Etemenanki facts for kids
Etemenanki was a huge, ancient tower called a ziggurat. It was built in the city of Babylon long ago, dedicated to a god named Marduk. Today, only its ruins remain. You can find them about 90 kilometers (56 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq.
Many people think Etemenanki might have inspired the famous Bible story of the Tower of Babel. Its name in Sumerian means "temple of the foundation of heaven and earth."
Contents
Building the Great Etemenanki Ziggurat
The city of Babylon was destroyed in 689 BC by a king named Sennacherib. Later, two kings, Nabopolassar and his son Nebuchadnezzar II, rebuilt the city. It took 88 years to finish this huge project.
The most important building in the rebuilt city was the temple of Marduk, called Esagila. The Etemenanki ziggurat was a very important part of this temple complex. This amazing tower had seven levels and reached a height of 91 meters (about 300 feet). At the very top, there was a special temple shrine.
What Etemenanki Looked Like
We know a lot about Etemenanki from an ancient clay tablet written in cuneiform script. This tablet is from Uruk and dates back to 229 BC. It's a copy of an even older text and is now kept in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
The tablet tells us the tower was 91 meters (300 feet) tall. Its base was also 91 meters square. This information was proven correct by Robert Koldewey when he dug up the site after 1913.
During the excavations, large stairs were found on the south side of the building. A triple gate there connected the ziggurat to the Esagila temple. Another bigger gate on the east side linked Etemenanki to a special sacred road. This road has been rebuilt and can be seen today in the Pergamon museum in Berlin.
The Final Destruction of the Tower
In 331 BCE, Alexander the Great took control of Babylon. He wanted to fix the Etemenanki tower. However, when he came back to the city in 323 BCE, he saw that no work had been done.
Alexander then ordered his army to completely tear down the building. He wanted to clear the area to prepare for a new, final rebuilding. But Alexander died soon after, and the reconstruction never happened.
Ancient records, like the Babylonian Chronicles, mention several attempts to rebuild Etemenanki. Each time, people first had to remove the last pieces of the old ziggurat. One record, the Ruin of Esagila Chronicle, says that Antiochus I, a prince from the Seleucid Empire, decided to rebuild it. He even made a sacrifice to prepare. But while he was there, he tripped and fell on the rubble. He became so angry that he ordered his elephant drivers to destroy the very last remains of the tower. After this, there are no more mentions of Etemenanki in ancient writings.
Images for kids
-
A model of Etemenanki at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.
-
What's left of the tower's foundations today.
See also
In Spanish: Etemenanki para niños
