Royal Palace of Mari

The Royal Palace of Mari was the royal residence of the rulers of the ancient kingdom of Mari in eastern Syria. Located between Canaan, Aram, Bashan, and Ebla to its west and Assyria, Akkad, Sumer, and Elam to its east, Mari acted as the “middle-man” to these powerful kingdoms. Both the size and grand nature of the palace demonstrate the importance of Mari during its long history, though the most intriguing feature of the palace is the nearly 25,000 tablets found within the palace rooms. The royal palace was discovered in 1935, excavated with the rest of the city throughout the 1930s, and is considered one of the most important finds made at Mari.

André Parrot led the excavations and was responsible for the discovery of the city and the palace. Thousands of clay tablets were discovered through the efforts of André Bianquis, who provided archaeologists the tools to learn about, and to understand, everyday life at the palace in Mari. The discovery of the tablets also aided in the labeling of various rooms in terms of their purpose and function.

Much of the site was plundered by ISIS between 2013 and 2015.

Text adapted from “Royal Palace of Mari” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Royal Palace of Mari ranks #2,580 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #15 of the 39 mapped in Syria. Founded 1800 BC, it is older than 99% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 4 atlas entries founded in the 18th century BC. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,649 times in the last 60 days, more than 62% of the atlas. It is one of the 114 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of the Levant. See how Syria compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗