What part did Ziggurats play in Religion?
Ziggurats were built to reach nearer the heavens. This was so the gods could be contacted and worshipped. Obviously the same can be done on ground level but on top of the ziggurat they would be “nearer the god”. The Babylonians, and others of their religion, gave rich offerings to the gods and built splendid temples. Similarly they built ziggurats. The size and splendor of a ziggurat would show the city and kings devotion to the particular city god being worshipped. They might have temples to other gods but they would only have a ziggurat to the city god. The Building of the Tower of Babel, by Abel Grimmer (1570-1619) The Tower of Babel Of the ziggurat built in Babylon at the time of Hammurapi we know little but there is a large amount of documentation of the ziggurat that existed in the time of Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC). This was a ziggurat already old by the time of his reign and could have been the same as the ziggurat that existed in the reign of Hammurapi. Its Babylonian name
