24. Nuzi (Yorghan Tepe)

This was a major site of the 15th century b.c. when northern Mesopotamia was under control of Mitanni, a power centered in Syria. Remains from this period include a substantial palace and temple. Outlying mounds represent remains of suburban "villas."

25. Samarra

This Abbasid capital was founded in A.D. 836 by the caliph, al-Mutasim, in part because of differences between his Turkish bodyguards and the Arab population of Baghdad. Among the best- known remains is the Great Mosque built by the caliph Al-Mutawakkil (A.D. 847-861); this is the largest mosque in the Islamic world and known for its spiral minaret (al-Malwiya) symbolic of Islamic mosques.

26. Assur

The Assyrian capital of Assur was excavated by the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft from 1903 to 1914. It has remains of the early 2nd millennium (Old Assyrian period) and more substantial remains of the Middle (14th-llth centuries B.C..) and Late or Neo-Assyrian periods (9th-7th centuries B.C..). It also has important remains of the Parthian period.

27. Hatra

A Parthian-period Arab cult and market center, Hatra's history goes back to the beginning of the Christian era, but the site reached its zenith in the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D. Hatra resisted Roman attacks in A.D. 117 and 198. After Hatra allowed Roman occupation beginning in 233, the Sassanians destroyed it in revenge in 240-241. The site is surrounded by two concentric walls (the outer wall a little over a mile in diameter). The major excavated complex is the Sanctuary of the Sun.