DUR-KURIGALZU

(modern ’AQAR QUF)

   Babylonian city. The name means “Fortress of Kurigalzu” since it was this Kurigalzu, a Kassite king, who built his residence there in about 1400 B.C. It served as the capital of the Kassite Dynasty until its demise in the mid-14th century. Kurigalzu surrounded the city, which covered some 225 hectares, with a fortified wall. Some of the colorful murals that decorated the walls of the royal palace, as well as a number of statuary and small ornaments, have been discovered in its ruins. Kurigalzu also built a temple and a large ziggurat (69 by 67.60 meters) that still stands to a height of 57 meters today. In 1170, the city was put to the torch by the Elamites and thereafter abandoned until it became inhabited once more during the Neo-Babylonian period. The site was the first of the Mesopotamian mounds to be systematically excavated, first by Emile Botta (1843–1845), then by Victor Place (1852–1855); Austen Layard also spent a season there in 1849. An American mission by the University of Chicago was active from 1927 to 1953.