FIG. 28.
CONJECTURAL RECONSTRUCTION OF E-TEMEN-ANKI AND E-SAGILA.
The form of the Temple-tower within the Peribolos is here restored in accordance with Dr. Koldewey's theory that it consisted of a single stage or story, on which the upper Temple of Marduk rested. According to an alternative interpretation of Herodotus, the upper Temple would have formed the last of eight receding towers or stages. It will be noted that the two flanking stairways, recently discovered on the south side of the tower, are here not shown.
(After Andrae.)
The buildings within the precincts were evidently not temples, as they present none of their characteristic features, such as the shrine or the towered façade, and any theory as to their use must be based on pure conjecture. Judging solely by their ground-plans, it would appear that the two great buildings on the east side,[160] consisting of a long series of narrow chambers ranged around open courts, were probably the magazines and store-chambers. The buildings on the south side resemble dwelling-houses, and were probably the quarters of the priesthood; their huge size would not have been out of keeping with the privileges and dignified position enjoyed by those in control of the principal temple in the capital. The small chambers along the walls of the Northern Court,[161] and the narrow Western Court,[162] may well have been used to house the thousands of pilgrims who doubtless flocked to Babylon to worship at the central shrine. No less than twelve gateways led into the sacred precincts, the principal entrance being on the east side,[163] exactly opposite the east face of the temple-tower. The breccia paving of the Sacred Way was here continued within the area of the precincts, along the centre of the open space, or deep recess, between the temple-magazines. The great gateway probably spanned the western end of this recess, thus completing the line of the Main Court upon that side.[164]
The most striking feature of E-temen-anki was naturally the temple-tower itself, which rose high above the surrounding buildings and must have been visible from all parts of the city and from some considerable distance beyond the walls. Its exact form has been the subject of some controversy. Dr. Koldewey rejects the current view, based upon the description of Herodotus,[165] that it consisted of a stepped tower in eight stages, with the ascent to the top encircling the outside. It is true that the excavations have shown that the ascent to the first stage, at any rate, was not of this character, consisting, as it did, of a triple stairway built against one side of the tower;[166] but, as the ground-plan only of the building can now be traced, there is nothing to indicate the form of its upper structure. Dr. Koldewey does not regard the evidence for the existence of stepped towers in Babylonia as satisfactory, and he appears to consider that they depend solely on the description of Herodotus, who, he claims, says nothing about stepped terraces, nor that each stage was smaller than the one below it. He is inclined to reconstruct the tower as built in a single stage, decorated on its face with coloured bands, and surmounted by the temple to which the triple-stairway would have given direct access. This view of its reconstruction is shown in Fig. 28, but its author considers the problem as still unsettled, and suspends his judgment until the Ziggurat at Borsippa, the best preserved of the temple-towers, is excavated.
There, as at Babylon, we have a temple and a separate temple-tower, but they both stood within the same peribolos or sacred enclosure, along the inner side of which were built series of numerous small chambers resembling those of E-temen-anki. A street[167] ran along the north-west front of the peribolos, and two gateways[168] opened on to it from the sacred enclosure. The main entrance both to peribolos and temple was probably on the north-east side.[169] It will be noted that the plan of the temple[170] follows the lines of those already described, consisting of a complex of buildings ranged around one great court and a number of smaller ones. The shrine of the god Nabû stood on the south-west side of the Great Court, the heavily-towered façade indicating the entrance to its outer vestibule. While so much of the temple itself and of its enclosure has been cleared, the temple-tower[171] awaits excavation. It still rises to a height of no less than forty-seven metres above the surrounding plain, but such a mass of débris has fallen about its base that to clear it completely would entail a vast amount of labour. The mound of soil not only covers the open court surrounding the temple-tower, but extends over the inner line of chambers on the north-west side of the peribolos. The destruction of the temple and its surroundings by fire has vitrified the upper structure of the ziggurat, and to this fact the ruins owe their preservation. For the bricks are welded into a solid mass, and, since it is no longer possible to separate them, they offer no attractions as building-material and so have escaped the fate of E-temen-anki.