Larsa

   An important Sumerian, and later Babylonian, city in southern Mesopotamia, about 12 miles (20 km) southeast of Uruk. Larsa (modern Tell Senkereh), which many scholars believe was the biblical city of Elassar, was continuously occupied from the fifth millennium b.c. to the third century a.d. Its heyday, however, was in the early second millennium b.c., when it engaged in a fierce rivalry with the city of Isin for control of southern Mesopotamia. By this time the rulers of both cities were Amorites, and Akkadian was in the process of replacing Sumerian as the main language of the area. The peak of Larsa's power came under a king named Gun-gunum (reigned ca. 1932-1906 b.c.), who defeated Isin, conquered Ur, and invaded Elam. The city's glory days were brief, though, as a later king, Rim-Sin (ca. 18221763 b.c.), was defeated by the Babylonian conqueror Hammurabi. Larsa was famous as a religious center. It housed a major temple and ziggurat of the sun god, Sha-mash (the Ebabbar, or "Shining House"), and shrines dedicated to the goddesses Inanna and Gula.

   See also: Gula; Hammurabi; Isin