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Akkad (or Agade) was a city and its region of northern Mesopotamia, (located in present-day Iraq) between Assyria to the northwest and Sumer to the south. It reached the height of its power between the 22nd and 18th centuries BC, before the rise of Babylonia. Akkad gave its name to the Akkadian language, reflecting use of akkadû ("in the language of Akkad") in the Old Babylonian period to denote the Semitic version of a Sumerian text.
The earliest records in Akkadian date to the time of Sargon of Akkad ( 23th century BCE ). While Sargon is traditionally cited as the first ruler of a combined empire of Akkad and Sumer, more recent work suggests that a Sumerian expansion began under a previous king, Lugal-Zage-Si of Uruk. However, Sargon took this process further, conquering many of the surrounding regions to create an empire that reached as far as the Mediterranean Sea and Anatolia.
In the later Assyro-Babylonian literature the name Akkadu, together with Sumer, appears as part of the royal title, as in the non-Semitic lugal Kengi (ki) Uru (ki) or sar mat Sumeri u Akkadi, translating to "king of Sumer and Akkad," which appears to have meant simply "king of Babylonia."
The site of Akkad has not been identified, though texts from as late as the 6th century BCE mention it, and its ruined buildings.