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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.
The ziggurat was given a facing of baked bricks, a number of which have cuneiform characters giving the names of deities in the Elamite and Akkadian languages. Though the ziggurat now stands only 24.75 metres (81.2 ft) high, less than half its estimated original height, its state of preservation is unsurpassed.
The ziggurat is the most distinctive form, and cities often had large gateways, of which the Ishtar Gate from Neo-Babylonian Babylon, decorated with beasts in polychrome brick, is the most famous, now largely in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.
The ziggurat was a piece in a temple complex that served as an administrative center for the city, and which was a shrine of the moon god Nanna, the patron deity of Ur. [ 6 ] The construction of the ziggurat was finished in the 21st century BC by King Shulgi , who, in order to win the allegiance of cities, proclaimed himself a god.
Ziggurats were built by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites, and Assyrians as monuments to local religions. The earliest examples of the ziggurat were raised platforms that date from the Ubaid period [20] during the fourth millennium BC, and the latest date from the 6th century BC. The top of the ziggurat was flat, unlike many pyramids.
Choqa Zanbil, a 13th-century BCE ziggurat in Iran, is similarly constructed from clay bricks combined with burnt bricks. [ 1 ] Mudbrick or mud-brick , also known as unfired brick, is an air-dried brick , made of a mixture of mud (containing loam , clay , sand and water ) mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw .
A Neo-Babylonian royal inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II on a stele from Babylon, claimed to have been found in the 1917 excavation by Robert Koldewey, [5] and of uncertain authenticity, reads: "Etemenanki [6] Zikkurat Babibli [Ziggurat of Babylon] I made it, the wonder of the people of the world, I raised its top to heaven, made doors for the gates, and I covered it with bitumen and bricks."
The 4100-year-old Great Ziggurat of Ur in southern Iraq. Ziggurats were huge religious monuments built in the ancient Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau, having the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels. There are 32 ziggurats known at, and near, Mesopotamia.