MESOPOTAMIAN ARCHITECTURE

PRESENTED BY :ASHWANI KALYANI

Euphrates
river
Tigris
river
Tigris–Euphrates river
system
Tigris–Euphrates river
system
The Tigris and Euphrates,
with their tributaries, form a
major river system in
Western Asia.
Euphrates river -
Etymology
Ancient Greek Euphrátēs (Εὐφράτης)
Old Persian Ufrātu
Elamite ú-ip-ra-tu-
iš Sumerian
Buranuna
Akkadian Purattu
Arabic al-Furrāt
Proto-Sumerian
*burudu "copper"

an explanation that Euphrates was the river by which the copper ore
was transported in rafts
Mesopotamia was the center of
copper metallurgy during the
period
Tigris river -
Etymology
Ancient Greek Tigris
(Τίγρις)
Old Persian
Tigrā Elamite
Tigra
Sumerian
Idigna
Akkadian
Idiqlat
Hebrew
id (i)gina "running
water"
Mesopotami
a
The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the ancient Greek
root words μέσος (meso) "middle" and ποταμός (potamos) "river"
and literally means "(Land) between rivers“.
The Fertile
Crescent
Earliest of all civilizations (although everyone knows it’s Indus Valley now)
as people formed permanent settlements

Mesopotamia is a Greek word that means “between the rivers”,

specifically, the area between the Tigris River and Euphrates River
(present day Iraq)

Lasted for approximately 3000 years

Its peoples were the first to irrigate fields, devised a system of

writing, developed mathematics, invented the wheel and learned
to work with metal.
Cradle of
Civilization
 Widely considered to be one of the cradles of civilization by the
Western world, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the
Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian empires, all native to the
territory of modern-day Iraq. In the Iron Age, it was controlled by
the Neo- Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires.
Mesopotami
a
Mesopotamia’s popular kingdoms
chronologically
Middle Bronze Age Classical Antiquity
Early Babylonia Persian-Babylonia (Achaemenid Dynasty)
Late Bronze Age Roman Mesopotamia
Old Assyrian Late Antiquity
Period Muslim Conquest (Rashidun)
Iron Age
Neo-Assyrian
Neo-
Babylonian
“Governatorate
”
 The Mesopotamians believed their kings and queens were
descended from the City of Gods, but, unlike the ancient Egyptians,
they never believed their kings were real gods.

Most kings named themselves “king of the universe” or “great

king”.
Another common name was “shepherd”, as kings had to look after
their people.
Climactic
Conditions
• Little rainfall

• Hot and dry climate

• windstorms leaving muddy river valleys in winter

• catastrophic flooding of the rivers

in spring
• Arid soil containing little minerals

• No stone or timber resources

Natural
Levee
Natural
Levee
• create a high and safe flood plain

• make irrigation and canal construction easy

• provide protection

• the surrounding swamps were full of fish &

waterfowl
• reeds provided food for sheep / goats

• reeds also were used as building resources

Religio
n
Polytheistic religion consisting of over 3600 gods and
demigods

Prominent Mesopotamian gods

• Enlil (supreme god & god of air)
• Ishtar (goddess of fertility & life)
• An (god of heaven)
• Enki (god of water & underworld)
• Shamash (god of sun and giver of law)
Religio
n
• Position of King was enhanced and supported by religion

• Kingship believed to be created by gods and the king’s power was

divinely ordained
• Belief that gods lived on the distant mountaintops

• Each god had control of certain things and each city was ruled
by a different god

• Kings and priests acted as interpreters as they told the people what the
god wanted them to do (ie. by examining the liver or lungs of a slain
sheep)
 Sumerian
s economic and intellectual basis
• social,
• Irrigated fields and produced 3 main
crops (barley, dates and sesame seeds)
• built canals, dikes, dams and drainage systems
• develop cuneiform writing
• invented the wheel
• Abundance of food led to steady increase of population (farm, towns,
cities)
• first city of the world
• Developed a trade system with bartering: mainly barley but also wool
and cloth for stone, metals, timber, copper, pearls and ivory
• Individuals could only rent land from priests (who controlled land on
behalf of
gods); most of profits of trade went to temple

• However, the Sumerians were not successful in uniting lower

 Akkadian
•sLeader: Sargon the Great
• Sargon unified lower Mesopotamia (after conquering Sumerians in
2331 BCE)
• Established capital at Akkad
• Spread Mesopotamian culture
• However, short-lived dynasty as Akkadians were conquered by the
invading barbarians by 2200 BCE
Babylonian KING HAMMURABI’S
BABLYON
s • (6th Amorite king) who conquered Akkad and
Assyria (north and south)
• He build new walls to protect the city and new
canals and dikes to improve crops
• Economy based on agriculture and wool / cloth
• individuals could own land around cities
• Artisans and merchants could keep most profits
and even formed guilds / associations
• Grain used as the medium of exchange > emergence
of measurement of currency: shekel = 180 grains of
barley; mina = 60 shekels
• Mina was eventually represented by metals which
•Babylonians reunited Mesopotamia in 1830 was one of first uses of money (but it was still
BCE based on grain)

• central location dominated trade • Hammurabi’s Legacy: law code

and
secured control
•YET AGAIN, Mesopotamia was not unified
for long…
 Code of
• To enforce hisHammurabi
rule, Hammurabi collected all the laws of Babylon in a code
that would apply everywhere in the land

• Most extensive law code from the ancient world (c. 1800 BCE)

• Code of 282 laws inscribed on a stone pillar placed in the public hall for all
to see

• Hammurabi Stone depicts Hammurabi as receiving his authority from

god Shamash

• Set of divinely inspired laws; as well as societal laws

• Punishments were designed to fit the crimes as people must be responsible

for own actions

• Hammurabi Code was an origin to the concept of “eye for an eye…” ie.
If a son struck his father, the son’s hand would be cut off

• Consequences for crimes depended on rank in society (ie. only fines

for nobility)
 • 10th century BCE, Assyria emerged as dominant force in the north
• City of Assur- became important trading and political centre
• After Hammurabi’s death, Babylon fell apart and kings of Assur
controlled more of surrounding area and came to dominate
Assyrian • Made conquered lands pay taxes (food, animals, metals or timber)
• Rule by fear as kings were first to have a permanent army made up of
s professional soldiers (estimated 200 000 men)
• Made superior weapons of bronze and iron
• iron changed lifestyles in Mesopotamia in weapons and in daily life
ie. replaced wooden wheels and applied to horse drawn chariots

•Assyrian reunited Mesopotamia and

established the first true empire
•However, states began to revolt and ONCE
AGAIN, Assyrian Empire collapsed by late 7th
century BCE
•By 539 BCE, Mesopotamia part of the
vast Persian Empire (led by Cyrus the
Great)
•Persian Empire dominated for 800 years
until Alexander the Great
Sumeria Akkadia Babyloni
n n a
 Assyrian
Soldier
The secret to its success was
a professionally trained
standing army, iron
weapons, advanced
engineering skills, effective
tactics, and, most
importantly, a complete
ruthlessness which came to
characterize the Assyrians to
their neighbors and
subjects and still attaches
itself to the reputation of
Assyria in the modern day.
Interesting
Facts!
• Mesopotamia, specifically Babylon used a mathematical system
based on sixty as all their numbers were expressed as parts of or
multiples of sixty
• Some parts of the ‘base-sixty’ system still remain today: 360
degrees in a circle, 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in 1
hour
• Devised a calendar base on cycles of the moon (number of days
between the appearance of two new moons was set as a month;
12 cycles made up a year
Who was the
best?Sumer
Babylon
Assyri
a Kings
• Closely tied • Production of conquered
to food through lands to create
environment farming empire of
• Irrigation • Private ownership Assyria
techniques for of land vs  Cooler climate
farming ownership by the could produce
gods crops with little
• wheel irrigation
• Developed
• Trade- bartering mathematics and  Deposits of ore
• Writing- cuneiform calendar system allowed for
and system of development and
• Religion tied to units for currency use of iron
government as  Assyrian army
priests and • Hammurabi’s became most
kings made law code effective
decision for military force
gods
• ziggurats
Legacies of
Mesopotamia
Revolutionary innovations emerged in
Mesopotamia such as:
• codified laws
• ziggurats
• Cuneiform
• Irrigation
• Metal working, tools
• Trade
• transportation
• wheel
• Writing
• mathematics
• prosperous living based on large scale agriculture
“Architecture” of
Mesopotamia
“Tower of
Babylon”
Ziggurats
Ziggurats were built by the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians,
Elamites, Akkadians, and Assyrians for local religions.

According to Herodotus, at the top of each ziggurat was a shrine,

although none of these shrines have survived.

Great Ziggurat of Ur,

Iraq
Ziggura
t ne practical function of the ziggurats was a high place
O
on which the priests could escape rising water that
annually inundated lowlands and occasionally flooded
for hundreds of miles.
Another practical function of the ziggurat was for
security.

Nabonidus
Ziggura
t
Since the shrine was accessible
only by way of three stairways, 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 such as the Eleusinian
mysteries, cooking of sacrificial
food and burning of carcasses of
sacrificial animals.

Granite “Stele” of
Nabonidus
Ziggura
tach ziggurat was
E
part of a temple
complex that
included a courtyard,
storage rooms,
bathrooms, and
living quarters,
around which a city
was built.
Sumerian masonry was usually mortarless although
bitumen was sometimes used.
Brick styles, which varied greatly over time, are categorized by
period;

Patzen 80×40×15 cm: Late Uruk period (3600–

3200 BC) Riemchen 16×16 cm: Late Uruk period
(3600–3200 BC)
Plano-convex 10x19x34 cm: Early Dynastic Period
(3100–2300 BC)
Urban
Planning
The very first cities
were founded
in Mesopotamia
after the
Neolithic Revolution,
around 7500 BCE.
Mesopotamian cities
included Eridu, Uruk,
and Ur. Early cities also
arose in the Indus
Valley and ancient
China.
Uru
k
The Sumerians were the first society to construct the
city itself as a built form.

They were proud of this achievement as attested in

the Epic of Gilgamesh which opens with a description
of Uruk its walls, streets, markets, temples, and
gardens.

Uruk itself is significant as the center of an urban

culture which both colonized and urbanized western
Asia.
Gilgames
h • Gilgamesh is an ancient story or epic
written in Mesopotamia more than 4000
thousand years ago

• Gilgamesh is the first known work of

great literature and epic poem

• Epic mentions a great flood

• Gilgamesh parallels the Nippur Tablet, a

six- columned tablet telling the story of
the creation of humans and animals, the
cities and their rulers, and the great
flood

ANALYSIS
• Gilgamesh and the Nippur tablet both
parallel the story of Noah and the Ark
(great flood) in the Old Testament of the
Jewish and Christian holy books

• Modern science argues an increase in the

sea
levels about 6,000 years ago (end of ice
age)

• the melting ice drained to the oceans

causing the sea level to rise more than
ten feet in one century
Assyrian
Architecture
Palaces – came with or without a ziggurat, “hypostyle
hall”, monumental entrances.
Palace of Nebuchanezzar II in
Babylon
Building
Types
• Palaces – “seraguo” (palace proper which includes
the king’s residences, statehalls, men’s
apartments and reception, haram (private
chamber), khan (private chamber).
HISTORICAL CONDITION: The ancient architecture of
West-Asiatic developed FROM 3000 BC TO 330 BC. in the
following period.
(a)Early Sumerian (3000—2000 BC)
(b)Old Babylonian (2016-1595 BC) ---NEO Babylonian (626-539
BC)
(c) Assyrian (1859—626 BC)
(d)Persian (750—330 BC)
 SUMERIAN ARCHITECTURE

 The transition from prehistory was made around

4500 BC with the rise of the Sumerian civilization.
 The major cities of the Sumerian civilization were
Kish, Urukand, Ur.
 The Sumerian were the first civilization to make
a conscious attempt of designing public
buildings.
 Mud was their building material.
 Mud was formed into brick, sun dried and built
into massive walls.
 Walls were thick to compensate the weakness
of mud.
 They were reinforce with buttresses.
 Spaces were narrow because of the walling material
 Facade of buildings were white washed and painted
to disguise the lack of attraction of the material.
 Buttresses and recesses also relieve the monotony of
the plastered wall surfaces.
 Temples was their major building type.
 Cities were enclosed in walls with Ziggurat temples
and palace 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.
 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 consist of chief and city temples.
 WHITE TEMPLE (URUK)
 Uruk was a major Sumerian city by 3300
BC.
 Uruk is also known as warka in Arabic.
 The white temple was built around 3000
BC.
 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
 Temple walls were thick
and supported by
buttresses.
 In the inner part of the temple
was a long sanctuary, that
contains an alter and offering
table.
 Rooms oblong and in shape and
vaulted surrounded the long side
of the sanctuary.
 The temple had imposing
doorways located at its either
end.
 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.
 GREAT ZIGGURAT (UR)
 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 a temple complex.
 The king was the chief priest of the temple and lived
close to
it.
 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 platform.
 From this stage, one passed through a portal with
dome roof
to fourth staircase.
 The fourth staircase gave access to the second
and third stages of the ziggurat and to the
temple.
 The temple is usually accessed only by the
priest, where gods are believed to come down
and 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.
 Most of what is known about what exist on top of the
ziggurat is projection
 BABYLONIAN ARCHITECTURE

 After the fall of Nineveh in 612

BC 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
 The capital old Babylon was enlarged and heavily
fortified and magnificent 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 facade ornament consisting of figures designed
in colored glazed brick work.
City of Babylon:
 The city of Babylon is shaped in the form of a
quadrangle sitting across and pierced by the
Euphrates.
 The city was surrounded by a
fortification of double walls.
 These had 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.
 ISHTAR GATE
 From the palace 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 Ishtar gate is built across
the double walls of the city
fortification.
 The gate had a pair of
 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 in relief
and glazed in other colors.
 None of the buildings of old
Babylon has survived to the
present age.
Architecture in the city of Babylon:
 Nebuchadnezzar’s palace
covered a land area of 900 feet
by 600 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.
 Temples and towers were also
prominent architectural
elements of Babylon.
 The legendary tower of Babel
located at the end of procession
street is mentioned in the
Christian bible.
 ASSYRIAN ARCHITECTURE
 The principal cities of Assyria were
Nineveh, Dun, Khorsabad,
Nimrudand 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.
 Palaces were raised on brick platforms, and their
principal entrance ways were flanked by guardian
figures of human headed bulls or lions of stone.
 Their halls and corridors were lined with pictures
and inscriptions carved in relief on stone slabs up
to 9 feet high.
 The interiors were richly decorated and luxurious.
 The walls of cities were usually strengthened by
many towers serving as defensive positions.
PALACE OF SARGON:
 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.
 PERSIAN ARCHITECTURE
 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.
 Material 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 was original and
distinctive in style.
PALACE OF PERSEPOLIS:
 Persian architecture achieved its
greatest monumentality at
Persepolis AND WAS constructed
as a new capital for the Persian
Empire.
 It is set along the face of a
mountain levelled to create a large
platform 1800 feet by 900 feet.
 It was surrounded by a fortification
wall.
 The site was more than half
covered by buildings
 The palace consisted of three
parts:
2)Two great state halls towards the
center of the platform.
3)The palace of Xerxes, the harem, and
other living quarters at the south end of
the site.
 Structurally, the buildings 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 aspect of the
 The Royal audience hall was a square 250 feet in
length.
 It contained 36 slender columns widely space & 67
feet high.
 The columns had a lower diameter of only 5 feet.
 The centers of the columns were spaced 20 feet
or 4 diameters apart.
 The column was the greatest invention of the
Persians.
 The columns were fluted and stand on inverted
bell shaped bases.
 Their capital combine Greek motifs
with Egyptian palm leaf topped by an
impost of paired beast.
 Another famous aspect of the
palace at Parsepolis was the throne
room.
 This was also known as hall of a 100
columns.
 The columns in the room were 37 feet
high, with a diameter of only 3 feet.
 They were spaced 20 feet apart or
seven diameters from axis to axis.
 The slim nature of the column created
room and spacious feeling in the room
when compared to the audience hall.
 The monumental entrance to
Parsepolis 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
Parsepolis 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
 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.