Nippur was situated on both sides of the Shatt-en-Nil canal, one of the earliest courses of the Euphrates. It lies between the present bed of that river and the Tigris, almost 160 km southeast of Baghdad. It is divided into two main parts by the dry bed of the old Shatt-en-Nil (Arakhat). The highest point of these ruins, a conical hill rising about 30 m above the level of the surrounding plain, northeast of the canal bed, is called by the Arabs "Bint el-Amiror" ('prince's daughter').