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Nasiriyah is the capital of Dhi Qar Governorate in southern Iraq, a city on the lower Euphrates about 360 kilometres south-east of Baghdad, and it is famous as the gateway to the ancient Sumerian city of Ur and its great ziggurat.
The city was founded by the Muntafiq tribe in the late 19th century under Ottoman rule and named after Nasir Pasha al-Saadun, and it grew into a transport hub and the centre of a date-growing region. Its plain was the heart of Sumer, where Eridu, traditionally the earliest city, rose along with Ur, Larsa, Lagash and Umma, and the Ubaid culture takes its name from a mound near Ur. To the east lie the Mesopotamian Marshes, listed by UNESCO in 2016.
Visitors come for the Ziggurat of Ur, the ruins of Ur and the house linked with Abraham, the reopened Nasiriyah Museum and the riverside corniche, then head out to the ancient mounds of Eridu, Larsa and Lagash and the reed-fringed waters of the Chibayish marshes.
The Ziggurat of Ur is a stepped temple tower at the ruins of Ur near Nasiriyah, built in the 21st century BC by King Ur-Nammu for the moon god Nanna. Restored by Nabonidus in the 6th century BC and dug by Leonard Woolley in the 1920s and 1930s, its facade and stairway were rebuilt in the 1980s.
The Ancient City of Ur at Tell el-Muqayyar, 16 kilometres south-west of Nasiriyah, was a major Sumerian city-state settled from about 3800 BC, once near the Gulf coast. Its brick houses, temples and lanes spread around the ziggurat, and Pope Francis held an interfaith meeting here in 2021.
The House of Abraham at Ur near Nasiriyah is a modern reconstruction among the ruins that later religious tradition links with the prophet Abraham, whom the Bible connects with Ur of the Chaldees. Scholars doubt the link, yet pilgrims come, and Ur Tourist City is being developed beside the site.
The Royal Cemetery at Ur near Nasiriyah is a burial ground of the mid-3rd millennium BC, dug by Leonard Woolley from 1922 to 1934, where rulers and their attendants were laid in deep pits. The almost untouched tomb of Queen Puabi held gold, lapis lazuli and carnelian treasures now shown in museums.
Eridu, at Tell Abu Shahrain about 24 kilometres south-south-west of Ur near Nasiriyah, is traditionally held to be the earliest city of southern Mesopotamia. Its god Enki was believed to have founded it, and the worn remains of its ziggurat, with bricks stamped by Ur-Nammu, still stand.
Larsa, at Tell as-Senkereh north-west of Nasiriyah, was an important city of Sumer and the centre of the cult of the sun god Utu, whose temple was called the E-babbar. It was a leading power in the early 2nd millennium BC, and the sun-dried bricks of its ruined ziggurat still rise above the plain.
Lagash, at Tell al-Hiba north of Nasiriyah in Dhi Qar Governorate, was one of the oldest city-states of the ancient Near East, and its state also took in Girsu and Nina. Its mound was dug by American teams between 1968 and 1976, and Girsu, the religious centre of the state, lies 25 km north-west.
Umma, traditionally placed at Tell Jokha in Dhi Qar Governorate north of Nasiriyah, was a Sumerian city-state and a long rival of Lagash, with Sara as its patron god. Its mounds were badly looted after 2003, and photos taken from the air show the ground pitted with the holes dug by robbers.
Tell al-'Ubaid is a low mound about 7 kilometres west of Ur near Nasiriyah that gave its name to the prehistoric Ubaid culture of southern Mesopotamia. An Early Dynastic temple to the goddess Ninhursag stood on its highest point, built by A'annepada, king of Ur, in the 26th century BC.
The Chibayish Marshes surround the town of Al-Chibayish on the Euphrates east of Nasiriyah, home of Marsh Arabs of the Banu Asad and a centre for building mashoof canoes. Part of the Mesopotamian Marshes, drained in the 1990s and reflooded since 2003, they are full of reeds, buffalo and birds.
The Nasiriyah Museum stands on the bank of the Euphrates in Nasiriyah and was built in 1969 by the Gulbenkian company for the antiquities of the region. Closed in 1991 when its finds went to Baghdad, it reopened 25 years later with seven halls of Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian and Islamic objects.
The Nasiriyah Corniche is the riverside promenade along the Euphrates in the centre of Nasiriyah, with paved walks, benches, lamps and shade pavilions facing the water. It makes a pleasant place to stroll in a city that grew up on the river in the late 19th century, above all in the cool evening.
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