Erech Orech
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
— one of the cities named in the book of Genesis (10:10) in the kingdom of Nimrod, in the land of Shinar; built by Nimrod on the river Tigris. The Greeks and Romans called it Orchoe, and the city of Erech is thought to have been located 82 miles southeast of Babylon, in a locality now known by the names Warka, Irna, and Irak. The name of the city (“length”) is often found on ancient bricks together with the names of various Chaldean kings, and sometimes with the image of the moon.
Such bricks, belonging to the most ancient period, are especially numerous at the present-day site of Warka. The inhabitants of Erech were resettled in Samaria by Asnapper (Sennacherib) (Ezra 4:10). Some have identified the city of Erech with Edessa, but this identification is incorrect, since the latter city was, in all likelihood, founded by Seleucus, not by Nimrod.