HARAN. - A most ancient city of north-western Mesopotamia. It was called Harrānu by the Assyrians, Kāppai by the Greeks, Carrae or Carrhae by the Romans, and H. in the Vulgate. Situated on the river Balīh, it stood at the centre of the great arc described by the Euphrates towards the Mediterranean, a day’s journey south-east of Edessa, in a fertile region where the Assyrian kings liked to go hunting wild beasts and elephants.
The name of H. has a special charm, because it evokes the history of the Patriarchs. Abramo (v.), having come from Ur, lived there for many years before setting out for Canaan (Gen. 11, 3 ff.; 12, 4 ff.); the idyllic episodes of Rebecca and Rachele at the well of H., and the flight of Giacobbe, took place there (Gen. 24, 10; 27, 43; 28, 10; 29, 4).
Owing to its geographical position, it was a great trading centre and junction of important commercial routes coming from Asia Minor, Assyria and Babylonia, Syria and Phoenicia. Significant is the Assyrian name Harrānu, that is, “road,” which was customarily written with a cuneiform sign representing a crossroads. It never exercised great political influence, but owed its splendour to trade and, no less, to its status as a great cultic centre of the moon god Sin, who possessed there the magnificent temple of Ehulhul.
Since no excavations have ever been carried out at the site of H., its history is known only from abundant literary sources. The origins of H. are unknown. In cuneiform documents H. is perhaps already mentioned in the tablets of the Assyrian merchants of Cappadocia (beginning of the