Jericho

This article is about the city in Palestine. For other uses, see Jericho (disambiguation).

Jericho أريحا (Arabic)
Palestinian city
Arabic transcription(s)
• ALA-LC	Arīḥā
Jericho from Tell es-Sultan Tell es-Sultan (Ancient Jericho) Hisham's Palace Monastery of the Temptation Sycamore Tree of Zacchaeus
Municipal logo
Interactive map of Jericho
Jericho Location of Jericho within Palestine
Palestine grid	193/140
Country	State of Palestine
Governorate	Jericho
Founded	c. 9000 BCE
Government
• Type	City (from 1994)
• Head of Municipality	Salem Ghrouf
Area
• Total	58,701 dunams (58.701 km2; 22.665 sq mi)
Elevation	−258 m (−846 ft)
Population  (2017)
• Total	20,907
• Density	356.16/km2 (922.45/sq mi)

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Jericho (/ˈdʒɛrɪkoʊ/ JERR-ik-oh; Arabic: أريحا, romanized: Arīḥā, IPA: [ʔaˈriːħaː] ^ⓘ; Hebrew: יְרֵחוֹ, romanized: Yərīḥō) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Jericho Governorate. The city is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west.

Jericho is among the oldest cities in the world. Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of more than 20 successive settlements in Jericho, the first of which dates back 11,000 years (to 9000 BCE), almost to the very beginning of the Holocene epoch of the Earth's history. Copious springs in and around the city have attracted human habitation for thousands of years. Jericho is described in the Bible as the "city of palm trees".

Following the era of Mandatory Palestine, the West Bank was annexed and ruled by Jordan starting in 1950, then was occupied by Israel in 1967. Administrative control of Jericho was handed over to the Palestinian Authority in 1994.

The city had a population of 20,907 in 2017. In 2023, the archaeological site in the center of the city, known as Tell es-Sultan / Old Jericho, was inscribed in UNESCO's list as a World Heritage Site in the State of Palestine, and described as the "oldest fortified city in the world".