1.
Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
2.
Art museum
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An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art. Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection, the term is used for both public galleries, which are non-profit or publicly owned museums that display selected collections of art. On the other hand, private galleries refers to the commercial enterprises for the sale of art, however, both types of gallery may host traveling exhibits or temporary exhibitions including art borrowed from elsewhere. In broad terms, in North American usage, the word gallery alone often implies a private gallery, the term contemporary art gallery refers usually to a privately owned for-profit commercial gallery. These galleries are found clustered together in large urban centers. Smaller cities are home to at least one gallery, but they may also be found in towns or villages. Contemporary art galleries are open to the general public without charge, however. They usually profit by taking a portion of art sales, from 25% to 50% is typical, there are also many non-profit or collective galleries. Some galleries in cities like Tokyo charge the artists a flat rate per day, curators often create group shows that say something about a certain theme, trend in art, or group of associated artists. Galleries sometimes choose to represent artists exclusively, giving them the opportunity to show regularly, a gallerys definition can also include the artist cooperative or artist-run space, which often operates as a space with a more democratic mission and selection process. A vanity gallery is an art gallery that charges fees from artists in order to show their work, the shows are not legitimately curated and will frequently or usually include as many artists as possible. Most art professionals are able to identify them on an artists resume, University art museums and galleries constitute collections of art that are developed, owned, and maintained by all kinds of schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities. This phenomenon exists in both the West and East, making it a global practice, although largely overlooked, there are over 700 university art museums in America alone. This number, in comparison to other kinds of art museums, throughout history, large and expensive works of art have generally been commissioned by religious institutions and monarchs and been displayed in temples, churches, and palaces. Although these collections of art were private, they were made available for viewing for a portion of the public. In classical times, religious institutions began to function as a form of art gallery. Wealthy Roman collectors of engraved gems and other precious objects often donated their collections to temples and it is unclear how easy it was in practice for the public to view these items. At the Palace of Versailles, entrance was restricted to wearing the proper apparel – the appropriate accessories could be hired from shops outside
3.
Museum Island
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Museum Island is the name of the northern half of an island in the Spree river in the central Mitte district of Berlin, Germany, the site of the old city of Cölln. The Neues Museum finished in 1859 according to plans by Friedrich August Stüler, destroyed in World War II, it was rebuilt under the direction of David Chipperfield for the Egyptian Museum of Berlin and re-opened in 2009. It exhibits the sculpture collections and late Antique and Byzantine art, the Pergamon Museum, the final museum of the complex, constructed in 1930. It contains multiple reconstructed immense and historically significant buildings such as the Pergamon Altar, in 1999, the museum complex was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. A first exhibition hall was erected in 1797 at the suggestion of the archaeologist Aloys Hirt, in 1822, Schinkel designed the plans for the Altes Museum to house the royal Antikensammlung, the arrangement of the collection was overseen by Wilhelm von Humboldt. The island, originally an area, was dedicated to art. Further extended under succeeding Prussian kings, the collections of art. They are today maintained by the Berlin State Museums branch of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Museum Island further comprises the Lustgarten park and the Berlin Cathedral. Between the Bode and Pergamon Museums it is crossed by the Stadtbahn railway viaduct, the adjacent territory to the south is the site of the former Stadtschloss and the Palace of the Republic. These include the Priams Treasure, also called the gold of Troy, excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in 1873, then smuggled out of Turkey to Berlin and today kept at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. Then, six months later, Peter-Klaus Schuster took over and set in motion a far more ambitious program intended to turn Museum Island into a Louvre on the Spree. The federal government pledged $20 million a year through 2010 for projects to enhance Berlins prestige and Unesco declaring the island a World Heritage Site. The contents of the museums were decided on as follows, The Pergamon, with the Greek altar that gives it its name, the Neues Museum presented archaeological objects as well as Egyptian and Etruscan sculptures, including the renowned bust of Queen Nefertiti. The Altes Museum, the oldest on the island, displayed Greek and Roman art objects on its first floor, the Bode Museums paintings went from Late Byzantine to 1800. And, as now, the Alte Nationalgalerie will cover the 19th century, the James Simon Gallery, a $94 million visitors’ center designed by the British architect David Chipperfield, is being built beside the Neues Museum. It will in turn be linked to the Neues, Altes, Pergamon, once the Museum Island Master Plan is completed, the so-called Archaeological Promenade will connect four of the five museums in the Museum Island. The Promenade will begin at the Old Museum in the south, lead through the New Museum, before World War II, these museums were connected by bridge passages above ground, they were destroyed due to the effects of the war. There have never been plans to them, instead, the central courts of individual museums will be lowered
4.
Alfred Messel
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Alfred Messel was one of the most well-known German architects at the turning point to the 20th century, creating a new style for buildings which bridged the transition from historicism to modernism. As an urban architect striving for excellence he was in many respects ahead of his time and his most well known works, the Wertheim department stores and the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, reflect a new concept of self-confident metropolitan architecture. His architectural drawings and construction plans are preserved at the Architecture Museum of the Technical University of Berlin, Alfred Messel was the third son of the banker Simon Messel. The family owned a bank which was managed by Alfred’s brother Ludwig, first in Darmstadt and then, from the end of the 1870s. In his youth Alfred Messel began a friendship with Ludwig Hoffmann. In 1872 Messel graduated from the Ludwig-Georgs-Gymnasium in Darmstadt, after which he served in the military as a volunteer in the First Grand Ducal Hessian Royal Guard Infantry Regiment. In 1873 he attended the Kassel art academy together with his friend Ludwig Hoffmann, followed by studies at the Berlin Building Academy under Heinrich Strack. Over the next two years he traveled extensively through France, Spain, Italy and Great Britain and was a lecturer at the newly founded Technical University in Berlin-Charlottenburg, in 1886 he took a leave of absence from the civil service to work as a private architect. On February 1,1893 he married Elsa Altmann and in November of that year their first child, in February 1894 he was appointed professor at the Berlin School of Fine Arts and in the same year founded an architectural firm together with Martin Altgelt. In 1896 his son Ludwig Leonhard was born, in 1899 Messel converted from Judaism to Protestantism. On May 17 of that year he received the Order of the Red Eagle, 4th Class, also that year his youngest daughter Irene was born. In 1900 he terminated his collaboration with Martin Altgelt, starting in 1902 he suffered from heart disease, which caused him to spend long periods at a health resort in the following years. He was busy with the extension of the Wertheim store on Leipziger Platz 1903/06. In 1906 Messel became a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin and in 1906 was awarded a doctorate from Darmstadt Technical University. Messel died on March 24,1909 and was buried in the Alter St. -Matthäus-Kirchhof in Berlin-Schöneberg, since he was of Jewish descent, city streets named after him were renamed during the Nazi era. Messel’s most famous work is the Wertheim Department store on Leipziger Platz, after passing through a vestibule two-storeys high, one entered a rectangular light well 22 meter high and 450 square meters in size. On the opposite wall a stairway led to the upper sales floors. The store did not survive World War II, in March 1943 it was damaged by three exploding bombs, and its final destruction was caused by a fire started by a phosphorus bomb
5.
Pergamon Altar
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The structure is 35.64 metres wide and 33.4 metres deep, the front stairway alone is almost 20 metres wide. The base is decorated with a frieze in relief showing the battle between the Giants and the Olympian gods known as the Gigantomachy. There is a second, smaller and less well-preserved high relief frieze on the inner court walls which surround the fire altar on the upper level of the structure at the top of the stairs. In a set of scenes, it depicts events from the life of Telephus, legendary founder of the city of Pergamon and son of the hero Heracles and Auge. In 1878, the German engineer Carl Humann began official excavations on the acropolis of Pergamon, the excavation was undertaken in order to rescue the altar friezes and expose the foundation of the edifice. Later, other ancient structures on the acropolis were brought to light, upon negotiating with the Turkish government, it was agreed that all frieze fragments found at the time would become the property of the Berlin museums. In Berlin, Italian restorers reassembled the panels comprising the frieze from the thousands of fragments that had been recovered, in order to display the result and create a context for it, a new museum was erected in 1901 on Berlins Museum Island. Because this first Pergamon Museum proved to be inadequate and structurally unsound, it was demolished in 1909 and replaced with a much larger museum. This new museum is open to the public on the island. The exhibit is scheduled to reopen in late 2019 or early 2020, the Pergamene kingdom founded by Philetaerus at the beginning of the 3rd century BC was initially part of the Hellenistic Seleucid empire. Attalus I, successor and nephew of Eumenes I, was the first to achieve independence for the territory. This victory over the Galatians, a threat to the Pergamene kingdom, secured his power, with conquests in Asia Minor at the expense of the weakened Seleucids he could briefly increase the size of his kingdom. A Seleucid counteroffensive under Antiochos III reached the gates of Pergamon, since the Seleucids were becoming stronger in the east, Attalus turned his attention westward to Greece and was able to occupy almost all of Euboea. His son, Eumenes II, further limited the influence of the Galatians and ruled alongside his brother Attalus II, in 188 BC, Eumenes II was able to create the Treaty of Apamea as an ally of Rome, thus reducing the influence of the Seleucids in Asia Minor. The Attalids were thus an emerging power with the desire to demonstrate their importance to the world through the construction of imposing buildings. As is the case with most young dynasties, the Attalids sought to anchor their legitimacy with endowments, the imposing altar accordingly had also a political dimension. In the meantime, later datings relating the altar to archaeological findings, investigation of the altars construction and friezes has led to the conclusion that it was not conceived as a monument to a particular victory. The design of Pergamene victory monuments is known from the literature, the scanty remnants of the dedicatory inscription also seem to indicate that the altar was consecrated to the gods because of favors they had bestowed
6.
Ishtar Gate
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The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BCE by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the side of the city. It was excavated in the early 20th century and a reconstruction using original bricks is now shown in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin. Dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the gate was constructed using glazed brick with alternating rows of bas-relief mušḫuššu and aurochs, symbolizing the gods Marduk, the roof and doors of the gate were of cedar, according to the dedication plaque. The gate was covered in lapis lazuli, a deep-blue semi-precious stone that was revered in antiquity due to its vibrancy and these blue glazed bricks would have given the façade a jewel-like shine. Through the gate ran the Processional Way, which was lined with walls showing about 120 lions, bulls, dragons and flowers on enameled yellow and black glazed bricks, the gate itself depicted only gods and goddesses. These included Ishtar, Adad and Marduk, during celebrations of the New Year, statues of the deities were paraded through the gate and down the Processional Way. The gate, being part of the Walls of Babylon, was considered one of the original Seven Wonders of the World and it was replaced on that list by the Lighthouse of Alexandria from the third century BC. A reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way was built at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin out of material excavated by Robert Koldewey and it stands 14 m high and 30 m wide. The excavation ran from 1902 to 1914, and, during time,14 m of the foundation of the gate was uncovered. Claudius James Rich, British resident of Baghdad and a self-taught historian, acting as a scholar and collecting field data, he was determined to discover the wonders to the ancient world. C. J. Richs topographical records of the ruins in Babylon were the first ever published and it was reprinted in England no fewer than three times. C. J. Robert Koldewey, a successful German excavator, had previous work for the Royal Museum of Berlin, with his excavations at Surghul. Koldeweys part in Babylons excavation began in 1899, the method that the British were comfortable with was excavating tunnels and deep trenches, which was damaging the mud brick architecture of the foundation. Instead, it was suggested that the team focus on tablets. Despite the destructive nature of the used, the recording of data was immensely more thorough than in previous Mesopotamian excavations. Walter Andre, one of Koldeweys many assistants, was an architect and a draftsman and his contribution was documentation and reconstruction of Babylon. A small museum was built at the site and Andre was the museums first director, one of most complex and impressive architectural reconstructions in the history of archaeology, was the rebuilding of Babylons Ishtar gate and processional way in Berlin
7.
Market Gate of Miletus
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The Market Gate of Miletus is a large marble monument in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany. It was built in Miletus in the 2nd century AD and destroyed in an earthquake in the 10th or 11th century, in the early 1900s, it was excavated, rebuilt, and placed on display in the museum. Only fragments had survived and reconstruction involved significant new material, a practice which generated criticism of the museum, the gate was damaged in World War II and underwent restoration in the 1950s. Further restoration work took place in the first decade of the 21st century, the gate is a large marble monument, about 30 meters wide,16 meters tall, and 5 meters deep. The two-story structure has three doorways and a number of projections and niches, at roof level and in between the floors are ornate friezes with bull and flower reliefs. The structures protruding pediments are supported by Corinthian and composite columns, the gate is not entirely original, as little of the base and lower floor survived the centuries, additional material includes brick, cement, and steel. The gate is affixed by iron girders to the wall behind it, while in Miletus, niches on the second story featured statues of emperors, some fighting against barbarians. The gate was built in the 2nd century AD, most likely during the reign of Emperor Hadrian about 120 to 130 AD. It replaced an existing Doric propylon and served as the entrance to the southern market, or agora, in Miletus. The gate underwent restoration in the 3rd century following damage from an earthquake, when Justinian strengthened the defenses of Miletus in 538, the gate was incorporated into the city walls. In the 10th or 11th century, an earthquake caused the gate to collapse, fragments of the structure were scavenged and used in surrounding buildings, but the majority subsided into the ground. German archaeologist Theodor Wiegand conducted a series of excavations in Miletus from 1899 through 1911, in 1903, the Market Gate of Miletus was excavated and from 1907 to 1908, fragments of the gate were transported to Berlin. From 1925 to 1929, the gate was reassembled in the recently expanded museum from over 750 tons of fragments, however, the fragments did not constitute the entirety of the gate, and fill material had to be used in the reconstruction. Reconstruction began by assembling the middle-floor entablature and placing the second story columns on top, a base and ground floor were then inserted below. Brick and cement reinforced with steel supplemented the few remains of the lower structure, original column fragments were bored out, leaving a thickness of 3 to 4 centimetres, and filled with steel and mortar. In the 1920s and 1930s, the museum was criticized for portraying its monuments as originals when they consisted significantly of non-original material, the gate suffered significant damage from aerial bombardment in World War II. The roof and skylight above the gate were destroyed along with a brick wall. The right wing collapsed and the structure was damaged by fire and shrapnel, after winter passed, a temporary roof was constructed to protect the gate from the elements
8.
Anatolia
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Anatolia, in geography known as Asia Minor, Asian Turkey, Anatolian peninsula, or Anatolian plateau, is the westernmost protrusion of Asia, which makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Black Sea to the Armenian Highlands, thus, traditionally Anatolia is the territory that comprises approximately the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. The Turkification of Anatolia began under the Seljuk Empire in the late 11th century, however, various non-Turkic languages continue to be spoken by minorities in Anatolia today, including Kurdish, Assyrian, Armenian, Arabic, Laz, Georgian, and Greek. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line running from the Gulf of Alexandretta to the Black Sea. This traditional geographical definition is used, for example, in the latest edition of Merriam-Websters Geographical Dictionary, under this definition, Anatolia is bounded to the east by the Armenian Highlands, and the Euphrates before that river bends to the southeast to enter Mesopotamia. To the southeast, it is bounded by the ranges that separate it from the Orontes valley in Syria, the first name the Greeks used for the Anatolian peninsula was Ἀσία, presumably after the name of the Assuwa league in western Anatolia. As the name of Asia came to be extended to areas east of the Mediterranean. The name Anatolia derives from the Greek ἀνατολή meaning “the East” or more literally “sunrise”, the precise reference of this term has varied over time, perhaps originally referring to the Aeolian, Ionian and Dorian colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor. In the Byzantine Empire, the Anatolic Theme was a theme covering the western, the modern Turkish form of Anatolia is Anadolu, which again derives from the Greek name Aνατολή. The Russian male name Anatoly and the French Anatole share the same linguistic origin, in English the name of Turkey for ancient Anatolia first appeared c. It is derived from the Medieval Latin Turchia, which was used by the Europeans to define the Seljuk controlled parts of Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert. Human habitation in Anatolia dates back to the Paleolithic, neolithic Anatolia has been proposed as the homeland of the Indo-European language family, although linguists tend to favour a later origin in the steppes north of the Black Sea. However, it is clear that the Anatolian languages, the oldest branch of Indo-European, have spoken in Anatolia since at least the 19th century BC. The earliest historical records of Anatolia stem from the southeast of the region and are from the Mesopotamian-based Akkadian Empire during the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 24th century BC, scholars generally believe the earliest indigenous populations of Anatolia were the Hattians and Hurrians. The region was famous for exporting raw materials, and areas of Hattian-, one of the numerous cuneiform records dated circa 20th century BC, found in Anatolia at the Assyrian colony of Kanesh, uses an advanced system of trading computations and credit lines. They were speakers of an Indo-European language, the Hittite language, originating from Nesa, they conquered Hattusa in the 18th century BC, imposing themselves over Hattian- and Hurrian-speaking populations. According to the most widely accepted Kurgan theory on the Proto-Indo-European homeland, however, the Hittites adopted the cuneiform script, invented in Mesopotamia
9.
Bode Museum
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The Bode Museum is one of the group of museums on the Museum Island in Berlin, Germany. It was designed by architect Ernst von Ihne and completed in 1904, originally called the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum after Emperor Frederick III, the museum was renamed in honour of its first curator, Wilhelm von Bode, in 1956. Closed for repairs since 1997, the museum was reopened on October 18,2006 after a €156 million refurbishment. True to the ethos of its director, Wilhelm von Bode, who believed in mixing art collections, it is now the home for a collection of sculptures, Byzantine art. The sculpture collection shows art of the Christian Orient, sculptures from Byzantium and Ravenna, sculptures of the Middle Ages, the Italian Gothic, and the early Renaissance. Late German Gothic works are represented by Tilman Riemenschneider, the south German Renaissance. In the future selected works of the Gemäldegalerie will be integrated into the sculpture collection and this is reminiscent of William von Bodes concept of style rooms, in which sculptures, paintings, and crafts are viewed together, as was usual in upper middle-class private collections. The Münzkabinett is one of the worlds largest numismatic collections and its range spans from the beginning of minting in the 7th century BC in Asia Minor up to the present day. With approximately 500,000 items the collection is an archive for historical research. Writing in The Financial Times on the occasion on the reopening in 2006, Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum. Wilhelm von Bode, the manager of the Prussian Art Collections for the Berlin Museum, had spotted the bust in a London gallery. Shortly afterwards, The Times ran an article claiming that the bust was the work of Lucas, lucass son, Albert, then came forward and swore under oath that the story was correct and that he had helped his father to make it. Albert was able to explain how the layers of wax had been built up from old candle ends, he described how his father would stuff various debris, including newspapers. When the Berlin museum staff removed the base they found the debris, just as Albert had described it, despite this evidence, Bode continued to claim that his original attribution was correct. Various claims and counter-claims have been put forward about the bust, scientific examination has been inconclusive and unhelpful in dating the bust, although it is accepted as having at least some connection with Lucas. The bust remains on display in what is now the Bode Museum labelled England, on 27 March 2017, a solid gold coin called the Big Maple Leaf, issued by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007 as a commemorative piece, was stolen from the museum. The coin, at 53cm in diameter and 3cm in thickness, is made of 24-carat gold and is worth around €3.7 million. A ladder was found on the train tracks nearby, leading German police to speculate that the thief entered the building by breaking open a window in the back of the next to the railway tracks
10.
Babylon
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Babylon was a major city of ancient Mesopotamia in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city was built upon the Euphrates and divided in parts along its left and right banks. Babylon was originally a small Semitic Akkadian city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c.2300 BC, the town attained independence as part of a small city-state with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty in 1894 BC. Babylon grew and South Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia, the empire quickly dissolved after Hammurabis death and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BC, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rule of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, and Sassanid empires. It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world from c.1770 to 1670 BC and it was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000. Estimates for the extent of its area range from 890 to 900 hectares. The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometres south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings, the English Babylon comes from Greek Babylṓn, a transliteration of the Akkadian Babili. The Babylonian name in the early 2nd millennium BC had been Babilli or Babilla, by the 1st millennium BC, it had changed to Babili under the influence of the folk etymology which traced it to bāb-ili. The Gate of God or Gate of El being from the Aramaic Hebrew Bab for Gate and El for God and this being similar to the Hebrew word for confusion Balal. In the Bible, the name appears as Babel, interpreted in the Hebrew Scriptures Book of Genesis to mean confusion, the modern English verb, to babble, or to speak meaningless words, is popularly thought to derive from this name, but there is no direct connection. The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings and debris. The site at Babylon consists of a number of mounds covering an area of about 2 by 1 kilometer, oriented north to south, along the Euphrates to the west. Originally, the river roughly bisected the city, but the course of the river has since shifted so that most of the remains of the western part of the city are now inundated. Some portions of the city wall to the west of the river also remain, remains of the city include, Kasr—also called Palace or Castle, it is the location of the Neo-Babylonian ziggurat Etemenanki and lies in the center of the site. Amran Ibn Ali—the highest of the mounds at 25 meters, to the south and it is the site of Esagila, a temple of Marduk which also contained shrines to Ea and Nabu. Homera—a reddish colored mound on the west side, most of the Hellenistic remains are here
11.
Uruk
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Uruk is the type site for the Uruk period. Uruk played a role in the early urbanization of Sumer in the mid 4th millennium BC. At its height c.2900 BC, Uruk probably had 50, 000–80,000 residents living in 6 km2 of walled area, the legendary king Gilgamesh, according to the chronology presented in the Sumerian king list, ruled Uruk in the 27th century BC. The site of Uruk was visited in 1849 by William Kennett Loftus who led the first excavations from 1850 to 1854, the Arabic name of Babylonia, al-ʿIrāq, is thought to be derived from the name Uruk, via Aramaic and possibly Middle Persian transmission. In myth and literature, Uruk was famous as the city of Gilgamesh. It is also believed Uruk is the biblical Erech, the city founded by Nimrod in Shinar. In addition to being one of the first cities, Uruk was the force of urbanization and state formation during the Uruk period. This period of 800 years saw a shift from small, agricultural villages to an urban center with a full-time bureaucracy, military. Although other settlements coexisted with Uruk, they were generally about 10 hectares while Uruk was significantly larger, the Uruk period culture exported by Sumerian traders and colonists had an effect on all surrounding peoples, who gradually evolved their own comparable, competing economies and cultures. Ultimately, Uruk could not maintain control over colonies such as Tell Brak by military force. Geographic factors underpin Uruks unprecedented growth, the city was located in the southern part of Mesopotamia, an ancient site of civilization, on the Euphrates river. Through the gradual and eventual domestication of native grains from the Zagros foothills and extensive irrigation techniques and this domestication of grain and its proximity to rivers enabled Uruks growth into the largest Sumerian settlement, in both population and area, with relative ease. Uruks agricultural surplus and large population base facilitated processes such as trade, specialization of crafts, evidence from excavations such as extensive pottery and the earliest known tablets of writing support these events. Excavation of Uruk is highly complex because older buildings were recycled into newer ones, the topmost layer most likely originated in the Jemdet Nasr period and is built on structures from earlier periods dating back to the Ubaid period. According to the Sumerian king list, Uruk was founded by the king Enmerkar, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh builds the city wall around Uruk and is king of the city. Uruk went through phases of growth, from the Early Uruk period to the Late Uruk period. The city was formed two smaller Ubaid settlements merged. The temple complexes at their cores became the Eanna District and the Anu District dedicated to Inanna and Anu, the Anu District was originally called Kullaba prior to merging with the Eanna District
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