Editing Ishtar Gate (section)

==Design==
The front of the gate has a low-relief design with a repeated pattern of images of two of the major gods of the Babylonian pantheon. [[Marduk]], the national deity and chief god, with his servant dragon Mušḫuššu, is depicted as a dragon with a snake-like head and tail, a scaled body of a lion, and powerful talons for back feet. Marduk was seen as the divine champion of good against evil, and the incantations of the Babylonians often sought his protection.<ref name="Bertman">{{cite book | last = Bertman | first = Stephen | date = 7 July 2003 | title = Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia | publisher = Oxford University Press | pages = 130–132 | isbn = 978-0195183641 }}</ref>

[[File:Close-up of Ishtar Gate tiles, Pergamon Museum 3.jpg|thumb|An [[aurochs]] above a flower ribbon, with missing tiles replaced]]

The second god shown in the pattern of reliefs on the Ishtar Gate is [[Adad]] (also known as Ishkur), whose sacred animal was the [[aurochs]], a now-extinct ancestor of cattle. Adad had power over destructive storms and beneficial rain. The design of the Ishtar Gate also includes linear borders and patterns of rosettes, often seen as symbols of fertility.<ref name="Bertman" />

The bricks of the Ishtar gate were made from finely textured clay pressed into wooden forms. Each of the animal reliefs was also made from bricks formed by pressing clay into reusable molds. Seams between the bricks were carefully planned not to occur on the eyes of the animals or any other aesthetically unacceptable places. The bricks were sun-dried and then fired once before glazing. The clay was brownish red in this bisque-fired state.<ref name="King">{{cite journal|last=King|first=Leo|date=2008|title=The Ishtar Gate|url=http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=178162192193939;res=IELHSS|journal=Ceramics Technical|number=26|pages=51–53|access-date=21 Nov 2017}}</ref>

The background glazes are mainly a vivid blue, which imitates the color of the highly prized [[lapis lazuli]]. Gold and brown glazes are used for animal images. The borders and rosettes are glazed in black, white, and gold. It is believed that the glaze recipe used plant ash, sandstone conglomerates, and pebbles for silicates. This combination was repeatedly melted, cooled, and then pulverized. This mixture of silica and fluxes is called a [[frit]]. Color-producing minerals, such as cobalt, were added in the final glaze formulations. This was then painted onto the bisque-fired bricks and fired to a higher temperature in a glaze firing.<ref name="King" />

The creation of the gate out of wood and clay glazed to look like [[lapis lazuli]] could possibly be a reference to the goddess [[Inanna]], who became syncretized with the goddess [[Ishtar]] during the reign of Sargon of Akkad. In the myth of Inanna's descent to the underworld, Inanna is described as donning seven accoutrements of lapis lazuli<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kramer|first=Samuel Noah|title=Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C.: Revised Edition|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|year=1961|isbn=978-0-8122-1047-7|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Wolkstein|first=Diane|title=Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer|publisher=Harper&Row Publishers|year=1983|isbn=978-0-06-090854-6|location=New York City, New York}}</ref> symbolizing her divine power. Once captured by the queen of the underworld, Inanna is described as being lapis lazuli, silver, and wood,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=George|first=A. R.|title=Observations on a Passage of 'Inanna's Descent'|journal=Journal of Cuneiform Studies|volume=37|pages=112}}</ref> two of these materials being key components in the construction of the Ishtar Gate. The creation of the gate out of wood and "lapis lazuli" linking the gate to being part of the Goddess herself.

After the glaze firing, the bricks were assembled, leaving narrow horizontal seams from one to six millimeters. The seams were then sealed with a naturally occurring black viscous substance called [[bitumen]], like modern asphalt. The Ishtar Gate is only one small part of the design of ancient Babylon that also included the palace, temples, an inner fortress, walls, gardens, other gates, and the Processional Way. The lavish city was decorated with over 15 million baked bricks, according to estimates.<ref name="King" />

The main gate led to the Southern Citadel, the gate itself seeming to be a part of Imgur-Bel and Nimitti-Bel, two of the most prominent defensive walls of Babylon. There were three primary entrances to the Ishtar Gate: the central entrance which contained the double gate structure (two sets of double doors, for a fourfold door structure), and doors flanking the main entrance to the left and right, both containing the signature double door structure.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Koldewey|first=Robert|title=The Excavations at Babylon|publisher=Macmillan and Company|year=1914|pages=30–40}}</ref>[[File:Ishtar Gate at Berlin Museum.jpg|thumb|The Ishtar Gate in the [[Pergamon Museum]] in [[Berlin]]]]