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.

Background

The city's original name is unknown; in the later part of the third millennium BC it was Nagar, and afterwards Nawar. First settled on a small scale in the seventh millennium BC, it began to urbanize in the late 5th millennium BCE, and around 4200-3900 BC it gained walls and a lower town of c. 55 hectares. Around 2600 BC it grew again as the capital of a regional kingdom in the Khabur river valley. Its main deity, Belet Nagar, was revered across the Khabur region and drew pilgrims, and the city was known for its glyptic style, equids and glass. It was a trading centre, placed between southern Mesopotamia, the Levant and Anatolia. Max Mallowan dug here in 1937.

Source: Wikipedia, "Tell Brak"

What you'll find

• 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.

Before you go

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.

Key facts