Chogha Zanbil

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Chogha Zanbil is an ancient Elamite complex in Khuzestan province, Iran, about 30 kilometres southeast of Susa. Its great stepped tower, called a ziggurat, is one of the few ziggurats outside Mesopotamia and is thought by UNESCO to be the best preserved example of this kind of stepped pyramid. The king Untash-Napirisha built it around 1250 BC, mainly to honour the great god Inshushinak.

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At a glance

Country: Iran
Location: Khuzestan, Iran
Built: -1250
Height: 25 m
Type: Ancient site

Quick answers

Where is Chogha Zanbil?

Chogha Zanbil is in Khuzestan, Iran.

When was Chogha Zanbil built?

Chogha Zanbil was built in 1250 BC.

How tall is Chogha Zanbil?

Chogha Zanbil is about 25 m tall.

An Elamite ziggurat, among the best-preserved stepped temple towers outside Mesopotamia.

The name Chogha Zanbil is usually translated as "basket mound". Its original name was Dur Untash, "town of Untash", but probably few people other than priests and servants ever lived there. In 1979 it became the first Iranian site to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Today the ziggurat stands about 24.75 metres high, less than half its estimated original height.

A holy city with walls

Three concentric walls protected the complex. Inscriptions say the outer wall had seven gates, of which only two have been found. Between the outer and middle walls stood a shared temple to the main Elamite gods Napirisha and Inshushinak, and the middle area held eleven temples to other gods. Inside the inner wall, an area of about 2.5 hectares, nearly everything was taken up by the ziggurat. The outer area had royal palaces and a funeral palace with five underground royal tombs.

The ziggurat

The ziggurat originally measured 105.2 metres on each side and about 53 metres high, in five levels, with a temple on top. It is made of mud brick with an outer facing of baked brick. Many of the bricks carry writing in the Elamite and Akkadian languages naming gods. Archaeologists found 5,257 inscribed bricks, mostly Elamite and 67 in Akkadian. The ziggurat was built in two phases, first up to the second level and later to the fifth, with its corners facing the points of the compass.

Rediscovery and risks

A geologist searching for oil found an inscribed brick, which led to the digging of the site. Roland de Mecquenem dug there in 1935 to 1939 and again in 1946, and Roman Ghirshman led French excavations from 1951 to 1962. The city is believed to have been destroyed by the Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal around 645 BC, although some researchers think it was abandoned earlier. Seismic tests for oil searches have been a threat to the foundations.