Eridu is seen as the oldest city and holiest place of ancient Mesopotamia. An early creation myth describes how the god Marduk made Eridu when he created the world. Before there was existance on earth, there was water. It was Marduk who created the city Eridu as a holy place; and men were created to worship the gods in the cities.

Abu Shahrein is the dig site where Eridu sits. It is surrounded by the desert, marshes, and the alluvial river plain where the Euphrates flows into the Persian Gulf.

Above is artist Balage Balogh's imaginative deptiction of Eridu.

I'm currently reading up on Mesopotamia, the area between the the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers located in modern day Iraq. It is referred to by several history books as "the cradle of civilization." It is in Mesopotamia that one of the worlds oldest civilizations, Sumer, arose.

I've purchased a copy of Mesopotamia The Invention of the City by Gwendolyn Leik (pictured below). It is a very interesting read. It follows the excavation and history of ten cities located in Mesopotamia.

The above picture is of the Ziggurat at Ur. Ziggurats are temples located in ancient Mesopotamian cities.