Where is the ziggurat located? Mesopotamia, Babylon – ziggurat as a religious building

The first ziggurat on the site of E-temenanka was erected during the time of King Hammurabi (17th century BC). Its adobe masonry has been restored several times. In 689 BC. e. Babylon was captured by the soldiers of the Assyrian king Sennacherib, who “destroyed the city walls and its houses, temples and gods, the temple tower made of sand and clay... destroyed and threw into the Arakhtu canal...”. The sanctuary of Esagila and the ziggurat were restored fifteen years later by the Assyrian architect Aradahheshu, and under Nebuchadnezzar II the grandiose construction came to an end. As cuneiform tablets testify, the king himself participated in the construction of the Tower, lifting baskets of bricks to the top (Fig. 8.13).

Rice. 8.13. Ruins of the city and the Tower of Babel

The ziggurat had seven tiers. According to R. Koldewey, it had a square base, each side of which was 90 meters. The height of the tower was also 90 meters, the first tier had a height of 33 meters, the second - 18, the third and fifth - 6 meters each, the seventh - the sanctuary of the god Marduk - was 15 meters high. The topmost tier of the tower was lined with blue tiles and covered with gold.

Herodotus believed that the dimensions of its base were 185x85 meters. Strabo, who found the ziggurat already destroyed, was sure that its height of 90 fathoms “surpassed even the Egyptian pyramids.” The inner core of the E-temenanka consisted of mud brick, the cladding was made of baked bricks (32x32 cm), laid on bitumen (Fig. 8.14). The tower stood on the plain of Sahn ( "Pan") on the left bank of the Euphrates. It was surrounded by the houses of priests, temple buildings and houses for pilgrims who flocked here from all over Babylonia. A description of the Tower of Babel was left by Herodotus, who thoroughly examined it and, perhaps, even visited its top. This is the only documented description of an eyewitness from Ancient Greece:

“In the middle of every part of the city a building has been erected. In one part is the royal palace, surrounded by a huge and strong wall; in the other there is the sanctuary of Zeus-Bel with copper gates that have survived to this day. The temple sacred area is quadrangular, each side two stages long. In the middle of this temple sacred site was erected a huge tower, one stade long and wide. On this tower stands a second one, and on it another tower; in general, eight towers - one on top of the other. An external staircase leads up around all these towers. In the middle of the stairs there are benches - probably for rest. A large temple was erected on the last tower. In this temple there is a large, luxuriously decorated bed and next to it a golden table. However, there is no image of a deity there. And not a single person spends the night here, with the exception of one woman, whom, according to the Chaldeans, the priests of this god, God chooses from all the local women. These priests claim (I don’t believe this, however) that God himself sometimes visits the temple and spends the night on this bed...”[Herodotus,I, 181] .

“Here is also the tomb of Bel, now destroyed; as they say, it was torn down by Xerxes. It was a quadrangular pyramid, built of baked brick, a stade high, just as each side was a stade long...” [Strabo,XVI, 1, 5] .

According to Koldewey’s descriptions, the tower was one tier lower, and the lower tier was 90 meters wide, that is, half as much. Perhaps, in the time of Herodotus, the tower stood on some kind of terrace, albeit a low one, which over the millennia was leveled to the ground, and during excavations Koldewey did not find any trace of it.

Each large Babylonian city had its own ziggurat, but none of them could compare with the Tower of Babel, which towered over the entire area like a colossal pyramid. It took 85 million bricks to build, and entire generations of rulers built the Tower of Babel. The Babylonian ziggurat was destroyed several times, but each time it was restored and decorated anew. The ziggurat was a shrine that belonged to the entire people, it was a place where thousands of people flocked to worship the supreme deity Marduk.

Cyrus, who took control of Babylon after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, was the first conqueror to leave the city undestroyed. He was struck by the scale of E-temenanka, and he not only forbade the destruction of anything, but ordered the construction of a monument on his grave in the form of a miniature ziggurat, a small Tower of Babel.

And yet the tower was destroyed again. The Persian king Xerxes left only ruins of it, which Alexander the Great saw on his way to India. He was also amazed by the gigantic ruins - he also stood in front of them as if spellbound:

“Alexander wanted to restore this pyramid; however, this required a lot of labor and a long time (clearing the garbage alone would have taken 10,000 people for two months), so the king did not have time to complete the enterprise, as he was soon beset by illness and death. None of his successors cared about this..." [Strabo,XVI, 1, 5] .

Rice. 8.14. Reconstruction of the Tower of Babel – painting by P. Bruegel the Elder (1563)

Dissected on each side by 12 wide blades, the walls were, unlike earlier ziggurats, strictly vertical. The two lower tiers, divided by blades, were much higher than the rest. Adjacent to the southern wall were three staircases leading to the first terrace (as at Ur). The second terrace was reached by stairs adjacent to the eastern and western walls. Further movement had to go in a spiral, but not along a ramp, as in Dur-Sharrukin, but along the stairs.

The top of the ziggurat - the temple - was lined with blue tiles and crowned with huge golden horns dedicated to the god Marduk and his wife, the goddess of the dawn Tsarpanit (Ishtar). The ascent to the tiers was done from outside. It walked in a spiral around all the towers. Only priests could enter the god's dwelling. Inside the temple there was a huge golden bed for the god and a table for laying donations. A huge lamp in the form of a solar disk was suspended from the ceiling of the sanctuary (Fig. 8.17).

Rice. 8.15. Options for the reconstruction of the Tower of Babel according to L. Woolley and G. Martini (1923)

Rice. 8.16. Reconstruction options for the Tower of Babel. Above is the modern version (Germany),

below - according to T. Dombart (1930)

Rice. 8.17. Image of the god Shamash. Relief (according to Chipier and Perrault)

There are very different versions regarding the number and color scheme of tiers in this ziggurat. However, most researchers agree that the number of tiers was equal to 7: according to the number of planets and celestial bodies known at that time; by the number of days in a week (lunar calendar); in accordance with the Babylonian version of the “model of the Universe”.

In any case, the seven-tiered ziggurat symbolized the political and religious union of the seven main cities of the Babylonian federation (Borsippa, Babylon, Kish, Kuta, Sippar, Ur and Uruk). Two options for interpreting the color symbolism of the Tower of Babel are shown in tables 1-2.

Table 1

Table 2

Observations of the stars were carried out from the site in front of the temple - “Mountain Heights”. There were astronomical instruments and instruments here - a sighting device, solar and water chronometers, etc. It is quite possible that the huge horns on the roof of the temple served as sights, with the help of which they determined the position of celestial bodies at different times of the day.

Mesopotamia became the oldest post-Flood civilization. It is interesting that the Bible, which contains a wealth of information about many kingdoms, first talks about Babylon, giving it a large place both in the historical and prophetic aspects. As is clear from the Holy Scriptures and ancient chronicles, the very first steps in the formation of Mesopotamian statehood were inextricably linked with religion, which was based on an open challenge to the true God, which was most clearly manifested in the construction of the famous Tower of Babel. Today, no one doubts its existence, which has been proven by historians and archaeologists.

But before we move on to history, architecture in the religious significance of its construction, let’s pay attention to the creation of special ziggurat temples, to which the famous tower belonged. So, the ziggurat was a huge structure consisting of several towers (usually from 4 to 7), located one on top of the other, proportionally decreasing towards the top. Between the top of the lower tower and the base of the one above, terraces with beautiful gardens were laid out. At the top of the entire building stood a sanctuary, to which a huge staircase led, starting at the bottom and having several side branches. This upper temple was dedicated to some deity who was considered the patron saint of this city.

The towers themselves were painted in different colors: the lower one, as a rule, was black, the second - red, higher - white, even higher - blue, etc. The upper tower was often crowned with a golden dome, which was visible many kilometers from the city . From a distance this sight was truly fabulous. However, the ziggurat was something more than just a temple; it was a link between heaven and earth, as well as a place where God himself supposedly appeared, declaring his will to people through the priests. But if during the day the ziggurat was a temple, then at night it was a place of astrological actions, as well as a place for performing black satanic rituals.

We will never fully know all the details of the departure of these services, but even the information that clay tablets tell us is terrifying. It was in the upper temples that astrology was created, connecting people with the abyss. During the excavations, it was established that the name of its founder was Saaben ben Aares, however, the true creator of this pseudoscience was, of course, the prince of darkness.

Such ziggurats were built in Nippur (about 2100 BC by King Ur-Nammu), now located 40 miles west of the Euphrates; at Uruk, 12 miles from the Euphrates, covering an area of ​​988 acres; in Eridu, erected almost immediately after the flood and renovated many times throughout history, forming 12 temples located one above the other; Ure - also built by King Ur-Nammu in honor of the moon god Nanna, and very well preserved to this day, etc. But the most famous was the ziggurat built in Babylon at the dawn of post-Flood history, described in the Bible. “The whole earth had one language and one dialect. Moving from the east, the people found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to each other: Let us make bricks and burn them with fire. And they used bricks instead of stones, and earthen resin instead of lime.

And they said: Let us build ourselves a city and a tower, its height reaching to heaven; and let us make a name for ourselves, before we are scattered over the face of all the earth” (Gen. 11:1-4). The terrible punishment that befell humanity, which decided to follow its own path, independent of God and contrary to His will (the flood), was forgotten. People again chose to live and act without God for the sake of satisfying their vanity and pride. God could not approve of their proud and insane plan, and, by confusing languages, prevented the fulfillment of human plans. However, not wanting to humble themselves before the Creator, people again soon began building a ziggurat in the same place where it was stopped by God Himself.

Jesus Christ never does violence to human free will, and therefore He did not interfere with this crazy plan of people, wanting them and their descendants to see what their open and persistent disobedience to Heavenly Father would lead to. With pain, Christ watched as people stubbornly built a tower, which was supposed to become the center of worship of false gods, in other words, they built a scaffold for themselves. For the religion that they so defended and propagated was supposed to lead them to degradation and death. But the arrogant builders, besotted by the prince of darkness, did not think about this, and finally built a majestic structure that amazed people with its beauty and scope for 1500 years. The Babylonian ziggurat, rebuilt dozens of times during this time, was called Etemenanka, that is, the Temple of the Cornerstone of Heaven and Earth, being the center of the colossal temple city of Esagila (House of Raising the Head), surrounded by fortified walls and towers, including many temples and palaces. Esagila was the seat of the main Babylonian priest, who was at the same time the high priest of the entire world priesthood (this will be discussed below).

Descriptions of this tower by the famous Greek historian Herodotus and the personal physician of the Medo-Persian king Artaxerxes II - Ctesias - have reached our time. The tower they described was restored under Nabopolassar (625-605 BC) and Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC) after a period of decline. Rebuilding the tower, Nebuchadnezzar said: “I had a hand in completing the top of Etemenanka so that it could compete with the sky.” So, the tower they built consisted of seven steps - floors. The first floor, 33 meters high, was black and was called the lower temple of Marduk (the supreme god of Babylon); in its center stood a statue of the god, completely cast from the purest gold and weighing 23,700 kilograms!

In addition, the temple contained a golden table 16 meters long and 5 meters wide, a golden bench and a throne. Daily sacrifices were made in front of the statue of Marduk. The red second floor was 18 meters high; the third, fourth, fifth and sixth are 6 meters high and were painted in various bright colors. The last seventh floor was called the upper temple of Marduk, was 15 meters high and was lined with turquoise glazed tiles decorated with golden horns. The upper temple was visible many kilometers from the city and in the light of the sun it was a sight of extraordinary beauty. In this temple there was a bed, an armchair and a table, supposedly intended for God himself when he came here to rest.

The “sacred” marriage of the king and the priestess also took place there, all this was accompanied by an orgy, enclosed in a “sublime” philosophy. Today the ziggurats lie in ruins, and many have not survived at all, but the ideas of their builders continue to live today. So, firstly, the construction of the ziggurat was, as we have already said, in the nature of an open challenge to divine authority. Even the name Etemenanka challenges Christ by appropriating His title, for the Scripture says: “...behold, I lay in Zion a cornerstone, chosen and precious: and he who believes in Him will not be put to shame” (1 Peter 2:6). Many peoples of the earth followed this example, building pagan temples and temple complexes that went into the clouds. From recent times, it is worth noting the construction of the 30s, begun under Stalin (but not completed!) - the Palace of Congresses, which was supposed to be crowned with a figure of Lenin of such a size that in one finger, according to the architects, two libraries and a cinema would be located . This palace was supposed to become a symbol of militant atheism, which supposedly defeated “outdated” Christianity, and the leader, of course, was supposed to appear before the world as the “victor” of Christ!

The fate of this plan and the construction that began is known. But even unrealized, this project stands on a par with the Tower of Babel, the Temple of Artemis of Ephesus and other “witnesses” warning us, people of the late 20th century, about the danger of a path separated from God. Secondly, the construction of ziggurats was a symbol of human power, a glorification of the human mind.

And again, reading the pages of history, we see attempts to glorify and magnify our name at different times and among different rulers - kings, emperors, prime ministers, presidents, general secretaries, philosophers, scientists and artists, etc. An endless list of names that can be continue and continue - Cyrus, Nebuchadnezzar, Macedonian, Octavian-Augustus, Nero, Trajan, Charles V of Germany, Napoleon, Lenin, Hitler, Stalin; philosophers Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu, who idolized the human mind and prepared the Great French Revolution with their ideas; Darwin with his theory of evolution, the ideologists of fascism and communism, who also tried to build heaven on earth without God at the cost of millions of victims. This is where you and I can be, if in our lives we rely on our own selves and exalt ourselves, and not Jesus Christ. Thirdly, the construction of ziggurats showed that a person can reach the sky himself, become like God, for the tower connected heaven and earth in the minds of people. This idea is extremely tenacious, for even today many confessions claim that a person, through his deeds and the performance of certain rituals, can achieve salvation and eternal life himself, on his own.

Fourthly, the service of the priests in the ziggurat showed that between heaven and earth a mediator was needed, capable of appeasing the formidable god. It is from here that the teachings about holy mediators between God and people, about clergy as intercessors before God, originate. However, all of these statements contradict the Bible, which states: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men... Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). Fifthly, the ziggurat was the center of astrology, magic, and the occult, which have found enormous and growing popularity in our time.

We will talk about them in detail in another part of this book, but now we will note only the main thing: the very idea underlying astrology, namely predicting fate and ways to influence it, nullifies faith in God. Sixthly, the luxurious architecture of the tower and the majestic, mysterious services, incomprehensible to ordinary people, held in the temple, were intended to bewitch and subjugate the feelings and mind of a person, paralyze his will, and deprive him of the freedom of reasonable choice. The same technique was later used by almost all world religions in the construction of huge cathedrals with rich frescoes, statues, paintings, and many hours of tedious services, often in languages ​​incomprehensible to most people. How different this is from the ministry, the example of which Jesus Christ gave during His earthly life, carried out in the lap of nature, in humble homes! So, as we see, the ideas of the ancient ziggurats continue to live today. It is not for nothing that in the Bible, one of the prophecies of which we partially cited in the epigraph to this chapter, the apostate forces are called Babylon

Hypothetical reconstruction of the ziggurat at Ur

Ziggurat(from the Babylonian word sigguratu- “top”, including “top of a mountain”) - a multi-stage religious structure in Ancient Mesopotamia and Elam, typical of Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian and Elamite architecture.

Architecture and purpose

A ziggurat is a tower of parallelepipeds or truncated pyramids stacked on top of each other, from 3 for the Sumerians to 7 for the Babylonians, who did not have an interior (with the exception of the upper volume in which the sanctuary was located). The ziggurat's terraces, painted in different colors, were connected by stairs or ramps, and the walls were divided by rectangular niches.

It is not completely clear for what purpose the ziggurats were erected. Etymology does not help solve this problem, since the word "ziggurat" comes from the verb Zakar, which simply translates to “build high.” The pioneers of Mesopotamian archeology naively believed that ziggurats served as observatories or towers for the “Chaldean” stargazers, “in which the priests of the god Bel could hide at night from the heat and mosquitoes.” However, all these hypotheses are obviously untrue. Almost immediately the thought of the Egyptian pyramids comes to the mind of any person who sees a ziggurat. Of course, Egyptian influence on Sumerian architects cannot be completely ruled out, but it should be noted that, unlike the pyramids, there were never tombs or any other premises inside the ziggurats. As a rule, they were erected over older and much more modest structures built during the Early Dynastic period. In turn, these low, one-story ancient ziggurats, as is now generally accepted, originated from the platforms on which the temples of the Ubaid, Uruk and proto-literate periods stood.

Some researchers believe that the Sumerians originally lived in the mountains, on the tops of which they worshiped their gods. Thus, the towers they erected were supposed to become a kind of artificial mountains rising above the Mesopotamian lowland. Other scholars, rejecting this simplistic and in many ways rather controversial explanation, believe that the temple platform (and therefore the ziggurat) was intended to elevate the main city god above other deities and alienate him from the “laity.” Researchers belonging to the third group see in the ziggurat a huge staircase, a bridge connecting the temples located below, where daily rituals were held, and a sanctuary located above, located halfway between earth and sky, where on certain occasions people could meet with the gods.

Perhaps the best definition of a ziggurat is found in the Bible, which says that the Tower of Babel was built to be “high to the heavens.” In the deeply religious consciousness of the Sumerians, these huge, but at the same time amazingly airy structures were “prayers made of bricks.” They served as a constant invitation to the gods to descend to earth and at the same time an expression of one of the most important aspirations of man - to rise above his weakness and enter into a closer relationship with the deity.

The material for the construction of ziggurats was raw brick, additionally reinforced with layers of reeds, and the outside was lined with baked bricks. Rains and winds destroyed these structures, they were periodically renovated and restored, so over time they became taller and larger in size, and their design also changed. The Sumerians built them in three stages in honor of the supreme trinity of their pantheon - the god of air Enlil, the god of water Enki and the god of sky Anu. Babylonian ziggurats were already seven-stepped and painted in the symbolic colors of the planets.

The last noticeable surge in activity in the construction of Mesopotamian ziggurats is attested already in the 6th century BC. e., at the end of the Neo-Babylonian period. Throughout ancient history, ziggurats were renovated and rebuilt, becoming a source of pride for kings.

A number of biblical scholars trace the connection between the legend of the Tower of Babel and the construction of high tower-temples called ziggurats in Mesopotamia.

Ziggurats survived in Iraq (in the ancient cities of Borsippa, Babylon, Dur-Sharrukin, all - 1st millennium BC) and Iran (in the site of Chogha-Zanbil, 2nd millennium BC).

In other regions

Ziggurats in the strict sense of the word were built by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites and Assyrians. However, in essence, a ziggurat is a religious structure in the form of a stepped pyramid. Similar religious buildings were built using similar and slightly different technology by many peoples in different parts of the world - in Ancient Egypt, Sardinia, Mesoamerica, South America, Southeast Asia and even in equatorial Africa. The pyramids of Mesoamerica are closest to ziggurats in purpose. As in Mesopotamia, Indian “ziggurats” were built by different peoples using the same technology and in the same architectural style, and on their tops there were temple buildings.

See also

Consisting of several tiers. Its base is usually square or rectangular. This feature makes the ziggurat look like a step pyramid. The lower levels of the building are terraces. The roof of the upper tier is flat.

The builders of ancient ziggurats were Sumerians, Babylonians, Akkadians, Assyrians, and also the inhabitants of Elam. The ruins of their cities are preserved in the territory of modern Iraq and in the western part of Iran. Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex that included other buildings.

Historical overview

Structures in the form of large, elevated platforms began to be erected in Mesopotamia as early as the fourth millennium BC. Nothing is known for certain about their purpose. According to one version, such artificial elevations were used to preserve the most valuable property, including sacred relics, during river floods.

Over time, architectural technologies have improved. If the stepped structures of the early Sumerians were two-tiered, then the ziggurat in Babylon had as many as seven levels. The interior of such structures was made from sun-dried building blocks. Burnt brick was used for external cladding.

The last ziggurats of Mesopotamia were built in the sixth century BC. These were the most impressive architectural structures of their time. They amazed contemporaries not only with their size, but also with the richness of their external design. It is no coincidence that the ziggurat of Etemenanki, built during this period, became the prototype of the Tower of Babel mentioned in the Bible.

The purpose of ziggurats

In many cultures, mountain peaks were considered the home of higher powers. It is well known that, for example, the gods of Ancient Greece lived on Olympus. The Sumerians probably had a similar worldview. Thus, a ziggurat is a man-made mountain that was created so that the gods would have a place to live. After all, in the Mesopotamia desert there were no natural elevations of such heights.

At the top of the ziggurat there was a sanctuary. There were no public religious ceremonies held there. For this purpose there were temples at the foot of the ziggurat. Only priests, whose duty was to take care of the gods, could go upstairs. The priests were the most respected and influential class of Sumerian society.

Ziggurat at Ur

Not far from the modern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah are the remains of the best-preserved structure of ancient Mesopotamia. This is a ziggurat built in the 21st century BC by the ruler Ur-Nammu. The grandiose building had a base of 64 by 45 meters, rose more than 30 meters and consisted of three levels. At the top there was a sanctuary of the moon god Nanna, who was considered the patron saint of the city.

By the sixth century BC the building had become very dilapidated and partially collapsed. But the last ruler of the Second, Nabonidus, ordered the restoration of the ziggurat in Ur. It underwent significant changes - instead of the original three, seven tiers were built.

The remains of a ziggurat were first described by European scientists in the early 19th century. Large-scale archaeological excavations were carried out by specialists from the British Museum from 1922 to 1934. During the reign of Saddam Hussein, the facade and the staircase leading to the top were reconstructed.

The most famous ziggurat

One of the grandest architectural structures in the history of mankind is the Tower of Babel. The size of the building was so impressive that a legend was born according to which the Babylonians wanted to reach the sky with its help.

Nowadays, most researchers agree that the Tower of Babel is not a fiction, but a real-life ziggurat of Etemenanki. Its height was 91 meters. Such a building would look impressive even by today's standards. After all, it was three times higher than the nine-story panel buildings we are used to.

It is unknown when exactly the ziggurat was erected in Babylon. Mentions of it are contained in cuneiform sources dating back to the second millennium BC. In 689 BC, the Assyrian ruler Sennacherib destroyed Babylon and the ziggurat located there. After 88 years, the city was restored. Etemenanki was also rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar II, the ruler of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom.

The ziggurat was finally destroyed in 331 BC by order of Alexander the Great. The demolition of the building was supposed to be the first stage of its large-scale reconstruction, but the death of the commander prevented the implementation of these plans.

Exterior view of the Tower of Babel

Ancient books and modern excavations have made it possible to fairly accurately reconstruct the appearance of the legendary ziggurat. It was a building with a square base. The length of each of its sides, as well as the height, was 91.5 meters. Etemenanki consisted of seven tiers, each of which was painted in its own color.

To climb to the top of the ziggurat, you first had to climb one of the three central staircases. But this is only half the way. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, having climbed the large staircase, one could rest before further ascent. For this purpose, special places were equipped, protected by canopies from the scorching sun. Steps for further ascent encircled the walls of the upper levels of the ziggurat. At the top stood a spacious temple dedicated to Marduk, the patron god of Babylon.

Etemenanki was famous not only for its incredible size for its time, but also for the richness of its external decoration. According to the order, gold, silver, copper, stones of various colors, enameled brick, as well as fir and pine were used as finishing materials for the walls of the Tower of Babel.

The first tier of the ziggurat from the bottom was black, the second was snow-white, the third was painted purple, the fourth was blue, the fifth was red, the sixth was covered with silver, and the seventh was covered with gold.

Religious significance

The Babylonian ziggurat was dedicated to Marduk, who was considered the patron saint of the city. This is the local name of the Mesopotamian god Bel. Among the Semitic tribes he was known as Baal. The sanctuary was located in the upper tier of the ziggurat. There lived a priestess who was considered the wife of Marduk. Every year a new girl was chosen for this role. It had to be a beautiful young virgin from a noble family.

On the day of choosing the bride of Marduk, a grandiose celebration was held in Babylon, an important element of which was mass orgies. According to tradition, every woman had to make love at least once in her life with a stranger who would pay her money. Moreover, the first offer could not be refused, no matter how small the amount. After all, the girl went to the celebration not to earn money, but only to fulfill the will of the gods.

Similar customs were found among many Middle Eastern peoples and were associated with the cult of fertility. However, the Romans who wrote about Babylon saw something obscene in such rituals. Thus, the historian Quintus Curtius Rufus condemnsly mentions feasts during which ladies from noble families danced, gradually throwing off their clothes. A similar view has taken root in the Christian tradition; it is not for nothing that in Revelation one can find such a phrase as “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.”

Symbolism of ziggurat architecture

Any tall building is associated with a person’s desire to become closer to the sky. And the stepped structure resembles a staircase leading up. Thus, the ziggurat primarily symbolizes the link between the heavenly world of deities and people living on earth. But, in addition to the common meaning for all high-rise buildings, the architectural form invented by the ancient Sumerians has other unique features.

In modern pictures depicting ziggurats, we see them from a top or side angle. But the inhabitants of Mesopotamia looked at them, being at the foot of these majestic buildings. From this vantage point, the ziggurat consists of several walls rising one after another, the highest of which is so high that it seems to touch the heavens.

What impression does such a spectacle make on the observer? In ancient times, a wall surrounded the city to protect it from enemy troops. She was associated with power and inaccessibility. Thus, a series of huge walls rising one after another created the effect of absolute inaccessibility. No other architectural form could so convincingly demonstrate the limitless power and authority of the deity living at the top of the ziggurat.

In addition to the impregnable walls, there were also gigantic staircases. Usually ziggurats had three of them - one central and two side. They demonstrated the possibility of dialogue between man and the gods. The clergy climbed them to the top to speak with higher powers. Thus, the symbolism of ziggurat architecture emphasized the power of the gods and the importance of the priestly caste, called upon to talk with them on behalf of the entire people.

Decoration of ziggurats

Not only the grandiose dimensions of the structure were intended to surprise the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, but also their external decoration and layout. The most expensive materials were used to line the ziggurats, including gold and silver. The walls were decorated with images of plants, animals and mythological creatures. At the top stood a golden statue of the deity in whose honor the ziggurat was erected.

The path from the bottom to the top was not straight. It was something like a three-dimensional labyrinth with climbs, long passages and numerous turns. The central staircase led only to the first or second tier. Then we had to move along a zigzag path - go around the corners of the building, climb the side steps, and then, on a new tier, go to the next flight, located on the other side.

The purpose of this layout was to make the climb longer. During the ascent, the priest had to get rid of worldly thoughts and focus on the divine. Interestingly, labyrinth temples also existed in ancient Egypt and medieval Europe.

The ziggurats of Mesopotamia were surrounded by gardens. The shade of the trees, the aroma of flowers, the splash of fountains created a feeling of heavenly serenity, which, according to the architects, was supposed to testify to the favor of the deities who lived on the top. It should also not be forgotten that the ziggurat was located in the center of the city. Residents came there to indulge in friendly conversations and shared entertainment.

Ziggurats in other parts of the world

Not only the rulers of Mesopotamia erected majestic buildings, trying to use them to leave their name for centuries. In others, there are also structures whose shape resembles a ziggurat.

The most famous and well-preserved buildings of this kind are located on the American continent. Most of them look like the Ziggurat, an architectural form known to the Aztecs, Mayans and other civilizations of pre-Columbian America.

The largest number of step pyramids collected in one place can be found at the site of the ancient city of Teotihuacan, which is located approximately fifty kilometers from the capital of Mexico. The architectural form of the ziggurat is clearly recognizable in the appearance of the famous Temple of Kukulkan, also known as El Castillo. This building is one of the symbols of Mexico.

There are also ancient ziggurats in Europe. One of them, called Cancho Roano, is located in Spain and is a monument to the Tartessian civilization that once existed on the Iberian Peninsula. It is assumed that it was built in the sixth century BC.

Another unusual structure for Europe is the Sardinian ziggurat. This is a very ancient megalithic structure, erected back in the fourth millennium BC. The Sardinian ziggurat was a place of worship and religious ceremonies were held there for many centuries. The base of its platform was almost 42 meters long.

Modern ziggurats

The architectural form invented in ancient times also inspires modern designers. The most famous "ziggurat" built in the twentieth century is the Lenin Mausoleum. This form of the tomb of the Soviet leader gave rise to conspiracy theories about the connection of the Bolsheviks with ancient Mesopotamian cults.

In fact, the similarity with a ziggurat is most likely dictated by the artistic preferences of its architect Alexei Shchusev. To be convinced of this, just look at the building of the Kazansky railway station in Moscow, the design of which the master presented back in 1911. Its main structure also has a characteristic stepped structure. But the prototype here was not the architecture of the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, but the appearance of one of the towers of the Kazan Kremlin.

But it was not only the Russians who came up with the idea of ​​building a ziggurat in the twentieth century. There is also a building of a similar design in the USA. It is located in West Sacramento, California. And that's what the Ziggurat Building is called. Its construction was completed in 1997. This eleven-story office building, 47 and a half meters high, covers an area of ​​seven acres (28,000 m2) and has underground parking for more than one and a half thousand cars.

culture ancient mesopotamia architecture

As is clear from the Holy Scriptures and ancient chronicles, the very first steps in the formation of Mesopotamian statehood were inextricably linked with religion, which was based on an open challenge to the true God, which was most clearly manifested in the construction of the famous Tower of Babel. Today, no one doubts its existence, which has been proven by historians and archaeologists. This famous tower belonged to a special type of temple - ziggurats. Mention of ziggurats is found in inscriptions from the beginning of the third millennium BC. V. It was suggested that the ziggurat was created by the Sumerians who came from the mountainous regions where they had been before, and was, as it were, a reproduction of the mountains from the tops of which astrological observations were usually made.

Zigquramt (from the Babylonian word sigguratu - peak, including the top of a mountain) is a religious building in ancient Mesopotamia.

So, the ziggurat was a huge structure consisting of several towers (usually from 4 to 7), located one on top of the other, proportionally decreasing towards the top. Between the top of the lower tower and the base of the one above, terraces with beautiful gardens were laid out. At the top of the entire building stood a sanctuary, to which a huge staircase led, starting at the bottom and having several side branches. On the sides of the massif there is a sloping ramp, which made it possible during construction, without resorting to scaffolding, to lift building materials upward and provided access to the upper platform on which the main sanctuary was located. The walls near the ramps were decorated with headquarters and battlements.

This upper temple was dedicated to some deity who was considered the patron saint of this city. The towers themselves were painted in different colors: the lower one, as a rule, was black, the second red, higher white, even higher blue, etc. The upper tower was often crowned with a golden dome, which was visible many kilometers from the city.

Next to the stepped ziggurat tower there was usually a temple, which was not a prayer building as such, but the dwelling of a god. The Sumerians, and after them the Assyrians and Babylonians, worshiped their gods on the tops of the mountains and, preserving this tradition after moving to the lowlands of Mesopotamia, erected mound mountains that connected heaven and earth. The material for the construction of ziggurats was raw brick, additionally reinforced with layers of reeds, and the outside was lined with baked bricks. Rains and winds destroyed these structures, they were periodically renovated and restored, so over time they became taller and larger in size, and their design also changed.

The Sumerians built them in three stages in honor of the supreme trinity of their pantheon, the air god Enlil, the water god Enki and the sky god Anu. The Babylonian ziggurats were already seven-tiered and painted in the symbolic colors of the planets (five planets were known in ancient Babylon): black (Saturn, Ninurta), white (Mercury, Nabu), purple (Venus, Ishtar), blue (Jupiter, Marduk), bright -red (Mars, Nergal), silver (Moon, Sin) and gold (Sun, Shamash)

The first such towers in the form of primitive stepped terraces appeared in the alluvial valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates at the end of the 4th millennium BC. e. The last noticeable surge in activity in the construction of Mesopotamian ziggurats is attested already in the 6th century BC. e., at the end of the Neo-Babylonian period. Throughout ancient history, ziggurats were renovated and rebuilt, becoming a source of pride for kings.

The Babylonian ziggurat, rebuilt dozens of times, was called Etemenanka, that is, the Temple of the Cornerstone of Heaven and Earth, being the center of the colossal temple city of Esagila (House of Raising the Head), surrounded by fortified walls and towers, including many temples and palaces. Esagila was the seat of the main Babylonian priest, who was at the same time the high priest of the entire world priesthood. Descriptions of this tower by the famous Greek historian Herodotus and the personal physician of the Medo-Persian king Artaxerxes the Second Ctesias have reached our time. The tower they described was restored under Nabopolassar (625-605 BC) and Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC) after a period of decline. Rebuilding the tower, Nebuchadnezzar said: “I had a hand in completing the top of Etemenanka so that it could compete with the sky.” So, the tower they built consisted of seven levels of floors. The first floor, 33 meters high, was black and was called the lower temple of Marduk (the supreme god of Babylon); in its center stood a statue of the god, completely cast from the purest gold and weighing 23,700 kilograms! In addition, the temple contained a golden table 16 meters long and 5 meters wide, a golden bench and a throne. Daily sacrifices were made in front of the statue of Marduk. The red second floor was 18 meters high; the third, fourth, fifth and sixth are 6 meters high and were painted in various bright colors. The last seventh floor was called the upper temple of Marduk, was 15 meters high and was lined with turquoise glazed tiles decorated with golden horns. The upper temple was visible many kilometers from the city and in the light of the sun it was a sight of extraordinary beauty. In this temple there was a bed, an armchair and a table, supposedly intended for God himself when he came here to rest. The “sacred” marriage of the king and the priestess also took place there, all this was accompanied by an orgy, enclosed in a “sublime” philosophy.

However, the ziggurat has always been something more than just a temple; it was a connecting link between heaven and earth, as well as a place where God himself supposedly appeared, declaring his will to people through the priests. But if during the day the ziggurat was a temple, then at night it was a place of astrological actions, as well as a place for performing black satanic rituals. Humanity will never fully know all the details of the departure of these services, but even the information that clay tablets provide is terrifying.

It was in the upper temples that astrology was created, connecting people with the abyss. During excavations, it was established that the name of its founder was Saaben ben Aares, although many believe that the true creator of this pseudoscience was the prince of darkness. Such ziggurats were built in Nippur (about 2100 BC by King Ur-Nammu), now located 40 miles west of the Euphrates; at Uruk, 12 miles from the Euphrates, covering 988 acres; in Eridu, erected almost immediately after the flood and renovated many times throughout history, forming 12 temples located one above the other; Ure was also built by King Ur-Nammu in honor of the moon god Nanna, and is very well preserved to this day, etc.