A ziggurat was an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower built as a stepped platform with receding levels.
Ziggurats were constructed in several stages, usually with a solid mud-brick core and baked-brick facing. A shrine or temple stood at the summit, reached by ramps or stairways. Unlike Egyptian pyramids, ziggurats were not primarily royal tombs; they were monumental religious architecture associated with a city’s patron deity.
The best-known surviving example is the Great Ziggurat of Ur, built during the reign of Ur-Nammu in the early twenty-first century BCE. It was dedicated to Nanna, the moon god worshipped at Ur. Other major ziggurats stood at cities including Uruk, Babylon, and Dur-Kurigalzu.
The biblical Tower of Babel is often compared with a Mesopotamian ziggurat, especially Babylon’s Etemenanki. However, the biblical account does not name a surviving archaeological structure with certainty.