List of oldest continuously inhabited cities


This is a list of present-day cities by the time period over which they have been continuously inhabited as a city. The age claims listed are generally disputed. Differences in opinion can result from different definitions of "city" as well as "continuous habitation", and historical evidence is often disputed. Caveats to the validity of each claim are discussed in the "Notes" column.

Africa

North and Northeast Africa

East Africa

West Africa

Central Africa

Southern Africa

Americas

North America

South America

Asia

West Asia

Central and South Asia

East Asia

NameHistorical regionPresent locationContinuously
inhabited since		Notes
Yanshi, Henan Xia dynastyc. 1900 BC
Luoyang Shang dynastyc. 1600 BC
HandanJin, Zhaoc. 1080 BC
Beijing Ji, Yanc. 1045 BCPaleolithic Homo sapiens lived in the caves from about 27,000 to 10,000 years ago.
Zibo Qic. 1045 BCThe Lord of Qi, Jiang Ziya, set the capital of his manor at Yingqiu, which is today's Linzi District.
Jingzhou Chuc. 689 BC
Weinan Qinc. 668 BC
Hefei Zhou dynastyc. 650 BCThe Viscount of Lu was asked to set the capital of his manor at Luyi, which is in the north of today's downtown Hefei.
Suzhou Wu514 BC
Taiyuan Jinc. 497 BC
Nanjing Wuc. 495 BCFu Chai, Lord of the State of Wu, founded a fort named Yecheng in today's Nanjing area.
ChengduShuc. 400 BCThe 9th Kaiming king of the ancient Shu moved his capital to the city's current location from today's nearby Pixian.
Changsha Chuc. 365 BC
Kaifeng Weic. 364 BCThe State of Wei founded a city called Daliang as its capital in this area.
ChongqingBac. 316 BC
Liaoyang Yanc. 279 BC
Guangzhou Qin dynasty214 BCSome traditional Chinese histories placed Nanwucheng's founding during the reign of Ji Yan, king of Zhou from 314 to 256 BC. It was said to have consisted of little more than a stockade of bamboo and mud.
KashgarShule Kingdom2nd century BCThe city of Kashgar was the capital of the Iranic Shule Kingdom and served as a major hub of the Silk Road.
Pyeongyang Gojoseon194 BCBuilt as the capital city of Gojoseon in 194 BC.
GyeongjuSilla57 BCBuilt as the capital city of Silla in 57 BC.
Seoul Baekje18 BCBuilt as the capital city of Baekjae in 18 BC.
Osaka Japan390 ADIt was inhabited as early at the 6th–5th centuries BC, and became a port city during the Kofun period. It temporarily served as the capital of Japan from 645 to 655.
Nara Japan708 ADBuilt in 708 and became the capital city in 710 as Heijō-kyō.
Kyoto Japan710 ADShimogamo Shrine was built in the 6th century, but the city was officially founded as Heian in 710 and became the capital city in 794 as Heian-kyō.

Southeast Asia

Europe

Oceania

NameHistorical regionPresent locationContinuously
inhabited since		Notes
HagåtñaCaptaincy General of the Philippines1668 ADFounded by Spanish Jesuit friar Diego Luis de San Vitores, originally a Chamorro settlement. It is located in Guam, an island that is an unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean.
SydneyNew South Wales1788 ADOldest city in Australia. Radiocarbon dating suggests human activity occurred in and around Sydney for at least 30,000 years, in the Upper Paleolithic period. However, numerous Aboriginal stone tools found in Sydney's far western suburbs' gravel sediments were dated to be from 45,000 to 50,000 years BP, which would mean that humans could have been in the region earlier than thought, although they lived exclusively as hunter-gatherer tribes until the early British colonial period. The first people to occupy the Sydney region were an Indigenous Australian group called the Eora.
HobartTasmania1803 ADSecond-oldest city in Australia. Prior to British settlement, the area had been occupied for at least 8,000 years, but possibly for as long as 35,000 years, by the semi-nomadic Mouheneener tribe, a sub-group of the Nuennone, or South-East tribe.
George TownTasmania1804 ADThird-oldest city in Australia.
NewcastleNew South Wales1804 ADFourth-oldest city in Australia.
LauncestonTasmania1806 ADFifth-oldest city in Australia.
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