List of the oldest, still surviving, towns and cities in the world

This is a list of the oldest, still surviving, towns and cities in the world.

There are some points of contention here and care should be taken when using the list below. The cities have been listed because either the archaeological record has shown, or documents have supported the claim, that the settlement was in existence at the time given. However, presence here should in no way indicate that there is total consensus over the date the city was founded - differences in opinion can result from different definitions of "city" (usually relating to the population size" as well as "continuously inhabited" (relating to changing population size; changes in location and changes in name).

Additionally, where an approximate date has been given, the date was treated as the lower end of the estimate for the purposes of the table.

The definition of "continuously inhabited city" for the purposes of this list was that there must be evidence to show that the city had been constantly settled by a population of more than 250 for the entire time since the date shown. This is different from there simply being 'evidence of human occupation in the area' and that it may well be different from the numerous other definitions of the term 'city' that are in use. In spite of all this, several cities listed here (Varanasi, Aleppo, Arbil, Byblos and Hebron) each claim to be 'the oldest city in the world'.

Rank	Name	Location	Approximate time founded
1	Byblos	Lebanon	5,000 BC
2	Jericho	West Bank, Palestinian territories	9,000BC
3	Sanliurfa (as Edessa)	Turkey
4	Susa	Iran (Persia)	4200 BC (As a city, up to 7500 years of inhabitation)
5	Sidon	Lebanon	Earlier than 4,000 BC
6	Medinat Al-Fayoum (as Crocodilopolis or Arsinoe)	Egypt	4,000 BC
7	Yerevan	Armenia	4,000 BC
8	Gaziantep	Turkey	3,650 BC
9	Hebron	West Bank, Palestinian territories	3,500 BC
10	Beirut	Lebanon	Earlier than 3,000 BC
11	Damascus	Syria	Earlier than 3,000 BC
12	Varanasi	India	Earlier than 3,000 BC
13	Harappa	Pakistan	3,300 BC
14	Athens	Greece	3,000 BC
15	Tyre	Lebanon	2,750 BC
16	Xinzheng	China	2,700 BC
17	Mohenjo-daro	Pakistan	2,600 BC
18	Delhi	India	2,500 BC
19	Arbil	Iraq	Before 2,300 BC
20	Kirkuk (As 'Arrapha')	Iraq	2,200-3,000 BC
21	Adana	Turkey	c. 2,000 BC
22	Hama (as Hamath)	Syria	Before 2,000 BC
23	Jerusalem	Israel, West Bank	2,000 BC
24	Luxor (as Thebes/Weset)	Egypt	c. 2,000 BC
25	Jaffa	Israel	1,800 BC
26	Aleppo	Syria	1,800 BC
27	Kutaisi	Georgia	1,700 BC
28	Cholula	Mexico	1,700 BC
29	Asyut	Egypt	Before 1,500 BC
30	Gaza	Gaza Strip	Before 1,500 BC