Report about the city of Jericho. Jericho is the most ancient city on Earth. Panorama of modern Jericho, as seen from the Mount of Temptation

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One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, it is mentioned many times in the Bible, where it is also called “the city of palm trees” (Deut. 34:3, Judg. 3:13, 2 Chron. 28:15).

Story

Natufian culture - c. 10,000–9,600 BC BC, seasonal and then permanent sites of Natufian hunters and gatherers.
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A - c. 9500 BC e. –8500 BC e. The buildings of this period are round in shape and built of adobe bricks. The outbreaks were located inside and outside houses. A stone wall was discovered, 3.6 m high and 1.8 m wide at the base. The wall was presumably used for flood protection, and the tower located inside was for religious purposes.

In the Late Bronze Age, Jericho was a prosperous city surrounded by a wall of mud brick. According to one version, the city was destroyed by ancient Jews who invaded around 1550 BC. e.

From that time on, almost nothing was heard about him for a long time, and only during the reign of Ahab did a certain Achiel break the spell and restore it, losing all his sons in the process.

After this, Jericho again took a prominent position and played a significant role in history. He is mentioned by Strabo, Ptolemy, Pliny and others.

Under Constantine the Great, there was a Christian church here, with a bishop at its head.

Over time, Jericho began to decline.

In the 7th century After the conquest of the country by the Arabs, Jews expelled by Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula settled here. During the battles between the Crusaders and Muslims, Jericho was destroyed and lay in ruins until the 19th century.

Modern history

But after the division of the country and the death of Jesus, some Jews were tempted by the idolatry of the surrounding nations. Every time after such a violation of the covenant, the neighboring kings went to war against them and easily defeated them and took the offenders into captivity.

Attractions

The ruins of ancient Jericho lie west of the modern city center. The first traces of human life here date back to the 8th millennium BC. uh

In Jericho, a powerful tower (8 m) of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic era (period A, 8400-7300 BC), burials of the Chalcolithic period, city walls of the Bronze Age, perhaps the same ones that, according to legend, fell from the loud trumpets of the Israelis, were discovered warriors (the famous “Trumpets of Jericho”), the ruins of the winter palace-residence of Herod the Great with baths, swimming pools and luxuriously decorated halls, as well as the mosaic floor of the synagogue of the 5th-6th centuries.

At the foot of the Tel al-Sultan hill there is a source of the prophet Elisha (Elisha), according to whose words, according to the Bible, the undrinkable water of this source “has become healthy to this day” (2 Kings 2:19-22).

3 km north of modern Jericho are the ruins of a Byzantine city and the luxurious palace of the Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (VIII-IX centuries).

To the west of Jericho rises the Forty Days Mountain (Mount of Temptation, Mount Quarantal), where, according to legend, Jesus Christ fasted for forty days, tempted by the devil. Scientists suggest that archaeological treasures comparable to

For a long time, ancient Jericho “hid” from archaeologists - excavations of a hill near the Jordan were carried out since the mid-19th century, but neither Tobler and Robinson nor Warren found anything. A nearby village called Ericha clearly hinted: the city mentioned in the Tanakh was somewhere here! But he was hiding under a hill, and only the German Sellin was lucky enough to find at least something - namely fragments of dishes from the times of Canaan - at the very turn of two centuries - in 1899. He also found “confirmation” of the legend from the Tanakh - fallen city walls! However, the dating of the fall of these very walls is still a big question.

In 1929, the English scientist John Gerstang dug - dug deep! - the remains of a settlement dating back to the Stone Age!

In 1953, Kathleen Kenyon found a fortress dating back to the 8th millennium BC. It was from this moment that Jericho acquired the status of “the oldest city on Earth” - earlier finds did not indicate that there was a city here. The fortress confirmed: the city existed!

Jericho appears to have been built by Pre-Pottery Neolithic people around 8000 BC, making it over 10,000 years old.

Collection of miracles

Now in Jericho you can see the following historical sights:

Strength 8400-7300. BC.
Natufian burials.
The ancient walls of the city (the same ones, conventionally “biblical”), dating back to the Bronze Age.
The ruins of the “winter” palaces of the Hasmoneans and Herod the Great - you can see the ruins of baths and pools, the undoubted influence of ancient Roman culture, which was highly respected by King Herod.
Architectural “fragments” of the city of the Byzantine period.
Hittite building - "Hilani's house".
What remains of the palace of Caliph Hisham al-Malik (the turn of the 8th and 9th centuries AD).

Hisham's Palace (Khirbet al-Mafjar) is one of the historical mysteries of Jericho. The American archaeologist Frederick Bliss first mentioned it, but that was in 1894. And then Jericho had not yet “succumbed” to archaeologists! Only in 1934 (excavations lasted 14 years - until 1948) this miracle of Muslim architecture was revealed to the world. Archaeologist Hamilton argued that the building does not belong to Hisham, but to Walid II, who ruled after him. This issue has not yet been clarified, and the name “Hisham’s Palace” can be considered conditional.

This is an incredibly beautiful architectural complex, damaged by time, but nevertheless still amazing: the Umayyad Caliphate seems to have been rich in artistic talent. The Tree of Life mosaic, located on the floor of one of the baths, is the most beautiful of all known mosaics in the Middle East.

Also in Jericho there are a number of attractions that can conditionally be classified as cult:

Synagogue 1st century BC uh..
Another synagogue - of a later, Byzantine era
Source of the prophet Elisha.
Mount Karantal and the Orthodox monastery of Temptation of the 4th century.
Tree of Zacchaeus.

Fallen walls

In the Tanakh (Old Testament), Jericho is mentioned more than 70 times. And the most spectacular legend dates back to the time after the death of Moses, the great prophet to whom God gave commandments on Mount Sinai. His successor, the leader of the Jewish people Yeshu ben Nun (in the Russian tradition, Joshua) immediately after Moshe’s death spoke with God, and the Creator commanded him to go beyond the Jordan and conquer the lands from the desert to the Euphrates and the sea in the west. Jericho stood in the way of the Jews, and Yeshu - by that time a famous commander - decided to take the city.

For seven days, the Jewish troops marched around the city walls (Yeshu was indeed a very competent military leader - as a result of these actions, the besieged decided that there were too many enemies!). On the seventh day, the Jewish army walked around the city seven times for the last time - the priests walked ahead with the Ark of the Covenant, blowing shofars. Then Yeshu ordered the entire army to shout at the same time - and this is what the walls of the city allegedly could no longer withstand... Yeshu was very different from the stereotypical defenseless Jew from jokes - he ordered the destruction of both the city and all its inhabitants (including the elderly, women, children and livestock). Only one house was not destroyed - the one in which Rahab, a lady of easy virtue, lived. Yeshu highly appreciated her courage - she hid the Jewish scouts he sent.

According to the Oral Torah, Yeshu ben Nun did not limit himself to this attention to the harlot - he married her, and she became the foremother of the prophetess Huldama and the prophets Ermiyahu and Yehezkel.

In the city there is a “house of Rahab”, of course, not a real one, it is a Hittite building, better known as the “house of Hilani”.

Jericho and Christianity

In and near Jericho there are several shrines that are significant for the entire Christian world community.

Mount Karantal (Forty Days, or Mount of Temptation)- according to legend, the place where Jesus was tempted by Satan (or a spirit subordinate to him).

The Monastery of Temptation is located on the mountain. All monastery premises - cells and others - are carved out of stone. There is also a cell that became the Chapel of Temptation - supposedly the same one where Jesus fasted for 40 days. The monastery can be visited by walking up the mountain (about half an hour) or from Jericho by cable car (and you still have to walk another 15 minutes). Today the monastery is empty - the only Greek monk lives there.

Key of Prophet Elisha(in the Russian tradition of Elisha) - the place where Elisha performed a miracle (according to legend, the water of the source was undrinkable, Elisha made it drinkable).

Monastery of St. George Khozevit- one of the most ancient monasteries in the world - is located 5 km from Jericho, in the Kelt Valley. It has existed since the 4th century. AD And, like the Monastery of Temptation, it is located on the rocks; some of the buildings are simply scary to look at - they are on a steep cliff.

The monastery “began” with five Syrian Christian hermits who sought to leave the world and chose as their place of settlement a rock with a cave in which the most famous and popular prophet of the Jewish world, Eliyahu, once lived. Eliyahu lived for three years and six months in a cave, not caring at all about his own existence - but a raven sent by the Lord brought him food. So the five monks were not at all afraid of life in the deserted desert.

In 480, St. arrived in this monastic corner from Egypt. John Khozevit, who, in fact, turned the monastery into a monastery.

Life of the monastery. Zacchaeus tree

Soon the newly formed monastery was replenished with brethren of very different origins - Syrian, Armenian, Georgian, Russian. At the end of the 6th century. St. became the abbot of the monastery. George Khozevit, whose name the monastery still bears. He had to endure terrible events: the Persian raid in 614 turned the monastery into ruins and claimed the lives of 14 monks; the rest simply fled - otherwise they would have suffered the same fate.

George tried to revive the monastery, but it didn’t work out.

The crusaders wanted the same thing - but it didn’t work out for them either. The Knights of the Cross could not show anything by their own example, and without spiritual models no one would voluntarily retire into the desert.

The monastery ceases to exist until the end of the 19th century. - namely, until 1878, when a certain Greek monk named Kalinikos - and with him other brothers of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem - did not pay attention to the destroyed desert monastery. And they didn’t undertake to restore it.

Since 1901, the monastery of St. George Khozevita was resurrected.

The tree of Zacchaeus is the same one that the legendary biblical tax collector supposedly climbed to see Jesus. The story of Zacchaeus is quite funny: although he had great wealth and considerable authority among the townspeople and other tax collectors, he was short in stature. Having learned that the Messiah would pass through his city, he climbed a fig tree to be sure to see him among the huge crowd. Then Jesus himself saw him...

By the way, the tree of Zacchaeus, revered by Orthodox Christians, is not a fig tree, but a sycamore.

City of Jericho today

The history of modern Jericho (Jericho, in modern English pronunciation) reflects, as if in a mirror, the eternal conflict between Eretz Israel and the Arab world. In 1948, during the Israeli War of Independence, it was occupied by the Transjordanian army; at the end of the Six-Day War in 1967, the victors, the Israel Defense Forces, came here.

In 1993, Jericho became part of the newly created Palestinian National Authority.

After the Al-Aqsa Intifada - since 2000 - citizens of the State of Israel are prohibited from appearing in Jericho. Occasionally, the IDF allows entry to tour groups.

Palestinian oasis of Orthodox culture

In 2011, the Russian museum and park complex opened in Jericho, which arose on the land called Russian Palestine, as if “around” the Orthodox shrine - the tree of Zacchaeus. The complex includes:

Museum.
Memorial Park.
Locations of archaeological excavations in 1883-1884, 1891 and 2010.

In the museum you can get acquainted with the history of archaeological research of the 19th and 20th centuries. and unique finds from excavations - in particular, with examples of Christian art of the 6th-17th centuries.

RMPC is located at Jericho, st. Dmitry Medvedev (yes, the Palestinian authorities have a rather poor imagination and a great desire to have good relations with the Russian Federation).

Opening hours:
from 9:00 to 17:00 (daily);
from 17:00 to 21:00 (visiting the museum by prior arrangement).

RMPK on the network: website address of the Russian Museum and Park Complex: http://rmpc-jericho.ru

To the cinema

There is an American television series created in 2006 - “Jericho. City of the Doomed."

It tells the story of life in a small town in Kansas after its residents saw a nuclear mushroom in the sky near the large city of Denver. All communications in the town were out of order, but the population managed to find out that the explosion they saw was not the only one. People are panicking because they feel like they are the only people left alive in America. Under the influence of the fear of death, the worst human qualities “come out” of them.

In fact, it is an American tradition to give even small towns sonorous names of big cities (remember St. Petersburg for Mark Twain, Salem (Jerusalem) for Stephen King). In this series, the name “Jericho” has a symbolic meaning - it meant that this city was also sentenced to destruction, like its famous real-life “namesake.”

How to get there

There is no direct transport from Jerusalem to Jericho; in any case, you will have to make transfers to get there. There are several options:

Through Ramallah, the capital of Palestine. By bus from Jerusalem from the Old City. Minibuses run from Ramallah to Jericho.
Via Abu Dis, the route is the same - minibus.
From other cities - Bethlehem and Hebron, you can get there by minibus from the Allenby Bridge border point with Jordan.

By car - if it is rented in Israel - it is better not to go to Jericho. Please note that Israeli insurance is not valid in the PNA territory.

Let security issues worry you only during obvious aggravations of political conflicts - those who visited Jericho speak of the local population as friendly and not aggressive people.

11 thousand years ago, 30 kilometers northeast of modern Jerusalem, an event occurred that marked a new era in the development of mankind. One of the local tribes, later called the Natufians, unexpectedly stopped wandering around the ancient Levant and settled in a picturesque oasis in the Jordan Valley. Having not yet discovered agriculture, and not knowing how to make ceramics or metal tools, the Natufians nevertheless founded a permanent settlement, which became one of the first cities on the planet. The most amazing thing is the fact that, despite all the many millennia that have passed, it continues to exist in the same place. Onliner.by talks about Jericho, the oldest city on earth.

Until the end of the last ice age, it was difficult for humanity, which eked out a rather miserable existence during it, to organize a more or less large populated area. The unfavorable climate and its regular changes forced representatives of the species homo sapiens to constantly wander from place to place in attempts to find food for themselves and, if lucky, continue the family line. During the glacial maximum (about 22-26 thousand years ago), all of northern Europe lay under ice, including even a fragment of the territory of the modern Vitebsk region of Belarus.

For example, the unfortunate Neanderthals, representatives of an alternative modern branch of human development, also became victims of this glaciation. Fortunately for all of us, any cold spell, no matter how eternal it may seem, is inevitably followed by a warm period, which happened again around 10,000 BC. A new, most important era is beginning in the development of mankind - the Neolithic, when our distant ancestors finally moved from appropriating the gifts of nature (hunting and gathering) to their independent production. Thanks to improved climatic conditions, people discovered agriculture, learning to ensure their own food security by cultivating crops that are healthy for the body, such as cereals. The main center of this civilizational leap was the Middle East in general and the Levant (present-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria) in particular - a territory that descendants called the “Fertile Crescent”.

Agriculture was a natural consequence of the transition to a sedentary lifestyle. The inhabitants of the Middle East were able to organize more or less permanent settlements, but few of those early Neolithic proto-cities are still inhabited today. One of these settlements arose near the Dead Sea in an oasis located in the Jordan Valley in modern Palestine.

It should immediately be noted that the age of many ancient cities, especially those that appeared long before the beginning of the written history of mankind, is a debatable issue and lies primarily in the area of archeology. Of course, there can be no talk about any exact dating of their origin - scientists in this case are forced to operate over centuries and even millennia. Several settlements (for example, Syrian Damascus or Lebanese Jbeil) claim the status of the most ancient more or less continuously inhabited city on the planet, but even with serious competitors, Palestinian Jericho stands out among them.

“And the trumpets sounded, the people shouted with a loud voice, and because of this the wall fell down to its foundations, and the army entered the city, and they took the city.”

This is the famous story of the capture of Jericho by the troops of the Jews heading to the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua - the first significant event where this settlement is mentioned in the Bible. The walls of the then prosperous city were destroyed thanks to the very trumpets of Jericho (and the loud voice of the people), and this famous legend was usually dated to 1400 BC.

The sensational discovery made in the 1950s by the outstanding British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon stunned the scientific and religious community. Working at Tel es-Sultan ("Sultan's Hill") on the outskirts of modern Jericho, Kenyon first excavated the remains of the biblical city. After conducting an appropriate analysis of the finds, it turned out that by 1400 BC, Jericho, which was supposedly about to fall from the sound of a trumpet, had already been in ruins for at least 150 years. But it wasn’t even this debunking of yet another myth that shocked us the most.

Continuing her work, Kenyon discovered a city on the planet that dates back to the very beginning of the Neolithic, a period when it would seem there was still no talk of modern-type human settlements.

Quite recently (in the archaeological sense, of course) another ice age ended. The vast majority of the planet's population had not yet had time to appreciate the benefits of this and begin to live in a new way, and in the sands of the future Judean Desert a settlement arose with an area of 2.5 hectares, in which about 2-3 thousand people lived. The most striking thing was the fact that this proto-city, from which Jericho later grew, already 10 thousand years ago, when the ancestors of modern Belarusians still obtained food with the help of digging sticks, was surrounded by a fortress wall.

The Neolithic revolution (the transition to the domestication of animals and plants) had not yet taken place; the inhabitants of this settlement did not yet know ceramics, but the picturesque nature, favorable climate and the presence of several sources of fresh water allowed them to create a community that was stable for many generations, and also lived in conditions that can (with some stretch, of course) be called urban.

The settlement was surrounded by a wall with a height of 3.7 to 5.2 meters and a thickness of up to one and a half meters. In front of the wall there was a ditch 2.7 meters deep. Inside the perimeter were several dozen round brick buildings on limestone foundations, each containing several rooms. There was no street network yet, the development was chaotic, but archaeological data testified to a level of labor organization and social structure unprecedented for the era (8500-8000 BC).

The inhabitants of Jericho subsequently quickly moved from collecting wild cereals to cultivating wheat and barley, from hunting to cattle breeding, and domesticated dogs (their burials were found right inside the buildings). At the same time, their life was surprisingly peaceful: even that very wall, probably the earliest surviving structure of its type on earth, did not have defensive functions, but served as protection against floods. At the very least, no archaeological evidence of military activity was found during this period.

The most amazing discovery was a round tower built into the wall with a diameter of 9 meters and a height of 8.5 meters with an internal staircase of 22 steps. It was also not built for defense, but, apparently, had exclusively ceremonial functions. According to researchers from Tel Aviv University, during the solar solstice (June 20 or 21), the shadow from the nearest mountain fell first on this tower, after which it covered the rest of the city. Thus, this structure probably symbolized the beginning of the lengthening of the nights, was a kind of astronomical instrument and, most likely, the central element of some ritual like the Slavic Kupala.

The walls of Jericho Tel es-Sultan and especially its tower, the most complex engineering structure for a Neolithic man, are perhaps the oldest buildings on the planet that have survived in a still inhabited city. Ten thousand years ago, when they were born, before the construction, for example, of the Great Egyptian Pyramids in Giza, there was still a long five and a half thousand years left.

The proto-city of Jericho, which became one of the cradles of modern human civilization, continued to exist quite successfully with minor interruptions for many centuries. This prosperous settlement, whose inhabitants eventually moved from subsistence agriculture to salt mining in the Dead Sea basin, was destroyed around 1550 BC, which is usually associated with the above-mentioned Old Testament legend of Joshua, the seven Israelite priests, the Ark of the Covenant and the Jericho pipes By that time, the settlement had grown, and a new double wall system took the place of the Neolithic fortifications. This is what Jericho looked like in the mid-Bronze Age, which fell victim to the resettlement of Jews from Egypt.

The Jewish city that arose on its ruins was destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar at the beginning of the 6th century BC, but the fertile Jordanian oasis was too tasty a place to be completely abandoned. Despite numerous waves of conquest, Jericho was revived again and again until, in ancient times, just before the advent of the new era, it became the residence of Herod the Great.

The remains of the palace of the Jewish king, who preferred to move here for the winter from Jerusalem, are now the second main attraction of Jericho after the Neolithic city at Tel es-Sultan. Under Herod, a hippodrome appeared here, and under him, a system of aqueducts was built, which has partially survived to this day.

Here are also the ruins of one of the oldest known synagogues on the planet (70-50 BC).

Jericho also occupies an important place in the New Testament. On the northwestern outskirts of the city there is a small (380 meters) Mount Carantal, Mount of Temptation or Forty Day Mountain. It was here in one of the caves where, according to the gospels, Jesus Christ fasted for 40 days after baptism, the devil tried to tempt him three times.

Now a Greek Orthodox monastery has been built in this significant place for all Christians. The main object of worship in the cave itself, where the events described in the gospels took place, is the stone on which Jesus allegedly sat personally during his temptation.

Pilgrims arriving at Mount Temptation can conquer the peak on foot or take advantage of a relatively recently (and for some reason Japanese) cable car, which offers panoramic views of modern Jericho and the surrounding area.

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City
Arab. أريحا ‎, Hebrew. ‏יריחו‏‎

31°51′22″ n. w. 35°27′47″ E. d.
Administration	Palestinian National Authority
Status	provincial capital
Provinces
History and geography
Based	approx. XCVI century BC e.
Square	59 km²
Center height	−275 ± 1 m
Timezone	UTC+2, in summer UTC+3
Population
Population	20,416 people (2006)
Nationalities	Palestinian Arabs
Official language	Arabic
Digital IDs
Telephone code	(+970) 02
jericho-city.org

Jericho, Arikha(Arabic: أريحا‎, Ariha; Hebrew ‏יְרִיחוֹ ‏‎, Yeriḥo; Greek Ίεριχώ , Jericho listen)) is a city in the territory of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), in the West Bank. It is the capital of the province of Jericho, population 20,416 Palestinians (2006). Located in the north of the Judean Desert, approximately 7 km west of the Jordan River, 12 km northwest of the Dead Sea and 30 km northeast of.

One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, according to a number of researchers, the oldest of them. Mentioned many times in the Bible, where it is also called "city of palm trees"(Hebrew ‏‏‎ Ir ha-Tmarim) (Deut. 34:3, Judg. 3:13, 2 Chron. 28:15).

Suburbs of Jericho

Sights of Jericho

The ruins of ancient Jericho lie west of the modern city center. The first traces of human life here date back to the 8th millennium BC. e. A powerful tower (8 m) from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (8400-7300 BC), burials from the Chalcolithic period, Bronze Age city walls associated with the biblical story of the “Trumpets of Jericho”, ruins of winter palaces have been discovered here. Hasmonean royal winter palaces) of the Hasmonean and Herod the Great dynasties with baths, swimming pools and sumptuously decorated halls. On the territory of the palace complex there is one of the oldest synagogues in Israel. Wadi Qelt), dating back to the 1st century BC. BC, a synagogue from the Byzantine period with a well-preserved mosaic floor was found nearby. At the foot of the Tel al-Sultan hill there is a source of the prophet Elisha, according to whose word, according to the Bible, the water of this source is undrinkable “I became healthy to this day”(2 Kings 2:19-22). Scientists suggest that archaeological treasures comparable to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt are hidden in the surrounding hills.
3 km north of the modern city are the ruins of a Byzantine city and the luxurious palace of the Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (VIII-IX centuries).
To the west of Jericho rises the Forty Day Mountain ( Mount of Temptation, Mount Carantal), where, according to legend, Jesus Christ fasted for forty days, tempted by the devil. Now the Orthodox Monastery of Temptation is located on this site.
In Jericho, according to local legend, the tree of Zacchaeus has been preserved. The fig tree mentioned in the Gospel is located on land owned by the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society. On the site where, according to legend, the house of Zacchaeus was located, the Compound of John the Baptist in Jericho of the Russian Spiritual Mission is currently located.

Monastery of Temptation near Jericho

Biblical story “The Capture of Jericho” (Joshua)

After the death of Moses in the desert, God appeared to Joshua and ordered him to lead the people and cross the Jordan with them into the Promised Land: “Every place [in the Promised Land] on which the soles of your feet will set, I give to you, as I said to Moses [ …], and as I was with Moses, so I will be with you and will not depart from you […] for to this people you will give possession of the land which I swore by their fathers to give them.”

Having entered the Promised Land, the Jews, led by Jesus, attack Jericho. First, Jesus sends two young spies into the city to “spy out the land” (Joshua 2:1). They stop at the house of the harlot Rahab. Realizing that they are scouts for a hostile army, Rahab shelters them and asks them to spare the lives of her and her household when the army enters the city. The scouts make such a promise and set off on the return journey. Representatives of the Jericho authorities, who were chasing them, search for them, but fail.

The scouts return to their camp, after which the army goes out to attack Jericho. To do this, she needed to cross the Jordan, not far from the mouth. When the army crossed the river, the water of the Jordan dried up, the army crossed along the dry bottom of the river, after which the waters of the Jordan again flowed into the Dead Sea (Joshua 4:18).

Before the capture of Jericho, “the leader of the army of the Lord” appears to Joshua (Joshua 5:13-15) and gives instructions on how to take the city (Joshua 6:1-4). Having received this sign of support from the Heavenly forces, the army surrounds the city walls for seven days. On the seventh day, the army marched around the city seven times, accompanied by priests blowing trumpets (Joshua 6:14-16).

The biblical text of the following episode has two interpretations.

The first is traditional, based on a translation called the Septuagint: “And the trumpets sounded, the people shouted with a loud voice, and from this The wall collapsed to its foundations, and the army entered the city and took the city.”
The second, less popular and based on later translations: “And the trumpets were blown, and the war cries of the people were heard, going to attack. The wall of the city collapsed to the ground, and the army entered the city and took it.”

Before taking the city, Jesus casts a spell on it: he orders the destruction of its entire population, and the silver, gold, copper and iron found in the city were to be transferred to the future temple treasury. Only the harlot Rahab and her household were spared. Jericho itself was completely destroyed and burned, and the second part of Jesus’ spell forbade rebuilding the city (Josh. 6:25).

One of the soldiers of the Jewish army, named Achan, “took from the accursed”, and with this he cursed the entire Jewish people, so in the next battle the army was defeated. Jesus, having learned about the violation of the prohibition, taught by God, identified this warrior. The looter was found to have gold and silver objects taken from the ruins of Jericho, after which the looter and his children were executed and the divine wrath subsided (Joshua 7:1-26).

Subsequently, Jesus entered into battle with several armies of the Canaanite tribes, who opposed him both alone and jointly, and defeated them, destroying all the inhabitants of their cities, with the exception of the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, who did not come out to fight against the army of Jesus and subsequently remained to live among the tribe of Ephraim after the division of the country between the tribes.

Story

Capture of Jericho. Miniature of Jean Fouquet

Natufian culture - about 10,000-9600. BC BC, seasonal and then permanent sites of Natufian hunters and gatherers.
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A - c. 9500-8500 BC e. The buildings of this period are round in shape and built of adobe bricks. The outbreaks were located inside and outside houses. A stone wall was discovered, 3.6 m high and 1.8 m wide at the base. The wall was presumably used for flood protection, and the tower inside was for religious purposes.

In the Middle Bronze Age, Jericho was a prosperous city surrounded by a wall of mud brick. At the end of the Middle Bronze Age (around 1550 BC) the city was destroyed. According to the Bible, the destruction of Jericho was one of the episodes of the conquest of Canaan by the ancient Jews.

According to the Bible, during the reign of Ahab (9th century BC), a certain Achiel broke the spell and restored it, losing all his sons. After this, Jericho again took a prominent position and played a significant role in history. During the Roman period, Mark Antony gave Jericho to Cleopatra, but Augustus returned it to Herod, who built his winter palace here. During the Jewish War of 66-73, the city was destroyed and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian. Josephus Flavius, Strabo, Ptolemy, Pliny and others mention him. Under Constantine I the Great there was a Christian church here, headed by a bishop. Over time, Jericho began to decline. In the 7th century, after the conquest of the country by the Arabs, Jews expelled by Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula settled here. During the battles between the Crusaders and Muslims, Jericho was destroyed and lay in ruins until the 19th century.

Excavations of the ancient city

Tobler and Robinson in the mid-19th century excavated a hill in the middle of the plain, not far from the Jordan, but found nothing. In 1868, Warren also dug on the hill and also found nothing. In 1894, the scientist Blythe drew attention to the same hill, believing that Jericho was still hidden underneath it. German archaeologist Ernst Sellin examined the surface of the hill in 1899 and discovered several shards of Canaanite pottery. He came to the conclusion that his predecessors were right: most likely, an ancient city was hidden under the layers. Moreover, a village called Ericha has been preserved here.

In 1904, the Germans Thiersch and Helscher visited here and collected new data indicating the correctness of the conclusions of those who tried to discover Jericho in the vicinity of Erich. Sellin is considered the discoverer. During his excavations in 1907, he discovered houses and part of the city wall with a tower (five rows of stone masonry and adobe masonry 3 meters high). In 1908, the German Oriental Society organized serious excavations, the work of which was led by Sellin, Langen-Egger and Watzinger. In 1909 they were joined by Nöldeke and Schulze.

The hill, shaped like an ellipse, stretched from north-northeast to south-southwest, and the city occupied an area of 235 thousand square meters. Archaeologists completely excavated (in the north) the width of the city wall, equal to 3 meters, and discovered a second city wall 1.5 meters wide.

Another piece of wall was discovered on the same northern slope of the hill with a stone plinth and adobe masonry 7 meters high. Having examined an area of 1350 square meters between the city walls and trial northern excavations, scientists discovered a later Muslim cemetery in the upper layers, and the remains of city buildings in the lower layers.

Excavations on the western side of the hill revealed stone staircases built after the destruction of the city walls, and underneath the staircases were also the remains of much earlier houses. In the northern part of the hill, the walls of a Hittite building (the Khilani building) are exposed. Closer to the eastern wall, which has not survived, the remains of houses have been excavated. Not far from the inner city wall there are open blocks occupied by houses, as well as a street under the wall. In an area of 200 square meters to the west, a city wall and the remains of buildings were discovered, and a Byzantine necropolis was found under the wall. The remains of a Jewish-era house have been excavated near the southwestern wall.

Initially, archaeologists counted eight layers, successively replacing one another:

Muslim, the latest, represented by graves;
Byzantine layer;
Late Judaic, with fragments of Attic pottery from the classical era;
ancient Jewish, with fragments of Attic pottery from the classical era (house above the ancient wall);
Israeli, which includes the house "Hilani", houses in the center (closer to the eastern missing wall), graves, stairs and the outer city wall;
Late Canaanite (finds between the outer and inner city walls and pottery);
ancient Canaanite (remains of a city with houses and outer and inner city walls);
the original layer (also divided into several periods), which includes houses under the inner city wall, some masses of bricks in the north-west.

The city was called Lunar because of the cult of the Moon. The initial and Canaanite periods of Jericho, the latter of which is marked by the destruction of massive brick walls in the northwest and the construction of two city walls - an outer and an inner one, hiding the city like two rings. It was especially impregnable from the east, from where the nomads harassed. The population of the city both in the initial period and in the Canaanite period was the same. In the oldest layer, flint tools and tools made of other stones, so-called cup stones, were found.

After the destruction of the city of the initial period, Jericho moved somewhat to the south of the hill. The Canaanite walls were erected already in the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. e. Sellin correlated the fact of destruction with the invasion of the “four kings of the East” described in the Book of Genesis.

The double fortress wall of Jericho is an exception for. But among the Hittites this is the usual way of protecting cities.

Canaanite Jericho is beautiful. It has Aegean and Babylonian influences, although it is mostly independent. A stone god similar to Gezer's products was found in one of the houses. No burials from the Canaanite period have been found in the city. The city was destroyed from the east, where the entire city wall was destroyed, and set on fire (there are traces of fire everywhere), after which it remained almost uninhabited for some time. However, part of the population continued to live in Jericho, and archeology connects this with the late Canaanite period. The period is characterized by so-called chipped ceramics. Sellin believed that this time Jericho was destroyed by the Israelites. During the Israeli era, the Canaanites remained in the city for a long time until they were completely assimilated with the conquerors. However, excavations at the beginning of the century showed that in the late Canaanite period there are no traces of the presence of another people. Before the invasion of the Israelites in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. there were still a few centuries left... The actual Israeli layer in Jericho was dated by Sellin himself to the 11th-9th centuries BC. e. Israeli Jericho is characterized by an extraordinary revitalization of the entire life of the city. The influence of connections with the Aramaic regions was felt. Stairs were built on top of the destroyed walls, and a new impressive wall was erected.

The Khilani Palace was built in the Hittite style. The city was filled with colorful and varied ceramics, even stylized as metal. The palace and wall of Israel's Jericho were built by Hiel, probably the viceroy of King Ahab. Jericho became the center of a large region, and the fortress protected from the Moabites.

Burials have been excavated in Jericho, Israel. They took place in the courtyards of houses. Clay vessels were found with the bones. Children were buried under the floors of houses.

At the end of the 8th century BC. e. the kingdom of Israel perished. The walls of Israeli Jericho were destroyed, but the city did not cease to exist. Above it, Jewish Jericho lived its two periods - early and late. The city was no longer fortified, but life was in full swing in it. Early Judean Jericho was gathered along the eastern slope of the hill. The city traded through the Phoenician harbors with Cyprus and. Among the finds are Cypriot vases, Indian ceramics, Attic and Hellenic vessels, amulets, gods and demons. The city of Judah was destroyed under Zedekiah by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, who suddenly attacked: many utensils remained in the houses. The city was burned, and masses of people were taken captive.

New Jericho began to be rebuilt in the north (within the limits of the previous one). Under Artaxerxes III, all the inhabitants had already been taken captive. Life on the hill stopped.

Until the middle of the 2nd century BC. e. The Maccabean city was located 2-3 km northwest of the hill. Since the end of the 2nd century, Jericho comes to life again, although also not on the hill, but near Wadi Kelt. Here it was destroyed in the 70s of the 1st century AD. e. Vespasian.

But under Hadrian the city was restored again. At that time, the ruins of Khilani were still “alive,” which were revered as the “house of Rahab.” And although this house is more recent, it is represented as the home of a traitor to the city who helped Israel.

The New Testament connects the city of Jericho with the story of one of the remarkable acts of Jesus Christ - the healing of the “blind man of Jericho”: the blind man cried out to Christ passing by for healing and he performed a miracle - the blind man received his sight.

The city existed in the 7th-9th centuries. Since the 13th century, there was a Muslim village in it, which was demolished by Ibrahim Pasha in the mid-19th century.

Sellin's research showed that the walls of Jericho had indeed fallen. External - outward, internal - inward. A dispute arose for several decades: when? It is possible that at the turn of the XIV-XIII centuries BC. e. This version is not rejected by some experts.

Further events were associated with new discoveries. A grenade that accidentally exploded on a hill in 1918 helped to excavate an ancient synagogue.

Since 1929, excavations in Jericho have been led by the Englishman John Garstang. In 1935-36 he discovered the lower layers of a Stone Age settlement. People who did not know ceramics already led a sedentary lifestyle. They lived first in round half-dugouts, and then in rectangular houses. In one of these excavated houses, a ceremonial hall with six wooden pillars was discovered - the remains of a temple. Scientists did not find household items here, but they found many animal figurines made of clay: horses, cows, goats, sheep, pigs, as well as plastic sculptures of fertility symbols. In one of the layers of prehistoric Jericho, life-size group portraits (sculptures) of men, women and children (clay on a reed frame) were discovered.

Further discoveries in Jericho were made by Kathleen Kenyon in 1953. It was then that people started talking about Jericho as the oldest city in the world.

The 8th millennium fortress was surrounded by a thick stone wall with powerful towers, and none of the later cities on this site have reproduced such powerful towers. The wall limited an area of 2.5 hectares on which approximately 3 thousand people lived. Most likely, they were engaged in the trade of salt from the Dead Sea.

Ancient Jericho is probably the “ancestor” of the tradition of taking away the skulls of the dead (headless funerals). The heads were kept (or buried) separately from the body. This custom existed among a variety of peoples around the world until very recent years.

Despite the significant shortcomings with which the excavations were carried out, even the fact that scientists certainly wanted to “tailor” many discoveries to the Bible, the main contribution of Ernst Sellin and his colleagues to science is that the history of Jericho ceased to be counted from Joshua and The scientific world received one of the most ancient cities of Canaan, dating back to the 3-4 millennium BC. e.

The most significant excavations of the monument were carried out by British expeditions led by John Garstang in 1930-1936 and Kathleen Kenyon in 1952-1958.

Intends to conduct archaeological research in Jericho and work to preserve the Jericho fig tree (Zacchaeus tree), located on a plot of land that historically belonged to the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society and was legally deeded by the Palestinian Authority to the Russian government in 2008. The opening of the Russian museum and park complex in Jericho, the construction of which was completed in 2011, “became another page in the development of spiritual and cultural ties between Russia and the PNA.” The complex was inaugurated on January 18, 2011 by the leaders of the two countries D. A. Medvedev and M. Abbas. Subsequently, one of the main streets of Jericho was named “by decision of the city residents after the Russian president”

Modern history

In 1948, during the Arab-Israeli War of 1947-1949, Jericho was occupied by Transjordan, and in 1967, after the Six Day War, it was occupied by Israeli troops. In 1993, as a result of the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian National Authority was created and Jericho became part of it.

Since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, Israelis have been prohibited from entering Jericho except in rare cases when the Israeli army grants entry to tourist groups.

Notes

Projected Mid-Year Population for Jericho Governorate by Locality 2004-2006 Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).
Lebanon, Israel, Palestinian Territories// Atlas of the world / comp. and preparation to ed. PKO "Cartography" in 2000; Ch. ed. G. V. Pozdnyak. - Correction in 2003 and 2007 - M.: PKO "Cartography": Publishing House Onyx, 2010. - P. 196. - ISBN 978-5-85120-295-7 (Cartography), ISBN 978-5-488-02507-3 (1st design, Onyx), ISBN 978-5-488-02508-0 (2nd design, Onyx).
Jericho // Dictionary of geographical names of foreign countries / resp. ed. A. M. Komkov. - 3rd ed., revised. and additional - M.: Nedra, 1986. - P. 25.
Preservation of the Gospel fig tree - the tree of Zacchaeus in Jericho
Materials about the activities of the IOPS working group to save the biblical fig tree. Russia returns to the Holy Land.
Mithen, Steven (2006). After the ice: a global human history, 20,000-5000 BC (1st Harvard University Press pbk. ed. ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Eric H. Cline. Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction. - Oxford University Press, 2009. - P. 6.
Under the fig tree that saw Christ. Yu. A. Grachev, L. N. Blinova
Archbishop Mark of Yegoryevsky took part in the ceremonial events on the occasion of the ten thousandth anniversary of Jericho
Street named after Dmitry Medvedev in Jericho. Review of Russian media, January 20, 2012
Jericho let in the Jews

The main source of water in the city is Ain al-Sultan (the source of Elisha) near the ruins of the ancient city of Tel al-Sultan. The ancient city rises to 21 m and occupies an area of 40 thousand m². Here you can feel how ancient this land is - archaeologists have counted 23 separate cultural layers, including the remains of a Neolithic city. The city walls were erected back in 7000 BC. e. and are famous for having fallen at the sound of the trumpets of Joshua's army.

Hisham's Palace of the 8th century. 3 km from the city center - a wonderful example of Islamic architecture with superbly preserved mosaics. The palace was built as the winter residence of Caliph Hisham. Judging by the abundance of various reservoirs in the palace, one can conclude what the rulers preferred - although, they say, the pools were often filled with wine.

To the north of the Ain al-Sultan spring there is a street lined with cypress trees; she reaches out to the Byzantine synagogue. The wonderful mosaic floor is decorated with a central medallion with the inscription “Shalom al-Israel” (“Peace to Israel”). And in the desert outside the city stands the Nabi Musa Mosque, an Islamic shrine dedicated to Moses.

Jericho is a popular city among tourists, despite political tensions in the region. The center of Jericho is spacious and has a friendly atmosphere.

When to come

Do not miss

Tulul Abu el-Alayk is the winter palace of King Herod, 2.5 km west of Jericho.
Greek Orthodox monastery of St. George - hewn out of the rocks in a desert canyon, surrounded by a magnificent garden.
The Greek Monastery of Temptation and views from the top of Jebel Kurun Tul, where Jesus fasted and saw the devil.
Mosaics of the Naharan synagogue of the 4th century.
The Essene monastery, 20 km south of Jericho, is the place where the Qumran manuscripts were found.

Should know

The West Bank of the Jordan River, 8 km east of Jericho, is a closed military zone. Do not be surprised that as a result of the intifada, Jericho turned out to be a half-forgotten place.

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