Birthplace of Abraham Gets a New Lease on Life
Like the great pyramids of Egypt, it looms above a parched, flat and desolate landscape and easily dominates the skyline of this ancient, now long abandoned city. The Great Ziggurat is what most people think about when one mentions the city of Ur. Much more than a single monumental structure, however, Ur was a royal city that contained the public buildings, religious centers, and tombs of a people who, over 4,000 years ago, set the standards for civilizations that followed. It was one of the first great centers of Mesopotamia. Here Abraham, according to the Biblical account, was born and raised. And here, over the many centuries, elements and events, both natural and human, have combined to lay it to waste. It crumbles before our eyes. That is now changing.
Through joint efforts of the U.S.-based Global Heritage Fund, the Iraq Ministry of Culture, State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, and the Dhiqar Antiquities Office, what remains of Ur will be systematically restored and stabilized and a plan established to breath new life into tourism and the local community. It will also build a foundation for future archaeologists to again resume serious research and investigation of this seminal site.
The plan includes surveying and documenting the site and its remains, producing new maps through the use of techniques such as satellite imagery and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), defining the site boundaries, creating a photographic database of the site's current state, installing a boundary fence, developing a conservation Master Plan, and then implementing conservation activities to restore and stabilize some of the site's most endangered structures, which include the Great Ziggurat and the nearby Royal Cemetery. Efforts will also include a more developed, comprehensive plan for site interpretation and presentation. The price tag involves a $850,000 investment by GHF and $1,000,000 from the Government of Iraq.
Aside from the goal of conserving a valuable heritage of global interest, it is hoped that the efforts will produce returns for a country that has enormous tourism potential. Says Jeff Morgan, Executive Director of GHF, "Everybody has been to Egypt in the past 30 or 40 years. But who has visited Iraq?" American soldiers, for one -- but project administrators and the Iraqi authorities hope to change that in a major way.
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