From the Enc. Brittanica Under the heading Dayr az-Zawr): also spelled Deir Ez-zor, town, eastern Syria. The town is situated on the right bank of the Euphrates River; its name, meaning “monastery of the grove” (zawr, “tamarisk”), is probably derived from the ancient city of Auzara, or Azuara, situated nearby. The Ottomans built the present town in 1867 to curb the nomads of the Euphrates area. Under the Ottomans it was the capital of an administrative region, the seat of the governor, and the site of outposts policing the surrounding country. Occupied by the British after the Ottoman retreat in 1918, Dayr az-Zawr was then taken by Fayṣal I (son of Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, king of Hejaz) for a short time before the French occupation began in 1921. In 1941 it was captured by a British force to prevent Syria and Lebanon from falling to Axis troops, and in 1946 the town became part of the Republic of Syria. Dayr az-Zawr is the principal trade centre of the Aleppo–Mosul and Damascus–Mosul roads and is also on several cross-desert routes.

I went here mainly to stop over on the way from Aleppo to Palmyra. The weather was poorly, hence somewhat bleak pictures, some of the museum (worth a visit, I soon found photography was forbidden), several from the bridge spanning the Euphrates and some of the souq. I liked the town and would have liked to stay for another day, but my schedule was tight.