Sippara (Zimbir in Sumerian, Sippar in Assyro-Babylonian) was an ancient Babylonian city on the east bank of the Euphrates, north of Babylon. It was divided into two quarters, "Sippar of the Sun-god" and "Sippar of the goddess Anunit," the former of which was discovered by Hormuzd Rassam in 1881 at Abu-Habba, 16 miles southeast of Baghdad. Sumer (or Shumer, Sumeria, Shinar, native ki-en-gir) formed the southern part of Mesopotamia from the time of settlement by the Sumerians until the time of Babylonia. ... Babylon is the Greek variant of Akkadian Babilu, an ancient city in Mesopotamia (Location: , , modern Al Hillah, Iraq). ... The Euphrates (the traditional Greek name for the river, which is in Old Persian Ufrat, Aramaic Prâth/Frot, in Arabic Al-Furat الفرات, in Turkish Fırat and in ancient Assyrian language Pu-rat-tu) is the westernmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia (Bethnahrin in Aramaic), the... Shamash or Sama, was the common Akkadian name of the sun-god in Babylonia and Assyria, corresponding to Sumerian Utu. ... Ishtar is the Akkadian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate northwest Semitic goddess Astarte. ... Hormuzd Rassam (1826-1910) was an Assyriologist and traveller, born at Mosul of Christian parents. ... 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Location of Baghdad within Iraq Baghdad (Arabic: , from Persian بغداد , meaning given by angels) is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Province. ...

Two other Sippars are mentioned in the inscriptions, one of them being "Sippar of Eden," which must have been an additional quarter of the city. It is possible that one of them should be identified with Agade or Akkad, the capital of the first Semitic Babylonian Empire. Akkad (or Agade) was a city and its region of northern Iraq) between Assyria to the northwest and Sumer to the south. ...

The two Sippars of the Sun-god and Anunit are referred to in the Old Testament as Sepharvaim. A large number of cuneiform tablets and other monuments has been found in the ruins of the temple of the Sun-god which was called E-Babara by the Sumerians, Bit-Un by the Semites. The Chaldaean Noah is said by Berossus to have buried the records of the antediluvian world here--doubtless because the name of Sippar was supposed to be connected with sipru, "a writing"--and according to Abydenus (Fr. 9) Nebuchadrezzar excavated a great reservoir in the neighbourhood. Here too was the Babylonian camp in the reign of Nabonidos, and Pliny (N.H. vi. 30) states that it was the seat of a university. Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh, but not Old Testament, because it does not recognize the concept of a New Testament. ... Cuneiform script The Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. ... Sumer (or Shumer, Sumeria, Shinar, native ki-en-gir) formed the southern part of Mesopotamia from the time of settlement by the Sumerians until the time of Babylonia. ... Semitic is an adjective which in common parlance mistakenly refers specifically to Jewish things, while the term actually refers to things originating among speakers of Semitic languages or people descended from them, and in a linguistic context to the northeastern subfamily of Afro-Asiatic. ... According to the Bible, the only survivors from the antediluvian period were Noah and his family. ... Nebuchadnezzar (or Nebudchadrezzar) II (ca. ... Nabonidus (Akkadian Nabu-nāʾid) was the last King of Babylon, who reigned from 556 BC to 539 BC. His reign was characterized by his lack of interest in the politics and religion of his kingdom. ... Pliny the Elder: an imaginative 19c portrait. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, a publication in the public domain.