Marduk (Sumerian spelling in Akkadian: ^dAMAR.UTU "solar calf"; Greek , Mardochaios) was a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon. When Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi (18th century BC), he slowly started to rise to the position of the head of the Babylonian pantheon, a position he fully acquired by the second half of the second millennium BC. In the city of Babylon, he resided in the temple Esagila. "Marduk" is the Babylonian form of his name.