Halabiye

Halabiye is an archaeological site on the right bank of the Euphrates River in Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Syria, about 45 kilometres upstream from the city of Deir ez-Zor. In antiquity it was a fortress city called Zenobia, named after Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, who fortified it in the third century CE, and it had earlier been a Roman garrison town called Birtha. After the Romans recaptured it in 273, it was refortified as part of the Limes Arabicus, and the emperor Justinian I rebuilt it in the sixth century under the architects Isidore the Younger and John of Byzantium. Massive walls, a citadel on a hilltop, a praetorium, two churches and a bath complex survive on a site of about 12 hectares, and the city was also a bishopric and is now a Latin Catholic titular see. The site was investigated by Jean Lauffray in 1944 and 1945 and by a joint Syrian and French mission from 2006. The planned Halabiye Dam threatens to flood part of it.