Excavations at Ana

This was a rescue project in the basin of the Qadisiyya Dam recently completed at Haditha. Qal'at 'Ana is an island in the stream of the Euphrates, the site of the ancient and medieval city of 'Ana, since the 17th century downgraded to a village and palm-gardens, while the town moved to the right bank. 'Ana, on the Middle Euphrates some 150 km below the modern Iraqi-Syrian border, a very beautiful place, was the centre of an autonomous governorate under the Assyrians, a border fortress under the Parthians, Romans and Sasanians, and a caravan town and bedouin centre under Islam.