Summary
- Rome's traditional founding date of 21 April 753 BC was settled on by the scholar Varro in the 1st century BC; archaeologists date the first small settlements on its hills to the 10th century BC (History Today)
- Nekhen in Upper Egypt had between 5,000 and 10,000 inhabitants by about 3400 BC, more than 2,600 years before Rome's founding date (Wikipedia, "Hierakonpolis")
- Kerma in Sudan was founded around 2500 BC by Nubians and became the capital of the first kingdom of Kush (Swiss Archaeological Mission at Kerma; Archaeology magazine, 2020)
- Carthage's traditional founding date of 814 BC is 61 years before Rome's, and radiocarbon dating places its oldest finds in the last quarter of the 9th century BC (Livius.org)
| # | City | Modern Country | Earliest Date | Older Than Rome By | Today |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) | Egypt | c. 3500 BC | About 2,750 years | Ruins |
| 2 | Elephantine (Aswan) | Egypt | c. 3500 BC | About 2,750 years | Lived in, as Aswan |
| 3 | Thebes (Luxor) | Egypt | c. 3200 BC | About 2,450 years | Lived in, as Luxor |
| 4 | Memphis | Egypt | c. 3100 BC | About 2,350 years | Ruins south of Cairo |
| 5 | Kerma | Sudan | c. 2500 BC | About 1,750 years | Ruins |
| 6 | Shedet (Faiyum) | Egypt | By the Old Kingdom, c. 2685–2180 BC | At least 1,400 years | Lived in, as Faiyum |
| 7 | Dakhlet el Atrouss | Mauritania | c. 1600 BC | About 850 years | Ruins |
| 8 | Napata | Sudan | c. 1450 BC | About 700 years | Ruins beside Karima |
| 9 | Utica | Tunisia | c. 925–900 BC | About 150–170 years | Ruins |
| 10 | Carthage | Tunisia | 814 BC | 61 years | Ruins near Tunis |
This list is ordered by age, oldest first. A city qualifies if a settlement stood on its site before 753 BC, the traditional founding date of Rome. Dates come from excavation where it exists and from ancient tradition where it does not, and each entry says which. This is a selection: Egypt alone has more cities this old. Dates marked "c." are approximate.
Selected Details About Each City on the List
1. Nekhen, also called Hierakonpolis (Egypt)
About 2,750 years older than Rome. Around 3500 BC, Nekhen stretched for over three miles along the Nile floodplain and was one of the largest urban centres on the river (Hierakonpolis Expedition, Archaeology magazine). By about 3400 BC it held between 5,000 and 10,000 people (Wikipedia, "Hierakonpolis"). It was the capital of Upper Egypt for at least 500 years before Narmer, the first king of the First Dynasty. The site itself was settled earlier still, possibly by 4400 BC. It is a ruin today.
2. Elephantine, now Aswan (Egypt)
About 2,750 years older than Rome on its earliest settlement, dated to about 3500 BC (Path's archaeological atlas). Around 3000 BC, at the start of the First Dynasty, a fortress was built on the island to fix Egypt's southern frontier. The first temple, to the goddess Satet, dates from the same period. The town sat at the First Cataract of the Nile, facing Nubia. From the 4th century AD, the centre shifted to neighbouring Syene, today's city of Aswan.
3. Thebes, now Luxor (Egypt)
About 2,450 years older than Rome: the site has been inhabited since around 3200 BC (worldheritagesite.org). Thebes was the capital of Egypt during the Middle and New Kingdoms (UNESCO). Between about 1500 and 1000 BC, it had perhaps 50,000 people. The temples of Karnak and Luxor and the Valley of the Kings all belong to it. UNESCO listed it in 1979, and Luxor is a living city.
4. Memphis (Egypt)
About 2,350 years older than Rome. Menes, the legendary first king of Egypt, is said to have founded it in 3100 BC (Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities). It was the capital through the Early Dynastic Period and the Old Kingdom, and the Giza pyramids stand in its necropolis. The word "Egypt" comes, through Greek, from Hikuptah, the name of the city's temple of the god Ptah. The founding date rests on tradition, not on a dated excavation. The ruins lie about 15 kilometres south of Cairo.
5. Kerma (Sudan)
About 1,750 years older than Rome, and the oldest city here outside Egypt. It was founded around 2500 BC (Swiss Archaeological Mission at Kerma). The archaeologist Charles Bonnet, who dug here for five decades, established that Nubians founded it, correcting an earlier view that an Egyptian governor ruled there (Archaeology magazine, 2020). Walls, bastions and ditches protected the city, which grew to more than 20 hectares. As capital of the first kingdom of Kush, it controlled the Nile from the First to the Fifth Cataract. The kingdom ended around 1450 BC. What Kush built next is in Sudan's Forgotten Pyramids: How the Kingdom of Kush Built More Pyramids Than Egypt.
6. Shedet, now Faiyum (Egypt)
At least 1,400 years older than Rome. Many lists call Faiyum the oldest city in Egypt, founded around 4000 BC. The evidence is narrower. People lived in the Faiyum area from the fifth millennium BC, but the town of Shedet is attested from the Old Kingdom, about 2685 to 2180 BC (Wikipedia, "Faiyum", citing the historian Roger Bagnall). The city kept a tamed sacred crocodile, and the Greeks named it Crocodilopolis. Faiyum is a living city, 100 kilometres south-west of Cairo.
7. Dakhlet el Atrouss, Dhar Tichitt (Mauritania)
About 850 years older than Rome, and the only West African entry. It was the largest settlement of the Tichitt tradition, whose people built drystone settlements in southern Mauritania from about 1900 BC (Wikipedia, "Tichitt tradition"). In the classic phase, 1600 to 1000 BC, it covered more than 80 hectares, with over 540 stone-walled compounds around an elite cemetery (African History Extra). Sources describe it variously as a proto-urban capital and as a large village, so this is the list's most cautious entry. The area was abandoned around 500 BC as the climate dried.
8. Napata (Sudan)
About 700 years older than Rome. Around 1450 BC, the pharaoh Thutmose III built a fortified settlement at Jebel Barkal as the southern limit of Egypt's empire (Wikipedia, "Jebel Barkal"). The Egyptians believed the god Amun lived on the hill. After about 800 BC, Napata became the capital of a revived Kush, and its kings Kashta, Piye, and Taharqa conquered Egypt and founded the 25th Dynasty. UNESCO listed the site in 2003. The ruins stand beside the modern town of Karima. Their story is in The Black Pharaohs of Egypt: The Untold Story of the Nubian Dynasty.
9. Utica (Tunisia)
About 150 to 170 years older than Rome on the excavated evidence. Ancient writers put its founding at 1101 BC, but the earliest burials found there date only to the 8th century BC (World History Encyclopedia). Then a Tunisian-Spanish team excavated a well filled with pottery and animal bones, possibly from a ritual banquet. Seeds from the well were radiocarbon-dated to about 925 to 900 BC (López Castro and others, 2016). Utica was the first Phoenician colony on the North African coast. In 146 BC it became the capital of the Roman province of Africa.
10. Carthage (Tunisia)
Sixty-one years older than Rome by tradition: the Greek historian Timaeus dated its founding to 814 BC. For a long time, excavations found nothing on the site older than the late 8th century BC, and the date looked inflated. Radiocarbon dating in the 1990s changed that, placing the oldest finds in the last quarter of the 9th century BC (Livius.org). The first settlers came from Tyre in Phoenicia, led in legend by Dido. Rome destroyed Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War, in 146 BC.
Quick Answers to Commonly Asked Questions About this Topic
What is the oldest city in Africa?
On the evidence in this list, Nekhen in Upper Egypt, which was a large urban centre by about 3500 BC. Faiyum is often named instead, on a claimed founding date of 4000 BC, but the town of Shedet is only attested from the Old Kingdom.
Is Carthage really older than Rome?
By founding date, yes: 814 BC against 753 BC. Radiocarbon dating supports a late 9th-century start for Carthage. Rome's hills had small settlements from the 10th century BC, so this list compares founding dates, not first huts.
Which of these cities are still lived in?
Three: Luxor (ancient Thebes), Aswan (beside ancient Elephantine) and Faiyum (ancient Shedet). The other seven are archaeological sites.
Were there towns in West Africa before Rome?
Yes. The stone settlements of Dhar Tichitt in Mauritania date from about 2000 BC and are the oldest surviving settlements in West Africa. The largest, Dakhlet el Atrouss, is counted here, with the caution that scholars differ on whether to call it a town.
Why is Lixus in Morocco not on the list?
Because excavation cannot place it before 753 BC. A founding date of 1180 BC is often quoted, but the earliest traces of settlement date to the 8th century BC (Archaeology magazine, 2024).
Key Sources
Other sources are named in brackets in the text. All pages pulled October 11, 2026.
- History Today, "The Foundation of Rome". https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/foundation-rome
- Swiss Archaeological Mission at Kerma, "City of Kerma". https://kerma.ch/en/ville-de-kerma/
- Archaeology magazine, "A Nubian Kingdom Rises" (September/October 2020). https://archaeology.org/issues/september-october-2020/features/sudan-kerma-nubian-kingdom/
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, "Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis". https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/87
- José Luis López Castro and others, "The initial Phoenician colonization in Central Mediterranean: new archaeological excavations in Utica (Tunisia)" (2016). https://repositorio.ual.es/handle/10835/16044
- Livius.org, "Punic Carthage". https://www.livius.org/place/carthage/
