Here's the news article: http://www.his-forever.com/third_generation_iraqi.htm

And here are the photos I took after meeting Mhesen and going on the tour.

Bear with me, I'm not the tour guide he is!

Ok: Hand drawing of The Zig, a zigurrat in southern Iraq, near Nasiriyah.



Here's the Zig itself (behind the guys):



Turns out a guy by the name of King Urnamu lived next to it, as did his son, contemporaries of Abraham.

They lived in a palace built of sedimentary brick. Instead of mortar, they used tar, imported from Basrah, about 80 miles away, because tar didn't crack under the desert heating and cooling like morter did between the bricks. They used straw between the bricks and the tar to allow for some slippage, and you can still see the straw imprints:



By the way, King Urnamu died and was buried here:



Getting back to the tour guide, here he is at an arch of the palace grounds inhabited by Urnamu and his son:



Also at the palace grounds (about 120 meters from the Zig, by the way) is this:



It's some local hieroglyphics on a brick, circa some 4 to 5 thousand years ago.

Here it is again, enchanced for your viewing pleasure:



(if it's too dark, import it into your image editor and play with it for a while!)

Here's a pic I took while standing on the top of the walls of Abraham's house:



Hang on, folks!

__________________
I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. A human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

One more minute!

Here's a pic of the corner of the kitchen. Look's like shelves to me. Necessity really is the mother of invention!



Here's the "main hallway." I just liked the arches. Yes, Abraham's house.



Finally, the cistern. These were really kind of interesting, for there were several areas in the house that were more open courtyards that anything else, and the rain, bucket-hauled water, etc., would be poured down these to keep them running. It's sort of a natural drain, with overlapping clay piping that allows the water to collect, then slowly drain down and out through the overlaps.



Last but not least, here's a few Google Earth snapshots of the area so you can see the outline of all this:

The first is an overview. The Zig is in the upper left, the palace grounds are in the middle, and Abraham's house is in the lower right:



The second focuses on the Zig. The three white objects at the top are the portapotties next to the souvenir stand, which is to the left and below the portapotties:



Here's a shot of Abraham's house itself. The two staircases leading to what would have been the upper floors (and what we climbed to meander around on top) are located at the lower left and pretty much dead center:



This is a shot of the palace ruins themselves, where the king and his son lived, housed hundreds of servants, etc.:



Abraham wasn't a king, but he had stature, which is why his house is next to the palace grounds. We know it's Abraham's house because of the writings found at the site which say, roughly translated, "This house belongs to Abram," even though his father actually built it.

By the way, none of the Zig or palace grounds were rebuilt - only excavated. Just the walls of Abrahm's house were rebuilt, but it's clear from the foundations that they're dead on accurate as to the originals, and just to the right you can see the few walls they chose not to excavate.

__________________
I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. A human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

Fascinating!---was this a 'safe' trip?

Well, considering we were under armed guard with military helos patrolling the skies...

Yeah, safe enough. Definately worth the trip! I wish I could have recorded everything the tour guide said, though, as his knowledge of the area and its history was incredibly extensive.

They did have one sign I noticed when we arrived in the area. Quite remarkable. It simply said, in huge letters, UR. About thirty years old.

__________________
I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. A human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

How can they be called contemporaries of Abraham when there's no reliable evidence as to when (or if) Abraham lived?

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Fuzzy pics of black dots or strangely-shaped snow mounds as "evidence" for Noah's ark are one thing. Pics of the interior of his kitchen and even his toilet are quite another. Literally thousands of on-sight writings, some with his and other family names on it, tell a pretty credible story. Most of the tablets with writings were removed to the British Museum and University of Pennsylvania. Volumes of translations are available from them.

Read more (scroll down to where it says Ur): http://www.crystalinks.com/uruk.html

__________________
I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. A human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

I found a few more pics from the U. of Penn's online exhibits:

http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/ur/about.shtml

http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/rese...earch/ur.shtml

__________________
I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. A human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

Something to support my "astronomer-priest" remark regarding Terah, Abraham's father:
The Priest's Son -

"So who is this man who was called “Abram” (father’s favorite) at the beginning and later at the night of Covenant, Yahweh changed his name to “Abraham” (the father of multitude of nations). The question that we are trying to answer here is, if any trace or mention of Abraham can be found in other places beside the holy texts? The answer seems to be a yes. We know that Abraham and his family are from Nippur and he was a Sumerian noble man with a priest and oracle reader as a father. So let us look at Sumerian documentations to see if we can find him.

Votive inscriptions found at Nippur (as those by the archaeological expeditions of the University of Pennsylvania) confirm that the kings of Ur have talked about a mysterious character, which they called “THE PRIEST’S SON” who was very Pious and performed admirably in the battles. The name of this so called “the priest’s son” has been mentioned in the Sumerian tablets as “AB.RAM”, also beginning with the component AB (“Father” or “Progenitor”). The family of Abram was so closely associated with Nippur that they were called “Nippurians” or perhaps their grand fathers founded the city. At the time of Terah, Abraham’s father, the ruler of Sumer was “Ur-Nammu” and Terah was serving him as a liaison between the temple of Nippur and the royal palace in Ur. The Abraham’s family stayed in Ur throughout Ur-Nammu’s reign; it was in the year of his death that the family left Ur for Harran.

In Harran, according to the Babylonian tablets and documents, this “son of priest” got involved in Harran’s foreign affairs; his special friendship with the Hittite residents of Canaan, who were known for their military experience, made Abraham an experience military general that helped him to defeat the enemy in the “War of Kings” very successfully. Ancient tablets also depict Abraham as greatly versed in astronomy, knowledge then valuable for long journeys guided by the starts."

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"Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the greater view?" - Hugo

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." - Churchill

In response to A.DIM's two links:

http://fontes.lstc.edu/~rklein/Documents/Ur.htm

http://www.bibleorigins.net/UrofChaldeesurfaurie.html

He makes a good point about this location being on the "wrong side of the river." However, he also concedes that the Euphrates has changed over time, as do most rivers, including the Mississippi. In fact, the elbow lakes dotting its length are previous sections of the river.

If you'll take a look at the overview in the series of pics above, you'll see a satellite shot of the area. The zig's in the upper left and Abraham's house is in the lower right.

Here are three additional pics. The first shows the excavation site, the local airport, and the river bottom in the lower left:



The second is a closeup of the old river bottom:



That's where the Euphrates used to run. It's now about 12.52 miles from where it used to be. The tourguide said "thirteen," so it checks.

__________________
I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. A human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

By the way, I've got much bigger pics, but Photobucket's not storing them any larger. Frustrating!

Any other solutions?

__________________
I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. A human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

Some have begun to say that it can't be Abraham's house because it's on the west side, rather than the east side of the Euphrates.

The pics above are clear that the Euphrates moved just like most rivers move.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. A human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

Excellent link, A.Dim - thanks!

__________________
I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. A human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

Let me know when you find the new Stargate at the top.

mugaliens, very cool, thanks for sharing. I think the idea of using tar for mortar is very interesting.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009

Sure... Sorry, but no bridges or swampland for sale, here. No Moon hoaxes, either.

You're quite welcome! I found it quite sobering to walk amongst so much antiquity.

__________________
I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. A human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.