2nd Year Architecture

2018/2019 second Semester

History of Architecture I
Lecture (3) :
Mesopotamia 2

by : SEEMA K. ALFARIS

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Mesopotamia
Assyrian Culture (1350 – 612) B.C
• After Hammurabi’s death, Babylon fell apart and kings
of Assur controlled more of surrounding area and
came to dominate .
• Assyrian reunited Mesopotamia and established
the first true empire with a great army .
• Established many cities : Assyria, Khorsabad
(Dorshrokin) – Nineveh and Nimrud .
• Discovery of Iron changed there lifestyles and
daily life , replaced wooden wheels and applied
to horse drawn chariots.
• Discovery of Iron made the Assyrian army
most effective military force in that time
,because it used in weapons .
• During the Assyrian periods, temples lost
their importance to palaces
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Mesopotamia
Assyrian Culture (1350 – 612) B.C
• Assyrian art is characterized by the huge quantities of murals, sculptures and winged bulls.
• The huge winged bulls appeared to guard the gates and holding ceilings (used in external
spaces).
• Most of murals and sculptures represent the character of kings and animals such as lions
and horses ,(used in internal spaces).
• Assyrian Architecture Buildings were very high, that’s related to the majority of using stone
in construction .

Winged bulls 3
Mesopotamia
Assyrian Culture (1350 – 612) B.C
1. Assyria city :
• One of the oldest Assyrian cities (early
Assyrian capital) , most researchers
associate the reason of choosing its location
to the geographical factors , and also the
height and natural of the rocky era (up to 12
meters edges of the river next door).
• Famous buildings : Ashur temple (The
Doubled temple) .

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Mesopotamia
Assyrian Culture (1350 – 612) B.C
2. Khorsabad city :
• Khorsabad , The modern name of the ancient
site of Dorshukin,
• Discovered in 1843 , was built by Sargon II in
722 - 740 BC. , he is on of the greatest
Assyrian kings.
• (1760 * 1675 square meters) and surrounded
by wall which is consists of 7 gates, each gate
having a name of God, guarded by two
winged bulls.
• Famous buildings : Sargon Palace is located In
the north west wing, which is a huge and
large complex.

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Mesopotamia
Assyrian Culture (1350 – 612) B.C
3. Nineveh city:
• After the death of Sargon II followed by the
rule of his son Sennacherib, who moved the
capital to Nineveh and since then became an
important capital of the world and was
famous for its palaces , temples and its
irrigation projects.

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Mesopotamia
Assyrian Culture (1350 – 612) B.C
4. Nimrud city
• Assyrian city built by King Ashur
Nasser Bal II, occupies an important
strategic and defense position near
The Tigris.
• A wall built around 3.5 square
kilometers.
• It was considered a political capital
because it contained many Of
public buildings.

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 Mesopotamia
Persian culture (539 – 330 BC)
• The Persian empire started in about 530 BC when
Cyrus the great from the province of Fars swept
over the region.
• conquered the entire civilized world from Indus
to Danube River with the exception of Greece .
• They established PERSEPOLIS .
• Their Architecture have no significant style
(Quotation Architecture ) .
• Their architectural solutions were a synthesis of
ideas gathered from almost all parts of their
empire and from the Greeks and Egyptians
• Their materials of construction was also from
different locations included mud-brick from
Babylon, wooden roof beams from Lebanon,
precious material from India and Egypt, and
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Stone quarried columns from Greeks.
Mesopotamia
Persian culture (539 – 330 BC)
• Persian art : they influenced by the art style
of Mesopotamia specially Assyrian art , there
mundane and most mural sculptures
represent processions and Archer men .
• Used to decorate surfaces , staircases and
edges(external spaces) .

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Mesopotamia Architecture:
Temples ,Palaces and
Houses .
In all the Mesopotamia ages

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 Mesopotamia
Temples
• Temple was one of the most important buildings styles in Mesopotamia
Architecture because , of the natural of Mesopotamian society was very
conservative , full of religious values and beliefs.
• Its represent the principal architectural monuments of Sumerian cities.
• Temple plays an important and fundamental role during the times when the
religious and secular authorities were integrated .
• Temples are generally classified into two main types :
1. Ground temples .
2. High temples(Ziggurats) .

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 Mesopotamia
Temples
1. Ground temples :
• Represent the main type of Mesopotamia
Architecture temples.
• This pattern is consist of a simple building
contain :
1. Small space called (Cella) .
2. Place for sacrifices (Alter) .
3. In the end a place made in the wall for An plan for a simple temple in
Erido consist of cella ,Alter and
the (Nitsh) .
Nitsh
• This pattern appeared for the first time in
Erido (Sumerian city) .

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 Mesopotamia
Temple at Ashnona
Temples beside the royal palace
A (space-node) connect
1. Ground temples : between palace and temple
• In general , later ages , this type to make king’s movement
easier to do his refigures
has seen many developments , rituals in the temple.
included several changes in its
facilities , spaces organization ,
mass formation and detailed
treatment, According to these
changings , Ground temple
classified into two main types : Temple and Ziggurat
Tal al-Rammah near
1. Integrated with palaces , Nineveh .
merged with the
Governor's Palace .
2. Integrated with high
temples (Ziggurat),
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 Mesopotamia
Temples
2. High temples :
• The basic idea of this type came from the result of repeated
construction of the temples on the same sacred site, which
over time led to the emergence of a plateau or a high
artificial mountain with a new temple above it.
• There are two main types of high temples:
1. The terrace temple:
• A medium-artificial plateau, topped by the temple.
• dedicated to the appearance of God to people in its
symbolic form
• example , the white temple in Uruk , the oval temple in
khafaja.

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 Mesopotamia
Temples
2. High temples :

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 Mesopotamia
Temples:
2. High temples :

Oval Temple- Khafaje

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 Mesopotamia
Temples:
2. High temples :
2. Ziggurat:
• The terrace temple has replaced The ziggurat.
• It derives from the verb zaqaru, ‘to be high'.
• These buildings are described as being like mountains linking Earth and
heaven , The God house when he descend to earth.
• A huge artificial hill from mud-brick consist of gradient layers and its faces
are covered with stone or colored glazed brick and with a distinctive
geometric design.
• The ziggurat is generally a three layers building like great ziggurat in ur ,
five layers like Kessites ziggurat . Babylon Ziggurat is seven layers,
• The great ziggurat in ur is the first and oldest one known in Mesopotamia.
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 Mesopotamia
Temples:
2. High temples :
2. Ziggurat:
styles and classification of ziggurat according to
location and shape :
• First Style : The rectangular tower:
it can be found in the southern part of Mesopotamia,
such as great ziggurat in Ur and Kessites, it use one
stairway in the front and the two sides.
• Second Style: The Square tower:
It can be found in the northern part of Mesopotamia,
such as Assur and Khorsabad Ziggurats , it used only
ramps on this type.
• Third style: The Integral Tower:
It can be found in the middle part of Mesopotamia,
has a square base as the second type, but stairs used to reach to the first
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layer and ramps to the rest of the layers. (Babylon ziggurat).
great ziggurat in ur Kessites ziggurat near Baghdad

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Mesopotamia
Palaces
• Palaces appearance was from the Dawn of the Sumerian breeds (4500-2000B.C)
• Palace development start with the change of the political hegemony centers and the
separation between the legislative power and the religious authority .
• After this change the palace became a new powerful construction style in Mesopotamia
Architecture.
• Palaces have evolved and reached the peak of their development in the Assyrian period.
• Important palaces takes mostly the northern corner of the city to face the fresh wind, Its
four corners are oriented toward the four holy universes corners or slightly deviated from
them .

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Mesopotamia
Palaces
• There are two types of palaces:
1. Royal Palaces:
• It began to develop as a distinctive Architectural style in Assyrian architecture in particular,
where the clear distinction between the Royal Palace and the King's residence and as a
center of government and other palaces .
2. Minor palaces:
• Residence palaces for the Crown Prince or for senior officials of the palace, which was
developed by the Assyrians and extended in the Babylonian Architecture, but on a narrow
scale .
The Assyrian cities are known for having more than a secondary palace, some of them within
the borders of the main fortress, some outside its borders, as in the palaces of Khorsabad,
Nimrud and Nineveh.

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Mesopotamia North palace in Erido: the first appear of courtyard Hierarchy

Palaces
The basic components of Mesopotamia palaces
In general according to their importance:
• The main reception hall
• Throne Hall
• The entrance space is the separation (space –node)
between public and internal space.
• Inner palace spaces
• The property was distinguished by the fact that the
towers were surrounded by mythical animals (winged
bulls and statues)
• It was characterized by a series of sequential or broken
entrances down to the main public space and the
palaces also contained service spaces
• A special temple as in the royal palace in Khorsabad
broken entrance 22
Mesopotamia
Palaces

court
court court

court

court court
court

broken entrance

Nar am-seen palace in Assur

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Mesopotamia
Palaces
Sargon palace:

Khursabad city main complex

city plan 24
Mesopotamia
Palaces
Sargon palace: ziggurat
Thorn room

Seven stepped Ziggurat

Palace entrance

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Sargon palace plan
Mesopotamia
Palaces
Nebuchadnezzar’s palace

Note: the main courtyard

is facing the throne room
and the Hierarchy in the
size of courtyards

Nebuchadnezzar’s palace plan 26

Mesopotamia
Palaces
Nebuchadnezzar Palace :

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Mesopotamia
Houses:

• Courtyard – Need for privacy, climate

• The central court was brick paved and
slopes toward a central drain.
• The stairs and the lavatory were opposite
to the guest room across the courtyard .
• The family lived on the second level in a
layout essentially duplicating the ground floor
• Roofs were made of mud layered on mats
which were placed on wooden panels

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Thank you …
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