ERECH ĭr’ ĕk (אֶ֖רֶכְ, Akkad. Uruk, Sumer. Unug). The second of the cities founded by Nimrod, the others being Babel (Babylon), Accad, Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen (Gen 10:10, 11 RSV). Later, according to Ezra 4:9, 10, the men of Erech and others were settled in the cities of Samaria, by the Assyrian King, Osnappar (Ashurbanipal). Erech was one of the oldest, largest, and most important cities of ancient Sumer. The site is located at modern Warka c. 160 m. S of Baghdad. Originally the city was on the W bank of the Euphrates River but the river now lies some m. to the E of the site.

The original village, Kullab, was founded by the Ubaid people c. 4,000 b.c. and the founder of Erech’s semi-mythical “First Dynasty” was Meskiaggasher. Uruk was the capital of the mythical hero-king Gilgamesh. From the time of Hammurabi it became part of Babylonia and shared its fortunes and misfortunes. There is perpetual reference to the city in Assyrian and Babylonian lit., and commercial documents to 200 b.c. attest its continued prosperity. Later in history—perhaps Assyrian times, certainly by the Parthian period—it became a sort of national necropolis.

The site of Erech was first excavated by William K. Loftus in 1850 and 1854. Later, Ger. expeditions conducted excavations in 1912-1913, 1928-1939, and 1954-1959. These revealed city walls c. six m. in circumference, encircling c. 1,100 acres; two ziggurats; and several temples from the late 4th and early 3rd millennia b.c. Also found were hundreds of pictographic tablets, seals, etc. The library found contained many documents on religious practice, some dating as late as 70 b.c. Excavations also revealed remains of canals in the immediate area of the city, while the site itself was flanked by two large streams and intersected by many canals. Poetical references imply that the city and surrounding area were regarded as once quite fertile, a contrast to the desolation of the area now.

Erech was a chief center for the cult of Anu, one of the foremost Babylonian deities. It was also a center for the worship of Ishtar.

Bibliography Loftus, Travels and Researches in Chaldaea and Susiana (1857); A. Falkenstein, Archaische Texte aus Uruk (1936); H. W. Eliot, Excavations in Mesopotamia and Western Iran (1950).