Sumerian city of Lagash slowly emerging from desert sands
Archaeologists have resumed excavations at the site of the ancient city of Lagash in Iraq, but so have smugglers.
NASIRIYAH, Iraq — The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) added Iraq's Ahwar marshes, including the sites of Uruk, Ur and Tell Eridu, to its World Heritage List on July 17. Iraq has many other sites deserving of such recognition, among them the ancient Sumerian city of Lagash.
A desert wind has been blowing for hundreds of years over the hills of Lagash, today's al-Hiba, in al-Dawayah district, north of Nasiriyah. There have been intermittent excavations since the city was first excavated by a group of German archaeologists led by Robert Koldewey in 1877, but the majority of the city's ruins remain buried beneath sand.
