Enirgalana (cella of Ištar in Eanna at Uruk)

The cella of the goddess Inanna/Ištar in Eanna is Enirgalana. The late Neo-Assyrian king Esarhaddon (r. 680–669 BC) records that he restored this part of Ištar's temple.

Names and Spellings

This Sumerian ceremonial name of this part of Eanna is called Enirgalana, which means "House of the Prince of Heaven." In an Akkadian inscription of Ashurbanipal, Ištar's cella is called Enirgalanim ("House of the Prince of the God Anu"). The name is also attested for a shrine in Esagil (the temple of Babylon's patron deity Marduk) and a seat of the god Nabû in Erabrabi (the temple of the god Mandānu in the Esagil temple complex).

Written Forms: e₂-nir-gal₂-^da-nim; e₂-nir-gal₂-an-na.

Plan of Uruk showing the locations of Eanna (with its ziggurat), the Rēš Temple, and Eʾešgal. Drawn by Ardeth Anderson for the Lagash Archaeological Project (LAP).

Known Builders

Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911–612 BC)

Esarhaddon (r. 680–669 BC)

Building History

As part of his work on Eanna, the seventh-century-BC Assyrian king Esarhaddon records that he had the holiest room(s) of Uruk's most important temple rebuilt. The relevant passage of the Akkadian inscription recording this deed, reads as follows:

Enirgalana, the cella of the goddess Ištar, my lady, which is inside Eanna, which a previous king had built, became old and dilapidated. I sought its (original) emplacement (and) repaired its dilapidated parts with baked bricks from a (ritually) pure kiln. I grasped the hands of the goddess Ištar-of-Uruk, the great lady, brought (her) inside, (and) made (her) to take up residence (there) forever. I offered splendid offerings and made her doorbolt extremely fine.

Unlike many royal inscriptions found in Babylonian, this text (which is written on several clay cylinders) records that the king had the statue/image of the temple's patron deity returned to its dais. In addition to its doorbolt (Akkadian šigaru), Esarhaddon presumably decorated the interior of Enirgalana with objects made from and plated with various types of metal.

None of the other, later known builders of Eanna record that they had Ištar's cella rebuilt or decorated.

Archaeological Remains

Enirgal has not yet been positively identified in the archaeological record.

Further Reading

Beaulieu, P.-A. 2003. The Pantheon of Uruk during the Neo-Babylonian Period (Cuneiform Monographs 23), Leiden and Boston, pp. 29–33 and 170–171.
George, A.R. 1993. House Most High: The Temples of Ancient Mesopotamia (Mesopotamian Civilizations 5), Winona Lake, p. 134 no. 901.

Banner image: view of the Eanna ziggurat from the east (September 27th 2019). Photograph credit: Mary Frazer.

Jamie Novotny

Jamie Novotny, 'Enirgalana (cella of Ištar in Eanna at Uruk)', Babylonian Temples and Monumental Architecture online (BTMAo), The BTMAo Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, [http://oracc.org/btmao/Uruk/Eanna/Enirgalana/]

BTMAo 2019-. BTMAo is based at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Historisches Seminar (LMU Munich, History Department) - Alexander von Humboldt Chair for Ancient History of the Near and Middle East. BTMAo is part of the four-year project Living Among Ruins: The Experience of Urban Abandonment in Babylonia (September 2019 to October 2023), which is funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung as part of the program "Lost Cities. Wahrnehmung von und Leben mit verlassenen Städten in den Kulturen der Welt," coordinated by Martin Zimmermann and Andreas Beyer. Content released under a CC BY-SA 3.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/] license, 2007-.
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