Chalcis (Syria)

Qinnasrin

Arabic: قنسرين‎
Shown within Syria
Location	Syria
Region	Aleppo Governorate
Coordinates	35°59′55″N 36°59′53″E / 35.998611°N 36.998056°E / 35.998611; 36.998056

Qinnasrin (Arabic: قنسرين‎; Syriac: ܩܢܫܪܝܢ‎, Qinnašrīn; meaning "Nest of Eagles"), also known by numerous other romanizations and originally known as Chalcis-on-Belus (Latin: Chalcis ad Belum;Greek: Χαλκὶς, Khalkìs), was a historical town in northern Syria. The town was situated 25 km south west of Aleppo on the west bank of the Queiq River (historically, the Belus) and was connected to Aleppo with a major road during Roman times.

The ruins of Chalcis/Qinnasrin lie north of the modern Syrian village of Al-Iss near Al-Hadher (also written Hadir), the seat of the Hadher Nahiya, Mount Simeon District, Aleppo Governorate.

Chalcis was distinguished from its namesake by its river, the ancient Belus. The river—but not the city—was named for the Semitic god Bel or Baʿal.

The city was a Christian bishopric from an early stage, at first a suffragan of Seleucia Pieria, but later raised to the dignity of autocephalous archdiocese. The names of several of its bishops are known, from that of 3rd-century Tranquillus to that of Probus, who lived at the end of the 6th century and whom Emperor Mauritius Tiberius sent as his envoy to the Persian king Chosroes I. Later it became an important religious and cultural center of Syriac Christianity, gaining fame for its school of theology and monastery until the 10th century.