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[[File: Ancient_ziggurat.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|The Ziggurat of Ur]]__NOTOC__

The people of ancient Mesopotamia practiced a religion that modern scholars are only just beginning to understand. The physical focal point of their religion was the monumental, triangular structures known as ziggurats. Today, many people like to compare ziggurats derived from the ancient Akkadian word for the structures, <i>ziggurratu</i> – with their counterparts, the pyramids in Egypt. Although both pyramids and ziggurats were constructed during the same time period, they served different functions and were built using different methods and from different materials. Ziggurats were also built over a much longer period than Egyptian pyramids, and most importantly, ziggurats were built by a plethora of different people who inhabited ancient Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia, unlike Egypt, was full of disparate and, at times, warring ethnic groups. Still, they all followed a similar religion and built ziggurats to appease their gods and assign temporal power.

== How were the Ziggurats Built? ==

Like the most monumental building in the ancient world, ziggurats' development was a long process that took hundreds of years to reach its maturity. Unfortunately, there is no known extant text that explains precisely what ziggurats were intended to symbolize. Still, based on references to the structures in Sumerian and Akkadian language texts, modern scholars have determined that the ancient Mesopotamians believed they were their many deities' earthly homes. <ref> Mieroop, Marc van de. <i>A History of the Ancient Near East: ca. 3000-323 BC.</i> 2nd ed. (London: Blackwell, 2007), p. 182</ref>

== When was The Last Ziggurat built? ==

The culmination of centuries of ziggurat construction took place during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (ruled 604-562 BC). Nebuchadnezzar II is known to many as a “bad guy” from the Old Testament book of Daniel. Still, he was actually a very active king who led a new dynasty, referred to as the Neo-Babylonian Dynasty, to prominence in the Near East. The crowning achievement of Nebuchadnezzar II’s reign was the construction of the Etemenanki Ziggurat in Babylon. Etemenanki is translated from ancient Akkadian as the “House of the Frontier between Heaven and Earth,”<ref> Kuhrt, p. 593</ref> which again demonstrates the connection between ziggurats and the heavens. The ziggurat was dedicated to Marduk, who was the patron god of the city of Babylon. <ref> Frankfort, p. 203</ref>