A ziggurat is a form of monumental architecture originating in ancient Mesopotamia which usually had a rectangular base and was built in a series of steps up to a flat platform upon which a temple was raised. The ziggurat was an artificial mountain raised for the worship of the gods to elevate the priests toward heaven.
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Definition
Timeline
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c. 5000 BCE - 4100 BCEFirst ziggurats in Mesopotamia thought to appear during the Ubaid Period.
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4100 BCE - 2900 BCESumerian ziggurats are built during the Uruk Period.
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c. 3000 BCEZiggurat of Uruk is built.
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c. 3000 BCE - 500 BCEZiggurats are built and used as religious sites throughout Mesopotamia.
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2900 BCE - 2334 BCEZiggurats continue to be built in every city center during the Early Dynastic Period.
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2100 BCEZiggurats in use in Sumerian cities of Eridu, Uruk, Ur, Nippur and elsewhere
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2047 BCE - 1982 BCEZiggurat of Ur is built.
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c. 1300 BCE - c. 900 BCEZiggurat of Babylon is built.
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689 BCEZiggurat of Babylon destroyed with the rest of the city by King Sennacherib.
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c. 681 BCE - c. 562 BCEZiggurat of Babylon is rebuilt.
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c. 500 BCEZiggurats are abandoned and no new ones built in Mesopotamia.
