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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 24719949, member: 128351&quot;]The archaeologist in charge of the Dura Europos excavations before 2011 thought he had localized it, but wouldn&#039;t say where.</p><p><br /></p><p>Nobody else has located this monumental tomb, or even seriously proposed a location. The problem is : left bank or right bank of the Euphrates? The itinerary of Julian in 363, who left Circesium, crossed the Khabur, stopped at Zaitha to make sacrifices to the Divus Gordianus, and continued to Dura Europos, is ambiguous: if he crossed the Khabur he was on the left bank, but Doura is on the right bank... </p><p><br /></p><p>In my opinion, Gordian&#039;s monument could lie under the medieval castle of ar-Rahba, west of Mayadin in eastern Syria, on the right bank of the Euphrates, 16 km south of Circesium (today al-Busayrah). It was most probably some kind of huge structure &quot;conspicuous from afar&quot; (Ammian) for those coming from Circesium. The place was on the main road and was called Zaitha (&quot;olive-grove&quot; in Aramaean) in the 4th c. It was a well-known monument and some early Byzantine authors even mention the distance (from Circesium?) : 60 stadia (11 km), according to Zosimus.</p><p><br /></p><p>Al-Rahba castle is a medieval castle of the 13th c. but there was something there before, at least under the early Abbasids in the 9th c., why not earlier? Its location, overlooking the Euphrates valley and even the plateau, makes it a monument &quot;conspicuous from afar&quot; for those coming from al-Busayrah... There are not so many sites in the area that fit this description so well... </p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]1581137[/ATTACH] Medieval castle of al-Rahba (Syria)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1581138[/ATTACH] </p><p>Plan of the medieval town of al-Rahba, the fortress being 50 m above the valley (north) and 10 m above the plateau (south)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1581139[/ATTACH] </p><p style="text-align: center">satellite view of the medieval fortress</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p><p>Was this castle built over the ruins of Gordian&#039;s monumental tomb?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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