Kur

Names

The Sumerians had a large number of different names which they applied to the underworld, including Arali, Irkalla, Kukku, Kur, Kigal, and Ganzir. All of these terms were later borrowed into Akkadian. The rest of the time, the underworld was simply known by words meaning "earth" or "sand", including the terms Kur and Ki in Sumerian and the word erṣetu in Akkadian. When used in reference to the underworld, the word Kur usually means "ground", but sometimes this meaning is conflated with another possible meaning of the word Kur as "mountain". The cuneiform sign for Kur was written ideographically with the cuneiform sign 𒆳, a pictograph of a mountain. Sometimes the underworld is called the "land of no return", the "desert", or the "lower world". The most common name for the earth and the underworld in Akkadian is erṣetu, but other names for the underworld include: ammatu, arali / arallû, bīt dumuzi ("House of Dumuzi"), danninu, erṣetu la târi ("Earth of No Return"), ganzer / kanisurra, ḫaštu, irkalla, kiūru, kukkû ("Darkness"), kurnugû ("Earth of No Return"), lammu, mātu šaplītu, and qaqqaru. In the myth "Nergal and Ereshkigal" it is also referred to as Kurnugi.