🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Muṣaṣir (Mudjesir)
Iron Age (1000–714 BCE) · Hurro-Urartian
Iron Age (1000–714 BCE) ancient-city of Hurro-Urartian in Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Sidekan (c.1000 BCE).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Nippur
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
Assur
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 · Ancient city
Girsu (Tello)
Ubaid to Old Babylonian (c.5000–1700 BCE; peak ED IIIb–Lagash II) · Ubaid → Sumerian (Lagash) → Akkadian → Ur III → Isin-Larsa → Babylonian
Lagash state capital with Gudea statues, 50,000 tablets and newly CT-mapped canal temple.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Lagash
Jemdet Nasr to Ur III / Old Babylonian · Sumerian
Sumerian city-state Lagash (Tell al-Hiba proper) and its religious capital Girsu (Tello, 25 km SE) — often conflated as Lagash-Girsu.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Tell Songor A (Hamrin)
Ubaid (5000–4000 BCE) · Ubaid
Ubaid (5000–4000 BCE) Ubaid tell at Diyala Governorate, Hamrin Basin – hamrin rescue ubaid houses with hassuna sherds (dims 0.9 ha Ubaid village).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Tell Madhhur (Hamrin)
Late Chalcolithic Uruk (3800–3100 BCE) · Uruk
Late Chalcolithic Uruk (3800–3100 BCE) Uruk tell at Diyala Governorate, Hamrin – type-site for uruk tripartite house (dims Mound 2 ha, tripartite house 20×8 m).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Uruk (Warka)
Neolithic to Sassanian (c.5000 BCE–632 CE; Uruk period city 4000–3100 BCE) · Sumerian / Babylonian / Persian
Type site for Uruk period and first true city (c.4000–3100 BCE), Uruk at peak 2900 BCE housed 50,000–80,000 inside 9.5 km city wall built by Gilgamesh (per Epic).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Ur
Ubaid to Persian (c.3800 BCE–300 BCE; Early Dynastic/Ur III peak 2600–2000 BCE) · Sumerian / Akkadian / Babylonian / Persian
Sumerian city-state of the moon god Nanna (Sîn), Ur famous for Woolley's excavations 1922–34: Ziggurat of Ur-Nammu (2112 BCE) best-preserved ziggurat, Royal Cemetery with Standard of Ur, Pu-abi's…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Cave
Shanidar Cave
Middle Palaeolithic to Neolithic (c.80,000–9000 BP; Neanderthal Layer D c.70–50 ka) · Mousterian Neanderthal → Baradostian → Zarzian → Neolithic
Zagros Neanderthal cave (80 ka) with nine burials including 'flower burial' Shanidar 4.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Tell al-Rimah — High Temple Mound (Qatara)
Old Babylonian to Middle Assyrian, c.2000–1350 BCE · Old Babylonian / Assyrian (Qatara/Karana)
Tell al-Rimah (ancient Qatara/Karana) high temple mound with Old Babylonian temple and casemate ziggurat-mimic platform (c.2000–1600 BCE).
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Bestansur
Early Neolithic (c.8000–7100 BCE; Bestansur horizon) · Pre-Pottery Neolithic B → Pottery Neolithic Shahrizor
Shahrizor PPNB town (8000–7100 BCE) with courtyard houses and plaster floors SE of Sulaymaniyah.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Bakr Awa
Chalcolithic to Islamic (c.5000 BCE–1500 CE; Bronze citadel LBA) · Chalcolithic → Bronze (Shahrizor) → Iron → Achaemenid → Islamic
Shahrizor 40 ha citadel (5000 BCE–1500 CE) with Bronze tablets of Idu dynasty near Halabja.