Eridu is where the Sumerians said civilisation began. According to their own king lists, kingship came down from heaven and landed first at Eridu, and the city's god, Enki, ruler of the sweet waters beneath the earth, was the keeper of the arts of civilised life. Archaeologists found a sequence of temples stacked one above another, beginning in about 5400 BC, which makes it one of the oldest settlements in Mesopotamia. On top of it all rises the ruined ziggurat of Ur-Nammu, a mud-brick stepped tower built around 2100 BC, now a worn brown stump in the desert.
The site, called Tell Abu Shahrain locally, lies in the far south of Iraq, about thirty-seven kilometres from Nasiriyah and a short drive from Ur. It forms part of the World Heritage listing known as the Ahwar of Southern Iraq, which links the ancient Sumerian cities of Ur, Uruk and Eridu with the marshlands where the Tigris and Euphrates run out into the Gulf. Standing on the ziggurat you look over flat desert, brown and shimmering, with the faint green line of marshes in the distance.
Practically, this is not a casual riding destination. The roads are long and flat, going through desert, with heat that in summer passes forty-five degrees and can reach fifty. Fuel is available in Nasiriyah, a city of around four hundred thousand, and you should carry water and be self-sufficient for the last stretch, which may be a track. Travel in southern Iraq normally requires local guides, permits and up-to-date advice on security, and it is not something to improvise.
If you are lucky enough to visit, go in winter, when days are mild and the sky clear, and the marshes fill with birds. The marsh Arabs, the Ma'dan, still live in reed houses on the water and keep water buffalo, and their way of life has lasted for thousands of years, although it was nearly destroyed in the 1990s when the marshes were drained.
Take shade, silence and a hat, and let the mud-brick tell its story.