Ziggurat of Ur (Etemennigur)

The Ziggurat at Ur was constructed during the Third Dynasty of Ur(21st and 20th century BC) by King Ur-Nammu and completed by his son Shulgi. This ziggurat was built in honor of the moon god Nanna(Sumerian for “illuminator”) and Sumerians called it “Etemennigur,” which meant “a house whose foundation creates terror.” Nanna is described here, “Nanna, great lord, light shining in the clear skies, wearing on (his) head a prince’s headdress, right god bringing for day and night, establishing the month, bringing the year to completion.” Its location was considered the center of the city of Ur.
As you can see from the picture its shape was that of a stepped platform, in similar shape as an Egyptian Pyramid, with the temple being on top and three converging stairways meeting at right angles to get there. Inside the temple would be a likeness of Nanna, “a wise and unfathomable old man with a flowing beard and four horns”. Remarkably this was one of the first ziggurats to built, but at 200 by 150 feet in size is the most well preserved temples from the Ur III. It is not very tall though coming in at 64 feet. Ziggurats were symbols of mountains where it was believed that the gods lived and they came to visit. It was built using baked bricks measuring about 30 x 30 x 7 cm and weighed up to 15kg. In all because the lower level of “Etemennigur” is solid it would be made up of more than 700,000 bricks. In the sides of the walls (that tilt slightly inward) you can see small gaps that were left between the brickwork on the sides of the ziggurat. The purpose of such holes was to allow evaporation of water from the core of the structure. These holes are called weeper holes and were lined with baked bricks. A vertical drain was built on the top layer on either side of the temple to carry away rain water. The corners point in each of the major directions as a compass.
Ziggurats were built as sanctuaries and temples. The sanctuaries were placed of public worship, however only the “clergy” visited them. The best agricultural and the best animals were brought to the temple to serve three purposes; first daily food to the divine image, second income or rations for the temple staff, and finally accumulation for future trade. The temple was Nanna’s house and managed like a worldly establishment. It was the administrative epicenter of the city. Trading and merchanting were done in and around it. It served as a medium for judicial proceedings, as well as the taking of oaths. Even human sacrifice was practiced, not necessarily at the ziggurat but the archaeology has discovered sixteen Royal Tombs in which after the king died his personnel did too.
The Ziggurat at Ur, according to scholars, was eventually abandoned due change in course of the Euphrates river. All knowledge of the Sumerian was lost until its excavation in the 19th century.
The link below will take you to video of the Ziggurat at Ur, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the narration, this is strictly for viewing purposes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnWpBwmi6_o

Sources:

Nemet-Nejat, Karen Rhea. Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998.

Roaf, Michael. Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. Oxfordshire: Andromeda Oxford Limited, 2002.

Oliphant, Margaret. The Earliest Civilizations. New York: Simon and Schuster Young Books, 1993.