Jericho

The sleepy oasis of Jericho—adorned with date palms, orange groves, banana plantations, bougainvillea bushes, and papaya trees—is aptly called Arikha, or "fragrant," in Arabic. This oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, Jericho is immortalized as the place where "the walls came tumblin' down" at the sound of Joshua's trumpets. Those ramparts haven't been found, but the ruins of Hisham's Palace will give you an idea of the devastating power of an earthquake at a time when cities were built of mud, wood, and stone.