Who was the first king in the Sumerian King List?

Who was the first king in the Sumerian King List? Alulim was the first king named in the Sumerian King List.

The list places Alulim in Eridu, the city traditionally regarded as the earliest seat of kingship. It says that kingship descended from heaven and came to Eridu, where Alulim ruled before the legendary flood. He was followed by Alalngar, after which kingship moved to other cities such as Bad-tibira and Uruk.

The Weld-Blundell Prism, the best-known surviving copy, assigns Alulim a reign of eight sars—28,800 years. Such enormous figures signal the list’s mythic and literary character rather than a usable historical chronology. Other copies and related traditions give different numbers, including 36,000 years, showing that the text changed during transmission.

Alulim should not be confused with En-men-lu-ana, En-men-gal-ana, or Dumuzid, who appear later among the antediluvian rulers. He is also not the first historically attested king in the list: that distinction is often given to Enmebaragesi of Kish. Assyriologists generally regard Alulim as legendary or fictional, but within the King List’s own narrative, his position is unambiguous.