Ancient Iraqi Fortification?

While trolling around on Google Earth I found this interesting structure nestled in extreme western Iraq very near the Syrian border.

It's sort of reminiscent of an old arabic style fortification or maybe the ruins of an ancient walled citadel.

I cannot see any sign of modern development, or roads for that matter, for at least 100 miles in either direction of it.


Here are the coordinates:

34°50'3.73"N
41°14'12.38"E

Any ideas?

W.E.S.B

maybe it was an outpost of some kind...

Well can you possibly post the actual pictures that you saw or the links to the google earth image?

Could have been lots of things . . can get better opinions if we can see it.

Picture of Uruk Walls

Here is a link showing an image of the excavated walls of Uruk. Keep in mind that modern day Iraq was ancinent Mesopotamia. City-states in this region were in a constant state of war and rivalry over the control of vital water sources: the Tigris and Euphrates. When they werent battling each other, they had to worry about invading neighbors from the north. It is not surprising that you would come across a ruined fortification in Iraq, as this was most likely an outpost for one of these city-states. Many outposts such as these, which would have been placed several miles from the city for early warning, are still being discovered everyday. Many have yet to be identified for the city they belong to. As was said before, if you can provide some images or a link, we can probably tell you what it was that you saw.