Jericho (Yericho in Hebrew) is an ancient city located in the desert 25 kilometers northeast from Jerusalem. Its name is etymologically linked to the Hebrew word for “fragrance.”
Also known as “the city of palm trees,” it is a city of beginnings. Jericho is one of the oldest agricultural settlements in the world and claims to be the first inhabited city — ever. After forty years wandering in the Desert, it was the first town in the Land of Israel that the Israelites visited — and the first town conquered under Joshua. Many archeologists believe it had the first protective wall in the world. And, fast-forwarding to modern times, aside from Gaza, it was the first town that Israel “handed over” to the Palestinians following the 1993 Oslo Accords.
What is perhaps most famous about Jericho is not its beginning, though, but its end: The Book of Joshua (chapter 6) describes how upon Divine command, with the Kohanim (priests) and holy Ark in the front, the Israelites circled the city once a day for six days and circled it seven times on the seventh day. They blew the shofar — and the walls of Jericho fell. This event is somewhat recreated during the holiday of Sukkot every year during the hoshanot ritual, as congregants circle the bimah (Torah lectern) once a day — and then seven times on the last day of the holiday, Hoshanah Rabbah.
British Archeologist Dame Kathleen Kenyon — and many of her colleagues — date Jericho’s destruction to over 150 years before the Israelites entered the Holy Land, challenging the historical accuracy of the Biblical text. Archeologist Bryant G. Wood argues that the destruction layer coincides with the text — and thus verifies the Biblical account.
Archeological techniques, findings, and conclusions change over time. The ancient city of Jericho remains.

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