Citadel and city of Nabi Hori
in Afrin region The ruins of the castle and the city of (Nabi Houri) are located 10 km north of the town of (Sharan) of the Afrin region - western Kurdistan.It is 45 km north-east of Afrin city. The ruins of the castle and the city of Nabi Houri consist of the ruins of an ancient city, on the northern and eastern slopes of a mountain elevation on which the castle of Nabi Houri was erected.On the western side of the site, on another mountain top, there are traces of a fort belonging to the castle, and it is said that there was a tunnel connecting them. In the south of the site there are hills of low height covered with olive trees. While in the north of the site dotted with beautiful Kurdish villages, And nothing remains of the old castle except for parts of its wall and some of the foundations and rooms of the towers in the corners of the castle wall, which are of the arched model. The castle has recently been restored. There are several designations for the location of the castle and city of Nabi Hori, as it is known locally as (Nabi Hori), while the Greek name for the ancient city is (Syros), and it was called (Agia Paulus), meaning the city of Saints Cosma and Damianos, and a church was built around their tombs. The Christian city of (Syros) was entered by (Simon the Zealot), who built a church in it and died and was buried in it. There is a religious narration about the name of the castle of Nabi Hori that says: It goes back to the name (Uria bin Hanan), one of the leaders of the Prophet David, who was killed in a battle that took place in the first millennium BC and was buried in it, and the events of the story of Prophet David with Uriah’s wife are known in religious literature to It ended at the hands of the Babylonians in the context of the (Medi-Babylonian) alliance and the fall of Nineveh. Also, Hori (Huri) is the name of an ancient Kurdish dynasty that appeared between the Zagros Mountains and the Taurus Mountains (northwest Kurdistan) between the years (2500 BC - 1000 BC) and established the (Kingdom of Mitan) in the middle of the second millennium BC, which ruled the entire northern section of the ancient Near East, There are several other sites in the Afrin region that bear the name (Hori), such as: the caves and ruins of Al-Huriyin near the village of Joqih, and Jabal Hawar, which is close to the name of Hori. (Hori Castle) was an important center for the worship of the gods Athena (the protector of Greece), whose symbol was the olive tree, and the gods Zeus (the god of thunderbolt), It is believed that the (Temple of Zeus) was on top of the mountain next to the mountain on which (Hori Castle) is located. Some sources believe that in the period before the period of Greek rule in the region there was a city in the same place as the city of (Nabi Huri), and most of the belief that it existed since the period of the Hurricane dynasty that established (Kingdom of Mitan), Accordingly, its current name has deep roots in the Hurrian Kurdish history. As for the modern city (Syros), the ruins of which still remain, it was built by the Greek leader (Slucus Nicator), the founder of the Greek Seleucid state in the East (312 BC - 64 BC). The city and castle of Hori went through many periods, including the Roman period, the Byzantine period, and the Islamic period. The oldest bridges near the castle and city of (Nabi Hori) are two bridges from the Roman era, dating back to the first or second century AD. It seems that the two bridges were restored more than once in different eras, especially in the Byzantine era. The two bridges are still serving the traffic in that area, but they are threatened with collapse due to the heavy traffic that runs over them. The first bridge is built on the Saboun River, east of the castle (Nabi Houri), 1.5 km away. It is 120 meters long. It has six openings, two of which are symmetrical, and a small seventh opening on the western side of the bridge. It was not mentioned by the modern written sources that described the bridge, perhaps because The opening is small and lonely at the western end of the bridge.
The second bridge is built on the Afrin River, east of the first bridge, at a distance of 1 kilometer, 92 meters long, and has three large openings.[1] [2]