The Great Ziggurat of UR

HISTORY
It is was built in the city of Ur present day TELL-EL-MUKAYYAR in Dhi Qar Province in Iraq
ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY
ØOver the years, successive kings added their own layers on to the
existing ziggurat.
ØAdded layers used previous materials as platforms during their
construction.
ØBy the 21st century BC,King UR- Nammu wanted to create the
greatest ziruggat.
ØHe directed that the existing ziruggat be dug away to form a
platform of his ziggurat.
ØThis was the beginning of the construction of the great ziggurat
of Ur.
SIGNIFICANCE
ØThe ziggurat was built by king Ur- Nammu and his son
Shulgi.
ØIt was built to serve as a Temple for the moon goddess
Nanna who was the divine patron of the state.
ØThis was a place where people took their agricultural
surplus,received their food allotments and sought for
spiritual and physical nourishment
COMPLETION
§ King Ur did not live to see this ziggurat
complete.
§ The son Shulgi took over the building process
and it was complete in the 21st century BC
even though Shulgi had proclaimed himself
as a god in order to win the support of the
town.
THE RESTORATION OF THE
ZIGGURAT
ØOver the years the ziggurat underwent various damages
because of the wars and climatic conditions in Iraq.
ØThe last neo-Babylonian King "KING NABODIMUS” of
Mesopotamia restored it by replacing the two upper
terraces.
ØNabodimus found it hard to know how the original
monument looked like. He did his restoration in seven stages
instead of 3
ØThis was done in the 6th century BC.
THE KING AND HIS ZIGGURAT
KING NABODIMUS
King Nabodimus
Ancient location of the king
DESIGN APPROACH
ØThe firs excavation was done in 1854 by John G.Taylor.
ØTaylor found four clay cylinders each at one corner of the ziggurat. This
identified the location of the ziggurats to be Ur.
ØThe cylinders were written on “for the Babylonian king who reigned from
555BC to 539BC”.This confirmed that the ziggurat had been built by King
Nabodimus.
ØHowever an extensive excavation was carried out in the 1920s by Sir. Leonard
Woolley by the appointment of the university museum of the University of
Pennsylvania and the Britain museum.
ØHis excavation brought to us the picture of how the ziggurat was built.
ØLeonard found that the ziggurat was oriented to the true North and its base was 210feet(64m)by
150feet(46m) and approximately 100feet(30m)high.
ØThe ziggurat was made of three layers of which the first layer was the original layer built by Ur- Nammu.
The other two upper layers were those built by the last neo-Babylonian king –Nabodimus during his
restoration of the ziggurat. The layers were in form of levels of terraces.
ØThree monumental staircases led to the first terrace level, a single staircase led to the 2nd terrace level and
another single staircase led to the last terrace level where the Temple of the god stood.
ØThe core of the ziggurat is made up of mud brick covered with baked bricks
11.5x11.5x2.75 inches weighing 33pounds(15kg) laid with bitumen.
The lower level of the temple contains amazing details of engineering design:
ØSince the inner core would have been damp due to varying seasons, the architects
included holes through the exterior layer of the temple allowing water to evaporate
from its core.
ØDrains were also built into the ziggurats’ terraces to carry away the winter rains.
SADDAM HUSSEIN
In the 1980s Saddam Hussein restored the façade of the massive lower foundation
including the 3 monumental staircases.
During the war led by the Americans and the coalition forces,Saddam parked his fighter jets
next to the ziggurat hoping the bombers would spare them for fear of destroying the ancient
site.Unfortunately the ziggurat was bombed causing damages on the structure
A1
THE PRESENT ZIGGURAT
Slide 19
A1
Abuya, 14/07/2013
ØAqar
quf is a city south of Mesopotamia near the
confluence of the Tigris and Diyala.
ØThe city was formally known as Dur Kurigalzu in Baghdad.
ØThis ziggurat was founded by Kassite-king of Babylon back
in the 14th century BC.
ØIt was later abandoned after the fall of the Kassite dynasty.
ØThis ziggurat stands 170 feet high.
SOURCES OF THE RESEARCH
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ziggurat_of_Ur