The architectural marvels of Mesopotamia

1. MESOPOTAMIA
HARTDS 1

2. Map of
Mesopotamia
Land between
Rivers

3. Architectural Marvels

4. Architectural Character
1. MASSIVE
2. MONUMENTAL
3. GRAND

5. BABYLON

6. Ziggurat -(in ancient Mesopotamia) a
rectangular stepped tower, sometimes
surmounted by a temple. Ziggurats are first
attested in the late 3rd millennium BC and
probably inspired the biblical story of the
Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1–9).

7. A ziggurat is a built raised platform with four
sloping sides—like a chopped-off pyramid.
Ziggurats are made of mud-bricks—the building
material of choice in the Near East, as stone is rare.
Ziggurats were not only a visual focal point of the
city, they were a symbolic one, as well—they were at
the heart of the theocratic political system (a
theocracy is a type of government where a god is
recognized as the ruler, and the state officials
operate on the god’s behalf). So, seeing the ziggurat
towering above the city, one made a visual
connection to the god or goddess honored there, but
also recognized that deity's political authority.

8. Digital reconstruction of the
White Temple and ziggurat,
Uruk (modern Warka), c. 3517-
3358 B.C.E

9. Archaeological
site at Uruk
(modern Warka)
in Iraq

10. Ruins of the ziggurat and
temple of Nabu at Borsippa,
Babylonia, Iraq. It is an
example of a ziggurat with 2
or more tier or stages.
Modern scholarship
concludes that the Sumero-
Akkadian builders of the
Ziggurat in reality erected it
as a religious edifice in
honour of the local god Nabu,
called the "son" of Babylon's
Marduk

12. The Ziggurat of Ur is a Neo-
Sumerian ziggurat in what was the
city of Ur near Nasiriyah, in present-
day Dhi Qar Province, Iraq. The
structure was built during the Early
Bronze Age but had crumbled to
ruins by the 6th century BCE of the
Neo-Babylonian period, when it was
restored by King Nabonidus

13. Ziggurat of Ur stairway

14. Ziggurat at Chogja Zanbil Elam
Chogha Zanbil is an ancient
Elamite complex in the
Khuzestan province of Iran. It is
one of the few existing ziggurats
outside Mesopotamia. It lies
approximately 30 km southeast of
Susa and 80 km north of Ahvaz.

15. Hanging Garden of Babylon
(A seven base ziggurat)
Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II
was said to have constructed the
luxurious Hanging Gardens in the
sixth century B.C. as a gift to his wife,
Amytis, who was homesick for the
beautiful vegetation and mountains of
her native Media (the northwestern
part of modern-day Iran).

16. Tower of Babel Nehemiah
8:4 (ESV)

17. The Ishtar Gate was the eighth
gate to the inner city of Babylon.
It was constructed in about 575
BCE by order of King
Nebuchadnezzar II on the north
side of the city. It was part of a
grand walled processional way
leading into the city

18. Ishtar Gate
Digital
Recreation

19. Ishtar Gate
now housed in
Berlin Musseum

20. PERSIA

21. Darius I built the greatest palace at
Persepolis on the western side of
platform. This palace was called the
Apadana. The King of Kings used it
for official audiences. The work
began in 518 BC, and his son,
Xerxes I, completed it 30 years later.
Builder: Darius I, Xerxes I and
Artaxerxes I
Events: Battle of the Persian Gates;
Macedonian ...
Founded: 6th century BC
Periods: Achaemenid Empire

22. The largest hall at Persepolis is known as the
Hall of a Hundred Columns, or Throne Room,
measuring almost 70m square and supported by
100 stone columns. The Palace was the second-
largest building at Persepolis, built during the
reigns of Xerxes and Artaxerxes I.
Several theories have been put forward as to the
function of this hall, including that of a storage
room for the tribute brought at the New Year
celebrations: after a procession in the courtyard,
the vassal delegations would have placed their
tribute at the feet of the King of Kings, seated
in the hall. An impressive array of broken
columns remains, and reliefs on the doorjambs
at the back (south) of the building show a king,
soldiers and representatives of 28 subject
nations.

24. Persepolis, reconstruction
of the Apadana by Chipiez

26. A bull at the
northern gate
Hall of 100
Columns, one of
the southern
gates
Hall of 100 Columns,
relief of carriers
Hall of 100
Columns, one of
the southern gates,
audience

27. ASSYRIA

28. Sargon's palace ( Dur Sharrukin) is an
immediate predecessor of Sennasherib's
Palace, with its Hanging Gardens, at
Nineveh, to the south west of Khorsabad.
The outer wall of the Sargon's fortress
covered an area of three square kilometres
and had seven fortified gates. In times of
siege, it became an armed encampment.

29. Floor Plan of the Palace of Sargon

31. A lamassu from the palace of
Sargon II at Dur-Sharrukin.

32. END
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