Brief Description:
Tell al-Muqayyar (ancient Ur) lies near the city of Nasiriyah in the south-western floodplain of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The capital of a small wealthy empire during the third millennium B.C, Ur was fabled as the city of the Sumerian moon god Nanna and the traditional home of the biblical patriarch Abraham (Gen. 12:4-5). The city was also known in the Bible as Ur of the Chaldees. This biblical name refers to the Chaldeans, who settled the area about 900 B.C.

Ur's mounded ruins encompass 1,200 meters northwest to southeast and 800 meters northeast to southwest. They rise to a height of 20 meters above the surrounding plain, although the ruin of the ziggurat (temple tower) on the northwest end of the site rises even higher. A long, broken line of smaller mounds extends more than l,500 meters to the north-northeast.

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Committee

NOTE: The following site is not part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site List.