🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Sakka
Early Bronze Age III–IV (c.2600–2000 BCE) · Southern Syria EB (Ghouta palace culture)
Ghouta EB palace 8 ha (c.2600–2000 BCE, wall paintings, double enceinte) 18 km SE Damascus.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Mozan (Urkesh)
Early Bronze to Mitanni (Hurrian Urkesh) · Hurrian
Hurrian capital Urkesh (c.3000–1350 BCE) attributed to the god Kumarbi, with monumental Royal Palace of Tupkish (c.2250 BCE) and underground stone Abi (nekromanteion — pit to summon underworld…
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Emar
Bronze Age (c.2000–1187 BCE), peak Late Bronze 1500–1187 BCE · Amorite → Mittanian → Hittite viceregal
Euphrates LB city 10 ha (1200 tablets, Baal/Astarte twin temples) on Lake Assad shore.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Umm al-Marra
Early Bronze Age III–IV (c.2700–2000 BCE) · Syrian EBA (Ebla–Marra corridor)
Jabbul EB walled town 20 ha (c.2700–2000 BCE, shaft tombs with equid teams, gold jewellery).
🇸🇾 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
Tell Brak (Nagar) (Al-Hasakah Governorate, Khabur Triangle)
Chalcolithic to Mitanni-Akkadian to Late Bronze · North Mesopotamian (Uruk → Akkadian → Hurrian)
Huge early city ('city without a state' per Oates) occupied 6000 BCE–1300 CE, peaking as Nagar kingdom (2600–2200 BCE) with Mitanni palace (1500 BCE) and Akkadian Naram-Sin palace.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Ebla
Early Bronze IVA–B (2400–1600 BCE) · Eblaite Semitic (Northwest Semitic)
Syrian superpower Ebla (c.3500–1600 BCE) with double-walled city (60 ha) and Royal Palace G — where Paolo Matthiae 1975 found the Ebla archive: 17,000 cuneiform tablets in Sumerian and Eblaite…
🇸🇾 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 · Ancient city
Tell Munbaqa
Early–Late Bronze Age (c.2400–1000 BCE) · Syrian Bronze Age (Ekalte)
Euphrates walled city 20 ha (2.5 km double wall, Ekalte Old Babylonian tablets) near Tabqa Lake.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Acharneh
Early Bronze Age to Hellenistic (c.3000–300 BCE) · Syrian EBA → Aramaean → Neo-Hittite fringe
Ghāb Orontes fortress tell 12 ha (EB glacis, Iron Age Aramaean town Tunip/Qarqar) in Ghāb swamp.
🇸🇾 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 · Ancient city
Qatna
Early Bronze to Late Bronze (Amorite Hurrian) · Amorite then Hurrian-Mitanni Egyptian orbit
Mighty Middle Bronze (c.2800–1340 BCE) kingdom city of Qatna controlling eastern Homs basin, with 1 km-square royal palace (largest Bronze Age palace in Syria, 10,000 m²) and intact royal hypogeum…
🇸🇾 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 · Ancient city
Tell Leilan (Shubat-Enlil)
Early Bronze to Old Assyrian · Akkadian → Amorite Assyrian
Akkadian provincial capital turned Assyrian royal city Shubat-Enlil (Shamshi-Adad I c.1813–1791 BCE), with 90 ha walled city, Akkadian palace on Acropolis, and the Weiss 4.2ka climate event…
🇸🇾 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 · Ancient city
Jebel Khaled
Hellenistic to Byzantine (c.300 BCE–600 CE; Seleucid foundation 301 BCE) · Seleucid → Roman → Byzantine Euphrates
Seleucid gridded city (301 BCE) on Euphrates east bank — fossil Hellenistic plan at Jebel Khaled.
🇸🇾 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...