En-men-lu-ana

En-men-lu-ana is the third king in the Sumerian King List and the first at Bad-tibira, after kingship moved there from Eridu. The list gives him 43,200 years, the longest reign of any king in it.

No contemporary inscription mentions him, and historians treat the pre-Flood section of the list as legend. The large numbers are multiples of the Sumerian sar (3,600), so 43,200 is twelve sars. They are often compared with the long lifespans of the patriarchs in Genesis.

Bad-tibira, whose name may mean 'wall of the metalworkers', was a real Sumerian city, usually identified with Tell al-Madain in southern Iraq. In the list it held kingship for three reigns, including that of Dumuzid the shepherd, before the kingship passed to Larak. Later versions, including Berossus' Greek account, rearrange the names and numbers somewhat, which shows the tradition was copied and adjusted over centuries.