Liwan and Iraq’s State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) have begun a two-year project to stabilize and restore the northwest entrance of the Temple of Ishtar on Tell Ingharra (ancient Hursagkalama), located on the archaeological site of Kish.
This Neo-Babylonian temple, built above an older temple dated to the Early Dynastic period, was entirely brought out of the ground in the 1920s by the joint expedition of the Field Museum of Chicago and Oxford University. After 100 years of exposure to the natural elements, this earthen building is now much degraded, with walls collapsing every year.
To save the Temple of Ishtar, one of the last remaining earthen structures on Tell Ingharra exposed in the early 20th century, our project aims to stabilize and restore key sections with the generous funding of the J.M. Kaplan Fund and ALIPH Foundation.
Why does the Temple of Ishtar matter? Find out here.