Mayadin, Syria

Mayadin is a district town on the Euphrates, 44 kilometres south-east of Deir ez-Zor. The 2004 census counted 44028 people, making it the second-largest place in the province. The town itself has no listed monument; its value is its position in the middle of the densest stretch of archaeology on the middle Euphrates. Qal’at al-Rahba stands at the edge of town, Terqa and Tell Masaikh lie to the south-east, and Bouqras is on the road in from Deir ez-Zor.

Getting there

From Deir ez-Zor, 44 kilometres south-east on the road that follows the right bank of the Euphrates. The road passes Bouqras on the way. From Mayadin the same road carries on to Abu Kamal on the Iraqi border. Ask in Deir ez-Zor about the state of the route and any checkpoints before setting out.

How long it takes

Two hours for the town itself: the market streets and the riverbank. Add Qal’at al-Rahba and it becomes half a day; add Terqa and Tell Masaikh and it is a full day.

Where the town comes from

Mayadin stands on the site of Rahbat Malik ibn Tawk, founded in the 9th century by the Abbasid commander Malik ibn Tawk. The town was seen as the key to Syria from Iraq and changed hands again and again. It was destroyed by the earthquake of 1157. Nur al-Din granted the area to Shirkuh, who moved the fortress about 4 kilometres south-west, to the place now called Qal’at al-Rahba. The old site survived as Mashhad Rahba, and present-day Mayadin is that site. Some writers identify the town with the Audattha mentioned by Ptolemy, though others place that name at Haditha in Iraq.

Arabic sources give one explanation for the name: the town had so many minarets that it was called al-Ma’adhin, and the word later wore down into al-Mayadin.

What it was like a century ago

In the early 20th century Mayadin was the seat of the Ashara sub-district of the Ottoman Sanjak of Zor, and its governor lived here. A British intelligence report lists a market, shops and a mosque with a leaning minaret. The Czech explorer Alois Musil counted about 2500 people in 1912, in 380 houses: 400 Muslim families, 15 Syriac Orthodox families who had come from Mardin, and 3 Jewish families. There was also a boys’ primary school.

What not to miss

Reading the town and the fortress together. Medieval Rahba lies under today’s town, and Shirkuh’s castle is on the mound to the south-west. Looking from the riverbank towards the castle, the ground itself shows why a town rebuilt after an earthquake moved away from the water to the edge of the steppe. The castle’s own story is in the Qal’at al-Rahba record.

And one unexpected detail: on 19 June 1947 Pan Am Flight 121 crashed about six kilometres from the town. Its third officer was Gene Roddenberry, who went on to create Star Trek.

Where it stands now

The town was held by ISIS from 2014 to 2017 and retaken in October 2017. Whether the mosque with the leaning minaret and the old market still stand could not be confirmed. Access and security cannot be confirmed either; ask in Deir ez-Zor before going.