Two other possibilities remain, the one generally accepted by Assyriologists, the other tentatively put forward by myself some years ago. The former has a series of most interesting traditions to support it, the latter simply a slightly greater probability. The reader may adopt that which seems to him best to suit the circumstances of the case. The identification generally accepted is, that Ur of the Chaldees is the series of mounds now called Mugheir, or, more in accordance with correct pronunciation, Muqayyar, “the pitchy,” from the noun _qír_, “pitch,” that material having been largely used in the construction of the buildings whose ruins occupy the site. The identification of these ruins with those of Ur-kasdim or Ur of the Chaldees was first proposed by Sir Henry Rawlinson in 1855, on the ground that the name of the city on the bricks found there, which he read Hur, resembled that of the name as given in Gen. xi. 28 and 31. As a matter of fact, the Semitic Babylonian form of the name approaches even nearer than the celebrated Assyriologist then thought, for it is given in the bilingual texts as _Uru_. The Akkadian form (which is most probably the more ancient of the two), on the other hand, is not so satisfactory, as it contains an additional syllable, the full form being _Uriwa_ (the vowel before the _w_ only is a little doubtful). This, with the absence of any addition corresponding to the Hebrew _Kasdim_, is the principal flaw in what would otherwise be a perfect philological comparison. Ur or Uriwa, the modern Mugheir, is situated about 140 miles S.E. of Babylon, and about 560 miles S.E. of Ḫaran. In ancient days it was a place of considerable importance, and the site of a celebrated temple-tower called Ê-šu-gan-dudu, probably the Ê-giš-nu-gala(32) of other texts, the shrine of the god Nannara, also called Sin, the Moon-god, whose worship had gained considerable renown. “Father Nannar, lord of Ur, prince of the gods, in heaven and earth he alone is supreme; Father Nannar, lord of Ê-giš-nu-gala, prince of the gods, in heaven and earth he alone is supreme: Father Nannar, lord, bright-shining diadem, prince of the gods, in heaven and earth he alone is supreme; Father Nannar, whose dominion is greatly perfect, prince of the gods, in heaven and earth he alone is supreme; Father Nannar, who in a princely garment is resplendent, prince of the gods, in heaven and earth he alone is supreme,” etc. The above is the beginning of a long hymn written in the Sumerian dialect, in which an ancient Babylonian poet praises him, and in many another composition is his glory sung, and in adversity his name invoked—