THE EXCAVATIONS OF UR

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Jun 27, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 26.

THE EXCAVATIONS OF UR.

AN expedition is now being formed to excavate Ur; and it will be under the direction of Dr. E. J. Banks, who was recently United States Consul at Bagdad. The work will be undertaken for the benefit of the Smithsonian Institution. Ur lies half way between the ruins of Babylon and the Persian Gulf, says The Outlook, and is six miles south of the river Euphrates. Ur was a great city long before the time of Abraham, and, according to the book of Genesis, Abraham was born there, as was also Sarah. The Hebrew people emigrated from Ur to Syria. The great temple Gish-shir-gal, the home of Sin, or the moon god, is the best preserved of any of the specimens of Babylonian architecture which still stand. The British consul, Mr. Taylor, made some excavations a half century ago, resulting in the discovery of the inscriptions of the King Nabonidos, which speak of the crown prince, the Belshazzar of the Bible. The most modern town in Babylon is Nasaria, and it is only half a mile away from the ruins, and the inhabitants are beginning to dig bricks from them, destroying the tablets and defacing the inscriptions. The present appearance of Ur is that of three stories of an ancient temple rising seventy feet above the plain. Surrounding the temple is a group of mounds half a mile in diameter. The ruin of the city is called, in the Bible, Ur of the Chaldeans. The estimated amount required for the complete excavation of Ur in two years is $50,000.—Exchange.