One of the world's oldest towns, below sea level
Jericho sits in the Jordan Valley about 250 metres below sea level, an oasis of palms and citrus fed by springs. Excavations at Tell es-Sultan have revealed settlement and a stone tower dating back some ten thousand years. North of town, Hisham's Palace, an eighth-century Umayyad complex, has one of the finest floor mosaics in the region, the 'Tree of Life'. A cable car climbs to the Monastery of the Temptation on the cliffs above, and the Dead Sea lies a short drive south.