Western Iran - Iran - page 286

History
The ancient inhabitants of proto-Iran attached great religious importance to mountains.
Where they had no mountains, they made their own. This was the origin of distinctive
pyramidal, tiered temples known as ziggurats. Choqa Zanbil's ziggurat was the raison
d'être of the town of Dur Untash, founded by King Untash Gal in the mid-13th century
BC. Dur Untash bloomed especially in the early 12th century BC when it had a large
number of temples and priests. The town was eventually sacked by Ashurbanipal around
640 BC and, incredibly, remained 'lost' for more than 2500 years. It was accidentally re-
discovered during a 1935 aerial survey by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the forerunner
of BP.
The Ziggurat
The ziggurat was dedicated to Inshushinak, the chief god of the Elamite pantheon and pat-
ron of Shush. In those days the area was fertile and forested, and the ziggurat was built on
a slightly raised base to guard against flooding. It has a square plan with sides measuring
105m. The original five storeys were erected vertically from the foundation level as a
series of concentric towers, not one on top of another as was the custom in neighbouring
Mesopotamia. At the summit (now lost) was a temple accessible only to the highest elite
of Elamite society. Even now the taboo remains and you're not allowed to climb the rem-
nant stairways that rise on each of the four sides.
The structure is made of red bricks so well-preserved that an observer could believe
they're brand new. However, if you look very closely, a brick-wide strip at around eye-
level is intricately inscribed in cuneiform, the world's spiky first alphabet that looks like a
spilt box of tin-tacks. The inscriptions are not easy to make out unless you cross the rope
cordon. Permission to do so is the only apparent advantage of tipping the 'guide'. He
speaks not a word of English, but gesticulates with gruesome clarity as to the purpose of
the sacrifice stones (halfway along the northwest side). Easy to spot is an ancient sun
dial (facing the southwest central stairway) and, beside it, a strangely moving footprint of
an Elamite child, accidentally preserved for three millennia.
Around the Ziggurat
The ziggurat was surrounded by a paved courtyard protected by a wall. At the foot of the
northeastern steps would once have been the Gate of Untash Gal , two rows of seven
columns where supplicants would seek the pleasure of the king. Around the wall was ori-
ginally a complex of tomb chambers , tunnels and qanat channels. Once the site's climate
became drier, qanats brought water an incredible 45km from ancient rivers. Vestiges are
still visible. Outside were the living quarters of the town and 11 temples dedicated to vari-
ous Elamite gods and goddesses. Little of this remains.