Carchemish

City in northern Syria, 125 km northeast of Aleppo, located at a crucial crossing-point on the Euphrates. Occupied from the Neolithic period until the Roman empire, it prospered particularly during the Bronze Age, both as a major HITTITE town during the Old Kingdom and Empire (c.1680–1205) and as an important post-Hittite centre in the 1st millennium BC, with impressive fortifications similar to those at the contemporary (though slightly larger) site of ZINJIRLI. The post-Hittite phase of the site is characterized by a considerable number of sculpted basalt reliefs carved with Hittite hieroglyphs, as well as rare examples of neo-Hittite statuary, which were excavated by Leonard Woolley.

Tell site on the Euphrates River on the Turkish-Syrian border. It was occupied from the 5th millennium be, but became an important city only after the Hittite conquest in the 14th century bc. Carchemish remained important after the fall of the Hittite empire, during the period of the Syro-Hittite city states (12th-8th centuries bc). The city consisted of a heavily fortified citadel and a large walled town adjacent to it. It is famous for the carved reliefs and inscriptions in ‘Hittite hieroglyphics’ decorating the great gateways and the monumental buildings of the city. Carchemish was conquered by the Assyrians under Sargon II in 716 bc.