University of Duhok
College of Engineering
Department of Architecture
History of Architecture I
Second Class
2010-2011
Architecture of Ancient Mesopotamia
Lecture 5 & 6
Assistant Lecturer:
Shermeen A. Yousif
M. Arch. Anhalt University, Germany
Architecture of Ancient Mesopotamia
White temple, Uruk
Assyrian Architecture
Assyrians introduced polychrome ornamental brickwork, the second great
innovation was the use of high plinths or dadoes or great stone slabs placed
on edge and usuallt carved with low-relief sculpture, did not appear until the
reign of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC).
Temples both with and without ziggurats were built in Assyria, but by the late
Assyrian period (911-612 BC) palaces were more numerous and important,
emphasising the central role of the royalty.
Assyria
2|P age
The City of Ashur
It was thw anceint religious and national center of the assyrian state. It was
built on a high rocky promontory ( )صخور شاطئيةabove the Tigris, being
surrounded during the second millenium BC by a strong defensive wall. An
outer wall was added in the ninth century BC with a further extension to
protect a residential suburb, the frontage along the Tigris becoming 3km.The
first shrine on the site of a temple dedicated to Ishtar, goddes of both love
and war, was built in the early dynastic period.
The ziggurat temple of Ashur, the national god, was restored by Tukulti-
Ninutra I (1244-1208 BC). In his reign and in subsequent generations Ashur
displayed the ability of the Assyrian architects to experiment with
architectural combinations in a way which demonstrated international
divergences (dissimilarity) from the babylonian prototypes.
The double temple of Anu and Adad had twin ziggurats with their related
temples spanning between them. There were two further temples without
ziggurats and two enormous palaces, one being primarily for adminstrative
purposes.
The city of Ashur, perspective The double temple of Anu and Adad at Ashur
3|P age
Plan of the city of Ashur
The City of Nimrud (Calah)
It was restored and enlarged by Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC), who made it
the capital of his kingdom. Excavations at nimrud have been mostly within the
citadel,.
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The City of Nimrud (Calah)
The north-west palace was built by Ashurnasirpal II as his chief residence; it
comprised a large public court, flanked on the north side by a modest ziggurat
with associated temples, and by a row of rooms later used to house
adminstrative records, and on the south side by the huge throne-room and
the private wing of the palace.
This was to become the traditional plan of Assyrian palaces, for the first time
ornamented with slabs carved with scenes of war and the chase and domestic
scenes.
5|P age
The Northwest Palace of King Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.)
City of Khorsabad
It contained the next important buildings in assyria; it was built by Sargon II
(722-705 BC) and abandoned at his death.
It was square-planned, with a defensive perimeter, and covered nearly one
square mile, but this area was never entirely occupied by buildings.
• There were two gateway in each tower-serrated ( )مسننwall, except
where the palace, one of them on the north-west wall was taken by an
extensive citadel enclosure, containing all but one of the twon’s chief
buildings.
• These comprised a palace for the king’s brother who was his minister
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• There was also a temple to Nabu and several official buildings
• The building
uilding that dominated them all was the palace of Sargon
Sargon, a
complex of large and small courts, corridors and rooms, covering 23
acres.
Each of the buildingss were was raised upon a terrace, that of the palace of
Sargon reaching to the level of the twon walls,
walls, and was approaced by board
ramps.
The citadel and the palace of Sargon
7|P age
The palace of Sargon
The palace of Sargon
The palace of Sargon, plan
8|P age
The main entrance to the ground court was flanked by great towers and
guarded by man headed winged bulls, nearly 3.8m high, supporting a bold,
semi-circular arch decorated with colored glazed bricks.
The palace had three main parts, each abutting the main court.
1. On the left entering was a group of three large and three small temples;
2. On the right, service quarters and adminstrative offices
3. Opposite, the private and resedential apartments, with the state
chambers behind.
The state chambers had their own court, almost as large as the first.
The lofty throne room about 49m x 10.7m was the outermost of the
state, planned around its own internal court. It was probably one of the
few apartments to have a flat timber ceiling, for fine timber was rare
and costly. The plastered wall had a painted decoration of a triple band
of friezes framed in running ornament, about 5.5 m high overall.
Walls were thick, about 6m an average.
The main gate way, The palace of Sargon
Within the mudbrick platforms of the palace there were jointed drains
to carry away rain water, joining larger drains of burnt brick covered
with vaults which were pointed and in which the brick courses were laid
obliquely.
9|P age
The Ziggurat at the palace
The only ziggurat of the city is associated with the palace temples, as at
Nimrud, and not with the large Nabu temple nearby. On a square base of 45m
side, the seven layer ziggurat rose to the same height (45m including the
shrine at the top), it was ascended by a winding ramp 1.8m wide. The
successive tiers were panneled and painter in different colors on the
plastered faces.
The city of Ninevah
The city of Ninevah was made the capital of the assyrian empire by sargon’s
son Sennacherib (705-681 BC) who spent the first two years of his reign on
the work of raising mighty walls and on the citadel, building his palace
without a peer (the south-west palace). There are reliefs showing campaigns
and hunting in greater detail than ever before.
More palaces were built at Ninevah by Sennacherib’s successors like
Ashurbanipal. Ninevah was given an extra fort along its east side, but this was
never finished. Water supply had been a major concern of the assyrian kings:
Ashurnasirpal II dug a canal from the river Zab to irrigate the land close to
Nimrud.
The city fell finally after an attack by the Medes and Babylonians in 612 BC
and was never to rise again.
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Neo-Babylonian Architecture
Neo-Babylonian Architecture was naturally descended from that of the earlier
centuries in Mesopotamia, but it derived much also from the architecture of
the Assyrians.
The city of Babylon
Its ruins differ from those of earlier cities largely because of the use of burnt
brick, it was rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar II (605-563 BC) because it had been
destroyed by Sennacherib (689 BC).
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The city of Babylon
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The city of Babylon:
It had an inner and outer part, each heavily fortified. The inner twon was
approximately square in plan, of about 1300m sides, containing the principal
buildings:
• The Euphrates river forming the west side
• The few main streets intersected at right angles, terminating in tower
framed bronze gates where they met the walls
• Between the main streets tiered dwelling, business houses, temples,
chapels and shrines in lively disorder.
• The prinicipal sites lined the river front and behind them ran a grand
processional way, its vista closed on the north by Ishtar Gate: glowing
in colored glazed bricks, patterned with yellow and white bulls and
dragons in relief upon a blue ground.
• In the same area there were palace-citadels, and connected with
Nebuchadnezzar’s great palace complex on the water side was that
marvel of the ancient world, the Hanging Gardens, 275m x 183m
overall: among its maze of rooms was a vast throne room 52m x 17m,
its long façade decorated with polychrome glazed bricks.
• The central sites on the river front were occupied by the chief temple of
the god of the city, Marduk, and to the north of it, the expansive
precinct where rose the associated ziggurat “the tower of Babel”.
• the celebrated ziggurat appears to have been one combining the triple
stairway approach and massive lower tier customary in early
mesopotamia, with upper stages arranged spirally according to Assyrian
practice. The plan was square, of 90m sides, and there were seven
stages in all, the summit temple being faced with blue glazed bricks.
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Nebuchadnezzar’s great palace
Tower of Babylon
Babylon Ziggurat
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Perspective, city of Babylon
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Ishtar Gate
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