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-Ancient
Raqqa city has witnessed the birth of many civilizations
and foreign invasions.
The successive kingdoms in Raqqa have played an important
role in its development on the humanitarian and knowledge
levels reflected by its archeological ruins.
The archeological ruins in the city show the architectural
and cultural developments it has witnessed such as Tal al-Khwaira
site to the north of Raqqa near the Syrian-Turkish borders
between al-Ballikh and al-Khabour rivers.
Tal al-Khwaira is an important big archeological city whose
buildings and streets are one of the first architectural
designs that was similar to Damascus city in the old ages
and reflect how advanced were the nations who have lived in
it.
The city has a circular shape nowadays and it contains the
ruins of ancient fortresses that constitute a wall
surrounding the city whose external facade consists of an
artificial slope lies on huge stone bases, Archeologist
Mohammad al-Ezzo said.
In the past the wall was surrounded by a ditch that has
disappeared throughout history due to the floods in al-Khwaira
valley.
You can see a lot of holes at the wall thought to be the
gates of the city and along the first wall lies the lower
city that surrounds the center of the upper city whose area
is estimated at 220 square kilometers.
The unearthed findings indicate that the lower city used to
have a huge population of 75,000 people where the squares
that were found in 1983 indicated that there were nine
housing compounds in the lower city, while the ruins of the
upper city were greater in number.
Excavations at Tal al-Khwaira site have started since the
beginning of the second half of the twentieth century under
the supervision of the German Institute in Damascus, said
Director of Raqqa Antiquities Department Mohammad al-Sarhan.
The site witnessed three settlement stages, the first of
which was in the third millennium B.C that was known as the
Dawn of the Syrian Civilization where the settlement covered
a wide area of the site while the second one was at the
second half of the third millennium B.C and it was known as
the Syrian Middle Age and the third stage was in the second
millennium B.C.
During the first stage, Tal al-Khwaira civilization
prospered and this prosperity was represented through
building palaces, houses, and temples along the two sides of
the long street that was known as Temples Street and their
one-meter high walls have stood fast up till now.
You can see a lot of clay pieces at the site indicating that
houses were built at the plain and at times of catastrophes
and wars, citizens used to resort to the places located
inside the wall of the city, but that didn't last for a long
time where al-Khwaira settlement was uninhabited for
anonymous reasons.
The German Archeological Expedition ended its excavation
works for the current season where it discovered a part of
the main gate of al-Khawaira city and external wall in
addition to the architectural style of the bridges, the
internal gate of the wall and the main street connecting the
lower and upper cities.
The German Expedition also discovered a channel for drawing
water from the upper to the lower part of the city in
addition to many rooms dating back to the Ancient Bronze Age
and a temple built of big stones of different layers painted
with grout.
Ruaa
AL-Jazaeri \ Kh.Aridi |
