🇮🇶 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'.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Tilmen Höyük (Tilmen Hoyuk)
EBA through Iron Age; MBA peak · Yamhad (Aleppo) vassal; Syro-Hittite → Assyrian
MBA palace city (Zalwar?) with basalt lion gate, cuneiform archive and planned lower town — Yamhad-period vassal capital in Islahiye corridor.
🇮🇷 Iran · Archaeological wonder
Bisotun (Behistun)
Achaemenid to Sassanian (main inscription 520 BCE; later reliefs 148 BCE–6th c CE) · Achaemenid Persian / Seleucid / Parthian / Sassanian
Immense trilingual Rock of Behistun (Darius I, 520 BCE): Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian cuneiform narrating Darius' accession and defeat of 10 rebel kings – the Rosetta Stone for cuneiform…