There have been many cities conquered throughout history. Some of these places were unlucky enough to be built on strategic locations, such as the intersection of two main caravan roads. When a city was very strategic it was usually attacked and conquered often, in the ancient world. Can you imagine a city that might have been conquered over twenty times? This actually happened. Can you imagine what life must have been like in a city that could come under attack anytime? In ancient times the best defense was walls and many of these cities had thick ones. The bible refers to different walled cities, such as Jericho, where the walls came tumbling down when Joshua sounded his trumpet.

When some of us think of cities that have been conquered many times, modern cities never come to mind, but there is a modern city that is one of the most conquered in history, can you guess which one it is? No? I'll give you a hint, it is in Europe. Still can't get it? Here is the last clue, the name of the city starts with a "p". Okay I guess that I will have to tell you, but don't feel bad, I didn't know it either. The city is Palermo, in Italy. Palermo is on the island of Sicily and today it is the main city on that island. If you live in Palermo you are referred to as Palermitani or poetically Panormiti. The city has been around for quite a long time. It was founded in the eight century B.C. That makes it over 2800 years old. It is believed that when it was first founded, it was called Ziz by the Phoenicians. but the Greeks later called it Panormus.

Palermo was a Phoenician city until the First Punic War which lasted until 241 B.C. then it became Roman. The Byzantines divided Sicily in the ninth century and the two ruling prefects went to war with each other. In 827 A.D. an Arab army arrived in Palermo, it was invited by the winning prefect who had only a small army of his own. The Arabs moved the capitol of Sicily to Palermo and it has remained there. The Arabs built over 300 mosques in the city but allowed the Christians and Jews to practice their religions. In 1194 Sicily and along with it Palermo became the property of the Holy Roman Empire. There was Anvegin rule for a few years and then, in 1479, Sicily and Palermo fell under the rule of Spain. In 1734 Sicily was unified and Palermo fell under the Bourbon ruled kingdom of Naples. In 1848 Palermo rebelled and this rebellion lasted from 1848 to 1849. In 1860 Palermo became part of the kingdom of Italy. Palermo was always a very desirable property and today this city has over 1,000,000 residents.

Britons first city was Colchester. Colchester was a pre Roman city but it's past is shrouded in mystery. We know it existed before the Roman conquests because it's residents left behind dykes. The most famous of these dykes is Grym's Dyke. It's iron age name was the Fortress of Camulos. The Romans named it Camulodunum which was just the Romanization of the original name. In iron age times it was a large farmstead which was about ten miles in area and had a complicated system of dykes. It is believed that in pre Roman times it was the stronghold of the Trinovantes. These peoples asked Caesar to invade Britain as revenge to a person known as Cassivellanus, king of the Catuvellauni, who had murdered the Trinovante king. Caesar had tried to invade Britain in 55 B.C. and had failed. He now invaded again in 54 B.C. Today the city is a mixture of Roman and modern and one of the most unusual cities in all of Britain

Many people don't realize it, but Turkey has more ruins than any other country in the world. For example, it has more Roman ruins than Italy. Ephesus is the site of a very interesting city ruins. It is the best preserved ancient Roman City, perhaps in the world, but for sure in the Mediterranean region of the world. The city grew from an Ionian seaport to the second largest city in the Roman Empire. It was supposed to be the site for one of the ancient seven wonders of the world and a story states that the Virgin Mary came to this city at the end of her life. St. John was also said to have lived the end of his life here. This site dates back to the 3rd century B.C. It is believed that the people of Ephesus had a very high standard of living in their time.

The oldest city in the world is thought by many to be Jericho. The city seems to have been inhabited through the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze-Iron ages. This is one of those cities we talked about that was in a strategic location since it guarded the land of Canaan, as such the city was a prime target of the Israelites. In 1868 excavation began on the city. Several excavations were carried out over the years and in the 1930's walls were uncovered that were thought to date back to 1400 B.C. It was found that the wall had fallen from some event as the bible had stated and not from decay or poor maintenance. In a 1950's excavation, houses had been found that were over 10,000 years old. Jericho's walls had been repaired or rebuilt at least 17 times. The most recent wall was found to have been constructed in 2,300 BC not 1,400 BC, but this is still controversial. Can you imagine finding homes that were 10,000 years old in an ancient city? This discovery boggles my mind, I don't know about yours.

There is just something about these ancient ruins that I find fascinating, I hope you do too