Tell As-Sultan - Ancient Jericho
The site of Tell as-Sultan, is located in the lower plain of the Jordan Valley, approximately ten kilometers north of the Dead Sea. At a depth of 250 meters below sea level and with a history that dates back to the Neolithic period, it is the lowest and the oldest town on the earth. The mound where the town's ruins were found covers an area of about one acre. Over time, the ancient city of Jericho was mentioned in various historical sources, and many remains from recent excavations at the site indicate that its name was inscribed on seals from the second millennium BC from the Middle Bronze Age (the Canaanite period).
Enormous successive excavations at the site revealed its cultural history dating back over 10,000 years. The earliest remains belong to the Natufian culture (10th–8th millennium BC) and consist of flint tools, which attests to the presence of a hunting Natufian camp near the spring. The remains of the early Neolithic settlement are represented by a small settlement, with round houses built of mud brick and surrounded by a wall and a round tower, representing the earliest preserved piece of a fortification system.The oldest city in the world played a vital role in the early stages of Christianity. The concentration of housing during the late Hellenistic period until the beginning of the Roman period was at the Tulul Abu Al-Ala'iq, also known as Herod's palace. The enormous palace complex spanned to combine many facilities. The administrative site moved to the modern Jericho area during the late Roman period, -, and the Byzantine period. It was also mentioned in several sources, including the sixth-century Madaba mosaic map, where it was marked by the symbol of a church and a palm tree along with the inscription of "St. Elisha."
The map shows the city's geographical surroundings, including the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. Recent Archaeological excavations, have uncovered archaeological remains from various areas in the historic core of modern Jericho, that shed light on the history of Jericho during the Byzantine period. A significant number of churches from the Byzantine period have been found in the vicinity of Jericho, including Tell al-Hassan, the Coptic Orthodox Church , the Greek Orthodox Church of Abuna Anthimos and Khirbat an-Nitla. Byzantine remains, including a colorful mosaic floor, were uncovered in 1962. And around 2010, during construction work on the Russian museum in Jericho, a salvage excavation was carried out in the area by a Palestinian-Russian expedition.
The expedition uncovered more architectural remains, including a mosaic floor found during dredging operations and a series of buildings dating to the early Roman, Byzantine-Umayyad, Medieval, and Ottoman periods. A series of rehabilitation works have been carried out in Tell Al-Sultan by the Palestinian Department of Antiquities over the past decade, in the framework of cooperation with the Sapienza University of Rome and UNESCO, and the site still shows details of some of the oldest civilizations on earth and their lifestyle.