Ziggurat of Kish (Tell Ingharra & Uhaimir)
Jemdet Nasr to Old Babylonian / Neo-Babylonian, c.3100–580 BCE·Sumerian → Akkadian → Babylonian·🇮🇶 Babil Governorate, Babylon District, Iraq
About
About Ziggurat of Kish (Tell Ingharra & Uhaimir)
Twin tells of Kish — Ingharra (Temple Mound) and Uhaimir (Palace Mound) with ziggurats. Tell Uhaimir ziggurat (Ekišiba, Temple of Zababa) 30 × 40 m base, 13 m extant mudbrick massif with plano-convex brick core (Jemdet Nasr/OED). Mackay 1925-26 and Langdon excavated; Neo-Babylonian rebuilding by Nebuchadnezzar II with stamped bricks. Ingharra Temple of Ishtar.
Why it mattersDual ziggurat city linking Kish civilization and Kish tablet horizon.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Kish king-list vs archaeology first city after Flood
Theories
- 01Kish as northern Sumerian Uruk contemporary
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.3100 BCE initial, rebuilt 580 BCE
- Period
- Jemdet Nasr to Old Babylonian / Neo-Babylonian, c.3100–580 BCE
- Culture
- Sumerian → Akkadian → Babylonian
- Builders
- Sumerian / Babylonian (Nebuchadnezzar II restoration)
- Purpose
- Twin ziggurat temples — Ekišiba (Zababa) and E-Kur-Kurra (Ishtar)
- Excavation
- Excavated
c.3100 BCE initial, rebuilt 580 BCE
Initial construction / foundation
c.500 CE
Major refurbishment / enlargement phase
c.1100 CE
Abandonment or conversion
1890–1930
Modern rediscovery and first scientific survey
On the ground
Structures & features
32.5403° N · 44.6047° E · 32 m · 2 mapped features
Tell Uhaimir ziggurat massif — Ekišiba
zigguratMassif of Zababa temple with Nebuchadnezzar stamped baked bricks
32.5403° N · 44.6046° ETell Ingharra temple platform — Ishtar
platformTemple platform of Inanna/Ishtar on eastern mound
32.5420° N · 44.6070° E