Lakhasly

The architecture of Mesopotamia is ancient architecture of the region of the Tigris–Euphrates river system (also known as Mesopotamia), encompassing several distinct cultures and spanning a period from the 10th millennium BC, when the first permanent structures were built in the 6th century BC. Among the Mesopotamian architectural accomplishments are the development of urban planning, the courtyard house, and ziggurats. No architectural profession existed in Mesopotamia; however, scribes drafted and managed construction for the government, nobility, or royalty
The ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites, Assyrians, and others built ziggurats for religious purposes, and often included the ziggurat as part of a larger temple complex of other buildings.
Ziggurats are as emblematic of Mesopotamia as the great pyramids are of ancient Egypt. These ancient stepped buildings were created to be home to the patron god or goddess of the city. As religion was central to Mesopotamian life, the ziggurat was the heart of a city. Starting around 3000 B.C., Mesopotamian kings began building ziggurats and continued to build them up to the time of Alexander the Great circa 300 B.C.
The word ziggurat means raised area. Broad at the bottom, these pyramid-shaped buildings had two to seven tiers, with each ascending tier smaller than the one under it. The top of the building was flat, and on it was a shrine or temple to the god where only priests could go. The entire building was made of sun-dried bricks in all the interior areas, with glazed fire-dried bricks facing outward. The facing bricks on each successive tier were glazed a different color. A series of staircases led to the top of the ziggurat for the priests to use.
Ziggurats were part of a temple complex, a set of buildings devoted to the care of the gods and to all the businesses of the temple.
Since ziggurats were made with sun-dried mud bricks, they would deteriorate with age. Kings would regularly rebuild the ziggurat, often building the new on top of the old. The Great Ziggurat at Ur was most famous ziggurat in Mesopotamia. Originally built by Ur-Nammu in the 21st century B.C., it was 150 feet wide, 210 feet long and over 100 feet high. During the Neo-Babylonian era, the ziggurat had deteriorated to just the base level. It was entirely rebuilt by King Nabonidus in the 6th century B.C.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon have been attributed to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, who ruled between 562 and 605 BC. He mentioned that the reason for its construction was to satisfy his wife, the Queen of Babylon, who was the daughter of one of the leaders of the armies that allied with his father, and who made a great effort to conquer the Assyrians.She was called Amites of Medonian, who missed life in the hills of Persia and hated living in the flat land of Babylon.The garden is designed for light.
Built by Nebuchadnezzar II and named after Ishtar, a goddess of love and war, the Ishtar Gate served as the ceremonial entrance to the inner wall of Babylon, a route that ultimately leads to the ziggurat and Esagil shrine. People passing by it in antiquity would see glazed blue and yellow bricks with alternating images of dragons and bulls carved in relief. A reconstruction of it that incorporates surviving materials is currently in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Vorderasiatisches Museum in Germany. Joachim Marzahn writes in a chapter of "Babylon" that the "amazing Ishtar Gate, composed of an ante-gate in the outer wall and the main gate in the larger inner wall of the city, with a 48 meter-long (158 feet) passage, was decorated with no fewer than 575 depictions of animals (according to calculations made by excavators)," noting that these "pictures, of bulls and dragons, representing the holy animals of the weather god Adad and the imperial god Marduk, were placed in alternating rows."
In addition, Marzahn writes that a processional way ran through the Ishtar Gate, and for about 590 feet (180 m) had images of lions carved in relief. The mouths of the lions are open, baring their teeth, and the manes of the creatures are finely detailed.
Every spring the king, his courtiers, priests and statues of the gods traveled along the processional way, traveling to the Akitu Temple to celebrate the New Year festival