West Asian Architecture

INTRODUCTION

• Mesopotamia
(Greek, “between
the rivers”), one of
the earliest centers
of urban
civilization, in the
area of modern
Iraq and eastern
Syria between the
Tigris and
Euphrates rivers.
• THE LAND IS
KNOWN AS
FERTILE
CRESENT.
Influences
 Religious Condition
• Gods were thought to reside in
the height and to approach them temples were
built on elevated platforms usually provided
with holy mountains ‘ziggurats’ with the
shrine at top.
• Each city had at least one
ziggurat.
• The ziggurats were as impressive as
the great pyramids of egypt.
 CLIMATIC CONDITION
• The climate is extreme severe hot in summer
and cold in winter.
• The rainfall is very small.
• To protect from severe heat columned halls
and porticoes were common in persian
buildings.
• The twin rivers Tigris and Euphrates
produced flood hazard in summer due to the
melting of snows. so high platforms were
usually provided for buildings to protect
them from floods.
 GEOLOGICAL CONDITIONS

• The mesopotamian plain

being mainly alluvial
• The building materials
abundantly and chiefly
available was the clay from
which bricks were
manufactured.
• Bricks are either sun dried or
kiln-burnt depending upon
ordinary or important works.
• bricks were laid in lime
mortar but often in bitumen,
a natural material also
available in plenty.
 SOCIAL CONDITION
• The mesopotamians made their
land fertile by means of fine
network of
canals,reservoirs,harnessing
the river tigris and euphrates.
• The first writing of
mesopotamians was developed
in sumer, called cunieform. the
script is wedge shaped.
• They wrote with a sharp stylus
made of reed on smooth
surface of clay tablets which
were more lasting than
egyptian perishable papyrus
plant.
• The homes of poor were
simple with central courtyard.
flooring consisted of paved
bricks or mud plaster.
• The rich had two stories with
sleeping rooms ,kitchen,
wash room, servant quarters
and a family chapel.
• The babylonians buried their
dead in honey and had
funeral laminations, like the
egyptians.
 HISTORICAL CONDITIONS

THE ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE OF MESOPOTAMIA

DEVELOPED FROM 3000 TO 539 B.C. IN THE FOLLOWING
PERIODS.

• SUMERIAN (3000 TO 2000B.C.)

• OLD BABYLONIAN (2016 TO 1595B.C.)

• ASSYRIAN (1859 TO 626B.C.)

• NEO BABYLONIAN (626 TO 539B.C.)

 SUMER IAN ARCHITECTURE
• The transition from prehistory was made
around 4500 bc with the rise of the sumerian
civilization.
• The major cities of the sumerian civilization
were kish, urukand, ur.
• The sumerian were the first civilization to
make a conscious attempt of designing public
buildings.
• Mud was their building material.
• Mud was formed into brick, sun dried and
built into massive walls.
• Walls were thick to compensate the weakness
of mud.
• They were reinforce with buttresses.
• Cities were enclosed in walls with ziggurat temples and
palace as centers of the city.
• Fabric of the city is made up of residences mixed with
commercial and industrial buildings.
• The houses were densely packed with narrow streets
between them.
• Streets were fronted by courtyard houses of one story high.
• Temples were the principal architectural monuments of
sumerian cities.
 THE CITY OF UR
• Ur was one of the first village
settlements founded (circa
4000 bc) by the so-called
Ubaidian inhabitants of
Sumer. Before 2800 bc, Ur
became one of the most
prosperous Sumerian city-
states.
• Entire city was surrounded
by a canal acting as a moat.
• The streets of ur were
narrow.
• The houses were fairly good
with single story wth a
central courtyard. The rich
had double storeyed houses.
• The city of ur has its trade
links with arabia and indus
valley.
• It was an important
warehousing centre.
• The river euphrates which
had brought so much
glory, prosperity to ur,
suddenly changed its
course and started
running some 14 km east
of the city. As a result the
canals became dry , lost
its shipping trades and
ultimately the city lost its
values.
 ZIGGURAT
• Unlike the Pyramids, which are tombs for dead Pharaohs, the
Sumerian and Iranian ziggurats are temples for their gods.

• Because good building stone is hard to find in the river valley of

the Euphrates River where the Sumerians lived, the Sumerians
mostly did not build in stone. Instead, they built their ziggurats
(and also their houses and city walls) out of mud-brick, or
adobe.

• Ziggurats are very high buildings. Start by making a big flat

platform of mud-brick, and then a slightly smaller platform on
top of the first one, and another on top of that, until the platform
is just a little bigger than a temple, and then build the temple at
the very top, like a sand-castle.
• The Sumerians and their descendants continued to build
ziggurats well into the Middle Bronze Age (the 
Third Dynasty of Ur), around 2000 BC,
 Ziggurat of ur-nammu
• This ziggurat or holy mountain
was erected by king ur
nammu. It is dedicated to
moon god nanna, the patron
diety of the city of ur.
• It stood on rectangular plan
60m x 45m and 17m high
• The whole mass was solid
with a core of sun dried bricks
and outer covering of burnt
bricks of 2.5m thick cemented
with bitumen.
• The main lines of ziggurat
were built with slight curves to
correct illusion of bent in the
middle which was later used
by greeks.
• It has three terraces and the ascent was
made from one of the larger sides by
three steep stairways, two at the side and
one at the middle all meeting at the
common landing.
• At the top stood the temple dedicated to
moon god nanna.
• There was a large courtyard around its
base and surrounded by shrnes for cult
worship along which one was dedicated to
godess ningal, the wife of nanna.
• The temple has innr courtyard surrounded
by a number of rooms which included
rooms for animal sacrifice, cooking
places, workshops, store room for grains
etc.
 Babylonian period
• The name Babylon means “The
Gate of the God”. IT MAINLY
DEVELOPED IN CENTRAL
REGION OF MESOPOTAMIA.
• based on agriculture rather than
industry the Babylonian culture
that of Sumerians which
preceded it, was very much
urban in character.
• THE “AMORITES”, A NOMADIC
PEOPLE FROM SYRIAN
DESERT FOUNDED THEIR
FIRST ROYAL DYNASTY IN
BABYLON.
• THE FIFTH KING OF FIRST
DYNASTY WAS “HAMURABI
WHO IS CHIEFLY FAMOUS FOR
HIS CODE OF LAWS
• HIS EMPIRE EXTENDED UPTO PERSIAN GULF IN SOUTH, ASSYRIA IN NORTH
AND MEDITERRANEAN IN WEST.
• FROM 1300 TO 1900B.C. IT WAS UNDER ASSYRIANS.
• IN 1612 B.C. THE NABOPOLASSAR DEFEATED ASSYRIANS. HIS SON
NEBUCHADNEZZAR II ASCENDED THE THRONE IN 605 B.C. HIS SO CALLED
NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRE SPREAD FROM JERUSALEM TO PERSIAN GULF.
• HIS REIGN WAS UNDOUBTLY GLORIOUS THE FABULOUS TOWER OF BABEL
SOARED MORE THAN 90M ABOVE THE SURROUNDING COUNTRYSIDE AND
THERE WAS FAMOUS HANGING GARDENS.
THE CITY OF BABYLON
• THE STANDS ON A BROAD PLAIN AND IS
ALMOST A SQUARE.
• THE CITY WAS SURROUNDED BY A
CANAL ACTING AS A MOAT BEHIND
WHICH RISES A WALL.
• FOR THE WALL THEY USED HOT BITUMEN
AND CEMENT AND INTERPOSED A LAYER
OF WATTLED REEDS AT EVERY COURSE
OF BRICKS.
• EACH OF THE MAIN GATEWAY WAS
DEDICATED TO DIFFERENT GODS. THE
MAIN PALACE AND GATE WERE
DEDICATED TO ISHTAR, THE GODESS OF
LOVE AND BATTLE.
• At that time the Euphrates divided the city into two
unequal parts—the old quarter, with most of the
palaces and temples, on the east bank, and the New
City on the west bank.
• A prominent place near the center of the city was
occupied by Esagila, the temple of Marduk; just to
the north of that was Etemenanki (the ziggurat), a
seven-storied edifice sometimes linked in popular
legend with the Tower of Babel.
• A cluster of palaces and fortifications was found at
the northwest corner of the old city.
• the Hanging Gardens, one of
the Seven Wonders of the
World, which, according to
tradition, Nebuchadnezzar II
built for his Median wife.
• Nearby was located the Ishtar
Gate, with its lions and
dragons in brightly colored
glazed brick. Through it
passed the main
Processional Way, the route
followed by cultic and political
leaders for the New Year’s
festival ceremonies.
• Through nine major gates of
the massive inner fortification
walls passed roads to the
principal settlements of
Babylonia.
RUINS OF BABYLON
• ALL STREET RUN IN STRAIGHT LINE BOTH
PARALLEL TO RIVER AND CROSS STREETS
LEADING DOWN TO WATERSIDE.
• THE HOUSES ARE THREE TO FOUR STOREY
HIGh.
 HANGING GARDENS
• HANGING GARDENS WAS BUILT by NEBUCHADNEZZAR TO PLEASE HIS
WIFE WHO WAS HOMESICK FOR HILLS AND WOODLANDS OF HER
NATIVE COUNTRY PERSIA.
• The Hanging Gardens consisted of several tiers of platform terraces built upon
columns and extending to a great height. Accounts of their height range from
about 24 m (80 ft) to a less reliable estimate of more than 90 m.
• Trees and colorful plants and flowers
grew on the terraces, irrigated with
water brought up from the Euphrates
River.
• Archaeologists have discovered remains
of walls along the Euphrates that may
have belonged to the Hanging Gardens.
 Assyrian period
• Assyria took its name from its original
capital, Ashur, situated just north of the
junction of the Tigris and the Lesser Zab.
Its founders, who are now called
Assyrians, were a Semitic-speaking
people who arrived from the southwest
shorly after 2000 b.c.
• In the beginning they were opposed by
hittite empire but after its fall in 1200 b.c.
their empire spread rapidly.
• Assyrian kings were warriors and
huntsmen. They developed cruelity and
butchery as a policy that was to make the
assyrian kings dreaded throughout the
ancient world.
 Characteristics features
• The assyrians unlike the
babylonians produced mural
decorations. The chief form of
ornamentation was lotus buds
and band of rosettes.
• The walls were covered with
alabaster slabs on which they
provided bas-relief showing
scenes of fighting hunting and
ceremonies of state.
• The walls were provided with
typical cresting at the top.
• The temple, houses had
rectangular plan and were
built on high platforms to
protect them from heavy
floods.
• Gates of palaces were
flanked by imposing towers
and guarded by man
headed winged bulls, the
symbol of adad, the god of
thunder to strike terror into
the hearts of enemies.
 The city of khorsabad
• Sargon ii founded the great capital city
of khorsabad.
• the city stood on a rectangular plan 2.6
sqkm
• The city was surrounded by a wall with
seven gates, three of them decorated
with reliefs and glazed bricks. In the city
was his palace of more than 200 rooms
and courts, 1 large temple, and lesser
temples and residences.
• There were several office buildings
including a temple but the palace of
sargon ii was the most splendid
structure occupying an area of nearly 23
acres.
• The palace was approached by
broad ramp.
• The main gateway to the grand
court was flanked by imposing
towers and guarded by man
headed winged bulls. The bulls
were about 3.8m high
supported the thick semi
circular arched opening 4.35m
wide 6.5m high which was
lavishly decorated with bricks
glazed in different colours.
• The palace was divided into three
parts. on its left wing there were
six temples three large and three
small, on its right wing were
service rooms and administrative
offices and on its opposite wing,
were residential quarters which
were followed by royal apartments.
• At one corner of the palace there
stood a ziggurat on a square base
of 45m side rising in seven tiers to
a height of 45m with the shrine at
the top. it had a winding ramp
1.8m wide. Each of 7 tiers were
painted in different colours.