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Updated: May 31, 2025
The sacred edifice, as the dwelling of the god to whom it is dedicated, leads to such names as E-Zida, 'the true house or fixed house, the famous temple to Nabu in Borsippa; E-dur-gina, 'the house of the established seat, a temple of Bel-sarbi in Baz; E-ki-dur -garza, 'the sacred dwelling, a temple to Nin-lil-anna in Babylon; E-kua, 'the dwelling-house, the name of the papakhu of Marduk in E-Sagila; E-gi-umunna, 'the permanent dwelling'; E-esh -gi, a shrine to Nin-girsu at Lagash with the same meaning, 'permanent house.
Both terms for this room convey the idea of its being "shut off" from the rest of the building, precisely as the holy of holies in the temple of Jerusalem containing the ark, was separated from the central hall. We are fortunate in having a pictorial representation of such a papakhu. A stone tablet found at Sippar represents Shamash seated in the "holy of holies" of the temple E-Babbara.
Coming back now to the large hall which led into the papakhu, the absence of bas-reliefs in this hall in the case of the Assyrian temples excavated by Layard, suggests that the walls of this hall were not lined with sculptured slabs, as was the case in the large rooms of the palaces; and we may conclude that in Babylonian temples, likewise, the decoration of the walls was confined as a general thing to enameled bricks, interspersed, perhaps, with metallic panels, and that mythological scenes such as the contest with Tiâmat or Gilgamesh's adventures were only occasionally portrayed.
The further speculation which brought the gods together yearly on the occasion of the great Marduk festival belongs likewise, and as a matter of course, to the period when Marduk's sway was undisputed. The ideas that were thus attached to the papakhu in E-Sagila are a valuable indication of the sanctity attached to that part of the temple where the god sat enthroned.
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