Jericho
יְרִיחוֹ
Where was biblical Jericho? At Tell es-Sultan, at Elisha's Spring, north Jericho, about 20 km northeast of Jerusalem. I mark it certain.
For six days Israel marched around Jericho behind the Ark. On the seventh day they circled it seven times, the priests blew the shofars, the people shouted, and the wall fell.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Tell es-Sultan, at Elisha's Spring, north Jericho
- How sure
- Certain The name, the sources and the finds all agree.
- Other names
- Yericho, Tell es-Sultan, Ariha
- Location
- 31.8697° N, 35.4440° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
Joshua had sent two spies across the river from Shittim first. They lodged with Rahab, and she hid them from the king's search party. When the city fell, her house, marked by a scarlet cord, was the only one spared.
Jericho never moved far. The modern town is Ariha, the same name in Arabic. The Bible places the city opposite Israel's camp in the plains of Moab, just west of the crossing. Josephus, Eusebius and the Madaba Map all put it here.
Water is the reason it is here at all. Tell es-Sultan sits beside a strong spring in the middle of a dry valley, and that spring made an oasis city possible. The men of Jericho once brought Elisha a complaint about it. The water was bad. He threw in a bowl of salt and healed it. The spring still flows beside the tel, and it is still called Elisha's Spring.
Excavators found one of the oldest towns in the world here, with a stone tower from the Neolithic age. They also found a Middle Bronze Age city with massive walls and a heavy layer of burning. When did that city fall? Archaeologists still argue. Some date the destruction around 1550 BCE, earlier than most dates for Joshua. Others argue for about 1400 BCE. The place is certain. The date of the burn layer is not settled.
Joshua laid a curse on anyone who would rebuild Jericho. Generations later Hiel of Beit El rebuilt it, at the cost of his sons. And at the very end of the kingdom of Judah, the Babylonians caught King Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho as he fled Jerusalem.
Visiting today
Tell es-Sultan is an open archaeological park on the northern edge of Jericho, with the Neolithic tower, the Bronze Age walls and Elisha's Spring next door.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Jericho on the interactive map →
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- Gilgal 7 km east
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- Michmash 16 km west
- Ophrah 17 km northwest
- Ai 18 km west
- Anathoth 19 km west