Tell Tuqan (Tell Touqan)

Tell Tuqan is a 27-hectare mound southeast of Saraqib, about 15 km from Ebla, lying beneath the village of the same name. A high outer rampart surrounds it, with an inner wall set back behind a gap. An Italian team from Sapienza University of Rome excavated the site; the settlement runs from the Early Bronze Age to the Iron Age. The village on top is far younger: it was founded under Sultan Abdulaziz (1861-1876).

Getting there

The village lies southeast of Saraqib, about 15 km from Tell Mardikh, the site of Ebla. It fits on the same route as Ebla and Tell Afis. There is no verified information on access to the mound, signs or a guard. The mound lies under the village, so ask there first.

How long it takes

45 minutes. That is enough to walk around the foot of the mound and follow the line of the walls by eye. With Ebla it makes a half day.

What the excavations showed

A high outer rampart stands on the outside, with a second wall inside, separated from it by a gap. Openings in the line of the walls mark the gates. Remains of an acropolis in the middle point to an inner citadel. The town is said to have been destroyed around the same time as Ebla and later rebuilt.

Who excavated it

Paolo Matthiae first led the dig for Sapienza University of Rome; he also directed the excavations at Ebla and Tell Afis. Francesca Baffi then took over. The Early Bronze Age phases were studied in Luca Peyronel’s 2013 work. The results were published in “Tell Tuqan Excavations and Regional Perspectives”, edited by Baffi, Fiorentino and Peyronel.

What was it called in antiquity

Nobody knows for sure. Scholars have proposed Thaknu, from the list of the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III, and Tukhan, from Assyrian lists. A link to Ursa’um in the Ebla texts was also suggested, but specialists reject it: Ursa’um is thought to have been near Gaziantep.

Where the village name comes from

The village was once called Tell ez-Zahab, “Hill of Gold”. The current name comes from Abdullah Tuqan, sheikh of the Tuqan branch of the Mawali confederation. The village itself was founded by Yahya Agha Salahaddin, a retired Ottoman officer from Salonica, who shared the land among his former soldiers.

Safety

In 2018-2020 Tell Tuqan was on a frontline with military observation posts. The risk of unexploded ordnance and military debris is high. Stay out of fields and unmarked slopes and keep to the roads villagers use. Explosions of war remnants were still happening in Idlib governorate in September 2026.

What most people miss

The scale compared with Ebla. Tell Tuqan covers 27 hectares, Ebla 56 hectares. A neighbour half the size of the region’s strongest city, and walled twice: see both on the same day and it is clear that Ebla did not stand in empty countryside.