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Uruk (mod. Warka; Gk. Ὀρχόη), c. 170 km. (106 mi.) south of *Babylon. It was a substantial city from c.4000 bce to the Sasanian period (see sasanids) and the source of hundreds of *cuneiform texts dating between the 7th and 2nd cents. bce. German excavations (since 1912) have uncovered a walled town dominated by a sanctuary of the goddess of war and sex, *Ishtar (Eanna), replaced in importance by a temple of Anu (sky-god) and his consort (Bit Resh) in the late 5th cent. bce, and a third temple, Irigal. Architectural and textual finds of the *Seleucid period are very rich. The Parthian period (see parthia) is well attested by pottery, small finds, and graves. Uruk was one of the most important Babylonian cities of the neo-Babylonian (see babylonia), *Achaemenid and Seleucid periods. A Seleucid colony ‘Antioch-on-the-Ishtar-canal’, is attested near Uruk in 270 bce.