BORSIPPA: translation
Babylonian city (modern Birs Nimrud), southwest of Babylon, which early travelers mistook for Babylon. It was investigated in the 19th century by explorer-cum-archaeologists such as Austen Layard, Hormuzd Rassam, and Henry C. Rawlinson, and more recently by an Austrian team.
The site was occupied from the late third millennium B.C. until the Islamic period. The main attraction of the city, especially during the first millennium, was the temple of the god Nabu, known as Ezida, which Hammurabiof Babylon claimed to have restored. Most of the extant archaeological evidence dates from this time. The Ezida precinct then consisted of a temple and a ziggurat, both within a walled enclosure. Aprocessional street led from the temple, through the city gates, toward Babylon. This was ritually used in the New Year festival when Nabu, like all major Babylonian deities, assembled at the precinct of Marduk.