The curious Babylonian building that was once called the Tower of Babel

On the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, a curious formation emerges in the middle of a wilderness. From afar it may even look like a sandstone created naturally by rain and wind, but an ancient brick structure shows that it was once a prominent building in the region.

If you did not remember the history classes, this is the region where ancient Mesopotamia, which had the Ziggurats as temples. They were made of a sturdier core of burnt bricks, while the exterior was made of sun-baked bricks, thus less resilient, and had a pyramidal shape, but with a much flatter top than traditional pyramids.

This ziggurat in question was in the ancient city of Dur-Kurigalzu and came about 3, 500 years ago, when the Cassists dominate the Babylonian Empire. Dur-Kurigalzu's ziggurat was a tribute to the chief god of Babylon, Enlil, while the city served as a fortress and protection of the main trade route leading to Afghanistan, which at the time was one of the largest sources of lapis lazuli - a semiprecious stone today, but which at the time was worth a fortune.

During the 19th century, the Ziggurat emerged alone in the vastness of the desert plateau.

Babel tower

The city of Dur-Kurigalzu was decimated around the 12th century BC, when the Elamites invaded and destroyed everything. Over time, the outermost buildings of the Ziggurat also suffered the action of time, leaving only the core of the temple. However, it is extremely eroded and risks collapsing at any moment.

In golden times, the Dur-Kurigalzu ziggurat was 60 meters high and had an area of ​​70 square meters. Only the interior remains standing, but in the 1970s, during Saddam Hussein's rule, some pavements were excavated around the building and the outer area of ​​the Ziggurat was restored.

For centuries after the end of Dur-Kurigalzu, the Ziggurat served as a point of reference for caravans, nomads, and merchants. Western adventurers who first arrived in the region have dubbed the Tower of Babel construction, in reference to the myth described in the Bible's book of Tennis.

Ziggurat restored: temple was once called the Tower of Babel