Borsippa

Borsippa was an important ancient city of Mesopotamia (Iraq), built on both sides of a lake about eleven miles southwest of Babylon, on the west bank of the Euphrates. The site of Borsippa is now called Birs Nimrud, identifying the site with Nimrod, and the ziggurat, the "Tongue Tower," is identified in the Talmud and Arab culture with the Tower of Babel.

Borsippa is mentioned, usually in connection with Babylon, in texts from the Ur III period through the Seleucid period and even in early Islamic texts. Borsippa was dependent upon Babylon and was never the seat of an autochthonous power. An impressive ruin of its ziggurat marks the site, which has not been professionally excavated, though an Austrian team was posed to begin in 2003. Many legal administrative and astronomical texts on cuneiform tablets have originated at Borsippa and have turned up on the black market. The local god was Nabu, called the "son" of Babylon's Marduk, as would be appropriate for Babylon's lesser sister-city. An inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II, the "Borsippa inscription," tells how he restored the temple of Nabu, "the temple of the seven spheres," with "bricks of noble lapis lazuli." that must have been covered with a rich blue glaze, surely a memorable sight.

From the 9th century BCE, Borsippa was on the borderland south of which lay the tribal "houses" of Chaldea.

According to the Iraqi Press Monitor (UK), in January 21, 2004: AlMutamar reported, uder the headline "Foreigners Steal Ancient Artefacts," "Foreign visitors to archaeological sites in Babylon, exploiting the site?s lack of surveillance and security, have stolen valuable artefacts, the paper says. Local residents reported seeing foreigners abscond with relics from the city of Borseeba. It is not the first time foreigners have stolen relics from the area." The site mentioned is Birs Nimrud, ancient Borsippa.