Our Thoughts

Personally, we think that the Ziggurat of Ur is one of the most (if not the most) important surviving monument of ancient Mesopotamia. With its huge dimensions (considering its time of construction) one can be impressed by its grandeur, when approaching to it, and feel the overview of the surrounding when positioned on the top.. It has a powerful presence with its massiveness and small simple details that cannot be found in other monuments, like Gothic Cathedrals which are much more ornamented and less massive.

Description

The Ziggurat is the most characteristic structure found in Mesopotamia, it was consecrated to what they call, the moon god Nanna. It is a huge mass of sunbaked bricks with a covering of mud baked bricks, which owes its good state of preservation. Its base is 205x141 feet(62x43 meters); it has four corners oriented to the four points of the compass. Its lower story is slightly inclined and reaches a height of 36 feet(11 meters).

A huge staircase(refer to Main Entrance and Main Staircase and plans) perpendicular to the North-East side(refer to Plan), leads straight up to the highest platform on which the actual high temple building is built.No human being can climb such a high step in one stride. Two more staircases on either sides converge half way up to the second story from which further diverging stairways may have led up to the top. This symmetrical arrangement of the building gives a formalization and centrality to the structure.

The Ziggurat is the image of the cosmic Mountain, where everything begins and ends, linked to the source of life and not death. Its courtyard was used as a tribunal and storeroom for records.It was a part of a religious complex of massive buildings commissioned by Neo-Sumerian monarch in order to raise new sacred monuments.

Historical Approach

The Ziggurat of Ur is a Neo Sumerian building that is located in the city of Ur (Dhi Qar province, Iraq, nowadays). It was constructed in the Middle Bronze age (21^st century BC), a period of great economic prosperity, political stabilityand strong bureaucratic organization, and was restored by Neo-Babylonians in the 6^th century under the last king of Neo-Babylonians, king Nabonidus who directed several excavations in search of ancient architectural structures that he restored.It was a proof of the city's dominant role in all domains (political, administrative and military).