Enki

In the arid desert of southern Iraq, the remains of one of the world’s oldest cities can be found. This is Eridu, created by the gods as the starting point of civilization in Sumerian mythology. For over two thousand years, this incredibly ancient site (the city was founded in 5,400 BC) lay untouched, its significance long forgotten. That finally began to change in 1854, when British official John George Taylor, working for the East India Company and serving as vice-consul at Basra, was dispatched by the British consul general in Baghdad to excavate a remote site known as Tell Abu Shahrain. After beginning his work, Taylor soon encountered a series of mounds or tells composed of ancient debris, which from