Agatha Christie’s Khabur: Chagar Bazar, Tell Brak and Tell Barri from Qamishli

Max Mallowan spent three digging seasons at Chagar Bazar between 1935 and 1937, and in 1937 he began excavating Tell Brak. Two of the four stops are his. His wife, Agatha Christie, was on the team in those seasons and later wrote about the Khabur years in her memoir, Come, Tell Me How You Live. This route links those two mounds with Tell Hazna, dug by a Russian team, and Tell Barri, dug by Italian teams. All four lie on the Upper Khabur plain, south and south-west of Qamishli. The trip starts and ends in Qamishli and comes to about 144 kilometres.

The route

Head south-west out of Qamishli towards Amuda. Chagar Bazar sits on the Wadi Dara, 25 kilometres south of Amuda; from Qamishli it is 42 kilometres by road, the last part on a farm track. From there go south to Tell Hazna, beside the village of Hazna, 27 kilometres on. Drive 19 kilometres east from Hazna and you reach Tell Brak; it is the only rise on the plain, so you see it from far off. Tell Barri stands north of Brak on the bank of the Jaghjagh, 14 kilometres by road. The drive back from Barri to Qamishli is 42 kilometres.

Timing

Leave Qamishli at 07:00 and be at Chagar Bazar by 07:45. Nothing stands above ground here, so 45 minutes is enough; from the top, look out over the plain between the two humps. Reach Tell Hazna around 09:30 and give it an hour. Be at Tell Brak by 11:00: this is the longest stop of the day, two hours. Start with the Naram-Sin building on the north-east slope, then climb to area HH on the summit. Move on to Tell Barri around 13:30; the climb takes twenty minutes and the whole visit an hour and a half. Set off back at 15:00 and you are in Qamishli by 16:00.

Take care

The administration of the area around Tell Brak changed in early 2026, and current access to Tell Hazna could not be confirmed. Tell Brak has a guard but no regular visiting arrangements; Tell Barri has neither guard nor signs. Ask in Qamishli about the roads and the sites before you set out. At Barri, ask in the village before climbing and do not leave the path. There is no shade. The walls are mud brick: do not step on them, and keep away from the undercut edges of the trenches. Chagar Bazar is surrounded by crops; do not cross the fields without asking someone from the village, and do not pick up pottery. Most of the finds are not on the mounds: those from Chagar Bazar are in London, and those from Tell Barri were taken to Aleppo. Chagar Bazar is about 14 kilometres from the Turkish border, but the route stays east of the Ras al-Ain–Tell Abyad strip. Do not drive at night and take no photographs at checkpoints; there is nowhere to stop for a meal along the route.