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147-508: The Syrian capital Damascus was ranked the least liveable city of the 140 assessed in 2018 and 2019, reflecting the ongoing conflict in the country. Before 2011, Vancouver , Canada, was ranked the EIU's most liveable city from 2002 to 2010. In 2011 the EIU stated that a highway closure on Vancouver Island (separated from Vancouver by the Strait of Georgia and not connected by a bridge) resulted in

294-553: A Delta city, such as Memphis or Heliopolis, or in Thebes. These two latitudes give dates 20 years apart, the High and Low chronologies, respectively. The length of Thutmose III's reign is known to the day thanks to findings in the tomb of the military commander Amenemheb-Mahu. Amenemheb-Mahu records Thutmose III's death to his master's 54th regnal year, on the 30th day of the third month of Peret . The day of Thutmose III's accession

441-656: A Levantine coalition, that included forces from the northern Aram-Hamath kingdom and troops supplied by King Ahab of Israel, in the Battle of Qarqar against the Neo-Assyrian army. Aram-Damascus came out victorious, temporarily preventing the Assyrians from encroaching into Syria. However, after Hadadzezer was killed by his successor, Hazael, the Levantine alliance collapsed. Aram-Damascus attempted to invade Israel but

588-517: A caravan city was evident with the trade routes from southern Arabia , Palmyra , Petra , and the silk routes from China all converging on it. The city satisfied the Roman demands for eastern luxuries. Circa 125 AD the Roman emperor Hadrian promoted the city of Damascus to "Metropolis of Coele-Syria ". Little remains of the architecture of the Romans, but the town planning of the old city did have

735-536: A lacuna ) which had been garrisoned by Tunip . He then moved inland and took the city and territory around Ardata; the town was pillaged and its wheatfields burned. Unlike previous plundering raids, Thutmose III garrisoned Djahy , a name which probably refers to southern Syria. This would have permitted him to ship supplies and troops between Syria and Egypt, and some have supposed that Thutmose's sixth campaign, in his thirtieth year, commenced with naval transport of troops directly to Byblos , bypassing Canaan . After

882-464: A crusader stronghold, which led to a new crusade from Europe in 1148. In the meantime, Zengi was assassinated and his territory was divided among his sons, one of whom, Nur ad-Din , emir of Aleppo, made an alliance with Damascus. When the European crusaders arrived, they and the nobles of Jerusalem agreed to attack Damascus. Their siege , however, was a complete failure. When the city seemed to be on

1029-463: A dominant figure in the New Kingdom period, itself considered the height of Egyptian power. He became sole ruler after Hatshepsut's death, and conducted between 17 and 20 campaigns, all victorious, while expanding Egypt's empire to its largest extent. He also created the ancient Egyptian navy, the first combat navy in the ancient world. Historian Richard A. Gabriel referred to Thutmose III as

1176-534: A fit of vengeful rage shortly after his accession. However, recent research casts serious doubt upon the popular theory of Thutmose III's vengeance. Scholars such as Charles Nims and Peter Dorman have re-examined the erasures and found that those which could be dated only began during year 46 or 47, toward the end of Thutmose's reign ( c.  1433/2  BC ). Also the monuments of Hatshepsut's chief steward, Senenmut , closely associated with her rule, were similarly defaced where they were found. Furthermore, it

1323-573: A fort was built in lower Lebanon and timber was cut for construction of a processional barque, and this probably fits best during this time frame. The fifth, sixth and seventh campaigns of Thutmose III were directed against the Phoenician cities in Syria and against Kadesh on the Orontes . In Thutmose's 29th year, he began his fifth campaign, where he first took an unknown city (the name falls in

1470-544: A king and a small number of foreign Maryannu. Thutmose III found that taking hostages from these noble families largely ensured their loyalty. Syria rebelled again in Thutmose's 31st year and he returned for his seventh campaign, taking the port city of Ullaza and the smaller Phoenician ports, and imposing more measures to prevent rebellion. By taking away the grain stores of Syria to his recently conquered harbors for support of his occupying troops and administrators, he left

1617-467: A lasting effect. The Roman architects brought together the Greek and Aramaean foundations of the city and fused them into a new layout measuring approximately 1,500 by 750 m (4,920 by 2,460 ft), surrounded by a city wall. The city wall contained seven gates, but only the eastern gate, Bab Sharqi , remains from the Roman period. Roman Damascus lies mostly at depths of up to five meters (16 feet) below

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1764-587: A mandate from the Abbasids to extend his authority to Damascus. In 1129, around 6,000 Isma'ili Muslims were killed in the city along with their leaders. The Sunnis were provoked by rumors alleging there was a plot by the Isma'ilis, who controlled the strategic fort at Banias , to aid the Crusaders in capturing Damascus in return for control of Tyre . Soon after the massacre, the Crusaders aimed to take advantage of

1911-591: A shrine on the site of Mu'awiya's grave in the city. Tulunid rule of Damascus was brief, lasting only until 906 before being replaced by the Qarmatians who were adherents of Shia Islam . Due to their inability to control the vast amount of land they occupied, the Qarmatians withdrew from Damascus and a new dynasty, the Ikhshidids , took control of the city. They maintained the independence of Damascus from

2058-455: A strong uprising in Damascus that was eventually put down. On 24 November 847, a multiple earthquake struck and destroyed Damascus , causing the lives of 70,000 people in estimated deaths. Ahmad ibn Tulun , a dissenting Turkish wali appointed by the Abbasids, conquered Syria, including Damascus, from his overlords in 878–79. In an act of respect for the previous Umayyad rulers, he erected

2205-533: A total of 10 prisoners of war. He may have fought the Mitannians to a stalemate, yet he did receive tribute from the Hittites after that campaign, which seems to indicate the outcome of the battle was in Thutmose's favor. The details about his next two campaigns are unknown. His 11th is presumed to have happened in his 36th regnal year and his 12th is presumed to have happened in his 37th year since his 13th

2352-725: A truce with the Crusaders in 1110. In 1126, the Crusader army led by Baldwin II fought Burid forces led by Toghtekin at Marj al-Saffar near Damascus; however, despite their tactical victory, the Crusaders failed in their objective to capture Damascus. Following Toghtekin's death in 1128, his son, Taj al-Muluk Buri , became the nominal ruler of Damascus. Coincidentally, the Seljuq prince of Mosul , Imad al-Din Zengi , took power in Aleppo and gained

2499-584: A very minor campaign. His 14th campaign, waged during his 39th year, was against the Shasu . The location of this campaign is impossible to determine since the Shasu were nomads who could have lived anywhere from Lebanon to the Transjordan to Edom . After this campaign, the numbers given by Thutmose's scribes to his campaigns all fall in lacunae, so they can only be counted by date. In his 40th year, tribute

2646-414: Is born." Manetho in his Aegyptiaca ( History of Egypt ) written in Greek and paraphrased by Eusebius called him Miphrês ( Μίφρης ) and Misphragmuthôsis ( Μισφραγμούθωσις . Thutmose III was the son of Thutmose II by a secondary wife, Iset (or Aset). His father's Great Royal Wife was Hatshepsut . Her daughter, Neferure , was Thutmose's half-sister. When Thutmose II died, Thutmose III

2793-550: Is called Bilād aš-Šām ( بلاد الشام , lit.   ' land of the Levant ' ). The latter term etymologically means "land of the left-hand side" or "the north", as someone in the Hijaz facing east, oriented to the sunrise, will find the north to the left. This is contrasted with the name of Yemen ( اَلْيَمَن al-Yaman ), correspondingly meaning "the right-hand side" or "the south". The variation ش ء م ( š-ʾ-m '), of

2940-405: Is known that Hatshepsut trusted Thutmose III to command her armies. No strong evidence has been found that Thutmose III sought to claim the throne, and after her death he kept her religious and administrative leaders. He even built his mortuary temple directly next to Hatshepsut's, showing no grudge against her. By the time the monuments of Hatshepsut were damaged, at least 25 years after her death,

3087-497: Is known to be I Shemu day four, and astronomical observations can be used to establish the exact dates of the beginning and end of the king's reign (assuming the low chronology) from 28 April 1479 BC to 11 March 1425 BC respectively. Thutmose III conducted at least 16 campaigns in 20 years. American Egyptologist James Breasted referred to him as "the Napoleon of Egypt" for his conquests and expansionism. Thutmose III

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3234-597: Is known to have at least three foreign wives, Menhet, Menwi and Merti , who were buried together. At least one other wife, Nebtu , is known from a pillar in Thutmose's tomb. Following the death of Satiah, a woman named Merytre-Hatshepsut became the Great Royal Wife. She was the mother of several of his children, including the future king Amenhotep II and another son, Menkheperre , and at least four daughters: Nebetiunet , Meritamen C and D and Iset . Thutmose III reigned from 1479 BC to 1425 BC according to

3381-446: Is mentioned at Karnak as happening in his 38th regnal year. Part of the tribute list for his 12th campaign remains immediately before his 13th begins, and the contents recorded, specifically wild game and certain minerals of uncertain identification, might indicate that it took place on the steppe around Nukhashshe, but this remains mere speculation. In Year 38, Thutmose III conducted his 13th military campaign returning to Nuhašše for

3528-482: Is minimal, so it was probably just a minor raid. Records from his 10th campaign indicate much more fighting. By Thutmose's 35th year, the king of Mitanni had raised a large army and engaged the Egyptians around Aleppo . As usual for any Egyptian king, Thutmose boasted a total crushing victory, but this statement is suspect due to the very small amount of plunder taken. Thutmose's annals at Karnak indicate he only took

3675-729: Is recorded to have captured 350 cities during his rule and conquered much of the Near East from the Euphrates to Nubia during seventeen known military campaigns. He was the first pharaoh after Thutmose I to cross the Euphrates, doing so during his campaign against Mitanni . His campaign records were inscribed onto the walls of the temple of Amun at Karnak (transcribed in Urkunden IV ). He transformed Egypt into an international superpower by creating an empire that stretched from

3822-414: Is speculated that control of Damascus was gained by Aretas IV Philopatris of Nabatea between the death of Herod Philip in 33/34 AD and the death of Aretas in 40 AD but there is substantial evidence against Aretas controlling the city before 37 AD and many reasons why it could not have been a gift from Caligula between 37 and 40 AD. In fact, all these theories stem not from any actual evidence outside

3969-530: Is urban, while Jabal Qasioun occupies the rest. The old city of Damascus, enclosed by the city walls, lies on the south bank of the river Barada which is almost dry (3 cm (1 in) left). To the southeast, north, and northeast it is surrounded by suburban areas whose history stretches back to the Middle Ages: Midan in the southwest, Sarouja and Imara in the north and north-west. These neighborhoods originally arose on roads leading out of

4116-519: The Amarna letters , from the 14th century BC: Dimašqa ( 𒁲𒈦𒋡 ), Dimašqì ( 𒁲𒈦𒀸𒄀 ), and Dimašqa ( 𒁲𒈦𒀸𒋡 ). Later Aramaic spellings of the name often include an intrusive resh (letter r ), perhaps influenced by the root dr , meaning "dwelling". Thus, the English and Latin name of the city is Damascus , which was imported from Greek Δαμασκός and originated from

4263-756: The Arab Muslim general Khalid ibn al-Walid in August–September 634 CE. His army had previously attempted to capture the city in April 634 but without success. With Damascus now in Muslim-Arab hands, the Byzantines, alarmed at the loss of their most prestigious city in the Near East, had decided to wrest back control of it. Under Emperor Heraclius , the Byzantines fielded an army superior to that of

4410-557: The Battle of Marj al-Saffar , to put an end to Mongol invasions of the Levant . Later on, the Black Death of 1348–1349 killed as much as half of the city's population. In 1400, Timur , the Turco-Mongol conqueror, besieged Damascus . The Mamluk sultan dispatched a deputation from Cairo, including Ibn Khaldun , who negotiated with him, but after their withdrawal, Timur sacked the city on 17 March 1401. The Umayyad Mosque

4557-767: The Botanical garden of Thutmosis III . At Heliopolis, a stela dated to year 47 of Tuthmosis III. For many years, egyptologists theorized that following the death of Thutmose II , his queen Hatshepsut usurped the throne from her stepson Thutmose III. Although Thutmose III was co-regent during this time, early historians have speculated that he never forgave his stepmother for overshadowing him. Some time after her death, many of Hatshepsut's monuments and depictions were defaced or destroyed, including those in her famous mortuary temple complex at Deir el-Bahri . These were interpreted by early modern scholars as damnatio memoriae (erasure from recorded existence) by Thutmose III in

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4704-627: The Low Chronology of Ancient Egypt . This has been the conventional Egyptian chronology in academic circles since the 1960s, though in some circles the older dates 1504 BC to 1450 BC are preferred from the High Chronology of Egypt. These dates, just as all the dates of the Eighteenth Dynasty, are open to dispute because of uncertainty about the circumstances surrounding the recording of a Heliacal Rise of Sothis in

4851-498: The Obelisk of Theodosius . Thutmose also undertook building projects to the south of the main temple between the sanctuary of Amun and the temple of Mut . Immediately to the south of the main temple, he built the seventh pylon on the north–south road which entered the temple between the fourth and fifth pylons. It was built for use during his jubilee and was covered with scenes of defeated enemies. He set royal colossi on both sides of

4998-598: The Ottoman Empire which had fallen under Christian rule. Thus they were known as al-Akrad (the Kurds) and al-Muhajirin (the migrants) . They lay 2–3 km (1–2 mi) north of the old city. From the late 19th century on, a modern administrative and commercial center began to spring up to the west of the old city, around the Barada, centered on the area known as al-Marjeh or "the meadow". Al-Marjeh soon became

5145-543: The Qumranic Darmeśeq ( דרמשק ), and Darmsûq ( ܕܪܡܣܘܩ ) in Syriac , meaning "a well-watered land". In Arabic , the city is called Dimashq ( دمشق Dimašq ). The city is also known as aš-Šām by the citizens of Damascus, of Syria and other Arab neighbors and Turkey ( Şam ). Aš-Šām is an Arabic term for " Levant " and for "Syria"; the latter, and particularly the historical region of Syria ,

5292-730: The Silk Road , gave the English language "damask". Ayyubid rule (and independence) came to an end with the Mongol invasion of Syria in 1260, in which the Mongols led by Kitbuqa entered the city on 1 March 1260, along with the King of Armenia, Hethum I , and the Prince of Antioch, Bohemond VI ; hence, the citizens of Damascus saw for the first time for six centuries three Christian potentates ride in triumph through their streets. However, following

5439-589: The Syrian civil war , Damascus was named the least livable city out of 140 global cities in the Global Liveability Ranking . As of June 2023 , it was the least livable out of 173 global cities in the same Global Liveability Ranking. In 2017, two new development projects have been launched in Damascus to build new residential districts, Marota City and Basillia City to symbolize post-war reconstruction. The name of Damascus first appeared in

5586-472: The Third Crusade in 1189, led by Richard I of England , Philip II of France and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor , though the last drowned en route. The surviving crusaders, joined by new arrivals from Europe, put Acre to a lengthy siege which lasted until 1191. After re-capturing Acre, Richard defeated Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf in 1191 and the Battle of Jaffa in 1192, recovering most of

5733-616: The moral authority of the Baghdad-based Abbasids. While the rulers of Damascus were preoccupied in conflict with their fellow Seljuqs in Aleppo and Diyarbakir , the Crusaders, who arrived in the Levant in 1097, conquered Jerusalem , Mount Lebanon and Palestine. Duqaq seemed to have been content with Crusader's rule as a buffer between his dominion and the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. Toghtekin, however, saw

5880-620: The " Napoleon of Egypt". Numerous recordings of his military campaigns are detailed in the inscriptions known as the Annals of Thutmose III . Thutmose's two main names transliterate as mn-ḫpr-rꜥ ḏḥwtj - ms . The first name is usually transcribed as Menkheperre and means "the Established One of the Manifestation of Ra ". The second name is transliterated as Thutmose or Tuthmosis and means "Born of Thoth " or "Thoth

6027-585: The "small adjustment" to Vancouver's rating, suggesting a possible error in the 2011 rankings. Beside Melbourne, Vienna and Vancouver, other most often recurring cities among the top 10 since 2015 are Calgary and Toronto . Cities from the Western world typically dominate the top 10, reflecting their widespread availability of goods and services, low personal risk, and an effective infrastructure. A 2010 opinion piece in The New York Times criticized

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6174-407: The 2019 ranking Top 10 cities of the 2018 ranking Top 10 of the 2017 ranking: Top 10 of the 2016 ranking: Top 10 of the 2015 ranking: Damascus Damascus ( / d ə ˈ m æ s k ə s / də- MAS -kəs , UK also / d ə ˈ m ɑː s k ə s / də- MAH -skəs ; Arabic : دِمَشق , romanized :  Dimašq ) is the capital and largest city of Syria ,

6321-547: The 20th century, newer suburbs developed north of the Barada, and to some extent to the south, invading the Ghouta oasis. In 1956–1957, the new neighborhood of Yarmouk became a second home to many Palestinian refugees. City planners preferred to preserve the Ghouta as far as possible, and in the later 20th century some of the main areas of development were to the north, in the western Mezzeh neighborhood and most recently along

6468-413: The 20th dynasty it was torn out of the coffin by robbers, who stripped it and rifled it of the jewels with which it was covered, injuring it in their haste to carry away the spoil. It was subsequently re-interred, and has remained undisturbed until the present day; but before re-burial some renovation of the wrappings was necessary, and as portions of the body had become loose, the restorers, in order to give

6615-668: The 3rd millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. After the victory of the Abbasid dynasty , the seat of Islamic power was moved to Baghdad . Damascus saw its importance decline throughout the Abbasid era, only to regain significant importance in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. Today, it is the seat of the central government of Syria . As of September 2019 , eight years into

6762-521: The Anti-Lebanon Mountains and the prevailing ocean currents. Summers are prolonged, dry, and hot with less humidity. Winters are cool and somewhat rainy; snowfall is infrequent. Autumn is brief and mild, but has the most drastic temperature change, unlike spring where the transition to summer is more gradual and steady. Annual rainfall is around 130 mm (5 in), occurring from October to May. Carbon-14 dating at Tell Ramad , on

6909-635: The Arab Hamdanid dynasty of Aleppo 967. A period of instability in the city followed, with a Qarmatian raid in 968, a Byzantine raid in 970, and increasing pressures from the Fatimids in the south and the Hamdanids in the north. The Shia Fatimids gained control in 970, inflaming hostilities between them and the Sunni Arabs of the city who frequently revolted. A Turk, Alptakin drove out

7056-527: The Asian regions of Syria to the North, to Upper Nubia to the south. Much is known about Thutmose "the warrior" because of his royal scribe and army commander, Thanuny, who wrote about his conquests and reign. Thutmose III was able to conquer so many lands because of revolutionary developments in military technology. The Hyksos may have brought advanced weaponry, such as horse-drawn chariots, around 1650 BC, which

7203-622: The Barada River mitigated this, which originates from mountain streams fed by melting snow. Damascus is surrounded by the Ghouta , irrigated farmland where many vegetables, cereals, and fruits have been farmed since ancient times. Maps of Roman Syria indicate that the Barada River emptied into a lake of some size east of Damascus. Today it is called Bahira Atayba, the hesitant lake because in years of severe drought, it does not even exist. The modern city has an area of 105 km (41 sq mi), out of which 77 km (30 sq mi)

7350-484: The Barada valley in Dummar in the northwest and on the slopes of the mountains at Barzeh in the north-east. Poorer areas, often built without official approval, have mostly developed south of the main city. Damascus used to be surrounded by an oasis , the Ghouta region ( Arabic : الغوطة , romanized :  al-ġūṭä ), watered by the Barada river. The Fijeh spring , west along the Barada valley, used to provide

7497-509: The Economist Intelligence Unit for being overly Anglocentric , stating that: "The Economist equates liveability with speaking English." The EIU also publishes a Worldwide Cost of Living Survey that compares the cost of living in a range of global cities. Top 10 cities of the 2024 ranking. Top 10 cities of the 2023 ranking. Top 10 cities of the 2022 ranking. Top 10 cities of the 2021 ranking. Top 10 cities of

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7644-486: The Egyptians adopted in the process of driving them out. Thutmose III encountered little resistance from neighbouring kingdoms, allowing him to expand his realm easily. His army also portaged boats over dry land. When Hatshepsut died on the 10th day of the sixth month of Thutmose III's 21st year, according to information from a single stela from Armant , the king of Kadesh advanced his army to Megiddo . Thutmose III mustered his own army and departed Egypt, passing through

7791-514: The Euphrates did try to defend against the Egyptian crossing. Thutmose III then went freely from city to city and pillaged them while the nobles hid in caves, or at least this is the typically propagandistic way Egyptian records chose to record it. During this period of no opposition, Thutmose put up a second stele commemorating his crossing of the Euphrates next to the stele his grandfather, Thutmose I, had put up several decades earlier. A militia

7938-476: The Euphrates, the Assyrian , Babylonian and Hittite kings all gave Thutmose gifts, which he claimed as "tribute" on the walls of Karnak. The only noticeable absence is Mitanni , which would bear the brunt of the following Egyptian campaigns into Western Asia . Thutmose's second, third and fourth campaigns appear to have been nothing more than tours of Syria and Canaan to collect tribute. Traditionally,

8085-526: The Fatimids five years later, and through diplomacy, prevented the Byzantines during the Syrian campaigns of John Tzimiskes from attempting to annex the city. However, by 977, the Fatimids under Caliph al-Aziz , wrested back control of the city and tamed Sunni dissidents. The Arab geographer, al-Muqaddasi , visited Damascus in 985, remarking that the architecture and infrastructure of the city were "magnificent", but living conditions were awful. Under al-Aziz,

8232-497: The Great , was the sixth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty . Officially he ruled Egypt from 28 April 1479 BC until 11 March 1425 BC, commencing with his coronation at the age of two and concluding with his death, aged fifty-six; however, during the first 22 years of his reign, he was coregent with his stepmother and aunt, Hatshepsut , who was named the pharaoh. While he was depicted as the first on surviving monuments, both were assigned

8379-497: The Mongol defeat at Ain Jalut on 3 September 1260, Damascus was captured five days later and became the provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate , ruled from Egypt, following the Mongol withdrawal. Following their victory at the Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar , the Mongols led by Ghazan besieged the city for ten days, which surrendered between December 30, 1299, and January 6, 1300, though its Citadel resisted. Ghazan then retreated with most of his forces in February, probably because

8526-451: The Mongol horses needed fodder, and left behind about 10,000 horsemen under the Mongol general Mulay . Around March 1300, Mulay returned with his horsemen to Damascus, then followed Ghazan back across the Euphrates . In May 1300, the Egyptian Mamluks returned from Egypt and reclaimed the entire area without a battle. In April 1303, the Mamluks managed to defeat the Mongol army led by Kutlushah and Mulay along with their Armenian allies at

8673-450: The Muslims maintained the building's dedication to John the Baptist . By 715, the mosque was complete. Al-Walid died that same year and he was succeeded at first by Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik and then by Umar II , who each ruled for brief periods before the reign of Hisham in 724. With these successions, the status of Damascus was gradually weakening as Suleiman had chosen Ramla as his residence and later Hisham chose Resafa . Following

8820-450: The Nabatean architect and engineer, Apollodorus of Damascus , who joined him in Rome when he was a consul in 91 AD, and later built several monuments during the 2nd century AD. Damascus became a metropolis by the beginning of the 2nd century and in 222 it was upgraded to a colonia by the Emperor Septimius Severus . During the Pax Romana , Damascus and the Roman province of Syria in general began to prosper. Damascus's importance as

8967-404: The Near East as well as the Arameaen resistance. In 727, a revolt took place in the city but was put down by Assyrian forces. After Assyria led by Tiglath-Pileser III went on a wide-scale campaign of quelling revolts throughout Syria, Damascus became subjugated by their rule. A positive effect of this was stability for the city and benefits from the spice and incense trade with Arabia . In 694 BC,

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9114-491: The New Testament but rather "a certain understanding of 2 Corinthians 11:32" and in reality "neither from archaeological evidence, secular-historical sources, nor New Testament texts can Nabatean sovereignty over Damascus in the first century AD be proven." Roman emperor Trajan who annexed the Nabataean Kingdom, creating the province of Arabia Petraea , had previously been in Damascus, as his father Marcus Ulpius Traianus served as governor of Syria from 73 to 74 AD, where he met

9261-404: The Rashidun in manpower. They advanced into southern Syria during the spring of 636 and consequently Khalid ibn al-Walid's forces withdrew from Damascus to prepare for renewed confrontation. In August, the two sides met along the Yarmouk River where they fought a major battle which ended in a decisive Muslim victory, solidifying Muslim rule in Syria and Palestine. While the Muslims administered

9408-408: The Umayyads later improved the same network, and still forms the basis of the water system of the old part of the city today. The Aramaeans initially turned Damascus into an outpost of a loose federation of Aramaean tribes, known as Aram-Zobah , based in the Beqaa Valley . The city would gain pre-eminence in southern Syria when Ezron , the claimant to Aram-Zobah's throne who was denied kingship of

9555-437: The Western invaders as a viable threat to Damascus which, at the time, nominally included Homs , the Beqaa Valley, Hauran, and the Golan Heights as part of its territories. With military support from Sharaf al-Din Mawdud of Mosul , Toghtekin managed to halt Crusader raids in the Golan and Hauran. Mawdud was assassinated in the Umayyad Mosque in 1109, depriving Damascus of northern Muslim backing and forcing Toghtekin to agree to

9702-433: The advent of Saint Paul's proselytization. During the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 , the city was besieged and captured by Shahrbaraz in 613, along with a large number of Byzantine troops as prisoners, and was in Sasanian hands until near the end of the war. Muhammad's first indirect interaction with the people of Damascus was when he sent a letter, through his companion Shiya ibn Wahab, to Harith ibn Abi Shamir ,

9849-431: The attack on Hatshepsut's memory could not be taken until the death of powerful religious and administrative officials who had served under both Hatshepsut and Thutmose III. Thutmose's tomb ( KV34 ) was discovered by Victor Loret in 1898 in the Valley of the Kings . Its plan is typical of 18th Dynasty tombs, with a sharp turn at the vestibule preceding the burial chamber. Two stairways and two corridors provide access to

9996-457: The battle occurred on " Year 23, I Shemu [day] 21, the exact day of the feast of the new moon ", a lunar date. This date corresponds to 9 May 1457 BC based on Thutmose III's accession in 1479 BC. This campaign drastically changed the political situation in the ancient Near East. By taking Megiddo, Thutmose gained control of all of northern Canaan , forcing the Syrian princes to send tribute and their own sons as hostages to Egypt. Beyond

10143-518: The border fortress of Tjaru (Sile) on the 25th day of the eighth month. Thutmose marched his troops through the coastal plain as far as Jamnia , then inland to Yehem, a small city near Megiddo, which he reached in the middle of the ninth month of the same year. The ensuing Battle of Megiddo probably was the largest battle of Thutmose's 17 campaigns. A ridge of mountains jutting inland from Mount Carmel stood between Thutmose and Megiddo and he had three potential routes to take. The northern route and

10290-421: The ceiling of which was supported by his heraldic pillars. He built a temenos wall around the central chapel containing smaller chapels, along with workshops and storerooms. East of the main sanctuary, he built a jubilee hall in which to celebrate his Sed festival . The main hall was built in basilica style with rows of pillars supporting the ceiling on each side of the aisle. The central two rows were higher than

10437-445: The central arch was for chariots while the side arches were for pedestrians. In 23 BC, Herod the Great was given lands controlled by Zenodorus by Caesar Augustus and some scholars believe that Herod was also granted control of Damascus as well. The control of Damascus reverted to Syria either upon the death of Herod the Great or was part of the lands given to Herod Philip which were given to Syria with his death in 33/34 AD. It

10584-492: The city saw a brief period of stability that ended with the reign of al-Hakim (996–1021). In 998, hundreds of Damascus citizens were rounded up and executed by him for incitement. Three years after al-Hakim's mysterious disappearance, a rebellion was initiated in southern Syria against the Fatimids, but was stifled by the Fatimid Turkish governor of Syria and Palestine, Anushtakin al-Duzbari , in 1029. This victory gave

10731-594: The city were dismissed. Afterwards, the Umayyad family cemetery was desecrated and the city walls were torn down, reducing Damascus into a provincial town of little importance. It roughly disappeared from written records for the next century and the only significant improvement of the city was the Abbasid-built treasury dome in the Umayyad Mosque in 789. In 811, distant remnants of the Umayyad dynasty staged

10878-482: The city with drinking water, and various sources to the west are tapped by water contractors. The flow of the Barada dropped with the rapid expansion of housing and industry in the city and it is almost dry. The lower aquifers are polluted by the city's runoff from heavily used roads, industry, and sewage. Damascus has a cool arid climate ( BWk ) in the Köppen-Geiger system , due to the rain shadow effect of

11025-462: The city, near the tombs of religious figures. In the 19th century outlying villages developed on the slopes of Jabal Qasioun , overlooking the city, already the site of the al-Salihiyah neighborhood centered on the important shrine of medieval Andalusian Sheikh and philosopher Ibn Arabi . These new neighborhoods were initially settled by Kurdish soldiery and Muslim refugees from the Europe regions of

11172-496: The city, the population of Damascus remained mostly Christian— Eastern Orthodox and Monophysite —with a growing community of Muslims from Mecca , Medina , and the Syrian Desert . The governor assigned to the city which had been chosen as the capital of Islamic Syria was Mu'awiya I . Following the fourth Rashidun caliph Ali 's death in 661, Mu'awiya was chosen as the caliph of the expanding Islamic empire. Because of

11319-660: The coast for the Christians, but could not recover Jerusalem or any of the inland territory of the kingdom. The crusade came to an end peacefully, with the Treaty of Jaffa in 1192. Saladin allowed pilgrimages to be made to Jerusalem, allowing the Crusaders to fulfill their vows, after which they all returned home. Local crusader barons set about rebuilding their kingdom from Acre and the other coastal cities. Saladin died in 1193, and there were frequent conflicts between different Ayyubid sultans ruling in Damascus and Cairo. Damascus

11466-465: The country of Damascus; and there is a village named after him, The Habitation of Abraham. Damascus is first documented as an important city during the arrival of the Aramaeans , a Semitic people , in the 11th century BC. By the start of the first millennium BC, several Aramaic kingdoms were formed, as Aramaeans abandoned their nomadic lifestyle and formed federated tribal states. One of these kingdoms

11613-410: The cursive script of a funerary papyrus rather than the more lavish wall decorations typical of most other royal tombs. The colouring is similarly muted, executed in simple black figures accompanied by text on a cream background with highlights in red and pink. The decorations depict the pharaoh aiding the deities in defeating Apep , the serpent of chaos , thereby helping to ensure the daily rebirth of

11760-468: The early 18th Dynasty, to create drinking vessels by the core-formed method . Thutmose dedicated far more attention to Karnak than any other site. In the Iput-isut, the temple proper in the center, he rebuilt the hypostyle hall of his grandfather Thutmose I , dismantled the red chapel of Hatshepsut, built Pylon VI, a shrine for the bark of Amun in its place, and built an antechamber in front of it,

11907-531: The eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range 80 kilometres (50 mi) inland from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean on a plateau 680 metres (2,230 ft) above sea level , Damascus experiences an arid climate because of the rain shadow effect . The Barada River flows through Damascus. Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world . First settled in

12054-413: The elderly Thutmose III was in a coregency with his son Amenhotep II . Currently, the purposeful destruction of the memory of Hatshepsut is seen as an attempt to ensure a smooth succession for Amenhotep II, as opposed to any of the surviving relatives of Hatshepsut with an equal or better claim to the throne. Later, Amenhotep II even claimed that he had built the structures he defaced. It may also be that

12201-661: The end of the Bronze Age in the region and brought about new development of warfare. Damascus was only a peripheral part of this picture, which mostly affected the larger population centers of ancient Syria. However, these events contributed to the development of Damascus as a new influential center that emerged with the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age . Damascus is mentioned in Genesis 14:15 as existing at

12348-608: The famished cities of Syria without the means to fund further rebellions. After Thutmose III had taken control of the Syrian cities, the obvious target for his eighth campaign was the state of Mitanni , a Hurrian country with an Indo-Aryan ruling class. However, to reach Mitanni, he had to cross the Euphrates River. He sailed directly to Byblos and made boats which he took with him over land on what appeared to otherwise be just another tour of Syria, and he proceeded with

12495-555: The federation, fled Beqaa and captured Damascus by force in 965 BC. Ezron overthrew the city's tribal governor and founded the independent entity of Aram-Damascus. As this new state expanded south, it prevented the Kingdom of Israel from spreading north and the two kingdoms soon clashed as they both sought to dominate trading hegemony in the east. Under Ezron's grandson, Ben-Hadad I (880–841 BC), and his successor Hazael , Damascus annexed Bashan (modern-day Hauran region), and went on

12642-642: The geographical list of Thutmose III as ṯmśq ( 𓍘𓄟𓊃𓈎𓅱 ) in the 15th century BC. The etymology of the ancient name ṯmśq is uncertain. It is attested as Imerišú ( 𒀲𒋙 ) in Akkadian , ṯmśq ( 𓍘𓄟𓊃𓈎𓅱 ) in Egyptian , Damašq ( 𐡃𐡌𐡔𐡒 ‎ ) in Old Aramaic and Dammeśeq ( דַּמֶּשֶׂק ) in Biblical Hebrew . A number of Akkadian spellings are found in

12789-472: The heralding of the Abbasid Caliphate, Damascus became eclipsed and subordinated by Baghdad , the new Islamic capital. Within the first six months of Abbasid rule, revolts began erupting in the city, albeit too isolated and unfocused to present a viable threat. Nonetheless, the last of the prominent Umayyads were executed, the traditional officials of Damascus were ostracised, and army generals from

12936-477: The king of Damascus. In his letter, Muhammad stated: "Peace be upon him who follows true guidance. Be informed that my religion shall prevail everywhere. You should accept Islam, and whatever under your command shall remain yours." After most of the Syrian countryside was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate during the reign of Caliph Umar ( r.  634–644 ), Damascus itself was conquered by

13083-459: The land above Babylon , called the land of the Chaldeans: but, after a long time, he got him up, and removed from that country also, with his people, and went into the land then called the land of Canaan , but now the land of Judea, and this when his posterity became a multitude; as to which posterity of his, we relate their history in another work. Now the name of Abraham is even still famous in

13230-484: The late 11th century, Damascus again became the capital of independent states. It was ruled by Abu Sa'id Taj ad-Dawla Tutush I starting in 1079 and he was succeeded by his son Abu Nasr Duqaq in 1095. The Seljuqs established a court in Damascus and a systematic reversal of Shia inroads in the city. The city also saw an expansion of religious life through private endowments financing religious institutions ( madrasas ) and hospitals ( maristans ). Damascus soon became one of

13377-475: The latter mastery over Syria, displeasing his Fatimid overlords, but gaining the admiration of Damascus' citizens. He was exiled by Fatimid authorities to Aleppo where he died in 1041. From that date to 1063, there are no known records of the city's history. By then, Damascus lacked a city administration, had an enfeebled economy, and a greatly reduced population. With the arrival of the Seljuq Turks in

13524-700: The major cities in Syria. Thutmose moved his troops by land up the coastal road and put down rebellions in the Arka plain ("Arkantu" in Thutmose's chronicle) and moved on Tunip. After taking Tunip, his attention turned to Kadesh again. He engaged and destroyed three surrounding Mitannian garrisons and returned to Egypt in victory. His victory in this final campaign was neither complete nor permanent since he did not take Kadesh, and Tunip could not have remained aligned to him for very long, certainly not beyond his own death. This victory however, must have had quite an impact, for

13671-403: The material directly after the text of the first campaign has been considered to be the second campaign. This text records tribute from the area which the Egyptians called Retjenu (roughly equivalent to Canaan) and it was also at this time that Assyria paid a second "tribute" to Thutmose III. It is probable that these texts come from Thutmose's 40th year or later and thus have nothing to do with

13818-636: The modern city. The old borough of Bab Tuma was developed at the end of the Roman/Byzantine era by the local Eastern Orthodox community. According to the Acts of the Apostles , Saint Paul and Saint Thomas both lived in that neighborhood. Roman Catholic historians also consider Bab Tuma to be the birthplace of several Popes such as John V and Gregory III . Accordingly, there was a community of Jewish Christians who converted to Christianity with

13965-634: The more typical ش م ل ( š-m-l ), is also attested in Old South Arabian , 𐩦𐩱𐩣 ( šʾm ), with the same semantic development. Damascus was built in a strategic site on a plateau 680 m (2,230 ft) above sea level and about 80 km (50 mi) inland from the Mediterranean, sheltered by the Anti-Lebanon Mountains , supplied with water by the Barada River , and at a crossroads between trade routes:

14112-585: The most important centers of propagating Islamic thought in the Muslim world. After Duqaq died in 1104, his mentor ( atabeg ), Toghtekin , took control of Damascus and the Burid line of the Seljuq dynasty. Under Duqaq and Toghtekin, Damascus experienced stability, elevated status, and a revived role in commerce. In addition, the city's Sunni majority enjoyed being a part of the larger Sunni framework effectively governed by various Turkic dynasties who in turn were under

14259-432: The mummy the necessary firmness, compressed it between four oar-shaped slips of wood, painted white, and placed, three inside the wrappings and one outside, under the bands which confined the winding-sheet. Of the face, which was undamaged, Maspero says the following: Happily the face, which had been plastered over with pitch at the time of embalming, did not suffer at all from this rough treatment, and appeared intact when

14406-770: The murder of the latter in 743, the Caliphate of the Umayyads—which by then stretched from Spain to India— was crumbling as a result of widespread revolts. During the reign of Marwan II in 744, the capital of the empire was relocated to Harran in the northern Jazira region. On 25 August 750, the Abbasids , having already beaten the Umayyads in the Battle of the Zab in Iraq, conquered Damascus after facing little resistance. With

14553-432: The name of what was initially the central square of modern Damascus, with the city hall in it. The courts of justice, post office, and railway station stood on higher ground slightly to the south. A Europeanized residential quarter soon began to be built on the road leading between al-Marjeh and al-Salihiyah . The commercial and administrative center of the new city gradually shifted northwards slightly towards this area. In

14700-510: The next tribute lists include Adana, a Cilician city. In Year 50, Thutmose III waged his last military campaign. He attacked Nubia, but only went so far as the fourth cataract of the Nile. Although no king of Egypt had ever penetrated so far with an army, previous kings' campaigns had spread Egyptian culture that far already, and the earliest Egyptian document found at Gebel Barkal dates from three years before Thutmose's campaign. Thutmose III

14847-543: The north. Later, Demetrius III Philopator rebuilt the city according to the Greek hippodamian system and renamed it "Demetrias". In 64 BC, the Roman general Pompey annexed the western part of Syria. The Romans occupied Damascus and subsequently incorporated it into the league of ten cities known as the Decapolis which themselves were incorporated into the province of Syria and granted autonomy. The city of Damascus

14994-486: The north–south route connecting Egypt with Asia Minor , and the east–west cross-desert route connecting Lebanon with the Euphrates river valley. The Anti-Lebanon Mountains mark the border between Syria and Lebanon. The range has peaks of over 10,000 ft (3,000 m) and blocks precipitation from the Mediterranean Sea, so the region of Damascus is sometimes subject to droughts. However, in ancient times,

15141-526: The offensive with Israel. This conflict continued until the early 8th century BC when Ben-Hadad II was captured by Israel after unsuccessfully besieging Samaria . As a result, he granted Israel trading rights in Damascus. Another possible reason for the treaty between Aram-Damascus and Israel was the common threat of the Neo-Assyrian Empire which was attempting to expand into the Mediterranean coast. In 853 BC, King Hadadezer of Damascus led

15288-539: The oldest current capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth holiest city in Islam . Known colloquially in Syria as aš-Šām ( الشَّام ) and dubbed, poetically, the "City of Jasmine " ( مَدِيْنَةُ الْيَاسْمِينِ Madīnat al-Yāsmīn ), Damascus is a major cultural center of the Levant and the Arab world . Situated in southwestern Syria, Damascus is the center of a large metropolitan area. Nestled among

15435-496: The others to create windows where the ceiling was split. Two of the smaller rooms in this temple contained the reliefs of the survey of the plants and animals of Canaan which he took in his third campaign. East of the Iput-Isut, he erected another temple to Aten, where he was depicted as being supported by Amun . It was inside this temple that Thutmose planned on erecting his tekhen waty , or "unique obelisk." The tekhen waty

15582-451: The outskirts of Damascus, suggests that the site may have been occupied since the second half of the seventh millennium BC, possibly around 6300 BC. However, evidence of settlement in the wider Barada basin dating back to 9000 BC exists, although no large-scale settlement was present within Damascus' walls until the second millennium BC. Some of the earliest Egyptian records are from 1350 BC Amarna letters when Damascus (called Dimasqu )

15729-490: The plain of Esdraelon, brilliantly cutting between the rear of the Canaanite forces and Megiddo city. For some reason, the Canaanite forces did not attack his army as it emerged, and Thutmose routed them decisively. After the victory, his troops stopped to plunder the enemy, who was able to escape into Megiddo. Thutmose was forced to besiege the city, and finally took it after a siege of seven or eight months. The size of

15876-415: The protecting mask was removed. Its appearance does not answer to our ideal of the conqueror. His statues, though not representing him as a type of manly beauty, yet give him refined, intelligent features, but a comparison with the mummy shows that the artists have idealised their model. The forehead is abnormally low, the eyes deeply sunk, the jaw heavy, the lips thick, and the cheek-bones extremely prominent;

16023-604: The pylon and put two more obelisks on the south face in front of the gateway. The eastern obelisk's base remains in place, but the western obelisk was transported to the Hippodrome in Constantinople. Farther south along the road, he put up Pylon VIII, which Hatshepsut had begun. East of the road, he dug a sacred lake of 250 by 400 feet and placed another alabaster bark shrine near it. He commissioned royal artists to depict his extensive collections of fauna and flora in

16170-408: The reign of Amenhotep I . A papyrus from Amenhotep I's reign records this astronomical observation which theoretically could be used to perfectly correlate the Egyptian chronology with the modern calendar; however, to do this the latitude where the observation was taken must also be known. This document has no note of the place of observation, but it can safely be assumed that it was taken in either

16317-438: The reign of Hatshepsut . Thutmose's architects and artisans showed great continuity with the formal style of previous kings, but several developments set him apart from his predecessors. Although he followed the traditional relief styles for most of his reign, after his 42nd year he began having himself depicted wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt and a šndyt-kilt, an unprecedented style. Architecturally, his use of pillars also

16464-496: The second campaign at all. If so, no records of this campaign have been found. Thutmose's third campaign was not considered significant enough to appear in his otherwise extensive Annals at Karnak. A survey was made of the animals and plants he found in Canaan, which was illustrated on the walls of a special room at Karnak. This survey is dated to Thutmose's 25th year. No record remains of Thutmose's fourth campaign, but at some point

16611-466: The shape of a cartouche. On the two pillars in the middle of the chamber are passages from the Litanies of Re celebrating the later sun deity, who was identified with the pharaoh at this time. On the other pillar is a unique image depicting Thutmosis III being suckled by the goddess Isis in the guise of the tree. The wall decorations are executed in a simple "diagrammatic" way, imitating the manner of

16758-457: The southern route, both of which went around the mountain, were judged by his council of war to be the safest, but Thutmose (as he boasted in an inscription) called them cowards and took the dangerous route through the Aruna mountain pass, only wide enough for single-file "horse after horse and man after man." Such a pass does indeed exist, although not as narrow as Thutmose claims, and emerges on

16905-573: The sun as well as the pharaoh's own resurrection. According to Peter Der Manuelian, a statement in the tomb biography of the official Amenemheb establishes that Thutmose III died in Year 54, III Peret day 30 of his reign after ruling Egypt for "53 years, 10 months and 26 days" (Urk. 180.15). Thutmose III died one month and four days before the start of his 54th regnal year. When the co-regencies with Hatshepsut and Amenhotep II are deducted, he ruled as sole pharaoh for just over 30 years. Thutmose III's mummy

17052-576: The time of the War of the Kings . According to the 1st-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in his twenty-one volume Antiquities of the Jews , Damascus (along with Trachonitis ), was founded by Uz , the son of Aram . In Antiquities i. 7, Josephus reports: Nicolaus of Damascus , in the fourth book of his History, says thus: " Abraham reigned at Damascus, being a foreigner, who came with an army out of

17199-468: The town was called Šaʾimerišu (Akkadian: 𒐼𒄿𒈨𒊑𒋙𒌋) and its governor was named Ilu-issīya . However, Assyrian authority was dwindling by 609–605 BC, and Syria-Palestine was falling into the orbit of Pharaoh Necho II 's Egypt. In 572 BC, all of Syria had been conquered by Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonians , but the status of Damascus under Babylon is relatively unknown. Damascus

17346-681: The treasury of Damascus. Arabic was also established as the official language, giving the Muslim minority of the city an advantage over the Aramaic-speaking Christians in administrative affairs. Abd al-Malik 's successor, al-Walid initiated the construction of the Grand Mosque of Damascus (known as the Umayyad Mosque) in 706. The site originally had been the Christian Cathedral of St. John and

17493-530: The troops arrived in Syria, they proceeded into the Jordan River valley and moved north, pillaging Kadesh's lands. Turning west again, Thutmose took Simyra and quelled a rebellion in Ardata, which apparently had rebelled again. To stop such rebellions, Thutmose began taking hostages from the cities in Syria. The policy of these cities was driven by their nobles, aligned to Mitanni and typically consisting of

17640-465: The two forces is difficult to determine, but Redford uses the time to march the army through the pass estimate the Egyptian numbers, and the number of sheep and goats captured in the battle to estimate the Canaanite force, concluding both armies were around 10,000 men. Most scholars believe that the Egyptian army was more numerous. According to Thutmose III's Hall of Annals in the Temple of Amun at Karnak,

17787-665: The unstable situation and launch an assault against Damascus with nearly 2,000 knights and 10,000 infantry. However, Buri allied with Zengi and managed to prevent their army from reaching the city. Buri was assassinated by Isma'ili agents in 1132; he was succeeded by his son, Shams al-Mulk Isma'il who ruled tyrannically until he was murdered in 1135 on secret orders from his mother, Safwat al-Mulk Zumurrud ; Isma'il's brother, Shihab al-Din Mahmud, replaced him. Meanwhile, Zengi, intent on putting Damascus under his control, married Safwat al-Mulk in 1138. Mahmud's reign then ended in 1139 after he

17934-501: The usual raiding and pillaging as he moved north through the lands he had already taken. He continued north through the territory belonging to the still unconquered cities of Aleppo and Carchemish and quickly crossed the Euphrates in his boats, taking the Mitannian king entirely by surprise. It appears that Mitanni was not expecting an invasion, so they had no army of any kind ready to defend against Thutmose, although their ships on

18081-499: The usual royal names and insignia and neither is given any obvious seniority over the other. Thutmose served as commander of Hatshepsut's armies. During the final two years of his reign after the death of his firstborn son and heir Amenemhat , he appointed his son and successor Amenhotep II as junior co-regent. Thutmose III is regarded as one of the greatest warriors, military commanders, and military strategists of all time, as Egypt's preeminent warrior pharaoh and conqueror, and as

18228-560: The vast amounts of assets his clan, the Umayyads , owned in the city and because of its traditional economic and social links with the Hijaz as well as the Christian Arab tribes of the region, Mu'awiya established Damascus as the capital of the entire Caliphate . With the ascension of Caliph Abd al-Malik in 685, an Islamic coinage system was introduced and all of the surplus revenue of the Caliphate's provinces were forwarded to

18375-403: The verge of collapse, the crusader army suddenly moved against another section of the walls and was driven back. By 1154, Damascus was firmly under Nur ad-Din's control. In 1164, King Amalric of Jerusalem invaded Fatimid Egypt , requested help from Nur ad-Din. The Nur ad-Din sent his general Shirkuh , and in 1166 Amalric was defeated at the Battle of al-Babein . When Shirkuh died in 1169, he

18522-425: The vestibule, which is preceded by a quadrangular shaft or "well". A complete version of Amduat , an important New Kingdom funerary text , is in the vestibule, making it the first tomb where the complete text was found. The burial chamber, supported by two pillars, is oval-shaped and its ceiling decorated with stars, symbolizing the cave of the deity Sokar . In the middle lies a large red quartzite sarcophagus in

18669-470: The whole recalling the physiognomy of Thûtmosis II, though with a greater show of energy. Maspero was so disheartened at the state of the mummy and the prospect that all of the other mummies were similarly damaged (as it turned out, few were in so poor a state) that he would not unwrap another for several years. Unlike many other examples from the Deir el-Bahri Cache, the wooden mummiform coffin that contained

18816-406: Was Aram-Damascus , centered on its capital Damascus. The Aramaeans who entered the city without battle, adopted the name "Dimashqu" for their new home. Noticing the agricultural potential of the still-undeveloped and sparsely populated area, they established the water distribution system of Damascus by constructing canals and tunnels which maximized the efficiency of the river Barada. The Romans and

18963-402: Was a great builder and constructed over 50 temples, although some of these are now lost and only mentioned in written records. He also commissioned the building of many tombs for nobles, which were made with greater craftsmanship than ever before. His reign was also a period of great stylistic changes in the sculpture, paintings and reliefs associated with construction, much of it beginning during

19110-528: Was burnt and men and women were taken into slavery. A huge number of the city's artisans were taken to Timur's capital at Samarkand . These were the luckier citizens: many were slaughtered and their heads piled up in a field outside the north-east corner of the walls, where a city square still bears the name Burj al-Ru'us (between modern-day Al-Qassaa and Bab Tuma ), originally "the tower of heads". Thutmose III Thutmose III (variously also spelt Tuthmosis or Thothmes ), sometimes called Thutmose

19257-462: Was collected from foreign powers, but it is unknown if this was considered a campaign (i.e. if the king went with it or if it was led by an official). Only the tribute list remains from Thutmose's next campaign, and nothing may be deduced about it except that it was probably another raid to the frontiers around Niy. His final Asian campaign is better documented. Sometime before Thutmose's 42nd year, Mitanni apparently began spreading revolt among all

19404-503: Was conquered by Alexander the Great . After the death of Alexander in 323 BC, Damascus became the site of a struggle between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic empires. The control of the city passed frequently from one empire to the other. Seleucus I Nicator , one of Alexander's generals, made Antioch the capital of his vast empire, which led to the decline of Damascus' importance compared with new Seleucid cities such as Syrian Laodicea in

19551-520: Was defeated by the crusaders at the Battle of Montgisard , despite his numerical superiority. Saladin also besieged Kerak in 1183, but was forced to withdraw. He finally launched a full invasion of Jerusalem in 1187 and annihilated the crusader army at the Battle of Hattin in July. Acre fell to Saladin soon after, and Jerusalem itself was captured in October. These events shocked Europe, resulting in

19698-557: Was designed to stand alone instead as part of a pair and is the tallest obelisk ever successfully cut. It was not, however, erected until Thutmose IV raised it 35 years later. It was later moved to Rome by Emperor Constantius II and is now known as the Lateran Obelisk . In 390 AD, Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius I re-erected another obelisk from the Temple of Karnak in the Hippodrome of Constantinople , now known as

19845-533: Was discovered in the Deir el-Bahri Cache above the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut in 1881. He was interred along with those of other 18th and 19th Dynasty leaders Ahmose I , Amenhotep I , Thutmose I , Thutmose II , Ramesses I , Seti I , Ramesses II and Ramesses IX , as well as the 21st Dynasty pharaohs Pinedjem I , Pinedjem II and Siamun . While it is popularly thought that his mummy originally

19992-744: Was entirely redesigned by the Romans after Pompey conquered the region. Still today the Old Town of Damascus retains the rectangular shape of the Roman city, with its two main axes: the Decumanus Maximus (east-west; known today as the Via Recta ) and the Cardo (north-south), the Decumanus being about twice as long. The Romans built a monumental gate which still survives at the eastern end of Decumanus Maximus. The gate originally had three arches:

20139-453: Was in relatively poor condition. The mummy had been damaged extensively in antiquity by tomb robbers and its wrappings subsequently cut into and torn by the Rassul family, who had rediscovered the tomb and its contents only a few years before. Maspero's description of the body provides an idea as to the severity of the damage: His mummy was not securely hidden away, for towards the close of

20286-470: Was interrupted by the renewed Assyrian invasion. Hazael ordered a retreat to the walled part of Damascus while the Assyrians plundered the remainder of the kingdom. Unable to enter the city, they declared their supremacy in the Hauran and Beqa'a valleys. By the 8th century BC, Damascus was practically engulfed by the Assyrians and entered a Dark Age. Nonetheless, it remained the economic and cultural center of

20433-585: Was killed for relatively unknown reasons by members of his family. Mu'in al-Din Unur , his mamluk ("slave soldier") took effective power of the city, prompting Zengi—with Safwat al-Mulk's backing—to lay siege against Damascus the same year. In response, Damascus allied with the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem to resist Zengi's forces. Consequently, Zengi withdrew his army and focused on campaigns against northern Syria. In 1144, Zengi conquered Edessa ,

20580-458: Was raised to fight the invaders, but it fared very poorly. Thutmose III then returned to Syria by way of Niy, where he records that he engaged in an elephant hunt. He collected tribute from foreign powers and returned to Egypt in victory. Thutmose III returned to Syria for his ninth campaign in his 34th year, but this appears to have been just a raid of the area called Nukhashshe , a region populated by semi-nomadic people. The plunder recorded

20727-489: Was ready to rule. Some Egyptologists speculate that Thutmose married his half-sister, Neferure, but there is no conclusive evidence. Neferure, may have been the mother of Thutmose's firstborn son, Amenemhat . Alternatively, the Great Royal Wife Satiah is believed to have been the mother of Amenemhat. Amenemhat predeceased his father. Surviving records attest to several other wives of Thutmose. He

20874-576: Was ruled by king Biryawaza . The Damascus region, as well as the rest of Syria, became a battleground circa 1260 BC, between the Hittites from the north and the Egyptians from the south, ending with a signed treaty between Hattusili III and Ramesses II where the former handed over control of the Damascus area to Ramesses II in 1259 BC. The arrival of the Sea Peoples , around 1200 BC, marked

21021-507: Was succeeded by his nephew Yusuf, better known as Saladin , who defeated a joint crusader-Byzantine siege of Damietta . Saladin eventually overthrew the Fatimid caliphs and established himself as Sultan of Egypt. He also began to assert his independence from Nur ad-Din, and with the death of both Amalric and Nur ad-Din in 1174, he was well-placed to begin exerting control over Damascus and Nur ad-Din's other Syrian possessions. In 1177 Saladin

21168-461: Was the capital of independent Ayyubid rulers between 1193 and 1201, from 1218 to 1238, from 1239 to 1245, and from 1250 to 1260. At other times it was ruled by the Ayyubid rulers of Egypt. During the internecine wars fought by the Ayyubid rulers, Damascus was besieged repeatedly, as, e.g., in 1229 . The patterned Byzantine and Chinese silks available through Damascus, one of the Western termini of

21315-401: Was too young to rule. Hatshepsut became his regent , soon his co-regent, and shortly after that, declared herself pharaoh while never denying kingship to Thutmose III. During his childhood, Hatshepsut ruled Egypt in practice and name, achieving prosperity and success. When Thutmose III reached a suitable age and demonstrated his capacity, she appointed him to head her armies, and at her death, he

21462-565: Was unprecedented. He built Egypt's only known set of heraldic pillars, two large columns standing alone instead of being part of a set supporting the roof. His jubilee hall was also revolutionary and is arguably the earliest known building created in the basilica style. Thutmose's artisans achieved new heights of skill in painting, and tombs from his reign were the earliest to be entirely painted instead of painted reliefs. Although not directly pertaining to his monuments, it appears that Thutmose's artisans had learned glass making skills, developed in

21609-793: Was unwrapped by Gaston Maspero in 1886, it was in fact first unwrapped by Émile Brugsch , the Egyptologist who supervised the evacuation of the mummies from the Deir el-Bahri Cache in 1881. It was unwrapped soon after its arrival in the Boulak Museum while Maspero was away in France, and the Director General of the Egyptian Antiquities Service ordered the mummy re-wrapped. So when it was "officially" unwrapped by Maspero in 1886, he almost certainly knew it

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