Ziggurat

Ziggurat

ca. 2100 BCE

October 21, 2014

1584

Single Built Works

Iraq (nation)

Tall al-Muqayyar (deserted settlement)

Neo-Sumerian

ziggurats

View of the Ziggurat of Ur in Iraq. "The ziggurat is the most distinctive architectural invention of the Ancient Near East. Like an ancient Egyptian pyramid, an ancient Near Eastern ziggurat has four sides and rises up to the realm of the gods ... a massive rectangular pyramidal structure, oriented to true North, 210 by 150 feet, constructed with three levels of terraces, standing originally between 70 and 100 feet high. Three monumental staircases led up to a gate at the first terrace level. Next, a single staircase rose to a second terrace which supported a platform on which a temple and the final and highest terrace stood. The core of the ziggurat is made of mud brick covered with baked bricks laid with bitumen, a naturally occurring tar. Each of the baked bricks measured about 11.5 x 11.5 x 2.75 inches and weighed as much as 33 pounds. The lower portion of the ziggurat, which supported the first terrace, would have used some 720,000 baked bricks,"--Kahn Academy website.

brick (clay product)

jpeg

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