A ziggurat is an artificial mountain built by the ancient Mesopotamians to elevate the clergy toward the realm of the gods. A form of monumental architecture, the ziggurat had a rectangular base from which a series of steps rose to a flat platform where the temple honoring the god of the city stood.
Each ziggurat was built for a specific deity and was considered the earthly home of that god. These structures were not 'houses of worship' as one understands that term today – there were no daily or weekly services offered to the public – but were the center of the temple complex of a city where religious festivals were held (or were begun), grain and other goods for public consumption stored, scribes worked at their craft, and, most importantly, where the high priest and attendant clergy made offerings to the god at the temple atop the ziggurat. The most famous of these was the Etemenaki at Babylon, thought to be the inspiration for the story of the Tower of Babel from the biblical Book of Genesis.
The following gallery presents images of only a few of the many ziggurats that were raised across Mesopotamia from c. 3000 BCE, at the latest, to c. 500 BCE when Zoroastrianism changed the religious paradigm in the region.
