Alexandria-on-the-Tigris

Since the beginning of this year, Alexandria-on-the-Tigris has been repeatedly discussed on the internet, and I was hoping to find new information about its excavations. 

Sadly, nothing of the kind has been revealed. The articles basically confirm earlier results that mentioned a grid layout of the city with wide streets, housing blocks, temples, workshops, traces of canals, and harbor basins. 

There was nothing much I could add to my blogpost, Excavations at Alexandria-on-the Tigris, also known as Charax Spasinou, posted in May 2017, except perhaps the important role the city played as a trade hub with connections far into Central Asia. 

Alexandria-on-the-Tigris flourished in Hellenistic times and later under Parthian power. A port at the junction of the Karun and Tigris rivers on the Persian Gulf was a choice location. Unfortunately, by the third century AD, the riverbed of the Tigris had shifted further west, and the alluviums carried by both rivers led to the end of its prosperity, leaving very little for us to see. 

[Picture of Alexandria's wall from Archaeology Mag]

Today, the site of Alexandria-on-the-Tigris has very little to offer. The only recognizable feature in the otherwise flat plain is a kilometer-long ridge that has been identified as the city wall. In places, it rises up to eight meters. 

Future excavations will not happen any time soon, as the site sits so close to the Iran-Iraqi border and the Persian Gulf. Jebel Khayyaber, the modern name of the settlement, is located 50 kilometers from Basra, Iraq.