# Oldest cities **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 31, 2004, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-cities/262366 "2004-08-31T04:44:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-cities/262366/1 "2004-08-31T04:44:38Z")
I’m curious: 1. What is the Oldest city on Earth, to our knowledge? 2. What is the Oldest, still inhabited, city on earth? And to start off, the first one to make a Lovecraft comment will be sacrificed. ---
**Author:** ![Spoilsbury\_Toast\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Spoilsbury\_Toast\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoilsbury_Toast_Boy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-cities/262366/2 "2004-08-31T04:50:50Z")
Uruk, a Sumerian city dating from 3500 to 3000 BC, is the earliest settlement that historians consider a true city. I believe Damascus is the oldest continually occupied city in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-cities/262366/3 "2004-08-31T05:01:12Z")
1. Çatal Hüyük in Turkey was the first settlement that grew big enough to be called a “city,” and it dates back to at least 6,500 BC. 2. Jericho has a spring that has attracted settlement dating back to the Neolithic Natufian culture circa 9500 BC. A walled town existed at the site as early as 7000 BC. However, Jericho may fail at being the oldest continually inhabited city since it was abandoned after 6000 BC, and wasn’t inhabited again for about another 1000 years, settled by a different people of the Bronze Age. Damascus has often been cited as the oldest continually inhabited city, though I’m not sure about the archaeology. Benares has also had that claim made for it. ---
**Author:** ![Atticus\_Finch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Atticus\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atticus_Finch)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-cities/262366/4 "2004-08-31T05:18:18Z")
I believe that Haleb (Aleppo) contests Damascus’ claim… ---
**Author:** ![Spoilsbury\_Toast\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Spoilsbury\_Toast\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoilsbury_Toast_Boy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-cities/262366/5 "2004-08-31T05:43:14Z")
Allow me to correct myself- I should have said that Ur was the oldest city and not Uruk. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-cities/262366/6 "2004-08-31T06:09:56Z")
Hi, Uruk! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-cities/262366/7 "2004-08-31T14:15:40Z")
Uruk, Hai! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-cities/262366/8 "2004-08-31T14:30:25Z")
Dolne Vestonice (both final E’s are pronounced) in the extreme southeastern Czech Republic (in the tiny tail of Moravia where the Danube turns south to head for Bratislava, with Hungary across the river and Slovakia to the east) has been inhabited since around 25-30,000 BC, though (a) the radiocarbon dating can’t give a definite date, and (b) there’s absolutely no evidence of continuous occupation since then. But it is a potential candidate for by far the oldest known settlement now inhabited in present time. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-cities/262366/9 "2004-08-31T16:35:29Z")
Mark Twain thought that the reason for the long antiquity of Damascus was plain to see… > [@](#): > > With her forest of foliage and her abundance of water, Damascus must be a wonder of wonders to the Bedouin from the deserts. Damascus is simply an oasis – that is what it is. For four thousand years its waters have not gone dry or its fertility failed. Now we can understand why the city has existed so long. It could not die. So long as its waters remain to it away out there in the midst of that howling desert, so long will Damascus live to bless the sight of the tired and thirsty wayfarer. —_Innocents Abroad_ He also was impressed by the antiquity of Benares… > [@](#): > > Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together. —_Following the Equator_