Page 81 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART ONE*. MESOPOTAMIA

was orientated with its corners to the points of the compass. It measures 190 by 130 feet,
and is therefore oblong, and not square, as in later times. Its outer face, which shows a
batter (Plate 52), is decorated with buttresses. Layers of matting arc built into the brick­
work at intervals to strengthen its cohesion.
On the north-east side three stairways give access to the first stage. In their angles two
solid bastions were constructed; they partly supported a gatehouse built where the three
stairways met. The central stair continued beyond the gatehouse until it reached the
summit of the second stage; this has been calculated at seventeen feet above the top of
the first. It is generally supposed that there was yet a third stage, but this is uncertain,16
and nothing is known of the temple which stood 011 top of the Ziggurat, except that
Nebuchadnezzar seems to have rebuilt it in blue glazed bricks, as he did in his capital,
Babylon, where.Herodotus observed that each of the seven stages had a different colour,
the uppermost being blue.
We have discussed the significance of the Ziggurat above (p. 6). Of the majesty of
this great ruin, as it lies nowadays in the desert, the air-photographs of plate 52 give some
slight impression. The scale is indicated by the men standing on the eastern stairway.
The large buildings found near the Ziggurat in the sacred enclosure are not sufficiently
clear to warrant discussion here.17
We gain some impression of the public buildings of the period at Tell Asmar, ancient
Eshnunna (Figure 19). They were built on a smaller scale, for Eshnunna was a provincial
city compared with Ur, the capital of the land. The square building on the right is a
temple for the worship of Gimilsin (or Shusin) the king of Ur.18 Thus the vassalage of

/

30 METRES
!
80 FEET

Plan of the Gimilsin Temple and the palace of the rulers of Eshnunna
Figure 19 •
52

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