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A celebration on Sunday in the West Bank town of Jericho,

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it is the oldest continually inhabited city on earth and under its streets lay nearly two dozen layers of civilization.

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Paula Hancocks has a look at celebrations and the historic city.

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Ten thousand years and counting, Jericho celebrates a birthday to remember.

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One of the lowest points on earth, skirting the Dead Sea and the Jordanian mountains.

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This tower was discovered by a British archeologist back in the 1950s.

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Now it's believed to date back to around 8,000 B.C., which basically means that it's around 10,000 years old.

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But the one problem there is at the moment is trying to preserve it.

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There is stone in there, but also an awful lot of dirt and it's eroding every year.

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Excavations here in the ancient city of Jericho have discovered 23 layers of civilization,

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as well as one of the oldest known stairs in the world, which descend into the heart of the tower.

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Overlooking Tell es-Sultan, the Mount of Temptations

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where Jesus is said to have spent 40 days and nights fasting and meditating, resisting Satan's temptations.

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And in the 6th century, a monastery was built into the mountain's rock face.

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A cable car opened in 1999 reaching the summit of the Mount of Temptation

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helps attract some one million foreign visitors to Jericho every year, according to the tourism ministry, as well as half a million local tourists. 

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But this birthday celebration is about attracting even more.

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Locals enjoyed the festivities, but for a milestone such as 10,000 years, you'd expect a few more tourists,

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but those we found were happy.

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We can't believe it. This is so far away.

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We have much in Norway, but that's 1,000 year[s], and we are very proud of that. Here [it] is a 10,000.

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This Jericho resident says, "I am happy and proud that this is the oldest and prettiest city in the world in 2010." 

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Of course, it's impossible to know exactly when Jericho's 10,000th birthday is,

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but this is about pushing the city onto the international map.

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That's one, that we've been around a long time and that we intend to...can do the best we can to stick around

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until we get to the point where we can live as free people in a country of our own.

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Palestine as [a] destination is a very challenging one in spite of the fact that it hosts this site of universal value.

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So we're using this occasion to draw attention to the fact that it is an existing destination -- still without gateway.

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A destination known as Moon City, Jericho's direct translation in Aramaic.