Hatra

Hatra was an ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia, in present-day eastern Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. Its ruins lie 290 km (180 mi) northwest of Baghdad and 110 km (68 mi) southwest of Mosul. It was a strongly fortified caravan city and the capital of the Arab Kingdom of Hatra, located between the Roman and Parthian/Sasanian Empires. It is considered the richest archaeological site from the Parthian Empire known to date.

Nothing is known archaeologically about the city before the Parthian period, but its foundation is believed to date to the 3rd or 2nd century BCE under the Seleucid Kingdom. It flourished because of its strategic position along caravan trade routes in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, as the capital of a semi-autonomous kingdom under Parthian influence, governed by Arabian princes. It became a buffer kingdom between the western limits of the Parthian Empire and the eastern limits of the Roman Empire.

Hatra played an important role in the Second Parthian War, withstanding repeated attacks by the Roman Empire. During the 2nd century AD the city repulsed sieges by both Trajan (116/117) and Septimius Severus (198/199). Its forces defeated the ascendant Sassanid Persians in 238, but the city fell in 241 to the army of the Sassanid king Shapur I and was destroyed. Traditional stories tell of al-Nadirah, daughter of the king, who betrayed the city to Shapur because she fell in love with him.

The plan was circular, encircled by inner and outer walls nearly 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) in diameter and supported by more than 160 towers. A temenos surrounded the principal sacred buildings at the centre; the temples covered some 1.2 hectares and were dominated by the Great Temple, an enormous structure with vaults and columns that once rose to 30 metres. The city was famed for its fusion of Greek, Assyrian, Canaanite, Aramean and Arabian pantheons, with temples to Nergal, Hermes, Atargatis, Allat, Shamiyyah and Shamash.

The site was first surveyed by Walter Andrae between 1906 and 1911, and systematic excavations have been undertaken only from 1951 by Iraqi archeologists. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985. Forces of the Islamic State occupied the area in mid-2014 and in early 2015 announced their intention to destroy artifacts there, making them a major threat to the site.

Hatra is known as al-Ḥaḍr (الحضر) in Arabic. It is recorded as 𐣧𐣨𐣣𐣠 (ḥṭrʾ, vocalized as: Ḥaṭrāʾ) in Hatran inscriptions, probably meaning "enclosure, hedge, fence". In Syriac, it is usually recorded in the plural form Ḥaṭrē. In Roman works, it is recorded as Greek Átra and Latin Hatra and Hatris.

The temple of the local Assyrian god Shamash, was officially called Beit ʾElāhāʾ 𐣡𐣩𐣵 𐣠𐣫𐣤𐣠‎ "House of God", in Mesopotamian Aramaic inscriptions The city was recorded as "Enclosure of Shamash" (ḥtrʾ d-šmš 𐣧𐣨𐣣𐣠 𐣣𐣴𐣬𐣴‎) on a coin.