Mabug

Manbij (Arabic: منبج‎ Manbiǧ, Syriac: ܡܒܘܓ‎ mabbug) is a town in the Aleppo Governorate, Syria, 30 kilometers west of the Euphrates. The ruins of the ancient city Hierapolis Bambyce, also known as Hierapolis Euphratensis or Hierapolis in Euphratesia, are 20 km north, where remains of aqueducts and the Byzantine walls of Justinian are still to be seen. The place first appears in Greek as Bambyce, but Pliny (v. 23) tells us its Syrian name was Mabog (also Mabbog, Mabbogh). As a centre of the worship of the Syrian goddess Atargatis, it became known to the Greeks as the Ἱερόπολις (Hieropolis) 'city of the sanctuary', and finally as Ἱεράπολις (Hierapolis) 'holy city'. This worship of Atargatis was immortalized in De Dea Syria which has...