Zalabiya
| Zalabiya | ||
|---|---|---|
 East wall from the northeast. A few meters behind the remains of the wall is the edge of the river leading to the river |
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| Alternative name (s): | Arabic زلبية, DMG Zalabiyya | |
| Creation time : | probably 3rd century AD | |
| Castle type : | Rock castle | |
| Conservation status: | Remains received | |
| Geographical location | 35 ° 38 '58 " N , 39 ° 51' 37" E | |
| Height: | 250 m | |
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Zalabiya ( Arabic زلبية, DMG Zalabiyya ), also Zalabiyeh , was a fortress on the Euphrates in Syria , the founding of which is attributed to the Palmyrenian ruler Zenobia , corresponding to the larger city of Halabiya on the opposite side of the river . The small visible remains date from the 6th century, when the Byzantine Emperor Justinian had the fortress walls rebuilt.
location
Zalabiya is on the left (here eastern) bank of the Euphrates about halfway between the confluence of the Belich (near ar-Raqqa ) and the Chabur (southeast of Deir ez-Zor ) in the Deir ez-Zor governorate . A road to Halabiya branches off from the expressway south of the Euphrates about 75 kilometers from ar-Raqqa or 50 kilometers northwest of Deir ez-Zor. A pontoon bridge crosses the Euphrates 500 meters upstream . On the eastern bank, a side road runs along the railway line after four kilometers to the vicinity of the ruins. After another five kilometers, the road joins the second and less traveled thoroughfare that runs north of the Euphrates. As the crow flies, the distance to Halabiya is just under three kilometers.
In both places, the otherwise several kilometers wide Euphrates valley, which is dug deep into the barren rock plateau of the eastern Syrian desert steppe, narrows down to a few hundred meters. The remains of the castle lie on a hilltop separated from the surrounding rocky mountains by a dry valley. In a steep slope the hill drops 50 meters in the west directly to the Euphrates, which makes a wide right-hand arc here at the al-Khanuqa river (Ḫanuqa, "the strangler").
One to two kilometers north of the pontoon bridge, in a valley cut in the rocky hills, was the Al-Kibar reactor , the construction site of a suspected nuclear reactor that was destroyed on September 6, 2007 by an Israeli air strike.
history
Shipping on the Euphrates and the road running along the Euphrates were at all times important traffic connections for the transport of goods and for military incursions between southern Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean. It is therefore understandable that checkpoints were set up at this bottleneck. When the water level was low, the boats, mostly rafts ( keleks ) , had to be left behind at the rapids and the goods transported ashore to the other end. Already in the cuneiform tablets of the Ebla archive from the second half of the 3rd millennium BC The two places are called Ḫalabitu / Ḫalabi'i and Šalbat / Šalbatu . Ḫalabitu is mentioned in two different Ebla lists of tributary, but mostly self-governed cities, while Šalbatu is recorded as one of several common places on the Euphrates that were directly administered by Ebla.
In the texts of Mari from the beginning of the 2nd millennium Ḫalabit and Šalabatum / Šalabitum are mentioned. Stops on the journey from Mari to the west during the ancient Babylonian period included Tuttul and Emar upriver from Zalabiya , where roads continued west to Haleb , north to Karkemiš and towards Qatna in the south. At that time Tuttul held a key position at the confluence of the Belich.
The Sumerian prince Gudea , in the 22nd or 21st century BC. According to an inscription on statue B , which was placed in the courtyard of the En-innu (Ninnu temple), the ruler ( En-Si ) of the small kingdom of Lagaš on the Euphrates in southern Mesopotamia left wood, which was in short supply in all of southern Mesopotamia , also import blocks of na- stone. The inscription names two reference regions for this type of rock, which, according to the localities, was basalt . On the one hand Basalla, mountain of the Amurru, i.e. the Amurrites , in whose settlement area on the upper Euphrates Zalabiya was. The place Basalla was localized with the Jebel al-Bishri, whose center is 50 kilometers west of Deir ez-Zor and which belonged to the central Syrian Ammurite settlement area. Jebel al-Bishri is a 100-kilometer-long limestone plateau, which extends with its northeast end to the Euphrates. This part near the river strait consists of a 10 × 7 kilometer basalt mound.
The second name is Umanum and denotes the continuation of the plateau on the eastern side of the Euphrates. Basalt was mined in both areas in ancient times and comfortably transported south by boat. According to the inscription, Gudea had the basalt broken in the hills of Halabiya and Zalabiya processed into steles for the courtyard of the Ninnu Temple. Around Zalabiya, hills rise over 100 meters above the river plain, on which large areas of basalt are still mined and processed into road gravel.
Halabiya appears in a list of the Assyrian king Aššur-nâṣir-apli I (r. 1050-1031). The Assyrian king Aššur-nâṣir-apli II. (R. 883-859) mentions in the annals belonging to his empire areas north of the Jebel al-Bishri, above "the Euphrates Strait", which only meant al-Khanuqa can. There is also written evidence of settlement of the place in the Achaemenid and Parthian times.
The history of Zalabiya in Roman times corresponds to that of Halabiya. A fortress was built in the 3rd century and believed to have existed before it was taken over by the Palmyrenean ruler Zenobia in 267-271 . After that, Zalabiya on the eastern edge of the Roman province of Syria was also part of the Limes Arabicus defense system against the Sassanids . Their destruction made it necessary to renew the fortress walls during the reign of Justinian (r. 527-565). After Chosrau II (ruled 590–628) had conquered and destroyed both positions on the Euphrates at the beginning of his campaign against Syria in 610, there was hardly any need for the fortress after the Arab Umayyad dynasty, which ruled from 637 .
investment
The fact that only the meager remains of the fortress have survived is less the result of the conquests than of a landslide through which most of the complex with the steep slope fell into the river. Parts of the east wall with protruding, alternating square and rectangular defense towers have been preserved. The remains of the wall consist of large-format plaster stone blocks grouted with clay mortar, which are double-shelled in many places and filled in the middle with mortar and broken basalt. There was obviously no later, partial overbuilding in the Arab period, as can be seen in the citadel of Halabiya. The two square corner towers of the east wall are partially upright up to a height of five meters.
literature
- Frank Rainer Scheck, Johannes Odenthal: Syria. High cultures between the Mediterranean and the Arabian desert. DuMont, Cologne 1998, p. 340
- Georg Gerster , Ralf-B. Wartke: Aerial images from Syria. From ancient to modern. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2003, p. 166
Web links
- Gertrude Bell Archive , Album J (1909) J 200 to J 203: Photographs by Gertrude Bell 1909
Individual evidence
- ↑ Zenobia / Euphrates Bridge. Kiel Image Database Middle East, Christian Albrechts University Kiel
- ↑ Landsat photography in the circle of the reactor. The pontoon bridge is faintly visible in the center of the picture. Zalabiya is to the right of the Euphrates at the lower edge of the picture
- ↑ Michael C. Astour: A Reconstruction of the History of Ebla (Part 2). In: Cyrus H. Gordon, Gary A. Rendsburg, Nathan H. Winter (Eds.): Eblaitica: Essays on the Ebla Archives and Elaite Language. Vol. 4. (Publications of the Center for Ebla Research at New York University) Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake 2002, p. 83
- ↑ Michael C. Astour, p. 82
- ^ Edward Lipiński : The Aramaeans. Their ancient history, culture, religion. Verlag Peeters, Leuven 2000, p. 182
