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Shamash (Akkadian: Samas, 'Sun') was a native Mesopotamian deity and the Sun god in the Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Hebrew pantheons. <br/><br/> Shamash was the god of justice in Babylonia and Assyria, corresponding to Sumerian Utu. Akkadian <i>samas</i> is cognate to Syriac <i>semsa</i>, Hebrew <i>semes</i> and Arabic <i>sams</i>, 'sun'.
In Mesopotamian Religion (Sumerian, Assyrian, Akkadian and Babylonian), Tiamat is a chaos monster, a primordial goddess of the ocean, mating with Abzû (the god of fresh water) to produce younger gods.<br/><br/> Marduk was the Babylonian name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi (18th century BCE), started to slowly rise to the position of the head of the Babylonian pantheon, a position he fully acquired by the second half of the second millennium BCE.
South Arabia as a general term refers to several regions as currently recognized, in chief the Republic of Yemen; yet it has historically also included Najran, Jizan, and 'Asir which are presently in Saudi Arabia, and Dhofar presently in Oman. The frontiers of South Arabia as linguistically conceived would include the historic peoples speaking the related South Arabian languages as well as neighboring dialects of Arabic, and their descendants. Anciently there was a South Arabian alphabet, which was borrowed by Ethiopia. South Arabia as generally conceived would include the lands inhabited by peoples partaking of its distinctive traditions and culture, which overlap recently demarcated political boundaries.<br/><br/> Yemen or al-yaman means 'the south'. One etymology derives Yemen from yamin the 'right side' as the south is on the right when facing the sunrise; yet this etymology is considered suspect. Another derives Yemen from yumn meaning 'felicity' as the region is fertile; indeed the Romans called it Arabia Felix. In an ancient, traditional Arabian genealogy, the people of the peninsula are divided between north and south, those of the north descending from Ishmael and Adnan (from whom Muhammad descended), and those of South Arabia being the descendants of Qahtan or Joktan (Yoqtan) and Jokshan.<br/><br/> Three thousand years ago several different state entities occupied the region of South Arabia, including M'ain, Qataban, Hadhramaut and Saba.In those ancient times South Arabia claimed several notable features, e.g., the famous dam at Marib, the cosmopolitan incense trade, as well as the legendary Queen of Sheba. Two thousand years ago the Himyarites became the masters of South Arabia, remaining for several centuries until displaced by the armies of Axum which landed from nearby Ethiopia; rule by the Ethiopians was followed by that of Persia under the Sassanids, who also arrived by sea. A half-century later, in the year 638 C.E., the region became Muslim.
Palmyra was an ancient city in Syria. It was an important city in central Syria, located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus and 180 km southwest of the Euphrates at Deir ez-Zor. It had long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert and was known as the Bride of the Desert.<br/><br/> The earliest documented reference to the city by its Semitic name Tadmor, Tadmur or Tudmur (which means 'the town that repels' in Amorite and 'the indomitable town' in Aramaic) is recorded in Babylonian tablets found in Mari.
Ra is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty he had become a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the midday sun. The meaning of the name is uncertain, but it is thought that if not a word for 'sun' it may be a variant of or linked to words meaning 'creative power' and 'creator'.<br/><br/> The chief cult centre of Ra was Heliopolis (called Iunu, 'Place of Pillars', in Egyptian), where he was identified with the local sun-god Atum. Through Atum, or as Atum-Ra he was also seen as the first being and the originator of the Ennead, consisting of Shu and Tefnut, Geb and Nut, Osiris, Set, Isis and Nephthys.
Ai-Khanoum or Ay Khanum ( 'Lady of the Moon' in Uzbek, probably the historical Alexandria on the Oxus, also possibly named Eucratidia), was founded in the 4th century BCE, following the conquests of Alexander the Great and was one of the primary cities of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom.<br/><br/> The city is located in Kunduz Province northern Afghanistan, at the confluence of the Oxus river (today's Amu Darya) and the Kokcha river. Ai Khanoum was one of the focal points of Hellenism in the East for nearly two centuries, until its destruction by nomadic invaders around 145 BCE about the time of the death of Eucratides.<br/><br/> The site was excavated through archaeological searches by a French mission under Paul Bernard between 1964 and 1978, as well as by Russian archaeologists. These researches had to be abandoned with the beginning of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, during which the site was looted and used as a battleground, leaving very little of the original material.