DURA

(Duʹra).

The plain where Nebuchadnezzar set up a gold image.—Dan. 3:1.

Though places as distant as 270 miles (434 kilometers) from Babylon have been suggested as Dura’s location, it is Biblically described as being “in the jurisdictional district of Babylon,” and so apparently was relatively near that city. For this reason, most geographers today accept Tulul Dura, six miles (9.7 kilometers) SE of Babylon, as the most likely of the many proposed sites. The ruins of a dried-brick mound measuring forty-six feet (14 meters) square were discovered here and have been conjectured by some to be the base of Nebuchadnezzar’s image. Nevertheless, the Akkadian term dûru, meaning “circuit,” “wall” or “walled place,” appears frequently in Mesopotamian place-names, making any positive identification impossible at this time.