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An ancient city of Sumer on the Euphrates river in Mesopotamia where the country of Iraq gets its name. In the oldest known story, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is the king of Uruk. The city's patron deity was the Sumerian goddess Inanna (also called Ishtar) a badass goddess of love, war, and justice. The Ziggurat temple dedicated to her worship called The White Temple can still be seen today in the city's ruins. Not to be confused with Uruk-hai the fictional orc-like race in Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings. Founded in 4,500 BCE and considered the worlds first and longest-reigning hegemon, Uruk was once the largest city in the world(50,000-80,000 people) and has three historical periods named after it: the early, middle, and late Uruk period from 4100 to 3100 BCE. The city was founded before the Bronze Age even began in a period called Protohistory. Even after losing its hegemonic status after being conquered by empires such as Akkad, Babylon, Assyria, and Persia the city remained locally dominant. However, in the Early Middle Ages after the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia, Uruk, a shadow of its former self, was seemingly abandoned in 700 CE after being inhabited for 5,200 years.
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