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277 Anu altered his holy word. . . Enlil deceitfully changed his fate-decree . . . The manner in which Ur-Nammu had died (2096 B.C.) may have accounted for the behavior of his successor, of whom one can use the biblical contempt for a king who "prostituted himself" and "did that which was evil in the view of the Lord." Named Shulgi. he was born under divine auspices: it was Nannar himself who had arranged for the child to be conceived at Enlil's shrine in Nippur. through a union between Ur-Nammu and Enlil's high priestess, so that "a little ‘Enlil’ ... a child suitable for kingship and throne, shall be conceived." The new king began his long reign by choosing to keep together his far-flung empire through peaceful means and religious recon- ciliation. As soon as he ascended the throne, he embarked on the building (or rebuilding) of a temple for Ninurta in Nippur; this en- abled him to declare Ur and Nippur to be "“Brother-Cities." He then built a ship—naming it after Ninlil—and sailed to the "Land of Flying for Life." His poems indicate that he imagined himself a second Gilgamesh, following in that earlier king's footsteps to the "Land of Living"—to the Sinai peninsula. Landing at "The Place of the Ramp" (or "Land-fill Place"), Shulgi built there an altar to Nannar. Continuing his journey on land. Shulgi reached the Harsag—Ninharsag's High Mountain in the southern Sinai—and built there an altar, too. Winding his way in the peninsula, he reached the place called BAD.GAL.DINGIR (Dur-Mah-Ilu in Akkadian), "The Great Fortified Place of the Gods." He now was indeed emulating Gilgamesh, for Gilgamesh, arriving from the direction of the Dead Sea, had also stopped to pray and make offerings to the gods at that gateway place, situated between the Negev and the Sinai proper. There Shulgi built an altar to the "God Who Judges." It was the eighth year of Shulgi's reign as he began the journey back to Sumer. His route via the Fertile Crescent began in Canaan and Lebanon, where he built altars at the "Place of Bright Ora- cles" and "The Snow-covered Place." It was a deliberately slow journey, intended to strengthen the imperial bonds with the distant provinces. It was as a result of this journey that Shulgi built a net- Prelude to Disaster when Ur-Nammu's bitter fate was determined? Surely it was a be- beeeeeT bev thee seek wade trayal by the great gods: How the late of the hero has been changed!