Meaning & use

ziggurat

noun·Advanced

An ancient stepped pyramid-like temple tower built in Mesopotamia, typically with a shrine at its summit.

See it in a sentence

Archaeologists uncovered a well-preserved ziggurat near the ruins of ancient Ur.

The great ziggurat at Babylon may have inspired later legends about a tower reaching the heavens.

A note on using this word

Ziggurats were built by ancient Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian civilizations and are structurally distinct from Egyptian pyramids.

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