Camp_Fenway

Qalat Sukkar

Qalat Sukkar

Place in Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq

Qalat Sukkar (Arabic: قلعة سكر, romanized: Qal`at es Sikar, lit. 'Sugar Castle') is a town in the Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, located on the Gharraf Canal.

Quick Facts Sikkar Castle قلعة سكرQal‘at es Sikkar, Country ...
Bridge over the Gharraf Canal at Qalat Sukkar

Demographics

Qalat Sukkar has a population of 110,000.[1]

Location

Qalat Sukar is located on a ridge west of the Gharraf Canal (the old canal that the Sumerians dug up some 4000 years ago). Qalat Sukar is 6 km northeast of the remains of the ancient Sumerian city of Larsa.[2] A modern drainage canal separates Qalat Sukar from Larsa Tell.[2]

James Abbott Sauer and Khair Yassine, believe that because of the name, and the former marshlands in the area,[3] it is likely that Qalat Sukar was originally the site of a sugar mill,[4] constructed after sugarcane was introduced into the area in the ninth century.[5]

The nearest large city is An Nasiriyah, Iraq with a population of 587,000.

Airfield

During the Iraq War, the Qalat Sukkar Airfield was occupied by the US Marines and called Camp Fenway.[6]

Notes

  1. [1]
    ""Đī Qār: largest cities and towns and statistics of their population:Qal'at Sukkar" World Gazetteer". Archived from the original on 5 January 2013. World Gazetteer, accessed 19 February 2009
  2. [2]
    "31.3333°,45.8828° – 31.2858°,45.8536° : 5.964 km / 3.707 m (great circle distance)" (distance between Qalat Sukar and Larsa Tell), Movable Type Scripts, accessed 19 February 2009
  3. [3]
    Dougherty, Raymond P; (1926); Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research; "An Archæological Survey in Southern Babylonia I;" No. 23; pp. 15–28
  4. [4]
    Tell es-Sukkar in Ibrahim; Mo 'Awiyah; Sauer, James Abbott and Yassine, Khair; (1976); Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research; "The East Jordan Valley Survey, 1975;" No. 222, pp. 41–66
  5. [5]
    Yeats, John (1887) The Natural History of the Raw Materials of Commerce (3rd ed.) George Philip & Son, London, p. 177, OCLC 6066004
  6. [6]
    "Charlie Company Leads BLT into Northern Iraq"; Kennedy, Christopher M.; (2006); "U.S. Marines in Iraq, 2003 Anthology and Annotated Bibliography;" History Division, U.S. Marine Corps; Washington, D.C.; p. 97; OCLC 81149577 Archived 12 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine


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