The C1stBC oasis city of Hatra (al-Hadr), some 110km (68 miles) SW of Mosul in northern Iraq: roadway leading from N gate of main city wall through an area once packed with houses to the central enclosure (temenos) with temples & palaces. A caravan city, one of the earliest settlements established by Arabic-speaking nomad tribes. Situated in the desert, on the W bank of Wadi Tharthar between the Rivers Tigris & Euphrates in a province of the Parthian Empire called Arabaya (Land of the Arabs). Hatra became a cosmopolitan city, the hub of 12 ancient trade routes. In the 'forward zone' of Roman frontier policy, it was strongly fortified against invading Roman armies. Attacks by emperors Trajan in 117AD, & twice by Septimius Severus in 198-201 failed because of heat, hunger & thirst, flies & hornets, & the effective use of machine catapults & sorties by the defenders. The city was captured & sacked c. 241AD by Shapur I & his father Ardashir, founder of the Sassanian dynasty. A hybrid between the Mediterranean world & Asia with a mix of C1st BC Hellenic & C1st/2ndAD Iranian (Parthian) architecture within the layout of an Asiatic town. Circular in plan with an inner (main) & outer wall nearly 4 miles (6.4km) in circumference with over 160 towers. At the centre lay a rectangular enclosure (temenos) containing the sacred buildings & palaces. The area in between was packed with houses divided by narrow streets. This photograph was taken in March 1983, in 1985 Hatra was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. IS/Daesh occupied Hatra from 2014 to 26 April 2017, using the buildings as a military training camp, defacing the statues & friezes & using them for target practice. Walls damaged by bullets & shrapnel, the two main halls of the Iranian temple-palace scorched by fire.
