeolithicculture ofPalestine was a purelyindigenous development.

These occupants were succeeded about 7000bce by a second group, bringing a culture that was still Neolithic and still not manufacturing pottery, though it was not indigenous. This occupation probably indicates the arrival of newcomers from one of the other centers, possibly in northernSyria, in which the Neolithic way of life based on agriculture had developed. This second Neolithic stage ended about 6000bce.

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For the next 1,000 years there is little evidence of occupation at Jericho. Only about 5000bce did Jericho show the influences of developments that had been taking place in the north, where an ever-increasing number of villages had appeared, still Neolithic but marked by the use ofpottery. The first pottery users of Jericho were, however, primitive compared with their predecessors on the site, living in simple huts sunk in the ground. They were probably mainlypastoralists. Over the next 2,000 years, occupation was sparse and possiblyintermittent.

Biblical Jericho

Jericho is famous in biblical history as the first town attacked by theIsraelites underJoshua after they crossed theJordan River (Joshua 6). After its destruction by the Israelites it was, according to the biblical account, abandoned until Hiel the Bethelite established himself there in the 9th centurybce (1 Kings 16:34). Jericho is mentioned several other times in the Bible.Herod the Great established a winter residence at Jericho, and he died there in 4bce. Excavations conducted in 1950–51 revealed something ofHerodian Jericho: a magnificent façade along the Wadi Al-Qilṭ is probably part of Herod’s palace, and its style illustrates Herod’s devotion toRome. Traces of other fine buildings can be seen in this area, which became the center of Roman and New Testament Jericho, approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) south of that of theOld Testament town. Jericho of the Crusader period was on yet a third site, a mile east of the Old Testament site, and it was there that the modern town would later develop.

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Old Testament Jericho has been identified in the mound known as Tall Al-Sulṭān (Tell es-Sultan; at the source of thecopious spring ʿAyn Al-Sulṭān), which rises 70feet (21 meters) above the surroundingplain; the site was designated a UNESCOWorld Heritage site in 2023. A number of major archaeological expeditions have worked at the site, notably in 1952–58 underKathleen M. Kenyon, director of the British School ofArchaeology inJerusalem; one of the main objectives has been to establish the date of the town’s destruction by the Israelites—a matter of importance for the chronology of theIsraelite entry intoCanaan. Most of the town of the period, including the whole circuit of the town walls, has been removed by erosion; enough survives to show only that there was a town of the period. This may have been destroyed in the second half of the 14th centurybce, but evidence is too scanty for precision. The site was then abandoned until theIron Age. Little trace has been found of the 9th-century-bce occupation attributed to Hiel, but there was a sizable settlement in the 7th centurybce, ending perhaps at the time of the secondBabylonian Exile in 586bce. The site was then finally abandoned, and the later Jerichos grew up elsewhere.

The Islamic and modern periods

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A particularly important remnant fromUmayyad rule is the remains of theKhirbat al-Mafjar, a remarkable 8th-century building complex situated in the Wadi Al-Nuwayʿima, some 3 miles (5 km) north of Jericho. The complex, which originally included apalace,mosque, and bathhouse, was damaged by an earthquake shortly after it was begun and was never completed. Among the best-preserved of its remains are theexquisitemosaic panels and pavements for which the complex is renowned. Although the identity of its patron has been disputed, it has been associated with bothHishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (reigned 724–743) and his nephew, the controversial caliphal-Walīd ibn Yazīd (reigned 743–744).

A minor village inOttoman times, Jericho became a winter resort after the Britishmandate over Palestine was established in the early 1920s. The city underwent major expansion, however, after its incorporation intoJordan in 1949. The establishment in the neighborhood of two enormous camps of Palestinian refugees following the establishment of the State ofIsrael in 1948 brought great activity to the town, which was largely rebuilt; the area of theoasis was expanded by irrigation. The Israeli occupation of the city following theSix-Day War of June 1967, however, resulted in the dispersal of much of therefugee population (seeArab-Israeli wars). Jericho was one of the first of the cities and towns evacuated by Israeli forces and turned over to the administration of thenascentPalestinian Authority in the wake of the 1993Oslo Accords (seetwo-state solution). Pop. (2017) 20,907.