RAHAB THE PROSTITUTE'S HOUSE

Design of a basic revetment wall

Jericho had a stone revetment wall at the base of the tel or hill on which it stood, and this wall held the high rampart in place. Above the rampart was a mud brick wall which was the outer wall of the city.

  The revetment wall at Jericho

The stone revetment wall is in the lower right of the photograph above. You can judge the height of the wall by comparing it with the figure of the man standing beside it. 

The revetment wall surrounded the city at the base of the sloping earthen rampart and provided a first line of defense. A mud brick parapet wall is clearly visible above it.

Behind the parapet, across the center of the photo, are the remains of houses. Archaeologists found that these were poorly built, only one brick thick.

Bryant Wood suggests that Rahab, the prostitute who assisted Joshua’s spies, might have lived in one of these houses on the sloping rampart between the revetment wall and the city wall above.

The Bible describes Rahab's house as being part of the city wall. The houses in this part of a city belonged to the poorer people - servants, slaves, workers.

If Jericho was already run down, as seems to have been the case, the area between the walls would have been quite seedy - the natural location for a brothel or inn.