Known today by the Arabic name of Warka and in the Old Testament as Erech. When the city was occupied the waters of the Euphrates River flowed close by; today the river flows some 12 miles distant, having shifted its course through the millennia.

Uruk was one of the major city-states of Sumer. Excavations by German archaeologists from 1912 onwards have revealed a series of very important structures and deposits of the 4th millennium BC and the site has given its name to the period that suceeeded the Ubaid Culture and preceeded the Jemdet Nasr Period. The Uruk period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia in the Early Dynastic period. It is not always fully realized how unique the site of Uruk was at this time: it was by far the largest settlement, with the most impressive buildings and with the earliest evidence of writing. It would be true to say that Uruk was Mesopotamia's and the world's first city. It seems to have started as two separate settlements, Kullaba and Eanna, which coalesced in the Uruk Period to form a town covering circa 80 hectares; at the height of its development in the Early Dynastic period the city walls were circa 9.5 kilometres long, enclosing a massive 450 hectares and may have housed some 50,000 people. In the heart of the city are two large temple complexes: the Anu sanctuary, belonging originally to Kullaba and the Eanna sanctuary, dedicated to Inanna, the Goddess of Love. Both these complexes have revealed several successive temple structures of the Uruk Period including the White Temple in the Anu sanctuary and the Limestone and Pillar Temples in the Eanna sanctuary.


A characteristic form of decoration involves the use of clay cones with painted tops pressed into the mud plaster facing the buildings - a technique known as clay cone mosaic. On the northwest side of the Eanna sanctuary is a Ziggurat laid out by Ur-Nammu of Ur in the Ur III Period (late 3rd millennium BC). Evidence from the deep trench excavated in the Eanna sanctuary has cast much light on the developments of the Uruk period. The most important of these was undoubtedly the development of writing. The earliest clay tablets appear in late Uruk levels; they are simple labels and lists with pictographic symbols. Tablets from slightly later levels of the Jemdet Nasr phase show further developments towards the cuneiform script of the Early Dynastic Period.

The city remained important throughout the 3rd millennium BC but declined in importance during the later part of that period. It remained in occupation throughout the following two millennia down to the Parthian Period but only as a minor centre. Uruk was the home of the epic hero Gilgamesh, now thought to be a real king of the city's first dynasty and Uruk played an important role in the mythology of the Mesopotamian civilizations to the end.