Deir ez-Zor
— a river city the desert keeps approaching.
Not only on a wall.
“The largest city on the middle Euphrates, set where the river slows and broadens before the Iraqi border. Long the desert capital of eastern Syria, home to a once-famed suspension bridge over the river and to an Armenian memorial church on the south bank. The years of war reshaped the skyline; the river kept its course, and the date palms still line the corniche on the western shore.
Deir ez-Zor, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Deir ez-Zor sits on the Euphrates River in eastern Syria, about 450 km northeast of Damascus and 140 km from the Iraqi border. The city is the capital of Deir ez-Zor Governorate and historically the largest urban centre on the middle Euphrates, with a pre-war population of roughly 240,000. The river divides the city, with the historic core on the south bank and the newer districts and the Joura quarter on the north. The surrounding land is steppe and irrigated farmland, with the Syrian Desert opening south and east.
The Euphrates carries Deir ez-Zor's water, its trees, and most of its history. By the time the river reaches the city it has crossed about 1,200 km from its Turkish headwaters and broadened to several hundred metres across. A pedestrian suspension bridge built by French engineers in 1927, long the city's symbol, spanned the river until it collapsed under shelling in 2013. The corniche on the western shore still holds the date palms and the tea stalls, and the river itself runs as it always has.
Travel to Deir ez-Zor remains constrained. The city saw heavy fighting between 2012 and 2017 and continues to lie in a region with significant safety and access concerns; most foreign governments advise against non-essential travel to eastern Syria. The Armenian Genocide Memorial Church, consecrated in 1990 to mark the deportations of 1915 and 1916, was destroyed by ISIS in September 2014 and has since been the subject of reconstruction efforts. Visitors with cause to come typically arrive overland from Damascus or via the road from Palmyra.