CARCHEMISH is mentioned in Is. x. 9 among other places in Syria which had been subdued by an Assyrian king, probably Tiglath-pileser. That Carchemish was a strong hold on the Euphrates appears from the title of a prophecy of Jeremiah against Egypt (xlvi. 2) : Against the army of Pharoah-necho, king of Egypt, which lay on the river Euphrates, at Car chemish. and which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon overthrew, in the fourth year of Jehoia kim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah.' Accord ing to 2 Chron. xxxv. 20, Necho had five years before advanced in spite of Josiah, the father of Jehoiakim, against the Babylonians, on the Euphrates, to take Carchemish. These two cir cumstances—the position of Carchemish on the Euphrates, and its being a frontier town, render it probable that the Hebrew name points to a city which the Greeks called Kirkesion, the Latins Circesium, and the Arabs, Kerkesiyeh ; for this too lay on the western bank of the Eu phrates, where it is joined by the Chaboras. It was a large city, and surrounded by strong walls, which, in the time of the Romans, were occasion ally renewed, as this was the remotest outpost of their empire towards the Euphrates, in the direc tion of Persia (Ammian. Marcell. xxiii. 11).—J. K.
Addendum.—At the point where the Khabur (the ancient Chebar) joins the Euphrates, there are large mounds on both banks of the former river, marking the sites of old cities, or perhaps of diffe rent sections of one great city. The mound on the right bank is crowned with a modern Arab village, called Abu Serai, or, as Layard writes it, Abu Psera. It stands on a narrow wedge-shaped plain, in the fork of the two rivers. This corresponds exactly to Procopius' description of Circesium, who says that its fortifications had the form of a triangle at the junction of the Chabur and Euphrates (B. P. ii.) This seems to be the true site of Carchemish.
was visited by Benjamin of Tudela in the twelfth century, who found in it two hundred Jews (Early Travels in Pal., p. 93). It has been recently con jectured that the site of Carchemish was further up the Euphrates, and closer to the borders of north ern Syria. For such a conjecture there seem to he no just grounds. (See Layard's Win. and Bab. 283-286 ; Chesney's Expedition, i.; Bonomi's and Persep., p. 42.)—J. L. P.