Ur of the Chaldees

Ur Kaśdim (Hebrew: אוּר כַּשְׂדִּים‎ ʾūr kaśdīm), commonly translated as Ur of the Chaldees, is a city mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as the birthplace of the Israelite and Ismaelite patriarch Abraham. One of the traditional sites of Abraham's birth is placed in the vicinity of the city of Edessa (Şanlıurfa in modern Turkey). Some Islamic and Jewish authorities, such as Maimonides and Josephus, placed Ur Kaśdim at various Mesopotamian or southeast Anatolian sites such as Urkesh, Urartu, Urfa or Kutha.

In 1862 Henry Rawlinson identified Ur Kaśdim with Tell el-Muqayyar, near Nasiriyah in southern Iraq. In 1927, Leonard Woolley excavated the site and identified it as Sumerian archaeological site where the Chaldeans were to settle in much later times, around the 9th century BCE; the site is now known simply as Ur, and includes an ancient ziggurat.

Ur Kaśdim is mentioned four times in the Hebrew Bible, at , , , and .

The distinction "Kaśdim" usually rendered in English as "of the Chaldees." In Genesis, the name is found in 11:28, 11:31 and 15:7. Although not explicitly stated in the Tanakh, it is generally understood to be the birthplace of Abraham. Genesis 11:27–28 names it as the birthplace of Abraham's brother Haran, and the point of departure of Terah's household, including his son Abram.

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