Tell es-Sultan, also known as the ancient city of Jericho, is located in the Jordan Valley and is considered the oldest city in the world, situated at the lowest point on Earth's surface. The city was founded around the spring of Ein es-Sultan, in an area with fertile soil, attracting groups of hunters during the Natufian period. This led to their settlement and the establishment of the first agricultural community in the Late Stone Age. Jericho was known by various names such as Yeriho, the City of the Moon, and the City of Palms. The name Roha appeared on an Egyptian seal in Jericho from the 12th century BCE.

Tell es-Sultan has witnessed four scientific excavation campaigns over the past two centuries. The Austrian-German expedition (1903-1909) led by Sellin conducted excavations, followed by the excavations carried out between 1930-1936 under the supervision of Garstang. The British School of Archaeology conducted excavations between 1952 and 1958 under the supervision of Kathleen Kenyon. Subsequently, joint Palestinian-Italian excavations (1997-2015) were carried out under the supervision of Hamdan Taha, Lorenzo Nigro, and Nicolò Marchetti.

The oldest archaeological remains date back to the Natufian period between the 10th and 8th millennia BCE, represented by hunting camps around Ein es-Sultan. In the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period, by the beginning of the 6th millennium BCE, Jericho was established as a fortified agricultural village surrounded by a stone wall supported by a massive round tower. The inhabitants of the Late Stone Age developed a highly organized society where humans engaged in building houses and crafts such as weaving, pottery, basketry, along with mythical and social beliefs related to burial ceremonies. These burial traditions involved skulls covered in plaster, associated with the early agricultural community.

Houses in the Late Stone Age were built with dried mud bricks, and the initially round construction evolved into a rectangular shape in the Pottery Neolithic period. During the Early Bronze Age (around 2000 BCE), Tell es-Sultan transformed into an urban center, flourishing as a Canaanite city-state. The city walls were constructed from mud bricks during the second phase of the Early Bronze Age. This urban life lasted for over a millennium before being abandoned and occupied by mobile groups in the Late Bronze Age IV. After a few centuries of urban hiatus, urban life resumed with the onset of the Middle Bronze Age. The city was surrounded by a robust defensive system consisting of ramparts and sloping walls topped with mudbrick walls, which continued until the end of the Middle Bronze Age, when it was destroyed by fire.

Excavations at Tell es-Sultan's western tombs revealed artifacts from the daily life of Jericho's inhabitants during the Bronze Age, including pottery, household furniture, and personal belongings. Evidence of simple settlement during the Late Bronze Age, Iron Age, and the 6th century BCE was found, and by the time of the Hellenistic and Roman periods, settlement shifted to the sites of Tell Abu al-Alaiq and the current city of Jericho. Extensive rehabilitation and development work has been carried out at Tell es-Sultan as an archaeological park, and in 2023, the site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.