20 Towns with Excellent History for Tourists

These villages have experienced a lot: raids and wars, the rise and decline. Now some are languishing and almost not visible on a map, while others still are among the most influential world capitals. Today we tell about the oldest cities of the world.

20. Varanasi, India
1000 BC
Located on the west bank of the Ganges Varanasi - holy city of Hindus and Buddhists. According to legend, he founded the deity Shiva 5000 years ago, although modern scholars believe that since people have settled in these places, passed only 3000 years.

19. Cadiz, Spain
1100 BC
Cadiz was founded by the Phoenicians as a small trading port, which then fell on the raid of the Carthaginians around 500 BC After he was under the Roman and Moorish domination, and in the XVIII century, this city became home to the Spanish Navy.

18. Thebes, Greece
1400 BC
In ancient times, is now a small village was the main rival of Athens. Round shape the city was surrounded by a huge wall with seven gates, a major obstacle to the enemy. Thebes gradually losing its power and about 150-s BC they conquered the Romans.

17. Larnaca, Cyprus
1400 BC
Based on the southeastern coast of the Phoenicians Kitium, now known as Larnaca - the oldest city in Cyprus. The heyday of this village took place in the XIII century BC, when living in these places Mycenaean Greeks launched a trade in copper. Today, visitors to Larnaca attracts not only the archaeological and architectural antiquity, but also the beautiful beaches.

16. Athens, Greece
1400 BC
The cradle of western civilization and the birthplace of democracy, the capital of Greece, Athens is still one of the most influential cities in the world. Due to the surviving monuments of Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman cultures is also one of the most popular tourist destinations.

15. Balkh, Afghanistan
1500 BC
The Greeks knew this city as Bactria, the Arabs call it the "mother of cities". Balkh heyday came in the period between 2500 and 1900 BC and lasted until the emergence of the Persian Empire. Modern Balkh is primarily known as a center of cotton industry in the region.

14. Kirkuk, Iraq
2200 BC
Located north of Baghdad, the city stands on the site of the ancient Assyrian capital Arrafa, occupies an important strategic position. In Kirkuk, the ruins of 5000-year-old citadel. Nowadays the city is the headquarters of the Iraqi oil industry.

13. Erbil, Iraq
2300 years BC
To the north of Kirkuk, Irbil lies, who at various times owned the Assyrians, Persians, Arabs and Turks. It did stop the merchants coming on the Silk Road. I still like them, approaching the city, we can find it in the old 26-meter citadel suddenly appears on the horizon.

12. Tyr, Lebanon
2750 BC
Legendary birthplace of the beautiful in Europe, Tire, according to Herodotus, was founded in 2750 BC In the IV century BC it was conquered by Alexander the Great and later became a Roman province. Today the main source of income Tire became tourism. Roman hippodrome Tire is listed in the UNESCO list of World

11. Jerusalem, Israel / Palestinian territories
2800 years BC
The holy city for Christians and Muslims, the spiritual center of the Jewish people, this city was besieged 23 times, it took over 44 times and twice destroyed. Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Dome of the Rock, Wailing Wall - the religious objects that have for centuries attracted pilgrims and tourists from all over the world.

10. Beirut, Lebanon
3000 BC
The capital of Lebanon, and today remains a major cultural, administrative and economic center. Thanks to the excavations carried out today in the city you can see the monuments of the Phoenician, Hellenistic, Roman, Arab and Ottoman eras. After the civil war in Lebanon, the city became accessible to tourists.

9. Gaziantep, Turkey
3650 BC
In the southern part of Turkey in Anatolia near the border with Syria is a city whose history began in ancient times. Among the main attractions can recall restored in the VI century the Byzantines citadel Rawanduz and Roman mosaics.

8. Plovdiv, Bulgaria
4000 BC
The second largest Bulgarian city was originally a Phoenician settlement, and later became a major city of the Roman Empire. Later he became a part of the Byzantine Empire, and then - Ottoman. Travelers usually inspect the Roman amphitheater, an aqueduct, Ottoman baths. In Russia, Plovdiv is also famous thanks to the huge statue of the "Alyosha" - memorial to Soviet soldiers, assigned to one of the hills above the city.

7. Saida, Lebanon
4000 BC
Approximately 25 kilometers south of Beirut is one of the most important and perhaps the oldest Phoenician city. He was a kind of base from which the Phoenicians began to reign in the Mediterranean. In 333 BC Alexander of Macedon conquered the city.

6. Fayyum, Egypt
4000 BC
Surrounded on all sides of the Libyan desert Fayyum located to the south-west of Cairo. Once he was part of Crocodilopolis - the ancient Egyptian city, whose inhabitants worship the sacred crocodile. In the Fayum oasis were found unique funerary portraits, replacing the traditional mask that covers his face with a mummy. 23 of them can be seen in the State Museum of Fine Arts named after AS Pushkin in Moscow.

5. Susa, Iran
4200 BC
In ancient times, Susa was known as the capital of the state of Elam. He is mentioned in ancient Sumerian texts, and the Old Testament. This city was the seat of the Elamite first, and then the Persian kings. Since then, Susa passed from hand to hand, and today has become a small village with a population 65 thousand people.

4. Damascus, Syria
4300 BC
According to some sources, Damascus, perhaps, is the oldest city on earth where people lived another 10 thousand years BC Important settlement of the land he was after there came aram built a network of channels, is still the backbone of modern water supply system.

3. Aleppo, Syria
4300 BC
Today it is the most populous city of Syria: it is home to about 4.4 million people. At different times, the city owned the Hittites, Assyrians, Greeks, Persians. It was later occupied by Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, besieged by the Crusaders, and then surrendered to the Mongols and the Turks.

2. Dzhebeyl, Lebanon
5000 BC
Founded by the Phoenicians as Hebe, Byblos takes its name from the Greeks. This is associated with the books he was given the name because the Greeks imported from the papyri. In Byblos, the Phoenician temples worth seeing, the city and the castle built in the XII century by the Crusaders Church of St. John the Baptist.

1. Jericho, Palestinian Territory
9000 BC
Jericho - the oldest city in the world that people do not ever leave. It is on the West Bank of the Jordan River in the north of the Judean Desert. Archaeologists have discovered that at this point there were 20 successive settlements, the oldest of which 11 thousand years.