Jericho Topics

• Israel
• Water

Related Images

Source

Source

del.icio.us Tags

• jericho
• history
• wikipedia
• travel
• religion
• science
• geography
• bible
• bibleref
• faith

Jericho, Jericho

It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate, and has a population of over 20,000 Palestinian.

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of over 20 successive settlements in Jericho, the first of which dates back to 11,000 years ago (9000 BC).

First century Jericho is described in Strabo's Geography as follows: "Jericho is a plain surrounded by a kind of mountainous country, which in a way, slopes toward it like a theatre. Here is the Phoenicon, which is mixed also with all kinds of cultivated and fruitful trees, though it consists mostly of palm trees. It is 100 stadia in length and is everywhere watered with streams. Here also are the Palace and the Balsam Park." The rock cut tombs of a Herodian and Hasmonean era cemetery lie in the lowest part of the cliffs between Nuseib al-Aweishireh and Jebel Quruntul in Jericho and were used between 100 BC and 68 AD.

Accounts of Jericho by a Christian pilgrim are given in 333. Shortly thereafter, the built-up area of the town was abandoned, and a Byzantine Jericho, Ericha was built a mile to the east, around which the modern town is centered. Losch, 2005, p. 117118.

Irrigated agriculture was developed under Islamic rule, reaffirming Jericho's reputation as a fertile "City of the Palms". Shahin, 2005, p. 285.

The Jericho Conference, organized by King Abdullah and attended by over 2,000 Palestinian delegates in 1948 proclaimed "His Majesty Abdullah as King of all Palestine" and called for "the unification of Palestine and Transjordan as a step toward full Arab unity." In mid-1950, Jordan formally annexed the West Bank and Jericho residents, like other residents of West Bank localities became Jordanian citizens. Benvenisti, 1998, pp. 27-28.

According to Matthew 20:29-30 , Jesus healed two blind men as he and his disciples were leaving Jericho. In Mark 10:46-52 , Mark tells the same story, except he only mentions one of the men, Bartimaeus. Like Mark, Luke only mentions one man, but he differs in his account by saying that Jesus and his apostles were approaching Jericho. Some versions reconcile this by translating it as "near". In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author mentions the Old Testament story of the destruction of Jericho as an outward display of faith. ( Hebrews 11:30 ) In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus mentions that a certain man was on his way to Jericho.

The average temperature is in January and in August. The constant sunshine, rich alluvial soil, and abundant water from the spring have always made Jericho an attractive place for settlement.

In Arabic and in Hebrew, tell means "mound" -- consecutive layers of habitation built up a mound over time, as is common for ancient settlements in the Middle East and Anatolia. Jericho is the type site for the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPN A) and B periods.

It seems to have reflected the greater urbanization in the area at that time, and has been linked to the rise of the Maryannu, a class of chariot-using aristocrats linked to the rise of the Mitannite state to the north. Kathleen Kenyon reported ...the Middle Bronze Age is perhaps the most prosperous in the whole history of Kna'an. ... The defenses ... belong to a fairly advanced date in that period and there was a massive stone revetment... part of a complex system of defenses (pp. 213218). Kenyon, Kathleen "Digging up Jericho"(London, 1957) Bronze-age Jericho fell in the 16th century at the end of the Middle Bronze Age, the calibrated carbon remains from its City-IV destruction layer dating to at least 100 years ago. (See, Radiocarbon Vol. 37, Number 2, 1995).

Hadawi, 1970, p.57 In the first census carried out by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), in 1997, Jericho's population was 14,674. Palestinian refugees constituted a significant 43.6% of the residents or 6,393 people.

Jericho has a young population, with nearly half (49.2%) of the inhabitants being under the age of 20. People between the ages of 20 and 44 made up 36.2% of the population, 10.7% between the ages of 45 and 64, and 3.6% were over the age of 64.

Source: Wikipedia > Jericho