In the 1920s, a British archeologist team excavated a site in Southern Iraq call the City of Ur. This is the same city called “Ur of the Chaldees” in the Old Testament (see Genesis 11:28) that was the birthplace of the great patriarch Abraham. Today an Iraqi guide—the grandson of one of the members of the original excavation team—leads Coalition soldiers on a tour through the city and its many treasures.

The Ziggurat

In the center of Ur is a large solid stone temple, called a Ziggurat. This is a pyramidal, stepped structure that resembles Aztec temples in Central America. The Ziggurat at Ur has eroded a little bit over time, but most of it still stands as a great sentinel in the flat desert. This would have been the religious center of the City of Ur during Abraham's day.