The Ancient Cities of Ur and Girsu

3 days ago
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December 6: Ancient Cities of Ur and Girsu

After breakfast, we left Nasiriyah for the ancient city of Ur - about an hour drive west/southwest of Nasiriyah. Surrounded by desert, Ur’s main attraction, the Ziggurat, stood out on approach. What also stood out was the lack of tourists. Our “local guide” was a gentleman whose family legacy goes back to the discovery of the Ziggurat 100 years ago. His great grandfather worked on the excavation under the direction of the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum in the 1920s. The men in his family have been working on the site since then. In 2016 it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Ur was a Sumerian City-State founded around 3800 BCE and abandoned around 500 BCE due to drought and the shift of the Euphrates River. Archaeologists have discovered evidence of occupation dating back to the Ubaid period (5500-3700 BCE). Once on the shore of the Euphrates River, the area was a rich agricultural area.

The Ziggurat is largely restored. Built in the 21^st century BCE, it has 4 sides with 3 main staircases to the first 2 levels. The third level contained the temple to the Moon Goddess Nanna which no longer exsits. Our guide pointed out that tablets were found that explained how it was built and by who – the then king of Ur, Ur-Nammu. He explained that the holes in the walls allowed water to drain from the soil fill and allowed air to dry it out.

The site included the “Law Building” which once contained tablets with the earliest known legal code – the Code of Ur-Nammu. The building is in poor repair but claims to have the first known arch way. The Kings Palace is partially excavated and fenced off as is the royal cemetery. Tablets, or bricks in the walls were often inscribed with information about the king and the building. You can see the remnants of bitumen, a tar like substance used as mortar.

Abraham’s house has also been partially renovated. It isn’t the actual house Abraham lived in, but is named such because, according to the Bible, Abraham was born in Ur. While exploring the house, we met a group Iraqi of teachers also visiting Ur. They were very excited to meet Westerners. My very little bit of Arabic and that I had been a teacher thrilled them and they formed a bit of an entourage! One gentleman went into detail of being retired, a widower, and his financial status. Before he could propose, I gently pointed out I was there with zawji – my husband.

We headed back to Nasiriyah and, due the 2-hour drive to Girsu, we would grab a quick lunch at the Iraqi version of a fast-food restaurant - Food Land. Lunch choices consisted mainly of burgers and pizza.

Food Land - an Iraqi fast-food restaurant

From Nasiriya our drive north was on a highway in varying degrees of construction and required passing through several check-points, both provisional and city. When we exited the main road into the desert, we were greeted by an official escort with an open back truck. Our tour company had to arrange special permission for us to enter this site and photograph as it is an active dig site between British and Iraqi archaeologists. We parked the van and climbed into the back of the truck for a dusty and bumpy ride to the site.

Girsu, also known as Tello, is also a Sumerian city flourished between 2900-2300 BCE, though it too contains evidence of occupation dating back 5,000 years. In 1877 a French diplomat excavated it for the Louvre Museum. The dig area we visited was believed to be a printing house. Thousands of tablets with all kinds of information are found here. In addition to a few tablets that added to the Epic Poem Gilgamesh, tablets appear to have been used to spread news and information throughout the kingdom. There were stacks of tablets everywhere! The ground we walked on contained shards of broken pottery and tablets.

Back into the truck, we headed to another section of the site to see the Bridge of Girsu. Built around 3,000 BCE, it is the world’s oldest bridge. Archaeologists are amazed at its engineering and how the Sumerians used it to control the flow of the river. It is currently being restored by a team of British and Iraqi archaeologists. Like Ur, the area was abandoned when the river changed its course and could no longer sustain the city inhabitants.

We were visiting the cradle of civilization - areas where city-states, writing (cuneiform), the wheel, and other inventions changed the world. And looking around, we could see there was so much more to be discovered here.

Land littered with pottery & tablet shards, hills still holding secrets...

We headed back to Nasiriyah hoping to have time to explore the city’s souk. After an hour’s drive we found ourselves stuck in another ½ hour of traffic trying to get into the market. Our driver dropped us off and we made a short excursion into the souk where we were treated to some sweets and found an electronics shop where several of us could purchase portable batteries to recharge our phones. Photographing on long days like today drained our phones. We wanted inexpensive ones as we would not be allowed to leave the country with them.