Esagila
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The Esagila "temple of the raising of the head" was a temple dedicated to Marduk, the protector god of Babylon. It lay south of the ziggurat Etemenanki.
In this temple there were the cult image inhabited by Marduk, surrounded by cult images of the cities that had fallen under the hegemony of the Babylonian Empire from the 18th century BC, and also a little lake which was named Abzu by the Babylonian priests. This Abzu was a representantion of Marduk's father, Enki, who was god of the waters and lived in such Abzu.
The Esagila complex was in the center of Babylon. It comprised a large court (ca. 40 by 70 meters), containing a smaller court (ca. 25 x 40 m), and finally the central shrine, consisting of an anteroom and the inner sanctum which contained the statues of Marduk and his consort Zarpanitum.
According to Herodotus, Xerxes had a statue removed from the Esagila when he sacked the city. Alexander the Great ordered restorations, and the temple continued to be maintained throughout the 2nd century BC, as one of the last strongholds of Babylonian culture, such as literacy in the cuneiform script, but as Babylon was gradually abandoned under the Parthian Empire, the temple fell into decay in the 1st century BC.
[edit] References
- The Ancient Middle Eastern Capital City — Reflection and Navel of the World by Stefan Maul ("Die altorientalische Hauptstadt — Abbild und Nabel der Welt," in Die Orientalische Stadt: Kontinuität. Wandel. Bruch. 1 Internationales Kolloquium der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft. 9.-1 0. Mai 1996 in Halle/Saale, Saarbrücker Druckerei und Verlag (1997), p.109-124.
[edit] External links
- Esagila (livius.org)
