The United States as we know it today is almost 250 years old. While Indigenous peoples have lived on the land much longer, Europeans first started landing in the late 1400s and started to build permanent settlements from the mid-1500s onwards. As such, America's oldest cities significantly predate the founding of the United States, which came into being with the Revolutionary War of 1775 to 1783. Since these cities also all predate photography, we've included a number of historic engravings, paintings and illustrations.

Click through this gallery to learn about 15 of America's oldest cities that you can still visit today...

Founded as 'Charles Towne' in honour of King Charles II in 1670, Charleston adopted its present name in 1783. The city became a vital colonial port with a booming economy and became known as 'the Holy City' thanks to its many places of worship. It was also a major hub for the slave trade. Confederate troops fired the first shots of the Civil War here in 1861 and the city was hit by an earthquake in 1886. Starting in the early 1900s, Charleston enjoyed a cultural renaissance.

Charleston today is something of a living museum, full of antebellum mansions and a wide range of cultural attractions. Modern-day visitors can take a ferry to Fort Sumter to see where the US Civil War began, before walking around the historic downtown area to admire the city's world-famous architecture, particularly its distinct plantation-style houses. Meanwhile, Charleston and South Carolina's role in the US slave trade is explored and re-examined at the Old Slave Mart Museum. 

Founded in 1649 as Providence by Virginian Puritans, Annapolis became known as 'the Athens of America' thanks to its impressive cultural and intellectual credentials. It became the colonial capital in 1694, when it was renamed after Britain's Princess Anne, and became the temporary capital of the newly-forming American nation between 1783 and 1784. Indeed, it was here that the Treaty of Paris was ratified in 1784, officially ending the Revolutionary War. Nowadays, it's best known for the US Naval Academy.

Annapolis's skyline is dominated by the dome of the Maryland State House – an appropriate symbol for the city that hosted the 1786 Annapolis Convention, which paved the way for the drafting of the US Constitution a year later. The US Naval Academy, founded in 1845, and its accompanying museum dominate the waterfront. Elsewhere, the Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park tells the story of the city's seafaring past, while the campus of St John's College – America's third oldest – is also worth walking around.

Newport, Rhode Island, was founded in 1639 by religious refugees from Massachusetts, and their town embraced the separation of church and state and liberty of conscience. This legacy of religious tolerance endured, but it should be noted that the city later became an important centre for the slave trade. Newport grew rich exporting goods like rum and whale oil, although trade declined under British occupation during the Revolutionary War. In the early 1800s the city reinvented itself as a summer resort.

The Newport Mansions remain the epitome of the city's Gilded Age, when America's wealthiest flocked here during the summer months – a tradition which still continues to a degree. Other attractions include the 18th-century Fort Adams, which was in the hands of the navy until 1965, and contains the summer house of President Dwight D Eisenhower. History buffs should also enjoy the Museum of Newport History; America's oldest synagogue, the Touro Synagogue; and the Redwood Library, which was the first purpose-built library in the US.

Love this? Follow us on Facebook for travel inspiration and more

Founded as Middle Plantation in 1633, Williamsburg became the capital of Virginia in 1699. It was one of the first planned cities in the US, and housed the state's first theatre, paper mill, newspaper and successful printing press. It declined in importance after the state government moved to Richmond in 1780 and became known as a centre of learning, with presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Tyler all attending the College of William & Mary. A restoration in the 20th century was largely funded by John D Rockefeller Jr.

Colonial Williamsburg is now a working history museum evoking 18th-century America. The historic area includes 89 original 18th-century buildings and hundreds more reconstructed after painstaking research. Highlights include the capitol, the governor's palace, the courthouse and the public jail. Nearby Yorktown, which was founded in 1691 and forms part of a historic triangle with Williamsburg and Jamestown, was the site of the last major battle of the Revolutionary War.

Boston was settled in 1630 by English Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Company, who named the city after the English town that many of them came from. The thriving port played host to several key events in the Revolutionary War against the British, including the Boston Massacre of 1770, the Boston Tea Party of 1773 and the Siege of Boston, which saw George Washington take the city in 1776. It remains an important port, and is a major educational and cultural centre of the US East Coast.

Modern-day Boston is one of America's most beloved cities and it wears its revolutionary heritage on its sleeve. History enthusiasts can start with the 2.5-mile (4km) Freedom Trail through the city's historic neighbourhoods, which takes in the Massachusetts State House, the site of the Boston Massacre and the Bunker Hill Monument – the site of the Revolutionary War's first major battle. Other key attractions include Harvard University, which was the first public library in the US, the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum and the city waterfront. 

First settled in 1625, Quincy, Massachusetts, prides itself on being 'the City of Presidents' as it's the birthplace of second US president John Adams and his son, sixth president John Quincy Adams, as well as founding father John Hancock – the first signatory of the US Declaration of Independence. The city is so proud of its heritage that it's sought official recognition from Congress as 'America's most patriotic city'. Quincy has also long been known for its granite, shipbuilding and aviation industries.

Properties relating to the presidential Adams family are understandably the key attractions for visitors to Quincy. History and politics buffs can visit the neighbouring buildings where John Adams and John Quincy Adams were born – the oldest intact presidential birthplaces in the US. Meanwhile, the granite-built United First Parish Church, or 'the Church of the Presidents', is the final resting place for the father-and-son presidents and their first ladies.

The original inhabitants of New York City were the Native American Lenape people, with Europeans starting to explore the region in the 16th century. In 1624, the Dutch West India Company sent 30 families to live in what was quickly named New Amsterdam. The British seized the city in 1664 and renamed it New York – it would go on to serve as the US national capital from 1785 to 1790. The city boomed in the 1800s as immigrants surged in from across the world, giving NYC the cosmopolitan feel that it's known for today.

New York City is the cultural and financial capital of the US and a feast for all the senses. The Statue of Liberty still stands guard over the harbour – gifted by the French in 1884 – symbolising the ideals of equality, democracy and freedom, while nearby Ellis Island processed more than 12 million immigrants arriving in the US by ship over 62 years. Other historic attractions include Battery Park, near where the Dutch colonists first landed, and Governors Island, which was used as a military base during the Revolutionary War.

Founded in 1623, this New Hampshire city was settled by fishermen and traders and was originally known as Bristol before its name was changed to Dover in 1637. It soon became known as 'the Garrison City' – settlers built fortified log homes known as garrisons for protection – and was targeted by Native American attacks between 1675 and 1725. The worst was the 1689 Cochecho Massacre, in which 23 settlers were killed and 29 were taken captive. Dover went on to thrive as a mill town and was a leading manufacturer of cotton goods in the 1800s. 

Dover's pride in being a textile town is obvious in its remaining historic mills, many of which have been renovated and are now home to businesses and artists. The Garrison Hill Tower (now in its third incarnation) offers views over Dover and the surrounding area, while the Woodman Museum contains a range of exhibits including colonial artefacts, local history showcases and fossils. Younger visitors will also enjoy the renowned Children's Museum of New Hampshire. 

Discover the best history tour in every US state

Plymouth, Massachusetts, was the first permanent European settlement in New England. About a hundred separatists from the Church of England, later known as Pilgrims, arrived on the Mayflower in 1620. Many died that first winter, but the survivors went on to secure treaties with Native American tribes and, with their help, build a largely self-sufficient community within five years. In 1621, the settlers shared their harvest feast with the Native Americans. The details of the event remain contested, but it forms the basis for the modern holiday of Thanksgiving.

Plymouth was overtaken by Boston as the major political power in what became the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but thrived as a centre of fishing, shipping and rope-making in the 1800s. Nowadays, tourism is one of its key industries. Visitors flock to see Plymouth Rock, where the Pilgrims supposedly disembarked; visit Mayflower II, a replica of the original ship; learn about 17th-century Pilgrim life at the Plimoth Patuxet Museums; and explore the 17th to 20th-century buildings of the Plymouth Historic District.

Taos in New Mexico is one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the US. Long home to the Taos Pueblo – a roughly-700-year-old Native American adobe settlement – Taos was then established as a Spanish village around 1615. Colonial oppression slowly eroded relations between the Indigenous people and the Spanish, and the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 saw the colonisers expelled. The Spaniards reconquered the city again in 1692 and the Native Americans fully surrendered in 1696. It was named 'Don Fernando de Taos' in 1760.

Today, Taos Pueblo is the only living Native American community that's both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a National Historic Landmark, and some of its famous adobe dwellings have been inhabited for over a thousand years. The historic centre of the modern town, Taos Plaza, has its origins in the 1700s, although many of the buildings date from the 1930s. The surrounding historic district still forms the cultural heart of Taos, just as it has done for centuries.

Albany was first settled by Dutch colonists with the building of the fur trading outpost Fort Nassau in 1614 – just five years after the visit of explorer Henry Hudson, after whom the Hudson river was later named. The fort was relocated and then replaced by Fort Orange further north in 1623. The British took over in 1664 and renamed the settlement Albany after the title of the king's brother. It was officially chartered in 1686 – making it the oldest continuously chartered city in the US – and became the state capital of New York in 1797.

One of Albany's top attractions is the late 19th-century New York State Capitol building, which resembles a giant French chateau and is considered by some to be the most beautiful state capitol in the US. Visitors can learn all about the city's Dutch heritage at the Crailo State Historic Site, a small museum housed in a Dutch manor house, and the Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site, once home to Dutch-descended Revolutionary War general Philip Schuyler. Meanwhile, the New York State Museum explores the region's cultural and natural history. 

Founded in 1610, the Virginian city of Hampton – near America's second oldest city, Jamestown – is known for being the oldest continuously settled English-speaking community in the US. The city's strategic position on the east coast led to it witnessing both the beginning and the end of American slavery, with Fort Monroe the site of the 'Contraband decision' that helped set the end of slavery in motion early in the Civil War. Its more modern accolade is being the place where NASA trained its very first astronauts.

History buffs heading to Hampton would do best to start at the Fort Monroe National Monument – the largest stone fort ever built in the US. Here visitors can learn about the history of the area's Indigenous peoples, the arrival of the first enslaved Africans and the fortress's role as a long-time bastion of Chesapeake Bay right through to the 21st century. Elsewhere, the Virginia Air & Space Science Center celebrates the city as one of the birthplaces of the US space programme.

First inhabited in 1607 before being fully settled by the Spanish in 1609 to 1610, Santa Fe is the oldest state capital in the US and the oldest European community west of the Mississippi. Over the centuries it has been the capital of the Spanish Kingdom of New Mexico, the Mexican province of Nuevo Mejico, the US territory of New Mexico (what is now Arizona and New Mexico) and, since 1912, the US state of New Mexico. It is also home to America's oldest surviving public building, the 1610 Palace of the Governors.

Santa Fe is well-known for its historic and cultural significance, and visitors flock here to enjoy its blend of Native American, Spanish, Mexican and American influences. Nowadays the Palace of the Governors is home to the New Mexico History Museum, while the Santa Fe Railyard district, which received the first train ever to enter the city in 1880, houses everything from art galleries to breweries. The so-called 'City Different' also has a great array of independent stores and eateries to enjoy.

Jamestown in Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in North America. Named after King James I, over the years its settlers faced disease, a sometimes fractious relationship with the local Powhatan people – Pocahontas among them – and the 1676 Bacon's Rebellion, which saw the town burned down by rebel colonists. Fire struck again in 1698 and a year later the government and capital of Virginia was moved to what is now Williamsburg. Jamestown ceased to be a functioning town and is now a preserved historic site.

Visitors can learn all about Jamestown at the state-run Colonial National Historical Park Virginia, where you can find out how the colony grew, hear the real story of John Smith and Pocahontas, learn how the Virginia Indians were driven from their homes and uncover the origins of slavery in English North America. Meanwhile the Colonial Parkway links the historic sites of Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown, the latter the site of the last major land battle of the Revolutionary War in 1781.

Founded in 1565, St Augustine in Florida is the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European origin in the US. Named by Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez after the feast day on which he first spotted the site, St Augustine stayed under Spanish control until 1764, before being passed over to the British for around two decades. The second Spanish period lasted until 1821, when the Spanish colonies of East and West Florida were turned over to the US.

Castillo de San Marcos is St Augustine's lasting landmark of the first Spanish colonial era and is the oldest masonry fortification in continental America. Other historic highlights include the 19th-century St Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum and the historic downtown, where many of the buildings date back to the 1700s. In a different vein, the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park tells the story of Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon's legendary quest for the magical waters of the fountain of youth, and the tragedy of the Indigenous Timucua people.

Now marvel at the most powerful photos ever taken in US history