Hatra, Nineveh Governorate, Iraq

Elegy for Hatra: The City of the Sun God

Elegy for Hatra: The City of the Sun God

Elegy for Hatra: The City of the Sun God

Elegy for Hatra: The City of the Sun God

Hatra was an ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia located in present-day eastern Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. The city lies 290 km (180 mi) northwest of Baghdad and 110 km (68 mi) southwest of Mosul.

Hatra was a strongly fortified caravan city and capital of the small Arab Kingdom of Hatra,  located between the Roman and Parthian/Persian empires. Hatra  flourished in the 2nd century, and was destroyed and deserted in the 3rd  century. Its impressive ruins were discovered in the 19th century. 

Hatra was the best preserved and most informative example of a Parthian city. Its plan was circular, and was encircled by inner and outer walls nearly 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) in diamete and supported by more than 160 towers. A temenos surrounded the principal sacred buildings in the city's  centre. The temples covered some 1.2 hectares and were dominated by the  Great Temple, an enormous structure with vaults and columns that once rose to 30 metres.

Saddam Hussein saw the site's Mesopotamian history as reflecting glory on himself, and sought to restore the site, and others in Ninevah, Nimrud, Ashur and Babylon, as a symbol of Arab achievement, spending more than US$80 million in the first phase of restoration of  Babylon. Saddam Hussein demanded that new bricks in the restoration use  his name (in imitation of Nebuchadnezzar) and parts of one restored Hatra temple have Saddam's name.