Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of more than 20 successive settlements in Jericho, the first of which dates back 11,000 years (9000 BCE),[12][13] almost to the very beginning of the Holocene epoch of the Earth's history.[14][15]
Copious springs in and around the city have attracted human habitation for thousands of years.[16] Jericho is described in the Hebrew Bible as the "city of palm trees".