Ever since man learned how to grow food and take care of cattle, some planning has been introduced and people started living in somewhat organized small communities, in semi-permanent or permanent settlements. These settlements with a certain degree of planning and organization can be called cities, even though some might not agree. And some of these historic settlements remained to this day providing us with the sense of those ancient times.
The earliest community that we know of in history was formed in a place called Mesopotamia, which is now, for the most part when it comes to territory, the place where Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran are. This is the great region that was the birth place of the first known civilization, and the archaeological remains indicate that settlements started taking place back in 10,000 BC. The first known cities were established in Syria and Anatolia, and the city of Çatalhöyük is the best proof for it, as archaeological evidence show that it existed from 7500 BC to 5700 BC, approximately. One of the largest historical cities was Mohenjodaro and it was located where present-day Pakistan is. This city existed from about 2600 BC, and more than 50,000 people lived there.
With all the archaeological evidence, it is still hard to determine which city was really the oldest one. Since many of those historical cities don’t exist anymore as such, it is even harder to prove anything. As some of these ancient cities still exist and many of them are inhabited, this article will present 10 of the presumably oldest ones and hopefully show their amazing historical value and beauty.