Arpad, Syria

Arpad

Shown within Syria
Location	Syria
Region	Aleppo Governorate
Coordinates	36°28′N 37°06′E / 36.47°N 37.10°E / 36.47; 37.10

Arpad (Old Aramaic: 𐡀𐡓𐡐𐡃, romanized: ʾRPD; Biblical Hebrew: אַרְפַּד, romanized: ʾArpaḏ or אַרְפָּד, ʾArpāḏ;^[1] modern Tell Rifaat, Syria) was an ancient Aramaean Syro-Hittite city located in north-western Syria, north of Aleppo. It became the capital of the Aramaean state of Bit Agusi established by Gusi of Yakhan in the 9th century BC.^[2] Bit Agusi stretched from the A'zaz area in the north to Hamath in the south.^[3]

Arpad later became a major vassal city of the Kingdom of Urartu. In 743 BC, during the Urartu-Assyria War, the Neo-Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III laid siege to Arpad following the defeat of the Urartuan army of Sarduri II at Samsat. But the city of Arpad did not surrender easily. It took Tiglath-Pileser three years of siege to conquer Arpad, whereupon he massacred its inhabitants and destroyed the city.^[4] Afterward Arpad served as a provincial capital.^[5] Tell Rifaat, which is probably the remains of Arpad, has walls still preserved to a height of eight meters.^[6]