Ur stands on the flat Mesopotamian plain in southern Iraq, close to Nasiriyah, among the oldest cities in the world. Its great ziggurat, a stepped brick platform built by King Ur-Nammu around 2100 BC, still rises out of the desert, restored and shaped like a huge brick wedding cake with stairs up the front. It was a temple to the moon god Nanna, and the city around it was a major port on what was then the Euphrates, before the river shifted course and the sea retreated. Tradition names Ur as the birthplace of Abraham, which is why Pope Francis held a prayer meeting here in 2021.
The English archaeologist Leonard Woolley dug here in the 1920s and 1930s and found the Royal Cemetery, with tombs full of gold, lapis lazuli and shell inlays, including the famous Standard of Ur and the Queen's lyre, many of which are now in the British Museum and the Iraq Museum. The tombs showed a rich and puzzling culture of ritual burial, with attendants buried alongside their rulers. Nearby, the marshes of southern Iraq, a wetland landscape of reeds and buffalo, have their own World Heritage listing.
The country around is flat, dry and open, with a straight road running out from Nasiriyah through scrub and date palms. There are military and police checkpoints, and permits may be required to enter the site, so it pays to arrange access in advance. The heat in summer is brutal, with temperatures above forty-five degrees and dust in the air, and the best months for a visit are November to March. Sandstorms can reduce visibility to almost nothing.
Nasiriyah is a big city of around four hundred thousand people, with fuel, restaurants and markets, and it is the sensible base. Take a lot of water and a hat, and expect to see the ziggurat in the low sun of early morning, when the brick turns a soft honey colour and the desert is quiet. As elsewhere in the region, check travel advice before planning anything.