Sippar

Ancient city of Babylonia, southwest of Baghdad, Iraq, an ancient Sumerian city lying on a canal linking the Tigris and the Euphrates. It was an important religious and trading center in southern Mesopotamia. Sippar was subject to the 1st dynasty of Babylon, but little is known about the city before 1174 BC, when it was sacked by the Elamite king Kutir-Nahhunte. It recovered and was later captured by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser I. Under the 8th dynasty of Babylon (c 880), Sippar's great Temple of Shamash was rebuilt. Tens of thousands of tablets from Old Babylonian and Neo-Babylonian periods have been found.

[modern Abu Habba]. One of the most northerly of the cities of Sumer, situated near the Euphrates River north of Babylon in Iraq. The city was occupied from the Early Dynastic period and appears to have been an important religious and trading centre. Among the most important finds are thousands of clay tablets dating to the Old Babylonian and Neo-Babylonian periods. The great religious enclosure dedicated to Shamash was originally founded by Sargon of Akkad, but little is known about this phase, as it is obscured by the buildings of later periods. The Neo-Babylonian period saw much reconstruction and new building: in the late 7th century BC Nabopolassar not only rebuilt the temple of Shamash but dug a canal linking the city to the Euphrates.