A large for­ti­fied city under the influ­ence of the Parthi­an Empire and cap­i­tal of the first Arab King­dom, Hatra with­stood inva­sions by the Romans in A.D. 116 and 198 thanks to its high, thick walls rein­forced by tow­ers. The remains of the city, espe­cial­ly the tem­ples where Hel­lenis­tic and Roman archi­tec­ture blend with East­ern dec­o­ra­tive fea­tures, attest to the great­ness of its civ­i­liza­tion.