History 101

a temple-tower, the principal form of religious edifice in ancient Mesopotamia. Ziggurats were built from the 4th millennium bc to 600 bc. Constructed of mud brick and often faced with glazed brick, they rose in stepped stages to a small temple or sanctuary at the peak. The most famous of the ziggurats was the temple-tower of Etemenanki (popularly associated with the Tower of Babel) at the temple of Marduk in Babylon, rebuilt by King Nabopolassar (r. 626–605 bc) and his son Nebuchadnezzar II