Manbij

Manbij (Syriac ܡܒܘܓ, Arabic: منبج) is a city in Aleppo Governorate, Syria. The city has a population of nearly 150,000 people. Center of the Manbij Subdistrict of the Manbij district of Aleppo Governorate.

The city is inhabited by Arabs and Circassians.
It was founded near an ancient city of Hierapolis Bambyce in 1879, after the Russo-Turkish War, by a colony of Circassians from Vidin (Widdin). Since then, the city has become known for its archaeological finds.

The place first appears in Greek as Bambyce, but Pliny (v. 23) tells us its Syrian name was Mabog (also Mabbog, Mabbogh). It was doubtless an ancient Commagenian sanctuary; but history records it first under the Seleucids, who made it the chief station on their main road between Antioch and Seleucia on the Tigris; and as a centre of the worship of the Syrian nature goddess, Atargatis, it became known to the Greeks as the city of the sanctuary Ἱερόπολις (Hieropolis), and finally as the Holy City Ἱεράπολις (Hierapolis).
The temple was sacked by Crassus on his way to meet the Parthians (53 BC).

In 2013, the Syrian Army retreated from huge parts of northen Syria, and Manbij was taken by the FSA. In January 2014, the Islamic State seized huge swaths of land in Syria, and forced the FSA to retreat, taking the city.

Manbij was besieged by SDF in june 2016 and fully taken on 12 August 2016.