Travelling to a historic destination is an unforgettable and incomparable experience. Getting to know a historically important city provides a deep and complete understanding of the events and moments that shaped and changed humanity. Ancient cities seem to live outside of time. From the historical settlements, long abandoned by people, sand literally pours, but at the sight of each of them, goosebumps run down the skin. Cities with a thousand-year history have much more to offer travellers than just beautiful architecture and unique artefacts.
Cities that have stood the test of time reveal more than just the scars of history; they show the influence – positive and negative – of human civilization. The world’s oldest cities boast beautiful architecture and amazing stories, yet remarkably few ancient cities stand today. They bear the imprints of previous eras and civilizations. They reflect the development of mankind – both the creative aspects of this process and the destructive ones. Ruins continue to be discovered, and there may be some dispute about the historical record of each place, but all of these cities have significant cultural value.
Here are the top 20 oldest inhabited cities in the world.
| Rank | City | Earliest settlement |
| 1. | Jericho, Palestinian Territories | 9,000 BC |
| 2. | Byblos, Lebanon | 5,000 BC |
| 3. | Aleppo, Syria | 4,300 BC |
| 4. | Damascus, Syria | 4,300 BC |
| 5. | Shush, Iran | 4,200 BC |
| 6. | Faiyum, Egypt | 4,000 BC |
| 7. | Sidon, Lebanon | 4,000 BC |
| 8. | Plovdiv, Bulgaria | 4,000 BC |
| 9. | Gaziantep, Turkey | 3,650 BC |
| 10. | Beirut, Lebanon | 3,000 BC |
| 11. | Jerusalem, Israel | 2,800 BC |
| 12. | Tyre, Lebanon | 2,750 BC |
| 13. | Erbil, Iraq | 2,300 BC |
| 14. | Kirkuk, Iraq | 2,200 BC |
| 15. | Luòyáng, China | 2,000 BC |
| 16. | Balkh, Afghanistan | 1,500 BC |
| 17. | Athens, Greece | 1,400 BC |
| 18. | Larnaca, Cyprus | 1,400 BC |
| 19. | Thebes, Greece | 1,400 BC |
| 20. | Cádiz, Spain | 1,100 BC |
