The Tigris-Euphrates plain lacked minerals and trees. Sumerian structures comprised plano-convex mudbrick, not fixed with mortar nor cement. As plano-convex bricks (being rounded) are somewhat unstable in behaviour, Sumerian bricklayers would lay a row of bricks perpendicular to the rest every few rows. They would fill the gaps with bitumen, straw, marsh reeds, and weeds. The Tigris River (Arabic: دجلة Dijla, Hebrew: חדקל ḥiddeqel, Kurdish: Dîjle, Pahlavi: Tigr, Old Persian: Tigrā-, Syriac: ܕܩܠܬ Deqlath, Turkish: Dicle, Akkadian: Idiqlat) is the eastern member of the pair of great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of Anatolia through Iraq (the name Mesopotamia... Bold text For the song River Euphrates by the Pixies, see Surfer Rosa The Euphrates (IPA: /juːˈfreɪtiːz/; Greek: Euphrátēs; Akkadian: Pu-rat-tu; Hebrew: פְּרָת Pĕrāth; Syriac: Prâth; Arabic: الفرات Al-Furāt; Turkish: Fırat; Kurdish: فرهات, Firhat, Ferhat, Azeri: Fərat) is the... Minerals are natural compounds formed through geological processes. ... For other uses, see Tree (disambiguation). ... Sumer (or Šumer) was one of the early civilizations of the Ancient Near East, located in the southern part of Mesopotamia (southeastern Iraq) from the time of the earliest records in the mid 4th millennium BC until the rise of Babylonia in the late 3rd millennium BC. The term Sumerian... Mudbrick was used for the outer contruction of Sumerian ziggurats — some of the worlds largest and oldest constructions. ... Mortar holding weathered bricks. ... In the most general sense of the word, cement is a binder, a substance which sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. ... Bitumen is a mixture of organic liquids that are highly viscous, black, sticky, entirely soluble in carbon disulfide, and composed primarily of highly condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. ... Bales of straw bundles of rice straw Pile of straw bales, sheltered under a tarpaulin Straw is an agricultural byproduct, the dry stalk of a cereal plant, after the nutrient grain or seed has been removed. ... species Pragmites australis Reed is a generic term used to describe numerous plants including: Common Reed (Phragmites australis Cav. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

Mud-brick buildings eventually deteriorate, so they were periodically destroyed, levelled, and rebuilt on the same spot. This constant rebuilding gradually raised the level of cities, so that they came to be elevated above the surrounding plain. The resulting hills are known as tells, and are found throughout the ancient Near East. Sumerian cylinder seals also depict houses built from reeds, not unlike those built by the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq until recent years. Tell Mar Elias, North Jordan in 2005 Tell or tall (Arabic: ‎, tall, and Hebrew: , tel), meaning hill or mound, is an archaeological site in the form of an earthen mound that results from the accumulation and subsequent erosion of material deposited by human occupation over long periods of time. ... Gilgamesh and Enkidu, cylinder seal impression from Ur III, with oldest type of pictographic cuneiform The Cylinder seals in ancient times, were used to put an impression in clay. ... The Marsh Arabs are the inhabitants of the lowlands of southern Iraq, the former Mesopotamia, whose families have lived in the area for thousands of years. ...

Sumerian temples and palaces made use of more advanced materials and techniques, such as buttresses, recesses, half columns, and clay nails. A buttress (and mostly concealed, a flying buttress) supporting walls at the Palace of Westminster Four different types of buttress: diagonal, on the statues plinth; an ordinary buttress supporting a flying buttress, to the right of the statue; a small ordinary buttress to the right side of the picture... Used by Sumerians and other Mesopotamian cultures beginning in the third millennium BC, clay nails, also referred to as dedication or foundation nails, were inscribed with cuneiform and embedded into walls to serve as evidence that the temple or building was the divine property of the god to whom it...

Scribes were also important to Sumerian architecture, to make records of construction carried out for government, nobility, or royalty.

Ziggurats

The most famous Sumerian buildings are the ziggurats -- large terraced platforms with temples on top. Such ziggurats may have been the inspiration for the Biblical Tower of Babel (see Etemenanki). Dur-Untash, or Choqa Zanbil, built in 13th century BC by Untash Napirisha and located near Susa, Iran is one of the worlds best-preserved ziggurats. ... engraving The Confusion of Tongues by Gustave Doré (1865), who based his conception on the Minaret of Samarra According to the narrative in Genesis Chapter 11 of the Bible, the Tower of Babel was a tower built to reach the heavens by a united humanity. ... Etemenanki, The temple of the creation of heaven and earth, was the name of a ziggurat to Marduk in the city of Babylon of the 6th century BC Chaldean (Neo-Babylonian) dynasty. ...

Ziggurats typical of the Ubaid period were built very high on a platform of mud brick. On these large platforms were built gradually smaller and smaller concentric platforms, although sometimes there were ground level temples more typical of the protoliterate period. These were similar to some modern buildings in the shape of ziggurats. Many temples had inscriptions engraved into them, such as the one at Uqair. Pottery jar from Late Ubaid Period The tell (mound) of Ubaid near Ur in southern Iraq has given its name to the prehistoric chalcolithic culture which represents the earliest settlement on the alluvial plain of southern Mesopotamia. ...

See also

• Art and architecture of Babylonia and Assyria