Ziggurat

A ziggurat (/ˈzɪɡʊˌræt/; Cuneiform: 𒅆𒂍𒉪, Akkadian: ziqqurratum,[2] D-stem of zaqārum 'to protrude, to build high',[3] cognate with other Semitic languages like Hebrew zaqar (זָקַר) 'protrude'[4][5]) is a type of massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia.

The Sumerians believed that the gods lived in the temple at the top of the ziggurats, so only priests and other highly-respected individuals could enter.

Sumerian society offered these individuals such gifts as music, harvested produce, and the creation of devotional statues to entice them to live in the temple.

[6] Ziggurats were built by ancient Sumerians, Akkadians, Elamites, Eblaites and Babylonians for local religions.

Erosion has usually reduced the surviving ziggurats to a fraction of their original height, but textual evidence may yet provide more facts about the purpose of these shrines.

In the present state of our knowledge it seems reasonable to adopt as a working hypothesis the suggestion that the ziggurats developed out of the earlier temples on platforms and that small shrines stood on the highest stages ...[8]Access to the shrine would have been by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a spiral ramp from base to summit.

[12] Unfortunately, not much of even the base is left of this massive structure, yet archeological findings and historical accounts put this tower at seven multicolored tiers, topped with a temple of exquisite proportions.

[7] Functionally, ziggurats offered a high place on which priests could escape rising water that annually inundated lowlands and occasionally flooded for hundreds of kilometres.

[13] They also offered security; since the shrine was accessible only by way of three stairways,[14] a small number of guards could prevent non-priests from spying on the rituals at the shrine on top of the ziggurat, such as initiation rituals like the Eleusinian mysteries, cooking of sacrificial food and burning of sacrificial animals.

Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex that included a courtyard, storage rooms, bathrooms, and living quarters, around which a city spread,[15] as well as a place for the people to worship.