EOSGIS created the map «The Land of Sumer» for issue 246 of Historia National Geographic (May 2026). It shows the city-states between the Tigris and the Euphrates and can be explored with zoom.
The map «The Land of Sumer» accompanies the article «The Kings of Sumer» by Jordi Vidal (Autonomous University of Barcelona), published in issue 246 of Historia National Geographic (May 2026). It can be explored here in a zoomable viewer.
It shows southern Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. According to the article, during the 3rd millennium BC this region held at least a dozen large independent city-states that fought for supremacy, among them Kish, Uruk, Ur, Nippur, Umma and Lagash. They were surrounded by walls, controlled the surrounding territory and each had a patron deity, to whom the great temple (ziggurat) was dedicated. This temple was the city's social, political and religious centre.
Zooming in reveals more than thirty towns and archaeological sites, such as Eridu, Tell el-Obeid, Abu Salabikh, Girsu, Larsa, Shuruppak and Babylon. The map also labels the Diyala River, the Habbaniya area and the Zagros Mountains, along with the neighbouring regions of Akkad and Elam, including Susa. A dotted line marks the possible coastline of the Persian Gulf around 2000 BC, in the area of Ur and Eridu.
Published in Historia National Geographic no. 246, 2026-05
