Sumerian architecture


Sumerian architecture

(5000–2000 B.C.)An architecture made of locally available materials: clay-tied bundles of reeds used as structural framing for huts and halls, with sun-dried bricks for the walls between these buttresses. Monumental temples and palaces were built around a series of courtyards; the ziggurat of Ur is the most famous. Large cities had well-developed drainage and sewer systems, and were protected by strong ramparts.

Sumerian architecture

A monumental architecture developed by the Sumerians, who dominated southern Mesopotamia from the end of the 4th to the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. This architecture made use of locally available building materials: tall rushes and clay, tied bundles of reeds, and wattle and daub. To give character and structural strength to the mud-brick walls, the walls were articulated by buttresses or built with alternating pilasters and recesses.