Prehistoric Era

3000000 BCE – 3300 BCE · 3 sites

All sites in this period

World Record

Oldest City in the World

Hasankeyf

10000 BCE – 1500 CE

A 12,000-year-old cliff city on the Tigris River with cave dwellings, medieval bridges, and Artukid monuments — one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world, now partially submerged by the Ilısu Dam in one of the most controversial heritage losses of the 21st century.

NeolithicBronze AgePrehistoric

Tell es-Sultan, ancient Jericho — the 10-metre occupation mound in the Jordan Valley, Palestine

Continent Record

Longest Continuously Occupied Site in Asia

Tell es-Sultan

10500 BCE – 600 CE

The world's oldest walled settlement — a 10-metre earthen mound in the Jordan Valley preserving over 10,000 years of continuous occupation, including a Pre-Pottery Neolithic stone tower built around 8300 BCE that is the oldest known free-standing stone structure, and the Natufian base camp that may represent the world's first permanent village.

PrehistoricNeolithicChalcolithic

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Continent Record

Oldest Settlement in Asia

Boncuklu Tarla

10000 BCE – 7000 BCE

A Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement in Batman province whose earliest layers may predate Göbekli Tepe, featuring communal buildings, bead workshops, and evidence of early ritual practices that illuminate the dawn of settled life in Upper Mesopotamia.

PrehistoricNeolithic