Ur

Ur was a Sumerian city-state in southern Mesopotamia, its remains at Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate, about 16 kilometers southwest of Nasiriyah. Though it once stood near the Persian Gulf coast, centuries of river silting and erosion have left the site well inland on the Euphrates. Settlement began around 3800 BC, and Ur rose to prominence as a city-state from the 26th century BC under King Mesannepada, remaining occupied until roughly 500 BC. Its most conspicuous ruin is the Ziggurat of Ur, a stepped temple platform raised in the 21st century BC by Ur-Nammu in honor of the moon god Nanna and later restored by the Neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus in the 6th century BC. Excavations between 1922 and 1934 uncovered roughly 1,850 burials in the city's cemetery, including sixteen unusually rich royal tombs of about 2500 BC that yielded grave goods such as the Standard of Ur and evidence of long-distance trade.