🇮🇶 Iraq · Hydraulic works
Nimrud Dam
Neo-Assyrian Empire 879-612 BCE · Assyrian Neo-Assyrian imperial engineers
879 BCE Assyrian Tigris weir dam (200 m) at Nimrud with 5 gated sluices feeding Sennacherib's canal cascade to Nineveh.
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105 places in the atlas, 11 of them inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Hydraulic works
Neo-Assyrian Empire 879-612 BCE · Assyrian Neo-Assyrian imperial engineers
879 BCE Assyrian Tigris weir dam (200 m) at Nimrud with 5 gated sluices feeding Sennacherib's canal cascade to Nineveh.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Hydraulic works
Iron Age Neo-Assyrian Empire (705–681 BCE Sennacherib) · Neo-Assyrian imperial engineers under Sennacherib
690 BCE Assyrian 300-m stone arch aqueduct—world's oldest bridge-aqueduct carrying Nineveh's 80-km canal.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Ubaid to Ur III (6500–2000 BCE; peak Ubaid 5500–3800 BCE) · Ubaid (southern Mesopotamian) → Uruk → Early Dynastic → Ur III
Type-site of the Ubaid period — low mound with tripartite temples and ophidian figurines.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Old Babylonian to Neo-Babylonian · Babylonian
Neo-Babylonian ziggurat of Marduk at Babylon — Etemenanki 'House of Heaven-Earth' — 91 m seven-stage prototype of Tower of Babel, rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar II.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Early Dynastic to Ur III / Isin-Larsa · Sumerian
E-mah ziggurat of Ninhursag at Adab (Tell Bismaya) — 50 m square platform c.2600 BCE, place of the Indiana-Jones-associated Banks 1903–04 excavations.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Early Dynastic to Ur III · Sumerian (Umma dynasty / Ur III province)
Shara temple ziggurat mound at Umma (Tell Jokha) — 60×45 m platform c.2500–2100 BCE, city-god Shara's E-mah towering over Umma–Lagash frontier.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Old Babylonian to Mitanni, c.1900-1400 BCE (Shamshi-Adad, Hammurabi, Mitanni) · Old Babylonian / Mitanni (Karana / Qattara)
Tell al-Rimah (ancient Qattara/Karana) south of Jebel Sinjar: massive tell 40 ha with high ziggurat mound 30 m high (200×200 m base) and lower town.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Old Babylonian / Isin-Larsa Period · Amorite Babylonian (Larsa)
Amorite ziggurat of sun-god Shamash at Larsa (Tell Senkerah) c.1950–1760 BCE: 70 × 40 m Ebabbara complex, capital of Isin-Larsa kingdom before Hammurabi.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Early Dynastic to Old Babylonian (Isin-Larsa contemporary) · Sumerian-Akkadian Eshnunna kingdom
Akkadian-Old Babylonian city-state of Eshnunna (c.3000–1760 BCE) controlling Diyala basin between Sumer and Elam, famous for the Laws of Eshnunna (c.1930 BCE, ~60 laws predating Hammurapi by two…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Ancient city
Middle to Neo-Assyrian (1350–612 BCE) · Assyrian
Second capital of Assyria after Assur under Ashurnasirpal II (883 BCE), who built the Northwest Palace with 600 m of alabaster lamassu and bas-reliefs (Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III showing King…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Pyramid
Old Babylonian to Mitanni · Amorite / Old Assyrian
Old Babylonian planned city ziggurat at Tell al-Rimah (Qattara/Karana) c.1800 BCE: 45×45 m Adad ziggurat on 130 m terrace, Sinjar plain encircled city.
🇮🇶 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 · Pyramid
Early Dynastic to Old Babylonian (3000–1750 BCE) · Sumerian–Akkadian (Kish)
Eastern mound of the Sumerian city-state Kish (3200–2200 BCE), once Sargon's capital, dominated by Early Dynastic III 60x45 m Temple Oval ziggurat-like terrace and later 3-stair Old Babylonian…
🇮🇶 Iraq · Tell
Ubaid to Early Dynastic I (c.5000–2900 BCE; mural is Late Uruk–Jemdet Nasr c.3200 BCE) · Ubaid → Uruk → Jemdet Nasr → Early Dynastic
Painted Temple mound with 3200 BCE leopard mural — first mural art in Mesopotamia.
🇮🇶 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
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 · 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 · Ancient village
Protoneolithic (10500–9500 BCE) · Zarzian Epipalaeolithic–PPN
Protoneolithic (10500–9500 BCE) Zarzian Epipalaeolithic–PPN ancient village at Erbil Governorate, Greater Zab tributary – open-air forager base preceding first villages (dims Scatter 3000 m² with huts and ground stone).
