💡 Oldest Cities In The World 🐯 💜

Damascus, Syria, founded in 3000 B.C.E., is considered the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Jericho, West Bank, Palestine, dating back around 11,000 years, is one of the oldest cities with evidence of 23 layers of ancient sites. Faiyum, Egypt, established around 4000 B.C.E., is a center of commerce along the Nile River with ruins dating back to ancient Egyptian dynasties. The story of the world's cities began thousands of years ago. As humans progressed from being hunter-gatherers to farmers who domesticated plants and animals for food, they began to build villages in which to live. As advances in agriculture made it possible to support larger numbers of people, those villages gradually evolved into permanent, densely populated and highly organized communities that became centers of commerce and culture and were ruled by governments. Many of the oldest cities were located near fertile farmland and rivers that provided water, both for irrigation for farm fields and as a means of transporting the crops they produced to other markets. One prime location was Mesopotamia, a region in what is now Iraq that lies between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, while other cities in the ancient world developed along rivers in Egypt, India and China. As trade developed, the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea and the oceans became desirable as well.

Some of the world's first cities — such as Eridu, the ancient Sumerian city on a site that was first inhabited by humans around 7,000 years ago — vanished long ago, and now only exist as historical sites for archaeologists to excavate and preserve. But other ancient cities have been continuously inhabited, sometimes through periods of growth and decline. Since it's difficult to determine precisely when a smaller settlement grew to the point where it could be called a city, ranking the world's oldest cities by age can be tricky. But here are 10 cities that often have been recognized as being among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

Ancient City of Damascus (Syria) Founded in the 3rd millennium B.C., Damascus was an important cultural and commercial center, of its geographical position at Oriental crossroads of the Orient and the Occident, between Africa and Asia. The old city of Damascus is considered to be among the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. Excavations at Tell Ramad on the outskirts of the city have demonstrated that Damascus was inhabited as early as 8,000 to 10,000 BC. However, it is not documented as an important city until the arrival of the Aramaeans. In the Medieval period, it was the center of a flourishing craft industry, with different areas of the city specializing in particular trades or crafts. The city exhibits outstanding evidence of the civilizations that created it - Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic. In particular, the Umayyad caliphate created Damascus as its capital, setting the scene for the city's ongoing development as a living Muslim, Arab city, upon which each succeeding dynasty has left and continues to leave its mark. In spite of Islam's prevailing influence, traces of earlier cultures particularly the Roman and Byzantine continue to be seen in the city. Thus the city today is based on a Roman plan and maintains the aspect and the orientation of the Greek city, in that all its streets are oriented north-south or east-west and is a key example of urban planning. The earliest visible physical evidence dates to the Roman period - the extensive remains of the Temple of Jupiter, the remains of various gates and an impressive section of the Roman city walls. The city was the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate. However, apart from the incomparable Great Mosque, built on the overlaying temple and a Christian basilica, there is little visible dating from this important era of the city's history. The present city walls, the Citadel, some mosques and tombs survive from the Middle Ages, but the greatest part of the built heritage of the city dates from after the Ottoman conquest of the early 16th century.

Ancient Greece at a Glance (Documentary on ancient Greece – Greek civilication) Art, philosophy, democracy, and heroes. These are just a few achievements of the legendary civilization known as ancient Greece. Ancient Greece was born on the shores of the Aegean Sea about 4,000 years ago. In over a millennium, it expanded to lands as far west as Spain and as far east as India. Throughout this age of empire, the ancient Greeks made political, militaristic, and cultural achievements that resonated long after their empire fell.