Ziggurat Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
A zig·gu·rat (zĭg`ə-răt) is a temple tower of the ancient Mesopotamian valley, having the form of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories.Looking at the dictionary's description above, one can in the most basic ways formulate an image of what a ziggurat looked like. However, ziggurats spanned from the simplest base which a temple sat upon, to marvels of mathematics and constructions, spanning several terraced stories and topped with a temple fit for any God.
White Temple at Uruk (Sumer)
An example of a simpler ziggurat is the White Temple of Uruk, in ancient Sumer. The ziggurat itself is the base on which the White Temple is set. Its purpose is to get the temple closer to the heavens, and provide access from the ground to it via steps.
Reconstruction of Marduk Ziggurat (Tower of Babel), Babylon
Example of an extensive and massive ziggurat is the Marduk ziggurat, or Tower of Babel, of ancient Babylon. Unfortunately, not much of even the base is left of this massive structure, yet archeological findings and historical accounts put this tower at seven multicolored tiers, topped with a temple of exquisite proportions. The temple is thought to have been painted and maintained an indigo color, matching the tops of the tiers. It is known that there were three staircases leading to the temple, two of which (side flanked) were thought to have only ascended half the ziggurat's height.
The Sumerian name for the structure was Etemenanki, meaning "The Foundation of Heaven and Earth." Most likely being built by Hammurabi, the ziggurat's core was found to have contained the remains of earlier ziggurats and structures. The final stage consisted of a 15 meter hardened brick encasement constructed by King Nebuchadnezzar.
Marduk Ziggurat (Tower of Babel), Babylon
Ziggurats were a form of temple common to the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians of ancient Mesopotamia. These structures were called Etemenanki by the Sumerians, meaning "The Foundation of Heaven and Earth." The earliest examples of ziggurats date from the end of the third millennium BC and the latest date from the 6th century BC. Built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform, the ziggurat was a pyramidal structure. Sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside. The facings were often glazed in different colors and may have had cosmological significance. The number of tiers ranged from two to seven, with a shrine or temple at the summit. Access to the shrine was provided by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a spiral ramp from base to summit. Notable examples of this structure include the ruins at Ur and Khorsabad in Mesopotamia.
The Mesopotamian ziggurats were not the place of public worship or ceremonies but instead were believed to be dwelling places for the gods. Through the ziggurat the gods could be close to mankind and each city had its own patron god or goddess. Only priests were permitted inside the ziggurat and it was their responsibility to care for the gods and attend to their needs. As a result the priests were very powerful members of Sumerian society.
It has also been suggested that the ziggurat was a symbolic representation of the primeval mound upon which the universe had supposedly been created. Moreover, the ziggurat may have been built as a bridge between heaven and earth. The temples of the Sumerians were believed to be a cosmic axis, a vertical bond between heaven and Earth, and the Earth and the underworld, and a horizontal bond between the lands. Built on seven levels the ziggurat represented seven heavens and planes of existence, the seven planets and the seven metals associated with them and their corresponding colors.
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