🇮🇶 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 · 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 · 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.
🇸🇾 Syria · Ancient city
Tell Hamoukar
Ubaid to Late Chalcolithic / Early Bronze (c.4500–3200 BCE; urban peak LC2 c.3700 BCE) · North Mesopotamian LC indigenous → confronts Late Uruk expansion
13 ha fortified pre-Uruk northern city with eye-idol temple destroyed by Uruk sling-blitz.
🇮🇶 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 · 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).