How it began
The tower stands at Tell es-Sultan, the mound of ancient Jericho in the Jordan Valley, in the present-day State of Palestine. It was built in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A period, around 8000 BCE, by a settled community living beside the spring of Ain es-Sultan. UNESCO records human deposits at the mound going back to about 10,500 BCE and describes its Neolithic walls and tower as monumental architecture.
Before it existed
UNESCO presents Tell es-Sultan as a record of the shift from hunting and gathering to permanent settlement. Before this period people in the region did not build large shared structures in stone. The tower and wall show that a Neolithic village could organize the labor for a common building project.
How it works
The tower is a conical structure 8.5 meters tall, built of undressed stones. A staircase runs up inside it. UNESCO lists walls and towers among the monumental architecture of the site. Wikipedia describes it as one of the world's oldest towers and oldest stone buildings. Researchers have suggested it served social and astronomical purposes for the community.
What lasted
Wikipedia lists the tower as the tallest known structure in the world from about 8000 BCE until about 4000 BCE. The site as a whole shows later steps too, including urban planning in the Bronze Age and a Canaanite city-state. For archaeology the tower is a fixed point in the study of how early farming societies organized themselves.
Where it stands today
The archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon found and excavated the tower during her work at Jericho between 1952 and 1958 and established its Neolithic date. Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, protected under Palestinian cultural heritage law with a management and conservation plan.
