Isin, a city-state of lower Mesopotamia about 20 miles south of Nippur at the site of modern Ishan al-Bahriyat in Iraq's Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, lies on the Isinnitum Canal, part of a set of waterways that connected the cities of Mesopotamia.

The patron deity of Isin is Nintinuga (Gula) goddess of healing, and a temple to her is built here.

The Isin king Enlil-bani reports building a temple to Gula named E-ni-dub-bi, a temple for Sud named E-dim-gal-an-na, a temple E-ur-gi-ra to Ninisina, as well as a temple for the god Ninbgal.

The site of Isin is occupied at least as early as the Early Dynastic Period in the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE, and possibly as far back as the Ubaid period.

While cuneiform tablets from that time are found, the first epigraphic reference to Isin is not until the Ur III period.