Khabur (Euphrates) in the context of "Upper Mesopotamia"

Edessa (/əˈdɛsə/; Ancient Greek: Ἔδεσσα, romanized: Édessa) was an ancient city (polis) in Upper Mesopotamia, in what is now Urfa or Şanlıurfa, Turkey. It was founded during the Hellenistic period by Macedonian general and self proclaimed king Seleucus I Nicator (r. 305–281 BC), founder of the Seleucid Empire. He named it after an ancient Macedonian capital. The Greek name Ἔδεσσα (Édessa) means "tower in the water". It later became capital of the Kingdom of Osroene, and continued as capital of the Roman province of Osroene. In Late Antiquity, it became a prominent center of Christian learning and seat of the Catechetical School of Edessa. During the Crusades, it was the capital of the County of Edessa.

The city was situated on the banks of the Daysan River (Ancient Greek: Σκίρτος; Latin: Scirtus; Turkish: Kara Koyun), a tributary of the Khabur, and was defended by Şanlıurfa Castle, the high central citadel.

Upper Mesopotamia constitutes the uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. Since the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century, the region has been known by the traditional Arabic name of al-Jazira (Arabic: الجزيرة, lit. 'the island', also transliterated Djazirah, Djezirah, Jazirah) and the Syriac variant Gāzartā or Gozarto (ܓܙܪܬܐ). The Euphrates and Tigris rivers transform Mesopotamia into almost an island, as they are joined together at the Shatt al-Arab in the Basra Governorate of Iraq, and their sources in eastern Turkey are in close proximity.

The region extends south from the mountains of Anatolia, east from the hills on the left bank of the Euphrates river, west from the mountains on the right bank of the Tigris river and includes the Sinjar plain. It extends down the Tigris to Samarra and down the Euphrates to Hit, Iraq. The Khabur runs for over 400 km (250 mi) across the plain, from Turkey in the north, feeding into the Euphrates.

The Levant is the area in Southwest Asia, south of the Taurus Mountains, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the Arabian Desert in the south, and Mesopotamia in the east. It stretches roughly 400 mi (640 km) north to south, from the Taurus Mountains to the Sinai Peninsula and Syrian Desert, and east to west between the Mediterranean Sea and the Khabur river. The term is often used to refer to the following regions or modern states: Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Hatay Province in Turkey. More broadly it also includes: Sinai (Egypt), Cilicia (Turkey) and Cyprus.

The Levant is one of the earliest centers of sedentism and agriculture in history, and some of the earliest agrarian cultures, Pre-Pottery Neolithic, developed in the region. Previously regarded as a peripheral region in the ancient Near East, modern academia largely considers the Levant as a center of civilization on its own, independent of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Throughout the Bronze and Iron ages, the Levant was home to many ancient Semitic-speaking peoples and kingdoms, and is considered by many to be the urheimat of Semitic languages.

Tell Brak (Nagar, Nawar) was an ancient city in Syria; it is one the earliest known cities in the world. Its remains constitute a tell located in the Upper Khabur region, near the modern village of Tell Brak, 50 kilometers north-east of Al-Hasaka city, Al-Hasakah Governorate. The city's original name is unknown. During the second half of the third millennium BC, the city was known as Nagar and later on, Nawar.

Starting as a small settlement in the seventh millennium BC, Tell Brak's urbanization began in the late 5th millennium BCE and evolved during the fourth millennium BC into one of the biggest cities in Upper Mesopotamia, and interacted with the cultures of southern Mesopotamia. The city shrank in size at the beginning of the third millennium BC with the end of Uruk period, before expanding again around 2600 BC, when it became known as Nagar, and was the capital of a regional kingdom that controlled the Khabur river valley. Nagar was destroyed around 2300 BC, and came under the rule of the Akkadian Empire, followed by a period of independence as a Hurrian city-state, before contracting at the beginning of the second millennium BC. Nagar prospered again by the 19th century BC, and came under the rule of different regional powers. In c. 1500 BC, Tell Brak was a center of Mitanni before being destroyed by Assyria around 1300 BC. The city never regained its former importance, remaining as a small settlement, and abandoned at some points of its history, until disappearing from records during the early Abbasid era.

Tell Barri (ancient Kahat) is a tell, or archaeological settlement mound, in north-eastern Syria in the Al-Hasakah Governorate. It is situated along the Wadi Jaghjagh, a tributary of the Khabur River. It lies 22 kilometers away from the site Tell Arbid and 8 kilometers north of the ancient city of Nagar (Tell Brak).

The site, situated in a semi-arid region, was inhabited for several millennia, with occupation spanning from the 4th millennium BC to modern times. Its ancient name was Kahat as proven by a threshold found on the south-western slope of the mound. The site contains remains of monumental structures, including the palace of Neo-Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta II (10th century BC), as well as domestic and industrial areas. In addition, various everyday objects, pottery, and inscriptions have been uncovered.

Al-Hasakah (Arabic: ٱلْحَسَكَة, romanized: al-Ḥasaka; Kurdish: حەسەکە, romanized: Heseke; Syriac: ܚܣܝܟܐ, romanized: Hasake; officially Hasakah, is a city in northeastern Syria and the capital of the Al-Hasakah Governorate. With a 2023 estimated population of 422,445, Al-Hasakah is populated by Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians and a smaller number of Armenians and Chechens. Al-Hasakah is 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the city of Qamishli. The Khabur River, a tributary of the Euphrates River, flows west–east through the city. The Jaghjagh River flows into the Khabur from the north at Al-Hasakah. The city (and the surrounding countryside) is controlled by the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES).

It is characterized by its fertile lands, abundant water, beautiful nature, and numerous archaeological sites. It has also witnessed a major modern urban renaissance, and numerous agricultural and industrial projects have been established around it. Over the past two decades, it has suffered from the drying up of its main river, the Khabur, which has led to the loss of much of its agricultural land, forcing many of its people to migrate internally to the interior provinces, especially the capital of Syria, Damascus, and Daraa in the south, to work in industrial factories and on agricultural lands.

Al-Busayrah (Arabic: الْبُصَيْرَة, romanized: al-Buṣayrah) is a town in eastern Syria, administratively part of the Deir ez-Zor Governorate. The town is located, at the confluence of the Euphrates and Khabur Rivers, southeast of Deir ez-Zor. Nearby localities include Muhassan to the northwest and al-Asharah, Mayadin and Hajin to the southeast. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Al-Busayrah had a population of 6,199 in the 2004 census. The town was known by its Latin name, Circesium, under the Roman Empire.

During the Syrian Civil War, the city was part of the Islamic State until the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) captured it on 12 November 2017, bringing it under the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. On 6 August 2024, Syrian Army Backed Tribal Forces claimed to have captured the city amid an announced offensive in the region.

The Halaf culture is a prehistoric period which lasted between about 6100 BC and 5100 BC. The period is a continuous development out of the earlier Pottery Neolithic and is located primarily in the fertile valley of the Khabur River (Nahr al-Khabur), of south-eastern Turkey, Syria, and northern Iraq, although Halaf-influenced material is found throughout Greater Mesopotamia.

While the period is named after the site of Tell Halaf in north Syria, excavated by Max von Oppenheim between 1911 and 1927, the earliest Halaf period material was excavated by John Garstang in 1908 at the site of Sakce Gözü. Small amounts of Halaf material were also excavated in 1913 by Leonard Woolley at Carchemish, on the Turkish/Syrian border. However, the most important site for the Halaf tradition was the site of Tell Arpachiyah, now located in the suburbs of Mosul, Iraq.