Editing Etemenanki (section)

==Descriptions==
A Neo-Babylonian royal inscription of [[Nebuchadnezzar II]] on a [[stele]] from [[Babylon]], claimed to have been found in the 1917 excavation by [[Robert Koldewey]],<ref>Koldewey had identified Etemenanki in November 1900; the vicissitudes of the archaeological enterprise, in which the enormous mass of debris covering it was shoveled away and shafts and tunnels pierced, were summarised in Friedrich Wetzel and F. H. Weissbach, ''Das Hauptheiligtum des Marduk in Babylon, Esagila und Etemenanki'' (Leipzig) 1938; the most recent monograph is Hans-Jörg Schmid, ''Der Tempelturm Etemenanki in Babylon'' (Mainz) 1995.</ref> and of uncertain authenticity, reads: "Etemenanki<ref>The house, the foundation of heaven and earth". The stele was broken in Antiquity in three pieces, two of which are reunited in the [http://www.schoyencollection.com/babylonianhist.htm#2063 Schøyen collection, MS 2063]</ref> Zikkurat Babibli [Ziggurat of Babylon] I made it, the wonder of the people of the world, I raised its top to heaven, made doors for the gates, and I covered it with bitumen and bricks." The building is depicted in shallow relief, showing its high first stages with paired flights of steps, five further stepped stages and the temple that surmounted the structure. A floor plan is also shown, depicting the buttressed outer walls and the inner chambers surrounding the central ''[[cella]]''.

Foundation cylinders with inscriptions from Nabopolassar were found in the 1880s, two survive, one of which reads:<ref name=arg/>
{{quote|At that time my lord Marduk told me in regard to E-temen-anki, the ziqqurrat of Babylon, which before my day was (already) very weak and badly buckled, to ground its bottom on the breast of the netherworld, to make its top vie with the heavens. I fashioned mattocks, spades and brick-moulds from ivory, ebony, and musukkannu-wood, and set them in the hands of a vast workforce levied from my land. I had them shape mud bricks without number and mould-baked bricks like countless raindrops. I had the River Arahtu bear asphalt and bitumen like a mighty flood. Through the sagacity of Ea, through the intelligence of Marduk, through the wisdom of Nabû and Nissaba, by means of the vast mind that the god who created me let me possess, I deliberated with my great intellect, I commissioned the wisest experts and the surveyor established the dimensions with the twelve-cubit rule. The master-builders drew taut the measuring cords, they determined the limits. I sought confirmation by consulting Samas, Adad and Marduk and, whenever my mind deliberated (and) I pondered (unsure of) the dimensions, the great gods made (the truth) known to me by the procedure of (oracular) confirmation. Through the craft of exorcism, the wisdom of Ea and Marduk, I purified that place and made firm its foundation platform on its ancient base. In its foundations I laid out gold, silver, gemstones from mountain and sea. Under the brickwork, I set heaps of shining ''sapsu'', sweet-scented oil, aromatics and red earth. I fashioned representations of my royal likeness bearing a soil-basket and positioned (them) variously in the foundation platform. I bowed my neck to my lord Marduk. I rolled up my garment, my kingly robe, and carried on my head bricks and earth (i.e. mud bricks). I had soil-baskets made of gold and silver and made Nebuchadnezzar, my firstborn son, beloved of my heart, carry alongside my workmen earth mixed with wine, oil and resin-chips. I made Nabûsumilisir, his brother, a boy, issue of my body, my darling younger son, take up mattock and spade. I burdened him with a soil-basket of gold and silver and bestowed him on my lord Marduk as a gift.I constructed the building, the replica of E-sarra, in joy and jubilation and raised its top as high as a mountain. For my lord Marduk I made it an object fitting for wonder, just as it was in former times.}}

In 2003 scholars discovered in the [[Schøyen Collection]] the oldest known representation of the Etemenanki.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=van de Mieroop |first=Marc |date=2003 |title=Reading Babylon |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40026077 |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |volume=107 |issue=2 |pages=257–275 |doi=10.3764/aja.107.2.257 |jstor=40026077 |issn=0002-9114}}</ref><ref name="stele">{{Cite book |title=Cuneiform Royal Inscriptions and Related Texts in the Schøyen Collection |last=George |first=A. R. |publisher=CDL Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-934309-33-9 |pages=153–169 |editor-last=George |editor-first=A. R. |chapter=A Stele of Nebuchadnezzar II |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/25635619}}</ref>  Carved on a black stone, the "Tower of Babel Stele", as it is known, dates to 604–562 BCE, the time of Nebuchadnezzar II.<ref name="stele" />

[[File:Etemenanki plan.png|thumb|Plan of the site]]
The Etemenanki is described in a [[cuneiform (script)|cuneiform]] tablet from [[Uruk]] from 229 BCE, a copy of an older text (now in the [[Louvre]], Paris and referred to as the "Esagila" tablet).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Claire |first1=Iselin |title=The "Esagila" tablet |url=https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010167181 |website=Louvre |date=604 |access-date=5 December 2020}}</ref> Translated in 1876 by Assyriologist [[George Smith (Assyriologist)|George Smith]], it gives the height of the tower as seven stocks (91 meters) with a square base of 91 meters on each side. This mudbrick structure was confirmed by excavations conducted by Robert Koldewey after 1913. Large stairs were discovered at the south side of the building, where a triple gate connected it with the [[Esagila]]. A larger gate to the east connected the Etemenanki with the sacred procession road (now reconstructed in the [[Pergamon Museum]], Berlin).

Until the first translation of the "Esagila" tablet, details of Babylon's ziggurat were known only from the ancient Greek historian [[Herodotus]], who wrote in the mid-5th century BCE:<ref>Herodotus, [[Histories (Herodotus)|''Histories'']] 1.181</ref>
{{quote|The center of each division of the town was occupied by a fortress. In the one stood the palace of the kings, surrounded by a wall of great strength and size: in the other was the sacred precinct of [[Belus (Babylonian)|Jupiter [Zeus] Belus]], a square enclosure two furlongs [402 m] each way, with gates of solid brass; which was also remaining in my time. In the middle of the precinct there was a tower of solid masonry, a furlong [201 m] in length and breadth, upon which was raised a second tower, and on that a third, and so on up to eight. The ascent to the top is on the outside, by a path which winds round all the towers. When one is about half-way up, one finds a resting-place and seats, where persons can sit for some time on their way to the summit. On the topmost tower there is a spacious temple, and inside the temple stands a couch of unusual size, richly adorned, with a golden table by its side. There is no statue of any kind set up in the place, nor is the chamber occupied of nights by any one but a single native woman, who, as the Chaldeans [i.e. the Babylonians], the priests of this god, affirm, is chosen for himself by the deity out of all the women of the land.}}
This ''Tower of Jupiter Belus'' is believed to refer to the Akkadian god [[Bel (god)|Bel]], whose name has been [[Hellenization|Hellenised]] by Herodotus to ''[[Belus (Babylonian)|Zeus Belus]]''. It is likely that it corresponds to Etemenanki. Herodotus does not say that he visited Babylon or the ziggurat, however; the account contains multiple inaccuracies and is most likely second hand.<ref name=arg/>