Biblical Geography

Jericho

City · Old and New Testament · Jericho (Tell es-Sultan is the ancient mound)

Scripture first

Joshua 6:20 · WEBU

Loading the passage…

Read the whole chapter in the reader

The walls of Jericho fall and Israel enters the land.

Jericho guarded the main Jordan crossing. Israel camped opposite it, spied it out through Rahab, and took it first. It reappears at Elijah's translation, in the parable of the good Samaritan's road, and in Jesus' last journey to Jerusalem.

The oasis city of the Jordan valley, the first city Israel took in Canaan, and the town of Zacchaeus and blind Bartimaeus.

Biblical names
Jericho, the city of palm trees
Modern identification
Jericho (Tell es-Sultan is the ancient mound) · Palestine

Jericho is a spring-fed oasis about 250 metres below sea level, the lowest city on earth, green in the middle of . The road to Jerusalem climbs a kilometre and a quarter vertically in twenty-four kilometres, which is the whole setting of the good Samaritan parable.

  • The walls of Jericho fall and Israel enters the land.
  • Israel camps on the plains of Moab opposite Jericho
  • Elijah and Elisha at Jericho before the Jordan parts
  • Elisha heals the water of Jericho
  • Blind Bartimaeus healed on the road out of Jericho
  • Zacchaeus climbs the sycamore in Jericho

What we know

Certain

  • Jericho's position at the Jordan crossing and its oasis spring are clear in Scripture and on the ground.

Disputed

  • The dating of the destruction layers at Tell es-Sultan and their match to the conquest under Joshua is a long-running archaeological debate.