What is the world's oldest city?

Friar Tuck

It depends where you look as several lay claim to being the oldest. For instance, Damascus is of very ancient origin and proclaims itself the oldest city in the world. It first comes into full light as the capital of an Aramaean kingdom that fell before the Assyrians in 732 B.C. http://syria.arabicnet.com/damascus.asp Varanasi is the oldest city in the world. It is a holy city, the city of Lord Shiva, situated on the bank of the sacred river, the Ganga. http://www.mouthshut.com/readreview/19995-1.html Feb 11 03, 10:43 PM

Senior Moments

Recently (January 2002), the oldest city in the world was discovered, now sunken, off the coast of Gujarat. The city dates back to 7,500 BC, and pushes back the beginnings of human history by 2000 years! Catal Huyuk in Turkey began only in 4,000-5,000 BC, and before this recent discovery, had the distinction of being the earliest known city. http://www.eece.ksu.edu/~sdas/Itihaas/ Unfortunately it does not give a name to this city. Feb 11 03, 10:48 PM

Siskin

You don't say whether it's habited or uninhabited you need - even then it's open to question, but I think that Ur in western Iraq, at 4th millenium BC is a pretty good candidate - Damascus in Syria for the inhabited city. Feb 11 03, 10:52 PM

Yaarbiriah

Jericho (the name means 'aromatic' ) in the Jordan rift valley close to the route from the valley to Jerusalem is another contender although this location has not been continuously settled throughout history. When first mentioned in the Bible it was inhabited by Canaanites and today it is an Arab town. At other times other peoples chose to live there- more info in the ref (at least) three separate settlements have existed at or near the current location for more than 11,000 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho Damascus in Syria does have a consensus as the oldest known city with uninterrupted habitation. May 01 07, 4:24 PM

santaa

To Jericho, Byblos, and Hebron and Damascus, I would add Susa, however Jericho (9000bc) has not been continuously, there are very good carbon prints supporting Byblos (as ciy 5000 as settlement 7000+-80), however some scientific proves also help Damascus, what does not helps Damascus is that it is not considered a "city" until 3000. Jun 21 07, 12:01 AM

Ashraff

DAMASCUS in Syria is the World's oldest city as traces of inhabitation date back to a marvellous 10,000 years BC. http://ancientneareast.tripod.com/ramad Sep 07 08, 8:49 AM

occult33

Tiahuanaco is inhabited. False data linking the city to the Incan has been debunked, the site at puma punka has astronomical markers built in on the soltice. All they had to do is turn back the clock on the position of the sun and it lines up around 12000 years ago. On top of its age some of the sites around the area were built in a manner unkown to us. But even this isnt the oldest city there are over 200 remenants of cities, culture and structers all over the globe. In all reality the civilisation model of 7000-10000 years has past its time the data just shows something different. They just found 2 major sites in last 5 years one off the coast of india and one off the coast cuba. Mar 19 13, 10:40 PM