🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient village
El Kowm (Tell El Kowm 2 – Caracol)
PPNB to Halaf (8000–5500 BCE) · Steppe PPNB → Halaf-Ubaid (Palmyrene)
Palmyrene desert oasis PPNB village cluster around artesian spring, desert Neolithisation laboratory.
🇸🇾 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 · 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 · 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
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
Jerf el Ahmar
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A · Mureybetian / Jerf Ahmar PPNA
Two PPNA villages (East and West, 9500–8700 BCE) on the Middle Euphrates now submerged under Lake Tishrin, famous for the earliest communal buildings with subterranean benches, decorated plaquettes…
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Jerf el Ahmar — PPNA Communal Building EA30
PPNA (9500–8700 BCE) · Mureybetian PPNA
Euphrates PPNA village excavated by Stordeur 1995–99 rescue, EA30 with wild animal engravings and deliberate burning.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Kadesh
Chalcolithic to Iron Age (c.4000–600 BCE; peak Late Bronze Kadesh kingdom 1500–1200) · Chalcolithic → EB → Mittani → Hittite vassal → Assyrian
Kadesh (Tell Nebi Mend) on Orontes is the Late Bronze city of the Battle of Kadesh (1274 BCE) — largest chariot battle (Hittite Muwatalli II vs Egyptian Ramesse...
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Kadesh (Tell Nebi Mend) – Orontes Harbour City of the Hittite Battle
Early Bronze to Iron Age (c. 2500 – 1200 BCE) · Amorite / Mitanni / Egyptian / Hittite / Sea Peoples
Orontes ford harbour of Ramses vs Hittites – quay 30 m silted 200 m east of battle tell.
🇸🇾 Syria · Archaeological wonder
Krak des Chevaliers
Crusader to Mamluk (11th c Kurdish fort; Hospitaller 1142–1271; Mamluk after 1271) · Kurdish / Frankish (Hospitaller) / Mamluk
Paradigmatic concentric Crusader castle, Krak des Chevaliers was built by Kurdish emir and expanded by Knights Hospitaller 1142–1271.
🇸🇾 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
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
Qatna (Tell Mishrife) – Royal Palace Harbour on Orontes Canal
Early Bronze to Late Bronze (c. 2500 – 1340 BCE) · Amorite / Yamhad / Mitanni / Hittite
Amorite canal palace city – 120×60 m Royal Palace and harbour canal 80×40 m silted west of palace.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Abr
PPNA to PPNB (c.9600–8000 BCE) · PPNA → PPNB (Euphrates Neolithic)
PPNA-PPNB village (9600–8000 BCE) with lime-plaster houses on Euphrates Tishrin plain.
🇸🇾 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 · Ancient city
Tell Ahmar
Middle Bronze Age to Roman (c.1800 BCE–200 CE), peak Iron Age–Assyrian · Hittite → Neo-Hittite Luwian → Neo-Assyrian
Euphrates terrace city 35 ha (Hittite Masuwari → Assyrian Til Barsip, D-shaped walls, Hypogeum).
🇸🇾 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 · Tell
Tell Aqab (Tell Aqʿab)
Late Neolithic Halaf to Halaf-Ubaid Transition (6100–5300 BCE) · Halaf → Northern Ubaid (HUT)
Halaf-Ubaid Transition type-section — 10 m Halaf stratigraphy on Khabur headwater.
🇸🇾 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 Arbid
Ninevite 5 to Islamic (c.3000 BCE–1200 CE; peak Akkadian–Mitanni) · Ninevite 5 → Akkadian → Khabur ware → Mitanni → Neo-Assyrian
Multi-period Jazira tell (12 ha, 15 m high) in the Khabur triangle, Polish-Syrian excavations by Piotr Bieliński. Sequen...
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Arbid — Khabur Ware Acropolis
Early Bronze to Mitanni (2500–1300 BCE) · Hurrian / Mitanni (Khabur Ware)
Khabur tell excavated by Polish-Syrian 1936 and Bieliński 1996–, Khabur Ware pottery hallmark and equid figurines.
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Aswad
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B · Damascene PPNB (Aswadian)
PPNB mega-village (8700–7500 BCE, ~18 ha at peak) in the Damascus basin/ Ghuta, irrigated by the Barada, considered the place of the earliest fully domesticated emmer wheat and barley in the world.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient village
Tell Aswad — Damascus Basin Neolithic Village
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (8700–7500 BCE; phases I–III) · PPNB Levantine (Ghuta facies)
PPNB Ghuta village 8700 BCE — plastered skulls & earliest barley (Stordeur).
🇸🇾 Syria · Tell
Tell Atij (Hassek region)
EBA-MBA-LBA (c.3500-1200 BCE) · Euphrates EBA to Old Babylonian/Mitannian
Tell Atij (Hassek region) — buried eba-mba-lba tell/village at Hasakah Governorate.