A millennium later… Around 2100 B.C.

E
City of Ur
Features of City and Building Materials

• Development of Urban Planning

• Courtyard houses
• Ziggurats
• Mud plaster, adobe construction (Earth, Water, Straw/dung), glazed bricks, bitumen
• Buildings were regularly destroyed, levelled and rebuilt on the same spot; level raised (Tel – Arabic word for hillock)

Materials:
• Earth plaster used to seal and finish exterior and interior spaces of common residences
• Lime plaster used to seal and finish exterior and interior spaces of wealthy residences, places, and temples
• A type of terrazzo used as flooring (Burnt lime + clay + natural colour pigment)
• Terracotta panels used for decoration
• Bitumen used to seal plumbing
City of Ur

SURROUNDING
FIELDS AND
VILLAGES

•Ur, the capital city of ancient region of Sumer (now

south- eastern Iraq) stood on the Euphrates river near
the Persian gulf.
•It was the commercial centre and port, from about
3500- 1850 BCE
•Between 3000- 2000 BCE, Ur served as the capital of
the 3 major ruling families.
•Third of these families, founded by King Ur-Nammu
(2100 BCE) controlled a large empire that extended from
Assyria in the north-west to the Elam in the south- east.
City of Ur

• The city of Ur was oval in shape, with Euphrates

flowing along its side
• Partly planned, partly organic
• Harbours on north and west sides – Temple
complex was between them and formed the focal
point in the city
• The sacred complex had a rectilinear layout and
was in the north- west to catch the breeze
• Surrounding walls to protect and impress
Late Babylonian
• The city was surrounded by cultivated fields and Quarter

villages outside the walls

• Gates to enter within the city walls were had huge
towers and decoration
Cities began to emerge in
Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) around
4500 years ago. Ur, the capital of
ancient Sumeria, was the world’s first Ur, the capital city of
city. It supported a complex and
sophisticated society. Mesopotamia
Ur(Iraq):
• The cities were closed by a wall
and surrounded by suburban
villages and hamlets.
• The two monumental centers
were the Ziggurat complex with
its own defensive wall,
overseen by a powerful
priesthood, and Palace of the
king.
• Lesser temples were sprinkled
here and there within the rest of
the urban fabric, which was a
promiscuous blend of residential
and commercial architecture.
• Small shops were at times
incorporated into the houses.
• In the later Sumerian period at Ur,
an example of a bazaar was
found.
Residential Quarters of Ur - Domestic Architecture

• Hierarchy of Streets - Main wide boulevards ; narrow, twisting alleys

• Streets varied from narrow lanes to 2-3 m wide
• Streets were used as passageways and also to dump garbage

• Houses were built of sun-baked mud bricks

• Windows were rare
• Accumulation of garbage led to an increase in the
elevation of the street – door threshold had to be
raised
• Roofs were made of mud layered on mats which
were placed on wooden rafters
• The processional road leading to the sacred temple
precinct was the only planned passageway
Residential Quarters of Ur - Domestic Architecture

• House quality depended upon the wealth of the occupant

• Houses had rooms organized around small courtyards
• Better houses – baked brick foundation walls
• The principal room was opposite to the entrance - used for meals and reception
Traffic along the twisted network of unpaved streets was mostly
pedestrian. At Ur, one sees on occasion a low flight of steps against a
building from which riders could mount, and the street corners were
regularly rounded to facilitate passage.

Street width at the very most , would be 3 meters (9 feet) or so, and that
only for the few principal thoroughfares that led to the public buildings.
These would be bordered with the houses of the rich.

Poorer folk lived at the back ,along narrow lanes and alleys.

Once walled the land became precious, and the high value of private
property kept public space to a minimum. Ample squares or public gardens
were very rare.

The houses were grouped into congested blocks, where partition walls
were common.
 Ur, residential area southeast
of the royal mausolea in the
twentieth century B.C.;Plan

The houses were , for the most part, one-

storey structures of mud-brick, with
several rooms wrapped around a central
court. There were usually no outside
windows, no attempt to contribute to a street
architecture.

The wealthier classes of Ur lived in

ample hoses of dozen or so rooms,
arranged on two storeys, and
whitewashed inside and out.
 1. Courtyard
2. Entry Vestibule
3. Reception Room Architects
(Liwan) designed perfect
4. Private Chapel
5. Kitchen house plan,
3. 6. Lavatory rectangles
7. Stair case divided neatly
8. Drain
1. 2. 8. 4 9.Shop into orthogonal
. rooms around a
7.
6. central living
5. space. But the
1. reality of living
1. town played
1. havoc with the
conceptual order
3. of the architect.
1. The building lots
4. were not of
uniform size.
Each house was
compelled to fit
9. into a
predetermined
Ur, Residential quarter between the Ziggurat precinct space.
and the West Harbor , Plan
Residential Quarters of Ur - Domestic Architecture

• Courtyard – Need for privacy, climate

• If there were any windows facing the street, they were in the
upper storey
• There was a step sown from the vestibule to the central court
• The central court was brick paved and slopes toward a central
drain
• The stairs and the lavatory were opposite to the guest room
across the courtyard
• The first flight of this stair leading to the second floor is very high
to permit headroom in the lavatory
• The family lived on the second level in a layout essentially
duplicating the ground floor
 There were two
ways in which this
temple differed
from others in the
city. It stood on a
tremendous
platform called the
ziggurat, and
being free of the
pressures of
density in its
ample precinct, its
form could afford
to be both regular
and open.
Uruk
For thousands of years,
Nippur was the
religious center of
Mesopotamia.
According to Sumerian
religion, it was at Nippur
where Enlil, the supreme
god of the Sumerian
pantheon, created
mankind.
Although never a capital city,
Nippur had great political
importance because royal
rule over Mesopotamia
was not considered
legitimate without
recognition in its temples.
Thus, Nippur was the
focus of pilgrimage and
building programs by dozens
of kings including
Hammurabi of Babylon and
Ashurbanipal of Assyria.
Ziggurat of Ur - Nammu

• One of the most impressive structures of that time

• It was located in a Temple Complex of Nanna (the Moon God)
• Innovative structure – For the first time the elements were united in a dramatic architectural design
Ziggurat of Ur - Nammu

• Structure – Highly axial; Axis did not continue into surroundings

• Access to the court was diagonally from a gate at one of the corners
Ziggurat of Ur - Nammu

• The Ziggurat was a free standing structure

• Base – 100m X 65m; Height – 21m
• 3 terraces with the sacred shrine on the highest one
• 3 monumental staircases on the North-East side, converging
into a canopied vestibule at the top of the first platform
• From there, a central stair continued to the second stage and
the third.
• Main lines were built with slight curves to correct optical
illusion
• Mud bricks reinforced with reeds
City of Ur – Present day restorations