gaziantep

10 Oldest Cities Around the World

Every city around the world holds some form of mystery of how and when the inhibition happened. Archaeologists the cities listed here to be the oldest and continuously inhabited around the world. We have no idea of how the city would have been during Stone Age and how the civilization would have been. Here, we have listed 10 oldest cities around the world, which can produce a lot more thoughts on your mind than expected.

10. Faiyum, Egypt

faiyum

Faiyum is one of the oldest cities in the world, located in Egypt, about 65 miles southeast of Cairo. The city is considered to be oldest in Egypt, which was founded in 4000 B.C. Formerly during Pharaonic era, the city was called Medinet el Faiyum. In ancient history, the Faiyum city was also known as “Crocodile city”, since the city worshiped a tamed sacred crocodile named “Petsuchos”. Between 309 and 246 BC, Ptolemy II Phuladelphus, the king of Egypt, rechristened the city and after the existence of Christianity, Arsinoe became territorial administrator. The city today consists of bazaars, markets and mosques.

9. Sidon, Lebanon

sidon

Sidon, located about 23 miles south of Beirut, is considered as the third-largest cities in Lebanon. Sidon is an Arabic name that coincides with the modern word “fishery”. The city was inhabited in 4000 BC with intense Lebanese civil war and was considered to be excavated with Hellenistic, Roman and Ottoman remains. People living during these days were highly skilled in arts and embroidery and were very successful producers of glass and purple dyes. With 10,000 inhabitants, Sidon was a small fishing town, but has currently grown to a population over 300,000 as on 2000 survey.

8. Athens, Greece

athens

Athens is one of the world’s oldest city with a span of 3,400 years, located in Africa. The human presence came into existence during 11th and 7th millennia BC. The allegation of Athens’s invasion and destruction during 1200 BC would have left the city into economic decline for around 150 years afterwards. Today Athens is the capital of Greece and is recognized as a global city due its importance towards shipping, finance, entertainment and international trading. In a UBS study, Athens was ranked 29th richest city by purchasing power.

7. Plovdiv, Bulgaria

plovdiv

Plovdiv, located in Bulgaria, is considered to have habitation since 6th millennium BC. With a population of over 300,000, Plovdiv stands to be the second-largest city in Bulgaria. The city was built on seven hills that are 250 meters above sea level, because of which the city is referred as “The City of the Seven Hills”. The city was under the influence of Thracians, a group of Indo-European tribes. At later stages, the city came into the hands of Roman, Greek, Huns, Persians and Turks. Today’s American College of Sofia was originally founded in Plovdiv in 1860, which was then moved in further stages.

6. Gaziantep, Turkey

gaziantep

Gaziantep was formerly and unofficially called as Antep, a very old city 97 kilometers north of Syria. The city is considered as one of the oldest settlements in human history with traces going back to the 4th millennium BC. During medieval history, the city was ruled by Tulunids, which was then taken over by Ottomans. Gaziantep is ranked at 6th for the most populous city in Turkey with population of about 1,465,019. The city has suffered many massacres, genocides, and terror attacks.

5. Susa, Iran

susa

Susa is an ancient city of Iran with the record oldest settlement as early as 4395 BCE. It is located in east of the Tigris River, between the Karkheh and Dev River, in the lower Zagros Mountains about 250 km east. The oldest and first known settlers are considered to be Neolithic villagers in 7000 BCE. Later, Susa came into existence, and erected a temple over the flat surrounding landscape. The Susa community was very proficient in producing ceramic products like beaker, small jar and a serving dish. According to 2005 survey, Susa consisted of a population of about 64,960.

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4. Damascus, Syria

damascus

Damascus is the capital of Syria and is one of the oldest inhabitant cities in the world. As we all know, the city is experiencing heavy terrorism and surgical strikes, which has caused enough damage to the state leading to reduced population. The early settlement in Damascus was in 6300 BC and was later ruled by king Biryawaza. Immediate arrival of Aramaeans led to massive establishment of tunnel networks and water networks.

3. Aleppo, Syria

aleppo

Aleppo, located in Syria is the most populous city in Syria currently with a population of about 2,132,100 as of 2004 census. The city consists of many archaeological heritages, and is considered to have been occupied since 5000 B.C. Even before Damascus, the Aleppo appears in historic records as an important and oldest city in the world. The Aleppo city was under great influence of religion and was referred as Ha-lam from the third millennium BC.

2. Byblos, Lebanon

byblos

Byblos was found between 8800 and 7000 BC, and is considered as the second oldest cities around the world. Byblos is a Mediterranean city in Lebanon, located 42 kilometers north of Beirut. In 1921, archaeologists found layers of debris, eventually presuming the city to be massively old and historic. The first sign of town was observed in 3rd millennium BC and was found by Cronus. Byblos is becoming a tourist spot in recent days due to many historic presence. It was also placed on top as “Arab Tour Capital” in 2016.

1. Jericho, Palestine

jericho

Jericho is the oldest cities as far as the human interventions and inhabitation is into consideration. Located near the Jordan River in the West Bank, the city is governed by the Fatah faction of the Palestinian National Authority. To be very evidence with regards to the oldest cities in the world, Jericho consists of oldest known protective wall in the world, oldest stone tower around the world and the finally the oldest inhibition in the world. The city is as old as 9000BCE and is believed that the archaeologists have extracted about 20 successive layers of remains.

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