Letters From Tim

As we near the end of our combat tour, I wanted to take a moment and “smell the roses” (or desert dust, burn-pit pollution, aircraft engine exhaust and aviation fuel - in our case). Yesterday, a few of our soldiers were able to get away for a few hours in the early morning before sunrise.

It was an unusual field trip, decorated with body armor, Kevlar helmets, and weapons - but nonetheless, very interesting. We visited a famous Ziggurat, near Nasiriyah - called the Great Ziggurat of Ur. In addition to it’s 4000 year ancestry, it also contains the world’s oldest known archway (about the width of a modern doorway).

More on the “Zig” from Wikipedia>>>

The Ziggurat was built as a place of worship, dedicated to the moon god Nanna (or Suen. The name Nannais Sumerian for “illuminator.”), in the Sumerian city of Ur in ancient Mesopotamia. The temple, a huge stepped platform, was constructed approximately in the 21st century BC by king Ur-Namma. In Sumerian times it was called Etemennigur. Today, after more than 4000 years, the ziggurat is still well preserved in large parts, and partially reconstructed, as the only major remainder of Ur in present-day southern Iraq.