‘Ayn as Sulţān

Jericho has several important distinctions. It is acknowledged as the oldest city in the world, dating back 11,000 years. It has the oldest city or protective wall. That's the one Joshua and company are said to have destroyed. It sits at the lowest elevation, 260 meters below sea level, of any city.
Most of the pictures are taken at Tell es-Sultan, the archaeological site at the 1st permanent settlement here. The 1st picture is at the edge of the archaeological site. The prophet, Elisha, is said to have made unusable water here become potable. An adjacent pump house still sends water from this spring to the city. The 2nd picture looks down into what is known as trench 1 of the archaeological site. The bottom dates back to about 9,000 BCE. The round stone structure in the center is a silo.
The next 3 pictures are all of the archaeology. The 3rd picture looks across part of the site and over a bit of modern Jericho to Jordan across the river. The 4th picture is of a residential area, and the 5th picture is a small section of that protective city wall.
The last picture is taken from Tell es-Sultan. You may recall that Jesus was baptized in the Jordan just a bit down stream from Jericho (see posts of the site from the Jordanian side). This picture is of the Mount of Temptation where tradition holds that Jesus met the devil after his 40 days in the wilderness after his baptism. At the far left is a small bit of a monastery that includes caves that are said to be where Jesus spent at least some of those 40 days.Les mer