A more difficult problem is presented by what at first sight appears to be a claim to a still wider empire, which follows Lugal-zaggisi's titles at the end of the first and the beginning of the second column of his inscription. He here states that, after Enlil had bestowed on him the kingdom of the land (that is, of Sumer), and had granted him success in the eyes of the land, and when his might had cast the lands down and he had conquered them from East to West, at that time Enlil "made straight his path from the Lower Sea (over) the Euphrates and the Tigris unto the Upper Sea."[8] The Lower Sea is clearly the Persian Gulf, and by the Upper Sea it is probable that the Mediterranean is intended, rather than Lake Urmi or Lake Van. On the basis of this passage Lugal-zaggisi has been credited with having consolidated and ruled an empire extending from the Persian Gulf to the shores of the Mediterranean.[9] In other words, he would have included Akkad and Syria along with Sumer within the limits of his rule. It is true that Shar-Gani-sharri of Akkad, at a rather later period, did succeed in establishing an empire of this extent, but there are difficulties in the way of crediting Lugal-zaggisi with a like achievement. For Erech, the capital of his kingdom, was in Southern Babylonia, and, unlike the city of Akkad, was not well adapted to form the centre of an administrative area extending so far to the north and west. Moreover, the actual phrase employed by Lugal-zaggisi does not necessarily imply a claim to dominion within these regions, but may be taken as commemorating little more than a victorious raid, during which he may have penetrated to the Syrian coast. Such an expedition, so far as we know, must have marked a new departure from the policy hitherto followed by the rulers of Sumerian city-states, and its successful prosecution would have fully justified the language in which it is recorded. In view of these considerations, it is preferable to regard Lugal-zaggisi's kingdom, in the strict sense of the word, as having been confined to Sumer. Of his relations to Akkad and the northern cities we have no evidence on which to form an opinion. We shall presently see reasons for believing that at about this period, or a little later, the state of Kish secured the hegemony in Northern Babylonia, and, in view of the absence of any reference to it in Lugal-zaggisi's inscription, we may perhaps conclude that in his time the city had already laid the foundations of its later power.