Editing Sumer (section)

==City-states in Mesopotamia==
{{Further|List of cities of the ancient Near East|Geography of Mesopotamia}}
[[File:Proto-cuneiform Cities list.svg|thumb|upright=1.3|A composite copy of a text listing cities from the late Uruk period such as: Nippur, Uruk, Ur, Eresh, Kesh, and Zabala.]]
In the late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into many independent [[city-state]]s, which were divided by canals and boundary stones. Each was centered on a temple dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of the city and ruled over by a priestly governor ([[Ensí|ensi]]) or by a king ([[LUGAL|lugal]]) who was intimately tied to the city's religious rites.
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=300|caption_align=center
| align    = right
| direction =vertical
| header=Anu ziggurat and White Temple
| image2   = The White Temple 'E at Uruk, 3500-3000 BCE.jpg
| image1   = White Temple ziggurat in Uruk.jpg
| footer=Anu ziggurat and White Temple  at Uruk. The original pyramidal structure, the "Anu Ziggurat", dates to around 4000 BC, and the White Temple was built on top of it c. 3500 BC.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Crüsemann |first1=Nicola |last2=Ess |first2=Margarete van |last3=Hilgert |first3=Markus |last4=Salje |first4=Beate |last5=Potts |first5=Timothy |title=Uruk: First City of the Ancient World |date=2019 |publisher=Getty Publications |isbn=978-1-60606-444-3 |page=325 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=muCvDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT325 |language=en}}</ref> The design of the ziggurat was probably a precursor to that of the [[Egyptian pyramids]], the earliest of which dates to c. 2600 BC.<ref>"The stepped design of the Pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara, the oldest known pyramid along the Nile, suggests that it was borrowed from the Mesopotamian ziggurat concept." in {{cite book |last1=Held |first1=Colbert C. (University of Nebraska)|title=Middle East Patterns, Student Economy Edition: Places, People, and Politics |date=2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-96199-1 |page=63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fOlgDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA63 |language=en}}</ref>
}}
An incomplete list of cities that may have been visited, interacted and traded with, invaded, conquered, destroyed, occupied, colonized by and/or otherwise within the Sumerians’ sphere of influence (ordered from south to north):
# [[Eridu]] (''Tell Abu Shahrain''){{sup|SC}}
# Kuara (probably ''[[Tell al-Lahm]]''){{sup|SU}}
# [[Ur]] (''Tell al-Muqayyar''){{sup|SC}}
# [[Kesh (Sumer)|Kesh]] (probably ''[[Tell Jidr]]''){{sup|SU}}
# [[Larsa]] (''Tell as-Senkereh''){{sup|S}}
# [[Uruk]] (''Warka''){{sup|SC}}
# [[Bad-tibira]] (probably ''Tell al-Madain''){{sup|SC}}
# [[Lagash]] (''Tell al-Hiba''){{sup|S}}
# [[Girsu]] (''Tello or Telloh''){{sup|S}}
# [[Umma]] (''Tell Jokha''){{sup|S}}
# [[Zabala (Sumer)|Zabala]] (''Tell Ibzeikh''){{sup|S}}
# [[Shuruppak]] (''Tell Fara''){{sup|SC}}
# [[Kisurra]] (''Tell Abu Hatab''){{sup|S}}
# [[Mashkan-shapir]] (''Tell Abu Duwari''){{sup|S}}
# Eresh (probably ''[[Abu Salabikh]]'') {{sup|SU}}
# [[Isin]] (''Ishan al-Bahriyat''){{sup|SC}}
# [[Adab (city)|Adab]] (''Tell Bismaya''){{sup|SC}}
# [[Nippur]] (''Afak''){{sup|SH}}
# [[Marad]] (''Tell Wannat es-Sadum''){{sup|S}}
# [[Dilbat]] (''Tell ed-Duleim''){{sup|S}}
# [[Borsippa]] (''Birs Nimrud''){{sup|M}}
# [[Larak (Sumer)|Larak]] (probably ''[[Tell al-Wilayah]]''){{sup|SCU}}
# [[Kish (Sumer)|Kish]] (''Tell Uheimir and Ingharra''){{sup|MC}}
# [[Kutha]] (''Tell Ibrahim''){{sup|M}}
# [[Sippar]] (''Tell Abu Habbah''){{sup|MC}}
# [[Der (Sumer)|Der]] (''al-Badra''){{sup|M}}
# [[Akshak]] (probably ''Tell Rishad''){{sup|MCU}}
# [[Akkad (city)|Akkad]] (probably ''Tell Mizyad''){{sup|MCU}}
# [[Eshnunna]] (''Tell Asmar''){{sup|M}}
# [[Awan (ancient city)|Awan]] (probably ''[[Godin Tepe]]''){{sup|ICU}}
# [[Mari, Syria|Mari]] (''Tell Hariri''){{sup|WC}}
# [[Hamazi]] (probably ''Kani Jowez''){{sup|NCU}}
# [[Nagar, Syria|Nagar]] (''Tell Brak''){{sup|W}}
{{plainlist|
*{{small|({{sup|S}}a city in [[southern Mesopotamia]])}}
*{{small|({{sup|M}}an outlying city in [[Central Iraq|central Mesopotamia]])}}
*{{small|({{sup|N}}an outlying city in [[northern Mesopotamia]])}}
*{{small|({{sup|W}}an outlying city in [[western Mesopotamia]])}}
*{{small|({{sup|I}}an outlying city in [[western Iran]])}}
*{{small|({{sup|C}}a city said on the ''[[Sumerian King List]] (SKL)'' to have exercised the Sumerian [[Hegemony|kingship]])}}
*{{small|({{sup|H}}a [[holy city]])}}
*{{small|({{sup|U}}a [[lost city]])}}
}}
Apart from Mari, which lies full 330 kilometres (205 miles) north-west of Agade, but which is credited in the [[regnal list|king list]] as having exercised kingship in the Early Dynastic II period, and Nagar, an outpost, these cities are all in the Euphrates-Tigris alluvial plain, south of [[Baghdad]] in what are now the [[Babylon Governorate|Bābil]], [[Diyala Governorate|Diyala]], [[Wasit Governorate|Wāsit]], [[Dhi Qar Governorate|Dhi Qar]], [[Basra Governorate|Basra]], [[Muthanna Governorate|Al-Muthannā]] and [[Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate|Al-Qādisiyyah]] governorates of [[Iraq]].