According to the epic, how many leagues of city did Uruk have?

According to the epic, Uruk had three leagues of city within its celebrated enclosure.

Near the end of Tablet XI, Gilgamesh tells the boatman Urshanabi to inspect Uruk's walls and layout. The description divides the settlement into one league for the inner city, one league for the orchards or palm gardens, and one league for the surrounding lowlands. The passage then adds the precinct associated with the goddess Ishtar.

This is not a modern survey of Uruk's archaeological dimensions. It is a literary description celebrating the city, its cultivated landscape, its monumental walls, and its temple district. The repeated measurement gives the city an orderly, almost idealized structure and reinforces Gilgamesh's pride in his kingdom.

The wording can vary between translations: some say “three leagues and the temple precinct,” while others describe three leagues enclosed by the wall, with the sacred precinct additionally mentioned. That explains why the quiz answer is conventionally given as three leagues rather than a precise modern distance. The same passage closes the epic by returning Gilgamesh's attention from the quest for immortality to the enduring works of Uruk.