| abstract
| - Tel Keppe (also spelled Tel Keipeh ܬܠ ܟܦܐ in Syriac; TalKayf or Tel Kaif تل كيف in Arabic), one of the largest Assyrian (Chaldean-rite) towns in Iraq, is located in the Ninawa Governorate, less than 8 miles North East of Mosul (Nineveh) in northern Iraq. Tel Keppe is now considered a suburb of Mosul. Currently only around 5,000 Chaldeans live in it, the majority of the inhabitants being Kurds and Arabs, while an estimated 100,000 Chaldeans who trace their origins to Tel Keppe now live in Baghdad-Iraq, San Diego, California, and Detroit, Michigan. In a publication written 1836 by Claudius James Rich, the town was described as being "wholly inhabited by Assyrians." "Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, and on the Site of Ancient Nineveh", Claudius James Rich 1836 The name "Tel Keppe", is of Aramaic origin and is made of two words; "Tel" which means "hill" and "Keppe" which means "stones" i.e. Hill of Stones. This is probably a reference to its location over a ruined suburb of Nineveh, capital of old Assyria. This may explain why Tel Keppe was rarely referred to as a separate town from Nineveh by the Assyrians. The first mention of the name is at the end of the fifth century BC. (after the fall of Nineveh to the Chaldean-Medes alliance in 612 BC), by Zenfonenus, the Commander of the Greek army's campaign in northern Mesopotamia in 401 BC. Due to the presence of the only cemetery over the hill that make up Tel Keppe, it has been difficult to excavate the Assyrian ruins of this suburb of Nineveh. However, so far what had been able to be excavated is the water irrigation canals that were built by Assyrian King Sennacherib (705- 681 BC) to irrigate the land around Tel Keppe. Also, an excavation by the Iraqi Directorate of Antiquities succeeded in finding vases dating to 2000 years BC, and other items even much older and of a prehistoric time. In addition to that, several old ruins of churches and monasteries dating to early Christianity were found in Tel Keppe. Currently, Tel Keppe has 5 old churches and one large new one. Tel Keppe gained fame in Iraq due to the impressive role played by her children who were the first Chaldeans migrating from northern Iraq to Baghdad around mid 19th century. They were the first Iraqis to use steam ships on the Tigris river, in addition to being the first who introduced the concept of "modern days hotels" in Iraq. Their role in taking the Iraqi society from its backward tribal state into a civil and urban one was striking. Actually, the first Iraqi newspaper dealing with women's issue, that of "Arabian Woman" (Fatat al-Arab), was published by the Tel Keppian, Mariam Narmy, in 1937 at a time when the population of Iraq had no experience with "public women" let alone with a female journalist fighting for women's rights. Tel Keppians chose journalism as their way of educating the rest of the Iraqi population with current political and social issues.
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