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Quick Summary
Ur of the Chaldees is the city where Abraham's story begins. Genesis says his father Terah took Abram, Sarai and Lot "from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan," stopping first at Haran (Genesis 11:31). Most scholars identify it with the ancient Sumerian city of Ur in southern Mesopotamia, at a site called Tell el-Muqayyar in what is now southern Iraq, about 10 miles southwest of the city of Nasiriyah.
In its prime, Ur was one of the great cities of the world. It had a towering ziggurat built for the moon god Nanna, royal tombs filled with gold, and a dynasty whose king wrote the oldest law code yet discovered. The phrase "of the Chaldees" ("of the Chaldeans" in most modern translations) points to the people who controlled southern Mesopotamia centuries after Abraham, when Genesis was being read and copied. Today the ruins stand in the desert, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Scripture Reference
Abraham's family in Ur: Genesis 11:27–31
God brought Abraham from Ur: Genesis 15:7; Nehemiah 9:7
Terah's family served other gods: Joshua 24:2
Stephen's retelling: Acts 7:2–4
Abraham's faith in leaving: Hebrews 11:8–10
Where Is Ur of the Chaldees?
Ur in Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia means "the land between the rivers," the plain between the Tigris and Euphrates in what is now Iraq. Ur sat near the southern end of that plain, close to where the two rivers approach the Persian Gulf. In ancient times the Euphrates flowed right past the city and the Gulf coast lay much closer than it does now, so Ur was a busy river port with trade reaching down the Gulf and beyond.
The ruins lie about 140 miles southeast of the ruins of Babylon and about 10 miles west of the Euphrates' present course. The river shifted east over the centuries, and when the water left, the city died with it.
Ur Today: Iraq
The site is called Tell el-Muqayyar, Arabic for "the mound of pitch," after the bitumen used as mortar in its brickwork. It lies in Dhi Qar province in southern Iraq, near the city of Nasiriyah. Since 2016 it has been part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes the marshes of southern Iraq and the ancient cities of Uruk and Eridu.
Was There a Northern Ur?
Not every scholar accepts the southern site. Some, most famously the historian Cyrus Gordon, argued that Abraham's Ur was a town in northern Mesopotamia, near Haran and the modern Turkish city of Urfa. Their reasons: Haran lay directly on the way from the north, Genesis later calls Abraham's homeland Aram-naharaim in the north (Genesis 24:4, 10), and a journey from southern Iraq to Haran is a long detour on the way to Canaan.
Most scholars still favor the southern Ur. It was the great city of that name, the Chaldeans lived in the south, and Stephen places Abraham's call "in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran" (Acts 7:2). Local tradition in Urfa still honors a cave said to be Abraham's birthplace. For the land Abraham was traveling toward, see the Promised Land map.
Ur in the Bible
Terah's Family
Ur appears only a handful of times in the Bible, but always at the same turning point. Genesis 11 introduces Terah and his three sons, Abram, Nahor and Haran. "Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans" (Genesis 11:28). Abram married Sarai, and Genesis adds a line that will drive the rest of the story: "Now Sarai was barren; she had no child" (Genesis 11:30).
Then Terah moved the family. "Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran, they settled there" (Genesis 11:31). Terah died in Haran, and there God called Abram to go on: "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you" (Genesis 12:1). Abram's nephew traveled with him; see Who Was Lot in the Bible?
"Who Brought You from Ur"
Later, when God made his covenant with Abram, he introduced himself by pointing back to Ur: "I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess" (Genesis 15:7). Centuries afterward, the people of Jerusalem prayed the same story back to God: "You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham" (Nehemiah 9:7). In both places, leaving Ur is remembered as something God did.
"Served Other Gods"
Joshua adds a detail Genesis leaves out. Before Israel renewed the covenant at Shechem, Joshua reminded them, "Long ago your ancestors... lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods" (Joshua 24:2). Abraham's family were not worshipers of the Lord when they lived in Ur. God called Abraham out of a city whose great temple belonged to the moon god, and Haran, where the family settled next, was another center of moon worship.
Stephen's Version
In Acts, Stephen tells the story slightly differently: "The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran." Then Abraham "left the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran" (Acts 7:2–4). Genesis records God's call in Haran (Genesis 12:1). Stephen places the first call back in Ur, which fits Genesis 15:7. Many interpreters conclude that God called Abraham in Ur and renewed the call in Haran.
What Does "of the Chaldees" Mean?
The Chaldeans (Hebrew Kasdim) were a people who settled in southern Mesopotamia around the 900s BC and later ruled Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed Jerusalem, was a Chaldean king. They arrived in the region roughly a thousand years after the usual dates for Abraham (see When Did Abraham Live?).
That means "Ur of the Chaldeans" describes the city the way later readers knew it, much as we might say a Roman fort stood in "England" even though England did not exist yet. The phrase also helped distinguish this Ur from any other town with a similar name. "Chaldees" is the King James spelling. Most modern translations, including the NRSV, say "Chaldeans."
The Ancient City of Ur
The Ziggurat of the Moon God
Ur's patron god was Nanna, the Sumerian moon god, known in Akkadian as Sin. Around 2100 BC, King Ur-Nammu built him a ziggurat, a massive stepped tower of mud brick faced with baked brick set in bitumen, about 210 by 150 feet at its base. A temple stood on top. The lower stages still stand and have been partly restored, making it the best-preserved ziggurat in Iraq.
Ziggurats like this one are the likely background for the Tower of Babel, a tower "with its top in the heavens" built of brick and bitumen (Genesis 11:3–4). The Babel story comes just before Abraham's family leaves Ur in Genesis 11. See The Tower of Babel.
The Royal Tombs
From 1922 to 1934, the British archaeologist Leonard Woolley excavated Ur for the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania. His most famous discovery was the Royal Cemetery, about 1,800 graves dating to around 2600 to 2500 BC. Sixteen of them were royal tombs filled with gold, silver and lapis lazuli: the headdress of a queen named Puabi, gold-and-lapis lyres, the statue known as the Ram in a Thicket, and the Standard of Ur, a box decorated with scenes of war and peace. Several tombs also held dozens of attendants who had been buried with their rulers.
Woolley's finds made headlines around the world. One visitor to the dig was the novelist Agatha Christie, who met her second husband, Woolley's assistant Max Mallowan, there.
The Flood Layer
Woolley also dug through a thick layer of clean river silt with no human remains in it and announced that he had found evidence of Noah's flood. Later excavation showed the layer was not present across the whole site and matched a severe local flood of the Euphrates. Most archaeologists today do not connect it with Genesis, though it shows how real and devastating Mesopotamian floods could be. See The Flood (Genesis 6–9).
The Third Dynasty of Ur
Ur reached its height under the Third Dynasty of Ur, around 2112 to 2004 BC, when its kings ruled most of Mesopotamia. Ur-Nammu, the dynasty's founder, issued the Code of Ur-Nammu, the oldest law code yet discovered, about three centuries older than the famous Code of Hammurabi. Around 2004 BC, invaders from Elam sacked the city. A Sumerian poem, the Lament for Ur, mourns its fall.
Later History
Ur recovered and lived on for more than a thousand years. In the 500s BC, Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon and father of the Belshazzar of Daniel 5, restored the ziggurat and installed his daughter as high priestess of the moon god. Not long after, the Euphrates changed course, and by the 300s BC the city had been abandoned to the desert.
| When | What Happened |
|---|---|
| c. 2600–2500 BC | Kings and queens buried in the Royal Cemetery with gold, lyres and attendants |
| c. 2112–2004 BC | Third Dynasty of Ur rules Mesopotamia; Ur-Nammu builds the ziggurat and issues the oldest known law code |
| c. 2004 BC | Elamites sack the city, mourned in the Lament for Ur |
| 2000s–1800s BC | Common range of dates for Abraham, whose family leaves Ur for Haran (Genesis 11:31) |
| 500s BC | Nabonidus, father of Belshazzar, restores the ziggurat |
| By the 300s BC | The Euphrates shifts east and the city is abandoned |
| 1922–1934 | Leonard Woolley excavates Ur and uncovers the Royal Tombs |
| 2016 | Ur becomes part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site |
| 2021 | Pope Francis leads an interfaith prayer gathering at Ur |
Why Ur Matters
Leaving the Greatest City
It is easy to read past Genesis 11:31 as a change of address. Knowing what Ur was makes the move more striking. Abraham's family left one of the oldest, richest and most sophisticated cities on earth, a place of law codes, schools, temples and a tower that rose over the plain. They traveled roughly 600 miles up the Euphrates to Haran, and from there Abraham went on about 400 more to Canaan, where he lived in tents for the rest of his life.
Hebrews sees exactly that contrast: "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going." He lived in tents in the land of promise, "for he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God" (Hebrews 11:8–10). Abraham walked away from a city built around a tower to the moon god and spent his life waiting for a city God would build.
The Beginning of the Promised Land Story
Ur is where the long story of the Promised Land begins. The promise of land, descendants and blessing (Genesis 12:1–3) was given to a man who had just left everything familiar. Every later chapter in that story, from Abraham's tents at Hebron to the return from Babylon, looks back to this departure. Abraham's life is told in Who Was Abraham in the Bible?, and his wife's in Who Was Sarah in the Bible?
There is a symmetry at the other end of the Old Testament as well. Abraham's descendants were later carried off to Babylon by the Chaldeans, back to the same region Abraham had left, and God brought them home again (see The Babylonian Exile). The God who brought Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans brought his children out of the land of the Chaldeans a second time.
Ur Today
The ruins of Ur sit in open desert in southern Iraq. Visitors can climb the restored lower stages of the ziggurat and walk among the excavated foundations of houses and temples. Many of the treasures from the Royal Cemetery are on display in the British Museum in London, the Penn Museum in Philadelphia and the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.
In March 2021, Pope Francis visited Ur during the first papal trip to Iraq and led an interfaith prayer gathering there with Christian, Muslim, Yazidi and Mandaean leaders, honoring Abraham as a shared ancestor in faith.
Frequently Asked Questions About Ur of the Chaldees
Where is Ur of the Chaldees today?
Most scholars identify it with the ruins of Ur at Tell el-Muqayyar in southern Iraq, near the city of Nasiriyah in Dhi Qar province. A minority place Abraham's Ur in the north, near Haran and the city of Urfa in modern Turkey.
Where is Ur in Mesopotamia?
In the far south, near where the Tigris and Euphrates approach the Persian Gulf. In ancient times the Euphrates ran beside the city, which made it a major river port.
What does "Ur of the Chaldees" mean?
It means Ur in the land of the Chaldeans, the people who settled southern Mesopotamia and later ruled Babylon. The Chaldeans arrived long after Abraham, so the phrase describes the city as later readers knew it. "Chaldees" is the King James spelling. The meaning of the name Ur itself is uncertain.
What god was worshiped in Ur?
Nanna, the Sumerian moon god, called Sin in Akkadian. His ziggurat dominated the city. Joshua 24:2 says Abraham's ancestors "served other gods" there.
Was Abraham born in Ur?
Genesis calls Ur the land of his brother Haran's birth (Genesis 11:28) and says the family set out from Ur (Genesis 11:31), which implies Abraham grew up there. Later Jewish tradition and many Christian readers place his birth in Ur.
Why did Abraham leave Ur?
Genesis says Terah led the family out of Ur toward Canaan (Genesis 11:31). God later says, "I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans" (Genesis 15:7), and Stephen says God appeared to Abraham before he left Mesopotamia (Acts 7:2).
How far is Ur from Canaan?
The route Abraham's family took, up the Euphrates to Haran and then south to Canaan, covered roughly 1,000 miles.
Can you visit Ur today?
Yes. The ziggurat and excavated ruins can be visited in southern Iraq, though travel conditions in the region change. Check current government travel advice before planning a trip.
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Works Consulted
Leonard Woolley, Ur of the Chaldees
Harriet Crawford, Ur: The City of the Moon God
Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1–15 (Word Biblical Commentary)
Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (The JPS Torah Commentary)
Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1–17 (New International Commentary on the Old Testament)
K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
