What are the Oldest American Cities?

The most ancient American city is the sacred city of Caral, Peru, which is over 5000 years old.

@JimmyT - You are absolutely correct. I live in a rather large area that was primarily founded by the Oil boom in the early 1900's so there is not a whole lot of history on these towns and I find it a breath of fresh air when I travel to a town that was founded hundreds of years ago as there is more history to learn and study.

As a matter of fact, there are historians that actually do nothing but research old towns such as these because there are not a lot of them that have such a long history, such as places like Jamestown, and these are a treasure trove of information available to learn more of the era.

Towns such as these become the focus of history based studies as simply representing towns of the era.

This is one thing that these old towns have to offer as well as much tourism as people seem to have a great interest in old towns.

I am really wondering of some lesser known old towns besides famous ones and whether or not they have gotten little attention. It would greatly surprise me if they have not been looked at a lot and well publicized.

@TreeMan - It is quite interesting to this that exploration could have went that far inland, but what I find to be even more interesting is that people do not know how far back the settlement of their cities may have gone.

I find it really interesting to go to towns that claim to have founding dates in the 1600's or even the 1500's because that towns history is very enriched and has been able to see a lot in its time.

Due to the expansion of the United States most towns, at least where I live, were founded around 1900 and may not have a lot of history, but those that are hundreds of years older have so much more history to offer and creates great local history projects that can be incredibly complicated.

I live near the Illinois and Indiana border and the popular story about Hernando de Soto is that he explored the East Coast around the Carolinas, made it as far west as Texas, died in Arkansas, and made it as far North as northern Tennessee before his party made its way back to the coast and back to Spain.

However, rumors have persisted due to the changes in geography at the time and lack of landmarks, that de Soto actually explored farther north near east central Illinois!

I find this to be quite amazing that Europeans were exploring that far inland way back then and some historians have looked at this theory as credible due to the lack of knowledge among the exact landmarks they saw and the changes over the years.

I always like looking at lists of the oldest cities in the United States because there are always cases where there may have been a settlement or someone had spotted land.

I have heard that Sir Francis Drake landed near present Day San Francisco, but found out the Spanish had a mission nearby so he got back to sea real fast.

This instance or a mission predates existing cities on the West Coast, but because it is no longer there it does not count.

There are also rumors of Vikings establishing colonies on the East Coast nearly five hundred years before the next Europeans landed.

I find this and early exploration to be so interesting and like to know that there is a history behind areas before the times around the American Revolution.

the oldest city on the american continent still inhabited today is mexico city, founded by the aztecs in 1325.

Quito, Ecuador, December 6, 1534.

there are many cities much older than that. check new mexico!

St. Augustine, Florida was founded by Spanish settlers in 1513.

There were many Aztec and Inca cities in the Americas before Columbus arrived. Mexico City is still one of the largest.

the oldest city in the american continent is the City of Granada located in Nicaragua. It was founded in the year 1534.