Editing Architecture of Mesopotamia (section)

==Temples==
{{further|É (temple)}}

Temples often predated the creation of the urban settlement and grew from small one room structures to elaborate multiacre complexes across the 2,500 years of Sumerian history. Sumerian temples, fortifications, and palaces made use of more advanced materials and techniques, such as [[buttress]]es, [[wiktionary:recess|recesses]], and [[Column|half column]]s. Chronologically, Sumerian temples evolved from earlier [[Ubaid period|Ubaid]] temples. As the temple decayed it was ritually destroyed and a new temple built on its foundations. The successor temple was larger and more articulated than its predecessor temple. The evolution of the [[É (temple)|E₂.abzu]] temple at [[Eridu]] is a frequently cited case-study of this process. Many temples had inscriptions engraved into them, such as the one at [[Tell Uqair]]. Palaces and city walls came much later after temples in the [[Early Dynastic Period of Sumer|Early Dynastic Period]].
[[File:Street in Babylon.jpg|thumb|A partial view of the ruins of [[Babylon]].]]
The form of a Sumerian temple is manifestation of Near Eastern [[cosmology]], which described the world as a disc of land which was surrounded by a salt water ocean, both of which floated on another sea of fresh water called [[apsu]], above them was a hemispherical firmament which regulated time. A world mountain formed an [[axis mundi]] that joined all three layers. The role of the temple was to act as that axis mundi, a meeting place between gods and men.<ref>Mendenhall, 1983 p205-208</ref> The sacredness of 'high places' as a meeting point between realms is a pre-Ubaid belief well attested in the Near East back the Neolithic age. The plan of the temple was rectangular with the corners pointing in cardinal directions to symbolize the four rivers which flow from the mountain to the four world regions. The orientation also serves a more practical purpose of using the temple roof as an observatory for Sumerian timekeeping. The temple was built on a low terrace of [[rammed earth]] meant to represent the sacred mound of primordial land which emerged from the water called dukug, 'pure mound' (Sumerian: du₆-ku₃ Cuneiform:) during creation.

The doors of the long axis were the entry point for the gods, and the doors of the short axis the entry point for men. This configuration was called the bent axis approach, as anyone entering would make a ninety degree turn to face the cult statue at the end of the central hall.

The bent axis approach is an innovation from the Ubaid temples which had a linear axis approach, and is also a feature of Sumerian houses. An offering table was located in the centre of the temple at the intersection of the axes.

Temples of the Uruk Period divided the temple rectangle into tripartite, T-shaped, or combined plans. The tripartite plan inherited from the Ubaid had a large central hall with two smaller flanking halls on either side. The entry was along the short axis and the shrine was at the end of the long axis. The T-shaped plan, also from the Ubaid period, was identical to the tripartite plan except for a hall at one end of the rectangle perpendicular to the main hall. Temple C from the Eanna district of [[Uruk]] is a case-study of classical temple form.

There was an explosion of diversity in temple design during the following Early Dynastic Period. The temples still retained features such as cardinal orientation, rectangular plans, and buttresses. Now however they took on a variety new configurations including courtyards, walls, basins, and barracks. The [[É (temple)|Sin Temple]] in [[Khafajah]] is typical of this era, as it was designed around a series of courtyards leading to a [[cella]].

The high temple was a special type of temple that was home to the patron god of the city. Functionally, it served as a storage and distribution centre as well as housing the priesthood. The [[É (temple)|White Temple]] of [[Anu]] in [[Uruk]] is typical of a high temple which was built very high on a platform of adobe-brick. In the Early Dynastic period high temples began to include a [[ziggurat]], a series of platforms creating a stepped pyramid. Such ziggurats may have been the inspiration for the Biblical [[Tower of Babel]].

===Ziggurats===
[[File:20160105-Abraham_house_in_Ur_Iraq.jpg|thumb|The alleged [[Abraham]] house in [[Ur]], southern [[Iraq]]]]
[[File:Reconstructed Babylon -1.jpg|thumb|right|Partially reconstructed facade and access staircase of the [[Ziggurat of Ur]], originally built by [[Ur-Nammu]], {{circa|2100 BC}}]]
[[Ziggurat]]s were huge pyramidal temple towers which were first built in Sumerian City-States and then developed in Babylonia and Assyrian cities as well. There are 32 ziggurats known at, or near, Mesopotamia&mdash;28 in [[Iraq]] and 4 in [[Iran]]. Notable ziggurats include the [[Great Ziggurat of Ur]] near [[Nasiriyah]], Iraq, the [[Ziggurat of Aqar Quf]] near [[Baghdad]], Iraq, [[Chogha Zanbil]] in [[Khūzestān Province|Khūzestān]], Iran (the most recent to be discovered), and the [[Tappeh Sialk|Sialk]] near [[Kashan]], Iran. Ziggurats were built by the [[Sumer]]ians, [[Babylon]]ians, [[Elam]]ites, and [[Assyria]]ns as monuments to local religions. The earliest examples of the ziggurat were raised platforms that date from the [[Ubaid period]]<ref name="Crawford, page 73">Crawford, p. 73</ref> during the fourth [[millennium]] BC, and the latest date from the 6th century BC. The top of the ziggurat was flat, unlike many pyramids. The step pyramid style began near the end of the Early Dynastic Period.<ref>Crawford, pp. 73-74</ref>

Built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform, the ziggurat was a [[pyramid]]al structure. Sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside. The facings were often glazed in different colours and may have had [[astrology|astrological]] significance. Kings sometimes had their names engraved on these glazed bricks. The number of tiers ranged from two to seven, with a shrine or temple at the summit. Access to the shrine was provided by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a spiral ramp from base to summit. It has been suggested that ziggurats were built to resemble mountains, but there is little textual or archaeological evidence to support that hypothesis.

Classical ziggurats emerged in the Neo-Sumerian Period with articulated buttresses, vitreous brick sheathing, and [[entasis]] in the elevation. The Ziggurat of Ur is the best example of this style. Another change in temple design in this period was a straight as opposed to bent-axis approach to the temple.

Ur-Nammu's ziggurat at Ur was designed as a three-stage construction, but today only two of these survive. This entire mudbrick core structure was originally given a facing of baked brick envelope set in [[bitumen]], 2.5&nbsp;m on the first lowest stage, and 1.15&nbsp;m on the second. Each of these baked bricks were stamped with the name of the king. The sloping walls of the stages were buttressed. The access to the top was by means of a triple monumental staircase, which all converges at a portal that opened on a landing between the first and second stages. The height of the first stage was about 11&nbsp;m while the second stage rose some 5.7&nbsp;m. Usually, a third stage is reconstructed by the excavator of the ziggurat ([[Leonard Woolley]]), and crowned by a temple. At the [[Chogha Zanbil]] ziggurat, archaeologists have found massive reed ropes that ran across the core of the ziggurat structure and tied together the mudbrick mass.

The most notable architectural remains from early Mesopotamia are the temple complexes at [[Uruk]] from the 4th millennium BC, temples and palaces from the [[Early Dynastic Period of Sumer#Early Dynastic period|Early Dynastic]] period sites in the [[Diyala River]] valley such as Khafajah and Tell Asmar, the [[Third Dynasty of Ur]] remains at [[Nippur]] (Sanctuary of [[Enlil]]) and [[Ur]] (Sanctuary of [[Sin (mythology)|Nanna]]), Middle [[Bronze Age]] remains at Syrian-Turkish sites of [[Ebla]], [[Mari, Syria|Mari]], [[Alalakh]], [[Aleppo]] and [[Kultepe]], Late Bronze Age palaces at [[Hattusa]], [[Ugarit]], [[Assur|Ashur]] and [[Nuzi]], Iron Age palaces and temples at [[Assyria]]n ([[Kalhu]]/Nimrud, [[Khorsabad]], [[Nineveh]]), [[Babylonia]]n ([[Babylon]]), [[Urartian]] ([[Tushpa]]/Van, [[Haykaberd]], Ayanis, [[Armavir, Armenia|Armavir]], [[Erebuni Fortress|Erebuni]], [[Bastam]]) and [[Neo-Hittite]] sites ([[Carchemish|Karkamis]], [[Tell Halaf]], [[Karatepe]]). Houses are mostly known from Old Babylonian remains at Nippur and Ur. Among the textual sources on building construction and associated rituals are Gudea's cylinders from the late 3rd millennium are notable, as well as the Assyrian and Babylonian royal inscriptions from the [[Iron Age]].

[[File:Sargon II in his royal chariot, tramping a dead or dying enemy, part of a war scene from Khorsabad, Iraq. The Iraq Museum.jpg|left|thumb|[[Sargon II]] in his royal chariot, tramping a dead or dying enemy, part of a war scene from [[Dur-Sharrukin]]. [[Iraq Museum]]]]