Ancient site · City
Ur (ziggurat and Royal Cemetery)
Also known as Tell el-Muqayyar
A major Sumerian city in southern Iraq, once near the Persian Gulf coast. Leonard Woolley's digs (1922–34) uncovered the Royal Cemetery of about 2600 BCE, where rulers such as Queen Puabi were buried with gold, lyres, the 'Standard of Ur' and dozens of attendants who died with them.
The great ziggurat was built by King Ur-Nammu in the 21st century BCE and restored by Nabonidus about 1,500 years later.
- Dates
- c. 3800–500 BCE; Royal Cemetery c. 2600 BCE; ziggurat 21st century BCE
- Still standing
- Yes
- UNESCO World Heritage
- Yes
- Location
- 30.96° N, 46.10° E
How we know
Ur is named in many cuneiform texts, and its kings left inscriptions on the ziggurat's bricks.
Nearby sites
- Eridu c. 5400–600 BCE
- Uruk (Eanna and the White Temple) c. 5000 BCE – c. 700 CE; Eanna and White Temple c. 3500–3100 BCE
- Etemenanki, the ziggurat of Babylon origins perhaps 18th century BCE; rebuilt 7th–6th century BCE; demolished 323 BCE
- Tower of Babel (legend) Legend; no date can be given
- Babylon c. 2300 BCE – c. 1000 CE; first mentioned c. 2200 BCE
- Susa c. 4200 BCE – 1218 CE