Ziggurats

The ziggurats served as a city-hall, and the priest could manage the irrigation system from it. When it was time for war the priest did not lead the city, but the city would choose a tough fighter to lead the soldiers. The commander would usually lose all his power when the war was over, but war became more common. Eventually priest and people gave commanders permanent control of their armies. Some commanders became full-time rulers

The Sumerian temples, called ziggurats was a small brick house that the god was supposed to visit periodically. This house, however, was set on a brick platform, which became larger and taller as time progressed.

The Sumerians practiced polytheism, but each city had one benefactor god that they built a temple, generally a ziggurat, for in the middle of the city. The Egyptians may have imitated the architectural patterns of the ziggurats of Sumer when they built the pyramids.

A standout amongst the most unmistakable sanctuaries was Abu Simbel, which was cut out of the side of a bluff and had four goliath statues of Ramses, the "Alexander the Great" of Egypt, guarding the passageway. Another remarkable sample was the funeral home sanctuary of King Khufu at Giza, which had cleaned limestone floors and resplendently painted sections. The Mesopotamians constructed ziggurats to extol their divine beings, which were considered "stairways to paradise. " One of the most renowned ziggurats was the gigantic, complex structure fabricated at Ur which came to up to very nearly 100 feet. It was raised to respect the moon goddess Nanna, the perfect benefactor of the city state.

1.The Akkadians' system of absolute monarchy is reflected in their art ,which featured rulers wearing the attributes of divine kingship. The Victory stele of Naram Sin uses hierarchy of scale, attributes of divinity, and a cuneiform inscription to identify the king's strength and power. Sumerian's ziggurat building is the most important. It is built on several large pedestal up by the earthworks, which is similar to the trapezoidel pyramid building was known as the "Jihulata." Uruk temple is the most typical representative Tamiao.

In the heart of the mesopotamian desert there was a civilization called the Sumerians. The civilization were a prime and firm civilization. They had built Big strong cities. The sumerians were an intelligent race. From the mud homes the civilization built they built huge mountains. These mountains were seen from miles away. These mountains were the homes to the gods. These huge mud brick mountains were called the Ziggurat. The ziggurat was a temple the sumerians used to worship the gods for hundreds of years.

The geography of the civilizations, among other things, played a large role in the perceived nature of the gods. In Mesopotamia the Euphrates and Tigris rivers were unpredictable and could be incredibly destructive, and their gods were seen the same way; unpredictable with great, sometimes destructive powers. In Egypt, however, where the Nile river and the rest of nature were kind to humanity, so were the gods. The people of Mesopotamia believed obedience to the gods was humankind's main purpose. This was how they kept the gods happy and avoided natural disasters like floods. Egyptians thought the gods created all humans but were controlled by ma'at, the principal of divine order. The scale of the religions was vastly different as well, with Mesopotamians worshipping hundreds of gods while Egyptians worshipped thousands. The places of worship also differed. Mesopotamians built temples called ziggurats. Ziggurats, stepped or tiered cone shaped structures with a temple or shrine at the top, were typically located in complexes at the center of each city-state. It was believed that they formed a bridge from earth to

Sumer is one of the first ancient civilization that had many cities until the drought and being conquered. The Sumerians built ziggurat temples for the living (which was similar to the pyramids in Egypt). They had farms on the outer part of the center city because their society was based on trading and farming. The important people lived in the center. In their society, most people were educated and men took control of the women. They believed in many gods, they were polytheism. The Sumerians created a written language that is

There was a quest for order in Mesopotamia. During the fourth millennium B.C.E., human population increased. Through adaptation they created states and governmental machinery. Sumerians from the land of Sumer were dominant in Mesopotamia. In Sumer population increased likely because of agricultural potential. There were new arrivals who were Semitic people. Sumerians built the world 's first cities. There were Sumerian cities that then established states. There were palaces, temples and defensive walls. The impressive buildings were ziggurats which housed

In Sumer, royal burial sites were so elaborate, that only specialized artisans could possibly have constructed them. According to the text, arches, vaults and domes were new levels of architecture found in burial tombs of the elite. In addition, elaborate funeral objects of gold and silver were also found with the dead.

The first monument in Mesopotamia, The Ziggurat at UR, is a temple that was built around 2100 B.C.E. by the King Ur-Nammu of the Third Dynasty of Ur. This monument was built for the moon god Nanna, he is the divine patron for the city. This structure is significant because it would have been the highest point in the city. This would be the place that the citizen would come to and bring their surplus and would then receive their food allotments. They would come and store harvested crops in honor of the Nanna.

In Mesopotamia culture, there are structures known as ziggurats. A ziggurat is one of several buildings in a temple complex. In Minoan culture, they have places known as central courts. A central court is a large outdoor room in the center of the Minoan palace. Both, ziggurats and central courts, are sacred architectures with multipurpose. Ziggurats have housing for the deity and central courts can be used as a passage way to get to housing for kings/rulers. One of the main purposes of both structures is to perform ceremonies or rituals. However, central courts are also used for spectator events such as bull leaping and for merchants/craftsmen to perform their tasks for trade. The final similarity is that both architectures are designed to

After looking at the Ziggurat’s, Pyramids, and Stonehenge it is truly astonishing that all of these architectural masterpieces were created thousands of years ago. Stonehenge looks to be just a couple of rocks standing up but after looking a closer look, their actually beautiful pieces of rocks, with tongue and grooves carved into the rocks so they would fit together perfectly. The outer facing parts of the rocks were rough but the inward facing rocks were smooth, further proving that there was real effort put into Stonehenge. The Ziggurats were massive structures made of mud bricks placed in a prosperous area of Mesopotamia. These mud bricks were extremely strong, often sun baked and pieced together to create the massive

The plains of the Tigris and Euphrates river basins lacked areas of stone quarries and trees that the Sumerian's could use for building structures. Without wood or stone the Sumerians used mud-brick without the use of mortar or cement to construct their buildings. In time their buildings would deteriorate or if destroyed would require the remaining structure to be leveled and then rebuilt on the same spot. This eventually raised the level of cities above the surrounding plain. They also developed the arch by constructing and linking several arches which enabled them to build a dome. If available Sumerian temples and palaces would use stone and wood in order to build buttresses, recesses and half-columns.

Emerging as one of the few competing City-states that characterized Mesopotamian civilization, the city of Ur was most known for its wealth and power of the ruling elite. The Ziggurat temple of Ur-Nammu was the city’s most known place of worship that was dedicated to Nanna, the moon god. Even today, the building’s structure is considered a masterpiece due to the skillfully calculated heights of different stages and the slope of the walls that lead the eye directly to the center. Portraying his political and economical dominance, Ur-Nammu showcased his power through the creation of the