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Coalition protecting ancient site of Ur

Oct- 4-2004 » Filed Under: Iraq News

The following article is another reminder of the tremendous history of Iraq.

[Link to Article] (Photos included)
By Spc. Crista Birmingham

UR, Iraq (Army News Service, Oct. 1, 2004) –The coalition is preserving both the old and new at southern Iraq’s ancient city of Ur.

Now the site of Tallil Army Air Base, Ur was the birthplace of Abraham, revered as a patriarch in the Bible, Torah and Koran. Ur was also an ancient royal burial site and boasts the Ziggurat of Nanna, a monument to the ancient Sumerian moon god.

When first conceived more than 6,000 years ago, the pyramid-like structure of the Ziggarut, and its surrounding city, stood at the banks of the Euphrates River. Today, the river has since shifted several miles to the east.

Ur is located southeast of Baghdad, about halfway between Iraq’s capital and the Persian Gulf.

Coalition military personnel stationed at Tallil Army Air Base are some of Ur’s latest pilgrims. Every morning, tours of the site are provided to Italian, Romanian, American and other coalition forces by Dhaif Muhsen.

“I meet the world here, and this ancient city is important to the world,” said Muhsen, third-generation caretaker of Ur. “It is a holy ground for all religions,” he said, explaining that Islam, Christianity and Judaism all revere the site.

“My father did this before me, and my father’s father did this before him,” Muhsen said.

In 1922, Muhsen’s grandfather began the family tradition of orally relating the history of the site. His son, only two months old, is expected to continue the tradition.

The site was originally excavated by an initiative of the British consulate in 1855, then fully excavated by a 400-man team headed by Sir Edward Wooley from 1922 to 1934.

“Behind the royal tomb is the house of the prophet Abraham,” Muhsen said.

The bricks of Abraham’s house were reinforced in 1999 for a visit from the Pope. Visitors can walk through the arches of the original prophet’s birth place and see evidence of ancient plumbing and stairs.

Some of the more famous artifacts excavated from the tombs between Abraham’s home and the ziggarut include the Golden Harp and Silver Canoe. All artifacts have been shipped to museums, but those touring today can experience the site’s more permanent architectural features. Excavations showed that by the third millennium B.C., Sumerian architects were acquainted with the column, arch, vault and dome. Certain bricks, though weather-worn by the centuries, still exhibit carvings of ancient wedge-shaped characters, used in Sumerian writing, known as cuneiform.

Plans today are to excavate an entrance to the city.

“I do this to the benefit of Iraq,” Muhsen said. He weaves between hills formed completely of ancient pottery shards, taking tourists down into the depths of certain tombs, pointing out the better bricks with ancient evidence of cuneiform, and ends the tour with the house of Abraham.

Unfortunately, Muhsen said, not many Iraqis visit now, since it is past the checkpoints for Tallil.

“Not many Iraqis could visit with Saddam. But plans to allow Iraqis to visit are being set up for the future.”

A monument of endurance, the Ziggarut of Nanna is the best preserved ziggarut of the 25 remaining in the world today. Ur’s bricks have withstood thousands of years and thousands of wars.


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