ziggurat Religious monument originating in Babylon and Assyria. It was constructed as a truncated, stepped pyramid, rising in diminishing tiers, usually square or rectangular. The shrine at the top was reached by a series of ramps. Ziggurats date from 3000 to 600 bc, and the one at Ur still stands.

zig·gu·rat / ˈzigəˌrat/ • n. (in ancient Mesopotamia) a rectangular stepped tower, sometimes surmounted by a temple. Ziggurats are first attested in the late 3rd millennium bc and probably inspired the biblical story of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1–9).

ziggurat. Ancient Mesopotamian staged temple-tower of pyramidal form in which each successive stage is smaller than that below it, leaving a terrace all around it. Each stage was connected by formal ramps. The form was first evolved by the Sumerians in what is now southern Iraq c.2600 bc.

Bibliography

Cruickshank (ed.) (1996);
Lloyd & and Müller (1986);
Jane Turner (1996);

ziggurat in ancient Mesopotamia, a rectangular stepped tower, sometimes surmounted by a temple. Ziggurats are first attested in the late 3rd millennium bc and probably inspired the biblical story of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1–9).