Editing Architecture of Mesopotamia (section)

==Landscape architecture==
[[File:Ruins from a temple in Naffur.jpg|thumb|Ruins from a temple ancient [[Nippur]], said to be the site for the meeting of [[Sumerian religion|Sumerian gods]], as well as the place that man was created.]]
Text sources indicate open space planning was a part of the city from the earliest times. The description of [[Uruk]] in the ''[[Epic of Gilgamesh]]'' tells of one third of that city set aside for orchards. Similar planned open space is found at the one fifth enclosure of [[Nippur]]. Another important landscape element was the vacant lot (Akkadian: ''kišubbû'').

External to the city, Sumerian irrigation agriculture created some of the first garden forms in history. The garden (sar) was 144 square cubits with a perimeter canal.<ref>Wikipedia, [[Sumer]]</ref> This form of the enclosed quadrangle was the basis for the later [[paradise garden]]s of [[Persia]].

In Mesopotamia, the use of [[fountain]]s date as far back as the 3rd millennium BC. An early example is preserved in a carved [[Babylonia]]n basin, dating back to ca. 3000 B.C., found at [[Girsu]], [[Lagash]]. An ancient Assyrian fountain "discovered in the gorge of the Comel River consists of basins cut in solid rock and descending in steps to the stream." The water was led from small [[Channel (geography)|conduit]]s.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=fountain|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/214794/fountain|access-date=2010-03-18| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100502072841/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/214794/fountain| archive-date= 2 May 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref>