Question: Who was the ruler of an ancient city located Northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris and had several statues found in southern Mesopotamia?
Context: Lagash (cuneiform: 𒉢𒁓𒆷𒆠 ; <a href="Sumerian%20language">Sumerian</a>: "Lagaš") is an ancient city located northwest of the junction of the <a href="Euphrates">Euphrates</a> and <a href="Tigris">Tigris</a> rivers and east of <a href="Uruk">Uruk, about 22 km east of the modern town of <a href="Ash%20Shatrah">Ash Shatrah</a>, <a href="Iraq">Iraq.  Lagash (modern Al-Hiba) was one of the oldest cities of the Ancient Near East.  The ancient site of Nina (modern Surghul) is around 10 km away and marks the southern limit of the state.  Nearby Girsu (modern Telloh), about 25 km northwest of Lagash, was the religious center of the Lagash state.  Lagash's main temple was the E-Ninnu, dedicated to the god Ningirsu. One of the largest dams in the world, the Haditha complex provided fully one-third of the Iraqi electrical grid load in 2003.  Located northwest of Baghdad, the dam was built during the Cold War to provide hydroelectric power for central Iraq, including Baghdad.  The Haditha Dam also controlled the flow of the Euphrates into the lower Euphrates/Tigris River Valley.  During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, United States Army Rangers seized the Haditha Dam on 1 April in order to prevent it from being destroyed.  The destruction of the dam would have significantly affected the functioning of the country's electrical grid and could cause major flooding downstream from the dam.  Along with providing flood control and a third of Iraq’s electrical generation capacity, the dam provided the only other crossing of the Euphrates River west of Baghdad.  An additional bonus would be by capturing both locations the Iraqi Army would drawn away from their defense of Baghdad, which was under assault by the US Army V Corps.  However, the Iraqi high command were not ignorant of the dam’s strategic value, and they had stationed a powerful defensive force in and around the Haditha Dam. Approximately twenty-seven statues of Gudea, a ruler (ensi) of the state of Lagash have been found in southern Mesopotamia.  Gudea ruled between ca. 2144 - 2124 BC and the statues demonstrate a very sophisticated level of craftsmanship for the time.  The known statues have been categorised 'A-AA' by archaeologists. The geography of Mesopotamia, encompassing its ethnology and history, centred on the two great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates.  While the southern is flat and marshy, the near approach of the two rivers to one another, at a spot where the undulating plateau of the north sinks suddenly into the Babylonian alluvium, tends to separate them still more completely.  In the earliest recorded times, the northern portion was included in Mesopotamia; it was marked off as Assyria after the rise of the Assyrian monarchy.  Apart from Assur, the original capital of Assyria, the chief cities of the country, Nineveh, Kalaḫ and Arbela, were all on the east bank of the Tigris.  The reason was its abundant supply of water, whereas the great plain on the western side had to depend on streams flowing into the Euphrates. The Gharraf Canal, Shaṭṭ al-Ḥayy (Arabic: شط الحي), also known as Shaṭṭ al-Gharrāf (Arabic: شط الغرّاف) or the Hai river, is an ancient canal in Iraq that connects the Tigris at Kut al Amara with the Euphrates east of Nasiryah.  As an Ottoman position lay along the canal, it, was one of the objectives of intense military action during the First World War during the siege of Kut (December 1915 to April 1916).  The Turks surrounded and besieged General Townsend's British Empire forces which occupied Kut.  The Shatt al-Hayy was picked by the Ottoman Army as an advantage point as part of that siege.The Turks attacked a British force commanded by General Booking at Al-Gharraf River (Shatt al-Hai) on 7 February 1916 The Battle of Hanna,took place nearby in January 1916 when the Turks repelled a British attack.The Battle of Dujaila, also took place east of the Al-Gharraf in March 1916 with a similar result.  These battles were between the forces of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) and those of the British Empire (including many Indian troops.)  In both of these battles the Anglo-Indian relief force were trying to relieve the British forces in the city of Kut.  One of the reasons the British had decided to defend Kut was that the canal was considered as a possible route for the Turks or the Anglo-Indian Force to transport troops between the Tigris and Euphrates and vice versa.  By 20 May 1916 the British occupied the right (south) bank of the Tigris as far west as the Al-Gharraf, clearing it of Turkish forces, but had not yet recaptured Kut.  They were able to cross to the other side on 13 December 1916.  The Turks evacuated Kut on 24 February 1917. The architecture of Mesopotamia is ancient architecture of the region of the Tigris–Euphrates river system (also known as Mesopotamia), encompassing several distinct cultures and spanning a period from the 10th millennium BC, when the first permanent structures were built, to the 6th century BC.  Among the Mesopotamian architectural accomplishments are the development of urban planning, the courtyard house, and ziggurats. No architectural profession existed in Mesopotamia; however, scribes drafted and managed construction for the government, nobility, or royalty.  The Mesopotamians regarded 'the craft of building' as a divine gift taught to men by the gods as listed in "me" 28. Seleucia (Greek: Σελεύκεια , also transliterated as Seleuceia, Seleukeia, Seleukheia; formerly Coche or Mahoza, also Veh Ardashir) was an ancient city near the Euphrates river and across the Tigris from the better-known Seleucia on the Tigris, in Sittacene, Mesopotamia.  The editors of the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World place the city at Sliq Kharawta in central Iraq. Sumer ( ) was the first urban civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia, modern-day southern Iraq, during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze ages, and arguably the first civilization in the world with Ancient Egypt and the Indus Valley.  Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, Sumerian farmers were able to grow an abundance of grain and other crops, the surplus of which enabled them to settle in one place.  Proto-writing in the prehistory dates back to c. 3000 BC.  The earliest texts come from the cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr and date back to 3300 BC; early cuneiform script writing emerged in 3000 BC. Apamea or Apameia (Greek: Απάμεια ) was an ancient city – and possibly two ancient cities lying close together – of Mesopotamia mentioned by Stephanus of Byzantium and Pliny as situated near the Tigris near the confluence of the Euphrates, the precise location of which is still uncertain, but it lies in modern-day Iraq. The 1534 capture of Baghdad by Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire from the Safavid dynasty under Tahmasp I was part the Ottoman–Safavid War of 1532 to 1555, itself part a series of Ottoman–Persian Wars.  The city was taken without resistance, the Safavid government having fled and leaving the city undefended.  Baghdad's capture was a significant achievement given its mastery of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and their international and regional trade.  It represented, along with the fall of Basra in 1546, a significant step towards eventual Ottoman victory and the procurement of the lower Mesopotamia, the mouths of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, opening a trading outlet into the Persian Gulf.  The Ottomans wintered there until 1535, overseeing the reconstruction of Sunni and Shia religious shrines and agricultural irrigation projects.  Suleiman returned to Constantinople, leaving a strong garrison force.  Over the next few decades, the Ottomans solidified their control of the region, incorporating it into their empire until it was recaptured by the Persians in 1623.
Answer: Gudea ruled