Ur, one of the most important cities of the Sumerians. In it, as in the rest of the towns, was built a great temple, a Ziggurat. The Stargate.

The Sumerians called themselves “the black headed people” and their land, in cuneiform script, was simply “the land”, and these people were the first civilization in the region.

“The first ruler of Sumer, whose deeds are recorded, if only in the briefest kind of statement, is a king by the name of Etana of Kish, who may have come to the throne quite early in the third millennium B.C. In the King List he is described as he who stabilized all the lands”. –Samuel Noah Kramer

The Sumerians believed that civilization was the result of the gods’ triumph of order over chaos. Etana is famous from the myth of the man who ascends to heaven on the back of an eagle and, like other kings was known for superhuman feats and heroism.

In this ancient time, the tribes of northern Asia (called Aryans).  Some decided to go to India (where they developed the Vedic culture), the other went to Sumer (Iraq) and Persia (now called Iran).

Mazdeism was the religion of the Persians. They believed in one god, Ahura Mazda, and thought that people were training for a future life.

During this time, they had to choose between good and evil.

Ziggurats are, architecturally, the Mesopotamian equivalent of the Egyptian pyramids: large artificial square mountains of stone. They are equally ancient, but there are two differences: a ziggurat was not a tomb but a temple, and ziggurats  briefly, temple towers.

Our word ziggurat is derived from ziqqurratu, which can be translated as “rising building” (Akkadianzaqâru, “to rise high”). The temple tower known as Etemenanki (the ‘House of the foundation of heaven on earth’) in Babylon.

Etemenanki (Sumerian É.TEMEN.AN.KI 𒂍𒀭𒆠 “temple of the foundation of heaven and earth”) is the name of a zigguratdedicated to Marduk in the city of Babylon of the 6th century BCE Neo-Babylonian dynasty. Originally 91 meters in height, it now exists only in ruins.Etemenanki is considered a possible inspiration for the biblical story (or even literal candidate for the tower itself) of the Tower of Babel.

Ziggurats played a role in the culture of many cities in ancient Mesopotamia.

The most famous ziggurat is, the “tower of Babel” mentioned in the Biblical book Genesis: a description of the Etemenanki of Babylon. According to the Babyloniancreation epic Enûma êliš the god Marduk defended the other gods against the diabolical monster Tiamat.