Iraq travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

Built about 575 BC by Nebuchadnezzar II, the Ishtar Gate was one of the eight gates of the inner city of Babylon, capital of the Babylonian Empire (now in Iraq). It is one of the most impressive monuments rediscovered in the ancient Near East. The Ishtar Gate high more than 38 feet (12 meters) was made of brick glazed with a copper turquoise glaze alternating with unglazed brick (about 120 of them) covered with gold leaf. Covered with dragons, lions and bulls, Nebuchadnezzar dedicated the huge, ceremonial gate to the goddess Ishtar.

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A ziggurat “to build on a raised area” is a temple tower of the ancient Mesopotamian valley and Iran, having the form of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories. Ziggurats were a form of temple common to the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians of ancient Mesopotamia.The earliest examples of the ziggurat date from the end of the third millennium BCE and the latest date from the 6th century BCE.

Continue reading Ziggurats and the Greatest of them – Sumerian Ziggurat of Ur