Birtha ( el, Βίρθα)Ptol. v. 18; Virta, Amm. Marc. xx. 7. § 17. was an ancient fortress on the river

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

, which was said to have been built by

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

. It would seem, from the description of Ammianus, to have resembled a modern fortification, flanked by bastions, and with its approaches defended by out-works.

Shapur II Shapur II ( pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩 ; New Persian: , ''Šāpur'', 309 – 379), also known as Shapur the Great, was the tenth Sasanian King of Kings ( Shahanshah) of Iran. The longest-reigning monarch in Iranian history, he reign ...

here closed his campaign in 360, and was compelled to retire with considerable loss. D'Anville and

Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, '' The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, i ...

both identify Birtha as modern-day

Tikrit Tikrit ( ar, تِكْرِيت ''Tikrīt'' , Syriac: ܬܲܓܪܝܼܬܼ ''Tagrīṯ'') is a city in Iraq, located northwest of Baghdad and southeast of Mosul on the Tigris River. It is the administrative center of the Saladin Governorate. , it h ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. The word "Birtha" in

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

means a castle or fortress, and might be applied to many places. From the known position of Dura, it has been inferred that the remarkable passage of the Tigris by Jovian in 363 took place near Tikrit. Towards the end of the 14th century, this impregnable fortress was stormed by

Timur Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kü ...

. The ruins of the castle are on a perpendicular cliff over the Tigris, about 200 feet (65 m) high. This insulated cliff is separated from the town by a broad and deep ditch, which was no doubt filled by the Tigris. At the foot of the castle is a large gate of brick-work, which is all that remains standing; but round the summit of the cliff the walls, buttresses, and bastions are quite traceable. There are the ruins of a vaulted secret staircase, leading down from the heart of the citadel to the water's edge.Rich, ''Kurdistan'', vol. ii. p. 147; ''comp.'' ''Journ. Geog. Soc.'' vol. ix. p. 448; Chesney, ''Exped. Euphrat.'' vol. i. pp. 26, 27;

Carl Ritter Carl Ritter (August 7, 1779September 28, 1859) was a German geographer. Along with Alexander von Humboldt, he is considered one of the founders of modern geography. From 1825 until his death, he occupied the first chair in geography at the Univer ...

, ''Erdkunde'', vol. x. p. 222.

References

;Attribution {{DGRG, title=Birtha, page=402, volume=1, last=Vaux, first=W.S.W. Archaeological sites in Iraq Forts Wars of Alexander the Great Hellenistic sites Ancient Assyrian cities