Tell al-Rawda, a Planned Bronze Age City

Tell al-Rawda is a low, almost circular mound on the steppe about 80 km east of Hama, where rainfall stays under 200 mm a year. Underneath lies a Bronze Age city that was planned and built in one go between 2560 and 2430 BC. It was abandoned around 2000 BC and never built over, which is why its street plan can still be read.

Where it is

The mound lies northeast of Salamiyah, inside a depression called Faydat al-Rawda, along Wadi al-Umur. Houses of the modern village of al-Rawda cover its southwest side. Steppe roads have few signs; asking in Salamiyah about the route and the current security situation is the realistic approach.

How long it takes

An hour. The site is open and has no shade. That is enough to walk round the mound and find the line of the wall and the gates. There is no recent record of how much of the excavation trenches remains open.

What to see

The plan looks like a wheel: streets open out from the centre in rings and spokes. Tell Chuera has the same layout. The walled city covers 11 ha, and 15-16 ha with its outer quarters. A double wall, stone at the base and mudbrick above, and two ditches surround it. Each of the five gates is 3 m wide; the excavation reached the north and east gates.

At least three temples have been identified inside. The largest one excavated has a columned entrance porch, a square cella, or inner sanctuary, and a 50 m sacred courtyard. Offerings included alabaster from Egypt, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan and carnelian from India. The necropolis held 97 graves, among them 54 shaft graves, 25 cist graves and 17 ring graves. Irrigation works that collected surface water were also found around the city.

Who found it and who dug it

Al-Rawda was found in 1996 during a survey of the arid belt of northern Syria. Excavation began in 2002, run jointly by France’s CNRS and Syria’s Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) and led by Corinne Castel and Nazir Awad. Work continued until at least 2010. The city’s life span matches the long drought that hit the region at the end of the 3rd millennium BC.

Do not miss

The north and east gates. They are the two gates the excavation reached, and the most direct way to understand the double wall. The present state of the trenches is unknown, so it helps to ask in the village where they are.