Ancient city, now in Syria.
Its remains lie northeast of Aleppo . As a centre of the worship of the Syrian goddess Atargatis , it became known to the Greeks as the Holy City (Hierapolis). One of the great cities of Syria in the 3rd century AD, it thereafter declined. The ʽAbbāsid caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd restored it at the end of the 8th century. Captured by Crusaders in the 12th century but reclaimed by Saladin in 1175, it later became the headquarters of the Mongol s, who completed its ruin.