Diban

This article is about a town and archaeological site in Syria. For the town and archaeological site in Jordan, see Dhiban, Jordan.
Diban
ذيبان
Town
Diban
Coordinates: 35°0′9″N 40°30′42″E / 35.00250°N 40.51167°E / 35.00250; 40.51167
Country  Syria
Governorate Deir ez-Zor Governorate
District Mayadin District
Nahiyah Diban
Occupation Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Population (2004 census)[1]
 • Total 9,000
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
 • Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)

Diban (Arabic: ذيبان‎‎, also spelled Thiban or Dhiban) is a town in eastern Syria, administratively part of the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, located along the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, south of Deir ez-Zor, 17 kilometers south of al-Busayrah and 13 kilomaters north of Asharah.[2] Nearby localities include Mayadin to the north and east, al-Hawayij to the northeast, Makhan to the south and al-Tayanah to the southeast According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Diban had a population of 9,000 in the 2004 census. It is the administrative seat of a nahiyah ("subdistrict") which consists of ten localities with a total population of 65,079 in 2004.[1]

Diban is the administrative center of Nahiya Diban of the Mayadin District.

Part of Diban is situated on a hill called Tell Diban, which is also an archaeological site. Tell Diban is identified with the ancient Aramean city of Rummunina,[2][3] a probable derivation of the Aramaic word rumman ("pomegranate").[2] The city and its surrounding fields served as a pre-war camp for Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta II's army during his last military campaign in 885 BCE. The king reported that Rummunina was situated along a canal of the Khabur River, a tributary of the Euphrates.[3] According to Belgian orientalist Edward Lipinsky, Tell Diban was "certainly occupied during the Iron Age."[2]

References

  1. 1 2 General Census of Population and Housing 2004. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Deir az-Zawr Governorate. (Arabic)
  2. 1 2 3 4 Lipinsky, pp. 84-85.
  3. 1 2 Bryce, 2009, p. 598.

Bibliography

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