Wikipedia's first sentence called it “ancient town along the western bank of the euphrates river that would now lie in modern syria or turkey”. Today it says “ancient town along the western bank of the euphrates river that would now lie in modern syria”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
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The opening as it read in 2025
Thapsacus ( Ancient Greek : Θάψακος , romanized : Thapsakos ; Hebrew : תִּפְסַח Tipsah ) was an ancient town along the western bank of the Euphrates river that would now lie in modern Syria . Thapsacus was the Greek and Roman name for the town. The town was important and prosperous due to its river crossing, which allowed east-west land traffic to pass through it. Its precise location is unknown and there are several different locations identified as the site of Thapsacus. One possibility is a location close to Carchemish , which now lies in Turkey, on its border with Syria. Karkamış and Jarabulus are the closest modern towns in Turkey and Syria respectively. More recently it has been suggested that Thapsacus was renamed to Seleucia at the Zeugma , which lies further upstream on the Euphrates.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1279891994.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Thapsacus (Hebrew: Tiphsah [תִּפְסַח]), meaning ford or passage) was an ancient town along the western bank of the Euphrates river that would now lie in modern Syria or Turkey . Thapsacus was the Greek and Roman name for the town. The town was important and prosperous due to its river crossing, which allowed east-west land traffic to pass through it.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 362059812.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Thapsacus ( ; Tipsah ) was an ancient town along the western bank of the Euphrates river that would now lie in modern Syria or Turkey . Thapsacus was the Greek and Roman name for the town. The town was important and prosperous due to its river crossing, which allowed east-west land traffic to pass through it. Its precise location is unknown and there are several different locations identified as the site of Thapsacus.One possibility is a location close to Carchemish , which now lies in Turkey, on its border with Syria.Karkamış and Jarabulus are the closest modern towns in Turkey and Syria respectively.More recently it has been suggested that Thapsacus was renamed to Seleucia at the Zeugma , which lies further upstream on the Euphrates.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 664364967.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Thapsacus ( ; Tipsah ) was an ancient town along the western bank of the Euphrates river that would now lie in modern Syria . Thapsacus was the Greek and Roman name for the town. The town was important and prosperous due to its river crossing, which allowed east-west land traffic to pass through it. Its precise location is unknown and there are several different locations identified as the site of Thapsacus. One possibility is a location close to Carchemish , which now lies in Turkey, on its border with Syria. Karkamış and Jarabulus are the closest modern towns in Turkey and Syria respectively. More recently it has been suggested that Thapsacus was renamed to Seleucia at the Zeugma , which lies further upstream on the Euphrates.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 943125298.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “ancient town along the western bank of the euphrates river that would now lie in modern syria or turkey”. Today it says “ancient town along the western bank of the euphrates river that would now lie in modern syria”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
ancient town along the western bank of the euphrates river that would now lie in modern syria or turkey
Now
ancient town along the western bank of the euphrates river that would now lie in modern syria
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
