Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The ziggurat was built by King Ur-Nammu, who dedicated it in honour of Nanna/Sîn in approximately the 21st century BCE (short chronology) during the Third Dynasty of Ur. [4] The massive step pyramid measured 64 m (210 ft) in length, 45 m (148 ft) in width and over 30 m (98 ft) in height.
It has the form of a terraced compound of successively receding stories or levels. Notable ziggurats include the Great Ziggurat of Ur near Nasiriyah, the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf near Baghdad, the now destroyed Etemenanki in Babylon, Chogha Zanbil in Khūzestān and Sialk.
A ziggurat (/ ˈ z ɪ ɡ ʊ ˌ r æ t /; Cuneiform: 𒅆𒂍𒉪, Akkadian: ziqqurratum, [2] D-stem of zaqārum 'to protrude, to build high', [3] cognate with other Semitic languages like Hebrew zaqar (זָקַר) 'protrude' [4] [5]) is a type of massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia. It has the form of a terraced compound of ...
That Ur was an important urban centre already then seems to be indicated by a type of cylinder seal called the City Seals. These seals contain a set of Proto-Cuneiform signs which appear to be writings or symbols of the name of city-states in ancient Mesopotamia. Many of these seals have been found in Ur, and the name of Ur is prominent on them ...
Ur-Nammu built the great Ziggurat of Ur. Ur-Nammu was also responsible for ordering the construction of a number of ziggurats, including the Great Ziggurat of Ur. [12] It has been suggested, based on a much later literary composition, that he was killed in battle after he had been abandoned by his army. [7] He was succeeded by his son Shulgi. [4]
Ur-Nammu's ziggurat at Ur was designed as a three-stage construction, but today only two of these survive. This entire mudbrick core structure was originally given a facing of baked brick envelope set in bitumen, 2.5 m on the first lowest stage, and 1.15 m on the second. Each of these baked bricks were stamped with the name of the king.
The name Ennigaldi-Nanna was in all likelihood assumed at this time as her priestess name, since it means "Nanna requests an entu". [14] As entu, Ennigaldi would have devoted much of her religious time in the evenings to worship of Sin in a small blue room on top of the Ziggurat of Ur. [3]
Drawing of the Ziggurat of Ur, Iraq, by Marjorie V. Duffell for Leonard Woolley, 1937. Ur was already well established as the cult center of the moon god, initially under his Sumerian name Nanna, in Early Dynastic times, as attested in the Zame Hymns from Abu Salabikh. [30] His primary temple this city was Ekišnugal, [154] "house of the great ...