Photo Story: Could This be the Site of an Ancient Marvel Lost for Millennia?

In this week’s Photo Story, we explore Tell ʿAbd al-Azīz, also known as Girdi Abdulazīz— an archaeological mound situated on the south-west edge of Arbelā (modern-day Erbil, Iraq). Archaeological surveys at this mound have revealed that an ancient monumental building once occupied this site.

Limestone elements from a nearby cemetery indicate that sections of the structure were dismantled and repurposed for funeral stelae. This mound as well as those in the nearby district of Kafr ʿAzzā may have been within the geographical parameters of Ḥazzā— a significant administrative, cultural, and religious centre for Indigenous Assyrians and early Syriac Christianity.

According to the survey results, the period of settlement at this region may be tentatively dated to the Persian Empire, then ruled under the Sāsānian dynasty. According to experts, this district may have been abandoned in the sixteenth century.

During the early Christian period, the district of Ḥazzā served as an alternate seat of office for the Church of the East’s Metropolitan Bishop of Arbelā. The earliest references to Ḥazzā by name in a Syriac source may be drawn from the fourth century CE Hagiography of Mār Qardāgh, where it was referred to as “a village in the lands of the Assyrians”.