The Great Ziggurat of Ur

In the middle of the third millennium BCE, the ancient Mesopotamians began building huge stepped platforms out of fired bricks called ziggurats. Their significance and purpose are not clear but they are believed to have held shrines, although the only evidence for this comes from Herodotus, and no shrines have ever been found on any of the dozens of ziggurats that lie scattered in the deserts of Iran and Iraq. The shrines were believed to be the dwelling places for the gods and each city had its own patron god. Only priests, who were very powerful members of Sumerian society, were permitted on the ziggurat or in the rooms at its base, and it was their responsibility to care for the gods and attend to their needs. Photo credit: Aladdin Hussam/Panoramio One of the largest and best-preserved ziggurats of Mesopotamia is the great Ziggurat at Ur, near Nasiriyah, in present-day Dhi Qar Province, Iraq. This massive rectangular structure measures 64 meters by 45 meters and has three levels of terraces, standing originally between 20 and 30 meters high, with grand staircases leading to each level. At its highest level supposedly stood the temple of the moon god Nanna, the patron deity of Ur. Unfortunately, the temple has not survived. Some blue glazed bricks have been found which archaeologists suspect might have been part of the temple decoration. The ziggurat was built by King Ur-Nammu, but he died before his greatest work could be finished, and the project was completed by his son Shulgi in the 21st century BCE. By the 6th century BCE, the Ziggurat had already crumbled to ruins. Unlike the ancient Egyptian pyramids, ziggurats were built of mud bricks set together with bitumen or more mud. The bricks got damp in the rain and cracked in the summer heat. In the great Ziggurat at Ur, holes were found through the baked exterior layer of the temple, presumably to allow water to evaporate from its core.