Department of architecture University of Gondar

MESOPOTAMIA populations to thrive. Villages soon grew into small cities-with

populations ranging from 10,000 to 50,000- surrounded by hamlets
Mesopotamia is a Greek word meaning “land between two and fields.
rivers”. The hill country and Zagros Mountains rise to the east of the Trade developed with the nearby areas, and wheeled vehicles
Tigris-Euphrates valley, and the vast Arabian Desert stretches to the and sail boats carried goods up and down Mesopotamia. The family
west. The Twin Rivers course down to the Persian Gulf, draining an had replaced the tribe as the basic unit of the society. Families now
area of approximately 600 miles long and 250 miles wide. owned lands outright, and under the general direction of the religious
and secular authorities, they worked in their fields and maintained
their irrigational ditches. Marriages were arranged by parents with
economics as an essential consideration.
The political structure reflected the order and functions of the
social system. At the top the ruler, who was supported by an army, a
bureaucracy, a judicial system, and priesthood. The ruler usually
obtained advice from prominent leaders, meeting in council, who
constituted the next layer of the social order of rich land owners,
wealthy merchants, priests, and military chiefs. The next group
consisted of artisans, craftspeople, and petty businesspeople, and
traders. Below them were small landowners and tenant farmers. At the
bottom of the social scale were serfs and slaves, who either had been
captured in war or had fallen into debt.
In Mesopotamia the concept of architectural design was a
regional invention. Their earliest public buildings took the form of
their temples. In a tree less country, with no stone available sun dried
bricks soon became the slandered building material, although the
design long retained some memory of the reed architecture favored by
earlier marsh dwellers. Parapets and internal walls were often
Near the mouth of the gulf, on the river delta, human decorated with mosaics consisting of terracotta cones.
wanderers settled in about 6000 BC, founding villages and tilling the Three successive civilizations flourished in Mesopotamia for
land. Despite heat, marshes, unpredictable and violent floods, and nearly 1500 years.
invaders who come from both the mountains and the desert, some of  The Sumerian period (from 3000 BC to 2350 BC)
these communities prospered and grew.  The Assyrian period (from 2350 BC to 2000 BC)
Agriculture dominated the economy of Mesopotamia. Harsh  The Babylonian period (from 2000 BC to 1600 BC)
living conditions and unpredictable floods forced the inhabitants to
learn to control the rivers through irrigation systems and cooperative
tilling of the soil. Farmers eventually dug a complex canal system to
irrigate their cultivated plots, which might have been some distance
from the river. As production increased, prosperity allowed larger
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History of Architecture I EDEN DIRES
Department of architecture University of Gondar
THE SUMMERIAN PERIOD:
(From 3000 BC to 2350 BC) Examples:
Sumer was the birthplace of the first known civilization in the
world. It formed around the region where the Tigris and Euphrates  The white temple
o at Warka (3000 BC)
rivers flow in relatively parallel courses toward the Persian Gulf. It
was later absorbed by the Babylonian civilization. The region is also  The Sumerian platform temple
part of what is known as the Fertile Crescent, so named because the o at Khafaje (2600 BC)
people who lived in this crescent-shaped area developed rich, irrigated
farmlands.  The great ziggurat tower
The kings of the Sumerian dynasty lived in formally planned o at Ur (2113 – 2048 BC)
palaces. The brick platforms supporting their primary religious
 The temple of Ishtar-kititum
temples were later heightened and elaborated, to create complicated
staged towers called Ziggurats. Other temples at ground level were o at Ishchali (1800 BC)
enclosed in a sacred precinct with protective walls.  The Choga Zanbil
Hittites rulers soon emulated the architectural achievements of o at Susa (13th century BC)
Mesopotamia. Temples and fortress walls were now built on a sub
structure of heavy stone work, and portal sculptures were a new
feature of their monumental gateways.  The white temple
 at Warka (3000BC)

The White Temple at the Sumerian City of Uruk,

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History of Architecture I EDEN DIRES
Department of architecture University of Gondar
or warka, was built 3OO0 BC. It stood upon a platform A Sumerian platform-temple (below), at Khafaje,
with sloping Facades of paneled brickwork 4o ft above east of modern Baghdad built in 2600 BC, it was
Ground level. enclosed in an oval shaped precinct, with subsidiary
Externally it was white Plastered, but showed chambers at ground level.
traces of wooden Ornament between the projecting An outer enclosure wall was extended to protect a
buttresses. The long sanctuary and lateral chambers a priestly residence with its own private chapel. The inner
Characteristic. courtyard was provided with offering-tables and showed
The entrance for worshippers was through a side- evidence of animal sacrifices.
room, but there were a imposing doorways at either The temple itself and its platform were much
end, one of the displacing the altar from its axial denuded and are here tentatively reconstructed. A
position. similar, better-preserved example at Al'Ubaid, near Ur-
Scholars have explained this by attributing to of-the-Chaldees had facades decorated with the
such temples, the function of a "portal ", through which pictorial friezes of coloured stone inlay and copper
deity might pass on his visits to earth. animal figures in high relief.

 The Sumerian platform temple  The great ziggurat tower

 at Khafaje (2600 BC)  at Ur (2113 – 2048 BC)

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History of Architecture I EDEN DIRES
Department of architecture University of Gondar
The great ziggurat tower at Ur-of-the-Chaldees, The temple of lshtar-Kititum at Ishchali, east of
reconstructed was built by Ur-Nammu and Shulgi, two modern Baghdad, is dedicated to a form of the Mother-
Sumerian kings of the 3rd Dynasty 2113-2o48 BC, Goddess.
incorporating the remains of an earlier structure. This is the largest and most important of the
It was constructed of mud-brick, reinforced with three temples which make up the ingeniously planned
thick layers of matting and cables of twisted reeds. assembly of religious buildings at Ishchali.
A triple stairway with heavy bastion leads to the It was built in 1800 BC, by a ruler of the
summit of the first stage, when one passed through a independent state called Eshnunna.
portal, perhaps cover by a dome.
A fourth stairway gave access to the second and
third stages.  The Choga Zanbil
Nothing remain of the summit shrine itself, save a  at Susa (13th century BC)
few fragments of glazed ornament mud the form
suggested here is, therefore, hypothetical.

 The temple of Ishtar-kititum

 at Ishchali (1800 BC)

The Choga Zanbil ziggurat complex, twenty five

miles east of Susa, was constructed in the mid-13th
century BC by Untash-Gal of Elam.
It is seen here excavation and reconstructed on
the right). The city had three concentric Fortification
walls. The innermost wall enclosed the tower itself,
rising in six stages from a base to yds square to a
vertical height of almost 54 yds.
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History of Architecture I EDEN DIRES
Department of architecture University of Gondar
Unlike those of Mesopotamia, this Elarnite Example:
ziggurat had Stairways leading to the summit which
passed through vaulted passages within its structure,  Palace complex at Khorsabad
also incorporated in the periphery of its lowest stage
were in earth chambers and chapels, dedicated to
Inshushinak Mother Gods of the Elamite pantheon.
Adjacent to the tower at its foot were formally built
altars and shrines, while temples dedicated to minor
deities occupied sites within the second enceinte.

THE ASSYRIAN PERIOD

Under the Assyrian kings the Mesopotamian architecture
acquired a new vitality. King Ashurnasirpal II made his capital at
Nimrud. King Sargon II built a new capital at Khorsabad. King
Sennacherib and his successors preferred Nineveh itself. In these
walled cities palaces took precedent over religious buildings, raised on
brick platforms, leveled with the surrounding fortifications. City walls
often more than 20 feet thick were further strengthened with many
towers.
Khorsabad, the ephemeral capital of Sargon II of Assyria, 721-
7o5 BC, ms built, occupied and abandoned all within a score of years.
The double fortification wall encloses an area of one square
mile and has seven city gates.
The royal palace, with its three private temples and small
ziggurat, stands astride the wall at parapet height on the northwest side
of the city.
It is approached at ground level through a walled citadel,
containing other groups of public buildings, and a great temple,
dedicated to the god Nabu, is linked to it by a stone building.
A second raised building near the southwest corner of the town
has the function of an imperial arsenal, or ekaI mashati, used for
assemblage of military equipment and storage of spoils of war.

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History of Architecture I EDEN DIRES
Department of architecture University of Gondar
THE BABYLONIAN PERIOD: 1. Procession Street
2. Ishtar Gate
After the fall of Nineveh the focus of Mesopotamian 3. Palace of Nebuchadnezzar
civilization returned to the south, where a new dynasty of kings 4. Temple of Ninmaskh
including Nebuchadnezzar, revived the glories of Babylon. Much 5. Ziggurat of Etemenanki
rebuilding took place in the old Sumerian cities. The capital city
6. Temple of Marduk
Babylon was enormously enlarged, heavily fortified with magnificent
7. Stone Bridge to the New City
buildings.
Old city at Babylon took the form of an irregular
Examples:
Quadrangle on the east bank of the Euphrates. To this
 The old city of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar added a smaller "New City' on the west
bank. He joined the two by a bridge and surrounded
 The Ishtar Gate them by a huge double fortification wall.
 The Hanging Gardens of Babylon Later he added an extended outer rampart,
forming a triangle eight miles in circumference, around
the eastern part of the town.
 The old city of Babylon
 The Ishtar Gate:

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History of Architecture I EDEN DIRES
Department of architecture University of Gondar
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
There was a Summer Palace at the Northern apex
of the outer enclosure and from here the great This hand-colored engraving by 16th century
Procession Street approached its entrance to the inner Dutch artist Maarten van Heemskerck depicts the
city through the famous lshtar Gate built astride the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders
double fortification, with two pairs of towers and roomy of the World.
internal chambers. Technically, the gardens did not hang, but grew
All facades of the gateway and those of the on the roofs and terraces of the royal palace in Babylon.
adjoining street were faced with blue-glued bricks and
ornamented with figures of heraldic animals--lions, bulls
and sirrush dragons modeled in relief and glazed in
other colours. These figures were repeated, without
glazing, on facades of the hidden foundations.
Nebuchadnezzar's palace was planned around five
successive courtyards. Facing the third of these was the
entrance to his colossal throne-room, in a facade once
more decorated with brilliant glazed ornament.

 The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

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History of Architecture I EDEN DIRES