Ancient Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank looks to be nothing more than a collection of sandy rock mounds surrounded by palm trees to the untrained eye. But if you look closely, you'll find traces of a long-gone civilization that was lauded for inventing advanced agricultural techniques, architectural techniques, and defense systems 4,000 years before anybody else. Fortunately, archaeologists have already done the job for us, and their discoveries at the Tell es-Sultan UNESCO World Heritage Site provide an intriguing look into one of the world's oldest and most sophisticated civilizations.

Jericho claims to be the oldest city in the world (Shutterstock)

Ain es-Sultan, a perennial spring, gave Ancient Jericho, which is located 1.5 km north of the present-day city of Jericho, its name. Around 10500 BC, hunter-gatherers decided to dwell on a nearby mound as a result of the nearby water source and the area's pleasant climate, which nurtured the surrounding land. On the 21m mound, or tell, a permanent Neolithic settlement had developed by 9000 BC. They were perhaps of the earliest people to rely on agriculture for survival. The locals domesticated animals, built granaries, dwellings, and irrigation channels and aqueducts in addition to growing crops. Naturally, hammers and axes were necessary for all of this, so these were also invented, along with pottery, while they were doing it.

Dwelling foundations unearthed at Jericho (Shutterstock)

In 8500 BC, people would come home from work to round, crude semi-subterranean homes. These transformed into more modern rectangular homes with stone foundations, dried-mud bricks, and floors polished with lime plaster. The emerging society also gave rise to some of the world's earliest political, economic, and religious systems.

The Neolithic people revered their ancestors and held a belief in life after death, according to cultic funeral rituals. They frequently unearthed bodies, cut off the heads, painted the skulls with priceless cinnabar pigment, adorned the eye sockets with seashells, and then reburied the bodies beneath the flooring of their homes and sacred buildings. Plastering skulls was subsequently supplanted by making plaster statues and clay animal figures, which had an impact on other Middle Eastern locations.

Ancient Jericho evolved into the world's first fortified settlement about 9000 BC. The reasons why the settlement was strengthened are a matter of debate among experts; some propose military defense, protection from wild animals, flood control from surrounding rivers, or cultic practices. There is no disputing, however, that a bedrock-carved wall made of stones mortared in mud and surrounding the village. Later, a second, six-meter-tall wall, a three-meter-deep ditch, and an eight-meter-tall stone tower were built, the ruins of which still survive. The tower's interior includes a narrow staircase and mud-plastered walls covered in the fingerprints of laborers.

Despite a collapse during the Early Bronze Age between 4000 and 2000 BC, the people of Jericho restored or rebuilt their defense systems, and by 1000 BC, Ancient Jericho was a thriving cultural hub with 3,000 native Canaanites living there. Residents created avenues lined with furnished homes next to graves and public structures like a temple and multi-story palace (2700–2300 BC) using their new bronze equipment. On top of the remains of the first royal home, Hyksos Palace was built.

A plastered skull from Ancient Jericho (Alamy Stock Photo)

A surplus of agricultural output and handicrafts like baskets allowed the town's residents to engage in trade. Ancient Jericho became a prominent economic hub, facilitating the interchange of products along with ideas, beliefs, and values due to its location on a vital east-west route linking Asia, the Mediterranean, and Africa.

Ancient Jericho was one of Palestine's most significant Canaanite cities by the Middle Bronze Age. The Egyptian Pharaohs continuously besieged all Canaanite cities, ultimately destroying Ancient Jericho despite the groundbreaking earthen barriers. The city's heyday was finished by 1550 BC. It was barely occupied and all but forgotten until archaeologists began to look into it around 1868.

Since then, delicate excavations and preservation methods like using new mud bricks to safeguard susceptible structures and reversible mud plaster have preserved its originality. This draws 91,000 tourists a year, along with the opportunity to see a prehistoric village that was inhabited for 10,000 years. Pretty good for a bunch of rocks.