Eridu

Eridu appears in the Sumerian King List as the first city, where kingship descended from heaven, and excavation has borne out something of that claim: beneath the ziggurat mound archaeologists found a sequence of eighteen temples built one above another, the earliest a single small room from around 5000 BC, each rebuilt on the ruins of the last over some two thousand years, which is among the clearest demonstrations anywhere of how a sacred site accumulates. The god was Enki, lord of fresh water. The site was largely abandoned by the second millennium BC and the desert took it. Today it is a mound with the ziggurat platform, temple foundations and cemetery areas, standing in flat sand with nothing else in sight, and it forms part of the Ahwar World Heritage property.

What you actually see

• The ziggurat platform - the mudbrick mass at the centre of the mound.
• Stacked temple foundations - the excavated sequence of successive shrines.
• The desert setting - flat sand with no other feature in any direction.
• Cemetery areas - the excavated burial ground beside the settlement.

When to go

November to March only; summer heat here is dangerous and there is no shade or water. Early morning is best. Sandstorms in spring can close the approach.

Honest expectations

The site is remote, unsigned and unfenced, and reaching it needs a four-wheel drive and a driver who knows the way. There is nothing built for visitors. Everything is eroded mudbrick. Permission arrangements should be made in advance.

Nearby

Ur lies northeast; Nasiriyah is beyond it.