Iraq - Nippur

Located in the Middle Euphrates region of Iraq, in the province of Al-Qadisiyah, the site of Nippur (Nuffar) encompasses a group of archaeological mounds (tells), the largest one 25m high, and the remains of a canal bed (Shatt al-Nil). It extends over 168.4 ha in the Mesopotamian plain and, in Mesopotamian times, the city lay on the Euphrates. Nippur played an important role in the development of the world's earliest civilization. It was the seat of the worship of the Sumerian god Enlil, the 'Lord Wind,' ruler of the cosmos, and the religious centre of Sumer in the 3rd and 2nd millenium BCE. It was a substantial city for its time set on natural and artificial hills and was surrounded by massive walls for protection. The religious nature of Nippur spared it destruction, and although it underwent periodic declines in importance, it rose again because its function as a holy centre was still needed. The site preserves an unparalleled archaeological record spanning more than 6,000 years, from the prehistoric Ubaid period (c. 5,000 BCE) to about 800 CE in the Islamic era, and bears exceptional testimony to the Sumerian, Akkadian and Babylonia cultural traditions.