A Visit to Ur of the Chaldeeswith Dr. Siegfried H. Horn

The Advent Review & Sabbath Herald, March 25, 1954

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It is a thrill to walk through the streets of the residential section of ancient Ur, to go in and out of houses that stood in the time of Abraham and peep into the rooms in which his contemporaries lived.

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The country surrounding Ur is a thirsty land. The Euphrates has changed its course and the ruins of Ur are now at a considerable distance from the life-giving river on whose banks it once lay.

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After having traveled for hours . . . one sees suddenly rising on the horizon one of the most impressive ruins of ancient Mesopotamia . . .

6The temple tower of Ur

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This ziggurat, the old name for a temple tower, still stands to a height of approximately seventy feet, and is therefore a monument of great distinction in this flat land. . . .

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Three wide processional stairways lead up to a porch on the first platform. These stairways are still preserved, and one can walk up the same steps the ancient priests and worshipers climbed in order to meet their god at the top of this temple tower. I climbed the central stairway to the summit of the present tower, and marveled at the industriousness of these ancient people who heaped up millions of large-sized bricks to build this symbol of worship. . . .

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The residential section, of which great parts were uncovered during the excavations, are more fascinating than anything else in the ruins of Ur. One can wander through the streets of the ancient city in which Abraham lived, and go in and out of the houses which he as a child or young man may have frequented. The ruins of these houses are standing to eighteen feet, and are remarkably well preserved, in many cases up to the second floor of the dwellings. . . .

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Ur was one of the famous cities in the early history of Mesopotamia. Some of its kings ruled over the whole country of the two rivers. The c i ty was known far and wide for i ts achievements, for literary fame, and as a cultural center.

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. . . Let me say simply that Ur was once the religious and cultural center of a great part of Lower Mesopotamia, and that houses of worship for many deities in the course of its long history were built in Ur. Worshipers flocked to this metropolis from many parts of the country during the festival seasons, and the riches of the land poured into the various temple treasuries. . . .

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The excavators also found that the population of Ur was highly interested in education. The remains of several schools provided eloquent evidence of the existence of a thirst for learning in that ancient city. Many cuneiform tablets were found in the schools, which served as textbooks or students’ exercises, and showed that the youth of Ur received a well-rounded education in reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography.

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All this sheds much light on the patriarchal period. When higher critics boasted of their great triumphs some fifty or more years ago, they described the patriarchs as ignorant desert sheiks who wandered through the countries of the Near East with their flocks and pitched their tents wherever they could find water or shade trees.

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Today we know that it is entirely wrong to compare Abraham with the uneducated and superstitious Bedouin . . . On the contrary, we must consider him a man of refined tastes, the product of a sophisticated, civilized society. We know now that he came from a highly civilized city . . . It has also become clear that he as the son of a wealthy man must have received a good education. All this has greatly changed the picture we have of the patriarchs.

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