Hatra

Hatra was a fortified caravan city in Upper Mesopotamia, in what is now Nineveh Governorate in Iraq, roughly 290 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, built in the third or second century BCE and flourishing as the capital of the small Kingdom of Hatra under Parthian rule during the first and second centuries CE. The city was laid out on a circular plan defended by inner and outer walls nearly 2 kilometers in diameter and reinforced by more than 160 towers, and its grand temples combined Hellenistic, Mesopotamian, and Iranian architectural influences in vaulted halls and columns rising up to 30 meters. Hatra held a strategic position between the Roman and Parthian empires and successfully withstood sieges by the emperors Trajan and Septimius Severus before falling to the Sasanian king Shapur I in AD 241, and it has been recognized since 1985 as the richest archaeological site known from the Parthian Empire and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.