Another 15 miles [25 km] to the southeast lies the site of Mari. Once a prosperous commercial city, it was destroyed in the 18th century B.C.E. by Babylonian King Hammurabi. The archives of its royal palace have yielded at least 15,000 inscribed clay tablets​—documents that have done much to bring history to life.

When Hammurabi’s troops demolished the city, they knocked down the upper walls, filling the lower rooms with bricks and earth. This had the effect of protecting its mural paintings, statues, ceramics, and countless other artifacts until a French team of archaeologists discovered the site in 1933. These items can be viewed in the museums of Damascus and Aleppo as well as in the Louvre, in Paris.

[Picture on page 26]

Mari