An Essay On The White Temple Ziggurat

The White Temple was a Sumerian temple in Uruk, modern day Iraq, in 3500 BCE during the Ancient Near East Period. The Uruk people had a population of 40,000 in 3500 BCE, and they used the colossal scale of their architecture, including the scale of the White Temple, as a symbol of their architectural power. The temple was dedicated to the god Enu. The Sumerians were a theocracy, and they believed that gods ruled over everything and that the rulers were symbols of the deities. The temple was built out of mud brick and built on top of a ziggurat. It was a pyramid like shape that served as a platform for the temple. The main purpose of the ziggurat was to raise the temple up, and thus bring it closer to the gods. The temple had several different …show more content…
It was made out of limestone and stained glass. The building, while having two distinct spires from different periods, reflects many distinct Gothic details, including a lot of natural light, flying buttresses, ribbed vaulting, round rose window, portal, and tympanum. The cathedral is clearly representative of Christian ideals because it is dedicated to Mary. The dedication to her is evident in her depiction in the rose window being crowned as the queen of heaven with Christ on her lap. This cathedral was a symbol of the devotion to Mary because it also had part of her shroud. Other representations of her are evident in the imageries of various stained glass windows. Light also became really important in the Gothic period because the light intensified the religious atmosphere within the building, so the Chartres Cathedral reflected this because many of the walls were taken up by large stained glass windows. The plan of the cathedral accommodates Christian religious beliefs and practices because not only does it have an angulatory for pilgrims to filter into and various side chapels, but it has a longitudinal plan; it is laid out in a cross shape, literally reflecting