Why was glazed brickwork useful for decorating mud-brick buildings in Babylon?

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The Great Ziggurat of Ur in Iraq, a massive ancient brick structure with broad staircases and terraced levels, stands alone in a barren landscape. — Mesopotamian art and architecture Ziggurat at Ur (modern Tall al-Muqayyar, Iraq), constructed c. 2100 bce.

In Babylon, the use of brightly glazed brickwork provided a practical and aesthetic solution for the challenge of embellishing mud-brick facades.12

Because mud brick was a standard but visually plain building material, the application of glazed bricks allowed architects to create elaborate, durable, and colorful ornamentation on public structures, such as the Ishtar Gate and palace walls. These decorations often featured large-scale figures of bulls, lions, and dragons modeled in relief. While this was a costly and labor-intensive process—as each individual brick composing a figure had to be separately cast—it effectively transformed the appearance of the city's mud-brick architecture into a grand, artistic display.12