Ancient places

Cities, temples and sites of Antiquity that appear in the game's lore: Mesopotamia (Ur, Uruk, Nippur, Eridu), the Levant (Paphos, Ugarit), the Mediterranean. Where the myths took place.

Lagash

Sumerian city-state of the Early Dynastic Period. City of Ningirsu/Ninurta. Famous for ensi Gudea (~2120 BC) and his diorite statues, and for the Stele of the Vultures — the first visual battle narrative in history.

Ancient placessumerianmesopotamiacity-state

Carthage

Phoenician city founded by colonists from Tyre ~814 BC in North Africa. Mediterranean thalassocratic empire. Astarte transformed there into Tanit. Destroyed by Rome in 146 BC. Rebuilt as Roman capital, today a suburb of Tunis.

Ancient placesPhoenicianPunicCarthage

Shuruppak

Sumerian city-state of the Early Dynastic Period. City of Ziusudra/Atrahasis/Utnapishtim — the survivor of the Mesopotamian Flood. The place where Enki whispered to the reed wall and changed the fate of humanity.

Ancient placesSumerianMesopotamiaFlood

Cnidus

Greek city in Anatolia that housed Praxiteles' Aphrodite of Cnidus — the first monumental Greek sculpture of a completely nude goddess. It inaugurated an aesthetic canon and made Cnidus a destination for artistic pilgrimage in Antiquity.

Ancient placesgreekAnatoliaAphrodite

Eryx

City in western Sicily where the temple of Astarte became a temple of Aphrodite and then of Venus — the entire Levantine-Roman syncretic chain visible in layers at the same site. Today Erice, with a Norman castle over the ancient foundations.

Ancient placessicilyphoeniciangreek

Paphos

Cypriot city where the cult of Astarte became the cult of Aphrodite without changing location — critical bridge of Levantine-Greek syncretism. Herodotus and Pausanias attest to the transfer. UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Ancient placesgreekcypriotcanaanite

Akkad

Capital of the first great empire in history, under Sargon (~2334 BCE). Father of Enheduanna, architect of Sumerian-Akkadian unification. City never located with certainty — it vanished without leaving identified ruins.

Ancient placesakkadianempireSargon

Ugarit

Canaanite city-state on the northern coast of Syria. Site of the Baal Cycle, the Ugaritic cuneiform alphabet (oldest alphabet with an extensive corpus), and the texts that underpin Levantine mythology. Destroyed around 1185 BCE and never resettled.

Ancient placescanaaniteugariticLevant

Nineveh

Capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire under Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal. Center of the cult of Ishtar of Nineveh. Ashurbanipal's Library preserved the Epic of Gilgameš and thousands of tablets — an unlikely akashic ark of Mesopotamia.

Ancient placesassyrianmesopotamiaimperial-city

Babylon

Capital of the Babylonian Empire. City of Marduk and the Ishtar Gate. Center of the Code of Hammurabi and the Hanging Gardens. In the game, demiurgic succession of Eridu: Marduk = heir of Enki, prison refined to imperial scale.

Ancient placesbabylonianmesopotamiacity-empire

Nippur

Pan-Sumerian religious center, sacred capital of Enlil. Not a political city — precisely for that reason it was the seat where city-states met ritually and where kings received legitimacy.

Ancient placessumerianmesopotamiacity-state

Ur

Sumerian city-state in the far south of Mesopotamia. Cult center of Nanna, seat of the Third Dynasty (Ur-Nammu, Shulgi), home of Enheduanna. In the game, the city where Enki orchestrated the assassination that fractured the opposing faction.

Ancient placesSumerianMesopotamiacity-state

Eridu

The "first city in the world" according to the Sumerian King List — where "kingship descended from heaven". Cult center of Enki. In the game, symbolic capital of the Demiurge: where the architecture of the social prison was designed.

Ancient placessumerianMesopotâmiacity-state

Uruk

Largest city in the world in the 4th millennium BC. Cradle of cuneiform writing, home of Gilgameš, center of cult of An and Inanna. In the game, mother-city of the me's theft and spiritual namesake of Nova Uruque.

Ancient placessumerianmesopotamiacity-state