Iblis

Hierakonpolis

An important Predynastic Egyptian settlement located 100 km north of Aswan. The town was of considerable extent: estimates of its population vary greatly, but the figure is almost certainly in excess of 5000. In proto-dynastic times Hierakonpolis was the capital of southern Egypt: important disco...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Herculaneum

[Modern Ercolano], A small but wealthy and sophisticated Roman seaside town 8 km from Naples which, like Pompeii, was damaged in the earthquake of 63 ad and destroyed in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79. For beginnings, we have the option perhaps either of an original Greek settlement, or of an Osc...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Hatra

[present-day al-Hadr]. A north Mesopotamian desert oasis settlement some 80 km south of Mosul in Iraq. Hatra probably came into existence in Seleucid times (c300-100 bc) and then flourished as the capital of a little semi-independent Arab state within the Parthian orbit, close to the Roman border...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Gortyn

An important ancient Dorian Greek city in southern Crete, later to become capital of the Roman province of Crete and Cyren-aica. It is perhaps most famous for the Gortynian Law Code, a 5th or 6th century bc inscription incorporated by the Romans into the back wall of an odeum when this was being ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Gordion

[Gordium]. A city occupying the mound of Yasi Hüyük, 90 km west of Ankara in Turkey, capital of the Phrygian kingdom in the 8th century bc and sacked by Cimmerian nomads in 685 bc. Gordion occupied c8 hectares, surrounded by a massive mud-brick wall with a monumental gateway. The city w...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Gordion

Eshnunna

The ancient name of a city under the mound of Tell Asmar, excavated by an American team led by Henri Frankfort in the 1930s. Situated in the Diyala area, to the northeast of Sumer proper, Eshnunna was nonetheless to all intents and purposes a Sumerian city. Although it was occupied from the Early...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Eridu

The most southerly and possibly also the earliest city of Sumer in southern Mesopotamia. A sounding excavated underneath a ziggurat of the late 3rd millennium BC revealed a sequence of 18 religious buildings. The earliest building was a simple mud-brick shrine resting on virgin sand. By the time ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Erbil

The ancient Assyrian city of Arab’ilu and a modem town in Iraq. It has been continuously inhabited for about 8000 years and provides a living example of the formation of a tell. Because it lies under the modem city there has been little excavation, but it is known from texts that it had a temple ...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Ephesus

One of the richest and most splendid cities of the classical world, on the west coast of Turkey, famous in antiquity for its colossal temple of Artemis (one of the Seven Wonders of the World). The town was situated strategically in the delta area of the River Cayster, and there is some evidence f...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Elateia

The earliest known Neolithic settlement in central Greece, near Phocis, dated to the mid-6th millennium be. Rectangular houses were built of timber with earthen floors. A series of pottery styles has been recognized, starting with undecorated dark-and light-surfaced wares, later replaced by black...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Ebbsfleet

A small valley close to Swans-combe and Bakers Hole in southern England with an important series of loams and gravels later than the Swanscombe high-terrace deposits, spanning the last two glacial periods and intervening interglacial. Stone tools included Levallois flakes, but only a few hand axe...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Delphi

A dramatic site on the steep slopes of Mount Parnassus, central Greece, famous in classical antiquity as the home of the Delphic oracle. It is likely that there was pre-Hellenic use as an earth deity shrine, and the setting, with its striking backdrop of cliff-face, rock fissures and springs, was...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Damascus

Modem capital of Syria. A rich oasis city, Damascus was occupied by the 3rd millennium bc, but the settlements of the prehistoric, biblical and Roman periods underlie the modem and medieval city and are therefore not readily available for excavation. Egyptian texts and references in the Bible att...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Dacia

A Roman frontier province held from cl06-270 ad, comprising an area to the north of the Danube and roughly equivalent to modem Rumania. The Dacians had constituted a threat to Rome for some time, and their leader Decebalus had to be recognized as a client king by Domitian. A more determined and s...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Corinth

Major ancient Greek city on the Isthmus of Corinth, excavated since 1896 by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. The city, with its exceptionally high acropolis on Acrocorinth Hill, profited from having ports on both the Corinthian and Saronic Gulfs and was an important trading cit...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Cambodia

[present-day Kampuchea]. Prehistory. Lying between Thailand and Vietnam on the Southeast Asian mainland, Cambodia has important remains of both the prehistoric and historic periods. Stone tools have been found in terraces of the Mekong River in possible association with tektites from a shower tha...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Cairo

The capital of modern Egypt. In 641, the Arab conqueror of Egypt, Amr Ibn al-As, built a new quarter, Fustat [‘The Tents’], outside the old town of Cairo. Among the first monuments erected in Fustat was the Mosque of Amr; the present structure, however, is almost entirely of the 19th century. New...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Byzantium

Byzantine, later Constantinople, now Istanbul (İstanbul). In the 7th century bc Dorian Greeks founded the settlement of Byzantium on a trapezoidal promontory on the European side of the Bosporus channel which leads from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea and separates Europe from Asia. Thus began...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Byzantium

Byblos

[Gebal, Gebail]. An important coastal settlement in Lebanon, north of Beirut, occupied for approximately 5000 years. The earliest settlement was a modest Neolithic village of the 6th millennium be with rectangular mud-brick houses with plastered floors. This settlement developed through several p...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Babylonia

Geographically, Babylonia refers to southern Mesopotamia, the southern part of modem Iraq, lying between Baghdad and the Gulf. Babylonia is a flat alluvial plain formed by the two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, which made this arid region one of the richest agricultural areas of the ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Regions, Place Names

Babylon

The capital of Babylonia, situated on the Euphrates River south of Baghdad in modem Iraq. The city was occupied from the 3rd millennium bc but became important early in the 2nd millennium under the kings of Babylon’s First Dynasty (see Table 3, page 321). The sixth king of this dynasty was Hammur...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Baalbek

A settlement in the Lebanon, which achieved importance in late Hellenistic and Roman times, especially as holy city for the predatory Ituraean tetrarchs, and as religious centre of the Beqa’a region. Often known by its Greek name of Heliopolis (City of the Sun), it shows magnificent ruins of the ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Ayutthaya

[Ayut’ia, Ayuthya, Ayudhaj. A city in southern central Thailand, about 75 km north of Bangkok, founded in 1350 by king Ràmàdhipati to unify the countries of Syàm (Sukhothai) and Lavo (Lopburi). It became the capital of the powerful Thai kingdom of the same name for more than four centuries until ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Axum

[Aksum]. From at least the 3rd century ad, this city in the highlands of northern Ethiopia, rose to be the centre of an important kingdom. Its antecedents are clearly rooted in the Pre-Axumite culture of the area, but the origins of the city itself remain uncertain. The political history of Axum ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Nations

Athens

Major classical Greek city-state in Attica with evidence for continous occupation since the Mycenaean period. Most literary sources are decisively pro-Athenian, and Athenian cultural dominance has been such that this bias often still persists in contemporary scholarship. The geographical position...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Argos

City in the northeast Pelopponese, Greece. Ancient Argos, which is mostly covered by the modem city, lay a few miles inland on the Argive plain, overlooked by two hills, the Larissa and the Aspis, both of which show early traces of use as a fortified centre or acropolis. The city is clearly of ce...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Antioch

Ancient city near the River Orontes in Syria. The plain of Antioch was occupied from the Neolithic onwards (see Amuq), but the city itself was founded in 300 bc by Seleucus I after the death of Alexander the Great. Antioch was one of the two capitals of the Parthian Empire and was populated by in...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Alexandria

Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 bc on a narrow strip of land in the northwestern area of the Nile Delta, Alexandria soon replaced Memphis as capital of Egypt. With its double harbour favourably situated at a natural intersection of the shipping lanes of the classical world, the new city rap...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Aleppo

City in north Syria, covering an ancient city which remains unexcavated. Aleppo is located on the route between the Orontes and the Euphrates Valley, and was important for trade from at least the 2nd millennium BC. Because of its importance it was fought over by Hittites, Egyptians and Assyrians....

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Ahichchatra

Large city in northern India, which was occupied from the mid-1st millennium bc to cl 100 ad. The city, which occupied several hundred hectares, was the site where Painted Grey ware was first found.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Agordat

Town in western Eritrea, Ethiopia, best-known archaeologically for the presence of four village sites, never excavated but attributed on the basis of surface collections to about the 3rd millennium be. The artefacts, notably the stone mace-heads and ground stone axes, show affinities to those of ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Agade

See Akkad.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Adria

[Atria]. Port in northeast Italy. A principal 6th-5th century BC port on the Adriatic, and important crossover point for Etruscan and Greek trade, linking the sea routes with Etruria, the Po Valley and northern Europe. Variously described as of Venetie, Greek or Etruscan foundation, the town seem...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Abydos

Major town in northern Egypt, which was a centre for the worship of Osiris and the chosen burial place of the pharaohs of the First Dynasty (seeDynastic Egypt). The royal tombs consisted of large underground brick-built rooms lined with wood, covered by a low mound surrounded by a brick wall. Ear...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Adramytteion

Adramyttion (modern Edremit) was a flourishing city in MYSIA, opposite LESBOS, overlooking the gulf to which it gave its name. Said to have been founded by Adramys, brother of CROESUS (Aristotle ap. Steph. Byz.s.v. Adramyteion) and reported to have beenthe seat of Croesus before his accession (Ni...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities

Adramytteion

Philia

Πληκτρολογήστε ιστότοπο για τον πολιτισμό Χαλκολιθικής III στη βόρεια Κύπρο, στα μέσα της 3ης χιλιετίας π.Χ. Χαρακτηρίζεται από κόκκινη γυαλισμένη κεραμική....

archaeologsGreekPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Karmir-Blur

Modern Erivan, Ermenistan yakınlarındaki Urartu şehri. Bir kale ve duvarlarla çevrili bir yerleşim alanı ile, çoğunlukla MÖ 7. yüzyılda yerleşim görmüştür. Urartu öncesi mezarlar ve Helenistik yerleşim vardır. 8. yüzyılda Urartu yerleşimi olarak Erebuni'nin yerini almış olabilir....

archaeologsTurkishAncient Cities, Place Names

Dara

Dara Antik Kenti Mardin’in 30 kilometre güneydoğusunda bulunan Oğuz Köyü'nde yer almaktadır. Tarihte Yukarı Mezopotamya'nın en önemli yerleşim yerlerinden birisi olan Dara, İmparator Anastasius'un (491-518) girişimleriyle 505 yılında, Doğu Roma İmparatorluğu’nun doğu sınırını Sasanilere karşı kor...

archaeologsTurkishAncient Cities, Place Names

Dara

During the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius (491-518 AD), after more than 60 years of peace, a serious conflict with Persia broke out. It lasted from 502 to 506 AD and was known as the Anastasian War. It became the prelude to a long series of armed skirmishes, devastating both empires th...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities, Place Names

Dara

Zeugma

Zeugma started its existence as a Greek town, founded by Seleucus I Nicator, one of the Diadochi, the friends of Alexander the Great who fought for control over his empire after his death in 323 BCE. In ancient times, the name Zeugma encompassed the twin cities, perching on both banks of the Euph...

archaeologsEnglishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Zeugma

Philia

Kuzey Kıbrıs'ta Kalkolitik III kültür alanı, MÖ 3. binin ortası. Kırmızı cilalı seramik ile karakterizedir.

archaeologsTurkishPlace Names, Ancient Cities

Babylon

Demir Çağı boyunca Babil krallığının kuzeydeki Asurlarla çalkantılı bir ilişkisi oldu. Kent semharib tarafından MÖ 689’da yıkıldı, ama oğlu Asurahiddina (saltanatı MÖ 680-669) tarafından büyük oranda tekrar inşa edildi. MÖ 612’de Asur devleti yıkıldığında, Muzaffer Medler gözlerini kuzeye çevirer...

archaeologsTurkishAncient Cities

Babylon

Babil veya ”Tanrılar Kapısı”, antik yakındoğu’daki en ünlü kentlerden biridir. Pek çok Mezopotamya kenti gibi uzun bir geçmişe sahiptir. İlk olarak Erken Hanedanlar döneminde yerleşen Babil, MÖ 18. yüzyılda Hammurabi’nin saltanatı sırasında önem kazandı. Arkeolojik araştırmalar ve metinsel kanıtl...

archaeologsTurkishAncient Cities

Babylon

Babylon. The capital of BABYLONIA, situated on the Euphrates River south of Baghdad in modem Iraq. The city was occupied from the 3rd millennium BC but became important early in the 2nd millennium under the kings of Babylon's First Dynasty (see Table 3, page 321 ). The sixth king of this dynasty ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Cities