SAEDNEWS: Images of the Brick Inscriptions and Tablets of Chogha Zanbil Ziggurat, with Translation of One of Its Most Important Inscriptions
According to Saed News’ History Service, the Chogha Zanbil complex is the remains of an Elamite city covering an area of 100 hectares. The Chogha Zanbil Ziggurat, also known as the Chogha Zanbil Temple, is a multi-tiered, remarkable, and iconic structure—the most important surviving building of this ancient city.
This city was built in the second half of the second millennium BCE under the order of one of the most powerful Elamite kings. In 640 BCE, it was destroyed by Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian king, during his war with Humban-Haltash, the last Elamite ruler. As recorded in an inscription:
"I destroyed the ziggurat of Susa, which was glazed with lapis-lazuli bricks… I leveled the temples of Elam… I turned Susa into ruins… The voice of humanity and the sound of joy vanished at my hands..."
The Chogha Zanbil Ziggurat is the tallest and most significant structure of the city of Untash-Napirisha. It was built as a square, five-tiered pyramid measuring 105 by 105 meters, narrowing toward the top, where a small temple was located. Its original height was 52 meters, though today only 25 meters remain, spanning roughly two and a half tiers.
The brick inscriptions and tablets of Chogha Zanbil have played a crucial role in revealing and documenting this extraordinary ancient structure. Thousands of inscriptions survive, some encircling the ziggurat like a protective belt, and others engraved on various artifacts. Written in the Elamite script and language, these texts provide details about the reasons for the ziggurat’s construction, the builder, materials, and decorative elements. One such inscription reads:
"I, Untash-Napirisha, built this multi-tiered temple with golden bricks, silver bricks, black agate stones, white stones, and other materials, dedicating it to the gods Napirisha and Inshushinak of the sacred precinct. Whoever destroys it, or removes its bricks, gold, silver, black agate, white stones, and other materials, may the gods of the sacred precinct—Napirisha, Inshushinak, and Kiririsha—curse them, and may their descendants be wiped from under the sun."
