For centuries, one of antiquity’s most important cities slipped quietly out of human memory.
Founded by Alexander the Great during his eastern campaigns, Alexandria on the Tigris once stood at the heart of vast trade networks linking Mesopotamia, the Persian Gulf, and India. Yet sometime between the decline of cuneiform writing and the rise of Islam in the region, the city vanished—not only from the physical landscape, but also from the historical record. Only in the 21st century has archaeology begun to reconstruct its forgotten story.
Following the fall of the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the late 4th century BC, Alexander established the city as part of his broader vision to connect Mesopotamia with the wider maritime world. Returning from campaigns that stretched as far as the Indus Valley, he sought to create a strategic port that would anchor long-distance trade.
Southern Mesopotamia, however, was already undergoing profound environmental change. Sedimentation carried by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers was steadily pushing the Persian Gulf coastline farther south, threatening access to the sea. To maintain a viable maritime outlet, Alexander founded a port city near the confluence of the Tigris and the Karun rivers—Charax Spasinou.
Ancient Roman authors described Charax as a prosperous commercial hub, yet its precise location remained a subject of scholarly debate for decades. A breakthrough came in the 1960s, when British researcher John Hansman identified massive ramparts visible in Royal Air Force aerial photographs.
The site—now known as Jebel Khayyaber—proved difficult to investigate further. As Stefan Hauser of the University of Konstanz explains, the city’s period of prominence fell within a historical era long overlooked by archaeologists. Compounding this challenge, the site lies just 15 kilometers from the Iranian border, an area that became a major battleground during the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s. During the conflict, a military camp was established directly atop the ancient ruins, further complicating efforts to study and preserve the remains.
That changed in 2014, when international research teams were finally able to return to southern Iraq. During an initial visit to the site with local officials, researchers were struck by the sheer scale of the remains: a city wall stretching for more than a kilometre and rising up to eight metres high.
Subsequent studies revealed that the seemingly flat landscape concealed the lost city of Alexandria on the Tigris. In 2016, Stefan Hauser joined the project, contributing specialized expertise in the Hellenistic Near East. Early investigations were necessarily cautious, relying on surface surveys, remote sensing, and non-invasive methods due to ongoing security concerns.
Thousands of drone images, combined with systematic fieldwalking, uncovered dense scatters of pottery, bricks, and industrial debris spread across more than 500 square kilometres. Magnetometer-based geophysical surveys then mapped the buried urban fabric, revealing a vast and carefully planned metropolis. The data exposed broad streets, monumental city blocks, temples, workshops, canals, and palace-like complexes—some of the largest urban blocks known from antiquity.
Variations in grid orientation point to multiple construction phases and clearly defined urban zones dedicated to housing, religion, industry, and agriculture. Satellite imagery also revealed extensive ancient irrigation systems extending north of the city, supplying water to expansive grain fields and supporting a large population.
Between approximately 300 BC and 300 AD, Alexandria on the Tigris likely functioned as a central hub of long-distance trade. Goods from India, Afghanistan, and possibly even China passed through the port, feeding major markets in cities such as Seleucia and Ctesiphon farther north. Yet the city’s prosperity depended entirely on its access to river and sea routes.
“We now realise that we truly have the equivalent of Alexandria on the Nile, the famous city in Egypt,” said Professor Hauser. “The situation is essentially the same: a city founded at the junction of open sea and inland river systems. Alexandria on the Tigris must have fulfilled its role as one of the central hubs of ancient long-distance trade for more than 550 years.”
Its decline came when nature intervened once again. As the Tigris shifted westward and the Persian Gulf coastline retreated, Alexandria lost its strategic position. By the 3rd century AD, it lay far from both river and sea and was largely abandoned.
Today, the rediscovery of Alexandria on the Tigris is reshaping our understanding of ancient globalization, urban planning, and environmental change. With further excavations planned, archaeologists hope to uncover more secrets of a city that once connected continents—before vanishing into the sands of history.
