Visual history of an empire
The Amorite city-state that ruled southern Mesopotamia for a century, its last king Rim-Sin reigning 60 years before Hammurabi took it all.
- Existed
- 2,025 BC to 1,763 BC
- Duration
- 262 years
- Existed
- About 2025 to 1763 BC
- Peak area
- About 60,000 km2 (1790 BC)
- Capital
- Larsa (Tell as-Senkereh)
- Peak ruler
- Rim-Sin I
- Ended by
- Hammurabi, 1763 BC
Larsa was a Sumerian city near Uruk that rose after the fall of Ur III to contest control of the south with Isin. Its Amorite dynasty, founded by Naplanum around 2025 BC, took Ur under Gungunum (about 1932-1906), and under Warad-Sin and Rim-Sin I (about 1822-1763) conquered Isin in 1794 and ruled all of Sumer, restoring temples and canals. Rim-Sin's 60-year reign was the longest in Mesopotamian history until Hammurabi of Babylon defeated him in 1763 and annexed the kingdom. Larsa's astronomical and mathematical tablets are among the finest of the Old Babylonian period.
When it existed: the era ribbon
The bold bar is Larsa. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.
Larsa's territory
Timeline of the Larsa
- 2,025 BCNaplanum founds the dynasty
- 1,925 BCGungunum takes Ur
- 1,834 BCWarad-Sin king
- 1,822 BCRim-Sin I
- 1,794 BCIsin conquered
- 1,763 BCHammurabi takes Larsa
- 1,741 BCRim-Sin II's revolt fails
Isin-Larsa rivalry
When Ur III collapsed in 2004 BC, Ishbi-Erra of Isin claimed its heritage; Larsa under Amorite chiefs was at first a minor rival. Gungunum took Ur and its Persian Gulf trade from Isin around 1925 and adopted the title 'king of Sumer and Akkad'. For a century the two cities fought over the canals and cities of the south, and Larsa's kings, several of them usurpers, gradually gained the upper hand.
Kudur-Mabuk's sons
An Elamite-named chieftain, Kudur-Mabuk, placed his sons Warad-Sin and then Rim-Sin on the throne around 1834. Rim-Sin defeated a coalition of Uruk, Isin, Babylon and others in 1810, took Uruk in 1802 and finally destroyed Isin in 1794, an event so celebrated that he dated the remaining 30 years of his reign from it. He dug canals, built at Ur, Nippur and Larsa, and presided over prosperity; Larsa's schools produced tablets of quadratic equations and geometry.
Hammurabi
Hammurabi of Babylon, once Rim-Sin's ally against Elam, turned on him in 1764-1763, cut Larsa's water supply and took the city after a six-month siege. Rim-Sin, in his eighties, was captured. Larsa became a Babylonian provincial city; a rebel calling himself Rim-Sin II rose against Samsu-iluna in 1741 and was crushed. The city faded, though it was still occupied in Hellenistic times.
Related empires and wars
Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.
Empires of the same era and region
- Neo-Sumerian Empire (Ur III) (2,112 BC to 2,004 BC)
- First Babylonian Empire (1,894 BC to 1,595 BC)
- Elamite Empire (2,700 BC to 539 BC)
- Old Assyrian period (2,025 BC to 1,364 BC)
- Sumer (4,500 BC to 1,900 BC)
- Lagash (2,500 BC to 2,270 BC)
8 surprising things about the Larsa
- Rim-Sin I reigned about 60 years, the longest documented reign in Mesopotamian history.
- He named every year for 30 years after his conquest of Isin: 'year 30 after Isin was taken'.
- Larsa's tablets include the Plimpton 322 table of Pythagorean triples, written centuries before Pythagoras.
- The city's chief god was Utu, the sun god, whose temple E-babbar was rebuilt by king after king down to Nebuchadnezzar II.
- Larsa's rulers were Amorites, western Semites, but wrote in Sumerian and honoured Sumerian gods.
- Hammurabi's Code was issued shortly after the conquest of Larsa and probably incorporates Larsa's legal practice.
- Larsa is the biblical Ellasar, whose king Arioch joined the raid on Sodom in Genesis 14, according to some identifications.
- Kudur-Mabuk, father of Larsa's greatest kings, bore an Elamite name but never took the throne himself.