Most of them are Arab.. The 10 oldest cities around the world are still inhabited

Throughout history, thousands of cities were established that were inhabited by humans and then abandoned for some reason, so they disappeared and only their ruins remained, but some of those historical cities have preserved the flame of life in them and have continued since their founding until now.

In this article, we chose to talk about the 10 oldest cities in the world that have been inhabited by humans since their founding.

We used reliable sources to verify the information.

Such as the website of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Encyclopaedia Britannica website, along with many other reliable sites. The reader may be surprised that most of the cities that are distinguished by their historical seniority and their remaining inhabited through thousands of years until now are Arabs, and it may surprise you how old these cities are, and let's start the journey.

10- Jerusalem / Palestine (6000 years)

Archaeological evidence shows that Jerusalem has been inhabited since at least the fourth millennium BC.

The first known permanent settlement in the city dates back to the Early Bronze Age between 3000 and 2800 BC, while physical evidence of settlement was found in the Chalcolithic period (4500-3400 BC).

The end of the Bronze Age (about 1200 BC) saw the conquest of the New Kingdom of Egypt (under the rule of Thutmose III) and many Egyptian artifacts are still found in excavations at this level.

As a city sacred to Muslims, Christians and Jews, it has always carried great symbolic importance, and among its 220 historical landmarks, the Dome of the Rock, built in the seventh century, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which was built in 335 AD, stand out.

Given its long history and religious importance, it is estimated that Jerusalem was destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, occupied and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times, according to the British Telegraph website.

It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

9- Sidon / Lebanon (6000 years old)

Sidon has been inhabited since it was built by the Phoenicians around 4000 BC, and its location on an important port on the Mediterranean Sea made it one of the most important Phoenician cities.

The city has been occupied by many of the world's great empires, including the Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Ottomans.

The people of Sidon were famous for their handicrafts of glass, and its people were the first peoples of the world to know the use of murex shells in dyeing.

Sidon remains to this day a major center for fishing, market and trade in the region.

8- Athens / Greece 6000 BC

The ancient city of Athens has been continuously inhabited by humans since the Neolithic period towards the end of the fourth millennium BC, but became the forerunner of ancient Greece between 1300 and 1200 BC as part of the Mycenaean civilization (the Mycenaean civilization flourished in the late Bronze Age around 1700-1100 BC). birth).

Athens survived its burning by the Persian invaders in 480 BC, in addition to its occupation by the Spartans during the Second Peloponnesian War in the fourth century BC, and Philip II of Macedon in 338 BC.

The city of Athens escaped being burned by the Persian invaders in 480 BC (Shutterstock)

7. Plovdiv, Bulgaria (6,000 years old)

The second largest city in Bulgaria in terms of area, and it is one of the oldest cities in Europe, dating back to about 4 thousand years BC.

And it was called Plovdiv in the 15th century, while before that it was called the city of Philippe;

Named after the Roman Emperor Philip, father of Alexander the Great, who conquered it in 342 BC.

The ancient city has a tumultuous history of invasion and occupation over the centuries by Persians, Greeks, Celts, Romans, Goths, Huns, Vikings, Crusaders and Ottomans, according to the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Russian and Eastern European Studies.

Today, with a population of nearly 350,000, Plovdiv is a major cultural center of Europe, according to World Population magazine.

Plovdiv is one of the oldest cities in Europe, dating back to about 4 thousand years BC (Getty Images)

5- Shushan / Iran (6200 years old)

Susa, or Shush, is currently located at the base of the Zagros Mountains in southwestern Iran, and has been inhabited for centuries. It is one of the oldest cities in the Middle East.

The city dates back to 4200 BC, and an archaeological site on the borders of the modern city of Shushan contains multiple layers of urban settlements that include Elamite, Parthian and Persian civilizations, and has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The city of Shushan contains the play "The People of Persia", which is the oldest preserved play in human history by the Roman writer Aeschylus, and today its population is more than 52 thousand people, according to the World Population Review.

6- Argos/Greece (7,000 years old)

Argos is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and the oldest in Europe, and served as a major stronghold during the Mycenaean era.

In the sixth century BC, the city entered into a conflict with Sparta that lasted two centuries and ended with the victory of Sparta.

Which led to the decline in the importance of Argos.

Under Roman rule, Argos became important again and flourished during the Byzantine era.

At one point, the Greek government considered moving the capital to Argos, but eventually chose Athens in 1834.

Argos almost at one time became the capital of Greece, but the choice ultimately fell on Athens (Getty Images)

4- Fayoum / Egypt (7000 years)

The Egyptian city of Fayoum is one of the oldest cities in the world, and currently occupies an area on the Nile River that has hosted human settlements for thousands of years, including the city of Shedet.

Archaeological evidence showed that the area supported agricultural societies from around 5000 BC, while the settlement of Shedat (present-day Fayoum) was founded between 2686 and 2181 BC.

The ancient Egyptians called it "built", which means the island, because at the time of its formation it was located in Lake Morris (currently Lake Qarun), and its religious name was "Bir Sebek", which means the house of the crocodile, because it was the idol of the people of Fayoum in the past, and that is why the Romans called it "Crocodilepolis". Meaning crocodile city.

There are Pharaonic monuments in Fayoum, such as the pyramids of Lahoun and Hawara. It also includes a number of antiquities of the Greek and Roman civilizations, as well as Coptic and Islamic antiquities. The city also includes the largest museum that contains fossils of extinct creatures such as dinosaurs.

Archaeological evidence showed that Faiyum supported agricultural societies around 5000 BC (Reuters)

3- Byblos / Lebanon (10,000 years old)

The ancient city of Byblos in Lebanon is located on a sandstone cliff along the Mediterranean coast, 40 kilometers north of Beirut.

The ruins of many successive civilizations were found in Byblos, which is one of the oldest Phoenician cities, and is directly linked to the history and spread of the Phoenician alphabet.

The city has been inhabited since the Neolithic period, when it was built on a site where a community of hunter-gatherers first settled in 8000 BC, according to UNESCO.

According to archaeological research, the Byblos region has been inhabited since the Neolithic period between 8800 and 7000 BC, and like all ancient cities, it was inhabited by many peoples of ancient civilizations, such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans who built there one of the largest Roman theaters.

During the ancient Egyptian period, Byblos became a major trading center, as the city was the main source of rice and valuable timber for Egypt, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

2- Jericho / Palestine (11000-11600 years ago)

The Palestinian city of Jericho is located near the Jordan River, and although the exact date of Jericho's founding is unknown, it is believed to be the oldest inhabited city on earth, as archaeological excavations indicate that the oldest settlement in the region dates back to between 9600 and 9000 BC.

The inhabitants of Jericho have been known since the dawn of history as the Canaanites, and they are the original inhabitants of Palestine, and Jericho contains a large number of monuments belonging to the stone man.

Archaeological evidence documented 23 layers of ancient sites and civilizations there dating back to the tenth millennium BC.

During the excavations, traces of visits by hunters from the Middle Stone Age, dating back to around 9000 BC, were discovered, in addition to the ancient ruins of a huge stone wall, confirming that Jericho is also the oldest known walled city in the world.

Incredibly, Jericho has remained inhabited - and dry - throughout history, despite its location below sea level.

This fact also makes the city the lowest permanently inhabited site on Earth.

1- Damascus (12,000 years old)

While no one knows for sure when Damascus was founded, archaeologists mostly agree that the first settlement within the area of ​​the city walls dates back to at least the third millennium BC.

However, people may have inhabited Damascus much earlier, as there is archaeological evidence in the Tal Ramad area on the outskirts of Damascus indicating that the city was inhabited from 10,000 to 8,000 BC, according to Oldust.org, making it one of the The oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Therefore, although other cities compete for this title - especially Jericho and Byblos - many scholars believe that Damascus is the oldest inhabited city in the world.

Damascus was part of the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic civilizations, and each of these civilizations left their traces behind in Damascus through the architecture and cultural traditions that still exist throughout the city.

other cities

In addition to these ten cities, there are other cities steeped in antiquity that have been inhabited since their founding until now, including the city of

in Turkey, which dates back to a period between 5,000 and 6,000 years,

in Syria, which dates back to about 5,300 years, and

in Egypt .

Its founding dates back to 5,200 years ago, and

in Lebanon, which dates back to 5,000,000 years ago, and Babylon in Iraq, which dates back to 4,000 years ago.