Around 2400 BC, Ebla was the most important city of inner Syria between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. In it stood a royal palace that has left us an extraordinary treasure of some 17,000 cuneiform tablets dealing with accounting, economy, administration, law, diplomacy, rites, vocabulary, and literature. The tablets belong to the royal archive, which all great city-states possessed at the time. The relations that Ebla maintained with Egypt are confirmed by the presence of alabaster and diorite vases sent as gifts by the Egyptian pharaohs. Ebla was also in contact with other great Syrian cities, such as Mari, Tuttul, and Nawar. Ebla's outstanding importance is supported by both archaeological remains and epigraphical documents.
Paolo Matthiae in Michel Fortin, Syria, Land of Civilization. Les Éditions de l'Homme, Musée de la Civilisation de Québec 1999 (p.54).
Photo: ʿĀbid īsā. A Guide to the National Museum of Damascus 2006.
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