Syria GateUmm el-Marra (also Oumm el-Marra and Tall Umm al-Marra), (Arabic: أم المرة), east of modern Aleppo in the Jabbul Plain of Aleppo Governorate Syria, was one of the ancient Near East's oldest cities, located on a crossroads of two trade routes northwest of Ebla, in a landscape that was much more fertile than it is today.