Quezi

A US Marine walks through the Hatra Ruins. - PD-USG

Ancient Hatra is one of the legendary Lost Cities of Tayyab. Located in modern Iraq, it was founded as an Assyrian city some time in the 3rd century BC. As a religious and trading center of the Persian empire, it flourished during the 1st and 2nd centuries BC.  Later on, the city became the capital of the first Arab Kingdom in the chain of Arab cities running from Hatra, in the northeast, by way of Palmyra, Baalbek and finally Petra in the southwest. It was a buffer kingdom on the western limits of the Persian Empire, governed by Arabian princes. Hatra is the best preserved example of a late ancient Persian city. The city is dominated by the Great Temple, an enormous structure that once reached almost a hundred feet in height.

Hatra resisted Roman invasions, by Trajan in 116 AD and by Septimius Severus in 198 AD. What’s left of the city, especially the temples where Hellenistic and Roman architecture blend with Eastern decorative features, demonstrate the greatness and wealth of its civilization. Hatra later defeated the Persians at the battle of Shahrazoor in 238.  Finally, in 241 it fell to the Sassanid Empire and was destroyed.  To many people it is the loveliest ancient monument in Iraq, from any period in that country’s very long history, and one of the least known ancient cities to people in the West.

Because of the beauty of Hatra’s ruins and the limit of only one photo here, you can take a virtual tour of these spectacular ruins at this website.