The Ziggurat of Ur

The Ziggurat of Ur, a pyramidal stepped temple tower, built in 2100 BC and dedicated to the chief deity of Ur, the moon god Nanna. The Ziggurats were erected in each major city, the most famous of them is the tower of Babel, or the Etemenanki Ziggurat in Babylon.

These solid stage-tower temples served, some scholars speculate, as a half-way between heaven and earth, where men and gods could meet on certain occasions.

The Ziggurat of Ur is the best preserved one among the other 25 Ziggurats, it consisted of three tiers, stairways led from the ground level to the summit with a small shrine crowning the structure.

It rose to a height of 26 meters. Now only the first and the second stages remain with a present height of 17 meters.

It measures at its base 62 by 43 meters.

Built by Ur-Nammu, the founder of the Neo-Sumerian Empire, and completed by his son, Shulgi. Ur is one of the first urban cities in Sumer, established in 3800 BC.

During the Neo-Sumerian era, it was the imperial capital that ruled the whole of Mesopotamia in addition to Elam, an ancient state and archenemy to Sumer in southwestern Iran.

The solid core is built of sun-dried mud bricks and strengthened by reed mating placed between layers of bricks while the exterior layer is of baked bricks set in bitumen.

Holes are made in the Ziggurat to allow water to evaporate from the center.

This enormous mass gives an astonishing impression of lightness due partly to its perfect proportions and partly to the fact that all its lines are slightly curved.

Excavated by the British archeologist, Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1920s and restored in the early 1960s by the Iraqi Directorate of Antiquities.