Quick facts

The name

The site is known as Tell es-Sultan after the neighbouring spring of Ain es-Sultan, and as Ancient Jericho because it is the site of the first city before settlement moved to the location of modern Jericho. Researchers consider the name "Jericho" (Ariha) to be Canaanite in origin, linked to the moon or to the sweet scent of its orchards, and its people call it the "City of the Moon".

Location and Ain es-Sultan

The tell lies on the western side of the Jordan Valley, north of the Dead Sea, about a kilometre and a half north of the centre of Jericho, in the lowest inhabited place on earth. Beside it flows Ain es-Sultan, the perennial spring by which humans founded their first permanent settlements, and which, after rehabilitation, still waters Jericho and its orchards today. Nearby are the Monastery of the Temptation (Deir Quruntul), the Umayyad Hisham's Palace and the Ain es-Sultan refugee camp.

History: from the Natufians to the Canaanites

• 11th–10th millennium BC (Natufian period): hunter-gatherers set up seasonal camps by Ain es-Sultan, and the earliest archaeological layers in the tell date to about 10,500 BC.
• 9th–8th millennium BC (Pre-Pottery Neolithic): the site became a large permanent farming settlement, surrounded by a wall and ditch and with a massive stone tower, in one of humanity's first experiments in settled life and agriculture.
• Early and Middle Bronze Age (3400–1550 BC): a Canaanite city flourished on the tell, its remains revealing advanced urban planning; in the Middle Bronze Age it became a large Canaanite city-state with innovative earthen rampart fortifications.
• Later periods: settlement gradually moved to the neighbouring plain, where Roman, Byzantine and then Islamic Jericho grew up; occupation layers in the area extend to the end of the Byzantine period in the 7th century CE.

The Tower of Jericho and the wall

The tell's most famous landmark is the stone tower from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, some 10,000 years old, one of the oldest monumental structures built by humans. It is a round tower of undressed stone, about eight and a half metres high according to archaeological studies, with a stone staircase inside. The settlement was surrounded by a stone wall and a rock-cut ditch, which made Jericho the oldest known fortified town in the world. Scholars disagree on the tower's purpose, from defence and flood protection to a ritual or social role.

The plastered skulls

Human skulls coated in plaster were found in the tell, with facial features remodelled and shells set in place of the eyes, alongside Neolithic statues. These finds reveal an early development in religious beliefs and in rituals honouring the dead and the ancestors among Jericho's first inhabitants.

Excavations

The tell has been excavated for more than a century by successive foreign expeditions since the late 19th century, revealing 29 phases of occupation. Some early excavations destroyed parts of the structures, and many finds were taken out of Palestine. Since 1997 a joint Palestinian-Italian expedition of the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and Sapienza University of Rome has worked on the site, carrying out excavation, conservation and preparation of the site for visitors.

World Heritage inscription

On 17 September 2023, at the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, UNESCO inscribed "Ancient Jericho / Tell es-Sultan" on the World Heritage List as a site in the State of Palestine, under criteria (iii) and (iv), recognising its role in the transition to settled farming life in the Fertile Crescent and in the emergence of urban culture in the Levant. It joined Palestine's other inscribed sites: the Church of the Nativity and the Pilgrimage Route in Bethlehem, Battir, and the old city of Hebron; the Monastery of St. Hilarion (Tell Umm Amer) in Gaza was later inscribed in 2024 during the genocidal war. The inscription angered the occupation authorities, while the Palestinian presidency and Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed it, the ministry calling for Palestinian sites to be protected from deliberate damage by the occupation.

The site today (2026)

The tell is managed as a national archaeological park under the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, and visitors can see the tower, the wall and excavation trenches, and take the cable car from nearby up to the Monastery of the Temptation. The site needs protection and conservation work, especially the Bronze Age earthen fortifications. Tourism in Jericho has fallen sharply since the genocidal war on Gaza, because of the checkpoints and movement restrictions imposed by Israeli forces.

Frequently asked questions

Conclusion

By the spring of Ain es-Sultan, in the lowest place on earth, humans built the first fortified town 10,000 years ago and moved from wandering to farming and settled life. With its tower, its wall and its accumulated layers, Tell es-Sultan remains a witness that Palestine was one of the cradles of human civilisation, and to the roots of a people who still live in Jericho and guard its heritage.