Some have located Ur to the north, others to the south, of Babylonia. Among those who holcl the former view, which appears to accord with the state ment of josephus, some identify Ur with a castle mentioned by Ammianus (Hist. xxv. 8), which lay to the west of Nineveh, about two days' journey south-east of Nisibis. There is some doubt, how ever, whether its name is Ur or Adur ; and the theory of its identity with Ur Of the Chaldees can. not be entertained (see Bochart, Opp. i. 38 and 78 ; Cellarius, Geogr. ii. 76o ; Grotius in Gen. xi. 3r). Another theory, now much more popular, is that which identifies Ur with the classic Edessa, and modern Uvia. This theory has in its favour a very ancient Jewish tradition, some local sanctu aries dedicated to Abraham, and the fact that it is not far distant from Haran (see Ritter, Era'kunde, vii. 320, seq. ; Pococke, Description of the East, I_ 159).
But there is one thing fatal to all these theories which would locate Ur in the northern part of Me sopotamia. It is everywhere distinguished in the Bible as Ur of the Chadoans. It must therefore have been in Chaldma ; and that country, as has already been shown, lay south of Babylonia, along both banks of the Euphrates, near its confluence with the Tigris [CHALafEal. Here again there are two claimants for the honour of identity. Until within the last few years it was supposed that Orchoe cOpx677), a city of southern Babylonia mentioned by Ptolemy (Geogr. v. 20 ; cf. Strab. xvi. 6), was identical with Ur of the Chaldees. This was notedby Servetus in his edition of Ptolemy, and by others since his time (Cellarius, Geogr. ii. 760 ; Bonomi, Nineveh, pp. 41, 399). The theory appears to have arisen from a confounding of the 'Opx671 of Ptolemy with the Otipn of Josephus and 04oin of Eupolemus. Recent researches have shown that the great mounds of Warka, on the left bank of the Euphrates, mark the site of Orcho, and of the Erech of the Bible. A description of these remarkable flans, and the monumental re cords exhumed from them, is given by Loftus (Chalclaa and Susiana, pp. 159, seq. and 199 seg.), and Fraser (Illesopotainza and Assyria, pp. 115, seq.); and the arguments for the identity of Warka and Erech are stated by Rawlinson in his Ancient Al-anarchies (i. pp. 22, seq.) In an extract from Eupolemus, a Greek historian who lived before the Christian era, given by Euse bius in his Praparatio Evangelica (ix. 17), it is said that Abraham was a native of a city of Babylonia called Kamarine, but by others Ourii (cf. Cellarius, Geogr. ii. 760 ; Michaelis Spicilegt 105). Ka manne is doubtless derived from the Arabic Kamr, the moon.' The researches of Mr. Loftus and Sir IIenry Rawlinson have discovered the remain:. of this ancient city in the great mounds of Alugheir From an inscribed brick dug up it was ascertained that the ancient name of Mugheir was expressed by a monogram which signifies the moon,' thus iden tifying it with Kamarine ; and on many other bricks the name Ur is written. There can thus be lade doubt that Ur of the Chaldees, the native city of Terah and Abraham, has at length been found in the desolate mounds of Mugheir.
Mugheir is situated about six miles west of the river Euphrates, opposite its junction with the Shat el-Hie, and about midway between the ruins of Babylon and the Persian Gulf. The only objection which can well be made against the identity arises front its geographical position. Why, it may be asked, setting out from this region to go to Canaan, should Abraham travel all the way round by Haran ? The answer is not difficult. It was the migration of a tribe with flocks and herds, women and children, and not of an individual. To traverse the vast Arabian desert would have been impossible. The natural route—the route which any Arab tribe under similar citcumstances would take at the pre sent day—would be northwards along the rich mea dows by the river side as far as Haran, and then across the narrow grassy plain to Syria. Even caravans tmvelling from Baghdad to Damascus are obliged to take this route.
But it may be said, Did not Stephen locate Ur in Mesopotamia ? True ; the name Mesopotamia, however, was not confined to the region actually between the rivers, it embraced sections of the ad joining plains. When it is said in Josh. xxiv. 3, g r took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood,' reference appears to be made to Haran rather than to Ur of the Chaldees. While in Haran they worshipped idols (Gen. xxxi. 19, 34)• And, besides, a large portion of Chaldxa lay on the east side of the Euphrates.
The name Mugheir (` the bitumened,' or per haps contmcted from Unzlhir, The mother of bitumen') is given to a large circuit of low mounds, half a mile in diameter, dotting a vast marshy plain, which is sometimes flooded by the Euphrates. The name Mdgeyer (so written by Loftus) is, however, peculiarly given to a remarkable building, seventy feet high, which stands near the north end of the mounds, and is the only example of a Baby lonian temple remaining in good preservation, not wholly covered by rubbish. It is built of large bricks, and from their being cemented with bitu men' originates the inodern name of Mdgeyer. It consists of two distinct but massive storeys, having the plain of a right-angled parallelogram, the longest sides of which are the north-east and south west. One angle points due north, which feature, I may remark, is observable in all edifices of truly Chaldxan origin. The lower storey is supported by buttresses thirteen inches deep, and, with the exception of those at the angles, eight feet wide.' The building measures 198 feet in length and 133 in breadth. The lower storey is 27 feet high, and has but one entrance, which is 8 feet wide. The outer surface is faced with red kiln-baked bricks,' to a thickness of ro feet ; but the whole interior is of sun-dried bricks. In each of the angles of this building, 6 feet inward, near the foundation, an inscribed cylinder was discovered, which appears to have served the same purpose as the documents at present dcposited beneath the foundation-stones of our great buildings. These cylinders are now in the British Museum.