9. Wasit

Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi, Viceroy of Iraq under the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik, built Wasit as a garrison city in A.D. 703- 705. It was completely abandoned by 1695, in large part because of a change in the course of the Tigris. The most prominent ruin, the so- called Manara, is located in the eastern part of the site. It consists of a monumental gateway covered by a pointed arch and flanked on either side by minaret towers. The Manara served as the entrance to a building whose main feature was an octagonal mausoleum.

10 Umma (Jokha)

A city-state with an important occupation in the Early Dynastic period, Umma is perhaps best known from its generations-long battle with the city-state of Lagash over border territory and water. Never scientifically excavated, it was subject to apparently large-scale illicit excavations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many late-3rd millennium B.C. tablets from Umma are spread over the world in various collections.

11. Lagash (al-Hiba)

Lagash has substantial and important remains of the Early Dynastic period. In the later 3rd and early 2nd millennia the main center of occupation was transferred to Girsu. Al-Hiba has been excavated since the late 1960s by an expedition from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. Major finds include an oval temple dedicated to Inanna, goddess of love and war, and part of the temple of Lagash's major deity, Ningirsu, that appears to have functioned as a brewery.

12. Girsu (Tello)

Girsu (Tello) was excavated by various French expeditions from 1877 to the early 1930s. There are major remains of the Early Dynastic period and remains of the succeeding dynasty of Akkad (ca. 2350-2150 B.C.) and the Third Dynasty of Ur (2112-2004 B.C.). Among the finds are the mid-3rd millennium B.C. Stele of the Vultures, a relief commemorating the victory of Lagash's ruler, Eannatum I, over Umma, and many statues of Gudea, city ruler under the early kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur.