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Reference.org
Jericho
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<p>Jericho is a city in the <a href="/facts/West_Bank/xzTTVNJl">West Bank</a>, <a href="/facts/Palestine/XYeHy1af">Palestine</a>, and the capital of the <a href="/facts/Jericho_Governorate/xCo5d2Cq">Jericho Governorate</a> of Palestine. Jericho is located in the <a href="/facts/Jordan_Valley/PVWTEdYb">Jordan Valley</a>, with the <a href="/facts/Jordan_River/dRFFQcxV">Jordan River</a> to the east and <a href="/facts/Jerusalem/PKJ8LT0Y">Jerusalem</a> to the west. It had a population of 20,907 in 2017. </p><p>From the end of the era of <a href="/facts/Mandatory_Palestine/mv0NGUBy">Mandatory Palestine</a>, the city was <a href="/facts/Jordanian_annexation_of_the_West_Bank/6xHJq8Rz">annexed and ruled by Jordan</a> from 1949 to 1967 and, with the rest of the West Bank, has been subject to <a href="/facts/Israeli_occupation_of_the_West_Bank/oW4n3psF">Israeli occupation</a> since 1967; administrative control was handed over to the <a href="/facts/Palestinian_Authority/AhB1P7E7">Palestinian Authority</a> in 1994. </p><p>Jericho is among the <a href="/facts/List_of_oldest_continuously_inhabited_cities/74JX06Jp">oldest cities in the world</a>, and it is also the city with the oldest known <a href="/facts/Defensive_wall/AQYGI8Mh">defensive wall</a>. <a href="/facts/Archaeology/K3Q5P38R">Archaeologists</a> have unearthed the remains of more than 20 successive settlements in Jericho, the first of which dates back 11,000 years (to 9000 BCE), almost to the very beginning of the <a href="/facts/Holocene/sppPgwW5">Holocene</a> epoch of the Earth's history. Copious springs in and around the city have attracted human habitation for thousands of years. Jericho is described in the <a href="/facts/Bible/SqkRTKCh">Bible</a> as the "city of palm trees". </p><p>In 2023, the archaeological site in the center of the city, known as <a href="/facts/Tell_es-Sultan/S6KxLnRu">Tell es-Sultan / Old Jericho</a>, was inscribed in <a href="/facts/UNESCO/QSbkRv3o">UNESCO</a>'s list as a <a href="/facts/World_Heritage_Site/6AbWWKV4">World Heritage Site</a> in the State of Palestine, and described as the "oldest fortified city in the world". </p>