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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.
Before the ziggurats there were raised platforms that date from the Ubaid period during the sixth millennium BCE. [7] The ziggurats began as platforms (usually oval, rectangular or square). The ziggurat was a mastaba-like structure with a flat top. The sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside ...
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.
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.
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.
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 ziggurat's base measures 69m x 67m and it was constructed of large, well-tempered liben with many stamped baked bricks incorporated into the structure, bearing the name of Kurigalzu and his dedication of the temple E-U-GAL to Enlil. [8] Facing the front, the Ziggurat can be approached from three main staircases leading up to the first level ...
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 .