🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Afis
EB IV to Byzantine (c.2400 BCE–600 CE; peak Iron II) · Eblaite → Amorite → Hittite/Mitanni → Neo-Hittite/Aramaean
Aramaean Hatarikka with alphabetic stele and Iron Age gate sphinxes atop 28 ha tell near Idlib.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Arslan Tash (Hadatu)
Iron Age Neo-Assyrian · Aramaean Hadatu → Assyrian province
Assyrian provincial Hadatu with 2.5 km walls, 11 lion gates and Phoenician ivory hoard.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Habuba Kabira (Ursu?)
Late Uruk (LC5) southern colony · Uruk (southern Mesopotamian)
Uruk planned colonial city (c.3500–3300 BCE, LC5, contemporary with Jemdet Nasr south) on Euphrates terrace — mother colony that proved Uruk expansion: fully gridded 18-ha walled town built ex novo…
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Bi'a (Tuttul)
Early Bronze to Old Babylonian (Ebla to Hammurabi) · Semitic Ebla-Mari–Akkadian world, Dagan cult
Holy city of god Dagan at Euphrates-Balikh mouth, tell Bi'a = Early Dynastic Tuttul (c.2600–1700 BCE) where Ebla tablets locate Dagan's oracle and Sargon of Akkad stopped for blessing.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Halaf (Guzana)
Halaf Late Neolithic (Ubaid predecessor) to Iron Age Neo-Hittite Aramaean · Halaf painted ware → Aramaean Syro-Hittite (Kapara, Bit Bahiani)
Double-significance mound: type-site of Halaf culture Late Neolithic mass-produced painted pottery (c.6100–5400 BCE) that spread from Zagros to Mediterranean — defined 1911 by Oppenheim/ Schmidt; and…
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Jebel Aruda
Late Uruk (LC5) · Uruk colony cult centre
Uruk hill-citadel (c.3500–3300 BCE) perched 160 m above Euphrates on limestone jebel opposite Habuba — sacred twin controlling Uruk colony from above.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Dura-Europos
Hellenistic-Parthian-Roman · Seleucid → Parthian → Roman
Macedonian-Euphrates cliff city (303 BCE–256 CE) called 'Pompeii of the Desert' — garrison of Parthian-Roman frontier buried under a Roman siege embankment that preserved the world's earliest…
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Beydar (Nabada)
Early Bronze Age Ej II–IVa (Jezirah Early Dynastic to Akkadian) · North Mesopotamian Kish tradition, Semitic (Nabada Akkadian)
Circular walled 3rd-millennium city Nabada (c.2900–2200 BCE, Early Jezirah III), 28 ha upper town + lower town 20 ha, centre of western Jezirah after Tell Brak.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Barri (Kahat)
Early Bronze to Mitanni to Assyrian to Parthian · Hurrian Mitanni → Middle Assyrian
Stratified Jezirah tell Kahat (c.3000 BCE–1400 CE, peak Mitanni capital c.1500–1360 BCE and Assyrian Kahat) on Jaghjagh mid-Khabur.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Ugarit
Neolithic to Late Bronze collapse 1190 BCE · Ugaritic Semitic (Amorite-Canaanite) under Hittite-Egyptian influence
Late Bronze cosmopolitan port (c.6000 BCE Neolithic to 1190 BCE destruction) on the Mediterranean, capital of the Kingdom of Ugarit (c.1450–1190 BCE) with cuneiform alphabetic tablets (world's first…
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Palmyra
Hellenistic to Roman (Palmyrene Empire interlude) · Aramaean Palmyrene → Roman
Desert oasis emporium on Silk Road (1st c. BCE–273 CE) — 'Bride of the Desert' — caravans of Queen Zenobia who challenged Rome (267–272 CE, sacked by Aurelian).
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Mari
Early Dynastic to Old Babylonian (Shakkanakku to Zimri-Lim) · Sumerian → Amorite Mariote
Middle Euphrates great city (c.2900–1759 BCE) controlling trade between Sumer and Amorite west, with the 2.5 ha Palace of Zimri-Lim (260 rooms, frescoes — Investiture of Zimri-Lim at Louvre) and the…
🇸🇾 Syria · Temple complex
Tell Ain Dara
Late Bronze – Iron Age II (Syro-Hittite) · Hittite – Syro-Hittite (Aramaean)
Syro-Hittite temple (1300–740 BCE) with 1-m footprints and sphinxes — Solomon's Temple parallel, destroyed 2018.
🇸🇾 Syria · Archaeological wonder
Citadel of Aleppo
3rd millennium BCE to present (Yamhad Bronze Age peak; current fortress 12th–13th c CE) · Amorite (Yamhad) / Hittite / Neo-Hittite / Hellenistic / Ayyubid / Mamluk / Ottoman
One of the oldest continuously fortified mounds in the world, Aleppo citadel occupies a 45 m-high tell (Yamhad kingdom capital c.1800 BCE).
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Apamea
Seleucid to Byzantine Crusader · Seleucid → Roman → Byzantine
Seleucid garrison city and military elephant depot (Seleucus' 500 Indian elephants), later Roman Apamea with the grandest colonnaded cardo in the East — 1,850 m long, 37 m wide, 1,200 columns with…
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Bderi
Late Bronze to Neo-Assyrian (c.1600–600 BCE) · Mitanni Hurrian → Middle Assyrian
Stratified 7-m Khabur village documenting Mitanni–Assyrian agrarian collapse and recovery; Pfälzner exposed Mitanni granary with barley, then Middle Assyrian canal-side settlement with large storage…
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell el-Fekheriye (Sikkan / Washukanni?)
Middle Bronze to neo-Assyrian (c.2000 BCE–700 BCE), peak Middle Assyrian · Mitanni Washukanni? / Sikkan Assyrian
Spring-resurgent mound with 1.5-m deep Middle Assyrian level and 9th-c. bilingual Old Aramaic–Old Assyrian Hadad statue inscription (stated first to transcribe Akkadian into Aramaic).
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Mastuma
Early Bronze III – Iron II (to Late Roman) · Amorite/Aramaean – Luwian
Idlib plain fortified tell (2500–550 BCE) with 30-season Japanese excavation sequence.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Arabid (Tell Erbid)
Early Jezirah I–III (c.3000–2200 BCE) · Ninevite-5 → Early Dynastic Jezirah
30-ha EB town with nine-phase Ninevite-5 through ED III defensive wall, gate with corbel vault, “Animal House” kitchen with fauna scatters, eye-idol temple and Soviet-Polish plan 7 stratified ED…
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Kashkashok
Ubaid–Early Jezirah III (c.5000–2300 BCE) · Ubaid → Ninevite-5
Trilogy Kashkashok I–III on Jaghjagh mid-reach: Ubaid hut with Samarra pre-contact, Late Chalcolithic double-temple mound, and ED II dense granaries with Halaf-to-Ninevite transition; Matsutani &…
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Sianu
Middle Bronze to Iron Age (c.2000–500 BCE; floruit LBA-Iron) · Canaanite / Ugaritic periphery → Phoenician → Neo-Assyrian
Coastal capital of Siyannu kingdom (2000–500 BCE) between Ugarit and Amurru at Jableh.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Hazna I
Early Bronze III–IV (c.2600–2100 BCE) · Early Jezirah III Ebla-contact
9-m step-terrace temple at Tell Hazna overlooking Khabur–Sinjar pass, stair and altar with Ebla-style cylinder seals, Soviet-Joint campaign 1988–2010 (Munchaev) exposing three ritual phases.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Hadidi (Tell Hadidi / Azu)
EB IV to Iron I (c.2400–1000 BCE) · Eblaite → Amorite → Mitanni → Hittite/Emar → Aramaean
Euphrates terrace tell now peninsula in Tabqa Lake, excavated by Rudolph Dornemann; Emar texts identify it as Azu on the...
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Tuqan
EB IV to MB II (c.2500–1700 BCE) · Eblaite → Amorite → Old Babylonian
28 ha Ebla-period town on the Matakh plain south of Aleppo, Italian excavations by Francesca Baffi. EB IV–MB II (c.2500–...