Ziggurat of Larsa

31.2858°N, 45.8536°E.

The ziggurat of Larsa — Sumerian Larag — in modern Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq. Construction was initiated in the early second millennium BCE and rebuilt at its largest scale by king Nur-Adad of Larsa (~1860 BCE) and again by Hammurabi of Babylon after his conquest of the city in 1763 BCE. Original base 52 by 40 metres; original height around 23 metres on three terraces. Dedicated to the sun god Shamash. Excavated by André Parrot in 1933 and by Jean-Louis Huot's French mission from 1976 to 1989. The ziggurat sits within the temenos of E-babbar — the Shining House — Shamash's temple complex, which preserved foundation cylinders of multiple kings inscribed with restoration prayers and the earliest known Sumerian–Akkadian bilingual administrative documents. Larsa briefly held political dominance over Sumer in the early second millennium before Hammurabi absorbed it into his Babylonian empire.

A ziggurat to the sun, in a city that was the last independent Sumerian-speaking power on Earth, conquered by the king who would write the most-cited law code of the ancient world.