Ishtar Gate -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
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Ishtar Gate
gate, Babylon, Mesopotamia Main
enormous burnt-brick entryway located over the main thoroughfare in the ancient city of Babylon (now in Iraq). Built about 575 bc, it became the eighth fortified gate in the city. The Ishtar Gate was more than 38 feet (12 metres) high and was decorated with glazed brick reliefs, in tiers, of dragons and young bulls. The gate itself was a double one, and on its south side was a vast antechamber. Through the gatehouse ran a stoneand brick-paved avenue, called the Processional Way , that has been traced over a length of more than half a mile. The sides of the street were decorated with brick lions passant. It has been estimated that there were 120 lions along the street and 575 dragons and bulls, in 13 rows, on the gate. Not all of these reliefs were visible at the same time, however, for the level of the street was raised more than once; even the lowest rows, which were irregularly laid, may have been treated as foundation deposits. The site was unearthed by the prominent German archaeologist Robert Koldewey , whose excavation of Babylon lasted from 1899 until 1917. The remnants of the original gate and Processional Way have been housed in Berlin’s Pergamon Museum since that institution’s founding in 1930. Iraq reconstructed the thoroughfare at one of the higher levels but since the 1990s has actively sought the return of the original gate and associated artifacts.
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Babylon ( in Babylon: The ancient city ) ...the Ishtar Gate, adorned with enameled bulls and dragons, it led to the Akitu House, a small temple outside the city that was said to be visited by Marduk at the New Year festival. West of the Ishtar Gate, one of eight fortified gates, were two palace complexes that covered about 40 acres (16 hectares) with their fortifications. in art and architecture, Mesopotamian: Neo-Babylonian period ) ...a wide processional way, leading through the centre of the town to the temple and ziggurat of its patron god, Marduk. Where the street passed through the inner-city wall, the facades of the famous Ishtar Gate (Pergamon Museum, Berlin) and those facing the adjoining street were ornamented in brightly glazed brickwork, with huge figures of bulls, lions, and dragons modeled in relief. This form... construction ( in building construction: Greek and Hellenistic cultures ) ...Glazed brick also appeared in this period, particularly outside the Greek world among the Babylonians and Persians, who made considerable use of it in royal palaces. A fine surviving example is the Ishtar Gate of the Palace of Nebuchadrezzar at Babylon, with a true arch spanning 7.5 metres (25 feet) and dated to 575 bc. Another major innovation was the fired clay roof tile. This was much more...
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MLA Style: "Ishtar Gate ." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 17 Nov. 2008 < http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/295381/Ishtar-Gate >. APA Style:
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