KUR (Sumerian underworld)

Kur is the Sumerian underworld. The entrance to Kur was believed to be located in the Zagros mountains in the far east. It has seven gates, through which a soul needs to pass. The god Neti is the gatekeeper. Ereshkigal's sukkal, or messenger, is Namtar. The palace of Ereshkigal was known as Ganzir.

The garden in Kur
According to Sumerian myth, the sun-god Utu travels through Kur at night, as he journeys to the east in preparation for the sunrise. One Sumerian literary work refers to Utu illuminating the underworld and dispensing judgement there. Shamash Hymn 31 (BWL 126) states that Utu serves as a judge of the dead in the underworld alongside the malku, kusu, and the Anunnaki. On his way through Kur, Utu was believed to pass through the garden of the sun-god, which contains trees that bore precious gems as fruit. The Sumerian hymn Inanna and Utu contains an etiological myth in which Utu's sister Inanna begs her brother Utu to take her to Kur, so that she may taste the fruit of a tree that grows there, which will reveal to her all the secrets of sex. Utu complies and, in Kur, Inanna tastes the fruit and becomes knowledgeable of sex.