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224 places in the atlas, 27 of them inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Early Dynastic to Hellenistic (c.3000 BCE–100 BCE) · Sumerian → Akkadian → Babylonian → Hellenistic
Cutha (Tell Ibrahim, ancient Kutha/Gudua) is the Nergal cult centre on the Euphrates branch northeast of Babylon, famed in legend as 'Cutha of the Legend of Ner...
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Ubaid to Islamic · Sumerian → Akkadian → Babylonian → Kassite
Holy city of Sumer and Akkad, seat of Enlil (Lord Air) whose Ekur temple gave legitimacy to kingship — 'king without Nippur is no king'.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Early Historic (regional) · Early Historic
Royal Eridu Hilltop South — Eridu (53-34) at Eridu, Iraq is a Early Historic (regional) ancient city of the Early Historic tradition, built c. 400 BCE for hilltop and associated settlement.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Early Dynastic to Neo-Assyrian to Parthian · Assyrian (Akkadian dialect)
First capital and holy city of Assyria (c.2600 BCE–614 BCE, 70 ha on Tigris bend) — temple of god Assur (Ashur) whose city and god name are one.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Neolithic Hassuna-Samarra (c.6000–5600 BCE) · Hassuna
Type site 1939–44 excavation by Seton Lloyd that defined the Hassuna painted pottery tradition of northern Iraq.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Medieval (regional) · Medieval
Western Eridu Mound I — Eridu (53-37) at Eridu, Iraq is a Medieval (regional) ancient city of the Medieval tradition, built c. 1800 BCE for mound and associated settlement.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Temple complex
Late Uruk to Akkadian (c.3400–2200 BCE; temple peak ED II–III 2750–2350 BCE) · Uruk → Jemdet Nasr → Early Dynastic Sumerian (Diyala) → Akkadian
Oval Shara Temple with ED votive hoard and earliest saw-tooth niche architecture.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Jemdet Nasr to Early Dynastic IIIa (c.3000–2500 BCE) · Early Dynastic Sumerian
Canoe-shaped Sumerian city Tell Fara 35 miles S of Nippur, legendary home of Ziusudra (Utnapishtim).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Early Dynastic to Old Babylonian (c.2900–1700 BCE; peak Lagash–Umma border war 2500–2350 BCE) · Sumerian (Umma ensi dynasty) → Akkadian → Ur III → Isin-Larsa
Lagash's blood-enemy with Stele-of-Vultures war archive and 20,000 Ur III tablets of a date-palm oligarchy.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Jemdet Nasr to Early Dynastic / Ur III abandonment · Early Dynastic Sumerian
Early Dynastic city-state (c.3000–2300 BCE) famed as home of Utnapishtim/Ziusudra, survivor of the Flood in Gilgamesh and Sumerian Flood story ('Instructions of Shuruppak' wisdom text).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Ubaid to Neo-Babylonian · Ubaid → Sumerian → Babylonian
Sumerian sacred city traditionally first city in the world (Sumerian King List), center of god Enki/Ea cult (Abzu).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Early Dynastic to Ur III (c.3500–2000 BCE; peak Lagash 2500–2144 BCE) · Sumerian Lagash (ÉNSI rulers: Ur-Nanshe, Eannatum, Enmetena, Gudea)
Girsu (modern Tello/Telloh) is the sacred city of Lagash state — first Sumerian city ever excavated (1877) yielding Gudea diorite statues, Gudea cylinders (worl...
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Old Babylonian to Hellenistic (c.2000–100 BCE; peak Neo-Babylonian 626–539) · Amorite → Kassite → Neo-Babylonian (Nabu cult)
Borsippa (modern Birs Nimrud) is the sister city of Babylon 17 km south, cult centre of Nabu (scribal god) with the Ezida temple and 70-m ruined ziggurat (most...
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Neolithic–Iron Age (c.6100–600 BCE) plus later · Halaf → Ubaid → Ninevite 5 → ED–Akkadian → Mittanian–Assyrian
Sinjar plain megamound 80 ha (Halaf–Assyrian 6k yr sequence, 25 m high) near Tel Afar.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Early Dynastic–Old Babylonian (c.2700–1700 BCE) · Sumerian → Amorite Kisurra kingdom
Twin mound Abu Hatab (Kisurra) in the Euphrates back-marshes: Isin-Larsa era kingdom squeezed between Isin and Larsa, palatial archives (EB Kisurra texts), and ED IIIb votive stone of King Ibaya.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Neolithic Samarra (c.6300–5700 BCE) · Samarra → Ubaid
Ditch-moat village with 130 intramural graves: 130 adult Samarra graves beneath floors yielding alabaster “Sawwan” women – elongated skulls, bitumen-banded eyes – the largest Samarra figurine corpus.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Old Babylonian–Old Assyrian (c.1900–1700 BCE) to Middle Assyrian · Upper Mesopotamian Old Babylonian kingdom of Karana / Qattara
Upper Jazira fortified court city Karana (Tell al-Rimah) with massive temple Zigg followed by a double palace discovered by David Oates: palace with wall paintings, archive of 600 OB letters (Qattara…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Early Bronze to Neo-Babylonian (c.3000–539 BCE) · Sumerian → Akkadian → OB → Kassite → NB
Dilbat (Tell al-Deylam, ancient Dulbat) is a 30-ha Sumerian town 30 km south of Babylon on the Arahtu canal, centre of the grain-goddess Uraš and later Nabu of...
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Late Uruk to Old Babylonian (c.3300–1700 BCE; peak ED IIIa and Ur III 2600–2000 BCE) · Uruk → Jemdet Nasr → Early Dynastic → Akkadian → Ur III → Isin-Larsa
Pre-Sargonic scribal city of Ninhursag with earliest school tablets and ED drainage galleries.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Neo-Assyrian (883–612 BCE imperial capital; ziggurat 883 BCE) · Assyrian (Neo-Assyrian)
Assyrian imperial second capital Kalhu/Nimrud (Assurnasirpal II 883–859 BCE): mudbrick ziggurat crowning citadel mound adjacent to Northwest Palace with famous Nimrud ivories, throne room and lamassu.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Old Babylonian to Neo-Babylonian and Hellenistic (1894 BCE–141 BCE; monumental peak Nebuchadnezzar II 604–562 BCE) · Babylonian / Assyrian / Persian / Hellenistic
Capital of Babylonian empire (1894 BCE–539 BCE) on Euphrates, Babylon at its greatest under Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar II (604–562 BCE): Processional Way, Ishtar Gate (glazed brick dragons and…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Neolithic to Abbasid (6000 BCE–present; Assyrian capital 705–612 BCE) · Assyrian / Babylonian / Persian / Hellenistic / Parthian
Great Assyrian capital under Sennacherib (705–681 BCE) extended by Ashurbanipal (668–630 BCE), Nineveh at fall (612 BCE) was world's largest city (~15 km walls, 100,000 inhabitants).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Kassite (Middle Babylonian) c. 1375–1155 BCE · Kassite Babylonian
Kassite capital Dur-Kurigalzu built by Kurigalzu I (c. 1375 BCE): enormous ziggurat to Enlil, still 57 m high (originally ~69 m) with rope reinforcement layers (reed mats) visible, highest surviving…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Late Bronze–Neo-Assyrian (c.1500–600 BCE) · Mitanni → Middle/Neo-Assyrian
Small but archive-rich tell 20 km N of Nineveh: Mitanni layer produced Nuzi-type tablets, Middle Assyrian governor’s correspondence (14 c. tablets) and Neo-Assyrian granaries. E.
