18. Eshnunna (Tell Asmar)

19. Tutub (Khafajah)

20. Neribtum (Ischali)

21. (Tell Agrab)

Tell Asmar, Khafajah, Ischali, and Tell Agrab, all in the Diyala River Valley, were excavated as part of the Oriental Institute's Iraq expedition, under the general direction of Henri Frankfort, in the early 1930s. Tell Asmar, Khafajah, and Tell Agrab have important occupations of the late 4th to early 3rd millennia B.C. Large-scale excavations permitted Frankfort to outline the archaeological sequence for the Early Dynastic period. Major finds include the Temple Oval at Khafajah as well as substantial finds of sculpture and sculptural reliefs. Tell Asmar, Khafajah, and Ischali also have substantial remains of the Isin- Larsa period (when those city-states were contending for control of southern Mesopotamia) and the succeeding Old Babylonian period, when Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.) and his successors controlled southern Mesopotamia. In the Isin-Larsa period, Eshnunna (Tell Asmar) was the capital of an independent and powerful city-state. Important remains at Tell Asmar include the palace of its rulers. At Ischali there is a major temple dedicated to Inanna/Ishtar.

22. (Ctesiphon)

The Mesopotamian capital under the Parthian (250 B.C.- A.D.. 228) and Sassanian dynasties (A.D. 224-651), Ctesiphon was conquered by the Arabs in A.D. 637. Standing remains include the Taq- i Kisr, one of the four side walls that originally surrounded a vast court (the complex was part of the audience hall of the Sassanian kings). The most prominent feature of the Taq-i Kisr is an enormous vaulted hall (iwan), whose date is somewhat problematicsome authorities suggest that it belongs to the time of Shapur I (A.D. 241-272), some from the time of Chosroes I (A.D. 531579). The vault spans 75 feet; it is nearly 90 feet high and 150 feet deep.

23. Tell Umar (Seleucia)

The city was founded by Alexander's general, Seleucus. Major occupations occurred during the Seleucid and succeeding Parthian periods. Excavations have been conducted here by the University of Michigan in the late 1920s and 1930s and by an Italian expedition since the mid-1960s.