Travel Guide Jericho

The ancient site of Jericho was occupied as early as 9000 BC. The city lays claim to the title of oldest city in the world: as such, it may soon be included in UNESCO's World Heritage List. According to the Bible, Jericho was the first conquest of the Hebrews on their return from Egypt: the walls collapsed at the sound of the "chofar", the sacred horn (not the "trumpets of Jericho"). For Christians, it was in Jericho that Jesus healed the blind Bartimaeus and converted Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector.The present-day city, called "Yeriha" by the Arabs, lies to the east of the ancient site. Jericho is also the lowest city in the world (-250 m below sea level), built in the middle of a lush oasis in the middle of the desert, 8 km from the banks of the Jordan, 10 km from the shores of the Dead Sea and 35 km from Jerusalem.The town has seen many upheavals, and its population has fluctuated as people have been forced to migrate. Several thousand Palestinians took refuge here during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Aqbat Jabr, 3 km south-west of the city, is the largest refugee camp in the West Bank, and is home to around 8,000 people. There is a second camp, Ain es-Sultan, to the north-west, an extension of the archaeological site, where there are around 3,500 refugees. The population of the town of Jericho is around 27,000.After a period of Israeli occupation during the second Intifada in 2001, Jericho was returned to the Palestinian Authority, which continues to administer it exclusively. In recent years, with the situation stabilized, the town has tried to make a living from tourism, thanks to its exceptional sites. In 2023, tension in the region increased, with fatal military incursions into the Aqbat Jabr camp. While the situation is less tense than in other Palestinian cities, you should nevertheless check out the security situation before making the trip.