Jericho’s Inform es-Sultan has not too long ago been acknowledged as a World Heritage Web site in Palestine. This declaration was made by the United Nations, which describes it because the “oldest fortified metropolis on the earth.” Iyad Hamdan, the director common of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in Jericho, believes that this choice not solely strengthens Palestinian id but additionally offers worldwide recognition.

The ruins close to the traditional metropolis of Jericho within the occupied West Financial institution got this particular standing throughout a UN World Heritage Committee assembly in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Inform es-Sultan is an oval-shaped mound situated roughly 10km northwest of the Useless Sea and practically one mile north of modern-day Jericho. It comprises proof of prehistoric human exercise courting again to the ninth millennium BCE, in addition to a perennial spring close by. Throughout the website, archaeologists have found fortification partitions, trenches, palaces, staircases, and towers from the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.

In accordance with Hamdan, Inform es-Sultan is especially vital as a result of it represents the transition from a hunter-gatherer society to an agricultural one. It’s the oldest fortified agricultural settlement through which Palestinians moved past looking and gathering to the practices of agriculture and animal domestication. Hani Noureldin, a professor of archaeology at Abu Dis College in Jerusalem, believes that this website exemplifies the significance of human civilization in Palestine. Noureldin describes Inform es-Sultan as an distinctive case, because it offers insights into the event of civilizations within the Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia, and the Levant through the third and second millennium BCE.

Noureldin additionally highlights the creativity of the location’s inhabitants. The burial rituals found at Inform es-Sultan embody the ornament of human skulls. The skulls have been lined with a easy layer of plaster and painted with pure colours. This observe serves as proof of the superior cultural improvement of the traditional inhabitants.

With its recognition as a World Heritage Web site, Inform es-Sultan now joins three different designated websites in Palestine: the birthplace of Jesus, the outdated city of Hebron, and the cultural panorama of the village of Battir south of Jerusalem. These websites collectively present a wealthy tapestry of Palestinian historical past and heritage.