Editing Architecture of Mesopotamia (section)

===Ziggurats===
[[File:20160105-Abraham_house_in_Ur_Iraq.jpg|thumb|The alleged [[Abraham]] house in [[Ur]], southern [[Iraq]]]]
[[File:Reconstructed Babylon -1.jpg|thumb|right|Partially reconstructed facade and access staircase of the [[Ziggurat of Ur]], originally built by [[Ur-Nammu]], {{circa|2100 BC}}]]
[[Ziggurat]]s were huge pyramidal temple towers which were first built in Sumerian City-States and then developed in Babylonia and Assyrian cities as well. There are 32 ziggurats known at, or near, Mesopotamia&mdash;28 in [[Iraq]] and 4 in [[Iran]]. Notable ziggurats include the [[Great Ziggurat of Ur]] near [[Nasiriyah]], Iraq, the [[Ziggurat of Aqar Quf]] near [[Baghdad]], Iraq, [[Chogha Zanbil]] in [[Khūzestān Province|Khūzestān]], Iran (the most recent to be discovered), and the [[Tappeh Sialk|Sialk]] near [[Kashan]], Iran. Ziggurats were built by the [[Sumer]]ians, [[Babylon]]ians, [[Elam]]ites, and [[Assyria]]ns as monuments to local religions. The earliest examples of the ziggurat were raised platforms that date from the [[Ubaid period]]<ref name="Crawford, page 73">Crawford, p. 73</ref> during the fourth [[millennium]] BC, and the latest date from the 6th century BC. The top of the ziggurat was flat, unlike many pyramids. The step pyramid style began near the end of the Early Dynastic Period.<ref>Crawford, pp. 73-74</ref>

Built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform, the ziggurat was a [[pyramid]]al 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 colours and may have had [[astrology|astrological]] significance. Kings sometimes had their names engraved on these glazed bricks. 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. It has been suggested that ziggurats were built to resemble mountains, but there is little textual or archaeological evidence to support that hypothesis.

Classical ziggurats emerged in the Neo-Sumerian Period with articulated buttresses, vitreous brick sheathing, and [[entasis]] in the elevation. The Ziggurat of Ur is the best example of this style. Another change in temple design in this period was a straight as opposed to bent-axis approach to the temple.

Ur-Nammu's ziggurat at Ur was designed as a three-stage construction, but today only two of these survive. This entire mudbrick core structure was originally given a facing of baked brick envelope set in [[bitumen]], 2.5&nbsp;m on the first lowest stage, and 1.15&nbsp;m on the second. Each of these baked bricks were stamped with the name of the king. The sloping walls of the stages were buttressed. The access to the top was by means of a triple monumental staircase, which all converges at a portal that opened on a landing between the first and second stages. The height of the first stage was about 11&nbsp;m while the second stage rose some 5.7&nbsp;m. Usually, a third stage is reconstructed by the excavator of the ziggurat ([[Leonard Woolley]]), and crowned by a temple. At the [[Chogha Zanbil]] ziggurat, archaeologists have found massive reed ropes that ran across the core of the ziggurat structure and tied together the mudbrick mass.

The most notable architectural remains from early Mesopotamia are the temple complexes at [[Uruk]] from the 4th millennium BC, temples and palaces from the [[Early Dynastic Period of Sumer#Early Dynastic period|Early Dynastic]] period sites in the [[Diyala River]] valley such as Khafajah and Tell Asmar, the [[Third Dynasty of Ur]] remains at [[Nippur]] (Sanctuary of [[Enlil]]) and [[Ur]] (Sanctuary of [[Sin (mythology)|Nanna]]), Middle [[Bronze Age]] remains at Syrian-Turkish sites of [[Ebla]], [[Mari, Syria|Mari]], [[Alalakh]], [[Aleppo]] and [[Kultepe]], Late Bronze Age palaces at [[Hattusa]], [[Ugarit]], [[Assur|Ashur]] and [[Nuzi]], Iron Age palaces and temples at [[Assyria]]n ([[Kalhu]]/Nimrud, [[Khorsabad]], [[Nineveh]]), [[Babylonia]]n ([[Babylon]]), [[Urartian]] ([[Tushpa]]/Van, [[Haykaberd]], Ayanis, [[Armavir, Armenia|Armavir]], [[Erebuni Fortress|Erebuni]], [[Bastam]]) and [[Neo-Hittite]] sites ([[Carchemish|Karkamis]], [[Tell Halaf]], [[Karatepe]]). Houses are mostly known from Old Babylonian remains at Nippur and Ur. Among the textual sources on building construction and associated rituals are Gudea's cylinders from the late 3rd millennium are notable, as well as the Assyrian and Babylonian royal inscriptions from the [[Iron Age]].

[[File:Sargon II in his royal chariot, tramping a dead or dying enemy, part of a war scene from Khorsabad, Iraq. The Iraq Museum.jpg|left|thumb|[[Sargon II]] in his royal chariot, tramping a dead or dying enemy, part of a war scene from [[Dur-Sharrukin]]. [[Iraq Museum]]]]