ziggurat

ziggurat

, zikkurat, zikurat

a type of rectangular temple tower or tiered mound erected by the Sumerians, Akkadians, and Babylonians in Mesopotamia. The tower of Babel is thought to be one of these

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Ziggurat

A Mesopotamian temple having the form of a terraced pyramid rising in three to seven successively receding stages in height; built of mud brick, featuring an outside staircase and a shrine at the top.

Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

ziggurat

A Mesopotamian temple tower; from the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. on, ziggurats rose in three to seven stages, diminishing in area and often in height square (Sumer) or rectangular (Assyria), built of mud brick and faced with baked brick laid in bitumen.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Ziggurat

 

(Akkadian), a cultic structure in ancient Mesopotamia. It was a sun-dried brick tower formed from stepped parallelepipeds or truncated pyramids (from three to seven); these contained no internal chambers except for the uppermost, which contained a shrine. The ziggurat’s terraces, which were painted in different colors (mainly black, red, and white), were connected by stairways or ramps. The walls were divided by rectangular recesses. A temple was usually located next to the ziggurat. Ziggurats have been preserved in Iraq (in the ancient cities of Borsippa, Babylon, and Dur-Sharrukin; all dating from the first millennium B.C.) and Iran (at the site of Choga Zambil, second millennium B.C.).

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.