What is a Ziggurat?
- Sylvia Rose
- Nov 3, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 2
Ziggurats are temple icons of ancient Mesopotamian architecture, usually constructed of baked clay brick. The ziggurat may be built over hundreds of years. It's the base for a temple to deities such as Inanna or Enlil.
The ziggurat is only one part of a larger temple complex. It's a center for the living god(s). No tombs or burial sites are found here.
Ziggurat designs vary from basic platforms with a temple to intricate math and architectural wonders, with multiple terraced levels. Ziggurats are topped with a temple, which only priests or priestesses may enter.
Number of floors or levels of the ziggurat range from two to seven. Many temples in the complex relate to the sphere of the prime god/dess, like the divine sukkal or family members. Others are for divinities worshipped through the lands.
The sukkal can intercede with the deity on behalf of humans. Sukkals can be gods, goddesses, demons or animals. Medicine goddess Gula, worshipped throughout Mesopotamia, has a canine-formed sukkal.
Mesopotamian doctors, whose work is often spiritual and related to that of the priest, associate their practice with a temple or ziggurat. Priests can also be doctors, or scribes.
Part of a ziggurat might be below ground to take advantage of cool earth on hot days. Temple complex buildings can have offices of administration and scribes. Bureaucracy begins in the ziggurats and temples of Sumer.
Between 4100 - 2900 BCE, almost every Mesopotamian city has its own ziggurat. As the ziggurat is associated with nourishment, community grain is stored in special chambers of the building, as found in the Ziggurat of Ur.
Priests and those related to the ziggurat have quarters in the temple complex. Royalty might have a private worship area. Only priests are permitted to access the temples atop the ziggurat.
It's their responsibility to care for the gods, and the ruler's task to enable ziggurat building and maintenance. A sloppy ziggurat is an embarrassment to the gods and the people.
A temple at the top is dedicated to a specific god, usually the city god or an older deity like the Sky Father. In Uruk, a white temple dedicated to Sky God An / Anu is built c. 3500 BCE.
It's created at top of the Anu Ziggurat (built c. 4000 BCE). The whitewashed temple in its heyday would be visible to travelers for a long way, shining like a bright beacon in the sunlight.
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