In addition, beside the north-eastern 'region' is written 'Where Shamash is not seen'. These are each marked, na-gu-u, and beside each is written the note '6 (or 7) beru in between' (the beru is a Babylonian unit of time and linear measurement). Urartu, an independent kingdom around the modern borders of Iran, Turkey and Russia, is placed relatively correctly to the north of Assyria.īeyond the circular 'Bitter River' are placed the eight outlying regions (nagu). Habban, the homeland of a Kassite tribal group around Kermanshah in western Iran, is placed quite wrongly to the west of Babylon.

Clay tablet map of the world shows the world as a disc, surrounded by a ring of water called the 'Bitter River' 'Babylon' is marked as a rectangle at the right end of the Euphrates although the city actually occupied both banks of the river during most of its history the river Euphrates flows south to a horizontal band, of which the right end is marked 'marsh' and the left end is marked 'outflow', thus the marshes at the head of the Gulf and either the Shatt al-Arab or where the river meets the cosmic 'Bitter River' to the right of the 'marsh' is a double curving line with a broken and unintelligible inscription small circles are used to indicate cities or districts, and two of which are identified as 'Assyria' and 'Der' three other geographical areas are marked, namely Bit-Yakin, the territory of an Aramaean tribal group around the southern Euphrates, is placed above its 'outflow'.

Imango moundi