Cover Story
On the Ground: Uruk, the First City
Around 3500 BCE, on the fertile land where two rivers meet, an unprecedented experiment in human history begins. Scattered peoples started gathering into a single massive settlement — the heart of Sumerian civilization: Uruk. This great city of 50,000 inha
bitants gave birth to the world's first written laws, the first writing system, and the first professional classes. Walk the streets of Uruk, with its temples, markets, and courts, and you would feel that the roots of our lives today are not so different.
