Ancient Mesopotamia centered on the ancient kingdom of Babylon and consisted, politically, of a series of city-states. Notable among them were Lagash, Akkad, Erech and Ur. It later flourished again under the Assyrians. The religion of the entire Tigris-Euphrates valley really was one religions, but it consisted of local gods. Dominant gods were determined by dominant cities. For example, when Babylon achieved dominance, Marduk, otherwise known as Bel or Baal, was regarded as king of the gods. The priests were very powerful. The mythology of Babylon was elaborated by the Assyrians and preserved in handwriting on cuneiform tablets. it included stories about a great flood covering the whole world and the story of Ishtar going to the underworld. Babylonian religion was strongly influenced by the Sumerian culture, which placed a lot of emphasis on high towers and was believed to have worshiped high places.
