The Ziggurat of Ur: Temple to the Moon God
The Ziggurat of Ur, located in modern-day Dhi Qar Province in southern Iraq, is one of the best-preserved ziggurats in the world and a powerful reminder of the ancient civilization of Sumer. Built in the 21st century BCE by the king Ur-Nammu of the Third Dynasty of Ur, the ziggurat was the religious center of the ancient city of Ur, dedicated to the Sumerian moon god Nanna, the patron deity of the city. The ziggurat was originally about 30 meters (100 feet) high, with three tiers of mudbrick and a temple on top, and it was covered in a thick layer of baked brick set in bitumen. After the fall of the Third Dynasty of Ur, the ziggurat was maintained and rebuilt by successive Mesopotamian kings, including Hammurabi of Babylon, the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II, and the Neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus. The ruins of the ziggurat were rediscovered in the 19th century and excavated in the 20th century, and they are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This page is a complete guide to the Ziggurat of Ur. It explains the history, the construction, the religious function, and the modern legacy. It links back to the Ancient Mesopotamia pillar, the Sumerians cluster, the Babylon cluster, and the Code of Hammurabi cluster.
The City of Ur
The city of Ur was one of the most important cities of ancient Sumer, located near the confluence of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, in what is now southern Iraq. Ur was a major city in the third millennium BCE, a center of trade, religion, and scholarship. The city was famous for its temple to the moon god Nanna, and it was the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham in the Hebrew Bible (although the historicity of this tradition is debated).
The city of Ur reached its first great peak in the Early Dynastic Period (c. 2900–2350 BCE), when it was the capital of one of the major Sumerian city-states. The city then declined, was briefly absorbed by the Akkadian Empire of Sargon, and was eventually revived as the capital of the Third Dynasty of Ur by Ur-Nammu and his son Shulgi in the 21st century BCE. The Third Dynasty of Ur is sometimes called the “Ur III” period, and it was the last great Sumerian kingdom.
The Construction of the Ziggurat
The Ziggurat of Ur was built by the king Ur-Nammu of the Third Dynasty of Ur, around 2100 BCE. The ziggurat was built on the site of earlier temples to the moon god, and it was dedicated to Nanna, the patron deity of the city. The construction was directed by Ur-Nammu and completed by his son Shulgi, who was one of the most powerful rulers of the Third Dynasty.
The ziggurat was built in the typical Mesopotamian style. The core of the structure was made of mudbrick, a cheap and abundant building material in the alluvial plain of southern Mesopotamia. The exterior of the ziggurat was faced with a thick layer of baked brick, set in bitumen (a naturally occurring form of asphalt). The baked brick was both more durable and more waterproof than mudbrick, and the bitumen helped to seal the joints between the bricks.
The ziggurat was originally about 30 meters (100 feet) high, with three tiers. The first tier was a rectangular platform about 60 by 45 meters (200 by 150 feet) and 15 meters (50 feet) high. The second tier was a smaller platform, set on the first, and the third tier was even smaller. On top of the third tier was a temple, the shrine of Nanna. The ziggurat was approached by three monumental staircases, one in the center of the front facade and two on the sides, leading up to the first tier. A second set of stairs led from the first tier to the second, and a third from the second to the third.
The ziggurat was surrounded by a large temple complex, including a courtyard, a treasury, a residence for the priests, and a small temple at the base of the stairs. The whole complex was surrounded by a wall. The temple complex was the religious and economic center of the city of Ur, and it was the home of the chief priest of Nanna, the chief priestess (the en — a kind of high priestess who was often the king’s daughter), and the many subordinate priests, scribes, and craftspeople who served the moon god.
The Religious Function
The ziggurat was a kind of sacred mountain, a stairway from the earth to the heavens. The Mesopotamians believed that the gods lived in the heavens, and the ziggurat was a way for the gods to descend to earth. The temple at the top of the ziggurat was the dwelling place of Nanna, and the priests would ascend the stairs each day to bring the god food and drink, to perform the daily rituals, and to receive the god’s oracles.
The ziggurat was also a symbol of the cosmic order. The three tiers of the ziggurat were said to represent the three heavens: the heaven of the stars, the heaven of the sun, and the heaven of the moon. The ziggurat was a kind of axis mundi, the point where the heavens and the earth met.
The ziggurat was not a place of public worship. The public religious rituals were performed in the courtyard at the base of the ziggurat, and only the priests and priestesses were allowed to ascend the stairs. The ordinary citizens of Ur would come to the ziggurat to bring offerings, to pray, and to participate in the great festivals of the year, but they would not go up the stairs.
The Decline and Rediscovery
The Third Dynasty of Ur fell around 2004 BCE, after a long series of Amorite invasions. The ziggurat was maintained and rebuilt by successive Mesopotamian kings. The Babylonian king Hammurabi (c. 1792–1750 BCE) recorded in his famous code that he had restored the ziggurat of Ur, “the great temple of the moon god.” The Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BCE) rebuilt the ziggurat during his reign. The last major restoration was by the Neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus (555–539 BCE), who rebuilt the upper part of the ziggurat.
The ziggurat was eventually abandoned, probably in the fourth or fifth century CE, when the city of Ur was finally deserted. The site was gradually covered by sand and debris, and the ziggurat was reduced to a mound in the desert.
The site of Ur was rediscovered in 1849 by the British archaeologist John George Taylor, and the first major excavations were carried out by the British Museum in the 1920s. The ziggurat was further excavated in the 1980s by a joint British-Iraqi team. The ziggurat was restored in the 1980s, and the lower part of the structure is now visible.
The Modern Site
The Ziggurat of Ur is one of the most impressive ancient monuments in Iraq, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The site is in the Dhi Qar Province of southern Iraq, near the modern town of Nasiriyah. The site has been damaged in the 21st century by the Iran-Iraq War, the Gulf War, and the Iraq War, and the modern restoration has had to be repeated. The ziggurat is still an impressive monument, and it is the most important tourist attraction in southern Iraq.
The Ziggurat of Ur has also been the subject of considerable recent archaeological and historical research. The British Museum excavations of the 1920s, the work of the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and the Iraq Museum in the 1980s, and the modern Iraqi excavations have given us a much more detailed picture of the construction, the use, and the symbolism of the ziggurat. The ziggurat is now understood to be a much more sophisticated structure than was once thought, and it is recognized as one of the great monuments of the ancient world.