{"id":3923096,"date":"2025-12-07T09:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T14:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/here-are-11-of-the-oldest-cities-ever-built-on-earth\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T09:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T14:04:07","slug":"here-are-11-of-the-oldest-cities-ever-built-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/here-are-11-of-the-oldest-cities-ever-built-on-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Here Are 11 Of The Oldest Cities Ever Built On Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>When you think about the oldest settlements and cities on Earth, a few of us are aware of the fact that some of these cities date back to times before history was even written.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><script>(function(d, s, id) {<br \/>\nif (d.getElementById(id)) return;<br \/>\nvar js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;<br \/>\njs.src = '\/\/cdn4.wibbitz.com\/static.js';<br \/>\nd.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].appendChild(js);<br \/>\n}(document, 'script', 'wibbitz-static-embed'));<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Depending on the definition of a city, we can discuss a number of ancient settlements that could rightfully compete for the title of the oldest city on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>If we take a look what textbooks have to say, a city is usually defined as being a large populated urban center of commerce and administration, ruled by a system of laws, while regulated with means of sanitation.<\/p>\n<p>And while this may be a really basic definition of a city, other factors such as population, number of buildings, level of government, the presence of walls and fortification, and the density of buildings\/population.<\/p>\n<p>In ancient times, a city was mostly described as an urban center of dense population, featuring a specific pattern of buildings.<\/p>\n<p>Professor <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.public.asu.edu\/~mesmith9\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">M. E. Smith of Arizona State University<\/a><\/strong> writes in\u00a0<strong><em>The Sage Encyclopedia of Urban Studies<\/em><\/strong>: The demographic definition, based on the concepts of Louis Wirth, identifies\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ancient.eu\/cities\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>cities<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0as large, dense settlements with social heterogeneity\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Based on the above definitions, I\u2019ve gathered a list of 11 of the oldest cities erected on Earth.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Damascus is arguably the oldest of them all<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Damascus is now the capital of the Syrian Arab Republic and is considered the countries largest city. Damascus has an extensive history and according to scholars, the early stages of the city date back to around <strong>10,000 BC<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The ancient city of Damascus was recognized as a significant cultural, commercial and administrative center for thousands of years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jericho, nearly as old as Damascus<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30513\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30513\" style=\"width: 1005px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30513\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ancient-code.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Jericho.jpg\" alt=\"Jericho\" width=\"1005\" height=\"670\" title=\"Here Are 11 Of The Oldest Cities Ever Built On Earth 2\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30513\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The ruins of the city of Jericho<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>According to reports, archaeologists\u00a0have successfully excavated the ruins of as many as twenty successive settlements in Jericho, dating back more than 11,000 years. The city is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth, and the first people settled there as early as 9,000 BC.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Eridu\u2014the oldest city on Earth, according to the Sumerian King List?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27902\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ancient-code.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Eridu-Tower.jpg\" alt=\"An artists rendering of a tower in Eridu\" width=\"1005\" height=\"838\" title=\"Here Are 11 Of The Oldest Cities Ever Built On Earth 3\"><\/p>\n<p>We start off with Eridu, located in modern-day Iraq. This city was long considered the earliest city in southern Mesopotamia and is still today argued as being the oldest city in the world. Experts argue that Eridu could mean either mighty place of guidance place.<\/p>\n<p>It is mentioned in the Sumerian King List: \u201cIn Eridu,\u00a0Alulim\u00a0became king; he ruled for 28800\u00a0years.\u00a0Alalngar\u00a0ruled for 36000\u00a0years. 2 kings; they ruled for 64800\u00a0years. Then Eridu fell and the kingship was taken to\u00a0Bad-tibira.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The ancient city of Eridu was considered the birthplace of humanity.<\/p>\n<p>According to the\u00a0<strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sumerian_King_List\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sumerian King List<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Eridu was the first city in the World. The opening line reads,<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201c[nam]-lugal an-ta \u00e8d-d\u00e8-a-ba<\/em><br \/>\n<em>[eri]du<sup>ki<\/sup>\u00a0nam-lugal-la\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When kingship from heaven was lowered,<br \/>\nthe kingship was in Eridu.<\/p>\n<p>In\u00a0<strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sumerian_mythology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sumerian mythology<\/a><\/strong>, Eridu was said to be one of the five cities built before the\u00a0Deluge\u00a0occurred. The city is believed to have been founded in <strong>5400 BC<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Varanasi India\u2014an ancient city founded by a God<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>India is the birthplace of many incredible things. Rightfully, India holds one of the most incredible histories in the world. According to Hindu Legend, the ancient city of Varanasi is at least <strong>5,000 years old<\/strong> and is considered one of the first cities to appear on Earth. Despite legends suggesting the city dates back more than 5,000 years, evidence of habitation goes back around 3,000 years.<\/p>\n<p>According to Hindu mythology, Varanasi was founded by the god\u00a0<strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shiva\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Shiva<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Byblos\u2014From where the English word \u2018Bible\u2019 is derived from<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Byblos is considered by many authors cradle of many civilizations. This ancient city is considered the oldest of Phoenicia and is believed to have been continuously inhabited for at least <strong>5,000 years<\/strong>, although signs of occupation date back even longer.<\/p>\n<p>The English word Bible is derived from Byblos, as the city was an important port where papyrus was exported from.<\/p>\n<p>The city was founded as Gebal by the Phoenicians, and its current name was given to the city by the Greeks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Uruk\u2014the Legendary City of Gilgamesh<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_34118\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34118\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-34118\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ancient-code.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Gilgamesh.jpg\" alt=\"A statue of Gilgamesh.\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" title=\"Here Are 11 Of The Oldest Cities Ever Built On Earth 4\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-34118\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gilgamesh statue at Sydney University (Samantha\/Flickr\/Creative Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Uruk rightfully competes in the list as one of the oldest cities on Earth. Founded by the king Enmerkar, the Sumerian King List mentions a king of Eanna before him, the epic\u00a0<strong><em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Enmerkar_and_the_Lord_of_Aratta\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0relates that Enmerkar constructed the\u00a0<strong><em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eanna\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">House of Heaven<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0for the goddess\u00a0<strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Inanna\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Inanna<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in the Eanna District of Uruk.<\/p>\n<p>In the\u00a0<strong><em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Epic_of_Gilgamesh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Epic of Gilgamesh<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, Gilgamesh builds the city wall around Uruk and is king of the city.<\/p>\n<p>Archeologists have discovered multiple cities of Uruk built atop each other in chronological order.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Uruk XVIII Eridu period (c <strong>5000<\/strong><strong>BC<\/strong>); the founding of Uruk<\/li>\n<li>Uruk XVIII-XVI Late Ubaid period (4800\u20134200\u00a0BC)<\/li>\n<li>Uruk XVI-X Early Uruk period (4000\u20133800\u00a0BC)<\/li>\n<li>Uruk IX-VI Middle Uruk period (3800\u20133400\u00a0BC)<\/li>\n<li>Uruk V-IV Late Uruk period (3400\u20133100\u00a0BC); The earliest monumental temples of Eanna District are built<\/li>\n<li>Uruk III Jemdet Nasr period (3100\u20132900\u00a0BC); The 9\u00a0km city wall is built<\/li>\n<li>Uruk II<\/li>\n<li>Uruk I<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Aleppo\u2014currently the second largest city in Syria<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The ancient City of Aleppo is a treasure-trove of history. The city has barely been excavated by experts since the modern city occupies its ancient city. According to reports, the ancient city of Aleppo was inhabited since around <strong>5,000 BC<\/strong>, as excavations in Tallet Alsauda have shown.<\/p>\n<p>The ancient city was of great importance and evidence of that is that fact that Aleppo appears in historical records much earlier than Damascus.<\/p>\n<p>The first record of Aleppo comes from the third millennium BC, in the\u00a0<strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ebla_tablets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ebla tablets<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0when Aleppo was referred to as\u00a0<strong>Ha-lam. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Alexander_the_Great\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alexander the Great<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0took over the city in 333 BC.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Arbil\u2014an ancient city a few have heard of<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Locally called\u00a0<b>Hawler<\/b>\u00a0by the\u00a0<a class=\"mw-redirect\" title=\"Kurdish people\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kurdish_people\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Kurdish people<\/strong><\/a>, the ancient city of\u00a0Arbil is the modern-day capital of Iraqi Kurdistan and is one of the largest cities in modern-day Iraq. According to archaeological evidence, human settlement at Arbil (aka Erbil) can be traced back to around <strong>5,000 BC<\/strong>, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements of the world.\u00a0Erbil was an integral part of\u00a0<strong><a title=\"Assyria\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Assyria\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Assyria<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0from around 2050 BC, becoming a relatively important city during the\u00a0<strong><a title=\"Old Assyrian Empire\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Old_Assyrian_Empire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Old Assyrian Empire<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Athens\u2014the birthplace of Western civilization<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The ancient city of Athens is considered as being not only the birthplace of western civilization but the homeplace of philosophy and critical thinking.<\/p>\n<p>The city of Athens has been continuously inhabited for around <strong>7,000 years<\/strong> while the oldest human occupation in the surrounding area dates back between the 11<sup>th<\/sup> and 7<sup>th<\/sup> millennium BC.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Argos\u2014home of the Pheidonian measures<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to experts, the ancient city of Argos was inhabited continuously since at least 5,000 BC. In Greek Mythology, Argos was the son of Zeus. The city is famous for the introduction of measures that set the standards for an accepted system.<\/p>\n<p>The city has been cycling between village and city status for 7,000 years. According to scholars, the recorded history of the city begins in the latter 1st millennium BC.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, Argos is considered to be the origins of the ancient Macedonian royal Greek house of the\u00a0<strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Argead_dynasty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Argead dynasty<\/a><\/strong>, whose most celebrated members were <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Philip_II_of_Macedon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Philip II of Macedon<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Alexander_the_Great\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alexander the Great<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Crocodilopolis\u2014yeah that\u2019s a name and it is most likely the oldest city in ancient Egypt<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Crocodilopolis or if you wish Shedet, or more commonly Faiyum was founded around <strong>4,000 BC<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The ancient city was homeplace of the worship of the Crocodile God Sobek. The ancient city was established on the Nile river, located southwest of Memphis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ancient-code.com\/here-are-11-of-the-oldest-cities-ever-built-on-earth\/\" target=\"_blank\">Go to Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n<p>When you think about the oldest settlements and cities on Earth, a few of us are aware of the fact that some of these cities date back to times before history was even written.<\/p>\n<p>(function(d, s, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) return; var js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = &#8216;\/\/cdn4.wibbitz.com\/static.js&#8217;; d.getElementsByTagName(&#8216;body&#8217;)[0].appendChild(js); }(document, &#8216;script&#8217;, [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3923096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-code","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3923096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3923096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3923096\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3923096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3923096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3923096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}