(Eʹrech).

One of the four cities constituting “the beginning of [Nimrod’s] kingdom” in the land of Shinar. (Ge 10:10) Erech is today represented by a cluster of mounds at the site called Warka by the Arabs and known as Uruk to the ancient Akkadians of Mesopotamia. It is situated about 177 km (110 mi) SE of Babylon on the W bank of the old bed of the Euphrates (the Shatt-ek-Kar), or some 6 km (3.5 mi) E of the present course of that river. An ancient ziggurat has been uncovered there, along with many mounds and coffins that seem to indicate that Erech was once a burial ground of the Assyrian kings.

Inhabitants of Erech (“Archevites,” KJ) were among those peoples transported to Samaria by Assyrian Emperor Asenappar.​—Ezr 4:9, 10.