Sippar

   According to both Sumerian and later more general Mesopotamian mythology, one of the five special cities chosen by the gods to rule the land of Sumer following the ravages of the great flood. Located about 16 miles (26 km) south of modern Baghdad, Sippar (modern Tell Abu Habah) was called Zimbir by the Sumerians and Sippar or Sippara by the Akkadians (Assyrians and Babylonians). It was first excavated by pioneering archaeologist Hor-muzd Rassam in 1881.

   Rassam and other experts found a number of artifacts that seemed to confirm the city's legendary status as the major sacred home of the Sumerian sun god, Utu, whom the Assyrians and the Babylonians called Shamash. First, there were the ruins of Utu's White Temple, called the Ebabbar in Sumerian and the Bit-Un in Semitic tongues. Excavators also discovered a series of two-room houses aligned along parallel streets not far from the temple. The prevailing theory is that these were the residences of Utu's priestesses, the daughters of well-to-do Mesopotamian families sent to Sippar to serve the god. In addition, tens of thousands of cuneiform tablets were found in the temple's ruins, records of that holy institution.

   See also: cuneiform; Rassam, Hormuzd; Shamash