Abraham and the City of Ur

Hi all,I just reached the halfway point of my tour in Iraq. Things are going pretty well; I'm in one of the safer spots (such as it may be) and am having a good time, more or less. Barring the highly unexpected, I should be back in the States some time in December.I had a recent experience that I figured would spark some discussion here, and have spent the last month trying to make time to post it in a presentable manner. I was visiting Tallil Air Base, down near An-Nasiriyah, and was rather surprised to be presented with the purported birthplace of none other than the patriarch Abraham. In the no-man's-land that surrounds the base, one can visit a ziggurat and a collection of ruins claimed by the locals to be the city of Ur, where he was born and raised until he was called to leave. They even pointed out a labrynth of walls said to be the remains of his house.I got a couple of pictures, which you can see here: In front of the zigguratAtop the ziggurat with part of the ruins behind me Fix links. --AdminI had never heard, in all my years among the flock, that such a location could actually be seen in the present day. It seems that this kind of find, could it be verified, would be well-known among Biblical literalists and held forth as evidence for inerrancy. A couple of the guys on this trip got really excited, understandably I guess, but I couldn't help wondering how one could so easily accept the word of a mere fellow layman in an obscure historical matter. Confirmation bias, anyone?I hope there will be some interested parties more informed than I, who can shed some light on this. My questions are as follows:1. How widespread is the claim that this particular spot, just south of An-Nasiriyah, is Abraham's birthplace?
2. Is the city of Ur present in any historical records, and is its presence at this location a)not mentioned, b)the only one mentioned, or c)one of several?
3. Is there any evidence that the on-site curator is more than an opportunistic tour guide with a good story?Wow, almost two years here and I think this is my first thread....ZThis message has been edited by Admin, 09-21-2004 02:37 PM

Yeah, that's the place. Their pics are a lot better than mine, the bastards.The "house" was apart from the ziggurat and the main body of ruins - couple hundred yards away, though we drove back around half a mile or so to get there. It didn't look much like a dwelling to me - very well-preserved walls but no roof, and from above it looked like a lot of halls and almost no rooms. As far as the ownership of the building, well... how many true crosses are there? How many relics of every saint? As many as could be passed off on an unsuspecting believer at some point in history. Even among educated modern folk, the story gets passed on from one to the next without question, which is why I questioned it to begin with.Nice scenery, regardless.

I wasn't too specific about place or time when I left, because we're careful about travel plans. Not that someone like me is a valuable target or anything.Anyway... yeah, I've been in country since the end of June, but I'm in a pretty good place. We get some indirect fire, but their aim is piss-poor and their munitions suck. A lot of the rockets don't even explode. *sigh* Insurgents these days.My "donut of misery" Excel calculator says my tour is 55% up!Thanks for all the info... I expected (and hoped) you would be among the replies. Now, how do we turn this into another 7,000-post Gulf of Aqaba thread?

In my highly superior branch of the armed services, we call them AFSCs (AF specialty codes). 33S3A - communications and information engineer. The A denotes a technical degree (EE) and a whole 4 weeks of confusing and inapplicable training beyond what they give a vanilla comm officer. It also means I'm in a minority highly desired by deployed units. Heh.Oddly enough, in the last year, as my political leanings have turned more and more strongly against the *censored* *censored* *censored* in charge these days, I have somehow come to like my work more and more. I think I will voluntarily stay in for a while. Just hit 4 years, got a nice raise, decided I might stick it out until something better jumps out. I hope I have the option when the time comes... but then, there is always a way out if you have the imagination

Call this an outrageous cop-out, but the main reason I started this thread was to see what information others were able to share. Normally I'd just quietly do my homework, but it's just not an option right now. I might have a chance to check out the book someday, but not this year. I'm lucky to have time to post at all. Thanks, though. All I can really manage for now is to follow any future discussion & maybe throw a few words in here and there.Cheers-Z

*giggles*I might, but it would bode ill for my career. As much as we love to talk about fighting for freedom, you speak badly of the boss and the military leadership takes it very poorly. Remember that general who got booted for talking about Clinton? Yeah, that was a Democrat president.I guess it all comes back to that line about sacrificing freedom to protect freedom. I always found it a little suspicious - like shooting yourself in the foot so you can run faster.I think my thread is already entering the terminal drift phase. Maybe I'm just being too nice to really piss anyone off. Nice chatting, regardless. Back to work.

That I will do. Take care!

Cool site! Thanks for the link.