The oldest cities in the world are debated due to varying definitions of a city and continuous habitation. However, some contenders include Byblos, Damascus, Varansi, Medinat Al-Fayoum, Gaziantep, Delhi, Hebron, Athens, Luoyang, Arbil, Kirkuk, Adana, Jerusalem, Hama, Luxor/Thebes, Jaffa, and Aleppo. Jericho and Catal Huyuk are also possible contenders.
Answering which settlements are the oldest cities in the world is full of debate and conjecture. For example, how do you define the city? If the city is defined by population, does it have to be continuously inhabited to qualify as one of the oldest cities in the world? Must the city in the world still exist today?
One way to answer the question of which are the oldest cities in the world is to define the city as a largely populous area and further define that only cities that have been continuously populated count. However, the lists are still a matter of debate even when these two areas are defined.
Despite the controversy, all of these cities are extremely old:
Byblos in present-day Lebanon may date back to 5000 BC and is considered by many to be the oldest continuously populated city.
Damascus in Syria has existed since at least 3000 BC
Varansi in India also dates back to 3000 BC.
Medinat Al-Fayoum in Egypt is probably dated to 4000 BC
Gaziantep in Türkiye dates back to 3650 BC
Delhi, India dates back to around 3500 BC.
Hebron in the West Bank is dated to 3500 BC
Athens in Greece dates back to around 3000 BC.
Luoyang, China dates to about 2070 BC.
Arbil and Kirkuk in Iraq have dates of 2300 and earlier than 3000 BC respectively.
Adana in Türkiye and Jerusalem in Israel were established around 2000 BC.
Hama in Syria was founded before 2000 BC.
Luxor/Thebes in Egypt also dates back to 2000 BC
Jaffa, Israel, and Aleppo, Syria are both approximately 3,800 years old.
There is some controversy about the exclusion of Jericho from the list. In his current location, he is about 3400 years old. However, Jericho is often listed as one of the oldest civilizations, with settlements dating back as far as 11,000 BC. Many call Jericho one of the oldest cities in the world because some settlements were established in or around Jericho after the switch to plant domestication. and animals.
Another possible candidate for the world’s oldest city is Catal Huyuk, a site in Turkey. It also dates from approximately the time Jericho was allegedly founded, or 3,000 years later, depending on different accounts. It is near present-day Konya city, so it has not been continuously inhabited.
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