ziggurat

Ziggurat is a type of massive, raised, stepped temple tower that was a common feature of Mesopotamian architecture. The term derives from the Akkadian ziqqurat, meaning height or pinnacle, and was adopted by archaeologists to describe the distinctive elevated platforms that supported a shrine at the summit.

Most ziggurats were built between the 3rd and 1st millennia BCE in Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, and Babylonia. They took the form of a rectangular, multi-level terrace with sun-dried mud brick cores and fired-brick facings, often with a protected exterior and a network of ramps or stairways along one side. The temple or sanctuary sat at the highest level and was accessed from the city by a monumental ascent, commonly designed to project the city's religious authority.

Ziggurats served as the raised dwelling places for deities and as focal points for ceremonies; they symbolized a bridge between earth and the divine and were typically located within a larger temple precinct near the city's center. They were not tombs and did not function as pyramids for burial.

Notable examples include the Great Ziggurat of Ur, built in the early 2nd millennium BCE to honor Nanna/Sin; the Etemenanki ziggurat at Babylon, associated with the biblical Tower of Babel; and the ziggurat at Chogha Zanbil in present-day Iran, a well-preserved Elamite monument dating to the 13th century BCE. Many others have fallen into ruin, with only foundations and lower platforms surviving.