Mesopotamian cities

Uruk

In its time Uruk was one of the most advanced civilizations in Mesopotamia. From the great mud walls surrounding it to the religion and beliefs inside of the city.

Religion and Beliefs

The beliefs of Uruk people may have started with making a temple for a sky god An and his daughter, Inanna the goddess of love and war(also known as Ishtar) . Inanna later became Uruk's patron goddess. The priests gained donations with food, they also used the temples to hold the food surpluses, earning power and trust.

Another one of the beliefs was the well renowned Gilgamesh story. Gilgamesh was one of the earliest stories, the famous tale started in Uruk (which the hero ruled around 2750 BCE) and told of the great king's adventures.

Inside of The Walls

From the outside of Uruk you see mud-brick walls with mosaics embedded in the walls. But when you come inside a city emerges.

Uruk, one of Mesopotamia's finest cities, hit its peak in population. By 5,000 years ago Uruk held 40,000–50,000 people, and after another few hundred years it reached its peak of 50,000–80,000.

Cuneiform, a type of writing used in ancient Mesopotamia, was used to write hymns and keep records. One of those hymns was known as “The Lady of The Evening” a hymn to Inanna. The lyrics discuss how she's a radiant pleasure and watches down on them from heaven.

Uruk's Downfall and Modern Time Now

Uruk faced it’s downfall when Sargon of Akkad ruled most of Uruk( from 2334–2279 BCE).

We can find the ruins and objects inspired by Mesopotamia near Iran and Iraq. This information can tell us a lot about the climate they lived in and the harsh weather.

People in Uruk put together all the pieces of what we call civilization 5,000 years ago. Kings, Writing, Stories, Hymns, and Songs, The Uruk people knew how to combine these things. Without these discoveries our world we live in would probably be completely altered. (GM)

Ur

Ur was a city-state that was wealthy and powerful. Now Ur is known as Iraq. It was once an Important southern Mesopotamian city-state that attracted many wealthy people. Like almost every Mesopotamian city they were polytheistic which means they worshipped a few major gods and many minor gods, like the god of the tree over there or the god of that well. Ur also had a big graveyard called royal tombs of Ur. The Royal tombs of Ur were excavated by Sir Leonard Wooley and his team in 1922. They found things like the Royal game of Ur which is believed to be were the idea of backgammon came from. any Mesopotamian kings and royal family members were buried in the royal tombs of Ur like Meskiagnuma and A'anepada. Ur is also famous for the Ziggurat of Ur. (a ziggurat is a temple) The Ziggurat of Ur was built in the 2100 B.C.E. but then the ruins crumpled and around 6 bc it was restored. What was left of the Ziggurat of Ur was excavated in the 1920s and the 1930s by Sir Leonard Wooley and his team. The empire of Ur fell around 2,000. bc and the remains of the city-state have gone down in history. (BB)

The Ziggurat of Ur still stands today.

Babylon

Babylon is one of the most famous cities in Mesopotamia. It was the capital of southern Mesopotamia which was called Babylonia from the early 2nd millennium to the early 1st millennium BCE. Though traces of very old settlement do exist, Babylon’s development as a major city did not happen until the 23rd century BCE. After the fall of the 3rd dynasty of Ur it became the nucleus of a small kingdom established in 1894 BCE by the Amorite king Sumuabum. Hammurabi conquered the surrounding city-states and raised Babylon to the capital of a kingdom comprising all of southern Mesopotamia and part of Assyria which is now called northern Iraq. Babylon is the most famous city from ancient Mesopotamia whose ruins lie in modern-day Iraq, 59 miles southwest of Baghdad. Just before 1000 BCE, pressure from Aramean immigrants from northern Syria brought administrative dislocation inside Babylon. After Ashurbanipal’s death, a leader named Nabopolassar, in the year 626 BCE made Babylon the capital of a kingdom that his son Nebuchadrezzar II became a major imperial power in. Babylon was around for 4,000 years which is a long time. (BE)

Nineveh, which is now modern-day Mosul, Iraq, is an amazing ancient city.It was prior known as Ninua. It was a famous trade center and would become one of the biggest cities. It was regarded highly by ancient writers other than those who created the biblical narratives which cast it in a negative light. The first person that mapped Nineveh was Claudius J. Rich in 1820, and was finished and published by Felix Jones. A little bit before and after 3000BCE, unpainted Ninevite pottery was similar to that used at Sumerian sites and they were known as Ninevite V. Later in the 7th century BCE was when a new palace was built by Ashurbanipal in the northwest end of the Acropolis. He also made the first library which had over 20,000 tablets. The subjects are literary, religious, and administrative, and a great many tablets are in the form of letters. Branches of learning represented include mathematics, botany, chemistry, and lexicology. These are great information and will be great for the next generations to come. (AS)

Nineveh

Nimrud

Nimrud on the map is located on the Tigris river, south of Mosul, and north of Iraq. The city remained to have all the buildings, palaces, castles and had the organization of the Assyrion empire until 721-705 BCE. Nimrud came from the biblical name or Nimrod the hunter who settled the dynasty from which the Assyrians gained. Kalahu ( which the Assyrains called themselves ) appears in texts from the 13 century BC. In 1845 CE a archaeologist Austen Henry Layard started an excavation in Nimrud in the northern district of Iraq. His team discovered a civilisation that was long before the first biblical books were written. Before the expeditions people just knew a little bit about Mesopotamian history because they were recorded by greek historians and mentioned in the bible. (AB)

Page updated

Report abuse