The river Qoueiq (which flows close to the big city of Aleppo) has been important in the history of Syria already in the third millennium BC. Along its valley there are many tells, studied mostly in surveys from the 1970s; some of them are certainly to be dated to the third millennium BC and their name could be present in the Ebla texts. They are not yet identified with ancient cities. Tell Tuqan, on the lake Matkh in which the river disappears, or Tell Hader in the river valley, can likely be identified with NIrar of the Ebla texts.