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WEST ASIATIC ARCHITECTURE
4000 B.C. – 641 A.D.
INFLUENCES:
Geographical
West Asiatic Architecture flourished and
developed in the Twin Rivers Tigris and
Euphrates, also known as Mesopotamia. It
refers to Persia, Assyria, and Babylon. The
fertile plains between the twin rivers were
given the name Mesopotamia – mesos
(middle) and potamos (river)
Known as the “cradle of civilization”
Mesopotamia is also part of what is known
the Fertile Crescent because of the irrigated
farmlands.
Mesopotamia, now known as Iraq, has no
natural barriers.
Mesopotamia included Babylonia, Assyria, Persia,
Sumer and Akkad, corresponding to modern-day
Iraq, north-eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey
and south-western Iran.
Babylon was the capital of ancient of Babylonia in
southern Mesopotamia now the modern Iraq.
Geological
Due to floods and heavy rains, it resulted in the
conversion of its earthen into clay to produce bricks
in Assyria and Babylon due to rare experience of
rain in Persia, they use timber and colored
limestone.
Climatic
Mesopotamia experience floods and heavy rains
that have resulted in the building of Ziggurats in
Persia. They have dry and hot climate w/c resulted
in building open type temples.
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INFLUENCES:
Religious
Social and Political
Mesopotamians were superstitious, believers of Babylonians among the 3 were considered
symbolism and believers of genies and demons. extraordinary because they achieve highest
Persian were believers of good and evil. They believe degree of civilization. Assyrian and Persian believe
that good usually triumphs in the end. in military superiority thus manifested in their
buildings.
Historical
King Hammurabi was the 6th Babylonian king to
5000 BC to 641 AD write the first code of laws in human history –
Hammurabi’s Code
3 periods:
Cuneiform script in clay tablets is one if the
- Mesopotamian (Babylonian or Chaldean) earliest known form of written expression.
- Assyrian Assyria was the ancient name for the northeastern
part of modern Iraq and was named after its
- Persian original capital, the ancient city of Assur.
Persia, now known as Iran was once a major
**records in cuneiform written on clay tablets empire of superpower proportions.

ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER:
1. Massiveness  copper, tin, lead gold, silver imported
 only material readily available was clay, soil
2. Monumentality
 bricks made of mud and chopped straw, sun-dried or kiln-
3. Grandeur fired
Construction System: Columns:
 No columns due to lack of stone
Babylonian and Assyrian:
Roof and Ceiling:
Arcuated type of construction: arch, vault and flat
strips, buttresses with glazed tile adornment - usually flat - some domes
Wall:
Persian:
 burnt brick for facing or for load bearing walls
Columnar and trabeated with flat timber roof
sometimes domed  white-wash was common (colored only ziggurats)
Orientation:
Materials used:
 oriented with four corners towards cardinal points
- reeds, rushes - timber is imported
 arranged around large and small courts

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PERIODS: SUMERIAN ARCHITECTURE

 4500 B. C.
 The transition from prehistory was made
around 4500 B. C. with the rise of the
Sumerian civilization. The major cities were:
- Kisha
- Urukand
- Ur
 The Sumerians were the first civilization to
make conscious attempt of designing public
buildings.
 Mud was their building materials. Mud was
formed into brick, sun dried and built into
massive walls.
 Walls were thick to compensate the
weakness of mud. They were reinforced
with buttresses. Spaces were narrow
because of the walling material.
 Buttresses and recesses also relieve the
monotony of the plastered wall surfaces.
 Façade of buildings were white washed
and painted to disguise the lack of
attraction of the material
 Temples was their major building type

PERIODS: SUMERIAN ARCHITECTURE

CITIES
Cities were enclosed in walls with ziggurat
temples and palaces as centers of the city,
fabric of the city is made up of residences
mixed with commercial and industrial
buildings. The houses were densely packed
with narrow streets between them. Streets
were fronted by courtyard houses of one story
high.

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PERIODS: SUMERIAN ARCHITECTURE

TEMPLES AND HOUSES
- The houses streets were
usually punctuated by
narrow openings that
serve as entrance to
houses.
- Temples were the
principal architectural
monuments of Sumerian
cities. Temples consists of
chief and city temples.

PERIODS: SUMERIAN ARCHITECTURE

White Temple – Uruk – 3000 B. C.

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PERIODS: SUMERIAN ARCHITECTURE

 Uruk was a major Sumerian city by 330 B.C.
Uruk is also known as Warka in Arabic. It is an
example of earliest development of Sumerian
temples and Ziggurat.
 The temple is place on a great mound of earth
called Ziggurat, rising more than 12 meters
above ground. The ziggurat and temple are
built with mud bricks. The temple is rectangular
in shape.
 Series of staircases and stepped levels lead
worships to the entrance of the temple. The
temple was plastered white externally, making
it visible for miles in the landscape

PERIODS: SUMERIAN ARCHITECTURE

GREAT ZIGGURAT (UR)

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PERIODS: SUMERIAN ARCHITECTURE

 Ur was a Sumerian city located near the mouth of
the Euphrates river. It was constructed of mud
bricks reinforced with thin layers of matting and
cables of twisted reeds. The Great Ziggurat was
located as part of Temple Complex.
 The temple sits on a three multi-tiered ziggurat
mountain. Access to the temple is through triple
stairways that converge at the summit of the first
flatform. The temple is usually accessed only by
the priest , were gods are believed to come down
to give instructions. The people believed that
climbing the staircase of the ziggurat gives a holy
experience.
 The chief temple was also used as a last line of
defense during times of war.

PERIODS: BABYLONIAN ARCHITECTURE

2300 B.C.
 After the fall of Nineveh and the end of the
Assyrian civilization, focus of Mesopotamian
civilization shifted to Old Babylon. A new
dynasty of kings, including Nebuchadnezzar,
revived Old Babylonian culture to create a Neo-
Babylonian civilization. Old Sumerian cities
were rebuilt. The capital Old Babylon was
enlarged and heavily fortified.
 New buildings were built. The traditional style
of Mesopotamian building reached its peak
during the period.
 Traditional building was enhanced by a new
form of façade ornament consisting of figures
designed I colored glazed brick work.

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PERIODS: BABYLONIAN ARCHITECTURE

City of Babylon
- The city of Babylon is shaped in the form of
a quadrangle sitting across and pierces by
the Euphrates.
- The city was surrounded by a fortification
of double walls. These has defensive
towers that project well above the walls
- The walls also had a large moat in front,
which was also used for navigation. The
length of the wall and moat is about five
and a quarter miles. The city had a palace
located on its Northern side on the outer
wall.

PERIODS: BABYLONIAN ARCHITECTURE

Ishtar Gate (575 B.C.)
- Originated a procession street that cuts
through the city raised above the ground to the
tower of Babel. The procession street enters
the city through the famous Ishtar gate. The
gate is built across the double walls of the city
fortification. The gate had a pair of projecting
towers on each wall.
- All the facades of gates and adjoining streets
were faced with blue glazed bricks and
ornamented with figures of heraldic animals-
lions, bulls, and dragons. These were modelled
and relief and glazed in other colors. None of
the buildings of old Babylon has survived to the
present age.

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PERIODS: BABYLONIAN ARCHITECTURE

Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Nebuchadnezzar’s Palace
- Nebuchadnezzar’s palace covered a land area
of 900 feet. It had administrative offices,
barracks, the king’s harem, private apartment
all arranged around five courtyards. The palace
is also praised for its legendary hanging
garden.
- This is recorded as one of the seven wonders of
the ancient world, but exact knowledge of the
nature of this garden is not known. The
legendary tower of Babel located at the end of
procession street is mentioned in the Christian
bible.

PERIODS: BABYLONIAN ARCHITECTURE

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PERIODS: ASSYRIAN ARCHITECTURE

- 1859-626 B.C.
Principal cities:
 Nineveh
 Dun
 Khorsabad
 Nimrud
 Assur
- The Assyrians were great warriors and hunters,
and this was reflected in their art. They produced
violent sculptures and relief carving in stone that
was used to ornament their houses. During the
Assyrian periods, temples lost their importance to
palaces
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tizdco2i85w

PERIODS: ASSYRIAN ARCHITECTURE

- Palaces were raised on bricks platforms, and
their principal entrance ways were flanked by
guardian figures of human headed bulls or lions
of stone.
- Their halls and corridors were lied with pictures
and inscriptions carved in relief on stones slabs
up to 9 feet high.
- The interiors were richly decorated and
luxurious. He walls of cities were usually
strengthened by many towers serving as
defensive positions.
 Stone reliefs of two winged bulls with human heads
flanked the entrance
 The walls were decorated with long rows of bas-reliefs
 The palace is approached at ground level through a
walled citadel. Within the citadel is found the main
palace, two minor palaces and a temple dedicated to
Nabu.
 The main palace was set on a platform located on the
northern side of the citadel all the buildings within the
citadel were arranged around courtyards.
 The palace was arranged around two major courtyards
about which were grouped smaller courtyards.
 The palace consisted of large and smaller rooms with
the throne room being the largest. The building was
decorated with relief sculpture and glazed brick

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PERIODS: ASSYRIAN ARCHITECTURE

PERIODS: PERSIAN ARCHITECTURE

550-330 B.C.
Their architectural solutions were a
synthesis of ideas gathered from
almost all parts of their empire and
from the Greeks and Egyptians. Their
materials of construction was also
from different locations. Materials
included mud-brick from Babylon,
wooden roof beams from Lebanon,
precious material from India and
Egypt, stone columns quarried and
carved by ionic Greeks. Despite
sourcing materials and ideas from
different areas, their architecture as
original and distinctive in style.

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PERIODS: PERSIAN ARCHITECTURE

Palace of Persepolis
522-486 B.C.
Persian architecture achieved it greatest monumentality
at Persepolis and was constructed as a new capital for the
Persian empire. It was surrounded by a fortification wall.
The site was more than half covered by buildings the
palace consisted of three parts:
- An approach of monumental staircase, gate ways and
avenues
- Two great state halls towards the center of the
platform
- The palace of Xerxes, the harem, and other living
quarters at the south end of the site.
Structurally, the building relied on a hypostyle scheme
throughout. Some of the spaces were very big and
generally square in plan. The spaces were enclosed by
mud brick walls. The most impressive aspects of the
palace was the royal audience hall.

PERIODS: PERSIAN ARCHITECTURE

The monumental entrance to Persepolis is
also one of the unique aspects of the palace.
The monumental gateway ensure a dramatic
entry to the palace. It was heavily adorned
with relief sculpture ornamenting its
stairway. The relief structure addresses
different themes relating to the role of
Persepolis as the capital of the Persian
empire. In some places, the sculpture shows
delegates from the different parts of the
Persian bringing gifts and rare animals to the
king during celebrations.
Tripylon or Central Palace

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PERIODS: PERSIAN ARCHITECTURE

In some palaces, royal guards and nobles of
the imperial court are shown. Elsewhere, the
king is seen in conflict with animals or seated
beneath a ceremonial umbrella.
Some columns supporting the halls of the
great halls have survived. The mud brick
fabric of the palace and its enclosing walls
have perished completely.
Only the sculptures which adorn doorways
or windows and openings and the relief
ornamenting its entrance way remain
Audience Hall (apadana) of Darius and Xerxes

PERIODS: PERSIAN ARCHITECTURE

Hall of 100 Columns or the Throne Room of Xerxes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34oQfaJiy7w
Construction was started by Xerxes and
completed by his son Artaxerxes I by the end
of the fifth century BC.
Its eight stone doorways are decorated on
the south and north with reliefs of throne
scenes and on the east and west with scenes
depicting the king in combat with monsters.
Two colossal stone bulls flank the northern
portico.
In the beginning of Xerxes's reign the Throne
Hall was used mainly for receptions for
military commanders and representatives of
all the subject nations of the empire. Later
the Throne Hall served as an imperial
museum.

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