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Updated: May 26, 2025
To emphasize the fact that the zikkurat was the temple for the god, a small room was built at the top of the zikkurat, and it was a direct consequence of this same distinction between a temple for the gods and a temple for actual worship that led to assigning to zikkurats special names, and such as differed from the designation of the sacred quarter of which the zikkurat formed the most conspicuous feature.
We are safe, therefore, in estimating the number of temples, zikkurats, and smaller shrines in Babylonia and Assyria to have reached high into the hundreds. Sanctuaries must have covered the Euphrates Valley like a network.
It seems natural to suppose that the hall of judgment, mentioned already in Gudea's inscription, was attached to some shrine. Besides the zikkurats and shrines, there were smaller structures used as dwellings for the priests and temple officials, for storehouses, for the archives, and as stalls for the animals to be used in the sacrifices. At Nippur a smithy was found near the temple precinct.
Babylon and Borsippa, however, remain, and continue to hand down to succeeding generations, the wisdom of the past. The Sacred Objects in the Temples, Altars, Vases, Images, Basins, Ships. The earliest altars were made of the same material as the zikkurats and sanctuaries. One found at Nippur at an exceedingly low level was of sun-dried bricks.
A list of zikkurats furnishes the names of no less than twenty; and while all of the important places are included, there are others which do not appear to have played an important part in either the religious or political history of the country, and which nevertheless had their zikkurat.
To judge from the fact that in this list several names of zikkurat are connected with one and the same place, more than one zikkurat, indeed, could be found in a large religious center. The Construction and Character of the Zikkurats. The zikkurat was quadrangular in shape. The orientation of the four corners towards the four cardinal points was only approximate.
Sennacherib proudly describes Nineveh as the city which contained the shrines of all gods and goddesses. The Names of the Zikkurats and Temples. We have seen that every sacred edifice had a special name by which it was known. This custom belongs to the oldest period of Babylonian history, and continues to the latest.
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