Fall of Jericho

The Fall of Jericho, as described in the biblical Book of Joshua, was the first military engagement fought by the Israelites in the course of the conquest of Canaan.

Excavations at Tell es-Sultan, the biblical Jericho, have failed to find any traces of a city at the relevant time (end of the Bronze Age),[2] which has led to a consensus among scholars that the story is mythical.

After escaping, the spies promised to spare Rahab and her family after taking the city, if she would mark her house by hanging a red cord out the window.

[4] Ernst Sellin and Carl Watzinger excavated the site between 1907 and 1909 and in 1911, finding the remains of two walls which they initially suggested supported the biblical account of the Battle of Jericho.

[2] More recently, Lorenzo Nigro from the Italian-Palestinian Expedition to Tell es-Sultan has argued that there was some sort of settlement at the site during the 14th and 13th centuries BCE.

[19] According to Ann E. Killebrew, "Most scholars today accept that the majority of the conquest narratives in the book of Joshua are devoid of historical reality".

[21] Later, Lorenzo Nigro provided evidence of some inhabitation of the place, but regarded the dispute about the fall of Jericho as methodologically erroneous.

Depiction of the battle by Jean Fouquet ( c. 1415–1420 )
The Siege of Jericho, in a Nestorian Christian plate made by Sogdian artists under Karluk dominion, in Semirechye . [ 11 ] Cast silver of the 9th-10th century, copied from an original 8th century plate. [ 12 ] [ 13 ]