Jericho Travel Guide: Best Things to Do

Jericho is a city in West Bank, Palestine, home to about 19,783 residents. This guide covers how to visit it, what to expect and how to build a day around it.

Jericho at a Glance

• What it is: city (City)
• Where it is: West Bank, West Bank, Palestine — coordinates 31.8667, 35.4500
• Why it is listed: a source-verified entry in the CollabsTravel master database, matched against official gazetteer and geographic records before publication
• Time needed: one full day
• Best season: April-May and September-October for mild days and thinner crowds

Quick Facts

Place type	City
Primary category	City
Also good for	Planning, Culture
Region / state	West Bank
Country	Palestine
Nearest bigger city	Ar Rām wa Ḑāḩiyat al Barīd
Population	19,783
Coordinates	31.8667, 35.4500

Why Jericho Is Worth Visiting

Jericho earns its place in this guide for a simple reason: it is a verified city in West Bank, Palestine, at about 19,783 residents it keeps the scale travellers usually mean when they say they want somewhere off the beaten path. With 8 other verified places within 150 km, it anchors a cluster instead of standing alone. Visitors book it for planning, culture as much as for city. And unlike listicle recommendations, everything on this page - coordinates, category, sources - was checked against official records before publication.

About Jericho

In plain terms, Jericho is a city in the West Bank area of West Bank, Palestine that travellers book around city trips. It is a settled place of about 19,783 people, which means shops, fuel and basic services exist locally rather than only in the next county. Beyond its main draw, the record tags it for planning, culture too, so it rewards more than one kind of visit. Everything stated on this page comes from that verified record; where background history is quoted, the source is named at the end of the section.

The Story of Jericho: History & Background

Jericho ( JERR-ik-oh; Arabic: أريحا, romanized: Arīḥā, IPA: ; Hebrew: יְרֵחוֹ, romanized: Yərīḥō) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Jericho Governorate. The city is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west.

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

Following the era of Mandatory Palestine, the West Bank was annexed and ruled by Jordan starting in 1950, then was occupied by Israel in 1967. Administrative control of Jericho was handed over to the Palestinian Authority in 1994.

The city had a population of 20,907 in 2017. In 2023, the archaeological site in the center of the city, known as Tell es-Sultan / Old Jericho, was inscribed in UNESCO's list as a World Heritage Site in the State of Palestine, and described as the "oldest fortified city in the world".

Lead passage from the Wikipedia article "Jericho", reused under CC BY-SA 4.0 with a coordinate-verified name match; the source article carries the full referenced history.

The Beauty of Jericho

What people mean when they call Jericho beautiful is usually street life: main-street architecture, local signage and the evening rhythm that makes a town photogenic rather than just populated. The light does most of the work: low-latitude light keeps greens deep and skies dramatic; the difference between hours, not seasons, drives the look. The seasons restyle everything around it - stone and brick hold their colour year-round; what changes is crowd density and the angle of light down the main streets. And the beauty compounds with context: with 8 other verified places nearby, the West Bank area reads as one continuous landscape rather than a single viewpoint, which is worth more than any filter on the photos you take here.

Getting There

Jericho sits at 31.8667, 35.4500 in West Bank, Palestine. Most visitors reach it by car, regional rail or local transit; pin the coordinates above rather than only the name - Jericho names repeat across regions, and rural entries often lack street addresses.

Best Time to Visit

Late spring to early autumn (May to September) brings the warmest and most reliable conditions across Palestine. Shoulder months just before and after that window trade a little weather for noticeably lower prices and thinner crowds.

Jericho Season by Season

• Summer (Jun-Aug) - peak season: the warmest, longest days and everything open, which also makes it the priciest and busiest window
• Autumn (Sep-Nov) - shoulder season: crowds drain away, the light turns photographic, and lodging rates typically fall
• Winter (Dec-Feb) - off-season: cheapest beds and empty viewpoints, but check for closures, snow or rain before committing
• Spring (Mar-May) - rebuild season: wildflowers, newborn wildlife and reopened facilities - the best balance if the weather holds

Things to Do

Planning what to actually do at Jericho comes down to the setting it sits in:

• Arrive with the exact coordinates (31.8667, 35.4500) pinned in your maps app — rural place names repeat across states
• Cluster the old downtown/core district on foot and save the car for outlying attractions
• Check the city's event calendar the week before — festivals redefine parking and hotel rates
• Look for the free walking-tour or visitor centre as the fastest orientation
• Chain the stop with what is nearby — see the list below before fixing your day route

None of this needs a rigid schedule - the honest pattern at Jericho is one anchor at the historic core or main square, one longer stop, and the rest of the time left for whatever looks better from the car window. That flexibility is what separates a good half-day from a rushed one.

A Perfect Day in Jericho

Morning (start early). Have breakfast at Jericho and roll out before mid-morning - the light is softer, parking is open, and Jericho is at its quietest before the day-trippers arrive. Give the main stop its full due first rather than saving it for later.

Midday. From Jericho, Al ‘Awjā is only 9 km away - pair the two rather than driving home for lunch; a picnic beats a reservation near most of these spots.

Afternoon. Keep going to Jabal Ḩarmūn (12 km) if the group still has legs; it is the standard second half of this loop.

Golden hour. End at the main viewpoint, waterfront or main street as the light drops; this is the hour Jericho is genuinely famous for locally, and it costs nothing.

Evening. Sleep at Jericho unless the road out is long - leaving at dusk is the one mistake that can flatten an otherwise perfect day.

Know Before You Go to Jericho

• Save the pin (31.8667, 35.4500) offline - reception in West Bank is exactly as good as it needs to be and no better
• Check the official source listed at the bottom of this page for current hours, fees and closures before driving out
• Weekend events and holidays reshape parking and opening hours; scan the local calendar
• Peak-season ticket slots sell out - reserve timed entry if one exists
• Urban scale changes the game: transit passes beat car rentals inside the centre

Nearby Places Worth Combining

Jericho does not sit in isolation - these verified places are all within a short hop and combine into a full loop:

• Al ‘Awjā — city, about 9 km (6 mi) away
• Jabal Ḩarmūn — hiking, about 12 km (7 mi) away
• Jabal Jawfat ash Sharaf — hiking, about 15 km (9 mi) away
• Rammūn — city, about 16 km (10 mi) away
• Ra’s Mu‘ākif — hiking, about 17 km (10 mi) away
• Dayr Dibwān — city, about 18 km (11 mi) away
• Ḩizmā — city, about 18 km (11 mi) away
• Jaba‘ — city, about 18 km (11 mi) away

Planning More of Your Trip

See everything in Palestine on the Palestine country hub, browse the full City Palestine collection, or take in the whole West Bank region.