Nasiriyah, Iraq
Ur of the Chaldees
The Sumerian city Abraham left when the call came.
Biblical significance
Ur was a great Sumerian port city on the Euphrates, dominated by a ziggurat to the moon god Nanna that still stands in restored form. Genesis names it as the home of Terah and Abram, the place abandoned for a promise attached to no map. Excavations by Leonard Woolley in the 1920s uncovered royal tombs, houses and streets from the early second millennium BC, giving an unusually concrete picture of the world the patriarch walked out of.
Scripture
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Best time to go
November to March, when daytime heat is bearable.
Visitor notes
Reached from Nasiriyah, roughly 20 minutes by road; the ziggurat and the so-called House of Abraham are open to visitors with a local guide. Iraqi tourist visas are now issued on arrival for many nationalities, but check current advisories.
Coordinates
30.9626, 46.1031
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