IRAQ: Hatra
The remains of Hatra, the ancient capital of
Arab Christian kings, lies off the Mosul Highway 300 kms north of Baghdad.
Once a
prosperous staging-post on the `silk route` crossing Mesopotamia, Hatra`s huge limestone monuments are copies of Greek, Roman and Parthian-style
architecture built by local Arabs. An inscription dated AD 97-88 tells us
that two of its biggest edifices were financed by local Bedouin
tribes. Surrounded by a moat and a double set of walls, 8 kms long and topped
with 160 watch-towers, Hatra withstood two Roman invasions until being
vanquished by the armies of the Sassanian Persian empire around
AD 232. It seems never to have been re-occupied, its remote location saved its stones from
removal for construction elsewhere in Iraq. In
the centre, attributed to King Sanatruq I, is a great temple dedicated to
Shamesh, the Babylonian Sun-God. Sculptures of other deities include Tyche
(the guardian goddess of Hatra), Apollo (Balmarin in the Hatrene
religion) Poseidon and Eros all of whom are likely to have had their
own temples. The discovery of several bulls' heads also indicates secret
male-only rituals associated with the eastern cult of Mithraism. Serious
archaeological excavations have been interrupted by war in the region but the
temples which have been partly restored are a powerful expression of Hatra`s illustrious past.
The site was inscribed on the UN World Heritage List in 1985.