Mesopotamian city of Mari, located in what-is-now Syria

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Art Scavenger edited

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Mesopotamian city of Mari, located in what-is-now Syria
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Why would they build a huge wall around what is basically undeveloped shrubland? Why aren’t those gardens? Why does the interior wall not reach all the way to the river? Why are there zero bridges, but one seemingly connected city? Does this city flood every year?

So many questions!

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Art Scavenger OP edited

I can answer a few of those questions!

The canal that connects to two segments of the river is an artificial canal; the city was built away from the river specifically to avoid flooding.

Bridges are a shockingly late invention in human history - at least of the sort of the size and stability necessary for crossings of significant distance or traffic. Without ‘true’ arches, a bridge can’t have a large span - terribly inconvenient for crossing a river. Ferrying across in small boats was likely the main means of getting back and forth.

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Adding on, a bit of searching suggests that there was plenty of warfare between Mesopotamian city-states, and Mari was evidently a key trading route on the Euphrates, making it highly desirable. Later on, various groups and forces such as Akkadians and Amorites were the attackers of the day.

Also, multiple circles of walls appear in plenty of different city-fortresses across history, generally with the overlords and elites in the inner circle, warriors and skilled shopkeepers in the next, all the way to the least-valuable areas protected only by the outer wall. So a city-fortress could potentially lose an outer wall, while ultimately resisting a siege. At least, that’s my working understanding of such.

@tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works

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