Chogha Zanbil
Chogha Zanbil چغازنبیل is a complex élamite in the province of the Khuzestan in Iran.
One finds there in particular one of only the ziggurat S whose ruins were preserved until today apart from the Mésopotamie (the other being Sialk). It besides undoubtedly is best preserved of all. The site is at roughly 45 km in the south of Suse and at 230 km in the north of Abadan while passing by Ahvaz, which is to 60 km.
It was a religious center of the kingdom élamite, founded towards -1250 by the king Untash-Napirisha on the road between Anshan and Suse, which received its name, Hard-Untash-Napirisha (" the fortress of Untash-Napirisha").
Untash-Napirisha engages of gigantic work: The holy city, surrounded by an enclosure of 400 side m, is dedicated to the national god of Suse Inshushinak. Other gods find their place there (Napirisha, Ishme-karab, Kiririsha). The most imposing monument is superb a Ziggourat which could not be built in the same way that those of Mésopotamie: instead of superimposed terraces, one is in the presence of four vertically encased stages, method which was not still located elsewhere.
A royal district with palates is built in the south-east of the holy city; royal tombs, built under one of the palates whose vocation seems to have been only funerary, were found with the remainders of bodies incinerated according to a practice close to that of the Hittites or Hourrites, but which is not anchored in the tradition élamite. This dynasty could have foreign origins and perhaps even was in connection with groups originally Indo-European. A temple of Nushku, divinity mésopotamienne of fire, was released near the palates. It is a rather astonishing fact, Mésopotamie not having particularly honoured this god, and if its presence in Élam evokes the importance of this worship in Iran, one can wonder whether one should not see there the first traces of a Persian print.
The districts of dwelling were apparently never built. The city itself was quickly given up, perhaps because of the fast extinction of the dynasty of Untash-napirisha. The greatest number of the works of art carried out for Hard-Untash were reported to Suse where they will be found at the time of the excavations. The ziggourat will however serve still several centuries, until its destruction by the Assyrian .
In 1979, Choqa Zanbil became the first Iranian site with being registered with the World heritage of UNESCO.
See too
- Art élamite
- Iranian Architecture
External bonds
- Chogha Zanbil