Chogha Zanbil: The Great Elamite Ziggurat in Southwest Iran

Chogha Zanbil is the ruin of Dur-Untash, a religious city built around 1250 BC by Untash-Napirisha, king of Elam, in what is now Khuzestan province in south-western Iran. Its great stepped temple tower, or ziggurat, is one of the best-preserved examples of this type of building anywhere in the ancient Near East. The site reveals the wealth and ambition of the Elamite kingdom at its height and is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Background: the kingdom of Elam

Elam was an ancient civilisation of south-western Iran, centred on the lowland city of Susa and the highland region of Anshan near modern Shiraz. The Elamites spoke a language unrelated to any known language, and for much of their history they were both trading partners and rivals of the Mesopotamian states to the west. Elam had sacked Ur centuries earlier, as described in Fall of Ur.

The 13th century BC fell within the Middle Elamite period (c. 1500–1100 BC) and was a time of strong kings who styled themselves rulers of “Anshan and Susa”. Untash-Napirisha was one of the most important of these rulers. His exact dates are uncertain, but he is generally placed in the mid-13th century BC, and his reign is often given as roughly 1275 to 1240 BC, though some scholars date it a few decades earlier.

Building Dur-Untash

Untash-Napirisha chose a site on a low ridge near the Dez River, roughly 30–40 kilometres south-east of Susa, to build a new religious centre. He named it Dur-Untash, meaning “Fortress of Untash”. The modern name, Chogha Zanbil, means roughly “basket mound” in the local Persian dialect, because the ruined tower looked like an upturned basket.

The city was laid out within three concentric walls. The outermost wall enclosed an area of roughly 1,200 by 800 metres and contained palaces, including one with underground vaulted tombs. The middle zone held a number of temples to various Elamite gods. The innermost enclosure held the ziggurat and its surrounding courts.

The ziggurat was dedicated to Napirisha, the “great god” of Anshan, and Inshushinak, the patron god of Susa. Uniting the chief gods of the highlands and lowlands in one sacred complex may have been a deliberate statement that the king ruled both halves of his realm.

Design of the ziggurat

The ziggurat stands on a square base about 105 metres on each side. It was built of sun-dried mud brick with an outer facing of baked brick, which has helped it survive more than three thousand years.

Its construction was unusual. Excavations suggest that the building began as a square temple courtyard, and that the inner tower was added later. Rather than being stacked level on level like a wedding cake, as at the Ziggurat of Ur, the inner levels appear to have been built up from ground level within each other, like a set of nested boxes.

Today the ziggurat rises about 25 metres, less than half its estimated original height of around 50 metres. It is usually reconstructed with five levels. A temple is thought to have stood on the summit, reached by stairways and gates on each side.

Thousands of bricks were stamped with inscriptions in Elamite cuneiform, and some in Akkadian, naming the king and the gods to whom he dedicated the building. Glazed tiles, glass and ornamental knobs decorated the doorways, and guardian figures of bulls and griffins stood at the entrances.

Gods, temples and tombs

Dur-Untash was above all a sacred city. Besides the ziggurat, excavators found temples to many deities, including a group in the inner enclosure dedicated to Napirisha, to the goddess Kiririsha, whose name means “great lady”, and to Ishnikarab, a god associated with oaths and judgement. Gathering the gods of different Elamite regions in one place seems to have been part of the king’s programme of unifying his kingdom.

In the outer zone, beneath one of the palaces, Ghirshman uncovered a series of underground vaulted chambers that he interpreted as royal tombs. He reported burnt human remains, which he read as cremations, a practice rare in the region at the time. Later scholars have questioned some of these interpretations, and who was buried there remains uncertain.

Key people

• Untash-Napirisha: Middle Elamite king who founded Dur-Untash and dedicated its ziggurat. He is known from building inscriptions at Susa and Chogha Zanbil.
• Napir-Asu: Untash-Napirisha’s queen. A life-size bronze statue of her from Susa, weighing about 1,750 kilograms even without its head and one arm, is now in the Louvre and is one of the largest surviving metal sculptures of the ancient Near East.
• Roman Ghirshman (1895–1979): French archaeologist of Ukrainian origin who led the excavations and published the site in detail.

By the numbers

Water and the unfinished city

Dur-Untash needed water. A long canal brought water from the Karkheh River, and a set of linked basins near the outer wall is often described as an early water-purification system, in which water was allowed to settle before use. The exact function of this installation is still debated.

The city was never fully completed or densely inhabited. After Untash-Napirisha’s death, building largely stopped, and royal attention returned to Susa. The temples, however, continued to be used and visited for centuries.

Destruction and rediscovery

Around 640 BC the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal invaded Elam and sacked its cities, a campaign told in Assyrian Sack of Susa. Assyrian inscriptions boast of destroying Elamite temples, and Dur-Untash was damaged and abandoned during this period. Slowly the mud brick eroded, burying the lower parts of the tower in its own debris.

The site was spotted in 1935 by geologists of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company during an aerial survey. The French archaeologist Roman Ghirshman excavated it in a series of seasons from 1951 to 1962, revealing the layout of the ziggurat, temples, palaces and tombs. In 1979 UNESCO inscribed Tchogha Zanbil on the World Heritage List, one of the first three Iranian sites, alongside Persepolis and Meidan Emam in Isfahan.

Conservation today

Because mud brick is fragile, Chogha Zanbil faces constant threats from rain, salt in the soil and floods. Since the late 1990s, Iranian conservators working with international partners have stabilised walls, improved drainage and replaced damaged bricks with new ones made to the ancient pattern. The site is now one of the most visited archaeological attractions in Khuzestan.

Timeline

• c. 1275–1240 BC: Approximate reign of Untash-Napirisha (dates debated).
• c. 1250 BC: Construction of Dur-Untash and its ziggurat.
• c. 1158 BC: The later Elamite king Shutruk-Nakhunte raids Babylonia, bringing Mesopotamian monuments to Susa.
• c. 646–640 BC: Ashurbanipal’s campaigns devastate Elam; Dur-Untash is damaged and abandoned.
• 1935: The site is identified during an oil company aerial survey.
• 1951–1962: Roman Ghirshman excavates the ziggurat and city.
• 1979: UNESCO lists Chogha Zanbil as a World Heritage Site.

Why it matters

Chogha Zanbil is the most impressive surviving monument of Elam, a civilisation often overshadowed by its Mesopotamian and Persian neighbours. Its ziggurat shows that the Elamites adopted the Mesopotamian temple tower but built it in their own way and for their own gods. For visitors and historians alike, it offers a rare chance to stand before a nearly complete Bronze Age sacred building.