Ziggurat of Ur: Ur-Nammu's Great Temple Tower in Sumer

The Ziggurat of Ur is a massive stepped temple platform built around 2100 BC by Ur-Nammu and his son Shulgi, kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur, in honour of Nanna, the moon god. Rising from the ruins of Ur near Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, it is the best-preserved ziggurat of ancient Sumer. Restored by the Babylonian king Nabonidus in the 6th century BC and excavated by Leonard Woolley in the 1920s and 1930s, it has become one of the most recognisable monuments of ancient Mesopotamia.

What is a ziggurat?

A ziggurat (from the Akkadian word ziqqurratu, meaning a high or raised structure) is a solid, stepped tower of mud brick. Unlike an Egyptian pyramid, it contained no burial chambers. It was a platform, built to lift a temple towards the sky and make it visible from far across the flat plain.

Temple platforms had a long history in Mesopotamia. Earlier temples were often rebuilt on top of the ruins of their predecessors, slowly rising higher, as at Uruk. The kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur turned this tradition into a standard design, building ziggurats at Ur, Uruk, Eridu and Nippur.

The form remained in use for some 2,000 years. Later examples include the Elamite ziggurat at Chogha Zanbil in Iran, built in the 13th century BC, and Etemenanki, the great ziggurat of Babylon, which was rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BC. Most have survived only as eroded mounds, which is why Ur’s relatively intact lower stage is so valuable to archaeologists.

Building the ziggurat

Ur-Nammu founded the Third Dynasty of Ur around 2112 BC (middle chronology) after the end of Akkadian and Gutian dominance. He reunited southern Mesopotamia and made Ur its capital. As part of a great building programme, he began the ziggurat in the sacred precinct of Nanna, the moon god, called Sin in Akkadian. His son Shulgi completed it.

The structure’s Sumerian name was E-temen-ni-guru, usually translated as “house whose foundation is clad in terror” or “awe”. It stood within a walled sacred area that also contained temples, storehouses and the giparu, the residence of the high priestess of Nanna, an office once held by Enheduanna.

The core of the ziggurat is made of sun-dried mud brick. It was encased in a thick outer skin of baked brick, around 2.5 metres deep, set in bitumen mortar. Many of these bricks are stamped with an inscription naming Ur-Nammu as the builder. Layers of reed matting and weep holes through the brickwork helped the mass to dry and drain, preventing the core from swelling and cracking.

Design and appearance

The base measures about 64 by 46 metres, with corners oriented to the cardinal points. The first stage, the best preserved, rises to roughly 11 metres. Above it stood at least two smaller stages, topped by a shrine to Nanna. Because the upper levels have eroded away, estimates of the original height vary, typically between about 20 and 30 metres.

The most striking feature is the arrangement of staircases on the north-east face. Three stairways, each of around 100 steps, converge on a gateway at the top of the first stage: one runs straight out from the centre, and two others climb along the face of the wall. From there, further stairs led to the upper levels.

Woolley also suggested that the terraces may have been planted with trees and shrubs, which would have made the ziggurat look like a green mountain rising from the city. This idea is a hypothesis based on drainage features and has not been confirmed. What is certain is that the building was meant to be seen: from the top, priests could look across the walled city, its harbours and the surrounding fields and canals.

Woolley observed that the walls are not perfectly straight but slightly convex and inclined. He suggested this was a deliberate optical refinement to make the building appear more solid, a feature sometimes compared with the subtle curves of the Parthenon, though the interpretation is debated.

Religion and purpose

Each Mesopotamian city had a patron god who was believed to live in its temple. Nanna was the god of Ur, and the ziggurat was his “house”. The shrine on top may have been used for rituals and possibly for observing the moon, though the details of ceremonies there are poorly known.

The ziggurat was also a statement of royal power. By building on such a scale, Ur-Nammu and Shulgi presented themselves as devoted servants of the gods and as rulers capable of organising enormous labour forces. Administrative tablets from the Ur III state, one of the most bureaucratic of the ancient world, document workers paid in rations of barley, oil and wool for state projects.

Destruction and restoration

Ur was sacked by the Elamites and their allies around 2004 BC, an event mourned in the Lament for Ur and described in the article on the Fall of Ur. The city recovered, and later kings repaired the ziggurat several times.

Among them was the Kassite king Kurigalzu I in the 14th century BC, who carried out building work in the sacred precinct of Ur. These repeated restorations show that the site remained a place of worship long after Ur had ceased to be a political capital, and that later rulers gained prestige by caring for an ancient and famous sanctuary.

The most important restoration came under Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (556–539 BC), who was devoted to the moon god. He rebuilt the upper stages and recorded his work on clay cylinders buried in the corners of the structure; these texts mention his son Belshazzar, known from the Book of Daniel. Other inscriptions record that he installed his daughter Ennigaldi-Nanna as high priestess of Nanna.

After the Persian period, Ur declined. The Euphrates shifted its course away from the city, and Ur was abandoned by around the 4th century BC. Sand and debris covered the ziggurat, leaving a large mound known in Arabic as Tell al-Muqayyar, the “mound of bitumen”.

Excavation and reconstruction

In 1853–54 John George Taylor, British vice-consul at Basra, dug into the mound for the British Museum and found Nabonidus’s cylinders, which identified the site as the ancient city of Ur. From 1922 to 1934 Leonard Woolley led a joint expedition of the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum. He cleared the ziggurat, mapped the sacred precinct and also uncovered the famous Royal Cemetery of Ur.

Woolley published a detailed study of the ziggurat and a reconstruction drawing that has shaped its image ever since. Between the 1960s and the 1980s, Iraqi authorities rebuilt parts of the facade and the great staircase with modern bricks, which is why the lower stage looks remarkably fresh today. Specialists have criticised parts of this work for obscuring original fabric.

Ur in modern times

The ziggurat stands close to the Imam Ali (Tallil) Air Base, which was used by United States forces after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Like other archaeological sites in southern Iraq, Ur suffered from neglect during decades of war and sanctions, but it escaped the large-scale looting that devastated many less visible sites in the 1990s and 2000s. International and Iraqi teams resumed excavations at Ur in the 2010s, studying parts of the city beyond the sacred precinct. Access to the site was restricted for several years, and concerns were raised about damage to the surrounding archaeology before control returned fully to Iraqi authorities.

In 2016 UNESCO inscribed Ur, together with Uruk, Eridu and the southern Iraqi marshes, as a World Heritage Site under the title “The Ahwar of Southern Iraq”. In March 2021 Pope Francis held an interfaith meeting at Ur, reflecting the tradition that identifies the city with “Ur of the Chaldees”, birthplace of Abraham in the Book of Genesis. Whether the biblical Ur is this city is still debated by scholars.

Myths and facts

Myth: the Ziggurat of Ur is the Tower of Babel. The biblical tower is generally linked with Etemenanki in Babylon, not with Ur.

Myth: ziggurats were tombs, like pyramids. They were solid platforms for temples, without internal chambers.

Fact: much of what visitors see is modern. The outer facing of the lowest stage and stairs are largely 20th-century reconstruction over the ancient core.

Timeline

• c. 2112 BC: Ur-Nammu founds the Third Dynasty of Ur and begins the ziggurat.
• c. 2094–2047 BC: Reign of Shulgi, who completes the building.
• c. 2004 BC: Ur is sacked by the Elamites; the Ur III state collapses.
• 556–539 BC: Nabonidus restores the ziggurat and installs his daughter as high priestess.
• c. 4th century BC: Ur is abandoned as the Euphrates shifts its course.
• 1853–54: John George Taylor finds the Nabonidus cylinders.
• 1922–1934: Leonard Woolley excavates Ur and the ziggurat.
• 2016: Ur becomes part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Why it matters

The Ziggurat of Ur is one of the oldest monumental buildings still standing in recognisable form. It embodies the religion, engineering and royal ambition of the Third Dynasty of Ur, the state that also produced the Code of Ur-Nammu, and its long history of rebuilding links Sumer with Babylon, the Bible and modern Iraq.