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 Chogha
Zanbil is some 45 km southeast of Susa. If you are in Ahwaz, start
early in 'the morning, and allow at least four hours for the trip.
'The ziggurat here is the best surviving ; example of Elamite
architecture anywhere and one of the most memorable sites in Iran.
Originally it had five concentric stories but only three remain to a
total height of some 25 m. It's hard to believe that such an imposing
landmark could have been lost to the world for over 2,500 years, as it
was until accidentally discovered during an Anglo-Iranian Oil
(,Company aerial survey. A New Zealander officer of the company named
Browne, noticed what appeared to be a series of concentric squares on
high ground near the river Dez.
 Iranian
Archaeologists, particularly Professor Ezzatollah Negahban, have been
unearthing since 1965 the remains of the Elamite city of Haft Tappeh
(Seven Hills). A few of the objects found as well as those unearthed
at Chogha Zanbir are exhibited at the Susa Museum as well as the
National Museum of Iran in Tehran.
There existed throughout the ancient Near East a tendency to admire
and worship the mountain. Huge ziggurats relieved the flat monotony of
the Mesopotamian plain, ritual imitations of the familiar sacred
mountains that ring the Iranian plateau.
Thus, even if the impressive development of these colossal structures
was Mesopotamian (ziggurats were in Summer by about 2,200 BC), their
inspiration and meaning was clearly Persian. The men who came down
from eastern lands could not bring with them their mountains, so they
made their own "Holy Hill" or "Mountain of All Lands".
 Ziggurats
came to include all feasible decorative treatments: cone mosaics,
colored and glazed bricks. The Elamites, whose first kingdom dates
from the third millennium, provided the link between Iran and Summer.
Perhaps greatest of all ziggurats is the Elamite Chogha Zanbil.
This earliest known Iranian monument of imposing dimensions and
character, rivaling the pyramids of Egypt, was built at Dur Untash, a
city near Susa, by Untash-gal, King of Elam, about 1,250 BC, and in
honor of Inshushinak, guardian god of Susa, and reached the height of
its splendor in 1,200 BC, its downfall occurring in 640 BC when the
sun of Ashurset over the Elamites.
The served as both temple and tomb. It was built on a low base as a
precaution against flooding, for once this was a fertile and forested
area, although nowadays the setting is bleak, barren and windswept,
and hot even in winter. Composed of five separately built concentric
towers of varying heights, the innermost and tallest was 50 meters
above the ground level. The base is more than 1,200 meters long. only
the three first stages are more or less intact, overlooked by a
shapeless mass of bricks that have returned to a clay-like condition.
The tower was solid throughout; it was built starting from the center
toward the outside. The inside was made with raw bricks and the
outside with the baked bricks. There is only one row of small vaulted
rooms, without communication among each other, looking out onto the
terraces. On each of the sides, staircases gave access to the higher
stages.
Wandering around the Ziggurat the temple, the visitor will notice the
cuneiform inscriptions on hundreds of bricks in the walls. King Untash
had his name recorded on every one of these bricks at Dur Untash for
he regarded it as a religious center as important as Susa which of
course had its ziggurat at that time. On these bricks King Untash
names more than twenty deities to whom he had built sanctuaries,
showing how far the Persian religious mind was to come before the
revelations of monotheistic Zoroastrianism and Islam.
There was originally a complex of chambers, tombs, tunnels and water
channels in the lowest story, as well as two temples to lnshushinak on
the southeast side. The ziggurat was surrounded by a paved courtyard
protected behind a wall, outside which were the living quarters of the
town, as well as II temples dedicated to various Elamite gods and
goddesses, of which only the largest, to the northwest, remains in
fair condition. The rest of the city is not well preserved, but there
are still remains of three simple but well constructed royal palaces
in the eastern corner of the town. One of these was the king's
residence and another probably the harem, and a royal gate.
It's still possible to walk down to a vaulted tomb chamber under the
remains of the king's palace, but you will need a powerful torch to
see anything. There are also traces of an ingeniously designed water
and drainage system. Northwest of the ziggurat there's a brick
platform which appears to be an altar. |
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