Girsu

Girsu (Sumerian . cuneiform ) was a city of ancient Sumer, situated some northwest of Lagash, at the site of what is now Tell Telloh in Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq. Because of the initial nasal velar ŋ, the transcription of Ĝirsu is sometimes spelled as Ngirsu (also: G̃irsu, Girsu, Jirsu). As the religious center of the kingdom of Lagash, it contained significant temples to the god Ningirsu (E-ninnu) and his wife Bau and hosted multi-day festivals in their honor.

==History== thumb|Statue of Gudea, named “Gudea, the man who built the temple, may his life be long”. [[Metropolitan Museum of Art 59.2.]] The city lay on a branch of the ancient Iturungal canal, the southern of two major east west canals in Mesopotamia, that also runs to Niĝin and then to Gu'abba.