Army Engineers Taste History, Humility as They Explore the Ziggurat of Ur
By Andy Mosher
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, August 11, 2006

UR, Iraq-By mid-afternoon, it had already been a long, hot day for the Army engineers. They had toured a nearly complete water treatment plant and a half-built prison, but they had one more stop to make -- a place where the workmen had finished the job long before anyone had heard of George W. Bush or Saddam Hussein.

Or Jesus.

Or Alexander the Great.

Breathing a little easier as their convoy of armored sport-utility vehicles pulled through the gate of Tallil air base at 3:15 p.m., the engineers headed not for the comfort of their air-conditioned bunks but for an enormous mound of mud and brick tucked inside the base.the rest photo