www.dailystar.com Dhia Mhesen rattles off fact after fact about this ancient mud brick city, the site of a giant ziggurat and the reputed birthplace of Abraham - the prophet revered by Judaism, Christianity and Islam alike. "The ziggurat was the temple of the moon god," said Mhesen. "And over there is the house of Abraham. The Bible calls this place Ur of the Chaldeans." Mhesen, 46, is the third generation in his family to act as caretaker of Ur, a 4,000 year-old city located near Nasiriyah, 375 kilometers southeast of the Iraqi capital. The site is also known as Tell Muqayyar.

The most imposing building at Ur is the ziggurat, a stepped mud-brick temple that towers over the flat desert floor. It is the best-preserved ziggurat in the region.

Since the ousting of former President Saddam Hussein, the eight-square-kilometer site has fallen within a restricted area near a United States military airport.

Speaking surprisingly good English, which he said he had learned from the dictionary, Mhesen recounts how his grandfather excavated the site in 1922 with British archaeologist Sir Leonard Wooley.

Then Mhesen's father took over as Ur caretaker from his grandfather in 1961, and he took the job in 1991. He has lived all his life at Ur.

Built around 2100 BC, the ziggurat is believed to have been about 26 meters high during its heyday.

But since the top structure was knocked down, today it stands at 17 meters, with a base 62 meters by 43 meters, Mhesen said. The walls gradually slope inward, with a top level measuring 20 by 11 meters.

"My birthplace is right over there," Mhesen said, pointing to a hut about 200 meters from the ziggurat. Today he lives in that same hut with his father, his wife, six daughters aged four to 15, and his year-old son.

Chaldeans, Sumerians, Akkadians and Babylonians all lived at Ur. The site was the capital of the Sumerian kingdom in the fourth and third millennia BC. At its height, archaeologists estimate half a million people lived here.

Ur was abandoned around 500 BC, in part because the river Euphrates shifted some three kilometers eastward.

During the 1990-91 Gulf war, Saddam ordered that four of his prized fighter jets from the nearby air base be placed next to the ziggurat to shield them from destruction by American warplanes.

When Mhesen's father protested, soldiers threatened to kill him if he told anyone, Mhesen said.

The planes were spared, but the air base was largely abandoned when a no-fly zone was established across southern Iraq at the end of the war.

Later Abraham's house was rebuilt in anticipation of a visit by Pope John Paul II in 2000.

"But [when] Saddam changed his mind and said he couldn't be held responsible for security, the pope canceled the visit," Mhesen said.

The site described as Abraham's home is comprised of 27 rooms and five courtyards, most of them small by contemporary standards.

When U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March 2003, an advance team with tanks rushed in to secure the nearby airfield for U.S. warplanes.

Terrified Iraqi soldiers fleeing the base stopped by Mhesen's hut and urged him to hide.

"I said: why? I am a civilian," Mhesen recalled.

When U.S. troopers called by four days later, Mhesen was surprised to find U.S.-trained Iraqi soldiers with them. Soon "they were in my house drinking tea," he said.

Visitors can enter the site only if accompanied by an armed military escort.

U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Natalicio Ruiz, who has escorted visitors to the site at least 50 times, knows exactly where next to move as Mhesen gives his presentation.

A visitor risks collapsing from dehydration in the summer heat as Mhesen compresses thousands of years of history into the hour-long guided tour.

"I tell visitors that the longer you talk with Dhia, the hotter it will get," he said.

Mhesen is now trying to convince one of his six brothers, 19 year-old Akram, to follow the family tradition. "He hasn't decided yet," he said.