Page Content (OCR)
317 But why? The destruction of the cities of the plain, we believe, was only a sideshow: concurrently, the Spaceport in the Sinai peninsula was also obliterated with nuclear weapons, leaving behind a deadly ra- diation that lingered on for many years thereafter. The main nuclear target was in the Sinai peninsula; and the real victim, in the end, was Sumer itself. Though the end of Ur came swiftly, its sad fate loomed darker ever since the War of the e Kings, coming nearer and nearer, like the aaeed 26 2.0 4 sound of a distant drummer—an execution's drummer—getting closer, growing louder with each passing year. The Year of Doom—2024 B.C.—was the sixth year of the reign of Ibbi-Sin, the last king of Ur; but to find the reasons for the calamity, explana- tions of its nature, and details of its scope, we will have to study the records of those fateful years back from the time of that war. Having failed in their mission and twice humiliated by the hand of Abraham—once at Kadesh-Barnea, then again near Damascus— the invading kings were promptly removed from their thrones. In Ur, Amar-Sin was replaced by his brother Shu-Sin, who ascended the throne to find the grand alliance shattered and Ur's erstwhile al- ae ea le te lies now nibbling at her crumbling empire. Although they, too, had been discredited by the War of the Kings, Nannar and Inanna were at first the gods in whom Shu-Sin had put his trust. It was Nannar, Shu-Sin's early inscriptions stated, who had "called his name" to kingship; he was "beloved of Inanna." and she herself presented him to Nannar (Fig. 103). Fig. 103 The Nuclear Holocaust thee.’ " The passage through the Sinai peninsula was apparently still unsafe.