Great Ziggurat of Ur

Baghdad to Nasiriyah

This morning, we left Baghdad after the lifting of the two-day curfew at 0001.  Bound for Nasiriyah, we arrived at the Alawi Garage at 0835 as there was plenty of information suggesting that this was the southbound garage for taxis.

Unfortunately, despite corroborating different sources of information, it was the wrong garage and we had to take a second Uber to Al Nadha station getting there at 0900.

From there, it was unbelievably plain sailing with us hitting the road at 0910.  It was largely a highway run, with a 30 min rest stop halfway.  We entered the Nasiriyah area around 1215 through a checkpoint and was dropped off at 1240 in an area messed up with road works.

The 3h ride was at least an hour shorter than I had expected.  We took a taxi to the Gudea Hotel and managed to get a room straight away around 1300.

Great Ziggurat of Ur

After a simple lunch and changing some money we rested till 1500 when we found a taxi to take us to the Great Ziggurat of Ur.

The ziggurat, which served as a temple, is well over 4000 years old but the form it takes today is the result and leftover from restoration some 1500 years ago without any guidance from the original plans.  Its height is speculated to be over 30m but no one really knows as only the foundation has survived.

Access to ascend the actual ziggurat was prohibited, so we spent about 40 mins exploring the surrounding ruins made up of temples, cemeteries and mausoleums.