# Khabur

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For the tributary of River Tigris, see [Khabur (Tigris)](/source/Khabur_(Tigris)).

River in Syria, Turkey

Khabur Khabur south of Al-Hasakah Native name نهر الخابور (Arabic) ܢܗܪܐ ܚܒܪ (Syriac) Çemê Xabûr (Kurdish) Habur Nehri (Turkish) Location Country Syria, Turkey City Ra's al-'Ayn, Al-Hasakah, Busayrah Physical characteristics Source Ras al-Ayn • elevation 350 m (1,150 ft) Mouth Euphrates • coordinates 35°8′33″N 40°25′51″E / 35.14250°N 40.43083°E / 35.14250; 40.43083 Length 486 km (302 mi) Basin size 37,081 km2 (14,317 sq mi) Discharge • average 45 m3/s (1,600 cu ft/s) • minimum 2 m3/s (71 cu ft/s) • maximum 57 m3/s (2,000 cu ft/s) [1][2]

The **Khabur River** is the largest perennial tributary to the [Euphrates](/source/Euphrates) in [Syria](/source/Syria). Although the Khabur originates in [Turkey](/source/Turkey), the [karstic](/source/Karstic) springs around [Ras al-Ayn](/source/Ras_al-Ayn) are the river's main source of water. Several important [wadis](/source/Wadi) join the Khabur north of [Al-Hasakah](/source/Al-Hasakah), together creating what is known as the Khabur Triangle, or Upper Khabur area. From north to south, annual rainfall in the Khabur basin decreases from over 400 mm to less than 200 mm. This has made the river a vital water source for agriculture throughout history. The Khabur joins the Euphrates near the town of [Busayrah](/source/Busayrah).

## Name

In ancient times, the river was known in [Akkadian](/source/Akkadian_language) and [Amorite](/source/Amorite_language) as *ḫabur*,[3][4][5] in [Hebrew](/source/Hebrew_language): חָבוֹר, [romanized](/source/Romanization_of_Hebrew): *ḥāḇōr*,[6] and in [Old Aramaic](/source/Old_Aramaic_language): 𐤇𐤁𐤅𐤓, romanized: *ḥbwr*.[5]

The river was well noted by ancient writers, with various names used by various writers: [Ptolemy](/source/Ptolemy) and [Pliny the Elder](/source/Pliny_the_Elder) called it the *Chaboras* ([Ancient Greek](/source/Ancient_Greek_language): Χαβώρας),[7] [Procopius](/source/Procopius) called it the *Chabura*,[8] [Strabo](/source/Strabo), [Zosimus](/source/Zosimus_(historian)), and [Ammianus Marcellinus](/source/Ammianus_Marcellinus) called it the *Aborrhas* (Ἀβόρρας),[9] and [Isidore of Charax](/source/Isidore_of_Charax) called it the *Aburas* (Ἀβούρας).[10] It was described as a large river of Mesopotamia which rose in [Mons Masius](/source/Mons_Masius), about 40 miles (64 km) from [Nisibis](/source/Nisibis), and flowed into the [Euphrates](/source/Euphrates) at [Circesium](/source/Circesium) (Kerkesiah).

## Geography

The course of the Khabur can be divided into two distinct zones: the Upper Khabur area or Khabur Triangle north of Al-Hasakah, and the Middle and Lower Khabur between Al-Hasakah and Busayrah.

### Tributaries

The river is fed by several smaller streams, the names of which are mentioned by the later classical writers. These are, the [Scirtus](/source/Scirtus) (Procop. *de Aedif.* 2.7), the [Cordes](/source/Cordes_(river)) (Procop. *de Aedif.* 2.2), and the [Mygdonius](/source/Mygdonius) ([Julian](/source/Julian_the_Apostate). *Or.* i.).

The tributaries to the Khabur are listed from east to west. Most of these [wadis](/source/Wadi) only carry water for part of the year.

- [Wadi Radd](/source/Wadi_Radd)

- [Wadi Jarrah](/source/Wadi_Jarrah)

- [Jaghjagh River](/source/Jaghjagh_River) (ancient Mygdonius)

- [Wadi Khanzir](/source/Wadi_Khanzir)

- [Wadi Avedji](/source/Wadi_Avedji)

## History

Since the 1930s, numerous archaeological excavations and [surveys](/source/Archaeological_field_survey) have been carried out in the Khabur Valley, indicating that the region has been occupied since the [Lower Palaeolithic](/source/Lower_Palaeolithic) period.[11] Important sites that have been excavated include [Tell Halaf](/source/Tell_Halaf), [Tell Brak](/source/Tell_Brak), [Tell Leilan](/source/Tell_Leilan), [Tell Mashnaqa](/source/Tell_Mashnaqa), [Tell Mozan](/source/Urkesh) and [Tell Barri](/source/Tell_Barri). The region has given its name to a distinctive painted ware found in [northern Mesopotamia](/source/Al-Jazira%2C_Mesopotamia) and Syria in the early 2nd millennium BCE, called [Khabur ware](/source/Khabur_ware). The region of the Khabur River is also associated with the rise of the Kingdom of the [Mitanni](/source/Mitanni) that flourished c. 1500–1300 BC.

The Khabur River is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible: "[Tiglath-Pileser](/source/Tiglath-Pileser_III) ... took the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh into exile. He took them to Halah, Habor (Khabur), Hara and the River Gozan, where they are to this day".[12] The identification of the Khabur with the Habor is not contested.

The Khabur river was sometimes identified with the Chebar or Kebar, the location of [Tel Abib](/source/Tel_Abib) and setting of several important scenes of the [Book of Ezekiel](/source/Book_of_Ezekiel). However, recent scholarship identifies the Chebar as the *ka-ba-ru* waterway mentioned among the 5th century BCE Murushu archives from [Nippur](/source/Nippur), close to Nippur and the Shatt el-Nil, a silted up canal toward the east of Babylon.[13]

The ancient city of [Corsote](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Corsote&action=edit&redlink=1), visited by [Cyrus the Younger](/source/Cyrus_the_Younger) on his ill-fated expedition against the Persians as told by [Xenophon](/source/Xenophon), was located at the confluence of the Khabur River, known by them as the 'Mascas', and the Euphrates according to [Robin Waterfield](/source/Robin_Waterfield).[14] Other authors have been circumspect upon the precise location of Corsote due to the changing names and courses of the rivers since that time.[15]

[Ptolemy](/source/Ptolemy) (5.18.6) mentions a town called [Chabora](/source/Chabora) (Χαβώρα), on the Euphrates, which he places near [Nicephorion](/source/Nicephorion), and which probably derives its name from the river, and [Theophylact Simocatta](/source/Theophylact_Simocatta) mentions Ἀβορέων φρούριον, which is, as certainly, the same place.[16] Procopius speaks of it as a river of importance, and Ammianus states that [Julian the Apostate](/source/Julian_the_Apostate) crossed it "per navalem Aborae pontem". Strabo describes it as near the town of [Anthemusias](/source/Anthemusias).

In the seventh and eight century, several monasteries from the [Tur Abdin](/source/Tur_Abdin) such as the [monastery of Qartmin](/source/Monastery_of_Qar%E1%B9%ADmin), the [monastery of Mar Awgin](/source/Monastery_of_Mar_Awgin) and the monastery of Mar Yoḥannān Ṭayyāyā, owned farmland in the upper Khabur valley and often had depended monasteries, so-called Lower Monasteries. As such, [Simeon](/source/Simeon_of_the_Olives), who was a monk and administrator at the Qartmin abbey, planted 12,000 trees at the Lower Monastery near [Sisauranon](/source/Sisauranon) (which earned him the name 'of the olives').[17]

### Modern Khabur River Valley

[Assyrian Church](/source/Assyrian_Church_of_the_East) in Khabur River Valley.

The Khabur River Project, begun in the 1960s, involved the construction of a series of [dams](/source/Dam) and [canals](/source/Canal). Three dams were built in the Khabur Basin as part of a large irrigation scheme that also includes the [Tabqa Dam](/source/Tabqa_Dam) on the Euphrates. The section of the Khabur River within [Tell Tamer Subdistrict](/source/Tell_Tamer_Subdistrict) are home to a self-governing Assyrian enclave. Two dams, Hasakah West and Hasakah East, have been constructed on tributaries to the Khabur between Ra's al-'Ayn and Al-Hasakah. The capacity of the reservoir of Hasakah West is 0.09 km3, and is also the southeastern end of the Assyrian enclave. The capacity of Hasakah East is 0.2 km3. A third dam, Hassakeh South, was constructed on the Khabur 25 km south of Al-Hasakah. The reservoir of this dam has a capacity of 0.7 km3.[18] The Khabur Valley, which now has about four million acres (16,000 km2) of farmland, is Syria's main [wheat](/source/Wheat)-cultivation area. The northeastern part is also the center for Syria's oil production.

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Hole F; Zaitchik, BF (2007). "Policies, plans, practice, and prospects: irrigation in northeastern Syria". *Land Degradation & Development*. **18** (2): 133–152. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1002/ldr.772](https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fldr.772). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [129117310](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:129117310).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Burdon, DJ; Safadi, C (1963). "Ras-el-Ain: the great karstic spring of Mesopotamia. An hydrogeological study". *Journal of Hydrology*. **1** (1): 58–95. [Bibcode](/source/Bibcode_(identifier)):[1963JHyd....1...58B](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1963JHyd....1...58B). [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1016/0022-1694(63)90033-7](https://doi.org/10.1016%2F0022-1694%2863%2990033-7).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-:0_3-0)** Buck, Mary E. (2020). [*The Amorite Dynasty of Ugarit*](https://brill.com/display/title/56136). Brill. pp. 237–238.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** [Gelb, Ignace J.](/source/Ignace_Gelb) (1980). [*Computer-aided Analysis of Amorite*](https://archive.org/details/computeraidedana0000gelb). University of Chicago Press. p. 20.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:1_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:1_5-1) [Tell Fekherya bilingual inscription](/source/Tell_Fekherya_bilingual_inscription), see: Greenfield, Jonas C.; Shaffer, Aaron (1983). ["Notes on the Akkadian-Aramaic Bilingual Statue from Tell Fekherye"](https://www.jstor.org/stable/4200185). *Iraq*. **45** (1): 112. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.2307/4200185](https://doi.org/10.2307%2F4200185). [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0021-0889](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0021-0889).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Malamat, Abraham (1962), "חבור", in [*Encyclopaedia Biblica*](/source/Encyclopaedia_Biblica_(Israel)) vol. 3, [Instituti Bialik](/source/Bialik_Institute), p. 3

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Chaboras_7-0)** [Ptolemy](/source/Ptolemy), *[The Geography](/source/Geography_(Ptolemy))*, 5.18.3; [Pliny the Elder](/source/Pliny_the_Elder), [Natural History](/source/Natural_History_(Pliny)), 30.3.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Chabura_8-0)** [Procopius](/source/Procopius), *B.P.*, 2.5.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Aborrhas_9-0)** [Strabo](/source/Strabo), xvi; [Zosimus](/source/Zosimus_(historian)), *Historia Nova*, 3.13; [Ammianus Marcellinus](/source/Ammianus_Marcellinus), *Rerum Gestarum*, 14.3, 23.5.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Aburas_10-0)** [Isidore of Charax](/source/Isidore_of_Charax)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Nishiaku_11-0)** Nishiaki, Y. (1992). ["Preliminary results of the prehistoric survey in the Khabur Basin, Syria: 1990–91 seasons"](http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/paleo_0153-9345_1992_num_18_1_4566). *Paléorient*. **18** (1): 97–102. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.3406/paleo.1992.4566](https://doi.org/10.3406%2Fpaleo.1992.4566). Retrieved 7 July 2010.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** [1 Chronicles 5:26](https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt25a05.htm#26)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** Thompson, Henry O. (1992). *"Chebar", in ABD*. Vol. 1. Doubleday. p. 893. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-385-19351-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-385-19351-3).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** [Waterfield, Robin](/source/Robin_Waterfield) (2006). [*Xenophon's retreat : Greece, Persia, and the end of the Golden Age*](https://books.google.com/books?id=jBoJfzXxeqIC&q=Khabur+mascas&pg=PA102). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of [Harvard University Press](/source/Harvard_University_Press). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780674023567](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780674023567). Retrieved 20 January 2017.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** Rennell, James (1816). [*Illustrations, chiefly geographical, of the history of the expedition of Cyrus, From Sardis to Babylonia and the retreat of the 10,000 Greeks*](https://books.google.com/books?id=hmBNAAAAcAAJ&q=Corsote+masca&pg=PA101). Bulmer. p. 101. Retrieved 21 January 2017.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-16)** *The History of Theophylact Simocatta*, 4.10.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-17)** Brunner, Kyle B. (2021). "Simeon of the Olives and his World: Life of the Khabur Basin during the early Islamic period". [*The Life of Simeon of the Olives: An Entrepreneurial Saint of Early Islamic North Mesopotamia*](https://books.google.com/books?id=ZV-XzgEACAAJ). Gorgias Press LLC. pp. 59–60, 65–66, 76. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-4632-4346-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-4632-4346-3). Retrieved 6 March 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-mutin_18-0)** Mutin, Georges (2003). ["Le Tigre et l'Euphrate de la discorde"](http://vertigo.revues.org/index3869.html). *VertigO* (in French). **4** (3): 1–10. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.4000/vertigo.3869](https://doi.org/10.4000%2Fvertigo.3869). Retrieved 18 December 2009.

- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the [public domain](/source/Public_domain): [Smith, William](/source/William_Smith_(lexicographer)), ed. (1854–1857). "Chaboras". *[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography](/source/Dictionary_of_Greek_and_Roman_Geography)*. London: John Murray.

v t e Rivers of Syria by drainage basin Mediterranean Orontes River (Karasu and Afrin River) Nahr al-Kabir Nahr al-Kabir al-Shamali Nahr as-Sinn Persian Gulf Euphrates (Sajur River, Balikh River (Daysan River, Wadi al-Kheder and Wadi Qaramogh), Khabur (Jaghjagh River, Wadi Avedji, Wadi Jarrah, Wadi Khanzir and Wadi Radd)) Tigris endorheic Queiq Awaj Barada Banias River Yarmouk River

v t e Rivers of Turkey by drainage basin Black Sea Sakarya Filyos Bartın Kızılırmak (Halys) Gök Terme Yeşilırmak Yağlıdere Aksu Gelevara Kara Dere Çoruh Sea of Marmara Biga Susurluk (Simav) Aegean Sea Meriç (Maritsa) Tunca Karamenderes (Scamander) Bakırçay Gediz Küçük Menderes Büyük Menderes Azmak Mediterranean Sea Eşen Aksu Manavgat Köprüçay Kaledran Dragon Sini Soğuksu Babadıl Göksu Limonlu Alata (Sorgun) Tömük Karacaoğlan Tece Mezitli (Liparis) Efrenk (Müftü) Deliçay Berdan (Tarsus) Seyhan Ceyhan Payas Asi (Orontes) Deli Çay Persian Gulf Fırat (Euphrates) (Daysan River, Sajur River, Khabur and Jaghjagh River) Dicle (Tigris) Hezil Caspian Sea Aras Kura endorheic Queiq Turkey portal Category

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Khabur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khabur) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khabur?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.