The ruins of the ancient Canaanite town rise between forty and fifty feet above the plain.  It is an oblong mound containing altogether about twelve acres.  The excavations have disclosed a large part of the encircling wall.  It was a construction of excellent workmanship which still stands practically intact, testifying to the accuracy of the early Hebrew tradition.  Its foundation is a wall of rubble sixteen feet high and six to eight feet thick, sloping inward.  On the top of this foundation, which rested on the native rock, was built a supplemental wall of burnt brick six or seven feet in thickness and rising even now in its ruined condition on an average eight feet above the lower wall.  Thus the original wall must have towered between twenty and thirty feet above the plain.  At the northern end of the city stood the citadel, made of unburnt brick, three stories high.  Even the stone staircase which led to the top is still intact.

According to these investigators the late tradition that these walls fell flat to the earth as the result of a miracle finds no confirmation in the ruins themselves.  The older Hebrew account, however, in their judgment agrees perfectly with the evidence revealed by the spade of the excavator.  In imagination it is easy to follow the perilous journey of the Hebrew spies and to appreciate the importance of the negotiations by which they secured the co-operation of Rahab and of the clan within Jericho which she represented.  Later come the Hebrew hordes from across the Jordan bearing with them the ark which symbolized to them the presence of Jehovah, who had led them on to victory in many an early battle.  Behind their impregnable walls the inhabitants of Jericho must have laughed scornfully at the desert host, that seemed utterly incapable of an effective attack or of a protracted siege.  According to many modern interpreters the earliest Hebrew host marched silently about the Canaanite stronghold.  At first the inhabitants of Jericho, accustomed to Arab strategy, undoubtedly held themselves ready for defence.  When no attack came, their vigilance was gradually relaxed.  At last on the seventh day, when conditions were favorable, at the preconcerted signal, a trumpet blast, the Hebrews rushed toward the walls, the gates were probably opened by their allies within the city, and Jericho was quickly captured.  The method of attack recorded in the prophetic narrative was very similar to the strategy used a little later by the Hebrews in the capture of the smaller towns of Ai and Bethel.  They are the methods still employed by the Bedouins in their attacks upon the outposts of Palestine.

The fierce nomadic instincts of these early Hebrew warriors are revealed by the fate which they visited upon Jericho and its inhabitants.  The recent excavations confirm the Biblical testimony that for several centuries after its initial capture the ancient town was left a heap of ruins.