Cities from India to Syria to Hungary can claim to be the world's oldest continually inhabited city, with permanent habitation going back more than 4,000 years. But when the evidence is thousands of years old, the title becomes elusive.
Rome calls itself the "Eternal City," but plenty of cities from antiquity have been around a lot longer—and are still around. Archeologists are engaged in a robust debate over what is actually the world's oldest continuously inhabited city. Candidates include Varnasi, India; Plovdiv, Bulgaria; Erbil, Iraq; and sentimental favorite, Jericho, Israel, whose walls may date back 11,000 years.
"Beyond the easy task of immediately discounting every city in North America and Australasia, identifying the world’s oldest continuously inhabited city is an uncertain business. There is a mess of claim and counterclaim, myth and legend, architectural digs and disputed evidence."
Part of the challenge lies in choosing continuously inhabited cities. Out of the running are places like Catal Huyuk, which is considered the first city but was abandoned long ago. Byblos, Lebanon, has solid documentation for its 7,000-year run of habitation.
Ironically, and tragically, the best contender for world's oldest city is also one of the world’s most threatened cities: Aleppo, Syria, which is in the heart of that ancient country’s civil war.
FULL STORY: What is the oldest city in the world?
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
San Francisco's School District Spent $105M To Build Affordable Housing for Teachers — And That's Just the Beginning
SFUSD joins a growing list of school districts using their land holdings to address housing affordability challenges faced by their own employees.
Can We Please Give Communities the Design They Deserve?
Often an afterthought, graphic design impacts everything from how we navigate a city to how we feel about it. One designer argues: the people deserve better.
Engineers Gave America's Roads an Almost Failing Grade — Why Aren't We Fixing Them?
With over a trillion dollars spent on roads that are still falling apart, advocates propose a new “fix it first” framework.
The European Cities That Love E-Scooters — And Those That Don’t
Where they're working, where they're banned, and where they're just as annoying the tourists that use them.
Map: Where Senate Republicans Want to Sell Your Public Lands
For public land advocates, the Senate Republicans’ proposal to sell millions of acres of public land in the West is “the biggest fight of their careers.”
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Borough of Carlisle
Smith Gee Studio
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)