Ziggurat at Ur
Ziggurat at Ur, ziggurat located in the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur in southern Iraq, near the modern-day city of Al-Nāṣiriyyah. Its earliest bricks date to about 2100 bce.
Ziggurats in ancient Mesopotamia
Ziggurats are pyramidal stepped towers built by the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians of ancient Mesopotamia—the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Archaeologists have identified approximately 25 to 30 surviving ziggurats, and the ziggurat at Ur is one of the best preserved.
Description
The ziggurat at Ur sits on a vast plain, but it once sat within a walled precinct. Its core was constructed with bricks made from mud and reed pressed into molds and dried in the sun. Several million bricks were used for the core, which was strengthened with reed matting and sandy soil sandwiched between every sixth layer of brick. The core was clad with baked bricks mortared with bitumen to create a waterproof surface, punctuated by “weeper holes” to allow water to evaporate from the center.
" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">
Many of the facing bricks were stamped with the name of Ur-Nammu (reigned 2112–2095 bce), the first king of the 3rd dynasty of Ur. In Ur-Nammu’s time, the ziggurat had three tiers and three buttressed staircases, which led to a temple on the flat surface at the top that was dedicated to the Sumerian moon god Nanna (Sin). Each tier formed a terrace that was once thought to have been planted with vegetation, but archaeological evidence and ancient depictions do not support this theory. It has largely been rejected.
Later additions and legacy
There is, however, evidence of continuous repair and maintenance indicating that this was an important building for at least 2,000 years. In the 6th century bce, four more tiers were added to make it a seven-story structure. Only the first two tiers now survive. The excavation of the ziggurat at Ur in 1922 sparked a brief craze for tiered buildings. In the 1980s the ziggurat was partially reconstructed by Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, but it suffered damage during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. The ziggurat was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2016 as part of several archaeological sites and wetland marsh areas comprising “The Ahwar of Southern Iraq: Refuge of Biodiversity and the Relict Landscape of the Mesopotamian Cities” site.