Dura-Europos

Dura-Europos was a Hellenistic and Roman walled city on an escarpment 90 meters above the banks of the river Euphrates. It was founded by the Seleucids in the late fourth century B.C. on the intersection of an East to West trade route and the trade route on the Euphrates. It later became a frontier fortress of the Parthian Empire. It was captured by the Romans in 165 A.D. It was abandoned after a Sassanian siege in 256-257. After it was abandoned, it was covered by sand and mud and disappeared from sight.

Although the existence of Dura-Europos was long known through literary sources, it was not rediscovered until World War I, when a soldier digging a trench uncovered a portion of it. Major excavations were carried out in the 1920's and 1930's by French and American teams. The excavations revealed a multicultural Roman city with temples to Greek, Roman and Palmyrene gods. There was also a Jewish synagogue and the earliest identified Christian church .