what is ziggurat
Cheghazanbil or Dorontash ziggurat meaning is a place where you can see the greatness and glory of ancient Iran. An ancient shrine built in the Elamite civilization and said to be the oldest religious building in Iran. This is the first building of Iran registered in the UNESCO World Heritage List. In this article, we talk about the history, the reason for the name and everything you need to know about the ziggurat Ziggurat.
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History and antiquity of ziggurat temples
The creator of Chaghazanbil was someone named Ontash Gal. He was the king of Elam 1250 years before Christ. So here it is about 3300 years old.
Ontash Gal built this ziggurat to praise the god Inshushinak – the guardian of the city of Sush. Do you know the meaning of ziggurat?
Ziggurat means going up to the sky. In ancient civilizations, they built places to pray to the gods, and the most important and valuable ones were called ziggurats. Ziggurats were built on the heights and they used the best building materials.
The construction of the Cheghazanbil ziggurat was never completely finished. Apparently, a few nuns still lived here until the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal destroyed it in 640 BC.
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How many floors is ziggurat temples?
Now it has two floors and its height reaches 25 meters, but the Elamite ziggurat was once 5 floors and was 52 meters high.
The first floor measures 105 x 105 meters and is one meter away from the ground. The walls of this floor are three meters wide.
The second floor was eight meters high and 16 meters wide. One point is that the rooms on the first floor are connected to each other, but the second floor is not and the rooms are considered independent.
Now you can’t see the floors and their features, but you can still see the unique architecture of the Elamites thousands of years ago.
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The story of the discovery of the Elamite ziggurat temples
At the end of the 19th century, Jacques de Morgan, a famous archaeologist, said that there was oil in this area.
Several years passed and the excavations continued until they found a brick in Susa with something written on it.
After that, archaeologists searched the area and finally managed to find the temple.
Later, the French Roman Girshman was able to excavate this place during the Pahlavi II period and make it look like today.
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What does the name ziggurat meaning?
There is a lot of talk and hadith about the name of ziggurat . In most sources, it is stated that ziggurat means basket hill. Chagha means hill and basket in Lori language.
They say that because the shape of the building looks like an upside-down basket and it was found on a hill, they gave it that name.
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The architecture of ziggurat templesand its interesting features
Chaghazanbil or ziggurat has an interesting and unique architecture. Unlike other structures whose floors are stacked on top of each other, all five floors here started from the same ground floor and were separate from each other.
The ziggurat of Susa also had an internal staircase that was not visible from the outside. There were three stairs outside the mosque that people used.
Ziggurats are made in two colors. The first floors were built with dark bricks and finally, the last floor where the gods were located, had a light color.
In the northwest of ziggurat , there were other temples, among them Ishmakrab and Oban. The temples have courtyards and shrines, and bricks with Elamite inscriptions can be seen in them. Of course, the temples themselves are made of raw clay and only in some places bricks are used.
If you look around the floors, you will see rooms for prayers and religious ceremonies.
An interesting point is that a glass pipe was also found in the excavations. So it can be said that the people of that time were familiar with water purification and plumbing works.
All ziggurat are made of glazed bricks. Elamite writing can be seen on about 5,000 of these bricks. Everything is written on the bricks by hand. It seems that they did this to decorate the ziggurat.
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The ziggurat also has a sundial
If you look around ziggurat , you will find three small circular buildings. These three structures together make an integrated system.
Four sundials were considered for these three circles. Using this method, the Elamites recognized the days, months and the rotation of the sun.
Many of these clocks have been found in the ancient works of Iran. For this reason, the people of the world consider Iranians to be one of the most accurate people in ancient times.
Sightseeing places around ziggurat temples
Haft Tepe village and its museum
You can go to Haft Tepe near ziggurat and visit the Haft Tepe Museum in that village, which is related to the works of the Elamite period. Here are seals, clay figures, clay and metal dishes and… full of historical monuments. In fact, this place is a paradise for history lovers.
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Khamat village
You can go to Khamat village. This village has no more than 600 people. Enjoy Arabic food and Arabic coffee in this village. Shop their handicrafts for souvenirs. This place has spectacular plains and a river full of water that you can see.
Have you also traveled to Chaghazanbil? Have you visited the surrounding villages? Do you choose the captivating south of Iran or the green and clean north for your trip? What sights have we placed around this temple? Share your experiences with us in the comments section.
Address and access route of ziggurat
To visit here, you need to go to Khuzestan province. ziggurat is in the southeast of Dezful and in the north of Ahvaz.
If you want to go from the Ahvaz side , you should enter the freeway from Ahvaz to Shush , after passing Hossein Abad (Shavor), turn right at the exit.
Continue the path until you see the Ziggurat exit sign. From there you can reach this ancient ziggurat. The distance between ziggurat meaningand Ahvaz is 125 km and you will be on the way for an hour and a half.
If you have started from Tehran , you should go here via Andimeshk-Dezful ring road. Before reaching Dezful, you will see the ring road.
After that, when you enter Dezful to Shushtar road, you will see ziggurat road. Continue from there until you reach three roads. If you turn right three ways, you will see the temple.
Distance from ziggurat to Shush : 43 km, about 45 minutes.
Distance from ziggurat to Dezful : 65 km, about 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Information on visiting ziggurat templesTemple
ziggurat hosts its visitors every day of the week from 8 am to 5 pm . Of course, the visiting hours in summers are 1 and a half hours longer.
However, during Corona days, this ancient temple is closed.
To stay in Chaghazziggurat anbil, you have to go to cities like Ahvaz, Shush, and Dezful. When traveling anywhere in Iran, if you don’t know what to do to rent an accommodation, visit the Pinhurst website , find your suitable accommodation among its anthologies and book it easily.
Jaghazanbil phone number : 06142867213
