Carchemish

Carchemish (kär`kĭmĭsh, kärkē`mĭsh), ancient city, Turkey, on the Euphrates River, at the Syrian border, c.35 mi (56 km) SE of Gaziantep. It was an important Neo-Hittite city and was prosperous in the 9th cent. B.C. before it was destroyed by the Assyrians. Even then it continued as an important trade center. There, in 605 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar defeated Necho (2 Chron. 35.20; Jer. 46.2; Isa. 10.9). Among the excavated remains are sculptured neo-Hittite reliefs with hieroglyphic Hittite inscriptions.

Bibliography

See British Museum, Carchemish (3 vol. in 2, 1914–52).

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Carchemish

Ancient city-state, western bank of the Euphrates River. Its remains lay southeast of Gaziantep, Tur., near the Syrian border. It was a city of the Mitanni kingdom in the 2nd millennium BC and later a chief Hittite city. Probably subjugated by Sea Peoples after c. 1200 BC, it gradually came under Assyrian rule, finally capitulating in 717 BC. In a battle at Carchemish in 605 BC, Babylonian king Nebuchadrezzar II expelled the Egyptians from Syria. The ruins were excavated in 1911–20.