page_title: Harran
section_title: Old Assyrian Period
hierarchical_section_title: Harran / History / Old Assyrian Period
caption_attribution_description: English: Ruins of Harran University
context_page_description: Harran, ancient Carrhae, was a major ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia whose site is in the modern city Harran, Turkey, 44 kilometers southeast of Şanlıurfa. The location is in the Harran district of Şanlıurfa Province.
  The archaeological remains are in the ancient Harran, a major commercial, cultural, science and religious center first inhabited in the Chalcolitic Age. The city was called Hellenopolis in the Early Christian period. It is mentioned, in Movses Khorenatsi's and Mikayel Chamchian's History of Armenia, as being under the authority of prince Sanadroug, the sovereignty of which he assigned to Queen Helena of Adiabene.
context_section_description: By the 20th century BCE, Harran was established as a merchant outpost of the Assyrian Empire due to its ideal location. The community, well established before then, was situated along a trade route between the Mediterranean and the plains of the middle Tigris. It lay directly on the road from Antioch eastward to Nisibis and Nineveh. The Tigris could be followed down to the delta to Babylon. The 4th-century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (325/330–after 391) said, "From there (Harran) two different royal highways lead to Persia: the one on the left through Neo-Assyrian Adiabene and over the Tigris; the one on the right, through Assyria and across the Euphrates." Not only did Harran have easy access to both the Assyrian and Babylonian roads, but also to north road to the Euphrates that provided easy access to Malatiyah and Asia Minor.
  According to Roman authors such as Pliny the Elder, even through the classical period, Harran maintained an important position in the economic life of Assyria.
  In its prime Harran was a major Assyrian city which controlled the point where the road from Damascus joins the highway between Nineveh and Carchemish. This location gave Harran strategic value from an early date. Because Harran had an abundance of goods that passed through its region, it became a target for raids. In the 18th century, Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad I (1813–1781 BCE) launched an expedition to secure the Harranian trade route.
caption: Ruins of the Great Mosque in Harran
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