Landmark Asia
Ur
Ur was one of the world's first cities, in what is now Iraq. Its people built houses and a giant stepped tower from bricks. Today its ruins stand in the desert.
Ur was a great city of Sumer, in the south of what is now Iraq, founded more than 5,000 years ago. Twice it was the capital of an empire. Archaeologists found royal tombs full of gold treasures, streets of brick houses and a huge stepped temple tower called a ziggurat. When the Euphrates River moved away, the fields dried up and the city was abandoned.
Ur, founded in the 4th millennium BCE in the marshy delta of the Tigris and Euphrates, was capital of southern Mesopotamia under its 1st Dynasty (25th century BCE) and of an empire under the 3rd (22nd to 21st centuries BCE). Excavated by Leonard Woolley from 1922 to 1934, it is part of UNESCO's Ahwar of Southern Iraq (2016).
Photo: M.Lubinski from Iraq,USA., CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover Ur
Ur is in Iraq, a country in Asia.
Long, long ago, it was a busy city. Now it is ruins in a dry, flat desert. You can still see brick walls and a giant stepped tower.
Ur is an ancient city in the south of Iraq, in the region historians call Sumer, one of the places where the world's first cities grew. It lies about 225 kilometers southeast of Babylon and about 16 kilometers from the Euphrates River.
Long ago, the river flowed much closer, and the land around Ur was watered and green. When the river changed its course, the fields turned to desert. Today you can walk among the brick walls of ancient houses, with the great ziggurat, a stepped temple tower, rising behind them.
Britannica places Ur in ancient southern Mesopotamia (Sumer), about 225 km (140 miles) southeast of Babylon and about 16 km (10 miles) west of the present bed of the Euphrates, which once ran much closer; the shift left the ruins in a desert that had been irrigated farmland.
UNESCO includes Ur, with Uruk and Eridu, in the Ahwar of Southern Iraq, inscribed in 2016. It describes the three as Sumerian cities that grew between the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE on the margins of freshwater marshes in the delta of the Tigris and Euphrates, where writing, monumental mudbrick temples and ziggurats, and complex societies emerged. Their ruins now stand, dominated by ziggurats, on a dried-out plain.
- Where
- Southern Iraq, about 225 km southeast of Babylon
- Founded
- 4th millennium BCE
- Excavated
- 1922 to 1934, led by Leonard Woolley
- World Heritage Site
- 2016, in the Ahwar of Southern Iraq
Rise and fall of a great city
Farmers started Ur long ago.
It grew into a rich city with kings. Twice it ruled a big empire. Much later, the river moved away. With no water for the fields, people left.
Farmers settled at Ur sometime between 4000 and 3000 BCE. In the 25th century BCE, about 4,500 years ago, its kings ruled the whole of southern Mesopotamia. Later, around 2100 BCE, Ur became the capital of an empire again, under a family of kings historians call the 3rd Dynasty of Ur.
Ur was sacked by the Elamites, but it stayed an important trading city. Boats sailed by river and canal to the Persian Gulf, and its merchants traded with Dilmun, today's Bahrain. People lived there until about 2,300 years ago. Then the Euphrates probably shifted, the irrigation canals failed, and the city was abandoned.
Britannica dates the founding to the 4th millennium BCE, by farming settlers thought to have come from northern Mesopotamia. Under the 1st Dynasty of Ur (25th century BCE) the city ruled all of southern Mesopotamia; a foundation tablet from a temple at nearby al-Ubaid proved that this dynasty, known from Sumerian king lists but dismissed by modern scholars, was historical. Under the 3rd Dynasty (22nd to 21st centuries BCE) Ur again headed an empire, until the Elamites sacked it.
Restored by the kings of Isin and Larsa, Ur kept its commercial importance: with river and canal access to the Persian Gulf it was a center of foreign trade, its 'sea kings' carrying exports to Dilmun (Bahrain) for copper and ivory, and Indus-type seals show indirect links with India. Nebuchadrezzar II (605 to 562 BCE) practically rebuilt the city and Nabonidus remodeled the ziggurat to seven stages; Cyrus the Great was the last king to build there. The last tablet dates to 317 BCE; perhaps then the Euphrates shifted, and Ur was abandoned.
Houses, streets and clever builders
The people of Ur built with bricks made of mud.
Some bricks were baked hard in fire. Families lived in houses with two floors. There were rooms for guests and helpers too.
Ur's builders used mud bricks, and for the outside of the ziggurat, bricks baked hard by fire. Archaeologists found that more than 4,000 years ago, the builders of Sumer already knew how to make columns, arches, vaults and domes, the basic shapes of buildings still used today.
In the part of the city where ordinary families lived, about 3,800 years ago, houses were comfortable and well built, with two floors and rooms for the family, servants and guests. Their plan kept the home private and suited the hot climate. Hundreds of clay tablets found in these houses record how trade was organized.
Woolley's excavations showed that by the 3rd millennium BCE Sumerian architects knew the column, the arch, the vault and the dome, all the basic forms of architecture. Large areas of the residential quarter were cleared: in the Larsa period and under Hammurabi of Babylon (about the 18th century BCE), private citizens lived in comfortable, well-built two-story houses with space for family, servants and guests, designed for privacy and the climate.
Many hundreds of clay tablets from these houses document how foreign trade was organized. UNESCO adds that Ur's main harbor, outside the World Heritage boundary, has yet to be excavated, and that traces of the old marsh landscape, with dry waterways, canal beds and mounds that were once islets, survive in the city's topography.
Royal treasures and the ziggurat
Archaeologists found treasure in Ur's royal tombs.
There were things made of gold and silver, and musical instruments. The city's giant tower is called a ziggurat. Long staircases climb up its front.
In a huge cemetery from about 4,600 years ago, archaeologists found royal tombs packed with treasures of gold, silver, bronze and precious stones. There were musical instruments, carved shell plaques and pictures made of mosaic. They showed how rich and skilled the people of Ur were.
The ziggurat is a solid tower of mud brick covered with baked bricks, built in steps like a pyramid. King Ur-Nammu began it about 4,100 years ago. Its bottom level is about 64 by 46 meters, and three great staircases of 100 steps each lead up its front. The ziggurat has its own page.
The royal cemetery of the 26th century BCE yielded what Britannica calls almost incredible treasures in gold, silver, bronze and semiprecious stones: musical instruments, engraved shell plaques, mosaic pictures, statuary and carved cylinder seals, revealing a civilization previously unknown to historians.
The ziggurat of the 3rd Dynasty, begun by Ur-Nammu, is a solid mass of mud brick faced with burnt brick set in bitumen, its lowest stage about 64 by 46 m and about 12 m high, with three staircases of 100 steps on the northeast face converging at a gateway. Its walls slope inward and are slightly convex, with not one straight line: an early use of entasis, the subtle curving later used by the builders of the Parthenon. The ziggurat has its own page.
- Royal tombs
- 26th century BCE
- Ziggurat's base
- about 64 by 46 m
- Height of its lowest level
- about 12 m
From marsh city to desert ruin
Long ago, Ur was near wet, green marshes.
Slowly, the water went away. The land became a hot, dry desert. Now people protect the ruins so we can learn about the first cities.
When Ur was young, the sea reached much farther inland, and freshwater marshes surrounded the cities of Sumer. After about 2000 BCE, the sea moved back south, the climate became drier and the marshes dried up. The great cities of southern Mesopotamia slowly declined.
In 2016 UNESCO listed Ur, with the old cities of Uruk and Eridu and four marsh areas that still exist, as a World Heritage Site called the Ahwar of Southern Iraq. Together they show how water shaped where the first cities grew and why they faded.
UNESCO explains the landscape: between 5000 and 3000 BC the sea reached about 200 km inland of today's coastline, with marshes beyond, and the first cities rose on their margins. From about 2000 BC the sea retreated south, the climate grew more arid, and the drying of the marshes contributed to the decline of the great southern cities.
The 2016 serial property pairs Ur, Uruk and Tell Eridu with four surviving wetland areas of the Iraqi Marshlands, one of the world's largest inland delta systems, under criteria (iii), (v), (ix) and (x). UNESCO notes that the boundary might later be extended to include Ur's unexcavated main harbor.
Amazing facts
-
The ziggurat's walls have no straight lines!
Every wall of the ziggurat curves very slightly outward, so the tower looks strong. There is not a single straight line in it.
Each ziggurat wall is a barely visible convex curve, an early use of entasis, later rediscovered by the builders of the Parthenon.
-
Ur's builders knew how to make arches and domes long ago.
More than 4,000 years ago, the builders of Sumer already knew how to make columns, arches, vaults and domes.
The Ur excavations showed that by the 3rd millennium BCE Sumerian architects knew the column, arch, vault and dome.
-
The river that fed Ur moved away.
The Euphrates now flows about 16 kilometers from Ur. When it moved, the city's fields turned into desert.
The Euphrates' shift, perhaps around the late 4th century BCE, and the collapse of irrigation left Ur's fields as desert.
-
Ur's old harbor has not been dug up yet.
Ur's main harbor has never been excavated, and UNESCO may add it to the World Heritage Site one day.
Ur's main harbor lies outside the property boundary, unexcavated; UNESCO notes the boundary might be extended to include it.
Words to know
- ziggurat
- a huge stepped tower of brick built in ancient Mesopotamia
- Sumer
- the land of the earliest cities, in what is now southern Iraq
- Mesopotamia
- the ancient land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
- mud brick
- a brick made of mud and dried in the sun
- dynasty
- a series of rulers from the same family
- marsh
- low, wet land that is often flooded with water
Discovery challenge
-
What is the giant stepped tower at Ur called?
What is the name for Ur's huge stepped brick tower?
What kind of monument did Ur-Nammu begin at Ur?
- A ziggurat
- A castle
- A lighthouse
Show the answer
A ziggurat
A ziggurat! It has big steps like a giant staircase.
A ziggurat, a solid tower of mud brick covered with baked bricks.
A ziggurat, about 64 by 46 m at its base, with three 100-step stairways.
-
What did people of Ur build with?
What were the buildings of Ur mostly made of?
What material formed the solid core of the ziggurat?
- Bricks
- Wood
- Ice
Show the answer
Bricks
Bricks! Some were baked hard in fire.
Bricks: mud bricks, and baked bricks for the strongest walls.
Mud brick, faced with burnt brick set in bitumen.
-
Why did people leave Ur?
Why was Ur finally abandoned?
What change probably ended life at Ur after the 4th century BCE?
- The river moved and the fields dried up
- It snowed too much
- A volcano erupted
Show the answer
The river moved and the fields dried up
The river moved away, and the fields dried up.
The Euphrates changed its course, the canals failed and the fields became desert.
The Euphrates probably shifted and the irrigation system broke down, leaving the fields as desert.
-
What did archaeologists find in Ur's royal tombs?
What was found in Ur's royal tombs?
What did the 26th-century BCE royal cemetery yield?
- Treasures of gold and silver
- Dinosaur bones
- Cars
Show the answer
Treasures of gold and silver
Treasure! Gold, silver and musical instruments.
Treasures of gold, silver, bronze and precious stones, with musical instruments and mosaics.
Gold, silver, bronze and semiprecious-stone treasures, instruments, shell plaques, mosaics, statuary and cylinder seals.
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Nineveh
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Locate Ur in southern Iraq and explain why rivers and marshes mattered to the first cities.
- Describe what archaeologists found at Ur: houses, royal tombs and the ziggurat.
- Explain how a change in a river's course can end a city.
- Recognize that Sumerian builders already used columns, arches, vaults and domes.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Ur was abandoned when its river moved and its fields dried up. What does your town depend on to survive?
- Why do you think people built a huge stepped tower in the middle of their city?
- Clay tablets tell us how people traded 4,000 years ago. What records of our lives might archaeologists find in the future?
Try at home or in class
- Build a ziggurat from three shoeboxes of different sizes stacked like steps, with a paper staircase up the front.
- Make small mud bricks from soil, sand and water in an ice-cube tray, dry them in the sun and test how strong they are.
Key vocabulary: ziggurat, Sumer, Mesopotamia, mud brick, dynasty, marsh
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- UNESCO World Heritage List , UNESCO World Heritage Centre (Linked as a reference; site facts come from Wikidata)
- Ur , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The Ahwar of Southern Iraq: Refuge of Biodiversity and the Relict Landscape of the Mesopotamian Cities , UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 27, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.