Tell Brak

Tell Brak is one of the largest ancient mounds in the world and one of the oldest cities anywhere, urban by the early fourth millennium BC, before writing. Its Eye Temple yielded thousands of small alabaster figures with huge staring eyes whose meaning is still argued about, and later levels held a palace of the Akkadian empire. The mound rises forty metres over the Khabur plains and the scale of it is what a visit gives: a city older than history underfoot.

What you actually see

• The mound - forty metres of stacked cities above the plain.
• The Eye Temple site - where the staring idols were found.
• The Akkadian palace area - the imperial level in the mound.
• The Khabur plains - the grain country that fed early cities.

When to go

March to April and October to November are mild; summer in the northeast is very hot. Spring puts green on the plains.

Honest expectations

There is little standing architecture - this is a mound for the imagination, best with a guide. The eye idols are in museums. Access to the northeast requires arrangements that change.

Nearby

Hasakah is southwest, and the Khabur country is around it.