Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. Alternative spelling of ziggurat.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A temple tower of the Babylonians or Assyrians, consisting of a lofty pyramidal structure, built in successive stages, with outside staircases, and a shrine at the top; -- called also ziggurat.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a rectangular tiered temple or terraced mound erected by the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Examples
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We may assume, likewise, that at Sippar, Uruk, Ur, and Larsa the zikkurat was the center of a considerable group of buildings, while at Babylon in the days of her greatest power, the temple area of E-Sagila must have presented the appearance of a little city by itself, shut off from the rest of the town by a wall which invariably enclosed the sacred quarter.
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To emphasize the fact that the zikkurat was the temple for the god, a small room was built at the top of the zikkurat, [1341] 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.
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In the background towered the great seven-storied zikkurat of Asgalun, from which the priests read the will of the gods in the stars.
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Though some writers maintain that every Babylonian city possessed such a tower, or zikkurat (meaning "pointed" according to Schrader, "raised on high" according to Haupt, "memorial" according to Vigouroux), no complete specimen has been preserved to us.
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Chaldæan Noah, made on the/zikkurat/or peak of the mountain after the coming forth from the ship which had saved him and his from the
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The centre of these buildings was the great/zikkurat/, or temple-tower, square on its plan, and with the sides facing the cardinal points.
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_Khorsabad_, unearthed, 6, 8; capital of Assyria, 193; sanctuary of Sin, 219; palace of Sargon, 225; names of its gates and walls, 237; sanctuary of Nin-Gal, 231; zikkurat at K.,
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One of these is the zikkurat to Nin-girsu at Lagash, which Gudea [1335] describes as 'the house of seven divisions of the world'; the other, the tower at Uruk, [1336] which bore the name 'house of seven zones.'
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_Threshold of Long Life_, name of zikkurat in Sippar, 641.
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But, on the other hand, it would appear that as the zikkurat developed from a one-story edifice into a tower, and as the number of the stages increased, the zikkurat assumed more of an ornamental character.
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