Ur Visit, March 2004

Located near what was once known as Talil Air Base in southern Iraq, the site of Ur goes back to Biblical times and was once the capitol of Sumeria, and was home to Abraham before he left to lead his people to Canaan (Genesis 17:8). Experts believe they have located the foundation of Abraham's house and it was restored in the 1980s after a request from Pope John Paul II to visit and pray there.

Ur also contains the remains of a large ziggurat, or temple, built to honor the Sumerian moon god. The ziggurat remains are visible from over a mile away from the road leading to the military base. Along with the ziggurat, remains of a palace, necropolis, and other structures (one thought to be a library/museum/trophy building) have been unearthed and partially restored. Since the US arrived in early 2003 the site has been cleaned up and tours are given.

At the time of my visit the tours were given by curator Dief Mohssein Naiif al-Gizzy, the "Guardian of Ur". When I visited with Dief (seen in some of the video) he explained how his grandfather had been with English archaeologist C. Leonard Woolley in 1923 when he began excavating the ziggurat. Woolley spent nine seasons carefully excavating. The team measured the ziggurat, found buildings which were originally part of the temple complex and gathered information about what the building had looked like. After his grandfather, Dief's father was curator of Ur, and then Dief succeeded him. Dief's subject-matter knowledge is remarkable, and he showed the group I was in not only the ziggurat, Abraham's house, examples of Sumerian cruciform (one of the oldest written languages), royal tombs, but also geological evidence of The Great Flood.

Dief shared with us the story of when the Iraqi Army left the air base as the US was advancing North into Iraq and told him he needed to leave or risk being killed by US forces. Dief replied he could not leave as watching over Ur was his responsibility. Less than a day later troops and armored vehicles arrived. When questioned about who he was Dief replied "I am the guardian of Ur". The US troops then asked if there was anything he needed, to which he said food and water. They left him with a pallet of MREs (rations US troops eat when on missions) and bottled water. Dief said that since then his relations with US forces have been friendly.

After the tour we were pretty much on our own to explore the site (I am not sure if this is still allowed or not), and I returned the following day for photos of Abraham's house. Unfortunately photographs and video cannot properly express the immensity of the Ur site, as it is truly awe-inspiring to behold. It is my hope that during the up-coming deployment I will have the opportunity to again visit Ur, and further talk with Dief.

The music on the video is "Sands of the Kara Kuma" by Iskelu, from the album "Music of the Middle East" (c) 2007 Really Free Music and is available on iTunes.

~~~