Ancient City of Ur

The ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur was off limits during Saddam Hussein’s regime, as its ziggurat offered a perfect vantage point onto the nearby Iraqi Air Force base.  It also briefly served as a hiding place for buried fighter jets.

The history of Ur stretches back to approximately 3800 BCE, back when the higher water table made for a more lush and inviting atmosphere.  Ur was a rich and powerful city, drawing imports from around the ancient world such as lapis lazuli from Afghanistan.

Around four thousand years ago, Sumerian King Ur-Nammu ordered the building of a ziggurat to honor Nanna.  The brick structure visible today is a partial excavation, partial reconstruction of that massive project, which used to house a temple to Nammu at its top.  The city thrived for approximately fifteen hundred years more, then began to declie around 500 BCE, perhaps due in part to a dropping water table and silted river harbors.  The site remained lost until excavations in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Debate swirls among historians and archaeologists as to whether this Ur is the same as Ur Kasdim, reputed to be the birthplace of the Old Testament patriarch Abraham.  That didn’t stop Saddam Hussein from ordering a questionable “reconstruction” of Abraham’s house on the outskirts of the city.  Intended to impress Pope John Paul II, Saddam’s vision brought rounded walls and triangular rooms to a city known for its strict adherence to rectangular architecture.  Sadly, the Pope never got to see it, as his trip to Iraq never materialized.

Visitors to the ziggurat who see pocked-marked walls around its base might wonder whether this area saw fighting in either of the two US-led invasions of Iraq.  However, the damage was actually caused by another of Saddam’s failed gambles.  Since the ziggurat was a protected cultural resource, he felt confident that he could either protect his MiG fighter jets by parking them next to the ziggurat – or could blame the United States for bombing a historic site if the planes were bombed.  The gamble did not pay off, as the United States destroyed the jets with only minor damage to the ziggurat’s reconstructed facade, then publicized this and several other instances where Saddam had defied cultural protection treaties by using historic sites to shield military equipment.