Carchemish

City on the upper Euphrates that commanded the main trade routes from Mesopotamia to the Levant and Anatolia. In the 2nd millennium BC it was the administrative center of Mittani (c.1500-1350 BC), a vassal state dominated by the Hittites (c.1350-1200 BC), and the most powerful of the Neo-Hittite city-states (c.1200- 880 BC). Carchemish later became a vassal of the Neo-Assyrian empire and was annexed by Sargon II in 716 BC. In 605 BC it was the site of a battle with the Babylonians that ended Egypt's power in the Near East.